Remembering Abilene (including Sidney)

We will miss it here.

Splish Splash and Luxury

Before I start the post I have intended for today I need to let you know I was sitting here typing when I heard a sort of splashing sound on the bathroom floor. I peeked around the corner to see Izzy with her panties down and her buns on the very edge of the toilet seat. But before she could get all of herself over "the water" the dam broke and the river came aflowin' and there was just nothing she could do to stop it so I just stood there and laughed and laughed until she finished and she said, "It's not funny, mom." But it was!


This is a post from my good friend Julia. It was such a profound thought I wanted more people to read it. :) We all know how many faithful readers I have! (Sorry, Julia. :)No hard feelings?)

Comfort

My life is very comfortable. My bed, my couch, my car. Everything is climate controlled. I have enough clothes to be warm. My shoes fit perfectly. My food is always safe and available 24 hours a day. I can choose to cook or have food ordered directly to my door. My clothes are washed AND dried by machines. My kids have their own beds, blankets pillows. They have their own ROOMS. They have enough food that if some falls on the floor it is thrown away. My dogs have their own food bowls and separate beds. They have their own doctor if they get ill.

My children know no suffering. No disease, death or pain. Their tummy's are full every night. Their bathrooms are stocked with every medicine available. They have more shoes than they know what to do with. Their greatest tragedy is that their bath water is too cold or too hot.

Oh, did I mention we have indoor plumbing? INDOOR! I can have fresh clean drinkable water rain down on my body for as long as I want and at the PERFECT temperature. My toilet has a nice seat on it, and will flush away any yuck with a push of a lever... did I mention that the waste is carried away with perfectly safe drinking water? Which I do not drink. I buy special water from the store to drink.

There are no rats or mice in my home. Not even an ant. No fleas or frogs.

I have communication with my love ones. Regardless of what their religion or opinions are. We can all travel to see each other whenever we want. We can pick up the phone and hear their voice. Even while my husband is at war I can see and speak to him over the computer. I know where all my family lives. No one is missing, everyone accounted for.

I have so much time on my hands that at night I lay in my bed watching OTHER people entertain me, and if I am displeased with a particular event, I can rid it from my sight with a push of the button.

Total comfort.

The Most Wonderful Mother in the World!

So...Jen doesn't know I'm doing this. She went to Abilene to scrapbook with some friends and I'm alone in Sidney with the kids. I realize the risk in hijacking someone's blog and the potential backlash I may receive from all of her faithful readers. However, since Mother's Day is just two days away I thought it would be appropriate to say some words about my wife, the greatest mother on the face of the planet.

Here are some things I love about the way my wife loves our children. For starters, she treats them like they are people. Too often, grown-ups treat little kids as if they don't deserve to be given the full rights of human beings. Jen does not do this. When I want to use the fact that I am bigger and stronger than my children to get them to do something Jen reminds me that this sort of behavior is not consistent with the way of Jesus. Unfortunately, for me at least, my oldest daughter Emma has caught on and is more than willing to call me out when I try to bully her or anyone else around. I'm grateful for the example of my wife.

Secondly, she realizes that our task as parents is more than just making sure our kids have food on their plate, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their back. She helps our children learn patience, love, self-control, kindness to the outcast, and countless other characteristics. Words are inadequate to express the amazing way my wife is forming our children. I am grateful for the example of my wife.

I mentioned above that Jen treats our kids like human beings. She also allows them to be kids and have fun. No one is more creative than my wife. No one is more spontaneous than my wife. No one can play dress-up, sing a song, read a book, build a fort, or find as much joy in the little things of parenting as my wife. For these reasons, I am grateful for the example of my wife.

I asked my children why they love their mom and these were their responses:

Emma: Because she's nice and she's trying to get a house in Washington with a hot tub and she helps.

Aiden: Because she is my favorite mom and she lets us go to Mr. Gatti's and Chuckie Cheese and she lets us go to playgrounds, and that's it.

Isabel: Because she's my great mama...(after I asked again)...and because you're my great daddy.

Jen, if you are reading this, please know that you are the love of my life. If given another 100 times to choose, I would choose you every time. I'm sure that if our kids had a choice in who could be their mother, they would choose you as well. Happy (early) Mother's Day and know that you will always be appreciated and loved. With all that I am, I love you!

