A good way to show a husband you love him

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen.....my first official recipe posting. And it's not even my recipe. It is a recipe that I have made more than 5 times this summer alone and no less than 10 people have eaten it and raved about it. So I decided to share it. In the interest of full disclosure, this recipe came from a Kraft Food and Family Magazine. For those of you who don't know about this little gem, it is a totally free magazine that Kraft will send you bi-monthly that is loaded with recipes that are quick, easy, cheap and family friendly. Obviously they are hoping that you will buy all of their associated brand products (and feel free to!), but I tend to be a store brand or brand that is on sale with a coupon kind of gal. Anyway....these recipes are not gourmet, but they are the kind of manna from heaven recipes for a busy mom who is just trying to figure out one more thing to do with a couple of chicken breasts or a pound of ground beef. They even have several health conscious recipes in every issue.



So have I done enough advertising for Kraft in this post yet? Nope. My true bragging on this magazine will not be over until you have made this pie and tried it! It is awesome! My husband goes nuts over it (my dad and brother do, too!) and I know that if he's had a rough day, I can whip up one of these pies and his day is turned around (men are so easy to please!).


So here it is!

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

I want to start this by saying that part of this recipe are the directions for making the crust from scratch. I personally think that is a waste of my time, so I am not going to include that. Part of what I love about this pie is that it is no bake. If you make the crust from scratch, it is no longer no-bake. Feel free to look it up and make it that way if it makes you feel better, however.

1 store-bought Nilla wafer pie crust (seriously, it's like a buck-fifty)
2 medium bananas, halved lengthwise and quartered
2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups milk
2 pkg (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding
2 cups thawed Cool Whip, divided

Cover the bottom of the pie with the banana quarters. Then melt the chocolate and peanut butter together in the microwave. (I do not want to insult anyone, but just in case you don't know this.....chocolate is melted way before it looks like it's melted, so don't microwave it for too long. I usually go about 40 seconds, then I stir it until any remaining chunks melt away.) Drizzle melted mixture over bananas, set aside. Pour milk into a large bowl, then add pudding mixes. Whisk by hand (if I have to pull out and clean the hand mixer, then this pie is not going to get made very often!) for about a minute. Gently stir in one cup of the Cool Whip. Spread this over the bananas and chocolate/peanut butter.

At this point the recipe will tell you to spread the remaining cup of Cool Whip on top. Here is what I will tell you from experience. Leave it off until you serve it. I want to be clear....that last layer is essential...don't leave it off entirely. Just until you serve it. The reason for this is because with that extra layer, you have a really tall pie on your hands, and it makes it hard to fit in the fridge and even harder to take anywhere. My advice, just dollop the Cool Whip on top before you serve it, along with a few chocolate curls and chopped up peanuts for garnish if you're feeling fancy.

I hope you try it and like it! Let me know!

PS....while we're talking about sweet things to eat....don't forget to vote in my new poll about Micah's birthday cake. A girlfriend of mine is making the cake and we just can't decide what to do. Help us out! It's in the sidebar at the top!

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They've got a secret

I was just getting everything ready for naptime, finding binkies, blankets and Pooh Bears, when I heard laughter coming from the dining room table where my boys were eating lunch. Not just any laughter, but loud, squealing laughter. I decided I needed to see what was going on, so I made my way back to where they were sitting. As soon as I entered the room, the boys looked at each other, stopped laughing, and looked at me, wide-eyed and "innocent". Yeah, right...about as innocent as the cat with the canary in his mouth. I don't know what they were up to, but it actually made me very happy to see the brothers having their first "secret".

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My new printer

I have the original HP Photosmart printer and I love it. It's easy and the pictures are good quality. When I bought it, I had no idea that I would become such a rabid scrapbooker, however, and that I would want pictures bigger than 4X6. Obviously, purchasing a new printer is not even a dream of being in the budget, but if I win one, that will be free. So I have entered this contest at 5 minutes for mom. Feel free to go over there and take a look at the printer, if you must, but it might be better if you just didn't enter. Save yourself the disappointment for when I win. :)

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Am I up for this?

