Joel had an incredible idea. For our family picture on our Christmas cards, we were going to wear Christmas sweaters. Even the dog. Thanks to Target's "One Spot," the dog's sweater was easy to come by. I stopped by the local Goodwill Store and found two sweaters for both Luke and me that are good possibilities. Joel is the tricky one. I thought maybe he could just wear one of the women's ones, but he said, and I quote, "no way." So... the search is back on. The cheaper, the better. Here are a couple of examples... we are gonna be GORGEOUS!

Joel and I decided that if we wanted Luke to be a gnome sometime for Halloween, we'd better do it now before he has much of an opinion! So I had someone on www.hyenacart.com make the costume for me & we bought the beard on ebay. It turned out SO cute! I love it! What do you think? Oh and McCarthy is going to be a mushroom. Hee hee. I'm making that costume, but it's not done yet.

Build a big ol' tower with these adorable stacking blocks. :) I altered these using scrapbooking paper-- use as a decoration or as a toy. :) (Not recommended for kiddos under 3, though.)

Not only did I make this gem of a clipboard, I made four other ones; I altered a photo frame; I made 21 Christmas cards; and I altered some stacking blocks! I'm doing this to gear up and get ahead for the new congo opening on October 3rd on Hyena Cart. It's called Wonderland and you can stop in anytime between October 3rd and January 31st to pick up Holiday-themed items and/or gifts for the holidays. :) I'm super excited! It's going to be GREAT!

But thank goodness for Sarah Palin. :)

Your Issue Profile: 48% Obama, 52% McCain

Truth be told, you're not really satisfied with either of the candidates. You could vote for either of them. You are the typical coveted swing voter. You may want to narrow yourself down to a particular set of issues in order to pick your president. Or start looking at third party candidates. One of them might suit you better.

How long were your labors?
I was in labor with Luke from Friday evening around 4 until Sunday at 3 p.m.

How did you know you were in labor?
I had mild contractions. I guess they stopped some at the hospital, but the gave me pitocin to start me up again.

Where did you deliver?
Here in town

Drugs?
Pitocin & an epi

C-section?
Nope.

Who delivered?
My doctor.

Check out the quilt that my friend Sarah made for Luke!!!!! Isn't it gorgeous? Luke is in absolute awe of it-- it won't put it down and takes it where ever he goes-- to daycare, to bed, while he's watching Magic School Bus...

He tells everyone he sees, "Look at my brand new blanket! It's GNOMES! And it's HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!"

So thanks for making our week, Sarah! We love it!

*but I think we're finally getting used to our back to school schedule!*

I'm feeling much less stressed this week-- maybe b/c Parent Night is over. I still have a lot to do, but I'm not as worried about getting it done.

That and we're having jamabalaya for dinner. Yum.

I did this post just for you, Val. :) You should feel honored.

Isn't my blog pretty now? Thanks, Meri, for the lead on the help link!!! :) If you want a cute blog, visit this site... The Cutest Blog on the Block.

This could get addicting!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Melanie tagged me with the "six quirky things" meme!

Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged me.
2) Mention the rules.
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.
4) Tag 6 other blogger´s by linking to them.
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

So 6 uninteresting quirky facts about myself are......

1. I'm a hoarder. It's extremely hard for me to throw things away because "I may need them later on in life." I'm not as bad as I used to be because I know myself. If I haven't used it in the past six years... I'm never going to use it. Mostly now it's all of Luke's paper and crafts and things he's made. THOSE are hard to throw away!

2. It drives me crazy when Joel leaves the cabinet doors open. I guess any kind of door, really-- the dryer door, cabinet doors. Oh and the shower curtain! I hate it when that is open!

3. Oh Melanie, I swear we're the same person-- our suitcases from our vacation at the end of JUNE are still sitting in the hallway. I think they've unpacked themselves, too, by living out of them. But there they still sit.

4. I love chips. This week it's Sour Cream & Cheddar Ruffles. 'Nuff said.

5. I am a teacher, but I really don't like to read for fun. I'm such a hypocrite.

6. I'm known with family & close friends that I always like to be on the go- out & about- but I think I'm doing a 180 in my old age. (ha ha! old age!) I'm very much a homebody, I think.

Okay, who am I going to aggravate by tagging?

