Spring Vacation

We have had an eventful last 3-4 weeks here. We spent the last 2 weeks on vacation, and the week before that we had no internet, hence the lack of posting.

Jon's parents came down a few weekends ago and got our garden started. We have potatoes, onions, radishes, and lettuce popping up. There's plenty more to go. We have beautiful lilacs and many plants and flowers that were previously planted. The yard looks very nice.

We won't be going anywhere this summer with the baby coming, so we decided to take the opportunity while we don't have kids in school to go somewhere. We left 2 weeks ago Tuesday for our vacation.

We drove down through Missouri and stopped in Hannibal the first day, home of Mark Twain. We ate lunch, walked around the old buildings, went to the river and played in a park, and then had some ice cream. Finn had a diaper blowout at lunch, so thankfully we weren't sitting in the car. It was on to St. Charles from there, which is just north of St. Louis. We headed to the St. Louis zoo on Wednesday. Free admission, folks! I think the boys enjoyed it. Ben knows lots of animals now and we thought it would be a lot of fun for him to see them for real. I think he learned a few more. Finn liked it just as much, I think.

After the zoo we made our way into Arkansas. We followed the river with lots of winding roads and hills. Ben got car sick twice. As we were on "the scenic route," there were very few places to stop. The first time he got sick, we were searching for a gas station when a lumber truck pulled out in front of us and we slammed on the brakes. Just as I was thinking of some choice words, Jon and I both noticed a gas station down a bit from where the truck had come. Had he not pulled out in front of us, we definitely wouldn't have seen it-it was not a gas stationey building. So a blessing in disguise. We got to clean up Ben and let Finn run around a bit. The second incident wasn't quite so bad. We just pulled over into some abandoned driveway and picked more clothes out of the trunk. This is what plastic bags are for, I guess.

Thursday morning we headed out for Little Rock, where our good friend Glenn lives. Ben had a diaper blowout in the car, so into the shower he went as soon as we got there. Thankfully the carseat was spared and we didn't have any major cleaning to do. We did, however, do a load of laundry that night at Glenn's so we could dress the boys. We had beautiful weather in the 80s but had to split our clothing allotment between shorts and jeans given the time of year.

We had lunch with Glenn and in the afternoon we walked along the river downtown and had ice cream. There was a fountain coming out of the ground that some kids were playing in, so we took off the boys' shirts and let them run around a while. Glenn cooked us a great supper. He fed us well the whole time we were there. Friday we headed to Hot Springs, which is a national park within a city. They had old bath houses where people used to go for healing, etc. Some famous people frequented these. Saturday we headed to the Clinton library and museum by the river. It was pretty neat to see. It's hard to read things in great detail because the boys get bored quite quickly, but very interesting nonetheless. The boys had a lot of fun at Glenn's. They could go in circles through a couple doors. I think Ben's best memory is having Lucky Charms. We don't have them at home anymore because he would only eat the marshmallows.

Sunday we went to church and ate dinner with Glenn. We headed out in the afternoon on a bit more scenic route through Arkansas, stopping at Fort Smith. Monday morning we went to the actual Fort Smith, which changed hands a few times during the Civil War, then became a jail and court for a large area for many years. They still had a couple of buildings and the gallows. We then headed north to Pea Ridge, which was a Civil War battlefield. This was a driving tour where you could get out and look at various sites they described for you. They have fences and cannons set up to help visualize the battlefields. Very interesting and brings it a bit more to life. We hit these on National Park Week, so this stuff was free for us! That was a lovely surprise.

We stayed in Kansas City Monday night. Our hotel was in a beautiful part of the city, and some day we would like to go back and just spend some time there. If we had more time, we would have walked around a bit. Tuesday we went to the WWI Museum in KC. That again was very detailed, and some people could probably spend a couple days in there. The boys weren't very excited about this stop. We did go up in a tower, though, and we got a great view of KC. The boys got to see a couple of trains and ride in an elevator. That's Ben's favorite new thing, besides going on bridges. He's still talking about the elevator (elegator) at the hotel.

