And we're off!

We're leaving in 40 minutes to pick up Josiah and David from school, and then will hit the road for SC. Haven't even packed yet, and still have a basket of laundry to fold. Please pray for us this weekend, specifically for these things:

* That our trip down would be safe.
* That the kids would obey and be kind at Beth's house this weekend.
* Pray for David as he practices with the choir (9:00 AM) and band (1:00 PM) tomorrow. BIG day.
* Pray for David as he leads the services on Sunday (9:15 and 10:45 AM)
* Pray for peace for David as he shares his heart with these people. That he would be confident in his vision and his abilities, and be able to share with them where He feels like God is leading.

Thank you my friends. We covet your prayers this weekend over our family. We love you and will touch base when we get back!

the mysteries of life...

why is it that sometimes a cheez-it can taste so good, and then other times it is absolutely the most disgusting thing ever!!! Hmmm..

Defeated!

Totally defeated. Not her. Me. This is what I had to do to "win" today. After two days of her "playing" in her room instead of napping, today it was going to stop. But after an hour and a half, I had to pull out the pack and play. We both had had enough. So into the pack and play she went and fell fast asleep. I feel like I lost. And I'm totally exhausted from this battle.

Not looking for any pity. I know the routine. I've been through it with the boys. I remember them doing this for WEEKS after we first moved them to their real beds. I suppose it caught me off guard because she's been fine in there for months. It's a phase, I know. But I don't have the extra time or energy to be dealing with this. Certainly not this week. So I feel very defeated today. Sigh.

All teeth still intact!

Gotta love waiting rooms - lots of new books!

So the dentist appointment went just fine yesterday morning. The dentist said that Jacob's fall didn't appear to do any permanent damage and told me the things to watch for, etc, etc. We've been down this road with Josiah, so I was glad to hear the good news. Jacob, however, was slightly disappointed. He had started to hope he was going to lose one of his teeth before Josiah did!

First Ponytail

Forgive the fact that she looks like a "mean girl". This was on Saturday night before the basketball game - she had a bath beforehand and got to wear her first ponytail! I wish I had taken a picture of the curls in the back! (oh and forgive the "angle" - jacob took this picture)

Encouraged

Strength for today. You know, God doesn't promise us that everything will be easy. Or that we'll never be unsure of where we're going or how we're going to get there. But he promises us joy in the journey. And strength for today.

This morning I felt that. You know how tired I was this morning (if you read my earlier post). But I just got home from my run with Stephanie and was SO encouraged. I'm very thankful for our friendship. For all you running friends of mine, you know it's a special relationship you have with the person (or people) you run with. You talk about all kinds of things. You stink together. You spit together. It's just unique. Stephanie is that friend for me. And during this phase of life, it has been invaluable on many occasions.

But especially now in this time of change, transition, waiting, uncertainty. Her husband is getting ready to retire from the military and they are in the process of interviews and waiting and possibly moving. Our husbands are in very different careers, and yet our job as WIVES couldn't be more similar. After we both shared what's been going on in the last week in our situations, we prayed together. (Granted I was huffing and puffing because running and TALKING is harder these days). But how encouraged I was. To be able to share this together and encourage each other. Because I know EXACTLY what she's going through, and she understands our situation as well.

So thank you God, for giving me the strength for today. Especially because I needed it so much. What a good God we serve.

seriously.

no nap was taken yesterday. by me or by callie. not sure what the deal was with callie. it just was one of those days where all of a sudden she kept getting up. i dealt with it much more with the boys - this was her first day like this i think. she was in her room the whole time, but up and down. which meant i was up and down. then i was up last night until midnight addressing invitations for my sister's baby shower (which i'm SO excited about by the way). up this morning at 5 am to go run with stephanie. i'm deliriously tired today. if i don't get a nap today, i might not make it. for real.

