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Well its official...we are VCU fans! At least till the tournament ends!
In a city that really could care less about the tournament or college basketball for that matter, its been kind of fun to have all this hype. Things have been going crazy around here since we had TWO teams in the Sweet Sixteen! But now all attention has fallen on VCU! When they won this weekend, they had a huge party for them at the Siegel Center and they've had all these parties in the streets.
So the black and gold is coming out of the woodworks! Flags are flying, stickers on the cars, tshirts galore, foam fingers. Even my husband wore yellow yesterday and I totally called him out on it! I mean, of all people, I would never expect him to ride the bandwagon! I guess we'll be hitting the store to get our own memorabilia pretty soon!
Go Rams!
I guess by the look of this face, I should've known Caleb would be my picky eater. This is a picture of his first food, after cereal, which was carrots. His face was priceless and we all laughed. Well two years later, he is still making faces and rejecting most foods. Now, I realize that there are many kids out there worse than he, but it has really been a battle for us.
His food of choice...carbs! Crackers, bread, toast, waffles, pizza, spaghetti. He also loves fruit, cheese, chicken nuggets (not any kind of chicken), and that's about it! Forget veggies, mac and cheese, eggs, any other meat, rice, potatoes, anything foreign. I think the thing that bugged me the most was the doctor and other "experts" said keep offering a variety and he will like something. But he wouldn't even try things! And that got under my skin!
Anyway, now at almost three, Caleb decided that he wants to start trying things! He had mac and cheese the other day and he loved it! He tried pineapple and loved it! He had a little bit of Daddy's grilled chicken last nice, and, oh, decided to try couscous...and like it! This is one happy mommy! Its baby steps we are taking - no green bean was touched last night - but I am happy. And you know what, so is my boy! He isn't stressed when he comes to the dinner table, he's happy!
I am almost speechless when I look at these pictures. I cannot explain to you the sweetness that this little girl is. She is everything I wanted and imagined in my little girl. She is a delight to have toddling around the house playing with babies and balls.
She is kind.
She is tender-hearted.
She is loving.
She is generous.
She is goofy.
She is smart.
She is talkative.
She is girly.
She is tough.
She is sensitive.
She is beautiful.
She is my daughter!
Last weekend Micah and Ed had a man's night with some other friends. They went to a monster truck show! They went out to eat at Cici's Pizza and then headed over to the Coliseum for the show. Micah came home so excited and talking all about it. His favorite was the motorbikes they did at the end. (He would LOVE a bmx show!) They had a great time, and I enjoyed hearing Ed's commentary of it as well. I especially liked hearing of the drunk guy who approached Micah, and Ed's readiness to punch the heck out of him! You could say the show was a little "red" as they say! But in a little boy's mind, it was glorious.
In my Bible Study right now we are reading Hosea, which I've never really studied before. I've known the simple version that God told a man, Hosea, to marry a prostitute and to love her. One of my favorite books is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and she does a great job of telling this story. Because the real picture is God taking for himself a people who are completely and unashamedly "cheating on him". They are blatantly unfaithful to Him and are serving other gods. The thing that gets me is that they still offered up sacrifices to Him, basically spitting in His face.
"We don't really like you and we don't really think you are worth serving, but we are going to be somewhat 'obedient' and offer up sacrifices because that is what you tell us to do in your law."
Isn't that what we do? We claim to be 'Christians', but in truth we know we aren't faithful to Him. We don't really want Him. What do we want? Why bother? Do we want acceptance? Do we want to be called good? Do we want to do the right thing? Is it just what we've always done?
The most crushing part is when God says, "I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue". This is talking about the judgment Israel will receive because of their unfaithfulness. The part that hit me was that the Rescuer won't even rescue. What an awful place to be! God gave them SO MANY CHANCES, and they didn't turn back to him. But He still LOVES them!
