Catching Up

Well, if you used to read my blog (like a million years ago) I know you're shocked that I've finally decided to start posting again. And if you've been here before you might notice that I've also got a new look. It was time. The other blog picture is two years old and about 15 lbs. lighter (hence the rest of my face being cut out) :) This picture is from this past spring at the Preakness which I'm going to do a post about next time. It was definitely a blog worthy experience so I'll have to go back and catch you up. But first a summary of the past few months. Easter was my last post so I'll take it from there. In May, my husband and I flew to Baltimore for the second year in a row to visit our friend Billy and attend the Preakness. And once again, we had a fabulous time!

When we returned, there were only a couple of weeks of school left. Big Sister played a beautiful flower in the end of the year program and even had a line.

The year ended with a semi-field day (because rain cancelled the actual field day) and the always exciting kindergarten tug-of-war.

Most of the summer was spent hanging out at our local pool for hours on end and having fun with friends. We spent several nights in the back yard around our fire pit making s'mores with our neighbors. Super fun!

Thanks to some friends who have box seats and no small children, we got to go see Thomas the Train. The girls LOVED it! Mom and Dad? Let's just say I'm glad we had box seats with food and drinks.

We had a great time vacationing with my sister, her husband, her daughter and the Russian boy they hosted for six weeks this summer, Vinya. He had a much longer name and some of the kids choose American names like "Scott" or "Mike" but he settled on a shortened version of his actual name. He was hilarious and sweet, poor thing, surrounded by all those girls. He is nine now and my sister can have him back every summer until he's seventeen which I think is SO cool.

I went on my annual girls' trip in July...

I know, the green dress was popular this summer but I love that dress!

Big Sister had a birthday at the end of the month. She wanted to have a pretend slumber party and she wanted it to be a surprise. This was not an easy thing to pull off let me tell you. She wanted to plan everything, she just didn't want us to tell her when it was. We invited a few of the neighborhood girls over (to keep it simple) and asked them to wear pajamas and bring their sleeping bags. We did manage to surprise her and she absolutely loved it. We played musical sleeping bags, hot potato with everyone's stuffed animals, and had sleeping bag relay races. They made jewelry, painted nails, and ate pizza. At 8:30pm, everyone went home (hence the "pretend" part). They had a great time and it was the best budgeted birthday party we've ever had. I highly recommend this idea.

Our system changed to a modified year-round schedule so it wasn't long before it was time for the first day of school. I can't believe Big Sister is a First Grader this year! She seems so big. You may also notice that she got a "big girl" haircut. This is code for Mama could no longer endure the crying while trying to comb out the knots. Little Sister is staying home with me this year. No Mother's Day Out for her this time around as we are trying to get serious about our budget and finances...but more about that later. Little Sister is still a nut as you can tell from all the pictures of her so far.

Big Sister has a wonderful and creative teacher who just so happens to be an old neighbor of ours. The first two weeks of school they act like they are at camp. They brought their sleeping bags, there was a tent set up in the room, they wrote and received letters from home, and learned about all kinds of bugs. This is Big Sister wearing her camp hat on the first day.

And of course school starting means...yep, you guessed it...a new football season for Daddy.

Did I mention Taylor Swift filmed her video "You Belong To Me" at Daddy's school? He got to coach Lucas Till and after about 40 passes, he finally caught one. Our team was playing both sides and when he caught the ball, everyone got so excited that both teams rushed to congratulate him. Needless to say, not a very realistic scenario so they had to shoot again. All the players, fans, and people attending prom are our students. They had such a blast.

We've had two games so far. We won the first one in a nail biter and lost big in the second one. I pray it gets better from here. At the first game, Little Sister did this...

And Big Sister did this...

Although I can't say for sure that either was aware that there was actually a football game going on.

