Oh, So Thankful

One for the record books... this was the FIRST year we've ever spent Thanksgiving Day in our own home. AND, we hosted it! We had fun times with Bekah and Kevin, and Jacob and Liz. We're so thankful to have some family out here with us and I'm going to be prideful and say that the six of us really know how to cook some great Turkey Day Dishes! We definitely did not go hungry, actually helping ourselves to thirds and fourths, and then having leftovers for dinner as well. We discovered Jacob is a binge eater and hides his extra helpings in his head. hmmmm...weirdo.

Eden was thankful when she saw the last of the leftover turkey on Saturday evening. Apparently, she only likes the thought of eating turkey, and not so much actually eating it. She definitely doesn't take after her mother on that aspect. We're thankful that she's now recovering from her first battle with pneumonia. I feel like a terrible mother letting my daughter come down with pneumonia. But I'm thankful for Alexander Fleming *(see note below)* and his amazing discovery of penicillin.

Salem decided to spend his Thanksgiving Day by running a fever for the entire day. Again, thankfully, he's over that now and seems to be on the upside of his first cold.

Brandon is thankful that he's got two weeks left of class for this semester. Wow that's gone quick! He's pretty busy wrapping things up for a presentation, book reports, and finals.

And I'm thankful that we get to spend over a month in Texas with family for the Christmas holidays. Soooo looking forward to not having to cram all of our family visits into one week!

But most of all we're thankful for Christ and his blood on the cross allowing us to be adopted children of God!

*I took a serious shot to my ego this evening. After posting this I let Brandon read it, like always and he said, "Hmmm, I didn't know Marie Curie discovered penicillin." My response, "Yep!" Him: "are you sure?" Me: "Uh yeah. I paid attention in 7th grade."

So after that tacky response, he googled it. Apparently, I've gone the last 15 years (and majored in Chemistry) under the impression that Marie Curie discovered the cure-all of penicillin. She in fact, did not. Sad day. She actually discovered radiation. Still cool. But not my point.

Anyways, this Fleming character made the discovery of penicillin on the mold stuff, blah blah blah, you know the story.

All that to say, that I edited the blog post above to make me not sound like a fool...at first it said Marie Curie. I think Madame Curie sounds so much cooler than Fleming Dude, but whatever.

Ok. Science lesson over.

Top Ten Fun!

If you don't regularly read Georgia's blog, you might should reconsider that decision.

I'm an avid blog-stalker of hers. :)

So anyway, thanks to her, I'm posting one of those "tag, you're it" type blogs.

So here it goes.

1. Who is the hottest movie star? ...I don't really know...or care. But when I googled it Zac Efron came up. Isn't he like 16 or something? That's weird.

2. Apart from your house and car, what is the most expensive item you have ever purchased?

...I'm thinking my Canon 50D and 50mm lens. Or maybe a sweet vacay to Phi Phi Island.

3. What is your most treasured memory?

Can I have three? The day I married Brandon. And Eden's and Salem's births.

4. What is the best gift you ever received as a child?

...parents who led me to Christ at the age of 5.

5. What is the biggest mistake you ever made?

I was seriously mean to my mom when I was in high school. She should have locked me in my room. No joke.

6. Four words to describe yourself.

Wife. Mom. Daughter. Sister.

7. What was the highlight and lowlight of your 2009 (I changed that to 2009 since it's almost over!)?

high: Salem's birth

low: The day (unnamed Foundation) yanked Brandon's scholarship for school because he committed to serving the lost overseas rather than be a pulpit pastor. But I'm not bitter.

8. What is your favorite film?

Knotting Hill. ...I know, make fun of me all you want.

9. Tell me one thing I don't know about you.

I have an unjustified fear of cruise ships. In my mind, on a cruise ship, one of two things will happen: I'll be murdered or we'll sink.

10. If you were a comic book strip character, who would you be?

Well, he's not exactly the comic book strip type...but I identify strongly with StrongBad's sarcasm. :)

At this point I should tag people. But I'm not really the tagging type. :) So, if you're reading this and you wanna do a top ten, have at it!

Orange you glad I didn't say Banana?!

Am I the only one that remembers that joke from 4th grade?
...
ok, maybe so.

Eden had an orange for lunch. Well, she ate more than just an orange, but the orange concluded her lunch. When we asked her what it smelled like..."apple!" And when we asked her what it tasted like..."goldfish!"
hmmmm, not sure about that one.

But then she got a bit carred away.
Scarfed down her last slice.
and panick hit me as she began gagging and turning red.

I screamed down the hall for Brandon as my heimlich maneuvre skills came rushing back.

First and hopefully last time I have to perform the heimlich on any of my children.

And then the wretched, slimy orange slice came coughing up.
I was shaking. Angry at the stupid orange. Crying at the thought of what might have been. (I know. ridiculous. ...I always think the worst.)

