Better than Ballet

With just over 2 months left in San Antonio, there are a lot of things that I am going to miss, (all of which I will be sure to blog about for my memory's sake).  Nearing the top of that list though, is something that I just learned about last week.  It is called Ballet Gloria.  It is a ministry for children that incorporates dance and worshiping God and their theme is dancing for an audience of one.  It is held at Oak Hills Church which is Max Lucado's church.   It is just a precious ministry, and on top of that it is FREE.  Awesome.  Who doesn't appreciate that?
Today was Sophie's first class.  It was super cute and her teacher was so sweet.  I was not sure how she would do at all ...but she hung in there and tried to follow along as best as a short attention spanned 3 year old can.  She enjoyed most of it but a couple of times fell and was not happy about that.  Poor thing, I think she has inherited my physical skills, or better said - limitations.  Afterwards she told me that her legs were sore because she did a lot of exercise.  When we got home she was happy to show her daddy a  demi plie and before bed tonight she asked if we could go back tomorrow.  So even though her legs were sore and she got some boo-boo's, I think overall she had a great time.  I know I did just watching her!  And let me tell you - they don't mess around with memory verses!  This was their memory verse for the 3 & 4 year olds today:
Matthew 28: 1-2
 "After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it."  
 Sophie couldn't get over the earthquake part, she kept asking about earthquakes for the rest of the night!  Anyway, here is a little picture of our ballerina!

More Photos!

A couple of weeks ago we had our family pictures taken.  It was mostly fun, minus Sophie inappropriately throwing a fit during the middle of it, not wanting her picture taken, getting bribed with ice cream and still really did not cooperate.  Although we were NOT laughing while she was being completely defiant, it will be a good story to tell her when she's older and the pictures of her crying are priceless.  Here are some of our favorites.  Oh and all of these are courtesy of Kate L Photography -  I highly recommend her for anyone in the San Antonio area - she is awesome!

Body & Food

I can't exactly pin point when it happened, but somewhere in these last few years my body has decided to strike against the food freedoms I so once loved.  You know, a cookie every day, a donut, a latte, chocolate, cheesecake, you name it I ate it - without shame or feeling like it was going to settle anywhere. 
Well, those days have bid me farewell.  Maybe it had something to do with having kids.  I just realized that for the past 4 years since November of 2006 I have either been pregnant or nursing every fall.  Anyway, somewhere between 2 pregnancies, lots of indulging and feasting on any food at any time, 2 c-sections and 1 year later - things just aren't the same!  I actually have to watch what I eat.  I have to practice self-control.    I exercise more regularly now than before but I still have a flabby belly, and I'm NOT pregnant.  I  weigh the same as I used to, but things just did not settle where they should have.  Really they shouldn't have settled at all!  And I so crave dessert.  I love sweet things.  I hate sweet things for the same reason.  I love to bake, but I hate that whatever dessert I bake tempts me like satan to eat it.  Just a bite, just another little bite, and by the time dinner rolls around it's half gone and I was the only one who ate it!   
Of course there is a balance, I want to be healthy but I also want to enjoy the flavors of this life.  I just need to halt and control how much enjoying I do.  One piece is probably ok, half a cake is probably not.  And I am completely jealous of those beautiful ladies that bounce back from having babies in like 2 months and look like nothing ever happened to their bodies.  Grrr.
And not only I am concerned about how MUCH I am eating, but also what I am eating and feeding my family.  It is so scary to think how manipulative and political our food has become.  Well probably not the food itself, but the industry behind it.  All of the GMO's, bad industry practices, pesticides, etc.,  We are definitely trying to use wisdom here with how much to pay attention to all of that and how much to oversee.  But in all this...I cling to:
"It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."  Matthew 15:11
I should definitely be spending more of my time contemplating that and applying it in my life and heart. 

august in pictures

enjoying our time in michigan

some family fun and of course yummy food to enjoy

princess sophie - she is totally into princesses these days!

she just likes to smile, climb & sit in places that aren't meant for it

the girls with nana & papa at seaworld

how do you like claire's double chin? we call her our garbage disposal, the girl does not stop eating! :)
the girls really love each other and have been playing together really well lately...so much so that sophie won't go to her room, or go to sleep without claire. 

