On The Road AGAIN!!!!!!!

We hit the road again this weekend to go house hunting in Delaware.
This is how Israel felt about that. :) Or, at least, the constrained in the car-seat bit of it.

We also indulged in a wonderful thing known as "dropping the kids off with the grandparents", which we do not generally have the luxury of doing. We got to VA on Friday, spent the night there, then Tim and I left early Saturday morning to speed off to Delaware, whilst the dear children slumbered on peacefully.

We did find a house, thanks to Weston Yutzy. Thanks, Weston.... This is it. We're renting it for a year. Me likey.
So here's some "pitchers" from the week. Enjoy.
Fun times reading with Grandma.
Getting ready to go outside with Granddaddy.
Virginia Tech Boy. :)

Israel could hardly contain himself when it was HIS turn to go exploring with Granddaddy.
He could hardly sit still long enough to get his coat on, and then he was all about the door the door the door. Gotta go, Granddaddy. He loves to go outside.
Getting some expert training on golf cart driving.

This was all while Big Brother Gabe was zonked out on the couch, exhausted from a hard morning of being Granddaddy's Little Helper. Man, that Granddaddy works those boys hard!!
The boys also got to eat with Great Grandma Lou on Sunday.
Down time, with feet crossed and hands together.
We actually had a great time in Delaware. We stayed with Allan and Aileen Warfel, ate seafood with Weston and Stephanie Yutzy at Rehoboth Beach, and enjoyed an entire night not having to wake up for the one year old, the three year old, or the dog. Of course, I woke up anyways, savored the fact I did not have to pull my sleepy body out from under my warm covers, and promptly went back to sleep. After church in the morning, we ate some luscious pizza with friends at Grotto's Pizza, and exited stage left to zip home. Mid zip, we buzzed in quickly to Arlington to see one of my very best friends, Emily, who I had laid nary an eye on for 4 long years. She was just as gorgeous as I remembered her. :) And then we zoomed off again to see the Little Fellers I left at home. I missed them already. They did great with Grandma and Granddaddy, and scarcely noticed their parents were missing. I don't blame them.

Anywho. Another box checked off before moving. House to live in. Check.

Catching Up

And now for random updates.

The boys keep on growing, as boys do. :) Israel is 15 months old, and a brawny little bruiser. He can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' - and Gabe can be counted on to administer PLENTY of lickin's and head butts and loving tackles and territory-protecting shoves. Sometimes Israel gets hurt, but usually he doesn't. It just takes a lot of supervising these days. The couch is a particularly dangerous area, because Israel can climb up there and has tried to crawl off the arms of the couch, topples backward from the couch cushions to the floor - things that make your heart seize with terror and cause lots of preventative lunging.

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Gabe has an imaginary friend named Maddie, who is a little girl. I used to have an imaginary friend, too, when I was his age, named Tomeek. Mom wondered aloud if I thought it was a guardian angel, but I stated that if that were true, I doubted that we could accidentally leave her in the minivan after a shopping trip and have to go back out to get her. :) Gabe has to look for her, and has to tell her how it is. He was getting her ready to take a bath with him the other day, and then was putting her coat on today before we left for an errand.

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One of the most common statements I hear about Israel is that he is "such a SWEETHEART!!!" He really is. He has these bright little eyes, a big delighted smile, and chubby wittle cheekies kiss'em kiss'em. He's so sturdy and squeezy. He currently has the cutest little walk, where he waddles along on the front part of his feet, sort of tilting forward. He also does this adorable thing where he reaches up to be held and sort of waggles his hands around. Sigh. I'm smitten. With both of those cutie patooties.

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One of our favorite activities of late is, after releasing Chloe into the wilds of the outdoors to go do her bidness, to affect a wistful British accent and say "And that was the last we ever saw of Chloe", or "And so she walked out of our lives, forever." :) Snicker. Oddly enough, though, she keeps returning. Must be the highchair loot.

La La Land

When I get tired, my brain goes down strange paths. I spend long minutes seriously contemplating ideas that would make people look at me askance if they knew, and wonder how I stumbled into dementia at such a young age.

For instance.

Last night after a particularly insane day of work, followed by the energetic business of gathering two young children and shooing them off to bed, I was in serious crash mode on the couch. The clock kept ticking by, and I wanted to go to bed, but I didn't want to have to expend all the energy it took to get there. I began daydreaming of how wonderful it would be if I could simply press a button on a remote, and a piece of the couch would lift up, come off the couch, go put me in the bathtub, get me ready for bed, and then return to it's original resting place. And I would never have to have budged through the entire process.

