Emily's Cowboy's

A Good Time

Well, my husband is HOME. Yay....

Thank you to all of you who prayed for me. It really went well. The kids were generally well-behaved. Went went to Y, the library, my friend Lisa's house, MOPS and Hockey. Hattie only slipped once in the parking lot. Luke was such an angel, like always. Silas is turning into a great helper.

Jody had a good time too. He joined the cowboy hat club. He also brought Hattie and Silas little cowboy hats, and they don't know it yet, b/c they are in nap time. They are going to LOVE them. Hattie has asked "Where my daddy?" so many times, I can't wait to see her face when she wakes up and sees him.

So, I'm thrilled to be back on line now. I've got some blog reading to catch up on.

Posing Cuties

More on Wednesday

Jody is going to a training in South Dakota tomorrow (Sunday) thru Wed. He's taking the computer, so I won't be posting for several days.

THink of me, I'll be trying my hardest to remain sane and patient with the 3 kids at home by myself. Silas doesn't have school this week. Its supposed to be very cold. We are starting MOPS on Wed. I can't decide if I will take all 3 kids to hockey and the library story times all by myself. Well, the library is no biggie, but hockey with all 3 kids Mon, Tues, and Wed...I don't think so. Maybe one day. I may be absolutely starved for adult conversation. Maybe I'll let Silas watch extra TV. I may HAVE to.

Pray that Jody will still get his studying in, so that when he gets home, he can spend some time with the kids and let me go out by myself.

Have a great few days, I'll miss posting.

Break-thrus

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting anywhere here with making new friends. Its harder than I thought. Its like there is this invisible line that until I get there, I'll be lucky to get a hello nod. But once I get to that invisible line, I can't even excuse myself from a conversation.

Here's what I mean. There are a few moms from Silas's class that I didnt even think knew who I was. I gave it some good shots at trying to strike up conversations and they bombed. But this week 2 moms just suddenly noticed me and have struck up conversations with me. Silas's teacher started talking to me about her personal life one day when I dropped him off. During an exercise class at the Y, another 2 mom's came up to ME and started talking.

Tonight Jody, Ryan and I went out to eat the "Ground Round" with Tyler and Sara. JOdy met Tyler a couple of weeks ago. They hit it off and so they wanted me and Sara to meet. It was great. They are engaged. Pretty big partiers, but we found a lot in common and had a great time. Sara even has a brother much like my sister Joy.

So, this was a great week. God is throwing new relationships and friends in our lives all the time.

Tweezers

If you read Jill's comment to yesterday's post, you see that she reminded me that my stuffed animals and tweezers used to be important to me in college. So funny. Oh man, lol funny. Because...stuffed animals are still import to us. Not me specifically. But to my kids.

Today was Pajama Day at Silas's school. They got to wear pajamas, slippers and bring a stuffed animal or blanket with them. Silas wanted to bring Whiffer, his dog. But Whiffer's mouth has come unstitched. This happened a couple of weeks ago and I haven't gotten around to fixing him. Silas thought we needed to bury Whiffer. BUt I fixed him and he went to Pajama Day today. Both had a great time.

Ryan, our friend, gave Hattie a pink monkey from the Dollar Store, and she has played and played with that monkey. Dollar well spent.

As far as tweezers go, they are still VERY important. My parent's good friend, Chip Mokher, thinks the whole Boitnott family is nuts with the need for tweezers. Apparently when we were younger some big discussion came up about tweezers and its been a joke ever since. But they are important. Not just cosmetically.

For example, just Tuesday, Silas went into the bathr00m to soak these little sponge capsules in warm water so they would come out of the little plastic coating. Next thing I hear is "Oh no, mom. " THen crying.

Of course, the 2 little capsules went down the drain. If the dumb things weren't so important, I would have just not done anything. But, since I have a good pair of long tweezers, I was able to fish the 2 capsules out.

Also, once in Uganda, I lost my tweezers and Jody's dad brought some for me when he visited. I'm telling tweezers are important.

Thanks Jill, for reminding me that I forgot those 2 still important things to my list.

