OK…a few Props to my husband :-) May 16, 2009

So I can’t let today go by without throwing a few props toward my husband.

Yes……… yesterday I specifically told him that while he was at home, it would mean the WORLD to me if he would please take care of the weeds in our front yard flower bed.  If you have seen my neighborhood then you would know that there is about a  negative 25% tollerance for an unkept yard.  So I am just horrified at the way the weeds have taken control of that bed.  So I left to attend something at the kids school while Trent stayed home with Palmer so Palmer could take a nap.  Notice I said “Palmer could take a nap” not Trent

Anyway I come home and guess what…… The dumb weeds are still there.  I got dissapointed in myself for getting disappointed.  After all this is a dad I’m talking about.  Rarely do they have the ability to watch the kids and do something productive   It’s just something in their DNA, I guess.

So I walk in and he is right there to meet me at the door.  His response is “I know what your thinking…… I’ve been busy doing other stuff”.  So I just keep walking.  Well I get into my room to find that he has cleaned out my closet and reorganized it.  So how can I be upset now that he didn’t pull the weeds.  It was a much NEEDED job to be done and he did a great job at it.

The only problem with this is…… my neighbors don’t see my closet! They see the weeds!!!!!  Maybe I can post a yard sign that says, “My flowerbeds may look bad, but YOU SHOULD SEE MY CLOSET!!!”

  LOVE YOU TRENT!!!!!!!!!

Finish Line May 16, 2009

So I went to bed last night thinking that I was going to wake up this morning with the energy to conquer the world.  I had the best intentions to be a superwoman house cleaner and fun mom at the same time.  Well it was right after I woke up @ 7:30am from the sound of my almost 3 year old screaming to the top of his lungs “DADDY!, DADDY!”, that I realized I didn’t have the energy that I thought I would.  I was tired, and feeling the effects of allergies from either outside seasonal or dust mites.  If you could be a fly on the wall in my house you would probably notice the dust collection everywhere.  I am quite surprised with technology though that we can’t figure out some way to recycle the dust bunnies and put them to good use in energy.  Hey, I would be very rich if you could cash in on some dust

So now I still have the clutter, dust, laundry, and basic cleaning staring at me.  If that wasn’t enough, I have my incredibly creative daughter looking at me to spend some girly time with her.  And then throw in Palmer who wants to play the drums or play baseball.  Carson is not here today because he is hanging out with his Gramps, whom he adores.  They are going on a horse/wagon ride today.  So where is my husband in all of this???????  Golf!  As if you had to ask   I married a strong man.  I’ve tried all of those “strong wife” techniques like so many of my friends have suggested and they don’t seem to work on him.  Somehow he either delegates what I want him to do or he charms his way out of it.  Either that or he falls asleep watching golf in the recliner   My sister in law has said it’s because he was the baby of the family.  He’s used to being able to use those blue eyes and that smile to get what he wants.  So with that in mind…… I need to start praying for Palmer’s wife

I’m not bashing my husban here.  Just having some fun thinking about him.  I couldn’t be more blessed to be married to such a great man.  Yes he has his faults, but for every falt he has I probably have 2 to match.  He is patient with me when I get upset and he is a great dad.  He loves his kids and hangs out with them.  We have a great relationship and love each other more today than we did when we got married.

So now back to my day…….. I just have to remind myself that this is life.  The mess didn’t get made in a day, so don’t try to conquer it in a day. (my husband is celebrating this revelation, because he’s off the hook for helping me conquer it in a day   Step by Step it will get done.  After all…… there is no finish line until my race is over and I’m in Heaven with Jesus.  So each time I do finish and get caught up, it’s right back in my face to do again.  So now I ‘m going to go to Home Depot and buy a shade for my son’s room so that hopefully he sleeps later in the mornings. I’m going to buy new tomato plants to replace the ones I let die.  Then I plan to finish an art project with Brooklyn that we started on last week.  Then if I have time, I will do some laundry.

