Happy Birthday Bug!

Today is my sweet Lucas' first birthday. We got in from Mexico at 230 am and we are a bit out of sorts trying to get back into life. I plan to post more later including pictures. His party is on Saturday.

Lucas - you are such a gift and blessing in my life. I never knew life could be as sweet as it is right now. I wish I could bottle you up and hold onto your baby days forever. Your laugh is contagious. Your smile makes me feel this deep sense of peace and calm. Your chubby little body makes me want to just nibble you up. Know that you are 100% loved by me and your father as well as all our friends and family. God knew we needed you in our lives and we are forever grateful.

bug v. teething biscuit

Funny slobbery smile

yum

where'd my biscuit go?

nasty drool drip chin

watching tv while knawing

he was so sticky and nasty afterwards. good thing it was bath night.

bug's alphabet cards

I made these alphabet cards for Lucas' first birthday. The alphabet Iverson style. All they need is to be laminated and then they are ready for my bug on his big day.

best shirt ever

Thanks Tammy!

bill iverson, superhero

awesome!

wedding pics

5 years and counting...

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years. Bill and I got each other the same anniversary present... an infant and two teenagers and we are still on the same wavelength. I have had some trouble uploading pics to my blog but will try to put on some from our wedding tonight.

Every year on our wedding anniversary I want to put my dress back on and dance to our song, "Feels like home". 5 years and I still haven't done this yet. year 1 was easter and we had the big kids and then went right out of town for the night after we took them home. year 2 we were in washington dc at a VA conference Bill got an award at. We spent most of our anniversary watching footage from the VT shootings. year 3 was a wed night and we had the kids so didn't get to celebrate on that date. year 4 i was 39 weeks pregnant and in no mood for dancing. today we both work, the big kids come over at 5, gabby is having a slumber party. So my dress and dance will have to wait another year. Maybe year 6 is a charm.

We have definitely been through trials. We have definitely had our share of joy and sorrow. I couldn't picture my life with anyone else. I truly live a blessed life. I love you, Bill, today, tomorrow and forever. Happy Anniversary Boogs!

I just love his laugh

Wolf style

Daddy and Bug are hilarious together!

Overhead this weekend

Gabby:
"When I come home from college, I am going to take Bug out for ice cream and to the children's museum so we can play around"

He is Risen indeed!

I didn't get to post yesterday mainly because Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures and secondarily I was preoccupied with eating and catching up on facebook. It was such a glorious day. Our church has been having a lot of cross cultural sharing/worship in the past year celebrating the cultures and countries of origin of our congregation. Yesterday we heard about Easter traditions in Uruguay, Brazil, Cameroon, black America. We sang songs in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili and English. We did the tradition call and response, Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed also in English, Spanish and French. It was so wonderful. Our community is really blessed to have people from all over the world. Hearing of people's memories of Easters growing up, I was flooded with memories of my own childhood and thought a lot about the childhood I am helping create for Lucas.

In my childhood, we went to mass at the big cathedral downtown each Easter. They have this amazing pipe organ and trumpeters would play the Hallelujah chorus. I have been to bigger, more impressive cathedrals all over the world but Cathedral of Immaculate Conception at Columbus Circle in Syracuse is by far my favorite and a place which holds such memories for me as child. After mass we would walk down to the Hotel Syracuse for fancy brunch; ice sculptures and omelet stations and towers of desserts. We made that walk in sunshine, rain and snow because you never know what the weather will be like in Syracuse on Easter Sunday. While waiting for our table, we would read the NY Times. Brian used to put baggies on his hands so the newspaper ink wouldn't make them dirty. We would sit at our table eating and laughing and many years planning our summer vacations. Thanks Mom and Dad for always making our family a priority and for filling our childhood with such wonderful memories.

