Beach adventures

Grandma would have been proud of Clark today. We went to the beach and he collected shells. When I was little, she and Grandpa lived a few blocks from the beach. When she would take us to the beach we would take a bucket or cup to collect shells. It was like a treasure hunt looking for the best shells to add to our collection. I have a jar with some of Grandma's shells in it which I love because I think of her every time I see it. Shells were her trademark.

So here's the story. I met Michael for lunch today to quiz him on his catechism questions before he took his test tonight. After we left we ran by the bank to make a deposit and Clark fell asleep in the car. Knowing I couldn't transfer him to the pack-n-play without waking him up I decided to go to the beach since it was close by. I just rolled down the windows in the car and enjoyed the beautiful weather until Clark woke up. When he did we took a little walk on the beach. He loved it! He walked all around on the sand like he had been walking all his life (when in reality he's only been walking for about two weeks).

Clark was captivated by the shells. It was so cute! He would squat down, pick up a shell or piece of a shell, talk to me in gibberish and then hand me his shell to hold. Then, we would take a few more steps and repeat the whole routine again. Then, we found a big shell that was partially buried. I helped him dig it out and when we finally uncovered it he held it for the rest of our walk. He handed me all the other shells, but not his big one. He cried when I took it away from him because he was chewing on it when we got back to the car. I wished I had an iPhone because there were so many good picture moments, but I didn't have my camera--if anyone would like to give me an iPhone I'd love it :)


Here's a picture of our collection of shells.

He saw lots of seagulls, which he barked at. We're working on identifying the difference between cats, dogs and birds. Right now he barks at all of them. We saw a fishing boat go by and he got scared when a military helicopter flew overhead. Several people walked or biked by and he waved bye bye to them and tried to talk to them as they passed. When we got ready to go he didn't want to leave, instead he chased after a seagull.

Several thought came to mind while we were exploring the sand and shells. First, I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to live near the coast so that it's easy to take an impromptu trip to the beach. I'm thankful to be able to spend time with Clark and give him hands-on experiences. It dawned on me that Clark, although he's only 14 months old, has had more real life experiences than many of my students who were 11 or 12 years old. Of course he won't remember them for a few more years, but when we read about the ocean in a book, he will know what it feels like, how the wind blows on your face and smells like salt. He will know the feeling of soft, gritty sand between his toes and the sticky feeling of salt water dried on his skin.

God has been so good to us! Today I was praising him for his beautiful creation, his blessing us with living close to the beach and giving us the best gift we could ever imagine (apart from our salvation and each other) in our son Clark. I love being Clark's mom!

Crazy Kid

I never imagined it would be so much fun and so entertaining to have a child. A lot of work, yes, but completely worth it. Clark does the funniest things all the time. He will repeat anything if we laugh at him. Here are a few of the things he's done that cracked me up. Hopefully you will enjoy them too.

This picture is taken from inside the bathroom (don't worry, I wasn't sitting on the toilet or anything). Whenever I leave the room, even just to go in the kitchen or run upstairs to grab something Clark freaks out. The downstairs bathroom has a large gap between the bottom of the door and the floor so whenever I go in the bathroom Clark sticks his fingers under the door and sometimes even slides books under the door. It's a little creepy and quite amusing to be going to the bathroom and see a little hand come out from under the door. If I reach down and touch his hand he giggles, pulls his hand away and moves it to a different spot.

Clark has been eating whatever I eat since he was six months old. So far, he likes nearly every food I've given him except apple juice and apple sauce. The crazy thing is that he loves apples! Go figure. He has so many teeth that he eats it skin and all. I discovered this when he picked up an apple off the table and began eating it. I watched him closely and aside from a few gags he did great. He walked around the house eating his apple for over 30 minutes. Look at his eyes cutting over to me in this picture. He looks like he's saying, "You're not gonna take this apple from me are you?"

He was so intense about his apple eating, just look at his face! When I went to take this picture he took a huge bit. He looks like he's trying to eat the whole apple in one bite. Toward the end of his apple eating experience I took the apple from him because he kept dropping it on the floor spreading apple juice on the carpet and getting dog hair on his apple...yuck! I held the apple for him while he took bites off of it to keep the juice at bay.

Here he is sitting in my lap with a big bite of apple in his mouth. He ate almost the entire apple. I'm just glad if he decided to get that into a certain food, he chose an apple, not a cookie or something unhealthy. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, Clark should be good.

