Something to Think About

Last week, our associate pastor joined us for dinner. His wife was out of town on a minister's wives conference and so we invited him and his kids over for some adult conversation and joint playtime. We had a great time and he showed me a great bit from a slap poet. Not only was it fun and entertaining to watch, but he had a great point. I just had to pass it on.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Happy Spouse's Day

Tuesday night, Craig and I had scheduled a date night. We found out that morning that it was National Spouse's Day. How perfect!!


Our date nights are nothing too spectacular usually. We like it that way. We really simply enjoy the opportunity to have some time to get some yummy food and enjoy some conversation without a mommy or daddy every 10 seconds. We had so much to talk about it was a great night out.



When we got home, we headed out to relax in the hot tub. We decided to just ask questions of one another. What's the most fun you've had with us together - as a couple, with friends, with the family? What are you most thankful for in the other person? What is God teaching right now? One would ask and then both would answer. It was a great chance to just talk about such a wide array of things. What a gift I have in my wonderful husband!!

And Another One Down

Tuesday morning, we were walking out to the bus when Trinity turned to me with great excitement. "Look!" she said. "I lost another tooth!" She had mentioned (and showed me) just a couple of days prior that she had another loose tooth. Since I was out at a meeting the night before, I asked if it had come out the Monday night. "No," she responded. "I lost it during breakfast. I swallowed it."

This is the second tooth that she has managed to swallow. I just hope they don't cause too much internal damage. It hasn't seemed to be a problem so far.

She wrote a note to the tooth fairy that read, "Dear tooth fairy. I don't have my tooth right now becuse I swallowed it on acedent. From, Trinity P.S. What's your name?" And just in case you are wondering, the tooth fairy's name is Tina.

A Day of Celebrations

Sunday was a truly blessed day.

We began the day with a wonderful Sunday school class. We love our teacher and thoroughly enjoy the discussion that comes with our lessons. Each Sunday brings such wonderful fellowship and diving into Scripture.

During our morning service, we got to celebrate the baptisms of two of Trinity's dear friends, Riley and Jordan. We've known these families for years and it was so wonderful to celebrate their decisions to follow Christ.

Riley & Jordan are ready for the dunking.

Jordan was first

Then Riley's turn

Following the service, we got to celebrate with a delicious lunch at Riley's home. It was such a blessing to share in their family's excitement. We loved the time to be with such good friends.

That afternoon, we headed to another special time, the dedication of our dear friends' son, Geof. This dedication service was a time set apart specifically for parents to come together and dedicate themselves to raise their children in ways that glorify the Lord. We were very honored to be invited to be a part of this time.

Isn't Geof just so cute?

Geof and his parents, Llew and Lisa

Xander found the chocolate cupcakes that were on the tables. He enjoyed them.

We love any opportunity to stand beside other parents and tell them that we will support and encourage them along this crazy parenting road. I think we all need those people who walk along this journey with us - people who are a bit ahead of us who can help us through the struggles, people a little behind us that we can support and people right with us who we can look at each other and say, "What are we doing?" I love my friends. We are truly blessed.

Another Basketball Game

Another Saturday, another game. Trinity seems to get a little better each week. We're still working on developing some of the basics, but each game brings more smiles and cheers. She was gotten very good at passing to the open person and running down the court on each possession. This week, we played a team we had played before and they had clearly improved. I believe it was half-way through the second quarter before the first basket was scored.

Patiently waiting for her time to go in the game

This tip lead to the steal that lead to the first basket.

David vs Goliath? Maybe?

"Thou shalt not steal" doesn't really apply in basketball, does it?

The fast break. Look at her go!!

Taking the in-bound pass . . .

. . . and getting it to the open girl

The final score

Still undefeated!!

A Day On, Not A Day Off

We are very excited about our upcoming trip down to Disney with our family. Well, Craig and I are very excited. The kids have no idea that the trip is on the horizon. It's been interesting to try and plan the trip and work with my parents, sister and brother-in-law (who are all going) without them picking up on anything. I have to say that sometimes I am blessed with oblivious children.

One of the ways we are trying to bring the price of the weekend down is by looking for (and taking advantage of) any deals we can find. Well, we found the Give A Day, Get A Day program. The gist is that if you volunteer with one of the selected organizations, then you are given one free day at a Disney park. We were all over that one. After searching for an organization and volunteer event that wasn't full and would allow Trinity to work with us, we found one! We signed up to work at the Martin Luther King Day Of Service in Athens. We selected to work at a site that would be preparing a community garden for their spring planting. It sounded like a perfect match for us. We loaded up quite a bit of Craig's equipment and headed out.

The garden when we arrived

Unfortunately, some type of stomach bug hit me that morning on the way over. I slept in the car until the work day started. Thankfully, I was well enough to work most of the morning, but I did have to take a few breaks. Not fun for me. However, Trinity and Craig were quite the troupers.