To everyone else...Do you have any great stories about Jen and how wonderful of mother she is? Would you be willing to share it? Could you help my children and me make this Mother's Day especially wonderful for Jen?

Thanks for letting me steal a moment of your time on Jen's blog,
ben

Good news, bad news

We did this a lot in high school in bible class and Ben did this a lot with his teens. You update everyone on your week by saying a good thing and a bad thing.

So, do you want the good news first, or the bad news?

We'll start with the bad.
Bad news is we are NOT moving in June like we thought...

Good news is we are moving in May.

Bad news is we have less time to say goodbye and less time to pack.

Good news is we eliminated those first few weeks where you can't really pack up everything yet, anyways.

Bad news is we won't have anywhere to unpack these boxes 'cause there's no time to look for a house.

Good news is we can look together when we get there and we can live with one of the elders until we find a place.

Bad news is we won't have our camping stuff readily available.

Good news is we have a church camp out in July!

Bad news is it might get a little chilly at night.

Good news is, "Who cares? We'll be in Washington!"

God is Good!

We're going! This is an aerial view of our soon-to-be home in Bellingham, WA. I can't tell you exactly which house will be ours, though...

We got a call this evening and got the details worked out. We will be heading around the 9th of June and he will start around the beginning of July. We are more than excited and now dread looking for boxes and newspaper...

Celebrate with us and praise God for his faithfulness and his grace in our lives.

A knife, some clouds and a sewing machine

Either you're not quick enough or Dustin's wedding just doesn't float your boat. Never-the-less, we shall move on. :)

Here's a hodge podge of a blog...
My brother will be pleased to hear that I have cut my self for the first time using our great Miracle Blade knives which Tara and Eric gave us for Christmas. Have you tried cutting up a mango before? There heck a hard! Not literally, just difficult to cut. The pit is such an odd shape and the fruit has no desire to peel away from it so you just keep sawing until you've managed to scrape off every bit of "mango shmango", as my son likes to call them. So, I was sawing and the pit moved to the right ever so slightly and my knife went straight into my left thumb. It hurt. Thanks to my strength, it hardly bled. I put so much pressure on it that it had no where to go! It still hurts 48 hours later... And try not using your thumb. Everything feels fine until I accidentally button someone's pants or undo a car seat buckle. Yikes!

Would any of you like to know that we have had thunder storms the last two or three days in a row and will continue to have them for the next ten days? Crazy!

If Shelly Neilson reads this it will give away my secret but, then again, if she does read this it would be a miracle in itself... The Neilsons watched our kids while we were in Washington and I really wanted to get her a cute apron as a thank you. Sorry, Paul. She wanted one for Christmas and her children looked everywhere and ended up getting her one with a Christmas elf. Needless to say, she still would love a cute apron. So, I decided that instead of shopping around everywhere, as well, I am just going to make it. I already bought everything I need and have cut out all the pieces. Don't forget I also washed and ironed the fabric. Soon enough I will have an apron to give her! I hope my sewing machine works.

A Woodsie Wedding

Dustin and Amy's wedding

Today my family drove 4 hours to go to my cousin Dustin's wedding. Tara and Eric came from OKC (1 1/2 hours). We represented the Woods side of the family. We are so glad we were able to be there and we had a great day today. We surprised our kids and got them a car DVD player for the trip. I think this was the best trip of my life! I finished a book and looked out the window as bugs continuously splattered onto the windshield. It was delightful! Greg and Dottie and Dustin were very glad to have us there and we were able to take a Woods family picture all together. Greg also sent us home with some of Uncle Doug's fish from the rehearsal dinner! We weren't quite as eager to open our cooler for a refreshing drink though... Here are our pictures. We got there right at two and were too rushed to remember to grab the camera for the ceremony. Enjoy!

A little song...

Try not to think about what might have been... 'Cause that was then and we have taken different roads... We can't go back again... There's no use givin' in... There's no way to know what might have been...

Good bye birdies...

Stupid Cat!

"I'm gonna leave you in Sidney!"

