Heaven Neatly Packaged and Delivered Today

I don't know how today could have been any better. It was a gift from God, I think. We woke happily and despite my reluctance to arise, the little people were persuasive and very pleasant. Maddie needed "bweakfast" and Brian obliged while I fed Little Man. Then, without any complaints, tears or whining, everyone dressed and brushed teeth. I'm sure I had a huge smile on my face. We were ready and out the door to make it to MOPS early! Ben has had freak-out tantrums the entire year that has made the drop off procedure a disaster. I bargained with him (as I usually do) that if he could go into his class without clinging to my body so he has to be physically pried off my leg for this meeting AND the next we could find a special treat for being so brave. To my total amazement, HE DID IT!!! He was still having a hard time, but he kept it together. His coping mechanism changed to zipping his jacket up so it looked like he had no head. His teachers were great and played right along. They were likely just as surprised as I was that he wasn't tantruming. The meeting was fun, all about how to vacation with kiddos from camping to Disney to roadtrips. Then we made super cute flip-flops and they cleaned out their closet and I scored a new plastic bin to store the toys in and organize the basement! When I picked Ben up from class, I was able to announce that we didn't have any other meetings at the "MOPS church" building since the last meeting would be a picnic at the park. He was super excited! I loaded up the troops after MOPS and called dad. He agreed to meet us for a lunch at Baja Fresh. We waited for his arrival on the lush green lawn in the warm sunshine. I taught Ben a fun game. He picked a number and then we counted cars to see what he would drive when he grew up. He never got anything super cool, but Maddie will be driving one of those trash trucks that empty dumpsters. The mexican food at Baja Fresh was plentiful and tasty, the company was delightful. All the kids ate really well. They were happy the entire time and Jacob was cute as a button playing with daddy. Brian and I were stuffed. Then Daddy headed back to work and I took the kids home for a nice afternoon. Naps for Maddie were a bit of a fight, but nothing wild or too frustrating. Jacob wasn't interested in his afternoon nap either, so I finally laid down with him after calming him the twentieth time. I got to rest on my bed cuddling my Little Man. Ben watched his favorite show, Zula Patrol, on the bed next to us while we lounged. Jacob finally dropped into a deeper sleep as Brian arrived home from work so I could go down to Ben's restaurant in the living room. The weather was perfect! After Maddie woke up, Ben headed out to the front yard to play with Jacob the neighbor and to "learn how to climb trees". They had fun together and found some water balloons in the pantry closet. Brian and I helped launch them across the field with the slingshot. The kids were almost as anxious to clean up the balloon pieces as to launch them. Then we heard a siren approaching nearby and could hear the engines running. I took Ben and Maddie on a walk to follow the sounds and investigate. Someone fell down in the ravine one street over. We checked out the ambulance and fire engines and watched them bring someone up on a backboard. Still can't figure out how they fell. There is a guard rail and honestly, nothing down in the ravine to attract attention. In any case, while the rescue workers did their job, we went on a caterpillar hunt. We found six caterpillars, lots of ants, one weird black bug with red marks on the back and one orange-red frog. We "played" with the frog. Sure we enjoyed it more than he did. Took all six caterpillars back home to show dad. At almost 7 pm we finally went inside to get dinner before the kids turned into monsters and ruined the day. We nuked some leftovers. Still mostly full from our great lunch feast. Maddie asked to say the blessing on the food. She wanted to pray for the guy who fell in the ravine. Her prayers are always the same. She says, "Father Thank you for the food. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." It was a huge thing that she wanted to pray for someone else without any prompting. Of course, she said "thank you" for the guy rather than asking a blessing for him, but it was cute and I know God got the intended pure message from a sincere little two year old. When we were almost done with dinner, Brian abruptly told us to look out the window. Two beautiful deer were wandering through the field outside our window. It was just too cool! I saw one of them the other day driving a few blocks away, but here they were at MY HOUSE!! We have the best location. Right near the woods. No parking lot or roadway views for us. Brian grabbed the zoom lens and I took some pictures. Then we watched. And watched. When we couldn't see them anymore, I quietly went outside to get a view again. They even went up on their hind legs and fought for a minute over who got to eat the leaves on a particular tree. They were gorgeous and so close to us! Finally, the left the grassy field and went back into the woods. The whole family walked out to try to find them in the woods, only to see our fox running out of his home. Ben and I found deer tracks and fox tracks in the dirt since we knew exactly where to look. Then we finished dinner, everyone got pajamas on, happily. Ben asked to see the fox tracks online, but couldn't mentally picture how they made that shape with their feet, so we walked over to Katie's house and borrowed her dogs and let the kids feel the soft pads on the bottom of their paws. I think it all made sense to him after the visual. Then, everyone climbed in bed, exhausted. As usual, Ben was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Maddie read books for 30 minutes and was out without a single complaint. Today was just a little piece of heaven. I'm glad it was neatly packaged and delivered to my doorstep today. I am a happy woman as I lay down tonight. What blessings I've been given. Three great kids, one amazing husband and father, a steady job to provide for our family, a home perfectly situated to allow such outdoor happiness and fun just steps out the front door. We love Virginia and all the happiness we've found in our lives here. Spring is wonderful and I'm enjoying the fresh air and the happy kids.

