Some Jacob for your Tuesday.

Here is my cook cat Jacob this morning before I left for work. He was waiting for Daddy to finish cooking the bacon.

What a week

I am out of town this week, away on "business"- I was in the airport when the shootings happened on Monday. I first heard about it on a TV in the Houston airport. I think it is horrific- but I have been unable to read, listen to or watch much of the coverage because it all seems a little too over the top.

I read this from Suburban Turmoil ~ I think it says what I am thinking in a way I never could have.

WARNING! This is gross!

On Tuesday night Jacob made a friend. There was a little boy running around the neighborhood that I had not ever seen before, but was about Jacobs’s age. They played in the garage with Jacobs’s pirates and had a grand old time. I was sorry when I had to send him away because it was time for Jacob to come into the house for a bath and bed.
Last night I drove up and the little boy was outside playing again with the older kids in the neighborhood. When I picked up Jacob I told him to go on and play with his new little friend. They played nicely outside with the pirates for a little bit and then asked to come inside. They came in and played in the trashed out play room for a while. Then Jacobs new friend had to use the restroom. We the poor boy was in there for 12 minutes. I only know this exact time because I was watching the clock for Chelsa who had to be home at 7:00. While he was in there I went and knocked on the door twice to ask if everything was ok. I was worried that he was out of toilet paper or that, oh I don’t know- was confused. When he finally came out I could smell the restroom from across the house. He had shut the door when he came out, so I slowly opened the door and was shocked at what I found. To begin the stench was nearly unbearable. I had to gasp and step back. The sink was filled with a brownish colored water. I was almost to scared to unplug the drain, but I needed to know what I was dealing with. I pushed down the plug and the water slowly drained, I was left with poop in the sink. POOP IN THE SINK! Who does this!?! There was poop on the side of the toilet bowl, on the inside, and poop wiped on the floor. There was pee on the floor and the rug was wet. So I set off to clean up some other kids poop. And as I did it I thought of Amy. Not because I often associate her with poop, but I know over the years she has cleaned up both of my kids poop at one point or another. So first I must officially apologize to her for my kids leaving poop where it doesn’t belong and thank her for cleaning it up and second, how gross is it to clean up someone else’s kids poop? IT. IS. GROSS!

For Amy

It was a wonderful weekend with my parents. They drove into town this weekend for the holiday. They arrived late on Thursday, so we did not see them until Friday. The kids got to see their Memaw Friday morning when she came to visit them in their classrooms, a favorite of both of my children. I was let off work early on Friday for the holiday and we waited until they got out of school and headed to the mall. With the cash she had received from Memaw she had enough for the make-up kit she had been eyeing for weeks- and saving her money for.

Saturday was so cold and damp. Yuck. I had a flat tire which my father so graciously changed for me in the sleet. I am forever thankful for that! Because it was so cold and wet we decided to hit the movies. We saw Meet the Robinsons. It was an enjoyable flick- and the kids really liked it. My favorite part was the old school Mickey cartoon they showed before the movie started.

Easter Sunday was crazy with sugar. I only allowed Jacob a small amount of chocolate before church, but they received eggs in Sunday school and they were HOPPED UP!

It was a nice weekend. I enjoyed seeing my folks, even though my mom only saw Josh for about 30 seconds all weekend and my dad a while more, due to the loss of my new contact down the bathroom sink. I know Josh is looking forward to our future travels coming up. Only 8 weeks until our trip to Lubbock and a month more until the trip to Kentucky that has been 9 years in the making.

Bluebonnets

This is the first year since we have lived in Texas that we took the kids pictures in the bluebonnets. It was like 50 degrees on Easter Sunday, but we were running out of time before they were going to dissapear. So here you go:

Fun times at home

Josh and I have decided that we are going to attempt to take the kids on a trip to Disney World this fall. I have had the itch to go back since last fall and with his new part-time job- we are going to save all of his money for our trips to Lubbock (May), Kentucky (July) and Disney World (November). We have already told the kids about the trip- sort of an insurance policy to make sure we get the money saved up- they will hold us to it. And of course, we don’t want to disappoint. Last night I was sitting in the living room with Emily and Jacob after dinner had been eaten and baths had been taken. We were watching a program we had recorded on Disney World. They were profiling the Tower of Terror at Disney MGM’s Studios. Emily turned to me and asked, “Are we going on that ride?” I told her yes- even Jacob is tall enough to ride this one already! She turned back to the TV and said, “Sweeet!” It was priceless. Then they began to profile the Rockin Rollercoaster starring Areosmith and Jacob said, “I can’t ride that, I am not big enough, but if I do get big enough, I’m going to ride it!” He seems to have no fear- of the stuff on TV and the maps I have from previous trips. We will see how brave he is when we are right up on it.

