Smiling's My Favorite

6:42 p.m.

2011-05-11T19:30:00.000-05:00

I have to be really quick, and I couldn't think of a better blog title so that's the best I could do. Sorry.

In the meantime, I have plenty to say about Dawson going to kindergarten, about how I had $75 to spend in Starbucks gift cards and how I need ideas about what to do with my hair. I also have pictures to post but no way to do it. Not of my hair. I mean if I'm in the picture then the picture will have my hair in it. But that is not the central focus of any of the pictures I have to post. I'm just clarifying.

I'm taking donations for internet and a laptop. I can set you up for direct deposit if need be.

I need a vacation.

2011 Rewind

2011-01-12T20:26:00.003-05:00

So far in the year 2011 I have:

Had an eye infection
fallen down the steps in the garage and badly bruised my shin
had an allergic reaction to the medicine for my eye infection
am I allowed to count the flu I had just before Christmas becuase I feel it leads up to the traumatic events of 2011
I actually have to go now and can't finish because I'm supposed to be helping with youth group and I just got yelled at so I'll add the most important:
I told God I plan for 2011 to be a John 15:7-8 year. I want Him to be glorified.

And I'll guess that with that decision Satan decided to work overtime to kill me.

This Poor Neglected Blog.

2010-10-10T18:53:00.002-05:00

Dear Fans:

I apologize for my delay in updating this very scintillating website.

The moment I get internet at home, the first thing I will do is post random, quirky and sometimes disturbing pictures of my family, the boring things we do and possibly my son's poop.

I'm currently at the church hijacking a computer.

I miss you all and have tons of nothing to say.

I hope to be back soon.

Sincerely,

*Joy*

Sold

2010-06-12T18:41:00.017-05:00

I told my sisters I would post pictures of our house. Our illegitimate house because... technically we don't own it yet. But when you're this excited, who cares? By the way, I'm doing this post while watching Phineas and Ferb, so I can't account for anything I write.

View of the front of the house. This is actually a picture of a picture on a flyer. I know, got desperate when I realized I never took a picture of the front of the house on the day I took all the pictures.

View of the living room as taken from the front entrance. I really want to put hardwood floor down. Would anyone like to support us financially in order for us to be able to do that. Seriously, it would be like taking 2 weeks off of supporting QVC. Just send your money to us instead of buying those new pink and white pipeline pajamas.

Dining room. I actually like the green color! At this current time, we have no kitchen table and chairs because we sold them before we moved. Once again, I don't like having carpet where we eat, and therefore would like hardwood floor. It has been stinking cold all day today outside. Sorry, that is completely unrelated, but I felt it was note worthy.

The second view of the kitchen is taken from the family room. What is the difference between a living room and a family room? One thing is for sure, we will not have furniture for one of them. So I guess we'll put the furniture we do have in the room with the fireplace. We have a fireplace! A wood burning fireplace! I am beside myself with glee.

The second view of the family room is taken from the upstairs. We have a ceiling fan! I'm beside myself with glee.

Master bedroom.

5 piece master bath. What are the 5 pieces, anyway?!

Spare bedroom 1 which looks exactly like spare bedroom 2 which is why I only took a picture of one of them. This one will be Dawson's room.

Dawson's bathroom which is just down the hall from him. I'm going to teach him to clean it.

Stairs. Most exciting picture.

We have a basement! The ugly carpet and ugly chair will not save me during the event of a tornado, and therefore they will not stay when I move in. Did you know I have a recurring dream about tornadoes? I'm always saved, but I have to go my neighbors childhood neighbors house and go to their cellar. True story.

And now it's time for pictures of the back yard. Which is amazing!

We have a deck! I'm beside myself with glee.

We have a shed! Jason is beside himself with glee.

The amazing landscaped back yard. Ahhh..

Fence Friends.

2010-06-07T08:50:00.004-05:00

Greg and Gloria's backyard neighbors had their grandkids over last week. One was a little boy who is just one year older than Dawson. Dawson went out to the backyard to play and when I looked through the kitchen window I could see him talking to himself. Now I'm a huge proponent of imaganery friends. But Dawson didn't stop talking, so I was a bit concerned. I went out to hear what Dawson had to say. And then, his imaganery friend talked back. And I heard it! This is when I figured out it was no small coincidence that Dawson was talking with his nose against the fence. Apparently they had been having quite a young person dialogue.

Dawson had the idea that they could play together by throwing his soccer ball back and forth over the fence. So here are a few videos of Dawson with his real imaganery fence friend.

Breckenridge

2010-06-06T07:57:00.009-05:00

Mother's Day weekend we went to Breckenridge. Breckenridge is a quaint little ski resort town. I'm not sure why I said quaint because tons of people go there to ski. But the town was deserted on Mother's Day so I win. As a matter of fact when we first got there, we walked around for about an hour looking for a restaurant that was open so that we could eat. We had to settle for Bubba Gump's.

This is the view of the ski slopes from the lodge.

On Mother's Day we got up early and went and bought doughnuts and Starbucks and then I asked Jason to take 1.7 million pictures of me with Dawson so that he knows I am his mother.

We had no intention of skiing. As a matter of fact, this time of year that we went is called the mud season there, and they don't have slopes open. If you are agoraphobic, this is the perfect time and place to go on vacation for you.

We only stayed one night. On our drive home we decided to go through a town called Frisco and also drive by Dillon Lake, which is the picture below.

When we got home I got to open my presents. One of which Dawson tried showing me all week long. It was a round cement lawn stone with his hand prints in it. And I also got a manicure/pedicure treatment that I still need to use by the way. I should go right now. See ya.

A Boy and His Bike.

2010-06-05T07:43:00.005-05:00

Dawsong recently got his first bike. I know my mom was struggling with the idea of this. She thought he should ride his plastic hotwheels 3-wheeler until he got his license. I can smpathize since that is what she had me do. If i can just say.. I think little kids look so stinking cute in those helmets. He also has elbow pads and knee pads but we didn't want to go overboard on the good parent thing and ruin our reputation. Overall he had a good first attempt. Just a few variations on a theme of frustration. Such as when he couldn't remember how to get the bike to stop and Jason or I had to run in a panic to stop him. And at first the seat was too short for him and his foot kept sliding off the pedal. Then there was the problem of driving straight and not into oncoming joggers. He's actually only wrecked and fallen off the bike once. That's because I tripped over him.

Easter

2010-06-04T22:24:00.009-05:00

So I promised a few people that I would update. So here I am. Although I have no motivation from creativity, only moral obligation. Forgive me if this post lacks excitement or adventure. Maybe I'll throw in a few typos to keep the readers intrigue and suspense alive?

Due to my OCD tendency to post in chronological order, the following pictures were taken on Easter Sunday of my little man looking all grown up.

We talked him into holding his cutest baby cousin Mia. The kiss was staged of course.

After our church service we came home and ate and then Dawson got to hunt Easter eggs.

Has anyone out there ever heard of Resurrection Eggs? Just curious.

We tried getting a decent family picture. Didn't really happen did it? I blame the overall nuance of genre specific problematic sanctions. Because I needed some way of making this post interesting. That's the best I could do.

Spiderman

2010-03-24T07:30:00.001-05:00

A Lesson in Stupidity

2010-03-23T08:00:00.006-05:00

This is the true story of a prank gone awry.
I was unpacking boxes of binders one day in my bosses office. He was out of town on business, but I told him I would take care of this while he was gone. There were 2 large boxes, to be exact, and both were filled with packing peanuts. As the clingy, annoying Styrofoam pieces fell all over the ground, I was struck with a brilliant idea. What if I were to dump all of these packing peanuts in my bosses coat closet, and when he returned the following day, they would all dump out onto the floor and all over him when he opened the door to hang up his coat. Brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant, I say. I had another coworker help me guide the packing peanuts into the closet while I held the box, then I quickly slammed the door shut. Perfect. As I looked around his office though, I saw tiny byproducts of the packing peanuts laying on the ground. I thought to myself, "self, don't leave the evidence lying around! He'll notice something is up the moment he walks in tomorrow morning." So I decided to vacuum. Let me say at this point in the story... in my defense... Even if I hadn't decided to do this lousy stinking prank that I still would have vacuumed his office floor because I would have felt bad for leaving Styrofoam particles all over the place. So I went and grabbed the vacuum. I was nearly finished sweeping when the backward motion of my arm knocked the lamp right off his desk and onto the floor. OH crap! I turned off the sweeper and ran over to the lamp on it's deathbed to assess the damage. There were tiny pieces of the lamp lying on the floor. This was bad. I picked up the lamp and the light and shade hung limp. Let me tell you something. My boss uses this lamp every morning. Right after he hangs up his coat in his closet, he walks over to his desk and turns on this lamp, because he never ever uses the overhead lights. I panicked. I thought through several ideas in order to fix it so that he would never know. I found a lady downstairs who actually had superglue in her purse and she offered it to me. I tried my best to superglue the stupid thing and no matter how long I held the plastic molding in place, each time I let it go, it fell over. So now, I had a broken lamp AND a horrible prank waiting for my boss's return. I decided to be conquered by the broken lamp and give up on that end, but remove all the packing peanuts from his closet. Then my coworker said that I would be an even bigger moron because I would have a broken lamp and no story to go with it. That sealed the deal. Until we realized that the lamp he had on the small round table in his office (where we sit for meetings) was exactly like the one he keeps on his desk! So I switched them out. Breaking the lamp he hardly ever uses was a bit more proper than breaking the one he uses every day. The only problem was, he had the cord ghetto rigged under his desk so that the cord wouldn't hang down, so I had to get the cord back in place just right. Done. I quit for the day, but went home feeling terrible.
The next day, he came in and I was in another part of the building folding mail. So I never got to see his reaction to the packing peanuts falling out, or his reaction when he saw a broken lamp on his table. I walked into his office and he started laughing and asked me what happened. I will say that hardly ANY packing peanuts fell out of the stupid closet! They all clung together in static masses. So.. I explained the entire story and he actually laughed. I grabbed the duct tape I brought from home and he helped me tape it together until I could get a replacement part (which he ended up getting) and then I cleaned up the packing peanut mess. His final statement to me about the whole matter was simply this:
"Joy, there are those who play pranks, and those who are meant to have pranks played on them. You are the latter."

Guesstures.

2010-03-22T06:40:00.014-05:00

Have you ever played the game Guesstures? There's really nothing to be said about the game, or any comment needed. Just watch:

Shake a Booty and Make a Bed

2010-03-21T08:30:00.003-05:00

Dawson yelled excitedly to me the other day, "Mommy! Come see! I made my bed!"

Ahhh. Ummm. Good job?

I wanted to fix it. But I didn't it. I had to leave the presence of the bed so that I wouldn't fix it.

Now, I haven't a clue where Dawson came up with this dance, but he does it quite frequently while staring at himself in the mirror.

King Kong and a Birthday.

2010-03-20T17:01:00.011-05:00

So I never blogged about Dawson's birthday. Just that we were taking him to the place with the scary mouse named Chuck-E (also the name of a movie which would horrify children by the way).

We had quite the adventure at that germ infested place though.

Check out Dawson's skeeball skills:

I love how excited he gets about this game. After a while, Jason took Dawson to play games while I ran around the place looking for tickets that kids had left behind. Dawson got one extra tootsieroll because I did that.

There is one new game there (I say "new" like I'm a Chuck-E Cheese connoisseur) that is called King Kong something. I actually don't remember the title of the game. But the all you do is hold the handles while the whole machine vibrates. And when the game is over, your hands itch. Jason thought it would be lovely to video tape me doing this:

Of course we took Dawson to Germ E. Cheese on his actual birthday, which was a week night. So we decided to celebrate his birthday and open presents that weekend with family. He fell asleep waiting for everyone to come over and celebrate. Who has ever heard of that? I can't sleep for DAYS before my birthday. That's how excited I am.

I realize the picture is fuzzy. Our camera is broken. We have a set up a "Replace the Broken Camera" fund to which anyone can donate.

