Crazy day.

Yesterday the boys and I drove up to Roanoke to run some errands. Originally, my MOPS group had a social planned at the zoo; however, the weather pretty much dictated that we cancel plans for yesterday and reschedule for a later date. Well...I had still intended to take the boys after we went to Old Navy, LifeWay Christian Bookstore and Sam's Club, but David ended up wetting his pants as soon as we got to Roanoke, and a couple of other things happened (including rain pouring down) so we decided to forego the zoo on this trip.

David helped me pick out some presents for Aidan's birthday, and he and Aidan both enjoyed watching the video playing in the children's section at LifeWay. Plus, all the VeggieTales toys were near the TV, so Aidan was in Bob heaven. :-)

On our way home, David fell asleep in the car--he woke up at 4:30 yesterday morning and really didn't feel like he needed to go back to sleep. Aidan was playing with the VeggieTales bus he bought with his Easter money (from his golden egg) the entire way home. Yeah, I heard the VeggieTales theme song LOTS during that time! Well, anytime that David has a nap during the day means that we have a very late night ahead. I seriously don't think that he fell asleep until after 1:00 in the morning! He and I had cuddle time for about an hour while I was trying to get him settled down to go to sleep (instead of him doing his typical headstands and front rolls all over the bed), but I was so beat that I just went to bed in my own bed. We got up for MOPS this morning, much to David's chagrin--he would have preferred to sleep in this morning. Oh well, it was early-to-bed for him tonight, so hopefully he'll be bright eyed and bushy-tailed for Bible Study Fellowship tomorrow. He had fun at MOPS though--Aidan did too. It was the 2nd time ever that I've dropped him off in his nursery that he didn't cry and cling to me as I was trying to leave to take David to his class. I almost don't know what to do with myself when that happens. :-) Neither boy wanted to leave the church when it was time to go home. It's fun seeing them enjoying themselves so thoroughly, especially when I'm enjoying myself so much in my MOPS group!

Well...I need to take out my contact lenses and get to bed. Tomorrow I need to get up early and get out the door for Bible Study Fellowship. I meet my discussion group and my discussion group leader tomorrow, so that should be fun. Hopefully I'll get egg-dying pictures posted tomorrow. One little hint about the egg decorating theme: "the Force is strong in this one..."

Happy Belated Easter!

Easter was great fun this year. David is totally getting it in regards to why we celebrate this holiday. Rob asked him to tell us the Easter story in his own words that morning before we got ready for church. It was precious! He told us about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, that he was buried in a cave and that there was a big rock placed in front of it. Then, he said that on the third day, the rock was gone and that the angels said: "He is not here; He has risen..." (Luke 24:6) Granted, he did have a little help with the memory verse part--it was the one he learned for AWANA Cubbies last week.

The boys helped us dye eggs Saturday night. I will be posting pictures of the fiasco soon. My computer acted up last week, so I didn't get to work on my blog much (or anything else).

Easter morning, as soon as the boys woke up, they were ushered downstairs and started immediately on their egg hunt. Aidan hunted eggs in the kitchen, David's eggs were hidden throughout the living room. It was so fun watching them get so excited about finding their eggs...and to have them both find the treasures hidden inside. Both boys are candy hounds!!! Tomorrow Rob is going to take the rest of the candy onto campus so the boys don't climb furniture to get their baskets down anymore. I leave the room for 2 seconds and one of them is eating the chocolate out of their eggs!

Church was wonderful, as usual, and after we got home, Rob dropped Aidan and I off and he took David over to our pastor's home for lunch and an egg hunt. I put Aidan down for his nap and started getting our dinner put together. They came home, and we enjoyed a quiet dinner together (well...as quiet as it can be in my house!) :-) We had originially had friends who had planned to join us to celebrate our Savior's resurrection; however, sickness prevented us from doing so. We were still able to share dinner and dessert with one another, and had the opportunity to get to visit with 2/3 of the family for a bit while the sick party was resting quietly at home--she deserved it. Truly, we were more concerned about her health than our get-together, and her health was (and still is) lifted up in prayer constantly throughout the day. We're looking forward to getting to spend time together as families soon.

