Birthday Fun

Wow, did we have a good weekend! For those of you who weren’t there! It started off kind of dodgy, with me spending the morning in Urgent Care. Yes, I have Strep AGAIN! Urggg. Luckily, my mom pretty much took care of the whole party, except for a few details that we handled…or I would have probably moved the whole shindig to McDonalds! THANKS OMA & OPA!

It was great to see my cousins (shout out to Michelle, Wendy, and Shawna), who we rarely get to see and all of their kiddos. Luckily, we borrowed a big inflatable water slide from my church and the older kids had a blast on it for hours. Later we quarantined it for the smaller kids, who also enjoyed it.

Isabelle was sleepy from the very beginning, but being the social butterfly that she is, stayed strong to the very last piece of cake was served. And that was a lot of cake. We grilled out, opened presents (of which she got 21…yes 21 new little outfits!! Thank you everyone who contributed to her new toddler wardrobe..she looks darling in what we’ve tried on so far!) and great new toys and other spoils. My parents got her a little oak table, just her size, that she had been eating at the whole weekend at my parents. Mommy and Daddy got her a little pink tea set to go with the table…but she’s not allowed to play with that till she’s older 

But the cake the by far the most entertaining part of the day. We got Isabelle a little cake of her own and she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it at first…then she dug right in! Little finger in it. Then another little finger. Then a chunk…and another chunk. She wasn’t getting much actually IN her mouth..but the pictures were priceless! I think she was trying to shove it in as quickly as possible, sure that this fun was going to stop any minute!

Front Facer

It seems like life is full of first times here! Well, yesterday, to celebrate Isabelle’s first birthday, we went and bought her a front facing car seat! I know the experts tell you to keep them in the rear facing seat as long as possible, but I’m pretty sure the kid gets carsick. She HATES riding in the car longer than the 7 minutes it takes to get to daycare and back…and she even starts to freak out at the end of that ride, usually.

She looks so small in it, but it’s nice to have her facing us! She can see us and we can see her in the rear view mirror! Here is a picture of her this morning in her new car seat.

And a video of her perfecting the art of walking!

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Happy Birthday To You

The time now is 1:33pm on August 8, 2007. At 12:57pm August 8, 2006 Isabelle Agnes Michael made her appearance. One year ago, this very minute, I was still in the delivery room, and just got to hold my darling baby for the first time. She was sooo small, at only 4 ½ pounds, that they quickly put her in a warmer and brought in a panel of neonatal “experts” to check her out. This delayed my holding her for a bit.

For the last couple of days Conrad and I have been reminiscing about what we were doing this time last year. Packing our bags, wrapping up things at home, our last meal the night before with just us. And how wonderfully our lives have changed since Isabelle was born!

There truly is no way to prepare enough for the birth of a child, and I still laugh when I think about people giving me advice before hand: “Your lives are going to change.” Really? Well THAT I didn’t expect (or I should so, No duh!!) I guess we decided to have kids because we wanted change. I, personally, like change.
And change it did. It has been a lot of work. I used to have hobbies. Now I have a child  I used to have free time. Now I’m a mom. I used to have friends (who I got to see every once in a while) Now I have a baby. Small sacrifices in the face of such great investment and reward. We love you Baby Girl! You are truly God’s greatest gift to us!

(This picture is Isabelle this morning enjoying her birthday blueberry muffin!)

Why Do You Serve?

Okay, continuing on in my deep thoughts about ministry, I thought I would tell you some fun stuff: next semester, myself and a friend will be running the children’s ministry at our church. It’s exciting to be shaping young hearts and souls. What a privilege! But my experience over the last couple of weeks has had me contemplating exactly HOW to staff this new venture.

Volunteers are a very unique group, as they are not paid, nor can they (we) be coerced into serving. I once had a leader in church tell me “You WILL do this and you WILL do that.” On the outside, I complied (however unwillingly). On the inside, I thought, “You know, I volunteer. You don’t pay me. You are in no position to be demanding anything.” So I guess my thoughts are, really you have to inspire people to serve. You have to convince them of your vision and then “get them on your bus.” Convince them that this ministry will change people’s life, and that their time and sacrifice will be well invested.

Looking back, all of my years with Teen Mania, the time that I volunteered and the time that I was paid to work for them, my intensity and my commitment didn’t change from one state to the other. And it’s interesting to note that TM always has a boatload of volunteers, in every capacity! I think it is definitely because we are inspired and excited to be involved in such a world changing and effective organization.

