Shipping Out

Today is the day he has been training for since January. My brother, Marine Corps Sniper Corporal Aaron P. Black will be shipping out today with his unit to Iraq. Please keep him and the rest of the troops in your prayers. He says he hopes they will all still be vertical seven months from now. Also please remember his wife, Suzy, and four children in your prayers as well.
I didnt write what follows, but I thought it was an appropriate reminder about what our men are going through in war. It is easy to forget, as we feel so comfortable here, but let's not forget about them and what they are doing for us.


You stay up for 16 hours. He stays up for days on end.

You take a warm shower to help you wake up. He goes days or weeks without running water.

You complain of a "headache", and call in sick. He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.

You put on your anti war/don't support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends. He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.

You talk trash about your "buddies" that aren't with you. He knows he may not see some of his buddies again.

You complain about how hot it is. He wears his heavy gear, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.

You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong. He doesn't get to eat today.

You go to the mall and get your hair redone. He doesn't have time to brush his teeth today.

You're angry because your class ran 5 minutes over. He's told he will be held over an extra 2 months.

You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight. He waits for the mail to see if there is a letter from home.

You roll your eyes as a baby cries.He gets a letter with pictures of his new child, and wonders if they'll ever meet.

You criticize your government, and say that war never solves anything. He sees the innocent tortured and killed by their own people and remembers why he is fighting.

You hear the jokes about the war, and make fun of men like him. He hears the gunfire, bombs and screams of the wounded.

You see only what the media wants you to see. He sees the broken bodies lying around him.

You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don't. He does exactly what he is told.

You stay at home and watch TV. He takes whatever time he is given to call, write home, sleep, and eat.

You crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable. He crawls under a tank for shade and a 5 minute nap, only to be woken by gunfire.

You sit there and judge him, saying the world is probably a worse place because of men like him. If only there were more men like him!



Aaron without the paint and garb with his family.










Aaron and I in June, the last day I was able to see him. Behind us is a sign that our brother, Scott painted, that reads: "Pray for our warriors".

Family Fun

My sister-in-law Suzy and the kids were up from Georgia last week just for a few days and it was really good to see them! We had thought they wouldnt be back up for a visit again until Christmas, so it was a nice surprise. The kids had a blast all playing together again, and as usual it was a challenge to get a decent picture of everyone! Next year we will have two more kiddos to add to the line-up! Guess we'll have to get a bigger couch. :)





















Last Wednesday Fabio couldnt work because of the rain, so he decided at 7am that it would be a good time to clean the pool and put it away! So he and Joshua went out in their boots and rain coats in the pouring rain to "work". I just thought it was a funny scene. :) And I think Fabio got wetter from Joshua's "help" with the hose than from the rain!!



Here is one more pic from my b-day, a bit closer-up in case anyone who hasnt seen me lately wondered how my belly is looking these days. :) (Incidentally, for anyone who didnt already know this, if you click on the pictures, you can see a bigger version.) I am 28 weeks along now, and I think I am smaller this time than the previous two. But, just when I think I'm nice and "little", a couple different people asked me last week if I was *sure* I wasnt having twins, and someone else told me I was *HUGE* and someone else swore I'd never make it ALL the way to December! [ rolleyes ] Oh well, I guess I'm just blessed that way, with a spacious baby carrier in front. :)

Rainy Day Fun!

Mud boots, serving their purpose... discarded on the driveway! These are too big for Dominique, and she cant walk well in them, but she has outgrown her other ones. She tried removing them three times, and I finally quit trying to keep them on her feet.







She was much happier once she could walk around freely in her sock feet! Good thing she wasn't wearing white socks! (Incidentally, she is starting to recognize and say her colors. Her "favorites", or at least the ones she can say the best right now are green and blue. I think they were Joshua's first ones, too.)














She was being unusually cooperative with the camera today, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity, and I did get quite a few cute shots! This is a sampling of my favorites.

What a big girl! She is looking less and less like a baby to me now, and rightly so. She will be two next month, and soon there will be a true baby joining our big girl!












