Snow!

Well, it snowed yesterday here. Yup. You read that correctly. It snowed. And not just the little flurries that make you "think" snow...SNOW.

Snow that stuck.

Snow that meant after 2 hours, I had to use my windshield wipers to be able to see out of my windows.

Snow that allowed us to make snowballs.

Snow that was deep enough for snow angels.

Snow that stuck enough to make a snowman.

Snow.

Really.

In Texas....and since my kids will probably be able to count the number of times on one hand that this happens in their life, I allowed them to P-L-A-Y in it after we got home. At least as much as they wanted.

Can you tell from the pictures who wanted to play and who didn't?

First we'll start out with some general, untouched, snow pictures...this is what we found when we opened the back door yesterday after work.


And like I said, it was deep enough for a snow angel, even right there on the deck. And how is it that someone...a little someone who has never really experienced snow can automatically know how to make a snow angel?

Interesting.

And Tatum....w--e--l--l, she didn't really know what to make of all of this. She walked around with an odd look on her face, then when the snowflakes hit her face and eyes, she was NOT liking life. I just couldn't get her into playing with it, even to have the snowflakes land on her hands. I had a pretty funny video of her asking to go back inside.

Kellen, on the other hand, immediately got into making snowballs. And then proceeded to throw them at me. How fun! He didn't throw any at Tatum, if you're wondering, so that wasn't a reason for her displeasure with the adventure.


And then I just had to get a random shot of part of the back yard and all of the snow. Amazing! Look at the snowflakes in the picture...it was so beautiful (and I'm not even a good photographer!)

And then try as I might, I couldn't get a "good" shot of the two kids next to a snow covered something. Let me once again reiterate how DONE Tatum was with the snow and being outside in the snow. Of all of the ones that I took, this is probably the best, so don't be surprised if this ends up on a Christmas card or some other photo-related gift. *grin*

So then Kellen was not-so-patient while I put Tatum to bed, and then he and I went back outside to finish playing in the snow. He started out by helping with the snowman, but ended up tricking me by making more snowballs to throw at me.

Mischevious stinker.

I wonder where he gets that from?

Then we went to work on the snowman. It had been AGES since I had made one, and I had forgotten how long it took for the initial "ball" to stick and form. After I got that started, it snowballed from there (sorry...I just couldn't help it).

It wasn't quite as big as I thought we would end up with, but my fingers got too frozen to continue trying to make one any larger than this. If you're wondering what he's made of, his eyes and "buttons" are raisins, and Kellen found wonderful sticks for his arms and nose. We didn't have a carrot one in the house.

And then Kellen took great pleasure in knocking the snow off of the branches of the various bushes in our yard. He loved seeing the snow fall off of the branches and had quite a bit of fun with this...

All in all, the second time around I think we played outside for about 45 minutes. My hands could feel it, too...I think my gloves ended up frozen since I did the lions share of the snowman, but Kellen never uttered a word of complaint.

It was a wonderful night, and I truly hope that they remember this! Days like this don't come often in Texas!

Phone call....and other milestones

Normally phone calls from daycare in the middle of the day to me at work are a bad thing.

However, I received one today on my cell while I was in a meeting and had a message waiting for me when I got finished...Tatum was fine, they were calling to tell me that as of then (between 2:45 - 3 PM), she was DRY and had gone on the potty probably at least 4 times. Really!

I was then told that her cheeks and mouth area were red, but we've already pretty much figured out that's from her intense sucking on her pacifier. *sigh*

I got to daycare to pick her up after work, was about to walk out of the classroom, and she tells me that she has to go potty. I listened. And she did.

Fast forward to home...before bathtime, she tells me again. Success. After bath before getting ready for bed. Success again.

I guess I really should pull out the existing cloth training pants we might have and get to shopping for some new ones for her, huh? 'Cause we're talking about success on both numbers here, if you get my drift.

I'm not really ready for all of these milestones....(Although I love each and every one of them.)

'Cause did I mention that Kellen is now 39.4 pounds, according to MawMaw and PawPaw's scale, anyway? That may not mean anything to anyone, so let me explain the relevance of that statement. Our carseat is only good as a forward facing, 5-pt harness carseat up to 40 pounds. Once they hit the 40 pound mark, it's supposed to be converted into a booster. I have barely a half a pound left before that oh-so-huge milestone.

Goodbye

My Pap passed away on Friday, after suffering a lengthy illness. My parents called me at 3 PM Friday afternoon, I returned their phone call an hour later (not realizing that they had called - I was awaiting this phone call, and thought I was checking my phone more frequently than that for this particular call...). They made flight arrangements and left early Saturday morning, and the family viewing and calling hours were held yesterday, and the funeral is today.

I'm glad that he's no longer in pain, but wish so desperately that his final hours, even his final years, could have been like he wanted. He NEVER wanted to live his life like he did in these last few years...in and out of the hospital, repeatedly cut on (he had both legs amputated in different places), reduced to a portion of what, and who, he once was. But that's what happened. He didn't even get to die pain-free...his last hours were misery and suffering.

I don't understand that.

