Thoughts from today...

This morning I registered Zeke for three days of preschool for next year.  My baby is growing up!  As I was standing in line to turn in the paperwork this morning I got a little tear in my eye... before I know it I will be sending him off to kindergarten, elementary, junior high school, high school... oh goodness, time goes by way too fast!
Today I had a MOPS leaders meeting that was both heavy and heartwarming.  I know it must sound silly to have both of those adjectives in the same sentence but this is why... heavy, because the mentor mom shared her story of her daughter.  In December of 2006 her 36 year old daughter jumped to her death off of the Golden Gate bridge.  The mentor mom just encouraged everyone that there are things that come into our lives but , "That God does not waste even the smallest life experiences to change them around and be used in the life of someone else as a blessing and encouragement."  Heartwarming because another mom of the MOPS leaders group shared the battle that she has been going through since the birth of her one and only son.  Her son was born with a rare genetic disease that to date there are only three living boys with as well as dwarfism.  She shared that she had to fly to Seattle with her son so that he could have this surgery.  While there she got to meet a mom of a daughter that has this same disease as well as she got to go to a play group with children that were all dwarfs.  As I listened to her story I was just in awe at what a mom can do.  She has fought for her son's life with doctors, insurance, and just the daily struggles and she is so positive.  This mom would be one of the few people that I would like to sit down with and just spend a day in her life, yes, I know that I could never truly know or feel what it is that she knows or feels but her strength just amazed and impacted me so profoundly I was in tears! 
On a lighter note, I absolutely love mid-day visits with my husband!  Today the boys and I met Michael by his job site for lunch.  There is something special about getting out of my regular routine and doing something that we don't normally do (eating lunch out... and getting to visit with Michael).  Last week Michael was working long days as well as he had to work on Saturday.  It is hard on him to not really get to see the boys.  On Sunday Michael kept saying how much Ki had changed in that week!  I think being that Ki is at an age where we put him to bed at night and get him up in the morning and he has changed, makes a week with really not seeing him but a minute or two really hard on Michael.  So our afternoon date was a fun one, I truly treasure those times that we get to sneak away from the daily chores and have a little time with each other!

Randomness

After three years my husband and I finally decided who side of the bed is whose.  I know that this must sound absurd, it was a silly thing to me too.  When Michael and I got married he said on our anniversary we will trade sides of the bed to change things up.  That was really weird to me, my parents were married for 20 plus years and they had their sides of the bed and that was that.  I was willing to go with it!  Just last week Michael informed me that he had decided on his side of the bed, which was not his side of the bed for this year.  So now after three years I sleep on the right side of the bed and Michael on the left - that is that!
Ki has decided that now that he can climb stairs that it is way more fun to be upstairs in the bedrooms then it is to be down where all the toys are.  This afternoon I watched him climb up the stairs and then go in and sit in Zeke's room.  There are no toys in there, nothing to get into but he just sat there so proud of himself!
I just fed both of my boys the same lunch!  This is quiet a hurdle to overcome as a mommy - usually I make Zeke his lunch and then have to make a lunch for Ki which usually consists of rice cereal and some puffs.  Today my boys ate hot dogs, cheese, banana, pears and then Zeke had some crackers.  Zeke ate one and a half hot dogs, two pears, half a banana, cracker and cheese... Ki ate one and a half hot dogs one pear, half a banana and some cheese!  Ki almost ate the same amount of food as his brother that is two years older then he. 
Zeke is going through a phase right now where he will not eat anything that he can not eat with his chop sticks.  This phase began last week and is continuing on strong this week.  I am having to get creative in my sandwich cutting skills and lunch ideas to come up with chop stick approved sizes of food.
While we were at Costco on Saturday Michael decided that he wanted to try the Pepsi throwback so we got a pack.  While in the store Michael is telling me that he might drink one or to out of the entire box but heck we would get the whole pack and have it around for people that visit.  That night we got home and opened the pack and drank one.  The next day Michael drank another and today I found myself drinking one with my lunch.  Those darn things are really good - it is amazing what using real sugar does to a drink!  If you are thinking about trying it - go for it, they are good!
Like I titled this - randomness... my head has been running from one thought to another, kind of hard to follow I am sure, but that is my life at least for today!