It Just So Happens . . . episode 2

A few weeks ago we had to go to the emergency room even though we don't have insurance. We knew the bill would be astronomical, but we felt we couldn't ignore the symptoms and had to go despite the price. To make a long story short, we ended up leaving before Michael was able to see a doctor because we were there for hours and hours in the middle of the night with a baby and clearly they didn't think it was an emergency. We prayed for God to direct us and felt he was giving us peace about leaving.

Of course in the back of our minds for the last few weeks we've known we had a bill coming, but we didn't know how bad it would be. The first bill came from a doctor. I tried to call the billing office multiple times, but it "just so happens" their phone system was messed up and kept putting me on hold forever then hanging up on me. I was so frustrated I put the bill away until early this week since I couldn't actually talk to anyone and I wasn't going to pay it until I got an explanation.

Then, we got a bill from the hospital. It wasn't as bad as we thought it might be, but considering we're living on a super tight budget right now, it was going to deplete some of our savings. Because I had so much trouble with getting ahold of the doctor's office, I called the hospital first. After waiting on hold forever someone finally came to the line. I told her my situation and asked if there were any payment options or any reduction in the bill if we paid it all at once. She brought up our account and said she could see where there was a $772 bill sent, but that all charges had been dropped because we left the hospital before Michael was seen. A bill of $0??? I was so excited! I praised God, thanked the lady and told her she had made my day. I double checked to make sure we wouldn't get another bill and she said, "When they go in and manually change your bill, it's erased and you won't receive any more bills."

After I hung up with her I called the doctors office again about the other bill. "It just so happens" their phone system was working this time and I was able to speak to someone. I told her the hospital had erased the bill because we weren't seen. She pulled up our bill and said since the hospital didn't charge us she would take care of it. If I had called the doctor's office first I wouldn't have known to tell them the hospital forgave the bill. God orchestrated the whole course of the phone calls and somehow miraculously worked with the hospital billing person to forgive our bill.

Of course it doesn't mean he will always forgive our hospital bills, we've paid quite a few in the past and will pay more in the future. But this time he saw fit to show us his provision by forgiving the bill. He provides in mysterious ways! I praise him for his provision in our lives!

NFL Draft and other thoughts

Yea, so you're probably thinking, "Why in the world is Jenny writing about the NFL draft?" I know it's strange, but you know people change when the get married. I married a man who loves college football and so I have learned more about college football, the BCS standings and the NFL draft than I ever thought I would. But, it's something we can do together and it's a way for me to be involved in his hobby. Two years ago we even drove all the way to Baton Rouge to go to an LSU game so I could experience the excitement of a night home game at Death Valley.

Also, my brother Joel is a huge Gator fan, and an even bigger Tebow fan. From the very beginning we have watched him play, cheered him on as he won the Heisman trophy and gone through the highs and lows of an undefeated season only to lose in the SCC championship. Until recently I was never a Gator fan, in fact I rooted for whoever was playing Florida, but how can you not love Tim Tebow? He's a beast on the field and a man of true character on and off the field. He's one of those guys I'm rooting for because he stands for what is right and I don't want him to fail (although don't get me wrong, I know he's a sinful human being just like the rest of us, but God is using him in the position he has put him in).

As you probably know, not everyone is a Tebow fan and there were plenty of naysayers who loved talking about his throwing motion or how he couldn't succeed in the NFL. They were predicting he'd be drafted in the second or even third round of the draft, but definitely not in the first. So, Michael and I listened to the first few picks of the first round until we found out who Jacksonville picked and then we moved on to other things. About 10:15pm Joel called to see if we were watching the draft and share the news that Tebows was drafted in the first round to the Broncos. We were so excited! After all the trash talk from all the commentators, Timmy had been drafted in the first round after all! And exciting for us, Michael's parents live in Denver and his family get to go to some of the games. They took us to a game at Thanksgiving, so we were already kind of Broncos fans.

Of course it was all over Facebook the next day. All Gator fans were now Broncos fans. Everyone was rejoicing in Tebow's good fortune. A friend of mine put something about it on her status and I responded by saying that I was so happy because God took care of Tebow regardless of what others had to say about him. Her brother (who I know) responded by saying, "God taking care of his people is having him drafted in the first round? Wow, just wow." He later responded by saying, "Tebow being drafted in the 1st round doesn't mean anything. What about all those drafted before him who couldn't care less about God?" As I read his remarks I was mad, sad and conflicted about how and if to respond. This is a guy who wants to be a pastor (or at least at one time did and has been to seminary).

