a big appetite

It all started when I saw this large, delicious looking loaf of bread at HyVee for $1. I thought, "I want to buy that, it's so cheap!" It was HUGE! I showed Sean and said, "maybe I could make a giant sub out of that." He LOVES subs and thought it was a great idea.

Well, I made it today for lunch. I toasted the HUGE loaf of bread, made 2 chicken breasts and put all the fixins on it. After it was all complete, I realized just how huge it was. WAY too big for us to eat for lunch!

Or so I thought...

Yes, this was only HALF of the huge sub...

Even Tate wanted to hold it for a picture...it was ginormous!

I thought there was a chance that Sean and I would be able to eat that half on the plate. I was wrong. Sean ALONE ate the entire half...

No joke. It's just sick and wrong that he can eat like this. Sadly, this wasn't a strange meal that he had an oddly large appetite. No, he has a hollow leg. He can eat like almost no one else I've ever seen. I just couldn't believe that he ate the whole thing, I still can't believe it. I was stuffed beyond belief and I ate only half of the half. It WAS delicious though! :)

Bathtime Fun

This is about the only time I can get a smile out of Tate for pictures...

scrub a dub...

this just cracks me up...

oh how I wish he smiled for pictures more than just when he is in the bath...

he's very into his "muscles" these days...

he's ripped...

Tate and Ayla

I just thought Ayla looked so cute in this picture.

She is too funny...and tiny!
This was when we were in Muscatine last weekend.

Please don't forget to pray...

My Dad is leaving later today for Haiti. It will be a difficult trip for him in many ways. It is much work and little sleep. I am sure it will be emotionally difficult to witness such devastation. He will do great I know, but please remember to pray for him. I will post updates over these next 2 weeks as I get them.

a trip to Haiti and Africa

Just found out a couple of hours ago that my Dad is leaving for Haiti on Friday. They called him today and asked if he could leave tomorrow. That was a little short notice, but he managed to get things worked out to leave on Friday. I haven't talked to him yet, just my sister. These are the words from her blog about his trip...

Dad is heading to Haiti on Friday with Mercy Ships. He has had his paperwork in for weeks and has just been waiting for a call from them. They called this afternoon and asked if he could come tomorrow. They are in great need of an anesthesia person immediately. Like they said...tomorrow. After much scrambling, he is on a flight out on Friday. He is flying into Port au Prince and will be working in a MASH tent in the city. They informed him that he would not have access to monitors or anesthesia machines. He will be using techniques from the dark ages. And I'm pretty sure he can't wait to get there and get busy. He'll be staying until March 10. They also told him to bring a cot. The rainy season is approaching and a sleeping bag would not be sufficient. He'll be bringing his own medical supplies as well.

And Cassie heads to Sierra Leon, Africa on Monday. My Dad and sister will both be in very far away places helping some amazing people in very different ways at the exact same time. I am proud to call them my dad and sister.

Please pray for safe travels for both of them as well as safety on their trips. Pray that all of the people they come in contact with will witness God's love through them.

A rough evening...

Tate is struggling with this new situation we are living in. He misses Sean terribly and verbalizes it to me all the time. He is confused and doesn't understand. He just wants things to be how he's used to them being. He had a severe meltdown at daycare when I picked him up yesterday and it just made me sick. He was a mess...sobbing so hard that he was gagging like he was going to throw up. It went on for a very long time. He cries at bedtime saying, "I just want to give Daddy and hug and kiss too!" It breaks my heart. Ugh. So we could use prayer. Prayer that he starts to adjust to this temporary situation and prayer that I can stay strong because all I want to do is cry right along with him and be able to snuggle up to Sean each evening and chat with him and be together! This is hard.

a productive weekend

Our weekend was fun filled and productive. It started when the weather got bad towards the end of my work day on Friday. I decided to head out around ten 'til 4 to "get ahead" of the weather. Ummmm...ya. That didn't happen...it was too late. I ended up being right in the thick of it. I left directly from work at 3:50pm to go get Tate at daycare not far from my office and headed directly out of town from there. I rolled into Muscatine 4 hours and 10 minutes later at 8:00pm. It was a rough drive. I was stressed. Tate had taken a 2 hour nap at work and then slept for 3 hours of the drive. That's 5 hours worth of naps for a child who doesn't nap at all! Needless to say, he WAS NOT tired enough to go to sleep for the night for a very long time. It's too embarrassing to admit what time he finally went to sleep for the night...so I won't. It was LATE. Ugh.

