Happy Thanksgiving

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

1 Chronicles 16:34 Happy Thanksgiving, from the Krajcas!
And Gig 'em Aggies!!!

Wohoo!!!!

With the help of several of you, Team Cranio Kids has met our fundraising goal for the Lights of Love! Thank you to everyone who participated! I know from experience how amazing this charity is, and I know your donation will bless a family during a very hard time.

If you haven't had a chance to donate, but are still interested, it's not too late!!! We've met our goal, but now let's exceed our goal! Every donation, big or small, helps. Only 10 more days till the Lights of Love 5K. Don't let this wonderful opportunity pass!

Two Thanksgivings ago, I was packing and getting ready to go to Kansas, just as I have today. It was a great trip, but I knew at the end of our trip we would pack up and head to Austin to meet with a neuro surgeon. To say that there was a dark cloud over the holiday is a huge under statement. We've been able to "redeem" the holiday, and now, rather than a cloud, we truly have something amazing to be thankful for!!! Our little boy is healthy. But there are other families who can't share in that sentiment. As you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, take a moment to think of those who are spending the holiday in a hospital with their child. This is your opportunity to help them!

Of course....

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that we were all healthy, just busy. Well, that almost changed for us this weekend!

Micah's been having random asthma issues this fall. We're unsure of what the trigger is, so we're left to just treat the symptoms as they come. This past week, Micah had a pretty severe flair up of eczema, which is usually tied in with allergy issues and eventually asthma. I took him in on Friday and he was put on oral steroids.

Last night, I noticed that he was coughing a lot, which is also a sign of a coming asthma attack. Cough medicine did nothing, so at about 4am, we did a breathing treatment. When more cough medicine and another breathing treatment didn't help, I decided to take him in.

He has the beginnings of pneumonia! I'm so thankful that I got him in before if went all the way to pneumonia, since we're leaving for Kansas in just two sleeps.

But I couldn't help but laugh at my "at least we're all healthy" post below. Let's change that to, "At least we're pretty healthy!"

Tot Clock!!

I randomly saw Lindsey's blog about this nifty little clock, but really didn't think twice about it. Then Curtis asked me why I hadn't entered the give away, since we NEEDED that clock for the boys.

This clock has settings that display colors for when a child is "done" sleeping, and can come out of his room, and a color for when it's still sleeping time. With a three year old and a two year old sharing a room, this would be quite handy! The problem we're having is that when one boys wakes up, he wakes up his brother and they assume that it's time to get up!

Go over to Adam and Andrews's blog, and check this out.

Missed us?

One week since I last posted? Yikes! It's been a while since I went that long. Here's the scoop on life for the Krajcas.

• I had a garage sale today. It rained. I was really, really, really bummed.
• Because of the garage sale, I decided to get rid of all my little girl clothes. I saved about 2 buckets worth of clothes, shed lots of tears, and sold a lot of stuff to friends through the week. Being able to sell stuff to friends this past week made the garage sale flop a little more bearable.
• Curtis is less than a month from graduation!!! Now we just have to survive this very intense month.....
• We are leaving on Tuesday to drive to KS for Thanksgiving. I'm very excited to see my family, enjoy the cooler weather, and have someone else do the cooking for a few days! I am not looking forward to the drive, laundry, packing, or having a hubby who's locked up in a room finished his masters' project.
• We had another ultrasound this week! I'll try to blog more about that later, but the scoop is that he looks good, and is measuring 2 1/2 weeks big. Shocking, I know.
• We are taking a long homeschool break. The house, the kids, activities, and doing it all without my awesome hubby was really wearing me out. He encouraged me to just take the rest of November and December off. Elizabeth's doing 1st grade math and 1st grade reading, so really, we can spare the time. And this is one of the beauties of homeschooling! It works with where your family is.
• We are thinking of buying an artificial tree this year. I don't think either Curtis or I has the time or energy to buy, bring home, set up, and decorate a real tree. Not to mention that we would enjoy it in our home for about 2 1/2 weeks before leaving for Christmas in KS. We'd arrive home to a dead tree that I would probably end up dealing with.

In a nutshell, that's our life right now. We're all healthy, busy, and tired, but doing well!

Pumpkins

2 Pie Pumpkins + a day in the kitchen =2 loaves of bread and one dozen muffins
a tray of pumpkin seeds

and two pumpkin pies.

O Come Let Us Adore Him

As far of our daily family worship time, we teach the kids hymns. I try to pick hymns that are very repetitive, or that have a good chorus. We've learned Holy, Holy, Holy, Great is Thy Faithfulness, and our most recent is Jesus What a Friend for Sinners. A couple days ago, we started learning O Come Let Us Adore Him. When we got to the chorus, I told the kids, "Here's the chorus! This is the easy part!" And Micah started singing, "Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a friend!"

