Conversations with Maximus

[This little interchange happened as we were driving along one day. Max calls out in a panicked voice from his car seat:]

Maximus: Mom! I need to talk to God!

Me: Okay, what do you need to talk to God about?

Maximus: I need to ask God if, when I grow up to be a daddy, if I can have work.

And then he bowed his little head and prayed that God would give him work. Poor little guy. Even he is feeling the stress from the economy. :-)

Happiness is a visit from a friend

What a glorious treat! Casey, Abbe and Asher are in Arkansas this weekend speaking in their former church about Lahash International. We've had SUCH a good time visiting with them! We spent yesterday morning at the pool and then enjoyed lunch with them. We're looking forward to seeing them a bit more before they head to Texas to see family and then back home to Portland.

I really wish I lived closer to this dear friend.... but I'll certainly take what I can get! This unexpected visit has been good for my soul. Love you, Abbe!

We LOVE being close to these friends for the summer!

I'm WAY behind on posting this, but last Saturday we had a FANTASTIC day with Brian and Anna and crew. Boy, do we love living close to these dear friends for the summer!

We started the day at the botanical gardens, moved on to a fun lunch and park-play at Chick-Fil-A, scooted on over to Old Navy to try to find some $2 tank tops, then ended up at Best Buy where Lucas offered his professional Apple computers personal consulting service- his idea of a perfect ending to a fun day with friends.

We had a great time, and our kids were nice and worn out by the end of the day. :-) Thanks, Brian, Anna, Sam, Kate, and Kai!

My husband's interview with Jim Bob Dugger

There's been a lot of buzz this week about Jon and Kate and other reality TV families. People are reading about it in tabloids, newspapers and blogs and talking about it around their kitchen tables.

Lucas had a great opportunity to speak with Jim Bob Dugger (of TLC's 18 Kids and Counting) yesterday and write a column for the NWA Times. You can read the column here.

Lucas and I really appreciate the Duggers and their genuine faith lived out in front of a watching world. One of the things I really respect about them is that they have very strong convictions that are certainly counter-culture in our world today, but they live out these convictions in a way that is gracious and nonjudgemental. That's something that we just don't see often enough in our world.

I hope you'll take a few minutes to read Lucas' column. I thought he and Jim Bob both did a great job of reminding and encouraging us all about the value of working hard to keep our marriages strong.

The Modern Marriage: Death By Romantic Comedy

Why should we be surprised that more marriages fail than succeed, when the most pervasive and persuasive textbook for love and romance in our culture is the mainstream film genre of romantic comedies? The lies are staggering.

I just watched a mainstream romantic comedy that left me feeling physically ill. The underlying lies of the film pile up with every new character the audience meets: Marriage is a wretched endeavor that will certainly squelch any ounce of fun and romance out of your life. The only reason a man ever marries a woman is because she manipulates him or forces him to do so. Marriage is hard, so it must not be the best way. The way to true love and happiness is to cast tradition aside, follow your heart and do what feels right.

Is marriage hard? You bet. The hardest thing I’ve ever done. The only thing I’ve ever done that is worth failing at on a daily basis, and worth getting up the next day and trying again. Marriage is teaching me what it means to truly love and be loved; what it means to give grace and desperately need grace.

I am married to a real man, a man’s man, who pursued me with a vigor that I still don’t understand, who could hardly wait 11 weeks to marry me, who committed to love me until his dying breath, who loves me too much to sit passively beside and let me become the worst version of myself, who is strong enough to lead with patience and humility, and who reminds me every day that his decision to love me cannot be undone.

Six years ago this week, Lucas set his love on me. For life. And nothing could be more romantic than that.

I’m sick of Hollywood telling me that true love is a fluttery feeling and marriage is worthless. Tonight, I’m going to kiss my husband like I mean it, and thank him for being my own personal textbook on true love in real life.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

We love music!

Here's a quick update after our first full week in Arkansas: We are having such a special time! The home that has been loaned to us for the summer is probably the most generous gift anyone has ever given us. It has made our time here relaxed and double-special because we can spend great time with my parents during the day and then get the kids home to their own space for a good night's sleep. It's been SO good for everyone!

Today, we had a really special opportunity to take Maggie and Max to a Musikgarten preschool music camp taught by my mom's dear friend Jill. Jill was so gracious and welcoming to us! And the class was awesome!

