I won’t take nothing but a memory

…from the house that built me. 

Goodbye 253 11th Street NE

The house I grew up in, as of today, no longer belongs to my parents. They made the 1 mile trek across town to a new and improved house. I’m trying not to care that they left my house.

They left my back yard where I slept on the tramp with my grandma when I was 10
and my bedroom where I was 15 and cried over my boyfriend & freshman girls who were mean to me
The basement where I had my 16th birthday party
They left the spray painted names I graffitied on the inside of the garage walls
They left the wall that I at least assisted in making 4 holes in at the bottom of the steps
They left my bathroom where I got ready for 4 proms, my high school graduation… and 3 years later got ready for my first date with my hubby
They left the house where we had Easter egg hunts, we celebrated Christmas for 13 years, we had birthday cakes and Sunday dinners.  
But I can let that house go. It really is just walls and a ceiling. All those things are just the memories… and those I can take with me.

I did gain a few things from them moving.
An antique gas burning lamp. I love it. It was my great grandparents. I haven’t found the right place for it just yet, but I will someday. Maybe next to my antique white rod iron bed frame that I slept on every day of my life until I went to college. It was also my great grandparents. I’m thinking I will be transforming one of our basement bedrooms into my old-stuff-I-love-so-much room… once we go get the antique rocking chair I also told my mom I wanted.

Wade is more than excited about all this old stuff I took to our house! ha.. he’s lacking, we’ll say… enthusiasm, but I’m reminding him daily to accept it because she’s staying. 

SHE being this grandma.
I call her grandma, because she’s 91. That’s 13 in people years. This is Kobee the newest member of the Kroeze family.

She has arthritis which makes her hobble, and her fur is thinning so much you can see her skin. She sleeps most of the day, but I love her. She was my pet. You know the one you grew up with, and no matter how homely she may get you will always love her. Yep, this is her. Daisee likes her, and I’m glad they have each other to sleep on the couch with for hours each afternoon. 

Wade’s outside busy right now packing up the boat for tomorrow because we’re heading to beach house for the holiday weekend.   And I’m getting a little giddy about it…  Click HERE to remember last summer at the beach house.

Happy Weekend!
-A

364 days later….

One day before his first birthday I got to take these pictures of my little buddy. 
Do you know why they call eyes “baby blues”? Check these out and you will see…

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My fav…

not so little anymore

He started out his life one year ago today, just the tiniest baby.   Check THIS out… 

Doesn’t this picture just say…. “it’s my party I can cry if I want to”  :)

Our only nephew Karson turned 1 today! It was so fun to spend the weekend at his house, and go to his birthday party today.

Yesterday I took his 1 year pictures. Those will be posted in the near future, but here’s a preview…
 
Karson you are all boy. You’re also the only boy…that makes you the prince of our castle. You’re rough & tough and love to stick everything in your mouth! I think you have 5 rolls on your arms alone…  your thighs are a whole other story; and I love every roll. Your uncle Wade is so glad to have a nephew to play boy toys with.

After the bedazzled with sprinkles cake and multitude of brightly wrapped presents the sprinkler came out for its summer debut… and these two couldn’t be happier.

In this family-castle-of-kids-we-desperately-love if Karson is our prince, these would be the princesses…

   

Happy Birthday blue eyed boy! We love you…

Sunny Spring Sunday

Gabby (the oldest of the foster girl gang living with my parents) made this family room out on my parents lawn last night. There was a boy room and a girl room. There were dolls, and babies, and kids, and grown ups pretending not to be so grown up. And we took naps, and cuddled, and told secrets. And there were airplane rides.

First there were airplane rides holding on tight.

