Spangler Family Communication Center

To all y'all
Howdy, I i'm glad I could talk to all of you. I have a little secret. Come closer. A little closer.
I AM STINKING UPSET YEAHEAEAEAEAEAEAEAEEAGH!!!

Whew. that felt good. I just discovered that my best laid plans may not actually work. I had hoped to remain down in Groton until the beginning of Fall 07 semester. I was looking at a potential class schedual for the Spring and it seems that All three of the classes that i had intended to take might be scheduled for the same time on tuesday/thursday.

Long story still long I am asking all of you to pray with me. I want to be humble to God's will and I also want to know His will. I am asking all of you to pray for a clear direction that I should take.
Love and Peace
#3

Wow sounds fun. Not. I will definitly be praying for you guys. I have no advice of my own only what my mother and Pam tell me and that is keep it up, don't give in and be consistant. Oh yeah and don't give in. My mom assured me that if I gave in once it would keep the madness going for a week more. That struck fear into my heart and so I remember her saying that when I want to give in just a little. I hear "more for a week, more for a week" That is all I've got. The advice has worked for me this week though. It took two hours plus of spankings to get Ali to bed one night and the next it only took one hour and tonight I was ready for a battle and the child didn't even cry. I'm so glad I didn't give in. It is much harder with other things like hitting and tantrums, especially around others. Just keep in there. Know I am praying for you and Keep in there some more. You just have to hold out one minute past him. Whatever you guys have decided on you just gotta keep it up. I'm sure he'll live to be five. And then the peace will reign again.

I'm glad to hear the second child is even easier. I'm not sure what the second child phenomenon is. I'd love to be enlightened.

I'll call you tomorrow with the info. I just don't want to post it on the net.

Thanks
Jessica

Okay I just want to point out what has already been pointed out but there is finally someone's genes that out-do the spangler genes! Go Niki! Go Niki! Tee Hee I love your updates. I can't believe that Grant is a whole year old. Oh my goodness. That means Addie is next to follow soon enough. So did she like the cake?

Well, we are all doing swell here in AZ. Ali is enjoying testing boundaries and I am enjoying the process of making sure she knows they are still there. Okay neither of us are REALLY enjoying that but, Niki, something great to look forward to in about eight months. Learning boundaries and testing them are sure fun things to do. I've heard they go through another fun boundary stage at about four. Sarah, is this true? I keep wondering if Micah will be as tough as Ali. What do you think Sarah and Julie. I mean the second children are angles right?! I was I'm sure. :) Tee hee. Okay well, I can't imagine Micah ever throwing a tantrum over bed time :) Someone print this out to show me when he's eighteen months old.

Spangler #1's I am so excited to hear about your "new" church. Man it is so cool to see God working all over the US. I've thought about you guys and prayed for you this week. We have an exciting new ministry starting at our church too. As you know Bethany is located around a huge amount of hispanic families. We have been trying to reach these people but haven't suceeded much. Recently we hired a spanish speaking pastor and already we have several more hispanic families. We start a service in Spanish on Oct 1. It is so cool. I am actually singing in spanish in their praise team. It has been so much fun practicing with the group. We are small but God is blessing us. I can't wait for the services to start. We've been passing out fliers and going to peoples houses to invite them to our church. I got excited when you told me about the hispanics near you church. It is so cool that we don't have to go to the mission field to reach people of another culture and language. God has even brought you to their door step. As I pray for our ministry I'll be praying for yours too. I can't wait to hear what God will do in your new building.

Another thing Mark and I really need prayer for is our Condo to sell. I know I asked before but I'm going to have to ask again. It's a struggle with the bills for two places.

Boys, Mark is out of the field. I'm sure he'd love a few brotherly phone calls. He has his cell phone. Don't forget to give him a smootch in the ear from me :) Thanks haha

Jessica
Oh yeah, Niki I was serious about you bringing your cute little kiddo here to see us. (we want to see you too) I think her cheeks need to be kissed by her aunt jessie

Mom, I may have just discovered the potential solution to your computer problem. I am not claiming any sort of genuis. There are two paths to knowledge, through text and through expiriance.

For everyone else I miss yous guys. I am still chugging allong (like a train not a college student hehehe). Well, I pray that God continues to bless y'all and work in the hearts and minds of your children.