It’s just another day in my life…………. I love every minute of it ……………

Fall Sports is starting August 26, 2008

So it is now time to start yet another season of sports.  It seems as if we just stopped.  So this will be Brooklyn’s first year in fast pitch softball with the 9 & 10 year olds.  The time has really flown by.  I remember her first year to play ball.  She played park ball in Jackson, MS for a season of Tiny Tots Tee Ball.  It was quite entertaining.  She was 3 1/2 and cute as a button on that field.  I remember her being aggressive to chase the ball when it was hit in the field.  I also remember the other kids running after the ball as well.  It was a free for all.  Whoever could get to the ball first got it.  It was so cute to see the tiny ball players with helmets that didn’t fit there head and tiny tennis shoes because they didn’t make cleats that small.   Carson was just one and learning to walk at the time.  I remember dusting orange dirt from his hands as he fell while trying to walk.  My… that was a tough life

So now we have evolved into a different life.  We now have a softball player in fast pitch and a baseball player in coach pitch.  However we still have those little hands that we need to dust off when he occasionally falls to the ground.  Palmer is 2 but thinks he should be on the field playing tee ball.  I must say he does have an awesome swing already .  So give us a year and he will join the sports field @ the YMCA for tiny tee ball.  After that stage on to park ball for him as well.

So here’s to some long nights of homework, ball practice, late showers and later than normal bedtimes.  I’ll have to remind myself later in the season that we chose to live this way  Life is good!

Limbo Winner August 25, 2008

Aloha - T&S at couples night

I am sitting here watching Andy Griffith and playing on my husband’s laptop.  I am tring not to be upset because my computer is not coming on.  I have files on there that effect me personally and business.  I am praying that I will be able to access my files on my hard drive and that they are not lost.

So if anything positive comes out of this, then i guess it is that I learned how to put a picture in here.  So hey!  Well this picture was taken from a couples night we had a couple of weeks ago. It was great.  We had great food and played limbo.  I guess I would have to tell you that I won that limbo contest

Just another Great day at church August 24, 2008

I love it when God has this amazing message for people to hear.  However I hate that the crowd was low.  If only everyone, married or not, could get a hold of the message that would be great.  For those who do not know visit:  www.harvestmobile.com.  You can download the message from today 8-24-08.  The title was “Don’t Let Your Sizzle Fizzle”.

I am pretty passionate about seeing marriages and families last.  I hate that my 3rd grade daughter is always watching to make sure that I keep my ring on.  She is so concerned that something might happen to her parents.  She doesn’ dwell on it but it does occasionally come up.

I watched a couple of older couples who have probably been married for 40 years leave during the end of the message today.  My thought was this.  They have lived through life together for so long.  They are past the fears of cheating on one another and are set in thier ways so that they don’t even think of leaving one another.  So then I wondered what is their happiness level today?  Are they happily in love or are they hopelessly devoted.  Trent and I will be married for 13 years on Tuesday (August 26th).  I can honestly say that i have moments where he just really makes me mad, and I have moments where I just really make him mad.  However even with that I don’t question my love for him or his love for me.  I am happier today with my marriage than i was when we first got married.  I can’t imagine my life without him.   I want to learn more and more how to be a better wife.

When my kids are grown and off to college, I will have him to come home to.  If I’m not happy with my marriage then life won’t be so great.  I would love to sit down with a strong christian family who are happily married after 25 years or more and just gleam from thier wisdom.

So if you want some great words of wisdom on family and marriage.  I suggest going to our church’s website and listening to the last three messages 8-10-08, 8-17-08 and 8-24-08.  If you are brave you’ll listen to the 8-9-08 message.  However that message is geared strictly toward married couples.  Don’t listen to it with kids in the room.

Is it life with the 3rd child? or Life with MY 3rd child? August 23, 2008

I love my kids.  I have learned to be a better person since I had them.  I have learned what selfishness really is after having kids.  You never know how selfish you are until you have a child and realize that your world revolves around them.

So now I have Brooklyn who will be 9 in just a few weeks. (Wow) Carson is 6 and Palmer is 2.  I remember when I didn’t have kids.  I like a lot of christian couples said “I want to have kids before Jesus comes back”.  We are SO GLAD we did.  My kids have been a blessing to my life and others.

So now I am in the final stages of babyhood in my life.  In just a few months we will say goodbye to diapers and hello to tiny little underwear for our baby.  So my question is this.  Are all of the third children or babies of the family as cute/mischevious as mine.  When I say mischevious, I don’t mean it in a bad way.  He is a sweet heart and very smart.  I find myself getting so tickled at him.  Just the other night I was talking about my other 2 kids’ first grade teacher.  They both have had Ms Bilbrey.  I said well I hope that she is still teaching at the school when Palmer is in first grade.  My husband’s response was “I don’t know if she can handle him”.  He is such a clown, we are going to have to pray for his teachers now.

