Loquacious Lehmanns

Circles in my Head

2011-12-17T22:54:00.002-06:00

I've stated on here before that I discovered the hard way that I'm a terrible writer and it's because all the thoughts in my head are a jumbled mess. Not only are my thoughts a jumbled mess, but things tend to go in circles in my head, like they are now when I want to go to sleep, but can't get the thoughts to stop. I will try very hard to make my thoughts go in a straight line.

I've been pondering for a long time how we (Jeff and I), as shy people can share the gospel of who Christ is and what He's done for the world. I very much want to shout at people and say, don't you understand who Christ is? Haven't you heard His name? How can you not believe? I say this as someone who's been in church from conception until now, with a brief 1 year withdrawal my freshman year in college. Since then I have learned more than I could have ever guessed. (back on topic) I don't understand how people, gentile and Jew, can miss the Deity of Christ or the fact that he is the Messiah Israel has been awaiting for far too long. It seems so easy a child can understand, which is the simple part of the gospel. I suppose that's why adults find it so difficult to fathom.

Continuing in my semi-straight line (FYI-I've never been able to draw or cut a straight line): I don't know that I have ever shared the gospel. Maybe I have and I don't realize it. I have tried to be very intentional in sharing the gospel with our girls in a very real way recently. I remember talking with them this week while reading a book about Jesus' birth the the star of Bethlehem that the wise men from the east followed to find Jesus. They know full well who Baby Jesus is and that He's important. We were talking about Jesus and how he died on the cross when Rachel piped in and said Jesus didn't die. I think she knows full well that he lived and rose again, but that he died completely in order to offer Himself as a living sacrifice is a little beyond her. I think she loves Jesus and knows He loves her. I pray that someday soon she will trust Christ and welcome Him into her heart.

A couple years ago, our church went through a series for the whole church to learn about what the gospel is and how to share your testimony. We were even teaching our Junior High students how they can share their own testimony. We spent several weeks going through their testimonies by asking specific questions for them to answer and showing them that these questions are having them spell our their testimony. This testimony is the best way to share Christ with others. The hard part for me is actually telling people my testimony. It's not that I don't know what my testimony is, but it feels like it's uninteresting (which ironically enough we told the students that everyone's testimony is unique to them and important). -Testimony to follow at the end.

Onward in a sort of straight line- I want to be able to share the gospel with others, but I'm afraid their going to say, yea, I know that, or I'm a Christian (so I'll quit bugging them or because that's what most people say), or being completely comfortable knowing that all I have to do is tell them the Gospel or my testimony through the Gospel and leave the results up to God. I love the quote by the head coach in Facing the Giants " I've resolved to give God everything I've got. Then I'll leave the results up to Him." I just don't think I can be comfortable in letting God do the work. I have such a hard time letting God work in my life. I've decided too many times that I've got to do everything myself or it just won't get done, or at least done the way I want it done. I've been trying to let the girls choose some things on their own, knowing they don't matter, like picking out their clothes. I give them some parameters like it must be pants and long sleeves, but I try to let it go even if it doesn't match. It's a hard thing to let your kids not match, but it's even harder for me to let go of the idea that someone's salvation depends on whether I deliver the gospel in the right way or not. The good news is, it's not up to me. I'm just the vessel God chooses to tell others about Christ (if I choose to obey) and what He did on the cross to save the world from sin. Only the Holy Spirit can save a person by working in their lives.

Have I mentioned I have a hard time letting go? I think of the lovely movie with Bill Murray "What About Bob?". I just have to take baby steps. Not sure how straight that was, but I tried to stay on point with just a few side notes.

Okay, I promised my testimony.

As I said earlier, I've been in church since conception. My father was in seminary when I was born and was soon given a job at his first church. It was at this church that I accepted Christ as my savior. Throughout my youth I continued to learn more about what it meant to be a Christian and other pieces of history in the Bible. I fully believed that I needed God, but being the strong-willed stubborn child that I was, I chose to not listen or disobey in late adolescence. Thankfully, I came to my senses about the time I turned 20. I met this great guy (my husband) during my freshman year that really challenged me and asked me some hard questions that I should have known the answers to. I learned a lot by questioning my actions and beliefs and had to know first hand what the Bible had to say about all of this. I learned quickly that I didn't really know much about the Bible I claimed to believe was true and desired to learn as much as I could. This led me to a great church that we still attend, were married in, and treasure dearly. It also led to some great relationships and a great sense of awe in who God is. No matter how much I try to learn, I will never be able to fully comprehend God because of my humanness. I'm so thankful that Jesus, Emmanuel, I Am, was sent to earth to fulfill the Law that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus was born as a baby, lived a perfect life (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God-Romans 3:23), died on the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God, was buried, and was resurrected 3 days later conquering the power of sin and paying the price for our sins (For the wages of sin is death-Romans 6:23a). I am far from a perfect person living a perfect life, but I thank God that my sin (past, present, and future) has been paid for and I look forward to the day when either Jesus returns or calls me to heaven that I may be made perfect in Him.

Blogs and friends

2011-11-06T20:39:00.002-06:00

Over the past couple years of doing my blog, I've felt that this blog hasn't really been an efficient way to communicate to others what sorts of things are going on in our lives. Pretty sure I've had less than 10 comments total. Maybe even less than 5. Today I discovered that someone actually reads what I write, and I'd like to say "Thank You."

When I was in high school I thought I knew how to write a paper. I did fairly well in English and had a teacher that I loved. It's a good thing too, since I had her 3 times! I also felt that she taught us how to use MLA formatting in papers. Sadly, I didn't do very well on papers in college and discovered how poorly I communicated my thoughts on paper. I say all of this to let you know how difficult it is to write a blog. I try too hard to make it this fun cool thing with a theme. I tried early on to make all my posts start with the same letter. Needless to say, my life has become extremely busy between a husband, 2 jobs, 3 kids, a house, church and family responsibilities, and chores that never end. I just don't have time to be cute.

I try very hard to be candid without writing things that may be taboo for certain people. At some point, when I was very down and out, I created a completely secret blog that no one would be able to find simply for the sake of writing exactly what I felt without having to be sensitive to those who might read it. In any case, thanks for reading my mundane, boring tales of all the happenings in a regular boring life. I suppose I should thank God for my life being boring instead of the many trials and tribulations of this life we could be facing!

Family Update

2011-10-31T10:55:00.004-05:00

Last week, Rachel and Julia went to the doctor for their 4 year and 2 month well visits respectively. I must say, I have never waited in our doctor's office quite like we did that day. We were there for an hour and a half. It was ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't known that they didn't have much staff present, but they also had very few patients there when we were there. We waited for more than 15-20 minutes for the medical assistant to come give Rachel 2 shots and Julia 3 shots.

Rachel was being fairly uncooperative as usual. The doctor asked her several questions that she wouldn't answer and flipped out if he came near her. She was fine once she was convinced he wasn't going to hurt her.

Julia did well after they measured her because she was hungry, but thankfully we had time to wait until the doctor got there for her to eat and Rachel also went first.

I'm not really sure about Rachel's measurements because they are off from where she's been the past 3 years, but here they are:

Rachel at 4 is 41 1/4" (80%) and 34 pounds (40%)

Julia at 2 months is 24 3/4" (97%) and 13 pounds 7.5 ounces (90%)

To give you an idea of how Julia compares to the other girls, here are the stats for them at 2 months:

Rachel: 23 1/2" and 11 lbs 6 oz

Rebekah: 23 1/2" and 11 lbs 13 oz

In other words...she's HUGE!!!

This weekend was my birthday and all 3 girls spent the weekend with Nana and Papa! We also had a party, went out to eat, slept in, and got plenty of things done. It was probably one of the best birthdays ever!

Here's pictures of all the girls about the same age.

Working Mom Guilt

2011-10-23T22:59:00.004-05:00

Taking care of 3 girls is very different than taking care of 2 girls. Over the past 2 years I have been a substitute nurse for Rockwall ISD, where Jeff works. It has been a great joy being able to work 1-2 days a week on an as needed basis. After the year was over I had talked with my boss about not coming back until January since I would be having a baby at the beginning of school. A few weeks into school I talked with one of the nurses I work for regularly and found out there are only 4 substitute nurses available in district. Since that time I had gotten several emails and a couple phone calls regarding working for a few different nurses. Feeling the need to help out, I took a job 1 1/2 weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed being at school, surrounded by adults and kids who speak in full clear sentences most of the time. It was so great to be back working again. It was hard for me to imagine that I had left my 2 month old for a whole day already. When I started working 2 years ago, Rebekah was only 10 months old, but she was eating more solid foods. The idea that I was willing to leave my 2 month old behind 1 day a week kind of scare me.

I have a mental struggle going on in my head. It's hard to decide who's winning and where the statements are coming from. I fully understand that God has blessed our family with 3 lovely children who need attention and care and discipline and instruction to know what is right or wrong and why. I know that I have been charged with these blessings to raise them in the wisdom and instruction of the Lord. I also know that I go completely stir crazy sitting at home because I feel all I do on a daily basis is feed the kids and correct/guide them all day long. I really like how Michelle Duggar is so candid in their first book "The Duggars: 20 and Counting!" as she tells of times where she felt she went through her day doing nothing but correcting and disciplining her children. Well, I am right there. I know that if I am not consistent or am harder on one child than the other, they might resent me later in life. When you have an EXTREMELY stubborn child who has a hard time calming herself down, it makes life very difficult, especially when she throws a fit/gets into trouble while I'm nursing the baby.

Okay, so this mental struggle has 3 parts: 1)knowing I'm supposed to care for my kids as God has called me to do, 2)being completely frustrated, depressed and desperate to get away from my kids, and 3)wanting to work because I absolutely love what I do, even if I don't start IVs, give shots, save lives, or bring new ones into the world. I relish the days I get to work and the whole way home I become anxious to tell someone about the day I had. Even if I have a parent gripe for some unknown reason, work is still fantastic. Here enlies the GUILT! Because of reason 1, I feel SO guilty that I want to work. I think it helps my mood, my kids enjoy visiting with their grandparents, it keeps my brain working and thinking about things I was taught several years ago, and I get to talk to adults in the real world.

Even though I am involved in a Bible study and we go to church most Sundays, I don't really feel like I get to have real adult conversation about life. Most Sundays you say hi to people as you pass by and some might ask how you're doing, but most won't ask any follow up questions. I usually answer truthfully. "Okay" in my book isn't great or good, but it's also not terrible. If I answer "Fine" it's usually because I am "Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional" (taken from the new version of "The Italian Job." How many people will notice if I say something out of the ordinary.

Hopefully I can figure out what God is calling me to do soon. There are a few opportunities for me to find out how much I want to work and I hope we can figure out what is best for our family. The girls are getting bigger. Rachel just turned 4 and is so grown up. :( We went for a run this evening and had to make her go inside. I think we'll start her in soccer pretty soon. Rebekah is a terror, and when I say terror, I mean wild and crazy and into everything she's not supposed to be in. She can be very helpful and is growing up, but the child has a 6-pack! She's crazy strong and built like her mom! She's 2 1/2 and I feel every minute of it. Julia is 10 weeks/2 months old now. She's getting so big! She's tall like her biggest sister. She's in 6 month clothes and can wear some 9 month, but it's mostly because the cloth diapers take up extra room. Hopefully we will go to the doctor this week for our 4 year and 2 month check ups and we'll know more specifically how big these girls are!

A couple pictures for you!

Hair

2011-09-23T09:15:00.002-05:00

Most of my life I have never understood why people grow beards and boys/men rebel and grow their hair long and wear mohawks or spiked and other odd ways. Now if this is something you like and want to do or let your kids do, then so be it, but my personal preference to have guys have short hair and clean shaven.

Today I was skimming the headlines on People and saw some comment about a football player's hair, so I clicked on it. On that page was a quiz on how people preferred the hair on different people who are famous. Out of curiosity, I started the quiz. Though I didn't know half the people on the quiz, I started to notice something. With the exception of 2-3 stars, greater than 90% of people "preferred" the men either clean shaven, short-haired, or a more natural look rather than beards, long hair, or hair with lots of product in it. After realizing the trend I was more paying attention to the results rather than what I was voting for.

Considering the rebellion of young people and our culture today of crazy rock stars and wild lifestyles, I was extremely shocked at the preference for the clean shaven. I have been noticing that since Troy Polamalu hair has become famous on the football field that a large number of linemen and defensive players have been growing their hair long. I'm not sure if this has to do with Polamalu or if it's simply superstition to not cut their hair on a winning streak, but it doesn't look good. Even the white guys are growing it long and they look just plain silly. Of course I don't understand how they could stand wearing a helmet with stubble on their faces either, but to each his own. What happened to QBs being the cute guys with a clean face and short hair? Have they made way for the bearded face of Ben Roethlisberger. Maybe Favre started it all with his short stubble and others have taken it further. I just don't like it.

Thank goodness it's Friday! That means I get to watch football for the next 3 days! Although, I doubt we'll go to the homecoming game tonight. The homecoming parade last night was exhausting enough! Go Yellowjackets! Beat the Scots!

8 Years Ago

2011-08-02T23:53:00.002-05:00

8 years ago today, my brother, David Allen Hollowell, died at the age of 18 from cancer complications. He was a great young man with lots of potential. There are so many things about his life that I wish I could have seen played out over the years since he died, but God had other plans. One of my few good memories of the day he died was when my young cousin Ethan said to his mom, "David gets to worship with Jesus today." He died early on a Sunday morning before the sun had come up. I didn't sleep at all during the night because I stayed up talking with one of David's best friends discussing faith, life, and how things would be different when David was gone. I was supposed to be on a rotation with my parents to stay up with David, who hadn't really been awake in more than 24 hours. I watched his oxygen saturation steadily go down over a few hours. Eventually my parents woke up and they called the hospice nurse to let her know how low his numbers were. Some family and friends had been called to let them know how he was and they came and left, and came again. It was so hard seeing him die in need of oxygen and his heart pumping so hard to help, but it just ran out of steam.

There were some very important people there that day. Trent Futral, who stayed up with me so my parents could sleep and talked with me about David, his impact on his life, and the legacy he would be leaving behind. Stephanie Wilson (Pool) was there to hide my face in her shoulder as they took my brother out of the house to the funeral home. My best friend, Kara Van Dine drove in with my now husband, Jeff as soon as they heard. Jeff even got pulled over for speeding if you can believe it. When they got there, I just laid down to rest in a living room chair and was about to fall asleep. My 2nd mom from high school asked if I needed any food, and I gave her 2-3 dishes that I was dying to eat, since I was tired of eating Brookshire's fried chicken. I refuse to eat fried chicken with bones in it from any grocery store to this day. We literally received 4-5 boxes in 1 day. My aunt, uncle, and cousins came.

