Let it Snow!

We may have set a new record for snowfall in the area. I didn't hear the final verdict on whether or not we beat the record, but our town had 33" yesterday! Today it's sunny, and everything outside is just glistening and sparkling like a landscape of diamonds--absolutely gorgeous! Ethan has been out there working right alongside Heath to shovel the driveway and (even as I type) is begging for everyone to come out and play with him. Heath worked all last night plowing a parking lot and plans to do the same thing the next few nights. Maryland is really not equipped to handle this much snow, so the roads are still really bad, and most things are cancelled for the next few days. That kind of drvies me crazy, but (if the kids would stop fighting) I really don't mind being stuck at home enjoying the scenery. It's so peaceful and quiet and clean and fresh outside . . . this is what winter is meant to be!

A Brilliant Idea

We've been having problems with Tabitha sleeping ever since we got home with her. At first we blamed it on jet lag, then on her getting adjusted, but it's still going on 3 months later. Every night she wakes up crying (3 or more times), comes to her door (which is gated) and stands there screaming until we come to get her. If we take too long she sometimes goes to sleep on the floor by the door, but then she wakes up cold and starts the crying all over again. Now, being the "Babywise" parents that we are . . . we have this strange concept that a 2 year old should be able to sleep all night! We worked hard on training our boys to sleep through the night within their first few months. And Tabitha slept great in the hotels in China and only started this once we got home. At the beach house in December she was in a crib and in the same room as us (just like the arrangement in China) but that didn't fix the problem. So we've been at our wit's end trying to figure this out.

Two nights ago we implemented a brilliant idea which I think might have fixed the problem! Ready for this amazing technique? We put her back into a crib, instead of the toddler bed she'd been in. The past two nights she's still waken up a couple times crying, but since she couldn't get out of bed she was back to sleep within 5 minutes all on her own, without us doing anything. I can't tell you what a relief that is! I'm fully confident that soon she'll not even bother crying and will have successfully learned to manage progressing through the sleep cycles on her own. Why oh why didn't we just put her in the crib from the start?!?

Oh well . . . you live, you learn. And I have a feeling we're all soon going to be a whole lot happier with full nights of sleep and a well-rested toddler. Hallelujah!

House of Craziness!

When we sold our Brunswick house in 2002 it was on the market for one weekend, and we got a contract. We had no kids, and it was a small house. So keeping it clean for that one weekend was not at all difficult.

Last year, when our current house was on the market for 9 months, we had a bigger house and 2 young children. (And the "Stager Lady" of course.) Keeping it clean was much more of a challenge that time, but we only had a showing maybe every couple of weeks, and we always had a couple days' notice.

This time, we put it on the market last weekend. We had a showing on Monday, a showing on Tuesday, and a showing Thursday evening! Then today, I had just finished school work with Ethan and checked email. It was 9:20, and there was an email saying there'd be a showing between 9:30 and 11:00! AAAAHHHH!!!! How do you clean up and get 3 kids out of the house in 10 minutes?!?!?! Fortunately, the house was in pretty good shape since we'd just had a showing last night. (Although that's not a guarantee . . . it's amazing how quickly the house can go from perfect to disastrous!) Ethan and I managed to get it looking pretty good within 20 minutes, and we all loaded into the van and left. Now we're at the library killing time. Ethan has a Kindermusik class at 12:30, so I don't think we'll be able to go home, make lunch, and then leave again. Hmmm....I think we'll be forced to eat out. :)

I'm truly amazed at how much activity we've had on the house this week. No offers yet, but one person seems interested. Please pray with us for God's timing and a great sale price!

OK, my children are disturbing everyone in the library...must run!

Hallelujah!

Well, after 38 days as a one-vehicle family, we finally have our van back! It was so exciting to drive it yesterday. . . smooth, quiet, smells good, door handle works, I can get in and out SO easily . . . aahhhh.. . . it's wonderful! I will never take our van for granted again! We are truly blessed to have two vehicles, and I will try to remember to thank the Lord EVERY DAY for that blessing!

Us

Well, I've been slacking a bit on keeping this updated. And I can't remember which family members and friends I've told what to . . . so here is a brief update on everybody:

Tabitha
Tabitha continues to adjust and settle in. She's picking up more and more English, and our communication is getting better and better. She had an MRI on the 8th. We're still waiting for her Chinese hospital records to be translated. As soon as that's done, the doctors can give us a plan of action as far as what surgeries she'll need and whether or not the neurogenic bladder will be correctable. Her temper tantrums have greatly diminished, and we're working on the whining. She's making great progress on all fronts.

