Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Truly Wordless Wednesday: My Hero

Wordless Wednesday-Scars

Before I start this entry, I want you all to know that I asked, and received, permission from Gabriel to take and post this picture. At six, he is old enough to decide if something like this can be shared. He decided it was ok, so here's my not so wordless Wednesday post on scars

Last night before his shower, Gabriel was standing looking in the mirror at his body. He loves to stand at the mirror, make silly faces, and generally goof around with the good looking kid in the mirror. He currently has two wiggly teeth, so he's been looking in the mirror more than usual. We were getting ready for a shower when he asked me if I would help him look at the "spot on his back" The spot on his back, of course, is the scar from his back closure. He's seen it before and has always been oddly fascinated by it. It doesn't bother him to see it, he's curious about it. We've always tried to answer questions about his surgery when he asks and try to reassure him that it's not that big of a deal to have the scar since just about everyone has some sort of scar. (for example, Geo has one right down the center of his forehead a la Harry Potter, no big whoop, we all have scars)

As he turned around in the mirror to get a closer look at his back, his lower lip started to tremble. He looked at the scar and threw his arms around me trying not to cry. I moved the mirror so he couldn't see himself anymore and held him tight telling him it was alright and that as he got bigger, his scar would get smaller and he wouldn't even notice it after a while. He told me that he hates having a scar because no one else has a scar like his...but little does he know that his scar is my scar too, that even though you can't see mine like you can see his, I can feel it each and every day. My scar isn't on my lower back though, it's on my heart and nights like last night make it ache like crazy. I hope someday Gabe's scar won't cause either of us pain, but until then, I guess we'll just hold on tight to one another and deal with it the best we know how.

For those who've never seen Gabriel's scar, my picture may make you cringe. Hell for those who HAVE seen Gabe's back, this picture might still make you cringe. It makes me cringe when I see it and I see it on a regular basis. Again, I have Gabriel's permission to post this picture as I see fit...and this is how I see fit. Maybe in showing our scar, it'll lessen the pain associated with it.

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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Marriage...

In one short month, Geo and I will have been married for nine years. Nine roller coaster riding years. We've had for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health and have come out on top. Yes, we've had tough times; tougher than I'd ever wish on anyone, specifically when it comes to Gabriel and his exceptional needs, but we pulled together, as we always do, and have fought every single one of his battles together as we promised each other in front of God, friends, and family all those years ago.

One of my favorite songs is "Better Together" by Jack Johnson, a few years ago at a gorgeous wedding Geo and I went to, the bride and groom chose the song as their "theme" and it played during their wedding. My favorite lyric is:

"Yeah, so much better when we're together
Mmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's so much better when we're together
Yeah, so much better when we're together"


Geo and I truly do think things are better when we are together. We are a team, always have been, always will be, which is why it annoys me so much when people try to shove their way into our marriage and try to cause problems. Geo and I consult one another on 99.9% of our decisions ESPECIALLY ones that affect our family. Very rarely does one of us make a decision without consulting the other about what we're planning to do. Why bother being married if you aren't going to take advantage of the fact that the one person who has YOUR best interests at heart is right there; right there to help you with decisions?

My priorities are as such: Gabriel and SarahAnne, Geo, myself. If you were to ask Geo what HIS priorities are he'd say: Gabriel and SarahAnne, Chrissi, myself. Work, home, family, etc are below that. Some people don't like that Geo and I put each other above all others, including our own parents. It's interesting that when one is married in the church, as a general rule the verse "a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" is read.

I've always interpreted that verse as when you get married, your spouse becomes your number one priority and you become theirs. I think that a lot of young couples who go off and get married forget that while, yes, their parents are important, their spouse is their number one priority. Looking out for your partners well being and best interests now comes above ANY one else's well being or best interests. Some would even say (and while I don't agree with this sentiment, I don't really disagree with it either) that your spouse should come before your children as well-again, while I don't agree wholeheartedly, I don't necessarily disagree with this statement either.

I think it's hard when you're first starting out in a marriage to really make your spouse the top priority in your life; you've always had your parents and family and as a general rule, I think people have a hard time not caring for their families more than other people...but at some point you have to grow and mature and realize that your partner is now your family.

I wish more people realized that being happy and content in your marriage, that working toward common goals for your family, for trying to be the best partner you can be HAVE to be the priorities in a successful marriage. There is no way to "serve two Gods" so to speak; you can't try to make your partner's life the best it can be when you are trying to make your parents or siblings (or friends or work or whathaveyou) the best they can be. You cannot put others needs above your partners and expect that your marriage is going to be strong.

