Round One of Presents

A couple weeks ago Brandon and I got Maddie's Christmas presents. This was the first year she really opened anything. Last year she was too little, and we were on a cruise! I couldn't wait for Maddie to open them and play with her new toys, so we wrapped them up, and she ripped them open in no time! I wanted to add some music, but I can only learn so much techy stuff at a time!

Becca's Shoes

Maddie is a typical girl and already into shoes at 18 months old! Sometimes it amazes me how innate the girlyness is. While Rebecca was here Maddie kept putting on her shoes and walking in them! She's tried to put our shoes on before, but never attempted to walk! What cracks me up is that one of them is on backwards!

A few pics

Tonight Maddie had her first taste of PB & J. I think she liked it, it was all over her face! She's been a bit of a picky eater, so hopefully this will be a winner.

Maddie also likes to dump things out of baskets and sit in them....reminds me of a certain uncle :) My next chore for tonight is to see if I can get a video uploaded on Brandon's computer! So stay tuned!

This one's a doozy!

*Disclaimer for this post*  I have had no more than 5 hours of sleep each night this past week, and it is currently 1 am.  I apologize for rambling, or incoherent thoughts, but I must vent! 

This past week has been quite a shock to my system.  I have never experienced something that has caused this much fear, anger, anxiety, and sadness.  The first night after we returned from Thanksgiving vacation to find out house burglarized we stayed at our friends house nearby.  We were very thankful that they were home, and willing to open their house to us!  

Honestly I wouldn't have cared if we ever went back to our house.  This was our first house, and we've done a lot to it since we've moved in to make it ours.  It's been a blessing to make this our house while Brandon's in school.  Having a home, a sanctuary, a peaceful place to rest and live is very important to me.  I don't function well if I don't have that place that I can go to to feel safe and grounded.  Now I feel like that has been taken from me, and I don't know if I'll ever feel that way about this house again.  Next year we will be moving to Raleigh, and that time can't come soon enough!  It will be hard to get past this and still live here for another year.  Every time I walk in the door I remember the feeling when we saw our tv gone and the living room a mess.  The panic, the shock, the confusion, the anger...and so many emotions I can't even put words to.   The feeling of having one of your deepest fears come true.  

Last year for Christmas my mom had given us a year of monthly cleaning service.  If you know me, you know I'm not the cleanest most organized person in the world.  And after having a baby, it really became a struggle for me to get everything done.  So this maid service (who are very "merry" but shall remain nameless) has been coming since January.  I'm usually home when they are here b/c the idea of someone being in my house when I was not did not settle well with me.  There were a few times when I was out of town, so they kept a key at the office.  The last couple months the same lady has been coming and a few times she was by herself, and took an unusually long time to finish.  This has been a lesson learned in trusting my own instincts.  I didn't say anything, and though it seemed a little odd, I as usual talked myself out of it....fast foward to last week and our house is broken into.  Well, not exactly broken into, walked right into.  The police and us determined the only way they entered the house was with a key, and they locked up after themselves.  When you think about, even though the keys are "locked and safe" at the office, what is stopping them from making a copy of the key on their way.  It is frustrating to know that I could tell the police 99% for certain who did it or who was involved, but they can't do squat.  And they probably won't do squat.  All I can pray for is that this lady is questioned by them and gets caught!  

Since we know it wasn't "random"  and we know who and how the got in, I'm not quite as scared, but it makes me so angry.  Angry is not even a strong enough word to describe how I feel.  Perhaps I will create a new word.

There are however many things to praise God for in this situation.  For one, obviously we were not harmed physically.  The people who did this knew we wouldn't be home, and just wanted our stuff.  Also, they could have taken much more stuff, including things to steal our identity, but it didn't seem like they were after that.  All the things they took were replaceable for the most part.  They took our video camera, which for the past year I had been trying to transfer to our computer (which also thankfully, they did not take).  The first 17 months of Maddie's life was there.  Bringing her home, all the fun milestones, sitting up, crawling, walking, talking.  Most of them are gone.  Thankfully, last night, I realized that this summer I had attempted to transfer some videos to Brandon's laptop.  I thought that it hadn't been successful, but I was able to recover videos of Maddie coming home from the hospital, and her first birthday!  

