Archive for April, 2009

James had his first soccer game of the season on Saturday. (Actually, it should have been his third, but we were out of town for the first one and the second was rained out.) I love this picture Jay took of James in action:

James seems to be a little more focused this year, but he still got a little bored toward the end of the game. I caught him waving his arms like he was casting spells instead of paying attention to the ball.

I took Eliza outside today to take a few pictures of her in her cute skirt. Eliza wants to wear a dress everyday now, so I bought her a couple of new skirts to play in. Isn't she a cutie?

There are a lot of things in my life I really take for granted, but there are a couple of things I would like to express my appreciation for today:

1) Parents that live close by, and just up and say, "Can we take your kids with us for the day?" Yes! Please! Thank you! (I had to clean my house Saturday for community group that was coming over Sunday, so it was a huge help! Plus the kids got to have fun at Springfest in Heber Springs.)

2) The men in my life (first my Dad, then my husband), who have always taken on the job of mowing the yard. (I decided to help Jay out by mowing the backyard today before the rain started, because he didn't have time to finish it yesterday. It was my first time to mow. Let's just say, it's harder than it looks.)

I'm beat. I wonder if Eliza will let me take a nap. :)

We were praying the other night at bedtime, and afterward James said something about not having to pray anymore.

• Me: Well, when we get to Heaven we won't have to pray…
• James: (finishing my thought) Because then we can talk to God face-to-face!

(He's apparently been listening to someone talk about Heaven!)

• Me: That's right, James.

(James pauses, then looks at me)

• James: Well, then can you just shoot me now?
• Me: James, I can't do that. I love you and besides, it's wrong to kill, right?
• James: But I want you to. I want to go to Heaven now.
• Me: Well, it's not time yet.
• James: When? Like when I'm old?
• Me: Well, maybe not. I don't know when, only God does. God has you here for a reason. He'll take you when He's ready for you.
• James: You mean He's not ready for me?

(Eliza has been listening to this conversation, and decides to chime in at this point.)

• Eliza: Maybe He's decorating!

She may be on to something! The Bible does say "He's preparing a place for us"...I guess that includes the decor! :)

I went back to Walmart tonight to see if they had any Stouffer's lasagna. They were still on sale, but there were several on the shelf this time. I bought 3 of them.

I don't have time to be blogging, actually, but since I'm sitting here at the computer wasting time anyway, I decided it would be better to do something ever so slightly worthwhile and write some meaningless chatter about my life. Because that's sooo important, you know? Sorry, I'm not sure where that came from! :)

I am supposed to be cleaning my house for community group on Sunday (yay!), but it can wait. I have a few other things I have to do between now and then, as well: Bible Study in the morning, then soccer practice for James, teacher luncheon on Friday, soccer game on Saturday. About the teacher luncheon…the teachers are provided lunch on the last Friday of every month to celebrate teacher birthdays for each month. I, along with other parents, signed up to bring something for a few of these luncheons, including this month. The theme for the April potluck was barbecue, so I decided I would take some crockpot-cooked pork loin, shredded and doused in barbecue sauce. I went to the store today and got the necessary ingredients, then I emailed the organizer of the potlucks to make sure it was this Friday, since I had not heard from her. She emailed me back, saying she had tried to call me earlier in the week (I did have a missed call from a strange number, but no messages). She said the potluck was this Friday, but since they had to cancel the March potluck (not sure why) they would be using that month's theme, which was Italian food, and could I bring a main dish or salad instead of barbecue. I was a little put out, but no matter, I decided I would just pick up a Stouffer's lasagna and cook it for Friday. It just meant I had to go back to the store, which I did after choir tonight. I got to the freezer section where the frozen lasagnas are, and look, they were on sale! But upon further inspection, I noticed that, alas, there were none left. Darn sale! Not sure what I'll do now, but at least I have until Friday to figure it out!

(Sorry about the strange post. I'm in a weird mood; maybe I had too much McAlister's sweet tea.)

