So Many Things

So...there has been so many things that have happened since the last time I blogged. Scott and Christina came into town for a good couple of days. It was such a nice visit. I was so happy that we could send time with them alone and not have to share them with anyone else. Scott and Tim spent pretty much the entire visit together playing World of Warcraft. While, Christina and I did some shopping and lots of talking :) Lots of just catching up. It has been a whole month since I had seen her. :P so lots of course.

I had attempted to have our first MOPS playdate this past Thursday, but it fell thru because most of the mom's had sick kids. I guess better luck next time. I will say I was quite disappointed. I've been really wanting to get these mom's together with their kidos since we started MOPS back in September. I will add, that I'm not sure it would have worked out for me that day anyways. Joy woke up that morning screaming in pain and scratching at her eye. I didn't notice her eye being red when she woke up but at breakfast time it was so swollen and agitated. She would be okay for 5 minutes then all of a sudden she would be screaming for 10. It last all day. I simply thought that just something got in her eye. So I tried flushing it out, putting a warm rag on her eye, anything that I could think of. Then, my friend said that maybe it could be a food allergy. So then I started getting worried that what I fed her for breakfast set her off. Well, 4 o'clock came around and it hadn't gotten better so I called the doctor and she said to take her down to the ER. GREAT! The ER the last place I wanted to take her. That only made me freak out. So I got the kids in the car and met my husband at the hospital. Let me just say that I HATE (with a passion) the ER doctors. They were so inconsiderate. They asked us 3 questions. Does she have any green stuff coming of her eyes? Are her eyes red? And does she have a runny nose? NO. NO. NO.  "Ok well, she probably has conjuctivitis." What? That is seriously all they are going to do? We are at the freakin' ER. Take a look at her eye. She is in extreme pain. Flush her eye out, ANYTHING. What are we paying guys to do? They give us drops for her eyes and they don't even go ahead and put some in. oh man! I was so livid leaving the hospital. Thankfully, things have gotten better since then, but I'm not looking forward to getting a $500 bill for a doctor to ask 3 questions. good gosh! I would have just gone to our pediatrician.

Then, I had scheduled an appointment to get our family photos done for this year. Well, we get there and my kids all of a sudden will not cooperate for anything. Caleb is doing his own thing, putting his hands in his mouth, doing goofy faces, Joy didn't won't to sit on my lap anymore...let me just say it was a disaster. This was our first time trying to do a family picture so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it was not pretty. So then, we made an earlier appointment for the next day. It still wasn't the greatest experience, but we got a half way decent picture out of it. Let me just say I don't look forward to doing this every year.

I think that is about it. I don't know. I'm trying to find time where I can just log on and ramble all my thoughts about things going on, but I'm having a very hard time finding any. I don't know what it is about this time of the year and every little thing starts to stress me out. oi!

The Little Things

Well, Tuesday night I had my discussion group meeting. It went very well. Most of the women got lost on the way out to Rockford because map quest came up with two exact addresses and no one understood why it took them 30 minutes out of their way. thankfully, everyone had numbers to call one another. It was a great night just getting to one another and to vent about any issues. Such a great group of ladies God has brought into my life.

Most of you know that i couldn't hear out of my left ear for more than month now. Well, I woke up Friday morning not being about to hear out of my right ear. Both my kids had been crying and it had seemed like they had been for while. It freaked me out. You never realized how dependent you are on hearing when you are a mother. I couldn't keep my eyes off the kids all morning because I was so scared something was going to happen and I wouldn't hear them. I called the doctor's office because I had some hearing but I would say only 10%. I went to the doctors with the kids which was a nightmare because we were waiting for an hour before we were helped. They flushed my ear and I never realized how bad my hearing ways. My ears were so sensitive all day. I could hear so well that all the little noises were freaking me out. What's that? Ahh! What's that?!

Yesterday, Tim and I took the kids to all the stores in their costume to show them off to all the employees. So cute! Then, we had family over for dinner and we took the kids out around a few homes. Caleb went to one home and after that he sold on going to every home on the hunt for his favorite candy, M&Ms. :)And tonight we are doing the same thing again but in Beth and Tyson's neighborhood. Caleb is all excited! Pictures are to come.

