D: what kind of Popsicle do you have Eli?
E: flavor
D: yes, what kind of flavor?
E: flavor, that’s what kind of Popsicle I have.

This morning’s offering (while getting shoes on to go to daycare) was a bit more strange:

When I get bigger I’m gonna be a girl and have a baby in my tummy. Noah will get in my tummy and he’ll be small like baby Caleb.

Caleb is a new baby that belongs to our friends who live a few blocks away. This evening my niece, Alexis, stole the show. After dinner she was washing her hands and splashed a couple drops of water on her dress and proceeded to sob. While doing so, she yelled out:

I’m melting!

I’d hate to see what happens if she were to get caught in the rain. The crazy thing about this stuff is for every item I post here, they’ve said 30 weird and hilarious things that I didn’t manage to write down.

Over the past 4 years, our family has been greatly blessed by Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, MN. In July of 2008, during a routine ultrasound, we learned that our unborn baby boy had something called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS – left side of his heart is too small to be functional). On November 11th, Eli Mathias, was born – our miracle baby. He had his first open-heart surgery at 10 days old. Eli had his second open-heart surgery at 5 months old. He had his third (and hopefully final) open-heart surgery last summer, at 2.5 years old. Between surgeries, doctor visits and heart catherizations, Eli has spent several months throughout his short life at Children’s Hospital.

Today, Eli is 3.5 years old and has a zest for life, he loves to watch movies, help out around the house and outside, play baseball and talk your ear off. We thank God every day for the miracle that Eli is and for the joy he brings to our lives.

Our friends, The Porta’s, have a little boy named, Elijah, who also has a heart defect which has required surgeries and visits to Children’s. Together we have created a team called, “Double E” to raise funds in honor of our boys.

We ask for your participation in a variety of ways – join our team, make a donation or say a prayer for the families at Children’s.

Below is the race information and our web address. On our website you can make a donation or join our team. We would LOVE to see as many people possible come help us raise funds and raise awareness for pediatric cardiovascular care at Children’s of Minnesota.

Come support “Double E” and Children’s Hospital of Minnesota on Saturday, June 23rd at 9:30am at Father Hennepin Bridge in Minneapolis.

Elijah Porta and Eli Burlingame are amongst the many thousands who have received care and love from the doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital.

Visit: heartbeat5000.kintera.org/doublee
for more details, to join our team or make a donation.

Thank you so much!!

Out off the end of the deck.

Behind the house.

The side of the house.

The front of the house.

I still need to plant my vegetable garden and I hope to get a good start on it this weekend. After 3-years I’m finally getting some stuff done around here. Yay!!

I’m finally done digging under the apple tree and getting all the weeds pulled up.

I got a whole bunch of hostas planted under the tree as well. Yay!

I used what hostas I had left to start planting a row along the side of our house. As you can see, I need more plants but never fear, Dad has plenty more at his house.

I love having a small piece of my mom in my landscaping beauty.

I work for an agency called CESA #11 in Wisconsin. When school districts have student(s) with a hearing loss that is affecting their academics, the districts contact CESA for a DHH (deaf/hard of hearing) teacher to come work with the student(s). Often times we work in multiple districts, in the past I’ve been in as many as 6 school districts, currently I’m just in 2 districts. This year, the two districts that I serve have withdrawn from CESA services which means effective June 30th I will be laid off from CESA. Ellsworth, one of my districts, is planning to hire their own DHH teacher and contract services with Prescott, my other district. I have applied for the teaching position with Ellsworth. As of right now, I am the only applicant for the position. I will not hear anything from the district until the position closes on Friday, May 4th.

Pray that the district will find favor in me, my teaching skills and my abilities to provide student success.

These are hostas and daylilies from my mom’s flower garden. Dad dug them up for me and brought them to my house.

More hostas along the back of the house. We’ll see how well these grow. The soil is very clay-like.

I’m cleaning out underneath the apple tree to plant more hostas.

I spent an hour or so cleaning out some of the underbrush from the brush/trees in the back of the yard. I’m all scratched up on my arms and legs. But it looks so much better back there.

I managed to do some of the planting while having 4 kiddos ranging from 3.5 years to 17 months running around and causing a ruckus.

Dave has gotten most of the yard raked and ‘cleaned’ up. I’m ready to do some landscaping, planting and gardening. We bought some landscaping stones last fall to put in along the sidewalk and we put most of those stones in last week and hope to finish it up this week. It looks wonderful, certainly makes the front of the house much nicer looking. Below is a picture of it in the partial stages. I hope to get a picture up in its finished stage soon.

