Our Baby Duncan

On October 17, 2011 – Our family received a little bundle of blessing from heaven!  Evan and Annie had a little baby boy – Duncan Castle Roarik Sullivan.

Isn’t he just precious??!

Today we went to visit our Baby Duncan :)

We are all totally in love with the lil’ man!

Teaching my kids to pray

Everything I ever needed to know about life, I learned at BSF… well, not exactly true, but I have learned A LOT at BSF :)  One of the things BSF has taught me is how to pray.  I wanted to instill this in my children, so I came up with a way to teach them to pray.  I made prayer sticks

We have attributes of God written in green, Thanksgiving written in blue and Requests in red.  Each day we gather around the table and we choose what we want to pray for.  We can add to each category as we want, but this builds a collection of everything we know about God, what He has done for us and things we ask Him to do.  We each take 1 to 3 of each color and then we have a time of confession then we all worship God using the attribute we picked, then we Thank Him and finally have requests.  The kids are loving our prayer sticks, and I am excited to be able to instill in them a love of prayer and a formula to do that will last the rest of their lives.

Field Trip to Maryhill Museum and Stonehenge

Today, Krista and I took the kids to the Maryhill Museum and the Stonehenge Replica.  For a week, we have been studying Stonehenge and reading up on the Museum, so the kids would know about it before we went.  All the staff at the Museum were awesome!  Each of us were able to get an activity guide that gave information and asked questions… if we took the completed ones to the front desk they gave us a postcard from the gift shop for free.  It was a great way to get the kids engaged with the exhibts.

This is the first view of the Museum when you arrive on the property.

The kids going into the Museum

In one part of the museum they had an interactive kids room, Robbie is building a sculpture out of tin foil in the manner of Auguste Rodin.

We ate lunch on the grounds and then went to view the Outdoor Sculpture Garden.

One of the Outdoor Sculptures was a throne similar to Queen Marie’s of Romania – So the girls and I got to be Queens…. for a minute – McCara made very sure that hers and my legs were crossed correctly as per instructed by Julie Andrews in Princess Diaries LOL

The kids are all sitting on the rocks of the outlook.. with the Columbia River in the background.

Krista and I at the outlook

Our next stop was the Stonehenge Replica.  Sam Hill, the builder and owner of the land, built this as a memorial to the service men of Klickatat County who died in World War I.  On the inside horseshoe there were plaques with names for each of the men from the county who died.

Liam and Robbie acting out a human sacrifice on the alter…. for a long time it was believed that the original Stonehenge was a Druid Temple that human sacrifices were made at.

We had a great day!

I’ve lost my baby’s weight!

This week, during my weigh in, I hit 182lbs on the scale.. that is a total loss of 48lbs!  I realized after a little bit, that 48lbs is how much Lena weighs!  I have lost all my baby’s weight!

The first picture is me last year at my highest weight (230lbs) and the other picture are of me today (182lbs) and my 48lbs (Lena)  As I was holding her, she seemed so heavy to me, and I thought… YIKES.. I carried that around 24/7!

Ring, Ring!

I am not much of a jewelry girl…. I don’t really like necklaces, bracelets are okay, I have a few and I wear them sometimes.  I have some earrings, but only wear one of the sets and they are simple hoops in my first hole and little tiny heart shaped diamonds in my second holes.  But rings… now that is jewelry I love.  At this very moment, I am wearing 9 rings on 7 of my fingers. 

On my left hand I have 5 rings.  On my pinky finger is my mother’s ring (still need to get Lena’s birthstone put in it), next is my wedding ring, on my index finger is a ring with 3 small flowers on it, that I purchased at the Fair when I was 18, and on my thumb I wear Robert’s wedding band with another band on top to keep Robert’s ring from falling off.  The smaller band on my thumb has inscribed on the outside “I am my beloved’s” and the inside says “His desire is for me.  SoS 7:10”

On my right hand I have 4 rings.  On my thumb is again 2 rings.  The bottom on is a celtic knot ring mom got me at the highland games, on top of that is a simple silver band.  Since I have lost so much weight the celtic knot ring was coming off constantly, so the sliver band holds it on.  On my ring finger is a ring with a heart cutout that Robert bought for me in Levenworth in 2001.  On my pinky is a small rose that I also purchased at the Fair when I was 18.

