Whose bed is it anyway?

So not only did I catch Gabe napping on Connor's bed yesterday......but he was snuggling Connor's blanket, too! And he was not amused when I told him to get his furry behind off the blanket and the bed. He made one of those mumbling cat noises at me and proceeded to curl back up. I had to manually remove him from the bed, only to find him up there again less than an hour later. I guess he gets an A for persistence.

A Scotch Tape Christmas......

Yesterday, my mom and dad came up for a visit and to bring Christmas presents in the event the weather gets bad again. Among the gifts was one from my sister, Ann, who said Connor had to open it that day. Once we opened it, we knew why. Connor has been a bit.....obsessed......with Scotch Tape. Now, he uses it correctly most of the time. But still, he goes overboard taping stuff that probably doesn't really need taping. However, we were going through a lot of tape and he was always putting it down and forgetting where it was, driving me crazy with his "mom, where is my tape? Can you find my tape?" insistence every 10 minutes. So Ann got him the wristband tape dispenser. As you can see from the above photo, when he first put it on, he wasn't quite sure what it was.

Even after pulling out a piece of tape, he stared at it, not quite sure yet what to make of it.

Then sure enough, the little light bulb in his head went off, and he figured it out. And that was when the Great Taping Adventure began. Nothing was spared. *sigh* If only I could get him to use his new power for good.

The good news is, I did get him to stop taping long enough to take a picture with gram and pap.

Dear God

This morning, my 5 year old made me cry. Profusely. Not because he did something bad. Not because he stubbed my toe. Not because of anything negative. These were good tears. And I just have to share with you all what it was that evoked such a response from me.


Connor is at the age where he has noticed most of his friends have brothers or sisters (or both). He asks a lot of questions. We don't always have the answers. Only God knows why some kids have siblings and others don't. As part of this conversation, I always tell Connor that there are little boys and girls in the world who don't have mommies or daddies to love them, and God sometimes helps those boys and girls find new parents through something called adoption.


This morning, when he got up, he told me he wanted to type a letter to God. So we got out the laptop and he typed: "Dear God, please give mommies and daddies to the boys and girls who don't have any. Thanks, Connor." After he typed it, we printed it out and he asked me to give it to the mailman so he could deliver it to God.


I am so proud of my child for thinking about others. This time of year, it is so easy to get caught up in the rush of the holidays and spend more time thinking about ourselves than others. Sometimes it takes the wisdom of a 5 year old to get us back on track.

Snow, trees and acrobats.....

It's been awhile since I blogged. I know. I know. But with the new job and other responsibilities, I've just plain been too busy. So I'm going to update you a bit today with some photos. Earlier this week, we had the first snow of the season. It wasn't much more than a dusting, but it was still pretty. I like snow, but after last winter, I'm praying we don't get that much again this winter. Three feet of it in 12 hours is just too much. I like my snow in moderation.

We decided to put the tree up today. We've had our outside stuff up for a week, but waited until today to do the tree. Connor and daddy did most of the work, which was nice.

Here they are putting the final touches on it.

Connor has a little fiber optic tree in his room. He put some decorations on it this year. He's very proud of it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.......but Zorro, our formerly feral kitty, has finally discovered the joy that is the heater vents. My other cat, Gabe, practically lives on those things all winter long (to the point he gets dry skin and kitty dandruff). Zorro seemed afraid of them last year, but this year, he has been hanging out near them more and more. The other day, I caught him all-out napping in front of this one in our computer room. It's taken over a year, but I think we've finally assimilated him. :)

And this last photo is a perfect example of why it's a good thing I have a strong heart. I went to the store today and when I got back, discovered daddy and Connor were working on their own version of an acrobatic act. Connor has amazing balance. He definitely doesn't get that from me.

Halloween Parade at Hance

Connor had his Halloween parade at school today. He and daddy worked hard the other day to make the costume using two cardboard boxes and some old heating ducts we had lying around after some renovations last year. All the kids seemed to love his costume. I was told he was a hit every room he visited during their parade this morning. He even did his cute little robot walk. He's excited to go trick or treating on Sunday night with daddy.

Fall fun!

It's a bird......it's a plane........it's.........it's.............

Legs? Coming out of a leaf bag? Did the leaves grow legs?

Nah. It was just Connor......having some fun in the leaf bag. :)

Who needs to go to the woods.......

.......when this is in your own back yard?

Tables and cats

It's been awhile since I blogged -- I know. Been busy. OK, been so busy I don't know what day it is.....but anyway.......


