Hope

I had to change our main picture on here to show that there is hope for spring. The snow really is almost gone. And in fact the forecast for this coming week sounds amazing!

Jude Alert!

I haven't put many pictures on lately so I decided I'd better do something about that. Here are a few pics of what Jude has been up to.

Jude and I napping together after another one of our "extreme" walks. We took Jude along in the stroller this time and it was a good time despite the cold and a little wind that day.

The "new" pick up (and Gil hard and work with it!)

Jude loves to read theology books:)

Jude: 11 months this day

Window of Opportunity

First of all I want to give a shout out to my faithful Wednesday reader Amy Schmidt. Go Amy!!! Thanks for reading my nonsense!!! I hope you are having a great day girl, love ya!

Wow, I have not blogged in a long time. I have been thinking about this and thinking about what I would say if I had time to blog. The truth is I have only so many small "windows of opportunity" throughout the day in order to blog. Jude cannot be awake because he wants to type too. And lately my "windows" have been filled with other (probably more important) activities. March has been pretty busy. One of my best friends ever, Kelly, got married on the 12th and that was that weekend...full of fun and seeing college and Omaha friends. Congrats to the two love birds Kelly and Vince (or VincenKel as their celebrity name goes).

Then it was off to Antioch the next weekend. Antioch is a retreat that I got to do with Gil and the Briar Cliff gang. It was so much fun and so renewing and spiritually uplifting. It is awesome to hear the work of God in other's lives and to see college kids desiring to live a life in relationship with Christ. Gil and I gave a talk on Community on Sunday morning. It went really well. The Briar Cliff kids accepted me as one of their own and it was neat to see Gil "at work." He truly does love his job...and who wouldn't when you are involved in so many cool experiences.

After Antioch I got sick:( That day was no fun. Yesterday I subbed, but last night Jude threw up; like a major vomiting throw up where you can see every blueberry and string cheese he had consumed for dinner plus get to smell the stomach acids (sorry for the grossness!). Gil got him in the bath ASAP and I re-made the crib and dealt with the remains. I was supposed to sub today too, but stayed home with the babe. He seems to be doing fine now, so that's good. No more having to strip the sheets and soak the yucky stuff (thank goodness).

Right now Jude is taking an uncommon 2 hour morning nap...thus my window of opportunity (and maybe he doesn't feel very good still:( I always have to weigh what is most important to get accomplished during this window. Do I fold clothes? Take a shower? Do the dishes? Make the bed? Use the computer? Make phone calls? Pay bills or balance the checkbook? I always wish I could just sit down and read or even better spend quiet time in prayer or in scripture. That just doesn't happen like it needs to because of the other demands of the window. But I am determined to get better at it again. So far today I have got several phone calls made (like the boring ones to schedule an oil change) and taken a shower. I have also attempted to pay a past due student loan online only to have to call customer service, change my password (at least one capital letter, one lower case letter, one number and one symbol...oh my goodness!!!), make two separate payments (why I do not know), get locked out of the system, and now the system is down and I still haven't finished! I HATE that stuff!

In other news we got a new-to-us old beat up pick up. It has 4-wheel drive. Something we found is necessary living in the conditions here in NE Nebraska! It is also a stick, so I will be learning now that 2 of our 3 vehicles are. If you live in Dixon County consider yourself forewarned! I will post a pic sometime. Our snow is also rapidly diminishing, but cannot happen rapidly enough in my opinion. Our yard and grove still have the most of anywhere around, although our mailbox is exposed and mail is coming and going on a regular Mon.-Sat. routine.

In more other news Jude can now give kisses, clap his hands, throw everything, and is really close to walking (I think)! It is fun to see him learn. I'm really anxious for those first words:)

English as a Second Language

I had the pleasure of subbing in an ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom the other day. I wasn't sure what to expect. Despite my two years of high school Spanish and two semesters of college Spanish, I have never felt confident in conversing in that language and it has been a VERY long time. But this experience turned out to be so neat. There were two paras in the room who helped me get the lesson plan figured out and who helped a lot with the kids as well. One was a native Spanish speaker so that was obviously helpful! I saw kiddos of all ages, from kindergarten to Seniors. And all ability levels too. Some were much better at English than others and could translate for me, but all were fairly limited in their English proficiency, of course, and my profound lack of Spanish proficiency made for an interesting day! I thought it was different to see kids struggling with English words and pronunciations when I'm so used to it being the other way, kids struggling with Spanish words and pronunciations. At one point a fourth grade boy asked if we liked deer meat. The para said yes and asked if he liked moose meat. None of them knew the word moose, so we acted it out. One girl drew a picture on the board (a pretty good one too) and we said yes a moose. Then they could come up with their word for it. At another point in the day a different teacher came in to speak with the Spanish speaking para. They began their conversation completely in Spanish and I had no idea what they were talking about. Once in a while English words were thrown in. Eventually one of the ladies began speaking all in English while the other stayed in Spanglish. In the end they were both speaking English. How cool is that! I told many of the students how smart they are that they can (or will be able to) speak two languages. Later, a class of high schoolers all wanted to know my age and we had a fun conversation with me attempting to ask and answer questions in Spanish. You know, the basic stuff that you do every day in Spanish class. I was pretty weak and they giggled at me. But we got our points across and even with our lack of communication skills we enjoyed one another's company. I am excited because I get to go back to this classroom for two days in April so I will get to see them all again. I'd better hone my Spanish a little bit before I go back!

