Monthly Archives: February 2010

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Happy 30th Birthday, Israel!

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In a few hours, on February 26, 2010, Israel will turn 30.

I first met Israel when he was 19 years old. I had just turned 18. We started dating a year later and we’ve been together ever since. Over the last ten years, there is no one in this world who has been able to teach me, forgive me, change me, or love me more than Israel. Through all of the changes we’ve gone through together – from college days, to GYC, to entering the working world, to marriage, to pets, to pastoring in the U.P, to 3 boys!! – he’s still my best friend. This is why there is no one in this world who has more reason to celebrate and be thankful for his birth.

Many would know him as a spiritual leader, an ambitious dreamer, or a generous friend. But for three little boys, he is their hero. He is everything they want to become. And if they do, I couldn’t be prouder.  So, this is something special from them…for them.  Happy Birthday, Daddy :  Click HERE 

More celebrating to come in the morning…

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Things We Are Learning

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I’m glad that we are a boy family.  It’s a little crazy trying to handle everyone sometimes, but I don’t think I’d have it any other way.  I’m sure that God designed it so that everyone is happy with what they get.  The boys are starting to try to be men now.  They try to protect mommy (who is the house princess), they try to take charge — “like daddy” and even of daddy.  And they are starting to try to imitate things I do.  Manu has a “briefcase” that he “takes to work” (a Chuck-E-Cheese tool box); every time I go on visitations Micah says, “I want to go on visitations too, daddy!”; etc. 

During our vacation, I have been reminded again of the things about our family that I enjoy the most while also discovering the ONE thing that makes me most happy about the boys. 


Here are my two oldest boys — they grow too fast!  Micah gets into so much trouble and is the only person that can literally make me laugh while I’m still mad at him!  Manu reminds me of his sweet mommy.

 
Here we are making a fire.  The boys helped to stack the wood before we lit it on fire and then were so proud as they told their mom they didn’t get burned 🙂
After the fire was started, they threw “wood chips” into the fireplace.


It was  a warm day in DC, but there was still enough snow to go sledding.  Here are the three of us about to go down the hill (Micah is throwing “Wood Chips” into the (no) fire as I write this post.  The window to the fireplace is closed — hahahahaha). 

 
Brought to you by The North Face — never stop exploring.  Thanks to Aileen for the awesome hats (all 3)!


This is a shot of the bay’s Blue Ice. 


The love of my life.


Since we didn’t get to go ice-skating (PTL) because the weather was too warm, we did a family tubby in the huge bathtub.  Here is Manu practicing putting his “head underwater” as Micah is watching closely.  Micah did it too, a couple of times.  And Manu floated on his own (for like two seconds) for the first time in his life.  He’s starting to get it down, though. 


Ty gets to stay up until midnight with us.  As you can see, he just chills. 

     
Out of all the things that I enjoy in life, there is one thing that is at the top.  I’m sure every parent understands what I mean when I say this:
I love it when my kids come running to me and yelling “daddy, daddy!” as though there is something urgent to say.  And when they reach me, all they do is smile at me with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY!  It cracks me up!
IR

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Sunday – Day 4 : Jingle Bells!

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Since the boys have been waking up so ridiculously early, we’ve had pretty packed days.  Granted, we’ve switched over to central time, but even still, it’s earlier than usual!  It’s the first time that Micah is sleeping in a real bed and not confined to a crib.  He’s done very well, (meaning he’s stayed in bed from the time we put him down until he wakes up in the morning and he hasn’t fallen off the bed), but when Manu and Micah wake up in the morning, they are tearing through the villa like it’s Christmas.  So, after a long introduction, I just wanted to say that it’s been a long day.

The boys woke up at 6am and started running around and playing.  Israel came down and put them back to bed.  I came down at 7am after Ty woke up and peeked into the boys’ room.  Israel was sleeping on Micah’s bed and both of the boys were wide awake.  I released the boys and Israel kept muttering that we’re on vacation and he doesn’t understand why the boys wouldn’t want to sleep in.  

We had morning worship, played charades again, ate breakfast, and then started our day’s activities.  Israel booked a sleigh ride for us at 11:30am so we got dressed and headed over to the Orchard Country Winery & Market.  We arrived there early (shockingly) and so we checked out the market.  They had a lot of free samples of their grape/cherry/apple products.  We tried their juices & ciders and also some unique cherry products such as cherry salsa and cherry spread.  Then it was time for our ride.  We got the one horse open sleigh which was nice since the boys like the song “Jingle Bells”.  The horse did have lots of jingle bells too.  It was a very fun ride through the orchards, vineyards, and woods! 