Then on Saturday, Sean, Tate and I headed to Davenport to spend some time with the DeCooks and look at some places to try and find a place to rent. We drove around the neighborhood we were hoping to find a place in and called to speak with some of the property owners and discovered that we may have to make some sacrifices because it just didn't appear we would find a place that we wanted in the neighborhood we wanted for the price we wanted. We decided to look around at some other neighborhoods after we left the DeCooks' house. We drove and drove and drove and called several places to look at and just did our research. We were starting to get worried that we weren't going to find something in the price range we wanted. I closed my head and said a prayer and moments later we saw a "For Rent" sign in a cute little neighborhood. I called the phone number and spoke with the landlord who just happened to be in the property cleaning and doing some work. She said we were welcome to come take a look right then. We did. We loved it! It's a bit smaller than we were hoping we would end up with, but nothing too small that we can't live with. It's not the neighborhood we were hoping for either, but it's in a really cute neighborhood that we like and in a good school district as well as we REALLY liked the landlords. We chatted with them for almost an hour and half and really felt good about the place. As a HUGE bonus, we LOVED the price! :) We told them we would call them on Sunday after we sleep on it, but we both knew that this place was "it". :) I called on Sunday morning and told them we wanted it. She told me that the property had been for rent for only a few hours and she had just put the sign in the yard just before we drove by and saw it. I feel it was absolutely meant to be! We are signing the lease on March 20th!

So the last major item on our "Moving List" is checked off! Woohoo! That takes a huge weight off of us! Today has been a great day! I got to do a little shopping with my mom and just hang out. The drive home was nice...no bad weather, Tate napped, I just say there and thought about our new place and how I am going to decorate it! :)

Tonight has been rough. Tate really misses Sean. He cried for him tonight and is very upset not having him around. He's confused and doesn't understand what's going on. I feel terrible. These next few weeks cannot go by fast enough! I miss Sean, Tate misses him terribly and I just want this all to be over and for us to be moved into our new place and TOGETHER again! Please pray that Tate starts to adjust to this strange temporary situation we are currently living.

He did great!

Tate had a fantastic day at daycare today! He loved it and was very excited to tell me all about his day when I picked him up. He said he was excited to go back and play tomorrow. Yay! It feels good to know that Tate is happy and having fun while I'm at work! Diane (his daycare provider) said that he was wonderful and that he shared really well and played with the other kids really well too. I wasn't worried that he wouldn't have fun and like Diane, she's so nice and great with the kids! So glad it went well!

I'm a night person.

So this new schedule over the next several weeks is going to be brutal. I know it.
It's 7:40pm and Tate is already in bed (unheard of!) and I am getting things picked up around the house and plan to be in bed by 9:00. It is quiet in the house...well except for the sound of Tate whining through the monitor. I have to get up about 45 minutes earlier than I'm used to so that I have time to get myself ready and Tate woken up and ready for the day so we can leave around 7:00 am so that I can get him to daycare at a decent enough time to get to work by 8:00am. This will be the first day of Tate going to this daycare. I am not worried about him, but I'm worried about me dealing with having to wake him up that early and him being a complete bear! Keep in mind, he usually sleeps until about 9:00am! It's been so long since I've had to get him up for daycare that I have no idea how he'll be.

My mornings were always so nice and laid back. Sean and Tate were never awake and I didn't have to worry about anything aside from getting myself ready and out the door. At least this will only be for a maximum of 3 days a week (and only for 6 weeks). I know it's not going to be a big deal once we get into a routine, but I'm a night person and I don't know how I'm going to do at this going to bed early stuff. I struggle getting to bed by 11:00pm most nights!

Wish us luck!

back and gone again...

Sean and Tate got home last night in time for a late supper. It was so great to have them home! I missed them so much while they were gone over the last 2 days. Tate seemed to grow and mature a lot while he was at Cassie's house. He loved hanging out with the big kids and learned some new things! Thank you Cassie and Paul for helping us out this week! Tate always comes home a more well behaved, smarter kid after being with the Burbacks for a day or two! :)

Unfortunately, Sean is leaving to head back tonight to go to work Thursday and Friday. Then, he will be arriving back home around 11pm on Friday and turning back around to leave again on Sunday so he can work Monday-Wednesday. These next 6 weeks are going to be hard! I hate it when he's gone and is on the roads so much. I am a worrier as it is, but having him driving across the state with the possibility of bad road conditions is just making it worse! I just want all of this in between stuff to be over and for us to be settled. Soon enough we will be. Hopefully the next several weeks will fly by!