Jesse
Jesse's a happy 4-year-old who's excited about life and learning and having fun. He's constantly making us laugh with his off-the-wall comments. He's learning his letters and loves doing his school work. He's in AWANA Cubbies and really enjoys that too.

Ethan
We just joined a homeschool co-op this month, and Ethan is loving it! He's taking Ancient Civilizations, Physics, and Art. They're really fun, hands-on classes, and he's so excited every Monday when we come home. It's great to see him loving it! He is really into art lately and loves any kind of craft/art project. He also just started a Kindermusik class, which I'm very excited about. And he's in AWANA Sparks and doing a great job learning his verses there. It's been fun seeing him come out of his shell a bit and make friends.

Heath & Erin
We've been busy trying to figure out how to parent 3 kids. You'd think we'd have it down after the first two, but it's been a big adjustment. I do feel like we're finally getting the hang of it, and are almost functional. =) We try to have a date night at least once a month, and we're hoping to be able to go on a cruise later this year to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Heath's been doing a lot of side work while his main job has been very slow. He's also been around to help me with the kids a lot, which has been great! I just resumed teaching piano lessons last week (one day per week). It's nice to be back to teaching, though sometimes I wish I were less busy. But it's a nice change of pace from the rest of the week.

Our Vehicles
This past August (after I killed our camry) we bought a used minivan. I was thrilled! Fortunately Heath was wise enough to buy the after-market warranty, because the week before Christmas the transmission decided it wasn't going to function correctly anymore. So, we took the van to the place the warranty people would work with. And . . . it's still there. One week of no cell-phone service at the beach where they couldn't reach us, and the rest of the time is waiting for the auto shop and the warranty company to work things out. Supposedly we'll be getting it back early next week.

So...in the meantime we've been a one-vehicle family, that one vehicle being Heath's beast of a truck. Let me share my feelings about this machine. It's loud. It smells. It jostles one's insides. If the back isn't filled with thousands of pounds, it might jostle one right into oblivion. It's too tall to get in without a ladder. It can't fit in a normal parking space, and it's so high up in the air that the ground around it is not visible while driving or trying to park. And did I mention it's loud and it stinks? Oh yeah, and the inside driver's side door handle broke, so after I put on a hillarious show of trying to park the monstrocity, I can't even get out without another circus display of maneuvers.

But...nonetheless I'm very thankful that we have a way of getting around, and that Heath's work schedule was quite flexible to allow the kids and me to make it to all our planned destinations.

Our Home

Well, here's where it gets interesting. Two years ago we bought land, planned on quickly and easily selling our house for a great price and then building our new house. Turns out God had other plans. With the drop in the housing market, we were unable to sell our house, and so here we are two years later paying interest on both loans, running out of money, and not getting any closer to building. We considered the options of refinancing, renting out our house, selling the house, selling the land, etc. After much deliberation and number crunching, we have decided to put both our house and our land on the market. I'm a bit sad about giving up the land we've been planning to live on these past couple years. But it's for the best. The hope is that we can sell both, walk away with a lot of cash, rent for awhile, get a great deal on a new piece of property (or a house we can rebuild), and then build the house we've been dreaming of. Not the way we wanted to do things, but necessary. And I'm hoping that God has something even better than we'd ever imagined in store for us. If not, we'll just wait for our mansion in heaven. :)

Well, those are the latest happenings in the Runkles home. Thanks for reading!

All I Want for Christmas . . .

Well, I guess Ethan will have to wait for NEXT Christmas for his two front teeth!

At the Beach

There's nothing quite like the Stuenzi's week-at-the-beach. 50-some people all in one 18-bedroom house, playing games, making music, talking, eating, an endless supply of chocolate, a little sleep, and lots of fun! It's always a great time. This year has been challenging for us though. When you're a parent of young children you never really get a vacation because they're still with you! The boys have really connected with the other cousins this year and had a great time with them, but Tabitha has been up several times a night and very needy during the day. Fortunately, she warmed up to everyone quickly and they're all fighting over chances to entertain her.

This year we're in Corolla, North Carolina, at a house accessible only if you have 4-wheel drive. We literally had to drive on the beach and over the dunes to get to the house! It's been too cold to spend time on the beach this year, but from our bedroom we had a perfect view of the awesome sunrise over the ocean. I wish I could wake up to that every morning!

Tomorrow we'll head back home and get some rest while we look forward to the next Stuenzi-family gathering.