report card time

alaythia turned 9 months old this week. so i took her in for her check up. for a stay at home mom a check up feels a little like a report card. are they developing properly, are they healthy, are they growing? what you should be expecting the next few months as you try to imagine life with a crawler, walker and talker.

so i walk into the appointment with alaythia clean, fresh, fed, with her best face on. she's a healthy, growing, perfect girl. i'm feeling pretty good about myself thank you. at the end of the appointment the doctor throws something out, almost as a tack on. an 'oh yeah'.

'alaythia's growth chart shows that she hasn't gained much weight in the past few months. sometimes when you have a toddler you think your 2nd is eating enough when in fact, they might not be. i would encourage you to watch carefully how much alaythia is eating, you might be surprised at how much she can eat.'

wait...is she telling me i'm not feeding my kid enough? is she really saying that i could be keeping her hungry? do you know me? do you know the family i come from? we are professional eaters. you could accuse me of a lot of things, but not feeding my kids enough? no way.

i come home determined to see if in fact she can eat more.... i try and try at lunch time. not interested. see, i'm doing okay. she's not hungry. i try to convince myself. dinner rolls around, new tactic, i try more fingery foods. and sure enough alaythia ate about 3 times the amount i usually give her. i sat there in turmoil. glad that she was enjoying and eating to her hearts content. sad that she might have been hungry these past few months. and being the sweet little girl she is, never complained.

well my dear daughter, it's confirmed. welcome to the family that loves to eat. i'm afraid you're one of us.

deadline #2

so for one of the school's matt is applying to, he has to make a proposal of what he would do his dissertation on. no small decision. this is what he will give his life to for the next several years. it's not something that you just pick randomly. as you may or may not know, a dissertation has to be on something unexplored. or if explored, not to the fullest extent. when you're dealing with the Bible, it would seem the options would start to get fewer and fewer. but matt did find a topic that 1 - interests him, 2- interests the guy he would be studying under and 3 - hasn't been explored - fully.

so with much trepidation he send it off to the professor he would be sitting under if accepted to this particular school. even though he's in the application process the school wants the prof to sign off on it. we fully expected this process to go back and forth. but much to our surprise we got an email just hours after sending the proposal. it is accepted. done deal. moving on.

i can't tell you the weight that was immediately lifted.

we're quickly running out of deadlines....#2 done. deadline #3 is to turn the applications in. and that should be done in a few weeks. people, we're moving forward. i still can hardly believe it.

stuff of interest

so here's some new cool stuff i want to share with you....

first is this website, www.franklinguitars.com

this is rosemary's dad -- who builds guitars in his shop at their house. they were up to be with jake and rose for thanksgiving and one of the times i popped in on them ken was showing them his new website. amazing stuff. jake and rose have 2 of his guitars...ken calls one of them 'the dog'. supposedly it's not a very good one...yet it looks better than any guitar i've ever seen. check it out. we think we're cool to be connected to him in a round-about way.

second is a new blogger. julie martin. where the name isaiah martin godshall comes from. i won't go on and on about how i feel about her, for fear of totally freaking her out as a new blogger. but if you've got the time, i'd say it would be well worth your time to check out her thoughts.

Say What?! Wednesday

on monday matt was heading out the door to go study at powell's. isaiah and i were sitting at the table playing play doh. we exchanged details of what the day was going to look like. at the end of the conversation matt said, 'have a fun afternoon.' before i could say anything isaiah said, 'thanks, we will.' and as matt turned to go he added, 'see ya later babe!'

matt and i laughed and laughed. it's amazing what they pick up from you. not only your words but your intonations as well. scary if i'm honest.

so i hear

she's doing it. she's crawling. it must be from watching her cousin do it. she's doing it just like him. one arm tucked under her body, the other up and moving.....at least that's what i hear.

i didn't actually see it last night because i ran up the stairs to get the video camera. i stood there taping, waiting for her to do it, only to have the battery flash at me. i put the camera down and ran back up the stairs to get the power cord.

by the time i was ready, she was done, wanting to get up.

i tried to explain to matt that i'm not supposed to miss things like that, being a stay-at-home mom, it's my job to be there for her firsts...i'll try to get over it.

my life has changed once again.

happy thanksgiving...

we went up to tadmor with the godshall side of the family.

some of my favorite moments:

isaiah finally getting to wrestle his cousin.

watching the babies lay head to head and explore each other's face.

alaythia on daddy in her new backpack.

alaythia and papa snuggle on a walk through the woods.
for more pictures of our november click here.

becoming godshall

it's something that my kids will never do, 'become' a godshall. they were born godshall. but me, about six and a half years ago, i 'became' godshall. and now there is another woman, of this generation, embarking on this journey. hallie now begins her journey of becoming godshall.

here's just a little about what i've learned in my journey:

1 - say your last name, then spell it. no one will ever guess right.

2 - if you have to give up the name you've always had, it's a good one to do it for.

3 - learn where it came from, everyone will ask.