Or today, when I had another weariness wave sweep over me mid-afternoon, and I hit the couch again, eventually propping myself up at a 90 degree angle to gaze unseeingly at Word Girl flying around in her red cape, and I entered a wistful imaginary world where I could sit glued to the couch all afternoon and well into the evening, tucked under my warm blanket with the heater directed straight at me on HI, warming my cold little bones, while the housekeeper rustled busily in my messy kitchen, putting things back in order, and bringing me hot English Breakfast tea, and a varied assortment of savory hot and cold appetizers...like poppers and little ham salad sandwiches with the crusts cut off and some yummy yummy cheese ball on crackers....

Now that I think about it, while she was at it, maybe she could install that handy couch contraption I was thinking of earlier.

I'll have to go talk to her about it. I think she's scrubbing the bathroom floor right now. Life is good here in La La Land.

Friends

The other night our friend Sam came over. Israel was deeply thrilled. He thought Sam was even more fascinating than Mommy, which is really saying something these days. He talked to Sam, and showed books to Sam and had a generally gleeful experience being swung to and fro. Gabe had to cram his own Sam time in.
We will miss Sam. Sam is freshly and finally engaged to Amber Leslie (just had to include the second name because I like the combo :)) and we are all very happy for them, and are looking forward to attending their wedding this summer.....

....as we drive from Delaware.....

.....where we will be living!!! Yaaaaaayy!!

I keep forgetting to blog about this, so everybody probably already knows this by now. Tim has accepted a pastoral position at Cannon Mennonite Church in Seaford, DE. We will be moving in the middle of February, if anyone is interested in helping sort through my bathroom cabinet and behind my stove. :) And underneath my refrigerator. Could be some exciting things to be found.

Anywho. I've been really looking forward to leaving and starting a new phase of life, being able to stay home with the boys, seeing Tim able to do what he so enjoys. I was musing on my way into work this morning - leaving is also saying goodbye to parts of life we have really enjoyed. Allergens, rainy winters, drivers who drive side by side 8 miles below the speed limit....ahhh, Kentucky.

Kentucky is where Tim and I had our first little home together.
It's where Tim graduated from college.
And seminary!
It's where we bought our little Snooch to be a fill-in baby
Which soon gave way to a real baby
And then another one!
It's where I have gotten almost 7 (!!!!) years of nursing under my belt.
It's where we bought our first house.
It's where we've gotten to know and love new people, made new friends, deepened old friendships, lived through the good and bad of life, and have been happy.

Asbury friends

Joycie and me

Wayne and Melody

Lynette

Pregnant (with Israel) with 5 other people at church

Carmen and Candice

Church friends Tracy and Kathy

(Jon, I'll miss you too if you stop by anytime soon - but you won't because you don't read my blog, you punk.)

Israel Aerobics

Aaaannnnddd - One and

Two and

Three and Eat and

Feet on the Table and Four and EVERYBODY REPEAT!!!!

30 Years Old

January 7(ish), 1978 0 years oldJanuary 7, 2008 30 years oldOddest thing, that. Me turning 30. I remember when my mom turned 30.
(She was still 29 here, but you get the general idea. Hey, look, I could have had AT LEAST 2 kids that age now if I had been on the ball. Time is a'WASTING!!!, I can see.)

Anywho, the point being here is that apparently time has been marching on. The unnerving thing is that if the next 10 years go as fast as the last 10, I will be screeching in on 40 in a few months. (Large worried eyes here.)

We celebrated the big 3-0 fairly calmly, with lots of sleep for Mommy, a Kroger rotisserie chicken (Lemon Herb, if you wondered) with mustard egg potato salad, cranberry relish and french bread (NONE of it homemade, thank you very much) and iced tea. Half Pint Helper and I blew out my three sputtering candles together.
After a balmy day (69 degrees!!!!!), we had a blessed blessed babysitter for the PM and scurried off into the night towards Indian food
and some shopping, where my birthday bought me a shirt for $2.48
and a beauteous nice light spring purse,
which Tim has informally dubbed "Very Ugly". I content myself with the knowledge that he knows all of Squat about such things, and continue serenely on in my beautiful new purse ownership.

We returned home to find BOTH CHILDREN ASLEEP IN BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (blessed blessed babysitter Emily and thank you LORD!!!) and Tim has tucked himself into a movie and I am happily pounding away on the computer.

The twenties were good. Off to the thirties, which are the supposed new twenties....???

Nikon, My Beloved

I am the proud, proud, oh-so-proud owner of a Nikon D50 with 2 very nifty lenses that I just yesterday finally assembled as my purchases straggled in from Ebay. Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much, parents and in-laws!!!!!! The world is now my victim.Tim shaking his head at his camera-delirious-pupils-dilated wife.
One feels the need to put down one's Nikon D50 and give this boy some serious kisses. Is that kid just not the cutest little sweetheart or what....????!!!
The boys doing something bonding involving the television. (Gasp!)
Punkin' skunkin'.

And last but not least....or actually probably least but still loved....at least in words if not so very much in emotion....Der Snitchety Snooch.