Tuesday we headed to Minnesota. We ended up meeting my parents there for supper after calling my dad with a car problem. We headed to Jon's parents that night. We ended up having the struts replaced on the car. Thankfully it was nothing worse than that and God gave us safe travels the whole 2 weeks. While in Edgerton, we made a couple trips to Jon's grandparents, and his mom and I did some rummaging. I was very excited to find a changing table, which I have had in mind for a while. I also found a queen bed frame for our guest bed.

We headed to my parents on Friday. My sister and her kids got in late that night, and Finn was very happy to see baby Robbie (who is 5 months old) on Saturday morning. Finn loves babies and points them out. He calls Ben "baby," but he seems to know the difference. I somewhat learned to play pinochle. I have a ways to go but got the gist of it. We just bummed over the weekend and headed for home Monday morning.

So here we are on Wednesday night. Finn and I both got a stomach bug last week and are pretty much over it now. I haven't had a lot of ambition. Jon's mom is coming down tomorrow night. We are stripping the wallpaper in the baby's room and painting. I got the paint today and stripped some wallpaper. I cleaned the stuff out of the room except for the bed. Jon and I did some cleaning and rearranging on the third floor, which will now be the guest suite. I'm very excited to be preparing the baby's room. The most I did before was rearrange closets and drawers to make room for the baby stuff, so now I get to do a little bit of decorating and readying a bedroom. I didn't miss it before, but now that I can do it, I'm looking forward to it. And I'll spend a nesting period unpacking all the baby stuff and rearranging. I really am excited to have a changing table. And if anyone wants to give me a glider rocker and ottoman, I am accepting donations.

So that will be our weekend. Now that I've written a novel, I'll give you a few days to read it.

Quick Thinking

When Jon is grilling (especially during the winter when he would walk in the house with snow on his shoes) a lot of times he'll just ask me to get him what he needs so he can run back outside. (Our back door leads right into our kitchen.) Many times he'll start the request as such: Hey Ker, can you get _____?

Jon was grilling tonight and the boys were outside with him. I was upstairs putting laundry away when I saw Ben come up the stairs. He stopped and said to me, "Say Ker, can you get me, um, that light on the wall?" I'm still laughing at this. I thought that was pretty quick thinking as he quite obviously had nothing in mind for me to get him.

Learning New Things

The other night the boys had their pajamas on and were sitting at their little table playing "kitchen." Jon came up to say goodnight, so we were going to say our prayer. Jon said "Ben pray" and he folded his hands. Then he said "Finn pray," and Finn dutifully folded up his little hands. This was the first time he had done it, and I think it was extra cute because he was sitting at the little table. We were very proud of him. There's just something about those little hands folded up.

Going in a totally different direction...

I was watching Finn dig through the desk drawer the other day. There are just a bunch of papers and things, not too valuable, of course, and I saw him take something out to the kitchen, not realizing I was watching. I couldn't tell what it was, but he came right back out. He then proceeded to pull out the hole punch and walk back to the kitchen. I followed and found him dumping it in the garbage. I also found a few of Jon's business cards. So not only does he dumpster dive into all of our garbages, he has decided to add his own stuff. Though I only noticed it a few days ago, we're thinking he may have taken it upon himself to throw away our TV remote, which has been missing for roughly a month. I'm not sure, though, because he treasures those remotes. I guess we'll just keep looking.

Spring is Springing

It's been a beautiful day here in Iowa so far. The boys have been out this week to play in the snow and the mud and the standing water. And some of the snow they played in 2 days ago is gone now. There are tons of birds out singing and the sun is shining bright after a week of rain and fog. Ben likes to go down about half his slide and be stopped suddenly at the snow bank. He thinks it's pretty funny. He can't swing yet because the snow is still piled underneath, but he tried anyway. I'm just looking forward to the ground being dry and letting the boys run without hats and mittens.

I have been looking for some valances for our room and the boys' room. I found some blue ones for the boys on Friday and was pretty excited. I'm hoping to get them put up on Monday. I'm still looking for just the right ones for our room.

I spent most of Friday childless. I went shopping for valances and lots of groceries, but it was a nice time to myself.