His perspective took me aback, because, by his reasoning if good things happen to people who aren't God's children, then we can't thank him for his provision because it must not mean anything if he provides the same for those who "couldn't care less about God." Two verses came to mind, Matt. 5:45 and Matt. 10:30. Matt. 5:45 says, "He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." In my mind (and I could be wrong) this means that God provides for those who care about him and give him credit and those who, as my friend's brother put it, "couldn't care less about God." Matt. 10:30 goes along with the idea that God cares about the little things in our lives like where someone is drafted. It says, "And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered" Again, I could be wrong about this, but if God knows the number of hairs on Tim Tebow's head, I don't think it's a stretch to say he's in control of where he is picked in the NFL draft.

I was mad at my friend's brother for trying to make me look stupid and I was sad that he was so cynical. God has provided for me in so many little ways that show me his care, that it makes me sad to think that he isn't willing to acknowledge God's provision because of what God does for those who don't trust him. I wish I could say I didn't give in and respond or that I responded in a gracious way, but unfortunately I don't think that's true. I did finally respond in kind of a shnarky way (Capt. Dictionary might need to help me with the spelling of that word since she taught it to me), but hopefully he'll see my point. We'll see. I just couldn't leave his remarks open with no response at all.

So, am I crazy? What do you think?

My husband Rocks!

So, I said before that I like reoccurring themes on other people's blogs. I started one called "It just so happens" and haven't put up a second post yet (don't worry it's coming soon) so I haven't done so well keeping up with my reoccurring themes, but now I have another. It's called "My husband rocks!" I stole it from a friend from college. She puts hers up on Fridays and I will try to do the same thing. If I miss a Friday though, I'll just put it up when I have time.

There are so many things I appreciate about Michael that it's been hard to decide what to put up for my first post. He does so many things and has so many good qualities which I kind of take for granted that I figured this type of post gives me a reason to sit down and write about them so he knows I appreciate them, his parents know they did a good job raising him, I can thank God publicly for him and everyone else can be jealous (just kidding...that's not really a reason).

I have to start with the most recent thing on my mind: Michael's finishing seminary. He has put more hours than could be counted into his classes, studying, and writing papers. He said about half way through that he felt like seminary is a rite of passage into the ministry and they make it so hard to weed out the weaklings. Having not gone through it myself, but watched him every step of the way I can tell you seminary is not for the faint at heart. There have been many discouraging times throughout the process with made him want to quit, but he pressed on. I am so proud of him for his stick-to-itness and perseverance.

The last step he has before graduation is passing the English Bible Exam and the Westminster Catechism Exam. He took the English Bible Exam last Wednesday and will be taking the Catechism exam next week. Both of these exams require a ton of memorization. The Bible exam asks question like "Where do you find the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead?" and you have to know the book, chapter and verse. The catechism exam has to be verbatim and some of the answers are really long and worded in old English style. The thing that has made me the most proud of Michael through this whole process is his diligence in studying his study cards. He usually procrastinates until the last minute, but this time we divided up the cards in the stacks and he's been taking them to work with him to study on his lunch break and then we go over them and I quiz him at night after dinner. He knows his answers so I feel confident he passed the English Bible Exam and he will be ready when he takes the Catechism exam next week.

So, all this to say, "My husband rocks because of his diligence and perseverance throughout his three years of seminary and passing his final exams!" I'm so proud of him!!

I must not be feeding him enough.

Clark is a funny kid. He constantly does stuff that cracks me up. He has a great sense of humor already (he gets that from his dad) and just seems to instinctively know what will makes us laugh. He also amuses me with things he does that I don't expect. He's only a year old, but he is stuborn (gets that from me) and will try things repeatedly until he figures them out. Here are a couple of stories from the last week that made me laugh. I took pictures to try to capture some of the events.

