Inspiring

"Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it." - Malachi 3:10

I noticed this Bible verse on the Christmas letter from Lutheran Island Camp (Henning, MN. www.islandcamp.org) and it totally touched my heart. They have recently done major renovations and have plans for new buildings and programs. This is the same camp that seemed like it was nearly close to shutting down and now it is thriving and growing. Awesome! The same is true about Concordia - St. Paul (my alma mater). They were in the midst of building new things on campus when I transfered there in 1994 but it has just florished ever since then. I am simply amazed.

I am a bit selfish, I suppose. I hope and pray that God will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessings like that upon Hope Lutheran school. (www.hopelutheranschool.org) I will feel extremely blessed if our house sells. I will feel extremely blessed if Todd has a job waiting for him here when it does sell. This Bible verse is so inspiring. Now it is my turn to put faith and trust in God and see how all His blessings are revealed.

- Tanya

Cold Remedy

I don't know if you've heard about this recipe...and I don't remember where I first heard about it... but at some point in the past I'd tried it and it's not bad. I don't know that I could use it instead of cold meds but it is soothing and seems to help...

In a saucepan, bring 2 cups of Coca Cola (don't use Pepsi or generic) to a gentle boil. Add fresh cut ginger or powdered ginger to taste (I used about 1-2 tsp of powder). Let boil gently on med-high heat for 5 mins or so. Let cool slightly.

Sounds like fun

My mom bought Kathleen a CD for Christmas, "Sounds like Fun". It is from Discovery Toys and has lots of educational songs. It is really good to listen to but, as with most children's CDs, it is so repetitive that it is nearly like water torture to me now! I go around humming the phonics ABC song and the 12 months of the year song... argh...

What is NOT fun -- my cold. It started as a sore throat. Then it was a full-fledged chest cold yesterday afternoon. A cocktail of expectorant cough syrup, Mucinex, coca-cola with ginger (more on that later) and, finally, Nyquil helped me get some rest and helped to break of some of the congestion. Still not fun though.

K has been having some cold/cough issues too. She doesn't want to sleep in her own bed. I can't figure out why. She's also been finding her Tylenol bottle and bringing it to me more often (obviously I don't give it to her EVERY time she brings it over!)... It does help me to know that she is hurting (sore throat?) so it's good she can communicate that. She's been sleeping in bed with me but she tosses/turns/thrashes around so many that it's not very restful for me. I am letting her nap and/or fall asleep in her highchair/booster seat because it reclines and she seems to fall asleep easier in there.

What is also NOT fun -- starting potty training. My mom said that I wasn't trained until after I was 2 years old; of course my little brother was born when I was nearly 2, so I'm sure that didn't help my situation! It took my brother even longer. Mom said that she & my aunt Norma had gone to pick up my grandma from the hospital, so they left my brother at my aunt Jan's house. SHE had him potty trained in one day there! Mom isn't sure if it was because he was around our older cousin Gregg or what. She was flabbergasted! I am taking Heidi's advice since she's been through potty training more times than anyone I know because she worked with toddlers and 3s for 10 years. I'm trying to get K to be aware when she goes wee-wee or 'icky'. I bought some training pants to use on the weekends at home. I had to go back and find the ones with the plastic outer shell so it won't leak all over. She definitely DOESN'T like it when she's wet. The next step will be to get her to associate going with sitting on the potty. We're not there yet. My plan it to let her wear the training pants and training/plastic pants to bed at night so she knows what it feels like to be wet. Then she can wear diapers at daycare. They DO have a little bathroom/toilet in the toddler room, so when she's ready they'll be ready to help her.

On to other things...
My apartment is a disaster. I confess it. I used to have plenty of hangers and now it seems like I don't have ANY. I am tired of my clothes being piled up everywhere so I bought some more hangers. We literally have 100 hangers at our house in Appleton but I figured that Todd wouldn't be willing to mail them to me so I just bought some more. Hopefully that will help get things put back and more organized.