Yesterday, we got a new diningroom table and chairs. They belonged to my mom and dad. They were downsizing, so they offered them to us. They are magnificent! We've had problems with finding a nice table for our diningroom ever since we moved here. This table is not only large enough to fill the space properly, but it has chairs that don't break when we sit down on them! That was a huge issue with our last table set. Thanks mom and dad! We're excited to have this set!


And yesterday afternoon, I found the cats.....snuggling on the dryer. Now, to know why this is funny, you have to understand that my one cat, Zorro (all black in front), is a formerly feral kitty we rescued last year. He's geared to be wild, and as a result, often ends up kerfluffling with Gabriel. Sometimes, he's just playing. But most of the time, he's asserting himself. It often ends with me pulling them apart and giving Zorro a cat time out. LOL. So to find them napping together in such a peaceful way blew my socks off. It definitely was a rare moment.

Homecoming!

My niece Melina and her friend, Dom, went to Homecoming yesterday. My niece was so excited, because this is the first time she's gone to a formal event at the school. She's a homeschooler, but technically a "junior" in high school. It's hard for me when I look at her all grown up, because it seems like just yesterday when she was 4 and following me around everywhere, wanting to "dance" to music.

Earlier this week, she sprained her knee badly in a soccer match. She is supposed to be wearing a knee brace, but the doctor said she could take it off for Homecoming. I told her we could paint it blue to match her dress, but she didn't think that would go over so well. LOL! :)

Hope Melina and Dom had a great time last night!

The Two Kings of Berg Manor

I went out to the kitchen a few minutes ago to get a drink, and this is what I saw. I was tempted to call them "nappy" and "nappier," but then it occurred to me that they each have their own little "throne," so they instead have been dubbed the Two Kings of Berg Manor. Neither of their royal highnesses are supposed to be sitting on the furniture -- let alone taking a nap on it -- but apparently, they didn't get that memo.

Connor's New Friend

Connor made a new friend yesterday at McDonald's. We decided to go out for lunch after I picked him up at school. Despite the fact it was windy, we sat outside and soon were joined by another little boy and his mom. His name was Travis. They played really well together for over an hour. Both Travis' mom and I had trouble getting them to leave. We exchanged numbers and agreed to have a playdate soon since the boys got along so well.

This morning, Connor brought me in a picture he had drawn for Travis, and told me he wanted to send it to him "online." He didn't understand that I couldn't just send it online without an email address. :) So I scanned it in and told him I'd post it on my blog and Travis might see it that way. That seemed to make him happy. I was astounded at what he had drawn in his note. Connor is starting to spell words all by himself and rarely asks for my help anymore. It's exciting. I sure do have a smart cookie for a kid. I guess he gets that from his dad!

The Me I Want To Be

A few weeks ago, the pastor of our church announced we were going to do a book-based Sunday series. I'll admit, when he first said it, I cringed. I have been a party to these kinds of sermon series before, and I have rarely been impressed. Among the prior studies of which I was a part was The Purpose Driven Life craze. That was 7 years ago at a church we no longer attend. Maybe it was the writer in me, but I was not impressed with the book. I liked the idea behind it, but the book itself did little to inspire me. I found it mostly full of trite and tired cliches. I think it must have taken the author less than a day to write the entire thing. Now, in all fairness, there were people -- including my own husband -- who thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get into it.



A few years later, I was part of another book-series at another church. Once again, I wasn't impressed. I actually quit reading the book halfway through that's how uninspired I was by it.



So when our pastor said we were going to do a book study, I had pretty much decided I wouldn't be participating. Been there, done that, not impressed. That was until I actually started reading the book. My husband asked me to give it a fair chance, and for once, I'm glad I listened to him. This book is amazing. It is called The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg. I am only 42 pages into it, but am already impressed by its content. It is clear Mr. Ortberg has put a lot of thought and hard work into this book. And it is clear to me it was breathed into him by a power higher than himself. An example of something that stood out in the book right away was this sentence: "Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be." Wow. How many times have you watched another Christian person, and felt jealous of them, thinking they were surely more devoted to God than you? This book tells us it's not about trying to be what everyone else is in Christ. It's about being who Christ made us to be. We're unique. Here's another one: "Your 'spritual life' is not limited to certain devotional activities that you engage in. It is receiving power from the Spirit of God to become the person God had in mind when He created you -- his handiwork." Attend church every Sunday, read your Bible all day long -- but if you're not open to being the person God created you to be, you are wasting your time.



