All of the Things

So.

A wee bit of time has passed since I have written a blog post. After my family left, I had a hard time trying to write about their visit (Shoulda done daily posts, eh?) because there was so much I wanted to say, so I kept putting it off. However, more time passed (shocking) and then I had more to write about, and...well, you can see the predicament I landed in solidly with both of my feet.

I stuck the landing, at any rate. 

I have finally buckled down and decided to give a run-down of the last five months.

Did I just say five months? Five months is a long time, long like the amount of time Inigo Montoya waited to avenge his father's death.

Let me 'splain...No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Who can help but quote The Princess Bride at a time like this? Inconceivable. 

My parents' and brother's visit was wonderful. It was one of the best times together yet, and what made it even better is the series of comedy-of-error situations that we experienced daily. Were we living out National Lampoon's latest story? Quite possibly. From the Taco Bell tomfoolery to missing New Year's twice, it was non-stop shenanigans, with some Scrabble, a tiny lunchbox of Chex Mix, awesome quotes, the American Airlines Center (There it is!!...times six), and one exploding toilet thrown in just for good measure.

Also, this happened:

If you look at this photo for a minute and focus on Matt's face, it looks like Christian's hair is a perfectly combed, beautiful blond beard on a very merry Matthew. Mom discovered this gem of a coincidence and we couldn't stop laughing. 

We were trying to get a family picture and the camera was acting crazy. It wouldn't take the pictures while we were all waiting with smiles on our faces, but then suddenly it began taking pictures in speed-mode. 

Two words: Treasure. Trove. 

Why did I not write each day?! I was playing Scrabble. That's why. And writing down all the funny things that Matthew said. Random posts with memories and pictures coming in the future (or in other words, business as usual). 

After they left, we all tried to get back into our regular routine. About a month later, however, we were focusing on a very exciting detail in our lives: getting applications for all three kids in to a school by the deadline. We were also preparing for the entrance exam that Christian and Michaela would need to take. We did indeed get the applications in, and the kids took their test; the final thing before we would hear whether or not they were accepted was a visit from two parents whose kids were in the school, to get to know us a bit and to answer questions we might have. 

Following this visit, all we had to do was wait. I can say with great confidence and joy that all three kids were accepted (there is, of course, a story, but for now I will say that God made a way for the three of them to be able to go, and his care for our family continues to blow me away). 

Other exciting things that have happened these last few months include the following:

-I gave up soda and began exercising again.

-I went on my annual Seminary Wives' trip with some of my best friends in the world. They are awesome.

-We celebrated Easter with our wonderful church family, and had dinner with some friends that evening. 

-I started drinking soda again, and have been waffling with that and exercise for a month and a half. (This is not so much an exciting event as a confession. I'm still hoping to break this dreadful habit.) 

-Christian is finishing up his final year at HPPDS.

-Our chuch voted on a new senior pastor. 

-We got a new grill and Mike installed a new toilet upstairs. (These things are not necessarily related. The grill is outside, not upstairs, just to clarify.)

Now, just because this is a word-heavy post (Oh, you better thank me it's as short as it is. Five months? It could have been much, much longer.), here are the kids just a couple of weeks ago. Or maybe it was six weeks ago...who's counting any more? 

And that catches us up a bit. 

Now that I'm blogging again, I plan on writing more frequently. Maybe every three months rather than five...

My Broken Hallelujah

With weary feet and heavy hands,
Hanging head, I come.
My tears are falling on the ground,
Slipping down-
My offering, a heart that's pressed,
But I still give you praise.
My broken hallelujah rises
To your broken body.
You know all too well.
You hear my cry.
The veil is torn apart
As you suffer, bleed, and die,
Crushed,
Broken for my brokenness
To make me whole one day.
Righteous one for sinners slain
In order to impart the glorious robes
Of yours;
You share the bounty of your riches.
My broken hallelujah will be made whole,
Rising to you, risen and exalted King.

*credit to The Afters for the phrase "my broken hallelujah."

