August Photos

Here are some August Photos.

Always a climber. These boxes are in our bedroom and are filled with the things I left here when I went off to explore the world. We truly are surrounded by boxes!

Ethan loves other children and babies...even himself!

Step one: open bottom drawer and crawl into it.

Step two: stand up in bottom drawer, then open drawer above slightly.

Step Three: Using second drawer, prop oneself up on to top of dresser.

Step Four: Giggle triumphantly at success! (never a dull moment here folks!)

Isn't that cute! We were resting on a warm day under some shade. He had some nice ice water in his sippy cup.

We went to an antique engine show at this fairgrounds. Does anyone know this song? I couldn't get it out of my head the whole afternoon.

Ethan pointing to my mom's flowers asking "that?" (He's on my lap pointing to the flowers in the photo saying "that?" right now!). My mom has an amazing green thumb!

I made a lemon meringue pie and my meringue turned out! Had to share. :)

My hometown had a car show! That's downtown there. We live just a block or two from that stoplight straight ahead.

My town also has a nice playground with a toddler size area. Ethan is navigating these steps all by himself.

There was also a parade down main street. Tractors, fire engines and a few pickup trucks. The school band and cheerleaders and one cheering group that was handing out pancakes! (Ethan on my lap is asking "that?" Tractors!)

He LOVES pushing his strollers!

At the park, Ethan and TJ walking. Ethan's just learning to come with us so we have lots of divergent moments like this.

Baby #2 at 12 weeks. :) It was awesome to see the baby moving around and waving those arms and legs.

This and That

Well, I'm still not thinking in a very linear fashion so I thought a blog entry of odds and ends would be fun. :)

He is getting so long! Sleeping toddlers & babies are lovely. I love how he sleeps next to - or on - his blanket.

Ethan is learning to say "no," but hasn't yet learned the true meaning so we end up with fun little interactions like at the restaurant yesterday. I took the soy sauce away from him and moved it across the table while saying "no, no, no." He looked at me and grinned and said, "no, no, no" in a fun sing-songy voice!

"Look mom, I can take out my icky diaper can and strew the diapers all over my room!"

I'm having a terrible time keeping Ethan from hitting the cat with things. Whatever he finds to carry around also seems game to thwack the cat with. The cat though does not run away, so my sympathy for her is lessened.

Ethan is now our little climber. He can climb up and down his changing table now. Don't worry, he's only allowed to do these feats with parental supervision.

Life/culture here is different. It seems like it should be the same but it just isn't! There isn't any major difference but there are bunches of small ones. For instance, when I call somewhere here I'm often put on hold, and the hold "music" is two beeps. The first time I heard it I thought maybe another call was coming in or that I'd been cut off!

We miss Winco, Cash & Carry, and Costco. There is a Sam's Club here, but so far nothing like the other two.


Ethan LOVES helping me move things! Nothing is too small. Today it was a box, two days ago a large bookshelf. He is very angry if I stop for a break; somehow he senses that it's only a break, because once it's in the final spot he happily runs off to find something else to play with.

I have music playing in the background and Ethan will stop to do a little dance. It's more of a sway, but very cute.

This is a little video of a happy fellow dancing and playing. Can you see it?

Today Ethan figured out how to play the piano with his behind. It was a very loud performance!

One of my current challenges is finding things. We weren't expecting to still be living out of boxes three months into our time here and it is driving me a bit batty! For example, while Ethan is asleep I want to read some of my favorite books that I packed in the "open soon" pile of boxes...that I now can't find! Nor can we find our bathroom box with my makeup and TJ's clippers. It's warm here and swimming would be fun, but where are the swimsuits? And so we go! Half our things are in my parents garage and half are in storage and I think some that belong in the garage must have accidentally gone into storage.

Ethan seems to have thrown away my round brush, and between that and the humidity here my hair is pretty wild these days!

We visited the Smucker's headquarters near where TJ's family lives. Smuckers owns a LOT of brands!

Ethan does NOT like water. At all. Not even a little. We want to go swimming and yet if he gets near a pool he just screams his little head off. So I guess once we go swimming we'll have to take turns!

I am now 12 weeks pregnant. Based on the whole two weeks pregnant before you are really pregnant we can date this child to our trip to Ohio. God has funny timing.

Yesterday I got a call from our Oregon dentist asking if I wanted to keep my appointment on the 16th. Another loose end!

We have headphones to listen to the tv/computer and talk on Skype phone. Ethan thinks they are super!

