Major Clan

My Favorite Actors

2011-01-08T10:56:00.006-05:00

I have four favorite actors. These people are my absolute favorites! They are not what I would call "mainstream". Not that people don't know who they are, but they're not the ones plastered all over the tabloids. You don't hear people speculating if they are still married (which, all four of them are married), you don't see their mug shots from when they've been arrested for employing the services of a prostitute and you don't see them constantly spouting their political views as if being in a movie or two has now made them a political expert.

1. Matthew Macfayden: I first saw him in Joe Wright's version of Pride and Prejudice. I love that movie. He plays Darcy wonderfully, you can see his emotions in his eyes. Since I saw him in that, I have now seen him in several different movies and each one is a completely different role. In Death at a Funeral (a hilarious British comedy that came out years before the one with Chris Rock in it, but same story line) he was very funny. Seriously funny. It was great to watch his being funny and laughing, especially since Mr. Darcy, well, very rarely smiles. Most recently, he is the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood with Russell Crowe. He looks absolutely terrible in this movie. Stringy hair and just an all around terrible person. Its great to see him do so many things! Most of his career has been on stage or on the BBC, so some of his stuff is hard to come by in the US.

2. James Frain: I first saw him in Where the Heart Is with Natalie Portman. Who didn't cry when he was talking about his dead sister's funeral and he said, "I couldn't take her brown roses." I cry every time. Then I saw him in The Count of Monte Cristo a movie which I have watched many times. He plays Villefort, who is not a nice man at all and is responsible for making sure Edmond Dantes goes to prison. Frain plays it so believably and when the Count reveals his true identity to him, his reaction is so real. Its great. Frain is becoming a little more mainstream now because he is on True Blood and next will be seen on NBC's The Cape. I look forward to that.

3. Jim Caviezel: I first saw him in The Thin Red Line an amazing WW II movie with an impressive cast list. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and he was so good in it. Of course, most people saw him in The Passion of the Christ and he was so good in it. I cannot imagine what a huge undertaking that must have been for him and I know he was attacked for being in it. (By critics and by actually being struck by lightning while hanging on the cross - I still get shivers just thinking about it) But my favorite role of his is still Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo. His need for revenge can only be squelched by his love for Mercedes and the story is so moving. I loved the book and, therefore, loved this movie.

4. James McAvoy: (They're all named Jim or James! Not intentionally) I first saw him in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe as an adorable fawn named Mr. Tumnus. Who wouldn't fall in love with Mr. Tumnus? He almost cries several times in the movie and, once again, he was one of my favorie characters in the book, so, of course, he was endearing in the movie as well. Not to mention he is from Scotland and as a result has that amazing Scottish accent that I could listen to for hours! He was also in Atonement (one of my all time favorite movies - so good) The Last King of Scotland (good movie about Uganda) Wanted and Penelope. Now, I would not necessarily recommend anyone see Penelope which is a movie about a girl who is born with a pig nose. This is a result of a spell placed on a weathly, spoiled family and the only way to break the spell is for someone to love Penelope and believe in her. Long story short, Penelope (Christina Ricci) and Johnny Martin (James McAvoy) fall in love with each other, but in the end, it is Penelope's own love for herself and belief in herself that breaks the spell. The movie itself is actually pretty stupid, but Johnny Martin's love for Penelope shines through McAvoy's eyes in a way that would make any skeptic believe in the power of love.

There are my favorite actors. Some day I'll do a list of my favorite Broadway singers/actors. But, for now here is this list. :)

Football

2011-01-05T12:50:00.003-05:00

Well, since I have had the opportunity to watch more football than any other time of the year, I thought I would post about it. I do love watching football. Seriously. I have always enjoyed it and it is even more fun now that I have learned more about the game and how its played. I really enjoy it. Now, before you get the idea that my football loving husband is the luckiest man in the world, you should know some things about how I watch football.

1. The feel good story that comes on before the game...you know, where they tell you all about the heart of the team that's about to play...that story is 100% for me. I am now a Middlebury College fan for life because for the last 50 years freshmen athletes have gone to pick up a man named Butch for every sporting event. You can see a video about it here. By the way, Middlebury College is in Vermont. I had to look it up, but I will always cheer for them just because of Butch.

2. I root for the Baltimore Ravens. Not because Ray Lewis is one of the best players of all time. But because the quarterback's name is Flacco, which reminds me of Falco, which was the name of Keanu Reeves character in the Replacements and who doesn't love Keanu Reeves, right?

3. I cry almost every time someone gets hurt. I realize that its football, but that 6'3" 350 pound pile of muscle is somebody's baby boy and she is probably sitting somewhere just praying that he's okay. I know they get paid lots of money and that is a risk you take when you play football, but I'm pretty sure that mother is not consoled by that as she waits to see if he moves his arms.

4. I tend to root for teams that are more...asthetically pleasing. If the coach and quarterback are "prettier" I usually root for them. I will always root for Tom Brady over Aaron Rodgers, especially when Tom's hair is long like it is now. It's probably wrong, but that' s just the way it is.

5. Same thing for the team colors. I will never be able to root for a team who wears bright orange and plays on a blue field. Sorry, Boise State, but it hurts my eyes. (Of course, Tennessee orange on a regular field is just fine) And, while we're on the subject, the throwback uniforms are never a good idea. Especially when you are Tampa Bay. When you changed the uniform from that hideous orange color, you started actually winning games. You should probably never wear those uniforms again. I'm just sayin'.

6. The last thing is that I sometimes want to call in and remind the commentators that, when they are commenting on these college bowl games, they are criticizing 18-22 year old kids. Actually, I felt that way this whole season for the Vols. A true freshman quarterback! Be nice to him! He's just a baby!

One last thing...Yes, I am a Tennessee fan. After that, I am an SEC fan. So, on January 10th, Go War Eagles! I mean, in what universe does a Duck bring fear? Go Auburn!

Birthdays...

2010-07-27T19:50:00.003-04:00

We now have an 11 year old, a 7 year old and a 6 year old in our house! Yes, it's been that long since I blogged. How very sad. And lots has happened!

On May 7th, Zoe turned 11! That's right...11 years old. How that happened, I'll never know...I'm only 17! :) Anyway, for her birthday, Adam took her to Atlanta to see Mary Poppins at the Fox Theater. They went out to dinner first and then the show. She loved it and they had a great time. The next day, we had a party at the park and tons of her friends were there, so she had a great time.

On May 14th, Sebastian turned 7! Unbelievable. His birth story is here. We took a few of his friends to the Lookouts (our minor league baseball team) game. Everyone had a great time and the weather was perfect. The next day, we went to Chuck E Cheese just our family and Nana. It was a lot of fun and a perfect birthday for him.

On June 1, my brother and sister-in-law and their two children moved to town. All of my family is now here! Its been so much fun having them here. They have a daughter (Tristen) who is 3 months older than Zoe and a son (Jaxon) who is between Sebastian and Jude. We have lots of fun with them. For the first few weeks they were here, they hadn't started working so we got to spend lots of time with them and it was really fun!

On July 20th, Jude turned 6! His birth story is here. Again...unbelievable. For his birthday, we had a bowling party. Lots of his friends came and it was a lot of fun. He had a blast. On his actual birthday, which was a Tuesday, we went to see Despicable Me. Funny movie. Jude laughs hysterically every time the little girl says, "Its so fluffy!" Which makes everyone in the family laugh.

We are homeschooling again this year, but I'm not sure when we're going to start yet. We may not start till September. I would like to try to get in a trip to see some friends before we start back up and I will wait till schools here start before we go on that trip.

That's about it...

Zoe's Birth

2010-03-27T12:47:00.002-04:00

I have written the birth stories of my other three kids, but am just now getting around to writing Zoe's. Hers was by far the most traumatic for me, but here is the story...

It was Adam's first year of law school and we had just moved to Mississippi. I had been at my new $8 an hour job about 3 weeks when we found ourselves staring at a stick with two pink lines on it. Oh no, that can't be right. That was the cheap, Wal-Mart brand test, so it was probably not right. So, I headed to the store to purchase the expensive EPT brand. Yep. More pink lines. Adam and I were both 22 years old at the time and had a brief moment of excitement before reality kicked in. We went to O'Charleys and had dinner and rented the movie Nine Months. The next morning, well, that's when reality set in. One person working, one person a full time student, living in Mississippi, where we only knew two people, no health insurance, yada yada yada and the list goes on. Not only did I not have health insurance, I did not have a doctor. And, I didn't know anyone in Mississippi to ask about a good doctor. So, Adam's mom suggested that we visit a Christian, crisis pregnancy center and they would at least be able to point me in the direction of a good doctor. Not a bad idea. This pregnancy was definitely a crisis.
So we went to the crisis pregnancy center. We were probably their dream come true. A married couple who had no intention of terminating the pregnancy. So they did another pregnancy test (the three I had done at my house didn't count) and then gave me a boatload of helpful information. Seriously, this was the most helpful place ever. They got me registered as a patient with some of the best doctors around, who took anyone this crisis pregnancy center sent them because the doctors themselves were wholly dedicated to the pro-life cause. Then,I applied for Medicaid in Madison County, Mississippi and we were able to breath a sigh of relief.
The pregnancy itself was uneventful and we all of a sudden found ourselves in the month of April. Zoe was due on May 21. First year finals for law school were in the last week of April and ended on May 5. During the third week of April, you guessed it, I start having contractions. I tell my doctor, and sure enough, I am 2-3 centimeters dilated. Doctor tells me not to do unnecessary walking, no sex, no Mexican food, etc. I am confident I will make it until after exams. Adam is not so confident. Since he is not allowed to bring cell phones into an exam, we coordinated a plan with the secretaries at the school so I could call them and they would go get him, if I needed him. I proceeded to go to work everyday. It was a sedentary job and was hourly, so I didn't get paid if I wasn't there.
Exams came and went with no incident. Two days after his last test, on May 7th, I had a scheduled doctor appointment. She tells me that I am 4 centimeters dilated and do I want to have the baby today? This is the moment where I should have said, "No, I'll just let nature take its course." But, I had heard many stories and this seemed like the best way to do it, right? So, we were instructed to go home, get our stuff and meet her at the hospital. Okee dokee.
We go home, take the dog where he was staying, and head to the hospital. When I get to the hospital, I am now 6 cm dilated. 2 cms in an hour and a half. Progress. They get me all settled in and, for some reason, give me pitocin. No one ever told me that I could say No. No one ever told me that there is no rule that you have to have pitocin. I have since had three other babies without it, and, believe me, they did come out on their own. So I took it. My body doesn't like pitocin. My contractions are now on top of each other and I am in horrific pain. The nurse "helpfully" suggests that I take a narcotic to "take the edge off the contractions." That is code for "making you completely loopy out of your mind, but still very much in pain." Not good. Now I am hurting terribly, but too out of my head to do anything about it.
Finally, when I am between 8-9 cm, I ask for the epidural. The baby's heartrate is going down with contractions and the nursing staff is concerned. I don't know they are concerned, they are doing a good job concealing it. The lady comes to do the epidural. I think she might have thought I was going to wind up needing a c-section, because she gave me enough medicine to put down a horse. I could not feel (or move) anything from my waist down. This will work in the doctor's favor later.
So, the doctor comes in and tells me it is time to push. This is definite evidence of too much epidural, as I can assure you that no one had to tell me it was time to push my other children out! Tons of nurses come in the room. I didn't know this wasn't the normal thing as I had never had a baby before. There is my nurse that's been with me the whole time, another nurse on the right side of the bed, which is also where Adam is standing. This is the nurse who puts her hand on my bottom and tells me to push against her hand. Oh, yes. Push against your hand that I cannot feel. No problem. And then there is a nurse with short black hair, three earrings in one ear and two earrings in the other. I barely remember what anyone else looked like, but this woman, I remember. She is etched on my memory because she was helping me push Zoe out by laying her arm on the top of my belly and pushing the baby down. I distinctly remember looking at her and saying quite rudely, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Yes, I had bruises afterwards. Nice.
Now things are getting a little tense. Zoe's heartrate is really low, but they're trying to get her out without the c-section. Enter the vaccuum sucker thing. This is an instrument used to suck the baby out by creating suction with the top of the baby's head and pulling. This works best if the baby's head is actually engaged and ready to be pulled out. Zoe was not. But they sucked her out anyway and she tore me on the inside and outside. And, out she came a beautiful shade of....BLUE! She was not breathing. Her one minute APGAR score was a 4. She finally started breathing and crying and eventually turned pink. You could almost hear all of the medical personnel in the room exhale. I was so drugged all I said was, "Hey, baby." Slow and slurred. Good thing the baby doesn't remember that.
My doctor, on the other hand, was completely focused on trying to stitch me up. My inner vaginal wall needs to be stitched back together. I cannot begin to explain the pain. I looked at the nurse on my right side and said, "I thought I had an epidural. I don't think it worked or is working. It really hurts." She condescendingly tells me, "That's not pain you're feeling, honey. It's pressure. The epidural can't stop the pressure." Now having given birth naturally, I realize that there is a distinction, but at the time, the doctor had BOTH OF HER HANDS TOTALLY INSIDE OF ME TRYING TO STITCH, SO THIS ANNOYED ME! I wanted to show her pressure up her nose.
This is also the time where it works in the doctor's favor that I cannot move my legs, because I would have for sure kicked her right in the face. She was killing me and not able to get to the spot that needed stitching. They then decide to put me to sleep to finish the stitching. Yes, that's right, I get put to sleep AFTER giving birth. Nope, we couldn't have done that 20 minutes ago. General anesthesia. I wake up an hour later and finally get to hold my baby. She was a teeny little thing, weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. And she was perfectly healthy. The recovery from Zoe's birth was very long and hard. It was a good two years before I could think about having another baby without breaking out into a cold sweat. But, she was a very easy baby with a sweet disposition and continues to bring joy to us!

My Girls Only Weekend

2009-12-12T09:21:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, my sweet husband gave me a weekend away with my dear college friend, Heather. Yes, it was just the two of us! NO KIDS! We met in Nashville (she lives in Memphis) and stayed in a hotel. We went on Friday and stayed until Sunday. It was so much fun! I have never done anything like that before in my life! We just hung out, ate, shopped, went to see New Moon (twice-she is a Twilight fan like me) and, well, just enjoyed being together. I laughed so much! The first night we were there, we got lost trying to find the movie theater, which, of course, was funny to us because neither of us knew where we were. Then, when we found the movie theater, it was actually walking distance from where we had decided we were lost and turned around. By the time we got to the theater, we were both laughing so hard that our stomachs hurt and we both had to go to the bathroom. Then, we go to purchase our tickets for the movie and the lady who is taking our money tells us that their water has been turned off so their restrooms are out of order. So, we buy our tickets and look for somewhere else to go. We see a Subway that appears to be attached to the movie theater. We had gotten a really good parking spot at the movies so we decided to walk to Subway. Turns out that Subway was NOT attached and was quite a bit further than either of us realized. And, it was so cold outside! But it was a pretty funny comedy of errors, to say the least.
We ran into a couple that we went to college with, which was funny too. We had decided in the hotel room that since we were comfortable, we weren't going to change clothes to go to the movie. I mean, who are we going to see? So, I had on my running pants and an old ZTA t-shirt and Heather had on sweatpants and a t-shirt. Nice. And, of course, we see two people we haven't seen in 10 years or so. But, it was good to see them and they didn't even laugh at how we were dressed! :)
Saturday was filled with shopping because it's always fun to shop in a new mall even if the stores are pretty much the same! And Saturday afternoon, we went back to see New Moon again. Saturday night we went to Red Lobster-YUM!!! I don't get to go to Red Lobster very often because Adam doesn't like the smell of seafood, so that was a special treat. After dinner, we just hung out in the hotel room. So much fun.
Sunday, we just got up and headed home, which was sad, but I felt so refreshed and rested. On my way home, I met my friend Kim who now lives in Tullahoma and had lunch at O'Charleys. That was fun too because we also never get together without our kids.
It was a great weekend!!! Thanks to my fabulous husband who let me do it and when I got back, he told me I needed to plan things like this at least twice a year!!! Yay!!!!!

Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving and Anniversary

2009-11-30T22:38:00.003-05:00

I ran in my very first 8K (five mile) run on Thanksgiving Day! I was so proud of myself! It was such an amazing, empowering feeling! My goal was to finish and I did finish it! I did it in one hour and 6 minutes and was very pleased with that for my first ever run. I will say that I was absolutely amazed at how far five miles was. When I got to the three mile mark, I couldn't believe that I had two more miles to go! But, I did it. I was so excited! Adam, all the kids, my mom and my friend Christine and her husband and five of her kids were there waiting for me to cross the finish line. It was so neat!

Then, Adam's Dad and nephew came for Thanksgiving, so I got to help mom make the fixings for the meal, which I love to do! It was so much fun!

On Friday morning, I went to work at Target. I love working Black Friday. It is so fun. I don't know why, but I love all the hustle and bustle. The only down side is that I had to be there at 4:30 AM! But it was fun.

Then, Friday afternoon, Adam and I dropped the kids at my mom's house and headed to a hotel downtown to celebrate our 12th Anniversary. We checked in and laid around and watched TV uninterrupted. Then we went to dinner and went to see Christmas Carol in 3D, which was awesome! We really enjoyed it. On Saturday morning, we slept until we woke up (which, of course, was like 8:15) and went to Panera for coffee and breakfast. Then we did some more Christmas shopping and headed back to my mom's house to get the kids. By this time, my brother and his family was here, so we had so much fun visiting with them.

It was a great weekend!

Movie Review

2009-11-21T08:58:00.004-05:00

Okay...here it is...my much anticipated review of the movie "New Moon". I went to the midnight showing of it here at our local theater. Our movie complex has 18 theaters in it and all 18 showings of the movie were sold out. There were people everywhere. I have never seen anything like it. There were people in regular clothes, people dressed up, young people, old people (older than me!), men, women, tall, short...well, you get the idea. It was crazy.
So, for the review. I loved the movie! It was so much better than the Twilight movie. It was much truer to the book this time, which was great to see. I have read all of the books...well, I'll just say several times and leave it at that. So, I was going to be very disappointed if they had rewritten the script as much as they did with the Twilight movie. Most of the script was straight out of the book. There were a few things that, of course, had to be condensed, but I liked how they did it.
Also, fortunately, in this movie, our favorite, well dressed vampire is actually well dressed. I'm not sure why Edward wore the hideous black shoes in the first movie, but in this one, he has on much better shoes. He also wears better clothes in this one. He looks so much more like what I pictured in my mind. In Twilight, he sort of has a disheveled look, which is not what I pictured at all. In New Moon, even when he has on just jeans, he looks more clean cut and model-ish.
Also, Bella is better dressed and has brushed her hair more in this one! She does a really good job of conveying the nightmares and the months of depression. Well done.
I was pleased with what they did with the movie and would definitely see it again. I cannot wait until Eclipse comes out!

Running...

2009-11-17T23:55:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I am officially addicted to running! I never, ever, ever, ever thought I would ever say that. In fact, I was pretty sure if someone was actually chasing me that I would just give up and let them have me. I never liked running. So a couple of months ago, I started running because, well...it is the best form of exercise that fits into my life. Going to a gym is pretty much not an option since I have all four kids with me and...let's face it...that is just too much work. So, I started running. I had to force myself to do it. And do it again and do it again and do it again.
So, this past weekend, after some strong encouragement from a friend of mine, I decided I would run in an 8K on Thanksgiving Day. Um, yeah...now is when I need to mention that while I have been running regularly for a couple of months, I really had no idea how far I've been running. I would run around my apartment building and would just run for about 30 minutes. So, this morning, I got in my van and drove out a route in my apartment complex that was a half of a mile. And then, I ran three miles! Yes, I had to walk a little bit of it, but I ran at least 80% of it and I never stopped. It was a huge accomplishment for me. I am very proud of myself. It also made me realize that I will be able to finish the 8K next week. Adam has promised to bring the kids to the finish line to meet me when I finish. Now I am very excited. I have never really been an exerciser at ALL. When I was younger, I never had to exercise. I was always small and underweight. Aaaahhh...four kids later and I am no longer small or underweight. So, I decided that I needed to exercise. And, I always eat better on the days that I exercise. I mean, who wants to kill themselves running for 30-45 minutes and come inside and eat candy? No way.

Things I Never Thought I'd Say

2009-10-16T10:55:00.004-04:00

So, in the past week, I have said things to my children that I never thought I would say...

To Jude (who tends to have a "potty" mouth, meaning he literally calls people toilet heads):
You can call people watermelon head, but you cannot call anyone a diaper head.

Also to Jude, who was shooting me with a toy machine gun while I was trying to cook supper: (If you don't believe I should let my boys play with toy guns, feel free not to share. Take it up with James Dobson )

Please don't do that to me...Go shoot your brother with the machine gun!

And, yesterday...I was having a real conversation on the phone - you know, the kind where you are talking to someone at an office with a real job, who may or may not have children, who cannot block out the incessant "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" in the background...you know, a conversation with a real person. Fortunately, the person who I talk on the phone with most has more children than I do and is very understanding when I have to put her on "hold" while I deal with whatever life threatening situation my children only seem to find themselves in when I am on the phone.

