Conversations3

Three years ago our church decide to forgo the usual "Easter cantata" for something they called "Conversations". Conversations is an 1 1/2 program with about 7 5-minute scenes centered around four people giving their real testimonies, intermixed with singing. Last year it was set was a coffee shop and this year it is a bookstore. I volunteered to be in it this year. Little did I know what a huge production it is. We've had lots of rehearsals over the past months. Not wanting poor Damien to have to watch both kids so often, I've often brought Micaiah who has sort of become the "mascot" and has LOVED the attention of everyone. Yesterday during dress rehearsals he just sat and stared at the stage for hours.

Conversations is a great ministry not focusing only on the church body but has a huge focus on bringing in friends and family. Some of the songs sung are even secular songs (don't tell anyone)!! We do 5 performances (1 each night for a week). Volunteers from the church work in the nursery, usher, provide dinners each night for the cast, do our make-up, bake over 75 dozen deserts that are given away before an after each performance and more. It's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the performances. Pray that God prepares the heart of the people who will be there!

(Here is the invitation on our church website...)
The wonderful experience of today's bookstore draws both readers and non-readers alike. The cozy atmosphere provides intimate meeting places and the tempting aromas of delicious pastries and fresh-brewed coffee. From the challenges of innovative games to brain-teasing puzzles, from the classical to country music selections, from gourmet cookbooks to books on the strategies of war, and from the easy read of fiction to the gripping truth of non-fiction, today's bookstore offers something for everyone. Join us this year in the bookstore for our production of Conversations where the world of imagination and fiction collides with real life stories, rich in truth.

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2 Weeks Notice

Last Friday I gave my two weeks notice at work. Yea!!! Actually, I have mixed feelings about it. For about the past year, I've been working 5 hours a week. When I gave notice to quit last year at this time (when I was working 13 hours/week) my boss asked what were the minimum amount of hours I would work. Since Damien could take 1/2 days on Fridays and watch the kids, I said I could work 5 hours a week...never thinking that they would allow me to do it. But they did! It was a real blessing because the salary really helped with the bills. But since then, Micaiah was born, we sold our house, and now have a lot fewer bills. Plus, it's been difficult for Damien to continue to work 9 hours a week and have to work on Friday's after taking care of the kids. As for me, I haven't be able to do some play groups and MOPS activities that I would like to since they have been on Fridays. But at the same time, it's been nice to have a small amount of time each week to get out of the house alone. Damien has wanted me to quit for a couple of months now but I've been putting it off because believe it or not, my boos continues to tell me that I'm a huge help with the work I do. That's a little hard to believe since I'm there such a short amount of time each week, but I've been really nervous about telling her I'm quitting. This past week I finally got up the courage and she was really great about it. I'm looking forward to not getting up at 7am each Friday morning and to having Damien home an hour earlier every day. I will miss the work and the people, but overall I think it will be great.

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Micaiah can Sit!

Micaiah is very excited that he can finally sit up. Not that I think he's late at achieving that skill, but I think he wanted to be able to do it for a while. He's not completely sturdy so I have to keep the Boppy behind him. Plus, Orin gets a little too excited sometimes and decides to climb on top of him. :-) A friend lent me a Bumbo which has has been a life saver because no matter how rough Orin is Micaiah stays upright.

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Success! (update of "I'm Tired")

Well, first of all, I realized the reason I was so tired was because I was getting sick. Ugh. I spent Saturday in bed...of course, since the bed is in our living room so it's hard to get tons of rest :-) Actually, Damien did a good job of keeping the kids quiet. I was wondering why I was so tired since I had been dealing with Micaiah waking up during the nights for a few months and it hadn't been that bad. I guess I figured it was catching up with me or something. Anyway, on Saturday night, we moved put Orin to the pack-n-play in the laundry room and Micaiah slept in the crib. Here is a synopsis of how things went the last four nights...

