Toys - Why bother? :)

What is the point of children's toys? Really? Can anyone tell me please?
We've been given a few adorable toys for Alexa - they're pretty fun, cute, and entertaining, at least for the first few times they're played with. However, I don't see any point in them. She'll crawl up to them, play with them for a short bit, as long as someone else is there with her, and then she moves on to the next one. We have even gone to a few houses where our daughter is thrilled & entertained by those leap frog & playschool learning toys - the kind pictured below that light up, make noise & she can stand up by...

So what do we do? We go and purchase the same kind of toy from a garage sale for Alexa (all our other toys have either been given to us or their from the happy meals or out of cereal boxes) so she can have hours of fun at home without needing us to play with her, right? - - WRONG - - she will stand by it as long as we're in the room but the moment we leave, she comes crawling out after us, and plays with the first non-toy object she finds. She loves to go over to the tupperware drawer, have us open it, and play with the stuff in it for hours - and she doesn't care if we're around or not! This child is truly crazy! - - I am 100% convinced that there is honestly no point in buying any toys for a child under the age of 1, maybe even 2 - - because she is thrilled to play with anything BUT actual toys!

For example - the child will try endlessly to get the tv remote in her hands or get our cell phones away from us but give her a fake toy cell phone or even an old non-working real cell phone - - it'll keep her entertained for maybe a minute! All she wants is the real stuff!

Well, there you have it, my idea of a lesson to be learned - save your money! ;) There's not much real point in spending it on toys at least!

My Way :)!

Did you know that sometimes, just sometimes, whining can pay off? Well, perhaps it wasn't whining, perhaps I just have an incredibly awesome husband! Either way, I GOT MY WAY! :) YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

Forgive me, but being the youngest of 5, marrying a "dutch" man & living in Northwest Iowa, I have not gotten my way very often in my life. But it has finally happened & I am thrilled, no make that ECSTATIC!
I have been begging & pleading for months now (well, for sure since October) that we move our master bedroom upstairs to the now newly redone bedroom that has a HUGE (okay its average for most of the world) size closet & is directly across the hall from my daughter's room & has the bathroom with the shower that I use in-between the two rooms. Let me explain...I live a beautiful (in my opinion) but OLD house.

The main floor has an awesome kitchen & then a room that used to be the dining room but we found it was too small so we moved our dinning room to the other half of our living room & made the dining room just the entry room/ extension of our kitchen area ... and then it has one decent size room (9x12) and a dinky, teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy little closet under the stairs. Certainly not enough room for my clothes let alone Micah's as well. The bathroom on the main floor is really nice & cute but it just has a tub & I am more of a shower person than a bath person in the mornings. Plus you have to walk past the front doors to get at the bathroom so its not so nice for getting up in the middle of the night. (I know I'm lame but I get scared of what's outside & who might be staring in at me!)

So anyway, when we bought the house the upstairs bedrooms both had no real closets - only the "crawl-space" areas of the slants where the roof meets the house...if that makes any sense - I'm not big on the real/technical terms or anything! Back when we found out we were pregnant, we started gutting, insulating, and building a closet in the one room upstairs to make it the nursery. When Alexa was about three months old we moved her upstairs to her new room & she's been sleeping up there ever since. This is great except on weekends when we just really don't want to get up in the morning & yet we have to go all the way upstairs to pull her out of bed & bring her to us. So I decided to rip apart the other upstairs room. We spent most of October, November & December tearing everything out & insulating it all. Then we built a closet & finished the room off. This was all done by sometime in February.

So naturally I wanted to move upstairs to be closer to Alexa. Micah, who's not a fan of change, didn't want to go all the way upstairs every night & back down again every morning. He thought we should stay on the main floor. I begged, I pleaded, I threw probably every type of "tantrum" I could think of. I tried every reason I could come up with and explored pretty much every angle to convince Micah we should move our room. Nothing seemed to work. Finally I just decided to call his "bluff" so to speak & moved all my clothes & stuff upstairs. And it sort of worked. He'd come sleep in my room for a few nights & then he'd convince me to go back to our old room. After trying to fit our king bed upstairs with no success, we found a reasonably priced queen bed and bought & moved that up there. By this point Micah had pretty much given up on where we slept. His stuff, however, remained down on the main floor as did our king bed.

