baby mum mums and a giveaway!

i love mckmama's blogfrog forum (minus the negative posts that i avoid). i have gotten some great advice from some seasoned mama's over there. just the other day i posted about some concerns i had with giving bug solids. i had quite a few replies that offered encouragement and tips. one of those tips - baby mum mums.



i have been giving bug teething biscuits. you know, bitter, hard, cookie like biscuits that leave a huge mess all over bug and what/whoever she may be sitting on or near. some moms on blogfrog suggested baby mum mums. i had never heard of them or ever seen them. i happened upon them while grocery shopping this weekend and picked up a box. they are fantastic! they do not leave the cookie like mess and they dissolve really nicely so i don't worry about a chunk being swallowed and choking buggie.

i like these things so much i want to share them with you! i receive nothing from the official baby mum mum people. i just want you to know how great they are. so, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you're entered. and if you're a follower you can have an extra entry! just post a second comment telling me you're a follower of my blog.

happy commenting!

undeserving

the past couple of days i have come across some new blogs. i have read some really heart wrenching stories. i have prayed for strangers. i have questioned God's actions. i have praised God for His holiness. i have realized all is for His glory. and many of these stories children of God are weighing heavily on my heart. this post may be a little bit of a ramble. just trying to unload a bit.

as i have read the stories of 4 month olds taken by SIDS, or starving AIDS infected children in africa, or little 5 year old girls stricken with brain tumors i have become ever closer to my Savior. i have gone to Him on behalf of these brothers and sisters that i have never met and asked Him to please spare lives and bring healing. i have asked Him why he chose to take a perfectly healthy sleeping baby from his dear parents. i have worked on accepting that His way is perfect and good though it may hurt. and i have sat in wonder of why He has given me so much. i take for granted the good in my life. God's mercy has kept us from any life shaking horrible tragedies but i spend much time complaining that i don't have the right shoes to wear with a new skirt. good grief! what is wrong with me?

Father, forgive me for taking all the good in my life for granted. Forgive me for taking You and the gift of Your Son and eternal life for granted. help me to live each day only for You. in Jesus' name because without Him it would be impossible for me to come to You, amen.

Lord, i give You my heart
i give You my soul
I LIVE FOR YOU ALONE
every breath that i take
every moment i'm awake
have Your way in me

what, exactly, does your appendix do?

today we got a phone call that my sweet brother in love (bil) had to have an emergency appendectomy. poor guy was up all night in some pretty bad pain. bil is married to honey bear's sister ang. they are so dear to us and totally in love with buggie. we have dubbed bil the dinner time bouncer - see, whenever we are out to dinner with the whole family bil is bug's buddy. he walks her, he bounces her, he keeps her occupied. i will have to post one of the many pictures of bil and bug's dinner time playdates soon.

anyhoo, i knew that honey bear and i would go to the hospital to visit with him this evening and that bug wouldn't be able to go in. so i had to come up with a way for bug to say hello to her uncle. here is what we came up with:



we printed it at walmart and bought a simple plastic frame and tied some get well balloons around it. i really couldn't believe how great it turned out - and this was only our second take! needless to say, unlce bil loved it. he will be home tomorrow and we are looking forward to him feeling better.

all i want for christmas...

this morning was just like any other morning. i got bug up, changed her, gave her breakfast, and we settled down on the couch to watch rachael ray. buggie was sitting right beside me and i had my arm around her. she has found it great sport to chew on mommy's hand and fingers; so this morning my fingers could be found in her little mouth. it was during this usual chewing of my digits that i felt something...what did she have in her mouth? oh my goodness...a tooth...no, wait...not one tooth...there were TWO TEETH!

*not bug's actual teeth*

yes, ladies and gentleman, my sweet, tiny, precious buggie now has big girl teeth! i am so proud of her and yet so sad...

where is that 5 pound 13 ounce little baby girl i held in my arms just yesterday?

more importantly, how will my fingers hold up?

the time traveler's wife

if you haven't seen the time traveler's wife and plan to, don't read this until you do!!! if you don't plan to ever see it you may still enjoy this post!

i had mentioned that my sister had been staying with us for a couple of weeks. we loved having her but me and honey bear really had no alone time. and then i was leaving to take her back to pa and would be away from honey bear all together. so we talked to my in laws and they agreed to keep bug and allow my sister to swim in their pool on the saturday before i left for pa. honey bear and i were going out! we decided to see the matinee showing of the time traveler's wife.



i have to admit that i was really really really looking forward to seeing this movie. the previews i had seen looked so good. i was definitely in the mood for some sappy movie watching with my sweetie. the movie was good but not as good as i had built it up to be in my head. but isn't it sometimes funny how God works? at the end of the movie He reminded me of His promises to us.

