Vacation Bible School: D3 Agency

About 5 weeks ago, I stepped out of my comfort zone and taught at vacation bible school.  For those that don't know, vacation bible school (or vbs) is a week of fun and learning.  I had a classroom of 12 first graders.  Last year I was an assistant but this year I thought it might be fun to teach.  

A snapshot of one of our kids' belongings.

Miranda, during snack

There's Riley.  

Saying the pledge of allegiance at the end of the day pep rally.  

Chaos.  Pure chaos.  And lots of screaming.  The little girl in the pink dress is Riley.  The guy with the water gun is our youth pastor, Phil.  

Riley, and a group of preschoolers, leading in the music and dance at the pep rally one day.  

At first, I didn't think it would be good to have Hannah in my class.  But then I ended up with Hannah and Ethan, which was awesome.  Hannah wasn't clingy and I got to watch Ethan and her interact.  And do super cute things, like hold hands.  

The next three pictures are my kids at craft time.  I should've taken a picture of Hannah's final product.  In the past, kids have done multiple crafts over the week.  However, this time, they had one craft that they worked on all week.  

There's Big Hannah, looking perky.  But truly, she was a great help for our class.  And she's kinda funny.  

This is my class during music.  Every day they learned a new song and dance moves to accompany the song.  

Pandemonium over the water guns.  

These two pictures show our head pastor, dressed very silly, running around and spraying the kids too.  

See the small girl, with the black shirt and pink skirt?  That's Riley, contributing to the money collected that week for the back pack ministry.  

Story time with Pastor Phil.

More screaming, toe stepping fun.  

Battle of the sexes. 

The bike Hannah won at the conclusion of vacation bible school  It was a big week for Hannah.  She decided to be baptized that week.  After talking it over with David and I, we decided that Hannah was ready to be baptized.   She was more excited about being baptized than the bike. ; )

I had so much fun teaching; I'm already planning to do it again next year.  It was exhausting but rewarding.  

Bringing Joshua home: 2.5 weeks later

The transition to a family of five has gone pretty smooth, so far.  Riley loves her brother, instead of being jealous, like I feared.  She gives him kisses and pats him aggressively.  However, she seems to be happy with the addition.  

Of course Hannah is in love.  She keeps saying he's the most beautiful baby she's ever seen.  

The most surprising change has occurred with David and I.  We've both noticed a calming effect since bringing Joshua home.  It's strange, because I'm not sure how to explain it other than by saying we feel more grounded.  We spent David's entire time off at home, organizing.  Instead of searching for excitement, we're searching maintenance.  

David and I are embracing ways to make life more simple.  For example, we've started using the dishwasher.  It's the first time in our marriage we've used a dishwasher for something other than food storage.  For those of you that have seen our teeny tiny kitchen, you can imagine the all day chore of finding a home for all the items in the dishwasher.  

Joshua is wonderful.  So far, he's a pretty easy going baby.  He does eat a lot.  Now, I know all infants eat a lot but Joshua truly does.  Every day he was a "binge" period it seems.  Most of the time it happens late in the day.  During this period, he eats for an hour and a half to two hours straight.  

The picture below is at Joshua's dedication last week.  A dedication is like an introduction to the the church.  The pastor and congregation say a prayer over the baby, as well.  During the dedication, our Pastor said some very nice things to David and I, how we were the first people on board with the new location our church is trying to begin, and how much he loved us and appreciated the work we've put into the new church location.  

One bit of interesting news: my first morning alone with all the kids, Riley slipped on a kitchen chair.  She was sitting in it, and I was right beside her though I still can't figure out exactly how it happened.  My guess is that she slipped on the chair and her knees went back in the seat, so her upper body went forward and she busted her mouth on the side of the kitchen table.  Then she somehow managed to slip off the entire chair and face plant on the ground.  For those of you that have never seen our kitchen table, it's bar height, so the chairs are taller than standard kitchen table chairs.  I felt confident I was going to pick Riley up and her mouth and nose were going to be a bloody mess.  As it was, her teeth bleed, for the entire day, but no other injuries were found.  For my kid that rebounds so quick, it took me a full hour to calm her down.  It was quite the fall, that gave us both a good scare.  This was much later in the day.  

