Archive for May, 2009

This weekend we got to go to Riverfest for the first time. (I'm pretty sure I've been before, but not with Jay or the kids.) It's pretty much a really expensive excuse to go drink beer (of which we did not partake, in case you were wondering), but we mostly went to see Willie Nelson. Willie performed late Friday night, and we just thought it would be cool to see him sing. And it was! Even with all the tons of people there, it was neat to be there listening to him sing "On the Road Again" and "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain". Even the kids were excited, as we had listened to a Willie Nelson cd in the car on the way there. The kids and I sat in the grass, unable to see, but still listening, while Jay made his way through the crowd to get this shot:

I have always been a Willie Nelson fan, ever since listening to old records that my parents had. There is something haunting about his voice that intrigues me. Plus I'm just a good ol' country girl, and I love me some twang!

Saturday we decided not to go back to Riverfest since we had stayed out so late the night before (the concert started at 9:30pm, so it was really late when we got home). It was a beautiful day, though! Sunday it started raining, and it rained and rained. We really wanted to go back to Riverfest to watch the fireworks, but we weren't sure it was a good idea. We decided to brave the rain (we've kinda gotten used to the rain, anyway, since we've had so much.) Wearing our raincoats, we walked to the kidzone area, where there was one booth still open where the kids could make a craft, so we did that while Jay went and found us a funnel cake. He's good like that. The rain came and went, and we walked around a little bit, tying to wait for the fireworks to start. At 8:30, the rain slowed a little, and we heard the loud pop of fireworks beginning. It surprised us, because the fireworks were not supposed to start until 9:30. But they went ahead and did the whole fireworks show right then, which lasted a good 30 minutes! We were glad they started when they did, because we weren't sure how much longer we could handle having drenched pants and wet feet. It was a deja vu moment for us, as it was similar to the Fourth of July we spent in New York, watching fireworks in the rain on a crowded freeway. Here is a picture of us then, which was 2007:

I might add that in New York that day, we had walked in the pouring rain for over an hour to get to our fireworks-watching spot, but the kids stayed dry in their double stroller with a rain cover. We were prepared!

We were pretty worn out Monday after our adventures with Riverfest in the rain the night before. We got a call Monday afternoon from my sister Adrienne, wanting to know if we would like to come over for some Memorial Day hamburgers. We hardly ever turn down an invitation like that! (The rest of my family was in Memphis visiting extended family this weekend.) We had fun visiting with Adrienne and Jon, and seeing the bathroom that Jon just finished remodeling. They inherited a really old house in White Hall, just outside of Pine Bluff, and Jon has done some amazing work fixing it up.

That was our weekend. It was pretty exciting! James has 2 more days of school, and then, summer, here we come!

My friend Emily recently wrote a blog entry on "5 things I love about being a mom". She was "tagged" by a friend of hers, and I was one of the people Emily tagged, so I guess that means I'm it. Here are 5 things I love about being a mom:

1. Watching my kids grow and change every day. It is amazing to me how fast they learn new things! Especially as babies, but even now, their little minds are constantly processing information and discovering more about how this crazy world works.

2. The love I get from my kids. My kids are great huggers, kissers, and disrespecters of personal space (which can be a bad thing, but for me, my space is their space.) Someday they might be too embarrassed to display their affection, but I can enjoy it for now!

3. Grins and laughter. Everything is so much funnier when kids are around. James kept grinning at me every time I looked at him in the car the other day, and I just couldn't get enough. I think the reason kids get tickled so much is because people love to hear them laugh!

4. Everything is an adventure when kids are involved. Taking a trip is certainly more exciting when you are traveling with kids. Our New York adventures would have been pretty boring if we didn't have 2 kids to drag with us everywhere. And the world is a much more interesting place when you see it through their eyes; it's as if you are seeing it all for the first time all over again.

5. Listening to the things my kids say. It is so fun to hear my kids try out new words, or come up with an explanation for something, or just make an observation about something they see. Sometimes it's very serious, sometimes it's downright hilarious, but it always amazes me what they come up with.

Whew! That was harder than I thought it would be! Children are truly a blessing, but sometimes it gets hard to see through all the messes and laundry just how much my kids mean to me. I don't know of 5 people with kids who read my blog, but if you are one, you can consider yourself tagged!

Thursday James' school had a carnival, complete with inflatable jumping things, face painting, and a climbing wall. I brought Eliza and we had a great time doing all the activities. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Friday was James' kindergarten graduation ceremony. It was very cute! They sang some songs and James even had a little speaking part. One song was to the tune of "The Adams Family" (they sang "The Kindergarten Class") and another was "Start Spreading the News" ("Start spreading the news, we're leaving today; we want to be apart of it: First Grade, First Grade.") It was great! Here is James receiving his "diploma":

James still has to go to school until Friday, but they are having a fun week this week. Eliza only has one more day of school on Wednesday. I think I am ready for the summer, when I don't have to drag the kids out of bed every day for school. We'll see how quickly I get tired of having them home all day, every day!

