Soccer Season!

Super Silly Face!

It is a cold, cold Friday night here in Kansas.  In fact, we had snow yesterday:-o  Alex is gone camping with some guy friends, my children are asleep, and for the first time in I don't know how long, I do NOT have an insurmountable amount of school work to do this weekend. Time to blog!

This semester has been trying with my added class at the local university.  I finished "teaching" last Monday night, so now all I have left is a bit of grading.  While I enjoyed teaching about my passion-literacy-it was exhausting to carry that work load along with my normal work load at my day job.  My family suffered, and I know that I must make choices should this opportunity come to me again.

Rowan has started his first organized sport-soccer.  I love watching him play, and I think it is fairly safe to say that Rowan won't be going to college on a soccer scholarship.  He

Silly face!

is a little boy with a whole lot of personality even on the soccer field, and he just makes us laugh.  I wish I could take credit for the fantastic photographs I'm adding to this post, but I cannot.  It is the wife of the coach who takes them, and they are fabulous!  Rowan is going to be a theater person, I can just tell.  Everything is so dramatic, and he was made to entertain the crowd!  You just never know what he will do next;-)

Sweet boy!

Injury on the field!  STOP!

Funning it!

The team!

Chase the Ball!

Saved by the coach!

Off and running!

Serenading the field.

Hanging on the coach.

Mr. Robot is way more interesting than soccer.

Posing for Cari!

Self inflicted hand stand

A moment of prayer.

Yes, this is during the game!

 

Go Rowan, go!

Ready for it!

This is Rowan's natural soccer position.

Peace!

Cool man!

Isla is the cheerleader!

Goalie

Easter!!

We are part of a 20s/30s bible study at our church.  We enjoy the fellowship but also the spiritual growth we are able to make.  I grew up Catholic, very Catholic, but I know very little about the Bible.  I don't know if I just didn't make the connection at a young age or if I really was never taught it, but I have learned a great deal in the last year!

As a group, we agreed to go through a Lenten study.  We ultimately decided upon Adam Hamilton's, 24 Hours That Changed the World.   Oh, my! is about all that I can say.

I believed I always knew Jesus's story, but I never fully knew Jesus's story until the completion of this study.  It was powerful, horrifying, and simply deplorable on so many levels.  I just have no understanding of how someone can treat another human being with such cruelty. I had nightmares, and I really had no desire to go to our study on at least one Sunday, but I did.  All I had to do was hear his story, but it was Jesus that had to endure the story.  There are just no words.

So, Easter had a whole new perspective for me this year.  The kids still dressed up, hunted Easter eggs, and went to Sunday school.  Alex and I went to church, and it was joyous after our study.  The music was beautiful, and I was reminded of how very blessed I am to be a child of God.

We colored eggs!

Sassy's Easter basket~

Rowan's Easter basket~

Rowan going through the goods~

We hunted eggs outside~

Isla was all over finding eggs for her basket~

The silly Easter Bunny even left one in the swing;-)

We were dashing to find one!

I just love this little girl~

Big smiles before church~

  We hosted Alex's parents over later that afternoon for Easter dinner and soccer playing outside.  It was peaceful, quiet, and a true celebration of our Savior!

Spring Break Continued...

Life is getting back to normal here for the last "Hurrah!" before school gets out.   We are bopping along getting excited for this season of spring and then summer!

 I refuse to worry about life events I can't control or change, and our miscarriage is such an event.  Thankfully, we have two children to keep me occupied, and I am just determined to continue with a positive outlook on my many blessings God has given me! So we are moving on from here;-)

Spring break was terrible weather, but we resolved to have some indoor fun none the less!  Even though we didn't go anywhere, I asked Alex to take a day off to play with us, and he did!  We had a blast in Kansas City at the aquarium and the "train" restaurant as Rowan refers to it as! It was nice to break the normal routine and just go be together as a family.

The kids loved looking at all of the sea animals at the aquarium!

They were so excited to receive their food from the train!

 Dad took us to the Discovery Center on Saturday!  Rowan hung close to Alex, and I managed Isla.  It was fantastic, and I'm fairly certain they both had fun!

Rowan freestyled his woodworking!

Isla dug and turned and gathered these little pellets for a LONG time!

