Crackers in my Bed

After a particularly gruesome Tuesday night, I spent much of the week in bed with the flu. Thankfully, Eric stayed home on Wednesday when I was incapable of getting out of bed. I felt terrible about this since baseball season is upon us but I didn't have a choice. I was hoping for the 24-hour variety of flu but wasn't that "lucky" and ended up spending much time in bed this week. Thank God for PBS programming that entertained EJ! Well, PBS and saltine crackers. EJ has become particularly fond of the crackers that sustained me and he likes to have one in each hand as he watches Dinosaur Train or Elmo's World. Needless to say, I've have found these crackers everywhere! We finally got the vacuum out last night to clean it all up...and there will be no more crackers in the bed!

In Memory

Our thoughts and prayers are with Eric's family as they mourn the loss of his step dad's mother. Ruth was a noted artist with a wonderful career in Dallas and New York. Today, many of her modern and impressionistic works grace the homes of her children and extended family. She had a master's degree from NYU and loved the city. She raised her family in Dallas but eventually returned to New York where I was fortunate to visit her with Carol in 2004. The past few years she spent in Austin to be closer to family and that's when EJ got to meet her. He loved the pool table at her retirement home and threw a fit when we had to leave. Having raised four boys, she didn't even bat an eye at his fit! Ruth was 88 years old and she was laid to rest in her beloved New York City yesterday.

Sesame Street Live

We had a super special treat tonight! Kelly, Sammi, E.J. and I went to see Sesame Street Live! Here the kids are on the way. Definitely excited to see Elmo!



The show was great. Just perfect for young ones...except that an Elmo balloon was going for $10. Needless to say, we didn't come home with one!



Lots of singing and dancing!




The "Under the Sea" scene was one of our favorites. The fish looked like they were really swimming!




The kids did great even though they stayed up late! It was super fun to have a night out with Kelly and Sammi!!

"Warm" Weather

I walked outside yesterday and thought, "Wow, it's warm." When I went back inside I looked up the temperature. It was 11 degrees. I laughed out loud because I couldn't believe I thought 11 degrees was a heat wave. The weather has been so bad this winter. So bad that I even had to buy fleece pajamas...seriously! Today we've had 2 inches of snow and it's still coming down. Guess we'll be getting the snow blower out again!

Children's Museum

EJ and I visited the Children's Museum today. It was fantastic. Three stories of fun and excitment. We had a blast.



This unique contraption moved balls through and around in all directions. EJ was mesmerized by it. It was so neat observing him as he figured out where the balls were going and how they made other parts of the contraption work.




The Husker room was a hit. They had football and volleyball and we spent a lot of our morning throwing the footballs.



EJ liked playing in the Mack Truck. There was also a John Deere tractor but I didn't get a picture of it.



He did a lot of "shopping" at the grocery store. It even had a scanner and register that worked. After a while he would put a grocery item in the cart and push it all the way around the main floor and over the "scary" bridge. Our membership to the museum gets us into museums around the country so there will be lots of fun to be had!

Cupcakes!

E.J. found some Nemo Cupcakes and had to have them. They were white cupcakes with bright color frosting and a plastic image from the movie, Finding Nemo. He loves the frosting but won't eat the cupcake itself. He can only have one per day...can you see why?!

"Happy New Year"

Happy New Year…really. What would a happy year look like? Last night we had our neighbors over to watch the Huskers stomp over Arizona in the Holiday Bowl. It was a fun night of food, friendship and football. Some of the conversations last night caused me reflect on 2009. It seems like everyone I know experienced hardship over the past year. The world is filled with pain. In this past year we experienced or knew people experiencing miscarriages, job losses, death of a spouse, hurtful words from “friends,” infidelity, bankruptcy and even weight gain to name a few.

We live in a world where the person who wins “athlete of the decade” should also win be named “person with the worst moral compass.” Those who seem perfect really aren’t. Celebrities, athletes and even us common folk don’t have it together. Why is this? Because we live in a broken world. Things are just not the way they ought to be. No one needs to be told that there are things wrong with our world. No matter what your personal philosophy is, everyone knows that trouble exists and it WILL find you on any given day.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:22-23 that man exchanged the glory of God for a lie. Created in God’s image, we were originally meant to have peace on earth. That “exchange” is evident in every generation as we face pain, capriciousness, broken relationships, and a general sense of misery.

So when we wish someone a "Happy New Year" is it just a trite statement that ignores the pain that’s likely coming? I never think of it that way. I always like the fresh start a new year brings. In fact, this year my goal is to end my love affair with cheese…or at least dial it back a bit! But back to my main point. Perhaps instead of “Happy New Year” we should say, “May God give you the strength to face the trials that WILL come with fortitude and integrity. And may the good times be a precious reminder of God’s grace and mercy and the peace he offers to all through Jesus.”