Another Tooth Bites the Dust

Well, I hope not anyways. Jacob slipped this afternoon and fell right smack on his face. Poor kid. I thought he just busted his lip, but when he woke up from his LONGGGGGGG nap, he said his lip felt better, but he teeth still hurt. I finally got a good look at his top teeth, and there's a little bit of blood up at the gumline, and one of them feels wiggly to me. Perhaps my imagination, but he said it hurt when I wiggled it. So it's off to see the dentist tomorrow. It's not cracked or anything, but gotta be safe rather than sorry.

Josiah fell on his face probably a dozen times before he was two. He chipped both of his front teeth, and one of them now is discolored because of the amount of "trauma" that he has put them through. Thankfully there was no permanent damage, and it's loose anyways and should be falling out soon.

Good grief - these boys and their injuries!

How can this be?

I left Josiah in charge of Callie the family room so that I could iron on his latest star from basketball. He said he was going to read to her. Seriously. My baby (of course, now he's 6) is READING to my other baby (who's almost 2). How does this happen? It wasn't that long ago that I was reading to him in the rocking chair. Now he's reading to my sister. The hilarious thing is that the first book he read was one of her sesame street ones. The next one I heard being read was apparently of Josiah's choosing, because I heard him say "Look Callie - there's Obi-Wan!" She loved it!

A little clarification....

....not wanting to mislead any of you, let me clarify a few things:

* My laundry wasn't TOTALLY done...like for the week or something. it was done for the night. Everything was put away. But today I'm on the 2nd load, and have 2 more loads to do. Which means I'll be folding again tonight. As always. I remember the days when I only had Josiah, or even back when it was just David and I. I'd do laundry every week. Wow. That seems like so long ago.

* A clean house. It was picked up for the night, and the kitchen was cleaned. Good enough for me. Clean sheets are happening tonight, and tomorrow the bathrooms and floors will get done again. Gotta love having a house on the market. As if I have lots of extra energy or time to be doing this!

Two little extras for you:

* I don't think I've blogged about it, but I've started watching a little boy 3 days a week. It's actually 2 afternoons and 1 full day. I started back in December and it has been a real blessing. We know the family from church (they actually were in our ORIGINAL small group years and years ago) and their little boy Jack is 3 1/2. So he and Jacob have been enjoying playing together. So back to a full car load again!

* On Saturday night, we were walking across the street to go into the high school. They were having their homecoming basketball game and we took the kids to see it (they love that stuff - especially Josiah now that he's playing basketball for Upward). As we were crossing the street, I had one of those "moments" - the freaking-out-a-little-bit-about-adding-another-baby-to-the-mix moments. David was carrying Callie, I was holding onto both boys' hands. David sort of agreed with my statement about the fact that we were going to be like a herd of cattle anytime we go anywhere with all these little people! We'll be back to the double stroller for sure. All is well, but it was a moment, for sure! :)

Am I the Only One?

Is anyone else astounded that next week is FEBRUARY? what in the world! I feel like the month of January was a total blur!! Anyways, all is well here. Nice quiet weekend here which was EXACTLY what we needed. Nothing major to report. All are happy and healthy. 3 in bed. Husband waiting for me in the family room. Clean kitchen. Laundry done. Aaaahhh..

Is it Bad?

is it bad to send two of your kids (the ones that are awake) out in the backyard with a popsicle at 2:45 in the afternoon....just so that you can finish catching up on the blog????

Are you tired of updates yet?

You've got to be tired of these "updates". I've tried to add some more interesting posts today first, but several of you have asked for the "update" too, so here you go! :)

* Job - We are travelling down to SC next weekend (Jan. 30-Feb. 1) for a second round of interviews. When the pastor called David this week, they reaffirmed that they had great chemistry between him and the rest of the team and were very excited. They wanted to give him an opportunity to come back next weekend and have a bit more time with the choir this time. Last time we went down, David was literally given about 5 minutes with them. So we'll have more of an opportunity to do that next time. So we're excited about it. We're planning to drop the kids off at Beth's house in Raleigh for the weekend - so you can start praying now for Beth & Anthony and the 6 kids under 6 they'll have for the weekend! :) Man, will I owe her big! I guess my payback will be when I get all her kids while we cheer her on for the Shamrock Half-Marathon!!

