Daniel's 8th Birthday Letter

Dear Daniel,

This is the 9th letter I've written to you because I wrote one to you before you were even born. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around that. In some ways time passes by so slowly, but then you look back and realize it's really been going fast. 8 years ago, you made me a Mom. The one job in life that I knew I wanted. (I know it seems questionable sometimes, but I love you boys so very much.)
You get really annoyed with me when I tell you to stop growing up, because you're logical and know that you have no control over that.

You seemed to have a good 7th year. You excelled in 1st Grade, just as we knew you would. You had the most amazing teacher, Mrs. Lively, who kept you busy learning new things and challenging you along the way. You also made new friends. You never cease to amaze me. I was never one to easily make friends because I was timid and shy when it came to meeting new people. Let's be honest...I still am. You however, can make friends with just about anyone. It doesn't matter who they are. You're the kid that sees the ones feeling left out and invites them to play with you. It makes my heart happy.

We survived our first (and hopefully only) tornado last December. One week from tomorrow marks 1 year. It doesn't seem that long ago. An EF-3 tornado. I'll never ever forget the sounds or how scared I was for you boys, but God kept us safe. You rebounded pretty quickly though...although the first time the sirens sounded again after the tornado, you were pretty scared, so we played Would You Rather in the basement at 1:00am.

You took your very first plane ride. I was a little worried that you might be scared, but I didn't expect the sheer panic you and James experienced. The engines sounded like the tornado. For you though, I think it was more or less the altitude changes that you hated the most. I can't say I blame you. I'm not a big fan either, but you spent half the trip holding a barf bag and occasionally hyperventilating. After the flight though, you got to sit in the cockpit! We took candy canes for you guys to pass out to the flight crew and they invited you up. Pa and James were already off the plane, but I thought that was a very cool experience for you. I didn't even know they let anyone up there after 9/11.

While we were in California, you were a ring bearer in Aunt Erica and Uncle Chris' wedding.
We got to go to Lego Land and you absolutely loved it there. I wasn't sure how much you would really want to do because you're my cautious kid. You and Uncle Chris are 2 peas in a pod though. Anything he would do, you would do too. It was so special to see you bond with him.
You even got to see the ocean for the first time. What a great experience for you.

You and James were ring bearers again for Aunt Nens and Uncle James' wedding in May. You're an old pro at that now.

You played on your very first Little League team and loved it. I wasn't sure how it would go since it was your first time ever playing on a team, but you grew so much from the first practice to the end of the season. You're already excited to play again in the spring.

You finished First Grade and spent the summer doing fun things here and there when we could. I'll admit, I didn't make it the best summer because I was struggling with some stuff, but we found plenty of adventures along the way. Our trips to Iowa are always fun. Mimi T always has fun things planned. We went to the pool a few times and you were finally brave enough to go into deeper water.

In August you began 2nd Grade. It's your last year at North School. Next year you move to Memorial. I think I'm probably more sad about that than you, but I've just loved your experience there and pray all goes well in the coming year. You continue to excel at everything you do. Your testing this year put you WAY ahead on the charts! I'm so proud of you. The only thing you've complained about is that you're not learning division yet and you thought 2nd grade would be ALL about division!

Other things that are popping into my mind are:

 You are a giant, kid. You're so tall that I'll bet you pass me up by 5th grade.

You're finally starting to enjoy reading more.

You have the biggest and kindest heart. You love to do kind things for other people. That makes me extra proud because I've always worked to instill that in you!

I think you're 90% sure that Santa isn't real and 10% still thinks you should probably believe just in case. I'm still not ready for this...but here's the thing...I still believe. <3 always="" do="" hope="" i="" p="" so="" too.="" you="">


<3 always="" do="" hope="" i="" p="" so="" too.="" you="">You take 50000 years to tell a story. It's just who you are. I take a lot of deep breaths, but you are detail oriented and you also want to make sure you're clear and concise. The way your mind thinks is baffling to me, but I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to do big and amazing things one day because of it. So, you keep doing you kiddo.

