Viva San Antonio!

We had a great trip to San Antonio Thursdsay, Friday, and Saturday! I was reflecting on our trip and I had a small revelation. I realized that the time period of community after college is when many people develop lifelong friendships. We had a homegroup at our church that we were a part of. All of us were newly married, had been out of college for a few years, didn't have kids, and many of us were connected through InterVarsity. We were with each other as we adjusted to married life and then bonded even more when we started having kids. We have great affection for each others children in addition to the friendships that we have with each other. These are the people that we invited to be godparents to our children, that we have laughed with and cried with, been camping with, and shared many, many meals with. They were our family in San Antonio when we lived there and our life would not have been as rich as it was (and is) without them. So, to my friends (The Odles, The Castros, The Wattses, The Lelands, The Fords, Leslie)....I have great love and affection to each and every one of you and I am so glad to have you in my life. Here are some highlights from our trip.

Look at Rene's belly! In our home group there are already 6 kiddos--but 3 more are on the way and still baking in the belly. Hopefully another one will be baking soon! That means in one year there could be as many as 10 kiddos under 4--wow!

These two better watch out... I think if it were up to their mommies they would have an arranged marriage!

I love this picture of Isaac. He was having a great time watching the duckies.

These kiddos were HOT from running around on the playground. I like this picture because Ewan is sitting between two of the cutest little girls around!

Ewan being sweet with Baby Caleb.

Isaac had to work hard to get through the tunnel. It was a little scary at first but eventually he worked up the courage to go all the way through. He was very proud of himself!

All 6 kiddos from our group (top to bottom, left to right) :

Cora, Ewan, Miriam, Isaac

Caleb, Joaquin

I got a new haircut! After surviving Jon being gone for 10 days I had a fun day with my mom and she took me to get my hair cut. I am donating it to Locks of Love--a non-profit organization that makes wigs for children with genetic disorders and cancer. I got 10 inches cut off! The two other added benefits are that Jon won't get grossed out with my long hair strands caught in the vacuum and that my hair won't be used as a rope for any of my children as they fall. Isaac has a knack at grabbing my hair everytime he falls or trips. Ouch! My new hair do should be quick and easy on the days I don't straighten it. I am already enjoying my hair not being stepped on and used as a safety device- yeah!

One more post for tonight.....

I realized I don't have any updated pictures of Ewan yet so I thought I would post this one for fun. I hope your 4th of July is as cool as Ewan looks in his car! (I know, that was lame but I had to think of something ;) )

Just a quick cute story about Isaac...

As I have mentioned in a previous post, we have to be careful about emptying Ewan's potty bucket or Isaac will try to empty the bucket himself. A little scary! His new thing is after we dump the bucket or a poop from a cloth diaper is to lift the toilet lid back up and look into the toilet and say, "Bye Poopie!, Bye Poopie!" It just makes your heart melt, doesn't it?

Praise the Lord! We had a successful nap today! No getting out of bed! I was so excited for Ewan's success. He got his special milk drink and got to pick out a toy that had been taken away. Tonight at bedtime I thought we were doing good but then he melted at the end and I wasn't sure if he would get out of bed or not. He did but he didn't open his door. Do I count that as success or not?

On a more happy note, I led a Bible study last night and I haven't actually led in a long time. I know I am better at mentoring and discipling so I get nervous about leading a group study. The original plan was to watch Adam and Eve on DVD (an original play by Brie Walker and David Taylor) and then discuss it afterward. Unfortunately the DVD malfunctioned on the player we had and we had to scrap the plan. Yikes! I had a few questions prepared in response to the movie but not any planned Bible study on Genesis 3. We read Genesis 3 before attempting to watch the play so we would be familiar with the context of the play. Since I was covering for Jon we asked Father Clint to be there with me so we would have a guy and girl at the study. Somehow it seems appropriate when you are talking about male and female relationships and how Adam and Eve's sin impacted the world to have a guy and girl lead the discussion. I facilitated the discussion but I really didn't do much at all. The students had lots of good questions and responses to the passage. Clint was super helpful in answering some of the more theological points that came up that I am not as familiar with. He had some great insights to contribute and I think if he had not have been there it would have felt flat.

I think I have forgotten what it feels like to be stretched in ministry. I have more often taken on the role as a supporter to Jon now more than leading anything. My insecurity gets the best of me and I get overwhelmed by what others might think of me so I choose to stay out of the limelight and center of attention. It is a miracle that I have moved forward to teach childbirth classes and have chosen to turn from my fear. I am more familiar with the birth world than I am with my knowledge of theology (How sad is that)! God has used our move to North Texas to free me from the things that I am afraid of. I have welcomed this new season--mostly anyway.

Now here is a picture of Isaac--he hasn't a care in the world about what anyone thinks of him. He just enjoys what comes. In my deepest of hearts I long for that freedom to look and act goofy and not care an ounce what anyone thinks of me!

Well, our jack-in-the-box is doing better. He is still learning to NOT come out of his room until the blue light comes on (we set the light on a timer). This morning Ewan got up at 6am and was sitting in the chaize lounge reading a book when I heard him. I put him back in his room and told him to stay in there. Yeah, right! He got up again and I laid him back down. Next thing I know he went in Isaac's room (who was sawing logs) and turned on the light, scared Isaac and woke him up! I thought I was was going to scream. Ewan did that the day before and knew that going into Isaac's room while it is still sleep time is wrong. So off he went in his room while I held the door shut. He cried about it but he stopped trying to come out and stayed in there until the blue light came on.

I am trying to figure out what is best to do. Should I put a lock on Ewan's room? If I do that he won't learn to come out when the light comes on and we want to start training him to go potty when he first gets up rather than going in a diaper. Jon thinks we should put a lock on Isaac's door so Ewan can't go in there and wake him up.

My question is--why is it that before we put Ewan in the big boy bed he would wake up everyday somewhere between 6:45-7:15 and now that he is in the big boy bed he wakes up at 6am? He has been getting out of bed when I lay him down at night and we play the put-you-back-in-silently game. We are definitely making progress. I usually only have to do it 5-10 times and he gives up (instead of 200 3 or 4 days ago!). But what do I do for the morning time? Is it just novelty to Ewan now and once the novelty wears off he will start going back to his normal schedule? I think some of the early wake up time is because he is going to bed a little late--it has been between 7:30 and 8 instead of 7:15-7:30. He usually wakes up early if he goes to bed late. I guess novelty and a slightly late bedtime are a bad combination.

I really want to shower Ewan with praise and rewards for complying to the new big boy bed rules. I want 1 day of him doing what he is supposed to do! Even if we had some jack-in-the-box syndrome when he first went to bed and he stayed in bed all night and got up when the light goes off I think I would give him his rewards and a ton of praise. I don't get any joy in correcting him and teaching him what to do I just know it is necessary. I get a lot of joy giving him lots of praise and rewards. Right now I am hoping that this training and adjustment for Ewan goes a lot faster then potty training did. For Ewan it wasn't that he didn't know what to do he just wanted to be stubborn about it. I wonder if Ewan is someone who doesn't like change very much and this is how he deals with it....