The Good News...And, The Bad News

The good news: Reese and family are here!
The bad news: Reese, Zach and Ian are very sick and we haven't been able to see each other yet.

The other good news: We ran into Kristine and Sean in the store tonight! That was awesome! They were wandering around with Grandma & Grandpa.

Here's a little funny story. Holly was in the store tonight too. Amanda ran into Holly and Holly let Amanda know that she had seen Kristine and Sean. Amanda got so excited and asked where they were. Holly let her know to go look in the produce section. Soon Amanda ran back to Holly and says "I went to produce and can't find them anywhere, where should I look?" Holly said "Well, they were at the vegetables when I saw them a few minutes ago." Amanda's response "oh, shoot, I thought that produce was milk...I'll go look at the vegetables". And, off she ran. Thankfully, she did eventually find them.

LOL! I guess that goes to show that I haven't talked with my kids much about vegetables! Oops!

Thanks for checking in on us. I'm sorry neither of us have posted much. It's amazing how when life comes at you fast and hard that time seems to be a precious thing and not everything you love to do can be fit in. I'm really sorry, and we promise that when life calms down we will be back to some regular posts.

A small update on McKenzie: She graduated from a car bed to a car seat. She had to sit in the seat for an hour at the hospital to make sure she could handle it, and she can. She's also taking more bottles instead of the feeding tube! She loves to suck! Thanks for your prayers for her.

Amanda's Quote For The Day

Yesterday was a bad day for both Dan and I. It seriously started out bad and went downhill until I crawled, exhausted, into bed.

This morning as I'm making lunches for the kids, pondering my day, Amanda comes to me and says "Mom, don't drag yesterday's bad day, into today". Now, that's some darn good advice. I asked where she got that quote and she stated "It just popped into my head, it was rather sage wasn't it?" I must have looked at her odd because in the next moment she states "Mom, sage means wise.", then she bounced off up the stairs. Amanda is a very smart girl, who frequently (and honestly) acts like a "dumb blond". We have a lot of laughs at her expense. Sage is just not a word that you would think she would say! LOL!

I was blessed by her quote this morning, and think I will attempt to bring it into my day.

It's Official: Back to School

The kids are in bed (before 10 for the first time in 12 weeks), the backpacks stuffed with school supplies, the alarm set and the clothes ready for tomorrow. It's officially here, the night before school. We were able to get all of our shopping done despite numerous trips to the store.

I am anxious for this new school year. Mark had a truly terrible school year last year. By the end of the year his attitude was "my teacher doesn't care about me, why should I care about school?" It was the hardest school year I have ever had to deal with and it broke my heart. This year he has a teacher that is new to our school district, which also makes me nervous. I wasn't able to meet the teacher but my mom did and she loved her. One of my good friends works there and he thinks she's very kind. I really feel this year could make or break Mark. He deserves to be loved, he's one of the most kindest and most sensitive little boys I have ever met.

McKenna starts first grade and she has a lot of apprehension. She will do great, but the unknown is very frightening for her. Her biggest fear is the cafeteria. I'm sure she will conquer that quickly and since I am packing her lunches, she hopefully has nothing to fear tomorrow.

Amanda is going into 8th and is doing amazing. Things come easy for her and I know she will have a great school year. This is her first year of switching classes so she's a little nervous about that, but I know she will do great.

Here is a little back to school funny. Mark is very sensitive to my emotions and making sure that I am fine. He knows how tough mornings are for me and he always likes to make my life a little easier when he can. Tonight as he was taking a shower he said "Mom, I have a great idea. After my shower, instead of putting on my pajamas, I will put on my school clothes. That way I can get ready much faster in the morning and it will be one last thing you have to worry about". At first I was thinking "He can't be serious". But, he was very serious! I had to leave the room to keep from laughing at him. Before leaving I calmly thanked him for his idea, but I think we will continue to sleep in pajamas! LOL!

Well, this mama needs to head to bed. Back to a life of structure and schedules, I actually have to get up early tomorrow.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We did, completely with a little visit from Tim.

I'm Shrinking

Many of you who teach Sunday School, or have kids in Sunday School may know this song:

Read your Bible, Pray everyday
and you'll grow, grow, grow
and you'll grow, grow, grow
Forget to read your Bible, forget to pray
and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink
and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink

There are motions that go along with it and while you say the word "grow" you get taller up on your tip toes and when you say the word "shrink" you go very low until you are laying on the ground.

The other day McKenna and I were walking in the store and she says "you know mom, I'm shrinking". I said "you are?". She replies with "yep, I haven't prayed in awhile, so I'm shrinking". My first thought was how profound the statement was. I was thinking how wise she was to know that her relationship with God would shrink if she didn't take care of it. My second thought was that I haven't been very consistent about praying about bed time; that's something I need to fix.

After that I didn't think too much of it, but the next morning she says to me "mom, I'm not kidding, if I don't start praying, I'm going to shrink more". Then it dawns on me. She really believes that by not praying she will physically shrink! Poor kid. We had a good talk about what the song really means. She thought she was going to get pretty small if she didn't start praying consistently. Despite it being funny, it's a good thing for all of us to remember.