Anyway, so yesterday I was on the phone. During the seven minute conversation, EACH of my four children interrupted me at one point or another. Yes, that includes the ten year old. I managed not to change my tone of voice while I was talking. I hung up the phone with my children completely oblivious to my intense anger. I began...um...projecting my voice to explain that I was serious about not being interrupted when I was on the phone. I must have had a crazed look in my eye because Sebastian ran under his bed (this is not unusual) and Annabelle and Jude exchanged a look that clearly said, "Oh, man, we have pushed her too far. We really have pushed her over the edge this time!" It was pretty funny to me because I really wasn't yelling very loud and I didn't really say anything except that they absolutely could not interrupt me when I was on the phone. But apparently my eyes said all of the things that I was thinking - You people drive me crazy...why can I never be alone?...Can you not see the phone to my ear?...-but all I really said was,
When I am on the phone, and you see me hold my finger up, that means you cannot talk to me!
And, then I said a very intelligent comment to Annabelle, who was the most persistent while I was on the phone-
Annabelle, don't ask me for anything ever again!

A Brief Update

2009-10-13T13:10:00.002-04:00

So I am having a hard time trying to homeschool, keep up with the house work, try to get a decent supper on the table every night and have time to write a blog entry! It is so hard to find the time to write on here!
Let's see...we went to Gulf Shores in September and we had such a great time. It was the first time any of my children had seen the ocean and their reactions were priceless:

Zoe: "Oh my goodness...God is bigger than this?!"
Sebastian: "Awesome"
Annabelle: "Wow!"
Jude: "This is the best day of my life!" and then he began singing the Spongebob song "Best Day Ever!" and skipping around on the beach.

We spent four days on the beach and went out to eat at night. Aside from Adam getting a little sunburn (he hasn't spent a great majority of his summer at the pool like the kids and I did!) we had a wonderful, relaxing vacation.

And, I am still running! I have been able to more than double what I did at the beginning. When I started, I did six laps around my apartment building, but I would walk one, run one...die...breathe...walk one, run one...die...breathe...walk one, run one...come inside barely able to speak and collapse on the couch until I could muster the strength to drag myself into the shower. Now, I am consistently running all six laps (without the dying in the middle) and this morning, I was able to run a seventh lap. I am loving it too...I never understood why anyone would want to run if no one is chasing them. People kept saying it was addicting...I didn't believe them. It is! I am trying not to be frustrated at the slow process, but I have some awesome thigh and calf muscles and other parts of my body are tightening up as well.
I haven't been as diligent about my diet, but now that I am running consistently, I find myself eating better to not destroy all my running! It is getting better, though. Slowly, but surely, I am seeing changes in my body. They are very subtle changes, but I am trying to be very patient.
Other than that, not much else is going on. Adam's practice is going very well and he is enjoying every minute of it. I am enjoying the homeschooling and I was able to take a leave of absence from my job at Target. I like that because I can still go back if I want to, but I'm not working right now.

6 Weeks of Homeschooling

2009-09-23T14:56:00.002-04:00

So, we are in our 6th week of homeschooling and, as you might imagine, there are pros and cons to everything. So, here's my list:

Cons: I get very little alone time. I talk all day long, answer questions all day long, and break up fights all day long. I also have to make four people breakfast, lunch and dinner and my house is never clean because there are people in it at all times! And, yes, school age children fights are much harder to break up than preschool fights. I also sometimes get overwhelmed at the thought that their education is up to me. If something gets missed, well, it's my fault and my problem. That's a bit unnerving...

Pros: I absolutely do not miss the morning chaos. "Zoe, put your shoes on!" "Sebastian, eat your breakfast!" "Hurry up!! We're late!" Don't miss that at all.
Everyone gets to sleep until they wake up, so they pretty much wake up in a good mood.
I don't have to sit in car rider line, which always occurs in the middle of nap time!!
I also love how when we're working on something, if they get frustrated with it, they can take a break and come back to it later. This has been a new concept for Zoe, who has been in school for five years until now.
I like being in control of what they are learning. In the week leading up to the beach, we studied beach stuff. They loved it and were excited to see some of the things we learned about while we were at the beach.
I like that I get to tailor the way I teach them to their different learning styles. This has proven to be especially helpful with Sebastian. He is so different from Zoe and he has learned so much in these 6 weeks. He even read his first sentence! And, he now wants to learn to read. Huge strides. And, I get to monitor those strides.

So, my pro list is longer than my con list and, for me, that means we are doing the right thing. I'm not sure this is a permanent situation, but for now it is good for our family.

So, I'm a terrible Blogger!

2009-09-09T07:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't blogged in so long...we've been having school and getting ready to go to the beach next week and I've been so busy! School is going really well...Zoe is doing great and we are making some pretty big strides with Sebastian and Jude. Everyone is learning and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.
Adam's practice is going really well. He is so busy! God is so good!!
So, life is pretty good right now, just busy.

I'll try to blog after the beach...

Our Trip

2009-08-23T22:34:00.003-04:00

So, last Saturday, the kids and I got up and headed out to Nashville to meet Adam's dad. We met at a Shoney's and he took Sebastian and Jude back to his house for the week! Then the girls and I headed to Hendersonville to visit my college roommate, Cari. We had such a good visit! I have not seen Cari in almost 10 years, but it was like we'd never been apart. It was great. We ate lunch and spent lots of time there with her three precious children.

Then, we drove to Memphis to see my brother and his family, where we stayed until Wednesday. On Sunday, we got up and went to church at Faith Baptist, which is where I grew up (back when it was just a little country church, but now there are 3,000 people there) , but I love going back to church there. Then we went to lunch with my friend, Heather. It is always wonderful to be with Heather. She is just one of those people who are so easy to be friends with. I just love her. We went back to church Sunday night (just me and Zoe because Annabelle was asleep when we left) and went out for ice cream with Heather afterwards. Again, so much fun.

On Monday, we had lunch with a very dear friend. In my testimony I mentioned my Dad's best friend, Ernie, who gave me away at my wedding, who also passed away in 1998. Zoe, Annabelle and I had lunch with his wife, MaryAnn, who was just as important a part of my upbringing as Ernie was. I have known her since I was 10 years old and my Dad went to work at a small church software company called Shelby Systems. The company literally had 14 people in it when my Dad started working there. Now, they have a huge building with over 100 people working there! After we had lunch, MaryAnn took us over to the office. I got to see people I have not seen since I was in college...early college years. It was so much fun and the girls were so good. I got to visit with them all. It was so much fun.

Monday night, we went to my niece's gymnastics and then we went to Heather's house for pizza. And, our other friend, Amy, came over too! We had fun visiting and the kids had fun playing. It was great.

On Tuesday, the girls and I didn't have any concrete plans, so we decided we would go out to the cemetery where my Daddy and Ernie are both buried. I hardly ever have time to do this when we go to Memphis. We bought flowers and cleaned both of the markers and put flowers on the graves. It was a neat experience. It took us over an hour to find them, but after wandering around and a phone call to my mom, we finally found them. Then I took the girls to a playground and we played for a while.

On Wednesday, we loaded up and headed back towards Chattanooga. We stopped in Alabama to see my friends Don and Faye, who my kids call Papaw Don and Grandma Faye. Faye worked with me at PlayCore and Don worked with me at the church here. They are just special people in my life and so they are special to my kids too! We had lunch with them and then came back to Chattanooga. Daddy was glad to see his girls!

Then, yesterday morning, we went to Clarksville to get the boys! So now we're all back together and it feels good to have everyone back!

Our First Week

2009-08-14T11:19:00.003-04:00

So, we started school this week! I had thought I would wait until the 24th, but decided to go ahead and start. We had a great week! I ran everyday this week, too! Zoe took her first math test, Sebastian did subtraction, Sebastian and Jude each read a book each day (one of those starter readers) and all three of them wrote or drew in their journals each day. It's been a very productive week and I'm so proud of all of them. We are going to start again on the 24th because the boys are going to Adam's dad's house next week! I am leaving tomorrow with all of the kids and meeting his dad in Nashville and he is taking the boys to his house. Then, Annabelle and Zoe and I are headed to Memphis until Wednesday! I'm so excited! I will be seeing college friends and other people that I haven't seen in years! I cannot wait!!!

A Couple of Things so I Don't Forget...

2009-08-05T07:44:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to document a couple of things my boys have said in the last week so I won't forget:

Sebastian: "My new baby sister's name is Farrari!" No, I am not pregnant. No, I am not trying to be pregnant. I told him I already gave him a baby brother and a baby sister, but he continues to pray for a baby in the house.

Jude, during prayer time: "Dear Lord, please make Bikini Bottom a real place so we can go meet Spongebob, Squidward and Patrick. Amen." His head was bowed, his eyes were closed and his little hands were folded in fervent prayer. So sweet...

Slowly but Surely

2009-07-31T13:52:00.003-04:00

So, it's time to write on here about some changes I am making in my life. One day about a month ago, I woke up and decided that I was tired of being overweight. I realize that I am not obese, but overweight enough that I don't like the way I look in, well, anything. And, since Annabelle is almost four years old and I have now gained back any weight I lost by giving birth to her, I decided it was time to do something. But, since I also know that if I do anything rash, my body will go into complete shock and I will throw my hands up in defeat faster than the French, I decided to do slowly. The first thing I decided I needed to give up was my complete dependence on caffeine and carbonated drinks. This was going to be a huge mountain for me to climb as I absolutely love Coke, Diet Coke and especially Diet Dr. Pepper. Actually, my mouth is watering right now just from typing the words. It was also going to be hard for me because Adam doesn't really feel the need to rid himself of these yet, which means they were going to be in my home. But, I did it. Here's what I did. I bought a 20 oz. bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper (mouth watering again) and drank the whole thing. (Um, how is this getting off of cokes?) Anyway, then I filled it with water. (after washing it out thoroughly) I discovered that I really don't like ice cold water. I like room temperature water straight from the tap. Call me crazy, gross, whatever you like, but I won't really drink water that is really cold. Anyway, I remembered reading somewhere that an apple in the morning did more to wake you up than coffee would do, so I started each morning with an apple. An apple, my bottle of water and yes, two Tylenol. The first three days, I must admit, were pretty terrible. I had killer headaches, which weren't necessarily relieved with the Tylenol, but Excedrin was the only other thing I had in my house and, of course, what does Excedrin contain? Say it with me-CAFFEINE!! So, since I was trying to get off caffeine, taking Excedrin seemed a little counter-productive.
Well, it has now been one month that I am caffeine free and I can honestly tell you that I have no regrets. In that one month period, I have only had a Sprite like twice. (I don't really like Sprite unless I am throwing up) I have really only had water and SoBe LifeWater. A big accomplishment.
So, earlier this week, encouraged by ability to actually stick to something, I decided my next phase to the healthier me was to exercise regularly. When it comes to exercise, I am sporadic, at best. I always use my kids as my excuse. Not a good example that I am setting. And, since the most convenient place I have to work out would charge me $12 for child care each time I go, I use that as an excuse. The apartment I live in has an exercise room with a convenient playroom for children next to it. So, Monday morning, the kids and I head to the exercise room and I told them we would go to the pool after that. I did the eliptical for 13 minutes (just couldn't make it to 15-sad) and then started lifting free weights. Well, after 10 minutes I realized that the playroom for children is only helpful if your children actually play in it. And, I was tired of telling Sebastian to get off the eliptical and Annabelle to get off the treadmill, so we went to the pool.
When we got to the pool, I decided to draw from my water aerobics experience (when Christine and I were pregnant with Lily and Annabelle, we did water aerobics at the Y-fun times) and run in the water. This was a perfect option. I was exercising and I was in the water and could watch the kids. I ran for 45 minutes straight! It felt great. Then Tuesday, I did the same thing (minus the insanity in the workout room). I ran for 45 minutes in the water.
So on Wednesday, it's supposed to rain, so I got up and, once all the kids were up, I left Zoe in charge and ran around our apartment building. This is nice because I'm still right there if they need me. I ran four laps and walked four laps. It felt great!! I did it again on Thursday and as soon as I get home today, I'm going to do it again.
I am hoping to keep this up. Once the exercising is a habit, then I will change my eating habits. Really my eating habits aren't terrible and I can tell you that these past few days I have eaten better because I don't want to ruin the exercise I did. At any rate, I will post any weight loss. We don't own a scale (ours broke and I wasn't really itching to get another one!) but we will purchase one so I can monitor my progress. Slow and steady...

Our Weekend Alone

2009-07-28T07:54:00.002-04:00

I just realized that I never wrote about our weekend ALONE! By alone, I mean all four kids were out of town from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon and Adam and I were absolutely alone. Last year, Adam and I attended a wedding for his cousin in Texas and our four kids were in three different places, and the day before we left, Zoe came down with strep, so she was crying when we left her because she felt terrible, and we were flying standby so we got stuck in the Houston (Hobby, not the big one) airport for 8 hours (not an exaggeration) and since we were stuck we weren't able to get any of the kids until Monday. (Yes, I realize that is a run-on sentence, but it loses something if you break it up) Anyway, aside from that weekend, Adam and I haven't been alone since May 2002. Not kidding. We went to Tuscon, AZ for an amazing week in May of 2002. We moved into our first house in July 2002, got pregnant with Sebastian in Sept 2002 and the next three years were a blur of pregnancies, nursing and babies. And then we had four kids and three of them were under the age of 3, so there was no chance to ever be alone! So we were pretty excited.

Friday morning, my mom picked up the three littles and drove to Nashville to meet Adam's dad. Zoe had been with them that week. So, my mom exchanged Annabelle for Zoe. Annabelle went to Adam's dad's house and my mom, Zoe, Sebastian and Jude headed to Memphis to my brother's house. Awesome!

All day Friday, I went to Adam's office and worked. I really enjoy doing this, as I feel like I am contributing to getting his business going and it's fun. So, we got to go to lunch together. We came home and then went shopping for Jude's birthday. After shopping, we went to eat at Red Robin, which was yummy. And then we went to see a movie. We have a 2nd run theater here so we went to see Wolverine. I love all the X-Men movies so this was fun.

Saturday morning, I got up and went grocery shopping. I know, sounds so very exciting, but it was fun because I was alone and it wasn't midnight! I almost always shop late at night, otherwise I at least have the ten year old with me and she talks non-stop.

Then we headed to Atlanta and took in a Braves game. I've never been to a Braves game and we had such a great time. It was so much fun just being together and having uninterrupted conversations!

Sunday was church. We just got up, got ourselves dressed and went to church. I think we were completely showered and ready to go in like 45 minutes total. Seriously. After church, some friends took us to lunch. Those of you with large families know that you never get invited to lunch with anybody! So that was so nice.

Then I went to get Annabelle and the other kids came home on Sunday night. I was very ready to see them and missed them. My batteries were recharged and I was so appreciative of the break!

Jude's 5th Birthday

2009-07-21T08:15:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe my baby boy is 5 years old! We had a great day celebrating and ended the day with friends and family at Pump It Up. We had a blast! And, the kids are still enjoying the "loot" this morning.

So, in honor of his birthday, I thought I would write some stuff about him. If you would like to read his birthday story, it can be found here.

Jude is such a funny kid. He has more self-confidence than a five year old should be allowed to have. He walks with his chest sort of puffed out with a strut and he owns any room he enters.

Since he was little, I have called him Jude-a-licious, which is sometimes shortened to Licious or just Lisch. A couple of months ago at soccer practice, I said something to him and called him Licious and he said, "Mom, don't call me Licious at soccer!"

This past weekend, he announced to us all that no one is to call him cute anymore. He said, "Since I'm five years old, you have to say I'm handsome or cool. Five year olds aren't cute!" Sorry, but it's so cute that you told me not to call you cute!

Jude is also my child who is very hesitant to admit that he 's done anything wrong. Sebastian will do something and you ask him if he did it and you get an immediate, "Yeah, I did that." Jude will say, "Will I be in trouble if I did?" Then he will confess, but he just wants to know what he's up against first.

Jude would prefer not to share anything. And, when he does share, he has to establish that the item he is sharing is in fact his, not yours, lest you forget and try to keep it forever. When he lets Annabelle play with something, for instance, the whole time she has it, he tells her, "That's mine, but I'm letting you play with it."

Jude is very competitive (just to prove he doesn't just look like Adam, he also has his personality) and very athletic. He also does not give up until he accomplishes what he was trying to do. I have seen him in my mom's backyard by himself for an hour and a half until he could successfully hit the badminton birdie over the net. Sebastian had given up 15 minutes into the exercise. Jude kept on going until he could do.

Jude loves to swim and can jump off diving boards and swim himself to the shallow end, which is a skill we just learned this summer. He swims underwater and just naturally started a free style stroke when he swims. It really is cute, just don't tell him I called him cute.

Jude is a very affectionate child who loves with his whole heart. He plays well with everyone in our family. He has a quick wit and loves to make people laugh. I love that boy!

Zoe's Hair

2009-07-06T22:57:00.002-04:00

A friend of Zoe's invited her to spend the night last night and while she was there, the mother colored both girls hair with purple streaks and some blond highlights. (Yes, she asked my permission first and I said, "Sure...it's only hair." I really like it! I wasn't sure what to expect at all, but it looks really good and very stylish. She was very excited. Thanks, Melissa!

4th of July and What-Not

2009-07-05T22:16:00.002-04:00

We had a really good 4th of July. I was supposed to work at 4 pm so, we decided to get an early start on the day. Adam's office needed a small refrigerator and Target had one on sale that he liked. The Target closest to us was sold out of them so we headed to the Cleveland Target and got it. Then, we went to McKays, which is a HUGE warehouse full of books, music and DVDs. We had so much fun. Adam's new office has one wall that is floor to ceiling shelves, so he decided to put old books on it. Not law books, just books in general. We found a bunch of them at McKays that were like $3 or so a piece. I looked through the homeschooling section, but we had all four kids with us and I needed to have some undistracted time in that area. I picked up a cute math book that is also a cookbook for kids, so they learn fractions and other math concepts and then they get to eat what they have created. It's really cute and I think everyone will enjoy it.

After McKays we went down to Adam's office to install the refrigerator and coffee maker and put his books away. His office is really starting to take shape nicely. I'm so proud of him! Both of them are super busy, which is so great. And, he is really enjoying what he is doing. He is also being the office manager, so he is spending some of his time doing that too and he likes it.

After that, we came back to the house and went to the pool for a little. I went to work at 4:00 and at 4:03, they told me that I could go on home if I want to. Um...let me think...BYE! So, I came back home! We went over to my mom's and grilled out and then shot fireworks. We do that every year and it's always so much fun! We had a great time!

Then, this morning was the 4th of July program at the church and then our Sunday School class got together for lunch and fellowship. It was fun-we have a small class, but we really care about each other and pray for each other. They are special people.

So, that's about it...life at our house hasn't been too exciting these days...we're just adjusting to Daddy's new job and schedule and getting ready for the fall. On the homeschooling front, I have made a few curriculum decisions, but not everything yet. I have a math curriculum for Zoe, a science curriculum for Zoe and a reading program and handwriting curriculum for the boys. I also decided on the umbrella school I'm going to use. So things are slowly coming together. I'm still excited, but also getting nervous as the time to really start approaches. God is good and He will give me the strength to do what needs to be done. I can't wait to start!

July 1st

2009-07-01T15:07:00.002-04:00

Well, July 1st is here! Adam wrapped things up at the old office yesterday and started at Markel & Major today. I cannot believe it is here! Of course, with this move comes a little apprehension and nervousness. But, God has provided so far and I'm confident He will continue to provide for us.
In preparation for this move, I have picked up more hours at Target. Here is one area that God has already provided for us. At Target, I do Human Resources. Well, our store is only allotted so many hours for each area of the store per week. There is a full time human resources person there already and she is guaranteed her forty hours a week and then I get what is left. Usually, I get my hours by working one or two four hour HR shifts a week and then a couple of cashier shifts to get the additional hours. Well, she will be on vacation part of this week and part of next week, so I am getting all HR shifts this week and next! Of course, that means that the next paycheck will be bigger and will help carry us through this unknown period. Also, one of those shifts is on the 4th of July, which means time and a half because it is a holiday! God is so very good!
Other than that, not much is going on here. We go to the pool almost every day and all of the kids have become very good swimmers. It's funny to watch them and to think that only Zoe could swim in May. Now, the boys can do handstands and swim everywhere. At the beginning, Jude always wore floaties because he felt more secure, but now he doesn't wear them at all and just swims all over the place. Annabelle still wears her floaties, but that is just because she can't reach the bottom of the pool. She loves the water. And, last year, she wouldn't even get in the water fountains at Coolidge Park (fountains that shoot out of the ground)! It's lots of fun and we are all very tan! :)

Been Awhile

2009-06-24T16:05:00.004-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! We've been busy but not really doing anything to blog about. We had a week of VBS in there and all the kids had so much fun. Adam is gearing up to making the permanent move to Markel and Major with July 1st being his official start date. We're really excited about it! And, a little nervous too, but I know God will provide.

Let's see...also we got Jude's haircut to look like his brother's hair and it looks so very cute!