180°

Broken hearts and broken bodies lie wrecked all around the place
Looking like garbage, good enough for a dump
Look hard, deep into that mess
See something beautiful there in that heap
Redemption's delicate thread, a steel beam
Holding it all together
In the end

The Thaw

Cold like snowy woods at 2am
Seeps deep into my bones,
Settling there, working from the inside out,
Until I think I'll never thaw.
Away, away, is the fiery sun!
I know it's rising, long-time-coming;
But the path is sure.
I wait, bated breath escapes in frosty bits before my lips,
Poised to praise-
Hope cannot be frozen.

No Tacos But Plenty of Laughs

I left the church on Christmas Eve with not enough time to go home and then go get my parents and Matt from the airport, but a little too much time to go straight to the airport; the kids and I took a brief Fantastic Lights Tour in a neighborhood near our church and passed just enough time to then get to the airport.

I drove to the terminal and tried to call my mom but it went straight to voice mail, so we just drove around and around until I heard from her. When she called and told me where she was, we just happened to be outside of the building from her and we waved, but had to drive around one more time because I didn't have a place to pull in. I made one more loop and then just pulled up next to another car thinking it would be quick to load them up and then take off. 

However, I hadn't put the seats up in the back, and we needed all seven seats. So I took a few minutes to flip the seat back up and make a couple of people mad (Merry Christmas!), and then Christian, Michaela, and Matt informed me from the back that the middle seat belt wasn't functioning properly. 

I had forgotten about this problem, since we don't usually have three someones in the back seat. I quickly pulled into the parking deck of the airport and we tried to fix it. Matt tried. Christian tried. My dad tried. I tried. I called Mike and he gave us directions to try. We tried. Failed every time. That seat belt was not going to be fixed. So Matthew sacrificed himself and sat in the dangerous spot. 

It had gotten pretty late at this point, and they were hungry, but it was Christmas Eve so we weren't sure that we'd find much open. Matthew really wanted a taco, and I mean a good taco (Hello...Tex-Mex), but again...Christmas Eve. We headed in the direction of our house and hoped to pass a place that we could drive through on the way. When we got close to home I got off of the highway and we discovered, ironically, a Taco Bell with a long line around the building and a neon sign which declared "Drive-Thru Open." We were about the eighth car. We sat laughing about how Matthew was going to get his taco after all, and waited a while before the lead car moved off. We laughed about how they must have ordered one of everything on the menu. And we laughed at how quickly the line moved after that car left.

And then we laughed really hard when we got up to the speaker and waited, and called,"Hello?" and waited some more only to realize that this drive-thru was not, in fact, open. 

No taco.

I took off from there on a mission to find them some food, even though it was almost 10:30 now. Our exit was the next one, and just around the corner from my house is a Sonic, so I pulled in there since it was all lit up and two cars were in the drive-thru line there. I wheeled around to the speaker and rolled down my window, and heard a voice say,"Sorry, we're closed." It was 10:34. Matt said, laughing hysterically,"If we hadn't waited in the line at Taco Bell we wouldn't have been too late!" Not to mention the extra 30 minutes we spent at the airport fighting a losing battle with the seat belt.

I mean, I know you had to be there to get how funny it was, but we were all feeling a bit punchy. I rolled out of the Sonic parking lot and headed home, and we scrounged something up there. It was getting really late, but everyone was pretty wound up, as usually happens when we first get together with them. 

This was around 1am. 

They look like they are planning some midnight mischief. Good thing it was already past midnight. 

Eliana velcroed herself to Matt's chest for the remainder of their trip. You think I'm kidding, but I have photos to prove it. 

Since we all got to bed so late, our Christmas morning didn't get started until 12 hours later. It was fine by everyone though, and it was a very relaxed morning (folks slept in and Mom fixed a nice egg casserole for breakfast), and no one was fussing about hurrying up and opening presents at the crack of dawn. 

It was a wonderful beginning to the day.