So, I know many (if not most) of you live lives of service. All my TM friends and my family who serve in local churches: WHAT makes you want to continually volunteer? WHY do you continue to serve? And do you have any suggestions on how to implement this in a children’s ministry environment? Your input will be much appreciated!!

Oh ya...while I'm in this vein...do you have any kids curriculum suggestions? We are leaning towards Kidstuf, but any thoughts??

Officially Bipedal

Okay, I might as well admit right up front that I looked up the word “Bipedal. ” It refers to one who walks with two legs. I thought I’d title this post appropriately since Isabelle is officially walking! She has been taking a couple of steps here and there for a while, but she took off last week! Of course, she did it while I was at Missions Camp. Write that one in the baby book: Mama missed walking milestone. (I wander if you get tax breaks on savings accounts for future therapy for your kids??)

Anyway, this picture, I managed to snap this morning on our way out the door to work/daycare. I thought I’d like an actual picture of her walking , although I realize it’s not the most in focus picture. More to come, I promise.

Missions Camp: Well, it was great. Seriously, it went really well. All together, we had 80 kids attend. The kids LOVED it and we had great times of worship and everything else. We have tried to strategically use Missions Camp to begin building the children’s ministry and kind of turn the congregations’ attention towards Kids Church and how important it is. That approach seemed to be somewhat successful and only time will tell as we get into the trenches of building a new children’s ministry team.

Unfortunately, I was pretty slammed and didn’t get too many pictures. I am going to try to get copies of pictures others got from Camp for you to see.
Happy Monday!

Hello Isabelle, It’s me, Mommy.

As you know, from my previous post, we are in the trenches of children’s ministry this week. I have been looking forward to and dreading it, in equal portions. Looking forward to it, because I’ve been out of direct ministry for a while, at least since I was pregnant. And I LOVE serving in this capacity. Dreading it because it will be four days when I will not see my daughter or husband, virtually at all. I don’t feel so bad about not seeing Conrad, we can go to lunch together, and he can take care of himself. But I will very much miss my time with Isabelle.


Growing up in a ministry family, this kind of thing was just life. I think from the time I was born, I spent most of my evenings and weekends at church waiting for my parents, or cleaning bathrooms, or getting involved as I got older. So I guess it’s just usual for me to jump in like this. But it doesn’t change my constantly split desire to serve my family and serve my church…in the 3.5 free hours I have every day after work!

Don’t forget me, Baby Girl! I’ll be home Saturday!

Missions Camp Craziness

Tonight starts Missions Camp craziness. This is a missions focused vacation bible school type of ministry that I have done for several summers at my old church. A few weeks ago, I was asked if I could pull one together for the kids during one of our annual church conferences. In weeks. We usually plan for 8 or 9 months for Missions Camp. But, I said yes (what was I thinking??)

Camp has always been amazing and God meets us there. We have worship lead by kids and young adults, and it’s like choreographed dance. We use canned worship, and have movements that go along with it. It’s super high energy and the “teachings” are in drama format. We divide up times when the kids have to sit and be focused with games, crafts, snacks, and fun activities with light sticks and poprocks! It’s really fun and impactful.

The first night is challenging the kids that maybe God has called them to be missionaries. Consequently, the statistics say that most missionaries felt that calling BEFORE they were 8 years old. I hope one day, a few of them will look back at this time as a defining moment in their lives.

I am really excited about the upcoming events…BUT it has not been without it’s challenges. One big challenge was that most of the volunteers were picked through by the time I started organizing the camp. Another challenge was that I keep having key volunteers drop out on me…in the eleventh hour. So currently, I am short on several major characters in the drama…and camp starts tomorrow and I have virtually no leaders available to actually BE with the kids during camp. It will all be fine, just a matter of a little juggling. Such is life in the local church.

So pray for us over the next few days! We are looking forward to God meeting us there!!

Grandchild #2

I believe congratulations are in order to my sister, Jona, and her husband Eric who just announced to us all that they are expecting their first baby in April 2008! I emailed her yesterday just to make sure it was okay to post this…I have been known to get myself in trouble for posting forbidden things in my blog. But you know my life motto, “Forgiveness is often more easily attained than permission.” In this case tho, I got permission!
So this little guy or girl will be the second grandchild on our side and the first on Eric’s side. I got off the phone and told Isabelle to enjoy the next few months as the lone queen, because her grandchild reign will soon end!
Congrats Jona & Eric! We can’t wait to meet our new little niece or nephew!

