Carol Singing

Ellie carries around books and pretends she's a choir. She sings loudly in 4:4 timing, using lots of phrases from hymns that don't make much sense together. She is very earnest. I love watching and listening to her. Yesterday she arranged Wolfie and Lacy the Reindeer as her audience (congregation?) and held her own concert while I snapped pictures.

Christmas Decorations

We set up our Christmas decorations this weekend, which is one of my favorite things of the season. (My other is the Scott family carol sing, coming up this Saturday!) (Oh, yeah - and the Holidazzle parade and the Macy's exhibit and seeing Christmas lights and baking and giving presents...) The best part is that we taught Ellie to plug and unplug the Christmas lights so we don't have to crawl under the tree and piano this year!

We bought Ellie a little tree for her room, too, since I have so many happy memories of getting a tree in my room growing up. (Actually, my little tree only bit the dust last year.) She was very intense as she decorated it, and carefully set Wolfie up to watch. It's so much fun to share Christmas with her. She thinks the Grinch was mean because he didn't know God.

My Kitchen Is Finished!

I sure have a wonderful, talented, hard-working husband. He stained the cabinets, sanded and refinished the floors, built shelves, laid trim, and painted or repainted everything. He even bought me new cabinet knobs. What a guy! Thank you, Isaac. Now I love to be in my kitchen.

Cute Thanksgiving Picture

Opa got down on the floor with Ellie to let her pet the cat with him. Annie piled right in. It was pretty cute. It's been fun to watch Ellie's relationship with Opa develop over the years. Back when she wouldn't go to anyone, she used to be pretty afraid of him. Isaac thinks it was because Opa has a deep voice and Isaac has a higher one. I used to take a picture every time she let him hold her! Now it's commonplace. He often takes her to go see the horses or do some other thing, and she talks about him often.

Oooh! Aaaah!

As promised, here are pictures of the new kitchen floor. Isaac still has some edging to do and some quarter-round painting to do, so I just took the picture of the floor. Isn't it shiny and pretty colored? The second picture is of the entryway to the kitchen, so it shows the contrast between the rest of the house and the refinished floor.

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving was very full of family for us. We spent the actual day with Isaac's parents, siblings, and grandparents. We met Joel's girlfriend for the first time, and liked her a lot. (We would have liked anyone Joel chose, though.) Baby Annie was as cute and charming as could be. Babies that will go to anyone are a lot of fun.

Today was Friday. I would have liked to spend the day doing after-Thanksgiving sales and setting up Christmas decorations, but we hit both sides of Isaac's extended family today instead. A bunch of people on both sides had traveled here from Illinois, and it's hard to pass up that opportunity to see people from far away. Isaac's favorite uncle took everyone out to Biaggi's for lunch, which was a fun treat. After lunch and hanging out at one grandparents' for a while, we all went over to the other grandparents' for the afternoon and dinner. It was great to see everyone, but I'm ready to be home.

Book Recommendation

I just finished reading Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard. It's just a tiny book that I finished in an hour. And it's a crier. I'm not a sappy, sentimental person AT ALL (as you can tell from my last post!) but I sat here on the couch while Ellie napped and cried and cried. I thought of Maija when I checked it out from the library because she's lent me sappy Christmas books before. I have to be in the right mood for that sort of thing. If you like that kind of book, read it. If not, don't go near it.

Don't Die Unless Necessary

Isaac and I have noted that frequently in books and movies, people die unnecessarily for each other. For example, one person is trapped in a dangerous situation (i.e. a collapsing mine, a city under nuclear attack, et cetera). Rather than saving themselves, other people often refuse to leave them and thus condemn themselves to death as well. (Picture the hero saying, "I'll never leave you!")

We think that's dumb. If I was going to die, I don't want Isaac to heroically stay with me. I want to know he'll be safe! Conversely, if Isaac was going to die anyway, and I had a chance to save myself, I'd take it. It really bugs me when people die unnecessarily.

