Ice Cream

The kids have their favorite ice cream flavors now.  A couple in our church owns an ice cream shop/ toy store called Under the Apple Tree, and the children have benefited. Last night Ella decided she would like a cone of birthday cake ice cream.  This is usually the flavor she picks, so I guess it's her favorite.  We asked Micaiah in our excited parent voices if he would like "Scooper Hero," which is what he usually gets.  As we picked him up to look at the flavors, he pounded on the glass and demanded "RIGHT HERE!!!" He was pounding on top of Cookies and Cream, which he had tasted last week.  No more Scooper Hero for Micaiah.  He's a Cookies and Cream man.

stories

This week, instead of pictures, I'll try to share with you a little of what's going on in each of our lives.  A family newsletter of sorts.

I'll start with Micaiah, since he's the youngest.  He's talking a lot now, saying at least 5 word sentences, repeating everything we say.  Ella has caught on to this which can be quite funny sometimes.  She's learned to say what she wants to hear him say and coach him to repeat it over and over again, and she gets a kick out of the fact that he calls her "Wawa."  She's met another friend at school who is a big sister and she seems to enjoy this role and "responsibility" that she has.  If you've read my facebook status updates, you might have seen that the other day Micaiah pointed to the letter "E" and said, "E"; then he pointed to the color "blue" and stated that word as well.  Later that day we were walking through the parking lot and there was a big sign printed on the building.  "MomMom!!" he exclaimed (and he really did exclaim/ shout it--I thought something was seriously wrong), "ABCs ABCs!!!"  He was looking up at those words on the building and wanting me to know that there are letters in those words.

Ella.  She's been making me laugh lately with this new thing she does when she's happy or excited.  She stomps her feet real fast like some kind of charging animal, sticks her tongue out while smiling to her fullest, and has her hands up to her chest like a bunny rabbit.  It's funny, just hard to describe.  I asked her how she learned to do that and she said "I made it up."  She likes to make the craziest names up for dolls and playthings and her current name of choice is "Chrysala."  It always used to be something like "Mara" or "Merida."  It's fun hearing all her stories of school with her friends, the things her teacher does, and the crazy things that other kids do at school.  Every story she tells has a certain confidence of herself.  If it's something bad that happened, even to her, you can tell that it doesn't really bother her.  If it's something fun, you can tell that she was in the middle of the action.

Todd.  He bought a bass guitar yesterday and is happy to be playing music again.  He's going to be playing some with the praise band at church.  Also, he preached in Emmanuel chapel yesterday and was well received.  His life is full with church interactions, meet-ups with old and new friends, and spending time in the community, like going to the YMCA.

Me.  I've been cooking a lot lately, which always just makes me feel "like myself."  I love it.  Ella's in school so Micaiah and I alternate days between having a "quiet" day at home, just playing/working around here and going out and doing things.  Yesterday we went to my parents' for the morning, sometimes we'll run errands, go to the library, or stop by the church where Todd is working.  I've been tackling the pile of mending clothes that I brought with me from Kentucky but soon I'm going to launch into a curtain sewing project.  I look forward to this project time but not sure when I'll ever have time to fit it in!

Around

I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I would give family members and friends the chance to see how the kids are growing.  I'm sharing some random pics of the kids at play.  Enjoy!

The truth

I love the way Eugene Peterson writes and I think the following is so powerful.  It sums up the core values of my Christian walk.
"The truth about me is that God made and loves me.  The truth about those sitting beside me is that God made them and loves them, and each one is therefore my neighbor.  The truth about the world is that God rules and provides for it.  The truth about what is wrong with the world is that I and the neighbor sitting beside me have sinned in refusing to let God be for us, over us and in us.  The truth about what is at the center of our lives and of our history is that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the tomb for our salvation and that we can participate in new life as we believe in him, accept his mercy, respond to his love, attend to his commands."
Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p.28

as we travel this sod...

