Welcome Eden Marie!

Jana and Brad welcomed their second baby girl into the world last night at 9:26! She was born after a frustrating day for mom and dad. Jana began having contractions at 9:00 that morning and sometime after 10 they decided it was time! They got in the car and Brad asked Jana to tell him when the next contraction began. She said she just sat there and sat there! Once in the hospital she had a few more then they hooked her up and she just sat there again! Finally they decided to let her go but felt she would be back soon. Sure enough just 4 hours later she was back and she was serious! Less than 5 hours later little ( ummm, big) Eden made what seemed to be an almost effortless entry! (At least effortless on my part- heehee!) She weighed in at 9# 4.8 ounces!! and over 21 inches long! She is adorable and seems to have a very mild mannered personality, but we all know time will tell the truth on that one! Emily was very excited to see her new baby sister. She was so gentle with her. I took tons of pictures, but mostly with Jana's camera. I will post one soon with her permission.

Our Easter Egg Experiment

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. March has been difficult this year. But I finally thought, life is too short to feel so down all the time. My sadness won't change anything for the better anyway. That's not to say that I was under the covers all month, but I certainly did not feel like blogging or talking about it. I had picked out a nice blog to post on mom's site and never did. Maybe I will still do that but for now it is not there. We did go to her grave and took some daffodils from the yard. I don't go there very often even though it is just practically next door. I don't know why, maybe it is because I have three kids and had rather play with them. But it was nice to go with my family. We still have not ordered her headstone and I have been beating myself up over that one. I want it to be perfect and have not decided EXACTLY what I want to put on it. But I think it is time to decide and get that done too. We will have a family get together soon where lots of extended family come and we clean up the cemetery and I want the headstone in place before that. (Don't want everyone to think we are neglectful!)

Anyway that is just a little reason why I have avoided this spot for a while. Now on to fun stuff! See the eggs. Take 3 guesses as to how I got them so red!!! Yes they were plan old white eggs from the store. Are you ready for this! Onions! Did you guess right? I took the skins of 15 yellow onions, boiled them then steeped them for about 30 minutes then brought it to room temperature and boiled my eggs in the strained liquid! They were absolutely beautiful! We learned that the Greek tradition is to dye eggs red to remind them of Christ's blood and the egg represents new life. So we took this little basket to guys who run our wonderful local Greek restaurant. It was a great experiment and good lesson for the kids.

New adventure!

People look at my plate and think it is overflowing on all sides. I guess that is one way to see it, but I look at it and see all the wonderful things in my life. I think I love almost every activity in it. I do complain some about being tired or too busy but I guess I am strictly a type A personality. I love projects and challenges. I love to keep my mind and body active. I hope the only casualty of my busy life is a clean house.

So are you dying to know what I got myself into now? I have just recently signed up to be a Southern Living at Home consultant. yeah yeah yeah, I know it is direct sales, but I am really excited. I went to a party just because it is the polite thing to do. While there I got interrupted by a small "emergency" and left with a quick order and a catalogue. I agreed to host a catalogue party to help out my friend that gave the party. I must have looked at the poor catalogue a thousand times. Every day I changed what I wanted. My list only grew longer the more I looked at it! I feel in love with everything they have! So I am going to try this. I haven't sold anything other than books at my book fair fundraisers since I was in high school selling ice cream at the mall. At the fundraisers I always enjoy meeting people and talking to them. I think that will be one of the real perks about this new adventure.

So, if you get an invitation for a party, just know I am only trying to share one of the new interests in my life with you. I promise not to be pushy or sneaky. Just excited! Oh, and if you want to host a party (wink, wink) I'll be thrilled!

You may check out my web page at www.southernlivingathome.com/angietitus
You can actually browse the latest catalogue and order online from my homepage! Just click on the "Our Products" link on the left. The entire catalogue will come up and you can browse each wonderful page!
Happy shopping!

Can you tell it is flu season?

I have been so busy lately. I seem to have very little time to do anything but stick swabs up noses! I know we say this every year, but this has been a bad season for us. All three of the docs I work with have gotten sick this season and I have had to fill in more than usual. One of them had flu and then pnuemonia a few weeks later. I feel like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop and for my family to get sick. Then of course we have been swamped. Today, by the timeI finished seeing the patients in the first two rooms, I had to send them both to the ER because they were so sick!

