Accepting a Job at Lake Superior State University

Samantha: 57 Months, Week 3

Aedan: 22 Months, Week 1 (Week 96)

Tuesday was one of those days that started out completely normal, but then turned into something that ended up changing our future.

I took the kids out in the morning to the TRI to play in the gym and then to go grocery shopping. Then, we had lunch and nap time at which point I got started on my list of things to do, like getting Samantha switched to the upcoming skating lesson session, rather than the one over the summer. We decided, since our plans are really so up in the air for the summertime, and since we are already staying in town more on the weekends anyways due to art lessons, we might as well let Samantha do both art and skating on Saturday mornings. While talking to Ben about how his day was going and discovering that he wasn't feeling well, I was also dealing with trying to get Samantha to take a nap. Instead, she was just in her bed singing, so I went to her room and told her that I expected her to lay quietly because I wanted her to nap, and I took her blankie away. I made her upset when I took her blankie away, so I was not expecting her to nap, but then a little before 4:00, when she had already been in her room for close to an hour and half, almost reaching the time when I was just going to let her get up, she actually fell asleep. I assumed that I would have to wake her up in order to get to our community group that evening, but she actually woke up a little before 5:00, which worked out well since Samantha is always crabbier after being woken up. I was frustrated that she took so long being silly before finally falling asleep. Obviously her body needed the sleep, but for some reason she just doesn't let herself fall asleep sometimes.

Then, the event that changed our future was when Ben received a phone call from the Provost at Lake Superior State University offering him the job for a tenure track position. I was SO excited for him that I couldn't believe it. I was so proud, and we were both so hoping that a job offer would come from his campus visit a couple weeks ago. I couldn't wait to talk to him on the phone and hear more details about it. They were very excited to offer the position to Ben and at first wanted an answer by the following Friday because their second choice candidate had a job offer from another school but would rather be at Lake State. However, Lake State liked Ben the best and wanted to offer him the job first, which I think says a lot about what the school thinks of him. Ben told the Provost that he wanted to bring me up for a visit before making any final decision and convinced him to give Ben until Monday to make a final decision. It was so exciting and almost hard to believe. We had been waiting for this moment for so long, and now Ben actually had a tenure track job offer. It was almost surreal, and then everything else afterwards happened so fast.

Right away that night Ben and I started planning for our trip up to Sault St. Marie, Michigan. Ben's parents made arrangements to come down and watch the kids for us so that way we could get on the road Thursday evening and get most of the way there before stopping for the night. Also, staying at our house made it so that Samantha could still go to preschool on Friday as well as her art lessons and first ice skating lesson on Saturday. We were glad that she didn't have to miss any of those things. While up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ben and I decided we would stop by the school administration building to get a registration packet for Samantha for kindergarten in the fall. (It is so hard to believe that we are registering her for kindergarten!) Also, we got the name of a recommended realtor that we connected with so that we could see some houses on Saturday. After Ben's campus visit, I started looking at houses on Zillow, saving the ones that I particularly liked and would enjoy seeing in person, so I was at least a little prepared in that regard.

I felt like everything was a bit crazy and hectic on Wednesday with trying to plan for our weekend scouting out Sault Ste. Marie, while also having to carry on normal, every day tasks. For example, Wednesdays are my day to watch Bennett, so it was busy, but fun watching the boys play together. Benny always goes right for the basketball hoop and is happy playing with that for quite a long time.

The boys also played upstairs in Aedan's room with his new train track that he got for Christmas. I feel like it's so interesting that the boys generally play with the same toy at the same time, not necessarily together, but they are never off in two different locations. It's fun having these two boys back together again for some play time each week. They both give each other huge smiles whenever they see each other.

Throughout the day, I was working on a more organized list of houses, marking the ones we particularly wanted to see, and making a list of what attributes of each house we liked so that the realtor could know more of our interests. Also, Ben had lunch with his department chair to discuss Ben's job offer and what, if any, possibilities they had for him at Miami. After lunch, Ben texted me saying that the conversation was more depressing than anything else. We were super excited for the job offer from Lakes State, but we were also excited to see what Miami might be able to do for Ben if he actually had a job offer from somewhere else, forcing Miami's hand in making a decision about hiring. Basically, the department chair was trying desperately to find a lecturer position, since they obviously can't fill a tenure track position this quickly, but that didn't look like it could happen. So basically he said Ben could stay on as a Visiting Professor for as long as he wanted, they could extend it beyond the typical three years, and then give him online classes to make more money. However, the department chair just didn't see a tenure track position happening even in the medium term. It was a rather disheartening conversation, as we were both hoping that Miami would be able to offer something to counter the offer from Lake State, but that unfortunately was not the case.

The day was already long and hectic, and Ben was not feeling well all day, making it difficult to teach, have meetings, and come home for a quick dinner before going to Bible study. He had a pretty bad head cold with sinus pressure, congestion, coughing, sore throat, headache, and general malaise. He even developed a fever and chills that night after Bible study. I felt bad for him not feeling well and having all these other crazy things going on at once.

I gave the kids a bath while Ben was at Bible study so that way Grandma didn't have to worry about giving them a bath when she had them on her own on Thursday night. Here are some silly pictures from our bath time that night. Samantha decided that Aedan needed to have a mo-hawk, so she styled his hair for him. Then, Samantha decided to show off her crazy hair as well.

Ben and I planned to head out on Thursday afternoon, as soon as he could get back from his class and meetings on campus. He still was not feeling great, and I had developed a cold, too. In fact, I got so dizzy that morning that I felt like I was going to pass out. My ears started ringing, I couldn't see clearly, I felt nauseous, and then I started sweating while feeling cold. It was one of the strangest feelings I'd ever had, and I had to sit down for quite awhile before all those sensations went away and I felt back to normal. I was glad to have a morning at home not only because I wasn't feeling the greatest, but also because I had laundry and some cleaning to get done around the house, so the kids and I decided to have a popcorn and movie morning. They were playing together really well most of the morning while I got my cleaning done, and then we got a blanket, Samantha's sleeping bag, and pillows to watch the movie on the floor in the living room. I popped some popcorn for us to share as a snack, and we popped Toy Story 3 into the DVD player because I figured Aedan would like it, and Samantha hadn't seen it in a long time. It was fun to have a relaxed morning together. We will definitely have to do this again sometime.

Aedan LOVED the popcorn. I think it was the first time he ever tried it, and he was taking it by the handful out of the bowl. In face, once I told Samantha that she better eat some herself or else her little brother was going to eat the whole bowl.

Eventually Aedan thought it would be a good idea to bring the Sesame Street chair out for him to sit in. Then, he spent most of the rest of the time moving the chair around to different spots, moving the popcorn bowl so that it would be right near the chair, and then sitting down in the chair crooked so that he fell out before finally sitting in it correctly. The movie definitely held his attention more than other shows he watched, and Samantha did what she normally does when watching a movie, sitting frozen, hardly taking her eyes off the screen. She just gets totally sucked in to the story being played out on the screen.

