A Plunger is No Match for Paper Towels...

So last night Haylee spilled some juice on the carpet.  Eric and I were playing a video game and paused it long enough for me to soak up the spill with some paper towels.  Since there was only a couple minutes left in the video game we were playing, I (stupidly) decided to lay my paper towels down on the floor next to me while we finished up.  After we were done, I was planning on throwing the towels away and then it was bedtime for us all.

As we were turning off the game system, Haylee came running out to me exclaiming, quite proudly, that she had gone "ducky" (her way of saying "poopy"...haha).  She drug me to the bathroom to show me her accomplishment and, sure enough...there was 'ducky' in the potty...along with the pile of paper towels I had used a few minutes earlier to soak up spilled juice. 

Before I realized what was happening, Haylee reached up and flushed the toilet.  You can imagine what happened next.  The toilet bowl filled up and came so close to overflowing I felt myself holding my breath and backed Haylee and myself toward the door.  Luckily all the goodies stayed put in the toilet where they belonged, but now we had a commode out of commission.  (Thank goodness our master bathroom was still functioning properly!  I'm thinking that three people and no toilets would be pretty disastrous!)

I grabbed the plunger and got to work, but to no avail.  I never quite realized just how much I was lacking in upper body strength until last night...  Eric came in and gave it a shot, but apparently paper towels are a lot stronger than plungers and men...  By this time we were all beyond frustrated and felt like we needed to call this guy in for reinforcements:

But we decided to let it sit overnight instead, thinking maybe the paper towels would have broken down by then and we could plunge our way to victory in the morning.  But victory didn't come in the morning.  After plunging for what seemed like forever yet again...our toilet was still clogged.  It was time to get out the computer and get to googling...  Eric used to make fun of me and my google obsession.  Any time we had a question about something, I would always reply with, "I don't know, but let me google it."  He now knows that, while it may seem comical, I can generally find an answer (or 10) to our problems. 

So this morning, when I was looking for ideas to unclog a paper-toweled toilet, I saw one that seemed ridiculously simple enough to possibly work.  It required squirting a bunch of dish soap into your toilet and then following it up with a big pot of almost boiling hot water.  I added the soap and filled up the biggest pot we had with water and waited for it to boil.  Since I had a pretty difficult time carrying our pot the short distance from our sink to the stove (I woke up in some major pain this morning and lifting that pot probably wasn't the best thing for me to do...haha), I figured it would be best to wait till Eric got home and let him dump the water in the toilet.

When he got home, I told him about my plan and he figured (as did I) that it was worth a shot.  He poured the pot of water in the bowl and we just sat there and stared for a minute or two.  Nothing seemed to be happening.  I remembered reading that some people had to pour a couple pots in before it worked.  There were others who thought it was best to let the hot water sit in the toilet for a little bit before trying to plunge.  We decided to let the water sit and see what happened. 

So while our toilet was taking a bath, we did some coloring with Haylee and ate a quick lunch.  Then back to the bathroom it was.  Still didn't seem to be much of a change, so Eric got the plunger and got to work.  After a couple minutes we thought it wasn't going to work, but all of a sudden we heard the lovely sound of our toilet flushing!  Now, not only is our toilet unclogged - but our bathroom smells wonderfully soapy as well...  When it was all said and done, Eric looked at the toilet, then at me and said, "So Dawn dish soap, huh?  Seems pretty handy to have..."

Yes, Eric.  Yes, it is.  Along with wonderful husbands who are willing to carry pots of boiling water to the bathroom....and plunge like their lives depended on it...

Our White Trash Christmas Tree

Do you have your Christmas Tree up yet?  Some people (like my husband and his family) put their trees up the day after Thanksgiving.  Some other people (like me and my family) put their trees up kind of as an afterthought and whenever they feel like dragging all the decorations out.  It's been interesting for my husband and I to meld our two worlds and completely different ways of doing things together - but it's been fun! 

We decided to go ahead and put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving.  But that's about all we did...  While we do have some other super cute decorations gracing our counter top, our tree....it's about as bare as bare can be.  Now, don't misunderstand - we attempted putting decorations on it, but our dear sweet 2 year old thought they looked better in her hands...and on the floor...and mixed in with her toys...  So back in their boxes they went and I now stare at our 6 foot white Christmas tree with nothing on it but a big red bow at the top and 1 ornament directly under it (apparently we missed that one...).  And we have no lights on it because....well, I'm just too lazy and get waaaay too frustrated when putting them on.  (Eric and I have already agreed that our next tree will be prelit.) 

While it may look a little silly to some, I actually enjoy the simplicity of our tree as it is.  But even still, we plan on doing something more with it eventually.  I actually found an idea online that makes your Christmas tree look like a snowman!  How cute would that be?!  And since our tree is already white, I figured this was something we just had to do!  But alas, doing so requires us to make a paper mache snowman head...which requires a stash of newspapers and such...which we just so happened to throw out recently...  So we are in the process of collecting more.  Hopefully we will have enough soon and I can post about how that whole ordeal turns out.  In the meantime, I'll tell you about our other 'Christmas tree.' 

