Closing me in...

This is a picture of the fencing guys scouting out the lay of the land in our back yard. I guess they're preparing to put up our back fence. I'm a country girl. I love our yard for a reason. I can pretend that I'm in the country when I'm back there. All I see is field. Once the fence is up...I'm thinking that my love of my yard will diminish significantly. A 3 1/2 foot fence would be grand. It would keep the kids in, the animals out, and the view would still be there. But alas, I'm not in charge of how high the fence around the development goes, so I must suck it up and deal with it. Oh, to be in the country! Maybe I can pray that the whole fencing thing takes a really, really long time and it won't go up till fall! That would be okay.

Silver Refined

This email was forwarded to me. It made me cry because it made me really appreciate where God is in every situation. I was reminded that He always has my best in mind, that He's always there, that His eyes are ALWAYS on me...

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

Progress in the garden

I'm very pleased to say that my garden is flourishing (for the most part). I was absolutely convinced that NOTHING would grow. That would just be my luck with plants, but it's actually doing quite nicely. The only thing that didn't come up was my chives, which I planted twice and they didn't come up either time. So I finally broke down yesterday and bought 3 chives plants at the greenhouse and stuck them in my garden. They look right at home as if they'd been there all along (bottom right hand corner of the picture above)!
This below is my very first cuttings of lettuce. We had some of it on our sandwiches for lunch today and it was so yummy and fresh! The spinach should be ready to cut in the next day or two. Yay!
Now I'm just waiting for fresh tomatoes (this plant has 25+ tomatoes on it).
I've never grown cabbage before...oh, wait, I've never grown anything before, LOL! Okay, but my mom has never grown cabbage before, so this is a very new experience for us. It's kind of perky and cute : )
I think the thing I'm most proud of with my garden, other than that everything is growing, is that it reminds me of my Grandma's garden. She always had flowers along with her vegetables and I decided to do that, too. I'm so happy I did, because it makes for such a pretty sight. Even though my Grandma doesn't garden anymore, hopefully I can pass along the legacy of gardens to my kids. This is an awesome new breed of flower that I found this year. It looks like a cross between a Gazania and an Osteopermum. Such a lovely color.

Ella-bella's birthday party

We had Ella's birthday party on Saturday. We invited our neighbors and our family for cake and chips. I was informed by my very single-minded almost four-year old daughter that I was to make her a castle cake. Okay.



So behold the castle cake, draw-bridge, moat, towers and all. Oh, and did I mention it HAD to be pink? But of course it did.
















I actually changed the gumdrops on the top to marshmallows because I thought it looked better : ) Cake decorating takes on a whole new meaning when you're an interior decorator! Ella thought the cake was "absolutely wonderful!" That's good, because maybe from now on we'll get slab cakes! Okay, probably not. I couldn't live with myself now that I've made all her cakes. Maybe one day it won't be cool anymore and I'll be off the hook!


She was super excited about her new flip-flops (because like any girl knows, 3 is just NOT enough).











The fabulous outfit that my brother and Ashlee bought her. Very nice!




















After the party was over, I actually got a picture with my parents. It's been years. And do you notice a running theme? It seems white is the staple clothing color in my family. See, Andrea, I come by it completely honestly : ) I think it might even be hereditary to wear white pants/capris/skirts/shorts...because no normal, sane person would choose to wear white pants. In fact, both my girls have a couple white skirts and capris. Who dresses little girls in white? Me.

Happy Birthday, Ella!

These pictures were taken by Svea about a week or two before I had Ella.



I loved being pregnant! It was such a wonderful time.
God blessed me with a truly beautiful pregnancy and labour. I can honestly say that I enjoyed both.





