election day

what a privelege it is to live in a country that gives its citizens the power to choose our leader.  this morning, as the adorables were up way before the sun and we had some extra time before school started, i attmepted to teach the babes about the land of the free and the home of the brave.

that was an enormous undertaking for the four of us, but i think we made some notable progress: everyone wore red, white and blue in some form.  max requested green and white for the spartans flag.  i took that opportunity to launch into a lecture about old glory at which point max told me he changed seats at school and now he sits by matthew.  and matthew puked at school yesterday.  dont worry, he plugged his nose...

so, i gracefully guided the children into a little lesson about voting.  maxwell, ever full of information told me that mrs. pitcher has a boat.  at this point i gave up and just had the darlings repeat after me the bible verse for the week. 

"every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord"

whenever i paused after jesus christ is... bear says IN.  and i say, in? like in what?  my heart shouts weston.  okay, that is also an acceptabe answer ;) love that bear bear

then we prayed all together, for our naiton- that we strive to be a nation demonstrative that our true leader is the lord.  my fearful heart takes comfort in knowing that even if people succeed in taking god's name out of every legality, he will not be moved. 
we prayed for the citizens, that they will exercise this right to vote and do so with the responsibility such a task warrants.
we prayed for the leaders of the country, that they will use their power for god's glory.

at this point, bear said he thought we should just sing god our father next time as this prayer was quite lengthy.

with this sort of inspirational beginning to the day, i knew big things were in store for the meiste's.

next on the list of amazing happenings, we took the new veen.  the ride was beautiful and smooth, the seats were toasty warm, and there was dvd magic.  then somehow the dvd got stuck inside the player...  not sure where to go from here.  we took the old veen to pick max up from school. still just more comfortable breaking that one.

onto the polls.  i was number 193, which is remarkable considering the polls had only been open for 2 hours.  bear bear and ayla jo were very well behaved playing the racecar game on my phone sitting on the floor near my chair.  and the best part, on the way out, we literally almost ran into val.  the kids were racing down the ramp and she was awaiting us at the bottom.  aw, loved that.

when maxer came home from school, we looked through some of his papers and came across an article about the election.  he proudly told me he chose mitt romney.  when i asked why, max told me it was because mitt looked like mr john (john zoet, brads boss).  wise boy.

in the world of baby blue, she voted to wear jammies all afternoon.

whatever makes you happy cupcake!  she also went from noon till almost 3 without a diaper, including a nap.  but she woke up saying she leaked, so i cheered and told her she was peeing and yeah, lets go on the potty!  she shrieked and kicked and requested a diaper.  diapers it is.

go america!

october 30

october 30th was a good day.  i took the adorables to aldi after dropping off maxer at school.  after the groceries were unpacked and lunch was served, bear bear and i did a spooky skeleton project involving construction paper and noodles.  then i made some chicken noodle casserole, fruit pizza and peanut butter brownies for the fam.  brad worked rather late in the pig coop fixing a heater, but was able to join us for the delicious dinner.  as the night was gray and chilly, we spent the latter portion of the evening telling scary stories in the fort the boys made behind the couch.  (brad started it off with a story about a camel named max, a donkey named weston and a beautiful princess named ayla.  then the boys told stories that strarted the same way.  not so scary as they were adorable)

once the babes were all tucked for the night, brad and i picked up a bit and then enjoyed the warmth of the down comforter we brought down from the storage room upstairs.

october 30th held beauty and peace and contentment.  

only because of another october 30th eight years ago.  that day i went to class, wrote some papers, spent some time on looking my best, and met the man who forever changed my life.

october 30th marked eight years since brad and i's blind date.  i was living with the schoonvelds at the time and they persuaded me to join them and their friends for dinner at tgi fridays to meet their friend's brother.  i felt a bit obligated as i was living with them free of charge, but i respected their opinion so i agreed. 