Finn keeps adding words to his vocabulary. He says bye-bye, hi, daddy, potty, baby, dada, boots, and works on others when you give him a word to repeat. We went Friday night to another couple who has a 9-month-old, and he just sat staring at her saying baby, baby, baby and patting her head. It was very cute. He also walks around saying daddy, daddy, daddy. Just practicing, I guess. I've heard him say mama when he's mad or frustrated. Go figure.

I'm still working on potty training with Ben. It's definitely a slow process, so if you have any good tips/advice, feel free to share. He's such a helpful little boy. He loves to help me set the table and load/unload the dishwasher. Ben is beginning his independent streak and gets mad when I try to do things for him. He's very funny and makes us laugh often. He also loves singing and sits with the little kids at church when they sing for Sunday School.

I'm off to rest a bit while I have the chance. Have a good week!

It's roughly time for another post, so I will give an overview of our weekend. It began Friday morning with a lovely doctor appointment. Everything is going well and baby is growing right where he should be. (Just a side note, we automatically call our babies "he." This does not indicate actual gender as we will not be finding out until we lay eyes on this baby.) Jon's parents had arrived here by the time I got home. They were joyfully ready to take care of the boys while Jon and I drove off Friday afternoon into the wild white yonder to a pastor's retreat.

We had a great time just spending a night away and getting to know our fellow pastors in the area. We had a wonderful speaker who was very engaging and the time just flew by. We were finished by noon on Saturday.

When we got home, Jon's brother and family were here playing. We enjoyed an afternoon together and a great supper at the Pizza Ranch.

So that was our exciting weekend. Jon's parents left Sunday after church and we all got a bit of a nap. As much as we loved being away, we still didn't sleep wonderfully in a different bed. It's just a fact of life, right?

A Mitten Is Found

The day we loaded our stuff into a trailer in October, Ben was out in the shed with us and insisted on having his mittens on, though he really didn't need them. He eventually took them off and laid them down. I noticed where they were, and the next thing I knew they were gone. We looked all over and couldn't find them. I was a bit upset because they were nice warm mittens, they matched his coat, etc. When we arrived in Austinville, the guys had found one of the mittens on the truck, but we had no idea where the other was. So we bought Ben another pair, but believe it or not I could find very little for him at that point, so they were thin knit mittens that were not warm enough for playing outside. We finally found another decent pair for him and I was happy.

On Saturday morning I decided to take the boys for a walk to the post office. Instead of taking the double stroller, I decided I'd put Finn in the single and let Ben walk. So I got out the stroller, which I hadn't touched since we moved (and still had a brochure from Shedd Aquarium from our Chicago visit in June), and we were on our way. When we got back home, I took the stroller back to the garage, and lo and behold, there was our long lost mitten! It was just laying where the stroller had been. I'm quite surprised it hadn't fallen out of the stroller while being moved on and off the truck and while I rearranged it in the garage, because I didn't actually open the stroller until I got it out of the garage. Needless to say, I was very happy, because it still bugged me once in a while when I caught sight of this poor single mitten. I just couldn't throw it away, though, thinking that some day its mate would come home. (Yes, that's the kind of person I am. Some things just bug me like that.)

So that's my little story, and it never hurts to have an extra pair of mittens laying around.

Finn's First Word

Bye!

Yes, that was it. He was talking on his little toy phone, and after a bit of babbling, it clearly came out yesterday, and a few more times as the day went on. He's very close to saying dada and mama, but as we've learned with Ben, we'll hear that enough times in the next year:) Finn does lots of babbling, so I'm sure he won't lack for words when he learns enough of them.

In other news, I finally got this kitchen together that the boys got for Christmas. I've been feeling quite well, and the boys have been longing to open the box of food that they also got for Christmas, so I decided it was time. Over a couple afternoons of the boys napping at the same time, I got it all put together.

My next projects are to rearrange the third floor so we can put guests up there and find new curtains for the bedrooms. So wish me well, cause we all know these things take longer than they should.

