Come on Truman - Upper Michigan Part 2

Sydney with her Upper Michigan Grandparents...and Truman the dog.





Sydney really liked Truman. She has really liked dogs since visiting Aunt Sarah and Uncle Eric last fall. They had 2 German Shepard/Rottweiler-type puppies and she liked watching them chase each other around the house and bark. However, I think she liked Truman better, only because he is smaller than she is. :) She kept walking around the house after Truman, telling him to "come one" and "sit here." I think poor Truman was just trying to get away at times, but she followed him under the dinning room table and everything.

Here is a cute video of Sydney trying to coral Truman.

"Come on, Truman!"

Aww...group hug.

Upper Michigan - part 1

We spent some time visiting Wayne's parents in early July. Sydney especially loved their dog, Truman. here they are playing underneath Grandma Anderson's kitchen table.


We visited (Great) Aunt Sandy's place and it had horses...lots of horses. They were all very friendly horses, but Sydney was not too sure about petting any of them.



Sydney got to hang out with her second cousins while we were there. (ok...the whole second cousin/twice removed/first cousin/once removed thing is very confusing....but i think i got it right...i looked it up on wikipedia...it was one 'interesting' chart...all i know for sure is that somehow, they are related.) :)
This is Sydney and Kimmy...they were born only 4 days apart!!!




Sydney had a good time....even though this picture may say otherwise. I love this pic we got of sydney..that is just how she is sometimes. She is very good and almost always happy...but she does have a will...and boy is it strong at times. I can just hear her thoughts...I don't want to smile and there is nothing you can do about it.

growin' up

wayne watering his garden. he waters it every day and is so proud that it is all still alive!


onions


ladies and gentlemen, we have pollination...and roma tomatoes



sydney likes to help 'water' the garden. it is a little spray bottle we picked up at walmart.....i dont think she really accomplishes anything, but she enjoys "pew, pew"-ing the plants (like a good fletcher, sydney appreciates the fine art of sound effects to enhance the experience.)

veggie tales

well, the garden lives on!!!

which way is up?

Here is our attempt at a flower garden along the back of the house.

Sydney is supervising Daddy as he digs up holes for the future flowers.


Things go pretty well, until we need to put the bulbs and root balls into the ground. "Does anybody know which way is up?"



We didn't know either, so in the twisted thing went, and hopefully the plant itself can figure out which way is up, cuz we sure can't.

preping the garden

we are going to attempt a garden. all our little seedlings that we planted a few months ago...we they keeled over. they lasted for a few weeks, but it was inevitable that something would die, so at least it was just the little 20 cent seed packets.
so here is wayne and my dad getting our little garden area ready. we are making a "u" shaped garden and putting a fence around it to keep out hungry critters and sydney feet.

"MEN AT WORK"


the view from above


daddy's little helper - so cute!

our gardening attempt

so we started off with tomatos and green peppers inside. this was back in early april...







in a week...we had life!!!

oh yeah, i can taste those juicy tomatos already


yup, those spindly little green things will be bright red tomatos some day... (with a lot of luck) i'll let you know in a day or two how well things went

a message from Sydney

grandpa fletcher helped sydney make this adorable message for us.


(I. Love. You. Mommy. And. Daddy. Bye-Bye You)

it is so precious. mushy hearts of the world unite...mwahhhhh

Oh No!

This is our new favorite video of Sydney. Sydney was playing with the little figures and could not get them to stand up...everytime they fell over it was a huge dramatic "oh no" or "oh man!" by the time i got the camera, she had pretty much figured it out, but she kept up the silliness by creating her own drama.

trying to rest in His hand

My previous blog ended up being a lot longer (and heavier) than I had anticipated. I'm sure some of you can relate to the dark times in life. My point was, and hopefully it came across, was to trust in God, even when it seems impossible. even when the raging female hormones are, well, raging. even (and especially) when life doesn't make much sense.


