Um…?

October 15, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Having a bit of writer’ s block tonight.

Don’t worry, I won’t give you Round 2 of “Mel and Tobin Finish Each Other’s Sentences”….though it IS tempting!

Maybe I’ll just tell you about my day

?

Yeah, I’ ll do that.

:)

If we’re being technical, my day actually began at the Village Squire.

I was out with some friends and didn’t get home until about 12:30. Ooops…short night of sleep, but so much fun to hang out with them!

I did manage six hours of sleep before I woke (BEFORE my alarm) to the sounds of Maelie protesting the confines of her crib. Seriously, kiddo?! It’s still dark out!

I dragged myself out of bed anyway, showered and got ready, helped get the girl ready, and then went to coffee with my friend, Kris. Yay for Caribou and a chance to catch up! AND a short trip to Goodwill, which really is starting to grow on me.

I love a good deal, and today I got TWO of them! 😀

Definitely a good start to the day.

:)

I came home for a few hours, played with a cranky (perhaps sleep-deprived?) girl, fed her lunch, and then she was happy again when I left for a bridal shower.

(And took a close-to-FOUR-hour nap while I was gone!)

I spent about four hours helping with a painting project, and it was fun. Good company, and I perfected my tropical flower-painting skills.

I even managed a palm tree…which was kind of cute.

Kind of.

Then it was home, a quick two-mile run (well, “quick” is subjective), dinner, bath time-play time-bedtime for my Mae, and now…

There’s laundry to do, a blog post that is (almost!) done, and sleep to get.

I like that last part a lot.

:)

G’nite, friends.

Sig

Filed Under: friends, just life, Maelie

A Reminder

October 8, 2011 by · 2 Comments

A short but sweet thought tonight.

We hired a b

abysitter tonight.

(Two, actually.) We had plans and these girls came highly recommended, so they

came over and spent four hours with Maelie. (Well, two of them she was sleeping, but still.)

As I was driving them ho me tonight,

they kept saying, “Your daughter is amazing.”

That made my heart smile.

But inside, I thought, I know.

I know how amazing she is, but sometimes I forget to look at the little things that make her just that.

Like…

her cheesy, scrunchy-face smile,

her still-slightly-off-balance toddle as she runs toward me,

watching her chase the dogs, giggling as loudly as possible, (it’s WAY too cute ;))

her sweet personality and love for everyone,

her desire to be close to us all the time,

the way she grins and squeals when she sees us first thing in the morning,

the way she’s growing and changing and learning,

the beautiful creation of God that she is,

and so,

so much more.

It was a good reminder to me tonight.

I am so thankful for my girl and all she is.

Sig

Filed Under: being mommy, blessings, Maelie, where I am

I Love Random

October 3, 2011 by · 1 Comment

So…I am always random. Today, more than other days.

Bear with me, k? (You know you love reading the crazy things that shoot through my brain anyway, right?) 😉

This is my very favorite time of year.

I love, love, love seeing the leaves change colors. While that is just beginning here, we saw some re ally

beautiful colors in Wisconsin this weekend. I also love jeans-and-sweater weather. Perfect.

We were talking about movies tonight at my weekly work out with friends, and I mentioned that I’d like to take hip hop lessons.

I really don’t know why…but I think it would be fun to learn how to dance.

Maelie and I have moved on from Little House on the Prairie to my other TV addiction, Road to Avonlea. Probably my favorite show ever. And I will actually loan it out if any of you ever want to watch it. It’s fun. :)

Speaking of the Mae…she fell on her head today.

Seriously. It was a 3-4 foot fall off of some playground equipment.

She cried. I freaked out.

Thankfully, after lots of phone calls and questions, she seems to be ok. We’ re watching her for signs of a concussion.

And praying. I’d love it if you prayed, too.

I think it broke my mommy heart to see my little girl hurting.

I desperately need to repaint our front room.

I’m kinda thinking of doing a multi-color, random design with blue and lime green and orange. It’s the room our piano is in and definitely needs to be livened up a bit. We shall see what I come up with.

Tomorrow I am going to (hopefully) chat with a local newspaper editor about heading a different direction with my writing. I’ll stick with my blog (not sure I could ever give it up!) but have some other opportunities, too.

I’m anxious. But excited, too. I really,

really want to write.

