Lisa's meanderings

The Pit, The Lion's Den, The Dark Hole

2010-03-02T00:05:00.003-05:00

Depression comes in many forms, under many names. Some people say it's like a black hole. I really don't know what to call it other then a deep darkening of the soul and body.

I've been fighting it for a few months, but my fighting doesn't seem to be helping. I feel like Daniel falling deep into the Lion's den or Joseph being thrown into the pit. It's dark, it's lonely, it's scary, and it's not where I want to be. I want to be out where there is light (sunshine preferably), where I'm free to run and play...if only I had the strength to do that.

I have a hunch it started in early November when a dear friend and one of my strongest prayer warriors passed away. She was the one God would wake in the middle of the night when things were a mess for me. He'd keep her awake and praying until the spiritual battle was cleared enough for her to go back to sleep. Do prayer warriors still get to pray in heaven? Do they still do the same job?

Since Linda died, the baton of being a prayer warrior has been passed to me. I'm finding it very overwhelming. I didn't chose to accept the baton, it just happened. As I prayed so hard for Linda, it's like God said, "My child, she's prayed for your for years, now it's your turn." I wonder know what good it might have been to stand up to that quiet voice and say, "NO! I don't want to do this!" The problem is that it really was my baton. I'm now the one who gets stopped in the middle of the day feeling an urgent need to pray for someone. I'm the one who people are starting to come to for prayer. I just don't feel like I'm anything special because I can barely find time to do more then read a small devotional each day. How can I be some spiritual prayer warrior?

Shortly after Linda died, I lost another prayer warrior in my life - my Grandma. Each and every day without fail, Grandma and Grandpa would join together in prayer for every member of our extended family. Although I know my grandpa is still praying, I miss knowing Grandma is too. Again, I wonder, is a person still a prayer warrior in heaven?

SInce Grandma died, I do my best to look out for Grandpa, but it's so hard to go there. He's got pictures of Grandma all over the place. I often want to say, "How's Grandma?" or "Hey, Grandma, what do you think about ....." Then I realize it's just not possible. She's gone. Why does that have to be so hard to say? Why does that have to ache to the core of my being? Isn't it just another fact of life? We're born, we live, and then we die. Dust to dust. Guess it's not that easy to accept when you love someone who has passed from this life into the next. Although I know I'll see here again, it's not now. I want to hear "I Love you." I want to know she's praying for me.

I feel so alone. So desperate out here in my desert place. It's dark, lonely, endlessly long. The light does not shine (although, that could describe an Indiana winter perfectly) and no one passes by, not even the lone "Samaritan", I feel much like that poor man laying by the side of the road wondering how he would move, let alone get up. Yet I also wonder if someone were to throw me a rope if I would have the strength to do anything about it. I'm beaten down, feeling quite worthless many days, and would rather hide from life rather then face it head on. I'm tired of the day to day fight for will. I'd never say end this life, just end this depression.

I don't want to go back on medications. I remember the feeling of being on it, of taking the meds late, of non-connecting synapsis. I remember how evil I felt for taking the medication, then how I realized it helped and was sometimes a necessary "evil" to take "happy pills". THen, I realized something even worse. It was creating problems in my marriage due to side effects I hadn't realized were there. That is why I weaned myself off the medication several years ago. Now, I find myself back in this deep, dark pit and don't know what to do. Do I take the meds? Face the potential side-effects and headaches, missed med-aches, and see if it helps? Do I continue the journey I just started on Saturday with St. John's Wort? Do i seek help? I can't handle hearing from one more person that if I just did XYor Z that I'd get better. Don't get me wrong. I want to get better. I hate HATE HATE being in this place, but I don't feel as if I have what it takes to pull myself up each rung of the ladder to get out.

Tonight on my drive home from a meeting, I heard song after song that talked about being where I'm at. They were helpful, encouraging, but still I sit here alone trying to fight this so it doesn't take me completely out.

Could this just be SAD? Seasonal Affective Disorder or whatever it's called? Could I just need sunshine? Could it be that simple?

I've tried to explain this to my husband, but I don't think he understands. Of course he's in his own down stage now. We usually are able to balance each other out, but not this time. I'm often afraid to let him see me when I'm crying and this down (which causes other problems because the last time he had no clue how bad it got cause he was at work when most of my depression came out.).

Here are some songs I heard tonight:

Aaron Jeoffrey - After the Rain
From the album After the Rain

I cover my heart
Turn from the wind
Button my coat
Here comes the storm again
What can I do but to trust in Him

'Cause I know the deeper my faith runs
The stronger I become
And the thunder, it may shake me
But I always know that...

Chorus
After the rain
You can look to the sky again
The clouds will give way
To the light of the sun
After the rain
You know that you've made it through
And you'll finally see the joy from the pain
After the rain

Everyone needs
Everyone hurts
Everyone feels
The weight of the world sometimes
But don't let the wind sweep your heart away

'Cause even the roughest waters cleanse
so when they come again
Let them serve as a reminder
You can always know that...

(Repeat chorus)
Can't you see the hand of Jesus
Reaching out for you
You never have to face the storm alone

Kutless - What Faith Can Do
From the album It Is Well

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You do have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That's what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

The Katinas - One More Time
From the album The Katinas

Lord, I saw your face last night
When I looked in the sky
You were smiling
You told me it would be okay
You would make a way
In my dark times

Chorus:
Every time I hear your voice
Every time I feel your touch
It makes me know that I can face tomorrow
One more time

When all my friends go away
I'll be glad to say
You're still near me
Even when the wind blows by
I feel warm inside
You're so lovely

Chorus

I need you, don't leave me
Without you I can't survive

Chorus

I know that I can face tomorrow
'Cause you will walk me through
My pain and sorrow
I know that I can face tomorrow
One more time

I can face tomorrow
You can face tomorrow
We can face tomorrow
One more time

I appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I walk this dark road, waiting for the SON-light to reach me and heal my heart.

Why does passing from this life to the ultimate Heavenly Life have to be so hard on the rest of us?

2009-11-29T21:25:00.010-05:00

Note: this blog post has been 3 months in the works.

On Tuesday, at approximately 10 am, I lost someone very special to me to Heaven. I find it quite odd that we attempt to "hang onto their feet" as they "fly" off to Heaven because we don't want them to go. We, as Christians, hold onto the exciting truth of a life, completely healed (made new), in Heaven. We'll be with our Lord and face the trials of this life, this world, no more. Shouldn't that be exciting? Yet, where is that excitement? Our loss has been tremendous. Deep caverns of emptiness seem to sit wide open waiting for me to fall in.

My grandma, Louise Dietrich Lytle, 91, passed from this life, leaving behind a heritage that extends far beyond just our immediate family. I spoke with a Fairmount woman this past winter who had 2 kids in Grandma's class. She said, "Mrs. Lytle taught more then reading, writing, and arithmetic. She taught my children about missions. She'd tell them stories from her time on the mission field and about God."

Grandma and I never really had a close relationship while I was growing up. There are many reasons for that like living 600 miles apart all of my growing up years, and the even bigger reason...when you put 2 strong willed (oh wait, it's called determined when you are an adult) people together, it typically causes friction. There was definitely friction and irk. (irk being defined as annoyance) I knew I was loved, but I had a hard time seeing how much she loved me, as a kid/teen, because of the strong opinions we both had. I often struggled always feeling like my cousins were loved better because they were in "real school" and taking AP classes while I was just a home schooler.

It wasn't until 3 years ago when we moved to Marion, that I began to build a "grown up" relationship with Grandma. Oh, there were still times when she got on my nerves or said something to one of my girls that made the hair on my neck stand up, but I realized that it wasn't meant to hurt, it was just something Grandma felt strongly about. I had to learn to let it go, and to help my girls not take offense at what she said.

Grandma (and Grandpa) has always been one of my prayer warriors. I knew without a doubt that each day, she and Grandpa were praying for our entire family. Whether times were good or bad, I knew they'd be praying for us. That was a big encouragement.

In the last few months of Grandma's life, we would visit her at Colonial Oaks Nursing Home about twice a week. The girls would often ask me if we could go visit Grandma. (Katy always looked forward to going "across the street" to visit Grandpa afterwards). We'd take Grandma for a "drive" around thru the hallways, talk to her, tell her about how life was going, and other times, we'd just sit and hold her hand. She'd squeeze my hand, tell us how much she loved us, and even prayed for us. One of the last pictures we have of Grandma alert and smiling was taken with Lilly, a special memory Lilly will cherish forever. Lilly became quite possessive of Grandma toward the end. Lilly would stand behind or beside Grandma and not allow anyone to move her or slide in. She wanted to protect Grandma. It was very special.

Lilly and Grandma.

Lilly, Katy, and Grandma about a week or 2 later.

When I received word that Grandma was gone, I was sitting in the chair at the dentist's office. The tears came and so did the loneliness and grief. Although I didn't always agree with Grandma, she was part of an amazing example and heritage. I'm so grateful for the relationship I've had with Grandma over the past few years and will always hold a special place in my heart for her. She will never be forgotten. She is greatly missed, and so many times a topic of conversation or thought. So many times something exciting has happened and I've wanted to call and tell Grandma. Losing Grandma has not only rocked my world, it's still causing many tears. We've experienced many deaths within our church since Grandma's passing, and each time her passing feels so fresh. My heart aches for one more conversation, one more I love you, one more holding of her hand, one more.... Now, I must wait until I see her again in Heaven for that.

After Christmas, we stopped by her burial site in Houghton, NY. Although I thought it would bring closure, it made the tears come even more. I cried, wanting one more.... and knowing that one more couldn't happen. I prayed a prayer asking God for healing and thanking Him for such a Godly heritage. I thanked Him that we still have time with Grandpa and then just let the tears continue to flow.

Death. It's so final. Yes, we have the relief of knowing we'll see each other in Heaven, but it doesn't ease the sting of death for me. Heaven seems so far away. At almost 34, life seems to have "just begun", not be on the downward slope. When will I truly feel Grandma's arms around me in a hug again?

Death. It hurts. Some say death is a relief. Others say it's like an open wound. I would have to lean toward the second. I've got a great support system around me, and am seeing healing. I have my good days, and my days where it seems just a glimpse at her photo can bring tears. I'm thankful for those like Julia who have stepped up with extra love and hugs to stand in the gap, cry with me, and share the grief.

Although Grandma is gone, I still carry her in my heart. I love you, Grandma.

Sweet Jesus, she's Gone!

2009-11-08T01:18:00.004-05:00

Have you ever lost someone you loved? It's probably a silly question because there are so few of us who haven't lost anyone yet. I lost someone I loved on Friday. She was one of the spiritual giants (I don't mean that because she was tall...no...she was not tall in stature)who leave a huge hole when they go.

Linda Reed. Her name can be tied to so many different things over the years - Chemung Canal Bank, Big Flats Wesleyan Church, Operation Christmas Child, the prayer ministry at BFWC...the list could go on. It was not any of these things that hit me like what I'm about to share, although when I pack our shoeboxes this year, I can guarantee I'll cry as I think about our beloved Linda and her passion for OCC.

What hits me the most is my prayer covering (Not the kind an amish person wears) is gone. God gave me Linda back in 1993 when we moved back to Big Flats. She was so excited to have us back, but little did she know the task God was setting before her with me. Throughout the next 17 years, God would call on her to lose hours of sleep because of me. You see, Linda was a prayer warrior - the kind who would stand in the gap for others. God would prompt her to pray and she'd do it...wherever she was. For me, these times would often happen during the wee hours of the night when Linda would prefer to be sleeping. God would wake Linda to pray for me and whatever situation I was facing. I remember on time when things were pretty bad for me. She told me afterwards that she really wanted to call me and tell me to get it worked out so she could get some sleep! It wasn't that I was a horrible child or young adult, but I faced many very difficult situations.

God called Linda to a high calling. Often when we pray, we think we aren't doing much, but I know from the prayer covering I had with Linda, that is simply not true. Now that Linda is gone, I feel this giant-sized hole knowing I can't cry out to God to alert Linda to pray. She's now rejoicing at HIS feet totally healed from the leukemia that ravaged her body.

Time and time again Linda would stand up in church, crying (because that is what Linda did...and we always had a kleenex box nearby), and sharing how God had awakened her that week to pray. Sometimes she was sharing her burden with us, while other times she was sharing how God had lead thru the prompting.

God gave me the gift of Linda. She never judged me, even when I was facing situations she knew were clearly wrong. She never told me, "I told you so." She would simply hug me, or send me a note sharing how God had awakened her to pray and she loved me no matter what.

Linda served as our Wedding Coordinator with her husband Guy. They helped pull the details together the day of our wedding. They've been a part of home groups I've been in, and thru her ministry with Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child, Linda's heart brought about a strong Collection site for these boxes that get shipped all around the world. She even traveled to help deliver boxes a time or two.

One of the things I've really been challenged to do lately is to become that prayer covering for others. God wakes me (even in the wee hours when I hate being awake) and puts someone on my heart and strongly reminds me to pray. I'm learning the joy of doing this for others. My friends are learning to come to me with their needs so that I will know how to specifically pray. Although I do not feel I am the spiritual giant in prayer that Linda was, I feel God is using me much like the scripture that says, 1Th 5:17 "Pray without ceasing." This is what Linda did. Her prayer covering in my life, and so many others will be missed tremendously. One other way her prayer covering touched me...she was part of my dad's Pastor's Prayer team. Linda supported my dad so much and felt that one of the best ways she could do that was to pray. She'd pray with a group of others during sermon time, and often held Dad up in prayers.

On Friday at noon, Linda Reed lost the battle to leukemia, but won the ultimate race. She's received her crown in glory and is dancing with her sweet Jesus. I can see her hugging Him, climbing up on His lap to talk, and of course crying. I know the Bible says that there will be no more crying, but I still think there will be tears where Linda is! She can't wrap herself in the arms of the Master Physician who has healed her completely without tears!

To Linda's family, I'm so sorry for your loss. There aren't words to express the pain we all feel. She was such a special woman for all of us and will be greatly missed.

TO Grayson, be strong. You've faced a lot in the past couple of years with losing Grandpa Jimmy, and now Grandma Linda. I pray that you will turn your aching heart to Jesus who can comfort you and not turn away from Him in pain. Linda would never have wanted that. She would say something like this, "I'm home now. I'm healed, and I'm with my sweet Jesus." Grayson, I will pray for you as Linda has prayed for me.

To Guy, if I were there, I'd come, wrap my arms around your shoulders and we'd embrace in one of those "bear hugs" you give, and I'd tell you how blessed we were to have Linda to love for the time God gave us.

To Mary, I'm sure this can't be easy as a mom to have watched your daughter go thru so much pain. Let's rejoice in knowing she's in Heaven with her dad - Jimmy, and her FATHER too.

Eric & Mel, Cherish Linda's memory. Share it with your kids, and search your own hearts. Are you going to be with her again? I know that is exactly what she would want. Don't wait. Make a commitment to God now. We are not promised tomorrow....only today. Wouldn't you want to be with her again?

I'm reminded of a song called "Touch of the Master's Hand." The song talked about an auction coming to a close and the last item was a violin. It wasn't much. It was batted and scared, and didn't look nice. As the end of the song, a man came out of the crowd, picked up the violin and played with such grace that everyone was awed. It was the touch of the Master's Hand.

This, my friends, is what has happened with Linda. She was battered and scared by this terrible disease, but in the end, the Master stepped in took her home to be with Him, and now she's made whole again. We must rejoice in knowing she'll face no more pain, no more suffering, and that she's in the arms of Sweet Jesus.

Birthday, by Lilly

2009-09-15T23:25:00.003-04:00

The following story was written by Lilly on Tuesday for a language assignment. I couldn't pass up sharing it.

Once there was a boy who had a birthday coming up soon. His mom wanted to do something for him for his birthday. When his Dad got home his mother said I have to go buy some thing at the store.

She went to teh storea nd bought some party things like cake, ice cream, ballons, a gift, (you will find out what the gift is later), punch, lemundade, chips, tableclothes, cups, cuzews, birthday hats, napkens, confety, and inventesens (invitations). She paid for all these things and still had money leftover to buy a lot of other things. The party was a blast. They had cake and stuft to drink. They opened presents. The gift was a MP3 player.

(Note: spelling is as is on the paper.)

I though this was especially appropriate as they were just given a gift of an MP3 player last weekend!

Human Dart Board

2009-08-26T22:38:00.005-04:00

Have you ever had those days when you feel like a Human Dart Board? Lately I feel as though I have "darts" coming at me from every direction, and sometimes 3 and 4 at a time, one right after the other. It's not just like it's happening one day here and there, it's everyday lately. I feel I just can't get away from it.

The darts come in all shapes and sizes. Some hurt more than others, but they are all noticeable. Some of them "stick" to me like a suction cup, while others fall off without causing much "harm". They can be the ongoing behavioral problems with one of our girls, or a dilemma with Grandma, or yet another time I didn't do something someone expected me to do. After awhile you just get to the point where you give up ducking to avoid being missed and stand there as they hit. You become something a little less controlled and "together" each time they hit. Sometimes I'm able to laugh about it, but today, after 2 HUGE battles of the will, a long night last night with other relational issues, and being hit with 50 or more darts, all I feel like doing is crying. I'm tired, stressed, frustrated, have been known to be mad at times, grieving, claustrophobic, and ready to give up.

I'm reminded of the passage in Ephesians about the Armor of God. Ephesians 6:16" In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." (NIV) I once heard some teaching that the shields were dipped in some sort of liquid (not sure if it was water or not) before the battle so they would truly extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy.

A dear friend often reminded me in the tough times that all we have to do is ask God to walk us thru second by second. We don't even have to think ahead to the next hour, even minute. Sometimes just thinking of making it through the next second was all we could handle. Maybe you are there today too. Hang onto God. He is our refuge and strength in times of Trouble. (Psalm 46) We will make it through this.

Today's writing assignment

2009-08-18T10:18:00.003-04:00

Today's writing assignment for school is to write about myself. So...here goes.

If you are reading this blog, you already know that I am Lisa (Lytle) Huber because the side bar tells you that. I was born and spent most of my life in Big Flats, NY. (brief geography lesson: it's located between Horseheads and Painted Post. It's about 2 hours from Rochester, 2 hours from Syracuse, and 3 hours from Buffalo.) I was born a PK (Pastor's Kid) and a GMK (Grandkid of a Missionary Kid). I come from a long line of deeply rooted lovers of God.

I have brown hair, brown eyes wear glasses, have an inch or 3 more around my waste then I did 10 years ago, and love to eat, especially ice cream and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Since I am an avid gym-goer, it seems odd that these 2 things would be my weaknesses, but I guess everyone has something they crave!

I am a Pampered Chef Consultant (Team Leader, really), a home school teacher, and an Athletic Director by trade. Before you start laughing (those of you who have known me for a long time and know I'm not an athlete), I'm not a coach. I handle scheduling, planning, coach relations, and PR regarding athletics. I do not play. When asked if I'd want to do the Athletic Director job again this year or do something else, I said I definitely wanted to come back as A.D. It was difficult, and stretched me beyond my comfort zone, but I did learn a lot and LOVED working with our athletes.

I've been married to Phil for 10.5 years. Wow! Who would have guessed, huh? I still remember the " Female Communication student pact" about not dating Phil. I sure took a lot of razing for that, but I'm glad I broke the pact.

I'm the mother of an "almost 10 year old" daughter Lilly. She's started 4th grade today at The King's Academy. Lilly is a funny girl and is definitely a LEADER (all caps if you know her you understand!). I don't believe she has been a follower a day in her life. She is charismatic, spirited, and even strong-willed. Poor kid got a double dose of it from her parents. (at least I'm told it's more than her daddy who is strong willed!) She holds the character traits that will enable her to be a strong leader as an adult, but when dealt with in a kid, it's hard to harness them and allow the things that seem so frustrating to be directed in the proper direction. (Much like a young horse being "broken"...if you use a bit, it's much easier to get it to go in the direction you want it to go. Unfortunately, using a bit on a child would be considered inhumane!)

I'm also the monther of a 7 year old daughter named Katy. Katy is cute in a funny sort of way. She has a knack for making us laugh (many times at the most inopportune times) and desires to make people happy. She's a very hand's on student and loves to work with her Daddy as a Jr Technical Assistant (and even has her own Phillippe Performing Arts Center name tag she has to wear to work). She helps at chapel at least 2 times a week, can wrap an audio cable better than most of Phil's college student workers (sorry guys) and is even going to train them today as a live demo. I wish I could be there to see it!

Hobbies: exercising, reading, writing, listening to music, and playing wii cow racing.

Favorite musical artists: Michael W. Smith, Francesca Battistelli, Chris Tomlin, Chris Rice, Amy Grant, and Norah Jones.

The urge to write

2009-07-19T23:27:00.003-04:00

Tonight I've just had the urge to write. I don't know that there is any one thing on my heart, but I miss writing. I've been stopping by several friends' blogs and been blessed at each stop. Whether it's Mindy's heart to bake (I can still remember her mom baking chocolate chip cookies or pecan pies...didn't like the pies but the adults did! Cookies were the best!) or Carla's blog where she was sharing an everyday story that hit the nail on the head spiritually, God has His ways of teaching us.

This summer had been nothing like I imagined it would be. I somehow concocted a picture of glorious summer days full of strawberry lemonade, sunning by the pool with a good book...after sleeping in until at least 9 am. RRRRT. STOP! Where in the world did that come from? A movie? A silly fiction novel? A desire for life to be that way maybe? I can't say that I've had a single day like that in my whole summer (but maybe I'll make one this week!!!! Here's hoping.) I can see each of those things individually, but most of the time they aren't all together in a relaxing day! Hmmm...with one month left before school starts, me thinks I better make it happen!

It's not like it's been the easiest of summers around here. We've had the major downturn of health for Grandma, learning to help Grandparents in ways I never imagined, recovering still from our auto accident in March, asthma struggles, and so much more. It seems my emotions have been on a roller coaster ride.

You know, it's really kind of funny. When I started writing, I had lots of ideas of what I want to say, but now, as I write, I'm facing writers block and can't think of what to say or how to say it.

I'm sad. As we speak, I have 5 grandparents, and 4 of them are struggling with major health problems - mainly dementia. Some are in worse stages than the others. My Grandma Joan doesn't even know who mom is. She calls her "a nice person" just like everyone else she sees. Her husband, Grandpa Dave, seems to be failing too, although he's such a bull-headed man, one can never truly know what is going on in his head. My Grandpa S's health seems to be failing more rapidly than we had originally thought. He's getting more and more confused each day (all 2nd or 3rd hand reports...I haven't made the trip to see him. We spent time with him at Thanksgiving.) He's due to move to a more assisted living situation in the fall, but not sure how things will pan out with him.

