Weekend Fun

It was another great weekend in our household, but it was an eventful one...a REALLY eventful one.

On Saturday we had Turkey Fest, a potluck Thanksgiving party with our Sunday School class...picture over 100 total people invading one blessed family's house...farm, really, and you can begin to imagine Turkey Fest. It was WONDERFUL! Here are some pics...

Sunday morning I decided to try to dress up my princess for church, and got her really dolled up...Take a look for yourself...Isn't she just precious? She actually WANTED to take pictures for me! And look at the many moods of my Tatum-princess....And just in case you're wondering, the bows came out before we got in the car, went back in when we got to church and actually lasted through Sunday School, but not all the way home :)

Then on the Sunday afternoon...Matt was working on a project outside, slightly before naptime, when he hollered for me to bring him some paper towels. I did, then noticed him hunkered down holding his finger. His bleeding finger. Oozing, bloody, bleeding-all-over-the-back-deck finger. Apparently as he was working on changing the light fixture (switching from the lantern-style to a two light floodlight), the saw he was using slipped, cut through his glove and into his finger. He bandaged it up, FINISHED THE PROJECT, ate a bowl of left-over spaghetti, looked at the finger closely again to see if the pressure had stopped the bleeding and to see if it needed stitches, then decided that it did. So off to the ER he went, about 2 1/2 hours AFTER the initial incident.

Yup. That's my hubby. Is it a man thing to want to finish a project you're in the middle of AFTER you get injured? Or is that just my man? Bless him, though...that light is FABULOUS...and does a wonderful job of lighting up the backyard!

WARNING!! Picture of the finger with stitches below...

Randomness...

1. We went to the Math and Science "Game" night last night at Kellen's school. When we walked in, a girl ran up to him saying, 'Hi!' When she walked away, he told me that she had tried to kiss him on the playground. So today at dinner, I mentioned that little factoid to Daddy-o, and then asked Kellen where she had kissed him.

His answer?

"On the playground..."

There was more to the answer...a very detailed description of WHERE on the playground, exactly, but I was trying to stifle my laughter that I lost the rest of it....

Such innocence! Such BLESSED innocence!

2. Two weekends ago, we scalped and then planted grass in the backyard. By 'we', of course, I really mean Matt. Kellen; however, helped. Take a look.

He was VERY proud of himself. And even prouder now that we have GREEN grass in the backyard. Let me reiterate that. With emphasis on the correct part. Green GRASS in the backyard. YAY...BIG YAY!!

And here are some more pictures of him being a "farmer" - his words...He really enjoyed his time working with Daddy outside!

3. And isn't this just the cutest fall picture? The look on Kellen's face really captures his personality...I Love this "fall" picture! (And am trying to make myself feel better since we didn't actually make it to a pumpkin patch with BOTH of the kids this year for the regular fall pictures...)

4. Last but certainly not least...our first fire in our house.

Isn't it wonderful? Daddy and Kellen surprised Tatum and I by sending us to my room and then setting this up for us, then bringing us into the living room to show us our surprise. LOVELY! I just LOVE fires and LOVE this surprise!!

Choosing a Simpler Life

Hmmm....What does it say that many of the things speaking to me are about paring down, slowing down, looking closely at the things on my "man-made" to-do list versus what God wants me to have on my "His will" to-do list? Anyone?

Here's yet another great email that I received covering this topic...Am I the only one that needs to hear...er...read this?

Choosing a Simpler Life
by Rick Warren

. . . a time to embrace and a time to refrain. Ecclesiastes 3:5 (NIV)
*** *** *** ***
You’d think that living in Southern California means I’m surrounded by people who live a laid-back lifestyle. The truth is just the opposite: Most of the people I know are trying to cram more and more into each day.

For instance, a couple of years ago, I was with a group of friends driving down the interstate. At one point, I looked around and realized most of us were engaged in some activity other than talking to each other. Two people were on their cell phones; another was working on his BlackBerry; and a fourth was focused on his laptop computer.

As a joke, I declared I felt left out. I called the driver, who was sitting right next to me, and we chatted together on our cell phones for a few minutes! The point of our traveling together in the van was so we could grab time to talk face-to-face! Yet we felt pressed to get it all done.

That’s when I realized the truth – we couldn’t get it all done, and God never intended for us to make completing a to-do list the purpose of our lives.

The fact is, there are many things we think we must do that really are not worth doing. My point is this: You won’t simplify your life by getting an electronic organizer. You won’t even find it by convincing your neighbor, who makes Martha Stewart look like a sloth, to give you tips about coordinating your activities while still wearing a perfect dress and pearls like Beaver Cleaver’s mom.

