Teach and Tickle

The Lord, He has done this.

2012-02-19T22:01:00.000-06:00

Therapeutic.

That's the word I often use when describing why I blog about certain things. I process things best when I write them down. It's therapeutic for me to see life through the lens of written words. That being said, I've had no time to write over these past few months. Which means...

It's high time for some therapy.

About six months ago, Joey made the statement that "this is going to be the hardest year of our lives." True. True. But true as that statement has proved to be so far, it's also proving to be one of the most exciting years of our lives. We've both grown to know and trust the Lord better. Joey started his very own dental practice, praise the Lord! It's now a fully functioning dental office. It looks beautiful. It has super employees. It has a growing number of patients. It's a dream come true.

But we've had our fair share of nightmares along the way. I could spend hours writing about the frustrating and discouraging things that have happened, but that is definitely not the sort of "therapy" I need today. Today, I've chosen not to think and dwell on those temporary and fleeting hurdles we've faced upon this journey. (They all manage to resolve themselves anyway.) I want to focus on all of the amazing things we've seen the Lord do in and through this difficult time. It's quite astounding to look at these events in light of His obvious hand. In fact, it's therapeutic. Have I already mentioned that?

Please allow me to lay back on this couch and spill a bit of the story. My hope is that in the end, you will say "Yeah God!" because He's the therapist. He's the one who orchestrated each step. He's the one working out all these details for our good and His glory.

Here are a few of the things the Lord did:

1. The Lord closed a door. January 1, 2011 was the tentative date chosen by Joey and his employer of the past seven years to be the date Joey would purchase his employer's practice. However, as any business owner will tell you, 2010 was a bad year. We still met with the business broker, accountant and bankers, but it was obvious that January 1, 2011 was not the right date. So we let that date pass. But we continued the meetings to discuss it. Each meeting we had with the business broker left me with a nervous stomach and heavy weight on my shoulders. I couldn't explain exactly why. It seemed like the next logical step in our lives was to purchase this well-established dental practice. But I couldn't shake the fear of being able to keep afloat a dental office with 7 chairs, 2 dentists and 12 employees, not to mention a business loan. But I supported Joey and his decision to purchase. During the summer of 2011, the owner asked for a meeting with Joey. "I need to know your plans. I need to know if you are going to purchase or not. Because if not, I need to pursue my other options" he said. Joey had never heard this man speak of other options. All this time, he truly believed part of the reason he needed to purchase was because he was his only option. This news was a relief, but it also sent us into a tailspin. If Joey doesn't purchase, what does he do instead? Do WE have other options? Will he get fired? What about his patient base he's worked hard to build for seven years? We fought the Lord in prayer over these things and more for a solid month. At the end of that month, his employer required an answer. With tears, Joey gave his. The Lord had closed a door. We prayer hard for a window.

2. The Lord provided a mentor. Shortly before making the final decision not to purchase, we drove up to Kansas to meet with my cousin and her husband and seek advice. Brian is a dentist and he had recently started his own practice. If the Lord wanted us to start our own practice instead of buying one, Brian was the guy to talk to. We had no idea how to start a business. Brian did. We had no idea what to expect or where to start. Brian did. We had no idea what this could look like. Brian did. He told us how the Lord directed him when he was in our shoes. His story was a testimony of God's provision and faithfulness and it inspired us. He couldn't speak to us without mentioning the Lord and without being filled with excitement for us. He offered us every help imaginable. His records, his contacts, his staff, his office... virtually anything we asked, He offered an answer or pointed us in the right direction. He was a true God sent mentor.

3. The Lord gave us peace. In spite of all the potential angst of these major life altering decisions we were making, the Lord gave both Joey and I a strong peace about the decision we had made. I'm not gonna lie though and say it was easy. We lost many hours of sleep. (Way more than I care to admit.) Joey's income dropped drastically. Things were tough. But through it all, we never questioned the Lord's direction. The Bible speaks of peace that passes understanding. We sure didn't understand the what and why of all that was going on, but we had peace knowing we were in good hands. It was during this time too that the Lord gave both Joey and I plenty of wise counsel from our parents who prayed nonstop for us and offered encouragement when we needed it the most. (Thanks parents!)

4. The Lord provided a perfect location. Our friend David is a commercial realtor and he walked us through this entire process. He is the type of guy who is calm and very professional. Every space we looked into would have required massive amounts of plumbing in order to accommodate a dental office. This would easily cost between thirty and fifty thousand dollars. A few weeks into our search for a space to lease, Joey remembered a dentist who was soon moving out of his space. His old space would already be plumbed for dentistry. He asked our friend to look into it. Sure enough, this space was to become available right about the exact time that we needed a space. David walked us through negotiating and signing a lease. He handled the various bumps and hurdles with ease. In the end, we secured the perfect location, pre-plumbed for dentistry, and proven to be a successful dental office location. It was more than obvious that this was the Lord's clear direction. And saving fifty thousand dollars in possible plumbing cost was such a sweet blessing from the Lord, not to mention confirmation we were exactly where He wanted us to be.

5. The Lord began providing equipment. I don't know if anyone outside the dental profession really knows the cost of dental equipment, but ummm... holy moly, that stuff isn't cheap. Right away, however, we had people introducing us to other dentists selling used, but working equipment for tiny fractions of the actual cost. We saved thousands of dollars. At first, we were sure we could only afford to outfit maybe two dental chairs, but the Lord made it possible for us to completely outfit three ops. We even managed to fit into our budget a very nice luxury - heated massage dental chairs! Woo hoo! (Side note- the dental supply company delivered the wrong chairs. Grrr! I've nagged and nagged and nagged and they promise me the massage chairs will be here by the first of March. We are waiting to throw an open house at the new place until these chairs arrive because I want everyone we know to try them out.) ;)

6. The Lord allowed Joey to leave his former office on good terms. Everyone told us that associate dentists can never leave a dental office on good terms. They told us that no matter how friendly or Christian two dentists are, the parting of ways is guaranteed to get ugly. This was disheartening news to think about. Joey didn't want to leave on bad terms. He didn't want to harm this employer by leaving either. So we bathed this in prayer. There were moments when I was dead sure Joey would get fired. I even let that fear get the best of me to the point of fainting (in front a classroom full of students, no less. But that's a story for another time.) In the end, Joey and his employer parted as friends. They worked out a deal that is fair to both and it allowed Joey to notify patients of his departure. Every person we've talked to in the dental field is shocked at how it all worked out. Our practice finance team had never heard of such a sweet departure deal. Nobody got angry. Nobody threw things. Nobody got fired. The power of prayer prevailed.

7. The Lord provided an income. I can honestly say that I don't know how we've been able to pay all our bills these past few months, but by the grace of God. I fully expected our savings to be entirely depleted by this date. Starting a business takes a ton of money. Our finance team says our loan is one of the smallest dental office start up loans they've ever done. (It still seems huge to me.) We've stayed in budget. We've kept the costs down. Now we are just trusting the Lord to bring in patients. In the meantime, the Lord graciously provided a job for Joey one day a week at another dental office, allowing him to supplement his income just enough while we wait for his schedule at the new place to fill up. That in itself was God's providence, as the dentist who asked him to work one day a week is the very dentist who inspired Joey toward dentistry years ago. He called out if the blue (not knowing we were in the midst of this start- up) and asked if Joey would be interested. Yes, Lord! He's entirely too good to us, isn't He?

8. The Lord sent us just the right people at just the right time. Besides the mentor dentists I've already mentioned, the Lord also had His hand in all the other people necessary to make this office happen. From our contractor (who handled everything so beautifully and kept it all within budget), to our logo guy, to our accountant, to our family members who helped scrape floors or paint, to our employees and everyone in between, we saw the Lord's hand. Joey will tell of very specific and immediate answers to prayer at times even. We are thrilled with the staff he hired. Lisa, our hygienist, works part time and patients are thrilled when they find out she is with us. Missy, Joey's assistant, is my sister-in-law's sister. She is an excellent dental assistant. Plus, she has the added connection of family and a strong desire to see our office succeed. Jerri is the sweetest phone voice you will ever hear and she takes care if our front office beautifully. She came highly recommended from the orthodontist at our church. We are thrilled with our staff. Then we've had the added bonus of sweet friends and family who help in various ways. A friend of a friend offered to do software training free of charge. Our equipment guys upgraded some of our order free of charge and threw in a few added perks we didn't expect. I'm sure I'm forgetting things here.

9. The Lord allowed our kids to see and experienced His workings. The kids and I pray every morning on the way to school. The details of the office start-up are a huge part of those prayers. We got to praise the Lord each time he answered one of those prayers. But not too long ago, Jonah said something that broke my heart. He mentioned that this new office was taking away all his fun and he didn't like the fact that he didn't get to play with his dad very much anymore because of it. I shared honestly with him that there have been plenty of moments that I felt the exact same way, but I also wouldn't trade this time for the world. We have learned through this time how to depend on and trust the Lord so much more. My hope is that the kids will remember this time not just for all the extra work we did (and the tears brought by that work), but also the prayers that were prayed and the trust that grew as a result.

10. The Lord did all of this.

And this.

And because He did it, we want to give Him credit.

Hello 2012

2012-01-12T17:14:00.001-06:00

Every year, it would seem, the Shoop’s have some news;

What with school, work, and play, there’s a lot that accrues.

So with your permission, we humbly request

To give you the highlights in a form that seems acceptable.

Joe’s still treating teeth that are broken or decayed

While Hannah and Jonah are now in first and third grade.

Kelly gives lectures on countries and crusaders

As she teaches history to seventh and eighth-year students.

Our family this summer booked no big cruise ship,

But rather visited Kenya for a weeklong mission trip.

Each season brought adventure, some big and some small,

But the most challenging by far started happening this autumn.

Though more painful at times than brushing with cactus,

Our family is headlong in starting our new practice.

So the plan is next month, (that’s January, you see,)

We’ll open the doors of Shoop Family Dentistry.

Our clever recap of 2011 in and around the Shoop house. The biggest news by far is the last paragraph. Check out www.ShoopFamilyDentistry.com and make your appointment today! (He begins seeing patients on January 30th!)

100 Things About Hannah

2011-11-07T21:38:00.001-06:00

On her seventh birthday today, these are a few of the most remarkable things about Hannah:

"One hundred things about Hannah"

You are a toughie.
You are a two year old baby hamster that's this big.
You like crab legs.
You love your Foofey.
You have your mother's independence.
You beep my nose.
You take good care of Julie.
You make little beds for your pets.
You have a great fashion sense.
You like to make ice cream soup.
You are tender hearted.
You like to watch the Science Channel with me.
You are really flexible.
You like it when I push you on the swing and tell you "duck poop".
You know just how many days until your birthday.
You always want me to sing songs and pray.
You love your Tiger and Ty-Ty.
You are a great cousin.
You are not selfish.
You are brave.
You want to be a doughnut cook, a dentist, and a cheer girl.
You created "Pony World".
You like to make your own computers and then work on them.
You have a special spot.
You had a railroad tie fall on you.
You are a good roller skater.
You look a lot like Mimi.
You swim like a fish, or a mermaid.
You can play by yourself for a long time.
You want something from the red bowl.
You like to go fishing with me.
You want to have a spa day.
You like it when I do "tick tock".
You let me pop your toes.
You tell the truth.
You are always concerned when someone is hurt or sick.
You can burp whenever you want to.
You like to have your fingernails painted.
You are the littlest in our family and proud of it.
You are a servant to others.
You like to wear aprons.
You walk on your toes when barefoot.
You like to write in your journal.
You are not picky what your journal is that day.
You have beautiful hair.
You make cards for me and mom.
You like to sit in the front.
You are shy.
You can't whistle, but you try.
You drink pop and it makes your eyes sparkle.
You like coffee.
You have a palindromic name, and you know what that means.
You are the one everyone wants to play with.
You are a fashionista (which is different than having great fashion sense).
You are growing really fast.
You like to eat freshly-browned hamburger with salt.
You say "ow" each time we brush your hair, even if there are no tangles.
You give yourself hickeys.
You always like to be reminded of how big you were when you were born.
You do a perfect "Katie" impression.
You are always gentle.
You said that one store was "inappropriate."
You are very modest.
You invented the "homemade Hannah" sandwich.
You stop and smell the flowers.
You are a peacemaker.
You want a phone.
You have a cute smile.
You can wear 20 outfits in one day.
You always need "help" cleaning your closet.
You rub soft things on your lips and face like someone I know.
You like to take long baths.
You are Jonah's best friend.
You ask insightful questions.
You can cross your eyes.
You set up stores in the living room and charge pennies.
You pray for people you've never met with sincerity.
You are naturally artistic.
You constantly put your hair behind your ears when on stage.
You like to listen to music in the car- usually Rosie.
You eat ribs off the bone.
You let me pull your first tooth in front of your kindergarten
You order tilapia from IHOP.
You like to run and plop.
You have an amazing imagination.
You looks good with dreadlocks.
You pay attention in church.
You like to hide your pets in unusual places.
You want everything with extra, extra, extra, extra honey.
You hide whenever someone's at the door.
You like to use your Easy Bake oven, but don't like the taste.
You are Abigail's BFF.
You look good in boots.
You like to work on your tan.
You don't mind sharing a room with Jonah.
You have two favorite colors: light blue and light pink.
You want braces.
You are God's little princess.
You are our favorite daughter.
You are Hannah, and you are special.

Happy birthday, Hannah. We love you.

Window

2011-10-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

"Hello world!"

This was the greeting my Humanities professor used to give each time he walked into our classroom of 40+ students my freshmen year of college. Our small classroom full of students barely constituted the "world," but we nevertheless couldn't help but grin at his greeting each morning. He used to pull out old records and randomly play classical tunes throughout class just to keep us on our toes. Vivaldi. Mozart. Bach. I could tell he loved his job. I bet he's retired now, soaking up some serious Vivaldi on a regular basis.

I'm not sure where I was going with this.

Oh yes. Hello world!

That's right. World. Seeing how this blog is open up to the whole world (wide web), I technically can justify that greeting. Though in reality, I am fully aware of the fact that there are a total of three people who might actually read this post. (Hi mom!) I'm okay with that. It's been three months since I last updated. It's been four months since I've written about something other than Kenya. I'm a bad blogger these days.

So bad, in fact, that my dad made me promise him a few weeks ago that I would at least write one paragraph on this here blog. So. Here I am. Writing a bit more than a paragraph. I'm not so narcissistic to believe that anyone really needs to read an update from me, but I would love to look back on this time in our lives and see what the Lord took us through.

And boy is He taking us on a journey.

Life around the Teach and Tickle home has been a bit crazy for the past few months. School started back again. I'm teaching (and hence, grading) more. I hate grading. There. I said it. Love teaching. Hate grading. Schedules are a bit crazy. Budgets are ridiculously tight. But that's not the reason for my absence on this blog. The primary reason for my absence are all the big changes that are brewing in the realm of dentistry. After seven years as an associate working for another dentist, Joey has made the decision to branch out and start his own dental office. This venture holds equal parts excitement and fear. I can't overstate that last sentence.

Super long story short --- The Lord closed a door and opened a window. Now we are trying to figure out how in the world He wants us to climb through that window. It seems so high and out of reach right now. Sometimes I look at the window and wonder how in the world we can fit through it. Sometimes I can't see what's on the other side of that window. Sometimes I just want to wallow inside my box with a window and shake my fists at the empty walls. Sometimes my eyes are so filled with tears that I can't even see a window.

But my God doesn't see boxes with walls, windows and doors. He sees the big picture. He sees the process, the refining, the ministry, and the growth that will come out of our obedience when we finally climb out that window into His marvelous light.

Lord willing, we will see glimmers of that marvelous light when Joey opens the door to his new office sometime in the next several months.

Until then, you may expect my presence on this blog to be somewhat sparse as I have the great honor of helping and supporting my husband in the bazillion decisions leading to his grand opening.

Some of those bazillion decisions were helped along a couple weekends ago when a dental supply company sent us to New York City on their dime, just so we could see their showroom. We took advantage of that opportunity and made a long weekend of it, taking in the sights and having a great time with Joey's brother Jeff and his wife Rosie.

We stood in Times Square, walked along Broadway and Wall Street, saluted the Statue of Liberty, mourned at the World Trade Center site, hoped for a flash mob in Grand Central Station (didn't happen), climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, listened to Rosie's new album (knock-out, by the way), and watched a sky-writing plane spell out "Last Chance" in the sky above Jeff and Rosie's apartment. (Wild.)

Then we drove to Scranton, Pennsylvania to visit the dental equipment showroom. (We didn't run into Jim and Pam, although I am sure we would have instantly become BFFs had we had the chance to meet them.) All in all, it was a super quick but fun and informative trip.

Our camera managed to take zero excellent photos, but here are a few:

from the patio rooftop of Jeff and Rosie's apartment with the skyline of NYC in the background

the statue of Liberty in the distance

my favorite "statue" in the forefront

Times Square

This shows the excitement side of starting a dental office.

Thankfully, I don't have a picture of the fear side.

It's a big world. I'm so thankful for a window. Pray for us as we climb through that window.

Supernatural Contentment

2011-07-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

Most of us didn't wake up to a cold shower this morning.

Or find ourselves extra tired because we got called to the hospital three times overnight.

Or realize we forgot to put more water out in the sun in order to have enough purified water for the day.

Most of us didn't have to create three meals from scratch today.

Or plan groceries for months at a time because the nearest real grocery store is two hours away.

Or find bugs in our bread.

Most of us had ice in our drinks today.

Most of us didn't have to use a bathtub or a clothes line in order to do laundry.

Or a sink of soapy water in order to do dishes.

Or a mosquito net in order to sleep without the annoyance of bugs.

Most of us didn't have to comfort a mom whose baby died today.

Or witness the sadness of seeing a child with third degree burns.

Or perform three c-sections in a row.

Most of us have the option of an epidural when we give birth.

