Crash!

Todd got in an accident on the way to work this morning. He is worrying that it will affect our ability to surprise the kids this weekend (we are a one car family) - he says the van looks pretty bad, but it sounds like it is just mainly the bumper. He is pretty upset. Maybe I'll rent a car for the weekend or something, but I'm sure he'll worry about spending that money when we have a detectable to pay and our insurance may go up. (Although I think we have accident forgiveness with Allstate, so I'm not sure what that will look like.)

I would just like to take this opportunity to point out that everybody (at least everybody that is a man with the last name Young) says I drive like a maniac, but Todd has now scrapped the van up at the mall and torn the bumper off. The only harm I have caused it is a little scraping on the bottom of the bumper when I pull the nose of the van over the concrete things in the parking lot.

So sick of sickies!

Last week there were 2 different stomach bugs running rampant through our house. Everybody except me got hit with one of them, Gabriel got both of them and Jacob may have had both of them too. In fact, Todd was going to take me a really romantic date Friday night but Gabe threw up while I was picking up the babysitter! But by Sunday everyone was healthy...until today.



Cadence was complaining about her tummy and wouldn't eat breakfast. It turns out she has a pretty good fever. I taught math and history today with her laying in my arms (like a little baby) and sometime in the middle of math functions she fell asleep. Her ever loving brothers prepared the couch for her so that I could lay her down. Then when she woke up Gabe brought her a choice of stuffed animals and read to her until she fell back asleep. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing that I have ever seen, but I didn't get to the camera in time to get a picture of it.



I felt so bad for her that I was compelled to burn a cd of show tunes for her to listen to while she lays there all pathetic. She loves "Do a deer" or "the song from the frog movie" as she calls it - her favorite part in the Sound of Music involved the kids and a frog. After all the good Sound of music songs there was still lots of space on the disc so I added some stuff from My Fair Lady. Right now she is yelling to me about how much she likes the song about the English "Why Can't the English?" This is her laying on the couch, listening to her cd and occasionally nibbling on a Ritz cracker.





I just hope that everyone is healthy by this weekend, as we have an exciting surprise planned for them Sunday morning!

It has been a while

I know, I know... it has been 2 and a half months since I wrote anything. My list of excuses is long and includes computer problems that account for several weeks of my lameness. More honestly though, I have been in a funk and sometimes those "lows" are hard to work through. Thank God for Todd - he like my rock when it feels like my emotions and circumstances beyond my control are swirling all around me.

I consider myself, for the most part, a pretty level headed gal. I'm not one of those women who allows emotions to rule my life. I tend to make decisions based on facts (more like a typical man - and Todd tends to go on feeling, more like a typical woman) and take things in stride. But since a bout with post-partum depression after Cadence (almost 3 years ago) I have become aware of "lows" and "not lows" - sort of like bi-polar, but there aren't really "highs", just normals and lows.

It seems that what is most likely to drive me into a low is feeling like I lack purpose, or realizing that I what I thought was a great vision for my life (or our family) isn't going to pan out. For "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Prov. 29:18) When I set a course in my mind I throw everything I have into making it happen, and when I begin to feel like all my investments have been in vain I "become demoralized" (NAB translation of perish).

We always thought that Syracuse was not our forever home as much at it was the place we grew up, even though we have never lived anywhere else. And with that in my mind, I felt like I could live with the fact that various other aspects of my life weren't "right" - if we didn't feel like we were at the "right" church, and I haven't found the "right" niche for myself etc.... But now Todd really likes his job, and as we find ourselves with fewer and fewer ties to this god-forsaken city we feel more and more like we belong here. Todd's family has all moved south, in 2 weeks my sister's family moves to PA, and we have very few people in Syracuse who we would count as friends. Yet, now, all of the sudden - it feels like it is where we belong.

So now it seems that I find myself faced with - myself! Needless to say, that is depressing :) Seriously though, I believe that good things are happening. It's just hard for me to process sometimes.

We are in the process of trying to discern what church is the best place for our family, and are leaning heavily towards Missio (currently called Summit Church, but changing soon). I hesitate because I have no idea what kind of roll I will be able to play there - I'll do anything but nursery, and they don't seem like they need me anywhere right now. Todd is playing lead there (that is how we ended up there - Jeremy Cali called and said they needed a guitar player) and the kids seem like to this church better than any other we've been involved in. And there is a very dear family that would account for at least 2 of our friends that have just decided to become a part of the church.

My sister is leaving. My sister is leaving. Did I mention that my sister is leaving? That just makes me sad. I think I'll be making lots of trips to Erie! My kids can't wait to go visit the ranch and meet a real cowboy.

Speaking of my kids, they are all doing great. Sometime in the next 60 days (I hope) Jacob will be one step closer to being all ours! His biological father tells me that his lawyer has the new surrender drawn up - now if he can just sign it and have his lawyer send it my lawyer, we'll be all set. 45 days after it is signed, David's rights to Jacob will be gone, then Todd can adopt him. YEAHHH!!!!