I think we've hit that age..

I have a friend in particular that I'm thinking about when writing this post. She is always telling me stories of how her son loves to wear his costumes around. In fact, she just recently had to take him to Grandma's house in his costume because he wouldn't take it off. I think we're hitting that stage.

I went to my favorite consignment store today to check my balance (I consign with them) and to check and see if they had anything cute that has come in recently. I ended up having a credit so I bought a Halloween costume for Mady. I had purchased a costume for $5 already at a previous kids sale that I had gone to but the husband wasn't too excited about it when I got it home. See, last year she was a baby chick... The costume that I had purchased for this year was a chicken hatching out of an egg. Do we see the same theme here?

When I went to the consignment store today I saw the cutest bumble bee costume. (I was a bumble bee when I was the same age as Mady is now). I tried it on her and it worked perfectly - plus it was $5 ... and that's how much credit I had sitting in my account! Yeah!

We got it home and she went crazy over the thing. It was hard enough for me to get her out of it while we were at the store trying it on but when we got home it was impossible! She wore it around forever! She would look at herself in the mirror and giggle. She was so excited. Then she crawled up in her favorite chair with books and was reading in her costume! We had a time of sadness when I told her that she couldn't wear it to bed for her nap. She hasn't woken up yet but I bet the first words out of her mouth will be "bumble bee" ...
Not only was she reading in her costume, but she also wanted to call Great Grandma Ginnie to tell her what she was wearing. (oh, we're still working on getting her black pants! haha)

A full weekend

The Bettinger clan is coming off of a super busy weekend. From Friday morning until Sunday afternoon we had a total of 17 people that came through our home. We had some friends staying with us from Thursday night through Sunday. The Sommers moved to Cincy a while back and just recently had a baby boy. So, we were excited to host them and to meet Nathan, their son.

Saturday we had family come up and we all went to Curtis Orchard. My parents had never been so it was fun to show them around. We picked out pumpkins and ate some yummy apples and then came back to the house to have lunch together. It was good to be able to spend some time with family. I also made a huge pot of my grandmas special vegetable soup for dinner - so good!!!



Saturday evening Mark and I went to the Illinois game. It was actually the first time that I had ever been to a night game so I was especially excited to go. We got to see two Army guys parachute into the stadium to start the game which was super neat. Illinois won by a landslide! It was so much fun -- and chilly! By the time we got home the temperature was 49 degrees! I'm wondering how I'm going to survive the Bears game in Chicago in December????

Sunday we had Marks family up for the afternoon. It was relaxing. We didn't do much besides watch football and take a walk.. oh and my 3 hour nap that I took after church was nice too! Sunday evening I hosted an Usborne Book Party which was a blast! I think everyone had a great time hanging out and looking at some really neat books!
Boy were we tired on Sunday evening. I was thankful that Madalyn slept in on Monday! I'm looking forward to a more relaxing weekend coming up...

Praise!

Ever since my episode in the ER a couple of months back (my PICC IV line causing a TIA - a mini stroke from blood clots that formed), and subsequent ER visits (for a serious peptic ulcer and a lymphadenopathy/hoarseness for 2 weeks), I've been on coumadin (a blood thinner) to help my body deteriorate the 5 blood clots. There were 3 major clots in my veins (jugular, maxillary and submandibular) and 2 other superficial clots.

I went back for a Venus Duplex Study yesterday to have an updated prognosis, and ALL of the clots have dissolved! Praise to God! When I went in for the study, the tech was the same gal that did my original test in the ER. She remembered my situation very clearly. She remembered that when I was in the ER, there were very large clots, that were totally occluding the vessel. Once I started the blood thinners, the Hematologist communicated to me that it would take 6 months to dissolve the clot. The Lord did it in less than 2. I've had a very difficult time keeping my INR therapeutic, hence I've experienced episodes of lethergy and vertigo. Plus, I've had to get my blood drawn weekly (it made me miss a business trip once!) So, it's a relief to not have to worry about that on the schedule. Anytime I can discontinue a medication, I'll take it.

For those of you praying, thank you!!

"Daddy.. D, Y! Daddy.. D, Y!"

This is what Mady came in the door yelling this morning after we got back from being at the church. Daddy was bombarded with her yelling "daddy, D, Y" over and over again. What she was trying to tell Daddy was that she had helped spell her name in the car. Mommy was so excited at what she had done and kept telling her that we were going to have to go home and tell Daddy. So, Mady was "telling" daddy in her own words.

Let me explain...
Over a month ago, as we were driving to Galesburg to go with Daddy on an overnight trip, I was working with Mady on her letters via a Etch-a-sketch. I would draw letters and tell her what they were. After a while I started writing her name and we would say the letters as we wrote them down ... M - A - D - Y. She would say them as we said them but never really said them together on her own.

This morning on the way home from church, Madalyn kept asking for Daddy. I was explaining to her that Daddy was at home and that we were going to go see him. For some reason I started to spell "home" and have her repeat the letters. Then I went on to her name. I told her to say "Ma-dy" in which she did and then I started spelling it. Here's how the conversation went.

Mom: M
Mady: M!
Mom: A
Mady: A! (pause) D! Y! (spoken very excitedly)

I have no idea how that little booger remembered what letters were in her name let alone in what order. Jeesh!

So, that's what she was running inside telling Daddy about today ... that should spelled the end of her name by herself... D, Y! She was so excited - giggling and clapping her hands!

Up on the rooftop...

A week ago we started a huge project at our house... Well, I must say that Mark started a new project. Last Wednesday, Mark jumped up on the roof of the garage and started tearing off shingles. Yep, off with the old roof.. on with a new roof!

Let me back up... For a while now, we've been contemplating the idea of putting a new roof on our house. It would really add value to our house and it would look a lot nicer as some of our old shingles were starting to curl. Mark had mentioned his plans to a few people and had gotten a couple of quotes. Long story short, our small group banded together and offered to help us out. What a blessing!!! An email was sent out to all the guys in our small group and before the end of that day a date was set and plans were being made! Wow! Mark and I were speechless!

So, Wednesday through Friday Mark worked both by himself and with a few guys pulling off shingles. By Friday evening all of the shingles were off the house and the garage and ready for new ones to be put on. My job during Friday and Saturday was picking up shingles and nails off the ground that had been thrown off the roof during the tear-off.

Saturday morning at 7am 5 guys showed up and started on the garage. By 8:30am, Menards was here to deliver the rest of our shingles. Some of the wives stopped by to hang out and some even brought food (THANK YOU!) - one wife even watched my daughter all day long so that I could help the guys... which was a blessing in itself. We even had a couple of youngsters here helping me with pickup. We had a few guys that were able to come later in the day too and by about 5:30 that evening the job was done!!! The roof looked great! The guys did a great job!!!

Sunday Mark and I cleaned up the rest of the yard and cleaned out the garage. Mark and I were so sore we could hardly move. But, we were so happy that it was over - and it looked nice!

It just blows my mind about how these guys gave of their day for us. We can't say thank you enough for the huge blessing. We are completely overwhelmed with gratitude!!!
Our old roof
The beginning stages of tearing off
The menards truck delivering shingles - Madalyn had a blast watching
this.
Early stages of the new roof

Working on the house.
Pretty new roof - note the pretty dark brown color.
Pretty new roof on the garage.
Mark decided to clean the garage after it was all over - Madalyn
wanted to help Daddy by sweeping.