In the weeks leading up to and following David's death, there were so many people who were instrumental in helping us cope with the loss. David was on the area youth counsel (CYF-C) and they had gone to a Mercy Me concert and bought a shirt for David that they later brought to the hospital. I wore that shirt just 2 months ago and thought of them and their generosity towards their brother.

In some ways it seems like it was a lifetime ago because so much has happened since he died, but to think that it was only 8 years ago feels like maybe I missed something important. My parents have been amazing and have grieved well. I'm not sure I grieved well because I hate crying. I cry very easily, but I dislike it so much I fight it with every fiber of my being most days. When I do allow myself to cry, I'll just cry for a long time, like tonight, which is why I got up to blog about it. I don't mind talking about David and who he was and that he died, leaving me as an only child. I usually tell people that the one thing that always upsets me and makes me cry is that when we were younger, our parents would tell us we had to get along because when we got older, we'd only have each other to lean on when our parents died. Now I only have my husband. It makes me cry every time, no matter what. Our children will know who is was and that he's their uncle. We still have some of his things and my mom gave me a picture of us when we were little that's on our fridge, and there's a picture of him and my dad on prom night hanging on the wall. They get told it's Uncle David. I don't think they understand, but they will someday.

I guess I should go get some sleep on the off-chance that I have a baby in the next 24 hours.

RIP David Allen Hollowell

July 18, 1985-August 3, 2003

Forgotten Website

2011-03-15T00:18:00.002-05:00

It's been way too long since writing on this blog. So much has happened and much has changed. Rachel is almost 3 1/2 and Rebekah just turned 2 last week. I had great intentions of blogging about our great travels in Northern Wisconsin and Illinois, but alas, I never got to it. Christmas even came and went without us sending out Christmas cards. Please don't think you've been barred from our list, because no one on our list got to feel special this year.

I have been working as a substitute for Rockwall ISD as a nurse, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I also became a Scentsy Independent Consultant and was doing pretty well until after Christmas. No one has even asked me about Scentsy since more than a week before Christmas. I've also been keeping busy with the girls, our Junior High group at church, and getting in full swing planning Vacation Bible School this summer as one of the directors again.

Jeff is at the end of soccer season, which has gone really well. His JV team might win district or maybe win 2nd place, but no one's really keeping up, so we don't have the full scoop. The Varsity will win 3rd place in district and go to the playoffs. The girls team secured the district win last week and will get to play back to back games at the same stadium for the first round of playoffs. Should be exciting to watch next Friday.

The girls are growing like weeds. Rachel decided to skip the terrible two's and make it the terrible three's instead. Rebekah has been slow to learn her words, so it has been a little frustrating trying to get her to communicate with us. Didn't you know I don't speak wailing? Why a 2 year old thinks I know what she wants just by her standing there crying at me I'll never know. Rebekah has always seemed so short in comparison to Rachel, but when I measured them recently on our closet wall, Bekah is within 1/4 of an inch of how tall Rachel was at the exact age. Not sure if her growing trend will continue, but we shall see. Rachel seems much more involved in knowing how everything works and pretty coordinated/athletic. Rebekah is looking like she might be our clumsy child that is more artsy than athletic. She does love to dance, so maybe a few years in dance classes will teach her some coordination and grace.

Over Christmas we got the joy of telling our families that we are expecting our third child in August. For the first time in my pregnancies I actually had morning sickness. I threw up almost daily for a time and couldn't eat much food at a time. I also had limited types of food that would go down well. Sugar smelled really bad, so I didn't eat any over the Christmas holidays. It was very tough. Thankfully I'm about halfway through the pregnancy and starting to feel pretty good. I have been congested through most of the pregnancy and definitely even more tired the 3rd time around than even the 2nd pregnancy. We are very excited about our impending addition. We haven't decided yet if we want to know if we're having a boy or a girl. Our sonogram is the first week of April, so we have until then to decide. We are excited about giving birth at a nearby birthing center this time. We've always wanted to go this way but we didn't know how my body would function with labor and delivery. Since I was able to have 2 natural births in the hospital, we are confident that everything will go smoothly, and if not, we have options.

This Crazy Life

2010-07-22T23:38:00.002-05:00

This summer, like last summer has been crazy! It's a really good thing that Jeff chooses not to get a second job during the summer, because I would be stuck at home all summer and we'd never get a vacation.

We started out like last year having several Junior High events in a short period of time, followed by soccer camp, Mommy & Me yoga class, and did I mention Vacation Bible School? This year our children's ministry team had a hard time finding directors to plan VBS this year, so I volunteered my services. I'm not really sure why, but it ended up being a great experience, even though I was pretty busy for a while. I got to plan VBS for our church kids and all the visitors that came in with 2 of my good friends.

Since all that took care of the first 3 weeks in June, July was around the corner and left town on the Wednesday after VBS for a 2 week trip to the North Woods in Wisconsin and Chicago area to visit family and spend some time as a family. I'm hoping to give our trip it's own post soon, but we had lots of fun and loved building relationships with Jeff's cousins, and getting to see his aunts and uncles too. Jeff's grandmother has 7 great-grandchildren, and all but 2 of them are under the age of 3. Four of them were born within a year of each other!

Now that we've been home for almost 2 weeks, we're starting to enjoy our summer. The girls are playing in the backyard, I got to have a girls night out at the movies with my MIL and SIL. Sidenote: Letters to Juliet is an excellent movie if anyone's interested or wants to purchase it for me for Christmas! :)

We are just now starting to get busy again. We are making an impromptu trip to Athens this weekend to see my Grandpa who has cancer and isn't doing well, and next week Jeff has soccer camp and coaching meetings. We also have something else that's evading my memory at the moment. Next weekend we get to hang out with our good friends in Tyler.

We have even made plans to go to San Antonio for a few days without the girls. We are very excited about this trip (or at least I am). Over the past couple of weeks we have been watching a few different websites looking for the best deal for a hotel on/near the Riverwalk and had found a few things, but not that we were ready to book. We used Hotwire to book our hotel rooms on our way up and back from Wisconsin and got some great deals at 2 different Holiday Inns. Both were very nice and probably the cheapest price you could pay for any hotel. Last night while perusing for information on Priceline's Name your own price option, I found a coupon for an auction website that was $100 your first purchase. I clicked to see what it was and found a very nice 4 star hotel on the riverwalk.

It was a package deal that includes:
3 night stay
breakfast each morning- room service or in the restaurant
dinner for 2 one night at their restaurant (Approximately $50 value)
rose petal turn down
champagne and strawberries upon arrival
All taxes included
Must pay $40 fee for something

This package claimed to be worth almost $900 according to the website. We also reasoned that the cheapest 4 star hotel we could get was at least $100/night after taxes. The one we considered making reservations for was $100 before taxes. On this idea, the auction had 1 bidder who had bid early on and we were hoping this person wasn't paying careful attention to it. With all coupons and taxes paid, I am VERY excited that we won the auction and paid less than $350 for everything. It would be really great if the deal covers the charge for parking! We'll still have to cover a few meals and gas, but I'm just really excited and proud of my hubby for his diligence and frugal ways! We'll have to give our vacation it's own post too with some pics of everything.

Lost in the Wilderness

2010-06-22T21:35:00.005-05:00

At the end of the school year, Jeff and his good friend Jason went backpacking in New Mexico just north of Santa Fe. I left with the girls to go work at Camp Longhorn on Wednesday and the guys left on Thursday morning. They stayed the night in Santa Fe and left for the trail head on Friday morning. On Saturday they hiked up to one of the peaks that they were trying to get to. They climbed most of the way on their hands and knees. I even got a phone call from the peak! It was great to hear from him, and a day earlier than I expected.

Unfortunately, Jeff didn't feel very well most of that day. For this and other reasons, they cut their trip a day short. I was very grateful, since I'd been at home taking care of the girls for 3 days. They did come home with some great pictures.

Lack of Inspiration

2010-06-01T20:57:00.002-05:00

(Warning: long post ahead)

I've had a rough couple of months. We've been a little busy and I've been working more often, which leaves less time for me to write on the blog. Like the title of the post, I've felt like nothing exciting or worth reporting was going on in our lives. To some extent that's true, but now that I'm sitting here, I could have told you about:

- Jeff going on a backpacking trip Thursday
- Since Jeff's going backpacking, we have worked out more and have used our baby backpack quite a bit and even got a 2nd one recently so we can both get a good workout
- Our middle school trip to Rockin C Ranch
- Getting to spend time with some long-time friends of our at Rockin C Ranch

- Rachel talking up a storm and saying "Camp Longhorn, Attawaytogo" while holding her hands out in attempt to do the sign.
- Rachel saying "Horned Frogs" and her attempt at that sign, which looks more like ok or a partial Hook 'Em horns
- Now that I'm working, Rachel will often grab a bag or her shopping cart and say "I'm going to work" - it's so cute
- Rachel has no problem being bossy and taking on a role of being the 1st born child - we're working on her

- Rebekah has 16 teeth
- Some of her favorite things to do are play chase, play keep away/anything with her sister, going to see the ducks in the pond and saying "Quack, Quack" to them,
- Jeff and I will both tell you that she can say "giraffe", loves dogs and playing with them, still takes 2 naps each day, and loves anything with pasta and red sauce (which makes for a rather messy clean up)

- We had a garage sale in early May
- We helped our church with a garage sale as a fundraiser for the 2 BIG (expensive) mission trips this summer where they raised more than $7000!! Praise God!
- We bought a gas grill for Mother's/Father's Day with our garage sale
- Jeff got his bicycle up and running and he took the girls out a couple times on the bike trailer

- I'm in charge of our church's Vacation Bible School this year with 2 other women, which has kept me rather busy the past 2 months.
- Our summer calendar is rather busy. If you look at our computer calendar, there's something almost every day, and plenty of times when there's multiple things in a single day
- We just finished housesitting and watching Jeff's Grandpa for 1 1/2 weeks.
- We finally decided to go to Wisonsin/Illinois for the Mahachek family reunion and will be gone for almost 2 weeks in July

We have been so bad about not taking pictures. I got a new camera for Christmas that's small enough that I can take it with me and is almost always in my purse, and somehow I manage to not get it out and take pictures.

While housesitting, I read this book called the "Barnyard Dance" at least twice each day. My mother-in-law probably reads it to them each time the girls are over there. At first, Rachel was rather hesitant about doing the dance moves with the book, but now she does them willingly and excited most of the time. Bekah will even do the beginning. If you say "Let's read the Barnyard Dance," she gets a big smile on her face and starts stomping. The first three lines are "Stomp your feet, Clap your hands, Everybody ready for a barnyard dance." On the next page you bow to the horse and bow to the cow, and she'll bend over really far. That's about as long as you can keep her attention, but she's so cute when she does it.

I'm heading off to Camp Longhorn tomorrow in hopes of helping my aunt be less stressed about camp starting on Saturday and to enjoy myself a bit with the girls while Jeff is in New Mexico backpacking with his good friend Jason. Jeff leaves on Thursday morning. I will be back Friday night in time for my VBS meeting on Saturday morning and straight to pick up my mom and dad from the airport, who will be returning from Hawaii for their 30th wedding anniversary.

It seems like it's been really hot here lately, so I guess summertime is in full swing. We hope everyone has a great summer and gets to enjoy time with their family as we hope to do also.

Lost in the Shuffle

2010-04-09T13:42:00.009-05:00

Finally...Some of Rebekah's birthday pictures!

Cakes for Bekah's Birthday

Cake was a little tough b/c I tried a low sugar recipe. All she got was icing!

Happy Birthday!

Rachel still doesn't really like cake

The babies reading all the new books

Really BIG soccer ball my (Teri) parents found

Loved the tutu!

Labor of Love

2010-04-01T15:49:00.002-05:00

This week has been really fun for us for other reasons than just our children. Last Saturday our neighbor gave birth on the freeway. We had been out garage sale-ing and got home to discover on Facebook that they were heading to the hospital shortly. We ran outside to check if they had left and we saw 2 cars in the driveway, but 1 wasn't their car. Not knowing what this meant at the time, but they were still home.

A couple hours later the father posted on Facebook again that Baby Carys was born in the car and that mom and baby were well. We later found out that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck 2x and that she had to resuscitate her. Thankfully they had called paramedics and they arrived in time to help her deliver, but none of them knew how to get the baby to breathe.

We knew they were coming home on Monday, so I decided to help Rachel make a welcome home sign for them. We knocked on the door in case they had already made it home, but figuring that they would come home later that afternoon, I brought tape to hang it on the door. We later found out that they were taped for Fox 4 news (first link), and the next day they were interviewed for the Dallas Morning News (second link). Jenea also told us that our artwork was going to be played because the news reporter shot lots of footage of their front door (3rd link). It only shows it briefly twice, but we're FAMOUS! Ha!

We have visited with 2 new babies this week. Rebekah doesn't really notice them, but Rachel likes them. If it weren't for the kids to play with at our neighbors house she probably would have watched me holding the baby more. Oh well, we are just glad that the newborn babies in our lives right now are safe and doing well.

Jumpin' Jive

2010-04-01T15:43:00.003-05:00

The past couple of weeks have been really fun with Rebekah walking EVERYWHERE! She has now decided to do almost EVERYTHING like her big sister. Rachel finally figured out how to jump several inches off the ground and now Bekah has decided to try to jump. She gets this real serious look on her face and squats (kind of makes you think she's trying to poop in her pants, it's really funny when you figure it out!), then stands back up. She does it over and over and usually right after she sees Rachel jumping.

This morning Rachel was jumping and Bekah was cranky, so she slides off my lap and imitates her sister. After a couple of tries, she's tired, so she wants back in my lap. Less than a minute later she decides she wants to jump again, so she slides down out of my lap and does it again. It's always kind of funny to watch your kids when they're tired/cranky and just want to be held to have short bursts of energy and focus on something they want to do/try/play with.

Rebekah's info

2010-03-24T09:55:00.002-05:00

I didn't really post much about Rebekah's stats and other fun things she's doing, so here goes:

- Walking unassisted EVERYWHERE! She doesn't even need help standing up anymore. She still falls quite a bit, but keeps getting back up.
-Weighed 19lbs 14.5oz at her check up (40%ile) but has been sitting just above 20 lbs for a month
- 29 1/2 in ( between 50 & 75%ile)
-takes 2 naps/day
-absolutely loves ducks and dogs -We have been walking several times over spring break and this week after Jeff gets home and we go to the pond near the front of our neighborhood. She quacks after the ducks and tries to chase after them (I prevent her from falling, rolling down the hill and into the pond)
-kind of says more/milk while eating
-is starting to like people food after a week or two of not eating much
-has been happier since quitting breastfeeding in the last week and a half
-is no longer super clingy to me since she can walk almost everywhere
- has 9 teeth and almost has another

A Little Late

2010-03-24T09:37:00.002-05:00

We had Rebekah's 1st birthday party on her birthday, March 7th, and had a great time with family and friends. We had a red/heart themed party with red streamers, red decorations, red cups and other red table necessities. I also made her multiple heart cakes. I made small, low sugar cakes for the little ones and decorated 1 of them for Rebekah to smash into and a larger heart cake that was decorated in red. I still don't have the pictures because I haven't been able to get the pictures to download on this computer. Jeff has them on his computer, and my parents have them so they could show off the party to their friends and co-workers, but I sadly, still cannot see them.