Danielle - The Buckle Family Blog
Joy - Smiling's My Favorite
Amy - Amy's Little Corner of the World
Meri - Watercolored Ponies
Keysha - The Curtis Chronicles
Brooke - Life on the Koller Coaster

Yesterday was the day I was due with our second baby. The day started out rough. I hated the fact that I had to spend the day preparing for a tooth repair at the dentist, rather than preparing for the birth of our baby. I took a shower and broke down. We lost a baby. Joel is losing his job. What's next???? Then, God kind of chuckled at me and said, "You are totally missing what you HAVE because you are focusing on what you DON'T have."

Wow. It's so easy to fall into that trap. Yes, it's frustrating that it took two years to get pregnant and then we lost that baby. However, we have a WONDERFUL son who I very much take advantage of. I get so caught up in the future, that I often miss what's going on NOW. In my own house. With the child God has already given me.

So I went on to think about what I do have...
*a great husband who is so concerned about providing for his family, the minute he heard he won't have a job in sixty days, he sent a resume to every job he qualified for, and even some he didn't.
*a sweet, sweet little boy who loves to do things with his mom. He's funny; he's creative; he's empathetic. He's awesome.
*a house over our head. No, it's not huge, but it's enough. And it's more than a lot of people have.
*a job. A great job, actually. One that allows me to spend vacations and summers with my kid. And, once he's in school, one that allows me to be in the same building as my kid.
*most importantly, I have a God who really does look out for what's best for me. He knows why we lost our baby. He knows why Joel is losing his job. We just have to trust the fact that He knows. Tricky, yes. But totally doable.

Yes, it's okay to have goals and wishes and desires. But you can't dwell on the what-ifs. Live today. God's got tomorrow ready for you.

I know how to knit now! I sat down with a set of bamboo needles and some scrap yarn and just kept trying until I got it right. :) I was all set to use a recommended tutorial on the computer, but our DSL was down, so I couldn't get on! You can tell which I did in the practically dark and which I did this morning. I think I'm going to make all the scraps into a scarf. :) Pretty cool, eh?

We finally got around to taking Luke's four year pictures. It's so hard to take them right when he turns four because it's so cold outside and I prefer to take outdoor pictures. :) So, six months later, we got them done. Although, after our trip to New Buffalo beach yesterday, I'm thinking we'll take another round of four year pictures in September or October sometime... gorgeous backgrounds there!

24 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Yesterday started off as an atypical day, anyway. I had summer curriculum hours for planning for the Anti-Bullying committee at school. Luke was going to spend the morning at Brady's house. He was sooo excited! Sarah came to pick Luke up & they were headed to Bremen for Brady's first tennis lesson. Luke and Hannah would hang out throughout the lesson, and share beef jerky. After the lesson, they would stop by Brady's grandparents' farm to play and hang out with Trooper, their eight-year-old chocolate lab.

Back in Goshen, I'm with the team, talking about what worked last year & what we'll do differently next year to prevent bullying in our school. Around 10:15 or so, my phone rings. It was Sarah. She said that they had just gotten to her parents and Trooper had bitten Luke on the mouth. I didn't think much about it; thinking it was more of a scratch than anything. Then she said, "We're heading to the ER. Can you meet us there?" Wait, ER? As in EMERGENCY ROOM??? He's never been to the ER before!

So I hang up, tell the committee that I needed to go because Luke had been bitten by a dog and I had to meet them at the ER. They were so good about it; telling me to just leave my things and they'd take care of them. Oh, and I had to get directions because I've only been to that hospital twice in the past 25 years.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally get to the emergency room. Sarah and Luke had just checked in and were on their way into a triage room. I walk in and the receptionist took me straight there. When I got in the room, Luke was doing soooo good!!! He was sitting on Sarah's lap, holding an ice bag up against his mouth. He wasn't crying; he wasn't freaking out. Just sitting there.

And that's how he was throughout nearly the entire procedure. I say nearly because, understandably, the whole stitches thing wasn't so fun for him. He only needed three, but because of the location of the dog bite (on his upper lip, and just above), the doctor couldn't use the numbing solution they normally like to use on kids. He had to get the numbing injection. My poor little guy! The doctor had this huge, long needle (that fortunately, Luke didn't see!) and he had to poke his little lip 5-6 times and inject some stinging solution into his lip. Before the doctor started, he said Luke could scream, cry, do whatever, except move. Apparently with most four year olds, they have to papoose them, or wrap them tightly so they couldn't move. The doctor said that Luke was doing so well with the whole situation, that he didn't think he needed to be papoosed. And he was right. Even through those awful injections, he did awesome. He was even trying not to cry or scream. I told him he was allowed to scream, so he let out the most pathetic screams ever. It made me so sad!!!