May your blessings be abundant in the coming year.

White Christmas!

There's no dreaming of a "White Christmas" here...it's about as white as it gets! We got a foot of snow the last couple days and we even have snow drifts up to 4 feet on the side of our house!

Here's what we faced when we opened the garage door to start the snowblower! Thank goodness his mom and stepdad's gift from last year was the hard-core snow blower!! We gave it a good run for the money.






Poor Forsberg had a heck of a time using the "bathroom" in the snow.


Fortunately, we had plenty to keep us busy inside. Here's Grandma Bobbie making EJ a Lightening McQueen cake on Christmas Eve day. She surprised him with the cake and a Thomas the Train electrical track after we got home from church.









EJ woke up at 5:30 on Christmas morning. That's early even for him! Christmas with a toddler is super fun, especially for Grandma who got up with EJ and entertained him until the rest of the house woke up. That was a great gift for Eric and I! Here's EJ coming downstairs to see what Santa brought..."Mack," the semi who pulls Lightening McQueen. EJ drove Mack to "California" which as across the living room to see Thomas' track to watch the train.






Here's some final pictures...a few more favorites from the holiday.








Due to his early wake-up, EJ went to bed early and the rest of us played Mexican Train Dominos and watched, "Elf." It was a fun Christmas for all! We hope you had a good holiday. Happy New Year!

Ho Ho Ho!

We went to the mall last night to ride the carousal and "look" at Santa. We didn't think that EJ would be willing to meet with the jolly ole fella. We were wrong. After walking by Santa's workshop and eyeing him a few times, EJ decided on his own that he wanted to see Santa. He was a little timid but ultimately made friends with him and smiled for the picture.

Christmas Greetings!

Seasons Greetings!

We hope that you are enjoying the holidays with your cherished friends and family. We are just digging out from a blizzard but loved the two days we had at home together. As for this past year, we had our share of ups and downs but we were able to identify God’s faithfulness through it all. We still love living in Lincoln and are grateful for our friends and neighbors here. We also had fun seeing friends and family all over the country through Eric’s baseball games and recruiting trips, my work trips, weddings and holidays. Here’s the latest on our family.



EJ is 2½ and loves life. His language skills are developing and we love communicating with him. For several months he called me “honey” which was rather endearing. He is a very polite child—says please and thankum (thank you) without being prompted and he recently apologized to the wall for accidentally hitting it when he walked by. He says bless you when I sneeze and when we finish our prayers he says, “Amen.”

While “thankum” is one of our favorites, we also think his verb usage is interesting. For a while now he’s been saying, “No, I don’t” for everything that he says “no” to. So if we ask him if he is ready to take a bath he’ll reply, “No, I don’t.” Last week, we were playing tickle and I got a great spot on his leg. He was laughing so hard. When I stopped, he grabbed his leg to tickle it himself and he immediately said, “Mommy, it’s not working!”

His love for Forsberg continues to grow and he calls Forsberg, “Biersey” and still likes to share his kennel. I thought it would be hard to teach him letters and numbers but he picked up on them easily. He is also really good at puzzles. This is, of course, when you can pull him away from playing with cars and trains.



Eric was grateful that the MLB signing date came and went without losing a lot of players like he did last year. He worked really hard this summer and fall to recruit players for the coming years and this year’s recruiting class was ranked #13 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. As you can imagine, he is really looking forward to the 2010 season to get these kids out on the field. As always you have an open invitation to come and cheer on the Huskers!

My big accomplishment this year was passing my comprehensive exams for my doctoral program. I completed all my coursework and passed the exams so I have officially “moved to candidacy” for a PhD. Now I have to do a major research project called a dissertation. It will be over a hundred pages and will be guided and critiqued by three of my faculty. I have begun preparations for this and hope that the coming year will bring great progress on this. I continue to teach online classes and mini-terms for DBU and I taught several classes at Nebraska Wesleyan this year. I am going to cut back on my Wesleyan classes next year which is a big relief as I want to spend more time with EJ experiencing Kindermusic classes and going to the Children’s Museum. I am very cognizant that he may be my only child (born on earth) so I don’t want to miss any of this fun toddler stuff. It’s true what “they” say…it goes by fast!



Here we are picking out our Christmas tree--a fun family tradition--even in the freezing cold. So, that’s the latest here. We’re off to play in the snow, drink hot cocoa and enjoy the holidays. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!

Eric, Melissa & E.J.