Yesterday my family joined us at church.  By family, I mean my mom and dad, my nieces and nephew, my aunt and uncle, my 3 cousins, 2 cousin-husbands, and two baby second cousins (one in his/her mama's tummy).  There wasn't enough room to squeeze into one of the TWO pews that they occupied, so I sat in front of them.  It's been so nice to be "home" in so many ways, but there was something truly sweet and comforting about worshipping with my family in our new church.  My family isn't shy about singing out, and I loved picking out each familiar voice.  It was just great to have their support as well, that they wanted to see our new church and hear Todd preach.  Thank you, my supportive, sweet family!

a good week

This past week Ella kept us on schedule with her school week, and of course Todd was at the church working as well.  We're still settling in, spending a lot of time with my family, and trying to explore this beautiful place when we can.  Even though I grew up 20 min. away from Erwin, we seldom came to this part of East Tennessee.  When we wanted to go to the mountains, we would go to Roan Mountain in Carter County.  This takes you toward the Boone, NC area.  Now we are close to another set of mountains that border Asheville, NC, to give you a little perspective.  Todd has chosen Fridays as his day off and we've been exploring on these days.  This past Thursday we made a connection with a man who runs a "U-Pick" Orchard and Farm near Flag Pond in Unicoi County, so Friday we picked Ella up from school at noon and headed up there.  It was gorgeous!  We stepped out of the car and it was just fragrant.  At first I thought this was the smell of the ripe fruit but later discovered it was the clover field that bordered the orchard (I found this out by laying down in the clover after our picking fest).  We picked blueberries, a range of apples, and (possibly our favorite) Asian pears.  The owner of the orchard told us, "Come hungry and you won't leave hungry.  We don't weigh you coming in and going out, so please sample all the apples before you decide on which ones to take."  OK.  Wow!  So we did.  On a side note, the first thing I picked going into the orchard was a four leaf clover.  I thought this was a good sign.
To top off this beautiful day, Todd and I went over to our good friends, the Blackburns, bearing a homemade apple crisp, and Ella joined her cousins for their much anticipated sleepover (see pictures above).  The highlight of their sleepover was that after grammy put them to bed, they had a party (all but Micaiah).  The next day Ella told me that the party was really long and that it was really fun, of course. 
A couple of more things about the kids...Ella came home last week stating that she had a best friend.  We thought that a good sign.  Micaiah is stringing words together left and right.  We remember this stage with Ella and how much we loved it with her as well.  Anything you say he will repeat, and some of his favorites right now are "bird bath" and "baseball."  He is doing at least four word sentences as well, most of which start with the phrase, "I want..."  Yesterday in church, he made up a little phrase which went "No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."  He just kept saying it, pleasantly, but incessantly.  He insists that Ella is "at work," not at school.  Both of us are adjusting to not having Ella around in the mornings.  I look forward to starting things like library story time with him soon.
Well, that's enough for this week.  Kentucky peeps, keep in touch!

Ella's first days of school

Ella is having several "first" days of school.

  She had a shortened day with just a few other students, and these pictures are from that day.

She also had today's school day, which is her first shortened day of school with all the kids in her classroom.  This week they go all week but have shorter days.  And then next week, she'll have one more big day, the first day of her full week going all the way until 2:00.  I like that they ease them into it this way and that they let them get out of school an hour early.  It at least makes me feel that they know kindergarteners and have a system to make it a bit easier on them.    I'm having trouble uploading the rest of the pictures on this post so I may try to do the other ones separately.  I'm learning!

It's off to work we go

This week is a work-week at our house, with my parents here the entire week, a handyman coming in and out throughout the week, and Todd's parents coming over for a few days and nights as well.  We've decluttered and emptied our closets to paint and do maintenance on them.  This sounds very easy but is not so easy a task, to be sure.  I've always thought, "Someday, when we move, I'll paint the closets right before we leave."  Well, that time is now, and it looks a lot different when you are taking all of your clothes out and trying to find space to sleep.  But thank goodness for the storage unit.  It's saving us right now.  I'm too tired to post more right now because we are "in the midst of it."  In other news, Todd is away tonight and I found Ella's teddy bear on my own.  Yay, me!

We're moving

We told Ella this past week that we are moving.  We didn't know what kind of reaction we would get, but were prepared in case she was upset.  She just looked really interested and said "OK."  We explained that it would be another 6 weeks before we moved.  Later that day as she saw me packing boxes she asked, "Mommy, are we moving today or tomorrow?"  If only it were that easy!

testing

Testing out my new blog.  What does it look like?