Wow! Time has Gone By!

Well, the Barker family has been very busy with business, MOPS, children, everything else that goes on with having a family. We had an amazing time in Memphis, TN. It was so great catching up with the other Barker Family and watching the kids play together. It was just so sweet to see how they play and love each other even at such a young age.

The ladies from my discussion group table at MOPS came over and we had a nice evening of bonding and food. That was such a great evening to connect and fellowship with my ladies. It was quite funny being October everyone decided to bring a dessert with pumpkin, well, all but one, which was a coconut cream dessert. yum!

Joy has started walking so well in the last couple of nights. She walked halfway across the living room. She has really figured out how to regain her balance while on her feet. Caleb will sit on the floor saying, "Come here Joy! Come here!" Caleb is having a hard time with all the attention she is getting with the new walking skill and trying is to butt into everything in a somewhat nice way.

I had the great opportunity of take some pictures of some friends of ours last week. It was a lot of fun! I don't do a whole lot, but this opened my eyes to how I really enjoy taking pictures of not just family, but friends as well.

Halloween is coming this weekend and though, we usually don't do anything crazy because its a holiday I don't like celebrating. We have carved out pumpkins and I did get costumes for my kids. Caleb was a dinosaur last year and this year he wanted to pick out his own. So we went to Old Navy where they had some great kids costumes that are very warm and fun. We went in there and Caleb found a CHEESE BURGER costume. I was like oh that's cute and directed Caleb to the Race Car Driver or the Football Player. oh no! He ran back to the cheeseburger and said, "cheeseburger, mommy, cheeseburger! I said, "well, what about this one or even the football player?" Caleb, "cheeseburger, mommy, please!" So I cracked up laughing because my son was set on the cheeseburger. I was like of course, Tim is going to love this...he eats cheeseburgers at every restaurant we go to. So I grabbed a cute Butterfly costume for Joy (it was on sale for 17.99 Reg. 22.50) came back the following week to see if he still wanted to be the cheeseburger. Oh and did he ever, but the price had gone back up. Well, Tim went in to get it for him last week and well it was on sale for $10. hooray! so yes, he is going to be a cheeseburger. Don't worry! there will definitely be pictures of that little one. haha! so great!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

The above pictures are of our friends Jason & Jennie!

These next clips are from our phones so they are great quality.

Well, just a quick update!

Hello Hello Hello,

Yes, I know it has been quite some time since I have updated all of ya'll of what we have been up to. I should of told you guys that I left Friday morning very early to head down to Nashville, Tennessee. We left around 5am and arrived around 1pm their time. I attended a very nice Bachelorette Party for my Dad's wife April.  I ventured out with many of the ladies to see the night life of Downtown Nashville. And let me tell you that I now see why its called Music City. We went from bar to bar just listening to some awesome music. I was out until 2am. Oh yes! Late night! It was fun because my little brother Luke came out to be our (the ladies) body guard. It was nice having some time with him. Let me say I was hanging by a thread when I got back though. I had very little sleep in my body. Well, let me skip ahead to Sunday where I was apart of a BEAUTIFUL wedding. I had the honor of standing up with my Dad as he married his love April. She was a gorgeous bride. Although, that day was full of pain, tears, stress, anxiety, and hurting feet,  the Lord was GOOD and blessed with the day with sweet memories. Monday, we headed out to Memphis to see some more family: Mike, Allison, Jude, and sweet baby Sammy (new addition). It was so nice to finally meet my new little nephew. Boy, is he a cutie! Let me also mention, that Tim was terribly sick monday morning and was OUT all day long and on the drive over Caleb stuck a tictac up his nose. Yes, It was an interesting drive over to say the least. Anyways, we also had the pleasure of having Tyson and Beth Garner (siblings from GR) there with us for a couple of days. We have just been having fun hanging out, playing games, watching the cousins interact, and catching up. Last night, I attended Allison's Monthly Women's Night. They spoke about being imitator's of Christ,  being clothed in humility, and just trusting in the Lord. The passage was 1 Peter 5:1-11. It was so good. definitely what I think I needed. We just sat in prayer afterwards and it just felt right. I knew God had wanted me to go since when Al had mentioned it to me. I just understood why. And now I do. The Lord is always looking for new ways to grow and strengthen us. And boy, he is doing that in my life right now. Well, I can't give you all the details right now about our trip because I have very limited time, but its at least a little something. I will post pictures when I get back.