I am also thankful to my husband for hiding my purse so well before we left that even we couldn't find it!  I thought that I had put it up in my closet, and the thieves had made a mess in there, so I figured they found it.  It had my wallet, and some other stuff (no major credit cards, so that was good).  Yesterday I went to get my shoes out of the coat closet, and sitting right underneath my shoes was my purse!  I couldn't believe it was there, and that Brandon had set my shoes right on top and didn't see it!  Also, I praise God that Maddie is not old enough to remember this, or to even know what's going on.  I don't know what I would do if I had to try to explain all of this to her!

The last few nights I have stayed up as long as I can, and have read through most of Psalms.  As soon as I lay down to try to sleep my mind starts going, and I can't stop thinking about all that has happened.  For the two of you who read this, I would really appreciate your prayers for peace of mind.  Since I've started reading Psalms I can feel God calming me and taking away many fears.  I would covet all of your prayers!

Some long lost pics

I guess I forgot to post these pics! This is of Maddie and Hazel at Halloween! Elmo and Piglet weren't too keen on posing for the camera!

It can happen to you

Here are some things that I learned over our Thanksgiving holiday after our house was broken into and burglarized:

-Write down and store in a safe place all the serial numbers to your major electronic items. (They can track down anything sold to a pawn shop and find who sold it and who bought it)

-Don't trust anyone who is not a friend or family member in your house.

-Don't give anyone a key to your house (i.e. maid services)

-Pay the extra money for a better security system.  What is the point of paying monthly if people still know how to get around it. 

-Know your neighbors.

-Make a recording of a loud dog barking and have it play randomly while gone for long periods of time.

-If people call your house and hang up repeatedly over a period of time get a caller id or dial star 69 and write down the number.

-Don't leave out suitcases for burglars to put all your things in and steal even easier.

-If you think something is suspicious or out of the ordinary trust your instincts and let someone know.  Who cares if the cops think  you're annoying for reporting suspicious activity.  

-Take pictures of every room in your house, and your important belongings and keep in a safe place for insurance purposes.

-Keep EVERY receipt of your purchases.

Since moving here I've been scared to death of someone breaking in.  Luckily we weren't home, they waited until we were gone, but it's still terrifying.  I've never really thought it couldn't happen to me, yet I didn't do all the things my instincts were telling me to do to protect us. Most of the things that were taken were just things.  I really don't care about the things that can be replaced.  I will probably never get the videos back of my daughter being born and growing up. I tried for weeks to transfer the videos to my computer and onto a disk, but it wasn't compatible with my computer, and I just never had the time.  I will probably never really feel safe and happy in this home again.  Who knows how long it will be until I can forget what it was like to walk into my house and see what happened. Who knows how long it will be until I am not angry at these people for taking away my peace of mind and my sense of security.    I suggest you think about what you should do to protect yourself and things that are most important to you.  I hope that my experience  may help someone else in the future.

Random thoughts

I have finished my first leg of travels for the rest of this year.  I am home for two whole weeks before traveling again!  It's good for me to have a change of pace, especially when I'm home with a toddler most of the time, and  Brandon is so busy with school.  But, I like to just stay put sometimes too and get into a routine.   I have learned that flying with a toddler is never a good experience.  It is worth the extra money to buy them their own seat!  

I'm starting to get into the holiday spirit.  I feel like I have to decorate weeks before the holidays to enjoy it b/c we are never actually here to celebrate!  This will be the last Christmas that we have a whole 2 weeks off to visit family.  Next year we'll be moving to Raleigh (woot woot!) over the break, which with a 2 1/2 year old will probably take forever! 

I am in the mood to make creative things for gifts this year.  Sometimes I can be sort of crafty.  If someone shows me exactly what to do, which I guess isn't super creativeness on my own, but I like doing stuff like that.  I have a couple ideas, but if anyone reads this and has any ideas let me know!  I would rather make something for people b/c it's more meaningful  (and cheaper!) than spend X amount of money on a gift card.  

In a couple weeks Maddie goes for her 18 month checkup!  I can't believe she's getting so big!  I love listening to her babbling with random coherent words thrown in.  One of these days I'm going to go into the Apple store so they can teach me how to put my videos on the computer!  We have an issue with compatibility between our camera and computer. 

