A Summertime Snow Day

Have I mentioned that I LOVE SNOW DAYS?!?! Nothing like an adding a Saturday in the middle of the week!

Today we decided to "do summer" in the midst of the snowstorm.

First the boys went swimming. (i.e.bathtime in swimsuits)

We set up a tent in the basement along with our new camp chairs that we just got for Christmas. We read some books in the tent -(Jaedon and Brad read another chapter the the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe with a flashlight for added effect ;) and we all (sortof) played Sorry -Jaedon's "favorite game" for today ;)

We brought out the bubbles, mowed the ...uh...carpet, we played hopscotch in the kitchen and had fun with sidewalk chalk- well, on a piece of paper at least. =)

We decided to picnic in the living room with some hot dogs and s'mores.

Who knows- maybe in July we'll try to go sledding!? ? ;)

Flashback Q & A

A friend of mine posted this on her blog and I thought it was fun so here goes nothing...

This Q & A is about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!
1. Did you date someone from your school? yes- but I'm not sure why.

2. Did you win anything in Senior's 'Who's Who'? Uh yeah... best vocalist. Ok-0ur class was not the most talented to grace BHS's hallways!

3. What kind of car did you drive? 1993 Achieva

4. It's Friday night...where are you? Football games sitting in the band section or out with youth group friends.

5. Were you a party animal? not exactly! The only parties were b-day parties and on my 18th bday my friends got me an ELMO and we played Jenga. Yes you read that correctly!

6. Were you considered a flirt? No- I was just very friendly with everyone. (I was a bit naive too!)

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Yes. Secretary of band, VP of orchestra and Prez of choir. Not to mention Indoor percussion, Jazz band, Brass ensemble and at least 3 choirs- and an accompanist to the ones I wasn't singing in! oye.

8. Were you a nerd? see above and decide for yourself!

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? are you kidding? I got "spoken to" once. The teacher asked me "quiet down" - that's it. My entire high school career!!

10. Can you sing the fight song? I can hum it - it ends with "fight fight fight fight with all your might for Bellefonte High school" It didn't matter if we knew the song though- our football team never lived up to it!

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Roberts- Government

12. Where did you sit during lunch? In the cafeteria with my other band geek friends

13.What was your school's full name? Bellefonte Area High School

14. School mascot? Indian- or Red Raiders - which has been changed since it's politically incorrect nowadays =P

15. Were you on homecoming court? uh- that would be a NO.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? As much as I enjoyed high school (honestly I did!) No-way would I do it again!!!!!

17. What do you remember most about graduation? It was hot.

18. Where did you go on senior skip day? I don't remember if I participated or not. If I did it was probably something truly rebelious like- h o m e.

19.Were you in any clubs? yes- waaaay too many. Altho besides Student Council they were all music related. The cheesiest- National Anthem Club. Oh yes! It was a group of 5 or so of us who sang - you guessed it - the National Anthem at different things- mostly basketball or volleyball games altho one time a friend and me sang it at a PSU basketball game! =)

20. Who was your Senior prom date? I didn't go.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Well, it was this past November and no, I didn't go.

22. Who was your home room teacher? I don't remember her name!

23.Who will repost this? I'm not sure! Maybe Becky?

24. Do you still talk to people from high school? just a few and not very often. How sad huh?

THINK BACK TO 9TH GRADE...-

Who was your best friend?- Angela Dawn (Butler) Bills - my bosom friend ;)

What sport did you play? Does gym class count?

Did you buy your lunch? No. I had a FISH lunch box (his name was Herb) that I packed my lunch in every day. Naming your lunch box- see question 8!!

What was your favorite class? History and Choir

Did you go to the dances? no

Who was your Science teacher? Mrs. R...rrrr...Rhin..something...

Who was your English teacher? Mr. Gephart

Who was your History teacher? Miss Taylor- the sweetest lady ever.