Life Is An Ever-Changing Stream

As we seek to raise Ethan the best we can I hear one piece of good advice over and over: "whatever you do, be consistent." We're doing our best to follow that advice, though it's hard to stay completely consistent as he is rapidly changing and developing! I think we all crave that consistency in life...finding a groove and staying in it. I think this is especially true as a female; we seem to have an inborn desire to nest and have stability.

That's why this season of life presents such a challenge. There is little consistency, little stability. Lots of hope that everything will work out. Lots of trust in God who provides all things. Lots of faith that no matter what comes the Spirit walks with us through it all. Life is like an ever-changing stream that flows constantly, and while we can direct much of our direction the stream keeps moving whether we enjoy the ride or not.

All that to say that it looks like TJ's job will be changing again. He was blessed to get a job soon after we arrived but unfortunately it looks like that job won't be working out after all. Yesterday he interviewed for a job that looks awesome for him. The benefits would be good enough and it seems the pay would let us find our own home without my needing to re-enter the workforce. The job would be another second shift position but it looks like he'd have most weekends off. He is pretty excited about this possibility and asks for prayer that the Lord would open this door if it is really a good position. Right now they are running his background check which seems promising.

We're still living in transitional housing at my parents. Right now we're waiting for carpet to be delivered so we can put Ethan's room/my dad's new den together. We moved everything out of the room last week so the carpet folks could come but unfortunately the carpet was the wrong size, so our living quarters are rather torn apart until they return with the correct size. Once Ethan's room is done we'll move everything out of our bedroom and get that painted. Fortunately it already has carpet so once it is painted and all my old childhood stuff is moved out we can get moved in there. Since my childhood items were still stored here we will be having a moving day soon to get all those items out of here and into our storage unit. Then we'll be able to fit all the things in the garage into this space...probably just in time to move again! :D

Ethan is doing great! He knows most of his body parts now and has lots of fun pointing to them when we ask him. He can take things to the trash can if I ask him to. He's also heading into his toddler years. We're finding he gets very frustrated now when he can't get things (including his parents) to work like he wants them to. His will is strong and he knows what he wants but his verbal skills aren't developed so that he can tell us what he wants. I'd be frustrated too! He signs "more" and "all done" mostly, though we're teaching him "please," "thank you," "milk," "water," "hungry," and "food." I think it's likely he'll catch on to those about the time his verbal skills are ready to say them. He's just getting into books, asks us "that?" ALL THE TIME (what a vocabulary he's building!) and loves counting! He says "uuunnnneee...uunnnee" (like the "un" in "under") for "one," and then just says "one" as many times as he wants to count until we join in. He loves the vacuum cleaner and my mom's lawnmower and would push both around all day (turned off of course) if we let him.

We're doing good overall, hanging in there and hoping we can get settled soon. Also, TJ's birthday is tomorrow, the 30th! I can pass on any birthday wishes to him. Thanks for all your prayers and notes! Miss you all.

Happy Scream!

"Ahhh, I love the mower..."

"Let's play, daddy!"

One Month in Ohio on a Red Canoe

Ok, maybe the canoe part isn't true, but it has been one month now since we arrived in Ohio. Here's a short summary of the last month. Please excuse my English writing skills...this is a stream of consciousness while tired post!

The Trip from Oregon to Ohio
The trip across the country went well. Let's see, what exciting things happened on the trip...? Lots of high winds across the flat states like Wyoming and Nebraska. Wind is nice in a car or in our house, but in a truck towing a car it caused some stress for TJ who drove the whole way. Well, not the whole way. I drove for approximately 15 minutes one day. It was in Nebraska. Ethan had awakened us sick with a cold at 4 am their time, which was 6 am in Ohio and 3 am in Oregon. We decided since we were headed east we'd just say we were getting up at 6 am and get on the road, since no matter what we tried Ethan just wanted to cry loudly. Needless to say we were quite tired that day. I convinced TJ to let me drive a bit. It was a little windy, but sunny. I was racing down the highway at 45 mph when we started noticing a lot of fire trucks and ambulances making their way to our side of the road and racing past us. We noticed up ahead there had been an accident (no one hurt bad)...because for a 1 MILE stretch of road there was snow and ice!! Beautiful sunny dry day, drive drive drive, snow! ice!, drive drive drive, beautiful sunny dry day. We pulled over at the next rest area after that - I'd had enough to last me the whole way!

