Tagged

I was tagged by Becky several weeks ago, and am finally getting around to playing.

HERE'S HOW YOU PLAY. ONCE YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED YOU HAVE TO WRITE A BLOG OF TEN WEIRD, RANDOM THINGS, FACTS OR HABITS ABOUT YOURSELF. AT THE END, YOU CHOOSE FIVE PEOPLE TO BE TAGGED, LISTING THEIR NAMES AND WHY YOU CHOSE THEM TO BE TAGGED. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE THEM A COMMENT "YOU'RE IT" AND TO READ YOUR BLOG. YOU CAN'T TAG THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU. SINCE YOU CAN'T TAG THAT PERSON BACK, LET HIM OR HER KNOW WHEN YOU'VE POSTED YOUR BLOG SO HE OR SHE CAN READ YOUR ANSWERS.

1. I was awarded "Strongest Woman in Nevada" in 1997. As far as I know, I still hold the title. (That's Nevada, Iowa, not the state of Nevada--although I could probably take 'em!)

2. I love building things and using power tools. I generally get tools for Mother's Day. Last year Shannon's aunt and uncle gave me a table saw.

3. I'm left handed.

4. I taught myself to type when I was in 3rd grade by reading at "how-to" article in my mom's Woman's Day magazine. That was back in the olden days when I had to use a real (albeit electric) typewriter and correction tape.

5. I can say the alphabet backwards in less than 4 seconds.

6. I attended prom in 1985 (East Waterloo), 1986 (Marshalltown), 1987 (Marshalltown and Reinbeck), and 1988 (Reinbeck).

7. My basketball team made it to the Regional finals in 1987. Unfortunately, we didn't make it PAST the regional finals.

8. The only time I've needed to go to the emergency room for myself was when I was in Mexico in 1985.

9. I really like things to be symmetrical. If I see a crooked picture, I NEED to straighten it, even in public places or private homes.

10. Five years ago when I was skinny, I wanted to get my belly-button pierced. I told Mary about it, and she told me I couldn't hang out with her girls if I did. Alas, no navel piercings took place. Maybe if I lose all of that weight again...


The only person I can think of to tag is Mary. I'm not sure who else, besides Becky and Melanie, reads my blog! If you're out there, feel free to participate an let me know when you do!

Exercise Challenge

You may have noticed the badge on the sidebar of this blog boldly stating "I'm taking the Moms of Many Exercise Challenge". I committed in a weak moment. It took me about a month to actually begin exercising.

Shannon and I joined the new fitness club at the middle school. It is quite nice, and will serve our purposes very well. We have been very good about going 5 nights a week for the past two weeks. We are doing primarily strength training with a bit of cardio thrown in.

We are lifting 60% of our max at this time. It's a lot harder than it sounds! I was not very pleasantly surprised that first night when we had planned to do 2 sets of 15 reps. I much prefer 3 sets of 10 reps. It's all the same in the end, right?

Although I'm not seeing the instant results I would like to see, we will continue to persevere.

"...but a just weight is His delight." Proverbs 11:1

Easter

Every year before church on Easter morning we attempt to take a family picture. Last year it was sunny and breezy, so we took our picture on the front deck. This year there was fresh snow on the ground, so we stayed indoors.

It was the usual chaos. There were lots of goofy faces and children looking all over the place. It reminds us of the Brady Bunch. Here are couple of our better pictures.




I'm going to have to get Shannon to cut and paste faces so we can get one good picture of everyone. It wouldn't be the first time we have had to do that!

I had gotten up early to bake homemade croissants and a Princess Ring for our church brunch. We were all ready in time to get to church EARLY because the teens serve the brunch. We loaded up in the van, headed out, made it the four or so miles to the blacktop, and realized we had flat tire. It was the third one in a week. We already had the spare on the van from the flat on the previous Friday (we were planning to get it repaired after the holiday weekend, on Monday). We called the church to let them know we would be late, and thankfully Esther said she would come rescue us and give us a lift back to church. The croissants were no longer warm from the oven, but at least we were there!

Here is our Easter picture from last year so you can see how everyone has changed
I can't figure out how to make it bigger now, but I believe if you double click on it, it will enlarge it. Nope, that doesn't work. I'll have to get Shannon to figure it out for me. He solves all of my problems.

"So you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness." Proverbs 2:20

Chase's Finger

On March 1st Chase jammed his finger during the first game in his basketball tournament. He went on to play two games after that. By the time we left for home, his finger was swollen and the base of his nail had begun to bruise. We assumed he would lose his nail eventually. No big deal.

The following Thursday while playing basketball, he bonked the jammed finger with the ball and it bled. Still no big deal, other than he got pulled out of game because he was getting blood all over everyone.

By the Thursday after that, the finger was quite swollen and was becoming painful. We decided we needed to take him to the doctor to get an antibiotic since he apparently picked up an infection after it opened up and bled. The doctor suspected it may be fractured, so he took an x-ray of it. He couldn't tell if it was fractured, so he called in the orthopedic doctor. He diagnosed a fracture of the growth plate in the first joint of his finger. He started us on a course of antibiotics to bring down the swelling so we could decided what to do with the fracture.

After being on the antibiotics for a week, the doctor still wasn't pleased with the amount of swelling and infection, fearing it may spread to the bone, so he decided to cut it open and clean it out. He schedule Chase for surgery later that morning. They ended up having to use general anesthesia on him. During surgery, Dr. Lister removed the base of Chase's fingernail where the hematoma was, cleaned it all up, reduced the bone back into place, stitched the remainder of his fingernail on for protection, and stitched the finger up. He came back from surgery with a big wrapped up finger.

This is what his finger looked like a week after surgery at our post-op appointment.