Because we are expecting to move sometime in the next few months, we originally decided against putting any of our Christmas decorations up.  We figured it wasn't worth the hassle of putting up, just to have to pack them all up for our move...along with everything else in our house.  But my oh-so-wise husband shared with me how he thought we should bite the bullet and go ahead and decorate for our daughter.  She's at the age now where all the decorations excite and mesmerize her.  I knew he was right, which is why we now have a naked tree in our living room.

But before we decided to decorate, I was spending a lot of time trying to figure out alternative ideas (i.e. crafts that would keep the little one busy but also double as festive decorations).  It wasn't long before I found this Christmas tree alternative online.  I remember thinking that it looked so beautifully simple and that I had to make it.  The original one was made with coffee filters, I believe.  I, however, have a Keurig and do not own coffee filters.  And I couldn't see the point in buying a box of filters, just to use a few for a tree that would only be hanging on our wall for a month.  But Styrofoam plates I did have! 

Originally, I simply planned on trying to recreate what I saw in the picture, but Eric has never been big on all white and said he thought we should paint our plates green.  (You may be wondering why in the world we have a white Christmas tree if my husband doesn't like it.  The answer is simple: Eric knows that I like white trees....and it was majorly on sale at the time...haha)  So we took his painted plates idea and just ran with it.  We got a good two days worth of fun with the little one out of it! 

"Wait, you want me to stick my hands in THAT?!"

This was right before she decided to decorate her pants with a green hand print...haha

Mommy helped her paint a few plates as well, then we set them on the counter to dry.  The next day I set about making some ornaments for Haylee to decorate.  Eric had mentioned that we should have let her paint different colors on the tree as ornaments, but I had already cut a bunch of shapes out of computer paper and wasn't about to just toss em...  But I think his way would have looked super cute as well! 

I just drew some freehand shapes and cut them out.  Don't make fun...the Good Lord blessed me with many talents, but drawing was NOT one of them...  (The one on the bottom right reminds me of a potato...haha)

Then I decided to trace some mini Christmas cookie cutters that I had.  I thought these came out super duper cute, but Haylee seemed to enjoy coloring the bigger decorations a little bit more...

Perhaps my favorite method was cutting out ornament shapes on my Silhouette Cameo - which I absolutely LOVE!  Of course, this would require you to actually have one of these blessed machines (or at least something like it). 

Our decorating tools...

I think Haylee would have really enjoyed the glitter glue pens, but they just weren't working like I imagined they would.  I have to say, I was extremely disappointed since I figured they would add a nice 'pop' to the tree.  Even though the package stated that they had "no clog tips," three of the nine brand new pens came straight out of the package clogged...and they just so happened to be the most Christmas-y colors (go figure).  If that wasn't enough, the glitter all seemed to be settled at the bottom of the pen with most of the glue near the tip.  Nothing I did seemed to help the two mix and all we got was a lot of glue with very little glitter. 

The colored pencils would have been okay, but Haylee was coloring so lightly that we could hardly see her drawings...  The markers seemed to be her favorite option.  Crayons probably would have worked nicely, as well, but we couldn't find ours.  I could have sworn I got some pictures of Haylee coloring the ornaments, but apparently I didn't.  I did, however, get a shot of what happens when you attempt to stick a green marker in your mouth and move just a *tad* bit quicker than mommy and daddy can to stop you... 

She's so proud!  This was after daddy had already wiped some off.  It was much more vivid in color before that...haha

After the ornaments were done, Haylee gave the green plates to daddy in the order she thought they should be hung on the wall.  At first we only had green for the tree, but realized after the fact that we should have made a couple brown plates for the trunk, so daddy took care of that.  We only had brown markers, so they didn't show up as good as the paint, but I think it still came out well!  I have to say, it was a lot of fun and a great family activity! 

Our Christmas Tree in all of it's glory!

The Power of an Encouraging Wife

So, although you cannot see me, I can almost guarantee that I won't be able to get through this entire post without shedding some tears and this probably won't be a very 'happy-go-lucky' blog entry.  I apologize in advance for that.  But God has really been working on my heart lately when it comes to my duties as a wife.  I recently purchased the book My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn.  This book is a lot like a year long journal, chronicling Sara's voyage as she attempts to be a Proverbs 31 Wife (or as she so affectionately refers to her: Martha 31). 

Reading this book really has me re-evaluating exactly how I believe God wants me to act as a wife.  It has me thinking of things I have neglected around the house that I should probably pay some sort of attention to (which I will probably talk more in-depth about in a later blog...).  It has me thinking of things I can do to make my husband's life a little easier.  But most importantly, it has me thinking of how I can better perform my 'spiritual' calling as a wife - more specifically, how I can be an encouragement to my husband.  Proverbs 31:12 says "She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life."  To me, one of the first things I thought of when I read this was how I could bring my husband "good" by encouraging him more often. 

You see, my husband has been in the US Army for 9 years.  It was always his dream to be in the military.  I hear stories all the time of how Eric would always 'play Army' as a kid, decorate his room in camouflage, and pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe military stuff.  So it wasn't a big surprise when he joined the military straight out of high school.  By that time, his dream had become a little more specific: become an infantryman.  Which he did.  From 2005-2006 he was deployed to Iraq and during that time sustained quite a few combat-related injuries.
 
