Yet Another Milestone...

There have just been so many milestones lately, I feel like I am tripping over them. Today, Micah started school - only preschool, but still a big thing for him. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep very well last night and I don't think he felt 100%, but we went anyway. (By my twisted logic, I figure that he'd be grumpy here or there, and they get paid, so I let him go!) He cried when we left, sadly, but just so you know, Micah (in case you read this some day), I stood outside the door and listened for 20 minutes until you got happy, and I was sad too. You can tell the therapist that if you ever decide that me leaving you crying at preschool traumatized you for life!

The good news was that when I picked him up at noon, I stood in the classroom watching him for a good 5 minutes before he even noticed me there. He had a good time, I think, runny nose and all. I enjoyed the morning - I began a new Bible study with some girls and it's nice to not have to rush through it.

So here are some of the captured moments. (I'm sure Rick will create another podcast with the video he took, in case you are dying to see the live action version!)



The backpack is a little large, but so cute! He likes the "pack pack" part of school!



This is when I should have left! But I just had to say good bye, which is when the tears started. (If anyone is ever at church and wonders what exactly "weeping and knashing of teeth" looks like, you can just imagine the first day of preschool with 10 nearly-2-year-olds leaving their mamma's for the first time!)



His class has 7 boys and 3 girls. I would not be volunteering to be in charge of that mess! But Miss Debbie and Miss Elaine are veteraned 2-year-old teachers, so I will happily let them do their thing!

In other Micah news, we are starting to see 3 and 4 word sentences! It is very cute! Today at lunch he kept saying, "mo chikit muck agin pees." I knew exactly what he wanted. If you can't figure it out, you probably need to come for a visit! Anyway, it is so sweet to listen to his little voice, especially when he sings! He definately got more of the music gene than Katie did and it is so cool to see it develop. We'll try to get that on video - it would make a good podcast, I'm sure! (By the way, if you did download his podcasts from iTunes, thanks for indulging my technologically obesessed husband!)

I hope your day was as exciting as ours!

The Other Child

I have been a little preoccupied with Katie's things this week, but I wanted to let all 4 of my faithful readers know I haven't forgotten the little Mike. Thursday morning, we were all dressed and fed and ready to go and it was only 8:00! What a new scene for us! So we sat on the couch and pondered our new little existance - just him and me. I came to the conclusion that we can finally do what HE wants. He has been packed around to all of his sisters events for 2 years. Now is Micah time. So we sat a little longer with me trying to figure out what he might want to do. I haven't given that much thought!

So we ended up at the park. It was surprisingly cool and there was no one there. An empty park is no fun to Katie but Micah loved it! He had no one to stand in line behind, no one on the swings to kick him when he walked in front, no one to be hit with the rocks he loves to throw. It was great! We stayed 2 hours. He did miss Katie, though. As soon as she got home, she shucked her clothes and he put them on over his own. It was cute.

So here is the little man these days. He is cute beyond words and such a ham. The child plays to the crowd, even wose than Katie did at this age. He has a touch of OCD in that he wants the same song played over and over until he learns it and can sing along. There is nothing more precious than hearing a little child sing "Lord, You're Beautiful".



He has made this week survivable for me. We are both excited for Saturday, though. There is something just-not-right with Katie gone!

I don't know who's brilliant idea it was to give a sweet, defenseless baby to a couple, expect them to love and protect the little creature for 5 or 6 years, while they grow more and more attached to the thing, and then ask them to just hand it off on some arbitrary day in August to a couple of strangers who have a paper on the wall that says they know what they are doing in a room FULL of little people, just one of which you had trouble handling sometimes, and then expect you to go on about your merry day without another word from them for 6 or 7 hours. To make matters worse, they expect you to jerk that sweet sleeping child out of bed at an hour that man was not meant to walk to earth (since it is still DARK) so that later they can try to get the poor child to sleep on a towel, sardined up against kids they've never met, in the bright light, on a concrete floor and with a belly full of greasy popcorn chicken and fries. Why couldn't we have just let them sleep in the morning and skipped the whole nap farce? And what in the heck is popcorn chicken? Did it start out as a dry kernel of chicken before it hit the grease?

