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Day 3

We are pleasantly surprised by life on Yap these first few days. Here is a log of today's activities to show some of the unexpected things that happen. The photo was taken of us a few days ago on Guam before coming to Yap.

5:00 Rachel wakes up

6:45 Everybody up for breakfast

7:30 Jon to hangar

7:45 Started unloading tools from shipping boxes

8:00 Family shipping container removed from airport ramp

8:30 Installed washing machine

9:00 Filled out insurance and flight paperwork

11:30 Took teammates to lunch

12:30 Went to hardware for propane fittings

1:00 Found a Nissan Vanette (right-side steering wheel) for our family vehicle

1:30 Purchased 10 gallon propane tank at shipyard for kitchen stove

2:00 Drilled hole through exterior wall of cinderblock house for propane tank installation

2:30 Installed kitchen stove

3:00 Drilled hole for de-humidifier drainage to outside

3:15 Established dry room

3:30 Rain begins; hundreds of frogs come onto our lawn

3:45 Take kids to back yard to watch waterfall at jungle's edge

4:00 Repaired bread maker

4:30 Installed fridge

5:15 Prayer meeting with outer islanders in their language

6:00 Learned first words in outer islander at prayer meeting

7:00 Went with teammates to roadside bush to get berries to combat pink eye

7:30 Radioed ship Sea Haven on shortwave concerning large circulation of weather

8:00 Ate first hot meal from our stove on Yap

8:15 Boys to bed

8:30 Blogged

9:30 Went to sleep with heavy rains expected to last for days

First Day in Yap!

After a loooooong hiatus from blogging I'm hoping to get back into it. I really want to somehow record snippets of this journey of our ministry in Yap. It just seems so surreal to finally be here after so many years of preparing. Now we're here and it's time to get on with the "real" work!

As we prepared to leave last week I had a pit in my stomach - just dreading the immediate future that involved making sure we had all our stuff packed, making sure we did everything we needed to do before we left, traveling 23 hours with three very small children, getting over jetlag, arriving in Yap and unpacking. So here I stand almost at the end of it and I can't quite say, "It wasn't that bad." There were some dreadful moments of spilled coffee on the plane, wide awake kids at 1:30am that stayed awake until dawn, a crying baby at the beach, a drenched and crying two-year-old who fell into a restaurant fish pond, and a crying three-year-old who didn't want to leave his new friend's house. But we survived! And it really wasn't that bad. =) The kids were entertained with new toys and slept well on the plane, we enjoyed beach time in Guam, picked up a cooler-full of foods (namely meat, cheese and chocolate!) that aren't available on Yap to enjoy and ease our transition.

We arrived on one of Continental Airlines' bi-weekly flights to Yap last night at 11:59pm. Ben and Rachel slept for throughout the one-hour flight and Jonah went into what we call "talking crazy" which he often does when he's tired. He's normally very talkative, but he kicks it up a notch and adds an extra big dose of imagination when he's really tired. In the airport he walked into a group of ladies and started telling them all about how we were going to Yap to tell Outer Islanders more about Jesus and then flipped through his superhero book and named each character for them.

Getting off the plane the first thing we noticed was our shipping container sitting off to the side of the runway near the PMA hangar. We knew it was here, but it felt so weird to actually see it. There's our stuff! We packed everything in Illinois over a month ago and now here it is! We really are going to live here!

After going through customs we were greeted by a man and woman in traditional Yapese garb - flower headbands called "nu nus", loin cloth for the man, grass skirt for the woman, and shirtless for both. They draped a flower and palm leaf lei around each of our necks. Our teammates had gotten up in the middle of the night to greet us and helped us get our massive amount of luggage down the hill from the airport to our house. It feels so strange to just walk home from the airport after a long journey. Our house was empty aside from the few beds, fridge and table our teammates left for us. Tomorrow we'll quickly fill up the house with the contents of our container.

After a short night's sleep we were up and out the door by 8am to head to church. In somewhat of an effort to blend in with the culture and also being rushed for time I went to church with wet hair, no makeup, no lotion, in a sundress and crummy flip-flops. We were greeted warmly at church and the kids were especially fawned over as the islanders love babies. Jonah and Rachel were immediately being held in the laps of strangers and Ben would have been too if he hadn't refused so adamantly. I sat on the floor with the women and Jon sat in the chairs with the men. When Rachel started to fuss I got her back from her third lap holder and nursed her right there in the middle of it all. I figured no one would mind since half the ladies were topless anyways, but I still used a nursing cover. I think I got more stares because of that than I would have had I just let it all hang out.

