Sicko!

This is the face you make when you're sick and have spaghetti stuck to your face :-) Seriously, this kid can whine when he's not feeling well! Poor thing. At one point Brandon and I just burst out laughing because the whining was so fake and absurd we couldn't help it! I was glad to get a break and eat at Panera with my cousin/friend Ellen! I am sad he's sick because I had plans to have a playdate at our house with my friends, a playdate set up with my cousin and her baby Luke, Brandon leading worship, and the big church picnic at the park this weekend that I had really been looking forward to. It just stinks that we have to miss them all! There is a cold going around (hopefully not swine flu) that a lot of my friends say their kids have right now. Boo hoo!

We had a wonderful Memorial Day! I was misty eyed all day thinking about my grandparents, Eilers, Brandon's grandparents, etc.; all the loved ones of ours who have passed and never got the chance to meet Eli. It makes me sad, but I also am encouraged knowing we'll see them all again someday. Brandon put Eli's little flag out on our porch (he's crazy about flags), so when we were outside he would wave it at people going by. He would copy my tone of voice when I'd say "Happy Memorial Day!" even though he couldn't say the words. We went shopping and bought an area rug for the basement. It's starting to look good down there! We'll be eventually getting some hand-me-down furniture from my parents that we'll put down there, and it will truly be a family room! Eli helped me move all the storage boxes (all baby stuff/clothes/etc) out of his future "big boy room" as we call it. Well, actually he helped me throw clothes/socks of Gavins down the stairs that he's ready to wear. He loves throwing things up or down the stairs. Brandon's first week of furlough is in less than a month, so I'm getting everything ready to paint! I will be so excited when his future room is done. Hopefully it will be cute. Blue and airplanes...his two favorite things! We might have to throw in a flag and he'd be set! I'm a little sad because Eli has come down with a cold. He hasn't been sick in over two months, so I'm kind of dissapointed. Hopefully he'll feel better soon. He just has a really runny nose right now but no fever thank God. I haven't gotten to go out with one of my friends in a long time (because they've been sick or busy etc.), so I'm going out to eat with my cousin Ellen tonight before I'm sick! I am Eli's personal snot rag! Luckily, the last 5 colds Eli and I have had Brandon hasn't caught. He can take care of us! Eli is obsessed with running. I have like a million heart attacks a day with him running. I'm constantly saying "SLOW DOWN!". In the house, it's okay but outside on the sidewalk or cement I just hold my breath. BOYS!

Going Green is not a FAD!

It really blows my mind that people get so upset fighting about global warming and whether it's really happening or blah blah blah. The fact of the matter is, we should be taking care of the earth regardless of what you think. There are a lot of verses in the bible about taking care of the environment. It's nothing new! We've been commanded to take care of God's creation. It has really been weighing on me these past few years especially, when I start thinking about my children's future. I remember when I was in Germany and was amazed at how much they recycled...it wasn't an option...why are we so behind? Here are some things that we've been doing to try and do our part...of course there are SO many other things we could be doing, but at least we're trying. I love the Seventh Generation cleaning supplies motto by the Iroquois, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."

-2x concentrated laundry detergent
-All cleaning supplies/detergents/dish soap etc. are Seventh Generation (organic all natural etc) or Babyganics (They do just as good a job and smell better than all other cleaners I've used)
-Try to eat organic fruits and veggies (especially for Eli)
-Made my own babyfood
-Breastfeeding
-Only organic products for Eli (soap, shampoo, lotion, etc)
-Growing organic vegetable garden
-Don't use any pesticides in any of our gardening
-Feed and water birds
-Try to plant butterfly and bee attracting plants
-Eco friendly light bulbs
-Only run full loads of laundry and dishes
-Recycle everything but glass (this only costs us like $24 a YEAR for our trash service to take all recycling twice a month)
-Try to cook homemade meals with fresh ingredients and not use prepackaged/premade

Hopes for the future:
1. Hybrid car (please stop making them look like eggs...then I could convince my husband...thank you)

Farm living is the life for ME!

We're home from a WONDERFUL weekend at my parent's farm! It was such a refreshing trip. Eli had an absolute blast. He was in heaven. Both car trips were great. I had packed sandwiches, snacks, books, toys, music etc. When we got there we just played outside all evening. He was thrilled to see my family (if I even say the word Grumpa or Granny he always says "BOOM" in reference to a game they always play with him), so all day he'd been excited saying that. Eli loved the wide open spaces. He just roamed around with Brandon and Will all over the farm playing with the cats, dogs, rocks etc. After putting him to bed, Brandon and I went into a bar/restaurant in town to meet up with some of my high school classmates. We had a great date visiting with old friends. Saturday, we had more outside fun! We took Eli to the pond in the pasture behind my parents house. He just went running into the water. He walked the entire perimeter of the pond in the water holding Brandon's hand and splashing here and there. We saw baby turtles and frogs. Eli played outside and with Grumpa, Granny, and Will all day. We also visited my almost grandma in the hospital. Josephine and Gilbert were like grandparents to us growing up. They never had kids of their own and since my dad farmed their land, they adopted us as their own. We've taken Eli to visit Josephine in her apartment several times and she calls him her grandson. She had a heart attack a few weeks back and has been dying in the hospital since. We were so glad we visited her yesterday. It was hard to see her looking so terrible, but the second we walked in she said "You brought ELI!" Considering her memory hasn't been so great since the heart attack we were thrilled. She passed away the night we visited. I'm so glad we got that last visit! We also stepped into the head injury unit to visit one of my childhood friend's dad and my doctor all growing up. He's had Huntington's Disease since my friend and I were in junior high. He actually was better than I expected and later remembered us coming and told my friend we'd been there, so I was really pleased with that. I've always taken pleasure in the fact that Eli's doctor shares the same name...Dr. Barker! Brandon enjoyed riding dirt bikes with my brother. They rode both Saturday and Sunday and had a ball! Brandon enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful back roads around my parent's farm. Today Eli was looking longingly at my Dad riding the 4 wheeler around doing chores, so my dad rode by and picked him up and drove him slowly on the drive way to appease his curiosity. He loved it and kept saying "more"! We had to snap a picture of him and "Eli's Tree". My mom planted a tree for each of us when we were born and always took pictures of us with them as we got older. She's continuing the tradition with the grandchildren. Eli's tree is a red bud that she planted when he was born. He loved his tree and kissed it several times. Eli loved Granny's cooking! He enjoyed her famous bierocks and empenadas. Saturday night we took Eli to my class reunion at a friend's house. He played in the sprinklers with some neighbor kids and got in the pool for a little bit. Brandon took him home to go to bed, and I stayed and caught up with classmates for the next few hours. It definitely turned into a drunkfest, which was very entertaining. After Eli wakes up from his nap, we'll be heading over to my aunt's house for my cousin Angela's graduation party. She's going to Friends next year (great choice might I add).