So that's where we are. Fall is in full swing and today is a beautiful cool fall day. I've missed writing for the blog though I have been writing. My writing these past few months has taken the form of a Bible study. I don't know if anything will ever come of it but I have definitely found a passion I never knew I had. Now that I am officially a football widow, you can expect to be updated here much more often now. Maybe I'll have something funny or interesting to say, I don't know. Chances are with Little Sister at home this year I'll have something funny to say now and then. I love hearing your comments if you feel so inclined and I look forward to sharing more with you about all that God has been doing. For now I will leave you with a great photo of Little Sister at the end of a long day.

Easter 2009

Well, this will be short and sweet but we had a great spring break and Easter. My sister and niece flew into Nashville and hung out for the weekend. Then my sister and I and all the little girls headed to Florida to stay with my mom for the week. The Daddys met up with us later. As we headed down, Big Sister and her cousin both discovered that they had a loose tooth. Oddly, it was the SAME tooth...and on the SAME day...weird. My niece called two nights ago to let us know her daddy had pulled her tooth. Big Sister called her tonight to tell her that our daddy pulled her tooth. (Of course she also wanted to know just how much money the tooth fairy brought.) The girls loved seeing their cousin.We had some cool weather in the beginning but eventually it warmed up and we were able to get some good time on the beach. On Good Friday the girls went to an Easter egg hunt and had a great time.

We colored eggs and amazingly, Little Sister managed to stay clean for the most part. There was one scary moment where she leaned on the table. It tipped and all the cups full of dye started to slide her way. Daddy and I were able to make a good save.
We went to the sunrise service on the beach again and once again, it was beautiful. I wrote about my experience last year which you can read here. Here are three pictures I took in succession. One to the east, one in front of me and one looking to the west. It was cool to see the moon and sun and all the colors in between like that.


After the sunrise service we ate breakfast a the world famous Oasis. Thankfully we didn't have to sit at the bar like last year. After filling our tummies we headed for home. It was a long trip but a great one. Hope you had a wonderful Easter too!

Nothin' But Drama

Wow, I didn't realize it had been over a month since my last blog post. I don't know why I haven't written except that I just didn't have anything to say. Not to mention that we've had a few warm days lately and I've wanted to be outside and running around and pretty much ignoring my computer completely. Maybe I just needed a break from technology.

But I've been lured back by the drama of life. Some people love the drama...want to get right in the middle of it, or if no drama is to be found...they create it. But many others hope to avoid the drama completely. I love a good story, a little drama...as long as it doesn't involve me. I'd prefer as little drama as possible in my own life.

With the little bit of drama I've been around lately, I've started to wonder...maybe sometimes a little drama is necessary. Let's face it, we have a dramatic God. You can't read the Bible and not come across story after story of romance, betrayal, murder, suspense, and most of all, a God who uses drama to show His glory, His love, and His absolute commitment to His people. What's the reason a writer might add a lot of drama to a story anyway? Isn't it to make a point? Isn't it to draw attention to a pivotal moment? A crucial decision? Doesn't drama in our own lives tend to do that at times?

So when we get a little complacent, stagnant, or ineffective, I think God sometimes uses a little drama in our lives to get our attention. He uses it to make it point. Dealing with drama propels us forward. It often requires us to finally make a decision. And in my case anyway, it usually causes me to run to Him.

Drama is especially effective at revealing character. My dad often uses an illustration in his sermons where he takes a glass of water and shakes it. As you would expect, water splashes out of the glass onto the floor. Then he asks the question, "Why did water come out of the glass?" And someone always says, "Because you shook it." But then he points out that the real reason water came out of the glass...is because there was water in the glass. If there had been jellybeans in the glass, would water have come out? If there had been no water in the glass, it wouldn't matter how much you shook it...water wouldn't come out. In Luke 6:45, Jesus puts it like this:

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks.

So when you get shaken, when there's drama, what comes out in you? I'm sad to say that what comes out in me isn't always pretty...but it is revealing and for that I'm grateful.

