Christmas Presents

At our house, we believe that Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Birth is exciting (though not painless). Birth is a new beginning. It signals the transition from mother's protection in the womb to exposure and growth in the big, wide world. This morning we were blessed to get a phone call from one of our very good friends, David. This particular friend has been a very good friend of Brad's since he was in 4th grade. It's been a while, but nevertheless, they don't generally call to with each other merry Christmas on Christmas day. It's just a guy thing, I suppose. My hubby is just not a linger on the phone kind of guy. So this morning when David called, I let Brad answer it. Next thing I know, my man is crying. Not big crocodile tears, but wet eyed, voice cracking, not able to speak kind of tears--tears of joy. My husband is not a cryer. He cried a little bit when our kids were born, but beside that, I can think of maybe two times that he has cried in our almost tens years of marriage. As soon as I heard his voice crack, I knew what was going on...David's wife is pregnant! Yes, we are normally happy when one of our friends gets pregnant or finds out they are getting a baby through adoption (amazingly, we have several adopted babies in our circle of friends). This difference in this case is that David and Renese have LONG said that they were not ready for kids yet. We were not expecting this at all. Let me emphasize that these are people we see all the time. We talk about a lot of stuff, but an actual, real-life, going to happen in this lifetime pregancy was never discussed--ever. We are so excited for them! The ironic twist to all of this is that about 2 weeks ago, Breanna asked me if Aunt Renese has a baby in her tummy. She has not not changed size, and does not look like she is pregnant. Breanna just asked me. I mentioned it to Renese and she just laughed, but didn't say a word. (What an amazing secret keeper you are, Renese!) I think Breanna has some psychic abilities or a straight line to God, or something. Anyway...we are so extremely excited for you both, and congrats to Grandma Donna (we are glad you survived the shock)! We love you guys and are looking forward to meeting the new little peanut!

Stinky and the Sticky Feet

We have a dog, two dogs to be exact. Labrador Retrievers. Best dog in the world. Before we had kids they were our kids. Poor babies. They got shoved down the ladder of our family hierarchy when the two legged kids came along, but we still love them. They still get to come in the house at night time to sleep. The last several days the weather has actually turned colder, so they have even had the opportunity to come inside during the day. They've even been on best behavior, so they have been out of the dining room where they normally stay behind the baby gate. Their names are Gomer (yes, like Gomer Pile) and Diamond (aka Stinky). I don't remember how Diamond got the nickname Stinky, but it just stuck. She is almost 10 years old. These things happen. Anyway, like I said, they have been sleeping in our bedroom. Last night as I was reaching over to turn out my bedside lamp, I heard Diamond walk over to my side of the bed. It was not the soft padding sound that normally occurs when she walks on the carpet. It was more of a schtuck, schtuck, schtuck, schtuck sound. Hmmm...I thought. That sounds kind of weird, so I got out of my warm bed and picked up her funny sounding feet. What the heck is that?????? Something was all over the bottoms of her front feet, something strangely sticky as it had Gomer hair and even a Christmas tinsel remnant stuck to it. Hmmm...she did not look too happy about whatever it was. Then it dawned on me: Breanna found a pack of gum earlier in the day and had been chewing on a big wad of it. The foreign substance on Stinky's feet was strangely reminiscent of a 3-year-old's gum wad. How it got on Stinky's feet, I'll never know.

I took Diamond/Stinky into the living room where Brad was still watching TV for a few minutes. I told him to pause it so Diamond could show him something. She plodded around the coffee table to show him her sticky feet to which Brad replied, "What the heck is that sound????" Breanna's gum wad, obviously. Poor Stinky. She did not want to be laid down in a submissive position to have her little feet poked and prodded, let alone pried apart and the hair trimmed out from in between them. But that is just exactly what had to be done. Imagine someone rubbing a big wad of gum in your armpit hair (or arm hair, if you are not a bohemian woman), and then pulling on it until it came out. Ouch. She closed her sweet, brown, watery, sappy eyes and just laid there. Poor Stinky. I just laughed while Brad trimmed. Sorry, Stinky. It brought to mind some of the crazy misadventures of the book Marley and Me: Life with the world's best and worst dog. (It's coming to theaters this Christmas for you non-readers out there, but I highly recommend reading it.) Marley makes Diamond look like Lassie in comparison. They are the same breed so it is hard to not compare.

I will close this tale by telling you that Diamond did get me back this morning, though. She woke me up at 5 a.m. to tell me she had to go potty and 10 minutes ago, please. We made it outside in time, but I did not appreciate getting out of my really warm bed at 5 a.m...gotta love me, she said, then she laid down in her little fuzzy ball and went right back to sleep.

Ode to the Girls

I love my friends. I love my family, too, but this particular entry is just about my friends this time. I have been reading what seems to be a lot of books lately. They are different story lines, different locations, different times even, but they have all been about relationships of one kind or another. They have inspired me to look at my friends and the relationships that I have with them and to appreciate how wonderful they are! They don't backstab or manipulate or judge me. They love, they pray with and for me, they laugh at my oftentimes corny jokes. They listen and they even sometimes read my cheesy blog. I love them all. I have to say that I am especially blessed to have several friends that I would call close and that I can tell personal things to. My friends are so wonderful (and I'm not being sarcastic on this one) that they even tell me when I have messed up and offended/insulted/angered/etc. them. That might sound weird, but I really do appreciate that. I know I have a big mouth and I tend to run on about weird stuff sometimes and say things I shouldn't. They let me know in a loving way. You ladies rock! So here is my ode to each of you...in no particular order...

Amanda...I totally appreciate your patience with my big mouth and how you are such a great wife to your hubby. You have such a gentle spirit and sweet soul. Your walk with the Lord truly inspires me.

Jen...I LOVE your sense of humor. You have such an honest air about you. You don't stew about things that bother you. You let it out and wear your heart on your sleeve. I love how you are so transparent about your walk with the Lord and your stumbling blocks.

Stacy...I love that even though we don't get to talk as much as we used to, we can always just pick up where we left off. You are so faithful and kind. You have always been so supportive to me, your hubby and your family. You are such a great example to me.

Debbie P...You are an amazing mother and wife. Your love for the Lord is evident in everything you do. Even though you have a few years on me (and you have had 5 pregnancies!), you are in AMAZING shape! You inspire me to take better care of myself.

Renese...You are so gorgeous and intelligent! You are the best hygenist/beautician ever! I have so much fun hanging out with you. Thank you for letting me have girl talk about s-e-x without thinking I'm a pervert. You are the perfect wife for David, and a fabulous auntie. You still amaze me with your grounding in and love for the Lord. I love to hear you speak at small group.

Cori...You have such sweetness and patience. You are a wonderful mother above everything else. You always put family first. You are a very generous giver of everything you have: time, love, smiles, kindness. You are the best salsa maker EVER!!!

Debbie S...You are so sweet. I love your contagious laugh. You are so friendly and fun--there is no way you have social anxiety disorder or what ever you call it. Your love for others is so apparent through the kindness of your children and husband.

Ruth F...You are so faithful to the Lord--it completely inspires me to see someone so normal that has such a beautiful love for God. You are an amazing mother to your beautiful and fantastic children. You see everyone around you through God's eyes.

Grace...Your smile lights up the room. You have such a big heart. You are so intelligent without being a know it all (like me). You are a super patient mother to your residents and will be a fabulous mother to your biological child. AND you are so on my team anytime we play Cranium!

Jessi H...You are such an amazing nurturer. You love on challenged kids all day at work and come home to love on your own family more. You are so kind and easy to be with.

Tina...Your creative energy and ideas astound me. You are a truly gifted artist. You inspire me every day that I get to work with you.

I could go on and on about all the fabulous friends that I am blessed with. I love my book club girls. You are all so insightful and fun! I just want to openly and honestly say thank you to God for all of my friends. So there you have it. Thank you to all of you for being my friends. I know I am kooky and off sometimes. You are all so patient with me. Thank you. I love all of you!

George

My sweet little Breanna...she has mommy's talent for making up her own words for songs when she can't quite remember them or understand them. Here are the lyrics as they are supposed to be:

We are AWANA cubbies.
We're happy all day long.
We know that Jesus loves us.
That's why we sing this song.
We hop because we're happy.
We jump and shout for joy!
Jesus is a friend to us.
He loves each girl and boy.

Now Breanna's version:

We are AWANA cubbies.
We're happy all day long.
We know that Jesus loves us.
That's why we sing this song.
We hop and look for George.
Jesus is a friend to us.
He loves each girl and boy.

Who is George? I am not sure, but we are apparently looking for him. I love kids.

Never Say Never

As so many things in life change around us, there was one thing my sweet husband clung to...he would NEVER own a minivan. Life is often beyond our control. Sometimes we just need to submit to God's will and run with it. Does that really include a minivan? It seems to in our life. Sorry, honey. You see, we sold our truck that I was whining about a couple months ago. We have been driving our truck. I got over the whole ego thing. I drove the old truck. I even got a little self-righteous about it. (Was your shiny new vehicle completely paid for?) So just to keep me humble, God provided a minivan for us at a price we could afford. It's reliable. It's been taken care of. We can all safely fit in it, plus friends. I was a little sad about selling the truck. We have had it for 13 years. That is even longer than we have been married. Bye, Bessie. (That was her name.) I was glad to sell her to a cute teenage girl. It's her 1st car. She was super excited. She paid cash. Somehow our driveway seems a little empty. We are down to our minivan and Brad's work van now. It's all good. Never say never.