I had a midwife and I planned to have Ella at home, but after my water broke we realized that there was lots of meconium in the amniotic fluid, so we made the decision to go to the hospital. I got to the hospital at 11:40 p.m. and I thought for sure this baby was coming any minute! My midwife, Gisele, wouldn't let me push for another hour and if took everything in me to not. I started pushing at 12:30 and ended up pushing for 3 hours. I didn't have any drugs, but I didn't have any pain, either. It was so neat to be totally involved. By the end of the 3 hours I was very tired. They could see her head, but she just wouldn't come out. They gave me oxygen because her heart rate was starting to slow down with the trauma of being in the birth canal for 3 hours. Gisele went to get the attending doctor, who came and checked me, said the baby was facing the wrong direction and that she would need to go get the forceps and suction. She left the room and I thought to myself "I've come this far, I'm not giving up now and no way is anyone using forceps!!" So I gave one more mighty heave and Ella was born at 3:33 a.m. on June 26, 2003. She was 7 lb. 10 oz. and was 20 in. long.

This is me holding her about 20 minutes after she was born. (No I'm not really sweaty, I was able to shower right after while the midwives cleaned her and did all her vitals.)





We were able to leave the hospital at
6:30 a.m. (3 hours after I had her) and go home. It was so awesome to be in our own home and get settled right away. Gisele came a couple times the first day to check up on us and make sure everything was going well.


So Happy, happy birthday Elly-bean jelly bean! You are such a wonderful little girl : )

(pictures and post about her birthday party later...got to go now).

...and Jer takes the lead!

Although he's been lagging behind for weeks, Les went fishing and Jer cruised into first place in the "who's-going-to-finish-their-garage-first" competition. Jer wishes he was fishing instead, but since he isn't, this is a good alternative. We won't mention too loudly that Les already has his garage door and we don't...so maybe that gives him first on a technicality. Oh, well. They are both doing a fabulous job!

Molly Maid

Just because Jer was happy the person who took this didn't have a blog, I'm going to blog it : ) Jer brought my Norwex dusting glove to work so he could clean. I think he even took one of our vacuum hose attachments. Jer's Cleaning Service...I think I'm going to hire him : )

The calm after the storm

I used to LOVE thunderstorms. Absolutely loved them. After Tuesday's incident, I'm now somewhat terrified. Especially because there was more tornado warnings for our area this evening. The storm clouds rolled in and I started pacing. "It's looking awfully dark over there." "That's a lot of lightning. " "Check the radar again."

I prayed and paced...and finally it was over. No tornadoes tonight : ) But there was a beautiful sky. The biggest rainbow ever...so big I couldn't get it in one shot right out our back window. I ran out into my back yard and this is what was waiting for me...


...and as the sky changed from the storm, there were the most amazing cotton ball clouds.

I thank the Lord for beauty after the storm.

Beautiful Ella

Rejected!

Okay, so my name that I applied for was rejected because it was similar to someone else's name. Back to the drawing board. Hmmm....

A little bit of panic (and a pep talk to myself)

My hands are a little sweaty as I'm sitting here trying to design a business card. I'm just not sure I can do this! It just kind of hit me that if I make business cards, and people GET my business cards, some of them might actually CALL me and want my services and I'm being swamped with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy that I won't be able to perform to standard or expectation and I'll fail miserably and wonder what the heck I've done! That was totally a run-on sentence, but that's how the thought processed.

I actually took the plunge, figured out what I wanted to call my business and submitted the online business name reservation form this morning. I paid the $40 and now I have to wait to see if the name I've chosen is available (please pray it is...I DO NOT want to go through the process of picking a wonderful name again!). Then I have to register my business name and I can order my business cards, get my email address and BAM...I'm a business!

CRAP!!!!! It was kind of safe and secure hiding behind the "oh, I'll do it for free that way if you don't like it I won't feel bad" facade. But that's just a bunch of baloney, isn't it? It's the coward's way out. I have to be accountable for my standard of design and back it up 100% and be confident in what I CAN do, not worry about what I CAN'T do (and figure out how much to charge people). With more experience I will get better and thus more confidence will follow. Just got to fake it for now. I can fake it. I can, can't I? I'm so bad at lying, but this isn't lying, right? It's just holding my head up high and taking authority and hopefully people will believe me and trust me and then I'll trust myself. Deep breath, Erin...