Most of us didn't sit down to a much anticipated DVD only to have the power go off midway.

Or have to dread the power staying off for days in a row.

Or wake up to a scared child who can't find his way to the bathroom in the pitch dark.

Most of us didn't have to worry about people scavenging our trash for "useful" items we threw out today.

Or people asking us for money to help send their kids to school in order to secure a "better life."

Or walk through town and find ourselves the focus of unabashed stares from every face we pass.

Most of us have a home and car with air conditioning.

Most of us won't ever live in Kenya.

Or experience these difficulties to the same degree.

Or truly understand the sacrifices made by missionaries around the globe.

But then...

Most of us won't ever experience supernatural contentment in spite of these circumstances.

To Kyle and Vanessa

My amazing brother and sister-in-law living in Kenya

Who impressed Joey and I most with their utter contentment and zero complaints.

Happy Anniversary Kyle and Vanessa!

Wild Life

2011-06-23T20:17:00.001-05:00

I'm not a fan of wildlife. Few if any animals intrigue me. I even have a personal ban against the zoo in my city that I desperately try to uphold.

So when people asked if we were planning to go on safari while in Kenya, I swiftly responded with "I don't think so" and kept my fingers crossed that we wouldn't.

Shame on me.

Thankfully, Kyle talked us into going on safari through Nairobi National Park where we witnessed (in their natural habitat) lions, giraffes, ostrich, monkeys, water buffalo, rhino, impala, zebra, and others.

We even almost nearly witnessed a live birth - - that of our soon-to-be niece, Ariella. The bumpy safari roads seemed to prompt Vanessa to have quite a few contractions, each running only three minutes apart. Thankfully, she drank a gallon of water and the contractions stopped, although we were sure a safari-delivery would have provided the most interesting birth story ever.

Outside the National Park, we also visited the elephant orphanage in Nairobi.

We ran into some Masai warriors. (Very touristy, I know. They even asked for a "small tip" after I took their picture with the kids.)

Then we visited the Bomas of Kenya, which is a mock set up of the different tribal hut villages of Kenya.

It was here that we decided to take our 13th Anniversary picture. We were only a few days off from our actual anniversary date and this trip to Kenya would far outweigh any other trip we could plan this year, so taking our picture in Kenya seemed to fit.

Kenya may not have held a candle to the romance of our Cancun anniversary. It may not have had quite as much historical interest as the anniversary we celebrated in Rome. It definitely cost more than that anniversary we spent at home in order to save money for the new roof. And boy did it beat the anniversary when Joey locked me out of the house for an hour and a half.

But isn't that how life goes? Each year brings with it new challenges, journeys, and romance. Life is kind of wild like that.

I may not especially like wildlife. But I sure like this wild life I get to live.

Songs of a Hospitable Hospital

2011-06-17T09:39:00.000-05:00

The Children's Ward at Kapsowar Hospital has about 20 beds. 20 beds that, at varying times, are filled with sweet souls dealing with anything from broken bones to severe burns to heart disease to any other form of illness. Although the walls are painted with happy cartoon versions of Bible stories, the ward is not always the epitome of happiness. Death happens. Disease gains the better hand. Despair can be found on the parent's or patient's faces. The children in the ward are often hurting. But because of the care they are receiving, they are healing and hopeful. Their faces might show pain at times, but when three pale face children showed up one day to bless them with gifts from America, their faces showed gratitude and joy. Jonah, Hannah, and cousin Hudson were thrilled to deliver goodie bags to these kids one day.

As a result of the donations from Jonah's classmates at school, church, and a few neighbors, we were able to include the following in each of the goodie bags:

toothbrush

toothpaste

bouncy ball

coloring book

crayons

notepad

bracelet

light-up bracelet

suckers

balloons

In addition to the goodie bags, we also delivered 14 Christian DVDs for the children to enjoy on their TV/DVD combo in the ward. Since many of the kids only speak Swahili, we purchased mostly music sing-along DVDs to give to the hospital. Songs are often easier to enjoy and understand than a story line. Even if the kids don't understand all the words, they can still feel and see the joy of a song sung by children whose faces show the joy of the Lord.

Jonah, Hannah, and Hudson sang a song for the children in the ward that day. Joey spoke briefly about Jonah and the Whale. Jonah and Hannah somewhat nervously handed out our small gifts.

Then one mama of a patient led the children and staff in a song for us. This time, we were the ones who didn't understand the words. But we saw their joy. Joy in the midst of pain, sickness and death. Joy in response to our small gifts. Kenyan songs are often "sing and repeat" type songs. Kenyan voices are strong and bold.

The sorrow of the children's ward didn't cause me to cry. The pride in my own children doing something beyond themselves didn't make me cry. But this mama's song made me cry. This mama is no doubt dealing with a sick child who may or may not fully recover. I don't know her story, but I saw the joy and gratitude on her face. I heard her voice loud and clear, as you can hear below:

We may have brought a few hundred dollars worth of DVDs and small gifts, but it was clear that this mama gave the better gift that day. A shared joy. A reminder that our God is a good God in the midst of sorrow and sickness.

Join me in praying for the parents and children of the Children's Ward at Kapsowar Hospital. May they forever know and feel the joy of our good God.

Family of Faith

2011-06-14T15:20:00.003-05:00

It's going to take a while to process and work through all that we saw and experienced in Kenya. Rather than bombard this blog with a billion pictures and stories all at once, I thought I would just share bits and pieces as they come.

So. Let me introduce you to the family of Faith...

Actually, this is only a small fraction of the family of Faith. There are a total of nine children in Faith's family. And Faith didn't even make it into the above picture. She was off grinding corn when this photo was taken, but her mother sent for her when we arrived. Here's Faith:

Faith was a patient of Kyle's in the hospital in Kapsowar. While under his care, the Lord saw fit to bring her body back into health. More importantly though, the Lord brought her into a spiritual health when she made Him Lord of her life. She lives about a 20 minute drive away from the hospital, in this beautiful mountainous countryside filled with some of the most gorgeous scenery anyone could expect to encounter in Africa:

It's beautiful, yes, but primitive as well. Most people in and around Kapsowar live without running water or electricity, growing food in their gardens for a living. This is Faith's homestead:

The huts are used as kitchens. Faith's mom graciously allowed us to enter their hut and see how she cooks meals for her family:

She was thrilled to have us pop in for a visit. Over and over again, she requested we take photos of her, her family, her cow, and her crops. Most of all, she wanted a photo with Kyle, the doctor who helped her daughter, Faith.

Kyle wouldn't wish for me to glorify him or his ministry with this family. He would quickly pass along any credit to the Lord. But I could tell by the way the mother and father of Faith looked and spoke with Kyle that he has obviously made an impact on this family's life.

Kyle and Vanessa are constantly faced with Kenyan's who request their help financially. In fact, it is so common for foreigners to give money to Kenyans, that it is not uncommon for Kenyans to outright ask foreigners for money on a regular basis. Giving money seems like an easy and simple fix for the hardships of these people's lives. But giving money is not always the answer. In Faith's family's case, the answer was not money, but instead this:

It's an expanded garden. Corn, millet, potatoes, beans, and other things I'm not sure I recognized. These crops will hopefully give Faith's family the ability to produce more and sell more in order to meet the ever growing needs of their family. In the process, their hard work ethic and perseverance will hopefully prove an example to their neighbors and community of a growing faith in the Ultimate Provider of their needs. That Provider doesn't wear scrubs and bring small gifts of candy and crayons. He doesn't hand out shillings on request. He seeks out and builds true and genuine faith.

Pray with me that Faith's family becomes a true and genuine

FAMILY OF FAITH.

Three things I'm asking of the Lord

2011-05-31T08:48:00.001-05:00

When Kyle and Vanessa were gearing up to leave for Kenya, they specifically asked Joey and I not to support them financially. They said it would be more of an encouragement to them if we set aside the amount that we would give toward saving up for our family to come and visit them in Kenya someday. That someday is finally here.

Kyle and Vanessa are not just family to us. They are best friends to us. They were the friends we could call at 6:02 on a Friday night and say, "Hey! You guys want to hang out tonight?" and they would drop everything an come over. Kyle and Joey were accountability partners. Vanessa and I stole every opportunity for a kid-free lunch on the days both our kids were in preschool. We could talk about anything. Our kids adore their kids and vise-versa.

Needless to say, it's been a long and lonely year and a half since they left. But this just makes our upcoming trip an especially exciting one. As I've prepared for this trip, I've continually been praying three things:

1. That we would be an encouragement to Kyle, Vanessa, and the boys. We know they are exactly where the Lord wants them to be right now. We also know that this fact is not always as easy as it is evident. When my parents visited them back in February, my mom showed Hudson (age 6) pictures on her phone of all the cousins here in the States. Hudson has a bigger heart than any 6 year old on the planet. The pictures caused him to cry, saying that he missed his cousins so much, and asking serious questions like "Why did God call us to Kenya and not them?" We want to affirm them in their calling, their ministry, and their life. We want God to use us to encourage and refresh them.

2. That we would be able to have a ministry to the people in Kenya. Joey is bringing a bunch of dental equipment to provide dental services to the people in Kapsowar as well as the people in the Pokot village among whom Kyle has started a ministry. The kids and I are bringing gifts to hand out to the children in the children's ward. A very specific request I am asking of the Lord is that our luggage would not be lost on the way there. We have a very quick (1.5 hour) layover in Istanbul where our luggage must make it off one plane and onto another. I'm praying that all the equipment for our ministry makes it with us to Kenya on time.

3. That our children's worldview would be drastically widened. Right now, Jonah and Hannah live in a little world where most people live, look, and smell like them. I can't wait to see how this trip opens their eyes to see beyond themselves and this bubble of a world they live in. I've often heard our friends from The Traveling Team talk about seeing students "put their yes on the table." I want my kids to someday "put their yes on the table," telling God they are willing to do anything or go anywhere to further His kingdom. I want them to look back on this trip and see it as one of the turning points in their lives leading to this decision.

We covet your prayers for these things as well.

Thank you!
Kelly

We done and got the girl graduated

2011-05-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

We are proud of you, Hannah!

Just for kicks, I'll share Hannah's first day of school video here too.

My Wife, the Mom.

2011-05-07T23:56:00.000-05:00

Just in case no one has already taken the understatement of the year, my wife is an amazing person.

A few years ago, Kelly had had about enough of going to scrapbooking stores and buying irregular cutting scissors, and decided that what with the Interweb and all, she was going to preserve memories for our kids on one of them new-fangled blogs.

Teach and Tickle was born.

If you happen to be new to this blog, I encourage you to look around and learn about my remarkable wife. If you're a regular, then, well, I don't have to tell you.

Oh sure, Kelly is not perfect. She would be the first to admit that. She often tells me that she worries she portrays herself and our family in too good a light - that she holds herself and our family out as the ideal. Nonetheless, for good or for bad, this particular medium, being autobiographical, and editable at our discretion, along with being fraught with many superfluous parenthetical phrases separated by commas, affords the author a certain, how you say, "I don't know what."

Wow, am I wordy.

But getting to the heart of this post: My wife, the Mom. I love my wife for how she loves our kids. I know it is too cheesy a thing to say that she loves them with her very life, with her every fiber, but it's true.

Tonight, we watched the Disney movie, "Tangled." (Great flick. I think the best since "The Little Mermaid" or "Snowball Express".)
-Spoiler Alert!-
In the movie, a selfish woman has kidnapped the infant Rapunzel and poses as her mother while keeping her isolated in a tower. Rapunzel's hair has some magical quality that gives youth and health to this pretend mother, so it becomes this woman's life to keep Rapunzel for herself. While their are some fleeting moments of near-motherly concern, it's obvious this woman only looks to her own selfish desires, meaning that if she got what she wanted, Rapunzel would never leave the tower.

Huh?

It's just this: what occurred to me while watching the movie was not only that Kelly loves our kids now, she loves them then.

Kelly's love for our kids is felt now, and if God so chose to take her from us tonight, her love would be felt by them for the rest of their lives. It is so foundational to who she is that her absence would not be enough to make them doubt. She instills in them a deep sense of not just doing what's right, but knowing why it's right. More than anything in the world, she wants to see Jonah and Hannah fall in love with Jesus, and follow Him all their lives.

What more could I ask for in the mother of my kids?

I love you, dear. Happy Mother's Day, from us all.

A Kenyan Birthday Party

2011-04-23T21:58:00.001-05:00

Jonah turned 8 years old this month. We celebrated with a Kenyan style birthday party event in honor of our upcoming trip to Kenya.

Please allow me to share a quick story to illustrate the idea and mission behind this birthday party idea. A year and a half ago, Jonah’s aunt, uncle, and three young boy cousins packed up a few things, sold or gave away all of their belongings, and moved to the mission field in Kenya. At the time, Jonah’s now 6 year old cousin, Hudson, had a bike that he dearly loved. Knowing that they could not pack the bike in a suitcase, Hudson’s parents asked him if he would be willing to give the bike away to a foster family in need of a bike. He was so extremely sad at having given away most his other toys and belongings that he desperately wanted to keep his bike. Knowing his heartache and sacrifice already, his parents offered to store the bike here in the States. But Hudson had such a big heart and wisdom beyond his years that he chose to give the bike away to the foster family. It was a tender moment.

Shortly after they arrived in Kenya, the station manager at the hospital where Hudson’s dad worked pulled Hudson aside and told him he had something to give him. He told Hudson that the last missionary family who lived there had a little girl. When she and her family left, she asked to leave behind something for the next missionary family. He opened a door to a storage shed, pulled out a bike, and gave it to Hudson! God is so gracious!

This year, as our family contemplated Jonah’s birthday and our plans to make a trip to visit our family members in Kenya, we recalled that story of sacrifice and blessing. We knew we wanted to have a Kenyan style birthday party event. We knew we would use it as a chance to educate the kids about Kenya. We knew what Kenyan games we could play. We knew plenty of Jonah’s friends to invite. And finally, we knew a way to involve those friends in a ministry that reached beyond another gift added to Jonah’s ever-growing collection of toys. Just as Hudson sacrificed his “stuff” and saw the Lord bless him, we asked Jonah if he would be willing to sacrifice getting gifts so that he could see the Lord bless the Kenyans we would visit. He said yes.

His birthday guests gave so generously and we were completely humbled by the outpouring of support we received. We are so excited about using the money from his party to bless the Kenyans. Jonah’s dad will be doing dentistry and we plan to purchase some basic equipment and plenty of toothbrushes to hand out at the clinics. In an effort to involve our kids as much as possible in the ministry, we will be allowing them to hand out gifts in the children’s ward of the hospital there. They will be handing out toothbrushes (naturally), but Hudson’s family has specifically asked for scripture verse bracelets, toys, stickers, bouncy balls, and Christian DVDs to play on the TV in the children’s ward. These are a few of the items we will be blessed to deliver as a result of Jonah's generous birthday party guests. We are truly blessed to be a blessing. Pray for us as we visit Kenya this June!

Here are a few of the photos from the party:

Joey, Jonah and my dad helped build the African hut the night before the party. Made out of cardboard, we were pleased to find it stayed up all night. However, the top nearly blew off the next day when the wind picked up. Joey had to rebuild it about an hour before the party started. There was no way to get the hay to stay on the top the next day due to the wind. Bummer. Still a ton of fun.

The Hut cake and table decor. Jonah saw the cake and wanted to know if people really like to eat icing with pretzels. :)

My dad and Joey showing the kids how to play with the most popular "toy" in Kenya - tires and sticks. It's much harder than it looks, but the kids did wonderful. I can't remember if the girls or the boys won that game.

Lasso the giraffe. NOT a real giraffe. NOT an actual game played in Kenya. Still fun. We had to involve some sort of wildlife in the party. :)

Instead of Limbo (going under the stick), Kenyans play a game where they attempt to jump over the stick. The boys won this game.

Inside the hut for craft time. We made shakers out of cans and beans so the kids could make "Kenyan music." That hut was held together with duct tape and love.

Cake time! We also served fruit and Kenyan donuts (made by my mom). For drinks, we had orange soda in glass bottles- a favorite of Jonah's cousins in Kenya.

We had the slideshow of pictures from Kenya playing during the party for the parents and kids to watch. The TV shows the picture in the slideshow of Hudson on his new bike in Kenya.

Africa or Bust!

2011-04-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

Someone in Kenya must need dental work.

Or a toothbrush.

Or at the very least, a fresh pale-skinned face filled with the love of Jesus, willing to listen, speak, pray, or smile with them.

Why? you ask. Because God saw fit to open the door for our family to go to Kenya this summer. It has been a roller coaster ride these past few months, for sure. Joey and I prayed and prayed that God would give us a clear open or closed door. Some days we felt like the door was beginning to open. Other days we were sure the door was slamming shut. Then a glimmer of hope again. Then no hope. It was exhausting at times.

Not long ago, I prepared myself to accept from God a closed door. We had some very legitimate concerns that didn't seem to have any easy resolutions. But the thought of not being able to go made me quite sad. One day, in my sadness and desperation for a clear answer from God, I decided to do one of those quiet times where I just flop open the Bible and promise God that I will start reading where ever it lands. I asked for Him to work through whatever page my Bible landed on. So I looked up, flopped open my Bible, threw my finger on a page and sighed a deep sigh when I looked down and saw where it landed:

Ezekiel 37: The Valley of the Dry Bones

Thanks God. Good one, I thought. Very funny.

It seemed this was going to be the nail in the coffin of our dreams to go to Africa. I set out to read the chapter as I had promised God, fully confident that this would be the "door slammed shut" answer that I dreaded.

