Philip cheers on the Stingers

Last Saturday night, Matthew, Philip and I joined our friends Les and Melody for a Spartanburg Stingers game. It is a baseball team made up of college baseball players who want a chance to play for an "imitation" major league team so as to keep up their skills during the summer. The Stingers play their games at Duncan Park, a nostalgic old stadium built in the 1920's.


Dancing in the aisle.

Philip had a good time through the first hour, but got a little cranky the next two. He just wanted to walk everywhere but as he gets sleepy, he also gets clumsy. I didn't want him falling down the steps.

We also had fun watching him watch the bee mascot walk throughout the stadium. At first, Philip seemed like he wanted to go see the bee. He and I followed the bee all the way across the stadium only to have Philip stop dead in his tracks when the bee turned around facing us. He wanted me to pick him up which I did. I asked Philip if he wanted to go see the bee to which he emphatically shook his head no and pointed back toward Matthew. That close encounter did not keep Philip from watching that bee everywhere he went for the rest of the game.

The funniest moment of the night was Philip's cheering on the team. Although Matthew had just told me not to videotape up and down, I still managed to do it. This is a great clip of our excited boy, but you will have to either turn your monitor up on its side or tilt your head. (I'm not being held responsible for damage to your monitor!)

My sweetie's birthday

Thank you Lori for your wonderful post celebrating Matthew's 30th birthday! Yes, my husband has now reached the big 3-0 like I did last year. I wanted it to be special so Matthew was surprised with a few different birthday presents. On Tuesday (the day before his birthday), he came home to find a chocolate cake waiting for him. We were headed over to Ruth Ann's house to enjoy her wonderful lasagna with Mollie, Michael, and Mollie's friend Kimberlee. I thought the cake would make a nice dessert and by taking it there, we wouldn't have to eat an entire cake by ourselves. Before leaving our house, I sat Matthew on the couch for his second surprise. Monday and Tuesday while Matthew was at work working on his computer projects, I had a computer project of my own: a photo slideshow. I copied and pasted any and all pictures on my hard drive of the two of us alone, the two of us with Philip or just Matthew and Philip into our movie editting software. The program set random transitions between the photos and it was set to Stay With You by the Goo Goo Dolls. I loved it and actually cried when I first saw the final edition. After showing it to Matthew, I said, "Do you feel like you might cry?" He said, "Naw." I know he loves me and Philip!!



Matthew's birthday cake.


Philip and Grandma look on as Daddy cuts his cake.

Wednesday morning, I gave him a North Carolina Tarheels squishy pillow. Matthew loves a lot of things, but two of them are the Tarheels (basketball!) and laying on the couch. The pillow tied the two together nicely. Later that night after coming home from choir practice, he got his final present: a nightgown from Victoria's Secret! Obviously, I was wearing it, not him. We're not sure how they had his birthday on file, but Matthew received a $10 gift card from VS telling him to "Have A Sexy Birthday". He gave it to me and said I could go find something. I think he liked what I picked out.

Philip's "Little Boy" Personality

I thank the Lord for letting me watch my son develop into the wonderful individual that he is. At this age, his cousin Hannah was leading her toys in little conversations. Philip on the other hand is loading up his tractor and revving the engine!! I'm sure there are storylines going on inside his head too but the only soundtracks to his stories are sound effects. Such a boy.

It is also great to see how much of an avid "reader" (i.e. "looker") he is continuing to be. My mom recently cleaned out their shed and gave me many of my childhood toys and books. When Philip finds my old Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, he will sit for 15 minutes straight looking at all the pictures and flipping between pages. I remember loving that book, and I'm glad he is enjoying it too. Bet he'll like it even more once he really starts to learn to read!

(On a side note, if you click the book title, you will find the page I found when trying to provide a link. It describes how the 1991 publication is different from the original 1963 publication. It was politically corrected!! Where will it end?! "Mail man" became "letter carrier", "pretty stewardess" became "flight attendant", and my favorite is on the playground page. The 1963 book shows boy cat chasing girl cat; the 1991 book shows girl cat chasing boy cat!! I'm glad Philip will be looking at the version prior to the liberal feminists getting their hands on it!)