Easter...it's when we celebrate Christ's resurrection and the hope of glory and eternal life we have in him. It is such a comfort to know that I'm going to be spending eternity with him in heaven, and that he loved me so much that he gave up his life for me so that I might have life. What amazing love.

It's official...

Spring is here. How do I know this (other than by looking at a calendar)? It would be due to my allergies acting up! Every since I was little, I can remember getting a "cold" sometime during the spring. I never thought anything of it really until this year though. Since flowers have started blooming, and the trees have been blooming, I've had a perpetual cold.

Truly, I don't mind that much though. The flowers blooming are so beautiful, and I love flower gardening. The only part of me that does mind the influx in pollen floating through the air would probably be my eyes--and that would only be when I'm wearing my contact lenses. Just a few minutes ago, I was sitting downstairs trying to read and could hardly get my eyes to focus. Yeah, I'm a little bit tired too, but not being able to clearly see details that I'm supposed to be noticing between photographs for my current lesson...well, that's not really normal. :) So, I just took them out and put my glasses back on. Ahhh...nearly instant relief!

Today was so beautiful. The boys and I went to the park for a bit before we went to Blacksburg Baptist Church for our MOPS playdate. We had fun out in the sunshine, playing in the dirt and exploring the trails. Maybe we'll make it back over there tomorrow after storytime at Barnes and Noble.

Last night I went on a little "date" with David. We went to Target to pick up ink for my printer, looked around at a few things that he might want to get Aidan for his birthday there, then we went to Barnes and Noble. David met a little boy named Bryce and they had fun playing with the trains. David found a book that he wanted me to read, so I read it to both of the boys and just enjoyed watching them interact. I'm sure he probably had more fun playing with him than he would have had it just been the two of us there. After we left BN, we came home, ate ice cream together and then got him ready for bed. I think that we might go to Dairy Queen, Ben and Jerry's or Cold Stone for our next date. He's generally happy with any of those 3 places. :)

Well...I need to get back to studying. I'm hoping to finish reading this lesson on film (which really doesn't totally pertain to digital photography; however, I am learning some valuable tools about ISO and exposure--the theory is interesting too) tonight so I can listen to that tape and get started on the next lesson. I was hoping to be able to get through this course in the shortest amount of time possible--I guess that my 6 month goal finishing time has been extended to 12-months. I really think that my 6-month goal was a little bit unrealistic.

Happy Monday!

An oldie but a goodie.

This is a poem that I found while I was in high school. When I first read it, I knew it was one that I needed to make a copy of to look at periodically through the future. As I was writing my testimony for this Sunday afternoon at the MOPS Tea and Testimony event, I remembered that this particular poem is one that God used to remind me that I am worth something to him during one of the darkest moments of my life. I hope that it speaks to you too. Now without further ado:

The Touch of the Maker

by Myra Brooks Welch

'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?"
"A dollar, a dollar. Then two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who'll make it three?"

"Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three..." But no,
From the room, far back, a grey-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loosened strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: "What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice,
And going and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand.
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the Master's hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.

A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine,
A game -- and he travels on.
He is "going" once, and "going" twice,
He's "going" and almost "gone."
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.

Today's inspiration.

Last night as I was finishing up reading the passages from April 3rd's Life Journal reading, 2 Corinthians 3:17 really stood out to me. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

It's so awesome knowing that we do have freedom in Christ. We don't need to try to carry our burdens ourselves. Christ wants us to give them to him. He wants us to have freedom in him!

Happy Wednesday!

Life in the circus...

Rob's look of triumph after one 'jug'
The crazy guy juggling raw eggs in my kitchen.
oops...one cracked.
Smash...thought this might happen.Oh no!

This all started out with Rob playing with one little plastic spice container while the boys were eating popcicles. He's our in-house entertainer. :) Then, it progressed to 3 plastic spice containers all being juggled. Pretty cool. The boys were squealing with delight. Then someone (Rob) got the *brilliant* idea of grabbing 3 raw eggs from the fridge. "They're going to break," I tell him. He was feeling adventurous. He juggled them for quite awhile. Then, SPLAT! Oh no! Uh-oh! Rob had to then clean up his mess.

