Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully we all take a moment to thank God for all the blessing he gives us. Most of us in America have so much to be thankful for and so much we take for granted. I know we all have rough days, years, or life in general can be tough but there is always something to be grateful for. I, personally, and most people around me, have so much to be thankful for... simple things like being able to see, hear, and taste gives such joy to life; or having a very healthy family, having a job that allows me to be home during the day to take care of the kids, and even my little house that we've been trying to sell all year. I do have a blessed life and so much that I take for granted. At church on Sunday our pastor commented on being thankful for heaven... to know that God has prepared a place of eternity for us that is million times better than this life.. I know we can't see it or image what it will be like but to know God loves us so much that he has a special place just for me... I like to think of it as I have my own feather under his wing that will be my own personal cozy blanket to snuggle with and to keep me warm and toasty. So, this year, don't forget to take a moment to thank God. And for fun, let me know what special/unique thing you are most thankful for (not counting the basics like your family or home). Maybe I'll be like my friend Sarah and come up with some fun gift to send to you.... hmmm....actually I just thought of something that would be perfect. So tell me what your thankful for and I'll have a drawing sometime next week. If need be you can email me as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

life of the Hunt's

Remember, that stack of books I told you about a few weeks ago? Here it is. I went through my books and these made the to do list. Read or go away.. actually one (not in the picture) did get tossed once I realized it was a Jehovah Witness book. Nothing personal, but I didn't really want to give that one to Goodwill.. it went straight to the garbage. I did glance through it (Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained) and was shocked by how it disagreed with the Bible. Opening statements sounded more like Darwin than Creation. Kind of sad.. so in the garbage it went. Now I'm reading The Faith Club which I've read before.. I like it (not that I agree with all the things the Christian woman says) but I really need to read something enjoyable.. not a thinker kind of book. So I might not make it through my pile... I guess some books may get tossed just out of my desire to read a good old fiction book which is not an option in this pile. The pile must go, before I go to the library. Eeekke...

Bath time can be interesting.. this is Harlie's new hang out spot in the bathroom (at least she's not putting her hands in the toilet, one of her favorite past times when I'm not looking). And yes, she crawls up there herself. She pulls up on the back of the toilet lid/seat, then pulls up on the back of the toilet and then scoots over to the sink. For this reason, I try to keep our toilet clean. As you can see.. she LOVES her hang out spot.

I must say I love this next picture. He was so proud of himself for getting those letters and numbers stuck to the wall.

This was our summer bucket list. After hanging on our fridge all summer, I decided it was time to take the paper down. We got about 95% of it done which is great. It's so easy to look at what we didn't do but then I look at all the things we did do and I realize we did have a good summer as we did a lot of fun things. It has made for some interesting conversation as it's the first thing people see when they walk in our door. Most people look confused but then I explain it and most people love the idea (thanks Sarah!) I'm hoping to make another one for this winter which should include a few things that didn't get done this summer. Any ideas to add to the list?

Last week, in the last few warm days, we played outside. Here are the kids playing in the dirt.. we really need to get them a sand box. Maybe next spring?

Awwwee.. my kiddo's are so sweet (most of the time : )

Did I mention this was going to be a really long post? Full of pictures and golden nuggets of our life.

Leftovers anyone? (yes, that pizza actually curled up on the edges) You can't see it but the meat and cheese was all dried up. It's only a few days old, but old enough.

No thanks, we'll make our own.

Yum, Yum! A post to come on this new pita bread recipe I've been experimenting with. Tonight we made pizza with it but we've also had sandwich pockets and Phil eats it with his hummus.

And last but not least.. my new special treat for Harlie and me. Since we've pretty much given up on selling the house this year I decided I wanted this hung up (I was waiting not wanting to put more holes in the wall). Last year I asked for a quilt rack for Christmas. My dad made me this beautiful quilt rack (thanks dad!) and my mom always makes a quilt for the grandkids and she made this quilt for Harlie (thanks mom!) when she was born. I believe I've posted on it before but in case you don't remember this is a 5 generation quilt. There is material from my Great Grandma Greene, Grandma Elliott, My mom, me and now Harlie. My mom loves to sew so this is a special gift... and the quilt rack to go with it makes it perfect. I just think it looks awesome in Harlie's room.

Enough of the Hunt life.. I'm tired.. but a good day. Praise to God, for all the goodness he give us all.

rebeling...