Birthday time!

♥MIA♥

2010-03-07T16:43:00.007-05:00

My beautiful sweet precious baby niece, Emelia ("Mia") Noel Davis, has made her debut. Born on March 4th at 7:45 pm. 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. You can ask her mommy how long labor was. I'm pretty sure it was like 1.9 million hours of labor. This tiny little thing kept me in suspense all day long! That should be illegal. Someone should get arrested for that. Hello Mia. We've waited at least 9 months and 1.9 million hours for you.
The other day on my way to drop Dawson off at daycare, we were talking about one of his friends who has an older brother. Dawson likes the idea of having an older brother. He said "Mommy, when Mia comes out of aunt Nessa's tummy, will she be my big brother?". Politely I told him no and that she would be his cousin. He had nothing to do with that nonsense and threw a fit the likes of which no parent should ever see. So I conceded and told him that indeed, Mia would be his big brother. I figured I'd let his dad explain that one. I needed to drive.
I wondered how Dawson would do with her when we went to the hospital. He was pretty enthralled. He kept wanting to touch her, but he was very gentle. I asked him if wanted mommy to have one of those someday and he said Yeah. I said "a girl?" No. A boy. But I'm not letting Dawson decide. I will decide.

Dawson spent about 2 minutes with Mia and then spent the rest of his time touching other things in the hospital room he had no business being around. I'm hoping the hospital staff didn't notice that he took the blood pressure gauge off the hook on the wall and tried to flush it down the toilet. that didn't really happen. But it could have.

I couldn't believe how much Mia kept her eyes open. And her cute little nose..Ahhh. What a sweetie.

We love you Mia!

Be a good big brother okay?

Love,
Aunt

Variations on a Meme

2010-03-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater? To Save a Life. Which I saw with our youth group and I ate popcorn. I usually smuggle in candy but since I was with the youth I decided to set a good example.

What Book Are You Reading? I'm currently reading the bible in chronological order in one year. I'm nearly 6 months behind and still confused about the chronology but it's a good read.

Favorite Board Game? Apples to Apples unless I'm playing with Dawson in which case then it's Candyland. He thinks he can skip ahead on the path though and I hate when people cheat.

Favorite Magazine? It's a toss up between Smithsonian and National Geographic.

Favorite Smells? Wood burning, rain, chocolate, and Men's "Happy" by Clinique.

Favorite Sounds? Dawson laughing. Worship music. Jason playing piano. I actually like hearing the sweeper at work because white noise makes me happy.

Worst Feeling In The World? Fear. Next to that is when I've made a mistake and I'm going to have to exlain it. Like when I broke my boss's lamp at work. (story coming soon).

First Thing You Think of When You Wake? I don't want to exercise! Then it's " Good morning God".

Favorite Fast Food Place? Taco Bell

Future Child’s Name? For a girl, it's Annalia Joy, for a boy it's maybe Joel or Jakob? Something Jewish sounding.

Finish This Statement —“If I Had a Lot of Money,” I'd pay off debt, give money to my family and go on a cruise. Forever.

Do You Drive Fast? Do police officers read this? No more than 7 over.

Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal? No. And I would find it disturbing if I were to answer yes.

Storms—cool or scary? Awesome. Unless I'm driving in one. Then I panic. And pee my pants.

What Was Your First Car? A white Chevy Celebrity which broke down on a major highway at 9:00 at night one week after I got it.

Favorite Drink? Pepsi in a can.

Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…” Cook. And read. And sleep.

Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli? Raw, No. Steamed, Yes. Quirky-I know.

If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be? Caribbean Caramel.

Name All the Different Cities In Which You Have Lived. Wawaka, Mishawaka, Ligonier, Colorado Springs.

Favorite Sport to Watch? Football.

What’s Under Your Bed? Jason's crap.

Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again? I certainly don't want to be born as Marilyn Monroe or a serial killer.

Morning Person or Night Owl? Neither. Leave me alone in the morning, and let me go to bed at 9:00 p.m.

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up? Sunny side up.

Favorite Place to Relax? The bathroom. It's the only place I can find privacy if I lock the door. Maybe not. Probably bed.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor? Chocolate Chip Mint.

And that is it for this Meme. My friend Mindy knows I can't resist these so I copied it and pasted it here from her blog. I'm going tag any person who owns a blog that still reads this one. That really narrows it down.

Bad Hair Day.

2010-03-01T13:00:00.004-05:00

Dawson's Day Out.

2010-02-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

Grammy G and Grandpa watch Dawson for us on Mondays. This makes me incredibly happy because I already feel guilty enough that he is in daycare at all. Knowing he gets to stay home one day a week brings sanity to my discombobulated motherhood.

On this particular Monday, Grammy G and Grandpa took Dawson to the Denver Children's Museum. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of stories to go with the pictures. Usually I talk too much anyway, so this is your opportunity to see more pictures with less commentary. Unless I decide I want to interject something, in which case.. too bad for you. Personally, I think this picture above with him in his fireman outfit is rather adorable.

So without further adieu, here is the evidence of his stupendous day.

He seems so excited to be that tall.

He'll feed strangers, but not for free.

Little bossy butt girl thought she should be cashier.

Bonding with Icing.

2010-02-27T11:51:00.008-05:00

I couldn't very well use "Decorating Christmas Cookies" for my title for 2 reasons. #1. It's too boring. #2. I think I used that title last year.

The other tradition we have in our household is to decorate Christmas cookies. You can be sure, this is my last Christmas post and I'm psycologically ready to move on.

The mentally disturbing cookies were decorated by Jason and Steve. The cookies I decorated ended up being gloppy masses of frosting with a bad attempt at food art. But Food Network could still take some valuable tips from me. Such as never let your 3 year old hold the bottle of sprinkles to decorate his cookies.

Dawson helped Grammy G make peanut butter blossom cookies. His role was easy. Just unwrap the Hershey kisses and put the chocolate in a bowl. You can tell by his concentrated look that he was up to this challenge. As a matter of fact, I secretly kept taking the kisses he unwrapped out of the bowl and re-wrapped them.

Where Was I?

2010-02-26T19:29:00.027-05:00

Do any of you remember December 25, 2009? (Look Michelle! I fixed it just for you!) Because I’m about to inform you of what happened on that day in our household. I have to do this due to my compulsion to be chronological. I cannot move forward without back posting. It’s nature’s way.
So,
Dawson managed to sleep in on Christmas morning. No getting up at 2 a.m. and sneaking downstairs to open presents then re-wrap them like Jason used to do. I kind’ve wish he had in a way though, because that would add so much to his already sporadic personality.
It’s a tradition that we get pictures on the stairs when we all get up and get ready to eat breakfast then open gifts. I made Dawson pose a thousand times. He did fairly well, considering the fact that he was showing great restraint to get down the steps and rip into his presents. Actually, I’m probably worse about that than he is.

Then I had him pose in front of the tree. Pure torture now. The presents were within arm’s reach. Then I made him wait while I opened a present first. KIDDING.

But wait. Now it’s time to get FAMILY pictures. Oh yeah. We don’t mess around on Christmas.

Now it’s time to open presents. That feels quite funky to type out in February.

I do have to tell you that I'm most proud of my water bottle that Jason got me for Christmas. Do you know that just about ALL of my coworkers own one of those? Yeah. It was peer pressure that wreaked havoc on my Christmas wish list this year.

The bombdiggity of all gift bags I set before you:

And..

A video of a Christmas boy's dream come true:

Documentary of a 4 year old.

2010-02-18T18:56:00.004-05:00

Today is Dawson's birthday. I didn't think I would be emotional for the year four. Why should I be emotional, I mean it's after 3 and before 5. There's nothing to it. But last night when I put him to bed I actually cried a little. Not enough to constitute a breakdown though. Just enough to show that I'm a little bummed about him growing up. I think that's a healthy dose of depression.

This morning I had to assure Dawson 3 times that he was really and truly 4 years old. He said, "but mommy, I'm not 3, I'm 4? Today I'm 4?" "Yes Dawson." (say that 3 more times in order for the whole scenario to have the full effect).

I've got to keep this one short because we're headed to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate as soon as Jason gets home from work. So I'll leave you with this story:

I bought cupcakes for Dawson to take with him to school today. When we were ready to leave, he ran downstairs, grabbed the container of cupcakes, turned them upside down and declared he would carry the cupcakes out to the car. Then he tilted them at an angle and headed out the door.

How the West was Won: Part II

2010-01-24T21:21:00.004-05:00

Now then…here’s the rest of the story…sorry it has taken me so long to get this out!

Our trek out West was flawless. Praise God! When you’re driving over 1,200 miles with a caravan that includes a car, a 26 foot U-haul pulling a car trailer with a Jeep, and a very active 3 ½ year old toddler, there is enormous potential for something to go wrong. Once we arrived in Colorado Springs, the “God things” started to roll out. Aside from our safe journey, our first praise was the fact that we didn’t have to rent an expensive storage unit for all of our stuff like we had anticipated! Crazy as it sounds, every single thing that we own actually fit in my parent’s basement! We couldn’t believe it! My parents couldn’t believe it either! Actually, I think that their disbelief stemmed more from the reality that they now no longer had a basement! Thanks to God…and my parents…we were able to save a lot of dough…especially helpful considering that we no longer had jobs!
God certainly has the ability to work in the seemingly little things like this. But what really makes God amazing is His ability to work in the big things…and now that we were finally out West, the biggest thing facing us was the reality of having to find new jobs. This is where the really amazing “God stuff” begins!
From the beginning, Joy and I both had a hunch that she would have a better chance of finding a job first! And we were right! Joy was getting calls and interviews left and right! As it turns out, Joy received a very decent offer to work at International Bible Society and accepted it. In all honesty, though, she wasn’t crazy about the job. She was glad that she’d be working for a Christian ministry and that we’d be able to have decent health insurance, but the pay wasn’t the greatest, the hours weren’t ideal and the job itself was something she just she wasn’t elated about.
So then, here’s the cool thing about Joy’s job story. The Thursday prior to her starting week, she received a call out of the blue on her cell phone from a guy she didn’t know who worked for a organization she had never heard of! I remember watching her during that phone call and seeing how confused she looked. Well, to make a long story short, this guy wanted to know if Joy would come in and interview for a job that would soon be vacant because the current person in the position would be leaving to go overseas for missions work. Remember now, Joy had just accepted the job with International Bible Society and was supposed to start in just a few days. She explained all of this to the gentleman, but he was still quite persistent that she should come in to interview and at least give it a chance. Somewhat reluctantly, Joy agreed and the rest is history. As it turns out, Joy was offered a job with this ministry called the Alliance Development Fund. ADF is a branch of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denominational headquarters. My mom and sister work at the C&MA headquarters, but the ADF is an entirely separate entity. Joy ended up accepting this job, and here’s the cool “God stuff” about this story…
The guy who called her had somehow gotten a hold of her resume through the “grapevine”, but it wasn’t through my mom or my sister like you might have expected. To top that off, he wasn’t even aware of the fact that we had just moved to Colorado! And as if that wasn’t enough…everything about the job was all around better than the IBS job! The pay was better, the hours were better and the benefits were killer! By killer benefits, I’m talking full medical, dental and vision…and all for less than $13 bucks a pay check!!! That’s right…$13 bucks a pay check! Wow! We would have had insurance with the IBS job, but the pay there was less and the benefits were much more expensive. Well, all of this was “double wow”, especially given the fact that our insurance carried over from Joy’s previous job at Dekalb was soon to be up the end of September. Though it was a very tough thing for her to do, Joy ended up calling off the job with International Bible Society, taking the job with ADF; which meant that we were fully insured right before the end of the month…just when our old insurance ran out! Prior to this, we had been fully prepared to either go without benefits altogether or possibly try shopping around for a cheap-o high deductible plan. God is so good! His timing is so perfect! Funny thing about all this...we’ve actually never had dental and vision insurance before! It was always so expensive back in Indiana! And the even cooler thing about it all is the fact that exactly one week after Joy started this job with the ADF, I had a very unexpected visit to the ER! It’s a super long and crazy story, but Joy and I just thought it was so amazing given the fact that had we not been well insured during this time, we would have been out a whole lot of dough!

