A City Life For Me

I looked up to find Nolan sharing his conversation hearts and sippy cup with his doggy! Elaine has been asking for braids, but she has so many layers and such fine hair that I can’t make it work.  We compromised with eight “ponytails” and she was happy! Grandma sent these stickers to Elaine.  She put the sets together to make this picture.  Notice the band-aids on all of the hands, the stethoscopes in the ears, and the hats on their heads?  I was impressed! These clowns came as individual pieces and I was shocked that Elaine put them all together like this…adding hats and giving them balloons and presents to hold!

Today I am thankful that I have not been assigned to bed rest, or limited activity.  At least not yet.  Many doctors and practitioners put twin pregnancies on bed rest automatically at 24 weeks.  I am 3 weeks past that and everything continues to look great.  While I am more easily tired, and I don’t tolerate being on my feet for long stretches of time, I am still able to take care of Nolan & Elaine, and the house for the most part.  This is good, because I still have some little things to wrap up before the twins arrive! I’m also thankful for Ben, who has stepped into the gap and taken up many of my household chores.  He is doing the laundry now – which means one of his nights at home is really spent at the laundry mat.  He washes the dishes almost every night, and he does a lot of the bed time routine with the kiddos.  He is also sacrificing some work time to watch the kids during by bi-weekly doctor appointments, so that we don’t have to ...

Nolan has been all about wearing his hat lately…and Elaine finally got her stroller “redeemed” and decided {wisely} to share it with Nolan.

Today I had a follow-up anatomy sonogram to capture a few more images of the babies.  I go to the hospital for these sonograms, and they take more time.  But…that usually means better pictures of the babies! {click to enlarge} I was happy to be reassured that we are still getting a boy and a girl.  The technician wasn’t 100% sure of the boy last time.  I think we have settled on the names for our twins.  Now that I have Ben nailed down I don’t know if I will let him change his mind!  But…since something has to be a surprise, and to avoid any “flak” over what we have chosen, you have to wait until they are born to learn their names! Here are the pictures closer up… Baby Boy – zoomed out to get the foot hooked over his head! Baby Girl – close-up profile

Ben has been helping at church to get the building finished…and it has included a lot of Saturday workdays.  Now that things are almost completed he decided that we needed a family outing/play day.  So on Saturday we asked the kids what they wanted to do, and we played all day. Elaine had several “eedeas” {ideas} and wanted to feed the goats at the zoo, go to the park, and have fries & chicken {McDonalds}.  She would count the ideas on her fingers, and then get to her pinkie finger and ask “What is this eedea for?” It was supposed to be cold, and we didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  We decided to do a little bit of everything.  I found a 50th Birthday Party for Clifford the Big Red Dog at the Scholastic Store in Manhattan.  It was free, but right during naptime.  So we skipped naptime! We rode the train to Manhattan, then stopped in at the Central Park Zoo.  Our zoo membership makes it easy to get in & out and just see a couple o...

Just over three months ago, Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy made landfall and brought devastation & destruction to many parts of New Jersey, New York, & Connecticut.  As our church is located very near to the water in Brooklyn, NY, we were among those who suffered more severe destruction to our physical building.  Since that time, things have not been the same at Bethel. And yet, in the midst of this trial, we have seen God do amazing things.  He has provided for the physical needs of many in our congregation.  He has given us open doors to share James 2 faith in action with our neighbors in the community.  He has provided for the renovation of our building. Today we hosted a “Grand Reopening” and invited our community to come and see what God has done.  We have been handing out postcards for several weeks.  We have invited specific people in the neighborhood whom we were able to help in the wake of the storm.  We had many visitors in atte...

My camera is in for repairs, so these pics were taken with the video camera.  The quality is not so great… Making cards for “Old Grandpa’s” birthday {my Grandpa…he turns 87 tomorrow!} I asked Ben to mark the hard boiled eggs so I knew which were which.  I had a craving for egg salad sandwich today, and when I opened the egg carton, this is what I found…