Thursday, April 29, 2010

Wickenburg

One perk of having our new car is the ability to reinstate our regular road trips! Its been quite awhile since we took off for a trip just for fun. So, last week, as soon as I got home from work, we all piled in our little Jetta and headed north to Wickenburg. Wickenburg is a rather large small town, meaning that it feels small but isn't. :) Lowell and I would love to eventually relocate there but the recession has not really affected home prices enough for them to fit into our budget yet. So, we're still looking in Tonopah and we're excited that Wickenburg is only 45 minutes away. The drive there was relatively uneventful. We played I-spy, age appropriate trivia (Nathan was asked about the War of 1812 because he has to study it for class, Jillian was asked to spell 3 letter words, and Chloe got a hodge-podge of questions relating to math, geography and spelling.) and we watched the scenery. However, as we neared Wickenburg, Jillian decided it was time for a new game and began to mimic everything that Lowell said, in the same way he said it. Oooo she thought this was great fun! And Lowell did such a good job being patient with her! :) He laughed and the kids laughed and I laughed... And she was very proud of herself. Thankfully, this hasn't become a habit because it would stop being funny real fast!
When we got to Denny's, we got seated and the kids started coloring on their menus. They started talking about what they wanted to eat, and all three sucessfully completed the word search. When the food came, all three kids got grapes with their meal. Lowell ordered a hamburger that came with a toothpick to hold it together. Nathan immediately requested the toothpick and began stabbing his grapes. Naturally, now Chloe wanted a toothpick, so Daddy broke it in half for them to both have one. Chloe started lining her grapes up, a la kabob and Nathan was still stabbing at his food. Of course, now the baby wants a toothpick. When I tell her that there isn't another one, she handles it very well and decides to get creative. In her bowl of grapes is a small grape stem. Its enough of a toothpick for her! So, she begins the rather difficult task of creating a grape kabob on the rather flexible grape stem. She's very proud of herself when she succeeds! :)
The drive home is much more eventful because Lowell decides that he doesn't want to take the same route that got us there. There is a large mountain directly between Wickenburg and Buckeye so the only alternatives for main roads are to go southeast or southwest. Well, Lowell didn't like these options and so he set off in the relative direction chosing roads at random so long as they headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, about 15 miles in, we came to a sign that said, "Welcome to Toyota". No kidding. Now if there had been a town named Toyota, it wouldn't have been so bad. This Toyota, unfortunately, was a proving ground for the car manufacturer and was also the end of the road. A complete dead end. We had no option other than to turn around and go all the way back to the highway and come home the way we came... At this point, I went to sleep. :) When we got home, Lowell got onto the internet and discovered that, indeed, there was a road to get us home and we had seen it... But I had suggested that it probably didn't go anywhere because there was no line in the middle of it.. Well, that'll teach him to listen to me! :)

Spoiled Again...

Last Thursday morning Lowell took the kids to Frys early in the morning. This allowed me to sleep in and when I awoke, the house was completely quiet... I jumped in the shower and was able to bathe blissfully uninterrupted for 15 whole minutes. Then the bathroom door opened and there stood my wonderful husband with a hot cup of coffee and breakfast. He got donuts for himself and the kids but remembered that I don't like donuts. So, I got a breakfast hot pocket instead! SOOOO wonderful! And then, if that wasn't enough, Saturday morning, I awoke to Chloe standing next to my bed with breakfast. She said she knows I have a lot to do in the mornings and that I probably get tired of cooking breakfast for myself, so she make it for me... She toasted bread, covered it with peanut butter, sprinkled on cinnamon and sugar and topped it off with sliced banana. My sleep heart melted and I scooped her up. She is sooo sweet and so wonderful!!!! :)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Blessings

Its been a very exciting couple of days.. :) After posting last night I went into the girls room to help them get ready for bed. I told them that instead of watching a little tv before bed, everyone was going to bunk down and read for awhile. Chloe is progressing really well in her reading - she's up to chapter books and has recently begun the Junie B Jones series. Last night she picked up a Tinkerbell chapter book (which I only own because the title is "Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon". :)) Nathan just reads whatever he can get his hands on from National Geographic to Magic Treehouse to Lowell's diesel magazines. :) Jillian has been looking at pictures and likes to be read to, but last night she grabbed "Hop on Pop". And to my surprise, she started reading. She was blending and sounding out the words and made it through the first couple of pages without my help. So, I started working with her and SHE WAS READING! :) So exciting!!! We've continued working through the book this morning and she was very happy to show off her new found skills when Daddy got home from work. :) Also, I sang to my girls last night, and when I got to the chorus I heard my little one singing along with me... They are listening!!! Thank you, Lord! May the message of Your love sink deep into their hearts and take root...

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Wounded

I haven't been posting as frequently as I've wanted to... And I haven't been emailing as much or as frequently as I've wanted to either. I'm just so busy. And I've been working through some stuff lately that is taking an emotional toll as well as taking my time. As a counselor-to-be, I'm sure I've talked about the need for me to work through some of my own issues so that they don't pop up and create issues when I'm counseling others. Because of this, and because of my own desire for emotional health, I've been praying about God healing my wounds. Ironically, and providencially, I believe, our pastor has been teaching a series called "Wounded". The first week was about betrayal. We all know about betrayal, I'm sure. I have experienced betrayal from friends, but mainly from family. There were people in my life from early on that didn't understand what it means to protect children and to teach them about love and safety... Pastor talked about how we can forgive these people. He said that the Bible teaches that we acknowledge our hurts and then we make a conscious choice to say "I forgive you" and then we continue the work by praying God's best for these people. So the whole congregation had little index cards, wrote the name of the person(s) who had betrayed them, and wrote "I forgive you" along with saying a prayer of blessing for them and then putting the cards on the alter to symbolically give these people to God. I did this.. And its been surprising how much of a difference its made to be praying for these people....
One of the things I missed most, growing up, was the feeling that who I am, whatever failures and mistakes I've made, whoever I am at any given momen is okay. I never felt like I was enough, like I was good enough, smart enough, well-behaved enough, funny enough, etc... I had my first panic attack in kindergarten because I got my name on the board. Anyway, around age 8 or so, I found a song that was exactly what I wanted to hear. It was what I wished my mom and my guardians would say to me. Its a song called "Masterpiece" by Sandi Patti.... And so, now that I'm a mom, I sing it to my children. I let them know that the very fact that they are alive means that they are incredible, beautiful, amazing creations of God. I tell them that I love them even when I'm mad or frustrated. I tell them that no matter what, they can come talk to me about anything - that no failure, no mistake is too much for me to handle. And that God will not leave them or stop loving them either... Because that is what I wanted to hear... I hope they're listening.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Spoiled

Have I mentioned lately how spoiled I am?? Just a couple of days after I was blessed with my new 2006 Jetta, I was given breakfast in bed by my wonderful husband. He had the children ready for school and woke me up just in time to get myself ready for work. He had run into town, washed my car and filled it with gas. He cleaned my windows and got it all spiffed up for the first day I was going to drive it to work! :) Such a sweetheart!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Tease

I am at work and can't post any pictures right now, so you're going to have to wait until tomorrow or Friday... But I have news! Fun, exciting news!!! :)