You Bro,
Mike

OK, so maybe they are ideas I love- I haven't talked to Greg yet. :) Can we please make cookies and cards for the elderly and go visiting and singing?! That is just the greatest idea ever. Im sure you all know about the love fest between little kids and old kids. I'm sure we could find some folks who would enjoy a visit. Of course we like all the other ideas a lot too.

Secondly, Julie & Galen- so sorry about Molly. I know she was part of the Spangler tribe for a looooong time, so I hope you can adjust to life without her quickly.

Thirdly, thanks for all the pity for me, but I'm good. Greg and I have gone out a few times (though admittedly a little more often would be fun). It is easy to go out once Addie is in bed, it just leaves our window for fun a little shorter, and doesn't include dinner. (but that is good for the budget anyhow). Remember- I like to cook and like to be home, so I can think of things a lot worse than this. We do hope that she will fit into the statistics and out-grow her reflux at around one year old. For her sake more for ours!

I can't write much because we are having trouble with our internet connection and I could get bumped off at any moment. Will try to respond to more things later!

Niki

I'm hoping to HAVE an idea or thought!!

Dad and I had a great time in FL this past weekend and he was able to place 10th (of 45) in the 3axle division. I'll give you three guesses as to what dad forgot to do...and the first two guesses don't count! (You'll have to guess to find out the answer!) We were able to spend part of the day at Epcot and had a good time. Orlando will be back in the picture in two years...anyone want to go th Walt Disney World in two years?

On a sad note...The day we left for FL...we had to say goodbye to Molley! What a great friend. She was silly and argumentative and all the rest...but she was our's. She'll be missed probably more than I'm willing to even admit right now. I can't tell you over the phone...cause I tear up etc. So....on with way cool OTHER thoughts!

I truly do want to focus on the year's greatest happenings all in the month of December. I feel blessed to have the great Spangler Homecoming tour headed straight to Glendale AZ. Jess has been able to keep you all very well informed of things we talk about at this end. (Again I'm without my computer) I'm going to call in the calvary in just about a minute!!!

We are willing to to go out to eat, but will have pleanty of meals ready to pull out of pantries and freezers to help feed the troops. (Technically, we'll have only 1 troop among us though) The Christmas Light parade is around the 1st weekend in December, but we have lots of other light shows to see. Glendale glitters is always a hit for light seekers. The Church of Joy (across the street) always has a great show of lights that you drive through and listen to a radio station of Christmas music. There is the zoo lights in Tempe and while there we could see the stuff around the water near that Park(can't think of the name of it). I'll check the papers and internet for childrens plays and things.

I can make several different kinds of cookie dough and we can all have the "cookie making tradition" and then in lieu of eating them all ourselves...we give them out to others if we want to go Christmas Caroling.

I'm still coming down from our little trip...but wanted to touch base with you all. You are soo missed and loved. Hugs and kisses to all of you and my precious love bugs.

I'll talk to you soon again.

Julie

I like the idea of planning before as much as possible. I'm in. I'm so glad you are good at finding all the things to do. I'll let you all know the date for Mark's party ASAP.

It's all good about the food. It's just a back up plan in case we are to tired to do anything else. It just may come in handy but no one is obligated.

I forgot to list caroling on the list of ideas. Niki, I think that is such a good idea. I have several ideas abou that but it doesn't matter to me how we do it. I've been making Christmas cards in hopes to give them to elderly people alone or stuck home for christmas. I was also hoping I could get a group to carol and pass out Christmas goodies to them. We don't have to do it but it would be the perfect group and they would all love the kids. It would be so great if it worked out.

I agree that we need to get Niki on the town. As Ali would sing... Greg and Niki sittin in a tree kissyng. I'm sure God will work it out for ya. Sounds like your babe is on the up and up. Two days is better than no days.


Well there are only like 18 days til we get to have a weekend with our beloved Mark. We are counting down every day. We miss him so much.

Jessica

Here goes. So far, and I hope I get this right, this is what I'm tracking with...
Christmas Ideas

A Kids Christmas Play
Hike
Kid's park and fun stuff like that
Christmas lights
Other fun Seasonal things we can come up with
Family Picture on Greg's camera at mom and dads (great idea!)
Mark's Party
Adult night (#1's will decide later) I'm sure Addie will be ready. We'll pray for that.

Housing

Brad and Sarah - Rented house or RV
Greg and Niki - ?
Mike - mom and dads
Mark and Jess (if it's a rockin don't come a knockin'!) Our house.

