It's a Girl!!! (but keep the receipts)

We just got back from a lonnngg ultrasound appointment--the baby looked healthy but wouldn't open it's legs! It also had a hand down there...which made me think boy but the ultrasound tech said, "Or it's a modest little girl!" But, she said she's 96% sure it's a girl. Here's two other pics:


Sam has already suggested the names Samuel, Pinnochio, and Alexander. Guess he doesn't quite get it yet. He said we should have 6 girls and a million boys but then we would need a million beds and that would take all night for everyone to go to sleep. So...a girl! I guess I'm following in the footsteps of my favorite singer, Sara Groves, and my beautiful friend Cassie Rinne after all (those were the only 2 families with 2 boys and then a girl that we could think of). Here's a picture of the two proud big-brothers to be. Since they are going to help raise her and we don't have any room for girl toys in our house, she will just have to be a tomboy. (This picture was taken when I came home from a Bridal Shower and the boys were with Daddy wrestling on the bed--having Bro time).


In other news, Evan has begun saying "Whoa" for yes. "Evan, do you want yogurt?" "Whoa." Like the suggestion has taken his breath away.

Sam has taken to making pudding juice...for those who have a weak stomach, don't keep reading. He spits the pudding back out of his mouth after it has dissolved and then drinks it like juice...YUCK!!! Will a girl do these things, too? I hope not!

We've had a lot of fun at the new Aquaplex for the last few months. Here's some pictures of the boys swimming and Sam rock climbing.

Week's Events in Random Order

It's Monday morning after a good but tiring week of house cleaning, travel, and class with Jeremy. Here's a look back at the week:



This was a lovely lady whose writings we got to peruse in our seminary class. Wouldn't you like to meet her? Actually that was kind of the point of why the professor shared her work with us--to show the effects of abuse and how much it hurts people. She became a feminist and had a really strange, hard life and...well, just look at her.






In stark contrast to my exposure to Andrea Dworkin, here's another lady we came in contact with last week. I told Jeremy that I wanted to meet a little gray haired lady at the retreat center (since he was worried I would be bored while he studied). This is who I met, a sweet lady named Gail Kittleson, the essence of what I had hoped for! She was there doing some grief/loss retreats and it turns out she was a survivor of terrible sexual abuse growing up. She shared about how God brought her out of it and the struggles she has had. She wrote a lot during her recovery, and started a line of sympathy cards using her own verses. What an interesting and encouraging story to hear in the midst of attending our class and having just finished reading Mending the Soul by Dr. Steve Tracy.

For my friends who knew that I was agonizing over what books to read on my getaway, here's what I ended up reading.

First, Unspoken by Francine Rivers (story of Bathsheba). I enjoyed reading it, but didn't like it nearly as much as some of her other books. It was interesting to read it now because I have been learning so much about David lately--how he handled his sin and what he could have done differently to prevent his children from following in his footsteps. Second, I worked on Francis Shaeffer's Trilogy...I kept getting sleepy while reading it so I ended up putting it down to read later. It is so relevant to understand our culture, even though it was written in the late 60's, just a little dry for the mood I was in. Lastly, I read and almost finished Jane Austen's Persuasion. Basically, I was at the library before we left and was running out of time and couldn't find anything that stuck out to me. The librarians recommended a few books, but I didn't know if I could trust that they wouldn't be raunchy. I like romance in a book, don't get me wrong, but only when it is there as part of a bigger story or statement about life. I told them I liked Anna Karenina and they got a list of other books that dealt with "extramarital affairs" off of their database...not quite the direction I was intending to go. Yes, Anna Karenina is about an affair, but it is about so much MORE--that's why I like it. Anyways, I feel like my book selections were kind of boring, but I enjoyed reading them. And now I am back to my real life where there just isn't a lot of time for reading.



These are some pictures of the retreat center--Living Water Retreat Center in Cornville, AZ. Yes, my out-of-state-friends, Cornville is exactly as you can imagine it...except I didn't see any corn growing. I knew I was in for a QUIET retreat when I read the list of things to do at the camp: pet the petting horse, sit on a sitting bench (there were benches everywhere!), listen to insects at the creek. I think there were horseshoes and volleyball, but we were the only people staying there and Jeremy was reading the whole time. But, the staff were nice and it was relaxing.

