Life moves so fast!

Wow! I hadn't thought about this blog in so long and I got an email from some anonymous poster to it. It made me read back through the year or so of posts and it was fun to see where I was.

Feels like everything has changed but many things are the same!

Forefront is racing along and stretching and challenging me to be a more forward thinker and leader. Some days I think I'm handling it all like a champ and other days I wonder what God was thinking putting me in this position. How many times do I have to bang my head against the same wall before I really do trust Him...

I'm so blessed to have 2 amazing kids! Andrew is enjoying kindergarten and we are trying to figure out where to put him next year - 1,? 1/2? G&T? What happened to everyone just going to one class after another?!? That little voice that says we could ruin him FOREVER keeps appearing when we try to decide what to do... Katie is so great too, loves p/s and all of her friends there and at church.

Aaron is job hunting still, good prospect (& 2nd interview) next week so we have our fingers crossed for this chance. Still working for his dad but it just isn't the right fit for him.

Trying to figure out why I am sooo tired every day. Stinks to fall asleep for a nap every afternoon and not be as good of a mom as I want to be but I guess that will always be the case to some extent.

ok, my turn!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, used to do more wrapping paper now I do more bags
2. Real tree or Artificial? I hate to say artificial now. But I LOVE real ones!
3. When do you put up the tree? usually the weekend after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime after Christmas, usually before New Year.
5. Do you like egg nog? Ack - no!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A wool sweater with ducks on it - just a special gift from my dad!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? um, I think about 8 of them. My favorite is a 40 year old one from the Philippenes that my mom gave me a few years ago.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad & Father in law
9.. Easiest person to buy for? My mom
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Polyester too short pj gown from Grandma when I was too old for it.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? can't think of one...
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Can't think of one, but that doesn't mean I haven't...
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? FUDGE!!
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear
16. Favorite Christmas song? Hymns with an organ on Christmas eve
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? last year we stayed home for Christmas and then went to MN in early Jan for 2nd Christmas, that was nice
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think so, but I won't put $$ on it.
19.. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
20. Most annoying thing about this time of year? too many toy commercials aimed at the kids
21. Favorite thing about this time of year? getting to see my family, getting tickled about neat presents for people I love
22. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I like the ones I got in Israel
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? hmm, maybe an ipod, some cool knitting gadgets?
24. Who will reply to this the quickest? ??

What a day!

So it's been a while and I won't bore you with all of the details, just the last few.
Busy busy weekend!
Friday we found out the location for Forefront. Can't say I'm excited to drive so far, but it is so obviously God's choice that I can't complain about it. I'm getting more and more excited about this new church! (except for the really sad part about missing my good friends - that part I just try not to think about much.)
Big shower on Saturday for some dear friends of mine who are finally having a baby after 2 years of trying and lots of procedures - I can't wait to meet this baby in just a few weeks!
Sunday was Celebration Sunday, I was pooped!
So, I slept for 12 hours last night - how great was that! But then Miss Katie decided that I hadn't had quite enough fun so she managed to get open a childproof bottle and brought me a handful of my rx meds! I freaked out, called poison control and then spent about 5 hours in the ER with her this afternoon! Happily, she's ok, I don't think she actually ate any of them but we wanted to be safe, just in case.
So there's my update! I have lots to do this week too but I'm starting most mornings with a quiet time and amazingly enough, that makes things so much better!
Love you all!
Crysti

So much of everything and yet nothing!

edit... (ok, I just read this through and it sounds way more negative than I am really feeling. I just have a bunch of things running around in my head and I threw them all onto 'paper' here so don't worry that I'm about to have a breakdown when you read this...)

Ok, ok. I have been the blog slacker too. There has been way too much going on in my life and yet at the same time it feels like a big pile of nothing!
Andrew's pooping on the potty pretty well now. He's enjoying school and those 4 hours 2x a week away from him are really great (but go really, really fast!)
Katie had a really bad fever this week and so I spent quite a few hours cuddling on the couch and trying to comfort her. Other than that, she is busy and getting a bit clingy to mom.
Aaron is working a lot, starting to realize that he has to dig into the business a bit more if he's really going to run it someday. He's enjoying it but he's tired when he comes home.
I'm tired. My house is a mess but I'm enjoying my kids more days than not :-) I have so much laundry I need to put away that I can't believe that we have clothes to wear! We're getting closer and closer to this church plant and it is kindof freaking me out! I'm knitting away on an ABC blanket for a dear friend and I am hating it - I have to make myself do it rather than the 10 other projects I want to work on because I know they'll love it and I have to get it done before the baby comes. And I'm wasting way too much time playing lego Batman on the wii and checking facebook.
How's that for an update? :-)
Oh, and we have to have to have to get a handle on our spending and our budget. We're making less than we ever have but we haven't adjusted our spending. My "close my eyes and cover my ears" way of dealing with it just isn't working on this one!
Yikes!!

day 3...

yippee! What a big boy!! And a happy mom! Who knew I'd be having so many chats in small bathroom stalls hunkered down on the floor while thinking it's all good!?!

2 days and IKEA!!!

I'm so excited I could just pee!!!
IKEA is coming IKEA is coming!!! Yep, they're going to build an IKEA just west of Park Meadows mall, down in my neck of the woods!!! No start date yet, but I'm content with just knowing that it is coming and I can watch it being built with my own little eyes!!! I've been squealling all morning like a little dorky girl!
AND! Andrew has going poop 2 days in a row on the potty and says he's going to today also. Yay!
Pretty good day for me!

Andrew Update... (i know, tmi. but it's my blog!)

So we’ve taken away all of his big boy toys, underwear, video games, tv, etc. and as he has continued to poop in his pants, we asked him what else we were going to take away so he’s lost some books, his chair at the table (booster chair now) and finally Daddy went to his beloved pacifier (nuka). He would be sad about things for a few minutes and then seem to be ok. Until we got to the nuka. He was pretty upset when it came to bedtime and he didn’t get to have it, we talked it through while he cried so he totally understood why.
So we’ve had a few more poop sits the last few days and he’s even initiated a few (finally!). Yesterday he woke me up from my nap to tell me that he was sitting on the potty – yay!!! So he got some skittles when we went to the store to reward him for sitting on his own. We had a looong nap yesterday so he was still up late last night and about 11:15 he told me he had to pee and I told him ok, then he came back into my room and whispered in my ear… “mommy, mommy… I just went poop in the potty!” I flew out of bed to see and sure enough! That naked little boy had done it all by himself!!! There was a major happy dance in the middle of the night in our house last night!! We even woke up Daddy!
So he’s earned back some big boy privileges for today but he knows he has to earn them again for tomorrow. He already sat on the potty this morning on his own to make sure he didn’t have any poop and he says he’s really proud of himself.
I can't tell you how relieved and hopeful this mommy is today! I had a long thankful prayer last night about this boy and how he's finally seeming to turn the corner. I'm trying not to have my hopes up too high, but this is pretty darn exciting!!