And the food for most meals I think we will leave at mom and dads house. Breakfast will be frozen in zip lock bags and taken wherever anyone is staying and warmed up at their liesure.


Niki don't worry at all about food you want to bring. That is very sweet. Now I need to get a hold of Mike and figure out when he will come. I need a date for Mark's party asap. I'll let everyone know when it is. Thanks all. Let me know if that is sounding good.

Greg and Niki
Are you guys coming to visit soon? I think you should. Your baby is so cute. I would love to have her and Micah play with each other. They could drule all over each other. Is Addie getting teeth. I don't recall. I still need to figure out the picture thing.


Sarah, it sounds like you've checked into an airline about the epipen, but i wonder if they have exceptions for babies or diabetics. I know they do for the liquid thing. I'm sure Galen would help piggy back elliot if he won't fit into one of our carriers. How much do you think he will weigh by Christmas?


Jess

Sorry that we haven’t added to the blog in forever. Our modem broke leaving us without internet for over a week. Oh the tragedy! At the same time our AC broke- right before the labor day weekend, so we went through a long weekend with temps over 100 and no AC. We actually were surprised that it wasn’t as bad as we expected it to be, but we are very thankful to have everything back in working order again.

All is “normal” here. Greg’s job is still great- he was able to hire a full-time guy, so now he isn’t doing it all himself! That means that he works a lot less (if any) on Saturdays and Sundays (WAHOO!) and late evening events can be covered too by my new favorite person Carlos. Also his boss has continued to compliment him on doing a great job. His boss has even asked him to teach a mini seminar to the other guys in his region on how to use some of the company software at an area conference in a couple weeks. Boss-man Tom also asked Greg to consider staying in the LA area when promotion time comes, saying he would hate to see him go and perhaps could make it worth his while (or something like that). We would like to know HOW worth our while he would like to make it. Greg told him he would at least be willing to entertain offers.

Addie had two good days in a row this week (I don’t know if that has ever happened before)- good days being defined as eating well, sleeping good at naps, and being cheerful when awake. She has been so cheerful the last few days that I am giddy too. She is mimicking sounds I make and laughing a lot and just being irresistible. She is still not crawling, but now walking holding on to furniture. That is all she wants to do and she gets herself all over the living room now. It is great to see! The challenge is that now that she has more ability to go where she wants, she DOES NOT like being told what to do. If she doesn’t get to be walking around for some reason (like I’m in the shower), she pitches a fit. Yesterday for the first time she threw herself belly down on the floor and screamed. Oh what fun. Do you guys know anything about that? Ha ha ha ha ha. As yucky as it sounds, it is actually nice to have her crying and it is clearly a behavior issue instead of us having to figure out whether she is in pain and what needs to be done. Blatant tantrums are actually a relief!

OK, so our Christmas input:
We are somewhat flexible about the dates we can come. But I know it isn’t helpful to say “we’ll come when it’s good for everyone else”, so let’s just say we can come anytime from Dec. 23 through January 2nd. That brings up another question- would the Indiana Spanglers be able to stay over New Years or will you be heading back before that? It would be really fun to spend New Years Eve together!

Back to Christmas: we don’t care what is eaten- just as long as we’re eating it together. Diet or no diet doesn’t matter. Jessie, I am impressed with your ideas to make stuff in advance and freeze it. That is an excellent idea. It would be nice to have more time to just have fun and think less about the logistics. Thank you in advance for the extra work you and Julie are putting into being the in-town hostesses. I wish I could bring some food and contribute too- don’t know how well that will work in the car for 8 hours.

As for activities, we would love to do some mild hiking and some parks and such- sounds great. A child’s play would be pretty cool also! Niki is a Christmas spaz and would love to go look at lights and any other things remotely related to Christmas. We could even go caroling! How well do toddlers sing? J We also need to remember to block off an afternoon for a family picture. Do you still want Greg to take it? I think his camera could get a nice shot and it might be nice to do it in Galen & Julie’s backyard- we could get the kids cute and only have to take them out the back doors!

A date night sounds fun, but we have our reservations. The biggest challenge with Addie’s reflux is her poor sleep. It isn’t uncommon for her to have a hard time sleeping and staying asleep and be hysterical if she is awake. By Christmas she might be fine (LET’S HOPE!), but it is really hard to predict. Also, she still nurses before going to bed at around 7:30, so Greg and I would feel better not making plans to go out for the evening at this point. Course, that is for us, you guys would be free to do something! Sorry to be the party poopers.