Before the work began, the work leader told us the story of the community garden. It had such a personal touch to her since she grew up in the neighborhood and her aunt still lives on the street. She told us how the area was infested with drugs and how the area that now holds the garden used to be the spot where "the candy house" stood. She told us how the community came together to work with the local government to clean up the area. It was a great opportunity to hear the history of the garden.


We cleaned out planting beds, We got rid of all the old growth. Craig cleared a large section of growth behind the garden. Trinity planted some flowers in one of the beds with some of the other children. She even took time to take water bottles to all the workers. It was a great chance to serve and give a little something to this special community.

As we were driving down (with Trinity deep into her video game with her headphones on), Craig and I talked about how we would respond if there was a lot of publicity about the free Disney day. We decided that we would just play it by ear and see what her response was to any Disney talk. Well, there was talk and she just looked at us. She said, "So some people get to go to Disney for working here?" We said, "Yes." She thought for a moment and then simply said, "Oh. Okay." and went on working. It was good to see her working just to help out others, not because she knew she would be rewarded for it.

The finished garden - ready for the locals to plant in a few months

Here we are with the project leader (in the black jacket and hat) and some of the neighborhood residents

Trinity in front of the flower bed that she worked on

What a great morning!!

Back To Basketball

Due to the holidays and an ice storm in the area, we had a bit of a break from our Saturday morning basketball games. The 16th was our first game back of the season. One of our girls was not going to be there, which meant Trinity would be playing the whole game. We really tried to encourage her to not give up, even when she got tired. She did a great job the whole game. She ran up and down the court and did a great job. There were a few times that she was in there on defense as much as she could. It's been quite a treat watching her grow in her b-ball skills. I can't quite see her ever getting to be a warrior when it comes to sports, but she's having fun and that's the important thing.

Fast break - Trinity right in the midst of it

De-fense

Getting some words of encouragement from Craig

The scoreboard worker was amazingly fast, so I didn't get a picture of the final score, so I missed it, but they won - 6 to 8. It was close, but a good win and a great effort from all the girls!

Decades Night

We love AWANA. Some weeks are a little tougher to get our verse practice done than others, but it is very much worth it to hear our children quote their scripture that they've been studying. Even as I type out this blog, I am listening to Kalyn sing along with her VBS music from a year ago, singing about serving her Savior, that God is faithful to forgive her, about putting God first. It's a blessing to see those fruit come out in their lives.

One thing that our AWANA leadership team does is create theme nights. The 12th was decade night. It was amazing to see all the creations that people came up with. I believe the youth helpers had more fun than the students. I wish I had taken photos of the workers, but I missed the chance. However, I did get Trinity in her cool 60's getup. Isn't she so cute?

Girls Night Out

I love the opportunity to go out to dinner and catch up with some of my girlfriends. We had a great plan, we had coupons and we headed out to find this cute little tapas restaurant. Well, after driving around for longer than our tummies wanted, we ended up at little pizzeria. It was delicious and the night brought tons of laughter and smiles. Can't you tell we're having a great time?

Well, apparently at one point, I left the table and left my camera out. Here, just a thought to all you out there who may think of making goofy pictures on some one's camera while their gone: If they blog, think again. You never know where those pictures may show up. I'm just sayin'. Hee, hee, hee.

By the way, as we were leaving, we found the original restaurant that we were looking for. It was located in the building behind the place we ate. There was some discussion about whether it was actually open or not, so it's probably a good thing that we ate when and where we did. Thanks for a great night out, girls!!

Monster Truck Show

While the girls were home, busily sewing together their stuffed animals, Xander was off. Doing boy stuff. With his boy buddy. He was a monster truck show. About a month ago, our friends invited Xander to join them at a monster truck show as part of an early birthday gift to their son. From the stories and pictures, it looked like they all had a great time!!

They got to ride on MARTA on the way down. Fun on a train (type of vehicle)

Let the loud noises and the show begin!! I heard that Xander stared at the trucks the whole time, completely mesmerized. He had little ear plugs in to help keep the noise down to a slightly tolerable level.

How cute are these two boys?!? Can you tell they are having so much fun? Here they are with their Monster Mutt hats and the truck that inspires the hats. Thank you so much to Asher's grandma for the great gift!!

Thank you so much John and Cacee for treating Xander to such a special and wonderful night. You guys are awesome! He was completely exhausted when he arrived back home, but it sure looks like it was worth it!!

Homemade Build-A-Bear

For Christmas, Trinity and Kalyn were given their own Build-A-Bear kits from Craig's parents. Xander was out on a true boy outing last Saturday night and so we decided to pull out the kits and let the girls build their animals. Kalyn had a bunny and Trinity had a bear. They had been asking if they could make them and we were excited to finally have a night where we could assemble them.

We began by letting the girls sew up a bit of the animals. The holes for the thread were pre-made, which made it a bit easier for them. After a while, we helped out to move the process on a little bit faster. Actually Craig did about half the sewing while I gave the girls a bath.

The girls kissed the hearts they put in their animals.

The finished products were so cute. Aren't they all so precious?

Since then, the animals have been in the pretty constant care of Trinity and Kalyn. It was a wonderful gift! Thanks PaPa and Gendy.