Then there's Grandma Lytle. Her health seems to plateau, then fall, and then be ok for a little while. This past week has been another very difficult one. She's been very confused and even flighty. Tomorrow morning they are assessing her to see if she is even able to be transferred to the nursing care across the street in the step-down care facility they are living in, or if she'll have to go somewhere else. This is just breaking Grandpa's heart. They've been married at least 65 years. He feels like he's losing his mind, but in reality it's just he isn't sleeping because he has to listen for Grandma and is up multiple times a night with her (almost like having a baby around again). If he were able to relax from some of the care, I think he'd start perking up again. He's facing grief just with what he's dealing with now, I can't imagine how hard it will be living apart from Grandma when the time comes.

Lately each morning when I wake up, it's a struggle to get up. I feel exhausted and ready for a nap even before I get up. I wish I could be like a dog after a bath and just shake free off all the stress and grief. SHAKE it off. It's just that's not the reality of how things are. Each piece of the situation takes a little more frosting off the cake. It makes the cookie crumble. In some ways, it's probably easier this way because I'm only dealing with a little at a time, but it seems like such a long process of grief no matter how I deal with it.

I've just been alerted to the fact that it is after midnight and way past my bedtime, so I'll close for now and have to write more another time. Sorry my thoughts were so mixed up and seem to be all over the place. It's just how my brain feels tonight.

Facing the cycles of life

2009-06-19T21:04:00.003-04:00

How does one know exactly how to face the cycles of life? Hundreds of books have been written, articles have been published, and people have talked about it, but when you are the one who is facing it, how do you handle it? How do you handle the emotions, the tears, the fears, the questions? I've cried more since Tuesday, than I have in a very long time. There is nothing that can prepare you for the reality of aging.

My Grandma and I both have strong personalities, so throughout my life we have had our times of butting heads over things, sometimes even greatly disliking her for how I felt like I wasn't one of the "accepted, brilliant" grandkids since I was home schooled, but there is also a realization of a deep love there. I love to see how she adores the girls. Not only does it brighten up her day when we come to visit, it gives her laughter at the funny things the girls say and do while they are there at her house.

This has been a week like none other. Although it started out as an average week, it has definitely not closed out that way. On Wednesday, I got a text from my aunt saying she was on the way to the ER with my Grandma. Grandma had woken up very confused and refused to get up out of bed. If you know my grandma, this is extremely unusual. She is typically an early riser and has her bed made before you can blink. It is rare for her not to have a response or comment.

The family doctor was contacted and the decision was made to go to the ER. They ran a slew of tests, compared them to older ones they had on file and found no change. The doctor mentioned it's probably just Dementia. As we left, we began to see just how bad the confusion was.

We have essentially gone from her being "normal" and conversant on Tuesday to having to care for her almost completely. Dealing with this has been gut wrenching for all of us. We keep asking if there is something we've missed...or the doctor missed. It's so hard to understand and come to grips with.

Grandma sits in her chair and sleeps most of the day. She doesn't seem to know to do anything else. She can converse if she's awoken, but doesn't seem to have much to say. She has to be prodded to eat, prodded to go to the bathroom, prodded to get dressed, prodded to drink water. All of this requires much patience, much love, and both mental and physical energy. One must help her wherever she goes. She has a 4-leg cane, but doesn't know where to go. A frequent question is, "What do I do now?"

Grandpa is devastated. They have been married for 66 years. She is his lover, soul-mate, best friend, and companion. They do EVERYTHING together. He's also exhausted. This takes so much energy. It requires so many decisions. Grandpa is a very laid back kind of guy and decisions have usually been Grandma's first response. He's doing amazing caring for her. One of the things that has touched me the most is to see his deep, unending love for Grandma. On Thursday, he left to go to a meeting in the office of their apartment building (just down the hall), and before he left, he knelt down on one knee and kissed Grandma's cheek. She was sleeping, and only flinched as someone who was being interrupted from a nap and then went on sleeping. In that moment, I saw a kind of love I pray I'll have for my husband 56 years from now. It was not the kind of "love" that is thrown around in our movie-star saturated culture. This is the kind of love that knows no end and one that truly believes the "til death do us part" with every fiber of his body.

Today, we met with a caregiving organization to see about getting help. Grandpa is 91 and is just not capable of bathing, dressing, moving, and doing all of the care for Grandma. It's too much for him to handle doing it all. After the meeting and subsequent research and calls, it has been set up to have some care come in each day to help. This should be good since
my Aunt and I have been the caregivers since Tuesday. I spent the night Wednesday night and was there some of the day on Thursday and have been in and out ever since. I'm glad to be in the same town and be able to help.

I'm so thankful God has us here for this. I grew up so far from any of my grandparents and never had the chance to be with them except on vacations and holidays. Now, we see them about once a week. It has given Phil and I an opportunity to build a relationship with them and also allow our girls to have a special relationship with G & G. We've been blessed with such a rich heritage and know that without a doubt we are prayed for each day in their prayers.

Almost 3 years ago when we moved here, I was excited that we would at least have G & G here in town. I had no idea that at 33, I'd be coming face to face with the cycles of life...the decisions that go with caring for aging loved ones. I've listened to my mom talk about handling these situations with her parents, but have been so thankful that G&G Lytle have been doing so well.

I have no fear of where Grandma will go when she dies. She'll be in Heaven with so many who have gone before her. She'll have an amazing homecoming with her Maker and will be relieved of the daily pains she feels due to being 91. What I find so hard to comprehend and grasp is how we can go from sitting having a conversation to caring for her as if she were a young child in such a short span of time (24 hours). I don't want to see Grandma like this. I want to sit and have more conversations about the past, about what life was like back when she was growing up. I want to repeat her favorite bedtime saying with her "Sleep tight, wake up bright, in the morning light to do what's right with all your might" for many more years to come. I'm not ready to share her with her Maker. I'm not ready for her to need constant care. I'm not ready to see how this is breaking Grandpa's heart. (Grandpa and I have always had a special bond. This has definitely grown that.) I long for the tears to stop, yet wonder if I really want them to. With each tear, I feel my heart hurt so much more. With each tear, I open my hands and say, "God I don't understand, I don't want this, this hurts so, but I know I can't do this without you. Take me in your hands, I give it to you." I long to make the pain go away. The mental picture I have right now reminds me of the one in the book "I'll Love you Forever" where the mom holds the boy in her arms. I wish I could go crawling into my mom's lap and have her tell me it will be ok and kiss me. Isn't that how it was when we were kids? We could totally believe when we were in our parents' arms that everything would be ok? Why does it seem when we are adults that life is so far from that point? Oh how I long to be a kid again when it seemed the only problems we faced was who do we play with today. These grown up problems, decisions, emotions can rip you at the core.

(Side note..I'm listening to a song on Pandora radio by FFH..."I need your touch, I need your love, Oh, Jesus, speak to me. I need to hold you oh so close, Jesus, speak to me..." How appropriate!) The next song that came on was "Praise you in the storms" which besides the inner storm, a thunderstorm is going on outside.

To those of you who are here, please, don't ask how I am...it will only create more tears. A hug, a touch on the shoulder, your prayers .... I hate crying in public and at this point, it seems all that will come out. There is no "non-tear" version of this story.

The Man with a Funny Name

2009-02-07T00:01:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time, some 23 years ago, the man with a funny name became a part of my life. He was an ordinary man, but one with a big heart. He took me in from the moment he saw me and I became his girl. The man with a funny name was much older, old enough to be my grandfather. He had a smile that could win your friendship in a heartbeat and that is truly what happened.

One July day, shortly after Independence Day, I was introduced to him. We were at a campground in a small Indiana town, and he was the one man I could easily have hated. If it weren't for this man and his conversations with my dad, I would still have been a New York girl, but this man cajoled my parents to leave all that was familiar and follow God's calling to plant a church. I had no desire to leave my home in NY for this so-called experience of church planting. All I knew was that I'd left my friends behind and had no hope of finding more anytime soon since we didn't know anyone.

When we moved to Indiana, we had no home. We knew we wanted to be in the community where we were starting the church, but still had to locate a house. We found one, it was actually our realtor's house. The process went quickly and I remember helping to pack the realtor's boxes with our boxes that we were unpacking. I can remember emptying the hall closet, wiping the shelves, and then loading our stuff into the cabinet. Then, I would fill our box with the stuff from their closet that needed to go to their new house.

Moving in day came. There were a bunch of people from the district there to help us unload the moving truck into the garage so we could return it. Since we didn't have a church with people already, it wasn't possible to have them there. The man with the funny name was there though. He brought his smiles and his hug and kiss for his girl. (That's what he called me.)

Lunch time came and we made a plan to head out to Rockville Road to the Hardees restaurant. He gave general directions about where we needed to head and we all left in separate vehicles. I was with my mom. I really don't remember if anyone else was with us or not. I just know we drove up and down, up and down that stretch of Rockville Road looking for Hardees. We couldn't find it. So, mom said we'd just stop and eat at the Burger King and maybe the others would see our car and join us. Shortly after we ordered, the man with a funny name showed up with the others alongside. We asked him about where Hardees was, and were told that this was Hardees...even though the name on the sign said Burger King! From that moment on, the man with a funny name became "Uncle Hardee" to me and I became even more his girl.

He'd come visit us as often as he could. Many times Aunt Sarah would come with him. We always loved having her around too. One Sunday jumps out at me very clearly. We had been meeting in the Avon Middle School for awhile and our church was beginning to grow there. On that Sunday, I looked out the windows into the parking lot and saw him coming. I took off like only an 11 year old flash of light can. I fairly flew out the doors and right into his arms. Uncle Hardee was here. This was a special day because he was there. He grabbed me into a hug, gave me the customary kiss (which always made me blush), and told me, "You are a beautiful young lady and one day some young man is going to want to marry you. You make sure he meets Good 'Ol Uncle Hardee's approval." I always blushed and agreed, but rolled my eyes thinking he was silly.

Who was this man with a funny name? He is a man who is now sitting at the feet of my Lord. Oh the shear excitement he must be feeling as he talks with HIM and tells Him about those he loves. This man is Harold Bardsley. Pastor, District Superintendent, Indiana Wesleyan University Board member and so much more. But to me, he will always remain in my heart as "Good 'ol Uncle Hardee." Each time I pass a Hardee's restaurant, drive past the Indiana North District Office, or drive around Glendale Lake, his memory will be fresh in my mind and on my heart.

Uncle Hardee, this world just isn't going to be the same with out you. I'll forever wait for you to walk in the door by the Splash Welcome Center and look me in the eye with that twinkle and smile your love at me. I miss you. I always will.

I rejoice that you are with your Maker. Maybe you can do the work of helping to have my house prepared so I don't have to unpack into this one! Or Maybe you could build that Hardee's restaurant so when I come to meet my Maker, you can take me there.

There is so much I've left unsaid. So many things I would love to have known. Our paths went separate directions until 2 years ago when as in days gone by, I came running (unexpectedly) up to you in the Old College Church after service and re-introduced myself as your long lost girl who still loved you. One who sits here mourning your loss with a tear-stained face. Oh how I wish my girls would have known a relationship with you as I did. I'm so sorry I didn't share them with you so you'd have them to love too. You would have loved them, probably more than you loved me! They're even funnier and sweeter than I was.

Thank you for your part in bringing us to Indiana. So many amazing opportunities came from the time we were in Avon. I found out I was a whiz on the telephone, becoming the top ranked telemarketer when we made all those calls trying to get the church started. I found out I loved going door to door with you too. I've made friends that I still have after all these years because we were there. Thank you.

Uncle Hardee, I love you.

The Funiest Pet Show

2008-12-22T21:14:00.002-05:00

The Funiest Pet Show

Hi, my name is Lilly. I'm just telling you about pet's. I saw some rabbits in the pet show. The cats and dogs got loos. All the sanden the judges hammer fell to the ground. They gave award to most beautiful pet and to the most obedient pet. Sammy bought a fish to the pet show. Kayla's dog jumped to me. I played games too.

I hope you liked it. I have to tell you to come to my house soon.

I won fist prize!

The End!

Cold weather - bah humbug

2008-12-21T23:00:00.003-05:00

I was never born a Southerner (unless being born south of Canada counts), so I can't say I have the warm weather blood in me like my friend Kathy Bell, but I can tell you when it gets to a certain point, I find it hard not to just curl up in bed with a good book, some great background music, and peace and quiet. Ok, I'd do it all the time, but it is especially tempting when it's cold out. Tonight I think it is even more desirable.

When I look at the temperature outside, I see that is below 0 and the wind-chill makes it about -22. Inside, the temperature has dropped by 5 degrees since this afternoon and I'm thinking this is insane. I don't live in Alaska! The other thing here is that I was born and mostly raised in NY where the wind isn't nearly as strong. Since we live in an area with LOTS of open fields (that sounds silly when you write it!) so the wind is felt so much more than when you live in an area with hills to help block it.

As I type, the words "Baby, it's cold outside..." keep ringing thru my head. A few other options..."Jack Frost nipping at your nose" (especially funny after watching Santa Clause 3!) (Phil said that's how it feels in here), "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." that's a warm thought.

On that warm note, I think I'll take my cold self off to bed and see if I can pile on enough blankets to stay warm tonight.

Revolutionary War Wax Museum

2008-12-17T21:16:00.026-05:00

Today Lilly's class had a "wax" museum. Each of the kids was a different character from that time period. I've done my best to document it with pictures. Lilly was Martha Washington.

Here's how it worked...each kid dressed for their part, had a script (most had them memorized), and when you stepped in front of them, they were "frozen" (as frozen as 3rd/4th graders get!). You would push their "on" or "start" buttons to make them talk. When they finished their script, they would freeze again. It was a very creative idea! Yeah, Mrs. Zurcher!

This is what happened at the end of his "story". He died.

Lilly was Martha Washington.

Abigail Adams

The race track behind this guy has nothing to do with his actual performance. The racetrack is part of a behavioral modification tactic. It's another cool idea of Mrs. Zurcher's.

It's time for The BLACK FRIDAY SALE!!

2008-11-17T14:10:00.002-05:00

You are invited to attend by phone or email…

The Annual BLACK FRIDAY SALE!!!!

When: 6 am to 1 pm on Friday, November 26th

Where: at the click of your mouse (not the kind that squeaks and has a tail) or the push of a few buttons on your phone.

What: An annual Customer Appreciation Sale where you’ll receive discounts on products and the opportunity to win a piece of Cookware!

How do I participate?
You can log onto www.pamperedchef.biz/lisahuber to VIEW products (and great Christmas gift ideas). DO NOT ORDER there. (you’ll miss out on the discounts since it can take up to 24 hours to notify me) You may place your order by phone @ 765-661-6807 (leave a message with the products you want and the time you called) or email at pcheflisa@gmail.com. A response will come later from me with your total.

What are the deals?
Discounts:  
6-7:59 - 20% discount  
8-9:59 - 15% discount  
10-11:00 - 10% discount  
11:01 - 1 pm 5% discount   
I'll be giving away a piece of Executive Cookware as my drawing this year. I will also be giving out a few other random prizes throughout the morning, so you'll have several chances to win.   
Here's how to rack up the tickets for that drawing:  
Join my team (follow the link on my website) - 10 tickets Book a December Party (any kind counts)- 10 tickets  
Book a January party - 8 tickets   
Set an appointment to talk about how a PC business could work for you - 8 tickets   
Refer a friend (they must mention your name) - 5 tickets each   
$200 order - 8 tickets  
$100 order - 5 tickets  
$75 order - 3 tickets  
$50 order - 2 tickets  
Place an order - 1 ticket   
Pay by credit/debit card - 1 ticket

For great gift ideas, visit:
https://www.pamperedchef.com/images/cc/us/pdf/holidaydisplaycards.pdf

I'm still here

2008-11-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

I haven't written in awhile, so I thought I'd put up a quick post. It's about 35 degrees and snow is falling. It isn't really sticking to the ground. We did awaken to a dusting of snow (and apparently ice since I had to scrape the van). It was pretty and according to Katy "Lots of snow!" That brought Phil running to look only to express rather exasperatedly "That's not a lot!"

I've been very busy with Pampered Chef lately. I thank God for His blessing on my business. As I look back over the past 2 years, my team has grown tremendously and I now have 11 team members who are active on my team. 2 of them just signed within the past 2 weeks! Although I have not reached my big goal some of you have heard me talking about, I'm still working on it. I have until 12/31. I have over $15,000 points to go to earn that incentive trip that will allow me to take Phil on a 10th anniversary trip! We'll be heading to Miami Beach to a resort there. I am so appreciative of all those who are helping me reach that goal! If you are interested in helping by hosting a show, a catalog show, placing an order, or want to find out how you can start your own PC business, please let me know (blatant plug, I know!).

The girls are doing well. Lilly had dental surgery today. She seems to be in a small amount of discomfort, but doing well. The girls are resting (I'm heading for a nap too!!!! YIPEE!) The dentist said she needed to stay home today rather than go to school. Lilly hates missing school, but was happier to do it on a Monday than a Tuesday since Tuesday is art and PE.

Katy keeps really busy with a growing amount of work. Many days I wonder why on earth we are doing so much, but just when I think we should back off, I find we're missing something else (not knowing our math facts or our blends/special sounds) and it creates an issue with our other work. Oh the joy of trying to figure out the balance so we do what we need to, but don't overdue. I think it's too much for her right now. Guess I'll have to assess that.

There are about 4 weeks of school left at IWU, so Phil's starting to feel the end of the semester push to get things done. There is also work to be done in preparation for the new chapel sound system. This seems to keep him the busiest lately.

Thank you to so many of you who have prayed and commented after my post on friends. It's been a blessing reading what God has given you to share and seeing how He works in my life. Although the situation is far from "fixed", I'm seeing Him work. I'm making a conscious effort to focus on friendships.

It's nap time now. I need to go rest and make sure the migraine I had yesterday does not return. I've got a Pampered Chef party to do in Columbia City - near where I spent my teen years. It should be fun connecting with some of the people I knew then.

Droopy Eyes, Mind Chock-full of stories, and a clock that says it's past my bedtime.

2008-11-07T00:45:00.003-05:00

What do all those things have in common?The seem to be my life lately.

Droopy eyes - when I sit for any period of time with out being engaged in more ways then just listening or watching, I fall asleep (or if we put it nicely, I doze off.) I do not have the talent of my dad perfected so that I can be in the middle of a conversation, drift off to sleep, only to wake up and pick up exactly where he let off (I figure that takes years to perfect, so I'm just getting started!)

Droopy eyes - running the candle at both ends (this doesn't mean I have the flu from either end, just burning the midnight oil. There's just never enough time in a day to accomplish all that needs to be accomplished.

Mind full of stories - why is it when I'm the most tired and all I want to do is go to sleep that my brain is suddenly full of stories and ideas for stories. It is at that point that I wish I could hook up a Flash drive to my inner lobe called my brain and just start saving info so I could deal with it later. I am often heard (not out loud) to say, "Oh, that sounds like good story material". I just have a hard time getting things to paper because they usually come at a really bad time. They can come while I'm working out at the gym, doing a PC party, or attempting to go to sleep. A pad of paper beside the bed won't really work as it just all wants to come pouring out at once!

A clock that says it's time fore bed - my husband is in bed soundly sleeping and I couldn't sleep. My eyes are so droopy now that I could probably fall asleep, but I want to finish writing. It's been a week since Lilly's birthday and I haven't even gotten her pictures posted online. UGH.

It's been a very busy week. I've made the commitment to jump all in and go for a goal that is much greater than I can imagine achieving. I want desperately to earn a Pampered Chef incentive trip and take my husband on a 10th anniversary trip (Paid for by PC!!!) This means I will be pouring heart and soul into this until Dec. 31 at midnight. I've been asking friends and relatives to help me out. So far, I've booked 3 shows and 2 catalog shows. I have a few others in the works. It needs to go so much further. I do have a recruit who signed tonight, so that will help toward the total as well. Feel free to ask how it is going and encourage me too. If you need to order any Pampered Chef, please do so thru my website (email me for more info).

Now, I must close as I can't stay awake to keep typing. Hope you enjoyed your read!

Ever wish finding a bosom buddy friend could be as easy as they make it in the kids books?

2008-10-19T00:18:00.005-04:00

My mind draws me back to old Charlie Brown shows with Charlie, Linus, Lucy, and Snoopy. I think their writer showed true friendship through their relationships because they had their ups and downs, some more downs, and then ups. The disagreed, but they were still friends in the end.

I want that. God has blessed me with some very dear friends - Rizzy - my advisor and "devil's advocate"
Melinda - the friend who had just begun to be a friend when we moved...and that friendship grew thru email, calls, and visits when I'm home,

Katy - my best friend from college - whose life is even more insane then mine which creates issues when we attempt to plan to get together,

Joy who lives in the middle of nowhere, but came down to dance...a dance of friendship during a really low point for me this past summer,

there's Missy - we met because of her love for Pampered Chef and God keeps connecting us at the oddest times in our lives to serve and pray.

There's Lorri who walked out of my life 3 years ago and hasn't returned. I have tried to keep in touch, but to no avail. She's just gone. That makes my heart hurt. We were prayer partners and sisters at heart (even though our hearts were the only thing of the same color!). I miss her.

There are a few here who I feel tiny sproutings of friendship blooming - Amanda - the little girl from down the street in Avon who said she was a little brat....I sort of remember that, but now that she's grown up, I think she's pretty swell.

There's Molly. Molly and I click. We workout together (when she's not in school), we talk together, and we love spending time together.

There's Rebecca - who was in my life for a short period of time locally, but who has a bosom buddy connection that we can't deny even though she's to far away to see her now.

There's Holly, but I fear her legalistic studying to become a legal jargan kind of person, has kept her from connecting with me to share her deepest thoughts on some guy...who hasn't yet won approval from Phil or I! Holly, you know that's part of the deal of claiming to be my sister, right?

There's Cheryl, a dear friend who I connected with thanks to Maryann, and feel a special bond to.

There's Abby and Jackie, but I feel we're just in a different place now. A different season with less connection.

There are older friends:
Alan - my adopted "dad" and mentor, former boss, and now and "adopted" grandparent to my girls. He's one who really looks out for me.

There's Jan - my husband's favorite painting buddy. She's known me since I was a small child and loves me, prays for me, and is a good friend.

There's Kathy - Holly's mommy. I helped raise her as a mommy. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but she practiced on me for several years before Holly came along (Good thing for Holly she had some practice on me first! Although I wasn't nearly as perfect as you, Holly.

There's my mommy. Although we haven't always seen eye to eye, we're a LOT alike. This had its drawbacks when I was younger, but now I think it can be a good thing because she understands me quite well. She may not have the right words, but boy does a long, meaningful hug from my mommy help heal a bit of the heart hurt. Why do I have to be 10 hours away from that?

