New and Old

Would you like to see my new blog...check out:

http://landlive27.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year!

New blog site

I have spent the last couple of hours working on the new blog. I am pretty excited, even though I realize through my absence I have lost what little readership (slight chuckle) I had in the past. But seriously, I am going to make this thing work.

Three things

In the spirit of blogging more often here are a few quick things I wanted to share:

1. I am working on the new site. I think I have a name picked out, which has turned out to be a much more involved process than I expected. What blog name represents me at this moment...hhhmmm....or should I just go with something totally random? Also, I am really frustrated with the lack of blogging providers on the web. I did not want to go with Goggle, nothing against Goggle, it is just that I wanted more from my blogging provider. Turns out you have to know more about computers to get more out of your blog. Goggle definitely holds the power over the computer semi-literate.

2. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, my official go to site for all things cooking, and have made it twice in the last week. The first time I followed the recipe exactly and it was out of this world. The second time (a mere three days later) I used blue cheese instead of fete, because that is what I had, and added some chopped cherry tomatoes. It was so very, very good. I would make it again tonight if I had thawed chicken, but in a stroke of good fortune I found some lost steaks in the back of the freezer!

Feta Chicken Salad

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 3 cups diced cooked chicken
• 2 large stalks celery, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 6 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 (4 ounce) package feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
• 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a serving bowl, mix together the chicken, celery, and red onion. In a separate bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, sour cream, feta cheese, and dill. Pour over the chicken mixture, and stir to blend. Taste, and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving.

3. I am comfortably wearing clothes that were not-so-comfortable last week, and I am not-so-comfortably wearing clothes I could only look at two weeks ago. GO MAKER'S DIET!!

My Place in the World Wide Web

I really like blogging. Which I know you cannot tell from the frequency of my post, but really I like it a lot. I have tons of ideas that I want to share on my blog, I even write them down, and save the pieces of paper, or lose them or something, but more effort is made on the part of this blog than is evident on it's pages.

My problem (one of) is that I am really stuck on the name of the blog, and the meaning that goes along with it. I started this blog as a consolation to span the miles for my mother and the rest of my family in Texas when I lived in Californian and found myself suddenly pregnant. Hence the From 2000 Miles Away title. For some crazy reason God found it fit to remove us from paradise and plant us in Texas. When that happened I was reeeaaally bitter and so I decided to keep the name but in MY mind I knew that it meant I was 2000 miles away from where I thought I was supposed to be, wanted to be, was meant to be. For a very long time every fiber of my being wanted to be 2000 miles from Texas, but alas, it was not in the cards.

Over the last 12 months God has gently but firmly guided me through that bitterness to a place of contentment, GLORY HALLELUJAH. Can I say that again, do you know what a huge answer to prayer and great joy it is that I can say I am content to be here, because it is where God has us and I do not want to be anywhere that is outside of where He wants us. I wish you knew how huge that was, that I can say that, and mean it, and walk in peace. I still miss Tahoe, and everything that it was for us, and my heart longs to be close to those people and places mean so much to me. However, I know without a shadow of a doubt that my family is where we are supposed to be for whatever reason, to the glory of God, until He moves us again...or does not, only He knows. So the problem with the name of the blog is that for me it symbolizes two periods of time in my life that were full of happiness and hiking and bitterness and pouting, and I just want to be done with all of that. We are here, that is good, lets move on.

Like I said, I really like to blog, and I plan on making more time and honing my skills in the art. There are so many blogs that I read and they are a daily blessing in my life. I want to be that in a small way to others who visit my blog and read what I have to say. I want to write about being a mom, and a wife, and a Christian, and a member of this community, a person on this planet interacting with the land and influencing the lives of the people I am directly in contact with and those that I will never meet. I want to share how we are growing and changing and living. God has been so very active in our life, always, but I am becoming increasingly aware of what He is up to and I want to share that with everyone really, but here is a good place to start.

I am working on a new home for this project, one that leaves bitterness and joy behind to embrace a new future. I will let you know what the new name is, and where to find me in a little bit. I am so excited!!

