I BELIEVE in Friday Traditions

Every Friday morning our local Christian radio station, Positive Life Radio (www.plr.org), plays their “I Believe” segment around 8:15 a.m. And every Friday I make sure Kendry and I are in the car and on our way to daycare and work prior to 8:15 so we can hear it. This has become our Friday morning tradition, if you will; and even though its Friday and I’m already in a good mood, listening to this segment positively makes my day. I usually tell Kendry “Here’s our song, bud!” and then I crank it up for us to rock along together. My kiddo might think I’m a bit eccentric.

The “I Believe” segment works like this: all Friday morning, up until about 8:00 a.m., listeners can call in to the station and leave an “I Believe” statement. Those statements are then compiled to fit in with the song by Wes King. Its awesome! Here, take a quick listen to the song (minus the statements):

These statements range anywhere from "I believe God will give me a great day today" to "I believe God will protect my son while he is stationed in Iraq" to "I believe my daughter, who went home to be with the Lord last week, is now resting in His arms". Can you see why I love this segment? It brings tears to my eyes every single week. What an inspiration to hear other Christians voicing their faith in God - for the simple things in life, and the profound.

I've been meaning to call in my own "I Believe" statement for the last few weeks. Maybe next Friday. What would I say?

I BELIEVE that next Saturday will be a beautiful day to celebrate Kendry's 1st birthday outside.

I BELIEVE that God will bless us with more children in His time.

I BELIEVE that God is already directing the footsteps of my beautiful little boy, even if he isn't walking yet.

I BELIEVE that my husband is my best friend, an incredible father, and a hardworking provider.

I BELIEVE that my sisters are one of God's greatest blessings in my life.

There is something so powerful about voicing these statements aloud.

What would your statement be today?

For those of you outside of the broadcast area, you can also listen to the Positive Life Radio broadcast online. Maybe if you tune in next Friday you'll hear my "I Believe" statement.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Ten

1. Its an awfully blustery day again here. As they say in "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day": HAPPY WINDS-DAY!

2. The Fashion Police called Wednesday morning. Camo pants, a baby blue shirt with a puppy on it, and Nike tennis shoes? I’ll give you one guess who was responsible for dressing the kiddo that morning.

Lucky for Kendry, camo is essentially a wardrobe staple around these parts. You can pair it with just about any piece of apparel from your closet and no one in this town will give you a second glance.

By the way, thanks for the camo pants, Grandma. They fit him really cute!

3. On the way to daycare on Wednesday morning Kendry and I saw a car with two inches of snow on it. What on earth?! Its nearly May, people!

4. The Gimlin Home Improvement Project of 2010 is painting the exterior of the house...by ourselves. Justin is getting a few bids to see exactly what it would cost to hire somone, but chances are we'll be rolling up our sleeves in the next month or so and taking on the project sans professionals. If you have any tips/suggestions for us, please feel free to share them.

5. It seems like Kendry amazes us each day with something new he can accomplish on his own. This last weekend it was climbing into and sitting down in his little rocking chair (aka Grandpa Richard’s childhood rocking chair) all by himself. You’re looking at one proud little kiddo.

And then the pride took a huge hit with the botched attempt to climb back down. SPLAT! No children were harmed in the filming of this event, folks. Surely rug burns on your nose don’t hurt that bad, do they? (And don't call me Shirley!)

6. HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, PAXTON!!

7. With only two months until our Alaska trip, Justin and I started brainstorming our flight strategy for Kendry the other night. Bring the carseat? Bring a stroller? Crush up some dramamine and sneak it into Kendry's juice cup before the flight? The fact that our kiddo has no desire to sit still these days has me more than a little worried about keeping him tethered for 3.5 hours at 30,000 feet.

8. I'm pretty sure I am WAY overdue for seeing a chick flick by myself at the theater. Good thing the summer movie season is almost upon us.

9. To make or to buy? That is the question. The Supermom in me wants to tackle the very first birthday cake myself - we all know how much I LOVE to bake! But my practical side says to outsource this task. Supermom may already have her hands more than full with the setup and decorations. One more week to decide.

10. I'm thinking to do an amateur 1 year old photo shoot with Kendry on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I'll have some neat pics to share with you next week.

National Infertility Awareness Week

April 24th through May 1st is National Infertility Awareness Week.

Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term after 12 months of trying to conceive. Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system. One third (30%) of infertility can be attributed to male factors, and about one third (30%) can be attributed to female factors. In about 20% of cases infertility is unexplained, and the remaining 10% of infertility is caused by a combination of problems in both partners.