I can't forget one of my youngest friends...she's 6 and is missing a tooth. She is amazing. She sees right thru me and does what her little heart can do for a mommy she senses is hurting...she writes me notes to tell me she loves me. She tells me she needs to hug me. She tries to get me to laugh. Pretty cool kid that Katy. She's loyal. She's almost ALWAYS by my side and has been known to just reach over and grab my hand and hold it tightly. Another one of her ways of sensing what I need. Thank God for giving us her when we didn't know if we were going to have another child after my complications with Lilly.

I'm sure there are others. My brain is tired, and so it is hard to pull them all out of it. As I look, there are many friends in my life. Just not many who are here now. Ones who care enough to continually reach out and see how I really am...not just the surface stuff. That is really what I need is someone to take me under their wing and love on me. To help carry the burdens I'm facing and show me the way out of my dark world. TO lift me up in prayer, to show me how to walk out of this lonely road without having to do it alone or with medications.

The tears fall unceasingly. My heart aches. It yearns for someone to lay my head on and cry. I have no desire for medications to bring me out of this. I've been there, and it wasn't an easy road either. Day by day I trod on wondering when the burdens (much like in Pilgrim's Progress) will lessen. When I'll find a place where I can fit in and feel wanted. Not a place called Intentional Unity where unity is not found.

It's depth that I want. Depth in friendships, depth in spiritual growth, depth in learning how to handle me and my needs, depth in applying something from a class that will have application to my life where I am now. Depth...depth....depth.

I want to dig into a study of something practical for me, for where I am in life. Not a study that is meant to be general enough to meet everyone's needs in a broad manner.

I want to feel wanted for me, not for what I can do for you. I HATE this. Honestly this has been my feeling about the group I've been with for the past 2 years. If I can do something for the leaders, then I am liked, if not...I'm not really even noticed. Once in awhile someone mentions they've missed me, but that is rare.

You know, coming from a small church of about 150, I find 2000 a hard number to handle. I hear myself saying there are way too many people who come in the door and walk out without even being touched by anyone (unless it is in the mob to get a seat). I find this number overwhelming. I have options...venues actually, but I can't handle watching the preacher on a video screen because I feel like I'm playing church (and hate listening to everyone around me whisper and carry on conversation). I want to be close to the "real thing" for greater chances of being ministered to.

So what can I say except that my heart is heavy and lonely. My heart is dying for that covering of love only a true friend can offer. Now, don't get me wrong, my husband is a great friend and has been for along time, it's just I know that it isn't feasible to expect my husband to meet all my needs. I was designed to need girlfriends to help meet my needs.

Ever wish you could pass on being a mommy for a day (or two)?

2008-10-06T23:46:00.001-04:00

Ever wish that? If you are a mom (ok parent), especially a home school mom, you've definitely had those days. Today was one of them. It started even before we sat down to do school work.

I have evidently been "hit" with some kind of stomach discomfort the past few days. I was still feeling yucky this morning, but am plagued by an addiction to working out, so thought I'd get exercise somehow. Phil had said he probably couldn't take Katy for chapel as it would be a crazy day (and judging by how stressed he was this morning - when the hand lotion sprayed all over his clothes as he was about to leave the door), I decided she could just stay with me. No problem. We do it a lot. After some breakfast, I decided if I went to the gym I'd probably push too hard, so I asked Katy how she'd like to ride her bike in the neighborhood while I walked. She agreed (although it seemed like forever before she was actually dressed and ready).

We finally left for our walk...I thought everything was ok. She was riding along having fun. Then, she took off for our driveway. I wasn't going that way, so I hollered for her to follow me. After that it just went downhill from there. She got mad at me, tried to run me over with her bike, and finally sulked her way back to our house with me. The rest of our morning got worse. By the time we got up the driveway, she told me "I'm going to run away." That's always one of those "day brighteners", right? HA

I tried talking with her, it really only seemed to make things worse. We attempted to do school, but she kept expressing her anger at me. We talked about holding grudges against people and how God doesn't want us to have attitudes like what she had. She found every way to get more and more upset.

One of her things she's said for about a week is that she is mad that I am tearing the pages out of her home school workbooks to give to her instead of letting her have the book. She didn't want the books to become like a folder (once the pages were all out), Miss Brown's class had all their books in their desks (teacher at the school she attends for music, art, and pe), and that's how it was last year. I did it in the books last year and hated how destroyed the books became part way thru the year. I figured this would just be better. I'd pull out the pages and put them in folders labeled by the day when I did lesson plans each week.

Eventually she did help shed some light on things. She didn't understand the the workbook pages are perforated so that they can be torn out. She has been taught never to rip books and to respect them. She felt that I was disrespecting the books becasue I kept ripping out the pages. I think it helped when I suggested maybe she could help me rip the pages when I do lesson plans (which means really planning ahead as I usually do it late Sunday night).

As nap time, she asked me why I wasn't going to lay down like I had said I was going to do. She asked if it was becasue of her. I told her yes. You've told me all day you want to run away. IF I go lay down, who's to say you won't leave while I'm asleep. I also told her I wanted a shower, but didn't dare take it. She walked back down the hall and cried and then got in her bed. I didn't hear from her again (I know she was awake, but she stayed in bed and was quiet) till I told her to get up so we could leave for the school run.

Phil talked with her for awhile tonight explaining that it would be much better if she could use words like "Mommy, I feel like I want to run away because..." instead of I'm going to run away. He also asked if she would treat her Sunday School teacher the way she treats me. She was shocked and said NO. So Phil asked why she treated me disrespectfully. "Because she's my mommy, not my teacher." He corrected her and said that I may be her mommy, but I am her teacher too and she should treat me as respectfully as she does her other teachers. Hope that sinks in!

Needless to say getting to leave to go do a Pampered Chef party was very rewarding. It was so nice to get away from it all. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

The Little Things can make the Biggest Impression

2008-09-26T15:00:00.004-04:00

I wanted to share something that really touched my heart this week. Katy came home from Club Splash this week with a paper. She handed it to me and in my rush to get her to bed, really didn't look too closely at it until later.

Here's what it said:

It says:
hi I am hoskat (meaning home schooled) my teshr is mis mommy (I told her at the beginning of the year when she walked into my classroom that she could call me Miss Mommy.)

When I read it, it touched my mommy heart and my teacher heart. I thought I'd just share it so you could enjoy it too.

Helicopter Excitement

2008-09-24T00:35:00.008-04:00

We had excitement here on Marion's South Side today. Katy and I were coming home from IWU's Rec & Wellness Center when we saw a helicopter flying really low over our Meijer's store (that is being built). I quickly pulled over into the service station driveway so that we could get a better view of what was going on w/o having an accident!

The helicopter was putting heating/cooling units on top of the Meijer and the Meijer gas station. I think there were at least 10 that it lifted up. We watched it get hooked up, lift the unit, place the unit, and be released, then repeat. It was pretty cool to watch.

Here are a couple of pictures from it. Unfortunately all I had with me is my cell phone camera and I don't think it does close-ups so this is as close as I could get. I thought about going across the road, but didn't want to do that for my safety and for Katy's. People don't watch closely at that intersection. They'd run us over and kill us.

You can see the helicopter just under the power line.

Here you see it to the right of the power line closest to the gas station (I'm not sure why we need another gas station here as there are already 2 on this corner now and we keep having gas stations close all around town - without any warning.)

Here you see it between the power lines.

Unfortunately it doesn't really give a good view of the Meijer store in the background. Our store is supposed to be a "Green" store - only the 2nd of it's kind. It is built to leave as small a footprint as possible. It is also smaller then most Meijer stores. That's ok. We're just exited it's coming. Their produce beats any other store in town! They also have sales unlike Walmart. Hopefully they'll double coupons.

Anyway, thought you might enjoy seeing some of our excitement.

A funny story about Spelling Words

2008-09-24T00:16:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Phil was helping Katy with her spelling words. I assign spelling homework each night which typically is some variation of studying her spelling words so she'll be ready for the test each Friday. I also try to have her do her homework with her daddy since I am her teacher and want to take my teacher hat off in the evening. It also helps him to be involved.

Katy has been pretty frustrated because she doesn't feel like she knows her words well (this happens whether it is Monday or Thursday...any suggestions on creative ways to help her with her words...from my fellow home schooling moms?). Phil asked her if knew here words. She said she didn't. I think he asked her a couple, but she didn't know them.

Then she said, "I know one word daddy!"

"Ok, what is it?"

"I"

"I?"

"Yep. You spell it 'I'"

He had to laugh and roll his eyes because that is just like his sense of humor!

Phil told his boss this story and Greg even laughed! He said something about how his girls have his sense of humor.

Another story by Lilly

2008-09-16T22:55:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Lilly got in trouble for lying. It was a very stupid thing...both what she did, and especially lying about it. The punishment Phil came up with was to have her write a story about telling the truth. Here's what she wrote. (I got a good chuckle out of it.) Spelling is as it was written on her paper.

True Strory about truth

When you lie your letting Santen be incuntle of your mind. I now that ling is rong becuse you get yourself in big truble. More then you would if you didn't lie. When you tell the truth you get a rewad if you didn't do something rong. But if you do something rong you don't get a reward. Some times you don't get a reward because your parnets don't have enute money to get you something. I throw soap out the window and my dad fond it on the grass and I got in truoble. So my dad made me write this story. The End!

Ok, so let me add a few comments here:

1) incuntle means In Control
2) We are not the cheapskates she makes us out to be...we just have learned it doesn't need to cost anything to be a reward!
3) Phil found the soap when he was mowing the law and came in to ask the kids who did it. When they both said they didn't know and we could tell by Lilly's facial expression and tone of voice that she did know, that's where the problem started. According to her "story" she told us, she was trying to get her sister in trouble by throwing the soap out the window. They had a duck soap that was falling into pieces as it was apparently only meant to be a decoration, not something kids actually used.

4) Lisa Welchel talks about creative discipline. We've been working on ways to help her learn not just in her head, but allow her to get it into her heart too. Can't tell from the story if it has yet!

Thought you might enjoy just a bit of my life. Things have been so busy, blogging is becoming an extravagance.

Kids say it best

2008-08-07T13:27:00.005-04:00

We were eating lunch today (still at the lake where there is lots of seaweed) when Katy made a comment that had us all rolling with laughter.

Lunch included a fruit salad. That salad had blueberries, strawberries, apples, and kiwi. Here's what she said,"MMMM. This seawee is good."

I looked at her strangely, and asked, "What did you say?"

She said, "Seawee".

Laughter

I asked, "The green stuff in the fruit salad?"

"Yes."

More laughter from everyone.

"Katy, that's KIWI, not seaweed! Seaweed is the stuff in the lake that Grandma cooks for Seaweed Soup (an on going joke when someone asks what's to eat)."

"Oh. Kiwi."

A few minutes later I added a few bites of kiwi into her bowl.

"MMM. Yummy Seawee (said with that teasing look she gets on her face)...I mean kiwi!"

We all laughed even harder!

Her new nickname might end up being "Kiwi". She's got a dozen nicknames, so what's one more?

Vacation

2008-08-02T19:13:00.005-04:00

We are officially 4 days into our vacation. It has been wonderful. We drove 10.25 hrs to get here on Wednesday, allowing Phil and I 1.5 days just the 2 of us. What an amazing thing it is to just be the 2 of us. We realized that we hadn't had time away together (minus a few dates - most of which ended up being group events) since before we moved almost 2 years ago. We are thankful for my wonderful parents who kept them.

We picked the girls up late yesterday afternoon, had Chinese from our favorite place in Big Flats (note: MAIN MOON STINKS), and then headed back to the Lake. This picture was one of the things that topped of our night last night:

This is sunset between our dock and the neighbor's dock. We were getting our campfire started when I took this picture.

We've had fantastic weather - glassy lake (which is VERY unusual for this lake), warm, but comfortable days, and cool enough nights. Last night we had a big thunderstorm which woke all of us. Phil had to come downstairs and bring the rocker chairs inside (Cracker Barrel style) from the porch and shut some windows. It also soaked a roll of toilet paper due to raining in! Today, we've had some rain, some thunder, sunshine, and now it is the roughest it's been since we got here. We have whitecaps even on our shore.

Earlier this evening, we had 5 sailboats anchor between us and the "Point". Here's how cool it looked:

Phil's peacefully resting on the couch deep into Tony Dungy's book (a birthday present from his favorite in-laws) and the girls are in bed (not asleep yet, but there none the less). I figured since it had been since June or before the last time I blogged, it was about time. Ever since I "discovered" facebook, I usually post my pictures (much easier) there.

This photo just in. It's pouring rain here, but the sun is shining brightly over the sail boat! I love that you can see the rain drops as the fall!

Well, my ice cream is melting and my chocolate chip cookie (that I can't eat when Katy is up) is screaming my name. Time to go!

Kids can earn a free book from Barnes

2008-06-14T10:03:00.001-04:00

Kids can earn a free book from Barnes & Noble

Posted using ShareThis

Painting the Master Bedroom

2008-06-13T14:12:00.016-04:00

In keeping with tradition, Phil tries to pain a room each time he's on extended vacation. This time, after much cajoling, he made the choice to paint our room. We have talked colors since last summer when we became official owners of this house, but never been able to find what we wanted or what looked good.

We chose Valspar's Shoreline Mist which turned out more baby blue then silver blue and Sun Hat which is as Phil described to Lilly "a dirty yellow" compared to the hall. It's now 2:15 on Friday and he's almost done. The walls are painted, one complete batch of trim is done, and he's just waiting until 3 so he can paint the last coat. (it's pouring here...just thought I'd mention it)

We also decided that we would redo our closet, thanks to some FANTASTIC deals at Home Depot which is closing it's doors for good in 10 days. Here are pictures to show our progress - some show the mess, please excuse it due to "renovations"!

This is a shot of the closet before the shelving unit was completely put together, but gives a good view of the yellow.

This shot gives a perspective with the Shoreline Mist color and the not completed trim.

Perspective on the colors - note: Phil says they are the most perfectly straight corners he's ever done!

A different corner shot.

Pardon this slight interruption ... Daddy's tired.

The closet - more put together...seems there is more room for "stuff" or less stuff. Not sure which.

Me - In the Paper!

2008-06-01T17:32:00.002-04:00

This morning I was working at church when a friend came up to me and said I was in the paper. Lilly was standing next to me, so I thought she was talking about Lilly (that happened one other time), but she said, "No, it's you." I asked what for. She said it was for a Training Academy that I attended. Then, I remembered I had sent in a press release a week or so ago! LOL!

So, here is what it said so you can all enjoy it too! (http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/articles/2008/06/01/business/doc4841c1afb202c596339176.txt)

Huber attends training academy

Pampered Chef Director Lisa Huber had the honor of attending New Director Academy in Addison, Ill., where she was trained on how to build her business by training her Pampered Chef team.

The Pampered Chef invited Huber to attend New Director Academy to be trained on how to be a better leader, trainer and recruiter. Training included goal setting, recruiting, organizing a schedule, training new consultants, leading a team to grow successful businesses of their own, and how to plan a successful meeting.

Huber was one of approximately 100 consultants from around the country to join in the academy. This is the second time New Director Academy has been offered and by far the largest amount of directors at-tending.

“I feel much more qualified and ready to lead my team after attending the academy,” Huber said.

Huber has been with The Pampered Chef for six and a half years and currently has a team of eight people serving customers with her.

Call Huber, 661-6807, e-mail pcheflisa@gmail.com or visit www.pamperedchef.biz/lisahuber.

My only regret is that I forgot to send a picture with it! OOPS!

Published - on a friend's blog

2008-06-01T17:29:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Julie for allowing me to be a voice...you can visit her at www.surrenderedscribe.blogspot.com. She has some really amazing writing.
Julie "published" this story on her blog on May 20. I thought I'd share it with you.

The Voice of Compassion: Lisa Lytle Huber

Many have commented about how many voices I actually know. To be honest, there are very few this month that I have met in person. Some I know quite well online, some I'm just getting to know. Lisa Lytle Huber is one of those people I have known for a very long time. I've always admired her passion for life and people, she never gives anything less than 100%. This is my own marketing voice---If you need Pampered Chef items or are considering being part of the PC family, let Lisa hook you up. Her e mail is provided in her bio, or leave a comment here.

Lisa Lytle Huber was born and raised (mostly) in Big Flats, NY, but now resides in Marion, Indiana, where she lives with her husband Phil, and two beautiful daughters.

She is a PK (Pastor's Kid), writer, reader, loves to workout at the gym (and make fat muscles as her daughter says), and enjoys drinking strawberry-banana smoothies.

In 2001, she became a Pampered Chef Consultant, and now has a growing and excited team and business. If you would like to find out more about how to order or try the business, feel free to contact her at plhuber@gmail.com.

In 2007, she became a home schooling mom, and avid volunteer at The King's Academy.

Lisa loves to blog out her frustrations and feels that God often uses her tough situations or bad days, to help her learn important lessons. She hopes that by sharing her stories, you'll be blessed, challenged, and even think twice about something God may be trying to put his finger on in your life.

A Life Lesson in Reprimand

Have you ever been reprimanded for something you weren’t at fault for? Maybe it was when you were a kid…did you get accused of an action or behavior you didn’t do?

Do you remember how it felt? Was it like a knife to your heart? Did it bring tears? Did it make you mad or really angry?

How did you respond? Were you full of Godly love and forgiveness? Did you want to go lash out at the person who accused you? Did you back away and hide out?

Whatever your feelings or response, I’m guessing you can remember at least one experience like this in your past, or maybe in the present.

I experienced one of those situations today. Someone who didn’t even take the time to find out if I was at fault for the situation harshly reprimanded me. They just “blindly” reprimanded me as if I were some child who had done a terrible deed. It took me back to the days of childhood when I would respond in one of two different ways: 1) Get so angry I screamed at the one who reprimanded me or 2) go hide under my bed where no one could reach me (there are benefits to being small sometimes!) to pull me out. Although I am much too grown up to physically climb under a bed and hide, I wish that I could still have that place where I was not able to be reached. It’s not like anyone is here beating me or saying anything, but it is just that ever-constant stress of the situation and feeling like I can hear the one who reprimanded me standing here looking over my shoulder shaking their finger at me.

The Bible tells us we are to forgive. There are hundreds of verses, many of them I have heard (an memorized) since I was a child. I know in my head and in my heart that God has commanded us to forgive seventy times seven times (that’s 490 times for those of you math challenged people like me!). I truly hope that it doesn’t take me forgiving that many times to “be rid” of this feeling.

As I look at the situation today, it doesn’t matter that I really wasn’t at fault in any of the situations that were brought up. What matters most is that this person didn’t take the time to find out if I knew of these situations or allow me the chance to correct the issues I knew nothing about. I felt blind-sighted by the whole situation. It seems I must keep applying the 70X7 principle with this person, and that is hard.

This afternoon as I was working around the house, still steaming, God brought a lesson to me. I am a mom of two beautiful girls. How often to I jump to conclusions with them or accuse them before knowing the whole story? Am I actually willing to hear out their side of the story when I don’t believe they are telling me the truth? Do I, in my quickness to prejudge, bring these same feelings I have faced today, upon my own girls? Do I truly listen to what they are telling me or am I already thinking ahead to what my response is going to be?

I fear I am guilty as charged in most cases relating to the girls. God really put a finger on this today. I want to be a godly mom. Having said that, I know I am more accountable now then before!

What is God saying to you today? Have you reprimanded or accused someone for something they may not have done? Have you had anger toward someone, maybe even for years, and you’re tired of carrying the weight? I serve a God who forgives and forgets. He puts our sin as far as the east is from the west. Don’t allow your past hurts, anger, or wrongs keep you from the blessings and the lessons He has for you today.

Earlier this month I wrote something similar to Lisa's great post and it's also over at the Narrow Gate Invites today. You can take a look if you'd like.
http://thenarrowgateinvites.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-record.html

POSTED BY THE SURRENDERED SCRIBE AT 5/20/2008 11:17:00 AM
LABELS: FORGIVENESS, JUDGING, PAMPERED CHEF, REPRIMAND

Team "explosion"

2008-05-14T23:22:00.003-04:00

This is looking to be a very exciting month for my Pampered Chef Team. On Monday, Haley joined the team, recruited by one of my consultants. On Tuesday, Angi joined the team, recruited by me (and saved the day at my very smokey show). By Friday, Krisha is going to sign, again under one of my consultants, making her a Future Director! My very first!!!! I'm very excited about that. Add to that the fact that there are at least 3 others who may be joining the team this month! I'm really hoping it will help make a difference with team sales that help us hit our requirements for me staying out of relinquishment.

My sales and attendance have been increasing a lot lately. My show average is up by about $300. My team's sales average is up too. As I already said, our recruiting is up...we may double our team in a 2 month period. really thank God for how He is blessing my business.

I'm heading off to a New Director Academy this weekend! Pampered Chef is paying for the conference, hotel, food. All I have to do is pay for the gas (which at this point in time is getting more costly by the minute!) and food for meals not at the conference. I'm meeting a friend, who is also a director, in Noblesville, and heading to Illinois together. It should be a lot of fun.

Blogging for Lilly

2008-05-11T17:51:00.003-04:00

Since today is Mother's Day and I thought you might enjoy reading something one of my daughters wrote at school, I thought I would share that. All spelling and words appear as they did on her paper that came home.

The Cutest frog
by Lilly Huber

The Cutest frog I saw was on my bike. It look like this. It was green and it had pink bumps. I put him in a cake and I fed him bugs and me(at).
He lives in my backyard.
His enemies are dogs and snakes.

Another:
My favorite mo(n)th is October. I like it because it is my birthday. I have a party on October 30.

(Mother's comments: Somehow I think this is a bit presumptive!)

Here's another:

The Trip to Scien(ce) Central

I rilly liked the twirl s(l)ide. I rilly liked get(t)ing my picture of my shado(w). I like the water plase. I like playing the pano (piano). I love Scien(ce) Central!

Lilly

A Life Lesson in Reprimand

2008-05-08T13:38:00.002-04:00

Have you ever been reprimanded for something you weren’t at fault for? Maybe it was when you were a kid…did you get accused of an action or behavior you didn’t do?

Do you remember how it felt? Was it like a knife to your heart? Did it bring tears? Did it make you mad or really angry?

How did you respond? Were you full of Godly love and forgiveness? Did you want to go lash out at the person who accused you? Did you back away and hide out?

Whatever your feelings or response, I’m guessing you can remember at least one experience like this in your past, or maybe in the present.