But as I read, I quickly realized that "Ezekiel 37: The Valley of the Dry Bones" is not at all about God saying "no" or leaving people without hope. It's not about dry bones and lost dreams. Quite the opposite, in fact. God speaks of doing something spectacular. He speaks of the miraculous. Even more interestingly though, is the fact that God clearly states his reasoning behind doing the miraculous - "Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord." (v.14)

I finished that quiet time and prayed with hope that God would continue to lead us. A door seemed to be opening in my heart. All my planning, budgeting, calling, and hand wringing would be for not. If God wanted to throw out my very legitimate concerns in one fell swoop for the sake of letting me and others know that He has spoken, so be it. I was game for the spectacular.

So that's what He did -- something spectacular. He opened doors we thought were closed. He provided for needs we thought couldn't be met. He calmed our fears and sent our concerns out the window. And because He did it, we know He has spoken.

We're going to Kenya.

Someone in Kenya must need dental work.
(Joey will be there to provide it at Kapsowar Hospital and the Pokot village.)

Or a toothbrush.
(Jonah, Hannah and I would love to provide some.)

Or at the very least, a fresh pale-skinned face filled with the love of Jesus, willing to listen, speak, pray, or smile with them.
(We can't wait to see what opportunities the Lord places in our path.)

We are raising a little bit of support to pay for the cost of dental supplies, toothbrushes and other in-country expenses. The Lord graciously provided us with the ability to pay for our plane tickets, so the majority of the trip is paid! (Praise Him!) If you would like to contribute to the few extra expenses, you can send a tax deductible donation to Tulsa Bible Church with separate note explaining you wish the money to go toward our Kenya trip. Thank you and God be praised!

Empty Nest

2011-03-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

I love my kids. Let's just start with that up front just in case this blog post happens to call my love into question. I love them. Always have. Always will.

But this evening, Joey and I had one of those moments where after a long and rather LOUD afternoon of two extraordinarily rambunctious children clamoring for our attention, we looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Someday we'll have an empty nest."

It's true. Someday we will have an empty nest. Twelve to fifteen years from now, it'll happen.

I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking out and desiring alone time with my husband whom I love dearly. But something about saying those words out loud made me feel a twinge of guilt. Shouldn't I savor and embrace these moments with the kids while I have them? Should I really be so easily annoyed at the decibel level in my house? Should I so easily roll my eyes at the thought of having to tie shoes, clean up spills, or teach my kids to put away laundry for a few more years?

Then I started to wonder. Does God ever long for an empty nest? My day-to-day life produces a lot of noise, too. The decibel level of my life is often high. A busy, unfocused life produces a lot of clamor, you know. Even my worship, if done with an improper heart, simply adds to the noise level. Does He long to get away from my noise?

Does God ever roll his eyes at having to teach me the same lesson over and over, or clean up my messes again and again? Does he long for the day that I mature and grow up?

Maybe so, but He sure doesn't show it.

In fact, when my life is LOUD and busy, He takes the time to find me in those few quiet moments. The other day I took Hannah on a little girly date night. Something was giving her grief in the back seat of the car. I didn't say a word, but rather I reached my hand back to hers. We held hands and drove in silence for a while. Somehow, her life was much better as a result of those few silent moments holding her mom's hand. It's the same when I settle down and quietly hold my Father's hand as well.

When I make mistakes and God has something to teach me, He often uses circumstances in my life to drive a lesson home. In an attempt to teach the kids to help with laundry, I dumped all the clean socks on the floor and set the kids to work playing the "matching game." They quickly informed me at the completion of the game that this this "was not a very fun matching game." God's lessons in my life are not always fun either, but once complete, they always seem to bring that much needed order and cleanliness.

Does God long for an empty nest? Yes, I believe so. But not the same empty nest we might imagine. He longs for the days when we've listened well, we've learned our lessons, and we're eager to fly to do His will and bring Him glory. He longs for us to leave the nest and not just fly but soar for Him.

In this sense, I can say without guilt that I long for that same empty nest. I can only imagine the joy Joey and I will experience twelve to fifteen years from now as we watch from our nest as Jonah and Hannah soar.

Asia

2011-02-28T10:34:00.001-06:00

As I put Hannah to bed last night:

Me: (praying) "Lord, give Hannah a heart for You and a desire to make You known to the people in the world who don't know about You."

Hannah: "Do people in Asia know about Jesus?"

Me: "Some of them do. Many of them don't."

Hannah: "Okay, I guess I can be a missionary to the country of Asia someday." (shrugs her shoulders)

Me: "That's cool. How exciting! Do you know that Asia is not actually a country but a continent? There are lots of countries on the continent of Asia - like Russia, China, Japan, India, Mongolia..."

Hannah: "Mon-gol-a-WHAT?"

Me: "Mongolia"

Hannah: "That's a funny name."

Coming off the past seven weeks of our Perspectives class and the past four days of a pretty amazing missions conference at our church, this conversation especially blessed my heart.

Speaking of Perspectives, tonight's class is open to anyone. You can visit tonight just to check it out if you are interested. I'd highly encourage it. Click HERE for directions.

Lastly, I posted another chapter to our love story blog. Believe it or not, it's about when the Lord called me to go to Asia. (Okay, technically it was Europe, but the majority of Russia is in Asia.) Click HERE to go to that blog or HERE to be taken to just the latest chapter.

Share the love

2011-02-14T16:06:00.000-06:00

It's my birthday. Feel free to celebrate by giving the person you love a sweet card with pink hearts and glitter all over it.

Here are a couple of my sweet cards from the day:

Note to self: Never teach Jonah how to properly spell "special."

"Speshle" is way cuter.

Another note to self: Tell the genius in your life you love him dearly.

I love you, honey!

Kelly

SNOKLAHOMA

2011-02-10T14:48:00.000-06:00

SnOklahoma. That's what people are calling it.

Two weeks ago, Hannah and I sat on a blanket in the backyard soaking up the unusually warm temps in the 70s. Three days later, we were bracing ourselves for a monster winter storm headed toward Oklahoma. I made my usual trip to the grocery store just before the storm hit. Later that evening, Joey asked if I picked up extra milk. I told him I didn't think we needed milk because we had about three-fourths of a gallon at home. He didn't seem to agree with me so I let him go to the store to get another gallon. He arrived at Reasor's about 9:30 pm and found the store was void of any shoppers. Proudly walking to the back where the milk is stored, he thought "Boy, I must be the only one thinking about stocking up for this storm. The store is hardly busy at all." Then he found the milk isle and saw this:

Right. Awesome. That's why the store was empty. Everyone else got their milk, bread and eggs earlier in the day and they are now safely hiding out at home waiting for the storm to hit. It's like the shelves were shouting back at us "No milk for you!"

The next morning, we woke up to blankets of snow. Record snowfall, I think. Only a few brave people with four wheel drive ventured beyond their own driveways. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. The danger of 12-18" of snow, even higher snow drifts and the serious lack of snowplows in the state of Oklahoma led to the shutting down of pretty much everything. Schools. Churches. Stores. Malls. Everything shut down for a few days. A friend accurately portrayed Oklahoma by changing her facebook profile picture to this:

So true. We were all very stuck in our houses with no place to go. It was a forced "staycation" for sure. But we made the best of it. Here are a few of the things that happened at the teach and tickle home over the past week:

the making of food

the eating of food

the watching of cartoons

the inventing of fictitious perilous situations

the solving of said fictitious perilous situations (this usually involved some form of superhero costume)

the making of stop-motion videos

the making of food

the eating of food

the playing of the xbox

the sitting down to tea parties

the putting on of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

the playing in snow

the taking off of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

the cleaning up of snowsuits, gloves, hats and boots

(repeat the previous four about 38 more times)

*sigh*

the sledding down hills

the making of food

the eating of food

the sleeping in cozy beds

the not getting much done but feeling pretty okay about it

This post wouldn't be complete without a few photos to share. So here goes..

That's our mailbox right next to Jonah's feet. Granted, much of that snow was shoveled there from our driveway, but still a fun hill for a little boy to conquer. The next day, the kids dug a tunnel all the way around the post of the mailbox. It's been their hideout ever since.

Jonah's "throne." Notice Hannah in the window behind. Hannah and I last approximately 12.4 seconds outside. Possibly 12.4 minutes depending on the amount of snow we can keep out of our boots and gloves.

Grammy and Papa invited us over to their house to play in the snow. Grammy built two cute snowmen on the teeter-totter but the second snowman committed suicide and jumped off. My (I'm not gonna tell you how old) grandma lives with my parents now and she really wanted to play in the snow too. She's a kid a heart. She made her own snowman, a snow bird, a snow angel and a message in the snow that said "I love you!" (a Valentine message to grandpa in heaven maybe? I bet that makes him smile.)

Joey spent his time at my parent's house making a giant snow tooth. That's right. A snow tooth. Do you think he missed going to work this past week?

10 Good Decisions of 2010

2011-01-22T22:38:00.000-06:00

I realize we are nearly a month into 2011, but this post has been rolling around in my brain for a few weeks and I figured I better punch it out before I forget a few of the decisions we made this past year in the Teach and Tickle home. Feel free to stop reading right here because this is one of those posts that I am writing simply for posterity sake. Someday, I want the kids to be able to look back, see and learn from their parents. That's all. Plus, some of this stuff is private stuff for our family to know and there is no need for the rest of you to even care about.

We regularly pray for Jonah and Hannah to "make wise choices" in their day to day lives. Right now, this might mean choosing to sit still or be quiet even when their classmates are disobediently being rowdy. Or it might mean choosing to be the peacemaker in an argument. Or it could mean deciding to save money on a Christmas gift card rather than spend it just for the sake of spending it. These are the choices our children are facing today. Tomorrow they may face bigger choices. We want them to be discerning and confident in their decision-making as they grow, so we pray about it. They hear us pray about it regularly. They've even begun praying it for themselves and others.

So in an effort to show the kids we practice what we pray, I've compiled a list of 10 wise choices/good decisions that we as parents have made this past year. They are in no particular order.

1. Getting a job.

When I taught school before having kids, I loved it. But I found myself teaching all day and planning and grading all evening. When I quit that job 7+ years ago to stay home with Jonah, I told my principal that I couldn't be 100% teacher and 100% mom at the same time. I needed to stay home once Jonah was born. But this year marked the first year that both Jonah and Hannah would be attending school full time. I knew I would have a lot of free time on my hands with both of them gone for so many hours of the day, so I began to pursue my options. I could either spend my days shopping and spending way to much money or I could spend my days teaching earning way too little money. Long story short, I got a dream job. I teach one section of world history each day to eighth graders at the school where Jonah and Hannah attend. Creating and developing a curriculum for that class is a ton of work that pretty much requires most of my "off" time while Jonah and Hannah are at school, but I love learning and teaching again. Here's the best part: Jonah and Hannah seem to think their mom is the coolest mom on the planet because she works at their school! (We'll see if they still think that way when they get to 8th grade!)

2. Praying on the way to school each day

Speaking of school, one tradition my parents started with me and my siblings that I have carried on with my kids is daily prayers on the way to school. To hear Jonah and Hannah's prayers each morning as we drive just makes my heart sing. It is something we will never quit doing for as long as we drive to school together.

3. Writing our "Only One" love story.

I never thought it could be such fun to re-live Joey and my love story. The other day I told Joey that I was nearly positive that none of our friends or family had even read past chapter 10 or so, but it didn't matter so much. I was having a blast writing it. Then just yesterday, I got a text from my friend Starr, telling me that she wants a copy of it when I'm finished writing so she can read it to her daughter someday. That was sweet. I've had two other moms tell me the same thing. Such sweet encouragement. I've planned all along for my own kids to someday read it, but what a blessing that other mom's think their kids could benefit from it as well. I'll keep writing and hopefully get it finished this year.

4. Blogging less

About a year or so ago, I was playing upstairs with Hannah and she suddenly stopped playing, looked me straight in the eyes and said "You can go downstairs and do something on the computer now." Ouch. I needed to limit my computer/blogging a bit, it seemed. You may have noticed a slow down on this blog over the past year. Obviously, teaching school again has taken a chunk of my time, but some of the blogging slowdown has been due to the fact that I am trying to be more interesting in making memories instead of just writing about them. I seem to get that reversed sometimes. (Another thing that I have virtually stopped checking is my google analytics. It feels good to not care about that anymore.)

5. Giving more

This is nobody's business but ours. But I want the kids to someday look back and see that God has been and will always be faithful to provide. He blesses us to be a blessing. We often pray as a family that God would continue to bless us (we are already blessed beyond what we deserve) and that we would in turn choose to be a blessing to others. Sometimes, even in a poor economy were collections are slow, God still asks us to give more. So we did. What a blessing it has been to add a few additional missionaries this year to our list of missionaries we support. A few others, we've had the privilege of helping with one-time gifts. I love sending missionaries. I always wanted to be a goer, but being a sender has turned out to be a ton of fun too.

6. Signing up for the Perspectives class

We wanted to take the Perspectives class ever since the first time we heard about it ages ago, but it never worked out. So this year when it was offered at our church, we signed up. We've only had two classes so far, but we can already tell it is going to be amazing. (As long as the homework doesn't kill us!)

7. Not buying a house

We fell in love with a new house this past year. It was one of those new houses that is open all the time, so we literally went to it about 20 times and walked through it, planning out where we could put furniture and all that jazz. It was crazy, but Joey and I both LOVED it and we nearly talked ourselves into buying it. We didn't and we know for positive that was a good decision. It wasn't the Lord's timing and it wouldn't have been wise. (We did, however, find the perfect floor plan if we ever do happen to build a house. Ha!)

8. Allowing Hannah to pray to ask Jesus to be her Savior

What a sweet moment this was. We never want to push our kids into praying a prayer just so we can have peace of mind that they have "Jesus in their heart." But when a child comes to you as a parent and tells you they are ready to do just that, you begin to understand that "great rejoicing in heaven" thing that the Bible talks about. Hannah answered all our questions and really seemed to understand what it meant to have Jesus as her Savior. Letting her pray and do just that led to great rejoicing in our hearts.

9. Saying "no" more

It's easy to say "yes" to a lot of things and overcommit. I've begun to say "no" to more things this year and it feels good. Some things are genuinely good things, but I just have to say no in order to guard my time or our family time. It's been a very good thing for our family.

10. Buying an XBOX 360 Kinect

Joey has been pushing for our family to buy a gaming system for a few years now. I had a number of very well drawn out reasons for not wanting one in our house, but Joey won me over with the XBOX Kinect. I didn't want our kids to become video game junkies and sit in front of a TV with a controller regularly all the time. The Kinect sensor that comes with this XBOX actually works by looking at your body movements so the kids are constantly moving while playing. There's no sitting on the couch involved. We purposely didn't buy any games that require a controller so they won't be able to play from the couch. Sneaky, I know. All the games are active, fun and surprisingly tiring. Another concern I had was storing all the extra controller components and games in our already overcrowded living room. The Kinect requires nothing but a human body in motion. That's my kind of controller. We're having fun with it as a family.

There you have it. A ridiculously long post chronicling 10 good decisions of 2010. If you made it to the end of this post, bless you. It was a long one.

Better Never than Late

2011-01-01T10:55:00.001-06:00

Obviously, we don't do posed pictures very well.

Happy Belated Christmas and Merry New Year!

We didn't send Christmas cards this year. Some would say "better late than never." After our totally unsuccessful attempt at a decent family photo, I was tempted to say "better never than late."

Nativity Story

2010-12-30T22:03:00.003-06:00

In 2007, my mom had this grand idea of making nativity costumes for all of the grandkids and getting them all together to pose for an adorable Christmas card photo. THIS was the result. That year, there were about 150 photos taken and not one of them showed all of the kids faces. The end result was actually a combination of two photos tastefully blended together with the help of photoshop.

In 2008, we thought it would be more fun to make a video of the entire process rather than just a single photo. THIS was the result. It's one of my favoritest videos ever. A-dor-a-ble.

In 2009, my mom wanted a professional photographer to take photos since she knew that three of her grandchildren would not be able to take part in the nativity play in future years due to the fact that they would be living in Kenya. So we invited Sarah to come along and take some amazing photos. Sarah worked her magic and the photos she took were to die for. You can view some of them HERE.

This year in 2010, the grandkids themselves began to take some pride in making this event into more of a play instead of just a cool photo opportunity. So the oldest cousin, Anna, decided to act as narrator and read a rather creative re-telling of the story while the other cousins acted it out. We were grateful to have a few extra extended family cousins join the party and fill the roles left vacant by Hudson, Jude and Isaac. But don't feel too sorry for Hudson, Jude and Isaac. They got to carry on the tradition this year with their Kenyan friends. The slideshow video they made from that event warmed our heart and knocked our socks off. Click over to their blog to see it if you have not yet. Understandably, there was much screaming and excitement amongst our family members when we reached the end of their slideshow. (You will understand when you watch to the end yourself.) :)

Anyway, without further delay, this year's Nativity Story video:

(Sorry for the poor sound quality and outrageously loud laughter from the audience around the 2:30 mark. Abigail's nonchalant "birthing" of baby Jesus really cracked us up.)

The video speaks for itself, but I'll share a few photos as well.

"Joseph" looks a little bored.

The audience enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas!

More to Life

2010-12-27T21:18:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. Sometimes I make a big deal about little things. Sometimes I loose focus on what is really important.

Sometimes I need a reminder that my God is big. Sometimes I need to see that there is more to life than the hustle and bustle surrounding me. Sometimes I need perspective.

THESE videos gave me that fresh perspective. Thank you, Kyle and Vanessa! Please jump to their blog and watch. CLICK HERE. Watch to the end and share in our joy!

A Unique Wish List

2010-12-22T22:25:00.002-06:00

I I I ....Don't want a lot for Christmas... There is just one thing I need... I don't care about the presents... Underneath the Christmas tree.....

No, wait. That's a Mariah Carey song. Sorry. Forgive me. Take a moment to go throw up if necessary.

But seriously, I did make a rather unique Christmas list this year. A list that requires nothing under the Christmas tree for me.