Maybe I'm just a little emotional right now, but I miss my kiddo. We did survive the morning. She did great. She was nervous but brave and it was hard to leave her in her chair, waving goodbye, and not go back for another kiss. But I was heartened to see that as I walked away, she was drawing a happy sunshine on her paper. Here are some of the moments...

The requisite "First-Day-of-School-in-front-of-the-house" picture. I have the one of Darrell and I waiting by the mailbox for the bus on my first day of kindergarten, framed on a shelf.



This one kills me. She didn't even need to hold my hand. She didn't know that I needed to hold hers...



Katie finding her own little piece of real estate - the illustrious cubby - with Mrs. Roberts (who is quickly emerging as the favored of the 2 teachers.)



And the final farewells. I don't think Micah has realized that anything is different today!



So there it is. Now I only have a couple more hours to wait to hear what I missed. And I just can't wait!

The Final Day...

We had classroom orientation today at Katie's school. Can I just say that I need to rent the saddest movie tonight and just get these tears out! I feel like I have been choking on them for a week - they feel like such a weight! I'm thinking "Stepmom" or "My Life" or something like that is in order for tonight.

So anyway, back to the orientation. Katie flat out refused to enter the classroom! All of you who can't imagine that she is ever shy - you should have been there. So we waited a couple minutes in the hall. I finally told her I was ready so she hid behind me and we went in. It really took her a few minutes to warm up! I am praying she gets a good night sleep tonight because if she is tired tomorrow, she might pull the same stunt and I'm not sure I can leave her there crying.

Here are some pics of the morning.

This is the front of the school. There are 1045 students this year, which includes 9 kindergarten classes! I think there were fewer than 9 classes in the entire elementary school that I went to!



Katie could not be bothered with drawing a picture of her family! She only sat still for a couple minutes!



She did immediately get excited about the books!




This car is in the library. What is up with her reading the paper? I don't even read the paper!



So that is the latest. I'll hopefully get some pictures tomorrow. Thanks for indulging me as I take this agonizing journey back to elementary school! We are really excited for Katie and totally at ease with everything - just mournful of the leaving of a phase of her life and all too aware of how quickly the days are passing us by!

Wow - the clock is SOOO ticking!

A day and a half until my preschooler enters the world of her next 13 years.

A day and a half until I have to start planning around a school schedule and quit going to theme parks when no one else is there.

A day and a half until I start waiting anxiously to hear how her day spent with other people went, and hope I didn't miss too much.

A day and a half until Katie has to wait until 2:30 to get a hug if she gets hurt or gets her feelings hurt.

A day and a half until I get to start running errands with only one child. Okay - that's a good part!

It'll be a big day and a half!

Shifting gears (and avoiding tears) I have to share the latest funny thing. Today, Katie finally wanted to work on her preschool workbook that she has been against working on all summer. So she was determined to do all of it! Anyway, on one page we were graphing the number of legs each farm animal has. I had to call each animal a "her". She said, "They are all girls mom, unless they poop. If they poop, they are boys!" Hopefully, she'll keep to the theory that boys stink for at least another 13 years.

1.5 days...and no longer counting.

Funny Katie Quote of The Day

Today, Katie was washing out a pair of panties that she had messed in. She hollered at me, "You know mom, a long time ago, if a kid had an accident, they'd have to wash their panties out down at the river!" That's about right, I guess.

I guess that means she's ready for school! Good thing, because there's 4 days and counting.....

Our new favorite place

We are getting ready for a renovation on our master bath and have been plotting and planning our method of attack. I have driven by this store several times, called the Restore, run and managed by Habitat for Humanity, and always wanted to stop in. So today, we went to scope it out. It was awesome! There were dozens and dozens of windows and doors, shutters, bathroom fixtures, cabinets, furniture, bricks, light fixtures, etc. The window assortment was the most amazing. There were all sorts of custom shapes and styles, many of them still in their original packaging. The worker folks old us that the stock came from a variety of places - some was recycled and was not new, other stuff was slightly damaged and a lot of it was new overstocked items from home imrprovement stores. There was also some cool old stuff - one door was like the old doors in the middle school I went to, with windows on the top half and made of old, heavy wood. It was $20 - if 'd had a place to keep it, I would've bought it for sentimental value. There were some cool, angled-type windows and some really neat french door ensembles.