(This is for Bridget.)

Saturday morning we woke up to rain (again). It didn't last long, but it was enough to cause James' soccer game to be canceled. He has only gotten to play one game, and there are only two left. Bummer! So after learning that, I had some time on my hands, so I cooked breakfast. For the first time in forever. I scrambled some eggs and made toast. I can still do it! :)

(This is the part Bridget cares about.)

Saturday afternoon, I took the kids and went to Bridget's house for a jewelry party. In case you don't know who Bridget is, she is my brother Benjamin's girlfriend, but is pretty much already a part of the family, and is a faithful reader of my blog. (Love you, Bridget!) :) The kids watched a movie while me and my mom and sisters spent some money on some neat jewelry that we didn't need. Bridget's friend Genni just got started in the jewelry business, so we are helping her out and getting jewelry in the process. We had fun trying on jewelry and eating chips, homemade salsa, cheese dip, and veggies. (I was mostly there for the food. Plus it was a family affair!)

(This part is bonus.) :)

Sunday started out typical. We managed to leave early enough to stop and grab donuts on the way to church, then I had a few minutes to grab the supplies for our 4-year-old Sunday School class craft. As I was getting the supplies, our children's director told me that the lady who teaches Eliza's class next door to ours was not able to be there, and could her class join ours for the lesson. We usually only have 4 or 5 kids in our class, so I wasn't concerned about adding a few more. Well, all 4 of her kids were there, but we had a whopping 7 of ours show up…a record for us! That made eleven 4-year-olds, and a crazy time was had by all. I was very glad Jay was able to be there (occasionally he has to do work on Sunday morning.) I couldn't have done it without him! They actually listened pretty well to the lesson, and I had to go get more supplies for our craft, which was making a globe out of a blue balloon and green paper. The lesson was about "Jesus is for everyone", and the globe was supposed to be a reminder of all the different kinds of people there are in the world. It was pretty crazy trying to get them all to cooperate and finish eleven balloon globes (they just wanted to play with the balloons), but we got it done. I was exhausted when it was over, but I still had to sing in the choir for the worship service!

After church we relaxed at my parents' house, eating hamburgers for lunch and napping on the couch. We felt we deserved it after our crazy morning!

I took Eliza to the store this morning to pick up a few groceries. As we were passing someone on the bread aisle, Eliza said, "Watch out for that old lady!" I don't think the white-haired woman heard her (maybe it's a good thing that hearing tends to get worse as you get older!), but it was a little embarrassing, so I told Eliza that it's not nice to call people that, even if they are old. The next aisle over Eliza was running around the cart and nearly ran out in front of another lady's cart. I apologized and said to Eliza, "You almost ran into her cart. You should be more careful." Eliza looked behind us and yelled, "SORRY, LADY!" "Eliza, don't call people 'Lady'!" I said. She replied, "Well, I didn't call her 'Old Lady'!"

Our internet has been acting strange lately, so that's why I haven't been able to post recently. It has been so frustrating having slow internet! It just goes to show how spoiled I am, I guess. And how impatient I can be when it comes to loading webpages! I wonder if there's something I'm supposed to be learning from all this….

Anyway, Jay has worked on our technical issues and we seem to be running at high-speed again. I knew I kept him around for some reason! :)

Last Wednesday I went to the zoo with Eliza's class. It was misting when we first arrived, but at least it wasn't actively raining, like it was the previous Wednesday when we were supposed to go. The rain here has been crazy! We had a good time looking at all the animals with Eliza's friends. Here are a few pictures:

Wednesday night was the AWANA awards. Eliza got her first book award for Cubbies, and James got his first book award for Sparks. James was also awarded a trophy for Kindergarten Clubber of the Year! We were very proud of them both. They have learned so many Bible verses (especially James!). Being in AWANA has taught them a lot about God and the Bible, and they really enjoy it, too!

We are looking forward to having several sunny days in a row this week (something we haven't seen since mid-April!) At least that's what the weatherman says. We'll see!

We had a good time this weekend celebrating family and friends! We are so very blessed! Thursday and Friday we had a brief respite from the rain, so Jay decided the yard might be dry enough to mow Friday night. He started trying to get the mower ready, but it took a while because the blade needed sharpening. As he was finishing that, our neighbor across the street (who had just finished his yard) offered to let us borrow his new riding lawnmower. It was a great help! Jay managed to get the entire yard mowed before it got too dark, and before the storms started again.

