ready for adventure

my son's birthday is coming up soon. he has already decided he wants an indiana jones birthday party. i have to tell you i am so NOT in birthday party planning mode. i am usually all done with birthday party planning and have invitations ready to go out. i am have not even decided on invitations yet. i have purchased nothing for the party.

a couple of weeks ago my sweet cousin, julie, gave us a bag of clothes. among the clothes that used to belong to her son was a leather jacket and brown fedora. i had purchased a whip somewhere. this was all my son needed to complete his indiana jones costume. he came out of his room today in full costume. seriously how cute is he?

now i need to get on the ball and plan the party this week!

i know you already know this but he will be 8 this year and his has lost both his front teeth this past week. i know this doesn't mean that much to you guys, but in the past when i had seen little boys with both their front teeth gone, i remember thinking, "they are big boys, not little boys any more." i can't believe my son has reached this moment and it has gone by so fast. i have strange milestones in my head. well i guess they aren't strange, but i remember when i would see other kids doing things i would say, "they aren't babies any more!" things like tying their own shoes, learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels, and loosing their two front teeth! it's kind of sad to me. however, yesterday in a rare moment, my son did sit in my lap for 5 minutes and just hugged me. can't beat that. gotta love those moments when they come. i thank God for every moment God blesses me with my son (even if they are crazy times like yesterday when he threw a fit and we had to stay home from church - yep we have those times too!)

Psalms 127:3

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward."

they're gone.

the other tooth came out tonight. he pulled out the first big tooth earlier this week. we were getting ready to eat breakfast for dinner (don't you love doing that? i do!) my son saw a little blood on his thumb (from wiggling his tooth constantly) and ran to the bathroom to wash it off. of course when he was in there, he wiggled it some more.

it got really loose. really, really loose. loose, like he could turn the tooth all the way around and it still wasn't coming out!

that freaked him out a little. he ran back into the dining room and showed me. he had it turned around backward people, but couldn't bring himself to yank it out! of course the good mommy that i am, i tried to go get my camera to take a picture of his backward tooth, you know so i can post it on here when i wrote about his tooth. he didn't want a picture taken of the tooth backwards or hanging in right in the middle so i didn't do it. he wanted me to pull it. so with a wet washcloth, a little tug, and a little snap that baby came right out with minimal amount of blood.

what's in your purse?

yesterday we had to go to papa bill's office. when we were visiting with him for a minute, my kids got into my purse. papa bill asked me why i have two colored (one pink, one blue) plastic spoons, suckers with a bank logo on them, and caramel apple dipping sauce in your purse?"

because.... because i'm a mom.

really that stuff is typical. my kids don't eat the caramel apple dipping sauce so they throw it in my purse. the sweet ladies at the bank always give me two suckers for my kids, but they can only have them for a treat not just because we went to the bank. suckers pile up in my purse. the plastic spoons were from my day on wednesday with my son when we went to peachwave. he liked the spoons and wanted to keep them.

it's not like i showed him my coupon wallet (yes i have a coupon wallet in addition to my coupon binder), my real wallet, the lego minifigures, the 4 tubes of lip gloss, my grandmother's keys, 3 extra emergency hair rubber bands for daughter's hair, the polly pocket pet panda, the little notebook that now has no empty pages in it because my daughter doodled in it, gum, a sonic mint, hand sanitizer, camera, lotion, numerous pens, an ink jet cartridge (waiting to go back to staples), earbud headphones, used up kleenexes (from grandma's funeral - okay i need to clean out my purse right after this post), a book marker, my garage door opener and my keys. it's not like i showed him all that.

a little quality time

wednesday the officer and i split up the kids for a little quality time. i took my son and the officer took my daughter.

i took my son to our homeschool group. we played legos with some other kids for a couple of hours. our homeschool group has a co-op classes going on, but we opted to not do the co-op classes this semester. we decided to just go up there and check the lego play time. we had a lot of fun playing legos with a couple of the other boys. i think my son enjoyed finding other boys who were as crazy about legos as he is. after the homeschool group, we had to take something to my mother so we headed to her house. we spent the afternoon looking at (you guessed it) more legos at walmart. there's a certain walmart that is the only store that has any indiana jones legos left. i decided to treat my son to peachwave. it's a frozen yogurt place where you can put all kinds of deliciousness on top. yummy! after peachwave, we came home and put together bionicles for 2 hours. my son said, "this is the greatest day ever!" i would say that's good quality time! :)

the officer took my daughter with him for the day. he had to go winterize his boat. he wanted to take it out on the lake for a bit and fish. he packed a lunch and bought some worms. the officer said my daughter wanted to help do everything.

