ABCs, Seriously!!

Jimmy and I are so blessed to have Corrina in our lives. I talked in my previous post about how God is guiding us through these difficult days, and probably the most helpful thing He's mercifully done is given us Corrina. She has provided us with so much joy and laughter, and she'll never truly know the depth to which she has touched us and raised us (especially me) up from some very sad moments. We love her so much.



And now I just have to brag about her...I just can't help it. I am amazed at this child's memory. She is so smart, just like her daddy. She's not yet 2, almost....but she already knows her ABCs. I know that kids are amazing and their potential to learn and absorb things is massive, but seriously....ABCs and she's not quite 2. People, that's pretty smart, isn't it? And, I promise you, we have not been going over the ABCs every day for long periods of time. She just kinda picked it up. We have a very fast learner on our hands. Here's the video to prove that she knows the ABCs... Oh, and just so her head doesn't get too big, she does still struggle with her colors sometimes....hmmmm, so she might not get any artistic skills...oh well...

Where is my God?

I have been avoiding posting on my blog for a while now because I just didn't want to write about the everyday happenings in our house without first addressing our recent tragedy. I really, really have not wanted to put this out for all to see, but the more I've talked with God about it, the more I hear Him say that by brushing it under the rug, I would be missing a huge opportunity to give Him glory, praise, and honor and to let Him show His compassion, faithfulness, and love to others.

Many of you may already be aware of our loss, but to share with those who don't, Jimmy and I recently lost our second child. I still feel stinging, sharp pain in my heart to say this. I was 10 weeks pregnant when I had a miscarriage. One of the worst, most helpless and heartbreaking experiences is to see an ultrasound with no signs of life from your child. The silence in that room when you don't hear the heartbeat of your baby is like no silence I've ever experienced--you know when you watch a movie and realize that there's no background music or noise or anything and how noticeably absent and strange it is. Hearing silence from the ultrasound was so much more strange and quiet with some horribly sad, sinking emotions attached.

Even in our helplessness and heartache, God was ever present. In the exam room that day, Jimmy and I saw His love in my doctor and her nurse, who were so kind during and after the ultrasound. Dr. S. delivered the news with so much compassion and shared a few tears with us. She and her nurse allowed us some time in the room to grieve, and again, I felt God's love surround us as we held onto each other. Since then, our family and church family have poured us with His love and strength through prayers, food, hugs, kind words, and support. Unfortunately, I can't deny that I've been angry with God and doubted Him and questioned Him and cried to Him and asked where He is. I continue to fluctuate through a wide range of emotions, but in it all and as an answer to my blog title, I know--beyond my knowledge and with a wisdom only from Him and His Holy Spirit--He has not left me; He gives me hope, and He loves me so much.

I want to say a sincere thanks to all our family and friends for their prayers, hugs, words of encouragement, cards, food, laughs, etc. And I'll just end this post with one of the many verses God has given me to help carry me through this storm.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

First Taste of Nutella

I LOVE Nutella. I practically survived on Nutella and bread when I was living in Austria. So I just had to share this delicious spread with Corrina, and true to her genes, she also LOVED it. Here are the pics of her first Nutella experience. As you can see, she was licking the Nutella off the bread.

Palestine

For those of ya'll who don't know, the Grahn side of the family has a fun family tradition every year. We go to a rodeo in a small town near the Illinois-Indiana border every Labor Day Weekend. We camp for the weekend, and on Friday night the little cousins ride some rides at a small carnival on the campground. Saturday morning we eat pancakes downtown, then spend the rest of the morning going to rummage sales. Jimmy has added a great addition to the rummage sales; we now have a contest for the sales---this year the contest was who could find the funniest thing that you could attach some marital advice to. The object was to be given, along with the advice, to my cousin MG and his new bride JG. We had some pretty good laughs when everyone showed their items and gave their advice. Saturday night, we go to the rodeo, and the rest of the weekend is filled with all the little cousins running around playing together, while the adults get pretty competitive in cards, washers, wacky ball, and oh yeah, of course there's lots of great food. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Corrina on the train. She thinks it's Thomas the Train (she's really into Thomas for some reason, although we're not sure why b/c she's never seen the show....anyhoo, she thinks all trains are Thomas.)


Picking frogs to win a prize, and the prize is....



a dolphin!




Riding the race cars with cousin PH.





Riding "Thomas" again, this time with cousin AS.



"Driving" the firetruck with cousins AS and PH.

Daddy and Corrina on another Thomas.

Corrina and Auntie Em in their matching jackets.

Eating pancakes with Pawpaw, Deedaw, and Auntie Anne.

Cousin ZH with his crazy hair!
Side view...very nice!!

Playing ball at the campsite





Cousin PH in her lawn chair.





Cousin ZH after his mommy fixed his hair...hehe...




playing tickle monster with cousin CS.