I think Josiah just got over his second bout of pneumonia as well. I say think because he had x-rays that looked okay and progressively got worse until we started antibiotics almost a week later. My poor kids have to be on their death bed before I give them antibiotics! And of course we were out of town when he got so sick. Steve stayed up all night in the hotel watching him one night. We didn't come home early because I was scared to have him on the road sounding like he did. Anyway he is much better now.

So I hope you all are staying well. Wash those hands! Cover that cough or sneeze and remember Tamiflu only helps if started within 48 hours of onset of symptoms!

Dedication

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1: 3 (NIV)

Isn't this the sweetest picture? Steve took this Sunday after Josiah's dedication. We just went out in the backyard and took several shots. There were a lot of good ones, but I like this one the most. If you look close you can see the cross embroidered on his little outfit.

Dedication day is so important to me. I really think this is one of the most important days as a parent. We put a lot of prayer and thought into his "life scripture" and prayer. It is so hard to pick out just one scripture that you desire to represent what you hope for this child. Steve and I consider it a great privelege to be able to raise these precious little ones. They are such a blessing. They bring joy and laughter to the adult world. They bring innocence, love and trust. They are very special little people. I pray that we raise them the way God desires.

Father, thank you for the privilege of raising Josiah. We pray that your Spirit will live in him everyday of his life, and that his passion will be to seek and fulfill your will and calling in his life. That he will proclaim your Word to others, and that his life will create a legacy of faithful service to your Kingdom.

6 months already!

Happy Birthday Tiger!

Well it is not exactly his birthday. That was a few weeks ago. But yesterday we celebrated his 5th birthday. So why did it take so long to celebrate? We had a joint party with his best friend. They are about 6 weeks apart in age and we tried to pick the middle. We rented the local inflatable jumping house and invited all their school friends and family. I think we had close to 30 kids there! It was a zoo, but so much fun! He has wanted to have a party at this place for some time so he was on cloud 9. He grinned all day long!

Hogan is my "life of the party kid". He lives life to the fullest. He loves just about everything and everybody. He stays on full throttle as long as he is awake! He reminds me that life can be fun, I mean lots of fun! Give him a bad situation and he will make lemonade from lemons! This little guy is teaching me to love life by just watching him. I think he will set the world on fire someday. He has the energy, tenacity and the bravery to do it! Now if I can just survive his raising to see it!!!!

We have called him Goose since he was an infant. He made this little noise as a newborn that we said sounded like a goose. Well it stuck and we have affectionately called him Goose for 5 years. Well a few months ago he said, "Mommy me not goose, me Hogan." I was stunned but very politely ignored it. Then a few weeks ago he told us he did not want to be called goose anymore, just Hogan. My heart was crushed, but we are trying to respect his request and not call him Goose anymore. I say trying because old habits are hard to break. We called him Goose as much or more than Hogan, at least at home. So this is my Hogan.

He said WHAT?

Tonight riding in the car Sarah began talking about a classmate of hers. They have recently rearranged their desks and she has new neighbors. One of the little boys is in trouble a lot. She has lots of stories about what this little boy does. Well, tonight she reported that he says '"bad" words. Her teacher asks them to tell her when he says these words, but apparantly asks that they not say the words but rather tell her what letter the word starts with. So, of course, I ask her what words he says. Sarah replies the "sh word". I was glad it was dark because I am sure my face changed! I am thinking no way is this little boy saying that in school. I know, I know it happens all the time, but not here in the bible belt! I work with some of these type kids everyday so I should not be surprised, but I am alarmed. I really don't want this child sitting next to mine. I don't want her to hear these words. I don't want her to even know they exists yet! Well she interupts my thoughts with the answer (just before I decide to pull her out and homeschool the sweet thing). She whispers the word "shut up". Wow, what a relief not at all what I was thinking. Then she says he also says the "d" word. Again a cascade of thought interupted by a quiet "dumb". What innocence, isn't it grand! Don't you wish you could go back to the days where shut up and dumb were curse words. I don't mean go back physically, but go back to that innocence. It is such a sweet trusting time that is never repeated in our lives. This conversation did give us the chance to talk about how we handle these situations and why we don't talk "that way". So if you are jaded by life, know that there are still sweet innocent children playing on playgrounds in America!