"Not Me" Monday

For all of those who are about to read this post- before you do, please pray for MckMama's baby Stellan. His 5-month old heart is failing.

Monday! This is becoming my favorite day of the week. I get to remind myself of what a good mom I am & revel in this upcoming week that hasn't yet been harried, dirtied, disheveled, clumsied, or generally lived in. Yet. On the other hand, LAST week, well, that week got lived in & many things did not happen.

I did not call my brother and ask him where he was only to hear my husband's voice telling me he was right next to me. That was not me.

My daughter did not wake up in the 8:30-9 a.m. range every single day this week except the morning after I had irresponsibly stayed up 'til midnight. I did NOT drag myself out of bed, put a bowl of grapes & a granola bar in the living room & then go back to bed. Um, yeah, whoever that groggy-eyed zombie was, it certainly wasn't me!

Throughout the week, my nearly-two-year-old-rapidly-vocabulary-expanding daughter did not refer to me as "Babe." She did protest impatiently "Babe! Babe!" when I wasn't paying attention to her (which never happens). She did not call expectantly to me from the bathroom when she was done "BA-ABE!" I did not find myself yelling back: "I AM YOUR MOM! YOU CAN CALL ME 'MOMMY'!"

I did not throw all of the couch cusions onto the floor for an indoor jungle gym for Jaycee to play on. Jaycee was not half dressed. It was not super fun & I did not take a video of it. While videoing, I did not ask her what was on her bottom because I wanted her to talk about 'wonder' (underwear). She did not proceed to go through the rest of her bathroom vocabulary & I was not trying to keep my heaving laughter quiet so it wouldn't ruin the video.

I did not find myself explaining to my husband the difference between 'clean' & neat' when he came home from work one day & the house was a wreck but all of my carpet & furniture (including the cushions laid out on the floor) had been cleaned with a carpet cleaner. I am not very grateful to my good friend Jackie for letting me borrow it. After 3 days of going over every room in our apartment, I do not hope to be a proud owner of that thing one day! It also did not do wonders to a certain ketchup stain that did NOT happen.

I positively, absolutely did not become so engrossed in a radio program & my task of slicing oranges that I failed to notice my daughter trying to crawl up the front her highchair. She had not already placed her bowl of scrambled eggs & ketchup on the tray. The result was NOT a crying child with a highchair on top of her in the middle of a huge eggs & ketchup mess. I was not just 3 feet away! AND, I did NOT proceed to scrape up the eggs & put them back in Jaycee's bowl! AND I did not take pictures while she tearfully explained to me "faaaall." And there is most certainly NOT incriminating evidence against me!

We did not get to go see 2 babies yesterday. I did not forget to bring fresh batteries. Who does that when there are adorable, beautiful, gorgeous brand new babies to photograph? Not me! I did not have to take pictures with my phone and/or borrow some batteries so I could capture these awesome shots. I am NOT super excited to feature on my blog:

Adelai Aever Guingrich

(She & Arawen are 3 months apart & they are already best friends. They don't have a choice because I am NOT the kind of mom that picks her children's friends for them.)

The other amazing miracle we went to see AND I am not an incredibly proud aunt to is:

Jonah Ray Getz
I am NOT biased & I do not love this picture. This is not Arawen's favorite cousin because I am also not the kind of mom that chooses favorite cousins for her children. There also is NO reason that the babies featured here are photographed with my children. I do NOT think that a picture of a baby is awesome, but a picture of a baby & one of my children pretty much doubles the cuteness. I am NOT proud like that, and as said before, I am not biased. There is also no reason that only Jordan's arms made it into these photographs. That was NOT on purpose.

MckMama, the originator of "Not Me!" Monday has a very sick baby in the hospital right now with a racing heart beat. You don't have to go over there & read her blog, just say a quick prayer lifting baby Stellan & his family up to a God who heals.

Feel free to enjoy the "Not Me!" below & have a blessed week.

Not Me! Monday

Ahh... Monday! I just love this brand new hassel-free week looming before me. Last week, on the other hand, the one I've already lived through, yeah that one... that one had a lot of things that did not happen in it. (But, I am in good company.)

First & foremost; at this present moment, I do not have an open wound on the inside of my lip. It most certainly did not come from leaving the toothbrush in my mouth while reaching up to do my hair which led to my hand shanking the toothbrush into my lip which got a hole in it from my very sharp tooth. Secondly, I absolutely do not have an identical open wound right next to the other one! I did not inflict this wound upon myself in THE EXACT SAME MANNER! This FOR SURE did not happen THE VERY NEXT DAY! This did NOT happen because I would not tell such humiliating stories on my very own blog. Nope. Not me!

While at Cold Stone buying a gift card, I did not ask the check out lady for a gummy bear for my daughter because there was a tub of them right next to the register. I also did not make sure I asked her for this tiny piece of free merchandise AFTER I had already paid and had my credit card safely back in my wallet just so she wouldn't try to charge me. Who thinks of that!? Not me! I was not very confused when she walked all the way down the counter to the OTHER tub of gummy bears & came back with an ice cream dish mounded with those tiny pieces of free merchandise. I also most certainly did not thank her profusely & hand all of them to Jaycee. Jaycee did not devour all of the gummy bears that I did not feed her in her carseat (minus 3 which she did not sweetly hand up to me) in about 5 minutes.

I did not get stopped in the parking lot of the grocery store by a nice man wondering if I was Katelyn Schroeder because he had just given the service desk a credit card with that name on it. No. Not me!
I did not lock the keys in my car after church on Wednesday night. No way. Not me!
I did not get all loaded up & over to Sam's Club with the express purpose of printing out pictures there & discover that the CD of prints was still in my computer. It also did not follow that my recently retrieved CD did not work & we came home from 2 trips to Sam's utterly defeated. Nope. Not me!