The weekend recap

We had a fantastic weekend of nothing! No Scouts, no volleyball, no soccer, no work! Church was our only “obligation” and it was fun and fantastic. We are finally “connecting” at church and it feels good.

So Amy and her kids “hung” with us on Friday. We made French bread pizza and watched NMSU fall short of a win over UT in basketball. The kids ran around and had a great time playing together.





~I have one with Ian as well, but blogger is being a jerk. I will email them to you Amy~

Emily had a rough night and was up sick most of the night, so we all got to sleep in Saturday morning and then I went to the grocery shopping on a budget- Like Sarah I was only able spend a certain amount of money. It was fantastic fun. I only had taken the money I could spend and it was nerve racking at the end to make sure I wasn’t going to have to put something back. But I feel like I shopped better than I EVER had! I actually looked at prices and choose store brand stuff over name brand more times than not. I actually only bought name brand soup and chips for the kids lunch. And I had to think long and hard about those choices! I talked with Josh and I think we are going to make shopping a challenge for me from now on. I totally dug it!!

On Sunday we finally got around to our cleaning. We moved furniture to clean underneath it- EWW! We found stuff you don’t even want to know about. Just more proof that our son is disgusting! But while the furniture was all moved around, I decided we should just rearrange it! So we did. We completely turned the entire living room around. The TV space is cozier and there is other space now for something else, we are thinking of putting the computer in the living room now- or a piano. Josh doesn’t like the piano idea, but I have wanted one for years. I am going to keep an eye out on craigslist and see if I can’t get my hands on one!

I also watched a movie after small groups last night- Quencieniera. It was very good. Josh thought it was boring, but I thought it was very interesting~ I enjoyed it.
That is about it for my exciting weekend. It was nice to have a weekend where nothing was going on. We just had a good time as a family.

Friday

How boring am I? This weekend we have NOTHING planned. Except for a little spring cleaning. There are no scouts, no volleyball, no soccer and no money. So what will we do? Clean!

I plan to kick the kids outside and scrub. Clean closets, clean baseboards, clean blinds. So when my parents join us in a few weeks the only thing that is gross is our carpets, but they will be gross until we can replace them- which we have grand ideas of replacing the carpet with tile. We shall see if that actually happens.
SO that’s it. We are extremely boring right now. *blah* oh well, butter boring that to exciting, right?

Mean Girls

Why are little girls so mean? I just got home and Emily asked if she could go play. There is still sunlight out, so I said sure, be home in 30 minutes for dinner. She went over and those little girls played a trick on her. It is not the first time and I am sure it will not be the last. They all go inside and say "Oh, we can;t play anymore" So Emily will come home and then 5 minutes later they are all back outside playing. She is so angry and hurt by this. I am angry and hurt by this. I have never wanted to punch a little girl more than I did just now. I don't ever remember doing those things to my "friends" when I was growing up. Not that I was never mean, but this is just down right nasty. So I held her and loved on her and told her that sometimes girls are mean and try not to let it bother you. So she changed clothes and went back outside and played with some other kids. It just breaks my heart that these girls who she is trying so hard to be nice to are treating her so poorly.

ARGH!

Daylight Savings Time

I have this love hate relationship with day-light savings time. I hate it! I have an incredible difficult time adjusting. Probably more difficult time adjusting that anyone in my family. I dread loosing the hour of precious sleep. And anyone who knows me understands my need for sleep. But I love it! I love the extra light, I love that it means spring has come. I love that it came early this year-right as Spring Break was starting. This way my children can ease into the transition, rather than three of us trudging around cranky and sleepy, there is only one! It is fabulous. Just last night I got off from work, headed to the gym. Worked out, went home ate dinner that Josh had prepared then cleaned the bedroom up a little, weeded the front lawn a little, helped Emily with her volleyball watched Jacob try to ride his bike down the neighbors lawn X-games style and still the sun was up when we went inside at 8 pm. I know some of that came from Josh being home, there being no homework this week and dinner was ready when I walked in the house. But I am thankful that on Friday when Jacob has soccer practice that he will have his complete practice in the sun light. And that even Emily, who practices in a gym will leave her practice in the sun light. I love Spring. I love day light savings time, once I can get over the whole sleep thing.

