The Wild Animal Safari

On Friday we went to the Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari. I went probably 14 years ago, but with your child it is a WHOLE new experience. I shot many pictures and some videos.

This one is mainly of my sweet mama. This is how she is most of the time :) Steven enjoyed sitting in Eebop's lap or "Bomp" as he calls her.


Steven LOVES pigs and certainly LOVED the pigs. If you listen closely while I'm sooting the pig you can hear him making his pig noise. And you can see his joy of animals.


This one is funny because Steven had been saying "see it" (but most of the time it sounds like he's cursing)in looking at the steer coming up. Also laughable is my brother and dad's interchange. Gabe has been freaking out about the animals. He's not a nature boy, so why is he going to Toccoa Falls College this fall?!?!?!



Even funnier here is Gabe's face in relation to the donkey trying to stick his face through the window. But first you get to hear Steven's donkey noise.


Steven also makes his cow noise a lot.


Probably the most telling of what it was like with the large animals.

Not so sure about all this

Checking them all out

Watching rats eating in the bird cage, but they weren't eating the birds

And finally a picture with Mommy (he now says instead of Mama. Oh how I love this)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icecream...it was a hit

On the way home all tuckered out

My Gladness and the World's Hunger Colliding....

"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet." — Frederick Buechner

I love this quote. I heard it quite some time ago. Sometimes I've gotten distracted from what this deep gladness is or maybe it's distracted from the world's deep hunger. Sometimes I wonder where they meet. But I'm on my quest to discover where they will collide for me. 

At some point prior to age 7, I was on a radio station program for children on the Toccoa, GA Christian radio station. Now I really don't remember much about this event, I do remember getting the train whistle or maybe it was my brother who got it, but I do remember a train whistle that came from this radio station. Anyways,  I went with my Sunday School class taught by Ms. Betty, I  believe, and we were all asked on air what we wanted to be when we grew up. When it came my turn, I answered "a mommy." Now I've heard that this is what I answered because my late paternal grandmother was SO proud to hear this.  I desired for so long to be a mother and now I am. I think in the past year I've gotten sidetracked from this great accomplishment; maybe because it was so "easy" for me. Now don't get me wrong; I've LOVED Steven with everything in me. However, since going back to work in August almost full-time in the office I haven't stopped and just enjoyed him very much. I guess you could say I have allowed things to distract me from being fully engrossed in being a mother.  I guess I allowed providing for my family to get in the way of being a family.  Not sure exactly how to articulate that feeling.

Anyways, a few months ago I felt God prompting me to do something.  I had been having an inner desire to do something more in life and felt that either God was saying just trust me with this and leap, not necessarily that he wanted me to actually do it.  Well, in the process of leaping I got really passionate about that actual thing and not just the process of leaping.  So now a few months later the "thing" did not work out exactly as I saw it, but isn't that how God works so much of the time? Well, I can't say that I'm happy that it didn't work out, I'm very far from that. I am trying to see what it is that I need to take from this journey.  In this process I decided to go part-time at work.  I'm working approx 28 hours per week, but this is freeing me up to be at home more and have more flexibility in my schedule to be a mom.  Last week childcare wasn't going to workout as I needed it and I was able to just work a different day.  It was nice and relieved a lot of hassle that it normally would have created for me.  It's also allowing us to have more time with just the three of us as a family.  My deep gladness is my little family, really family in general. These days families have the world working against them. God definitely loves families and I believe He has a desire to see healthy, supportive, strong families. I guess that where it all collides for me. Let's see where it goes from here....

Class

In 7 days, I will be celebrating the beginning of my fifth year in my current job. When I started I was essentially trained by two people; one for 30 days and the second for about 90. I've thought that the later woman was one of the classiest women alive.  I gleaned so much from her; things that couldn't be taught by instruction, but just what she exemplified to me.  It was during those 90 days I realized one day I want to be looked at as classy.  I've been called many things in my life, I'm sure, but today at church someone told me I was classy. I was floored. Now I'm sure there's times when this isn't so, but to be considered classy in this situation, I couldn't have felt more flattered.

Following in his Daddy's footsteps

Over the past few weeks Steven has been noticing when Chad is not here; like on mornings when Chad's working and he leaves before Steven is awake.  Steven and I usually cuddle in my bed and read books (the first reading session of many for the day).  The other morning I had my leg under the covers on Chad's side of the bed and when I moved my leg Steven dove for it saying "Daddy, Daddy!"

He also stands at our picture window looking for Daddy in the evenings. This is one of his favorite places to be and every car that drives by is "Daddy" until he realizes Daddy's car and he gets this ear to ear grin on his face, runs to the front door and tries to open it.  (He's also eating an apple in this picture while he waits)

While Chad is getting out of his "gear" Steven will run from room to room chatting away to Daddy.

He's also started copying Chad. Chad's been working out and Steven likes to lift weights and do pushups along with him.

  We had a little mishap in this video

This one was a "success" and how approrpiate for him to be wearing his "Daddy's Little Helper" Shirt

And when Daddy left the room, Steven decided to use the real weights

I'm so thankful for Steven to be following in his Daddy's footsteps, because I couldn't pick a better person's footsteps for him to follow.

Where We Are Now

With all the changes, I thought it would be helpful for me mentally and maybe to the readers if you get to see where we are in life right now.

Chad's in Field Training at Coweta Sheriff's Dept. This means he rides with an "FTO" (Field Training Officer) for up to 8 weeks. He's on a two week rotation of his days on/off and ever 8 weeks he will switch from 12 hour day shifts to 12 hour night shifts. He works Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The next week it will be just Wednesday, Thursday.

He's loving the different pace, the stimulation of having to learn new things like 10 codes, roads/streets, etc. He's also enjoying the change of pace where it is much lower key so far.