A little bit of background on this story: Clark is pretty good at entertaining himself and we have the baby gates set up to keep him from wandering into the kitchen or up the stairs so he has free reign of most of the living room. But, when he gets really quiet I know he's up to something. He also likes to go back over to his high chair after he finishes a meal and eat the cheerios or goldfish off the floor if I haven't cleaned them up yet. So, the other day he walked over toward his high chair and was quiet for a few minutes. I figured he was up to something so I stood up to see what he was doing. He was crouched down on the floor between the ottoman and the dining room table with something in his hands that he was cramming in his mouth. With closer inspection I found it was the core of my apple (which he and I had shared a few minutes before and I had laid on the table to throw away when I went into the kitchen). He was so pleased with himself that he had eaten every little bit of apple and most of the core. I figured he couldn't really hurt himself with it, I let him keep his "prize" and continue to chew on it. I turned around to get the camera and when I came back his hands were empty and the stem of the apple was sticking out of his mouth. He had crammed the whole thing in his mouth at one time. Here are the pictures.
This is Clark cramming the whole apple core in his mouth.

Here he's handing to left over pieces to me.

This is all that was left.

I guess he was a hungry boy.

Then yesterday I was packing Clark's diaper bag getting ready to go to Grandpa's. Clark's not usually allowed in the kitchen because he eats Hank's dog food and pulls out the dishes in the cabinets so he thinks it's a great treat when he gets to explore every once in a while. Because I was only going to be a few minutes and I had already put Hank's food and water up I let Clark come with me into the kitchen. The pantry door was open so Clark walked straight for it, grabbed a box of Chocolate Cheerios, sat down on the floor, opened the box, took out some Cheerios and proceeded to eat them. Of course Hank wanted to get in on the food action, so he came over and begged for some, which Clark happily gave him. I don't have any pictures of him getting the box, but here is the sequence of his eating and sharing with Hank.

Caught. Look at that face...it's like he's saying, "What Mom? I was just hungry."

Hank waiting patiently for his share.

Clark getting them ready for Hank.

Sharing with Hank.

Going back for more.

The chocolaty crumbs as evidence of his deed.

He looks well fed, but I guess he's trying to tell me I don't feed him enough :)

Fresh Air

It's amazing the wonderful things fresh air can do for my body and my disposition. This morning Clark woke up in a whiny irritable mood. From the moment I walked down stairs with him he was crying, screaming and trying grab everything on the end table he wasn't supposed to touch. After a few minutes, I realized I was fighting a losing battle, so I took him back upstairs, put him back to bed and decided to rewind and start over in 30 minutes or so. He fussed at first, but then played in his bed for a while. He was in a better mood when I got him up the second time, but he was still clingy and ornery. He wanted my undivided attention and if I walked out of the room to get something from the kitchen, or heaven forbid go to the bathroom, he would have a meltdown.

So, I decided we needed some fresh air and I needed some exercise. As I mentioned on Facebook a few days ago, we found a shortcut to the country club that it right outside our neighborhood. It's a beautiful, peaceful ride and because of the short cut avoids all roads and traffic. I'm not sure how far we went since I can't drive it to clock the distance, but we rode all over the country club. We didn't even notice the wind and slight inclines in the sidewalk when we were walking the other day, but today on the bike they made for a nice leg workout. As I was coming back into our neighborhood I noticed Clark's head was bobbling around a bit. When I stopped to make sure he was OK I realized he had fallen asleep! He was completely passed out in the bike seat. The poor little guy looked so pitiful so I managed to prop his head up on my left arm while I steered with my right. He slept all the way home, let me take off his helmet, unstrap him from the seat and carry him up to his crib without waking up except to rest his head on my shoulder. He was one tired little boy!

Now, he's napping, I have the back door open and the fan going and my day has made a 180 degree turn for the better. A little fresh air made all the difference!

I don't have a picture of Clark asleep in the bike seat (although I wish I did), but here's a picture of him in the seat when he was awake. I love my bike and the freedom and exercise it gives us to explore in the gorgeous spring weather. Clark loves it too!!

A few random thoughts...

As I write this I'm swinging on our glider watching the water flow in the lake/retention pond enjoying the sun while Clark naps and Michael watches the Master's tournament while napping intermittently. I'm struck by all the blessings we're enjoying right now even though this isn't the place or situation we would have chosen for ourselves or envisioned when we were in seminary. If you had told me that we'd spend 3 years in seminary so that we could move away from our family (or most of it), good friends and church that we love to work for a temp agency with no benefits and no church calling anywhere in the near future (that we can see) I would have said you were crazy. I probably would have also thought that this situation would make me depressed. However, it's amazing how good God has been to us and how he is bringing good from our situation.