I wanted to post a picture of Baby Sept. '09, so here's baby.


I dont know how else the tragedies of life can be handled. Brianna, (a friend from college), if you read this, I check your blog occasionally and I always end up crying my eyes out, because i just can't fathom the loss you have gone through. I understand some of the inner turmoil you go through and i believe you hang in there same as i do, one day at a time, knowing that God is truly sovereign and loves us so much. rest in the father's hand.

i get by with a little help from my friends

I have not posted as much in the last 8 months or so. Most of you know (how many people read this thing anyway? oh well) that Wayne and I had a miscarriage last August (2008). It was just a few days before Sydney's first birthday and we had not told anyone yet about the pregnancy (Except my mom who found out from a doctor's call I got while shopping with her. How does one covertly yet directly answer the preliminary questions of pregnancy? "Yes, I've been missing that[period] for about 7 weeks now. No, I have not experienced any of that [morning sickness/bleeding]. Yes, I will se you then [doctor's appointment]." Not that it was a big deal, it was just funny trying to not let my mom know, but she figured it out anyway.)
I didn't post for a long time because I was sad and missing my baby. Corey was due back in late February (2009).
I know I am rambling on, but I just need to get some things out, I think.
People say a lot of things during a time of tragedy. Some unfortunately are not very helpful or comforting. Some say, "time heals," which is a total lie. only God heals things. And I'm not saying that flipantly or to be deep, it is just the truth. Time only told me that I was "supposed" to be four months pregnant, now six months pregnant, and you would be feeling the baby right now, and only a few more weeks now and you would have had the baby. I'm not sure what percent of that is hormones (which are a beast) or my own selfish self.
I had gone from having ideas of what the right thing to do and think is, to struggling with experiencal knowledge of suffering and battles with self.
While I can hardly compare myself with Job, I often think of his response to learning that all that he loved (his family) and owned (his possesions) had been killed and destroyed. (Job 1:21b) "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised."
Job is not praising God for this current situation (as if it was God's fault or vengence), Job is praising God Himself. Job, like me, doesn't understand what has happened(or why). He only knows that God is still God, and He is good. God is God of the good times and bad times in my life. I only wish I could hold more firmly to that. I even need God's strength to trust in Him!
As I type this, I am 18 weeks pregnant with new our "bundle of joy-to-be". I still cry over Corey and what could have been, and I still struggle to completely trust God and release the past into His hands. However, i do "get by with a little help from my friends." mostly that is my husband wayne who continually points me to the one who loved me first, Jesus.
So, in summary...
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you walk through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...You are precious and honored in my sight and I love you."
God - Isaiah 43:1b-3a, 4b
God is my Protector, Savior and Friend, not because of me, but because of Him, that is who He is. Thank you God for your unfailing love. You are my solid rock through all the uncertainty in this troubled world.
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalms 18:2

Sydney's new cell

Check out Sydney's impromptu Cell Phone



It's a calculator...she spent about 5 minutes talking to dada on it.

mmwah!

the doll is mary.


it is auntie sarah's doll from probably kindergarten or so. the doll has seen better days, even when sarah first got it, it had seen better days. it was saved from the free box at bethel seminary when we were in elementary school. sarah loved that doll, jonathan however had a different view. fletcher kids will knowingly recall how jonathan wrestled and body slammed that poor mary doll around until sarah would rescue it while naomi would unconvincinly say, jonathan stop it.
well, mary has found a new person to love her. mary had been hiding in a box of sarah's left behind stuff. we thought sydney might like to see her, so out she came, and sydney's sensitive side showed up.

boots - aug

Sydney and her cool boots - i love these clod-hoppers on her...she clomps around in them and looks at her feet like, "why are you so loud?"

Videos of sydney's party

I was having so many problems getting her pictures to work on the last post that i decided to post her party videos separately. Here they are:
Sydney eating her cake, and guests...

Sydney really likes her cake...hmmm...hmm...hmm.