So then, that’s Joy’s cool God story…now on to mine!

Ever since the day we officially sold our house, I had frantically been looking for jobs! After a while, it seemed that looking for a job actually became my new full-time job! Needless to say, I started to get a little frustrated. There were plenty of jobs out there, but it was tough because of several different reasons…Number one – I really didn’t want to take any old job, but I was certainly prepared to do so. I knew that it might take some time, but in my heart I wanted everything to fall into place right away. Number two – of the jobs that I was actually interested in, I was getting very little or no response at all. I’m telling you, I think just about every business and organization in Colorado Springs had my resume and application on file!

Eventually, I started to get some attention and all of the sudden I found myself in contact with several different places at once. There were several possibilities. MCYM (Military Community Youth Ministry) had an opening for a ministry director position with the Air Force Academy. This sounded pretty cool. I even took some time to have breakfast with a guy from MCYM to talk things out. MCYM is actually an affiliate of Youth for Christ and Young Life, so the work would have been pretty similar to what I had done with YFC. Another possibility was a job with Mission of Mercy. Mission of Mercy is a local non-profit which is basically like a small scale version of Compassion International. My initial interview for this position went extremely well and so it seemed like this was also a good possibility. Along with MCYM and Mission of Mercy, I was also in the interview process with a local church regarding a youth ministry position. And as if I didn’t have enough irons in the fire already, I was also in contact with two different Christian camps!

Needless to say, my head really started to spin a little with all of these “potential” jobs that I was juggling! All of these options seemed like decent ones, but to be honest, I was having a very difficult time trying to discern which direction God was taking me. It was all sort of humorous, because up until this time, I was stressed out and frustrated because I wasn’t getting any interviews at all. Now all of the sudden I had five different opportunities all at once! It was actually a very difficult time for me! I was very torn! My heart was extremely heavy as I prayed, earnestly seeking God’s direction for His will.

Well, during this time, like Joy…it so happened that I got a very random call of my own! While going through my usual daily routine of surfing the net for jobs one morning I got a call from Compassion International. The lady on the other end asked if I’d be interested in coming in for an interview for a temp job. She explained that they were looking to fill the position very soon. Her call kind of caught me off guard! Reason being…I can’t for the life of me ever remember applying for this particular job! I had applied for other jobs at Compassion…and received the usual rejection letters…but I just can’t recall having applied for this particular one. The main reason especially being that it was only a temp job…which means not so great pay and no benefits…not even paid days off!

Like I said, I had applied for several jobs at Compassion before. My interest in Compassion actually sparked when I had the privilege of hearing Wes Stafford (Compassion’s President) speak at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit back in August while I was still working with YFC. His story tore my heart and had me in tears! On the way out of the conference that day, they handed us a copy of his book, “Too Small to Ignore”. After hearing his testimony and after reading through the book, I started to think in the back of my mind how awesome it would be to work for such an incredible ministry like Compassion and for such an incredible guy like Wes Stafford!

Well, as I soon discovered, Compassion was an impossible place to get into! I received a whole slew of rejection letters which made it a point to constantly remind me of this fact! On those rejection emails that they give you they tell you how they receive over 10,000 applicants each and every year! 10,000!!!! Wow! So when I got the call about this temp job, although I wasn’t crazy that it was a temp job, I was elated! I was excited because…number one-at least I could jump into this job and it would tide us over while I was still looking for something else full-time. And number two- I would get a chance to check Compassion out and at least get my foot in the door!

So long story short…I interviewed, got the offer and ended up taking the job! I started with Compassion mid-October. During this time I was still in process with the other opportunities that I mentioned earlier. Compassion knew this up front and they were very supportive this way…knowing that I really had to find something full-time.

I was very grateful for the job! The work was very different from what I was used to with YFC, but God was so good! He placed me on the best team in the entire office! Although it was a temp job and the work took some getting used to, I grew to love the job and the team that I was a part of! I looked forward to going to work every day! I was so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of such an incredible ministry! God was good! I could have landed a job somewhere totally different, like Starbucks or who knows where else until I found something else full-time, but God placed me at Compassion. I was so grateful!

Like I said earlier, while at Compassion I was still in “process” with five other places. My level of stress about the situation continued to escalate and it remained a very difficult time. The church I had been interviewing with was very interested in bringing me on board. Joy and I even took one Sunday night to meet with the youth group and more or less candidate. The opportunity seemed very promising. But after much prayer and consideration I made the decision to call the whole thing off. There were just some things about that position and the church that I couldn’t quite come to terms with in my heart and spirit. This in itself is whole other story which I won’t dive into on this post.

The Mission of Mercy job was still on the radar and seemed promising. I was called in for the second and final interview. Well, I thought the interview went well, but I ended up not getting that job. I was a little disappointed about this one, but looking back; I can totally see God’s provision and will with this. I was still in conversation with the guy from MCYM, but eventually called that one off as well. MCYM is a great ministry, and the position was very similar to what I was doing with YFC, but like the church position, there were just some things in my heart and spirit that I didn’t feel a peace about. Thankfully I still had the possibility of the two camp positions. I was very interested in both opportunities, but eventually those two fell through as well. This was actually a good thing seeing how both camps were located in California! Needless to say, my family here was not very excited about that! I think they were very relieved to finally here that both of those positions had not panned out.

It seemed like nothing was working out! I still had my temp job at Compassion, but we weren’t going to be able to make it on that! About a month or so into my time at Compassion, I actually had a very positive interview for a position within. I had found the position posted internally, talked to my supervisor about it and got the green light to apply. I thought that this position was a good fit and it really seemed like God was opening some doors for me this way. Then I landed a second interview. The interview went well, but a few days later I was notified that I did not get the job. Wow! I was absolutely crushed! After this blow, I felt completely and utterly hopeless! Joy and I didn’t know what to think. Although we’d only been out here for a little over two months, we started to wonder if I’d ever find something good full-time.

After this last defeat, I basically resigned all my hopes and told God that I was done trying. I didn’t know what to do. If God was going to do something, He was going to have to work a miracle! Funny thing is, prior to our selling our house and moving out here, I remember journaling one day and basically telling God that if we were to move out here and find new jobs, I wanted Him to do a work in our lives in such a way that it was undeniably all Him. I was basically asking God for a miracle! I had been reading through the Old Testament at the time and was working through the all the miracles that God had performed for the Israelites during their exodus journey from Egypt. I found a new appreciation and fascination for these stories and was taken aback by the miraculous ways God had shown himself to His people time and time again. Although they later doubted and lost sight of God, the Israelites witnessed many incredible “God things”. These things set God apart from all other gods and set the Israelite people apart from all other nations. I wanted God to work in our lives the same exact way! So, setting myself, my pride and all my doubts aside, I started to pray this way again.

Although it certainly wasn’t easy, I committed daily to place all my fears and uncertainties in God’s hands. A month and a half soon passed since my last big defeat, but I began to find myself more and more at peace about the situation. From time to time, people at work or church would ask me how I was doing. I was able to share with all sincerity of my heart and spirit the peace I now had and how I knew that God was ultimately in control.
Then…out of nowhere…without anything of my own doing or trying….something really awesome began to unfold! I had just returned to work from a Christmas lunch with Joy’s company when my boss, Shelly, asked if she could meet with me. I wasn’t sure what to think! I didn’t remember doing anything particularly stupid that week, so I hoped I wasn’t in trouble! Well, long story short (I know…I keep saying that) Shelly told me about this job that she really wanted to encourage me to apply for! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I remember the chills of excitement as she began telling more about the opportunity and the whole story behind it.

Before I tell you more, however, you have to know a little history. As it turned out, on my very first day at Compassion I sat through long meeting where they announced a major, just-released, divisional restructuring. At the time, I obviously had no clue what they were talking about. Actually, I remember Doug (who was in charge of the meeting) looking over at me every now and then with this sympathetic grin as if to say to me, “Jason, I’m so sorry…I know you have absolutely no clue what’s going on here…welcome to your first day at Compassion!”

Well, I hadn’t given much thought about the restructuring until Shelly asked to meet with me and began to tell me how it actually tied into this opportunity she was telling me about. Shelly explained that with the restructuring, a brand new position had been suggested and was in the works. The position was with the LDP program arm of Compassion and was a supervisor position! LDP stands for Leadership Development Program. LDP works with post child-sponsorship kids around the world who exhibit leadership potential and who wish to pursue a university degree in their home country. The hope of LDP is to one day have a student who will be the leader of his or her own country!

Well, up until now, the position had only been an idea and was still in process. But Shelly had just received the word an hour earlier that it was official and had just been posted! Then Shelly proceeded to tell me the story about the moment she had first got wind of this position possibility. Completely unknown to me, only a week into my employment with Compassion, Shelly had heard about the position and actually recommended me for the job! I was cracking up, because she told me how she had called Brenda (who was going to be the new LDP Director) about me while she was at the airport leaving for her vacation! When she returned, she later passed my resume and information to Brenda. Like I said, all this had been going on ever since my very first week of work…and I had absolutely no idea! The reason Shelly hadn’t told me anything before this was because the position hadn’t yet been declared official.

The other cool part of this story is this…during my orientation at Compassion, when I first heard about LDP ministry, it was something that really caught my attention and heart. Funny enough, I even remember thinking after my last job defeat that I would maybe talk to Shelly and just tell her that if anything were ever to come open with LDP that I would be extremely interested! Up until this point, I had absolutely no idea that this job even existed…and let alone that Shelly had already put my name in the hat!

Well, once again…to make a long story short…I interviewed for the position and ended up getting the job! I couldn’t believe it! But here’s where the “God things” get really, really cool!!! When Brenda called me in to tell me that I had been selected, we talked about some of the job details for a little bit and then she said, “now…can I tell you some really cool God stuff about this whole thing?” My eyes got really big and I started to get goose bumps! It was then that Brenda proceeded to tell me some more “behind the scenes” about this whole thing. As it turns out, prior to the job being official, and prior to ever knowing about me, Brenda had been in conversation with three different people internally about the possibility of this job. Then Brenda told me how, one by one, each person had decided to decline her offer. By the third person, Brenda said she was ready to give up! It was then that she literally told God, “Lord, I give up…you’re just going to have to bring me someone for this position!”

Well, the last person Brenda had talked to about the position was Carol. Carol actually happened to be on my team. It was after Carol’s decline that Brenda said she gave it up to God. Carol later told me that she prayed and prayed about it, but just did not feel God’s peace…so she turned it down. Well, here’s the cool thing. The very next day after Carol had turned down the position, she heard me tell my story and background at our team meeting. It was after this that Carol rushed to Brenda and told her about me and basically said, “I think I have someone that would be a great fit for this job!” Then Brenda told me how she had gotten a hold of my resume from Shelly and even how there were several times she had wanted to talk to me about the job, but couldn’t. Brenda shared that, in looking back, she really felt that God had brought me to her at the perfect time.

I remember sitting there in Brenda’s office. I couldn’t believe my ears! My goose bumps disappeared and soon tears began to roll down my cheeks instead. I was a little embarrassed that I was crying in front of Brenda, but I couldn’t help it! I was so completely in awe of the way God had been working all this time…and all this time…totally unknown to me! I’m actually getting teary eyed just thinking about it again right now!

Wow! Isn’t God absolutely amazing??? He answered our prayers! He worked in such a way that all credit and glory can only be given to Him and Him alone…just like I prayed!

As part of my prayers… way back before all of this unfolded, I remember also asking God to do things in such a way that He would give us an incredible story to tell! Well…He has certainly done just that! I wanted God to give us a story, not just for our benefit, but for His benefit and for yours!

