Note to ALL readers!!

Ok, who all is out there?  About once a year I like to see who is reading this blog.  Even if you only post a quick "I'm here" sort of comment, please take a second to post a quick comment & tell me how you found me.

Some of you have mentioned not being able to post comments because you don't have an account with AOL.  One new poster recently told me that it's fairly simple.  It's like any other website, you just create a username & password.  If you can't figure it out or just don't want to create another username for yet another website, email me your comment & let me know you're here.  You can send it to Lizreeves2@aol.com

 

Thanks guys!!!

Tues July 15, Summer day 44

Today was good.  I was a little hesitant about getting back to work (remember.... that means admitting that vacation time is actually over) but it was a good day. 

A new student joined my class last week, so it was fun to meet her today & see how she fits into the dynamic of my funny little crew of kids.  Everything went well, except that Savannah's return (after 3 weeks of her absence...a week long visit w/ friends, a week at camp, our week of vacation) brought about a lot of noise and an injury.  Not that SHE was noisy, but the kids love her & they get rambunctious & rowdy when she's there.  I keep trying to convince her to NOT wind them up so much because then she gets overwhelmed at how loud & rough they are.  Today, she was playing crazy with one little boy over near the kitchen (home center) & before ya know it, she took a plastic corn cob to the eye.  Ouch!  She was a little shocked that some three year olds could actually hurt her.  I tried to tell ya, hon.  Afterward, she took her Nintendo DS to find an empty room & chill out privately for a while.  Good move, kiddo.  (hmm....I wonder if I could do that sometime?  ha!)

Samuel enjoyed his 2nd day of day camp today.  As always, I'll tell you about where he's going at the end of the week after it's over.  (gotta play it safe online, ya know?!)  I can tell you this, though.  He is doing a cooking camp and he LOVES it.  He's added chef to his mile long list of things he wants to be when he grows up.

Join me in praying for my sweet Sarah.  Well, for 2 things.  I'll tell ya the easy one first.  She's got some sort of mild allergic reaction to something on her arms tonight.  We noticed the first "spot" while we were eating dinner.  Concerned that it might be a spider bite at first, Larry used his pen to mark around it so we could watch & see if it "grew" or spread.  By the time she finished swim class, though, I realized that she had a matching "spot" on her other arm.  Looks like the first one must not be a bite, but part of a reaction to something or other.  I'd like to figure out what she's reacting to and I'm praying that it's not worse by morning.  I'm definately hoping that these big red blotches on her arms are NOT the beginning of something much bigger/worse.  Tomorrow night she's going on her first ever sleepover with a friend.  She's spent the night w/ family before, but this is the first time a friend has invited her over for the night!

Ok, the 2nd thing--- she is being pounded hard by Satan.  If you will remember, she was saved in May.  She was baptised in early June.  Before asking Jesus into her heart, she had spent about a month randomly confessing things to us at least once a day.  She'd come to us all upset about some little thing that happened (literally) days/weeks/months or even years ago.  She was under such strong conviction about these things & needed to hear us say that she was forgiven.  In the past couple of weeks, she has gone back to this again.  While I'm THRILLED that she is so very aware of conviction when it strikes, at the same time, she's battling condemnation about things that happens ages ago.  At least a dozen times a day, she comes to me crying or quite upset about some bad thought she had or a word she said that maybe wasn't nice (no "bad" words..just things like "dumb" or "stupid", etc).  She gets all upset over these things, not just feeling bad that it happened, but literally clawing at her face, holding her head in her hands...really beating herself up over some minor little infraction.  She's always been extremely sensitive, and now Satan is having a field day with that---smashing her little conscience to smithereens over every little thing!  I talked to her about 'taking her thoughts captive' & giving them to God.  We've talked about the fact that when Jesus died for her sins, ALL of her sins were in the future---so His blood covered them ALL.  She was forgiven for those that happened prior to her salvation & she has been forgiven for all of them SINCE.  She's having a really hard time grasping that God loves her even when she has one mean thought about her brother or when she leans back in the chair at the bar (something we have to fuss at all the kids about all the time!).  Please pray that she learns to respond appropriately to conviction, but that Satan will be rebuked every time he tries to condemn her for long-ago offenses or when he tries to beat her up over the tiniest infractions.  I hate to see her feel miserable about some tiny little thing ...or things that were over & done with LONG ago!

Ok, it's nearly 1am.  I'm tired.  Heading off to bed now!

