She's Growing up too fast!

Hannah had her first scant Tablespoon of Rice cereal mixed with mommy's milk this morning! She was puzzled about it at first, but then she seemed to really want it! Of course, she also wanted to get at the green spoon I was using to feed her! Elizabeth was excited to help feed her and was a very proud big sister.

Hannah embodies a healthy looking baby...at her four month well visit last week she weighed 16.25 lbs! I don't remember the others being that big at four months! She's woken up in the night the last two nights, so I'm thinking she may be a little hungry, and I'm also really struggling to find a good new routine for her. Prayerfully, we'll get on a little better eating schedule and sleeping schedule and she'll stop crying herself to sleep nearly every nap.
More updates soon!

Rachel

Lots of new growth!

The tomatoes and peppers have flowers and there is lots of new growth on the beans and watermelons, and some, but not as much on the corn. Everything seems to still be alive, Praise God, and even doing well! Here are the pictures for proof! :) The first is the watermelon, next the tomato plant, and finally, the green beans.

Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites at Ameristar

The days of overpriced and undermaintained Holiday Inns with scum floating on outdoor rot-iron fence enclosed pools and no ammenities to speak of are over. I've been travelling these United States my entire life - mostly traversing the mid-section - and I recall thinking of how fun it would be to stay at a Holiday Inn during my youth - after all, they usually offered HBO in the room! Back then, they were expensive compared to the Cheap Z's, Days Inns, and Econo Lodges that we usually ended up in - but it was probably for the better that we never stayed under the star.

Those days are over.

The full compliment of Holiday Inn hotels has raised the bar as far as renovations, ammenities, locations, and pricing in my short lifespan to a noticeable degree. Nowadays, I rarely plan a trip without first checking on the company's easy-to-use website for the closest accomodations where I can benefit under my Priority Club account. Tonight it's the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites next door to the Ameristar Casino just off of I-29 in Council Bluffs, IA. We didn't plan on this stay, however the flight my brother and I were slated to take to Minneapolis, MN was delayed to far to make our connecting flight, so we're stuck till tomorrow, and I'm not too upset. Free Wi-Fi is standard and the beds/linens are second only to another chain's offerings of a Sleep Number bed in every room. Of course there is a free hot breakfast in the morning, though our early flight will unfortunately prevent us from partaking the usual fresh waffles, eggs, bacon, danishes, juices, and other breakfast items. We took a dive in the indoor pool inside an expanse of windows looking out over the powerful Missouri River and relaxed in the hot tub after an arduous airport experience.

I booked it online for 10 bucks less than anything else comparable in the area and a shuttle was at the airport within 10 minutes of booking and a follow-up phone call.

Someday I'll provide a proper review of the best roadside hotel I've ever stayed at - the Holiday Inn Express in Coeur d'Lane, ID - but I think I'll need another visit to refresh my memory, that was after all 1.5 years ago and my memory is a little fuzzy. . .

Prince Caspian

Everything definitely changed. I won't waste much time discussing the story line or plot, needless to say the plot alone makes this a story worth reading/viewing. Rather, I'd like to focus on it's movie merits. First, the orchestration was terrific. It was subtle yet supportive, conjuring up the idea of "Narnia" even before the kids were whisked away. I would defintely rank the effects as being on the same level as LOTR, though on a smaller scale. Something that surprised me was the humor the screenplay writer's included to help reinforce the relationships. From the first Narnian the kids meet upon returning to their departure, subtle comedy was comfortably interwoven throughout dying, battles, love, sorrow, and suspense. Best of all, it was not overdone, like most sequels. Disney has proven once again that it takes a company that has only one way of doing business to do justice to a work of cinema - with high quality.

Prince Caspian Pre-Post

I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, though I definitely plan to and will gladly post a review, but I did read a recent review on IMDb.com written by someone who was very disappointed in the Christian/religious themes throughout the film. Even though most of us probably know that Lewis was maybe the most noted apologist of the 20th century, this poster didn't seem to. One of the responses made me laugh out loud.