Baby Phillip

Little Sister has a new favorite toy. She calls it her "baby". She holds it lovingly, takes it everywhere with her, and speaks to it in her sweet little mommy voice. Here they are.

Can you tell who her baby is? Not sure?

Yep...it's a bobble-head. A bobble-head of my brother-in-law Phillip Wellman to be exact. The umpire scolding, base throwing, grenade launching Phillip. Still not sure who I'm talking about?

Ain't he sweeeeeet?

You Snooze...You Lose

Or so I hope anyway.

A while back I wrote a post called We're Breaking Up about my struggles with my weight. I have this...shall we say...bootylicious problem that I continue to struggle with. Anyway, this past Monday, The Today Show on NBC did a story on how your sleep habits affect your weight. I heard about it from a friend (I'm a Good Morning America gal) and had to check it out.

Apparently everyone (but me) knows that lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain and getting the right amount of sleep can actually help you lose weight. What?!?! So all I have to do is sleep MORE and I'll lose weight? Of the women who participated in the study, nearly all of them lost weight and one who lost no weight, still managed to lose inches! Over the course of 10 weeks they lost anywhere from 6 to 15 pounds! They made no other significant changes except to sleep at least 7 and 1/2 hours each night.

Okay, think about it. When you become a mom, it gets harder to keep your weight down...when you become a mom, you also get a lot less sleep. We live in an obese country...we live in a busy, sleep deprived country. I'm just putting two and two together people. The studies show that those who "sleep 5 hours or less a night are 30 percent more likely to gain 30+ pounds than those who got more rest". "The average woman gets 6 hours and 40 minutes." The healthy minimum is 7 hours 30 minutes! Go to the article here to read all the details. It's fascinating.

I'm a night owl. After the girls go to bed, that's MY time. Just me and Daddy. I like to savor it as long as possible so I always go to bed LATE. Unfortunately, the girls always wake up at 6:15 on the dot. I'm not missing the healthy requirement by a whole lot, but that 7.5 hours is a minimum! At this point, I have about 2 non-elastic waist pairs of pants that fit so I'm willing to try anything. And I do love to sleep.

So Monday night, my Bible Study was cancelled and I was in the bed by 8:30pm and asleep by about 9:30. That would be 9 hours of sleep...except...Little Sister was up at 4:30am. 7 hours! Just short by 1/2 an hour! I tried again Tuesday night and the SAME THING! I'm starting to think she likes me big and soft and these are her attempts to keep me that way. Finally, last night, I went to sleep at 10:00pm and the girls came downstairs at 6:15am. That's a little over 8 hours...and I feel thinner already.

So how much sleep do you get each night? And what do you think about this study?

If You're Happy And You Know It

Tonight, on the way home, we were singing songs in the car and we decided to sing "Jesus Loves Me". When we finished, Big Sister said in a choked up voice, "That kinda made me cry." It was so sweet. She couldn't speak for a minute. Oh how I pray that the thought of how much Jesus loves her will always produce such a stirring in her soul.

On a funny note, check out Little Sister's version of "If You're Happy And You Know It". Please excuse my singing. I was more interested in capturing the choreography. Especially when she gets to "then your face will surely show it." Here goes...

Blurb It Baby!

I might be the last one to know but I made an amazing discovery this weekend. You can turn your blog into a book! Check out www.blurb.com! It seems fairly affordable as well. Wouldn't it be cool to have a hard copy, pictures included, to look through in years to come. Wouldn't it be neat for your children to have something each year that chronicled your thoughts, struggles, interests, recipes, photos, etc.? I've heard it is time consuming but easy. I was at a SuperBowl party and a friend showed me a copy of a book done by one of her friends. The friend had spent a year in Italy and blogged about it. At the end of the year she had this beautiful book with all of her travels and pictures of all of the sights. It was AMAZING! So if you're like me and you're not good at journaling but you love blogging, check it out!