Mon July 14, Summer day 43

First of all, before I do anything else, I'd like to say

to my niece, Robyn.  It's hard to imagine that you turned FIVE years old today!  I still remember the day your mom called to tell me she was pregnant...and the day we watched the ultrasound together & found out you were a GIRL!....and the day you were born!  Boy, time passes quickly!  I wish I could be there for your party on Wednesday, but just know that I love you, baby girl!  Happy birthday!!

And now...back to the regular blog.  :)  And by regular I do mean 'regular' stuff.

Today is the 43rd day of summer.  We were watching Phineus & Ferb this afternoon & the theme song played.  You may remember the video of it I posted earlier this summer (if not, sort through the archives & find it...it's a cute song).  Sarah piped up & said "are there really 104 days of summer vacation?".  I told her I was counting them, but I wasn't so sure about the number yet.  I guess we'll see, huh?

I walked through the house today, straightening it up, starting loads of laundry & sighed.  Vacation is really over.  It's so much like the way I feel at the tail end of summer.  Bummed that I have to start getting up at a normal time again.  Sad that I have to give up mid-day naps.  It's like a little kid who drags there feet & shuffles into school half-awake on the first day of school.  I hate to see a restful time go.  And yet.....I yearn for routine & structure & schedules, so I always want what I can't have at the time.  Isn't that just like human nature?

Tomorrow I will get up early & head out the door to a job I adore.  I will meet a new student (she came for the first time last week while I was on vacation...sorry kiddo!).  I will have a BLAST hanging out with the kids at my school.  I will enjoy adult conversations with the other teachers before & after work.  I will hug the necks of all the kids I missed last week.  I will get to play & act silly & read stories & sit in a tiny chair around a really short table, despite the fact that my posterior doesn't exactly FIT those chairs.  I will skip & dance & make an idiot of myself during music time.

And yet, I'm bummed.  I guess that's just the nature of the first day back to work after vacation...even if you have an awesome job!

:::sigh:::  I guess it's time to get back to life.  Which reminds me of this song from when I was in junior high.  tee hee...I have no idea if there is some covert (bad) meaning to the song, but the chorus is about how I feel right now.

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Sun July 13, Summer Day 42, Staycation Day 7

:::sigh:::  It's over.  Today was our last day of vacation (stay-cation!).  I'm a little bummed because life has to go back to normal now, but at the same time, I'm grateful that we got this time together.  I want to whine that it's over, but I really can't fuss.  Larry & I have a date night planned next week.  And a month from now (more or less) we're flying out of state to visit a friend of mine for a couple days.  The weekend after that, I'm going to Women of Faith.  But it seems like summer is flying by pretty fast.  And I want it to last.  (anybody want to cry for me now?  ha ha!)

Today, Larry decided to go to church like a good boy, however he couldn't go to our church because well...he works there.  If he showed up there during his vacation time, people would wonder why he wasn't teaching his class or helping during the altar service.  And so, he went to the First Assembly of God here in town.  The kids & I were worn out from our week of busy-ness, so we chose to stay at home & just relax.  We slept a little later than usual, ate pancakes for breakfast, hung out watching movies & TV and then made lunch about time for Larry to come home.  After lunch, we went to the Tyler Museum of Art.

Today they had a Family Day.  We weren't sure exactly what "Family Day" meant, but we wanted to see the elephant paintings exhibit & one thing we did know....family day means "FREE"!  So we went.  (NOTE:  These were not paintings OF elephants, but ones done BY elephants!)

When we got there, we saw a sign that said you could not take pictures inside the gallery, but if I was to blog about it, I had to get a picture, right?  When I spotted 2 people taking pictures very openly, I decided to stick it to the man & take a picture myself.  (ha ha!)  But honestly, I'm too much of a rule follower to do it so obviously like they were!  So, I held my camera as I had been doing the whole time & very nonchalantly & covertly snapped a picture without actually AIMING the camera.  I had no idea if I'd actually get a picture of something or not.  I mean, after all, being the sneaky photographer I am, I couldn't let someone catch me looking at the LCD screen to see how the pic turned out!  And this is what I got!

I had to crop quite a bit for that picture to look right.  The rest looked more like this:

They had a video playing to show how the paintings are done.  They actually had paintings done by cockroaches & rhinoceruses too!  Very interesting to watch them do the paintings...and fun to look at the finished products!

After walking through the gallery, we were led to the "classroom" where the very over-enthusiastic docents directed the kids to sit down & "paint like an elephant".  The project they had planned for the kids to do was really directed at children more along the lines of 2 to 5 year olds, so my kids were not exactly excited about participating.  Samuel & Sarah made a picture quickly so we could get out of there & were a little frustrated when they were directed to hang the picture on a wall of all the other kids' paintings--where they had to LEAVE it.  They were a little irritated that they made the picture & couldn't take it home!  Oh well, we have tons of other pieces of artwork of theirs.  After making their pictures, they were given snacks & we sat in the bookstore area of the museum to eat it.