Joshua's cheesy grin was induced by finding a whole treasure heap of worms! He has been dreaming of fishing, and collecting worms in the meantime. :) The only time he has been fishing, they couldnt find any worms and used grapes instead! The fish did eat the grapes, but apparently grapes slip off of hooks too easily, and they didnt catch any fish. This time he will be armed and ready!












Worms!













Letting Dominique hold his worms. She was a bit apprehensive at first, but eventually accepted his gift. He had an ulterior motive: he had found a pile of BB's outside the Royal Ranger shed that he wanted to collect instead of worms.









"They're kinda wiggly, but I think I like them!"






















"I wonder what will happen if I run with them, swing them around, and squish them between my fingers??"














"You know what? I dont think I like these things after all! They are too squishy! After all, I am a GIRL!! You take it, Mommy!"















This last picture is of Fabio and I in front of the big bean at Millenium Park in Chicago. Fabio took me downtown on Saturday night for a special date... for my birthday! It's not often we go out without the kids, and it was nice, but ya know what? We missed them! Everything we saw, we wanted to show them too, so we think we will just have to go back and share the joy!

I've been tagged!

My friend Bipin tagged me to do a "One Book Meme", or in other words pass on some fave books, or kind of like a mini book report. :) I'm not sure I will be able to narrow it down to only one book per category, but I'll try! So, here goes:


One book that changed your life: Well, obviously the Bible! Other than that one, Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and Created To Be His Helpmeet by Debbie Pearl

One book that you’ve read more than once: All of those listed in the previous category! Other than those, hmmm, let me think: Love Comes Softly by Janette Oak

One book you’d want on a desert island: Well, again, other than the Bible, maybe Country Women? (kind of a survival guide)

One book that made you laugh: Yes, They're All Ours by Rick Boyer - written by a father of fourteen. He has a very humorous writing style, not to mention plenty of humorous stories to tell!

One book that made you cry [or feel really sad]: Ummmm.... The Hiding Place? by Corrie Ten Boom. It was a mixture of sad and hopeful, about Christians in the holocaust, who were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews.

One book that you wish had been written: Well, I have wished on several occasions that my mother had written a diary over the years for me to read and glean from now. She has forgotten many things from early child-rearing years, and a written record would have been great. That is one of my main motivations for keeping up with journaling: my children. I also wish that a great number of good books in English had been written in Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, for me to be able to pass them on as excellent resources to various people.

One book that you wish had never been written: These are hard questions, and ones I dont sit around and contemplate often! I think Bipin's and Christy's answers are good: The Da Vinci Code and The Origin of the Species. Other than that, maybe the Harry Potter series? (Sorry, Bipin!)

One book you’re currently reading: Lying In ~ A History of Childbirth in America. Dont feel like looking up the author's names right now. It is fascinating! I love history, and I love all topics related to pregnancy and childbirth, and this is a very interesting history book of childbirth in America from colonial times to present and the development of people's attitudes and the practices surrounding births in different epochs. Good information toward my training to be a midwife. :)

One book you’ve been meaning to read: There are definitely WAY more than one! I have stacks that are waiting to be read! But, the first one I can think of is Hands On Projects for Character Building by Rick and Marilyn Boyer. It lists things you can do with your children that emphasize godly character. I have used a few of the projects, though, even though I havent read all the way through the book. :) Very good!

Now tag five people. I tag

Jody B.

,

Kristi S.

,

Lisa D.

, Englers, and Tim E.

Bike Riding and Flower Smelling :)

Joshua all ready for a bike ride! He loves this helmet and these sunglasses..... Fabio thinks the combination of them makes him look like an alien, lol!











Dominique has sunglasses, too! At least until this pair breaks. Sunglasses for little ones just dont seem to last long around here for some reason. ;)










A few weeks ago, I was THRILLED to find this wagon at a garage sale to pull the kids behind my bike! Now we can go garage saling again and to the library and all the other fun places we went last year. (I dont know if you remember the pic from last March or so of me on the bike with Dominique strapped to my front and Joshua on the back? Well, I cant do that anymore, so we were out of the bike business for a while. :)

Anyway, I didnt know it until today, but Fabio hooked up the wagon to Joshua's bike and I thought it was hilarious to see him pulling her around the parking lot!

Oh, and we have also taken some short-distance bike rides with Joshua on *his* bike, too! Just cant get far that way. By next year, we might, though.