We came home, had lunch, then was nap time.  A very long nap time.  When we woke up the boys really wanted to go ice skating since I had been talking about that with them.  It is one of the nice, free amenities here where we’re staying.  So, Manu and Micah ice-skated for the first time.  They did surprisingly well!  I’m sure we’ll be going several more times.  We ate dinner at a Mexican place in Egg Harbor called Mojo Rosa’s.  We met the owner who was also our waitress and she was super-cool.  Very veggie-friendly.  She owns a couple other restaurants in the area and we want to check them out later this week. 

Back at home again, the boys spent some time jumping on our bed and burning off some calories from dinner, then we had worship and got ready for bed.  It was a very long day.  Israel knocked out by 10pm. 

I’ll be going to bed with Ty once I feed him his last meal at midnight, but wanted to write down our experiences from the day so we can remember.  Israel and I were talking about how sad it is that our vacation has to come to an end so soon (-we have until Thursday but it still seems too short).  It really made me long for Heaven.  It’s going to be a perpetual, glorified “vacation” – spending time with loved ones in a beautiful, relaxing environment with plenty of exciting activities to do.  No stress, no worries, and no need for sleep!  Jesus Himself will be there and the angels will worship with us.  Who would not want that?  The unbelieveable part is that it will never end!

Until then, here’s to our limited vacation time while it lasts!  I pray that they will help our family long for Heaven even more.  And more so, I pray that we all will be there.


At the vineyard waiting for our sleigh ride


We bought some salsa and other yummy food at the market.


Our one-horse open sleigh


Ty is behind me in his car seat.  He didn’t even wake up to see the horse! 

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Sabbath in Door County

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This Sabbath was truly a blessed experience. It started with eating our traditional Sabbath rolls and mango juice. After eating, we relaxed by the fireplace and had worship. This morning, we were able to visit the Fish Creek Seventh-day Adventist Church and then spent some time outside. We ended it with BBQ tofu wraps with slaw. We’ve been trying to make this vacation extra-special and to center it around our boys. It’s been all about quality time together and special treats that they normally don’t get at home. They are loving it and so are we.

This evening, we had a little game night with the boys while watching the winter olympics. We checked out the games Hi Ho Cherry-O and Charades for Kids from the office. They were both super-fun and we had a great time together. Now all of the boys are sound asleep in their room. The place we’re staying at is so awesome. I think it comes second only to our honeymoon. We never want to leave!

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At the dinner table – we light the candles for dinner. The boys enjoy blowing them out when we’re done.

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Friday evening by the fire

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Sabbath morning on our way out to church

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In front of the historic Fish Creek Seventh-day Adventist Church – founded 1876

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Playing in the snow in the afternoon – building Elijah’s altar ( – it “rained” snow afterwards 🙂 Ty sleeping in the car behind

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Manu watching skiing for the first time (and bobsledding). He was quite enthralled.

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Looking forward to exciting plans for the rest of the week!

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Everyone Deserves to be Loved

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It is one of those rare moments when my entire family is napping.  Yes, all 3 boys, Israel, and even Bentley and the cats.  The snow is pouring outside and everywhere you look outside is white.  It’s Valentine’s Day, 2010.  I’ve been doing a lot of personal reflecting on Christ’s life, on human life, and on love. 

Many children are not blessed with growing up with both parents.  Many children are not raised by godly parents.  Many children don’t have true Christian friends or role models.  And many children are disappointed.

Many people are never able to live up to the expectations others have set for them.  Many people have failed at what they consider the most important things in life.  Many people are hurt by others.  And many people have lost those closest to them. 

So, many give up on life.

But what if they knew that Someone believed in them?  What if they knew that Someone could fill in the gaps that their family, friends, and/or churches left?  What if they knew that Someone could forgive them and help them change?  If only they knew that Someone loved them more than anyone in this world could.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, know that God loves you more than you’ll ever need to be loved.  His grace is sufficient.  And let’s share that love with those around us – to the annoying, to the angry, to the misfits, to the lonely…to those who need to know.  

I want to know how much God loves me.  I need to know so I can change.  I’ve realized that part of being a Christian means finding healing from who we are and who others have made us.  Before it is too late, will you be made whole?

