Quick Story

The other day I put Jackson down for his nap and came back downstairs to get some work done. I heard him whimpering off and on but stuck to my guns and let him stay by himself. Eventually I heard nothing, so I knew he was asleep. Several hours later, I heard him screaming, "HELP!!! Help Me!!" at the top of his lungs. So I went up to see what was going on and was greeted by him standing on his bed, naked except for his pajama shirt. Upon closer inspection, his socks, pajama pants, and diaper were on the floor.....and his bed was soaking wet. Evidently he stripped down, fell asleep, peed and woke up to wetness which scared him, because it took me about 1/2 hour to get him calmed down. Luckily I was planning to wash his sheets anyway because of his sickness. I wasn't planning on washing the mattress pad and scrubbing the mattress though. Oh and Monkey-Monk, one of his "guys" that he sleeps with, got a nice warm washing machine bath too. Just a quick story, hopefully you got a laugh out of it!

The Sick House

In the past few days, all 3 of us seem to have gotten bad colds. Well, I thought they were all bad colds....some of you by this point have already gotten a phone call from me warning you that my child may have exposed yours to pink eye! So yeah, Jackson had what I thought was a cold earlier in the week, and we noticed on Wednesday before church that he was rubbing his eyes, but he tends to do that when he is sick or sleepy anyway, so we didn't think anything of it. When we picked him up from Puggles, his eyes were all gunky, and to make a long story short, I took him to the doctors the next day and he not only had pinkeye, but a double ear infection to go along with it! I felt so bad! He is one easy-going guy though, and really wasn't acting sick at all. The doctor was amazed that this is the first time he's ever been on antibiotics.

Last night we were still able to go out to dinner for an early birthday date, thanks to my MIL who kept Jackson for us. Neither of us felt awesome so we were back to pick up J before 8 and came hope, all took medicine, and went to bed! Thankfully we are all feeling better today, because tonight is INSOMNIA.... our youth group all-nighter!! This is something Jon and I honestly look forward to every year. It is such a fun night...starting at the church at 830, going to Carlisle Sports Emporium for gocarts, roller skating, laser tag, etc, and then Bowling, then back to the church by 6 am. I am praying for continued healing so Jon and I can both go and stay the whole time!

Here's some pictures of my sweet sick boy....taken today after I put some cream on his poor runny/stuffy/chapped nose. Even being sick he of course still had to be silly for the pictures. He's been in a great mood all day and it is hilarious listening to him singing in his crackly sore throat voice. He is a trooper!

It's The Thought That Counts

The other day I woke up really motivated to be a good wife & mother, get a lot of stuff around the house done, and have dinner made good and early so that i could just pop it in the oven when I got back from my dentist appointment. Oh the plans I had. If they all had worked out, it would have been magnificent!

Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of the morning on the phone for various reasons....MOPS planning stuff, making appointments, etc. (and of course chatting with a friend). I then decided to be a "good wife" and make Jon some iced tea, because I knew he would be excited. (I am lucky that he is easy to please!) I boiled the water, steeped (is that a real word?) the tea bags, added the sugar, and let it sit out on the counter for a while to cool down. I poured myself a glass and put the rest of the gallon in the refrigerator so it would be good and cold by the time Jon got home from work. I had a few more things that needed to be put in the fridge, and as I added them on the shelf, evidently I was pushing to make them fit a little too hard...and all of a sudden, the entire gallon (minus one glass) of iced tea had tipped over and was pouring out. A gallon didn't look like that much when it was safe inside the pitcher, but when it was all over my refrigerator and floor, it looked like an enormous flood. I ended up having to take out 2 shelves and 2 drawers full of food, wipe all the food off and shove it (carefully this time) on one of the top shelves that were still dry. The shelves and drawers were so sticky they all needed to be washed so I stacked them up in the sink and tackled the floor next, while at the same time trying to keep the dog to stop licking it up and running around in it.

After I got the floor unsticky, it was time to wash out all the shelves and drawers. As I stared at the massive heap in my sink, my eyes drifted downward and I had to laugh - somehow the way the sun was shining through all the glass, it had created a rainbow on my floor - God does have a sense of humor! I tried to get a picture but the rainbow disappeared too fast.

Finally after everything had been washed and dried, I could put everything back in it's place. I had to roll my eyes when I saw this printed on the shelf the iced tea had been sitting on originally:

Evidently Whirlpool did not take iced tea tsunamis into account while labeling the shelves.

