My Monster - Monster Moose

Written for Sunday Scribblings

This is my current monster. Shaun calls him Moose because he is so stocky. He is my loveable, cuddly monster.

Why do I call him my monster? Well, Austin turns two next month (anyone who has ever had a boy that age, understands, I'm sure!) Don't get me wrong. I love him immensely and would do anything to protect him, but he is a MONSTER!!! And he knows it. Unfortunately he knows that he is a CUTE monster.

He loves to make people laugh, so when determining whether he is going to do something he knows he'll get in trouble for, he'll usually look around first to see if he thinks anyone will laugh at him. You see, for Monster Moose (aka Austin) if he can make someone laugh, the punishment is worth it!

You get so frustrated with him, but at the same time you continue to love on him because he is just so darn adorable!!

I guess he's just like his Daddy!!

Speaking of Daddy. Here is an example of our wonderful Monster. He was hitting our couch the other day and scratching it. It is leather so we really did not want Austin doing this. Daddy told him to stop and started counting to three. Austin knows daddy means business when he starts to count. At three he is in BIG TROUBLE!!!

Daddy - "One. . . Two. . ."

At this point Austin stops, looks at daddy and runs around to the back of the couch. (Now the couch is between Daddy and Austin)

"Three, daddy! Three!!" the Monster shouts as he gives the innocent couch one more slap.

At times like this we are at a loss for words or what to do next. Actually I think Daddy was pretty mad, but Mommy had to run out of the room so the Monster did not see the smirk that was creeping across her face or hear the snort that came out of her mouth as she tried not to laugh. I did not want his forthcoming punishment to be rewarded!

What Else I Might Have Been?

A special post for Sunday Scribblings

While thinking about this week’s prompt, I started thinking back to some of the major events and decisions in my life. One of the biggest was walking away and turning my back on the one who has done the most for me in my life. The one who loves me more than anyone else ever could. In high school I decided I knew what was best for my life and turned my back on the Lord. I walked away from my faith and decided to make it on my own.

Obviously, I finally found my way back. It took me awhile, but he never actually left my side. Looking back now I can see multiple times he called to me and I’m amazed at the love and patience he has with all of us.

But I digress; this prompt is about how my life would have been different if I had not made that change back then. The reality of the situation is I have no idea. I can make guesses, but most are probably not even close to what reality for me would have been.

My profession in life may have been very different since I would have consulted with him in prayer regarding my path in college. My extra-curricular activities would have been different as well.

But most of all, my life would probably have been much different because I more than likely would not have married my husband. My husband is not what you would call a Believer. The Bible tells us to not be unequally yoked and there is a very good reason as to why the Lord tells us this. Marriage is difficult enough at times without the hardship of not being able to share the most important belief in your life with your spouse.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my husband very much and do not for a second regret marrying him. He is a wonderful husband and an even more wonderful father to our three beautiful children. However, if I am very honest with myself, I know I would not have started dating him and eventually married him if I had been walking with the Lord.

However, if I ever start to question God’s love and patience for me, all I have to do is look at my wonderful family. Even though I turned my back on the Lord for years and married someone who does not believe in him or trust in him the way I do, he still choose to bless me with a loving husband and a beautiful family. Although it saddens me greatly to have turned from him for all those years (and I strongly encourage everyone else to not ever do so) I can say with 100% sincerity, that I do not regret for a moment having married my husband and started a family with him.

Coming up this Saturday, we'll have been married 11 years. I wish I could say it has been "happily ever after" the whole time, but anyone who is married would know I was lying. It has been rough at times, but love and marriage is about being committed to one another through thick and thin. My faith in the Lord has enabled me to do this with Shaun. That and the fact that when he made us, the Lord gave us both an extra little dash of stubborness. That can be bad in a marriage, but it can also be good when we are both determined to live by the "til death do we part!"

It really is true that the Lord can make all things new and can turn bad things in your life into blessings. We just have to trust him.

Baggage - Sunday Scribblings

Posted for Sunday Scribblings

Baggage. The first thing I think of is the baggage we all carry around with us. This is the stuff we've collected over the years that makes us who we are. Some of it is good, but most of the time what we refer to as "baggage" is not the good stuff we've collected. It is the stuff that holds up back from being who we really want to be, who God intended for us to be.

While determining what to write for this post today I was reading some of the posts others had already written. (You know, to get the creative juices flowing). One post listed some definitions at the top of their post. Baggage Handler was listed as someone hired by the airport to load and unload baggage. That got me to thinking.