Something else I've done to start getting my family in the Christmas spirit is ordering a few Christmas CDs. I wanted something that would drive me crazy for the next few weeks, unlike our Disney Christmas CD from last year. Here's what I got.

Upon seeing the last CD, Benjamin told me, "I not like that one. It scary!!!" Yeah, Mercy Me Christmas songs are probably something to get scared about. Crazy boy!

And so far, we've listened to about half of the Third Day CD, and it's GREAT!

Three more weeks!

Only three more weeks till our Lights of Love!

And I'm sure if your life is anything like mine, it's going to be a busy three weeks. With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, Christmas plans already starting, and just the general business of life, it would be easy to let the opportunity to help raise money for families with children in the hospital, slip right by.

I'm very excited to see that we are already half was to our fundraising goal! Thank you so much to all of you who have donated! Every little bit makes a difference for these families.

If you haven't donated yet, please consider taking the time and doing that today. Every donation, big or small, will make a difference! Consider making a donation in someone's honor for a Christmas present. Or maybe you or someone you loved has been helped by this charity. Donate in honor of that family.

Thank you again to everyone who has already given us their support!

Us

♥ What are your middle names? Maye and Michael.



♥How long have you been together? Married for almost 9 years, "together" for 11 years.



♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? I moved to Wichita Falls in the summer of '96. We started dating in the falls of '98. We didn't know each other well until the summer of '98.



♥ Who asked who out? He told me he thought he was falling in love with me (while IMing!). The next day he called my dad. So I guess Curtis asked my dad. :-)



♥ How old are each of you? I'm 29, he's 31



♥ Did you go to the same school? nope



♥ Are you from the same home town? no



♥ Who is the smartest? duh. Him. He picked me!!!



♥ Who majored in what? I majored in education at Midwestern State Univ. Curtis got a computer engineering degree from A&M, and is getting his master's in computer science at Prairie View A&M.



♥ Who is the most sensitive? Oh gee. That's a no brainer! That would be me. Especially when pregnant.



♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Eating out? What's that? :-) When it does happen, it's wherever we have a coupon or gift card to.



♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Probably Cozumel Mexico.



♥ Who has the worst temper? Me. I let me emotions show, while he just bottles them up.



♥ How many children do you want? Our plan is four. Having c-sections is hard on a body, and I'm not sure I want to keep doing it after Timothy's birth. We love the idea of adoption, so should God call us to grow our family more, I think it would be through adoption.



♥ Who does the cooking? Me. I often ask Curtis what "my babies" would eat if I died. He said cereal, mac 'n cheese, Dino Bites, and frozen pizza.



♥ Who is more social? Hands down, ME!



♥ Who is the neat-freak? Once upon a time, when Curtis and Kierstyn were newly weds, Curtis was. Then Curtis chilled out a little bit, and Kierstyn had to get a little more organized. More than being a neat-freak, I try to be organized and tidy. Curtis just wants things not trashed out. :-)



♥ Who is the most stubborn? We both have our moments. But most of the time, me.



♥ Who wakes up earlier? It's a toss up. He let's me sleep when he can, and I try to let him sleep in every now and then too. With three young kiddos, we're usually up and at 'em before we want to be.



♥ Where was your first date? TCBY.



♥ Who has the bigger family? At first, it was me. Curtis has one brother, and I have two sisters. I have tons more cousins, aunts and uncles. And, thankfully, all my grandparents are still living. After Curtis' Dad remarried, Curtis gained two step-brothers, their two wives, and their children. Our kids have the most cousins on Curtis' side of the family.



♥ Do you get flowers often? No. But that does make them more special when I do get them. And I would rather have help picking up the house, cooking, or doing laundry, than getting flowers.



♥ How do you spend the holidays? With family. Curtis loves spending time with my family in Kansas, since we get the appropriate season, rather than the cooler version of summer we get here!



♥ Who is more jealous? I don't think either of us are really jealous people.



♥ How long did it take to get serious? We were always fairly serious. Neither of us saw the point in "just dating" and knew that wasn't what God desired out of relationships, which is why I chose not to date in highschool. We started our relationship in September, and when he told me he loved me (for my 19th birthday, the following May), I think we both knew our relationship was heading to marriage.



♥ Who eats more? most of the time, him. But when I'm growing Krajca boys, I could totally out eat him!