That being said, the kids are our priorities, we are one anothers priorities, and the rest, as they say, is in the details. I make no apologies and I offer no explanations (except the above lol) for why Geo and I make the decisions we make and why we back one another up when a decision is made. After all, isn't everything better when you're together?

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Picture Post

A bunch of pictures for your enjoyment...the kiddos, the flowers and our new friend, Mr. Toad!

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Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday Five-breakfast edition

1. Oh my goodness! You have to run out the door right now and you haven’t eaten! Before dashing out, what do you grab to wolf down on your way? Toast

2. What’s a popular breakfast you dislike?
Cereal

3. You’re going out for breakfast anywhere you want, and someone else is treating! Where do you go and what do you order?
The little breakfast joint a town over called Sam's. Denver omelet, well done hash browns, and wheat toast.

4. What do you have when you need a simple, healthy (or healthy-ish, for those of you who just don’t do healthy!) breakfast?
Oatmeal or fruit

5. You’ve been invited to a breakfast potluck. What are you most likely to bring?
Banana bread

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Thankful Thursday-Breezy Day

I am so thankful for warm breezy days like today, especially after days and days of rain like we've had this past week! Today is definitely a laundry day-it's so breezy that a load of laundry is dry by the time the washer is done washing the next load. I'm thankful that I'll be able to have all the laundry done by this evening and not have to worry about it for a while-especially since it's supposed to rain again all weekend!

What are YOU thankful for today?

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy Birthday

Happy "Urlacher" birthday Grandpa John! Hope you have a great day!!

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Summer has *officially* begun! Yay! Our garden is in full swing, the days are getting longer, and we've brought out the sprinkler more than once already.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying the garden. They check it three times a day, usually, though sometimes it's more than that. More than once we've gone out to "check" on it and end up sitting next to it for a half an hour or so, talking, laughing, and just enjoying the nice weather. Gabe has been watching a particular bean stalk in the garden to see if it's going to grow taller than him...and it has. Yesterday when we went out to check the garden before going to the butterfly garden, the bean stalk was just a hair taller than Gabe, this morning it's over the edge of the fence and definitely taller than him :P

It's been SO warm that the fireflies are out like gangbusters this year. It's so much fun to sit and look out the window at dusk and see the green lights all over our yard and in the fields. It's already been warmer this summer than it was all summer last year and you can definitely tell just by the sheer amount of fireflies in the yard. Our Godson Christian had a ball trying to (and actually succeeding) catch one in a bottle. Such simple pleasures for little ones :)

The crops around us are HUGE. The old saying [corn should be]"Knee high by the 4th of July" has been completely blown out of the water. The corn was knee high by JUNE 4th this year. It helps that we had such a warm spring (warmest in 30 some odd years actually!) and the farmers were able to plant so much earlier than normal. Hopefully the weather will continue to be conducive to good growing-the farmers could use it after last years' rainy harvest screwed things up so badly. I heard one farmer say it was going to be FEBRUARY before his corn was ready to be sold :( Hopefully it won't be like that this year!

We're getting ready for some excitement around here...the Michiwits are moving in! The second weekend in July we are going to Michigan to see Aunt Buzzy and to help them load their moving truck up so they can come down! In the meantime, I should probably get my butt in gear getting the spare bedroom ready for people to be in there more than one or two nights! The closet is a mess. It's become a catch-all for everything that doesn't really have a spot. I foresee a yard sale in our very near future :P

Hope you're all having a lovely summer thus far!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Butterfly Garden

Today the kiddos and I went to our local butterfly garden to check out what butterflies there were flying around. We had so much fun-Gabe didn't want to leave!




Sunday, June 20, 2010

Pop-a-palooza part Six

My final pop-a-palooza post is dedicated to my Pop :)




I could go on and on about how cool my dad is, how loving he is, how seeing him as a grandfather melts my heart; but I won't. Instead I'll say this: I'm a lucky girl to have Pop for my "pop" and I'm so glad the kids are getting a chance to know him. I love you and miss you Pop, see you in August for the Cheeseburger Festival xoxo

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, hope you had a great day :)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Pop-a-palooza Part Five

Part five of pop-a-palooza is dedicated to my second favorite dad in the whole wide world; Geo.

Geo is an excellent father and a perfect compliment to me when it comes to parenting. He's rock solid, calm, playful, gentle, and pretty much just amazing. If I would have been able to handpick the man who would be the father of my children I'd pick him over anyone else.

The other day the kids were outside underneath "their" tree (it's the smallest on the property; big enough that it's shady for them if they sit under it but small enough that they can get a ball out of it if it's stuck in the branches) Geo came up behind me to look at what they were doing and he said "I've always wanted a tree for my kids to sit under on a sunny day-I love that they are enjoying doing it" He takes pleasure in the simple things and has passed that to our children.

