smugmug

For those who are interested we are using a program called smugmug to host our pictures.  We recently posted some photos of Niles and hope to keep the site updated with pictures of our various adventures with family and friends.

http://bensons.smugmug.com

emerging from the fog

Yes, I realize that I have not posted anything for 2 months.  Sorry about that. Approximately 8 weeks ago I entered a fog and when I emerged nothing was the same. The whole world looked different than it once had.

There is a part of me that feels compelled to update the blog world on all that has gone on these past 8 weeks, but recognizing that it would be impossible to truly do that in a meaningful way I will give you minor snapshots instead.

Thoughts on having a son:

• I have a deeper and richer understanding God’s love for me as His child.
• I have a deeper and richer understanding of the sacrifice that God made in sacrificing His Son to save us.
• I have fallen in love with a whole new side of my husband as I have witnessed him become a daddy.
• I love being Niles’ momma. This is the greatest thing I have ever done by far.  Never have I been a part of anything more meaningful, beautiful, and fun.
• I really don’t need as much sleep as I always thought I did to keep functioning

I am so thankful.

Niles Wallace Benson

Our precious little boy arrived December 28th at 2:17 am.  He was 7lbs 10oz and 20 3/4 inches long.  We couldn’t be more thankful.

Happy Birthday Jesus

Mark and I had the joy of spending Christmas day with my sister and her family.  Part of the festivities included singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating a delicious birthday cake prepared in his honor by my nephew.  As we were getting ready to sing there were some questions about whether or not God would be able to hear us singing and how exactly Jesus was going to blow out his birthday candle. We explained that we might just blow the candle out for him and assured the kids that God would be with us in the celebration.

Much to our amazement as we reached the conclusion of the birthday song the birthday candle that had been lit and placed at the center of the cake went out all on its own. The children were completely supervised and every adult swears to have had nothing to do with it. I was there and I saw it with my own eyes…as the last few notes of the song lingered in the air the candle went out completely unassisted by any human in the room.  I kid you not people, Jesus blew out his birthday candle.

I am confident that some of you reading this may think I am a bit off my rocker. But perhaps some of you, like me, believe that God still delights in showing himself to his children. If he can speak from a burning bush, certainly he can handle a little birthday candle, right?

I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas and that God has shown his presence, grace, and immense love to you in special and unique ways.

O Holy Night

I love Christmas. I love Christmas songs and decorations and cookies and parties. I love it all. I love that God sent his son to save us. Already on numerous occasions I have had the opportunity to hear my favorite Christmas carol. Every time I hear it I am struck by the powerful truth in this song.

 O Holy night the stars are brightly shining; it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining; till He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices; for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices

Oh night divine Oh night when Christ was born

It doesn’t get much more powerful than that. I could of course launch into my own mini-sermon about the incredible saving grace of our God. But for tonight I will resist the urge and will instead let the truth and the hope represented in the words of this song linger in my mind and my ears and and my heart.

big decisions

The other day I was at my sister’s house when her little boy (who I adore) came home from a long hard day at kindergarten. He was obviously carrying a heavy load on his shoulders.

Aware that something was amiss we asked him what was on his mind. “Lydia and I are trying to decide whether or not to fall in love” he proclaimed as he took off his coat and Lightning McQueen back pack. He went on to explain more about the details and how they wanted to talk to their moms and dads, etc.  I think I even heard reassurance that the marriage decision could be postponed for about 15 more years, but I couldn’t really take in a whole lot more because I was laughing hysterically in the corner.

I didn’t want to make him feel bad by laughing at what was clearly a very big deal to his young heart, so I busied myself with chalk and coloring with his sister in an attempt to pull myself together.  Somehow his parents were both able to keep a straight face long enough to process the situation, which in itself amazes me.

My nieces and nephews are such a joy to me…all of them. I love watching them grow and sharing in their lives. I learn a lot from their innocence, from the way they dance and sing and play and trust and love, and every now and then they provide such wonderful entertainment.

Holiday Travels

Tomorrow around lunchtime Mark and I will head to Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  There are several things I am looking forward to. Here are a few off the top of my head:

1. Time in the car with my husband (we have a lot of fun on road trips).
2. Stopping to get treats along the way (we have a lot of treats on road trips).
3. Spending time with my parents and sisters and their families.
4. Mom’s cheesecake.
5. Mom’s pumpkin pie.
6. Turkey.
7. Mashed potatoes.
8. Eating so much that I have no option but to fall asleep almost immediately…followed by a nap.
9. Sleeping in.
10. Did I mention hanging out with my family?

As you can see there will be a lot of eating and a lot of sleeping. Does it get any better? Still, the best part will be time spent hanging out with Mark and the fam.