I am thinking about going to Haiti in February with Hopegivers.  Shaun and Melissa just got back from a busy 4 day trip, and hopefully I can convince them to go back with me!   I'm not really excited about visiting Haiti, never really been on my top 50 places to go, but the idea of being able to be a part of the Hopegivers ministry and loving some orphans without flying halfway around the world to India is amazing.  Sam (the Pres of Emmanuel in India)  really challenged us this summer to not only fall in love with the kids, but to fall in love with the ministry.  If anyone is interested in going on a trip click on the website, or talk to me!  It's only 4 days and it will change your life!

Only about 8 more months in Memphis! Woohoo!  Anyone know where we can live in Raleigh next Christmas?

A semi-political post

This will be my one and only sort of political opinion post.  Mostly because I am so fed up that I just need to vent somehow.  I admit I do not have a whole lot of knowledge about either candidate and I'm not the most eloquent writer.  

 I watched 12 whole seconds of anything election oriented last night because I pretty much knew how it would end.  I don't watch a whole lot of commercials thanks to Tivo, but I don't recall seeing many negative adds about Obama.  I remember in years past that's all adds were.  I've heard plenty of negative things about him in every day conversations with people who know more about him than I do, but why were there not any on tv?  I saw one on Monday that was about the church that he went to and that was the first one.  Is this because the media was so enthralled and captivated by Obama and him being black?  I know there's dirt on him, but I guess I'm just surprised that it wasn't  brought up much.  And again, there may have been more out there, but I didn't go looking for it.  

So anyway, the thing that I am most angry about is from the whole 12 minutes of coverage I've watched today.  Any interview or any scene on the news showing Obama fan's reactions obviously conveyed happiness and in my opinion way to much emotion over him getting elected.  I understand it's historic because he's the first half-black president, but is he going to do any good for this country?  What makes me so angry is that it seems that these people only voted for him because he's black.  Everyone is going on and on about that, and it seems as if they have no idea if he's actually a good candidate, or if he has a good plan for this country.  He is a very good speaker, but you need more than that in a President. 

It seems that so many people were blinded by the color of his skin, and regardless of what he said or did people would vote for him just because they want to see a black president.  How is that not racist?  I really don't care what color of skin our President has, but I'm not going to vote for the first black schmuck that runs just because he's black.  I would be really curious to see what percentage of people who voted for Obama would say they voted for him mainly because of that reason.  

That's the end of my ranting. I don't care if anyone agrees or disagrees.  I didn't blog about this to start an argument, it's my place to write my opinion, so there. 

Hello again!

It's been a long time since I've posted last.  That's mostly because I've been at home for the last few weeks where nothing much exciting goes on!  With Brandon busy studying, Maddie and I like to travel to see friends and family.  I will try to post some more pics from our adventures this summer, but I'm having issues with downloading them for some reason.  So since life has been pretty boring here, this post will be some random boring thoughts! Enjoy!

It's hard for me to believe that it is fall already.   Mostly because we live in Memphis and it still feels like summer.  It's been 80's here lately, but I still wear jeans as I deny the summer temps.

For the past few years that I haven't been teaching, I feel so out of the loop.  I miss all the activities for pointless holidays and teaching about fall weeks before it's actually fall.  

  I'm looking forward to going to Iowa next week and breaking out the hoodies and socks and sitting around the fire-pit!  I'm also excited about going to 5 college football games in the next 4 weeks.  Next Saturday Iowa State plays Nebraska where me and some awesome CU friends will enjoy the sweet box seats, and then hopefully head down to Drake to see Campbell play some football!  We'll be the only CU fans there!  Then I'll be in NC for CU homecoming, and then back in Iowa for an Iowa v. Penn State game.  Brandon will actually get to go that one! 

Maddie is growing every day.  She's such a little girl now, it's so much fun.  She is picking up words like crazy...Brandon and I have to be more careful of things we say because she often repeats the last word she hears us say.  We've had to start spelling things too!  She's still very obsessed with shoes, and her new favorite word is shirt.  It actually sounds like shirt, and not another similar word :)  She is getting more defiant and likes to say no no.  But it's so stinkin' cute the way she says it, it's hard not to laugh!  Overall though she is very sweet, and knows what she can and can't get into.  