Simplifying is really about choices – prioritizing what is important – and then sticking to those choices no matter how tempting it is to add more to your to-do list. In fact, take those tempting activities and put them on a list of things not to do.

You are the only one who can assume responsibility for your time and clarify what’s really important to you.

Now maybe you’re thinking, “But I have to take care of the kids,” or “I have to get this report done by Friday.” I’m not naïve about the pressures many people feel today, but it may be that those things – your children, your work – are the priorities you keep on your to-do list, and you move other things to the not-to-do list.

Is your hut on fire?

More good stuff I got in an email a few days ago...It makes you think about striving to look at your current difficult circumstances through "eternal" eyes...Which is, I'll readily admit, very difficult to do. However, just remember...

Romans 8:28 - And we know that all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose.

**********************

When your hut's on fire

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smokerolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?' Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers. 'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.

The Moral of This Story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

Good stuff...

I received this in an email today, and thought it was so good I had to post...for everyone to read and for me to have to reference in the future...Enjoy!

Choices Control Your Calendar
by Rick Warren

We are each responsible for our own conduct. Galatians 6:5 (NLT)
*** *** *** ***
Your choices control your calendar and, as a result, your lifestyle. Your choices are far more powerful than your circumstances. You may not like how complicated your life has become yet, with very few exceptions, no one is forcing you to keep your life complicated.

You have the power to simplify your life.

The Bible teaches, “We are each responsible for our own conduct” (Galatians 6:5 NLT). To me, that means God expects us to assume responsibility for our lives and to carefully choose how we spend our time.

That’s why I’ve spent years teaching people to discover why God placed them on this planet: What is your purpose for being here?

Ultimately, it will be the donation of your life that will count far more than the duration.

In other words, it’s not how long you live – or even how much you cram into how long you live – it’s really about how you live.

Here are three essential steps to simplify your life:
· First, figure out your purpose, and then let your purpose guide the goals of your life.
· Second, organize your activities based upon your purpose.
· Finally, harmonize your schedule with your purpose; that is, bring your activities into agreement with your goals.

You have just enough time to do God's will while you’re here on earth. You’ve been given just enough time to fulfill your purpose. When you try to do more than God planned for you, it’s only natural that you’ll find yourself constantly out of time or stressed over your schedule.

If it doesn’t fit the purpose of your life, God doesn’t want you doing it. In fact, he may be overjoyed that you finally got the message and stopped doing meaningless activities. He may even want you to add “rest” or “have fun” to your to-do list.

My prayer for you is that you will find relief from stress and a new sense of satisfaction as you do only the things God created you to do.

Remembering the fallen

Today is the anniversary of the fall of Bonfire. I can hardly believe that it's been 9 years since that horrific day.

For those of you that knew Aggieland when Bonfire was around, take a moment to think back on those times...for those of you that didn't, I'm sorry. I feel like Aggieland is missing a little piece of itself now that Bonfire is gone...and it goes deeper than just Bonfire itself. The campus now truly isn't the same, and I don't think I'm feeling that just because I'm "staff" or because I'm "old ag" - I really just think it's different. There's a shared bonding that's missing, a..."something"...that I just can't quite put my finger on...

But anyway...

Take a few moments and say a prayer for the families of the 12 individuals that gave their lives on this day nine years ago, while they were participating in an activity that they were passionate about. Granted, these 12, nor any of those injured probably EVER thought that this would happen - goodness, did anyone? But it did, and their families have now had to live without them for all these years. Pray for their peace, their comfort...pray that the Lord allows them to feel His peace and to truly heal from this horrific incident.

Miranda Adams
Christopher Breen
Michael Ebanks
Jeremy Frampton
Jamie Hand
Christopher Heard
Timothy Kerlee
Lucas Kimmel
Bryan McClain
Chad Powell
Jerry Self
Nathan West

Aggieland truly hasn't been the same since that day...

Oh, deer...

No, I didn't spell it incorrectly. I almost hit a deer on a beautiful back stretch of highway coming home from church last night and apparently Matt wasn't so lucky tonight. He left after cooking the kids and I supper to run some errands, and I just talked with him - he hit a deer on that same stretch of road. It shattered one of his headlights and banged up the front of his Tahoe pretty badly, but he's fine (the deer; however, is not). He has a grill guard on his Tahoe, but is frustrated that it doesn't seem like its done much good to protect the vehicle in skirmishes. When he takes it in to get it fixed he's going to ask if it would have been worse without it...