We all have this baggage that we refer to and carry around with us, but how many of us recognize the baggage handler? Through our journey in life, the Lord has hired a baggage handler to unload our baggage from us onto him. Most of us are suspicious of this baggage handler though because he may not fit our idea of a baggage handler and therefore continue to drag along our ever increasing amount of baggage. Others know him but do not fully trust him to care for their stuff. We think we can take care of the baggage better ourselves, even though he is trained to do so.

Anyway, just my thoughts. This week think about trusting that baggage handler (Jesus if you've not yet figured it out) and give him your baggage. He is more than willing and able to unload your baggage.

I Loved Her First

I'm a daddy's girl and absolutely love songs about Fathers & Daughters. One year I made my father a video with pictures of him and I from my baby pictures up to my wedding pictures and picutres of us with my first born (a girl!). I set the slideshow of pictures to the songs Butterfly Kisses and a song by Natalie Grant called Always be your Baby. My uncle helped and set it up so my wedding pictures came up at the exact time both songs were talking about weddings. It was wonderful.

Another song I love is Tough Little Boys by Gary Allen. The chorus says "When tough little boys, grow up to be dads, they turn into big babies again."

Anyway, I recently heard this a new song on the radio and have been trying to figure out who sings it. I finally figured it out. Here is the song and the words. I may post the words to some of the other songs I like sometime too. I've linked the titles above to other sites with the lyrics if you are interested.

Someday I want to make a CD for myself and daddy with all the father/daughter songs I love!

________________________________

Artist: HEARTLAND
Song Name: I LOVED HER FIRST

Look at the two of you dancing that way

Lost in the moment and each others face

So much in love you're alone in this place

Like there’s nobody else in the world

I was enough for her not long ago

I was her number one

She told me so and she still means the world to me

Just so you know

So be careful when you hold my girl

Time changes everything

Life must go on and I’m not gonna stand in your way

* * *

Chorus:

But I Loved her first

and I held her first

and a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

and I prayed that she'd find you someday

but its still hard to give her away

I loved her first

* * *

How could that beautiful woman with you

Be the same freckle face kid that I knew

The one that I read all those fairy tales to

and tucked into bed all those nights

and I knew the first time I saw you with her

It was only a matter of time

* * *

Chorus:

But I Loved her first

and I held her first

and a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

and I prayed that she'd find you someday

but its still hard to give her away

I loved her first

* * *

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

Someday you might know what I’m going through

When a miracle smiles up at you

I loved her first…

Trip to Oregon

We traveled to the Oregon coast over the 4th of July weekend. It was Shaun's grandmother's birthday on Friday so his aunt rented a house for all of us to stay in. We had 17 adults and 9 children, but the house was huge with lots of rooms. It was a lot of fun.


We took some pictures on our way up to Oregon. Shaun's cousin, Shauna took some really good pictures but I've not received copies of them yet.


Here is a picture of us driving through a redwood tree. Tyler loved this. Austin was not too sure about it. Jesse slept through it! It is a bit blurry (thanks to my superior skill at using our camera!)




We also stopped to visit Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe. Shaun got a picture of the Tyler & Austin with Babe.








Tyler did not want anything to do with Paul Bunyan, but Austin ran over to him as soon as Shaun took the picture of them with Babe. It was a bit chilly for Tyler (and Shaun) but Austin did not seem to mind any.








We also saw a lot of elk on Highway 101. Most were bulls still in velvet. Here are a couple of them. There are signs all over the place warning people to not approach the elk because they may charge. They even have a station you can tune to for "Elk News". It also warns you to stay in your vehicle and not to approach the elk. It is amazing how many people think they can just walk up to them.



I remember Shaun and I seeing people doing that when we visited Yellowstone a few years ago. We heard one guy commenting that he knew the bulls were dangerous so he was only getting near the cows. Of course the one he was approaching had a calf with with her. I'd rather approach a bull than a cow with a calf!

People never cease to amaze me!

Happy Up - Things I'm thankful for

I was visiting the Nutter's blog yesterday and he's started his Happy Up posts again and it reminded me how great it was to do this last time. So I've decided to start them again. You can say I'm justing copying him if you want, but I guess if I'm going to copy someone on something, this would be a good one!

Happy Up - First thing is the Happy Up posts. When I start doing this it just makes my day! I start the day looking for those good things so I can post them and that just turns your day around. At work I've told my staff that perspective is reality. For example, you can have a tremendous workload, but if you give off the impression to management that you have time on your hands (ie. long breaks, socializing too much) it will be hard to get management to take you seroiusly when you ask for assistance with your work. Well, this can be positive too! If you start out your day looking for the good stuff, then your "reality" for the day changes dramatically.

