Why Is This Picture Not Centered?

What do you do when you lose your keys? What do you do when you lose your wallet? What do you do when both are missing? Pray. Tear your house apart. Look EVERYWHERE. Ask around. Clean out your car. A suggestion came today to look in the grass (which we did).

So Bill loses his keys all of the time. It happens more than the average family. This time, both wallet and keys were missing for 9 days. We did everything we could think of and without losing faith, we were still praying.

I tried to open the lid of the piano to sing our opening song for Family Night. The lid felt stuck, as though something was blocking it from inside. We removed the lid and EUREKA! Bill's keys and wallet. (Thus the un-centered photo, on the far left side--behind the piano lid were the keys and wallet).

Moral of the story: 1) Play the piano more often than every 9 days, 2) Blessings of Family Night come in many forms 3) Make a gajillion million copies of car keys and 4) Don't carry much of anything in your wallet. Anything else you can think of here, please comment below. :)

A Tribute

After being very ill, it took almost 3 weeks to feel back into life again. It was a sobering time. I was grumpy and miserable and short-tempered and impatient. I didn't feel like going anywhere (we missed a couple of days of school just so I didn't have to drive--pathetic!) or doing anything (thus my house was a wreck and no yummy dinners to enjoy...and on... and on...)

This period of time allowed me to think about those who are in pain or ill long-term. How do they do it? How do they survive and keep going? There are many in the hospital and many at home, many we do not see or cannot know, but they are suffering and surviving. So for all those mothers that survive suffering, here is a tribute to you. You are inspiring. You can keep going. Thank you for your pain for in it others gain strength.

Jack Turns 5!

It's hard to believe that our child is 5 years old! When Jack was just a baby, I used to hold him in my arms and wonder what it would be like as he grew and matured. What his personality would be like, his appearance, his hopes, his dreams. So I still have a long time to go for all of that knowledge and I'm enjoying the ride! 5 blissful years.

We had an "Army Birthday" party at home complete with an obstacle-Boot-Camp-course and KP (kitchen patrol) for home-made mini pizzas. Each year we have a party, I tell myself how I am NEVER going to do that again. It is crazy! But the kids seemed to have fun. Part of the reason it was especially difficult this year is that I was sooooo ill. It was difficult to move, breath, think, and therefore do...More on this in my next blogging entry.

So back to Jack, happy, happy Birthday for many more years to come. Our sweet, first child.

A little about Max

So while I am at it, (blogging that is) we were awake earlier than I would like to be--6:30 am for the record--and I was snuggling the kids in my bed. (Bill already left for an early appointment.) We were just talking and watching cartoons. I asked Max, "So, do you like *Amy?"
Max shook his head with an emphatic, no.
"You don't like her? Why not?"
"She calls me 'cute'. Babies are 'cute'. Girls are 'pretty'. And guys are 'cool'. I'm cool."
So what ever you do, if you want Max to like you, please call him cool, even though he is terribly CUTE!
(*Names are changed to protect the innocent.)

Jack's Creative Imagination

Jack has been talking the last little while about his friend, "Wolf." He is a real wolf, too. Late last night, Jack came into the kitchen telling me that Wolf scratched him. He added, "Wolf has colorful scratches. See!" And thus the photo of Wolf's colorful scratches.

Halloween 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008
Off to "trick or treat" in the hood. Jack wanted to be Iron Man, but I found "Mr. Incredible" for a cheaper bargain. It does have a black mask for around the eyes, but it went missing after the 4th Halloween party. (At least we are getting our money's worth in costume parties.) :) Max was originally Batman, but at the last second, after being Batman 4 other times, he decided to use last year's costume, Curious George the Monkey. They went around 2 blocks and scored a loot of candy and haven't stopped bouncing off the walls since. (Pictured left to right: Braxton (the firefighter, Misty, Jack, Debbie, Savannah (in silver & sequins, and Monkey Max. Debbie and kids are next door neighbors to us.)