Cloth Diapering

I just wanted to briefly share why I loved, loved, loved cloth diapers.
The expense up front was more than a package of diapers, but over time I was able to save money. (Now just waiting for the bum genius training pants to come out, so I can quit buying pull ups, as I am not to happy with the gerber training pants system.) I also new that there were absolutely no chemicals going onto my baby's bottom, as I used special detergent for the diapers, and I know that they were designed by a mom for her baby, and they don't contain any bad chemicals. In the sense of the earth I was not contrubiting as much to the disposable diaper phenomenon over taking the landfills. The fun part was in the summer Thaddeus looked cute in his cloth diapers instead of the disposable.

You have been raised

These are the words to the song You Have Been Raised:

This track was recorded by the Na Band at the Sovereign Grace Studio in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

lyrics

Verse1
How do we know we’ve been forgiven?
How do we know that we have been made clean?
How do we know we’ll go to heaven?
How do we know we’ve been redeemed?

Chorus
You have been raised, the tomb has been opened
Nothing can take away our hope in You
You have been raised
You have been raised, the work is completed
Hell and its powers have been defeated
You have been raised

Verse 2
Now we are free from condemnation
There is no judgment left for us to fear
We don’t have to wonder if we’re welcome
You are the One who’s brought us near

Bridge
The price You paid for us
Has fully been accepted
Because of Your shed blood
We cannot be rejected

credits

from Risen, released 22 March 2011
Music by Mark Altrogge, Bob Kauflin, and Ken Boer; words by Mark Altrogge and Bob Kauflin
© 2011 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)/Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)

I had to share this song, It has been sung twice now at Celebrate Recovery, and I find it a great reminder, that He has been risen, and I nee to accept that He paid the price for EVERYONE'S sins, not just mine.

Love you!

This morning Jeremy was getting ready to go over to a friend's house to help with online applications, and as he was giving Thaddeus a hug and kiss bye, Thaddeus said love you for the first time!!!!!!

A brief update on what we have all been up too.

Jeremy -- He has been working on second shift at the shipyard, and working toward graduating from OCS in August.

Michelle -- I started working at Tri-City Christian Academy in the afternoons. I am a glorified babysitter, and love it!! I am able to take Thaddeus to work with me. Yahoo!! Though Nana Sheree will usually stay with him while I go to work.

Thaddeus -- Is all over the place! He hates getting dressed, loves to play with legos and cars, especially school busses. He can say quite a few words like, milk cup, thank you, please, mamma, daddy, zeus, cody, kitty, orange juice, ball cap, car, hat, poop poop, eat, uh uh,and uh huh. And can say a couple of sentences: here you go and take this.

We are all getting excited for my mom's visit in about a month. Her and my grandma are going to be driving from Washington to visit for Thaddeus' second birthday.

Hope you are well,
Michelle

I am still alive~

Well I figured I should post something, since it has been so long since I have posted.

Yesterday I started a job working at Tri-City Christian Academy, in their after school care program. I am only working 3 to 5 hours a week, but it is something, and the best part, Thaddeus can go to work with me!! I think I am going to love the job, once I get past the intial phase of the kids testing boundaries with me.

Thaddeus is growing in leaps and bounds. He knows the difference between yes and no, and loves to eat and not share with you. :0) He says please, thank you, poop poop, cracker, milk cup, eat, can count to three, and I am sure he says a few more words, I just can't think of them off the top of my head. He loves to play outside in the snow, and be where ever daddy is at. He loves his babysitter Mikayla. He usually doesn't want her to leave or doesn't want to leave her house if I have taken him there. He loves his Nana, his other babysitter very much too.

Right now we are "enjoying" the bitter cold winter. The last few days have been below zero. I am finding that I am missing the mild winters of the PNW.

Well that is us in a nutshell. I will try to post more than I have, but I am not making any promises. :0)

A quick update on Thaddeus

Well Thaddeus is now 14 months old.

In that 14 Months he has flow across the country twice, and to Baltimore and back to Boston once. He has been to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He has been to Boston, Portland, ME, Baltimore, MD, and Seattle. With a few smaller towns in between.

He is walking, although when tired he still walks like a very wobbly drunk man.

He can throw a major temper tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants.

