Catching up

Is it possible to actually catch up? (That is supposed to be a rhetorical question, so if you think the answer is "yes," I do not want to know about it!)

I think we're finally over our second round of the flu - not the stomach flu this time, thank God! Unfortunately we've all (except Levi) got a nasty upper-respiratory thing going on. Still. But, at least we're now functioning at about 90%, and for me, that means I get to try to catch up on housework and thank-you notes and Christmas tear-down and et cetera...that could have been done in smaller, more manageable chunks at an earlier date if I hadn't been achy and sleeping for much of the past week or so.

However, since it's nearing the end of the day, I wanted to get one more post in before 2009 is upon us!

So here are a few photos from the past week or so...

Okay, so this picture was actually taken in August, by my sister when she and her husband were visiting. However...it was in my hometown newspaper on Christmas Eve as their Reader's Scrapbook photo of the day! And I quote: "Brothers Drake (last name), 6, and Levi (last name), 1, peer out the window of their (our town), Fla., home on a rainy day. Aunt Crystal (last name) of (hometown) snapped the photo while she and her husband, Jeff (last name), were visiting the family in August. Drake and Levi's parents are Adam and Melonie (last name), formerly of (hometown)." (Whew. That was a lot of editing.) So anyway, my kids are totally famous now. Only problem - for their fame anyway - as my husband's grandpa pointed out: "it looks like they put the wrong end in the paper." Well. At least they have cute backsides.

Super job, Aunt Crystal!

Our family before the Christmas Eve Glowstick Service at church. (Yes, that's Glowstick, not Candlelight!) The kids all sang at the beginning of the service, and it was so cute, and actually very uncharacteristic of our church to do something so, well, traditional. I was about to post a picture, but realized that would include posting scads of little kids' faces on the internet without their parents permission - not cool - so I'm refraining. Although I really wish you could see how cute they all looked!

Some gift-opening action! We do presents on Christmas Eve, stockings on Christmas morning...just in case anyone wonders about the date on the photo. It was a lot of fun! Particularly entertaining for all of us to watch Levi. At first he wasn't too interested in ripping paper off of stuff until he realized that every time paper was ripped, a new toy appeared! Wow! He got down to business after that.


After Levi went to bed, Adam and Drake played with Drake's new K'nex! Drake was very excited to have received them, and even more excited to have Mom and Dad play, too.

We were all feeling pretty well on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and then got sick again on the 26th), but the guys just got too tired from all that building, I guess! I was on the phone with my mom and dad, and noticed the two of them conked out like this. Very sweet! They were both escorted to bed soon after...


Hey look! Socks in our stockings! Seriously cool stocking stuffers from Grandpa and Grandma S. They are so creative. The boys are both stoked about their new socks - they each got 3 new pairs (the others are very similar)!

Adam's turn for paybacks! Drake and I both had fever and chills, and spent the evening lying like this on the living room floor. Levi never wants to be left out of anything, nor does Heidi!

Drake and I were still sick a couple of days later, but slowly starting to feel a bit better. Here's Drake, catchin' some Zs on the couch, and Levi (of course) trying to do exactly the same thing his brother is doing. Heidi (of course) wants in on the action!

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So I think that's it - a week of exhaustion and illness and fun, all rolled into one. Oh yes, add in a visit to the emergency room and the loss, and recovery, of the diamond out of my wedding ring!! Yeah, can you say amazing? Adam found it, but God totally gets the credit for that one. I was taught by Adam's Grandma Jane many years ago to stop and pray whenever I lose something. (It was lost train tickets at the time. And they were found quickly.) You'd be amazed how often my lost items are found! So anyway...

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There. Now at least my blog is caught up! Can't exactly say the same for my life...

Quick pix

I decided not to keep you in suspense any longer and to go ahead and post a few of the pictures I've already taken off the camera. I think we'll be pretty busy this weekend and so I may not get around to it otherwise. (But I need to remember to take a picture of Levi in the ducky diaper, of course, so I can put it on here when I get the chance!)

I just like this picture! Heidi sticks this close to Levi quite frequently. Who knows why...

Drake, me, and Levi before releasing Clayton's 7th birthday balloon.

Drake is enjoying the frosting off Adam's cupcake, as well as his own.

He's his mama's boy...I hate to say it, but it's true. Gotta love that frosting!

Levi enjoyed Clayton's birthday cupcakes a little, but I think he liked playing in the frosting more than eating it.

Now isn't that sweet?! I need to put this one up on my fridge to look at for when I have days like the past few have been!

My other hobby (well, one of them)...

...besides blogging, that is! Tonight I've been sewing. A little stress-reliever for me! I finished another fitted diaper that I started last night or the night before, I can't remember. Anyway, it's not for Levi, but for my friend Cherie's daughter. I'm doing a small stash of these cute little ducky/bubble flannel ones for her, and I really like how they're turning out. Cherie bought the fabric - isn't it adorable? I modified (a lot actually) a free pattern I found online, and I think I've finally got it just how I like it. Hopefully they'll fit little Adelyn as well as they fit Levi, my "model." (I just have to add here that before our favorite Alaskans moved in June, Cherie made six, yes six, oh-so-cute newborn fitteds as her first sewing project - well, first in a long time anyway, and they turned out really nice. I wish I had taken a picture of them, but I forgot to.)