We ended up buying a window for the bathroom that matches the other windows in the bedroom - it was brand new - for $40! Then, we got a new marble vanity top with 2 underneath-mounted sinks for $99! (It is still in the truck - we will need some big friends to help us get it out!) We also got a solid cherry kitchen table with the leaf that folds down into the table for $65 - granted, it doesn't have any legs, but Rick is already remedying that in the garage! We cut a lot off our bathroom budget and everything in the store is tax-free too, with the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity, so it was a winner all around. We will definately be hitting that store again frequently.

Anyway, that was the cool thing for the day! We will have to post some before and after pics of the bathroom whenever we get started. There are some details we are still working out but we hope to get started in the next few weeks. If you have nothing else to do, you are welcome to come demo with us! It should be fun...

It's all fun and games until someone pukes in the playland!

So it's 480 degrees (roughly) and we are running out of money and things to fill the day! If someone wants me to do their back to school shopping (and foot the bill of course), I'd be glad to because I am bored out of my gourd today. That doesn't mean I don't have anything to do - just nothing that is appealing to do with 2 whiny kids and a car that feels like an oven, on less than $5.00.

So we have been hitting the "fun" (term used loosely) restaurants this week for lunch and a bit of energy exertion (theirs, not mine). Today it was Burger King. Apparently, most of the other moms in town thought it was a good idea too, so it was packed...

...until the worker-man said kindly, "We need to clear the playland for just a few minutes while we clean some vomit out of the little car thingy." Wow. What a way to empty Burger King of about 75 people in less than a minute. I think the lake dropped a couple inches too, shortly after that, as about 30 moms scrubbed their kids from head to toe (Katie is still soaking as we speak). I think the only thing that could make these last, hot, grumpy days of summer any longer is a stomach virus!

But on a lighter note, Micah is becoming a little quirky in his old age. In a stroke of brilliance (I thought at the time), I got him eating his vegetables one night with a toothpick (we said "on a steeek", like the jalepeno on a stick guy). Unfotunately, he has now abandoned all other forms of self feeding and will only eat stuff off of a "steeek". It's a little tedious. We haven't tried rice since this started. Or soup. I'll keep you posted about that.

Only 2 weeks left until school. We are getting nervous about the morning times. Currently, we are weening Katie off of the 10 am waking schedule. Shooting for 9:30 by the end of the week. We need to get to 6:45. Not sure how that will go. But she is ready - she's been wearing jeans and a SWEATER all week. DId I mention that it's nearly 800 degrees outside? Just checking. She cracked me up again the other night. We were eating chicken soup (I know - bad idea in August but I couldn't come up with anything else) and Rick got a little bone in his. Katie commented, "I wonder why they put bones in the chicken? What good is that?" Maybe I'd be that smart if I could sleep until 10:00 every morning.

The kids are playing together a little more these days. That is usually a good thing, although 2 conniving little minds are truly scarier than one. Yesterday, they played that they were cops and arrested the vaccuum cleaner. The vaccuum has been the source of much delight these past couple weeks. Once again I ask myself why I buy toys when the hard plastic vaccuum attachments are what they play with all day. Describing the arrest of the vaccum on the phone to my friend Holly resulted in a suggestion that they need a little "respect of the household appliances" crash course. I think I probably need the "it's not always good in the long run to let kids do whatever it takes to keep them from whining" crash course instead. But it's a little too hot for that today! Besides, at least I didn't let them eat cookies or doritos for breakfast, like I know some moms are prone to do.

Yet.

13 days and counting...

I think I might miss her...