Been a While and my 1 year progress report

I am a bad, bad blogger LOL  Probably because my life is pretty mundane… nothing too exciting happens that I think anyone else would want to know.  Not sure where this blog is headed, but I will try to be better

A year ago, Robert was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and that began a lifestyle change in our family.  healthier foods, exercise, etc.  It wasn’t just for Robert but for me and the kids too.  It is important that they learn about healthy foods because they have a very high risk of developing diabetes as both sides of the family have it.  I began this journey with High Blood Pressure and at 230lbs.  A year later, Robert is managing his diabetes fantastically with the help of insulin, exercise and Weight Watchers.  And I have been able to go off all my Blood Pressure Medications, I have lost 42lbs and 15 total inches!  I went from a pant size 20 to 14. 

I however didn’t do this alone… God has taught me so many things through this journey…I have learned things about myself that I didn’t know, and I have grown in areas of my life that I needed a push in all because of this.  My original plan was to have lost 52lbs at 1 year (a pound a week) but that isn’t what happened, and I am very happy for how far I have come and the lessons that I have been taught, the strength and endurance I have gained.  I know that this next year will continue to grow me and bring me closer to the healthier weight I should be.

Brains like Waffles and Spaghetti

A while ago, I heard an analogy of how different types of brains work… there is the Waffle brain and the Spaghetti brain. (I have also heard it be Boxes and Wires). 

A Waffle brains process life in boxes.  If you look down at a waffle, you see a collection of boxes separated by walls.  The boxes are separate from each other and make a convenient holding places.  Waffle brains thinking is divided up into boxes that have room for one issue and one issue only.  The first issue of life goes in the first box, the second goes in the second box and so on.  A Waffle brain lives in one box at a time and one box only.  When a they are at work, they are at work.  When they are working on a home project, they are working on the project.  When they are watching TV they are simply watching TV.  That is why they look as though they are in a trance, and can ignore everything else going on around them.  There is even a nothing box…. and they REALLY are thinking NOTHING!  This is normally how a man’s brain works.

Spaghetti brains process life more like a plate of pasta.  If you look at a plate of spaghetti, you notice there are lots of individual noodles that all touch one another.  If you attempt to follow one noodle around the plate, you will intersect a lot of other noodles, and you might even switch to another noodle seamlessly.  Spaghetti brains face life in the same way.  Every thought and issue is connected to every other thought and issue in some way.  Life is much more of a process for the spaghetti brain than it is for the waffle brain.  Normally this is how a woman’s brain works.  This is why a woman it typically better at multitasking than a man.  A Spaghetti brain can talk on the phone, prepare a meal, make a shopping list, work on the agenda for tomorrow, give instructions to the kids as they are going out to play, and close the door with their foot without skipping a beat.

In our family…. waffles do not necessary mean a man… and spaghetti doesn’t have to mean woman.  I am a Waffle brain and Robert is Spaghetti.  Ethan is Spaghetti and so is McCara… but Robbie and Lena are Waffles.  It is fun to see how each other’s brains work.. it also makes conversation with each other easier, since we understand the way the other person’s brain is working.

Robert and I use this analogy a lot when talking with each other, and therefore the kids have heard and kind of know what it means.

This whole post is because of something funny Lena said today “My brain has boxes that keep all my memories… my baby memories didn't get a box, that is why I don't remember them.”  She got a little confused as to what the boxes are for :)

My Word for 2011

TRANSFORM: 1. to undergo a change in form, appearance, or character; become transformed; metamorphose.  2.to change in condition, nature, or character; convert.

Transformers are so cool.. they are this cool looking car and with a little time, some twisting, pulling, and pushing it turns into an even cooler robot!  The theme song to the Transformers says “ Transformers, More than meets the eye”  That is how God sees me… on the outside I am pretty good… I go to church, serve in BSF, I love my husband and kids, etc… but God knows that with some tweaking, some twisting and even some purging there is more to me than meets the eye… He has a vision for what He can transform me into.

Romans 12:2  ”Do not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 “ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being TRANSFORMED into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Philippians 3:20-21 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will TRANSFORM our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

So, this year, I have no resolutions, but I do want to be transformed into the woman that God knows I can be.  If I let Him transform me, I will see changes in my attitude, my body, my thoughts, my household, my marriage, etc… every area will be different.  It is my prayer that when I look back at the end of this year, that I won’t recognize the woman I am today.