We got dumped on!

I am sure that we are in for a real treat with our own offspring. The phrase about your children being the embodiment of your own actions as a youth x10! In my opinion, Iain looks just like his father in these photos of our 12th Night Celebration when the kids got their presents from us. The Slinky is a huge hit as well as our new addition to our Veggie collection Sumo of the Opera. I still like snow. Iain loves snow and he is enamored of any type of big equipment that makes noise and has lights while they are removing snow. He was frozen with curiosity when we saw a bulldozer clearing the library parking lot this morning. I had to do a double Mommy hip carry of the two babes. I guess I should be thankful for that extra pudge still hanging around my middle...it is somewhat of a ledge for a little butt perched on each side of me. I still don't like the pudge, but I like carrying them together one in each arm. I think my rugby coach would be proud of the pipes I have now.The Fiona girl is starting to stand while pulling herself up against something. She is very excited with her latest milestone, and this is such an exciting time for her to be learning to stand on her feet but I tend to get a little frantic about the falls and the little squirt hitting her melon on all kinds of things, mainly, the wood floors throughout the house.We are officially out of the 2nd batch of 2009 chili. The first batch was gone on New Year's Day, and it was mighty tasty with 1/2 beef and 1/2 venison but didn't have enough kick for me. The last batch was beef and I added Graziano's sausage and more funky looking peppers. I have no idea what kind of peppers I added, but I had one little red one, one even littler green one and four jalapenos. The key this time around was the crock pot, but it needs to go a good 6 hours. The chili got spicier with each round of leftovers, and Jake started to pour a glass of milk with his each time. I know my man likes hot stuff *wink*, but could this have been a little too hot? I didn't measure the other spices out, and I might have accidentally put in a good amount of coriander, I know I had an "uh-oh" amount of oregano, doubled the garlic, and poured the Tabasco. It was fiery! I did dump in some honey as well, but I don't know that I could duplicate this batch. When you eye ball everything, it doesn't necessarily brew the same way twice.The house is finally void of Christmas decorations. I hate taking them all down! The house seems so naked, but also refreshing so I am glad to have more room in the house and all of the boxes back down in the basement. It seemed as though I was not able to get any house work done since I couldn't get a double nap going for the babes. We started to clear a path with the push cart. I pushed the babes around and picked up stuff throughout the house that needed to be moved into different rooms. I would pile things into the car and all over the children, push them quickly to the back of the house making all of those crazy screeching car noises, and they were laughing and giggling and I was getting my house work done! Yippee! This is not an everyday occurrence.We are currently obsessed with the E.D. Smith Blueberry, Raspberry, and Pomegranate fruit spread that we found at our favorite store, Costco. This spread is going on the waffles, the pancakes, in the yogurt and all over every body's face! Fiona is also a big fan, but we don't know if her bunny appreciates that she now looks like Gorbachev.

So since it is a Saturday night I think we will do something fun! Oh yeah...shoveling that beautiful snow.

I Lost the Bet!

In 2007, the bet was made over the Iowa-Iowa State game that whichever team won, we would wear those colors for our Christmas card. The cyclones won, and we wore RED!! Go Clones!!2008, was a veddy, veddy bad year for the Cyclones, and since the bet was the same, we should have had on black and gold in the family Christmas card. Jake seemed to somehow feel...bad...about bypassing all of our very cute family photos, and he didn't want to seem to make anyone take a photo of us in black and gold, so we had our elfish prison pajamas. On January 1st, we invaded the Big Josephs to watch the Outback Bowl and cheer the Hawks to a 31-10 victory over the South Carolina Game Cocks. We all tried to wear something Hawk, but the big thing was to try to get me into this teeny tiny Hawk shirt (it really did fit before having the breastfeeding boobs and saggy baby tummy). Becky has made an adorable bumble bee sweater for Iain and a matching hat for Fiona. He has had serious issues with this item, and it was no exception during photo time. So since we didn't broadcast the Hawk photo on our Christmas card, the least I can do to try to make good on a bet is to designate one blog day to the Iowa Hawkeyes and my husband's love for his alma mater and favorite college football team.*Note: I get these confused looks from people all of the time, when they discover that Jake and I are in a "mixed marriage." How on earth could I not be a Hawk fan? I grew up in Iowa City, so why on earth would I not be a Hawk fan?? The world should know, that I made a conscious decision to leave Iowa City and go to Ames to get away from my family. and be in a new place with new scenery. :o) I had a very fun college career at Iowa State University, and my 4 year degree bleeds cardinal and gold. I love the "Bells of Iowa State" and my pride soared when my little brother was asked to kick footballs at Iowa State. I was even more pleased when two years after that, my little little brother also decided to attend ISU!! I am not a Hawk hater, except on those days that we have the inTRAstate rival games in football, basketball, wrestling, ...you know the CyHawk Series. Even if we are beat in athletics, it does give me great pride that ISU students seem to have bigger brains. I could be overstating here, but that is just what I feel.

