Adventure with Grandma

This is a story that one of my friends forwarded to me. It is very sweet and helps us remember the real Christmas spirit.

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!" My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous, cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten- dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs.Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that BobbyDeckerdidn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!

I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It's ... for Bobby." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it --Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the tag tucked inside: $19.95.

Merry Christmas

Hello out there!

Well I know that it has been over a month since my last post, but better late than never, right? Last night we had our Festival of Choirs. Five elementary schools got together and our choirs all sang on one stage. It was really awesome! I got to conduct the piece that our choir sang by themselves and my coworker got to conduct a piece that all of them sang together. She did really well.

Today Bryan and I had to wake up early to go and pick up our car. Jonathan gave us a ride on his way to work. Bryan suggested that we get donuts for breakfast on our way home, I gave in. We came home and worked on our Christmas shopping list and then headed out to Wal-Mart. I bought most of our gifts today. I haven't bought Bryan or Jonathan's presents yet. I couldn't buy Bryan's today because he was with me and I have to go to Austin to get Jonathan's present. I hope that he likes it! I would say what it is, but sometimes he reads this.

Tomorrow we have a Christmas party to go to at church. We are both supposed to bring a white elephant gift, $5. I'm not sure what to get, if you have any suggestions, let me know. The boys usually buy gag gifts, but the girls usually buy normal things.

I have been thinking about laminate flooring a lot lately. I think that it is because our carpet is so stained and I'm really tired of it. I'm a little nervous about laminate flooring though because you can't just vacuum it. I might have to buy one of those expensive swifers, I've heard that they work really well. I hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday.

Up late

So I am having trouble sleeping this week. I wake up around 3 because I have a teeny weeny bladder and then I can't go back to sleep. I just keep thinking about things. I stay awake for about an hour and then I finally get up and watch TV to get sleepy again. I keep looking over at Jonathan and I am so jealous that he is sleeping. He says that he does that to me all the time because I never have trouble falling asleep and he has a hard time getting to sleep initially. 10:30 rolls around and I am out!

So I thought that I would update my blog since I have some time on my hands. A whole lot has been going on around here, but not a whole lot that is interesting. We did carve our pumpkin on Thursday night and we had a good time. I got home in time to cook and we had chicken and pasta, crescent rolls and even a salad! After we ate both of the boys helped me clean up the kitchen and it was fun. I know you're probably thinking, how can washing dishes be fun? But everything is always more fun if people are helping.

So then we set out to carve the pumpkin. Jonathan and I haven't carved a pumpkin since we were kids and we never paid attention to the steps then, so we went on blindly. Luckily we have cutco knives and they did the job very well. Bryan loves those knives because he was here when we picked them out and I guess it feels like they are his too. We don't let him use any of them other than the spatula, but he loves to suggest that we use them for things.

Back to carving. Jonathan made the lid at the top just big enough for Bryan to stick his hands in the top, but then Bryan was scared to stick his hand in. We tried to coax him, but it was no use. So since my hand is smaller than Jonathans, I got to try. As I was sticking my hand in Bryan gave me a very wise warning, "Becca be careful in there, there are lots of weeds!" I think that he meant seeds and we had a good laugh.

Bryan did the artistic work on the pumpkin the night that we brought it home from Grandma's house (thanks for saving us a trip to Wal-Mart Mom!) We cooked the seeds and Bryan really liked them. Then we played this kid version of Crazy Eights. It was quite a hoot. It had picture cards and they were in categories, but we couldn't tell what the categories were so we would try to fit whatever card that we had. Like we would have a sock and it would need to match to a bird or something. We finally read the directions and it gave us the categories, but it was much more fun when we didn't know what we were doing. So that is really all for now. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Family update

Jonathan, Bryan and I went down to Pflugerville to watch Brandon's game. Brandon is very athletic and plays multiple sports. We knew that he had made some sort of special basketball league and we were pretty sure that it was going on throughout the year and not just in basketball season. So it didn't seem odd to us that we were going to see a basketball game in October. We found the gym and were hoping that the game was running late b/c we were running late. Inside the gym the only game that we see going on is a girls volleyball game. So we asked the lady taking money where we could find a basketball game. She looked at us a little weird and said that she didn't know anything about a basketball game.

So we called Grandma (Mom) and asked if she was sure that this game was a Pflugerville because we couldn't find it. She informed us that it was a football game. We said that we had noticed a football game that was just starting. So we headed over there, feeling a little dumb, but glad that we had not missed the game.

The game was good even though Brandon's team did not win. He had an awesome catch, I don't know the yardage, but he did catch it from a very long distance. Nat J was wearing his San Diego Chargers football uniform and he and Bryan had a lot of fun playing football. I don't know if they watched much of the game, but they did enjoy each other. We spent a lot of money at the snack bar and I think that we visited it 4 or 5 times. Of course no one knew exactly what they wanted the first time we went. It was good to see the Nystroms and Debi. Go Brandon for his awesome catch! Thanks for inviting us Brandon.

Netflix goodbye, Blockbuster hello

Well we really like Netflix.....for a while. but lately they have been taking a long time to send us our movies back and it has been frustrating. To give credit to Netflix, the nearest distribution center is in Austin. So I know that it takes a coupl of days to get there and back, but we just weren't satisfied.

So we are going to try Blockbuster. They have the same deal as Netflix, but we also get one free in-store rental a week. So if our movie hasn't come in, we can always rent one, which is nice. We will see if we made the right choice.