This is NOT a Suggestion

You need to go see the movie "Fireproof". That's it. If you are married or in a relationship or know people that are, you need to go see this movie. I think that covers everyone. I'm not going to ramble on about it today. Just go see it. If you have already seen it, or if you go see it in the next few days (which you will, of course, because I told you to), I would love to have your feedback and/or comments about it. Post them in the comments section of my blog. Now go see it.

Cleaning with Joy

Yesterday morning Breanna did not want to wash her hands after she went to the bathroom. Eeeww! I finally convinced her that she needed to do so because it is just gross not to. She decided to wash her hands in the kitchen. Good. There is soap there. There is water there. There is a towel there. Good. In the process of washing her hands, she managed to spill a big glob of soap on the counter. It happens. She's 3. I then instructed her to get the dishcloth wet, squeeze it out, then wipe up the spilled soap. Again, we are good. She is learning to clean up after herself. I then went into the living room because I don't need to supervise this whole thing (see untying the apron strings from a while back). Next thing I know, I am sitting on the couch talking to Brad and we hear Breanna singing in the kitchen.
"Cleaning the counters...cleaning the counters...cleaning the counters..." Think big singing here, not just a little tune. She was really getting into it. It was so cute! She was truly enjoying cleaning the counters! Then she came out of the kitchen and proudly announced that she had cleaned all of the counters. What a great example of how I should be doing my daily tasks. I thought I was the mommy who was supposed to be doing the teaching here. So much for that idea.

Sweet Music

When Aidan started kindergarten this year, I told myself that I would not be one of those moms that took their kid to school in their pajamas. That lasted all of two weeks, I think. I do put on sweat pants or exercise pants or something on the bottom, but it is usually my pajama top under my jacket. Oh well. But every other Friday, I make myself get going and I get dressed and ready before school because I go to volunteer in Aidan's class. Oh my gosh, it is soooooo cute! First of all, Aidan is so funny when he is with his friends. One time when they were doing "centers" in the afternoon, Aidan chose the art station. This station gives them the ability to chat more while they are coloring or cutting or taping or pasting. I don't remember how it came up, but they were comparing "war" stories...
"One time I got a spanking for..."
"One time I got a spanking with the belt for...! Man, it hurt!" laugh, laugh, laugh.
You get the point. It was just funny. Last week was a special week, though. Aidan was the Star Student of the week which means he gets to bring show and tell on Friday. Since Mommy was there on this day, he chose to bring something a little bit bigger because I could keep it in the car until show and tell time. He brought his marine (aka camouflage) guitar that he got for his birthday last year. I figured he would bring it to show, maybe strum it a couple times, and then let the other kids touch it, but just in case, I asked him during recess before show and tell what song he was going to sing. I expected him to say, "Oh, Mom. I'm not going to play a song in front of my friends." He didn't. He told me exactly what song he was going to sing. At this point I have to tell you that Aidan has not had any formal guitar lessons yet. He just puts on his guitar and walks around the house "playing" and singing to it. Occasionally, he will play it with the radio with rock being his genre of choice (thank you, Daddy).

Right before show and tell, I go get his guitar and bring it in. A few of the kids see it and get excited about it, so Aidan's teacher puts it behind his desk while the kids go out to recess one more time for the day. Next, they come in and sit down for show and tell. Aidan gets his guitar out of the box, puts the strap on, and sits down in the chair in front of his peers. His teacher then asks him if he is going to play a song for the class and he nods his head. I just smile because he is so cute just sitting there holding it! Next thing I know, he is strumming and singing! Oh my gosh it was precious!!! He got about half way through the song, stopped suddenly and said he forgot the rest of the words. Who cares? The kids all clapped and were very impressed with what he had done. I wanted to cry, tears of joy, of course. I know that I would not have been able to do that at his age. I was just so proud of him. It took a lot of courage to get up in front of his peers and do that. Maybe we have a future American Idol on our hands...;)

My Reader

This will be a quick post after my rather lengthy last one. I just wanted to announce that my son is officially reading. Yesterday after school, he read an entire book all by himself. Yes, it was a very simple "Bob book", but he did it. In fact, he read 3 books. I think he was a little embarrassed that I was so excited, but I am so proud of him. He even called and read a story to Grandpa over the phone. It brought tears to my eyes. He is so precious.

A Splendid Review

I recently finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Wonderful book. I can't say that it was a happy and joyful book. There were moments of joy, but there was a lot of heartache. Most of our American schools don't have much of a world education, it seems to me. We tend to stay mostly focused on our history (and we're not very good at that anymore), and just brush over the history of other countries. Fine. I'm all for our country, even as messed up as it is. We still enjoy a lot of freedoms that we do take for granted that people in other countries couldn't even dream of. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells just such a story. It really was beautifully written. The overview that it gives of an average life in Afghanistan is just amazing. It wasn't always an official Islamic state like it is today. Women were not always oppressed like they are now. Things seem to be slowly getting better, but change takes time. I don't want to go into too much detail other than to say, go read it for yourself. I also enjoyed The Kite Runner by the same author. It has some of the same insights into Afghan culture that Splendid does, but it is a completely different story, and it deals more with where Afghan and American cultures meet. Also a very good book. Go read it.

Speaking of other cultures...recently I got an e-mail from a friend that essentially called me racist. It bothered me. I don't believe myself to be a racist person. I really do believe that we are ALL God's creations--each and every person on this ever shrinking planet. Do I believe we are all God's children? Not so much. I'm not into this whole politically correct "what I believe is true for me, but if you want to believe something else that is true for you" thing. It is completely contradictory. That belief would negate both beliefs, in my opinion. There is only one way to heaven. Another friend of mine, Jesus, said, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. No one comes to the Father except by me." Period. He didn't say, "I am one way." THE way. That's it. What does any of that have to do with racism? My dictionary defines racism as "the assumption that one race is biologically superior to another." Like I said before, we are ALL God's creations. All people were created equal. I'm struggling here to find the words that I feel adequately express my feelings about all this. Let me back track a minute. Next Tuesday is election day. I always vote--always. I believe that it is part of my responsibility as an American citizen to vote. I encourage everyone to vote. I know that not everyone will vote the same way that I do, but that's how the system works. We all put our voice in and in the end the one with the most votes wins. I believe this election is probably one of the most important elections of our time. I am not so naive to think that any one candidate is perfect. But we do have to look at the whole big picture of what each candidate represents, and we have to look at specific issues that are important to us. I am going to back track even further here for just a second. Several years ago when Bill Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinski, I remember watching the news (which I don't normally do) and hearing the interviewer ask people on the street if the extramarital affair affected Bill Clinton's presidency. It shocked me to hear people say that it didn't because "that was his personal life" and somehow "his personal life is completely separate from his political life." How does that happen? Was Bill Clinton somehow superhuman and can just turn off parts of his brain? I don't think so. In other words, what we do in our personal life affects all areas of our life. Another example on the other end of the spectrum is the BTK killer from a few years ago. That man was a serial killer, but during the day he had a job and a wife and went to church. Are you telling me that these things were unaffected by his hobby of murdering people. Probably not. Fast forward to today and next week's election. There are some serious questions raised about Barack Obama. I am not against this candidate because he is black, or because he lived in Indonesia, or because his grandmother lives in Kenya. I am against him because he wants to take all my money because he thinks I'm not smart enough to handle it myself. He wants to handle it for me. I will readily admit that I have made some huge mistakes with my money. If you've read any of my past blogs, that is pretty apparent. The point is that they are my mistakes. I am now working hard to rectify them--because I can. I am not and did not ask for the government's help to fix my mistakes. To ask or expect them to is foolishness. We all need to take responsibility for our own choices. Speaking of choices, Barack Obama supports abortion and partial birth abortion, at that. It makes me literally want to vomit to even think about it. In a partial birth abortion, the doctor partially delivers a live baby, then sticks scissors into it's brain and scrambles them up until the baby is dead, then finishes delivering it. When I found out I was pregnant with my son, my husband and I were not planning to get pregnant. Many people could have easily justified an abortion of my baby by saying we were not planning that pregnancy, or that I had a very ill father to take care of and we couldn't afford to have a baby. There were any number of reasons that I could have chosen not to have him. But we chose to have him. He is a creation of God. He is a blessing. He is not perfect, but he is precious. I can't even begin to imagine not having Aidan. By choosing to support abortion, I would be saying that I know better than God. I can do a better job controlling and planning my life than the creator of the universe can. Really? Probably not. I know women (dear friends) that have had abortions. Here's what I know about that. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. ALL things work together for good to those that love God. It doesn't say all good things. ALL things work together for good to those that love God. God can use anything for good. With that I will wrap up my rambling rant for today. I hope that I have made some sense today. I'm not here to change your mind, just to express my opinion. This is my blog. Have a great weekend.

Multilingual

My 3-year-old, Breanna, is multilingual. She speaks English very well, I must say. She knows a few words of Spanish, thanks to Dora the Explorer. But she also has a language all her own. It's not like a very young child that is just learning to speak and they just say the words funny (ie. milk is mik). Breanna has a whole language of her own. She translates for us and remembers the words! It's really funny. The other day, as we were driving down the road, she and Aidan were playing red light, green light in the back seat. "Sonto!" she said to him. "Sonto!" she repeated. Then she translated for us, " Sonto means stop, Bubba." Of course it does. She makes up the funniest little names for her babies and ponies when she's playing, too. Names like Kiranaly, and Kirsha are the norm for her world. Somehow I need to tap into her little brain and harness that creative language energy. Hmmm... That is my new goal. I would like to write a book. I think I've mentioned it before on here. I'm still waiting for my final inspiration from God as to the subject matter. I've had several ideas, but nothing yet that I am just soooo excited about. Maybe I'll just have to have Breanna help me. We'll see. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, we are learning to speak Breanna-ese.

