Please join me in prayer today for this family.

Philippians4: 4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

My husband.

This picture is of my husband and his 6 siblings. You can click on the picture to get a better look. My man is the 2nd from the end on the right. You can tell he has a problem with being shy, right? The one next to him is the equally shy and reserved Zachary. (Zachary works for Kyle sometimes). Please pray that someday they can break out of their shells. Thank you.
The poor guy really is pitiful.

An open letter to the Sprout Network

Dear Sprout Network,

First off, let me tell just how delightful I find your station. I am aware that you are owned and operated by PBS. I know I can trust you to broadcast quality, educational programs for my child to enjoy. Although I try to not let my child watch too much television during the day, we have especially enjoyed watching the Goodnight Show with the always lovely Nina and her sidekick Star. I love how my little boy learns a new sign language sign every night. His personal favorite is "construction".

My distress with your network stems from one small problem. No, make that LARGE problem. I would assume that you are aware of the fact that children thrive off of routine and schedules. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING IN CHANGING YOUR NIGHT TIME LINE UP???????????? Since my son was about 1 year old our routine has consisted of: dinner, bath time, brush teeth, Goodnight Show, read a book, snuggle, bed time. Let me be a little bit more specific, the shows that we have watched on the Goodnight show have been The Bernstein Bears and Thomas & Friends. After those 2 shows are over I take my little man and get him all snuggled into his bed. And might I add, he has rarely given me an ounce of trouble with bed time. Because HE THRIVES OFF OF HIS SCHEDULE. Ahem.

As we turned on the television this past Tuesday, I noticed there was a change in the line up. I didn't really think much of it. It was April Fool's day and I thought it was cute that your network decided to enjoy the silliness. Whatever. I assumed that everything would be back to normal. My child didn't understand the "silliness". He asked to watch Thomas but I was able to distract him. Much to my chagrin the next night was still messed up. NOT COOL SPROUT. NOT COOL. What are you thinking? You have replaced my son's 2 favorite shows with Calliou. Really? I would go out on a limb and say that Calliou is about the worst children's show ever. EVER. But I had to sit there and suffer through it, hoping with all my heart that Jackson would watch it and forget about his other shows. HE DIDN'T FORGET. The poor child just kept asking me over and over if Thomas was coming on. No baby, Sprout has screwed with us.

Of course, bed time has been way more difficult this week thanks to your horrible decision to "mix things up". I still haven't figured out a new night time schedule. I don't think my son or I can tolerate Calliou. So thanks Sprout. Thanks a whole ton.

Sincerely,
A really ticked off viewer

I love me some Oprah, but...

I apologize for taking a serious turn here with this post. But I couldn't ignore this video. My mother in law sent me an email with this link in it today, and I was totally blown away. Please link over and watch the video.

So beautiful, so true

This post really sums up the way I feel A LOT of the time. And I think a lot of people can relate. I don't have anything else that I can say today that will come anywhere close to the caliber of Melanie's post.

2 very small matters

What in the world is up with Paula Abdul's gloves on A.I. tonight? Really? I mean reaaaaaaaallllly, Paula?

and

I'm a little tired of the horrible acting going on over at The Biggest Loser. Please stop making these poor people who are just trying to lose some weight try to act out a "natural" commercial for Orville Reddenbacher's 100 calorie pack popcorn. I'm sure it is lovely popcorn and all, even though I have never personally tried it. I take my popcorn with butter dripping off of it and a liberal dusting of salt. There's nothing 100 calorie about that.

I'm just sayin'.

Well you see, I've been busy

Warning: This post is going to have a larger number of pictures than normal. I am not responsible for your computer blowing up from trying to load them all. I'm just trying to get my point across (and give photo evidence) that I've been busy and not lazy.

First of all, we have been in full blown wedding season here at the Van Nus household. Kyle is one of 7 kids. And 2 of those 7 thought it would be crazy and fun to get married within a couple of weeks of each other. It has been crazy. Fun... eh... I'm not so sure.

I kid, I kid. It has been fun but a teensy bit stressful. You see, Kyle was asked to be the best man in both weddings, Jackson was asked to be ring bearer in both weddings, and I have been asked to be a bridesmaid in one of the weddings. With all of the activities that go into a wedding it has taken some strategic planning and coordinating to get ourselves at the right place at the right time. We have been at a wedding activity every weekend since the first week of February. This weekend is the grand finale, with the last of the two weddings.

I really can't tell you how much it means to us to be a part of these people's most precious day. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Here is the precious Sara. Yes.... there are now 2 Sarah Van Nus' in the world. (Even though we disagree on the proper spelling of Sarah. Just remember, my spelling is the Biblical way and basically that is like God approved it.) She was the most beautiful bride and I don't think I've ever seen a bride that was as calm and collected as she was right before the wedding. I don't have a picture of Brian and Sara together yet. Which is just as well, because Brian would have just mucked it up. Again... kidding. Love you, Brian!

Here's Jackson and his sweet cousin Abby. They were perfect and walked down the aisle with just a tiny bit of coaxing. SO cute!
Here is another sweet shot of Jackson in his tux. I loved the red and white. It reminded me of the Wedding Singer.

Here are the two crazy kids that are tying the knot this weekend. Erik and Michelle are just too cute. I thought Erik would be the eternal bachelor, but when Michelle came around that changed quickly. I think this picture is perfect. You can just see that they are so in love. I'll post some pictures of their special day as soon as I get some.


In between weddings, we have been lucky to get to visit with my side of the family as well. My mom, sister, and I spent some time together having a garage sale. You know the saying, "A family that garage sale's together, stays together". Or something like that. Anyways, my sister Megan packed up her 2 kids, along with all of her garage sale junk, and headed on up to Dacula.

Here is our sweet nephew, Eli. Do you see that mischievous look in his eye? I swear this child is part monkey. He'll climb anything!


And this little fat man is Sawyer. (Eli's little brother.) I promise you, I could just slurp him up with a straw. This kid is just 3 months old and weighs over 15 lbs. We call him "Sawdawg".


Here's Jackson sitting in the middle of our mess. We spent all day Thursday getting all of our stuff put out and priced. Thursday was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky. Our garage sale was to take place on Friday and Saturday. Friday rolled around and it poured all morning. Then Saturday rolled around and it snowed. Yes... snowed. We about froze our tails off, but we all walked away with a pretty good profit and a lot less junk.




Since our weekends have been pretty packed, I knew that Jackson and I would have to get a little quality time in together during the week.

So we headed off to our favorite spot, Little Mulberry Park. Here's Jack on the seesaw.

Here he is feeding the geese at the pond. Did you know that geese are terribly territorial? It was so fun to watch Jackson watch them.

And of course a trip to the park would not be complete without swinging. Jackson was getting a littler perturbed with me taking his pictures. He kept telling me, "No picture, Mama. Faster, faster!"

And here's the big man enjoying an ice cream at Grandmama's house.


We've also been working on potty training with him. He did really well the first day. And it's kind of been down hill from there. I'm not pushing it. I just let him wear his underwear and pee on the potty when he wants to. Of course the underwear are Thomas the train.


Here's a big smile for the camera. He love's his fire engine hat. He runs around the house screaming, "weewoo weewoo weewoo". (That's his fire engine noise).

So, there's your proof. I've not been a lazy blogger. I've just been very very busy.

Well, maybe just a wee little bit lazy.