I got the kids down for naps that afternoon, and they both actually slept. I was kind of surprised that Samantha slept because it's so hit or miss these days. In fact, after about an hour or so she started making noise like she was awake and I was just about to go in her room to get her up, but then she stopped making noise and actually went back to sleep for awhile. Ben's mom arrived mid-afternoon, and once Ben and I got all of our things gathered, gave directions to all the various activities, and showed her a few things around the house, we hit the road, planning on driving about five hours to just south of Saginaw, Michigan to stay for the night. Since we were by ourselves, travelling with no kids, we took advantage of our time together and went to Chuy's for dinner before driving the rest of the way. It started snowing as we drove after dinner, and at times the roads were pretty slick due to the accumulation of snow on the highways, so instead of going 65-70 mph, Ben was forced to go 45-50 mph in order to drive safely. It took us probably about forty-five more minutes to get to our hotel, but I was very glad that Ben was driving since I'm not the most comfortable driving at night or in the snow, making them both together a very nerve-wracking experience for me. We got to our hotel pretty late, but it was just the two of us, so we could handle it. Both of us were still suffering from our colds, so we got to our hotel room and went right to bed, knowing we'd have another full day ahead of us.

After having breakfast and checking out, we headed out on the last segment of our trip which would be about three and half hours. It was much better driving in the daylight and without snow. It really is a pretty easy drive up there, most of the time going 75 mph on 75. We did not have much traffic and made good time. Once we got close to the Mackinac Bridge, I started taking pictures of the ice covered water surrounding us. It really was a beautiful sight. Even just the bridge itself is amazing.

It is about 45 minutes from the Mackinac Bridge to Sault Ste. Marie, so not far at all, but that was the part of the drive I felt stretched on forever. I was just extremely excited to arrive in Sault Ste Marie, to see the university, and to check out the town. Ben and I went into this weekend basically looking for anything that might be a red flag, anything that made us feel uncomfortable, or anything that made us feel like we couldn't see ourselves making a life there. Especially since Miami really had nothing to offer us, we were really going on this trip to confirm that this was indeed the place where God was leading us.

When you get off the highway at the last exit before going through customs on the bridge to Canada, Lake Superior State University is almost immediately off on your left hand side. Here is my first glimpse of the town. I just had to take a picture of it. The skies are a gorgeous blue. The university is off the the left, and you can see the mounds of snow still covering the ground. It was in the mid-30s and actually did not feel that cold. It was supposed to be a nice weekend there, and we were looking forward to our time to explore.

Our first stop was a small cafe to get a sandwich for lunch. Then, we went to the school administration building to pick up a registration packet for Samantha. The people were very friendly there, explaining to us how the neighborhoods are divided to determine who goes to what school. The funny thing was that a Human Resources employee overheard me saying that I am an elementary teacher, so she stopped and asked, "Are you looking for a teaching position? We would love to have you apply." I just thought it was so funny that they didn't even know me, yet were so eager to have me apply for a teaching position. However, it was nice to know that it appears I could get a job in the public school system once I am ready to go back to work in the future.

From there, we decided to visit the local schools and see if we could get a tour and see a kindergarten classroom. We knew it was a Friday afternoon and might not be possible, but I knew it would make my teacher heart feel better to see the schools and where Samantha might be spending her days next fall. There are two main elementary schools in town, Washington and Lincoln, and well as a charter school. We were able to visit all three of those schools before the end of the school day. We got tours of all three schools by the principals themselves, which surprised me. I was very impressed that they took time out of their busy day to take around prospective parents. We got to see the gyms, the computer labs, the libraries, and the kindergarten classrooms. Lincoln had the largest classroom with many different areas for art, reading books, and even a play kitchen. It was great to see the kids playing outside in the snow, and every school had either lockers or cubbies for the students to store their boots, snow pants, coats, hats, and gloves so that they could get dressed for recess every day. The schools also had a lot of technology, especially in the forms of tablets or iPads for each student, as well as Smart boards or Promethean boards. It was all very impressive, as it was much more technology than I have ever used in a classroom myself.

The last school we went to was the charter school, but we were't able to see the principal because she was in a meeting. However, shortly after going back to our hotel, we were contacted by the secretary saying that the principal was available to meet with us at 4:20 so that we could see the school and have any questions answered. I was very impressed that they took this initiative to contact us, and that the principal made time for us even at the end of the day on a Friday. We really didn't know much about the charter school but had heard good things about it from other educators around town. It is called the Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe PSA. That is quite a mouthful, so people generally refer to it as the Bahweting school. The school opened in 1994 as a tribal school for the Chippewa Indians, and then in 1995  it was chartered by Northern Michigan University to become a public school academy. Because of that, the school is currently funded a Public School Academy and gets money from the government, but it also receives grants from the Bureau of Indian Education. Being doubly funded makes their resource pool that much greater than the public schools in town. Their library was huge and beautiful. Plus, the biggest advantage to me was that they cap their kindergarten classes at 20 students with a full-time paraprofessional in each classroom. The other schools said they have a max of 25 students, but they don't have a full-time paraprofessional. Ben and I also liked how they incorporated a lot of Native American heritage and culture into their school since it is still a tribal school. The principal said that around 65% of the students are of Native American heritage, so that would really be neat for Samantha to be part of such a diverse school. We filled out an application for the school and put Samantha's name on the waiting list because we figured that it wouldn't hurt. She is 9th on the list, but they made it sound like it is fairly common to get through most of their waiting list.

It was a full afternoon, and I felt pretty overwhelmed by the end of it all, but I also felt very encouraged because it seems like we have several decent options for schooling in this area. My biggest concern was that all the schools did full day kindergarten, no half day kindergarten was available like there is in Oxford. If we were to stay in Oxford, I was leaning more toward half day because Samantha still naps, not every day, but usually every two or three days, depending on how much sleep she's gotten at night or other circumstances that keep her up later or tire her out more. She seems to be pretty crabby by the time she gets to the third day and hasn't napped in awhile. Lately I had been questioning whether or not she would even be able to handle going from preschool three mornings a week to kindergarten all day every day of the week. That would be a huge transition for her, in addition to moving to a new city where she wouldn't know anyone yet. However, there is no other option up there for us, so it would be a transition we would have to go through.

After finishing up visiting the schools, Ben and I did a driving tour of the houses on our list. From our experience of buying our condo in Waco, we knew it was helpful to drive around, see the neighborhood, and see what the house looks like from the outside. There were actually quite a few that we crossed off our list because of how they looked on the outside or because of their location. We had plans to meet a fellow political science professor at Lake State and her husband for dinner at a local Greek restaurant. It was good to be able to meet who Ben would be working with and to hear more insight on the university, as well as their experience with the town. The food was really good, and we enjoyed our time with other adults. However, after a long day, we were ready to get back to our hotel, relax in the hot tub, and process our thoughts from the day.