I experienced one of those situations today. Someone who didn’t even take the time to find out if I was at fault for the situation harshly reprimanded me. They just “blindly” reprimanded me as if I were some child who had done a terrible deed. It took me back to the days of childhood when I would respond in one of two different ways: 1) Get so angry I screamed at the one who reprimanded me or 2) go hide under my bed where no one could reach me (there are benefits to being small sometimes!) to pull me out. Although I am much too grown up to physically climb under a bed and hide, I wish that I could still have that place where I was not able to be reached. It’s not like anyone is here beating me or saying anything, but it is just that ever-constant stress of the situation and feeling like I can hear the one who reprimanded me standing here looking over my shoulder shaking their finger at me.

The Bible tells us we are to forgive. There are hundreds of verses, many of them I have heard (an memorized) since I was a child. I know in my head and in my heart that God has commanded us to forgive seventy times seven times (that’s 490 times for those of you math challenged people like me!). I truly hope that it doesn’t take me forgiving that many times to “be rid” of this feeling.

As I look at the situation today, it doesn’t matter that I really wasn’t at fault in any of the situations that were brought up. What matters most is that this person didn’t take the time to find out if I knew of these situations or allow me the chance to correct the issues I knew nothing about. I felt blind-sighted by the whole situation. It seems I must keep applying the 70X7 principle with this person, and that is hard.

This afternoon as I was working around the house, still steaming, God brought a lesson to me. I am a mom of two beautiful girls. How often to I jump to conclusions with them or accuse them before knowing the whole story? Am I actually willing to hear out their side of the story when I don’t believe they are telling me the truth? Do I, in my quickness to prejudge, bring these same feelings I have faced today, upon my own girls? Do I truly listen to what they are telling me or am I already thinking ahead to what my response is going to be?

I fear I am guilty as charged in most cases relating to the girls. God really put a finger on this today. I want to be a godly mom. Having said that, I know I am more accountable now then before!

What is God saying to you today? Have you reprimanded or accused someone for something they may not have done? Have you had anger toward someone, maybe even for years, and you’re tired of carrying the weight? I serve a God who forgives and forgets. He puts our sin as far as the east is from the west. Don’t allow your past hurts, anger, or wrongs keep you from the blessings and the lessons He has for you today.

To every mother who has experienced NO Privacy

2008-05-04T23:04:00.000-04:00

To all the mom's who have no privacy.

A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's rest-room stall.
By Shannon Popkin

My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several embarrassing times that I've wished the meaning of his words would have been masked by a not-so-audible voice, but never have I wished this more than last week at Costco. Halfway, through our shopping trip, nature called, so I took Cade with me into the rest-room.

If you'd been one of the ladies in the rest-room that evening, this is what you would have heard coming from the second to the last stall:
'Mommy, are you gonna go potty? Oh! Why are you putting toiwet paper on the potty, Mommy? Oh! You gonna sit down on da toiwet paper now? Mommy, what are you doing? Mommy, are you gonna go stinkies on the potty?' At this point I started mentally counting how many women had been in the bathroom when I walked in. Several stalls were full 4? 5? Maybe we could wait until they all left before I had to make my debut out of this stall and reveal my identity.

Cade continued, 'Mommy, you ARE going stinkies aren't you? Oh, dats a good girl, Mommy! Are you gonna get some candy for going stinkies on the potty? Let me see doze stinkies, Mommy! Oh .. Mommy! I'm trying to see in dere. Oh! I see dem. Dat is a very good girl, Mommy. You are gonna get some candy!'

I heard a few faint chuckles coming from the stalls on either side of me. Where is a screaming newborn when you need her? Good grief. This was really getting embarrassing. I was definitely waiting a long time before exiting. Trying to divert him, I said, 'Why don't you look in Mommy's purse and see if you can find some candy. We'll both have some!'. ' 'No, I'm trying to see doze more stinkies. Oh! Mommy!''. ' He started to gag at this point. 'Uh oh, Mommy. I fink I'm gonna frow up. Mommy, doze stinkies are making me frow up!! Dat is so gross!!'

As the gags became louder, so did the chuckles outside my stall. quickly flushed the toilet in hopes of changing the subject. I began to reason with myself: OK. There are four other toilets. If I count four flushes, I can be
reasonably assured that those who overheard this embarrassing monologue will be long gone.

'Mommy! Would you get off the potty, now? I want you to be done going stinkies! Get up! Get up!' He grunted as he tried to pull me off. Now I could hear full-blown laughter. I bent down to count the feet outside my door. 'Oh, are you wooking under dere, Mommy? You wooking under da door? What were you wooking at, Mommy? You wooking at the wady's feet?' More laughter.

I stood inside the locked door and tried to assess the situation. 'Mommy, it's time to wash our hands, now. We have to go out now, Mommy.' He started pounding on the door. 'Mommy, don't you want to wash your hands? I want to go out!!' I saw that my 'wait 'em out' plan was unraveling.

I sheepishly opened the door, and found standing outside my stall, twenty to thirty ladies crowded around the stall, all smiling and starting to applaud. My first thought was complete embarrassment, then I thought, 'Where's the fine print on the 'motherhood contract' where I signed away every bit of my dignity and privacy?' But as my little boy gave me a big, cheeky grin while he rubbed bubbly soap between his chubby little hands, I thought, I'd sign it all away again, just to be known as Mommy to this little fellow.

(Shannon Popkin is a freelance writer and mother of three. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids , Michigan , where she no longer uses public restrooms)

Fun in the Sun

2008-04-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Here is proof that it is truly getting warmer out!

Look at me, I'm so cute I even pose!

"Mom, I'm playing here, do you have to make me stop for a picture?"

When I bought the Clifford sprinkler at a garage sale 3 or 4 years ago, I thought I paid too much for it, but Lilly was BEGGING for it. I bought it, and they do use it (especially since Daddy won't put up the pool - as if the weather were truly warm enough for a pool to stay warm without a pool heater!)

Notice the bucket? They were attempting to fill that by putting it OVER the sprinkler so they could fill it and dump it down the slide to make a water slide. They finally gave up and filled it in the garage!

A Side Trip

2008-04-23T17:45:00.005-04:00

After our visit with Flat Stanley we decided to go to Murdoc's in Wabash. Murdoc was an elephant who allegedly escaped from a circus train travelling thru town many years ago. Murdoc's is a cute cafe (with wireless internet for any of you who look for places to surf while away from home) where you can purchase great beverages like coffee, lattes and smoothies (my favorite). You can also enjoy food too. Anyway, it's a cute spot.

Here's some cute pictures from outside the cafe:

It's not often that you can ride an elephant right in the middle of town!

I can now say that my daughter has kissed an elephant. This was her idea and she asked if she could do it.

This elephant's height makes Katy look like she's actually riding a real elephant baby.

Flat Stanley - The Musical

2008-04-23T17:36:00.009-04:00

Today the girls and I went to see Flat Stanley, the Musical at the Honeywell. If you've ever read the book, you'll know how cute it was. The idea of the book is that Stanley was a typical young boy and he got flattened by his bulletin board during his sleep. Neither the doctor nor the pshyciatrist could fix him. He was used as a kite, stared at, and then decided to travel the world with just the cost of a postage stamp.

Here are some picture from the musical. (We were sitting in the balcony, so they aren't the greatest, but it will at least give you an idea. (In case you are wondering how they made Stanley flat, it was a costume that looked much like life jacket material.)

This is not Flat Stanley, but I thought this deserved some notice! Aren't those girls cute?

Here you can see Stanley flattened and laying on the end of his bed in is bright orange shirt.

You can see Stanley in his orange shirt standing on our side of the stage.

Spring Music Program

2008-04-23T17:30:00.008-04:00

These pictures are from last Thursday. Lilly's Spring Music Program at School. They did a great job. Lilly even had a speaking part, but I wasn't able to get that picture because the camera I was using wouldn't hold more pictures. :-(

They sang 5 songs including one very silly one about Senor de Gato.

Here are the pictures:

Lilly is wearing a pink princess shirt and is the 4th person from the right standing in the front row (stage left).

For all my female friends still dealing with Menstrual Pain

2008-04-21T23:41:00.002-04:00

I found this letter on my friend Christina's facebook page and laughed very hard. Pardon the language in it.

This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company

Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.

Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customer's monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women.

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.

Are you f------ kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness, is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong',

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullshit. And that's a promise I will keep.

Always. . .

Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX

A Touch of Creativity

2008-04-17T21:36:00.007-04:00

Last week I decided to see how much creativity I could muster up. We did a really cool craft at MOPS a month or so ago, and I wanted to do it for teacher appreciation week. Here's how it turned out! I'm pretty proud of it.

These are sticky note holders. I took a 4x6 photo holder and used scrapbook paper (Thanks, Adela!) and punches (along with some stamping stuff I've had for 9 years and hardly used) and put it all together with Creative Memories picture tape. The sticky notes are on the outside with a note of thanks. (if you ever decide to do this, make sure you buy the GOOD sticky notes not the cheap ones.)

Here are some other pictures I took - close ups: (I can't forget to mention the matching pens!)

Science Project

2008-04-11T20:45:00.016-04:00

The other day Phil came home and suggested that if Katy and I wanted to, we could do a science project and plant the seeds we purchased in the starter pots. I thought that would be fun, so I mentally scheduled it for the next day. I had no idea that Lilly would be home too.

Saturday night, Lilly came out of the shower and hollared that she needed me. She was all broken out in a rash. We tracked it back to a new bath gel that she was using. We gave her some benedryl, and hydrocortisone and sent her off to bed. After church on Sunday, we noticed that it had spread down her arms. I gave her more benedryl and we all took naps. She went to school on Monday, and I got a call from the school. The secretary at school said that she thought might have "Fifth Disease" since all the symptoms were there and it has been passed around the school. I went online, and agreed. They say once they have the rash, they are no longer contagious. (thankfully I didn't contaminate anyone on Sunday!!) I still think she reacted to the bath gel, so we won't be trying that one again!

Anyway, back to the story, after taking benedryl 2 times on Monday and almost falling asleep at school, I thought it would be best to keep Lilly home (the rash was very itchy). She helped us do our science project.

This is the peat pellets that are about 1/2 inch thick when you start out. The instructions say to add water to make them grow...

You can see that the water is making them grow.

Can you see them growing?

After they grow, I had to dump the extra water out and scrape the netting off the top so we could plant the seeds.

More seeds, please...

Here were are planting sunflower seeds. We had 2 different kinds. These big seeds grow the really tall sunflowers...they'll be growing behind the shed facing south toward Annie and Emma's house in a few weeks.

Katy is helping to plant her seeds. Lilly had sunflower seeds too, but they were the smaller kind. We tried to make sure they planted them in opposite ends of the planter and that they were different so it didn't cause such a big fight.

These are tomatoes. Lilly LOVES tomatoes, so she's helping me plant them.

Here's a great life lesson...We get these seeds from packets, but they originally came from other tomatoes. Although these tomato seeds are very small, they become big...beef tomatoes (isn't that a strange name when there is no MEAT in them?). It's just like what God can do with our lives. He can take even little people and bring big things out of their lives.

The sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots are planted and now they are all covered up.

The planter is covered with the lid/dome and in our garage while the seeds germinate. In a few weeks, we'll begin to see them poking their heads out of the peet pots. Spring...it's one of the most exciting times of year for me because I love the return to color and all the flowers. I am blessed by not being allergic to all the flowers and grasses, and I love to run up to a flowering bush (like a lilac) and breathe in the wonderful aroma. (there is a town not too far from here by that name!)

I think Lilly and I had the most fun, but one interesting thing that has come this week from Katy is that she is now eating tomatoes. We have tried for so long to get her to understand that Ketchup (a very IMPORTANT staple in her diet) is made out of tomatoes and if she tried them in her salad, she might just like them. Guess what? She does now! Yeah! (Mom, it won't work for me with nuts. My taste buds won't be growing up that much!!!)

Seeing my parents from afar

2008-04-11T20:31:00.006-04:00

Those of you who have family that is any distance will know what I mean when I say I get those "LONGINGS for HOME". Talking on the phone is nice, but just doesn't have the same feeling as being together. As we were doing bedtime snuggles tonight, Lilly started crying because she misses my parents. I totally understood. I feel that way almost every day. It has gotten a little easier over the past 18 months, but not much.

Anyway, I knew that I would be able to see them online tonight, so I jumped on over to www.fln.org and checked out the sharathon picture gallery from this afternoon when my parents worked answering the phones (they are very popular people, so they ALWAYS get their pictures taken and put online when they work). Sure enough, there are 2 of them. Although they aren't the greatest of pictures, it's still my mommy and daddy. So, I'll share them with you.

Sometimes it would just be nice to be there in person, get hugs, and even let the girls go off and play with their favorite playmate...Grandpa! (Oh and eat some of "Grandma's yummy bread".)

Oh, and so you know they really do laugh and have fun, here's another look!

Easter Pictures

2008-04-10T20:35:00.009-04:00

Although we are a few weeks past Easter, I finally was able to dump pictures from an old digital camera we were given onto the computer. So, here you go...

Here is their artwork...the girls worked hard (ok, their daddy worked harder) to create this finished product!

Don't they look proud?

This one's worth sharing too:

(I'm not quite sure if they're hugging to say, "Hurry up, Mom" or "We really do LOVE each other!")

Financial Clutter

2008-04-10T16:14:00.006-04:00

As I've been resting today (I had a blood draw this morning and I have felt miserable ever since...I can't seem to get my blood sugar back to normal), I stumbled upon an article on a blog that really made sense. So many of my friends have been saying, "i/We have no money." Here's something so smart, I wish I had written it!

The Real Cost of Financial Clutter on the Road to a Remarkable Life (found @ http://unclutterer.com/2008/03/26/the-real-cost-of-financial-clutter-on-the-road-to-a-remarkable-life/)

Our latest guest post during our month of sharing comes from Trent Hamm, the writer behind The Simple Dollar, a blog focusing on personal finance and personal development. Be sure to check out his blog after reading this truly inspiring piece.

Every time you spend a dollar, you sacrifice a bit of your future.

Five years ago, I believed the above sentence was foolishness. I was 24 years old, working at a high paying job, and about to get married to a wonderful woman. I had just spent almost ten thousand dollars on a wedding ring and an exorbitant honeymoon in Europe, and I was actively shopping for a new vehicle because, well, my current ride just wasn’t quite good enough.

Roll forward three years. I had $17,000 in credit card debt and literally not enough money to pay my bills. A good chunk of the debt incurred for that honeymoon still sat on the credit cards. My wife, son, and I lived together in a tiny apartment, trying to figure out what we were going to do next.

Everywhere I looked around me in that apartment, I saw stuff I didn’t need. Video game consoles piled high under the television, along with a small mountain of games for the consoles. Over a thousand DVDs. A gigantic television set that dwarfed our living room, looking almost comically out of place. A huge collection of Magic: the Gathering cards. So many books that half of our child’s bedroom consisted of bookshelves. Two nearly-new cars sitting outside.

And yet I felt empty inside. I held my child close, thinking about all of the things I wanted to give to him, but instead I had chosen to spend all of my money on stuff

Every time you spend a dollar, you sacrifice a bit of your future.

Today, not only do I believe deeply in that sentence, it underlines every choice I make in life. I turned that disastrous ship around, realized that all of that stuff was standing in the way of my passions and dreams, and in just two short years, I found enough financial freedom to do what I’ve always wanted to do: quit my nine to five job, stay at home, and focus entirely on my family and on my passion for writing.

The name of this blog, Unclutterer, really underlines the entire idea. Clutter exists in all aspects of our life, not only in the way we arrange items in our office and in our home, but in how we manage our time and manage our money. Clutter is distraction from the big picture, in every way, shape, and form. Clutter can even blind you and choke you if it grows out of control.

Financial clutter is a particularly insidious form of clutter, because it winds through so many aspects of our life. Much of the clutter in our office and home has a financial cost to it, meaning that we actually spent some money to create that clutter. The cluttering of our time is also financial clutter - if we waste our time on things that drain our money or don’t earn as much as we potentially can, we’re draining our financial plans of a great deal of vitality.

Here are six great steps that you can do immediately to reduce the financial clutter in your life - and begin to open the path to a truly remarkable life.

Calculate the true value of your time. Figure up how much you earn in a year. Now, subtract from that the cost of transporting yourself to and from work, the cost of work clothes, the cost of income taxes, and any other costs that your job foists upon you (like entertaining coworkers, for example). Now, figure up how many hours you actually work in a year, and add to that the time spent transporting yourself to and from work, the “extra” time spent working when at home, the time spent buying work-related materials, the time spent schmoozing with coworkers, the time spent on business trips, the time you “need” to spend unwinding after work, and any other time investments you make at work. Then divide the calculated amount you make by the number of hours you work for the year. That’s how much you really value an hour of your life. Know that number. Remember that number. It’s important.

Physically unclutter your living space. Go through all of your possessions and ask yourself whether you actually use it or not. Is it something that has honestly provided value for your life? Look for books you’ve not read, DVDs you’ve only watched a time or two, unplayed games, unlistened music, collections of things that you no longer feel passionate about, and so on. Gather up all of this stuff and estimate how much you’ve spent on it. Then divide it by the value of your time that you calculated above, and if you want to, divide that by 40 (so you can see this in terms of weeks). That’s how much of your life you spent working so you could have this stuff. When I first did this, I estimated that I had spent two years of work accumulating stuff I barely use.

The next step is to get rid of all of this stuff and make a clean break. Eliminate the stuff that you’re not using, haven’t used, and likely won’t use again. Get some degree of financial return out of this stuff in any way you can. Don’t worry about maximizing your return - you rarely will be able to make back the value of your time by seeking out a slightly higher return for the stuff. Then take that money and put it into the bank - it’s now your emergency fund so you don’t have to turn to credit cards when something bad happens.

Set some big goals - and remind yourself of them all the time. This is an effective way to de-clutter your mind. Sit down and figure out what your true big goals are. My goals were to spend more time with my children and write for a living - that’s what I really wanted to do more than anything else. Your goals may differ, but spend some time really searching within yourself to know what they are. Focus in on just one, two, or perhaps three goals that really speak to the core of your life.

Once you’ve figured out what you’re really shooting for, let most of the other stuff in your life melt away. If you’re focused on becoming a full-time writer, don’t burden yourself with chasing promotions at work. If you’re focused on being a great parent, don’t spend your mental energy worrying about social obligations in the neighborhood. Focus in on your goal and use all of your energy to reach that goal.

The best way I’ve found of keeping on focus with the goal is to put visual reminders of the goal all over the place. My desktop wallpaper is a picture of my children, and I keep pictures of them everywhere. I also keep notepads everywhere to make it easy for me to jot down thoughts - and also to remind myself of my writing dreams.

Use the true value of your time - and those visual reminders of your big dreams - every time you consider making a purchase. Let’s say the true value of your time came out to be $5 an hour (it can easily be this low, even at a “good” job). You’re at the store and you’re lusting after buying a Nintendo Wii - it’s $270 after taxes. That’s 54 hours of your life spent working for someone else so you can buy something else to clutter up your home. Even better, that’s $270 - or 54 hours - taken away from your big dream.

This works well for small purchases, too. Is that latte worth an actual hour of your life spent working? Is one latte a week for a year worth 52 hours of your life - more than an entire work week? Might that $270 not go better helping you save to make that dream come true, perhaps by helping you build up the financial cushion you need to quit your job and follow that crazy dream?

Go through every. single. monthly. bill. Many of the bills you receive every month have some sort of extra fee in it. Look at your cell phone bill, for instance. Are all of those features something you really need to pay for, every single month? Figure out what you don’t need - what’s just cluttering up your bill - then ring up your cell phone company and get those “features” dropped. Look at your credit card bill. Is that finance charge ridiculously high? Call up your credit card company and request a rate reduction. If the first person you talk to says no, ask to talk to a supervisor.

Even better are bills you can eliminate entirely. We used to subscribe to Netflix, but we were scarcely watching two movies a month, so we cancelled the service. Now, if we get the itch to watch a movie, we just go rent one or download one — it’s far cheaper than the Netflix grind. We used to be members at a gym, but now we get most of our exercise at home or by jogging around the block, so there goes another substantial chunk of financial clutter.

De-clutter your debt. Make a list of every single debt you have - credit cards, student loans, car loans, mortgages, and anything else you have. Write down the total amount you owe and the interest rate you’re paying on that debt. Order them by interest rate. Then, each month, make the minimum payment on each of them, then make a substantial extra payment on the highest interest debt. When that debt disappears, move on to the next one on the list until they’re all gone.

The best way to do this is to create a “virtual bill” for you to pay each month. Figure out an amount that you can afford without too much hassle - say, $200 - and then each month give yourself a bill for that amount. That bill is payable to whichever debt is on top of the list.
Can you believe that thinking about time/money this way really can make a difference? Most of us don't really think of things this way. We, as most Americans, treat money (or should I say credit) as if it were able to be grown on trees. It's time that we all think more before putting out the $$ for anything.

I challenge you to take the time to become fully aware of your financial situation and place your true focus in the ONE who has truly blessed us as stewards of His $$.

Teaching Kindergarten Just Got A WHOLE Lot Harder!

2008-04-10T14:20:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, my class grew by over 1,000%. I thought that teaching 1 child how to read, tell time, and all those other kindergarten fundamentals was hard, but as you will see in the picture below, it can get even harder.

These students arrived in my "classroom" insisting that they needed to be a part of things to "get smarter". Thankfully, they cooperated during class. (after class, they really raised the roof!)

Teaching...I thought classroom teaching wasn't for me way back in '96, but...guess I was wrong! I kid compared to 20+ really changes things.

Kids

2008-04-05T19:43:00.004-04:00

Do you ever have those days that you wonder why God chose to entrust you with your children? As I sit here (on my front porch bench (ok, it's Katy, not me in the picture, but I gave up looking for the other one I wanted...you get the point.) I wonder exactly why God chose to give us that responsibility. I feel so unqualified for this job (maybe that's part of why because if we were totally qualified we wouldn't have to rely on HIM). Even when things sail along smoothly, it's tough to know just how much responsibility or freedom to give your children at any given time.

Today, we allowed the girls to do something that was against our better judgment. They wanted to do something with an older friend who would be leaving to go back home tomorrow, but we struggle with being comfortable with the situation. We allowed them to go under STRICT guidelines and an explanation of what to do if the rules were not followed. We also told them that it was likely that we would be checking in on them. We sent them off to go play, and waited 10 minutes. Then, I left to go check on them. We were quite sure that our rules would not be followed. We were correct. What followed was some serious hysterics from 2 young girls. We managed to stay quite calm and collected even though we were upset. We also told them that we would be following our "gut instinct" the next time instead of trying to allow them to do something special like this. Needless to say, they are both having a hard time understanding why they will have consequences to deal with in the future. I think it hit Lilly at supper that she had broken our trust because she just started bawling. "I've broken your trust. Now you won't be able to trust me EVER again." We assured her that she could earn our trust back and that we loved her.

Anyone have any great insight into how you explain to a 6 yr old that breaking trust has consequences?