I'm now working 3 1/2 days a week; one full day in the office, two half days, and the rest from home.

Steven is at "Ms. Kathy's" one to two mornings a week until MMO starts and at Nana's one day a week. Although there are weeks when he won't need to be in "childcare" for more than a half day. We'll see how this all work sout. He's loving Ms. Kathy's. They were on vacation for two weeks and prior to the vacation he was still crying when we dropped him off. The last day that he was there Steven cried when we left instead of when he got there. The first day after they got back from vacation he just went to playing and really didn't care very much about the fact I was leaving. he just blew me a kiss and I was off. The second day I came to get him, he wasn't even really concerned that I was there. He did go and get a toy to show me, but was not happy when it was time to go home. (He always loves going to Nana's, so there's no point in expounding here). Overally, I just love having a great, safe, fun place to leave him when we do have to leave him.

This is where we are now. We are trying to adjust and for the foreseen future we don't know of any changes in our work schedules. We are planning to have the bathrooms redone and put the house on the market come spring or so. We hope to move to Coweta, where there are lots of advantages with Chad's job and several friends in the area with kids Steven's age and we like. I'm sure we're not done changing things in our lifestyle and work, because we're always changing. We're happy where we are for the most part and are working on making ourselves happy in the areas we aren't.

Fecal Phobia

Please consider yourself warned, this post is all about bodily functions....
I've always for some reason or another been embarassed over the fact that I do have bowel movements. Even as I typed that I felt embarassment. I know that everyone does, but don't talk about it. As I type I also realize how absurd my embarassment is. I'm also afraid of poop. Afraid of what will happen if Steven discovers it in his diaper. Friday night I heard of a friend whose daughter painted her crib with poop. Recently my nephew took poop and smeared it in the carpet. Oh, and Steven is "curious" like at least all boys are at one point or the other, but Steven's more obsessed with his curiosity. I know that the next step will be in his curioisity that he finds his poop, which is my nightmare. Add in to the fact that most mornings Chad is now gone before Steven is up, so it will be MY job to handle the situation.

Therefore, we are trying to preempt Steven and start the process of potty training. I have a friend who naked potty trains. I was always disgusted by this idea, but we typically can predict when Steven is going to poop, so we really just need to work on the peeing. In the past few weeks I've noticed Steven has been aware of himself peeing sometimes and pooping most of the time. He's also started saying poop when we go to change his diaper. Saturday was our test run to see if he could stop midstream in his pee. He got stripped down to just a shirt (did I mention I'm pretty modest and Chad's even more so). He loved it. He just kept grinning. And so the watching began. After awhile he starting to pee. I wasn't in the room, so Chad called his name out and he stopped. We rushed him to the toilet and he never continued. He sat on the toilet backwards and played with the toilet lid for a while and then got frustrated so I took him off. All in all he was diaperless for about 1 hr 45 min and only had the one episode of starting to pee. He must take after me because I never pee. But it was time to stop our tiral run because we needed to eat lunch and I wasn't going to clean up pee from the high chair.

I've been told we need to keep it fun for him. So this was not a fun time for me, and I'm afraid that I'll be so stressed out that he will get stressed out. The "plan" is to give him exposure to seeing/feeling the need to pee in the potty with an hour or two of naked time every day as the days allow. My full day in the office won't be a day unless Chad is off that day, then maybe he'll take over. It's going to be interesting and I'm not sure what the next step will be, but this is all in the guise of avoiding my fear of cleaning up poop on the carpet and crib.

We'll see how it goes.

Steven loves animals

Family Photos June 2010

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Back to the drawing board

For several months now I've felt God giving me a certain vision; one I wasn't sure was possible for me to pursue, but things kept being orchestrated in that direction, so I followed.  I leaped. I started down different paths only to run into a wall; with the door closed behind me. I feel like I'm locked in a closet. I'm not really sure how to get out or where the "secret door" is, but I know there has to be one because God wouldn't lead me into destruction. 

It's interesting to me how someone can feel they see God's will for a situation one way and another sees it the complete opposite.  Which is God's will? Is one God's will and the other's not?  When following God's will hinges on other's decisions how do you know? If others feel a certain call is God's will for your life and you don't see it, how do you know? It's so ambiguous, God's will; so subjective in many ways. I'm not talking about morality or whether or not Jesus is the way, just which path or direction God has for you.  It's interesting to say the least, this journey of deciphering God's will.  I really wish it was easier, but the hardship is part of the process as well. 

So, I'm back to the drawing board of God's vision for my life (and our family's life)..just waiting...just wondering...just being...

Soo, I haven't blogged in a while. Well, I've actually written a post, but I'm not ready to share it yet (not pregnant).  But I've been very consummed with how much I hate change, don't do it well, and could probably say I even despise it.  But I'm yearning for it, praying for it. It has partially been answered.  Chad will be sworn in Monday as a Coweta County Sheriff's Deputy. So no more

He will be donning a brown uniform and star on Monday.  We are very excited about this on so many levels.  One is that the department seems very family friendly and I think I can even say supportive of family. Chad will also have opportunities that have not been available.  One of the big ones is that in a few years he could be a K-9 officer.  We love that idea probably most of all.  The major told him that he's the only thing that will put limits on what he's able to do at Coweta.  We're excited. 

I've also changed to part time and it's going okay. I've enjoyed the extra time with Steven and Chad. We've been able to get a lot more done at the house and are almost done cleaning out two rooms. 

Steven's starting doing the tantrum thing; extremely mild, but it's frustrating.  But more than this he's learning so much. Today there was a baby on TV and he started saying "baby" over and over again.  He can make a bunch of animal noises; started saying hot and cold to things appropriately; following direction; saying "please"; and filling in words on his favorite books.

Life is good as much as it can be frustrating; it's still good.