I'm Embarrassed Today

Yeah, I probably spelled the title wrong too.

This morning as I packed the girls' lunches for MDO, I realized they are probably as sick of PB&J as I am and probably won't eat it if I do pack it, so I packed the following in each of their lunch bags:

Caprisun
Yogurt & spoon
Nutri-Grain bar
Ritz peanut butter crackers sandwiches
Bag of goldfish(for snacktime)
I almost packed an applesauce but I only had two left and I knew I would need them for tonight at Brian's volleyball game.

Yes, I know these are all snack foods and not really "lunch" but I haven't had a chance to go the grocery store lately and I'm trying to clean out all the excess in the pantry. I had no idea anyone noticed what was packed in a 2 year olds' lunch, anyway.

So around 12:30, the director of the MDO called me on my cell phone while Laney & I were out running errands, and asked me if I knew that there was only a yogurt, granola bar and crackers in Tatum's lunch. I told her I knew that and I thought it would be plenty to fill Tatum up until I picked her up in two hours. She even offered to get Tatum a hot dog from the catered lunches (which I had declined to order for my kids today). I know Tatum and I know she loves yogurt and granola bars and I knew she would be perfectly happy with that lunch and like I said, I would be picking her up in TWO HOURS! Anyway, I assured the director that I thought she would be okay with that lunch and we hung up. I immediately felt the shame and redness creep up my neck into my face and i was so humiliated that they thought I was such a bad mom that I would pack such a lousy lunch for my child! Guess I need to throw a PB&J in there from now on just for show, so that I don't get any more phone calls.

It was in this frame of mind that I went to Target... has it ever bugged anyone else that there are like 30 handicapped parking spots in the front and the regular spots don't start until your nearly a mile away from the store? Seriously, I am all for accomodations, but I have never EVER seen more than 4 cars parked in any of those 30 spots at one time. There should be at least a few spots for "mothers of small children" in their place.

Academy made me happy. Tomorrow is breast cancer awareness day at school and since my good friend and co-worker Carol is battling breast cancer right now, I really wanted to partipate in the activities of the day, so I found a cute "Fight Like A Girl" shirt at Academy that I can wear tomorrow. I think Carol will love it!

I'm pretty glad this day is almost over. Thank you Lord that your mercies are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness!

Advent Conspiracy Video - Watch it, then Watch it Again

Double-Crowned

This is my view most of the day. The top of Laney's sweet head. I look at it all the time, but just this week I noticed something new about it...

She has a double crown! One of the crowns is slightly covered by hair in this picture, but it's there. I checked Brian's head and he only has one. I'm pretty sure I only have one too. I think it's so neat that she has this unique genetic trait. Poor thing, I guess it's a testament to her being the 3rd child that it's been staring in my face for the past 9 months, and i just now noticed it. Here's a few other things I like to look at:

This is her "I'm going to eat you" face.

A few things that made me laugh this week:

I love when Avery calls thunder "funder" and when she calls vegetables "begetables."

I love when Tatum says "I amn't going to do...." (Prounounced ament).

I love when Laney says "Dadadadada."

I also caught Avery singing "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." Except when she got to the second verse, she sang "And if the pebble doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack. Ouch!..."

She's also memorized her first Pearl Jam song, "Just Breathe." I guess when Brian took her to soccer practice on Thursday, that song played and she loved it. She asked him to play it again about 5 more times, and now she can sing every word for you, and with feeling! Even though alot of Pearl Jam stuff is no bueno, they have a special place in our hearts b/c Brian took me to a Pearl Jam concert on our first trip to Houston together, when I met his family for the first time. Something about the sound of Eddie Vedder's voice just makes me feel like a 22-year old falling in love for the first time again. So Pearl Jam we love you, and we pray you will come to know Jesus who will fill all the emptiness in your lives and give you hope.