I liked 2008!

I am all about looking forward, but what was so bad about last year? We have the obvious things, but I wouldn't want to be continually labeled as a grudge holder. I found the valleys of 2008 to be serious character building opportunities for Jake and I, and I think we are stronger through the chaos.
We welcomed our beautiful daughter Fiona Lynn in April, and even though we had a traumatic birth experience, we were reminded that we serve a Mighty God! He is faithful to answer our prayers and hold us in His hands. Not by our own strength, but through His might and His power we are brought safely through the hardships. Walking the halls of the NICU my heart cried in thankfulness that Fiona was a full term baby. The Lord was preparing me with perspective, for the months of colic that she had! The hours throughout the night were long and loud, but when I felt that I couldn't stand another shrill scream my conversations to the Father were still laced with Thanksgiving that she was in my arms.xJake and I learned that those "gut feelings" that we have, are the Holy Spirit using circumstances to tell us to flee quickly or not to approach a situation we "feel" to be unstable. Seeking alternatives to modern medicine, we left a pediatrician who was pressuring us to vaccinate Iain, and we also found that Fiona's colic could have just been a void of good stomach bacteria(that was stripped during the anti-biotics she received in the NICU). When we play detective each day with the babes who can not yet communicate we are always asking questions. After changing a diaper, "What did we feed him?" After barfing, "What did we feed him? Is he sick from food? Who were we hanging around? Were they sick?" After falling, "Did you trip on something? Be careful where you walk?" or "Move that thing to the basement! That's too dangerous!!"

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11

My grandfather checked into the hospital, almost the same time that I went to the hospital when Fiona was born. He had been sick for many years, dealing with diabetes and heart disease. When Jake and I were preparing for our wedding, he kept saying, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." With each new milestone that Jake and I passed, so quickly during our first year of marriage, my Grandpa would get excited, but still say that phrase that became so regretful. He was so delighted to meet Iain and spend time with him. Grandpa loved hearing stories about Iain and called him, "my little buddy." I know he was excited to meet Fiona as well, but he never returned home from the hospital. His death was bittersweet because we all knew that he was very sick, but for those that are left behind the finality in those last breaths are excruciating. It was important for me to say something at his funeral because even though he wasn't there, and couldn't hear anything, I wanted to share with others his simple faith and a belief in a Savior who died for him. We never had those deep kinds of theological discussions, but through his simplicity, I learned that the God stuff doesn't have to be complicated.

And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

The national economy was in the toilet in 2008, but we continue to be grateful for God's protection and guidance through the lean years. I love making bread for the family, and by eating in every night we are eating healthier and cheaper! We rarely watch the news, and if we don't know how much the DOW plunged, then we just don't know and we are OK with that! We have had our barf puddles and blown out diapers dripping everywhere, but we have had another year of good health for all of our family. I wouldn't trade a day of being a mom for any day in the workforce. A giggle from my daughter, a kiss from my son trumps the thrill of a sale any day. I will take every low that I may have with my children for the heights that they give my heart each day. Watching them explore their world and take delight in spotting the moon each night takes my breath away.