Ethan woke us up the day we were staying overnight to catch Cabela's in the morning, so we were not able to make it to the main Cabela's. But we did make it to a Cabela's in Indiana, and since then to one in Michigan! TJ is now a big fan.

Ethan was a great traveler, though it was harder when he was fighting a cold. The cat was also a great traveler in our car we were towing behind us. Lest you suspect we were bad cat owners we had placed her litter, food, water and a thermometer in the car and had the windows cracked and checked on her at every stop. It was fortunately still cool out until the last day, and even then she was ok. One day TJ tried to coax her out of the car to come ride in the truck with us (though where would she have sat!) but she made it clear she was happy where she was!

We enjoyed visiting Nick & Maria in Idaho and Ben & Jeni (though we missed seeing Jeni!) in Nebraska. When I mapquested the trip I didn't figure in the fact that we'd be going slower than the regular speed limit or that towing a vehicle slows you down also. This made for some long long days. All in all we made it safely. If anyone is planning a trip across though we left our little diaper bag at a truck stop along the way...they said they'd hold it for us. :P

Our awesome truck packing crew!

Isn't that beautiful. That was in a state, like Nebraska. Or Wyoming!

We were packed in like sardines! I couldn't put my legs in front of me b/c there was a pop out there, and the seat I was sitting in expressly forbade carseats sitting there.

Ethan enjoyed stretching his legs too; and honking the horn!

In Ohio Now
We had marked our boxes with blue X's (don't need right away) and red X's (will need sooner rather than later). Right now all our blue X boxes are in our new storage place, and all the red X boxes are in my parents garage! We are making a little living space for ourselves, taking over the second floor of my parents house. We share the kitchen and bathroom with my parents though downstairs. When I left home after high school everything stayed the same in my room, so I'm having quite the trip down memory lane as I pack everything up to take down to storage! I'm also finding some fun family history items in the process - I think my grandmother's wedding dress and her college yearbook are two of my favorite found items so far. We are also making a small den upstairs for my dad in the room Ethan is sleeping in; that way when we find our permanent housing my dad will have a nice newly painted, carpeted room for all his fun things. I'm hoping we'll be settled in here in the next month and have all the boxes in the garage unpacked.

TJ began work last week for a company called Wingfoot Tire Systems (or something close to that). For now he's mostly changing truck tires; later he should be sent to some large truck storage lots to work on tires and trailers there. If they don't send him off he'll have to find other employment as we were counting on the commission from that piece of the job to make ends meet. I'm looking for part-time evening work but haven't found anything yet.

We're exploring our housing options here but haven't found anything yet. Not much more to say about that except we're hoping to figure out something soon.

We've been sick the last month we've been here which has made the transition more challenging. My recommendation: when you make a major life change and move, be sure to keep taking your vitamins, get enough sleep, etc! The past couple days we've finally been feeling better, and that really helps!

We're slowly adjusting to the cultural differences too. We've both been "citified" these last years and act and think as though we are living in/near a large city! Here are some differences here:

• People wave to be friendly. Lots of people! And they really are just being friendly, not trying to catch your attention or sell something or tell you the gas attendent forgot to replace your gas cap.
• In Ohio, like the other 48 states, we pump our own gas. I have yet to fill a tank though, TJ's been the gas filler upper.
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• There are older people around. In the stores, working at McDonald's, sweeping their front porch. I keep saying to TJ, "look, another old person!" He thinks I'm being silly, but really, if you live in Beaverton, how many retired folks do you see in a day? Who are not jogging? :P I like it!
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• There is very little cultural diversity here. Everyone is pretty much white, and in this town most of the white folks are from Germany or Switzerland! Our neighbors here are Mexican, but if they weren't next door I think I could go for days without seeing someone different than me. Don't like that. 
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• Life moves at a slower pace here. I thought I was going to explode the first time we went to the mall. We waited at a counter for a good five minutes while the lady helped ring someone up, and chat, and visit. Then we wanted to buy something and all the cashiers were helping people, in the entire store, and each one was taking their leisurely time while chatting away with the people about all sorts of things. TJ had to tell me to calm several times. On the other hand, when you walk into a small store there is usually someone there to greet you, ask you what you want, help you find it and ring your purchase up. That also takes some getting used to, but it's nice once you adjust.
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• Thunderstorms!! We have them now! And crazy crazy rain. We've had several tornado's warnings also. Not a fan of those, and when we do buy a house here we've 100% decided it must have a basement! You'd be surprised how many homes don't have one. 
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•  Many people know lots more about me than I do about them. I am usually still racking my brain to figure out how I know a person when they've already recounted my recent history. Small towns have small hidden news/gossip networks and news sure does travel fast!!
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• There are a lot of other differences too, but those are the first ones I am thinking of. I think the hardest thing for me right now is navigating how to find my niche in a place people remember me - but the me of 13 years ago. That was a whole different person!! It's also hard when people expect that I'll remember things like names, relationships, histories, what the weather is like and so on. I've had a whole other life since high school and have forgotten so much about how life works here. So I'm trying to be patient with myself and others, and try to have a lot of grace all around!