Thomas Book Review

I meant this summer to do a short book review of Sacred Marriage and Sacred Parenting, both books by Gary L. Thomas that I read this summer. I don't have a lengthy review for them. I just want to say that they were both very good reads, whether you're married or thinking about it, no matter which stage of parenting you're in or thinking about it. Thomas makes you look at your marriage/parenting from a bit different aspect and shows these relationships (as spouse or parent) as a reflection of our relationships with God. I would highly recommend these books. One point that really stayed with me is that just as we do not want our children to fail or get hurt, and we pick them up and comfort them when they do, so God does the same with us. Do we turn our backs on our children when they make a mistake? No! Neither does God. This is why he keeps giving us chances: We are his children and he loves us dearly, more than we could ever love our own children or spouse. That is so hard to imagine. A point to ponder.

More Christmas

Okay, once again I'm behind on my blogging. Let's start back to Friday last week. Jon's parents and brother Caleb came down and spent the afternoon at our house. Finn got his birthday present-a wooden rocking horse. He enjoyed it while Ben took a nap. The boys were excited to see everyone. That night we met Jon's brother Nathaniel, Sarah, and their baby Ella at Famous Dave's. Excellent food, as always. I was feeling very good and I ate more than I should have, as always. I highly recommend it if you've never been to one. And if you don't like meat, you're really missing out. I prefer the brisket, if anyone is wondering.

Saturday we headed to Nathaniel's to celebrate our Christmas. The boys got a bunch of new toys and books. We all got very nice gifts. We had a good dinner of prime rib and other things, but mainly prime rib. It was good to see everyone again. The boys had a great time with Ella, who is 4 months younger than Finn. Ella and Finn spent a lot of time chasing each other in circles. We now have a big kitchen for the boys that we need to work up the courage to put together. Ben is itching to open the box of food that came with it.

On Monday night we had our first experience at the Spec'n Dicken German pancake supper. They have bacon and/or sausage in them. They were very good, and I am never one to pass up pancakes. It is a fundraiser for the Christian grade school here, Timothy Christian. Ben also loves pancakes and ate 1 of these plate-size cakes by himself.

Tomorrow I will have my second doctor appointment. Things seem to be going well so far, and we continue to pray for a healthy baby.

I am off to rest while the boys are both sleeping.

The Week In Review

We had a very nice past week. Our good friend Kris graced us with her presence on Wednesday. We didn't do a whole lot. She came along to get groceries, we did some cooking, played some cards, watched some TV, played with the boys, talked a lot. Just a nice time to do nothing together. She came to church with us Friday morning and headed home as we were getting ready to head to my family for a quick get-together.

We drove up Friday and encountered a car problem; namely, the car didn't want to stop. Thankfully this didn't happen until the last hour of our trip. So with some sitting and waiting and car restarting, we made it safely to my parents. The return trip on Saturday was quite nerve wracking. Thankfully the boys slept the first 3 hours out of the 4-hour trip, and we only stopped once. The car is currently in the shop. We're afraid we may be car shopping in the near future.

It was also very cold in Minnesota this weekend. We hit 30 below zero. Thank God for furnaces and blankets so we can sleep comfortably.

We had a good time overall and received some very nice gifts. I think my favorite was a set of books Ben got, 1 each with letters, numbers, and shapes. Each item is given in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. So Ben may be able to count to 10 in five languages before too long. I guess I'm easily impressed.

We've had a nice quiet couple of days now. I'm trying to work up the ambition to take the Christmas tree down. I also need to put some old toys away since the boys have plenty of new stuff to keep their attention.

Jon and I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. We headed out without the boys to do some mattress shopping. We were successful and should be enjoying our new bed in 7-14 business days. We also went to eat at Carlos O'Kelly's, a Mexican restaurant. We had never been there before and were right next door. It was very good and I would highly recommend it. Refried beans are my new favorite thing right now. We were only gone about 4 hours, but we are thankful for the time away and for such willing babysitters we have in church.

Our Christmas

This evening we celebrated Christmas. We've always traveled to our parents for Christmas, so this is the first time we have ever done it at our own house, and it was quite nice. We had a wonderful supper with a good steak, corn, salad, potatoes.

