Well, just a little announcement: A and I had productive, snowy weekend and took advantage of our free time at home and gave birth to.......A SNOWMAN! (Come on, you didn't really think I'd say I was pregnant, did you?!)

We had a good snowy weekend filled with my parents, snow, together-time, laughter at Ben, and movies. In addition to playing our new favorite game (Aces & Faces) with Mom and Dad, we also took some long walks in the snow and watched Benny boy sprint around, played hide & go seek with him, and watched the first 2 of 3 Lord of The Rings movies. I'd never seen them, we were in the mood for a marathon, and I wanted something fantasy. We still have to watch #3 - the extended versions are all like 4 hours long, so it took the whole day Monday to watch 2 and make a snowman!

So anyways, here we go with pictures of the newest little Vanderburg, who sadly, was decapitated (not sure if it was intentional or not) shortly thereafter.

Hope you all had a wonderful, wintry weekend too, and thanks for all the loving on my childhood photos! Glad you enjoyed them :)

Adulthood is no fun sometimes. Days that focus on health insurance, car insurance, finances and the like definitely damper my enthusiasm for "being a big kid." What did I know about what was to come when I was young, and fun and free? Ah....the good old days :)

Ok, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed this peak into my past!

The past two Sundays, A has preached at a small SBC church about an hour northwest of us. It's a nice little church - the people are really friendly and welcoming, and we've enjoyed the time we got to spend with them.

Last Sunday after church we went to a local market for lunch - really tasty, home-grown produce and fun foods on the salad bar. It was thoroughly enjoyable. What we also enjoyed was the lunchtime conversation. An elderly couple sat down next to us and proceeded it chat it up. First question: Where did we live? We told them we were close to Wake Forest. They were apparently familiar with the area, because she proceeded to tell us she went to the seminary in Wake Forest "back before the Fundies took it over."

That does in fact, happen to be where I work. Yes, I am apparently a fundamentalist.

She asked about the "climate" there, and whether or not it was still under the control of the fundies - whom she couldn't stand. We told her we wouldn't necessarily describe it as fundamentalist (a pretty negative term among the people in this area), but would say it is definitely more on the conservative bent than when she was there. We asked what she believed, and she told us she was Catholic - although the spiritual cleansing prayers where you empty yourself of all thoughts sounded a bit more liberal than Catholics to me. So, I got to hear stories about the fundies and the wonderful steam heaters throughout the buildings on campus - again, where I work. I just nodded and smiled while she talked about the very same heater I warm up with everyday in my office.

Anywho. We also talked about gators and their rights when being hunted, and whether or not people should use things that might hurt them when trying to kill them....Right.

Yesterday's post-preaching lunch was also really enjoyable, albeit quite a bit different. There is a family in this church A preached at that probably makes up about 75% of the membership - no joke. The oldest members of this family celebrated their 65th anniversary yesterday, and we were invited to join in. So, the Vanderburgs, along with about 50 of their family, dined and celebrated the life of this couple. I talked to Mama Nettie, as she is called, for a few minutes, and heard about their courtship (met in the 4th grade, when he saved bus seats for her) and marriage (got married "after he got a German bullet taken out of his arm in World War II.") They have quite the legacy, with 5 children (all local), a bunch of grandkids, and a gazillion great-grandchildren, who are all precocious and well-spoken kids.

So while I heard about the sweet details of their romance, A heard about how "they certainly did their part" to produce those five kids. Ha. A also got an earful about his "broken razor" from Daddy Earl, who thought he should have shaved his face a bit more.

Anyways, it was a sweet Sunday, and we were so blessed to be able to share a meal with such a neat family. Thank the Lord for Godly legacies!

It's kind of funny, looking back on the blog now.

I wrote about hurting my back. I wrote about putting the bed on risers. I didn't write about A's body hurting all over, how we noticed a slight sag in our bed or the restless mornings of flopping around.

Last night we connected the dots - or rather my intelligent husband did - and went and looked under our bed. He was concerned maybe putting the bed on the risers had caused my neck to spaz, my back to ache, his back to spasm, and our sleep schedule to be off. He crawled around on the floor, looking for a bow in the middle maybe, and lo and behold - what did he find?

Instead of our bed having a nice flat undercarriage, properly supported all over, we realized the legs in the middle of the bed had nothing under them, holding up the center of the bed. I had only bought 4 bed risers, so the four corners were supported, but the legs holding up the middle of the bed were just dangling off the frame in mid-air. Poor legs - I took away their job.

Poor Ben, too. He was sad when we lowered the bed off of the risers last night, because his fun little cave was gone. (Never fear, we videoed him enjoying it. I'll put that up sometime soon). Regardless of how Ben felt about it though - we thoroughly enjoyed the good night's sleep we got
last night after restoring the frame to full usefulness.

And now....Saturday morning. I am soooo ready for a late morning in bed!

Last weekend we raised our bed up on risers so we could store more stuff under it, as well as get the bed skirt off the floor.