On Saturday morning we had a meeting with a local realtor to discuss what we are looking for in a home. There really is not much of a rental market in Sault Ste. Marie, so we really would just have to buy right away. It was really nice to talk to the realtor because he went to Lake State for college and lived there ever since. He has six kids, so he has a lot of experience with the schools and with family friendly activities. He had a whole packet printed out for us with listings of various houses that we had on our list, as well as a few that were not. After talking in the office for awhile, we hopped in his car to start looking at houses. The first house we saw was just beautiful on the inside, but it was about 15-20 minutes outside of town. Also, one of the bedrooms was really too small to even be used as a bedroom. They turned the garage into two large rooms, making the house feel very large, and the backyard was very nice even though it wasn't fenced. However, our realtor made the point that it would be about 15 minutes to Lake State from there, more like 20-25 minutes when the roads are snow covered, which obviously would happen a lot up there. Our biggest complaint about where we live now is that we are outside of town and get annoyed at always having to drive back and forth to do things or go places, so it would be pretty silly to buy a house where we would have to do the same thing for many years to come.

We saw many houses, some that we knew instantly were not for us, some that were okay. Our realtor did a good job of showing us a cross-section of town with various styles of houses so that we knew what our options were. There was another older Victorian house that we liked because it was completely updated on the inside; however, it was almost too fancy for us and it had absolutely no yard and was right on top of the houses in the next lots. However beautiful it was, it was just not the house for us. Then, there was another house that looked like it had great potential from the pictures online, but when we visited it, it just had an odd layout, plus they had the windows open even though it was the middle of winter, probably to disguise the smell from smoke, pets, or both.

Finally, the very last house we visited was one we were particularly excited about because it was nicely in our price range, and it had a full finished basement, giving lots of extra square footage. As soon as Ben and I walked in, we were impressed. The living room was large and open with a fireplace. The kitchen was new and updated. There was a mudroom off the garage. On the main floor there was a bathroom and three bedrooms with lots of closet space. Then, the full basement had a nice family room area with built in shelves, plus there were two more rooms, one large room that could be another bedroom, and then a smaller room that could make a nice office or guest bedroom. The basement also had tons of closet space, plus a separate utility/laundry room. The house had sliding glass doors that open up to a patio area and a pretty decent sized fenced in yard. It is located on a quiet side street caddy corner from a local elementary school. The back fence has a gate that opens into a parking lot that is right across the street from the university. Plus, just right down at the opposite end of the block from the elementary school is the Norris Center which has a track, fitness equipment, a pool, and the ice rink where you can attend hockey games. The house is in such a nice location with being within walking distance to so many places. The only strange things about the house would be the bar area in the basement and the fully functional sauna, both of which would not get much use by us. There is also only a one car garage, and we would prefer a two car garage, especially because of all the snow they get over the winter. However, a lot of the houses only had one car garages or even no garage at all because the garage space was converted into living space. Here is the picture of the outside of the house we liked.

And here is the view of the elementary school from the street near the house.

Ben and I were really impressed with that last house, and we both felt like we could really see ourselves living there. We went back to the realtor's office to talk more about what we thought and what we should do if we wanted to move forward on that house. He said the seller was pretty motivated because they have already moved to a different city and can't buy a house there until they sell the house in Sault Ste. Marie. We were done with the realtor by mid-afternoon, and once again, my head was full with information and I was feeling quite overwhelmed. We had just found out about the job offer on Tuesday, and now we were up in our potentially new city, looking at houses to buy. After waiting so long and having no forward movement, everything was moving almost too fast for me.

After grabbing a pizza at a local pizza place, we decided to go back to our hotel, eat some food, and relax for awhile. Ben and I both needed our introverted time. Then, we decided to park on campus so that Ben could give me a tour. We couldn't get into the library, which is where his office would be, but we saw a couple of other buildings like the science building and the inside of the Norris Center. It was good to get a sense of campus and what the facilities are like. With it being a smaller university, it will be much easier for our family to have access to their facilities, which would be really fun.

After walking around for awhile, we drove around the town a little more, down near the locks, even though you can't see much since it's closed for the winter. Here's a strange looking building that is a landmark in Sault Ste. Marie. It is called the Tower of History and was built by the Catholic Church as part of a complex that would give the history of missionaries. However, they built this tower and then decided to fund other endeavors, leaving this tower now as a lookout at the top and a museum at the bottom. Very strange, but interesting nevertheless.

Because Ben and I are nerds, we decided to check out a local Wesleyan church that had a Saturday night service. On our way there, we drove by the Sault Seal Recreation Area where they have a large tubing hill with a tow rope to pull you back up to the top. It looked like a really fun place where a lot of families were having a good time together. I could definitely see us enjoying something like this together.

The Wesleyan church we attended had a pretty small congregation that evening, but they said they have a full sanctuary on Sunday mornings. In fact, we found out that we live in a pretty small world indeed, for the pastor of that church was the children's pastor at Brookhaven, Ben's family's church, back when Ben was little. They remembered Ben's parents, and the pastor even called Ben out at the end of the service, saying that it made him feel old to have someone he knew as a kid coming up to be a professor at Lake State. Again, everyone was very friendly and welcoming, giving us more insight on the area. The sermon that evening was just what we needed to hear, about how Jesus is our Shepherd and we are his sheep; how, if we are trying to make a big decision in our life, we need to follow our Shepherd by listening to him through his word. This has been my exact prayer over these many months of waiting, that Jesus would lead us where he wants us to go, that he would make the decision for us, that he would make it clear to us. I love how God uses so many different ways and people to speak into our lives.

After church we went to another local restaurant in the downtown area. It also had really good food: juicy burgers and yummy pretzels with cheese dip. Ben and I enjoyed our meal together, once again talking and processing our thoughts and feelings on our weekend away. We came up to Sault Ste. Marie looking for any red flags, anything that gave us an uneasy feeling, and we had none of those experiences. Instead, we felt welcomed by the local people. We got a good picture of what family life would look like for us with hockey games, ice skating, tubing, Jump Up (an inside play area), a public library, a farmer's market, the Norris Center, walking around campus, playing on the many playgrounds, walking along the locks and watching the boats in the summertime, even travelling over into Canada to explore, and so much more yet to discover. This city has a lot to offer, and many people have commented to us on how great of a place it is to raise a family. The schools seemed nice, with friendly teachers, principals, and staff. Plus, we even found a house that we really loved on our first day out looking. The more Ben and I talked about it, the more we felt confident in our decision to accept the job at Lake Superior State University. In many ways we were glad that Miami had nothing to offer Ben as far as a long term position goes because it made our decision that much easier. We felt like it would be foolish to turn down a tenure track position simply because it is cold and snowy in the UP. Yes, it will take some getting used to the different climate. However, we feel that God had made it clear to us that this is where he wants us to be. After so many months of waiting for something to come up and wondering if anything would ever turn up for a tenure track position for Ben, after so many phone interviews that lead nowhere, we finally got this offer for a tenure track position at Lake State. In fact, Ben got the email asking him for a campus visit the very day after I very sincerely prayed that God would just give us one piece of positive news. And now, that campus visit, God's very clear answer to prayer, led to a job offer. We are glad that God has made the decision very clear for us, that he gave us reassurance on our visit to the city, and now we look forward to embarking on the next chapter of our life as citizens of the UP.