Constant Little Blessings

When we made the decision to have everyone come out to Grandma BerDella’s funeral we knew it had the potential to be a disaster traveling that far that fast. Originally we thought Brian should just go alone. When we started checking ticket prices we found some with a price that rivaled that we would hope for when buying six months in advance so we felt the whole family should make the journey to be there to say goodbye. Then Brian found a rental car cheaper than we have ever paid in our lives. What a blessing to have things fall into place for us so well with only three days notice. The next hurdle was making the actual voyage across the country. The night before we left was New Year’s Eve. We cancelled plans for parties and stayed home to pack and visit with Kristie and Anthony who had been visiting us from Buffalo. We had to cut their visit a day short so we could leave for the funeral, but they understood. We had really good intentions of packing and going to bed. The two little people in our lives didn’t have the same vision. I thought we would be in bed well before we rang in the New Year. Jacob and Maddie Mae both gave us a rough time. Maddie must not have been feeling amazing and demanded to be held and rocked for hours and hours. Jacob just wouldn’t settle down and sleep. We took turns holding, rocking and feeding the two of them while we attempted to pack. Finally, everyone was tucked into their beds, the bags were ready to go and we wearily slipped into our bed a few minutes before 2 am, long after we had rung in the New Year with Dick Clark again this year. Happy 2009. We awoke to the blaring of the alarm a very short two hours later at 4 am. We showered and Brian loaded the luggage in the truck bed while I fed Jacob. Then we woke the kids, Brian changed them into clothes and we departed on our adventure. Unfortunately, we woke up their cousin Parker. Actually, I woke him up on accident. He was sleeping on the ground next to Maddie and I accidentally stepped on his finger. I heard a little voice say, “Ouch.” Then a much louder “Ouch!” as I looked backward to see his face wincing in pain and I quickly moved when I realized what happened. Sorry Kristie and Anthony. I can’t guarantee he would have slept through the commotion anyway, but it was probably all my fault he was up at 5:30 in the morning. I’ve travelled enough to know that no matter how early we put the kids in the car, no time is early enough that they will transfer and go back to sleep until “morning” comes. So Ben was wide awake and waiting to see the airplanes. Maddie did doze a little. During the drive it was mostly quiet. I took the time to say a quiet prayer to ask for the Lord to help us through this long day and bless the kids to have the stamina to be happy and willing helpers. My prayers were answered beyond what I had imagined and I am so grateful for the blessings that came right when we needed them. The affordable plane tickets were flying out of Baltimore going to Las Vegas, so it was a one hour drive to get to the Baltimore-Washington airport. It was not bad considering what it could have been though. It can be a three hour drive on a normal day, but it was a holiday so everyone was home in bed still. I brought a can of peaches, bowls and utensils in case they kids were hungry on the drive so everyone but Maddie had a mini-breakfast. We found the airport parking lot, loaded five people, six bags and three car seats onto the bus and went to the airport. Both kids were super excited to be on the trip so we had an easy time of it. They walked themselves and were very accommodating at the security check, which is very unusual for them. Thank heavens. Getting through security with our clan is a bit of an adventure on its own, it went slowly but we did it again. Since Maddie had slept through our peach breakfast in the truck we stopped and got her bananas and apple juice which she promptly and happily devoured. Then the kids cheerfully watched the airplanes until it was time to board. Again, I prayed that the kids would do well on the flight. Maddie has crossed that magical age of two since her last flight, so she got her very own chair and loved it. We can officially no longer fit in one half row. Brian sat with Ben and Maddie on one side and I was across the aisle with Jacob. I realize Brian took the brunt of dealing with the big kids since I had to nurse and burp Jacob on and off for four hours to keep him settled, but they really behaved well. They watched movies, ate cracker snacks, looked out the window at the clouds, played travel size connect four and other games. They had a few upsets but nothing major. Again I was so grateful for the blessing of happy children. Upon our arrival in Denver we had loads of fun finding moving sidewalks, escalators and elevators to take from one end of the airport to the other to catch our connecting flight. Maddie made us laugh at her insistence that she have both hands in her pant pockets. It made her walk really, really slow and silly, but it was important and we had nothing else to do so we let her be silly and creative while we smiled in amusement. We found a McDonalds and got some kid friendly chicken nuggets and French fries making the kids quite happy. It amused me how many people are starting to notice us and