The day before her birthday, Rebekah decided she knew how to walk and began walking everywhere. She had taken several steps weeks before, but acted as if she didn't know how to do it anymore. Since she's more of my social bug, she walked for everyone at the party, unlike her sister who refused to show off her new talent.

After feeling like our house was overwhelmed with toys, we decided to ask those coming to the party not to bring toys, and had some great presents! One of Bekah's friends gave her a home-made tutu! It's really cute. Rachel got one for her first birthday too, but we'd never found an occassion to bring it out (Sorry Caity), so I pulled it out the next day and the girls have worn them several times since the party.

We also got several new books that Rachel loves more than Bekah, but we'll get better with Bekah's attention span. She also got some really cute clothes including a onesie that says "I love my auntie." Of course she got a couple of toys, because we gave them to her. It was really awkward after we had said no toys, but in our defense, we bought them shortly after the new year and got a good deal on them and they are fairly small.

I promise to get pictures up when I'm able to download them to the computer.

Laundry

2010-02-19T18:11:00.003-06:00

Why laundry?

Because it's a necessary part of life. If you don't launder the clothes you wear you have to continually buy new ones, and for those of us on not so large incomes, we can't afford to do that. Well, here are some of my observations about our laundry:

-Jeff's clothes take up the most space, and it's not because he's the biggest, it's because he wears three outfits a day (at least). No, he's not self conscious, but he wears one outfit to school, another to coach in, and another when he gets home. He even wears layers to soccer since it's cold out, so it's more like 2 outfits he wears while coaching, so we'll say 4 outfits a day.

-When Jeff and I fold laundry together, he leaves the baby clothes for me to fold because he thinks they take more time to fold than the larger pieces.

-My clothes take up the least amount of space, because apparently when I stay home, I don't change clothes as often as when I was working.

-I have changed clothes twice today because each of the girls has thrown up on me, which has created nearly a whole load of clothes between my clothes, their clothes, the items they spit up on, and the towels I cleaned up with.

-I should probably do laundry sometime this weekend so that Jeff has enoguh clothes for soccer and school next week.

Here's to praying we don't have any more stomach bug in the house anytime soon! When Rachel started throwing up on me, I didn't know what to do other than to cry. It was a first for us. We haven't had to experience stomach contents before.

Little by Little

2010-02-13T11:36:00.010-06:00

We have had a pretty fun week here in the Lehmann household. Rebekah has been walking more and more. Last night she stood up from my lap and walked about 7 steps toward Jeff. Of course in my attempt to video the occasion, she wouldn't walk anymore after that. We have a few videos of her walking around the house with her walking toy. We're pretty excited that she's making so much progress.

We also had about 9" of snow on Thursday, which is apparently the largest amount of snowfall recorded in the last 130 years or so in this part of the state. We do realize that this is nothing compared to the 30" or more of snow that has fallen in Pennsylvania where some friends of ours live, but it's a pretty big deal. We actually got a snow day on Friday, so Jeff was able to stay home with us and play. On Thursday, the girls and I went out to play in the morning, and then my dad came over for lunch and played with Rachel in the backyard. The video is of him and Rachel. Then, when Jeff got home we played again and made an even larger snowman. On Friday we went out in the morning while Rebekah was napping, but Rachel didn't care much for the snow. Jeff and I had a great time though. The snow is still there, but melting pretty quick. We are going to have a very soggy yard for several weeks and we are expecting rain at the end of next week.

Lost Opportunity

2010-02-09T07:43:00.002-06:00

So we had a pretty exciting evening around here yesterday. Jeff was trying to convince Rebekah to stand up on her own and maybe take a few steps. In the end he was successful! She stood up by herself for quite a while playing with her rattle. Even when she went forward to sit down, she caught herself a few times and was even able to stand herself back up without any help! Shortly after this she took 3 steps in a row!! We were all very excited.

During all of the hooplah of Rebekah walking, Rachel decided she wanted in on the action to, so she stood up near Jeff, ducked her head to the ground and was doing pretty straight somersaults all by herself. A few were off-center, but they were pretty good if I do say so myself! :)

At some point we realized we needed to video these momentous occassions, and as such, Jeff got up to get the camera. Of course, things don't always go according to plan and both girls got fussy and quit doing their tricks.

To make the evening slightly worse, Rebekah had fallen and hit her mouth around 4:00 and her mouth was bleeding for a little while, but no worries, her teeth should be fine. I also noticed around bath time that she'd gotten a bruise on her chin from the fall, and to make it worse, she slipped and fell down in the bath tub. It gave her this nice bruise right beside her eye. As the evening progressed it became more of a comedy of errors as things kept playing out. It was sad to see how disappointed Jeff was at missing the opportunity to video the girls in some of their firsts.

LET ME OUT!!!

2010-02-06T09:44:00.002-06:00

The girls have been sick all week. It started last Saturday with Rachel getting a fever and runny nose, so she stayed home from church with Jeff. Then on Monday, Rebekah got a fever and runny nose. Because of that, we had to stay home from Bible study on Tuesday. The girls then developed coughs and maintained low grade fevers throughout the week.

Things are looking up though! While the girls still have lingering coughs, Rachel hasn't had a fever in more than 24 hours and Rebekah's fever is basically gone as well.

The good news in all of this was that my mother-in-law came on Thursday morning to watch the girls while I went to the store. The girls' schedules were completely off that day, but I managed to get a load in the dishwasher and ran it and also cleaned all of the dirty dishes before I got ready to go to the store. I even cooked dinner that night! It was great to be productive after having a mostly lazy week of lying around with sick girls.

Here's a picture of them in the middle of the week near their worst.

Life in the Fast Lane

2010-01-25T17:02:00.002-06:00

Well, we're not quite to life in the fast lane, but we've come close in the month of January. January is tournament month in high school soccer. Over the last 2 weeks, Jeff has been gone on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, as well as Saturday morning for soccer games. We are also out of the house on Wednesday nights, so this doesn't leave much time for anything.

Last weekend we also had small group on Saturday night and I went to the Camp Longhorn Carnival in Dallas, where I got to visit with my aunt and uncle. It was such a good time as always, but it did cut a few things close since Jeff and I were both out of the house until shortly before we needed to leave for our small group. Rachel did like playing the games. If she ends up going to camp, she'll have lots of merits before she even gets there. I left my children a few merits, and if they give them David's merits, well, then they are raking in the orange! (Merits that is) We have to start a Camp Longhorn folder now so that we can keep up with all the carnival cards.

I have also managed to schedule something everyday this week. Jeff and I are went on a date last night. I had Bible study today, but thankfully Jeff doesn't have a game scheduled. We have youth group on Wednesday and I'm meeting a friend during the day. I get to WORK on Thursday and I'm meeting another friend on Friday.

I'm really excited about starting to work in the schools. I got 3 offers today to work. 2 were for this week and one is further down the road, but an opportunity none the less. I'm looking forward to this new chapter in life where I get to work

Manic Mondays

2010-01-11T16:48:00.005-06:00

There aren't a lot of things that need to be done around here on Mondays and our schedule isn't so busy that we're running out the door by 8 or 9 o'clock, but Mondays just aren't my favorite day. Our house isn't true to The Bangle's song by the same name "Manic Monday," but for some reason Mondays are just no fun in our house.

Rachel, on the other hand, can be quite amusing, like my post from yesterday. It was just the other day that I forgot to post this video of Rachel. My parents got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas and we played as much as we had time for. Most of the time when we played, the kids were in bed, but just before we left, Mom and I played a couple of games that Rachel watched. In the video, Rachel is playing Wii, just like Mommy and Nana.

Rachel's Rememberings

2010-01-10T14:31:00.004-06:00

Do you know the saying, "Kids say the darnest things"? Well, I'm here to tell you that it's true. Rachel does some of the funniest things.

Last night while I was feeding Rebekah on one couch, Jeff was reading/playing with Rachel while watching the football game. In the past, Rachel has found holes in the bottom of Jeff's socks and said they were dirty and proceeded to take the socks off his feet. Well last night she looked at his socks and said dirty and tried to take his socks off. Jeff insisted his socks were fine and that she shouldn't remove his socks. When Jeff realized that Rachel thought she saw holes in his socks he tried to tell her they were fine, but on careful inspection of his socks, there was a small hole in the sock. It may not be funny to you, but it had me laughing for a while, and it even gave me a good laugh after I'd gone to bed.

Even if I'm not the greatest housekeeper, it's good to know that my daughter can take care of it when I don't want to or feel like it.

When we got home from church today and were eating lunch, Rachel looks in the backyard and says, "Where'd the ball go?" The neighbor behind us moved out and we don't keep balls in the backyard, so we were stumped as to what she was referring. After a minute, I finally figured out that she probably was referring to an instance where the kids who used to live behind us were playing with one of those balloons that you tie a string to and hit it with your hand. Every once in a while you could see the ball go higher than the fence. It's so weird to have her remember things from a while back.

Right now her favorite things to talk about are race cars. She talks about wanting to drive a race car, and asked if daddy drives a race car. I'm not really sure where that came from but still interesting.

On our way home from having lunch with a friend we were going through construction where they are building a new road near our house. She asked what they were doing so I told her they were building a new road. She didn't like this, so she said , "My road". I said, no the people and machines would squish you. Then she said, "I want to help." Not real sure of what she said, so I repeated, "Did you say you want to help build the road?" and she straight-faced said, "Yes."

She's such a big helper and wants to help with anything and everything. One of these days she's going to ask to help with something so big that it's above her comprehension and out of a desire to encourage her helpfulness I'll do my best to make it happen. I don't even know if she'll understand the magnitude of her servanthood or even remember it happening, but she'll continue to amaze me.

Lost at Sea

2009-12-31T20:24:00.015-06:00

We've had so many Christmases and we already had more toys than we knew what to do with, so we're swimming in a sea of toys.

We were so blessed by the people we spent time with during Christmas and we received some great gifts too! Some of the gifts we opened were:

White Christmas morning!

Globe

Camera

Musical Noah's Ark Piano

Tricycle

Walking toy

books

A very special ring from Aunt Grace (not technically a Christmas present)

Several cookbooks

and 2 disney princess tea sets!

Rachel also REALLY enjoyed playing with Uncle Robby and Aunt Deidra's doggies! It was very hard to get her to pay attention to other things besides the doggies, including going to sleep.

Left Behind

2009-12-31T20:02:00.003-06:00

On Christmas Day I lost my dear Aunt Grace who fought a losing battle with cancer. She left behind a loving husband and 12 year old son. There's no doubt that they are grieving and may have a tough time coping in the next several months and I can't imagine what Christmas will be like next year for them, but we'll definitely be praying for them in the coming days. Thankfully she was a believer and is in heaven with my brother, enjoying the presence of God. We are thankful for the lessons she taught us and for sharing her life with us. We were blessed by her.

After David died, Grace's son (then 6 yrs old) said that David was getting to go to church with Jesus that early Sunday morning. It put a smile on our sad faces that day. A similar thing was said of Grace while we were there, saying she got to celebrate Jesus' birthday with Him instead of here on earth.

All my life my mom has called me Grace by mistake over and over again. It's just fitting that while we were in town for her memorial service, mom called me Grace. I turned around and said, "I'm not Grace." Most of me hopes that she'll keep calling me Grace so that in that moment I will be able to remember her life and smile.

Little Tid Bits

2009-12-17T22:39:00.003-06:00

There are just a few things that the girls are doing that are new and sometimes exciting:

Rachel has said lots of words but for those words with 2 or more syllables she only used the first one. This was fairly difficult to try to figure out what she was saying. Luckily in the past few days she has started to use 2 syllables for the words that have at least 2 syllables. Toby now actually sounds like Toby.

Rachel's new favorite food is an orange. I've bought the small oranges called cuties recently, so she asks for them often.

Rebekah is crawling everywhere and pulls up on anything she can find, even if it's just Rachel's stool. So far, she is the shorty of the family coming in somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile for height. She has 7 teeth and had 3 new teeth within 9 days (I think). She learned to wave at people, although she waves mostly at things she likes (i.e. the Christmas tree). She's even able to wave with both hands now.

In the last week Rebekah has eaten several new things. I gave her some of my orange the other day. She's also eaten a few crackers on her own. I also bought the Gerber veggie puffs to see if we could have a snack for her to eat on her own. I probably won't buy them again, but it was a good food to begin experimenting what she can eat by herself.

We are getting ready for Christmas and Rachel is excited. She likes her ornament and each ornament belongs to someone. We are hoping for a good Christmas with our families, though we are unsure of what it will bring. Please pray for my aunt who is battling cancer and it seems to be spreading and she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday.

Late night phone calls

2009-12-04T12:32:00.002-06:00

...or should I say early morning phone calls. The past 2 mornings and Wednesday afternoon, I have been receiving a phone call for a job offer for some stranger. The automated voice says they are calling to offer a job for Tari (long i) Laymoan? Knowing that this isn't my name I push 2 to have them not call me again today. Well, 5 AM Thursday, we get a call from the same number and a weird recording on the voicemail. They call at 6 AM again and I have my phone this time, so I push 2 to not call again.

Friday morning 5 AM....another call! I almost make it to the phone this time and after I listen to the voicemail, I begin to wonder...

Are these calls really for me and could it be the Aesop system for substitutes? By 6AM we figure out that, yes, it's really MY name they are saying. Our only conundrum is that I don't have knowledge of what my password is to prevent the 5 AM phone calls. After a couple phone calls, I found out that I'm supposed to have this said information in an email I was expecting but never received. This information is apparently floating out in cyber space somewhere! Let's just hope that I can get this straightened out so I don't have to be awakened at 5 AM every morning. Some of us need our sleep!

For those of you who don't know, I have been going through orientation and waiting to become a substitute nurse for the school district Jeff works for. Apparently, I've succeeded and am in their substitute system, but boy would I like to stop getting strange phone calls early in the morning.

Long fall

2009-11-26T20:13:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving all. I had grand plans to get onto facebook and our blog to write about our interesting experience here in East Texas. We spend Thanksgiving at my (Teri) grandmother's house with my Dad's family. I was getting ready to take Rebekah out of her high chair after eating dinner and I took the tray off. As I turned around to set it out of the way Rebekah fell out of the high chair to the floor!