10 Important Things in the Jennings Home

1. "silverware" with animals on the top (buy a pack of them at Big Lots)
2. chocolate milk (or "chalk" milk if you're Hattie)
3. HGTV (no lie, this is Jody's new pass time-- he's preparing for when we buy our first house)
4. nap time
   
5. early bed time
6. books (we have to put a daily limit on how many we will read and when, to the kids, that is)
7. Lulu Life (a thick lotion from Sudan, it great for our super dry skin)
8. naming the dog we don't have yet (silas comes up with some doozies)
9. 24 the TV Show
   
10. making new friends
    

A Different Kind of Cold

Now its not the weather that's cold. In fact, at about 5pm today, it was 39 degrees. Not bad at all. The snow's melting too. I think the consensus here is that it has been a weird winter. I know it has been all over the country.

But I came down with a cold this week. SIlas had one Saturday and Sunday. He was complaining of a headache. I didnt really think much of it until I came down with it. I"m glad I can't give it to you thru the computer because this cold is a beast. Headache, sinus pressure, cough, runny nose...

I'm just praying that Luke, Hattie, and Jody don't get this cold. (pray with me)

Tomorrow we are going to the preschool story time at the library where there is going to be dog and hockey practice.

Mandeliver or deliver

This morning I gave the kids a couple of choices for breakfast. Silas said, "mom, you are supposed to say mandeliver or deliver." I could not follow him at all. I kept repeating what I thought he was saying, but I couldn't understand. And he was getting frustrated.

Finally here's how the conversation went:

Me: Silas, what does this mean, mandeliver?
Silas: Its from Nemo, mom.
Me: Ok. What part?
Silas: I don't know.
Me: Who said it?
Silas: Marlin and Marlin's wife.

(I'm thinking...Marlins wife isn't in the movie long...)
Me: Oh. Did your man deliver or did he deliver? My man delivered.
Silas: Yes, mom. That's it.

Ok. That was just random. I still don't know where that come from with the breakfast. I guess mom delivered a good breakfast.

"Dat Sching"

This is Hattie's new phrase, "Dat Sching". It is used for everything. When she discovered a boo-boo on her knee today (from Tuesday's grocery trip) she said, Oh, look Mama, dat sching.

When she heard an airplane out the window she said, what dat sching? I hear it.

When Luke grabbed a bag from her, she said, he take dat sching.

I love toddler talk. My sister tells me that my nephew, Elijah is expanding his vocabulary suddenly. It does happen suddenly, it seems. Check out my college roomate's blog for what Yucky Thing she found in her daughter's room.

Well, we are off to our first birthday party. Shane, from Silas's class is having his party at a local pizza place and we are all going.

Bad Flashback

I love it when I discover new things where we live. Today we went to the library for preschool story time. It was so great. There was a string quartet there and Silas and Hattie loved it. Of course they loved the dragon and turtle puppets the most...I'm so glad we went. Sometimes I do something and when its over I just wish I'd have stayed home. You know what I mean? But the library was not that.

Hockey was good today. Oh, except for Silas's accident -- on the ICE . He got so excited he wet his pants, with a little puddle on the ice. Oh my gosh. I almost forgot about that. I'm laughing as I type this. He didn't care, but I was pretty embaressed.

Well, when we got home, I went to wash my hands and there was NO WATER. I had major flashbacks to Uganda. How I'd go to the kitchen and no water would come out of the faucet. I have no idea why the water went out. It came back about an hour later. But its not as cold today as it has been. Weird. Terribly memory, though.

"HaWkey" Stars

That's how Silas pronounces hockey, "haWkey". We are having a great time at the free hockey clinic for kids. Hattie will skate for about 5-10 minutes. Yesterday Silas did awesome. Today you could tell he was more tired, but he had swimming lessons at school. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Beautiful Boy

Silas would be offended if he could read. He says boys are not beautiful, only girls are. Boys are handsome.

But Luke is beautiful, isn't he??