I don't understand why he couldn't have had a heart attack while out fishing and died in his boat, doing one of the things that brought him so much joy. Or even in his workshop with his tools. Why? Why wasn't that the end chosen for him? Why was he allowed to go through so much pain?
I just don't understand. And probably never will, until one day when it won't matter anymore.

Please pray for our family, as this situation is oh-so-much-more complicated than just my grandfather passing away. They are going to have to make some very important decisions in the next few days. Pray for the Lord's guidance and peace as they discuss and decide.

I'll post some other time about all of the things that I've inherited, learned and have come to appreciate from my Pap...

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.

Football Farewell & Fall Festival, part duex

Well, last night was the Steeler's last football game. I think, overall, that Kellen enjoyed his first adventure in the world of flag football. Generally speaking, he runs the correct way on the field, and he REALLY likes to be center and to block. Ultimately though, I think his favorite thing was the "fans" making a hand-tunnel for all of them to run through after each of the games. :)

We'll have a pizza party next Monday night to commemorate the end-of-the-season and will hand out the trophies then.

After his game last night, we did a quick-change for both kids, with this assistance of MawMaw and PawPaw, and headed over to the MSC for the Fall Festival there. We had mid-season costume adjustments for a couple of reasons. 1. MawMaw and PawPaw bought Kellen an Aggie football outfit (and wow, did we have a crisis when the shoulder pads ripped on that after trying it on maybe 3 times...wanna' guess the likelihood of finding another one in his size in this town...or in Conroe?...you guessed it. NOT! Luckily the Spring Academy had one and MawMaw and PawPaw picked it up and brought it over...WHEW!); 2. Tatum's little body had a reaction to her super-cute Cinderella costume (contact dermititis to the tulle, I guess...but I didn't know until I took the outfit off of her...it cleared up really quickly, but why do that to her again?). So...while I was wracking my brain for another costume for Tatum, along came the football outfit for Kellen and, viola' - a theme was born.

You guessed it...and no surprise coming from our family, right? Matt and I even had on our jerseys to go as "fans" and complete the theme.

The first picture shows Tatum happy, because, well, she's eating a cookie. :) The next few pictures aren't quite as great because I was actually trying to get a "cute" picture, so the cookie got taken away. What WAS I thinking, anyway? For the third picture, she got the cookie back, but wouldn't sit still and pose, so we finally just gave up. They did enter and win 2nd place in the Costume Contest...but I think they were cuter than the Little Red Riding Hood girl...but hey, perhaps I'm a little biased? Nah...just look at 'em! They're adorable!

Where is my sweet Kellen?

I will preface the next few remarks by saying that I SO FREQUENTLY get comments about how sweet, funny, and well-mannered Kellen is and can be. However, he's really starting to give us behavior problems both at school and at his Kids Klub. As is REALLY. Emails from the teacher and "marks" on an almost daily basis from Kids Klub.

It's nothing "major" but when put together on a daily basis, it's starting to add up to a problem and slippery slope that we simply don't want to go down. Things such as: not listening or following directions the first (or second, or...) time, keeping his hands to himself, climbing the concrete wall and jumping off (Kids Klub), talking when he isn't supposed to, running away from the lunch lady (today's school offense), etc.

He even PAINTED THE BATHROOM WALL TODAY during Kids Klub! They were painting shirts and he had paint on his hands, went into the bathroom, and despite being told not to, "decorated" the bathroom wall at school (hand print on the wall - he cleaned it up and had to assist with clean up of the overall paint area and was cleaning when I arrived to pick him up).

My dear sweet husband and I have been talking about this and both felt like perhaps we were being too strict at home, and that maybe Kellen felt like he ALWAYS had to be "perfect" and that there wasn't any time that he could misbehave - even a little - so we have eased up at the house on some stuff. We talk about consequences, choices, Kellen KNOWS what making these kinds of choices will lead to...talks with us about those consequences, etc. He tells us that he always feels like he's in trouble (hence us lightening up at home, 'cause that just breaks my heart to hear him say that!).

After we get home and he's had a bad day, I'll sit and talk with him about specifically what happened during each incident, asking him "why" he made those choices. I try to be sure and point out feelings associated with the consequences of those choices and confirm with him whether or not he feels that way. Ex: Are you sad that you'll have to sit out during Kids Klub tomorrow while the rest of your friends are playing the games during fall festival? [Confirm his feelings] I'm so sad that you made so many bad choices that the consequence is sitting out and watching your friends have fun. I bet that is just going to stink tomorrow!

But really, we (well, I'll just speak for myself), I'm at my wits end. Please pray for guidance and wisdom as we work through this with him.

Some suggestions that I've gotten so far (and by all means, please feel free to post words of wisdom for me/us!) are:

• Give him more responsibility
• Get his bedtime back on track (I've been lax about this and he's been going to bed between 8:30-8:45ish when his bedtime is really 8 PM; Kellen actually came up with this one...Today I asked him to think about WHY he was making these choices and told him I wasn't going to accept "I don't know" as an answer. He finally told me that he was getting up to go potty at night and that meant he wasn't sleeping as much. That led to me telling him that he was right, and that I had also been letting him stay up, too...so that a solution was that he was going to start going to bed at his REAL bedtime.)
• Letting him have his own way (when it really doesn't matter...)
• Lightening up on things (again, when it really doesn't matter - no wiggle room on safety issues)
• More quality time (One-on-one and perhaps on weekends? - I feel like I give him quality time after Tatum goes to bed each night, but maybe that's my perception and not his and/or maybe it's not enough?