when 7 rolled in i opened their front door to reveal a dashingly handsome farmer with a big and loud red truck.  not knowing how to respond, i gave brad a tour of the schoonveld's home and started talking about anything and everything.  i remember complimenting brad on his truck, and telling him his beard worked for him.  o embarassing.  the night was super fun and culminated in me asking brad if he would call if i gave him my number.  poor man did not have a chance to say practically anything as is evidenced by the fact that i offered my number before he could ask. 

for all the awkwardness of that night, there was some profound goodness.  after knowing of each other for only 5 months, brad proposed.  3 months later we were wed. 

and throughout my day,
as i repeatedly set up the princess bowling set for my son and daughter to knock down,
as i attempted the first french braid in ayla jo's hair,
as i picked up my grinning kindergartener from school,
as i stopped in at my soon to be neighbor's house,
as i cleaned up our dinner dishes,
i sent silent prayers of thanksgiving for the blind date that brought me here.

and as i fell asleep, i had the same feelings of blissful anticipation as i did october 30th 8 years ago. 

thank you brad for making my life so exciting and loving and awesome.
thank you jesus, for uniting us for always.

conferences

this week was full of parent teacher conferences.  the opportunity to speak with both max's teacher and bear bear's teacher were much anticipated for me.  so much happens outside of my little world with the adorables.  for max, school is his main stay for his days, he spends most of his time there during the week.  i know and love our time spent together, but those hours at school remain a mystery despite my most insightful and persistent detective work.

brad and i began the conferences tour on monday evening with a 5:20 date with mrs. pitcher.  i was seriously excited.  probs no less than four moms have come up to me since school began telling me that their son/daughter talks exclusively about maxer.  with good stories.  max always has a smile when i pick him up from school and does give me a detail or two from his days.  so i had a great feeling that mrs. pitcher would only have goodness to share about my big boy.

bopa came to watch the adorables and brad and i arrived right on time to be whisked into the world of kindergarten.  amidst the tiny tables and mini chairs, mrs. pitcher unfolded the "i'm not lion, max's been tryin" book housing the efforts of our boy.  as we hungrily looked through paper after paper, we discovered max is doing great academically.  but even more awesome is that he is doing superb behaviourally.  mrs pitcher stated he is loving and respectful to everyone.  hooray max!  recently, mrs pitcher started rewarding the kids with a blue ticket for every day they did not need to move their clip (her classroom management technique).  max has earned a ticket every day and already got to choose a prize for saving up 5 ticks. 

my other fave part was looking at some of the artwork.  when asked to draw a person, maxer did.  he drew brad, as is evidenced by the fact that the man had side hair around his head but not on top.  precious.

our time with mrs. pitcher ended much to soon.  brad voiced his opinion that perhaps i mentioned the fact that i was a kindergarten teacher for my student teaching much to frequently.  that might be true.  things get a little wild when i am excited or anxious and talking.

we returned home beyond proud and poured on the praise to max.  he responded, "wow, i did not know how happy you guys were gonna be!"  love that little man

then, on thursday morning, bradley and i got to attend bear bear's conferences.  i was as apprehensive about this meeting as i was confident in maxwell's.  weston is every bit as amazing as his big bro.  his behaviour just varries drastically from max's, which is quite cool to witness when it does not manifest itself in hysterics because he does not want to wear pants to school, only shorts, in the 38 degree weather. 

i think brad had similar concerns about bear bear's school experiences so he was able to arrange his work schedule so he could accompany me in a chat with miss brittany.  turns out, our trepidation was unneccessary.  wes is doing awesome in school, both academically and with his action and attitudes.  miss brittany told us wes is eager to answer questions, plays with several different groups of children, and listens to directions the first time.  brad literally asked if she was sure this is weston meiste. 


congrats wes!  we were equally proud of this little pumpkin.  as a reward, max got a darling (in a manly, farmer way) john deere camo jacket and weston got a spiderman halloween costume.  even though those were both things i would have purchased anyway out of necessity, it was perfect to gift the boys' something special for their hard work at school.

we spend thursday afternoon celebrating at tunnel park basking in the suns warm glow, working on some excavating, sand sledding, and enjoying one another's company. 


so blessed are we!