Papers, Taxes and Spring

I always know when it is within a week or so of taxes needing to be filed. Joe hides himself in a room with the tax forms piled up next to him and sits to input all of that "stuff" into the computer program--TURBO TAX. With a name like that, shouldn't it take less than like 5 minutes. Not so my friends...it may take quite a few days to process everything, at least on our end. Sometimes it's great to see the numbers go in and then show us what we "may" get back. Sometimes they are good, sometimes not so good. But everything is done, with a day and a half to spare!

I just finished my final project for my second class for school. It was a Life Plan for myself and it was a little more work than I thought it would be, but I'm glad I am done with it. Now, next week I start a class called Foundations of Bible Study. We'll see if I get any of my Dad's knowledge in this area!!

Spring is here again this week--hopefully to stay. Can't wait to be outside more than the time we've had to spend indoors over the last 10 days or so. The girls have a little cabin fever I think. They are so active and they need to be outside. I NEED TO BE OUTSIDE WITH THEM.

Enjoy the nice day...67 degrees-WOO HOO!!

Some Pictures from the last few weeks

Dancing Princesses

Everyday Life

Life has such a strange way of making you think about so many things throughout a day...

Today, for instance I thought about these things:

1) Today's weather has gone from a little warm and humid~then rainy~then calm~stormy~then rainy again~now just plain windy and cool...the amazing central Illinois weather never ceases to amaze me.

2) I've also tried to think about how Jesus felt this week (or at least sometime close to it) knowing what is fate would be. Was he scared--just a little? Were his disciples wondering what the rest of the week held--more healing, more traveling, or what? Where was his mind while not in prayer with God? Was he just calm or was it kind of like today's weather--all over the place? Sorry, I'm usually not this way, but so many things going through my mind today

3) Life is so unpredictable. I've been following the life of a little girl named Regan. She has been very sick and her parents are trying to love her as much as they possibly can for as long as they possibly can--and she's so young. I pray during the day, I pray during the night when I can't help but think of them. I just pray every time I think of them throughout each day--not knowing how she is doing, but reading their blog and keeping others up to date about each day's events. Their blog is www.routefive.blogspot.com

4) Life in general. It is so full of great events and sad events. I'm not trying to be a downer in today's blog, but life goes by so quickly and sometimes we don't even take the time to enjoy it. I feel like sometimes I'm constantly doing everything to keep a clean house, clean kids and an organized home, that I don't even get to enjoy just "relaxing" time with my family. Why can't life just slow down--or do we have to slow it down?

Well, I'll move on from here...just a few thoughts going through my mind.

Enjoy your Easter and remember what we are observing...

March Madness

In our family we've had more than our share of March coming in like a lion...

Joe left on February 28th for an 11 day trip with the baseball team...

Jocelyn went into the hospital on March 5th...for 3 nights...

Joe calls to let me know that the van's back, right tire came off, yes off, of the van while they were driving 70 mph down the freeway somewhere in the middle of their trip...

Now, Joe is home, Jocelyn has nearly totally recovered, and all is well. How can it be that life can get so crazy, SO QUICKLY?!?! We've settled back into the normal day to day activities and life is great again...

School is going really well--as far as I can tell. I can't believe I will be able to actually finish my degree going one night a week for classes. It's amazing how life works--allowing me to attend a program that works around my lifestyle, not my lifestyle having to adjust around class schedules. I do ALOT of reading (well compared to what I did in college 12 years ago) and many reflection papers each week. Much of the reading has me thinking about how to organize myself enough to keep up with life's daily needs. That topic will probably be on the front burner for many years to come...organization!!

Hope everyone's as excited about the warmer weather as I am. I was never one for the hot months, but now that I have two small children, it's nice to know I'll be able to get out and play with them outside ALOT this spring and summer. Carissa and Jocelyn have already been out at Grandma and Papa's house to draw with their sidewalk chalk--it was nice enough for them on Sunday to be out with a light jacket to enjoy the day...

Life is great, God is great and that's pretty much all I have to say about that...