Accident Prone

Now that Isabelle is so mobile, she wants to explore everything! I try to let her experiment and do as much as possible, without…well, you know, breaking bones, drawing blood…the basics. Since her uncle Hubert left on Saturday and Daddy was taking a nap, I let her roamed around the house…with all the doors closed and appropriate cabinets locked. So, to recap the events that ensued:
• Isabelle pushed her highchair, then fell herself, and cried.
• She put her arm through the wooden slates on our breakfast table and couldn’t get it out…and cried.
• She figured out how to open the drawer on the bottom of the entertainment center, and closed it on her fingers…and cried.
• She discovered the fireplace (luckily it’s summer), figured out how to open the bottom panel, got told no and moved away from fireplace, returned to fireplace, repeat process two more times. Finally got hand smacked…and cried.
• Took her dinner and rubbed it in her hair (her newest and most favorite thing). Got told no. Starred straight at mommy and did it again. Got her little hand slapped again. Cried. Repeat process.
• Followed closely by, taking the same morsel of food, starring right at us again, and dropping the food on the floor. Okay, dinner was over at this point, and we progressed quickly to bath time and bedtime.

Siding and Tile and Carpet, Oh my!

Conrad and I spent the morning at our much anticipated “Design Center” appointment. When you build a new house, you get to pick out all of the fun stuff that comes along with it. Of course, this is where they gouge you. “Sure you bought a new house for a couple hundred thou, but if you want toilets with that..it’s gonna cost ya!”

Before we found our house, we were looking at homes in one area and LOVED them, the base price was okay, and we thought we could probably afford it. When we sat down to talk to the sales lady, she eventually informed us that the LAND that you build the house on, in the subdivision, doesn’t come with the house, that will cost you another 100k. Well….what if I just want the house?? Obviously, we moved on, in our search.

Actually, our builder is much more than fair. One of the deals that they were offering, because of the SLOW real estate market, was a large sum in upgrades, options, and financing. This sum allowed us to (almost) go crazy at the Design Center and pretty much create the house of our dreams. Of course, I came armed with a spreadsheet and calculated numbers. I was expecting some unpleasant surprises, but mostly just got pleasant ones.

Maple Plank Hardwood
So if I were to walk you virtually through our future home, you would see vaulted ceilings, dark dark maple plank hardwood floors, antique white kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, tons of recessed lighting, burber carpeting, gas fireplace, a nice deck out back, a Jacuzzi tub (yeah for me!), and stainless steel appliances. We feel like we made some good choices, but are still waiting on a couple of items that we really wanted, like hardwood in the dining room and a vented hood over the oven. ..indian cooking REALLY requires one of these!

Now the downside: Our house still has not sold. What this means is that all of these fabulous options we just got will go down the drain if we don’t sell our house. I’m sure the builder plans this lovely design center experience in order to make your new home irresistible. I must have it!. I think we felt like that at the beginning. Now, I think we are okay with whatever. Either way, I think we’ll be okay!

Invader

I have beautiful plants outside of our house. They were just prospering in the mild summer weather that we have been having in Ohio this summer…until...this stupid dove decided to nest in my plant. Several times I took the plant down to discourage the bird from nesting there, but low and behold, I let down my guard for a day or two, and it nested anyway! Eesh! Now we have several birds in the nest and she won’t let me near to water the plant! It’s dying a sad death. And what am I supposed to do..kill baby birds? I don’t have a stomach for it.

On a better note, we had our Missions Camp kick off on Sunday and the church responded really well and are very excited about it! That always makes things easier…and…I’m a little light on material this week. It was a quiet weekend and I’m hoping…a quiet week will ensue.

Hide & Seek

Last Friday, since neither Conrad nor I had to work, we went to Amish Country. Before we left, I was ironing and Isabelle was in the kitchen pulling Tupperware out of a small cabinet beside the oven. There was nothing in there that could hurt her, so I let her continue. But before long this is what we found. Isabelle had crawled all the way in there! It never even crossed my mind that she would do this. I guess that’s because I’m a rookie at this. Well, at least now we know where to look if she decides to hide from us

For the next few weeks, I will be ultra busy. I agreed to pull off what I call “Missions Camp” and is similar to a three day Vacation Bible School at my church. Now, keep in mind, when I have done this in the past, there is a team of three or four of us, and we plan for…well, for about 8 months. I’m doing this in about 8 weeks! Eesh! To make matters more complicated, it’s during a big conference for the adults, so many people that I might have been able to recruit as volunteers were already recruited in other areas. But it’s all good! Things are coming together well!