In summary, the unexpected refrigerator cleaning took me most of my morning. The eBay packages I needed to send just had to wait until the next day. I did get dinner made (a yummy asparagus and chicken casserole) but it had to wait until after my dentist appointment. And thankfully, Jon and I each still got a glass of iced tea out of the day.

PS...the good news is that while all this was going on, Jackson was playing away in his toy room, and only came out to say, "mommy, you made big mess. whyyy?"

2 1/2 years ago...

2.5 years ago I was in the hospital enjoying my baby boy's 1st day in the world! Actually, more than likely at this time, I was stuffing my face full of the delicious hospital food! (Not a joke....I think most people who have give birth at Womens & Babies would agree with me).



Anyway, not my point. My point is that my sweet baby boy is 2 1/2 years old today! In some ways, it doesn't seem possible that it could be that long, but then again, in some ways I can't imagine life before Jackson! And then when I think 2 1/2 is halfway to 5....wow! :)


So for those of you who don't get to see Jackson as much as we'd like....here's what he's been up to lately:

*He LOVES to pretend. And I LOVE to just sit outside the room listening to him making up conversations for his animals or Little People. It's hilarious!

*He still reads like it's his job. His latest thing is reading out-loud to us. Sometimes he makes up stories (and words) and sometimes he has the book pretty well memorized and will and least get the main ideas across.

*Can be heard singing about 85% of the day

*Current phrase: "Two more minutes!" Said pretty much anytime it is time to go to bed, get his diaper changed, etc.

*Favorite song: the ABCs - and many other made-up songs that are sung to the tune of the ABCs, also is enjoying Sunday School songs, especially Deep & Wide...("Deet - Wide!")

More Jackson cuteness to come at a later date, but for now I need to go get dinner ready.

Cedarville Alumni Reunion

On Saturday we went to Blackrock Retreat in Quarryville, PA for a Cedarville Alumni gathering. We had a good time with lots of our church friends who have gone to Cedarville - the Witmer, Nicklas, Feucht, and Griest families were all there. Good food, fun hayride, and a scarecrow making contest....although we were a little disappointed that our Mr. T scarecrow didn't win! Here's some pics of us with Mr. T.... (and note in the first picture, the one over Jon's shoulder is the one that won for funniest. Funnier than Mr. T? I don't think so! Just because it had a Jeff Beste name tag....argh.)

Fun Fort Friday

Since Jon worked long hours out of town this week, he had today off! He and Jackson had some male bonding time while I went to MOPS this morning. When I got home, we decided to go to the Fun Fort. When the Fun Fort was built, Gramps had a fencepost engraved for each of the grandkids. It was Jackson's first time there and of course we had to take his picture next to his Daddy's name!

Fun Family Weekend!

We had a really great weekend! Saturday evening, Jackson got to spend some time with Bobby & JoJo while Jon and I went to our friends PA wedding reception (they got married in Michigan). I was excited to get a little dressed up and go on a date! To give you an idea of how long its been since we've gone somewhere dressed up....we had to go shopping Friday night because all of Jon's "nice" pants have cargo pockets :) Anyway, we had a fun time at the reception and laughed a lot sitting at a table with our friends!!

Sunday we decided to go to Hershey Park - even though it was SO HOT, we had some free tickets to use and didn't want them to go to waste before the end of the season! It was Jackson's first time at Hershey Park and he had a BLAST! Can you believe this kid and how much he loves rides? He officially now goes on rides that I refuse - aka The Scrambler. That's great - my not quite 2 1/2 year old is braver than me! He did mostly the kiddie rides, but his favorite was definitely the Scrambler. I can't believe his size could even go on it, but he could! Jon said Jackson just laughed out loud the entire time! We spent several hours in the park, but when Jack almost fell asleep on a (pretty tame) kiddie ride, we decided it was time for a little break. We went to (air conditioned!) Chocolate World and got a yummy milkshake! It was a great day!!!

I wanted to write a caption for each pic but did the layout wrong....so as you can see...

#1 - Jack and Daddy rode lots of rides together!

#2 - Sleepy guy drinking our milkshake

#3 - Ready for the Scrambler! (Daddy taught him how to hold his hands up on the rides!)

#4 - Almost a Hershey Kiss, but just a Miniature for this year!