How do you go with your gut instinct when you also feel you want to allow your children an opportunity to have a little extra freedom this once?

UGH! If only they came with instruction books!

Catching up

2008-04-03T12:39:00.002-04:00

So much has happened since I posted a real update. Pampered Chef is growing. In fact, I am at a career fair today. It is winding down, and I figured I'd take a few minutes and see if I could update things while I sat here. It is a total no-no for my team, but sometimes when you are desperate...

The girls are doing well. Lilly has less than 8 weeks of 2nd grade left. She's been counting the months and telling everyone that in 9 months, she'll be 9. It's very cute. She is really growing a lot. Her legs seem un-ending and I'm realizing just how fast time is flying. Katy is reading, telling time, and excited about learning. Her latest excitement is that she got pink curtains for her room. Her daddy put them up last night.

Phil is excited that he'll be going to an Info-Com conference in Las Vegas in June. I wish I could afford to go too, but...maybe another time. He hopes to take a side trip to LA to see some friends. He continues to keep busy with work and is working quite a bit with the technical planning for the new IWU Chapel, which will go where Cox and Phillippe used to be - a sad passing of those two buildings as he lived in Cox for most of his time at college)

I'm heading to Chicago twice in the next few months. I've been invited to a New Director Training Academy in Addison, IL (just outside Chicago) in May. I can't wait! I've been devouring any training I can get to become a better director. Then, in July, I will be back in Chicago - downtown area - for National Conference. Hopefully several of my team will be going with me.

The first week of July will hopefully bring excitement for the 3 of us girls. Each year for the past 3 years, we've been a part of a Christian Dance camp in Painted Post, NY, at the Christian Hope Center. The girls and I look forward to this each year. It is a grueling, exhausting training time (4 days to learn a routine put to Christian worship music) and perform it. It's tough, but amazingly rewarding too. I've dance the past 3 years and LOVE it. I never danced growing up. I'm a Wesleyan...we didn't do those things! Now, I'm a more charismatic Wesleyan! (reformed?)

It's a fun time getting to see family and friends too. I usually take full advantage of it for doing shows too. I've already begun my list of people to contact to do a party while I'm home. (I almost packed myself in a friend's suitcase a few weeks ago to go home...he was headed to Corning for Spring Break). I'm pretty desperate to spend time with family and friends. It seems like forever since Christmas. Last year it seemed we saw my parents about every 3 months. It's becoming a lot longer this year. I did see them in January, but that seems like forever ago and the girls haven't seen them since Christmas.

Smokey is growing and as feisty as ever. She's grown a lot. Her favorite things seem to be finding more to get into. She loves soft blankets, water running in the tub, and ear scratching. I can't forget the playing with her rope or attacking as you come around the corner. She and Phil can really get into it. He calls her "the rodent" She licks food up off the floor and eats almost everything. It was very cute yesterday when Katy found her asleep in the baby doll crib! I wish I had a picture of it. (I broke our digital camera in January, so it hasn't been replaced yet. )

Creating a Facebook Addict

2008-04-03T12:28:00.003-04:00

It's been almost a year, I think since I joined facebook after my friend Adela kept talking about it and telling me about her fun. (funny thing is, my parents joined before me because my brother, who was in Russia, was posting pictures on facebook, so they wanted to see them!) I've been telling Phil since then that he should join. He had an account previously, but forgot to change it over when he moved from Ithaca College and no longer had that account. He's been resisting it completely. Earlier this week, I was showing him something on my account during lunch, and he was surprised at all their was to do, see, and check out. The other night, I came home and found him on the computer...on facebook, none the less!

Last night, I kept trying to get him to go to bed (much as he does to me each night) and he said, "You've made an addict out of me!" I just laughed and said that I knew I would. He is now enjoying finding friends he hasn't talked to since elementary and high school.

I have yet to get him addicted to packrat, but he was playing scrabble!

Mistaken Identity

2008-03-29T00:18:00.004-04:00

I, like many millions of other people, watched as Matt Lauer helped the Cerak and VanRyn families recount their heart wrenching stories. Phil and I were drawn to the story of the accident for many reasons. The accident happened right around the time we were originally supposed to be out here to interview for Phil's current job. We both graduated from IWU, not far from the accident site, my "boss" Mary Beth had been by that spot on 69 just earlier that day, and Taylor University is one of the MANY Universities I have to thank for my degree.

At any rate, this story just grabbed my heart tonight. I just kept thinking about how I couldn't imagine having it happen to me. Just as Mr. VanRyn said...God gives you the strength when you are in the situation. You can't imagine being in it, even when you are. I kept thinking about my 2 daughters and how I couldn't bear to lose either one of them. Then, I thought about my own parents and just wanted to call my mom back after it was over and say, "I love you."

The story was a powerful witness of God's strength, the forgiveness of 2 families, and the love shared among so many people. Even though the question continued arising about how they didn't know, the families share a love for Whitney as if they had loved her all her life.

You can go to to read a excerpt from the book Mistaken Identity which is due out later this year. The entire transcript of the program is available on MSNBC, and you can even watch it.

I'm thankful for a powerful testimony despite the heartache.

A love of ironing?

2008-03-22T00:46:00.002-04:00

When I checked my email tonight, I found the following story included...sent from none other than the woman who knows me best - my mom. As I read the story, I swore it could have been me. I guess she beat me to the blog first! Note: I solve my ironing problems by making sure to present anything that I need ironed when my husband does his ironing (he's VERY particular and prefers to do his own ironing. He very rarely asks me to iron for him, and when he does, I know he's really late for work in order to ask!)
Did I mention I struggle to know which way I prefer the ironing board each time? That probably comes from not using it that often. Thank goodness for Eddie Bauer's wrinkle-free shirts!

So, here's what I found about other's struggles with the iron.

The Iron Age
Why it's been that long since I've pressed my family's clothes.
Martha Manikas-Foster | posted 2/27/2008

I suffer from an ironing deficiency. My rare attempt to press a crease adds enough pleats to qualify for the International Accordion Championship. I know the patent for the electric iron in 1882 must have seemed revolutionary, but I'd gladly dedicate my laundry room to the man—or, more likely, the woman—responsible for permanent press. Wrinkled shirt? I spritz it with water and toss it into the dryer. Why else did the little squirt bottle come with the iron? Shirt not smooth yet? I dunk it in the tub and give the dryer another go. If the dryer still can't save the shirt, then I've no choice but to relegate it to the ironing pile.
Most families search for warm memories in a scrapbook; my family finds them in the ironing pile. A baby quilt for my now 16-year-old son. Khakis too wrinkled for his third-grade Christmas concert. The flapper costume from my now college-aged daughter's eighth-grade musical. But the antiquity of these relics doesn't mean I neglect this pile. I visit at least once an Olympiad. Each time I pause and smile: My, how quickly children grow up. Then I box some of the skirts, jumpers, and sailor suits and let my sister iron them for her children.
I never planned to advertise my pressing problem. I inadvertently went public early in my marriage when I volunteered to fetch an iron and board for my visiting mother-in-law to use. Forty-five minutes later, as an ironing-pile archeologist emerging from her first dig, I surfaced, gripping a board under one arm, cradling an iron in the other, and dragging a wrinkled oxford shirt twisted in the iron's electrical cord. I managed to rip off the manufacturer's tag with my teeth before I returned to my mother-in-law.
That little incident would explain the gift my daughter received from her grandparents for one of her first Christmases. No plastic iron or toy ironing board for this girl. Hoping she could overcome her upbringing, my in-laws gave her a Kenmore Light 'n' Easy Steam/Dry Iron complete with SilverStone coating. Accompanying it was a dorm-sized ironing board "so she can practice." I find an extra one comes in handy when I need to prop up a window and I've already pressed the family Sunbeam into service as a doorstop.
Despite my mother-in-law's gentle—yet obvious—clues, I never understood how out of the mainstream I was until a recent disagreement with the contractor planning an addition to my house.
"The dryer goes here, the washer here," he indicated as he paced off a new laundry room on a portion of our backyard. "Here will be the stand-up freezer from the garage." He ended by pointing with satisfaction to where he could attach an indoor clothesline.
I shook my head. "You haven't accounted for the ironing pile."
He looked up from pacing, his face blank. "The ironing pile?"
I ushered him to our current laundry nook and pointed toward a mound the size of Star Wars' Jabba the Hut. He left to rework the drawing.
None of these ironing issues surprise my husband, David. He knows I inherited them honestly. Some of my earliest memories include riding to my mother's friend's house, where Mom handed over my father's wrinkled shirts and then dug into her pocket for some of the grocery money. David witnessed my family's internal wardrobe workings when he lived with us for a summer before our wedding. So he almost called a press conference the time I ironed a shirtfront until it was crisp and smooth. Then he noticed its back could have doubled as a topographic map of an Appalachian watershed.
Early in our marriage, David developed strategies that have kept his attire presentable and our relationship intact. Every so often, while I'm sorting photographs or helping our children with their homework, I hear a squeak and a hiss. And I know David's strapped on the back brace, donned the boots with added arch support, and unearthed the necessary tools for his personal ironing marathon. I smile, then scour the house for available hangers, pump my Iron Man with hydrating fluids, and require he stretch at least every two hours. I also offer expertise, suggesting he iron only the shirt collars, because if God had intended entire shirts to be ironed, he wouldn't have invented the sweater.
But more often I notice that just before a big meeting or social event, David arrives home with a new shirt and mumbles something about needing to "freshen up my wardrobe." Our children believe proper business attire comprises a dress shirt with geometric creases the dimensions of a 9 x 14 -inch piece of cardboard.
I'm not anti-ironing. I don't love my family any less because I can't tell spray starch from cornstarch. But I just don't see why I should try to smooth out every wrinkle. Or any wrinkle. Perhaps wrinkles are even a sign of love. The people God's loved for a long time—they have lots of wrinkles. A coincidence? I think not.
Still, I've made sure to give my children a proper household education by imparting a few ironing tips: Never leave a hot iron unattended. Always store an iron out of the reach of small children. And never, under any circumstance, iron a piece of clothing while wearing it. That's what a curling iron is for.

Martha Manikas-Foster, a freelance writer and radio news reporter, lives with her family in New York.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian Woman magazine.

Back in the blog world

2008-03-12T12:19:00.003-04:00

I decided after much guilt tripping (mainly of myself) that I better get back to my blog.

Today is a beautiful day. My weather widget says that it is 33 degrees out here, but I don't believe it. Katy and I are sitting on our back patio (that we didn't have this time last year!) doing school. It is so nice out here. The only one that is not happy is Smokey (our cat) because she is stuck in her room. While we were sitting here, she somehow pushed the screen door open enough to stick her paw out and almost got her head out before I caught it. (She's not an outside cat) Then, she found a hole in the screen and started pushing on that. Now, she's in her room pounding on the door and howling that she can't be out here with us.

Katy's doing great with her school work. We've finished her Social Studies book, several of her small reading books, and just finished her math today. (I have another math book we'll be working in, but she doesn't know it yet.) She is almost finished with her science book. It amazes me how fast she goes thru her books when it is just her working and not a class full of kids. I have a feeling we won't last until Lilly is done with school on May 30. That may cause some issues. I guess there isn't much I can do.

Finding friends

I've had fun the past 24 hours. I located several friends from my Jr. High days at Bethesda Christian School in Brownsburg, Indiana. It started about a week ago when my friend Joanna found me thru facebook. Then, Jeff found me. Since then, I found Ben's wife, and just found his sister!! Rachel and I spent a LOT of time together. In fact, I think it was Rachel that taught me to french braid on her barbie head. Funny thing is, I can't seem to french braid my girls' hair because I got so used to braiding my own hair that I can't seem to transfer back to doing it on the girls!

I also found another friend...my best friend thru 7th and 8th grade...Abigail. We'd lost track of each other, but I'm SOOO excited that we have connected. She lives in OH somewhere. I'm looking forward to connecting more. I saw on her facebook profile picture that she has 3 kids...boys, I think. It's amazing where we can go via the internet.

Company's coming

We are looking forward to company from home this weekend. IWU's High School weekend is this weekend (which means Phil is essentially not living at home due to duties at work), and we have a group coming from NY. Cliff and Darlene will be staying with us on Friday night. Although I really wish my parents were coming (it's been WAY to long since our Christmas visit even though I saw them at the end of January, it doesn't seem like it.) Anyway, it will be fun having company from home. We don't get overnight guests very often. The girls are "fighting" about whose room they'll be staying in. Phil said that he would determine that Friday morning before Lilly left for school. She has to get her room clean today and keep it clean in order for him to decide they can stay in her room (this is not an easy job...it is looking better than a few weeks ago, but she doesn't have the knack for organization that my friends Ronda and Jaena have. I wish I had their knack!). We shall see.

Time to make lunch

It is now almost 1. Katy is supposed to be down for quiet time at 1. I just realized I am supposed to have a phone training at 1:30. I guess I better hurry. I have to do the school run every afternoon now. Our carpool changed since the other mom got a different job. She drives mornings, I drive afternoon. It works, just wont' be getting a nap as often as I might desire.

Guess this will have to be your update for now.

Prayer Request

2008-01-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

Please pray for my brother Andy and his family (Natasha, Caleb, and Joshua). They are currently in Russia as missionaries, but due to serious medical issues are heading home to Kentucky on Saturday. Please pray for God's continued work and protection.

Caleb's ear ruptured this week in the midst of all the health issues with Natasha. The mission board made it clear that they needed to get home so that Natasha could get treatment.

Here's how you can pray:

Pray for Andy and the boys as they are still in Vladimir and Natasha is in Moscow (she went there to get some treatment and make sure she was cleared to fly back normally and not have to have a medivac take her out).

Pray for smooth travels so Natasha won't be stressed and the trip home will be peaceful.

Pray for Caleb's ear to heal without any complications.

Pray for Natasha's mom, aunt, and grandma to find salvation (even with out Andy and Natasha physically there with them...God is doing some neat things in Natasha's mom's life.)

Pray for Andy to find a job quickly.

Pray for Natasha to be able to receive treatment and answers quickly next week. (It is thought it is a hyper-thyroid issue)

Pray for safe travels for mom as she drives to KY tomorrow, for me when I go, and for dad who will be travelling later this weekend.

Pray that all their luggage will arrive without anything being lost, damaged, or delayed.

Thanks for your prayers. I'll keep you updated.

Oh, and my grandparents in Nebraska are now in rehab. Grandpa is not gaining his strength back very well.

More Christmas pictures

2007-12-25T22:45:00.000-05:00

Here is Katy showing off her new pink princess hoodie from my Aunt and Uncle in Massachusetts.

Here's Lilly with her purple hoodie.

More photos to come, I'm tired and I can't find them after dumping them to my computer! UGH.

Katy got what she asked for.

2007-12-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

Katy has been asking for over a month to get her ears pierced. At first, it wasn't even an option, but after talking with Phil, we decided that we would at least consider it because she has really shown responsibility. She keeps her room quite clean, and she is really particular about her things.

Three weeks ago, Katy and I were at Wal-Mart shopping and she asked if we could look at the earrings. I gave in and we looked and I asked a few questions. It was after that trip that she seemed to talk and talk about getting her ears pierce. I finally told her that the conversation was over. I didn't think it was going to happen, and that she needed to not talk about it again. If she talked about it again, she would definitely not have the opportunity to get them pierced if daddy agreed. We had already told her she needed to be much older before she could have them pierced.

After that, she didn't ask again. She just wore her dress-up clip-on earrings around the house all the time. She proved that she could handle it in numerous ways. So...last Thursday before Katy and I went to Lilly's school for a Christmas party, I took Katy to get her ears pierced. She didn't know we were going to do it until we pulled into the parking lot and I asked her, "Katy, you asked for something for Christmas and I wanted to know if you still wanted it..?" She paused for several minutes, and then realized what I was asking. She immediately said that she did. So...we headed for the jewelry counter to pick out her starter earrings.

Here are some pictures that I took of the event:

Here she is sitting patiently on the stool with Ella just before getting her ears pierced.

This was taken before the ears were pierced. She was starting to look very unsure. When I asked just before the gal put the earring in..., "Katy, are you sure you want to do this? You don't have to, but you need to speak now before she starts..." She had a look on her face similar to this one and she paused for a very long time. Since there was only one lady working there, we had to do one earring at a time. Typically with kids they do them both at the same time so they can't back out at just one earring.

Here she is during the first ear piercing. She was very brave.

Can you see her smile fading and her face going deeper into Ella's fur? She never cried (a fact she is quite proud of...I had tears in my eyes when I got mine done several years ago!)

Here is a picture of what her earrings look like. It is a bit hard to tell, but they are a cute pink flower. Katy's first choice was a single diamond like mine, but they were all out of them. I think this is quite cute.

We now have to clean her ears/earrings while in the ears 2 times/day for 6 weeks. She cannot leave them out for any extended amount of time for the first year. We've already had one incident with the earrings. She was napping on Sunday when her earring got caught on her shirt and the ear tore a bit. It hurts and bothers her, but she's quite tough.

Christmas Comes Early

2007-12-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas started early. Last Sunday we allowed the girls to open one of their presents. It has been a war because Katy built a new Build-a-Bear on Thursday and Lilly wanted one, so she was mad that she didn't know what her present was. So...Lilly finally got the doll she had been asking for. She really wanted an American Girl Doll. (I bought this in July when I was in Chicago...before we started our Financial Peace Class!)

Meet Kimberly Huber. She is a "Look Like Me" Doll.

Katy loved opening her box with her Hip Hippo in it even though she had seen her hippo before, she hadn't been allowed to play with her since we arrived home from Noblesville where we built her.

Meet Abby Deann Huber!

Ella meets Abby

Is this what you call "rocking around the Christmas tree"? This is Abby, Ella, Liz, and Jenna plus a bunch of other miscellaneous bears.

A Scare

2007-12-24T14:47:00.000-05:00

We arrived in NY about 6:30 pm on Saturday night. We had a safe trip and are enjoying our time in NY. It was nice seeing so many people in church yesterday. I've made plans to catch up with a few friends besides the one I spent time with last night. I really love catching up in person.

Last night about 11:45, we received a phone call from my Grandparent's neighbors from Nebraska. My Grandpa Dave fell on ice sometime yesterday. He was unable to get up to get help, therefore he spent about 4 hours outside in the -2 degree weather until my grandma found him. She is not well, but knew enough to head to a neighbors to get help. An ambulance took him to the hospital and the neighbors followed behind with Grandma.

He didn't break anything, but he has some bruising. He has an abrasion on his eye, and there have been temperature stabilization issues due to being out in the cold so long.

Please pray for both of them. Grandma is not well or able to care or herself so she is staying at the hospital too. It seems she is a lot of work too because she is unable to remember very well.

A Dream comes to Fruition!

2007-12-08T22:25:00.000-05:00

By now, most of you know I have been with the Pampered Chef for just over 6 years. I love it. I never dreamed I'd be doing this. Cooking has never been my thing. In fact...when I started with the Pampered Chef, my mom told me, "You know, Lisa, you have to know how to cook to to that." Oh ye of little faith!

Since I graduated with a communications degree, I always thought I would be behind a camera at a TV station (or anchoring if I could make it that far) or writing for a newspaper which is actually the last "real" job I had before having kids. No way would I have thought you'd find me selling kitchen tools in front of groups of people (I passed my advanced speech class with a c or c-!) I have never really enjoyed getting up in front of people. I still don't in any situation other than my Pampered Chef business! (LOL - Beth and Ronda, that's for you after our conversation about texting words!)

On December 1, after many years of hard work, I have seen a dream/goal come to fruition. I promoted to director! I'm officially a director! I still find it very hard to believe. My team has asked if it feels any different, but I'm not sure it has completely sunk in. I keep thinking that maybe when I walk stage at Leadership in January. I don't know. I am excited because this will give me a big pay raise (one of God's ways of blessing us for working toward financial freedom). It also enables me to be paid for the job that I have been doing in training my team.

I want to say a big thank you to my director Mary Beth for helping me, training me, and walking me through the last 2 weeks! Directorship would not have come quite so quickly without her! Thanks. Thanks, also, to my team: Tracy, Christina S, Roberta, Adela, Erin, and Christina L. Although we are spread throughout the east coast, and midwest, we are all a team and I feel so privileged to be a friend and leader to each of these wonderful ladies. Look out world, here comes the Huber Cluster!

If you would like to be a part of our amazing team, I'd love to talk with you more to see how the Pampered Chef would fit your lifestyle and needs.

She has a name!

2007-11-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

After 24 hours, she finally gained a name. The girls chose Smokey. That is the same name our friends the Shellhaas's cat. We threw around a bunch of names including Cali, Smokey, Sam, Tiger (the name of Stripey's sister who died in 1993), and a couple of others I can't think of. Smokey won out.

Part of the rules of adoption from Art in Motion Pet Shop was that we had to take the cat to the vet within 4-5 days, so I took her in to Kem Rd and had her first exam. She is in excellent condition and weighs 1.5 pounds! Dr. Ratcliff thought she was cute...so did the girls in the office. As I was waiting for the dr to come in, I had Smokey walking around my shoulders. We walked over to the small window in the door to look out. Smokey had everyone laughing. They thought it was really cute and funny that she was walking around on my shoulders and look out the window.

She's adjusting well. We've now had her for over a week. She's learning...sometimes more slowly than we would prefer.

Today was a really nice day, so we had the back patio door open w/ the screen shut. Smokey loved it. She was eating leaves, sniffing the air, jumping around, and enjoying it emensly.

Here are a few shots of her. I love getting unique shots of Smokey.

You knew she'd have to be a Pampered Chef lover, right?

This is where I found her tonight! Katy's going to eat it up and love attempting to push her around in the stroller.

She even took a bath upside down in the stroller tonight!

The cat with no name

2007-11-04T20:21:00.000-05:00

Today, I went out on a limb. I had to visit the pet store for business reasons, and decided to hold a kitten just so I could feel the "love" again. I had gone in several weeks ago and came out crying. We had discussed not getting a kitten until after Christmas, but...I fell in love. She is now here...and completely nameless. We are clueless as to what to name her. Oh, and she was born on 9/5/07, making her 2 months old.

She is living in our little bathroom because we do not want her running all around the house. Man is she fast! She took off and I wasn't quite ready for it. I chased her all over the house. She ended up in my office which concerned me because it is the "point of no return" still in this house. I was able to rescue her from the mountains of un-filed papers, and get her back to the other end of the house.

The girls like her, but Lilly is scared of her...I think it is more that she is scared of hurting her. We'll see.

Here are some pictures of her. More to come, but it is very hard to catch her being still long enough to get a picture. She loves climbing around my neck. It's quite funny, but becoming more annoying.

(Please note the date on my camera is incorrect. I was not even aware that it was still on. Sorry.)