Just say no to picky eaters

I think one of my biggest pep eves are picky eaters. I was determined that my kids weren’t going to be picky eaters. But Isabelle is hilarious. She’ll eat anything that WE are eating, spicy chili, exotic Indian dishes, eggs, cereal, but she hates “baby” food. She tolerated it for about six weeks of her life, then flatly refused it.
I’m not sure what to think about it. I think, that if I were in her shoes and had some good tasting real food, I don’t know that I would want to go back to pureed peas either. My dilemma only doubles when I pack her food for daycare. She is supposed to have one veggie, one fruit, and one carbohydrate. What to pack her? Yesterday, the comment written from her caregiver was, “Isabelle clamped her mouth shut and refused to eat.” Oh no… better read up on strong willed children.
And while I’m on the subject of strong willed children, I should tell you of Isabelle’s new expression of frustration. Lately, when she doesn’t get her way, she balls her hands up in fists, tightens her jaw, turns her face red, and screams. It’s really quite entertaining. She recovers quickly when she realizes she’s not going to get her way. Even if we COULD give her her way,we think it’s best not to train her to do this whenever she wants something. I think a 11 month old that does this has to be easier to handle than a 11 year old who does this!
Child training is kinda fun….

Unexpected Weekend Blessing

I was up haveing QT on Thursday morning and I got a phone call from my boss. She asked if I had been watching the news...no. Well, the power was out at our building and we don't have to come to work. Whoo hoo! It's like a grown-up-but-the-sun-is-shining-and-the-birds-singing snow day. We spent the morning talking on the computer with voice and webcam to Conrad's family in India. They LOVED seeing Isabelle! And generally enjoying life. My sister and brother in law came to visit us, they were in Hocking Hills celebrating thier one year anniversary...Congrats Jona and Eric!

So I got up early this morning to check the news and sure enough...we are off again! This is another of the wonderful bonsus of Conrad and I working together. It's nice to both be home with Isabelle! Yeah for four day weekends!

Baby Work Out

Isabelle is so mobile these days. She’s in to EVERYTHING. If we turn our heads for a couple of seconds she’s found something in a corner that we didn’t know about. We have become very careful about things in our pockets lately, because when you change your clothes, it falls out. But this morning I turned for just a moment to put my shoes on and turned back around and Isabelle was chewing on something. It’s like she eyed it before, slyly waited until Mommy had turned her head, and went for the shiny item. It was a nickel. Urg. Luckily, it was easy enough to pry from her little hands.
Conrad is constantly worried about her getting hurt. So his response: confine her. He puts her in her high chair or puts her in the living room and makes a makeshift play pin with all the cushions from our furniture. The moment the barrier comes down, she makes a run for it. Straight for anything she can push, pull, throw, or dislodge. Her favorite things to do are pull all of the wipes out of the container, push the trashcan to the middle of the floor or push her highchair into a corner.

Last week, Conrad and his brother Hubert had her for two full days while Conrad took a mini vacation to spend time with Hubert. His comment at the end of those days was: “She’s a lot of work.” I think I would say, hats off to all of you stay at home mom’s….it’s a lot more work than going to an office and sitting at a desk!

I Love AC

You know, we grew up with no central air. I can remember some of those dog days of summer. Of it being soo hot that you just laid on your bed in front of the fan, unable to move. I also remember that I loved winter as a kid. THIS is probably why. Houses in Ohio have had central heat for years, but central air, only in the past 10 years or so.
This week or air conditioner gave out. We didn’t sleep well, we weren’t hungry, we just laid around (some of us in our diapers only) all weekend long. At one point, I threw the baby in a cool tub of water to let her splash around for a while. Luckily, it was only a Freon issue and was quickly resolved once the repair man got there on Sunday. And oh, what a beautiful frigid night of sleep it was!

