Between the Blogs...

{Warning... there are no pictures of our cutie pies anywhere in this blog posting =(  Please look above at the header, or in the post below this one if you need a Steiner Boy fix!!}

As I've been trying to get myself caught up on blogs of the major events of our lives, there have been so other things going on and on my mind.  I feel like the blogs sometimes come across as the 'polished' version of our lives, even though I try so hard to share our reality! (Mostly, it is just our day to day life with toddler boys... eating, playing, sleeping, cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, etc... the wonderful monotony that makes up the life I am absolutely loving every minute of right now!)

But just for a glimpse into the 'real' Steiner Life, here you go:

~ We have been sickos for awhile now!  The boys have been fighting colds and ear infections off and on for a few weeks.  Justin has been fighting some annoying cold-like thing for the last few days.  I've been fighting what I'm thinking is a sinus infection for the last 2 1/2 weeks.... almost straight. I hate blowing my nose (or coughing up phlegm or anything else really that deals with mucus--I bet that is something you didn't know about me--yuck!), and I feel like I've spent tons of time each day blowing my nose!  Not fun!  Not sure why this time I haven't gone to the dr... usually I'm super quick about going in.  It just feels like life has been full of great things lately (and it has!) and I just don't want to take the time to go it.  But I'm not getting better (or worse really) and no over the counter meds seem to be making any difference anymore.  So I think I might cave soon and go in. I'm tired of my head being congested and sounding like I'm echoing inside my head!

~My mom is officially re-retired from teaching!  It's wonderful!  She'd been doing a long-term sub job, and we are all so glad she is done!  We love spending time with Gigi, and the boys love seeing her beautiful face at times other than when they are getting close to bedtime!  Yay Gigi!  Welcome back to Gigi-hood Gigi!

~We have all been in prayer for a friend of the family, who is now, tragically, going through something similar to what we went through with Jonathan. She is the daughter of some of my parent's closest friends, and she was pregnant with triplets (identical boys and a girl). We were all so excited to hear this news, and it was unreal that my parents and their friends were all to be grandparents of multiples! A week ago, her cervix started failing.  She went onto bedrest, then into the hospital, and over the last 2 days, has now lost all three of her children. She was at almost the same gestation (right around 23 weeks)   that I was when I lost Jonathan. It absolutely breaks my heart for her as it brings back to mind the crushing grief that this causes.  My heart hurts so much for her, her husband, her family, knowing that this is just the beginning of such an awful part of her life. There is nothing that can be done to ease their pain, except pray for them.  I don't know her personally, so I don't know where she stands in a relationship with Jesus.  But I do know that my relationship with Him was the ONLY thing that got me through losing our son.  I say all the time to people, "I'm not sure how anyone could go through it without Jesus." I truly believe that.  Will you please join me in praying for Sheri and Brian and their families?  Praying for comfort, for God to wrap His arms around them and draw them to Himself, for Him to hold them in their grief, and in time, making this a time of their life that they can use for His glory?  I would so appreciate your praying with me!

~Justin and I have lost 40 pounds combined since January 7!!  A whole blog post is coming on what we have been doing, but we are feeling SOOOO much better, fitting into clothes we haven't worn in a long time, and even won 1st and 2nd place in a challenge we were a part of! Which happened to come with a $250 prize! Yay! Stay tuned... this one deserves to be its own blog! =)

Ok... that's all for now.
(Don't miss the blog below... Amazingly enough, but I posted two IN THE SAME NIGHT!! =)