This was the first week I felt victorious with the laptops in the classroom. A few thoughts about the laptop project so far: My students do not fall asleep in class anymore. They are actively engaged in my class from bell to bell. Granted, they are probably IM-ing each other and rocking out to their i-tunes throughout my class, but they LIKE my class. And I think they have learned a little bit of history too. The only downside is that I do not have time to be lazy anymore. I don't have time to sit at my computer and check my email, I don't even have time to enter my grades or keep up with my lesson plans. I am busy from the minute I get to work until the minute I leave. I sometimes long for the "movie days" or "worksheet days" of previous years. This laptop project is sharpening me and it's a good thing.

I got to play basketball tonight for the first time in months, maybe even a year. It was game night for FCA in our gym. We played knockout about 17 times. I won once. In the finale, I knocked out the star of our varsity boys basketball team. Yep, it felt good. Dont' feel bad for him, he won almost every other game we played. His ego was not harmed. Then we played football and I caught a touchdown pass and a couple other passes. I did a little bit of trash-talking and I was thankful I could relate to the kids this way. And I got them all a bunch of pizza and coke at the end. Super fun day.

A Day to Celebrate

Happy birthday to the daddy of our little family. Brian's birthday not only marks the day the Lord created the single great blessing of my entire life, but it also marks the anniversary of our first date... it was 9 years ago today. Can you believe he would want to take me out on a date on his birthday? Wouldn't he rather go out with his family or friends and do something fun? Suprisingly he would rather not. He asked me out for his birthday and I said yes. That was the start of this whole journey of life we are on. He took me to dinner at Bennigan's in College Station and then he took me to play miniature golf at a little place that has since closed down. He won me a little plastic ring in the arcade. I wasn't sure right away that I would marry him, but I was pretty sure I would never ever break up with him.

Here's my man in action tonight at his volleyball game.

Here's one of the cheerleaders:

Daddy's girls

I keep telling him he is destined to be a girls' coach. He's a natural.

Here's another cheerleader


Here's cheerleader #3:

String cheese is a must when you need to keep a 2 year old occupied for a long period of time.

I packed us dinner to eat in the bleachers.

Avery even got to meet the CFHS Eagle! She kept calling it a puppet!

I'm so proud to be an Aggie tonight. I just came across a video of Dude Perfect, a group of guys from Texas A&M who do crazy basketball trick shots. One of their shots is the longest basketball shot ever and could be in the Guiness book of world records. For every 100,000 people who view their camp edition videos on their website, they will sponsor a child through Compassion, which is a ministry I love. So go to their website and watch the long shot and the camp edition. Such cute Aggie guys! I'm so glad I've got me one right here to snuggle up to!

Be still my heart...

Avery's first soccer practice!! SHE LOVED IT! I even got to help the coach with all the drills because my mom was in town and she watched Tatum & Laney for me. Overwhelmingly exciting for her, and mostly, for me!

My mom also brought this when she came:

Only a grandmother would take the time to sew such a beautiful Tinkerbell costume for my little fairy! Tatum's fairy costume is coming soon... stay tuned. Thanks mom for such a fun visit!

"Course He isn't safe, but He's good..."

I don't feel like I have much to blog about since most of my blogs lately have been about the kids and they aren't really doing anything too extraordinary right now. Except Laney did cut her first tooth this weekend, finally. What a trooper! And Tatum did wear big girl Ariel panties all morning on Saturday, with no accidents. That all changed Saturday afternoon. We went through three pairs of panties in two hours. And lastly, I did decide to cut Avery some bangs. I googled how to cut cute bangs yourself and it didn't seem to hard, so I did it and they came out pretty cute I must say. She looks alot older with bangs.

Anyway, I have been struck that I haven't really blogged about me lately and that is one of the main things I intended this blog to be about. An outlet for me to write what's going on with me.

At church yesterday our Sunday school teacher showed us a movie trailer for an upcoming movie called "Legion." Don't watch it, you will never look at old ladies the same. I am completely petrified when I see an old lady walking close by me. Seriously, I am sweating just thinking about them. I just looked behind my shoulder to make sure there weren't any coming in the room.
Anyway, the premise of the movie is that when God was fed up with mankind the first time He sent a flood. But when God gets fed up with mankind this time, He sends angels (they look more like demons with wings) to destroy mankind. Anyway, our Sunday school teacher made the point that even though the movie is completely heretical and probably horribly anti-God, they did get one thing right: All mankind should FEAR God. He is good, but he is also holy. Hell is real. Except for Christ, we all deserve the most torturous fate because we have failed to be holy as He is holy.