they had a great time out on the lake fishing. she caught 3 little perches. nothing big, but you know that doesn't matter to a 5 year old girl. she loved it!

i think she loved the worms more. the officer said she had two "pet" worms that she was letting crawl all over her. (insert shivering and gagging here). however, she wasn't overly attached to them because the officer said she had no problem with tearing them in half to bait the hooks (insert more gagging here too). i don't think she has my raw meat thing.

overall it was a great day to be able to spend one-on-one day with each of our kids. they don't happen as often as we'd like, but we like to take advantage of them when they do.

up all night - well almost

this has been a long weekend, but actually it isn't the weekend anymore is it? i told you last week my grandmother died. we had a lot of family things to do last week. we weren't out late or anything like that; however, i am exhausted. friday night was the viewing at the funeral home. very strange this thing. there was a sitting room right by the view room and i basically stayed in it the entire time. the funeral was on saturday. the funeral was interesting because i was able to see picture of my grandmother from her childhood and when she was younger that i had never seen before. i also heard stories from people that i had never heard before. it was neat. the officer and a sweet, sweet friend worked the escort for the funeral. very grateful to the officer's co-worker who stayed to help. also my wonderful sister-in-law was great because she kept the kids for friday and saturday so we could attend all these things.

saturday night the officer and i went out for our anniversary. our anniversary was last week, but we have not had time to go out for it yet. we decided to go eat at ted's. yummy! we saw some people we knew at ted's. it was a long day for the officer and i so it was great to be able to sit and talk. we had great food and great conversation! when we were ready to leave, the waiter came to our table and said, "you can leave whenever you want because the people at that other table paid for your meal." what??? it was a very sweet, unexpected surprise! after we ate we headed to stillwater to pick up our kids and visit with the officer's sister.

sometime last week my son asked the officer if he could try to stay up all night. the officer told him he would try to find a time when we could do this. i told the officer it had to be a day when he would be home the next day. well last night was the night. this is the first time we've ever done this with the kids (self-explanatory). we went to wal-mart to pick up snacks and family video to get some movies. the shaggy DA and hot lead, cold feet won the votes. as soon as we got home, we were bringing in the grocery sacks when my son yells, "it came out! i lost my tooth!!" from the bathroom. he has three teeth that are loose, his two front ones and one on the bottom. he went into the bathroom and pulled one of his front teeth out!

nice!!!

the kids got their palates ready (well actually the officer did) and settled in for a long evening.

they made it through hot lead, cold feet and the shaggy DA with no problems. i think i fell asleep at the very end of the shaggy DA because i have no memory of the ending. they put in a diego dvd and i was finished. i went to bed at 12:30ish. my two kids and the officer were still awake. i had to get up early this morning to take my uncle to the airport so i just gave in. my daughter was still asleep when i went to bed, but i think she crashed quickly after. the officer gave up 10 minutes after me and i think my son fell asleep about 20 minutes later. he didn't make it through diego.

i woke up this morning at 6 a.m. and left to take my uncle to the airport. my kids didn't wake up until the officer woke them up at 7:45 a.m. so we could go eat breakfast at the cracker barrel (i had a $10 off coupon!) we ate breakfast and then the kids helped the officer make a "secret" passageway door on the playground. it's going to an early night for us! :) that's all that's going on this little island!

a prayer warrior has gone home.

this has been a busy and unexpected week on the island. what did i say in my last blog entry? to quote me:

i have heard several things like these over the last month and i'm wondering if God is preparing me for something. they have stuck with me. i mean how many times have you said to yourself, "i'm not so sure i can do that God. surely someone else is better suited for that job. someone else can invite that neighbor. someone else can help that person out. i don't feel like i can do the job as well as someone else. someone else will do it. i don't have time right now to do that." i know i have uttered those words or something like it to myself.

so today i am asking myself, "what am i doing that requires faith? am i listening to what God is prompting me to do? am i willing to do what God wants me to do and if i am not, then why."

that's what i wrote tuesday morning on my blog. early wednesday morning i received a call from my sister. she called to tell me my grandmother (my dad's mother) had died. she died tuesday night at home. i am not really, really close with her, but as i sit here and type this i know that this world has lost a prayer warrior. she was always on her knees praying for someone. although we have lost a strong, strong christian woman, to borrow my sister's words, God has thrown her a welcome home party and is excited she is finally home.

i tried to make sure paid attention to what i could do for my family. my grandmother left a daughter, an adoptive son, many grandkids and many great grandkids behind. the loss is felt the most from my aunt. they talked almost every day, several times a day. i am always at a loss of what to say to people when something like this has happened. in fact, i have a tendency to shut down my emotions a little until some time has passed.