Bean Bags

Dancing with scarves. I love my mom's face in the background!

The scarves were a big hit!

Maggie could not have been more into the class. After EVERY song and activity, she would yell, "MORE, MORE!!"

Jill giving Max a little hug. As we were leaving the class, Max asked, "Do you think we could go to that music class three more times? Just three more?"

Thanks, Jill, for the special day at Musikgarten today!Kenneth@flores-associates.com

More Denver Pics

"Buzz The Squirrel" named by Max.

Gramma Cheryl treated the kids to an awesome night at an indoor amusement park. What fun!

Water Play!

Pops coming after Max.

Ahhhhhh!!

Thanks, Mom and Tony, for a wonderful visit!

Denver!

We just had four GREAT days in Denver with Lucas' Mom and Tony! We've got lots of pictures and stories to tell, but for now I'll just leave you with my favorite photo from Denver: Maximus getting soaked by his Pops. Max had taken a cup of water over to Pops and taunted him with it, threatening to pour it on him. Pops very calmly told him: "Max, if you get me, I will get you." Max gambled and lost. :-) It was hilarious.

We rolled into Siloam Springs late last night, and are getting settled into the house that a friend has so generously loaned us for the summer. We were all SO glad to get out of the car last night!

Many more pics to come!

Saying Farewell to Friends For the Summer!

Tonight we are packing up the car; tomorrow we are saying farewell to Idaho for the summer! We are super thankful to have a great guy from NNU staying in our house while we're gone this summer– it's so nice to know that he will be able to watch the place and keep the lawn for us while we're out of town.

We've had a great week of visiting with friends before we head out. I managed to take zero pictures of the great time we had with our buddies Ben, Brooke and Ruthanne, but I did snap a couple of our super fun picnic in the sprinkling rain with Gene, Mollie, Monroe and Mairin.  We were so glad to get to spend some time with all these great friends before we hit the road!

We'll be spending a few days in Denver visiting with Lucas' mom and Tony, and then we'll drive on to Arkansas where we'll likely be until sometime in August. We'll update when we are settled in Arkansas!

Conversations with Maximus

Maximus: Hey, Mom, Do I have a Frammy?

Me: A frammy?

Maximus: No, A F-Wamy.

Me: A Frwamy? I don't know what that is Max. Can you use different words to tell me what you mean?

Maximus: A fwamy, you know,  People who love me?

Me: Ohhhhh, a family. Yes! You have a family.

Maximus: Do I have a wife?

Me: No.

Maximus: Do you have a wife?

Me: No, I AM a wife. I am your daddy's wife.

Maximus: What's a wife?

Me: A wife is someone who is married to a man.

Maximus: What's 'married'?

Me: 'Married' means you become someone's husband or wife, and you choose to love them forever and live with them your whole life. Before you were born, your daddy and I had a wedding where we promised to love each other. So I will be married to your daddy as long as I am alive.

Maximus: Are you my wife?

Me: No. I am your mother. Go play with your legos.

:-)

Update on my mom

Thank you for all of you who have been praying for my mom. She still really needs the prayer.

She has been admitted to Washington Regional hospital in Fayetteville, Ark. The doctors and nurses suspect that she is septic, which I understand to mean that she has a pretty serious infection in her blood. The blisters on the inside of her throat are so bad that they said it has the appearance of raw meat. Dad used the word "torment" to describe what she has been feeling today. I can hardly stand the thought of her suffering like this, and I am just praying that God will grant her relief very soon. 

Dad suspects that she will be in the hospital for a while- at least a few days. She's got to have some heavy doses of IV antibiotics, plus morphine for the pain, and hopefully some IV food/nutrients/ fluids to give her some strength and stop her rapid weight loss.  We won't know too much more until they are able to see a doctor in the morning. 

Unfortunately, my mom's primary doctor is gone this week, so they have been under the care of the nurses and nurse practitioners. Although the nurses at the oncology clinic are GREAT, I would sure feel better if her regular doctor were monitoring all of these serious changes with her health. However, I am thankful to know that The Greatest Physician is constantly with her.

Conversations with Maximus

Maximus: (playing with his Star Wars lego soldiers) These guys don't believe. They don't believe in God.

Me: Really? Why not? 

