My Babies

We recently recovered these pictures from some old cds. Unfortunately, we lost a ton of pictures as well, that never actually "saved" to the cd. Print some of those digital pictures!

"The glory of young men is their strength..." Proverbs 20:29a

Ants in Their Pants

It's 11:38pm. I admit we are a bit unusual in our sleeping habits, but some things just go too far. Because Shannon works until 7:00pm a couple evenings a week, and because we spend a good deal of time at sporting events in the evening, we generally don't get to bed much before midnight. The kids are sent to bed at 10:00pm. Some nights a couple of them have zonked out prior to this, other nights they're wound for sound. Tonight was one such night.

They were wild when they got home from AWANA tonight. Shannon and I left for the fitness center around 9:00pm. The big boys were in the process of getting Hudson to bed. We were back home by 9:50, and they (all but Hudson) were still going strong. We shuttled them all off to bed (at least to their rooms), and settled down at the kitchen table in front of our laptops. Alex had called while we were gone, stating he had a weird message on his laptop about some type of a security breach. Shannon was working on fixing all of his problems. I was just checking blogs.

All of a sudden Shannon jumped up and hollered for Alex, Jackson and Chase to quickly come to the kitchen. He had just seen the gerbil run through. You see, on New Year's Eve when we had a bunch of company spend the night, we moved the gerbil cage down to the basement so it wouldn't disturb anyone. Unfortunately, out of sight means out of mind around here. About two months ago we realized that the gerbil had chewed its way out of the (empty) plastic self-feeder, and was nowhere to be found. NO BIG LOSS! When Alex and Jackson cleaned their rooms (even under their beds) last week, they found evidence that some type of rodent had been residing in each of their rooms.

When I got home from driving Jackson to track practice today, Katie came running to meet me at the door exclaiming that there was a mouse in the family room. All of the furniture was pulled to the middle of the room, and Chase was standing on the ottoman armed with a broom. Alas, they were unable to catch the gerbil (the "mouse"). We moved the furniture back, I considered bringing in a cat or two to see if they could solve my problem, but decided that it might be a bit traumatic for Colton to see his birthday present be stalked and eaten.

Alex ended up catching the gerbil (can't remember it's name) with a plastic shoe box. We cleaned it's cage, gave it some fresh food and water, and it now lives up in the girls' room. I'm still voting we give him permanent residence in the basement.


We got everyone settled down again--we thought--and went back to our laptops. I was catching up on a blog I had posted a link to several months ago. It belongs to a couple who had a tiny micro-preemie baby. The mom has CF. Today she got the news that she has been matched to receive a double lung transplant. Surgery is taking place right now. Here is the link again.
http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ I'm sure they would covet your prayers.

Anyway, Naomi comes bopping down the stairs and she looks like this.

Colton wasn't far behind her.

They apparently got this grand idea to stuff their pajamas with stuffed animals. Where do they come up with these ideas, and why aren't they asleep?

Never dull moment...I'm heading up to bed.

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child..." Proverbs 22:15

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

Raise Your Hand if You're Sure

I'm "borrowing" (with permission) these words from the author of another blog I've been reading recently. Rick Lawrenson is the pastor of Nags Head Church in North Carolina.


Following a recent memorial service the following observation was made (not to me directly, but it was relayed to me):
"One thing about you guys - you really seem confident in what you believe and that you can know for sure about heaven. I belong to the ________________ Church, and you don't get that kind of confidence there."

He's right. I had no problem telling the crowd assembled that day that the one we were saying goodbye to was in heaven.

Here's what I said, "And it would be real easy for someone to think that [she] is in heaven today because she was such an incredibly good wife, mother, friend. But we can’t do that, either, because although she was all that and more, that’s not why she’s in heaven today. She was a saint, but not because she was so good. She was a saint because was given the goodness of Christ."

There's the catch. Most religious people and frankly, many, if not most churches teach that heaven is a place where good people go. If that were true, no one would be there but Jesus. It's not goodness that God's looking for, it's perfection. And Jesus was the only one qualified.

The Good News is that He provided a means for us - and none of us are that good - to receive eternal life. But it's not by being religious or even obeying the Big Ten or keeping some list of "holy" acts. We can be religious, but we can't perfectly keep those ten, can we? And the means God provided was His Son Jesus, who lived a perfect life, then was put to death by people who didn't understand who He was or what He came to do. Then 3 days later He rose from the dead to prove He was qualified.