So as I was waking up this morning I heard Aiden's feet walking in the hallway and then a loud noise on the outside of the house. I thought, "I wonder what that was?" We went on with our morning and after the kids got ready Ben decided to see if he could take a picture of the little nest on our front porch that has new baby birds in it. Do you know what that earlier sound was? It was the sound of our cat knocking that poor nest out of the corner of the porch! How evil! I was sad but then I realized Stripers still had something and it was flying/fluttering around in between catches. I thought maybe I could save it! I ran to get my shoes on and shot out the door. I yelled at the cat and she darted into the bushes. I searched quickly for any sign of life and then heard a kitty scary noise like, "I'm gonna eat you noise because I'm ferocious and scary!" I then realized she had it with her in the bushes. There was nothing more I could do...

Except maybe leave her to die in Sidney while I move to bird haven Washington... I haven't decided. But I might...

"The circle of Life..." was all Ben had to say.

Bellingham Update

Ben and I had a great time in Washington! Since you're looking at the picture, we did get to fly in a plane with one of the elders. The next picture is from up in the plane. I intended to take pictures of some of the families to show my kids and this represents the pictures I actually took...

We stayed with one of the elders and his wife who is also the children's minister/office manager, Rich and Diane Helke. Diane also happens to be a former roomate of my mothers at Columbia. (Side note: When someone has attended Columbia Christian College, there is no reason to say Cascade. It means something totally different. My mother never went to Cascade. It doesn't matter that it's the same place. I like to allow Columbia to have it's own identity!) Small world. We were thankful we stayed with them and were able to have lots of relationship-forming conversation.

The elders and their wives are fantastic. We really like the church as a whole. We had a good amount of time to spend with people in the congregation and we all seemed to like each other a lot. We also knew the Flory's, who went to Vancouver C of C way back in the day, and Ben knew a recruiter from Pepperdine that resides there with her family now.

We got to learn about the soup kitchen that goes on at the building twice a week and ate with some of the clients. We saw what an impact Soup's On makes in the community and the people of the Sterling Drive. It was way cool!
We looked at houses and different neighborhoods. We road on a ferry to get to the island that one of the elders lives on... We saw lots and lots of trees and had NO rain! We
drove on steep Mountainsides and looked inside houses way beyond our price range!

And after a long and exciting weekend we sat at the Helke's and watched a deer in their backyard for the first time ever, eating all their bird food.


The last picture is of Diane and I. On Sunday evening we invited the Helke's to go out to a movie with us. It was a great way to end our time!

We had such a great experience and I know we would be blessed to be a part of this congregation. We are excited about the possibiltiy of serving along side them and are trusting that God will bless us wherever we end up!

The blessings will come down as the prayers go up...

Tomorrow we head to Abilene to board a plane before dawn Thursday morning. We will be heading to Bellingham, WA for an interview at the Sterling Drive Church of Christ. Please send all the prayers you've got and ask for God's blessing on our weekend together. We are excited at the possibility of working together. They will be having one other guy come in the next weekend and will then make their choice. It is nice to have an interview at this point in a churches process. San Diego was not at this point...
We are going sans kids and the Neilsons have graciously offered to take care of them. We are definitely squeezing in a movie this weekend. Maybe even two! We will return home on Monday at dinner time.

He did it!

At the beginning of this school year my son started pre-school with a low self image regarding coloring drawing and being creative. He was never interested in coloring during church and when we were at home together he would say, "You do it for me. I can't do it." It was kind of sad but what can you do?
Now he has been in school for seven months and he has transformed into a creative and willing little soul. Not only did he take the time to color something but now he even knows how to stay inside the lines! I have been really proud of him.
So, our grocery store started passing out a page covered with different Easter eggs to color as a contest. Aiden got really excited. He started coloring his paper and about an hour into it Izzy scribbled on his. He was so sad and we told him we could pick him up a new one. The next day we picked it up after school and that boy colored, with no breaks, from the moment we got home until we forced him to get in bed. He might have been forced to eat dinner, too. We turned in all the kids' art and they displayed them until after Easter. Guess who got a call saying he won second place? He was so excited! We went to the store so he could pick up his prize and he got a huge blow up turtle for the swimming pool. We blew it up as soon as we got home and he slept on it that night. We finally deflated it and are saving it for an actual swim. I am so proud and happy for the little guy!