The garden location will be moving this year to a different location. We are moving it to the back, center of the yard. It will get more direct sunlight, which will hopefully help it to grow better this year. We also need to dig down into the ground to lay some netting under the soil to help prevent critters from eating the roots of my plants and killing them. Another garden biggie this year is going to be putting up a fence around it to keep out other critters. Not a whole lot survived in my garden last year due to critters. Hopefully this year will be more bountiful.

In other good news…we’ve made some major headway with Eli’s potty training success. He has very few accidents and is doing a good job of telling us when he has to go potty (and sometimes even poop). He has been getting A LOT of M&M’s. Each time Eli gets on the potty, Noah points to the M&M’s and says, “M”. Noah gets an M&M each time Eli gets 1 (sits on the potty), 2 (goes potty) or 3 (goes poop). Lots of M&M’s in our house right now. Speaking of…we need to buy more.

In some more other good news…Noah is almost completely OFF his need for his pacifier. Sometimes during the night we’ll give it to him to help him fall back asleep. Otherwise he doesn’t need it for falling asleep at nap time and bedtime any more. Whoohoo!!

These are two big praises to my prayer requests. :-)

We had a wonderful visit together and I came home feeling so encouraged, convicted and renewed spiritually (thank you Katie!!). I was pampered, encouraged and loved. Katie made some really wonderful meals (I hope to get the recipes and will post them here), we went for walks, ate ice cream, did some shopping in downtown La Crosse, crocheted A LOT and talked even more.

Katie and I both crochet. Grandma Babcock taught her and Mom taught me. We shared some giggles on our learning experiences. Mom is a lefty and taught me how to crochet left-handed, I’m a righty. It took some time but I managed to switch over to right-handed crocheting. I couldn’t tell you or show you how to crochet as lefty any more, too many years have passed. Anyway, we went shopping for yarn (I didn’t buy any, even though I wanted to). Katie cleared out some clearance yarn to practice making baby blankets to give away. I finished a baby blanket for a sweet baby girl (I’ll post pictures soon). Like old women, we sat in the sun room and crocheted, chatted and drank tea. It was such a blessed time. Here’s a picture of a hat I crocheted for the sweet baby girl (mentioned above).

Like I said, my time with Katie, left my heart so much lighter and so full of life. We had some wonderful conversations of what God has been doing in our lives. I was sadden to say that it was a struggle to see what He was doing in my life. I was challenged to think of the good things because it seemed like so many “bad” things were so much more prevalent and staring me in the face. As time went on and our conversations continued, Katie really challenged me to dig deep to find, latch onto and remember the good things. I did this and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Thank you Jesus for putting words, encouragement and love in Katie to share with me. Since returning home I have a renewed sense of hope. I want to start working my way off my anti-depressant medication. I want to spend more time in God’s word and fill my heart, mind and soul with truths. I want to start living again. Thank you Jesus!!!

On Wednesday night, we went to youth group (Katie is a leader of some high school students) and I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear the passage that was preached. The verses that really convicted me were James 1:5-7 – “⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord…” This verse has helped to change my way of praying and I LOVE it!!! I have been much more deliberate in my prayers and much more trusting of God to answer those prayers…somehow…someway. For example: we really hit it hard this week to potty train Eli. My prayer each night for him  awareness of his body and to understand the “potty” process. It has been so rewarding to see him do so well, he’s start to get it and is in underwear a little more each day. Yay! Praise Jesus!! Another example: we took away Noah’s plug, he has been so used to having it at naptime, bedtime and occasionally throughout the day. Each night when I put him to bed, I pray that Jesus would provide him with the comfort he needs to sleep well at night. We have seen huge success with this as well. Praise Jesus!!! I definitely have a new outlook on my prayers and how I pray. I’m looking forward to praying more like this and seeing how God answers those prayers.

Here is a picture of my sweet friend, Katie and I.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We are very good friends and have been for a very long time…20 years! Ack, she’s getting old!! But, we can fight like sisters can at the drop of a dime. In fact, Pastor Brian (Katie’s dad), asked if we needed to be separated during a squabble at dinner one night. :-) Katie and I have the type of friendship that can go months without talking and pick up right where we left off. I love having this type of friendship with her, she is my “never-give-up-on-me-and-never-going-away-friend”. Her dog Crystal is sitting in the background.

Eli: What kind of bear is this?
Me: It is a Care Bear. It was Mommy’s when she was little.
Eli: Oh. What is its name?
Me: His name is Tenderheart.
Eli: Oh. I want to call him Thomas.
Me: Ummm. Ok. But his name is Tenderheart.
Eli: Nope, he looks like a Thomas to me. Thanks Mommy! (He runs away.)