A Wicked Night

I LOVE theater. I think it’s from years and years of doing drama training at Teen Mania. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship. From the summers of my youth training in hot muggy July MIAMI: eating, sleeping and dreaming in 8-counts. Come one, I know some of you remember those days!? Remember you’d be so enthralled in training that you’d get up in the morning brushing your teeth like this?…front brush: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 right side: 1,2,3,4, 5, 6, 7,8 …you get the picture. And who could forget, “La decision eres tuya.”?

But I digress. Thursday night a few girlfriends and I went out to see “Wicked.” We got the tickets months ago, and at that point they were almost sold out, so sat in the second to the back row…WAAAAAYYYYY up in the nose bleed section. I had big tall afro guy in front of me. I had to crane my neck to the left or right , depending on where the characters in the show were. But still….GREAT theater!

If you haven’t seen it. Put it on your list. It’s the tale of the Wicked Witch of the East (in the Wizard of Oz), and how she really wasn’t wicked, just misunderstood. It was great to see these particular friends and hang out with them, because we rarely get to see each other. But the entire time, I found myself enthralled in the staging and dynamics of the performance. Things like, “Wow, great levels!.” I’m not sure what to blame that on, because the story line was very good. Maybe it was the fact that I am now a parent to a almost toddler and have no attention span, or perhaps it is because of the years of drama training. Or perhaps it is because I’m a government worker and we are known to get caught up in minutiae and miss the larger points. Who knows.

And…thanks to my wonderful husband who minded the fort while I was gone from sunup to sundown that day and took care of our little munchkin while I went out to play and have fun! He really is a wonderful husband!!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...oh my!

Wednesday was a unique 4th for us. You know, you feel like it’s almost a wasted holiday when it’s in the middle of the week. I’m still thankful for it, but a three day weekend would have been nice too. Anyway, we went to the Columbus Zoo yesterday. Wednesday’s are half price days and we had never taken Isabelle before. She was hilarious!

Every exhibit we’d go to, she’d stare and start going “ohhhh” Then when we’d leave to go to another animal or exhibit, she’d start crying. The penguins were probably her favorite, as they kept swimming right in front of her. She loved the aquarium too. Since it was hot and rainy yesterday, many of the animals were hiding or hidden and unless they moved, she couldn’t see them.

But when we went to see the Elephants, one big guy was right at the edge where all of the people were, reaching his trunk over the ledge trying to get grass. He was probably 3 or 4 feet away from us. She was totally absorbed in watching the elephant. Of course, most of the time, she was more interested in watching the other kids around.

But it started to rain about 20 minutes into our visit and it stayed rainy until we reached the exit, at which point the sun came out and the birds started chirping. I know, we have great timing. Isabelle was totally exhausted and fell immediately asleep by the time we reached the car. I know the feeling. She slept well last night and was STILL asleep when I left for work the next morning.

Hello Baby, Where have you been?

Several years ago I discovered that there was one Sonic Drive-Thru in the entire state of Ohio. Deep in Hocking Hills in Nelsonville, OH. Every time I drive that direction for a clinic or training I had to stop at Sonic for a Cherry Lime-Aid. I don’t care if it’s 9:30 in the morning. If you are passing it, you have to stop. After all, it’s not every day you get the opportunity for one of these babies.

And now I would like to announce that the southern legend has come to Ohio. We happily welcome SONIC, American’s drive-in to Central Ohio..whoo hoo! It opened a couple of week or so ago, but we just dropped in for a cherry lime-aid on Saturday. We pulled in to construction cones and several little teenagers directing traffic. Drive Thru to the right, Drive In to the left. Twelve to 15 minute wait. Seriously…for Sonic. Conrad and Hubert were laughing at the little servers wearing roller skates. They had never been to a Sonic before.
And everybody enjoyed the Cherry lime-aid slush…particularly Isabelle…who cried every time you took it away!
Just in time for summer…good times.

Abi Da Is back for a Visit

Conrad’s brother, Hubert is back to visit. Actually he hasn’t been to see us since probably last fall. So Isabelle is quite changed since then! I think he reminds Isabelle so much of her Daddy that she took to him immediately. And of course, it’s just another planet to revolve around her star! But she spent the whole weekend tiring her Abi Da out. She’s very active these days!