so anyway, i was talking with my sister yesterday on the way to the airport about some of the things we remembered about my grandma when we were younger.

my two sisters and i have very fond memories of going to her house every year to watch the wizard of oz. do you remember that used to come on annually? when we would go over there we would make bonuts (basically it's donut holes). we would make little balls of dough, fry them, and cover them with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. yummy. we would also make tuna balls. although i wasn't a big fan of tuna back then, i did love these. i can't remember how these were made. i think they were kind of like sausage balls but with tuna. she had a very, very tall slide in her backyard. one of those tall metal slides. she would give us a piece of wax paper to slide down. she always had a beautiful christmas tree. she made the best green beans. my older sister loved her hot macaroni salad. my sister said, "can you imagine what she thought when her son brought over a woman who had three small children?" my grandmother accepted us and welcomed us in her family. she shopped all year round for christmas presents for us. in fact a couple of weeks ago my mom and my nieces went over there to visit her. it was raining and when they got inside the house they were soaking wet. while my aunt was going through a room in my grandma's house getting it ready for company, she had found a bag of umbrellas. my aunt said that my grandmother had called her and told her she found six umbrellas (two for each for me and my two sisters) and had bought them so we would never have to be wet again. we are to keep them in our cars. mine are in my trunk and will stay there. as my sister and i cleaned up her house a little yesterday, we found christmas presents already purchased, some already wrapped and tagged, all over the house. she was on a fixed income, but she thought about her loved ones all year long.

God knew He was calling her home. last night as i was leaving my grandmother's house, my aunt said, "you know God knew what i needed. i haven't gotten any sleep these past couple of nights. tuesday night i did not sleep at all (that's the night my grandma died), and wednesday night it was very little, but you know what, monday night i had nothing to do and j (her husband) was out of town. i just thought i would relax and veg, but do you know what ended up happening? i fell asleep early, woke up at 3 a.m. to take off my contacts, and went back to sleep. i slept for 12 hours that night. God knew i would need the rest and He gave it to me." i think God was preparing my heart. again i think of Philippians 4:19.

Philippians 4:19

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

no one can tell me we do not have a God who does not love or care for us or does not provide for us even before we know we need it.

so today i will be dropping my children off with my wonderful sister-in-law. she will watch them today and tomorrow. we have a family thing tonight and the funeral tomorrow. please just be in prayer specifically for my aunt and her family. even though they are a strong, Christian family too, still the loss is very deep for her.

i guess that's it. thanks for reading the my ramblings. if you do not know of my God who i am talking about, leave a comment and i'd be happy to tell you all about Him and what He has done in my life!

things i've heard lately...

the last couple of weeks i have heard a couple of that have stuck with me. they were in sunday school or on k-love.

1. we don't grow in our faith because we don't do things that require faith. ouch.

Matthew 17:20

He said to them, "Because of your little faith. for truly, i say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

Matthew 21:21

And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen.

2. God doesn't call us because of our weaknesses, but in spite of our weaknesses so He can be glorified.

Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 12:9

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

3. we will never be 100% ready/prepared/able to do what God calls us to do. that way we can never say we have done it on our own. it is God who we have to 100% rely on, and He will have the glory. (this last one is basically the idea of it - i didn't write it down as soon as i heard it, but you get the idea.)

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should as God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

i have heard several things like these over the last month and i'm wondering if God is preparing me for something. they have stuck with me. i mean how many times have you said to yourself, "i'm not so sure i can do that God. surely someone else is better suited for that job. someone else can invite that neighbor. someone else can help that person out. i don't feel like i can do the job as well as someone else. someone else will do it. i don't have time right now to do that." i know i have uttered those words or something like it to myself.

so today i am asking myself, "what am i doing that requires faith? am i listening to what God is prompting me to do? am i willing to do what God wants me to do and if i am not, then why."

zoo & science museum

last week we went to the zoo and science museum with my sister-in-law and her two kids. i had purchased the groupon deal. have you ever heard of groupon? they offer daily local deals. if enough people are interested, the deal is on. if not, the deal is dead. a couple of weeks ago they had a one year family membership to the science museum for $45. it's usually $100. we snatched it up! we couldn't wait to try it out. my sister-in-law also purchased the membership. she came into town and we thought we would try it out.

it was a beautiful day so we thought we would go to the zoo too. while we ate lunch in the children's zoo, this little guy entertained us for quite a while.

my son's favorite part of the zoo is the herpitorium. i have no idea if i spelled that correctly. it's the place that houses all the snakes, small turtles, and other strange reptiles.