Oh, yeah...I guess I should probably put my portfolio together. So much to do, so little...something!

***Update: Here are 3 of my card designs and I could use some imput. They obviously look much, much better with the actual business name on them, but since my name isn't for sure, we'll just pretend that there's an awesome name on it : ) They also all have a back side telling what services I have available and any other contact information that's needed. The one at the bottom is supposed to be totally simple with all personal info on the back. Please vote and let me know which is your favorite...

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!

Last night was probably the freakiest experience I've EVER had to this point in my life! I got home from my walk at 10:00 p.m. and there were storm clouds rolling in. I sat on my deck for a few minutes and watched all the lightning flashing to the Northwest of us. When it started to rain I went inside. Jer and I sat in the Dining room watching the storm all around us. The lightning was crazy!

At 10:20 we went up to bed and were lying there when all of a sudden something was very wrong. We heard this most unearthly sound and our house was making weird noises. Jer looked at me and says "get the girls and go in the basement." So I go grab Aidan and Jer gets Ella and we run to the basement into the mechanical room under the stairs. I'm shaking so bad and the girls don't have a foggy clue what's going on. After a few minutes Jer goes to check what's going on. He comes back and says it's okay, we can come up. I put the girls back in their beds and go check what happened and to see what all the commotion in our back yard is about. Well apparently a twister of some sort went through our back yards and picked up our neighbors trampoline and tossed it into their neighbor's garage 2 doors down from them. Can anyone say scary?

While we're out there it's deadly calm and warm. Let me just say, it was NOT warm yesterday evening or most of the day. So that's freaking me out a bit. Suddenly the weather changes and the wind is weird again and Jer says "let's get the girls and just go in the basement for a while until this things blows over." So that's what we did. Poor kids! Getting dragged out of their beds twice in one night. But I wasn't going to be sorry.

It took me a while to fall asleep after that...I had to check the radar about 15 times until I was sure that it had passed and could relax. We don't know if it was an actual twister (we don't think it touched down) or a very, very strong gust of wind, or what. All I know is I've always been afraid of tornadoes even though we've never had one here, and now I can say why they freak me out. I could never, NEVER live anywhere where tornadoes are a risk factor all the time. Unfortunately my safe comfort zone has been seriously damaged and I don't think I'll view storms quite the same, which is really too bad, because I love thunderstorms.

For My Husband on Father's Day

That title sounds like the front of a Hallmark card, but this really is for him. Since our daughters are not old enough yet to pay tribute to their daddy, I have to do it for them. Not like that's a hard task. Jeremy is such an amazing daddy to our little girls. They, just like me, are daddy's girls, through and through. I remember when we got pregnant with Ella and we were dreaming about what it would be like to have our baby, Jer said to me, "It would be awesome to have a little princess that can be my little girl. Maybe she will run to me when I get home and I can swing her up in my arms." That's pretty much how it is. Twice over.

He is so patient. Unendingly. Which is a really good thing God supplied one of us with that : ) He has all the time in the world for them. He gets down on their level and plays. He makes believe with them and goes on wonderful adventures. He reads to them and makes sure their teeth are brushed. He is such a good balance of firm and loving. So level-headed when it comes to being a dad. He teaches them bible verses and prays with them and for them. He goes in every night while they are asleep just to touch their heads one more time.

It has been amazing to watch my wonderful husband grow and mature into a loving father. To see someone as young as him take on so much responsibility and do it with wisdom and grace. To be such a wonderful spiritual leader in our home. Our children are blessed to call him their father. And I am blessed to call him my husband.

Daddy

I have always been a daddy's girl! Always. There is something so special about a daddy...about MY daddy. He has always been a rock for me. He always knew and still knows what to do in all situations. I turned to him for all my problems. In fact, it took me a while after I got married to realize that it was now my husband's place to help me in a bind and not my dad's : )

He is the most generous person I know, to a fault. I'm sure I took advantage of that when I was younger (unfortunately he couldn't say no to his only daughter...who had also mastered the art of coyness). And I always, always knew he was and is proud of me.

