Ding Dong, the Shoes are Gone!

      Three summers ago, around the 4th of July, I was shopping with the kids at Walmart. I came across their cheap $3 red, white & blue flip-flops.  I bought them and figured they'd last a few weeks.  Was I ever wrong.
       Have you ever had a kid who couldn't give up a pair of shoes? I'm guilty of holding on to clothes I'll never wear again, but never shoes.  Shoes don't hold any nostalgia for me.  For Lanie, they do. These red flip-flops pictured above were Lydia's originally.  They funneled down to Lanie last summer when she could barely keep them on.  Oh how I detest shoes that don't stay on feet.  I am easily irked when I see she's picked out the red flips.  They fall off in the car, they fall off while sitting in a grocery cart only to have to retrieve them twenty times and they fall off as she runs.  They are the only flip flops she owned, well second-hand, and we tried to keep it that way.
     This summer, the shoes came back out even though they were too small and they went with everything - pink, purple, orange - it didn't matter.  My friend Kendra (who gave me the shoe blog idea) recognized Lanie's affinity to them.  Once when Lanie left them at her house, she tried to toss them in the trash, because I told her, but her daughter Ella found them and insisted she give them back.  And she did. And Lanie continued to wear the too small, so dirty, second-hand, Walmart flip flops. 
     This weekend, while out to dinner with Kendra and her family, Lanie and Ella were running down the sidewalk through the Town Center.  Not more than 20 steps were taken when Lanie tripped and down she went, along with her busted, beloved flip-flop.  It didn't take me more than a minute to swoop her up in my arms and make a bee-line across the street to PayLess Shoes where these, also cheap, flip-flops were waiting for her.  We asked the sales clerk to toss the tired, 4th of July flip-flops but not before snapping a picture.  I don't think I'll miss the shoes, that's not my thing.  But I will miss the regular, "Oh, Lanie, those shoes?  Are you sure?" only because it was our routine, and a good routine is hard to let go.

Best lemonade stand, EVER!

      For weeks, no, really months, Elijah has been pestering me about having a lemonade stand.  The last time we had one was probably 2 summers ago so I suppose we were due.  The problem is, he never understands timing.  It would be 6pm on a Tuesday night and he would beg and beg and beg. Relentless. I guess he figures that if a scary ice-cream truck can sell his wares, then we can too. And I guess my reason for not rallying behind the idea is that it would take time out in the heat, that we would have to go and buy lots of items, and I am always afraid our neighbors will tire of our "would you like to buy" prodding.  It was time though, so I gave in this past week.  I told him that Saturday would be the day and that he should go make a sign, which he promptly did with the lightest colors ever.  He included not only lemonade, but pink lemonade and berry blast kool-aid and 7-Up and A&W and anything he saw in our cupboard or fridge.  He was ever so proud of this sign. 

    After a week of VBS where the money went to Project: Clean Water, Elijah and Lydia decided they wanted to give some to that and some to their DisneyWorld fund (which is just an old pencil box full of coins). We started on Saturday morning around 10:30 or 11:00 and the whole family got involved.  Kenny went to Kroger to buy extra cups, ice, a new pitcher, lemons, more lemonade and cookies.  Elijah traded off sign-holder duties with his sisters, but he was the mainstay.  Lydia thought climbing the stop sign in front of our house would garner attention as she yelled to every car that drove by.  Lanie pranced around causing drivers to have that "oh, look at that!" response and stop their car.  I sat in the heat, poured lemonade when it was too heavy for the kids to pour it, and constantly reminded them how to talk to other people.  I couldn't believe how many times I had to remind Lydia to actually face the person she was talking to as she looked at me and almost whispered the cost of the lemonade and cookies.  I had to remind Elijah to start with a "Hello, how are you?" instead of jumping in with a checklist of what they could choose. And Lanie, I just had to remind her not to drink everything.  

       Because the kids had a cause and a goal, our neighbors were quite generous.  I also like to think the lemonade was just that good.   At 4:30, they were shutting down only to have our neighbor who is a photographer for the Houston Chronicle stroll up with his camera ready to take a picture of a lemonade stand for the HC summer fun feature.  Unfortunately, his pictures of the kids taking the table down and into the house didn't make the cut and we missed what would have been a great newspaper clipping day for us.  We even offered to get everything back out but apparently the Chronicle features can't be posed.  Who knew? He ended up going to the splash pad and taking pictures there.  It was disappointing, especially when the kids were all psyched up to be in the paper.  Just the way it goes with us.  Fame is not our forte.