And then she got brave. And we made really cool shadows. The view from here…. And we ate hamburgers, and baked beans, and strawberries. As Wade would says, “it’s just like summer”. Because lately, everything to him is “just like summer”. I love that he’s a kid too… just like me. And then the sun started to set, and we needed a new mode of transportation…and some warmer clothes. She’s just as pretty as her sister. Senia you steal my heart.And we made a bonfire and snuggled under blankets.  I watched a 5 year old big sister love on her little sister, who she has taken care of her whole life.
But of course after a perfect Sunday comes once again, Monday. And cleaning, and laundry, and all the things you forget about on Sundays when your cuddling brown eyed girls :)

sweet spot

Okay. This is me, officially stepping onto my soapbox:
get ready…set.. go…
Do you feel like you’re in the “sweet spot” of life? You make enough money to pay the bills, and still do some fun stuff on the side. You buy most of the things you oh-so-desperately-need. Money seems to come and go about as easy and unintentional as your next breath.  This would be my soapbox confession… I’m way too comfy in our little sweet spot of life. 

There is a blog I read (one of my many total stranger blogs I love) whose husband is working his last week at his job. From here on…they have no income. Yet she continues to be positive, praising God in knowing that our money really doesn’t belong to us at all. She has faith they will be able to continue to feed their 3 kids…even if it’s all from their own garden for the time being. I can only hope my faith would be that strong.

There was a point in my life where I wouldn’t think for more than a couple of minutes before buying a hundred dollar pair of jeans. Because I needed them of course. When did I  get so materialistic? It’s something I catch myself thinking about a lot. What do we have all this stuff for? We certainly have more than we need.  And why when I know I don’t need it, is it so hard to just give it away?

I know what you’re thinking…. (you Wade) “I’m so going to remind you of this next time you want to go shopping." Yes I need that reminder, and I love that you have shown me I can get rid of enough clothes so I only fill my 1/2 3/4 of the closet, and still find something to wear :)

Back to the hundred dollar jeans. I spent my a hundred dollars in a different way today.

On her…

This is Percy. She lives in Haiti.

You would not believe what $100.00 will buy for her.
Because of this money she will get to attend a school. She will get one hot meal a day. She will get a backpack, a pair of shoes, and school supplies. She will also (this makes me feel sick) be de-wormed. The fact that these kids have to be de-wormed breaks my heart. And she will get all of these things for a WHOLE YEAR.  For the same amount of money I would spend on 1 pair of jeans. 

This is God’s money, not mine…he wouldn’t want me to waste it on jeans. Percy needs new shoes, and a hot meal, and a chance at life.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in your own lives, and just be content. It’s too easy to forget that half way around the world millions of babies are starving. I’m not rich by American standards, but to those hungry babies I might as well be the richest person in the world. Do you think you’re rich? Check this out…. click HERE. You will not be sorry you took 2 minute to watch this.

If you would like to forgo your “$100 jeans” (aka: smoking, lattes, Blackberry… you fill in the blank) and help a child like Percy you can do that by clicking HERE. You don’t even need to have $100. You can sponsor a younger child for only $50 a year! It’s astonishing… what you can do for so little.

okay…this speech is over; I’m stepping off the soapbox. For now… But don’t expect it to be over for good.
I have a feeling this may only be the beginning :)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Matthew 6:25-27

take me out

…to the ball game take me out to the park gym/truck shed
buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks
I don’t care if we never get back… 
for it’s root root root for the home team
if they don’t win it’s a shame
for it’s 1..2..3 strikes, you’re out
at the old ball game!!

This Sunday night was our 2nd annual Mother’s Day wiffle ball game with my Dad’s side of the family. Not sure how wiffle ball and Mother’s Day go together, but in this family, competition goes with every day of the year.

Following wiffle ball? Banana splits….
with twice as much syrup & carmel & whipped cream than ice cream… yuuuuum!
  Nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day Mom, I appreciate you so much!” like sticky strawberry syrup covered kids on a sugar high.
I love it.

Don’t rain on my parade

I am one of those people who can’t say no. I offer to do things before I really think about whether or not I can or even want to do it.  I just always think, “oh I can help”.