Alex has been crazy busy at work lately, and I am crazy busy with my spring schedule at school.  Between track meets, meetings, my Washburn class, and Alex's overtime, it has been a miracle that our house is still in one piece:-)

I went out and ran for the first time in a long time tonight with 2 friends.  I made it the better part of a mile which was a greater distance than I anticipated, and I actually had a short amount of time where I felt a peace come over me.  I need to resolve to better manage my time to not work every waking hour! Life is just too precious to work your whole way through, so I must resolve to just "be."    This is my goal for this next week, at least until I look at the calendar;-)

Happy Day Turned Sad Day~

Today was going to be a happy day.  We were pregnant, excited, and going to the doctor to hear our baby's heartbeat this morning.  My happy day ended up not as happy as I thought.

Alex has been at a conference in Wichita for the last two days, and when I scheduled my doctor's appointment, I didn't have this conference in my calendar.  I didn't think much of him not being here for the doctor's appointment, as I've been there done that a couple of times;-) He called late last night to tell me he had too much work to be gone another day, so he was going to leave Wichita to meet me at my doctor's appointment and then go to work.  I thought it was silly, but obliged to have company.
Little did I know God was at work.

We met at the appointment and all was fine.  We listened intently, and then got to the point of listening for a heartbeat.  Bless our nurse practicioner's heart, she hunted and hunted for a quick little blip.  She even went to get the doctor's doppler to have a more accurate count, but alas, there was nothing.  She encouraged us that sometimes they just can't find them and sent us to have a quick sonogram to check.

We didn't have an appointment for the sono, so they said they would just work us in.  An hour and a half later, they took us back and quickly pulled up the little bean on the sonogram machine.  It was about 5 seconds before I could tell, there was no heartbeat.  The sonographer was kind and apologized for our loss, and I could tell that was honestly the worst part of her job.  I was saddened but had prepared myself in my hour and half wait that this was a possible outcome for this day. 

We are heartbroken, but we realize we are not alone on this life hiccup.  One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, and I am no different.  We thought we were 12 weeks, but in fact, I had lost the baby somewhere between 7 and 8 weeks.  Alex is my rock, and we will stumble our way through this trial together.  I firmly believe God sent me Alex to be with me through this.  It took the better part of 4 hours before I left that office with an answer I was fully not prepared to receive.  I can't imagine if I would have done that alone, and I am so fortunate to have the husband I have. 

So, send some prayers our way if you have some.  We are grieving and reestablishing our family path at the moment, but we know we are not alone. 

I hugged my two beautiful children a little extra today when I picked them up, and I am thankful for the blessings God has given me thus far.  I guess he needed this baby a little more than I. 

Spring Break!

Spring break is upon us, and I am just now getting into the groove of it on Wednesday;-)

Life has been a bit chaotic around here the last month or so.  I haven't felt good at all, and Alex has been crazy busy at work bringing home work several nights a week.  It makes for a tired Mom and Dad, although we are continuously reminded of the blessings of too much work;-)  I'm still teaching my night class which has also proven to be much more time consuming than I anticipated.  This is where I really hate being a Type A personality!  I really want to do it right, which means I invest a lot of time into getting it done perfectly;-)  So, needless to say, this week is kind of a get our feet back under us kind of week.  There wasn't a to-do list.  That is just stressful, and I really don't need more stress.  If it gets done, it gets done, and I'm just really not going to fret it too much.  We are only in this season of life for a short while, so I'm giving myself grace this week!

We have managed some fun time along with the usual house cleaning and decluttering.  Here's the week's progress so far:

1. Cleaned the microwave-EWWW!
2. Cleaned the refrigerator.
3. Done more loads of laundry than I can even count-almost all caught up!
4. Vacuumed
5. Dusted
6. Made Rice Krispy Treats and Homeade Granola Bars
7. Started reading a book for pleasure.
8. All caught up on grading for both school and night class-Woot! Woot!
9. Napped every day but 1!
10. Took kids to the zoo in the SNOW~
11. Took Rowan painting at Paint Therapy Uncorked

We colored!  Well, I should say, Rowan colored.  Isla sat on the table and arranged the crayons!

So detailed!

So not coloring!

This girl has personality!  Can you tell?

We've done some of this!  Really, we never get to watch cartoons in bed.  Isn't that what spring break is for?

We painted.  Rowan painted a rocket ship!

Rowan's BFF-Gage!

So proud;-)

Funny faces~

Me and my 2 sons;-) 

I'm okay with these accomplishments, and I still have 4 more days to add stuff to accomplished list;-)