Nose Hairs!

Prepare yourselves!

So, Ben has always been bothered with his nose hairs. He doesn't want to be able to see them! I bought him a nose hair trimmer way back in the day but to no avail. Then some friend told him how to solve the problem.

WAX!




He ordered his wax online and when it came... the fun began!
You melt the wax, stick it up your nose, and jam Q-tips inside so you can rip it out when it's dry.










1-2-3 yank!



Problem solved.











And did it work?












Yes it did!

Easter and website excitement!

This is our family on Easter. I got the girls matching dresses for the first time and Aiden got his first shirt and tie. I wasn't sure if Emma would like her dress or if Aiden would dig the tie but they were a smashing hit! Aiden knew just how handsome he looked! He has wanted to wear the tie every day since... I am definitely taking nice pictures of the three of them in their cute clothes. In case anyone didn't know, we had snow all day on Saturday! It was wacky, crazy! We couldn't have our Easter egg hunt outside... I did take pictures of some eggs sitting out in the snow but I couldn't take the time to make them look all gorgie(short for gorgeous), it was too frickin' cold! Thankfully the snow was not on the roads by Sunday morning. What would Easter be without Sunday morning church? Tara and Eric came and spent the weekend with us. We had a great time except for the burning of fingers and hands and lips and stomachs by the killer jalapeno oil when we mistakenly decided to make some poppers! I. am. never. making. those. thing. again! I still haven't touched the griddle with jalapeno oil in it. I'm too scared!

Good news, everyone. I have a website! It's not anything exciting yet except for some information about "Jen's Photography" but you can look at it if you want. Eventually all my photos will be on there and it won't look the same or anything but I'm at least excited that I got the domain I wanted. (Meaning the web address I wanted and not something random or difficult.) It's gonna cost me money to get it up so it will be a while. Maybe people will just read about it and they'll be banging down my door! It's always good to be one step closer to something. Wish me luck!

Hear the Word of the Lord...

So often we hear the greatest words come out of the mouths of our children and find ourselves saying, "I will never forget that." And last night as we gathered to sing our songs and pray together before bedtime I heard these words and held back tears.

Me- Who wants to pray first?
Izzy- I do. Dear Dog, Thank you for Mommy, thank you for daddy, thank you for Emma, thank you for Aiden, thank you for Izzy. Amen
Dad- Thanks, Izzy. Aiden, your turn.
Aiden- Now when he saw the crowds he went up on a mountain side and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed our those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Emma- Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

How touching to hear scriptures flow out of my children's mouths when they could have as easily chosen their own words. I don't want to forget those few moments. And what a great reminder to me of how I need to pray. I want to be a family who talks
about scripture when we sit at home and when we walk along
the road, when we lie down and when we get up. I want us to
write them on our door frames and on our gates.
How else will they live in truth?
Where else will they find truth?

Hear the Word of the Lord.

Aiden's 5 and Izzy's 3!

Go Home, Lassie!

This is Minesota! This dog showed up on our back porch last week. Where did it come from? If only I knew. I called it to come outside our fence and shut it and minutes later it's back on the porch! The dog is jumping over the fence! How am I suppose to get rid of this thing? We decided, after talking to some other folks, that we would keep it in the yard for a couple days just in case someone came looking for it. Then a friend comes over and says, "Oh, yah. I saw that dog miles from here!" Fabulous! So if it did have a home, it is no where near it!
Well, Ben took off back to Abilene for a couple days so it just hung out and ate all our cats' frikin' cat food! I even bought it dog food so it wouldn't starve and it still ate their cat food! The poor cats were hissing and running up the trees and climbing the ladder to the roof. We tried to put their food on a table and the dog jumped onto the table.
The kids really wanted to keep it, of course but then it ate a pair of Izzy's tennis shoes! It chewed up a little baseball glove! It chewed up a pair of Aiden's sandles. It chewed up a cover for the outside faucet. And finally it brought a skull into the yard and chewed off it's horns! Needless to say, Ben took it "away". It was a nice dog but... not good enough!

Tear Soup: A book about grief

Here it is. What you've all been waiting for (besides that Taco Soup recipe). (You might want to grab a tissue.)