Today I read this and it just encouraged me! Hosea 10:12 says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that he many come and rain righteousness upon you." I love anytime it talks about raining or pouring upon me I love it! The fact that I, me, Katie, do not deserve any part of righteousness, since I along with the rest of the human race, was separated from God because of our wretched stink called sin. And the fact that He would send me a Savior to rescue me out of a life destined for eternal death and instead bestow upon me not just getting to be in heaven, but he would place the righteousness of Christ upon me! What?!
So why, I ask you, would I wander back and try and offer him a half heart?
Why would I think that pleases Him?
Why would I think I can do the least bit to get by and it somehow be a sweet aroma to Him?
Instead this morning, it is time to seek the Lord, yes because He loves me still, but also because He rescued me and is WORTH it!
This week has been a frustrating week for us. The last couple of weeks we have noticed some things not going well with our 6 year refrigerator. It stopped making ice, which we decided we could live without. But then I noticed my stuff in the freezer starting to defrost. We figured it may not be good since we had work done on it a year ago. That man basically said, we'll try to replace this one thing but it may be the compressor. For those of you who are illiterate when it comes to refrigerators (like me!), when the compressor goes out that is about a $700-$1000 fix. So you might as well get a new fridge! At least we got a year out of it before we had problems again.
So Mr. Handyman came Monday to look at it, and can I just say that man was the largest man that I have ever seen! And I mean not obese, but like really tall and huge arms! Not who I was expecting to walk through my door! Anyway, he opened the freezer, unscrewed the back cover, and said, "I'm afraid its not good." He showed me the coils that should have been covered with ice/frost and it was bare! So there goes our fridge. $79 later, I now knew we needed to buy a BRAND. NEW. FRIDGE. Sweet! Exactly how we wanted to spend our money!
Important note: I was currently campaigning to get myself a macbook. I had made some progress with my husband who likes to make sure I know that we need no such thing. He finally admitted he was being hard on me. So I felt like I was closer than I had ever been to a little ole laptop for me! So you can see how I am SO VERY THANKFUL(sarcasm) to my Frigidaire side by side stainless steel 6 year old refrigerator that was purchased by the previous owners that decided to fail on me just in time to prevent me from enjoying a much wanted splurge on mommy! With all this whining, I do realize the difference between a want and a need, which is why we went to buy our first refrigerator.
Here's the consumer reports part: Don't buy Frigidaire! All our appliances in the kitchen are Frigidaire that were bought by previous owners when they redid our very nice and much appreciated kitchen. We just had to buy a new dishwasher, which was not a Frigidaire but was very old and ready to die. So we did our research and I asked Mr. Handyman and Lowe's man (who is now our best friend!) and they both said the same thing about Frigidaire. "I wouldn't recommend it." They both in turn recommended either the Whirlpool or Kitchen Aid which are the same company. Mr. Handyman also said he fixes GEs all the time, so that one was out too.
So in December we did buy a Kitchen Aid dishwasher and we did bargain and we did pay cash and we did win the battle (thanks Dave Ramsey!) and we did still end up with a "friend" named Jared (Lowe's man) that we bought our fridge from as well! And we have loved our Kitchen Aid! So when we knew we had to look for a fridge we knew probably a Whirlpool since K.A. is more expensive. My goodness, do you know how much refrigerators cost?! It's crazy!
Anyway, we get our new fridge tomorrow! We have lived without a fridge this week and it has been pretty miserable. Our fridge side is dying and so we can use it as a "cooler" but it won't keep foods very long. So this has been one week of very unhealthy foods, lots of eating out, and I'm just dying for a well-rounded nutritious diet. Which is perfect because I already think I know what I will be giving up for lent, and by I, I mean Ed and I!
P.S. Speaking of lent, if you haven't heard, my friend Tasha Via's book is out! And we are SO excited to use it this year for the season of lent. Its a little book with 7 weeks of little activities and lessons to do with your family in preparation for Easter. Buy it! It's great and the money goes to support their adoption!
