Welcome to the Scharrer family's real life story! Most of our story is written for, and about, our four kids and the spice they add to our lives. It's our story of happiness, craziness, and sometimes ridiculousness. We've journaled through childbirth, the terrible two's, private school (and our public school experience), an autism diagnosis, medical school, residency, and long-term mission work in Africa.

Now we're following a new adventure, which involves a 45 foot motorcoach, homeschool, and as many ski slopes as we can go down in one year.

For posts from while we were living in Zimbabwe and updates about our future plans in Zimbabwe, please see our mission blog...

www.ourzimbabwejourney.blogspot.com.





31 August 2011


Happy 13 months, Klaasen!

I didn't miss your birthday (even though you really haven't blown out a candle, yet) and I promise I love you just as much as I do Maida and Skogen (even though they got big one-year-old birthdays and you didn't). Life has just been rather crazy lately and we had to have your birthday on the run. The highlight of your actual birthday was eating at a really yummy homemade ice cream parlor with our best friends and then watching you eat cake, that Maida helped make for you, at a picnic for Daddy's work. You got to pick out your own present at the thrift store, too, which I think is pretty awesome, also. You chose a wagon that plays music and lights up when you pull it. You still love it a month later. It is your favorite toy.

At 13 months, you still weigh 28 pounds. You started walking right at 11 months and just recently learned to run - you are always trying to keep up with your brother and sister. You can say, "mama, "dada," "dis" (for "what's this?", "mo" (for more), "baba" (for bottle), "ba" (for ball and bath), "pa" (for paci or potty), "Bumpa" (for Bumpa - what all the grandchildren call my dad) "bye bye," "hi, "nigh nigh" (for good night), and "mmm-mmmmmm" (for no). You can sign, "more," "milk," "all done," "more milk," "night night," and "love you". You know what a dog, cow, fish, lizard, cat, car, and tractor says. You finally started sleeping through the night and usually go to bed at 8:30. You wake up between 7:00 and 8:30, depending if you can hear Daddy getting ready for work or not. You take one nap a day sometime between 11:30 and 2:00, depending ln the day. You refuse to sit in a shopping cart and because you can get out of the seatbelt, I usually end up carrying you the whole time (soooo glad that we finally got the Moby unpacked!). You hum with and do almost all of the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and "Party Cake". You love Bible class. You are a Daddy's boy. You love to give kisses and blow kisses. One of your favorite things to do is bring me shoes to put on you. You love cars and trains. You love to climb and be high. You are a tough kid, but if you decide that you really got hurt, you wail so loud the neighbors can hear and it's hard to calm you down. You love to eat. You out eat Maida and Skogen at every meal. You love to be outside. You love to go for walks and swing. You like to tip the cup up when drinking out of a straw and get wet every time. I'm wondering how many times it will take before you learn not to tip it up. You know where your eyes, nose, button, and peepee are. You say, "pa," sometimes when I'm changing your diaper and point to your private region. When you poop, you sometimes bring me a diaper and when I ask you if you pooped, you always pat your bottom. You stand up in your highchair at every meal. You always pull dogs' tails. You love to play in the toilet. You love baths. You love slip'n'slides, swimming pools, and anything with water. You love to hum. You suck on your paci often and I just ordered you two new new ones from Germany because you are picky with your pacies! You still only have four teeth, but you just had an ear infection, so I'm guessing you are getting more teeth. They seem to come together for you. You have dark brown curly hair and brown eyes. You love to smile and laugh. You are such a snugger and randomly through out the day will come over to me and want to put your head on my shoulder for a few minutes. You have thick feet and it's hard to find shoes that fit. You still have most of your baby rolls and we love them!

Over all you are a great mix of Maida and Skogen and we can't wait to watch you grow more. I'm treasuring each minute we spend together. I still won't admit that you are a toddler. You're still my baby!

I love you, Duke.

Mommy
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28 August 2011

Snippets

I'm starting to feel like the blog is slipping away from me and a casual update even seems too demanding. However, we are still without internet and I'm sure once we get internet again, blogging will be a little easier. For now, some snippets of the past few weeks...