I'm just thankful that he's ok! (And I wish he would have got the deer in a more traditional way! If it was the one that had suicidal tendencies yesterday, it was a BEAUTIFUL rack and, by the looks of it, would have filled our freezer!!)

Family Fun Day

Saturday was just that...Family Fun Day. Matt mentioned to me how odd it seemed that it was just "us" at the house. We weren't expecting company. People weren't coming over in preparation for the game. We weren't going to the game. Nothing. It was just us.

And boy, was it NICE!

We started the day lounging in bed. Well, that's not quite true. MY day started with a Tater-tot to the head, courtesy of my dear, sweet husband, but since he had already changed her poopy diaper, I didn't mind all that much. *grin* Then we lounged in bed for a while, until we could no longer stave off the "eat" signs and sounds from our ever-hungry Tatum. It was on to breakfast for us and some additional lounging.

Then we decided to head to the movies to see Madagascar II: Escape to Africa. Note to self: when asking the ticket person how many people are in the movie theatre, get a more specific answer than, "It's not too full." We ended up sitting on the second row. Boy, that screen is REALLY large from that close! It was quite the milestone...Tatum's first ever movie that she actually could try to watch (not the first one she's been to, as I took her to quite a few while I was on maternity leave, but I don't really count those toward her "movie attendance"). She did...umm....ok. I watched quite a bit of the movie from the entrance aisle. But, in her defense, it was an 11:20 AM showing (can we say close to nap??) and she was tired. And after about 15 minutes or so of me holding her and watching, er...pacing, in the aisle, she was SOUND asleep, and we went back in and finished the movie. Kellen, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and didn't stop eating the HUGE bag of popcorn that his Daddy bought him the entire time. I'm not sure how he didn't make it through that whole bag, OR how he didn't have a tummy ache, OR how he was actually STILL HUNGRY for lunch when we got out of the movie. Seriously?!?

In case you're wondering, we liked the movie, but think the first one is better.

Back to the house we went, got the kids down for naps, then Matt went to run some errands. I tried to take a nap, but Tatum decided that her short-lived movie nap was enough for her. Fun stuff. So instead of listening to her whail, I decided to go in her room to rock her. MISTAKE. The sight of me set off her lungs, I didn't know that they had another level....wow. Try as I might, a "second" nap, continuation of her movie-nap, whatever, just wasn't happening, so we just snuggled and "rested" while Kellen was napping.

When Kellen woke up, we decided to take a walk to the park to see the ducks. (I'm telling you, we had an AWESOME Family Fun day!!!) So we bundled up, you know, it had gotten a little chilly and windy, and off we went to the park. Kellen and Tatum fed the ducks, and Kellen searched for a while for Meaniac, his favorite duck there (which, I think is odd, since this is the one that bit him this summer, but hey...), and Kellen and Daddy took periodic jaunts into the woods on their "adventures" while on our way back to the playground. We all played for a while on the playground, and then headed back home for dinner.

Daddy and I had already decided to have an inside picnic, and apparently great minds think alike, because as we got home, Kellen came up with the idea as well. So we had our picnic blanket spread in the living room and had our dinner picnic while watching Kung Fu Panda, a recent addition to our movie collection.

Shortly after the movie started, the effects of Tatum's short-lived nap were apparent, and she made her desires for night-night evident to all. After she went to bed, we all gathered to watch the movie and finish dinner, and enjoyed a nice, warm batch of chocolate chip cookies that I decided to throw in the oven to bake (it's GREAT to have cookie dough on hand - YAY!).

All-in-all, it was a glorious day! I told Matt after Kellen went to bed that THIS is the life that I want to lead with our family. And then I thought more about it...Is THIS what it's like to rest...truly rest and relax? Our Bible study had this verse as one of the verses during our daily lesson this past week:

Exodus 34:21: Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

And what really spoke to me in this verse was the importance of actually RESTING, regardless of the overwhelming "to-do" lists that always seem to be there, waiting on me. So I'm working on it...And Saturday was just so wonderful that it confirmed how much I need that rest period in my week.

So bring on the Family Fun Days!!

Love and Logic

Anyone have any comments on this parenting philosophy? Have you read the book and care to share your thoughts? This was being discussed on one of my moms boards and it sounds pretty good to me...just wanted to get some other opinions...feel free to share!

It does go bad...

Stink...I thought I had read somewhere that chocolate stayed good for a year, so when I realized that we still had an Easter bunny in the pantry (yes, an Easter bunny...don't ASK me how it managed to survive that long in THIS house with ME, but hey...) I thought I would be able to have a nice chocolate snack tonight.