Tear Soup is a story of a woman named Grandy who faced a loss by setting out to make her own tear soup. Most people these days went straight for "soup in a can" but Grandy had tasted someone else's tear soup after a great loss and decided that quicker wasn't always better.

She new she needed a large pot. One that had room for all the memories, all the misgivings, all the feelings and all the tears needed to stew in the pot over time. She put her apron on because she new it would get messy. People feel misunderstood, feelings get hurt and wrong assumptions are made all over the place. The hard thing is grief always takes longer to cook than anyone wants it to.

First Grandy would cry, then sob, then sometimes weep quietly. Even some wailing if no one was around. Unfortunately Grandy new that she would have to make most of the soup alone. Most people just wouldn't be comfortable with how many tears the recipe called for this time. She wold just look into her pot of memories knowing she would repeat this task many times during the next few months.

She made many trips to the pot to stir in precious memories and not so precious ones until, eventually, she ran out of things to add. There were no words to describe her pain. She would look out the window and see the world moving on around her. So many would try to comfort her with different things but all she needed was a hug. Sometimes she would have folks hurry past pretending not to notice she had tear soup brewing. Most could only handle a little sample of her tear soup. The giant bowls, where she could repeatedly share her sadness, were left for a few willing friends.

Grandy did find some comforting things. There was a friend that was willing to stay around through it all and just listen. Sometimes she added some comfort foods to her pot just to get past the lump in her throat.

Even thought Grandy was mad at God, she trusted God. sometimes she would yell at him and ask questions like "why?" but she kept reminding herself to be thankful for all her emotions.

Grandy and her husband did not make their soup the same way. Grandy thought his should be a little sweeter but he disagreed. He often ate his soup alone.

Some were impatient about Grandy finishing her soup. Some of Grandy's friends had not tended to their pots of soup and they boiled over and scorched. It took them a long time to clean up their messes and start over and some of their houses still smell a little like burnt soup.

Sometimes Grandy would take a break from her soup making. She found new friends who were making their own pot and they became a comfort to Grandy. One of the hardest parts was deciding that she might be able to eat something other than tear soup all the time. Eventually the hardest part of making tear soup ended and she was able to stick it in the freezer and pull it out from time to time to have a little taste.

Grandy learned that, just like soup, grief changes the longer it simmers and the more things you put into it. She also learned that there is something down deep within all of us ready to help us survive the things we think we can't survive.


This book has even more good morsels in it that can only come from reading it. You can find it on Amazon but it is a little expensive... It gave me so much insight into the grief process that I am going through and so many people around me. I am grateful for my parents who gave us this book. It's always good to feel loved and thought about!


Tear Soup is written by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen

Check out my Slide Show!

Single Tear

Let me start by saying I've noticed that I am a bit more emotional at the moment but this evening my children brought forth deep emotions in me at the dinner table.

We visited the Langfords this weekend and got to see baby Noah. He is adorable and looks like his big brother. When I think of the Langfords, I almost immediately think of Taco Soup! So yesterday I was determined to make Taco soup even though it's not as fun for me to make good dinners when Ben isn't home.

I don't give my children meal options. If they want their stomachs filled they will have to fill it with whatever I choose to make! Guess what they got last night! We always hear the same questions. "Are there onions in this?" "Are there tomatoes in this?" "What's the green stuff?" And there's more... So, Aiden says,"Are there tomatoes in this?" I say, "Nope!" (There are!) They say,"This looks like a tomato." I say,"It's called Rotel." Emma says,"It 's a kind of vegetable, Aiden." Sounds good to me!

So we put cheese on top and we stir in some sour cream and smash chips over it and I say,"Eat up!" With no complaining, they take their first bite which is an accomplishment in itself! They take more bites. Aiden, my slow and lazy eater, takes a bite after bite after bite. And in between bites he's saying, "Who made this?" (They ask that every meal.) and "This is so good!" and "Mom, I love this!" and "Mom, you should make this for every meal!" and you know what? I was so overwhelmed by there appreciation that I cried. Tears welled up in my eyes and a single tear came down my cheek. It was touching... Maybe if you come over, I'll make you some Taco Soup, too!