Reviews by Susan

I was out of town last week in Little Rock for work and had a chance to “digest” some works that I would not have been able to if I was home, as time would not have permitted.

So for the three people who read this I will be giving my review of both a movie and a book. I could have written this right after I finished these works, however I am glad I waited and had time to digest the information given to me.

The first will be the movie “Jesus Camp”. This is an Academy Award nominated documentary about the evangelicals and their training of their children to be “warriors” for their cause. This was a difficult movie to watch, in fact I had to stop it more than once to digest some of the material. On one side it really made me think, it made me wonder what I tell my children about God and religion. How I want to raise them up knowing God and allowing their faith to grow in ways that I can not ever understand. How I want them to grow into faithful adults, if I was getting the message across enough. But it is another thing altogether to have a 6 year old crying because she is being told by a “preacher” that she is a sinner and that the world is the way it is because of her. The fact that they either do not believe in grace or the documentary choose not to show them teaching this aspect of their faith. I tend to think they just don’t allow these young children to know the grace God has given us. It was difficult seeing these children being taught to be extreme pro-life. Not just pro-life, but EXTREME. Bringing out plastic dolls the size of an unborn child and waving them around and taping their mouths shut in protest to abortion. These are children who have no idea what they are being taught. They don’t know what it is that they are protesting. How could they? The families that were followed all home-schooled in order to keep their children from the evils of the world (no disrespect Amy, but I know your reason and theirs. Yours in a good reason, theirs is questionable). If they are kept from knowing the evils of the world, how could they possibly understand what it is these adults are having them protest? I feel like it was showing these people in their lives as they live and they are totally living their lives for Christ, but teaching their children things which I just do not agree with.

The second is a book “come back”. This is a true story about a mother/daughter relationship during the daughters fight with drug addiction. It is written by both the mother and the daughter displaying their different views on the same situations. It was incredibly interesting to read this right now. Not that Emily is having a sudden problem with cocaine, she is simply starting the pre-puberty mess and I feel like I am going to pull my hair out. This showed through their journey how they learned o have a better, more firmly connected relationship. We don’t have near the problems that this family has/had-but I can take some of the practical advice given in the book and apply it to our relationship. This is however a heart-wrenching story in which you hurt for both the mother and the daughter. It was moving, I read it so quickly trying to engulf it as quickly as possible because it was that good. It is so scary how easily and quickly the daughter is taken into the world of drugs and how her parents had no idea. But looking back they noticed the signs, they just weren’t that obvious, everything was very subtle. She didn’t want to hurt her mother, she just felt like that was the life she needed to lead. An eye-opening story that I enjoyed immensely.

So, there you have it. My two horrifically written reviews. But I needed to get my thoughts out on paper-to help me remember what I was thinking about these things at the time.

New eyes

So I am sitting here right now wearing birthday present from my parents, my brand new hard contact lenses. Ow, they hurt. But ever so often they don’t hurt, my eyes stop watering and I can see clearly. More clearly than I think I have EVER seen. With my astigmatism ridden left eye. I haven’t seen clearly out of my left eye in 15 years. And now, I can. But it is a learning experience. I think that taking them out is going to be the extra sticky part. You see, you have to put your eyelids behind the lens and pop them out. Yes, POP THEM OUT!!! Is that not horrifying. Plus, unlike my soft lenses, which can move when you touch them, they are hard. Not a harder soft, but a HARD-like plastic. I have plastic in my eyes right now! I am supposed to wear them for at least 3 hours today and progress from there. I am at 2 hours right now, so I think I can make at least 3. I hope I can at least. So thanks mom and dad for allowing me to inflict horrific pain in my eyes, you’re the best!