Fast forward a handful of years...Eric's ailments have seriously affected, not only his life as a soldier, but his everyday life as well.  He can no longer meet most of the physical requirements a soldier has to meet.  Because of this, he is, more or less, being forced into a medical retirement.  I'm pretty sure that some people think this is something that could have been avoided and is only happening because we wanted it to happen - but nothing could be further from the truth.  We both planned and assumed that Eric being in the military would be a lifelong thing, so realizing that this dream was no longer an option was a serious blow to both of us. 

I've been told numerous times by my dad that Eric needs to try to stay in if at all possible and how the economy is absolutely horrible and finding a job is just that much harder....all things I know.  But I have chosen to be optimistic and try to keep my head up.  Why?  Because as hard as it is and as much as it sucks...I know that God has a plan for our lives and that everything will eventually be alright.  I sometimes think that people misinterpret my optimism for immature ignorance, but that's not the case at all. 

Eric, however, has a harder time staying optimistic.  I think that part of it is just because of his nature, but also feel that the majority of it has to do with the fact that he is the provider for our family and automatically has that much more pressure on his shoulders.  I know that a big part of him feels as though he is a failure.  I can't tell you how many times Eric has asked me if I was disappointed in him for not being able to stay in the Army - which is absolutely absurd!  I am so incredibly proud of my husband and how he has handled everything he has had to endure! 

It is extremely heart breaking to see him come home from work each and every day beaten down and dejected.  You see, Eric seems to be pretty harshly judged for the things he can't do, rather than the things that he can.  I've even heard close friends of ours make judgmental comments - as if this is all just one big charade that Eric is putting on - and as much as it irks me, I know it must bother Eric.  It is because of this that I have felt led to be as much of an encouragement to my husband as possible. 

We've known that this medical retirement was coming for quite some time now (probably close to 2 years) but it has just recently been kicked into high gear and we're estimating that we may very well be living civilian lives here in just a few short months.  While getting out of the military isn't something we wanted...after waiting for the inevitable for so long, we are honestly looking forward to closing this chapter in our lives and finally being able to move on to the next. 

But as with any change in life, we are met with a lot of questions and uncertainty.  Thankfully, we have been provided with a place to live - which was quite possibly one of our greatest concerns.  The new major concern: jobs.  Will Eric be able to get a job after we move?  He has bad hearing and is required to wear hearing aids (and the doctors say that they wouldn't be surprised if in the near future he winds up completely deaf), which means that another one of his dreams (being a pilot) is out of the question. 

Doctors have also told him that he is not allowed to lift over 20 pounds (try telling a proud and loving father that when he comes home from work and is met at the door by his daughter with her arms outstretched for him, that he probably shouldn't pick her up...just watch the sadness wash over his face) - that alone crosses a ton of job opportunities off of his list.  If he can't find a job, will I be able to?  I'm trained for nothing - will anybody really want to hire me?  While I am concerned about these things as well, I know that they weigh heavily on my husbands shoulders.

On my endeavor to be an encouragement to my husband, I took a closer look at Proverbs 31: 26: "She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue."  Where do I find my wisdom and faithful instruction?  The Bible, of course!  And while I have tried to never say anything discouraging to Eric, I know that sometimes saying nothing at all can be just as much of a discouragement.  So a few days ago, I decided to use Facebook as a way of encouraging my husband.  Each morning I plan on posting a scripture verse to his wall that I think will speak to him.  Today was day 4. 

When looking online for other ideas of how I can be an encouragement to the man who means more to me that anything on this earth...I found this 30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge from Revive Our Hearts.  I think I will add this to my Scripture-a-Day.  One of the challenges is to go the entire 30 days without saying anything negative to or about your husband.  This one really got me.  In my quest to be encouraging, I have felt myself becoming very cranky - especially the past couple weeks.  Last night was horrible.  Everything was making me upset and I was losing my patience very easily. 

Some people may say, "You're pregnant.  You're literally down to your last few weeks and your hormones are going crazy.  It's alright - you have an excuse..."  But while mere man may understand and justify my actions, I do not feel that God is pleased when I act this way.  I used to say all the time, "I can't help it!" when I was in a bad mood and would act accordingly.  My dad was always one to reply with, "Yes you can, you just don't want to."  (Yeah, smart guy, my dad...) 

The bottom line is, I still have control over how I react to things.  Eric has always told me that the only thing he cares about is making sure that his family is happy.  When I'm cranky, I know that Eric interprets my actions to mean that I'm unhappy, which in turn makes him feel like he's not doing a good job of being a husband, friend, and father.  So if I want to be an encouragement to my husband, I know that being grouchy is not a good way of doing that (whether I'm showering scripture on him or not). 

So pray for me.  Pray that I can be there for my husband the way that he has always been there for me.  Pray that my attitude will help to put him a little more at ease.  Pray that, with time, peace will come...for both of us.  Because, I have to admit: right now, at this moment, all that me and my optimistic self wants to do is crawl into the corner, curl into a ball, and cry....

Hey, we all have our moments...