Have a great day!

Admitting for the world

Okay so here is my mommy moment for the day... as I am sitting here uploading pictures to facebook and my blog I hear a noise upstairs in the boys bathroom.  I walk around the corner to find Ki standing in front of the potty smiling a huge goofy grin.  He has conquered the stairs, found the potty room and the toilet which provides much fun for splashing!  Am I in trouble or what!?!?!  Goodness, and I thought I had my hands full with Mr. Zeke, now that Ki is mobile I think I might have to start sleeping with one eye open.

Stair Climbing Fool

Ki is officially a stair climbing fool!  Today I had to run upstairs from the basement and I came right back to the door and I heard Ki a little closer then I thought... he was at the top of the stairs trying to get the door open!  Tonight I was getting dinner plated and I turn around and Ki is at my feet, I had left him in the living room with Zeke for a "dance party".  He hasn't totally gotten the going down the stairs but I know it is only a matter of time.  My baby is growing up!

Mom of Two

In case you were wondering I do have two children!  There are times in the last few days that I feel bad because Ki stories are not as widely told as Zeke stories.  Both of my boys have personalities... sometimes I wish I could tame them down, however they both are unique and make me smile.  Ki has taken on the personality of watching... I think being that he has an older brother that keeps us all busy plays a role in that personality trait.  Ki is my smiler... sure Zeke smiles, but when Ki smiles his whole face smiles, he has these little lips that just melt my heart.  There are times that I sit and watch my boys and can't help but wonder what the next few years are going to be like.  I just laugh and pray that I will maintain my sense of humor!  There are days when Ezekiel just about wears my down to raw nerves and I wonder how he and I are going to make it through teen years.  Ki has this temper that goes from happy go lucky to pissed in two seconds flat... oh goodness my boys are going to rumble!  I suppose being that Ki is so young still he is still working on being his own person.  Just within the last few weeks Michael and I have been noting some of Ezekiel's personality that is shinning through... frustrating and endearing all in the same.  So I know that Ki will too have his time where I am consumed with his stories.  So, yes I have two boys, both with personality galore... however in this season Zeke's stories are new and fresh, as his vocabulary is growing as well as his desire to be Mr. Independent (which he gets from his daddy! Smiles!)

Degrees of my stories

Today Michael called me to check in and see how our day was going, as he often does.  It never fails that I have a story to share with him.  Today I said, "Honey I have a story for you."  He replies with, "About who?"  I think in the back of his mind he already knew about who... I simply say "about Ezekiel."  Michael in return says, "So it isn't an Ezekiel Michael story?"  I chuckle and then realize how true is that...

The degrees of stories go:

A Zeke story - funny, makes you smile

An Ezekiel story - funny but makes you kind of tilt your head and say, "What are you thinking child?"

An Ezekiel Michael story - funny for others to hear, but not funny for mom to experience... okay maybe funny after the fact but definitely not in the midst of the story unfolding!

So today I had an Ezekiel story to share with Michael and now you too!
The boys and I were playing down in the basement when I had to run upstairs to go to the bathroom.  I informed the boys that I would be right back and not to worry.  As usually when I run upstairs, even if it is to go to the bathroom I have an entourage!  So I go upstairs go to the bathroom and then get a drink of water.  I am walking down the basement stairs and I see that the freezer downstairs is open.  My first thought is, What in the heck is Zeke doing!  I get downstairs and see that Michael's son (hehehehe) has gotten out a package of edamame, has opened it and tried munching through two frozen pods.  The evidence is obvious... green pods all stingy and soggy laying on the table and Michael's son (hehehehe) is hiding in the tent.  I ask him what he is doing and he simply looks at me and says, "Mooooom me hungry!"  So I tell him that if he is hungry that he needs to ask me and I am more then willing to get him a snack.  So we go upstairs and I warm up the package and then he proceeds to polish off the entire package by himself.