Laugh Out loud!!!

Friday nights are our family night. Jonathan and I haven't been feeling well this week so we needed a night on the couch. We rented "The RV." I had seen the previews when it came out and I did not want to see it at all. But it was highly recommended by a couple of people so I decided to give it a chance.

As we turned it on Bryan said, "Is he still a robot?" To Bryan, Robin Williams is the robot from Bicentinial Man. We explained that he was just a regular man in this movie. Its hard to imagine that someone doesn't know how funny he is.

So we laughed so hard during this movie as the "rolling terd" traveled through the US while the family inside tried very hard not to have a good time. Through the whole movie there is this hillarious music with a man humming and it just made the movie. If you haven't seen it, you HAVE TO RENT IT!

Oh and just to prove that Bryan has a toy that goes with every movie, he went into his room and got his RV when the movie was over so that he could act it out.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

So if anyone is still reading my blog, I wanted to share a new recipe with everyone. I made this for my fam the other night and they loved it. Plus it made a lot of leftovers to take to work.

4 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes, diced
1 carton 1/2 & 1/2
Milk (1/2 & 1/2 carton full)
3 chicken breasts cooked & diced
1 small velveeta mexican cheese (I used half of a big regular flavor)
salt, pepper, chili powder (I left that out) to taste

Melt velveeta in microwave (I just got it a little soft, like 2 mintutes). Combine all ingredients and stif in velveeta. heat until hot, NOT boiling. Serve with tortilla chips. You can cook it all day on low, but I didn't have all day. I cooked it 2 hours on high and 1 1/2 hours on low.

I am always looking for easy new recipes. Let me know if any of you have some favorites!

Big Idea

I want to give a Wow! to the Big Idea Company who produces all of the Veggie Tales movies. We just recently rented the Jonah movie and it just reminded me how great these videos are. They have such great stories and they are so creative. This one reminded me how much we need to give people a second chance even when we know that they don't deserve it. It is so easy to use that as an excuse and hold it over other people's heads for weeks, months or even years. None of us are perfect and that is why we need God's mercy and compassion. The people who work for Big Idea have a real gift and I am thankful for their ministry both for me and my children.

Bug

We were home for most of the weekend because Bryan had a stomach bug. I felt really bad for him. He was not himself, he just kind of lounged around and didn't even want to play. He watched lots of movies and we played a couple games of dominos and cards. He was so cute Friday night, I took his temperature and when it beeped he said, "Becca how much do I weigh?" I tried to keep from laughing and told him what his temperature was.

We did leave the house on Saturday night and got to go out with Ruth Ann and Chris on a double date. We met them at the Olive Garden in Round Rock. Grandma was very sweet and kept sick Bryan for us. We started out our evening by ordering 4 different drinks from the bar. They were more like desserts because they had ice cream in them.

Then we all ate our pastas, or at least part of them and ended up at Star Bucks. We had to wait a while to order our coffee because we were so stuffed. It was very good. We had a blast talking with Ruth Ann and Chris. I don't think that I have ever gotten to spend time with them alone and we really enjoyed them. Some people from their church were sweet and offered to keep the kids so they could have a night out. We look forward to going out with them again some time.

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Jury Duty

I had another adult moment today when I went to report for jury duty. Lately I have been having more and more moments when I realized that I am really an adult even if there are times when I don't feel like it.

We all huddled into this big court room so that the judge could explain what our duties were and that he does not let people out of their duty for little reasons, not even his own mom. He even told us that he once had to serve on a jury after he was a judge, and while he considered exempting himself, he decided that it was his duty just as it was everyone else's. He said that Bush was called to serve while he was govenor and that he has now been called in his hometown of Crawford. So I kept the fact that it was the second week of school and I wanted to be excused to myself.

We were split up into four panels for jury selection and sent to different court rooms for different trials. We waited for a little over an hour and then the judge decided to break for lunch. So I went and ate with Jonathan and then came back and waited for 45 minutes to be called in to be questioned by the lawyers. They asked some general questions to everyone and I didn't give any strange answers, in fact I only spoke once, but I was not chosen.

I'm glad for two reasons, one I didn't want to miss more school and it was a custody suit and I think it would have been a very hard trial. I would have liked to see the whole trial process though, I think it would have been very educational.

Dessert

Well for those of you who have been waiting patiently for my new cookie recipe, here it is!

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

1 C. margarine
1 C. p.b.
1 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 C. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl beat margarine, p.b., and sugars. Add eggs and beat again. In a small bowl, combine flour and soda, set aside. Gradually mix in dry ingredients and beat. Bake 15 minutes.

I made a half a batch yesterday because a whole batch makes about 5 dozen, depending on the size of the cookies. But I only got one out of the whole batch! And by the way, don't skimp on the chocolate chips, they won't be as good. Enjoy!

My Mom has joined

My mom announced a couple of days ago that she had a blog. I was at work when I recieved the email and I hadn't had time to announce it on my blog. Check her out. She is linked on the right.

I am ashamed, but I don't have a digital picture of her by herself. I am a bad daughter, I must take one the next time I see her.