* House - Officially on the market now for about a week and a half. Had a showing last weekend that went very well. The man actually used the word "Perfect" - I LOVE to hear that!!! Their agent said they are still discussing, but that our house was in their top 3. David's been praying that we get a job offer and a house offer in the same day -wouldn't that be something? Anyways, it hasn't been TOO terrible having the house on the market yet. My biggest annoyances are having to have the sink completely emptied of all dishes by 7:45 am, and not being able to have laundry out - which is ALWAYS in the constant state of being washed, folded, put away, etc.

* Baby #4 - All is well. Still feeling sick (that won't go away, so you don't have to feel obligated to ask...it's okay, I'm used to it...4th time around you just get that way). Still pretty tired, but that probably won't go away either. I feel like my stomach has definitely begun to pop out. Sad but true. Still running, although my speed has slowed. That's a big frustration to me, but it does still feel good. Kids continue to be excited about it. A week or so ago, we were at a restaurant for a school fundraiser and we were waiting to be seated. The lady came and asked how many were in our party, and I told her "4 plus a baby (so she'd bring us a high chair)". Josiah said "No mommy, 4 and 2 babies - except 1 just isn't born yet!" What a sweet big brother he will be to this new little person. I'm 13 weeks along now, and the news is definitely OUT!!

One of Life's Greatest Annoyances

You know that feeling when you burn the top of your mouth? Like when you bite into a piece of pizza that's too hot (mostly because I never have enough self-control to wait until it cools down...) and then you've burned the roof of your mouth and it hurts for 2 or 3 days? Well, I've done that, except not from pizza. And I don't know what did it...all I know is that for the last day and a half or so, everytime I eat, the top of my mouth hurts! I don't like to be inconvenienced when I'm eating! The only thing I can think of is that maybe it was from a piece of toast and cheese (like I bit into it when the cheese was good and melty...) because I eat it almost every morning as one of the few things that will settle my stomach on most days. Hmm... Anyways, my mouth hurts and I'm annoyed about it!

Random Pictures....

You can tell David was happy to have the camera back...he was taking some random pictures. The first one shows that we finally got Callie's panel picture (her 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, and 12 month pictures) framed to match the boys (another gift!!!) Hers is the bottom panel. You'll notice that Josiah's panel (on top) only has 3 pictures...they lost his 3 month picture. So mad I'm STILL mad about it 5 years later. We found a new studio after that. Anyways, I've always been able to get these pictures taken for free. Both studios that we've been to have this special deal for the first year - you can get these pictures taken for FREE to do a composite panel of their first year. Of course the hook is that they hope you buy lots of other pictures because they are so good (and they are WONDERFUL pictures). I just never buy them. I have strong willpower when it comes to things like that. So i end up with these beautiful pictures and it doesn't cost me a dime! Love it! It's funny to see how much Josiah and Callie look alike it their pictures.

Callie was enjoying being on the furniture one afternoon while things were being moved around for David to finish some painting. This kid is a monkey!

...and she LOVES popcorn (I know, she's supposed to be 3...whatever).

Something else funny that happened this day was that we were driving to BJs to get a few things. I asked the boys what they wanted for dinner and Josiah's vote was "Spaghetti and meatballs...but without meatballs or sauce...just plain noodles." Funny boy!

Christmas Day 2008

Since the boys slept on the floor in our room, we were ALL up bright and early on Christmas morning. The boys were up by 6 am. The way we do it, stockings & donuts can happen as soon as they wake up, but we wait for everyone to do a big Christmas breakfast & open presents. So I snuck out quietly (Chris slept out on the pull-out sofa in the living room) and grabbed the kids stockings for them. It was hilarious to watch the two of them. Jacob dumped all of his out (practically) and then looked at it all. Josiah pulled things out one by one and examined each individual item for 5 minutes before moving on (exactly how I do it). It was a riot!

