Snow Day

Can you believe it?! It's the end of March and it SNOWED! Not just a few flakes, either...the kids went out in full winter get-up and made snowballs and everything! Though Ethan and Annabeth loved it, Brandon and I weren't thrilled to see it. Where are the beautiful flowers? Singing birds? Twitterpated forrest animals? Even April showers??? It's supposed to be spring for crying out loud!

And then today, the sun came out so Brandon took Ethan out in the backyard to play some catch. After a little while they had to come in because it was HAILING! Go figure...beautiful sunshine and hail. What's next?

I'm outnumbered...

First the kids:

And now the dog!!

Brandon has converted almost the entire family to his love of computers! Except me, of course ;) But he's still trying..

Easter

Here is our Easter picture. Not the greatest picture we've ever taken, but the fact that we were able to get BOTH kids to be looking in the general direction of the camera makes it a success. Unfortunately, as you can see, Brandon was missing...he was busy painting our place so we can put it up for sale. We missed him. The kids had a good time hunting eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house, though...they brought home LOTS of candy and goodies. :)

How was your Easter?

Angels and Pancakes

Luke 16:22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side..."

Do you ever wonder when this actually occurs? I mean, in today's world when people can be kept alive for years with machines and medications, when do the angels actually show up? When the brain dies? When the plug is pulled? Can the soul leave the body if the body still lives? Can the body live without the soul?

Last night at work I peformed CPR on a woman who went into sudden cardiac arrest and, as odd as it sounds, these were some of the questions I was wondering as I was pumping on her chest. I found myself thinking, "Is she still in there? Are there angels in the room right now taking her spirit even though I'm keeping her heart pumping?" Somewhere between 10 and 15 people hoovered around this woman for about 35 minutes trying to save her life and she didn't make it after all of our efforts. I wonder...was she dead when we began the code or when the doctor pronounced her dead? Her case may seem simple...maybe her soul was gone before we even started trying to save her. But what about the guy three doors down who is brain dead, but stable on full life support? In today's age of technology, we've made life a technicality and death a defeat...at least in the medical field.

I hope that this doesn't sound morbid or depressing to any of you! I personally find these questions fascinating. I'm surrounded by death and people who are dying every time I go to work so, as interesting as it is to see how it all works on this side of the veil, I'm more curious about what's going on on the other side. It makes me wonder when I'm in the presence of angels! :)

For those of you who don't like talking about death, here is the "pancakes" portion of my post: I took Ethan and Annabeth out on a date this morning since I've been working a lot over the last two weeks and haven't seen much of them. We went to Ihop for breakfast (they were having a promotion for the new Dr. Seuss movie that's about to come out) and the kids were excited to order what was essentially pancakes and candy:

Then, after I loaded them up with sugar, we went to hang out at the mall and play off some of their energy at the train:

(Ethan signing "I Love You")

We had a really good day! As much as I like being back at work, I have to say that there is nothing better than being home with these two. The hospital will always be my second job.

Decisions, decisions

Well, Brandon and I were approved for our home loan this week. While it's VERY exciting that we're finally on our way to buying a new house, we've come to the realization that we have no idea where we want to live! Right now we've pretty much narrowed it down to Snohomish or Federal Way, or possibly Carnation. The only reason we are even considering staying in Federal Way is because of our church family. We have both come to love the church and the people here and can't imagine leaving. However, every other reason points to Snohomish. Family, job locations, overall convenience...everything else would be easier if we moved back north. I guess we'll just have to keep praying about it and see what happens; I know that God has a plan for us, so maybe we should just wait until he lets us in on it. :)

On a different note, I took the kids outside to play this morning and was taking some video clips of them kicking the ball to each other. I managed to capture a classic ball-in-the-face moment:

Don't worry, though. Annabeth forgave him and they managed to have nice lunch together afterwards ;)

And, just because I think their sweet faces turned out so cute in these, here are a couple more:

A boy and his pup

We took Sadie outside for the first time today; up until now she has been too small to go out in the chilly weather. However, it's gorgeous outside today and the temperature has warmed a little so we thought we'd take her out. The kids had a lot of fun with her -- especially Ethan. He absolutely loves this little dog! Normally he is afraid of dogs, which was one of the reasons behind getting one of our own, but he adores Sadie! He's constantly telling me, "She's so cute, huh?" :) It's a lot of fun watching him hold and play with her, and his fear of dogs has gotten much better. I'm really happy that he loves her so much!

While we were outside all three of them went straight for the big dirt mound that, thanks to the rain, has been turned into the big wet dirt mound. Sadie loved the great outdoors and the kids loved the wet dirt...

And, after all of that everyone got a bath...including Sadie (which she hates!):

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go...

So, it looks like I'll be returning to work next week! Overlake Hosptial finally called me back today and officially offered me a job. I'll be working 12 hour night shifts (7pm to 7am) every Friday and Saturday night. I'll be in the ICU just like I used to be, doing exactly what I used to do (Nurse Assistant). I'm not sure how I'm feeling about it; while I am excited, I'm also feeling fairly nervous. I've done this job before so I at least feel good about knowing what I'm getting into...but I haven't worked in over 4 years!! It's a little scary to go back out into the real world when for so long I've had the privelidge of focusing on nothing but my two beautiful babies! I think I'm most nervous about doing night shift again; last time I worked nights I was younger, single, and invincible -- now, I'm pretty sure I'm none of the above. However, I'm confident that the Lord not only blessed me with this job but will also bless me with the ability to stay awake to do it. :)

For those of you who have been left hanging about what Brandon decided to do in his job dilemma, he has decided to stick with SanMar. And for those of you who don't know what the dilemma even was, here's the quick version: Brandon was approached by a friend about a job opening in his company and he encouraged him to apply for it. Brandon applied, interviewed, and was made an offer. When he went back to his boss about this offer, his boss said he would match it if he would stay. Both companies REALLY wanted him and in the end he decided to stick with his current company. So not only has he been given a great confidence boost, knowing that he was valuable enough for two companies to be vying for his employment, but the significant pay increase that came as a result of all of this has been such a huge blessing. The Lord is good! Now we can move into a house (or larger condo)...SOON!!

That's about it for new news from us! And of course, here are the mandatory pics of the kids and a cute video of our bouncy little pup...she's pure entertainment. :) I hope everyone out there is doing well!

Ethan playing in the back yard...
Annabeth wearing the hat that my grandmother made me when I was little :)

Apparently, Annabeth thinks I'm hilarious...

Sadie