By FabHckyBbe, "Complaining about Christian themes in CS Lewis is as stupid as reading Agatha Christie and complaining about all those darn mysteries."

Not very nice, but funny.

"Sulhoffs, Sulhoffs, how does your garden grow?"

Hopefully, it's growing big and strong and putting down long, deep roots!

All the sprouts are in now, after several days of hardening them to the outdoor air and heat. It was a hot day in May today at 80 degrees plus. Tomato plant, pepper plant (pre-purchased), watermelon, carrots, corn, green beans are all growing in our little garden. Prayerfully, they will be productive!

I do have a couple of questions for those of you reading who have more gardening experience than we do. The jiffy peat pack recommended that you plant 2-3 seeds in each little peat circle and then thin out the weaker one after sprouting. Well, I only guessed at how to do that! I just picked the sturdier stem basically. With the corn, I had two stalks growing in each of the three pots I planted them in. In each of the three pots, one stalk was still green and fairly weak feeling to the touch, yet taller and with longer roots, but the other sprout was sturdier and had a purplish color at the base with medium root lengths. Which is the hardier plant and which is the weaker? I picked the one with the strongest (purplish)stem, for good or for ill.

And then the carrots. I did not thin them out. In some peat pots, all three seeds sprouted, in some only one. I just planted them like they grew. Am I going to get three gnarled up carrots all grown together under the pots where three sprouted?

If anybody has any insight to these questions, please email us or post a comment!

Enjoy each day God has given you!

Love,
Rachel

Ten inch tall beans

Ten inch tall beans! Yippee! I guess we'll be doing a lot of snapping this summer! And some sharing, too! I just about killed my tomato and pepper plant, forgetting to water them when I had not planted them in the garden plot yet. They are safely underground now, putting out roots and very perked up!

The Garden / ROTW Part III

In case you haven't already done so, I would strongly encourage you to take a look at our Garden page. It's really neat to see how quickly these seeds have developed into sprouts!

As for my weeds - the saga continues. Here is a quick shot of the rebellion that is going on in my front yard.

Today I went to see my friend, Kirk, and alas - he was at lunch (I guess that's OK). So, I spoke with another employee and was advised (after they saw the pictures of my lawn) to use a spray-on weed killer other than the 2,4-D I used at the beginning of April. I should see yellowing in two weeks and then dead weeds in six. Of course, crabgrass may take multiple treatments to be affective. And like all other things for the lawn, there are explicit instructions on what and what not to do. DO NOT mow within 48-hours before or after. DO water within 1-7 days. DO NOT spray when wind is greater than 10 mph. DO wear long sleeves, long pants, socks and shoes to apply. DO NOT apply in colder temperatures. yadda yadda yadda. So, I think I met all requirements and I'll be sure to avoid the pitfalls described. I really don't care what it takes at this point - I just want to lose the weeds!

God Bless us all!

Speechless

Words really can't express this miracle. Take a look at our garden, then compare to previous posts!

Above is the full array. Just about everything has sprouted and the beans and corn are showing their first leaves. On the left is the most developed of the beans yet.

Blogsavy blog host

I had three blogs on blagsavy. Now they're gone. I'm disappointed - especially considering one of them was all of my reviews! So now I start from scratch. The first thing I'm reviewing is the blog host that lost two of my blogs. Thankfully I retrieved the data from one of the blogs and transferred to a more reliable blog host (blogger.com), however I am kicking myself in the backside for not moving over my reviews as well. I give blogsavy no stars and two thumbs down.

Shepherding a Child's Heart

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp really captures the essence of parenting in a no-nonsense way, unlike any parenting book I've ever read before. I think it is better than, dare I even say this, James Dobson's parenting books! I know I just committed heresy, but I challenge you to pick it up and read it!