From the ashes of germ carcasses

I feel like we are constantly shoveling dead germ bodies around the house, and since my last post, we have been hit back to back with those "it's going around" germs that become unavoidable with young offspring. Jake was coughing, I was coughing, Iain was coughing and Fiona was coughing for the past two weeks or so. Add in a sinus infection for me, some fevers for some of us, and pumping lots of fluids, sometimes drugs, and soup through our veins we were on the mend until Monday when Iain decided to shows signs of a GI bug.
Our Monday started out with a lovely, yet fast and furious, trip to Iowa City to see the grandparents and great-grandma for the day. Iain ate at least five prunes for breakfast, and my mom was convinced that was explanation enough for what would follow throughout the rest of the day. Iain ate heartily at his Grandma's house, showing off his little vocabulary by asking for "cheeeese, berries" and other one syllable food items. We scurried home as quick as we could to have a frozen sausage pizza for dinner with peaches and a handful of cashew nuts for the little fella and then off to bed!

The poor little man was very distraught at about 3:30 in the morning with another messy diaper, and by 4:00am I had brought him into bed with us. He was very sad, and I couldn't bear to see my little elf's body so distressed by crying and clutching at me. We were all delirious at the hour of day, but some brow stroking was hypnotic for both mother and baby and we were asleep again for only 45 minutes. I awoke to a screaming child sitting next to me in bed, and I couldn't think fast enough because the heaving warnings did not last long before we were all sitting in a puke puddle in our bed. Our snuggy, snowflake, flannel sheets and our beautiful Asian duvet that we bought after our wedding, our matching elf pajamas and the precious ducky blanket were all hit with the acidic fluids and undigested dinner.

Jake somehow got through unscathed, but Iain was now hysterical and trying to wipe his face with the puked on ducky blanket. I started barking orders as I stripped out of my own pajamas. It was quickly decided that Jake would bathe Iain, while I tied up everything in an over sized hobo bag and lugged everything down to the basement. I called my mother whom I knew was awake to ask her what to do with the linens. Should I rinse everything out? "Throw everything in the washing machine and just keep washing it until everything is gone. You might have to run a couple of loads through, but then just shake off the chunks before you throw everything in the dryer." I was confused because I heard my aunt's voice in my head saying, "Always rinse out the chunks, or else they get stuck in your washing machine! Take the time to rinse out the chunks!" I hiked back upstairs to get a rubber glove to help me with my task. As I picked through all of the linens I thought I should be more sleepy, but the stench was keeping me awake and alert as I discovered my toddler doesn't chew his food very well.

Jake and I piled into the guest bedroom, and we tucked Iain into his crib. Within the hour, I heard the screaming and the puking again. The poor little man was just devastated. There is a reason why we have back ups in the sheet department, but we don't have a back up mattress pad since it is on Fiona's crib. The little Fiona angel slept through the entire drama, sawing logs!

I was able to accomplish very little yesterday with a whimpering little boy attached to my hip. We had a non-stop Veggie marathon, and a community nap session all in the guest room. My mother-in-law gets a huge gold star since I canceled a coffee that I was hosting for her friends and instead she brought Pedialite and laundry soap over to help with the day. The biggest surprise was a beautiful Christmas cactus, heavy with cerise blooms. My Christmas cactus has had no flowers this year, so this flashy splash of color brightened everyone's day including the sick boy who kept pointing and whispering about the pretty flowers.

Busy Thanksgiving Week

We have been out of the house every night this past week! Tonight will be our first night at home with our normal "routine." Even though we run a very unstructured life around at the Little Josephs, we realize that we have more of a routine than we thought we did when those little babies are tired for naps and the comforts of their own environment.