       But, the lemonade stand was truly a success with a final total of $86.  I know!  Can you believe that?  It was with a lot of pride that they took bills (not coins that we usually scramble to find) to offering the next day.  And after a few months of not thinking about Disney World, the discussion is back, the tour books are out, and the excitement is building as more coins were added to the pencil box.  I had a friend ask me if I had considered surprising the kids with this November trip to "the happiest place on earth."  I have often wished we had.  I love the Christmas commercials where the kids are in the car and the parents break the news and the screaming and the hugging and the screaming.  It always makes me a little teary-eyed.  But after this weekend, the pleasure of watching all 3 of them work toward a goal, and count their coins, and make plans about what they might spend it on, may have trumped my desire of a surprise trip.  Hard to say.
       But I can now rest easy knowing Elijah got his wish.  The lemonade stand was great and hopefully out of his system.  Or it could have just prompted him to think of more money-making schemes. If Elijah starts calling or emailing you trying to sell his toys, you have been warned.  

Taking  a lunch break under the table.  Notice the Joker-like face of Lanie.  Lots of berry-punch.

      

Just What We Needed

    








     



       I haven't had a chance to write about our second Vacation Bible School - Adventures on Promise Island that I got to be apart of our church's satellite location in Missouri City.  And now it's already over! After teaching at a 400+ VBS at our Pearland campus, downsizing to 70 kids was refreshing, but just as exhausting.  We danced, we sang, we praised and I got lots of wonderful hugs.  The best part of the week was I got to teach the Missions class, a class on how we can support other countries and their need for fresh water along with helping the kids find ways to save water everyday.   Because we didn't have any curriculum, I got to make each day's class material up.   I scoured the internet for any water activities I could come up with that would also create a cohesive connection to our Saving Christ. I enjoyed getting to write a lesson plan again, even if it was for just a 25 minute period.  Instead of following someone else's script, I got to write mine.  That was freeing, but again exhausting.
         Because I am who I am, I was preparing till late hours for each day.  At the same time, Kenny was staying up till 1 or 2am trying to make up for the all the work he's missed with the hurt hand, the traveling, and his help with VBS.  We both felt a bit in the weeds.  I can even prove it.  We got home from the midwest on Sunday, and didn't unpack until Thursday.  That's 4 days.  That NEVER happens.  I'm a believer in immediate unpacking.  Even now, 5 days late, my clothes are still in a pile to wash.  We just can't catch up.
       Until now.  It's Friday.  We ate at home.  We didn't go anywhere. We sat on the floor. Kenny played games with the kids. We watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony.  We started prayers and bedtime early.  It was a glorious night.  And so, so needed. 

Mary Poppins had just dropped down to scare away all the villains from British literature (Voldermort, Cruella Deville, Captain Hook).  If you watched the ceremonies with kids then you probably got a lot of, "What? Why?" questions.  Hard to describe artistic choices to a 3-year-old.

The long trip home

 

We've been back for several days now but I haven't had a chance to chronicle the trip home.  There isn't much to say except that it was LONG.  We decided to mix things up a bit this time and we left at around 11pm on Saturday night (after Kenny's 20 year reunion).  It does sound crazy, but it made the most sense to us since a whole day's drive would have meant a 5 am wake-up call.  If I've learned anything about us this summer, it's that we don't do early and quick very well.  We are night owls and lingerers.  So, after all the good-bye's and nice to meet you's at K's reunion, we dashed out, picked up our van fully packed with kids and cat, hugged and thanked Kenny's parents and took highway 80 out of town.  Luckily, all 3 fell asleep eventually and in this pic I took, they all slept alike.  I suppose there aren't a lot of positions to sleep in when you are in an upright car seat, but I love how in-sync they seem to be. 

Another bless-ed moment came when all 3 kids stayed asleep as we transferred them to a questionable-looking and cheap roadside motel we spontaneously stopped at when Kenny could no longer keep his eyes open.   I felt a bit reminscent of my 20's when me and a friend (usually Tina because she was my long roadtrip companion) traveled with few plans and stopped when our eyes got tired.  Now, it's online check-ins, AAA discounts, asking for an additional bed (because the world is NOT made for a family of 5!), and losing the AAA discount on account of the pet deposit.  It's not as freeing to travel anymore.  And though, thanks to our smart phones, we now have the ability to compare hotel locations, amenities, prices, and ratings as we're driving to our destination, which is nice, it kind of takes away the fun of the search. 