Were you a Bully or the one getting Bullied? Neither. Altho there was one time when a guy tried to take my hat off (our school had a "no hat" policy) but since I had started my chemo this year, I lost my hair and was allowed to wear hats. I chewed him out a bit and he left me alone after that ;)

Who was your Math teacher? ooo- Mrs. I-smoke-between-every-class Hoffman

Did you think you were cool? Hmm... I was 15 and had no hair. Not so cool.

Did you wear make up? I don't remember.

Describe your outfits.? I was (and still am) a jeans and tees type of gal. My favorite Tshirt was one with 20 small cans of spinach on it (and popeye on the bottom). Can we go back to the Nerd question?! =D

Did you even have a cellphone? What's that? No one had any cell phones!

What was the best about 9th grade? Well, since this was the year I discovered, was diagnosed and treated for Hodgkins the entire school year- I'd say the best thing about it was the end! Altho I had some great friends and teacher support that year too. My parents took me and my kindred spirit friend (Angela) to Prince Edward Island. (Anyone know Anne of Green Gables?!)

Do you miss it? Miss 9th grade? uhhh...no.

Snow Ice Cream

We had fun making (and eating) snow ice cream today.

Here's the recipe :

1/2 gallon freshly fallen and certainly not yellow snow

1/2 Cup white sugar (I used Splenda today)

1/2 T. vanilla

1 Cup Milk

Whisk together and eat! yummm...

Maawiage...Maawiage is what I'm whitting about today....

Sorry about the Princess Bride flashback - I couldn't resist!

I am whatchya might call an overzealous planner/fixer type of person. I am constantly looking at all angles of a scenario - seeing what is good and jumping on it and trying my best to foresee any bad and preventing it. It has it's good sides and it's negatives for sure but this past weekend was defiently a look at the good.
Brad and I have yearly "Marriage Maintence weekends". This is our fourth in our 6 years of marriage and it's been fun to see how every year they change and develop. The past 3 years we've gone to Maranatha Bible Conference and Retreat Center in Muskegon. It is just about as perfect a setting as it can be! We actually have an apartment complete with dining room table, kitchen and living room. (Altho I do find it ironic that we PAY to go somewhere that is "just like home" ;) No TV, no laundry, no KIDS. We have a great time relaxing, taking uninterrupted NAPS, and playing games but my favorite part of our time together feeds the soul of my overzealousness! We evaluate. (I can hear the oohs and ahhs now! ;)

There are hundreds of great "marriage helper" books out there but we found one that we really enjoy. It's called His Needs, Her Needs (by Willard Harley) and just because I can, I'm going to write a bit about it. (hey no one's MAKING you read this! tehee)

In his 30 some years of marriage counseling, the author says that he's found there to be 10 basic needs of every person. They are:
1. Affection
2. Conversation
3. Sexual Fulfillment
4. Recreational Companionship
5. Honesty and Openness
6. An Attractive Spouse
7. Financial Support
8. Domestic Support
9. Family Commitment
10. Admiration

So the basic concept of this book is to 1. define your own top 5 needs (how you receive love) AND 2. find your spouses top 5 and learn HOW to meet them.
Brad and I do not READ this book over the weekend - we go thru the "worksheets" in the back that help you rank your needs from 1-10, then (the can-be-ouchy-part) you rate your satisfaction level of how well your spouse is meeting those needs. - Hence evaluation! =) This sounds pretty simple (and it is) but it also is a learning time- we call it preventative care. So anyway, that's the focus of our MM weekends. This eval time takes us about 4- 5 hours!!! We do break it up over the whole time we're there- but it is an awesome time to reconnect and get refocused on our marriage- or rather ...on
Wuv....Twue wuv... ;)

BOY NAME!

Votes are in and tallied. So here is what you, my faithful few friends, have helped us decide our baby boy name should be -

(drum roll please)



Ashilip Dayde

or

Philsher Cayne

Asher, Philip, Cade and Dayne were the top 4 - followed oh so closely by Peter Pan. ;)

Okay- so I promise none of the combined names will appear of the birth certificate and really- I am no closer to having made a decision but it sure was fun!!

As if we'd TELL you anyway ;)
HA!

Well - okay then!