Brian & I were talking about it afterwards, and just realized that you never hear that in Christian circles in church anymore. People want a message that makes you feel good, but they don't want to hear that you should be trembling and your knees should be knocking at the thought of who God really is. It also puts a fire in me to make sure all my non-Christian friends have every possible chance to choose Christ. It is extremely scary to think of them going through such horror.

Growing up, my dad read "The Chronicles of Narnia" to my big brothers & I alot of nights after supper. We would sit at the kitchen table and my dad would get out whichever book we were on and read a few chapters. I would usually fall asleep with my head on the kitchen table, but I remember alot about the books and I have a special place in my heart for them. Rusty brought up this part in class yesterday and I love it:

“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.”

I hope I don't ever get too comfortable with God and treat Him like a big cozy teddy bear. He is not safe, but He is good. Thank you Lord that I serve such an awesome God!

I'm still nervous that there is an old lady behind me. Lord, help me take every thought captive to obedience of Christ! No more thoughts of scary old ladies! Seriously, no matter how tempted you are to watch the trailer, DON'T!!

Happy Birthday, Dad! And thanks for taking the time to implant wisdom in our hearts by reading us great books. Sorry I slept through most of them, but I remember the sound of your voice lulling me to sleep as you read, and I remember the excitement in my brother's voices wanting you to read more. I have such happy memories of growing up as your daughter. I love you! (Mom- could you read this to him when y'all sit down for dinner tonight?)

Our Weekend in Pictures

Fun times swimming with the family over labor day weekend...

Avery's long hair (story to follow)

Laney STANDING UP next to her cousin Tara. These two little buddies babbled to each other all weekend. I can only imagine what their conversations will be like in a year or two!

A couple days ago I got tired of combing the rat's nest out of Avery's hair every day, so I decided we were going to cut it. Thankfully she was okay with it because Tinkerbell has short hair too. So I got my special hair scissors and I chopped off about 8 inches of hair. We were both really happy about it and it looks alot healthier and thicker now that it's shorter.

Anyway, the next night, after the girls were already in bed, I went into my bathroom and found my hair scissors out on the counter and a few clusters of hair on the floor. I knew I had not done a perfect job on Avery's hair the day before, so I asked Brian if he had decided to even out Avery's hair or if he thought his mom might have decided to cut her hair a little bit. He said no. Turns out our little angel Avery had gone into my bathroom, found the hair scissors that I keep in the back of my jewelry box (where no one can find them!), and taken off a few strands at the front of her hair. She now has a row of uneven itty bitty bangs. I can't decide if it's not that bad and I should just leave it, or if I should just take her to get some real bangs cut (I don't trust myself to cut her bangs... I've tried before and it wasn't cute). Look at the pictures and give me your opinion.

Here's the damage up close:

Here she is the morning after our discovery:

I know it could have been much worse, so I am thankful it's just a few strands of hair. Tatum has the best morning hair ever. I hope it never "calms down" because it makes me smile every morning. Here's the back of Avery's hair so you can see how much I cut.

We enjoyed having some family & friends over to our house on Sunday. Thankfully it was nice & cool and the rain held off for us, so we really had a great time. Here's Avery & Tatum with their buddies Carson & Rylin.

I was explaining to Avery a few days ago how I used to be named Melanie McR**, but when I married Daddy, his name was Mr. K, so I became Mrs. K. It took some explaining, but she finally understood that a woman changes her name when she gets married and takes the last name of the man she marries. It didn't take her long to decide who she wants to marry. She is officially in search of an eligible 4-year old with the last name "Bell" so she can marry him and be named Miss Bell (as in Tinker-Bell). :)