When we got up 5 hours later, we were ready to hit the road after our questionable motel actually provided a breakfast of cereal and toast.  I do have a bad parent confession to make about this day's drive.  Not only did I let my kids have slushies on an early Sunday morning, but they also watched 3 movies.  We tend to be strict about the DVD player in the van.  It's only for long car trips and in a day's drive, we usually limit 2.  I don't know why, but this one day we were incredibly lenient and the result - 5 of the 11 hours back was pretty silent.  I can almost hear my parents bemoaning the dozens of 10-hour car trips made with nothing more than a big can of cheese curls and some books to read.  They were definitely more patient with bored kids. Or maybe we were just better kids :-)  

Though LONG in hours, we rushed the trip as much as we could.  We didn't let anyone get out for more than 20 minutes.  Kenny set the GPS and was determined to keep his goal time.  We did take a few minutes to stop at the TEXAS rest spot, something we have yet to ever do in our past 12 years of traveling to and fro. We were all pretty excited to be crossing the border even if meant still 5 more hours to go. Everyone was pretty homesick.  Lydia couldn't remember what her room looked like anymore which totally annoyed her brother. I was just ready to get back into a routine, if our summer could be called a routine.  I think more than anyone, Radley our cat, was the most excited to be home. No more moving vehicles, no more random houses or hotels, and no new animals to sniff.

Lanie is screaming:  TEXAS!

Kid-Friendly

 

Ding dong the witch is dead! (love these little actors)

   When you visit another town you expect to be entertained by its special attractions and tourist destinations. But, you also expect to be let down by at least 20% of what you see and do, mainly because nothing can be as interesting and exciting as the guidebook describes.  I say that only because I’ve taken a look at my own city’s “Best Of” ideas and some of them are far-fetched.  It cracks me up to see a Pearland Hotel tout itself as being merely miles from NASA space station, a great tourist destination. If “merely miles” in traffic means 45 or more minutes, than I suppose the advertisement isn’t lying, but to me, that’s bending the truth a bit.  I agree that NASA is a great place to visit, but there are some questionable ones.

       But all of this to tell you that after a day in Kansas City and a day in Omaha with Kenny's parents, kid-friendly was the name of the game.  If you happen to be headed to either place with kids, I suggest Kaleidoscope at the Hallmark center in downtown KC and The Wizard of Oz at the Children’s Museum in Omaha. 

     
     The best part of Kaleidoscope is it’s free.  You have to come at certain times, but even though we arrived a bit late, they let us walk right in.  It’s a fun house of all kinds of arts andcrafts, black lights, make-your-own crayons and puzzles.  Their website says they let “children use their imagination to make art with left-over materials from Hallmark.”  How clever! And so environmentally sound. And did I mention free?  

     By itself, the Children’s Museum in Omaha is an above-average go-to kid place.  It’s bright, colorful and the different stations kept my kids content for hours. Plenty of the usual pretend activities, a Mad-Hatter tea party, and science stations that used a major pulley system and plastic balls.  Unlike some other children’s places I’ve been to, there was actually a goal that all the kids in the area worked toward –furiously pushing balls through the pulley system so a lump sum of them would be heavy enough to fall from a net.  Put a goal, a race, balls and my son together and there’s paradise.   The face-painting station wasn’t as good as some of the others, but that’s a small complaint because how many times can you make a kitty cat face look different from the time before.

Oh, Dorothy, It's a twist

    What really tipped the vote for great Museum experience was a trip down the yellow brick road.  We headed upstairs to visit Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Lanie did NOT want to see the wicked witch, but after much convincing that she was just a nice girl in green, she grabbed Dorothy's hand and the fuzzy picture was snapped. They made necklaces in the Emerald City, walked through the witch’s castle, and a favorite – stood through a tornado tunnel.  ($2.00 extra)

         All in all, both days totally lived up to the hype.  This is a very good thing because after this SO MANY FUN THINGS TO DO some-what vacation, it’s back home to slip-n-slides and pb&j's.