We sang songs in both English and Outer Island language accompanied by a teenage girl on guitar. The islanders have a very nasaly uniform singing tone, but their spoken language doesn't sound particularly nasal. I'll have to try and record it sometime and post it - it really is amazing how uniform in tone and pitch everyone is. After singing and prayer the kids were dismissed to Sunday School and nursery. I went with Ben and Rachel to nursery at our teammate's house which is next door to the church. Jonah went to Sunday School across the street. Jon said the sermon was in Outer Island language with only the topic headings translated into English. Jonah of course had a great time in Sunday School and quickly made new friends. Afterward a little girl told me they had asked Jonah what his favorite song was during Sunday School. I asked him what he'd said and he said, "The Batman Song! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah BATMAN!" I was relieved to learn later that he had actually said, "Amazing Grace." I also learned later that he had asked one of the islanders if there were any Indians here. She said, "No, do you like Indians?" He said, "Well, I just like Outer Islanders." "Why?" "Because they love Jesus Christ."

After church we came home and Jon and the boys did a little exploring outside around the house. They took a dip in two-foot-deep stream-fed swimming hole in the yard. I'm happy it's there because it will be a fun and cool place for the boys to play, plus it's completely in the shade. But I'm a little worried about Ben who has recently shown great aptitude for falling into ponds. I thought we would be able to run around here by themselves, but it looks like they'll need a lot of supervision when they're outside to make sure they don't get into too much trouble.

We had lunch with our teammates in the traditional thatch-roof hut next to our house called a "koyang". Ben and Rachel took nice long naps and my baby monitor could reach down to the hut so I could keep tabs on them. After naps we just hung around for the rest of the afternoon and Jonah was requesting to go to bed by 6:45.

So tomorrow is the big day we unload our stuff. I'm so excited at the prospect of being in one place for three years and hopefully longer. This is the tenth move in our six years of marriage and every place up to this point has been temporary with the purpose of getting us to the mission field. But now we're here! We are so eager to participate in furthering the Gospel in this place and to make all of this worth it in service to Christ and His purposes.

Learning to Walk

Jon has been out of town for work for the last week and a half and he's been missing Benjamin's first steps. These videos were too big to email to him and I couldn't get them to post on Facebook so here they are.

Benjamin tends to get quite upset when things don't go his way. I saw him walk happily from the chair to the couch and I thought I would get a video of it. In my efforts to recreate what I had just seen I picked him up, set him by the chair and left him there. This did not sit well with him - he does not want to be set down and left. He cheered up a little when he got to show off his new walking skills, but then promptly remembered he was still mad and resumed crying.

Taylor Travels Part 4 - Orlando

Last Saturday we left Atlanta and headed to Florida on our way to visit my childhood friend, Nancy. I didn't have anyone to visit at a good halfway point, so I ended up going all the way to Orlando in one day and went the rest of the way to Fort Pierce on Sunday.

Man, it was a gruelling trip. Google maps said it would take 7 and a half hours and it took me 10 and a half. We stopped for a relaxed lunch at McDonald's and I let Jonah run around in the playplace. I fed Benjamin his baby food and some yogurt from the fruit and yogurt parfait. Benjamin has decided that he will not nurse at all when we are travelling. This is annoying on a 5-hour trip, but it's a disaster on a 10.5-hour trip. He nursed at 7:30 that morning and wouldn't nurse again until we arrived in Orlando around 8:30. I tried to feed him multiple times throughout the day. Finally I had to pull over and pump because I was in so much pain. And of course since he isn't nursing during the day he wants to chow down all night long. It's started a terrible pattern of not eating much during the day and waking up two or three times a night to nurse. So frustrating.

Jonah did pretty well considering it was such a long trip. His main forms of entertainment are eating snacks, listening to his tape player, and watching videos on my ipod. By the end of this trip he'd just about eaten his weight in snacks, he had the tape player confiscated because he pulled all the tape out of one of the cassettes, he had the ipod confiscated because he was chewing on the headphone cord after I told him not to, and I had to pull over because he wriggled out of his car seat and I looked back to see him standing up in his seat. But at least he did take a nap - he fell asleep with his hand in the chicken nuggets box. I so wished I could have gotten a picture of that!

