Fishing "Lure"

While cleaning Sweet Pea's room, we called her in to her room to try on a couple of articles of clothing. Her comment: "Why are you always trying to lure me away from my game?" (referring to Webkinz). She is such a ham.

True Story

My best friend's daughter just turned 14! She is a very sweet, beautiful, and sometimes intelligent young lady. I say sometimes because she often has those moments that leave you thinking, "what?!" She had one such moment several days ago. Bean went to get her belly button pierced for her birthday. When the piercer person (don't know correct term) asked if she was there to get her navel pierced, Bean responded with, "No, I'm getting my belly button pierced." What's even sadder than that...I started to ask her what she thought a navel was and then thought better of it because I did not want to hear her response.

Happy New Year

The house is clean (and I do mean clean), with the exception of the play room! We have spent the past couple of days cleaning and organizing every inch of the house-shampooing carpet, scrubbing floors, cleaning baseboards, etc...just because I have this weird belief that I need to start the new year off fresh, with the house clean and organized.
I hope that each of you have a wonderful and blessed new year. I do plan on creating some new year's resolutions but I want to put some thought into it first. I would like to see what everyone else is planning on accomplishing this year!

I'm addicted

Saturday afternoon, it started! My Wii addiction is now full blown. I have never been a big video game person anyway. We played about seven hours of video games with the kids. Normally, I would not have allowed this because I think they need other interactions. However, I made excuses for this system--the kids are getting activity, we are spending family time, blah, blah, blah. I guess it is the holidays and it is all right to be flexible right now. I will overcome my addiction when I have to start back to work, maybe!

Sweet Pea and Sugar Cookies

Christmas was very pleasant this year! We opened gifts with the kids on Christmas Eve (as we do each year). The girls loved their presents, of course. Christmas day, we spent the afternoon with my grandparents, mom, brother, aunt, and cousins. That evening, we visited with my mom.

We spent last weekend with my husband's side of the family. His mom stayed all night Friday. We traveled to visit all of his mom's family on Saturday. His aunt, uncle, and cousin came over on Tuesday for dinner. The girls have been blessed with so much family that loves and spoils them.

To the sugar cookie story...Sweet Pea asked my mom to get her sugar cookies for Christmas. My mom purchased and wrapped the cookies and then told Sweet Pea that she could only afford one present for her this year. Sweet Pea opened the sugar cookies and graciously said, "thank you" and "it's all right that you could only afford to get me cookies for Christmas this year. I still love you." Pumpkin Pie, on the other hand (thinking that was the only present), states, "what, I don't even get a present?" It amazes me that they are so different but I was very touched by Sweet Pea's ability to be thankful for the cookies, thinking that was all that she was getting. I would have been more like Pumpkin Pie! The children were excited that they received many other presents.

Tonight, we visited with some very close friends to just hang out and play Wii. The girls love spending time with close friends. We have many other things planned for this week- Dollywood, ice skating, playing with the new items, and just enjoying some family time. I need much more family time than I get and I think the kids are looking forward to the extra attention as well. I am also hoping to get together with a few other friends that we so greatly miss, so be expecting a phone call from me to make some plans.

I hope that everyone's Christmas was as wonderful as mine! I am so thankful for the family and friends that God has placed in my life.

The Mouse part 2

So my mom caught the mouse. It was tiny but a messy little thing. She will (or may have already by this time) shampoo the carpet in her vehicle to get the mouse droppings and germs out of the vehicle. But I promised at least one funny story...
My mom keeps hard candy in her vehicle (the little bags of loose cinnamon candy). A day or two after discovering that she had a mouse in her vehicle, because it was not evident right away, she got a piece of candy out of her bag and placed in it in her mouth. After doing so, she realized that the rather new bag of candy didn't quite feel as heavy as it should. Looking down to see if the bag had a hole in it, she caught the view of mouse droppings inside her hard candy bag. But what was she to do at that point, the candy was already in her mouth (she threw the candy away). I know, it is gross!

What if an angel visits you?

As I listened in church recently, I thought about the common place of angels coming to visit people on Earth. How many people in the Bible were visited by angels?! Would we recognize an angel if they came to visit us? What does an angel look like? Is it the depiction that we often see of the white robed, halo above their head, and lights surrounding them? Or is it something more commonplace? Do we pass angels on the street everyday?
I would like to think that I come across an angel everyday. I think about each child that I work with and how I can learn something from them. I think about how I can help them and be their angel in return. I think about the messages that the angels in the Bible brought and how we don't hear those same kind of messages anymore. Maybe it is because we doubt. Maybe it is because if someone were to say that they were visited by an angel, we would call them crazy. Maybe it is because we don't deserve the privilege of being graced with the presence of an angel.
What would you do if an angel visited you?

What was Mary thinking?