The Israelites served a God like no other gods! I’m so humbled to know that I serve and have a relationship with this very same God!

…Lord, I love you! You are absolutely amazing! I’m sorry for the times I doubted you. I’m sorry for the times I tried to do things with my own hands. You were working the entire time…when I had no idea and even in the midst of my total lack of faith. Thank you! Thank you for who you are! Thank you for giving us this story…Your story…to tell.

Our Story: Chapter 1 (unabridged)

2010-01-11T00:11:00.006-05:00

Warning!

The following story that you are about to read is evidence of God’s amazing presence in our lives. The story is true. However, unlike most stories like this that you read, the names in this story HAVE NOT been changed. They have not been changed because the people involved actually want to share their story and hope it has some sort of impact on your life and your relationship with God.

Well, most of you reading this blog are well aware that back in September of this past year, Joy and Dawson and I did something pretty crazy! Having just sold our house, we left our jobs, friends and Joy’s family back in Indiana all in hopes of beginning a new life in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

For those of you who don’t know, this whole process actually started back in early spring of this past year, when, by faith, we put our house up for sale because we felt that God was telling us to sell our house and potentially head out West. Needless to say, we were very hesitant about putting the house up for sale. Our reasons were very legit - a bad economy and an even worse housing market. To make matters worse, several of our neighbors, and others around town were desperately trying to sell their houses as well. While several of our neighbors were selling to avoid foreclosure due to job loss and loss of income, our reason for selling our house almost seemed ridiculous. We felt like God was telling us to put the house up for sale and that He was preparing the way for us to finally make the move out West.

Just to give a little more background, our idea about relocating to Colorado actually started a couple of years ago. For those of you who don’t know…my family (Jason’s) all live in Colorado. Joy and I probably vacationed there at least once a year. Not surprisingly, we fell in love with Colorado and always dreamed of one day making the move a reality. But given the bleak state of the economy and pitiful housing market, it seemed quite ridiculous to even attempt to sell our house. Along with that, in lieu of a highly unstable and obscure job market, it seemed even more outlandish to leave our secure and comfortable jobs if and when the house ever sold! So you can see…we were very hesitant about doing so, but eventually, in total faith, we put a “For Sale” sign up in the front yard.

We put the house on the market in late March and then the waiting game began. For those of you who have ever been through this process, you know how “fun” it is every time you have a showing…thinking that this is the one…only to never hear anything back from the people who just tromped through your home for a half an hour! Man…all that time spent cleaning and organizing…all for nothing, right? Wouldn’t it have at least been nice to have heard that they at least thought your house was nice? Even to hear back that they thought your house was a dump! Actually, here’s a true story about one showing that we had fairly early on in the process. It was a very positive one and it even seemed like there was some “God stuff” involved. But all hopes were dashed when we came back to the house after the showing to find a note from the showing realtor that read, “Great showing…the couple loved the house, but were concerned about all the stuff in the neighbor’s back yard”! After that, I can’t tell you how many times Joy and I wanted to go over to our neighbor’s house after dark and “take care” of that “stuff”!

At least we were getting showings, right? But after so many showings you start to get a little apathetic and you’re ready to give up. So then, fast forward four months and in early August…just about the time we were ready to throw in the towel, we got calls for two showings in the same weekend. Though we always prayed before each showing, I can’t say that our hopes were riding too high at this point. Having had nearly eight showings prior to no avail, we our expectations were basically none. Well, long story short…the showings came and went, but the cool part of our whole story begins when we got a call the next morning from the realtor of one of those showings whose client wanted to come later that morning for a second showing! A second showing…we had no idea what to do!!!! We’d never had a second showing before! Our hopes were rekindled as we nervously prayed for God’s direction and His will to be done.

Well much to our disbelief, this second showing soon turned into an offer, which of course turned into a counter offer. The amazing part of this part of the story is the fact that our counter offer actually included very specific aspects that we prayed over and that we basically told God, “if this is your will for the house to sell and for us to pick up and move out West, then please let the buyer accept these exact conditions with no other conditions or counter offers.” Being such a “buyer’s” market, we had our doubts that the buyer would accept such exact terms…mainly because the terms included a higher asking price and fewer concessions. Needless to say, though, our doubts were transformed to belief the next day when we got the call that the buyer accepted our terms one hundred percent! And to top that off, our realtor informed us that the process would go very smoothly given the fact that our buyer was doing a conventional mortgage and was putting down 50%! That’s right…FIFTY PERCENT!!!!

Wow! With the realization of the house now sold, the reality of God’s will and direction finally hit us and really started to sink in! This was it! We had prayed before that if God wanted us to make this move that He would sell our house before September when our sales contract was up and before we both headed into a busy new school year with our jobs. With the offer having been accepted in early August, the timing of the sale was absolutely perfect! A God thing….you bet!
So then, like I said, the reality of God’s direction finally started to sink in. Joy and I both had a very difficult time with the entire decision. Moving out West meant that we both had to leave our jobs, friends and Joy’s family…all very difficult decisions! Joy can tell you that I probably had a tougher time with everything more so than she did. I had many nights where I just lay in bed unable to sleep…my mind racing back and forth…worrying about whether or not we were doing the right thing and worrying about what the future held. My toughest day was the day when I finally told my boss and co-workers of ten years at Youth for Christ that I was resigning. I came home from work later that day and just laid in bed sobbing. I’m sure Joy didn’t know what to think. She doesn’t ever see me emotional like that. I think she just knew how tough of a time I was having with the whole decision.

I tell you all this just to assure you that our decision was not a “grass is greener on the other side” kind of thing. We had prayed very sincerely that God’s will, not ours, would be done. We only wanted to move out West if that’s what God wanted and if that’s what He was calling us to do! We really wrestled with the whole thing…like I said, probably more so me than Joy. By nature, I worry a lot…and I worry even more when I feel like things are totally out of my control. There were several times that I wanted to “play it safe” and just forget the whole idea about moving. Staying put meant jobs and a secure income. Staying put meant being close to friends and family and being comfortable and in control. Although we’d have my family out West, moving meant no jobs, no income, no security and total lack of certainty and control. Time and time again, though, through experiences and through His Word, God continued to show us that this was the direction that we were supposed to head. So, with nothing but faith in front of us and our gaze fixed solely on God, we packed up a U-Haul, said our goodbyes to family, friends, co-workers, our jobs and our house and heeded to the friendly voice of our trusty GPS as it guided us out West to Colorado Springs, Colorado!

Though we had the security of living with my parents until we found jobs and got settled, I have to say that my heart and mind hardly felt settled! I say “my heart and mind” referring to me (Jason) because unless she hides it or simply puts on a good game face, Joy possess the innate ability to remain a lot more patient and positive in times of complete and utter uncertainty than I could ever dream of! But despite my doubts and times of weak faith, God proved that He was in total control the entire time…even when we didn’t know it!

...

...TO BE CONTINUED...

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T22:59:00.005-05:00

My New Year's Resolution:

Update this blog!

Actually, I have several things I have been meaning to blog about it. It's just finding the time to do it. And then doing it. Or hiring someone to do it for me?

Jason will be doing his very first post here soon. He has some awesome things to tell about his job and what God has done for him. If he gets more comments than I ever have, I won't complain. But I'll pout.

Until then, happy 2010.

(that rhymed)

Phonetics

2009-12-05T15:40:00.007-05:00

A few things to report before I go into my story.

1. First, Dawson is potty trained. Pause with me for a minute as we let that news sink in. Do you understand how great this is for the environment? And my psyche? He's been potty trained for over a week. And he's been waking up with a dry pull-up because we put one on him at bedtime just in case. All before he turned 4 years old. And I thought it was going to be closer to 15.

2. I got my two bottom wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. I was born with only 2 bottom wisdom teeth. None on top. It only took about 20 minutes to pull them both and I was drugged and quite happy. It's a good thing I'm not typing this blog while on Vicadin. It's not pretty. The dentist said the teeth were easy to pull and I should heal quickly which is what I'm really hoping for because my office gave each of a tin of chocolates for Christmas yesterday at our Christmas party and it's killing me to not eat them. I may need to put one in the food processor.

The final story is from work. One of my responsibilities is to make sure churches that have loans with us have insurance policies. I made a phone call to an insurance agency regarding a church that I needed a policy on. The lady on the phone had asked me to give her my email address. Easy enough. However, you know how you spell out letters and then give the name of an item representing that letter? For instance, "C as in cat, A as in apple" etc... well at this particular moment I was describing the domain name of my email address which is adf-inc.com. My description of that was this: "A as in alpha, D as in...(slight pause while I pick through my nimble mind full of great items that begin with the letter D) D as in Dork, F as in Frank. Yeah, I came up with the word DORK to represent the letter D. Thankfully, the very professional woman I was speaking with on the phone burst out laughing and said it was the best laugh she'd had all day. All of you out there who use the word DOG to represent the letter D should change.your.ways.

Do You Know?

2009-11-28T22:49:00.015-05:00

How does one recover from a youth retreat? Is there anyone out there with the wisdom of one thousand monks that can answer this thought provoking question?

Last weekend Jason and I took our youth group on the Church of God State youth retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies. Beautiful location.

I got no sleep.

Among the highlights of this very sleep deprived trip:

1. Amy's brother Ryan dared her to eat a piece of bread soaked in hot sauce.

2. Jason started to get a cold which grew increasingly worse, eventually rendering him unable to speak by the end of the trip.

3. I got an infection in my wisdom tooth which caused me so much pain I was taking about 5 ibuprofen every few hours to keep from punching something. Or someone.

4. During free time I got to take a couple of girls on a hike. It was freezing outside but the view was worth it. Eventually we got to a point of the hike where we couldn't go any further because we couldn't see which way the trail lead. The ground was covered in snow. This highlight has pictures to accompany it:

We decided to take the hike to Bible Point.

I even had a little map to follow and didn't get us lost! Oh the wildlife we saw.

One deer.

One rabbit. One mouse. And one Sasquatch footprint.

Along the way we also came across a dilapidated bird house with an interesting message:

Awesome views:

Now, because the girls did not come prepared to hike in snow (go figure) I had one hiking in converse, and Vicki and I were hiking in tennis shoes. Vicki and Savannah could not seem to keep from falling. I, on the other hand, did very well despite the circumstances. On the way down the mountain they asked me to simulate a fall. For memories sake.

My butt was frozen after this shot. Better a numb butt than numb feet.

Jason took the rest of the crew swimming. Yes. inside! Geez.

5. Bonding

The girls and I had some great discussions. I hope they took some lessons home with them to build a foundation on. We talked about the importance of obeying parents without attitude. We talked about boys. And I taught them all how to perfect the messy bun.

2 of our boys stayed mesmerized by video games.

I put this guy in timeout for being anti-social. (not really!)

We still haven't recovered. I get my 2 bottom wisdom teeth extracted next Friday.

All in a day's work.

Being Thankful

2009-11-26T22:29:00.013-05:00

I love Thanksgiving. Not as much as I love Christmas, but who doesn't love food?

I would love to hear a story of a family Thanksgiving that something didn't go wrong..

Are you with me?

We had planned on eating at 1:30. We ate at 2:30. Is there any family out there that plans on eating at a certain time and actually does? Send me a comment. I want to know.

We had a problem turkey.

I do deserve to be proud over that nice looking green bean casserole though, don't I?

In the meantime, I discovered that Jenessa and I had the same pair of socks on, only reversed. Obviously that was an important picture moment.

Jason mashed our potatoes:

And Dawson kept us entertained:

Soon the table was set and I snuck a roll with butter because I was starved.

We put all the food on the table. I loved that feeling. Back when I lived in Indiana we used to have my whole extended on my mom's side have Thanksgiving together and we had to get in line for the food set out like a smorgasbord. Nice, but not homey. I like homey.

I like to eat. Before: Clean Plate

After:

Yeah, I know how to clean a plate!

Grammy G had a little story to read to us about corn and Dawson got to interact by holding up a piece of candy corn and then eating it. I don't like that profile shot of my nose.