A little while ago I wrote about our trying to get Seth to sleep in a "big boy" bed (i.e. his bunk bed with Jaedon). Well, we decided to wait a bit because it seemed he simply was NOT getting it!

As per suggested by my friend Elizabeth =) this past weekend/week we moved Seth into the bed after he fell asleep. So he started waking up in his bed and thinking it was pretty fun.

So last night we were doing our "hugs and kisses" rounds and he starting pointing to Jaedon's room. I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his bed and he said (his version of) "yes". So we thought we'd give it another try. Well- he did it! He stayed in bed and after about 30 minutes of talking and giggling together and only one time of me reminding them to SLEEP- they were out!!
YAY!!

It remains to be seen if this will happen again... ;)

Kindness

I came across this verse in my devo time recently.
I was familiar with it and you may be too but try reading it as if it's the first time -

"The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:12

The study I'm doing this week is on the kindness of God- how God is oh so much more than just a Judge over us but He is a nurturing parent to us.

I loose sight of being a mom sometimes in the midst of trying to be a mom! You know what I'm talking about - and selfishly there are times when I just want to be the one BEING nurtured! Anyone with me here? ;)
What a great verse to reflect on - that God is delighting in me just as I delight (most of the time ;) in my children! That he will hold me and comfort me and quiet me with tenderness just as I do. His kindnesses towards me are overwhelming as I allow him to rejoice over me and be a parent to me - the parent!

Another thought that made me go "wow" - A quote from my study suggests this: (after reading Mark/Matthew when Jesus was hanging out with children)
"As I see the tenderness Christ held in His heart for children, I wonder sometimes if He did not consider time spent with children as the closest thing to heaven on earth!"

Boy name Vote

Okay- who's the smarty who voted for the name PETER PAN?!!!

Dental Success!

About a year ago Jaedon was jumping around in our kitchen- slipped and fell on the recycling bin - face first. His one front tooth was bleeding like crazy and the next day is was moved around funny and turing colors. I took him to my dentist for them to check it out. HE FREAKED! He wouldn't let them touch him!
So when I schedualed his first real dentist appointment (THANK YOU AMY for your recommendation!) I was very nervous about how he would react. So we prepared! We got books and videos from the library. We did coloring sheets and mazes. He and his buddies even "pretended" to go to the dentist (they had flashlights to look at each others teeth ;) I still wasn't sure how he would be but he did GREAT!! They were SOOOO good with him- explaining things in kid terms and helped him see what they were going to do before they did it. I was so relieved and he had a lot of fun!

YAY and Whew*

Mid-night Warriors

Brad has been reading the book Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson. I haven't read it yet but he's been telling me a lot about it as he reads it. Very very basically it addresses habits of sin, thought patterns, and life style and the spiritual roots that they come from. Brad just read a portion to me last night that was talking about demonic forces and how praying the name of Jesus OUT LOUD will disspell their power. He mentioned in his book that satanists groups sometimes meet between 12-3am -and asks "have you ever woke up in the middle of the night for no reason and felt prompted to pray? It's not a coincidence!" As you can tell, this book is pretty heavy and addresses things that may seem a bit foreign to us.
So last night I woke up to go to the bathroom (again. still. always. ;) and I couldn't get back to sleep (again. still. always.) As I do when I'm having my awake times, I started to pray for whomever came into my mind. However I kept thinking that I should go pray -out loud-over my kids. Of course, I just kept rolling over and told God that I could pray for my kids from the warmth of my own bed plus- I don't want wake anyone up by praying out loud!! But it kept coming back and after about 1/2 an hour I rolled over to wake up Brad. Weird thing is - he was already awake (very rare for him). I told him I thought we needed to go pray over our kids and he said "okay." and hopped out of bed. It was 3:30 am. Weird.
And he reminded me to pray outloud. Weird.
I can't tell you there was a huge spiritual WHOOSH or anything - but I can tell you that I slept better after that!

So Brad and I had a first in our almost 7 years of marriage. We've been co-workers and co-students, we're friends, lovers, companions, money managers and team parents. But last night we were mid- night warriors together.
Pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Oh Brother!