So we stayed the night with my uncle Ken (my dad's brother) and aunt Betzi. They just moved to Orlando recently for Betzi's job and this was my first visit to their beautiful new home. Sunday morning we had a nice visit with Ken, Betzi, and my cousin Amanda, and left around noon to get down to Nancy's place in Fort Pierce.

Taylor Travels Part 3 - Atlanta

After a fabulous five days in Charlotte, we continued south to Atlanta. We stayed three days with my uncle Glenn (my mom's brother) and aunt Beth. Highlights for the boys included meeting Glenn's three dogs, playing with an exercise ball, and a train ride through the mall. Highlights for me included seeing Glenn's office (it looks like those sweet office buildings you see in movies), dinner with Jon's cousin, Margaret, and shopping at Trader Joe's. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have when we were there, but here are a few.

Glenn and Beth bought a few toys for Jonah to play with while we were there, but we had to get creative for Ben. You can't go wrong with Tupperware and a wooden spoon. You can also see the ear of the littlest dog, Ronan.

Here we are on the mall train. This was the first time I'd ever seen a little train in the mall that doesn't run on a track. It just goes on a loop through the mall. Jonah LOVED it! Thanks Aunt Beth!
Okay, well maybe this face doesn't show it, but he really did love it.

Taylor Travels Part 2 - Charlotte

The first stop on our five-week road trip was Charlotte, NC. We went to visit my childhood friend, Rebecca, who also happens to be Jon's cousin. She has a three-year-old little girl and a one-year-old boy. Our kids made fast friends and we had such a fabulous time together.

Baby Daniel turned one the day we arrived. We got to have cake and celebrate with him.
These second cousins had a great time playing together. Such a sweet little pair.
It was nice to be in a place with carpeted floors for Ben to practice sitting up by himself. We only have hardwood at home and I can never leave him sitting because he'll really hurt himself if he falls over.
We spent a morning at a park and ate a picnic lunch. Ben enjoyed his first time in a playground swing.
Jonah went down the slides about 50 times, like usual. (He escaped to the slide before I could wipe the Oreo crumbs off his face.)
Jonah decided he wanted to play in the sand and marched up to a dad holding some sand toys and asked if he could use them!
Rebecca has a great camera and she did a little photo shoot at the park.

Taylor Travels Part 1 - Bye Bye Daddy

Jon left almost two weeks ago on a five-week trip to Saudi Arabia for work. I decided to take a huge road trip with the boys to visit friends and family while Jon was gone. After our five weeks on the road I'll leave Jonah with Jon's parents and Ben and I will fly to meet Jon in Micronesia for our two-week visit with Pacific Missionary Aviation.

It's hard to be home alone with the boys when Jon's gone. We all tend to go a little crazy. When all else fails run in circles, right?

After Jon left we stayed home for a few days packing and pulling everything together for our seven weeks away from home. Packing for three people to be gone for seven weeks in different climates and getting it all into the car was a bit tricky. I got everything lined up in the hall and I had some serious doubts about whether or not it would all fit.

Good thing I played lots of Tetris as a kid. I somehow got all this (minus the basketball hoop) plus a stroller, folding cot, snacks, toys and two car seats into the car. It only occurred to me when we were halfway to Charlotte that there will be absolutely no room for Jon and all his stuff to ride back with us from Chicago at the end of our adventure. Oops. We might need to rend a Uhaul!
Here we are all loaded up and ready to head out. You can see Ben in the mirror and if you look closely you can see me too.

This is my new favorite picture of the boys. So cute!

Indoor Bobsledding

**A warning to the safety-conscious parents out there: you might want to skip this post due to it's graphic depiction of a toddler having a lot of fun in a not totally safe way.**

This weekend we were snowed in. Again. Jonah is quickly catching on to the lack of expeditious snow removal down here in Virginia: He looked out the window yesterday morning at three inches of snow and said, "Oh, we're not going anywhere." So we had to make our own fun indoors.

Now, a mom's idea of making fun indoors might be baking cookies, finger painting, homemade puppets, or playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos". A dad's idea of indoor fun is... not at all what the mom had in mind. It usually involves tools, a huge mess, something broken, and probably someone getting hurt. That said, the dad's idea is always way more fun and creative than the mom's idea. This weekend Dad's idea was indoor bobsledding.