Sadness

Tonight we said goodbye to Joshua, soccer extraordinaire, a wonderful uncle to Camille, my little brother. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and counting the minutes between contractions with my mom, in great expectation of Joshua's entrance into the world. Despite his constant battle between who he should be and who he wants to be he is really one of the coolest people I know. I consider it one of the great blessings of my life that I have gotten to share this little bit of time with him while we lived in Temple. He is headed of to new and great adventures. I hope college is as kind and wonderful to him as it was to me. I hope that he finds friends that become like family, that challenge him to be a better, stronger, larger person. I hope that he stays safe, and makes good decisions. I hope that his bad decisions mold him, that he finds God, and loses Him, and finds Him again. I hope that he decides that he does not have to be so cool, because he is blessed by being different, no matter how hard he tries to fight it, and that, coming from me, is a great compliment.

My grandmother has had progressive dementia for the past...ten years? Has it been ten years? She is really sick right now, we do not even know how sick, nor do we want to know. Her dementia has progressed to the point where she cannot talk, or walk, or eat, or move. I work with this all the time, so I try to think about it clinically, but I cannot. It is really hard. I have not seen her more than a handful of times since I moved back to Texas and I grieve about that often. I live in her house, and drive her car, and I cannot make myself go see her. Because why? Why go see her, and why not? My mom says this, her dementia, may be mercy, who knows? She is at peace and has been this whole time, and a woman of faith, God take her now and ease our suffering.

Some things in life are sad, and some are new beginnings, and some are mercy in disguise. It all depends on your perspective.

Growing

As I write this I am currently enjoying the effects of a nasty stomach virus that has spent the last month making this Erdman household quite miserable. I am the last to fall, and am hoping that it clears up quickly since I am planning on boarding a plane to Tahoe in 48 hours. The virus started with Camille and quickly moved to Matt, for them it lasted weeks, but then they have very immature and compromised immune systems, respectively.

Camille is finally better, but during the time that she was sick I started giving her big people food, anything that she would eat, I would give her because she was refusing her bottle and baby food. Now that she is healthy, she has become the smallest bottomless pit known to man. This is a big change for her, since she has had a tiny appetite since birth.

Seriously, I think I could feed her every minute of her waking hours and she would gladly eat it up. The kid has some weird taste, which definitely comes from her daddy. So far she has eaten all sorts of raw veggies and fruit including green peppers, raw yellow squash (from our garden!) and cucumbers (also from our garden!), but tomatoes are her favorite. She also loves kiefer and sour crout. The only thing she will not eat is apples, give that baby fermented cabbage any day, but NOT apples. Today I weighed her and she has put on three pounds in the last two weeks.

Yesterday I realized that my baby is only a few weeks from her 1st birthday. That thought took me by total surprise, it is a huge milestone and it seems to have swept up on us in a blink of an eye. Life seems so normal with her as a part of it, but this time last year I could not even imagine what one does day in and day out with a real live baby. Matt always tried to assure me that we would just take her home and keep her alive one day at a time. For some reason those weird words were comforting at the time. Parenting turned out to be much harder, more enjoyable, and dare I say natural than I ever thought possible. Okay, enough of that until a later date, I still have six weeks to reflect on this before the big day.

Camille is not the only thing growing in our life....at last...pictures of the garden!!!

I never knew how enjoyable it could be to grow your own food. It has also made me so much more aware of how what is put in the soil is what you put in your body. Especially things like potatoes, carrots, and onions. After this garden experience I do not think I will ever buy another non-organic root vegetable. We have been picking about thirty pounds (no seriously, we planted way too much) of squash out of the garden every other day. Yesterday we sampled our first cucumber, and the vine is bursting with the little guys just waiting to be transformed into pickles. I also jumped the gun and picked one of the acorn squash, just because it was so beautiful, and I could not wait another minute to have it in my hands. Both the Caffeys and the Erdmans are going to be out of town at the same time, so I am trying to find people to pick the garden and enjoy its wealth while we are gone. I almost feel like it is a beloved pet we are leaving behind.

Learning Experience

I had a significant learning experience regarding how to run a great triathlon...rule #1: GET REGISTERED! I thought I had registered for the Capital of Texas Triathlon in Austin a month in advance, however, my payment did not go through. I knew this, but for some reason I just was not concerned. I tried to get back on several times to make the payment, but I could never get it to complete, it would show up as debited in my bank account and then immediately be refunded. About a week before the race date (May 25) I got a call from the race coordinator, saying that they had been having trouble with the website not taking payments from credit cards whose home address was different from their billing address, which applied to me. He assured that he would get it straightened out and that I would be able to run. That was Monday, on Wednesday I got an email saying that my division was already full, and that I was out of luck. Major, MAJOR bummer! I had been training for that race really hard, harder than I have ever worked toward any physical goal, and I felt ready. So to be told so close to 'game time' that I was not going to be able to participate because of a website glitch was pretty frustrating. I know there are lots of other races, and I am planning on doing one later in July, but it took me a while to get over the poor-mes. So, now I am back training, which is still fun, and I am looking forward to being even stronger and more ready than I would have been last Monday. Here is the website for the race I am planning to run, the travel is a bit less convenient than Austin, but it still looks like a good time.

http://www.playtri.com/festival.php

Just for fun here are some new pictures of the cutest baldie-girl in Texas.

