Just whatever....

Have I ever said before that we are like always super busy? I love to be busy because it keeps me occupied. And my kids stay busy most of the time too~! We have a lot going on this weekend with the return of one of my best girlfriends to church. I am so excited I can't even stand it. A bit nervous actually though because I am singing on the worship team w/ my in laws and my sis is coming to watch and stuff... makes me a good type of nervous. I remember the first time I stood up to sing and thought I was going to throw up from nerves, but I hope to not be THAT nervous this weekend! ;) Anyhow, I am so excited that Sunday we get to spend a lot of time seeing our buddies that have been out gone for 3 years. We are having a shower for them on Tuesday because they just had a new baby, Nora. So excited for that too!
Anyhow, my Grams starts treatments this week, so please please keep her in prayer...
I watched little Sophie yesterday, which was fine, actually finer then usual, except the fact that she was really sad. It actually turned out to be that she was just really exhausted. We did have a pretty good day too. Ben and I were able to sit down and hash out a budget to work w/ for the week which is always the best way to do it for us, and then I went grocery shopping. To three stores in fact. Believe me, I was totally over the whole grocery shopping deal. We go to Walmart because for diapers and stuff they are pretty cheap, and I can get all the stuff like that, in one swipe. Then we ran to Piggly Wiggly for stuff that we wouldn't be able to get at Aldi (such as my fav Stoneyfield Farms organic yogurt, and roast beef from the deli ;)) and then found out that we were too late to go to Aldi, so I had to make do with the little bit of cash that I had left (that would have bought a ton and a half groceries at Aldi) at Pick N Save. Ugh didn't go very far there at all. I just know that if I didn't get it done, because have so much other stuff going on this week, it wouldn't have gotten done! Anyhow, this morning I get to get ready soon and head to Mayfair to take some time to hang out with my friend and sister. I am so excited because my husband graciously offered to keep our kids. I think that he is just going to stay home and then we are going to visit with my BIL's fam, so my kids can see their cousins, and I can see my nieces and nephews! So excited for that! Then we have a few things going on this week, and then next week we leave to go upnorth to go campin! I am not much of a camper... but I'll make it work! ;)
Well gotta start to get ready now. Have a blessed weekend

Minnesota adventure

I have been trying to take some time to rest lately. I am not sure, but it must be that fresh air! I just run out of steam in the middle of the day. I like the way our schedule works during the week now. I used to dread it. Believe me, the nights do get long sometimes, but mainly in the winter where there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. We are doing much better with this now because we spend time playing at the park/outside, etc. I just all of a sudden run out of energy. I have been trying to organize better and prioritize things better. Like, sleep when you feel exhausted, is much more important then doing the dishes for the millionth time for the week (unless you are my best friend who has no dirty dishes in her sink... EVER!) So, I have been trying to take a daily nap! They come in handy when the kids do what they did on Sunday and woke up fully alert and ready for the day... at 5:12am. Oh snap. Anyhow, it is working out so nicely and makes for a much more patient momma by like 5pm then before. I should use the extra nap as a perfect time to kick the Coca-cola habit, but nah... No thanks. I am off that bandwagon.
Sherry invited me to come with her to her sisters house in Minnesota last weekend. I was so excited. We left at 5:45am on Friday morning and set out for a way way longer adventure than we ever anticipated. Oh my goodness. The flooding in Wisconsin and other parts of the midwest are causing trouble with the freeways, and there are so many families that are being affected by this, it is crazy. Oh my goodness. In essence, we should have been able to take the Interstate the whole way there, instead we were detoured off at Johnson's Creek (which we new about initially) and then didn't make it back onto the freeway that we had anticipated traveling the whole way on, until we were in Chippewa Falls, which is right next to the state we were traveling to! Oh my gosh. It was so much fun. We had a blast riding, and it is a gift from God, and believe me I don't thank him enough for this, that my children are incredibly patient. Even my M-I-L said a few times,. I can't believe them! They are so patient! Well our 4 hour trip turned into 10 hours. We were so happy to get there, and it was a total surprise that we were coming which made it priceless! We had Papa Murphy's while I got to know the family (there are a total of 9 in the fam... lots of names and faces to remember!) I had last met their whole family at my wedding 5 years ago. Anyhow, I found that Ben's aunt is amazing, and so laid back. And a woman of God, which is super cool to know. I got to chat with Gabe, who like practically lived with us two summers ago... So that was so cool to catch up. They were preparing for one of their son's high school graduation's to take place and had an open house scheduled, so I got to help prepare the food with them, which was really exciting to me. Anyhow, we had to set out before the party started because we were anticipating a long journey home. Didn't take as long as it did to get there I don't think, but nevertheless, I will won't truly know how long it takes to get to Aunt Patty's until the next time I go! It was super fun to meet them, and such a wonderful trip! The kids were super good!
My cellphone is missing, so we are working on getting a new one from insurance. Oh snap, what a pain, but thank God for insurance! We are also going on Wednesday and getting Ben his own line. We spend entirely too much time apart from each other to not be able to chat through text or call each other. I am excited for it, and that phone will most def have insurance on it too w/ all the fishing and whatever else, you never know when an accident could happen ;)
Our good friends are home from being away for a long time and we get to see them this Sunday... I am so excited! I also get to see Michelle on Saturday. We haven't had a mall date for I think two months now, and I miss that girl! So, as usual, we are pretty busy. I am working on reading, I am in I Samuel right now, and I have to say of all the OT I have read, this is getting a bit better. The Moses laws are over with and now we are on to David and Goliath ;) Sounds fine to me.