Ramble On

In Led Zeppelin fashion, here i go:

Tonight I made seared rainbow trout, roasted asparagus, quinoa tabouleh, and sweet potato fries for dinner.  And then I made tapioca pudding, and ate it.  It goes against everything I believe...dessert/dairy/fat.  It ruined my healthy dinner.  Now I feel bloated and disgusted thinking about Proverbs 23:2 "and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony"....but I press on.

It goes without saying, but I can't believe it is the end of August.  That means t-less than 3 months until we are back in Kentucky.  I am trying not to get too excited but thoughts of going back take over sometime.  I picture us playing in the backyard, out front chatting with neighbors, wearing coats, listening to our wildly enthusiastic pastor, using my kitchenaid mixer (AHH the excitement is boiling), getting out the crock pot, having more than one cookie sheet....oh I could go on but I will stop.  Really, we are enjoying our time here.  


So back to it being the end of August.  August was a busy and fun month.  I traveled with the girls to Michigan for a week to visit my family.  One of my cousins who lives in Poland was in town so it was great to see him as it had been 6 years since I last saw him.  It was a great family visit, it seemed like most days we were hanging out with family here or there.  We returned on a Tuesday and on Wednesday morning Bill's mom arrived to spend a week with us here.  Bill's dad joined us for the weekend.  Props to my in-laws for wanting to come to Texas in late August!  It was HOT.  


We spent 2 days doing some short road trips to visit a couple of unique towns.  One was Fredericksburg, and the other Bandera.  Bandera is the self proclaimed cowboy capital of texas, or maybe the world? I don't know.  The lunches we had were great, the towns were ok...kind of rustic/ghost town-ish/cowboy-esque...but overall it was good to see something other than a  walmart or target at every exit on the highway.  The nicest parts of our trips were the drives.  We took some scenic routes and they did not disappoint!  Beautiful hills, a sparkling bright blue lake, and more really surprising scenic hills. Who knew that Texas had such beautiful natural landscapes?  Sophie also got to have her first "sleep over" with Nana and Papa in their hotel.  She got to sleep on the sofa bed and boy was she excited about that.  So excited, she wanted to go the following night.  And every time we drive by that hotel - she fondly reminisces, half excited and half sad "Look, Nana & Papa's hotel!"   We also took them to SeaWorld.  Will I ever write a post that doesn't include seaworld in it?  It was fun, but it was hot.  And quite honestly I've had my fill. The crowds are insane, people flock that place like it is a gold mine.  I say that though knowing we will probably go just one more time before the water park closes for good.  


So anyway, that was August.  We're now moving on into our fall schedule. I love how a new season can bring a fresh schedule and some new structure into our weeks.  I am looking forward to it, and hoping not to get jealous of places that will actually have a real fall season.  

3 Years

Bill and I were reminiscing just the other night about the arrival of our first baby.  And in the spirit of sharing birth stories, here goes a summary of the first one:


Waiting, seemed like most of what I was doing, along with walking, spicy food, etc., to get this party started.  I think it was the night before I went into labor that Bill and I were out for a walk.  A man was watering his lawn, stopped, looked at us and yelled out:  you must be having twins!  No, but thanks for inquiring.  This could get me going on a whole other topic about what not to say to emotionally unstable, overdue pregnant women, but I'll save that for another time perhaps.  Anyway, later that night I did end up feeling some regular contractions, and by 3am they were actually somewhat painful.  Later in the morning there were definite signs that this could be it (which for the sake of not being gross - I'll leave out).  One of my favorite memories from that morning was telling Bill around 7am that I thought I was in labor.  His response was a calm ok, well I'll go to work and you call me if something happens.  Hello!?!?!?  I just told you I was in labor!!!!!  And you're going to work????  I didn't say any of that, I just thought it.  So he went to work, I called almost immediately and within an hour and a half of leaving he was home. :)


I  had an appointment scheduled that day for a non-stress test , so I called the doctor and told them I thought I was in labor and asked if I still needed to come in for the test.  They told me yes so they could check me just to make sure it was labor.  Why was no one believing me???