And, my friend Christine had her baby boy today and I got to be her labor support/coach! It was such a neat experience and I'm glad to say that he arrived safely! I'll not blog about it so I don't steal her thunder.

Maybe I'll post later when more is going on...

Sebastian's Hair Cut

2009-06-01T08:58:00.003-04:00

Adam took Sebastian to get his hair cut yesterday. For a little over a week now, Sebastian has been begging us to take him and get "all his hair cut off". He wanted it to be "completely gone". Since he continued to ask for the same thing, we decided we would do it. So here it is...

Before...

After...

The lady cut SEVEN inches off of his hair! He loves it too! And he looks so much older. He was going around and kept rubbing his head all afternoon. It was so funny. I really like it too, even though I was kind of sad to see his long hair go. What a big boy!

Times, They Are A-Changing

2009-05-27T07:53:00.003-04:00

There are so many changes going on right now at our house. First, yesterday was my last day as music secretary at our church. I absolutely love that job and did not want to leave. But, I was having childcare issues for the summer and, while they probably could have been worked out, I am homeschooling this fall. (that would be change #2) I fought this as long as I could. We moved out of the district of the school the kids have been going to and don't want to make Zoe go to a new school for just one year. Plus, I think Sebastian will do better in a one-on-one situation. He is so creative and artistic that the sit-in-your-seat-and-follow-this-routine just does not suit him. I think he will thrive at home with me. So, I will be homeschooling a 5th grader, a 1st grader, a kindergardener and a K4. I'm very excited and nervous at the same time. I have made some curriculum decisions but not all of them. The kids are excited about it too! Adam's mom would be so proud! (I will be working more at Target more nights a week)
And, change #3 right now is that Adam and a friend of his are starting their own firm! This has been coming for a few months, but things came to a head, so to speak, this past Friday. A decision had to be made and after much prayer, Adam decided to go out with his friend. So, Adam's official last day at the old firm will be June 30 and his official first day at Markel & Major will be July 1st. (Of course, he is actually doing work at night and on the weekends for the new firm, but officially the start date is July 1st. We are very excited about it and it has been so very neat to see God's hand in all of it.
So, that's what is going on here at our house. Lots of changes all at one time, but they are all very exciting and completely in God's timing. Adam has wanted to go out for awhile, but never found anyone he trusted to be business partners with. So, we are very excited and God is so good and has worked out even the smallest details. It is so neat.

Shower

2009-05-26T10:37:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, we had a shower for my friend, Christine , and we had so much fun. It was a "green" shower, so she asked everyone to bring either homemade, reused or recycled gifts. It was neat. I made the cake with baby blue recycle symbols on it, plus blue little baby booties and then wooden blocks with his initials on them. I could only find "ABC" blocks, so I bought plain blocks and painted them myself. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Then, for her gift, I made her this plaque with a Bible verse on it. This wasn't an original idea either, but I got the idea from another blog I read of a an extremely creative girl. Her mother-in-law and my mother are best friends and her name is also Jennifer. She has a lot of neat crafting ideas and has inspired me to be a little more crafty. Needless to say, I think this really surprised Christine since I never make anything that isn't edible!We had a great time at the shower and I hope that it made Christine feel special and know how excited we all are about Joshua!!

Birthday Party, Grandad and Jacob, Soccer and Children's Musical

2009-05-18T16:25:00.004-04:00

Yes, all of this occurred this past weekend! First was Sebastian's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. We had a really good time. Sebastian specifically asked for an American flag cake. He had never seen this cake pan (it's in a storage room) and I offered to do a Bakugan cake or a Power Ranger cake and he stuck to his guns. So he got the flag cake and he loved it! He must have told me ten times that he loved his cake.

This is Sebastian and Jude and their buddy, Caleb. Caleb also spent the night with us after the party! All the boys had so much fun!

Sebastian with Chuck E. Cheese, who completely terrified Annabelle. She screamed and ran away.

Here are the boys with their 14 year old cousin, Jacob, who they adore. He wrestles with them and turns them upside down and they think it is just great. He is also extremely patient for a 14 year old boy. Adam's dad and Jacob got here Friday night around 10:30.

The three oldest all had soccer games on Saturday and they all got trophies for the season. Not sure why Sebastian is making a face.

Then, Sunday night was AWANA awards, Bible Drill Awards, the Kindergarten choir singing and the 1st-5th grade choir program Parablelooza! It was a busy night!

This is Zoe during the Bible Drill presentation. She made it to the State Drill and had fewer than six mistakes! I am so proud of her.

Then, they gave the Cubbies awards. I did not, however, get a good picture of this because my two Cubbies (Annabelle and Jude) were busy fighting on stage. At least it was funny. Then, Sebastian got a Sparks award and Zoe got a Truth N Training award - actually, Zoe finished her book, which is a hard accomplishment. I am very proud of all four of them! They all learned lots of verses of Scripture and worked hard.

Next, the Kindergarten choir sang. Unfortunately for some of my friends, Sebastian just stood up there. He sang some and stood some, but he didn't do anything worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos! And, he had a line to say and he delivered it perfectly! I think you probably could hear Adam and me sigh when he was coming off the stage.

Then, the big kids did Parablelooza, which was so very cute! Zoe did a great job with her three lines and her solo. Again, we were very proud.

It was a crazy, action packed weekend, but everyone had lots of fun and we all survived. This is the last week of school and so we are all looking forward to settling down a little bit!

Sebastian is Six!

2009-05-15T09:55:00.002-04:00

Yes, Sebastian turned six years old yesterday! I cannot believe he is so old! He is still my child with the biggest heart and most compassion. He is my best share-er (including the ten year old!) and he loves his family so much. He is so much fun to be with because he seriously just enjoys life no matter what he is doing. Tonight, we are taking him to Chuck E Cheese with a few of his friends and then one of them is coming back to spend the night here with him. He is very excited. Yesterday, he took cupcakes to school and his teacher made him a birthday book. She had each child in his class to draw a picture and write "I like you because ______" and fill in the blank. So he has a book filled with 18 pictures and reasons his classmates like him. It was really cute and made him feel so special.

Books

2009-05-13T08:45:00.002-04:00

I once read a good idea to make a list of all the books you read in a year and then critique them at the end of the year. I am a huge reader, so I thought I would do it now since I have read 26 books completely and have three more that I am working on now. All but two of these books are fiction - I love different stories. I mostly read Christian fiction, which works for me because I can read them in 15 or 20 minute intervals and don't have to completely concentrate. Complete concentration is next to impossible in a house with four children. This list is mostly for me and I will condense the list into series where appropriate: I will also not do a review of each and every book...

Redemption Series - Redemption, Remember, Return, Rejoice and Reunion-I can't say enough about these books by Karen Kingsbury. I love all the Baxter family as if I really know them -I laughed with them, cried with them, got angry with them and rejoiced with them!

Family Series - Forgiven, Found, Family, Forever-these are a continuation of the Redemption series, again by Karen Kingsbury. Fabulous!

Sunrise Series - Sunrise, Someday, Sunset-the last of the Baxter family series, again so very good.

Waiting for Morning-this was an amazing story about a woman who loses her husband and one of her daughters in a car accident where they were hit by a drunk driver. It's the story of how she and her other daughter who survived the accident try to cope with the new normal. It was a very moving story. Also by Karen Kingsbury

When Joy Came to Stay-Another by Karen Kingsbury. Sweet story of a woman who, as a teenager, gave her baby up for adoption. The adoptive parents are killed in a car wreck when the little girl is five years old and she enters the foster system. Through a really neat set of events, the little girl is reunited with her birth mother when the little girl is about 10 years old.

Newpointe 911 Series - Shadow of Doubt, Word of Honor, Private Justice, Trial By Fire, Line of Duty- this is a mystery series written by Terri Blackstock. I really like mysteries, so these were good. They are written by a Christian author and really fun to read. They are set in a small southern town, so they talk about going to Jackson, MS and Baton Rouge, LA, which made them fun for me to read.

The Yellow Rose Chronicles - Every Little Thing About You, A Texas Sky, City Girl- These books were by Lori Wick and set in Texas during the 1800's. The series is about three brothers (each book is about one of the brothers) and their journeys to find Christ and eventually true love. They are very easy reads, but still very enjoyable.

Twilight Series - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse-I have finished the first two and I am working on the third one and will read the fourth one. These books are so good. I've really enjoyed them. Very good character development and vivid word imagery. There is something very almost intoxicating about the balance Edward and Bella are always trying to find between loving each other and him killing her. Very long books, but the way the chapters are divided makes them easy to read in quick chunks of time.

My two lone non-fiction books:

Home Sweet Homeschool
Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling
I also have more books in this same genre but I haven't read them all yet.

I would recommend any of these books to anyone! Also, I would recommend all of Francine Rivers books. The Mark of the Lion books are still some of the best books I have ever read. Redeeming Love and The Atonement Child are also two very compelling stories. And, no matter what any one else says, The Shack was a really good book for me. I thought it was so moving and while I know that there are some things that aren't completely Biblical in there, it still enriched my relationship with God. It wasn't written to be theology, but an allegory.

So there are my book reviews. I absolutely love to read and just hope my kids will love to read as much as I do!

10 Years Ago...

2009-05-07T10:45:00.004-04:00

Ten years ago today, God blessed our family with our sweet Zoe. She is always such a bright ray of sunshine. I love you!

A Pethora of Jobs

2009-05-06T10:15:00.005-04:00

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and she made a comment about how many different jobs I have had in my life. Which got me thinking about the different jobs I have had and how I have accumulated so much knowledge that is no way marketable! Here's my complete employment history:

Bartlett Florist - I got this job in high school. I took orders, arranged some flowers and got to deliver them (my favorite part). I loved this job and had lots of fun doing it.

Oldies 98 Diner - This was also a high school job at a 50's Diner. It was such a fun job! We wore bowling shirts and jeans and served delicious, greasy food. I was a hostess and a food expo. I loved it. We were always busy so it was fun. The guy who owned it also owned a super nice restaurant in town so he closed the diner to focus on the restaurant that made him the most money.

Pig-N-Whistle - Another high school gig. I was a hostess at a BBQ restaurant. I hated this job. I think I worked there about three months.

Shelby Systems - This was a job during the summers while I was in college. This company (it's where my dad worked) markets and sells computer software to churches. I learned how to make books and lots about different shipping methods. I liked this job too, but mostly because I got taken out to eat almost every day by my dad!

Chili's - I was a hostess at Chili's in Jackson, TN. I hated this job too. We were required to wear skirts with panty hose. At Chili's. Give me a break.

Lemstone Books - I worked at a Christian bookstore in Jackson. I loved this job, but hated the retail hours. I made some great, lifelong friends though. Loved it. Learned how to imprint Bibles.
Madison County Tax Assessor's Office - I can't even remember how I got his job, but I did desk audits for tangible personal property for commercial businesses. I learned how to use a 10-key and I liked this job. We were extremely busy during tax season, but the rest of the year, we watched a lot of soap operas. Someone had to be in the office so we couldn't leave, but we didn't do a whole lot when it wasn't tax season.

Southern Door & Hardware - This job was in Jackson, MS. I was the receptionist at a subcontractor that manufactured door frames and sold doors, frames and hardware for doors. I also helped with collection calls and a little accounts payable. More completely unmarketable skills, but made some good friends.

Cox, Simpson & Bennett - Legal secretary. This is one of the easiest jobs I have ever had. The guy was a difficult personality, but he was rarely there and the other lady in the office and I had lots of fun. We scrapbooked, tatted lace, and hung out. We had fun.

Faith Baptist Church - I was a church secretary and I loved the job. I got to know some of my dearest friends at this job.

Lemstone Books - This one was in Chattanooga. Again, met some great people, but didn't care for the retail hours.

Synthetic Industries - This was a temp job in the research and development department for the fibers that they put in concrete to make it stronger. So totally random. Didn't last long at all.

PlayCore - This job I loved. I started as the receptionist at the corporate office for a commercial playground manufacturer. PlayCore is the parent company for several companies. I transitioned from receptionist to financial assistant where I learned a lot about financial stuff. Then I moved into Order Processing where I made sure the orders we took were correct and compliant with federal standards.

Brainerd Baptist Church - I started this job as the publications assistant and then moved to music secretary. I left in May 07 and came back in Dec 08. Goes without saying that I love this job.

Target - Last, but not least...Human Resources at Target. I like this job (most of the time), but the retail hours still drive me crazy. But, they are perfect for a mother of four who doesn't want to have to pay for daycare! :)

There you have it...a comprehensive list of all my crazy jobs and I really am surprised that I have had that many jobs in my life. I've only been old enough to work for about 16 years!

Another Annabelle Funny

2009-04-27T10:08:00.003-04:00

So at my house, the three oldest kids play soccer. I have a "You must be at least 4 years old to play an organized sport" rule at my house. So the other day, I was cleaning the kitchen and I hadn't seen Annabelle in a little bit so I called out to her and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "Getting ready for soccer." I thought nothing of it because she is always putting on the other kiddos cleats and stuff. She comes out and says, "I put my shin guard on!" She was very proud. Here's what I saw...

Okay...I need a closer look...can't really tell exactly what that is...

Yep, it was a Maxi pad! Not to worry, it was a new one, but still...Zoe, of course, said, "Annabelle, that's not a shin guard!" Annabelle said, "Well, what is it then?" Zoe looked at me like what do I tell the three year old? I waited to see what Zoe would tell her. "Um, yep, it's a shin guard!"

Office Supplies and Mascara

2009-04-23T11:39:00.003-04:00

No, this isn't a post about a recent shopping trip. This morning as I was putting on my mascara I thought to myself "I need some new mascara" which got me thinking about how much I love getting new mascara. My eyelashes are pretty much non-existent so I have to wear mascara so I love getting it new. Of course, I am married to man whose eyelashes touch his sunglasses when he is wearing them. (so not fair!!!) Anyway, there are a few aisles at the store that I will look at just about everything in them. Now, my desire for these items is almost always trumped by my hatred of spending money on myself, but I always look. One of those aisles is the office supply aisle. I love all that stuff...paper clips, pens, colored paper...you name it and I can probably come up with a reason that I NEED that stuff in my home. Again, I hate spending money on myself so I can usually talk myself right out of it. Another aisle is the craft aisle (or the entire Hobby Lobby itself). I love the idea of crafty projects. How sad is it that I rarely actually do them? I actually have done more here recently and since my kids are getting older, these type things are lots of fun. And the mascara aisle...I am lured by the promise of the brush extending each individual lash by 15% (who measures this??) Oh, and the voice in my head that makes that promise is almost always a British female and that mascara is going to make me 5 foot 11 and 125 pounds. Just by putting on the mascara! Powerful stuff...

Thankfully for Adam, my rational side almost always wins this battle. The side of me that says, "Why in the world would someone pay $15 or $20 for mascara?" And then I reach for the sensible mascara that will ultimately do the same thing for half the money.

Our friends...

2009-04-21T10:11:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture from our Chick-Fil-A meeting with Charity, Andy and their three boys...Left to right- Heath (9), Jude (4), Sebastian (5), Noah (10), Elijah (8), Zoe (9) and Annabelle (3). This was as close to a good picture as I could get...we had a hard time getting them all to be still. And, my boys really wanted to make silly faces. But we had a great time! Love you, Charity and Andy!!!!

ATO Founders Day and lots of fun...

2009-04-20T12:00:00.003-04:00

We had such a fun weekend! Each year, Adam's college fraternity has a Founder's Day celebration and he tries to go every two or three years. Well, this year, lots of his college friends all came so he was able to hang out with lots of his "old" friends. I think he had a great time. The kids and I dropped him off in Jackson, TN on Friday night and picked him up on Sunday. Friday night after we dropped him off, we were able to see my friend Charity and her husband and her three kids. We haven't seen them in 6 or 7 years! We stayed at Chick-Fil-A for a little over two hours and visited so much. It was so much fun. Then the kids and I headed for my brother's house. It's always so much fun to visit with them because they have a 10 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. So everyone has fun. Saturday morning I took all the girls to the mall to spend time with my friend Heather and her two kiddos. Ashley (my sister-in-law) kept the boys and took them to McDonalds. I think everyone had a good time. Saturday night, Ashley and I took the girls to see the Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute. Of course, it had a huge Daddy/Daughter relationship part of the story, so I cried. Add that to the embarrassing list of movies that I cry at! But, it was a pretty cute movie. Sunday morning we got up and went to Faith Baptist, which is where Adam and I got married. Well, to be correct, now there is a huge beautiful worship center instead of the gym where Adam and I got married. It was so much fun to see Brother Danny and Brother Todd and lots of people that I have known since I was 10 years old. Then we headed back to Jackson to pick up Adam and we even got to spend a little time with some of his friends. It was a lot of fun!!

A Random Thought

2009-04-16T09:33:00.000-04:00

Why is it that we can put a man on the moon but no one has been able to figure out how to make a cereal bag that doesn't rip when you open it?

2009-04-15T13:50:00.002-04:00

So there are certain things that happen in your life where you realize you are, indeed, a mother. You also realize why no one actually tells you every detail of being a mother before you are one because then no one would ever do it!

When they are babies, they pee and poop on you way more than anyone ever told you they would. And they "spit up" on you too. I put spit up in quotation marks because that is really just a nice phrase for puking on you. You spend the first year of life with something constantly on your shirt or pants and you don't change your shirt or pants because they are just going to get dirty again. At one point during this stage, you look at yourself and think, "Wow...I'm really a mom."

Then they start potty training and now you find yourself cleaning poop out of panties and underwear, pants, socks, and the floor of wherever they were just standing. This stage is slightly easier because at least now they can say, "I love you, Mommy," which makes things a little easier to swallow. And again, you look at yourself and think, "Once again, I am a mom."

Once they are out of that stage, then anything else that you have to endure in this field will be centered around blood and/or broken bones. Not too bad. Don't get me wrong, there are many other things that go on in this stage that I don't have time to discuss here, but on the subject of gross bodily fluids that you have to clean up, it's not too bad.

Which brings me to my day today...Zoe came home from school yesterday with symptoms that are textbook UTI. Of course, she didn't really express how she was feeling to me until last night. So, this morning we headed to the doctor. I found myself squatting between her legs as she is sitting on the toilet, holding the cup for her to pee in. Lovely. We were there for about an hour and she never could pee on demand. (For the record, I don't understand this, because I have had four babies, so I could fill a cup at any point on any given day. But, I realize she is only 10 years old) So, the doctor gives us the plastic urine specimen cup and tells us to bring to back once she has been able to pee in it.

So, now here I sit at work with a urine sample on my desk and I just looked at myself and thought, "Wow...you are a mother."

Video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's Dad

2009-04-13T10:19:00.001-04:00

This is a sweet video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's dad. She is singing "Can I Have This Dance?" from High School Musical 3. She is saying "It's one in a million, the chances of feeling the way I do. And with ever step together, we just keep on getting better. Can I have this dance?"

Organization Update

2009-04-02T10:06:00.002-04:00

So it's been almost two weeks since we organized the kids rooms. And, I'm very happy to say that it has been maintained! The soccer bucket is fabulous! Here's an example: On Tuesday, Zoe was supposed to have soccer practice at 5:30 pm followed by all three soccer players having pictures made at 7:00 pm. By around 3:00, Zoe's coach had called and cancelled practice and the boys coach had called and cancelled pictures. So, since it had rained all day and it looked like we were going to be inside for the night, the kids were playing dress up and whatever. At 5:20, Adam calls me and tells me that Zoe's pictures were actually at 5:30, not 7:00 and they were still taking them! He also says that no pictures have been cancelled, so the boys should probably be dressed too since we wanted a picture of all three of them. Okay, so I pulled out the soccer bucket and was able to produce 3 soccer jerseys, 3 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs of soccer socks, 3 pairs of shin guards and 3 pairs of soccer cleats in about 45 seconds. We ran around like crazy people getting dressed (since Zoe is really the only one who can get all of that stuff on by herself) and got out the door. We got the soccer field at 5:38! I'm not kidding! Now, I was sweating and driving as fast as the speed limit would allow me (now I have people in the car who look at my spedometer and get on to me when I am speeding), but we were there.

On another note, this weekend I decided I was going to organize some other things. I realize that I have a small army that can and needs to help with running our household. I also feel like I need to say that I am not naturally an organize person. I don't think in lists, so I usually just assign tasks to the kids as needed. This doesn't always work. So, Sunday night, I sat down and made a list of all of the household chores. I divided the list into things that needed to be done daily, things that needed to be done twice and week and the things that only need to be done once a week. Then I assigned children to each of the tasks. I assigned dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, laundry (collecting the clothes, washing, drying and taking them out - I will fold them - each child puts their own stuff away) bathrooms, feeding the dog and keeping the kitchen table wiped down. I made a colorful chart with clip art for each chore with the days of the week that they need to be done and the name of the child responsible for the chore. The kids loved it! I put it on the refrigerator and they have checked it each day and done their chores! We told them that if they do their chores for a month, then they will receive a reward. We haven't really decided what the reward would be, but they have been doing the chores without a promise of anything. I kept anything having to do with the kitchen for me, but the rest of it has been going really well. I am finally using my little army!