Today we got to take Lucas to church, worship in several different languages and celebrate the Lord's resurrection with our Vineyard family. Having Gabby and Nile with us made Bill's Easter complete. Everyone enjoyed their baskets and after Lucas' nap we went out for pizza at Sam's so Bill could break his beer fast. We ended up not only eating pizza but cheese fries, fried cheese balls and jalapeno poppers; nothing says Happy Easter likes piles of fried cheese. We have been going to Sam's on Easter Sunday for three years now and it has become our family tradition. Bug got two little homemade rabbits in his Easter basket that Bill's mom made for him as a child. I can't wait until we can go on a Easter egg hunt next year with him. It is a heady responsibility, being in charge of some one's childhood. I can only pray and hope that I can give Bug a childhood worth of amazing memories like I have of my own.

He looked ridiculously adorable in his Easter outfit-- thanks to the McDonalds who gave it to us. Hopefully Terri and Kate are still checking my blog.

The hat didn't stay on long

Bill with his kids- he is such a proud Papa.
Bug investigating his basket

The money shot of the day... ahhh I just love my little bug!

Bug's basket

got bug's easter basket done. those two little stuffed bugs vibrate/shake when you pull strings on them; he's going to love them. that sweet little white bunny in overalls is from Bill's easter baskets as a kid; it was made by his mom, Bug's Grandma Barb whom he will meet in heaven.

the difference a year makes

Remember the beginning of City Slickers where Billy Crystal's mom calls him at 5 am on his birthday and tells him again the story of his birth. I may be that type of mother. It doesn't help that three of my friends are about to have babies so I am confronted with their bellies now but having it just turned April, Easter being tomorrow, I am being bombarded with memories about what it was like last year at this time. My baby boy is almost one. I can't believe it. I can't wait to wake him up at 1:09 am every year on 4/29 to tell him about how he came into this world and was so pissed to be taken from his warm home that he peed on everyone. As I continue to fight those last 6-8 pounds, I am bringing back some pictures to remind myself of when I get all nostalgic for being pregnant and about to have Lucas, how incredibly distorted and fat I was this time last year and how much I have truly lost and gotten back to normal.

these were taken on 3/30/09

these were taken on my due date, 4/20/09
seriously I was gigantic

and these taken today 4/3/10

my, my... these same grey sweatpants look a bit saggy on me now after being stretched to the max over my 40 week prego body

the way a woman's body can transform to bring a life into the world is truly amazing. I never thought I would look anything close to normal again, but I am living proof that delivering a 8lb 13 ounce baby and revisiting my best friend, portion control, makes all the difference.

fasting

Well it is Holy Saturday, one more day left in my Lenten fast. Though no one really needs to know or believe me except me and Jesus, I haven't cheated once. I haven't logged onto my facebook page at all. I am proud of myself. I don't know what my facebook fast really accomplished besides just the discipline of fasting which I know is the whole point. I had all thses goals and plans and not much got accomplished in my 'facebook void time'. I really do feel disconnected from some friends; especially friends on the west coast who due to our time zone difference are harder to connect with on the phone. With having kids, I find it hard to connect with a lot of people over the phone b/c by the time I get someone on the phone, my kid has woken up or their kid has thrown up or something. I really miss my outer circle of friends whom I am only really connected through facebook; high school and college friends whom I enjoy being part of their cyber-lives. A friend from the old neighborhood (makes me sound like I grew up a Southy doesn't it?) died yesterday and I don't know any details; I know exactly who to ask on facebook but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I have missed people's reaction to current events; obama comes to iowa city, lickliter gets fired, oh yeah I picked cornell, st marys, old dominion, russell gets the best of boston rob in survivor, what the hell is Lost even about anymore?, Fran is the new Man in Iowa City, Wickham secedes from the union.