Saturday Night: We put Micaiah down around 10:30pm. Micaiah is great about going to bed and naps. He woke the first time around 2:30am which wasn't surprising. We knew this was going to be the most difficult round. Since I was sleeping and Damien was still up, Damien went in to give him the passy and comfort him. As soon as he left the room Micaiah started screaming. Damien went in two more times - every five minutes. I then went in every five minutes for 15 minutes. So after screaming (often at the top of his lungs) for 30 minutes, Micaiah fell asleep. That was actually less time I thought it would take for the first round. He woke again around 4:45am, I fed him put him back down, and then he woke for good around 8:45am.

Sunday Night: He went down around 10pm and woke for the first time around 3:30am. Damien went in twice and I went in once or twice and he fell asleep after about 20min. I was pleased because it was already getting shorter. This time he didn't wake again until 7am which was wonderful. I fed him, put him back down and he woke for good around 9:30am.

Monday Night: We put him down around 10pm and he woke me up at 6:45am. I was thrilled! Unfortunately, Damien told me that Micaiah had woken up around 3am and Damien went in. Oh, well. At least I got to sleep through it. The good part was that Damien only had to go in once to comfort him and he fell right back asleep. After the 6:45am feeding he slept until 10am.

Tuesday Night: My definition of success! He went to bed around 10pm and woke up for the first time at 6:15am. It's not GREAT, but it's GOOD. Unfortunately he woke Orin up too who thought was time to get up! After ensuring Orin that we were all still asleep (including the sun) he asked to go sleep in his new bed instead of the pack-n-play. I think he was up for a while because when I went in this morning there were books on the floor, but he eventually went to sleep. Micaiah ate and slept until 9:30am. For now, I'm thrilled with this schedule and wish we would have done it sooner. I'm also very thankful that Micaiah's few screaming stints didn't wake up the rest of the household!

Pictures from one of Micaiah's last nights in his cradle. Incidentally, this is a very special cradle. Pops - my dad - made it for me before I was born; all of my siblings used it as well as Orin. Micaiah will still take some naps in it.

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"All Done Crib"

As stated by Orin after waking up from his first nap in his new toddler bed. We have finally transferred Orin from sleeping in his crib to a toddler bed - and we did it without any screaming, Elmo sheets, bribes, hiding of the crib, or talk of being a "big boy now". Not that I'm bragging! :-) Actually, it has nothing to do with us, but it's all about what a great, easy-going child he is. We've been wanted to do it for a while, but we've been waiting for some stuff to be cleared out of his room so we had room for a bed. Although he's been sleeping in the pack-n-play in the laundry room during the night (so he doesn't get woken up as we work on training Micaiah to sleep through the night), we figured we should start naps in the toddler bed so he'll be used to it as soon as we have Micaiah on a good schedule. On a side note, this child can sleep anywhere...from a laundry room, to a bedroom closet during a trip to Florida this summer to a bathroom. Anyway, on Sunday, after just missing getting a free toddler bed off of freecycle (darn!) we went to Walmart and bought one. We mentioned to him that he was getting a new bed, and even bought him a pillow and told him it was "his pillow" but he really didn't seem to get it. When we got home he had fun "helping" Damien put it together - but he still didn't realize what it was, he just likes helping daddy. But once it was assembled and he could see that it was a bed, he got a huge smile on his face and got very excited. He grabbed his passy's (he likes to sleep with two - one his his mouth and the other(which he calls "other passy") in his his hand). He didn't even want us to read or sing to him in the rocker as usual. So we just knelt by the bed and sang the usual "Jesus Loves Me". We walked out and he feel asleep soon after (I know because there is a pretty big gap under the door to his room and I can put my head on the floor and see him in the bed; who knew it would come in so handy!) His nap on Monday wasn't quite as easy (which was partly my fault since I let him fall asleep in the car for a little bit). I think he was so excited to be in his room, alone, that he spent some talking taking the books off of his shelf and reading them. I went in a couple of times and let him know that it was time for his nap and led him back to bed. But I didn't want to push him having to stay in bed. At this point, we know he'll go to sleep when he's ready. What finally worked is to lay my head on the bed with him in it and sing a quick "Jesus Loves Me". Last night we let him fall asleep in the the bed but then transferred him to the laundry room later that night. Today worked pretty much the same. After putting him down, I heard him up and about 5 minutes later. When I went in he had pooped (which happens about 80% of the time after putting him down for a nap). So after a quick change and song, he's now been sleeping soundly for about 3 hours. Most likely by this weekend Micaiah and Orin will be roommates!