One would think I should have been satisfied with that right? After all, I got my bedroom to be upstairs, I had a real closet & a great new bed. However, I wasn't done yet. I had a bunch of toys (Alexa's of course) in my living room making it look very cluttered & messy. I do not like clutter & I certainly don't like things to be messy. My solution? To move the King bed to the room downstairs (which used to have my parents furniture in it for when they visited) and to make the main floor bedroom into a toy room! :) I again begged & pleaded & tried to show Micah all the reasons my idea was completely brilliant. He was convinced it wasn't necessary & things were just fine as they were. But then after unloading a U-haul full of stuff into my mom's house & helping my sister & her husband move some of their stuff into their new house he finally agreed. We picked up the monster of a mattress (NEVER buy a pillow top king size bed by the way) and carried it out the garage, around the front of the house & down through the walk-out entrance of our basement (the beast wouldn't find down the stairs inside the house!) A few hours later we had the house exactly as I wanted it...at least for now! :) Here's a few pictures of the new toy room & the new guest bedroom.

What price did I have to pay for getting my way? Simple...I just had to agree that the dog could sleep on our bed...good thing she's really small! I'm probably going to regret that but oh well, right now all I care about is the fact that I finally got to have something my way - it sure feels great! :)

Canada & back again!

So last week Friday morning my husband, my daughter, and I left on a "vacation" to my mother's house in Lethbridge, AB Canada. The purpose of our trip (at its origin) was to help her pack up as much as possible of her home so that it can be decluttered & shown to potential buyers.

Approximately a week before arrival, my mother decided she would rent a U-haul, pack up a load of stuff, drive the truck to Sioux Center and fly back home. All simple enough in theory. Right? - - WRONG! Oh well, life's full of "fun"-filled non-vacation vacations isn't it?

But anyway, back to the story. So we packed up our little family and headed west. We made excellent time, Alexa was a perfect child, happy & enjoyable the entire way. We arrived in Billings (our stop for the first day) around 4pm their time. We checked into our hotel and decided to find dinner. In hind-sight this would probably be when the trip began its downhill slope but who knows for sure! After searching all over the city for the restaurant Micah had chosen (when in fact it was on the same exit as the hotel) we finally ended up eating a quick meal at a Denny's (not so great) and heading back to our room. Since there was a pool and Alexa loves bath-time we decided to give her the first "pool/swimming" experience of her young life and it was GREAT! :) She was totally confused by the whole thing but had a good time anyway & didn't cry at all! After drying off, we heading back up to the room for bed-time (she typically goes to sleep at 7pm & it was about 7pm in Billings (8pm our time) We put her in her pack-n-play & shut off all the lights...normally she just lays down & goes to sleep - no effort necessary at all- she has been that way since she was about 2 weeks old...9 months later she decides she's had enough! She figured out how to stand up in the pack-n-play & thought that would just be the most fun ever! After almost 2 hours of crying, giggling, talking & screaming the child finally fell asleep! - - Mind you no great naps took place in the car - - she typically takes two 2 hour naps during a day - - but in the car there were about an hour worth of naps taken...and still the child didn't want to sleep. Apparently there was way too much to see & do in this new place!

On Saturday morning we headed for the border & although encountering tons & tons of deer alongside the road & one deer ON the road we made it to the border, got through it, & to my mother's house slick as could be. We immediately put Alexa down for a real nap & went to work on the house.

After three days of packing, lively "discussions" (known as many other names and described as statements of different opinions between interested parties, usually at very loud decibals in heated manners) and many numerous problems solved we were read to load up the now 17ft Uhaul & head to Iowa. (Apparently the 14ft truck we'd originally reserved can only hold 3,000 some lbs -- and when you're packing up a minister's library - - well lets just say that was NOT going to cut it!)