I am looking forward to this study and to finishing the book, and most of all, to finding out who God created me to be. If you're interested, you can listen to the Sunday sermons on our church website: www.nccinwexford.org They are always posted the next day.

This makes me sick......

Take a good look at this picture. What do you think it is? If you guessed a road in Pennsylvania in need of repairs.....well....I can see how you'd make that assumption. But it actually isn't a road at all. It's a river. In fact, it's the Mississippi River. And those, my friends, are dead fish. Thousands and thousands of them. And they are joined by other marine life as well.

Don't believe me? Google the words "dead fish in Mississippi." You will be sick, I promise you. I know I was when I saw this and realized that it wasn't a road in need of paving.

So how did this happen? Well, two letters for you: BP. This is the result of the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Just last week, our own government issued a statement saying the fish and other seafood from the Gulf are safe to eat. Really? Really? Not sure who taste-tested to come to that conclusion, but I think I'll just stay away from fish for a long time.

Looking at this photo and others that have come out of that disaster make me ill beyond words. This is what we have done to our planet. This is what we will have to live with for a very long time.

Oh the things they learn at school......

Sorry it's been awhile since I've blogged, but life has been busy with the new job, Connor starting school and other assorted life stuff. But I was reminded the other day that it's been awhile (hi mom!), so I thought I'd better update this site before I got in trouble again. LOL!

Connor started school three weeks ago, and what an adventure it has been so far! It has been a bit overwhelming --- not to mention very overstimulating --- for him. But he's finally starting to adjust and is doing rather well. I do suspect he's a little bored with learning his alphabet and how consonants and vowels sound since he has been reading at a fourth grade level for over a year now. But his teacher is aware of his ability and is working to customize his lessons to his level to help prevent boredom.

While I have been basically happy with his school experience, there is one thing that I am not so happy about --- his newfound vocabulary. Thanks to some of his more colorful classmates, I have heard phrases such as "dang it to heck" and some others I won't mention here. Most disturbing is the fact that apparently one of his classmates regularly misuses the name of Jesus Christ. Connor told us today that makes him very sad when his classmate does that. :( Sadly, I have realized I can't put Connor in a bubble, and he will hear these sorts of things while out and about in the world. All I can do is let him know that we do not use those sorts of words and phrases here, and hope he understands.

Labor Day Fun.....

So, it was a lazy day at our house so far. The boys went outside to play with the remote-controlled car Connor got for his birthday. They drew a race track with chalk first. They also went roller-blading and scootering, so they were pretty tired by the time we had lunch.

Connor spent some time after lunch building new bridges and tunnels for his train set. He was using blocks to do it. I was pretty impressed with the construction of some of his tunnels. If this kid doesn't grow up to be an engineer (like so many of the Bergs), I'll be shocked.

Zorro was napping in the living room window when I snuck up on him and took this. He wasn't amused. :)

And here is Gabe, drinking from the bathtub. No matter how many times I've seen him do this, it still makes me chuckle. He positions himself with his paw on the drain plug, then constantly licks it because it's getting dripped on from the tub. He hasn't figured out the flaw in this plan yet, and he's been doing it for 5 years! LOL!

First Day of School

Today was Connor's first day of kindergarten at Hance Elementary School.


We dropped him off and watched him go to his classroom. He was hesitant at first, but quickly warmed up when he saw Matthew, our neighbor, in the classroom. I think he's going to have a great time with his new classmates and his teacher, Mrs. Hoffman.

Three days of birthdays......

August is a busy month for birthdays in our family. Isaak has his on Aug. 11, followed by birthdays for my sister, my dad and Connor. I thought I'd do one post to recognize the three days of crazy birthday celebrations we have every year to commemorate.

The hot chick in the righthand side of the picture to your right is my sister, Ann --- or, as I like to call her (because it annoys her) --- Annie Bananie. Annie just turned the big 4-0 on Aug. 23. If you ask me, she looks hot for her age! I hope I look that good at 40. :)

Next up, we have birthday boys number 2 and 3. My dad's birthday is Aug. 24. I won't tell you how old he is, but I will tell you a little story. Growing up, we always got our age in dollar bills in our birthday cards. As we got older (and my parents got funnier), they decided to make those dollars into change. That later transformed into pennies. So we'd get these heavy cards because my dad, the wisecracker, would tape the number of pennies to correspond with our age inside our cards. Let's just say if I had to tape the number of pennies he is this year, I'd need an pretty big card! :)

Connor, who was born today, was almost born on my dad's birthday. In fact, dad was hoping he'd be born on this day so he could share his birthday. Connor, apparently, had other ideas. While still in the womb, he clearly decided it would be better to have three consecutive days of cake than just two, so he insisted on being born at 12:25 a.m. Aug. 25. :) Here are some pictures from the party we had Sunday for him. In the picture above, the kids are gathering the candy from the pinata.