I realize it has been an excessively long time since I have blogged. Part of that has been laziness and total lack of motivation. Part has been the ridiculous schedule I have been trying to keep with work and baby and husband and training for my first triathlon. Part, which is more relevant to the blog is that I have been contemplating taking this blog in a different direction, but more on that later. Also,  I have been trying to figure out/avoiding how to share what all we have been doing in the Erdman household without having a huge update post, which I realize is almost impossible, so here is the huge update post, bullet style. 

• Camille is doing great. She still has no teeth and no hair, but is a cute as ever. She is no longer crawling wounded-solider style, instead she is about the house on all fours, moving like a bull dog on a mission. She is pulling up on everything that will stand still, creeping on the furniture, and standing unsupported for a few seconds at a time. I have a feeling walking is in the pipes. She is now a total bottle baby (GLORY JESUS!). We have been making our own formula out of organic raw cows milk, which we purchase illegally from the most awesome hillbilly hippie,  and a variety of additives.   Camille totally loves the mix and immediately started sleeping three hours longer per night with all the extra fat grams she is getting from the formula.  She loves singing especially songs with hand motions, books, eating dirt treasures off the floor, eating big people food and chasing the dogs around the house.
• Matt is about the same as when I last wrote, which is good, since at that time he was staying busy with his work and other various hobbies. He is still brewing beer and has an October Fest, an Irish Stout and a barley wine in the makings at this time. He is now using an all grain method and we are thinking about growing some of our on grains in the near future. He is also still weightlifting. He has been working on rehabing a knee injury and is slowly gaining back strength without knee pain. I am constantly amazed at his dedication and love of that sport. As far as work goes, he as had several big jobs as well as some smaller ones this past month. We continue to pray and have faith that God will provide the jobs he needs, and He keeps providing. 
• I have been very busy training for my first (mini) triathlon which will take place on memorial day. I have really enjoyed the training and feel much stronger and fit than I did when I started. I still have quite a bit more baby weight to lose, so I am trying not to get discouraged on that end. I have also been working in our garden more these days. I have been struggling with my job, and am contemplating a change within the OT field, maybe even to pediatrics. We will see how that goes, I have not decided yet. 

Collectively we have found a church that we like and are actively participating with some of the couples there in a Bible study and get together time. I still think making friends sucks, but it is good to be getting plugged into a group of believers. These people seem to be really cool, thoughtful, interesting, non-traditional types. There are several kids Camille's age, which was important to me. The church itself is changing. They are taking a good, hard look at their traditions and making sure that they are not doing anything to alienate people just because it is the way they have always done things. Consequently, their numbers are small. Viva la revolution. 

We (being the Erdmans and Caffeys) are beginning the journey pursing a more holistic food acquisition method as well as an overall more natural way of living. We are now knee deep in vegetables that we have grown ourselves in the garden that we tilled and planted and prayed over. So far we have feasted on squash, zucchini, green beans, purple peas, heirloom purple and yellow beans, broccoli, and lettuce. Soon we will have tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, and black eyed peas. Later we will have winter squash, potatoes, and onions. We are trying to figure out how to eradicate several types of bugs WITHOUT (daddy!) using harmful pesticides.  I would love any suggestions. 

We are also about to purchase our own cows to put on my parents land (20 acres give or take). For the last few years my parents have rented out the land to a man who had way too many cows on that number of acres. He depleted the land and we have spent the last several months doing things such as fertilizing (with very good, not organic, but very much not typical fertilizer) and removing some old, dead hay that coated several acres in a 18 inch blanket of nastiness. God has been gracious with the rain and we should be able to make a first hay cutting and purchase our cows within the next couple of months. We are planning on getting 3-4 heifers and a bull and then using the offspring as meat for ourselves and selling others. If anyone in this area is interested in purchasing a cow for meat, let us know.  