He was SO sweet tonight after we talked about things! I put Tatum to bed and we read a story, then watched a few YouTube videos (sing-along Disney songs) and sang together (ok, so I sang to him - whatever) and he just asked me to hold him. He got ready for bed without any fuss or grumbling (which is not new, he usually does that) and he was in bed and tucked in a few minutes before 8 PM. I'm really hopeful that a combination of the above suggestions (plus whatever new ones you guys can offer) and his continued awareness of his control over his choices will get us through this patch. That and lots of prayer.

Proverbs 29: 17 Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.

I very much like this thought...

I had already been thinking about ways to incorporate more homemade presents into our Christmas giving this year...And I saw this on another blog and really like the thought behind it.

Take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

(And I am apparently not technologically savy enough to figure out how to actually post a YouTube video directly onto my blog...technical assistance welcome in the comments section *grin*)

Fall Fest

Well, we haven't taken them to any of the pumpkin patches, but I've made it to a Fall Festival with them!

(sung to the tune of Old McDonald)

Central Baptist had a Fest

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had some games

e-i-e-i-o

Some games that Kellen & Tatum played

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had a zoo!

e-i-e-i-o

A petting zoo with lots to do

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a goat

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a pig

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a guinea pig

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a rabbit

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a kitten

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had a horse

e-i-e-i-o

Well, all-in-all, the kids had fun.

Kellen fell in love with his first kitten, and was immensely upset with me because I wouldn't let him bring the black and white kitten in the above video home with him. They were giving the kittens away with parental approval, which I withheld. Mean ole' Mommy! To rub salt in THAT wound, he didn't get to do everything he wanted to (darn it, we just ran out of time!), so he was upset about that, so unfortunately, he left the Fall Fest a little unhappy. Oh well, things happen....We talked about it on the way home, and I let him know that it was OK for him to be upset, and it was even OK for him to be upset towards Mommy because I didn't let him have the kitten. (Hey, I knew he was feeling that way, why not go ahead and validate those feelings, right?)

At any rate, he was doing MUCH better by the time we got home and went to bed in a better mood. He DID thoroughly enjoy himself...he was just enjoying himself SO MUCH that he didn't want the festival to end...And everyone has experience with those types of things, right?

As for Tatum, she did wonderfully! She was enjoying herself so much that it was challenging to keep her close to me. *grin* She tried her hand at a few games, and then warmed up rather nicely to the animals at the petting zoo. She didn't want anything to do with the goats (despite what the pictures may show or lead you to believe), but adored the pigs, guinea pigs and rabbits. She didn't even mind the kitten! And then, amazement of all amazements...we walked out of the petting zoo and there was a HUGE dog laying down...Kellen walked over to him and petted him and then so did Tatum! It was more of a smack on the back than a pet, but she did it twice! I was FLOORED, to say the least. Maybe seeing all of the animals is starting to work? I'm hopeful, but certainly don't think that today solved all of her puppy issues by any means. We'll just keep with our exposure to her comfort level and see what happens!

We then went and got in line to ride the horses, and this would be Tatum's first horse ride (that I'm aware of, at least). I was nervous as to whether or not she would actually get on the horse, but considering that she wanted to climb the corral to get TO the horse each time it came by, I considered that a good sign. See the video above for the majority of her first ride. She doesn't look excited, but the did enjoy it! (I know, I asked her later and she answered, 'Uh, huh!')

We have a few fall/halloween-type events this week, so I'll try to be diligent and post pictures as the events occur. (Notice that I did say "try", right?)

Field Trip Fun

Kellen's class went to Hockley Oil Ranch today, and Matt was the "official" chaperone, I was a tag-along helper. I took a TON of pictures, but because they have lots of our "team" in them, I won't post them here because they aren't our kids and I don't have their parents permission to do so. At any rate, the kids had a BLAST...and were worn out by the end of the day...So were we!

Here are some pictures and video of some of the different things that we did...

My little Aggies

I just had to share...this was taken in the morning late last week one of the days that it got somewhat cool here. Both kids were decked out in their Aggie gear, and yes, the both wore it to school! Now aren't they just the cutest?!?

I should have know better...

All that bragging, and we were BOUND to have a day like this...

I actually sent Matt an email asking him to pray for my temper control and for my patience, because BOTH of the kids were trying my patience tonight. Ug. I really do NOT like these kind of nights. (Ok, so I'm sure there's something I'm needing to learn here...Lord, I'm trying to be open to it...)

I had a rather productive day at work, but got an email at about 2:30 from Kellen's teacher telling me that he didn't have a good day. At all. He was disobedient all day long, and then she cited some examples so I would understand the type of behavior he was exhibiting. Ok, thank you, I certainly like and need to know when he's acting up at school - and I responded to her letting her know that I would most certainly discuss this behavior with him tonight.

