A tough road ahead

Today started out nice - the Jib slept until about 6:30am, Puckey until after 8:00am. (So I got a decent night's sleep) Ande got out the door on time to make his monthly drive to the main office for his employer, which is about 2 hours from here. So at about 9:30am he calls me and says, "Well, I'm on my way home..." (Which means he might have spent, oh, 10 minutes at the office) So I asked, "What happened?" and he told me that when he got to the office, the owner of the company asked him to come into the conference room. When he went in, the owner and the two co-owners were in there. The owner told him he was being laid off indefinitely, effective immediately, and that he wasn't going to give him an explanation. (Nice form, right?)

Needless to say, I burst into tears. Ande was very calm and said that he figures it must be God pushing him to move. (Ande has not been happy with his job recently, and we have been looking for other opportunities for our family) After I got off the phone with Ande, I was still crying, and my sweet little Puckey looked up at me with her dark chocolate eyes and said, "It's okay, Mamma. Don't cry." That, of course, made me cry even harder. Babies are so sweet, and right there was proof that they can sense when you're hurting.

To top things off, Ande talked to his ex today, and she is moving about an hour and a half away with his daughter. Poor Nans cries for her mom just about everytime she's here (I think because she doesn't really feel like this is "home" because she's only here 4 days a month), so what's going to happen when she comes to visit now and her mom is an hour and a half away?? We don't know when it's going to happen, but I would imagine soon. Her husband already took a job there. Ugh.

So now I sit here thinking of what God wants me to do with this situation. I know I need to trust in Him, and I am really trying hard to do that. I've never been in a position like this before, and it's freaking me out. I am thankful that my best girlfriend in the world told me that she would be happy to help financially if we need it, and my MIL said she would, too. I am just praying that it won't come to that. It's good to know that we have some support out there, though. I know our church would help out if needed as well (which is so awesome, especially since we have a REALLY small church).

Ande looks at it like it's a blessing, because he has been wanting to find something else for a while, and this is going to force him to move on that. He's got a lot of talent for doing just about anything he sets his mind to, and I know that will really work to our benefit in this situation.

For anyone reading this who prays, please include us in your prayers. It's going to be a challenge for us, but we will get through it. Thanks a lot. I hope I have good news to post here soon.

Maybe she's trying to tell me something?

Poor little Jib. She was playing on the bed this afternoon while I was taking pictures of some stuff to put on eBay. There was some laundry on the bed next to her, and I looked over and she had a pair of socks hanging out of her mouth. Of course, by the time I got the camera into position, she had dropped the socks, so I made an attempt to re-create the moment. The above picture was the best I could do. I wonder if I should start feeding her more solids?!? LOL

I don't wash my hands in the toilet for a reason...

Okay, so yesterday I was reading an article about parents who potty train their babies from birth. Now, while I do not have the time, patience, or energy to follow my babies around waiting for them to "signal" to me that they need to go to the bathroom, I do give the parents who do credit. (Puckey tells me "go potty, mamma" but it's always AFTER she pees...LOL) It seems many are concerned about protecting our environment, which is a good thing. Some parents just don't want to change diapers or have to carry a diaper bag. Still others may even find it charming and cute that their 6 month old can "tell" them when he/she needs to poop. Hey, if you have the time and want to do that, GREAT. Good for you!

BUT....this morning at 6:30am (because I obviously have nothing better to do like SLEEP), I woke up and remembered one part of the article, and I was suddenly deeply disturbed by it. The article interviewed a woman who held her 6 month old over a sink in a public bathroom waiting for it to go pee. So, she was using the sink as a toilet for her baby. Now, it's bad enough that there are some people who don't wash their hands when they use the bathroom. I try to avoid using public restrooms unless absolutely neccessary for this very reason. But for those of us who DO wash our hands, now we need to be aware that some parents let their children pee in the sink that we are going to wash our hands in? UM...GROSS! I do not wash my hands in the toilet for a reason (and if you have to ask, you probably should just stop reading now). I don't think I should be subjected to having to wash my hands where someone may have just peed. I don't care if it's a baby, a grown woman, or my grandma! That's just not right! If a parent wanting to potty train his/her child wants to use their own kitchen or bathroom sink as a urinal, by all means, don't let me stop you. But come on, at least go in the stall in a public restroom. Either that, or carry around some cleaning supplies and wash out the sink with bleach before you leave.

Check-ups

Well, the babies had check-ups yesterday (Puckey, 2yr and Jib 7 mo). My little Puckey is 34 1/2 inches tall and 26 lbs. The Jib is 28 inches tall and a whopping 19 lbs 11 oz. Yup, it's official - she's a chunky monkey. I think most of the weight is in her head - it's 18 inches around, only 1 inch smaller than Puckey's!!

Birthdays, birthdays all around

Well, yesterday was Puckey's 2nd birthday. We celebrated it by going to my brother in law's mother's house to celebrate my niece's birthday (which is really today). While we were there, we realized that within the group of us (which numbered 19), there were 4 birthdays all within 7 days of each other, and each of the birthday girls have names that start with an "A". We had Anne (8/19), Abbey (8/20-something I can't remember the day), Asha (8/25), and Amelia (8/26) How weird/cool is that?

Other current events: A tornado touched down near my mom's house on Friday. Several homes in the area were damaged, but my mom's house escaped without a scratch. She is without power, though. Ande, the babies, and I got to test out the basement as a storm shelter for the first time. I decided we needed to get some chairs and toys down there for future occurances.

We get the occasional tornado here in MI, but it always seems weird to me. Several years ago, a tornado hit the manufacturing plant I was working for at the time. It was so bizarre, because Ande and I were running late for work. So we're cruising down the highway, listening to CD's and trying to get to work on time. I heard a weird sound (like a train whistle) and Ande commented that it was really windy. There was still traffic on the road, and we didn't see anything that unusual, so we just kept going. When we got to work, I first saw the party store located on the corner, and it's roof was GONE. At first, I thought they had had a fire, because there was a fire truck there. Then we pulled into the parking lot of the plant and I noticed that all of the trees between the plant and the party store were laying on the ground. A tornado had hit both our plant and the party store next to it!! Fortunately no one was injured, but there was a lot of damage to the buildings. We realized after the fact that we must have actually driven through the path of the tornado on the way to work, but since we didn't see a funnel cloud it didn't register at the time. WEIRD!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot - my sister was going to have my niece's birthday party at their house on the other side of the state, but they couldn't because there were severe storms in their area on Thursday that knocked out their power. So they came "home" to where our parents all live, and the storm hit and knocked out my mom's power. Fortunately my brother in law's mom still had power, or I might have ended up having all of those people over here!!