My Ebenezer

This time we managed to take a trip to the Fallons' AND get some photos of it! ;)  Here are a few pics from our great time with great friends.

I find it a joy to give gifts to my family.  For months, Noah had been asking if he could have a hat like Robin Hood's. (Think a felt hat with a feather in it).  Earlier this month I purchased a pattern and some felt, dusted off my sewing machine and brushed up on sewing basics (how do you clip a curve again?).  I then made a Robin Hood hat and did my best to make some shoes as well.  Here's a video of Noah opening that hat this evening.  He put it back on after this video and still hasn't taken it off. :) On this day when gift-giving is central, I'm remembering the ultimate gift of sacrifice given by our Lord Jesus in coming to earth to die for us.  God is so good to us, and if I'm tempted to believe God doesn't love me, all I have to do is remember that He died for me.  Point proven.  In addition to this greatest gift of salvation from sin, God is so liberal in His gift-giving.  He has given me a husband who loves me, and a son who is...

For those that did not get our Christmas letter in the mail, it is either because I don't have your address, have the wrong address, or forgot to put your address on the envelope.  And yes, I did that.  For example, I'm pretty sure I mailed Matt and Jen's letter with only their names on the front of the envelope.  No return address, no mailing address.   Yeah.  That's floating around in Postage Land somewhere. :) Anyway, here is our Christmas Letter and photo for those who wish to read it: Christmas 2011 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.” Ps 103:2 Dear            We hope you are counting the Lord’s blessings in your life, and are reflecting on His great sacrifice of love for you.  Would you believe this is our tenth Christmas letter?  Josh and I can scarcely believe that we are celebrating ten years of marriage this Christmas season, but it’s true....

So what did we do for our anniversary?  We dropped Noah off at Matt and Jen's and went to a local dinner theatre!  The Alhambra Dinner Theatre was performing Dickens' A Christmas Carol.   So, see? We did find something that was somewhere between a ballet or a monster truck rally. :) The food was outstanding, and the play was too.  We had been a little concerned that it wasn't going to be worth the money, but it totally was.  What a great way to spend our 10th wedding anniversary!  And here is a photo of what Josh got me to remember the evening by: Two dozen roses and a gigantic card which reads:  "Happy Anniversary, Joanna my wife, my one and only.  Here's to 10 years and forever to follow.  Love, Josh." Very special.

Josh and I have officially been married 10 years--how crazy is that!? In honor of our 10 year anniversary, (Happy Anniversary, Josh!) I'd like to post some pictures from "back in the day"--our early years dating and married.  Bear with me; my technological skills are such that I have to take a photo of the photo, and then upload it.  Scanning is just not in my repertoire.  If you're trying to think of what to get me for Christmas, perhaps a basic computer class would be called for. :)  Raise your hand if you think we looked young. Happy Anniversary, Josh.  You were my best friend then, and you're my bestest friend now, if that's possible.  I love you so much. I'm so thankful the Lord brought us together. Love, Jo

I'm beginning to think Noah was born wearing a gun pouch. Or a sword sheath. Or an arrow quiver. Point is, he's rarely without some sort of weapon-holder on his hip these days. Boys! :)

It's time for another book report of What's Going On Around Here. Exciting, I know! We're getting ready to send out our 10th (tenth!) Christmas letter/photo, and soon to follow celebrate our 10th (tenth!!) wedding anniversary. Stay tuned for fun snapshots of Josh and me when we were twenty-one and the world was our oyster. Followed by pictures of us now, when we're thirty-one and we're realizing how much we still have to learn. :) Side note about getting older: you know the haircut I posted about recently? Well, the hairdresser actually recommended that I start highlighting my hair to cover up my grays. I never thought I would hear those words. *sobs* Whenever Noah hears us talk about life before he was born, he'll say "where was I?" but he doesn't understand the state of not existing. He totally doesn't get it. To him, there's only "when I was a baby" and "now". There was no "before". And then try exp...