Confessions

2009-04-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I have a confession to make about myself. I am a crier. Those of you who know me well will not be shocked at this admission. I cry at lots of different things...movies, songs, TV shows, TV commericials...you name it. But, I also have a "cry quota" that must be met. So, here are a list of movies that make me cry and why: (some of these are serious-tear jerker films and some of them are not!)

The Notebook - where to start on this one? The whole thing is so sad and sweet through the whole thing.

Atonement - this movie just has three scenes in it that make me cry. The first one is when Robbie and Cecelia see each other for the first time in the restaurant and they don't know what to say to each other. His crying is so sweet. Then, the scene where Briony is apologizing to them. When only Cecelia's voice can calm Robbie down and quiet his anger. And, then when Robbie dies during the war. The way he lights the match to look at the postcard and the life leaves him as the light flickers out. That scene is so emotionally charged.

Where The Heart Is - I love the end of this movie. The scene where Novalee goes to find Forney and, when she does, he asks her why she lied to him about loving him. She says, "Because I thought you deserved better." And he says, "Oh, Novalee, there isn't anything better than you."

Pride and Prejudice - I like the Joe Wright version of it with Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy and Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett. I love the scenes where he just doesn't know what to do with himself because he loves her so much. I cry everytime they are in the moor and then when she is asking her father's blessing.

Toy Story 2 - Don't laugh...every time I watch the scene where Jessie sings her song about Emily, I cry. I can't help it. It is so sad when she drops her at the donation barn.

High School Musical 2 - again, don't laugh...I cry when they break up (he is so SAD!) and then I cry again when she shows up at the talent show and starts singing. Yes, I have seen this movie a million times, but those scenes still make me tear up.

High School Musical 3 - again, he is so SAD when she leaves! And then, when she shows up and they dance their "prom" dance. Yes, I'm a complete sap.

The Patriot - this is the movie with Mel Gibson, not Steven Seagal. I am a complete sap whenever it comes to Daddy/Daughter stories, so the scenes with Benjamin Martin and Susan Martin (his little girl who doesn't speak until she is begging him not to go to war). I can almost cry just remembering it!

I'm sure there are many more ( I promise, there are!) but no one has time for a complete list. Anything with a daddy/daughter type story line makes me cry. Father of the Bride I & II are I'm-crying-so-hard-I'm-hiccuping type movies. Same with Cheaper By the Dozen 1 & 2. Any movie with a Daddy having a hard time with his kids growing up is a guaranteed.

Those are my "dark confessions". Now you can all go and say a quick prayer for my sweet husband who has to live with a person while he can see no reason a sane person could ever "need to cry."

Eating Out

2009-03-26T12:19:00.002-04:00

So, Adam and I went out to eat last weekend and as I stood in the entry way of the restaurant waiting to be seated, it dawned on me that not everyone in the world knows how this whole eating out thing works. Now, when I need to define the term "eating out". I am using this term to mean when you go out to eat a restaurant where the waiter comes to your table, takes your order, brings your food, you pay the check at the table (so this excludes those quick mexican restaurants) and then you leave. If you have to walk up to a counter at any time during the meal to order or refill your own drink, this is not the type of restaurant I am discussing here. So, here is some general information:

1. There are some things that you should just expect. If you show up at a restaurant at 7:00 pm on Friday night, you are going to have to wait. If you don't, you aren't lucky, you are probably going to be poisoned by the food you are about to eat and everyone else in town knows it but you. If you don't like to wait, you should probably go out to eat on Monday or Tuesday night.

2. When you pull into the parking lot and cannot find a parking space, then you have to push through 150 people just to get to the hostess stand, don't act shocked when she tells you it is going to be an hour to an hour and a half. Shockingly, all those people were here before you were and will be seated first. These restaurants operate on a "first come-first serve" basis, it is not hunger based. When the hostess tells you it will be 90 minutes, don't say to her "Oh, I'm not waiting that long!" As if she is going to come around the hostess stand, grab hold of your leg and beg you not to leave. Judging by the number of people in the waiting area, her job is not hinging on whether or not you eat there. Make her life easier...go to McDonald's.

3. The method the hostess uses to determine how long your wait will be is not a proven scientific method. She is ESTIMATING. She has no control over the table of four who ordered dessert and five cups of coffee after their meal. She is guessing. And, she is not going to walk around the restaurant trying to get people to finish faster because you keep coming up and asking her where your name is on the list. Slipping her money won't work either...this isn't a New York restaurant in a movie. You just have to wait your turn.

4. Nine times out of ten your little pager thingy is working. No amount of banging it on the seat you are sharing with five total strangers as you wait is going to make your wait shorter. It just annoys the rest of the people around you.

5. If you have a large party (like more than 6) try to call ahead and let them know you are coming. Most restaurants don't have rows of 12 top tables just waiting for a large party to fill them. The tables have to be set up and arranged and a server (or two) has to be ready. So don't act surprised when you refuse to separate your party and it takes longer for you to get seated. Be patient and enjoy visiting with each other.

6. Don't bring your toddler who absolutely has to eat at 6:30 pm or he will have a complete meltdown. We all know you're not going to be seated, much less eating, by 6:30 pm if you just showed up at 6:15 pm. Your toddler is going to have a complete fit and it really just makes everyone's experience miserable. Especially the parents...you wind up rushing through your meal and sweating before it is over. Is it worth it? Babies who are not mobile are excluded from this if they will happily sit or nap in their car seat carrier. I can remember a three year span where Adam and I only got to go to a restaurant if someone volunteered to keep the kids or our church had Parents Night Out. Yes, it's hard but the stage doesn't last forever and you will be able to go to a nice restaurant with the whole family eventually, I promise.

7. Anytime any little thing goes wrong or not just exactly like you wanted, it does not mean you automatically get a free meal. Yes, sometimes things are so wrong that they only way to fix it is to comp the meal. But, things happen. Kitchens get backed up...servers put in the wrong order or don't put the order in at all...one server takes another servers food and the food has to be remade. If your server is communicating and trying to keep you happy, don't demand the manager. If the server is any good, he/she will know when to involve the manager and you can leave pleasantly surprised instead of being the person the entire staff talks about all night. That being said, if your server is terrible and has no clue that they are terrible, be sure to tell the manager, but don't look for a reason to get a free meal.

So there it is...my restaurant lesson. Most places will let you call and put your name on their list when you are on your way, so jot down the number before you leave the house and call en route. This will expedite the process. PF CHANGS TAKE RESERVATIONS!

My Latest Cake

2009-03-25T11:51:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I made this cake in January for a friend of mine who turned 50, but the pictures were on my Mom's camera because Adam was in Uganda during this time and he had our camera. My mom couldn't find the cord that went to her camera to plug into a USB port and, of course, all of the cords we could find were too big. But, she finally found the cord and so I can now download the pictures from my cake. It turned out cute, I thought, though not perfect. But that's okay. Here it is...the top part are blue and yellow chocolate suckers and the "50" is sugar cookie. The top layer was chocolate cake with buttercream icing and the bottom was white cake with buttercream icing. Fondant accents.

Organizing

2009-03-19T10:12:00.002-04:00

This week has been an organizational week for me. One of the biggest adjustments to apartment living has been the lack of places to hide stuff. By this I mean we don't have extra closets to shove stuff in and never think about it again. We don't have extra places to keep out of season clothes or socks that we cannot find the mate to anymore. So, this past weekend, we cleaned out everything. I started with the girls room. This room is the biggest problem in my house right now. There are two girls who cannot share any clothes, any shoes, any socks, and very few toys. So it is all in that room. The boys room isn't as bad because, well, they're boys and share everything except shoes. Also, since their room is smaller than the girls room, we already had it pretty much organized with two toy tubs and a tub of Super Hero costumes.
Anyway, we only have room for one set of drawers in the girls room. Up till this weekend, all of their clothing were in those three drawers. As you can imagine, since they didn't all fit in there, we wound up with clothes all over the place. So, I bought three plastic tubs and labeled each of them...one for pants, one for skirts/shorts and one for shirts. I put both girls clothes in these tubs. I put them in the bottom of their closet (they have a walk-in closet in their room). Then I labeled the three drawers...one for panties and bathing suits, one for socks/tights/panty hose and one for pajamas. I cannot tell you how much this has helped. The top drawer used to have all of their socks, panties and pajamas in it. You could never find anything in it! Now I just have to remember to take the five bags of stuff to Goodwill!
The other thing that I organized this weekend was our soccer stuff. One of my pet peeves is losing things. I cannot stand not to be able to find something when I need it. So, soccer socks, shin guards, cleats, soccer balls, shorts and jerseys are all things that need to be found and usually quickly as we are headed out the door for practice or for games. This year I have three playing soccer, so this can get very tricky and very stressful. So, now in our laundry room is a soccer bin. I put everything soccer related (except the ball - we can usually find those) in that bin and put it on the shelf to keep anyone from playing with anything in there. It contains shorts, shirts, socks, jerseys, shin guards and cleats. It being in the laundry room means I can just pull the clean ones out of the dryer and toss it in the bin. It also means that when we have been playing soccer in the mud as we have this week, the cleats are on the floor in the laundry room and the mud isn't all over the house.
Next up is my room, but I'm not in a real hurry since it is not too bad. I love being organized! And, with it organized, there is no excuse for the girls not cleaning their room. It has been a much better week for us in that department.

My Testimony

2009-02-26T09:36:00.002-05:00

It dawned on me the other day that even though I may spend lots of time talking to my friends or with my friends, a lot of times, we only share bits and pieces of our own story. We tend to talk about the day to day things and the things that are going on right now rather than share our journey. Understandably so, but we still don't share. So I thought I would share my testimony.

I walked the aisle at Parkway Baptist Church in Jackson, MS at the age of six. It wasn't until I was twelve years old in July 1988 that I actually nailed down my salvation. I didn't get baptized then and wouldn't get my baptism in order for many years. I had a wonderful childhood and upbringing. I had parents that loved each other deeply and loved me as well. While we weren't rich by worldly standards, I never wanted for anything and somehow my parents always had the money for me to do mostly anything I wanted to do. I watched both of my parents have daily quiet times and I was brought up extremely involved in the church in a very positive way. However, I wouldn't say I was growing spiritually all of those years. I was a Christian, but I was definitely not as close to God as I needed to be. I had a picture perfect life. I never understood what it meant to cling to God because that's the only thing to cling to. I had other things to put my faith in - my mom, my dad, all of my needs and most of my wants always being met.
I graduated from high school and went on to a private baptist college. This was a great experience for me. I loved every minute of it. Again, my life was pretty much picture perfect. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that I put my faith in the fact that my life was so good and easy.
At Christmas 1994, midway of my sophomore year, my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. Surgery was done, he recovered, life went back to normal. God healed people of cancer all the time, right? A year and two months later on a Tuesday,(February 1996)I was at school which was an hour away from my parents house. My Wednesday morning class got cancelled so I decided to make a trip home to see my dad. I told Adam (my boyfriend of 5 months) that I was going to go home. He had an intramural basketball game that night so he wasn't going with me. I assured him I would be home the next day so we could celebrate Valentine's Day. As I loaded my car to leave, here came Adam with his stuff. He decided to go with me instead of playing basketball. The rest of that night is somewhat of a blur, but it ended around 11:00 that night as my Dad went home to be with the Lord. I remember telling him bye and that I loved him, but not much else. We had the visitation, the funeral and then, once again, life returned to the new normal. I went back to school, back to life as it was. I can also say, looking back, that this was the first little chip in my joy.
In May 1997, on Memorial Day, Adam and I spent the day together. I don't remember what we did, but I remember coming back to my dorm room and it was full of people. My friend, Charity, who was married was sitting there, which was very odd. They told me that my dear friend Melanie had been in a terrible car accident and they didn't know if she was going to make it. We needed to pack and head to Nashville where she was. While I was in my room packing, my phone rang and it was another friend of mine who was in Nashville calling to tell me she was gone. This funeral was harder on me in a lot of ways because there was no time to say goodbye. It was even a closed casket, so there was no closure. I so did not understand. She was so sweet, so full of life! Another chip in my joy.
In November 1997, Adam and I got married. It was such a fun day. There were a few bittersweet moments because my Dad and Melanie weren't there, but it was fun. My Dad's best friend, Ernie, gave me away and he cried all the way down the aisle. It was great day...just what I wanted.
In August 1998, Adam and I moved to Jackson, MS for law school. In September, we found out I was pregnant with Zoe. A very big, but wonderful surprise! In November 1998, my Dad's friend Ernie and his brother were killed in an airplane crash. Again, I just didn't understand. And, once again, closed casket, so I didn't get to see him. No closure. Another chip in my joy.
I might also want to mention here that our time in Jackson, MS was our spiritual dark ages. We belonged to a church, but we were very hit or miss in attendance and neither of us were growing spiritually at all. I spent my days at work pining away for the day we could move back to Memphis, closer to my mom and my friends. Surely that would make it all better, right?
In January 2001, we moved back to Memphis. Adam was completely bogged in his studies and once law school was over, he was bogged down in studying for the bar. I definitely appreciate the sacrifice he made in doing that because he passed it on the first time.
When we moved to Memphis, we thought it was a permanent move. In June 2001, the firm where Adam was working offered to transfer him to Chattanooga after the Bar. We said yes. I still to this day don't know why I said yes. I am so very thankful that I did, but I can't remember why. So, in August 2001, we moved to Chattanooga. Everyday, Adam would get up, go to work with adults while I stayed at home with a two year old. We knew no one in Chattanooga and I was pretty miserable. Still, I wasn't growing spiritually at all. Here's where I am going to fast forward through a lot of the details...we had Sebastian in May 2003. In November 2003, Adam got saved! It was a miraculous transformation that I got to watch take place and the more he grew, the more he pulled me along with him. I started having quiet times again. But I never stopped to look back and figure out why I had stopped having them.
In March 2005, a revivalist was here at our church and he preached on getting your baptism in order. I realized then that I hadn't done that first simple act of obedience. So I did and was baptized.
Still my spiritual journey was so sporadic. Anytime anything remotely bad would happen, I would throw my hands up in defeat and get mad at God. Even though God blessed us with Jude in 2004 and with Annabelle in 2005, I still was having trouble letting go and truly trusting Him. I never once stopped to try to figure out why.
In January 2008, Adam lost his job. This turned out to be a blessing, but at the time it was very stressful. During that time, I was reading in a Bible Study I was doing (The Power of a Praying Woman) and somewhere in there, she talks about healing through forgiving God. I realize that God doesn't do any wrong and therefore doesn't need actual forgiveness. But, we as humans get mad at Him about lots of things and we have to let go of it. The Bible Study workbook had lines for you to write about what you were still angry about. I would have told you that I wasn't mad about anything, but as I started writing, I filled every line. I asked the "Why?" question, I asked the "How Could You?" question, I asked the "Why didn't you?" question...all of them. When I got done, I was emotionally drained from crying, but I had also emptied myself of all of that that I had been carrying around apparently for awhile. Only then could God fill me up with Him. I'll be honest, it wasn't instantaneous. He is still filling me. But I'm not fighting Him on it anymore. During that time was when I started to think about all of the things He saved those people from! Melanie never grew old, never got sick, never had any huge heartache. My Dad didn't grow old, he didn't have to watch his parents age, didn't have to suffer the loss of a spouse. I also began to realize that God did answer my prayers for my dad and my friend. I asked Him for healing and He gave it to them. Permanent, glorious healing!
All of these lessons would prove to be very important in June 2008 when my sweet mother-in-law suddenly went to be with Jesus after she had a blood clot. It was instant and quick and she was ushered into heaven. It was hard, of course, because, once again, she was just gone and now we had the added pressure of explaining to my children. But, because I had been emptied of my own emotions and filled with Jesus, this death didn't chip away at my joy. It made me so happy for her that her faith was now sight for her!
So, my journey continues complete with valleys and mountaintops. I have added memorizing Scripture to my daily routine just recently and that has so enriched my walk. God is so good and I don't say that lightly. He loves me more than I deserve to be loved and never gave up on me even when I didn't want Him. I will forever be amazed by His love.

Sebastian lost his first tooth!

2009-02-20T11:25:00.003-05:00

Sebastian's tooth has been loose for about a week. Yesterday afternoon I noticed he wouldn't bite his food with that tooth. So I called him over to look at it and, sure enough, it was so ready to come out. He told me he didn't want it to come out because it would hurt. So I asked him if I could just wiggle it a little bit for him. He said sure, so I just grabbed a hold of the tooth and barely moved it and it came out. He was so excited!! The tooth fairy gave him a dollar in change (Sebastian is way more impressed with loose change than with dollar bills. They're just paper - how boring!) He was very excited. I had told him he would lose his teeth about the time he was six years old, so yesterday afternoon he said, "So, am I six now?"

Women's Retreat

2009-02-17T10:20:00.002-05:00

This Friday I am going on a Women's Retreat! I am so excited. The entire theme of the retreat is on Peace. I have wanted to go on a Women's Retreat for a long time, but it was never a good time. This one is only one night and the ones before at our church used to be two nights. Now that my children are older, that isn't really an issue, but before when they were all so little, Adam would have freaked if I would have left him for two nights by himself. Anyway, I am so excited. We leave Friday afternoon and come back Saturday evening.
I can't wait!

Thirteen Years

2009-02-13T09:56:00.002-05:00

Thirteen years ago today, God chose to permanently heal my Daddy from the cancer in his body and took him to heaven. There are very few days that I don't think about my Daddy and how much he would have loved all six of his grandchildren. I look forward to the day I get to see him again. Love you, Daddy.

Granny's funeral and other ramblings

2009-02-12T09:22:00.002-05:00

Well, I had written an entire entry and then lost it...very frustrating...So here's a catch up of the end of last week to now. My Granny passed away on Wednesday so Thursday afternoon, the kids and I headed to Jackson, MS for the funeral. This is a seven hour drive from our house and we did it with no technology. By that I mean, no DVD player in the van, no CD player in the van and the tape player is broken, so no books on tape. We do own 2 nintendo DS players, but one of them wasn't charged so I left both of them at home to avoid the fights that were sure to take place over the one DS. But we did just fine...we sang songs and played car type games. One game we played was where someone says a line from a movie and you have to guess what movie it is from. Well, the boys had no interest in playing this game. So they were in the back, entertaining themselves (we did bring action figures). Annabelle had fallen asleep, so it was just Zoe and I playing so we were doing some pretty obscure quotes from different movies and trying to stump each other. Anyway, one of the quotes I chose was, "You'd better get back in line or we'll both be in trouble." Zoe is thinking about it and thinking about it and having me repeat it over and over cause she just can't place it. All of a sudden, I hear Annabelle from behind me say "A Little Princess!" A Little Princess is Annabelle's favorite movie, but it was so funny that she could pick the quote out of the movie.
We finally made it to Jackson and we had a great time visiting with family. The service was on Friday and it was a sweet time just celebrating the almost 97 years that Granny spent here on earth. We sang "How Great Thou Art" as a group which was Granny's favorite hymn and then the pastor spoke. After he spoke, I sang "Well Done, My Child" accapella. It was really hard, but I am so glad I did it. Granny would have liked it. As I looked around at the people at the graveside service, I couldn't help but think about this precious woman's legacy. Granny was not raised by Christian parents, so at some point, someone had to invite her to church and someone had to tell her about Jesus. I don't know who it was, but as I looked at the four generations of a Christian family that started with Granny, I couldn't help but think about the impact that person had. We never know what kind of impact we have on other people. I can only pray that I will leave that kind of legacy.
One other funny Annabelle story...while we were driving back on Saturday, Annabelle was sitting in her seat playing by herself. She had a Troy (High School Musical 3) doll and I looked back at one point and she had Troy dancing with an Iron Man action figure. (I have been informed that it cannot be an Iron Man doll...it's an action figure.) So I asked her what she was doing because it looked funny. She said, "I needed a Gabriella. Iron Man is Gabriella." (I realize that not everyone has seen High School Musical a million times like I have, so Gabriella is Troy's girlfriend in those movies) She makes me laugh.

My Sweet Granny

2009-02-04T12:39:00.002-05:00

My sweet, precious Granny, Mrs. Mary Jacks Roberts, went to heaven this morning at 10:30 am. She lived to be 96, almost 97, years old. You will be missed. I know you are loving being with Jesus.

One of These Days...

2009-01-30T10:44:00.002-05:00

One of these days, I will get to sit down and write an entry about something! For now, I can just say that Adam made it home safely from Uganda, he had the time of his life, God solidified our decision about the future, and everyone has enjoyed having him back at home. One really quick, sweet story...Sebastian is my sensitive, artistic child. Anyone who has spent a little time with him can vouch for that. Anyway, he was the one who I thought would have the hardest time with Adam being gone. But, the nine days pretty much went by without a hitch. So, Saturday Adam got home and he was giving out the presents and Sebastian burst into tears and ran into his room. I followed him to see what was wrong and he said, "I just want to be in here and cry." So I left him to be alone. Adam finished giving out the presents and then went into Sebastian's room and shut the door. When Adam got in there, Sebastian threw his arms around his Daddy's neck crying and said, "Why did you have to be gone so long? It was too long!" So, then they cried together for a few minutes and Adam just held him. Then he was fine and came out to see his presents. It was so sweet. He is so precious.