♥ What do you do for a living? I am a home engineer, and Curtis is a computer programmer for TEEX



♥ Who does the laundry? Me. He is very good at telling me when I'm slacking and he needs something. :-)



♥ Who’s better with the computer? For sure him! And since he has the degree and is about to get his master's degree in computer related stuff, that is a-ok by me!



♥ Who drives when you are together? Mostly him.



♥ What is "your" song? I asked Curtis, and we determined that we don't have a song. While we were dating, the song Amazed by Lonestar was very popular. Any time one of us would hear it on the radio, we would call the other. And of course, there are the songs from our wedding: How Beautiful by Twila Paris and If You Could See What I See by Geoff Moore.

To help you remember.....

Please see the post below

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Remember where we've been?

In four weeks, our family will be walking in the Lights of Love 5K to help raise money for the RMHC. As I do all the preparations involved, I find myself taking moments to remember what we've been through. How blessed we are! Our son is healthy, no longer deformed, active and loved. What more could we ask for??


But as I take time to remember, I remember the emotional roller coaster that we were on. I remember the dark hours, where I let myself think that maybe he wouldn't make it. Then I think of the families who are right now facing those same fears. My heart breaks for families who have had to stay or are staying in a RMH. But I'm so thankful that they have an option. I'm thankful we had the opportunity to stay close to Benjamin, but also have a place to go to when we needed.


As you watch the above video, please rejoice with me at God's goodness!! But also consider how you can help families who are facing the dark times of having a child in the hospital.

Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!!!

This past Tuesday, we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. After an uneventful drive, we walked in and saw...... DINOSAURS!!!!! Micah was thrilled!

There were several different dino skeletons to see and enjoy.

And Micah's sweet friend, Peyton, who moved a few months ago, met us there. That made Micah's day even better!!

Elizabeth got to spend her time with her friends Ava and Alexis. The three of the seemed to really enjoy the precious stone exhibit, where I kept hearing, "Oooooo! Take a picture of that one!"

Benjamin spent a lot of his time stomping around roaring like a dino. And for some odd reason, all three of the kids seemed to really enjoy the science exhibit. Odd. LOOK! A picture of all three of my kids with the dinos! How shocking. :-)

We had a great day at the museum!

After we left, we were able to go our friends grandparents house and enjoy a yummy dinner.

Even though we didn't get home till 11:00, and hadn't been home since 8:20 (we had co-op that morning) I would do it again in a heartbeat! We had fun, got to spend time with friends, and learn more about what an amazing Creator we have.

preview

Because such cuteness can't wait.

Fall Festival

Every year for Halloween, we go to the Reformation Day Celebration at church. This year, it's a day early, which means it's tonight! Excitement is running high in our home today, as the kids prepare their costumes. Elizabeth is for sure going to be a fairy ballerina. Micah's for sure going to be a policeman. And I'm for sure that I want Benjamin to wear a flight suit and be an "airplane man".

This year, I've decided to chill out and not tell the kids what they were going to be. In the past, I've picked themes, and make sure all the kids coordinate. Here's a look back at our previous Fall Festivals. 2004, We went as the Flinstones, and our friends the Achesons went as the Rubbles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it in my Wilma costume. But look at how cute Pebbles is!
2005, I was pregnant with Micah and Elizabeth was a sweet little sweet 16 month old. Since Curtis and I were expecting, we thought it would be funny to go as rabbits. When we moved into our first house the week before Halloween, that plan fell trough. But we did have a little pink bunny!

2007, We had a ladybug and a bumble bee. That year was a HOT year, and I thought my children were going to melt in their costumes! That was the year we should have all gone as rabbits. I was pregnant with Benjamin!

2007 was a ZOO of a year!!!!

So Micah was my little monkey, Benjamin was my little lion, and Elizabeth was a giraffe.

I think my favorite year was last year when I had:

a knight

a princess

and a dragon!

Next year, I'm going back to a theme!! I have two ideas of what to do with my FOUR (!!!!!) children. Dorothy, the tinman, the scarecrow and the lion. Or Goldilocks and the three bears. What do you think?

The boys on their new brother

Benjamin was staring at my belly. I asked him if he wanted to try to feel Timothy. He nodded his head enthusiastically, so I put his hand on my belly. To encourage Timothy to move, I pushed down on Benjamin's hand. In a very worried voice, he told me, "Stop! You squish her!" I reminded him that Timothy was a boy, a him, not a her. "He not girl. He not boy. He's Timothy!"

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Micah wasn't able to go to Covenant Kids, so he and I took a trip to Wal Mart. On the way out our conversation went something like this:

Micah: Is Timothy a boy name?

