Imagination

"Mom, this noodle (otherwise known as a travel pillow) gives me powers."

What's Wrong With This Picture?

That's my three-year-old playing the DS. He can actually complete the early levels of Super Mario Bros. He asks for my help, and I can't help him, because he is better than me. The other boys didn't play video games until they were twice his age. I have promised myself I will not let him turn into an addict, but hey, the winter is long, and he doesn't have a brother to play with every day like Carter and Owen did. So, he gets a little video game time. Once spring arrives, Mario is going to go back in the nightstand drawer, and Lewis and I are going to the park.

A Good Cause

This is a little plug for the Pampered Chef Party Fundraiser my friend, Deanna, is having on the 7th to raise money for children's cancer research. Her daughter, Mikayla, is a year out of treatment for Ewing Sarcoma, so they have a vested interested in furthering the research to find a cure for childhood cancers.

Below is a link to a story I wrote for the local paper this week. Take a look, and feel free to contact me if you are interested in making a purchase. All the proceeds will go to CureSearch.

www.amestrib.com/articles/2011/03/04/tri_county_times/features

You've Been Good To Us Green(ish) Couch

Since this couch was our first purchase as a married couple more than a dozen years ago, I feel it fitting that it have its own dedicated blog post before being sent to the big couch heaven in the sky (or maybe the youth room at church).

Oh lovely green(ish) couch. Almost all of our wedding gift money was used for your purchase. We chose you because you were comfy and neutral and big enough for two people to cuddle up and nap on (that is of the utmost importance when you are newly married). We moved you into 165E University Village. You sat atop some lovely blue carpet which you clashed with horribly. You were then moved to 204 2nd Avenue in Slater. This is where you came to be in your current state of dilapidation. For it is to that home that we brought our first two babies. They happily spit up on you, (Carter was a perpetual puker, so you were hit over and over and over and over), had diaper blow-outs on you, spilled food and drinks on you and used you as a napkin among other things. As they grew, you became a trampoline and a hurdle to fling oneself over. Your cushions became floor mats for acrobatics, walls for forts and castles, and islands of safety when the living room floor was flooded with hot lava or alligators.

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You are now a sorry looking piece of furniture. Your torn seat cushions have been mended more than once. Your even green color is now splotchy with stains. Your back cushions are sadly misshapen, and your old bones now make creaking noises from time to time. So, we have decided it is time to say good-bye. I appreciate the comfort you have provided during the viewing of many a movie and Vikings game, and I will always remember that you were a part of the beginning of the Harms family. :)

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You've been good to us, Green(ish) Couch.

Hide and Sleep?

He won't sleep with any p.j.s on, but he does get himself completely covered. This has become the common way I find Lewis when I check on him before I go to bed. He sings himself to sleep every night, and somehow ends up covered head to toe in his sheet with his comforter kicked down to the end of his bed. He is my crazy little guy, and sometimes I wish he would stay little forever.

Spectacles and Sports

A super-cool thing happened the first day Carter wore his new glasses to school. He didn't want to wear them because he doesn't really like to be the center of attention, and being the kid with the new glasses is kind of an attention magnet. So, at the end of the day, I was anxiously waiting in the van to see how it went. When the boys hopped in, I quickly learned that something happened in school that made him completely forget about the glasses. Paul Rhoads, the ISU football coach, and a couple of the players visited to the school. I can't even remember what the boys said they talked about, but they were on cloud nine. (Owen was just disappointed that he wore his Nebraska shirt instead of an ISU shirt that day.)

You may think that was a neat coincidence, but I totally know the events of that day were a God thing. Seriously, a surprise visit from some Cyclone football players at school? The only thing that could have been better in their minds would have been if Adrian Peterson or Percy Harvin had stopped by. I am thankful to a God who cares about little things like shy third grade boys with new glasses. I'm also thankful for a third-grader who looks pretty darn handsome in spectacles.

The Mother-In-Law List

Last week we learned that Corey's mom has breast cancer. I have decided that cancer is one of my least favorite words in the English language. It's often when you hear something yucky like this that you stop to think about how much a person means to you. So, I am devoting this blog post to all the things I love about my mother-in-law, Vickie. (I'm not doing this to get brownie points. I already know I'm the favorite daughter-in law. Did I mention Corey is the only son? :) )
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So here's a list of things that make my mother-in-law awesome, in no particular order.
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1. She makes the best fudge.
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2. She loves Jesus.
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3. She puts up with a house FULL of energy-filled grandsons (and one granddaughter) multiple times per year.
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4. She cans tomatoes with us (actually she does pretty much all the work, and we get to enjoy the result.)
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5. She loves her grandkids.
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6. She always puts the needs of others above her own needs.
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7. She has a great laugh.
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8. Cooking for a crowd is not her favorite thing, but she always feeds us well when we visit.
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9. She buys Frappuccino for us. :)
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10. She prays for us.
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11. She is incredible about loving us, but not meddling. Every time I hear a story about meddling or overbearing in-laws, I thank God for mine. Corey's parents are really the best in-laws I could imagine.

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12. She tells me fun stories about Corey flying from the furniture in underwear and a cape.
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13. She and Steve fill up a great big pool in their backyard just for the grandkids to use the few days that we are all together in Fremont in the summer.

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14. She likes to play games. Nerts at the Harms' house can be insane.
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15. She likes to do things. She helped me stain a LLLOTTTT of woodwork before we moved into this house, she helped me clean soot out of my old house when Corey moved the chimney during a remodeling project and soot got into the vent system, and she spent a day helping me dejunk our basement storage room...and the list could go on.

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That's a start. If she were your mother-in-law, you would love her too. Please pray for her as she is getting ready to begin treatment.