Somehow this opinion of mine came up at a church meeting tonight. People thought I was callous and uncaring. Thoughts?

I'll Be Sleeping!

I don't have school this week because of Thanksgiving. (Go, pilgrims!) However, Ellie is going to Grandma's to sleep over anyway. That means that no one will be calling from her room at 6:45, "Does my clock say seven zero zero yet?" That means that I'll get to sleep in! Even better (okay, not really, but I am happy for him), that means Isaac gets to sleep in too! Do you know how often we get to sleep in together? NOT VERY!

If anyone calls us tomorrow morning, it won't be pretty.

New Kitchen Floor!

As I type, Isaac is working on refinishing our kitchen floor! He has it completely sanded and stained, and has already put the first coat of finish on. In a few hours, he'll sand again and put the final coat of finish on. By tomorrow afternoon, I'll be able to walk on my new kitchen floor! (I'll post pictures then.)

Silly Billies

Isaac taught Ellie how the drawstring of a sweatshirt works. She was enthralled. He let her pull it tight around his face, then free him by pulling down the hood. Then he let her put on his giant sweatshirt and dance around the house in it. They were pretty cute together. The pictures are blurry because I couldn't get them to stop moving, but you'll get the idea.

Family Time

With Isaac finished scoring until the second week in December, we've been catching up on some much-needed family time. On Friday night, we introduced Ellie to the classic Mary Poppins movie. I filled a six-cup muffin tin with treats for us to share: marshmallows, dried apricots, almonds, raisins, and a few chocolates. It was a big hit.

Yesterday, we went for a family run that ended after less than a mile because the wheel broke off the jogging stroller. Isaac and Ellie returned home to fix it and I got to continue my run. After Isaac's turn to run, we cleaned up and went to the Mall of America. We walked all the way around all three floors, then spent some time in Camp Snoopy. (I know, it's not Snoopy any more, but I'm a creature of habit.) We had gotten some ride coupons from a parade this summer, so we did the little kid school bus and the ferris wheel.

There sure were an awful lot of teenagers there on a Saturday evening, and some of their clothing left little to the imagination. Isaac and I felt really old, especially since we were home by 7:30!

Joel's New Girlfriend

Ellie proudly created lots of projects at preschool today for "Daddy's brothers." She took them home carefully and told Isaac, "This one is for Thaniel... This one is for Joel. Daddy, did you know that Uncle Joel has ONE new girlfriend?" She is so excited to see all the family at Thanksgiving!

Side note: She just heard me confirming the quote with Isaac before I typed it, and she added, "W-w-one. One has a 'w' in it!"

Isaac Is Like God?

As Ellie ate an orange, she said, "Years has a 'y' in it... Napkin starts with 'n.'" Isaac said, "You pretty much know everything, don't you?" Ellie nodded, "Yeah, pretty much. But you almost know everything like God!"

Cute Kids Stories of the Week

One of my little students was doing an art project. I asked, "Is that your house?" He said, "I don't have a house." I mentally kicked myself for being so un-politically correct as to assume he lived in a house and so insensitive to his little feelings, as I backpedaled, "Oh, where do you live?" His answer? "In my mommy's house."

As the father of one of my students dropped her off today, he saw we would be learning that "Hh is for House." He asked her what other words begin with "H." She answered promptly, "Healthcare!"

Today, Ellie asked me, "What shape is a pizza hut?"

Yesterday Ellie watched me thread the sewing machine. She said, "I think you forgot how to sew. Watch me for a while and then you'll remember." Wouldn't it be nice to be 3 again and know everything?

Even though Ellie rationally knows that her full name is Elizabeth, she calls herself "Ellie Grace VanLoon." She even wrote that on all her papers at preschool today.

Isaac's Correction

I showed Isaac my reference to PB in the last post, proud that I was mastering the language of runners. His response? "PR is more common." Okay. PR: Personal Record. I'll keep working on it.