Grammie, Grandpa, Elijah and the scarecrow

 

Cowgirls at Heart

   
      One of the more anticipated activities for the kids when traveling to Oklahoma is visiting my sister's family out in the country.  Every summer whether it's July 4th or a week or two later, the kids get to set off fireworks.  That's the nice thing about the country -no set laws and at least for Talala, Oklahoma, no fire ban.  But even better than fireworks is every visit the kids get to ride horses.  Every year they seem to ride a little bit more.  It starts with sitting on the horse when they are little and snapping a dozen pictures, then moves to being led by a lead rope, to now, getting to trot. 

     Elijah has always been a bit leery of going too fast on the horse and once his one time around the field is done, he's had enough.  It's not his thing.  Lanie is just now at the age where she is led around more than once, but she prefers playing with the kittens.  Lydia though, my boot-loving girl, always pushes for more and this time she wanted to go faster. Just walking wasn't enough.  She surprised everyone by how much she enjoyed trotting.  I think it helps that two of her friends back home are taking horse-back riding lessons and her cousin is a super-star rodeo gal.    

     In suburban Texas, it's cool to be country in the city.  And since I've got country in my roots, I'm pleased as punch (really pushing the southern phrases).  Mysister would laugh hearing me say that.  Just because I didn't own a horse at age 18 like she did and just because I don't wear wranglers every day like her, doesn't mean I don't love my Waylon, Willie, Patsy, and good two-stepping music. I've even watched Pure Country about a zillion times just to see George sing "I Cross My Heart."
      I know at my little house on Glencullen Lane I don't have hay to bale or a stable to clean, but I'll always be a cowgirl at heart. I'm crossing my fingers that Lydia is too. 


 

Lanie begged to take the lead.

Lydia trotting -- too fast for a clear picture.

GO DRILLERS!

   Elijah was in absolute heaven last night when we took him see THE DRILLERS -  Tulsa's minor league baseball team.  They've been around forever, their players feeding into the Colorado Rockies farm system.  But, recently they moved the old stadium to downtown and made it a top-notch haven for kids.  Driller stadium has some water slides, a jumpy, a playground, a splash park, not to mention every desirable sweet at a not-as-expensive-as-a-major-league-baseball-game price.  It was a perfect place for our entire family to go on a Monday night.  It wasn't crowded, the sun went down and there was a nice breeze, and the kids were able to roam around in search for the best spot to catch a fly ball.  I even got to sing "O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A where the wind comes sweeping down the plain" during the 7th inning stretch.  It did rattle me a little when I was ready to belt out "Deep in the Heart of Texas." Old habits.
     We all enjoyed it, even Lanie who couldn't seem to sit still for long.  And after 9 innings of waiting, Elijah finally got a fly ball (it dropped in the stands but he was there with his glove the whole time).  He also got to be on the Big Screen doing the burger lift. (weird, right?)  We all tried to get in on the action.  Check out the second pic.  We were lucky our seats were right behind one of the camera guys. It also helped that our section was barely filled. 
      I love my Astros, but our night with the minor leagues couldn't have been any better.  Well, the Drillers could have won, but that's beside the point.      

This is how we sat for about 10 minutes before everyone dispersed to different seats.

All of us trying to get into the limelight.  I'm the one trying to take the picture.

My sister and mom and downtown Tulsa.

Everyone fought over who got to hold the ball.

Mimi - the saint

    I have got to give all credit to my mom this past week.  She took not just my 3, but all 6 of her grandchildren ages 3, 4, 6, 8, 11 & 13 on several outings by herself. By Herself! They went to Bass Pro Shop to paint bird houses, out to lunch, out for pancakes in their pjs, to get ice cream, to a museum, to a restaurant, and to Walmart.   I should have gone along to help, especially with the two littlest,  but every seat belt in her van was filled.  There was no room for me. And I was more than glad to spend some quiet time at their house while Kenny worked.

     
    Six kids aren't easy to wrangle and she did it without complaint.  Me, I would have expected an award.  But it's so uncommon to have all 6 together so I think she kind of relished in it.  What made it all worthwhile is all 6 grandchildren, despite some age differences, get along fantastically.  Somehow, Elijah's 5-year difference from his 13-year-old cousin Clayton and Lydia's 5-year difference from her 11-year-old cousin Cayleigh meant little.  Now, my sister and I were 5 years apart and you would have never seen us as conspiring as they were.  And the two littlest, Lanie and Taylor, merely months apart, even found themselves playing side-by-side. Maybe seeing each other only once or twice a year has its advantages.  Every moment is precious and filled. 