Our ladies Bible Study is right in the middle of it. It has revealed so many truths and eradicated so many lies we so commonly believe about relating to and disciplining our children. I could go on and on about all I've learned, but truly, you should read it yourself. You'll want to underline every word. Parents have been telling David and I since we were pregnant with Andrew that this is the best parenting book out there. Someone even had given us a copy. But it didn't get read till now. I am in better communication with the Lord about my children than ever before and they are in better communication with me than ever before. I am happier, knowing that in how I teach Andrew and Elizabeth to obey, I, also, am obeying my Lord. There is great peace in that obedience.

Maybe I'll write more on this another time!

In Him,
Rachel

Answer to Prayer

Yesterday is a day to mark on the calendar. On Thursday, May 15, 2008, Hannah Joy Sulhoff began drinking out of a bottle, as if she'd done it all her life!!!! She's continued to do so today, so I'm thinking it wasn't just a freak accident! I'm actually thinking, "Lord, you really answered this cry of my heart! Thank you so much!" Now, SOMEONE OTHER THAN ME can feed her! That's really huge. Thank you all for your prayers in this area. Other benefits to the bottle success: I can wear a dress to church (some of you may have to think about that for a minute), I can leave her with a baby-sitter or family friend, meaning David and I can actually go out at night every once in awhile, and eventually, she'll be able to feed herself.

Thank you, Lord! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Gifts

The art of gift-giving is an art my husband is very good at. And, might I mention, he doesn't only give gifts to me! However, lately, he has blessed me so much with two wonderful and probably life-changing gifts. He gave me the garden for our anniversary, which you can read about on this blog. I have always wanted to grow a garden. My grandparents always had a garden every summer and they first inspired me with the idea as a young child. It is so neat to have something so "pure" and "good" for our family to have to "think upon", as Phillipians 4:8 says. Watching a plant grow from a seed is something I had never done before and it is something that definitely reveals the glory of God! Our family is richer for the experience, and I hope to make it a yearly one.

David gave me yet another gift this month, for Mother's Day. It was very thoughtful. He got me a new Bible! I've had my NIV Study Bible since at least 1993, maybe longer. The dedication page on which my mother wrote so nicely the date and occassion of her and my dad giving it to me fell out long ago, and now I've forgotten when it was. To make a long story short, the Bible I ended up with is the New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible. I haven't read much yet, as I just got it yesterday afternoon, but I can already tell my time with the Lord will be enriched and my relationship with Him stronger, as I use this fresh new translation to hear His Word through the same Holy Spirit He has always used to speak to His children.

David has taught me so much about giving gifts! Receiving a gift, a gift that really met a need and/or blessed you in a special way, like the gifts described above, is not an everyday occurrence. Think about it. When is the last time you received a gift that really "hit the spot" in this way? When did you last receive a gift that was just exactly what you wanted or needed? First of all, make sure you let the giver know how much the gift meant to you--even if it's been years since the giving. Secondly, make sure you are a good receiver. If you do not appreciate a gift, do not lie, but do not be rude either. However, if you do appreciate it, and yet your pride is getting in the way of letting you truly be thankful for what someone wanted to bless you with, then you need to take a look at that heart of yours and ask God to start doing some serious surgery! Pride will rob you of so much joy! Thirdly, let the givers example inspire you to be a great gift-giver also! Don't let money or time hold you back. Just budget and plan and make it a priority to think of someone other than yourself or the hurry you're in, or all the things you have to do and make it happen. Blessing others is usually a lot more rewarding than checking off the To Do list! And coming from the queen of checking off lists, that's saying a lot! I've actually, on occassion written on my To Do list for the week, in between number three "Fold and put away the laundry" and number 5 "Plan out the dinner menu for the next two weeks", number 4 "Think of some ways to bless others this week and do it". You know, God always honors that and gives you the opportunity and means to do it!