The Importance of Hide-A-Keys

Just in case you were thinking that Hide-A-Keys were lame, or for that matter just for your car... let me tell you otherwise.  Tonight as I was making dinner my life was in the hands of a two and a half year old!  I went out to check the meat on the bbq and low and behold my son... scratch that, Michael's son, thought it would be funny to lock me outside. 
Here is the picture... I am in short sleeves, thin pants, slippers, running outside after getting the rice and veggies in the steamer to check on the meat.  Zeke jumps up from the couch, where I have had him laying most of the day trying to rid this stinking coughing crud, plows over his brother and locks the sliding glass door.  I promptly go to the door and tell him to open it.  He smiles and shakes his head no.  By this time Ki has recovered from the tackle  and has now perched himself in front of the sliding glass door and is banging on it and smearing his snotty, slobbery face all over it.  I try to keep my cool and decide that since I can see both the boys that I am not going to make a big deal of it and just stay outside until my meat is done and then hopefully the novelty of the locked door will have ceased and I will be granted access back into my house.  But of course things couldn't be that easy! 
Oh no, not for Andrea!  The bbq ran out of propane... now my meat is getting cold - it is like 40 degrees out.  I thought for a minute, banged on the slider and then thought, maybe the novelty of the front door bell being rung might bring Zeke to open the door.  Nope!  I rung that darn bell a bunch of times with no prevail.  So I trudged back to the back yard, grabbed my meat off the now cold grill and began the pleading.  The screaming was not helping, the full name use was no use, the calm, cool and collected voice just made him jump on my couch and laugh... so I brought out the pleading, "do you want to watch another movie, if so open the door" - thankfully that worked.  Mind you by this time the entire neighborhood now knows Zeke's full name, my fist hurts and my patience is 100% gone! 
I am finally granted access to my own.  Upon my entrance I lay into Zeke... this is where I will spare the details!
I get dinner made and allow Zeke to come down and eat dinner.  While sitting down for dinner I get a call from Michael saying that he is on his way home and I share with him the adventure of the evening.  He chuckles and says, "Well at least you have a key in garage for when you get locked out."  I simply said, "Well that did not help me tonight did it?" 
The boys and I finish dinner and went to the basement to play for a little while and then I hear Michael come in the door and he yells for Zeke.  Come to find out, Zeke covered all his bases... he even locked the garage door.  Mentally I am thinking, well at least we had a spare key in the garage.
Goodness gracious - this better be a phase that ends very quickly or else we are going to have to lock Zeke in his room... not for reals, don't worry! 

Boys vs Girls

Today I took Zeke to Jumpstreet... he really wanting to go sledding, like he did yesterday with daddy but I can't really do that with Ki... so the next best thing, Jumpstreet.  Oh goodness to difference between boys and girls is night and day.  No this is not a new revelation for me, however being at Jumpstreet makes it like neon light different.  We went at 12:30... had an early lunch and then went and jumped our hearts out.  Zeke ran around like a wild banshee and had a blast... has a goose egg on his forehead and a fat lip to prove it!  This child makes friends every where we go and they always seem to be older boys.  The two kids that he paled up with were both four years old.  The first was Sam... Zeke and he ran around from one thing to the next tripping over their own feet and just kept on going.  When the other kids saw them coming they parted to seas!  Playing with  Sam was when Zeke got the goose egg, he was racing with Sam and looked back to see where Sam was (behind him) and plowed into another child... knocked them both on their butts, leaving then both with immediate goose eggs.  Sam left and Zeke found Jake.  Those two wrestled something fierce on the trampolines.  Girls came to play on the trampolines and wound up leaving.  While Jake and Zeke were playing... rough I might add, Jake fell down and Zeke come over and then bounced and Jake lost his footing and his head knocked Zeke in the mouth.  Blood appeared before the tears did.  I told Zeke he needed to slow down and that didn't do much... the child just kept on going!  Two hours of hard playing and I still could not get the child to nap. 