     I know my mom is now exhausted for all the hard work she put in this week, and my dad too for keeping him up late nights, but he got to escape to work.  I'll guess an ounce of her will be glad to have her quieter, newly retired life back.  But, she'd never admit it.  In fact, I know we'll see watery eyes when we leave this morning for our next stop on our journey north.
     We love you Mimi & Papa Tex!
      

East Side Pride

 

 Give a Song, Give a Yell

Give a Cheer

We will stand by East Central Forever

Loyal and true to our School

Whether we are far or near

Rah Rah

Our teams and our clubs we hold dear

May our strength and our courage never weaken

Our banners so high that we wave

It is our luck, It is our pluck

To reach Our victory!

Go! Fight! Win!

Or something like that.  I tried to look up the actual words to the ECHS fight song but I got lost in all the bad publicity of the school.  Coaches who money launder, coaches with DUI's, shootings, poor ratings -- not fun things to read about.  So, I went from memory. 

This past weekend was my 20th reunion and I debated about returning for it.  It worked out to travel this week to both Oklahoma and Nebraska for Kenny's 20th so we went through with it.  Now, Reunion #1 is done.  I had crazy nerves for this weekend.  Friday was bar night so I met friends downtown for a pre-dinner and some courage.  It must have worked because when we joined our class, or the handful who came out for the first night, we had a great time.  It was fun to be an ECHS cardinal for the night.

My one goal was to NOT ask anyone, "so what do you do?"  Do you know how hard that is?  But, I really don't want anyone asking me what I do because I really don't have a solid answer for it, so I figure maybe there are others out there who would prefer not to as well.  So, for the pure challenge of it, I strayed away from the obvious question and instead focused on, "so are you still living here?"  And that opens up all kinds of doors, or so I thought.  What I found out was that many of my old classmates are still here in the area, sort of.  No one stayed in Tulsa proper; they all fled to the outskirts, like my parents.  This of course brought on all kinds of descriptions about where we used to live and how run down it is now, and how dangerous it is now, and how bad things are. And then that just makes me depressed.  No one wants to see their neighborhood overrun by people who don't care about it or each other because that's not how I grew up.  In my memory, our childhood was pretty idyllic.  And anyone else who grew up on my street would say the same.  We certainly didn't have mansions or fancy cars, but it was safe.  We ran the streets, we rode bikes to the neighborhood pool, God forbid without a parent, and I remember some days walking home from school.  But, I guess that's the way it goes. 

I didn't mean to march down memory lane, but it's kind of the order of the day when you see people you haven't seen in 20 years.  And that's what I was looking for in this trip back.  I wanted someone who I haven't seen in years to have a memory about me, about us. Something good.  And it happened. 

Lisa remembered that we buried a treasure box in her back yard and so many other things.

Nicole remembered that she and I read my mom's harlequin book one day and took turns reading the dirty parts. (sorry mom, it's true.)

Kris remembered that he used ride to my house on his bike and knock on my window until I came outside.

LeeAnn remembered my old, wholy blanket and that I sucked my thumb.

Alexis remembered that I could never french-braid my hair the right way, always inside out.

Shannon remembered the movie line we memorized. 

And because I love to live in the past (which is why I'm not officially on Facebook, though I do have a log on) I went up to so many people with, "do you remember?" 

That's about all you can ask for out of a reunion.  Once the memory is remembered and the superficial "where do you live?" question is asked, there isn't a lot of time for more.  I was glad to be there for the weekend fun to see the spectacle of it all, to see how everyone has changed, or not changed in some cases, but happy to return home knowing my small handful of East Central friends that I don't have to prepare "so, where do you live?" questions for, will always be here.  Thank goodness for friends who remember more than your yearbook portrait.  Especially since mine were never good. :-)