It's the end of February?!

I'm hoping to post some this week because we got a new camera and I just can't wait to get some good pics of the girls. We've been trying to spend as much time together before Joe leaves for awhile with the baseball team. He leaves Wednesday and I really don't want to think about how long they'll be gone, but it will be hard to keep up on everything. I've never liked it when he's gone, but I'm going to try to make the best of it by trying to finish up at least the "daytime potty training" with Carissa. She has done SO well and I would consider it completed, except she does wear Pull-ups while she naps sometimes. She's taken a few naps without changing into one and has done fine with it. I'll be happy if I can get her to wear them only at night. She knows she has to go to the potty if she wants to go to pre-school after the summer. She loves to tell everyone what she's done each time, but nothing like what my mom says my little brother used to do. He used to make everyone come in and look at his "work" and would announce it by saying "Ta Da!!" I think maybe he might still do this, but nobody really wants to allow his "Ta Da's" anymore...

Well, gotta try to get the naps started. Enjoy your time looking on through Blogdom.

When you're handed lemons...make ??

It's been awhile since my last post. It's also been a rough week and I've tried not to blog and cause more harm than good.

Well, the girls are great. Carissa is ever increasing her vocabulary (some words are ALWAYS better left unspoken--if you know what I mean) Jocelyn can say "Mama, Dada, Papa, Ama(grandma), Ba (for Bob the Tomato in Veggie Tales) and she says Hi and Bye on the phone and to people most of the time. It's been so cold we try to only go out about 2 days a week to just "get out". Joe started baseball practice so he's busy, busy. I started school on Monday night and will go for the next 2 years and complete my Bachelors Degree in Human Services. I just want to get it done and be done with it--knowing it's taken me more than the alotted 4 years, its now nearly 3 times that length.

We are enjoying being home in Lincoln, but things are kind of up in the air as to what the next step may be. We know that I need to finish school and that is the primary focus! If only I had started a year ago, but I have to know that it was an adjustment into this job and it will continue to be adjustments throughout the next few years with the girls growing up and all that.

I've rambled enough. Hey a friend of mine was in Africa for about three weeks and she has an amazing story and amazing photos.

If you get a chance go to www.nimrodnews.blogspot.com

Can you believe that I own one of these now? I said I never would--but I caved...

Falalalalalala

Carissa keeps singing this part of "Deck The Halls" and she is a kick!! She sits in the back of the car just singing along to all the Christmas music that is playing on the radio. She loves it, but hates it when we sing along.

The girls are great. Jocelyn is saying words, that we understand, and she is definitely developing her own little personality. She is going to be a little trouble maker I think. She likes to egg her sister on, but Carissa is pretty powerful in her retort. They play this "running game" as Carissa calls it where they run back and forth in the living room and try not to bump into each other. It usually ends when one falls over or they bump heads and all is done.

Carissa says she can't wait for Santa to come. Because Santa brings all the presents. She doesn't really understand that her Santa--is Papa. She is doing really well considering Uncle Brian and Aunt Sarah don't come for another week, but she is eagerly awaiting their arrival. She did the same thing for her party, by saying "Uncle Brian is driving from 'Da Cago' to my party!!" Da Cago is, of course, Chicago in Carissa-ese. She just loves to talk about all of her uncles and aunts and cousins when she prays and when we talk about getting together with others.

This is going to be our first Christmas not having to drive 10 hours to get to family. We actually don't have to leave home at all this holiday. We will be celebrating with the Mollet side of the family at the end of Christmas week to have a well-rounded Christmas Celebration. It's nice to be HOME.

Hope everyone has a great holiday. One of my friends is on a Mission Trip to Uganda for the next 3 weeks. Please keep her and her team in your prayers as they will be gone over the holiday, but doing great things of God's Kingdom...

Weddings are a blessing...

Weddings are a great celebration of life, love and happiness. We were blessed to take part in my good friend Rachel's wedding this weekend. The Martens (Rachel and Tim) are great people to spend time with and we had a blast at the wedding. Carissa can really "cut a rug" with just about everyone that would dance with her.

