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.