A Day of Play

Our MOPS Special Event Coordinator, Teri, is great!! She has a ton of great ideas for us to keep our kids busy with fun playdates and ways to fellowship as women through Moms' Night Out. This week brought a playdate at a place called PLAY. This was our second time to PLAY, the first being a little over a month ago. Monday, it was just Xander and I and I had a blast being able to focus my attention completely on him, which doesn't happen too often on outings.

He is such a little boy and I could see how he had grown since our first trip. He loved "jumping" on the trampoline and playing in the foam pit. He even learned how to crawl all the way from the center of the pit to the very edge. He ran all over the room and I had a blast talking to other moms and playing with Xander during the morning! Enjoy the pictures!!

Bikers and Clippers

Thursday afternoon was a pretty good day. After a couple of touch days with the kids earlier in the week, it was such a blessing to have a fun, enjoyable afternoon. Wednesday afternoon, Craig and I worked in our garage - cleaning it out and doing a bit of organizing. When we were done, we had lots of clean space and were so excited!! So, Thursday, we pulled out the kids bikes and let them ride around in the garage. See, our driveway is quite a slope down to the street, so we have to be very careful when we let them ride. After a bit of time of doing loops in the garage, we loaded up and headed down the street for a short family ride. Kalyn and Xander were in the wagon and Trinity and Craig were on their bikes. Trinity is getting much better at her bike riding and we are very pleased with her progress.

I think by now, Xander has surpassed both girls in the number of haircuts he has had. Thursday brought on the introduction of the clippers. Craig is our resident hair cutter when it comes to Xander and he has done a great job. Check out his new do -

SYATP

During the week, our day usually includes us walking out the door at 7 AM to meet the bus down the street to send Trinity off to first grade. Today, our day meant us getting out of our car at 7 AM at her school. Today was a special day, a meaningful day, a day to encourage Trinity in her spiritual journey. Today was See You At The Pole.

See You At The Pole (or lovingly called syatp) is a national event that encourages students to meet at their school's flagpole to pray over their school, teachers, students and administrations. Since we have worked with the youth at our church for a dozen years, we have had plenty of history encouraging our students to attend their own school's syatp event. Well, this year, I had quite a dilemma - do take Trinity to do her own syatp? After a bit of prayer and thought, I decided that the answer was, "yes."

So, this morning she and I stood in front of her flagpole and prayed. It was dark, it was cool and it was just us, but we prayed. It was a day I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Friday Night Fun

This past week, we surprised the kids with a trip to the circus. You see, in our house, we have to be very careful about what future events Trinity and Kalyn know about. In the past, we've had events fall through at the last moment (which causes great sadness) and if they know too early, there aren't enough hours in the day to include all the questions they'll ask. So, we've discovered that waiting until the last minutes makes it more fun for them and a bit easier to deal with for Craig and me.

One of Trinity's classes is studying the circus and how it correlates with how our community works together. So, that's what brought on the trip to the circus. Once the girls found out, they were so excited. After sitting in a bit more traffic than we wanted, we made it to the the Gwinnett Arena early enough to enjoy the pre-show. We were able to travel down to the floor to meet the performers, try on some circus costumes and see some pieces of the show up close and personally.

The show was wonderful!! We all had a great time!! I absolutely loved watching the circus through the eyes of my kids and hear the excitemen in their voices as they talked about their favorite parts on the ride home. I am already looking forward to our next trip.

Prayer Requests to Pass Along

I am requesting prayer for our friends, Amy and Brad. We all went to college together and over the years, we have grown our families and shared a number of Auburn reunions. I could try to paraphrase her request, but why? Here is a summary of the last couple of emails I have received from her.

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Email Dated Sept 11:
Please pray for our youngest child, Grant, who is 12 months old. He has been having seizures and has to go to the Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta today for an MRI. He will have to be put under anesthesia for this. Next week he will be seeing a pediatric neurologist. We noticed these seizures about 3 weeks ago and saw our pediatrician. He sent us to have an EEG (a test where they check the brain activity with 24 wires on their head). It took a week to get the results due to the Labor Day holiday, but the test did confirm seizure activity on the left side of the brain. Please pray that God will give us grace and wisdom through this journey. Thank you.

