Life Without Cable

Happy Post-Labor Day to everyone! I hope there was much joy and merriment for all. We had a short, but wonderful Labor Day weekend. On our way to Chillicothe, my little brother Dan called to tell us that he got Engaged to Breeann!...very exciting! We also got to watch a very tiny parade in Wheeling, and Stella entered a baby contest. Jules entered last year and won, so we had to give it a go. Stella didn't win, but she did get second, and she really enjoyed getting to chew on her red ribbon. :) This week has been pretty exciting as well. Elijah started preschool! He had his first day on Wednesday, and he met his teacher, Mrs. Manning. It was raining, so he got to wear his raincoat (which he loves), and he got to wear his brand new Speedracer backpack that he picked out himself. I gotta say that it was fairly frightening to just leave him at preschool for three hours. I can't imagine how I would've felt if he was in all-day preschool. I worried about whether he'd listen to his teacher, I worried about him being able to make it to the bathroom on time since it's all the way down the hall, I worried about him being able to make friends because sometimes he's a little too "in your face", I worried about him not being able to count high enough...pretty much I worried about him the whole time he was gone. Then I picked him up from school and his teacher didn't say anything...and I waited a little just to make sure, but the verdict was in...there was nothing worth mentioning. No major catastrophies. Whew. I asked him how his first day at Preschool went and all I could get out of him was that he "played and played" and that he didn't get to turn the spinny thing on the weather thing, so he cried. Did I mention that I missed him. I'm pretty sure Stella missed him too. Stella didn't have anyone (besides me) to play her favorite games of Peekaboo, Put things on My Head, Pretzel Stick Dangle, and Hold onto the Stationary Laundry Basket. So that was our week, oh, and Ben worked A LOT! We miss you, Benjamin!

Moved and Settled (well partially at least)...

July was potentially the busiest month that we have experienced in a long time. We moved from Lawrence, KS to Kansas City, MO (but still Broncos fans mind you), celebrated several birthdays (Elijah, 4; Grampy, 50; Will, 27), and worked like crazy to finish up my thesis (but still just not quite finished). Hopefully, things will slow down to a slow gallop in August! Our new apartment is quite nice, and it is fairly close to my work to boot, so we are happy with all of that. Check it out: www.provincekc.com
Elijah and Stella are doing well, although they seem to have decided to drives us crazy some days (and by us I mean Kim)! Last weekend Kim and Stella and Elijah got to ride the miniature working train at the line creek community center Kansas City Northern Railroad which they said was quite fun (well Stella just made a spitting noise, but surely it was intended to convey her enjoyment remembered). I, alas, was again working on my thesis...I am now officially so so so so ready to just be done with it! Soon, very soon. 

Check out more pictures on the flickr bar to the left!  That is all for now. Hope all of you have a chance to enjoy the final days of summer, before you know it will be snowing! (Consider yourself warned)

The Days of Summer...

We haven't written in a while, which is usually an indication that our schedule has been filled to almost overflowing! May was a very eventful month. I finished up my classes and participated in the graduation ceremony for my masters degree (I will officially graduate when I defend my thesis).




My mom and ALL of my brothers and sisters (and Kyle) came to visit, which was slightly chaotic but very fun, and we even managed a trip to Chillicothe for some Memorial weekend fun. My sister, Jessica, graduated from med school (scary, huh?) and is working on her residency in Portland, OR. And Elijah found some rocks to climb on!




In June, I started work at my new job in Kansas City. The company name is Thornton Tomasetti (www.thorntontomasetti.com), a large structural engineering firm. We are looking for our next place of residence, and may have found it. We are planning to rent a house in northern Kansas City for the time being. Check out more pictures on the flickr bar to the left.

...down in my heart Tuesday

It's funny how songs you sing as a child get forgotten and then somehow get remembered again when you have children. I keep having dreams that remind me of these songs I used to sing. There's one that goes...'my God is so BIG, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do'. Then I forget parts and make up some new words. Elijah is a fan of 'I've got the Joy'. He ends the song by singing 'I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart Tuesday'. cute kid, that one. I still cannot believe how fast Elijah is growing. He'll be 4 years old this year!

And Stella, oh she's so much fun! She has the best smile I have ever seen (I am completely biased here, but many people agree with me), and she's generally very happy. She has started eating rice cereal, and she can roll over when she really wants to. She's also gotten into a napping routine, which makes life easier for me. She's still not sleeping all the way through the night yet, but we're working on it. Having two kids share a bedroom is definitely a challenge at bedtime.

We're going to be having some crazy months ahead. Ben's still doing research and finishing up grad school, but he's graduating in May! Wow, it's less than a month away. And then he starts his new job in June, and then sometime in July we'll be moving. Time is going by so fast. Stella will be six months old next month!

Some of you may have heard that KU won the national basketball championship, and since Stella is our little Kansas baby, we had to get the kids some shirts to mark the occasion. Oh, and today is Fred's birthday, so Happy Birthday Opa Fred!

The World of a 3-year-old...

Welcome, I hope you are having an enjoyable day so far. I invite you to take a few minutes, and journey with me into a strange and enchanted realm filled with mystery and intrigue, the world of a 3-year-old...