I know I've said it before, but I can't possibly express how much I have appreciated being close to my grandparents and now my grandpa these last few months. Being able to share Clark with Grandma during her last months and watching her face light up every time she saw him is something I wouldn't want to replace with a secure job or better finances. Clark knowing and loving his Great-Grandpa brings me so much joy. Grandpa is literally one of his favorite people in the whole world. He leaps to him whenever we walk in the door and will sit still in his lap when he won't sit still for anyone else.

Grandpa has tried to help us out in any way possible. The church where Michael preached this morning was a connection Grandpa made for us. He called a friend who used to be the pastor of this church and recommended Michael to him. He was trying to find out if they were hiring a full time pastor, but unfortunately their budget will not allow that at this time. But, Michael has now had the opportunity to preach there twice and will hopefully be asked back again in the future. As we were leaving the church today Michael said, "Grandpa is too cool!" When I asked him to elaborate he said, "He drives all the way across town just to hear me preach." The awesome thing is that we know he will keep coming whenever Michael preaches. It's nice to have support right here in town.

We are also closer to my life-long friend Kathryn and her family than we were in Orlando. We've enjoyed being able to see her more and spent time with her husband and two boys. She came over for Clark's first birthday party and Clark and I went to celebrate with her for her birthday. We got to see her son Dillon play quarterback in one of his first middle school games and we've enjoyed several days in St. Augustine together. God has been doing amazing things in her life in the last year and I count it a privilege to be able to be close by to witness what God is doing.

The place where we live is fantastic! It's the nicest, newest place I've ever lived. We have a garage, community pool which Clark and I used a bunch last summer and place to use again this summer, a nice place to take walks, pretty views of the lake and nature out our back door and the peace of mind for me having our bedrooms upstairs so I don't worry about someone sneaking in to hurt Clark (I'm a bit paranoid sometimes). Our life group at church has provided friendship and community for us. I checked our bank account yesterday and between Michael's pay checks and the recent deposit I made we had the same balance we had a week ago before our rent check cleared. God has been so good to take care of us. It has now been 4 months since Michael quit with the Boy Scouts and we're no worse off than we were then. That's God's provision!

We're still waiting to see what God has in store for us, but I feel more content now than I have been in a while when I realize all the blessings God has poured out on us even in this time of waiting.

Clark shows off

This kid loves to read!

Ok, so his attention span isn't that long yet, but Clark loves to read for short periods of time. He will sit in the swing while I'm showering and read a book peacefully, he'll look at his picture book of his family in the stroller for long periods of time. If I sit down in the rocker to sing to him before putting him down for a nap or bed he reaches toward the bookshelf and says, "Ah, ah" in a questioning tone pointing at the books as if to say, "What? I can't go to bed without a book"

The other day he was playing in his room while I was going through his drawers taking out the clothes that were too small and going through his wonderful hand-me-downs to replace the clothes I was removing. One of his favorite things to do is take all the books off the bookshelf and then go through them and "read" them to himself. He was reading "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle where the animals do different movements and ask the children to copy them. He was on the page with the gorilla and he was thumping his chest with his fist. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. He actually getting something from the books and making connections! He now also waves his arms with the monkey, claps with the seal and stomps his foot with the elephant. As a teacher, I have to say it thrills me that he loves books and that he'll hold still long enough to read them.

After his nap today we're going to go check out the library. Hopefully we'll be able to find some cardboard books so that we can add to his collection. Although, I don't think he cares if we read the same books over and over again, even if I have literally memorized every page.

Copycat

Clark has become a little copycat. He mimics our movements, gestures and eating habits. He's not talking yet, but he has way of getting across his needs and wants. Whenever we're eating anything he makes a beeline over to us and says, "Uh, uh" in a high pitched babble. In Clarkese that means, "What about me? I need some too!" He eats literally anything I'm eating from black bean soup to baby carrots (today's lunch). I guess he figures if it's good enough for mommy to eat it, it must be good.

That made me start thinking, I wish I copied to ways of my Heavenly Father the way Clark copies me. If I watched his ways, studied his movements and read his word with the same enthusiasm that Clark imitates me I would be much more godly and probably be used greater in His kingdom. Having children has taught me so much about God and his love for me. Nearly every day I learn something from Clark that challenges me and he doesn't even know it. That's my revelation for the day.

Oh, and here's a bonus picture of Clark eating carrots to go along with the post.

Mommy's Little Secretary