...because now Jay is sick, too! James is mostly well after his round of antibiotics, but Eliza still had a little bit of fever today and so I couldn't send her to school. I was looking forward to having a day to myself! I'm still not really that sick; it seems like I'm caught in the "starting to get sick" phase, which I guess is preferable to full-blown sickness. The only thing I noticed today is that I felt really thirsty all the time. Weird!

I guess it's a good thing that it's supposed to storm most of the weekend. At least we don't have to be miserable and miss out on a pretty Saturday. There's some optimism for ya!

Yes, that's 3 sicks, as in James, Eliza, and me! Thankfully I don't feel too bad (yet!), but I have a slightly sore throat and I was really tired last night. In fact, I went to bed shortly after getting the kids in bed. I took James to the doctor yesterday because his fever spiked again, and this was the 5th day he had been running fever. The doctor put James on antibiotics for a sinus infection. Eliza also started running fever yesterday, and had the same congestion stuff that James had. Hopefully she will get over it quickly and I won't have to take her to the doctor. Neither of the kids have been sleeping well, which means I don't get to sleep, either. Not fun! Even so, we are blessed…this is the first time James has had to miss school because of sickness! We have pretty healthy kids most of the time, and for that I am thankful!

Today is our niece Hannah's second birthday! We were traveling to New York on the day she was born, and what a trip that was! (As much fun as New York was, I'm so glad Jay is not traveling anymore.) We were glad we got to see big-girl Hannah this weekend at her birthday party! Here she is listening to everyone sing "Happy Birthday":

Happy birthday, Hannah!

It was a fun Easter weekend, spent with lots of family! After arriving in Memphis late Friday night, we got up Saturday and drove over to Jackson for cousin Hannah's 2nd birthday party. I guess we can't really call her "Baby Hannah" anymore! She is getting to be such a big girl, and her party was at a park with a huge playground. Unfortunately, James was sick all weekend with a high fever and congestion, but he felt well enough to play a little. We tried to make sure he didn't get too close to anyone! Eliza had a blast running all over the playground chasing her daddy. Then we ate sandwiches at Jill and Robbie's house before heading back to Memphis for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday evening we dyed Easter eggs at Granny's house, a long-time tradition we have there. The kids enjoyed dipping the eggs in the dye, although we had many cracked eggs when it was over! I lined all the eggs up for a picture:

Sunday we got all dressed up and made it to Granny's church just in time for the service. We took pictures afterward before changing into more comfy clothes and eating lunch at my Meemaw and Grandaddy's house. After lunch it started raining, so we hunted our dyed eggs inside Granny's house. It was a good, but very tiring weekend. I kept James home from school today because he was still running fever yesterday. Hopefully he will be well soon and no one else will get sick!

Here are some of our Easter pictures:

Happy Easter from all of us, including the rats:

And look out for the Easter rat!

(Yes, I made bunny ears for my rat instead of doing housework. I know, I need help!)

We got to have a conference with James' teacher today. We know the boy is smart, but it's nice to hear someone else confirm it. In fact, next week he will start joining a first grade reading group, just so he doesn't have to be in a group by himself. The little smarty!

Eliza told me her dream today as we were driving down the road: "Mama, I dreamed you went through a red light!" I promise I'm a safe driver!

James starts soccer tomorrow! He has his first practice, and we are excited. Eliza wants to play so bad, but she has one more year before she's old enough. She already looks 4, but she still has a few more months before she catches up with her looks. She can pretty much read now. I was trying to get her to recite her Cubbies verse yesterday, but she kept looking at the book and figuring out the next word by looking at the letters. Now I have to hide the verse when she says it!

Lacie the rat is doing much better! She finally started eating yesterday and has had quite an appetite. She has perked up a lot and might get to join her friends in the big cage again soon. It was scary there for a while, but she is making a comeback and I am very encouraged by her progress. I'm glad I got her to the vet when I did…I really don't think she would have made it if I hadn't.