So anyway, Cherie and I have both decided we're getting disillusioned with Aplix (the Velcro of the diaper world) for a number of reasons, so I got some plastic snap tape to try as closures for these. I have high hopes for it, as it's very similar to the snap tape in a very durable boughten all-in-one diaper I've been using for a long time. Metal snap tape is just not heavy-duty enough for the rigors of home diaper-washing; we've learned this from experience. The prongs are too short and the snaps rust and fall out. And I don't have a snap press (yet anyway!) to add resin snaps one at a time. So, like I said, I have high hopes for this snap tape.

I don't use fitted diapers myself - well, for Levi! You know what I mean! - but many mamas love them. They are awfully cute, I have to say! Especially when made with print fabric. And functional - hold it all in nicely!

I took some pictures so you can see how they're turning out. Sorry if I'm putting you to sleep. I know that few of my readers are as obsessed with sewing cloth diapers as I am! Probably just one. (Hi Dawn!) So here are the pictures. I'll try and remember to take one of Levi modeling for you tomorrow. They're even cuter on a baby!

Here ya go:

Heidi likes to be near me. Like, all the time. She seemed only slightly irritated that the diaper I was making was ruffling her fur. Certainly not irritated enough to move off my sewing table!

All done! It's a bit stiff now, but just picture it much softer and fluffier after a few washings...

Here's the inside - I "recycled" a really thin, blue prefold (provided by Cherie) for the inner layer. (There's also a pad of 6 layers of flannel and 4 layers of birdseye between the flannel outer and the prefold inner. Yes, these take awhile to dry, but they're very absorbant.)

This is the snap tape that I was talking about...you can kind of see it in this picture. It looks like it will be snug and durable. I guess we'll find out after a few months of wear!

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Okay...yes, I know that there have been no pictures of my kiddos for, what, like almost a week?? And many of you read this blog solely for the pictures of the boys. So I'm sorry. My next post won't disappoint you. I promise to post pictures of my children, not just words and/or pictures of diapers! (As beautiful as cloth diapers are.......)

Guess what?

Heidi is back! She showed up a couple of hours ago at our back door, looking disheveled and missing her collar, but overall, no worse for the wear. We are so thankful for her safe return!

Drake was outside playing with a little neighbor friend in the "woods" behind our house (a few trees in a weedy patch, but that's "woods" to five-year-old boys who have grown up in base housing). I also had Levi outside playing in our backyard, and he started pitching a major fit - screaming and flinging himself over backwards. It was SO hot, and I took him inside to let him cool down a bit, and within less than a minute, I heard meows coming from the sliding glass door. Heidi was meowing on the back porch, where we had been only a minute before! I'm seriously thinking she may have recognized Levi's screaming or something - she's certainly heard it enough.

When I opened the door, she almost ran from me. I called out to her, and she came back hesitantly and let me pick her up and take her inside. I checked her over well, and she looks like she's fine; besides her wild appearance and missing collar, the only thing I noticed was that the little pads on her feet were all swollen and blistered! I guess gravel, sand, prickly weeds, and burning-hot asphalt make your feet sore when you're only used to walking on carpet and tile floors! And she was surprisingly not hungry. After nervously walking around and reacquainting herself with the house, she has now settled down, and only wants to be held and cuddled. So we are thankful and feeling so blessed to have her back.

Funny how we tend to take things for granted. When we first moved down here from North Dakota, almost four years ago now, we left a large 3-bedroom house with a big basement and huge kitchen. We realized we were only eligible for much smaller 2-bedrooms at our new base - there are no basements here, and small kitchens. I was feeling irritated. Then it turned out that we couldn't get into base housing at all because the waiting list was so long, and we ended up living in a pseudo-scary neighborhood off base in a tiny, poorly insulated, dirty apartment that was literally falling apart for about 9 months, while we waited for base housing. Once we got into base housing, I was thrilled with our new 2-bedroom home! What an attitude adjustment! Living in our little apartment, God taught me contentment with my circumstances. Then He gave me even more to be thankful for when we were able to move. (And actually, there are things I miss about living in a small home. It was much easier to keep it tidy, for one...)

When Heidi disappeared, I became more thankful for my boys and their health and safety - something I admittedly don't think about all that often. The first night she was missing, I was so upset and sad, and I slipped quietly into the boys' room just after midnight to check on them before I went to bed. Just hearing their soft little snores made me feel like I really and truly had so much to be thankful for. I forget sometimes, that life itself is fragile and precious. Now I feel even more blessed by the return of our little cat, and I will gladly take this experience and carry it with me as a lesson in thankfulness and appreciation. Even without her, we are so blessed...but I have such a soft spot for my little icing-on-the-cake!