From Joey, I asked for my backyard to be mowed short. Yes, I know it is December. But our grass has the uncanny ability to grow thick and plush well into the winter months and I hate going out there in the early spring when the weather is finally nice and finding that the ground is all mushy with overgrown grass that has been packed down and tons of dead grass that always finds it's way into my house during said springtime months. So. I asked Joey to scalp and bag my backyard for me for Christmas. And he did it. Then he one-upped me and cleaned the garage on top of that. That man. I gotta love him. Merry Christmas to me. (Thanks, honey!)

From Jonah, I asked him to allow me to video record him doing his Walk Thru the Bible memorization and hand motions that he learned this semester at school. His wonderful teacher, Mrs G, has been going through the stories of the Old Testament as part of their Bible class this year. In order to put it all into perspective and have a fun way to remember everything, she taught them the hand motions from Walk Thru the Bible. I am utterly impressed. It is a ton of memorization and a ton of information. Anyway, Jonah kindly obliged and allowed me to video record him this afternoon. He really had to concentrate and it took us a couple tries before he got it, but this is Jonah doing the Old Testament Walk Thru the Bible:

That might not be as cool to the rest of you as it is to me, but he got really excited when I said I wanted to share it on the blog. If and when you see him next, tell him how impressed you are. :)

From Hannah, I requested she simply attempt to clean her closet daily. Most the time, I can't even walk in there. She changes clothes about 12 times a day and she hasn't managed to learn the fine art of hanging up clothes once she removes them. It's bad. I feel like I get hives when I'm in her closet. The poor girl inherited none of my cleaning genes. So my Christmas wish list includes a simple request for her to clean up her clothes each day. So far, that one hasn't happened. And if I'm being entirely honest, I'm not holding my breath that it will happen. But she still makes me laugh daily. For instance, today she asked me over and over again where her "iPad" was. I was really confused. Turns out she calls this mask her "eye pad:"

She gives me plenty to giggle about. It's not a clean closet, but I'll take it.

Two out of three on my wish list isn't too shabby.

Now if I could just stop humming that Mariah Carey song...

Christmasified Home

2010-12-20T09:37:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Teach and Tickle home this Christmas.

My favorite new Christmas decoration this year is a nativity set sent to us from my brother and sister-in-law living in Kenya. It has a prominent place on the mantle.

The rest of the mantle, fireplace, stockings and trees. That fire burns almost non-stop in our house. I absolutely love my fireplace. I think if we ever build a house, I'll put a fireplace in every room.

Inspired by my sister, I made a Christmas tree forest this year. (Thanks, April!)

Our Advent house. I'm not publishing our Advent activities this year because I am way behind on everything and it is pretty similar to the past three years. In a nutshell, our Advent activities revolve around a different ornament behind each door that corresponds to a scripture and a family activity. Click HERE if you want to see previous Teach and Tickle Advent activities.

Our tree where we hang our Advent ornaments.

The hall

Our Charlie Brown tree

The outside of our home

That's our Christmasified home. Merry Christmas all!

GO and SEND

2010-11-29T22:58:00.001-06:00

I saved a lot of really strange things in my high school scrapbook. Napkins from a memorable restaurant. Ticket stubs. Wristbands. A streamer from my first dance. Notes. More notes. And of course... newspaper clippings.

But the clippings I deemed worthy of saving were not your typical newspaper clippings. They were not of events in my hometown or people that I knew receiving their 15 minutes of fame in the local paper. No. I saved clippings of the stories half way around the world. In short, I saved newspaper clippings about Russia.

My fascination with the Soviet Union went all the way back to elementary school. But it was in high school that I distinctly remember reading about the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991, I believe). Like many believers at the time, I saw the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union as a wide open door to share the gospel with a people who had never heard it before. My heart was set. I not only prayed for missionaries to go and bring this message to the former Soviet Union but I also longed to be one of those missionaries. I felt a definite call to GO.

It wasn't until my senior year of high school that the Lord opened the door for me to go to Russia. It was a summer that changed my life. Then the following summer, the Lord opened the door again. This time I would go to the Ukraine.

I was the youngest member of my team that year. We would spend two months leading workshops and Bible studies, doing evangelism, and investing in the lives of a handful of local believers who wanted to reach their campus and city for Christ. We were each paired with a native Ukrainian who spoke English. Being the youngest on our team, I was paired with the youngest on the Ukrainian team.

Her name was Olya. Olya became a believer when a group of missionaries showed the Jesus film at her international school in the Ukraine. She didn't understand everything immediately, but she likes to point out that over the years, the Lord brought numerous believers into her life, each one teaching her a little bit more about God and what it means to have a relationship with him.

Olya was WAY more than a translator for me that summer. She became a best friend. By the end of the summer, I felt in every way that she had taught me abundantly more than I could have ever hoped to teach her. She taught me how to live in the Ukraine, not just survive. She taught me how to speak a different language, not just depend on her translation work. She taught me how to love the Lord, not just go through the motions.

Olya's sweet notes insisted that I made some impact on her life as well, but I honestly believed that she was the teacher and I was the student that summer. Olya was a gifted artist and her notes and cards were some of the most adorable I have ever seen. They never failed to bring a smile to my face.

Olya lived in the States as an exchange student for a short while, so we did get to see each other a couple times after I left Ukraine, but we lost touch for the most part over the past few years. BUT, through the wonder of Facebook, Olya and I reconnected and have once again been reunited.

Olya is now married and she and her husband are on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ in Kiev, Ukraine. They love the Lord and have a contagious passion to reach students with the message of Christ. This past weekend, Joey and I had the great honor of sitting down with Olya and her husband Vlad while they were visiting the States.

There are times when I truly long to hear the Lord to tell me to "GO!" once again to the nations of the world. I loved my summers overseas. I would jump at the chance to pick up and move our family to Russia or the Ukraine. But for whatever reason, the Lord has not given our family that specific command right now.

Vlad and Olya shared with us their ministry and asked us to partner with them as supporters. As they were speaking with us, I didn't hear "Go," but I most definitely heard "Send!"

And let me tell you, sending is such an honor!

Love ya, Olya! The Lord bless your ministry!

Encouraging Gifts

2010-11-24T22:07:00.002-06:00

There was a dynamic speaker at the teacher conference I attended in Dallas this week. He taught a workshop titled "Discipleship that Brings About Life Change." Among other things, he encouraged us as teachers to take every opportunity to encourage our students. To prove to us how easy it is to encourage, he gave examples of ways to encourage in 10 seconds or less. One example that stuck out to me was to praise the student by saying something along the lines of "has anyone ever told you that you might have the gift of _____."

It was good advice that I determined to take to heart and apply not just as a teacher, but as a parent as well. So today as we were driving, the kids were singing a song called "I'll Praise You." The chorus says "I'll praise you with everything I do. Everything I do, I'll praise you." (It's from the God's Kids Worship CD I recently won from our awesome friend Jonathan Cliff's blog. The kids love the music.)

I asked Hannah if she knew what the song meant. She gave a very generic answer about how it meant we worship God and sing songs and stuff. Jonah chimed in and began telling her (and me) that the song really means you want to praise God with everything in your life. He said, "For example Hannah, you can praise God when you are at school and you do the right thing or obey. Or when you obey mom and dad. Or when you serve or do something nice for someone else." It was rather profound that Jonah understood this concept of what it really meant to praise God with everything we do and that he was so quick to explain it to Hannah in such a way that she understood.

So I immediately responded by saying to Jonah, "Has anyone ever told you that you might have the gift of discernment?"

"Huh?" He replied.

"Discernment, Jonah, is when you have the ability to interpret and understand spiritual things and then the ability to explain those things to others in a way that makes it easy for them to understand."

Silence.

Curious, Hannah asked what gift I thought she might have. She has a lot of compassion so I told her that she might have the gift of mercy. I explained to her that merciful people have a lot of compassion when they see someone who is hurt.

Rather quickly, Jonah responded:

"That's because she's usually the one who hurt them."

It was a perfect combination of a Teach AND Tickle moment.

Random Friday

2010-11-19T11:00:00.000-06:00

Jonah made a Christmas list and gave it to me. Number one on his list was "pants." (Just for perspective, a Wii was number four. Pants - One, Wii - Four) So his number one desire this Christmas is for pants that are not too short. I suddenly feel like the worst mom ever. I told him I would get him pants if he would promise to stop growing four inches a day.

Hannah found a stash of money we set aside and forgot about from our garage sale last spring. She was playing "store" with it. Always nice to find an extra $117 laying around the house. Sweet.

Jonah prayed for a little girl in his class to not be left out or excluded from her two girlfriends during recess the other day. He and his best friend apparently let her play with them because she was lonely and excluded from her other friends. Girls can be mean sometimes. He has such a tender heart to bring her hurt and need to the Lord in his prayers.

I explained to Hannah the other day that even though she has God in her heart, she will still be tempted to sin and she will still make mistakes and do bad things sometimes. I encouraged her to listen to the Holy Spirit who will be her reminder when she is tempted and He will be like a voice saying "don't do it." She made a bad choice the other day and I sent her to her room for a while. When I finally went upstairs, she said "I know what I did was wrong. You told me that I would have that voice telling me when I do bad things. I didn't know if you were telling the truth, but now I know you were right. I feel that voice telling me that what I did was wrong." Precious.

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday to the most wonderful mom imaginable! Thanks for teaching me all of your fabulous tricks of motherhood! :)

I haven't forgotten about the Only One love story blog. It's just that I only have a certain number of chapters already written and I have to space them out so I can continue writing before I catch up with what is already published. There are 19 chapters published so far. Maybe 20 if I can publish the next chapter this weekend. You can read them HERE.

I love watching TLC's What Not to Wear. But I always respond to each episode in one of two ways: 1) I am utterly astounded at people who are so lacking in style sense or 2) I am utterly paranoid that I am completely lacking in style sense. Eeeek!

The End

Sunrise

2010-11-15T20:51:00.002-06:00

Cue the "Lion King" opening theme.

Tonight, I had a talk with Jonah about some behavioral problems at school. Part of his discipline was writing a letter to his teacher about why he was wrong and what he was going to do next time differently. In discussing this with him, the conversation naturally led to the topic of God's grace and forgiveness. Little did we know that Hannah was outside the door, eavesdropping.

As I understand it, Hannah then went to Kelly in our bedroom and told her that she was ready to "ask God into her heart". When asked why, she said that she heard me talking to Jonah about God's power over sin and His forgiveness. It turns out too that a similar discussion had taken place today in her kindergarten class.

Trying to be responsible Christian parents, we felt it best to ask her what it was that she wanted to do, and why.

She basically said that she wanted to have God in her heart and that she didn't want to sin anymore. After that, I tried to explain the gospel again in 6 year-old language and make sure that she understood.

As far as any two people can discern that someone else truly gets what their saying, Kelly and I are confident that we communicated clearly that:

1. God made us and is perfect, or holy.

2. Because He is holy, He cannot tolerate sin.

3. He must punish sin by way of death.

4. We all sin.

5. He loved us enough to give up His own Son to take the punishment of our sin.

6. All we have to do is turn from our sin and trust in Jesus' work on the cross for our saving us from our sin.

Neither Kelly nor I have what many would consider a scandalous "drugs and alcohol" salvation experience. Both of us came to know Christ early in life, being raised by Christian parents, and being taught to believe the gospel as much as we were taught to believe in George Washington and the lunar landings. There was never really any internal, emotional crisis where we were on the brink of believing or not. However, for both of us, there was a moment we can both point to where, unprompted by anyone else, we sought out a parent, and told them we recognized our own sinfulness and knew that all we had learned about God's holiness applied to us, too and that we needed to let God know we wanted to respond to Him, personally. Of course, as time went by and our young brains full of mush became capable of more complex thoughts, more and more of the weightiness of that decision and event became more obvious.

It's hard to point to the specific moment when the sun rises. At one moment, it's not there. Then it's there, but more of it is still coming up. Then, all of it's there. Not a perfect analogy, I know, but how does one illustrate the greatest miracle in the world?

Kelly and I have been praying for a long time that the Holy Spirit would touch Hannah's heart and convict her and begin to show her her need for Him. As Hannah delicately prayed tonight, unprompted by us, we rejoiced as we believe the sun is beginning to come up in her life.

What? I'm only about a week and a half behind.

2010-11-09T17:44:00.000-06:00

It's November and Egg Nog is once again a staple in my refrigerator. (Believe it. It's true.) Christmas music has been making a regular appearance on my playlist these days. Turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole can hardly wait to jump into my belly. So naturally, it's time to update this here blogaroo with...

pumpkins and dress-up parties.

So I'm a few weeks late. I blame the egg nog.

Regardless, here are snippets of October in the Teach and Tickle house.

Pumpkin Picking: Hannah was drawn to the teeny tiny baby pumpkins. Naturally.

Jonah was drawn to the especially large, hard to lift pumpkins. Naturally.

We settled on the perfect size.

Joey picked a mysteriously large pumpkin and a strangely green pumpkin. I had no idea what he had in mind for his large pumpkin. His shirt should have been an indication of what he had up his sleeve.

Within a short while after arriving home, the kids and I had scooped out all the seeds of our pumpkins (for toasting - yum!) and carved a simple message. We were done for the night.

Joey, however, had much grander plans for his pumpkin. It only took him about four and a half hours to carve his R2-D2.

He rocks.

Here it is in the dark.

Our church had a "Reformation Day" party on October 31st. We were encouraged to dress in Reformation/Renaissance attire.

It was pretty easy to dress up the kids because...Well, Narnia is a pretty big deal in our house right now and those costumes are pretty popular.

Joey and I didn't have Renaissance/Reformation attire, so we had to get creative. Joey taped a picture of Martin Luther on his shirt and I taped "Luther 95" onto an athletic shirt. I don't think many people got it.

I love that my parents got into the act.

The grandkids loved it too. They sure have fun grandparents.

Prayers for the President

2010-11-03T08:58:00.001-05:00

Dear President Obama,
Every morning when the kids and I pray together on the way to school, my daughter prays for you. She sometimes forgets the word "President" and accidentally calls you "Principal Obama" or "Prince Obama." She eventually figures it out and lands on "President Obama." But she always prays that you would "make wise choices instead of bad choices." Those are her exact words. Every day. I never taught her to say that. She's five. She gets it.
Praying for you,
Kelly

Regardless of your political views, the Bible encourages us to pray for our leaders.

I Timothy 2: 1-4

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Maple Leaf 2010

2010-10-29T09:32:00.001-05:00

Baldwin City, Kansas

It's a small little town. Many of my relatives call it home. Every year, on the third full weekend in October, I call it perfect.

Growing up, we rarely made the trip to Baldwin City for Thanksgiving or Christmas or traditional holidays one might expect. But we NEVER missed a trip to Baldwin City for the annual Maple Leaf Festival.

This year, my cousin Caleb offered to take Joey and Jonah is his airplane for an arial view of the festivities.

You can only imagine how excited this made Jonah and... of course, Joey.

They got a nice view of the intersection of the cobblestone brick roads that make up the main street section of Baldwin City. (Kansas hasn't had a big frost yet this year, so not many of the trees have turned colors. Normally the trees are all reds and yellows.)

This was the first Maple Leaf without Grandpa Jones, so they flew over the country graveyard where he was laid to rest just about a year ago.

My Uncle Ben wore Grandpa Jones' bright orange Maple Leaf hat. And that's Granny Jones and my Uncle Tim in the Mustang during the parade.

The second generation of cousins are now growing up to enjoy and look forward to Maple Leaf almost as much as my generation.

Family and friends who are connected to my facebook can see the rest of our maple leaf pictures on my facebook page.

I bet you thought it was too cold to swim

2010-10-14T09:14:00.000-05:00

We didn't.

My parents heat their pool so it is actually quite pleasant from May through October. Even when the daytime temps are only in the 70s and fall is in the air, the pool feels nice and warm heated to about 90 degrees. This past weekend they invited all the grand kids over for a last big swimming hoopla of the season.

They had a good time together. We miss those cousins. (And the ones in Africa.) We ended the evening with a backyard bonfire and s'mores.

Good times. Now I'm officially ready for fall.

(Thank you to my Uncle Gabe and my mom for taking a few photos. I somehow go into "veg" mode when I am around my family and forget to take photos, assuming these are the things I will never forget. They are unforgettable moments, but it's sure nice to have some photo documentation.)

Tooth Fairy Tales

2010-10-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

A couple years ago, Jonah lost his first tooth. We went through the whole bit of explaining how he must put the tooth under his pillow for the "tooth fairy" to find. Hannah heard it all. She immediately latched on to that word "fairy" got excited wondering how long she would have to wait until her teeth started falling out. It would be a while for her. As bedtime approached that night, Jonah began to get a little nervous wondering exactly who this mysterious "fairy" really was. So I leaned over real close to the kids and told them a secret.

"Mommy is the tooth fairy," I said.

It was a marvelous secret for both of them to hear. Jonah just smiled. Hannah, however, immediately became giddy with excitement.

"Ooooo! Do you have a tooth fairy dress? What does it look like?" She wondered. I think she had about a million other questions swirling in her brain at that moment. But I kept the mystery of the tooth fairy alive by telling her that she would just have to wait until she lost a tooth. Then she could try to catch the tooth fairy and get her answers.

Nearly two years passed.

Hannah had a loose tooth for nearly a month. She wiggled and wiggled and wiggled it in hopes that it would come out and she could possibly have a visit from the tooth fairy.

Then Hannah's teacher asked if Joey would come speak to the students about dentistry. Knowing that Hannah's tooth was just barely hanging on, he decided that he would try to pull it in front of the class as part of his presentation. He didn't prepare Hannah for this. He didn't prepare me for this. I sat in the back of the room shaking my head and nearly bursting out of my skin ready to shout "STOP!" in case it looked like he was hurting Hannah or causing her to cry. Hannah's face began to get a little red as he began to tug.