**  This post is dedicated to my late cousin.  He was loved more than we know.  **

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Ty’s First Long Trip

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Last week, we had to be down in Lansing for Israel’s ordination review.  So, our whole family took the long drive downstate.  This time was different, though, because it was our first trip down with all 5 of us.  We decided not to take Leon (our conversion van) since he doesn’t have snow tires and his safety ratings aren’t the greatest.  So, Israel installed our car top carrier on the Freestyle and we loaded it up.  I started packing several days before our trip to make sure we wouldn’t forget anything. 

It’s amazing how my packing mentality has changed throughout the years.  When I was single, it was all about trying to bring as much as possible.  I wanted enough options with my outfits, although I was usually limited to how much trunk space would need to shared.  Once I got married, it was even better.  I had half of the car to pack my stuff.  Israel and I would just throw our stuff everywhere and anywhere in the car. When Imanuel came into the picture, three-quarters of our car was dedicated to baby stuff and we downsized our belongings.  I packed Imanuel’s stuff with the worst-case scenario in mind.  I would bring a minimum one outfit per day (-but typically a few extra outfits “in case we get stranded”) and enough diapers to last an extra few days.  (I hadn’t yet realized that our destinations did have stores that sold diapers and the like.)  I would pack items such as the baby bathtub, a big bag of baby first aid supplies, baby laundry detergent, etc.  The addition of Micah forced us to cut down so I began to eliminate obvious items that I could do without or never ended up using.  This included my number of outfits & shoes, amount of toiletries, the baby bathtub, the stroller if it was winter, and also the excess of diapers.  I would only bring the number of diapers I would need for the trip and maybe a few extra.  I also began to pack just one outfit per day.  I limited their belongings to one bag each.  This would include their diapers too.  Then, they would share a backpack with their books and toys.  We made a big cut-back when we only needed to bring one pack ‘n’ play since Manu graduated to sleeping on the floor.  Our compact double stroller was also a great investment when Micah was old enough to sit in it.  But even still, our family of four could easily fill the entire car top carrier and any extra space in the car.

So this last trip, I officially became a self-proclaimed packing genius.  My favorite word has become “consolidate”.  Here is the general breakdown:

– Total of 4 travel bags:  1 for Manu & Micah, 1 small bag for Ty, 1 for me, 1 for Israel
   My bag included the following:
     – 1 toiletry bag for me & the boys
     – 1 small bag with emergency medicine/supplies for infants, toddlers & adults
– Israel’s backpack:  all electronics, computers, worship books, kids’ books, toys, & DVDs
– My hand bag:  doubled as a baby bag
– Ty’s stroller & travel bassinet
– Blankets for the car
– 3 water bottles & a bag of snacks for the road
…and that’s about it!

I’ve become so obsessive with packing efficiently that when we stop at gas stations to fill up, I get this refreshing feeling as I throw away all the wrappers/trash from the snacks & diapers.  I feel like our car gets lighter and less cluttered as we go.  And on the way back up, I try as much as possible to keep the same number of bags.  We turn one of the travel bags into our family laundry bag and we distribute the rest of our clothes into the other 3.  If we plan on stopping by a hotel, we’ll turn our smallest travel bag into an overnight bag for the whole family.  To answer your question, yes, Israel thinks I’m crazy.

I’ll never forget the night when were moving to the U.P. from downstate.  The moving truck had gone before us with most of our stuff.  In our car, we had 6 month old Imanuel, 1 year old (crazy) Bentley & his dog cage, Aroe & Chance and a litter box, along with a few travel bags.  We stopped by a hotel on the way up.  Israel ran in to see if they allowed pets.  They said yes.  First, Israel brought in Imanuel who was in his car seat and I had Bentley on a leash.  The lady at the front desk smiled at us.  Then, Israel ran back out and came back in with the two cats in his arms.  The lady gave him a crazy look.  Finally, he brought our bags and the litter box.  We all slept in one hotel room that night. 

I’m just imagining how hilarious that would be if we had to fit all five of us, plus Bentley and the cats in our car.  Then, how crazy it would be if we had to stop and get a hotel!  Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent…

We are now safely back and almost unpacked.  It was a super-fun trip and we’re so glad we were able to spend some time with family and friends.  Wish we would have taken more pictures!  But it was so nice having everyone meet Ty.  It was also really awesome that we got to see Ian again…and I was finally able to hold him!  He’s so adorable!  Well, I’ll end this with a video clip that I took on our trip.  Manu and Micah’s car seats are in the way back of the car and Ty is the only one in the second row.  I caught the boys in the back in one of rare moments when they weren’t napping, bickering, or telling on each other.    (It’s sideways and I don’t know how to rotate it!)

Until next time!