I’ve been sitting at the computer for half an hour…and realized I never showered when I got home from working out.

That’s kinda gross, huh

? Guess I better end this and hit the shower.

Love you all.

Sig

Filed Under: just life, Maelie, random

A Promise

September 27, 2011 by · 2 Comments

My poor Mae isn’ t feeling great.

The antibiotics are starting to kick in, but she was definitely not herself this morning.

It was a cranky few hours, we didn’t have the van, and it’s raining…so you can imagine I was MORE than ready for her to go down for her nap by 1:00!

After she ate lunch, we played for a little while, and I could tell she was getting tired. So I m ade her a bottle and took her upstairs to read her a story while she drank it. We finished our book, and I looked across her room to see a little pillow propped up on her bookshelf with the words,

Jesus Loves Me.

I held her close and sang the song a few ti mes as she snuggled me. I know it’s probably the most oversung song in the history of Sunday School, but at the same time, those three words hold such a promise.

A promise I want my daughter to know and believe with all of her heart.

Jesus Loves Maelie,
Jesus Loves Maelie,
Jesus Loves Maelie,
The Bible tells us so.

Sig

Filed Under: just life, Maelie, music

The Great Schroeder Adventure…Day 9

September 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Well, all good things must come to an end, huh?

We finished the drive home today. Got up early, left the hotel by 8, and were home by 12:30 thanks to a FABULOUS nap taken by the sweet girl, who was exhausted.

We drove straight through, ignoring the fact that I chose a bad morning for a gas station 44 oz.

Anyway, that was probably too much information.

Today was a very anti-climatic end to the trip, but that’s ok. Maelie didn’t miss a beat, going straight from the car to her slide.

We did “celebrate” coming home by going grocery shopping as a family.I’m not sure that’s a celebration, but none of us had a meltdown, though one came close.

It’s good to be home…and I’m so completely looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. :)

Thanks for following along.

Sig

Filed Under: adventures, just life, Maelie, The Great Schroeder Adventure, Tobin

The Great Schroeder Adventure…Day 8

September 18, 2011 by · 1 Comment

We left Mississippi today around 1:30 p.m.

It was a great trip, and we’re thankful for the time we could spend catching up with friends.

Like I’ve said many times before, often on our trips half of the adventure is getting there…or going home, in our case today.

The adventures just kept coming.

First up? I have always wanted to try one of these out…they obviously entered Americ a when I was out of the country, and today there was one IN a clean bathroom, WITH working straps. So, after Maelie had her diaper changed, she got to try this out.

Yes, it’s cute. Even more so, it’s complete genius. This mommy thanks the inventor of…whatever it’s called. 😉

Then…at the same travel plaza, no less, THIS!

64 oz. of create-your-own caffeinated glory. Vanilla Coke Zero was our choice today.
Six hours later I’m still workin’ on it, though it is almost gone. Mmmmmm…

Then, the Cutie totally fell asleep. She has been quite anti-nap this entire trip.) But I couldn’t resist taking this picture, and I know you won’t be able to resist ooohing and aaahing over the adorableness oozing all over the place.

We stopped at Fazoli’s for dinner, and Maelie got a free kids’ meal, which we totally did not plan. I love happy surprises like that! In the first picture, she looks so stinkin’ cute in her I-am-SOOOO-ready-for-this-Italian-feast bib…which she ripped off two minutes later.

But you can see from this shot that the lasagna was a hit. :)

Then we drove more and found a hotel. Just as a side note, we splurged in St. Louis. This? Was a coupon-special, right-off-the-freeway, cheap find. It’s not half bad for being all that. And the best part is, Maelie doesn’t care. She loves, loves, LOVES hotel rooms. Already.

And having cuddle times with daddy.

I wonder what adventures tomorrow will bring. :)

Sig

Filed Under: adventures, just life, Maelie, The Great Schroeder Adventure, Tobin, travel

The Great Schroeder Adventure…Day 7

September 17, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

So…I deprived you of precious Children’s Museum pictures yesterday. Sorry about that.

