Tali's Fun Day

This post is for my friend Molly.

This is Tali walking up the gangway at the end of the day after lunch. She seemed to do good all day. She wasn't in my group, but I tried to keep an eye on her all day.

The pirate ship was crazy and she seemed to do just fine. She figured out how to make her way up onto the ship and down the crazy fire pole without getting trampled by the masses.

To SG from Hailey

This is a story of a modern dance routine.

The dancer's stretchy and bendy and rarely mean (especially after memorizing Prov 17:17).

Before she dances she stretches her legs.

She pops her back and strikes a pose.

Then she balances on one leg like a crane.

And finishes the dance off with a pose, graceful and elegant.

And now for a little bow.

The End

We love you, SG!

Family Fun Night

We had a great evening on Saturday. Brian went to get a fun craft and came back with light catchers. The girls had a great time.

Shelby's Portrait at the Soccer Game

Ummm . . . I gave birth to a ham. She loves to perform, sing, act, be cute for anyone who wants to watch.

At the game Saturday, Shelby was determined that I needed to take her picture. So, being the accomodating mom that I am, I did. Um, do you see that little look on her face. That has stinker written all over it.



However, then she was very concerned to also get a shot of her back. I have NOOOO idea why.

By the way - that cute dress she has on - I made it, or at least tie dyed it. And it looks really cool. Hailey has one that matches just like it. She wore it because it matched Hailey's soccer shirt, and she said she was the cheerleader. Oh brother, I am NOT going to be a cheerleading mom. Being a soccer mom is bad enough.

After soccer, we always hang out at the playground. Hailey's getting to be a regular monkey!

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Last year when Hailey's Kindergarten class went to the Stuckey Farm Apple Orchard I wasn't able to go with her. This year Hailey begged me to go with her. I was so excited that I was able to go.

Here's a picture of Hailey getting ready to start her tour of the Apple Cider processing plant, the beehive, and the hay ride through the orchard.

Here are the kids all lined up to get going.

Here's our first stop on the tour - We got to watch a video about how apple cider is made. We also got to look through the Apple Cider processing window to watch apples get washed and get rolled up a little conveyor belt to the pressing station.

Here's the Beehive demonstration. In the top right hand of the picture you can see a beehive enclosed in glass. We got to learn all about bees and also watch them do their work in a safe way.

Next stop was the Gourd Lady who taught us all about Gourds, pumpkins, and corn.

Next we went to a little area where the kids sat and heard all about how apples grow, and then we got to taste two different kinds of apples and some apple cider. We also got to try on the bags that the apple pickers wear when harvesting. (But I forgot to take pictures there. Oops.)

Next we went on a hay ride through the 4,000 apple trees in the Stucky Farm orchard. We also toured the little fishing pond, the vegetable patch, the corn maze, and finally the pumpkin patch.

At the pumpkin patch the farmer stopped the tractor and let the teachers get off and find a pumpkin for each classroom. The picture below is the kids looking over the edge of the wagon directing the teacher to the pumpkin they thought looked best. Hailey is in the orange shirt kind of in the middle to the right.

When Mrs. McCulley found the perfect pumpkin she raised it high over her head and all the kids cheered. It was hilarious!

Here's Mrs. McCulley loading it up on the wagon under the direction of about 100 little helpers.

It was a beauty!

At the Corn maze Mr. Herron got a photo with each of his classes. Here he is with the PM Kindergarten class. Hailey is in the orange shirt on the end.

At the end of the day we had a little picnic at the pavilion and the kids got to play on the pirate ship playcenter. I ended the day by buying some popcorn from the gift shop for our Family Fun Night the next evening.

It was a really fun day!

2 AM Sunday morning

It's 2 AM Sunday morning. I've been awake since 11:48 pm when my brother texted me and the "Message Received" tone on my phone woke me up. I sleep with it next to my ear, so when there's an emergency at work I hear the phone and it doesn't wake the rest of the house up. So when it goes on in the middle of the night I usually am startled awake.

So, since I was wide awake I decided to check my email to see how the end of shift at VOH went. It's nice to know the play by play minute by minute. I don't sleep well when I don't know how things turned out at work.

Then I was still wide awake so I checked one of my favorite blogs, other than my sisters. I have no idea who she is but she fascinates me, this Joanna and her MyMeanderings blog. She seems so like me, same age, same kids ages, fascination with photography and quotes and the simple life revolving around a real relationship with God.

So here it is two and a half hours later, and I'm still wide awake.

On top of that I got a new Bible and I'm dying to read it, but if I read it I'll be even more wide awake. I'm dying to show it to Brian but he's irritated that I went $25 over budget on the purchase of said Bible. It's a NASB Key Word Bible in Genuine Leather (black) with my name on it. It's the best Bible I've ever had, and I disobeyed my husband's budget to buy it, and now I feel guilty about it. I sinned to get a Bible. Oh my word, that is bad. I need him to wake up so I can ask his forgiveness.