It struck me this week as the three of us (me, K and M) were driving through town, and I was watching them in the backseat through my rear-view as they shared a book and Katie "read" to Micah, that - OH MY GOODNESS - SHE IS LEAVING ME! I really thought that kindergarten was going to be great and that I wouldn't miss her a bit, but now I think I will. Granted, she is climbing the walls and making me crazy these days and she is bored and annoying and all that. But she is also sweet and good to her brother (most of the time) and she is so loving and snuggly, and she is helpful (most of the time) and funny. Today, there is a guy pressure washing the house - she asked me if he was done with the bathrooms and could she go potty! If only... And earlier this week, she pulled a hard boiled egg out of the fridge, who's shell had cracked while it was cooking, and she freaked out - "Mom - this one is hatching!" She keeps me in stitches.

Anyway, I just had to share that epiphany. It's not the going that makes me sad - she'll love it and grow up so much at school. It's just the leaving me behind that makes me sad. I guess I better get used to it. Loving and leaving is pretty much what kids do.

In the meantime, I have a lot to do. Micah is so confused - too much female influence. At the shoe store today, he pulled off the cool tennis shoes I had him try on and put on some sparkly pink flip-flops instead. Then he shed his baseball cap to put on a Hello-Kitty hat instead. (At least he can match his accessories.) Katie going to kindergarten will probably be good for him - help him get his blues and pinks straight!

17 days and counting...

Recap of the last few weeks...

Well, I am sorry not to have posted in a while. We have been busy at times, climbing the walls at others. I took the kids to Arkansas and we had a great trip. Cristy summarized it well on her blog - http://thefarleyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/07/castleman-time-last-tuesday-one-of-anna.html - so you can check hers out - she even got pictures posted. The drive was long but manageable. We only stopped 3 times in the 11 hours going there, if you count the FOUR service stations I went into at the same exit in Atlanta, trying to find a bathroom that wasn't out of order, as one stop. After the first 3 hours, which were the longest, I think the kids resigned themselves to getting old and grey in their seats and quit whining, so the last 8 hours were fine.

I think this was the hardest trip to Searcy that I've taken, not because I did it solo. It is just that the 3 years we have been gone have gone by fast for me, so it doesn't feel like that long. But 3 years is really a long time and although we invested 12 years of our lives there, we are officially now "someone who used to live here", as in "Meet my friend Teresa - she used to live here."

That makes me want to scream. Of course, it is technically correct. We did use to live there and we did move away. But we also left our blood, sweat and tears in that town, and especially at Downtown Church, so it is hard to feel thrown into the same category as everyone else that has passed through Searcy at one point or another. I guess that, because of our investment into the town, part of us still lives there anyway. I know it's just words but for whatever reason, they just bit me a little hard on this trip.

The other hard part was on Sunday. There was a baby dedication at church and Katie asked what was going on. I told her that the elders were praying for the new baby and it's family and I told her that they had prayed for her in just the same way when she was born. She said, "They prayed for me at THIS church?" I told her yes, that we used to go to this church and that dad was the worship minister here. She didn't believe me because she doesn't remember it at all.

Sob.

But this Thursday officially marks our 3 year anniversary here and she was nearly 3 when we moved so I guess she has now lived in SC longer than she lived in AR. Wow.

The trip overall was great - don't mean to dwell on the negative. We are looking forward to all 4 of us going back in September for a reunion concert with the guys Rick sang with.

And we celebrate the 3 years we have been here - they have been good years and we feel so blessed that "The boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places." (Psalm 16)

If I can get my act together, I'll post some pics that I took on our trip.

Just a few pictures from this week. It has been so hot here that we decided to bring the scooters and riding things in and we moved the furntiture to accomodate a riding area on the wood floor. It was fun and hopefully didn't do too much damage to the floor! There were only a few minor wrecks and we only saw blood once!

The sailor outfit on Micah was a fun hand-me-down. Rick wasn't too hip on it until he saw everyone loving it at church. I think I sold him on it a little. The hat was hilarious and Micah kept it on all morning!

Funny kids. Good times!

