Pix of The Fambly Visit and Easter

The Fambly Visit:
Goodness I'm tired. I stayed up late with Lil Sis Mom and her hubby almost every night they were here. I am totally amazed that we had 3 adults, 5 kids and a 3 month old baby all under one roof and had a great time. It was controlled chaos. The kind that would surely drive certain people insane. I loved it. My boys loved it. Seemingly, all of Lil Sis Mom's family loved it. A good time was had by all. And there was much rejoicing.

I'll share some pix with you. I'd love to put way more on here but I think it would be over kill. So I tried to give everyone some face time here. And now the hard part: coming up with non-identifying clever little tags for everyone. I'll do my best.

This one...I love this one. This is a shot of the 4 oldest kids. My boys and Lil Sis Mom's two oldest girls. My 13 yr old niece is the only one I could get to take a normal picture. If you only knew my birth-father and my sister, this picture would prove nature over nurture.


Oh my goodness. This is my tiniest niece. She's 3 months old. She has 2 middle names - the 2nd of which is my name. I love that. Especially given that I have 10 siblings and this is the first time anyone dared saddle their child with any part of my name. But seriously, is this not one of the cutest babies you've ever seen? She's an amazing kid. My mom said she looks very much like I did at her age. Big ol' melon head and all. Lucky girl.


This is Lil Sis Mom and me. It's blurry but the best shot of the two of us where we weren't making stupid faces. I wikkid luv huh!


I love this shot of my sis and her oldest girl. My birth father used to call her Little Czechoslovakia - a joke that got very old because her name is actually a different country. I don't think he ever tired of that joke. He was sadly alone in that. HA!


Here is a collage of Pokemon Boy and my 9 yr old niece. They got on wonderfully. She tossed a few sighs around when he wouldn't stop talking about Pokemon or wouldn't give her some space. But over all, they really clicked. And as you can see, the goofy gene is strong in both of them.


Here is my 3 yr old niece and Lil' Bro. Seriously, she is all sorts of cute and full of attitude. I have a huge soft spot for her because A) she gives amazing hugs, B) she constantly tells you "Ah lahk yeeoo!" and C) she thinks I'm hysterical. Truth be told, she had me at C. I was pretty impressed at how well Lil' Bro and Lil' Miss Attitude got along. Sharing was at a maximum with very few melt downs. Very cute. I mean, way too stinkin' cute!


Here's another one that I threw in because their faces were just too adorable. That's Lil' Miss Attitude, Pokemon Boy and Lil' Bro.


Here's the obligatory "Parents Adoring Small Baby" shot. I kept getting the oddest shots of these two. One would look great and the other would look half in the bag or what not. So I said, "OK, just look at the baby like you like her or something," and I got this shot. That's my new brother-in-law. He rocks. I'm always happy to meet Christian men who think marriage is serious business and wives aren't disposable.



Easter:
Today was Easter and my mom's birthday. Future ex accompanied the boys and me to church. It's still such an awkward thing for him. Between the shame he feels and the protective feelings some people have for me, it's not exactly a giant open love fest. But there are always people in my church who still like the good parts in future ex that they know still exist. My pastor just loves him. Genuinely. So does his wife. The music director's wife, too. It really is hard. Yah, they're Christians, but they're human. It's hard to step off the line of people who want to woop that boy some sense, you know? Yah. I know you do.

The sermon was really cool. I'm having trouble getting my brain to function. But the pastor was going through all the places in the bible where Jesus claimed to be God. Of course, the English translations don't have the words, "I am God." But he gave the background on terms like Son of Man (read the prophecy of Daniel) and "Lord" (ie - "I Am" or Yahweh or Jehovah). Then he pointed out places where Jesus referred to himself in these terms. Also, there are places where certain translations have Jesus answering "I am he" but the actual translation shows him saying, "I Am." Oh there is way more to it than I'm blundering through here. But it was really cool. I was glad future ex got to hear it. If nothing else, he can now understand why I think Jesus is so important. He may not agree but now he might see why I draw the line at certain humor where I do. Or why certain irreverent flippant statements by unthinking people can make me shake my head or actually get really mad.