Lilly's birthday('s)

2007-11-03T21:19:00.000-04:00

We finished celebrating Lilly's birthday today. We started on Tuesday and then had the birthday party today. It went quite well. I was very nervous when all the parents left and we had 6 extra girls here who were between the ages of 9 and 4! Yikes. I don't do well with kids, but it went really well. I'm going to post pictures and attempt to narrate. I may have to do this in sections depending on how long it takes.

A visit with a long lost friend

2007-11-01T19:04:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of having my friend Lisa Wright visited today. I haven't seen her since the summer after we graduated, so that was almost 9 yrs ago. We've kept in contact via email, a few calls, and now Facebook, but haven't seen each other.

It was so good to be together again. We met my 2nd semester of college (fall 95). I lived across the hall from her sister Annette (who kept telling me I'd really like her sister). She was right. We had a class together shortly after and we became quick friends. We chatted throughout class (it was only interpersonal communications class...we were both bored in that class.) and really hit it off.

When we got together this week, it was as if we had never been apart. Katy loved having her around. Lisa visited here for a bit, and then we headed off to La Chareda for lunch. Amazingly, my picky eater even ate steak on a corn tortilla. She even asked for more! I was very surprised. We then visited Goody's, and came back so Lisa could head off to Muncie to see some friends there, and I could get to school to pick up Lilly and the boys we carpool with.

Here's a couple pictures from our time together.

Katy took this one!

Learning to read

2007-10-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

Katy has been doing great in school and is learning to read. I just finished using my nebulizer (so I can breathe better) and Katy was sitting with me. She was holding the machine when she asked, "Mommy, why does it say 'no' right here?" I looked a little confused, and then realized that she was asking about the "on" button. I had to explain that it meant "turning it on", but if you spelled it backwards, it said, "no". She got it then.

Oh how cute. It's fun when they start reading. She really seems to be catching on.

Sick, Sicker, Sickest?

2007-10-19T11:38:00.000-04:00

I just returned from the doctor's office (mine this time), and it was a good thing I went. I have an ear infection in my left ear, the beginnings of a sinus infection, and the beginnings of bronchitis or pneumonia in my chest. Since I am unable to take antibiotics orally, I got my usual injection (an interesting thing trying to relax enough for the shot with 2 children who are tired of each other, tired of waiting, and sick, sitting in the room!). I have to go to Wal-Mart later to pick up my eardrops. I don't figure it is too worth it to go now since it takes them SOOOOO long to fill the prescriptions.

Lilly is home for a 3rd day. Her fever went down yesterday, and then spiked again to 102 during the night. She has had a bad headache and was complaining of a serious stomachache. Phil was concerned that it could have been appendicitis, so I called the dr on call last night and she said to wait 30 minutes more for the Motrin to kick in and than decide what we were going to do - ER visit or wait until today. When she woke up this morning, her temp was lower, almost normal, but as the day progresses, it gets worse. She's now begging to go to bed - a sure sign she doesn't feel well.

Katy seems to be doing much better and is tired of having her sister home. It seems a continual cycle of picking happening today. It's tough when mommy is sick too!

I'm off to make lunch. Thanks for your prayers.

Taking a sick day...or two

2007-10-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday I took Katy to the doctor and found out she was indeed sick - croup (and a 3 day round of prednisone - one of my least favorite meds). It didn't seem any better by Monday, so Tuesday I took her back to the dr. They put her on antibiotics for a sinus infection. I didn't feel this was really her problem, but the antibiotic seems to have worked. She's doing much better. Today seems to be her "crash" from the prednisone. Phil reminded me (when I called for back up support) that it is usually within a few days of coming off of prednisone that I crash. That happened this afternoon for her.

Yesterday, I was quite sick with a sore throat, cough, and very little voice. Katy and I had barely slept the night before because she was coughing so much. I ended up in the recliner with her trying to get her settled until 2 or 3 am. Then, I brought her back to her bed on the floor in our room only to have both Katy and Phil snoring. UGH!! I seriously considered moving to sleep in Katy's bed, but didn't even have the energy to move. We spent most of our day chilling. About 10:30, I got a call from school saying that Lilly was not feeling well and had a fever.... could I please come pick her up. Off we went...making sure to stop at Family Video on the way back home to pick up some free videos. (Thanks to Christy for the info on free kid movie rentals.) I figured this would help keep them busy. By 1 pm, Lilly was begging Katy to be quiet and settle down so she could take a nap (a big sign that Lilly seriously didn't feel well!) Lilly is home again today because she had a fever again this morning. Her fever was 102 yesterday, and broke sometime during the night, but when Phil checked it this morning, she had a fever again. She's supposedly asleep on the futon now. Katy's asleep (I think) on Lilly's floor. I'm sitting on my bed with the wind whipping around the house. The sun is shining now, but we are supposed to get severe weather later.

I can't say there is a whole lot to report on. We still desperately miss Stripey. It is so hard to come home and not have her here. It's way to quiet, way to lonely, and really hard. She's been with me for 16 yrs. She managed to put up with my mom for about half of those years (they have such a love/hate relationship!), and then has learned to deal with Phil (who she actually liked when he was in the mood to pet her) and then 2 kids (who she preferred to protect from other children...funny thing since she didn't like kids!) I found myself talking to her the other night as I closed the blinds to the back patio. I was telling her it was ok...she could stay put; I was just closing the blinds. It made me almost cry when I realized I was really only talking to myself because she wasn't there.

There are a few benefits like not having to clean a stinky litter box (which I would give anything to do just to have her back), the house stays cleaner, I don't have to clean up cat poop or puke, and I actually get the bathroom to myself once in awhile, but all those things don't really matter. I'd much rather have her. The girls have been talking about another kitten. Lilly asked me 2 hours after we told her Stripey was gone and I almost punched her. I was still lying on the bed bawling. I'm not ready for another cat...I'd love to hold one and snuggle it, but Stripey was such a well-behaved cat, I dread having to train a new one. (Obediful as Katy put it when she finally realized Stripey wasn't coming home.) I have no idea how long I will last without a pet. I thought about pleasing Katy and getting fish, but I can't handle death right now. I almost rented Bambi for the girls to watch, and then realized I wouldn't be able to handle the death, and they probably couldn't either.

I think I'll quit so I can rest for a bit while the girls are down. It's just nice to have a chance to stop and collect my thoughts here for a few minutes.

24 hours later

2007-10-12T00:33:00.002-04:00

It's been over 24 hours and the pain is still too hard to bear. I tried to go to bed...I really need to because I have to get up early in the morning, but all I could do is cry.

I'm struggling with a HUGE amount of guilt. There are other things I could have done. I could have tried the antibiotics and the medication to help memory loss (cat insanity), I could have found a animal rescue place (not the humane society that isn't so humane here), I could have nursed her as she would have done if she could have for me. Although I asked the doctor if he felt any of the medications would help and he said we could cross our fingers, but it probably wouldn't make any difference...I still feel like I betrayed my best friend in her time of need. Why couldn't I have just tried something else?

My "baby" loved me so much. She put up with my bad moods (better than anyone else ever has!), she came back over and over and over and over even when rejected for attention (would I have that much heart?), she always found a way to find me when I needed her. Now, she's not here. Everywhere I turn, I think I should be seeing her. I use the bathroom (she always trotted down the hall and pushed the door open so I would take 2 spare seconds "alone" to scratch HER ears), when I go to bed, when I sit and watch TV, when I open the back door (and don't have to tell her to move), when I sweep the floor and don't find a cat mess, when I make breakfast, when I open a can, when I take out the trash, when I go in the little bathroom where she spent her last night, when I sit and check email, when I walk in the front door....the list could go on. It's deathly silent with out her here. Katy told me it was quiet sometimes when she was here (she did sleep a LOT!), but it just seems quieter.

My heart is so broken. I've been crying out to God and having some rather interesting conversations...not sure if it is really helping, but... I'm sure my applesauce that I made all day today has a few tears in it from my crying as I worked, but hey, it won't hurt anyone. I want to curl up on the couch with her. (Kimberly Clark ought to appreciate my business with all the Kleenex I'm going through!)

Some moments I wish I were just a kid and could go curl up on my mommy or daddy's lap and know that it would all be ok. Being an adult (and seeing my girls and husband hurt so much too) stinks. There's no easy "bandaid" or quick fix. It's so final. She'll never be back. She's gone. There will never be another cat just like her. Never one so beautiful or so Stripey.

Here are a few of her last moments here with us. Katy took the one with me holding Stripey. Not bad for a 5 year old!

Oh those green eyes!

"I see that treat you have. Give it to me!"

"Can I get the treat without all the work?"

"Alright. You win. I want it badly enough to beg for it!"

"Now let me eat the treat, will you!"

"I love you too, but you know I hate being squeezed like this. I'm a cat, not a teddy bear."

An Epitaph to Stripey "Sue" Lytle Huber

2007-10-10T19:52:00.000-04:00

Today has been one of the hardest days of my life.

We have been struggling with incontinence issues for some time now Several years ago, we had Stripey treated, and changed her food to help eliminate incontinence. It cured the problem...at least for then. In August, I took Stripey to the Vet (a word Katy now knows how to spell) for an exam/blood panel. The doctor called much relieved, the next morning. He had been very worried about what he would have to tell us when he called us back. Stripey was given a clean bill of health for her age...in cat years, she was almost 81. (That's the age of some of my grandparents.) She seemed to do well after that visit except for a few misc. times...that is until Tuesday. Things changed. She passed away yesterday.

Stripey could truly be considered my best friend. She's been a part of my life since March of 1991. I got Stripey (and her sister Tiger who passed away in September 1993) because I was sick of hearing my mom scream every time the trap snapped. We lived out in the country and the mice were very fond of our house. I convinced my parents to allow me to get a cat. We ended up getting Stripey from some good friends in Columbia City. We also got her sister Tiger from them because Stripey was so lonely by herself. Stripey was never the consoling, snuggling type of cat...that is until after her sister died. All that changed. Stripey slept with me every night until after Katy was born and we realized that we couldn't have Stripey and Katy sleeping in the same room. Katy's eyes would puff up and she would have issues, so we super cleaned our room and she hasn't slept in our bed again. There were nights she would sleep on the floor by my side of the bed...just so I would scratch her ears when I rolled over!

Stripey was a very obedient cat. She didn't get on the furniture (even when coaxed unless to sit on my lap), she didn't climb curtains, she didn't scratch hardwood floors (except to alert us to the fact that she needed her claws trimmed), she only climbed in the tub when she was extremely thirsty and couldn't find water anywhere else. She didn't drink out of the toilet (did you hear me gag as I thought about that one!). She loved to sit by the back door and watch the birds play in our yard. She was the queen of the house, yet she was also the protector of the house.

I've never heard of another cat that was so protective of "her children". Stripey hated kids...anyone loud and under the age of 12 was considered a kid. I remember while living at my parent's house in Big Flats, that she would run and hide if she heard kids coming up the stairs. She wouldn't come out until she knew it was safe. If on the other hand, a room was full of adults who would give her attention (like one of our former home groups in Big Flats), she'd be flopped right in the middle of the group! Anyway, back to the kid thing. When we had Lilly, we were very concerned about what Stripey would do. We'd heard stories of cats climbing in the crib and suffocating babies. I didn't want that. We treated her like some people do a dog. We took a baby blanket home to Stripey to smell before we brought Lilly home. We never had any problem. Stripey was her protector from the start. If Lilly (or Katy) would start crying, (and not stop right away) Stripey would come to check on her. I remember one night in our apartment on Hibbard Road that Lilly was just crying and we were trying to get her settled. Stripey had been upstairs sleeping on our bed, jumped down, came downstairs, and gave us "the look" as if to say, "Are you people going to do anything about her or what?" We assured Stripey that we were, and Lilly calmed down. Stripey wandered around the living room to the kitchen, and then headed back thru the living room and upstairs as if to say, "Ok, I guess you guys can handle this. I'm going back to bed." She headed back up to sleep on our bed. Stripey was also good at knocking on the bathroom door to let me know Lilly was awake. If I got up to go take a shower in the morning and Lilly woke up crying (she didn't wake up any other way), Stripey would come knock on the bathroom door until I said that I heard her and I was coming. If I didn't move quickly enough, Stripey would knock again. She always stayed right there outside the bathroom door waiting for me to come out, making sure I was going to take care of Lilly.

There were times when Stripey put herself in situations that she was at risk of getting trampled; just to make sure the girls were ok. One particular time was when Lilly had a birthday party with all the girls from her class. As I stated before, Stripey really didn't like kids, but she would come walk thru the playroom and living room just to make sure that the girls were ok. Once she saw they were, and saw that their friends were safe, she'd head back to a safe place to sleep.

Stripey was pretty fond of Katy. Lilly always got upset because Stripey "Liked Katy more." The reality is (as Phil put it) what animal wouldn't love Katy...it's just her personality. Stripey would fall over on the floor near Katy just to have her belly rubbed or allow Katy to hug her, but would squeak her disgust when Lilly would try to do the same. You know, it was just the 3 of us (Katy, Stripey, and I) here most days while Lilly was in school. Our lives revolved around each other. There were just those things you did that Stripey was involved in whether you really thought about it or not.

My heart breaks every time I think about losing Stripey. She has been mine for 16.5 years. She's been through so much with me and even endured multiple moves to and from Indiana. Life without Stripey is harder than words can express. We miss her greatly.

I'm thankful for her, for her love, her loyalty, her care for the girls, her silly antics of chasing balls around the house in the middle of the night, her good morning meows, her scratch my ears foot touches, her attack poses while watching birds, even her snores! (Yes, she did snore lately and it was getting louder too!) I'm thankful for all the years she was mine. Now that she is gone, I regret not loving her even more, not telling her all the time how much I loved her and how special she was. I regret making the decision I had to make. Man, it hurts.

Stripey, thank you for being my friend, for snuggling with me, listening to me, and most of all loving my girls (and Phil too). You are missed more than words can say. As Lilly keeps praying, "Lord, help us see her in Heaven."

Phil Conquers Slolam Skiing

2007-09-24T16:04:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to get this post up for weeks. Phil conquered slolam skiing at Seneca Lake over Labor Day. Please understand this was shot on my digital camera while spotting him in the boat. It was very bumpy and hard to keep the camera on him. I think is pretty fun to watch though! You can even hear me commenting now and then.

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Still alive

2007-09-18T21:32:00.000-04:00

I'm back among the land of the living. It's been 10 days since I posted anything. Life has been very busy. I participated in The Taste of Marion - a fair on the IWU campus - mainly geared toward students to let them know that the different businesses exist. I also participated in First Friday in downtown Marion. The Taste of Marion has been a fantastic boost for my PC calendar. I currently have 8 shows on my calendar for October. This is where I want to be with my business. I'm very excited about this.

What else is going on? We got to meet our friend Jeremy's new dog. His name is Niko. He's really cute. (the dog...) No dogs in our future though. Stripey won't tolerate it. I'm not much of a dog fan myself. Phil grew up with dogs, so I'm sure it will happen at some point, but... The girls had fun playing with Niko. We're glad Niko didn't die like his siblings. Niko was very sick for a few days. He seems much better now.

School is going well. Most days Katy is very agreeable to doing her school work. She had the opportunity to join the kindergarten class at Lilly's school for the afternoon. I spent the day on Friday from the time school started until about half an hour before it ended painting the curbs at school. They had a need to have yellow safety paint on all the curbs in the circle at school. I painted all day and still have at least another day of painting to go. It looks much better and is much safer, but I do need to make the time to get in there and finish the job. Anyway, back to Katy...she spent the morning playing outside on the playground, helping me, and enjoying the kids who came out for recess. In the afternoon, she was given the opportunity to enjoy being with the kids who stay for the enrichment program. She was thrilled by this and asked (on the way home), "Mommy, when do you need to go paint again?" When asked why, "I want to go back again." She really enjoyed it.

A family date...Friday night, we all went to Noblesville to enjoy an evening together. We ate at my favorite restaurant ...Olive Garden...and shopped at Castleton Mall. We did really well. We enjoyed dinner and spent quite a bit of time at the Eddie Bauer store. Phil needed clothes. We found some. I had purchased a pair of jeans on Tuesday from Eddie Bauer that fit (and felt) wonderfully.
This is the first pair of "NEW" jeans I can remember purchasing since I was in college. Note: It isn't like I haven't had new jeans, I have just done really well with Goodwill, garage sales, and other places. Phil was excited to get clothes that fit well too.

Tomorrow night, I start facilitating a study for women who have moved. It's based on the book "After the Boxes are Unpacked, Moving on after Moving in".
It looks like I'll probably have 3 or 4 women. I'm excited about this class, but nervous too. If you'd like to find out more about this book or class, visit www.justmoved.org.

I'm sure there is more that I could write about, but I need to get headed toward bed. Tomorrow is a big day.

Chocolate lab?

2007-09-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

Quite some time ago, we were having a discussion at the dinner table about dogs. Phil really wants a dog, but our cat Stripey will not tolerate any other animals. The girls are very against getting a dog. (I'm not really interested either.)

Anyway, Phil mentioned getting a chocolate lab. Katy started crying. When we asked her why she was crying, she said, "I can't have a chocolate lab. I'm allergic to it."

When we realized what she was saying, we couldn't help but chuckle. We had to explain to her that the dog wasn't chocolate...it was just what the color (brown) was called when it referred to the dog.

Attempting to Slalom

2007-09-03T13:20:00.001-04:00

Phil's been working for some time to learn to ski slalom. He had a chance to try it yesterday, and we thought we'd share the video. Please note that I was taping from my digital camera with very bumpy ride on the boat! We're heading back out to try again on a more glassy lake!

A year ago this weekend...

2007-08-31T13:58:00.001-04:00

Here is the very first post I put on my blog. I'm blown away by life since that point....

Thursday, August 24, 2006

My first thoughts - thoughts before the interview
I have never been one to blog, but as I sit here tonight, decided that I would try. The worst thing that can happen is that I forget my blog site and never return. So, I'll give it a try!

I feel quite swamped tonight. We have been preparing to leave for Indiana for a job interview for Phil. Our kids are going somewhere else, so we are packing for 2 different trips. It seems strange, but there is just so much to think of and so much to do. Currently the dryer is running through the last load of clothes to dry. Phil is sleeping, and I am wide awake with a zillion thoughts running through my head. I have chosen to put most of them on hold as the next few days hold way to much to be pausing on the "what if's" of the future. I continue second by second to issue the prayer, "God, please make each step of the way very clearly a "Yes" or a "No." I don't want to sit in a questioning state.

This whole trip has been a long awaited trip. We thought we were going out in May, but have been delayed until now. Will we like it? Will it be a good fit? Will we find a house? Will the school be the right choice? Will the interview go well? On and on the questions could go. I won't bore you now, but will post more when we know something.

For now, thanks for praying. We will have a lot to handle once we know what we are doing. We haven't told the girls anything except that daddy finally got the call for the meeting he has been waiting for and that mommy and daddy need to make a trip out to Indiana.

God knows the minutest desires of our hearts...I've watched him answering them already. HE cares even about the silliest details that we barely dare to utter. I'm so thankful for that.

NOW...here we are a year later and I'm just really amazed at how things have changed. NO...don't get me wrong...I'm not saying it was easy! This past year has been some of the toughest days our family has faced. We uprooted to a whole new place (although we went to college there living in what some call the "black hole" has been tough.) We've had to adjust to being in a state 10 hours from all that was familiar, start at a new job, re-start my PC business, Lilly started a new school, we had to find a church, move our vast amount of belongings (to which I owe several of my loyal readers a huge thanks) in a moving truck and a trailer since we ran out of room in the moving truck, and so many more things have happened. I won't take the time now to begin to detail them all out, but I wanted to take a few minutes to reminisce.

One of the things that we struggled with was waiting from May until August to do our interview. We had many concerns on whether we should actually go because of the entire summer spent waiting. We have learned many things about why this may have been and realized that although many of our concerns were still valid, God would not work things out so amazingly if we weren't supposed to be there.

Lilly cried for 6 weeks straight EVERY day about wanting to move back here to NY (we're here for the weekend) so she could go to her old school and be with her best friend Anna. That, thankfully, has calmed down to an occasional "I really miss Anna and living in Corning." I hope that she and Anna will always be friends, but I'm glad that she becoming settled.

I have faced depression head on this past year. As we speak, I still deal with it, but have felt such a huge burden lifted in the past month or two. I've learned that it is not wrong to take the medication one needs in order to be able to face what life hands you. It is wrong to judge a person for taking the medicine. I used to think that it was only really needed by people who faced issues like being bipolar. I NEVER thought I'd be taking it. I've found way more people actually are medicated than not (at least those I spend time with...that sounds bad! I'm finding that you just never know who is or is not taking medication for depression.
I've felt the difference medication can make. I am not discounting the fact of God's grace and healing in my life. I'm just saying I'm glad God has allowed man the genius to create medications that can help us. I don't intend to be on the medication forever, but as my doctor said, "Give it time!" A friend of mine asked if I had done any research on depression, and since I had not, she shared some of her knowledge with me. I learned that it is believed that once you have had a bout of depression, you are at least twice as likely to deal with it again in the future. The amazing thing is that I believe that does not have to be the case! I believe in God's healing!

I've (re) learned that it is possible to still be close friends and continue friendships even from the distance of 10 hours! Several things that come to mind with this are:
-My friend Dolly who continually hears the promptings of God to send me cards, gifts for the kids, and just lets us know she's thinking of us (it ALWAYS arrived exactly when I NEED to hear it!) Thanks, Dolly.
- My friend Melinda who lives in an animal filled world and is "wooed" to sleep each night (lately) by her cow. Melinda and I were just starting to become friends when we moved. We have become quite close over the past 10 months. We've emailed, called, and even made it a point to get together when I am home. Her friendship is so valued.
-My friend Laura who lives in a zoo...oh wait...it's that her life is a zoo! She has 4 kids 6 and under and a husband who just started a business, along with so many other commitments. We rarely talk, but always know that the other is there (in the midst of crazy life on each end). We think of and pray for each other regularly. Her heart of love for me has shown through so many times. Whenever we do connect, we pick up on the same page we left off (although as moms, it's hard to ever finish a thought completely!)
- There are so many others, but ...

New friends aren't made instantly, but it's amazing what a simple gesture on a cold morning can mean. Ronda (and Tracey) showed up on that cold October morning when hardly anyone else did, and helped unload boxes off our moving truck. Since that point, our friendship has only grown.

Or...meeting a fellow New YOARKer who instantly connects me with others who were fairly new and invites me to "tea" at her house. She is truly the ONLY person who completely understands Katy's "Long Island-ese" and doesn't need an interpreter! Maryann, although she has since moved to "Noble-tucky" always understands our frustrations and grunts. She never judges, just completely follows our thoughts and hearts on the issues.