The basement is finished! YAY! The guy said in all 35 years of doing tiling, this was one of the hardest jobs he's done. It was just really hard to get it even and looking great because of how uneven the cement floor was. He did an awesome job! I'm dying to get down there and clean and have my basement back functioning! We've always used the family area as a play room, so it's been hard for me to not have that available since the rains a month ago. I thought you would enjoy Eli's "whine face". Sure is cute in the picture, but quite annoying in person ;-) Whenever I'm cooking or on the phone he whines the entire time. Ask Brandon. It drives me NUTS! He was checking out his new shoes, testing them to make sure they were up to par. He is going to go through shoes like crazy because we spend so much time outside. We're heading up to Minneapolis tomorrow for my class reunion. Some of us are meeting Friday night (after Eli will be asleep) at the Blue Moon downtown to eat and then Saturday night meeting at a friend's house to have dinner together. I'm hoping it won't be a drunk fest (Am I the ONLY person in the world who doesn't drink or party????) Sheesh! It will be fun to catch up. We haven't been up to the farm since the weather has warmed up, so I'm looking forward to Eli having wide open spaces! He's going to love the kittens...since he constantly is meowing and loves to play "cat hide and seek" where I'm the cat and he is the kitten and we meow until he finds me and then I attack him hissing (he loves it). Speaking of that. A very creepy thing happened the other night. I have been known to talk/walk and do weird things in my sleep (ask my mom and sister). I remember them telling me one time I was shouting "5 cents for a pickle!"...seriously. Strangely, since I've been married I haven't done anything weird and I've only talked a couple times (Brandon has talked in his sleep a few times too). The other night Brandon was laying awake and looked over at me asleep and I opened my eyes, sat up, leaned over his face and clawed at him with my hand hissing (never touching him). Then just laid back down asleep. He thought I was awake and joking with him until he told me about it the next morning. Then we were both freaked, until I demonstrated the same thing I do with Eli when we're playing the cat game, and he said that was exactly what I did. Good to know I was only dreaming of playing that game with Eli and not demon posessed...ha ha ha! I'm praying for a wonderful weekend at the farm!

Eli loves to:
-Sit on his potty
-Do somersaults on the bed
-Play in any type of water (a bucket with some water in it will keep him entertained for hours as he puts dandelions or sticks in and out of it)
-Climb any stairs (especially loves climbing up to the rooms upstairs)
-Feed his stuffed animals when I declare them "hungry", give them kisses when they are "crying" or rock them side to side
-Smell flowers (I taught him to do this instead of picking them and it was worked wonderfully)
-Eat fruits and veggies
-Use a fork (which he calls a spoon). He'll hardly eat unless I give him one to at least try with
-Be tickled (he'll say "More more more" over and over again)
-Be around other kids. He watched them so carefully and shares really well (we use that word a lot around here in practice)
-Play the guitar which he calls "AY YA"
-Sing old McDonald, and when you sing "And on the farm he had a...." and wait to let him fill in the blanks he always shouts "BOY"
-Go for walks with Rica, play at the park or playground
-Talk to his grandmas or aunt Becca on the phone (he kisses the phone)

Mom, a Carni!

What a fabulous weekend! We didn't have anything major going on, so we got to enjoy our time as a family and make our own fun! My aunt Paula (my dad's brother Ed's wife) was nice enough to come over after Eli was asleep last night and stay with him while we watched the huge fireworks show at the end of our block on the river. My cousins Megan, Ellen, Angela, and Sam joined us. It was great! We snacked on cookies and hot chocolate. Today we went to church and after playing in the lobby for a little bit, Eli headed down the hall to his class on his OWN and went in excited to play with the kids. They said he whined a little bit, but for the most part had a great time. When I peeked in at the end of church he was just playing away with the other kids. He did spill his drink on himself though. He can drink out of a cup really well here at home, but they give the kids dixie cups with just a little bit of water (he's in the big boy class...probably one of the youngest) and he wasn't used to one that small. She said it takes a couple weeks and they can handle the small cup. Later we took Eli to a carnival in the mall parking lot. Unfortunately, he wasn't tall enough to do any of the kiddie rides (that we thought he'd be able to....probably will be the story of his life), but he did ride the carousel twice and loved it. He loved watching all the crazy rides with people going upside down etc. We hit the park after feasting on another deliciously grilled meal from Brandon (he made the best grilled chicken I've ever eaten last night, and amazing steaks tonight). It was so incredibly crowded. Eli had fun, but it was so much work to keep him from running into other kids or getting trampled. When I go during the day or meet my friends there is no one there. I just made a Lasagna for supper tomorrow and am off to bed aka my SANCTUARY!