Screams in the night

Last night Mark and I woke up to the sound of screaming in the night. “Who was screaming?” you ask….me.

I had this horrible (and I mean horrible) cramp in my right leg. Any time I would try to move my foot to stretch it out a new cramp would form in another part of my leg. It was awful, and I’m pretty sure it lasted for about an hour and a half. Okay, maybe it only lasted a few seconds…but still. This is not the first time this has happened. This morning I am still sore where the cramp was.  Poor me.

The thing is, I am so thankful for leg cramps in the night.  I’m thankful because I begged God for this discomfort. I begged him to bless us with a child and he did. Somewhere in his grace and his generosity he has allowed Mark and I to have this sweet little baby, and has allowed me to carry him or her for the past almost eight months.

I have opportunities to complain. I won’t deny it.  I could whine about exhaustion, aches and soreness, and barely being able to wipe my own butt due to my unbelievable girth. If I am completely honest, far too often I take those opportunities. At times, I do complain. The reality is, I am so thankful.  That’s what I want coming out of my mouth. I am so thankful to be  this child’s mother. I am so thankful to be a giant monstrosity of a woman waddling my way from place to place because it represents one of the most kind and tender gifts that God has ever given me, and the way his Spirit is continuing to refine me. I don’t deserve this. I don’t take it for granted.  I know that its a gift.

So if you hear me whining in the next few weeks (or possibly even years) about the woes of pregnancy and parenting. You can feel completely free to slap me upside the head (gently) and remind me that I am incredibly blessed and that God has been good to me.

accidental criminal

I love the carpool lane on 394.

It honestly shaves so much time off the morning commute, and reduces the stress of driving into work considerably.  Most days it works for Mark and I to ride together into downtown.  Occasionally we drive two separate cars or he takes the bus.  Yesterday was a day that we drove two different cars.  Out of habit I worked my way over to the carpool lane.  As I was cruising along with my friends in the carpool lane, thinking about how thankful I was to not be one of the sorry saps stuck in traffic I suddenly realized that I was in the carpool lane, but was not a carpooler. I panicked but there was nothing I could do. I had no way of getting out.  Quite often there is an officer waiting at the end of the carpool ramp just waiting to pull over those committing the crime of carpool fraud.

As I got a little farther I noticed some lights flashing up in the distance.  They are already on to me, I thought.  Much to my relief, the officer was already occupied with another naughty driver.  I don’t typically embrace the practice of rejoicing in another’s misfortune (unless they fall and it looks really funny, but no one gets hurt). Still, I must admit that I was rejoicing at the fact that this person was having the unfortunate conversation with Officer Carpool that I did not want to have.

Again today Mark and I had to drive separately. I was so nervous about repeating this accidental crime that I took a completely different route into work this morning.  Both my conscience and my driving record are in the clear.

Tagged

Here are the rules:
1.Post the rules on your blog
2.Write 6 random things about yourself
3.Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4.If you are tagged, just do it, and pass the tag along!

1. My first job was at a car wash.  I had to wear a clip on tie. I took all the change that I earned as tips and put it in a coffee can so that I could save up for a Jeep Wrangler (I never bought the Jeep Wrangler).

2. I have an irrational fear of mice. Always have. Always will.

3. Flatulence is hilarious to me. I can’t stop giggling.Lucky for me I am one of the gassiest people I know, second only to my father (and most people over the age of 80). Last week at our birth class I got situated for our relaxation exercises and whispered to my husband that I had toots coming on and didn’t know what to do.  He instructed me to just let it out slow.  The way he said it made me laugh so hard.  With every giggle a toot came out, and every time I heard it it made me giggle again, which made me toot, which made me giggle, etc. It was not very easy to pull myself together, but we managed.

4. My three sisters and I have matching tattoos. Mine is on my back and I wish it was a little bigger, but at the time I was nervous about getting it so I went small.

5. I went skydiving on my 21st birthday and “got sick” multiple times when I reached the bottom because I had a sinus infection and all the pressure in my sinuses went to my ears during the free fall. It was so painful it made me sick, but also so fun…and worth it. I have a video of the jump with Aerosmith “Living On The Edge” playing in the background.

6. In high-school I played bass guitar (and some times rhythm guitar as well) for a band called Clockwork Ruins. We even had fancy black and silver t-shirts with the band’s name on them. One of our biggest gigs was my sister’s 8th grade graduation party when everyone in attendance got food poisoning from the potato salad that had been catered.

I am running out of people to tag so some of these might be repeats, but if they haven’t done it yet they are still up for tagging. Scott and Gia-hue, Anna, Nicole, Angela, Jamin and Sara (giving birth to twins is a pathetic excuse for falling behind on one’s blog), and Renee.