Josiah displaying his new Star Wars toothbrush (from someone at our church!). It plays the Star Wars theme song for 2 minutes while you brush!!

Mom found this old Superman DVD for Josiah - it has the OLD episodes from the cartoon - he has loved it!

Kristen put "Fun Dips" in the kids stockings - even Callie's! Do you remember this candy? It's a candy stick that you can lick, and then dip into a packet of flavored sugar. They ALL loved it!!!

Josiah's first lick of a Fun Dip. (What kind of mother would let her children eat that stuff at 6 am???)

Eating their snowmen donuts from Krispy Kreme!

Playing with their new race track...they were so excited about this! This was another one of those "blessing gifts" that one of our dear friends gave to us. It was something the boys loved playing with at their house, and they gifted it to us. Thank you!

FINALLY, the rest of the family woke up! Poor Chris probably had no idea what to think of us and our craziness! But he took part in the stocking fun too!

Here's Callie getting into her stocking. She got new hair shampoo (since she's the only kid with hair!), some socks, and some care bear fruit snacks (HUGE hit). I was shocked that she seemed to "get" the whole stocking idea - she kept reaching in, pulling things out, and oohing and aahing over them. It was hilarious. The only sad thing was that I forgot to dress her in the cutey pie Christmas jammies the night before for all these pictures. Oh well.

Callie showing my mom her new shampoo (and yes, there's Josiah eating ANOTHER fun dip...oh my word!)

While the boys seemed to eat Fun Dips all morning, Callie ate who knows how many packages of fruit snacks! I had a house full of people that would NOT say no to this girl!

Mom was reading The Polar Express to Callie, and Jacob was working on a Froot Loops necklace.

David working on the coolest stocking present ever from my Mom. She got him and Chris both these ridiculously hard Dot to Dot books. They are the coolest! You can sort of see from this picture. The numbers go up into the THOUSANDS! The boys were completely enthralled!

Kristen and Callie working on a masterpiece together. (All 4 of us girls in the Maxfield took piano lessons of course, but Kristen is the best of all of us. It was so fun hearing her play again).

Callie got some new cookware for her kitchen from Christmas (from my sweet running partner at church...) The pots & pans even came with a potholder!

Chris helping out Josiah with his new light sabre....it was very helpful having another guy around to help with all the toys!

Jacob's face - I love this boy!

Kristen got Callie a Cabbage Patch doll. It smells just like I remember mine smelling - sort of like baby powder...and I swear I remember the pattern of the clothes too (the little rosebuds).

My dad got Jacob an Indiana Jones whip. Good grief - this was the one thing that Jacob requested...and I have no idea how he even knows what it is. He must have seen a commercial for it. It makes the "whipping" sound, and plays the theme song from Indiana Jones...pretty hilarious.

Not sure what in the world my little modest girl was doing here....

Some anonymous angel at the YMCA gave these shirts to my boys (along with the earlier-pictured light sabres). We were so blessed. You can see that they quickly took off their adorable Christmas shirts (Courtney - we LOVED those shirts and got SOOOO many compliments all month long on them) and put the Star Wars on. It had a little Yoda at the bottom of the shirt that lit up and everything!

Shortly after this, my camera died. It was so sad. Kristen had her camera and took up the burden of all the picture taking from here on. The last present that was opened was opened by Josiah (and Jacob, but he really wasn't paying attention...he was playing with one of his new toys). It was a card that said on the outside "Inside is a picture of...." and then you open it up and it said "our new baby". I put our ultrasound picture inside. He was sitting next to my mom when he opened it and read it, so they both got VERY excited! It was fun to finally let them in on our little secret (we were 9 weeks along on Christmas morning). Also that morning, my other sister in Florida (Kelli) opened their ultrasound results that they had saved and discovered their new baby that is due in April is going to be a BOY! So there was much celebrating!