In addition to the garden and cows, the people that rent the small farmhouse on the corner of my parent's property are raising chickens and ducks for egg production. We are getting grain fed, free range eggs at an alarming rate for free! God is truly blessing our endeavour to live holistically off the land that he has provided. 

I have to say that I am incredibly proud and thankful for my mother who has really thrown herself into the process of living more naturally and taking advantage of the resources at our fingertips. The word Green has become so cliche, but I really think that we are trying to make a change in our small sphere that promotes a healthful, natural, environmentally aware lifestyle. Not because some celebrity told us to, or because we think it is cool to drive a Prius. But because vegetables out of a garden you planted taste like nothing you can buy in the store, and raw milk from the crazy milk lady taste like cool coconut sweetened goodness, and duck eggs are truly delectable. Right now the cost of everything that we are doing is much more than if we just gave up and bought our stuff from HEB, but next year, we should definitely hear a sigh of relief from our pocket book. 

So, I was toying around with the idea of changing my blog into something specifically focused on growing up green, or hippies gone Texas, or southern granola, but I decided to just keep it the way it is and post about whatever I want and hopefully more often than once every other month. This will include probably include quite a bit of detail about how Camille is going to grow up green, how this hippie at heart is planted in Texas, and how some die hard southern parents go granola in their golden years (haha). 

The mighty church dilemma

(I posted some new pictures of Camille so you can have something entertaining to look at while you read me rantings...)

I am having a terrible dilemma with trying to decide what to do about church. The dilemma is multifaceted...Since moving back to Texas in August we have been going to the church that I grew up in. This church is a blessing because there is automatic, built in community where we are surrounded by people who love us, and that we love. I would trust my life (read Camille) with any of these people in a heartbeat. I know that the leadership is sound, that the church is focused on Christ and attempting to be a Christian light in an un-Christian world. The preaching is Bible based and occasionally one might learn something, but it is usually slightly fluffy. Not too fluffy, there is good stuff there, lets call the preaching fuzzy, which is less than fluffy, but not quite steel. 

There are several couples there that have young children, some of them I have known forever, some of them are new. All of them seem to be totally not our type....more on this later. The church does an excellent small group ministry on Sunday nights, which I like but have not yet plugged into. There is reported to be an excellent class on Sunday mornings, which I have not yet attended. They have attempted to get us to get involved with the youth group...but we have flaked on that too...I think writing this is really helping me to see an obvious pattern. 

Okay, so here is the rub...man, this is more like journalling than blogging, because I am totally-kind-of  solving it in my head as I type along...the problem is that the main reason I want to go to church is to form a social network for Matt and myself, and eventually for Camille. Today, Camille was really fussy, so I took her up to the nursery where she slept and I was able to observe the crowd in my over-head perch. There were four couples that I noted that are ideal friend candidates, meaning they are roughly our same age and have kids in the pre-school or under age group. Two of the four couples I know pretty well, and we are nothing alike. The other two I do not know at all, and they both seem to be cool,  not LeTourneau cool, but okay. 

The problem is Matt and I are REEEEAAAALLLY picky, and would rather spend time together in our home alone than hanging out with people that we do not click with. This has been what we have been doing for the past five almost six months. I could go on that way for a long time, but I just do not think it is a good idea. Something is driving me to reach out and make a social network, and I cannot ignore that impulse, as much as I would like to at times. 

Another conundrum is that I have major issues with organized religion in general, it just makes me want to heave. This could be satan at work in my spirit, making me shun community and there by robbing me of the power of being in fellowship with other believers. I am trying to come to grips with my issues. Matt just thinks that we (I) should just pick a church already and stop stressing over it and plug in and get with the program. Ooh that life in my mind could be so simple. 

Back to the original dilemma...the question is: do we stay at this church that has so many obviously good aspects, or do we look for a church that offers more in the way of young married people with babies, because four couples does not seem like many options to me.  Would the 'selection' be better somewhere else, and is it worth the effort and risk involved in finding another church? Is church more than just a place to meet and gather with believers? Am I just an unsettled person in general, and therefore would feel the same way regardless of what church we went to?  Is any of this about church at all, or just a veiled way to express that I am having a hard time plugging in and making friends. 