In this picture, the kids are anxiously awaiting the birthday cake.

The kids played sports-themed games during the party. At the end, they all got a gold medal for their efforts. Connor enjoyed handing them out.

This was one of the more popular games --- the relay race balloon pop. The kids were on two teams and had to run to the chairs, sit on their balloons, and pop them. Then they ran back, tagged the next person in line, and the race continued. After awhile, the kids didn't care about racing and just wanted to sit and pop the balloons. But hey -- that was the best part.

And here he is, blowing out the candles on his cake. It was a fun party, but boy was mommy tired at the end of the day! I think I slept better than Connor!

Happy birthday to all my favorite August people! Love you!

Rest in Peace, Rocky......

I was deeply saddened to learn last night that Rocky, the 28-year-old Kodiak bear at the Pittsburgh Zoo, had to be euthanized. Rocky had a severe spinal condition that made everyday living quite painful for him. There is a complete story about him on the Post Gazette's website: http://post-gazette.com/pg/10232/1081353-53.stm

We enjoyed seeing Rocky on our many visits to the zoo, and were amazed at how congenial and fun he was to see. He did many tricks and always seemed happy to see the many visitors who came to see him each day.

I hope Rocky has his bone and his special snowy mountain in bear Heaven. Rest in peace, buddy.

Fun in Canada!

While we were in Canada for Peter and Sally's wedding, we had some fun that wasn't wedding related. Here, pictured to the right, are some fluffy clouds I could see outside my window on the plane ride there. No matter how many times I've seen this, I still find it an amazing view.

While we were there, we visited the Reynolds-Alberta Museum (www.machinemuseum.net) in nearby Wetaskiwin. The museum restores antique motor vehicles and aircraft and puts them on display. You can get a ride from one building to another in a vintage car, which is really cool. Pictured below are the Canadian Snowbirds, who were practicing for an upcoming air show at the museum.

In the next photo, Connor is pretending to fly one of the many aircraft on display at the museum. Some of them are set up with stairs so you can sit inside and try them out. This plane required you to pedal with your feet to make it go, much like a bicycle. Glad we don't have to do that anymore when we fly!

In the next photo, Connor and I were trying out an early-model helicopter. We're not big at all, and we just barely fit in the thing! I couldn't imagine having to actually fly it!

The next photo is of a machine located at the entrance to the museum. It shows how inner gears work. It was pretty neat to watch.

Here we are, at a lake in Wetaskiwin. It had a nice fountain, and a play area for the kids. Connor, grandma and grandpa Berg had a great time using the digger in the play area.

And here's Connor and grandma, blowing bubbles on the front porch. They were having a blast!

Another Berg Wedding!

Isaak's youngest brother, Peter, got married on Saturday to his longtime girlfriend, Sally Hindle. He and Sally have known each other longer than Isaak and I have been married, so it was wonderful to see those two lovebirds finally tie the knot! I can't think of two people better suited to one another (OK, except for me and Isaak). :) Here is Isaak, the best man, and Peter, waiting for the arrival of Sally. The wedding was held at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, and it was a gorgeous location.

A part of the ceremony I really enjoyed was where they combined roses into one vase. Prior to this, the mothers placed them in two vases. I equate it with what Americans usually do with the unity candle. It was so lovely and I really liked it.

Here's Isaak, with two girls on his arm. He received lots of jokes about that at the reception. :) He was the best man and Peter had no other groomsmen, and Sally's sisters were both her bridesmaids. So Isaak had double the duties. He handled it well. He also delivered a very nice speech at the reception. I was proud of him.

Here is the bride and groom, exchanging rings.

And here they are kissing for the first time as husband and wife!

And here they are, being announced as the new Mr. and Mrs. Peter Berg! There is a small movement to get them to change their names to Hindle Berg, to combine both of their last names. but Sally assured us at the reception that that would not be happening. :( Bummer. I think it sounds super cute.

And last but not least, here we all are, at the first dance at the reception. Connor wanted to join us, so he did. Everyone laughed at our three-person dance. I was glad Isaak's cousin, Brenna, snapped this photo so we can remember it for years to come!


Best wishes to Peter and Sally for a long and wonderful marriage! We love you both! Sally, welcome to the family!