Updates

OK, so I have about 10 minutes left of office time before I need to go give the kids a snack, so let's see how quickly I can post some updates!

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Kenna has been doing GREAT sleeping at night. Typically I nurse her around 8:30 or 9 p.m. before her bedtime, and she has been sleeping until anywhere from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. WOOHOO! I think once in the last two weeks she has awakened at night with her pacifier stuck under her neck, and all the other nights she has slept great. This is indeed a HUGE answer to prayer! That plus a new pair of earplugs to drown out Ted's snoring has made for a much more rested Mommy!!

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Some not-so-great news...the foreclosure sale of our house is September 24. This means we could very well be frantically packing a month from now. Our prayer is that we would be able to continue living in the house and making rent payments to whoever the purchaser is, whether it be the mortgage company or another investor. Please pray with us that this would be the case! This is a time of truly waiting on the Lord, as there is absolutely nothing else we can do but pray and wait to see what His answer will be. The Las Vegas market is absolutely horrible right now. The sale price of "our" house has dropped $250,000, and still there has only been one showing, which lasted all of 5 minutes.

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One bad thing about Kenna sleeping longer and later is that getting up early is much more difficult for me! If Ted tries to shake me awake, I mumble incoherently and basically don't move. If Kenna starts fussing, I'm out of bed like a flash! This has made morning exercise time a hit-or-miss proposition. I won't give up my quiet time of Bible study and prayer, but giving up running 3-5 miles? Easy! Too easy, unfortunately. The week of August 19 I did get in 13 miles total, then dropped to 10 miles the week after. Currently I have racked up 10 miles this week with one more day on my chart. So, if I can get up and go more than 3 miles tomorrow morning, I will have gone farther than I have since the week of July 8!

Squash Face

We've always started with squash as the first vegetable to feed our kids...no particular reason, other than perhaps it's pretty easy to make. (I make our baby food, unless we're traveling, in which case I do buy some jars for convenience's sake.) When Grandma J saw the funny faces that Charis made while tasting her first veggie, she named the expression "Squash Face." We continued the Squash Face tradition by giving the boys squash for their first veggie, and yesterday Kenna got her first taste as well. It was quite the event, with five audience members! The kids got such a kick out of watching Kenna, who seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the attention in conjunction with the new taste.

Here's a video of the experience. You can hear the kids' comments!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Kenna!

On Monday the 27th Kenna turned 6 months old! I have no stats for her, as we have yet to be able to get a well-baby appointment--I guess the back-to-school rush isn't over yet. But she's happy and healthy, nearly sitting up on her own (her legs like to kick too much to let her stay up for long), rolling all over the place, eating cereal like a champ, cooing, giggling, and working on getting a tooth in.

Mountain Outing

After Kenna's dedication service, our family decided to beat the heat by heading to the mountains! We ate lunch at home so we wouldn't have to pack a picnic lunch--normally it would be a great idea to take a picnic to the mountains, but by the time I finish serving in the pre-school classes at the 11:45 service, it's WAY too late to think about delaying lunch any longer. As it was, we heard the phrase, "Are we there yet?" at least 100 times on the 40-minute drive.

One of our goals was to collect science stuff. One simply cannot evaluate SOIL down here in the desert! Or at least, we couldn't in our yard. Since our science activities and reading have revolved around plants and trees, we:

* Looked at the rings on tree stumps
* Collected a scoop of soil in a jar (At home we added water and shook it up so we could watch it settle into layers--humus floating on the top, with clay, sand, and rocks at the bottom.)
* Collected a variety of leaves for leaf rubbings
* Examined "leaf litter"
* And generally enjoyed ourselves tramping around the forest.


It was considerably cooler at 8,000 feet than down here in the hot valley! The kids got thoroughly dirty climbing all over the place and begged us to come back at least "one time every month!"

Kenna's Dedication

Sunday, August 19, was a baby dedication Sunday at our church. They do them twice a year, and the last time was January. The timing was interesting...the baby I miscarried would have been born around mid-August 2006. My emotions are weird enough without having to juxtapose conflicting life events. But I am pleased to report that Kenna's dedication was a joyful experience. How could I not be grateful for such a beautiful blessing? I will also treasure the growth I experienced and the insight into God's heart that I received throughout the trial of a miscarriage.