I love you Geo, Happy Father's Day :) ♥♥

Friday, June 18, 2010

Friday Five-Pop-a-palooza part 4

Today's Friday Five is also a Pop-a-palooza post!

Grandpa Jeff is a pretty cool guy; in no particular our favorite five things about Grandpa Jeff:

1. Grandpa Jeff likes to play video games with the kids...Gabe especially loves this and watching the two of them play together is always fun.

2. Grandpa Jeff LOVES Bitsy in pig tails; so much so that Bits INSISTS that she MUST wear pig tails anytime we go to Grandpa's house.

3. Grandpa Jeff has lots of fun stories to tell about being a kid; some of the adventures he's been in are almost so silly you don't know whether he's teasing or not.

4. Grandpa Jeff is an excellent bowler and has taught Geo many many things about bowling.

and finally, our fifth favorite thing about Grandpa Jeff is that he's ours :) We're lucky to call him grandpa; the kids adore him and Geo and I think he's pretty alright too :)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: 300th Post Edition

Welcome to our 300th post! Woohoo! Now for 300 pictures!! Just kidding...

A few random photos from the last few days, mostly of the garden :) (and not wordless...oops)

It's been raining A LOT around here lately, yesterday we were rewarded with this:

summer

Delicious chives:

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Potatoes to go with the chives:

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Beans climbing like nobody's business!

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Our first pumpkin flower!!

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Taking a hike at our favorite forest preserve last night

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Pop-a-palooza Part Three

(Bet you thought I forgot about Pop-a-palooza, didn't you??)

Today's post is in honor of uncles...the kiddos have a great group of guys in their lives that we're so happy to call uncle. My brother Dave, is "funcle" the fun uncle. He always has a dollar to slip them and then a convenient trip to the store to buy candy. Geo's brother JD is the goofy uncle; always saying silly things like "hey nobody likes a whiner" and then laughing louder than anyone else about it. Recently he earned the title "Hawks" uncle when he and Gabe watched a Hawks game together and danced around cheering for the Hawks...then Gabe and Bits have Uncle Levi, who plays a mean game of Candy Land, Uncle Stephen who loves the Florida Gators and tries to convert the kids when he sees them, Uncle Trav who lives in Michigan and knows all the words to the Veggie Tales songs the kids love and Uncle Dole who likes to wrestle, eat cars, and enjoys going to the zoo as much as the kiddos do.

We're very lucky to have so many great role models in our family for the kids to look up to :) Happy Father's Day uncles!!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Weekend Recap

*whew* What a busy weekend; good but busy. As nice as it is to have house guests, it's nice to have one day to ourselves to catch up on all the housework and get ready for another busy week that's to come. Geo is off today but then works all the way through until the 22nd :( He has two overnight shifts coming up which will be fun for all of us (or not)

We had a blast with our friends the Bohannon's (see the pics I posted yesterday) The boys (our godsons) have grown so much since we last saw them. I can't believe they've grown SO much in the last three years. It's funny how your own children grow so much and it's no big deal but when other people's children grow that much it seems shocking. They're both such sweeties and I loved hearing their little southern accents (they now live in Georgia, my little Georgia peaches :P)

Yesterday we had a *bit* of excitement. An awful storm kicked up and created a bit of a mess (ha ha, a BIT would be an understatement I think) The wind kicked up so strongly that our glass topped patio table flipped and shattered into about a million pieces and a large tree branch broke off. We were all so thankful that the wind was blowing out of the west, otherwise we would have had a MUCH bigger mess on our hands since our cars were parked under the tree. What a mess. Luckily Geo and Brian were able to get it all cleaned up fairly quickly thanks to a tow chain and a saw. We were able to end the night with a nice barbecue and relaxing.

Now we're getting ready for the next few weeks-thankfully I'm not working anymore so I'll have plenty of time to devote to getting the house ready for our house guests coming in July to stay for a while. The kiddos are very excited that Uncle JD, Aunt Katie, and Aubrey are going to be staying with us for a while and Geo and I are glad they'll be in Illinois for "good" in just a few weeks. It'll be nice to have some more family down here :) Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Fun Weekend

We've had a wonderful weekend with our friends the Bohannon's :) Amanda is one of my oldest friends and is Gabe's Godmother. We've had fun catching up and meeting her new hubby (whom we all adore)

All the kiddos (for now anyway...)
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Miss Emma to be
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Bitsy and her new "best"
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Me and my "best"
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for a reprieve from the rain we've had the last few days (and will have in the NEXT few days) It's been nice to be able to hang out the laundry rather than use the dryer. It's been nice to send the kids out to play in the sunshine rather than having to hang out in the house. The fresh air coming into the house has been wonderful and the slight breeze we have this morning is making it so comfy in the house.

