thanksgivning recap

we had a great thanksgiving break. so much to be thankful for right now, and hopefully that will come soon in another post. with matthias being sick at the beginning of the week, i got sort of an extended break, even if i did have to work on wednesday. jason had the whole day off thursday, and then only had to work friday night, so we got a lot of family time, a lot of relaxing time, and a lot of fun time.

thursday morning kicked off with watching the macy's parade and cooking up a storm, since we spend wednesday night out with friends instead of actually getting ready for thanksgiving. totally worth it though. and everything got cooked in plenty of time.

the parade was a big hit

making a thanksgiving card - a picture of mommy and the pool, the two things she is thankful for.

we had thanksgiving meal with jason's family, which is always fun and there is always so. much. food. we still have enough leftovers to feed a small village.

beating up aunt lizzie

tryptophan strikes again

the rest of the weekend was spent doing little things around the house, raking leaves, cleaning, watching football, things like that. it's nice to have time to get those things done and still have time to relax.

saturday, matt and ashley - two of our best friends from the barnabas days - came to visit. it was so fun to see them and catch up on life.

love these people!

breakfast of champions. yes, that is bacon in the bloody mary.

this week (or a little longer) in review

 Ozark Rugby Tournament. A whole weekend of rugby to wrap up the season.

date night with hiba - reading at the library, followed by dinner at chickfila.

hiba talking to herself in the reflection.

thanksgiving feast at preschool!

"don't take my picture, mom!".

birthday party at build-a-bear with friends from preschool.

sick day for matthias, which hiba talked me into letting her stay home for as well. it was actually a good day. they played well together when matthias was feeling well, and hiba and i had a good time together when he was sleeping.

making rolls for thanksgiving

oobleck! (cornstarch and water)

hiba's rock collection

and matthias'. i'm pretty sure it was just one big rock.

building a christmas tree and listening to christmas music.

and now, it's time for thanksgiving! time flies when you're having fun!

a slow opening rose

i started volunteering with teen mops two years ago. when i volunteered, i figured that it would be a once in a while thing that i helped out at as needed. but that first meeting sucked me in. and so now, in the third year of helping, i'm co-leading the group.

the first two years were rough. not a lot of organization, not a lot of outside support, not a lot of volunteers, not a lot of feedback from the teen moms. it seemed like they were basically coming for the free stuff - food, diapers, baby clothes. many of them would talk through meetings, text, get up and walk out and come back ten minutes later. they would see what the food we had brought was and then leave to buy chips and coke. they would not really participate in many discussions. to be honest, by last may, i was about done.

but for some reason, i stayed. for some reason, i thought i would give it another shot.

and this year has been amazing.

we finally have a great team of plenty of volunteers. we have a childcare coordinator and enough help in the nursery. our baby store is literally overflowing with donated items. we have diapers each week.

and most importantly, we have a lot of teen moms who desperately need to hear about how Jesus loves them - and who are willing to listen. we are up to 22 girls on the roster. 22 young moms who have been coming, who participate in small groups, who help with set-up and clean-up, who pour their hearts out to us, who tell us thank you for how we are helping, who ask for Bibles so they can read them, who ask us to pray for them and their baby daddies, who are taking an active role in being better moms and making their babies lives better.

i know that serving God is not all about me (or even a little about me). i know we are asked to follow unconditionally, and often don't see the results of our work. but, every once in a while, God is gracious enough to allow us to see how we are part of His plan, how we are part of building His kingdom, and how we have helped to share His love. and that's what He has let me see this semester.

C is a young mom who joined our group last year. she has a little boy who she loves and is doing her best to be a good mom to. we know she wasn't going to school as regularly as she should and she wasn't very involved in the meetings. she didn't talk, she didn't answer questions, she would text or leave in the middle of speakers. we had some issues with her that made us question if she should be allowed to be part of the group. and honestly, i was kind of hoping she just wouldn't come back.

but she did come back. i don't know what clicked, but God did something in her life. she now gets to most meetings early to help with the store. she is the first one to offer to clean up after meetings. my co-leader goes to a teen mom group at C's high school once a month, and C is constantly talking up teen mops, saying how great it is, talking about how she is learning to pray for her son and learning how to be a better mom.