Nope.

If chocolate DOES stay good for that long, then this was old bunny when I bought it.

Stink.

I'm totally craving chocolate today and have already finished off the Oreos my sweetie bought me a few days ago (and no, I wasn't the only one eating them, either).

Guess I really need to hit the road. Literally. And get back on my half marathon training if I'm going to continue to have these kind of cravings!

I help you, Mommy

We're now entering the world of Tatum's verbal explosion, (and several other "worlds" including sassiness, stubborness and tantrums, but lets focus on the fun one today, shall we?) and this is one of her first full sentences. I think her ACTUAL first full sentence was, "Paw Paw sit DOWN!" which was accompanied by her pointing in an incredibly animated fashion to the appropriate chair for her dearly beloved paw paw.

At any rate, I was working on getting her diaper bag ready yesterday morning, and she walked over to me and said, "I help you, Mommy," and proceeded to try and actually help me stuff inserts into her diapers. It was endearing and quite hilarious to watch, actually.

Teeth, teeth and MORE teeth!

Three in all, to be exact! That's how many teeth Tatum's gotten in within the past week...all incisors, too...both on the top and the bottom right one popped through yesterday. Which helps to explain her increased demand for her paci, and her recent ability to suck so hard on that thing that she sucked sores on her mouth around the edge of the paci.

I'll leave that one for you to close your eyes and imagine...paci around the mouth...imagine the top area of the paci, with sucking sores underneath the right and left "corners" - so to speak - and smaller sore areas on the top of her lip area.

I had been wondering why she had gotten those sores, and how. Then the new teeth popped through and everything just kinda' fell into place on that one.

Poor girl!

As for an update on Kellen, he's doing MUCH better in school and in Kids Klub behavior-wise. So much so, in fact, that he was able to get a toy out of the "treasure chest" on Monday in school. And apparently only kids who are well behaved are chosen to get a toy out of the treasure chest, and it's not an 'every day when they are well-behaved' occurance, so way to go Kellen! He promptly got the toy taken away from him when his Daddy caught him sneaking it into bed with him (since we don't sleep with toys here in this house), but perhaps he'll be able to get it back tomorrow - it was only taken away for a day.

He's been cracking me up lately with some of his comments, but unfortunately, I can't remember them verbatim, and I don't want to ruin them by trying to paraphrase...I'll try to jot some of them down in the midst of holding my stomach the next time he has me laughing hysterically so that you can share in the laughter via a post...

Admitting defeat??

Considering the football game I'm watching, I guess this is an appropriate title...(darn those Aggies this season...but I'll get there in a second...)

1. I haven't wanted to post since the announcement of the election results, simply because I am having a hard time believe that America, en masse, voted so overwhelmingly for Obama. In an effort to voice my displeasure, I dressed Tatum on Wednesday in the following outfit...


Do you think I made my point clear? And doesn't she look adorable?


Seriously though, I PRAY that it isn't as bad as I envision, but a co-worker of mine went in a local gun store to pick up a gun he had purchased, and he remarked to me that the store was busier than he had ever seen it...that there were probably 50 people in there. And this was on Wednesday. What does that tell you? Purely coincidence, or were these people trying to get guns while they still felt like they could? 'Cause Obama's made his stance on guns pretty clear as well, now hasn't he?


2. Back to my darling Aggies. *sigh* We're getting SPANKED by OU. And I really mean spanked. We're in the 4th quarter, and the score right now is 66 to 28. Yes, that's the score. It wasn't a typo. OUCH!

Ready

Aren't you?

Just ready to know who our next President is - once and for all?

I'm watching the news...seeing the states flashing in their different colors, with some of them "too close to call" and am really just ready for the decision.

Lord, please help this country, regardless of the outcome of this election.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called together according to His purpose.

Which means that I have to trust that God can, and will, work and bring good out of the this election, even if the guy I didn't vote for and do not want elected is elected.

Unbelievable

When Matt got the phone call last night, then told me that Jill Jarvis - well, Attebery now, had passed away, my reaction was just that...disbelief.

She was too young, they had just had a baby, poor Scott. And poor Scott and Bryce is pretty much were I've stayed. I asked Matt this morning if he thought it was possible to be sad in heaven...As a mother, I was and am mourning the loss of Jill being able raise her son. But I just don't think it works like that.

Another former ABS'er had this link on her website, so I'll share it for those of you who knew Jill. Take some time and read it from beginning to end, and cry, as I did, for what Scott and those around him went and will continue to go through. And pray for him as he raises Bryce without her.