I LOVE my Roomba iRobot vacuum cleaner. I absolutely love it. I cleaned up everything off the bedroom floors and let it loose. I don't know why, but as soon as I set it loose, I get more motivated to clean up the rest of the house. :) Yea! I did a couple of loads of laundry so I hope to get everything put away and then it will be time for bed. Ah!

What I could really use is rest. A good, dependable babysitter on the weekends to give me a chance to clean up around here or take a nap. Or, ideally, for our house to sell & have Todd out here to spend some daddy-daughter time with K on the weekends.

- Tanya

The secret to skating...

Yesterday all of the K-6 kids from school went ice skating. I haven't been ice skating for a couple of years. I even bought (cheap) figure skates a few years ago but they just were never that comfy. My brother has suggested over and over again that I try hockey skates. So I decided to give it a try since I needed to rent skates anyway. :) Guess what! They aren't THAT comfy (either) but they ARE like rollerblades and I did manage to skate for 2 hours on them. I made a HUGE mistake -- should've worn long socks but didn't -- so I have some nice blisters, especially on my calves where the 'boot' of the skates rubbed. OH well. It was a GREAT time. :)
Some highlights...(Helping a 1st grader...)
(Almost being knocked over by another 1st grader...)

Daddy, Boppa, Grandpa Kathy

Hmmm, Kathleen is quite the character. I know, what a shock. When I came back to ID after Christmas/New Year's vacation, I brought back some of our wedding photos. They are on the window sill in the bedroom. Whenever she wakes up in the morning, she wanders into my bedroom as I'm getting ready. Then she looks at the photos and says, "Daddy! Dada! Daddy!" Every once in a while I'll get a "mama!" but mostly it's all about Daddy...

She did talk on the phone tonight with grandma Kathy. Or, "Grandpa" as she calls all the grandmas. I said, "Oh, is that grandpa Kathy?" and she kept saying "yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Soooo funny. She did manage to call my stepfather 'Boppa' (his nickname that his grandkids gave him) so that was fun for him to hear her saying "happy birthday Boppa".

I'm always shocked what she notices. She'll just burst into "Dada! Mama!" and I know she's noticed one of our wedding pictures. If she says, "Bucky!" she's probably seen a dog or photo of a puppy. She's so funny...

What wasn't so funny was tonight. I was trying to rock her so she'd finally go to sleep. She stoof up on my lap and let go of my hands. Then she'd point at me and say "1...2...no! Monkeys!" She is obsessed with "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" so I know she was trying to do this on my lap. Of course at one ponit she slipped and hit my face/nose with her head. She wasn't fazed but it honestly makes me wonder if I broke my nose! I'm going to my dr tomorrow to check on my blood pressure anyway, so I'll have him check it out while I'm there...

Life is dangerous with a Toddler, I'm telling ya...

Grown up names are for grown ups, right?

Over the past three years or so, I've been going to a chiropractor on and off again about every 3-6 months. My chiro in WI is swamped with patients and never has a follow up appt scheduled with me. It's just 'whenever' I feel like I need to come in. She doesn't push any supplements or try to find my "energy spots" or anything else goofy like that. The routine was always the same. She has a rolling-pin-type thing that she rolls up and down my spine a few times. Then she'd crack my back. Then I'd roll over and she'd crack my neck on both side. Done. In and out in 15 minutes or less. $25 co-pay. Done. I knew it was time to go back in whenever my neck would get stiff and I couldn't turn it all the way to the left, or when I would turn my head and it would crack, or when I would get tension headaches. It's probably been close to a year since I went to Dr. Laura because I just haven't felt a big need for it (or I was in denial and just never went in). It's finally to the point where I'm experiencing all those things -- neck stiffness, cracking, headaches. I found a chiro here who has early morning appts so I can drop off K and go to an appt and still make it to school on time. They had to do X-rays on Wed for my first appt. He pointed out the same thing Dr. Laura pointed out in Dec 2005 when she took X-Rays -- one of the discs in my neck is compressed (I had a car accident in 2000 and one in 2004) and if not treated, it could lead to arthitis in my neck someday. Doesn't THAT sound fun...