The very next day, she walked in to the corner of the doorway, giving herself a big ol goose egg on her forehead.  

David joked about installing nanny cams on me! ; )

After such a short time with us, Joshua has already made a lasting impact!   

My Hometown: What I'll Miss

I'm saying goodbye to Fayetteville, again.  Except this time it's for Chicago.  I'm sad.  This moves hurts, it hurts to say goodbye, it hurts that we didn't make it work here.  I'll miss my family.  Pretty much my entire family lives within a 10 to 20  minute drive of our Hope Mills home.  On the other hand, there are things that I am very excited about living in Chicago for; museums and culture galore.  And 18 mile paved, running/cycle track along lake Michigan.  In honor of the city I call home, here's some other things I'll miss.

Arran Lakes has been my church home since I moved in with my Grandma when I was 4.  I have a very special relationship with church because my Grandma has been there since the church doors opened.  I know the pastor on a more personal level.  And I like that.  He preached my grandfather's funeral.  He was there the day  my Grandma was wheeled in for her mastectomy.  He baptized me when I was 12 years old and he married David and I.  He baptized David 2 years ago.  I have history with Pastor Jeff and the church.  When Riley was at Duke, they donated money to David and I, as well as countless, round the clock praying for her health.  Arran Lakes was our church home.  And they're doing things: http://www.dontgotochurch.org/.  I'm sad that I will not be here to witness this, because I believe it's going to be life changing.  

The doctor's at Fayetteville Children's Clinic are phenomenal! There are three doctor's there.  The practice is one of the oldest in Fayetteville and the founding doctor's son practices here today.  Dr. Iskander was the pediatrician for both girls.  I knew I liked her the minute she said "Honey is the only thing proven effective for coughs."  I like, and want, a doctor that doesn't push medicine on patients.  She found Riley's heart murmur, leading to the discovery of her VSD, while Riley was just hours old.  After telling this to many nurses, I know it's very uncommon for it to be found that quickly.  They are the only pediatric clinic to still round for their patients at the hospital.  

Finally, Fayetteville is becoming a city with options!  Sweetbottom's appeals to a more natural sense of parenting.  They sale cloth diapers, slings, and other products in line with a more natural approach to parenting.  They also hold classes for making your own baby legs, a baby wearer group and so forth.  

Hannah's preschool was run through the local YMCA and it's also were I went to the gym at.  It wasn't a fancy gym, but it was everything I needed.  I had a relationship with the employees and the teachers in the Prep program.  The Prep program is awesome.  I really believe the teachers; Ms. Faith, Ms. Pat, Ms. Rakia, Ms. Kat and Ms. Lisa, are there because they love working with kids.  Hannah had been there for 2 1/2 years, growing in the school with the same kids.  And Hannah loved her teachers!  I hated taking Hannah away from this program.  

The sparkling gem of Hope Mills, the owners here will help you out any way they can.  They helped orchestrate a blind taste test for us this past Christmas, which I just learned I have not blogged about yet!  Geesh, I'm behind.  

Another addition to downtown Fayetteville.  The owners are wonderful, helpful and incredibly nice.  They have a fantastic "tea time."

The Marra's.  We were together in Italy, and then together in Fayetteville.  She was always there; to listen, to help, and to entertain.  

Our small group at church.  The best group of people at Arran Lakes, or at least I

think so.  ; )

Josh and Leah.  While they don't live in Fayetteville anymore, it's where Josh's parents are, which meant that Josh and Leah will always come back to visit.  Now we're 12 hours apart and it's going to be much harder to see them!

Jared and Noelle.  These two very quickly became close friends.  Since Josh and Leah left for DC, we didn't have a "regular" set of friends.  Then we met Jared and Noelle, and they became our regular friends.  It wasn't "do you want to do something this weekend?" it was "what are we doing this weekend?" 

Dr. Miller with Duke Children's Cardiology.  This was Riley's Pediatric Cardiologist.  I love him! He was honest and took his time with David and I.  He never made us feel rushed or like our questions were unimportant.  

My backyard.  It was big and beautiful, with my flower beds and organic garden, my fruit trees and my birds.  

We had bbq's, cornhole games, vegetable and lots of water play in this backyard.  And now it'll offer someone else that same joy, hopefully.  My next backyard will be a re-creation of this one.