Even though I have 2 brothers, he always included me, even when I didn't want to be included (I didn't think hunting when I had the flu was a great idea, but oh he tried!). He taught me to drive and was extremely patient with me as I almost hit the ditch turning onto our yard : ) He cried with me and for me, prayed for me and carried me and my family through when I was sick and almost dying. He beamed as he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day and clung to my arm just a little too tightly. And when I watched him lying in a hospital bed with cancer, praying for him to survive because I couldn't live without my daddy, he was still my strength. The day he came home from the hospital after his surgery and I proudly laid my newborn, firstborn daughter in his arms, I was so thankful that he had survived to be a grandpa to my child and she could now love him the way I do and know what a wonderful man he is.

He hasn't disappointed me as my children's Papa, either. He is loving and patient. Tender and playful. He takes time to teach them and hold their hands. He is one of their heroes and it makes my heart so full to watch them together. To know that the very first person my daughter asks for every morning and a thousand times throughout the day is her "Papa" makes me so happy.

I know you'll probably never read this, Dad, but I love you. You have given me a very good image of who my Heavenly Father is and I thank you for everything you've taught me. Happy Father's Day.

Too much sadness for a small town

This past week held more tragedy for our community. Another young man committed suicide. It seems too stark to write about it and I've been hiding from it for the past 8 days. I'm afraid to think about it because I don't understand. I'm afraid I'll start crying for all the loss and not know what to do with it. Is it silly to feel such grief for someone you haven't had much to do with in 10 years? As my friend Lindsay put it so eloquently,

"there are people out there with more reasons to grieve than I have and it makes me hesitant to grieve at all."

That pretty much sums up my feelings on this. Yet I know it's still important for everyone who needs to grieve to do so. Maybe I just haven't come to terms with the fact that he is no longer alive. It's not something anyone wants to come to terms with. I will remember him with a vitality that was hard to escape from. A smile and a laugh that was big.

My prayers and thoughts are with all those who loved him so dearly. Those who called him son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. May God cover you with a cloak of peace and be your comfort during this time and in the coming days, months and even years.

My Week in pictures (with some words...or a lot of words)

On the weekend we went to our town's annual Old Tyme Country Fair. It was lots of fun! This is the first year in many that I've gone all three days. On Friday we dropped Aidan off at Grandma and Grandpa's and off Jer, Ella and I went. We stopped in to see the animals...

...and get a pony ride...
...here's my hottie hubby standing by watching the pony ride : )

Then we just walked around talking to people and getting food (so much food!). We met up with some good friends of ours that we hadn't seen in a while and ended up chatting. We arranged to meet them to watch the fireworks later that evening (we watched last years fireworks with them, too. Maybe it's going to be an annual thing). Once the fireworks were over, their daughter, who is half my age, and I decided to go on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the midway. I love to spin and that ride is one of my all time favorites. We went on twice in a row and had a whirling good time.

Saturday we were lucky once more, as my mom came and stayed with the girls and Jer and I went to the fair again. Brent Butt was there doing a stand up comedy act (which was quite funny, I must say) and we had arranged with our friends (the same ones we watched the fireworks with) to meet them to watch Dean Gunnerson (the escape artist) do one of his fancy tricks. I actually enjoyed visiting with them more than watching Dean pretend he was going to get ripped apart by a tractor. So very fake, but somewhat entertaining.

Sunday we went to the open air church service and then stayed for a BBQ chicken lunch. Chris and Tara (our lovely neighbors) showed up and I stayed to watch our local talent Amanda Falk sing and a very fun Exelsior Choir rock the house. And even though I don't burn, I burnt my shoulders. I guess that happens when you sit outside in 35 degrees celcius for 6 hours straight.

Monday was Ella's Summer Fun Day with her Preschool class. She was very excited to ride a pony again (same pony as at the fair) and see the baby chicks once more.