My new chiro here did an adjustment and I felt SO much better right away. Unlike Dr. Laura, he scheduled a follow-up for today. Twice in one week? The only other time I saw a chiro that often was the other chiros filling in for her last year while she was on maternity leave -- when I fell down a couple of steps in our house and twisted my back before landing on my hip. (So graceful, I know!) Anyhow, the chiro here also recommended a therapeutic massage this morning before the adjustment because it helps with the adjustment.

I've had a massage before -- ONCE before, that's it. It was nice and relaxing. This one was like being put through a grinder. "Gentle" and "soothing" were not at all how I would define it! Yikes! It hurt. That's the point, I suppose. To work out all the knots and tension. Ouch!

When I was done, the chiro started my adjustment. No rolling-pin thing. Just cracks my neck and then has me sit on the floor and lean back over his arm/hand to crack my back that way (well, whatever, it works I guess)...

TODAY he says, "So, how old is your daughter and what's her name?" I said, "She's almost 2 and her name is Kathleen." He said, "Wow. That's a grown up name. You don't hear that often." Ummmm.... seriously? She will be a grown up someday! (God willing!) I said, "Well, that's my mom's name too but my mom goes by Kathy so my daughter goes by Kathleen or Kate or Katie." Did he think her name was going to be "Bunny"?? I admit, there are some names that I can't imagine on small children. But still... Goofy comment. In any case, I feel a little better today. I am going back next Friday for another massage/adjustment combo. It may not feel great but at least it's a little more proactive than just saying, "See you again whenever..."

- Tanya

Potty Princess

A few weeks before Christmas, I changed K's diaper and then decided she might as well just take a bath (it was the weekend). I was chuckling that she was standing there completely naked and even said, "Hey! You're naked in the living room! Don't go wee-wee on the carpet!" Sure enough... she went wee-wee on the carpet AND on me (which made me yelp out of sheer shock!)... So I called Todd & we decided that maybe she was ready for a potty chair. I gave her tiny pieces of candy cane to encourage her to sit on the potty, just to get used to it.

Then we went home for Christmas break. Now that we're back, I went to the library and got a "potty" dvd for her. She was fascinated! Now she's not really ready to START using it, but she is signaling to me when she's gone in her diaper and she likes to go to or point to the potty, so she's starting to make the connection. Of course, the dvd shows how you can train newborns to "go wee-wee" on command (uhhh, really?! Why?!) & into a toilet (if you hold them, naturally)...or on the ground (double ugh...)...or into a bowl, etc. Yeah. That was a bit much for me.

So, she's a potty princess right now. Not the Queen of the potty chair yet, but we're working on it.

Oh, and by the way, I got a cute note from a second grader yesterday that said "Your the best princebull ever, Mrs. Jonson." I LOVE IT!!! :)

- Tanya, your favorite "princebull"... ;)

Bob the Bunny

A couple of days ago, K kept bringing me her stuffed bunny and saying, "Bob....bob... bob..." I think she was trying to say "Hop" or maybe even "bop" but I thought it was so cute, I have now named her bunny "Bob the bunny" (nevermind the pink bow)...

Here is Bob:

Bob lives in K's bedroom. Since before she was born, actually, he has lived in a four pocket wall-hanging thing. In her bedroom in Wisconsin, it was hanging on the wall. In her bedroom here, it is tied to the end of her toddler bed. Bob lives with his best friends (all of whom are nameless but we're taking suggestions)... Teddy bear (again, dressed in pink, but I may call him "Freddy Teddy"), a "duckie" (we may name him/her "Kiel" after our buddies Jim & Monica, who gave duckie to K), and a "baby". These are all too cute because they have little 'slippers' on their feet! I tried to call the "baby" either "Sophie" or "Ari" after our newest little cousins but K gave me a look of slight disgust that her baby would be named after those newcomers. We're working on that... :)

Here is Bob's home.


Here is Bob & his pals being carried around by K:

Here is Bob being snatched out of his home (poor Bob, never a moment's peace):


We hope that someday you'll all come and visit Bob (and the rest of us too) here! It's never a dull moment! :)