On Saturday night we went to our neighborhood park and watched the city fireworks display. Isabelle had taken a long nap that day, so we decided to let her stay up to watch them. Now, keep in mind that they start at 10, and her normal bedtime is 7:30…so she was a little droopy a couple of hours before the fireworks started. But we spread out the blanket and bundled her up and she was totally grooving on seeing all of the kids running around before the fireworks. When they started she sat quietly and watched intently. As the display got grander and grander, her eyelids got lower and lower. She was fast asleep by the Grand Finale. But she fought a good fight. Happy first Independence Day, Baby.


On Sunday after church I tried my hand at Greek food. I was most excited about making hummus! We LOVE hummus, especially the stuff you get at Whole Foods. So I got the tahini and the chickpeas and all of that good stuff and loaded my food processor. It was filled to the top and I pushed the button. I could tell that the little machine was struggling. It just wasn’t grinding as well as usual. All of the sudden I felt a current of electricity and everything stopped. I blew my food processor up. So I switched to the blender, which was a mediocre substitution. The hummus was also a mediocre substitution for the yummy stuff you can get at a good Greek restaurant. Oh well. Try try again, I guess.

New Day, New Daycare.

Our week is tracking along. Last night we had a 4th house showing! In five days! We can get on-line and see feedback from the agent and potential buyer. So far, we know for sure two of the four aren’t interested for various reasons. But, like we always say, we only need one!

This kind of messes up our nights tho. For one, we have to run home and get the house ready, and usually be out by 6…that’s fast! And then we have to leave until 7ish. By the time we get back it’s Isabelle’s bedtime. So we usually go to dinner, then come back. I have to say that I am tired of eating out.

On another front: Yesterday was Isabelle’s last day at her daycare. She LOVES Kim, her caregiver, and Kim loves her. The numbers have been slowly diminishing after the daycare announced they were closing. So when we arrived last night there were two kids left, Isabelle and another little guy. Isabelle was sleeping and Kim was hovering by her crib, while rocking the last little baby. Kim was teary eyed and everybody was weepy by the time we packed up to go. Boy, we will miss her loving care of Isabelle.

On the next front: Today was Isabelle’s first day of her NEW daycare. Isabelle was happily oblivious this morning, but I had butterflies in my stomach all morning thinking about the impending change. We pulled up to the church and Isabelle got out and looked around puzzled as to where we were at.

We slowly went in and the place was jam packed, with a few classes of older kids, as I think they have a summer program there. But it is a happy, bright, happening center, with lots of friendly staff. We took her into her room, filled out some paperwork, and stayed a while to chat with her teachers. Her favorite friend from her old daycare, Cheyenne is also in her new class, but wasn’t there this morning.

About 40 minutes in, Isabelle was down playing and smiling at everyone, happy as a clam. She had a moment or two of unsurity, but adjusted pretty quickly. One of her new caregivers, Tracy, was telling us that every other week a lady comes in to do a program with the little ones called “Wee-joicing” and they do worship and praise with Isabelle’s class that involves movement and singing. She says the kids really get into it and LOVE it. I would love to see that!

So, pray for Isabelle today, if you think about it. It was still difficult to leave her. I like her new daycare, but the old daycare was full of friends of mine, people I knew very well. So this is a little scarier for us. I know she’ll be fine. More than that, I know she’ll do great! She’s easy going and makes friends easily, but she’s still my baby.

A Shout out from Isabelle

She's saying hello to her Nanama in India....

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She's almost walking!

Can you believe it??

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Three Down

Today we have our third house “showing” in four days. It’s not that bad, in that 1.) they are close together 2.) The house is already clean from the previous showings, so there is not much to do! There is something to be said for a house that is showcase clean 
On the other hand, we have to live in a house that is showcase clean! Not an easy task. So, we go out to eat a lot. Who wants to cook in a house like that? I al ways figured those beautiful houses you see in magazines and lust after must be heck to live in. After all, it’s a lot of pressure to keep your house that pristine. I am beginning to wonder if my new kitchen looks as cool as it does in my head if I will REALLY want to use it. You know, wear, tear, dirt, grease!? Hmmmm…I hope Conrad isn’t reading this. He may rethink the granite countertops…
I do have some thoughts on home showings. You have to leave your home and complete strangers come parading through assessing your home (not to mention your style, taste, cleanliness, and probably your value system, as in, “Why wouldn’t they invest the money to get rid of these wretched linoleum floors??”) Not even your real estate agent is there most of the time. But THEIR real estate agent (who I will be paying a fine fine price to)is there.
Then I wonder HOW interested is someone who comes to see your house? Is this someone who is just browsing or someone who is a serious buyer? Did they see our home and were wildly interested or did the agent see it fit into their budget and geographic location criteria and shove it down their throats? Who knows?! My friends Scott and Kirsten sold their house on the first showing, with less than one week on the market! Now that’s the way we like it!