Dawson made that hat in daycare.

And we all know what happens once the triptophan kicks in:

Yay.

2009-11-24T22:16:00.004-05:00

Yes, this is the new and improved me. I gave the blog a facelift. I nipped and tucked. The blog screamed and begged for anesthesia. I gave it a shot of Christmas spirit and Voila!

Soon, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled program. Which was really not regularly scheduled at all, now was it?

This is what you get, don't throw your fit!

2009-11-14T16:38:00.007-05:00

That is the chant that Dawson came home with from daycare this week. Man I love his dayare. How did they know that he throws a fit when he doesn't get what he wants? It's almost like they live with me. Now, on to more important stuff like my massive bicep in the picture to the right. Yeah, I know you were all checking that out. This was the first time Dawson had ever fallen asleep in a chair. Not that I was squishing him or anything. He looks perfectly comfortable. I, on the other hand, had a butt digging into my hip bone, and my red pants were screaming for oxygen. But Dawson sure looked cute all curled up. I'm not quite sure why I have a look of absolute disgust on my face. It's not like I was able to use Dawson for an arm rest or anything. I kinda feel bad for having Jason take this picture now. Poor Dawson, he probably woke up with a headache and a pain in his neck. Oh well, I still think he looks cute.
Moving on.
Jason and I recently discovered something that Dawson does when he colors and we got video of it to share with all of you. Happy Day.

A Boy and His Pumpkin

2009-11-01T18:14:00.004-05:00

Don't Bet On It.

2009-10-31T10:11:00.008-05:00

Last weekend was sunny, here in Colorado Springs. So we decided to take off on a road trip. I just accidentally wrote the word "tirp" for trip and I thought it was funny. Maybe that will be the name of our next kid, "Tirp Wilkins" only it sounds like a bully. And it's too close to the word twerp.

Now, I love ghost towns, so I wanted to visit this little town called Victor. However, in order to get to Victor, you have to go through this town called Cripple Creek.

Everyone in this town is crippled. Not really. And that was an awful joke. For real though, Cripple Creek is a famous gambling town. Actually, if you are reading this right now and you are a recovering gambling addict, don't go to Cripple Creek. Although you'll be pleasantly surprised at your winnings. So, we decided to stop in Cripple Creek because we were starving and I had to pee like nobodies business. We had Dawson with us, so we were trying to find the first family friendly place to enter and get food and pee without getting Dawson arrested for underage gambling. We stopped in this little restaurant called "Parrot Dice Grill" and there were teenagers working the grill. That's the first red flag for me. No offense teenagers who cook. But these were all guys. Next, I couldn't see a bathroom because directly attached to this restaurant was a casino. A gentleman who was seated must have noticed my discomfort (I think I was standing with my legs crossed, bouncing up and down) and came over to me to ask me if he could help me find anything. So I told him I needed a restroom. Pronto. He pointed to the restrooms which I would to get to by walking through the casino. Then he asked me if I was 21. I said "I'm 32, thank you very much!" Only, I didn't have my driver's license on me, because I didn't bring my purse. I was willing to be arrested for the sake of my bladder. I ran to the bathroom which was guarded by a security guard. Took care of business and walked out and we left. I'm gonna bet you were all hoping that I was going to gamble and tell this great story about how I dropped a quarter in the slot machine and won hundreds, and then got arrested by the security guard because I didn't have my license. And now, I'm really wishing I could tell that story. I did gamble on our cruise way back in 2004 and won $50.00 even though I started out with $11.00 in quarters. And then I lost it all because I thought the slot machines were so cute. And that is the true story of our stop in Cripple Creek.

The drive to Victor is pretty scenic:

On the way I found my first ghost town representative:

Jason and I both noticed a house we love:

This shot is mainly to give you a glimpse of the awesome scenery we'd have. Now I'll zoom in so that you can get a good look at the house:

I'm fairly certain it's a repo so we should get a good deal on it. I have so much vision to make this a home.

2 skips and hop... and we're in Victor.

I will say Jason wouldn't let me out of the car in Victor to take pictures because he feels this town is ghetto so I had to do drive by shooting. Get it?!

I love this old truck. It reminds me of Tuh-Mater without the "tuh".

And look at this quaint old church:

Not very ghost-townish, but very haunting. If I were a gambling addict, I'd go to church there.

And that ends our non-gambling, ghost town road trip we took last weekend.

Now I'll leave you with a few pictures I took just this morning of Dawson:

He received these green teeth at his daycare yesterday. He tells me "Mommy, they're not scary, they're just real!"

And check out this bling:

A spider ring. I told him it'd save him a ton of money to hold on to that and use it for an engagement ring someday.

Daycare and stuff.

2009-10-20T20:08:00.009-05:00

Dawson started his first day of daycare today, since living in Colorado Springs. Up until now, he has been a member of Daddy daycare.

I made Jason drop him off this morning on his way in to work, because even though Dawson is now 3, I still couldn't handle the idea of him getting teary eyed or crying and wanting to go home.

On the contrary, what does my little man do? According to Jason, Dawson walked right into his new environment and made some friends!

Of course, we're talking about a kid who walks up to every kid at the park playground and says "hey, will you be my friend?" I'm not sure where he gets that from. I'm certainly more selective with my friends... (I would never publicly ask on Facebook for anyone to be my friend just so I could reach the 200 friend mark, I mean seriously people!)

When I came to pick Dawson up on my way home from work this afternoon, he was playing outside and seemed as happy as can be.

And now for the "stuff" part.

This has nothing to do with anything, which makes it blog worthy.

My sister watched Dawson for us on a Saturday afternoon before we moved so that we could be efficient packers. Any of you who have ever tried packing up a house with children in it know what I mean. One of the activities they did at her house was make sugar cookies.

My little man got selected to smash the cookies down. Here he is showing off this acquired skill:

The next order of business was to go ride the 4wheeler (which Dawson will not be allowed to see this picture for another 10 or more years, because if he sees it, he will beg for one for Christmas. And right now, the only thing he's getting is a Larry Boy car courtesy of our friend Jess. (Thank you Jess, remind me of what Clayton likes to eat!)

And as you can plainly see by the picture, the reason we do not want him getting one of these for Christmas is because Jason will want to ride it and Dawson will cry to me that he doesn't ever get a turn.

The end.

Deliroius? Wooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-10-15T18:15:00.011-05:00

We went to the Delirious? farewell concert last night. In Colorado Springs. Where we LIVE! Do you know how incredibly awesome that makes us sound?

I am the biggest Delirious? fan ever. All day I was like a giddy school girl waiting to go to the concert. The concert was held at a church near us, and we took the youth with us. They got to see me in rare form.

Here we are, at the church ready to carpool to the concert:

The youth group has actually doubled in size since we started. Our first day we had 4. We're good ay?

When we got to the church where the concert was being held I was quite excited because the sanctuary itself is not that huge. I could probably go up on stage! It was first come first serve seating so we got as close as we could, which really was not that far away.

Here we are waiting for the concert to commence:

Alas, it was time for the concert to begin. This guy who was opening for Delirious? was not that great. So I sat in eager, giddy school girl anticipation.

And then...

THEY came onto the stage!

And I peed my pants.

Actually there were 3 things I noticed immediately:

#1. Martin Smith has beady eyes

#2. He is also a skinny punk.

#3. They were all wearing suits.

(this was going to be a classy deal indeed)

This is the best I could do in the way of pictures.

So I screamed and jumped and sang my lungs out all night long. Here is some illegal video I captured:

After about the first 3 songs I realized they could wear suits because they hardly moved. But then again, they didn't have much room. So if you are ever thinking of becoming famous, and singing on a very small stage.. you can sacrifice mobility for fashion. Just remember that I taught you that and pay me.

I'm sad to say farewell to one of my most favorite bands of all time. But I'm grateful that I got to see them in concert before they said good-bye.

One last thing I'd like to mention. There is something about seeing people like Delirious? in concert, or Beth Moore teaching her heart out, or Gene Edwards who is able to pen words on a page that makes me so happy for Jesus. Happy that he has people like these who truly enjoy Him.

Talk Show Host

2009-10-13T18:56:00.006-05:00

Sunday night we had family night. As we discussed the options we had in the way of games, Jason mentioned that we should play "Ungame". Have any of you ever heard of "Ungame"?? Jason told me his parents made him and his sister play it when they were little. Of course, this is the CHRISTIAN VERSION. This alone should give you a litlte insight into the quality of the game. Basically, the game is based on answering questions which are printed out on cards. How on earth you actually win the game, is yet to be determined. Here are a few examples of questions posed by the Ungame.
#1. What person in the Bible are you most like?
#2.Complete this sentence: I like to pretend that I am___________.
Yeah, you are all thanking the good Lord that you were never made to play this game as a child aren't you? Anyway, Jason went down to the basement and actually found the game, so he was determined we would all participate. He asked the questions and we answered.
Here is the great thing: There is a special REMINDER card that says: The rule of silence enables players to share without interruption, challenges, or criticism. (seriously? They expect brothers and sisters to play this game?)
All that said... Somehow Dawson got ahold of some of the cards and decided to play his own version of the game. And we were made to play by his rules.
We've determined that with his stamina, he will one day be a Talk Show Host.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2009-10-10T17:55:00.006-05:00

It's hard to pinpoint... but... can you see the snow falling in this picture? Can you see the accumulated snow and ice on the roof of the house across the street? It's the view we had from the front porch this morning. This picture represents the justification I have found for all those years of breaking out my Christmas music in early October.
Amen.

Larry Boy

2009-10-09T17:43:00.009-05:00

So Dawson wants to be Larry Boy.

He said "Mommy, can I have a Larry Boy car for Christmas?"

And I said yes.

Because, if I say no... all kinds of tantrums will ensue. I would rather say yes and have him never get one, then say no and invite the deep dark recesses of death into my house. That's what good parents do. Actually, Jason stopped at a Christian bookstore yesterday to try and find him one. He came home with this instead:

Speaking of hats...

For whatever reason,

Dawson came into our bedroom the other night with a hat on. No explanation, he just found one in his drawer and put it on, then came to show me. He never wears hats. So I was determined to take his picture. He looks so cute in hats. When he wears them.

He didn't want his picture taken so I encouraged Jason to "help him out".

Once Dawson saw what attention he was getting he was ready to pose:

hat to the right

hat backward

hat to the left with finger in the ear and bunny ears from daddy

hat while picking his nose

Different hat.

Isn't that great?

One last thing:

Conversation between Dawson and I while we played cars:

Dawson's car says to my car: Hey buddy, what's your name?

My car says: My name's 43 (That was the number on the hood and I'm clever like that)

Dawson's car says: No it's not!! Your name's Fivey-six!

Options

2009-10-02T17:53:00.009-05:00

Jason, Dawson and I were running some errands last week when we came across a parking area with public access to a trail. Blodgett Peak Open Space, to be exact. We made a mental note to come back to the trail for a nice hike. This is exactly what we did a few days ago. We pull in, park and get ready for the long hike uphill. The first thing I notice at the onset of the trail is a sign, so I walk over to it and read it:

And immediately I anncounce that the hike is over before it begins. I am NOT hiking a trail with mountain lions! Haven't you ever watched the Tru TV episode where they are reenacting the people who get sent to the ER?! The last episode I watched had a woman admitted to the ER for having her face mauled off by a mountain lion! I told Jason to buy a handgun.

Suddenly I remembered another trail which was only about 2 miles down the road from this one. I told Jason we needed to move on, forget the mountain lions until he is fully equipped to protect me. This would include a handgun, crossbow, machete and 2 grenades.

Off we went to the next trail.

Upon arrival to Ute Valley Park, I notice 2 signs this time. I assumed they were signs telling you to pick up poop after your pet! But oh no. These signs read as follows:

Seriously? I have to choose between Mountain Lions and Rattlesnakes?!

I chose rattlesnakes.