Feeling the loss

I've been missing Heidi a lot. If you're not a "cat person," you probably won't understand quite how I'm feeling. I'm not truly a hard-core cat person either; I only really like some cats. Heidi is certainly one of those cats. Adam and I have always said she's the perfect cat - playful sometimes, but more cuddly than anything else. I could hardly ever sit down without her jumping up to claim my lap. I miss that. I can actually type better, but it's lonely - and worse than that, worrisome, not knowing what has happened to her. She has such a personality, and is so laid back and gentle with the kids, even Levi (who made a habit of pulling her hair and tail). She was "my girl." I don't have human girls, but Heidi has a collar with flowers on it because I can't put anything floral on my boys! I was her favorite person, always have been, and she and I used to have "conversations" by meowing back and forth. She could tell when I was upset. She always chose my lap and my side of the bed. We got Heidi before I was pregnant with any of the boys, over 7 years ago! I can't believe she's gone, and I can't believe we made it through almost the entire day yesterday without noticing she was missing. Sometimes she does "lay low" for a good portion of the day, but still...

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(I notice that I am wavering between present and past tense...the not knowing is the worst.)

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I pray that she will return! I had a dream just before waking this morning that we found her on a walk outside. Last night between 10pm and midnight I walked around our loop and also the inner loop in our housing area, posting signs on all the banks of mailboxes (there are 22 of them - now I know) and calling for her. Drake, Levi, and I made the same trek again this morning, and added looking and calling in the storm drains. (It's HOT here, even at 8am! Very hot.) I don't know what else we can do. I called the Law Enforcement desk on base, and the Animal Welfare Society which is right near our housing area.

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The guilt part stinks. I don't remember the last time I gave her much special attention. I spend a lot of time just trying to keep Levi away from her, because he's so darned mean to her, and hence, seeing her lurking near him tends to make me feel slightly irritated and wish she would just go away for awhile, because I know I'm about to have to stop whatever I'm doing and make him be nice to her. This past Saturday morning, Adam was fishing, and I was cuddling with Levi on our bed in the early morning. Heidi was being annoying, walking around, trying to rub up against me, and just causing more stimulus than I was ready for before 7am on a Saturday. I gave her a little push off the bed, and she left the room. It's interactions like this that I can remember happening recently; certainly not the kind of attention she deserves for being the sweet and easy kitty she is and putting up with what she puts up with (mostly this means Levi).

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I'm just trying not to think about what she's doing now, or what's already happened to her if she's never coming back. Too much loss right now. This is the fourth "loss" in the past couple of months that have, accumulatively, hit me hard. First, our family doctor, who delivered Levi and worked his tail off during my pregnancy to make sure everything was okay and that I got to attempt my VBAC, was just transferred to another base (McChord, actually, for all you Washingtonians!). The last time I saw him was in May, at Levi's 15-month checkup. Then our Bradley (natural childbirth) instructor, who also happens to be the head nurse on the labor and delivery floor where Levi was born, retired from the Air Force and moved away. She is just a sweetheart and has had such a positive and far-reaching effect on our family. Her retirement ceremony was hard for me. Adam couldn't make it. I got to hug her and say goodbye, and then, that was it. It felt so weird. I had someone watching the boys for the ceremony, and I just drove around afterwards on some back roads and cried. I knew what was coming next...and you know, too, if you know me or you've been reading this blog. Our beloved next-door best friends moved away to Alaska. It was sort of surreal. We knew it was coming for months beforehand, and then suddenly it was time. The packers came, the moving truck came, our friends stayed with us in our home for the last week doing all the final stuff with their house and outprocessing, and then they left. It's been empty here. And today I feel empty. I have what I need, my Jesus and my people-family: Adam, Drake, and Levi. But right now most of the little extra joys seem to have gone.

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I am sorry that I didn't love on Heidi more while we had her. I am sorry that we didn't get to do more with our friends during their last months with us here. I am sorry that things change, children grow up, friends move, people and pets pass away. Loss takes many forms. I was just not ready to lose Heidi yet.

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What can I expect but to feel disappointment and even emptiness and loneliness sometimes in a world that is not my home? My home is with the Lord. And my Lord is never-changing. Never Changing. When I've just about had it with change and loss, this is a beautiful truth.

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Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. Matt 10:29

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(Sorry for the weird paragraph breaks with periods. Blogger was not letting me make any paragraph breaks, so I had to "trick" it with the periods. You don't want to read all that rambling with no paragraph breaks, believe me!)

Missing kitty

We realized this evening that our sweet kitty, Heidi, has been missing probably all day today. She could have possibly gotten out last night or early this morning. Our front screen door had been squeaky for a long time, so we oiled it a couple of weeks ago, and it has been closing much slower (probably like it's supposed to) since that time, prompting Heidi to escape to the outdoors more readily. She usually just slinks around in the garden or lays on the front walkway right by the door when she gets out...but then again it's never been for more than a few minutes. Who knows what she would do if left outside for hours? She is declawed in the front, and has been strictly a base-housing housecat for over 7 years. She's our baby! Drake is heartbroken, and really, Adam and I are too. I've been combing the neighborhood "calling" her (she responds to meows, and actually talks back to me, and usually comes running when I meow to her). Please pray for our Heidi to return home safely! I will let you all know if we find her. We've put out her food and water dishes on the front porch tonight. We miss her so much.