Making friends sucks, it is just a fact of (my) life. If there were 300 couples to choose from that would be equally bad, because who wants to weed through all those people just to find the 4 cool ones. Why are there no organic eating Birkenstock wearing kokopelli painting science teachers in Temple???? Why is making friends so hard, and making good friends a once in a life time event? Why does Sunday, in particular send me into such a tailspin that I spend the first half of the next week recovering? 

Tonight we went to the youth group super bowl party. It was the first thing that we had done to make an effort to plug into this church as a couple. We had a pretty good time, although if Matt would have let me I would have totally weenied out at the last minute. The youth group is much bigger than I thought it was, and the youth minister and his wife seem to be pretty okay people. There is definitely a need/opening for Matt and I to serve with this group of kids. While we were there the homeowner mentioned that he needed some roof work done (SCORE!) and hired Matt on the spot...that is another big bonus. When we left Matt said that we should just get plugged in and be okay...that is the closest he has ever come to having an opinion about the church issue, so I guess that should settle it in my mind. Should my mind ever be settled. 

Totally worth it...

What you give up when you have a kid...

1. modesty
2. sleep in the middle of the night
3. sleep in the morning
4. naps
5. your back seat
6. your body!
7. any hope of ever being on time, again, for anything
8. your sex life (for a while)
9. your free time
10. spontaneity
11. backpacking 
12. the ability to be grossed out by bodily fluids
13. did I mention that you give up your body, and that you have to fight,  FIGHT, to get it back
14. for us, living in the mecca of outdoor activity
15. friends
16. a large portion of your living space
17. the ability to have conversations about anything other than the kid, without extraordinary effort ("don't talk about the kid, don't talk about the kid, don't talk about the kid!")
18. the ability to watch a movie uninterrupted
19. your dog's sanity
20. money, lots and lots of money
21. your own sanity
22. the ability to fit everything you need for a weekend into a small backpack
23. your boobs
24. the desire to ever stay up late
25. selfishness 

A couple of reasons why it is totally worth it...

The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same.

- Brian Andreas

Quick, grab the camera...

I learned a fundamental principal of parenting from Kim and today I had my first (of many to come) opportunity to use it, see the master at work:http://www.websketchings.com/baby/index.cgi?mode=viewone&blog=1208917399

Today I was playing with Camille and drinking my breakfast smoothie, when the phone rang. I ran to get it leaving Camille sitting on a blanket, playing with her toys. My smoothie was minding it's own business a good four feet away from any possible (or atleast I thought) baby grabs. I guess she can crawl when we are not looking, because I walked back to find a raspberry flavored baby. 

Here is where I left her.....and then I found....

Mmmm....smoothie....

A Belated Christmas Carol

My husband is super cool, and really good at giving gifts. This year, with the help of an awesome elf in California, he gave me the 12 days of Trader Joes for Christmas. In case you are unfamiliar with Trader Joes it happens to be the most wonderful of wonderful grocery stores of all times. I miss it acutely on a daily basis and long for the day when the company realizes that Texas is a perfect market for truly great, super cheap, wonderful healthy goodness. So, without further adu...ahhem..the twelve days of Trader Joes Christmas in A minor...

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a pound plus of Belgium Chocolate.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight ounces of cookies, seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tastyf treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine ounces of cheese (which the dogs ate, wrapping paper and all before I could open it, bad dogs) eight ounces of cookies, seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten fruity leathers, nine ounces of cheese (which the dogs ate, wrapping paper and all before I could open it, bad dogs) eight ounces of cookies, seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven awesome spices, ten fruity leathers, nine ounces of cheese (which the dogs ate, wrapping paper and all before I could open it, bad dogs) eight ounces of cookies, seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve ounces of chips, eleven awesome spices, ten fruity leathers, nine ounces of cheese (which the dogs ate, wrapping paper and all before I could open it, bad dogs), eight ounces of cookies, seven bars of chocolate, six pounds of soup, five tasty treats, four pounds of organic basmati, three flats of naan, two bucks of chuck and a pound plus of Belgium  Chocolate.

::applause::applause::

Advice

I got some good advice today....

Put your big girl panties on and get over it! 

and so I am, thanks mom. 

Proud

Here we are at the beginning of a new week, and I cannot wait for it to be over. Kass and Rachel arrive in one week, six days if you do not count today, which is practically over. I am so excited. We are going to have a mini-Letourneau Thanksgiving extravaganza, complete with Carmen, who has never actually gotten to come to our house for Thanksgiving, and Dave, a Caffey Thanksgiving veteran. This would be perfect if Kim and her family could come, they will be greatly missed! 