A soldier party for Mark would be great Jessie. I (Niki) would love to help if you need anything! I LOVE PARTIES. J

OK, that is all our input. Hope it helps. We love you all! 

I had another idea of something fun to do. We could go on a Chrstmas hike. There are plenty of easy trails for kids here. I've even gone plenty of times with kids. I have three baby backpacks and my neighbor has one we can borrow. I think that is all we would need. Let me know what you think. I know Galen would be thrilled to go hiking with his family and so would I. -Jess

I wonder how long my title can be. I should test that one day. It'd be good times. I'm having a typing issue today. My fingers are malfunctioning and they want to put two letters at the end of every word. I'll give you and example. Let'ss talkk aboutt Christmass. Theree itt goess. Woww I can'tt Makee itt stopp. I don'tt knoww whatt iss wrongg withh mee. Oh well. I'll do my best to make it stopp. Well, sorry I didn't bog for a while. I felt like there was nothing new. Mark's gone, blah blah blah. The kids are cute, blah blah blah. They are also nuts, blah blah blah. I'm tired, blah blah blah. But over all things are fine, blah blah blah. So, we didn't miss much you see.

I'm wondering what the plans are or rather the intended plans for Christmas are. Such as...
When are people planning on arriving in PHX?
How long are we all staying?
What are things we have to and want to do?
Etc Etc

I know we've already talked about the guys going golfing.
We had talked about the zoo. We could even do zoo lights if it is an interest for people.
I'm throwing a party for our soldier who will be leaving FOREVER to go overseas. I'd like to plan it for when all the fam is there. (Near the end of our vacation together)
I think we've talk about date nights and stuff like that. I'd love to secure us some sitters if need be. So, let's rethrow out our ideas and expectations and pull this party together. Oh yes. Julie and I have talked about food somewhat. But again we need to know what everyone is thinking. I think Julie is going to make some yummy foods that can be frozen ahead of time and then popped in the oven for a yummy dinner with little clean up and almost zero prep. I think that is more than a swell idea. I am also planning on making tons of pancakes, waffles, and french toast that we can warm up and eat in the mornings so again we don't have to all wake up and eat together and there is no preptime and clean up. I was also hoping to make a bunch of yummy snack stuff like... Homemade soft pretzels oh yeah. They are so yummy I want to eat them right now. Ok the other thing I was wondering is if we are on a diet for Christmas or not. I know I'm not eating sugar and Brad and Sarah are doing something and Julie is doing something. I'm wondering if our diets are compatible and what are good healthy things to eat on all the diets. I've got some great foods that are healthy. I just am wanting to know if everyone is planning on eating well over Christmas. I don't think I will be to my goal til the end of Feb so I'm sure I will not be eating sugar still. I'm throwing that out there to encourage those that aren't sure if they want to eat good or bad for Christmas. It takes too long to loose inches to gain any in a week. Not worth it here. But it won't be a big deal at all for me if others are splurging for Christmas. Not eating sugar is not very hard to do I mean I eat everything else so you know. Okay I'm blabbering. Can someone just let me know their plans for diet and fun?

Sarah, how are your tickets/motorhome coming. If you took a motorhome would you take more time off or be here less time? I'm thinking Mark is out for the motorhome idea but you neverknow.

Ooo there is something fun and new going on. Okay maybe it's fun and old. The arrowhead garage sales are coming up. In order to prepare for this massive and wonderful event my neighbors and I are having a garage sale of our own. I'm hoping to make enough money that I can buy the things I need at the upcoming garage sales in Arrowhead. It's kinda funny really. Trading my old junk for my new junk. Nice. I have my list, my maps and my truck oh yeah and my garage saling buddy for October. I haven't found a sitter yet but it is imperative for this sort of operation. I have a very very important item on the list this year and I am determined to find it. It is a bike cart for both of my kids. I'm really hoping for it. I saw a really nice one two years ago and I wanted it but I had no where to put it. Now I have a GARAGE!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!! It'd be so nice to go for bike rides with my kids. Okay well, I think that is all the fun news I have. Maybe I'm nuts but to answer your question about flying, I'm not afraid.
Jessica