So after supper we sat down to open presents. We've had a gate around the Christmas tree because the boys would like nothing better than to tear it down and pull all the ornaments off, which would probably result in Finn trying to eat hooks. So Jon pulled the gate away and we pulled out the boys' presents. Ben began by tearing the name tags off (good thing there weren't more people involved in this celebration). Finn went right to the tree, which is his Everest. So while we got Ben to begin ripping paper and proceed to properly open his presents as a 2-year-old should, Finn spent the time playing commando in the tree. Jon captured him once to try and open a present, but it held no interest. He was so excited to touch the tree freely. I think he would have stayed in the corner behind the tree all night if he could have. When the gate finally went back up, he became interested in whatever Ben was playing with. We got the boys 2 potato heads with 5 "outfits," and they sat nicely playing with them for a long time. So the toys weren't all bad after all.

Jon bestowed upon me a beautiful cross necklace with diamonds at the tips and in the center.

We then had a bit of egg nog, which the boys couldn't get enough of, and some cherry pie that at least tasted decent. It was overall a very nice evening.

And Baby Makes Three

I think I've got all my Christmas letters either out or ready to go. It seems to take a lot to get everybody's address, order pictures, print letters, and print labels. Microsoft Office's mail merge is one of the best things in life. No more writing out addresses for bulk mailings (not that we do bulk mailings regularly). It's a lovely thing.

However, I have had little to no ambition lately to do much of anything else after chasing boys all day. We are having a baby on or about July 28 next year!!!!, and I am in the feeling yucky/tired stage. I remember when I was pregnant with Ben and would come home from work and sleep, and Jon would make his own supper. Those were the days!

Due to the snow and the lack of a winterized stroller, I pulled the boys to the post office today on the sled. I think they enjoyed it, though Finn couldn't hold himself up from the forward momentum and basically laid on Ben's lap all the way there. They were pretty cute all bundled up in snowpants and barely able to move. Maybe another day I'll get a picture.

I am currently attempting to potty train Ben. He is a willing learner, so we're making slow progress. I had planned on starting anyway, but my goal now is to get him trained before this baby comes. Hopefully it doesn't take that long, but one never knows.

Ben is also really into colors. He loves naming the color of everything. Between that and naming everything on the page, books take a lot longer to get through. (This is good because it occupies him on the potty.)

Finn has a bad cold and is just a miserable little boy. He is still working hard to keep up with Ben and people have commented how active he is for his age. He's still getting into everything and we love watching him run away when he knows he's in trouble.

So that's what we've been up to. Merry Christmas to all!

It's A Little Windy

We're currently in a blizzard watch until midnight tonight. It's been rather windy and we have some very high drifts on our yard. What a great excuse to stay in and do nothing! And for the first time in 2-1/2 years, I am cold. Let me tell you, I'm not really enjoying this new sensation. I've been wearing sweatshirts and putting blankets on.

Since I didn't get this posted before, we celebrated Finn's first birthday. He shares a birthday with my mom, and we were able to celebrate with my parents Thanksgiving weekend. I did a fish cake (with a lot of help from my mom) since Finn's favorite thing is his fishy.

Greetings From Iowa!

A couple of weeks have passed since my last post, and we are now officially citizens of Iowa. We moved down on Oct. 26 and have been quite busy. I rarely get online as we do not have internet in the house.

We had lots of people help us move in and begin sorting things to various rooms. Our congregation has been so wonderful to us. We are getting to know the people and the area a bit.

Jon passed his classical examination and was ordained on Nov. 8. He is now Rev. Spronk, which is somewhat odd sounding. Jon has been working on organizing his office and writing sermons this week. I have been trying to organize the house. The boys are having a great time and I could probably blog every day about them.

We put Ben in a big bed Monday night and he loves it. He had no problems with the change. The boys are sharing a room now, which doesn't always work out well, but hopefully their naps will sync soon. Their room is as big as ours, so they have plenty of room to play while I'm sorting through things. I have been working on painting some furniture and have finally finished the chest of drawers. It took a while since I did it after the boys went to bed. I did take advantage of the beautiful weather and did some painting in the garage last week. I can't believe how nice it's been! We had a beautiful 70-degree day for ordination, and we were thankful that some of our family could be here.

So that's us in a nutshell.

Just a note to Kris since I finally read your blog-your hives would not have lasted so long had you sat and watched U2 videos. Remember that if it happens again.