We had told the kids before going in that this was a "fancy" place & they needed to be on their best behavior.  When Larry lingered in the bookstore area a little too long, the kids began to wear out on the sitting up straight, using nice manners & being polite.  So we went outside to walk around a bit while we waited for him.  There is a fountain right outside the door, so I posed the kids for a picture (of course!).

Sarah was feeling silly & tried another pose.  It was just a fake, though.  She didn't actually fall in.  She just wanted to look like she did!

We went back in just in time for Larry to see another exhibit that he wanted to look through.  It was an exhibit of Jewish artwork from artists during the Holocaust & soon afterward.  The kids & I made a quick lap through the room (it was a small room) but he wanted to read each little plaque under the pieces, so the kids & I headed to the van to wait for him.  Samuel had a lot of "sillies" to shake out when we got there.  He wanted me to take a video of him getting out all his goofyness, so I obliged him.  I tried to post it here, but AOL is being stinky tonight, so if you want to see the video, email me!

After the museum, we headed home for burgers cooked on the grill and a little more family time before Savannah headed off to spend the night with my niece.  I guess life truely is back to normal now.  Tomorrow I'll go pick her up, run to the post office, take Samuel to daycamp.....you know, the regular mom stuff.

Thanks for keeping up with our week of staycationing this week!  Tomorrow the blog goes back to regular stuff!

Sat July 12, Summer day 41, Staycation day 6

Today was spent mostly at home.  Larry & Samuel went to a cub scout event this morning.  We'd planned for all of us to go, but after a (great!) week of doing things together daily, it was clear that the laundry wasn't going to fold itself, so I kept the girls here & folded laundry while they did the scout thing.  It was clear sometime Thursday night or Friday that we'd done real well on finding lots of close-to-home little 'treasures' to visit & spend time at, but we had not done too well at scheduling some quiet, relaxing time to just sit at home & rest or get things taken care of around the house.  Oops.

Tonight was a special night for us.  In the late Fall of 2004, we left our church home of 7 years when Larry went into ministry full time.  Bethel Bible Church holds such a special place in our hearts, and thankfully, we still have a good relationship with all of the fabulous people there.  We run into them now & then at Walmart.  We get the emails for prayer requests.  But nothing quite compares to spending time with them, fellowshipping and enjoying their friendship.  We were at Bethel from late 1997 til 2004.  The congregation there saw us through Samuel & Sarah's pregnancies & births, Larry's years in college while he finished his bachelor's degree as well as 4 years of seminary.  They were our cheerleaders, our confidants, our closest friends.  What a treasure those years hold for us.

Every year, the "G" family holds a fabulous Christmas 'Party with a Purpose' where they not only celebrate the season, but they collect money or supplies for a special cause.  We feel especially connected to their family because they were in our Sunday School class all those years.  Their oldest son & our youngest daughter are 2 weeks apart in age.  She was at the women's retreat with me each year I went.  They were part of our small group for the last 2 or 3 years we went to church there.  Lots of sweet memories!  And like I told Mrs. G tonight, I am SO GLAD that she has the gift of hospitality!  She & her husband put on a mean party at Christmas & often, at some other point in the year, too!  It's always fun to go to their home because everyone is calm & relaxed & they make you feel very much at home under their roof.  (I most definately do not posess this talent.  Larry & I are total homebodies & never in our 14 years of marriage have put on a party like the ones they throw!)

Tonight they had a party!  They come up with the best ideas for parties.  Honestly, I think they're just looking for a reason to have a party -- and I'm so glad they found one!  Tonight's theme was summer birthdays.  Mrs. G has a June birthday & said that, as a kid, she always felt jipped out of a cool party because she had a summer birthday & couldn't invite all her school friends.  Since it is summertime, they threw a party for all their friends who have summer birthdays!  They even had a cake made with ALL the names of their friends with summer birthdays!  What a treat!  Since Savannah has a summer birthday, here she is with the cake.  And look!  Her name is on the next to the last line!  She thought it was really cool that they'd include her!

After we all pigged out on tacos & chips/dip, they had a pinata in the yard for all the kids to take a whack at.  They had quite a crowd!  Look at all the kids!  And remember, each of these kids came with 2 parents---it was a full house!