A couple of weeks ago, my husband came home from a walk with Elijah and accused me of making him scared of spiders. He had very good reason to believe that I may have passed that fear onto our son....I am petrified of them. What had happened, in reality, was that one day while leaving our apartment, we encountered a very large spider in the breezeway. Because my son is 2 and fascinated by all things living, he wanted to stop and pet it. My heart started to pound in my chest and things began to move in slow motion as he crouched to get closer to the beast. I was certain that if he touched it, the spider would jump to get away from him, then most certainly land on my face, where she would proceed to crawl in my mouth and lay eggs. I could not let that happen, so as calmly as I could, I said "Please, son, do not touch the sweet, sweet spider." (It may have come out something more like "Don't you dare touch that thing!" and I may have been screaming, but one can't be sure). So, despite my best intentions not to, I taught my son that spiders are to be avoided and maybe even feared. Darn it.

On our walks through the nature park that we take three times a week, we have seen rabbits, squirrels and birds. We have even been blessed enough to run into some snakes. Because the snakes are scared of us, this has never been an issue. They get a load of 2 ladies with 4 kids and a couple of strollers coming their way and they high-tail it back into the brush. On one occasion my girlfriend told her son that if the snake had stuck around, she would have let him hold it. The thought horrified me. HOLD a snake?! Maybe when the kids are with their father, but with me?! Was this something I was going to be expected to do as a mother of 2 boys?

So there we were today, walking out to the car to meet our friends for our walk, and there it was.....the world's largest snail. There was no avoiding it. It was right on the sidewalk next to our car. I was determined to keep my son away from it without instilling any unnecessary fear. I just didn't have any idea how. I told Elijah to go play in the grass while I strapped Micah into his car seat, like I always do. Elijah was having none of it. He was mesmerized by this slow moving, slime oozing, shell carrying creature just inches from where he stood. I came over to where he was standing, every part of me wanting to tell him how gross snails are and how he is never, ever to touch one, pick one up, eat one or bring one home. But I didn't. I held his hand and pointed to the snail. I told him all about what it was and why it had a shell. Then I reminded him that we needed to get going...our friends were waiting for us. He seemed happy enough to let the snail be on it's merry way, and for that I was so glad. As I strapped him into his car seat he said, "Mommy, there was snail, so where is froggy?" I'm not sure if this is something he's seen in a book or on TV, but I all of a sudden had a mental picture of my sons, coming home from a day at the park, bringing with them a frog in their pockets, and I wondered to myself...am I up for this?

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A Couple of Updates

After sufficiently working myself up about this last weekend, things went just fine. I wish I had amazing news, like "We've bought a house!" but the most I can say is "We have pre-qualified for a loan and so we know what our payments will be and we know how much house we can afford to buy!" Believe it or not....that's great news as far as I am concerned. I was very worried that finding out that we qualify for way more house than we can afford payments for would really depress me. But it doesn't. There is a freedom now in knowing where our ceiling is. There is no more wondering if we will be able to buy a certain house that we see online. We can know, without a doubt, that if it is below our "magic number", we can buy it. We also know, without a doubt, that for now, there are very few homes below our "magic number". As I've said before, I am not interested in stretching our budget to places it does not belong. There are other limitations we have, also. We have a life where we are and have no intention of moving so far away from our friends, family and church that our gas bill eats up whatever we may have saved in house payments further out from the city. So where we stand is this: We have one home in particular that we are very interested in. It is a condo that is being renovated. So far we have seen the 3 bedroom and the 2 bedroom. The 2 bedroom has been finished and it is adorable. The 3 bedroom (the one we want) has not been finished, so our realtor is going to check with the seller to ensure that it will be finished to the same level of adorablity (is that a word?) as the 2 bedroom. If it is....we will more than likely buy it. If the 2 bedroom has upgrades that are not included in the price of the 3 bedroom, then we are not interested. Did you get that? Clear as mud? Bottom line....we will know tomorrow whether or not we are purchasing our first home. Mark and I have prayed about it and feel that if God closes this door, we will see what pops up in our area, in our price range, for the next two weeks (there is a reason for the "two weeks...it's not an arbitrary time frame). If we only find things we feel we would be "settling" for, then we will renew our lease here and see what happens in the next 6 months. I am really amazed at how much peace I feel about the whole situation. I have a renewed sense of God's sovereignty and feel very protected. He may just be saying that now is not the right time, and if He has something better for us down the road, or something He's trying to protect us from now.....I want to listen to that.