It was inevitable. With my last haircut taking place way back in the foggy memories of August, it was either get my hair cut or cut it myself. If my hair grows much past my chin, I start looking like this, only not on purpose: It's what my hair likes to do when left to itself. Don't get me wrong, she was great in her day, but it's just not me. So this morning I marched myself to the hair salon (the bajillionth one I've tried in 8 years of living here--Josh commented to me that he doesn't think I've seen the same hairstylist twice. He's almost right!) and came out with this: *yawns* It's okay . But definitely not what I asked for. Again. AND! This time, the lady cutting it had the exact haircut I wanted, which I thought would make things super-easy. I basically told her, "I'll have what you have." And got something entirely different. Fine, acceptable, but different. SO. I give you an open letter to my sister-in-law: Dear Andrea, ...

Thank you to all who prayed for the second house to sell. IT DID!!! And amazingly enough, it actually closed a day early--yesterday! This is nothing short of miraculous in my mind. If you are aware what kind of market we are in right now, you see how impressive it is for the Lord to provide (1) a buyer (2) with funds (3) who wants to buy our buildings! Praise the Lord! I don't think I should be surprised that all of this happened literally in days rather than months, but somehow I still am. :) Now that the funds are in, we could move right ahead with IVF. Josh and I have decided to wait one more month though, and begin Lord-willing in January. December is already a busy month without adding IVF to the mix. Also, it would be better tax-wise to wait until the New Year (something that had never crossed my mind!), and Josh wants another month to prepare and keep praying for a natural miracle. SO we keep praying and wait to see what the Lord has in store for us! Thank you for ...

We began praying not long ago for the Lord to help some buildings of ours to sell if it would be His will to provide for IVF that way. Well, yesterday, one of those buildings sold! Praise the Lord!!! I am so surprised! Usually when we pray for buildings to sell, it takes months and months, so what a blessing that this one went so quickly! I keep praising the Lord for miraculously working to sell this building. Buyers are not easy to come by in this market, so finding a buyer alone is a miracle. We are about halfway there--we would need at least one more to sell to be able to fund IVF. The good news is, we have one that is supposed to close this Friday! Would you pray with me that it closes and on time? If it does, we would be able to start IVF in January, Lord-willing. It is indescribably wonderful to see the Lord directly answer prayers!

You've seen those t-shirts that say, "My grandma went to the Grand Canyon and all she brought me was this t-shirt," right? Well, I need one that says, "We went to the Fallons' for Thanksgiving and all we got was this picture:" Seriously? Not one single picture with the most gracious hosts in the world? (more on why I call them that later...) I even went through the pics in my camera to verify. Not one picture of people! The table was beautiful, accented perfectly by the pumpkin-colored walls. But we went to visit the Fallons, not their table! (*kicking myself*) You may remember we were invited to their house last year for Thanksgiving (that was when Noah went swimming in their freezing cold pool!). Invited for the second time, we joined them again this year for their Thanksgiving meal. (Pretty nice table, huh?) Only this time we brought someone else's child. Or so it seemed, for Noah was on his Absolute Worst Behavior. When asked how our Thanks...

The following are some photos from this month that were just sitting in my camera. I figured I'd clean them out and post them. This is some of what we've been up to this month. The zoo! We went one Saturday morning before Noah's soccer game. Our first fire of the "winter." And more reading practice. In case you can't see the photo, the chalk sentences on our driveway say, "Noah had fun with Mom." and "The frog jumps up on a stump." Noah loves to practice his reading! He reads sentences similar to the ones above, and is also reading short beginner books from the library. This is such a fun milestone! Right now it rivals learning to walk for my favorite developmental stage. :) On Sunday during church, I passed Noah a note which said, "Sit still." Wow, was I thankful to be able to convey a message to him without talking! Of course that opened a whole new can of worms when he became so thrilled that he was able to read my ...

We had our appointment on Monday as planned to discuss doing IVF again. Our biggest concern right now is the financial cost of it. This is a procedure that costs over $10,000 to do! We are still praying for wisdom, and right now are waiting on the Lord to provide if it is His will that we do this. It would be no trouble at all for God to provide the money upfront if He chooses, and so that is what we are praying. We have a couple of buildings that we are trying to sell. If/when they sell, we could feel comfortable moving forward in the IVF direction. Until that happens, though, we wait and pray. Would you pray with us? 1. For us to have wisdom and clarity of direction 2. For God to provide the money in a clear way if this is His will 3. For us to have the right response no matter what, and especially while we wait. "Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring...