Paid in Full

Yesterday while at MOPS I get a text from Michael reminding me that I needed to go to Kaiser to pay our debt.  After MOPS I get Zeke from preschool and we all head over to the clinic to pay our monthly payment.  I walk in and get my cards out to pay like I have done for the last few months.  The receptionist asks me what I am doing there and I tell her that I am there to make a payment on our account.  She smiles and says that it has been paid in full, that our account is zero.  I chuckle and then ask, "Seriously?"  She asks me to sit down and she will contact her supervisor to make sure that she is checking everything correctly.  A few minutes later she calls me back to the desk and says again, your account has been paid in full.  I am still in disbelief so she turns her computer screen around so that I can see our account... she's right, there are all zeros on our account.  Being the skeptic that I am ask if there is another person that I can call to triple check that this is the case.  She smiles and agrees.  I leave the clinic and call Michael right away to verify with him that we had a balance and what that balance was.  I get home and make a call to the top supervisor and she too confirms that our account has been paid in full.  I question her to make sure that our account wasn't sent to collections or something, she verifies that it was paid and then agrees to send me a zero balance invoice for my records.  Still today I am in shock, I don't know who or how our account was paid in full but I am totally blessed by it!  I thought maybe our luck was running so I called the hospital that Ki was born at to see if by chance that bill was paid in full... no such luck!  Oh well, having the Kaiser bill from Ki's birth paid for is a big thing!  I guess miracles do happen!  Now just for all our debt to be paid in full and us to be able to afford a house to buy... one can wish, right?

Book Recommendations

Can someone please recommend a good book for me to read?  I was all excited about the book that I got from the library a few weekends back and I read the first chapter and was pleased... then the book took a turn and the main character was having an affair with a married man and it went into detail about their sexual experiences and I was done!  I don't need to read about people having affairs with married people and I really don't need to read their in detail escapades.  There is enough of that in real life that I don't want to spend my down time before I fall asleep reading about it.
So with that said I am looking for a good book to read.  I really like Karen Kingsbury and Lori Wick... as of right now I have read just about all of their books.  I also like Nicholas Sparks and have read all of his except for the newest. 
I am looking for a light read, something that is not a downer, something that is a quick read - as the only time I really have to read is before I fall asleep in the evening. 
Please if you have any suggestions let me know!  I have sarcastically been saying for the last nine months that about the only thing that I can get through is a magazine article and even that is iffy.  I am wanting to expand my reading collection so please help me!

Snow Days

I never thought that I would say this but I love snowy days.  I love getting on the weather channel and seeing that there is a percentage chance that I am going to get snow.  I love waking up in the morning and the snow is falling. 
All weekend and week I knew that snow was supposed to come.  Last night when I got up the two times with Ki I was all bummed because the snow had snot started falling yet.  This morning when I woke up and looked out my bedroom window the skies were clear I was really bummed because last night the forecast said 85% chance of snow.  However a quick walk from the front of the house to the back of the house the two sides were drastically different.  Pink sunrise clouds in the front and black storm clouds in the back!  I found myself getting excited.  The snow took a little while to finally come.  Around nine thirty it started the snow but it was only little snow flakes. 
As I am sitting here now the oven is warming up to bake my chocolate chip cookies, the snow is falling big snow flakes and my boys are napping - life really can not get much better!  Well the oven just beeped to let me know it is warmed up... off to bake a few dozen cookies.

Christmas Money

I love Christmas money!  Today Michael, the boys and I headed to the outlet mall in Castle Rock and we spent some Christmas money.  Michael and I got three new pans from the Calphalon store.  I swear I could have left Michael there for two more hours and he would have been in heaven.  After quiet a long time in there I had to put the items on the counter and just pay for what we had.  If I didn't I am sure that Michael would have found three or more pieces to buy.  When I was finally able to tear Michael away from the store we went to Stride Rite, my new favorite shoe store for the boys and got a new pair of tennis shoes for Zeke, which according to him help him run faster and a new pair of shoes for Ki.  Yep you read that correctly, shoes for Ki!  My baby is starting to take steps.  He has been wearing Zeke's old Robeez but Michael feels very strongly about allowing Ki to get a few things of his own that are not all hand me downs.  Plus the shoes we got him have a little more traction on the bottom!  All in all a fun day, although now Michael is saying that he wants to put a little money aside every month to go back to the Calphalon store and get a new pot every few months.  I just smiled and pat him on his shoulder, I agree that our pots and pans have seen better days - but they are not by any stretch of the imagination seen their full life!  Between cooking stores and tool stores my hubby would be in heaven, and there are days that I think cooking stores would win hands down!