This week we are going to a pumpkin patch with our MOPS group!  Last year she was too small to go, so we'll see what she does this year.  We also got her Halloween costume the other day!  We tried it on and it's a little big, but ADORABLE!  Stay tuned for some Halloween pics!  I would also try to post some videos if someone wants to tutor me on how to do that!  

Well that's just a glimpse into our boring life...hope I didn't bore you too much!

Homesick

I guess it's been a long time since I posted last....the last time I was home! It's been an eventful few weeks as we've been in North Carolina, but I am so ready to be back home! I realized that since May I have only been home for 7 weeks, and not consecutively. I like to travel, and have a change of pace every so often, but I've been all over the world this summer! I've been to St. Louis to NC to New York to Iowa to India and back! I'm just so ready to be home and not leave for a while! (Even though I'm already making plans to go home to Iowa for some Iowa State football , and then to Campbell for a real homecoming complete with a football game! )
So over the last few weeks Maddie has learned how to walk! Finally! I think spending a couple weeks with her BFF Hazel helped motivate her! She also learned some other things from Hazel, such as how to get what you want. You just give someone something you have that you think they might want and then they will give you what you want! Every day she just amazes me with all the things she is taking in. Here at the beach she loves to take walks and point at the birds and ask "what dat" a thousand and one times! She says "hi" a thousand times to anyone that walks by. Her little brown curls just make her look so grown up. Hopefully when I get home I can figure out how to post a video so you can see her walking! I've realized the only "baby" thing left is her attachment to her binky! All this growing up almost makes me want another baby! ALMOST! :)
It has been so great to visit our dear friends from NC whom I've missed very much! And it makes me excited to finally be moving back next Christmas!

Goin' to Carolina

Tomorrow morning Maddie and I are headed off to the wonderful state of North Carolina for the next five weeks!  Yeah, that's a long time!  We are going to the beach for a few days for a family girls trip (always memorable and exciting! ; )  )  then we'll be back in Raleigh for about two weeks.  If you are my friend and you live in Raleigh and you read this then we should hang out while I'm there!  Then we are headed back to the beach to hang out with some college buddies, and then Brandon will come meet us there later that week.  I'm not really looking forward to being away from home for so long, especially since I just got back from India a week and a half ago.  But Brandon will be busy studying for finals, and that's usually stressful for everyone!  So I'm sure I'll have more fun hanging out w/ friends and family!  

While I'm gone I have to make sure I am working out, because in September I'm running a 5k and at the rate I'm going  I'll be coming in dead last...like everyone would have already packed up and left dead last.  So make sure to ask me if I've kept up with the training!  

My baby's not a baby anymore:(

I haven't posted much about Maddie lately, and since she's been so busy growing up, I thought people might like an update!  We have officially entered into toddlerhood!  She is taking about 6 steps, so she's not walking around all the time, but she's getting close!  She has now been crawling for half of her life, so it's about time that she get motivated to stand up and run around.  She loves to walk around holding your hand, and it's so cute to watch her and her daddy doing that, she seems so big!  She loves to watch Sesame Street and especially Elmo.  In the mornings she watches that sometimes while she's eating breakfast.  

We have also officially graduated from the bottle to the sippy cups!  She's been drinking juice from the cup for a while, but for whatever reason would not drink milk from it.  Oh, that's another wonderful thing, she is no longer on formula (praise the Lord!  $25 a can was killing us!)  She's on soy milk b/c of her sensitivity to dairy when she was little, but we're mixing it with whole milk now, so we'll see how she does on that.  I am so excited to not be washing any more bottles, or mixing any more formula, it's so wonderful!  She eats all table food, and loves chicken and peas.  We have to save the fruit for last b/c she goes crazy over it and that's all she'd eat if she could.  

We have put away the baby car seat, and she's now in the foward facing toddler seat which everyone loves!  She is much happier being able to see us, and see the world.  

Currently she is very attached to her binky and her dolly.  She carries her doll around with her everywhere, and when I try to take it away when she eats she gets quite upset.  We'll be working on taking the binky away in the next...hmmm...year or so?  I'm dreading that.  I definitely don't want her to be 3 or 4 still asking for a binky.  But I also don't want to deal with sleepless nights again!  She really only has it for sleeping, and even now wakes up sometimes crying b/c she can't find it!  I don't know what the ideal age to start taking it away is, but as the last 14 months have taught me, when the time is right, she'll be ready.    