My body is rebelling. Ever since the triathlon I feel like I can hardly run and swim, and for now I'm not biking as it's too cold out. I think it's mostly the cold weather causing my lungs to work harder and I've had a constant slight head cold /running nose since the triathlon. I think it's just normal winter health blues but it makes me wonder how I ever did the triathlon. I know that it will all come back next year when the weather gets nicer but it's kind of disappointing. It's not really fun when my nose is running while I'm running (I can't farmer blow like some talented people without it coming back to land on my pants or shoes) and then when I swim I start coughing and sputtering.

So I will keep plucking along for now but my body is saying no. And I would be more than happy to take a couple of weeks off but then I don't think I'd start up again.. one of my biggest fears.

On a side note.. I got some interesting, mixed emotions, information from my OB doctor the other week. Since I've lost a lot of weight and had 2 babies in the past four years my stomach has become the great (meaning big, not good) jiggle and is not just your normal after pregnancy jiggle.. you can image what people from The Biggest Loser look like.. well I have that plus add two pregnancies on top of that to help matters. Anyways enough details.. you get the visual. What I asked my doctor was how I could correct this.. and he said point blank - surgery. Hmm.. that's not an option I'm interested in now so I proceeded to ask him what else there was, basically I wanted to know if I lost more weight would it get better or worse. He said at this point it wouldn't get much better but I could try crunches but it probably wouldn't do much (I have done crunches in the past and it doesn't seem to really help much). So as he was pushing on my stomach/female parts (near my belly button). I asked if he could tell if there was a lot of fat still in there and he said no, that is mostly just extra skin. So, the mixed emotions.. I don't have a lot of fat on my stomach, yippee! That's not something I hear very often but to find out it's mostly extra skin means there isn't much I can do other than wait for it to correct it's self (or surgery). I did ask if we have another baby if it would just get worse and he said probably not. On a side note, I did ask my regular doctor the same question about two years ago and she said that I am young enough that it will get better but also the more weight I lose the better it should get... in one way.. but worse in another.. more jiggle but thinner jiggle. Hmm... not sure if any of you out there have any suggestions. At this point, I think it'll just take time (like years, if not the rest of my life) to correct itself so I guess I think I'm stuck with it... but alas, I have little fat on my belly - per Dr. O. : )

Trick or treat?

I have to be honest, I wasn't really feeling it this year for trick or treating. In the past we've gone to visit family and since this was our first free weekend in a long time we decided to just stay home this year. We couldn't decide what to do so at the last minute, we decided that I would take Wendell out trick or treating in our neighborhood and Phil and Harlie would stay back and hand out some treats. So at 6pm, I was at HyVee buying 5 bags of candy to hand out and then we rushed home to get started. But I have to say, this was one of the best times I have ever had with Wendell. He did a great job of walking up to each house, saying trick or treat and thank you, showing great enthusiasm with lots of smiles, being careful while walking around the streets, holding my hand when asked and knowing when it was time to go home. We went around our block to our neighbors (most who we sadly don't know) and then down the block to a "haunted yard" which he was excited about the blowing bubbles and "christmas tree lights". Everyone seemed to love his costume, which is hard to see in the pictures but he's a train. One of the first houses we went too had a guy answer the door in a mask. The mask had long grey hair and pasty, wrinkly, skin and some googly eyes... but Wendell so engrossed with the bowl of candy being handed to him, he didn't look up right away. When he did, Wendell just stared at the guy and I believe his thoughts were "hmm.. you are a strange looking fellow.. thanks for the candy" and we walked away. Another funny story was one person handing out candy had one of those bowls with a hand in it that will grab at your hand when you go for candy which is kind of scary when you don't know what to expect. I'm not sure if Wendell was scared or just stunned, but he just stood there frozen for a minute before he finally shook his head no and walked away. It was kind of cute but sad too... as kids can really get scared at this age. Anyways, we walked a block, trick and treated at our house and then did another block. We got enough candy to keep our whole family on a sugar high for the night (and probably the next week). When we were done then we hung out at home for awhile and two treaters came to the door. Wendell was outside looking at the pumpkins and all of sudden we heard his little voice say "come on in, you can have candy from here". Phil and I laughed at our little solicitor. So Wendell got to hand out some candy too. No one else came for awhile so we hopped in the car and went over to Phil's Aunt Mary Lou and Janice's house to show off the kids costumes. In the end, both kids were very excited to see and then eat so much candy. And of course, Phil and I indulged as well. Next year, I will be more excited... as I can't wait to see the smiles on my little pumpkins' faces.

good books

Last year I posted some of the books that I enjoyed reading and it's kind of nice to go back to see what made the list. Since then I have been keeping a list of books since then that I have read and enjoyed. Apparently this list is pretty old because I don't remember some of them, but, I had written them down so at some point I've read and enjoyed these books.

