Rebel Without a Complaint

 

Dressed and ready to party!



...20 minutes later



We just got back from Silver Creek, NY where we had the joy of celebrating Andy's parents 50th wedding anniversary! We had a ball! It made me realize how few of those celebrations my generation will have. Many people our age are on their 2nd and third marriages. It's kind of sad to think about how disposable marriage has become....wow I'm a real bummer, huh? Anyway, it was so good to see the family and enjoy the festivities together.

 Fall has come and it almost feels like it's about over! How the heck did that happen? The fall foliage has been ripped down and put in the clearance section in all the stores and replaced with Christmas lights, ornaments and synthetic trees...It seems a bit melancholy but oh well, bring on Christmas then!

We were able to do a few fun fall things even though we miss our traditional apple picking and pumpkin patch with the old Idaho gang.



There is nothing like a pile 'o punkins'!



Quinn dug deep to find the one he wanted



We have no complaints about life! Having a two year old is allot of fun. Especially now that he is learning a language that seems somewhat similar to English. Every day he comes up with something I had no idea he even knew!

 Here are a couple of my recent favorites:

When looking out the plane window and noticing how tiny the cars were below: 

"Lookie, we tall tall mountain! Hold On Tight"

When we got off the plane in Denver after leaving NY:

"Oh No! Quinn lost grandma!"

When pretending to be daddy while playing:

 "Quinn go work. Quinn got bible and more stuff. See ya! Back later!"

When I tried to interrupt him to change his stinky diaper:

Back up mommy!  Quinn reading book. Come On!"

When frustrated by a sneeze attack:

"Achoo!... Come On!!!... Achoo!... Come On!!!... Achoo! ...Come On!!!

Quinn was James Dean for Halloween. Not to be confused with the recently departed king of sausage, Jimmy Dean. Although Quinn does enjoy a few crisp slices of bacon on occasion.

 

"Back Up! Get near my candy and I will cut you with my switchblade glow stick. Come On!"



The Winds of Change

Summer is coming to a close. The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping slowly and if you take a moment to notice, you can just barely smell fall in the air. Or maybe that's just wishful smelling. We had a very busy summer including lots of travel, a new job for Andy, an offer on our house and a move to Casper, WY.

The latter two happenings came about in the last three weeks, so I am still spinning a bit. Casper is a 2.5 hour drive north of Cheyenne in a valley the locals lovingly call Paradise Valley...Though I have only lived here less than a week, I have a couple of better names that I will share with you if you would please pardon the "snark". The first that comes to mind is "Wind Valley". I thought Cheyenne was bad. Before we moved to Wyoming, Trudy (of Trudy's Kitchen in Idaho City) asked why we were moving to Wyoming and was I aware that the women in Casper are usually (a) pregnant because there is nothing to do   (b) sporting some huge calves because they are constantly trying to fight the wind just to walk. hmmm. Ok, how about "Could You Please Shut Your Dog Up Valley". I probably don't need to explain that one. Then there is "Teeth Are Optional Valley". That too needs no explanation.

Actually, all snarks aside, Casper is great and we don't really care where God takes us. He always knows what is best for us, so we just go with it. So here's news: I am really trying to work on my complaining nature. Oh yeah, I know you are all laughing right now...well Ha Ha Ha! Mariah shared with me a statistic that the average American complains about 73 times a day.
My first thought was "yeah, that is sooooo true...glad I don't complain that much!"
My second thought:  "...well what IS complaining anyway. Can't you just make factual observations without complaining?".
My third thought: "...boy, why am I getting so defensive with my own thoughts..maybe I really DO need to work on my complaining nature."
My fourth thought: "you are so right, Genesis, you really do complain allot. By the way, why are you talking to yourself?"

One thing I have discovered is that not complaining is easier said than done. All I have to do is get in the car and pull out of the driveway and I am already at 53 complaints. So I have been focusing on the the things I am grateful for and in no way deserve. I have a beautiful son and a husband that loves God more than anything, a great family and fantastic friends, the closing on our house is next week, we have a very well furnished, very affordable apartment thanks to a Christian couple that wanted to house missionaries! We also have a new church in Casper and I already have 2 activities planned with 2 ladies I met this week. But more than anything, I am grateful that I have a loving God and am forgiven...even for complaining.