And then Eden brought me back down to earth... "Mama. I don't like that orange."
Me neither Eden. Me neither.

She may never eat an orange ever again.

LOOT!

This morning we were able to take part in an event that was a HUGE blessing to the Chancler household! Every year before Christmas Bayleaf Baptist Church ministers to SEBTS students and their families by having a "Toy Chest." The members of this church are so amazingly gracious they donate new toys for SEBTS families to purchase at no more than 10% of the original cost. WOW! Every student is invited to participate and doors open at 9 am. So we woke up bright and early this morning to get up to the church to stand in line hoping to be some of the first to rush in! There were about 300 students and families gathered for the event.
Rules were that we could spend $7 per kid or get 3 toys per kid. With 300 people waiting at the doors, we were getting antsy! Before the rush in though what an amazing time of fellowship that we had with friends as we were overwhelmed with the generosity of this church! Before you pass this off as something small...let me tell you that these were all NEW toys. They also had 50 kids bikes for the first 50 people to snatch them up. MacBook Pros (yes 3). I-Pods. Power Wheels. Camcorders. (those last four were among 50 amazing raffles!)
So we rushed in and grabbed our $14 worth for Eden and Salem, fellowshipped with some awesome friends, stuck around to watch friends win rockin cool raffles (Brandon had his fingers crossed for a new MacBook...awww shucks!), and then ended up getting to snatch up a few more of the remaining toys as we were among the few that didn't win a raffle!
All in all, we came away being IMMENSELY blessed by this church and with 2 huge bags of loot for the kiddos! Look at all we scored for just $20!! And the coolest part about it all is that the money that SEBTS students spent for the Christmas toys then goes straight to Lottie Moon. AWESOME!

Going Green

It's the big rage, right?

I mean, even cleaning products are going green.

But this, my friends, is a different kind of green. It's not your "hip" green, or lackadaisical green.
This is committed green.
Dedicated green.
No-looking-back-now green.
This is the future of green.
and dare I even say...FUN green.

Here it comes...

Cloth Diapers...and the 3 Reasons You Just Can't Say No. (have I lost you now? .....c'mon. stick with me here.)

Or maybe a more apt title is the 3 Reasons We Had to Say Yes.

*at this point let me interject that I'm not being all Judge Judy on you if you've decided that disposables are right for your family...but this is why we chose cloth, and I hope you'll at least find it amusing...ok please continue*

FIRST and I guess foremost is finances. I'll keep this one "brief" (pun intended)
...you can do the research on this one if you're actually that interested. At the end of all that research you'll find that using cloth (of course variables should be considered...ie how many, washing frequency, type purchased, etc) will save you around $1200 PER BABY BOOTY. That's right. You might as well be strapping benjamins to your child's heiny and tossin' them out with last night's leftovers. This was our motivation when we made the "plunge" (hehe).
...since then, our motivation has shifted a little...

SECOND and the reason behind my catchy title, the environment. *insert CNN's breaking news music here* Did you know that one baby produces an average of 1 ton of disposable diaper trash?! And that's if they are potty trained at 2! Say it with me here, "NASTY!" That's serious, non-biodegradable, human waste we're talking about. Sorry for grossing you all out...or making you uncomfortable, or feel guilty...REALLY not my point.
I'm moving on...so this is our bigger motivation now. We're "saving the planet" one booty at a time. :) Really, we as believers need to be doing all we can to preserve God's creation. And putting our kiddo's in cloth is just one way we can. I no longer stare in sickening amazement at the amount of diapers my kids pee in once or twice and then go to a landfill. I'm comforted knowing that using cloth is a very large way (minus 2 tons of diaper trash on our part) we can help save God's awesome creation.
That being said, I'm not going to be all Disposable Nazi on you...I admit to you that we do still use disposables occasionally (shock and awe!). Let's admit it, they're occasionally easier. But if we're home, Salem's booty is wrapped in cloth.

THIRD and really the most exciting part of the post. (If you've made it this far, congratulations!)
sooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!!


Who wouldn't want a baby butt to look like that!
When your choices can include items such as this, using cloth diapers can be sooo addicting!
I realize that's when things start getting pricey and you have to stay aware that you aren't actually spending MORE on cloth than you would disposables...but if you're just doing it to "Go Green" then it's a WIN/WIN!! Glad to say that we've not yet spent MORE on cloth than sposies though! :) But they're so much cuter than paper pampers! :)



And in the end, when your kiddos have potty trained, and you are past the diaper era of your life, you can sell those used cloth diapers on sites like diaperswappers.com. That's IF those diapers that you spent only $400 on to diaper 4 children still have any life left in them. But eh, $400 on 4 kids ain't shabby!