Our Adam-less weekend and week so far

2009-01-20T09:19:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I have never been away from Adam for this long. His group made it to Uganda just fine and he is having the time of his life. We are able to text back and forth, which has made this so much easier. He built a mud hut for a woman yesterday and today they were headed to the Nakivale refugee camp. I cannot wait to hear all about his experiences and see all of his pictures! I know this has been a life changing experience for him! He gets back Saturday afternoon.
The kids and I are doing fine so far. On Friday, they were out of school because it was too cold and yesterday was MLK day so today was the first day I had to get them ready and take Zoe and Sebastian to school. We made it fine. Our weekend was actually a lot of fun too. Friday night was Parents Night Out at our church. I took the kids to that and then had dinner with my mom, John & Christine. (Thanks, John, for letting us crash your dinner party!) We went to Red Lobster and it was oh so yummy! After dinner, John & Christine left and then my mom went to her friend's house to watch a movie, so I went to Wal-Mart and walked around BY MYSELF!!!! It was wonderful! On Saturday, my mom and the kids and I headed out to get some materials for a cake I am making for tomorrow night. (More on that later) We were supposed to go to a birthday party, but never made it. (Sorry again, Christine!) But, I got all of the stuff I needed for my cake, which is going to be so awesome. I baked last night and tonight I will start icing it. I'm so excited. Saturday afternoon, a friend of mine and her mother brought dinner to us! Red beans and rice and shrimp ettoufe. Okay, not sure how to spell that, but at any rate the food was so good!!! Adam doesn't like seafood, so they chose this time to bring me seafood!
Sunday was a little crazy and we were late to the 8:30 service. I didn't budget enough time. Oh well, couldn't be helped. But, we did make it and made it to AWANA on Sunday night WITH all of the AWANA stuff! Last week, the AWANA books and vests were all in a box somewhere. But, I found it all and we actually made it to church with it!
Yesterday was MLK day, so Zoe went to work with my mom and the three other kids stayed with Jeannine while I worked. That was pretty much it. I baked and made candy for the cake I am making, watched 24, checked the weather and went to bed. Very exciting! So, today, the big kids are back in school and the little ones are with Jeannine. The rest of my week is a little busy. We have church tomorrow night, which is where the cake is going, and Friday night I am having dinner with a friend - can't wait!! Then, Adam will be back on Saturday!! Yay!

Uganda

2009-01-15T09:15:00.003-05:00

Adam leaves for Uganda today at 11:15. He is so excited! I am excited for him as well. I am pretty emotional today, but that's just because I absolutely hate goodbyes. He will be gone for 9 days! He had to say good bye to the kids this morning, which, of course, made me and Zoe cry. The other three have no real idea where Africa is or how long 9 days is, but they'll miss him too. But, we did find out we can text each other while he is gone. He drives to Atlanta, then flies to Amsterdam and then on to Kampala, Uganda. I can't wait to hear all about his experience!

How to Move an entire 3000 square foot house using 5 boxes!

2009-01-12T14:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, you’re going to think we are crazy, but that is pretty much what we did. We had only a few boxes. Since we moved over the course of like 3 weeks, we would pack the boxes at the house, take them to the apartment, unpack them and take the empty boxes back to the house, repack them and so on. We have a van and a truck, so we would take a load every day. For a few days, we only had the one bench in the van and the back was filled with stuff, so the three youngest sat on the bench seat and Zoe in the front seat. One time, I drove from the house to my mother’s house (which are about 3 miles apart) with the four kids laying down flat in the back because there were no seats in the van. (All of them had been threatened with death if they even thought of sitting up. Of course, they thought it was a blast and it was a very short trip.) We never rented a moving truck or hired movers since the biggest things going with us were the couches. We didn’t move any appliances, so we figured we could handle it. And it was fine. Adam’s dad and Jacob came one day with their truck, which made it so much easier. We put a full sized bed in each of the kids rooms for them to share (which was surprisingly a big hit with everyone!) The beds are actually being loaned to us so when we get ready to go to the mission field we won’t have to sell them or store them. A great big THANK YOU to Adam’s dad and to Christine for the beds! The move felt like it took forever since it lasted so long. We filled up the back of my van with the last of the stuff last Saturday afternoon and told ourselves we would unload it when it stopped raining. Well, it didn’t stop raining until Wednesday afternoon! We also were donating a ton of stuff (recliner, bed, trundle, dryer, chest of drawers, nightstand, entertainment center, coffee table, toddler fire truck bed, 2 toddler mattresses, a Barbie van, 2 bicycles, a plastic wagon, 10 bags of clothes and a partridge in a pear tree) to Bethel Bible Village, so they had planned to come pick up the donations on Tuesday. Well, Tuesday is when the torrential downpour came so bad that they had to cancel school on Wednesday. So, we had to reschedule for Thursday. At this point, I was just so ready to hand over the keys to the house! Finally, Thursday afternoon, Bethel came and got all of the donations and Thursday night we were able to turn in our keys!

So, the Major family was able to move our entire house while never using more than five boxes. (Some of our stuff in the attic was already in boxes, so I am not counting those.) A crazy endeavor, but we did it!

Ramblings and Catching Up

2009-01-06T12:23:00.003-05:00

The last few weeks of December were absolutely crazy at the Major house. I started working at the church again on December 16, we had a huge Christmas program on December 21, then Christmas Eve, Christmas, on Christmas Day we actually moved most of our stuff. We slept at the apartment on Christmas night. The weekend was spent moving some more. Then, more working...New Year's Eve and Day...and now, finally, a five day work week! Work is going well. I have missed it. I quit working here in May 2007, so it has been so nice to get back. Somethings have changed greatly, while other things stay the same.
Zoe and Sebastian go back to school tomorrow and both of them are excited about it. It'll be nice to get back into that routine again.
That is seriously all that has been going on here. Our move was quite smooth, but seemed to take forever. The place we are donating furniture and stuff that we aren't keeping is coming to get the rest of the stuff today. I'm so excited. We are getting rid of a dryer, a toddler bed, a twin bed, an aquarium, two twin mattresses, a dresser, a nightstand, a coffee table, two toddler mattresses, a highchair, a stroller, a bunch of toys, and about 8 bags of clothes! We also sold a washer, a dryer and a refrigerator before we moved. It feels so good to have all of that cleaned out!!! Other than moving and organizing, we haven't been doing too much. But, I will say that I love my apartment! God is so very good!

Moving

2008-12-09T08:15:00.003-05:00

So, in a couple of weeks, we are moving into a 3 bedroom apartment. We are downsizing and I cannot wait. Yes, I realize it's going to be an adjustment, but by doing this, we will be completely out of debt in a year or so. I am so excited. I can honestly say that any problems we have ever had in our 11 year marriage have always been directly tied to finances. Not disagreements on how to use the money, just general stress when there is not enough to go around. This past year has been very rough financially. God has provided in miraculous ways! If you look back on it, there is no other explanation for it. Our lives have become a testimony to Malaciah 3:10. If you bring the tithes into the storehouse, God will open the windows of heaven of blessings. It has been amazing. God has also provided us this opportunity to move into an apartment. He has opened all the doors necessary. We had a lease purchase agreement on this house, which our landlords have let us out of. Not only let us out, but with their blessings! And other little things, like the fact that we got a ground floor apartment in the complex. And, they were running a rent special that should have ended November 30th, but it got extended until we needed it. We will actually be paying about the same in rent as we paid for our 2 bedroom apartment 7 years ago! And other things too...we needed two double beds (one for the boys room and one for the girls room) and we had one friend who has one in her attic and Adam's dad has one at his house too! It has been amazing. We are so excited.
So, the plan is...we take possession of the apartment on December 19th, but we don't have to be out of the house until December 31st. So, we will begin making trips on the 19th, and moving the bulk of the stuff the weekend after Christmas. I know it will be crazy, but it will be worth it in January. We begin saving money immediately and we are both really looking forward to it. We were just at a point where we could either continue what we were doing and probably never be completely debt free (at least it would be a long time) or we could bite the bullet for a year and be done with it. So we have opted for the latter and are continuing to pray that God will bless our efforts and our sacrifice.

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Christmas Season

2008-12-04T20:23:00.002-05:00

Now, just to be clear, I absolutely love Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, the baby boy who changed all of history, including my own personal life - what could be better than that?! Also, three of my four pregnancies, I was pregnant at Christmas. I looked at Mary in a completely different way after the first one. I saw her fears and tried to imagine what she must have felt like. I know how overwhelmed I felt with each pregnancy and can only imagine how overwhelmed she must have felt. I love Christmas. I love the Christmas Eve service we have at our church. I love the Christmas decorations! I love the way my house looks decorated! I love all that Christmas means and all the different ways there is to celebrate it.

Okay, that being said...I hate the Christmas season! Now, I also understand that some of my hatred comes from working retail. I get to see so many people complain to me about things that I have no control over. People threaten never to shop my store anymore...um, okay...would you like directions to another store? Again, I would say 99.98% of the complaints are things I have no control over and no way to fix.
I hate dealing with Christmas decorations. I love the way it all looks, but I absolutely hate doing the decorating. Again, part of this comes from the fact that three of my children are 5 and under and can destroy anything that crosses their paths. I know it will get better. But for now, it's so stressful and not fun. For example, we pull all of the Christmas stuff out of the attic and Adam and I head down stairs to get the tree up. Everyone helped put the tree up (it has to be artificial this year because we are moving the day after Christmas - that's a whole other blog entry) but, while we were putting the lights on it, the kids went back upstairs. In the ten minutes we are putting the lights on, the two little ones proceeded to shred the styrofoam that our breakable Christmas decorations were in. Yes, it looked like it had snowed all over the room. So, while Adam finished the tree, the kids and I cleaned the room. I was furious by the time it was over. We are also keeping the decorations to a minimum this year since we are moving. So, when I come down from cleaning the room, I am met by Zoe, my nine year old, complaining that this wasn't going to be a good Christmas because we can't put lights on the outside of the house. I was trying to ignore her, which she was making very difficult. Then, Sebastian is crying because Adam won't give him scissors and let him cut paper. At this point, it's almost 8:00pm and I am about at the end of my rope. So we sent every one of them to bed at 8:00pm. I couldn't take it any more. Ahhhhhhh...decorating for Christmas...
So, that's my love/hate relationship with the Season!

More Lessons from Me

2008-11-12T12:44:00.003-05:00

Part of my job at Target is to go through all the applications that we receive and separate them into "potential" or "turndown". Pretty sure those are self explanatory. We get probably 50-75 a day, so this can be a huge task. They come from people who come in and fill out a handwritten application (which I then get to manually enter into the computer) or people who come in and fill them out on the computers in our store or from people who fill them out online. Not too long ago, I wrote an entry about Lessons for Shoppers, so today I am going to write some lessons from Human Resources.
1 - If you are filling out an application, please actually read the application. Different words have different meanings. The words "Country" and "County" are two different words. I cannot tell you how many applications I have gotten where the address line says Country and the applicant will put whatever random county they live in.

2-Please realize that there are certain things on your application that will send you directly to the turndown file. We are a retail company that is open from 8 am to 10 pm, except during the holidays, when we are open until 11 pm. If your availability is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2pm - 5 pm, you are probably wasting your time filling out the application. And, you're wasting my time making me read and file your application. Especially when it comes to holiday staffing, we are looking for the people who can work the most often. You need to be able to work at some point during the weekend.

3-Be open on your application. If you have some sort of criminal record, please put what it is on your application. If I see you have a record, but in the explanation area you put "I would rather explain this to you in person" or "I was at the wrong place at the wrong time", I'm going to assume that for the first one you need to come up with a creative way to spin whatever it was that you did or for the second one that you still haven't owned up to the crime you committed, so you are going to be turned down.

4-Once you have filled out an application, if you would like to call to check on the status, do so during the day. Saturday night is a very busy time in the retail world and is probably not the best time to call to see about your application. Odds are the person you need to talk to about it will be there during the day and available to at least look it up. At night or on the weekends, even if the person is there, he or she is too busy to go look up an application. Also, please don't call every twenty minutes or we will be tempted to turn you down just so we don't have to deal with you.

5- Once you have been hired and come for orientation, please check all your paperwork and make sure your name, address, any other pertinent information is correct. It takes like a second to fix it at orientation and like 6 weeks to fix it after orientation. Don't know why that is, but it is. And, yes, it's very important that it is correct. The last people you want to aggrevate is the Department of Homeland Security.

Anyway, that's about it. As the Christmas season gets going, we begin hiring seasonal people and these issues come up more and more. Just some helpful information!

Our Weekend

2008-11-10T12:54:00.002-05:00

So, our weekend was really good. Friday night, my Mom kept the three little ones (Zoe spent the night with a friend) while Adam and I went to dinner and then to Lifeway. Lifeway is not a kid friendly store at all, so when we're alone we actually go and look at books and music and stuff. We went and ate at Ruby Tuesday. (I had a real hankering for this since I had to cancel our lunch, Trudie) It was really good and then we headed to Lifeway to just look around. It was a nice relaxing evening. Saturday, we started cleaning things out of our house and we got the boys room completely cleaned out and reorganized. So much better. The girls rooms will be next, but they are not nearly the mess the boys room was. The boys room tends to be the abyss of broken toys. Toys get played with and broken and some how wind up in the boys room never to be seen again! We also got all the summer clothes cleaned out finally and drawers and closets reorganized for winter. Ahhhhhhh.... Saturday night I had to work and Zoe spent the night with another friend (this is not usual practice, but she enjoyed it).
On Sunday, we went to church and had such an awesome day! The Spirit was so alive in the service and the sanctuary was packed! Our new pastor brings so much energy and excitement and the Spirit moved in all the services! It was amazing!!!
Now here we are at Monday and rolling along into another week. My work schedule is starting to pick up since the Christmas season is upon us, so I will be working more. The money will be nice, but I'm not really looking forward to it. But, I do like my job.
So, I am going to go get Annabelle down for her nap and try to get some cleaning done before the big kids get home!

Rain, laundry, errands (maybe) and a date tonight!

2008-11-07T11:46:00.002-05:00

So that about sums up my day. I am in the process of trying to get all of the laundry done today so I don't have to do it tomorrow! I am now on load #4. I only have 3 left! Anybody got any ideas on how to get people not to get their clothes dirty? Because, this time next week, all of these will be dirty again! :)
I'm thinking I will not run my errands since it is raining. What a perfect day to fold laundry and nap since I haven't had a good nights sleep in two nights. On Wednesday night, Sebastian woke up in the middle of the night complaining about his ear hurting. A little love and tylenol and he went back to sleep on the couch with me. Not the most comfortable place. (yes, I took him in and he does have his first ever ear infection...he is also on antibiotics for the first time in his life. The doctor called him an antibiotic "virgin".) Anyway, last night, we woke up at 1:45 am because he had slept on his arm in a funny position and it was asleep and tingling. So he was crying, which of course woke Jude up since they share a room. Sebastian was inconsolable, so I settled Jude into bed with Adam and brought Sebastian downstairs for the second night in a row. We made so much noise that the cats started meowing because they thought it was time to get up. Which made the dog bark. (the cats sleep locked in our laundry room...the rest of their lives they are outside) So I get everyone settled down..Sebastian on the couch with me and the dog asleep in Adam's chair. Then, I see Annabelle come in the living room. Great! Of course, she thought it was time to get up as well. I finally conceded. I was so tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. So I turned on the hour long Dora Saves the Snow Princess, put Annabelle on the floor with a pillow and blanket and laid on the couch with Sebastian. Everyone was asleep before it was over, thankfully. So, I'm going to try to get a nap today. This morning, Adam had no idea any of this had gone on! How does he sleep through this stuff?
Tonight, my mom is going to keep the kids so Adam and I can go to dinner. I'm so very excited. We are never alone, so this will be fun. And, we will probably do the errands I was supposed to do today while we're out tonight. Then I won't feel guilty about not leaving the house in the rain today.

The Earth will keep spinning...

2008-11-05T08:32:00.003-05:00

So, to be perfectly honest, I am disappointed in the election results. I'm bothered by the fact that the most powerful man in our nation does not view every life as valuable and worth saving. I am also concerned about how much I am going to have to pay in taxes and a list of other things. But, I also totally know that God is in control. This is not the end of the world. Would I rather have a conservative in office? Yes. Would I rather have someone who is going to control government spending? Yes. Would I rather have someone who is going to limit government control in the lives of the people? Yes. Was I super excited about McCain? Well, um, no. (Of course, if I probably could have won if I had gotten 75% positive coverage in the main stream media. I'm not going there...onto a different subject...)

But, the reality is that God was not surprised by the results and ultimately He is in control. Life will continue on. So, while I am a very conservative person and disagree with the president-elect on just about every "hot button"issue, I am now going to commit to praying for this man. I cannot imagine the pressure of such a position. I cannot imagine how overwhelmed he must feel. No one person can fix all the problems in America (let alone the world, which is, for some reason, what people expect from the President of the United States) so he is going to need the help of the Almighty, whether he realizes it or not. So, I am now pledging to pray for him and to try not to complain too much. (Notice I did not say I wouldn't complain at all!) God is in complete control and He loved all of these politicians enough to send His Son to die for them too. So, I guess the least I can give them is some respect.

Oh, on another note, two of my friends who were running for state offices both won their elections. And, while I couldn't vote for either of them (one was in GA and one was in KY) I would like to offer my congratulations to these two fine men! How exciting!

A Diva, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and a Princess

2008-11-04T09:35:00.003-05:00

Halloween was lots of fun! Zoe was a Diva, complete with purple hair and a microphone. Sebastian was Optimus Prime and Jude was Bumblebee. Annabelle was, of course, a princess - with pink snow boots. We just went around our neighborhood, which is really big and full of kids. We came home with so much candy! We now have five full buckets of candy. Three filled with chocolate type candy and two full of fruity type candy. You absolutely cannot mix chocolate and fruity candy or it all starts to taste like chocolate. And anything with peppermint in it gets thrown away because it taints all of the candy.

We had lots of fun. Our neighborhood is also very hilly so we all started walking and by the end, I was carrying Annabelle and Adam was carrying Jude. So we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the house. But we had so much fun!!

Zoe's Diva

Annabelle's Princess - notice the snow boots-her choice!

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee
(they had masks, but they couldn't see in them)

Finally back on line...

2008-11-02T13:18:00.002-05:00

I've finally got my internet back up at home! Yay!! So, let's see...in the last month, what have we been up to? Well, we went on our first family camping trip. We went with our dear friends and we had lots of fun. The kids did really well - all 9 of them! Yes, we went into the woods for a night, with 2 nine year olds, an eight year old, 2 five year olds, a four year old, 2 three year olds and a one year old. But we had a great time. We decided that the next time we do it, we are going to stay two nights because the time we spent setting up and taking down was too much for just one night.
Then, last weekend, I had our choir retreat weekend, which was so awesome. It was just what I needed when I needed it. It was so refreshing. Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday morning. It was great. We had a couple of guests that came and it was such an amazing time of just singing and praising the Lord. Also, last weekend, our new pastor and his wife and baby son moved here to Chattanooga.
Today was the 80th anniversary of our church so we had a big special service this morning. It was also our new pastor's first Sunday at our church. We are so excited about what God is doing in our church.
So that's what's been going on for the last month. I'm sure there is more, but I will catch up as I think about it.

My first "wedding" cake

2008-10-04T17:05:00.003-04:00

So, it was actually for my friends marriage recommitment ceremony, but it was the first one I had made that was supposed to look "wedding-ie". It's white cake with white icing, covered in fondant and accented with ribbon and artificial flowers. I haven't quite mastered edible flowers yet. But, I was pleased and they loved it!