Fast forward to my "work" day end and I'm picking up the kids...got Tatum and then proceeded to get her into her carseat, which she's suddenly (over the last week or so) decided she wants NOTHING to do with. I hate to have to fight with her about it, but honey, I'm gonna win. You're sitting in the carseat. Period. No if, ands, or buts about it. Your butt is going into that seat, sweetie. Scream and shriek all you want, until of course, you realize you aren't getting your way (which I truly hope is soon...I'm certainly tired of the screaming and shrieking).

On to get Kellen and his fundraiser goodies, which I get to deliver to all the blessed souls that purchased items from him (THANK YOU ALL!!). Well, I walked in and was greeted by the Kids Klub counselors, asked how his day was (because of course, I was hoping that it had gotten better after school), and one of the counselors comes walking over to me and asks if we can talk. My response to the other counselor, the one to which I had originally asked the question, "Well, I guess that answers my question, huh?"

So Kellen's day didn't get any better AFTER school. He proceeded to make poor choices during Kids Klub...climbing the concrete walls, jumping off of them, and then ignoring (really ignoring - as in hands over his ears and looking away) his counselor when the counselor was trying to talk to him. ALL inappropriate behavior, poor choices, and Kellen knows it.

What was WITH him today???

To top THAT all off, he had some other issues of the bathroom variety. And I'll leave it at that. But it was intentional, and at this point in time, with as much as we've worked with him, that just infuriates me. In fact, of all of his poor choices and "not-good" behaviors, I think this one pushes my bottons the most.

So on the way home we were discussing his actions and his response to my inquiries into his behavior and choices was, "I don't know." Ug...He doesn't KNOW why he made those choices, he doesn't KNOW why he acted that way, he doesn't KNOW why he climbed the wall during Kids Klub, he doesn't KNOW why he put his hands over his ears and didn't listen to his counselor...you get the point.

After we get home, I tried to deal both with him and with Tatum, who was by this point screaming with hunger pangs. It's 6:15, later than usual for us to have not begun eating, and she's letting me know about it. And I haven't started boiling the water for the spaghetti yet. Oh boy. So she's incredibly unhappy, because she's hungry (take a look at her, I promise I feed her - really and truly - anyone can look at her and tell she's getting fed...and she'll CERTAINLY let her know when she's hungry...goodness gracious - she'll let ya' know!), so I try to appease her with some milk, which she drinks part of and then begins to play with. Milk rivers and thrown sippy cups, just what I want to cap the night off...YAY!

Arg.

Dinner went well, Kellen was the epitome of polite and turned very well-behaved for the remainder of the night. While I got Tatum ready for bed and put to sleep for the night, he wrote thank-you notes for all of the individuals that had purchased the aforementioned items from the fundraiser (and did a really good job, I think!).

So, I'm hopeful that today was just a horrible, no-good, rotten, very bad day...and that tomorrow will be better.

Another successful night!

YAY Kellen! He had another successful night last night...Matt and I did the same things again...I took him to the bathroom before I went to bed and then Matt did it again in the wee hours of the morning, and he made it all night long without any accidents.

Kellen reported to me this morning that he slept all night without getting up to go potty, so again, he doesn't remember our interventions and didn't wake up on his own to go (not a great sign, in my book), but he did manage to go all night without an accident, which is GREAT in our world!

Now, how do we get him to wake himself up to go?

Reading

Yes...Kellen is reading.

We got our first "Take Home Reader" sent home on Friday, and I remembered it when I pulled it out of the backpack today (you know, before he went BACK to school - yes, flame me now, I can handle it).

So tonight, after getting home from his McDonald's treat and putting Tatum to bed, he and I sat down to read it. I read it to him ONCE and he had it down. Completely. I think I had to 'help' him once, because he wants to say 'puppy dog' instead of just 'dog', so we're working on pointing to the words on the page as we're reading.

He's getting SO excited about reading. He's calling out the sight words, he's devouring these books, and read that particular one to me at least a half dozen times. Then we had to call Grandma Gerren and read it to her, too...Considering she specialized in reading for her masters, I thought it highly appropriate...No, she doesn't work with it now, but I got my love of reading from somewhere, now didn't I?

I am just loving watching him learn...he's like a little sponge! His explanation of a period and an exclamation point is great. He can tell you the difference and 'show' you how you need to use the exclamation point. We had to work on that one since Tatum was asleep while we were reading...he really wanted to 'show' me by shouting as loudly as possible when reading the sentence. But he's understanding and comprehending and wanting more and more....

It's the same way he is about his memory verses for Awana's...he's got them memorized within 15-20 minutes or less. It's truly remarkable! And he'll tell you the previous weeks verse without us having to go over it. For instance, when he called to read to Grandma Gerren, he also recited the memory verse from two weeks ago (we haven't worked on it or practiced it since then, other than HIM saying it as he was practicing THIS weeks verse) and the one from this past Sunday.

I love it, I love it, I love it!

Atta boy!

Well, for those of you who don't know, Kellen hasn't quite made it to the completely night-trained world yet. And we're ok with that. At one point in time I was somewhat stressed about it (shocker, yes, I'm sure), but am now just really and truly letting him go at his own pace for when he's physically ready. I've discovered his issue is not a battle of wills, (well, at least not 100% of the time) it's more a physical thing...he's a fairly hard sleeper and I just don't think he's been able to know when he's going (once he's actually asleep, that is).

Back to the point of this post.