Other reasons to consider cloth would be that it's healthier for your kiddo (do you know what chemicals are used in disposables to absorb pee?!?!) And you can change as often as you want. No more disappointments after your sweet baby poos in a diaper she's worn for 5 seconds. Washing 20 diapers isn't any harder than washing 15. And we've found that with Salem, cloth works WAY BETTER at keeping in those poo-splosions!
And THAT, fellow parents, is what it's all about. :)

I could literally fill an entire new post with links upon links of information, cloth diaper retailers, advice, stuff I recommend, etc...but I'll spare you. Contact me if you want boatloads of info.

But just so you know that times have changed and these aren't your mama's cloth diapers any more folks, check out the selection.

It's a whole world you didn't even know existed!

Modeling Gig

As a photographer, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've done a pretty poor job of utilizing my kids as subjects. Those days are behind me. So here's Eden modeling her new mommy-made hats. Isn't she a doll?! LOVE the one where I asked her to say, "Cheese!"

Crafty Shmafty

Let's get one thing straight...I'm not bragging. I'm truly not that crafty.
I just occasionally get inspired and maybe a little in over my head.

That being said, this past weekend I took part in the SEBTS Craft and Bake Sale.
soooooo fun. Mainly because friends are awesome and it was fun doing this together.

So my inspiration for deciding to take part in the craft show thing, was these.
(side note...etsy is wayyyyyy addicting!)
Aren't they so adorable! So I was maybe a little egotistical and thought to myself, "I should do that!" So I set out on a croc-crocheting adventure.
Let's back up a bit.

Several years ago I spent the summer in Tasmania, Australia working in a church. One of our community outreach projects was to host a crafting afternoon for senior citizens. I learned to make what I like to call my "holy grail goblet" using a wood spinner thing. fun times. But I also learned to crochet, along with several 60 and 70 year old women. I know. I'm too cool for school. I started out with simple scarfs...moved on to baby blankets...you get the idea.

Fast forward to now.
How I got it in my head I could all of a sudden follow a pattern after little to no crochet knowledge, I don't know. But I dove in. And after about 4 croc-duds, I got the hang of it!




And then I got bored with crocs and needed something else.
Well that and Brandon reminded me of the fundamentals of economics, that you gotta have some variety if you want people to buy something.

So I set out on crochet journey #2. And struck gold.
Aren't those A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. ?!?!? Yeah, I agree. People are so creative. How these ladies come up with these patterns is beyond me. They must not have 2 kids. :)
*insert picture here of Eden and her new mommy-made hat!* (woops)

So I whipped out 10 or so hats for the SEBTS sale, 12 or so pairs of baby-crocs, toted my goods and myself up to the sale and set up shop.
My sweet and oh-so-incredibly-crafty friend shared a table with me. Her stuff is so cute!! Isn't that onesie and tutu with matching wand soooo precious?!




Let's also be clear about the fact that I DO NOT work for the actual creators of crocs, and that I totally ripped off their logo, and probably illegally displayed it for the benefit of selling some crocheted baby slippers that happen to resemble crocs (trademarked!). I'm hoping they're kind.


All in all...had fun. Made some dough (woohoo for profit!). And saw some amazing women with some incredible talent.

ps...if you happen to need some baby-crocs (trademarked!) for a baby shower, please let me know because I came home with several pair! :)

A very Happy Halloween

Remember last year when we pretty much forgot that it was halloween and that you're supposed to dress up your kid and go trick or treating? We made up for it this year.
Eden and Salem had cool lion costumes this year which would have been totally awesome had it not been 80 degrees outside. At our church's fall festival they were each sweating buckets just to sport their cool costumes.


Eden had a pink bow in her hair to distract from the male lion mane and to let people know she was an awesome girl lion. From the back though she looked like a mini Tina Turner with a tail. too cool!

When the evening came around though and it was time to hike a couple miles down Main Street for trick or treating, we opted out of the lion coats. Salem had a cool ride for the event, and sweet Natalie thought he was pretty cool.


The whole gang (minus Salem)...
Eden got to wear her 2nd costume of the day, a Fairy, from BonBon and Pops.



It was a pretty eventful evening that concluded with the usual goodies like Butterfingers, Nerds, and Laffy Taffy. We still forgot one of the main staples of Halloween and Eden had to be the nerdy kid on the blog that carried a grocery sack for her candy. oh well. Live and learn.

Along the way though our kids acquired a little something extra. We ran into a rather kind intoxicated man who felt it his duty to pay our children each a dollar for having cool costumes. "Ahhh...that was nice", you say. (and maybe a little weird) But during the exchange Brandon got to share Christ with him and that was cool. Not sure how much he'll remember of it, but cool none the less.

Eden also asked several times what things were when pointing toward skeletons, goblins, demons, and ax murderers. Hmmmm, we'll save that conversation until another time.

Ahhhh Halloween and the adventures that it brings.

We concluded the day watching Luther with Bekah and Kevin. Really cool movie and a great way to round out Reformation day. :)