I must interject that she was buckled into the high chair when I left her. She also fell onto carpeted flooring and somehow managed to fall between the corner of the bench and the corner of the table. As I picked her up I realized that yes she was buckled in, but the buckle wasn't attached to the chair. When I put her into the chair there was nothing that would alert me to the fact that the buckle wasn't attached. She screamed for at least 15 minutes and we tried to put an ice pack on her face. We soon discovered that her poor nose was rather swollen.

We made the decision to take her to the ER. After we started driving she was quiet most of the way to the hospital. Whene we got to the hospital, we realized that the high chair buckle was still attached to her. Thankfully, the ER has an express care for lower level traumas and we are hoping the bill we receive will be smaller than that of a regular ER visit. The conclusion of the visit was that she just has a bruise on her nose. We stopped by the drug store on the way home, giving her Tylenol as we drove and were home by 7:30.

I'm not sure if I want to post any pictures of her bruised nose, but here's one of her and one of the family.

Lots of Toys and Goodies

2009-11-23T12:54:00.002-06:00

As "The Christmas song" says:

"Tiny tots with their eyes all a glow

Will find it hard to sleep tonight

They know that Santa's on his way

He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh

And every mother's child is gonna spy

To see if reindeer really know how to fly"

Well, our kids won't be thinking about that, but Jeff and I have been talking about having stockings for our children. Over the last couple of Christmases we've Googled the origins of stockings and the purpose of them in today's world. We don't have anything set in stone in regards to the stocking idea, but we would like to instill the desire to give to others during the Christmas season.

For those of you who don't know, this is some of the information we found when looking up the origins of stockings.

According to legend, a kindly nobleman grew despondent over the death of
his beloved wife and foolishly squandered his fortune. This left his three young
daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood.

The generous St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, set forth to help.
Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and
threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney where they were
fortuitously captured by the stockings the young women had hung by the fireplace
to dry.

We also ventured on Saturday to a sale at JC Penney where we acquired some rather exciting finds. Having numerous coupons and gift cards, we set out to find a few things for the girls and/or others for Christmas. We ended up buying 5 things, unfortunately all for us. I previously bought Rachel some brown shoes for $14 that I wanted to take back to get a pair that matches her clothes better. We also bought Rebekah a special blanket to give her for Christmas and found this one for the same price, but much cheaper with all our coupons & gift cards. I have also been looking for a Baby's 1st Christmas ornament and outfits for the girls to wear on Christmas.

Receipt 1:

Rachel's yearly ornament = FREE
Brown shoes for Rachel = FREE

Receipt 2:
Rebekah's 1st Christmas ornament
Onesie for R2 Christmas morning
Blanket for Rebekah's Christmas
Total: $5.28

I realize it is bragging, but really, the original price of our items totalled almost $70! Our savings, not including the taxes we could have paid , was over 90%. I love shopping for bargains!

Happy Shopping!

Loose Britches

2009-11-18T14:26:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I was getting Rebekah up from one of her naps and all of a sudden, Rachel appears in the doorway with her pants around her ankles. It got me thinking about her clothes. Most of the clothes in our house come from people giving us things or from us buying clothes at a consignment sale/shop. In my head Rachel has tons of clothes. She probably has at least 15 pairs of pants (sweats, jeans, knit, corduroy).

What I find interesting is that I'm quite picky about the jeans that I wear. Of Rachel's 15 pairs of pants, about 5 of them are jeans, and to be honest, none of them fit her well. At least 2 of them look like boys pants and are huge and baggy. Another is a size 3T, so they're a little big in the waist and a little too long, but come March, they'll fit great. It must be nice to not worry about the clothes you wear. She doesn't have to pick them out, wash them, buy them, try them on, etc.

Funnily enough, I discovered that she unsnapped and unzipped her pants in order to pull them down. Well, I guess we're on to a new phase in parenting...how to keep your child's clothes on.

Just a little update on Rebekah....She CRAWLING!! She's getting a little faster each day. She's keeping me on my toes to keep things she shouldn't have off the floor. Today Rachel and I were putting new books on the shelf in Bekah's room, and since Rebekah wanted the books, I put her in her crib. A couple minutes later I turn around and she's standing up in her crib! Ahh! After Rachel and I finished with the books, I took Rebekah out of her crib so that I could lower the mattress. Her mattress is now on the lowest possible level. Hopefully she won't learn to climb out of the crib. She does seem to be more adventurous than Rachel, so I may be in for a wild ride! Hang on to your seatbelts.

Tee Tee in the Potty

2009-11-14T20:33:00.003-06:00

Okay, so we've tried a few times to get Rachel to use the real potty and her new potty that's her size and she loves to sit on it. The only problem is that she's never gone in it. One time she did sit on it for a long time, and since she was sitting patiently I decided to use the restroom. Right after I sat down, she got up to come find me and peed on the floor right in front of me! So close!

Since she just turned 2 a month ago, we haven't been pushing too much, but tonight she said something that made us indicate she needed to go. She sat on the potty for a while, and then we read a book, and then she asked me to go potty. In order to prevent the first accident, I put her in view of me. (Side note: It's hard to deal with not going to the restroom by yourself when you have kids, but you do what you've got to do) After I went to the bathroom and was going to wash my hand, she said "more, more," and not knowing what she was talking about, I looked in her potty, and found yellow at the bottom of the potty! I was very excited, and she even clapped for herself.

The only problem is that Jeff and I haven't discussed what potty training looks like for us, whether we do the "potty dance", or if we give her candy rewards or what. If anyone has suggestions let us know.

Rachel sitting on the potty (not today)

Lovely to meet you

2009-11-11T13:42:00.013-06:00

Nearly two weeks ago, Jeff's brother and his family moved back to the states from New Zealand. Yes, we said New Zealand. They spent almost 3 years there and met some wonderful friends and made lots of memories. Back in June they had their first child, a son, Tobias Prescott Lehmann. We, and they, call him Toby, for short, or as Rachel says "Toe". We were able to meet them on my birthday and had a fun late afternoon chatting and meeting our nephew. We all are very glad to have them all here.

Rachel really likes "Toe" and says "where's Toe" every time we walk in the door. Of course when we arrive he tends to be sleeping, so she has to wait, but she will likely keep asking about Toby.

We did have them over for dinner and some conversation one night, which we rather enjoyed, and it kind of turned into a mini photo shoot.

The advantage of having a really great photographer in the family, is that a normal romp in the leaves out front turns into a photo shoot. Of course you could pay a photographer to do this, but we hope to avoid the sitting fee. Uncle Chad even got Rachel to SMILE for the camera. He's either a camera genius (which he is) or maybe he's just the crazy uncle (which is also is and I mean that in a loving manner).

It's been a fun 2 weeks and we can't wait to spend time with them over the holidays. Time is flying by and we look forward to seeing some of you over the holidays. Well, those lovely girls of mine are calling me so I must go. Enjoy the pictures.

Late Night & Rachel's Birthday

2009-10-29T11:01:00.008-05:00

Well, the night before Rachel's birthday I was up pretty late decorating Rachel's cupcake cake. We had care group on Saturday and I wasn't able to get started on it as early as I had hoped.

Either way, I made it to bed, and church the next morning, and the party was fun. I feel a little out of my league, because I've never done a birthday party for kids. What kind of games can you play with 2 year olds. Thanks to Rachel's grandparents though, we had stuff for the kids to make/decorate cards.

Rachel got some really cool big toy items, like a play house, a kitchen, and the all important wagon. We also got puzzles, flash cards, clothes, and other toys.

Lovely Lady~!

2009-10-27T20:38:00.006-05:00

By: Jeff

So Teri always does the posts on our blog, but I thought I would write at least one. Right now Teri is at church helping with ESL and that just got me thinking about how many things Teri does and how great she is. :) Yes, I am biased. :) Not only does she take care of both of our children that are 2 and about 8mo old, she also leads a ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings, Helps with the Jr. High at our church, Helps with our home team that meats every 1st and 3rd Saturday, takes meals to people who have had babies, eats lunch with other ladies that are going through the same time of life as she does, cooks Great food for us at home, takes care of other household things, and it makes me tired just typing all of it. Oh, did I mention Yoga, and following me around to various school and soccer activities. She truly is amazing. I don't think I would last much more than a week if that at home with both of the girls trying to get to the grocery store, oh there's another one, and maybe getting a shower once and a while. Somehow she manages to get all of this done and still manage to spend some time with me. This Friday is her Birthday and so I thought she deserved this and so much more, so I wanted to share this small glimpse of her with you. Feel free to wish her a Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Dear~! I Love You~! :)

Lack of Energy

2009-10-06T16:20:00.002-05:00

Well, these days we seem to stay busy as always, but for some reason I feel tired a lot. I'd like to say my iron is low or I'm not getting enough sleep, but I don't know any of it is true. It doesn't help that household chores aren't my favorite. Recently it seems that lots of our friends and family members are announcing pregnancies. While we understand the need for sanity and a strong relationship with each other before we have a third child, my body can't help but feel the desire to be pregnant.

DISCLAIMER: We are NOT pregnant, and have NO intentions of trying to get pregnant.

The girls are getting so big! Rachel will be 2 in 12 days!!! It's so sad to think of how she's already 2! It might be even stranger when Rebekah turns 1, but I still have a few months before I have to think about that. I'm very excited about Rachel's butterfly birthday party that we'll have on her birthday. Although, I think I've resolved that we'll always have family birthday parties.

Well, we're almost a week into October, and it seems we're flying through the month despite the large number of activities and birthdays. Jeff's birthday was a low key affair, but we went out to eat for his birthday and his parents came over the day after to have steaks we cooked on the grill. We had fun. Next up is the state fair tomorrow, if the rain will manage to hold off long enough for us to enjoy the sites. Hang on to your hats, it's going to be a wild one.

Loco in La Cabeza

2009-09-21T14:29:00.002-05:00

Well, apparently I'm a pretty busy woman as some of you noticed in Lots to Do, but I'm gearing up for a very big weekend as the Junior High as part of the rest of the church serves and prepares for our HUGE outreach event called Chili Con Carnival. This is the 4th time we've held this event and we're expecting it to be bigger than it was 2 years ago. The last time it took place there were at least 1200 people and we're expecting approximately 1500 this year! I know it seems crazy, but it's the biggest way our church has chosen to say thank you to the community for being so gracious to us over the years.

I'm in charge of the Junior High's Serve and Play Day (SPD) and am thrilled about getting 6th-8th graders ecxited to serve others. Some of the things I have planned I hope they will remember. Jeff tells me to not get my hopes too high, because more than likely I'll remember the day more than they will because of all the work I've put into it. I did discover that one of the games I want to play will take more planning and extra work up at church on Friday in order to be ready by Saturday morning. I guess we'll be driving to Plano almost every day this week!

The weather has been nice and cool, though it rained almost every day for more than a week and it made most of us a little stir crazy and needed to do something to get the energy out. I've had today to do some of my chores and enjoy a day without the girls, but I'll be picking them up soon. I hope they've had fun because it hardly feels like I've had any time to get things done.

Can you believe Rachel will be 2 in 27 days? The time has flown by and we look forward to having many more years with her. She's got big shoes (and socks) to fill! :)

Licking your face

2009-09-16T16:20:00.002-05:00

Isn't that what dogs do when they are happy to see you and to show that they love you?

Jeff and I have talked occasionally about getting a dog over the past few years. I came really close to getting him a dog for his birthday the year we were married, but before I did it, I asked him what he would think if someone got him a dog and he went on and on about how he'd like to pick out his own dog. Needless to say, I had to start over on ideas of what to get him.

We got pregnant not long after we were married and were living in an apartment, so we've been put off getting a dog. We have had 2 children since we've been married, so life has been a little too busy to get a dog, but I'm hoping to get one sometime soon. We are making some changes to our budget and I'm hoping to convince Jeff that he really wants a dog, so that we can get one soon! I'm sure the answer is still NO, but I look forward to the day that I get to come home to a dog/puppy who's happy to see me! :)

ISN'T HE CUTE???

Loads of Laundry

2009-09-14T22:35:00.002-05:00

Do you know how when laundry day comes there's this looming feeling that things are about to get really messy and take over your house? Well, if you do laundry like I do, you understand. I'm not really feeling like laundry is a daunting task, even though I dislike doing it each week.

I will say, that I'm glad I managed to do some laundry (some is still washing), folded it, did most of the dishes, made dinner, fed my children, exercised (it was only walking, but at least we got out in this rainy weather), gave the girls a bath, and managed to get in a LITTLE me time.

What I'm really talking about are all the items on my "To Do" list. I've been put in charge of a Junior High activity, that I didn't realize I was in charge of until Saturday night when I couldn't sleep. Instead of organizing just part of said activity, I'm also in charge of the other 2/3 of it. By the way, I am a little excited about one of the games I have started planning!

Just to give you an idea of what's on our schedule for the next little while, the following are on the list:

(for those of you that work and do these sorts of things on a daily basis I praise you, but I'm not one to function well on a busy schedule, and also feel as if time is flying by and will be in need of some oxygen sometime in the near future)

Every Tues: Bible Study (I lead the group)
Every Wed: JRH
Sat: Work day at church, small group
Sun: Teach 3-4 yr olds w/ JRH girls, leader's mtg, parent meeting
Sat: JRH activity, prep work for church carnival
Sun: church, carnival prep, more carnival prep, organize JRH kids during said carnival, clean up carnival (do you get the picture?)
Mon: Jeff open house (no Dad all day), father-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday by the way)
Thurs: Jeff Birthday
October: several birthday's occur
Rachel's 2nd birthday in about 1 month!
Sat: more church stuff, small group
Sun: more church stuff
Next wknd: men's retreat
Next wknd: small group
Next weekend: JRH activity
Next weekend: The return of the long lost (sort of) brother and sister-in-law and MY NEPHEW!

If any of our devoted readers would like to come hang out with us, Friday night is probably the most available day of the week, and since we're football fans, you may need to check to see if we'll be at the Rockwall football game.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel really busy, and that we are heavily involved in what's going on at the church, which is causing some anxiety. I must find a way to care for my home, children, husband, and fulfill all of my responsibilities. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if/when I actually get to start working 1 or 2 days a week. I guess we're leading a busy life and we only have 2 toddlers. I can't imagine what life will be like when they start doing school activites!

Late Afternoon Ritual

2009-09-10T16:20:00.006-05:00

In the afternoon, both of the girls tend to wake up at the same time, so I go get Rebekah out of her bed and take her into Rachel's room. As soon as I open the door, Rebekah has a huge smile on her face and Rachel is asking me to put her down on her bed so they can play. I didn't think to take pictures in the process, but I got a few of them being happy, even if they are grumpy the rest of the day.