So everything and nothing has happened in our home buying endeavors. I will let you know what tomorrow brings!

The other update, for those of you who read this post, is that everything has been resolved with my bank. As of yesterday. That is right. It took from June 30th to August 25th (yes, that is almost 2 months) to get things fixed. The guy who finally took care of things for me couldn't have been nicer, and he even gave us a $25 deposit to our account for the trouble we went through, but it was too little, too late. Unfortunately, I have to stay with my bank for the time being since we have the whole "home buying" ball rolling. Our mortgage broker said it would be fine if we switched, it would just require more paperwork, but from what I hear, buying a home already has enough paperwork, so for now....I am staying put. But not forever. In all honesty, September is the world's craziest month for us, so the fewer extra things I have to put on my plate, the better.

So now you're sufficiently updated on what's going on in our house. Oh....except for the most important thing! Micah is walking!! He's been taking a few steps here and there for awhile now, but today he was all over the living room. I guess he knows he's going to be one in a couple of weeks, and he really wants to be able to show off at his party!

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Insomnia

Because we have been warming up to the idea of looking for a house (an idea made even warmer by our impending lease expiration), my husband has been doing a lot of searching for properties online. In general, I don't want to join, because until I have met with a realtor and know what I can afford, looking at properties is just frustrating and depressing for me. Not only that, I fully believe that God is going to have to provide us with some sort of miracle house in order for us to afford something that will fit all of us. I didn't really believe that an online property search was going to be God's vehicle of delivery. I hope that I am wrong.

Last Thursday, Mark came home from work with a property to show me online. It was the first home that I had seen that was "in our price range" (we will see) and wasn't a condo, townhome, duplex or way out in the boonies. It is way more house than I ever dreamed we could afford. Taking our virtual tour through the property, we were shown lots of reasons why the house isn't more highly priced: mirrored walls in the living room, unkempt garden boxes in the backyard, lots of paneling and the best....an ugly mural straight out of 1978 (I know, I know...retro is cool. Not this kind of retro) in one of the bedrooms. None of this bothered me at all. A little elbow grease and several coats of paint, and it is my dream home! This was the first time I became excited about looking for a house. Not because I want that one (although I wouldn't mind), but because I started to feel hopeful that God is going to let this happen.

Unfortunately, this process has started to go to my head. They say that buying a home is one of the top 5 stresses you can go through. Right up there with losing a loved one. While I always believed this statistic, I didn't know it would be so true. I have not even met with a realtor yet (our appointment is for Saturday), and I am finding it hard to sleep at night. In my mind I am alternately decorating my new home, balancing our new budget or reeling with disappointment because I am certain it will never happen. Do you see now why I need prayer to be content? I am not proud of the fact that I am responding this way....it just seems to be happening to me. Not during the day. During the day I am prayerful and I nip the thoughts in the bud as they creep up on me. This is all taking place at 1 or 2 in the morning when I'm sleepy but can't find rest. Several nights in a row, now, I have gotten a mere 4 or 5 hours sleep due to this. That is not nearly adequate sleep to take care of a baby and a toddler.

So I struggle. How much excitement is appropriate and how much is destructive? How much realism is being practical and how much of it is a lack of faith in our God? I'm hopeful that once I meet with our realtor, and several of my questions are answered, I will be able to move forward with a little less turmoil. But Saturday is still 2 days (and 2 long nights) away. If I don't get some sleep.....my kids are going to be able to take over. So if you don't mind...say a prayer for me. Clearly I need it.

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Baby Got Back!

There is an unfortunate thing that a lot of women struggle with whenever shopping for jeans (or most pants, for that matter...but jeans are the worst). In order to fit the largest part of them, the waistline if often too big and creates a "gap" in the back that can be immodest and a little drafty. This is especially bad for women who have, what is lovingly referred to as "back".

My 11-month old son has "back". He is shaped in such a way that no matter what size and what brand of diaper I have put on him, there is a gap in the back that let's all manner of things escape. No amount of Huggies' "Gigalastic" has contained his business. It nearly always goes up his back, and if we're really lucky, it pops right out onto the floor. This morning I made Elijah's breakfast, set it down in front of him, and went to get Micah, so I could put him in his high chair and feed him while his brother ate. Before I could do that, I saw that we were on the verge of a containment failure. Something very ugly and very stinky was peeking up at me from the back of the diaper. I carried him by the underarms to his changing table while debating what to do. If I laid him down on the table, all of the ugliness was going to be squished right out onto everything. I had to come up with a Plan B.