I love that you enjoy going to church and that you know where you will spend your eternity. We've talked about baptism and while I think you're interested, you aren't fully ready yet, and that's okay. I want you to do it when you feel ready.

I love you to the moon and back, Bub. I can't wait to see where this next year takes you.

Happy 8th Birthday, Daniel!

Love,
Mom

James' 5th Birthday Letter

Dear James,

I cannot believe that you are now a 5 year old! All of my photo memories are popping up this week and making me wish that I could snuggle that little baby boy again. I miss rocking you to sleep (although every once in awhile you'll fall asleep on me still), and the little sounds you used to make. I try to convince you and your brother to stay little, but you keep insisting that you have to grow up. Although, you promised me that you'll always be my baby.

4 was a crazy year for you.

We all survived our first (and hopefully ONLY) tornado ever. I'll never forget sitting on the floor in the basement hovering over the top of you as I prayed that God would keep us safe. It was scary. We were all scared, but you and Daniel handled it like champs, although we were very jumpy for quite awhile. You named the tornado, "Tommy" because of the Taylorville mascot. For months you talked about Tommy every single day. I've noticed in recent months that you don't bring it up as much, which makes me thankful.

8 days after the tornado, you took your first airplane ride to California for Aunt Erica and Uncle Chris' wedding. You were very excited to fly...until the plane started racing down the runway, and the sounds of the plane taking off sounded a lot like the tornado did. You screamed. You screamed bloody murder. We survived though!

You got to experience fire alarms blaring at midnight at our condo. You got to see the ocean. Then you were an adorable ring bearer at the wedding. Plus you got to visit Lego Land and absolutely LOVED it. 

Christmas night you started getting sick. Daniel was already sick with strep. It took me almost a week to convince anyone to really help you, as we kept getting told you were okay and just had a virus. The mom in me told me that you were not okay, and I finally got the ER to listen to me. You had strep, influenza, and were pretty severely dehydrated. After 2 bags of fluid, they decided to transport you to Springfield, so you took your first ambulance ride. We rode together, and then rang in the new year at St. John's. We spent 2 nights before you were finally feeling better!

You finally had a calm few months before we got busy again.

In May, you "graduated" 3 year old preschool at DMCC. You totally rocked the whole preschool thing.

Then you got to be a ring bearer in Aunt Nen's and Uncle James' wedding, and did an awesome job again.

Our summer was kind of crazy, but we still found time to have fun. We went to the park pool a couple of times and you absolutely loved it. We spent time in Iowa at Mimi and Pa's house and started a new 4th of July tradition. You loved the fireworks. You always have!

You got glasses! I still can't get over how handsome you look in them. And you were happy that you didn't see "two of things" anymore!

Mommy was pretty excited that you'd be starting 4 year old preschool, and I'd have a few mornings to myself, but God had other plans, and through all of that, I became your preschool teacher! You come to school with me every day, and even enjoy the days we have the 3 year old class. You're an awesome helper, and you've won the hearts of the church staff too.

You:

• still have a huge love for foxes...and you've passed the love onto me.
• have a big heart, and I love when you put your arm around my neck when you're sitting next to me.
• are an insanely picky eater. Some days I'm ready to pull my hair out. Other days, I'm happy if you lick something new and then eat a pop tart. Maybe one day you'll eat. 
• love your big brother to pieces and look up to him, but you also can be arch rivals. You guys drive me insane with your fighting and then 5 minutes later you're giggling together.
• are literally one of the funniest people I know. You're so dramatic and silly. You make me laugh every day.
• listen to a wide variety of music including, Green Day, The Beatles, and the Backstreet Boys.
• are an incredible reader. You read 2nd and 3rd grade sight words with ease. It never ceases to amaze me.

Lately you have started asking me more questions about God, Jesus and Heaven. I don't think it will be long before you're ready to ask Jesus into your heart. I pray that you continue to enjoy church keep on loving Jesus and others.