Infertility has a strong impact on self-esteem. Suddenly your life, which may have been well-planned and successful, seems out-of-control. Not only is your physical body not responding as expected but it feels as if your entire life is on hold.



Fittingly enough, it was two years ago this week we had our very first appointment with Dr. Thyer at Seattle Reproductive Medicine and received our first glimpse of hope in our fertility struggle. Isn’t it amazing what God can do in just two years? Our beautiful miracle baby boy will turn 1 in less than two weeks. Nothing is impossible with our God!

Please use this week to say an extra prayer and/or encourage any friends or family members who have struggled with infertility. You may not understand what they are going through, or the emotions they are feeling, but acknowledging their situation and letting them know you care helps more than you know.

If you know someone looking for information and/or support, these websites are great resources:
http://www.hannah.org/
http://resolve.org/

To all my IF friends: you are on my heart this week!

Family Fun at the County Fair

That’s right, I said county fair. In April? You betcha! For those not familiar with our neck of the woods, Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington are considered “twin cities”, being located right across the river from each other – specifically, the Snake River. Lewiston is located in Nez Perce County, where they hold their county fair, like most normal places, in early fall. Clarkston is located in Asotin County, where they hold their county fair in the spring. In my opinion, this is probably done to keep the two fairs from competing with each other. In Justin’s opinion, this is done for the sole purpose of allowing one county to rip you off in April, and the other county to rip you off in September, as you pay at least $8/person to simply get in the gates. And if you have a wonderful wifey like me, who insists on attending each fair, well…that theory might have a bit of clout.

We have lived in the LC Valley for nearly four years now and, until this last weekend, had never attended the Asotin County Fair. As official Washingtonians, I figured it was high time we experience this community highlight, especially since we have attended the county fair on the Idaho side a few times already.

Friday was positively gorgeous so after work we packed up our gear and headed out to Asotin for the fair. And by gear I mean jackets, diaper bag, pacifier, stroller, sunscreen, blankets, snacks, toddler cup, water, and, of course, the camera. Whew! We were ready for a nap before we even pulled out of the drive. But hey, if you’re paying $16 to get your family in the gate (Kendry was free) you’d better be darn sure you have the proper supplies to stick around for awhile.

We ate a delicious dinner as soon as we arrived: greasy burger for Justin, tacos covered w/ cilantro for me, and a classic county fair hot dog for Kendry. While I love that my son isn’t a picky eater (yet), I would not have been disappointed if he disliked hot dogs as much as I do, if only so I didn’t have to tear those yucky things into bite-size pieces for him. Alas, he LOVES hot dogs. Definitely his father’s son.

Then we cruised around to look at the animals: goats, sheep, pigs, etc. I don’t consider myself a city girl, but I always have questions for Justin when we are around farm animals. Once upon a time, Justin showed steers at the county fair.

Yep, thats my handsome hubby as a skinny little farm kid. He looks pretty small next to that steer, doesn't he?

Anyway, this time I had to inquire as to why several of the sheep were wearing lycra swimsuits. Okay, so they weren’t really swimsuits, but they might as well have been. Very form-fitting, not very flattering, revealing every ounce of cellulite - you know, your typical lycra. Justin figured it was probably to keep their recently sheared coats looking nice for show. I didn't take a picture of the sheep we saw, but I found this photo to give you a visual:

Except the ones we saw were in decorative prints/patterns, just like swimsuits. The one in this photo even has a turtleneck! Don't tell me this doesn't remind you of those full body swimsuits the Olympic swimmers wear. Someone should tell this little fella he needs some lycra leggings or all that leg wool is gonna slow him down on his 100m backstroke.

Then we wandered through some of the booths where, much to my delight, I learned that Miche bags now come in a larger size! These are the purses with the different shells, so you can have just the one purse, but with a bunch of different styles for it. I have always wanted one, but once I had a kiddo I realized there was no way I could keep all my things in the smaller sized purse. But Miche heard my dilemma and upgraded. How cute is this bag?!

I know you are not surprised its in animal print. I do have the same genetic coding as one Linda C. Binder after all.

Anyway, then it was on to the highlight of our evening: mutton busting. For those who don’t know, mutton is a sheep. And busting is riding. Mutton busting = sheep riding. You might think it cruel and not the least bit entertaining to watch people trying to ride sheep, except that the “people” riding them are merely 5-7 years old. And trust me, its adorable! The first time I saw it was actually at the start of the movie “8 Seconds”. And as it turns out, I even married a former mutton buster. Albeit, he admits to me he doesn’t recall ever staying on his mutton all that long. Having seen my husband ride a mechanical bull as an adult, this admission does not surprise me one bit. But that’s another story.