In the mean time, Sean will be back and forth. In good news, Sean is really enjoying the people he works with and the facility. He hasn't been there but a couple weeks now, but says he is super excited about it and feels he's going to love it! Yay!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

40 years ago today, my parents were married!
Wow...40 years!
They were 17 years old.
They beat the odds.
And they still dance together...even when no one else is on the dance floor...

Thank you, Mom and Dad for being such an amazing example of what a marriage should be!

We love you!

Our Valentine's Day Celebration

We did our Valentine's Day celebration early.
Sean and Tate are leaving for a couple of days tomorrow evening so we had to do our special night tonight instead of tomorrow.
I made Artichoke Chicken (one of our favorites) and broccoli and for dessert...
Pinot Noir and Molten Chocolate Lava Cake...

It wasn't as pretty as the box, but tasted DELICIOUS!
I garnished with bananas.
MMMMM...Molten Chocolate Lava Cake and bananas...

Even Tate got some. He was super excited...

And then we finished our bottle of wine while snuggling with Tate on the couch, watching Handy Manny...

It was such a great evening and I wouldn't have rather been doing anything else!
I have the 2 best Valentines I could ever want!
I love my boys!

Making Valentines

He took this task very seriously!

I love how he sticks his tongue out whenever he concentrates.

my joy...

I got to spend all day with Tate on Wednesday while Sean was in Clinton getting paperwork done before he starts work this week. Tate was still not feeling great, but he was so much fun! He LOVES his guitar and loves to act like a rock star. It's so darn cute! We spent the day playing, making Valentines, dancing, watching a movie and just spending the day having so much fun!

He is my joy.
I love him so much!

Just hangin' out...

That's what we're doing this weekend. No big plans, just spending time together. I really wish we had plans to go eat sushi somewhere. I have been craving sushi!!! Sushi bars are not the most kid friendly places so dinner at home will have to suffice. :)

That's all I've got right now...not much exciting going on to post about!

He's still sick...

Tate still had a fever when he woke up this morning. Sean had to head to Clinton today to do some paperwork and get some things done before he officially starts working next week. That means that I am home with Tate today. I couldn't send him anywhere for someone to watch him when he's feeling sick. I will say that we FINALLY had a great night last night! Tate never made a peep all night and Sean and I slept great! It was such a relief and so necessary after 2 terrible nights of very little sleep.

Tate will get little bursts of energy and play and then it's like it takes it all out of him and he lays down and watches a show or will play with one of his "guys" on the couch as he lays there. His cough it definitely productive now and he's hacking up a lot of gunk! His nose is like a faucet and I would love for him to be fever free for a change!

Considering how sick he is...he's got a really good attitude and hasn't lost his sense of humor! :)

I love this little man...

Doctor Confirmed...

Tate's sick.

Croup and an ear infection.
Congestion in his chest and sinuses.
Fever.
Sick.We now have an antibiotic, cough medicine with codine and are alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofin for his fever. We are praying for a better night tonight for Tate AND us! More importantly, we are praying Tate gets better and this doesn't turn into pneumonia.

a terrible night!

Tate (and mommy and daddy) had a TERRIBLE night last night. It was just, plain awful. I felt so bad for Tate! He was hacking and wheezing all night long...he hardly slept...neither did Sean or I. We ended up putting him in bed with us and I don't know if that was a good idea or not. It made it easy to tend to him, but he didn't sleep at all and just cried all night. He would cough and act like he couldn't breath and honestly, it sounded like he could barely breath. After his cough attack, he would just drool all over and cry and cry and cry. It broke my heart. He slept about 3 hours total by sleeping about 6 half hour stretches. I think Sean and I slept less.

In addition to the coughing, it was almost like he was delusional because of his lack of sleep. He was scared to death several times in the night. One of the times he was saying, "daddy's eyes are scary!" and crying.

It was the most terrible night I can remember having since he had his tonsils out and developed pneumonia last January.

Needless to say, we have an appointment scheduled for him to see the doctor!

In other, more important news...

My dad is going to Haiti.
He is going to help with surgical procedures on the Mercy Ship.
It has not been firmed up which day he is leaving, but it will be sometime in the next few weeks.
As soon as I know more details, I will let you all know.

My sister is leaving for Sierra Leone, Africa in a couple of weeks.
She will be going with a small group of women here...

This is Kroo Bay, Sierra Leone.
In a couple short weeks, this is where Cassie will be.