The simplicity of it is its beauty. All that is required of us to get in on His gift of eternal life is for us to believe that Jesus was who He said He was and that His sacrifice did everything necessary for us to acquire His life.

Amazingly simple. That's why it is so roundly rejected. We want to think that there must be something we can do. But we can't. Think about it, why do you think "Fat Tuesday" precedes "Ash Wednesday"? It's the idea that today I can live like hell, but over the next 40 days I can somehow fix it. It doesn't work that way.

However, if we believe - that means to trust completely - in Jesus and Him alone, we can be confident in our eternal status. It's not self-confidence. It's confidence in a promise God made.

Here's what the Bible says - These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life... (1 Jn. 5:13) That word "know" is huge, isn't it.

God doesn't want us guessing; wondering; worried that maybe we are and maybe we aren't. He wants us to know.

"By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." Proverbs 22:4

Colton

Yesterday Colton finished his First Grade math book. He is pictured here with his 2nd grade book.
It amazes me that I have to pull teeth some days to get them to do their work when we are getting to the end of a grade level, and their workbooks are all dog eared and ratty looking. When they are promoted to the next grade level and get brand new shiny workbooks, they can't wait to get started and do extra math every day!

Not bad for a six year old, huh?

"I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion." Proverbs 8:12

Rite of Passage

Today was the day Katie discovered that the refrigerator light does in fact turn off when the door is closed. I just found her intently sticking her nose in the fridge, opening and closing until she saw the little turn-off lever at the top. She had her "aha!" moment, then smiled, closed the door, and walked away.

"The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out." Proverbs 13:9

Basketball Pictures

It occurred to me that I hadn't posted the boys' basketball pictures from this season, so here they are. It was a crazy season with lots of cancellations and reschedules due to weather. Toward the end of the season there just weren't any free dates to reschedule, so unfortunately a few games just had to be canceled.

Alex started on the JV Freshman team. He played primarily low post. He improved dramatically throughout the season. As he continues to lift weights and grow, he will become a big presence on the court. Alex did a great job on defense, shutting down his opponent's scorers. He is fast, and hustles down the court every time.


Jackson also excels at defense. He's got a wing span that exceeds most seventh graders', giving him an advantage. He is a good rebounder, and can get the ball in the basket when he needs to. He is also surprisingly quick, and accumulated many steals throughout the season. Jack suffered a turned ankle toward the end of the season, so unfortunately had some limited playing time for a couple games.

Although we ran around crazy during the season getting Jackson to practice in the afternoons and traveling to many, many games, we really miss watching the boys play. One thing I don't miss is the damage to my home. This seasons' casualties included two pictures, a clock, and a table lamp which were all broken as the boys practiced in the living room. Can you guess who the ringleader in these impromptu matches was?

Chase is still playing in his G-R Extreme traveling team on the weekends. He's having a great season as well. This is his first year playing league ball, and he has improved a lot with his extended playing time. He gives 100% all the time, and likes to make the game a little more physical than it was meant to be.

Bryce should be starting the city league within the next few weeks. We haven't heard any definite dates yet.

Colton is playing in the city league on Saturday mornings. This, too, is his first time playing basketball. He is having a great time, and has only made two girls cry.

"A man's steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?" Proverbs 20:24

We're Free

The snow plow came by late this morning and cleared the way for us to leave our home. The kids were amazed at the big snow drifts that Daddy had to climb through to get home last night.

This afternoon we loaded everyone up and went into town to get some groceries. Alex, Chase and Bryce got some new jeans and swishy pants, and the little ones got cheapo toys. It was nice to be able to get out of the house for awhile. Our entire family hadn't been together since midday on Friday.

This is a picture I took this morning of the trees to the east of our house. They were covered with ice and the sun was reflecting off of them. Very pretty. Again, my camera did not do them justice.

Maybe I need to start lobbying for a new camera...

"But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day." Proverbs 4:18

Hide and Seek

The girls' favorite place to hide when playing hide and seek is in the television cabinet in the family room. Of course, the diapers and wipees they take out of the cabinets and throw on the floor are a dead giveaway of their whereabouts.

"I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me." Proverbs 8:17

Monkeying Around

This is Jackson's monkey impersonation. I'm hoping by publishing this he will never get a girlfriend--or at least not for several years.

"The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." Proverbs 18:15