Recipes

I am always looking for new recipes and the internet has become a wonderful resource. Here is one of my all time favorites:

Crockpot Lasagna
1 lb ground beef (I use chicken)
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced (I use garlic powder)
1 lg jar of favorite spaghetti sauce (1 lb 10oz.)
1/2 c shredded Parmesean/Ramono cheese
1 pkg. 8oz. no boil lasagna noodles
16 oz. shredded mozzerella
1 lb ricotta cheese
1/4 c milk
1 egg s & p to taste

Brown meat, onions and garlic in oil in frying pan. Drain off grease. Add spaghetti sauce into browned meat mixture. Mix well. In a seperate bowl, mix ricotta cheese, milk and egg. Beat until thouroughly mixed and smooth. Then mix in the mozzarella cheese and the grated cheese, so that all the cheeses are combined.

Grease the crockpot with some vegtable shortening on the bottom and sides. Put about 1/4 of the meat mixture in the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer noodles, cheese adn sauce mixture (about 3 layers). Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Tomorrow I will post my favorite dessert!

1st Day of School

As my friends and I were driving to school yesterday we were discussing how anxious the teachers are about the kids. The kids are always worried and nervous about the teachers, but they probably don't even realize (at least I hope) how nervous we are on the 1st day of school. I could hardly eat breakfast. I guess it was all of the unknowns. I don't know my kids, i don't know if my voice will make it all day because I haven't been teaching all summer, I don't know if they will like the songs I have picked, etc.

But all was well. Ft. Hood made a new ruling that anyone who was in the military and had PK age kids could enroll them in Killeen's Elementary Schools. Last year I had about 17 PK kiddos at a time in my class. This year I have 40! The first day was quite challenging. I gave up seating charts and just hoped that they would all sit somewhere on their bottoms.

I feel for the PK teachers that have them all day. They are just babies that don't even answer to their own names. I was talking to Jonathan about all of this at the dinner table and Bryan overheard us. He had some advice to offer. He said that I should just spell out their names so that they would know who I was talking to. I then told him that they don't know their letters yet. He exclaimed, "They don't know their letters, maybe they just shouldn't come to school!"

Today was much better and I'm sure that trend will continue. I love my new teaching partner and I think it is going to be a great year!

Bryan had a good first day too. He said he likes his teacher, keep him in your prayers, I hope he stays on level this year.

Carpooling

With the high gas prices, 2 of my coworkers and I decided to carpool this year. Three of us live within 5 miles of each other so it is very convenient. We have a 25 mile commute each way. I was buying 3 tanks every two weeks so I have been looking forward to this plan. This week I did not drive so my gas gage stayed at the same level all week. Very exciting! I will be driving next week and then every third week after that.

30th B-day

My friend Emily (her blog is linked on the right) is turning 30 today!! We are going over to her house to party tonight after church. I just wanted to wish her a very happy birthday!

My Nephew

My nephew has recently joined the blogging world. Welcome him if you get a chance. I linked his blog on the right.

We are glad to have you in our world Brandon.

I've been tagged.

My friend Sendy tagged me. I don't know how to link to her blog on my post, but her blog is linked to your right.

5 Things in my freezer:
1. Shredded cheese
2. Frozen bananas
3. Chicken nuggets
4. Hamburger patties (not for me)
5. Ice

5 Things in my closet:
1. Coats because we have no coat closet
2. Lots of bags to pack with
3. Belts
4. Lots of shoes
5. Jonathan's collections of caps

5 Things in my vehicle:
1. Cd's
2. Pen
3. Bryan's ballcap
4. Dish towels (I don't know where they came from)
5. Some trash that I need to clean out

5 Things in my purse:
1. Wallet
2. Cell phone
3. Hair clip
4. Pens
5. Makeup

5 Things on my desk:
1. A to-do list
2. A picture of Jonathan and I
3. Lots of pens and markers
4. Some foam
5. An apple for the teacher, don't worry its made of porcelain

5 Favorite movies:
1. How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days
2. Return to Me
3. While You Were Sleeping
4. Runaway Bride
5. Hitch

Ministry

Our church has a member who is a licensed psychologist and the church pays his salary. In turn members, you might not even have to be a member, can see him for free. Last night Jonathan and I had our first session with him. Don't worry Jonathan and I aren't are on the brink of seperation or anything, but we do need some help dealing with all of the changes that have gone on in our lives in the past 9 months.

We really like the counselor, he validated that we did have a lot going on and it was okay to have the feelings we were having. It was interesting how he didn't give direct advice, but often quoted others which served as advice. He gave us a book called "Boundaries." I know that my mom has read it and I think that Debi is reading it to. So maybe it is a good book for our whole family to read.

Our next appointment isn't until September because he is so booked, but it free and he's a Christian, beggers can't be picky. I am thankful for his ministry.

A new way to mail letters!

Last week Bryan wrote a letter to his mommy. It was very sweet. He asked Jonathan for an envelope to put it in. When he had it all sealed he said, "Becca can you mail this to my Mommy with your computer." I guess he thought that I could somehow insert it in my computer and it would become email.

Then yesterday we had a letter to mail and just for fun I asked Bryan to go and mail it for us at the post office. He took the letter ready to do the job. He walked into the living room and asked, "You mean Jonathan's office?" We laughed and agreed. Then he got in the office and said, "I don't know how to mail it."

Ruth

This morning I woke up very early and I decided that I would take advatage of my extra time by reading my Bible. I always have good intentions of reading the Bible, but somehow life always get in the way. So I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to study this morning, but I knew that I wanted to read about a woman of God. I opened my Bible to Ruth and began to read the story of an amazing woman committed to God and her family.