Here are few pics with Rachel Marten, Margie Martin(no relation:), Carissa, Mommy, Jocelyn, and Daddy. There is one of Jocelyn passed out at the reception with Paul A. and Cody looking on--pretty cute as he watches her sleep.

The 1st Daddy and Carissa Date

Carissa and Daddy went on a date to Bloomington today. They enjoyed a place that had many different children's activities and play areas. Here are some photos...

Halloween 2006

Halloween was something else this year. It was about 35 degrees outside and we had two bundled up kids to go out to get some Halloween candy.

Here are some pictures to enjoy. One is of the girls with Lisa, owner of Sorrento's, and the next one is of the girls with my good friend Rachel and her fiancee (soon to be husband as of November 11th).

Happy Fall

Summer Pics...Take 2

Now there are some summer pics

Summer Pics

Some of our summer events including a train trip in Monticello, IL. Who do you think was enjoying the train more--Grandpa or the girls?!?! We also took a few trips over to Clinton to play in the water park at the Kiwani's Park!! They all loved it.

SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD

We have finally sold our house!!!! I feel like that song that plays when something miraculous happens on TV or something, but we are so excited. We still don't really want to confirm it totally until we hear when the closing is, but it seems pretty definite. So relieved to know that we don't have to worry about a winter's worth of gas bills, mortgage payments and all that could go on with an almost empty house. Needless to say, we are excited to tell everyone, but it still seems strange, every once in awhile, that we don't really live in Pittsburgh anymore. I don't know, maybe I'm just a little sentimental about it still...but I am not sentimental about the money it will be saving us!

On to other things...

Carissa is working on the potty training thing yet again. I know we will have her, or us actually, trained by the time she starts high school, but it is just so hard to discipline myself into being patient enough for it. I'm not a patient person, but I want to be for this...I'll just keep trying--or I mean I'll just let her keep working at it.

Jocelyn is trying to take steps. She is truly amazing...she just wants to keep up with her sister all the time. She pushes her little walker-type toy up and down the hall chasing Carissa. They really try to make each other laugh all the time and its great to watch.

Joe has traveled alot the last 2 months, but will be around more until baseball starts up again...

Well, I'm kind of trying to organize the girls' room, so gotta run...

I'm really pumped about this Bible Study I'm doing. I love coming back and asking my Dad questions or making comments from it and then discovering that he doesn't know all the answers--I knew it!!!!

It was nice this morning to get back into the swing of things again. The weekend we went to Brown County, we got a flat tire leaving Nashville again. If you remember we had a flat this same time last year leaving. This flat left us with purchasing a new tire for the vehicle we only have for a few more months--crazy. The other crazy part about it all was that the guys at the tire store forgot to put the wheel cover, or hubcap, back on and we didn't notice until Covington, IN--about 2 hours from where we got it fixed. So, last Monday I called not once, not twice but three times for someone to try to find it. They said they had found it and would mail it out to me. Today, I open the envelope, which obviously did not have the entire wheel cover in it, and discover the inner circle of SOMEONE ELSE'S hubcap/wheel cover. Wonder if they've realized they are missing this or not? Or did they just find something that said Honda and think this girl won't know the difference--it'll fool her. Well, I'm not the fool this time. Give me a break--I'm not stupid. I sat and giggled for a moment then began my quest yet again to get a hold of the proper Walmart employees/managers to help me out. This time it only took 2 phone calls--on my part. I don't know for sure but maybe they aren't able to dial an outside line at Walmart, but they tend to have a problem returning phone calls. I've read that some want higher pay for their employees, but they would probably need to impress me a little more on the customer service end of things if I had anything to say about it. Anyway, it boils down to the fact that they are going to replace--I hope. We have to turn the vehicle in for it's lease return at the end of March--do you think we'll have a cover by then?!?!?!