When I have more details on both of their trips I will let you all know.

I wish that I were in the place in my life where I could "go" and "do" more. Someday I will be able to, but for now I will do what I can from home. One of the most important things I will do is that I will pray. I will pray for these people who live in Haiti and who are in desperate need of aid and will be for a long time. And I will pray for all of the people across the world, like the people in Kroo Bay, who don't have access to clean water, health care, homes to live in and have no means to make things better on their own. And I will pray for the amazing people who are stepping out and helping like my sister and dad.

Will you join me in praying for them?

It' been a really long time...

Tate hasn't been sick with any sort of cough or respiratory infection for over a year. It's been since he had pneumonia after his tonsillectomy last year. He suddenly just started coughing today. It is a nasty, gunk in the lungs type of cough. He's acting completely fine, but his little voice is leaving him too. He also has hardly eaten anything today...he says he's just not hungry. We're pumping him full of orange juice (which he is loving!) and hoping it doesn't get worse. Since he's had pneumonia twice in his 3 years of life already, I hate it when he gets a cough like this because I get scared that he's going to get it again. The doctors have told us that the more he gets it, the more prone he is to it. So since he's had it twice already, I get paranoid that he'll get it even more easily. I'm praying that this is just a cough and doesn't go beyond that.

Letters and Numbers

Tate is obsessed with letters and numbers. He wants to count or do his letter sounds every waking moment it seems! This evening, we wanted me to "cheese" (aka...take a picture of) his letters. So I did.
Notice how you can tell he's saying the letter sounds as I'm "cheesing" them.
"A" says...

"F" says ffff...

And he loves his numbers almost as much as he loves his letters.
The funny thing is that he just started saying them in Spanish tonight.
I have no idea when he learned it, but know fully WHERE he learned it!
Thanks Manny! :)

A couple of his numbers in Spanish...

French Dip Recipe posted...

Check out my recipe blog (link on sidebar) for a SUPER easy and scrumptious recipe. I can't take credit for it...I got it from my friend, Gretchen. It might be Sean's favorite meal I make!

a new chapter in our life...

This has been a day filled with such relief, excitement and anticipation of what's to come for us.
This evening, Sean accepted a nursing position as Mercy Hospital in Clinton, Iowa.
He will be working in the Med/Surg Unit on the night shift.
The Med/Surg Unit is a great place for him to start, but the shift...well, not always the first choice.
You gotta start somewhere though, right?! :)
In all honesty, he couldn't be happier.
He'll be working 7pm-7am, 3 days a week.

Sean has been applying for jobs every since he passed his boards...it felt like he's applied for 100! He applied all over the state with hopes of either landing something here in Des Moines or in the Quad City area. Clinton is only about 30 minutes up the Mississippi River from the Quad Cities and so our plan is to live in the Quad Cities. However, that's not the immediate plan. He is going to be commuting to Eastern Iowa and working his 3 days and then coming home for a while. I will be able to stay at my job for a while that way. I do have to say that when I do finally leave my job, it will be difficult. I have a great job and work for a great company and if there's no position I can transfer to, it will be sad to leave. This move is necessary for us though. Sean needs this experience so that he can start Anesthesia School as soon as possible as that is his ultimate goal.

Sean will be starting either next week or the following week. Some paperwork and a background check needs to be completed for him to start, so we won't know until Monday when his start date will be. We have found an in home daycare provider who we are so grateful is able to watch Tate while I work on the days that Sean is gone. The plan is that we will be moved to the Quad Cities by April 1st. It's going to be a busy (and likely stressful) next couple of months getting things ready to move. I HATE moving...probably more than anything. I hate packing and loading a U-Haul and then unloading the U-Haul and living out of boxes until everything is unpacked. I hate it. I will survive, but I am not looking forward to that part!

I must admit that I am so excited to be living n the same city as Mike and Sarah and the girls as well as our dear friends the DeCooks and super excited to be living within 45 minutes of my parents, Cassie and Paul and the kids!

We will miss so many people and so many things about Des Moines! I can't believe I moved here almost 9 years ago! I met Sean here, made SO MANY friends here that will be some of my dearest friends forever, I have my Aunt and Uncle here who have always been there for me as though I was there own child, I owned my first home here, Des Moines will always be Tate's first home and I will have some of my most cherished memories of him as a baby here. It hasn't been Des Moines that has changed me, but I moved here a week before I turned 21 and I will be 30 this year. I think people change so much between ages 20 and 30. I moved here as a different person than I am leaving. I didn't realize how hard it would be to leave when Sean was applying for all of these jobs outside of Des Moines, but now that it's official...I am so emotional about it! Some of the most special and memorable moments of my life and of our family life have happened here.