Did you ever marvel as a child if you saw one of your teachers out in public? "Wow, she goes to restaurants?" I remember, at least for me, it was always so weird to see a teacher out doing normal people things. Like there's this unwritten assumption that teachers live at school. Yesterday we saw Noah's preschool teacher at Publix. Noah just stood there, dumbfounded. You could see a thousand questions going through his mind as he contemplated the fact that his teacher goes grocery shopping. It was just funny to me. Had to remember it. :)

Recently I listened to an online message from the book of James about trials. The speaker reminded me that part of what makes trials so difficult is that there is usually a decision to be made in the midst of them, and we don't know what to do. We seek God for wisdom, and God promises to give wisdom "to all generously and without reproach." if we ask without doubting. (James 1:5-6) Well, Josh and I have been seeking wisdom over the last 3 years about how to grow our family, and/or if we should even be pursuing that. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know all about my health issues and also my intense desire to have more children. What is the right thing? What would God have us do? This is such a personal matter, and I don't know who or how many people read this thing, so I'm probably not going to go into a lot of detail about the decisions and variables we were wrestling with or what this process will involve. I did, however, wa...

I have been extremely short-tempered with Noah lately. Foolishness abounds in that child; from using one of our kitchen knives in a saw-like fashion on our dining room table, to bossing me around as if I were his inferior, to throwing a fit about some disappointment, to arguing with me about absolutely everything.... We've had our share of challenges here lately (and all of that was just this morning before Noah left for school!). I sat down, defeated, to read my Bible this morning and these verses were what "happened" to be on the docket for today: "Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures , spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mank...

Check out Noah sporting his new apron from Mom Rowley. She heard me say that he wanted a child-size apron, and brought one to him! Now we can really let the flour fly!

We visited Jen and Libby in the hospital last night. Noah was SO excited to be able to hold Libby (whom he keeps calling "Lily"). I had told him he might not get to hold her, but he was ecstatic when Jen said he could. Can you see it in his face? I always get a little misty-eyed holding a brand new baby and last night was no exception. (When I went so see Titus as a newborn I all-out cried. But let's not talk about that...) Thankfully I was able to keep back my tears this time, since crying in public is not something I enjoy. :)

Matt and Jen had baby #3 early early this morning! Libby Jane entered the world on November 1, 2011 (9 days overdue! But who's counting? *cough*) at 3:33am. She is 7lb 15oz. Congratulations, guys!

This is the phrase that's been singing itself through my head today: "The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives." Name that song. :) I love how the Lord ministers the truth to my heart through song. Can you tell what I've been needing today? I'm praising the Lord that He pardons me, the vile offender, the moment I ask! Amen.

One of Noah's favorite activities these days is for me to write out words and let him sound them out. He gets so excited when he gets them right! Yesterday I decided to start writing a full sentence to see if he could get a whole idea. Now, these sentences are not complex by any means: Six words at most, and usually the words are 3 letters or less. Today I made sure to get a video of Noah practicing his skills on a sentence he'd never had before, "The cat is on a hill."

Over our vacation, I delved into the world of reading chapter books with Noah. The decision was as simple as not having enough room in our backpack for more than a few diversions. So, rather than pack 10 or so very large and heavy picture books, I grabbed just 2 very small paperback books: Runaway Ralph, and Charlotte's Web. Problem solved. Only I wasn't sure if it would actually work: if Noah would sit and listen to a story with no pictures to look at. I had the opportunity to try it on the car trip to Pennsylvania, and thankfully Noah adapted with no problems! He sat and listened to me read 4 chapters straight through. In the days following our trip, we have read the remaining chapters one at a time before naptime. Today we finished Runaway Ralph, and Noah is already asking when we can begin Charlotte's Web! This is so exciting to me, as I have dreamed of the day when I can read my all-time favorite children's book aloud to Noah, "The Trumpet of the Swan....

We returned Wednesday from a week-long trip up to Connecticut and Pennsylvania to visit family and give Noah a chance to experience Autumn firsthand. He's only ever read about changing leaves in books! Here's a little of what we did last week (including several rousing games of Monopoly Deal as shown in the photo above): Lots of dirt bike riding with Grampy. Lots of traveling by air and by car. (In case you're wondering how I snapped this photo while driving, don't worry. I was stuck in a traffic jam. Which brings me to my next item..) Lots of traffic. This was on the way to Pennsylvania. It rained. The. Whole. Way. The sluggish traffic gave me multiple opportunities to take photos of the foliage from inside the car. So what if the window was streaked with rain? Noah and Josh got to explore Penn's Cave near where my mom lives in PA. If you've never been in a cave, this is pretty much what it looks like: Hee hee! Seriously, though, when you could actual...