The border went really well - - I think the officer at the border said it best when we told him that we'd been visiting my mother to help her pack her house up & he said "Oh that lady in the Uhaul in front of you?" - -"Yes Sir the crazy lady in the Uhaul" I answered to which he replied "Yeah I noticed no one was willing to ride with her!" :)

We had left my mother's house around 1:30pm & had at first been planning to get as far as Great Falls, MT. When we got there so quickly we decided it was best to keep going since the forecast called for snow from Tuesday night through Thursday in the area. We quickly discovered however, that the snow/rain mixture was already blanketing the area. After traveling on several treacherous roads we finally reached Billings, MT at around 8pm on Tuesday night. The snow had turned to rain when we reached I-90 & the rain had even started to let up. We figured that no matter what the night would bring we wanted to get some sleep so we checked into the motel. After a tense evening involving several "supper option debates" and people just walking off on their own, we all tucked in for bed. This time it only took about an hour of Alexa babbling before she gave up & got some sleep! (Yeah for the small victories!)

The next morning we had some light snow around the Billings area but once we got on Hwy 212 (the awesome short-cut road) the snow was gone and the roads were great. Other than some light rain off & on we had a smooth trip back arriving in Sioux Center around 9pm so Mom could go see her house.

Despite several stressful situations & heated "discusions" we all made it back in one peace thankfully. What have I learned from the last six days? SEVERAL lessons. I have learned that different people have VERY strong opinions about things and this can cause many heated debates. Every family has their own way or method to their madness. If you don't understand someone else's method do NOT assume its wrong, just respect that its not your own & DO NOT tell them to change to your way - - accept the difference & live your own life. Do not judge what you do not know or understand. I have found that I do not handle very well having my way of life critiqued and criticised by those who do not understand it. I have also learned that certain people simply feel that they have to state their opinion frequently & bluntly & if you don't agree with it or do it, they feel you've hurt their feelings.

I have also found that events in life can dramatically alter a person. This alteration can affect not only daily activities, habits, and situations, but also personalities. For those around the people undergoing the alteration a word to the wise - tread carefully, everything & anything can cause conflict.

I have also found that when people do not take the 100% open mind approach to hearing each other out things can easily get misunderstood & blown way out of proportion. I have also found that stating the way YOU feel can cause many hurt feelings & animosity. Beware!

Please do not misunderstand me. I LOVE my family & my mother. I truly do. I guess its just hard to see the difference in how things are now & how they used to be. It truly shows how much influence one person can have over other people's lives. It honestly makes the relationships in life that are left behind change drastically & sometimes the easiest & most open of relationships can become the most stressful & difficult ones to maintain. Thankfully we have the grace of God to see us through. Truly amazing!

That's probably enough for tonight - - its been an exhausting week & its still not even over yet...

When it rains, it pours...or should I say snows?

Wow this was an interesting weekend to say the least! Of course typically when I have a great & totally fun weekend planned things usually fall through or change or inevitably everything else falls on the same weekend & we end up missing out on one fun thing to do another. That all I could deal with. This weekend however, it was one fiasco after another!

First of all was the snow storm. Fabulous! -- Wasn't the first day of spring on March 21st? I do believe it was...shouldn't that mean NO MORE SNOW? Of course not, we live in Iowa after all...where it snows any day of the year! So between blowing snow, rain, and sleet, we made the wise choice not to go to the hockey night in Sioux City on Saturday night. Total bummer. In an effort to salvage the night we invited our friends to come to our house because of course I love to play hostess & what better way to spend a wintery Saturday night than spending time with friends?
The spur of the moment planning ended up being okay as most people's other plans were cancelled as well so we had a pretty good turnout. We of course played a game called Settlers. (Technically Settlers of Catan I believe but who really cares right?)
Apparently we can not play this game with competitive people...or at least those who I would call "game crazy" fanatics. They seem to take it oh so literally and totally just play to win, not have fun! UGH! I myself can be competitive, especially when its in a game with family members, but when you're playing with friends isn't the point just to have a good time? Why on earth is it always about picking on the person in the lead or picking on the same people EVERY move just because? Enough already! And why, oh why do people fee the need to explain their every move? We don't care, after all - ITS JUST A GAME - if they want to justify it that is more than fine but how about doing it in their head instead of out loud...okay? :) Its like putting a rotten vegetable or fruit in with a bunch of perfectly good ones, it spoils the whole group! - - When one does it the rest feel like they have to & because this competitive vicious cycle & it stops being any fun! Oh well, we all survived and thanks to good friends we were able to still have some fun that night.