I am (on a committee) planning a parade for our town’s “Summer Celebration”. And making arrangements for our town’s float to go to all the area parades… which means lining up 8/10 kids to ride the float for each parade, along with costumes, times, dates and addresses. Oh yea, and doing everything I can to get some bands in this parade! (who doesn’t love a parade of 20 tractors?!)
 
Oh my, this can overwhelm a perfectionist. 

I’m not regretting it… but at this moment I’m feeling like I bit off a little more than I can chew.  It’ll be a fun day, when we get to that point that the planning is complete; we sit back and watch the band march by, and the parade unfold with out a flaw, HA! :)    

With a planner that looks like this…  …that doesn’t allow too much time for parade planning.
See that on the bottom right? Yea… that would be the weekend. boo. 

Or should I say, booyah.

I’ll go with booyah. We’re blessed. We have friends who get married, sister-in-law who graduates from law school, cousin’s twins turning 2, friend’s baby who gets baptized, family getting together for Mother’s Day… and invite us to be a part of them all. 

It’s all in how you look at it.  We couldn’t be more blessed to be BUSY. Our busy weekend is a weekend of celebrating all the people we love!  I know I’m not the only busy person in the world. I know there are people FAR busier than I am. Where do you find a balance between helping others and just plain doing too much? When the mound of things on the to do list gets too long…be thankful there is a list at all.  

Oh yea, and would you all mind praying now that June 5 would be sunny and 75 degrees? okay, good thanks. I really don’t want to call off this parade! :)

mom

Mother:
1 : a female parent  (1) : a woman in authority;  (2) : an old or elderly woman (we’ll scratch that part, haha)
2 : maternal tenderness or affection

I was standing in Hallmark Saturday morning staring at the rows and rows of Mother’s Day cards. There are millions… one for every title of any woman in the world I think... sisters, childcare providers, aunts, grandmothers, nieces, friends, expectant mothers... you get the idea. Feeling very overwhelmed (by how expensive it would be to thank them all! ha) It got me thinking; is this Hallmark’s ploy at guilting you into buying 30 Mother’s Day cards? or is this holiday really just, about all women? 

Who is your mom? With Mother’s Day a week away, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a mom. Yes I’ve been lucky enough to spend my whole life (growing up)with my birth mom. I’m lucky, because my birth mom is a wonderful woman more than capable of taking care of me. She gave birth to me, and cared for me my whole life. But she’s not the only Mom I have. See definition 2.

maternal tenderness or affection.

By that definition there are many many women worth celebrating this Mother’s Day.  What women in your life do you need to celebrate?

Your Mother.
Your Grandmother, or Great-Grandmother. 
Your Stepmother.
Your Birth Mom. Your Adoptive Mom. Your Foster Mom.
Your wife Mom.
Your auntie Mom.
Your teacher Mom.
Your sister Mom.
Your lady from church Mom.
Your babysitter Mom.
Your neighbor Mom.
Your best-friend Mom.
Your nurse Mom. Your doctor Mom.
Your complete stranger Mom.

Anyone who takes care of you needs a little appreciation sometimes. I’m not secretly working for Hallmark. I don’t even suggest you go and buy them all a card…but at least think about all the wonderful women in your life. 
If you haven’t, read the book Captivating, Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge. Buy it for someone who is your “mom” for Mother’s Day maybe? I think I’ve read it 5 times. 

Here is what the book says about being “a mom”:
“ As large as the role is that our mothers play, the word mother is more powerful when used as a verb than as a noun. All women are not mothers, but all women are called to mother. To mother is to nurture, to train, to educate, to rear. As daughters of Eve, all women are uniquely gifted to help others in their lives become more of who they truly are- to encourage, nurture, and mother them toward their true selves. In doing this, women partner with Christ in the vital mission of bringing forth life. 
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 “
- Captivating

Thank you to all my Moms!

Happy Mother’s Day