The rain had mostly quit by the time we got up Saturday, but James' soccer game was canceled because of the wet fields. It worked out well; I got to go to a "Sip-n-see" for my longtime friend Virginia, who lives in Orlando and has an 8-week-old baby. Baby Liam is a cutie, and was putting on quite a show of grins for his admirers. Here are a couple of pictures:

Saturday afternoon we decided to take the kids to the Museum of Discovery downtown. It's kind of a nice place to go when it's dreary outside! James and Eliza had a lot of fun exploring all the things to do, even if some of it was over their heads. They pushed lots of buttons (although some of them didn't work), got to pet a snake, made a bug at the craft room, played with electric currents, saw themselves on tv as a weatherperson, witnessed how a piano works, and just had fun running around inside! Jay took a few pictures, which he will hopefully get posted soon.

Saturday night we decided to go ahead and go out to eat for Mother's Day, to avoid the crowds on Sunday. We went to Colton's Steakhouse, where we had free meal coupons for the kids. It was pretty crowded, but the kids had fallen asleep in the car (I guess the museum wore them out!), so I stayed in the car with them while Jay waited for a table. We had a good meal, and the kids weren't too cranky, although it was very cold at our table! We managed to have a nice family meal.

Sunday Jay got up early so I could sleep in a little. He went and got donuts for breakfast, and the kids brought their Mother's Day presents to the table for me to open. James had painted a birdhouse at school, and he also had made a little book that had a picture he drew of me and him climbing Pinnacle Mountain, something he wrote about why he loves me, and his answers to questions his teacher asked him about me. It was very sweet. Eliza's present from school was a magnetic frame with her picture in it. Jay had also let them pick out a card for me, and I got a card from Jay, too. It was a fun time of enjoying my family, and remembering why I love being a mom. (Sometimes, I do forget.)

We made it to church on time, even after all the morning festivities, and had a pretty good Sunday School lesson and worship service. After church we came home and ate lunch, and just relaxed at the house. The children's choir musical was tonight, so we headed back over to the church for that. It was a great performance, and our kids had fun watching the older kids sing. James will be up there next time…he is very excited! It was a good end to a good weekend. Happy Mother's Day to me!

James came up to me this afternoon, and with a serious expression on his face, said this to me:

"If I had a DS (Nintendo's hand-held game system), I would be more excited and happy, because this place is a little lame."

I nearly fell out of my chair. I laughed and told him I was gonna write that one down, but he kept saying, "I really mean it." At supper I decided to say the blessing (the kids were arguing over who's turn it was anyway), and I made sure to include something like this: "Thanks for the good food we have, because there are some people who don't even have anything to eat; and thanks for all the things we have, because there are many who don't have a place to live, much less all the fun things we enjoy." I'm not sure if the kids paid it any attention, but it was something I needed to pray for myself. It made me realize once again how spoiled we are, how ungrateful we can be, and how easily we pass it on to our kids. Ouch. I want to be grateful!

Well, it's not raining right now, but it's still cloudy. It has rained some every day for the past week. I don't mind the rain, but I do like to see some sunshine every now and then! Here are some things that went on this weekend:

James' friend Ethan came over to play Friday after school. They had a great time playing the Wii, but they also got to go outside for a little bit (one of the few times it wasn't raining!)

Saturday it rained all day, and we all had cabin fever by supper time. We asked my family if they wanted to join us in going out to eat. We met at Cracker Barrel, and had some fun family time. Poor Eliza, though…she kept complaining about something being in her shoe, but my sister Adrienne had taken it off and didn't see anything. Finally after we were mostly through eating, she complained again and I went to look. I had put her shoes on the wrong feet! What was funny, though, is that Adrienne didn't notice when she took it off!

Sunday our church was having an emphasis on loving our community, with an early worship service so that groups from the church could go out and serve the community afterward. The rain made it necessary to postpone many of the outside activities, but the service was good, and we got out of church really early!

During a game Jay was playing on the computer Sunday night, one of the characters said, "You can count on me!" Eliza asked Jay, "Does that mean that you can put their numbers in your phone, and call them if you need help?" She thought that it must have something to do with numbers if they were "counting"! We thought that sounded like a pretty good explanation!

Yesterday I went to Mom's house after Bible Study and asked her to whack on my hair. Here it is before:

And here is a picture Eliza took of me today:

I probably wouldn't have gotten it this short, but I wanted to have enough hair cut to give to Locks of Love. This is my fourth time to donate my hair! It's a great program and I am glad to be able to give!