The little riders are so brave as they come out of the shoot, hanging on for dear life, their little helmeted heads bobbing like crazy as their mutton sprints across the arena. Then slowly they start slipping off the side and -boom!- they hit the ground. At that point most of them want to burst into tears right then and there - rightly so as they have just been thrown from a moving animal - but they know everyone is watching, so they take deep breaths to hold in the tears and try to smile really big for the audience.

I wasn’t able to capture any of the contestants on video as I was too busy keeping ahold of Kendry, who totally caught his second wind once he was surrounded by all the activity and cheering. But here is a clip of some mutton busting:

Kendry was quite observant of the mutton busting. Could he have possibly been jotting down some mental notes on what to do and what not to do when he takes his first ride a few years from now? We'll see.

He also got to meet his first rodeo clown:

And, being surrounded by cheering and clapping, Kendry finally learned how to clap. We have been trying to teach him clapping for the last few months, but apparently our demonstrations just weren't as convincing as that of the rodeo spectators.

In summation, it was a wonderful family evening - great weather, great food, fun farm animals (in weird apparel) and great entertainment.

Ten

1. I usually start drafting these "Ten" blogs at the start of my week and finish near the end, but the site likes to post it with the date I first started the post, which I really don't like. For example, last week I did "TOF" (Ten on Friday), but it published with Tuesday's date since thats when I first started drafting. Ten on Friday on Tuesday? Like that makes any sense. I know its silly to even bother worrying about this discrepency, but thats just me. So from here on out I'm simply calling these weekly posts "Ten".

2. I'm wondering if eating sticky-chewy Milk Duds in the week following my wisdom tooth removal was not so wise. (Get it? Wisdom tooth, wise? I crack myself up!) Anyway, I may have given myself dry socket. Not fun.

3. The battle is on! Justin's despised little enemy, the back yard mole, is back this spring and already left some fresh holes in Justin's cherished yard the other morning. Not that we can confirm its actually the same mole from years past, but I like to think it is. Like its a neverending battle for turf between this annoying little creature and my husband. Which one will prevail and be crowned king of the back yard? Only time will tell...

Between you and me, I find the whole thing somewhat comical. Just don't tell Justin. It reminds me of Caddyshack; except, of course, in that case it was a gopher. If you don't know what I'm talking about, get yourself educated in pop culture.

4. If only I had bought stock in Robeez and Pediped a decade ago. My little sprout is now wearing 18-24m clothes, and is quickly outgrowing a size 5 shoe. He has outgrown nearly all of the hand-me-downs from cousin Caden, with the exception of a few 3T items to still grow into. Finding more hand-me-down clothes isn't too difficult, especially with yard sale season upon us, but shoes are a different story. Kendry is still learning to walk, so I am a bit selective about which shoes I even want him wearing. The future sports mom in me gets cold sweats at the possibility of deforming my child's feet with cheap shoes, thus derailing his certain future as a basketball/football/track star. But really, its hard to find previously owned shoes in a 5.5 or 6 that aren't completely worn out; the crawling, walking and falling routine of the early toddler really takes its toll on their shoes. On the flip side, why would we want to buy new when he'll outgrow them by summer's end? I suppose this is what they mean when they say kids are expensive, huh? Too bad the price for IVF doesn't include a lifetime's worth of shoes.

The toesies at 1 month:
The toesies now:

These photos probably don't mean much to you, but I love his cute little feet!

5. With the weather getting warmer my new fave is McDonalds large sweet tea for $1 deal. Then my hubby so kindly pointed out that a single cup of the tea probably has more sugar than a pitcher of Kool-Aid. I reminded him he wants me to fatten up a little anyway, so whats a little extra sugar here and there...and here and there...and here and there. In case you were wondering, Justin was wrong; McDonalds.com says the large sweet tea is only 230 calories.

6. The dogwoods are in bloom here! B-E-A-utiful!

7. This week I completed Kendry's photo birthday banner. It is so darn cute! My next project: his birthday t-shirt. Normally I would post some pics on here for you, but I've decided to keep these projects under wraps until the big day. Sorry!

8. Yikes! I turn 30 three months from today! Why, God, why?!

9. Just for kicks, let's take a look at one year ago, when I was still just a young 28:

WHOA! Who belongs to that belly?! Didn't they warn her about wearing horizontal stripes?

10. Bring on the painting project! I am determined to get a good start on painting my laundry area this weekend. Ahhh, tackling painting while chasing after my 11 month old - now that is multi-tasking at its finest! Stay tuned...