Saturday, November 22, 2008

Wendy's Big Girl Room is 90% DONE! Look!

Our upstairs hallway is "Peanut Butter" with art neuveau tiles (somewhat sophisticated), but then you open the first door on the left to this:

James painted it in about 2 days. My hero! Toddler bed (slides out to twin) and shelves from IKEA of course. This dresser is ANCIENT and we got it at an estate sale! This adorable growth chart came from Leslie and Jeremy, who've just finished Hayden's big girl room too!



I dunno. Do you think we did a good job creating a new space for this lil' miss? When we showed her her new room last night (I videotaped most of it!), she said, "My big girl ROOM! Christopher Robin SWING!" because she'd overheard me tell my mom that the wall color was to be Christopher Robin Swing Green. A carry-over from her Pooh Bear nursery I suppose as her nursery was painted Pooh Bear Yellow.
~~I am not done. I need to add my own artistic flair to her wall somewhere. Perhaps pink butterflies? AND, I have to get four more photos of family girls as little girls re sized for their sparkly pink frames. THEN I'll be done!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Fun at OMSI and Kids' Club!


My darling Woo Loo has surprised me lately with some new things. She wakes me every night and early morning, several times, screaming "I want my blanket back on!" I groggily fix it, she thanks me, and we sleep again until she needs me to wait on her again! Well, the other night, at 4, I went in to fix it and for some reason, guess cuz I was tired, I said, "thank you," and she said, "you're welcome!" It was WEIRD to exchange those pleasantries at 4 a.m. Now I put her into warmer pjs and under a larger blanket, and I sleep with a fan. I still go in to her in the morning though. I am looking forward to moving her into her big girl room (in progress now actually!) and into her big bed with blanket tucked into sides of mattress (but first I must make sure that's not some sort of hazard! Anyone know?) She says a bunch of other really funny things lately too like, "Oh Mommy, It's raining. It's scary. I'm not afraid of it. It's just a movie." And she can sing all of "Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick......." She will not do it for anyone though! FRUSTRATING! She put her Strawberry Shortcake glasses on me last night and said, "You look so pretty Mommy!" She's sure to tell me when I burp. I have since tried very hard not to. She confuses doctor's office with post office and gets excited about the post office, but not so much, the doc's office. She is a symmetrical kind of gal. If she gets a band aid (not for an owie, mind you, but as an accessory), she must have one for the other hand as well. I have gotten quite upset with her lately for shouting "MINE!" at kids at play places, and have put her in time out, and right now, she's having fun shouting "MINE!" at nobody. She's defiant, so we're doing our best to "nip it in the bud." I have to mean it when I threaten to go home, and that's rough, but it's better to lose money for admission than a child's character.





Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Christians, Why are we silent?