Philip's Week (as told by Philip)

This has been a really fun week. I'm really glad Mommy and Daddy are back this week from the beach. Monday began with taking a walk with my friends, Jaina and Jayce and their Mommy, Jessie, who is my Mommy's friend. They all live across the street. I was still worn out from the excitement of last week so Mommy let me take an early nap; I slept from 10:30am until Mommy came in to find me screaming at 12:15pm. My thigh got stuck between my cribs bars and it wouldn't budge!! Thank you, Mommy, for rescuing me! Next came grocery shopping. Yeah, shopping cart riding!

Tuesday, Mommy had Bible study so I got to play with some kids in the church nursery from 10:00-11:30am. Unfortunately, one of the little girls later told Mommy that I stole her poptart. It's been a long time since I've seen a poptart and just wanted to remember what it tasted like. Anyway, after Mommy's Bible study ended, she took me to the church playground for a few minutes. That wound me up so I didn't end up getting sleepy for my nap until 1:30pm. I was still in my crib when Daddy came home at 5:15pm!! I didn't sleep the entire time, but I just really like to lay in my crib and relax.

Wednesday, Mommy took me somewhere I had never been... the movies! Jessie and Jaina were going to see a VeggieTales movie and invited us. Mommy found out that it was free and thought we had nothing to lose. I'm glad Mommy thought to invite my friend Emma and her Mommy Jo Ellen too. I watched the first 20 minutes of the movie; the picture was sooo much bigger than our tv at home!! That was about as long as I could sit still so I joined Emma who was walking around in our row and drank some juice and ate some cheese crackers. Emma left after 30 minutes as she doesn't like movies that much and wanted to play outside instead. We stayed another 30 minutes, but I didn't see much of the movie. I did like walking to the end of our row and peeking around to the next row by the curtain. We went home so I could take a good nap. Mommy then drove me to visit Mrs. Cordie. Her son Marvin was there. He's fun and lets me watch their cats walk around outside. He also gave me a new book that has pictures of farm animals. When you push a button, you can hear what they sound like. After giving Mrs. Cordie and Marvin hugs goodbye, I laughed all the way to church at the animal sounds in my book. It was a special night at church supper. Mommy got me my own plate! I'm going through a growth spurt and Mommy didn't want to give me her whole dinner. I can also drink from a straw now so I get to drink pink lemonade like all of the big kids. It was yummy!

Today was a lot of fun again. Miss Julie came to pick up me and Mommy around 9:30am. I was excited to see Sara Beth and Brittany. They are kind of like big sisters to me. They make me laugh! Miss Julie drove us to Krispy Kreme. Yum!! I had a glazed doughnut and part of a powdered sugar cake doughnut! It was only my second time eating Krispy Kreme and the first was too long ago for me to remember (February). Next we went to a place called Barnet Park. There was water shooting up out of the ground. I was kind of scared at first because there were a lot of big kids. My friend Emma came to meet us there too. She is so brave and wasn't scared at all. I watched her and got braver myself. It was cold at first, but after I figured out how the water worked, it was fun. I walked right through the water. Thanks Miss Jo Ellen for bringing me a water diaper to wear under my clothes. Mommy will know next time that Barnet Park is a place for bathing suits!! After getting into dry clothes, Mommy and I went over to Nana's house. She is still feeling bad from everything that's happened. Mommy said she has to use the potty about 12 times a day and it hurts her bottom. I took a nap at Nana's house, but then we prayed with Nana just before we left. I love my Nana and can't wait for her to get better so we can go to the park again.

Watching the big screen with Mommy.



Hanging out with my friend Emma.



Eating doughnuts with Sara Beth and Brittany.




Emma is so brave. She doesn't care that everyone is twice her size!



Philip and Emma "play" together (aka they walk around near each other).



"I think I like it here!"



Brittany shows Philip where the water comes from.



No more fear! Philip says, "I got this!"



"I definitely want to come back here again!"

Photos from Student Life

Waiting in the hotel lobby to get on the buses.



Our youth claimed the front row for evening worship.



The band Starfield on stage rocking out.



The view of the beach from my hotel room, #1638!!




Broadway at the Beach... what a beautiful day.




Clothes and food and souvenirs, oh my!!



Fun on the beach. Poor Isaac but he's still smiling.




Our self-portrait on the beach.



Chandler helped me not miss Philip so much. His parents' drove the buses so I took care of him while they were parking.




Our last morning on the beach. We all wanted to get home, but just weren't ready to say goodbye to the ocean.

