Favorite Sunday Moment

Today we came home from church and Hudson started freaking out that he needed his lizard. Lizard? What Lizard? We don't have, and will never have a lizard in our house. (We do have a beagle I will happily give away to anyone who will take her.) We went through all the toys we could think of that might be a lizard but couldn't think of anything. He was freaking out in that way where he couldn't quite even communicate with us because he so badly needed his lizard. Finally Andrew figured it out, last night on the way home from some friends house Ainsley got to get a treat from DQ for her last day of soccer, they went through the drive through and by the time they got home to eat it Hudson had fallen asleep in the car. He was looking for his BLIZZARD. Fortunately, it was found in the freezer.

Dear Children's Clothing Designers:

Please cease making little boys clothes that are colorful (read: can't be bleached) but then have white stripes, collars, sleeves, etc. That would be so helpful. Thanks so much. From: Mothers of little boys everywhere.

Fall Farm Trip

Here is the video from our trip to the farm last week. We can't call it a trip to the pumpkin patch because we didn't actually touch a pumpkin there. Our pumpkins were picked from Grandad and Grandma Arlene's pumpkin patch. This is even better because the pumpkins came with the kids names on them!

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

We were spoiled by the perfect September and October weather last year for soccer. I think back to the beautiful Saturdays spent on the field. This year has been a different experience. The good thing is after the initial mud in the face and crying, Ainsley ended up having a great time and thought that mud soccer was really fun. I will admit that my washing machine and I are hoping for a little drier day next Saturday for our last game. Today's pictures:

This was before she had embraced the experience!

This was after-cold, muddy, but at least not crying.

The ball sort of stuck in the mud.

All the "Cheetahs" after the game- muddy but happy.

The Playground of all Playgrounds

My first teaching job was at Halinan Elementary School in Lake Oswego where they are building a new playground. This article was in the Oregonian yesterday about the playground. My friend Heather's mom is the secretary there and she is quoted in the article. The old playground was cool, but what it is being replaced by... wow. The article says that the joke is you can see it from space. No school district money is being spent on it, one family alone donated $150,ooo. I totally support public schools and want good playgrounds for kids to play on, but I can't help but wonder what you could do in Sudan with $210,000. What do you think???

Don't tell the other kids UPDATE

Ainsley's second tooth was removed by the dentist with very little trauma. This is still amazing to me considering that up until Hudson started going to the dentist and doing great Ainsley almost had to be held down in the chair. As soon as she saw that he did so well it took away her ability to flip out over it. Hudson is hillarious, he sits down in the chair and opens his mouth so big a tennis ball would fit in it. They tell him he can close his mouth and wait until they are ready, but he doesn't. It is like he just can't process that, he believes sitting in the chair = open mouth.

Okay, back to the tooth. If you remember to last time Ainsley had decided that the tooth fairy was "just parents", and I wouldn't give her much money anyway so she was keeping her teeth. Well, the day before we were going to the dentist she told me that she decided she was going to save up all her teeth and put them under her pillow all at once so, "you will have to give me lots and lots of money." Later that day she came to me and told me she had decided to put her first tooth under her pillow because she would get a new one the next day, and that way she could add up how much she would get for all her teeth if she knew how much I would give her for one tooth.

She hadn't changed her mind by bedtime (a miracle in itself) and she put her tooth under her pillow. I had been preparing for this day since during fireworks by buying out all the gold Sacajawea dollars out of the till at the stand. I exchanged her tooth for one of the coins and hoped that gold dollar would be exciting enough to overcome the fact that another kid at school gets $5 for each tooth (she is right, I am too cheap for $5- come on we have three mouthfuls of teeth that are going to fall out. We need to be saving for braces.). Good news, she was thrilled the next day and actually put her new tooth from the dentist that day under her pillow to collect another gold coin. The lesson here is that by planning ahead and having something special I can only spend $1 instead of $5 on each tooth. Maybe if I start buying stuff and planning for her wedding now...

Thursday's Favorite Moment

Today Ainsley went right upstairs after school to make something, later she came downstairs with this:Her teacher (who is wonderful) does lots of great positive motivation. One of the things she does is have a "weekly winner." When she announced who next weeks weekly winners were, a little boy cried because he hasn't been one yet (neither has Ainsley). Ainsley felt bad for him so evidently at school she told him she would make him a weekly winner, so she came home and made him a weekly winner badge like what the kids get at school. Made her sappy mom get a little teary.

what will parent/teacher conferences be like???

Overheard today:

Ainsley: Have you ever gotten in trouble at school?

Emory: One time when I was talking and I wasn't supposed to be.

Ainsley: Oh, don't worry about that, that happens to me all the time.

please NO comments like: genetic predisposition, look at who her parents are, or no need for the nature vs. nurture debate- she is exposed to talking too much both ways, etc...

Rock Your World

Here is the picture I mentioned before from Oklahoma specifically taken for people at our church (Cornerstone). Andrew does the opening for church every once in a while and he used it for the opening yesterday. What he said for the opening is below.
A couple of weeks ago my 89 year old grandma went to be with the Lord. She lived the second half of her life in a body that was crippled by sever rheumatoid arthritis. So although I have a sense of loss that I don’t get to be with her now, I am so excited that right now she is in Heaven with my Grandad walking and enjoying eternal life without pain. The hope and promise of seeing my Grandparents again when I die and being in the presence of Jesus is an amazing promise to look forward to.

I’d like to share with you something from Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven, “By meditating on Heaven and learning to look forward to it, we don’t eliminate our pain, but we can alleviate it and put it in perspective. We’re reminded that suffering and death are only temporary conditions.”

Our family traveled last weekend to rural Oklahoma for my Grandmother’s service and we saw this picture-

Barry’s email this week brought up some of the reasons that he appreciates Cornerstone. Really, we do need to be a body that through the power of the Holy Spirit does rock the world. How can we rock the world? Praying, sharing our faith, letting people see the light and joy inside us. Resisting temptation, helping the less fortunate. Loving the Lord with all of our heart, soul strength and mind. And many other ways.

Every day we should be thinking and praying about how that day we can bring glory to God. So Cornerstone- Rock Your World!

Rethinking my decision

You know, if we would have put him in preschool he could be doing this sort of thing somewhere else...