The Questions of LIFE

Did you know that one word...one act can change a decade of healing? One's intention to heal and open can be changed to destruction and closer. So many emotions are being thrown out into the wind; to not really know where they are going to go or where they are going to fall... Why is it when you feel like everything is going right in your life that something magically starts going wrong? Or that you finally reached healing in so many areas of your life, but then to realize that you have so many more problems you need to work on? Why does it come so easy to judge others? To see someone's flaws before seeing beauty? You're never really sure where you are going in life... you trust, right? You trust that you are making the right decisions, that you are listening to the Lord. In much of our life its like rolling a dice. You aren't sure if its going to be in your odds or not.  Everyone does stupid stuff in life. Its whether or not you can see them for who they are and what they are trying to be. Can you forgive? Forgive... why is it that we can play this word over and over in our mind? Why is it so hard to do? Why is it something that tears people apart? Matthew 9:5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sin be forgiven thee; or to say, arise, and walk? So these are the questions of life. These are the questions that are rolling around in this overwhelmed mind. Its like looking at poet who has poems coming out of pockets or holes in his outfit. Crazed by his creative, yet, overwhelm mind of ideas. No where to put them, but on a piece of scrap piece of paper... This is my piece of paper. This is my found writing instrument that allows my perplexed mind to have some alleviation. 

This would be a picture of mind.

Getting back to Normal

Well, the weekend started out absolutely amazing with the Love and Respect Conference. Granddad, Grandmom, and Uncle Dale surprised us by coming down to Grand Rapids. They wanted to check out the new kiosk. We went out to Red Robin and Caleb just downed some french fries, but didn't eat much of anything else. Joy hadn't had much food all day and still didn't want to eat much by dinner. 9:15pm came around and Tim heard Caleb crying. We went in there and he was crying in a puddle of his own vomit. I just wanted to cry/vomit at that moment. I'm one of those people when I see and smell vomit, it makes me want to puke too. I kept myself together and I stripped him down and everything else and got it all in the wash without, well, you know hurling... so I got his bed made back up with some new sheets and what not. I get back up stairs and he his hurling again and again. poor child. several pjs later... it stops and he is sleeping with Tim, but now Joy is awake from all the noise. I finally get her to sleep and he wakes up and wants to sleep with me. He wasn't wanting to go back to sleep. He wanted to drink water and do something other than sleeping. Let me just say it was a very LONG night of no sleep. Sunday morning comes around and guess what? now I'm puking. The stomach flu hits me HARD. its wasn't just a a couple hour thing for me...it was from morning til I went to sleep. The only thing I had to eat yesterday was a couple bites of soup and that was right before going to bed. I couldn't even keep water down. Thankfully, today I'm slowly getting my appetite back and my kids are feeling pretty good. Joy has had a runny noise for two weeks now, but that is showing no signs of letting up. Thank you everyone for all your prayers!

A New Day

First, I want to say that Tim and I just got back from Dr. Emerson Eggerich's Love and Respect Conference. And let me tell you he was so enjoyable and so funny. I absolutely recommend you going to his conference or to read his book. My dad gave me the Love and Respect book before Tim and I got married (to the both us) and I learned a lot when I read it, but this conference was so insightful. My prayer request leaving this weekend is that God will continue to work with me to be the woman God designed me to be, and to be unconditionally respectful to my husband. God is so good. Tim and I haven't done something like this since before Caleb was born. Tim even wanted to get a hotel room even though the event was being held at our church. It was so nice just to have some us time.

Theme verse to meditate on:

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.     -Ephesians 5:33

Secondly, I thought I would update you with new pictures of the babes... :)

Pretty sure this was because she couldn't have what she wanted. little stinker!

Daddy was tired after working at the kiosk. Caleb decided to snuggle with him. sweet!