This last weekend we made a quick trip to the Woodlands to help Matt's grandparents. They had found mold in the master bath, and his grandmother has very compromised lungs, so this equalled an emergency. His grandmother, Dede, had been in the hospital, but she got out the evening we came, and was doing much better. I just want to say right now that I am so proud of my husband. He was so willing to go down to Houston to help, and so able to take care of the problem. I was proud of him because when his family needed help they called him, knowing that they could rely on him to take care of the situation when no one else was in the position to do so. Matt removed all the moldy cabinetry and drywall so that a crew could come in later and easily remodel the bathroom and his family could be sure the mold was gone. 

On a different note, Camille was absolutely perfect on this trip, meaning she was like she normally is at home except surrounded by family she does not know. I was pretty nervous because the last time she was around family she did not know she cried so hard and so much that we had to leave. This time she charmed their socks off.  She smiled for Dede, which was what was most important to me, and she talked and talked to her aunt Audry. I, ever unprepared, forgot the camera, which is a shame, because I really wanted pictures of Camille and Dede, but it will have to be next time. 

This week Matt is roofing a huge house for a guy from our church. He hired four people in addition to he and his partner. One of the guys has already said he is not coming back, this after the first day, the house is really tough (very steep and very big), and I guess he was not cut out for the physicality of the job. Matt has been pleased with how things are going, please pray that everyone will stay safe and that they will do a good job, quickly. I continually thank God for the inflow of jobs that Matt has gotten, he has two more lined up after this, with a possible third in the wings, which will easily carry him into the new year. I breath a sigh of relief, and look forward to next year.

Camille,

Today you turn four months old, and it is amazing how much you have changed in the last month. We have moved from smiles to laughing, and that has to be the most wonderful sound I have ever heard. Sometimes the noise that comes out of your mouth surprises you and you look at us like, "did YOU HEAR THAT?" When we get excited, you get more excited and it is a wonderful cycle. I could spend all day eating your neck rolls, just to hear you chuckle. I have tried to get the sound on camera, but as soon as the thing comes out you clam up, and take on your serious baby face, I must become more wiley for the likes of you.

You have also discovered that rolling is a form of mobility, I can leave you on a blanket on the floor and when I come back you will be several feet away from your toys in a lateral direction. I do not think you realize how you are moving, so it is not functional yet, but I think that it may become so soon. I can imagine finding you under the table in the dining room, what if we all rolled instead of walking, development is so cool. About that rolling...you get so frustrated when you find yourself on your stomach, but we are leaving you there, surrounded by your toys in hopes that you will learn to play by yourself for a bit. It is hard for me, because when you are up and happy I want to play with you all the time, but if you are going to insist on rolling all the time, I think it would make your life better if you knew how to play on your belly. You are actually starting to really go after your toys, and it is fun to watch you manipulate them so carefully with both hands.

Your hands are a totally wonder to you, you love to watch them move, in fact you can spend minutes (which in adult time is like hours) just staring at them as the flit around, which sometimes scares me because you stare at them the same way kids with autism do, and that freaks me out. However, I am just going to assume that this is a great stage of development, and that you are completely normal, or as normal as you can be given your winnings in the parent lottery.

You are talking so much now, and not just to me anymore, you love to talk to everyone that you know pretty well. Last night you even talked to your uncle Josh, which is as far outside of the parent circle as you have been willing to go thus far. You still cried when he tried to hold you, which made him nervous and he quickly handed you back to me. You continue to be very wary of strangers, you love to look at them, but you do not like it when they talk to you, or try to hold you. This is frustrating to me, because I always want them to see your beautiful smile, but for now those are just for a select few and this keeps me humble. Because of your shyness church is totally overwhelming. I cannot count the number of times people have tried to engage you and then you cried at them. You get this from me, and I am sorry, when you are 13 I hope I am as good as my mother was at forcing you to make friends. Speaking of friends, your future husband (I always thought I would be a mother who never did this!) Noah is coming for a visit in a couple of weeks, and I am so excited for you to get to see him again. He will probably be on of the only boys who will be bigger then you in middle school, and you will love him for this. Just wait, you'll see.