He can say duck, daddy, Thaddeus, please (tzz) and do his version of sign language for it, and with sign language he can say more. He quacks like a duck, roars like a lion and hisses like a snake.

He has graduated to the hard sippy cups and drinks from a straw like a pro. We have ventured into letting him drink out of a water bottle with no help, and he does pretty well. Still eats with his hands but is starting to get the hang of it.

Well that is all for now.

Thaddeus is walking!

Here is a video of Thaddeus taking more than the 3 steps and falling down.

It has been awhile....

Well since it has been awhile since I have posted anything, I thought I would post a couple of pictures from Thaddeus' birthday, his first hair cut, and a photo or two from his 1 year picture session. :0)This was after a couple of bites with his hands.
Oops these are backwards. :0)...Showing some of his hair that got cut to daddy.

The way his hair laid, I got a couple of comments that he looked like Hitler...Part of why we decided to get his hairs cut.

He made it a little hard for the photographer to take his picture. He wanted to do what he wanted to do for the pictures. Resulting in a couple where you could see the carpet instead of the whole background. :0)

Well hope everyone is doing well. I will continue to try to keep a little more up to date on my blog.

I am still around

I have not felt like blogging in a long time. I know I should get back to it, and actually have a few things to blog about. I guess I will once Thaddeus, Jeremy and I get settled into our routine back home.

I know I need to get into the habit, so come this fall when Jeremy deploys to the middle east, he can go on here and read about things going on at home when he isn't able to call.

Until the next time I actually blog instead of read blogs.

Michelle

Crazy Hair

I think about posting, I just don't always have the energy to put all my thoughts to words. Well here is a picture, and maybe in a few days I will write about Jeremy's time home on leave.

This is a picture of Thaddeus after a bath with his crazy hair.

I think that the soldier holding up his fist is Jeremy.

The batallion he is in at Basic in Fort Jackson, SC has a facebook page that allows for the parents and spouses to be able to communicate with each other about their soldier and it is a way for the Batallion to communicate with us.

Today I was able to talk to him for about a half hour, and it would have been longer, but I was driving, and I told him he needed to call him mom. The reason for the call and the length of time was because they had a soldier die this week or today not to sure on that part from the Swine Flu. The soldiers were given time to call their families to let them know that they were ok. Haven't looked online to see if there was any news about it, and didn't really watch the news today to see after the call, but they figured it might be on the news.

Thaddeus and I are doing great! He is "talking" up a storm, and scooting himself around in circles when he is laying on his back, he can roll over from his tummy to his back, but rarely does it and is almost able to do so from his back. I need to go and get him a Johnny Jump up as he loves to bounce in my lap.

well there is a quick update...I know I have been very bad in blogging lately!

Yoplait Whips Summer Cool Down gift bag give away

For a chance to win Yoplait Whips! 'Summer Cool Down' Gift Bag from MyBlogSparks, visit All Things Bloggy.


This sounds like a fun giveaway to win, so thought I would share with everyone.

A quick update

Well lets see a lot has happened for Jeremy, Thaddeus and myself.
* August 11 -- Thaddeus and I flew from Boston to Chicago in first class due to itinerary changes. Ended up leaving Chicago two hours late due to a landing gear door malfunction. Found that people are more than willing to jump in help you out at the airport when you have a little one. I had a wonderful woman and her daughters jump in and help me get from one gate to the next in Chicago. I was a bit stressed with a stroller a carry on on wheels, another carry on duffle bag, diaper bag, and small cooler for the breast milk. Then at the gate to get on the plane in Chicago a wonderful couple jumped in and helped me to get on the plane by taking the carry on bag and put it up above in the overhead storage. Then when we landed the same couple pulled my bag down for me, and I suspect they are the ones who opened up the stroller for me. Then I think I was taking to long to get off the plane as one of the crew who cleans the plane helped me to get off the plane and then one of the stewardesses helped me with my bags to get off the breezeway. That same day Jeremy left for Portland, ME to head off to Basic Training. the first 3 or 4 days we were able to talk on the phone, then he was done with processing and is now full fledge basic, he was able to call yesterday and had 4 minutes to talk.