(Just for fun, here is a picture of the International Bridge lit up at night. The American side is on the left with the red, white, and blue lights, and the Canadian side is on the right with red and white lights.)

(And here's a pile of snow at the end of one of the streets.)

Sunday morning we woke up earlier so that we could get on the road back home. Papa and Grandma were in Oxford watching Samantha and Aedan, and we wanted to be sure that they could get back home to Upland that evening. It was a long drive, especially since Ben was still feeling pretty under the weather with his head cold, but it was a pretty easy drive with no kids and no snow.

It was wonderful to be back home with the kids again. Samantha ran up and gave us big hugs, whereas Aedan just looked at us like, "You were gone?" Papa and Grandma took good care of the kiddos for us, and they love having them around. Here are a few stories from their time with the kids. On Friday when Grandma dropped Samantha off at preschool, Samantha told all her friends, "My parents are up in Michigan buying me a big house, so this is probably the last time I will ever see you again." Grandma corrected Samantha, telling her that it would be many months before we would have to worry about moving, so then Samantha said, "Well, summer is a long time away from now, so you have a lot longer to still like me." It's funny to observe how she processes things and how she's trying to wrap her head around the fact that we are moving to a different city in a different state. Grandma also told us that Samantha had a good time at her first ice skating lesson on Saturday, even letting go of the bucket and skating off by herself a few times. Papa and Grandma were both impressed with how well-known Aedan was at church, and he did a great job of being dropped off at his room without crying. I'm sure it was a lot of work for Papa and Grandma to leave their home and watch our kids for several days, but we really appreciate them being willing to do that for us, giving Ben and I the chance to check out our new town without having to drag the kids along with us.

After a very long, mentally exhausting weekend, we decided to let the kids watch a show that night before bed. Aedan loves Veggie Tales, so we put an episode of that on. About halfway through, Aedan got off the couch and says, "Bye-bye." A few seconds later, we heard rustling in the refrigerator (which is pretty common for him already). Then, ten seconds later, Aedan came out to the living room holding the ketchup bottle and saying, "Bob, Bob, Bob." He found the picture of the tomato on the ketchup bottle and as Ben put it, "He wanted liquid Bob to watch the rest of the episode with him." Ben and I thought it was so hilarious that we just burst out laughing. It was a wonderful way to spend the end of our weekend, laughing and hanging out with our incredibly cute kids.

(Blog about March 1-7, 2015)

Fun Activities In and Around Oxford

Samantha: 57 Months, Week 2

Aedan: 21 Months, Week 4 (Week 96)

This past Tuesday I figured we would follow our normal plans of going to open gym at the TRI for a little while before heading over to story time at the library. However, I got a message from my friend, Stephanie, saying that she was going to take Isaac to Jump and Jack's. I asked Samantha what she would like to do, and of course she chose going to Jump and Jack's. It's always a great place to play, and Samantha just loves it there. We get there and she disappears, climbing and sliding and checking back with me every once in awhile so that way I know where she is. Aedan was actually a little bit more adventurous than usual this time. He wanted to go climb with the big kids and most of all, keep up with Sissy. It was good to be able to catch up with Stephanie as well since life has been pretty busy for both of us lately. We stayed until about 11:30 when we got ready to come back to our house for lunch. I invited Stephanie and Isaac to eat with us, so the kids were looking forward to that. Samantha and Aedan were in good moods, were respectful, and both of them took good naps and went to sleep well for me. It was a good, productive day for me, and I always like to have those every once in awhile. It was good to be back home from my trip to Chicago, to have our family back together again, and to be back into our normal routine.

On Wednesday after dropping Samantha off at preschool, I took Aedan to get his hair cut. It was getting pretty long and scraggly looking, and I figured it would be much easier to get it cut when I just had him, rather than Samantha and him. The lady that cut his hair the last two times, who I really liked, is no longer working at the Great Clips in Hamilton, so I decided to just take him to the one in Oxford. Aedan did a pretty good job sitting still on the booster seat in the chair. He was a little more wiggly than usual, but he really did a pretty good job considering he's not even two yet. Plus, at the end, he was very excited to get a lollipop. He jumped up and down and even said "ank oo (Thank you)" to the stylist without me having to ask him to say it. Isn't Aedan such a cute little guy?

Sometimes I feel like our weeks just rush by with the schedule that we keep during the week. We have our community group on Tuesday nights, Ben goes to Bible study on Wednesday nights, I go to Bible study on Thursday nights, and Ben teaches late classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. These are all wonderful things to be involved in, and we are getting to know many people at OBF through these groups as well as growing in our relationship with God, but sometimes it is exhausting. That's why slow mornings at home are nice, and Thursday morning was one of those days. Samantha does a pretty good job of getting up and getting dressed right away, and then she gets right to playing, usually in her room. Well, Ben was upstairs finishing getting ready and as I was coming upstairs, he mentioned that I was going to want to bring my phone to take a picture of the kids. They were both sitting in Samantha's reading corner looking at books while sitting side by side. I also thought it was funny that Roscoe was laying right near them as well, for he likes to be sleeping in a room wherever they are. I love that Aedan has such a good big sister to look up to, to copy, and to take care of him. They are so sweet together; it just warms my soul.

And here she is trying to tell Aedan the story in the book she was reading, but he is mostly concerned with pulling books down off the shelf.

I'm not exactly sure what happened before this picture took place, but something happened that made Aedan cry. Samantha came right over to him offering to give him a hug and saying, "Sissy is here for you." This is another example of the magic calming power of Sissy. Everything is better after a hug from her. It calms him down almost instantly, and he just looks up at her face with the cutest look of admiration.

Originally I didn't have any plans for Thursday, I figured we would just stay home and play. However, I found out at the last minute about the Art Explorers program at the Miami art museum. Samantha loves this program as it is story time with Miss Connie followed by a craft time. I gave Samantha the choice of what she would like to do, stay home and play or go to Art Explorers, and she chose Art Explorers. Miss Connie does a great job with the stories. She is engaging, uses props and songs, and also calls on volunteers to help her with the story. Samantha gets really into it, following along with whatever Miss Connie does. Aedan did a little bit better at listening during this story time. He wasn't as focused on just trying to wander around the room. It also helped that Matteo and Bennett were there as well, giving Samantha and Aedan fun friends to be with.