Running Records

Isaac read my last post on running and informed me that runners don't say "self-records," as I did. They say "personal bests." I set a new PB (that's for you, baby) on Friday. I ran 3 miles in 29:44. I was really proud. With that, I met both my goals I had set for running. Now I need new ones.

So my new goals are this: to increase my distance record to 3.5 miles, and to increase my 3 mile speed to 27 minutes. I'll keep you updated. If I'm still running next summer, Isaac and I are going to do a 10K together. (Dad, you can join us if you want.) Mom and Ellie will stand on the route and cheer for us.

Lots of Pictures

I just finished organizing my photos in my Windows Photo Gallery. They had gotten out of control with tags. I was confused between tags, folders, and the pictures themselves, and thus was afraid to delete anything. I spent a long time trying to make all the tags right, then finally figured out that the pictures weren't saved under the tag name only. So I deleted all tags and put my pictures in organized folders, and now I'm much happier.

Getting Better!

Now that I've crossed the line from enduring running to being somewhat successful at it, I'm loving it. I feel so proud whenever I run, and it even feels good just to walk around with the knowledge that I can do it. Ten-minute miles are a nice pace for me at this point. Yesterday I did 2.5 miles in 24 minutes. I don't even feel the need to rest any more. It's exciting because the learning curve is steep enough that I can set new self-records every time I run. The annoying part now is that I can't run every day because my shin splints need some time to recover. It kills me!

More Ellie Phone Conversations

Ellie came out of rest time really wanting to talk on the phone. So she called her cousin Sydney and left a message, then Oma to leave a message. On Oma's message, she said, "Hi. This is Ellie. Um, do you have dental insurance?" Isaac and I burst out laughing, because she must have been listening to our conversations last week when Isaac broke a tooth.

Next she called her friend Isabelle. She asked Isabelle about dental insurance too, then said, "I just wanted to make sure you were being taken care of." Where does she get this crazy stuff?

Flowers From My Friend!

I got to eat breakfast with my friend Jen Norman today. We had a fantastic time as always. She lets me bring Ellie whenever I'm with her and Ellie adores her because Jen pays attention to her and clearly cares about her.

This morning Jen surprised me with flowers. She is SO worth getting out of the house before 8:30! The best part of the flowers was the card. I quote: "In honor of all the gooey feelings I have for you, here are some flowers for you to kill." She knows me so well! I read the line to Isaac, laughing, and he said, "That's not a card; it's an epitaph!" Thanks, Jen!

Early Learning

Ellie is having a rest time in her bedroom right now. She is pretending to talk on the phone using my business voice. Here's a sample of her monologue:

"Hello, this is Grace Kids Early Learning. I have classes on Wednesday and Friday... I'm with my Grandma on Wednesday so on Friday I do a lot of coloring... So do you want to connect up? Let's get you scheduled if you want to come to preschool... If you have kids, you can bring them... You make the picture things or otherwise do the water or other things."

So think I make a lot of phone calls?

Isaac just went in there and asked her what she was doing. She said, "I was inviting my friends to preschool!"

Cute Kid Stories of the Week

While eating lunch today, Ellie started in on how much she'd like a baby again. This time, she asked, "If I pray to God, will He give us a baby?" Of course, I had to tell her that God always answers prayer (I didn't mention the yes or no part this time.)

So she closed her eyes and passionately prayed. "We want, Lord, that you would give us another baby, and that I could take care of it, and feed it breakfast, and sleep in my room with it, and love it."

Then she opened her eyes and asked, "Do you think God will really give us a baby?"

Later, she asked, "Mama, will you change my baby's diaper?" She wants a "girl, cuz I'm a girl. Oh! A boy baby and a girl baby. Both! It would be like we have three kids like Gallops!"

Health Update

We got the results back from Ellie's urinalysis. She still has red blood cells in there, so we will retest in 6 months, then again with the ultrasound next year. They also want Isaac and I to be tested for hematuria (blood cells in urine), because there are some things that run in families.