Be encouraged and give the gifts God has given you in order to be like Him and bless others. Even a timely word, picking up a couple groceries for a busy friend, or mowing a neighbor's lawn are all excellent examples of gifts anyone can give.

Rachel

A Quick Update on my first blog

Well, for the record, I just wanted everyone to know that the turtle population at the MMFA pond is still thriving. About 10 days after the last post, we went back to see a puppet show, and saw plenty more baby turtles. One little boy there, even scooped one up in a cup and took it home to befriend his other turtle.

What a difference a day makes! The beans are all full sprouts (save one that has yet to rear its head), the first leaves from the corn are about to poke through, the watermelon finally decided to make a debut (second row from the bottom, 3 on the left), a couple carrot sprouts showed up and the flowers are growing lovely stems.

It's so incredible to see the regenerative nature of God's creation. It reminds me again of the mustard seed faith we must possess. All we need is a seed's worth of faith, surround ourselves with a fertile environment and drink His living water. God does the rest!

In a few weeks we'll hopefully harvest some beans and by the end of the summer the rest of the garden will be eaten or on our table! Give us a call, stop by and we'll share the harvest.

In Him,

David

Happy Birthday E.J.!

Happy Birthday! From one Elizabeth to another!

: )

Nama

Early yesterday morning, I received the call that I had dreaded for a long time. My Nama had passed away quietly in the night. I feared the call for a lot of reasons, especially because it would forever close a chapter in my journal that I could never write in again. The time with her is behind me now and I have no opportunity to either enrich or break down that relationship. I posted a few months back about an extraordinary trip my three brothers and I took to visit her and now I am all the more thankful that we took that opportunity. The amount of regret and guilt had we failed to make it happen would probably be more than I would care to handle right
now. I also could have passed up the opportunity to speak with her on the phone just hours before she died. Instead, I can look back and feel closure as I made that call and was able to thank her for some things that were way overdue. Now we are waiting for the funeral arrangements and a trip to the country's midsection to pay our respects and I feel peace.

She was a lovely woman but never let a stereotype lead her. Strong and courageous, she rarely took "no" for an answer and constantly strove to satisfy her convictions. Her softer side was evident as well. I don't know that two months had gone by in the last five years that I didn't get a card or letter from her. The letters were usually chock full of personal happenings as well as newspaper clippings to pique my interest. I will miss those letters and I'll miss calling her on her birthday. Though, sad, I'm joyful for knowing her better than I could have - if I'd just let our
relationship decay and fade away.

All of my grandparents have left their earthly bodies behind now, but I'm not alone. God gave me a wonderful large family of parents, brothers and sisters and 7 years ago he united me to another family when Rachel accepted my offer. Now we have 3 kids of our own and the story continues. I'm also surrounded by friends, coworkers, fellow believers, and the rest of the human race. So, I'm anything but alone. And when everything is past, I'll still have the company of the Most High to comfort me.

In Him,
David

Welcome to our garden!

As a 7th anniversary gift, I gave Rachel a garden. The idea was given to me by a good friend at work, who saw I was out of ideas. Rachel loves it! It was pretty easy to build and fairly inexpensive. Materials were all purchased locally at Home Depot for less than $65. The topsoil was purchased from a local greenhouse for about $40. Of course, they did not deliver, but it didn't take long to move the yard of dirt from my buddy's truckbed to the backyard using a rugged lawn wagon lined with a tarp.

As part of the gift, I also got her this "Jiffy" greenhouse and three packets of seeds (green beans, corn, and carrots). She bought some more seeds (watermelon and gypsophylia) to round out the first crop. The greenhouse is really a neat thing. it has small peat packets that expand once water is added. The seeds are added (2 or 3) per packet and the plastic clear cover is put on top. The greenhouse holds 25 individual starters and is placed on top of the fridge (or in a place with indirect sunlight). What you see here is the result of just three days of growing! We already have sprouts in several of the starters and soon we will take off the lid as the sprouts grow more and more. We'll keep you up to date on the progress of our garden. Thanks for tuning in!