Last night, Ben discovered the whole new world awaiting him under the bed.

As we were getting ready to go to sleep, Benny stuck his nose under the bed-skirt and started nosing around. Being the kind and helpful "parents" we are - A and I encouraged him to go under and check it out. So he did.

When Ben was little, he'd wriggle under the bed and get stuck and growl and warble at the mean ol' bed for "trapping" him - having a grand old time. And then he'd do it all over again a day later. He hasn't done that in a long time - probably a year and a half or so - because he got too big. So, imagine his delight when he could, once again, fit under the bed.

His delight was so much so, that last night, he burrowed under the bed, found a toy he'd lost and stayed there, chewing on it. All. Night. Long.

We heard his habitual groan when we shut out the lights, signaling he was ready for sleep, and then he just stayed put. In fact, Ben slept under our bed all night long, until we started waking up about 6:15.

What a weird dog. Is he even a dog? That's definitely more like a cat. Either way - weirdo.

Every week, A and I try to have a date night. Last night we went to the Japan Inn, off Falls of the Neuse Rd. It was A-MAZING.

He was pooped and I thought some sushi might perk him up (it did, momentarily :) so we tried Japan Inn because I had coupons for it. Every day, they have a $17 all you can eat sushi dinner menu, which is killer. I definitely overstuffed myself but it was SO GOOD! I tried the tempura mushrooms and zucchini, yellowtail nigiri and smoked salmon nigiri (both melt-in-your-mouth good), the Tuna and Scallion Roll, an Alaska Roll, and my hands-down favorite: The Crispy Spicy Salmon Roll. It was delicious. I didn't see one of the fun little train-cars of sushi, but when you can get so much for $17, it's an okay thing to skip. Try this place. It's seriously good.

Anyways, the reason we do date nights, now even, is because we want to make our marriage a priority in our lives and because we want to make sure this tradition is in place long before we have children, so skipping it isn't an option.

Speaking of children, have you guys seen My Sister's Keeper? It's based on the book I love by Jodi Picoult (who I plugged before). I rented it last week and watched it, and aside from being sad, my impressions afterwards were this: Holy crap, I pray to God I'm not a terrible mother. Cameron Diaz, the mother of the movie, is shown as being very smart, and bold, and tenacious - especially in fighting for her older daughter's life. But at what expense?

In the movie, her other children are neglected, some would even say forgotton about, in the pursuit of being a great mother to one. How far can you go before crossing the line of being a great mom and being a horrible mom? Where is the cut-off between caring for the needy child of the family, and not caring for the other children as much?

I understand the movie is a) fiction and b) an extreme case, but I admit - it still scares me. I see some of those qualities in myself, and I don't want to. I want to not fight for my desires at the expense of others, but fight for God's desires at the expense of myself. Children will be one of the greatest blessings of our lives, and I don't want to have to give account when I die of all the things I did wrong in raising them. Thank the Lord it's not an imminent thing (parenting), and thank the Lord His grace is sufficient to cover ALL my sins - even horrible parenting - if it comes to that.

In lighter news - something else I have learned from Hollywood this week: I am SO thankful for my husband and to be married to him. I have been watching The Bachelor (trashy, I know. A won't watch it with me!). Each week, it has struck me how incredibly THANKFUL I am to not be in the position of those women - fighting tooth and nail, acting undignified and unladylike, and struggling so desperately for what they think they need - Jake as a husband.

I praise God he has given me a husband, and even more than that, that he has given me MY husband - an amazing, Godly man who seeks the Lord fervently and urges me to do the same. I love him, and I am so blessed.

Hurting yourself is the worst. You can't blame anyone else for your pain, and I have found it's when I've hurt myself that I am in the most pain. Plus, since I am who I am, I hurt myself in really ridiculous ways that are just pathetic.

For example, I have small feet for my height. I blame them on why I fall over a lot. Although I have improved remarkably since high school, I still have quite a few falls, trips and tumbles that could be attributed to the small feet that were pretty painful.

Or take the donut incident that I mentioned here. That was neither pretty nor painless.

What about the time.....*ahem* times....I have given myself whiplash - shopping? Yes. Twice now I have been so enthusiastic about trying on some shoes that as I stand up to prance around, I throw my head back with the same velocity as a wrecking vehicle and give myself whiplash.

So, while it's not quite as ridiculous as the other times, I am still confounded why stretching - while sitting down, mind you - has caused me to injure my neck/shoulder so much that I woke up crying the first night and am still wincing in pain, four days later. This afternoon marks visit #2 to a new chiropractor to take care of this little issue, one which I am ready to be done with. I'm tired of sleeping on a mound of pillows, sitting by my lonesome in the big chair to ice my neck, and not being able to look around without pain.

Woe is me, right? I know. I am such a whiner.

Anyways, just wanted to share my newest feat. If you see me around, say hello - but not too suddenly, for fear that I will whip around and seriously re-injure myself. Thanks so much :)