Oh, and by the way, for those 1st born children out there...Rachel doesn't need to be taught anything. She frequently tells Rebekah "no" when she's playing with something or doing something she shouldn't be doing. Who knew you'd have to be teaching a girl under the age of 2 that it's mommy's job to tell the children "no"?

On another note...

Rebekah reached her 1/2 birthday on Labor Day (isn't that convenient) while we were picking the girls up from my parents house. We are very excited to have reached this momentous occasion and her birthday is quickly approaching, but we must pass through the busy month of October before I start to make plans for Rebekah's 1st birthday party.

Long Awaited Day

2009-09-05T14:16:00.005-05:00

Last week we gave Rebekah her first food. It seems to have been a little early, because she spit most of it out and wanted to grab everything around her and chew on it. She's had cereal on a few subsequent occassions with a little better luck, but we're taking it slow.

I'm sure the problem is that I bought cereal for a good deal and I've been anxious to give her food, though I'm not sure why. One of these days I'll have the patience to wait for the great things in life instead of jumping the gun, but not sure when that will be.

On a fun note, I tried to french braid Rachel's hair a couple weeks ago. It could have been better, but it didn't turn out too bad after a little frustration. It didn't last once we got in the car. If anyone has an idea of how to prevent hair from getting messed up while riding in the car I'm open to suggestions.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day. The girls are going to spend a day or two with Nana and Papa, and I am anxiously awaiting time without the girls. The beginning of the school year has been more stressful than I anticipated and I am looking forward to spending time without them. Hopefully I'll be more grateful for them and in a better mood when they return. Don't labor too much!

Lots to do?

2009-09-02T09:09:00.003-05:00

Do you find yourself with a laundry list of things that need to get done daily? Does it make you tired just thinking about these things? Well, it makes me tired.

So far today I have:

-pumped
-taken a shower

-changed Rachel's sheets (since she wet the bed)

-done a load of laundry

-changed 2 diapers

-changed the girls' clothes

-gotten breakfast for Rachel

-eaten breakfast while I fed Rebekah a bottle

-done a few dishes and started the dishwasher

-gotten the diaper bag ready to leave in a few minutes

-wiped the girls' noses a few times each

-blown my own nose (morning occurrence)

-rammed my back into a plastic crate

all this and I've even had the opportunity to use the bathroom! Can you believe it? This is a normal morning and probably isn't much for those of you who've been at this for years or have more children than I do, but I'm just not that good at it yet.

Little Girl vs. Sidewalk

2009-08-31T07:51:00.005-05:00

The other day when Jeff took the girls for a walk he let Rachel walk/run at the end. While I was inside I started hearing some crying/screaming coming from outside, but it's rarely our children. Sure enough, it was Rachel crying. Apparently she stopped running to look at Jeff and when she started running again she tripped over her shoe. Darn those shoes. Maybe she'd do better without them.

Her face was swollen the next day, but she did okay with it. Most of the scab has come off and it is healing nicely. Right now all 4 of us are fighting colds that I hope are just colds and don't turn into something more.

Jeff has finished his first week of school and is geared up for this week. We're not quite back into a regular routine, but we're getting there. I decided not to post the picture of his first day on facebook, but it works nicely here. He took his picture himself on his Macbook at school since I wasn't awake to take it for him!

Libraries are Lifesavers

2009-08-19T15:03:00.005-05:00

Well, after a rough start this morning (Rebekah woke up at 6:45 and spit up all over me, her, and the couch 5 minutes after Jeff left, and Rachel was awake when we finished our quick bath), the day has gone okay.

I found that toddler story time at the library was this morning at 10:30, so I decided to try it. Even though Rachel sat in my lap while I was holding Bekah the whole time. She didn't try to interact with anyone and there weren't enough crafts to go around, so we didn't make one. I don't know that I'd call it a success, but it was definitely a change of pace. I decided to splurge on a free sandwich at Arby's and we came home.

The girls both got naps and I got to talk to a couple of friends to make the day even better! Now all that's left is to go to Junior High at church for a couple hours. At times it feels like our life is completely crazy, but for the past couple of weeks, we haven't had lots of activities on our calendar. Fear not my friends, the activities and busyness will soon return! Look for more interesting posts on the lives of the loquacious Lehmanns!

Let's get beefy?

2009-08-16T22:14:00.002-05:00

Okay, so there are 2 things related to beef that I'd like to tell you about.

First of all, my mom came into town this weekend while my dad was at a meeting Friday and Saturday morning. She very graciously watched the girls while Jeff and I went out on a date. We went to eat at Saltgrass and it was very good! We were finishing a few "healthy items" on Jeff's bucket list for him to turn in to school tomorrow (Monday), so we had to go somewhere that he could ask that the bread not be served at our table and order his salad dressing on the side. He was also watching the starches he ate that day, so he didn't order a potato either. I however had a very yummy sirloin with a salad and baked potato. In order to stay with the healthy theme, I decided to cut my steak and potato in half before I started so I wouldn't over eat and so that we would have leftovers. After dinner we went shopping and started checking things off of our Christmas list.

Second of all, we again went shopping on Saturday and I have decided that I don't like Kid to Kid (sorry for those of you that do). This particular location has been a major pain, in part because I've had 2 kids to watch when I go in there, and in part because of their crazy ideas!

My first 2 attempts to shop at this location were shot down because they were having a sale. The problem was that they were only going to be open from 4-7pm. Who in their right mind only opens for 3 hours for a sale? Not to mention all the lights were on and the employees were standing around, but the door was locked. There was a small piece of paper typed out the event of the day. Unfortunately, the same thing happened for the same reason the second time.

This time, we had a coupon to use and so we decided to buy Rachel clothes for winter. I had found a pair of khakis and some jeans but in order to use my coupon, I would have to spend $25. Well, we spent 45 minutes in the store and when I go to check out, they tell me my coupon won't work. I had no intention on buying half of the items I picked out if I wasn't getting a discount on it, so I walked out. I'm sure I should have said fine and gone through what I had chosen and bought the items that were a good deal and that I just couldn't live without, but I was so frustrated that it was my 2nd trip in the store that day and had spent 45 minutes picking out clothes and both of my girls were cranky, that I just left.

One of these days I'll grow up and figure out how to behave. I could have gone back in later and bought what I really felt was necessary, but my pride got in the way. I had behaved so horribly. Hopefully we'll still find good deals on clothes for Rachel this winter and she won't have to freeze in the bitter cold that is Texas!

Happy back to school all you teachers!

Ladies at Prayer

2009-08-13T22:49:00.003-05:00

I think this is the name of a ministry at our church where ladies get together and pray over any prayer needs of the church. Well, in my most humble opinion, I think they need to create a Toddlers at Prayer group. Yes, I mean for 2-4 year olds to pray together. Of course I don't really think this will happen, but my almost 2 year old does it.

When we sit down at the dinner table, she grabs our hand and says "Pray," and she'll sit there until one of us takes her hand and prays. Most of the time she doesn't hold our hand the whole time and kind of stares at us, not that we always look at her, so we don't really know what she understands.

Well, that leads me to what happened this evening. After dinner I was sitting by the computer holding Rebekah and Rachel decided she wanted Bekah to pull her hair, because she thinks it's funny. Then she tried to grab her hand and hold it, and when Bekah let her hold it, she said pray, bowed her head, and started talking as if she was praying! It was very hard not to laugh at her and yell at Jeff to come see (he was outside working on the car). I had to go tell Jeff what had happened. I think it's hilarious that she did it and at the same time I am in awe of how much our actions are being played out in our 2 year old. I just really hope the Lord draws her to Himself at an early age and that she will always have the desire to serve and honor Him. What an amazing thing to be the stewards of!

(By the way, and not that it matters, but I say she's 2 because it's not easy to think and say that she's 22 months.)

Oh, and a little update on Rebekah! She can sit up! We think she's been sitting up for a week or two, but we didn't let go of her and she would always lean back b/c we were touching her back. She's getting pretty good at it, but I think she knows we'll hold her if she falls, so she doesn't make much of an effort.

Little girls

2009-08-08T22:36:00.004-05:00

Our baby girl has a high fever for the first time! It is very sad. Since Wednesday Rachel has had a fever over 100. I have been speaking with the nurse at our doctor's office, knowing that without any other symptoms, it was most likely a virus. They did say that they wanted to see her on Friday if the fever stayed up. Since her fever was lower on Friday morning than it was most of the day Thursday, I decided to hold off on the doctor visit. Our doctor sees patients on Saturday morning if need be, so we bit the bullet and took her this morning. They did a flu test (negative thankfully) and Rachel did not like that one bit! We think she doesn't like the doctor's office any more (although, she was very tired while we were there).

She is doing better and hasn't had much of a fever today and no Tylenol for her today! We are happy with her progress, but we will be staying home from church in the morning. Rebekah is also having a slightly elevated temperature, but for a very different reason. The video below was filmed while Rachel was sick on Friday. She was very whiny on Thursday, but mostly back to normal on Friday.

On a lighter note, Rebekah has a tooth!!! We are most excited and thrilled at the prospect of her getting older. It's been very different having Rebekah around. Part of me compares her to when Rachel achieved milestones, and the other part of me feels like she's too young to be ready for some of these events, but I guess that just means time is flying by.

Life is passing me by

2009-08-01T07:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since we've posted anything about our life. We do have an excuse, but I've been trying to get this post up for at least the last 2 weeks, but other things have come up, and well...we've just been busy. Jeff said the other day that once school gets out he's usually bored and says that maybe he should have gotten a summer job, but by July we're so busy it would be impossible for that summer job to have worked out.

First we went on vacation from June 29th-July 3rd. We went to Houston to visit some of Jeff's family and had a marvelous time. We stopped in north Houston to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Jeff's aunt and uncle. Since they have a swimming pool, we had some fun outside. For dinner we grilled out with some of Jeff's cousins before crashing at Peg's house. On Tuesday we went to the Downtown Houston Aquarium where Rachel had a blast! We got lots of pictures and she even touched the sting rays. That evening we had dinner with Jeff's cousins and then Jeff went to play soccer with his cousin Michael. Wednesday we helped Peg pack up more of her house and took a load over to her new house. It's a very nice house in a developing neighborhood. We went to Burnet to visit Teri's aunt, uncle, and cousin, so we got to play around at Camp Longhorn. While there we went swimming in the lazy river, petted the goat and other animals in the petting zoo, and jumped on the trampolines. We also ate lots of yummy food. We would have liked to stay for fireworks on the 4th, but our schedule didn't allow us to stay.

After 2 days of unpacking, doing laundry, and repacking, we headed out on another adventure, only this time the girls went one way and we went another. The girls stayed with Jeff's parents and Teri's parents gave them some relief starting on Saturday. We think they had lots of fun. They went swimming a few times, attended a family reunion, and played with their grandparents (of course).

Jeff and I went to Camp Barnabas, a Christian camp for disabled and mentally handicapped people (mostly kids), with the youth group from our church. We had good times and frustrating times, but overall it was a lot of fun. It was technically a mission trip since we were volunteering our time to the camp and witnessing to these young adults who may or may not have been Christians. We would love to go back again, but we're not sure if it will be next year or not.

Since then we've had Junior High activities, and several other things that make you busy and then you forget to finish writing blog posts. Well, I hope will be the first of many posts in August (since there aren't any in July). Happy summering!

Lo and Behold

2009-06-25T10:43:00.004-05:00

Well, the other morning I happened to get a look into Rachel's mouth and what did I see? A new tooth had poked it's way through her gums and she has a new tooth. She never lets you put your finger in her mouth to check for items she shouldn't have in her mouth or even just the random check for a new tooth. Since I knew she had a tooth, I stuck my finger in her mouth just to see if it was real. Lo and behold, it was! Today as I was writing in her baby book, and since she cuts teeth pretty close together, I decided to check one more time while I had the book out. She still didn't like me messing around in her mouth, but lo and behold, ANOTHER TOOTH! Two teeth in one week! I guess she's halfway through cutting her 2 year molars! Maybe we'll have a mild terrible twos since she won't be cutting teeth?!

We have even more news. On TuesdayJeff's brother called saying they were going to the birthing center. After several agonizing hours, and some sleep, we got the news that lo and behold we have a baby nephew!! We are ecstatic to have a nephew and to finally be Uncle Jeff and Aunt Teri. I'm sure our girls also love that they now have a cousin. We have a friend who had 4 or 5 children before those kids had a cousin. Well, he's 8 lbs and looks a lot like Jeff's brother Chad. You can see their blog to the right under Strangers in a Strange Land.

Only 2 days left of 5 Day clubs and then we're off to galavant the countryside (Megan's words!). We hope everyone is staying cool and able to enjoy the summer (or winter if your in New Zealand :) ).

Long Week

2009-06-22T17:12:00.004-05:00

Well, Day 1 of 5 Day Clubs is over. It went really well. I guess the good thing is that it's not at my house. We had 22 kids come today. I'm very excited to see what the Lord does through these children this week.

As the title mentioned, it's going to be a long week. Jeff has soccer camp every morning and as soon as he gets home Rebekah and I go to 5 Day Clubs, and we have something every night of the week except for tonight. I don't know if I can function! Well, we sort of signed up for this, so we should be prepared. Another thing complicating the week is that Rachel cut another tooth, so she's not exactly the happiest camper on the planet. After this week we'll be going on vacation for 5 days and then on to Camp Baranabas for a week of serving others with the youth group from our church. Some day our life will slow down, but I'm not really sure when that will be.

If you're thinking of us there are a few things you could pray about if you so choose:

1. Time to do our housework, laundry, packing, unpacking, and repacking

2. Wisdom when our patience runs low (with wisdom comes patience-it's in Proverbs somewhere)

3. Safe travel (see Pulling a "Lehmann" post if you're curious)

4. Pray that Rebekah will be comfortable with continuing breastfeeding after our trip

5. Pray for the youth on our trip that they will make it through the week and understand the expanse of God's love and compassion

6. That the girls' routines aren't too upset by all the schedule and scenery changes

7. Good visits with family and friends on our vacation

If I think of others, I'll post them somewhere if you'd like me to.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to the father in my house, as well as our Dads!

Lavon in the summertime

2009-06-18T20:25:00.007-05:00

Not much going on here other than our usual weekly events. We are excited to be going to the lake tomorrow for an outing filled with water skiing. Not sure if the girls are coming or not. We'll have to wait and see! We're hoping for calm waters.

There's also a missions opportunity for us that just came up and we need your prayers for wisdom and a quick decision on our part. It also changes a few of our plans, so we will have to rearrange a few things. We'd really like to do it, but it may not be possible. Thanks for your prayers.

A few pictures from the last week or so.