My Aunt Melanie makes great handmade quilts for all the new babies. Luke just got his today and it is so great. Its got a big farm in the middle and animals in the surrounding squares. The backing is this cool cow and pumpkins scene (I love orange and pumpkins) with a cow print border. Great job Mel-bel, I just love it.

She also sent a sweatsuit out fit for each kid. Hattie being such the girl, had to wear her "Dori" clothes. But she's not sleeping in them, and that's an accomplishment. She's opinionated.

Tomorrow, more hockey and hopefully pictures.

Butt Cold #2

Thanks to our friend Ryan, I can show you the official Butt Cold temp here.

Honestly though, when its not windy, its not THAT bad. I mean, its cold, but doable. Not when its windy. That is miserable. Even the locals here say its unbearable when its so cold and windy.

Silas's birthday is March 25 and he is already making plans. I think he wants a Pirate theme. Any suggestions??

Chicken and Dumplings

First of all, Butt-Cold #2 is coming. I don't have a pic of the bank's temp thing yet. I'll try to get it tomorrow.

TOnight I made Chicken and Dumplings. This is one of my all time favorite meals. Nana makes the best, no question. My parents say that the first time I was offered chicken and dumplings I was about 2 or so and I pitched a FIT b/c I didn't like the way they looked. I was refusing to taste them. Well, my dad won out, I tasted them, and I'm so glad he made me.

They came out pretty good. Not as good as Nana's, but decent.

Also, Old Navy is having a 50% off their clearance sale. I went today and got several things for our family. MOstly for next year, for the kids. I got some GREAT deals.

Speech improvements

If you know Silas, you know he is unbelievably talkative. He always has been very verbal. But he also has always had some speech problems. Hard consonants like c, g, k, etc just don't come out right. He also has a funny habit of focusing some sounds thru his nose.

So here in North Dakota, there is a great program that helps kids with different disabilities. Silas takes speech therapy once a week. We haven't seen any improvement...until today. The therapist came to me with Silas and was so excited. While using a tongue depressor, he can say the hard K sound. Car, key, candy. It was great.

Also, I gave Silas a haircut. He was in dire need. Its been about 5 months and it was getting pretty long. So I got out my scissors and started cutting. He loves haircuts. He sits real still. His hair is pretty easy to cut too, since its curly.

Hattie also wanted a haircut. She got up on the stool and said, cut hair mine. But after I combed it, she wanted to get down. I'm glad. I'm not ready to cut hers. I don't know how to cut hers, it parts funny. Plus, I want it to get long.

Tomorrow I'm planning on writing an entry entitled Butt Cold #2, since the high today was -2.

Hockey

Jody grew up playing all kinds of little league type sports; baseball, football, basketball. He has great memories of it all. Now he is SO proud that Silas is starting to play hockey. There's a free hockey clinic for kids under 5. We took the kids twice this week. Silas is catching on quickly. Hattie is giving it a good try. They lent us skates. Jody got Silas a helmet and "breezers", which are hockey leg pads.

The cool thing is it takes place Mon, Tues, and Wed 11:45-12:30. So there are lots of Dads there too. We are very excited to have found this. I'll have to take pictures next week and post them.

Tomorrow the high is 7 degrees. Yes, just a plain 7 with no other numbers on either side.

Fresh idea for supper

We had a good day today. Church was good. Its definitely a slow going here, people just don't go to church on Sundays here. But we are believing God to grow Dakota Hills. Jody did a great job. He's started a series on All Things New. I loved the slide show he created to Steven Curtis Chapman's song, All Things New. My kids were SO well behaved today too. Praise the Lord. (the picture is our church parking lot at the good old Best Western this morning)

Anyway.

Our friend Ryan Bell has officially moved up here. We are very excited. He going to be focusing on college ministry in Bismarck. College students make up ten% (remember my one/exclamation point key doesn't work) of NOrth Dakota.

Ryan's dad drove up with him and we've had them over for supper the last couple days.

So tonight we had our own little salad bar. It was great (exclamation point). We had spring mix salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, feta, cheddar, salami, and the crumbs of pita chips for croûtons. I don't know why we don't do this more often. It was delicious. Plus with my little vegetarian kids, its great.