There are moments in life when you think you've had a stroke of brilliance, only to realize, moments later, that you were wrong. Very, very wrong. This has never been more true in my life than since I became a parent. Things that I thought would be fun for my boys turned out to scare them, or create gigantic messes. Things that I thought would be good disciplinary tactics only ended up punishing me. This morning I had a light bulb go on over my head as I rushed into the nursery. "I will take his diaper off while he is standing up!", I thought. Yes, it would be awkward, and yes it could be a little messy, but it would be the lesser of two evils.

So I set about my task. I stood him up on the changing table and leaned him against my chest as I undid the velcro tape holding the diaper and all of it's contents in place. The diaper fell to the changing table. The contents did not. They stayed right where they were, stuck to his behind. That was alright....all I needed was about 500 diaper wipes and this would still turn out OK. It was right about that time that someone turned on the music. Not the music in the nursery. The music in my son's head. He decided it was time to dance. He got his groove on and shook what the good Lord gave him all while holding on to my shoulders. There is no way for me to describe the next part delicately. The feces flew. On the table, on the floor, on the window sill that is directly behind the table, on me. I had no choice but to just go into damage control mode. I needed to clean him up the best I could as he boogied away. What he had shared with the rest of the room would have to wait until I was done with him.

Once his tush was cleaned and diapered, and I had sufficiently rid his feet of all he had stepped in, I set out with several handfuls of Lysol wipes (praise God for Lysol wipes!) to disinfect the area. Micah sat on the floor and clapped while I worked. He had apparently enjoyed himself immensely. I'm glad I could oblige him...

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Fifty!

This is my 50th post!! I wanted to do something special to commemorate it, like list 50 things I love about blogging. Or 50 things I love about being a mom. Did you know how hard it is to come up with a list of 50 things?! I got to the mid-30's on both of those lists and just could not come up with 50 things that were even mildly interesting. Not because I don't love blogging or being a mom, but because 50 is a lot....try it! So instead....I'm just typing this little nothing. Happy 50th post-day, blog! Here's to 50 more!

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To Be Content

My husband and I are looking to buy a house. We should have started quite awhile ago, but I have been too nervous to call the realtor. Not because I am afraid that we won't qualify.....our credit is good, we have very little debt (unless you count student loans), and my husband has a good, stable job. I'm afraid that once we start looking, we will find that there is nothing that we can afford. Conservative statistics say that over a MILLION homes will go into foreclosure this year because of "creative financing" that put people in homes way beyond their means. As a result, they are going to be without a place to live and their credit is ruined. I do not want to be one of those people. I would rather rent for the rest of my life than find my family facing that kind of uncertainty.

So here we are. Living in an economy that has adjusted to expect two incomes. Sure, as a woman in 2007, I have the choice to stay home with my kids, and it will be celebrated by (some) feminists as a wonderful decision for me. Unfortunately, my choice has been made much harder by the fact that inflation has increased as it should....it increased what the market would bear. And the market became full of families with double incomes. This means that although I can choose to stay home with my children, that choice is made much harder to maintain. The point of my post is not to make anyone feel badly for choosing to work outside of the home. I obviously feel that the better choice is to stay home, but this is not a salvation issue, so I'm going to recognize that this choice is between each family and the Lord. I will never make anyone feel badly for the choice they make (but I will happily encourage you and walk along side you if you decide to stay home but need support), but there are times when I feel bad about the choice that I have made. Not because I think it was the wrong decision. Only because sometimes it is such a difficult one.

Never-the-less, Mark and I live on one income and that is not going to change. So we are relying on the Lord, as we should. He knows what we can afford, and He knows our needs. Even more importantly, He knows what the future holds and what we can still afford a year (or 5) from now. It doesn't take 100 houses in our price range. It takes one. So everyday I pray. I pray that He would give us wisdom. I pray that He would give us direction. I pray that He would give us peace.