After a morning of redirecting, comforting, consoling, crying and not listening (and that was just from ME ;) haha - I had to smile when I saw these two boys of mine actually ENJOYING each others company. Jaedon - who will read to any willing person- just loves reading to Seth now that Seth actually sits thru (most of the time) a whole book. It's so sweet!

And we have been able to enjoy the warmer weather we had earlier this week. Who would've thought we'd be playing on the swingset in January!

Some of you have asked what Jaedon's reaction to the news of a baby BOY was - he was CONVINCED he was having a sister and told that to anyone listening. He first said "No..." like I was joking. So I told him that yes, God thought we should have another boy in our family and that he was going to have another brother to look after. Then he was excited and has been ever since. His friend, Adrianna, who was sitting next to him when he got the news (moral support I guess ;) offered to let him have HER sister though!! =D How thoughtful! ;)

Thanks to all of you for your positive reactions though. I know it's silly but I was nervous about telling people it was a boy because I didn't want to get any "oh...I'm sorry" or something like that. Everyone has been so affirming and encouraging and I really appreciate that. I am really okay with another boy (especially when I see mine being so pickin' cute at moments ;). The Howells house is going to be a (noisy and probably smelly) riot! I'm a bit nervous about our grocery budget when there are 3 teen boys in the house!! hmm... ;)

I'm taking a poll of what others can come up with for names. I'm polling only those 5 years old and under. I haven't gotten very far yet but here's a sample:

Meshack

Car Racer

Baby

Bernard (?)

well, lets just say, we're still looking!!

No question!!!!

Well, despite my PINK blogging template ;) God has decided he thinks we must be doing an okay job at this boy thing so here comes round #3! Either that or we're really messing up this raising boys thing so we need to start from scratch again! ;) There was uh- no questioning our discovery either! This little guy lacks all forms of modesty - quite obviously a BOY.

*Sigh*
How can you be sad when you see this perfect little life moving on the screen in front of you. Little toes and fingers and it's heart beating- so sweet. It's hard to be disappointed in a new baby! I am though- I was so hoping to have to mess with tights and hair ties that never stay in and dresses...
but since I have been home and the reality sets in I am getting okay with the idea of another boy. I do honestly love having my boys - I think some of my "wanting a girl" reasons are rather vain anyway! =)

God knows what's best and this must be it for our family! He is healthy, active and growing great -We are so blessed.

Now- I just need to come up with NAMES!!!!!

Boy or Girl?!

Today is my "do tell" ultrasound! (At 2 pm to be exact) Most of you know that we would LOVE to have a girl - hence the PINK template for my blog today. However, I do so love my boys and am praying that I will be okay with more testosterone in the family! I just hope the baby is cooperative!
Stay tuned...

How many Howells do you see?! =)

We went to the Childrens Museum the other night and had SO much fun!! They had a kladescopic thingy box (yes that was it's offical name and spelling! =P ) and we took a picture from the other side of it. What a riot!

Wha?

I found this somewhere and thought it was fun-


fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Eating with an Elephant

So my latest "what do I do" entry is this -
How do you teach your kids dinner manners without repeating yourself 15 times per BITE? We are trying to foster dinner time conversation and making it a nice time to digest, well, the food and also each other's days. Sounds ideal doesn't it? Problem is- it's turning out to be just that- an IDEA- and not a reality. Ok- I admit- I am an idealist and my ideas are sometimes (ok, Brad, USUALLY) way out there- but stay with me here.
So our "tell me about your day" conversations are spent saying "Jaedon, keep your mouth closed.", "Jaedon, close your lips. ", "Jaedon, can you please chew with your mouth closed", "Dearest offspring, I would appreciate it ever so much if you could kindly remember to hide the parital masticated food behind the surface of your beautifully shaped lips." (ok so I haven't tried that one yet ;)
And of course there's always the keeping your fork to yourself, sit down,please don't lick the serving spoon, turn around in the chair, Four on the Floor, sit down, hands off your brothers highchair tray, please keep your behind in the seat!.. etc...

but mostly I need some pointers on teaching them to continuously chew with their mouth closed!
Any ideas?