Me: Yes.

Micah: We should name him AnneMarie.

Me: I like the name Timothy! And AnneMarie is a girl name.

Micah: I know, maybe if we name his AnneMarie, he'll turn into a girl.

A couple Elizabeth-isms

Elizabeth came running into our room, freaking out, and exclaiming, "I think I just saw an invisible man!"

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While talking about her dance class, she was telling me about the girls in her class. She told me, "Most of the little girls are 5. But not Alice. She's 6. But I think she makes a small 6."

Our RMH story

For many of you, this isn't a new story. But as we kick our fundraising into full gear, I wanted to share with you all how blessed we were by the Ronald McDonal House (RMH) and hopefully you'll see our motivation to help them raise money.

We received Benjamin's diagnosis of craniosynistosis on November 27, 2007. Though we knew that it was possible that Benjamin would under go this major surgery, we really didn't think it would actually happen. We were praying that Benjamin would be healed, or that maybe this was all one big medical mess up. After receiving the news that our 6 month old had this rare deformity, and that in six days he would be undergoing major head surgery, all we could do was remind ourselves to breath. Breath in, breathe out.

When I woke up the next day, I found myself in a whirlwind of planning. Family had been notified, prayers were already being lifted up, there was cleaning, cooking, packing and child care to take care. I also found myself spending hours on line, trying to find every bit of information I could on the surgery. And though it wasn't a high priority, I knew I needed to make sure Curtis and I had a place to stay, to call home, while we were in an unfamiliar city, without our support system.

Our neuro surgeon refereed us to the RMH in Austin. It was such a weight off our shoulders to know that there was one less detail that needed to be taken care of! One less thing for me to plan, to arrange, to worry about.

We arrived in Austin, the evening before Benjamin's surgery, we checked into the RMH. They were kind, caring, and very warm. It was so nice to have a place to call home, while we were away from home.

After Benjamin's surgery, he spent 24 hours in the PICU. Only one parent could sleep in the room with him, and since I was the food supply, I pulled out the fold out couch and settled in for a very long night with very little sleep. Curtis, however, was able to go back to the RMH, sleep in a comfy bed, and get a shower the next morning (the PICU didn't have showers). Once Curtis got back to the hospital, my dad took me back to the RMH to shower. It was refreshing to get out, to have somewhere to rest and get cleaned up.

We only spent 3 nights in Austin, at the RMH. But what a difference it made! Though we had people offer to pay for a hotel during our time in Austin, I was thankful that the RMH was there for us, and we only had to pay $10 a night! Other than the low cost, there are also many other benefits to staying at the RMH; a family room, a play ground for other children, eating quarters with meals provided.

I know how greatly the RMH blessed us during a very hard and stressful time. I can only imagine what a blessing it is to families who have a child in the hospital for longer amounts of time.

Please consider how you can help the Ronald McDonald House Charities. You can donate to our team, by clicking the link on the right hand side of the blog. You can also join our team, and walk with us as we raise money and support this amazing charity. If you're interested in joining our team, click on the link. Then go to the link that says My Team Page.

Lights of Love

So far our fundraising efforts for the Ronald McDonald House aren't going so hot. Let's kick it into full drive, and start raising some money for families who find themselves in the same situation as Curtis and I were in.

If you haven't done so yet, take a moment and go over to Team Cranio Kid's site (the link on the right side of the page, Lights of Love). Then see if you can help us make our fundraising goal, or possibly join our team!

Always Forgiven

This is the hymn of the month at our church. Every time we sing it, I'm so humbled by the mercy and grace God has shown me. If you're interested in hearing part of the song, go here, and click on Always Forgiven.

Always Forgiven

I don't deserve

to be your servant

and how much less

to be your child.

Anger and wrath -

sure condemnation

should be my portion,

my just reward.

Never have seen it

Never will know it

Your loving kindness

enfolds my life.

All you have shown me,

is grace, love and mercy

Now and forever

I am your child

Freely your pour out

your loving kindness

Father of grace

You welcome me in.

All of the sin

I have committed,

was placed upon

your righteous son.

And now you see me

through his perfection,

as if I'd never

done any wrong.

Always forgiven.

Always accepted.

No fear or judgement

before your throne.

New blog title

The boys had been causing an especially large amount of trouble. I looked at Curtis and told him, "God is using them to sanctify me!" Curtis laughed and said, "Yep, you're being sanctified by your sons."

When we found out that we would be blessed with another son, I laughed, and thought of how much more intense my sanctification process would be.

And there you have it! The title of our blog: Sanctified by Sons and One Daughter.