We have been away on a leaf peeping/family visiting trip up north for the past week. Lord-willing we head home tomorrow. Someday I hope to post some of the pictures I took while we were gone. For now I thought you could enjoy this view from the top of Talcott Mountain in Connecticut.

Courtesy of the rain, Mommy & Noah time was brought to you today by Play-doh, some cookie cutters, and by Mommy's inner ballerina. Sometimes I just can't help myself. :)

Don't we all need to work on being "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger?"

Seeing as I haven't been blogging very faithfully despite my new found time each morning (ahem!), I figured it was time for a news report of sorts. This is a picture of Noah and his soccer team. It is really the only recent picture I have of him. I need to get better about taking pictures. What else is new? If you can't find Noah, he's the one with the drink in his hands, and the shin guards peeping out of his socks. I love four-year-olds. :) Noah's team has lost 2 out of 3 games they've played, but don't tell Noah. He just has fun playing! Here's what else has been going on: I had 3 teeth removed last Wednesday. "Removed" sounds so delicate in comparison to what it was. In my opinion, people should not be awake while things are being extracted from their bodies. Just saying. They gave me Laughing Gas which really, contrary to its lighthearted name, is anything but. At one point they overdosed me and I found myself feeling so completely ...

Normally I'm not a big Dr. Seuss fan. Maybe it's the utter silliness of the predicaments featured. Maybe it's the crazy illustrations. Maybe it's the made-up words. Barring whatever it is though, I picked up a copy of Hop On Pop at a yard sale over the summer. Today we read it for the first time. Or I should say, Noah read it for the first time! It took him almost half an hour, but he successfully sounded out each and every featured word all by himself!! Okay, so he didn't read "Constantinople," which is actually in there, if you can believe it, but all the other ones he did! I was so proud of him!! Maybe there's a little bit of value in Dr. Seuss after all. I know of no other book that puts all those simple words into one (very silly) story.

Does every child feel the need to blow bubbles through the straw into his drink? step in puddles, walk a few steps, and then look back to see the wet footprints they've made? rebuke other people for opening their eyes during prayer? (this is truly foolish!) I was just wondering.

1. Your winning smile and laugh. They are infectious! 2. Hearing, "Mommy, I love you" when I least expect it. 3. Your little hands, still pudgy and dimpley. 4. The way your tongue sticks out when you're deep in concentration. 5. Your quick mind and love of learning. 6. Hearing you sing yourself to sleep at night. 7. Your expressive face; I never wonder what you're feeling! 8. Your desire to help, no matter what it is we're doing. 9. Hearing you pray. 10. Watching you learn and change as you grow.

When I first knew we would be putting Noah in preschool, and the prospect of a virtually endless expanse of time each morning stretched before me, I admit that visions of bon-bons and pedicures danced in my head. Why, with three whole kid-free hours to myself each and every morning, is there any limit to the possibilities? I could accomplish nothing or everything. Visions of bon-bons aside, I went with "accomplish everything." I can't help it; it's who I am. :) The prospect of three empty hours was pretty exciting until I realized that those three hours go very quickly, and are not exempt from normal everyday snags, like forgetting your coupons and having to run home to get them before you actually go to the store (hate it when that happens!). Or the fax machine sticking its tongue out at you and refusing to send the fax (it's occurred once or twice). However, snags and all, I must admit I'm getting spoiled with Noah in school. Don't misunderstand m...

Noah got stung by a bee yesterday on his ear . Youch! Granted, he was beating bushes where bees are known to reside, so in that sense he had it coming, but that didn't prevent me from feeling compassion for him. I've only been stung twice in my life, and they were both experiences I never want to repeat. Poor Noah, this is already his second sting, and strangely enough, it's also the second time he's been stung on his ear! I can't quit looking at it. It's like a car accident; you just can't keep yourself from staring. He was stung on the upper lobe of his ear, but the whole thing has blown up and out to crazy proportions. He reminds me of Dopey from Snow White, bless his heart. Noah wanted me to take a video of him spinning around, so I did, but all I could see was that big ear. I hope the swelling goes down soon--I think he's picking up radio stations with that thing! :)