The stairs leading up to our new living quarters. This house is at least 100 years old and back then there were no rules about making the stairs the same height/width, or wide enough for a full foot to fit on! Ethan loves them.

This will be Ethan's room/my dad's den; before photo. Notice the diamond windows - there are two of them. Any suggestions out there for window treatments?

Cool storm clouds. Story will have to wait for another post though.

TJ & Ethan, checking out the neighbor's from my parent's backyard. So cute!

That is a horse. Hilarious horse! I may have a better picture later.

Ethan loves that our living space is a mess right now, because it means that he gets to explore things like the permanent marker before I notice he has it! :P

All Things Moving

We have one week left till our big move. Most of the house is packed up now, separated into rooms - boxes for right away, boxes for storage, furniture for right away, furniture for storage, furniture for refugees, and things we'll need on the road.

We'll be leaving May 8th and taking six days to travel across the country. We hope to arrive Friday the 13th. Tee hee! We moved into this house on April Fool's day, so it seems fitting we'd move into another house on another "memorable" day. I must say, I don't recommend moving in anywhere on April Fool's day; for quite some time I wondered if at some point our landlords would pop in and yell "April Fools! You didn't really get this house! Ha ha ha!" But they never did and we've been here three wonderful years. We'll miss our beautiful views of the mountains, living next door to an airport, watching the tractors and workers take care of the berry bushes and hazelnut trees and pretty much everything else about living here - minus the propane bill and the mice.

Once we arrive in Ohio we plan to stay with my parents until TJ secures a job. Once he's been working for a bit we'll begin to look at our housing options. It may even be cheaper to buy a house there as opposed to renting. Strange to imagine. TJ has a phone interview for a possible job this Monday. We'll see what the Lord has for us. All the family on both sides sound excited to see Ethan in person soon. He was 4 months old when I was home a year ago...he's a whole different little boy now! My parents have a fenced in backyard and it will be fun to let him run while sitting on the porch watching. I think Ethan will enjoy romping with my mom's dog also.

Needless to say we will miss our friends and church here greatly. I've been here 8 years, TJ 11, 5 of those married and we are leaving our home. While we know we will find a new community in Ohio leaving the dear friends we have is a parting of ways, and all such partings are painful.

I'm also thinking about how each person's response to our news reveals something about themselves. Example. Yesterday I told a woman we were moving to Ohio. Her strong first response was, "how scary!" Scary? Well, I suppose the unknown could be scary, but that would never be my first response! She couldn't imagine going somewhere not having a job lined up or a house of your own to live in. Some people say, "how wonderful to be near family!" (they have great families) Some people say, "oh, you're living by your family...?" in a dubious tone. (they don't have great families). Some say, "what an adventure!" (they like adventures) Some say, "Well, I'm sure the Lord will provide, it will all work out somehow" (they probably don't like adventures :)  ) I am thinking about my own responses and what they say about me: I'm practical with great friends and a great church. What do your responses say about you?

Now at the end of this entry we have 3 days left until we leave and are lost in the myriad of details a three way move entails. Maybe this made sense, maybe not. I probably won't really know until we're settled and my brain takes a rest! :D

A Photo Summary of the Week

Ethan had a blast exploring in the car. He turned on the four-way lights, just about tore off the blinker but didn't figure out the horn. I think he'll enjoy driving.

Eating out. He does not like restaurant mac & cheese any more than his mom. Blech! But the fruit was good! I love this roll out suction cupped eating mat.

Visiting with friends from my hometown; Rosalyn & her daughter Amanda. Ethan was having fun at the end of our meal sliding across the top of the table between them and me. See that smile... :)

This is Ethan taking a ride in my old grocery cart from the days before I got a car. He thought it was very fun and was not pleased when we took him out.