Well, it started out as just a cardboard slide down the first six steps of our staircase.

Benjamin monitored the proceedings from the floor to the side of the stairs.

The slide seemed fun enough to me, but of course Jon had bigger and better ideas: a cardboard bobsled.

Okay, but he'll just sled down the first six steps, right? Well, it turns out that stair bobsledding can be a slippery slope. Why not the middle of the staircase?

Now that we've accomplished that, how about a little higher?

What the heck. Why not do the entire flight of stairs?

Why not send Benjamin down the stairs in the bobsled?

Just Kidding! We're not totally crazy!

Oh, what a morning

My kids are sick. They both got the cold that I had last week. In retrospect I wasn't very proactive in doing anything last week to prevent them from getting it. Even while I was sick I continued my morning ritual of sharing a grapefruit with Jonah. We take turns having bites... from the same spoon of course.

It wasn't that bad of a cold - just a mildly runny nose, sore throat, and a bit of a cough. Not such a big deal when I had it, but now it's breaking my heart to watch my boys sniff and rub their eyes and listen to them cough and sneeze.

So this morning we added sickness to the regular craziness of our life. I don't know if it's because he's sick or just because he's a 2-year-old, but Jonah has been eating practically nothing lately. He won't even eat snacks. The only things he will eat without coercion are pears, oranges, peaches and candy - not really a balanced diet. This morning I made him eat a bite of cereal and then I gave him a second bite before he had quite finished the first. He gagged and threw up. Breakfast over.

I put Benjamin down for a nap thinking surely he would take a good nap since he's sick and he was so tired. Nope. That stupid 45-minute intruder. He hardly ever sleeps more than 45 minutes, but he really needs to. He's always still tired when he wakes up, but I can't get him to go back to sleep. So I nursed him, changed his diaper and put him in an undershirt. We went downstairs to get some clothes out of the dryer because he didn't have any clean outfits upstairs.

I sat Benjamin in the corner of the armchair as I often do and went to get an outfit. I sent Jonah to get his sippy cup from the fridge. As I was rifling through laundry I heard Benjamin start to fuss. I returned to discover that Jonah had gotten out a bottle of breast milk instead of his sippy. I was saving it to use with rice cereal so it didn't have a nipple on it, just a twist-off cap. Jonah had opened it and was trying to pour it into Benjamin's mouth. The end effect was a crying baby and spilled breast milk all over the chair and Benjamin's undershirt.

After a chat about how only Mommy and Daddy can feed Baby Benjamin, I wiped up the chair as best I could, removed the wet shirt, set Benjamin in the other corner of the chair and went back to the dryer to find another clean undershirt. This time I returned just in time to see Benjamin fall head-first out of the chair onto the hard wood floor. Commence screaming. The only good thing about a sick baby is that he's too hoarse to scream very loud.

We usually leave the house after Benjamin gets up from his nap and I decided to go out even though the kids were sick. It's either be stuck in the house and be miserable, or be out and be miserable, so I chose to be out. We couldn't do anything that involved being around other kids so we went to the discount grocery store. You never know what you're going to find there, but I can usually score some pretty good deals on drinks and snacks. Jonah behaved perfectly and Benjamin hung in there up until we were in the check-out line. He typically screams through the check-out line whether he's sick or well. Though it was a much quieter scream today thanks to his cold.

I fed Jonah candy in the car on the way home so he wouldn't fall asleep. Yesterday he fell asleep on the way home from our outing and then he wouldn't take a nap. Benjamin fell asleep immediately in the car, but of course he woke up shortly after we got home. I managed to get the groceries in the house while both kids cried (Jonah pinched his finger in the mail slot of the door). I set Jonah up in the kitchen with cheese, yogurt and a rice cake and went to nurse Benjamin. Benjamin ate a little then cried and barfed up some phlegm all over himself. Jonah didn't touch the yogurt, had two bites of cheese and two bites of a rice cake. We trouped upstairs to get Jonah to bed. Benjamin could barely hold it together while I read books. Once Jonah was down I went to put Benjamin down. On the way to his room he barfed up a lot more phlegm - this time mostly on me - but he then seemed much happier as a result. So we went downstairs again to get clean clothes for both of us out of the laundry. This time I put him in jammies in the hopes that maybe wearing pj's would help him sleep better. Thankfully he went down without much of a fuss.

