Elisa's first prayer

Tonight at dinner, after Greg had prayed, Elisa said that she wanted to pray. So we bowed our heads and closed our eyes once again. I expected her to decide that she didn't want to after all. So I was pleasantly surprised when she started,
"Dear Jesus"
Long pause - I nodded encouragingly at her.
"For the food."
Another pause.
"For Mommy and Daddy."
Pause.
"Amen."

Cutest thing ever.

Greg had tears in his eyes.

Creek Walk

A couple of evenings lately we've gone down the hill to the creek. It runs through campus and it's such a pretty spot; it's a shame that I never took the time to go down there until recently. But better late than never. The other night Leesi really got into it... literally. She was having so much fun that clothes were soon abandoned.

Cute Family

Just wanted to link to Greg's blog where there are some cute new videos of the kids. Check 'em out!

Picnic on the Quad

Before Jonathan was born Elisa and I used to spend a fair amount of time sitting in the grassy area outside our house. We had picnics, blew bubbles, and just generally lounged about on our blanket in the sunshine. We still go out sometimes when the weather's nice. Today we had a picnic. It was nice (though quite windy!), and made me realize that I'm going to miss "the Quad."

Mother's Day Love

In honor of Mother's Day, here are a few links to things you mother's out there might enjoy.

Here's a link to one of my favorite parenting sites, A Magical Childhood. Click on "Poems" on the left-hand side and it will take you to a bunch of great poems about pregnancy, motherhood, and kids. My favorite is called "Birth Story" and starts with...

"Ah, toots, you were a long wait.

All springs I grew watermelon-large

while you square-danced within

and told stories to my hands."

Don't you want to know how it ends?

For those of you with older kids, here's a list of questions to use to spur on conversations during family dinners.

Here's free downloadable artwork that you can print and frame. Cute, fun, and funky. Lots of them could work in a kid's room. Here's one of my favs...

Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mom and mother-in-law. I love you both so much and value your place in my life. I am excited to live closer to both of you very soon!

Jonathan at 7 months and a fairy princess

Here's my cute Jonathan boy at 7 months. This is his normal tongue smile. He's sitting up really well these days, though he still tips over sometimes. He STILL has not rolled from his tummy to his back! So he rolls onto his tummy and then after a few minutes he gets really upset because he can't roll back over! He is really into playing with toys now. And of course, everything goes into his mouth. This past week he has been sick with an ear infection and upper respiratory infection. He's been really unhappy and fussy. But after a couple doses of his antibiotics, he's doing much better (as you can tell from the picture above - taken today).

For quite some time Elisa has been very opinionated about what clothes she wears. Lately she wants to wear dresses and skirts most of the time. She has started making comments about looking like, "a little princess." Greg and I have no idea where she picked this up. We have never used the "p" word! She also loves wearing tights. This outfit offers the best of both worlds... great tights and an attention-getting dress. You may remember it as her Halloween costume from last year. She's worn it two different days this week. And she loves to accessorize! (In these pictures notice the sparkly bracelet on her right arm). But she's not all girly. As you can tell, we were outside playing with cars.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Yesterday Elisa and I went to the grocery store together. I took the back roads because I had noticed there were horses out in a certain field and I wanted Elisa to be able to see them. So I drove really slowly past the place with the horses and we oohed and aahed together. After we had driven past the horses this was our conversation:

"I want to see horses again."

"No, I don't think we'll get to see any more horses."

"Maybe an elephant?"

"An elephant?"

"Yeah, I want to see elephants."

"No, I don't think we'll see any elephants."

"Maybe some zebras?"

"No, I don't think we'll see any zebras."

"Maybe some lions?"

"No, we probably won't see any lions. Oh, look... cows!"

She asked about all these animals in total seriousness. To her, it makes just as much sense that we would see lions on our way to the store as it does that we would see horses or cows. So funny.

And the verdict is...

After much prayer and consideration we decided to turn down the position at SPU. It was not an easy decision to make. There were pros and cons both ways. But I am confident that this was a good decision for us. Of course, now Greg still needs to find a job... so we would appreciate your continuing prayers for that.

Today is move out day for students here. Now that we know that Greg will most likely not be in Student Development again next year, I feel a real sense of loss as I see all the guys leaving. It has been really fun having guys into our apartment on a regular basis. It's been great getting to know students a little bit. I feel like I haven't gotten to be as involved as I would have liked (having two babies and all). But I've definitely enjoyed the interactions that I've had and the relationships that I've formed. I look forward to seeing how we are able to minister to people in the next chapter of our lives.

SPU offer

So yesterday afternoon Greg received a call from SPU and they offered him the position. We have until Friday morning to make up our minds.

Where do we live?

Oh, Arkansas. Wow.

In defense of Arkansas I'd just like to say that I've never met anyone like this in the time I've lived here.

Decisions, Decisions...

So Greg went to Seattle last week to interview at SPU. The position he was interviewing for is essentially the same position as he's currently in. There were a lot of positives... he liked the people, the school, the apartment etc. There were a few negatives too (which I won't go into here). He got back late last Thursday night and since then we have been going back and forth about whether or not we would take the position if it were offered to us.

It's so hard! We really don't know what to do. With JBU, I felt strongly led by God. I think He knew I would need that reassurance from Him because at first after we moved here it was really hard for me. But because of that strong leading, even through the loneliness, I knew that God had led us here and that he had something good for me.

This decision is different. It's a decision. I think we could take this job, and it would be fine... or we could decline it, and it would be fine. It's just a question of what we want to do. And what do we want? For now, neither of us seem to know.