Then Sunday came. The weather was still nasty out so almost all area churches cancelled. That meant being cooped up at home even longer! At least we'd invited a few couples over for Sunday dinner. That at least came with no fiascos. However, Sunday night was a different story. I was on the schedule to bring juice & cookies for the after church refreshment line. No big deal right? Wrong! So I remembered & the other lady forgot. Again not a big deal, the kids just can't go grab like 4 cookies as they typically do. :) - - Before church starts I can't find any coffee grounds which I need to make coffee (which needs to be started before the service to be ready in time) Well, thankfully that arrived just a few minutes before the service started so another "crisis" avoided. (Don't want those avid coffee drinkers upset!) :).
Then the fun began. Alexa, having a nasty cold, was not willing to sit quietly in church (not a shock, I know). So instead she'd every once in a while let out a sort of scream/grunt thing that was shrill & loud! After two of those during the first song of the song service we had had enough & I needed to take her out. My husband seemed to think she could just go in nursery, but hello, she has a nasty cold & that's just not right nor nice to let her get the other kids sick! So I just sat in the entryway with her. At first this was fine with her. Plenty to see, Mom's right there, fun fun...but then she got bored & tired, after all it was almost bedtime. So I give her her bottle & her blanket & cuddle & rock her while she eats, hoping she'd fall asleep. She was super tired at this point & kept rubbing her eyes but no sleep would come & she's had enough. She's barely able to breathe through her stuffy nose, she's cranky & tired, and she's teething. Not a good combination. Bawl-fest here we come! After walking all over & finally getting her calmed down, church was almost over & it was time to get the coffee, juice & cookies ready. I set Alexa on the floor of the kitchenette playing with the lid to the cookie container (she couldn't have been happier). The other lady joins me, opens the serving curtain, & takes the cookies & napkins out front to set on the table. I, trying to hurriedly poor the juice & get cups out accidentally hit the closed & still sealed gallon of apple juice with my elbow sending it plummeting to the floor below (maybe a whole 4 feet). It creates a large THUD and both the top & bottom of the container burst open. A gallon of apple juice is now a lake on the floor of the kitchenette & my daughter is screaming at the top of her lungs, partly due to the scary loud noise it made & partly due to the fact that she is now covered in apple juice. Where is Daddy when you need him? Talking away with friends, oblivious to the fact that perhaps his wife & daughter could use his help despite the fact that half the church can hear her crying! Thankfully our church has a lot of kind & generous people, & while one gal grabbed Alexa & helped her, another rushed to get paper towels & help soak up the mess...because of course there aren't any towels around when you need them! Eventually the mess was cleaned, the juice was all poured & the kitchen was returned to normal. We all seemed to survive. I joined the rest of the people standing around visiting only to find that my husband still was not holding my daughter but had let a couple little girls take her to go play - - again I apologize to their mothers if they get the nasty cold in their house! Silly man doesn't seem to realize that when a child has a nasty cold its best to not let her give it to others!

Eventually she of course started crying & they brought her to me, after all at this point she's about an hour past bedtime, and not only is she still she's teething, cranky, & tired, but she's also sticky as can be from the apple juice. Home to a bath & bed time we go! So much for having a relaxing, easy-going, fun-filled weekend, instead we got one of DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA! Lets just hope next weekend goes much better, after all we have an 18 hour drive ahead of us. Alberta here we come! Are we crazy? Perhaps!

Babies, babies, and more babies..

Wow does life seem like its all about babies right now. And I'm not just talking about the cute & cuddly ones either.

Everywhere I look around me there are babies. A dear friend of mine and my daughter's babysitter, had a baby girl 3 weeks ago. Another dear friend just had a baby boy this week. My sister is expecting her third child & first baby boy in about two months.