The rest of the day went by like normal. We stopped by Kroger to pick up a few groceries to get us through the weekend, and then we went back home for lunch and nap time. Samantha ended up taking a really good nap that afternoon and got to watch half of Mulan, her show of choice. I enjoy Thursdays because Ben usually gets home a little earlier from campus, giving us extra time to spend together in the evenings before I go off to Bible study.

When we are in the kitchen making food, Aedan has enjoyed sitting up on the counter watching us. On Friday morning Aedan was watching Daddy cook breakfast, and he was just too cute up there not to take a picture of him. I love how he crosses his ankles when he sits. And, what a face! His smile is just so great.

Aedan always goes down for naps so easily, and now we have a new routine established. He gets to pick out two books for us to read together, then I turn of the light and hold him in my lap with his head resting on my left arm. He says, "Jesus" so I sing "Jesus Loves Me," and then he says, "Pray" while he holds his two little hands together, so then I say a prayer. After that I lean over, kiss his forehead, and say "Night-night, Aedan," to which he replies, "Nigh-nigh." He then moves his little fingers around his paci for a few minutes before totally falling asleep in my arms. It never takes more than five minutes for him to fall asleep, but I always rock him longer than that. I love the heaviness of his body once he's fallen fast asleep. I love to see his peaceful face while he's sleeping. And most of all, I love to cuddle with my little boy who is often too active to even sit on my lap for very long. Sometimes I wonder how long we will be able to carry on this nap time tradition. I imagine there will be a day when he no longer falls asleep with me rocking him at nap time. Until then, I will soak up and cherish these sweet moments with my little guy.

Saturday was a super fun day for Samantha as her art class started that morning, and she was really excited about it. Miami students put on these art classes as part of becoming art teachers, and everyone in Oxford says great things about the program. I dropped Samantha off that morning, filled out the paperwork, and took her to her classroom. She was not nervous at all, but went right in, found a seat, and started coloring a picture. She loves to draw, color, and paint. She's very detailed and particular when she does art, and I love to watch her creativity come out. Ben picked her up when it was over, and he was able to get this picture of her. He said that all the other kids were up playing, but she was quietly working on her project still. She was the last one still working, which doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm glad that they allow her the time she needs/wants to work on her project. The teacher even commented to Ben about how she is going to be a little artist when she grows up. After a couple failed attempts of different activities like soccer and gymnastics, it's fun to see Samantha really interested in something. She definitely seems to be more artsy than athletic, at least so far. It will be exciting to watch her interests grow and develop and she gets older.

After Samantha came home from art class, we decided to let the kids watch a show and have a snack. Ben took these pictures of us sitting on the couch together. I love how close together they sit, squished on one couch cushion. Aedan couldn't wait for Sissy to get back home so that he could play with her. He misses her tremendously when she's gone. It's like he's a little wandering soul without his big sister.

Samantha ended up taking a good nap Saturday afternoon after not napping a couple days in a row. That's how it's been with her lately. She will skip a nap a couple days in a row, and then she will crash the next day. It's nice that she at least gets rest when she needs it. I was also glad she napped because I wanted to take her on a date that evening. She was so excited when she woke up and I told her that we were going to see Kung Fu Panda 3. She is slightly obsessed with Kung Fu Panda right now, and she thought she would really like the third movie where they go to Panda Land. We drove down to the theater in Colerain with the fancy reclining seats and had a great time watching the movie together. Samantha couldn't take her eyes off the screen, and even though she had to go to the bathroom close to the end of the movie, she didn't want to get up and miss part of the movie. She loves to pretend to do kung-fu lately, and she loves to play superheroes with her friends at preschool. When she plays kung-fu with Daddy, she is always Po protecting people from the bad guys. (However, she still likes it when Daddy locks her up in prison and she tries to escape.) After the movie we went across the street to have dinner at Chipotle, which was her restaurant of choice. Then, we stopped at Once Upon a Child on our way home so that Samantha could pick out some dresses. She loves to wear dresses almost every day, and I wanted to give her a treat by letting her choose the ones she liked the best. Of course, she chose dresses that were extra poofy on the bottom so it could be like a princess dress, plus one long one that went down to the floor because she always wanted a long dress just like princesses wear. Samantha and I had a good time together on our date. It was so fun to be able to spend this one-on-one time with her where I didn't have Aedan pulling my attention away. This is definitely a tradition that we will continue. :)

While Samantha and I were out, Daddy took Aedan out to eat at Skyline. We haven't been there in ages, probably not since Aedan actually started eating normal food, which was a long time ago. He got Aedan the hot dog meal, and Aedan loved it! He devoured the whole thing and most of all loved the pile of cheese and the little crackers. Ben said that it was a bit odd eating out with just Aedan since he doesn't carry on a conversation at all, but he did get a lot of cute looks from people who saw them out together. Afterwards they stopped by Kroger to get a couple of things, so here is Aedan hanging out in the shopping cart.

I'm not exactly sure what the cause of this crying video is, but apparently Aedan was mad about something and Ben was trying to get a video of him crying, probably very pathetically. I imagine it had been a long day of being without Sissy, and he missed her. It was getting close to bedtime, and he was getting sleepy.

The rest of our weekend went pretty well with church on Sunday and then a pretty relaxing afternoon together as a family. Here are the kids in the car on the way to church. Samantha was very excited about wearing her long dress that went down to the floor, even though it was more of a summer dress, she was just fine wearing a sweater and tights with it.

It was a nice, sunny day with warmer than normal temperatures. Samantha put her sunglasses on so Aedan wanted to copy her as well. Normally he likes the idea of wearing sunglasses but doesn't leave them on for more than a few seconds. However, he left his sunglasses on the whole ride to church. In fact, it was difficult for me to make him leave them in the car when it was time to go in to church. Doesn't he look cool? I love the look on his face, no smile or anything, just a serious dude with his "eyes" (what he calls sunglasses).

On Monday Ben had a busy day with his normal schedule on campus, plus he had another phone interview at 5:30 once his class finished for the day. Luckily, I got a little bit of a break because my friend Andrea and I decided to start our babysitting swap back up again. I know it's helpful to both of us to have one morning off a week to get things done, run errands, meet with a friend, or whatever it is that we want to do. I feel like I was struggling to find time to get everything done during the day/week without feeling like I am just ignoring the kids when they are at home because I have all these tasks that need to be accomplished. So, once dropping Samantha and Aedan off I was able to run some errands, start laundry, get caught up on my Bible study, and even go to the faculty work-out room on campus. It was really nice to have a morning to myself, and it was amazing how much I could get done in such a short period of time.

Aedan just has the greatest laugh when he is being tickled, so I decided to capture it on video while I changed his diaper before nap time. You have to ignore Samantha whining to tell me something in the background and focus on his laughter. (I promise I did meet Samantha's needs after stopping the video. She just didn't like that I was focusing all my attention on him and not on her.) Oh kids, I'm glad that I get these moments with them every day. I am one lucky Mommy.