Before helping daddy Orin enjoyed reading all of the books on his bookshelf.

Orin was "helping" Damien by running in and out of all the slats.

Any time Orin sees multiple, similar, items he likes to count them.


Micaiah enjoyed watching all of the activity from his jumper.


Often when Orin wakes from a nap - and sometimes before - he pulls all of the books out of a bin he can reach from his crib and reads them (which is great because I'm all for anything that gives me a little extra time to get things done!) He decided to have one last go of it.


As soon as the bed was finished Orin grabbed his passys and blanket and jumped right in!

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I'm Tired!

Ok, so I hate to admit this, but I'm TIRED! :-) Micaiah, at almost six months old, is still not sleeping through the night. At six weeks old he was doing better than he is doing now. But with the move and a few strings of sicknesses, he's gotten really bad about waking up. The most frustrating part of it is that I know how to fix it, but just haven't had the chance. Because we are in such close quarters Micaiah is currently sleeping in our room (which is also the living area). Orin is in his own room. So when Micaiah wakes up in the middle of the night, we can only take a minute or two of crying or whining before I just give in and nurse him really quick to get him back to sleep. Sometimes he will wake up three times during the night - although it's usually only one or two. But still, I don't normally get more than 4 hours in a row. When Orin would get off schedule and start waking up during the night, it was always very easy to get him back. We'd just have one or two nights where we'd let him "cry it out" when he woke up during the night and he'd be back to normal. It's just really difficult to do that when you're in the same room and you have to listen to the baby cry. So we're trying a solution tonight. We put Orin to sleep in the pack-n-play in the laundry room - it's the only other area down here - and Micaiah is in Orin's crib. Hopefully we'll have the strength to go in to comfort Micaiah when he wakes but not give in and just feed him. I'm also praying that he doesn't wake up everyone else in the house!

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Another Birthday

My 29th birthday was last weekend. Of course, nobody seems to believe me since I still barely look 20. I can't believe that this is my last year in my 20's. I don't want to get all philosophical about birthday's - I just want to write about the wonderful weekend I had.

SATURDAY
12am - 10am Damien was really nice during the night and early morning on Saturday. He tried as hard as he could to take care of Micaiah when he woke up (yes, the child is almost 6 months old and still wakes up 1 or 2 times during the night). Other than feeding him, Damien did everything else.
8:30-10am We just laid around in bed :-) We let Orin watch one of his Elmo DVDs for 45min while we dosed in and out and just tried to get a little more sleep.
10-11am We tried to decide what to do for breakfast. I wanted donuts but since we live in the suburbs, all Damien could find was Dunkin Donuts (which we aren't really fans of). So, after a lot of searching, we decided to go to Anita's for a Mexican Breakfast. Of course, by the time we got there it was noon, but luckily they have a breakfast menu all day. It was yummy!
1-1:30pm We wanted to go to our storage locker to get our vacuum and to cancel our insurance, but no one was there. We were depending on one of the staff remind us of the code to get through the gate so it was a useless trip.
2-3pm I wanted a Blizzard so we stopped by Dairy Queen. It was such a nice day we day we decided to take Orin to the park. When we got there the ground was pretty muddy and after Orin going down a few slides and getting mud everywhere, we went for a walk along a great trail. Although we were in the middle of a neighborhood, because there are hills and trees everywhere, you barely saw a house. We just let Orin lead the way and he had a blast.
3:30 - 5pm I had a GREAT nap!!!
5:30 - 7:45pm Damien had to do the sermon recording at church so we all went.
8-10pm I wasn't sure where I wanted to eat. After a lot of discussion we decided to go to Outback. We hadn't been in years. It was really good. The kids weren't on their best behavior because they were tired.
10-11pm Damien put Orin to bed and cleaned up all of the toys. It was a nice break for me.