Super Sweet Boy

My son is so sweet. He likes to do things for me. If you've ever read The 5 Love Languages of Children, you will know that children cycle through the 5 different love languages until they settle on the 1 or 2 that feel best to them. Last night was an "acts of service" night. I was trying to help him with his first school fundraiser (which by the way, if I happened to miss your e-mail address, go to www.abcfundraisinginc.com, click "shop our online store", and enter Aidan's ID# which is can8940. Thanks!). Upstairs, I heard him doing something, but I couldn't tell you what. Then he hollers down the stairs at me, "Mom, come up and see. I have a surprise for you." I'll admit I was a little nervous. Often these surprises consist of taking every cushion, pillow, and blanket in the house and making a fort. This time happened to be different. He had not only set the table with silverware, but had gotten out 3 bowls, and scooped them with appropriate amounts of stew (that Grandma had made for us--THANK YOU!!!), and set them by the microwave to be warmed. Then he even got 3 cups for us and put juice in all of them. It was so cute! I actually totally appreciated it because we were heading out the door to go to AWANA's. I just really enjoyed his pride in doing a random act of kindness--especially while Daddy is at work training in another town. Such sweetness!

A Little Change

You might have noticed a little change to my blog. Yes, I put a huge Dave Ramsey button on it (scroll to the bottom of the page). I put it there because I care about all you wonderful readers of mine--okay, it's maybe 10 of you, but I still care. Click on the button. Have a financial reality check. Make the changes you need to. And remember, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Have fun!

The Big 6

I can't believe it. Seriously. Aidan is 6 years old. That makes me over 30 now. (What's a girl to do?) He turned 6 last Thursday. I'm a little slow on the blogging, but I'm here now, aren't I? He was so cute with all his mixed up emotions. He was so excited because it was his birthday. Yeah! Birthdays mean presents. He was totally bummed because Daddy was out of town for work training. (Daddy was really bummed, too, by the way, but he did get to be here for the party.) Even his teacher could tell that he was really bummed. Poor kiddo. He made it through, though. We went for "special" ice cream (aka Coldstone Creamery!!!) before we ate dinner. Now that is a birthday treat if I have ever heard of one. Now he has told me (a couple of time now) that he is scared to be a grown up. I told him that it's okay to enjoy being a kid because being a kid is just so much fun! Now it is back to reality. School and playing with the new toys. He is waiting for one more gift, though. For his birthday, several of his friends chose to pitch in for his new big kid bike. He looks gigantic on his "old" one! Daddy is gone this week again, so we he gets back we will go pick out his new bike. Fun, fun, fun! Thank you to all of you that helped out with that. He is really looking forward to it!

My Seed Planter

Sometimes it feels like a thankless job to be a mother. I know in my head that I am appreciated whether my family says it outloud or not, but sometimes it is hard to not grow weary of doing dishes, doing laundry, dusting, vacuuming, doing dishes, doing laundry, wiping noses, wiping bottoms, cleaning the bathroom, taking out the trash, scooping dog poop, mowing grass, watering grass, doing dishes, doing laundry, reorganizing bedrooms, vacuuming, fluffing smooshed pillows on couches that are smooshed from making forts that weren't put away, doing dishes, doing laundry, etc., etc., etc...you get the point. Don't get me wrong, I really do love being a mommy. It is totally worth it to be there when they get an ouchie and my kisses are magic to make it better. It is totally worth it to just have a day of doing nothing but playing checkers and wrestling and tickling on the floor. It is totally worth it to be able to sit down and read stories with my babies on the couch. It is totally worth it to be able to lay down with my baby (okay, she's 3 1/2, but she's still my baby) and take a nap just because we are worn out on that particular day or just because she wants to cuddle--which is happening less and less these days. My point of all this is to point out that my mom did all these things for me and much, much more. I want to say thank you to her--in a public forum--for all that she did for us growing up. My mom was great! She sewed clothes for us, so we could be matching twinkie girls on Easter. She specifically and intentionally didn't work a job outside the home just so that she could be there when we got home from school. She let me help sponge paint my room when I was in 4th or 5th grade, which I have to say was very brave of her, but probably gave me the seeds of desire to be painting these days. My mom believed in the family bed when we were little, so I knew it was "okay" to let my baby sleep with me when I started my own family. My mom let me nurse, even in public (gasp!), when I was old enough to walk and talk and even when it wasn't popular. My mom took me to my first La Leche League meeting as an adult (she took me a lot when I was young) when I was too nervous to go on my own--another thing that planted seeds to get me where I am today. I started another La Leche League group where there wasn't one, and I've trained 2 more since then. It does make a difference to be a momma. I am by no means a perfect mama. I by no means have all the answers. I do my best. That what my mom did for me. That's all we can do. Thank you mom for loving me! Thank you mom for being my seed planter.

Perfection

What is it that makes families pretend to be perfect with each other? We know, logically, that people aren't perfect (except our Savior, Jesus, of course). We're just not. Why should we pretend to be otherwise? It just doesn't make sense. It's frustrating. I know I'm not perfect. (I really do know it. I know everything and that includes knowing I'm not perfect.) I know I can be bossy. I know I can be anal about some things. I know I can be overly emotional and overly critical of myself. I also know that I can be lazy sometimes. So what's the problem? I will apologize right now if anyone thought ill of my sister after my blog a few days ago (that is for now removed). I love her. I really do. She really is a lot of fun. However, someone pointed out to me that maybe she wouldn't understand that I wasn't being critical of her, that I was just poking fun. Sorry to her and anyone else that may have been offended. That being said, just for clarification purposes, this is my blog. It is my thoughts. It is my memories. I talk about things in my life and with my family. I like to think it's funny sometimes--Brad might tell you otherwise.;0 I like to think it is a sweet place for me to remember the cute and funny things my kids do. I know not everyone thinks my kids are absolutely adorable and faultless. That's why this is my blog. I know that I am going off on a rant here, but I really feel strongly about this. As my mother pointed out to me, blogging can be therapeutic. For me, it is. I enjoy writing (and have not really realized how much until I started blogging). I enjoy reading other peoples' blogs. It just gives an outlet to put things in words; get it out there; express myself. Someday...I would love to make money at it. How cool is that? Make money doing something you love? What a concept. I do honestly enjoy doing all the things that I do; La Leche League; Uppercase Living; Amway/Quixtar. Obviously, some things I am more involved in than others, but that's how life is. It's give and take. It's take and give. It's not perfection. It's grace. God's grace for us. God's grace through us. Enough with my rant already...

Good News!

On this road to better health, I say better because we live in a fallen world and we have sickness and disease, we sometimes get good news and we sometimes get bad. Tonight was one of the former. I don't have lupus! Yeah and PRAISE GOD!!! It looks like it is just the sjogren's syndrome. I'm just dry and crusty at this point. I'm not going to go into all the emotions I'm feeling right now other than to say that this is a God thing. Praise be to Him! I just wanted to let everyone know that little (and huge) update on what is going on. Time to go to bed now.

Proud Papa

Ever since Aidan was in my womb and we knew he was a boy, he was a football player to Daddy. I know it's a little cliche, but Daddy loves football. Why? I don't know. He tells me every year some gibberish about how that's what he and his dad did together and that's how they bonded--by yelling at the TV together? I don't pretend to get it, but I've learned to accept it...well, sort of. But that's not the subject of this blog. This is about Aidan. This fall, he chose to play flag football. For the last 3 previous seasons, he played soccer. He's actually pretty good at it. He did play t-ball this last summer. That was fun! We just want to give him choices, expose him to a lot of different things, and let him find his own groove. So back to flag football. We had our first scrimmage last Saturday. Oh my gosh, it was so cute! Amazingly, the boys (kindergarten age, here) really seemed to get it. They've been practicing for a couple weeks now, but just the fundamentals; throwing, catching, pulling flags off...so when they lined them up and had them run the little plays--it was truly amazing! This is where I get to the proud papa. The first play or two went off without a hitch. Then all of a sudden, my son (!!!) got the ball and ran for a touchdown! Of course, 2 sets of grandparents, an auntie, a mommy, and a sissy were all yelling and clapping. Daddy is one of the coaches, so while he was clapping and giving instructions to the other boys on the surface, underneath he was jumping up and down and yelling his head off for his own boy. He was SOOOO proud! It boils down to this: it is a culmination of 6 years of fatherhood, 9 months of pregnancy (praying for a boy), and 30 years of watching football with his own father all rolled into one proud moment when his son made the first touchdown of his football career at his very first football game. I'll admit, too, I was very proud of Aidan--even if it as football.

Eternity Talks

Tonight as we lay in Breanna's bed for bedtime story, I chose to read Aidan's new Spark book for our bedtime story--and to reinforce the verse he is learning this week. His verse is John 3:16, which if you are not familiar with, goes like this:

For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

We were talking about what it means, and how God felt when He sent his son to die for us, and how sad Mommy and Daddy would be if we had to have our son die for everyone else. It was a really good discussion--one of the moments you simultaneously really dread and look forward to. Aidan then asked me,
"Mom, what would happen if God hadn't sent Jesus to die for us?" So I am in the middle of this really great explanation of how we would all have to die and go to hell for eternity, and I'm quoting scripture about how we are all sinners and the price for being a sinner is death, etc... you get the point. I was just so excited to have answers for his questions, then he asks one more...
"Mom, is this a mosquito bite on my forehead?" Moment over. Just like that. I'm just glad to have had the moment in the first place. But he's 5. They don't last very long. Until the next one...