Car Trip Cat

   If you know us at all, you know that the Wards often get a late start.  And we knew, after many, many, many trips up the I-45, I-35 corridor that we are never prepared to leave the house when we want to be.  But this trip truly beats all when instead of leaving at the wished for 10am or the "figures" 12pm time frame, we didn't get ourselves on Houston highways until 2pm.  This included about three "wait, we need to stop by here before we go!" stops and lunch.  If you do the math, with a 2pm start time, we didn't arrive at stop 1 - Oklahoma until almost 11:30pm.  And unbelievably, not one child fell asleep the whole way.  We had 9 1/2 hours of music, movies, games, some whining and stops.  Way too many stops.
    But the whammy of it all is that we brought our cat, Boo Radley with us.  And yes I see the eye-roll and the, "are you kidding me?" expression because I get that same expression from Kenny.  But since he loves me, he lets me win and I get to bring Radley every time.  He's a seasoned traveler, and usually handled it with ease.  Except for this time.  With an hour to go, Radley's bladder did not hold out and without having to share too much, I will tell you that today was spent at the car wash, paying for a professional shampoo to get that smell out.  If you read the last post, hopefully you will see the irony of this.
      But despite my dislike of smelly things and the fact that we now have baking soda under our seat, I stand by my vote to bring cats on car trips.  There is something exciting (yes, I used that word) about rushing the kids out the van door while we keep Radley from escaping and there is something tender about each kid begging Radley to come sit on their lap, though lap sitting he usually reserves for me or Kenny in the front seat.  I agree that dogs are easier to travel with, with the leash and the grassy rest stops and all, and cats are a challenge.  But I love the challenge. 
     Radley's an old cat and he's seen a lot of highway drives so I'll give him this one infraction.  But if it happens again on the longer 18 to 19 hour drive home from Nebraska, he may be riding on the roof.  Or I may lose my vote for the next trip.







  

Preparing for the Road

 

       On my to-do list before we head up north was to take my car in to get it washed and to vacuum it out.  Notice I said, take the car "in" because who has time to wash their own car in 105 degree heat?  I would rather throw out good money than to worry about the time and effort in washing my own car.  It sounds so spoiled just writing it.  I used to wash my own car, sometimes by hand but often at the do-it-yourself places where you throw in quarters only to feverishly pump out the water and soap before the time ran out.  It was always kind of a rush and a bit wet.
  But I think I know what happened.  When Kenny started taking the car to get the oil changed, they always washed and vacuumed it and even gave it a new car scent, a package deal.  I guess after that, I just didn't do it anymore.  I just waited for the inevitable oil change. Then because we have 3 kids who spend lots of travel time in the car, the food-spilled rugs and crayon-marked seats came much earlier than a needed oil change.  It was then that I found this lovely little place right by the house that would do it and make it look better than I ever could.  All I had to do was sit in the a/c room and watch TV, jump on their wifi, or skim through a magazine.  They make it so easy.  Really. And then 20-30 dollars later, I have a fine-looking van.  Another one of those time vs. money issues.  We run across them a lot.
   But this weekend, "time" won out. And we spent most of our free Saturday afternoon cleaning, vacuuming,  and washing. We found lost socks, melted crayons, hair barrettes in slime, gobs of coloring pages and lost goldfish.  The heat was not fun.  Not fun at all.  But for the kids, playing around in a car without seats was better than a play ground. And hand-washing the car, as short-lived as it was, was better than the pool next door.  I'm not saying I've shunned SPLASHES CAR WASH, did I mention the time and the heat? But it was good to get a little dirty, and come out with a clean van ready for the road.  (Which of course will just get dirty again and I can start the cycle over.)

A Farewell

    Three weeks ago, on Father's Day, I posted about our Pastor, Rob Harbin, deciding to take a Call to Tennessee and what a big hole their family would leave here in Pearland.  Our big joke was that he ruined Father's Day for Kenny.  Well, this Sunday - the 8th was our (me and Kenny's) 12th anniversary.  A sweet, romantic day, right?  Well, no.  Those Harbin's did it again.  We were at our church's other location in Missouri City, what the kids call "the little church" or a strip mall, for worship where Pastor Rob gave his final sermon to the small congregation.  His real last sermon will be at "the big church" in Pearland next week but we are unable to be there or for the big farewell bash planned.  It was probably better this way.  We had our good-byes and hugs in a small setting and they were gone.
     The most impressive coincidence is that Pastor Harbin chose Philippians 1:3-6, a letter from Paul to the church in Philippi for his farewell verse.  It reads:  "I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
   Why is this such a coincidence, you ask?  If you were to look on the inscription of my wedding ring, the wedding ring I got 12 years to the day, it also says "I thank my God every time I remember you." Ironic, right?  I probably would not have thought about the ring, the wedding dress, the vows, and the memory of the amazing day 12 years ago when Kenny first put the ring on my finger had Pastor not focused his sermon on this verse, this verse hidden not only on my wedding ring but is displayed on frames and candles in my house.  It is a verse of thanks, and of promise.  Thanksgiving that the Lord has placed amazing people in our lives to keep us steadfast, and held accountable, but also a promise that the teaching's we've learned or the friendships we've gained will not be forgotten.   
      Fitting I think for both a marriage of 12 years and a farewell to a family after God's own heart that we'll remember fondly.