Maryann introduced me to Cheryl. Then, to Jackie, and Abby. We all share several things in common - God, we live in Marion (ok, except for Maryann who moved away on us), we all are connected to IWU by spouses (and now even several of these ladies are teaching/working there), and the fact that we all moved to Marion within the last year. We have such a great time together. In fact, I'm working on planning a monthly get together for us so we can still spend time together.

I've learned that God still does miracles! He provided a realtor who truly understood our needs and desires and brought us to the right house where a godly woman owned the house and that woman blessed us 100 times over ...time and time again. We are so thrilled with our house. It is perfect for us. Thank you, Julia and Vivian.

I've learned that one does not make friends just by seeing people across the room. It takes stepping out and actually reaching out to others...which never used to be a problem until we moved here and I got sick of being the one who stepped out and talked to others. I wanted to be the one that was talked to. People who are now a part of my life because of doing this have enriched my life.

- The Marcisz family has truly become a huge blessing in our family - each in their own way. Kathy is a friend I enjoy talking to and asking for advice as a fellow Christian mom and a home school mom. Caitlyn started out watching the girls this summer when Sarah our "regular" sitter went home for summer break. The task has migrated to Melanie and Abby at times too. Melanie is also my office assistant. She's learned how to handle my PC invitations, enter expenses into my Pampered Partner database, and so much more! Nathan keeps my girls in the world of realizing that although "boys are gross" (a phrase their daddy taught them that he hopes sticks for many years to come) some of them aren't so bad! Joe has even been a help with pool questions! They were all a huge help when I went to Chicago...they took great care of the girls! Jenna is such a great friend for the girls. You've seen here on other posts, and heard about how much the 3 girls love to play together. Her sweet attitude (spiced with spunk now and then) is a real treat. Whenever the girls see each other, it's as if they were long lost friends that hadn't seen each other in years rather than hours!

I've learned that one can survive without family around to take care of my kids. One of the harder things to get used to is not having my parents nearby to help with the kids or to just hang out with. The girls have such a special relationship with my parents. I was often able to drop the kids off and go shopping ALONE or have help when Phil and I both had to work. Now, we only see them about every 3 months, and time is so precious when we do get together. I've learned we don't go out as much, the kids go with us, or I hire a babysitter. We definitely don't get to enjoy a date night out without kids too often.

There is so much I could write about. It’s amazing looking back on the past year. I am sitting here at the lake watching the sun shine on the wavy, windy lake and contemplating all that has changed. Thanks to those of you who have been a part of my life this past year!

First Day of Kindergarten

2007-08-21T17:03:00.000-04:00

Today marks a new season our lives! Katy started Kindergarten.

Doesn't she look so cute? So grown up? Some of you might assume that today was a day that brought mommy many tears, but it was not. Why? Are you that calloused? No. It's because I'm her teacher! Katy is being home schooled this year. It was a bit of a tough decision, but something that both Katy and I wanted. I'm "Mrs. Mom" to her.

There will be no worries of her classmates harming her with chocolate or party catastrophes...at least during school time! This is HUGE for both of us.

Last night she was crying and worried about school. She finally told me that she was afraid it would be really hard. I assured her that we would work through it just like we had during preschool last year. Then, a little while later, she was still crying and I asked her if she was worried she'd have a mean teacher (can you seem the smirk on my face?). She said, "Yes." This made me erupt in laughter. "That's really funny because that's not what you say when you come snuggle me - and wake me - during the middle of the night!" She gave me her "shucks...you out-witted me look" and kept on crying.

Here she is this morning with her new Tinkerbell Bag. (She cried about this last night too because she didn't want Tink after begging for it for weeks. She wanted a pink bag. UGH!! I can't win!)

She looks like such a big girl in this picture!

This sweet schoolgirl doesn't look like she'd ever throw a fit, does she?

She did ask that her best friend come to school with her! I agreed since she is typically really well behaved. (Only once in a while she jumps on the bed, but the rest of the time she's really well behaved.)

Last but not least, (as her mom) I had to make sure I had pictures of all her classmates. It took awhile to get everyone looking at the camera and situated, but here they are...I've got a LARGE class! (Left to Right: Liz, Ella, Joy, Julia -twins, so not sure which is which- Katy, Jenna - the bear, not Jenna the friend, and Rosie.)

I was so excited when school only took about an hour (and that counts the fit thrown in there somewhere!) That's less time than we spent last year on preschool. (I'll even still have time to workout 3 days a week like I like to! YEAH!!)

The report came back that she did enjoy school today and is having fun showing Daddy and Lilly her schoolwork.

(The report is in from mommy too...it was a pretty peaceful day...if you know what I mean!)

First Day of Second Grade

2007-08-21T16:52:00.001-04:00

Today was the first day of school for our girls. Lilly started 2nd Grade and Katy started Kindergarten. Here are some great shots we took this morning.

Can you tell she's excited?

Loaded down with all the stuff on her supply list...and ready to go...

Oops! Wait, Mom! One more picture...

Sorry this is a bit crooked! I was snapping it in a hurry this morning!

Lilly returned home reporting that the day was a good one and she had fun. She even remembered to wear her glasses home (our discussion so she wouldn't forget them!). She was quite excited because there is NO homework this week, which meant she would likely have the opportunity to play with their friend Jenna.

Colts vs. Bears Game

2007-08-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

Phil and our friend Jeremy went to the Colts/Bears game in Indy last night. They had a great time despite the fact that Phil isn't talking to Jeremy anymore since the Bears won. Stats show that the Colts typically don't perform well in pre-season!

Here are the shots the Jeremy took on our camera:

Just a reminder to Jeremy (and any other Bear's fans out there...) "Bears Stink!" (Lovingly, Peyton the horse, not Jenna the bear!)

Just Jumpin' Around

2007-08-21T12:24:00.001-04:00

The girls friend Nea has been inviting the girls to come jump on her trampoline for a long time, and I finally gave in the other night. They had a great time. Nea is living here with her grandparents for the summer, so isn't around for too much longer. Nea is going into 6th grade when school starts.

Remember the song, "Skip to mt Lou"? Doesn't this picture seem to fit that song perfectly?

Doesn't she look like she's about to throw up?

Katy sure looks like she's flying high.

A girl on a mission.

Jumping with Nea

All 3 of them jumping.

"Round and Round the Mulberry Bush..."

Getting some air! Nea was jumping while the girls were sitting on the trampoline and it made them go flying.

Too tired for more...

I'm tired, Mom. Can I go to bed? (if only it they did that!)

The energizer bunny finally dropped!

Summer's Winding Down around here

2007-08-16T20:51:00.000-04:00

It is hard to believe after living in NY for so many years (where school starts after Labor Day) that school starts next week. For most kids around here, they are already in session. The girls start on the 21st. I'm so excited that I will get a little bit more ME time, but sad because it seems so soon to have summer end. Although summer is not officially over, so much changes once the kids are in school. There is less freedom to just enjoy being outside and not worrying quite so much about bed times, no homework to do, and no getting up early if we don't want to.

Lilly will be starting 2nd grade this year. It seems so weird. I remember when our friend Alyssa was in second grade and I thought she was so "old." I see Lilly growing up, but I also have a hard time admitting that she's old enough to be in 2nd grade. She's going to be learning so much this year. Each year I am amazed at all the things that she can do and how much smarter she is getting. She just got reading glasses on Monday and is VERY excited about them. She has been finding things to read just so she can wear them! We've worked on the "On the face or in the case" rule, and she's doing very well with them. We'll see what happens when school starts. It's going to be hard to remember to bring them back and forth.

The other big excitement is that Katy is starting Kindergarten this year. This is so hard to believe. My baby...old enough for "real" school. She won't be attending school with her sister, but rather staying home with me. I'll be home schooling her. We got her textbooks about 3 weeks ago, and she just can't wait to start working in them. We did do a few pages last week, but haven't started full force yet. I did get lesson plans done for the first few weeks.

There were many things that led to the decision to home school Katy. One of the biggest ones was her chocolate allergy. It's hard to have Kindergarteners understand that someone is so allergic to chocolate that they can't even touch her. The school also serves chocolate milk and other chocolate like desserts. This is way to dangerous for Katy to deal with or have to comprehend. She does quite well, but...

I have already told Lilly that we may make a big deal out of Katy's first day of school like we did when Lilly started school. We'll still take pictures and have fund with it as usual, but Katy deserves excitement too. Although there will be no uniform for Katy's school, we'll enjoy the same books Lilly did. She will be learning to read this year. That is so exciting (but scary for me since I'm the one that has to make sure she learns properly.). She was talking to her bear Ella tonight and told her that she would be able to read to her once she learned. It was really cute.

The countdown is on. 5 days left.

Family Reunion Pictures

2007-08-07T02:26:00.001-04:00

Today my Uncle Wes mailed us some really great pictures from Family Reunion a could weekends ago. I thought I would share just a couple of them with you now. It's getting late and my body is finally telling me it could fall asleep. I need sleep!

This is Liam. He is the newest of the 5th generation of the Arther Lytle Clan.

This group picture includes Lytles, Bences, and Woodards.

Our Tribal Leaders - Grandpa and Grandma Lytle

Dad with 2 of the cutest nephews a gal could ever have!

This is the family commissioning service for my brother and his family, and Karen Davidson. She is currently going raising her $ to go overseas.

This is the Lytle branch of the family.

This is my family. My parents, my brother and his wife and boys,my grandparents, and us.

Nothing New

2007-08-02T22:40:00.000-04:00

I realized I haven't blogged in about a week. I've been keeping busy. Lilly goes back to school on the 21st, and I start homeschooling Katy then too. I'm nervous about teaching Katy because they say that Kindergarten is what sets up their whole educational "career". We did preschool last year, so I know I can do that, it will just take a LOT of organization and planning to pull this off and do my best. I really want to do it.

Tomorrow I'm going with one of the girls on my PC team to what is called First Friday. It is downtown in Marion and full of booths, activities, music, food, and more. This is the first time we are trying this, but I think it will be fun. I'm praying for bookings and good leads. I started doing something new this week. I started calling people who have been invited to (but not attended) parties that I have done since moving here. I am working to connect with new contacts and pique interest to create sales and parties. I really want to grow my business and want to promote to director. I have to have contacts in order to be able to do that. I'm also joining the Chamber of Commerce to meet more people and make new contacts. It should be fun networking with other business owners and connecting with people who may need a PC Consultant.

I got my box of new products yesterday. It is one of the most exciting things about a new season...getting my new products. I will receive one more soon - my new piece of stainless steel cookware (Small Saute pan)! We were sitting down at the table eating lunch when Phil asked me, "Are you expecting the FedEx man? ...He's in the driveway." I jumped up (along with the girls who barely met me get my own box) and ran to the door. I couldn't even wait to open the box...I opened it before even eating my lunch.

Well, it's off to bed...

Life is like a Beat up Mailbox?

2007-07-23T15:07:00.000-04:00

Ever have a day when you felt like this? I have days like this. Days when it seems nothing can go right, and if one more thing happens, I'm going to snap.Thankfully, today was not one of those - at least for me! Our mailbox door looked as though it might snap off this morning.

Phil left around 9 to head off to a doctor's appointment and then on to work. I got a phone call from him (on his cell) within 2 minutes of leaving, telling me, "You'll need to call the Grant County Sheriff to come today." The tone of voice he used made me think he'd been in an accident or something. It was then that he told me that our mailbox and 3 others on the street had been hit with a bat last night. Ours, unfortunately, isn't going to be able to be fixed. Here are a few more shots of it:

I've had the Sheriff here to make a report (and he talked to the 3 others), I have met 1 of the other neighbors that this happened to, and I've spent time online researching prices for new mailboxes. It is insane the prices for a mailbox. I Googled "mailboxes" and found a bunch of sites, but one site listed a nice box for $614! I almost needed to be resuscitated after seeing that! I decided to see what else what out there. Here's an idea of one mailbox we spotted: Although this mailbox is...unique and...shall we say interesting, I'm afraid it might call TOO much attention to our box and cause more problems! We'll aim for a more "normal" one.

I thought maybe this one would deter people from wanting to touch it:
What do you think?
Or maybe this would keep people away better?

I guess I'll keep looking. So far I can't afford the ones I've listed here! I need something sturdy, bat-resistant, and attractive. Guess it might be saver to send Phil to Lowes!

Pampered Chef Pop Quiz

2007-07-21T19:10:00.001-04:00

In honor of all you Pampered Chef fans out there, I'm having a contest on my website (here and I had hoped to put it on my www.PamperedChef.biz/lisahuber site, but the system will only allow me 1 picture per news item, so it will go out in my monthly e-newsletter) to see who can identify the new products shown on these very creative models. Name them and be entered for a prize! (you can also receive a new product brochure to enjoy too - just let me know!)

There are 2 pictures for almost every model. Identify the products their dresses are made out of. Then, send me an email at plhuber@flmtgif.org with your answers. (If you post your comments, smarty pants readers will check the comments before answering to try to cheat the system!)

Chicago Trip

2007-07-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

I returned late Wednesday night from my annual trip to Chicago for National Conference. I had a great time.

Sunday, I left home about 7 and drove to Anderson to meet up with 4 other consultants and leave my car. Since none of us had husbands who were able to get us to Indy for the bus to Chicago, we rented a limo. It cost us each $10! Phil is still laughing about us pulling up to a BUS STOP in a limo! It worked out well. Due to very little traffic at that hour on Sunday morning, we arrived 45 minutes early and sat in the limo for a little while longer. We raised a lot of eyebrows, and comments from other directors about driving in style...only to get on the bus! They were just jealous!

We arrived in Chicago around 2:30 Indiana/NY time. We got a taxi from Union Station to the Sheraton Hotel where the others were staying. I had reservations at the Chicago Hilton. I hung around with them for a while, hoping to head off to lunch, only to find we were being delayed a bit longer. I decided to head via taxi to my hotel and get checked in. Mary Beth and Char (with Jeremy their charming driver) were to arrive by about 2:30. I checked in, but a room was not ready. They had guaranteed room by 3 pm, so I headed down the way to find some lunch before my blood sugar dropped more. I was heading to some 11th St Cafe recommended by the Concierge, but instead found a subway and a Dunkin Donuts (gotta get a strawberry/banana smoothie since I can't get them around here!) Then, after eating, I headed back to the hotel and was able to get a room. I unpacked and decided to put my swollen ankle up and read until the others showed up. Char was the first to show up, then we went downstairs together to meet Mary Beth and help her with the luggage.

I realized mid afternoon that I had left my printed ticket for our boat cruise (scheduled for that night) at home in a folder with a lot of important conference information. This was a big problem. I called the company to find out what I could do in order to still go on the cruise. They couldn't look up the info easily as it was a web order. I decided to try plan b and c and d and e.

Plan A: Call home and ask the babysitter to help me find the email on my computer so she could look up the confirmation numbers. Problem: Babysitter (extremely sought after babysitter) is computer illiterate. That did not make it easy, nor did the fact that when you are not looking at the computer screen, it is hard to remember exactly where the quick-links are.

Plan B: Get Lilly on the phone and sit her down at my computer to see if she knows enough about my computer to figure it out. That lasted all of about 5 minutes before I asked her to give the phone back to Rebecca. Rebecca apologized and said that she wished her brother were there because he could figure it out. They were getting ready to head out the door for church with the girls, so they didn't have time to get him.

Plan C: Call the neighbors (who were going to be watching the girls the rest of the week) and have one of them come down and help figure it out. Bummer...they weren't home.

Now, to plan D: I called Phil in a panic. He saved the day. He left work and came home to give me the information I needed so they would allow me on the cruise.

After that was taken care of, the 3 of us decided we should head out and get some supper. We were thinking of Mexican, so had to find one that was open on Sunday night. We called Jeremy (the wisdom of Chicago!) to find out where we should go. He had just said, "Would you really like to know? long pause..." and Mary Beth replied that she did. He then lost signal! It was quite funny. We decided maybe he didn't want to share his secrets after all. 20 minutes later, he called back and we got another good laugh out of it.

We ended up eating at Chipolte (a branch of McDonalds), which was actually really good. I think I had shaved pork on soft tacos and it was good. About the time we arrived at the restaurant, Mary Beth realized she has forgotten her ticket (after all I went through, it was quite funny). So we ate supper, and she left to go back to the hotel and get it. In the meantime, she ran into someone she needed to give some stuff to and wanted to do a couple of things (behind our backs to surprise us), and then she headed out. This time she took a taxi so she wouldn't be late. As the taxi was getting much closer, she realized she had taken all her $ out of her purse, and had nothing. She called Char and Char came to the rescue, paying for the taxi (much to the driver's relief...he was not HAPPY with the situation). After getting out of that crunch, Mary Beth realized that she had left her ticket in the room (AGAIN!). Char by this point was laughing quite hard, but Mary Beth was frustrated and upset (not yet seeing the humor). She wasn't sure what to do until a nice gentleman asked if she needed to buy a ticket. She said,” No, and yes" and explained her situation. He had 2 extra tickets and all she had to do was go onto the boat with his group and she would be free. That's what she did.

Now I must stop and add a note here so you'll get the humor even better...Mary Beth regularly (each year) teaches a seminar at National Conference...on what else but Time Management and Organization! The whole entire 3 days we were together, we couldn't quit laughing about it. We even made such a laughing racket at our Executive Banquet, (after Velvet mentioned Mary Beth for a source for Time Management and Organization) that we had to share the story with everyone else there. We couldn't stop laughing!

Our boat cruise was amazing.
It was so beautiful. We had a really relaxing night on the lake (once we got there! We also learned a lot about the architecture of the city. Here are a few other shots from the sunset cruise.

The new Trump building being built in Chicago (right by where we boarded the Wendella Boat)

Navy Pier just after the lights turned on.

Hancock Tower

Isn't this just beautiful?

Last but not least, my traveling buddies - Char Lucero and Mary Beth Knowles.

Conference was great. The new products (as always) are quite amazing. There are 60 new products...including Stainless Steel Cookware! None of us quite knew how to respond to this. We knew something new was happening with the cookware, but we thought it might be a new piece of the Executive Cookware. Guess we were wrong. Pampered Chef always does their research and found there is a big markets “share" in stainless as there is in non-stick. They want to offer us a large market share by having both sets. There area a lot of other great products too. The announcements were fantastic and exciting.

Oh, Yeah! I can't forget the trip to the American Girl Store and Build A Bear. I had special requests from each of the girls!
This is the hair salon at the American Girl Store. This is where girls take their American Girl Dolls to have their hair styled. There is also a Cafe where you can have lunch together with your doll, an IMAX theater, and a doll hospital. My friend Char took this picture to show her family because she didn't think they would believe her!

I arrived back home around 9:30 Wednesday night. It's nice to be home, but there is lots of work (both around the house, and with my business) that needs to be done. Phil worked all week too, so we had sitters taking care of the kids.

It Tastes Like Chicken

2007-07-12T23:57:00.000-04:00

This post is to commemorate the sickening day I had yesterday. It all started when Phil noticed something really wrong with my tomato plants. He told me to come over and he showed me some really disgusting worms.

A while later, I decided I needed to do something about it. I donned my gloves and got a plastic bag. Come to find out, there were probably close to 15 on the plant. They camouflage themselves really well. Every time I thought I had them all, I'd find another one. I was just gagging while I pulled them off. I can handle bugs. Worms are a different story (earthworms are nothing in comparison).

Let's take a stroll down memory lane here for just a minute...has anyone seen Hermie? He's part of a Max Lucado movie series. Hermie is really cute in comparison to these worms (now known as Hornworms).

Next, do you remember watching Lion King? Remember when they pick up the worms and say, "Tastes Like Chicken"? Thanks so much, Jeremy, for remembering this line and bringing it up. It almost brought up my lunch. It was making me so sick to my stomach. (Just for paybacks - the real Christian thing to do - I made Jeremy pull one off. He didn't like it so much then.)

Ok, now that we have strolled down memory lane, you're getting the idea of what I went through.

Each worm stuck to the plant, so it had to be grabbed (making it squirm and squish in my hand) and then disposed of. I threw each one into my plastic grocery bag. Once it was determined that the worms were "gone", they had to be killed. I wasn't going to have them moving around in my trash. We (by this time Lilly was quite involved too - she had to look at it, then touch it just to get in on the grossness of it all - set the bag on the ground and picked up a big rock out of the back flower bed. I dropped the rock REPEATEDLY on the bag, making sure to squish every single one of those nasty worms (that I really don't know if they tasted like Chicken, but I'm saving the next one for Jeremy to find out - especially since he won 2 nights of Phase 10 and Phil and I aren't so sure we like him anymore.) Phil pulled another one off tonight (he thought he could just flick it off the plant - I knew he couldn't, but why would he listen to me...the one who pulled them off the day before?)

Now, all any of us have to say is Chicken, and the question lingers... "What KIND of chicken?" I offered Jeremy some chicken to eat tonight for supper when he came to beat us YET AGAIN, and he had to ask THE QUESTION. It got a good laugh anyway.

Since I know you hate a gross story, I will share with you that these UGLY, Disgusting Hornworms do turn into beautiful moths. Here's proof:
Ok, so maybe they aren't beautiful, but they are in comparison to those disgusting worms.

I was taught that I should always say something nice, so...what can I say nice about those terrible worms who nearly killed my tomato plants?
(This shot really doesn't show how bad the plants are doing. I thought it would.)

They were created (no big bang) to be able to camouflage themselves really well.
They can "stick" up for themselves by sticking onto the plant and hiding quite well.

Here's a shot for your viewing pleasure:

(Evidence of Phil's destructive nature - he stepped on it!)

All I can say (Besides I don't KNOW if it tastes like chicken - is YUCKY!!)

A Day at the Lake Would have been great

2007-07-12T20:09:00.001-04:00

I finally dumped pictures onto my computer from the last few days of our vacation. There are some really great shots.

On Friday, June 29th, we were orignially planning to go up to the "Grandma's Lake House" (as the girls call it) for the day and enjoy fun and memories there, but we got a call Thursday night during dance recital that the people who were scheduled to arrive on Saturday, had arrived early, and we would not be able to go. I was devestated. The girls were pretty bummed too, but we quickly made other plans and did enjoy our day very much.

We started the day by stopping by the water falls in Montour Falls. The girls thought it was pretty cool. We even went up on the bridge above the falls so they could see what it looked like. Here are some pictures so you can see it too.

The view from above. It really is beautiful.

Then, after that, we drove past the hospital where the girls were both born. They really wanted to see it. It is on a hill over looking Seneca Lake. Yes, the delivery room looks out on the lake...sorry to say those rooms (2 of them) were both full when I finally went it "FULL" labor with Lilly and I didn't get to enjoy it (what woman has such easy labor she can enjoy the view? Not me!). It's not as if I was doing well enough to be "alert" to look out and say, "Oh, what a beautiful view. I'd love to be down there boating right now!" Lilly was born Oct. 30, and Katy was born Jan 28, so although the fall view was pretty with Lilly, there was snow with Katy.)