Movie, Soccer and the rest of this week

2008-09-30T07:58:00.002-04:00

Friday night, Adam and I went to see the movie "Fireproof". It was amazing. The story was so moving and I think anyone who is married or thinking about getting married one day should go see it. The longer you are married, the easier it is to let things creep in and get between you and your spouse. Sometimes they are very little things that can totally destroy your relationship. At the very least, this movie reminds you to intentionally love your spouse, even when you don't "feel" like it. It is so easy to take them for granted...that they'll always be there, that you're both so confident in your relationship that you don't ever need to work on it. So not true...marriages are crumbling all around us and we have to fight to protect our marriages! I can remember when I first got married and I heard people getting divorced over money. I truly couldn't understand. I thought it meant they were fighting about how to spend their money or how to save their money. While that might sometimes be the case, now after 11 years of marriage (in November) I have learned that sometimes the marriage crumbles due to the stress of money issues. We all go into marriage with preconceived ideas and some marriages end simply because the marriage can't live up to the expectations. When you couple the stress of money and kids with the influences in the outside world, it takes both people truly committed to keep the marriage in tact. Not too long ago, one of my friends was celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary. She told me it was her anniversary by saying, "God in His great mercy has helped us stay married for 16 years." What a true statement. It takes both people and God to make a marriage work like it is supposed to. And, if you truly study the role of a wife and the role of a husband in the Bible, it is pretty much contrary to the way the world views men and women and their roles in the home. But, I have also found that my marriage only runs smoothly when both of us are aware of our duties as man and wife and trying and praying to follow those roles. (Okay, here is where everyone says DUH! God's plan is God's plan because it protects us and makes our lives so much easier! But, while His plan is always simple, it's not always easy!) Anyway, Adam and I ordered the Love Dare books from the movie and I cannot wait to get started. The movie alone had an impact on our marriage, so I'm looking forward to seeing what 40 days will do.
Onto a much more shallow subject...On Saturday, Zoe had a soccer game. She is doing so well this year! It's like something has just clicked and everything is coming together with her game. Her foot work has improved greatly - she kicks with both feet! And, she is getting faster too. She is also a lot better at anticipating things during the game. Last week, she scored three goals and this week she scored two goals! She really enjoys it too and she has a good coach this season. Also, her Daddy works with her just about everyday outside. It's so neat to see her play and play well!
This will probably be my last blog entry this week. Starting tomorrow, my week goes into hyperdrive. Tomorrow night is church. Thursday night, I have the Ladies Extravaganza at the church. This is where some of the ladies host a table and decorate it and we get together and have dinner and a speaker. I'm hosting a table with my friend, who is coming in from Alabama. During the dinner, Adam has to meet with our new prospective pastor who is coming in for the weekend. Then, Friday during the day I will be decorating a cake for a friend's marriage recommitment ceremony. That night, I will go to one building at the church to set up the cake, then go to another building to meet the prospective pastor for a few minutes. Then, we go back to the other building and go to the recommitment ceremony. Saturday morning, we have the big service day at the church. Then a soccer game. Then from 2-5, we have the big fundraiser at Zoe and Sebastian's school. Then, Sunday morning the prospective pastor is preaching in view of a call. At four o'clock, I have a meeting with the music ministry and the new pastor. Sunday night, we will vote on the pastor and then head to AWANA with the new pastor to await the vote. So, we are pretty busy this weekend, but I am looking forward to every bit of it!
Then, next weekend - we're going on our first family camping trip!!

Friends

2008-09-26T09:00:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I look around at my friends and I am amazed at all of my friendships! God has truly blessed me with some of the greatest friends and I love how different they all are. God uses each one of them to teach me new things and stretch me, most of the time without me even realizing it! I am going to talk about two of them. I have other friends, but these two are the ones I have regular communication with and the ones that know me best.
The first one - this friend lives five hours away from me, but we talk very often. She is a working mother of two and loves being a professional. She is the friend who drove the three hours to visitation when Adam's mom passed away and just hung out with me for like four hours. I didn't even ask her. She just called and said she was on her way, dropped her kids off at her in-laws house and came. It was so touching and meant so much. We were friends in college, but not that close. In 1998, I moved to Mississippi, away from everyone I knew, for Adam to go to law school and she moved to Tunnel Hill, IL for her husband to go to school. Our friendship deepened and grew through that experience. We talked on the phone for hours and our friendship grew. She now lives in Memphis and we only get to see each other about twice a year, but we continue to email and call each other and I love her like a sister.
The second one - this friend is a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of five (with probably more coming in the future). She is the most organized and creative person I know. She convicts me daily with how she cares for her family and home. She is my "natural" friend - if she saw how much processed food was in my home, she would probably faint. Well, not really, because she knows me very well. She is the opposite of me in so many ways. She nurses her babies for at least a year, I count down the days when I can put a bottle with formula in my baby's mouth! (judge me if you want to, I don't care...I've had four babies and they all have felt loved and are healthy, so I can confidently say that I absolutely hate nursing without feeling like a bad mother) She soaks beans during the day to cook for her family for supper. Me, well...I'm all about frozen beans and peas. Just the other day she was talking about how long brown rice takes to cook and my response was, "It takes no time in the boil-in-a-bag!" She homeschools and I am enjoying my two big kids school experience. (It works for us right now. I've stopped making definitive statements. The quickest way for me to guarantee that God will call me to homeschool is to say something stupid like, "I'll NEVER homeschool." Nope. I think I'll stick with "School is working for us right now.") She has her kids on a chore schedule. I get my kids to help out with housework, but it is definitely not organized at all. They watch almost no TV, we watch some TV. She is so creative. She makes clothes and purses and does neat stuff to teach her kids. Not to mention that she has their family finances in such order that I think she could probably fix just about any financial crisis a fortune 500 company faced. She is the person (apart from Adam) that I have been completely transparent with. She knows all my personality flaws and still loves me! She never judges me. She responds with love and with practical things to try to solve the problem. She is the one who came immediately to my house just to sit with me when Adam's mom passed away and he had already headed home. She showed up at my house with chocolate (always a necessity) and things to do in the car for the kids since I would be driving the three hours alone with the three big kids. Then she kept Annabelle from Friday to Monday so I could go to the funeral without having to worry about a 2 1/2 year old. Then, when Adam and I went to Texas, she kept Annabelle from Thursday to Monday and even kept the boys as well that Sunday night because our flight got delayed and I didn't have anyone to keep the boys! (remember she already has 5 kids of her own!) I know I can call her with any crisis and she will come running. She and I are so different, but it makes our friendship so much fun!
BUT, one thing I have in common with each of these ladies is our love for Jesus Christ and our determination to instill Christian values in our children. We strive to love our husbands and our children so that they see Christ in us. We all love a great Christian praise song and can always talk about how a particular sermon impacted us. Or how something we read in the Bible taught us something new. I love these women as sisters (and we are sisters in Christ!) and I am thankful to God each day that He has brought these amazing women in my life. I am thankful that He loves me enough to bless me with such friends.

Information for Shoppers

2008-09-22T13:12:00.003-04:00

So, I have now worked in retail for a year. (I never thought I would be there a year) Well, I actually worked retail while I was in college, but it was at a very small Christian bookstore, which was a completely different experience than this year at Target. So, I have done lots of different jobs while at the great big bullseye, and I am now ready to write about some of it. I realize that not everyone has had a job in retail, so there may be somethings that the average shopper doesn't know. Well, I am judging by some of the people who came through my line during my 5 1/2 hour cashier shift the other night.

1. Get off the phone. I understand there are emergency situations where this is not possible. But, please don't stand there and have a personal conversation while checking out. You can't possibly pay attention to what is going on and talk at the same time. It is so much easier to fix a mistake before the transaction is closed. Once you hang up and look at your receipt and realize that the item you thought was 29.99 rang up for 49.99, it is much harder to fix and involves more people.

2. Get ready. It should come as no surprise to you after you have stood in a check out line that at the end of it, the cashier is going to expect some sort of payment. If you're paying cash, get it out. Unwad the dollar bills and, if you absolutely have to make exact change, get it out of the bottom of your purse. (By the way, there is not actually an award for paying with exact change or getting an even amount back, I promise.) If you are paying with a check, write out what you can. The name of the store, the date, your signed name, etc. If you're paying with a card, get it out. If it's a debit card, know your PIN. If you aren't sure of your PIN, run it as credit card, don't try different PINs, it slows everything down and I am being scored on the speed of the transaction.

3. Keep your children out of my space. I too shop with multiple children and I seem to be able to keep mine out of the cashier's area. So can you. I'm pretty sure you can keep them from jumping up on my conveyer belt and scanner area too. If they jump up there, I at least expect you to make an attempt to get them down. I don't think that's unreasonable.

4. If I offer you a store credit card, please realize that it is only because the computer has prompted me to do so. I don't personally want you to have one. Feel free not to share your credit history with me or why you think the card that earns you points at Disney World is a better idea. A simple, "No thank you" or "Not right now" will suffice. I am secretly hoping you say no anyway, because it takes more time to fill out the application. But I have to ask, because there are secret shoppers and I got in trouble for not asking before.

5. Just because I have on the appropriate colored shirt and a nametag does not mean I have been thoroughly trained in every area of the store. I will do my best to help you or try to find someone who knows the answer to your question, but you cannot look annoyed if I don't know the answer right away and you for sure cannot be rude. Do you really think I am going to try to move quicker if you are rude and insulting?

6. Sales Tax is more in Tennessee than it is in Georgia. We don't have an income tax. If you purchase a dress for $19.99, it's going to cost you $21.84 in Tennessee or $21.19 in Georgia. I have no control over it. Do you want the dress or not?

7. Any kind of return policy that we have implemented (which, is implemented at the corporate level and the girl making $6.50 an hour at the guest service desk is not just being unreasonable) is that way because people try to cheat and steal no matter what you have in place and it is the best system that corporate could come up with to keep the least amount of people to steal and cheat. Please take the online survey and complain to corporate, but no amount of cursing at me and calling me names that I've never even heard before will override my computer system.

8. Last, but not least, the check out line is not the appropriate venue to share your political views with me. I don't want to hear your views on McCain/Palin, Obama/Biden, the environment, abortion, creation vs. evolution, what the US should do about their dependence on foreign oil, etc. Just because I am a cashier does not mean I am not educated and am not informed on all of these issues. I don't have time to actually teach you why you are wrong or to discuss why I agree with you if you are right, so it's best just not to share.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but it hits the highlights. In the movie "Men In Black", Tommy Lee Jones makes a great statement. "A person is smart. People are stupid." There is some definite truth in that statement!

The Cake I Made Today

2008-09-19T08:21:00.008-04:00

This is the cake I just finished for a surprise 40th birthday party tonight! It's just white cake with buttercream icing. She wanted a lot of black on it...Hope they like it!

To entertain Annabelle and Jude during the decorating, I gave them each their own icing to play with. Don't worry, it's not the same icing I used on the cake! :) They had fun squeezing it onto their plates and, obviously eating it as well.

A Little Venting

2008-09-19T08:21:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I feel like I am going in twenty different directions at a hundred miles an hour. This week, on Monday after Adam got home, I got to go out to a movie with my mom for her birthday. This, of course, was fun, but involved getting supper made for the rest of the family before I left, so it was somewhat stressful. Then, Tuesday, the kids get home from school, we quickly did homework for Wednesday, get everyone dressed and head to the soccer field. Adam meets us there, then I go to work until 10:30pm. Wednesday, I met a girl at my mom's house (my oven is broken right now) to teach her to bake a cake. We had to bake actually two big cakes so it took about four hours start to finish. Then, Wednesday night, we have church. Once again, get everyone dressed and in the car and meet Adam there. Adam and Sebastian get finished before everyone else, so he takes Sebastian home and I get the other three after choir. Now, we're to Thursday. After dropping the kids at school (once again getting everyone dressed and in the car) I head to the church to take care of some choir stuff. We're there until around 11, when I'm supposed to meet Adam for lunch. I get to the restaurant and he calls and says he is stuck at the closing he was attending. Can I just wait a few minutes? Sure. It's a mexican restaurant so I'll take the kids in and we'll eat chips and salsa till he gets here in 10 minutes. So, I go in with my two kiddos and we sit down. I decided to go ahead and order the kids food so they can be eating. Forty minutes later is when Adam arrived. (Not his fault at all and he did call a couple of times in between) But, the kids were already done eating by the time he got there. I waited till he got there to order, so then we ate. The kids of course were a little restless, so the end of the meal wasn't near as fun as the beginning. Then we head home for nap/rest time. The kids get home from school, we get everyone dressed (again) and in the car (again) and head to soccer. The good news is that I didn't actually have to work so I got to stay at soccer. I told Adam that I needed to go to Sam's to pick up something for the cake I am making for tonight. Then, he says, well the kids won't eat till late if you do that. Yada, yada, yada. Fine. I'll go in the morning. Then, once I am already at home, I realize that Sam's doesn't open until TEN! UGH!!! So, now I have to try to finish the cake before tonight. This morning, Adam says he'll take the two big kids to school if I will let him work a little late tonight and meet us at Parents Night Out. Okay. So, I will get to get all four kids dressed and in the car (again!) plus the cake because it is going with us tonight. I will so enjoy Parents Night Out tonight, I cannot even begin to tell you!
Now, I realize that there are people who do way more than I do. But, I am really tired this week for some reason. And, our soccer game is at 9 am Saturday. Adam will go to work in the morning and meet us at the field. Which will mean I get to get everyone up, dressed and in the car everyday this week! And then do it all over next week! I can't wait till Fall Break!!!

My Views on My Children and the Size of My Family

2008-09-15T16:50:00.004-04:00

Okay, I have been doing some deep soul searching and praying and discussing with my husband and now I would like to articulate my feelings on family size/number of children. My dearest friend has a "quiverfull" view of her family size and our discussion on the matter made me step back and think about what I truly believe and why I believe it. I truly admire her for her convictions on this matter and how she sticks to those convictions unashamedly in a world that doesn't share this position. Girl, our discussion really made me nail down what I believe and why and, you're so right about there being an enormous freedom in that. I will also put a disclaimer on this that these are MY thoughts and I think each family is unique. God's plan for me is not the same plan He has for everyone, so please don't think any of this is meant to be preachy or judgemental. This is just where I stand.

Okay, so I have friends who have two children who say their family is complete and they just knew their family was complete after two children. I have other friends who say the same thing after four children. Then I know people who are my mom's age who say they wish they had had more than two children, but that's just what everyone else did, so they did too. I really would like not to look back with regret when I have grown children and some grandchildren. I know I might have some regrets, but I am trying to avoid as many as possible.

Anyway, I have never felt that "my family is complete" feeling. I don't know what it feels like. I have heard it's kind of like how you knew who to marry. You just know. Okay, so I don't have that feeling. I seem to waffle between wanting another child and not really ever wanting to think about having another child. Admittedly, these moods tend to be dictated by the behavior of my four little ones, but anyway.

So, after this discussion with my friend, I began praying about this and reading the Bible trying to decide what my feelings are on this issue. I prayed that my decision would not be swayed by fear or what other people might think or anything other than what God's plan is for MY life. So here it is...

I think that children are blessings from God. He has blessed me with four precious and special children and I am grateful every day for them. (Maybe not every moment of everyday, like right now as I am arguing with my fourth grader about whether her homework answer is correct) And, three of those four times, I was not asking him for those blessings! He knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it, no matter what I had planned. There is no way for me to articulate the joy these four little ones have given me. The little things - the unprompted "I love you"s, the funny things they say, the feeling I get when I teach them something new. All of those things have intrinsic value that simply cannot be measured. I am so thankful for them and I know that God has entrusted them to me when they are still His and He is still in complete control.

I do believe in birth control. Not all forms of birth control, mind you. I am firmly against anything that causes the abortion of a fertilized egg. I believe that life begins at conception, the moment the sperm enters the egg. If I am to actually take a stand on this issue, I have already ruled out the most popular forms of birth control - pills and IUD. I realize that birth control pills have medical purposes too, so please know that I am still talking about me. There's also the little thing that two of my children came about while I was on birth control pills (this is before I knew what they did - I thought they only prevented ovulation) so I also have a teensy bit of distrust for them.

I also think that my family can be complete without any type of surgical procedure. In my small section of the world, vasectomies and tubal ligations seem to be the norm. Where is the rule that in order to be "done" having children, I have to let a doctor physically and permanently alter me or my husband? I'm not completely against these procedures or anything, but I don't understand the rush to have these done. I'm not saying I will never have one of these procedures done, but I am still very young, I think. I know someone who opted to have a hysterectomy simply because she was tired of having periods - she was 31 years old at the time! I don't understand.

I do trust God about the size of my family, but prevention does not mean that I don't trust Him. I trust Him with my life too, but I still take precautions against illness and other things that could impact my family. And right now, another baby would negatively impact my family. Right now, I am trusting God and using my practical side (which is also in His image) and deciding not to increase my family size. For me, there is such a peace with that. I am doing my part with this decision and if He decides to bless us with another baby, then He will provide everything we need. I also think that one day I will want another child. But, for now, I am resting in His promises to provide all my needs and that He always has my best at heart.

Again, I am not posting this to offend anyone in anyway. God makes families in all sizes and shapes and colors and He does this according to His will. He is such a good and merciful God and I am just trying to discern His will so I can always be right in the center of it.

Lessons from Miss Spider

2008-09-12T09:33:00.002-04:00

As you can imagine, with four kiddos, I am very familiar with just about anything on the wonderful television channels of Nick Jr. and Noggin. One of these shows is Miss Spider's Sunny Patch. Couldn't they have come up with a longer name? Anyway, yesterday on Miss Spider, all of Miss Spider's kids had something going on at the same time. A violin recital, some sport game, web surfing, a play and a race. All at the same time. Well, the dad (don't remember his name) fell and hurt himself, so he couldn't help Miss Spider. So, Miss Spider still promised all her children that she would be at each event. Of course, in her rushing around to get every where at once, she sprained one of her ankles (don't think spiders actually have ankles, but I don't think a lesson on arachnids were what the writers were going for here) and couldn't get to all of the events. In one way or another, she actually let down each of her children because she didn't get to see any of the things they were doing. The kids learned that their mother was simply a spider and not a super mom.
But, it got me thinking...how many times do I promise my kids something and not deliver? I try really hard not to promise to do something and not follow through, but my kids are also the children of someone who is just a flawed human. I'm not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But, on a deeper note, how often do I promise things to God and not follow through? I think I would be embarrassed to actually type the answer! Why is it so hard to be consistent in my relationship with Him? I don't have a hard time maintaining my human relationships, why do I do it with Him? My dear husband has taught me many things, but one thing is that if I decide to do anything, I will fail. If I say, "I'm going to have my quiet time each day...or I'm going to memorize scripture..." or any number of things, I'm going to fail. I can only do it with God's help. So, to maintain a regular prayer time, I have to PRAY! God designed it so the only way to keep a relationship with Him is to depend on Him to give me the discipline to keep the relationship! He is amazing!!

My Not-So-Productive Day

2008-09-09T14:41:00.002-04:00

So, today has not been my most productive day. Yesterday, however, I got four loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. I also cleaned the house from the weekend. This was after a meeting at the church and a trip to the store. So, this morning when I woke up with the beginnings of a cold (not a sinus infection, and, no I am not pregnant-I seem to always get an unexplained sinus infection at the beginning of each pregnancy) I decided today would be a bit less productive. I am feeling a little better. Jude and I took a brief nap and it was nice. Well, he played his DS while I cuddled with him and napped a little. But, now I have decided that since I am feeling better, I think I will make some rice crispy treats for the kids when everyone is home. We have soccer tonight and I have to work, but it's looking like rain, so maybe we won't have to go to soccer.
The boys have these little flashlight headbands, you know that are elastic and strap to your head. Well, this morning, Sebastian gets out of the car and I am looking at him walking into school with his backpack on his back and the flashlight on his head. I so wish I had a camera with me. It was so funny. That boy definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. He is so precious.
Other than that, life was pretty slow here at the house today, which was very nice. I don't have very many days without a real agenda, so I have enjoyed it.

More about the Pastor

2008-09-08T14:27:00.002-04:00

So our church has been without a pastor for a little over a year. So last night was the "big announcement" of who they are bringing before the church to be our new Senior Pastor. Then he comes to preach and we vote on him, but odds are he is our new pastor. I cannot tell you how excited I am about him! He is 32 years old and about to have his first child (like, this week sometime). He has such a powerful testimony and I cannot wait to meet him and his wife when they come hopefully the first week of October. Their names are Robby and Kandi and they are from New Orleans. It is so exciting! I love the idea of having someone so young in our church! I'm so excited!

Real Quick Entry and More Later

2008-09-07T15:31:00.002-04:00

So tonight at church they are announcing who our new Senior Pastor will be. Well, they are announcing who will be coming to preach "in view of a call" and then he comes and we meet him, listen to him preach, drill him with questions and then vote on him. But, odds are that he will be the new pastor. Our church has been without a pastor for a little over a year, so everyone is very excited about the announcement. So, I will post later about the man. We are very excited!
On a personal note, I joined the mentoring program at our church. This is where they pair up one woman to mentor and one woman to be the mentoree. Well, I found out this morning that my mentor will be Pam R. and I am very excited about this! She and her husband are two people that my husband and I greatly respect and I am so looking forward to getting to know her better and to grow spiritually together!

Good Times with Good Friends

2008-09-06T07:52:00.003-04:00

So yesterday was a good day. We took the big kids to school and then ran errands for most of the day. While I was driving around, I happened upon the campaign headquarters for McCain/Palin in my city. I didn't even know it was there. So we went in and got two bumper stickers and a yard sign. They didn't have yard signs with Palin's name on it yet so we'll go back and get one with her name on it later. The ladies in there were so nice - they gave my two little ones cupcakes! Then we did a little grocery shopping. I really don't like doing this with any kids. It costs so much more when they are with you! But, it had to be done.
Then we came home and I mowed the backyard. If you've never seen my backyard, this is about an hour to an hour and a half project. It's big and the grass is thick. But, I do some of my best thinking while I am mowing. It's time that is pretty much uninterrupted. My kids play outside while I am out there so I know what they are doing, but they don't talk to me. So I was able to sort out some pretty important stuff that I may or may not blog about later. But, it was really nice to be able to think it out.
Then, last night, our dear friends came over for pizza and cake to celebrate Annabelle's birthday. We had lots of fun! They have five kiddos, so just our two families together is 13 people. When we get together, we have four adults, two nine year olds, an eight year old, two five year olds, a four year old, two three year olds and a one year old. It's a bit of a zoo, but lots of fun! Annabelle had a Backyardigans cake that I didn't make, but it was good and she was delighted. We had already given her all her presents so we just had fun. It was a great night with good friends!