Extreme Walking

Back in my years of singleness I used to think about what it would be like to have a boyfriend to go on romantic walks with. I would dream about a beautiful stroll by the lake holding hands with a cute boy, or a midnight outing under the stars. When I met Gil I was excited to try out these romantic ideas. I soon discovered, however, that some (maybe all, few, most, ???) guys don't share my romantic ideas of walking. Gil saw no point to just walking for no reason. If there was going to be walking there needed to be something more--maybe a rock throwing contest or with a gun in your hands (i.e. hunting). Yet this winter we have gone on more walks than ever. I have discovered that Gil is an extreme walker. Like today when he suggested we take the dogs for a walk. While it did reach almost 40 degrees today (a major high as of late), it was dreary and gloomy with chances of rain. Plus there are still massive snow drifts on the sides of the road and the road that is not covered in slush is now covered in mud. Mind you we would be walking on a dirt road, not even graveled! I agreed because a muddy walk is better than no walk. We did alright, made it maybe a mile total squishing our boots in the sloppy mud or falling knee-deep into a drift that wasn't strong enough to hold our weight anymore. Another recent walk was the rabbit hunting excursion. This one was worse. We went a lot further and since the snow was much newer it wasn't hard as a rock yet and each and every step was a sink-to-our-knees. Plus it was much much colder that day! Gil has taken a few other walks this winter. Ones even he wishes he hadn't taken (and I'm certainly glad I didn't have to endure!). So while I wait for Gil to see the romance in a nice stroll at twilight on a beautiful summer day, I guess I will settle for extreme walking. Better than nothing?!?

Confession

A few weeks ago I began weaning Jude (for many reasons that I will not go into here). I decided to go really slowly since his only experience with bottles was in the first few months of life due to his jaundice and then later on only on days he attended daycare. I personally hadn't given him a bottle in a LONG time. He wasn't too psyched about it at first and took a long time taking them. Another problem was that I usually nursed to put him down for naps. Bottles didn't seem to have the same effect. Also I read that mothers should do something extra during this time to make their children feel loved and to spend time with them. So to hit two birds with one stone I started putting Jude down for naps (and sometimes for bed) by just holding him on the couch while we watch TV together (I never saw a baby that liked TV so much!). He quickly caught on to that and we began a pattern (as much as a pattern as I can get into--I'm not much of a schedule mommy!). I got to sit down and watch Hoda and Kathi Lee while he drifted off in the morning, and then Ellen or Rachel Ray in the afternoons. This method also worked well while I was visiting my sister Katie in Kansas City because Jude doesn't always go down well in new places. Getting to sit down and relax while Jude fell asleep in my arms was so wonderful that I confess I am not really trying to break him of this habit. I just love to hold my baby while he sleeps! Today (and many days) I stayed on the couch long after he fell asleep just because I wanted to feel the up and down of his body breathing softly as he slept (and maybe because I didn't really want to fold the clothes all that badly!).

Now he is becoming a champ at the bottle and I am down to nursing twice a day. I'm loving the freedom!!! Although I have enjoyed nursing over-all (and it saved much on $$ in formula) it was not without pain, discomfort, many many hours, and a lot of frustration for me and Jude at times. Poor experimental child. But Gil and I were both just that and we survived, so we have high hopes for Jude as well!

New Hair!

Gil is home!!! He had a fantastic trip and got home safely last Friday night. We both got much needed hair cuts on Saturday and rested Sunday. Monday it was back to the real world. Gil teaches 4 of the 5 days of the week this semester and still has bible study, class, and knights in the evenings. But we have a lot to look forward to right now because this weekend we are gonna rest again (yay!), the next is Kellly's wedding and the next is Antioch--a Briar Cliff retreat that Gil did in the fall and that I get to do with him this spring!!! I am also already starting to think about Jude turning one year old! Wow, my baby is becoming a toddler! I'm trying to find a great outfit and accessories for one-year pics.

Rockin' my new haircut. I realized I need to take a picture of Gil's because he rocks his too!

Jude taking his bottle.
Jude with Great-Grandma Mary Lou

Jude being goofy