Miss Independent

Corrina's new thing now is to dress and undress herself. Really, it's to do EVERYTHING herself. She says, "Nina do it; Nina do it." (Her nickname is Nina.) or "Self. Self." I believe we have Pawpaw to thank for that, as he has tried to teach her, "I do it myself." He'll tell you that she gets it from me, though, because apparently that was my favorite saying. He's just returning the favor. Thanks Pawpaw! Seriously though, it's pretty cute (except when we're in a hurry). These are pics of her trying to dress and undress herself.


She picked this outfit out herself. It is a onsie then a skirt over top of the onsie. We let her wear it out; I thought it was pretty cute. I look forward to when she really picks out some funny outfits. I'm going to let her where them and just laugh. It's just too cute!

Here she's trying to take off her jammies. She likes to get behind her rocking chair in front of her mirror and check herself out. She thinks we can't see her back behind that chair. She'll just stand there and giggle.


In this pic, she is trying on Momma's dress. She even put it on herself.


And this was her attempt to take off her nightgown. As you can see by the finger up in the air, she's telling me, "No, no, no, Momma."

Fourth of July...hmmm

Wow! I didn't realize I was this far behind on my blogging. On the Fourth of July weekend, we stayed at our friends' lake cabin. We had a great time swimming in the lake; Corrina just loved it! She laughed and splashed the whole time. We had some really tasty food and enjoyed fun games and conversations with our friends. The entire weekend was just really wonderful. Thanks LK and NK for sharing your house with us. Sadly though, we had a small going away party for our dear friends SB and MB, who just recently moved to Wisconsin so he could go back to school. But just to lighten the spirits a little, we got them a cake that was supposed to say "We'll miss you" but instead it said "Will Miss You". That gave us all a little laugh despite the sad occasion.

Corrina eating corn on the cob for the first time with Daddy and Momma. There's some speculation that she had already eaten it with Pawpaw and Deedaw though..hehe..

Wiping butter in Daddy's hair. Ewww...

First experience with sparklers. She was fascinated.

Our friends SB and MB who just moved away. We soooooo sad to see them leave.

The infamous cake...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

To my sweetest sweetheart...Happy Birthday! Tomorrow is Jimmy's birthday, and I look forward to celebrating so many more with him and to seeing him get old and wrinkly and white-headed with me. I wanted to post some fun pics of him but unfortunately our internet is out so no pics yet. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOVE!

The Best Daddies...

I know it's late, but oh well...you can honor the fathers in your life any time. So, here's to my dad, my father-in-law, my grandpas, and my wonderful, amazing husband. Happy Father's Day!

I love to watch Jimmy with Corrina. He just amazes me with his love and patience for her. I have learned so much from him. She can be doing something so frustrating, and he continues to show patience towards her. His gentleness with her gives me warm and fuzzies inside, and I can't stop laughing and smiling as he wrestles on the floor with her, tickling and zerberting and dog-piling. Corrina just adores her daddy...she walks around the house saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy..." while he's at work. And the most amazing part is watching him teach her about God through his words and his example. Jimmy, thank you for being such a godly, loving, gentle, patient, amazing, fun daddy. I love you, my man! Here are some pics of my two favorite people!

Sunny, Slightly Chilly San Diego

A few weeks ago, Jimmy and I went to San Diego. I had a PA conference, and Jimmy was sweet enough to come with me. We sent Corrina to her Pawpaw and Deedaw's for the week. Although we missed her so much (watching her videos on our digital camera every night), we had a wonderful time with each other. Jimmy geocached for most of the week while I was in the conference, but we had the evenings to enjoy the beauty of San Diego. We rode bikes along the coast, ate in many restaurants around Seaport Village, went to a Padres v. Cubs game, strolled along Mission Beach, explored the downtown and Gaslamp District, stared in awe at the ocean from clifftops, visited a lighthouse, got removed from a bus because we didn't have military IDs (oops), said hi to the Midway and the kissing couple statue, and had a wonderful time in Balboa Park, and so on... Here are some pics from the trip.

Our view from the hotel

Me at my first Major League baseball game outside of Busch Stadium.

My man at the game

On the ferry to Coronado Island with downtown San Diego behind me.

Sea lions enjoying the sun; how cute!

My view on the bike ride...best view of the week.

The kissing couple statue with the Midway in the background

Okay, so one of my favorite movies growing up was Top Gun. My best friend Jennifer and I must have watched that movie a million times. Well, I'm sitting at the piano that Goose played in one of the scenes...remember the "Great Balls of Fire" scene. It was filmed at this BBQ restaurant called Kansas City BBQ in downtown San Diego. How fun is that!

Walking along the cliffs of the coast

Balboa Park

The lighthouse at Point Loma

The following are some of my artsy attempts:

This last picture was taken by Jimmy and I think it is a beautiful, insightful picture. Good eye, my love!