So, here I am about an hour after everyone went down and they're still sleeping. Ah. I had a pop-tart for lunch because I just didn't feel like mustering the energy to make a sandwich. But now that I've sat here for a while I think I've rested enough to finish up with this laundry.

Hope your Friday was less crazy than mine!

Glop

Jon and I recently celebrated our fifth anniversary. Over the past five years we have certainly gotten to know each other much better. We've become acquainted with each other's quirks, we've learned to push each other's buttons, and more importantly, how not to push each other's buttons.

A few months ago we sat down to dinner to enjoy a new recipe I had made in the crock pot. I often try new recipes and I'm still always looking for new dishes to add to my "repertoire" of meals that I make on a regular basis. The recipe for this "Easy Chicken Alfredo" was certainly easy and it looked like it would turn out pretty good.

My flash made a glare on the cook book page, but you get the general idea. The finished product was very tasty - it definitely made the cut into my regular rotation of meals. But the appearance... well, let's just say the appearance leaves a little to be desired. Okay, a LOT to be desired.

See what I mean? So when we first tried this tasty meal Jon and I both commented on how much we liked it.

Then Jon said, "You would be proud of me. I was just going to say something that would have offended you, but then I decided not to say it because I knew you would be offended."

Well, now I just have to know what he was going to say. By now he knows me well enough. If he thinks something would offend me I'm sure he's right, but I'm still curious. "What were you going to say?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yeah. What?"

"Well, I was going to call this food 'glop', but I knew you wouldn't like it, so I didn't say it."

Yes, he knows me very well. I would certainly have been offended if he had called my meal "glop". It doesn't matter to me that he would be justified in calling it that, but I would have felt that he was criticizing the product of my efforts. Even though it was "easy" to make, I still had to purchase the ingredients, do the preparation, and assemble the meal in the crock pot in the morning while taking care of the kids. And it tasted good, despite it's unappetizing appearance. Calling my food "glop" would have made me feel unappreciated.

But knowing that Jon thought about calling it glop, but stopped himself because he knows me and doesn't want to hurt my feelings, made me feel loved. Silly how such small things make such a difference. It even made me laugh because it really did look disgusting. So now it has become a joke between us and has strengthened our bond together.

Here's the recipe if you're looking for something yummy for the crock pot. This may not be worthy of serving to company for aesthetic reasons, but you might enjoy it with your family.

Easy Chicken Alfredo (aka "Glop")

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs. dried chives (I didn't have these on hand and had to buy them for this recipe. They were expensive, but I think it was worth it and I'm sure I can use them in other things.)

1 Tbs. dried basil leaves

1 tsp. lemon pepper

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 lb. broccoli, coarsely chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 can (8 oz.) sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 cup baby carrots

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jar (16 oz.) Alfredo sauce

1 package (8 oz.) wide egg noodles, cooked and drained

1. Combine chicken, onion, olive oil, chives, basil, lemon pepper and ginger in slow cooker; stir thoroughly. Add broccoli, bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots and garlic. Mix well.

2. Cover; cook on LOW 8 hours or on HIGH 3 hours.

3. Add Alfredo sauce and cook an additional 30 minutes or until heated through.

4. Serve over hot egg noodles.

Makes 6 servings

Recap of 2009

I found this at my friend Shelly's blog and thought it would be a fun way to look back over my past year.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Live in "The South"

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I usually resolve to keep a cleaner house... I don't think I really kept it last year, but I'm making it again this year and so far I'm doing pretty well! My other resolution for this year is to do all my Christmas shopping before Chistmas Eve. Way before.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Me! Plus about half of everyone I know. I guess I'm at that stage of life.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandpa died in February. He died of a stroke, but he had had dementia for several years so in a way it felt like we had already lost him a while back. Still it felt so strange to drive past his nursing home and not go visit him.