She is also currently OBSESSED with books!  Not so much really reading or looking at them, but just taking them out of her book basket and bringing them to me.  We do this for a large portion of the day.  Sometimes she wants to look at the pictures or listen to me read one, but mostly just piling them on top of me!  She doesn't really play with many toys.  For whatever reason she is just stuck on this!  

I also think she's starting to become a little like her BFF Hazel, and obsessing about shoes.  Any time she sees them she says some version of the word shoe, and insists on putting them on.  

She's got quite a few words.  Juice and fish being some of the latest.  She points to your eyes, nose, mouth, toes, belly button, and sometimes ears.  When you say "p-eww"  she hold her nose...it's so cute!    

Well I could write tons more, but that's enough for now.  Maybe I'll try to find the latest pics of her to post later!

Back to life....back to reality

So coming back to America this time was much easier.  India is still on my mind, and I'm still processing everything I experienced and learned, but it's definitely not as difficult as the other two times I went.  Maybe it's because I'm older, and have my home and my family, or maybe it's because I knew what to expect .  I think when you go to a place like India for the first time you are totally shocked and taken aback by the extreme poverty and filth, and the apparent indifference of most of the people living there.  And you want so badly to be able to do something, but feel almost completely helpless.  You know giving a beggar kid a few pennies isn't really going to help for more than that moment.  You know that being loving, and putting a smile on somebody's face isn't going to provide them with all their needs.  But as Andy told me, if you can't help a hundred, help one.  So this time I went focused on what I could do, even if it was for just a few.  I also came back focused on what I could continue to do to help the ministry with future groups going over, and knowing that I would back as often as I could.  

As I sat in church this Sunday I was faced with the stark difference between the American church and the International church.  Specifically churches who face persecution.   We all get so stuck on our own struggles and what we're going through that we fail to see the bigger picture.  I think a lot of Christians need a huge reality check.  We need our eyes opened to what really matters, and what it really means to suffer for Christ. 

 While we were in India we got to know an 18 year old bible college student who was imprisoned for 3 months when he was 16 for reading a book about the lies of Hinduism.  Just because he checked out a book and read it!  And he continues to love the Lord, and to study and learn about the Bible so he can go back and tell everyone about Jesus.  To look in his eyes you can see the strength of the Lord, and the grace and wisdom and peace only He can give.  I don't know too many 18 year old American boys that could have gone through that.  

Just being around him, and many other kids who have been persecuted for their faith gives me a boldness to be more outspoken about my faith.  It seems like a lot of us are so scared about what another person might think, or if we'll say the wrong thing and offend them.  But if that's the worst thing we have to experience through sharing our faith, I'd say we're pretty lucky.   

That's my rant for now...more stories to come.

Back home

Well I got back from India on Wednesday, and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep.  It was an awesome trip and I am so glad I got to be a part of it.  We went to help clean up the orphanages, but it turned out to be a lot more than that!  I'll post more about what happened on the trip after I'm not so tired! I'm only able to sleep when Maddie sleeps, so that's where I'm headed in a second!  I wanted to post just a few things I am now more thankful for after being in India!

1.  Paved roads and traffic laws

2.  Buuurrrgerrrr

3. Trash cans and garbage men

4.  Clean water

5.  Cows that stay in the fields

6.  Drivers who don't use their horns 

7.  Toilets and sewage systems

8.  Cold milk

9.  People who don't stare at you 

10.  Electricity that stays on all the time and AC!

I hear my pillow calling me....check back later for some more stories!

I hate technology....

It should be easy, but I'm ready to pull my hair out. For the past two days I've been trying to download my videos of Maddie onto our computer. We got a nice new video camera with a hard drive for Christmas last year and I have a year and half's worth of videos on it. I want to put it on my Mac so I can download it on my iPod...but the software that came with the camera doesn't work with Macs, so it says you're supposed to pay $150 to get the version that does. Maybe I'm cheap, but that seems a little ridiculous! So I thought I'd just put it on Brandon's PC, but I couldn't find the USB cord, so I had to go buy one. blahblahblah, it's still not working. If anyone who reads this is any bit smarter than me about his stuff let me know what I should do! I want to try to get it done before I go to India next week!