2 Chronicles 19
4 Jehoshaphat..appointed judges in the land..He told them, "Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. 7 Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you..In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites, priests and heads of Israelite families to administer the law of the LORD and to settle disputes..He gave them these orders: "You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD. 10 In every case that comes before you from your fellow countrymen who live in the cities—whether bloodshed or other concerns of the law, commands, decrees or ordinances—you are to warn them not to sin against the LORD; otherwise his wrath will come on you and your brothers. Do this, and you will not sin...Act with courage, and may the LORD be with those who do well."
Our country is waiting. Waiting for change. For better, or for worse. Change that was promised, but somewhat vague. Change that is, at present, a secret. We cannot know how our money is being used to help our economy, and ooh, how scary the state of our economy truly is right now. Change that may be coming in the form of incrimentalism.
Have you heard the Christian song that warns of a "Slow Fade?" It tells Christians that the nature of evil is to woo slowly. What changes are we expecting? One is the redistribution of earnings.
Could spreading the wealth "slowly fade" into socialism, communism and/or a dictatorship? Yes. Historically, it has. Socialism cannot exist without an all-powerful government, and that cannot be without communism. Not saying I think it's going to happen, but we should not fall asleep.
The United States of America has held tightly to it's enviable qualities--qualities like capitalism, freedom, and democracy until now. Now we're loosing our grip because we want change. Change in the form of relinquishing our right to bear arms, you know, "the midwest states are clinging to their religion and their guns?"
Our Constitution was written out of the law that God put in the hearts of man, out of the law that is the Bible itself. We have the right to bear arms so that we, the people, are able to resist government if government becomes corrupt and oppressive. In Mexico, guns are illegal. However, law enforcement walk the streets with guns. Because criminals have them. Take away our right to bear arms, and we are defenseless. Not saying I think that's going to happen, but we should pay attention. We want change. Change in the form of 10-12-year-old girls receiving abortions without their parents' knowledge.
What is the true purpose of government?
1) The purpose of government is to protect life. No more. We have no regard for the family or for the lives of the unborn. In this brand new season, abortions are to continue being performed at as late as 9 mos. gestation.
2) The purpose of government is to protect liberty. And lastly,
3) The purpose of government is to protect property.
The purpose of government is not to dispense charity. Taking care of each other should be our Christian responsibility. Welfare should not be given indiscriminately but with discernment. The Bible says that he who will not work, neither let him eat, and that he who will not provide for his family is worse than an infidel. We should give out of love, mercy and our ability. Taxation robs us of the opportunity to give as is fitting.
Another piece is health care for all. I've known, personally, individuals who sought elective surgeries knowing in advance that they would tell bill collectors to write it off. They knew that they could eventually dodge paying their medical bills while their car notes and rent would not be so easily forgiven. Then, they went out and bought designer purses. I had kidney surgery and wondered why my bills were so high. In Houston, it is not uncommon to wait all night long for your child to see an ER doctor. Too many are taking advantage of the system already, and health care for all means it's less accessible for all. Free treatment should be for children and for those adults truly without means.
Our president refuses to call himself a Christian because he does not want to align himself with any identity. He is reluctant to demonstrate patriotism. He does stand for something though. Change.
If pastors had had the courage to speak out, more frightened Christians might have known what to do and how to process this "change." But that's okay. God is in His throne, and we're still here so we can start to speak up.
But, some Christians believe we are to keep our Christian values separate from our politics. That's not scriptural, but that's what we'll have if that's what we want. We'll undo the Constitution and we'll leave a disaster for our children and children's children to try to ameliorate. Politics, democracy, as we know it, is in our hands because Christian men put man's law up against God's law and fought for that access. Our future might not afford us the opportunity to vote Christian, so perhaps we're just practicing now.
Some Christians believe that we are to refrain from political discourse as it causes divisiveness among Christians. Political discourse should not cause divisiveness if we are all on our knees and reading the same Bible.
Some Christians believe that since Jesus was not a Republican or Democrat, we should not examine the values belonging to our two primary parties, but should just be what we are, Christians. That's half-way correct, half-way a cop-out. It's not about Republican vs. Democrat. But, it is about good vs. evil.
Some Christians want only to think of the Precious Moments-type God, the God of Love. God is also a God of just wrath. He destroyed cities that pushed Him out and traded His law for their own. Bad things happen when good people do nothing. Silence, an idle mind, thoughts unexamined, and passivity invite evil, which is, at this time, the more ambitious force. Christians, history repeats itself. I read an interesting message this morning:
Roughly every 200 years, mankind goes
1. From bondage to spiritual
faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great
courage;
3. From courage to
liberty;
4. From liberty to
abundance;
5. From abundance to
complacency;
6. From complacency to
apathy;
7. From apathy to
dependence;
8. From dependence back into
bondage'
Christians, Let's look back a couple centuries ago. Our pioneer forefathers were not silent. They spoke out. They secured our freedom. They made this country what it still is, barely. Where are we now? Where are we headed? Are real dangers inherent in the changes that are coming? With our finances crumbling underfoot, are we going to just roll with it and see what happens? Are we not going to try to help ourselves? Are we really giving up? Why are we silent?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I'm 30!!!