Today

Things are busy lately as I said in my last post, but I am trying to take everything in stride. We have been making good time to play outside at days end, but unfortunately the last two days I have truly lost track of time while we are outside in the evening and the next thing I know it is bedtime. It isn't a bad thing, just kind of wish that the kids would have a bit more down time before they need to go to bed. On days that nap doesn't happen, then they go to bed at about 8pm-ish... but last night we were still outside at that time, so we had to skip story time, which bums me out. I suppose I could have done story time, but the kids were both in need of going to sleep (cranky!)... Today is gorgeous, so we are going to spend the day outside. This morning we are going to Tina's, she has a jungle gym thingy outside at her place, so we are going to hang out with them for a couple hours this morning, home for lunch and nap, and then out again once nap is over... I sold our changing table and have to take it to Delafield this afternoon, but then we are coming home to play! I am thankful for the day to not do too much other than just hanging out at home with just a couple places to go. We did way too much yesterday and I was completely exhausted by days end. So much so that I am thankful that we didn't have to do bathtime ;) Anyhow, I need to work laundry into the mix of stuff going on today, but our bank was out of quarters yesterday so I have to go there first and hope that they have quarters for me today! Well anyhow, I should get going. We are going to leave here in a little while and I haven't even gotten the kids dressed yet!
I am re-reading the Diaper Free Before 3 book. It was so encouraging last time I read it, that I want to just re-look at parts of the book, and work with potty training for the next two days. Yesterday I went to Babies R Us, and spent some time (and quite a bit of money, who knew potty training undies for both kids and a little potty chair could cost so much?) picking out some undies for the kids and a travel potty chair that we can take with us to Minnesota this weekend, and in the Jeep with us wherever we end up at any given point. I want to have the kids both in undies for as much as possible in the next couple weeks so they are well on their way to being diaper free... YAY~!

Busy week... love the living room ;)

Oh my gosh I look at my living room this evening and feel a sense of accomplishment because the piano is gone, the new bookshelf is here, and the living room is switched around! Wooohooo I am totally proud of myself and so thankful to all the helping hands that made it work, but I am loving the extra space that we can now enjoy (which rapidly filled up with toys this afternoon ;)) and I got much done with the space... I love it! Tomorrow is going to be super busy we have a lot to do (it is little Gram day), so plenty of shopping around. I am heading to GW to look through their pants/capris/skirts and everything else there. Heading to buy potty training pants which I am funnily enough totally stoked about... And we are selling some of our movies and stuff, and taking the cans in again! I am thrilled for that (don't even laugh, believe me, I know how lame I am sometimes :P) And so yeah busy week ahead... I am excited to be going to Minnesota with my M-I-L... I haven't seen her sister in geee like maybe 4 years. Spend a lot of time with Ben's cousin Gabe though (moreso last summer but we are still buds) and so I am going to see his family.. Aunt Patty hasn't been able to meet our kids yet, so we are heading there. Since it is father's day on Sunday, we are going to head back for that... So it is going to be a fast trip, but a trip nonetheless!