The kids love playing on the piano

Almost There

Its has been a busy, exhausting, and emotionally draining couple of days... You finish one crazy thing to realize that one thing doesn't mean you're done. It just means you've have another 100 more crazy things you still need to do.  It doesn't help when yesterday I felt like everything I touched turned to ashes and just felt apart in my hands. While I was a work I was thankful I didn't drop a gallon of milk, but I swear I did everything else possible. oh my word I felt so bad for Mandy. I was like "I give you full permission to tell Tim you never want to work with me again." Oh it was bad. I get home and I was pulling out food for Joy. Oops! There goes a jar of baby food all over my floor. REALLY? COME ON! I was walking around on pins and needles. Not only that, the last couple of weeks I feel like I've been trapped inside of someones OCD body. I'm obsessing over such little things...oh its not fun.But enough about this craziness! 

Took a snap shot of Caleb wanting to help Tyson mow our lawn.  I think our lawn was bothering Tyson... It hadn't been down in a month because our riding mower broke. I was a little nervous that we were about to get a fine from our home owner's association. 

Here we have some employee learning the new layout of the kiosk and getting comfortable with the next espresso machine.

Lovely Mom working so hard to get everything organized!

AUNT B :) and my sweet boy.

 He isn't too happy because he collided with another gal at the play area.

Isn't my husband cute? He is so proud of his kiosk and I am proud of him too!

This is a picture as of a couple of 5 o'clock this evening. 

There are still a couple of final things left to do, but overall its ready!

We are so happy to be done for the day!

The Beginning...

Well, today marks the first day of many that my husband is going to be incredibly busy. I'm going to feel like a single mother for a little bit which I completely understand. When starting a new store you kind of have to baby it for a couple of weeks. Pretty much Tim will be babysitting our new kiosk and all the new employees that will be working in it. As excited as I am, there is a sense of loneliness that comes along with it. I am a little bummed that I won't be quite involved in the opening of this store, in the sense that I will not be opening in the morning there at the kiosk and getting the employees comfortable...I am excited for Tim. Here are a couple of pictures of the kiosk.

This was taken last night at 9pm

This was take this around 6am

Its looking so good, but so much more will be done by the end of the day!

Not your typical day...

Well, we had a couple interesting things happen today... lets see where to start... Joy sported her first pair pigtails today. ADORABLE! Couldn't have been prouder. haha! She actually kept them in all day. I was quite impressed. 

Joy was very excited about climbing into the box. Silly Girl!

So on for more stuff that happened today... well not my most exciting news. The kids decided to have fun in the other room which I was fine with until Caleb tripped on his water bottle and hit his head on our glass coffee table. It started out just being banging and making noise to a BANG and screaming. I don't think I have felt my heart beat so fast... I think I'm one of those mom's that about has panic attacks when their children get really hurt. That was me this afternoon. I was scared for a second that I was going to have to take him to the ER.  Thankfully for what ever gouge he had clotted really fast probably a little too fast. It formed an enormous bump on his forehead. I was able to stay calm but only when I was in front of him. I will admit that I called Tim and asked him to come home as quickly as possible.  Now this is never an issue when it is with other people getting hurt. So I think I will be a good nurse just not to my own kids or people I love. I think its just proves how much you hate seeing your loved ones in pain. Here are a couple of the snap shots after the event.   VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED 

My poor baby!

I will say that he was on his feet 2 minutes later getting into more trouble and mischief with joy. Both myself and "Grandmom" were being a little hesitant about him doing things around hard edges. 

New Life Group

Most of you know that Tim and I have been debating whether or not we want to stay at Resurrection Life Church because it is quite enormous and we have had a hard time just connecting. Last night was the first night of many, but they started a young married/families group at our church. We went last night and had a great time meeting and fellowshipping with other believer. We truly believe this group is an answer to our prayers regarding connecting to ResLife. It was so encouraging to be meet other couple in the same place in life as us. I'm so thankful!

small clip

A clip of Joy eating spaghetti

a couple of recent pictures!

Hey Everyone.

 Here is a couple of pictures of Joy's first spaghetti dinner!

She was so funny! She wasn't sure if she wanted any or not, but she sure loved it. She definitely loved having her pictures taken. I thought she would have been like Caleb covered in sauce but she ate it like a lady, not by the handfuls. :)

Here is a picture of Caleb's first spaghetti :)