The Clothes Wars

My son is so cute. I am completely aware that I am totally biased, but still... For a while now he has been gradually becoming more opinionated about what he wears. He comes out of his bedroom wearing camouflage pants (hiked up as far as they will go), a different pattern camouflage shirt (on backwards, of course, and tucked in way too far), and another pattern of camouflage hat. Then he asks me,
"How do I look, Mom?" What is a mother supposed to do? I can't lie because as we say at our house, we are truth-tellers. So I say what every loving mother would say,
"Honey, YOU make that look good!" Which is the truth, of course. He would make a wrinkly paper sack look adorable, and who can resist that oh-so-proud-of-myself smile? After all, what is a mother for besides supporting and developing independence in one's child (see "Untying the Apron Strings" blog)? At least he's trying to match. I will also readily say that this particular outfit is a play clothes outfit--not school attire. In order to avoid a full blown clothes war in the middle of the morning rush and mayhem, we do it the night before. School shirts are clearly marked by being hung on hangers. Play shirts are folded in the clothes holder. I know...it sounds a little bit anal on my part, but if things are clearly marked and arranged then he knows where to go, and making a good choice is easier. Breanna's clothing choices are another story. We are not yet in the "I need to make a statement" stage, so she is allowed to pair whatever top and bottom she chooses (weather appropriate, of course). Aidan also had this freedom when he was 3, but he's not 3 anymore. As my husband points out, we don't want the other kids to make fun of him. True, but...I also want him to be able to make his own choices that are not based on what the other kids think. That's why he wore a blue polo shirt with his jeans on Thursday--with ALL the buttons done up. That's how he wanted it. That's also why he wore a long sleeve, plaid shirt (tucked all the way in), buttoned up completely to school on Friday. A little Urkel-ish, I'll admit, but hey, Steve Urkel was a genius. What can I say?

News On the Homefront

Lupus is not a death sentence. The truly amazing God send of me finding this when we did is that it is very early. I am not having a major flare (which is what they call it when the Lupus becomes super active and damaging). I am having very minor symptoms. The other good news is that we have health insurance now. We didn't have regular health insurance prior to Brad having a "regular" job. Once again, God was watching out for us. While I can't say that I am totally excited to have this diagnosis, it could be a lot worse. At least now we have a starting point.

In other news on the home front...Aidan is having a good time at kindergarten. He doesn't dislike it, but I wouldn't say he loves it yet. When I pick him up after school he says that his favorite part of the day was "everything" (to once again quote his friend, Seth). When asked what he did that day his answer usually consists of, "Oh, we just learned and played on the playground." It's almost as if he needs a little bit of decompression time. Around dinner he usually starts in with all the stories from the day. So-and-so fell off the merry go round. So-and-so played with me today. So-and-so played on the monkey bars and fell off. Etc...It is fun to hear about his day. Right now he is working on writing his name with lower case letters. He knows his lower case letters already--he just prefers to write it all in uppercase letters. Perhaps it's all the talk at home about uppercase living (my business). Who knows? He definitely has strong opinions about things. I have no idea where he gets that from...

Breanna is adjusting to having mommy to herself for the entire day. We get to play games (sans big brother interruptions or domination). We get to read her stories first. We get to watch girly movies by ourselves. It has been fun just having girl time, but we definitely miss Bubba, too.

Breanna-ism

Today's Breanna-ism: book betarded

Translation: printing started. Our printer is so polite that when it starts printing it lets us know by verbally saying "printing started."

The Word

We're not saying it. We're talking around it. It feels like if we don't say it, then it isn't really true. Maybe it will un-happen. If only... Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. This is real life, not the movies. I guess it's kind of been a long time coming, but it just wasn't supposed to happen to me. Isn't that what everyone says? But statistically speaking, it really wasn't supposed to happen to me. Really. I'm sure you're wondering what I'm talking about by now. Lupus. I have lupus. There. I've said it. Some slightly strange things have been going on with my body. I won't go into the details--trust me, you don't want to know. So I've been going to the doctor, and "just in case" he wanted me to run some blood work to see if it came back positive for lupus. My dad had it. My sister has it. Now I have it. It's supposed to be less than 5% chance of passing it onto your offspring--even if you have a sibling that has it. Thanks, Dad. Apparently, my parents had a good combination that way. Native Americans are one of the higher risk groups, apparently. Maybe my mom's Cherokee blood and my dad's health history were just the right combination. Apparently so. I don't even know what to do right now. I wasn't home last night when my doctor called. I haven't even got to talk to him about my questions yet. He wasn't in yet when I called this morning. I haven't even got to talk to my mom yet. Happy birthday, Mom. Yesterday was also her birthday. My husband isn't talking much about it. Like I said, he won't even say the word. He is so worried. He's a worrier. He holds it in and worries. Please pray for him, so that he won't get an ulcer. I did get to talk to my sister this morning. She is doing really well. She has actually been in remission for a long time. So much so, that she just found out about that other word that most people don't say--she's pregnant! I am so excited for her!!! What a day. It is simultaneously very high and very low. Please pray for her, too, that she will have a healthy pregnancy. It was interesting to talk to Dena this morning. Like most of us, her faith in God has gone up and down, but this morning she was sharing some challenges in their life right now. She told me that God never gives us more than we can handle. It says that in the Bible. I was looking for the refence for that verse when I came across this one, Ephesians 5:19-20: ...Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything... It doesn't say give thanks for just the good things He gives us--for everything. Here's another one from 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Give thanks in all circumstances. ALL circumstances. ALL. Thank you, God, for allowing me to have Lupus. Why? I don't know. That's up to Him.

We Survived!!!

We all survived Aidan's first day of kindergarten. Amazingly enough, there were no tears, but he did have a little bit of paparrazzi action going on. Three grandparents, 1 Daddy, 1 Sister, and 1 Mommy, 2 cameras, and 1 video camera all accompanied my son to his first day of kindergarten. I think he must be used to it because he didn't even flinch at the cameras or all the hugs and kisses. When you live in a small town and you have two sets of grandparents living close, that's just how it goes. He told me that his favorite thing was "everything" to quote his wonderful friend, Seth. Since it was just a half day, it wasn't too hard on Mommy and Sissy. I think the hard part will be when he starts all day, next week. Aidan was extremely excited about snack time. They had "funny face fruit snacks"--you know, those little gummy things that have 2 drops of fruit juice in them, so they can call them fruit snacks. He loves those and they are not something that Mommy usually buys. So when his fans (aka grandparents) have called to ask about his first day at kindergarten, that's what he tells them about, and that they played on the playground for "a couple hours." He is still learning about time. So cute!

The BIG Day

It's finally here. It seemed like it would it would never come and at the same time I hoped it never would. Kindergarten. Today is Aidan's first day. He said he is scared--not nervous or anxious, as Mommy tried to assert--scared. He'll be fine. He has 2 parents, a sister, and possible a few of the grandparents, too, to send him off. He'll be fine. I will be taking pictures. I got lots of film just for this occasion. He'll be fine. I'll be fine, too. I just can't believe it's finally here. I have to keep it short today because I'm making him jelly waffles this morning. We don't want to be late for our very first day of kindergarten. I'll let you know how it goes.

Untying the Apron Strings

I've learned that it is a good thing to have mentors. We have mentors for different areas. We have some mentors for our finances. We, obviously, couldn't figure that one out correctly on our own.:) We have spiritual accountability people (that I feel are like mentors because they have amazing walks with the Lord). I have upline ladies that are mentors for me in my business. I even have a lovely lady that I feel is like a mentor mom for me. (I actually have several great ladies in this category, my mom and mom-in-law included.) I guess I like to draw from a lot of life experience when trying to figure out the best way for me to be the best I can. This mentor mom used to tell us all the time to "untie the apron strings" with our kids when the time was right. "Age appropriate," she would say,"untie those apron strings," with all the kindness of a grandmother and the sweetness of the Lord. What she meant by this is that we have to let our kids experience life for themselves. They won't learn very well if we try to do everything for them--even though it may seem easier at the time. For example, Aidan is finally learning to tie his shoes. It's not his fault that we have waited until he is almost 6. They just don't make many kids' shoes with ties anymore. They have zippers and Velcro and elastic, but very few have laces! (If my biological father were alive, I could hear him saying that is because "they" are trying to dumb down kids in America...but that's a blog for another day.) Aidan is really picking up the whole shoe tying thing rather quickly. We practice a couple times a day, because I told him that he will have to tie his own shoes if they come undone at school. He is so cute to watch his little fingers make the loop and wrap it around. He gets a little carried away with the wrapping around, but he'll get there. Untie the apron strings... Every morning he wakes up before I do. That is the one time of day that he really gets to watch his cartoons. He is definitely Daddy's boy in that respect--they both enjoy watching TV. Of course, he is just famished by morning time because he is a growing boy. He has learned how to get his own bowl and how to tell if the dishes in the dishwasher are clean--and even how to pour the milk himself. Untie the apron strings... It used to freak me out to hear him getting in the fridge to pour the milk himself, but he learned that if he sets the bowl on the floor he can pour without making too much of a mess. He knows how to clean up a mess, too. That was one of the first things I taught him when he started walking--he knows where the towels are. Even Breanna knows that one now, too. Untie the apron strings... It's so fun to watch them grow up, but at the same time it scares me to death! It's a comfort (and a bit disheartening) to know that kids are very resilient. They can overcome and recover from a lot and still turn out "fine". Just about everyone I know--that knows the Lord--has come from a dysfunctional family of one sort or another. It's a fallen world. It's inevitable. But for the grace of God... we would be so lost. My point to all of this is that our kids need us. My kids need me. Yes, they learn so much every day! But they still have a long way to go. For that matter, I still have a long way to go. It is so fun and terrifying to be almost completely responsible for the entire knowledge and spiritual foundation that is taught to my kids. That's what is going to carry them throughout their whole lives and into eternity! No pressure. I heard a lady on the radio one time say that to be a mother is not just about wiping bottoms and noses--it's about nurturing an eternal soul. Again, no pressure.