Above all, I pray that He would make us content. As I look around my home, I find myself so often wanting more. I want a yard. I want a garage. I want more room. I keep thinking that when we buy something, it will be better. But will it be? Or after the newness wears off of that home, will I be looking for something more again? So as Mark and I look for a house to purchase, I pray that I would be worthy of anything God blesses us with. That I would not be prideful of it, or ungrateful. That I would glorify God for it and use it sacrificially. Most of all, though, I pray that if it is His will that we stay where we are, that I will be content.

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We are so spoiled with digital pictures!

We forgot our camera when we went to Mark's company picnic, which I wrote about here. Fortunately, his company, along with all the other generous things they provided us with, gave us all disposable cameras. While this was a wonderful suprise, it also meant that I had to wait to have the pictures until I actually, you know, used up the film, and then....developed it. These are things that are no longer in my life routine, so I kept forgetting.

Well....at long last (I know you've all been holding your breath), here are some pictures of the super-fun company picnic. Please forgive the quality....remember....this was a disposable camera, people. I didn't have the luxury of disposing of the ugly ones and keeping the good ones. I had to take what I could get. (They do look pretty sweet, though, on the 19" flat panel widescreen monitor we bought with our Circuit City gift card, though!)

First Snowcone!

First Water balloon toss!

First Gigantic Slide Ride!

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I just can't wait for Fall

I go through phases. Some days I feel really good about how I'm fulfilling my role in this house. I've planned my menu, shopped frugally, and made a (fairly) balanced dinner every night according to schedule. The laundry is folded, the sheets are freshly washed and the kids are learning new things everyday. I can feel that I am blessing my husband and my kids and God is being glorified in the mundane.

Then there are phases like I am going through right now. The last load of laundry I dried is still in the laundry basket, waiting to be folded, and it's been there since Monday (at least it's not still in the dryer). On Tuesday, dinner was pizza from the toaster oven (with baby carrots for "nutrition") and on Wednesday dinner was Taco Bell (no helping that nutritionally). The kids have watched way too much Noggin, and I have done far too little housework.

Fortunately, this is generally the exception and not the rule, but I'm definitely worse about it during summer. The heat gets to me and makes me feel incapable of doing anything. Even though the summer here has been extraordinarily mild, we have had 90+ degree days scattered here and there. They have been almost harder to take because this summer has lulled me into a false sense of security. It's lovely, 75 degree weather has me feeling comfortable and happy, until BAM! I get out of bed one morning already feeling sweaty, and I know it's going to be one of those days.

Fall for me is so much different. The crispness in the air and the earlier evenings inspire me to pull out my Crock-Pot and my cookbooks and see what I can try. The coziness that cocoons us all day makes me want to turn our house into a home; cleaning and nesting. The holidays are on the horizon, and I start looking forward to all of the baking and creating, the decorating and entertaining, the celebrating and the company. It makes me feel more -in a word- domestic, and I love it. By this time in the summer, I am counting the days until Autumn. I am over the long days and the outdoor activities and I am longing for the warmth of Fall. The warmth that comes from sweaters and stews, instead of sunshine.

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Wordless Wednesday

First time eating corn on the cob!

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It doesn't make me look forward to Christmas card time

My grandma has cancer. She has for a couple of years now and has been going through treatment off and on. When she was first diagnosed, they gave her a 9-12 month life expectancy. After completing her first round of treatment, they changed it to a 10-year life expectancy. To us that sounded perfect! She is in her 80's, so ten more years is about right with or without cancer. Since then the cancer has returned and they are fighting it again. If I had my way, my grandma would live as long as I do, but since that is not practical (unless Jesus decides to come back tomorrow), I am grateful that the original prognosis of 9-12 months has already been defied and consider every additional day a blessing.

When my grandma was first diagnosed, my Aunt Maureen told her that once she completed her treatment, she would take her to Hawaii. Neither of them had ever been, and she wanted to give my grandma a special gift. Through a series of events not important to this post, they ended up getting a steal on a timeshare in Kauai that was big enough to sleep many more people than just the two of them, so my Uncle Jeff (my grandma's son) and my mom (my grandma's daughter) and my dad went along with them to Hawaii. This meant that three of my grandma's four children were with her for this trip, and by all accounts they had a wonderful time.

While they were there, my grandma bought Hawaiian outfits for her three great-grandchildren. Two of those great grandchildren are mine, one is my cousin, Rachael's. My grandma lives in Los Angeles, which is no where near where I live, so she really wanted pictures of the boys in their Big Kahuna outfits, and I really wanted to send them to her. So after far too long, we finally attempted to get a picture of the boys together in their duds.