This is at my Grandpa's house in the boondocks. The kids love to be outside, that's for sure!











Joshua was having Dominique smell this flower. :) It was from a butterfly bush. I dont know if that is the real name or not, but it attracts butterflies for some reason, so it was *full* of all kinds of butterflies the whole time! Too cool!







Hmmm.... other news? I am nearly 26 wks pregnant now and headed quickly for the third trimester! Woo hoo! Everything is going great and I feel wonderful. Baby moves a lot, but seems more tranquil than the other two did. Smaller baby? Calm baby? Both? Neither? It will be interesting to find out.....

Fabio got rained out two days this week, which is unusual. They usually wait out the rain or find something else to do, but this rain was BAD! Or good, depending on how you look at it. But there was a LOT of it, that's for sure! It was good timing for him to come home, because we all had colds these last three days. We are all over the worst of it now, thanks to lots of raw garlic, raw honey, echinacea, Vitamin C, eucalyptis essential oil, R&R, and prayer. :)

This morning was the Bible study with the hispanic ladies and I am thrilled that they have both decided to be baptised!! The date is set for September 17. It has been a true joy to see what God has been doing in their lives over the past year.

Better go now. Dominique sounds like she's getting into something and I want to wake Joshua up so he will sleep tonight. Tempting to let him sleep now, though! hehe.

The End.

Bedtime Routine

First, they lay together in Joshua's bed to listen to Daddy read the Bible to them. He sometimes acts out appropriate parts, which they really like!













Then they pray. :) I just love these pictures! Usually they repeat what Daddy says, and Dominique is getting there. She tries!



























This was before bedtime. They do bicker and irritate each other, but they really love each other. Whenever Joshua isn't around, for example, Dominique is always asking for him: "Dosh? Dosh?" She can say "Joshua" by the way, but usually chooses to say "Dosh". :)


That's all for today, folks! :)

Joshua's 3rd party

I apparently ran out of space for pictures on the last post, so I couldnt include Joshua's 3rd party together with the others. Anyway, this one was celebrated with family.



We actually have FOUR July birthdays in the family, but this year, only two were in town to celebrate together: Joshua, and his cousin Dillon, who just turned six.

They got quite a cake!!! They were pretty excited about it!








Dillon and Joshua













Joshua got a beautiful shirt from Dillon and fam that reads: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Eph 6:1

(Little cousin Gabriel is standing next to Joshua.)







This was one of Joshua's birthday gifts and he is getting good use out of it so far! When I first saw it, I didnt think he would be able to ride it, since it is quite tall, but he does okay on it! Maybe next year we will be able to take the training wheels off. :)

Joshua's First Two B-day Parties

This is the second party, with our friends Esperanza, Edith, and their little girls.














Somehow Dominique got the idea that it would be fun to put water baloons in her bathing suit! It was rather comical!



















They had a lot of fun swimming all afternoon!











This is Joshua's first party, on his actual birthday. It was kind of un-planned, actually. Mom was going to come for cake, but it worked out for a girl she works with to come too. Her name is Liana and she recently arrived in the States from Romania. She brought her son, her sister and sister's son as well. It was fun!



























This was Joshua's favorite present, and my least favorite! "Boys like toys that make noise!

Summer Fun

Well, here are a few pictures that I have been *trying* to post for some time now! Unfortunately, the site gives me fits, or I would probably post more often... It often only lets me upload one or two pics at a time and I dont often have time to sit around and wait for each one to get done. I am trying, though, to keep updates up here! I think I at least do better at this than email! Sorry to all of you who may have emailed me and haven't gotten a response. Internet time is a luxury these days and that is one reason why I blog... to keep friends and far-off family updated even when I dont get around to sending out personal email. :) I'm still thinking of you all and love you!





This is one of my fave summer pics of Dominique at the Dunes. This year at the beach was so much more fun than last year! Last year she mainly just wanted to stuff sand in her mouth by the handful, and she didnt really care for the water, nor did Joshua. This year, they both had a blast, *playing* in the sand instead of eating it, and splashing around in the water. It was great fun!




