Just this week he has taken on the roll of Parent to my other two kids, dishwasher, locksmith and clown.  He decides when Brooklyn and Carson should “Be Kiet” or “Come Eat” or “Stop It”.  He likes to correct his brother and sister.  I have had the same load of dishes in my dishwasher washed 4 times.  Each time i wouldn’t catch the washer on until it was in full cycle.  The dishes couldn’t dry for washing.  I couldn’t catch him in the act to disciplne him.  By the time I caught it, he forgot he did it.  Then yesterday I got locked out of my bedroom twice.  It is one of the hardest doors in the house to pick the lock.  I of course told him “No No – don’t lock mommy’s door”.  Then after returning home later, I went to my bedroom to find it was locked again.  I went to Palmer and he just grinned at me cause he knew what he had done.  I of course had a really hard time controlling my smile on my face cause he was so cute.

So is it my third?  Or is it all third babies?  I think maybe with the first one we are so concerned with being the perfect parent and doing all of the right things that we miss the smallest things.  We tend to dream about their future and wish them older so that we can do things with them.  Then one day we wake up and realize our wish came true faster than we wanted it to.  They are older and not our baby any more.  So then by the time you have the third or fourth or whatever your “baby” is, you realize that they are growing so fast and you should enjoy where they are.  I admit I am having a little harder time disciplining him.  It’s like you go into a parenting amnesia or something.  You forget what worked with the first ones.  I don’t know… maybe it’s just me.

Why do people not want to get smarter? August 22, 2008

I don’t understand the thinking of not wanting to read parenting books or marriage books.  I mean we don’t know it all.  What is one of the most common things that you hear older people say?  “If I only knew then what I know now!”  So I take that as to meaning they would have done things differently.

The Bible tells us to get wisdom.  The Bible says that older people have more wisdom.  Why?  they have already lived through quite a life.  I hear myself tell my kids “I used to deal with that, or I remember feeling the same way”.  Obviously things have changed but there is still a common root to problems that we face.

So I was telling my mom about a book that I am reading.  I was talking to her about a certain topic in hopes to help her deal with my nephew who she was keeping for the summer.  Her response to me was “I never read those kind of books.  I just did the best I could and you turned out alright.  Besides most of those people who write those books don’t even have kids.”  I had to control my laughter at that response. My thinking is I want better than ALRIGHT kids.  And…. what makes you think these people don’t have kids?  Most of these people who are writing these books are christian councelors or psychiatrists.  They have studied to know what they know.

So my question is:  Why do parents and spouses not want to get smarter?  Think about how many marriages would have been saved if they just would have learned their spouse’s love language or they would have learned how husbands and wives communicate differently.  Think about if you would have learned how to communicate and spend time with your kids when they were younger then they would have wanted to spend time with you when they were a teenager.

I hear too many parents say “They’re kids!  That’s what they do!  They’ll grow out of it! It’s a phase!  It’s something all teenagers do!”

It is time for us to wake up and want to make a change.  We cannot change what we do not know how to change.  Why do doctors and nurses have to go through continuing education?  Yes they got their degree but in order to keep their liscense they have to keep up with the changes and retest.  When we become parents or spouses there is no test required.  Even the most ignorant people can take the job.  That’s why if we don’t try to learn some things we turn out horrible marriages and rebellious kids.  Let’s do what the Bible says and “Get Wisdom”.  Let’s learn from those who have been there before us and figured out things that work.  Let’s learn from the adults who were scarred from the negative things that their “well meaning” parents did or didn’t do.

Let’s make a positive impact on our children.  They deserve it.

OK so I’m done with my soap box.  My two year old is calling me.  So now time for me to go to mommy duty!

The Balloon Hit the Fan August 20, 2008

So I am sitting here with hiccups caused from laughing hysterically.  If you know me then you know I have some genetic issue that causes me to hiccup when I laugh too much at one time.  I thought it was normal because me and my brother do it.  Then I got married and realized that no one else in my “married” family did that.  It was just me!  Well now I have passed it on to my children.  So when they hiccup after laughing I get to say “They get it from me”.

