{thirty seven}

my husband, the old man

are you a veteran? did you fight in a forward area in a foreign country? are you 65? if you answered yes to all of these questions then you too could join the VFW! well, except for the 65 year old criteria. that is up for discussion as my 35 year old husband did just that last night. we got a babysitter and everything. it was a special occasion.

in all seriousness though, matt was very excited about joining the VFW. it is something that i will probably never really understand. a lady with long blond hair and a weathered face and slightly dazed expression hugged me when i entered the post and said, "welcome home!" i looked at matt confused and told myself, "lydia, just go with it." so i looked at her and smiled sweetly, hiding the laugh that was threatening to escape, and simply said, "thank you". matt just grinned and i felt like i had gone back in time about 30 years.

the meeting where matt was invited to become a member was very top secret and it took some discussing whether or not i should be permitted to snap a couple of pictures. i thought they were joking, but they really weren't. matt was the youngest member in that room by about 25 years and while they were doing the ceremony one of the men tripped over his speech and said, "we haven't done this in years". i thought about that comment a long time last night.

the VFW is literally dying out, the current members are dying and the younger vets aren't replacing them. and as i looked around that dirty, old nicotine stained room i kind of understood why. they have no money to adapt to the fact that on the outside of those walls time is marching on. time hadn't affected that room at all. i am not the most patriotic person around, but right there in that dirty VFW with those few men and women who had fought in a forward area and had been in harms way, i softened a little. this was their safe place. this was where they felt the most relaxed, the most like being home. it made me sad, just a little bit. and though matt wouldn't go so far as to say it felt like home, there was an unspoken understanding between he and those ex-soldiers.

immediately following the meeting the members boned up on their recruitment skills asking matt to lead this and charter that and spear head this committee. i got a bit panicky until i heard matt say, "there will be plenty of time for all of that, but right now we are a little busy with a new baby coming. don't worry, i'm not going anywhere." hmmm...don't worry, i'm not going anywhere....i bet that was music to those old veterans' ears. veterans who hadn't "done this in years."

riding a bike

the training wheels came off...

and daddy ran beside...

triumph!

food and clean water

yesterday the principal at trinity was going around to classrooms talking to all the kids about Operation Christmas Child. if you have been living under a rock and don't know what this program is all about i will break it down for you a bit. community groups put together shoe boxes full of suggested items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, underwear, combs, hair bands, and a few candies or small toys. you can either make a box for a boy or a girl.

well, mrs. ansell, the principal was telling matt yesterday during his break that she was in micah's classroom and she asked the class, "what are some things that we can put in our boxes?" several of the kids raised their hands to answer her question. she noticed micah's hand was raised and she called on him,
"yes, micah. what do you think we could put in their boxes?"
micah responded, "i don't think they need any of those things. what they really need is food and clean water!"
mrs. ansell told matt that she had a very difficult time not laughing because he was just saying it like it was. let's cut to the chase, mrs. ansell what they need is those things! ha! i love it! she replied to him, "you are right they do really need those things and the people who bring the children the boxes do bring food and clean water to the communities as well." micah seemed relieved.

when matt was telling me the story last night before we fell asleep we were both laughing and then i said, "he must be getting a few of the things he hears us talking about." i fell asleep thinking, yes indeed, what they really need is food and clean water.

fathers and sons

i'm sure i have said it on here before, but i love watching micah and matt together. it is one of my greatest joys.

micah had another t-ball game on saturday and this one was different for two reasons. number one it was at 9 in the morning which meant it was cooler temperature wise and for an 8 month pregnant woman that is something to be celebrated for sure. number two reason was that matt got to coach micah's team. the coach called him last week and told matt that he wouldn't be able to make it and would matt be interested in covering for him? and just so you know, matt was so "willing" to coach micah's team that he could hardly sleep friday night from sheer excitement.

this little one was pretty pumped to have daddy coach too. he ran right out to the field and started playing catch with matt and the other kids who had shown up early.

my lady and i watched the excitement from this side of the fence.

matt wasn't sure how many parents would show up so he asked a few of the guys from the high school baseball team to come and help out with coaching on the bases and in the out field. and what a help they were. the little kids thought it was pretty great that the big boys showed up to help them. and from what the "big boys" told me they were happy to be there too. in fact they told matt they wanted to come next week and help out again.