Fairwell to Good Friends

For the first six or so years I lived in Columbus, the Lord led me to a small church on the west side called Grace Community Church. The Pastor and his wife were round-a-bout friend from ORU. We had a great time serving together and really just doing life together. And over the past six years or so have been some of my dearest and most faithful friends.

A year or so ago, Conrad and I felt like it was time to move on to something new, but my friendship with them has continued. They were really like family to me. Before I was married and I needed a “rent-a-husband” (to fix things or carry things) Kirsten loaned out Scott (or I guess I should say, Scott loaned himself out!) without reservation and was there every time! When Conrad and I married, Scott performed the ceremony and Kirsten helped me with wedding details. When I was sick or sad, Kirsten was always there to talk or cry with. I have told her before, but I believe that she was one of the truest examples of a friend I have ever had.

I say all of that to say this weekend, after 11 years of faithful and wholehearted service at Grace, they picked up and moved to the other side of the country. Scott took a job on staff at Next Level Church in Florida! I am so excited for them in the next phase of their lives. I love you guys! We'll see you on our next Disney Vacation!

Almost Done Convalescing

Just thought I would let you know that the surgery went well. I was out of the hospital, rather delicately, and home by 6pm. Although I was still out of it for a while! The pain medication was wonderful, until it started making me throw up on Saturday…odd. So I opted for the pain vs. the nausea.

Isabelle is kind of confused as to why Mommy can’t pick her up or take care of her too much. I think this almost cured her of her mommy preference….so sad. And, as I was laying in bed on Friday thinking to myself what a bad time this would be to have a house showing, we get our first call telling us that we have a showing on Sunday! No joke!! So my wonderful mom and husband got to work without me and the house looked great on Sunday! Actually I had no idea my husband was so meticulous when he had to be!

So today is my last day off of work. I was going to go back to work, but after an evening at the mall, having to be out of the house for the showing…I was really tuckered out and couldn’t quite manage it.

Thanks for praying for me this weekend!

Going Under

So tommorrow I go under the knife. Yes indeed, tommorrow afternoon is my first ever surgery of any kind. Gall bladder removal. Surgery at one and I should be home by 6. At least that's what they tell me!

I just thought I'd let you know so that you can pray for me. Oma and Opa are coming down tonight to help out with Isabelle for the next couple of days. I know Isabelle will love it. She's so cute these days. I have been practicing some movement worship stuff for our upcoming Missions Camp at church and she watches me and bobs her whole body up and down as hard as she can. Maybe she'll be musically inclined?? :)

This is a picture of Isabelle and her Papaw Clynis...

Weekend at Oma’s

This past week has been such a whirlwind week! Conrad was out of town so we had to do quite a bit of juggling with my clinic schedule and him being away. So we ended up spending some time at my parents at the beginning of the week and leaving Isabelle there an extra night.

So everyone gathered to see the sole grandchild. I miss her so much when I’m not with her, but I think everyone involved, her at the top of the list, has fun. Well wouldn’t you? They put her on the ground, she crawls about two feet, she sits up and claps her hands and smiles, and all half a dozen people around her, smile, clap, and yell “Yeah!” with her. Every grunt, sound, movement, smile, laugh, and giggle is rewarded with undivided attention and genuine appreciate. She was in heaven.

But I must add myself to the group of Isabelle admirers. I think all of the attention caused a slew of changes in this baby. Let me highlight for you some changes in Isabelle over the past two weeks:

 She went from totally stationary to crawling to pulling herself up and letting go for 2 or 3 seconds at a time!
 She went from goo goo ga to saying, “Bye Bye” and waving, and saying “Uh Oh” all the time!

And, of course, she now has, down pat, the temper tantrum. Head tossed back, back arched, red faced, screaming bloody murder at the top of her voice. An old friend of mine used to call it the “I am God” back arch. So the games begin….