When we finally got out of the ER, we had to go to Target to fill his prescription. When we were there, I told him he did so well he could pick out one toy or movie. After we scanned the entire store for the perfect thing, he finally decided on a Bubble Grill, which he'd wanted forever! He had to have it put together as soon as we got home and he played with it for some time. It's actually pretty cool!

I think the worst part for Luke was having a numb lip. It seems like as soon as the numbness wore off, he was totally fine. He didn't need Tylenol. He said it didn't hurt when I cleaned it and put neosporin on it. My little guy is soooooo tough!!! Way to go Lukers!

McCarthy is the newest member of our family. He is a 7 week old Yorkie-Poo adopted from a local Amish farm. He is the SWEETEST little thing EVER. As of right now he's about three pounds... if that. When he's full grown he'll weigh in around 5-9 pounds. Ha ha! We got him on Thursday night and he has been nearly perfect... he has his first accident today, which was totally my fault. I didn't leave him out long enough to do the rest of his business. Oops! He already knows "no" and "come" for the most part. And, most importantly, Luke LOVES him. We really got him for Luke for two reasons. First, he totally misses Griffey, our 130# Golden Retriever that we had to give away last summer because he was not happy in our teeny tiny house. And secondly, we got him for Luke because he totally needs a friend here at home. You should see these two play together in the backyard. Soooo cute!!!

We had such a fun, nothing-to-do, Saturday morning. We woke up fairly early- me waaay earlier than everyone else, like always. We were all up by 7:30. We decide to have breakfast at Bob Evans-- we're such old people! But man are their kids meals CHEAP!!! Anyway, we decide we were going to take our overflowing recycling bin to the park's recycling center. So we loaded up the wagon & walked on over. Our recycling trip turned into a total nature walk! We saw so many cool things! A bunch of Canada geese with their goslings... a blue heron... a giant mushroom growing on the side of the tree... a cardinal... a mallard duck family with nine babies... a turtle family of three... it was so much fun! AND we got a 2.5 mile walk in, as well, by the time we walked to the farmer's market and back home. Woo hoo for us!!! This makes me want summer even more now-- come on FRIDAY- my first day officially off of school. :)

I was just tagged! I'm a virgin taggee, so I'm assuming I am supposed to answer the questions and tag someone else? LOL I was tagged for this by Lysa of Polka Dot Days. Here goes nothin'!

4 things I was doing 10 years ago....

1. I was a recent college grad, enjoying my last few days of doing nothing.
2. Planning for my teaching job in Ecuador.
3. Getting ready to work my first factory job for the summer.
4. Living with my grandma.

4 things I was doing 5 years ago...

1. I had just found out I was pregnant with Luke.
2. I was in my third year of teaching second grade... just ending it, actually.
3. Getting ready to celebrate my first anniversary to Joel.
4. Gearing up for teaching yet another year of ESL Summer School.

4 things I did yesterday...

1. Went on a field trip to the park to meet our pen pals.
2. Ate at the newly opened Taco Time. It was yummy, but I don't know about $17/family yummy.
3. Did a few digital scrapbook pages.
4. Bought the last Wii Fit at Walmart.

4 shows I like to watch...

1. The Office
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. What Not to Wear
4. Jon and Kate + 8

4 things I love to do...

1. take my kid places- the park, swimming lessons, the movies, nature walks, etc.
2. digital design/scrapbooking
3. organize (though you'd never know it by looking at my house!)
4. go out to eat

I am tagging the following wonderful girls for the meme: Joy, and Sarah at JunieBags.

I am so on a roll with my scrapbook pages! Only five more and I'm totally caught up with 2007! I LOVE digital scrapbooking!!! Here are my latest layouts.

Isn't he adorable? I love this kid.

but who's counting?