My own little baby thinks she's big stuff now & she tries to convince her mom that she's growing up & is a big girl at only 9 months old! Silly girl learned how to crawl only about 3 weeks ago & already wants to stand on her own, walk around furniture, & attempts to walk with just one of my fingers instead of two! She has also learned, however, how to turn on the water works when she doesn't want to do something or have something done to her. Oh how smart such small children can be! Anyway - here are a few pictures of my baby...

Then of course, there are the adults who act like babies. I have several of these in my life but I probably better not name them! Lets just say when they don't hear things they like, the walk away or do a really good job of using their selective hearing ability. But then again, if we're honest, lets face it, we all do act like a baby from time to time. After all isn't it tempting to think if we just throw a big old hissy fit that we might just get what we want or get things our way? If only. I would love for life to be that simple. Unfortanetly, or perhaps quite fortunately, we can't just stomp our feet or cry our eyes out or do any other child-like tendency & pitch a fit to get our way. We have to accept that first all things might not ever go "our" way - - unless of course "our" way is the Lord's way.

One of the hardest lessons in life and one I struggle with almost daily is that truth - unless we align ourselves with His will for our lives we will never get things "our" way. For those of you planners out there like me, how often do we figure everything out perfectly, make this neat pretty plan only to have "life" throw us a curve ball? If you're me, FREQUENTLY! :) And that's okay. I've learned that some of the best things if life were the curve balls thrown into my perfect little plans.

If I have learned anything the last year it is that no matter what happens in our lives, good or bad, the only thing we can plan on & count on is that the Lord is in control and that nothing, I repeat NOTHING, happens apart from His will. Amazing & completely calming thought isn't it?

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Bad Day...

Do you ever seem to just have a bad day? Its so frustrating when something small gets your spirits or your train of thought in a depressing or negative spot and no matter how hard you try you just can't change it. Its the kind of day that if what you felt inside was the same as the weather it would be rainy and gloomy all day.

Last week I had one of those days. It started off normal as can be & was all fine & dandy until I went to break time at work. Usually the conversations are your typical break time topics ranging anywhere from the latest TV shows to people's kids, to anything in between. Pretty much all topics are acceptable and most can be truly entertaining. If you show up at break you take what you get - no real ground for complaining - after all its your choice to be there. - (right?)

Well when I went to break that day I had no idea that the topic would effect me so much. (Nor did I have any idea what the topic would be.) That day conversations started with the latest news/updates & that quickly got the ball rolling - a woman in the community (whose husband was my high-school history teacher) had experienced a massive heart attack earlier in the week and was, from what I gathered, alive but still in the hospital receiving treatment. This "update" quickly sparked a conversation around the room on various people's experiences regarding those they'd known who had experienced heart attacks & survived them.

I sat frozen in my chair. I had totally not bargained or expected that topic on that day. I didn't know what to do. After all it has been 6, almost 7 months, since my father passed away from a sudden massive heart attack. I should be more than able to deal with this type of topic right? That's what I would have thought and what I tried to keep telling myself.

I sat there staring down into my coffee cup repeating (in my head) "you're okay - its no big deal, it is what it is, its been over 6 months you're fine, you've accepted what has happened, deal with this, be an adult & just look up & you'll be fine."

I really don't know much about the details of the rest of the break time conversation. I know I heard others speak & I know I kept sitting there. At first I had thought about just standing up & leaving but I totally did not want to draw any attention to myself & if I tried to move I figured I'd probably just trip or fall or something totally embarrassing like that. So I just sat there. I must have blinked over a thousand times a minute to keep myself together. I tried thinking about anything & everything to stop my train of thoughts but somehow I couldn't. I just sat there with my head screaming what my mouth couldn't (or what I wouldn't let it scream) "why couldn't I have a story like that to tell - - why couldn't he have survived, what makes all those other people so special that they lived through a massive heart attack but he had to die?"

Oh, you do not have to worry about me - I know the answers to my questions - It was the Lord's time for him to go - it had been set before he ever took his first breath. I know this truth, I believe this truth, and I have accepted this truth. My heart, however, still aches for one more hug, one more smile, one more conversation with my father.