I was so excited to get to the doctor's office to see just how much progress I had made.  Up until this point I had been pretty much 0 cm dilated, and like 50% effaced.  I was just positively sure that after almost 12 hours of contractions, them getting closer together and becoming really painful, that I would have been at least 4 cm by the time we got to the doc's office.   On our way there we even dropped off a meal at a friend's house - i remember being extremely uncomfortable in the car!  Anyway, we got there, they hooked me up to the contraction machine (?) to confirm, that yes I was having painful contractions.  Then came the moment of finding out how much progress I had made (drum roll please)... = 1cm.  I was not a happy mama to be with that news.  1cm??


Because my contractions were in fact so strong, they sent us to the hospital.  My goal had been to do this thing naturally.  I even had a birth plan.  We read the Bradley book.   HA!  That was all thrown out the window.  After laboring naturally for most of the day and still making NOOOO progress (at one point the nurse told me I was at "1 and a wiggle" I cried.  All of this hard work and nothing was happening!  So it was time for the epidural and breaking my water.  This happened at night, and by the next morning I had fully dilated!  Other highlights from that evening - having a vein popped on my hand by a nurse trying to get the IV needle in, having an epidural was much less painful than contractions, and shaking all night from the IV flowing through me.  Not to mention zero sleep since 3am on Monday, and now it was Tuesday morning at 8am.  I felt good though.  I was ready to push!   2 hours of pushing and again no progress.  The doc told me I had to have a c-section.  Cried again.  50 minutes later Sophie was born via c-section.  The doctor then took out my uterus and said it was abnormal, showed it to other doctors there, said I would NEVER have delivered naturally.  I was very thankful to have had a c-section.  (Side note though - when I had my c-section with Claire I asked a different dr to check out my uterus to see if it was abnormal, and she said that it was perfectly normal, and the rest of the staff confirmed that it was the doctor who had delivered Sophie, who was in fact, abnormal).  :)

So there she was, this bloody, wrinkly, scrunched face, long fingered baby in my arms.  Mixed emotions.  I knew my life would be changed forever.  Having this child exposed so much of my sinful heart. Selfishness, impatience, anger...I could go on.  Having this child also brought so much joy, grace, and grew me in my love for God who gave up His precious, perfect son for me.   I had a friend whose sweet baby had died when she was just 18 days old, earlier that summer.  I remember when Sophie was 18 days, just holding her, crying and weeping, so thankful to have had her for that long.  Oh how I treasured having her for 18 days.  And now how I treasure having her for 3 years.   Happy birthday to my princess!

Bag Lady

The bag lady loves her bags, especially this little denim tote.  The bag lady is also known as Danger C, Mad Woman, C-bear, and sometimes we refer to her as Claire.  :)   She is developing quite a little personality.  It has been so fun to watch.  Soooo different from her big sis.  She can be quite feisty at times, a little firecracker.  She does not say many words.  She blabs in her own language, says Hi & Bye well, attempts other words but they are attempts at best.  She is signing well - finally!  She is a very very busy little lady, always on the go.  Happy most of the time.  She LOVES to eat.  Sometimes she prefers her food off of the floor (the food she has thrown there).   We don't encourage that of course but it does happen.  She is done with her paci.  Some of you may remember my struggle with Sophie and the paci.  Well, this time it was extremely different!  I was not looking forward to taking it away from her because of my past experience, BUT it was so easy with Claire!  She didn't even cry the first few times it was gone.  Of course, a few days later she did have some stretches of crying herself to sleep which I guess could have been because she was missing her paci, but she is so over it now. Hurray!  We love her, the sweet little joy that she is!