So without dwelling on the sad part, Kenna was one of about a dozen babies dedicated at the 10 a.m. service at Canyon Ridge Christian Church. She was remarkably happy, blowing raspberries and chattering loudly enough that we felt sure the people in the back row could hear her. But as it was an appropriate time for babies to be seen AND heard, we didn't mind. Pastor Kevin led us in the following commitment to God:

"I promise to allow God to direct my life by being committed to His Word, by spending time with Him in prayer, becoming a faithful follower of Christ, so that I may teach my child by example."

And our commitment to Kenna:
"To the best of my ability, I will keep these promises I have just made, but most of all, I promise that I will point you to God, so that one day you will understand how much you matter to Him."

Saturday Morning Shopping Spree

Last week I didn't hit my 20-mile mark for running, but I did run 5 miles, 3 miles, and 5 miles, for a total of 13. Saturday morning was my second 5-mile run. I was plodding along, enjoying the sunrise as I approached the 4-mile mark, when a couple hailed me as I passed their house. They were setting up for a yard sale, and the husband asked if I wanted to buy anything. I'm sure he was kidding, as it was pretty obvious that I didn't have any means of transporting items other than the little water bottles on my Fuel Belt. However, the first thing I saw when I looked over was a sectional sofa with a sign for $175!!

Now, you have to understand that Ted and I are not furniture shoppers. I tried to be, back before we had kids and I was embarrassed about an incredibly ugly, hairy couch that we had acquired for free soon after we were married. I was thrilled when one of my paychecks about 8 1/2 years ago was able to help purchase our nice green and white couch that we still enjoy today. But I have to admit I didn't really enjoy the shopping process. Picking out furniture and decorating a house just isn't part of the gifting that I received. The rest of our furniture--I mean, the stuff that you sit on, not counting the dining set--consists of an old but rather comfortable rocking chair that we bought for twenty bucks at a church rummage sale either right before or right after getting married, an old but pretty oak rocking chair that belonged to my mom's parents, and a futon that we purchased in 2001 so we could have a place to sleep while waiting for TMO to deliver our household goods to our new home in Dayton.

Why we chose a white futon mattress is beyond me. At the time we did have Charis, a 9-month-old, and I was expecting Tobin, so obviously we were getting into our child-raising years. We did pay a bit extra for the Scotchguarding, I believe, but still...white?! What were we thinking?! The mattress is now a dull gray everywhere except for the nice red kool-aid stain that some kid planted on it when there were about 80 children crawling all over our house one afternoon, so I can't pinpoint the culprit. The backside has some attractive pen scribbles across the middle in plain sight, so there is no hope of flipping the mattress over to hide the dirt.

So, as you can imagine, this eyesore hasn't exactly held a place of high esteem in my heart, although its place in the family room ensured that it was at least away from the "nice" sitting area. Additionally, it gets quite crowded when we pile on it for bedtime stories or for movie night.

Therefore, a sectional sofa was something I had been eyeing for awhile, but the four-digit price tags held me back, not to mention the dreaded thought of actually going to a store and trying to decide which color we liked, which was most comfortable, which was the best value for the money, etc.

So when I saw that I could get a sectional sofa for about 1/6th of its original cost (the owners paid $1200 for it brand new), I was sold! I realize now that my mother's shopping gene isn't entirely formulated in my system, because not only did I neglect to even SIT on the sofa, I didn't even give it the sniff test. (Thank God the owners weren't smokers, though!!) Due to my negligence, it wasn't until the sections were unloaded and sitting in our driveway (thanks to the helping hand of a neighbor with a truck) that I learned I would need to put in some time vacuuming the dog hair off.

Two and a half hours of vacuuming later, the couch looks great, and I am pleased to say it is in good condition and is quite comfortable for sitting and lounging(though not for sleeping, as I found out last night). What a blessing to have more seats for our growing family!

Kenna at Night

As promised, here is the scoop on Kenna's nighttime activity.