P.S. Thank you, God, for the rain last night. I didn't really want to mow the yard today!:)

Drama Queen

It has been brought to my attention (OKAY, several times) that I have a slight tendency to exaggerate. So it comes as no surprise that I might have pushed the envelope a little bit when I was describing our "old" truck that we are driving around right now. My friend pointed out to me that by my description on my previous blog that she thought I was driving around some hideously old (think: circa 1950's), rusted out, barely running, antique of a truck. It's truly not that bad. It was just my ego that felt like the aforementioned beater truck, I guess. At this point, if my digital camera was working, I would insert a picture to show the world that it isn't so bad, but since my camera isn't working, you'll have to settle for my lackluster verbal description. Yes, it is old, but only 17 years old. Honestly, there are still a lot of people driving the same style trucks around. In fact, our truck has a "twinkie" that lives just a block over. Yes, it has a little bit of oxidation going on in the paint. Again, if I got out there with a bottle of good wax and a buffer (which we do have one), it would probably look a little shinier. I guess I'm not as vain as I thought...:P Right? It does run okay. It's just not the quietest ride ever. I find myself constantly asking the kids to speak up so I can hear them over the engine--and they are sitting right behind me. Oh well. We'll adapt. We are learning about budgeting, but soon we will have saved up money to go buy a new(er) car AND pay cash for it. That will be an amazing day. I am so looking forward to it. So in the words of the fabulous disciple Paul (in Philippians), "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." That's what I'm working on.

Deafening Silence

My little baby is so quickly growing up. No, she hasn't weaned herself completely from nursing. Not yet, anyway. However, she did have her first sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa last night. Aidan was gone camping with Granddad. I couldn't believe the quiet in my house. Even though they don't normally make a lot of sound while they are sleeping, it just sounded extra quiet last night--and this morning. After Brad left for work this morning, I didn't know what to do with myself. I made myself oatmeal (and made way too much because normally I would have shared it with the hovering vultures that get up before me and make their own cereal but are somehow STARVING when I get up half hour later), and actually got to sit down and eat it. What a concept! It was even hot! I am super proud of Breanna. I think we finally (for real this time) got this sleeping thing under control. For the last 3 weeks or so, Breanna has been sleeping through the night. One night in that time span she got up and came to our bed earlier (about 3:30 a.m.), but she hasn't been coming into our bed until 5:30 or 6:00 a.m.!!! That's huge for her! Yippee! I am so not complaining about that one. I am finally starting to get sleep, too. I told Brad that I've started dreaming again. I don't think I've had any dreams for the last 3 years, until lately. I still don't feel completely rested, but it's getting better. We'll get there...one night at a time.

In other news, Aidan is recovering from a black eye--not his first, but the first in quite a while. He is, after all, all boy. He actually didn't do it to himself this time. My sweet little angel girl clocked her big brother up side the head with a sippy cup a few days ago. That will teach him to push her too far. It's in the pretty green stage right now. Aidan is excited because he thinks he is turning into the hulk. Whatever gets you through it, Buddy.;) Kids are great!

Dinosaurs & Armpit Farts

As the days quickly draw nearer to the end of summer and the first day of kindergarten, I find myself just wanting to chill out with my kibbies. Of course, laundry still has to be done and dishes washed--I can't be a complete slob. I find myself just wanting to hang out with them. It's feels like an end to an era. Aidan's going to kindergarten! He'll be gone all day...everyday. Not than I've never left him anywhere before. He's had more sleepovers with the grandparents than I can count. A couple times it's even been for two nights in a row. This is different. I love being with him and having him around. Yes, he makes poor choices sometimes and fights too much with Breanna, and yes, he knows how to completely make an extremely dangerous living area of his room in under 60 seconds flat. But he giggles and races and digs and puddle splashes and ant smashes and sword fights and gives me increasingly toothless kisses on only my cheek in the cutest of ways. What will I do when I can't just wrestle with him or tickle him anytime I want? I know that it will be fabulous time with just Breanna. It really will! She is so much fun to play with, too. And that girl likes to shop! She's 3 and she loves to shop! She even helps me pick out clothes--all pink, mind you--but she does help. It's just going to be so quiet around here. One small consolation I do have is that several of my friends have their firstborns going off to kindergarten, too. I won't be alone in my angst. Even playdates will be more quiet...I pray that all the kids start school on the same day so we can all meet and cry together. That's what girl friends are for, right?

You are probably wondering at this point what the title of this blog has to do with starting kindergarten. In my efforts to just hang out with my kids and just be with them, I have been trying to loosen up a little bit. Case in point, Aidan came to me while I was fixing dinner last night and asked me how to do armpit noises. Like the loving, disciplinarian mom that I am, I promptly put the spatula down and showed him how to do a proper armpit fart. It was great fun! He got a couple good ones out. I was impressed. Somehow, I never was very good at armpit farts until my 5 1/2-year-old son asked me to show him how. The really funny part was watching Breanna try to do it, as well. She puts one hand up her shirt (but not necessarily in her armpit) and flaps the other arm wildly (think: chicken dance). It was hilarious! The other thing we did for probably 2 hours yesterday afternoon was put snap-together, glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs together. It really was fun. Aidan likes dinosaurs. Breanna likes anything that Aidan likes. In that respect, it will be fun to see her come into her own as big brother is not around to guide their play most of the day. She'll have to do her own thing. I'm sure I will entertain her for the first few days, just to ease the transition of not having Bubba around, but I am so not into the entertain your kid all day long thing. We'll see. I'm sure that it will all turn out just fine. That's the great thing about God: He's with my Aidan even when I can't be. I just have to trust Him. That's what it's all about.

In Sickness and In Health

I love my husband. He really takes care of me. He has always been a hard worker. When I first met him, he worked two jobs and was finishing his last semester of high school (from which he graduated early). We've obviously never starved--even when work was sparse. These last 3 weeks or so, I have been continually battling with sinus infections and eye infections--and now an ear infection, too. One would get better, then another would start, and get better, then spread...you get the point. It has just been unpleasant. Yesterday, I finally made a doctor's appointment. It just wasn't getting better. I really don't have time to be sick. My sweet man took the afternoon off to drive me to the doctor because he was worried about me getting in a wreck because I was dizzy from my ear infection. Isn't that sweet? I just had to give kudos to Brad in a public forum for his sweetness. I love you, Honey!

In other local news...Aidan lost tooth #2 last night. The tooth fairy came to visit again. Aidan feels rich these days--he has a whole $6 to spend! In my effort to get him to go to sleep (and quit chatting) I told him that the tooth fairy will disappear and not leave his money if he opens his eyes and sees her. He was quiet after that until I went to leave the room when I hear a very concerned voice ask,"Mom, what happens if I ACCIDENTALLY see the tooth fairy? Do I still get my dollar?" At that point, I felt bad for scaring him--even if it was just a little bit--and told him that if he accidentally saw the tooth fairy, we would just try again the next night. He felt better and fell right asleep after that. Kids...

Random Thoughts

I love the randomness of little kids. The other night as I lay down with Breanna for bedtime, she was very still. I thought she was asleep. Then, all of a sudden she turns over and whispers to me,
"Grandma doesn't call my wonderpants wonderpants. She calls them t t." Then she rolled over and went to sleep. Too cute!

Eating Pie

Eating humble pie, that is. (I know this is my second post today. Wowzers. What ever will we do?) So I'm driving around town in Bessie this morning. I didn't realize how vain I was...or more accurately, how vain I am. There is nothing wrong with Bessie (besides a few minor things and a little bit of paint oxidation). Good grief, she's 17 years old! That's pretty old for a little truck, but she still runs pretty well. Anyway, she's going to have to last at least 8 or 9 months, and that's 8 or 9 months that we will have to drive her around town--and be seen driving around town. I want to put some big letters on the window that say, "We're getting debt free. What's your excuse?" Because somehow that would defend my honor and appease my vanity as I drive this old truck around. Ick. I hate that I'm so vain! I saw someone I sort of knew at the store and I didn't want her to see me get into that old truck, but at the same time I'm thinking, "Go ahead. Ask me why I'm driving that old truck." It's not like we live in some posh neighborhood of some big city and everybody else in town drives some nice, paid for, fancy-shmancy car. This is a small town and I would guess that over half the population drives beaters. I honestly don't know who I'm trying to impress. It's craziness, I tell you. Really, it's one of Satan's little helpers that I'm letting bug me, so to that little imp I say, "Back off! You are not aloud to bug me, tempt me, or try to stir up trouble with me, my family, or my finances because Jesus said so." Maybe I should put that sign on my car...