Brains

You know, one of my mantra's as a parent is that you don't have to be really smart, just a little smarter than your kids. It's getting to where it's touch and go, here at our house. Today, Katie told me that the words in the book she was "reading" to Micah were spelled wrong. (Under the pink hat was the word `pink' - she thought they spelled `hat' wrong.) Makes sense I guess. (This was the time to interject the "Your happiness in life is all about expectations..." speech, but I refrained.) I did get a little more worried when Micah brought me a wet diaper. I assumed he had busted into a trash can somewhere in the house til I noticed that he was looking a little skinny inside his overalls. Sure enough, somehow he managed to get his diaper off while remaining fully dressed in shorts overalls. I'm a little worried about the ramifications of this new trick.

I think I might need to go back to school.

I do feel a little better, though, that Katie mistook some of Micah's slobber, that had dripped onto the floor, for bug pee. Oh, and the other day, she watched a news clip about 2 dead bodies that were found on the road in downtown Columbia, naked. She reported to all, "The police found a male and a thee-male and they were unclothed in the road." We cracked up a little at that! The reporter said it was an accident and that no foul-play was involved. Sorry, but Katie and I agreed that if you are found naked in the road, it is no accident! (We skipped lightly over the dead part with her.)

I guess that's all I have for today!

Reflections on the beach...

Katie and cousin Zachary, bearing live crabs! At least, they were alive at some point before this trip down the dunes!


Beware, floating things! She has a net!


Micah, fearlessly taking on the waves! If we'd let go, he'd be in Africa by now.



While not yet an expert, I am beginning to consider myself at least fairly educated about South Carolina Beaches. I have now visited 5 of them (if you count Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, Surfside and Springmaid as one, which I will for this thought). I have been to 4 different ones this year alone. So, just in case you plan to visit Souh Carolina any time soon, here are my thoughts...

My number one pick is Seabrook Island. It is all privately owned and the entire island is gated, so you have to rent a house there to enjoy the island, but it is worth the time and money. Included in your rental is access to all of the resort amenities, like the pools, golfing, etc. While the sand is whiter and fluffier in more touristy areas, like Myrtle Beach, the island beaches are quiet and natural. At Seabrook, there is a lot of attention paid to preservation and protecting the natural wildlife, especially the sea turtles. There aren't any hotels on the island - only privately owned homes and condos - and no buildings actually on the beaches. Another cool thing about the island is that there are beaches on both the Atlantic side, which have waves, and on the backwater side, which makes for calm water and excellent playground for dolphins, which we saw continually on that beach. The island pace is slow - lots of folks on bikes and golf carts - and there is no commercialization at all - just palms and live oaks trees as far as you can see! When you need anything, it is a short jaunt off the island to a cool little shopping area between Seabrook and Kiawah Islands. Charleston is about 30 minutes down the road. Perfect for a quiet week in the sun! (The first 2 pics are of the Seabrook Island beach on the Atlantic side)

Edisto Island is similar in ecology and pace. You can camp at the state park there, which my parents try to do any time they head down here. Where Seabrook Island is well laid out and the homes are all well kept and "nice", there is more variety in Edisto, so you have to be a little more picky if you rent a house, and it isn't a resort town, so you don't have the club amenities. But it is natural and quiet and there are a lot of shells on the beaches. It is also further from Charleston and "activities".

Isle of Palms is nice if you have the money to rent a big house right on the beach! We have our women's retreat there every year and rent a house that sleeps about 30 people! There are a lot of those type of properties there. I would recommend that for the off season. It is closer to Charleston, on the north side, so it is good if you plan to run in and out of town. The beaches are nice but less preserved than you get further down the coast.

Folly Beach is a lot like Isle of Palms to me but the sand is a little more groomed. It is pretty tight to get around on but it has pretty good waves, especially in the area that Hurricane Hugo washed out a few years ago!