Definitely a fun moment in the Crossler house!

Natural Bridge

Aidan trying to climb in with the goats.
David playing in the gravel pile at the zoo.
Natural Bridge
The elephant coming closer to where I was standing so it could say, "hi."
David feeding the *mean* goat.

Our trip to Natural Bridge Zoo and Natural Bridge last Friday (March 31) afternoon ended up being tons of fun. The boys loved the zoo--then again, they always love zoos. The animals are always intriguing to observe, and the exploration factor is a huge part of the adventure for our boys. I think that their favorite part was getting to feed the goats. A bunch of them crowded up next to the fence and stuck their heads out just waiting to be fed and petted. The *mean* goat that David is feeding in the picture would get mad when other goats were getting the food, so it would put its head back inside of the fence and would butt all of the other ones away. It was really funny to watch. There were also tiny baby goats, sheep and this awesome fluffy looking donkey in the pen. We saw an elephant too. David was disappointed that we arrived too late in the afternoon to get to ride it, but I think he enjoyed watching it walk around (before he ran off to look at the camels, zebras and monkeys).

Natural Bridge was really pretty, and we enjoyed our slow walk to the waterfall beyond the natural bridge. Wild turkeys ended up snacking along the trail on our way back to our car, so that was really fun to watch. David started talking (loudly--sometimes I think he's like his dad in the respect that they really only have one volume. :) They're either on or off!) and the turkeys spooked and skuttled off into the trees. Saw LOTS of squirrels and some pretty birds too. It always catches me off-guard when I see a cardinal because I'm not used to seeing that brilliant flash of red since they weren't native to the area where I grew up. They are so beautiful though.

All in all, the trip was great. Enjoyed the 78 degree weather. David didn't have any other mishaps until dinner (the other one that happened earlier in the day was when he was sitting on our stairs at home when Aidan thought it would be a great idea to chuck Daddy's tape measure down the stairs. Poor David got clocked just below the eye and has a nice shiner to prove it!). At dinner he thought it would be a good idea to play with his butter knife. Not a good idea. It cut him (nothing more than a paper cut type of a wound, but the blood worried him). He was semi-calm until our waiter brought him a bandaid. Then, the boy freaked out a bit. Rob ended up taking him into the bathroom to talk to him and try to get him to start calming down before our dinner got to the table. Whatever he did worked, because David did pretty well the rest of the night.

I have a funny incident that I will be posting later. Stay tuned.

Waking up to something awful.

And I mean awful! Rob comes into our room this morning to tell me that I needed to get out of bed and clean up Sydney's kennel because she pooped in it last night. Talk about gross! I jumped out of bed, went downstairs and looked at it through the sliding glass door. Not a pretty sight. Apparently the ham she dug out of the garbage can (another naughty thing she did) made her sick and then she did her duty. After a bit of dry heaving, and LOTS of rags that we ended up throwing out in the trash, I got the kennel tray cleaned out--with Rob's help.

Let's just say, that didn't start the day off on that great of a note...

However, Dad called me last night. That was definitely a positive note. Rob laughed at me after I got off the phone with him because I was kinda giddy. He's back! Faux Dad is no longer holding Real Dad captive :) It had been really weird having phone conversations with him before now because it was kind of like talking to a stranger. I still have a lot to learn about him, but at least when I talk to him, it is like talking to someone I know. :)

And, to top last night off, we ended up sleeping in our new room! No longer do I have to look at all of my card-making supplies and computer stuff when I go to sleep or wake up. Granted, I am now looking at stark white walls and woke up to have painter's tape along the ceiling line that we haven't taken down yet, but it was so nice. That's the only way to say it. Our room is now a retreat of sorts again. A place to go and relax and unwind a bit. A place of comfort within the townhouse we're living in. We slept with the window open last night and were woken up with thunder and lightning, but the smells of spring coming into the house were wonderful. Think the boys and I will have to go out and soak it in this afternoon.