1st "Ponytail"

Rachel reading to Rebekah

Camping Trip

Rebekah's new toy...

...and Rachel's new playhouse

Looking at the stars

2009-06-15T12:51:00.002-05:00

This is what we got to do this weekend with the Junior High group from our church. We took 10 kids camping at Lake Ray Roberts this past weekend where we got to eat smores, ride in the boat, go tubing (skiing for me), canoeing, hiking (and lots of it), swimming, play games, bond as a group, and worship our Creator.

The first night, after we set up camp, we snacked on smores and got to know each other before one of the leader talked about Creation and the sovreignty of God. There was a storm headed right towards our campsite that split in two and went completely around us. I believe several of the leaders were praying about this. Since the storm went around us, we had a clear sky and saw many stars! The moon was big and bright and Jeff even pointed out a couple of satellites to the kids. The kids stayed up way too late and we had a hard time falling asleep even though we were up past our bedtime 2 nights in a row.

Saturday brought lots of fun and excitement as we rode in the canoe, swam off the edge of our peninsula, rode bikes around camp, went on nature walks, and even rode in the boat. Jeff let everyone go tubing, and unfortunately, some of the ropes broke and even ripped the cover off of the first tube. Thankfully he had a back-up tube we could use. The boat also came in EXTREMELY handy while we unpacked, because our campsite was a 1/2 mile from the trail head where we unloaded everything. Some of the containers, firewood, and coolers were VERY heavy and we wouldn't hav e survived without the boat. Jeff brought in 2 loads of equipment via the boat and some of the smaller stuff was carried in from the road. It did take a while, but we were able to unload everything and get all the tents put up before dark.

Saturday afternoon we all went down to the beach area to go swimming and enjoyed ourselves. After the first hour or 2 of doing not much, I was ready to go back to the campsite, but then a game of keep away with a volleyball in the water got started, so I joined the fun. It ended up being a pretty large game of keep away and lasted for almost an hour. I went back early with a few other people, and shortly thereafter, the rest of the group joined us at the campsite. One of the mom's was gracious enough to cook us some food and bring it out to us while it was still hot. It was an amazing meal of spaghetti, salad, and bread with dessert!

Unfortunately we left early due to an impending storm larger than the one the night before, so we packed up and left in the dark, with only 30-45 minutes to spare before the storm hit the lake. We had some very exhausted kiddos, some very sore leaders, and lots of red bodies, mine included. Being sunburned is one thing, but being sunburned AND sore is very painful. I'm starting to think I'm too old to be doing this! Thankfully I have until Wednesday until I have to be exciting and fun again!

Summer has started fast and furiously. The girls enjoyed their weekend at my parents house, and maybe we'll let them stay with Jeff's parents for a day or two while we go somewhere by ourselves, but there's nothing planned as of yet. Hopefully everyone's staying out of the hot summer heat and humidity!

Pulling a "Lehmann"

2009-06-11T16:29:00.004-05:00

On our way to a lunch appointment with some friends, our car started acting funny. Eventually we broke down before we reached 544. Jeff had said it felt like gas wasn't getting through to the engine, so it must be the fuel injector. I asked how much that would cost us and he didn't really say. All I knew is that we weren't ready to buy a new car.

As we sat there with the windows down and the vent blowing, we called Jeff's parents (where no one was home) and then his brother to come pick us up. While Jeff was doing that, I called our friends and said we were having car trouble so we would be late or would have to cancel based on what we could work out. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but then I asked if we needed to call a tow truck, because we were in the middle of the road. Jeff was nice enough to pull into the shade.

At some point, we got to talking about gas, and how there was 1/4 tank left when I finished driving it on Monday. Jeff said the same thing about him driving it on Sunday, so Jeff asked how many miles we usually get per tank. I replied maybe 300 as the odometer read 314 miles. At that point we concluded that there was a strong possibility that we had just run out of gas. Thankfully there was a construction crew nearby and the foreman was a former auto mechanic. He brought us about a gallon of gas to see if that was the problem, and after a little bit of time, the car did manage to start. The gas gauge said we now had a 1/2 tank of gas. Drew drove up shortly before we got the car started, and he followed us to the gas station.

We put more than 13 gallons of gas in our 13 gallon tank that we usually put 11 gallons in. Great news! Problem solved!.....sort of. If you know the Lehmanns, you may have heard that their mini van has had some problems, most of which are gas related. Most of there long trips involve car repair with the exception of their most recent one (which can be read about in "How Firm a Foundation" to the right-->). Well, their van's gas gauge hasn't worked in a VERY long time, so they have to watch the mileage, and recently the number of miles they could go on a tank decreased, so they broke down a few times. Even though people everywhere run out of gas, I have decided that since the Lehmanns' gas gauge is broken they are "notorious" for it and therefore, we "pulled a Lehmann."

We didn't actually take any pictures because Bekah was fussy and tired and Rachel was quite a handful. Jeff and I are very grateful that a complete stranger was willing to help us and brought us some gas. It is always such a blessing to have others help you for no reason at all. I hope I am able to help others who are "stranded" just because I want to be of service to others. Maybe you'll find someone this week that you can serve.

Lagging Behind

2009-06-10T11:52:00.007-05:00

Okay, so I've actually been pretty good about posting new blogs once in a while, but realized a few days ago that our settings were all messed up. Jeff and I were looking for a way to have a song play on the blog or a way to upload a song on an individual blog. We still have no idea how to do it by the way, but we did discover some things we weren't aware of. Somewhere under settings you can control who comments on your blog and there we discovered that only registered bloggers could write on it.

Rachel carrying around her princess doll like mommy carries Bekah around

So, we have officially changed it to where other people can write on our blog even if you don't want to write your own blog. We are very sorry to anyone who may have wanted to comment on our blog but were unable to. Of course we understand if our friend Holly is the only one who wants to comment. We are just giving you the opportunity to do so in the future.

Summer has started, but I'm not sure it feels much like summer. We went sailing with some of Jeff's co-workers on White Rock Lake last night and because of the wind and cloud cover, it was a very pleasant evening. Rachel went out on the sail boat with Jeff and enjoyed herself. Jeff did say that she was happiest if she got to hold the rope. We didn't take any pictures unfortunately, so you'll just have to take our word for it.

Rachel on Grandma and Grandpa's trampoline

(she doesn't really jump yet, but since being on the trampoline, she tries to jump on the ground more than she used to)

We have started working with the Junior High group at church and are starting out with a fun-filled week. Tonight we have a pool party to welcome the new 6th graders and will be going camping over the weekend. We are actually leaving the girls with my parents for the weekend if you can believe it. I can't believe I'm actually going away from my infant for more than a whole day. It's not in my nature to do that. I guess once you have more than kid you are more flexible and willing to let others watch them. I even went to the grocery store without Rebekah when she was 4 days old! I must have been crazy or something. She did manage to survive though.

We do have more great stories, but I will write one about our adventures from yesterday on another post!

Camp Longhorn

2009-06-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I been back to Camp Longhorn, but before my eldest daughter was born I have attended or worked there every summer since '91. It's hard to believe that I spent so much time there. In all honesty, I didn't really enjoy my time as a camper. Most of the kids had a lot of money and we certainly didn't. I always felt like an outsider. Years after my camper days and after my time as a counselor and nurse at the same camp, I realized how much I took my experiences for granted.
I definitely regret some of the behaviors I exhibited while there, and even some of my prejudices against some of the other people there. What I've learned is that no matter how people lives their lives away from camp, they are all there to teach, learn, and grow as individuals, even if they aren't aware of it at the time. I loved teaching the girls new things, and caring for the sick patients that entered the Pit Stop. Unfortunately, I probably didn't make a difference in many lives, but many of those children and college students taught me more than they'll ever know. Some of the things I enjoy the most involve Camp Longhorn.

I love my aunt that lives at CLH for many reasons, not the least of which is her ability to confront people. Now, I don't like being told just how badly I'm messing up, but I know it is necessary for me to grow spiritually. This is a thank you to her for telling me like it is and for trying to get me to be the best person I can in any situation. She has always been supportive of me and the person I've become. I hope to always make her, and everyone else in my family, proud of me.

There is a place among the hills and dales

Upon a lake where breezes fill the sails

It seems to be calling back to me

It's the life for you and it's the life for me

My buddy come out tonight the campfire is aglow

No place on earth where truer friends you'll know

I'm waiting for the day when back to you I'll go, Camp Longhorn
Disclaimer: I love all of my relatives, but this one in particular has been on my heart recently, and is therefore written about in this post.

Letting Go

2009-06-03T09:52:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I have a hard time doing this. I like being in control, and when I have to try to let go of my kids and let them make mistakes and possibly get hurt, the idea scares me out of my mind. Somebody once said "Let go and let God." I have no idea who it was, but I'm assuming they are very wise.

I'm one of those mom's that feels like my child only gets hurt when I'm not around. Sadly enough, I just realized a few days ago, that my child has been hurt the most when I was right there. My child fell backwards off a table seat and hit her head and scared me almost more than it scared her. The other day we were at Breckenridge park and just before we were leaving she started running straight for a metal bar that was about forehead height on her. I told her to watch out for the bar but she turned around and kept running. She hit it so hard it knocked her on her back. Since we were leaving anyway, I picked her up and started walking off. Thankfully she didn't cry for very long and only ended up with a small line across her forhead that was barely visible the next day.

I guess I still have a long way to go before I'm able to let go, but they're still young, so there's hope for me yet. Over the years when I've messed up and tried to learn from it I like to keep saying that God's still working on me, like the children's song says. Of course, Brandon Heath came out with a song that I really like called "Waite and See." The lyrics are below for your reading pleasure.

"Wait and See" by Brandon Heath

I was born in Tennessee, late July humidity doctors said I was lucky to be alive
I've Been troubled since the day that I got here,troubled to the day I
disappear That'll be the day that I finally get it right
Chorus
There is hope, for me yet, because God won't forget, all the plans he's made for me
I have to wait and see, he's not finished with me yet, he's not finished with me yet

I never really was that good in school. Talked to much, broke the rules
My teachers thought I was a hopeless fool all right.
I don't know how but I made it through, it's one of those things you gotta do
I always had a knack for telling the truth.

Chorus

Still wonerin' why I'm here. Still wrestling with my fear But oh... He's up to something,
And the farther out I go, I've seen enough to know that I'm not here for nothin'
He's up to somethin'

So here's my time to be a man, follow my heart as far as I can
No tellin' where I'm ending up tonight
I never slow down or so it seems, but singing my heart is one of my dreams
All I gotta do is hold on tight.

There is hope, for me yet, because God won't forget, all the plans he's made for me
I have to wait and see, he's not finished with me yet, he's not finished with me yet
He's not finished with me yet, He's not finished with me yet"

Lost and Forgotten

2009-05-27T16:44:00.006-05:00

Over this past weekend, Jeff and I took the girls to see Mamaw (Teri's grandmother) since Jeff had a day off from school and we don't get out to East Texas as often as we'd like to. We were there from Saturday until Monday and had loads of fun while we were there. On Sunday we attended church with Mamaw, which was nice to sing and hear stories about our veterans who gave their lives for our freedoms.

Jeff was able to go fishing a few times while we were there and caught several fish. My Dad went with him after my parents got there on Sunday afternoon. He took a few photos, but we haven't been able to get them off our phones yet.

Aunt Dina bought some bubbles and everyone had great fun with them, but Rachel probably enjoyed them the most.

When we got back, we had dinner with Jeff's parents, and Rachel got to swim in their pool for the first time this year. We think she had a lot of fun. She accidentally dunked herself a few times, but after being upset for a little while, she enjoyed it and had lots of fun. The waterpark in our neighborhood opened over the weekend and we hope she'll enjoy swimming there also.

Rebekah is changing all the time and even laughed yesterday. We got a couple of videos, but we'll have to wait on those because we don't know how to get the tape from our video camera onto the computer yet. Rachel is coloring more and using her utensils more accurately than before. Jeff has only 6 more school days, and we are eagerly anticipating the end of this school year. We hope everyone has a great summer!

Once Upon a Time in a Far Away Land

2009-05-22T20:45:00.005-05:00

The other day as I was on my way home from a play date in Allen, I drove by several of our friends' homes. As I drove by, I thought of our relationships with these different people and tried to say a little prayer for them. I drove by the homes of friends from college that we don't see any more, some friends who moved to West Texas and we miss very much, an older couple in the church whom we respect, and some other friends who attend a different church. I realized it made me sad that we don't keep up with friends as much once they aren't around at church or nearby anymore.

Rachel and Eli

Most people will tell you that long distance relationships don't work. In dating situations I completely understand, but in friendships, if you have a close enough relationship you will find a way to stay in touch. It has become much easier in the technology age where you can communicate through email on a cell phone. While we miss our friends who have gone out our lives, we also understand that you have to make new friends sometimes.

Since moving into our neighborhood almost 2 years ago we have tried to get to know our neighbors which has been somewhat successful. We are still working to build better relationships with them, but we are glad that we know their names. We also just started a home team/care group at our church. We know the couples superficially, but are looking forward to getting to know them better. Most of the couples don't know each other either, so we are excited that we are the catalysts in the process.

Please be in prayer for us as we attempt to get our care group off the ground. We have asked to start working with our Junior High as leaders and have been given the green light, so we will be adventuring into that in the next couple of weeks. Our summer is becoming quite busy and we'd like you to be praying for us, just as we would like to be praying for you in whatever is going on in your life.

In Christ's Love,

Jeff and Teri

Lookin' Good

2009-05-15T11:08:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I was looking through our pictures to see if I could find inspiration in something to write on the blog and came across this picture.

So, this picture doesn't have any special significance, except Jeff got Rachel to sit on the ball just for the purpose of taking a few pictures and she actually obliged him. The shirt in the picture did remind me of how frustrated I was when we were trying to find a big sister shirt.

It was very frustrating because nearly every store we looked in only had "Big Sister" shirts that started in 2T sizes. Well, since Rachel was only 9 or 10 months old when we were looking, we didn't think a 2T would fit. I thought they should make the shirts smaller, because people sometimes have kids closer together than every two years. Since I was pregnant and all, I was a little upset that we were either going to buy a shirt that was too big or find a shirt in a specialty shop that would cost more money than I was willing to spend.

Of course, in hindsight I realize that I'm really glad we bought the cheaper bigger 2T shirt, because Rachel was able to wear the shirt to the hospital to meet Rebekah. Had we chosen to buy the smaller shirt just for the purpose of telling our families, we would have had to either buy another shirt for her to wear to the hospital, or do without.

Not to get all spiritual or anything, but I really like how my friend Kara thinks. She sometimes tells me that of course she makes plans for her life on a daily, weekly, and sometimes yearly basis, but God's plans don't always match up with hers. Her plans might have been good, but God's plan is ALWAYS better. She might end up going in an opposite direction than she thought she would go, but it's usually the right one.

