cut your hair and paste it to your back?

...or maybe to Ben's head?

This is what Dave used to say to Brie as a joke. Last night we finally did cut her hair. But we thought maybe pasting it to her back would be kinda weird. And blond doesn't seem to be Ben's color. So, instead, we thought maybe the Locks of Love charity could use it.

Here are a couple before and after pics of Brie. She didn't want her pic taken last night for some reason, hence the turning away view. Was an emotional experience for her to see herself with short hair all of a sudden. I totally get that, but was surprised that even as early as 6-going-on-7, that it is a hard thing.

In other news...
We're still "this close" to getting two of the three floors done on the new house. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Dave says he's not sure if it's really because we're at the end of the tunnel or if it's the light from an oncoming train. Praying it's the real LIGHT at the end of this tunnel.

Allie kindly pointed out, I don't write much about Dave in the posts...must change that. So, here's a bit of an update...he just came back from a trip to Chicago for work which was a good break for him from THE HOUSE. Really THE HOUSE has become a second job, not to mention the stuff at home he helps with. He got me outside last night to toss around the baseball which was a welcome diversion. How hard it is to go from work to play mode! The kids cheered us on and awarded us points in flower petals.

The kids had another photo shoot today, since the camera was left out. Here are the fruits of their efforts:

You've Got to Be Kidding Me! (YGTBKM)

A title I've used (at least) once before, but those words were the first to run through my head.

"Luke locked himself in the bathroom, Mom," said Brie.

"YGTBKM" says I in my mind.

Upstairs I go to the "blue bathroom." Try handle on door (old door handles tend to be cantankerous). Door handle seems to work fine but door won't budge.

"Luke, did you lock the door?"

"No, Mama."

So, I ask that same question at least a thousand times because I am in complete denial that for the first time seven years since being in this house, that one of our children has actually managed to lock him/herself in the bathroom with the equivalent of a deadbolt for a lock (and of course no key or even keyhole for said lock)!

Plan A: Denial.  Doesn't work.

Onto Plan B: "Turn the lock Lukie to open the door. No, not the door handle, the thing below the door. No, not the door handle, it's the silver thing below the door. Can you turn it? Try and turn it."

Plan B: Doesn't work.

Back to modified version of Plan A which I'll call Plan 1A and a half: Unscrew door knob in wild hopes that the doorknob is, after all the problem. No dice there. Okay, maybe it will work if I poke finger through the hole once we remove the doorknob and point Luke toward the lock he needs to turn. Darn, the doorknob is stuck - Luke can't pull it out.

Scrap Plan 1A and half.

Plan C: call fire department (YGTBKM!)

Pause here for a second...did I mention we recently visited our local fire department as part of our homeschooling curriculum? How coincidental that just 5 days after getting a tour and talking with the kids about the difference between real emergencies and non-emergencies I get to call that same department to come and get Luke out of the bathroom!!! YGTBKM! Though on the upside - Brie asked if we needed to call 911, so I was able to reinforce that this was not a 911 type emergency and I just happened to have the direct phone number to our fire department written down because of the very-fresh-in-our-memory-tour. Unpause.

Execute Plan C. Fire department kindly responds to call to rescue 3 1/2 yr old from the bathroom. They try a Plan A of their own - pry molding off door frame and release lock with handy tool. Plan A fails because bathroom door lock is a deadbolt. (BTW - Reese was watching this whole process VERY closely. Just making a note of it now :) )

Plan B. Attempt to send firefighter through very narrow bathroom window. Other two firefighters who attempted to execute Plan A aren't sure if he can make it throught, but...he does! AND without having to rip the screen! Phew. Lock undone. Luke out. Replace window. Profusely thank firefighters for coming to the rescue. Carry on with plans to go to Joann Fabrics.

Seriously, though, I can only take such a light-hearted and humorous look at this because I was highly confident that they'd be able to get Luke out. However, I probably would have freaked out and totally lost my cool if I knew Luke was hurt in there and I couldn't get to him or if I wasn't sure if they'd be able to get him out without smashing the door apart (which would have been really scary for him).

Oh, and it was great to see how much Brie retained from our firehouse visit and emergency plan discussion we had. When she knew I had called the fire department, she went right out front to our "meeting place" to greet them.

Now, onto pray that this is the only time we have the fire department come to our house for any reason ever again. God is good always!

LOVE this Resource

I just stumbled across this website today...biblos.com. As far as my few minutes of exploration can tell it has (almost?) everything you could want to delve deeply into God's Word. Many parallel translations, Strong's, chronological, interlinear, maps, commentaries and so much more. Have fun getting to know His Word on a whole new level!