A Glutton for Pampering

Saturday I went and cashed in my mothers day gift for a whole day of Spa treatments…pure heaven. My friend Heidi and I both got a full hour massage, facial, mani, and pedi. LOVED it! I think this really should be something that every girl does on a regular basis…monthly, if not weekly. Do you think Conrad would go for that?

Conrad spent the day with Isabelle. They had some special bonding time…er..well, actually I think she slept through most of the day with Daddy. But she was bright and chipper for the rest of the day with us. And she is such a little flirt. We went to have Dosa for dinner and she just stared and stared at the guy in the restaurant, until he finally looked at her and she beamed her best little grin. So far, she has found to be true her personal belief that the world revolves around her.

At the advice of our realtor, we then decided to paint our master bathroom…blak…nothing is more tedious than painting a bathroom. And it really makes me look forward to a whole house full of white rooms…and particularly lots of bathrooms (dripping with sarcasm). But, the bathroom looks fabulous, despite all of our obvious flaws around the edges. By the way HOW do you paint behind the toilet?? I have no idea! And what is the proper order of things: caulk then paint or paint then caulk? I think we chose the wrong route.

But, it ended up that a whole evening of inhaling paint really irritated my pesky cold and I was up most of the night coughing and hacking. Good times. Overall a great weekend tho.

Pop or Soda

This is an age old question in my subculture. I guess when you have a large group of people from different parts of the country or world, it always comes down to pop or soda. So I thought the below survey was interesting:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Daycare Dilemma, Part II

As I’ve mentioned before, Isabelle’s daycare is closing at the end of the month. We, luckily, got her a spot at another church daycare in our town. But, we also interviewed a stay at home mom yesterday. I think we’ll probably stay with the church daycare, even though it’s MORE expensive than our present daycare and TWICE as much as stay at home care.

You know, it’s just really scary out there these days. The thought that we wouldn’t personally know who’s caring for our child, that we don’t have a relationship with them, that we don’t know who is in and out of their home all day really made the decision for us. I know that scary things can happen in daycare’s too. But at least daycare’s have a certain amount of safeguards in place. This one seems really nice and Christ focused in a lot of ways. But it’s still not as ideal as the one in my church, where I knew everyone and trusted everyone!!

God knows. We do trust Him with Isabelle. We do pray over her daily that she is protected and secure, no matter if she is with us or not. We believe that God will keep her, and she will not be a magnet for the crazies in the world, nor a victim of ANYTHING!

But pray with us, as we walk out this Trust for our Little One and day care. We want a smooth transition from this daycare to the next….and then the NEXT when we move to the other side of town. Wouldn’t it be perfect if someone we knew from church decided to do homecare…AND lived near our house?? Or better yet, Conrad got a bigwig high paying exec job and I could stay home with Isabelle most of the day!

Strep Throat

So there was a notice on the door of the daycare that Strep Throat has been going around…and lucky me, I got it. So this morning I spent with my (Eastern European) Doctor, Dr. J. I really like her, actually. We have only been there one other time, but she was very personable and spent a lot of time chatting with me about my concerns and symptoms. How rare is that these days? That is the sad part about moving to the other side of town…we are going to have to find new doctors for everything! And just when we were getting used to the ones we had!

So a shot of penicillin and some Claritin later and I’m back at my desk, feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck. Good times. Dr J told me that I wasn’t contagious and I could return to work. And I am trying desperately to conserve my sick time since I will be having my gall bladder removed at the end of the month…ick! And as many of you mom’s know out there…sick time is no longer your own. My sick time I now use for my sick child and my “sick” time is spent at my desk, trying to quietly avoid interacting with others.


Strep seemed to have passed Isabelle and Conrad right on by. As you can see, she’s happy as a clam in her new dress, compliments of Grandma Margie.

Future Water Bug

We had a busy weekend here at the Michael house. We started the dreaded house repairs, which ends up, we did pretty well. Okay, before you get too awfully impressed…we learned to spackle and caulk. But overall we were rather impressed with ourselves.
On Saturday we took Isabelle to her first pool outing. We put her in her spiffy new bathing suit that my mom bought her, complete with matching hat (consequently, the bathing suit and hat also match the dress I got her for her first pictures. So yes, you’ve seen it before!). She looked so cute. The water was still a bit chilly, as it’s only the beginning of the season, so she was a bit apprehensive at first. After she got used to the water, boy did she take off. She LOVED it. She splashed and kicked and had a grand ole time. We only stayed for a few minutes, but we had fun!