(Blog about February 23-29, 2015)

The Week Both Ben and I Were Single Parents

Samantha: 57 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 21 Months, Week 3 (Week 95)

This was a very busy week for the Toll household. Tuesday was really the only normal day for us. Here is a cute picture of the kids sitting on the couch reading together after breakfast. Aedan loves looking at books with Sissy.

On Tuesday morning the kids and I went to the open gym at the TRI for a little while before going to library for story time. I decided to give Samantha another chance at having a good attitude when leaving since she threw such a big fit last time. We had a good morning together, but Samantha got pretty sleepy by nap time since she hadn't napped the last two afternoons. As a result, she took an extra long nap on Tuesday afternoon, making our community group go much better that evening. She was well-rested and ready to play.

The bond between Samantha and Aedan has been growing stronger and stronger lately. It is so cute to witness. In fact, at community group that evening Aedan got upset and when I asked Addie about it afterwards, she said he was fine after Samantha came to comfort him. Often when he feels upset, he will cry and call out, "Sissy!" She will go up to him, hug him, and say, "I will always be here for you Aedan. Whenever you need a hug, I'll give you one." He will continue hugging her until he calms down, feels better, and stops crying. Witnessing this is so adorable, and he often wants a hug from Sissy rather than a hug from Mommy or Daddy.

Another cute thing Aedan has been doing is saying "dark" and squinting his eyes, like he's acting afraid. He makes so many precious facial expressions that sometimes I just like to sit and watch him.

Wednesday marked the beginning of our busy week of parenting alone. After dropping Samantha off at preschool in the morning, Aedan and I drove Daddy to the Dayton airport. He had a campus visit at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, MI and was going to be gone from Wednesday morning through Friday morning. It was exciting for Ben to have his first campus interview after applying at so many different schools. He flew through a connection in Detroit, and here are some pictures he took from the plane. You can see the frozen lake and the snow covered ground of the Upper Peninsula.

Aedan did pretty well in the car considering we were driving for over two hours to take Daddy to the airport. He started getting upset the last twenty minutes or so, not really wanting to play with any toys, but it worked out okay overall. When we went to pick up Samantha from preschool, they were playing up in the gym. Miss Betsy commented that another Dad and me had our work cut out for us because Samantha and Oliver planned a sleepover. She said that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, which surprised because normally she talks about marrying Matteo. However, when I looked in the gym, Samantha and Oliver were walking around holding hands. Little preschool romances are so cute, although I'm not quite sure where this new fascination with boys has come from. Anyways, Samantha came up to talk to me, explaining how Oliver and her had worked out all the details. She was going to go over to his house for a sleepover for two days, which I'm thinking had to do with Daddy being gone for two days. They were going to sleep on the top bunk together because Oliver had two pillows. Then, she was going to come back home in two days. I told her that she wasn't going to be able to do that, and she just started bawling. I think she really thought that her plan was going to work. I tried to comfort her and treat her request with sensitivity because it really was so cute and sincere. I tried to explain that we don't usually let her go sleep over at a friend's house, especially not for two days. We talked about maybe having Oliver over to play sometime, but that the parents would have to talk about that. It took Samantha awhile to calm herself done and feel okay to leave preschool with me. I couldn't wait to share this story with Ben because I knew he would get a kick out of it.

The rest of the day went pretty well considering Samantha did not nap that afternoon. We got to do FaceTime with Daddy once he got back to his hotel and then we had dinner, played for a little while, and got the kids ready for bed. I always have a hard time judging how long things are going to take on a normal day, and it's even worse when I am doing everything by myself. I had good intentions of getting the kids to bed early, especially Samantha, but it didn't quite work out that way.

On Thursday Ben had a busy schedule of interviews, campus tours, teaching a class, and meeting various individuals from the university. I couldn't wait to talk to him later in the day and hear what his impression was of the university and of the town itself. Here are some pictures he took from around campus and around the town. As you can tell, they get much more snow than we do in southwest Ohio, but it is pretty up there with the International Bridge and all the water surrounding it.

Ben had a good, but busy day on Thursday. His overall impression of the school was positive, the faculty and students were friendly, and the class he taught went really well. He said that the students were almost more engaged than some of his classes at Miami with students that know him. The school is pretty small, only about 2,000 students, and the town is not large either at about 14,000 people. However, in comparison to Oxford alone, Sault Ste. Marie has more restaurants and stores. The biggest difference is that from Oxford you can drive half an hour to get to suburbs and 45 minutes to one hour to get to Cincinnati where you can find anything you want. However, there is not much around Sault Ste. Marie, for it is pretty isolated way up in the UP. Ben was the first of three candidates to be invited for a campus visit, so it will at least be a few weeks before Ben will know anything about whether they will offer him a job or not. Living in the UP would not be our ideal location, as we aren't huge fans of snow, plus it is farther away from our families than where we are now. However, it is better than many other schools Ben applied to that could take us to the west coast or down south again, areas where it would not be within a day's drive. So, we will see what happens and what the school decides to do.

On Thursday we had plans to meet the Schroers at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Our kids get along so well, and we hadn't gotten together with them for quite some time. I still had two free guest passes on our membership card that expires at the end of the month, so I was glad that someone was able to use them. Andrea just had to pay for Bennett to get in. The kids had a blast that day. Aedan and Bennett really enjoyed the ball room, which is often our first stop.

Then we went over to the forest, which is Samantha's favorite spot. She loves to climb up and disappear into the tree house. I tried to get Aedan to climb on the spider web area with Bennett, but Aedan kept trying to run away into different areas. He has definitely gotten into the run away phase now. There were several times when I had to chase after him, grab him, and bring him back to where the rest of us were.

We then moved on to the water area, and all the kids played here for quite some time, getting themselves nice and wet despite wearing aprons.

The kids then went over to the construction area where they scooped up pretend rocks, pushed around wheelbarrows, and played with legos and wooden blocks. There are benches in this area where you can see around pretty much everywhere, so Andrea and I were able to sit down and talk a little more than when our kids were running in opposite directions. It was great to catch up with her, hear how her life is going, and share about our children.

Before we stopped for lunch, Samantha and Matteo were busy working together serving us food. It was cute how they were playing together in the same area, but doing different jobs. (Also, I have to make a comment about Samantha's outfit. She picked it out all by herself, and you can see the amount of expression in choosing her outfits. She has a blue shirt with little pink flowers, light blue pants under a blue and green flowery skirt, with a pink crown headband on her head. Sometimes I am tempted to say something about her outfits or encourage her to wear something different, but I know it doesn't matter and it's certainly not worth a fight. I like to give her independence in areas where I can, and getting dressed is one of those areas. It's always fun to see the combinations that she comes up with.)

Aedan joined in helping out in the restaurant as well. He liked to copy what the big kids were doing.