Done & Gone

It's finally over. It is really gone now. We knew it was coming, but it wasn't quite real until last night. Our car is gone. We are once again left with just "Bessie"--our old truck. Why are we so hard headed? I'll never know. We are truly blessed by it being gone, or at least we are blessed by the payment being gone, anyway. Now we have a little bit of breathing room in our budget--not tons, mind you, until we get the rest of our debts paid off. That won't be long now! I can't tell you how excited that makes me. We will owe no man. We can never repay our debt to Christ, but we will be debt free otherwise. I'm sure I will blog about the day the we will call into Dave Ramsey's radio show and scream that ever elusive --but almost there--phrase, "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!" Maybe we'll have some of you come over and help us. You can consider it practice for when you guys get to do the same thing. I get all forklempt just thinking about it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to go to http://www.daveramsey.com/ and find his show on your local radio station. (If you are local to us then you can listen on 1400 AM Monday-Friday at 1-3 p.m.) Then, listen on Friday. Seriously. It's hard not to get all choked up about it. It really is LIFE CHANGING!!! Yes, Amanda, life changing. When we are debt free, we will be able to help feed the starving children in Africa. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I know I said that before, but wouldn't that be so awesome if we all followed God's laws for handling our money, got debt free and just did some truly amazing things for HIS kingdom? It takes money to do that stuff. So our car is gone. Our debt is being paid off. We are working our way back to where God wants us to be--and it brings such peace. Join us.

Shedding Some Light

I'm sure I've mentioned my really fun book club on here before. If I am mistaken about that though, one of my fun activities that I choose to do is get together with some really great friends, and some other friends that I am just getting to know better, and we all read the same book, bring food to eat, and gab for a couple hours once a month. It's fabulous! There. I've told you about it. Now back to my initial thought thread here...A few months ago the book that was chosen was Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. While the story itself was fun to read (a writer goes to three completely different countries for several months each to get away from her troubles at home) because I do like to travel--though it hasn't happened as much as we would like--and the people she met were really interesting. However, along her way she was trying to find God--which in and of itself is wonderful. We all need to find God. But what she ends up finding is not God, but something that seems really close to what God sounds like. However, close doesn't cut it when it comes to God. Close will still get you in hell for eternity. So where am I going with the ramble this morning? I'm getting there. I just finished re-reading a book that I haven't read since middle school (needless to say, that's been a while ago). That book is called This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti. A little bit different story line. This one is about the forces of evil trying to take over a small town. I'm not just talking about bad guys, but real evil--demons, satan,... One of the tools they use is this "new spirituality" of a new world order. The interesting part, and the reason I bring up both these books in the same context, is the angle that This Present Darkness is written. It is written from the omnipresent reader perspective. In other words, the reader sees what is happening everywhere--including in the spiritual realm. Very interesting...it is still considered a novel and a fictional one, at that, but the Bible tells us in Ephesians 6: 12New International Version For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There is stuff going on that we can't see with the naked eye. My point to all of this is that This Present Darkness was a fabulous follow up read to Eat, Pray, Love, in my opinion, because it often paralleled Ms. Gilbert's experiences and maybe shed some light on what was really happening to her. There it is. Now go read This Present Darkeness. Enjoy!

Tummy hurt

Yesterday we had to run to the store for a really quick trip. On the way, this is the conversation I overheard from the backseat...

Aidan: Breanna, when you ask God to come live in your heart he lives right here (motioning to heart).
Me: What, Aidan?
Aidan: I'm NOT talking to you, Mom. I'm talking to Breanna.
Me: Okay...
Aidan: Breanna, when you ask God to come live in your heart he lives right here.
Breanna: I don't want God to live in my heart.
Aidan: Why, Sissy?
Breanna: That would hurt my tummy if God poked into my heart.

This is the point I was trying not to laugh too loudly from the front seat. Just had to share that one. So Breanna doesn't quite get the whole "asking God to come into her heart" thing. We'll just keep working on her.

Bittersweet

Today we lost Brad's grandma. The ironic part is that today was her birthday. How strange is that? We were going to call and wish her happy birthday. We didn't get the chance. I have really struggled with that, personally, because I didn't call either of my grandparents before they were gone. I don't know why it's so hard to tell someone, "I love you! I enjoyed (enter specifics) about being your grandchild." What is that all about? I didn't have a bad relationship with my grandparents. I will admit that I did manage to offend Brad's grandma a few visits ago, though, bless her heart. Me and my big mouth. I don't want to go into that right now, but I will let you know that I did apologize later. Grandma Hicks was a very sweet lady--and a good cook. Even Brad would probably admit that he liked Grandma's cooking a lot better than mine. I just don't want to weigh 500 pounds! :) I will never forget the first time I went back to Arkansas to meet "the family" before Brad and I got married. It was, of course, a big deal to have company coming from Colorado, so Grandma made--and I'm not kidding or exaggerating here--squirrel dumplins. Notice that I didn't say dumpling--it's dumplin'. It's the south down there, y'all! I did manage to try to write down some of Grandma's recipes, but, alas, Grandma cooks like I do...some of this, a spoon of that, a heap of this...you know, until it tastes or looks right! Good times in that house. Maybe someday I'll tell the story of playing charades...but not today. We love you Grandma and miss you already. We look forward to seeing you again.

Shining Star

This week, Aidan has been attending Vacation Bible School. He has loved it! He came home singing songs that they have been practicing all week. Last night was the culmination of all their efforts. It came in the form of a cute little program where all the kids went up on stage to sing their well rehearsed songs. The kindergarteners sang "The Growing Song". At the end of the song and motions, the little cutenesses filed off the stage--except Aidan and Seth (who was waiting for Aidan to go). It was at the end of his singing that he spotted me because I was sitting down from taking pictures. However, he didn't see the rest of the kids leaving--he was too busy waving at his family. So we waved and smiled in return. Then he waved some more and smiled some more. At this point, because everybody else was off the stage, I started pointing sideways for him to look at where he was supposed to be going--so Aidan started mirroring my pointing. Everyone was laughing histerically (myself included)! It was so cute! Then I waved one more time and pointed again. THEN he saw what I was pointing at and continued his trek off stage. So my friend, Jen, who was sitting in front of me turned around to remind me that he was my child. Maybe he does have a little bit of my showoff-ness, after all. He had to get something from me...

Faux Fur & Provision

This may not sound like a big deal, but I was freaking out a little--yes, again--when I noticed yesterday that Aidan doesn't have little boy peach fuzz on his little legs anymore. He actually has little boy hairs on his legs! I know it's all part of growing up. I really DO know that. Why does it all just have to happen at once?

Today Brad got paid.

"Yippee." You are thinking. I know it's not very exciting to you, but I knew this day was coming. It is commit to the get rid of the car or lose the house day. You see, we could no longer fool ourselves into thinking that something would happen for us to miraculously keep the car. We had to start with this paycheck to set money aside for our mortgage payments. Thank God that for once I didn't push things with my husband. When he called me this morning to tell me we had to get rid of it now because he didn't get paid enough (even though it wasn't a bad paycheck), I was okay with it. Really, I was. Seriously. Since we decided that getting rid of it was what we had to do, I was honestly okay with that. So what's the problem you ask? I had to tell my parents--who are co-signed on the loan--that we can't make the payments anymore. Ouch! So when I stopped by some friends' house today and I mentioned something about it (can I say thank you for our small group friends, once again?), his reply was maybe they won't respond like you think they will. Hmmm...so maybe they won't. The Lord provides for us...again. Let me backtrack a little bit. The problem with us selling it outright is that we are upside down on it. What stranger in their right mind would say, " Sure I'll buy the car from you for less than you owe, and, oh sure, it's okay if you keep paying the extra that you owe over that. Just give me the title when you're done paying that." Yeah, right. Fast forward to today. So the choice for us was either turn it over to the bank and therefore trash our credit (which we don't care about anymore) and trash my parents' credit, too (not such a good thing for them). So, without going into too much detail, my parents are buying the car from us. It will be a great car for them. It is a super relief for us. We will actually be able to pay our mortgage and other bills without going into the hole each month! Yeah! Praise God! I really mean that!

Tomorrow I will be sharing with you my little sweetness, Aidan. He was so adorable tonight! More details on that tomorrow.

The Tooth Fairy Lives

She came. She really came. Last Saturday (July 5th) the tooth fairy came to our house for the 1st time to visit my child. I really can't believe it. I won't go into the whole losing childhood thing because Amanda covered it so beautifully and eloquently (like she always does) in her blog on July 5th. Check it out for yourself. I was very excited to catch this whole tooth losing thing on film--not digital film as my digital camera has died, so you'll have to wait for pictures. Daddy got to pop out Aidan's first tooth. Very cool. Aidan is officially titled "the toothless wonder" now. He is running around showing everyone he knows, and if he forgets to bring it up, Mommy will. I know it's not a competition. Other kids have lost their teeth before Aidan. I'm just really proud of him. He really is growing up all of a sudden. I think he's feeling it, too. Yesterday was the 1st day of Vacation Bible School at our church and he told me he was a little nervous to go. He was fine once he got there and saw his friends and his teacher that he knows, but it wasn't instantaneous elation at getting to be there. Kindergarten is rapidly coming, too--just a little over a month--EEKKKKK! I know this is every mother's quandry. I know I seem to be talking about it a lot lately. It will be fine once he gets there. Breanna will adjust to not having Bubba around all day. Mommy will, too. I'm just gonna miss him. Then I will have super guilt at not continuing with homeschooling and I'll want to pull him out of school, just so I can have my cutie pie boy at home with me. I know it's a selfish reason, but I love that munchkin. He is just so cute!!! (Can you hear the anxiousness in my voice???) I am really trying NOT to freak out in front of him. I did already warn him that Mommy WILL cry on the first day of kindergarten--only because I'm proud of him and happy for him, of course, but I will cry. I get forklempt even thinking about it. It will be fun to have one-on-one time with Breanna, though. She gets so silly with me when Aidan is not around. Not that she is all serious when he is here; the silliness is just directed at Aidan when she is playing with him. It will be fun to see that side of her more. And boy does that girl like to shop. Once we get rid of our silly car payment and get all the way out of debt, we are going get a bigger shopping allowance and I am sure that Breanna will have just as much fun as I do taking advantage of it. Once again, I must sign off to go get the kiddos ready for VBS today. Enjoy and having a really blessed day!