here i was wrapped up in this love story - the time traveling henry and the love of his life, clare, who has known the 40ish version of henry since she was 6 years old. they finally meet in the present and marry. they have a daughter. henry still time travels and they try to cope with his unpredictable absences. henry from another time has traveled into their present and is dying. they now know henry will die when their daughter is 5. we see their daughter's 5th birthday and know what is about to happen. years later henry time travels past his own life and is able to see his now 10 or so year old daughter and to hold his clare again. but then he travels right out of her arms and is gone.

it is at this point in the movie when the sobbing begins...clare and her daughter head back home. with smiles on their faces. this man who means so much to them has died but they know that because of this gift/curse henry will most likely come to them again. they can go on living their present lives because they have hope of seeing henry again. i easily start thinking of my own honey bear and how i dread the day that we will be parted by death. how horrible it will be; how we will not have the luxury of time travel to bring us together again. and then that Still Small Voice reminds me of His great promise!

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
first thessalonians 4:13-18

of course!!! we have trusted Jesus Christ - we will not be parted forever. no time travel ability required. clare may have had hope that henry would return to her at some point during her life - but she had no hope past her life. one day honey bear and i will be parted by death, and like clare we will be able to go on knowing at some point we will be reunited. but unlike clare, our reunion will not be for mere minutes but for eternity!

how great and merciful is our Lord - He has offered us a gift far above all gifts. the gift of eternal life. praise His name forever and ever!

theory of relativity

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.”
~Albert Einstein

einstein pretty much summed up my week with that explanation of the theory of relativity. so, i haven't been sitting with a pretty girl, but i have been sitting with 10 pretty girls and 2 handsome boys - my family. and boy, einstein, are you right! the week has just flown by and i have failed to keep you all updated on the happenings around here.

it is late, i am blissfully tired and i don't think a full post will be happening tonight. let me just leave you with a funny little story about a day out with some of my little sisters.

i took 3 of my little sisters an hour away to visit our aunt and uncle. sb, who is 8 had been looking through a bridal catalogue and putting check marks over all the dresses she thought were pretty. when she was done she passed the book on to lr who is 10. as lr flipped through the pages noticing the check marks she said, "boy, sb, you didn't put many check marks in here. you don't have very good taste in fashion," to which sb quickly replied, "i don't EAT fashion!" get it - taste, eat? ha!!! it cracked me up! i sure do love these girls. they make me look forward to the days buggie will be cracking jokes.

i probably won't be posting again until we are back home in nc on monday. as much as i enjoy being with my family it will be nice to get back to my own bed. be looking forward to a post about the new movie the time traveler's wife.

until this yankee makes it back to her southern home, happy blogging!

leavin' on a jetplane

okay, maybe i'm just leavin' in a toyota corolla. the point here is that i'm leaving. or that i have left. i drove from nc to pa today. what a looooong day! my 2nd youngest sister, jb, (i'm the oldest of 10) graduated in june and she decided she wanted to spend some of her first 'adult' summer with us. my family lives in pa so i drove her home today.

jb has been with us for about 3 weeks and i really hate that today was the day to take her home. it has been so nice to have her around. i really love spending my days with bug, but she doesn't offer much in the way of conversation. we usually talk about dadadadadadad and babamababamamaba. so having jb here was really nice - she can form complete words. =)

i think what was really great about jb being with us was that i really hadn't spent much time with her for the past 9 years. i left pa to go to college in sc in 2000 and i ended up staying south after graduation. jb was only 9 when i left. you can imagine that at 18 she isn't exactly the same person i remember. sure, i've been home for various holidays, but 2 weeks here and 3 days there is hardly enough time to really know someone. so this past couple of weeks has been a sort of get to know you for us sisters. we are absolutely and completely different! no doubt about it. but let me share with you some of the really wonderful things about my second little sister that i discovered the past couple of weeks:

• she is stinkin' hilarious


• she doesn't care what anyone thinks about her - totally comfortable with who she is


• she is so shy! i had no idea. it is funny to me because she will talk my ear off.


• she has the absolute sweetest spirit of anyone i know - so kind, always ready to do whatever is best for the other person, always in a pleasant mood (really, not one time in 3 weeks did i see her in a funk, not once)


• she so sincerely and genuinely loves Jesus - her only desire is to do what is pleasing to Him- she was a real example and rebuke to me

i just wish you all had a chance to get to know her! i am so looking forward to the next time she decides she wants to visit.

and now, bug and i are in pa visiting with my family until sunday. honey bear is flying in on thursday morning (YIPEEEE!!! i miss him terribly and it has only been 14 hours). i plan to do some blogging while i'm here. with a house full of kids (my 7 month old bug, and sisters 18, 16, 12, 10, 8, 5, and 1 and a brother who is 2 and my 1st younger sister 25 visiting with her 3 and 2 year old girls) and my parents i should have some stories to tell....

*picture is jb and me on my wedding day in 2006*