It was getting close to noon, so we decided to go upstairs to eat the lunches that we packed. Samantha sat next to Matteo and ate much better than she usually does when we are out with friends. It was nice not to have to ask her over and over to eat her food. She was in a pretty respectful mood that day, for which I was glad. She knew we had plans to go the museum with Matteo on Thursday, so I told her on Wednesday night that we weren't going to go if she stayed up being silly in her bed or woke up early on Thursday morning. She knew she had to be on her best behavior, and I think that helped her have a good attitude for most of the day on Thursday.

After lunch we went down into the caves before letting the kids play in the sand for quite a long time. It was getting to mid-afternoon and the kids were entering a kind of lull, being perfectly content to sit and play quietly. I like the sand area because it's usually pretty quiet, all kids can find a fun way to entertain themselves, and it gives the adults time to talk while they supervise their children play. Again, Andrea and I had a good time sharing experiences with applying for tenure track positions and shared struggles that come along with having a husband in academia.

It was already past 1:00 and fast approaching the kids' nap times, but we decided to make one more stop before heading out for the day, since everyone was being so respectful. Samantha wanted to go back to the children's area so that she could play in the vet's office, and that's exactly what she did for most of the rest of the time. She said that was her favorite part of the day, and she found other girls her age to pretend with. They took care of lots of animals, looked at x-rays, and had a great time together. While Samantha was in the vet office, Aedan preferred to spend his time on the bus. Bennett and he would take turns driving and sitting in the passenger's seat.

And last, the kids all played together in the house, pretending to make food and serve dinner, even all sitting down together. It was really cute seeing all the kids playing so well together, and I'm so glad that we decided to go to the museum together. I was a little nervous about it since I had the kids on my own and visiting the museum for the day usually tires me out, but it was a fun excursion with friends.

We didn't leave the museum until after 3:00, which is much later than we usually stay, but we were having such a good day that I wanted to let the kids enjoy playing together as long as possible. I remembered Aedan's pacifier, and he was extremely tired at this point, so he fell asleep right away in the car. Samantha, on the other hand, tried to close her eyes and go to sleep, but she was just unable to. I hoped that she would sleep for at least a little while since she didn't nap on Wednesday either, but there was nothing I could do to make her go to sleep. 

I had dinner ready in the crock pot for Thursday night, making our evening more relaxing together. I talked to Daddy on the phone for a long time while Samantha watched a show and Aedan continued his nap in his crib. Then, the evening flew by quickly with cleaning up dinner, feeding and taking out Roscoe, giving the kids baths, and then getting them in bed. When people asked me how my time went with the kids by myself, I always said that it went fine, it's just busy with one thing to take care of after another. It's easy to take for granted how much help I get from Ben, especially in the evening from dinnertime until bedtime. I also take for granted how much I enjoy his company, even if we are both working on our computers, at least we are still sitting together and able to talk and share about our day. However, the biggest way life feels different when Ben is gone is going to bed by myself. I am very task-oriented, meaning I like to accomplish the task at hand, even if I know it would be more logical for me to stop and go to bed. Because of this I stay up much later than I should when Ben is away. Plus, I have a much harder time falling asleep when he is not lying next to me in bed. I was looking forward to picking him up from the airport on Friday morning and being able to reconnect with him on the hour ride back to Oxford before I took off for my trip to Chicago.

After getting last minute things packed up, I was off to Chicago around noon on Friday, expecting to arrive between 4:00-4:30 Chicago time depending on how much I had to stop. However, my trip took much longer because of back-ups from accidents on I-65. As you can see from these pictures, there were overturned semis due to strong gusty winds in two different locations in the southbound lanes of I-65, causing back-ups in the northbound lanes as well. I was stuck for an hour and a half, crawling slowly at first, and then literally sitting still for 30-45 minutes. I ended up just turning the car off and reading on my Kindle while I waited. There was no way to get off the interstate, so I just had to wait. However, I was so frustrated that my trip was now delayed by so much time. I finally arrived in Chicago a little after 7:00 Ohio time and felt completely exhausted from a long day of travel.

Once I finally got to Chicago, I met my family at the hospital as my Grandpa Don went to the emergency room due to numbness in his arm. I had plans to take my parents out for dinner, which we still decided to do, it was just much later than we originally planned. It was strange being there by myself, without Ben or the kids, but it was nice being able to go with the flow instead of being concerned about keeping schedules of the kids. We went to a family restaurant that my mom said was pretty good from going there in the past, and it was 8:00 my time by the time we were heading to the restaurant. much later than I am used to eating at home. As we sat down to eat I just kept yawning, so I decided that I was going to need some coffee to make it through the rest of the night. It was good to be able to take my parents out for dinner and be able to talk to them without having to deal with entertaining and feeding children. After eating dinner we went back to Grandma and Don's to hang out a little longer and get the update on Don's CT scan.

I was super tired and it was close to 1:00 a.m. Ohio time by the time I fell into bed in the second bedroom of my grandma's condo. The one thing I was looking forward to was being able to sleep in as long as I wanted to on Saturday morning since I had nowhere to be and no kids to wake up with. Something woke me up around 5:15, but I was able to go back to sleep and slept until close to 8:30 which is unheard of at home. I was able to FaceTime with Ben and the kids, and it was good to see their smiling faces. I was worried that I might make Aedan upset, but he was doing just fine. Ben was about ready to take them to the park to play because it was going to be in the mid-60s and sunny that day, a beautiful morning to play outside.

I ate breakfast with Grandma and Don before getting ready and heading over to Christy's apartment to hang out with her, Matthew, and Brielle. It was fun to be able to play with Brielle and form more of a bond with her in her own home. She was much more comfortable around me at that time than she was when everyone came to Oxford for Christmas. She knew so many words and even knew how to say my name pretty well. It was great to be able to spend time talking with Christy and hanging out for the afternoon. My parents came over to the apartment in the middle of the afternoon as well so that we could head over to Harvest for Brielle's dedication at the Saturday night service.

The main reason I came up to Chicago for the weekend was to see Brielle be dedicated to the Lord. It is an important step, and I wanted to show my support for Christy and Matthew raising up Brielle in the "training and admonition of the Lord." My parents, brother, Grandma, and Don came, as well as Matthew's mom. It was great to be a part of this moment in Brielle's life and to pray over them as a part of the large group in front of the church as well.

After the dedication, everyone except for Grandma and Don went back to Christy's apartment to hang out and eat pizza together. Brielle hadn't napped for very long that afternoon, so we was getting pretty tired and slap happy. It was funny to watch her running around, screaming, and throwing herself on the ground. I love how all toddlers act the same in this regard when they are tired. Here are some pictures and videos of Brielle from that night.

This is my attempt at getting a "selfie" of Brielle. I turned the phone towards her so that she could see herself, but she was up past her bedtime and wasn't in the mood for smiling for me.