    
  

The 4th at the Beach

The Boys

    The 4th of July was a day packed full of activity beginning with an early morning surprise trip to the beach.  I woke each kid by whispering, "do you wanna go to the beach today?" Each one shot up with a "Yeah!"
     It was crowded, hot and wonderful.  With the exception of our cars getting stuck in the sand, along with every other car that drove by, everything went as planned, down to the restaurant on the beach where I got my mandatory chips and salsa, and Kenny happily ate a cheap crawfish plate. The kids even scored with the biggest popsicle ever.
   We went to Surfside with two other families, both families with a set of girls.  Count my two girls and that's a lot of giggling and screaming.  Poor Elijah, he was the only boy of the group and with two sisters, he is often the only boy of the group. His usual response is a whiny, "Moooommmmm, I'm the onnnlllyyy boy.  Why can't I bring a friend?" But not this time.  The beach doesn't cater to one gender over the other, so he happily dug holes with the girls, jumped waves with his dad, spotted a dolphin (which for a few fretful minutes we thought was a shark), and hung out with the adults and little 1-year-old Addie in the tent without complaint. 
    While I don't necessarily love sand in my shoes, or my car, the beach really was a perfect place for all us, both for my silly girls and my lone boy.  We could have walked across the street to the chlorinated pool, but there is something more celebratory, more 4th of Julyish about driving to the shore, digging in the sand, jumping in the salty water, and being with friends.

   

The night before the 4th

  
   We consider ourselves mostly law-abiding citizens with the exception of some HOA laws here and there, but with the No Fireworks Ordinance in Pearland, we find it hard not to bend it a little. We are not outspoken lawbreakers with missiles, roman candles, and fountains.  Those would make me too nervous.  We go small - sparklers, parachutes, smoke bombs, snakes, pops, fire crackers. More loud than anything else.

    So tonight we went to a fireworks stand and bought our measly 35 dollars worth of fireworks and brought them home.  We had planned on making it an early night and trying some out on the 4th, but we folded, and proceeded to mostly go through our stash.  Several neighbors came out to join us and talk about the good ol' days of fireworks.  You know the stories.  Everyone has one about a hand that got burned, or a firecracker that went off near their ear, or a roman candle that ended up catching the grass on fire.

        And I'm sure there are more serious ones.  In fact, that's what kept me from ever doing real fireworks while I was growing up.  My mom was, and still is, a worrier. So the most I got to do was snakes.  Remember those?  See the picture.  You light them, they grow.  End of story.  I still love them and the smell of them brings back memories of sitting on the curb lighting them, but they certainly aren't the daring fireworks that cause you to light and run. 
    
      While we didn't put on a great show tonight that lit up the sky, the kids had a wonderful time making their names with sparklers, chasing parachutes down in the park, and scaring the dogs away with a few things that zipped around in circles and made shrieking noises.  For them, it was daring, colorful and exciting.  For me - it was just enough.

      


 

A Sibling-Free Evening

Ella & Lanie dancing down the street

    Ever once in a blue moon, Lanie gets a sibling-free evening and this past weekend was it.  Elijah had a birthday party to go to and Lydia was with a friend, and Lanie, well, she had us for a date night. It's rare, rare, rare for our car to hold just me, Kenny and Lanie.  We met up with our friends, the Bremers for some hibachi dinner, a walk in Town Center, some Dippin' Dots ice cream and total free-play at their house without a big sister telling Lanie and Ella what to do.  I did miss Lydia there because she tends to run things, and breaks up little girl arguments over toy possession.  And she didn't have a big brother who wanted to go home (because there were no boys to play with).  We took our time, played some trivia games, and let them run amuck.  She was in heaven.
    What was even better was the late drive home when she slowly drifted off to sleep.  I will admit, there were no brushed teeth that night, but a very, very easy bedtime routine. For once.
    The one-kid night was nice, novel and hopefully we'll try it again sometime.  But, our van seemed much more at home, much more complete the next morning with all 5 of us packed in.