Our Week at Student Life

Matthew and I spent last week with our church youth attending a Student Life conference in Myrtle Beach, SC. We had a great time reconnecting with our students, enjoying the beach, and growing to understand the complex attitudes of Christ and how we can make them our own. Jesus, although fully God, was just as human as us and therefore had many sides to His personality. Each chaperone was responsible to lead a "family group" time each day (similar to a Sunday School lesson) in which we explored how Jesus related to those people with whom He interacted. They were interesting lessons however it was hard to get much interaction from the teenage girls I was leading at 8:30am! I pray the overall message sunk in.

Each day began with breakfast (in our rooms) and then "family group" time. We then all headed to the buses and drove to the MB Convention Center for Morning Celebration. It was a lot of fun and included opening announcements from four "secret agents" (four SL actors each with their own funny personalities and accents), worship music from Starfield (band from Canada who were so "hot" according to the younger girls), and short talk from our camp pastor David Nasser. He was a great speaker and had a really eye-opening viewpoint on Christianity as he's an Iranian who was raised Muslim, but became a Christian after moving to the US as a teenager. David's morning messages were about famous Christians who we might not know a lot about (i.e. Charles Spurgeon and Corrie Ten Boom).

Next back to the buses and to our hotels for lunch in our room (we had full kitchens so this was a great way to save money and time -- the church provided each room with milk, o.j., poptarts, cereal, bread, lunchmeat, corndogs, chips, and soda). From 1:00pm until 5:00pm, we had free time. Each day fell a little differently as Tropical Storm Alberto came on through during our week, but overall it wasn't that bad. Tuesday, we all played on the beach beneath an overcast sky (no sunburns!); Wednesday, we some headed to Broadway at the Beach while others stayed in their rooms because Alberto's winds caused a strong riptide current (no one in the ocean!); and Thursday, back on the beach from 1:00pm until 3:30pm (beautiful, picture-perfect, blue sky) before getting ready for a nice dinner out.

After dinner each night (fast food each day except Chinese Buffet on Thursday), we bused back to the convention center for our evening worship. More music from Starfield (I kept calling them Starfish by mistake!) and a message from David. He really wanted us to expand our view of Christ. One very interesting comment was that is you act like a Christian, it doesn't just make you a Christian. However, if you are a Christian, you better start acting like one. David also brought up the idea that violence is not always bad. Knowing whether to fight or not (i.e. organized wars, not fist fights) depends on what is at stake. The crucifixion was possibly the most violent act in history, and yet Jesus waged war at Calvary because we were at stake. David said something which I had never thought of before. God let out his wrath on the world by means of the flood. All people and animal life died except for those inside the ark with Noah. David said, "What is wrong with the picture that people now decorate their babies' nurseries with Noah's ark stuff? Americans have taken the violent truth out of the story and made it all pastel, smiling animals!!" Funny, yet true.

Friday came and I was READY to get back home to Philip. I had not worried about him much during the week as each time I called my brother, Mike, I could hear Philip singing in the background. They had a great week as well and I'll post photos as soon as Mike emails them to me. Once we did arrive back at our church, Mike, his wife Andrea and Philip were waiting in the parking lot. For the next 15 minutes, it was back and forth. Matthew would have Philip but he'd be reaching for me; I'd hold him and he'd be reaching for Matthew. Sweet boy didn't know which parent he wanted more.

Saying So Long to Philip

This evening Matthew and I dropped off Philip with my brother Mike and his wife Andrea. I won't see Philip again until Friday evening! ARRRGGGHHH as Charlie Brown would say!! Before having him, Matthew and I spent our week's vacation each year chaperoning our youth on their camp trips. We both really enjoy the time worshiping the Lord and forming friendships with these great teenagers. Obviously, that had to be put on the back burner the year after Philip was born (I was nursing him so couldn't leave him, but didn't want to take an infant to a busy, fun-filled, LOUD youth event). Now our chance has come again and I'm excited and heartbroken at the same time. Tomorrow we pull out of our church parking lot at 6:00am headed to Myrtle Beach for a Student Life Conference. I trust Mike and Andrea completely, but it's still a feeling only another mother would understand. I'll miss you sweet munchkin.