Maximus: They are bad guys. They don't make good choices. And they are having a battle.

Me: Who's going to win?

Maximus: The good guys. They have bigger guns.

Please Pray

Hey, everyone. Just wanted to ask all you out there in the blogosphere to pray for my mom today. She went into the oncology clinic with excruciating throat pain. She has only been able to drink tiny amounts the last few days because of the pain, and she has lost significant weight, which she can't afford to lose right now. 

So today when she went in with so much pain, they found open blisters up and down the inside of her throat. They have her on morphine to help with the pain until they can find a way to get it under control. They suspect that it is a chemo side-effect. 

It just kills me to know that she is in such severe pain. Please pray that her doctors and nurses can help resolve this very quickly!

Our Fun Friday

We had a super fun Friday yesterday with just our little family of four! Here are the highlights:

• We put out a spontaneous yard sale yesterday morning. I know the words "spontaneous" and "yard sale" aren't usually found in the same sentence. However, this actually worked out great for us yesterday! I saw that our neighbors were holding a yard sale, so I took advantage of all their hard work of putting up signs to direct traffic. I put out a bunch of my overstocks from couponing as well as some clothes and home items that I already had gathered for a sale. I was only outside with the sale for one hour, and I was able to earn a some extra cash to buy some organizations items from our going-out-of-business Office Max store. I was pleased!

• We all took Lucas to the dentist. Max went back with Lucas and apparently charmed all the hygienists while Lucas got his teeth cleaned. Meanwhile, this is what Maggie and I did outside:

Self Portraits with the iPhone!

Can't you just hear her: "Hey, guys. Listen up. I have an idea."

and last but not least:

• We took the kids to a matinee of Pixar's new movie, Up. We loved it! After I saw the trailer, I wasn't sure how good the plot of the movie was going to be. But, Pixar never disappoints! It was great, and both the kids watched the WHOLE movie, which was a first for Maggie. It was a fun outing!

Now back at the Roebuck ranch, we're continuing the saga of trying to get everyone completely well. Lucas and I both are struggling to get back to 100% health after 3 weeks of being sick. We are so ready to feel completely better!

Coming soon: pics from our wonderful visit with the Main family this week!

A Sweet Reunion

Last week Maggie and I flew to Arkansas for Memorial Day weekend. In addition to getting to spend some sweet time with my mom and dad and Uncle Larry, Aunt Suzie and cousin Brandon, I also had the HUGE treat of getting to see some of my college buddies from JBU!  It was so great to reconnect with these friends, many of whom I have not seen in several years!

Maggie and I were both sick during our whole trip, but we did our best to pretend like we weren't. :-) I couldn't stand the thought of missing out on visiting with these friends, so we just sucked it up, took a LOT of Tylenol and other cold drugs and had a blast with our friends!

Here are just a few pics of our great weekend!

Self portrait of me with Kris!

The adorable Mullins family

Everyone got to stop by and visit with my mom. How special for me!

The charming and endearing William with his parents, Jenna-Clare and Jeremy

Maggie and I at Natural Falls state park

The Hartgroves!

The whole gang at Natural Falls

Nathaniel Smith introduces Maggie to the doggie.

Jenna-Clare and I in front of the cathedral.

Farewell, friends! Thank you for the great weekend!

My husband is THE BEST.

Lucas surprised me with an early 6th anniversary present by making reservations for us a beautiful inn up in the mountains of Cascade, Idaho. It was the best 24 hours I've had in a long, long time! This was the first time we've done a weekend getaway like this with just the two of us since we had Max 3.5 years ago, so it was extra special.

Our resident hero, Laurie, came over just after noon on Friday to watch the kids for us. Laurie gets the gold star for the weekend, because she is a kid-caring pro and took such good care of Maggie even though our little princess was a little sick and hardly slept at all. Maggie was not so happy about Mommy being gone for a day... but Max, on the other hand, was thrilled to have his friend "Yorie" here to play with!

Lucas and I left the house about 1 p.m. and went straight to see a matinee showing of the new "Star Trek." The best moment of the movie was when Lucas looked over at me in the dark theater and found me weeping– weeping!–  in the opening scene of the movie. He said after six years of marriage, I have now proven my true conversion to nerd-dome. I told him- back off. I just like J.J. Abram's work, OK?! We couldn't stop laughing!

