Valentine's for Nate

Today is Nate's class Valentine's Day party.  We decided that we wanted to make homemade valentine's this year.  We searched and searched for the perfect valentine.  Nate finally chose a secret message valentine.  They were quite work intensive to make, but they are turned out exactly as Nate hoped.  We ended up making 21 valentines!  Here they are:

We also volunteered (ages ago, before I knew I'd be 2 weeks post-op) to bring a treat for the party.  I wanted to bring something really special, something unique, but also something sort of healthy.  Chocolate covered strawberries, dipped in crushed candy hearts, turned out be just right.  Alan and I worked on them last night; it was so much fun!  We just melted a bunch of chocolate chips, crushed the candy hearts with a hammer, and then dipped the strawberries in both.  Easy, gorgeous, and tasty!

I'm Pretty Sure Your Eye Shouldn't Look Like This

Nate jabbed Alan in the eye, tearing out a pice of his cornea.  Oops.  We called a friend who used to live in Madison (and currently resides in Utah) who did his residency here in Ophthalmology.  Alan ended up going in to be seen, much to his chagrin.  I think the last time he saw a doctor (for himself) was in like his 3rd year of med school.  He got some antibiotic ointment and felt better in a few days.  Yikes, though!

Needing a Smile

A clip from Abbie's first ballet class:

MIA

Surgery in the morning--First case, @7:30.  Thank you all so much for your kind words and deeds.  The prayers are the only thing getting me through tonight, and tomorrow, I'm sure, as well.

Hasta luego.

Writing for Nerves

I'm getting nervous.  I need to write.  I'm having surgery on Friday to fix (I hope) my herniated disk and spinal stenosis.  This will entail cutting out part of my disk at L5/S1, and then removing some of the bone around the nerve to relieve the pressure that is currently on my nerve.  I was scheduled to have this procedure done almost two months ago, but the doctor changed his mind last minute (like last minute, as in my IV was started and I had been given medication).  So I've done the mental preparation before, but I'm still scared.

I've been in on surgeries before, mostly C-sections, but still surgeries.  Surgery is brutal.  The thought of being on the other end of that is terrifying.  Plus my last surgery experience was a thoracotomy two years ago, and that was one of the worst experiences of my life.  I'm scared of the anesthesia--I have this ridiculous fear that I'll be given a paralytic drug, but no anesthetic, which will leave me able to feel everything, but not able to move a muscle and react.  I know, it's never going to happen, but still.  I'm also really scared of the post-op pain.  Granted, I'm in a lot of pain right now, so the whole point of the surgery is relieve that, but I'm still scared of how much it will hurt afterwords.  And then there's the fact that I'll be out of commission for who knows how long.  I'm not so good at giving up my control as mom, but that's exactly what I'm going to have to do.

My SIL Andrea will be coming into town to help.  My friend Melissa is organizing a week's worth of meals for us.  My friend Jenn is going to grocery shop with me and help me cook a bunch of stuff to freeze on Thursday.  My inlaws are at least going to be in town this time (2 months ago they were in China).  But my other SIL is coming into town with her 5 kiddos which does make me a little nervous about how able to help my mother-in-law will be.  It's a lot of work to have 5 extra kids in the house, on top of the 2 other kids that she already watches every day.  Add my two into the mix, and that makes for 9 kids (Infant-11).  I'm not really sure I'm comfortable with that.  Plus I know how much work she has to do to keep so many kids fed and entertained, so I'm not at all eager to ask her to do more by driving Nate to and from school, babysitting my kids, etc.  I decided that I'm just going to set up a different schedule so that I won't have to rely on my inlaws at all (or bother them!).

I just hate having everything so up in the air.  I don't know how much it will hurt, I don't know when I'll be home, I don't know when I'll be feeling better, and I don't know how I'm going to manage the kids, house, rides, breakfast, lunch, dinner, work, etc.  It's overwhelming and I'm scared.  Ugh.

Quilt. Six Years Later.

I started this quilt six years ago, when Nate was a baby.  I finished the top probably 3 or 4 years ago.  I have a gazillion new craft projects that I'm doing, so I thought that I should finish this one.  Two nights was all it took.  I think that if I would have just done it all at once, I could have completed it in just a few days.  That's not how I work, though.  I do a little here and there, until I get motivated to finish.  So here's my quilt!