"Elijah, stop picking your nose."
"I did, and I got a booger."
"Eww, honey, don't touch anything!"
"It's ok, I put it back."



"Whatcha drawing Elijah?"
"This is the Erf of China. And it has green parts where there is water, and blue parts where there is houses and grass and trees."
"I think the green parts are the land, buddy."
"Oh, right, haha, I already knew that! Can you show me how to draw Saturn?"

"Elijah, do you know why we celebrate Easter?"
"Yes."
"Oh, ok, why?"
"Umm, I dunno."
"Haha, well, we are celebrating what Jesus did for us, He loved us so much that He paid for our sins on the cross, and then rose from the dead after three days! Isn't that amazing?"
"Oh, yeah...can I eat a marshmallow?"

Elijah to the man walking by our aisle in Target:
"Red light...green light....hey, red light!"

At Wendy's:
"Elijah, what do you want for lunch, chicken nuggets? a hamburger?"
"They have the ' Spicy Baconator' here!"
"Ha, that is true, do you want one?"
"No, I want some chicken nuggets."

"Goodnight Elijah, sleep well buddy."
"Yesterday at Sarah's, Momma said that I don't sleep anymore...you can go to sleep if you want to."
"Um, I don't think Momma said that, buddy. Go to sleep, ok?"
"Ok, can you sing me a song about piddy-tigs?"
"Those aren't even real words, Elijah, it is time to go to sleep, ok?"
"Haha, ok. Goodnight."



"That girl has pink hair, see Elijah?"
"Oh, yeah, she shouldn't do that."
"Do you have pink hair, buddy?"
"No, I have Elijah hair."
"Does Grammy have pink hair?"
"Nooo, she had yellow hair."
"What about Aunt Noodle, does she have pink hair?"
"No."
"Maybe Gramma Pam, is her hair pink?"
"Ummm...yeah, that's right, you figured it out daddy! Gramma Pam has pink hair, right."

Elijah's thoughts on Superman:
"Superman flies cuz of that flag he keeps on his back."

Elijah's thoughts on pooping:
"The big ones are fast, but the little ones are the coolest ones everrr!"

On the Road...

"I think that I will always be partly a country girl," said Kim. "What about you? Are you in any way country?"
"I don't know, maybe a little," Ben replied.
"I think you are a little; but it's undiscovered."
"Haha, did you just call me a little, undiscovered country?"
"Heehee, yep."
"I think my country's name would be Bensylvania."
"What about Benswana, or Benmark."
"Hmmm...Benland...Papua New Benny...Bendia...Benezuela?"
"Hey, that's how it's supposed to be pronounced anyway."
"Your right, how funny."
"Haha, maybe NetherBends or Benegal."
"Ooh, good one. And you would be MonaKim!"
"Nope, Kimbodia, haha."
"Yep, or maybe AntarctiKim or Kimdonesia."
"MorroKim"
"The United Kimdom. Ooh, how about Benkino Fasso...no, wait, BenKimo Fasso!"
"Nice, you got both in one, that was good."
"How about Tushy Land!" interjected Elijah.

One Very Full Month

There has been so much going on in the month since we last posted. We sold our big puffy chair so that we'd have room for our Christmas tree. We visited Chillicothe for Christmas, which was a lot of fun. The day we drove out, it started to snow, and it ended up taking us four hours to get there instead of two. Stella slept through most of the trip, thank goodness! While we were there, Stella got to meet lots of extended family. We also really enjoyed getting to spend lots of time with Grammy and Grampy and Uncle Will, Aunt Noodle (Kristen :)), and Julienne, who's growing so fast and is so much fun.

As always Elijah thoroughly enjoyed everything about Christmas and asked everyone if they had a present for him... our mail lady, any friends that visited, random strangers. He was also very sad that we had to take down our Christmas tree, and almost every other day, he asks if we can put it back up.

Stella and Elijah both got a lot of presents. Ben's family sent presents from Colorado, which was fun. We didn't get to go to Colorado this year since Ben's still in school and Stella's so little, but hopefully we'll get to visit next year.

In non-Christmas news, Ben accepted a job to work at a structural engineering firm in Kansas City starting at the end of May. What a huge blessing and answer to prayer! It means a lot of work for him this semester though because he's got classes, he's being a teacher's assistant for two professors, and he has to try and finish his research and write his thesis. He's a busy man! Yet somehow he manages to help out a lot with Elijah and Stella.

I've been spending my time taking care of Elijah and Stella. I've also been officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which means I'll be on insulin for the rest of my life, but God has been good in giving us the means and resources to take care of me thus far, and all of my lab work has come back looking very good. Between Stella's doctor appointments, my post-partum appointments, and diabetic appointments it felt like my new job was going to appointments. Thank goodness things are finally starting to slow down!

Stella is two months old today! She's still eating and sleeping a lot. The last couple of days have been wonderful because she hasn't been as fussy, and she's been sleeping better. She's such a sweet baby, and she makes lots faces. Ben and I have been calling her our "little drama queen" because she can make the saddest faces at the drop of a hat. She's also quite the little diva. Enjoy the new pictures! Oh, and be sure to check out the flickr photos on the left to see more Christmas and more Stella pics.