Last Christmas, when it was time to send out the pictures, I had a 22-month-old and a 3-month old. I thought it was the worst time I would ever have trying to get a picture of the boys. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. At least at Christmas time, one of them would stay where I put him. Not any more. Here are some of the results of the pictures, including the one we will be sending to my grandma. Fortunately, she loves my kids, so she'll be happy with what we've got. Unfortunately, Christmas is right around the corner and we're going to have to do this all over again!

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I think he may need to switch to decaf

Believe it or not, my last post was not supposed to be about my bank. It was about something that happened while I was on the phone with my bank yesterday and the frustration just got away from me. Hopefully if you read that post, you can understand why.

Part of the reason that I have been so frustrated with my bank has had very little to do with the actual money. It has been that despite the error being in NO WAY my fault, I am the one jumping through all the hoops. As I told my contact at the bank yesterday, "If I was just going through all this to scam you out of $100, and I divided that up over all the hours I have spent on the phone, I'd be looking at way below minimum wage at this point."

Yesterday was no different. Mike from US Bank called to update me on the status of things. It was during this call that he (finally) admitted to me that it was likely my check had been destroyed. I started to cry. I was so embarassed and felt like such a "girl", but the tears just came and I couldn't stop them. I did not cry for my $100....quite frankly, this stopped being about the money a long time ago. I cried for all the time and energy and frustration that this has cost me, apparently to no avail. While still on the phone, I quickly moved the ottoman to block my 11 month old on the "safer" side of the room, turned on "Max & Ruby" for my 2 year old, and went into my bedroom. My kids didn't need to see me crying or to hear what I was about to nicely, but firmly, tell the man at the bank.

I could not have been more than 3 or 4 minutes, quickly ending the call, splashing a little cold water on my face, and saying a prayer for peace, when Elijah showed up at the baby gate cutting him off from inside our bedroom. "Uh-oh, mommy...big mess....all wet!" I looked at him and saw that his sock was all wet. Having no clue what had happened, but assuming it was something to do with his diaper, I picked him up and ran to the changing table. On the way I smelled the distinct aroma of coffee. At that moment, about 20 images flashed through my mind of all the places my coffee could have been left and where it could be now. Carpet? Couch? Toys? Table? Books? I took his socks off and set him in Micah's crib. The coffee wasn't going to stain him, but it would certainly stain whatever he had dumped it on! It didn't even occur to me that he might have dumped it on his brother!

Yet that is what he had done. In the middle of the kitchen floor (praise God!), my 11 month old was lying on his belly, splashing away in a puddle of cold, morning-old coffee. It was in his hair, soaked into his clothes, and all over his face. He couldn't have been happier. I threw about 50 paper towels down on the mess and took him to his room, trying to dribble as little coffee on the carpet as possible. It wasn't until a short while later, as I was trying to feed him his sweet potatoes while he shook his head back and forth over and over again without stopping that I realized he had gotten a good gulp of the beverage as he was bathing in it. I never thought I would see the day that my baby was hopped up on caffeine.

Needless to say, as I prayed for peace after that phone call, a gigantic mess was not what I had in mind as a vehicle. It's funny, though, as I look back, it was the perfect way to take my mind off of the conversation I had just had. Left to my normal routine, I may have spent the whole afternoon stewing in anger over my bank's mistake, but having to jump back into motherhood with both feet was just what I needed to remember what's really worth dwelling on!

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A small tirade

I am currently going through a struggle with my bank. In my very earliest adult years, I had struggles with my bank that were really just struggles with my own spending habits. This struggle, however, is entirely the fault of my bank, they admit that, and yet we can't seem to get it fixed. This may be educational for some of you, I have certainly learned a few things through this process. The bottom line of things is that they let a check clear my account for $100 more than I wrote it for. It was my tithe check, and I wish I could say that I lived within a budget that would just allow my church to keep the extra money, but I don't. $100 is a lot of money in our world. So I called my bank, figuring that this was a simple human error, that they hit the wrong key, and they would just fix it. I could not have been more wrong.