And then, of course, there is the Grand Strand - Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, Surfside, Springmaid, etc. All of these are about 3 hours from us, which is further than Charleston beaches, which is one strike against them! On the positive side, there are more options for accommodations in Myrtle Beach - hotels, condos, houses, etc. - and you can find places that rent for shorter periods than the standard week long rentals in Charleston. There is plenty of shopping and eating places, as well as mini golfing, water parks, etc. Standard tourist fare. The beaches are groomed daily, so there is lots of fluffy white sand, and you can stay right on the beach, so it's a quick in and out of the ocean. And you only have to go about 2 minutes in any direction to buy a $5 t-shirt or a $3 boogie board. (That's a joke.) But the obvious negative is the crowds. If you want to visit this area, all I can say is "off-season". September is the best time to go, in my opinion. The water is still warm, the shops and restaurants are still open and there are about 60% fewer people there than you find in June - August. Also, we like North Myrtle Beach as opposed to the others. It is a little quieter up there and you are only minutes from some pretty spots up in North Carolina. (The third picture is North Myrtle Beach.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts. We'd love to show you around, so if you crave the beach, come see us!

Men in hats...

Myrtle Beach 2007

Some glimpses of the infamous trip to the beach (which we came home early from!)

A Couple Random Thoughts...

I was living on the edge today. I went to the mall with both kids and only 2 wipes, one of which I had to use to sanitize the table before we could eat. Amazingly, my germophobia beats out the anxiety of wondering if Micah would have a blow-out when I had only one wipe remaining! Talk about risky!

No blowout. All was well.

I saw a really red neck thing. This guy was at the mall with his 2 kids and we were eating in the food court when I saw him. He had his kids in a Sears shopping cart. Some would argue that Sears itself is redneck. My issue was that we were at least half way down the mall from Sears. What in the heck was he doing with his kids in a Sears shopping cart? In the middle of the mall? Rent a stroller already!

That probably shouldn't have bothered me!

Good thing, though. I really love Grandma Miriam. She loves my kids and babysits them even when they are whiny.

Good night!

The Post-Mike Era

This week, we spent a few days at the beach with my oldest brother and his wife and my nephew. After being there a day or 2, my sister-in-law said that if she had a kid like Micah, she'd have to be medicated! I laughed! I probably do need to be medicated! But it's like I told my friend HJ when she had twins - it's not like you have an option to put up with or not put up with your kids. Besides, you get used to the insanity and it becomes a good friend!

So I was thinking of all the changes to our life since Mike came along, or more specifically since he started moving around. Here is the condensed list.

1. If you happen to fall asleep on the couch during waking hours, you would be well advised to lay with one arm over your face and the other over anything else you want protected, since you will probably awaken to the feeling of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" book (which is surprisingly hard) being slammed on you and Micah saying "Gin" (which does not mean the adult beverage you will be tempted to partake of in large quantities following this awakening, but rather it means "please, dear friend, could you kindly sing the spider song again, for the 4,758th time today, for my enjoyment".)

2. We currently suffer from air circulation problems in our house, where Katie's room is about 50 degrees and the kitchen is about 90 degrees, due to the fact that all of the doors are shut in the house in an effort to minimize the damage that Mike is able to inflict on our belongings. It is also noticable on some of the doors a dent or 2 at the precise level of Micah's head, which he frequently uses to open things, the way that some people use their hands.

3. There is much enthusiastic love to be shared, especially with dad. But there are also many black eyes and bloody noses on the part of those receiving Micah's love. Yes indeed, sometimes love hurts.

4. Our furniture is arranged in an extremely strange way, to the untrained eye. There is a small cabinet in front of the entertainment center (to keep him from sticking things in the VCR and to keep the TV from being reprogrammed in Spanish, which is surprisingly hard to fix if you DON'T SPEAK SPANISH!) ; there is nothing on most of the shelves - I believe in other cultures, those areas are for books. What a strange idea! Similarly, you might assume from our furniture that we bought it from "L-bracket Wonderland" because there is a metal "L" shaped piece attached to everything which is in turn attached to a wall stud. These were added by the master of baby-proofing to each piece as Micah learned to pull each piece over.