This had disaster written all over it. If things didn't go well and the tooth did not come out easily without pain, he could easily scar every one of those kindergartners for life. The mission of his visit to the classroom (teaching them good dental hygiene and how to be good patients for the dentist) would be completely thwarted if this tooth-pulling thing when awry. I was really worried. He wasn't.

Thankfully, the tooth came out easily. Hannah did bleed a little bit but Joey came prepared with gauze. The kids in her class were AMAZED. It was the coolest thing in the world to them. Hannah was super cool about it too. At one point right after he pulled the tooth, she walked past me and simply said "that was weird."

When we got home from school that afternoon, Hannah started asking her tooth fairy questions again. I told her she would just have to wait until that night. I knew I couldn't disappoint.

So as Joey put the kids to bed, I drove over to my parent's house and picked up my wedding dress. When I got home, Joey was already finished putting the kids to bed so I put on the dress. (Let's not talk about how nearly impossible it was to zip and how I absolutely couldn't breath in it. Sigh.) I added some fairy wings from Hannah's dress up clothes. We snapped a few pictures as I went up the stairs. This photo makes my head look huge for some reason.

I somewhat expected Hannah to be fast asleep, but I planned to wake her up just enough for her to see a fairy in her bedroom. I imagined it would be magical for her.

Lo and behold, Hannah stayed awake waiting up for her tooth fairy visit. She was not disappointed. In fact, she was downright awestruck. She kept saying, "I didn't think you really had a tooth fairy dress! But now I know you do!!! I love it mommy!"

And I love that I now I have another tooth to add to my growing collection.

Abraham Lincoln

2010-10-03T21:28:00.001-05:00

When I was in eighth grade, I was assigned to read a biography and do a "creative" book report. I latched on to that word "creative" and went all out with my book report. I chose to read a biography of Abraham Lincoln. For my "book report," I decided to videotape myself rapping as Abraham Lincoln.

You read right.

I dressed like Abraham Lincoln. I rapped as Abraham Lincoln. I recorded it all on videotape. I showed it to my entire class. Good times.

Let me just pause right here to say that it is a really good thing that I know how to laugh at myself. Otherwise, if that VHS tape were ever to be found, there would be some seriously good blackmail material. Ha!

Anyway, time goes by. Jonah is in second grade. Each grade is in charge of one chapel service per year and his class had a patriotic theme for their chapel. Jonah's teacher chose him to play and sing as Abraham Lincoln. He looked adorable in his stove-pipe hat and beard.

And another photo, because this is just too cute.

I was so proud of him. He enunciated his lines so well and sang on key and everything. (Which, by the way, is much more than I can say for my eighth grade self.)

Here's the video of his solo ~

Stay tuned. I'll blog about Hannah's encounter with the Tooth Fairy in the next few days.

"the power of God"

2010-10-01T09:22:00.001-05:00

Imagine a lunchroom. It's loud. You have your lunch bag in front of you and you know the rules. You must be silent for the first five minutes of lunch so that everyone does what they are supposed to do at lunch - eat. You try to abide by this rule. You eat in silence. But sometimes the kids around you get a little too excited and chit-chatty. You know you are not supposed to join in because of the "five minutes of quiet" rule. It gets louder and louder. Now it seems everyone is breaking the rule. What do you do?

In Jonah's case, he prayed. He prayed that his classmates would quiet down so that they wouldn't lose minutes from recess or get in trouble from the principal. He sat quietly in front of his lunch bag and prayed that the noise would stop.

And do you know what happened? Silence.

Pretty amazing to a seven year old boy. In fact, when he told me about this on the drive home from school, he finished his story and said this:

"Mom, I prayed and BOOM, it was silent. THAT really showed me the power of God."

My class started a unit over India this week. As I prepared for the unit, I re-read a story from a biography on Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India. As a child, Amy never liked her brown eyes. She wished SO bad that God had given her beautiful blue eyes instead. As a believer, she firmly believed in the power of prayer. She would often pray at night that God would change her brown eyes to blue. In the morning, she would go to the mirror fully expecting to see that God had answered her prayer and given her the blue eyes she so desperately wanted. He didn't. She recalls being disappointed that God didn't answer her prayer. Years and years later, she would find herself in India. Her ministry to the Indian people was her life. To gain acceptance into their culture, she often dressed in Indian clothing and was even known to dye her skin darker using coffee. It was there in India that she realized that God didn't fail to answer her prayers for blue eyes as a child. He answered, but His answer was "No. I have something better in mind." The reason he did this was so that she could gain the trust of the Indian people she would serve for the better part of her life. They would not have given her that trust if she had blue eyes. I imagine at that moment, she realized both the power and sovereignty of God.

Son, may you always be tender to the power of God. May you be ever so quick to come to Him in prayer, even for the little things in the lunchroom. And may you recognize and give Him credit when He shows his power. However, may you also know the sovereignty of God. That sometimes God answers with a "no," "wait," or "I've got something better in mind." These answers from God show his power just as much as the immediate "yes" answers, we just may not see it right away. Trust Him. His power is evident in more ways than we can imagine. May you always look for it.

And may you continually remind me to look for it as well.

Confessions

2010-09-27T22:05:00.001-05:00

I haven't blogged recently. Every once in a while, I get one of those moments where I think, I should blog about that, but then it passes and nothing happens. Sorry to the six of you who read this blog. Anyway, here are a few confessions from me as of late:

I've completely failed in the area of teaching my children to clean their rooms. I don't understand how this happened, but neither of them know how to keep a clean room. Especially now that school has started, we are so busy, and the kids are old enough to dress themselves in the morning. I can sometimes go a few days without even going upstairs to check on their rooms. (Joey has been putting them to bed almost every night recently too which means I don't even go up there in the evenings.) I don't understand. I was a clean child. My mom tells me that I liked to have a tidy room growing up. I keep the downstairs of my house fairly clean or at least 5-10 minutes away from being clean at any given moment. So what happened to my children? This is what Hannah's room looks like today:

I'm getting hives just looking at the picture. I won't even show you her closet. I can't see the floor in there. I might need to take some sort of medication before helping her clean it up. Jonah's room is about 40% better than hers, but only because he has recently learned the ever-important skill of shoving everything from the floor under his bed and calling his room "clean." Heaven help me.

I am fiercely loyal to QuikTrip. I won't buy gas anywhere else unless forced. I also tend to drive on empty until I make it back to my city so that my gas tax dollars don't go to support the rival school of the high school from which I graduated. That's just silly, I know.

I have a stack of essay questions from the test I gave today that need to be graded right now, but I am blogging instead.

I love teaching again. I spend entirely too many hours of my day preparing for my 50 minutes of class every afternoon, but it makes me genuinely happy to be back in the classroom.

I'm wearing heels way more than I ever thought possible.

I want to live at Anthropologie. Especially since I can't afford (or bring myself to spend that much money on) most everything in the store. Just let me live in the store, surrounded by it's eclectic goodness.

I think Jonah has a bit of his father's genius. He astounds me regularly these days with all that he can do academically. His passion for learning seems to be quadrupling this year. It's evident in his work. A few weeks ago, he told me that he had a dream he was in Tron. I facebooked that while some people may interpret that to foreshadow nerd, I interpret it to foreshadow genius. He is his father's son, after all.

I asked Hannah if she missed being home with me this year. She replied promptly and simply with "No."

Catching up

2010-09-07T20:05:00.005-05:00

There's nothing like a long weekend. It's the perfect time to catch up with oneself when oneself seems to be stuck in fast forward motion. (I've missed regular/slow speed the past few weeks.) The following are a few moments I wanted to be sure and record on this little blog before I completely forgot about them.

First, the funny stuff:

We took the kids to see a Drillers baseball game a couple weekends ago. Hannah and I lost interest in the game about four seconds after finding our seats, so she and I spent much of the game walking around. At one point we passed a giant jumping contraption for kids. Hannah asked if she could do it and I replied that I only had $1 while it cost $5. She responded by saying "That's okay. I'll probably get to do fun things in heaven." I'm still laughing.

Second, the school stuff:

The kids and I both started school a couple weeks ago. If you did not watch the video Joey made and posted this past Friday, you must scroll down and watch it. It's amazing. The only possible thing that could have made it better is if we had some footage of Joey telling Hannah that he loves her and Hannah responding with "I know." (Only diehard Star Wars fans will get that one.)

Here is a photo of the kids and I the morning of our first day back to school.

Jonah has to do a lot of homework this year for school. He is an excellent reader these days and that makes me so proud. But he always fights doing his math flash card homework for some reason. However, he does enjoy doing some landmark flash cards that I found in the dollar section at Target. It took me about a second to throw them into the cart when I saw them a couple weeks ago because I am a total sucker for landmark/geography type stuff. I LOVE learning about cool places around the world. Well... apparently Jonah does too. He can't wait to learn about each picture and where it is located in the world. Boy after my own heart, he is. Gotta love it. (It's just too bad the landmark flash cards don't count for his 60 minutes of math flash cards he has to do each week. Bummer.)

About a week into school, Hannah informed me that she finally decided what she really wanted to be when she grows up ~ a teacher. A tribute to her amazing teacher this year, no doubt. I find her practicing holding up books and reading to her imaginary classroom here at home every once in a while.

Third, the mushy stuff:

Faithful Teach and Tickle readers may remember the fact that Joey and I postponed our anniversary celebration this year. (You may also remember the unfortunate "lock out" event of which we will no longer speak about. Ha! Just kidding! We totally think it is hilarious now! kind of)

Anyway, we finally celebrated our anniversary with a little road trip to Kansas City. We had a blast and took our 12 year picture in front of my new favorite museum.

Joey and I love to read books to each other when we take road trips. We finished reading Mockingjay (the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy) while on our road trip. I'm not sure what I think about it just yet. Any Hunger Games fans out there what to weigh in with their views? The first book was definitely my favorite, hands down.

That's all for now.

Hannah's First Day of Kindergarten

2010-09-03T21:25:00.004-05:00

Two years ago, Kelly produced an amazing video of Jonah's first day of kindergarten. Two weeks ago, Hannah walked into that same classroom, as nervous and as excited as any 5 year old has been - almost as much as her parents. This then is a simple video marking that very special occasion. (Don't plan anything for the next six and a half minutes.)

My Favorite Chapter

2010-08-16T08:12:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit sparse on this blog recently. Not intentionally, it's just been a bit of a busy this month. But I haven't forgotten to post a chapter a week to our love story blog. Yesterday I posted my favorite chapter yet. Just for kicks, I thought I would post it here as well. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: Sweet Sixteen

The house I grew up in had a redbud tree just outside my bedroom window. On February 13, 1993, I went to sleep in my bed for the last time as a fifteen year old. The next morning, I woke up at 6:00 am to my mom poking her head in my bedroom door and saying “Kelly, listen!”

While I couldn’t imagine what was so important for me to listen to so early in the morning, I sat up in bed and listened. Then my now sixteen year old heart skipped a beat. Maybe three or ten beats. I crawled down onto the floor next to the window and listened to the most beautiful sound in the whole entire world.

“...Oh, you are my only one

You are my only one.

Well I’m telling you now, now you’re my only one...”

I knew this song. It was the song sung in the play. The one I so desperately wanted sung to me. I knew exactly who was singing it outside my window. Still, I just sat on the floor and listened to most of the song before I peeked through the blinds and saw Joey standing under the moonlit shadows of the redbud tree, playing his guitar and serenading me for my sixteenth birthday.

Best. Birthday. Ever. And the sun wasn’t even up yet.

I directed Joey to go to the back door where I let him inside. The poor guy was frozen from head to toe. Who knew how long he had been out there singing in the cold. Luckily, he had informed my mom of his bold plans so she knew to listen for him and wake me up if I didn’t hear him.

I am positive I looked a frightful mess so early in the morning. My eyes always have an extra layer of puff around them when I first wake up. I hadn’t taken the time to comb my hair, brush my teeth or check my face before running out the back door to meet him. But Joey didn’t seem to mind my disheveled state. He handed me a single red rose and a heart keychain with the words below inscribed on it.

Kelly ~ My Only One

Love, Joey

2-14-93

I seriously thought I was living a dream. This kind of thing just doesn’t happen to every girl on her sixteenth birthday. I tried to take in the moment.

Then I panicked. Oh my! What if he tries to kiss me? This would go against everything we had already determined about “taking it slow.” But seriously, I totally would have let him kiss me at that point. He had me in the palm of his hand. I’d been swept off my feet. But for goodness sake, I wish I would have stopped to brush my teeth. Aaahh! I became absolutely paranoid about my possible morning breath.

We talked for a while before I confessed, “I think I might have morning breath.” He just laughed and hugged me. He didn’t try to kiss me. He knew it was still best to wait.

“It’s okay. I don’t notice any morning breath. Happy Birthday.” One more hug. “See you later.”

Then he was out the door again. He was stronger than me, for sure.

I can’t really remember anything else that happened that day. Something about my birthday. Taking my driver license test. I think it snowed. None of that mattered so much in light of that early morning sweet sixteen serenade.

You can read all eleven chapters of our love story HERE. I add a new chapter each Sunday.

The Little Things

2010-08-06T09:34:00.001-05:00

While kissing Hannah goodnight last night, she asked me to run downstairs and find her favorite whimzy pet, Tiger. I ran downstairs and made a quick sweep of the house looking for the tiny little stuffed animal but quickly concluded that we would just have to look for it in the morning. It was no where to be found. So I went back upstairs and sadly informed her that I couldn't find it. She begged me to look some more. I told her I would ask her dad to help me look. I went downstairs and got distracted with a phone call while Joey looked for the pet. He couldn't find it either. After my phone call and without really thinking, I checked under my bed. Lo and behold, Tiger was there.

When I brought Tiger up to Hannah in bed, she immediately held it close to her cheek and said,

"I knew you would find it because I prayed that you would."

She knew I would find it. Why? Because she prayed that I would find it. My little five year old knows that God is a God who answers prayer and she trusted Him. That, my friends, is beautiful.

A lost tiny stuffed animal doesn't seem like a big deal. It's one of those things that I might be tempted to think is not worth bothering the God of the universe with. But she didn't think it was too little. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that her God cared for her and that he answers prayers. Even prayers for the little things. I can learn from that today.

Our God is a God who cares for us and answers prayers. Prayers for the big things.

And prayers for the little things.

Seize the Day

2010-08-03T07:00:00.021-05:00

Latin was one of my favorite classes in high school. Believe it or not, it wasn't because I thoroughly enjoyed conjugating verbs of a "dead" language. It was because I thought the teacher was amazing. Mrs. Wells, or "Dea Wells" as we called her, made Latin come alive. She absolutely loved Latin and you could tell. She had fun with it. She would get so excited when she taught that the veins would stick out on her neck. (I have the same problem when I teach, only my neck just gets red.) But oh, she didn't just teach us Latin, she brought in history as well. Seeing that I knew from seventh grade on that I was destined to become a history teacher, I lived for any class that included history. Her class was downright fascinating.

Of all the Latin phrases that have made their way into our regular vernacular, none are more popular than the Latin phrase "Carpe Diem!" or as we translate it, Seize the Day!

As this summer comes to a close, I have found myself eager to seize the day in both big and small ways. Staying and playing a little longer in the pool with the kids. Reading one extra book at bedtime. Enthusiastically cheering on a rather poorly developed plot of a "play" the kids decided to perform for Joey and I. Fervently praying over my children while they sleep. Coming up with extra silly family night activities. And letting the kids stay up way past their bedtime so they can cuddle up on the couch with us to watch a good movie.

Movie nights are fun these days. Joey and I are thoroughly rejoicing over the fact that our kids are now old enough to enjoy some pretty amazing non-cartoon movies. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy a great cartoon. Pixar has been a good friend to us. And this summer, Phineas and Ferb really captured our hearts . (So clever! Kudos to Disney for creating a cartoon that Joey and I actually enjoy watching with the kids.)

But in the realm of non-cartoon movies, we've been slowing introducing the kids to some of our favorites from back in our day. We've enjoyed The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Sound of Music, Tron, Toby Tyler, Star Wars, Summer Magic (one of my favs!) and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old one) to name a few.

But this past weekend, we introduced the kids to the Newsies. Oh, the Newsies! (Thank you, Jon Acuff!) Such fun. I have a serious weakness for musicals. Seriously. I heard "I Dreamed a Dream" (from Les Miserables) playing on the speakers while grocery shopping last night and it was everything I could do not to belt out and sing along in the aisle. (I hummed instead. Not that bold.) I'm a sucker for a good musical. Newsies didn't disappoint.

Below is my favorite clip from the Newsies. I literally rewound the dvd about 10 times so we could watch this part of the movie again and again. Two more times, Jonah and I would have had the dance down just right. :) Yes, we are dorks like that. Just try and watch it without dancing along.

Rather fittingly, it's called "Seize the Day."

And yes, that's Batman long before he became Batman. Go Newsies!

Carpe diem!

Put a smile on your face

2010-07-22T23:50:00.000-05:00

These are a few of the things that have put a smile on my face recently.

Our house got "Flamingoed" a couple weeks ago. When I woke up and saw this flock of pink flamingos on our lawn, I told Joey that I was pretty sure we had finally been initiated into the realm of "cool youth group sponsors" since everyone knows the youth group kids only toilet paper, fork or flamingo the houses of the youth sponsors they really love. But alas, I was wrong. It turns out it was a fund raiser for one of the college mission teams. It was a super clever way of raising money for their trip to Jordan so we happily paid their fee and sent the flamingos to some other ~~victims~~ friends (who we happen to think are pretty cool youth group sponsors, by the way.)

Hannah lives for her Whimzy Pets these days. She takes them with her everywhere and plays with them all day long. I'm not kidding. She has worked up a number of different transportation devices to tote them around throughout the day. This is her favorite toting method~

She even put together a birthday party for her favorite pet. It might be hard to tell, but in the below picture, she has set up a party complete with fireworks (the papers she colored and cut on the right), a cake (three tiny cups with a white ball on top for the candle - also on the right), a slide (my spoon rest - left), a pool (that pink bowl) and beach umbrellas for each pet. Her imagination makes me smile.