Mark it on Your Calendar

It all started out with an innocent question of curiousity from Brie yesterday about water in our house and how it comes out of the faucet. I've since been spending my time becoming rather engrossed in reading about poop and how we get rid of it. You'd think I'd gotten my fill of it (so to speak) after changing diapers for 6+ years and wiping the stuff off of floors (I just relived the joy of that chore about 5 minutes ago. Seriously!).

But maybe it's because of that fact that this next one grabbed me when I was reading "The Story Behind Toilets"(a book I had picked up from the library in the hopes of answering Brie's question): The United Nations has set the goal of providing safe toilets for everyone by the year 2025 and it will take $10 billion a year to reach this goal. Impossibly high amount right? But the book followed up that figure with two more startling ones...Americans spend four times that amount on their pets annually and Europeans spend $10 billion annually on ice cream!

Which makes me think the UN's goal is attainable. Because to not attain it means more than 1.5 million children under the age of five will continue to die each year because of poor sanitation. To not attain it means more than 2 billion people in the world will not have access to something we consider a necessity and a right in this country. To not attain it means there are layers and layers of social injustices which will continue to go unaddressed.

And I think God is nudging me to contribute to this effort (since we don't have pets and can't put them on a budget, there may be fewer trips to the ice cream store in my future :) ).

I have much more praying, researching and brainstorming to do on this issue, but for now, please mark November 19th on your calendar...World Toilet Day. If you want more information on the issues surrounding access to clean water and sanitation, please visit www.wateraidamerica.org.

(Note: the facts referenced in this post came from "The Story Behind Toilets" by Elizabeth Raum, 2009)

Happy Birthday Reese!

It's hard to believe Reese is 5 today. And it's hard to pin point exactly when he went from being a little guy whose every move we had to watch to a little boy whose every move we only have monitor after long periods of silence are heard in his general direction. :)

I thought it would be fun for each of the kids to have their birth story written down, so, here you go Reesie-guy.

On Saturday, April 9, we were less than a week out from your official due date of April 15. In the morning I was busy with some friends getting items sorted and priced for a rummage sale we were having at our church later in the summer. Then in the early afternoon, we took a tour of the hospital where you were born. (Since we were only there once before with your sister, we figured a refresher course would be a good idea, even though it was awefully close to your due date!). Daddy jokingly asked the nurse who gave the tour if they'd ever had a woman go into labor while she was actually on the tour. The said that had never happened. Daddy pointed at me and said that I could be the first to set the record.

We made it through the tour and came home, put Brianna down for a nap and then I had a rest. When I woke up, I knew that there was something going on because I was started to feel some contractions. Since I didn't know what labor felt like (your sister was delivered by C-section), I wasn't sure if these contractions were the real thing and so continued on with getting Brie up and getting dinner ready. I kept glancing at the clock every time I felt a contraction but was still didn't think I was in the beginning labor stages.

It wasn't until Daddy and I were in bed that night that I told him I thought I would be going into labor soon (by then it was hard to merely ignore the contractions, but I think this was partly because I was excited that just maye we'd be meeting you really soon). Daddy immediately turned out the light and settled in to get some sleep (he wanted to be at the top of his game when it came time to go to the hospital). I tried to sleep but finally gave up and went downstairs. After a few hours, the contractions were getting much stronger and were 5-7 minutes apart so I woke Daddy up and decided to call the doctor. She told me to wait until the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart - not what I wanted to hear. I held out for another hour until the contractions got so uncomfortable that I didn't think I could stand it much longer.

So we called the doctor, got the okay to come in, called Grandpa and Nan to come be with Brie and then headed to the hospital. Fortunately, it was a short car ride, because I think Daddy was a little nervous you would be born in the car!

At the hospital, they checked me in, and gave me the epidural I asked for to help with then pain and then we settled in to wait some more. Since it was now early Sunday morning (on April 10), we decided to call Father Keith and ask him to pray for you and me during the prayers for the people time at church. It must have worked because you were born just before 11:30 a.m. (about the time the 10 a.m. church service was finishing). God has good timing!

We were so excited to meet you and immediately called Grandpa and Nan and told them they could bring Brianna to the hospital to meet her new baby brother. Since she was only 20 months old, I'm not sure if she really understood what you would be like when you finally got here, but she did like to see your "stinky toe toes."

So that's the story of how God chose to bring you into this world and into this family. Little did we know how much this little guy who was a quiet, happy baby-who-liked-his-milk-really-warm, would keep us on our toes.

And because the kids like to see themselves in video, here's a little peek at the birthday boy this morning...

April Fool's Recap

Here's a video of Brie experiencing the April Fool's joke (I did it today since she had a sleepover on Wednesday night). It's really dark since I perpetually forget that the camera need extra lighting but I think you can get the idea.

I played the joke yesterday on the boys and Reese figured it out in 2 seconds.