Kristen has promised to send me pictures from the rest of Christmas, but we really had a wonderful time. We loved getting to know Chris a little bit, and had fun just being together. We even went ice skating outside (again, something the Floridians got a kick out of). What a wonderful Christmas it was. We were so overwhelmed by the blessings and love that was poured out on our kids. We seriously didn't buy any presents this year, and yet you never would have known it. All our needs were met, some special blessings given to our kids that made them smile so brightly. We were all together celebrating the birth of our Saviour. A happy and healthy family. What more could I have asked for?

Christmas Eve 2008

Some of you may be annoyed to have to relive Christmas again, when you JUST got it all boxed up! But I had to go back and post some of these pictures for my journaling sake!!! These pictures are all from Christmas Eve. My mom, sister Kristen, and her boyfriend Chris (this was the first time we got to MEET him!) all arrived that afternoon. We were SO excited they were here and we could start to celebrate!!!

She's a tough girl, but what a sweet mommy to her babies!!!
This seriously is how I find her most of the time. Sitting somewhere reading books. Anyways, she wore this dress all day long. It was one of my very favorite Christmas dresses that Mandy let me borrow, and I had to have her wear it ONE more time!!

Tutu and Callie - before heading to the Christmas Eve service. I even raided Callie's stocking to get the bow that matched this gorgeous dress!

This WOULD have been our family picture had we sent out Christmas cards! :(

Jacob took this one - hence the laughing! It's the Maxfield girls! Kristen, Mom, and Me

Here's the happy couple - Kristen and Chris

Jacob, Callie, and Josiah

After the Christmas Eve service at church (which was GREAT, but BLAZING HOT in the sanctuary...both boys did great...callie was in the nursery...josiah and jacob got to take communion with us...it was jacob's first time and I was quite nervous, but that kid gets it! he understands so much. he may be the pastor of the family one day...), we piled in the van and drove to the botanical gardens to see the lights display. it's our favorite one, and the kids love it. probably mostly because they get to bounce around the car and don't have to stay buckled! we had christmasy snacks and everything!

Callie was QUITE impressed - she loved it!

We came home and the two Floridians (who had been whining about how COLD they were....keep in mind it was 60 degrees that day and the rest of us were unseasonably warm) were happy to warm up with some peppermint hot chocolate (Jayne, do you see the square marshmallows??)

And here's my babies and how they fell asleep the night before Christmas. The boys slept in sleeping bags in our room - which they LOVED. They gave up their room for Kristen to sleep in. and Callie was in her bed with both of her pink fuzzy blankets all wrapped around her face, like normal! A peaceful night!

Back in the Picture-Taking Business!!

My camera is back! It's good as new, and I'm so glad it's home (and so glad it was FREE to repair!!!) Not only did they fix the strange "lens error" issue (apparently the most common issue with digital cameras), but they also fixed the damage from when Kelli dropped it (twice within about 10 seconds) last year at my first half-marathon! So we're good!

I'm hoping to get caught up somewhat during naptime today. Don't hold your breath, because I was up at 5 am the last two mornings (that's a whole other post in itself) and without naps, so I may need some chocolate reinforcement to keep me awake. In the meantime, here's some pictures of David from yesterday's Spirit Week dress-up day at school. It was Hobo day. He makes a pretty good bum, doesn't he? :)

Aaaahhhh...finally caught up

Well, I sacrificed my nap this afternoon to get all caught up with you, my dear blogging friends. I've been in such a whirlwind of chaos these last several weeks, and so it felt so good to get all caught up, see precious pictures of you and your families, and hear all the hilarious stories that have kept you busy these last few weeks.

We had quite a full weekend - getting the house listed on the market was the biggie. David was out digging flower beds and mulching IN THE DARK on Saturday and Sunday night. How thankful I am for this man. He spent his ENTIRE weekend either painting at a friend's house, painting at our house, or doing this stupid yard stuff to get the house ready. He was exhausted.

This morning we left for school at 8 am and had to have the house "picture ready". Our realtor came by this morning to take all the pictures for the marketing stuff, so it was a little hectic. I was up extra early to try to have everything ready. There were a few things I forgot, but i'm sure it will be fine. Big sigh of relief. Hopefully the worst of the "major" projects are over - we still have a few little things to do (replace blinds in boys' room, light switch cover here and there, etc), but i'm hoping to get back to some kind of normal this week. We'll see!!