A few days ago he tells me that he doesn't have any pull-ups. *ARG* He's supposed to let me know when he's running out so I can be sure and get more, but either he forgot to tell me or I wasn't listening when he did. At any rate, it was nighttime and he didn't have pull-ups to wear to bed. So we improvised, as we sometimes have to do in a pinch, and he wore a pair of his sisters large fuzzibuns to bed that night. He was laughing about it, put his clothes on, and walked around remarking about how big his booty was.

Uh huh...It really bothered him, huh.

Well, for one reason or another I didn't get a chance to get pull-ups that next day, and we were in the same situation on night two (oh wait, it was Saturday...there's your reason right there!). So another one of his sisters diapers it was...only this time along with the remarks about how big his booty looked there were a couple about how it smushed his "man parts". Now why these smushed it and the pull-ups don't I'm not quite sure...But apparently there is a difference.

Move to night three and there's more of the same, didn't get a chance to go to the store and get pull-ups (and yes, I will say by this point in time I was wondering if I even should....), and Kellen was getting ready for bed. When I asked him what we were going to do about his pull-up, he proclaimed, "I'm just gonna wear my undies to bed tonight, Mommy."

It was the first time in a L-O-N-G time that he had JUST wanted to wear undies to bed, so he and I had a long talk about getting up and going to the bathroom, not pee peeing in the bed, etc, etc. So I decided to try it. (Sure, what's the harm, right? I had all weekend to try this and didn't, so why not try it out the night before I'm headed back to work, right? LOL)

Anyway, he went to bed around 8, and before I went to bed I took him to the bathroom and he went again (so close to 10), Matt did the same when he was through studying, and I did it again before I went running this morning (only he wasn't able to actually go then). When he woke up for good this morning, he and the bed was still dry.

HE MADE IT!!!

He says that he doesn't remember Matt nor I taking him to the potty, but that he got up himself a couple of times and went to the bathroom. So it doesn't seem like his bladder can make it all night, but if he's waking up to go, that's ok, I guess!?

Matt and I were just so stinkin' proud of him! Now, we aren't naive enough to think that we're in the clear...but we were just really happy for him for the first night that he tried it. So, as a reward (and I made it clear that he wasn't getting a reward for every night that he was dry - this was just extra special), he got to pick the dining location of his choice tonight...

Any guesses on where we went??





Yup...Ronald McDonalds...AKA McDonald's.

So we'll see how tonight goes! Wish him luck!

Them Ags....

Well, IT happened. I really thought I would NEVER see the day. Yes, I typed NEVER in reference to this occurance.

My husband left an Aggie FOOTBALL game early.



Really.



Yes, you read what I typed correctly.




Pick your jaw up off of your keyboard now.

If you watched the Aggies vs Texas Tech yesterday, you'll know the part that I'm about to mention, if not...well, then what WERE you doing on a Saturday afternoon, anyway?

4th quarter, 5 minutes left...Aggies needed two scores to win (yes, I am almost an eternal optimist). We had the ball and it was 4th and 15. What play was called???

Wait for it...










THEY PUNT THE BALL!!!


Sure, we hadn't been able to stop Tech's offense all day long, but perhaps we can make that happen in the next minutes or so...in enough time to 1. stop them; 2. take the ball down the field for a touchdown; 3. kick and recover the onside kick and; 4. score again.

Um...I don't think so.

The WORST that could have happened (well, not the absolute worst, but bear with me on my rant), is that we DIDN'T get the 4th down and we had a turnover on downs. Did I mention that we were on the 50 yard line? So BIG DEAL!!! It wasn't much different than what happened ANYWAY.

Which was.....1. My husband subsequently getting so angry at the play call that he left the stands; and 2. Tech took about 4 and a half minutes to score (yes, ANOTHER SCORE, because hey, they're ranked and need to run up that score for the rankings, right?), leaving us with a grand total of less than 30 seconds to try and make something happen.

R-I-G-H-T

So ladies and gentlemen, what does that tell us? In MY humble opinion, it tells us that our coach wasn't calling plays to win. He was calling plays to try and not lose badly.

Heads-up, Sherman. That isn't what we hired you for!

Now, if someone has an opinion on another reason as to why he called that particular play at that particular time given those circumstances, I would be happy to hear it...Feel free to leave your comments. However, none of the guys that attended the game with our group could give me another explanation, nor could the call in show when Matt called in asking about that part of the game...I believe their response was slightly more "PC" but along the lines of, 'playing the odds, but that wasn't the right time to do it.'

Thoughts?

Randomness...

Time article re: Schoolyard Bullying: Which kids are most vulnerable?

I thought this was interesting, especially the part about the (and I'll paraphrase) parents that were overly-disciplining their children. Really? That is a CAUSE of a child BEING bullied?

Hmmm....seems to me that a LACK of discipline in the home is more of a problem now-a-days, but hey, maybe that's just my opinion....

Discipline, respect for authority, ethics, integrity...who's lining up to teach THOSE things to the youth of America?

Anywhooooo....

So the department had a picnic after work today...and I took both the kids along with me (hey, they were serving hot dogs...one of BOTH of the kids favorites!). They kids behaved remarkably well, and we only had one melt-down moment. Unfortunately, that melt-down moment came at the expense of one of my co-workers, who was desperately trying to be sweet with Tatum, who wanted NOTHING to do with him.