Ruth lost her husband and though it is not explained how, I'm sure that when it was time to leave her homeland, it had just happened. So here she is a grieving widow with no man to take care of her at all, her father-in-law had died too, and she chooses to take a journey with her mother-in-law back to her homeland. Ruth could have gone back to see her own family, but she told her mother-in-law that she wanted to stay with her.

So in the end God provided her with another husband and a son. Ruth never doubted that God would take care of her. What an example she is!!

Netflix

Jonathan and I have had a subscription at Hollywood video for about a year and a half. We paid so much a month and got to rent as many movies as we wanted and take them three at a time. It was great for us. But then we moved to the other side of town and Hollywood is no longer convenient.

Chris and Ruth Ann love Netflix so when I got a thing in the mail from them the other day, I decided to take a look at the cost. Well it only costs $2 more than we are paying at Hollywood and we don't have to drive across town. And the videos really did come within 24 hours, i was impressed.

So we got our first three yesterday. And one of them was Failure to Launch. I have wanted to see this for a while, but I was very dissapointed. It was a cute story about a 35 year old who didn't want to move out of his parents house. He thought that he had the perfect life, then he met a girl and I won't tell you the rest just in case you want to see it. But I could tell that I would have liked it a lot better if the director had made some different choices. He had a weird sense of humor that kind of just made you go, "What?"

The boy who uses sound to see

This is an amazing story!
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Read it if you get a chance

Walking

Yesterday I woke up very early and could not go back to sleep so I decided to go out to the living room and plop down on the couch. I watched a little TV and then decided to take a walk before Jonathan left for work and before it got too hot. I made a new playlist in my ipod for walking music and set out on my way. Luckily our neighborhood is very flat so that really helped to keep me motivated. Our last neighborhood had huge hills at every turn and it was very overwhelming.

So I really enjoyed my walk. It gave me energy and I was in a great mood when I got back. So for some strange reason I woke up at 5:00 again this morning (maybe I am turning into my mom) and I will be going on my walk again.

I better go and get ready!

Nanny McPhee

We finally rented Nanny McPhee the other night and we really liked it. After I saw how horrible and disrespectful the children were, I was really curious as to what the nanny was going to do with them. I liked the way that she never raised her voice at the kids, but just gave them logical consequences for what they had done. It really worked especially well in the kitchen. And I saw how the kids stared to predict what the Nanny was going to do if they did this. I highly recommend this movie!

They are Married!

Well after a crazy 3 days in Austin, Karen and Scott are married and I got a text message that they made it to Hawaii about 10:40 last night and were on their way to get something to eat.

The wedding was beautiful! I have no pictures though because I could not find my digital camera. I finally found it after everything was over and it was in my backpack the whole time. Isn't that the way it goes? It was really good to see a lot of old friends at the wedding. There was a great turn out. The middle section of the church was full!

Karen decided to have an aisle runner down the middle of the church. It was white with little detail flowers. It was beautiful. One of the reasons she wanted the runner was so that the rose petals would show up on the maroon floor. But cute little Emily did not have a chance to drop the flowers. NatJ grabbed her hand to walk down the aisle and she was left with no hands to drop the petals. The kids were awesome though. Emily only took her shoes off once during the ceremony at which time I invited her to go and sit with her mom. She probably would have made it through, but it was hard for me to concentrate on the wedding and keep an eye on her.

There were so many people who worked so hard to make this day special for Karen and Scott! Thanks to everyone, I know it means the world to them.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We went to the Belton rodeo last night and Bryan got to see the bucking horses, barrel races, rodeo clowns and his favorite-bull riding. I haven't been to a rodeo in a really long time, so I enjoyed it. We got tickets from a friend of ours at church. A client had given them to him and he couldn't go. They were really good seats, we almost got mud and other stuff on us.

It was weird to be at the Bell County Expo Center to see it. I've only been to the rodeo in Austin and the arena is like half the size here. This afternoon we are going to a friends house for a big brisket meal and then tonight we are going to find some fireworks somewhere. Most of Belton is busily getting ready for the parade here. As we were coming home last night, we saw cars parking to reserve their place along Main street. Crazy! We are going to stay in from the parade, Jonathan wants to sleep in on his day off.

I hope all of you have a wonderful 4th of July!

Observations from a small town

Having grown up in the big city of Austin, sometimes I miss the big city life. But today as I was driving around my small town I made some observations:

Top 10 reasons to live in a small town:
10. Driving all the way across town requires a huge committment of 15 mintues.

9. There aren't very many restaurants to eat at so the decision of where to go is greatly narrowed. (Jonathan and I have a hard time picking a place so this is a plus for us)

8. If you feel lonely and need to see some friends, you can just take a trip to Wal-Mart and find a few to talk to.

7. Things like vehicle registration and anything else done in a government building have no lines, or if they do, they consist of one person in front of you.

6. I am direcitonally chanllenged and a small town has less places to get lost. (But it is also more embarassing when you don't know where something is!)

5. The time that you spend at the mall with a teenager is cut in half because there just aren't very many stores, as my niece Brittney says, "Your mall has issues!"

4. You can find just about everything that you need on main street (luckily our neighborhood is right off of it)

3. You don't get bored with just one street name for every street. They all have a regular street name and an FM number (people always have to translate into street names for me, those numbers drive me crazy)

2. There are two main starting digits to remember for phone numbers, so really its kind of like college when you give out your last four digits.