I was thinking about that in terms of where I am and my life around me. I'm probably not doing what I thought I would be doing, but I hope I'm doing what God has called me to do.

Longing for summer

2009-05-11T13:32:00.008-05:00

Okay, so after today there are only 17 days of school left. Now lets break it down. The last 4 days are exams, and 2 days the week before are senior exams, so we're down to 11 school days. If you need to take time to prepare your students for their final exams you should probably spend 2-3 days on that. This Friday Physics is going to Six Flags, with that said there are only 7 days of school left.

We can't wait for summer. We are hoping to go to the waterpark in our neighborhood more than last year and hang out as a family. We are also starting a new care group/home team with families from our church, so we have a little bit of planning to do and will be busier than we 1st anticipated. I will also be doing a Bible study at a friend's house in Sachse on Tuesday evenings that starts after Father's Day. It never fails that no matter how much you think you're going to get to relax during the summer, plans always change and you end up with 2 or 3 times as many plans than you had in mind. I'm sure we would enjoy getting to go on vacation, but we don't know if we'll have the time or the money.

The girls are growing fast. We even took the girls to the doctor last week for their 2 month and 18 month well visit.

Rebekah smiles a lot and talks to you just before she spits up a lot! She will even watch you as you walk by. She weighs 11 lb 12 oz (75%) and is 23.5 in (90%) tall.

Rachel is becoming more of a toot each day. She knows she's cute and still runs away when she knows she's disobeying. She is talking more and it's such a blessing that her 2-3 most used words are "please" and "thank you." She weighs 23 lb 13 oz (40%) and is 33 3/4 in (95%) tall.

Lucky in Life

2009-05-01T11:31:00.007-05:00

It's so amazing to have two children. I thought it was going to be extremely difficult. Don't get me wrong, it's stressful at times, because I'm not in control. Not being in control is difficult to admit since I like to be in control of everything. It's something that I am still working on. Things go much better during the day when I realize I can't control when Rebekah sleeps and Rachel decides to throw a fit.

Things around here have been stayin fairly busy, but we're doing well, and hope to finalize some of our summer plans. We are looking forward to the end of school for Jeff to have a break and so that we can spend some time with him. I feel completely lucky to have him home during the summer.

The girls are growing like weeds. Rachel is starting to talk more intelligably, even though I still can't understand most of what she says. She has even learned to buckle things, so she always re-buckles Rebekah's car seat after we get home. It is very sad however that she is starting to only take one nap a day. I'm still not sure of how I want to handle this, so she still gets put down for 2 naps.

Rebekah is growing and changing every day. Rebekah is cooing and smiling at us often. She has even slept from 9 until 7 3 different times, though not in a row. I'm starting to get used to sleeping all night, so it's hard when she wakes up. Well that's all I can think of for now, so from our house to yours, have a great weekend, and don't forget your mothers next weekend!!!

Little Ones

2009-04-13T17:04:00.007-05:00

Things have been busy around here lately. It seems like we have been on the go since Rebekah was born. She has grown a lot and gets more attentive each day. Rachel is still quite the helper with Rebekah and other household chores. Rachel is also using more words that we understand which we like.

Rachel is:

18 months old (in 5 days)
still takes 2 naps a day (most days)
eats like a teenager (without the sugar)
weighs 23.5 lbs
is 32 3/4 inches tall

Rebekah is:

5 1/2 weeks old
weighs just over 10 lbs
is already getting her chubby cheeks
already had her 1st smile
she coos at us occassionally
only waking up 2 times per night on average
still eats every 2 hours during the day (most of the time)

Mom and Dad are:

Tired, but doing well
Getting out of the house regularly
Finished with soccer for the year
Looking forward to summer
Working on losing baby weight

LOOK AT HER!

2009-03-17T21:08:00.006-05:00

On March 7th, Jeff and I became the parents of a very adorable baby girl, Rebekah Claire, at 4:17AM(Rachel was born at 2:11AM)! She weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. We are very proud of her. My labor started early in the morning, so I decided I would have lunch with a friend and go to 2 grocery stores on the way home. I also went to Jeff's soccer game (which he won 7-1) and put the beef and chicken I had bought into the freezer. After Jeff got home was when labor started picking up. Jeff has said a few times (jokingly, of course) that I should have the baby on Friday night after his soccer game, so that he would be home and not have to worry about school. We joked on the way to the hospital about how it was really happening that way!

Rachel has also been marvelous. She loves to give Rebekah hugs and kisses. She is also big helper. I'm so blessed to have had Jeff home since the birth because Rebekah's nights were starting around midnight or so and Rachel has been getting up around 7AM. With at least 1 or 2 feedings between those hours, I would probably be exhausted and in serious need of help. We are hoping to get Rebekah on a better evening schedule so that I will be able to function once Jeff goes back to work.

We have enjoyed our time off so far. We have been walking at least 3 or 4 times since we came home. Of course it helps that the weather outside has been gorgeous. This pregnancy, labor, and postpartum period so far have been completely different. So much so, that I was convinced Rebekah was a boy. The only reasoning I had for believing she was a girl, was because we had such a hard time coming up with a boy name, again.

Rebekah got her first real bath today. We even managed to take pictures of it! Thankfully she is getting into a better nighttime routine, so there's hope that I won't be completely exhausted the 1st day Jeff goes back to work.

Late again!

2009-02-20T09:56:00.005-06:00

Okay, so in the last post we were preparing meals, moving Rachel to a new room, and getting ready for baby. Well, with 2 1/2 weeks to go (or so), Rachel has been sleeping in her new room every night for the past 2 weeks! We thought we would need a month to have her completely acclamated to the new room and to our surprise she asked to sleep in her big girl bed at night almost exactly a month before the baby was due. On the 3rd or 4th night we did find her like this when we checked on her before we went to bed.

Rachel is such a trooper! I am just hoping that she doesn't regress much when the baby gets here. She loves looking at new babies. We've had 3 friends give birth in the past couple months and she goes crazy when she sees their pictures on Facebook. She even screams with delight..."Ba-by." We are having so much fun with her.

I must digress back to how she slept in her bed at night for the first time. Jeff was at a soccer game and around 7:30, Rachel walks into the living room with her blanket and pillow from her twin bed like she's ready to go to sleep. Taking this as a good sign, I say okay and proceed to change her diaper, brush her teeth and put pajamas on her. She was apparantly tired, because she didn't want to do any of it. I laid her in bed and said good night. That was the end of it. She stayed in her bed all night as best we can tell. It was very helpful that the first night was on a weekend when Jeff would be home the next morning!! It was totally great and I was absolutely loving how great our child is!

Since she's in her new bed, we have converted the crib back to the "little baby" stage and put the bumper pads back on and everything. It looks kind of like this all over again! We are ready! It's only a matter of time now. If only I can manage to get all of my last minute visits with friends in before I have to figure out how to make those visits work with 2 kids we'll be doing great!

Looking for a new home?

2009-01-26T15:19:00.003-06:00

Wow! How time flies. It's hard to believe that we're about 6 weeks away from having another baby in the house. Well, in preparation for that, we've been cleaning, cooking, getting things done for when the baby arrives. We finally got the rest of our Christmas stuff put away in the attic and pulled all of our baby items out. My parents were in town over the weekend, so they helped us do all of that. We are very thankful they were able to help. We even cut the angle for the lid to our toy box. Now all we need to do is stain it and attach it.

Rachel will be moving into a new room and my parents brought the twin bed that she will be sleeping on. Thank you for the bed!! Mom also made her a quilt that looks amazing and matches the room beautifully!! She absolutely loves her bed. If you ask her where her new bed is or if you want her to show you her new bed, she runs into her room and throws herself onto the bed. Keep in mind it's just the mattress sitting on the floor. We haven't had her sleep in it yet, because we are trying to clean out that closet for her to use.

I'm quite proud of myself for already working on getting a few meals into the freezer for after the baby is born. I'm trying to double recipes occassionally so that I can put the other half away for later. Now if I can only keep up with the rest of the housework in the middle of all the rearranging and organizing, then we'll really have progress.

Rearranging a closet takes a lot of energy. You have to decide if you really need to keep the items being stored in there, and if not are you going to throw them away or give them away. Well, I am glad to say that we got rid of a lot of things over the weekend. My parents took 4 boxes of stuff from our house to give to The Blessing Box, and we realized the next day that we had other things lying around that needed to go with them as well. Maybe we'll get together another box and they can take it with them next time they're in town. FYI- The Blessing Box is a small town church's version of Goodwill.

What a Lovely painting!

2009-01-20T15:22:00.007-06:00

We are so excited!! Over the Christmas holidays Jeff and I painted our office 2 shades of purple for Miss Rachel's new room. She will be moving into this room so that the baby can sleep in the nursery.

Since the room was tan and navy, we decided she needed something a little more girly!

Jeff is also in full swing coaching soccer. The JV has played 1 tournament already and plays its last tournament this weekend in Allen. Rachel and I have enjoyed watching soccer and Rachel especially loves watching all the boys kick the ball!! She even tries to tell them to Go Go Go!! She's rather cute and has been a trooper at the games, even when it's a little cold.

Over the break, we also gave Rachel her first haircut. Her bangs were getting a little long, so we cut them. I was very excited to be able to cut her hair for the 1st time. We even saved as much as we could in an envelope, but there's not much there.

We started the process of transitioning Rachel into her new room yesterday. We don't have her twin bed yet, so I tried to put a pallet on the floor for her. I'm very proud to say that she stayed on the pallet the WHOLE hour she spent in her new room, but didn't sleep. I tried again today to put her in her room, only this time I put her crib mattress on the floor. She screamed at me for a couple minutes, but I left her in there anyway. I checked on her a little while later and discovered this....

Isn't that the greatest thing you've ever seen? I'm so proud of my little girl. Lots of her upbringing has been so easy because she's such a good kid and has nothing to do with what Jeff and I have done. We are so blessed to have her. Of course many people are rather concerned because they think this next baby will cause us lots more grief and agony because the first child is, for all intents and purposes, an easy baby. I hope you are having a wonderful inauguration day!

Lazy days are here again

2009-01-04T13:30:00.009-06:00

Okay, so maybe the days aren't so lazy, but we have completed our stay at the Lehmann's home and our holiday travels. We had several Christmases to attend and enjoyed ourselves at all of them. We had Christmas with the Lehmanns on Christmas Eve morning, where we hosted the first Christmas not in the Lehmann house. It was great to have everyone home from New Zealand, except for the New Zealand residents. We also enjoyed having Jeff's brother Drew here and hope to see him more often now that he's home from his enlistment in the Air Force. Rachel was lots of fun this year and tried to help everyone open their gift whether it was paper wrapped or in a gift bag! She likes doing it all! We are also VERY excited that one of our gifts this year is a cousin that will join the family sometime in July 2009!

We did Christmas morning here at our house before going to my parents' house in Winnsboro. Rachel got her first baby doll and stroller, and just loves pushing her around and giving the baby kisses! On Saturday after Christmas we went to Athens to spend time with my extended family and had lots of fun, got a few exciting gifts, and again Rachel really enjoyed opening presents!

After Christmas, Rachel got to spend a few days with Nana and Papa without Mommy and Daddy. We think she enjoyed herself, but she started getting sick before she left and she's now quite congested and has a cough. We think she's on the way up, but if her illness is anything like the illness Jeff and I had over the break, she'll be like this for several more days. Jeff has already started back coaching and goes to school tomorrow, so our holiday will soon be gone. I guess now is probably the best time to take down those Christmas decorations that we erected oh so early this year! I hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning to 2009.

Am I lucid?

2008-12-18T08:55:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I have finally finished breakfast. Right now that involves feeding myself, then feeding Rachel, then the dog, and finally Grandpa. The breakfast routine usually lasts about 1 1/2 hours or so. It's actually quite interesting. After 1 1/2 weeks here I have a real routine.

Well, I guess we've been bad about posting pictures and blogging regularly. I'm sure there's a lot we could put in and forget to write about. Rachel keeps us really busy. Jeff's schedule keeps him at school longer than we're used to, so he only gets to see Rachel for a couple hours each day. It's crazy how time flys! It's hard to believe I'm already in my 3rd trimester and with soccer season coming up, March will be here before I know it.

We are looking forward to staying in our own home soon, even if it is only for a few nights before we're on the road again and living out of another suitcase. Christmas is going to be crazy, but hopefully we'll enjoy it and not get stressed out by it.

Since we live in Texas, schools like to call an ice day on days where the roads aren't very icy. Tuesday was one of those days. Jeff was able to stay home from school and spend the day with us. We took turns being at home so we could do some Christmas shopping for each other.

Thanksgiving went well and we ate too much. We had a block party for our neighbors and had a wonderful time. It was a small turn out, but for the first year, we're happy with how things went. I made WAY too much food, but I was able to return some of the extra that I bought. That week was very stressful because it was our first week at Jeff's parents and I got sick on Tuesday, so I wasn't able to do anything to prepare for the party that day. I did TONS of cooking on Wednesday and Thursday, so there were a lot of dishes. Thankfully, the family who came to watch Grandpa for us during the evening did ALL the dishes for me!! I am VERY thankful, because I think I would still be doing them if they hadn't done them. I think that's all the excitement going on around here. I hope everyone is done with their Christmas shopping, or at least almost done, and getting ready to have a few days off next week. Enjoy your Christmas!

Long-Lasting Silence

2008-11-21T14:28:00.003-06:00

Okay, so we're really bad about posting on our blog. I don't think either of us are great writers, so coming up with something to say usually takes some effort. Rachel is a handful. She walks/runs everywhere and talks all day long, but most of it is unintelligible, so we'll just have to keep guessing about what she's saying. We've been fairly busy, but it's mostly busyness preparing for the upcoming busyness of the holiday season. We have house-sitting, parties, soccer practice, Thanksgiving, teaching Sunday School, Bible study, and probably a few other things going on. We are actually hosting a couple of parties, so we have some added responsibility on our end. In anticipation of these many things (of which we are very happy to be doing), we have begun our Christmasing early. I know for many people it drives them crazy when homeowners and retailers put out Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. Well, we weren't quite that early, but we did put the tree up almost 2 weeks ago, and some of the house lights are already finished. We will be adding to them in the next week, so for all intents and purposes we are ready for Christmas! I have even been really good with our resources and have gifts for SEVERAL family members already. This feat has NEVER occurred before, and may never happen again, so I am relishing the moment.