I had resolved to try to let her cry it out at night when Ted was gone to Virginia, thinking that I could put the earplugs in and just deal with it. I had been wearing earplugs to drown out Ted's snoring, and he would eventually hear Kenna fussing and get up to pop her pacifier back in just as I was realizing she was making noise. However, I realized after the first night that I was too paranoid that I wouldn't hear her with the earplugs in and ended up not sleeping very much at all.

Night 1: Kenna got her pacifier popped in after about 5 minutes of fussing.

Night 2: Kenna got her pacifier popped in after 10 minutes of fussing.

Night 3: I gave up and nursed her so we could both go back to sleep.

So much for letting her cry it out.

However, I am pleased to report that Night 4 was a miracle!! I took Kenna with me to my ladies' evening Bible study (Beth Moore's excellent and updated/revised version of A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place--I HIGHLY recommend it). The ladies prayed specifically that I would start getting some sleep and that Kenna would begin to sleep better at night. Would you believe she slept 9 hours that night?! Ahhh!!!

When Ted returned home, one of his first tasks (right after picking out his Fantasy Football players) was to purchase the mattresses needed to complete the boys' bunk bed set. We moved the boys into Tobin's room and Ted set up Kenna's crib in Arden's old room. While we do set the monitor up at night so I can hear her if she begins screaming, this has made a tremendous difference. Most times she has slept until 6 or even 7 a.m. Several times she has slept without waking at all, though a few times we have had to trek across the house to discover that her pacifier is wedged under her head. I'm not sure whether to hope she can begin putting the paci in herself or hope that she loses interest in it soon like the other kids did around 6-8 months.

Now, if we can just figure out how to prevent Ted from snoring, I think we can all begin getting some real rest...

Charis's Answers

It is Monday morning, and Charis and I are finishing up her language arts. I brought her to the office to let her read the comments from Uncle Joel and Aunt Ski about her story, and she is going to answer their questions now.

From Uncle Joel:
1. What color was the boy's cape?
"The boy's cape was green."

2. What did the princess look like? (I hope she didn't have a frog face!!!!)
"She had long brown hair, a pretty pink dress with gold on the neck and the sleeves and the bottom. She had pretty pink shoes and a pink necklace. That's what the princess looks like. She had a beautiful face!"

From Aunt Ski:
I was wondering what the boy had in his bag?
"He had a blanket and a pillow and a picture of the princess."

Charis also says, "Thank you for reading my story!"

Running Update

I'm not sure when the last time was that I posted my weekly mileage, but probably just before we left for our Colorado trip. Though I had good intentions, I did NO running that week we were gone. I ran 4 miles the week after we returned, and that was it. The following week I was sick the latter part, so I only went 4 miles one day and 3 1/2 miles two days later.

However...(drum roll, please)...I did manage to run 4 days in a row last week, and that's despite Ted's being in Virginia! I absolutely hate running on the treadmill, but I did it anyway. Mileage: 3 1/4, 3 1/4, 3 1/2, and 3 miles, for a total of 13 miles. Slowly but surely I'll work my way back up!

A Story by Charis

Charis had a writing assignment this week that involved her looking at a picture and writing a story about it. The picture showed a man wearing a cape and a crown, crawling out of the window of a castle as if he were running away. Charis, however, insisted that he was sneaking INTO the castle, and below is the story she came up with. I briefly mentioned the verb tense change mid-way through the story but told her she didn't need to worry about changing anything--that's a more advanced concept, and I'm not entirely sure she understood what I was talking about anyway!

FYI, the only words I corrected spelling for were climbing ("climnig"), traveled ("traved"), and babies ("babys"). Also, she typed this up herself, so all the punctuation and capitalization was done on her own, and I noticed as I read through it that it is all correct. I thought that was pretty good! So, without further ado, here is the story:

"A prince was climbing up a castle. He had on a cape and was holding a stick with a bundle tied to it. He had traveled to look at the castle. He did not want the guards to know he was there. The window is closed. The prince breaks the window. No one hears him. He hides. He explores the castle when everyone is asleep. He finds a princess. They get married and have twin babies, a boy and a girl. They live happily ever after. The End."