1. People are generally nice in a small town and the pace is a lot slower. Plus I guess this is where God wants us to be and he has blessed us with some wonderful friends!

Would you care to die on that hill?

I recently had the opportunity to serve on my first curriculum committee. We got paid extra because it was not in our contract and I got to have a say about what we are teaching. It actually kind of made me feel a little old and responsible. Music teachers who are of a like mind with me seem to get really passionate about certain songs and the opposite also hold true. We tend to be very passionate about songs that we think are rubbish. So I figured that we would go back and forth during the week arguing about songs and philosophies, but our curriculum coordinator started the week off with this thought. "Is that a hill that you want to die on?"

She made me think not only about the task at hand, but also about my own life. Too often I tend to get caught up in issue and get my panties in a wad, if you will, about stuff that in the whole scheme of life, doesn't even really matter. I heard a preacher a couple of weeks ago who was talking about a certain tradition in the Church of Christ that there is a lot of controversy over (Instrumental music). He was very closed minded about the issue and in my opinion was taking a tradition and turning it into something else. We tend to often find hills that we want to die on within the church. Where the kitchen is going to be located, how the service will be run, should we split into 2 services. I know that I am taking the liberty to speak my mind, but I don't feel like any of the above are sin issues. Do they really influence our walk with God, or do we merely let them influence our walk with God?

So the next time you are feeling passionate about something, think to yourself, "Is that really a hill that I want to die on?"

Top 10 Reasons I Like Summer

This is my first Top Ten, so give me a break, they might get better as I learn.

10. I have no excuse not to exercise, read my Bible, clean the house or make dinner; wait that might be a reason that I don't like summer.

9. I get to make dinner every night if I want to.

8. I don't resent Jonathan for not cleaning the house or doing the dishes because I have been home to do them.

7. I get to really get my house clean, even in the corners.

6. I have learned that sleeping late really just makes me more tired. So I have decided to get up when Jonathan leaves and get started with my day, then find time to take a nap.

5. I will finally get to have my nieces and nephews up to visit from Austin.

4. I can go out with my girlfriends to get a coke.

3. Belton Christian Youth Center for Bryan! He goes almost everyday, I just have to tell him that I need to run errands like Wal-Mart and he asks, "When are we going to leave?"

2. I have been perfecting the one song that I can play on the piano, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma. On Friday I started learning a second piece, "The Surrey with the Fringe on the Top."

1. I have not spent all of my patience at school, so I am generally pleasent to Bryan. I also actually enjoy serving my husband when he gets home and I finally have the energy to spend quality time with him.

Are You a Hick or a Prep?

I saw the weirdest thing on my way home from Dallas Saturday night. It was a hummer with a horse trailer on the back. I know it is stereotypical, but I associate hummers with preps and I associate trailers with hicks. I wish I had a picture, I know that would add a lot to this post, but I was driving and I decided that it wasn't safe to climb in the back of my car to get my camera while the car was moving.

Sister Time

I went up to visit Karen this weekend. She had a personal shower Friday night so I got to go to that. It was a lot of fun! We had chocolate covered strawberries and a little wine. It is true what they say that strawberries bring out the flavor in the wine. Jonathan and I tried to find that out on our honeymoon, but strawberries were out of season.

We played lots of games at the shower that I probably shouldn't mention on the blog, they might make some grandmothers blush. And I also took some pictures that I probably shouldn't post, so I won't, but they are good.

Then Saturday we got to do what we do best, shop! First we went to Garden Ridge to look at wedding stuff and I bought lots of stuff. We don't have a Garden Ridge here and I hadn't been to one in quite some time. Everything was on sale! Then we went and picked up Scott and headed out for some furniture shopping. I found the sofa that I want, but I haven't gotten Jonathan's approval yet. I am working on that.
This is the color that we want (or should I say I want?)
We are looking at getting the large couch, oversized chair and ottoman.

It will be our second big purchase for our new house. We want something that is solid so that it will be easier to match for curtains, rugs, etc.

We also went to Wild Wings for lunch and it was very good. I had to keep my coke close so that I could recover from the spiciness, but I really liked it. I got a "mild" one and Karen and Scott's were quite a bit spicier than mine. We had to all trade a piece.

Then we rented a movie and recovered from our day of shopping. I left last night so I could get back to church this morning. Jonathan stayed home and had some little guy time with Bryan-they watched lots of movies! I really enjoyed seeing Karen and Scott. The wedding is so close and I am so excited for them!

I'm in Heaven!

Bryan and I were jamming to KLove this afternoon while I was folding laundry. I accidentally knocked him over with a white sheet while we were playing. He exclaimed, "I think that I died, I'm in heaven." He then started running around the house with the white sheet saying, "I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven." He told me that i needed to go and get a white one too so that I could go to heaven. I suggested that we take a picture of us in heaven and he said, "Yea and then you could write a story on your computer!" We have been talking about God a lot and when we will get to see Him. I can't wait until I can proclaim, "I am in heaven."

The Prayer of a Child

Nothing touches my heart like Bryan's prayers. I will try to remember the one that he prayed as he went to bed tonight.

Dear God
Thank you for this day and thank you for all of the people in the whole world. Thank you for my new school (Belton Christian Youth Center daycare). I had a lot of fun playing pool. Thank you for my family and thank you most of all for your blessings.

In Jesus' name
Amen

If we could all pray like a child.