I'm also thankful for Maple Park's new police chief, Chief Mike. He's a genuinely nice guy who shares my love of popcorn (ha ha) and has been making an effort to get to know the members of the community-especially the YOUNGER members of the community-Gabe and Bits think he's awesome.

Finally, on a sillier note, I'm thankful that Ms. Sarah McLachlan, after SIX very long years, has come out with a new cd...it's beautiful and is fast becoming a favorite around here.

Have a lovely Thursday everyone :)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Go Hawks




Game six...could be the cup for the Hawks...Go team Go!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Filling the Bird Feeder

Our flying pigs empty our bird feeder as quickly as we can fill it!

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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Peas Day 35


After a month of tending to our peas, we've been rewarded with a few blossoms!

Rough Life

Poor Boni cat; he has the roughest life imaginable: He actually had to meow at one of us to fill his bowl today AND Gabe's slept over at a friend's house last night so he had to sleep by HIMSELF in Gabe's bed. Poor kitty. Thank goodness for a sunny spot to lay in...
boni cat

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boni cat

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Lazy Saturday

It is a lazy Saturday here at the Wit house; we all slept in (till 8:45!! That IS sleeping in at our house ha ha) then had pancakes for breakfast. It's been raining on and off all day-good for the garden not so good for the kiddos. It's hard being cooped up in the house all day-especially after spending two days running around like crazy and not being able to play much in those two days.

Since it's too wet to play outside or dig weeds out of the garden (oh darn) we've been stuck doing all the laundry. Today marks the first day in over two weeks that I've used my dryer; kind of disappointing to be honest with you, we've been trying to use it as sparingly as possible. On the plus side though, all those loads of laundry will be done in five or six hours total, as opposed to drying it on the line and taking two or three days to do so. We have three clotheslines but it's not quite enough. I plan on putting up one more and then I'll be able to hang two loads at once. (Oh it's the simple things, for sure)

After running errands yesterday, we were able to go and walk at the Japanese Tea Garden in a neighboring town; it's gorgeous there with lots of walking and hiking to do. It's right on the Fox River so it was nice and cool there yesterday. The kids always have fun going there as do Geo and I-it's something different, that's for sure. Of course, I did NOT have my camera, but I will next time.

We're getting ready for a fun week-one of my oldest friends, Gabriel's Godmother and the momma of my Godchildren, Cameron and Christian, Amanda is coming up to visit with her hubby and my Godchildren! YAY! We're so excited, we haven't seen Amanda and the boys in over three years-and we've never met her husband Brian, though from what I hear he's just wonderful. We're so looking forward to a long weekend with them and you can bet there will be many pictures to come in the next week or so.

Hope your all enjoying your Saturday...not working too hard :)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday Five-Random Questions

1. What would you do if a random stranger gave you a bouquet of roses?
Smile and say thank you!

2. What is the most commonly used color in your house?
Blue

3. What color is your favorite t-shirt?
White

4. If you could go back in time, what time would you live in and where would you live?
I'd go back to the 1800's and live on the plains a la Laura Ingalls Wilder

5. If you could have any ONE thing in the entire world (not including money) what would it be?
For my family to live closer (both MY parents and siblings and Geo's grandparents as well)

You win this round Fudgesicle

Fudgesicle 1, Bitsy 0

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Happy Anniversary

Happy anniversary to my Geo's parents, Dad and Caren! Here's to many more happy years to come!! Love you both!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Spring in the Midwest

Even though it feels like summer, it's still technically spring...and spring means rain and lots of it. We had a humdinger last night and we've got one moving in right now...
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

More Pumpkins-Just Kidding ;)

Unless you count Bitsy as a little pumpkin...

We have an itty bitty rose bush; Bitsy sized you might say, in our yard. Last night on our last tour of the garden and flower bed for the night, Bitsy gave me puppy dog eyes and convinced me to let her have a rose for her "hand" I admit that I am a total sucker for her puppy dog eyes, especially when she's in Tinkerbell undies and a little white camisole ready for bed *sigh* *shake head* I am a pushover LOL My story is that I only gave her the rose so I could take some pics...that's my story and I am STICKING to it :D





Last Day of School

First day of school...


Last day of school...




What a difference a school year makes-he started out worried about making friends and not knowing anyone...and today boarded the bus looking forward to seeing all the friends he's made and saying good bye to kindergarten; he's looking forward to summer vacation and first grade...the year went so quickly...

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