I often think that others must think like me. I know that isn't the truth or my husband would be a much better husband! But, what was Mary thinking? Throughout her life, she suffered so much, yet received such a great blessing.
At learning that she was pregnant, imagine what others thought of her and her claims that she was a virgin. Think about teenagers at the present time...how many of us would believe a pregnant girl, if she claimed that she is a virgin? How many of us would laugh at her and tell her that she is crazy? Not only did Mary have to deal with that, she sure wasn't wealthy so she surely stressed about where food, shelter, basics of life were going to come from. Some may argue that she was carrying Jesus and had to feel so blessed and know that she was going to be cared for. I argue differently. Mary was human and a mother. Flesh gets in our way and being a loving mother brings on a world of concerns that others could never know. She had to be concerned about how she was going to face each day, plus concern for the things that her son was to face.
Mary was on display almost as much as Jesus. Imagine the tongues wagging at the town square when Mary lost her cool or displayed the slightest bit of doubt. What did other women (and men) say if she and Joseph had a disagreement? It must have been a huge burden for her to carry to be an example for every other woman. Or did the other women comment about how easy Mary had it because her son is "perfect"?
How many parents could live with each day of their child's life knowing that their baby was sent to Earth for the purpose of dying? I know that many of us believe that we are placed here for a purpose...how many of us face each day knowing that our purpose/our child's purpose is simply to die?
I have so many more questions but...

Was He a boy like me?

I promised more posts and I will try to break them up into pieces for you. I have had a lot of things on my mind lately. Our pastor is a very thought provoking guy...or maybe I am using my brain for something. Either way!

I don't know how many people have heard the song, "Was He a boy like me?" We have the Veggie Tales CD and Sweet Pea loves that song. It made me think about what kind of kid was Jesus. He is sinless so did He get into trouble as a child? Did He lie to his mom before He realized that lying was wrong or did it simply mean that He was never into any trouble at all? Did Mary feel obligated to watch over him all of the time or did she let Jesus run about without any cares? On one hand, Mary seems to have panicked when she couldn't find Jesus when He was in the temple teaching the other men. On the other hand, she wasn't watching over him too close or she would have noticed that He was missing sooner. Times were also different then and parents had different styles then too.
What did Jesus like to do as a child? Was He a normal child that liked to play in the dirt and jump in mud puddles? Did He try to convince his parents that He didn't need to do chores? Did He like receiving presents from his parents? I guess that if I close my eyes and think back, my kids have always brought joy to my life, even when they are misbehaving. How hard was it for Mary to know that Jesus was coming into this world, would suffer such persecution, and would die just for her (the rest of us too, but you know what I mean)? What kind of burden was that for her?
Now that you have a little piece of my brain...

Great News

I know that I promised more and I do have several things that I want to blog about but things have been crazy around here lately. It is the holidays! I called today to check on all of the paperwork that had to be completed and sent in for my license application. The nice woman that I spoke with found some of the misplaced paperwork and looked over it, while on the phone with me. She then informed me that my license number will be sent out in the mail today. For those of you who aren't following: I GET MY LICENSE! I will now have my license to go into private practice, if I so chose to do so. I am thrilled to have this all over with and feel like I have made it to the peak of the mountain.

The Mouse

My mom came to visit today. I offered to put some items that were graciously donated for my Papaw into my mom's vehicle. A local guy gave us some items for my Papaw's medical care because he no longer needed them. But I digress...my Mom then informs us to not place the items in her vehicle because she has a pet mouse that is keeping her company. (it is not really a pet mouse but one that seems to have found its way into the trash that she was taking to the dump and he just happened to find his way into her vehicle) So she has placed traps in her vehicle, with peanut butter, cheese, etc...but he keeps managing to escape and is obviously living off the items that she is attempting to lure him with. Tonight, Matt carried some items out to her vehicle and warmed her vehicle up. My mom requested that he crack a window, when he cranked the car up. I jokingly commented that she did not want the mouse to die from the heat in the car. Practicality wins though and a dead mouse in a car will stink for some time (although she just didn't want her keys accidentally locked in). So, this will make for many fun jokes in the future, as I have already made many today. I promise to share more about the mouse soon, as I have more funny incidents.

Saturday disappointments

So I previously mentioned my desire to have family traditions and I made yet another attempt, which failed miserably. I wonder if God is trying to give me a sign?! We planned to take the girls to the Vol walk on Saturday, as we typically try to go at least once a year (plus the orange and white game) and then we planned to go Ice Skating downtown. I was so looking forward to it- had the kids dressed warm, camera packed, feeling good about the day... and on our way there, what happened? IT STARTED RAINING and I'm not just talking about a sprinkle; it poured! I am so sad about it but I'm not giving up that easy. It is too late to go to a Vol walk but I still plan to take the kids ice skating. I guess God is no match for my stubbornness, yet!