- We have a new place! I was beyond excited to move and have enjoyed a week of settling in and making a home here for my family. This week my mom and Aunt Bev came to help me move. They were so much help! I'm so excited to finally have a dining room table, a microwave, a garage, a backyard, and some more of my clothes! The picture above is of the kids eating dinner on the floor of our new house. Ever tried to feed a one year old on the floor? He's constantly either putting his feet in his food (and everyone else's) or continually trying to crawl away. I'm so glad to have the highchair, now, too!

- Skogen is completely potty trained! It is so much easier (and cheaper) to have one in diapers compared to two, but so much harder to deal with two of them needing to use the potty ASAP. I'll never understand why little kids wait until the last minute to go to the bathroom. Grocery shopping trips have been quite exhausting with several mad dashes to the bathroom, dragging three kids and a cart full of food. And trying to keep three kids from touching everything in the bathroom while they wait for each other is a whole different story! Ick!

- This week Erik starts back in the Emergency Department. Praise the Lord! The ICU was a killer for me. I'm ready to see my husband again!

- Today is our anniversary! We have been married for seven years. Erik usually has something special planned for us, but he left for work at 4am this morning and still isn't home (it's almost midnight). I'm hoping we will be able to celebrate soon!

- I'm done nursing... almost. I'm only nursing Klaasen once in the morning. Once this feeding drops off, it will be the first time in almost five years that I'm not either pregnant or breastfeeding. It's a bitter/sweet thing.

- Maida got into the Kinder Challenge program at preschool!! It is typically designed for kids a little older, but there was a spot open and she had to test out for it. We are so proud that she blew the director away and made it in! She will be going four days a week. We have the meet-the-teacher and parent orientation coming up soon. Skogen is also signed up for preschool and will go two days a week. He is VERY excited! I'm not so sure I'm ready to let Skogen go, yet, but know it will be great for him.

More to come soon(ish)...
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16 August 2011

I feel the need to update.

It's been a while. It's been a ride (a long one). It's been a trip (or a few). As I sit here, internet-less, punching out every letter in my phone's small touch-screen keyboard, I am reminded at how blogging can be so difficult in times like these.

Someday I will have internet again and be able to catch everyone up on my baby's first birthday, my Golden Birthday celebration in Puerto Rico, my spontaneous trip to Oklahoma to see my neice, my trip back up to northern Minnesota to visit my family, donating my hair, a newly aquired obsession with Mr.Potato Heads, my amazing Bible study that I've been attending all summer, all the great people we've met, our awesome residency program, how much I love this new city, and our plans for the next chapter in our lives. But for now, I slowly (very slowly) blog from my phone's untrustworthy 3G connection, sitting in our nasty smelly apartment, wild guinea pig and all.

Even with the guinea pig who likes to live in our walls and run and poop on our floor in the middle of the night when no one is looking, I am so thankful for running water, a bath tub/shower (not just a stand up shower because how would I bathe the kids?), a washer and dryer (I have no idea how I'd haul all our laundry to the mat), an oven that works (a microwave is not a necessity), an air conditioner (even though it costs twice as much to run as at our house in the cities), and kids who think we're living the high life!

Please keep us and our living situation in your prayers. Being thankful doesn't mean that I don't want my clothes, my bed, more than four forks and four spoons, my dog, a garage, a backyard, a dining room table, or a healthy place to live. I'm through with climbing four flights of stairs hauling a 30 pound baby and groceries (yes, at the same time). I'm done with the second hand smoke pouring through our windows at all hours of the day and night, and neighbors keeping us up or waking us up all night long.

I'm hoping and praying to get out of here by the end of the week. Please pray that that will be possible and mostly just that we are prepared for whatever God has planned for us, even of it's not what we have been planning on.

"For I have learned to be content on whatever circumstances I am." Phil 4:11

"Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on." Matt 6:25-26

Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you." 1Peter 5:7

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Prov3:5-6

"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you." Isa 41:10

"And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Col 1:17

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We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection.”
~Anais Nin