They had just about as good of a time in our friend's pool a few days later! It was extremely hot out, so I had slightly less fun sitting and watching them play, but that's mommy-hood, right? Their little friend Priya, owner of the pool, is actually hiding behind Dominique, but it was her naptime and she wasn't up to getting her picture taken. Maybe next time. :)






And here is the fam right on our back patio! Joshua got a bit of birthday dough and decided to spend it on a pool, having been inspired by Priya. We found this 3-footer with the filter included for $50 and Joshua was excited to buy it "all by himself". It has just about been worth its weight in gold with all of this heat! They really have enjoyed themselves in it, and Fabio and I have had some refreshing cool-off times too. ;-)



I still have to post more pics another day of Joshua's birthday and his three parties, but here is a sample, from his second party. These three cuties belong to my friend Esperanza: Brianna in the middle and identical twins Ariana and Andrea on either side of her. They also had a wonderful time splashing in the pool and Joshua's Spanish is improving from playing with them. :)

In case you are wondering, Joshua's owie is nearly all better now and he is past the exemptions we afforded him last week in the eating and teeth brushing departments. :) That is the only drawback, in his mind, to feeling better!

Hard to believe we are nearly to the middle of August now! Im not ready to think of summer being over just yet. We have really been enjoying this one. I am now nearly 23 weeks pregnant, about 5 months and counting. I feel great and the summer has not been hard at all. We have been filling our days with swimming, bike riding, taking walks to the park, garage saling, "hanging" out in the hammock and "helping" Fabio with the basement. By the way, he is nearly done hanging the drywall now and it looks NICE down there! I can hardly wait until it is done.

We have also been filling in all the gaping holes in our schedule (ha!) with reading some excellent books, including a classic that mom used to read to me, "A Hive of Busy Bees"... stories to build godly character. It is fun that Joshua is getting a bit older and can read longer books now. We also try to work on a new memory verse every few days and do a "homeschooling" project each day. Sometimes that is as simple as just coloring in a workbook, and sometimes we spend more time doing something. And, I have been spending more time in the kitchen lately, with the kids helping, because I am in the process of revamping just about everything we eat. :) It has been a fun adventure and quite a learning curve for me.

So, by the time bed time rolls around, we are all exhausted and have no trouble going right to sleep. Usually the kids are out by 8pm, I try to be in bed at 9pm, and then I read until 10pm. Then it's lights out! The kids have been getting up at 5:30 each day and then we start all over again. I complained about the early mornings for four years of motherhood, but I have finally learned to actually enjoy getting up and getting a jump-start on the day lately. It helps so much to be eating right, because not only do I have more energy during the day, but I also sleep much better at night. (When I'm not eating well I struggle with insomnia, especially when I'm pregnant.) By 9am, we've gotten so much done that it feels like noon! :)

Well, this was rather long, and sorry if any of you got bored! I was just trying to paint a picture of our everyday life, especially thinking of Dad, Grandma, my aunt, my brother and his fam... love you all! (psssttt... leave a comment for me! :)

Big Fat Lip

Well, we had a little mishap the other day ~ Sunday, just as we were leaving for church! Joshua was climbing on the gate that I have put up between the living room and the foyer, and he fell, flat on his chin....
He scuffed up the outside of his chin pretty good, but the real problem is the deep gash on the inside. Luckily, it didn't bleed very much for very long, so I didnt even realize he had such a bad cut until much later....
He cried most of the time we were at church, ate nothing most of the day, and didnt even talk very much ~ which is *really* something for him!


We told him that it would probably feel better in the morning, but alas, he woke up crying Monday morning too, saying through his tears, "It is NEVER going to feel better!"

Now, Tuesday, his lip is still fat and impedes both his ability to talk and eat. It is better than it was, however, so I'm sure he will be fine. It is just worse than I had originally thought.

We are fortunate, though, that this is the worst accident that we have had to experience so far in our parenting carreer. It could have been much worse, and, I bet Joshua won't be trying to climb that gate any more! Gotta love those life lessons in obedience. :)

Additional Pics from our trip

I decided to go ahead and post the rest of the trip pics that it wouldnt let me post on the other one. This is the Japanese restaurant we went to with Mr. Baum, my 20wk belly, the kids chillin', IHOP, and Mr Baum with a map of some of his missionary travels through Europe. See post below for more details! :)