The Myth & Me by Leah Stewart (yep, don't remember this one)
The Nine Lessons by Kevin Alan Milne (Sarah - I think you might like this one)
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (a very unique yet odd book - a bit disturbing)

And more recently...
Eve: a novel of the first woman by Elissa Elliott (a fiction book based on the Bible, culture and other history sources - mixed feelings on this one but it makes you think)
By Searching by Isobel Kuhn (this is a book in my possession that someone suggested I read about 20 years ago and I never gave back.. oopps!! Sorry about that... I'd give it back if I knew where she lived or could even remember her name... anyways, this is a book written by someone who was challenged by a professor in college who told this lady "you only believe in God because your mama and papa told you so".. or something like that. So it's her process of "searching" for God.
The Bible (ongoing) - I'm currently reading Acts and am really fascinated by the beginning works of the church and how it went from 12 disciples to spread like wild flowers across to places like Ethiopia.. and some of the decisions they made and why they made them - like whether or not to make non Jewish people get circumcised when they became believer or who should even be accepted into the "church".

What's next? Glad you asked! I have a stack of about 5-6 books on my basement steps that are either getting read and put back in storage, sent to Goodwill, or thrown in the burn pile. I love books but have determined that I really don't have to keep every book that was ever given to me...especially if it takes 20 years to read it. : )

on the mend.. and off to more exciting things

I'm happy to say that I think we are on the mend. After my last depressing post, I am happy to report that I think Harlie is teething. I feel bad as I think it's been rough on her but at least it's not contagious so we can get out of the house to get some fresh air.

So we were VERY happy to get out to our good friend Mieke's birthday party on Saturday. The theme was pirates and princesses so here we are in our best last minute costumes. Wendell was a little unsure as he was worried as he told me that "people will laugh at me". Interesting comment, where did this come from? So I had to put a mustache on myself as well but self consciously wiped it off before getting to the party... was that wrong of me? I debated in my head what to do and in the end wiped it off.. because I didn't want people to laugh at me. Please note: I was NOT dressed up like a pirate before you judge my decision.






















So onto other exciting things! Like carving pumpkins.. personally, I love carving pumpkins and so does Wendell. Although I did most of the cutting and digging out, he loved helping me design, watching me work, and (taking pictures of) the finished product.

fever II

That's what I'm calling it. Fever II. We have had a sick child the last 5 weekends in a row... and I'm loosing my patience. Week 1 was the triathlon and Harlie was vomiting all night, week 2 was Wendell vomiting 3 times in a night, week 3 was Wendell having a bad cough and running nose (requiring we use the nebulizer), week 4 (last weekend) Wendell had a fever, and now this weekend week 5, Harlie has a fever. Erggggg.......

So I wasn't very happy this morning at 1:30am when Harlie was crying. I asked Phil to check on her and he found a dirty diaper that we both had to work together to change because she was fighting it so much. She had a terrible case of diaper rash which has been an ongoing issue the past week (I think it's teeth, again). But with the dirty diaper we also could tell she had a fever and sure enough, the thermometer read over about 101 degrees.

I am feeling at loss. We have missed so many fun things that it is starting to make me angry and very isolated. Wendell visiting my parents for the weekend, going to the Omaha Zoo, visiting Phil's parents, watching the Des Moines Marathon, MMO, Sunday church, and this weekend, a birthday party.

I feel like we've been stuck at home the past two weeks, although we did get out for a bit on Wednesday and Thursday this week. And Phil and I have been sleeping poorly with all this sickness so that doesn't help either. I feel bad because I work this weekend meaning Phil has night duty on his own (for tonight at least). His parents are coming up tomorrow so his mom or dad might help out the next two nights while they stay. Either way, it's not fun getting up in the middle of the night to dish out medicine for a fever.

A small part of me feels like I shouldn't complain because this is the first time she's had a fever since she was born. We made it the first year with hardly any sickness. I suspect that now that I'm done breastfeeding (yes, we are done!) that she will get sick more often now.

But I am curious as to this.. now that she's sick, Harlie has her tongue sticking out almost constantly.. causing excessive drool. Any thoughts? As this is very unusual for her.