Class was good again...I told Jeremy that I don't think I will be the same after taking it. Not in some earth-shattering emotional way, but what I have been made aware of will change how I view hurting people. I also have learned about the significance of humans being made in the image of God--I just won't look at people in general the same, I hope. Jeremy says he has felt that way after all of his classes at Phoenix Seminary, so I think that says a lot about the school. We watched Slumdog Millionaire before class on Friday...AMAZING! Everyone needs to see it! We were excited to be reunited with our kids Saturday evening. I guess Jeremy wanted to put some of the things we learned in class into practice, so on the way home he asked Sam about what the difference between boys and girls is. Here's a sample of the conversation as far as I can remember it.

Sam: "Well, girls have longer hair than boys."
Jeremy: "What else?"
Sam: "Ummm (long pause)...oh! They speak different languages."
Jeremy: "They do? How do the languages sound? Can you understand Mommy?"
Sam: "Yeah, but you speak in your language and she speaks in the girl language."
(We talked and laughed about that--Sam imitated both of our voices)
Sam: "Another difference is that girls paint their toenails red. Boys don't do that."
Kaci: "What about babies?"
Sam: "Oh, the boys don't have babies. Just the girls. And crocodiles."
Jeremy: "How do they get the babies?"
Sam: "Oh, the baby pushes really hard and then it pops out."

There was so much more--we were laughing so hard...God is really good!

Alone Time

I packed the boys up to send to Phoenix with Jeremy this morning (they are headed to Tucson for Rodeo Week with their Gamma and Pa J) and now am relishing in my alone time. The only challenge for me when presented with this opportunity is not stressing out about what I am going to do to enjoy every possible second. I always have so many things I want to get done, including not doing anything. I have had a HORRIBLE earache and sinus problem all week and today was the first day I was feeling like myself. This morning I went to Starbucks to drink coffee and read.

As you can see, I was armed with my Bible, journal, and a book by the professor of Jeremy's and my class, Steve Tracy. I like the book because it deals with abuse from a very Biblical perspective...and the cover picture looks like me after I put my ear drops in 4 times a day for the last week. I had to drive the stick shift car to Starbucks because Jeremy took the Subaru to class today. I arrived in one piece but was a little apprehensive about the drive home the whole time I sat in Starbucks. I did have some stalling incidents--which feel worse than they actually are because the car has no shocks so it bounces up and down like crazy--like I have hydrolics and I am bopping along to some rap music. After Starbucks, I have been cleaning the kitchen...getting all the junk that I never have time for when the kids are around. On Wed., Jeremy and I are going to stay at a Pastor's retreat in Cottonwood (south of Sedona) and then we go on to Phoenix for our last classes Friday night and Saturday. I know the time is going to fly by...which is probably good because I will end up missing the kids by the end of it!

I Hate Sprinkles

Today we decided to make Sarah Warren's Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day. Well, actually, I volunteered to bring cookies to our seminary class tomorrow, and being that it will actually BE Valentine's Day, I figured I had to go with the theme. Samuel wanted to help (well, Evan, too) so I tried to put him off long enough to get most of the real work done and then let him do what he wanted with the scraps at the end. Meanwhile, Evan threw cookie cutters around the room, succeeded in almost pulling my pants down while trying to climb up me to see the cookies, and got ahold of the sprinkles and sprinkled the kitchen floor while saying "Whee, eee" every time he did it. I can't say I was the best mom about it all--my stress was definitely high by the end and dinner became chicken nuggets instead of turkey burgers (too much mess still left to clean up...why am I wasting time writing this?) It's interesting to note the personality differences in Sam and Evan in the process--Sam asks for permission to do everything and generally obeys, though he acts like a puppy on a leash most of the time--pawing at me and crowding. Evan, on the other hand just ignores me and takes what he wants--and then looks at me like "What? I wanted that. You can't be mad at me because I am so cute." On a side note, Evan has begun saying "Hot dog" and it is so cute that I like to feed him hot dogs just to hear him say it. Well, now I have sprinkles ingrained in the bottom of my socks, which are filthy, and there are sprinkles all over the stovetop (which might be interesting if I turned the burners on), but I did manage to get two containers of cookies for tomorrow--one of mostly-intact hearts with a reasonable amount of sprinkles and one of grossly-laden-with-sprinkles hearts and X's and O's and W's (don't ask me why we made W's--Sam was just adamant that they went with Valentine's Day). Here's a couple pictures:

Next to the cookies in the second picture are the homemade Valentine's that Sam and I made for his friends--he was supposed to go to a Valentine's Day party on Tuesday, but it got cancelled because of the snow. Jeremy and I are off to seminary class tomorrow--thanks to Aunt Riah (Mariah) who is coming over at 5:30 am to get the boys ready and then take them to my friend Christy's for the rest of the day. Jeremy is off at a guys lock-in at church tonight and took Sam so I could clean up. But I am writing this instead. Oh well. By the way...I wrote most of this post 3 words at a time--I had to stop repeatedly to cock a machine gun for Evan to pretend to shoot me.