Right now we are settling into a work schedule, and you would have adapted to this well, had your mother not been so stubborn about trying to give you a bottle. On the flip side, had you not been sooooo stubborn about taking a bottle....okay, I give up, you win this time. Your

grandma was near revolt yesterday, and I had to throw in the towel for the sake of her sanity. So it is agreed by all parties that I will just feed you in the car in the parking lot of my work and we can all be happy. Maybe in a couple of months we can try solid foods...how does that sound, miss picky?

You have made up for the feeding difficulty by totally sleeping through the night, like 8-9 hour stretches. That is lovely beyond words. I am actually starting to enjoy waking up at the butt crack of dawn, since your 8-9 hours lands us at about 6am. I can feed you, play with you, and have you down for a nap (or pretty close) before your daddy even gets out of bed. This is a very functional schedule, lets keep it up!

Above all else, I have been amazed this month of how much I love you. I do not really consider myself a mushy-wushy person, but let me tell you, love for you just spills out of me like a fountain. I want to eat you up, just gobble you down cheek, by squishy cheek. Becoming cognoscente of that fact has made me have to beat back fear with a vengeance. Like a samurai, I fight fear of losing you, fear of what this world is becoming for you, fear of being a bad parent, fear of running out of squishy cheeks to nibble on...your mom is a samurai, isn't that cool! Happy four month birthday, Little Bit.

When I am not blogging I talk to myself...

So we survived the election, although for that whole day I felt like I was waiting to hear news about a new world disaster.  Matt voted libertarian, I chose to abstain, but feel like a dork for doing so. On Tuesday I heard several good reasons for voting each way, but in the end I just felt like the path of our country is already set, and I do not see how my one vote would change that, especially since I live in one of the reddest states in the nation. I know that people say that by not voting I have no right to complain, which I am fine with, I do not plan to complain, I plan to treat this president the same way I have treated every president before him, with objective and honest open mind. I think the most important thing a person can do for their country is to remain informed about the important issues on all fronts, concerning the nation and the world. When talking about this country Matt and my conversations have drifted to the end of times more than once, and I really do think that some of the things that are happening point to that effect. This does not really bother me, I just wish I knew more about what the Bible says is going to be in the end of times, I wish I knew what I believe. A wish I plan to rectify by some appropriately directed study. It also makes me wonder why I never heard one sermon on the end of times while growing up? Just to clarify, I do not think that Obama is the Antichrist or anything silly like that, as some Christians are fond of saying. I actually think he is going to be a good president, but I do believe in him doing things that society thinks are good, he will be moving us more towards the fulfillment of the inevitable. It makes me wonder why at this time I am so driven to bring children into the world...? Okay, enough stream of conscience, I am annoying myself. 

Things here are going pretty well. Camille has discovered that she LOVES to roll over, but hates to be on her belly, which is pretty frustrating to us all. We put her on her play mat with her toys over her and she gets so excited that she rolls over, and then gets angry when she cannot see her toys, it ends up being a vicious cycle of excitement, rolling, crying, flipping....until none of us even like the play mat anymore.  It is fun to watch her development, she is exploding in an all out uncoordinated frenzy of activity.  She still absolutely refuses to take the bottle, which gets more frustrating by the day. My mom is bringing her to me to feed her in the parking lot, which is both embarrassing and dangerous, embarrassing because I have to breastfeed my stubborn baby in the parking lot, dangerous because I am working with a ton of people with various extremely contagious, antibiotic resistant infections, which could easily pass from my clothes to her delicate immune system. I live in fear, and that is certainly not good. 

Erdman Repair and Remodel is the official title of our new family adventure. Matt has several roofs lined up for the near future, which is totally exciting! One of them is a HUGE roof, which described in Matt's words, "if it were any steeper it would be a wall." They are going to have to use ropes and stuff, so as not to fall to their death, again, fear, it is my constant companion. This roof is for a person that goes to our church, so we are branching out past family members! Please pray that word of mouth continues to get us more business. Matt is constantly thinking of new ideas, to sell "rich ladies their fat asses back to them," I laugh, but only in a serious way, because I really do believe that someday one of his good ideas will become department store soap. 

 

The joy of my world

Gate gaurding trolls...