Before we could move we needed to figure out what to do with our beloved kitty, Salem. He is a sweet lap cat, loves to cuddle, adores Quinn and can catch a mouse in 3.5 seconds. He then smothers them to death by sitting on them...nice. On the other hand, he is 10 years old, will pee on any fabric you leave on the floor and has the worst case of kitty halitosis I have ever smelled, so I didn't have much hope of finding him a new family. Thanks to social networking and living in an area of the country with lots of ranches, Salem has finally gotten a good job! He is now a barn cat companion to a kitty-loving friend. His resume was perfect for the job: over 9 years experience, loves the outdoors and can survive the harshest of winters (he went on a 3 month walk-about in the dead of winter in Idaho City). He has a nice warm barn and a good friend to pet him. I will miss that kitty, and so will Quinn.

So here we sit in Casper: debt free, pet free and ready to get going in this final phase before our mission to Ireland. Andy has settled into his new job and we are continuing our support raising for the mission. Quinn adapts to new situations very easy and is having a good time in his new house. He is also very relaxed due to the fact that he has a jetted tub in his bathroom...seriously.

Awkward Top 10

I have been away from home visiting friends and family for several weeks and have found a new way to entertain myself. I have become addicted to a website called Awkwardfamilyphotos.com. One night I sat in the living room at my moms house laughing so hard I almost peed on my moms couch (which I haven't done for may years, so THAT would be awkward). I decided to compile a list of my favorite awkward family photos. Some of you may find a few of these images a bit familiar.

#10- Awkward Bros
This is what happens when you don't call your friends to tell them what you are wearing and you show up in the EXACT same outfit

#9- Drinking & Driving
bad mommy...bad, bad mommy

#8- The Over Zealous Birthday Party Guest
...Cora takes her parties very seriously

#7- The Licker
Mariah enjoys the taste of babies as well as the smell...it was a good year for both wine and infants

#6- The Gnome
when dad's good fashion intentions go bad

#5- Star Wars Convention
The inevitable light saber up the nose...it happens every year...

#4- Seriously, Mom!!!
I don't know why moms think doing these things to their babies is so funny...but it really IS!

#3- The Motley Crew
Don't be fooled, they always look like this

#2- The Birth Plan
It will be interesting explaining to Quinn that our nephew, Joe, actually gave birth to him...

#1- Border Patrol
We always feel safe at Grampa's house!

Still Kickin' in Cheyenne!

We are still kicking here in Wyoming! We are just over a third of the way funded for our mission to Ireland. Andy has accepted a job working for another pharmaceuticals company to keep us afloat in the meantime. This was not exactly the plan. We intended on relocating back to the other side of the great Mississippi, but you know how it goes...God had other plans. Andy actually tried not to get the job, he even told his boss our future plans to be in the mission field and that he may not be with the company long. No dice...they still wanted him. We are currently still working on selling our house and may have to move at some point to Casper WY for a short time. So this brings up an interesting point. Why is it that every place I swear I will never live, I end up living. When we lived in NY, I told Andy I will never live in Boise, ID and within 3 years we were there. On the way to Boise having never been west of Illinois, I said "at least we aren't moving to Cheyenne, WY", 10 years later here I sit in Cheyenne. I have been calling Casper "the armpit of Wyoming", and now...we may be moving there. Now I am about to have a panic attack because last year I was going on and on about never wanting to move to China. EGAD! Maybe I should start saying I never want to move back to Indiana, and we will magically end up there instead, but I am guessing reverse psychology doesn't work on God.

Tonight Andy and I went on a date and we got a new babysitter for Quinn for a couple hours. Emily is a great gal from the neighborhood that offered to sit to make a few extra dollars for the summer. She is an adorable 16year old that is very sweet and very responsible. What I need to mention about Emily is that she is about 6ft tall, blonde, cute as a button and works as a model in Denver. When she showed up at the door, Quinn was smitten. I think he actually pushed me out of the way to get to her. A transformation came over his face, his dimples became dimplier, his eyes had star shaped twinkles, and I thought I saw him trying to slick back his hair a bit and squeegee his eyebrows with his thumb and forefinger. Needless to say, he didn't even notice we left. When we got back Emily told us that he insisted that she put him in his jammies...come on, really?? When she left, Quinn ran to the door to open it for her, never taking his eyes off of her until she got home (she lives across the street) the entire time calling "Bye Ellie, bye Ellie" over and over. Sheesh.... Some of you out there have experienced Quinn's flirting first hand, it is something to see. You have seen the eye twinkle and the dimples he whips out like a switchblade so you know what I am talking about

So if you would, please take a moment to pray for Quinn and his parents that we will be well equipped for that magical time in his future called puberty. I can't talk about this anymore, I think I am going to be sick. I will leave you with this picture of "lady killer", please use it for inspiration as you pray for us.