5. What countries did you visit? Jonah and I visited Jon while he was working in the Dominican Republic in April. It was a great trip and definitely worth it, but vacationing with a toddler, while pregnant, in a foreign country where you don't speak the language is... not really relaxing. But it was fun and warm and good to be able to be with Jon in the evenings.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Knowledge of where we will be going on the mission field.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 22nd, Benjamin's birthday. September 6th, my dad's wedding. May 23rd, my best friend's wedding.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Surviving the months of August and September when Benjamin was a newborn, we had just moved to a new town and Jon was gone for six weeks on work trips.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not keeping my house clean (see number one).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No. Thankfully we've all been very healthy and injury-free.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My fabulous maternity jeans! They were actually a Christmas present from my in-laws. I was never able to find jeans that fit when I was pregnant with Jonah, but I really needed some this time around. They are the most expensive item of clothing I have ever owned, including my wedding dress, and they are wonderful! I will be looking forward to wearing them again next time around... hopefully not too soon, though!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Jonah's! It has been wonderful to watch him grow and learn. What a difference a year makes in the life of a little one! He is a joy to be around every day.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Jonah's again. Toddlers are naughty and discipline is hard.

14. Where did most of your money go? Health insurance and medical bills. Having babies is expensive! Seriously. A quarter of our income went to healthcare. It's absurd.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Meeting Benjamin for the first time and having an incredibly easy labor. I was also really excited about my best friend's wedding. I had been waiting for the right man to fall in love with her since we became friends in college and I was so thrilled to see him come along and sweep her off her feet!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? A Willie Nelson song. Jon found this video on YouTube last Christmas and he got hooked on the song and wanted to learn to play it on the guitar. He must have listened to it hundreds of times trying to play it. Eventually he started using headphones if I was around, but I could still hear him plunking it out on the guitar.


17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? a. Happier, of course. b. I gained 55 pounds and only lost 50. So I guess I'm fatter, but I'm certainly happy at the weight I'm at. c. Just as poor as last year.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I had invited people over more often. I love having people over and I always wonder why I don't do it more.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Middle of the night feedings.

20. How did you spend Christmas? We drove 15 hours overnight to Jon's parents' farm in Illinois and spent four days with his whole family. It was so great! Eight adults and 13 kids. We can't wait to see them all again this summer. Then we did the overnight drive back home and my family came to be with us for four days over New Year's. This time only six adults and three kids, but just as much fun!

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fell in love with my precious Baby Benjamin.

22. What was your favorite TV program? I don't have a TV, but there are four shows I watch online. My favorite is “The Amazing Race” followed by "The Biggest Loser”, “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I really don't believe in hating people.

24. What was the best book you read? I enjoyed a Christian novel a friend loaned me to read when Benjamin was first born and I was spending a lot of time sitting nursing him. But now I don't remember what it was called.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I've enjoyed bringing out music from my childhood and sharing it with Jonah.

26. What did you want and get? A healthy baby.

27. What did you want and not get? To live in the same place for an entire year.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? A movie I found on Netflix called “Outsourced”. I liked it because of the cross-cultural aspect, knowing that we will be living cross-culturally.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 28. Jon was out of town so I threw myself a little party and invited four moms and their associated toddlers over for brunch. It was fabulous! I'm thinking of making it a tradition, or at least doing it again this year.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I knew the future. =)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? It's not about fashion when you gain and lose 50 pounds in the course of a year. It's about whatever fits.

32. What kept you sane? Jon. Always. Hands down.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Well, I don't have TV, I don't listen to the radio, I don't get a newspaper and I don't read news online so I'm completely out of the loop. I'm blissfully unaware of any celebrities or public figures.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? See number 33.

35. Who did you miss? I miss my mom every day. All the time. I especially miss her when I have a baby and everyone else has their mom come to help them when they have their babies. I need her. Why isn't she here?

36. Who was the best new person you met? Everyone in my life is someone I've met in the last year since we just moved here a year ago. So it's hard to pick out a best new person since everyone is new!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Don't have a baby, move to a new town, start attending a new church and have your husband leave for a business trip all in the span of two weeks. You will have a breakdown. Probably several breakdowns.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Pump it, louder come on
Don't stop and keep it goin'
Do it let's get it on
Move it
Come on baby do it

Who's who?

Here are my boys at 5 months old. Can you tell who's who?

The Cousins Chorus

After a 15-hour journey through the night we finally made it to Jon's parents' farm in Illinois. Jonah got straight down to business playing with his cousins. There are thirteen kids in all. Needless to say it's a little chaotic at times, but sooooo much fun. The three two-year-olds are really enjoying one another and loving doing two-year-old stuff together. They've been having long sessions of jumping up and down, yelling at the top of their lungs, and running in circles around the house. Here they are singing ABC's together.