But the picture below is my favorite. Every once in a while, she throws in a non-whimzy pet into the mix ~ an additional small pet, a polly doll, a littlest pet shop pet and so on. But for whatever reason, she decided to make R2-D2 part of her whimzy pet entourage.

It made her daddy ridiculously proud.

Jonah came home from children's church this week and he was able to tell us the entire story of the parable of the sower. He got it. He really got it. And not just on a superficial level. He knew what each soil represented and what the story meant. That really made me smile. In the above picture, he is holding a smoke bomb, not a seed...but you get the idea. And his front teeth are finally growing it. That makes me smile too.

Girl scout cookies are only available during a certain time of the year and somehow four boxes of Samoas doesn't come close to a yearly supply of the heavenly cookies. 352 days of the year, I find myself lacking them. Until I found these at my grocery store:

Not exactly the same, but pretty close. And I'll take pretty close.

My mom came home this week after staying in Texas with her mom for the past five weeks. I got to have lunch with her today which was super nice. I've missed my mom. I've missed both my moms, in fact. Now if my mother-in-law could just find a job in Oklahoma so she wouldn't have to drive to Kansas every week, that would be perfect. That way we could have both our mothers back in town ~~so we can finally have babysitters again~~ so we can enjoy and spend time with them more often.

Speaking of jobs, I got one. It's a dream job. I'll be teaching one section of world history starting this fall. I literally can't sleep at night because I am so excited to be getting back into the classroom. I've missed it. Both Jonah and Hannah will be in school this year so it is the perfect time for me to jump back into the classroom as well. Teaching just one hour a day is perfect for my schedule too. I still get the best of being a stay at home mom but I also get to exercise my love of history and teaching.

We are up to chapter seven on our love story blog. Sometimes when I read a chapter to Joey, he gets all puffed up and says something like "I'm the hero of this story, aren't I?" Yes. Yes, he is. If you've missed a few weeks, feel free to read along HERE.

Hope there are plenty of things that put a smile on your face during this hot hot summer! Enjoy!

He got his way

2010-07-09T15:28:00.021-05:00

Some people have such strong personalities that is seems they always get their way. My grandpa might be one of them.

Grandpa met Grandma at a missions conference. He was headed to Mexico, she to Peru. After being around her just a short while, he began pursuing her. He asked her to consider not going to Peru but instead marry him and join him doing ministry in Mexico.

He got his way. They were married less than three months later and soon after, left for the mission field. They worked through Wycliffe in Mexico translating the Bible into the Chinantec language.

When Grandma was pregnant with their first child, Grandpa listened carefully to her tummy using a toilet paper roll as a makeshift stethoscope. He heard two distinct heartbeats. He informed the doctor at their next visit that there were two babies, not one, inside his wife's tummy.

He got his way. On delivery day, Grandma gave birth to my mom, Marlene and her twin brother, Marv. Grandma and Grandpa would go on to have four more children over the years - Becky, Greg, Gabe and Paul Jr.

After serving faithfully in Mexico for five years under difficult circumstances, Grandpa was seriously threatened by the most prosperous merchant in their village. This man threatened to send someone to cut off Grandpa's head with a machete if he continued to bring his religion into their town. Grandpa responded by sharing with this man the words he had recently translated from Mark - "Love your neighbor as yourself." He followed up by demonstrating this love and repeatedly delivering Grandma's homemade banana bread as an act of kindness to this man in hopes that the Lord would soften his heart.

He got his way. Many years later, this once violent man would show his softened heart as he listened intently to Grandpa reading the gospel of John to him in his native tongue. "Is the whole book this beautiful?" the man asked. Grandpa read more. The man asked for 25 copies so he could have some to sell in his store as well.

Every time Grandpa would read from the newly translated Chinantec Bible, crowds would gather. This was exciting but sad at the same time. The Chinantecs loved listening to the Bible, but very few of them could actually read the Bible themselves. Grandpa found this to be true in his travels as a Wycliffe photographer as well. Missionaries in many countries faced the same problem - illiteracy. If only there was a way he could help these illiterate people. He wanted to do something.

He got his way. He started a ministry called Bible Translations on Tape (B.T.T.). This ministry would take the newly translated scriptures and make audio recordings so that those who could not read could at least hear God's Word.

As the years passed and Grandma and Grandpa entered the "retirement" years, Grandpa wished to continue ministry to those needing to hear the gospel. He was diagnosed with Parkinsons, but his strong desire to further the gospel remained. He wanted to continue ministry.

He got his way. The Lord opened doors for Grandpa to minister to people through travel opportunities and the Internet. He traveled to the Middle East and risked his life sharing the gospel. When he could no longer travel or move about as well, he used chat rooms online to defend the gospel to skeptics across the globe. He saw his children following his footsteps and a couple of them even committed to full time ministry in foreign countries.

Grandma and Grandpa kept an eternal mindset at all times. They knew their time on this earth would not last forever. Grandpa wished he could record he and grandma's stories of God's faithfulness in their lives for future generations and years to come.

He got his way. One More Mountain to Climb was published. It chronicled their life, ministry and love. It is treasured by many.

As his health deteriorated and Parkinson's took it's toll on his body, Grandpa required more and more care and attention. His medicine regiment and eating schedule required he demand a lot from Grandma. He would often have to yell for help from her from across the house. We would hear him yell, "Dorothy! Dorothy!" when he needed something. He always wanted a faithful and loving helpmate for a wife.

He got his way. Grandma continually served him and tended to his needs with love and a true servant's heart all 60 of their years together. She never complained. I do remember once hearing her shout back to him, "Hold your horses, old man!" They were cute like that.

This week, Grandpa was admitted to the hospital. Just before the ambulance ride, he told my mom that he was going to see Jesus. After being hooked up to the machines for days, he asked his doctor to respect his living will and unhook him.

He got his way. His first words after the removal of the breathing tube were "Praise God!" He was able to speak to the family around him for nearly an hour before his breathing became too labored and the medicines to keep him comfortable kicked in. He told his pastor that while some people believe we will speak Hebrew in heaven, he will be speaking Chinantec. I asked mom to tell him that I love him and to thank him for the godly example he left for us to follow. He responded with "Follow Jesus, not me."

He will get his way.

Grandpa Smith passed away just moments ago. Pray for my Grandma, my mom, her siblings and the rest of our family.

We'll be the one's following Jesus.

Review and Giveaway

2010-07-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

"Mom! Something's wrong! I can't feed my dragon anymore!"

These were Jonah's words a few weeks ago when he was playing on Jumpstart and realized we no longer had an upgraded membership. I encouraged him to keep playing even though some of the areas of the site were no longer available to him. He did, but he kept telling me I REALLY needed to upgrade our membership. He missed all the stuff he used to be able to do.

"I'll look into upgrading when we get back from our trips this month," I told him. I was telling the truth. I am a rather frugal person and don't like spending money for online games when there are so many free games available. But Jumpstart is different. My kids tire of other online games, but they never tire of Jumpstart. I don't tire of it either. I know the kids are safe on Jumpstart and they can't accidentally click over to some other site that may or not be parent approved like what could happen from other online game sites.

Lo and behold while we were away on our vacations, I got an email from Jumpstart asking me if I would be interested in doing another review for them. This time, they wanted me to review their new Wii game. I had to decline that one since we don't have a Wii, but I gladly offered to do another review of Jumpstart's online 3D world in exchange for another upgraded membership.

The kind people at Jumpstart agreed and my kids couldn't be happier. They can catch, hatch and feed dragons again. They can fly around again. They can go down some wacky waterslides. They can swim and explore underwater. They can learn more about reading, math and science. They can put on a fashion show. They can watch videos about bats using echo location to find their way around in the dark (catchy song, I might add.) They can perfect all kinds of skills - everything from shape recognition to spelling to division in the new sports arena on Jumpstart. Most importantly, they can love playing on Jumpstart. And so can your kids! Memberships are free, but there is a small cost to have the upgraded membership that my kids love so very much.

Once again, Jumpstart has offered to give away a free six month membership to one lucky reader. So leave a comment and I will use a random number generator to pick a winner in one week on July 12.

If you want to enter more than once, link to my blog from your blog, facebook or twitter. I've never done that sort of thing, but I've seen it done on other blog giveaways and I think it works. Say something nice about our blog in the process. Ha! Just kidding! Kind of. Just don't say anything mean :)

Click HERE to begin playing Jumpstart.

Also, I posted Chapter 5 of our Love Story yesterday. You can read it HERE.

UPDATE: Comment's are closed. Random.org chose number 1 as our winner. Congrats Starr from Lost in Laundry

Do over duodecennial

2010-07-02T12:01:00.003-05:00

A rare post by Joey...

For our twelve-year anniversary this year, I locked my wife out of our house for an hour and 30 minutes at night to be repeatedly pelted by kamikaze June bugs.

There. By publishing the above sentence, I have begun the negotiated reparations back towards marital bliss.

If you would be so kind, I will divulge a little more detail into said lockout and, in so doing, attempt to achieve exculpation and restore my relationship to you, O most understanding blog follower.

Before going too far, it would be wise to give a brief history of how we have celebrated our past wedding anniversaries. Our first, naturally, consisted of eating the top tier of our wedding cake that tasted a little like Arm and Hammer Baking Soda and frozen vegetables, along with some Sam's Choice non-alcoholic champagne. After that, our anniversaries were usually highlighted with a romantic getaway, a quixotically-charged event or purchase, or at least a shared Digiorno Frozen Pizza by candlelight. Our ten year was to be our piece de resistance, but ended in a new roof for our house. (Hope you're happy, House.) The eleventh year anniversary was EPIC, as you may be reminded here.

Now that you're all up to speed, the events of this last anniversary evening proceeded as follows: Kelly and I together had decided that what with recent trips to New Mexico and Missouri, taking additional time off for an anniversary would be superfluous, and as we are expecting (keep reading) to purchase a new air conditioner, cash flow needed to be carefully monitored. So, in keeping with this romantic spirit of practicality, I was planning to go to Wal-Mart to get some 67 watt light bulbs, milk, silly putty, etc., as well as a couple other errands. Kelly had kindly made a list for me and after I thanked her, I said goodbye but got sidetracked by reading an email. While I was at the computer, I checked Drudge and a few other sites and was surprised to hear what I thought were fireworks (keep in mind this was June 20th). I got up and went out the back door in the direction of the sound and watched the skies. Sure enough, there were some neighbors shooting off those Saturn rockets whose successive high-pitched whistles are known for clouding the thoughts of aloof husbands. This aloof husband was therefore unaware of his darling wife watering the flowers on the far opposite side of the dark yard in the shadows, and therefore, having finally remembered his errands, turned back into the house, locked the back door, and left through the garage, believing that his wife was more than likely taking a relaxing, well-deserved candlelit bubble bath, sipping a Chardonnay, and listening to Enya.

It is a well known fact that when grocery shopping, every American male will make an average of 2 calls or texts per minute, per aisle (7.5 from the feminine hygiene section), so when Kelly didn't answer any of my 34.5 calls, I could only imagine that she was thoroughly enjoying her bath.

You can imagine my surprise when, a hour and a half later (yes, it took me that long), I drove back into our driveway to find my wife sitting on the trunk of our parked car.

I thought, "She just couldn't stand waiting for me inside, and like a little kid, was watching for me from the driveway." I was just getting out of the car, proud of how little I had deviated from her list, expecting her to run up and throw her arms around me, when instead, she whisked past me towards the now open garage door, and said simply,

"You get an F minus."

I stood there, shopping bags in hands, stupefied, wondering what could possibly have happened, or who this was pretending to be my wife. I also sensed quite a lot of June bugs about.

So that's how we spent our 12th. Cancun has nothing on it! Our twelve-year picture has yet to be taken, but it will be,,, it will be.

Happy Anniversary, Dear!

(I should have waited longer than I did to tell Kelly the other back door had been unlocked the entire time.)

Tickle Me Tuesday

2010-06-30T08:11:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know. It's Wednesday. Whatever.

I have a few random "tickle" moments that I don't want to forget.

Hannah made Jonah a Father's Day card this year because he is such a good "daddy" to her pets. She pretty much lives for her Whimzy Pets now days. Jonah accepted her card with pride.

Joey started writing a post for this blog and let me read the first half of it last night. The first two sentences made me laugh so hard I had to take a break from reading so I could laugh until I cried. He's my favorite author on this blog.

We watched the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the other night. Jonah said he liked it better than the new one. Score. I hope if he ever sees the new and old Karate Kid movies that he will prefer the old one as well. Nothing wrong with re-making movies, I just love the oldies.

Our air conditioner is keeping up with the Oklahoma heat this week. Praise the Lord! I even cooked using my oven last night and it didn't turn our house into a sauna. The house was actually cold this morning.

The kids and I are meeting some friends at the pool again today. Joey told me yesterday that I have the "easy life." My reply: "Thank you!"

Jonah asked me what an "eclipse" was yesterday. In light of the newest movie phenomenon, I wasn't sure the answer he was looking for. I gave him the definition involving the sun and moon and all that. He responded with "Yes! That's exactly right, mom! That's what they talked about on The Electric Company!" Bless PBS.

We are not a minivan family, but if we ever break out into the minivan world, we are totally sold on the Toyota Swagger Wagon. The witty commercials and THIS video won us over.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

2010-06-27T18:50:00.001-05:00

These are a few highlights of our summer vacationing so far...

Vacation #1: The youth mission trip to New Mexico

Joey and I were youth sponsors for the summer youth group mission trip to Broken Arrow Bible Ranch in New Mexico. The camp is a ministry to Indian kids. Our youth group led the chapel services and did numerous work projects. We have some of the greatest youth in our church youth group and it was a pleasure to travel and do ministry with them.

Jonah and Hannah went with us and especially enjoyed the charter bus our group rented to ride there and back.

Joey and I enjoyed the ride as well.

Hannah found and caught a toad she named "Fudge."

Jonah participated in all the activity classes with the campers. He especially liked archery and riflery.

Joey shaved his goatee for a skit night skit.

We saw lots of these beautiful things.

Vacation #2: Our anniversary getaway

For our 12 year wedding anniversary, we took a little trip to Fiji.

Oh, wait. That wasn't us. It was Joey's cousin Megan and her new husband Steven who took the trip to Fiji for their honeymoon. Silly me. For our anniversary, we stayed in town to attended their wedding. (We decided we will celebrate our anniversary later this summer.) The wedding was a blast, complete with an outdoor reception and square dance. Yee Haa! So happy for Megan and Steven.

Jonah enjoyed watching them dance.

Vacation #3: Lake of the Ozarks

We took advantage of all the family in town for the wedding and made a family reunion out of it.

Joey's aunt found an amazing lake house on Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Good times.

The kids LOVED having some cousins to play with. The girls spent much of their time in the water perfecting their "water ballet" moves.

Jonah enjoyed driving the boat.

We couldn't get enough of the tubing. One time while Jonah was tubing, I kept watching his mouth move while he was out there. When I asked him about it after, he told me he was singing "Waves of mercy, waves of grace. Everywhere I look, I see your face. Your love has captured me. Oh My God, this love, how can it be!" Serious tickle moment. Serious. Tickle. Moment.

Hannah will forever be looking forward to spending time again with her special Ohio cousins.

That's all for now.

Side note, I posted the next chapter of our "Love Story" on our love story blog today. Click HERE to read it.

Happy Anniversary, Honey

2010-06-20T07:00:00.011-05:00

Every couple has a story. I have to admit, I am a sucker for those stories. When I run across a blog I like and find a link to "our love story," I can't resist clicking over and reading all about how two people found each other and fell in love. It's a beautiful thing. Every story is different and unique to those two people. Every story has it's own beauty.

I've never shared the entire Joey and Kelly love story on this here blog, but today that changes.

As a gift to Joey for our 12 year wedding anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Honey!), I've written out our story. (Well, actually, I only have the first 20 "chapters" actually written, but it's a huge start.) It's called "ONLY ONE: a love story." The subtitle says it all ~ "or as we like to call it... a gift from the ONE and ONLY."

Love truly is a gift from God. We consider ours a gift as anyone who has been blessed with a life mate should. But as I wrote our story and reflected on the awesomeness of all the ways God blessed and protected us over our dating and now marriage years, I couldn't help but feel compelled to share our story with others as a gift of HIS faithfulness. God is good, all the time. A new blog was born to share our gift.

So here goes.

I started a separate blog to share our story and I will update it with a new chapter each week from now until the completion of the story. Today starts with the first three chapters. For anyone who has been reading this blog for a while, the first chapter/intro will be familiar. I wrote it around my birthday this year. It's actually what prompted me to continue writing. Future chapters will be backdated so that the blog reads from top to bottom. You'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read new posts each week. For those interested, I hope you enjoy!

Click the link/photo below to be taken to the love story blog.

ONLY ONE: a love story

Lemonade Anyone?

2010-06-16T10:15:00.001-05:00

So.

Our house was super hot last night. It got up to 84 degrees inside even though the temp was set to 72. Sigh. It's a long story involving a poor air conditioner, Oklahoma heat and two kids who keep forgetting how to close doors. Second sigh.

Anyway, I was so hot and a tad bit grumpy after standing over a hot stove making dinner in this sauna we call home that I informed Joey that I needed to get out of the house for a bit after supper.

So I hopped in my nice cold air conditioned car and drove to QuikTrip. I may have muttered something to Joey about how nice it would be to come home to done dishes, but I didn't really expect that to happen. It was too hot in our house to do any work.

Bless QuikTrip. They brought back their 49 cent drink deal for the summer and I am pretty sure I hear angels sing each time I get their crushed ice and sweet tea. Aahh!