Since Thaddeus and I have been home we have traveled to Tacoma to have lunch with a friend, surprised another friend before she left for Mexico with the youth from her church for a short mission trip. We have been blessed to go to dinner with another friend before she leaves tomorrow for S.Korea to teach english for a year. Went to the Kitsap Modern Mom's meet up group where her got to meet a lot of friends. Has gone with his grandma to go shopping, and to the sewing chicks for a surprise baby shower that was thrown for grandma for him.

Well that is the quick update, will post some pictures in a few days once I get them all transfered to the computer.

Catnip addicted cat!

Found some cool features on the camera

Jeremy and I went down to Portsmouth for lunch, and decided to take advantage of the beautiful day, took a lot of pictures, and on the way home I played with the different effects on the camera.

Camo

This morning Thaddeus looked up at Jeremy's uniform hanging up to dry, and got the biggest smile on his face! I hope that he has bonded strongly with Jeremy, so that when he gets back from boot camp and training, Thaddeus will still know who his daddy is.

Trying to capture Thaddeus smiling and his laugh

Yesterday Thaddeus actually laughed out loud, it was a short laugh, but very cute, so we tried to capture it on video, didn't quite get it, but got a cute video of Jeremy and Thaddeus.

Eugene O'Neill Childhood homestead

From the sidewalk in front of the home in New London, CT. We were told that his mom had family in the area, so they bought this home as a summer home to live at when the Theater shut down for the summer. His father was a famous actor of the time. The windows off to the left of the front porch is the room that is generally recreated in his autobiographical play "A Long Day's Journey Into Night". The curators have done a wonderful job preserving what was originally the O'Neill family's furniture and such, and finding period pieces of furniture to fill the home with. His father had the ceillings raised on the main floor to give the appearance of having more money, and you really notice it when you go upstairs, as I believe that I would be able to touch the ceilling on the second level, and I am only 5 foot 1.75 inches!

Eugene's father traveled playing the Count of Monte Cristo.

The O'Neill family sold the home to another private owner, and that private owner later sold it to the O'Neill Theater group (Not to sure what the actual name of the group is), which maintains the property, the Docent said that they will have theatrical performances at times in the home, next weekend he said that they are having some French poets who will be doing a reading there.

The light house from the time that Eugene was a child, it was moved off the coast, and is now someones home. The foghorn from this lighthouse tormented his mother Ella as she was addicted to morphine. It was the drug of choice to give to new mothers for the pain after childbirth.

The docent was very kind and gave Jeremy and I a quick tour of the home, later on after we had left I found out that he was extra kind and did not charge Jeremy and I the fee to be able to tour the home of $7 a person.

We had a wonderful time, and I would definately recommend going if you happen to be in the area.

Playing on his new tummy time play mat.

A day in Mystic, CT

We tried to get a good picture of the 3 of us, but this was the best that we could do.

The "Famous" Mystic Pizza...Below is from Wikipedia about the movie with Julia Roberts:
The film is about the coming of age of two sisters and their friend, as seen through the romantic lives of the three main characters: Kat, Daisy, and Jojo, who all work as waitresses at Mystic Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut. Mystic in the film is represented as a fishing town with a large Portuguese American population, though that description more closely resembles neighboring Stonington, Connecticut, where many scenes were filmed.
The movie also touches on an Old World work ethic. Kat and Daisy are sisters and rivals; the former studies astronomy, works at a local planetarium, as well as the restaurant, and has been accepted to attend Yale University, while the latter just wants to have fun. Kat is the apple of her Portuguese mother's eye, while Daisy is not: She is promiscuous and is not as goal-oriented as her younger sister.
There is also a dynamic between Kat's Anglo-American employer and the resulting relationship between them. The class distinctions and variant European heritages are explored in various scenes of the film.
Vincent D'Onofrio, William R. Moses and Adam Storke co-star; in his screen debut, Matt Damon has a small part (his sole line in the film being, "Mom, do you want my green stuff?" while eating lobster).
The title of the film was based on a pizza shop that caught the eye of Hollywood screen writer, Amy Holden Jones. A restaurant named Mystic Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut has become popular among summer tourists due to the film's success.

Jeremy and Thaddeus on the little drawbridge ove the Mystic River. We may go back and go on a 40 minute river boat cruise for 5 bucks a person. It was a bit wet, and we were just a little tired.