I found the error on June 30. That's right...over a month ago. I immediately called the bank, and the gal said this would only take a moment, she would just look at the "image" of the check, verify the correct amount on the check, and adjust things. I sat on hold for a minute, then she came back, telling me "Oops! Our image of the check shows the check to be blank!" From there things have spiraled out of control. Here's the educational part. My bank never saw my check. Apparently my church's bank, Wells Fargo, made the image of the check that appeared to be blank and sent it to my bank. At that time my bank sent them the amount of money they asked for. WITHOUT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM BEING ABLE TO VERIFY THE ACTUAL AMOUNT THE CHECK WAS WRITTEN FOR!! This is the way banks do things now, people!!! Sure, most of the time checks don't show up as blank on the imaging system, but the fact that mine did means that other people's do sometimes and if your bank is anything like mine, they see no need to know how much the check was actually written for before handing over some of your money. Here comes some more education. Even though it bothered me that my bank "cashed" a "blank" check, I still had the delusion that this would be easy to fix. They would simply get my original check and be able to see what I actually intended the amount to be and everything could get resolved, right? Wrong. Because of their perfect, infallible imaging system, banks now DESTROY YOUR CHECKS AFTER THEY HAVE "IMAGED" THEM. This is, of course, unless you request to have your canceled checks returned to you, which I will, from now on, be doing.

I have left a lot of things out of this story, like the fact that since June 30, I have made about 8 phone calls to my bank and have had to re-tell the story each and every time because no one has bothered to put any information in the computer or follow through with any of the promises they made me over the phone. Or the fact that the department that handles cases like this is only open 9-5 M-F, so I have to call and sit on hold for upwards of 45 minutes while I am trying to take care of a 2 year old and an 11 month old. I am finally talking to a supervisor who is calling me everyday to update me whether he has any news or not. He wants to make sure I know he's on top of it. Unfortunately, I don't hold out much hope. He is still in communication with Wells Fargo, hoping that they maybe haven't destroyed my check yet, but it sounds doubtful. He seems to think that there may be some other sort of way to help me with this if my check is gone, but again, I'm not holding my breath.

At this point, I'm not really waiting on anything except for all the dust to settle so I can change banks. This is not the first fiasco I have been through with them, and I'm done. I would have to be a fool to stay. Oh, and I was planning on not revealing their name, but I've changed my mind. I believe in rewarding good customer service, but I also believe in warning my fellow human beings about terrible customer service. So in case you were thinking I was dealing with some tiny, inept bank who doesn't have their act together, you would be right, except for the tiny part. My bank? U.S. Bank.

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Such a Cliche!

Today is Diaper Box Day. It is the day every couple of weeks that we open a new gigantic box of diapers from Costco and put them in the cupboard. Then the fun begins! In the last couple of hours that empty box has become a garage for their cars to drive into, a ramp for their cars to drive off of, a cliff for their cars to drive off of (you can tell the difference by whether Elijah is making noises of fear or excitement as he drives them off the box), a car and a train for them to take turns riding in, and a drum that all three of us could play at the same time. You should hear our rendition of 'Twinkle, twinkle little star'....we may have to take this show on the road! I guess what they say is true....all the toys piled up in the corner and the only thing they care about is an empty box.

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More fun than I deserved.

Anyone who has known me more than a few minutes knows that I can talk your ear off. My old boss used to say that I have enough tongue for ten sets of teeth. He used to also say it about his wife, though, so I knew he meant it good-naturedly. (It's probably why I have this blog....too much to say, not nearly enough people to listen to it.) What people sometimes don't realize is that I am actually very shy around people I don't know. It's something I really don't like about myself and am constantly praying about. It makes me less effective for the Lord that I have trouble approaching people I don't know.

For me, this shyness has been one of the worst parts about being married. Having to meet all of his "people". First, when we were dating, I had to meet all of this friends and family. The first Christmas we were together, I had to go spend the day with all of his extended family for a Christmas potluck. Not only was this traumatizing because it was my first Christmas ever doing anything away from my family, but I had to meet about 247 people (or maybe it was more like 20? It sure felt like a lot). I had so much anxiety about this day that I worked myself all up and spent the entire day running to the bathroom (which gave Mark's family a great impression of me, let me tell you). Then there was the work picnic where I would have to meet all of his co-workers while at the house of the man who owned the company. I (very foolishly) decided that a little wine was what I needed to take the edge off my nerves so I could relax and be myself. Let me just summarize by saying that I was more "myself" than I had ever been until I was so "myself" that I had to go and sleep "myself" off in the car. (I want to defend myself by saying that this is not really indicative of the amount of wine I had....it was more about the combination of wine/heat/too nervous to eat anything along with the wine.)

