Welcome Home.

I am still having picture uploading problems. Bummer.

In the mean time, I love watching military homecoming videos. Check out welcomehomeblog.com if you would like to watch a few.

One of my students right now has a dad overseas. Can't wait for my little one to get to see his daddy again! :)

Business of Being Born.

This weekend Kley and I watched our first documentary together. (I don't ever remember watching a documentary before. At least not on my own free time.) It was so interesting! It was called The Business of Being Born. It talked about the differences in birthing in the US verses other countries, and it talked a lot about using a midwife. It said that a midwife is present at at least 70% of births in European countries, while they are only at 8% of US births. Wow! I was also shocked at how they portrayed hospitals as businesses and how they wanted to rush your labor if it took too long, encouraging you to use methods such as petocin and the vacuum during delivery, even if not completely necessary. Now, I know this documentary was filmed in NYC, and this was only at one particular hospital, but it was still shocking. They talked about how births have changed over the years- in 1900, almost all births (95%) took place at home, but by 1955, only 1% of births took place at home. They also showed several home births. The whole thing. Every detail. Wow.

I'm not trying to give an opinion on home births, hospitals, or midwives, but I would recommend the documentary. It was very interesting. If births interest you, watch it! It's on Netflix. It definitely made me think a lot about midwives, when I never have before, simply because I didn't know very much about them.

Halloween Candy Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs

For some reason, it's not letting me upload my pictures, so instead you get a video clip. This is a video of Jimmy Kimmel asking parents to tell their kids they ate all their halloween candy. The last two boys on the video are so funny it brings tears to my eyes.

Watch it. :)

Quick weekend recap.

This weekend was so nice! Friday night Kley and I brought a meal to some friends who had a baby- so fun to hold their new little boy! Then we went out to eat at Panda Express- yum!- and I got to go on a shopping spree at Old Navy (my favorite stores) because my great mother-in-law sent me a gift card! Yay!

Saturday we hung out at my parent's house because my sister, Karlie, was home from college for the weekend. That was also fun! We played Mall Madness again, our childhood favorite game, had a great steak dinner, drove around and looked at sweet houses, and hung out.

Sunday we had church activities, went to my sister Kayla's volleyball tournament, and watched a few episodes of Private Practice last night.

A good weekend, if I do say so! :) Hope you had a great one too!

Overcome (Desperation Band).

I love the song Overcome by the Desperation Band.

Seated above, enthroned in the Father's love
Destined to die, poured out for all mankind
God's only son perfect and spotless one
He never sinned, but suffered as if he did

All authority, every victory is Yours
All authority, every victory is Yours

Savior, worthy of honor and glory, worthy of all our praise, You overcame
Jesus, awesome in power forever, awesome and great is Your name, You overcame

Power in hand speaking the Father's plan
You're sending us out, light in this broken land

We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb
And the word of our testimony, everyone overcome



The bolded part is my favorite.
I definitely shout this out in the car.

Compliments.

Hebrews 10:24- And let us consider how we can spur one another on towards love and good deeds.

Yesterday/this morning was discouraging and exhausting. My kids struggled at school and we had to have many talks about misbehaviors. It's hard to be patient at times, when we have the same conversation over and over and they continue to disobey.

But that's what I've done to God before, and yet He is patient, loving, and forgiving with me. So, I will continue to learn and pray that I will be that kind of patient, loving, and forgiving teacher to my kids.

Today I was the recipient of people "spuring me on." I received two wonderfully uplifting comments today- one from my director, and the other from the school's superintendent. Two AMAZING people to receive compliments from!

Thank you, God, for blessing me today with encouraging words.

Highlights of the week. :)

Here are some highlights from the last week(ish):
1. Last Saturday we hung out with some wonderful friends from church. It was such a good time fellowshipping together and we played a HILARIOUS round of The Game of Things. I was really uplifted by this time together!
2. My brother was home last weekend for J-term break!
3. I am taking this training class for work, and tomorrow is my last class. It was a pretty good class, but definitely glad to be done. This is also a huge plus because this frees up my Monday night to watch the Bachelor with friends! Way better! :)
4. Even though it was freezing cold this week, I am thankful for having more consistent time for my kids to run in the gym at school. Last winter we didn't have that, so I am definitely thankful for that when it's below zero!
5. Warmer weather coming up this next week.
6. Kley and I are doing much better at consistently doing devotions together everyday. This alone is a HUGE highlight, and most definitely a spiritual marriage booster!
7. Seeing my family on Friday night.
8. Kley taking me to Chocolate Storybook yesterday. :)
9. Seeing Jim Brickman in concert at Stephens Auditorium in Ames on Thursday. We were supposed to go for my birthday (December 20), but it got postponed for weather. It was good! If you don't know who he is, he is the best piano player ever. So beautiful and talented! You should look him up. I listen to him a lot- he is very relaxing, and I play his music during naptime at school a lot. He had a great stage presence too, and was pretty funny in the stories he told in between songs!
10. A SNOW DAY on Wednesday! It was awesome to have a day off and accomplish tasks at home!
11. Talking to friends on the phone.
12. Going out to eat at Noodles on Thursday before the concert.
13. Making chocolate chip cookies from scratch.
14. Making plans for the future- having things to look forward to is great (some fun trips coming up in March and April)!
15. I'm excited that it's now February!