Sedona the Sequel & Kaci's First Seminary Class

My battery died on my camera and I can't find the charger, so no pictures today, but still news to report. Jeremy and I were planning to go to Phoenix on Saturday for his class together and on Wed. night, some friends offered us their timeshare in Sedona for Friday night. So, we packed up the kids and headed off to Sedona again. We stayed at a really nice place that had incredible views of the red rocks with storm clouds blowing in. The boys (and us) were the only ones actually in the pool--the breeze was very chilly...temperatures were probably in the 50's. Our friends, Jason and Mariah Rohr, came down and stayed with us. We had dinner at a yummy barbecue joint and walked around UPTOWN (Jeremy and I had a long "conversation" about whether it was called downtown or uptown...I won) and saw some live monkeys and colorful javalina statues.

At 5:00 am, we got up and loaded the kids into the car in their jammies and munched on Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the way to Phoenix (I have begun to buy sugar cereal--I swore I never would! But it's only for special treats, Mom). We watched the sun rise and met Grandma and Pa J (Jeremy's parents) at the seminary for them to take Sam and Evan on a day of fun in Phoenix. Jeremy and I really enjoyed class and even had lunch with the professor at Chipotle (yum!). It was so wonderful to be in that setting with Jeremy and get to talk to different people and be challenged about Biblical issues. I am excited for the next two sessions--the 14th and 28th of February. I even volunteered to bring cookies for the class next week. I guess I can just go ahead and say that the class is Biblical Sexuality...now everyone stop blushing already! It made me think a lot about how to handle these issues in our youth group and with our own kids when they get older. There were newlyweds (married 5 weeks) in front of us that were asking lots of questions--at one point the professor said, "Spoken like a true newlywed" to the husband...but he didn't seem too embarrassed.

The boys had fun with Grandma and Pa J--they went to a park and then on a narrated steamboat cruise on Canyon Lake. I was glad to hear they wore lifevests the whole time. We met back at Cheesecake Factory--delicious--and then headed home. Jeremy and I had such a good time talking about all sorts of things...all of us went to bed very tired but very content. We woke up this morning to fresh snow everywhere--how beautiful! Evan's nose is running profusely and is not fit for the nursery, so we are having a stay-at-home morning instead of going to church. I am excited to try a curry couscous recipe for lunch. After writing all of this, I feel like giving a happy sigh, so "sigh!"

Daddydillas

Today, I made Daddydillas (pronounced Daddy-deeyas) for lunch.
My dad used to make them for my sister and I when he was left alone to watch us. It is a hot dog inside of a quesadilla...you can imagine the grease that leaks out when you tip it. I don't think he used whole wheat tortillas, so mine are so much healthier. I remember eating them and trying not to bite the toothpick. My kids weren't that excited about them--their lunch ended up being more like quesadillas and hot dogs. Maybe I should have waited and let Grandpa make them--they probably would have gobbled them up.

Sedona Day

Yesterday, the fam took a trip to Sedona...always one of my favorite things in the world to do! Here's us in front of Cathedral Rock.

We walked along the creek and saw all the vortexes built by New Agers (and probably gullible tourists). Here's a couple pictures of them in case you don't know what they are.


Poeple stack rocks at certain places that they think have a spiritual energy--it's their way of taking the focus off of the Creator and putting on the creation. Jeremy taught Sam a new game--Vortex Bowling. I kept the lookout for angry park rangers while they knocked down dozens of them.

We then decided to cross the creek--a better idea when standing in the sun on the side because it was cold and moving fast! On the other side, we found the Magical Swing put there by someone named Mr. Nobody. I don't know if it was magical, but it was big and fun. I even braved it, though I have had bad luck with rope swings in the past.



We crossed back over the creek as the afternoon shadows brought out all sorts of photographers who can't resist taking pictures of this beautiful place. On the way home, we stopped at my favorite Dairy Queen in the whole world.

Evan ate his first ice cream cone all by himself and I was a lot more worried about the mess from across the table than Jeremy was sitting right next to him, but he managed to get most of it in his mouth. We ended our day with a high speed pursuit up the switchbacks--we happened to pull out onto the highway behind our friend, Ryan. It wasn't really high speed, but there were some squealing tires just for the fun of it.