As I'm re-living these stories, I'm realizing it's a wonder Mark ever married me. I sound like a real catch, don't I?

So fast-forward 6 years and I had to attend another company picnic this weekend. I have been able to avoid all since for various reasons (too pregnant and too hot to spend the day outside, previous commitments, etc...), but I had no excuse this time. The weather even bailed on me and wouldn't give me an excuse (it was only 75 degrees here on Saturday, which is strange for August). So off we went. My stomach was in knots and I was worried way too much about things I rarely care about, like my eyeliner (I made Mark run back in the house to get it once I got in the car and realized that in the light of day, I was not fit to meet all these people with the state my eyeliner was currently in. I had lost my mind). So off we went, to a park about 30 miles south of where we live, so I had a nice, long drive to stew in my nerves. By the time we got there, I was sufficiently keyed-up about the whole thing, but fortunately, it was only 10:30 in the morning and there was no wine being served, so I couldn't make too much of a fool of myself again.

Then a funny thing happened. We had a great time! His company was so generous at this picnic. It started with us dropping off our raffle tickets (more about that later) and then picking up the age-specific backpacks they had filled with goodies for the kids attending. Elijah and Micah each got one for the 0-3 year olds, which contained (besides the nice backpack), small toys, crayons, a book and bubbles. Then we made our way to tables they had covered in snacks for everyone to load in their backpacks (pre-packaged stuff like granola bars and raisins and graham cookies). Gigantic coolers filled with water, juice and soda were under many of the trees, and you could smell the food being prepared for the BBQ. While we waited for the food, the kids got to play in an adorable bounce house filled with large, inflated animals, and Mark took Elijah down a gigantic inflatable slide (more than once). All the while, Mark's co-workers were with us, laughing and enjoying the day just as we were. They introduced themselves and told me how Mark was the nicest guy they'd ever worked with (not a surprise to anyone who knows Mark), and that he was such an asset to the team. They made me feel right at home and I was genuinely glad to be there. While we ate lunch, the CFO of the company asked if he and his family could sit with us (Mark is an accountant, so this is a very big deal). I got to know he and his wife and I found myself laughing easily and often. The CFO then proceeded to tell me how valuable Mark has been and I got to beam with pride at the compliments my husband was receiving.

From there, Elijah got to have his first snowcone and participated in his first water balloon toss (which consisted of him laughing maniacally as he threw the balloons on the ground and watched them burst). We also won a $25 gift card to Best Buy and a $200 gift card to Circuit City, so we basically got paid to be there on top of all the other goodies we had received!

All in all, it was a really great day. I met a lot of nice people and watched my sons participate in several fun things. Mostly I was so happy for Mark. He works so hard for our family and he asks very little in return. He is a wonderful husband who is the definition of self-less. I knew he (despite previous picnics) was really looking forward to this weekend and showing off his super cute kids (and I guess me, too) to his co-workers. He deserved a good time and I hated that my nerves might get in the way of that. I am so grateful that God was good and calmed me down so that I could bless my husband with a good day.

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My little blog is growing up!

I actually feel like an official blog now that I have been interviewed and linked to by 5 Minutes for Mom. Click on the button above that they created in my likeness (stop laughing) and see what I had to say (like you don't already get enough of that here)!

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A blessing for your morning......

I was so moved by Fiddledeedee's post this morning that I just had to share it with you all. Her first illustration had me moved to tears as I thought of the God of the Universe taking my tear-stained face into his hands as he forgives me. It's too much to fathom, sometimes. I love her second illustration, also, because it's so easy in life to lose sight of the big picture. As much as I love my boys and being home with them, there are days (or moments of every day, if I'm being honest) where I can feel like I'm just changing diapers and microwaving chicken nuggets. Like the third construction worker in the story, I love the idea of re-focusing and realizing that in actuality, I'm building a beautiful cathedral. I'm building godly men who will be soldiers for the gospel. It is going to be beautiful!

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