This is going to be a whole new chapter of our lives. One I am looking forward to, don't get me wrong. I've just really enjoyed the chapter we're leaving.

I have said it before and I will say it again...I am so proud of Sean! I couldn't be happier for him. He is so excited to start working as a nurse. He's been wanting to be able to do this since he started nursing school what seems like a million years ago! It's been rough and the road has been rocky! He managed to make it through and now knows all of his hard work and all of the tough times were worth it! We both know that the road ahead won't be easy...he's not done. We are enjoying this little "break" while we can. A break from school, a break from studying constantly, a break from stress of worrying about taking and passing the state boards, a break from all of that. We just want to be able to live a more normal life than we've been living these last couple of years and we are welcoming this change with open arms! I'm not going to lie, the last few years have been hard on both of us and our marriage. There were times when we felt like things just weren't going to get better. The good Lord has provided for us even when we felt like things couldn't be going worse. We are so grateful for His blessings! We have come out on the other end stronger individuals and a stronger couple. We are grateful for that.

Sean, I am so proud that you have achieved this goal that you set out to achieve 5 years ago!
I love you!

Letters

Tate LOVES letters.
I love this video.
He doesn't even do his letter sounds that great in this video...he knows them all perfectly.
The funniest part is that this video proves Sean doesn't know his alphabet. Ha!

I love this little smarty pants!
He and Sean have been gone for a couple of days and I have missed them terribly.
I am so happy they are home!

From February's Past

I was looking back tonight on posts I published this time last year, and the year before and the year before that...you get the picture.

That's one of my favorite things about having this blog. I can look back and see exactly what I was doing this day last year or the year before that.
I also really love looking at what Tate looked like this time in years past, so that's what I did tonight.

This is him a couple of days ago...
Oh my goodness...check out those tights! I LOVED them! Sean HATED them! He didn't think boys should wear tights! :) He wore them under his pants so he could be warmer, but I loved taking his pants off and letting him run around in his tights...LOVED IT!
This was 2 years ago...Tate was only 16 months old...

This was 3 years ago! Tate was only 4 months old. Oh my goodness how I miss my little baby! I definitely don't miss how tired I was though! :) I don't even hardly remember him ever looking like this! I loved holding him and snuggling him for hours. I wish he would snuggle me like that now...no such luck. :(

I really love the age Tate is at. Even with the struggles with his fear and his tantrums and all of that stuff...he is SO FUN right now and so FUNNY! I have honestly loved every age more than the next and feel like I never want him to grow up. I am really feeling like that now. I just want him to be my little 3 year old (only a potty trained 3 year old would be nice!) forever!
Please stop growing, Tate!!!

We will see...

Today was the 2nd day in a row that Tate wore his Buzz Lightyear shirt and socks. Then, when I got home from work, he took it off so "Daddy can wash it and I get to wear it again tomorrow!" Yup, it's all he wants to wear. It's funny though, he's going through this phase where I will pick out a shirt or jammies for him and when he doesn't want to wear it, he'll say the reason is "because I wore dat yesterday!" He'll say that even if he has never worn the shirt or jammies before. So the fact that he's wearing the same thing 2 days (and tomorrow it will be 3 days) in a row is a very big deal for him! :) I don't know when he's going to get sick of wearing it! We will see.

He woke up last night crying uncontrollably for the first time in a couple of weeks. He has been doing SO WELL without having nightmares or night terrors. This had been the longest stint of time he's gone without one for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, the streak ended last night and he was inconsolable for a 1/2 hour before he finally ended up in bed with us. Sometimes that doesn't even work, but when it's the middle of the night and your baby (okay, he's not really a baby anymore!) is screaming in fear and won't stop, it's worth a try. When it works, it's the best feeling to snuggle up to him and know that you are giving him comfort. It worked last night. He eventually went to sleep snuggled in next to me and slept the rest of the night. Sean however did not. He ended up on the couch not being able to sleep after being startled awake and dealing with Tate's freak out for a half hour. I can vouch that it is disturbing to witness and very hard to get back to sleep after dealing with it. Hopefully this won't become a regular thing again and was just a fluke. We will see.

In other news, I have some serious stress breakout going on all over my chin. I need to do something about it. I don't know, maybe relieve some stress. Hopefully that will be happening soon. We will see.