Her and Ethan, Katie and Kierra enjoyed a picnic lunch of hotdogs and chips at SFD.
Yesterday I didn't do much in the morning and then in the afternoon my dear mother came back once again to watch the girlies while I went shopping. I met Lindsay for supper to catch up and hear all about her upcoming wedding plans. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Today was a joint birthday party for Ella and Aysia and Mackenzie (2 of my friends daughters). We had crepes for breakfast...

...and then the kids played while us moms visited. It was very exciting for the girls when the long awaited moment arrived to open presents.

(This is just a random cute picture of Aidan from today because she doesn't really appear in any other pictures from this week).Then we got home from the birthday party and a little surprise awaited us on our steps. Looking in our back window was a very cute kitten who appeared to be very hungry and lonely. We decided to make it comfortable as long as it was around and my girls named her Violet. She's a very sweet kitty. She will reside outside in our garage as long as she decides to stay.
She has a habit of falling asleep very quickly and she's very relaxed. Even with all the little kids trying to touch her and hold her all the time.


Then at bedtime I heard this talking coming from Ella's room. I found her reading a story to her new Sleeping Beauty Lamp that she got from Katie for her birthday today. She loves that lamp.
And probably one of the most exciting moments of my week...my husband is not only hot, he can clean! He decided on a whim today to clean. He vacuumed, washed dishes, swept. When he started washing the floor I almost fainted and I wasn't quite sure what to do other than take a picture when he started cleaning toilets. I'm still in shock. I've never seen him wash floors or clean toilets in the 6 years we've been married.

A day trip, a party, a modeling session and scrapbooking

On Tuesday was Jer's birthday. I wanted to do something special for him, so I called his boss the day before and arranged for Jer to skip the day on Tuesday. I didn't tell Jer he wasn't going to work until Tuesday morning while he was getting ready for work. He didn't believe me, it was quite funny! He didn't want to know what we were going to be doing so I just told him to go clean the car while I got myself and the girls ready. Then his sister came over at 8:30 to stay with the girls for the day and we were out the door at 9:00. By then he had already guessed what we were doing. We were going to go to Grand Forks, ND for the day to go shopping. Just the two of us. It only takes 2 hours to get there and the Canadian dollar is better than it's been in many, many years.

We found lots of great deals, we ate at a really great Mexican restaurant (and since it was his birthday, he got his meal free...bonus!), he got to spend time in Cabela's, I got some scrapbooking stuff at target (see below) and I found the girls some great clothing, which they needed. All in all a fun day.

When we got home at 7:00, his guests started arriving for his birthday party. I had made Mississippi Mud Pie the night before and we all feasted. A funny story behind his birthday party...I called the day before to invite a bunch of his friends and their wives (who are my friends) to come for cake. As it turned out only 2 of the guys could make it (and their wives couldn't, but the other wives could make it and their husbands couldn't. What guy wouldn't want a birthday party with mostly women? LOL! Fortunately 3 more guys showed up later and all was well.

Below are the pictures of my great deals.

Ella was thrilled about these flip flops and her new shirts! I think she's already changed in and out of the shirts about 10 times : )

Cutie patootie Aidan in her little pale green outfit (they are gaucho pants, so cute!)

This little floral sundress is darling on her with her red hair! She's thrilled over the fact that there are "pat-ties" under (you'll notice she's showing them off in the picture on the left).

This is all the coordinating scrapbooking stuff I bought at Target (SUPER Target!), isn't it lovely? I just loved all the colors.









This just shows all the different patterns of the paper included in this
slab of paper. Can't wait to use it.

Pretty spakly flowers...

...tags...



















...and matching ribbon. Sigh! Just love it! I also bought big chipboard letters, small round alphabet stickers and a pad of matting papers. Makes me all giggly seeing it all together and how matchy-poo it is : ) One day when I make a scrapbook page or ten out of this stuff, I'll post pictures. Anyone want to have a scrapbooking day soon? Anyone?