Email Dated Sept 20:
We met with the pediatric neurologist in Macon yesterday and got some bad news. Grant has tuberous sclerosis which means there are many small tubers or nodules in his brain that are causing his seizures. These tubers can also show up his heart, kidneys, retinas, and lungs. The disease can be hereditary, but more frequently shows up sporadically, as seems to be the case with Grant. It occurs in approximately 1 in 6,000 people (we have also heard 1 in 10,000). Right now, Grant's seizures are localized to one area of the brain, but as the tubers grow, the doctor expects them to become more generalized and severe. He is now taking medication to try to prevent/control them; based on the EEG results, the doctor believes that Grant's seizures will worsen even within a few months and that his case will be on the more severe end of the spectrum, making them difficult to control with medicine. The tubers will also grow as his brain grows, and as he begins using his brain for speech, coordination, and the other functions needed for normal growth and development, the tubers will compete with this demand, causing the doctor to predict developmental delays and difficulties for Grant. We are thankful for his expertise and the diligence, honesty, and concern that he showed to us yesterday. We let him know that many people are praying for Grant, and he said that he would need that to make a difference. So we ask you to continue praying for our son and our family.

Even though we don't know what the future holds for Grant....we know God does. We trust God completely with our Grant and what the future holds for him and us. God is good and He is faithful to provide exactly what we need when we need it. In Olivia's Bible lesson today the verse for her to memorize was Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Brad and I seek to praise and glorify the Lord through this journey. We know He is in control.
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Please lift up this precious family of 6. Their trust in God and His provision is truly encouraging. Thank you for your support. <><

And It's Off

What's off? A lot of things here are just a few:

(1) Mom and Dad -

(I guess the title for them should be "And They're Off")This morning, they loaded up their luggage and headed to the airport for their first trip to Europe (Mom said that's what they are calling this excursion). This year, they are celebrating their 40th anniversary and what a better place to celebrate?!? I can't wait to hear all the stories and see the pictures when they return in two weeks.

(2) Craig's Parents' House -

We travelled down to Bowdon yesterday to meet his parents for a birthday dinner and decided to go early enough to spend some time checking out the progress on their new house. It's amazing how quickly the building is coming. It helps that the builder has two crews working on the house (one "benefit" of the housing slump).

(3) Our Sunday School Class of Juniors -

We were so excited on Sunday morning as we welcomed in 10 in our class!! This is a huge number for this group. That doesn't count the two other students that have choosen to volunteer with two elementary classes (but that does count the student who's actually a freshman but came with a buddy and ended up in our class), bringing the total number to 12!! We are so excited about this year (have I mentioned that in previous posts?

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday, Craig!!!!!

Today we celebrate his 36th birthday. Kalyn and Trinity keep asking when his party will be and both of them were very concerned that we would celebrate while they were at school. To both of their joys, I assured them that we would only celebrate once everyone was back home together. Our plan is to grill out some yummy steaks, open a few gifts and enjoy some relaxing family time before I head out for a Golden Bell rehearsal tonight. But do not fear, Craig will have tons of fun playing Wii with our friend John (he's lonely while his wife is off playing at the beach).

So, once more -
Happy Birthday

to a great hubby and a wonderful daddy!

From Game Night to Game Day

I truly love my friends!!! They each are such treasures and gifts. I love the ways they make me laugh, they keep me in check and encourage me. I also love any excuse to get together with them. That is one thing I am very thankful - Craig and I both enjoy the time with our friends. This weekend had two different opportunities to get together with two different groups.

Friday we were invited over to our friends' home for a game night. We had such a blast - especially when Catch Phrase came out. We all laughed so hard and some of the clues we were giving our teams to guess the secret words. It's been a while since I laughed as hard as I did that night!

Saturday brought about game day filled with college football!! Even though I'm a girl, I love to watch football. We got to spend the day with our friend's boy, Ben. Ben is an only child, so being surrounded by three other kids and 3 more kids that evening was a bit of an adjustment for him. That night, we invited our Auburn friends over to watch the Auburn-Mississippi State game. I was excited to watch the game with other fans and to pull out all my Auburn decorations! I must say, not so much laughter and smiles at this gathering. Yes, we won. However, a 3-2 football score brought about a quite stressful and frustrating game. Oh the pain of the ugliness of the game. Hopefully next week with be a bit more enjoyable.