I took my time, but ended up back at home within less than 20 minutes. But I arrived home to find Joey and the kids were gone. I imagined the heat got to them too so they decided to get out of the house as well. I tried to call Joey, but he didn't answer his cell. The temp hadn't changed in the house, but somehow it felt cooler just by the fact that I was alone in a quiet house with no kids vying for my attention. I set about cleaning up the dishes and checking email, facebook and blogs.

About an hour later, the kids walked through the door absolutely beaming. "MOM! We're going to have a lemonade stand tomorrow!!!!"

Oh boy.

Joey was carrying in all too many Wal-mart sacks. I had a bad feeling about this.

The kids asked me earlier in the day if they could have a lemonade stand, but I used my motherly logic to explain to them that we couldn't do that due to the fact that we had no lemonade in the house. (Foolproof, I know.) They found some hot chocolate and tried to convince me that they could have a hot chocolate stand instead. I tried not to laugh too much. Luckily their brains kicked in and they realized that nobody would be interested in buying hot chocolate from them in nearly 100 degree Oklahoma weather. They would just have to wait until they had some lemonade.

Dad must have been an easy sell. He apparently thought the idea was golden because he went all out and took them both to the store to get all the fixin's for a rockin' lemonade stand.

They eagerly unpacked their grocery sacks to show me the lemonade stand "necessities." I found myself staring at this stuff on my kitchen counter:

Lemons. Cups. Lemonade mix. A fancy pitcher for serving. A lemon juicer. A colorful placemat. Poster board with stencils. A Bubble machine, bubbles and batteries. And two white hats.

Oh boy.

I knew I'd never see that $44 again. I kept a huge smile on my face, but may have whispered a few humorous remarks to my husband who obviously never had a lemonade stand as a kid and doesn't know that nobody stops to buy it except maybe a few overly generous grandparents. But nothing could beat the excitement on the kids faces. They went to sleep last night dreaming about their grand plans for today.

Needless to say, we may need approximately 312 visitors to their stand this afternoon in order to get out of the red.

So, ummm... Lemonade anyone?

Cats and Dogs

2010-05-27T08:33:00.004-05:00

Growing up, I always believed that all dogs were boys and all cats were girls.

It made sense to me. Dogs were dirty, hyper, silly and they liked to play outdoors. Cats were soft, calm, sophisticated and they very much preferred indoors. I realize the huge stereotypes here, but just go with me. "Feline" even sounds feminine.

This morning I realized my kids are like cats and dogs. No, I'm not referring to the phrase "they fight like cats and dogs." (Although we do have our fair share of sibling squabbles.) For the most part, I'm referring to the stereotypes I associated with cats and dogs as a kid.

Take Jonah, for instance. I love the guy. He wakes up every morning bounding with energy. The boy would be up and out of bed every morning at 5 am if I would allow him. Instead, I have a rule that he has to stay in bed until 7:00. So by the time Jonah gets out of bed, he has usually been awake for some time and his little mind has been working overtime thinking about all he wants to do that day. He ALWAYS comes downstairs excited about something. Sometimes he can hardly contain himself. He doesn't know how to whisper in the morning either, which makes it fun. He's just too excited.

This morning, he came down carrying his newest book, "C is for Cooking." It's a kids cookbook that Uncle Jeff and Aunt Rosie recently sent him. He loves it and studies it and begs to make recipes from it. These were his exact (to the best of my memory) words this morning:

(keep in mind, he's shouting this because he doesn't know how to whisper in the morning)

"Mom! I'm so excited! I've been thinking about this ALL night! I think we should make one of these recipes from this book today! I think we should make one to celebrate going to that camp as a family! (We recently decided to take the kids with us on the youth summer mission trip to a Navajo Indian camp.) We need to celebrate that we get to tell all those kids about Jesus and some of them might hear about Jesus for the first time! What do you think? Do you think we should make one of these things from this cookbook to celebrate? I think it is a great idea! What do you think?"

Can't you just imagine a puppy dog waking up, licking your face, barking and wiggling all over the place trying to get you started on your day? Exactly. Jonah is like a dog. So happy and excited about the day. You can't resist the cuteness of it. I love it.

Now let's look at Hannah. She usually comes downstairs a few minutes after Jonah. She almost always looks super tired like her brother woke her up way too early and she tried to go back to sleep but couldn't because of the noise and bright sunshine. She might be a tad bit grumpy.

But as soon as she sees me, she goes into "cat mode" and wants to cuddle up in my arms. She even likes to rub her head in my neck or brush her face against my face. She is very quiet in the morning. She mostly just wants to find a soft place to curl up and cuddle for a while. Even as I've been typing this morning, she has come in three times to just sit on my lap and press her cheek against my cheek. It's precious and I wouldn't trade it for the world. She's the cat.

So...I guess I haven't matured much since my childhood. I still associate dogs with boys and cats with girls. Go figure.

Friday

2010-05-21T09:48:00.003-05:00

Today is Jonah's last day of first grade. We are SO ready for summer and all that comes with it. Namely, staying up late, swimming in the pool, and doing everything at a much slower pace. Praise the Lord, IT'S SUMMERTIME.

In honor of Jonah's last day of school (which ends at 11:30, by the way), I agreed to take him on a special lunch date. He gets to decide where we eat. This, unfortunately, means we will be eating at McDonald's for lunch today because I have obviously failed to teach my son the difference between good food and crummy food. *sigh* (I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for Smashburger if we must go the burger and fries route. Smashburger makes the BEST BURGER EVER. I promise.)

Hannah and I had a picnic lunch the other day in our backyard treehouse/playset. She sat down and said "Boy, this is a beautiful day for a picnic!" When I asked her to pray before we ate, she thanked God for "making it such a beautiful and perfect day for a picnic." When she finished, she leaned over and whispered to me. "God knew I was going to thank him for that, didn't he?" Yes, I said. He likes to make things that he knows we will enjoy. It's good when we recognize that and give Him credit. Sweet.

We were at my parents house last night for a little bit and my mom offered us some cookies she had just made. I turned them down, but Joey took one. Before he took a bite, he asked if there were nuts in the cookies. "Ugh!" My mom sighed. There were nuts in the cookies and Joey is allergic. We teased her a lot because Joey and I have been married for nearly 12 years and dated for 6 years before that so she has had 18 years to get used to his nut allergy and yet she inevitably offers him something with nuts. It was kind of a joke during our dating years when he would hang out at our house and she would offer him a pb and j or some form of dessert with nuts. We kind of thought it would end after a few years. Nope, 18 years later, she's still offering him nuts. (Ha! Mom - you're too funny!) I always joke with her that she is trying to kill him. She is pretty sure we are going to have some seriously funny stories to tell at her funeral. I'm just glad Joey has been wise enough to ask about nuts all these years or else we would have a seriously UN-funny story to tell at his funeral.

Hannah has her last day of preschool today also. All these "lasts" have prompted a bit of a desire in me to write a post about milestones. That's one thing swirling in my head right now.

The other thing that is swirling around in my brain (and the reason my presence on the blog has been sparse) is the Joey and Kelly "love story." I began writing it all out in story form in hopes to have it completed by our anniversary in June. I don't know if I will finish by our anniversary, but I have been having the time of my life writing it all out. I've spent a lot of time reading my old journals, saved cards and notes. It is SO VERY FUN to re-live those moments. It's kind of like falling in love all over again. (Go ahead, all you non-mushy people, throw up a little bit. I don't care.)

Thank you "for techen us to lrn"

2010-05-09T22:20:00.005-05:00

Last week was teacher appreciation week so I asked Jonah to write a note to his teacher. I didn't want to write it for him or tell him what to write, so I just gave him a card and told him to write whatever he wanted to his teacher. This was the result:

The picture he drew of his teacher on the front of the card:

The note he wrote on the inside:

Joey and I got a huge kick out of the thank you for "techen us to lrn" part. I laughed a lot (after Jonah left the room.) We decided he spells about as well as the Chic-fil-a cows. But I think it is so special because it is obviously ALL from him and those kinds of cards mean more in my opinion. Nobody told him what to write or how to write it. I'm glad I snapped a photo before Jonah delivered it to his teacher. I asked him if he saw her open his card and he said he did and that he thought she really liked it because "she smiled a lot when she read it." I hope she felt loved a appreciated.

Because she is.

Thank you, Mrs. D

I can't seem to write a full paragraph tonight, but this sums up the day one way or another...

2010-05-05T23:50:00.007-05:00

Up at 6 a.m.

Ready for "me" time that ends too early.

Two kids asking for breakfast

A head of wet hair, I dish out the yogurt and breakfast bars

Iron clothes. Put on makeup.

Rush around to pack some lunches.

Jonah runs outside to pick up the newspaper.

Hannah follows and scrapes her knee.

She cries a lot.

I help with the band-aid.

Almost time to go. Load up.

What's this??

Garage won't work. All kinds of weird noises and a heavy door that won't lift.

What to do? What to do?

Grammy to the rescue.

She drove us to school.

Only 5 minutes late. But just in time for chapel.

"Awards Chapel" for all the kids.

So many awards. So many names.

No "Jonah." No "Jonah."

Bible, Math, Spelling, Reading, Science, History, P.E., Choir.

No "Jonah." No "Jonah."

He looks a little sad.

"You're tops in my book," I say.

Final award.

The "Excellent Spirit" award is highly sought after.

Only one boy and one girl from each grade.

"Jonah" is called.

He looks a little frightened on stage.

So proud of him, I am.

He sits next to me.

"Son, this award tells me you can do anything well."

"You've got what it takes. I'm SO proud of you."

One more hug and we rush out the door to take Hannah to preschool.

She's late too. It's okay.

Grammy takes me to Joey's work where I take off with his car.

I have a doctor appointment I don't want to miss.

"Let's talk about your skin and your sinuses and this red spot on your arm..."

"and what's with the red splotches all over your neck?"

I'm nervous. It's what happens. I live with it.

It gets worse because he's talking about it.

He writes for some meds.

Thanks a lot.

I'm now a certifiable basket case.

And the spot on my arm?

Pre-cancer. "No problem."

He freezes it off then and there.

That seemed really simple, but really it's not.

My splotches get better and then they get worse.

I get to take Joey to lunch.

Breath. Dump details of the day. Breath.

He affirms I'm a basket case. But he loves me anyway. (heehee)

Garage door man calls. "See you in 30."

Rush home. Let him in.

Something is broken. He'll fix it.

Call Grammy to pick up Hannah. I can't leave the house.

She's the hero today.

Garage guy is done.

I write a small check that's not very small.

Hannah walks in with her "project" in hand.

She's proud of her work. Her Mother's Day craft.

It's special. "I love you." We cuddle a bit.

Time to get Jonah. He hops in the car.

He's got three "flowers" in a vase.

They're made with paper, straws, some tape and his hands.

He's as proud as a boy can be.

"They are for you, Mom!" My Mother's Day gift.

The garage door. Pre-cancer. The splotchy neck thing...

They're all part of the day to day game that we play.

But those paper crafts the kids make?

Those are the real deal.

They make it all worth it.

Because they're given from the hearts and hands of two kids who adore me.

And I kind of like them too.

Mother's Day 2010

Air Show

2010-04-25T21:52:00.007-05:00

This week, Jonah and Hannah got a letter in the mail from Mimi and Gramps. This is what it looked like:

Mimi and Gramps wanted to take them to the air show. Their favorite part of the letter was the picture that Gramps drew on the bottom. So fitting.

Joey and I both had other commitments for Saturday, so it worked out perfectly for Mimi and Gramps to take them for the day. We gave Mimi our camera to document the day and she did a great job (except she is not in any of the pictures because she took all of them!)

"Sweet and Lovely" Hannah with Gramps

Gramps, Jonah and Hannah

Air shows get pretty loud. (The kids faces are priceless in this photo and I've been to an air show with Gramps before and I swear that giddy smile doesn't leave his face the entire time.)

Jonah's favorite part was "watching the B-2 Stealth Bomber" and the girl that rode on the wings of an airplane while the pilot flew "like he was trying to get her to fall off."

Hannah's favorite part was "the snow cone."

Thanks Mimi and Gramps! Jonah and Hannah had a super time!

100 Things about Jonah

2010-04-11T21:12:00.009-05:00

Dear Jonah,

You are now seven years old. Your father and I are pretty sure that seven is the perfect age. (Of course, we've said that about almost every age so far) But we decided you are ready to have your own list of 100 Things about YOU. So, here goes...

100 Things (about Jonah)

1. You are seven

2. You can whistle tunes like daddy
3. You can follow the instruction booklets to put together Legos
4. You are tenderhearted
5. You wake up way too early every morning, but try to wait until 7:00 to come downstairs
6. You come down at 7:00 and announce that "it's seven-seven-zero" instead of seven-zero-zero.
7. You love riding your bike
8. You don't mind holding mom's hand in public

9. You squeeze mom's hand three times fast to say you love her (your little secret way of saying so)

10. You sometimes let go of mom's hand when it's "not cool"
11. You get really tired after you eat dinner
12. You love Star Wars
13. You listen really well

14. You get that thoughtful look on your face when you are listening
15. You want to be a dentist like dad
16. You make your bed sometimes
17. You sometimes arrange your stuffed animals on the bed just for fun
18. You eat all the time

19. You read labels on food and tell us when they are bad for us (gummit)
20. You love it when dad reads Narnia to you

21. You don't like icing on cake
22. You make boy sounds when you play with your toys
23. You pray that you'll do good on your spelling test even on days when you don't have a spelling test24. You try really hard at school
25. Your favorite restaurant is McDonald's (gag!)
26. You are an excellent big brother to Hannah
27. You have a ton of endurance when it comes to running
28. You help dad mow the grass
29. You are genuinely kind

30. You never beat up on other boys in your class
31. You can't wait for Hannah to start going to school with you next year
32. You can eat yogurt like there is no tomorrow

33. You have skin that tans easily
34. You asked if you were black
35. You are naturally good at computers

36. You say "pupcakes" instead of cupcakes
37. You want an iPhone
38. You are a persuasive arguer

39. You love your cousins
40. You tell us to go on a date so the grandparents can babysit
41. You like your toys to be organized
42. You like to pop your neck
43. You have bed head hair continually
44. You fall for all infomercials despite the product
45. You cuddle with mom when you are sleepy

46. You make suicide out of fountain drinks and insist it tastes good
47. You forget to flush the toilet

48. You can shower without any help

49. You think it's funny to show bugs to mom
50. You beg to watch Scooby Doo even though it makes you scared for days
51. You love Friday nights
52. You want every night to be a family fun night
53. You do a great job memorizing your Awana verses
54. You think everyone else is a robot and you are the only real person
55. You ask deep questions

56. You do that thing with your ankles even though we've tried to break you of the habit
57. Your two front teeth refuse to grow in
58. You compliment mom's cooking

59. You help dad grill food
60. You answer questions in Sunday School

61. You help mom and dad in the three year old class
62. You have a pretty awesome groove when music is playing
63. You pride yourself in being a good daddy to your pets
64. You got a splinter and described it by telling us it felt like a rhinoceros in your arm
65. You are really good at math
66. Your favorite "subject" this year is recess

67. You make funny faces for the camera

68. You giggle really cute69. You go fishing with dad
70. You are sometimes shy
71. You have a better memory than mom
72. You call Hannah your best friend
73. You say things like "I really hate to have to tell you this..." when you do wrong
74. You set an example of obedience for your classmates to follow

75. You can't wait until you can sit in the front seat of the car
76. You don't like for other people to see you cry
77. You put away your own laundry when asked
78. You are genuinely grateful when given a gift
79. You want to go up in the attic every time we have to go up there
80. You like to make yourself a mustard sandwich

81. You love to ride on the mower with Papa
82. You love to go to airshows with Gramps
83. You want to hide or fast forward scenes in movies when someone gets in trouble

84. You are really good at soccer

85. You are independent

86. You couldn't wait to tell mom about dad kicking the soccer ball into your "diaphragm"

87. You drink milk really fast

88. You got "bit" by a cricket

89. You are easily excitable

90. You look really cool when you let mom and dad dress you

91. You are a hit with the ladies (back off, girls!)

92. You sometimes share your private prayers with mom and dad

93. You are willing to try new foods

94. You wondered what dad would do for a job with no toothaches in heaven

95. You are compassionate toward the feelings of others

96. You are an amazing little guy

97. You love life

98. You love Jesus

99. You love mom and dad

100. You make mom and dad proud

Love you, bud.

Mom and Dad

I did not get permission to post photos of his friends from school who came to the birthday party. Therefore, I do not feel comfortable sharing those photos here, but the party was a blast. Who knew a few cans of silly string, toilet paper tag and making sculptures out of gum drops and spaghetti noodles could be so fun! We had a great time celebrating Jonah's birthday together.

Easter 2010

2010-04-08T10:39:00.004-05:00

A short video re-cap of some of the Easter festivities at Grammy and Papa's house this year.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

P.S. - I haven't forgotten about Jonah's birthday. I'm just working on something special to post and waiting until we have his school friends party this weekend before I share about ALL the birthday hoopla.

Good Friday

2010-04-02T16:52:00.006-05:00

It's Good Friday and a day for reflection on the cross. We used the Resurrection Eggs with the kids today and had a blast.

If you have never heard of Resurrection Eggs, they are Easter eggs that tell the story of Jesus and his trip to the cross. I highly recommend them.

Inside each egg is a trinket that tells part of the story. It comes with a booklet and everything just in case you need a refresher.

I decided to make our Resurrection Eggs into a scavenger hunt which made the whole process even more fun for the kids. I hid the eggs in places that somewhat coordinated with the message and trinket in the egg (i.e. coin filled egg near our coin collection, linen egg in the linen closet, stone egg out in the garden, etc.)

After we talked about the message represented by the trinket inside each egg, they got to read the clue to find the next egg.

Fun times!

Happy Easter!

Just a warm body

2010-03-29T19:21:00.003-05:00

I've recently been savoring all the time I've been able to have with Hannah during the day. It will only be a few more months before she starts kindergarten and we will no longer have our sweet mommy-Hannah time all day. She's already informed me that she will NOT cry on the first day of kindergarten the way Jonah did. I believe her. She's independent like that.