Laundry

Why is it that there is always laundry to do. Lately I have been doing at least one load a day and there is always at least on waiting. I remember in college I would do laundry once every two weeks and every once in a while I would have to do it once a week. I know that there is more than me to worry about now, but still geez. I know this post was not life altering, but those are my thoughts for the day.

Oh how times have changed.

Bryan got ahold of my camera and went to town. When I was a kid, pictures were very expensive and we were not allowed to take lots of random stuff, but times are different now. Bryan doesn't even usually ask to print the pictures out, it is enough just to know that they are on the camera I guess. I had to pick some of my favorites from his 11 snapshots, oh to be a kid again.



This is my favorite, a picture of a picture!



On another note, Bryan says some really funny things. The other day after we went out to eat, Bryan and I were waiting in the car for Jonathan to get in. All of a sudden, he piped up that he better move away from the right side of the back seat. I asked him why and he said, "Its kind of grouchy over there!" I laughed so hard.

Eew Gross!

Jonathan came home last night with his first on the job injury. A forklift somehow jammed his ring finger on his left hand. He was in throbbing pain when he got home. I gave him a couple of advil and he soaked his finger in warm water. He then proceeded to poke a hole in his nail to relieve the blood. I thought about putting a picture on the blog, but I decided against it.

A Tribute to Nancy

When I started teaching 3 years ago, Nancy was my mentor. She was a great mentor always one step ahead of me and giving me little nudges when I needed them. When Nancy decided to move to the new school, I was a little sad that we would no longer be teaching together. But then I was blessed with the opportunity to go with her.

When Nancy got back from her Christmas vacation, she announced that she knew what she needed to do with her life (as if she hadn't already done enough)! She said that her mom is still able to be up and about and travel right now so she wanted to go and get to spend some time with her mom while she still could. She is retiring from 29 years of teaching and I am going to greatly miss her!

Here is a picture from her retirement party.

Lots of Updates

I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have updated my blog. Tomorrow is my last day of school so maybe I will have a little more time! Last weekend we went camping at Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Belton. It was only a short drive, so Bryan and I went and met a group from Hyde Park (my Mom's church). We had lots of fun and really good food. Ruth Ann made eggs and bacon for breakfast and we had Barbecue chicken for dinner. No hamburgers and hot dogs for us.

Here are some pictures from our adventure.


Here is Mom riding the jet ski, can you believe it?


The kids acting out the game of baseball stuffed animal style.


Mom getting some much needed sleep!

Can You Believe It

I have written two updates in one weekend, its like a record for me.

Jonathan and I had a date night last night and it was so much fun to get to hang out together like we used to pre-munchkin. We got some Chinese food and I really wanted to go to the movies, but Jonathan wasn't in a movies mood because it is so expensive these days. Then I admitted that I really only wanted to go for the popcorn. So we drove to the movie theater and ordered some popcorn (the concessions are outside of the ticketed area. But they moved the guy that takes the tickets and now he is right in front of the butter. You can't have movie popcorn without the butter! So I had to tell him that all I wanted was some butter and that we weren't watching a movie, he probably thought I was a dork, but let me through anyway. Our friends Tim and Emily have offered to take Bryan once a week so that we can have a date night. They are such a blessing!

Then we watched "The Weather Man." It had Nicolas Cage and I have always liked him as an actor, he seems real and not so glitzy like some of the stars. Anyway it was about a weather man who didn't actually have a degree in meteorology, he was basically a deliverer of lines. I won't tell you about the whole movie, in case you want to see it. It was rated R and it had very explicit language and some scenes that I could have done without. But you don't have to watch the movie to get this quote. Background: The main character was always trying to please his father and no matter what he did it didn't seem to matter. He was complaining to his father about how tough his life had gotten and his father said this, "The right answer is usually the difficult answer, there is no easy part about being an adult." I probably didn't get it just right, but it was something like that.

It really made me think, he's right. We complain about how hard our lives are, but we really only have one purpose, to serve God and that means serving others. If we could just get over ourselves and concentrate on that, maybe all of our decisions would be easier. I'm really preaching to myself!

For Scott

This blog entry is for Scott, who informed me this morning that I needed to update my blog. Well nothing exciting has been happening around here lately. I am counting down to the end of the school year, the kids are driving me crazy. They are irritable, the most common tattle this week was, "He's looking at me." And my response is usually "So?" I have been saying "Get over it," a lot in the past couple of weeks.

I also got a new bedspread for our bed. Our old one was just fine except that it is a down comforter and the temperatures have not been calling for extra warmth at night. Jonathan and I were using a thin blue blanket and a sheet and it just wasn't pretty so good old Wal-Mart came through. I found this sage green bedspread for only $25! It is thin and adds a little color to our very neutral room. As you noticed, I had to leave the purple throw pillows because I couldn't have a room without a little bit of purple in it.


I also put our wooden verse back up over our bed. This verse has been with us since we got married, it actually matched our bed which can be a hard thing to do. It has followed us from apartment to apartment over the last five years. But a couple of months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking about how we could both die if that wooden verse fell on us just right and I couldn't go back to sleep. We had to take it down right then. But I came back to my senses last weekend, it hasn't fallen down at any other place so why should it fall down here right?

I had a our choir concert this week and my kids did really well. We sang a couple of songs from the "Sound of Music." We sang a sappy song to make the parents cry, we also sang Syahamba and a piece called "The Journey." It is my favorite classical piece from Dvorak's New World Symphony put to words. Absolutely lovely. The flowers next to my bed are from one of my choir students. I also got some pink roses from another student. He is in fifth grade and I can tell that he they were from his mom, "I said thank you and tried to give him a hug, but he was a super cool fifth grader." It made me laugh.