The reason being that a snake can't maul me. If a snake strikes there's a good chance I won't be permanently disfigured. I could possibly die, but I can have an open casket, you know?

Actually, I don't want an open casket, in case you're reading Jason. Got it?

I will admit that we started this trail:

And 5 steps in I begged to turn around. I was positive I heard rattlesnakes. Jason said it was crickets. I hesitated but he went on without me which left me feeling defensless so I ran to catch up and by then there was no. turning. back. In reality, the trail turned out to be awesome. A beautiful view of the mountains, and one of the trails (there are several to choose from) leads to to top of a cliff where you can sit on a bench and watch the sunset. I told Jason he had to be fully equipped to defend me should he want me to go on this trail at sunset. But the thought was nice.

The amazing thing is the amount of deer that come out in this area when dusk hits. Deer graze right along the side of the road. And I don't mean just a few, there are hundreds! Well, many. That word keeps it vague enough for me not to have to count.

These guys were right along the side of the road and didn't care that I took their picture. It's like they're movie stars and they're used to it. In any case, it appears that rattlesnakes and mountain lions are not on their radar.

So.. if you had to choose, which would it be? Mountain Lions or Rattlesnakes?...

St. Elmo's Fire

2009-09-26T17:17:00.020-05:00

Colorado never sounded sweeter to a little boy named Dawson. Let me tell ya, he made out like a bandit. You should have seen his face when he saw his room for the very first time when we arrived at Gramma G & Grandpa's house. His very own McQueen bed. A picnic table AND his own TV with a DVD player. This included about 5 new Veggie Tale movies that Gramma G purchased brand new just for him. Jason and I considered kicking Dawson out of his room and taking over, until we decided to put our 42" Plasma flat screen tv on the dresser in our room. Then we felt better about Dawson's posh set-up. Needless to say, he never seems to grow bored here. Though he has created a nasty habit of asking for a new toy every time we got to Wal-Mart. I could have started that, but I won't admit to it. I just want him to be quiet while I shop! Is that so much to ask?

Our first weekend in Colorado Springs we decided to take a one day trip to see the Aspen Trees, because this is the time of year that they change color.

The trip took us to a ghost town by the name of (insert scary music) ST. ELMO.

Of course this led to numerous question asked by Dawson about when he would get to see Elmo which led me to cover my ears and ignore because he wasn't accepting my explanation of the name of the town, which led to him yelling.

On the way, however, we met an interesting sight:

Yes those are wild donkeys meandering along the road.

We pulled over because Greg said they were tame and Dawson and I wanted to be friends with them. Jason on the other hand, was afraid of them and jumped in the back of the truck to pet them:

This little diva here, was quite needy:

I call this picture "The Big Eye"

The highlight of St. Elmo, although it's considered a ghost town, is feeding the chipmunks. I took two good pictures of the Aspen trees:

Then I was on a mission to take Dawson to feed the chipmunks.

I was determined to feed the chipmunks Dawson's leftover goldfish crackers. Some lady sitting on the log behind us got annoyed by that and handed us her bag of sunflower seeds and said she was done feeding them anyway and then left. I am still positive to this day that goldfish crackers a rare chipmunk delicacy and they would have loved to sink their little teeth into the morsels of goodness.

This final chipmunk picture is one that Jason took because he thinks he's clever:

For the record, I did NOT sit on this chipmunk! I didn't even know one had snuck up behind me. I like to believe it was hiding in the shadow of my wings..

Ending with a few cute shots of Dawson playing by a creek that Jason took him too after the feeding of the 5,000.

The Big Move

2009-09-17T08:51:00.019-05:00

Labor Day weekend was a perfect time for a move. Because... you can sucker your family into helping! No excuses.

Friday was the last day for Dawson at daycare. So we sent snacks with him for a great sugar rush. This way all his favorite classmates would remember him.

Say Cheese!

I was really pretty bummed about this because Dawson had made several "best friends" as he called them in his class. Lucas, Xander, Graceson (who was the only one who had been in his class since they were both 3 months old) Glenn, Hailey. No girlfriends though, I didn't allow those kinds of shenanigans.

Dawson had no problem telling perfect strangers that we were "moving to Codorado". (he's still working on his "L's".

Sunda morning it was time to pick up the U-Haul. Jason's dad offered to fly in and help us drive the U-Haul to CO which helped tremendously. (Secretly I wanted to drive it, so that I could show off like that one girl on the truck driving show on cable.)

Anyway,

Look how tiny my cute-butt car is next to that monster. Actually, in this picture it looks like we could fit our whole house in the back of that U-Haul. Why didn't we think to bring our landscaping plants?

Before:

Around noon, my family started showing up so that I could crack the whip.

My dad got this notion that since he's in his 70's he could take frequent breaks and I had to set him straight.

Don't let my sisters fool you with their talk about menopuase. They're spry little whippersnappers.

When the work was finished we all went to celebrate by taking in a movie. The girls made the guys go see a chick flick. But we got to ride in style.

We stuck the guys in a minivan.

With a little therapy and a few counseling sessions they'll get over it.

Mom offered to watch all the grandkids so that we could stay focused, so after the movie we headed to her house to claim our own. Then it was time to say good-byes.

The next morning it was time to hit the road. I don't have pictures of them, bu the Lurkers came to say good-bye and Mr. Lurker helped get the Jeep securely fastened to the trailer so that it wouldn't roll off on the interstate and cause trauma to any unsuspecting travelers. Mrs. Lurker made sure Dawson kept on track with his supervision of the entire ordeal.

After:

Look how green and fashionable our lawn is.

Time to hit the road Jack.

Dawson is such a great little traveler. Especially when he has a portable DVD player.

When he napped, I snagged it so that I could watch National Treasure and then Jason got bored because he was driving and I wasn't talking. And then he got over it.

Nice huh?

I personally believe that there should be a special lane on the highway, set aside specifically for Uhauls. This would make the world a much happier place. And road rage would be down by at least 62%.

We arrived in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and set up shop with Jason's parents who were gracious enough to open up their home to us until we found jobs.

More on that subject in the next installment.

Back To My Regularly Scheduled Program

2009-09-13T21:46:00.007-05:00

The weekend before we left for Colorado we decided to have a garage sale. This was to serve a two-fold purpose.

#1. Have less stuff to move

#2. Get rid of my crappy furniture

Among the random list of items to be sold was a strapless girdle which was handed down to me by a sister. In case you are wondering, it was actually JASON who put it in the garage sale. I was going to leave it for the girl who bought our house... as a housewarming gift.

There were times during the course of the day when business was slow. And when business is slow... Jason gets bored. When Jason gets bored, Dawson suffers:

Jason took two balloons from the pack we had bought to put on our signs from the garage sale, blew them up only slightly, and shoved them down Dawson's shirt.

I'm not sure where he picked up on the hands on the hips move, cuz he surely didn't get it from me! Once Dawson realizes he's getting laughs (which Jason and I were crying, from laughing so hard-but then again business was slow) he tends to ham it up. Not sure where he gets that from either.

If we had stuck him in the front yard with the rest of the goods, we could've come out with a couple hundred for entertainment value.

That is why I no longer think we need to do job searching in Colorado. We'll let Dawson bring home the bacon.

09/09/09

2009-09-12T10:26:00.019-05:00

I am now a GREAT Aunt.

No, I actually don't mean that in the arrogant sense of the word... this time.

My niece Felicia gave birth to:

Nevaeh Soul Wicker

She looks a bit grumpy in that picture. Felicia is so skinny she was probably squished.

09/09/09

How cool is that date?!

Can one of my sister's who happens to have gotten more information than I did, please leave a comment on this post and tell me how much she weighed?

For the life of me, I still can't figure out why Felicia didn't drive here to Colorado while she was in labor to have the baby. I mean I am the GREAT aunt...

The First of Many...

2009-09-08T23:14:00.006-05:00

HERE I AM!

It's 10:15 p.m. "Mountain Time" as I'll be saying now to annoy everyone. And, in Indiana time, that makes it 12:15. Past midnight! What am I doing blogging???

We got into Colorado Springs around 4:p.m. today. I survived my first "all by myself" drive here in a thunderstorm on a crowded road called Academy that was flooded.

Yeah. I don't recommend that if you're a first timer.

I'm used to Indiana roads for heaven's sake.

We got the Uhaul unloaded in about 3 hours and believe it or not, we won't have to pay for a storage unit. Thank you good Lord.

And now because it took me 3 hours all by myself to unload the Uhaul it's time for me to go to bed. Just kidding honey! It was me, Jason, Greg and Steve who unloaded the Uhaul. But I'm still tired.

*I'm leaving you with the funniest story of the day*

I had to bring Dawson with me to the bathroom at a truck stop. So Dawson is squeezed into the bathroom stall with me and as I go about my business Dawson says

"Mommy, did you put your wiener down?"

No Words Needed.

2009-09-02T15:54:00.003-05:00

Moving 101

2009-09-01T10:35:00.004-05:00

Just a few things to remember if you ever sell your house and move out of state.

Keep your dresser for as long as possible even if you have to sell it. Keeping your underwear in a cardboard box is annoying.
Keep your kitchen table and chairs. Eating steak on a wobbly card table while sitting on your knees is slightly uncomfortable.
Be sure your realtor knows your about to be jobless. This will help push the closing forward.
Don't tell your 3 year old that your moving until the last minute. This will keep you from questions such as, can we take our house? Can we take my toybox? Are we going to Colorado today?
Label your boxes. When you need the mixer to mix the dessert you are currently making, you need to know which box you packed it in. Better yet, don't pack it yet! You'll be making dessert before you move!
Last but not least, Try to have a job before you go.

A Story In Pictures

2009-08-21T10:14:00.005-05:00

Joy

A Baby Shower

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we had a baby shower for my niece Felicia. She is due the beginning of September and she looks like she's the same size I was when I was only 3 months pregnant! She's so tiny!

She knows she's having a baby girl: Nevaeh, is her name. Which is Heaven spelled backward even though it took me about 10 minutes to spell that word backward in my mind to make sure I typed it correctly. Spell check will probably still tell me I'm wrong.

My sisters and I planned the whole thing out to a T. We did an excellent job if I might say so myself. Although I was the only sister who SHOWED UP ON TIME but I won't mention that here.

Felicia with her sister Shadow.

Shadow wrote Felicia a poem that made us all cry. Good thing I don't wear makeup.

Take a look at the cake my Aunt Iney made!

And the back of the cake that my Aunt Iney made.

If you look close enough, you will see the spot where Dawson stuck his finger and swiped it across for a nice taste of the frosting... right after she sat the cake down on the table!

I'm proud of the refreshment table. It takes a creative mind to make a refreshment table look splendid. Although it wasn't my creative mind that did so.

Who can pass up a chocolate fountain at a party?! I personally ate 9.27 rice krispy treats dunked in the chocolate pool.

Time for games!

Shadow chose my Aunt and one of Felicia's friends to dress a baby blindfolded. Supposed to give them the real time feel of taking care of a baby at midnight that has pooped it's pants. These dolls didn't cry though. So in the background you can hear me going WAH!! For 10 consecutive minutes to make the game seem more realistic.

My sister Bobbie had everyone see how many safety pins they could find in a bowl of rice while keeping their eyes closed. They had a time limit. This game is surprisingly difficult! I had everyone play the "memorize the tray" game. Anita cheated.

Let's open gifts!

Gift table. Girl ready to open gifts on gift table.

Karen made this awesome "diaper cake". She's got skillz!

I got her this diaper bag. My sister got her a diaper bag that was bigger and better. Hmph.

Cousin Debbie made this beautiful quilt for baby girl.

Flip with Dawson.

Apparently baby girl slept through the gifts and wanted to come out and play when it was over. I could feel her little feet poking through.

Parties over. Time for pictures!

My mom and sister Bobbie with (most) of mom's sisters. They all look alike!

All of us girls:

You can plainly see none of us girls are happy with our hair color. We ALL highlight the same color.