You probably need to realize as you read this that my father was not just my Dad, but he was one of my best friends. There is next to nothing that he did not know about me. I was one of those crazy people who would come home from a night out with friends or from a date & I'd run to my parents room, plop down on the end of their bed, (waking them up of course) and proceed to tell them everything about my night. When they moved these conversations did not stop - they simply transitioned to long phone calls or skype conversations. Everyday on my maternity leave I would sit on my computer & have a conversation (or multiple) with my Dad on skype.

Anyway - by the grace of God I was able to choke my tears & pain down long enough to get through break, walk out of the room & make it to the bathroom before my gut, my head, and my heart exploded & I literally had a total bawl-fest. It was like the moment that first tear snuck by I had lost any chance of holding it together. After a few moments I was able to compose myself & make it back to my desk but from that point on my day was shot. I spent the rest of that day, that night, and even the next morning just sulking in my grumpy state. It really sucks when as much as I know I "make my own weather" (from "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People") that I can control how I feel, I simply didn't feel like I could choose to let go of my sour mood.

Its days like those, the really "bad" days, that I am so thankful for my darling little girl. She's a great daughter & an amazing little girl - I couldn't have asked for a better child. She is typically not cranky but an incredibly happy little girl & best of all she sleeps 12 hours a night! :) One thing she is not, however, is a cuddly child. I can't seem to understand it considering I am a total "cuddly" person. I absolutely love hugs & cuddle time. I even find myself going into her room at night, picking her up & cuddling with her (while she stays sleeping) to get my "fix" of cuddle time with her! - - I know I'm crazy but I promise she stays sleeping the whole time and if she wakes at all its just to open her eyes, look at me, and the she goes right back to sleep - (she already knows her mom's crazy).

From now on when I have a bad day I have decided I'm just going to look at this picture and remember how great my little girl is - after all how can anyone be made when they see this face grinning up at them?

Now I'm guessing by looking at this picture you'd figured out that what she's standing by is indeed a toliet but in my defense I couldn't stop her from pulling herself up & standing by it nor could I resist taking a picture of that sweet face looking up at me! Sorry to those of you who find it "offensive" or "gross"

From Party Poopers to Mixers to Places to call home

Why are there some people who seem determined to ruin good times? Is it honestly because they simply can't break out of their bubble, their shell, their comfort zone, or whatever else you want to call it? Or is it more because they have to have things exactly their way & do not like any deviation from that way? I wish I knew.

I myself am a person who has a hard time "coming out" of my shell. I tend to be rather self-conscious and only open up one of two ways. Either I'm super nervous & I start rambling only to say way too much and make a fool out of myself or I truly feel like those I'm with are my friends and I am comfortable with them which allows me to freely make a fool of myself. Being this way has led me to dislike things such as large group activities, spot-lights or stage events, and most of all mixers. However, just because I dislike these things and would 100% not choose to do them in front of strangers does NOT mean I'd ruin a fun game around my friends! After all, aren't our friends the people we are supposed to be ourselves around? And what is more "being yourself" than being willing or able to make a fool out of yourself in order for everyone to have a good time?

Anyway, Don't you just 'love' mixers as much as I do? Sense the sarcasm. That's because I truly do totally, completely dread them. Mixers usually involve one of two things-
1 - Putting yourself out there to get to know new people in embarrassing or odd ways through the use of games. Don't get me wrong I love new & exciting games. Especially ones that truly are hilarious and or challenging. But I personally think that any games which are totally out of my comfort zone (i.e. embarrassing, odd, humiliating) are only supposed to be played with my friends, not total strangers! I mean after all, who else are you supposed to look like a fool in front of if not your friends?

or 2 - through those fabulous pre-set questions - "Tell us your name, how old you are, where you're from and something no one else knows about you..." SERIOUSLY? Whatever variation the questions are two are almost always included, your name (duh) and where you're from. Why is this a main question in every group mixer? I seriously hate this question. This question is not easy to answer because it to me it can be interpreted many ways. Are they asking where I was born? Where I lived the first years of my life? Where I've lived the most? Where I live now? Come on now people, its not like these questions all have the same answer! (at least not for me!)