Monday night we hit up the Jolly Holiday Lights Lighting ceremony. We were all dressed up in our matching Hannah Anderson outfits that Grandma and Nanu Griebahn spoiled us with, and everyone was enthralled with Iain and Fiona. It was very touching to see many people cooing at her, but keep your hands off people!! The little girl does not like strangers touching her! The event is to support the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, and we drove through the lights with the songs of the season playing on the radio. We had the babies in the front seat with us so that we could point everything out to them, and crawling along at a snail's pace we thought that they would both be glued to the lights. Fiona is probably still too little to focus on everything going on outside the car, but she did very well. Iain was desperately trying to keep his hands off of the steering wheel, radio, power window and locks, so when he could no longer contain himself we pulled over and put everyone back in their restraining car seats.Tuesday night we dropped Iain and Fiona at a friend's house and headed downtown for the Festival of Trees and Lights Gala. Mom and Dad had bought me a beautiful formal gown and I was decked out with my wedding shoes and jewels. Jake and I looked good together, and we had a great time looking at all of the beautiful trees all decorated with different themes and visiting with people. The gala benefits Blank Children's Hospital and the Child Life Program at Blank Children's Hospital. Although our experiences at Blank have been traumatic for us, I was especially thankful for the Child Life Program that helps distract children when they are in the hospital. When Iain split open his eye and needed sutchers , the Child Life team talked with Jake and I about what we could do to help Iain while they fixed him up. They played with him and blew bubbles to distract him during the work that they had to do.Wednesday we celebrated Becky's 58th birthday at Graze. We had a good time with all of the family, and Fiona snarfed down the ice cream cake that they brought for dessert. After dinner, we went to the Josephs for some stale leftover birthday cake. I only mention this, because I was planning a beautiful German chocolate cake for her birthday, but they decided to just eat the leftovers that were already 3 days old. We then watched Joseph home videos of B.J., Trisha, and Jake growing up in order to indoctrinate Sable (B.J.'s girlfriend) or at least give her fair warning into the true life of the Josephs growing up. *wink wink* Speak now, or forever hold your peace! and peas!We spent Thanksgiving in Des Moines this year and had all of the usual dishes that go along with a "Traditional" Thanksgiving meal. I was excited to find a twist on an old favorite: Tex-Mex Green Bean Casserole. Trisha brought the GBC this year and added corn to the mix and substituted Chicken Tortilla Soup in place of the cream of mushroom that is the standard. In place of the nasty onion rings, she crushed red tortilla chips on top. It was very tasty! My pies, even with the mistake, were quite good and mostly gone after the day. I requested the turkey "frame" and I am making a delicious "Turkey Pot Pie" soup out of the left overs. Iain ate all of his turkey salad and half of mine for lunch today. Sometimes he is so fussy about food, but when he is hungry he just clears the table!I am very excited to cook again tomorrow in preparation for the Griebahn dinner that we will have in Iowa City on Sunday afternoon. I am making a spice cake with German frosting (the sticky stuff with coconut and pecans) and I am also going to sneak in a maple, pumpkin cheesecake as an alternative or accompaniment for dessert. I will be starting before 10:30 at night this time, and hopefully will NOT make any tragic blunders that would ruin the outcome of my desserts and send me into bed in hysterics! The Griebahns are not as forgiving as the Josephs in the culinary arts that we all attempt.

Jake and I have so much to be thankful for this year, and although we like to count our blessings throughout the year, it is a wonderful reminder each November to search your heart and find contentedness .

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His
presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD
he is God: it is he that hat made us, and not we
ourselves; we are the people, and the sheep of
his pasture. Enter into His gates with
thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise: be thankful
unto Him, and bless His name. For the LORD
is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth
endureth to all generations.~ Psalm 100

Photo Bulletin

Today is an update on pictures, and there might be words later. For now....

I think their smiles are very similar. Like father like daughter.

But these two look as though they are from the same pod

Iain is already busy with paperwork...all over my paperwork

What is this thing that people do with twisting their heads to the side when in a photograph. Is there something I don't know about? This doesn't appear to make my face look thinner, but definitely makes my neck look fatter!

100% adorable
100% adorable
Joel the chunk Chisolm at Lonely Wives Night
Lucy & Fiona sitting and playing together at Lonely Wives Night
Daniel Chisholm (a.k.a Fiona's betrothed??)
Iain & Daniel sizing each other up in the playroom for LWN

Motherhood Doldrums

We are having one of those weeks where the laundry is growing exponentially by the hour, the kitchen has not been clean before dinner all week, and we keep eating all of the food in the refrigerator which means constant trips to the grocery store. Iain and Fiona have drippy noses, the kind that start dripping right after I have wiped them. Iain thinks it is funny so he laughs and blows more snot onto his little "mouthsill" (like a windowsill, but you know that part between the nostrils and the lip...that area that can collect food, dirt, dust, snot, and is appropriate for things like milk mustaches). Fiona does not think that the snot is funny and dashes her head away from the Kleenex that I must use to grab that snot off of her. I really am not an uptight mom about the runny noses. Trust me! I will allow a little to hang there on the mouthsill, but when it is a stream of "tasty cakes" as Husband likes to call the situation, we must take measures to clean ourselves up.