We also had our carnival at school last night. Bryan was so pumped, he called it a party. The lines were very long and so after about an hour, I had the bright idea that we could go and play at McDonald's instead of wait out the lines. He fell for it!

The Reality Has Set In

Bryan has been living with us for about 3 1/2 months now. He has adjusted really well. He has stopped his whining for the most part, he is becoming more outgoing, and seems to be happier in general. He now asks to help around the house, smiles a lot and is a lot of fun to hang out with.

But this weekend we went down to see his mom and ever since we got back he gets sad every night and says that he wants to go back and live with her. I think that the reality has set in. This isn't a temporary thing and we do have a lot more rules than Mommy did. It breaks my heart when he gets out of bed at night and says that he is sad. The only thing that I can tell him is that I don't know when he will go back and live with his mommy. I keep telling him that we want him to live with his mom too as soon as it is a good time. He keeps asking me if it will be in a couple of days or weeks. I guess he wants me to commit to a time so that he can plan on it.

Please keep him in your prayers. I know that this is a very hard and confusing time for him.

Segway

Since I have not yet learned how to put links in my blog, here is the website for the coolest new thing...Segways

www.glidingrevolution.com

They are two-wheeled gliders that sense your balance and run on batteries. You simply lean forward to go forward and backwards to backwards. I had seen people riding them at Disney World and I was amazed by them.
Karen and Scott and Jonathan and I had a double date riding these and it was a blast. Karen and I haven't really gotten to go on a real double date yet, so it was some much needed quality time.

After we rode for all of 5 minutes, we all decided that we wanted one. But since they are 5K, that is probably not going to happen. Plus, you need to have someone to ride with so it would actually end up costing 10K. So it is a pipe dream, but still a dream. Keep Austin weird!

The Farm

We went to the farm last weekend and it was a little boy's heaven. Bryan had so much fun that he didn't want to leave. We went fishing, driving through the woods, hiking through the woods, got to see a dead rattler and see a baby foal (horse). Here is a picture of Bryan driving the riding lawn mower with Jonathan. Jonathan's grandpa has a picture of him and Jonathan when he was about that age too.

It was good to see his grandparents. We are worried about his Mimi. She was diagnosed with alzheimers about 5 years ago and its signs have been very minimal until recently. Mimi has started to see people in the field and in the house. She even accused Papo of walking with another lady outside. It is very sad to know what she is going through. She seemed fine while we were there, but she has good days and bad days.

Woohooo!

Did I spell that correctly? About 2 weeks ago Jonathan decided to stop by John Deer and see if they had any jobs in the diesel field. One of Jonathan's uncles works for John Deer and he has told us what a great company it is. 2 managers took Jonathan out to lunch to discuss the possibilities. They said that they did need a diesel mechanic, but that they needed him to go to school before he could start working for them. Jonathan told them about the diesel program at TSTC and they were very interested and said they might even be able to help him out with the schooling if he could specialize in bigger diesel equipment.

They exchanged information and the manager said he would get back with Jonathan. So he went back today and they said that they would be able to help him with school, but they aren't sure how much yet. Jonathan asked if there were any jobs that he could do now until he started school in the fall. He said that there was a spot that he was planning on filling this week moving tractors around. So he starts tomorrow!!!! No more pizza and normal hours. I am so thankful.

Our fifth nephew!

Our fifth nephew was born on Friday, March 24th at 11:30 PM. He was 19 inches long and 8 and 1/2 pounds. The coolest part was that he was born on his Mom's birthday!! The nurses couldn't believe it. His name is Christopher Farris Barefield and he is precious. Here are some picture from the hospital.

Mom, Dad and baby!


Bryan and baby


Me and baby!

This is the father's first baby and he is so cute with him. He is a proud father. Debi was doing great and was up and moving around the room when we got there. Bless her heart, she had to have him naturally because he came too quickly, but luckily he was out with only three pushes. Go Debi!

In case you didn't notice, there isn't a picture of Jonathan holding the baby. He said that he's not good with them, but I think that he thinks he might like him if holds him! Oh no, then he might even want one of his own.

Boys Will Be Boys

Since Bryan has come to live with us. Jonathan has had a great excuse to do all of those boy things that he might feel too old to do. Here are some pictures of them playing together:


Here they are racing remote control cars


Here they are racing computer cars


Here they are drawing the ultimate racing cars

What's This?

So tonight Bryan comes out of my room and brings me this box and says, "What's this?" I guess I shouldn't leave this stuff laying on the bed anymore.

I have been tagged.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to Chris's tag. Thanks Chris, I feel loved.

4 jobs I've had in my life:
1. Elementary music teacher
2. Elementary band teacher
3. Children's Choir director at a Presbyterian church (don't worry, I went forward)
4. JCPenney associate in the children's department

Notice a theme?