Really. Nothing.

She was shrinking back in the stroller away from him, and he thought he saw a small flirty smile come from her and did the whole, 'Gonna get you' gig and tried to tickle her.

Yeah, that didn't go over well.

She started screaming, and reached her arms for me while wailing, with some of the largest tears streaming from her eyes that I think I've ever seen.

I don't think I've EVER seen her do that before in her life. She's almost always warmed up to people...she's just now getting to the separation anxiety stage (see earlier post from this week)...and especially with guys, she's warmed up to them quickly because she's such a flirt!

And poor thing...he was the ONLY person there tonight that she did this to...everyone else she was smiling, waving, flirting, talking to, you name it. I was even handing her off to some of the graduate students to hold for a bit when I got tired of chasing her all over the park - you know, 'cause SHE was chasing the boys around...And all he ever wants to do is talk and be sweet with my kids...he does that when I bring them into the office, too...but neither of them have ever reacted like THIS before!

We also had another opportunity for Tatum to interact with "puppy" - several puppies, to be truthful. And we got no closer to her actually petting ANY of them. Including the small, calm, VERY well-trained poodle that was incredibly willing to allow Tatum to do whatever to her. Once again, Tatum was fascinated with the "PUPPY!", but kept her own personal space from each and every one of them. When I tried to get her closer than her comfort zone, she was having NONE of it...she tensed up, grabbed me tightly, and squeezed me for all she was worth. It's truly a physical reaction that her ENTIRE body goes into when she's too close to them. Perhaps she'll overcome this as she gets older and we continue to casually expose her to them? I certainly don't think that we need to push her - especially not based on what I continue to see as her reaction when she's around them.

Any suggestions?

So what is normal, anyway?

What does "normal" look like for you and your family?

I'm not sure that I know what it looks like for ours...Matt and I were talking about that today...we've been trying to get to a "normal" schedule recently. One where we can plan to see each other on a regular basis, discuss things, spend time together, take the kids to the park or on walks after work and school, you know...all of the things that couples should be able to do on a regular basis...the "normal" things that occur in familes.

Except in our case, one thing after another has popped up in our schedule for so long that despite our attempts to grasp that so-called "normal", we seem unable to attain it.

So I'm wondering, it is just us? Or is there even such a thing as "normal" - in the way in which our brains are thinking of it, anyway? In our world that now consists of two full-time working parents - one with an alternating schedule, church and Bible study activities, one kid with football numerous time a week and the other that does best with a 7 PM bedtime, random "misc" work events and school stuff, are we striving for something that simply doesn't exist?

Separation Anxiety...

Man oh man...I just LOVE this developmental stage (please note the sarcasm as it drips heavily from that statement)...Separation Anxiety.

They HAVE to go through it.

It's developmentally appropriate.

And normal.

And it makes me feel like my heart is being worn on the outside of my body and pierced with a thousand swords - heck, this is the world of TAMU, a thousand sabers - every day when I drop Tatum off at her class and she immediately cries, looks at me with tears streaming down her face, reaches her arms toward me, all the while crying out for me.

I adore the words "Mommy" coming from her lips, but the sound of her screaming "Mommy!" in that manner as I walk out the door just makes my heart break in a million pieces...and I walk over those pieces in my clunky boots on my way out the door heading to work.

*sigh*

It's a developmental stage that she MUST go through. Kellen did it and survived.

It's proving that she's realizing that she is an individual. And that I'm comfortable AND comforting to her.

And she's fine minutes after I leave.

However, many times the "head" knowledge of all of this makes every morning of this routine NO easier on me.

Flag Football

So I don't know if I've mentioned that Kellen is playing flag football or not...Much has happened in the last couple of weeks and I simply cannot remember.

At any rate, his concentrattion on the field has been less than stellar during some of his games. He did; however, during one game find a hotwheels car on the field. And the grass has also proven very interesting for him to admire as well.

I've chalked all of this up to the fact that the games are at 6 PM after a full day of school and then Kids Klub (his after school program) where he's had to behave and pay attention, etc. With us rushing to get to practice and/or the game, eating on the way, it's just tough, to say the least. So we have just encouraged him during the games and then discussed how he can improve afterwards, without really getting onto him too much. After all, he's out there to have fun and learn the basics of football, right?

Well, he had a COMPLETE turn-around during Monday nights game...perhaps it was because he was with Daddy all day long; perhaps it was because he hadn't been in school all day; or hadn't gone to Kids Klub; or maybe it was that L-O-N-G late nap that he took after the parent-teacher conference. Who knows.

But he did FANTASTIC during the game! He paid attention, hustled, and even scored a touchdown! His team ended up losing (man, there was one kid on the other team that we're sure we'll see highlight reels of later...and some of these games will be played with the 'even as a young child...' voice-overs in the background - he was juking and was just plain ole' FAST!) but he was just spectacular on Monday night!

We don't have a game on Wednesday, have canceled practice for Saturday (practice at 1 PM with the TAMU vs Tech game at 11 AM doesn't lend itself to too many kiddos showing up), and then don't have a game the following Monday either, but are looking to schedule practice at an alternative location just so the kids don't lose their momentum totally. Because they were ALL doing really well on Monday night! We had 3 different kids score touchdowns and many of them blocking really well!