I think I just traded facebook for textsfromlastnight.com and the crazy press citizen comments to all the Iowa City School District Redistricting madness. But with that said, I set out to fast and sacrifice during Lent to in some way partake of the experience with Jesus and I fasted and I sacrificed. Facebook fasting was harder than I thought because it is such a habit to quickly just log on and check it. I have been thinking about my first post for tomorrow morning for about a week. It has to be the right mix of clever and cool. aaahhhh only about 24 more hours until I can post. Bill and I have decided you can't have what you fasted from until right after the worship leader at church tomorrow announces, Christ is Risen. The year I gave up diet coke, I quickly opened a bottle and started chugging it during the first worship song. I don't think our church has wi-fi which is good because I would be tempted to check on my ipod during service.

I have learned about myself this Lent, my connectedness to people, how hard it is to truly break a habit. I am thankful for this experience that as Christians we are called to take part in this holy season. I am anxiously awaiting Easter Sunday. Lucas' first easter basket and a cute little outfit that hopefully his stomach flu will not get the best of. I can get back on facebook. Bill can pound down a few beers over pizza at Sams. But really above all of that I am looking forward to worshiping with our awesome church tomorrow morning that Christ has Risen indeed. Our sins are paid in full. It is finished and He has conquered death so that we may have eternal life. Amen!

healing hand and ego

So in preparation for the 5 mile 'Run for the Egg' I was supposed to do this morning, I have been training extra hard this week. Last Sunday we ran a 5K, I ran 4.2 miles at work on Monday and 5.1 miles after work on Wednesday. It was our first 'hot' day. It was 80+ when I ran and for all the winter running I have done, nothing could have prepared me for the heat. But if this day had been in late July we would have been celebrating its pleasantness but in March, it was just hot. Right before the 3 mile mark I stopped at our friend's, Greg and Dani, house for a glass of water. I may have freaked them out a bit panting at their door... can.... i .... have.... a .... glass .... of ..... water? .... it.... is..... really....hot....out.... I was going to stop at my bosom friend Ali's house which is two blocks away from Dani's but I know I would have collapsed on her floor and begged her to drive me home. I knew I would have more 'self control' at Dani's just to get water and keep going. So keep going I did. 3 miles, 4 miles, and I am about to make the turn for home. I am getting really tired at this point and not picking up my feet like I should; I catch my toe on an uneven part of the sidewalk and totally sprawl out. I break my fall with my R hand and now I'm bleeding and bruised and covered in dirt and leaves. I am laying on the grass shoulder between the sidewalk and the road with my mind alternating between 'i wonder why no one is stopping to help' and 'oh please let no one stop to help, it is too embarrassing'. I was luckily on a side street so no cars passed me by as I am laid out. I am still over a mile from home. I got up, brushed the dried season old leaves off me the best I could, braced my sore, throbbing, bloody hand and started off again. Up Court Street hill, left on Summit and home I arrived. Bill was sympathetic getting me ice and ibuprofen and commiserating that he has caught his toe plenty of times and almost fallen. To that, Gabby chimes in, 'who falls when they run? seriously?'. Always helpful at age 15. Well that was Wednesday, I have some healing road rash on my hand and a bruise on my palm. My shoulder is sore. My bruised ego is quickly repairing itself. I am very grateful I didn't hurt myself any more than I did.

Here is a shot of my hand today

the bruise doesn't show up well
as the west side-east side-north corridor debate continues to rage in the school board and in the papers, I wouldn't trade my east side uneven, in need of repair sidewalks for any double wide smooth bike/running trails they have on 'that' side of town :-) even with healing road rash and ego.

Home sick

Lucas has a small case of the pukes, I think. He puked/spit up all over himself and in his shoes at day care yesterday and came home smelly nasty of sour milk. Some mysterious force placed smelly chunks of last nights dinner all over his crib and in his hair to be found by a surprised set of parents this morning. Bill and I were supposed to run a race this morning in Des Moines. We got about three blocks away and between Lucas' whining and the color commentary from Nile in the front seat, I couldn't take it and we turned around. Bill went to the race. Bug hasn't puked yet today. He has been fussy, took an early nap and now is the master of his silly town-- I think he may be feeling better. I feel an adventure to the Starbucks drivethru coming soon for Mommy.