Please excuse the blurryness. I will take another picture and might replace it, but for now here is the tree. Now if I can only get on top of the gift wrapping process and figure out whether or not my 1 year old will completely rip into them once they are placed under the tree, we will be doing even better. I think we are starting to count down the days we have to finish all of the things we need to accomplish before we start house-sitting. Time is going by really fast, which I am anticipating this to be a good thing, because I'd like to be able to hold Rachel again, and have this little baby kicking at blankets and toys instead of my stomach. Have a fun-filled weekend before Thanksgiving.

Lavish Celebrations!!

2008-10-20T16:38:00.010-05:00

SHE IS 1 YEAR OLD!!!!

We had lots of fun at her birthday party. This is probably the messiest face we got of her eating her cake. We also had fruit which she preferred over the cake! She refused to walk for our guests. We are sorry about that but thought we would share a video of her walking a few days before her party.

Here are just a few pictures over the last few weeks.

Helping Daddy open presents at his birthday

Getting into the fridge

Opening presents

She loved her own chair and the cool Veggie Tales CD from Uncle Drew, Aunt Jill, and Aunt Megan! Thanks!!

Rachel with Great Grandpa Lehmann

One more video

LEAPIN' LIZARDS!!

2008-10-04T11:17:00.007-05:00

Ok, well, we don't exactly have any leaping lizards around the house, but Jeff did find a little gecko the other day. So, what we do have is a WALKING baby!!! Well, she's not exactly a baby anymore and we're not sure she likes the idea of walking, but yesterday she took not 1, not 2, but 3 steps by herself!!! We are so ecstatic. We did get her this great walking toy that she went crazy over from the moment she tried it. She's getting better at turning it around herself, or she just walks around to the front and pushes it backwards.

Our child is one that tries something once, doesn't necessarily think it's great and then waits another month or 3 to do it again. We couldn't for the life of us make Rachel roll over. She did it a few times when almost forced, and then didn't do it again until she was crawling, because she would want off her back to go crawl. She is now a tummy sleeper despite the fact that we put her in bed on her back.

My (Teri) parents celebrated Labor Day with us. Rachel had a lot of fun playing inside and out.

Rockwall had its homecoming last weekend and Jeff was in the parade so Rachel and I went to watch the excitement!

Wednesday was also Jeff's birthday! Happy belated-Birthday! We opened presents, had a nice breakfast, and spent the rest of the day at the State Fair out on a date without Rachel. It was nice and enjoyable.

Learning Curve

2008-09-06T11:16:00.006-05:00

School has started out well for Jeff, who only teaches 5 classes this year because he'll be coaching soccer. The soccer coaches made their first cuts on Friday to decrease the number of students in the class for the fall, but they will also be having open tryouts in December for those who aren't in the class or play other sports.

Growth can be a tricky thing. For children it's a necessary thing for their body to catch up to the size of their head and to allow greater stability to walk/run/play. It can also cause great pains when your bones decide to grow too fast. Well, in the case of Jeff's school, they are growing and doing construction, which is causing some pain and suffering. The athletic department is adding new locker rooms and storage closets, so all the equipment has been moved around quite a bit since before school started. The most recent move has been because the stuff was in a football storage closet and they were putting in new shelves, so all the stuff had to get moved yet again and they were only given a days notice. In a similar way, growth in our spiritual life can cause painful memories and realizations of our heart's motivation to be brought to mind so that we might cleanse ourselves and become more Christ-like. On the other side of dealing with spiritual issues there is great joy in living for God each and every day like we should.

On a personal note, getting back into a normal routine has been a two week process. We've also had some sniffly noses and no rain around here thanks to Gustav. Surely normal life will one day come back, or appear for the first time.

Lackadaisical Living

2008-08-21T09:31:00.002-05:00

Okay, so it's been a while since our last post. We've been trying to enjoy each other's company before the dreaded day of August 18th came around and Jeff had to get back to real life. We've been around, but not really doing much. Well, I guess we have had our eyes glued to our makeshift television for as many hours of the Olympics that we can get our hands on! Monday, the 25th, will be a sad, sad day. Jeff sees his new kids for the first time, our sister is leaving for a land far, far away, and I will be home all alone, but with Rachel of course.

I must say, YEAH, the USA has won many medals, and May-Treanor-Walsh RULE! Okay, so we really like volleyball in our house and it's totally awesome to watch people moving around that fast.

Well, Jeff has taken the Assistant Soccer Coach position and for some reason I thought it wouldn't effect our lives that much until after school practice started. It seems that I was wrong. Jeff had 2 weeks of soccer camp this summer, 2 days of inservice for coaches, 2 days of working with the other coach on various aspects of the year, he'll be spending most of his Friday at school working on inventory, and there's a Meet the Jackets night on Saturday that he must attend. Let's not forget the other Jackets night on September 2nd, but that's still 11 days away! I'm not sure the stipend he's getting paid to be in this position will help our budget much, and the number of hours that will be put in since he took the job will be quite minuscule. I suppose the money in all of this wasn't really the point, but rather the impact he will hopefully have on the coaches and players he will come into contact with that he might not get to build a relationship with otherwise. We will be praying for Jeff and those people for much of the year.

YEAH RAIN!!!

Longings...

2008-07-31T08:16:00.008-05:00

Since some of you may not know, I have a brother who died 2 weeks after his 18th birthday. He had cancer and went through many things a teenage boy should never have to deal with. I love him dearly.

So...the 5th anniversary of his death is on Sunday and it hit me like a brick this morning. You know when you've lost someone close important dates tend to make you cry a lot? Well, in our family, it's not usually the day that's so bad, but the day before is the worst. I realize I'm a few days early, but knowing me, it probably won't cross my mind on Sunday, so I'll cry today instead. I also realized that my parents are driving part of the way to New Orleans for a cruise on Sunday and I thought it was rather fitting. I don't know if they planned it that way or not, but I'm glad they are finally going on a cruise. Hopefully this isn't morbid, but I've seen 2 people die in my life. It's not a fun thing to be around, and I think the hospice/ICU nurses are just amazing people. They have to be able to deal with so much in order to help their patients and the respective families when they are dying. We had a wonderful nurse who completely reeked of smoke and David told her she should leave because he couldn't handle her smell. After that, she tried very hard to quit smoking, but I've never heard if she was successful. I hope she was for many reasons.

On a less morbid note, Jeff and I went to Shreveport and managed to not come home broke! We didn't even gamble. We did go to the casino, but it was so smoke-filled that we didn't stay very long. Our hotel was pretty nice, despite a lingering smell of smoke. I think I've decided that when you stay in a casino hotel, that the rooms will invariably be smoking rooms. We probably should have at least asked if they had any no smoking rooms. Well, in any case, we stayed on the 20th floor, shopped a little, saw a movie, and just hung out. We think Rachel enjoyed herself with Nana and Papa too.

Partial view from the room...

If for some reason you've read the blog and see me on Sunday, I would please ask that you not mention David, because I do have to teach Sunday School. I'd rather not have to answer questions about why I'm crying from several 6 year olds. I appreciate your candor in this matter.

Luxurious Relaxation

2008-07-17T08:39:00.004-05:00

We are so excited about our upcoming trip. We haven't left Rachel for more than a few hours at a time since she was born, so we are getting to take some leisure time for ourselves and leaving Rachel with her grandparents!! Yea!! We thought it might be cool to stay in Shreveport, even though we don't gamble, just to say we've been to/seen a casino. We'll fill you in on some of the details when we come back, like was it worth the trip, and are casinos all they're cracked up to be.

Rachel is one amazing baby. Of course I'm a little biased, but we're so thankful for her every day. She pulls up on everything and tries to climb, but we don't have anything in the house conducive to climbing upwards, so she hasn't been very successful. She can climb stairs when we visit friends/family who have them in the house, so beware. We also love that she is able to walk along all of the furniture. We're one step closer to having her walking! I would guess that if you're a parent, that at least one person has told you that it seems like you can't wait until they can walk and talk and once they can do that you would like for the to just sit down and be quiet. We've heard that a few times, and I'm sure there will be times when I will want her to be still, but it seems like it would be so much easier to help my child if she could tell me what she wants rather than just crying, or throwing a fit.

Well, it's hard to believe it's already the middle of July. I will be so sad when Jeff has to go back to work. I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer. We hope to get some new pictures up soon.

Large Mouth Bass

2008-07-05T20:37:00.005-05:00

So in the past 2 weekends we've been to 2 different family reunions. Of course they have been with my (Teri) side of the family. Jeff has met many random people that he didn't know, we stretched Rachel to stay awake for longer periods of time, and had a little fun in the meantime. Last weekend we met the Hollowells in Paris, Texas that is. We played some games ate some good food, and went swimming at the hotel. This weekend we spent time in Athens, again Texas that is, for the Wilson family reunion. We spent some time with our Mamaw and her family. Jeff and my dad got to fish twice and we shot off some of Jeff's fireworks. It will be nice to not have as many explosives around the house! HA! We do have some proof of the fishing expedition, as seen below.

We have also started having dinners for some of our friends on Wednesday nights and we had fun this past week. We borrowed the idea from some friends at church (thanks Nobles and Happy Birthday tomorrow Justin!!) and we like having people come visit us. We are excited about this week since we're having Mexican food. We hope lots of people come and share with us! Hope this finds everyone doing well in this summer heat!

Lopsided Emotions Anyone?

2008-06-26T22:29:00.002-05:00

Has anyone ever had one of those days where you just wish you didn't have to worry about anything? Today wasn't too bad until I had been gone all day, hadn't had a chance to go to the grocery store for a last minute item for dinner, the grocery store took 1 1/2 hours (we went to 2), and it seemed like nothing was going right. I had a very sad day, where in the beginning where I got upset and had this puppy dog/child voice and really wanted things to start going my way. Then all I could do was cry. I think once in a while everyone needs to have a good cry, but today was rather sad, because I wanted to buy some really good pasta and with my coupons it would have been free and instead we bought about $4 worth and I apparantly wasn't aware we bought it. $4 you say? Well, we've been out of town for a while and money gets spent more and we drove more than 2,000 miles, and I happened to look at the budget yesterday, so I kind of was on edge. Don't get me wrong, we have more than enough money in the bank, but I guess I just had an emotional day. I hope you have a much better.....

WAIT!

Maybe I should just be glad. I am very thankful for all the things I have, a home, husband, child, food on my table, hot water, toothbrush, shampoo, and many other things. I even got to see my aunt who just moved back to the states from Kuwait (Hi Aunt Grace), my mom (Hi Mom), and an adopted family member (Hi Eva Lee). We also did some shopping for redecorating and it was so much fun! I do realize that lots of people in the world have a much more difficult time in living day to day than I do, but I do think that even if we are well off, we have a tendency to get down about things. Now that I've shared my boo hoo story...I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!! Happy Birthday to Holly on Saturday!!!

Little Yeds

2008-06-17T21:20:00.009-05:00

by Teri

Our craziness of never being stationary for the next 20+ years has begun. Rachel is crawling everywhere and wants to get into anything that belongs to Mommy and Daddy. We have had some whirlwind couple of weeks. In the last 2 weeks we have been to and from Illinois visiting Jeff's extended family and were accompanied on the trip by Grandma Lehmann and Aunt Megan. We had our share of fun and even left her with a non-family member babysitter for the first time. Amazingly, we weren't very apprehensive. Of course when you realize how small the world really is, it's easy to leave your child(ren) with a stranger who's a friend of family friends, even if you're 1,500 miles from home!!

On a busy note, Rachel has learned to pull up. Not only to her knees, but all the way to standing. I turned my back earlier today and turned back around to find her like this.....

Well, the picture was actually of the second time she stood up on the bookcase. At some point during the day she also pulled up to hold onto the coffee table. She also decided to stand up in her crib this evening when we put her to bed so she cried for a while and we went to check on her thinking she might be hot (since our A/C doesn't work!!), but instead we found her standing there, so we promptly moved her crib down as low as it can go.

Since Rachel is a Lehmann, she has to learn to be a good traveler and we certainly put her to the test over the last 9 days. She met all kinds of new people and slept in strange places and did it with a mostly happy attitude. She's been a trooper.

On a side note, the adults also had fun on the trip to Illinois. We saw some cool clouds, I tried to take some cool pictures (though quite unsuccessfully), we made strawberry rhubarb jam(picture below for those who don't know what rhubarb is) , went to Jeff's cousin's wedding (isn't she beautiful?).....

We also ran across this RV that we had passed sometime before we stopped for lunch. He had a little car trouble so we managed to pass him again.

Well, I'm sure there's more excitement in our lives, but we'll post another update soon! Welcome to summer!!!

The Lehmanns

Leaps and Bounds

2008-05-21T19:07:00.003-05:00

Okay, so our daughter is just as cute as can be. She is learning to crawl, but doesn't move her arms in coordination with being on her knees. She's still moving slow, but we're okay with that. Hopefully we will be able to successfully upload the video, but otherwise, we will post it on Facebook. It's completely amazing that when you have children, most of the stories that get told are about your children. Of course I'm sure this is multiplied for me because I'm at home with her all the time.

We've had lots of people tell us how strong Rachel is over the past few months. I'm sincerely hoping that it's only physical strength and not also a strong will. It's hard enough raising a daughter in today's society, but I don't know if I can handle little Me. Having people tell me of Rachel's strength also brings up the conversations about how much of a super athlete she's going to be. Since Jeff is tall, and coordination runs in the family, she's destined to go pro in something other than business! :) She's got her choice of sports between 2 families of diverse athletes, such as (and in order of preference, though I'm not sure who's preference) : 1)soccer 2)volleyball 3)softball 4)swimming 5)basketball 6)track/cross country 7)tennis

But on a serious note, we will be proud of Rachel and love her no matter what she becomes or what she's good at. The super athlete idea is somewhat of a joke in the house because we've taken pictures of her working out and she plays a lot with Jeff's soccer ball. Hopefully everyone is having a good week and geared up for Memorial Day weekend! Go Air Force!

Love, Life, and Living

2008-05-15T15:58:00.007-05:00

Wow! What a year! I've never written a blog before, but I'm going to try. We are enjoying our 7 month old daughter who makes us laugh every day. We have been keeping up with Rachel's growth and pictures on a baby website, but ran out of room there so decided to start up here also. She's so wonderful and has been a huge blessing in our lives. We give thanks to God every day for the blessing He's given to us.

On a note outside of Rachel...I've been attempting to teach my sister-in-law vocabulary and helping her to prepare for the SAT. Well, my attempts are succeeding, but I'm not learning as much as I was hoping to. It's actually quite fun. I get to make up a crossword puzzle and quiz each week, require her to memorize these words, and I don't even remember a large number of them. She's doing a wonderful job! Attawaytogo Meds! Even though I'm not quite up to par in my vocabulary, we have had a few laughs over some of the answer choices published in the SAT Prep book. Well, I guess that's all for now! Have a very Fun Friday!

Teri :)