Iron sharpens iron

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

That's not our verse this week, but I am so thankful for the concept of it. While I'm sure I have mentioned my thankfulness for our small group before, I was again very grateful for our small group this week. It is so cool to have a small group of people that are truly growing in the Lord--and that we can be accountable and vulnerable with. What a special gift from the Lord! I know as a woman it seems to be easier to be vulnerable with someone else, but for a man (ie. Brad) it is very hard to be vulnerable with someone else--especially a group of people. But the Lord has blessed us with just that: a wonderfully caring, sincere, Godly group of people that allows us to be just that: vulnerable as we grow. Webster's dictionary defines vulnerable as being "open to attack, hurt, or injury." When we display our innermost selves to someone else, we can be seriously hurt. That wasn't the case this week. Brad opened himself up this last Sunday to our small group on the issue of his dislike for the memorization of verses. He doesn't want to feel forced into doing something that doesn't have his heart as the key interest. He felt that just because he memorized a verse it wasn't necessarily in his heart--a valid concern. What I felt so great about was everyone's response to his concern. They responded in love and with God's wisdom. What an awesome thing to witness! Brad didn't feel attacked or get defensive. He just listened. Which brings me to the verse I chose to learn this week. It's Proverbs 15:1.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Everyone responded with gentle, heartfelt words. Thank you for being such wonderful friends! It is so wonderful to be able to go to friends and know that they are listening to and growing with God, so that they will give advice that is from God's word. Amen and thank you God!

P.S. I apologize to Brad if you read this and feel that I have revealed too much. I am just so proud of you for putting your personal feelings out there. I love you!!!

A Loss for Words

Jennille having a loss for words? Impossible you say. I know it is amazing to think that I might actually be at a loss for words. More than anything, it is actually a loss of sleep. You might recall the joyous rapture I was feeling a few weeks ago because Breanna was really close to sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, it was a short lived period. She has reverted to her old ways the last few nights. Grrrrr. I just don't have the heart or the will power to argue with her in the niddle of the night when she wakes up wanting to nurse. I also don't want to wake everybody else up, too, but that seems to be inevitable. I just need to do it. Push through. I keep telling myself it is short term sacrifice for long term gain. Sleep. Sanity. Alertness. It just seems like a pipe dream right now. For a long time, I just figured that she would out grow this craziness. Aidan outgrew it at a relatively young age. I'm sure she would out grow it--IF I waited long enough. I can't handle it anymore. Seriously. I feel like I am losing my mind. I feel so guilty about denying her the one thing that would make her happy and go back to sleep. I really don't mind if she nurses before quiet time and before bedtime. It's not the nursing I resent. It's the lack of sleep. It's not like when she was little and I would roll over, nurse her quickly and then both of us would fall back asleep. I just don't get it. I think she's just developed some bad habits. I know I am rambling in my little vent this morning, so I'll sign off. Hopefully, I will right something more meaningful and less rambling and complaining tomorrow. Sleepily yours...Jennille

Two thumbs up!

Even good eaters have picky spells, I've learned. However, I felt totally proud of myself for getting two thumbs up last night with my 5 and 3 year olds. I didn't even have to use bribery. It even had very apparent squash in it--and onions! What was this madness? Here're the tricks. I called it pizza. We made it ourselves. The kids helped assemble (which doesn't always work, but it does help a little). They were on little biscuits, so they were kid sized. They picked out the vegetables themselves at the farm market. This is the hugest secret to getting your kids (or Grandpa) to eat vegetables--keep trying. Seriously. 10 or 15 times before you expect them to say, "Oh! I like this! This is wonderful! Will you please make it at every meal?" Okay. Well maybe not that enthusiastic, but pretty close. That's my sage and oh-so-wise thoughts for today. I really was very excited, though. Hopefully, tonight goes as well as last night did. A girl can dream can't she?

nipples

I know what your thinking. Great title. It's really not what you think. Seriously. Monday is one of our ditch water days during the summer. Basically we just turn on the ditch water and flood the back yard. It makes for a really green backyard. Aidan and Breanna love to play in water. Any water. Dirty ditch water or not. Another of Breanna's favorite things to do is to be naked. Ditch water and naked is not necessarily a good combination. Eeewwww. I did put sunscreen on her little body, but I have yet to purchase bug spray for this year. Needless to say, she got a couple bug bites, one of which is on her knee. Bear with me here, but I'm going on another bunny trail. This will all come back together at somepoint. I wear a lot of hats--and by hats I mean I am involved in a lot of activities, volunteer and otherwise. One of the hats I wear is to be a La Leche League (LLL) leader. If you're not familiar with LLL, it is essentially a mother to mother breastfeeding support group. Among my duties are leading the monthly meetings and doing phone support for moms that need help. Obviously, when I am talking on the phone, it is not a secret as to what I am talking about. Words like nipples, latch on, breastmilk and the like are common words at my house. Do you see where I'm going with this yet? I'm almost there. So--Breanna. She gets this bug bite on her knee. It is eventually time to come in from the backyard and take a bath, so we can go out into public with out smelling yucky. Breanna is naked in the bathroom. This is how the conversation goes.
"Mommy, I have a nipple on me." Of course you do, I'm thinking. We all do.
"Okay," is my outloud response.
"I need a band-aid on my nipple," says Breanna.
"No, your nipple is fine," I say, looking at her nipples and seeing they are fine. Silly girl that Breanna is.
"No, Mommy. Right here. I have a nipple on my knee," she says as she points to the bug bite on her knee.
"Honey, that is not a nipple. That's a bug bite," as I bite my lip to keep from laughing at her very real to her anguish over this suddenly misplaced nipple.
"NO! It's a nipple!" Breanna says, in true, calm 3-year-old fashion. Some battles are not worth the fight, I have determined. (I just heard a new response that I am excited to try, "I love you too much to argue."But I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet. I'll let you know how it goes.) So...we took our shower and I put a band-aid on her nipple, I mean, her bug bite. I figured, at least, it should keep her from scratching it, right? I share this episode with you because I keep getting reminded of it myself. Everytime that Breanna looks at the band-aid she tells me that she has a nipple on her knee. If you see her in the next few days, she will probably tell you, too. Consider yourself forewarned.

A new mind

Romans 12:1-2
Living Sacrifices

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Footnotes: 1 Or reasonable

That's our verse for this week. No, it's not Aidan's verse for Sunday School. It is my and Brad's verse for our small group. Interestingly enough, it's not the first time I've heard it this week. I've been reading (a lot lately!). I'm about to finish Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Can we say, "VERY CONVICTING"? Anyway, that verse was in there, too. We are about to make some big changes. Now that we have our mortgage taken care of--in the sense that the payments are reasonable--we need to address our debt. By the grace of God, we don't have that much debt outside our car. The car...the silly, ridiculous payment car. We have to get rid of it. That's all there is to it. Brad actually brought it up, but I know it was from God. Brad, on his own, would not suggest it--Brad likes cars. Okay, I do, too. I guess it just boils down to this: it's just a thing; it's just stuff. Stuff can be replaced--by saving and paying cash later. We won't be completely carless, though. We have our old truck. It's paid for. It runs. It needs a little bit of work, but not the $20,000 plus interest that we owe on the Explorer. Peace of mind is a great thing. When you are in God's will--no matter what is happening around you--you have peace of mind. That is just how it seems to work for me. There is turmoil sometimes in finding God's will for me, but when I get there...aaahhhhhh. So now we are in the process of renewing our mind. We are learning not to think like the world does. Debt is not okay. As someone said, money makes a great slave, but a terrible master. Our master is the Lord with His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Genesis

I got a new Bible for Brad. I should say I picked it up--I ordered it in February. It's really cool. It is the One Year Chronological Bible. What that means is that it is broken up into small sections to read everyday and then within a year you will have read through the whole Bible. The neat thing about this one is that it is written in the order that things happened, hence the Chronological part. So we are starting at the January reading --as opposed to starting with June and coming full circle. I asked Brad to read it to me aloud. It came to me while reading "Redeeming Love". After much convincing on my part, he did read out loud to me. What does he happen to read to me? Genesis 3:16. Not a verse I had memorized. One other thing I forgot to mention about this new Bible: it is the New Living Translation. We are used to using the New International Version, which is good, too. In case you don't have your Bible handy, here is what Genesis 3:16 says in the NLT,

" And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

Ouch. If you go back and read the whole passage, you will realize this phrase was spoken to Eve, by God when he was cursing Adam and Eve for disobeying and eating from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Even though I know that my husband is supposed to be the head of our household, I'll admit that I don't always let him be the head. Not only that, but, if I'm being totally honest here, I DO desire to control my husband. No, I don't physically force him into doing things my way, but I do use other tactics. Guilt trips, manipulation, the look...we won't go into more detail than that. Not the way God intended. Ouch, again.

I did enjoy having Brad read to me, though. He wouldn't do a repeat performance last night, though. I had to read for myself. If you can convince your hubby to do it, have him do it. I thought it was really romantic for him to read out loud to me from the Bible. Something about God's truth coming from the mouth of your husband, who should be the head of your household...Just knowing that he is learning to be in submission to God...It was just really wonderful.