Whoo hoo! I think he's actually starting to enjoy it a lot more now that he's getting into it!

Snake?!?

So Matt and I were cleaning up outside on Sunday - we moved around our swingset, put up a basketball goal for Kellen (and Tatum, apparently, since she tried to dribble the basketball as well), picked up leaves, etc., when a small snake slithered out from the leaves I was sweeping off of our concrete sidewalk area...

I thought nothing of it as it slithered away from me and under the fence to the neighbor's yard and casually mentioned it to Matt, and was even calling the kids over to come and telling them that it had gone on the other side of the fence and everything. Matt then proceeds to get the broom, somehow gets it back on our side of the fence, and starts pounding on it...I was wondering "Why?" the whole time until I heard him mutter to me, 'It's a copperhead!' - then I immediately got the kids back - yes, at this point in time they were watching Daddy and were still WAY too close.

UG!

He finally killed it with the tail end of the broom and threw it into the trash can - poor Kellen was still asking to see the snake the entire time!

As a side note...I think Matt felt so bad about him not getting to see the snake that this incident was partially responsible for their trip on Monday to the Brazos Center and the Natural History Museum...Kellen got to play with a snake there! I had lunch with he and Matt on Monday before our parent-teacher conference and Kellen told me that the snake was wrapped around him like a necklace! Matt did take some pictures, so I'll have to post them when I get a chance.

Matt made me feel ZERO better when he told me we probably have copperheads slithering all over the backyard. Grass snakes I can handle, but...um...copperheads?? No thanks!!

So how do we get rid of these things, anyway?

Parent-Teacher Conference

In liu of the first 6-weeks grades for Kellen, we had a parent-teacher conference yesterday. All-in-all, it went really well, and it seems that Kellen is doing exceedingly well academically in kindergarten. The ONLY thing that wasn't "checked" on his list was "Listens without interrupting" - and he comes by that honestly. *sigh* I'm realizing more and more just how often I have a tendency to interrupt, so I'm sure I'm not helping him with that issue. Plus, when his brain thinks of something, he wants to say it right then. He doesn't mean any disrespect, that's just how his brain works - the teacher even recognized that and said that she hesitated in not checking that particular area...

He already knows all of the 'sight words' that they've covered in class (the kindergarten list has a total of 20 words - they haven't finished all 20 of them yet, but the teacher expects them to finish those up quickly and move on to the first grade sight word list), and LOVES to point them out while we're reading books or even in conversation. He's LOVING to read...and getting really excited when he's recognizing words and is able to sound them out. I don't think it will be too terribly long before he's able to read simple books on his own, but we'll see. I want him to enjoy reading, so I certainly don't want to pressure or push him.

We discussed a variety of things, and I'll just sum up by saying that I'm SO GLAD that Kellen has the teacher that he does this year! She's just a perfect match for him and understands his temperment and personality wonderfully!

Budding artist?

So Kellen has decided to express himself artistically lately. Only in the not-so-good way.

Saturday morning I wake up to the realization that he's found a green marker in his room and colored all of the fingers of one hand (don't ASK me how). I took a deep breath and decided to laugh that one off....then thought for a second and asked the question, "Kellen, what ELSE did you color?"

Kellen looked at me, then looked down, and sheepishly answered, "My bed."

I wasn't laughing on that one, as I worked REALLY hard with the soap and scrub brush to get the very artistic green marker off of his headboard. His ENTIRE headboard. I will say though, it was an interesting pattern.

*sigh*

He DID tell the truth, which meant he didn't get in as much trouble as he would have if he would have lied, so his discipline wasn't as bad as it could have been - a lesson which Daddy was certain to reiterate to him. Now, we don't want him to think telling the truth equates to a "get out of jail free" card, but we do want him to understand that telling us the truth means a lesser punishment than lying to us and us finding out the truth later.

Fast forward to a day later. Yes, you read that correctly - TODAY. We're back from church tonight and I'm getting Kellen ready for bed when I see some new strange markings on his headboard. I should know that they're new, since I just scrubbed that bright and fresh yesterday, right? This time they're red (and again very interesting-looking - he IS quite the artist!).

So I called Kellen to me and asked him about this newest of artwork. He proceeded to tell me that he colored on his bed during nap with a red crayon. (I REALLY thought I had gotten all of the possibly offending coloring-type items OUT of his room!! REALLY!!) We then have yet ANOTHER talk about taking care of our belongings, what we are allowed to color on and what we aren't, disobeying Mommy and Daddy, resting and sleeping vs. playing during naptime, etc.

I walk out of the room to cool down, and when I walk back in he had gone into the bathroom, gotten a washrag, and was scrubbing the bedframe - in a different spot than the one I had noticed. Apparently he had colored in TWO spots, but was taking it upon himself to try and start cleaning it up.

Atta' boy.

At any rate, thankfully crayola crayons DO come out of wood (mostly), so I was once again able to (for the most part) clean up the incident. But wow...twice in as many days. I do not know what has come over him!