I really wanted to be outside today....really outside, not just in my backyard where I can hear the traffic rushing frantically by. So I thought it would be a great evening to go on a picnic, we could take the dogs, get some food and go to the lake. I was really looking forward to it...I NEEDED to be outside, but I miscalculated the time, and we left too late so it was getting dark. I decided instead of going to the place I had originally intended, we would try to get into Ceder Ridge. Now, I knew that Cedar Ridge does not 'really ' allow day time use, but I figured (counted on) the fact that if you went and asked nicely and told the attendant that you were just going to eat dinner and leave, they would let you in, I mean, what is thirty minutes? So we got there, and I asked nicely, and the man at the booth turned me down flat. He told me, we could go to Temple Lake Park, they allow day usage, but we better hurry because he was sure they were about to close. If looks could have killed! I was so angry, there is that whole beautiful lake, and it is all gated off and guarded by assholes. WHY??? What would it have hurt to let us go and enjoy the lake for the evening, maybe we would have even picked up some of the ridiculous litter, actually improving the park for the other users. I could have spit, I was so mad. And sad, I was pretty sad too. I missed Tahoe today. I REALLY wanted to be outside, I wanted to be surrounded by nature, I wanted to be close to God there, I wanted to share it with my baby, I wanted to watch my dogs get excited about it, I wanted to sit with my husband in a beautiful place and remember the things we liked to do together. I cried on the way home, I could not help it, the tears just would not stop. We ate our Chick-fil-a at the table and drank good beer (thanks Matthew, the Belgian Ale was great!) and talked about doing something next weekend, with actually planning so as to not get thwarted by the absurd. Some days I ache for what I had and lost, which is ridiculous, because what I do have is so good, and so totally right, and sometimes so hard.

Tagged and other life experiences

I was ‘tagged’ by Kim to blog about five things I did not like to admit…it really got me thinking, what do I not want to admit that I would actually admit on my blog. Of course there are things that automatically popped into my head and there is no way I would actually admit those at this point, I am just not that transparent. But then there were other things that came to mind…these are those things:

1. Today during a job interview I totally forgot about my baby. I had previously said that I really wanted to work during the afternoons so that I can spend the mornings with Camille, and today I committed to working in the mornings…oops.

2. Call me sentimental, but I still love Miller Highlife.

3. I am a huge sci-fi fan…love it, a perfect Friday night would be Miller Highlife, pizza and X-files.
4. I cannot wait for my daughter to take a bottle, so I can leave her for long periods of time.

5. I do not like to pray (and I am not very good at it).

It has been a crazy week and a half. Camille has had her first round of allergies and it has been really hard on all of us. I hate watching her be miserable with a stuff, snotty nose and itchy eyes and it makes me extremely sad to know that this is just the beginning of a long, hard road of allergies in Texas. She is doing much better this week, but I still have her sleeping in her car seat at night because she gets so congested laying flat, (and I am a big scaredy-cat when it comes to thinking about her breathing at night.)
Matt is working in Houston this whole week putting a new roof on his grandparent’s house. I am extremely glad that he is able to do this for them, but I miss him like crazy, we just are not meant to be apart for long. We have decided, sort of, to pursue general contracting in this area, and I would really appreciate your prayers (see #5 above). We are both pretty nervous about starting yet another new thing, but that is the way of it, and I truly believe that something is going to work. I got a job today, which is crazy in it’s own way. I am going to be working at the nursing home where my grandmother lives. I am excited about starting back, but also quite nervous about working with so many dementia patients. It is a good opportunity to expand my skills in an area that is only going to become more relevant as more and more people are diagnosed with dementia. We will see if I like doing this, the trick is going to be trying to do functional tasks with a population that is continually declining. How can I improve the functional skills, and therefore meaning of life, of a person who cannot learn new information and is in the process of forgetting what they already know? Time will tell if there is answer to that question. I can say that God has blessed me with a career path that is HIGHLY in demand. I am totally overwhelmed by the response of the facilities in this area, I literally received calls in less the ten minutes after posting my resume online. I am humbled by the fact that they want me so badly, I hope my skills are up to their expectations. So, that is the craziness that is our life.

Uncles...

Camille got to meet her uncle Kyle last weekend when he and Jessica came to visit. We all went camping and had a good visit. Kyle was nervous around the baby, but did eventually hold her for a few minutes (until she got fussy) and we were able to get great pictures. I cannot wait for her to meet all of her aunts and uncles on Matt's side too! 

We also got to see Kim and her kiddos last week and had a good time. I was so super glad to see her, it has been way too long, but it is always nice to see old friends who are still comfortable after a long seperation. We got fun pictures of Camille and Gracie, they are about a month apart, Grace being older.