I turned 30 yesterday! Wow, my 20's are over. I had an amazing birthday, thanks to friends but mostly, my sweet James. Sat. morning he took us to Smitty's for breakfast and then we WERE going to go for a drive, but had to return home first for "an oil change." He sent me inside to get him a glass of water to take with his DayQuil, and OH MY GOODNESS! A SURPRISE PARTY WAS IN MY HOUSE! I walked into decorations and a room full of our church friends and neighbors including Carlos, Claudia and family, Sarah, Tim and family and Mike and Luz and family. There were sandwiches, Mexican food, a cake and a lot of fun. James got me a fantastic new coffee brewer! I was SO suprised, in fact, more surprised than I have ever, ever been, and I had no make-up on to prove it! The next day, Sunday, he took us out to McMennamin's. Yesterday he served me breakfast in bed with a rose, a coffee and a choco-covered donut, we took Wendy to Kid's Club to play and then Colleen watched the Woo Loo while James and I returned to the Portland City Grill (where he took me for our anniv. last month) and we ate and ate and enjoyed ourselves! We walked to the mall, in downtown Portland, and I got a Moonstruck latte and chocolate. Yes, I am 30 now. What do I intend to do with myself this new decade? Plenty! I'm gonna start by losing weight. Tomorrow I go on the Atkins diet. Then, I'm gonna try to become wiser. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try to be more careful with what I say, and to say it with as much humility, love, good will and winsomeness as is humanly possible, which is tricky for me. I will pray more, and hopefully that will make my words and actions more effective. That's the biggest goal that I have. And I'm going to try and do my part to help protect the Christian values our country fought and died for in eras past by speaking out. The problem with the USA today, as my grandmother articulated so well, is that Christians no longer speak out. If pastors spoke out against anti-Christian "changes," more Christians would know what to do. Silence invites trouble, as does an idle mind and a guard, down. When we visit my family in Houston for the holidays, James and I intend to leave Wendy with my mom on perhaps 2 occasions so that we may have lunch with my grandmother at University Place and just soak up as much of her wisdom as we can in that amount of time. She's quite elderly but is still so sharp, and she is a blessing to this world. I want to glean as much of her insight as I can this season. Lastly, there is a surprise project that may take a decade, so I hope to be afforded the time and energy to take it on during the coming 10 years. So, those are some goals that I have, and perhaps the 30's really and truly will be the best yet! Here are some photos from "my birthday weekend!"

Friday, November 07, 2008

7 Random Things...


I got this idea from my sis-in-law's blog. 7 Random things about my husband, James Marlin. Hmmmmm....What sorts of things will make this list? Since they're to be random, it will be the first 7 things I think of!

1) I married a man with an enormous heart. He has sympathetic feelings for others that go beyond the usual. He hears a country song about a little girl with a sad story, and he weeps. He scans a tag on an angel tree at Christmas time, and he has to turn his face away from folks so that they won't see his tears. I love his heart.

2) He prides himself in a job thoroughly and well done. He loves to do home repairs and upgrades and holds himself to a higher standard. He notes all his mistakes and they really, really bug him.

3) He's a runner. Yeah. He runs. For fun. For well-being. I totally do not. I admire him for that.

4) He's affectionate. I'm glad.

5) He is likable. More so than I am. I noticed, upon marrying him, that I made more friends more easily, and I believe it is because as a half of a new whole, I'm more likeable too.

6) He's a fantastic river-dancer. Ask him to perform for you sometime.

7) He's trying to get over his coffee issues. He loves the taste but hates the crash he feels. So, now he's drinking iced coffee from McDonald's on Sundays only in an effort to become more tolerant.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Halloween Night

Before James and Wendy headed out the door to trick-or-treat, I quickly did Anna Marie's up-do! James and Wendy had a ball, and I passed out candy and got a kick out of seeing all the cute costumes. T'was a fantastic Halloween!