Very excited to be roaming in the off-limits room. We've been busy cleaning and were taking some larger items out of here with the gate down.

Those are some photos of our last week. Ethan surprises me every day with what he's learning. This morning he used a fork, properly, to eat much of his breakfast. The other day I told him to close the cupboard doors and he did! We love our little fellow and find so much joy in watching him discover his world.

First Haircut

A few days ago we drove up into the hills to visit with some friends...and brought along our clippers! It dawned on us a few weeks ago that it was probably time for Ethan's first haircut. I had clipped his bangs over a month ago (one quick snip with the scissors!) but with hair over his ears, back in his eyes and pretty far down on his neck it seemed time. TJ and I went out and purchased a set of clippers and our friend Jennie agreed to help me learn to cut his hair!

So up Ethan & I drove! Jennie & her husband have two boys and two girls. Ethan sat on my lap and Jennie showed me how to use the clippers and cut his hair. The kids entertained Ethan for the entire event and though they brought him toys to distract him from the clippers I think just watching them was distraction enough! I will miss having them near when I cut his hair on my own. :)

Here are some photos:

Before

After

Thank you Jennie!

Fearless with Complete Trust

Ethan will be 15 months old tomorrow. He is a busy fellow moving and exploring from the time he wakes to the time he goes to bed. He is completely fearless. And he has complete trust in us as his parents. Yesterday I was sitting on the floor in his bedroom, which also doubles as our guest room and houses a twin bed. Ethan was behind me crawling around on the twin bed and looking out the window. Apparently deciding he'd rather be down on the floor he dove off the bed headfirst over my shoulder. And when I say he dove, I mean he DOVE, like he was diving into a swimming pool. My back was to him so I didn't see it coming, but thankfully managed to catch him halfway to the floor. I understand why a mothers hair may turn grey early. Was he worried I wouldn't catch him? Nope! He was laughing and thought it was great fun, and given the chance I bet he'd do it again.

I find myself wishing I was completely fearless. I wish I had complete trust. If not in earthly things then at least when about my Father's business. But I lost that along the way. Ethan challenges me every day to think about my relationship with my heavenly Father and I can only pray I'll be a better Child as I learn from my own.

He loves to climb up on to the rocking chair...and then onto the bed.

Climbing again...I find him in all sorts of interesting places!

Look mom! I'm up high!

My Poor Abandoned Blog

The funny thing about a blog is that it doesn't lie. I can say to myself that I haven't posted for "a while," and think in my head that my last post was in December. But the data doesn't lie...yes, it was September! Ethan was 9 months old and we opened the Vimeo account I had forgotten about!

September was also the month our newly mobile Ethan decided he didn't want any more pictures taken and threw away our camera. Well, we think he threw it away or recycled it. He likes to recycle lots of things! The months have gone by so quickly since then. He is a toddler now and while I type is sitting on my lap laughing because he just figured out that when he moves the mouse it moves the arrow on the screen. :)

Recently I started a new blog named "Escaping Debt." Money is a funny thing. We all interact with it, we all need it, yet so few of us want to talk about it. I've been blogging for a while (anonymously) about our journey to becoming debt free (the journey continues...and will continue to continue for many years unless something exciting happens like winning the lottery we never play!) but wanted a place that I could share things with friends too. But my other blog is more about money and homemaking than TJ and Ethan and family things...though the two will probably intersect!

In starting the new blog I realized that my family blog was abandoned. And that maybe now is a good time to resurrect it! I don't plan to post often, maybe once every couple weeks as a goal. And if I find I post more often than that...great!

The sun has come out and the rain has gone, so I'm going to take Ethan out for a romp in the yard. And maybe today I'll even put the right size shoes on his feet. :)

9 months old

Well, Ethan is now 9 months old! He had his 9 month checkup today and is doing great. He weighed 21 lbs 10.5 oz (75th percentile), was 28 inches long (45th percentile) and had a head circumference of 46 cm. We'll be introducing more foods in the coming months and working to three meals a day.

We're planning to use Vimeo to upload little video clips to. You can check if we have any new ones here: http://vimeo.com/user4211642. 

Here are some photos of the last month:

He drug out everything into the middle of the room.

Making peach jam.

He found the box of crunchy treats, opened it, and was happily having a snack all before I even turned around.

Starting to figure out the sippy cup.

Loves the cat. That's our new loveseat.

The laundry basket is very fun to climb in.

Some of the peach jam.