night and day.

i'm so thankful that God didn't give up on her like i would have. and i'm also humbled and thankful that he allows me to continue to be a part of his plan and to see that he doesn't give up on these girls.

it's been a long week.

well, this week has been rather, um, crappy. for lack of a better description.

we realized on monday night that we needed our sewer line replaced. literally, a crappy realization.

we actually realized this a few months ago, but we've just been snaking out the clean-out valve anytime that the sewer backs up into our bathtubs. and by we, i totally mean jason. i had nothing to with any of it.

but monday night, after two hours of trying to get it unclogged, in the dark and the rain, we came to the conclusion that now is the time. unfortunately, this was realized at 8 p.m., after the kids were in bed and the toilets were backed up. so, thankfully we have super awesome family close by, and we loaded up the kids and headed to jason's parents' for the night. the whole chaos was only made better by hiba and matthias getting up at 5:30 a.m. on tuesday. which i should complain about just as much as i complain about snaking out the valve since jason totally had that situation covered as well.

tuesday was a long day. luckily, we found a great plumber who had already looked at the problem and was in the process of giving us an estimate. he also said that even though he probably couldn't get to it till friday, he would come and reuter it out for us, so it would be functional until he could fix it. but after a long morning, a super long day at work, a mix-up with the car-seats when they were needed in one car but far away in another, the sun setting at 5 p.m. thanks to the stupid time change, and the plumber not being there at 6 when i finally got home - i was about to lose it. but, thanks to an super awesome friend, a quick trip to target, and dinner at senior tequilas, the day was survived. and the plumber did come that evening, so we were able to stay at our own house.

the plumber ended up being able to come on wednesday, which was great. and he finished in two days, and we were able to stay at our house because he made it functional by the end of the first day. so other than the thousands of dollars that we got to spend on the job (which was still literally thousands less than we thought it would be based on an early estimate), it was pretty painless once we got the process started.

what? you don't have a huge trench and small backhoe in your yard? 

and now, we are back home, with a brand new sewer line, and we get to enjoy these, which jason so thoughtfully got me on monday as an extended birthday celebration, right before all the literal shit hit the proverbial fan.

happy halloween!

yesterday was "super crazy day!", according to hiba. halloween definitely lived up to expectations this year, and i think even exceeded them in many cases. here are the highlights:

-hiba actually getting a costume that lived up to the picture in her head. she wanted to be "super hiba", but i am not crafty, nor do i plan ahead, so i'm pretty surprised that i pulled it off. i only pulled it off because of some last-minute, much needed help from my mother-in-law - ya know, little things like making the cape, mask, and belt. it's only 3/4 of the outfit.

super hiba!

 -trick-or-treating at preschool. the kids paraded around the building, which was super cute. matthias refused to wear most of his costume, but he is easily bribed with candy, so he stuck his hat on for a minute.

-halloween parties at pre-school. pre-school sure takes some of the pressure of when it comes to holidays. they have the party thing covered there.

-dinner and trick-or-treating with friends. we went over to john and carol's, which was so fun. utter chaos was the name of the game, but why have it any other way?

-matthias, once again, realizing the greatness that is trick-or-treating. after each house, he would ask if we were going back to john and carol's. when i told him no, he would get super excited and say "we get MORE candy?!?". each time. he was thrilled. 

matthias did eventually let me take pictures of him. he's a pretty great looking pirate. especially with his ratty, un-brushed, uncut hair. we totally did that on purpose. ya know, to add to the costume. 

i didn't get a great picture of hiba (mom fail!), because i was too focused on getting a good shot of matthias, who was too focused on refusing to wear his whole costume and/or look at the camera all at the same time. he wanted to be a pirate, but didn't want to wear his eye patch, hat, belt, or sword. hiba did love her costume (and wanted to wear it again today), but i kept getting distracted and forgot to get a good picture of her. but, you can still tell that she's pretty awesome looking.

and now, hiba announced to me this morning that it is fall again (apparently halloween is not fall) and my birthday is tomorrow, which is way more awesome than halloween. i may or may not have been feeding her that line throughout the week. :-)