Next we had dinner at my favorite restaurant: P.F. Chang's, and then started the 2-hour gorgeous drive up the mountain to the Inn. Our room was absolutely beautiful, and I couldn't have asked for a more restful time. I needed it so much.

We came back home Saturday and relieved Laurie just in time to take back over before both the kids started throwing up. After such a great day away, I didn't even mind too much. When we got home, the first thing Max asked us was if we had been at a restaurant that whole time. Cute!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lucas!

 

Inaugural Dentist Visit

Max made his first trek to the dentist's office today:

The good news: Max was a champ. I was really nervous about taking him, because in the past he has had what I would classify as panic attacks whenever we are in any type of medical facility. We're talking about the get-yourself-so-worked-up-that-you-start-barfing type of panic. For some reason this panic also translates to haircuts as well. So I was afraid that the dentist was going to be yet another thing to add to that list.

But, much to my surprise, Max was peachy-keen through the whole experience. And ever since we got home tonight, he's been wanting to play "dentist," poking around on my teeth with a plastic knife.

The bad news: Cavities. And their impending assault on our meager budget. :-) Looks like it's time to ramp up my toddler brushing/flossing skills. Apparently I haven't been cutting it!

As a side note: To all my buddies out there who have not yet ventured into the world of dentistry with your toddlers/preschoolers: I totally recommend finding a pediatric dentist. I took Max to dentist that specializes in pediatric dentistry, and I really think it is the one reason he had such a good experience. 

The whole place was geared toward kids, and the staff obviously knew how to put little ones at ease. As soon as Max laid down on the table, the hygienist gave him a pair of headphones and pointed to the screen on the ceiling where he could watch Finding Nemo while they "counted his teeth." 

And by the way, I know kids LOVE Nemo, but wouldn't you think the dentist scenes in that movie would freak kids out as they were sitting in a dentist's chair? Even Max said today, "In Nemo, the dentist uses that screw driver on that one guy's teeth!" The hygienist next to us quickly and kindly corrected him just as she put a mouth-ful of tools into the mouth of the 4-year-old in the next chair over! Ha!

Anyway, the whole experience was fantastic, and I just cringe thinking about what it could have been like with someone like my childhood dentist and Max. Thank you, Lord, for such a successful day.... even with the cavity discovery!

We love these beautiful women!

To the three beautiful moms in our life:

Happy Mother's Day! We Love you!

Links to add to my list of "things to read that are good for my eternal soul":

One of my favorite bloggers, Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer, has this link posted in her "best of" section of her blog. I've decided to make it mandatory periodic reading for myself until I have no children under the age of five in my house:

It Gets Easier

Thank you, Shannon. I really needed that.

Mondays are Good Pajama Days

We're all still in our pajamas here on this dreary Monday morning. [Not that that's unheard of for us on a Monday morning at 9:30 :-) ] Max is watching cartoons– a treat he's come to really appreciate at Grandmama and Grandpapa's house– and Maggie is stacking and re-stacking cupcake baking cups and feeding crackers to her stuffed Mickey. We're making this a low-key day.

Pray for my mom. It's been a terribly hard two weeks on her, and yesterday and today the weariness in her eyes was the strongest I've seen it. She's been so incredibly brave, strong and trusting through this entire journey. I am hoping that our gracious God will give her some good-feeling days soon.

Tonight I'll go pick up Lucas at the airport at midnight. Thank the Lord that, as far as we know, this marks the end of us having to be separated for weeks on end. The kids and I had originally planned to stay in Arkansas throughout May and then have Lucas join us at the beginning of June when he is finished teaching. But since mom's oncologist feels that she is somewhat stable at this point (this could change at any time), combined with the fact that we've reached the end of what we can handle with this separation business, we're all going to head back to Idaho for a few weeks. 

I am thankful to be able to get back home for a bit- I would say it is a necessity for our little family at this point. It's been a hard year, with harder days likely to come. And as hard as it will be to be away from my mom right now, we need a respite and something that at least vaguely resembles normalcy for a few weeks. 

Of course, I'm sure that when we get back to Idaho, I'll be wanting badly to be back here with mom. But that is the nature of life these days. We've been so thankful to be here with her and dad, and we're thankful to have some time to go home for a while, too.

But mostly, I'm just really happy that I get to see my husband tonight!