Concert, Coast and Cupcake (Batter)

Thursday was a full day. The morning was semi-wasted, semi-rememberance for me. I found myself entrigued and mesmerized by the 9-11 memorial events on tv. The service at the Pentagon was very interesting to me - especially as it focused on the unveiling of the Memorial Park. It was amazing to hear about the thought that went into the Memorial. Check out the photos and symbolism at http://memorial.pentagon.mil/default.htm.

Before I knew it, it was time to pack up a picnic lunch, load Kalyn and Xander in the car. During the drive, a soon-to-be-famous conversation took place:

Kalyn: Mommy, why are you angry?

Me: Well, I'm not angry. I'm just frustrated because I've had to tell you the same thing over and over this morning. (I cannot count the number of times she asked to watch TV - my answer never changing my answer of "no". One question came right after she came out of time out for asking the question.)

Kalyn: Oh. (insert a wait of about 2 seconds) So, Mommy, why are you angry?

So, on the background of that, we headed out to Woodstock's Brown Bag Lunch Concert. Our friend Cacee invited us to join her and Asher in downtown Woodstock for a musical concert and picnic lunch. It was a great chance to hear some fun and relaxing music and let the kids play and run around a bit. This week's musical performer was a guy and his guitar as he sang a wide variety of songs. The kids has a great time playing mostly around this huge tree, which included a vine that hung just low enough for the older kids to grab hold and live out their Tarzan dreams (even though they have no idea who that was).

That afternoon, Trinity got off the school bus and we headed to the house to finish her first first grade project - a tie tin land formation. Earlier in the week, we had reviewed the options (coast, valley, plain, mountain, plateau, desert), Trinity had choosen to make a coast (perfect, since we were just at one last week!) and we had begun. Glueing sand to the bottom, making paper waves, pasting fish she had drawn on the bottom, glueing the shells on the beach area. The last step was to put the water into a sealable bag, dye it blue and past it down. Much easeier said that done. We went through 4-5 different bags (various sizes and brands) without any success - too big, too small, leaked from the top, leaked from the bottom with the final straw being a tiny, tiny hole. So, I went to Trinity and we came up with another option - Play Doh. Here was the final project (or at least how it looked before the bus trip to school the next morning).

That night, we headed over to our friends' house - Llew and Lisa. Lisa was kind enough to offer to make something special for Craig's upcoming birthday. She talked to Craig and he said that his favorite was cake batter. So, some of us enjoyed batter in the form of cupcakes while Craig enjoyed his bowl of batter. YUM for him (and the rest of us).

Our Adventures

We have had a great time since our last post. It's included MOPS, the Yellow Daisy Festival, a day at the lake and a fun trip to the park, just to give you a brief summary. Now for the fun details!

Friday brought a great kick-off to our year of MOPS. As I've mentioned, I am was very excited to meet my table-mates (since I only knew 1 of the 6 other women that would be at my table). During our time to meet and greet each other, I found out that I sent to Auburn with one of "my girls". About half-way through the time, she looked at me and said that I looked very familiar to her. (Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same thing.) So, we began the "where-do-I-know-you-from" game. MOPS last year? No. Any summer MOPS outings? No. Then she asked where I went to school. Proudly answering Auburn, she quickly responded with, "That's it." Turned out, she was a freshman the year that I was the "leader" of TNT (our campus ministry worship time) - I would get up in front of the Baptist Campus Ministry each week and lead prayer time, introduce the speaker and keep the worship time flowing. (So, it was a bit understandable why she knew me and I didn't remember her.) All that to say, we had a great meeting. I'm already looking forward to the next one in a week and a half!

Friday also brought one of my favorite annual events - the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain. It's a huge festival filled with tons of artists and all around creative people. I've picked up tons of Christmas gifts and general goodies here. After MOPS, my friend Jen and I dropped our children off with our respective spouses and hopped in the car. This year, I went with a purpose to get a specific gift for my sister and her husband as a multiple-celebration gift. I had seen this item here in years past. However, it was not to be found. So sad. But I have other options at finding it, so hopefully I won't have to give up on my idea. I was able to get our family Christmas ornament and a few scriptures for our house. All in all, it was a great time of hanging out with Jen and enjoying some creative shopping!

