Pancakes

Lately, my little fella has been very interested in the toilet. Thankfully he keeps his hands out of it (so far, anyway.) Although I can't say the same for keeping his hands out of his pants. We affectionately call him, "Stinky Fingers" b/c, I kid you not, the child has his fingers in his butt crack at least once in every two-minute span of the day. I need to invest in more onesies! He thinks he would like to "go potty" but we have tried a few times & it has amounted to him enjoying a nice long squat & throwing loads of TP into the toilet. Ha! The past few days, I have seen him pour things into the toilet: a glass of water, a cup of chocolate milk (gross to find in the toilet & dried on the seat looks very questionable; if you come to my house & use my toilets, please keep this in mind).

This morning I made Isaac some pancakes for breakfast. The "silver five" size, if you speak IHOP lingo. I heard Isaac close the toilet when I was coming down the stairs & ran in to find him squishing his hands together. Gross. So we washed his hands & I determined that the squish was all pancake syrup. My boy loves sugar. Especially syrup. Last week we dog-sat & he got the syrup & poured it all over poor Bella. She smelled like pancakes. She was thoroughly crusty by the end of the week but I waited till the night before departure for a bath because I knew Isaac would just decorate her again ;0) So back to this morning...after concluding there was no toilet water on his hands & cleaning him up, I opened the toilet to check on his shenanigans. There sat one whole pancake in the toilet, and syrup all over the seat. Silly boy! I wanted to take a pic but Chad found it & flushed it before I could get to it. You're spared that sight for today :)

2010 Top 10

Happy New Year!

Doesn't it feel good to start a new year??? I've had the best time reading about the new year and people telling about their resolutions & what they've learned or enjoyed in the past year. I have a hard time writing "enlightened" blogs because I feel like I'm setting myself up for failure, lol. If I write about how I've learned xyz in life, darn if xyz isn't going to come & hit me over the back of the head! I hope I've learned & grown, ok, I KNOW I learned & grew in 2010 but I'm human & I'm going to make many of those mistakes again. So I think I'll tell you about some of the year's hi-lights (in no particular order):

1. We bought a house. This was one of the coolest blessings of the year :) The trail that led us to the house we bought was long, uphill, through the thickest, briariest part of the forest but the end result was worth it! hehe
2. Isaac turned one. And I was able to nurse him till he was 11 months old. He has had a wonderful second year of life; we just enjoy him to pieces every day.
3. Fell more in love with my spouse than I thought was possible. You won't believe me when I tell you this...but I thought seriously about sending out Christmas cards with my favorite picture of Chad & I as the "big pic" & just a thumbnail of the kids. I LOVE our kids...but kids look cute & grow each year no matter what you feed them or what you put on them. But loving your spouse & having a good marriage??? THAT'S something to be proud of :) We had the best year of our marriage this year with moments that were by far the worst of our marriage. And some of the best moments were a product of the worst moments. I have given & fought against my flesh & prayed & cried over our relationship...and I think we have seen some of the rawest, deepest, ugliest parts of each other. And I have never felt more loved. I am passionate about loving and serving my husband and I am going to go out of my way to show him that often. I love being married. I love being in love. And I feel infinitely unworthy to be so blessed.
   
4. Worked on my priority list. And made some changes.
   
5. Learned about giving & God's economy. :) Opened my grip on our savings account & let God move. Got to bless our church & others financially. That story is just beginning :)
6. Had an amazing mini-vacation with my husband in Gadsden, AL. I know it's on your top 10 list of cities to vacation at, ha! But after the memories we made there, it makes me want to plan our next trip already :)
7. Went back to school & dropped out again. It will happen one day...but it's just too much right now.
8. My sweet angel girl started school. This one thing has turned my world upside down! People did not prepare me for how TOUGH this is on parents. Not talking emotionally (although it is); just physically adjusting our family-schedule to revolve around her school schedule is wearing me out! Now I see the advantages of home schooling!
   
9. Had an amazing year at our church. Uh-mazing. AMAZING, PEOPLE!! :) It is so cool to be at a church that has experienced God's redeeming power. We brought in a new pastor last February & God has blown our socks off!! We didn't expect to maintain life as we knew it when we lost our former pastor in May of 2009. We expected it to take years to build back/up to being a healthy church. But God came in, redeemed, & built His body back to health in no time. We are now in the middle of a building campaign & are going from three to four services, starting this Sunday. God is using our church to reach people who don't know Him and it is SUCH a blessing to be a part of.
10. Had a successful year of coupon shopping. I know that seems like a very ridiculous thing to include in any top 10 list...but the amount of time I put into those little darn pieces of paper is worthy for some sort of recognition, ha! I don't know how much I've saved. But I've saved a LOT & gotten lots & lots of good things as a result of it. My goal is to be a tad more organized this year, though.

Perhaps I'll make a list of my goals for my next blog. Blogging is not one of them; I rarely find time to sit down & write (I don't know how good bloggers find time for it!) but I hope that this year is even more amazing than last year & that I'll be excited to post often about all the exciting things!