Jake has coughed up almost 87% of his lungs for the past 3 weeks. He is out of the cough medicine with codeine that he was prescribed last year, and I was devastated to realize yesterday morning when I found the bottle abandon in the sink that there will be no more codeine induced sleep for him (and me). The coughs shake his entire body, and mine, and the rafters on the house and since this has been going on for about 3 weeks, I have had all about I can handle. I need to get on the husband website and find out if there is a patch that has been released for this version.

Our adventure in potty training was a short lived two day ordeal. Iain was very excited to pee in the toilet, and any time he heard a tinkle would exclaim "Whoa!" He would push and push to get a little dribble out, even if I had taken a saturated diaper off of him. I caught one official poop in the toilet followed by a few more pee trips, but now he is traumatized about the whole thing. I have tried to get him to sit on the toilet, but instead of shouting "Whoa!" he is whimpering, "Owww!" and starting to cry when we try. So I am done for now. When he shows interest again, we will be back at square one. I need to do some more reading on methods before I go down this road again, because I am sure that I made many mistakes, one of which could have been premature potty peer pressure.

The one good potty day is in a long line of daily fads that we have experienced this week. Iain seems to obsess about one particular thing throughout the day, and by the next morning it is fish paper. Yesterday he was enthralled with the knick knack shelf in the dinning room. I was wiping months of dust out of the dining room, and he realized that all of the breakables were off of the shelf. He seemed confused that I was allowed to touch and move the little pieces of china and special tea cups. As I was dusting, I became aggravated that I even have a stupid knick-knack shelf like this in my house and as I wiped every item off I realized that none of the items have any importance to me at all. Iain was so excited to look at each thing, and he wanted to get them all back on the shelf I decided this could be a good lesson in being careful with little items. Since he has really enjoyed helping with chores (unloading the dishwasher and taking out recycling) he was very eager to place each little dust free piece of junk back on the shelves. It was very cute to see him gingerly arrange all of the little cups and plates and use his soft little voice to talk to each piece. There is a little porcelain couch and chair in the mix, and he felt that the couch was a piano, so he was pressing it and singing as if he was making his own music and my heart just burst! Before the knick-knack cupboard he was in love with his own home videos and watching himself as a younger baby.


After reading 1Corinthians 7, I was comforted by my position in the "trenches" of motherhood and I have been able to be content and seek joy with my calling as a mother. Verse 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk and verse 20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called and I found peace especially in verse 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, hos she may please her husband.

I was also encouraged by watching one of my favorite childhood films National Velvet. When I was a child, I loved the story of the horse and how Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney had faith in their horse to win the Grand National horse race in England. Watching it through my adult eyes, there is such a bigger story at play and I was able to learn from Mrs. Brown, Velvet's mother. The character reminded me to be content in the life that you are living and that there are seasons and experiences to be enjoyed and respected throughout our lives. She tells her daughter to enjoy her horse and her youth, but have the insight to know when to walk away and move on to the next thing. Mrs. Brown believes in her 12 year old daughters dreams enough to give her all of the prize money that she won in a race when she was 20. She cultivates and nourishes her zealous spirit, but also tells her that there is a time to take chances and to meet a challenge in your youth. There will be a time for marriage and children and it will be necessary to put those things behind you and to take care of your children and your husband, and it is great to look back on memories without living in the past.

I know I have some Mommy colleagues that occasionally read my dribble and thoughts, and we all love our babies and our husbands immensely! Maybe I am weak in regards to the rest of you in that I do catch myself thinking "What have I done?" when I look at these little people that I have been entrusted to raise into decent members of society. It only happens when I am cleaning up multiple barf puddles, folding baskets of laundry and preparing another thankless meal that I hope is nourishing enough for their little bodies. I want to be a SuperMom that graces the pages of a magazine or the label of the latest baby trendy clothing item "developed by a mom!"

Instead, I will attempt contentedness and not worry about inventing anything or writing a fabulous how to book, and I will not get in a dither if my chore list has no check marks yesterday and didn't even get printed out today. Iain and Fiona won't know that I am disorganized until they are much older and so that gives me time to get my act together and realize that this is my calling for this season, and maybe there still is a chance for me to invent something or write that book...just not this year.