Information Overload..in a good way!

WOW!

Just got back from missions training in Wheaton, IL. It was a ton of info to process but this agency is fantastic. We began each day with a devotional time and prayer for a different area of the world's spiritual needs. TEAM is dedicated to education and life long learning so they kept most of our sessions interesting. We learned so much, I can't even articulate how full my head is. Some of our sessions were cross-cultural studies which Mariah would have loved! One of the concepts that struck me was how Americans seem to naturally assume that other cultures value the same things we do, not so! So interesting.

One of the concepts I loved was the idea to have a "Day of Prayer and Vision" to focus you spiritually in a very specific area. This is an entire day set aside just for you and God. You get away to a hotel or cabin or place to hike away from TV, media, kids, spouses and spend the day in prayer, reflection, meditation, journaling etc., with the goal of just listening to God. Afterward you come up with a plan to work on something specific spiritually or in your personal life. The goal actually has to be achievable...go figure. What a refreshing concept, need it, love it! It makes me feel good that we wont be sent out to flail around. We will have lots of support and accountability from TEAM, our close friends and our sending church.

Quinn did surprisingly well on this long trip. He adapted well to the time change. Most of the other families we were in training with had kids. Quinn preferred to observe the activity, but he enjoyed the kids. He wasn't even the one taking off his clothes and streaking through the room! I am sure that little guy was just preparing to be a missionary in the bush! Too cute! It was a fun group to train with. There were missionaries being sent to India, Chad, Italy, Austria, Taiwan. Philippines and Ireland. Erin Go Bragh!

Now we continue support raising, sell our house and figure out where to live before we go to Ireland. We have several books to read, classes to take, and some spiritual areas to focus on. When we get closer to our financial fund raising goal, we will have another training session. What a wild ride this is! Keep praying for us!

Happy Birthday Quinn!

I can't believe our baby is 2! He is not so sure about the whole birthday thing as you can see from the video, but he does enjoy people...especially kissing people. He tries to kiss everybody, friends, family, the checker at the grocery store, the staff at the hotel...we will have to have the "stranger" talk soon. Surprisingly, with all that kissing, he has not been sick since last Easter... but now that I mentioned it in writing, he is sure to be sick any day now.

For his birthday, we went to visit friends in Homedale, Idaho. Melyssa baked him a cake (which he didn't eat), and Mike made really good ribs (which we all got a taste of after Cora got to them!), and Quinn sucked ketchup off of a hotdog (which he didn't eat) so we all had a great time. I wish we could have stayed a bit longer and visited friends we didn't have a chance to see. The whole drive home Quinn talked about his "RiRi, Ikey, Mawk, and sissy" (that would be Mariah, Isaac, Mark and Sadie to the rest of us). OK, I am not going to get too excited about this.

Quinn wanted to pee pee on the potty so I sat him up there. He seemed comfortable with it, and he may have let a couple of drops go. I remain unconvinced he is ready to tackle this epic adventure but I think he is beginning to understand what the potty is for. I will continue to introduce the idea and see.

Here is a question for you: Why don't moms tell you that the day your child turns 2, the "terrible 2s" begin. Well, it's on like Donkey Kong! Sometimes I think he has lost his mind! He threw his first on the floor, rolling around screaming tantrum...AT CHURCH! Why can't these things happen in the privacy of our own home, why there in front of God, the Holy Trinity and the whole church!?! It wasn't even our church, we were visiting in Middleton, ID! I bet they are all breathing a sigh of relief and are praising the Lord we live in Wyoming with our demon possessed spawn! As soon as we scooped him off the floor and got him strapped in his car seat, he was cooing, and saying "hi, mommy, hi daddy". What is up with that! Is this some sort of sick "first time mommy" rite of passage that your friends and family don't tell you these things? I know you are all laughing at me...you MOMS!