On the way home, the kids wanted to use their Sonic gift cards to stop for icecream (because none of them ate cake at the party).  We got them a little treat & then headed home for baths & bedtime.  Sarah was waiting for her turn to get in the shower, so she posed & wanted me to take some pictures.  ha ha!  And then she turned the camera & took a couple pictures of me!  Silly girl!

As our week of staycationing draws to a close, it begins to feel like life is going back to "normal".  We've really enjoyed our quiet week of family time.  Tomorrow we have one last thing to go do with the kids.  I think they'll enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I will be allowed to take pictures.  Til then.....have a good night's rest.

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I have a bunch of blogs I check in on (almost) daily.  I've seen this posted on several lately, so I'm going to do it too.  Even if these things are silly, they're pretty fun to do, so if you want to skip reading it, feel free.  :)

10 Things I Must Have in the Pantry/Fridge at all Times

1.  milk

2.  eggs

3.  yogurt

4.  fruit

5.  veggies

6.  bread

7.  lunchmeat

8.  peanut butter & jelly (ok, so that's actually 2...I'm cheating, though.)

9.  tea (for Larry)

10.  water (I realize this comes from the faucet, but I like to keep it chilled...I drink tons of water & prefer it ice cold!)

 

10 Songs I Love

1.  Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone -- Chris Tomlin

2.  What This World Needs -- Casting Crowns

3.  It Is Well (my all time favorite hymn)

4.  Held -- Natalie Grant (it was my theme song of 2006, while I was trying to wrap my brain around the death of one of my dearest friends and the loss of the mother of my niece & nephew)

5.  Holy -- Nichole Nordeman

6.  Brave -- Nichole Nordeman  (also my theme song in 2006-07 while learning to advocate for a child who needed so much help in so many ways)

7.  lots of old, cool songs from the 70s

8.  ditto---from the 80s

9.  ditto--from the 90s

 

10 Stores I Love

1.  Walmart

2.  Target

3.  Goodwill store!!!

4.  The Scroll (especially the clearance room hidden away in the back of the store!)

5.  Bed, Bath & Beyond (oh, I could get into so much trouble there!)

6.  Goody's (clothes for me!)

7.  Lane Bryant (ditto)

8.  Lowe's or Home Depot (it's fun to go in there & dream about all the cool things we could do if we could afford it!)

9.  Honestly, I can't think of a single other store that I frequently visit or shop from.

10.  .....and so this one is blank, too!

 

10 Cities I Love

1.  Whitehouse, TX (born & raised)

2.  Gilmer, TX  (I loved living there!)

and that's all I can think of......I am such a homebody!

 

10 Days of the Year that I Love

1.  Thanksgiving (my very favorite holiday---so far, no one has been able to screw it up with commercialism!)

2.  my anniversary (it holds a lot of sweet memories of a special day & led to the other greatest days of my life--all my married years & the births of my children)

3.  my birthday

4.  my kids' birthdays

5.  Easter

6.  Christmas

7.  First Day of School

8.  Last Day of School

9.  the last days of summer when we're hanging out in the yard, eating popsicles, enjoying those final dog days of hot weather with eager anticipation of what's ahead with the new school year

10.  any day that I'm off work & the kids and Larry are at work/school......I love my alone time when I can get it!

 

10 Things I Do Every Day

1.  go potty (hey, that's the first thing every day!)

2.  make 3 meals for my family

3.  make up my bed

4.  kiss my husband a thousand times

5.  kiss/hug/touch/love on my babies every time they walk by (just about anyway!)

6.  dishes

7.  laundry

8.  check my email/blog/myspace

9.  brush my teeth

10.  depending on the day/season, I either take someone to school, go to work or church or run an errand

 

10 Events I Will Never Forget

1.  lots of special memories growing up---first days of school, the day I got saved when I was 8 years old, graduation from high school, the first day of college, etc.......

2.  My wedding & honeymoon

3.  My first date with Larry (ok, so these are out of order!)

4.  Dec. 4, 1995---the day I found out I was pregnant for the first time!

5.  Aug 1996--Savannah's birth

6.  March 2000-- Samuel's birth -- because it was totally different from my first birth with a Csection & tons of complications afterward

7.  June __, 2000---Samuel turned 3 months old & I found out I was pregnant again!!!  That shock & disbelief will NEVER leave my memory.