after the zoo, we walked over to the science museum. it has been forever since i've been to the science museum, like possibly since elementary school (which is forever!). as soon as we walked in i knew the groupon was a fantastic deal i was happy we took part in. here's some pictures of our day.

i know this is a horrible picture, but the mirror maze was one of my kid's favorite things to do!

in the kid's area (0-6 years old) my daughter's favorite part were the telephones. you could actually talk back and forth to other people. there just happened to be a little girl there that my daughter knew. i hope this picture isn't a sign of things to come! :)

this place is wonderful. they have a giant tree house the kids can play in. i see many more days in the future (especially when it's cold outside) where we will be here!

my superheros

they enjoy playing dress up. they enjoy playing together (for right now). so i thought i would capture their imaginative play.

batman & batgirl

striking a pose

trying to be "serious"

i have several protectors

after we got home from the zoo and science museum (another post later), the kids went outside in the backyard to play. my sister-in-law was taking things out to her car. she walked in and said, "someone is here to see you." as soon as she said that the doorbell rang. i opened the door and a man said, "we are here to install the new electric meter. you should have received a letter about it."

i had indeed received a letter. the man told me he would have to turn off the pilot light, replace the meter, relight the pilot light and it would only take about 10 minutes. as i let one gentleman into the garage to blow out the pilot light, i guess the other gentleman went into the backyard. it only took the man a minute to blow out the pilot light so i went right into the backyard when he was done. as i walked through the front room, i saw my children, my nephews, and my sister-in-law in the backyard, along with the other gentleman! i thought he would wait, but he just went on back. i did not have time to tell my kids or sister-in-law there was going to be someone coming into the backyard. when i got into the backyard, my son was standing by the house. he had his tripod leg out and ready. oh yeah, my son likes to carry around a tripod leg that broke off the the tripod. he uses it as a baton, sword, or any other kind of wielding weapon. it extends out like a baton would.

anywho, i knew he would be a little freaked out. my sister-in-law told me he came running into the house yelling, "there's someone coming into our backyard!" i think my sister-in-law knew what was going on, but she went out there. like i said, when i got into the backyard, my son was standing by the house with his baton/tripod leg ready. i asked him if it scared him when the man came into the backyard.

he said, "yes, but i had my weapon ready."

"ready for what?", i asked.

"ready to beat him if he tried to grab me!", he answered.

i said, "good!" then i told him why he was here and what he was doing.

when the gentlemen left, my son was sure they left behind a bomb. i assured him they didn't. at least now the og&e guy won't have to come into our backyard and make our dog goes nuts. they will be able to read our meter, more accurately, from the street. i am glad to know that not only do i have God and the officer as my protector, i also have my son.

things that make you go hmmm....

we are picking up the house this morning because my sister-in-law and her kids are here. i walked into my room (for the 50th time) while cleaning and i found this.

i know the picture is kind of dark since we have maroon carpet, but it is my daughter's pillow pet unicorn tied up with a black scarf to our file cabinet. okay.....

she said, "i tied it up in there so it wouldn't run away."

then i walk back into my room about 10 minutes later and found it still tied up, but....

this time it was eating. at least i know she's taking care of it.

tae kwon do tests

the officer and my son had a tae kwon do test on saturday. the officer tested for his blue stripe on his green belt and my son tested for his black stripe on his red belt. this test wasn't as long as most of them are. master lee was aware that a lot of people wanted to get home to watch the OU/texas game (way to go sooners).

one of the first things they do is stretch out. my son always gets a little giggle from the stretching. when they do the splits, they are supposed to go down as far as they can. in this picture below the officer is in the background and he is literally as far down as he can go. my son is in the foreground and smiling because he can go further down than his dad. he can go all the way to the ground when he is in sitting splits.

when the angle was just right, i was able to get them both in the picture.

after they did their forms, they had to spar and break boards.

don't know if you can see it, but there is a board, right above the officer's head to the left. he sent his board flying to the ceiling!

it happened again - God provided

yesterday we went to the officer's parent's house to visit with his family. on the way there, my emergency brake and battery light comes on the dashboard. apparently this is not good. i ask the officer what it means and he is a little perplexed because the headlights, a/c, and radio are working fine. this means the battery is okay, but it may be a problem with the alternator. yeah. remember it was just at the end of july that the officer did some major work on my car. we pray it will make it to his parent's house. we do.

the officer makes plans to take the car to several auto places so they can do the computer tests to see why the lights are coming on. he goes to several stores, but one place (advanced auto parts) has great customer service, good prices and an in-stock alternator. even after he goes to four other store, he goes back to advanced auto parts and purchases an alternator.
the officer comes back to the house and he and his dad put in the alternator. as i am out there watching him, i tell the officer that i appreciate him fixing the car, i'm thankful God has given him the ability to fix the car, and that the alternator was in-stock at the auto store. the officer said, he was thankful to God it didn't break down on us on the way home, in the dark at 10 p.m. at night. he was thankful they were able to figure out what was wrong, that the alternator as in-stock in the store, that it was something he could fix (he only had to pull alternator out and change it. it wasn't something hard to get to), and that it didn't take long to fix.