And here's the OTHER reasons things have been so crazy lately!!!

That's right! That's a picture of Schrodt baby #4!!! Due to make his/her appearance on July 30 (really that means an August baby with my track record). This ultrasound was from my 8 week appointment. I'd never gotten to have an ultrasound that early, so it was very fun seeing him/her so little bitty. I'm now 11 weeks along. Feeling sick every day, most all day long (just like with the other 3). Not in maternity clothes yet, just feeling fat in my regular ones.

What a journey we've been on. This little miracle has been amazing. Even though I've gone through this 3 times before, the miracle never ceases to amaze me. This one is no different. Some of this story may be TMI for some of you, but I want to have it down on record for us.

We knew we wanted another baby, and decided to start "trying" (I hate that lingo) in August. With the other three, it didn't take much. We pretty much decided when we wanted the baby to be born, and voila! Well, this time was different. It didn't happen right away. I started to worry and wonder. After all, I'm in the best shape of my life and we were ready to go. I know now that God had a very specific purpose in his timing.

We found out we were pregnant the DAY that David found out he lost his job. He came home from work and told me about the service being cancelled, and I told him "I just know I'm pregnant. " I hadn't take the test yet, but I just knew. I said to him that now we know why God was waiting for those months. This whole journey that He's had us go on has been about us giving up control and Him stripping EVERYTHING else away until we were TOTALLY dependent on Him. This was another part of that. And boy was His point made! This whole situation with David's job and everything has been about Him making sure that WE know that this is all about God. Not us. So as crazy as everything has been over these last two months with all the uncertainties, we have been filled with His peace. Because we knew beyong a shadow of a doubt that all of this was orchestrated by Him with a very specific purpose in mind. Amazing.

So we're thrilled to death. The boys are excited (we told the family at Christmas time). Callie will be excited, I'm sure, once she realizes what's happening. I'm totally exhausted most every day, and that's frustrating to me, but it is what it is. Sick just like with all the others. But so very thankful. And very excited to see the rest of the journey that He has created for us right now. And now I can't believe I'm going to be one of THOSE poor women at the pool this summer - the ones that are sitting in the pool looking like they are about to pop!!!!

Quick Update

We're alive!!! Life has been a blur these last few weeks, hence the lack of blog posting. I haven't been able to carve out the 5 hours that I'm sure I'll need to get caught up on everyone else's blogs, much less post on my own. Here's a couple little updates for you to chew on in the meantime:

* Our interview in SC last weekend went GREAT! Could not have gone better - seriously. Loved the church, loved the pastors and their families, kids did great. What a weekend. I'll spare you from the play by play now, but I'm happy to go on and on if you're up for it. We'll know officially in about a week. Very exciting though!

* There's a for sale sign in my yard! House will be officially on the market on Monday. We've spent all this week repainting trim and doors inside, wiping off blinds and baseboards, all those totally unfun yet time consuming things that you have to do. Praying for God's perfect timing in this situation.

* Kids are all doing great. Josiah had his first Upward basketball game today and loved it. It was very entertaining - he loves his uniform the most I think. Great program and philosophy. Looked like he was going to throw up for the first 10 minutes I think - not sure exactly what was going on - but really got into it. So funny. Jacob has become quiet his own little man here lately. His favorite thing to do lately? Take a nap with ME! I love it! Callie cracks me up. Getting more and more vocal lately. Here new phrase is "no no Mommy". Except she says it when she does something wrong. I keep telling her it's "no no callie", but she continues to blame me!!!

* My camera broke on Christmas afternoon, so that's part of the lack of blogging as well. It's totally covered under warranty, but they said it would be 2-4 weeks without it. I've told the kids not to have any milestones until I get it back, and I do feel quite lost without it. Oh well.

Hopefully that will tide you over until I'm back to normal. I'm getting there - I promise!!!