I've got to go to bed...

My Bed

When we came home from Uganda, we didn't really own anything. So there were some things we needed first off...like a bed. Thankfully other things fell in too. My cousin, Kaylin, gave us a couple of chairs, a little armoire, and a vacuum. My parents gave us a round table for the kitchen, a rocking chair, 2 dresser sets, and a big chair. JOdy's parents gave us another rocking chair and a little stool (handmade by Jody's grandad), a crib, and a tv. Oh and this sweet couple here in Bismarck gave us a couch. There's some more stuff here and there too (like toddler beds,

Anyway. Jody and my dad made us a queen size bed. Its SOOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful. We love it. We bought a new mattress to go with it. It barely fits in our small bedroom here in the apt but that makes it all the more noticeable.

I'm attaching a picture to show you how proud I am of our bed.

Good News

I had a great day today. I found some great deals and learned some very interesting things.

While working out at the Y today, I watched Rachael Ray. They have the TV tuned to different radio frequencies. She had this doctor on the show today with some interesting views.
-lemon is essential to your diet, important for the liver. Squeeze half a lemon into a cup of warm water first thing in the morning and drink it down.
-pineapple is almost reverse calories. It cancels out calories when mixed with other caloric foods or fatty foods.
-potatoes are a natural sedative, eat a baked potato before bed
-raw honey, raw choc. powder and cinnamon in a big spoonful is a natural energy booster
-jasmine rice (soaked overnight) will increase milk production for a nursing mom
-salt water is like the cure all for colds and flus. He even said to pour it down you ear for an ear infection. Now my mom always swore by gargling
salt water and squirting it up our noses when we were sick, but never in our ears.

BIG Sales at CVS (toys for 75% off as well as Christmas stuff). Victoria's Secret is in the middle of their huge sale. Amazon is having a HUGGIES sale. $30 off an order of $99. That's 30% off, which is great for diapers. I haven't done that yet either, but I'm thinking about it. I mean, I do use a lot of diaper. KFC has a great little chicken sandwich for 99cents. I liked the buffalo flavor, JOdy liked the bbq.

My cousin, Sara, told my mom about this website that is great, Slick Deals.

It shows LOTS of good deals.

I feel like I had such a productive day (I would put an exclamation point here, but our one/exclamation key isn't working right now for some odd reason)

Honesty

One thing I love about living here as opposed to the southeast is the brutal honesty that exists.

Today I took the kids to the YMCA. On the way out, it was a nightmare. I walked out of the child care with another woman with 3 boys. Somehow an extra little girl got mixed up in our mob. We sent her back in. Silas ran out ahead of me with one of the other ladies' little boys. That little boy's twin brother was trying to help Hattie get a drink from the water fountain. I had Luke, holding the door.

It took us a good 5 minutes + to get to our car. My other friend, Megan was there with her one little boy. She was watching the whole scene. She said, I don't know how you guys do this, with 3 kids.

The other lady said, "I'll be honest, I drink a lot". We all laughed.

That was just funny to me. She wasn't trying to impress anyone.

Another day, this other woman and I were watching Silas's class during swimming lessons. She said, "What the h--- is he doing?" then without missing beat, she turned to me and said, "Now where is the church that your husband is pastoring?"

Its so different from anywhere I've lived in a long time. Even in Uganda people were great pretend Christians. Here no even wants to pretend.

I'm just praying that we will continue to seize opportunities as they arise. That Jody and I would not grow weary of this constant job. Its a great job, being an ambassador for Christ.

Finally some snow!

After it stopped snowing Sat. night, we had accumulated about 10 inches. Church was canceled. The roads couldn't be cleared in time.

But we had fun. Ok, Silas did. Hattie still wouldn't play in the snow. So, after a short attempt, I came in with Hattie and LUke. JOdy and Silas stayed outside for about 2 hours. They sledded a little down the hill at our apt complex and built a great snowman.

Today Silas was invited to a sledding party out of town. He and Jody went and had a great time. Hattie had a great time staying indoors. Ha!

School starts back up tomorrow...already.