Living life

Let see, so little and so much to report:
I went to the doctor today in regards to this and she said I had “girly boobs” and to just watch them. If I notice anything to come back to her and if not have a mammogram at 35. She said all of my family history is too far removed to have any true bearing on my risk. She said just the fact that I am female gives me more risk than the family.

Cookies are over, FINALLY! I for one am thrilled! Emily did well, she sold as many, if not a few more than last year. I am just glad it is almost over. I still have to do final reports and finish collecting money from girls but no more selling!

Emily also auditioned and got a part in her schools 2nd grade production. It is in April and she has one line. She is VERY excited about it, as am I!

Jacob is growing and finally eating. On Sunday he was a human garbage disposable. He ate so much he almost made himself sick! But I think he is trying to grow again. He woke up last night crying that his legs were hurting. I am thankful that he is drinking us out of milk every week, so I know he is getting some nutrients. In fact last night he ate almost a full serving bowl of corn. I just let him eat till he was full.
That is about it. We are pretty boring right now, just busy living. But having loads of fun doing it!

This is me.

Here are a few links to things I have written in the past that I believe accuratly "explain" me and give insight to who I really am.

My 100. Almost everybody has one, so why wouldn't I?

I have addicitions just like everybody. Here I chronicled one of mine.

My kids are weird, but so are everybodies. Here is an enduring favorite story about my son.

Here is the story of Josh and I's first couple of days together as a couple. Awww, aren't I sweet?

This is one I wrote while I was missing my baby girl at camp.

And parenting sure is tough... but I think I have it figured out, every once and a while.

Grace, what more can I say?

Tolls and Reuinons

Yesterday afternoon I left work to head home to enjoy a fantastic meal prepared by my husband and to be shared with my dear friend Amy. Once I got onto the highway I hear on the radio that I35 is down to one lane up north, right were I needed to go. So I quickly grab my purse and make sure I have $.75 to pay to take the toll road. I do so I head up the road transfer to 183 and onto Mopac going North bound. It was a breeze. Hardly any traffic and I was into Round Rock in 15 minutes. However, as I am making my way through all the traffic I am making phone calls to my Girl Scout parents and I am on the phone when I see the flashing lights. Now, it is not the flashing light of a police officer pulling me over, it is the flashing lights of the toll way looking for my TxTag. Which I don’t have. Uh-oh. I ran the toll. Totally not on purpose. I had the money. I was ready to pay. I forgot to exit in order to pay. Amy tells me not to worry that I will get a bill for the 75 cents that I didn’t pay and it is no big deal. But I FEEL horrible. I didn’t mean to do it. I hadn’t planned on doing it. In fact when I was rooting through my purse looking for the money before I got on the road I though to myself, “If I don’t have it I will just have to stay on 35. Oh well.” I was relieved when I found the dollar hidden in the side pocket of my purse and went right onto that road. But, now I feel bad.

On a different note. I am SO super excited that in May we are having a family reunion of sorts and the entire family from my dad’s parents and all their kids and all their kids and all their kids (those are my kids) will be there! I can’t remember when ALL of us where together. We are going to Lubbock to watch the 3rd grandchild graduate high school. I am thrilled! I love family!

What’s going on…. not a whole lot. Josh has had his shift change at work. He now is “on shift” as opposed to in the kitchen. This means, I never know when he is working. It is something like 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, and that is where I get confused. But the good thing is he has every other weekend off. So that is exciting! Today is his first day and we were able to get everybody up and at ‘em with minimal fussing. This means that I get to drop the kids off at school before I head in, because he starts work at 7 am. But at least it is not everyday and he helps with the kids before he leaves.

Jacob is loosing weight. He weighs less now than he did when he last went to the doctor. I am concerned, but not sure what to do. He won’t eat. He is stubborn beyond his years. I could try the whole, you’ll eat what I say because I am the boss and nothing until then. And eventually he will get hungry enough to eat it, I am afraid he won’t get hungry enough and he will just waste away. He is just that stubborn. This weekend we are going to restock on the healthy stuff that he like, the fruits and vegetables and milk and yogurt. He is over the chicken nugget. He will only eat chicken nuggets out-which we are actively trying to not do very much anymore. He is even over the rolled taco. So he has limited his little tiny diet to crackers and veggies and fruits. He is going to waste away, I just know it.

Strep invades our house!