Add the coloring incident to the fact that he ripped the stylus off of the string on his Leapster this evening when we got home from church - yes, ripped it off - and I'm at a loss here. When asked why he did that, his reasoning was very OCD, "I just don't like the string sticking out." I had a vague awareness that the string bothered him, but nothing to this extreme...

Do we need to allow him to act out at home so that he can maintain his good behavior at school? I can't expect him to be perfect all of the time, and would rather have him misbehave at home, but I can't let him just get away with everything at home, either.

This parenting gig...wow. So it seems like I need to provide more creative and artistic outlets for Kellen during the day and keep all possible writing utensils OUT of his room during nap and nighttime. The kicker to that idea is that I did just that - on Friday night (the night prior to incident #1) he made the two most wonderful pictures with his markers for me that I think he's ever done - and he did them right before bedtime...so it is a timing issue?

Lord, please help us with this...I can't stand for him to be in trouble with us every day...it's not good for him and it's so hard on us!

2 Truths & a Lie - Not my Kellen

So I went to pick Kellen up today and the Kids Kamp counselors told me that he cracked them up (again) today. They proceed to tell me the full story, and it made me so proud.

They were playing the game 2 Truths and a Lie, and when it was Kellen's turn, he told the counselor that he wasn't going to play the game because he wasn't allowed to lie and that he got in trouble with his Mommy and Daddy for lying. They tried to use a different word for lie and explain it in a different way to convince him to play, but he stuck his ground and told them, 'No." He basically told them that if he lies he gets in trouble at home and gets a spanking.

I am just SO PROUD of him for sticking up for himself and for not doing something that he was being told by a teacher, an authority figure in his eyes, to do that went against what we had been teaching him. I can only imagine how confusing that must have been for him. We've told him to obey his teachers, yet here they were telling him to do something in direct contradiction to values we've tried to instill in him.

Now you may be reading this and thinking, 'Come on, Rebecca, it's only a game,' but I think to a 5-year old, something as simple as lying in a game setting could be potentially confusing. I think that was a tremendous lesson for Kellen and again, I'm just so proud of him!

Under attack

It's amazing when you are really and truly seeking God's will...I mean actively working to be in His will and correcting areas of your life where you've been disciplined and/or you've simply realized aren't where they need to be when you get hit - both barrels - by Satan. That's where our family is right now. I ask that you simply pray for us. I'm not going to go into details, simply understand that Satan is really coming after Matt and I in a variety of ways...at least we are both realizing what is taking place and are actively guarding against the attacks. Please pray that we both continue to realize what is happening and trust and rely on the Lord to guide us through this.

On a lighter note, Tatum decided to take her personal potty training forward in a quantum-leap manner today. We were finishing with our dinner and she says and signs "all done" to me, then says, "poo poo". Being the slow to catch on mom that I sometimes am, I repeated this back to her and asked if she needed to go poo poo on the potty, to which she replied, "uh huh". Finally taking my cue, I unbuckled her from the table and carried her into the bathroom, and proceeded to get her ready for the potty. Considering that she was fully dressed and that she's cloth diapered, this is sometimes no small feat. At any rate, she waited for me to prepare her for the potty, then sat and went. Really. And as she was in-the-process, she said, "bye bye poo poo", when she was finished, she said, "all done", then told her 'accomplishment' bye bye again as it was flushed, after she cheered herself. I have TOTAL faith that she understood what she was doing.

I still can't believe it. At 18 months old? Really?!?

Already?

I can't believe it!

Tatum was in the bath, and said pee pee, so I got her out and put her on the potty. I heard water splashing, and thought she had actually gone, so I made a really big deal about it, then put her back into the bath to finish the bath.

I was getting her ready for bed, and she was running around naked for a little bit (we have yet another rash - investigtor mommy is going to have to go into gear to find out what it was that she ate that did this to her), and she went into a crouching stance. I asked her if she needed to go pee pee, and put her on the potty. She sat there for a minute, then said all done, although she didn't actually do anything. No biggie. I certainly don't want to push, and am only doing this much because she seems interested. I have been encouraging her, as she has been showing interest in the potty - you know, when I'm on it. *lol*

A minute or so later, she walked out of her room and into the bathroom, said pee pee, walked over to the potty and patted it. I asked her if she had to go potty, she said pee pee again and I put her on the potty. Seconds later, she's peeing.

Of course, I made a HUGE deal of this, but I still can't believe it. I guess I need to go get a childs potty....

Wow. She's not even 19 months old. Where did my baby go?

New adventures

...for Kellen today.

Today was the first day for Taekwondo in Kids Klub for him today. He'll be doing this once a week for the semester (instead of Little Dragons, which was three days a week). He says he didn't like it, but that seems to be a common response to things recently, so I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

The bonus for Mom and Dad on the Taekwondo - it occurs DURING Kids Klub hours. Translation: we don't have to exhaust extra effort to trying to make it to lessons in addition to our other activities. That is a DEFINITE bonus in MY book, at least!

After school was the first practice for his flag football team as well. He actually SAID that he had fun during practice for that, so I'll take that as a good sign. He has one of his former daycare friends in class with him, so he's not starting from scratch with making all new friends with the kids on his team. YAY!

All-in-all, he's had a VERY eventful day!