I for one, do not have a set answer to that question. Each way it can be interpreted is a different answer for me. Undoubtedly when I answer the question with an "I don't know where I'm from" I end up getting another question like "well, where do your parents live?" or "where do you live now?" or "why don't you know?" Then I have to go into a long explanation of why I live in X but was born in Y but spent the beginning of my life in Z and lived the longest in A but now live in B and oh yeah my parents live in C... as you can see it gets pretty complicated! So if I ever run into any of you who don't know me or want to have a "mixer" please read on so you know the answers to the "typical" questions & come up with some new ones, okay? This perhaps is also why I plan to never move again!

Just so you know/realize what I'm really talking about...here's a recap of all my moves from my first days until now. I was born in Sibley, IA, but at 2 months old I was moved to Napa, CA (not that I complained during that move!) until I was 5 years old. Just before my 5th birthday we moved from California back to Iowa where I lived in Rock Valley until I started college. (That move I complained about but can you blame me,..California to Iowa? seriously who does that!)

When I graduated from high school I decided that as I'd watched each of my siblings move away to go to school I really didn't like people leaving & wanted to stay close to my parents so I moved only 20 minutes away & went to Dordt in Sioux Center. After only a semester there my parents decided that Dad had to take the call (he was a minister) to a church in Lethbridge, Alberta - in CANADA - not 20 minutes away but more like a 20 hour drive! Okay so its only 18 hours but still its not "close by" like I wanted! Apparently I had little to say about it because by May the house was packed up & off they went. I then had to find a place to live once my freshman year of college was over - not like I could go "home" again like most people! So I moved into my first apartment in Sioux Center. I lived there a whopping 8 months or so before my roommate moved home & I had to find a cheaper place to live. Micah found me a basement apartment which was affordable so I jumped on it & moved in - - after discovering I really didn't like having to walk through the older woman's kitchen & living room to get to the basement door where I had no kitchen of my own and certainly didn't have much privacy I moved again (after only six months) to another basement apartment. This one came equipped not only with a private entrance (that actually locked!) but a heated garage stall, a kitchen, and tons of square footage! It was finally a place I felt like I could call home!

Then when Micah & I got married 8 months later there was NO way I was moving! We stayed there past the 1 year anniversary of my moving in and right up until May of 2006. At this point Micah, my husband, decided he wanted to please those in his life (other than me) and agreed to go to Vet School which meant "we" had to move to Ames, Iowa. I say "we" because after purchasing a trailer home (not "trailerish", like you might imagine or are picturing in your head right now - I was insistent on that) and moving our stuff down there so I could start my new job, Micah remained in Sioux Center working and we saw each other only on the weekends for about two months until he finally came down to Ames and found a part time job to do before school started.

After 4 months of living in Ames and a whole week and a half of vet school, Micah decided he did not want to live other people's dreams for his life & instead wanted to make his own plan for his/our life so he quit vet school and we headed back to Sioux Center.

Only at this point we only had our trailer in Ames and no place to live in Sioux Center. So what did we do? We moved in with his parents and siblings.

It took about 6 weeks of living in an upstairs bedroom before we started renting the old Dordt swine farm house. Let me tell you - that place was a real beauty! - Definitely spacious as long as you didn't mind sharing your home with mice, wind, and spiders! We lived there about 9 months before we bought our first house! Most people think we're crazy but we now live only 4 houses from Micah's parents.

We have been living on the Middleberg blacktop for almost two years and loving almost every minute of it! I have absolutely no plans to ever MOVE again, expand, remodel, & redecorate plans but definitely no moving plans! Especially after watching and helping my sister Sarah & my mother build a house together - I've decided I am completely content to live right where we are! So now you know all my moves & you can come up with your own answer to the "where I'm from" question. Hopefully Alexa will thank me someday for being able to always know her answer to that question!

Anyway I think that's enough of a tangent for me to go off on for today. Perhaps again another time.