Snowlapalooza

Here's Jonah all bundled up ready to play in the snow. He reminds me of Ralphie's little brother from "A Christmas Story".

Last time it snowed here about two weeks ago I was just barely able to buy snow gear for Jonah, but I couldn't find a sled anywhere. I started calling around looking for a sled the day before this blizzard hit and struck out again. So we resorted to using an inflatable pool toy that we had and tying a rope to it. We can't do real sledding because the snow is just too powdery, but it works pretty well on the road with "Dad power".

Here's my car all beautifully shoveled out.

But we had to sacrifice Jon's car in the process. There was nowhere else to put the snow so he just piled it onto his Tempo. I guess he'll have to take my car if he tries to make it to work tomorrow.

"Snowpocolypse"

An article on ABC.com called this weekend's snowstorm "Snowpocolypse". This type of snow is normal in Chicago, so I had no idea how debilitating it would be in this part of the country. I just figured it would be a matter of digging ourselves out and then we'd be able to go about our business. Not so. The streets are hardly plowed, if at all. None of the parking lots are plowed. It really is impossible to go anywhere. I'm sure we won't be making it to church tomorrow and who knows if Jon will even be able to get to work on Monday. We have over two feet at our house. Here's a car across the street. You can tell there's a car under there because of the side mirror.

Here's a picture of our cars during a pause in the downfall. There's more by now.

Benjamin's enjoying the view from his jumperoo in the kitchen.

Thankfully we have plenty of food in the house and we didn't have anywhere to be today. Our only problem was figuring out what to do all day. We basically just dinked around all morning. After Jonah got up from his nap we all bundled up and ventured out for a little bit. We even put Benjamin in his little snowsuit and put him in the baby backpack, but he didn't last for long. Jonah and Jon stayed out longer playing and Jon shoveled out the car so we'll be ready when the roads are passable.

Benjamin's first experience with Willie Nelson.



Yesterday when he was getting fussy this bought me a good 15 minutes of happiness.

Storytime

In continuation of my last post, here is Benjamin being completely enamored of his big brother. It was so sweet to see them "reading" together. I just can't get over how much Benjamin loves Jonah already. It's so cute to see him light up whenever Jonah's around.

Big Brothers Are Hilarious... And Moms Aren't

Benjamin is only four months old, but I think I've already been replaced as the most interesting person in his life. He thinks Jonah is hilarious. This is probably the hardest I've ever seen him laugh. These two videos are pretty similar, but I had to post them both because I thought it was funny how Benjamin gives me the same bored look at the end of each one. He cracks up at Jonah and as soon as he turns to me the grin is gone and he has this look like, "Yeah, whatever, Mom."

Grandpa and the boys

Here are the boys wearing their matching outfits on Thanksgiving Day with Grandpa. We had a great Thanksgiving with family. We drove out to Paul's house again in Ohio. It was so nice to have Jon along this time! After a full day of travel on Wednesday we all packed into Paul's mini van on Thanksgiving Day and drove the extra 3 hours to my grandparents' house near Toledo. It was so good to see them and to introduce Benjamin. Unfortunately they are not in good health and they had to wear masks. Jonah was afraid of the masks and wouldn't go near Grandma and Grandpa. It was too bad. I really thought he would be brave enough by the end of the day to go in and see them, but he was just too scared. We had a fabulous Grandma-style meal prepared mostly by my aunt, Angie. I was so amazed and thankful that she stepped up and took over and made everything like Grandma would have made it. This Thanksgiving was hard in many ways and it was comforting that at least the food was the same as always. Thanks again, Angie!

The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated again at Paul's house with Dad and Elaine. Another huge delicious meal prepared by my sister-in-law, Vashti - her first time hosting a Thanksgiving meal. She did a great job! I contributed Jello and put together the green bean casserole. Lame, I know. Well, we're hosting everyone over New Year's, so I'll get my chance do more cooking then.

Every time we see Evelyn she's more fun to play with. Here she is being easily amused by Grandpa throwing a wiffle ball against an exercise ball. Who knew that this would be so utterly hilarious to a one-year-old!

A message for Oliver