At about 9:30 Chicago time I decided to head back to Grandma and Don's so that Christy could get Brielle to sleep and so that I could talk to Ben on the phone before he went to bed. It was good to be able to catch up with Ben and hear how his weekend with the kids was going. (I will share his words a little bit later.) Grandma and Don had just arrived home shortly before I got back, so they wanted to sit and have ice cream with me before going to bed. Once again, I was pretty tired after a full day out and staying up later than I am used to. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, and I was able to sleep in again on Sunday morning since we went to church on Saturday night.

Sunday morning was pretty relaxed. I had breakfast with Grandma an Don, and then I just got showered, dressed, and packed up so that I would be ready to head out after spending the morning with my family. My parents, Christy, Matthew, and Brielle all came over to Grandma and Don's so that we could spend more time together before I wanted to head back home.

Luckily, I didn't have any trouble with traffic or back-ups and arrived home around 7:30, just in time to see the kids and help put them to bed. It was so great to be back home again and to see my little kiddos. Samantha ran at me, shouting, "Mommy!" and gave me a huge hug. Aedan looked at me with a perplexed look on his face, almost like he couldn't believe that I was actually there, and then he came towards me saying "Ma-ee, Ma-ee," not leaving my side after that.

I figured it would be best to share about Ben's weekend with the kids from his perspective, so I asked him to share a few paragraphs. His words are in quotations, with a few added comments by me mixed in.

"Jenny picked me up at the airport around 10: 15 on Friday morning. We rode back home and enjoyed our opportunity to talk for an hour before she left for Chicago."

"About ten minutes after we got home, it was time for Aedan and I to go get Samantha from preschool. It was a nice day outside so I let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes before heading home. After lunch on Friday, I told Samantha that I needed her to take a nap because I was tired. She thought it was silly that an adult would take a nap too, but I explained to her that I woke up at 2:45 a.m. to get to the airport and was tired. Luckily, both kids napped well on Friday."

"When they woke up, we just hung out. The kids played while I finished making dinner. After dinner, because they were being so cute, I offered to take the kids out for ice cream. Both of them thought that sounded good. So, we headed out to Uptown and walked holding hands across the street. The ice cream was good, even though Samantha spilled quite a bit. They were both a little scattered at the ice cream shop, and it would have been significantly easier if I were with Jenny. We got home and I got the kids to bed, and then I did some work."

Samantha filled up her "Good Choices Jar" while Ben was gone in Michigan, and she decided she wanted her reward to be sleeping with Daddy while I was gone so that way she could sleep in the bed with him and cuddle with him the whole night. The only condition was that she had to go to sleep right away or she was going to have to go back in her own bed. She was super excited about using her reward and made sure to let Daddy know how he was supposed to lay. Her plan was to literally lay on top of him with both of them on their backs. He told Samantha that was probably not a good idea, but that she could have her pillow right next to his and cuddle up close to him. When he got in bed, it took him about fifteen minutes to get enough covers since she had wrapped so much of the covers around her little body. When she woke up enough to realize he was in bed with her, she giggled and then was touching him in some way for the rest of the night. She slept pretty well until about 7:15, even though neither of them probably slept as well as normal. Nevertheless, Ben was excited about having me back in bed with him instead.

"After breakfast on Saturday we went to a local park that Samantha likes. It was 60 degrees outside and the kids loved playing. We were there for an hour and a half, and then we headed to Chipotle for lunch. After lunch we went home and both kids napped again. On Saturday night we just relaxed, played together, and took a bath."

"The kids got up at their normal time on Sunday. So, I decided it would make sense to go to first service together. Aedan is a little more weird about being dropped off in the nursery than Samantha was, and he was sad again this morning. When I bent down to unzip his coat he buried his head in my chest and started crying, saying, "No, daddy..." in a whiny voice. I asked him if he wanted to give Samantha and Daddy a goodbye hug, and he liked that idea. So, we went over to Samantha's class, he hugged her, and then me. Then, he went into his room without any trouble."

Here are the kids all dressed up for church on Sunday. Ben sent this picture to me, and it made me so happy to see their smiling faces.

Once back home Daddy changed Aedan out of his little suit, but he wanted to keep his tie on.

Ben said that he told Aedan to smile and say cheese, and that's how he captured this awesome picture of Aedan. I love his squinty eyes, his pink cheeks, and his many teeth peeking out of that brilliant smile. This might be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Aedan. You can't help but smile yourself when looking at this picture. :)

"After church we played for a while, even though the kids were restless. We had lunch, and I put them down. It was after nap on Sunday that I started to get tired of doing everything by myself for the last few days. Up until that point I was good, but I could tell I was done. So, I took the easy way out...I let the kids watch a show. Aedan wanted to watch a VeggieTales and Samantha picked a short version of Kung Fu Panda that was made for Netflix. I got the kids ready for bed, knowing that mommy was getting close. They were both tired and ready for bed, but I knew they would be happy to see Jenny and I kept them up. All was right with the world when she got home, for all of us...for the first time since Tuesday night."

I was glad that the kids did so well for Ben, as this is the first time I have been gone from them for this long. I was glad that Samantha took naps both Friday and Saturday, making it easier to deal with her behavior, and giving them better evenings together. She is much more respectful and compliant when she has napped and has gotten enough rest. Ben said that she was being incredibly helpful. Apparently on Sunday Samantha started asking about me a lot, and before church Aedan was playing in my closet and kept saying, "Mommy, Mommy." I am definitely glad that we don't have to be apart very often. It was difficult being away from each other four nights in a row, and Ben and I just enjoyed sitting next to each other on the couch Sunday night, talking and catching up with all that had happened over the last several days we'd been apart.

Then, Monday was back to our normal routine again. Daddy off to campus, Samantha off to preschool, and Aedan and I off to Kroger for our weekly shopping trip. Lately Aedan has really missed Samantha when she is gone at preschool. He will walk around the house calling for her, saying "Ce-ce" which is his way of saying Sissy. When he asks, "Ce-ce?" I will remind him that she is at preschool, and he will say, "Ce-ce, pee-kool" with a very sad look on his face. He loves her so much and can't wait to go pick her up again.

Here are the kids together when we got home after preschool. Aedan did something to hurt himself and make himself cry, and Sissy came to comfort him right away. Oftentimes he doesn't want Mommy or Daddy. As Ben put it so eloquently, "A hug from Samantha is like the much needed medicine for him, as it almost always makes him happy." In fact, after she hugs him and comforts him, he will often just look at her and smile, like nothing could be better in the world than being near his sister. It is adorable to see how much he loves her and wants to be around her. And Samantha has done a very good job lately of taking care of her little brother and including him in her play. It is wonderful to watch them together and see their cute relationship grow stronger and stronger as they grow older.

And just because the above pictures aren't cute enough, here are our two cute kiddos in the bath together on Monday night. They have a great time splashing around and being silly together. :) These are the moments I cherish now and will look back on with fondness, the moments I hope I will never forget.

(Blog about February 16-22, 2015)