B-O-Y-S

Yesterday my daughter, McKenna, had a dance recital. Her very first one. She was amazing! To celebrate how well she did, we took her out for Dairy Queen. McKenna will be six on Wednesday and is learning to read and wanting to spell everything. She will randomly scream a word and then attempt to spell it, or when you are in the store she asks what every word is. Truthfully, it can drive me crazy, but I know she's just learning and we all try to help her out.

We were coming home from Dairy Queen when she yells, "I can spell church". I tell her that's a very big word and to give it a try. She spells B-U-T-T.

I bet you can't tell her brother was in the back seat coaching her! LOL! What is it with boys and the word butt?

-Heather

My Mother's Day (A Little Late)

Happy Mother's Day! Yes, I know I am extremely late with that! My internet was unplugged for the weekend so I couldn't get online sooner.

My Mother's Day was awesome. I spent the time with both sets of grandparents, my sisters and their families and an aunt and uncle. We laughed and talked all day. My uncle actually thinks I am so funny that I should write a book about my life. It's nice to have one person think you are funny :)

My highlight for Mother's Day was on Friday. I left work early to go to a tea party that my son's class was putting on for us moms. They worked so hard and were so proud of themselves. It really was a great day. Mark even got up in front of the group and had to read into a microphone a little poem he wrote about me. He actually wrote two poems and painted me a picture. At the end of the tea, the kids gave their moms' a bag of wishes. It is this cute little bag and inside he wrote things he wished for me, or thought about me.

Here is a small sampling that made me smile:

I value you because you hike

I wish you lots of Pepsi

I wish you could go back to Germany

And, here is the ultimate of all wishes (at least from Mark's standpoint)

I wish you a week without dealing with McKenna

Hmmm, do you think he has issues with his little sister? I laughed so hard. I shared with our little table what he had written and one of the little girls started laughing and said "oh, that Mark, he's so funny!".

That little boy made me feel so special. It really was a great day.

-Heather

I Couldn't Help But Smile...

My almost-three-year-old boy Ian was bumping down the stairs on his bottom, shining a flashlight ahead of him while calling out, "Wait! Tinkle Bell! Wait!"

~Reese

Dad's Hair (Or Lack Thereof)

McKenna: "Dad if you had long flowing hair, I would share my sparkly clip with you" Poor Dad, he's missing out on the sparkly clip. She went on to tell him that she dreams about him having long hair. His response was "I do too!"

Dad's hair seems to be a constant thing to joke at. Here's what my oldest said awhile back.

Posted by Heather

An Update, An Elaboration & A Ramble

Update:

Some of you may remember this post. Well...you will never believe it! I have lost my keys..AGAIN! We are talking major lost! They have been gone since Saturday. I begged my husband to take my suburban key off his key ring so that I could actually drive my car. But, I don't have a house key or anything else. And, if I loose this one lone key to my car, we are in big trouble! I need to find my keys.

An Elaboration:

In the comments section of this post Reese mentions that I should elaborate more on the story. So, here is the rest of the story (I hope it's not too offensive, it's my daughter and she's crazy!)

Tonight I took Amanda to the store to buy a deck of cards. She comes out and says "The cheapest cards were the breast cancer cards. So, I bought those and 10% of money will go to help the breast people".

I said that's really nice. Then she goes on to say "I'm all about people not having big boobs". So, I said "You mean, you think breast cancer is when you have big boobs?". She said "yes, it's for big and deformed boobs and then people have to have surgery so they can get smaller boobs, I'm all about smaller boobs".

I didn't think she was serious...but, guess what...she was!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a more serious note, I'm excited to read the book that Reese mentioned below. Adoption and helping Orphans are something I am passionate about. I hope to adopt one day, we'll see if it ever plans out but it's something I'm very open too. If the Lord opens the hearts of those around me and removes the obstacles in our way, I would love to move forward in that. Sometimes I get very discouraged about not adopting but lately I have been praying that the Lord would show me what I can do while I wait for the adoption to happen. It may never happen, I'm still not 100% sure that it's what our family is meant to do, but there must be something that I can do while I'm waiting.

I would really appreciate prayer for my 9 year old son Mark. He is really struggling in school, I'm struggling to find answers and feeling rather helpless. These are issues that we have been dealing with since I came home from Germany back in September. It seems it shouldn't take a whole school year to get some of this stuff figured out.

Posted by Heather

Funny Kid Stuff

My kids crack me up. I love it when they say random funny things. Here are a few from tonight:

Mark says "Hey, I just learned I can take reading tests online for school".
Mom says "I'm surprised you can do that, some kids might have their older siblings take the tests for them"
Mark says "Oh yeah, Amanda...you have a new job"

McKenna says "It must be Super D Duper to be a mom" (If only she knew)

Today Mark came home from school and our good friend, who is his music teacher is currently in Germany so he had a substitute. We drove by our friend Mark's house and I said "How was school without Mark there?" My Mark's response was "We had the worst substitute teacher ever, she taught us Social Studies instead of Music. I wanted to yell Hey Lady..do you know we are in Music..Not Social Studies" (I made sure he knew that was inappropriate and that he was not to ever talk to a teacher that way...but, it still made me smile)

The other day Amanda went into the grocery store to buy a pack of playing cards. I told her to grab the cheapest ones. She came out and said "Well, the cheapest ones for breast cancer cards, so I bought those, and 10% of my money is going to the breast people"

Posted by Heather