Anyway, on to what has caused this episode of hiccups.  As I am sitting at my computer tonight.  I hear my husband and a friend of his say “Oh My Gosh, What was that”.  This is said after what sounds like something is falling.  Well it is a helium balloon that has been released from it’s ribbon and left to float at my 12 foot ceilings.  This is not a latex balloon that will fall the next day.  This is a metallic balloon that seems to keep its helium for a long time.  Since this happened last week when my friends little girl brought it over and released it from being prisoner to the ribbon which was attached to a toy keeping it to the floor.  I had become used to the occasional “Balloon hit the fan” sound.  On the other hand my husband and his friend have not.  So the first time it happened it was like oops.. forgot to tell you.  They were shocked and didn’t know what it was.  Well about an hour later, the balloon hits the fan again.  This time it hangs in there for a minute and makes a horrible sound.  I am in the office and they are under the fan with their hands above their heads going for cover.  AGAIN – They forgot about the balloon.

So now.. I am stuck to replay that event in my head and it leaves me no other choice than to laugh hysterically at them.  Man… I wish I would have had a video camera on them.

BTW..The hiccups are gone now.

Being Consumed August 19, 2008

Day to day life seems to have me consumed.  Either I’m consumed with laundry, paying bills and other housework, or with my photography business, or with the needs of my children and my husband.

So I find it interesting to know how the Websters Dictionary defines the word consume.

–verb (used with object)

1.	to destroy or expend by use; use up.

2.	to eat or drink up; devour.

3.	to destroy, as by decomposition or burning: Fire consumed the forest.

4.	to spend (money, time, etc.) wastefully.

5.	to absorb; engross: consumed with curiosity.

So why is it that we allow those thing to consume us?  According to the definition we are being destroyed by those things.  Instead we need to let God who is the ALL CONSUMING FIRE, to take over the things in our life that has us consumed.  Now I’m not saying don’t give attention to those things because they are necessary.  The thing is we get our priorities out of wack and then become consumed with the cares of the world when God is sitting on His thrown wanting us to come to Him and let Him consume us and take the cares for us.  It’s all about the heart of the matter.  I want my life to be fruitful and my time to be fruitful.  Therefore if I first seek Him and His Kingdom, then all of those things shall be taken care of.  The strength comes from being in God’s presence.  If we let God consume us then we can’t be consumed by the world.

Just my thoughts for the day.

PS..If there is a PS in blogging

Think of it this way… Think of Mary and Martha in the bible.  One was so busy serving that she couldn’t see who she had in her presence while the other was just consumed with Jesus and knew that the other things would be taken care of.  But first things first!  Are you a Mary or are you a Martha???

Vacation was great August 5, 2008

Vacation was great.  Now it is time to get back to reality.  I don’t like reality sometimes.  It can be cruel.

We had a great time with the kids in New Orleans and then in Gulfport at the waterpark.  We did get “stormed” out at the waterpark on Friday but they gave us rainchecks to come another day.  The only thing is I was so NOT IMPRESSED with the little workers at the park.  The supervisor or whoever worked the group ticket sales…..they were great, we had favor with them on something that we needed.  However, the little workers…meaning snackbar, life guards, etc…  Well they were incredibly RUDE when it came time to close the park for the storm.  I understand they were ready for us to get out because they wanted to get out.  BUT…if they were going to sale us the food, then they had to allow us time to eat it.  They were telling us that we HAD to leave.  Let me just paint this picture…. If you have just been served (hot) fried chicken fingers and french fries… would you want to take that into the pouring rain (I mean it was coming down in sheets) and have to carry all of your stuff at the same time into a parking lot in which you parked forever out of the way?  Or would you rather go ahead and heat your food before it got cold and soggy then go to your car?????? So as we and a few other guests decided to stay and eat our food first the staff is just hovering over us in a corners about 3 feet from us just glaring at us.  We just smiled and ate.  Oh…did I mention the slamming of the metal food door which startled several of us to thinking that lightning had just struck something close.

Other than that… the day at the water park was great.  I think I like waterville in Gulf Shores better.  It seems to be a little bigger.

So now it is back to reality.  Back to the bills that have to be paid, the truck that has to be sold/purchased, back to the youth that need the youth pastors and back the kids who start school next week.  Why can’t we swap things.  Vacation for 50 weeks and Work for 2 weeks out of the year?????