4 movies I could watch over and over
1. Return to Me
2. While You Were Sleeping
3. The Italian Job
4. Stepmom

4 TV shows I love to watch
1. CSI
2. Gray's Anatomy
3. House
4. Nanny 911

4 Places where I have lived:
1. Temple
2. Edmond, OK
3. Austin
4. ?

4 Places I've been on vacation:
1. Destin, FL
2. Connecticut
3. Disney World
4. Galveston

4 Places I'd rather be:
1. On a cruise
2. On any vacation

4 of my favorite foods:
1. Pizza (surprising huh?)
2. Peanut butter and banana shakes
3. Pancakes/waffles
4. grilled chicken

Great Weekend

My mom and Debi came up for the weekend to visit Bryan and we had a good visit! Friday night, I got in late from a convention in San Antonio and we got to visit a little. Then on Saturday we all slept late and had a lazy day. We had waffles for breakfast, sat around and talked, rented a couple movies and did some grocery shopping. Then Saturday night Jonathan and I got to go on a date. Taking care of a child makes us really appreciate our time together.

We went to see Firewall. It had Harrison Ford in it and I don't know the names of the other actors and actresses. It was pretty good, with lots of action. We were a little dissapointed by its abrupt ending. Jonathan said that they probably ran out of money and decided to end the story. I think that they hit the 2 hour mark and had to stop.

Sunday it was icy and church was canceled, so we slept late again and spent the morning talking. Then Debi took Bryan to McDonalds for some Mommy/son time and they really enjoyed themselves. When it was time for Debi and Mom to leave, Bryan got a little upset and said that he didn't want her to go. I hugged on him and we talked about why he was living here and how much his mom loved him. Then he was cheered up when we decided to "dogpile" some pillows in the living room.

Then we ate dinner and did some homework. I have been teaching him how to clean his own bathroom and he really takes pride in the fact that he does it. Thank goodness for bleach wipes! Then I told him that I had to go and clean my bathroom and he said, "Can I help?!" I said that I would love for him to help. That was a surprise. He helped me clean the whole house. We scrubbed the stains in the carpet, vacuumed, cleaned my bedroom, and he loved his job of emptying all of the little trash cans into the big one. He was excited every time we found another one that needed to be emptied. What a great weekend.

Thoughts From a Little Man

Well Bryan has been with us for about 4 days now. He has survived going to a brand new school, settling into a new room and living with two people who have never lived with kids. Tonight I was in the other room and I heard Bryan exclaim, "Oh Emmy, you're having a bad hair day." Followed by some exclamations about cute kitties. I assumed he was looking at my screne saver on my computer. I came back in the room and he said, "Hey Becca, why don't you have more pictures of me?" I said well I do have a picture of you as my background on my computer. He said, "Yeah, but you have lots of pictures of Nat J and Emmy and not lots of pictures of me." I said, "Okay let's take some." His favorite was this one. He got out all of his favorite stuffed animals and put them on his bed one at a time so that they would be in just the right place. Then we loaded it on my computer and he said that he wanted it to be my background, "Can you do that?" I said, "Sure" and put it as the background. He then said that Nat J and Emmy will probably want their picture back on there, but that he liked it this way.


Here is one of him and his mom. In case you couldn't tell he loves his new bed, thanks Pam!

Just For a Little While

We have been blessed with a guest in our home. Our seven year old nephew is going to stay with us for a little while. We are excited about him coming. We have started our preparations: new room decor that does not have pink flowers, new bathroom toiletries that won't burn the eyes, an evening schedule that might be more for us than him, but most of all prayer that this will be the best place for him even if it is just for a little while.

A Hamburger

As most of you know, I have not had a hamburger in about 10 years. I usually never crave them, but one time a couple of months ago I did have 2 bites of Jonathan's whataburger. I don't know what came over me, I just wanted some really badly. Then I recently discovered ground turkey meat. I have made things like lasagna and tater tot casserole and tonight I made myself a hamburger, or should I say a turkey burger. While I know that it is not exactly the original, it was good. Don't worry, I did make Jonathan a regular burger, I don't make him eat turkey all the time. And it is definitely healthy, it hardly shrank, which resulted in a big burger. Oops.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to Karen
Happy birthday to Karen
Happy birthday dear Karen
Happy birthday to you!

Karen turned 28 yesterday!!!!

2006

So it is another year. The biggest change for me when a new year starts is writing the checks with the correct year or noticing dates printed with 06. This was an unusual New Years for us. For the 1st time in our 5 years of marriage, Jonathan was off work, but he was still hard at work. We took one our friends from church with us and we headed down to Austin. First stop was my mom's house where a music teacher and an airplane mechanic became electricians and plumbers. My mom got a garbage disposal for Christmas about 3 years ago and she always talks about how it would be nice to have it in. Jonathan said that he wouldn't mind putting it in, but he was unsure about the electrical side of things since it would involve wiring with the dishwasher. But somehow, armed with his friend Tim (the music teacher), he had a new confidence in his abilities.

Mom decided to go ahead and get a new sink because hers was really old and she might as well get it all done. So they set off on their project and there seemed to be many obstacles along the way, but after learning how to wire the dishwasher, install a switch, sauter a new pipe to the old one (which was leaking) and make a sink fit in a hole that was too big for it, the sink and garbage disposal are working!

Then the next day they headed over to Jonathan's dad's house to put a floor in their attic. That of course had its own obstacles, Tim made a nice skylight in Chris's closet and Chris didn't even know that he always wanted a skylight in his closet. They got about half of it done and will probably go back another weekend to finish the job.

Tomorrow is back to the grind at work, but I am going to enjoy my day off today! I might lay around and think of some resolutions that I should make, or I might just resolve to take naps all day, we'll see what my inspiration is. But I wish a happy and blessed year to all of my friends and family!