Saturday was so much fun!! A bit of background - each year, our church holds an auction, not for things, but for opportunities for fellowship, as a fundraiser for missions. This year's auction brought in almost $30,000 - which we were all very excited to contribute toward. Our (former) Sunday school class teacher, bought a day at a lake house of another couple in the church for our entire class. It included time out on the boat, swimming in the lake, a delicious cookout and a great chance to fellowship! Since we don't spend each Sunday with the class anymore, it was a great time to catch up with everyone!! Kalyn jumped right into the lake - well, she quickly went down the stairs. With her float on, she was a fish - swimming right along with the kids 4 years older than her. Trinity was a little more reserved. But eventually (once she really trusted her float) she got in and was having a blast with everyone else. The girls and I even got to enjoy time on the tube behind the boat. I was so proud of them - they kept wanting the boat to go faster and got it up to it's top speed!

Our family on the boat!

Kalyn would be the little head farthest out!

Fun on the Tube!!

Our fearless boat driver - Chris!!

Monday was another fun day - in a new way. With Kalyn at preschool and Trinity at elementary school, I really got my first time to enjoy Xander (I don't think running errands counted as a fun day last week). We met one of our friends, Cacee, and her son Asher at a nearby park for some play time and a picnic lunch. It was so different to only have to keep track of one child! I think he's starting to get used to this one-on-one time.



It's been a great week with more fun to come! Check in next time when I get to blog about the free outdoor concert I'm hitting tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Ashley!!

Today I wish my "little" sister a big, happy birthday!

Twenty-nine years ago today she entered our family and (as the old adage goes) our lives have never been the same. Over the years, we have grown to be more than just sisters, but dear friends and for that I am very thankful! I am so excited to see what an amazing woman she has grown into. I am so glad that she has found a wonderful husband, great friends and loves all that she does.

Go and celebrate your birthday without us, Ash! We'll see you soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ASHLEY RHEA!!

MOPS, Spiritual Thoughts & Softball

I am really excited about Friday. It is our kickoff day for a new year of MOPS. This year I am diving into a new role (I've seen a theme for this year) of Discussion Group Leader. In the past, I have always been willing to step in when my table's DGL was out for a meeting, but now I'm officially becoming a DGL. I've gotten my list of ladies who will be at my table for the year. I am excited about encouraging them in their spiritual walk - where ever that is, right now. I am looking forward to sharing Christ's love with them. What a year it's going to be and I am very glad that God is allowing me to be a part of it.

This morning during my quiet time, I got to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 which reads, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

Here's what hit me as I meditated on this scripture - we (or at least I) try to fight against the world. After all, as "strong, growing, maturing Christians" it's what we're "supposed" to do - stand up against the world and all it has to offer. The problem is that we go about it in the wrong way. I think we fight the world with the same tactics that the world uses against us. However, this verse very clearly states that we are not to use the weapons of the world. We have amazing, powerful, divine weapons. It struck me that if (and when) we try to use the tactics of the world to fight the world then we are really falling into the trap of the world - we end up fighting their battle, and in the end, not really fight against them at all. We have to be strong enough to step back and take advantage of the power God fills us with as His followers. (If that is totally confusing to you, I'm sorry. I'll be glad to try and explain it better - but somehow that made sense in my mind.)

Tonight, we got to travel up to Central Park (in Forsyth County - obviously not NY) to cheer on our friend Llew in his team's softball game. This park has a great playground and a fun disc golf course (sorry you didn't get to practice your disc game, Craig). The kids had a great time playing on the playground and then cheering on Llew and the Double-B team! We had to leave before the game was over, but Double-B was ahead. Craig had a great time making some signs in Llew's honor:
Llewser section
Llewt & Pillage!!
Llew is Well (spelled backwards)

It's a hit for Llew!!

Cheering on (Uncle) Llew!!!

(however, there was a debate about putting this picture up or the one of Kalyn proudly holding up her sign - sideways)

It was a fun night for all!!!