I better go back to bed and try to sleep or I'll never be able to get up in 4 hours to get ready to teach a bunch of 2 year olds that are going to be nuts from staying up too late last night playing outside because it was such a beautiful day here.

I also must say that I feel incredibly lost without my digital camera. I miss being able to organize my thoughts through my shots. Note to self . . . I must think of how to save $800 so I can buy the SLR Digital camera I really, really want. I wonder if I could have a garage sale or something. That's a lot of money. That's probably over Brian's budget too.

I hate budgets!

Speaking of budgets, I'm supposed to be in the thick of organizing a fundraiser for work for Oct 16th. I'm only just starting. Do you ever have one of those projects that's so intense that you can't even get started, because you don't know where to start, and once you do start you going to die from how much work it is, and you're going to be exhausted for weeks, and it probably won't go as good as it needs to go to satisfy the people who are invested in the success of the thing? I need to get working on it.

I need to go back to bed.

Parental Game Rage

At Saturday's game I experienced my first instance of parental game rage when a big kid from the opposing team pushed Hailey down twice. I had to hold myself back from "speaking" with the coach. I just told her when she got subbed out of the game for a rest that she wasn't to push him back no matter how many times he pushed her. I secretly wanted to go in there and whack his legs out from under him. :-)

Hailey the Soccer Girl

Hailey's Sleepover

Hailey had a sleepover with one of her friends, Kiara, last night. Kiara is Hailey's soccer coach, Casey's, daughter. They were in kindergarten together last year.

Hailey had all sorts of things planned, but the funnest (is that a word?) was a trip to Adam's Mill.

Here a video of them splashing in the creek.

There's a secret message at the end of this next video for the Mom~sters CB. We can hardly wait to take the Mom~ster and all the kiddos to Adam's Mill the next time they visit.

Here's the covered bridge over the creek.


Here's the giant hollowed out tree. Can you believe how huge it is? We love having a place like this only 5 minutes from our house. It makes me not miss Pennsylvania so much.


Here's Shelby finally getting to get in on the sleepover action. She and Daddy went on a daddy date while we went to Adam's Mill, and she was distraught over not being able to participate with the big girls. In the end she got to play with Kiara's hair.

Notice the bug house Kiara's holding. They caught three caterpillars and played with them all night. Then they slept with them. Then they played with them this morning. Then they made them dance to music on the way to the soccer game. Then they got them out and played with them during the soccer game. I'm surprised they haven't died yet.

Cuddling Time

We decided it was time for Ozzy to become an inside dog. He's had a lot of baths this week. After one of them we decided to have cuddling time with him. I don't know how long that's going to last.

Isn't he getting big?

Game Two

This post is from last week's game. I forgot I hadn't posted it yet.

Hailey had a great Game Two. Shelby was really into it.

After the game we got a little jungle gym action in.

Picnic

Today I walked out of work and was shocked to see Brian's truck next to mine. I reached for my cell phone to call him to see if something was wrong when I noticed he and Shelby hanging out by the pond. It turns out Brian and Shelby decided to surprise us with a picnic supper by the pond after work today. It was so fun, and the weather was beautiful. What a beautiful surprise!

Why I can never support Obama

http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2007/09/stanek_on_the_o.html

http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/newpage36.htm

http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007034.cfm

No matter who Obama's opponent was, no matter how horrible, no matter how ineffective - I will always support him / her just because it means I won't be supporting Obama.

Emptiness

I've been thinking a lot about Grandpa Smith today, both happy and anxious for him to get to heaven soon and also sad to see him suffering so much. From what mom says, he's not going to live through the night. I can't imagine what he must be feeling knowing that he's going to go to sleep soon and when he wakes up he's going to be with Jesus.

What must that be like to know you're almost there?

I'm so excited for him, so sorrowful for mom to have to live with the sadness of losing her daddy, but so, so, so thankful that mom made it to Laceyville in time to hold his hand while he dies. I'm so thankful that she's there to help him while he travels.

I work every day with girls who are chasing everything that they think will fill them, make them happy, and give them joy. I spend so much energy trying to convince them from God's word that Jesus is the only thing that will satisfy, fill, and give joy. Then I spend a ton of energy teaching new believers that faithfulness is one of the fruits of the Spirit working in you and that fruit means that you're in this for the long haul. You're not in the battle for temporary wins. You're in this to win the war.

I think about my grandpa and think about what it will be like for me to turn 80 one day and look back on a life of faithfulness. He's not perfect. No one is, but he has been faithful. Sold out and faithful.

These bodies are so stupid. So fragile and so ridiculous. So cursed by sin and messed up. I can't imagine thinking that this is all there is to life. That all I get is this one life and this one body that's so ridiculously falling apart. All around me are people who think the temporal is all there is. They totally miss the bigger picture. The beauty of the broader plan, of which this life is only the start.