Ten Years

Twenty Ten marks a big mile stone for me.  I have been out of high school for ten years now - that's right I graduated June of 2000.  Can that be possible?  I have been out of high school for ten years now!  Ten years ago if you were to ask me what I thought I would be doing now, I don't think any of this would have been in my mind! 
Ten years ago I was dating my very first boyfriend (convinced of course that I was going to marry him) - you know beyond the junior high crushes.  I was graduating high school one year ahead of my friends... I decided to do home school for the last three years of high school and plowed through my school work. 
In August of 2000 my friend and I headed off to Calvary Chapel Bible College.  I spent a semester there and then decided to attend Palomar Community College in San Marcos to get my early childhood development courses taken care of.  Through a turn of events I moved to Romania for a season.  That season in Romania allowed me to grow up and really experience some of the best times in my life!  I returned from Romania a changed person.  I worked at Maranatha Chapel Schools for a few years.
In May of 2004 I became paralyzed.  During that season of my life I was completely confident that the God that I served had some great and wonderful plans for me.  I spent a few months in a wheel chair not knowing what would become of me.  Little did I know that the end of July I would purchase a home in Colville, Washington and in August be on the roof helping to re-roof my first home! 
In December of 2004 I was given the opportunity to move to Spain and be a full time nanny.  I jumped at the opportunity!  In June of 2005 I found myself back in San Diego.  I went to work for Maranatha Chapel.  For a short season I was blessed to be a part of the Frostad family - a family that will forever be in my heart! 
Little did I know that in January of 2006 Alycia would be a volleyball player for my future husband!  June 15, 2006 would mark the very first date with my forever boyfriend, Michael Kulow.  November 12, 2006 Michael and I vowed to stand next to each other through thick and thin!  On April 15, 2007 Michael and I welcomed our first son into the family - Ezekiel Michael joined us three weeks early and has been keeping us busy ever since.  July 28, 2008 Michael, Ezekiel and I moved to Colorado.  A move that I was very much against however has proven to be the very best for us!  On April 29, 2009 Michael and I got to meet our second son - Malachi Alan joined us and has made our family complete! 
Ten years - a decade!  Graduated from high school experienced so much that life had to offer and now am the happiest I have ever been.  I am Michael's wife and Zeke and Ki's mom - life is good!  Life sure has a way of taking some crazy turns and turning out exactly how God plans!

Dedication

Why is that the two things that I know my life needs take just a little too much dedication than I have?  Tonight as I was sitting in church I was convicted that I have not taken the needed time in the word that I need.  Pastor Bill said something along the lines of, unless you are in His word then you cannot be proclaiming His name... not those words exactly, but that was what I took away.  Ouch!  Is all I have say!  Reading the Bible is one of those things that I know my daily life needs as well as exercise.  I know that everyone says that come January first.  I have been trying to muster up the energy to get out and get some exercise, eating right is not going to get all this weight off alone. 
I know that my life needs these two things.  I know that these two things will make a huge impact on my daily life.  With all that said, sleep and life seem to get in the way of even the best intentions.  Why is that?  I know that I have two small children but that can't be a good excuse for that long.  Another thing Pastor Bill said tonight in church that hit me is, "It is far harder to maintain a daily walk than it is to start one."  That of course is referring to a daily Christian walk.

2010

I greeted the new year at 5:20am.  I think in all my years of life I have only greeted the new year at midnight a handful of times.  I have never been a late night person, for that I am okay.  Although I will say that I was awoken at 11:45pm by some premature celebrating in my street with fire crackers.  Come on people if you are going to celebrate the new year at least get it at the right time!
Michael brought in the new year by taking tenth in Tiger Woods Wii... he is addicted!  I think today I will have to challenge him.

Hope that you enjoy your new year day with something special.