Anyway, church rocked. The worship team seemed tuned in to God. It was the first time I sang with future ex there where I wasn't self conscious. I said, hey man, this is the day that is most profound for my beliefs. I'm worshipping!!! One of my friends also joined on backing vocals. She wasn't sure about doing it but I said, just stand up here with me and worship. And sing whatever you want to. No one will care. She has a fantastic voice and it went great! When she knew a song, I'd hang back and just supplement her vocals. When I knew it more, I'd let 'er rip, as usual. And two of the songs we both knew well so we were able to harmonize (which I love!). It was good worship!

Anyway, after church, we dropped future ex home and headed up to my parents' house. Big Sis and Tall Guy were there with my extremely handsome nephew Sid.


I had crock potted a brisket and mom made the rest. And what a "the rest" it was! Rolls, green beans w/ almonds, baked potatoes, salad, corn, peach cobbler...seriously, I'm still in the elastic waisted pants.

My mom gave the boys Easter gift bags. Here are two shots of them using their giant bubble wands.



And here's a cute blurry shot of me and Lil' Bro.

Sleep Walking

Happy Easter everyone. I'm sitting here with Mickey on the TV, the boys sitting at the kitchen table eating their breakfast and the contents of their Easter baskets strewn around the floor. They don't eat much candy (even when offered) so they each only have one chocolate bunny (small). The rest are little stuffed bunnies, a stuffed Peep bunny, Lightening McQueen PJs, a Mickey t-shirt, a polka-dotted plastic duck, Care Bears, die-cast Cars cars and glow-in-the-dark Silly Putty. Our Easter bunny knows how to pack a fun basket. And with the huge outlet mall within walking distance, he doesn't spend a lot, either! Yeah frugal bunny!

So about this title. Last night, I put the boys to bed and was in my office (also upstairs) reading all your blogs. Hubby was out on his walk and then doing some late night grocery shopping. After about an hour and a half, I heard The Boy kind of crying. I turned and saw him heading down stairs (to find me). I ran out and called to him. He kept going and I had to follow him halfway down the stairs. When I finally got him to see me, I had to repeat about 12 times that I was up here and he should come up. He finally came up. But I have to tell you, he was totally freaked out. I mean, anxious and scared. Like hand-wringing, face screwed up and whimpering (not full on crying). I kept asking over and over what was wrong (incorrectly assuming he was awake). During his upset time, he said, "I was scared of the animals upstairs!" We were upstairs. So I asked, "You mean your stuffed animals?" (he has tons of them in his room). No answer. I think he finally started waking up at this point. I kept holding him and saying, "Look at me. Can you see me? I'm here and you're awake. I'm real and you're safe, ok?" Things like that. He started crying for real once he was fully awake. He still couldn't tell me what was wrong. So he sat on my lap on the floor of my office while I just held him and repeated reassurances over and over. Finally, when he was calmer (and this was about 20 mins after it all started), he told me that he had that feeling where he has dots in his eyes. I don't get this feeling. I'm not sure what it means but he's told me about the dots in his eyes before. There seems to be some kind of dots that appear in his vision - he can see them. I don't know if they're points of light or actual dots - are they dark or are they colored? I don't know. All I know is, when he sees them, it makes him very uncomfortable. I have no idea if this is related to the backward binocular shrunken vision he gets. I wish I understood it like the binocular thing. I like being able to say, oh yah, that happened to me when I was a kid and it goes away. But he told me he thinks he had that feeling he gets with the dots. I still don't know what happened to him. But man, he was so upset it just totally creeped me out. But I put on my totally secure mommy act and calmed him down.

So after calming down a bit, The Boy was ready to get back into bed. He asked me to come into his room and pray to God about it. Oh yah, I was already all over that!. I went in and called God - asking him to come to us right there. I told him that The Boy was scared and I didn't totally understand it but I knew God did. Every night at bed time, I bind any bad dreams in Jesus' name and command them to leave our house. I do the same with "any spirit that isn't God." So I prayed both of those bindings again. And then I asked the Holy Spirit to come and fill our house so completely that there would be no room for anything else that might bother or scare The Boy. While I was praying all of this, I had my left hand on The Boy's head and was rubbing his forehead. And my right hand was on his tummy. While I was praying all of this, it was like a totally relaxing peace just came over The Boy. He relaxed and the rigidity left him. He started smiling. He closed his eyes and was asleep before I even finished.

I love that God will come when you ask him for help. I love that God loves The Boy so much that he'll come and help him with something that might seem so trivial given the world's problems. I love my God that wants to give us all good things and gave my beautiful boy such peace so quickly.

Thank you God.