After that, we headed toward the lake. It is always exciting to see that first REAL glimpse of the lake. I've been going to Seneca Lake almost every year since before I was born. (Mom was pregnant with me one year when they were there - 3 women all pregnant at one time! It was a run on the bathroom!) This lake (especially the "Lake House" are full of memories for all of us.) We went to the Pier in Watkins Glen. For those of you familiar with the area, you know where Captain Bill's is, so you know where I am talking about. We walked to the end, and walked on the rocks.

This is my favorite picture of the day. The girls walking hand in hand with Grandma and Bumpy. Priceless!

Oh yeah. I can't forget the cool sail boat that we watched for awhile. It is truly beautiful.

Here's another shot of it when the sails are down and it was getting ready to dock.

Then, we decided to take a scenic boat tour which would last about an hour. We decided to go at 1 pm so that we could get lunch first. Thus, we headed over to my favorite fast food place - Arby's, where I (ok, all 3 adults ordered it) ordered my favorite drink - a Jamocha shake, and ate lunch quickly. Then, we returned to the pier to ride the boat.

Here's a shot of the boat (before we got on it) that we rode on.

Katy and my dad (Bumpy - a name she created when she was about 1 and in the hospital with the flu. She couldn't say "Grandpa".) sitting on the boat.

Katy grumpily (is that a word?) allowing me to take a quick picture - the 5th time around!

Watch this progression. It's was pretty funny. I never did get the shot I was trying for with both heads out the window, but it was pretty cute. Their giggles were so much fun.

This is a view of Hector Falls from the water. It is pretty cool, but we really didn't get close enough for a really good picture.

We also went to Lodi Point and swam in the "forbidden" water. There are signs that say not to swim, but everyone does. It was fun. I iced my sore ankle in the water, and it helped some.

We rushed back to Big Flats to eat a quick supper before my Mega PC Party (a single party with multiple hosts - great way to maximize on a small amount of time, work, and money.)

The Dr. Called

2007-07-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

I finally got a call from the Dr's office this morning to say that my ankle is not broken, the joints seem to be in the right location, and that I should continue treatment as I have been. I can call for stronger meds if I need to, but I don't want to.

I guess it will just take awhile to heal. One of the girls on Phil's student crew came over last night and she had a brace on her ankle from injuring it while playing wally-ball a couple weeks ago. She's still limping and struggling too. Oh well.

There is another bad side effect of this too...weight gain from lack of activity and ability to work out. This really stinks as I have been doing really well working out and building the muscle tone from fat. I can still work the upper body at the gym, but not the ankle...I also realized yesterday that some of the stretches that I usually do are too painful. I can't do them until the foot gets better. I miss really working out and working out as a family. We were really enjoying that. I guess we'll get back to it. I have been able to do some water exercise in the pool, so I guess I'll just have to really work on that.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know that my ankle wasn't broken.

The Ankle

2007-07-10T21:48:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd put up a post for my loyal bloggers. Several of you have mentioned not seeing anything NEW on here.

Here's the scoop on my ankle. Today is Tuesday the 10th of July. It has been almost 2 weeks since I injured my ankle. I am still limping, still in pain, still taking meds, and still know as little as I did a week ago. I saw my doctor last Tuesday. She told me that she thought it was a bad strain or sprain. I needed to keep it wrapped, ice it, elevate it, and take as much Aleve as was necessary. I was also told to call her office to have an x-ray ordered if I was still in as much pain on Friday. I called. I got the x-ray, and I still have not heard. I called yesterday, and they said the nurse would let me know. Phil pushed me to go get hte x-ray because every day I waited, was 1 more day of pain in Chicago. Well, if it's broken, I guess I just deal with it. There was a slight suspicion tha there might be a slight fracture that was a hairline fracture or something.

Guess I'll keep you posted.

Dance Recital

2007-06-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

Dance Recital was amazing. Both girls did a fantastic job. I saw so much improvement from last year. I saw it in myself too, but it was most evident in Katy. She was much more able to do the dance.

Lilly did a cheerleading dance that was cute.

Katy did a cute fluttery dance.

I did a dance to Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee from Sister Act 2. It's kind of hard to spot me, but I am wearing a dark pink shirt and in the back row stage left. I really liked this picture becuase it show the height we got when we jumped! Mom did a great job on it!

This is a great shot to show you Lil's makeup.

Lilly dancing

Katy dancing

Maybe I'll add more pics tomorrow. I'm falling asleep in the chair here and tired, soooo before I type more in and then erase it.

Ouch!

2007-06-28T22:35:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of dance camp. We worked hard on our routines. I never saw the girls routines because I couldn’t escape during the morning or I would miss my dance instruction. The only dance I saw them do was the Jewish dance we all did. It’s hard to be a mommy who loves to take pictures and not be able to do it. My friend, Michelle, was the photographer for the week, and she got some great shots of the kids. I’ll try to post them when I get them from her.

During the morning practice, I fell while up on my toes and hurt my ankle and leg. I fell and twisted my ankle flat to the floor. I sat there for what seemed like 10 minutes, and held it, but it was probably only seconds. Mrs. Bowman, my teacher, didn’t even notice that I had fallen.

It was soon after this spot in the dance where I fell.

After dance was over, I wrapped it in an ace bandage and propped it up while I iced it. It felt much better. I was determined I WOULD dance tonight. Phil asked if I was going to dance, and my response was, “I busted my behind all week to do this. I AM going to dance. If I can’t walk tomorrow, than I will deal with that then.”

All afternoon, I prayed that God would help me dance for Him and not cry in pain. I wanted to wear a smile. I think I managed to do that! It hurt, but not desperately. Doing the Jewish dance was really hard since some of the moves require all ones weight to be on that foot.

I WILL SURVIVE!

Sore, Sore Muscles, and other news

2007-06-27T22:36:00.000-04:00

Dance camp went really well today. I’m getting the hang of the routine a bit better, but I still feel lost. A friend of mine (who dances with them normally) told me how amazing it is that we learn the routine in 4 days because they take weeks to learn it when they have a new dance.

I watched Lilly today during dance (before the end when we all join together to do the Jewish dance), and she looked miserable. I wanted to go over and hug her, but I was afraid that might make it worse, so I didn’t. I just prayed for her. Later she told me she was tired and mad. One of the little girls in her class had said some things that were mean to her. Although they had worked it out, it still hurt her heart. I felt bad for her, but also proud because she was so quick to forgive the girl and move on. (If it had been her sister, she probably would have punched her!)

I thought it might have had something to do with her best friend Anna not hanging around with her as much as she might have liked, but she said it was ok. She wasn’t upset about that.

Speaking of Anna, we enjoyed a good lunch and playtime at their house after dance camp today. It was fun to catch up and just enjoy some time together. I got some baby snuggles in (I’m quite particular about which little babies I hold. I used to want to hold any baby, but now it is just certain friends babies that make my mommy-heart say, “I want to hold you.” Nothing against those other babies, just a weird thing about me. For a while it was Lydia, but then she grew up, so then it was Leah, but I haven’t held her since Christmas because her mommy scheduled vacation when she knew I was coming home because she knew she’d have to share her baby – just kidding, Laura!)

My muscles are so sore. They hurt a lot last night, but this morning when I walked the stairs, I cried out in pain. I’ve stretched and been careful to make sure I’m not being stupid, but the “up’s” on my toes and “points” hurt. My upper leg muscles aren’t bad. I’m glad I’m in such good shape from working out. My shoulder muscle that was hurting over the weekend, no longer hurts because I’ve had a chance to really use it! Amazingly, the calf muscles are really the only ones that hurt A LOT. I’m a bit sore in the hips and lower back from a few of the moves (oh, and that very high kick today was excruciating, but funny! I didn’t mean to kick quite so high, but I got a lot of height on it, and up it went!)

Last night, I spent the evening with my friend Melinda (my most faithful reader besides my parents!). Thanks, Melinda, for keeping so posted on my life that the girls don’t seem to have changed! ☺ We had a great time. Mom had made mile high strawberry dessert and Melinda brought fresh strawberries to go on top! MMM! Melinda and I talked until midnight! Oops! It was an early morning this morning and a short night! (I should be in bed like everyone else in the house!)

Phil finished painting the trim this morning. He stayed up until 1 am painting, and got up at 7 to complete it (quite a task for my husband who hates mornings). I believe he also has the base boards painted too. They should go up before we get home! It will be amazing as we have not seen the house with baseboards. It was part of our deal in getting the house that we would finish the baseboards. We hadn’t done it before because we needed warm weather to do it and because we had to figure out our colors for the rooms first. Now, it’s done!

Tomorrow night is our dance recital. I’m really nervous. I, once again, am at the back side/edge of the stage, so if I get too excited with my moves, will fall off and get hurt. I don’t like that. They do have spotters, but I can’t remember if they are at the back too.

I must head for bed. I’m really tired and need my rest for tomorrow. I’ll end up dancing for about 5 hours when all is said and done (morning, practice with the video in the afternoon to really make sure I know the dance, and then at night)

I’m also scheduled to have lunch with Char and Mary Beth. (PC friend, and PC director/recruiter) We’re meeting at Wegmans (my favorite bagel spot) for lunch. I’ll have to stop their on Sunday to pick up bagels to take home! I love their bagels! Phil will want some too (he might even like them more than Krispy Kreme donuts!)

Dance Camp

2007-06-26T15:24:00.000-04:00

Dance Camp is an annual event here in Painted Post, NY. It is put on by the Christian Hope Center. Two years ago, we heard about it after the fact, so were not able to go. Last summer, I took Lilly and found out that Katy could stay and dance too! I was thrilled. Katy loves to dance too. I realized I could get a lot done throughout the week without any kids, but then I realized deep down that I wanted to dance too. The dance camp is for pre-k thru high school girls. I don't exactly fit into that category. Bummer. Or so I thought...I saw that there were several other ladies (non-dance camp staff) who were going to dance. I mentioned something to my friend Laura Riz, and she said (you have to know Laura to understand...she is my best advocate for the 2X4 method of putting it to me! I love her so for it!) "Then why don't you do it?"

"I have plans for the rest of the week."

"So change them."

"Change them?"

"Yes, change them and dance, girl!"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Well, do you want to do this or not?"

"Yes."

Her next response was rather non-verbal, but said more than words could ever say. It was one of those "Then what are you waiting for" looks.

I went home, made a few calls, and changed the plans.

I danced last year, and loved it. It's tough. Mrs. Bowman is an extremely tough dance coach. She works you HARD!

This year, we planned it so we could be home for the week during dance camp. Phil had to work, so he was unable to come with us, so we miss him.

Dance camp started yesterday (Monday). Lilly and Katy are in separate classes this year, but both have great teachers. Katy has Mrs. Chase (a good family friend and Lilly's Kindergarten teacher - the one I WISH Katy could have this year for school) and Mrs. Bokus (a gal who became a HUGE encourager to me as I began my dancing fun last year.) Lilly has Mrs. Royce (a gal from our church whom I have known since we moved back here in 1993) and Danielle Schrader, Hannah, and Carol Schultes. Danielle and Carol both danced with my group last year.

My teacher is Mrs. Bowman, as I mentioned before. Although Mrs. Bowman is not large, super tall, or "threatening", she can pack a good "punch." She is VERY thin, and is nothing but muscle. She runs marathons, and dances, and dances, and dances! She leads the dance team at Christian Hope. She's amazing. She's also a schoolteacher.

I'm sore, and hot, and sweaty, but having a lot of fun. We are learning a dance to Joyful, joyful we adore thee, (from Sister Act 2) and then a Jewish dance. By the time we were halfway done dancing yesterday (1 hour of good, hard dancing), my face was as red as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer's nose! Sue Schrader asked me if I was ok at snack time. I said, "Yes, just hot." She then asked, "Are you sure this is good for you!" I laughed and said that it was. By the time we finished dancing yesterday, I was sweating in places I didn't know I had! My hands were even dripping with sweat! We came home to my parent's and ate lunch and went to bed. It felt so good to rest.

Today was easier in some respects. I'm tired and my muscles seem to hurt more, but I think I'm doing better. I got the Jewish dance all figured out (until they added some new parts today that hurt my knees) and even have the steps down! That's HUGE. Last year I only did one dance because I couldn't handle learning more than one and because my knee would not tolerate it. This year, I'm doing both. I worked with one of the staff girls after class today to help me learn the steps better. I want to practice, but am not sure I can handle it.

We are supposed to be heading over to a friend's house to go swim for a bit, so I will finish writing for now. I saw several great pictures up on the board today, so I will see if I can get them later to put on my blog.

The Bike

2007-06-26T15:16:00.000-04:00

Saturday as we were driving to NY, my mom was out garage sailing (one of our favorite hobbies). I mentioned to her that we were looking for a bigger bike for Katy. She called back a while later and told me she had found one and it was pink and purple (ideal) and in good shape. It is a 16-inch bike, I think. Here's a picture of what it looks like.

It has caused great frustration with the eldest because she didn't get a new bike. She really does love riding on it though! We borrowed a helmet (NY state law and mommy/daddy law) for a few days while we are here. (It sure helps to have friends!)

Can you tell by the smile she likes it?

Here she is riding the bike.

Here's Lilly riding the bike. (I think she has ridden it more than her sister!)

Pool Time

2007-06-21T00:28:00.000-04:00

The girls have been begging for our pool ever since we got rid of the baby wading pool in NY. A month or so ago a neighbor gave us an "inflatable" pool. Phil refused to put it up until the construction was all done (much to my disgust because I wanted it up, but he was right with all the dirt. They probably would have crashed into it anyway!).

The pool went up this week. It took hours. We used our tiny air compressor connected to the van lighter to fill up the white part, and then the hose ran from 1:30 until 5ish. We put chemicals in it, and covered it up.

Here are some fun pictures of the girls attempting to climb in. For those of you family members who have ever been in Seneca Lake, it is quite comparable temperature-wise right now. The nice thing is that it will warm up!

"I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!" (The Seneca Lake pep talk)...Burr!

"There. I did it!" AHHHH! It's cold!

"Ok, Katy, you get in now."

"This is REALLY cold!" "Jenna's pool is bigger AND warmer, Mommy."
"Mommy? Are you getting in?

"I'm not sure...I'm really not warm enough to." (Classic Kathy Lytle saying from Seneca Lake) "I have to be good and hot to get in that water."

"What are you going to do, Mommy?"

"I'm going to sit here in my chaise lounge chair with my feet up and watch you freeze."

We were in the pool again today. It really wasn't much warmer (any warmer), but all 4 of us had fun! Jenna came over later to play in the pool for a few minutes.

I'm sure we'll have lots of fun in it this summer.

Patio is finished

2007-06-21T00:19:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to post some pictures of what the patio looks like. As I was out watering tonight, I spotted green grass coming up! All our hours of watering is starting to pay off! It will be the ONLY green spot in our yard, but...

This is what poured aggregate looks like. They finish it like normal, allow it to dry a little, and then power spray it off to expose the added rock in it. It really looks neat.

After they tore up our yard with all the construction (a frustrating part of construction projects), they are adding top soil.

Grass seed is now planted and hay is spread on part of it.

We were able to use the patio (they sealed it Saturday morning) on Sunday night with our company and we are really loving it. Our wireless signal is good out there, so Phil and I even sat out there with computers!

I've got my chaise lounge chair, and now a patio and pool!

A Scary Night

2007-06-19T22:26:00.000-04:00

I was in the process of putting the girls to bed tonight when it all happened.

I looked out (Phil was gone) and saw a guy "hugging" our play set with a gun in hand. Lilly had left the bedroom to get a drink (I was in the bedroom) and came back practically crawling down the hall "Mommy, (very shaky voice and white face)I didn't get my drink. There's someone with a gun in our yard."I had already seen it and ordered the girls immediately to the bed. My neighbor was out there (he's a big, burly man who could be a bouncer at a bar), so I figured it was somewhat safe to carefully walk out. I had my cell in hand and told the girls not to get up or leave the house.

The man with the big gun turned out to be animal control. They were after a dog that had been on our property a few hours earlier. They had been chasing it all day. They tranquilized it about 1/2 a mile down the road at Lowes, and it still took off running. When he was in our yard, he hit the dog 3 times with the tranq bullets. The dog got up and ran off into the field. He eventually sat down for 5 minutes, took off running again, and sat for about 10, which allowed the guys to come close to surrounding him before he escaped again. I don't know if they got him, but my heart sure sped up! This is the second time in 2 months. The other time, Lilly was standing in the dinning room window and hollered out at a man with a gun in our yard. All Phil saw was legs and a gun, and told Lilly to get down and not ever yell at anyone with a gun. It turned out to be our neighbor trying to kill a sick opossum, but it still freaked Phil out!

I made a comment to that neighbor that I thought this was a safe neighborhood, but now it might be time to move. He said, "It was fine and calm until you guys moved in!" It's true...the has been a robbery, and 2 men with guns plus all our construction since then.

The newsbug in me had to go take a drive after they disappeared over the tracks. I had to know if they got the dog, so I put the girls in the van and we headed over to 35th St and went around the action to see what was going on. The dog must be an invincible dog! IT was STILL GOING (Energizer bunny?).

The Patio

2007-06-14T16:16:00.000-04:00

On Monday, the contractor came to get started on our patio. It's a pretty exciting process.

Here are pictures that will chronicle the work so far.

The load of stones brought in for fill.

Starting the concrete mess...they took out our sidewalk and slab on the side of the house, but I think this is the mess that was left over from the former concrete patio taken out before we moved in.

This was shortly before the accident. The guy driving the dozer ran into the side of the house just left of the sliding door and cracked a whole section of bricks. Thankfully we had some sitting around and will be able to match them exactly. That guy no longer works for our contractor!

A view from the side heading toward the sidewalk.

A view of what the patio going into the sidewalk will look like.

Sidewalk shot

This is where the sidewalk connects to the driveway.

The truck finally arrived. The original pour time was to be at 9 am, but there were issues with the truck from the original company, so a second company had to come to the rescue. This was the first of 2 trucks. We were short by 1/2 yard.

The first spot poured.

More pouring

Beginning to smooth/level the concrete

Working hard

This shows how they did the rounding around the septic lid.

The rounding of the corners.

Another shot of the patio

The rounding of the patio into the sidewalk.

Pouring on the sidewalk. This is where they had to stop until the next truck came in.

The last section of the sidewalk being poured.

Getting some help from Katy

Getting some help from Lilly (they look pretty official)

The famous hand print

Katy's hand print (it actually took us about 10 -12 tries to get things in the right location since the first location wasn't staying properly - we moved to a second location, and finally got the prints in.

Mommy, I put my hand in it!

This was one of the tries that got scrapped, but the one I got a picture of.

A shot of Ron power washing the patio to expose the aggregate. (aggregate is the colored stones in the concrete)

This is the beginning shot of the aggregate.

There will be more pictures to come, but this is what I have for now! One last note...if you look at the patio just right, it looks like a grand piano.

A Really Crappy Night

2007-06-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

Saturday night after my brother and his family left, the girls went in to take their bath. After they got done, they called me in and told me that the tub wasn't draining right. I said, "Don't worry about it, girls. It probably just needs to have the lever adjusted." Then, just after I finished saying that, Katy needed to go to the bathroom, so she lifted the lid to the toilet. That's when we noticed the toilet was about to over flow. I went to the other bathroom to get the plunger, and that's when Phil took over. He plunged, and plunged, and plunged. It only got worse. It started filling up the tub with crap (literally). As he plunged, the crap sprayed on my walls, my freshly mopped floor, the side of the tub, and all over. I left very quickly for Wal-mart to get Drano and a snake. By the time I got to the check out, Phil said to skip the snake because he was calling the plumber. Mr. Roto-Rooter came at about 11 pm (from Kokomo), and snaked, and snaked,...oh, and he had to take the toilet up since he couldn't get to what he needed from the septic lid or by snaking thru the toilet. Then he snaked more.

Katy had been up for 2 nights (almost all night) with a supposed UTI (the dr said it wasn't, but now that she has had antibiotic, she's doing great, and the test came back negative). She had just fallen asleep about 10:45. It was torture to have to have her awakened, but there was no way to sleep with all the noise of the snake. So I snuggled with her under a blanket on the couch hoping this would all end soon. (I had to figure out a way to get her out of her room because the plumber had blocked her in with his shop vac that leaked and spread crap down my hard wood floors in the hallway and left a puddle behind the door). Once I was able to get her out, we snuggled.

I went in to check on Lilly, and she was sleeping right through it. I sent Phil in 45 minutes or so later to check on her, and he scared her. She came out and snuggled too. Finally, Phil came out and took the girls in to lie on the futon. They both fell sound asleep. I think I dozed off on the couch too.

About 1 am, the plumber finally finished. I was scared to know what the cost would be, but it wasn't nearly as bad as Phil or I had guessed. After some suggestions on how to prevent this from happening again...

- Rid-x once a month no matter what
- Use the thinnest toilet paper you can stand to

... He left. That's when the clean up began. Phil headed off to bed so he could at least keep his eyes open at church the next day, and I started cleaning. I took some Basic G (germicidal) and started in. I mopped every area where he (or we) might have walked, and then scrubbed the tub, around the toilet, and then mopped. I thought by 2 am that I had all the mess. When I went in the next morning to get ready for church, I realized I had a lot more to do. I had to spend time on Sunday scrubbing the tub, floor, toilet, and walls to finish the clean up.

Oh what a disgusting mess. I'm glad that is over. Sleep was so wonderful Sunday afternoon, and then Monday morning!

Friends to Play...

2007-06-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

Since the play set has been installed, we are finding it VERY hard to "peel" the girls away from the play set. Truly this is what we wanted, but...they don't want to quit playing to eat or sleep!

Saturday night, my nephews were here to play while their parents went to dinner with some friends here in town. We had so much fun. I'm attaching some pictures so you'll see how fun it was!

Caleb is 7 and Joshua is 4 and they play so well with the girls!

This is Joshua and Katy. (Joshua is also known as Mr. Jo or Joshie)

This is Caleb (also known as CZ or Mr. CZ)

Just Hanging around!

Even Uncle Phil got in on the action!

This is where Phil realized that he's not so nimble anymore. He went to get up and twisted. He was in pain after that in his back.

The bouy ball seemed to be a favorite with the boys too!

All this playing wore Joshie out!

This picture is of my big brother Andy and I as we sit around after enjoying some fresh rhubarb crisp...picture was taken by Lilly.

As you can see from just these pictures, there was a LOT of fun to be had by all. It was a late night going to bed because we were enjoying each other's company. (It was made later by the plumbing problem we faced shortly afterward.)