Mail Pouches

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to organize our house.  Alan and I are working together, and have made a lot of progress.  We sorted through all of the toys in our basement, filling two giant bins with stuff to either give away or rotate out for a while.  Then we found a place for everything, using drawers, baskets and a dresser.  It's amazing to me how clean the basement (playroom) stays, now that each item has its own home.

Junk drawers were the next task.  Our main junk drawer in the kitchen is now clean, and filled with little bins to hold everything.  If it won't fit in the small containers, it doesn't go in the drawer.  I also organized a few other kitchen drawers.  My bathroom drawer was a nightmare, but is now filled with the same small containers as our kitchen junk drawer.  I can find things when I need them and I'm not digging through a drawer filled with 10 year old makeup!  Wonderful!

There have been other tasks as well.  The arts and craft room is a continual battle, but it's looking much better now that I have folders that fit in a large container for all of my card stock.  That makes things much tidier.  Abbie's dresser was on the list--I'm proud to say that her drawers are still neat, all her own doing.  They look much better than mine!

Something that is a forever challenge for us is paper.  Mail is a large part of that problem.  We get so much junk mail--Hospitals advertising jobs for Alan, coupons, credit card offers, and tons of other random stuff.  My hope is to rid my house of piles, as I truly despise them.  In an attempt to organize the paper coming into our home, I sewed two mail pouches today.  I love them.  I just need to buy a couple of hooks and a dowel tomorrow, so that I can hang them up.  Here are some pictures:

This is where they'll hang in the kitchen.

This book is amazing.  I got the pattern for the mail pouches from it, but it has a ton of other incredible projects.  Tomorrow's task is Hogwarts capes for the kids!

My Favorite Time of Day

The world outside is dark.  Our tummies are full from the warm delights of dinner (which, admittedly, is sometimes DiGiorno, Pillsbury, and salad bag).  Homework is completed, morning bags are packed, and moods are high.  We all are cosy in pajamas and Christmas gift slippers.  The kettle on the stove whistles, announcing the beginning of my evening mug of Sleepytime herbal tea, with honey, of course.  The kids climb into their beds, heads on their pillows, covers pulled up to their little noses.

Storytime.  We read for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour most days.  As long as Abbie can keep her fluttering eyelids open.  Nate begs for one more chapter, one more page, one more line.  In the last month and a half, we have read Charlotte's Web, James and the Giant Peach, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Little House in the Big Woods, and now Farmer Boy.  It's a time for us to snuggle in together, sharing in our love of books.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning, already anticipating storytime.  I know my kids do too, because after school some days, we all pile into Mommy's and Daddy's bed to do a little afternoon storytime.  I love our evening reading sessions, and I love how much Nate and Abbie love to read.  It's definitely my favorite time of day.

My New Toy

For a few years now, I've been dabbling in vinyl lettering.  I ordered the cut vinyl from a friend, but did all of the painting, application, etc. myself.  I have been thinking about purchasing a machine, but they are ridiculously expensive, and not something that we could afford right now.  Enter QuikCutz Silhouette.  This is a small craft cutter, sold mostly for paper crafts, such as scrapbooking and card making.  It can, however, cut vinyl.  Unfortunately the Silhouette retails for between $250 and $300.  A LOT cheaper than the professional vinyl machines, but still quite a bit of money.  Enter Craigslist.  I have been checking Ebay with little luck.  Then I happened to check the Craigslist listings for Milwaukee only to find a Silhouette, used only 4-5 times, for $130.  WAHOO, I thought.  It was still available, so now I have my Silhouette.  I've only been doing paper crafts with it because I'm still waiting for the vinyl I ordered to arrive, but I love it!  It's so much fun.  Here was my project for today:

PAPER DOLLS!

Relief Kits for Haiti

My dear friend Rachel used to work for the Mennonite Central Committee.  The MCC, according to their website, "works alongside local churches and communities in more than 50 countries, including Canada and the United States, to carry out disaster relief, sustainable community development and justice and peace-building work in the name of Christ.  MCC also seeks to build bridges to connect people and ideas across cultural, political and economic divides."  Rachel called me last week to tell me about the relief kits that the MCC was collecting to send to Haiti, and she asked if I'd like to go shopping with her for the supplies for a few kits.  I, of course, was interested.