I did not put too-small shoes on my child knowing full well that her heels were already red from them just to keep her happy. That would be giving in to the demands of a toddler & I do not do that. No, no, definitely not me! The next time we went out, I did not put too-large shoes on my child knowing full well that she might have a little harder time walking in them. I also did not laugh out loud at her when she had to stop & stand with her legs wobbling back & forth while her toes were in, but her heels were out. The look on her face was not absolutely hilarious & the way she confusedly looked up at me and said "shoes? shoes?" did not make me about lose it. That would be laughing at my child's struggles & I do not do that. Absolutely Not Me!

So, what did you NOT do last week?

Profoundly Seth

Profoundly Seth is one of the blogs I stalk. It really has touched me & spoken into my life as a mom in a lot of ways. This amazing Christ-centered family is raising money for their deaf son's surgery to receive cochlear implants via an organization called "Rhyan's Hope" so that he will be able to hear. They are also raising money for an organization called "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" which offers captured memories to families whose newborns die. Their son before Seth died tragically right before he was born for reasons still unknown. Their fundraiser is called "Profound Pictures" because they will also be giving away a camera package. The day it ends would have been his second birthday. I would like to use up a tiny little space on my blog (not read my many, I know, but still) to get the word out about this family.

Have a great day everybody, I may be back for another "Not Me! Monday"

Not Me Monday

This is a blog carnival I am participating in because it's fun. Here, on Mondays we get to divulge all of the things we did not do in the past week. We rejoice in our clean slate & the brand new mistake-less week ahead of us & get to entertain our blog readers. Head on over to MckMama's site for some more UNconfessions.

I did not spend an inordinate amount of time last week looking for Arawen's one and only pacifier. I am not a one-pacifier mom because my child's attachment to that little plug is growing & I would not risk the hours of distress this could cause her if I happened to not be able to find it. I did not, knowing full well the growing attachment, totally procrastinate going to Target & buying more. Target is definitely NOT just 2 miles from my house.

I did not let Jaycee get into 3 decks of cards at once. Our floor was not covered in playing cards after she was done. This most certainly did not happen almost every day this past week with my full knowledge. It also is NOT happening right now, as I type my "Not Me Monday."

I did not get out to run errands with my 2 girls in tow for the first time since Arawen was born. Arawen is definitely not 10 weeks old today. The errands I ran did NOT take me all day and I did NOT forget to bring A's one-and-only pacifier! I did not feed Jaycee solely granola bars and a free cookie from Schnucks for lunch that day. Jaycee did not drop said cookie on the ground. While we were getting everything together, out of the van, and into a cart, a fellow shopper did not sit in the parking lot waiting for us to get out of the adjacent parking space. I did NOT stand there & wait for her to park, watching to make sure she didn't run over the cookie. I also most certainly did NOT wait for her to get out & walk into the store, look surreptitiously around, & proceed to quickly pick up the cookie, blow it off & give it back to Jaycee!!! THAT would be gross.

At our last stop to Target, I did not discover that, although visiting public restrooms is one of J's favorite things to do, she had pooped her pants. I did not, after like a second of deliberation, decide she could live with it. We did NOT spend our whole Target trip with a putrid aroma hanging over us. THAT also would be gross.

While giving Jaycee a bath, I did not leave her there to play with the bathroom door open so I could still hear her. After playing for a little bit, my child did not get herself out of the tub & walk up to me dripping wet with blood pouring from her finger. When I ran over and asked what had happened, she did not stare at me sweetly & repeat perfectly, "Happen." I did NOT discover to my horror that I had left my razor within her reach!! I absolutely, positively did NOT promptly receive the "Worst Mom of the Year" award!!! Jaycee did not walk around proudly displaying her bandaid without so much as a whimper. I am not kind of afraid at how hard we are going to have to discipline a child with such a high pain tolerance.

Well, this has not been super fun, & maybe even slightly therapeutic for me. I did not read over this and laugh really hard. I also did not update my blog last week just so I could do this today. I am not done already.

My annual post :)

Ok, playing 8-month catch-up: After we announced that we were having a second baby like this:

(Look close, it says "BIG SISTER.")

at Jaycee & Timmy's first birthday party,

we went on vacation to beautiful California.
At the end of the trip, our daughter ended up in the ditch of "Scenic Route 1" along the Pacific coast. Yeah, we'll probably always call it "Carsick Route 1." If I ever lack for post inspiration I'll tell this story. It's a good one.
In August Jaycee had her surgery: she recovered like a champ and we give God all the glory for her big belly! :) She gained 7 pounds in 4 months and is now in the 60th percentile for weight instead of not even being on the charts! Praise God!
Jaycee learned to drive a big rig with her daddy this fall.

We dressed up as Whos from Dr. Seuss for Halloween.

Then we went & helped Jordan celebrate his huge kill! Jaycee warmed up to him pretty fast. Good thing, because his head now graces our living room wall. (the deer's, not Jordan's)

After she touched him,

she clapped for herself. We're really into cheering yourself on in this family.

All THREE of us girls continued to grow...

Then Christmas came around... it didn't take long for Jaycee to catch on to the whole tearing off the paper as fast as you can thing.

Eleven days later Arawen Joy Schroeder was born. January 5, 2009. Thank You Jesus for our second healthy little girl! Welcome to the world, baby girl. You are loved!

This is the very first picture of Arawen ever... very very cropped.

She weighed 7 lb. 12 oz. (as you can see)So happy to have her out!

Grandma T. enjoying her minutes old granddaughter.

Jaycee & Arawen meet. You better get used to each other, girlies!Now, we're a family of 4! I can hardly believe it.

As you can see, this is a very general overview of the last 8 months. We did other things in between. But we spent a LOT of time here

and here!