C.S. "Jack" Lewis

I'm listening to Mere Christianity for my Apologetics class that starts in just a few days. It's pretty incredible and I'm completely ashamed that I made it to 30 before being exposed to Lewis' simplicity in explaining Christianity. It's interesting to be reading this while the world waits for the release of Prince Caspian, the second feature film in the "Narnia" series. Not only are people talking about the movie, but Christian radio is also spending time revisiting Lewis and his works. Just this morning I heard Douglas Gresham on "Focus on the Family". He is Lewis' stepson, the son of Lewis' wife who was portrayed in the movie Shadowlands. Well, it was really neat to hear the story of how he was connected to Lewis on the radio. What's probably neater is that he is a co-producer on Prince Caspian and he has this awesome opportunity to re-invigorate the world's love for the Narnia series and more importantly the message of hope it contains.

Anyway, he quoted "Jack" (Lewis' go-by) as saying, “We do not need more people writing Christian books, what we need is more Christians writing good books.” It reminded me of Andrew Peterson, another artist that follows this mantra. It's a refreshing thing to know that Christ did not call everyone to end their careers to follow Him. Rather, He wanted us to follow Him with the talents we've already been blessed with. If we're waiting for Him to take us out of our jobs to be "used" in the "mission field" or to become a "pastor" or "minister" than we'll be waiting a long time! But if we begin day by day to be a pastor and a minister to our co-workers and be used in our jobs as our primary mission field, we'll see that we don't have to go far to answer His call. That's not to say we need to be Bible-thumping evangelists to the folks in the neighboring cubes, but it does mean we should learn how to love them like we love ourselves. We show love to ourselves by being disappointed and being self-nurturing in the tough times. We also loves ourselves by rejoicing in the high times of life. We can do the same for our co-workers. Sharing in someone's sorrow and offering encouragement during their time of need is so much more valuable than telling them that they'll be fine if they go to church with us. Rejoicing with them during their triumphs let's them know that we're not so self-centered that we can't honor them from time to time.

So, don't wait for the phone to ring - God's call came a long time ago and some of us didn't recognize it. We can be Christians in the secular workplace doing good; we don't have to wait to be put in a "Christian" job.

God Bless!
David

Seven Years

Seven's the number man. Seven years of marriage as of today. First off, thanks to Alyse for the awesome Happy Bananaversary card. She is my unofficial third sister from H.S. and she never forgets a birthday, holiday, special event, childbirth, whatever. Thanks also to my sister, Katy, who sent Rachel a Mother's Day card - almost a full week early! That rocks! It's certainly a much better record than I have at remembering important dates.

As for marriage, it rocks also. It's not always easy though. Even tonight was a challenge. Our evening was cut short because Hannah had to be in bed by a certain time or else she reaches "critical mass". Critical mass for a child is very similar to critical mass in the physical world. Basically, once they get past the point that they would have easily gone down, they start crying. Now they can't go to sleep because it's loud, because they're crying. Since they can't go to sleep they just get more and more tired, so they cry louder and longer. Etcetera etcetera etcetera and so on and so forth - you know how the rest of the evening goes.

I've found none of our children to be an exception to this and it certainly was a wise maneuver to come home from our date and prevent this from happening tonight. So, we spent the rest of the evening watching Jeremy Camp Unplugged on the wall.

Oh yeah, marriage. Let's put it this way - I don't always understand the emotions and exchanges we go through as a couple; I do know this though, we are always stronger on the other side. God somehow takes crazy nights like tonight and turns them around - completely obliterating the notion that we were all just accidents, spawned from primordial soup millions of years ago. No, His plan is perfect - so perfect that we (in our imperfection) can in no way grasp it or even come close to predicting the next move. So, in light of that, this evening was perfect. My plans were not, and He still has great things in store - even though the evening is nearly over!

God bless ya'll!
David