Come soon baby Nevaeh! We're excited to meet you!

Love, Aunt Joy

Tohellyouride.

2009-08-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever driven 1200 miles in a compact car with 2 boys that have feet that smell like sour vinegar? I don’t recommend it. Welcome to my vacationing world.
Also,

Don’t mess with me when I drive.

Jason and Dawson:

Before I get started, I HAVE to show you this playground I saw on our drive out to Colorado:

It's in the middle of a stinking corn field! (It's not too far from our home... go figure)

I'll zoom in:

We decided to vacation this summer in Telluride Colorado. “Legend” has it that travelers called this little town “to hell you ride” because they would get robbed by bandits as they tried to enter. However, that is legend according to my father-in-law, who I think just likes to say the word hell because he’s a pastor. The truth is, Telluride is named after the chemical element Tellurium which was found there in the old days. I guess I like the other version better.
We actually stayed in a condo located in Mountain Village, which is located above the tiny little town of Telluride. In order to get to Telluride we had to take the FREE gondola down the side of the mountain. Please share with me my first experience using this transportation service in daylight by watching the following video:

Here are some pictures taken on the gondola ride.

Dawson continually asked if we “get to ride the sky choo-choo.”

You can see how small Telluride is.

My sisters would not be able to live there. They are claustrophobic.
Jason and I tried hiking on this famous trail that was being held hostage by millions of flies. We got half-way up the trail and Jason said he couldn’t handle the flies anymore and we turned around. We walked down the main street in town:

and stopped for lunch at this little hole-in the wall place which had a dog sitting outside that stared at me begging for nourishment from my Panini. He was chained to a bench near the table I was sitting at. But I didn’t give him any food because the dog belonged to the owner of the place we were eating at and I thought the dog should be wealthy enough to buy his own food then.
The condo we stayed in was incredible. -The Peaks Resort.

We had a beautiful view from our balcony.

This is famous-Bridal Veil Falls:

This is the center of our Mountain Village where our resort was. And the way you get to the gondola:

We went swimming in the pool you see here.

One morning I placed a bet with Greg about whether or not the pool had water in it. “$10 bucks says the pool doesn’t have water in it.” So he threw quarter into the pool from our balcony. Then we saw these little ripples from where the quarter landed. I still owe him the $10 bucks. Then again, I’m thinking it was illegal for him to throw a quarter from the balcony so maybe he should be paying me to keep my mouth shut, saving him from attorney fees?
Jason took lots of beautiful sunset pictures from the balcony.

On the night we chose to eat out, we selected this little Italian place called La Piazza. We found out that Tom & Katie Cruise dined there with Beckham and his wife while they were there. Hey, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us. Here I am showing off my bread with olive oil which was the best thing about the meal.

There was nothing for Dawson to eat because he didn’t want curry soup that looked like watered down mashed carrots. He’s so picky! $52 bucks later, we got enough food to feed 1 ½ ants. Tom and Katie can have that place. I wish we could’ve ordered pizza.

Here are pics of the inside of the condo.

The living room and kitchen.

Dawson napping on our King size bed in our bedroom. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with a king size bed. I felt like Jason was so far away I needed to call him on his cell phone in order to communicate.
I’ve got to say, Telluride is probably my most favorite vacation by far. It’s beautiful. On our way back to Colorado Springs to Telluride we stopped in Ouray.

“The Swiss Alps of the US” and then made a last minute decision to stop in Gunnison at the Black Canyon:

We took Cottonwood Pass back from Gunnison to the Springs and this was my first encounter with cows on the road:

I didn’t let Dawson out of the car when we took the little hike to get some of these pictures. He can watch the video of it later.

This has nothing to do with anything but I like this pic of me and Dawson at Greg&Goria's house:

One funny story about him though. When we drove through Iowa and Nebraska we saw plenty of those huge white windmills that look like they could chop off your head if you decided to stick your head under there for some psychotic reason. Dawson kept talking about “the spinning nails” and Jason couldn’t figure what on earth he was talking about, until it hit him that it was those windmills he was referring to.

I'd also like you to watch the video of the thunderstrom/hail storm I had to drive through at 2:00 a.m. in Colorado:

Jason never got into any storms! He even drove right past the world's largest truck stop.

Apparently this truck stop didn't matter to Dawson either.

And that is the story of our vacation in Telluride, Colorado.
Thank you for trekking my blog vacation. Please add your name to the sign up sheet since I’m taking attendance.

¡SOLD!

2009-08-05T11:14:00.003-05:00

So our house is finally sold...

Are we to become Colorado dwellers?

We shall see...

Six

2009-07-13T06:37:00.008-05:00

Yesterday Jason and I celebrated six years of marriage. How did you celebrate?, You ask.
I can answer that question for you.
After church we went out for lunch at Casa-one of my favorite Italian restaurants. Let me put my list of favorite Italian restaurants in order.

#1. Maggiano’s.

#2. Biaggi’s.

#3. Casa/Olive Garden.

I’m allowed to have 2 choices for my number 3 because this is my post and I’m the boss. I asked our server at Casa if she would take a picture and she tried to for about 2 minutes before we realized that the picture mode was turned off and the video mode was actually on. So we changed that and the picture to the right is the result. Pretty good looking group aren’t we? The remainder of our time at Casa was spent eating, talking and listening to Dawson do this:

After lunch we went to Delt Church Park to celebrate my nieces birthday. We arrived before any of my other family members (I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned here before that I have 2 sisters with chronic late syndrome) so we took Dawson over to the playground to play while we waited. I’d like to take the time to mention that very wealthy Amish supplied the funds for said playground and I haven’t come across a nicer playground in my life. I would also like to state that the next story about this playground will not result in my suing of any Amish. But I may sue my husband. Jason got on the merry-go-round with Dawson and I pushed them. This merry-go-round was quite slow, and all the muscle I have couldn’t get them pushed around fast enough to make either Jason or Dawson happy. So Jason had me get on and Dawson sat on my lap. Jason started spinning us. We weren’t spinning very fast so I got a little cocky and let my guard down, thinking “hmph, he thinks I’m wimpy…look at us!” And the next thing I know I’m yelling “OH MY GOSH!” And Dawson and I went flying off the merry-go-round. Dawson landed on top of me and wasn’t hurt. Though he did turn and look at me like I was the biggest betrayer of all time. And that is the story of how I actually fell off of a merry-go-round on my 6th wedding anniversary at an Amish playground.
Happy sixth anniversary honey.

Bow chicka bow-wow

Deep River Water Park

2009-07-07T06:25:00.015-05:00

Last Thursday Jason took a group of kids to Deep River Water Park. Since I’m the wife of the person in charge, that means I get to go too. And since Dawson is the son of the person in charge… sometimes we bring him along. If he’s good the day before. And eats all his green vegetables. And recites all 50 capitals of the United States.
The morning started out COLD. Do you see how I was able to animate the word cold by making it blue? It’s almost as if you can feel the word. I consider myself a literary artist. The morning was cold. Cloudy, and it looked like rain at any moment. The optimistic types like myself, thought by the time we got to the water park the clouds would roll out and the sun would appear. Indeed it did not. My teeth chattered all the way to the bathroom to change into my swimsuit and I had instant goosebumps but I was not going to ruin the day for Dawson. Dawson couldn’t wait to get his little toes into the frigid water. First I took him to the kiddie area to play where I walked around in inch deep water on my tiptoes and Dawson plopped right down on his butt like it was bath water. After about 5 minutes the lifeguard on duty in this area had pity on me and told me the water on the other side of the park was heated. HEATED? I said, quite dramatically. That was all I needed. No more kiddieland cold crap for me. Jason had to watch the staff bench while Dawson and I tiptoed through kiddieland so we waited until his shift was up and then headed over to the other side to play.
These people are lying scammers I tell you. If they thought this water was heated, it’s because they have no functioning nerve endings. I set my mind to going back over to the lifeguard to give her a breakdown of the word “heated”. But I was too lazy. Instead, I went back to the staff bench and ate handfuls of tootsie rolls until the clouds rolled away and the sun burst forth in glorious abandon. Then I got hot, and the tootsie rolls melted enough so that I could chew them without breaking my molars. It was turning out to be a good day after all.

Here we are, waiting patiently to get into the park at a group rate.

This is the "heated" side of the park. Liars.

This is Dawson running scared of the frigid 10,000 gallons of water being dumped from the bucket.

Speaking of which, at one point Jason held Dawson and stood under that bucket while it was dumping 35 degree water on their heads. Dawson cried.

Dawson loved this little frog slide:

Dawson and Jason playing in the wave pool which wasn't turned on.

"See mommy, 30 degree water's not so bad."

Eventually they did turn the wave pool on and Dawson got bullied by waves.

Didn't that lady realize she was in the direct line of my shot?!

Oh.. Is somebody cold and tired?

Okay so all in all, I prefer a sunny warm heated warm and really warm water park.

But still a good day.

Terms of Endearment

2009-07-06T13:50:00.004-05:00

Me: Dawson... Love you.

Dawson: (without looking up from toys) K. Thank you.

The Sniper.

2009-06-30T07:34:00.006-05:00

How do boys learn to play with guns? I need to know. Is there a gun fairy? Does GI Joe come to them in their dreams and teach them the basics, including sound effects? GI Joe-Are you kinda ticked right now that I called you a fairy? Stop bothering Dawson in his sleep.

Dawson climbed into my sister’s SUV, which has a sunroof, grabbed one of his nephew’s toy guns from off the seat and started shooting us down like we were the enemy.

Man your stations!

I have the target in sight!

Wait! It's my mother!

All that said, perhaps I shouldn't share last night's prayer:

Thank you for my bed

Thank you for my pillow

Thank you for the window

Thank you for my toybox

Thank you for Iron Man

Thank you for my Hulk movie

Thank you for my Spiderman movie

Thank you for my talking Dinosaurs

Amen

Childlike Faith

2009-06-25T09:33:00.002-05:00

We've been asking Dawson to say his own prayers at night.

Here's a little excerpt from his last prayer time:

"Dear God,

Thank you for mommy

Thank you for daddy

Thank you for Dawson

Thank you for my pillow

Thank you for my bed

Thank you for the window

Thank you for mommy's clothes

Jason inserts here: "Hey, what about daddy's clothes?!"

Thank you for daddy's clothes

Amen."

Like a good mother, I kept my eyes clothes praying intently the entire time.

Jason rather, watched Dawson scour the room looking for things to be thankful for.

Dawson's 1st Sunburn. :(

2009-06-22T08:50:00.008-05:00

Happy Day of the Fathers!

2 days late and a dollar short. Though I may find change in the cushions of our couch.

Of course every year Jason gets his picture taken with his son on Father's Day because I am the type of person who remembers such minuscule things such as taking pictures on a day that might matter down the road... Did I mention I don't have a picture of me and Dawson on my first Mother's Day. I'm sure I haven't.

Just look at my 2 handsome men.

The polo shirt Jason has on is courtesy of me for one of his Father's Day gifts.

I did good. I just hope it doesn't shrink.

Jason got 2 new Polo shirts from Old Navy, I let Dawson pick the other one out. A pair of tongs to use for grilling. Which, Jason thinks he should take over for the grill master Steven Raichlen because he's that good. Maybe get his own tv show. And he also got a mousepad with a picture of him and Dawson on it. But I have to say, this year I picked out the BEST Father's Day card:

Jason won't even let me mow the lawn, because he has to have those perfect hash marks that are criss-crossed. Another reason I'm glad I married an OCD. Less work for me.

Speaking of which, the picture is not centered on the card and that bugs me.

After church on Father's Day, rather than going out to eat, because Jason wasn't hungry, we went home, changed out of our church clothes and headed to my dad's house. I was STARVING so what did I get to eat on Father's Day? An english muffin. That is poop crap.