Healthy Baby - My two oldest children have been sick recently with a fever. No other symptoms, just a high fever. They are both over it now, but my 7 week old ended up with a 102.8 fever on Sunday night. My husband spent the day with him at the children's hospital on Monday. Because he is so young they wanted to do a bunch of test to ensure it was the same virus my other children had. They took multiple blood samples and even a spinal tap. I'm thankful, it was my husband who went instead of my (sorry, honey!) because I was almost in tears just hearing about what they did. But in the end, it has been confirmed it is just a virus. My baby is a bit sore from all the poking and prodding, but he is healthy!

Sunrise - This morning I was up early because I had to travel to one of our other offices a couple hours away. As I left this morning I noticed the beautiful sunrise. It was just over the horizon and was a huge circle of an almost fushia color. Absolutely beautiful! Makes getting up early not bad at all!

My Job - Since I've returned from maternity leave my job responsiblities have changed. I no longer supervise other employees. I am now only responsible for myself. I still work closely with others in my department on process improvements, projects and audits, however I am only responsible for the projects, not the individuals. It is amazing how much more I've accomplished this last week and a half since I've returned and how much more I enjoy my work!

Starbucks - okay, so I'm a coffee junkie! That is what happens when you grow up in Washington State with parents who have a coffee machine that is on from the moment they get up until the moment they go to bed. I met two other co-workers today on my way to our other office at a Starbucks and while waiting for them treated myself to a Venti decaf nonfat iced White Mocha. Yummy!

Meetings ending early - Our meeting at the other office today was supposed to end at 4PM, but was done by 1:30. Yeah!!!! We were able to easily beat the traffic and I was home by my normal time to see my babies and hubby! Which brings me to. . .

Family - I love having a wonderful family to come home to every night. Even on days like today when the little ones are a bit fussy, it is still wonderful to know that there are three individuals at home waiting for me and that I am their whole world to them right now! And once they are asleep and in bed for the night it is so wonderful and relaxing to watch them sleep.

Bubblebaths & Good Books - My ultimate way to relax! Nothing can beat reading a good book in a nice warm bubble bath. Add a scented candle and something yummy to snack on, and it is a perfect way to end a busy day!

Boy, just writing this has cheered me up even more than I already was. I need to remember to do this more often.

Thank you Lord for all the wonderful things you provide for me and help me to focus on those items instead on the things I dislike. If I'm going to exagerate something in my life, let it be the good!

Off to Work I Go!

This week was my first back to work since Jesse was born. And the first week officially in my new position.

Part of me dreaded going back, but part of me was excited about some of the projects I knew I would be working on. I had always known that managing others takes up a lot of your time. We used to always joke about how the only way to get your work done is to come in early or stay late when nobody else was around to ask questions or come into your office and complain. I was amazed this week though at how much I did accomplish.

One project I had been trying to get to and finish for six months before I went on maternity leave, I completed and finished the first day back at work.

I still work closely with others but I'm just not responsible for them any longer. It is amazing how much more I look forward to my days at work now. I am actually enjoying my work again!

Now the leaving the baby was not easy. This is the third time I've done this so it was a bit easier. The first day back at work our daycare was on vacation so they stayed home with daddy. That was a bit easier for me, not for him though. The next day they all went to daycare. I am fortunate to have a wonderful daycare who all the children love and consider to be part of the family. That definitely makes it easier, but a part of you still misses that little bundle sleeping in your arms!

Overall, my return to work was successful and happy.

Sleeping Babies

We just downloaded some pictures from our camera and I love these two.

Tyler feeding baby Jesse

* * *

Austin sleeping on his giant teddy bear

Sunday Scribblings - Bed

Posted for Sunday Scribblings

This week's prompt is "Bed". That's it. Whatever that word brings to mind for us is what we write about. I don't know if it's because we just had a prompt about our earliest memories a couple weeks ago or that I just finished my post for my daddy for Fathers Day, but for some reason the first thing I think of is my first real bed.

It was one of those toddler beds with the sides that go about half way down so you don't fall out. Of course those don't work all that well because as a toddler you end up turned around in your bed or curled in a ball at the end of your bed and then the rails do you no good at all. Luckily, the bed is not very high off the ground.

Mine was painted white and my mother had put nursery rhyme decals on it. The one I remember the most is the old woman in the shoe decal. I loved that bed and felt like such a big girl in it. It was later passed on to my little brother (pictured above).