5. We have come to wish that the Wiggles had made more videos, not because we like the Wiggles even slightly, but because listening to a variety of annoying videos is preferable to listening to the same annoying video over and over. (Can any of you veteran parents recognize this request? "uhhMEE uhhhMEEE")

6. We have stopped rolling our eyes when we see kids throwing a fit in stores or running wild in a restauarant and we have stocked up on suckers and other tools of bribery.

7. We have come to understand how you can so powerfully love someone that so powerfully frustrates you as he so pwerfully makes you laugh and then so powerfully gives you a bloody lip with a very well intentioned kiss that you wouldn't trade for anything!

Those are my thoughts for the day. Gotta go - it's time to restart the video!

Oh Where, Oh where are the large orange barrels?

They are gone! I can hardly believe it! I got lost on the way home today. After 3 years of dodging striped orange barrels, I am now driving straight down Hwy 6 and there are people driving on all sides of me. It is crazy! For my non-South Carolina friends, the construction on the Hwy outside our neighborhood began just before we moved here and finally finished TODAY! I am overwhelmed with lane driving options, yet it is less exciting, not having to avoid certain death by wayward back hoe or asphalt truck! I will miss our friendly construction crew with their lovely orange vests and constant cigarettes (which Katie comments on daily. "Mom - look at that man making a bad decision.")

So, Philip and Jaime, you can move back now but don't freak out if you can't find us. We live just down the nice black road with fresh lines and once again have a sign outside our neighborhood! I'll throw a barrel out there to guide you if you need it!

Does barrel have one "L" or 2?

Good Decisions

We have been trying to emphasize making good decisions with Katie the last couple years. The thought is that if we always tell her what to do, she will be ill-equipped to make good choices when we aren't around all the time, namely when she starts school this fall. The funny part about this is that she feels compelled to let everyone else know when they are making bad choices! One of my brothers is a casual pipe-smoker. We had talked to Katie about how smoking is a bad choice. When she saw my brother smoking his pipe, she told him, "Uncle Darrell, I think you are making a bad decision!" It was funny!

Tonight I was trying to use the same strategy to get her to brush her teeth. Occasionally she is too sleepy or lazy to want to brush, so tonight I didn't argue with her. I just told her she could go on to bed. I found this picture online and called her back in to look at it. I told her that this person didn't brush their teeth! She decided that she wanted to brush!

It was sweet later, though, because at bedtime, she prayed, "Dear God, please help that person who didn't brush their teeth and help their cavities not hurt!"

So, person pictured above, whoever you are, Katie hopes your teeth aren't hurting too badly! And thanks for posting the pic on yahoo images for my object lesson! Because of you, one little 5 year old brushed her teeth with no fight tonight! :)

I had a different kind of evening yesterday. My friend Holly (yes, the same one who suggested the Mud-fest – I must be slow for still going with her suggestions!) answered an ad in the paper for us to participate in a survey for folks who listen to country music. We sat in a conference room for 2 hours and listened to clips of 600 country songs and rated them on a scale of never heard the song, hate the song, am tired of the song, have no opinion, like the song and it’s a favorite song. Not a bad way to earn $75! It struck me, as I was filling in very few #6’s (favorite song) that I am a music snob. I had quite a lot of #3’s (tired of the song) and way more #1’s (never heard it) than the guy next to me. (I wasn’t cheating, just doing a little survey of my own!) And amazingly, after 600 songs I was still able to think of a bunch that they didn’t play. That led me to consider what some of my favorite, “even-if-you-don’t-like-country-music-you’ll-like-this-song”, songs are and I compiled this short list. If you haven’t heard these songs, you haven’t really lived. You oughta give just one of them a listen on i-tunes. (If I was as smart as Shane, I’d make you a playlist.)

1. Good Directions – Billy Currington
2. The Good Stuff – Kenny Chesney
3. Red Neck Yacht Club – Craig Morgan
4. Mayberry – Rascal Flatts
5. Somebody’s Hero – Jamie O’Neal
6. My Front Porch Looking In - Lonestar

So that’s my thought for the day. Anyone got one to add to the list?