comment on our family. I guess when you cross the barrier of three kids your family is starting to become “large” in the eyes of most people in the country. We heard many, many stories from women who had “been there and done that” in their past and gave us sweet words of encouragement. Flight number two to Las Vegas was also pretty great. I had expected with the lack of sleep from the night before and waking up so early they would both sleep but that just wasn’t in the cards for either one of them, though Brian and I could literally not keep our eyes open. Both the kids played games again the whole flight and did great at staying happy most the time. At one point the flight attendants were passing out drinks. Jacob spit up just before she arrived to ask what I wanted. I wiped him down and looked up to answer her. Then I heard a big spit up from Jacob on my lap. The flight attendant’s eyes about popped out of her head and I looked down. Jacob had spit up so much that my pants were soaked, his outfit was so wet I could have rung it out, both front and back from head to waist. His face was covered and there was so much spit up that his eye sockets were just pools filled with white liquid. It was awful. It took several hours to dry both of us out. We both needed a bath by the end of the day. At one point, Ben snuggled up to Jacob and then sat up, saying, “Jacob doesn’t smell very wonderful right now.” When we arrived in Vegas, I was quickly reminded what it is like to be in the West. I could see for miles and miles on the flat, barren land. It was all flat until you hit the mountains on the far side of either side of the valley. The whole world is a dull brown and the ground is dry and cracked. Within 24 hours I had a bloody nose from the lack of moisture in the air. Ben and I both needed tons of chap stick. Maddie and I both drank untold amounts of water to hydrate our bodies again. Everyone needed lotion and the dry air made Maddie’s hair have endless static so it would stick up in the air all the time. Getting our luggage, riding the bus to get the rental car and all the rest was uneventful and the kids, once again were phenomenal. They both wanted to help carry the wheeled luggage and enjoyed the bus ride. They played nicely around the car while I fed Jacob and Brian got three car seats strapped in place. Then it was off on our three hour drive. Brian and I had fun pointing out all the fun and unique buildings on the Vegas strip as we passed by on the freeway. Soon we were out of the valley and into the mountains. Ben picked out endless numbers of radio towers. Maddie slept on the ride and we made it two hours, to St. George before Jacob started to fuss. We decided to take a rest at the St. George Temple Visitor Center since the Christmas lights were still on and the nativity display was up. I fed Jacob while Brian and the kids toured, looked at the sights and got some of those nasty wiggles out. When we came back to the car, I stepped off the curb and fell. I twisted my ankle pretty good and skinned my knee really bad. The worst part was that I was holding Jacob swaddled in my arms when I went down. I caught myself with my hand on the front seat of the car, but not before I heard the most terrible sound. Jacob’s head whacked square onto the door frame of the car. I screamed and Brian ran to help. I have him Jacob to check out because I couldn’t move. Jacob, understandably, was screaming at the top of his lungs. Poor boy. I felt so guilty, but what could I have done? It was an accident. Brian got poor Jacob settled down but I couldn’t bear to put him into his car seat right away for an hour until we had more time to check him out. I nursed him again to help calm him, I checked his eyes and looked for bruises or goose eggs. He seemed okay, so we strapped him down and finished our drive to Brian’s parents house. He did great on the last part of the ride and has had no other effects from his bump. I’m so grateful for that. I was so worried about him. When we arrived in Cedar, we couldn’t wake Ben up no matter how hard we tried or shook him. Poor kid was exhausted. Brian carried him in to the couch and covered him with a blanket in his clothes and coat. He didn’t stir for an hour while we ate dinner and got ready for bed. Brian changed him into his pajamas and he finally woke enough to want dinner. Nothing sounded good to him, so he had a glass of chocolate milk and went to bed. Maddie was happy as can be that we were at Grandpa’s house but sad that they weren’t home. We all went to bed by 10 pm and were completely exhausted. Morning came earlier than it should have once again. Brian woke at 4 am and woke me to tell me that he was going to shower and get ready. I told him we didn’t have to wake up until 6 am, but he was welcome to do whatever he wanted. He came right back to bed. Finally, we got up and moving at 6 am, loaded the car and headed to Richfield for the funeral, another two hour drive. We were so grateful to finally have made it to our destination a full 30 hours after leaving our home in Virginia. What wonderful children and what wonderful blessing from the Lord that we were given so many small and simple blessings along the way of our journey. I know the Lord heard each and every one of my simple earnest prayers and I am thankful for each and every one.