4 - get the pronunciation right. not god-shawl, not god-shell, not good shall. it's god-shall. and after all, and i quote, 'you will be teaching (my) kids how to say their name, so you better say it right yourself.'

5 - as a godshall you inherit a long legacy of many generations of christ followers. this was new for me...i love it.

6 - when we gather, family pictures will take first priority. and no, you can never have to many.

in the spirit of thankfulness

i've written two posts and they are sitting as drafts. a little gun-shy? maybe. timing? for sure.

in the spirit of thankfulness here are a few things i am thankful for in no special order:

1 - alaythia grace's face. you need a reality check? you need to forget the worries of the day? take one look my friend. you'll be changed.
2 - my mini van. say what you will about mini van's. they're made for mom's and they make your life easy. i've been without mine for a week, just got it back. my love is renewed.
3 - google. answers your questions, provides email, organizes your life with the calendar, promotes creativity in blogger, keeps you connected with reader. brilliant.
4 - t.v. shows on internet. i may not be able to afford tivo, but who needs it when you can watch every episode online?
5 - belly laughs. during snuggle time this morning alaythia was laughing so hard grandpa heard it through the wall.
6 - home community. our annual thanksgiving feast is tomorrow. over 40 people, many of whom i haven't seen i a while, will be here. we will toast to the king.

my life in piles

i went to our storage unit recently to drop off all the infant stuff we're no longer using. i finally admitted to myself today that i hate going to our storage unit. it's probably not for the reasons you're thinking...dirty, out of the way, cold. no, it's for another reason.

i hate going and seeing all my stuff in boxes, in piles, with dust piled on top.

i love my parents house. it's big, it's beautiful. we have everything and more we could ever want or need. we're living the high life here. there's many things we have here that we will never have when we live on our own. their appliances are upgraded, their furniture is big and comfortable. the carpet is clean, the bathrooms are a plenty...the cable we've come very accustomed to. but when i go to the storage unit i remember that i'm in transition, the house i live in really isn't mine, although it feels like it most of the time. i remember what my house looks like, even in piles of boxes.

if i had a day when i was caught up on my life and my kids were taken care of...i would go to the storage unit. i would open every box and remember. i would throw away stuff that i don't want any more, because my taste has changed in 2 years, and i would repack other stuff that i once thought wasn't that important, but now cherish.

Say What?! Wednesday

isaiah's favorite game right now is kerplunk. after all the marbles have fallen he counts each marble to see who the winner is. after this particular game instead of counting his marbles, he was putting each marble into every cup he could find around the room. i said, 'count your marbles isaiah, come on!' he said, 'don't say that, i am coming on!'

'isaiah, mommy is ......'

a lot of times, growing up, we would have a devotion before school. a nugget of truth to take with us into the day. most of the time i was so stressed out about being late to school that i didn't really listen to what it was my dad was trying to impart. but there is one devotion that i remember to this day.

it was a devotion about jellyfish, dolphins and sharks. the gist was jellyfish get pushed around, even eaten. sharks are bullies and predators. dolphins are neither of these. they actually ram into sharks with their noses, protecting themselves and sometimes others from predators. don't be a shark or jellyfish, be a dolphin. simple enough. out of all the morning devotions don't ask me why that one stands out. but it does.

-----

fast forward many years, or rewind two from the present. matt and i are sitting with baby isaiah in front of the t.v. one evening. what ever we were watching prompted me to impart my wisdom about dolphins and sharks to matt. he thought i was blowing smoke. i knew i was right and so i got fired up real quick, telling him all about the devotional i heard when i was young. i challenged him to call my brothers, call my dad. dolphins do ram sharks and sharks flee. in a moment of - no doubt - frustration matt turned to baby isaiah and said in a severely sarcastic tone, 'isaiah...mommy's a marine biologist!'

that story has been told a number of times -- making it a legend of recent. rosemary, my sister-in-law, particularly loves the 'mommy is a marine biologist' story. every once in a while she'll bring it up out of no where, laughing the entire time. i think she loves it so much, partly because she doesn't believe the facts either, and because she loves that reserved, polite matt was sarcastic and put me in my place.

-----

a couple days ago while driving in the car with the kids isaiah said, 'look mommy! there is the sun!' i quickly said, 'don't look at it!' he loves to point out and look at the moon. i didn't want him to do the same with the sun.

'why?'
'well, because it will burn your eyes.'
'why?'
'it's hot.'
'why?'

in an effort to bring God into every why question i said, 'well, God made it that way.'