In class at work we studied the concepts from Jeremiah 2:5 and II Kings 17:15 and discussed how God had given the Israelites everything they need, but they continually strayed (quickly and constantly) from the God who satisfies to chase the things that made them empty and vain.

Jeremiah 2:5 Thus says the LORD, "What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me And walked after emptiness and became empty?

II Kings 17:15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.

I want my kids to be able to look back on my life and see footprints of faithfulness. I want them to hold my hand while I'm dying and be happy for me to go to heaven.

I know Grandpa would FLIP out if I played this song for him, since I'd imagine he's not one given to enjoying rap, which in my opinion is what I'll be listening to as I step into heaven :-). Nevertheless, I was enjoying this song. It's all about Freedom. So many people search from freedom in a million different places that all lead to emptiness.

Grandpa's going to be experiencing real freedom before too long. Freedom from a sin cursed body. Freedom from a situation that seems so contrary to God's will in my opinion. Freedom from disease and sadness and longing. Freedom from everything contrary to what it's going to be like in a couple of hours for him when he finally gets to see Jesus and hang out with Grandma again.

Maybe he'll get to hear some of my rap up there.

Tuesday Fun Night

We all decided that we needed a little chocolate tonight. Yummy! Brownies!

We were going to practice soccer tonight but we felt brownies were more important!

SG's special dress

We have a SPECIAL dress given to us by a SPECIAL cousin, SG. It's made it through three individuals now, and being a white dress, it is remarkably still intact and spot free. We thought SG might enjoy getting to see her lovely dress on this lovely little girl. Nevermind the ugly crocs on her tiny little feet. I've given up on trying to get the little girls with big feet issues to wear anything else. If they ever outlaw them from the school dress code I'm going to be in BIG trouble.

And here's our bountiful garden harvest. This is the world's smallest cherry tomato. Hailey was very proud of its tinyness.

Soccer Day

Meeting Coach Casey.

Waiting to get subbed in.

We had a great day watching Hailey play her first soccer game. She even scored a goal, which was really remarkable because it came off an assist from one of her little best friends, Kiara. It was also remarkable because it came after Hailey started the game by kicking the ball (very eloquently and efficiently) the whole way down the field toward the wrong goal. After she got straightened out, she did amazing. She is fast as lightning. Go Blue Rockets!

Shelby also had fun playing with daddy (who took some time off work to come watch Hailey) in between the four million trips to the bathroom. I love potty training a constipated baby.

After game snacks with Shelby and Kiara. We're in charge of snacks for next week.

Daddy's birthday

Today is daddy's birthday. I was DETERMINED to not forget it this year, since I did last year, because I'm so lame! So we celebrated by making daddy some birthday cards, which apparently Hailey feels is especially honorable, since she told me it would be soooooo wonderful if I would make HER a birthday card next year instead of buying one.

Then while making the birthday cards at 7:30 pm on Saturday night I realized there were no birthday presents, so we ran to the store late at night and bought a case of Dr. Pepper (always a hit) and a Sudoku electronic game. Brian has this thing against birthday presents in general, so those were fabulous.

Enjoying daddy's birthday breakfast.


Hailey reminded me several times today that now daddy is 31 just like me. Nothing like having it announced!

The day turned out to be not so hot, due to the late night shopping. The lack of sleep majorly disoriented the smaller individuals in our family and thus resulted in MANY time outs, which thus resulted in early bedtime, which thus resulted in screaming and crying, which thus resulted in early bedtime tomorrow night too per our families early bedtime policies and procedures. Ahh consequences. You gotta love 'em.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! Don't forget. You're 31 now too.

Good Evening!

We just got back from a really fun evening with the VOH girls and our sweet friends the Opperman family. I never know how to pluralize their name - is the Oppermen or the Oppermans. Anyway, we had a great time.

Even some of the VOH girls who've decided to be surly for the last week gave it up and had a great time (against their greatest efforts otherwise). :-)

We had a little cake for Brian's birthday. This is his second birthday cake this week and his birthday isn't even until Sunday (because I'm determined not to forget his birthday this year like I did last year.)

And I won both games that I played! And I played with Brian, who's on a bowling league! Can you believe my luck?

Hailey and Shelby had so much fun. They love the VOH girls. Their love is so pure and unadulterated. They just love them, and love them, and love them. Even if the big girls are being stinker-tushes. Hailey and Shelby don't even realize it. They just think they're the greatest things since sliced bread. It reminds me to not let my momentary frustration with the VOH girls mouthiness / moodiness / drama / (take your pick of adjectives) impede my willingness to love them like Jesus would love them - pure and unadulterated!

Loving is so hard sometimes. It is soooo not an emotional thing. It's more like the hardest most disciplined thing I can do - to love like Jesus does.

Spiritual Warfare

Things are pretty rough right now at work, so I've not really felt like posting much lately. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but it feels like warfare. I've been listening to this song a lot lately, because it sums up my feelings. Be prepared - it's a pretty intense song. (You can either click on the title of this post or right click "song" and open it in a new window.)