Lookit my craizy hair!

We set the trampoline back up this weekend. That thing is probably one of the best investments we've ever made! On any given sunny afternoon you will probably find at least two (sometimes all) of our kids out there jumping, reading books, or finding creative things in the clouds. Since the air is still so dry it is static central out there right now. Natalie loves that she can see her sticking up in her shadow and keeps saying "Lookit my craizy hair!"

I am in love with them

This week was a week of catching up and enjoying beautiful weather. I'd love to be blogging about some of things that have been running through my head the past couple weeks, but I'm lacking the time and the brain power at this point. A lot of it is still muddled for me.

I had to post these four pictures, though. I am totally in love with these kids.

Pudding Painting and Clown Puppets

We had fun finger painting with chocolate pudding the other day. Just thought I'd share some of the pictures!

And today was Karis' day for Mommy and Me play. Since Natalie and Levi are both pretty sick, they both laid down and napped around 10:30 this morning. It's terrible, but it was so hard for me to give that time to Karis today as I looked around the house and saw the disaster that had developed while having two whiney and clingy babies for the past three days! I thought if I can just get some stuff done now while they are both down, maybe they'll take another nap this afternoon and I can "fit" Karis in then, knowing full well that the chances were slim that another double nap would happen. I started out gritting my teeth, but by the end of our time I was so glad that I pushed aside the mess, laundry, and dishes for some time with my girl. She's been saying she wanted to do a craft when it was her turn for play time, so she picked these cute paper cut out clowns. Of course when Ethan got home he had to make one too and, while I helped them, I made one for Natalie. We turned them into puppets and had a little fun!

Praise God

Just an update on Mark's back:

We are praising God (and thanking you) for answered prayers. I honestly believe that a miracle was done over the weekend. Mark had called the surgeon's office on Friday and scheduled an appointment for March 25th. He is someone that hates taking medication and hates going to doctors, so when he decided to make that call I knew that he was in a lot of pain and scared that he was in the same situation he was in before his surgery. I'm not sure if I've ever prayed as expectantly as I did on Friday and throughout the weekend. On Sunday afternoon he stood at the sink and said, "I believe in miracles". In combination with the prayers and God's healing hand, he did some "tweaking" of the crunches he does, and we think that change may have alleviated some pressure on a nerve or adjusted one of those discs just right. He decided to cancel the appointment. Expectation met.

A fun afternoon

I've been itching to get some use out of the double jogger that a friend gave me. Mark started track practice today so he was going to be home later than usual, we needed to return books at the library and the sun was shining, so I figured today was as good a day as any! After Natalie's nap, I got the lasagna in the oven, set the delay time, had bread in the breadmaker, loaded the vehicle and off we went to the bike trail. Ethan and Karis did an awesome job sticking together and staying with me (usually they want to race each other all over) and I was able to run right along with them. I'm hoping this will be a regular occurance during track season...I'll still be able to get my runs in and they'll be able to spend some energy! And it was great to come home with arms full of books and to the house smelling like dinner :O).

Our life lately

Here's what's been going on in our life recently:

Apparently, having 1 husband and 4 kids to take care of and love on, and 32 history students to grade papers, answer questions and moniter pace for, means I can't blog (much less do anything else for myself) as often as I'd like to.

Even still, "someone" thought that I could use a little extra challenge in getting things done anyway, because I now have a sick baby who spends a majority of his waking hours attached to my hip.

Speaking of waking hours, the two year old in our house didn't get the memo that when you spring forward you're losing an hour of sleep. So, she decided she didn't need a nap yesterday and that 5:45 (still feelin' like 4:45 if you ask me) was a good time to wake up this morning.

We recently discovered that buying a 2003 Pontiac Montana wasn't the greatest idea on earth. I love that van(never thought those words would come out of my mouth...thought for sure I'd be an SUV mom)! I guess the engine that GM put into several of it's vehicles during a period of several years had a problem with gaskets and coolant leakage (whatever that really means), so at any random moment your engine can just "break". Probably an issue that warranted a recall, but it was too expensive for GM to do that. Instead, they recently settled a class action lawsuit over it. Would have been good to know that BEFORE last Saturday, when with no warning, a 1/4 mile from the house I started hearing this clanking noise coming from under the hood. I figured no biggie, I'm close, I'll make it home. Umm, I barely made it!! The van basically lost power and I coasted into the driveway. So, we're replacing the engine and the oil pump for somewhere around $2000. Awesome!

Out of that "catastrophe", we did discover that Ethan has a sweet and generous heart. I was feeling frustrated about the amount of money we were going to be putting into the van and explained to the kids what was wrong. Ethan said that he wanted to help by giving us some money out of his piggy bank. I told him we had enough money and I wasn't really worried about it, just a bit frustrated. He went up and got $5 out his bank and gave it to me. I assured him he should keep his money, that mommy and daddy would take care of it, but he wouldn't have any of it! He gave me a huge hug and broke into to tears because he wanted to help so badly!

Karis got another chapel award at school. This time it was for her diligence :O). I had to register her for kindergarten the other day. I thought maybe it would be a little easier the second time around. Not so much. Especially when the other people signing up at the same time as me were yelling at their kids and pulling them around by the neck, and the kid just continually disobeyed! As much as I hope our kids can be a Godly example, I know they weren't meant to save the world! This leads to a whole nother issue that God is weighing heavily on my heart and will have to be saved for another post!

Levi is officially walking. He is so stinkin' cute toddling around the house. I can't believe we are less than a month away from his first birthday!

Natalie finally has enough hair for pigtails. I started putting pigtails in Karis' hair shortly after her first birthday, so I've been waiting quite a while for Natalie's to grow long enough.

If you pray...

Well, I'm not sure how many people really read this blog, but if you do and you pray to the Almighty God that has the power to heal, I'm asking if you will please pray for Mark.

For those of you who don't know, about 5 years ago he started having some pretty serious back problems that lasted over a year. After trying therapy and injections for herniated and bulging discs in his lower back, he finally ended up having surgery about 3.5 years ago. Since then things have been mostly better, although, he still feels limited as to the types of physical activities he can participate in without pain or causing damage to a couple other discs that are "degenerated".

The past couple of days he has had pretty significant amounts of pain in his back and numbness down his leg, which is not a good sign. It's frustrating for both of us since he can't interact with the kids like he wants to, and I don't get as much help with everything around the house. He'd like to give it a week or two before we contact the Cleveland Clinic again. I know he doesn't want to go through this again, and questions why God would have him (one of the most athletic people I have ever met in my life) deal with this problem probably for the rest of his life.

I'm sad...and have my own questions for God about this.