Yesterday was a BUSY day.
1.) Greg went to men's prayer breakfast.
2.) Greg took boys to Home Depot for kids' project and was met there by two
of their friends and parents.
3.) The aforementioned friends and parents came over for lunch.
4.) The kids took a nap (5 at our house; 2 went home).
5.) Dad and Gini took the boys to a playground and McDonald's for dinner.
Does Luke look exhausted?

Another one at the park

At the park with Elsi

Thanks for the awesome pictures, Alli!

Fun, if short, visit with Uncle Timmy

Snow and snowing

Thank You, Jesus, for small mercies.

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog at all, or even on facebook. Other things in life have been consuming my time -- any guesses, anyone? But, tonight, I just have to say thank you to the Lord for the "small" gift of time with a friend I haven't gotten to spend much time with in a while. The Lord orchestrated it -- we were supposed to be having Bible Study -- she can never come anymore, but three other people almost always come. Tonight? None of the regulars, just my old friend that I never get to see anymore. It was so nice. Thank you, Jesus for that breath of fresh air, not to mention relax time that I wasn't expecting.

Jumping

Christmas with family

We had such a wonderful time with family coming here after Christmas. Peter
and Janet, Lydia and Gabe, and Luke all came and stayed for at least a
couple nights. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Ruth, and Aunt Sanny and Uncle John
came for dinner on Sunday. We haven't seen any of them since Lydia's
wedding, but we didn't get to spend much time with the Jones' or the Masons
then, so it was really wonderful to catch up with everybody a little bit. We
went to the aquarium with Lydia and Gabe on their last day here, which was
New Year's Eve. We definitely miss them all!

Family trip to Rock City Garden of Lights

The boys loved our little trip to the Rock City Garden of Lights last night.
Ben couldn't stop talking while we were there, about all the lights and
pretty things he was seeing, and Luke's first question when it was over
was,"When can we come back?"

Tori and her pups went with us to Atlanta and Greenville for Thanksgiving.

Thankful

I am so thankful to the Lord for the families that he put both me and my husband into, who raised us in loving Christian homes and gave us great examples of what a marriage should be. I am so thankful for what wonderful grandparents they all are, playing with our little boys, and loving them so much. Not everyone has families they like to visit at the holidays. We just wish there was some way to visit both!

Crazy Awesome Weekend

We just had the craziest, most awesome weekend. It felt like it lasted FOREVER (in a good way) because so much happened! Friday evening, we had company for dinner, our friends Sarah and Eddie and their 3-1/2 kids. The men stayed home with the kids once they were all safely in bed at our house and Sarah and I went shopping (obviously, we're moms -- we went to BI-LO first!). We were going to get dessert or coffee, but Eddie texted to Sarah to come back because he needed to go home to bed since he had to work Saturday. When we got home, he was practically asleep on the couch. Right when Sarah was getting him up to leave, U.S. Marshals came on and Sarah got hooked in -- at midnight. At 2, I realized they were not leaving, so I went to bed, after getting them all settled on the couch with blankets. So, we had a grown-up sleepover! The next morning, we all had breakfast and then they left around 10.

Greg and I took the kids to ride the TVRM train at noon, and then we went to go pick out a different pair of  glasses for Luke and get the first pair fixed (another kid jumped off the top bunk onto his face  -- "I told him to move!"), which broke off a nose piece. They said they'd have them ready in 45 minutes, so we went to Chik-fil-a for lunch. We ran into Heather and Jonas there, which was great fun. Then right as we were getting in the car, they called from Eyeglass World to say they made a mistake and it would be another half hour on the glasses. So we went to Petsmart to kill some time and then went and got the glasses. By the time we got home it was four. We left our house at 5:30 to go watch the East Ridge Christmas Parade, and then Heather, Matt, and Jonas came over after for leftovers. The kids went to bed about ten.

Today, we skipped Sunday School and just went to church. Who should show up, but one of my oldest childhood friends with her husband, all whom I haven't seen in more than a year. We had lunch by ourselves, but then they came over at about 3, with their three girls (ages 3 to 7). Heather and Jonas came over a little later. We made buttermilk pancakes for dinner and chatted while the kids played. Everyone was finally gone about 9:45. Whew! We made it; had a wondeful time, and our house surprisingly is NOT trashed! I wouldn't want to do this every weekend, but I really enjoyed it. It was nice for Greg too, because he doesn't always get to see his friends outside of work and he saw three of them this weekend.

Luke's glasses

For those of you who haven't seen the pictures yet, Luke got glasses a couple days ago. He's apparently far-sighted, like me (Esther) and Daniel. Also like his uncle Daniel, one eye is worse than the other. The opthalmologist said that the glasses might correct that. In 6 weeks we go back to check. If it's not corrected he'll have to do the patch thing, although they also do a drop instead, just depending on the kid - whichever is easier for the parents to do.

 

He's doing pretty well with them. He doesn't want to wear them all the time, but we're trying to ease him into it. I don't want him to hate them right from the beginning because of us fighting about them. He does say he can see things better. He told me, "Everything is bigger now!" He can see letters that he couldn't see before because they were too small. We bought 2 pairs, but only have one right now because the lady who was fitting them on him broke one of the ear pieces. Hopefully she's really strong rather than the glasses being fragile, right?

Luke gets glasses

Fwd: doctors wisdom

I didn't write this, but I thought it was a good way to look at it.

If only everyone could look at things this way. It might help our society see that we should respect the lives of All our children -- even those we haven't yet met.       NEW TAKE ON CHOICES        A Doctor's Wisdom A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1yr. old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together. So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?' She said: 'I  want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with  this.' The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's  less dangerous for you too.' She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request. Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms. The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a  crime to kill a child. 'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be ok with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'      "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."                    -- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

cute things kids say

I wish I could remember them all, but I can't.

Luke said he is saving his money to ride an airplane to go visit Jude. (his cousin in CO)

Ben asked how giants fit in houses and where they live, then said he would be one when he grows up.

Photos from the weekend

This weekend -- SISTER HERE!

Yay! Lydia's here this weekend and it's supposed to be beautiful weather. I'm so glad she's here, because we haven't seen her for more than a couple hours since her wedding (June). It's SOOOO great to have her here. The kids love it too. We talked yesterday about the fact that she was coming today and one of the boys said, "I like Auntie!" Love it! Too bad Uncle Gabe couldn't come.

Ben says he'll let Lydia cut his hair -- Wow! I hope he really does. He's got that really short hair cut, just a basic buzz, and it suits him. But it's getting long (1 in.) and uneven and he is not ready to be cooperative about having it cut.

Emergency Preparedness Food Analyzer

We had a bunch of flooding last night in our area. Our house is way up on a hill, so we weren't flooded, but a lot of other people around us lost everything. That and Luke talking about fire because he met Smoky the Bear at Home Depot got me thinking a little about how prepared I am for an emergency. I'm NOT!

I just checked out the food analyzer on this website. I'm not really into being prepared for emergencies =), but it's pretty neat because it tells you how long you could live on the non-perishable feed that you have. You can put in how many calories a day that you need for your household, add quantities of items they already have listed, and it will give you a list of the nutritional content of the food you have and how long you could live on it. Kind of handy for planning purposes. I just made a guess of how many items I usually would have in my pantry and it told me I could live for almost 3 days on it. Not too shabby, but no "Katrina" preparedness! This literally took me 3 minutes to do. Just read the instructions -- makes it a lot easier and they're pretty simple. Plus, I got a $10 gift card for looking at it and writing this.

Cleaning

I have been neglecting my house lately, but that last couple days I've made up for some lost ground. I even mopped this morning BEFORE I went to work. Feels good.