RNC Speeches Last Night

2008-09-04T10:09:00.003-04:00

I want to start this post by saying that if you live in the United States and are over the age of 18, please make sure you are registered to vote and that you GO VOTE! No matter who you vote for, please exercise this right that you have just by living in this great land. It is a right that can be taken away, so please be grateful for it and go vote!! Okay, that's my PSA for the day.

Secondly, if you don't want to know my political thoughts, then stop reading. I'll warn you that I am a pro-life conservative Christian who thinks people should be allowed to own guns if they want to (after all, the first thing Hitler did was disarm the people...is that really what we want?) and I think we do have a responsibility to care for the earth that God created, but I still believe that man was created above the animals and plants. So, if you don't want to hear about it, you should probably stop reading.

Okay, last night I watched some of Romney's speech, and all of Huckabee, Guiliani and Palin. What a great night to be a conservative Republican! It was so much fun! I liked Huckabee's speech and his story about the desks and the veterans was very touching. Then the camera shot over to a veteran wiping tears from his eyes...very moving. Adam and I both teared up. I thought Huckabee did a good job.

Guiliani was so great too. He comes across as just a good ole boy from the Bronx. When he outright laughed at the community organizer thing, it was so funny. I think instead of trying to come up with things that Obama has done to try to prove he has experience, they should just say, Yep, you're right...he has no experience...but he has great ideas on ____. Of course, he will have to articulate some ideas instead of just saying he doesn't like what Bush is doing.

Anyway, Guiliani had the crowd all riled up before Sarah Palin even stepped onto the stage.

So, then her family came in and took their seats. All the kids, including the future son-in-law, and Todd Palin came in and sat with Cindy McCain. It was endearing as they sort of passed the baby around. The daughter had him first and then Cindy and then Todd. Eventually, the littlest girl got him and there was a precious shot of her licking her hand to smooth his hair out. It was great.

Palin's speech was so great. It was funny, inspiring and exciting! She has a plan to cut our dependence on foreign oil (this is different from Obama's plan to cut our dependence on the Middle East for oil, since we get our oil from various sources-Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, not just Saudi Arabia.) which I think is great. We need to drill AND work on other types of energy. I agree with her that we can't just do nothing until we get the technology to do the other kinds. She just sort of touched on the pregnant teenage daughter thing, but then went on about the rest of it. Good for her. The focus needs to be on other things. The daughter has no bearing on her ability to be VP, just as Al Gore's son had no bearing on his being able to be VP.

All in all, it was a great night and a great night to be a Republican! I am actually excited about voting in November!! GO MCCAIN/PALIN!!

A Good Day and Some Funny Stuff

2008-09-02T22:45:00.003-04:00

Today started out really well. I was a little nervous that Sebastian wouldn't want to go back to school after the long weekend, but he got up and was ready to go. Then we hit our first snag...today was purple day. The first two weeks, every day is a different color and they are supposed to wear that color. Well, the only purple shirt that we have that isn't a girl's shirt is a Veggie Tales shirt that the boys sleep in. So, Sebastian's first protest was that he didn't want to wear his pajamas. Okay. So I explain to him that the shirt isn't actually pajamas, he just sleeps in it sometimes. Well, then he said, "I don't wear purple. I'm not a girl. Girls wear purple." He assumed his position that means, "I am absolutely not budging on this issue." So, he picked out a blue striped shirt and I told him he could take the blue shirt with him and, if no one else had on purple, he could put the blue one on. This is after I told him, "Cole...Jake...(insert any name of some of the kids in his class) will have on purple." Well, he seemed content to just take another shirt with him. So we all got in the car and headed off to school.
While we are still sitting in the car rider line, I look in my rearview mirror to see Sebastian has already changed out of the purple shirt and into the blue one - all without unbuckling his seatbelt! Houdini! So, the next arrangement was that he wore the blue shirt and took the purple shirt with him. Fortunately, that was fine with him and he got out with no problem. When he got home, he immediately informed me that no one else was wearing purple and he told me he should wear the blue one. He's a funny kid.

On to Annabelle's birthday...we went and had lunch with Adam and got to see his new office. He didn't change jobs, but his firm moved into a new office. It's really nice and I got to meet some people I hadn't met yet. Then we went to Applebee's. I really like Applebees, but it's not large family friendly, so we never go. But, since it was just the four of us, it was fun. Then I took Annabelle shopping to pick out some presents. She got a big baby doll (who she named Carly) a new stroller, some baby bottles, sippy cups and a big pink ball. I also got her a cookie cake. We are having a little party for her on Friday night with some friends, because tonight I had to work and Zoe had soccer practice. But, Annabelle had a special day and she enjoyed telling everyone she met that she was three years old today!

Happy Birthday, Annabelle!

2008-09-02T08:40:00.003-04:00

I can't believe that Annabelle is three years old today! Time goes by so fast. It seems like just yesterday on one hand, but I also can't remember her not being in the family. I am also so that her middle name is the same as Adam's mom. I had no idea that his mom would have so little time with her. Annabelle is a funny kids, with some great facial expressions. She is very very verbal and has no trouble telling us exactly what she wants and thinks.
Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Annabelle and Grandmother

Mid Sentence

My Big Three Year Old

Labor Day

2008-09-01T16:23:00.003-04:00

How long were your labors?
Child #1 - doctor told me to go to the hospital
Child #2 - fourth trip to the hospital, contractions 2 minutes apart
Child # 3 - Tons of contractions
Child #4 - More contractions

How did you know you were in labor?
Child #1 - 2 1/2 hours (way too short, horrible experience)
Child #2 - 11 hours
Child #3 - 9 hours
Child #4 - 21 very long hours

Where did you deliver?
Hospital for all of them...

Drugs? Epidural for #1 and #4 (I got tired in hour 18) and natural for #2 and #3

C-section? Nope. Almost on #2, but everything settled down.

Who delivered? My doctor for #1 and #2, a nurse for #3 (doctor showed up 20 minutes later) and an on call doctor for #4

I got this from this site...
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/08/laborious.html

The First Week

2008-08-29T22:16:00.002-04:00

Well, our first real week of Kindergarten is over now. He had a great week! He really enjoys school and is learning so much, so fast. He couldn't write his name when this week started (he does have a really long name) and today he wrote his entire name legibly! I am so amazed at it all! Every day he comes home with different stories and telling us all about what he did each day. He really enjoys it. This morning, he did give me a little resistance about going to school, but once we opened the door to get out of the car in the car rider line, he got right out and went in happily. But, he is proud to be learning how to write his letters. In fact, tonight, we were at Target and there was a Spiderman book to practice writing letters and Sebastian CHOSE to get that book over a toy! When we got home, he went immediately to writing in his new book and took it upstairs with him to bed! Sebastian is my child who never really wants to do anything like that. He's very smart, but, up till now, if you asked him if he wanted to learn to write or anything like that, he would say no. But, he is really enjoying it and I am so thankful to God that this has been such a smooth transition into school.

I rarely talk about anything close to being opinionated, but I have to say that I am so thrilled at McCain's VP choice!! A pro-life, homeschooling, mother of five!! And she has lived her pro-life stance. She brings an excitement to the ticket that wasn't there before and I am so excited about it. What a historic election! This is going to be an exciting two months!

A few pictures

2008-08-27T08:45:00.003-04:00

Okay, please bear in mind that we had been outside playing soccer and stuff for an hour or so when these pictures were taken. But, I still think they're good pictures! Thanks, Mrs. Bonnie for the pictures!

Annabelle

Annabelle and Jude in the back of Daddy's truck

Adam, Zoe and Me

My whole family

Sweet Sebastian

Our weekend

2008-08-26T14:21:00.003-04:00

We had a pretty good weekend. Not really a lot going on, but it was nice. My Mom and Bonnie came over for dinner on Saturday night and then we saw them again on Sunday at church. So we got to see a good bit of her and pictures of her two grandsons. It was a good visit.

I am still learning about contentment and depending on God for everything. And being thankful for everything. God is definitely right now providing my family with everything we need, and nothing we don't. It's kind of hard to go into right now since I'm not sure who (if anybody) reads this, but we are learning about what we need and what we want. Definitely not an easy lesson at all, but we are learning. Maybe one day I'll be able to share it openly.

But, for today, I'm just going to be grateful for the food I have, the house I have, the drive-able cars we have (and own) and my kids. I'm grateful for the fact that Sebastian is loving school and so is Zoe. I'm grateful for the one-on-one time I am getting with Jude, like today when we cuddled on the couch and played his Nintendo DS game. And I am grateful that Annabelle is completely content to play Barbies or babies in our playroom that is really a dining room with no furniture in it. I'll just rest in the fact that God is continuing to meet our needs and not giving us anything that we don't need.

One more thing out of my comfort zone...

2008-08-22T20:21:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I am admitting to being an "un-fun" mom again here, but I generally do not participate in any "construction" that goes on at our house. I don't forbid castle/fort/tunnel building in my living room at all, I just usually don't participate. The couch cushions, blankets, pillows, etc. all over the place just tends to frustrate me more than anything. But, today, the three little ones (Zoe was at school) were trying to build a tunnel between our couch and coffee table and, for what ever reason, couldn't get it to stay up. So, I went in there and built them a very complex tunnel that they had to actually maneuver through. They had so much fun in it. For a few minutes, all three of them were playing, going around the coffee table and through the tunnel over and over again. Sadly, I was so busy playing that I didn't grab the camera, so I have only mental pictures of it. I know that may sound like such a little thing, but it's not something that I do everyday.

After that, we headed to the airport to meet my mom's dear friend, Bonnie. How to explain how I know this precious woman? She and my Mom met while I was in the fourth grade in Mississippi and they worked at the same school. She has a daughter my age and a son that is my brother's age. Our families just clicked and the following summer, we moved to Memphis, TN when they moved to outside of Columbus, OH. Every summer after that (that was 1985) until 1995, we met for a week at a state park in Kentucky and just had a blast. From 1996 until now, my Mom and Bonnie take turns going to each other's house. So, last summer, my Mom went to OH and so now Bonnie is here. We always look forward to her visits and they are so much fun! Now her daughter is in California and her son is in Ohio with his wife and two sons, so our families don't get together anymore. But, we are so excited about her visit!

The great thing about this weekend is that I don't have to work. So, we're not sure what we're going to do yet, but it will be fun.

To Christine, have a great trip!

Sebastian's Second Day of Kindergarten

2008-08-21T11:07:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Sebastian's second day at Kindergarten. He did great and was very happy to go back. When he got home, he came running off the bus and came in the door with his backpack. He then said, "Oh, I have stuff to give you." He gave me all of the papers from his backpack! I was so proud he remembered to give me his stuff, even after the bus ride home.
So, while the two older ones were at school, the two younger ones and I got to spend the day together. First, we went to my Mom's house and finished painting her bedroom for her. Zoe and I had helped her on Saturday night and so I went over and finished it for her. It looks so good!
Jude and Annabelle were so good while we were there, but, of course, they were dying to paint something. So, when we got home, I let them finger paint. Okay, here's a little bit of total honesty. I never let the kids paint. We color a lot with crayons, markers and color pencils, but no painting. I just hate the mess. So, I was totally out of my comfort zone. But, they loved it. We even learned about mixing the colors to make more colors...red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green and red and blue make purple. They had so much fun!!
So, I felt like a good daughter and a good mother....

Annabelle's Creation (Mommy did the suns)

Jude's Creation

Fun at Coolidge Park

2008-08-19T13:59:00.003-04:00

Annabelle playing in the water

Sebastian

Jude

Today seemed like a good day to take the kiddos to Coolidge Park. So, we packed a lunch and headed downtown. The weather was perfect and since school has just started, there was no one there except us and one other family! The kids had a blast and, finally, after all summer, Annabelle played in the water! She typically doesn't like any water to touch her face, so the spraying water fountains at Coolidge Park aren't her favorite thing. But, today, she had so much fun actually got wet. We all had fun.

My Sweet Zoe

2008-08-18T21:39:00.005-04:00

I thought I would write about Zoe. (actually, her name is supposed to have two dots over the "e", but I can't figure it out on here) How do I describe Zoe? She is a petite fourth grader with freckles across her nose and cheeks. She is a perfect mix of me and Adam. She has my sensitivity and Adam's negotiation skills. Every answer that we give her is the starting point for discussion. Well, to her, anyway. Fortunately for us, she is only that way to her parents, not to other authority figures. She loves school and always performs well. She has lots of friends. Her official stance on boys is still that she doesn't like them, but she is now noticing ones who are cute or funny. It's so strange to think about her liking boys, but I know that day is most definitely coming.

She is still very spiritual and very deep and is very aware of God and His love for her. She is one of the most helpful children I have ever met. She loves being a big sister and helps me in so many ways. She is the one who buckles the boys in the van so I don't have to climb in the backseat. So very helpful! She loves to cook and all things that go with cooking - chopping, cleaning, all of it. She says she wants to go to culinary school someday. I would love that! What a neat skill to have!

Zoe is also very musical. She loves to sing and to do drama. She has a very good voice with excellent breath control and a hint of vibrato. She can develop into a really good singer when she matures some. She is not afraid at all, either! She has stage presence. I can't wait to see what is in her future. She is destined for great things, without a doubt. And, it could be anything, really...from a doctor to a stay at home mom or anything in between. She amazes me!

Ahhhh...Friday

2008-08-15T13:42:00.002-04:00

So, I had nothing planned for today. I thought I might take the kids to a playground or something. I even called my friend to see if they wanted to join us. Well, since her family was in the middle of passing around a stomach bug (no thanks!) I decided we would just do something ourselves. Well, Sebastian has meloscum spots around his eye and one of them appeared to be infected. So I called the doctor to see if the antibiotic cream I already have at my house would be okay to put on it. No, the doctor said they really needed to see him. Oh, and my pediatrician is on vacation and the other doctor that I like leaves at 11:30. So, could I be there by 10:40? Um, yeah, sure, I replied, having no idea what time it was. I got off the phone to see that it was 10:15! And none of us were dressed! So, I quickly dressed both boys and Annabelle and headed out the door. Called Adam to tell him where we were going and off we went. We signed in at the doctor at 10:35. Amazing!
A little background now. The last time we were at the doctor for Sebastian was the pre-kindergarten physical, complete with four shots, a finger prick and peeing in a cup for the first time. A traumatic experience. Well, when the doctor came in, he had a complete meltdown! I was trying to hold him still just long enough for her to see his eye. Bless her heart! She finally looks at it and then tells me to give him the cream I have at home and a prescription for more, if I need it. Yes, I had to spend $35 for her to tell me exactly what I had asked on the phone.
Anyway, after the traumatic experience at the doctor, I took the three kids to McDonald's and let them play in the play area. I NEVER DO THIS! My kids were saying in amazement, "We're going in? We get to stay?" That's not to say we never eat out, we just usually pick it up and take it home. So they had so much fun.
Now I need a nap to recover from the screaming and kicking five year old I was wrestling.

Annabelle-isms

2008-08-14T11:57:00.003-04:00

Annabelle, the almost three year old, is such a funny kid. She has no idea that she isn't as big as everyone else in the house and she can come up some funny things. I just thought I would record some of them...

"May Out" - this means Mom's Day Out

"Miss Queen" - this is my friend, Christine (who asked me not to ever correct Annabelle!)

"Bastian" - this is of course, Sebastian

"Pink Juice" - this is a water/Splenda mixture (all fruit juice upsets her stomach) in her pink sippy cup

"Batman cereal" - this is Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which at one point had a Batman advertisement on it

"Wiwwie" - this is her best friend, Lily

"I died" - this is heard numerous times while she is playing the DS. It's funny because she is not frustrated at all, it's more just a factual statement.

"Don't cook it" - this is in reference to her waffle, which she likes to eat straight out of the freezer! Yuck!

She also is constantly singing and talking. She can sing every word (clearly) to the beginning and the end of Backyardigans. She sings every word to Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children, Deep and Wide, You Are My Sunshine, several of the High School Musical 2 songs and the Hannah Montana theme song. (Remember, she lives in a house with a nine year old too)

She has a million facial expressions (thank her Daddy for that) and she is extremely prissy. She plays babies and barbies for hours and loves to dress up and wear high heels. Any unoccupied pair of shoes is fair game and she will have them on in no time. She also really likes breakfast food! She is still a peanut, but most mornings usually consist of two waffles and at least two bowls of cereal. She would probably eat more, but I usually cut it off there and try to find something to distract her. She will eat waffles at any time of the day.

She still amazes me with how verbal she is and how much she likes to sing. She will pretend anything is a microphone and will stand in our computer room and perform and perform. It is so fun to watch her. And, she is a total mimic, which at times is very humbling because she mimics me and how I parent.

She is a true joy!

All About Sebastian

2008-08-13T10:56:00.003-04:00

Sebastian is now gone to Kindergarten. He did great! I cried, but he didn't. His teacher came out and met them in the foyer of the school and took him back to his class. He was ready. I was going over some general instructions, you know, like stay with your teacher, listen to your teacher, here's your milk money, stuff like that. And he said, sort of in a frustrated tone, "I got it, Mom." And then when we got there, he said, "Okay. When are you leaving?" So I left my first born son at his first day of school. Real school. I know how fast time really flies once they are in school. So I know his little life is about to start zooming by. Next thing I know, he'll be going to fourth grade, just like his sister.

He will ride the bus home today. I wasn't going to let him, but he was most excited about the bus ride and Zoe will be with him. So, I will see him at 3:45 or so this afternoon. I know he will do just fine. It's just such a huge chapter in his life, so I thought I would take some time and just write a little about him.

Sebastian is a sensitive and artistic child. He is my child who always notices the colors of the sunset or how bright the stars are at night. We'll all be getting out of the car and he is one who stops and stares at the sky. Everyone else is too busy getting out of the car and getting all the stuff to take into the house. He is my child who, whenever he hears music playing, will always stop to listen or sing along or dance. He did this even as a baby. I can remember seeing him run into the living room from the kitchen when he heard a song on the television. He loves to pray anytime and is very thankful for everything. He sometimes even thanks God for things he didn't get to do that day. He is the child who runs around in circles and then stops just to get a hug. He will always share anything that he has. If I give the kids treats, he will always share his, even when they all get the same amount. He is tenderhearted and caring and very passionate. And by passionate, I mean he is either hot or cold. It takes a lot to make him mad, but once he is mad, he is mad all over. And, when he is happy, he is happy all over. He loves to draw and color and cut things out. He loves anything that has to do with drawing and art. So I cannot wait to see where this takes him. I can't wait to see what kind of adult he becomes.

Well, just a few more hours. I can't wait to see what kind of day he had!

Well, she's gone...

2008-08-12T08:09:00.002-04:00

Zoe has left for her first day of fourth grade. She was very excited once it finally got here. She was a little sad last night, but this morning she was gabbing away and very excited. So it's all good. I think she was mainly sad about having to get up and going early and summer being over in general. But, truth be told, she gets bored here too. The first few weeks of summer were spent with me trying to convince her that we don't go somewhere fun everyday. Some days are just going to Wal-Mart or get the oil changed in the car and to the bank. I think she thought we were going to parks and museums and lots of fun stuff everyday. Um, well, we don't. Some days we stay here and clean and do laundry! So I think she will be very happy to get to go to school.
Tomorrow morning is when Sebastian goes for the first time. He is excited for him...I've got all his supplies ready to go and I just have to put them in his backpack. I am going to take him in the morning and he is going to ride the bus home. He has been so looking forward to riding the bus for the last year so I'm going to let him. Zoe will be with him, the school is less than a mile from our house and she drops them off in our driveway, so I think he will enjoy it.
I will write more tomorrow once I drop him off...