The relief kits consist of 4 bars of soap, 4 bars of laundry soap, 1 tube of toothpaste, 4 toothbrushes, 1 bottle of shampoo, 2 wide tooth combs, 1 fingernail clipper, 1 box of bandaids, 1 package of sanitary pads, and 4 bath towels.  We combined funds with Alan's parents to purchase enough supplies to make 10 kits.

I had been looking for a way to help in Haiti, but was struggling to find something that felt right, felt enough.  I thought about donating money, but I didn't feel like making a phone call would show Nate and Abbie how important helping was.  These kits were perfect.  Nate and Abbie went shopping for the supplies.  They helped to find each item on the shelves.  They helped to cram the cart with 40 towels.  The put each of the supplies in their hands, saw how basic the items on the list were.  They learned that not all children have toothbrushes or shampoo.  They learned that there are people in the world who have lost their homes, people who have lost everything.  It's a difficult lesson to learn, and a difficult lesson to teach.  But I feel like Nate and Abbie now have a better understanding of how blessed they are, how having soap and a towel for a bath is not to be taken for granted.

After making our kits, I wanted to share the idea with others.  I posted a message on our church Google group asking if anybody else wanted to participate, and listing the contents of the kit.  The response was amazing.  On Saturday, we are going to have an activity to assemble the contents of the kits, which people are purchasing right now.  I'm thrilled that this is happening.  I'm proud of the generosity that is being shown.

Beautiful

Abbie, of course.

Another Snow Post

When you live in a frozen tundra, you have to learn to live in a frozen tundra.  So here is a another bunch of pictures, from another day after school, with us all playing in the snow.  Evidence that we are living.

The fort turned into a slide--They go down on their butts and stomachs, backwards and forwards.

Kai, being a husky, loves the snow.  This dog bounds through it like it's tall grass.  Kai likes to play outside with us too.

Me! It's ME!

I'm so hysterically excited, I have tears in my eyes.  Follow the link below, and read the first line.

Yes.  That's me.  On the Twilight fansite of all fansites.  I'm that Emily!!  Part of me feels incredibly pathetic, that I delayed my children's bedtime to call my sister, screaming into the phone about how my name appeared on The Twilight Lexicon.  But you know what?  I'm glad that I have something to be happy about.  A little excitement is good for the soul.

The Twilight Lexicon

And she's right; Edward would never do that.  [Sigh]  Edward...

Welcome Home, Love Kai

Chocolate Meringue Cake

I love chocolate.  Oh, how I love chocolate.  In most cases, I would choose salt over anything sweet.  But not chocolate.  Chocolate takes the cake, if you'll pardon my pun.  Below you'll see an amazing creation.  Chocolate Meringue Cake.  There is no flour in this cake.  Just a lot, a lot being 6 yolks and 10 whites, of eggs.  The base of the cake was chocolate, butter, brown sugar, all of the egg yolks, and meringue.  That baked for 25 minutes.  The chocolate foundation was then covered with a meringue containing egg whites, cream of tarter, superfine sugar and coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate.  Back into the oven until the top was lightly browned and crisp.  The result?  A smooth, crunchy, decadent sinfully good cake.  Was it worth the migraine, you might ask?  Absolutely.

Narnia, Harry Potter, James and the Giant Peach, etc.

Nate and Abbie have incredible imaginations.  They can play make-believe for hours, never growing bored.  My favorite thing is when one of them says to the other, "And then you say...," or "And then you think...."  It's hilarious to me.  Once Abbie blurted out, "And then I said silence.  And the whole world was quiet."  Wow!

But even better than playing with each other, is playing with Daddy.  What excitement!  (What noise!)  I love the words and sounds that I hear coming up from the basement while they're playing.  Sudden character changes, actions, new imaginary weapons (we don't play with guns, so they'll make "blasters" out of legos and then proclaim that they shoot strawberries), and bangs, crashes, and "Ows!"

Thanks to the zoom lens we purchased for our DSLR, I was able to sit on the stairs and shoot some photos of their most recent, epic battle.  Here are just a few for your enjoyment.

I called an end to the battle when Daddy got out the wood.