'why?'
'he made the sun to be hot so that it would warm the earth.'
'why did God say that?'
'well, he knew that was best for us.'

and that was the end of the conversation. a couple days later when we all were in the car isaiah said to matt, 'daddy, did you know that God said not to look at the sun because it will burn your eyes!'

really isaiah? really? that's what you got out of our conversation and that's what you're going to tell your theologian dad??!!

matt looks to me in question. i try to justify and explain. matt chuckles and makes some remark about my theology under his breath. i know i'm out of my league. in an effort to even the playing ground i make some remark about taking care of his children all day....

matt slowly turns around, looks at isaiah and says, 'isaiah, mommy is a geologist.'

what's wrong? nothing.

i actually had a friend pick up the phone and call me today. 'i was calling to see if you were sick, or dead to the world! it's been 4 days since you've posted on your blog!!!' i laughed hysterically. that's what it's come to now? 'i've been checking your blog twice a day! what's wrong?!'

nothing. nothing is wrong. it was all strategic.

i didn't want to post anything new so that every time you opened up the blog you would see that matt was taking the GRE today and you would remember to pray.

manipulative? maybe.
worth it? definitely.

matt did great on his test, and we're eating pizza and watching monday night football in celebration.

thanks for putting up with the delay. i promise to do my best not to keep you waiting another 4 whole days.

deadline #1

i've been thinking about moving a lot lately. i couldn't figure out why all of the sudden i was thinking about it so much. after all, we most likely won't be going anywhere until august. then it hit me...our first deadline in the PhD application process is close at hand.

until now it's all be out there -- someday. but on monday matt takes the GRE and in 'the plan' that has always been the first deadline to meet. then comes applications due, interviews, acceptance and moving.

the romanticism of moving for PhD work is quickly being sucked away. the realities of a new home, a new neighborhood, a new culture....it's all becoming much more real. for example, at the park a few days ago i met a woman who was new to vancouver...only 3 months in. i wondered if that would be me soon, trying to make friends at the park. i felt an extra measure of compassion for her and tried to ease the transition for this stranger.

but for now, i'll focus on monday and the test matt will take. it could determine a lot of where we will go. if you feel so inclined, i would covet your prayers.

Say What??! Wednesday

on saturday we went down to the pearl district to walk around. it was a beautiful sunny day. we walked for blocks and blocks. toward the end of our walk i wanted to occupy isaiah a bit. so not really thinking of the ramifications i said, 'step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back.' 'huh?' he said. in a slower cadence, 'step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back.'

isaiah stopped walking, frozen. he looked down at his feet and at all the squares that were crisscrossed before him. he looked up at me frantic and raised his hands and pleaded, 'carry me mommy!'


(i felt terrible! but after some explanation he was down holding my hand chanting the saying and hopping from square to square.)

had i known

we did it. isaiah and alaythia are sharing a room, the big room. matt and i have isaiah's old room, noah border and all.

was the work and stress worth it? yes.
was the task daunting? yes.
am i glad i did it? you have no idea.

here's just a few things, (after 24 hours), that i've come to love about it:

-i love that i can choose to read in bed if i want.
-i love that once i got in bed last night, matt and i talked for nearly 30
minutes...in a normal tone!
-i love that when i fold the laundry, there's an adult pile and a kid pile. no
mixing.
-i love that my room is all adult. no changing tables, no toys.
-i love that my room is smaller - therefore has the potential to be cleaner.
-i love that their room is big and has room for lots of playing.
-i love the way the kid's room feels at night with the night light on and all their things in there. feels like wendy, michael and john's room from peter pan.
-i love that the bedtime routine is all together now. and with matt and i both singing songs isaiah joins in. i rock alaythia, matt's tickling isaiah's back and we sing to our Messiah...all together. amazing.
-but most of all i LOVED hearing isaiah and alaythia go to sleep today for their nap.

(their heads are facing each other...i shut the door and immediately hear isaiah speak gibberish to alaythia. then her hysterical laugh. over and over and over it goes. do i go in, do i not. it's so cute to hear them in their room having fun on their own...making great memories. but it's time for bed. i open the door, only to find isaiah standing and jumping up and down as he speaks the words that make his sister laugh. i calmly say it's time for bed, then realize i was sorry i did it. and walked out, deciding to let them go as long as they wanted. i wasn't going to put a damper on it. they carried on for a few more minutes and then both went to sleep.)

i love everything about the change. had i known -- i would have done it months ago.

drummer boy...

this video was taken in august at some friend's wedding reception. isaiah was 2 and a half exactly.

first off, we need to give props to josh, peter and ben - amazing musicians that made this really what it is. they were gracious to let isaiah play and made him look good.

don't get me wrong, i am proud. and i'll be the very first to admit that isaiah has a gift. at the moment it was happening matt and i stared at each other in disbelief numerous times. surreal to say the very least. this video is the last few minutes of about a 20 minute set.

without further ado, our little drummer boy.

fabulous

matt and i got away for a date night last night. dinner and a movie. we went and saw 'dan in real life' on recommendation. i didn't seen '40-year-old virgin', and while i'm a huge fan of 'the office', i haven't seen one steve carrell movie. not interested. but 'dan in real life' is fantastic. really fantastic. and i think it's worth going to see.

Meeska Mooska.....

Mickey & Minnie Mouse!!!

if you want to see more pictures of our night you can click here.