Sebastian's Birth

2008-08-11T08:46:00.000-04:00

Sebastian's story probably needs to start the first week of April 2003, six weeks before he was born. I was working full time (at a sedentary job) and I started noticing a few contraction-like feelings. I called the midwife I was seeing at the time and asked to be seen. I went into the office and had to convince her to check me. She said I probably wasn't having contractions and that everything was probably fine. I told her that I really wanted her to check me just to make me feel better. Sure enough, I was dilated 2 cm at 30 weeks. (Why do they doubt the Mommas?) I was then transferred to the doctor at the office and put on bedrest. No more working, no more trips to the mall or Babies R Us. I actually had to take a note from my doctor to my boss (who was the CFO of the company I worked for) that had the words "cervical dilation" on them. Could she not have just put pregnancy complications? Anyway, I had Zoe, who was four years old and she went to daycare every day. So, I would lay on the couch all day and save my "getting up time" for when she was at home. I wasn't on strict bedrest, just no unnecessary walking and climbing stairs. Every time I would walk more than just a little bit, I would start having contractions. So I laid on the couch and waited. And waited. The first week was pretty fun, just laying around, but the other weeks were very frustrating. I was very tired of laying around. I was told that anytime I had six or more contractions in an hour I was to go to the hospital. We went four different times. We had no family around, so two of those trips required friends to come to our house to stay with Zoe, only to have us return home a few hours later. While I was grateful because I didn't want a baby too early, but I was very frustrated.
On May 13, I was having very regular contractions that were actually pretty strong. I called Adam around 12:30 pm and told him to just meet me at the doctor's office. That way, when they sent me home, he could just go back to work and wouldn't have to drive all the way to the house. We headed to the hospital closest to us. I got into triage, where I actually proved that I was in labor (duh) and thought we were getting ready to move to a room. Well, then we found out that there were no available rooms at that hospital and we would need to do downtown to the other hospital. Okay. No problem. Adam will drive me to the hospital. Dr. said absolutely not. I was 5 cm dilated and contracting every two minutes. No way was she going to let a woman in active labor go in a car in 5:00 traffic. An ambulance was on its way. Great.
So the ambulance comes and I am in the back with the male EMT and the female EMT is up front with Adam. The poor man is trying to ask me questions and having to stop every two minutes for me to deal with a contraction. I was strapped to the guerney, so dealing with the contractions was pretty difficult. We finally made it downtown and were put back into triage. While we were there, Sebastian's heartrate went down into the 50's and the medical staff panicked. The doctor on call began to massage Sebastian's head to try to stimulate his heartrate! Big ouch! Finally, my doctor arrived and they shoved a consent form in Adam's face to sign and wheeled me (& Sebastian) off for an emergency c-section. Adam said that was the scaredest he has ever been. It was such a whirlwind for me. While we were in the operating room getting ready to put me completely under, his heartrate came back up! My doctor just watched him for a minute or two and then decided to let me go to a labor room without the c-section! It was at that moment that I was suddenly aware that I was stark naked and cold and begged for a blanket. They brought me one of the warm ones and it felt so nice.
So, I was sent to a labor room and allowed to just labor at my own pace. At some point, a doctor from the high risk office came and did an ultrasound to determine his weight. He weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce on the ultrasound, so they said I could go ahead and have him. (Like they could have stopped it?) I didn't want any pain medication so Adam and I just labored as best as we could. It actually wasn't bad until transition so I was pretty content most of the time. While we were waiting, our friends Curtis and Shawna came by to visit. This is when we realized that both of our cars were at the other hospital. So, Curtis and Shawna went all the way back to the other hospital, took one of our cars to our house and brought the other one back to the hospital where we were along with McDonald's for Adam. (which he ate in the hall) So I labored on until around midnight. I was 7 cm dilated and my nurse decided I had somewhat stalled. My contractions had almost stopped. So about 12:40 am (May 14) my doctor came and broke my water. My contractions intensified greatly at that point. So I asked for an epidural because I was scared and starting to lose control. Transition. I also started throwing up as just additional proof of transition. That poor nurse held that plastic thing and let me throw up. Of course, I hadn't had anything to eat since that morning, so I didn't throw up very much.
The doctor comes to give me an epidural and starts talking to the medical staff about my blood work. The problem was, since I had been transferred from another hospital and almost had a c-section, in all the confusion, I hadn't had any blood work done! So, he says, no epidural for you! Which was fine because pushing was eminent. I had the most incredible urge to push and it hurt really bad. I looked at Adam and said "SH--! This hurts!" Well, I never, ever curse. EVER. I can still see him running across the floor in his sock feet to get the nurse and yelling, "I think it's time! She's cursing!" Sure enough, she came in and told me to try pushing. That felt so so good. Two good pushes and he was out. Since he was exactly 36 weeks, the NICU team was there too. He came out screaming and peed on my OB. He was born at 1:20 am and his APGARs were 10 and 10. He was completely healthy. He weighed 6 pounds and 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. Not a preemie. Totally healthy. And, the recovery after a natural childbirth was so much easier and faster and I felt so empowered!

Fourth Grade

2008-08-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

So, the first day of school is almost upon us. (Tuesday is Zoe's first day and Wednesday is Sebastian's first day) I can remember with great clarity what the first day is always like. Even though you have met your teacher and perhaps seen the class roll, so you know who to expect when you walk it, there is still the fear of the unknown. All you really know is the rumors you have heard about this teacher, which usually came from the kids older than you. So, you still have to once again figure out how he/she runs her classroom, what his/her expectations are, etc. and it's all nerve wracking, especially when you are nine. I think back to fourth grade. I was still in Mississippi in fourth grade and we were not self-contained, which meant I changed classes four times and had four different teachers. Fourth grade was when my English teacher tried to make my left-handed self write with a right handed slant to my letters. For some reason, she thought I was never going to make it in the world if I didn't slant my letters to the right. Maybe if she actually knew how very little any one writes in cursive any more. I think my only cursive is my signature and who cares what that looks like?
Fourth grade was also where we had the very first "All About Me" class for the girls and boys separately. While that conversation has already taken place in our home, I wonder if that is coming for her as well in school. Of course, our discussion included how that particular thing is reserved for your husband and how it's not just a crazy rule God made up, that it is actually for your protection. Everything can get really complicated really quickly when you go outside of God's will, especially in this particular area. At least some of the talk seems to have gotten through, because when our cat gave birth to kittens earlier this year, Zoe was ready to scour the neighborhood looking for the boy cat who had impregnated Katie so she could fuss at him for not being there for her during the birth. It was pretty funny, but at least she got what I was telling her, right?
Anyway, I know that this year will bring with it more issues to deal with, even though most issues we have so far have been very mild. They usually have to do with the way girls are friends with each other. All the drama and pettiness. How do I tell her that adult women are that way too and typically it is a recipe for disaster to try to get three women friends together? For some reason, even as adults we do better in even numbers.
But she is so different from me. Her experience will be different. She has a faith in God and an understanding and awareness of spiritual warfare that I never had until I was an adult. Definitely nothing we have done as parents, but lots of prayers for her and trying to point her in the right direction. After all, this entire time in their childhood is spent just trying to get them ready to leave the nest, right? To be able to function independently of us and to rely on their own faith and strength in God. I am praying that I am doing that for Zoe and the other children too.
So, Zoe, as you head off to fourth grade, I pray that you will have a fabulous year filled with fun and learning a lot! I am enjoying watching you turn into a person with real opinions and values and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for you. I love you!

Zoe's song

2008-08-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

Last night we went to an event at our church called "The Studio" which is a forum for different artists to read their poetry, sing their songs, etc. It's sort of a coffee shop setting and it was a lot of fun. We heard from three songwriters, a novelist, a couple of writers and a singer. It was such a neat night.
We took all the kids with us and they pretty much played in the playground area at the BX, which is where The Studio was held. Anyway, the kids were in and out of the area where we were so I'm sure Zoe knew what was going on. We didn't get home until after 9:30 so we didn't really talk about what it was all about, we just came home and put the kids to bed. So, while she was in her bed last night, she wrote lyrics to a song! She said she prayed that God would give her some lyrics to a song and He did! She brought them down to me this morning on a piece of paper, so I typed them up. I just had to share :

Zoe's Song...
You are the Creator.
You made us with Your magic hands, so bright, so clean, so perfect.
That’s what You are to me.
Your love, Your love, Your love is overflowing me.
Your love, Your love, Your love is like a hurricane.
And it never stops.
You are full of love,
You are full of grace,
You are full of everything.
Your love is clean, Your love is bright,
Your love is like no other kind.
Your love has been with me all this time.
Your love found me when I was lost.
When I was down Your love helped me up.
When I was hurt, Your love comforted me.
Your love, Your love, Your love…

I am so amazed at her and her deep understanding for God's love at such a young age. I sometimes think she understands it better than I do. It is amazing.

So what about today...

2008-08-06T00:13:00.000-04:00

Today started as an ordinary day. Then my mom called and said that we needed to get down to her office as soon as possible. Here in our city, there is a HUGE consignment sale every year. Well, that sale is just not my thing. I can't stand all the people everywhere, picking through mounds and mounds of clothes and then standing in a line that wraps around the building - just not my thing. I realize that if I really wanted to be a frugal shopper and make our money go further, that I would probably do consignment sales, but it's just not my scene. Anyway, so my Mom calls me today and says that everything that isn't sold at that sale is donated to her work. (She works at a non profit home for troubled teens, which also has a house for young mothers, so they get the baby clothes too) Her work also has a thrift store that they run. The guy who runs the thrift store told my mom that everything was being sold for a quarter a piece! So she says that if I come down and look through the stuff, she'll get us some lunch. So, I loaded up the kiddos and headed over there, not really expecting much, but thought I would give a shot. I got so much stuff and I only spent $10! (I got forty different things!) I got two brand new Strasburg dresses for Annabelle, plus some other clothes for her. And I got Zoe a lot of new clothes too. Plus three pairs of shoes (one for me, one for Zoe, and one for Annabelle.) I was so excited. I couldn't believe it.
Then tonight, we took Sebastian to meet his Kindergarten teacher! Her name is Ms. Burroughs and she is a brand new teacher. I'm not sure if she's a brand new teacher to the profession or just brand new to the school. I just don't want to run her off! Not really, of course. I know he will be fine. He is very excited and I can't wait to see what this year holds. He will go for his first day next Wednesday. And then his second phase in day is the next Wednesday. Then he starts full time on August 25. I really can't wait.
Zoe starts back next Tuesday. We go tomorrow morning and find out who her teacher is. She is somewhat apprehensive about it, but I know she will be fine once she finds out who is in her class and who her teacher is. I am excited about fourth grade too. I can't wait to see what she is going to do. It is really amazing to watch your children grow up and become people. Zoe has her own opinion and her own sense of style and they are completely different from mine or Adam's! It is so neat to look back and just see how much she has changed and grown, not just physically, but spiritually as well. She memorizes Scripture, she reads her Bible, she asks questions that I would never have asked when I was her age. It is amazing. God has blessed me more than I ever deserve.

Last week and weekend

2008-08-05T08:49:00.001-04:00

Well, our week was very busy last week. My brother, sister-in-law and their two children came last Sunday afternoon. On Monday, we all went swimming at Harrison Bay. Tuesday we went to Coolidge Park. On Wednesday, we took Jeremy and Ashley to the airport to fly off to Vegas for a friend's wedding. Their nine year old daughter and Zoe stayed with my Mom for "cousin camp", which is a yearly tradition where the two girls spend time with Nana each summer. So, Jaxon, the four year old, came to my house. We had a lot of fun. Jaxon is five months younger than Sebastian and 7 months older than Jude, so they play really well together. We had some minor wrestling injuries, but really they all get along. Jaxon did really well, he got a little sad each night at bedtime, but I tried to keep him busy during the day so he didn't have time to think about it. On Thursday, we had Mom's Day Out and it was Water Day! So there were some wading pools and a water slide for the kids to play on. Then, on Friday we went to the mall and played in the little play area and had lunch, which was fun. Friday night was the Back to School Beach Bash at church, where there were two huge water slides and water games and ended with National Treasure 2 on a huge outdoor screen. It was so much fun! All of the kids loved it - Annabelle liked the huge slides! I couldn't believe what a little daredevil she was.
On Saturday, Adam's Dad and Jacob came to visit. Saturday was Adam's 33rd birthday! Happy Birthday, sweetie! So, Saturday dinner was roast, mashed potatoes, green beans and a delicious cheese bread followed by Snickers cake. There were 12 people at my house! My family of 6, Nana and GG (my grandmother), Tristen and Jaxon, and Ben and Jacob. I made 5 pounds of mashed potatoes and there were none left! We had lots of fun.
On Sunday, Ben and Jacob went to church with us. (Jeremy and Ashley got in late on Saturday night and left Sunday morning) Then they came home and had lunch. It was a really good visit with them too. It was the first time they had come to Chattanooga since Adam's mom passed away and it was good for everyone.
So now, we're back to normal. Tonight we go to meet Sebastian's kindergarten teacher and I am so excited about it! I can't believe he starts school this year! And tomorrow morning we get to see who Zoe has for fourth grade! How am I old enough to have a fourth grader? Wasn't it just yesterday when she was starting Kindergarten too? It goes by so fast!

Memories

2008-07-30T20:33:00.001-04:00

I thought this was neat...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot-- or just from blogland-- anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Jude's Birth

2008-07-29T22:51:00.000-04:00

Jude's birth story starts on Monday, July 19, 2004. I was having some pretty powerful contractions Monday night. They were timable and I was having to breath through them. I called the doctor on call who told me to try to take a bath and lie down and see if they would stop. If not, come on in. Well, they stopped. So I went to sleep and actually slept really well. So, Tuesday morning, we got up and went on to work at Park Structures. I didn't mention to Adam that the contractions had started up again. I didn't want to send off any false alarms. So we dropped Zoe and Sebastian off at daycare and headed to work. We both worked downtown so we rode together. I dropped him off at his office and went to mine. While I did my work, I continued to time the contractions. I kept track of them on a purple steno pad on my desk. Around lunch time, I decided they were regular enough and I was uncomfortable enough to call the doctor. I called her and she said I could come by and she would check me. I called Adam and we headed to the doctor. I told my immediate supervisor where I was going and that I would probably not be back for awhile. We got to the doctor about 12 noon and she confirmed that I was indeed almost 5 cm and that I should go home and get my stuff and meet her at the hospital. We got home and, since Adam was suffering from a sinus infection, he had a fever. So, he took a nap while I labored along, periodically stopping to breath through contractions. He took about an hour before I woke him up and told him to come on! He still felt terrible, but we headed to the hospital. I called my friend, Janice, who was going to pick up Zoe and Sebastian, our moms and Kim and Christine. My Mom headed this way (she lived in Memphis) to relieve Janice when she got here. Adam's family would come the next morning. Kim and Christine came to the hospital and walked the halls with me while Adam tried to sleep off his fever. Finally, we were left to labor on our own. Around 10:30 pm, I was seriously deep into transition and Adam's fever broke finally! It was perfect timing because that's when I needed him. The nurse came in and I told her that I wanted an epidural. While she was in the room, my water broke. The nurse left the room to go get the epidural and call the doctor. While she was gone, I felt an incredible urge to push and I couldn't stop it. The nurse came back in as I was pushing Jude out! She scooped him up off the bed! Then she called the doctor, who arrived about 20 minutes later to stitch a tiny tear I had. By the time the doctor got there, Jude had been cleaned and I was holding him. The Nurse Practitioner, who went to our church, had already checked him out and given him apgars of 9 and 9. He weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. My sweet little man, Jude-a-licious!

Annabelle's Birth

2008-07-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

I am going to post all my birth stories eventually, but I'm going to go in reverse order.
Annabelle's pregnancy was pretty routine, with very little morning sickness in the beginning and really no problems. I started having some mild, completely inconsistent contractions around 36 weeks, which is very routine for me. So, the next week, on Wednesday night, I started having them about 30-45 minutes apart, but pretty strong. So, the next morning, Zoe went to school and we took the boys to Moms Day Out and I headed to the doctor. She told me I was a little over four cm and since I was having regular contractions, I could go on to the hospital. I called Adam, who had just started his job on Monday and this was Thursday. He met me at the house and then we went and ate at Plaza del Sol, a mexican restaurant in between our house and the hospital. I was still having good contractions the whole time. We got to the hospital and got checked in and hooked to the monitors and, sure enough, I was having really good contractions in a good, regular pattern. I was getting to stay! We were very excited. Made all the necessary phone calls to family and friends and prepared for her arrival. Well, the contractions started to space out and, while they never stopped, everything slowed way down. My OB said if it stopped, she would send us home since I was still just 37 weeks...she didn't want to augment labor unnecessarily. My friends, Kim and Christine, came and visited and walked the halls with me. Then, they left to go have dinner and promised to come back. At this point, I was about 5 1/2 cm, so the nurse had mercy on me and brought me some hospital chicken tenders, which are some of the best chicken tenders! They tasted so good. Then, Kim and Christine came back at which point the nurse told me I was between 6 and 7 cm, which was good news because at least my OB wasn't going to send me home. Kim and Christine left around 11 pm, leaving behind a very tired and frustrated woman in labor. I couldn't believe how long it was taking! This was my third baby in three years - shouldn't she just fall out?? Anyway, labor began to pick up around 1 am and by four am I was having to vocalize through the contractions. My previous two births had been natural and I was hoping to have Annabelle naturally, too, but at four am, I was exhausted and asked for the epidural. She put the epidural in and I think she put a very low dose in, because I could still feel the contractions, but I was able to sleep in between, which was perfect. I hate to be out of control, which is why I was a little nervous about getting the epidural. Right before 6 am, I woke Adam up because I was feeling an incredible urge to push. My nurse came running in to check me. I had previously told my nurse that if my water breaks, she should not leave the room because there is usually a baby coming immediately. Right before she checked me, my water broke. She used the phone in her pocket to call the doctor on call. His name was Dr. Bolton and I had never met him before. I didn't care at this point. He came into the room, put on one glove and caught Annabelle. I pushed her out in one push! I pushed a second time, which I thought was the rest of her, but it was actually my placenta. I didn't tear at all, so Dr. Bolton left a few minutes later. She was born at 6:04 am, she weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She didn't get squeezed enough coming out, so she sounded a little "wet". So she spent about four hours in the Special Care Nursery, which is not NICU. We could visit her anytime we wanted to and bring anyone back there. She came back to our room about 10:30 or so and was great!
I loved her birth, even with the epidural. I started labor around 9 am and she was born at 6 am the next day - 21 hours of labor. I couldn't believe it! My longest labor up till then had been about 11 hours, so she surprised me. The only thing I will do different the next time is to wait at home a little longer, but since I had two babies and Zoe to worry about, I chose to go a little earlier than necessary. But, it was great!

Counting Steps

2008-07-26T16:53:00.000-04:00

Every now and then, certain things come to my attention of weird habits I have or quirky things I do. One of those things is that I tend to count the steps any time I have to climb or descend a flight of stairs. Why do I do this? It all started when I was pregnant with Annabelle and I was having to climb stairs usually carrying at least one other child. In our other house, there were ten stairs from downstairs to upstairs. It was not unusual for me to be coming down the stairs with at least one other toddler in tow and since I couldn't see the stairs because of my ever expanding belly, I would count them so I knew when I got to the bottom. I would also count the steps in the church where I worked (there are seven steps from the preschool building to the gym area) or my mother's house in Memphis (this one had fifteen steps). And, now, even though I am two and a half years removed from being pregnant, I still finding myself doing it. (There are fifteen steps in my house now and four steps from the front porch to the front walk)
Other quirky things about me...let's see...I cannot stand to put syrup on anything. I don't like the soggy mess it makes! So, if I am eating waffles, pancakes, or french toast, I always have a separate bowl for the syrup and dip it in there. Yes, it dirties another dish, but it has to be done. Still along the food lines, I also do not like ketchup at all. On anything! I will not eat a burger if it accidentally has ketchup on it. Since having kids, I'm at least not nauseated by the smell of it anymore, but still...
Let's see...anything else? I can't think of anything else...but, I'm sure there's more.

Today=much better

2008-07-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm in a much better mood today and much less frustrated. God is so good to me and I am so thankful for everything he has blessed me with! It's very amazing and humbling to think about Him sending His Son to die for me. Not just for me, but for everyone everywhere. Even people who He knew would reject Him and not ever thank Him. Not just not thank Him but basically spit in His face and choose other things to believe in. He died for me, for my family, for my extended family, for celebrities, for world leaders, for everyone! If I really stop to think about, it really blows my mind. How can you reject someone who has already done it? Our sins have already been paid for, whether you choose to accept the gift or not. How amazing is that?! He paid the price for the sins that you hadn't even committed yet, before we could even say thank you. "While we were sinners, Christ died for us." That is just amazing. I might have enough mercy to forgive someone if they asked for the forgiveness, but I know I could never pay the price for someone who would never thank me, knowing that they would never thank me and eventually reject me. I think about people who are scientologists and buddhists and other religions whose premise is based on there not being a Jesus Christ who was the Messiah. He knew they would believe other things and yet He still died for them. It's amazing! I am so privileged to have the opportunity to worship such a loving and powerful God!

Contentment

2008-07-22T23:14:00.001-04:00

Okay, so recently someone told me that people need to be real on their blogs and not just a laundry list of what they did. So, here's a real post. I titled this one contentment because this is probably my biggest area of struggle in my life. And it interferes with everything! Discontent robs me of my joy so many times. Why do I let it? I don't know. When I say things out loud like, I have four very healthy children, a wonderful house that I love, a husband who loves me more everyday and who prays for me and helps me in so many ways...well, when I list them like that, it makes me sound so selfish and crazy. But, Satan always manages to creep in and point out all the things that I don't have. So frustrating...The other day, I took Sebastian to the doctor and the doctor asked me if he was allergic to any antibiotics. I had to tell him I didn't know because my three youngest have never been on any antibiotics! They are five, four and almost three years old! And, I am not a homebody, so I don't keep them at home or anything like that. That's amazing! God is so good to us. Why can't I just be thankful? Actually, the longer I type this, the more thankful I am and the more content I am. What is it that I want that I can't have? What do I need that God has not provided for me? I seriously need to just get over myself and be genuinely grateful. Make a list everyday of things God does for me...That will relieve my discontent and restore my joy. Actually, I am feeling way better now! God is so awesome and loves me so much! What more do I need???

Texas pictures

2008-07-22T14:19:00.001-04:00

Me and Adam at the rehearsal dinner

Me and Adam at the wedding

Adam's dad, sister, Nicole and Jacob