Red Robin, Now and Then

Our family is lucky enough to be able to call the Stutzman-Heiks family our friends.  These are good people.  Kind, caring, fun people.  Sam and Alan went through medical school together, and now both are working as residents in Madison.  Rachel and I went through medical school together as well, and are now surviving Residency together.  They have two daughters, Ella who is 5 months younger than Nate, and Adeline who is about 2 years younger than Abbie.

Years ago, we used to go to Red Robin's with their family on Friday nights.  Nate and Ella loved it, and always ate their cantaloupe together.  We always sat in the big booth in back.  Abbie was just a baby, and sweet Addie wasn't even born yet!  Last Friday, we decided to go back!  The daddies were both post-call, so Rachel and I were able to go out alone together in the afternoon, while the daddies played with the kids.  We went to Borders and wandered aimlessly.  It was bliss.  Then we all met at Red Robin's for dinner.  We had a wonderful time.

August 10, 2006.  Nate and Ella.

January 8, 2010.  Nate, Ella, Abbie, Addie.

Chicken Soup with Rice

Last Friday, Nate's first grade class did a dance performance to the book Chicken Soup with Rice.  Alan was post-call, so we were all able to go see Nate dance.  There was a big group dance, followed by 12 small group dances, one for each month of the year.  It was creative, impressive, and sweet.

Last Minute Vacation

After Christmas, we took a trip up to the Dells with Alan's little brother, Michael, and his new wife, Hannah.  We love Michael and Hannah, and the kids love Unckey Mikey and Auntie Hannah.  We split and amazing room with two fireplaces, a jacuzzi in the living room and access to the indoor water park.  Awesome.  We went to Famous Dave's for dinner, did some shopping at the Outlet Mall where we found a sale at Bass Shoe Store.  It was a buy-one-get-three-free sale.  So Alan and Michael got new fancy brown shoes, while got some brown boots.  They were originally $105 per pair, but we only paid about $35 per pair.  Awesome again.  Here are some pictures from our overnight:

A Needed Burst of Color

Dear Winter,

I know what you're trying to do.  But I'm winning.  Oh yes, Winter.  I'm winning.

Emily

Christmas, Finally!

I am so eager to start this new year, but I'm so behind on blogging!  Here are a few collages that show the best parts of our Christmas celebration.  The first is our Nativity on Christmas Eve.  See if you can tell which one is me and which one is my twin sister, Rachel!

Here is our Christmas Eve.  We have a tradition of allowing the kids to open one gift on Christmas Eve, knowing that it will always be new pajamas!  We're so sneaky.  We get PJs too, so we all get to sleep in our new pajamas, and then wake up in them on Christmas morning.

And here is Christmas morning.  It takes a while to open all the presents when there are two families doing it together.  We had so much fun.

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas.  I love my sister so much and am more grateful than words can say that they were able to come and spend Christmas with us.  Having them here made it Christmas for me.  We all got some fun gifts, and have been playing with all of our new games daily.  (More than once  a day, sometimes!)  We are so grateful to have a home, family and a stable life that allows us to celebrate as we did.  We thank God for all that we have.  We are blessed.

Immigrant of the Day

My dear friend Megan, who I've known since fifth grade, has started a blog called Immigrant of the Day.  She says:


I don't know about you, but I am tired of only seeing negative stories about immigrants in the news. I started this blog, Immigrant of the Day, as a way to share positive stories about immigrants living in the United States. My goal is to post a profile of an immigrant on this blog every day in 2010, starting January 1st.



She is looking for people who would like to be featured on Immigrant of the Day.  If you are an immigrant to the United States, or know an immigrant who might like to be featured, please share the following information with them:


If you are interested in being featured as Immigrant of the Day, please email the following to me at dailyimmigrant AT gmail.com:

1. your photo (preferred) or your favorite photo of your country of birth;
2. first name;
3. country of birth;
4. state of current residence; and
5. answers to the following questions:

• What does the American Dream mean to you?
• How do you work to make the United States a better place?
• What is your favorite food and why?

Megan also requests that only lawfully present immigrants respond because, in her words, she "would never want to put anyone in danger by posting their picture and first name on this blog."


This is a truly wonderful endeavor that Megan is undertaking, and I would ask that you please help to support her by sharing the following link or above information with your friends.  Thank you!


Immigrant of the Day 

Abbie's Digital Diner

Come visit Abbie at her new blog, Abbie's Digital Diner!