Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The back side of my family

I didn't mean to take so many pictures of people's back-sides, but I did! So, here they are scattered among my collection for this post. I kind of put blogging on my "low priority" list these past few weeks as I've been busy traveling, spending time with my parents and generally just being busy. The neat thing about that is that I have TONS of stuff to blog about now! So watch out, I feel a super jam-packed post about to happen here.

Chronologically, the first thing I have to share is a couple of pics from my sister-in-law, Deb's pre-prom. In case you weren't aware, I'm an only child, so when I married into this large family and gained three sisters and a brother, then even more as they marry, I'm in heaven. My new sisters are precious and understand my need for sisters and don't rub in the "in-law" part too much. Deb was five when I met her and now, here she is, all grown up!


I read on this site some ideas of things to do with your kid and this is my variation of one of their suggestions. They said to use bowls of different cereals and then put one of each type in a egg carton and have your little one match them up (from the bowl to the carton). Z didn't much see the point in moving cereal from one place to another, but enjoyed the display of snacks and helped himself. Once, in grabbing a handful of All-Bran he dropped a twig into the rice krispies and took the time to fish it out and put it back into the proper egg cup. That was good enough for me, he gets it, they're different. We used the egg carton full of snacks for a few days for snack time until the novelty wore off.

Our Memorial weekend was spent at the family cabin in WV. As always it was relaxing and fun. Only two of my siblings were able to come (we missed you Biz, Jer, Andy & Missy!). Z missed his cousins, but revelled in the constant attention from his aunts and Ben's cousin, Megan. Bottoms from L to R we have Gramma H., Bekah, Megan and Deb.
Aunt Bekah and Z on one of our hiking trips
Some ferns we found along the way
The four ladies and "The View" as we now call it. Breathtaking in real life! I mean the view of the scenery, not my family's backsides. Not that they don't have lovely bottoms, yadda yadda yadda...
Finally, I finished my book while out in WV. Z slept over three hours Sunday and Monday which felt like a vacation in and of itself. Before I read the book, "Addicted to Mediocrity" by Franky Schaeffer I wasn't thinking about his relation to the author Susan Schaeffer Macaulay who I reviewed in this post. The two are siblings and supported each other in their premises that we (especially as Christians) should aspire to excellence and provide our children with exposure to all sorts of greatness whether it's labeled "Christian" or not. As you might notice from the title he has a problem with the complacency of Christians. In this book, though, he focuses on the fact that as a church and somewhat as a society as a whole we have given creative endeavors low priority in our lives for the past century as creativeness has been deemed impractical or useless (settling for bumper sticker art). We see evidence in most every Protestant church you visit, often times in gymnasiums, we have become utilitarian and pragmatic in our view of worship, service and worse yet, of people. We have separated creativeness in terms of "Christian" or "Secular" forgetting that all creation is God's creation. We need only separate ourselves from sin. This book made me want to paint, to get rid of our cable subscription, to become an activist in the things I'm passionate about and to get off me duff! It's super short and I devoured it. We had to pay $2 for our interlibrary loan to find the book (from Greenville College in IL, where artists Jars of Clay and Jennifer Knapp attended). I wish now that we had just spent the $9 it would have been used from alibris.com with a $1 off coupon from this site. I'm inspired to read some of his suggested readings and perhaps some from his parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Just for you...

Mr. Cool on the trike we found in someone's trash last year, isn't it awesome?!?

The day before my parents returned to Germany we went to a drive-up in the Fury. Mom and I wore scarves in our hair and we drank yummy root beer. My Dad took the pic.

I really wanted to share my ultrasound pics with you and so went to WalMart and scanned them onto a CD. Turns out you can bring your own CD and save some money, lesson learned. Still, only $3 to share this with you...

Here she's playing peek-a-boo!

The one below is my favorite, up close it looks like you can see her one eye looking right. I love seeing her face shape, looks like a Wigton to me!
The last pic that got cut off was a less than modest angle as you might gather from the title, "It's a girl!!!". Our Mommy Group zoo trip got postponed due to weather and sickness, so hopefully next week is nicer. I'm having a garage sale next week, well, more like I'm hosting one, I've already given all my junk away, so I'm just sharing my front yard. Let me know if you have stuff to get rid of! Also, we leave tomorrow for the family cabin! My first trip this year, can't wait! I'm reading another really good book, look for a review next week!

Thanks to all you wonderful veterans out there for serving our country. I'll be remembering you this weekend as I enjoy my freedom in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Mother's Day Stuff

My mom likes home-made gifts. I can never go wrong with something home-made for her. So, I was at my grandparent's in Tennessee and needed to figure something out. Without my jewelry making tools and supplies I had no idea what to do. My grandma suggested a cross stitch. It had been 20 years since I cross stitched! She had all the supplies and I knew just what I'd like to make her...daisies. Mom loves daisies. I looked at all of grandma's patterns and nothing fit, so she suggested I create my own on graph paper. Below is what I came up with.

And here it is finished.
It was a lovely day we had together here in Ohio. My sweetie made us breakfast (sausage, eggs and pancakes) and with my card I got my favorite naughty sweet: gummy bears!! He knows the way to my heart! We went out for Chinese so we didn't have to cook and had a lovely day relaxing together. We rented, "Becoming Jane," about Jane Austen's life. Totally great movie, I loved it. Ben somehow evaded watching it (SHOCK!).

We've been enjoying normal life together here in Ohio while my parent's visit continues. They leave Tuesday (the 20th) and my Mommy Group heads to the zoo the next day. Tomorrow is prom for my sister-in-law, Debbie. We can't believe she's graduating from high school....sigh. Well, I just wanted to touch base since it felt like forever since I wrote!

Just because I have to write it out, here's a brief list of my friends (off the top of my head) that I know are expecting along side me...it's great to have support!
My two cousins: Nicki and Laura

Mommy group girls: Jolene, Corinne, & Nikki C.

Lapsit/swim class friends: Faith and Jenn

Old friend: Audrey O.

New friends: that new girl at church who had brain surgery and just about everyone I meet at the play place at the mall.

Y'know, that doesn't seem like as many as it did in my head. I'm probably forgetting some people. Let me know if I missed you! Thanks!!!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...


Well, here's the comparison. In the blue we have Becca five months pregnant in February 2006 with little boy 'Z'. Next, we have Becca in black (it's my favorite pregnancy top!) in May 2008 again five months pregnant only with a little girl, whose name (and pseudonym) have yet to be chosen! Notice I'm barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen no less. Anyways, if you didn't catch it, we're having a girl! I got to see her for the first time today and even with a 2D ultrasound, she's beautiful! We can't wait to meet her! Ben is happy too. So, the homeostasis (a girl dog, boy dog, Daddy, Mommy, son, daughter) can return now with this child. Wouldn't want to be uneven now would we?

I have many many pictures of last week in Tennessee. We had a great time and have lots of stories to share. Our plane rides went well enough. The way there was much harder with so many people on the plane, Z had to stay on my lap the whole time. I whipped out snack after snack, activity after activity, whew! I was exhausted by the end. On the return flight I had an empty seat next to me and my parents across the aisle. My Dad held Z for the second half of the flight! What a relief! Check back in a few days for pictures from my camera, my Dad's and my mom's! Yeah, it's a lot of pictures. You don't have to watch the whole slideshow if you don't want...