Dr. Lister changed the dressing on the finger and scheduled us to come back April 7th. He will most likely remove some of the stitches at that time. Chase continues on the antibiotics.

It's possible the end of his finger won't grow any longer if the growth plate is damaged. It will most likely grow in breadth, though. Dr. Lister says there is no way to tell for sure at this point.

Please pray that the growth plate heals nicely and "remembers" how to grow.

Sometimes it isn't the greatest thing to have a kid that doesn't acknowledge pain.

"He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers." Proverbs 6:13

Bryce's 10th Birthday

Yesterday was Bryce's 10th birthday. He got to open his gift first thing in the morning, and we declared an official "No School on Birthdays" day. He spent the day building his Bionicle and playing with his brothers and sisters.

That evening Shannon and I gave him the opportunity to choose any restaurant in the W'loo/CF area he would like to go to for dinner. His choice was the Hy-Vee deli all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

We had cake and pizza at Grandma and Grandpa Storjohann's house this afternoon to celebrate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCE!!!!!!!

"The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." Proverbs 10:22

Mama, what happens when we die?

That is the way my conversation with Katie started this afternoon.

She climbed up into my lap and I explained to her that the bible tells us that when we die, we either go to heaven or hell. Heaven is a nice place where Jesus lives. Hell is a scary, bad place where naughty people live. She told me she would rather go to heaven.

We talked about sin. I explained that everyone in the whole wide world sins, even Mommy and Daddy. She knew that telling a lie was a sin, and that taking something that didn't belong to you was a sin. Hitting and fighting are sins, too.

Last Sunday during church we saw a clip from "The Passion of the Christ", which showed Jesus being nailed to the cross. At the time, she reminded me that they had talked about Jesus dying on the cross during Cubbies. It was pretty graphic for a 4 year old, and I could see the wheels turning in her head at the time. I believe it set the framework for our conversation today.

I explained to her that only Jesus can take away her sins, and he died on the cross a long time ago just for her, and just for me, and just for everyone who prays and asks him to take their sins away. She folded her hands, bowed her head, and said, "Dear Jesus, please take away my sins. I'm sorry I sin. Thank you for letting me go to heaven."

These are the moments parents pray for! We are so blessed to have a church family that builds on the foundations we start at home.

The angels are having a party in heaven today in honor of Katie Clark!

"When He prepared the heavens, I was there..." Proverbs 8:27

Warning!

Katie just came in and climbed up on my lap. She reminded me, "You haven't snuggled with me yet today". Some days she says this to me by 7:30am. Today I was relaxing in between laundry loads, reading my book. I'm just about to the end and getting to the exciting part. Only half listening to her, I had to have her repeat what she had just said to me.

In her little 4 year old girl voice, she repeated to me, "Mama, can we pray for another baby and Daddy?". Stalling for time, I asked for clarification on whether or not she wanted only a new baby, or if she wanted a new daddy, too. She only wants a new baby, but she would like to pray for Daddy because he's not home.

Listening to little girl prayers is one of the sweetest things! Upon saying Amen, she immediately asked if we could go to the doctor tomorrow and see if there was a baby in my tummy.

The boys have been talking a lot lately about new babies, too. I guess it's just at that time when we're usually announcing a new one on the way. Sorry to disappoint, but there are no immediate plans to expand our family. Colton pointed out that we do have one empty seat in the van still, so we might as well have another baby to fill it up.

Maybe it's just time to lose the baby fat from Hudson so I don't LOOK pregnant and get everyone wondering.

Time will tell if God is faithful to answer a little girl's prayer.

My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2: 1-5

Hollywood

Colton just came up to me out of the blue and asked me if I wanted to go to Hollywood and be a super star. He though I might be good at it.

What do you think? Should we load up the truck and move to Beverly?

"Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies." Proverbs 1:31

Waffle Night at the Clark's

Chase LOVES pancakes and waffles. I normally opt to make pancakes because I am able to cook 8 at a time and the whole process goes a bit faster than waffles. This time we decided to go all out and make waffles. I used to dread using the waffle iron, because the waffles invariably got stuck and fell all to pieces when trying to remove them. Then I found this recipe for No-Stick Waffles in my MOMYS cookbook, and they are great. Warning: This recipe is for a large family. Adjust as necessary.

No Stick Waffles
9 c. Flour
4 T. Baking Powder
1 T. Salt
3-6 T. Butter
12 Eggs
6 c. Milk

Cut butter into dry ingredients until the butter chunks are about the size of small peas. Combine beaten eggs and milk. Add to flour and mix until all flour is wet. Batter may be a little lumpy because of the butter chunks. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron in one cup increments. These waffles should not stick. I usually use a spray on oil for the first waffle, but none thereafter.

This recipe feeds our family of 10 with leftovers.

Naomi cracking (squishing) eggs

My ancient waffle iron


Every man for himself. We use a pizza cutter to slice up the waffles.


We buy syrup by the gallon


Hudson really likes syrup


Sticky fingers


Leftovers

I freeze the leftovers in freezer bags. The kids get them out for breakfast and microwave them.

"...and provides food for her household..." Proverbs 31:15

Snow White and Cinderella

Aunt Carrie, Uncle Jason and cousins Will and Ben came last weekend to watch Chase play basketball and have a belated birthday party with the girls. They were very excited about the gifts they received.


We were able to have dinner with Papa Joe at Pizza Ranch later that evening.

"He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor." Proverbs 22:9

Got Milk?

This is just a cute picture of Naomi I snapped during snack time today. The children have discovered that they can make a tasty treat by adding Coffee-Mate creamer to their cups of milk. Today's flavors included Peppermint Mocha and Eggnog.

"Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Proverbs 31:7