But she has her tender moments too. She loves to be cuddled and held, hugged and kissed. So today I gave her a huge hug and mentioned to her that I was really going to miss all the time we get to spend together once she starts school. She nudged into my arms a little closer and squeezed real tight. Then She said, "Yeah. I'm going to miss your warm body."

So I'm just a warm body I guess.

Nothing along the lines of "I'm going to miss all the time we spend together or the games we play or grocery shopping or cooking or playing "cleaning fairies" or watching Barbie movies or going to the park..." or any of that stuff. Nope. She's just going to miss my warm body.

But I'll take that. And I'll frequently remind her that for as long as I live, she will always have this momma's warm body whenever she needs it.

...

Even after she starts kindergarten.

It's times like these I'm thankful for a husband with gifts that are different than mine

2010-03-22T11:08:00.003-05:00

Hannah decided she wanted to learn how to play the piano two days ago. We were driving home from Mimi and Gramp's house late Saturday night and she proclaimed that she wanted to learn to play. "Right now," she said. Or at least as soon as we got home. She wanted daddy to get out the keyboard at 10:30 pm. In her brain, he could get it out, teach her to play and she would be the best pianist ever in the entire world...all before 10:47 pm. He promised he would teach her the next day. She accepted that. No doubt, she went to sleep dreaming about her new found love of the piano.

She woke up the next morning demanding her first lesson. It would have to wait until after church. She was a bit put out, but again, willing to be patient.

After lunch, Joey decided to not only teach Hannah the piano, but Jonah the guitar. While Joey sat in the other room with Jonah teaching him the four basic chords on the guitar, Hannah and I sat at the piano.

I had a few piano lessons as a kid (before my teacher most likely informed my parents that I was simply not cut out for piano - I just didn't get it.) I remembered two things from my piano history: Middle C and Heart and Soul. (I guess I technically remember learning the first few lines of Jessica's Theme from The Man from Snowy River, because I was pretty sure if I learned that song, I would be transported to the olden days and some horse-ridin' mountain man would ride up and sweep me off my feet. I forgot how to play her theme, but as it turns out - I got much better than a horse-ridin' mountain man in the end.) Oh, the memories. I digress.

So Joey is in the other room teaching Jonah guitar and I am sitting at the piano with Hannah, wondering, once again, why I was never gifted in the area of music. I decided to do what any other ungifted pianist would do - play Heart and Soul and attempt to trick the world (or at least my 5 year old daughter) that I can actually play something on this contraption called a piano.

She liked my song, but luckily Joey came in to rescue her from my piano idiocy. It was at this point that I just sat back and enjoyed the scene - or music - one might say.

Then I thanked the Lord for blessing me with a husband with gifts that are unique to him. Gifts that are different than mine. Gifts that bless my soul. Gifts that allow him to TEACH our kids something they would have no chance of learning from me. I love that man and his many gifts. Our kids are blessed to have him as a daddy.

Then I took pictures of the many gifts.

Tickle Me Tuesday

2010-03-09T21:00:00.001-06:00

A random assortment of moments that made me laugh...

Jonah was really worried about his dad last week when he realized that there won't be any toothaches in heaven. He is pretty sure Joey will be out of a job in heaven.

I avoided Wal-Mart for at least a week. I inadvertently stole a bottle of top coat nail polish. (It's a long story.) Anyway, I set things right and paid for it when I finally went back a week later, but I was pretty sure for about a week that the next time I walked into Wal-Mart, the sirens were going to go off and I would be taken to jail for something I really didn't know I did. Joey teased me all week making it very clear that he was well aware he was married to a thief and saying things like, "well, we'll just see if you make it into heaven now..." I will.

Both our kids learned to ride bikes without training wheels with little help from Joey or myself. I thought it was a fluke with Jonah when he just took off riding without training wheels a few years ago. But last week, Hannah did the same thing. She told us she was ready to ride without training wheels so we took them off. Then she took off. I seem to remember learning how to ride a bike being a bigger deal than that. Not to mention the scraped knees and bruised elbows back in my day. Not my kids. But I can't get too proud or puffed up about it because their skills seem to be limited to bike riding alone. We took them roller skating last weekend and (I might be exaggerating, but) they are the worst roller skaters on the planet. Seriously, they can hardly stand without falling down. It's hilarious and sad at the same time.

I fear my kids inherited my complete non-athleticism. We took them to play tennis as a family the other night and I heard Jonah telling Hannah that she needed to hit the ball with her "tennis bat." *sigh*

There is hope. Jonah started soccer this year and had his first game last weekend. His team won. Maybe the boy got some of his dad's sports genes after all. Go team!

Jonah looks so adorable and cute in his little shin guards and soccer cleats.

Joey and I made a quick little getaway to Minnesota a couple weekends ago. Joey surprised me with this trip for my birthday. It's been an unusually cold and snowy winter in Oklahoma, so naturally Minnesota was a refreshingly warm getaway spot. (Hahaha! Just kidding! But I do think the cold played a factor in the ridiculously good deal he got on our tickets.) We didn't take the kids and for a few seconds we felt really bad about it because we spent most our time at the Mall of America where there is a super fun indoor amusement park that the kids would have loved. However, they would not have loved the two to three hours we spent in Urban Outfitters which just might be the coolest store in that entire mall. When we got home, Hannah found the map of the Mall of America and studied it for a few days. She kept saying, "I found this map, but I'm just not sure what it means yet." We didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. Below is a picture I took of part of the indoor park.

Minnesota is full of really nice people, don't cha know. Some of them (particularly the ones that work at Teavana) are so nice that they make a girl feel super cool if she compliments their free tea samples. Even cooler if she expresses interest in buying some of their fancy loose leaf teas as a gift for her sweet mothers. They sure made me feel like I was the bomb-diggity when I actually picked out some teas to buy. Then they mixed up my teas and told me the price. I died, but they were still acting uber cool about it. So I left Minnesota with my extremely overpriced but super yummy tea all neatly mixed up in a tin and packed in my suitcase. Would you believe I arrived in Oklahoma with that extremely overpriced super yummy tea ALL OVER my dirty laundry and shoes stuffed in my suitcase? Stupid tin. Blerg. Joey decided to try to salvage it. He kept saying it was fine because half the teas in that store had labels on them that stated that tea was "monkey picked" (whatever that means) so it really wasn't that much worse that our tea touched my dirty socks. *sigh* (The gift teas for our mothers did not spill, by the way.)

One of my new year resolutions was to learn to wear, walk and enjoy heels. I think I've succeeded because I actually prefer heels with my jeans now days. ....but... ummm... my feet hurt.

Hannah has always had an advanced palette when it comes to food. She tells me her favorite food right now is fish. Then she tries to lord it over Jonah and tell him that she is smarter than him because she loves fish and fish is "brain food." It's just too bad McDonald's doesn't offer their filet-o-fish as part of a happy meal. She is more than willing to forgo the toy in order to get her fish. It's rather unlike a five year old. Another favorite food (of our whole family) is edamame sprinkled with a little sea salt. The first time I had edamame, I actually tried to eat the pod it came in. Silly me. Don't cha know, that's not how you eat it.

fin~

Pancakes anyone?

2010-03-03T09:58:00.004-06:00

Jonah burst into our bedroom this morning exclaiming that he needed a skillet so he could make pancakes for Hannah. Apparently, Hannah informed him that she was starving and needed pancakes for breakfast, so he decided to take it on himself to make them for her. What a sweet brother, right?

Joey shut the idea down and told Jonah he needed to get dressed for school instead. A little while later, I found myself in the kitchen looking at this:

The boy got out everything he thought he needed for pancakes. The line-up: milk, sugar, one egg, Bisquick, flour (which is actually fish batter mix that he thought was flour), and a pot. I can see why he ran into the room asking for a skillet. He must have realized that pot wasn't going to cut it. I just love how he lined them up on the counter, don't you? Ha! I also love how he is desperately trying to read the instructions in this photo. Very determined, that boy.

Anyway, I navigated around this one by promising that I would let him help me make a yummy breakfast for dinner tonight.

P.S. - Note to self: Teach Jonah how to properly make pancakes without using fish batter.

P.S.S. - Another note to self: Clean the footprints off the counter top (I just realized the only way a four foot tall boy can reach the Bisquick in our house is by standing on the counter top.)

P.S.S.S. - Final note to self: Give Jonah an extra hug today. He deserves it after that sweet "tickle" moment. Love you, son.

Peace like a pond

2010-02-25T20:15:00.005-06:00

Sometimes I let the kids take their baths in our big jet tub. They get so excited about turning on the "bubbles." But often, when the time comes to turn on the jet tub bubbles, they chicken out and decide they don't really want those bubbles after all. They seem to have a love/hate relationship with the jet tub bubbles.

For example, this morning Hannah took her bath in the jet tub. She begged me to turn on the bubbles, but the water level has to reach a certain point before the jets will work so she had to wait. Her excitement built as she waited for the tub to fill up. Finally, the water was high enough, so I reached over to turn on the jets. She freaked out. She stood up on the edge of the tub to wait and watch first, but then just as I was about to turn them on she shouted "No! No! No! I don't really want the bubbles today!" So she swam around in the calm water of her bath for a long time and finally exited the tub without ever experiencing the jet bubbles. She missed out. She knew she missed out too, but she opted for the safe calm of a serene bath rather than the fun bubbly bath that a jet tub has to offer.

As I observed her this morning, I was reminded of something I learned last week in my Bible study. We were talking about peace and the passage that says "If you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea." (Isaiah 48:18) The study pointed out that God didn't say that he would give us peace like a pond (which is completely still and serene without bumps), but rather peace like a river (which is constantly moving, sometimes even around large boulders). In other words, when God's peace comes into our lives, it doesn't mean that all our trials and "bumps" go away, but rather than we are able to navigate those trials in such a way that we pass through those "bumps" all the while moving along in the clear refreshing waters of His peace.

Sometimes, like Hannah, I wish for the calm that a pond or jet-free bathtub has to offer. I wonder why I have to deal with all these "bubbles" and "bumps" that seem to jostle my life. I want peace like a pond. No bumps. No worries. No problems. But God is bigger than a pond, isn't He? He takes me by the hand and says "let's go for a ride! I'll take care of you. Hold on to me and you will experience my peace as we ride this river together!" So I'll take His hand, hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

P.S. - Joey and I agreed to be youth sponsors for the youth mission trip this summer. Part of the trip is a day spent white water rafting. Even as recent as last night, I informed my small group girls that I was NOT in any way interested in that part of the trip. I'll sit that one out, thankyouverymuch. I sure hope it is not God's idea of a funny joke to give me a good object lesson by forcing me to go white water rafting on the trip this summer. Eeek!

Give us one pure and holy passion

2010-02-16T19:46:00.004-06:00

I listened to this beautiful song this morning and made it my prayer for myself, Joey and each of the kids.

Lord, for me...

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You

And for Joey and Jonah...

Give him one pure and holy passion

Give him one magnificent obsession

Give him one glorious ambition for his life

To know and follow hard after You

And for Hannah...

Give her one pure and holy passion

Give her one magnificent obsession

Give her one glorious ambition for her life

To know and follow hard after You

To know and follow hard after you

To grow as your dicsiples in your truth

This world is empty, pale, and poor

Compared to knowing you, our Lord

Lead us on and we will run after you

You can sample and purchase this song by Candi Pearson from the OneDay Live Passion CD by clicking HERE

A plastic birthday cake

2010-02-11T08:37:00.005-06:00

Mrs. Huber had a little plastic white cake that she would keep hidden in our preschool Sunday school classroom. She would always get it out when one of us kids had a birthday. It had places where she could put real candles in it. I remember looking forward to her class for the sole reason that if, perchance, someone in our class had an impending birthday, we would get to see the plastic cake. I'm sure Mrs. Huber taught us some great lessons from the Bible, but her smiling face and that amazing plastic cake might be some of the few memories I have of my early Sunday school years. I don't remember the toys. I don't remember the lessons. I don't remember the other kids in my class.

There was however, a little boy in my class who somehow remembers me. To this day, he talks about a little girl with reddish hair and freckles who always squinted her eyes when she smiled. He also remembers going home from Mrs. Huber's Sunday school class and telling his mom that he's "gonna marry that Kelly Jones girl."

Bless my soul, he did.

This birthday, I may not get to blow out candles on a little plastic white cake, but I do get to spend my life with the boy who fell in love with my smiling face from across the cake.

Love you, honey.

Dirty Hands, Clean Hearts

2010-02-09T20:35:00.004-06:00

Sometimes my kids cause me well up with pride. It could be when they do something especially nice for someone or when they remember to make their bed without being told. It could be a dinner where they clean their plates, all the while complimenting my choice of vegetables for a meal. When I hear a good report from a teacher or see an awesome score on a spelling test, I think that's my kid. Sometimes one of them will say something clever or poignant or hilarious. These are the moments that I like to blog about. These are the true TEACH moments and the golden TICKLE moments. When they happen, it's like something kicks on in my brain and I make a little mental note - blogworthy material, take notes, don't forget.

I'm not so vain to believe that the twelve people who read this blog hang on every aspect of my children's lives, but I do like to record these things for posterity sake. I want to remember them. I want the kids to remember them. So, I blog about them.

Funny thing though. Life is not just made up of moments when my kids make me proud. In fact, sometimes my kids make me downright ashamed. Like when Jonah somehow forgets basic hygiene techniques and can't seem to remember how to wash his hands. (Seriously, you can almost see the dirt and germs having a party on his hands these days.) Or when either of the kids spend a good 30 solid minutes sitting in public picking their nose. Or when I have to tell the kids for the fourth time NOT to crawl under the table during dinner. And let's not forget about the dreaded "Hannah tantrum" over silly things like what to wear in the morning. Then you don't want to get me started on all the short bus things my kids have done. (I seriously worry that Jonah's IQ dropped by at least 20 points when he lost his two front teeth. Short bus. That's all I have to say. Please let his teeth grow in quickly.) These are the moments that I do NOT want to blog about. The times when I feel like a failure and wish I didn't have to do this hard work we call parenting.

But the simple truth is this: God uses those difficult moments to TEACH or TICKLE me too. He doesn't just use the "blogworthy" moments. In fact, sometimes the best (albeit, hardest) lessons come when I am humbled by my outstanding imperfections. These are the times that I am more apt to turn to God instead of myself. These are the times that I do more of what I am supposed to do all the time - I pray. I bathe those tantrum throwing, nose picking, dirty handed kids in fervent prayer. It's usually around this time that I realize that I very well might fail my kids in teaching them the basics of personal hygiene (heaven forbid!), but I will NOT fail my kids by forgetting to pray for them. In the end, cleaning dirty hands takes a back seat to praying for clean hearts.

Locked up

2010-01-26T21:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning, I heard the kids giggling outside my bathroom door. When I opened the door, I found this:

Two cute kids? Yes.

A couple of clever sneaky little monkeys? Yes.

They had obviously found my junk drawer. Do you see that lock across my door meant to keep me in? Those clever kids took some electrical tape, scotch tape and a padlock and they attempted to rig up a make-shift lock across my door.

I played along. "Oh no!!! I'm stuck! I can't get out!"

They thought they had me. For them, this meant they had free reign of the house, the television and (most importantly) the candy dish. But in reality, I could have easily bust through that "padlocked" door. But I didn't. I played their game.

Clever sneaky little monkeys.

Then I realized that I sometimes play the part of the clever sneaky little monkey. I compartmentalized my life and "padlock" God into just a small part of it so that I can have free reign of the rest of my "house." He knows the game. He sighs at me when I try to play it.

Then He sends my kids in the room to do the same to me so I learn my lesson.

Consider me taught.

Scatterbrained Scribble Scrabble

2010-01-20T22:46:00.001-06:00

I am a scatterbrain. I scribble notes on all sorts of random papers around my house. There are certain things that you just need to write down so that you don't forget them. Why should a blog be any different? In recent weeks, I've come across a few random things that I want to remember to someday TEACH my kids. Cleaning or cooking tips, life lessons or silly ramblings - someday my scatterbrained mind might forget to tell them these things if I don't jot them down. So I began to make a list. I'll post them when I get 4-5 worth sharing. Nothing life changing. Just my very own...

Scatterbrained Scribble Scrabble

Always vacuum barefoot. Instead of vacuuming yourself OUT of a room (like all the pros say), vacuum in front of your footsteps and walk right on top of what you just vacuumed. Try it. It's awesome. The warm clean carpet feels so nice on your feet that you will forget that vacuuming is a chore...almost. And who really cares about the footprints?
There is no substitute for real butter. Go for the real stuff every time. Pure "salted sweet cream butter" tastes good on everything. Don't listen to the nay-sayers who want to tell you it is bad for you. Phooey on them. ALSO - salted butter does NOT have to be refrigerated. This is a surprise to most people. Google it. I promise butter will last on the counter for at least a week (if it is salted). That pretty much gets rid of the unspreadable argument right there. Get a good butter dish and keep a stick of butter next to the bread box at all times. You will not regret it. (Your waistline might, but you won't.)
All drinks taste better in a styrofoam cup. Especially Dr. Pepper, sweet tea and ice water. It's true. Forget the styrofoam is bad for the environment nay-sayers, just trust me on this one. Styrofoam makes it better.
(this is Joey's tip) Eat your food so that it all comes out even. For example, don't eat one item on your plate until it is all gone and then move on to the next. Eat a little bit of each food item and aim to finish all of them at the same time.
Never leave a bottle of super glue within hands reach of children under the age of 10. Hannah found super glue this week and squirted glue onto her fingers, her legs and my bedspread. The bad news - it took nearly 24 hours before we got it all off her fingers. The good news - I got to buy a new bedspread. My advice: don't leave super glue laying around unless you need a new bedspread. :)

That's all for now.