SUNDAY
9-10:30am We laid in bed again! Because of the time change the kids slept late so we didn't really get up until 10:30. I had to work in the nursery at church at 11:45 so we ended up having to wake Orin up to leave.
11:45am-1:15pm Ran the nursery at RBC. Had to change a couple of poopy diapers :-)
1:15-2pm We drove the kids to the Baileys who had offered to babysit. Damien stopped to grab Orin McDonalds for lunch while I nursed Micaiah.
2-6:30pm We went to the D.C. Wine and Food Festival. We took the metro down to the Ronald Regan Building. Damien had been wanting to take me to it for the past two years for my birthday, but I was pregnant for both of them! There were over 200 different wineries from all over the world set up to give tastes of their wine. There was also some great food (mostly cheeses and appetizers). It was fun to just walk around and taste so many different kinds of wine (if you're wondering, I probably just had a total of two glasses) :-)
7-9pm We took the Bailey's out to dinner to thank them for watching the kids. Orin fell over in his chair and busted his lip, but otherwise it was a nice time.

Hope next year is as wonderful!

(Added 3/18/07) I was downloading pictures from my camera and realized I forgot to post the pictures of the beautiful flowers I received from my wonderful in-laws and parents. Thanks guys!

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Orin's First Movie

One of Orin's friends recently had a birthday party at a movie theater. It was a great idea. It was early in the morning - at least for us - so all of the kids wore their pajamas. The theater wasn't open to the public yet, so we had bagels and fruit and decorated their popcorn bags in the lobby. When the movie started (it was Charlotte's web) Orin sat in his seat and just stared at the screen. He sat completely still except for bringing his hand to his mouth to eat the popcorn. Unfortunately, all of this lasted for only about 15 minutes. Oh, well. That was actually longer that we had expected :-) He then proceeded to run around the theater climbing in all of the chairs. Luckily, the theater was only for the party so many of the other children were running around. Somehow he kept getting stuck between the seat. After about 40 minutes of that he was tired and watched the last 20 minutes of the movie in his seat. Micaiah had fun too!

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Poor, Sick Micaiah

About a week and a half ago we brought Micaiah to the doctor with a croupy cough, congestion, low-grade fever, etc... He didn't have an ear infection or any wheezing or strep throat, so the Doctor did a culture of his mucus (he stuck a q-tip up his nose) ;-) Micaiah has still be pretty under the weather since then. Well, the Doctor called yesterday and the culture came back positive for two different types of bacteria :-( Poor baby. So he's now on antibiotics and hopefully he'll get better soon. He's such a sweet little boy. We can tell he feels bad but he is still all smiles!

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"It's a God Thing"

Ok, I've always thought that was a silly saying. And I still think so. But sometimes things happen and they only thing you can say is "Wow, that was totally God!" We've been spending LOTS of time (hours and hours) working on our first newsletter. We will be using the layout for every newsletter so we want to make sure it's just the way we want it. When we went to have Wycliffe print them out, we found out that they couldn't print ours the way it was designed - it doesn't have any margins and only special printers can print without margins. Of course, we didn't realize this while we were designing it but after spending so much time we didn't want to change it. So we starting calling around to professional printers as well as looking into buying our own printer. We ended up having our letter printed by a printing company, but when they printed it the colors just weren't quite right. we tried to fix it some, but we just couldn't keep going back and forth with them. And after tons of searching we couldn't find a printer that would meet our needs. Well, two weeks ago Damien began training a new volunteer (his name is Oral) to work in the Media ministry. Oral said that he works at a print shop so Damien mentioned the newsletter and asked him a few questions. Well, instead of just answering his questions, Oral offered to print all of our letters (and all future letters) for free!! It totally amazes us that we've never needed anything printed before, and never met someone who works at a print shop before, but somehow both happen at the same time. The only explanation is God!

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