100% into Thomas!

scoring!

phil, the boy with the glasses, was in the dug out and there was also a father in there with his son. phil said that he was listening to the father give this little boy a hard time about something. when the little boy came up to bat again, phil was coaching home plate and he put his arm around the kid and whispered, "my dad was hard on me too, it will be alright". what phil witnessed really struck a nerve with him and because he was there he was able to reach out to that little boy. who knows if the kid will remember their interaction, but i know phil will.

father and son relationships are so important. vital in my opinion! there is nothing that can replace the desire of a son's heart to please his father. i witnessed it with phil and i witnessed it with micah and matt. matt's role in our son's life (beatrix's too) is ridiculously important! micah will learn to be a man from him. he will learn what kindness and patience and persistence look like and what it looks like to love his wife and family, from matt...

i am so thankful for the role that matt plays in our children's lives.

...in the lives of his students that he loves like his own...

...in the life of this little man that we are raising together.
father and son.
i love watching their relationship.

{thirty five}

december 5th is coming quickly.
i am spending these last few weeks getting ready for christmas, washing baby clothes and other nesting type jobs around the house. i am going in for weekly doctor visits now. and i have labor and delivery dreams almost every night. the baby is measuring right on schedule. matt is getting very excited. every time we do something now (watch tv, read a book, go to church, or do the nighttime routine with the kids) my mind goes to how different our lives will be here very soon. last night micah asked me how many days are left until pips comes.
i gulped, and said 34 days!

the costumes and tricks or treats

Beatrix and Micah have watched the movie RIO enough to have it memorized. and honestly i don't blame them. it is a super cute movie! micah told me a couple of months ago that he really wanted to be one of the characters for halloween. and of course beebs chimed in {in her own special way} that she wanted to be jewel. which is this beautiful blue bird above. and so i set it out to create their costumes. i laid awake a few nights dreaming of different ways to turn them into birds. when it finally came together in my mind i bought the supplies, put it off for a few more days, and then started it a week before halloween. nothing like a deadline, right? i didn't know how i was going to make it happen, i just had an image in my head that i was shooting for. can i just tell you that almost every minute i sat at that sewing machine i was praying? well, it's true, i did. i prayed a lot last week.

bea's finished costume.

complete with tail...

and pink flower in her hair, i mean feathers.

micah wanted to be nico which is the little yellow canary seen in this picture. he is a pretty cool bird in the movie and once again, i do not blame my son for wanting to be something so awesome for halloween. however, when he started stipulating what the costume had to look like and what it needed to include i began to feel a teensy bit overwhelmed. {read that as saying i bit off more then i thought i could chew} he really wanted to make sure i made the bottle cap hat. i had no idea how i was going to do it. like i said i prayed alot, God cares about these things. and it finally came to me. i completed his costume sunday afternoon.

he was MORE than thrilled.

the bottle cap hat. which, you guessed it, stayed on for the pictures.
"sure, buddy, i'll be happy to carry that around the whole neighborhood for you."
no. big. deal.
sigh....mothers

my two birds. they were so happy.

here are the finished pumpkins.
can you guess which one is matt's?
that man is a twisted soul! :)

matt requested i make him a collar for his costume. forgive me father for i have sinned. haha
i tried to find a nun costume and couldn't. i thought about making one for myself for like two seconds. i was sewed out! while i was walking around the neighborhood a lady asked me what i was. i said "oh, i just threw my husband's pirate wig on".
she said, "you mean you really are pregnant?"
i looked at her confused and said, "yes"
and then she said, "oh i thought that was fake and you were dressed as a pregnant hippy." hmmmmm....that's weird.

when we got home beatrix asked for a sucker. i let her and micah have a couple of pieces of candy. a little while later i noticed she didn't have it anymore.
"where did your sucker go beebs?"
she looked around for it and couldn't find it.
matt laughed and said, "it's probably on the floor somewhere".
soon after that i was taking her costume off and something sticky bummed my hand. i looked through all the feathers and held it up for matt to see.
"i found the lost sucker!"

this was our spoil at the end of the night and the last 10 pounds i will gain before this baby comes. ha! matt made me promise not to throw any of it away. however, i may hide it in baggies through out the house. my will power is a little low these days.

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin carving

we came home from the church and carved pumpkins. matt kept laughing to himself like he had something good up his sleeve.

i LOVE how micah had his pumpkin face all planned out.
our son is very very detail orientated.

don't worry i took the knife away right after this picture. i just thought it was funny how determined he was to stab, i mean carve, that pumpkin.

trunk or treat ???

halloween eve our church had something called TRUNK or treat. now this concept was foreign to me until a couple of weeks ago. i guess it is something that a lot of churches are doing now. i'm not sure what i think about it. the concept is a bunch of cars parked in the church parking lot and people in the trunks handing out candy to kids in their costumes.
a little strange, right?
it rained sunday night so our trunk or treat got moved inside. the kids were mostly just thrilled to get to wear their costumes twice.

they had games set up through out the room. this game you had to push the pumpkin around with your head. beatrix followed micah around to every single game.