It's been a crummy week. School is STRESSING ME OUT. I've had a meeting everyday but tomorrow this week. Tuesday I had THREE MEETINGS in one afternoon. DOH!!!! And the kids are nuts. I seriously am at my last straw... pulling out my last trick in my book. We have 18 days left. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

And then, as most of you know, we've been trying to have our second child for about two years now. I thought for SURE this was the month. I even had a dream on Tuesday night-- several of them-- that I got the BRIGHTEST pink positive pregnancy test EVER. I woke up, took one test out of my bulk stash under the sink. Big. Fat. Freakin'. Negative. Then, I get online and one of my goodest friends ever announces she's pregnant. I am thrilled for her. I really am. But it's SO hard. Especially when her announcement comes after only a few months of trying. It's a roller coaster of feelings for me. I would NOT want anyone to go through what we're going through. Not EVER. So, of course, I'm so super excited for her. But then it's like, "Why? Why not me?"

Anyway. That's my sob story. And, really, I'm 110% better today than I was yesterday. I was a mess yesterday. Today I'm completely fine with it. Except for the fact that lil' Miss Aunt Flo came for her visit... that's not so fun. Hee hee.

Brodie Elijah was born a week and a half ago. He came over today so I could take a few pictures of him. :) I've forgotten how easy it is to photograph a newborn compared with an active four-year-old. I managed to take a mere 90-ish pictures! Here are a few of my favorites....

Last night was our city-wide Arbor Day Celebration. Luke & I decided it would be a fun thing to do... and it was!

They had little stations set up around the pavilion-- make a bird feeder from a pinecone, peanut butter & birdseed; a balloon man that made balloon sculptures; be a tree vest making; and the educational booths like composting (they were very impressed that we already DO compost!); wind & solar power education; and a cool company that recycles bikes! After we finished, Luke saw the "tree climbing" over in the park. "I wanna do that, mom!" Me, thinking, yeah RIGHT, he'll do that. This wasn't any ol' tree climb. This was a "pretend you're rock climbing" tree climb... with the gear and all! So we stood in the forever long line. I thought for sure he'd watch 2-3 other kids and decide that no way, he wasn't going to do that. Boy was I wrong! My little boy is growing up! Whaaaa!

Along with a winter storm, heading in tonight!!!!! Gotta love Indiana! Well, despite that, Luke and I colored Easter eggs last night. I thought we had a dozen and a half but apparently someone got a little egg happy and we were only left with six for decorating.

Luke enjoyed double, triple, and even quadruple dipping this year, leaving him with some cool looking eggs. We've got a fun-filled weekend ahead of us... two egg hunts & three Easter dinners!

Joel thought he needed to get in on the haircutting action because he is now officially in triathlon training. And a shaved head gives you better times, apparently. (I know nothing about training, obviously.) But before he took the plunge and cut it ALL off, he wanted to freak his mom out a bit.

Luke is obsessed with dogs. His 4th birthday party theme was dogs. He has dog games. He has at least a thousand stuffed dogs. He is constantly playing dogs. Seriously. Well, a few weeks back, I was getting ready to make dinner and I opened up the fridge to this:
Apparently the dog was getting warm in our 65 degree house?

I wish I could say that I've been super busy, but it hasn't been THAT bad! Luke has officially been four years old for over a month now. His party was fun-- but I feel like I missed out on most of it because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I hardly got any pictures and the ones I did get I'm not thrilled about it. Oh! We also celebrated on his actual birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with just us. :) He loves CEC!!!

Another fun thing we did in February... we had our first annual Fun Fair at my school. So, of course, I had to bring Luke! Here's a shot of him getting his first tattoo. He chose the BIGGEST tattoo they had. It was a ying yang, but he was positive it was a planet. So we went with it.

And probably the biggest event of February... the big haircut!!! Now, who would've imagined a four-year-old having as much of an opinion as Luke does about his hair. He wanted to let his hair grow so he "could look like a rock star." It was cute, yet got dirty FAST. And as thick as it was, it was nearly impossible to get the soap out of it so it started out being greasy-looking as soon as he got out of the bathtub. So we did it. Daddy gave him a (horrible!) haircut. He went from mop top to clean cut in a mere 30 minutes or so. And he wasn't going down without a fight! (which is why it was soooo uneven!!!) Here is the series of events, starting with Valentine's Day pics with the mop to Amish Luke to GI Joe. Ha ha! Oh and for added fun, I'll add a fun pic of Joel, who also went from mop top to absolutely nothing. (With the funness in between!)

Well apparently they don't like my pictures right now. So they'll have to come later. Durn it.