Noahism's...

Our 2nd child Noah is to say the least, a very special child. Here's a few recent tidbits from a conversation with him on the way home tonight - and it was actually not even a conversation as Noah just keeps on talking, I have rarely heard him be silent except when sleeping!

And here are the quotes...

'And on Friday, Jesus will give us a sausage. And then we can eat it.'

'The moon goes down to sleep and then Jesus sends the sausage.'

Hmmm....there appears to be a link between Jesus and sausage that I seem to have completely missed before in life!

The LEXIE Show :)

This is just all about Lexie and how cute she is, enjoy! :)))))

Her Best Pirate Look at 12 Months?

A bit overdoing the cheesey look I think...

I found this Amusing...

So I was reading in international news about a Mexican religious fanatic that hijacked a plane leaving Cancun. His mission was to get enough attention from the media in order to warn the Mexican president about an impending earthquake and for this all to be to the glory of God. Well as the plane landed safely and he was apprehended he told the police that he had 3 other accomplices - and here's what I find quite amusing - upon further investigation from the police, his 3 other accomplices were none other than;

God the Father
The Son
and the Holy Ghost

Hmmm....

Not for the Faint in Heart...

So this past week seemed to be the toughest yet that we have faced in our rental property business. The history behind this endeavor - upon graduating college several years back, I at that point had a choice to find an apt and pay rent or try to purchase a home. The obvious choice with my father being in real estate was to purchase! And so we looked and found a solid 2 unit in the Zion, IL, area where after deducting the upper floor's rent from my mortgage payment, I would end up paying less than most anyplace where I could have rented AND be investing into a long term asset of my own. Completely SOLD on that idea and it worked out fantastically well for me during the single years....and finding in my husband Larry a similar bend where he's naturally gifted at fixing things, a handyman extrodanaire (thanks to the 1 on 1 training from his Dad). And so on we went, and several homes later, have a full fledged real estate rental business going.



This week's situation involved the house that we lived at personally last and holds several emotional ties as well because of that - mainly as we really did all of the work ourselves there - even down to the sanding and staining of the hardwood floors. And we had our first child there Josiah!



The tenant that moved in there almost 2 years ago completely trashed the house with an utter lack of regard for another person's property and even that at telling us over and over again at the beg of our relationship of how much she loved the house, that she thought sit was so beautiful, that she just had to have it and would take care of it. After falling behing in rent, we tried to work with her as graciously as possible as we've always believed that all of what God has given us to manage is HIS anyways and nothing of our own accord therefore we hold these things loosely - however in the midst of this situation feeling loss over the treating of God's property in this way.

So in all this, knowing that it is hard but yet knowing as well that God's fairness is not the world's sense of fairness. This came to us recently at a church meeting and even though it doesn't 'fix' the scenario we know in it that God is still going to be and will always be faithful to us His children.

We have a court date scheduled at which point we'll schedule a damage hearing - have found the address of the tenant and are going to pursue the past rent due along with damages from her. But in the meantime we are scheduling for everything to be repaired and working hard to get it put all back together.

As this post was started last week, praise God that we just got the house rented out yesterday and had the people put down a deposit - and rec'd raving reviews from their past Landlord of 3 years. They in turn want this to be their last house / move and we might even explore the option of a rent to own agreement with them as well.

OK so we covet your prayers in this - in getting the place fixed up and in having justice served! But all the while knowing the we trust in God no matter what compensation we receive back, if anything from this circumstance...

An Every Day Visit to the Park

We are blessed to live less than a block away from a local Kenosha park, called 'Tots Park' and aptly named with fun playground, slides and swings for the youngest of children. We love to go to the park and many evenings after dinner we will be found down there trying to burn off some extra energy from the children before bed.

Tonight we also had Larry along - which usually isn't the case as he's still at work through and after the dinner hour on weeknights. So all 5 of us headed down to the park which was so nice!

At the park we had an all family race of sorts (exception of Lexie who watched our antics from the swing). As Josiah is really fast and Noah is not so fast, we tried to space out the starting times of the race to give everyone a fair advantage. Noah still finished last though - after finishing last for 2 races in a row (which by a race I mean a run from 1 tree to another and back again in the park), he started off on the next race - promptly stopped mid-run and declared, "These shoes don't work! I need my spidey shoes on and then I would go fast like spiderman. That would be so cool guys, right?". To which we answered, yes, Noah, of course that would be so cool. Noah's concept of things functioning properly is also in this example - he couldn't reach something one time and so exclaimed to me running, "Mom, my arm's broke. It just doens't work right." We have to work through this one with him in making sure that he is not alarming people with his broken bones and pieces...but I especially liked the fact that he didn't win a race because his shoes didn't work right, I will have to keep that in mind to use at a later date!

Josiah's 1st Day of 4K School!

I had never heard of 4K school or even knew what it was until sometime last year when a friend notified me of a free preschool program through the Kenosha Unified school district program. And from that point, we rushed in to get Josiah signed up and he was one of the last few to make it on the list!

But ever since then and even up to today and even right now! - I've had every measure and heighth and depth of excitement coupled with anxiousness that a person could have. I am honestly amazed at just how nerve wracking a first day of school prospect can be on a parent, let alone the child! I finally called my husband at work yesterday to express to him the fact that I was just plain nervous about the whole event.

It brought me to think about WHY is it that I have such anxiety? I went to school and was fine, right? (well hopefully you think so...!) And plenty of other children go to school and are fine too, in fact they LOVE it just like I did! I remember the going back to school seasons of my life, getting my school supplies, laying out the clothes, everything that goes with that and just how very excited I was to pack everything up in my new backpack and march off to school. I loved education, I loved learning, I loved to read, all of it. And knowing Josiah as he is at this age of his life, he is much the same. The child LOVES to learn, loves to read and his ability to focus on detail is impressive to me at his age. So really the strength of what we see in the program for him this year at this '4K' school is to develop him socially - in building friendships, in learning how to respond and respond rightly to authority other than Mom & Dad's, in dealing with disappointment when he doesn't get his way. To me, it's much more than academic - as much as you would even think a 4K program would be about academics anyways...so the nervousness that I feel, is for him in wanting him to do well and succeed, to love school and to love learning and education and for overall this to be a great experience for him. And so I pray and will continue praying for him and with him and over him in this new adventure and chapter of his life.

Both Larry and I were privileged to bring him together to his first day of school and take a load of photos. We were also able to pray with him on the way to school, in protection over him.

Once we got there, he lined up with his 12 other classmates and was marched into his classroom. We were able to walk in with him to view the class and where he would sit and he even has a shared locker! What a fun thing for a 4 year old. He settled in nicely, was down to playing with the overflowing corner of toys and happily on his way - while his father and I took loads of pictures, kept on looking in at him all thie while trying to convince ourselves (or at least for me) that he really was ok and that it would do well for us to be on our way too.

Here's a few pic's from the day....and back to pick him up by 11.10!