Then, to top of coming out of the nice weekend we spent in Nashville, both Carissa and Joe were sick on Tuesday into Wednesday and then I caught the shorter version of whatever they had by late, late Saturday night and early Sunday. I hate being sick on the weekend because it makes time just fly by quicker than a normal weekend goes by. Okay, now I'm rambling.....I will try more blogging later this week, maybe some new pics of the girls.

Well, fall has fallen. We've had rain, sun, rain, sun and some more rain today.

We are watching our two girls--GROW, GROW, and GROW...Carissa talks about everything, tells us everything, and thinks she can DO everything. My parents keep commenting on how it's like watching me 28 years ago. I'm guessing they are talking about the independence thing, or the tantrums. I'm going with the independence thing--I think it's just a myth that I threw tantrums!!

Jocelyn is crawling everywhere, and she is trying to walk along the couch and pulls herself up on anything she can reach. She is different than Carissa, in the respect that she really doesn't eat all that much. Carissa was an eater from the beginning. Jocelyn is usually too busy trying to watch whatever Carisssa is doing at any given time. She still lights up when Grandma walks into a room and just screeches at any random thing. They are both loving being near "Gwamma and Papa" and I don't think they'll ever tire of seeing them.

I started a Monday morning Bible Study with my friend Stacey. We drive to Mt. Pulaski on Monday mornings and the kids play downstairs while we have a session of one of Beth Moore's books/video sessions. This week was our first one and I know it will be a challenge, but I think I really need this. I've not done any kind of Bible Study since last fall, so I do need to connect in a way other than church service.

Joe is already practicing for baseball. They started yesterday and will continue working out until the weather gets cold and then they will work on "indoor stuff". He has 20 guys right now, so I hope its a sign of a good season. He started a seminary class and will be doing an intensive week later this fall. He really seems to enjoy it all.

Hope all is well with everyone. Trying to keep up on this blogging stuff along with everything else.

August

I think I've blogged about the frustration of trying to sell our home, but some days I am just going crazy for the stinkin' place to sell. I know the right buyer is out there, but I just wish he/she/they could find it and find it SOON!

I am however looking forward to the fall. We will be able to go to the Lincoln Balloonfest for the first time in nearly 6 years and Carissa will love seeing all of the balloons. We've seen a few practices around town and she just loves watching them. They'll be right across from our place at the Logan County Airport for launching times. We're going to cookout and have as many people by as we can over that weekend. Then in September we'll take our annual trip to Brown County. Fortunately, this year we'll make the trip in 4 hours or less instead of 8 hours or more like the last 4 years:)

We then look forward to my friend Rachel's wedding in November and then we will celebrate Carissa's 3rd birthday and Jocelyn's 1st birthday--also in November. I also turn the Big "3-0" in November, but I'm trying to forget about that!!

Things are great here. Joe is starting the scheduling for his fall trips and he is excited about Seminary classes.

My dad's book came out last week and I'm pretty sure he can write some decent stuff that others will want to read--just kidding. I'm so excited for him. It's called Revelation's Rhapsody and it's available at www.collegepress.com.

Vacation Pictures

July, July, July

I don't ever remember the weather being this HOT, HOT, HOT!!! Hello--105 degree heat index--otherwise known as heat stroke...

Well, don't worry we really haven't stepped outside unless we've had to. I have never more appreciated central a/c than I do right at this moment. We may live in a place 1/2 the size of our last place, but it is about 4 times as cool temperature-wise.

We still haven't sold our house--but I'm praying evermore that someone, somewhere will want it. It's killin' the old pocketbook...

We had an AWESOME vacation. I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon. We were basically about 15 miles outside of Nashville, IN in the middle of nowhere. It was so quite and we had fun doing nothing some days or shopping some days. We cooked out, ate out, pigged out and slept in--could you ask for anything more? Maybe an air conditioned beach, but I don't think they have anything like that right now.

We are now back into a regular routine at home. Joe starts back to 5 day weeks in August and I am still working 1-2 nights a week at Sorrento's. I love my two beautiful little girls and a great husband...LIFE IS GOOD.