Edited at the bottom***************************************************************

I am officially better. I think I may have been holding onto this hole strep thing since December when Josh had it and it never turned into anything real noticeable until now. Today I feel the best I have felt in ages. I am focused and on top of stuff. It is great!

On Saturday when Emily got out of the bath and showed me a bit of a rash on her tummy. I put some stuff on her and off we went to a booth. (Which I nearly died at, too soon to be out.) It was bad when she got a bath that night and I went across the street to Mrs. Ann’s house (I love Mrs. Ann!!!) and borrowed some calamine lotion. That didn’t help either. Well today at 8:30 I received a call from the school nurse saying she has to be picked up because she has a rash. I call Josh to have him pick her up and call the Doctor to get her in to see her. So after the visit, she has strep as well. It hasn’t gotten to a point where her throat hurts or anything hurts actually. Just the rash. So she got a free day off, Josh got the day off and she is on antibiotics. While Josh was at the doctors he went ahead and made an appointment for Jacob, just to make sure he isn’t harboring any nasty germs as well.

What a mess.

Hopefully we will all be back on our feet by tomorrow and the kiddos won’t have to have the painful throat and fever like I did.

Edit****
Jacob has it as well! We are a fun house on antibiotics! Yeah!

Back from the dead, sort of.

On Wednesday I left work early, at like 9:30 because I felt horrible. I thought I just had a little cold. I thought I would come home and sleep all day and start feeling better. But that was not the case. The further along the day went the worse I felt. I ended up with a fever of 102.4 that stayed with me from Wednesday afternoon until sometime last night. I went to the doctors yesterday morning, because, I could hardly talk my throat was so swollen. I haven't heard back officially, but when they look in your throat and jump back you assume the worse. I am fairly sure I have strep throat. Yuck! The worst thing about all this is that my throat hurts SO bad I can't eat or sleep. So I am cranky, very cranky. Plus I can't talk. At. All. I sound like I am deaf when I talk. The kids look at me like I am crazy and don't understand that I just need them to be good, because I feel horrible. Josh is off work today and is taking care of me. I hope to begin eating liquified foods today, as I am starving and have a horrible headache from not eating for three days.

That is enough of my whining.

So everyone (my mom and Mamagrand) will be happy to know that I have officially made my next appointment with the surgeon in regards to ~this~. I will be back into the doctor at the end of the month for my almost three month after follow-up. I still feel something, it is still tender and I am still a little bit scared.

On the positive side, Amy and I are planning a little practice road trip in 2 weeks. We are heading up to big ‘ole Sweetwater, TX to attend a wedding of one of our college friends. It should be interesting. I haven’t seen dear Carmen since before I was married. That was nearly 9 years ago! I am excited to see her and a few other friends we are planning on seeing on the way or once we get there but mostly just excited to hang with my girl. We seriously don’t hang like we should. Sarah gets all my hang time. Darn job! Oh well, gotta pay the bills. That is why road trips with dear friends are necessary and the planning is in the works. We are so going to rock the house! Or rock it as much as 2 nearly 3o year old wives/mothers can, we will probably be in bed by 9pm.

Grace

In the past few years the church has been teaching a lot about Grace. I often wonder as I sat through classes regarding this subject why it doesn’t faze me like it usually does the other people in the class. I think part of it is the church I grew up in wasn’t entirely legalistic. I think I always knew from a fairly young age that while it was a good idea to attend church and to pray before dinner it wasn’t necessary to do such things to gain entry into heaven. But the idea that works were required either wasn’t taught at my particular church or I didn’t soak that part in.

In 1989 while living in Germany with my family I attended a Church of Christ summer camp in the mountains. I had been once or twice before, but this time I was there with the big kids. I was going to be in high school after all. The councilors were college(!) kids from LCU. They all were members of either Best Friends or Kings Heirs. They generally shuffled us around and ensured we didn’t kill each other or ourselves. One night the two groups, which rarely combined performances, did just that. It was mostly your typical church drama group stuff. Stuff that at the age of 13 was pretty interesting and convicting. For the last performance of the night the group played the song “Watch the Lamb.” This particular version was sung by Best Friends. It has been sung by many other people as well. As the song was being played the group acted the song out.
Here are the words:

Watch the Lamb

Walking on the road to Jerusalem
The time had come to sacrifice again
My two small sons,
They walked beside me on the road
The reason that they came
Was to watch the lamb
CHORUS:
Daddy, daddy what will we see there?
There's so much we don't understand
So I told them of MosesAnd Father Abraham
And then I said,
Dear children, Watch the lamb
For there will be so many
In Jerusalem today
We must be sure the lamb
Doesn't run away
And I told them of MosesAnd Father Abraham
And then I said,
Dear children, Watch the lamb
When we reached the cityI knew something must be wrong
There were no joyful worshippers
No joyful worship songsI stood there with my children
In the midst of angry men
And then I heard the crowd cry out,
Crucify Him
We tried to leave the city
But we could not get away
Forced to play in this drama,
A part I did not wish to play
Why upon this day
Were men condemned to die?
Why were we standing here
Where soon they would pass by?
I look and said, Even now they come
The first one cried for mercy,
The people gave him none
The second one was violent,
He was arrogant and loud
I still can hear his angry voice
Screaming at the crowd
Then someone said, There's Jesus!
And I scarce believed my eyes
A man so badly beaten,He barely looked alive
Blood poured from His body,
From the thorns upon His brow
Running down the cross
And falling to the ground
I watched Him as He struggled
I watched Him as He fell
The cross came down upon His back,
The crowd began to yell
In that moment I felt such agony
In that moment I felt such loss
Until a Roman soldier grabbed my arm
And screamed, You, carry His cross!
At first I tried to resist him
Then his hand reached for his sword
And so I knelt and took
The cross from the Lord
I placed it on my shoulder
And started down the street
The blood that He'd been shedding
Was running down my cheek
They led us to Golgotha
They drove nails
Deep in His feet and hands
An yet upon the cross
I heard Him pray, Father forgive them
Oh, never have I seen such love
In any other eyes
Into they hands I commit My spirit,
He prayed and then He died
I stood for what seemed like years
I'd lost all sense of time
Until I felt two tiny hands
Holding tight to mine
My children stood there weeping
I heard the oldest say
Father, please forgive us
The lamb ran away
Daddy, daddy what have we seen here?
There's so much
That we don't understand
So I took them in my arms
And we turned and faced the cross
And then I said,
Dear children, watch the Lamb


They completed this piece and it affected me. I remember truly struggling with myself and my salvation and my sense of who am I to deserve this kind of gift? This gift of Grace. I was, at the age of 13 being presented an idea in which many people would not hear or understand until they were much older with much more water under their bridge. At the age of 13 the only sins I can ever remember having committed where lying to my parents about stuff that really didn’t matter, saying a cuss word, alone in my room ( I was SUCH a nerd) and bickering with friends the way ALL 13 year old girls do. When I watched this performance I suddenly understood. I understood that God had given me salvation. And I was nowhere near perfect enough. But that was ok. I talked with a fantastic student from LCU, James Cutrera that night, he helped me understand. I struggled with the idea of being loved despite my faults and being accepted because of my faults, all because of Grace. This was a life changing moment for me. I honestly believe this was when I accepted Christ in my life, I knew I had to. (I mean, I didn’t want to go to hell for cursing. I needed God!) I did not do so publicly for nearly another year, knowing that I wanted my parents to be there with me, and I didn’t want a church camp baptism. I needed to let this new, overwhelming idea sink in for a while.

I have understood the Grace of God for 16 years. I was able to grasp it as a young teenage girl and use it through out my adolescence. I never used it as an excuse for my behavior. I was a good kid, regardless what my parents may think (I joke, I joke) I never participated in many activities they would be horrified to have me around. I made good decisions most of the time. But I have made plenty of mistakes throughout the years. I think, no, I know it would be SO much harder to grasp this idea that God’s love is never ending, all encompassing and overwhelming if I was only now being introduced to the concept. I have so much more in my life now to “be ashamed” of. But grace cleans me and God loves me.

James and I continued to have contact for many years. I encountered him at several different LCU sponsored activities throughout my high school years, I even spoke with him a few times during my short time at LCU. I have lost touch with him, but I know God placed him in my life at a time when I needed someone to listen to me and my silly problems. He did just that and I am thankful to God for both his Grace and his ability to fill your life with people that can help you to the finish line.