Philippians 4:19

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

do not think that we do not have a God who does not care about us or provide for us. He does not make everything smooth and perfect for us. He provides for our needs and takes care of us and we need to give Him the glory.

Thank you God for having your hand of protection on our family and providing us with things we don't even know we will need, until we do.

IT'S BACON!!!!

right after sunday school is over, my son comes excitedly runs up to me. he tells me he has something to tell me. he is giggling. i have no idea what is going on.

"mom! i have something to tell you."

"okay, what is it?" i don't think this is like the last time he had something to tell me, because he's giggling.

"today in sunday school (giggle, giggle), my sunday school teacher asked us a questions! (giggle, giggle)"

i'm giggle too now.

"she read us the story about moses. when she was done, she asked us a question. (giggle, giggle) she said, "does anyone (giggle, giggle) know what moses's (moses's look wrong is that right- anyway) staff turned into when he threw it on the ground? (outright laughing!) i raised my hand and the teacher called on me. i said, "IT'S BACON!" (hysterical laughing from him - and a little bit of hysterical laughing from me because he's laughing so hard!)

oh. my. goodness. i have no idea why giving this wrong answer in sunday school is so funny. i have no idea why he's laughing so hard? why did he give that answer?

okay a little back story. we were in the car today and for some reason my son asked the officer a question and the officer answered with, yes, you guessed it, "IT'S BACON!" i just figured maybe this is where he got it.

my son is still laughing when we walk over to the officer. he can hardly tell the officer the story because he's laughing so hard. of course, the officer starts laughing.

then it all comes out in the wash. the officer says, "i never thought he would do it."

what are we talking about???

the officer tells me that as he was taking our son to his sunday school class he dares our son to say "IT'S BACON!" if the sunday school teacher asks a question.

okay - good to know where he got it from! my son comes by it honestly. of course i hear "IT'S BACON!" all day!

update

okay if you've read my blog recently you will know that at the beginning of summer i found out that one of my neighbors mentioned to another neighbor that i was anti-social. at that time we were doing an amazing video series in my sunday school class about making room for life. one of the videos discussed getting to know your neighbors. i felt very convicted about my lack of effort in this area. i make it a point to get to know my neighbors a more.

today i had one of my neighbors over for lunch. yeah! first. time. ever. is that sad? yes it is. she lives across the street from me and we have waved many, many times from our yards before this past summer. this summer we began to chat a little more. she just recently had a baby and i knew she was at home a lot during the day. i thought i should take advantage of that and have her over for lunch. she and her cute baby came over for lunch and it was great. she is very sweet. i learned a lot about her today. i think she had a good time too. i am so glad i finally - finally paid attention God telling me to reach out more. i do love getting to know the neighbors better. i do love being able to stand out in the yards or street and having 15 minute conversations with them. i do love seeing them while we are outside and saying hi. however, it was really, really great to have her in my house and be able to talk to her for 2 1/2 hours.

i'm going to keep working on this. keep me accountable!

chop, chop

my daughter and i had our hair cut yesterday. there has been a countdown for the past week and finally the day had arrived. our friend, mrs. lee, cut our hair.

here's the before pictures.

my daughter was first. mrs. lee washed my daughter hair. it was her first time to have her hair washed in a salon. then mrs. lee put her hair in clips and started cutting. it's just a simple bob. my daughter was very specific about wanting it just at her shoulders. mrs. lee did a great job with her and was very sweet.


she had this smile on her face the whole time.

here are the after pictures.


when we went back to my mother's to pick up my son (didn't figure he'd want to sit in a salon for a hour and half watching his mommy and sister getting their hair cut), my daughter asked grandma, "so do i look completely different???"

next it was my turn. my daughter took pictures of me getting my hair cut, but since this is my blog i won't be putting those on here. :)

however, i do have a picture that mrs. lee took of us together.

thanks mrs. lee you did a great job!

the first thing my daughter wanted to do this morning was brush her hair so she could see if it had any "rat's nests". it didn't.