Em's bridal shower....

We had a wonderful time at Emily's bridal shower... It was a lovely day... (Omg until it downpoured like mad and flooded everywhere... oh yeah and tornadoes... did I mention them? But that all happened after the lovely bridal shower, thank goodness!) Mandy thought of making a scrap book for Emily, so we each got our picture taken, and she was totally on top of getting us the pictures in our email right away, so I am so thankful to share this cute one of us...
We played some games and just hung out with each other... My sister got to be one of the toilet paper brides... and totally would have won, but Em had to make it a tie... I can understand why! ;)
We had such a great time~

51 People? Are you even kidding me?

So I have kind of a funny story. I have been trying to get rid of our huge lug of a piano for like ever... We have had it for a couple years now, and I would like to paint in our apartment, and redecorate a bit (oh and did I mention have more space?) but can't do anything with the piano in our way. I have posted it once before under the "furniture" posting on craigslist, and only had two inquiries but no sales... So, I recruited help from church and was going to move the thing, with my helpers to St. Vincent Depauls in Oconomowoc. I called them and they said "oh sure we'll take your piano"... So ok, yay, I got it all set up with my helpers, and called to confirm dropping off the piano. Well just so happened that the General Manager, who I am not too fond of now, answered the phone and said "We don't take piano's, they are too heavy and no one wants to buy them because they are so heavy." "Ok, well why did the last person tell me that it was OK for us to drop it off... I have recruited help and we are ready to bring it." "Well cancel your help. Sometimes people that don't know what they are talking about answer our phones.".... Oh snap. I was really annoyed at that. So then I had the discussion with my husband as to what we should do with this thing. He said, "Let's just take it apart!"... Ugh sure that sounds easy, although with how frustrated I am with the whole thing, I would really love to use a sledge hammer! J/K... Anyhow, so my sis did some helping with calling around to places to see if they would take it, and she got nowhere fast with that. So she kind of encouraged re-posting on craigslist. Ok, sure. So this time I posted it under "free" and "furniture"... Posted it at 4pm yesterday....at like literally, no joke, 4:02pm, a nice lady emailed and was like "I'll take it!" she wants to come and see it first so I made an appointment with her to come check it out today! Anyhow, of course I didn't realize I would even be dealing with a first come first serve...because I have gotten as of now 52 emails inquiring on it. Some people want dimensions, but there have been a huge percentage of the people that are like "When can I pick it up?"... are you serious? I had one guy offer to come and get it from me last night... SERIOUSLY? I, in a way, wish that I could have taken him up on that offer, and have that huge portion of our apartment open floor space this morning, but the lady is coming today... at about 1:30pm. Please pray that they take it. I know that they aren't prepared to take it right away today, but that they will come this weekend. Oh my gosh, and if they decide against it for some reason, at least I have 51 more options! Oh I am so thankful. Lord you have really blessed me in this small (but very huge and heavy) thing. I appreciate it sooooo much! Yay for craigslist... Oh! And I sold a stroller this morning too! Wooooooohooooooooo
Oh yeah... reminder.... pray for my Grams please (pls read previous post if you haven't yet)
Blessings,
Sara

Sooo sad.....

I called Grams today to find out how her tests went yesterday... and turns out not so good. She needs to meet with a surgeon, on Thursday. I don't know many details.
Please pray for healing, and that it would be nothing. Or something that is cured.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for putting this amazing role model in my life. Grams has been the person that has always tried to instill religion in our family, and it worked. She is someone I truely admire. Someone who is wonderful. She adores our family, and helps me take care of my kids. I pray for healing in her today, God. Please show the doctors how to care for her and give her exactly what she needs to be well. She is such a healthy person. Sometimes I don't understand you, God. Please help me to make clear the things that make no sense. Lord I pray for Grams now, and ask that you please heal all that she is experiencing. God, please...

In Jesus powerful name...
Amen