I now have little ones of my own and have done the toddler bed thing with two of them now. My daughter was so excited when we brought her bed home. She had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor because she had climbed out of her crib one night before we were ready for the transition. We had thought we could at least wait until at least after her 1st birthday, but at about 11 months she climbed right out. It was a few weeks before we found a toddler bed we liked and that was affordable. The first night she was so excited, but she never quite made it into her bed. This is her asleep the first night with her new bed.

This bed has now been passed on to my son (almost 2 years old) when sissy graduated to a twin size bed.

Something else I notice looking at old pictures of my early beds is the weird positions kids sleep in. There is no way I could sleep comfortably like that now. I'd end up with my legs asleep on me and a major kink in my neck. It never ceases to amaze me how little ones sleep in such weird positions and wake up none the worse for it. Have you ever seen a child fall asleep in a car seat? If I fell asleep like that I wouldn't be able to move my head for at least a week!

This picture (along with the naked baby bathtub ones and the one of me with oranges under my shirt at about age four) are the ones that always seemed to make an appearance when mom decided to show my new boyfriends pictures. How embarrasing!

However, as you can see, I've now turned into my mother. I have one of my daughter sleeping like this too! It is just waiting for that first boy to show up at the door. Of course, I think my husband will resort to my father's tactics. He believed embarrasing me was not effective enough. Instead he would decide every gun in the house needing cleaning and would scare the poor boys! I always joke that the only reason I married my husband is because he is the only one that was not afraid of my daddy's guns! In fact, he talked to my dad more that night than he did me.

Well, I guess that is enough walking down memory lane for now. Time to return to present day reality, dirty laundry and all!

To My Daddy

Fearless. Okay, so maybe you were not always fearless, but to your little princess you always seemed to know exactly what to do and what to say. You could handle any situation and could fend off any monsters, whether they were those hiding under my bed, the boys rocking the hanging bridge when I was scared of heights or that boy who just broke my heart!

Absurd. Websters defines absurd as so unreasonable as to be ridiculous. I think this describes you quite well. You always could tell a good story and make someone laugh about anything. I loved (and still do) to listen to your stories and goofy songs. Remember Jesse’s squirrel, where can I find a rodent like that? Yes, I found it quite annoying at the time and still hear your voice singing that line whenever I happen to hear Jesse’s Girl on the radio, but it always brings a smile to my face and makes me think of all the good times when I was a still living at home with no real worries.

Tender. You were always a macho blue collar dad, but there was still a tender side to you. Of course, I was daddy’s little girl, so you always had a soft spot for me and I for you! The one memory I cherish is you brushing my hair. It did not happen very often but I loved it when it did. You were also so gentle and loving when you would brush my hair (in contrast to mom or even myself, we would get impatient with all the knots and just start pulling the brush through it!) By the way, to this day I still prefer and respect blue collar men who put in a full day’s work with their hands over a white collar man who sits behind a desk all day. Nothing against white collar men, I just like a guy that smells like sweat and grease I guess. : )

Honest. I still remember there were two things that would get us in the most trouble when we were kids. Lying and talking back. You have always been a very honest man and I’ve admired that. Because of that, this is one thing I hold in high esteem to this day. You are one of the most honest and hard-working men I’ve ever known and you’ve raised me to be the same. Thank you Daddy!

Empathetic. Anytime I was upset and needed to talk you were always there. You may not always agree with me but you would listen and let me vent. You would listen, give me advice if I wanted it and always made sure I knew I was special to you and could accomplish anything I set my mind to do. I often wanted you to solve my problems for me but you would gently push me to take charge of things myself with the knowledge that you would be there to help me. You ensured I felt totally loved and supported while developing in me an independent spirit. At the time I would sometimes get frustrated with you, but now I am grateful for what you did for me. You enabled me to become a confident and loving adult.

Respect. You taught me the definition of respect, not only for others, but for myself as well. You always respected my decisions, thoughts and emotions whether or not you necessarily agreed with them. This has enabled me over the years to disagree with others while still loving them. You may not have always been able to give my brother and I every material thing we wanted, however we were rich in that we had a father that loved us unconditionally and taught us how to stand up for ourselves and stand up for our beliefs, even in the face of opposition. That is something for which I’ll always be thankful.

This year I don’t have any material item that I’ll be sending to you in the mail, however this is my gift to you for all the world to see, Daddy. You’ve been a wonderful father to me and I will always have fond memories of my childhood as daddy’s little girl. I still am daddy’s little girl to this day. It fills me with happiness to see my own daughter have a close and loving relationship with her father as well, because I understand now as an adult how precious that is and how it will develop her into a beautiful young woman one day.

Thank you Daddy and Happy Father’s Day!!