8.  Feb  2001-- Sarah's birth

9.  Feb 9 & 10, 2006 --Lisa's & Kelly's deaths and all the things that those dates led to...

10.  March 16, 2007 -- the day the kids moved out

 

10 Books I Love

1.  Bible (especially mine--NIV Life Applications Study Bible, with a sweet inscription inside the front cover from my sweet hubby who gave me the Bible)

2.  Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

3.  all of the Baxter series books by Karen Kingsbury

4.  Love Languages book (such an eye opener)

5.  The Power of a Praying Wife (such a marriage changer!)

6.  Intimacy with the Almighty by Chuck Swindoll

7.  Time for Bed (a bedtime story my kids loved that I have memorized from reading it over & over & over...)

8.  Goodnight Moon (another sweet one from the early days w/ my kids)

9.  I'm going blank & can't think of another one.

10. 

 

10 Movies I Love

1.  Grease

2.  The Notebook

3.  A Walk to Remember

4.  Serendipity

5.  Wizard of Oz

6.  The Lakehouse

7.  Disney version of Robin Hood

8. 

9.

10.

 

It also asked for "10 of My Favorite Posts thus Far", but I can't pick out a "good" post from a "bad" one because, so often, I feel like this is just a place for me to unload & ramble and I'm grateful that anyone's reading any of it!  So, you decide.  If I've posted something you enjoyed reading, post a comment & tell me what was your favorite. 

July 11, Summer day 40, Staycation day 5

Today was a little more relaxed than the rest of the week has been.  We slept late, had breakfast & then went to get Larry, Samuel & Savannah's hair cut.  You can see why Samuel needed it in the picture of his bedhead a couple days ago.  Savannah's layers had long since grown out & needed a trim and well....Larry has never actually NEEDED a haircut in his life, but he likes his hair pretty short, so the moment he needs a comb to fix it, he starts fretting that it's getting too long & runs for a haircut.  :::sigh:::  Whatever.

Our plan was to go to the movies, stopping at a gas station on the way to pick up some candy.  We have NEVER done that before (hiding candy & sneaking it in), but we were trying to cut costs & thought we could let the kids each pick out a candy from the gas station on the way.  However, when we got to the gas station, 2 of my 3 kids got really, really, really upset that we were intentionally breaking the rules.  They were to the point of tears that we were going to "break the movie laws" and since they were so convicted about it, we apologized to them about trying to convince them to do something that we know is wrong & chose to leave the candy at the gas station.  Instead, we drove through McDonald's & got $1 double cheeseburgers for each of us to fill our bellies before the movie & then got popcorn to share and a drink at the theater.  We still spent less than if we'd let everyone get candy & a drink and it was better for them anyway.  We all REALLY enjoyed the movie, Wall-E.  It was a very sweet family movie.

After the movie, we came home & took a nap before eating supper & heading to Faulker Park (http://www.cityoftyler.org/Default.aspx?tabid=223) to visit their splashground area.

It is a series of pipes that pour water, buckets that fill up & dump over your head, sprinkler heads that spray up at your body in sporadic patterns, water "cannons" that you can fire at your family & friends.  It was so much fun!  The kids did it alone for a while because Larry & I spotted a little girl who was in Sarah's class last year (& she was in Kourtney's class the year before).  We ended up talking to her parents & watching all the kids from the sidelines for quite some time before the kids came and got me & drug me in.  I couldn't convince Larry to get in the water with us, but I did manage to give him a big ol' wet hug!  :)

Here's Savannah behind the red arch, covering her eyes.

And Miss Sarah, splashing her feet in the puddles of water.

Samuel shooting the water cannon...likely at one of his sisters.

I love the look on Chelsea's face (our little friend from school).  She was right under one of the buckets & had just gotten showered when I clicked this photo.  My girls are on the left, talking about how to hit Samuel with the water cannon.

The kids loved this spout of pouring water!  Here's Samuel getting doused.

...and Savannah!

When they were done getting soaked (& convincing me to come join their wet playtime!), we moved over to the playground, which sits right beside the splashground.

They climbed...

...and climbed some more.

They spun in circles on these crazy little chairs that were hard to get stopped.

Samuel conquered the mountain.

It seems that climbing was our theme tonight.  ha ha!

Savannah finally wore out & came to sit on the bench with Larry and I.

We attempted a self-portrait, but it didn't work out too well.  It's always hard to tell whether or not you got everyone's faces in the shot.

So Savannah took a picture for us.  She insisted that we pose like this.  And at the last minute, Larry blew a raspberry instead of kissing me.  LOL!

Ahhhh!  It was a relaxing day.  Tomorrow's staycation plans include a whole lot of hanging out at home, resting....oh, and folding a TONNNNNNNN of laundry!  We're going to a party tomorrow evening, but other than that, we're not doing much of anything.  What a great week it's been.  We do have one last thing on Sunday afternoon.  I'll tell you about it then.

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