Here is Maelie in all of her cuteness as she explored everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING…and it was so much fun to watch. I’ll be honest that the first picture is not exactly what I would choose, but we got a good laugh out of it and that’s why we posted it :)

 

 

 

 

This morning we headed to watch Z play soccer. Maelie loved playing with a zillion kiddos and wandering around making new friends. Then we headed to Corky’s for lunch. Let me just add here that all BBQ is NOT created equal. Most definitely worth the drive. (And the calories, which I will spend all of next week running off…) For those of you interested, I had a BBQ chicken sandwich, slaw, and hush puppies. And we shared BBQ nachos, which there is no photo of because they didn’t last long enough for me to get the camera out. Oh, yum…

Then we spent the afternoon back at the house before going to some friends’ house for dinner, friends we stayed with two years ago when we were advisors at PFO. It was so good to see them again. (This is a picture of me with Natalie, who we stayed with during PFO, and Sarah, our good friend from Indonesia.)

The Great Schroeder Adventure starts to wind down tomorrow. We’ll be leaving Mississippi in the early afternoon, and we’re hoping to make it more than halfway before stopping for the night. I should be able to blog, but if I can’t, it’s because the hotel doesn’t have internet.
It’s been really great to see friends…to let our worlds collide a bit. It’s always different to see friends from Indonesia in the U.S. but cool to see how the friendships remain…and how they aren’t limited by location.

I’ve been so blessed by the people I’ve met through each chapter…each friend adds something different to my life.

So many reasons to be thankful.

Sig

Filed Under: adventures, blessings, friends, just life, Maelie, The Great Schroeder Adventure

The Great Schroeder Adventure…Day 2

September 12, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

So, these titles could potentially get boring, huh? 😉

Day #2 of our vacation brought us back to Carpentersville. Good ‘ol home. (That was a short vacation, huh?) Haha…no, we just decided since we were passing back through that it made a lot more sense to stop at home, see the dogs, repack, and do all those things we didn’t have time to do before Green Bay. 😉

So, really, today…we drove.

And Maelie napped a little. A little.

And we had Culver’s for lunch, which was just ok.

And then we HAD to stop here before we drove the last stretch. This was MUCH better than Culver’s.

Seriously, if I ever own a coffee shop, the words funky and/or bean will be part of the name.

And, because I can, even though she refused to nap and screamed often…this?

Is way too adorable.

Sometimes I wonder if she has any idea how stinkin’ cute she is.

See y’all tomorrow! I mean…write ya? 😉

Sig

Filed Under: just life, Maelie, The Great Schroeder Adventure

Maelie Loves Her Slide

September 9, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Here is the super-cute, totally-the-best-post-ever video Tobin prom

ised yesterday.

Thanks also to those of you who said a little prayer for me… feeling much,

much better.

:)

Now, on to the REAL star of the blog

today.

Sig

Filed Under: Maelie

Labor Day

September 5, 2011 by · 2 Comments

It was fun…well, most of it. :)

We actually had a really wonderful weekend… which I may chat more about later this week.

But to day

actually started out with my hubby taking a (planned) trip to the ER for x-rays.

The results? A broken hand.

His right one.

(Which, by the way, has been broken since Saturday.) Not good at all. Pray for him, please…it’s Tob’s busy time at work, and he’s feeling extra pressure to be productive because we’ll be on vacati

on all next week. Right now he has a temporary cast until he goes to see an orthopedic doctor later this week…then he’ll get the real deal. There’s some concern with the particular bone that he broke, so please pray for complete healing and patience for both of us.

Definitely NOT what we

were expecting, but nothing surprises God.

Moving on from the broken hand, though, we did have a good day.

We had a kind-of-last-minute lunch with some friends down the street we hadn’t seen for awhile. It was good to catch up a bit and eat probably the best burger I’ve had in months. :)

While Maelie was napping we played a little bocce ball, and Tobin managed to beat me left handed.

Well, then. I guess we know who reigns supreme in bocce world…even with a broken hand.

We headed across the street for a cookout with some friends (including some new ones :)) and it was a lot of fun. Maelie loved being the center of attention, probably a little too much.

Great food, yummy dessert, and just good to hang out with cool people. :)

Then we came home and ended up hanging out on our lit-by-white-Christmas-lights porch with our friends/neighbors Tim and Lex. Some good chatting…and some deep conversation.

Good stuff.

It really was a wonderful day.

Feeling very,

very blessed.

:)

Sig

Filed Under: blessings, friends, just life, Maelie, Tobin
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