Here is a pic of my handsome daddy when he was in the Air Force:

I pick his brain all the time about the years he was in the air force. One of the best stories he's given me is the fact that he was the only one who could save money. So he started a little prosperous venture by loaning out his money to some of the other guys, with interest. When it came time for roll call, dad could be anywhere-in bed asleep or even off base...because the person doing roll call actually owed dad money.

My dad, the bank.

It was crazy hot on Father's Day and as you can see, I happened to dress Dawson in a sleeveless shirt. We didn't pack him any sunscreen. I associate sunscreen with pools, which is why I loaded him down with SPF 45 that I grabbed at my sister's house to go swimming later that evening.

But later that evening doesn't negate the sun that happened earlier in the day, now does it?

Now how pathetic is that little face looking at me like I'm the bearer of all sunburns? Some of these pics are fuzzy because Dawson wouldn't stand still long enough for me to focus.

He's starting to notice how bad I feel about him being sunburned. Look at this face.

It doesn't take me long to tell him awesome sunburns are. Little boys with sunburns can have popsicles, and suckers.

He seemed happy with that.

A Random Act of Kindness

2009-06-15T13:24:00.005-05:00

I couldn't handle all of the comments about how big Dawson is getting so I decided to scan a few I had from last summer. When he was younger. And had blonder hair.

We were at my dads house. You can clearly see that Dawson gets farmers tans just like his daddy.

I'm thinking my highlights look just like his in this picture. Why do I have to pay so much for mine? It's a scam!

This face is all me.

On to a story. Not "the" story. But a story.

Several weeks ago we brought home Dawson's daycare report that had a little story on it about a prank Dawson and few others in his class decided to play on their teachers. I will not put it past him any longer to pull pranks. I thought 3 was too young for that, but apparenently not. Although, I don't think this was his idea! It had to have been Xander's idea. Xander is 3 also. But he has a prankster brain.

This is the report:

There is nothing on the other side (as indicated by her arrow) other than their prayer they say at lunch which she wrote out for me so that I wouldn't forget.

As the story goes,

Dawson, Xander and Graceson thought it would be funny to hide from their teacher after lunch. There is a table in the kitchen area that is blocked off by a play kitchen set. When she rounded up the toddlers after they ate and got them all back in their classroom she did a little count and realized 3 kids were missing. She panicked and looked in the kitchen and called out their names but she didn't see them and they didn't make a peep. (side note, that is highly unusual for Dawson, when I call his name and he's hiding he always says "I'm right here" and gives himself away). But this time they were in the kitchen and remained silent. So their teacher went looking all over for them and then went back to the kitchen and saw their legs poking out under the table. They got a good talking to. We had Dawson apologize to his teacher.

We're pretty proud of his pranking ability though.

I have a feeling I'm going to be called to the principals office on numerous occasions.

I'll have a time here soon when I can write about all the lovely schemes Jason has pulled in his day.

And now moving on to the "the" story.

Last week was a long week!

Jason was in Ohio, directing camp for 100 junior highers which left me at home alone with Dawson, which I didn't want to project over the internet for all my killer reader's.

My hours at work changed as well so I had to be at work by 7:00 a.m. and that time doesn't mix well with Dawson's sleeping habits. We made it through the week though, and on Friday I dropped Dawson off to stay the night with my sister and I drove to Ohio to meet up with Jason so that I could go to Kings Island with them.

I rode their new ride "The Diamondback". Yes I am cool. I kept my eyes closed the entire ride.

Our feet hurt also, when we got back to the camp.

Cry me a river.

All that to say that our family was a unit again by Saturday night. So we decided to make Sunday a family day. We had nursery duty at church, then we wanted to take Dawson to the zoo after church.

We stopped at Applebee's for lunch.

Our waiter was really nice and he didn't pick on me for needing 20 creamers to put in my coffee. Jason says I need to order milk, with a couple shots of coffee, because that's how I drink it. Anyway,

we ordered the 2 for $20 deal. Isn't that a good deal? Dawson shared my fries and chicken tenders with me so it's really like getting 3 for $20.

When it was time for us to pay the waiter brought over this little card and said "your meal has already been taken care of, but the customers who bought it wanted to remain anonymous". This is the card he handed to us:

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I felt quite blessed when we left.

Then Jason and I got talking about it, and I wondered if maybe they were challenged to do that in church that morning, so they scoured the entire restaurant looking for the table with the least amount of people so it would cost less? That's probably what we would do...

And that's THE story.

Then we went to the zoo and rode the train that goes 1 mile an hour and Jason fed the goats while all 30 of them mauled him for the food and I laughed til I peed my pants. Then they ran out of goat food and we still had 2 tokens left so we had to buy 2 humongous suckers in the gift shop because they wouldn't exchange the tokens for money. Scammers!

Then we got ice cream on the way home.

And I wish everyday were like that.

Whatever Will Be, Will Be

2009-06-11T14:31:00.004-05:00

My son has taken to napping in the oddest of places.

He just takes his blanket and goes wherever he feels led. I wonder if he'll take his blanket if he's ever called to be a missionary someday. I'll make a note about that and put it in his keepsake box for a future reminder just in case he forgets to take a blanket if he's a missionary some day. I like to plan ahead. And make lists.

When our sis and bro-in-law came a few weeks ago I found him napping in their dog cage. They brought along their dog Sydney. I begged for a dog for Mother's Day but I didn't get one. Does anyone feel sorry for me? Send me letters.

You'll notice in this pic he's got his pacifier. There are just some days a child needs a pacifier. This must have been one of those days. I keeping it too, because I'm going to make him use it still when he's 18. During the times he begs for money.

This one isn't odd but I love that he fell asleep holding his brand new airplane that Aunt Di Di and Uncle Jeff got him. It took him less than 5 minutes to destroy when he got home, by the way. He gets that from his dad. Always taking things apart to see how they work. I would say he'll be an engineer when he grows up, but then if he's called to be a missionary, he'll need his blanket, and engineers usually don't need blankets. I just made that up.

Skipping subjects, I have to post a picture of the goodness that is Jack Frost doughnuts. I've talked about them before, but I finally managed to get a picture of them for the world to value.

You have no way of knowing whether there are any missing...

Lastly,

One night we had family time and Dawson wanted to get the playdough out. Saw I got all creative and made a turtle with my playdough. My turtle looked like a rock with white pegs for eyes. Then what does Jason do???

He copies off of me and makes his own turtle.

Show Off.

So I've been crazy busy lately and realize I have no readers left.

Will you forgive me if I post this?

Que Sera Sera

2009-05-28T13:09:00.003-05:00

This picture was set as my wallpaper on my computer at work. I have a program that cycles through pictures randomly and this one showed up today.
I’m thinking of keeping Dawson in onesies until he’s 15, by the way.

Now I have GOT to tell you about the amazingness that is my sister Bobbie. She said for her birthday she wanted to make a necklace similar to one she found in a gift shop for an outrageous price. Why pay $999,999.99 if you can make it yourself? That’s what I always say. Unless I win the lottery. Then I’ll quit buying my clothes at Wal-Mart.

Anyway,
Take a look at the necklace she made!

And that’s not all. She zoomed in on the flower and took a picture of it for me because she made this flower too!

How did this gene skip me?! I’ve got nothing I tell you! I can’t decorate cakes, create awesome necklaces, crochet or knit!
I guess I do create beautiful children.
Is that a hobby?

This picture of Dawson was sitting on my other sister’s dresser when we were at her house on Monday for Memorial Day. (More on that tomorrow hopefully).
Pink Barbie Glasses are the future of boy toddler swimmers.

Also,
Dawson made a request last night that Jason shave off his stubble. Jason was reading to Dawson while he was laying in bed and Jason bent over to give Dawson a kiss goodnight. Dawson pushed him away and said “I don’t like your scratchies daddy!” Jason promptly reminded Dawson that he would have a 5:00 shadow someday. I was disturbed by that.

And to all a good night.

Were You Waiting For This?

2009-05-19T13:18:00.004-05:00

Joy’s blog reporting coming straight at ya with an endless supply of poop for your viewing pleasure.
This month’s pick of the week:
Poop in the bathtub.

Ahh yes.

This particular night I had given Dawson a bath and let him play while the tub drained when I realized I forgot to get a towel for him. So, I left him in the tub and ran to grab a towel from the hall closet. Seriously 30 seconds here folks. That’s all the time it takes for a young child’s bowels to come forth and conquer.

Dawson seemed quite happy with his accomplishment.

I made him scoop it up and put it in the toilet.

Please tell me you didn't think I was serious about that.

My Mommy is a Poopy Head!

2009-05-15T14:36:00.009-05:00

That's what I overheard Dawson yelling out to his friend Xander when I went to visit him the other day at daycare while I was on lunch. However, in my son's defense:

Xander started it.

I just have to show off these adorable pics of my little man in his tuxedo. They were taken at my beautiful sis-in-law's wedding.

When it was my turn to walk down the aisle, Dawson panicked and came running after me, so he actually ended up walking down the aisle with me, rather than with the flower girl like he was supposed to. I hope he's not codependent.

Perfect pic with him and his grandpa G.

I just realized there are a lot of shots of my leg in these.

I see Dawson's eyes scouring the room looking for a familiar face. This was when they walked in as they were introduced at the reception. I think he found me eventually. I hid under the table so that I could finish eating my cake withouth having to share it. Not really, everyone knows how long you have to wait at a reception before you get cake!

Mommy! Watch This!

2009-05-11T08:06:00.010-05:00

Mommy! Watch This! Is Dawson's new favorite saying. So in light of just celebrating Mother's Day I thought that would be an appropriate title for this post. -Which is the complete source to all things that occured on my Mother's Day.

Because I may never get over it, I need to remind every one that I didn't get any pictures of me and Dawson on my very first Mother's Day. So every year I make Jason take 100. Or at least 2.

This year's Mother's Day gifts included:

A card Dawson colored for me at Sunday School:

Look what was inside:

His handprint! Awww!

From Jason and Dawson I got

* A Bag of Toblerone miniature candy

* The Madagascar 2 DVD for Dawson and I to enjoy

* The new Hillsong United album "This is Our God"

Awesome.

After Church we headed to my mom's house to celebrate.

We ate Papa John's pizza for lunch. Is that homeless?

If you knew where my mom lived, you would realize our options were quite limited. So I believe apologies are in order for all those nasty thoughts out there.

My niece Felicia came over and I was so excited to see her. She is 5 months pregnant. My butt is bigger than her prego belly.

Isn't she cute?!!

About this time, my sister Anita mentioned that our dad said he would feed us steak if we would be willing to all stop by his house on the way home. I told my mom if she'd feed us steak, maybe we couldn't be lured away like that.

But we did go to my dad's house.

I will mention here that my sister Anita has a Teacup Pomeranian named Poppy, and a Terrier named Mischa. Dawson loves those dogs. Nita let us take Poppy with us to dads house:

You can't see it here, but Poppy barked the whole way there.

Dawson thinks this dog is the best thing next to Spiderman shirts.

Now for dad pictures, even though it wasn't Father's Day.

The steak was good. So I thought we should take pictures.

This is a family oriented blog. So I took it upon myself to censer all signs of the Milwaukee's Best my dad drinks that shows up in the pictures. I do not endorse alcohol here. Besides, they don't pay me advertisement rights.

Dad won't admit it, but he likes Poppy. He calls him "a dog that makes sense".

That's his way of saying a dog is likeable.

See, he likes the dog:

And so that Mischa doesn't get jealous of all Poppy's exposure time:

I convinced dad to let me take a picture of the two of us:

happy dad.

grumpy dad.

My nephew Mikey with Dawson. My nephew whom I never get to see!

Dad has a little Powerwheels tractor at his house for Dawson to drive around.

The only problem is, Dawson can only drive in circles...

Concentrating on the circle he's making.

He talked his cousin into a joy ride in the bucket.

On the way home from Gramps' house, exhausted but happy:

And the icing on the cake to complete a very happy Mother's Day?:

A RAINBOW!

We saw it just as we were almost home. It looks like it's right over our house. Which means I'm obviously a good mother.