I love you so much Jamesy Michael. Thanks for always being my baby.

Love,
Mommy

When Poop Hit the Fan

I took an 8 month hiatus. Does anyone really even blog anymore? I decided that I would attempt to blog each day in November for National Blog Month, but like always, I'm running late. A day late.

I'd have to say it's been yet another roller coaster year for me, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to survive it. I'll just share our "adventure" of the summer....

Out basement flooded AGAIN. Not once. Twice. We're not talking water. We're talking raw sewage that belonged to us and half the neighborhood probably. The floods literally happened within one week of each other. Have you ever sprayed your basement down with a hose? Do you own "poop shoes" and a "poop broom"? I do.

I thought the first time was awful. I cried. I got mad. But, I pulled on my big girl pants and set to work cleaning and purging. Let me tell you, there is not enough bleach in the world to rid the images from my mind.

Once it was all cleaned up the first time, we had another big issue come up, that I'm still too traumatized to talk about, but let's just say I had the meltdown of the century, and my house ended up cleaned from top to bottom.

Cue that Friday night. It rained most of the night I figured maybe we'd have a little water this time. I finally got brave enough to go check, but I already know as soon as I opened the basement door and the smell hit me. Only this time it was SO much worse.

Several inches of sewage water. All of our totes that were floor level, plus the ones I had stacked on top of them were tipped over and the contents were all lying in a sopping mess. I had planned to have a garage sale, so all of my boxes from that were destroyed. Most of my clothes and some of the boys clothes were soaked. The Christmas tree (that I just bought last year) was on the floor. (It had been stacked on top of other bins.)

Once the water receded, I grabbed my poop shoes and poop broom and got to work. We hauled out bins and ruined items. Hosed down and bleached the bins. Threw everything else in the trash. I hosed the basement down. For those wondering what a poop broom is, that would be the broom I used to push said poop back down the floor drain.

I spent the early afternoon, standing there wringing out every single piece of clothing that was salvageable and throwing out others. Threw the first of many loads in the washing machine only to hear it go, "click, click, click, click..." and then would shut off.

One of our church parsonages was empty, and has a washer and dryer, so I hauled a million pounds of bins over to wash everything. I was also able to shower there because our water heater had gone out too.

After a couple rounds of bleaching at home Saturday and then another couple on Sunday, I finally had to call it good.

Then I sent an e-mail to Roto Rooter, since most of you know my issues with them. Insurance covers nothing, Roto Rooter messed up some stuff, and we realized that the city has major sewer issues (so I got a group from the neighborhood and went to a streets and sewer committee meeting to complain!)  We literally had a huge chunk of our basement floor dug up to have new pipes laid. Cha-ching!

At the end of the crap show, I was able to still find the blessings. I think sometimes that's the most important thing and what can really get you through because I spent a good portion of summer feeling pretty depressed.

For starters, a friend came over to try to help relight our pilot light on the water heater. When that didn't work, he gave us the name of a plumber who does fair work. He spent almost 3 hours working on and going to get a part and then only charged us $60.

I was blessed to have a place to do laundry, and take a warm shower. Plus, it was a place of serenity. I needed calm. After about 5 loads of laundry and a trip to Walmart for more cleaning supplies, I just sat on the floor in one of the bedrooms eating Subway, and just embracing the solitude.

Roto Rooter worked with me and the regional manager came to our house. They did end up giving us a bit of compensation. Not a ton, but enough to help with our costs that were adding up.

My mom set up a donation thing for us on Facebook, and several people supported us, and we were thankfully able to pay off all of the work at had to be done. I hate to ask for help, but between that and our other issue we were dealing with, it really was a huge blessing.

My uncle sent money for a new washing machine.

And, I had a few friends I was able to confide in when I was ready to have a breakdown.

I'm not sure why God let all of that happen this summer, but I am glad to be done with it and that he got us through it.

To quote Pete the Cat, "No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song. Because, it's all good!"