It's official!

Brandon got his extern sites for next year!  This is his third year in optometry school, and next summer he does three externships.  Sooo....next summer starting in May we will be in Ames, Iowa until late August.  We will be living with my parents, and I know they are excited to have Maddie there all summer!  Then for the fall semester we will be back in Memphis until Christmas break.   Then we get to move back to Raleigh!!!! YAY!!! Yes I said move, permanently!  I don't plan on going anywhere else!  He will do his last externship in Raleigh and graduate in May of 2010.  It sounds like a long ways away, but it's been a loooong 2 years so far, and it seems like we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!  He has to pass the NC state boards before he can work there (and they are one of the toughest in the country to pass) and find a job, but I will be glad to be back.  

I knew when Brandon was looking at Optometry schools that Memphis was the right place for us to be, but after Maddie was born, I just want to  be back in NC where our family and friends are.  Maddie needs her BFF Hazel go grow up with!  

Summer 2008

Maddie enjoyed her first baseball game in May.  It would have been so much better if we could have seen the Braves, but it was a lot of fun!  We went to St. Louis to see a Cardinals game and do a little sight seeing. 

  

Then Brandon and I headed to New York City for a little vacation and Maddie had fun playing at the beach house with Nana and Papa. (I'll add some of those pics later)

Then we were back in Memphis to celebrate Maddie's first birthday!! I can't believe how fast the year went by! 

We had my Grandpa do the dedication service.  It was really neat to have our friends and family there to support us in committing to raise Madison in a Godly home, and even more special to have my Grandpa lead the service!

Maddie was a little hesitant about the whole cake thing at first....

But after digging her hands in it, she realized it wasn't such a bad thing!  I really thought she would have attacked the cake, but she was pretty subdued.

A few days after that we headed to the beach house to hang out and celebrate my birthday...no place I'd rather be than at the beach for my birthday!

Maddie LOVES the pool!  We couldn't keep her out of it!  She would look out the window and say "out" when she wanted to get in the pool.

She learned how to jump off the side of the pool with Nana, and it quickly became her favorite thing to do!

Thanks to Aunt Rebecca and Gina for the awesome pics!

crazy week

So here is what life has been for the last couple days:

After a couple glorious months of being illness free in our household, Maddie catches foot and mouth disease.  I had it when I was a kid, and I remember it being awful.  Your throat hurts so bad you can't eat or drink for days.  Now being a mother and having a child with it, I would gladly trade places.  She's had a fever since Thursday and has not been able to drink anything since then.  She will eat bread, fruit, and some frozen things, but shakes her head "no" vigorously if I try to give her a bottle or sippy cup.  She's also not a fan of sleeping either...I guess she's too hungry or in too much pain.  The doctor said the symptoms would last for 3-5 days and she'd have a fever, not want to drink, be pretty fussy and just want to lay around and cuddle....yeah right.  The doctor apparently doesn't know my daughter, she doesn't lay around and cuddle for anything!  She's been pretty busy playing and crawling all over the place until she gets hungry and we try to feed her and she screams.  AAAAAHH!  I feel like screaming too!  Hopefully she'll be over this by tomorrow and we can all get some rest!  

On another note, I am going to India in a few weeks and I'm totally stoked!  I went twice when I was a freshman in college (which feels like forever ago)  and I'm so excited to be going back.  We are going to the orphanage where I went the first time and fell in love with all the kids.  I think we also get to go to the Taj Mahal again, and ride elephants up to a palace!  I'm going with Hopegivers International...check out their website if you want more info, it's an awesome ministry!  We will be helping out at the orphanage by doing some heavy cleaning of the buildings.  My older brother Joel and his wife Rebecca are coming, and my good friends Shaun and Melissa Cross.  Melissa and I both have to leave our girls, and we're not so excited about that, but they are in good hands!  

Anyway, I'll probably post more about that as the time draws nearer for me to depart, but for now I would appreciate your prayers as we prepare to go!

I guess I should join the blogging world.  It seems if you're in your mid-20's and have a kid you're suppposed to post all about them.  I have the intention of doing so, we'll see how often it happens!  I'll try to get some pics up of our little fam and all the fun stories about our life !