A momentus day

It's a momentus day at our house. Aidan is officially not a little boy anymore. It's over. No, I'm not talking about kindergarten this fall--although, I'm not quite ready for that yet either. This day's item of interest is 2 loose teeth. Not just one, but two! He didn't notice them himself--which is actually amazing since he has been checking for loose teeth for the last several months. He was having a 5-year-old's attitude problem, so I asked him to come sit on my lap and talk. In the middle of talking to him, I noticed his tooth had a bigger space than usual next to it. Imagine my surprise as I touched it and realized it is about to fall out. Craziness! Then I touched the one next to it and it was loose, too! Super craziness. I am just not ready for these kids to grow up. It's just happening too fast! I know, I know. That's life, but it's just happening too fast, darn it! I am super proud of both Aidan and Breanna. They are just so sweet. Aidan is actually learning to read. He is getting really good at spelling. He loves writing words and mixing up letters to see if they make a word. He is just going to love kindergarten next year. That boy just loves to learn. I am just having some guilty feelings for giving up on the whole homeschooling thing. I know in my mind that if things are going badly, I can just pull him out of school. I just think that homeschooling is so wonderful! I know SO many people that are doing it successfully that I just wonder what my problem is that I can't get it together enough to do a little bit of school everyday. I don't know. I just want to do it all, but I know I can't. Once again, life goes on. He'll be fine. It will be good for him, right? I'm worried about it, but at the same time, I am also at peace about it. He's in the Lord's hands. Aidan and Bre sing that to me all the time. He's got the whole world in His hands--Aidan and Breanna included.

Here is today's Aidan-ism:
*Can I have a beagle? My response: No we are not getting another dog right now. Translation: Can I have a bagel? You know, those little round breads that look like a donut, Mom.

Overheard at light's out in Breanna's bed:
*Thank you God for nini's. Amen.
Isn't that cute? That's what she prays for most every night. In case you were wondering, nini's is our name for nursing.

New favorites

I didn't blog yesterday. I have really enjoyed this thinking outloud-on paper thing. The reason I missed yesterday was because I have a new favorite book. I had to finish it. Brad was laughing at me. It's not very often you find a book that you just can't put down. You become engrossed in the characters. They almost seem like real people in your mind. So what is this new favorite book, you ask? Some of you know because you suggested it to me and even loaned me a copy. The book is "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. It was just beautiful. To summarize, and yet not give away too much, it was basically the story of the Old Testament prophet Hosea and his wife, Gomer, who was a prostitute. I don't know about you, but that story was not one that I recall hearing or reading as a small child going to Sunday school. God tells Hosea to marry this prostitute. This story is actually set in the 1850's in California. It's is just beautiful. It is about what God has in mind for marriage and love and...so much more. I just don't want to say too much. To be desired like that... To be hurt like that... God is good. It's not just smooshy stuff. Men can read it too. I know I'm talking about a book and this is not necessarily a book review blog, but I just loved it. Enough already. I'll sign off for now. Now you go read it.

The best garage sale ever!

I am not a huge fan of garage sales. Really. My mother-in-law (and my husband--it must be genetic) have a talent for finding really nice stuff--seriously--at garage sales. Me? Not so much. For example, a few weeks ago, we went yard sale shopping as a fun family event. We came home with totally gorgeous, like new living room furniture. My husband found it. We got a STEAL of a deal. The sales I wanted to go to? We bought nothing. Even more than not finding anything, I HATE putting them on. However, I am way too cheap to just donate ALL my stuff, so I have tried my hand at having yard sales. I usually make about 50 cents an hour, on average--and I'm not exaggerating. So I can't even begin to fathom why I would agree to (okay, suggest) having a yard sale at my friend Jen's house. It turned out to be the best yard sale ever! Not monetarily speaking, of course. I only made $15 bucks yesterday from the stuff I sold, but we had so much fun! There ended up being 5 of us with all our stuff to sell and all our kids running around for 5 hours unsupervised. So now I know. Do yard sales with your friends. You attract more buyers because there is more junk, er, stuff to sell and your kids aren't on top of you all day wondering why you are selling their toys to strangers. So there it is. Today's wisdom. Enjoy! I have to sign off now to go back for day 2 of the best garage sale ever.

Giggles, roses and isms.

I love little kid giggles. Not just the little everyday giggles, but hearty, belly laugh giggles. We love summer at my house. Summer means so many things. Shorts. Tank tops. Swimsuits. Green grass. Growing things. AND farmer's market at the park! Yeah! We went this morning. It's just fun to walk around. Today Aidan picked out bok choy to try. I very proud of my kids. They really do eat vegetables--not everything, but most things. They also know they have to try whatever is on their plate, at every meal. I think it helps them try new things when they get to pick it out, so I let Aidan do the picking today. We're going to have it for dinner tonight (with Grandma & Grandpa, too), so I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. We also got some garlic scapes (?) to go with it. The garlic things just looked cool. They're kind of curly. It should be good. Anyway, back to the giggles. We picked out our bok choy. We walked around. We looked. We got our bee pollen (YEAH!). We went to the fountain. It's so funny how something so simple as squirting water can bring out the big giggles--and serious ones at that. It's so cute! Aidan has a completely different squirt style than Breanna. Aidan would climb in the fountain, if I let him. He sticks his whole hand in the water stream and deflects it all over himself. That boy LOVES to get wet. He also does the fast-as-flash-karate-chopping on the water, so as not to get wet (we pretend he doesn't get wet, anyway). Breanna, on the other hand, puts two fingers in the shooting stream, jumps back and runs away giggling as hard as she can, and then goes back for more. It is just so fun to watch them.

Both Breanna and Aidan like to help me with the growing things around our house. They like to help pull weeds and the occasional baby bell pepper plant, blow on dandelion fluffies (but only toward the neighbor's yard), and help me tend the rose bushes. I was so fortunate that last year my friend Cori's mom, Linda, was building a new house on their same property and had to uproot all the rose bushes or trample them. We dug up 3 different rose bushes and transplanted them to our house. I wasn't sure they would make it because I have never grown rose bushes before. We did get several pretty blooms last year, but THIS year was fabulous! Of course, Aidan claimed one rose bush for each of us (except Daddy, sorry honey). The climbing mini pink bush with the super pokers is mommy's. The almost red ones are Aidan's. The mini dark pink ones are Breanna's. Whenever they start to bloom we have to run out and check them everyday to see if there are more blooms. I was really proud of myself. I remembered to take pictures of the blooming bushes with the kids next to them. They are so proud of their roses! It is just so amazing to watch the kids be so interested in simple flowers in our yard, and they have to show anyone that comes over, too.

I just wanted to share some of my favorite Breanna-isms and Aidan-isms. I hate to correct little kids when they speak (unless, of course, it is just bad grammar--that darn english major in me won't let it slide). Here are some of the latest and the translations to "grown-up speak."

Breanna:
*Mommy, I have a booby. Translation: Mommy, I have a boo-boo. (I have tried to correct this one, but it is still really funny.)
*That's spices me. Translation: That burns. (As in, cleaning a boo-boo.)

Aidan:
*I yust... Translation: I just... He speaks so well and really has a great vocabulary for a 5 year old, but he just doesn't get the "j" sound on that one. It's okay, though. He'll get it soon enough.

I am so used to their isms now that I am having trouble recalling them off the top of my head. As I remember more of them, I will try to put them down. I really want to remember them forever. They are just so cute!

Something to chew on

I mentioned before that I am a child of God. THE GOD. NOT god, but God! So as a Christian, we attend church regularly to get fed, spiritually speaking, of course. This last couple weeks, the sermons have given me lots to chew on during the week. If you are interested in what I have been chewing on, check it our for yourself at www.efreechurch.org and click on the Sunday Morning Messages button. I am really excited that I figured out how to download them onto my new MP3 player, so now I can chew on them further--I know, enough already with the chewing thing. That's it for today. I know that some of you were there the first time, too, but repetition is definitely a good thing for me. Enjoy the messages!

Darn Taco Bell

So I'm new to this blogging thing, obviously. I hit one wrong button and erased my whole entry. Now, granted, it wasn't my most profound or fabulous entry, but still... Suffice it to say, I'm not going into the whole story again, but if I ever suggest eating at Taco Bell, just slap me up the side of the head. That's really the long and short of it. Well, now I'm out of time. I really need to go exercise for today and get ready to go paint. Enjoy your day!

OH! And thank you to my hubby for mowing the grass this morning. I was going to let it grow tall and go to seed to fill in the bare spots. AND thank you to my fabulous mother-in-law for riding to Denver with me on Saturday, so I didn't have to drive by myself. I know I am blessed with that one. I know a lot of people that can't say their mother-in-law is fabulous. Thank you, God!

He Provides Again

The Lord is so amazing. While I am faithful to love the Lord, I am not the best about reading His word everyday. Yet He still provides for us--in huge ways. That's what He tells us He will do. When Brad didn't have a job earlier this year (for a couple months), we didn't starve. Friends and unknowns sent us gift cards and gift certificates. People gave us food. While it was a ginormous pain in the butt, our mortgage got all messed up and we didn't have to make a payment for several months. On that note, yesterday afternoon I received the new terms of our mortgage (we had to apply for a loan modification to get it all straightened out). The Lord provided again. He is so faithful! The terms were reasonable and pretty much what we were asking for. This is the second time we went through this process, and in the mean time, they were starting foreclosure on our home. Let me tell you, we are SO thankful for prayer. We are so thankful for our friends and family who have been so faithfully praying for our mortgage and for us. I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am for our small group. You all have been a sanity saver through your prayers for us and by just let us complain and talk about what was going on. THANK YOU!!! We love all of you!