Mom's progress

Please continue to keep my Mom in your prayers. Her surgery to reverse the ileostomy bag was on May 18. Today is June 9 and she hasn't left home except for a doctor's appointment. Because her large intestine had nothing passing through it for four months, it seems to be asleep for lack of a more scientific term. That along with a portion of her rectum being removed means it could be weeks before her body is somewhat back to normal. Honestly, she will use the bathroom only to be back in there 5 to 10 minutes later (sometimes as she's leaving the bathroom, she has to turn around and head right back to the toilet). That continues for 30 minutes to an hour sometimes. She prays to the Lord just to give her 30 minutes free to sit outside on the porch swing to read a devotional. As you can imagine, her backside burns from so many bathroom trips. She is actually using prescription-strength Desitin. Mom wanted me to put all this on the blog so you would know how to specifically pray for her. We ask that her bowel movements would become more solid so as not to burn so much and that her bowels would regain strength to "hold it" for longer time spans. The Lord has brought her thus far and is not letting her down now. Patience would be another good thing to add to your prayer request.

Mollie's Wedding Weekend

Ok, ok... it was Michael's weekend too, but I'm posting about all of the bridal festivities because that was what I was involved with. Anyway, I had been so looking forward to last weekend and told Mollie that other than my own wedding, her's was the most exciting as she had let me follow her and Michael all along the path of preparing and growing anticipation!! When Mollie graduated from Lander and moved back home last summer, she asked me if we could be accountability partners. I said yes, not knowing exactly what that entailed. Looking back over this year, I now thank the Lord for bringing Mollie and I together as cousins-in-law because now we are as close as sisters! God gave each of us a brother to grow up with, but now we each have a sister too. (To my sisters-in-law Lori and Andrea, I wish so much it were possible for us to have lunch once a week also. Know that since we don't see each other as often, I do cherish our time together that much more!!)

The bridal week events began on Thursday night... Mollie's lingerie shower. Mollie's high school friend and bridesmaid Erin's mom Connie hosted the shower at her home. As Connie was also the wedding director, it allowed her time to get to know Mollie's half of the wedding party. I forgot my camera, but as it was a lingerie shower and this is a family-friendly blog, just know Mollie received many lovely things and a few that I can't go into. We had a great time giving Mollie a hard time, but all done in good fun. Only two days to go!

Friday would be another fun-filled day. Philip joined me today in going back to Connie's house for Mollie's bridal brunch / swim party. He was overwhelmed by all the girls, and was oh so glad to see that Grandma (Ruth Ann) was at the party too. Philip was in the water a good bit last summer, but all those times had left his little memory so he was pretty hesistant about this enormous "bath tub" he saw before him.


It was a beautiful day to get a little sun and relaxation before the rehearsal that night and wedding the following afternoon.

Leave it to Mollie and Michael to request everyone wear overalls to their rehearsal dinner. It was a delicious meal followed up with a John Deere cake (hence the overalls, but wait, there's more tractors to come!). They chose to do something so special and so inspiring. As we've all seen at rehearsal dinners, people come to the mic and say what they love about the bride and groom and give them advice (sometimes unwanted!). Michael and Mollie wanted this entire weekend to be glorifying to the Lord Jesus. Travis, the minister and the couple's good friend, said, "Michael and Mollie would like for everyone to just shout out ways in which you have seen Jesus displayed in their lives." Yes, it did show us how awesome Michael and Mollie are each, but most importantly, it made me want to be more like them so in turn I could be more like Jesus -- one of the key purposes as Christians. The night also included singing praise songs.

Philip found a "Philip-sized" tractor at the rehearsal dinner. The ring bearer was going to ride it down the aisle, but his mom thought that might not be the best idea!

Saturday came early. I headed to the church at 9:00am to decorated my VBS room for a few hours until the time came for family pictures with Mollie at 11:30am. Luckily both events were at the same place so I could leave my classroom, run to the bathroom to change and meet everyone in the atrium for photos. Hectic!

When I came around the corner and saw Mollie, I just thought, "Michael is going to fall on the floor!" She was gorgeous. I love weddings for the fact that it really is a day for a girl to live the life of a princess. It's what we all pretended when we were little, and finally that day comes and everyone around you is treating you like a princess too!!

The bride and her family. Brother Paul (his wedding date is not far off... July 15!), lovely Mom Elise, and proud Dad Arden (he held it together well but was on the verge of tears all day. Very sweet!)



The blushing bride and her TEN bridesmaids!

Here's Mollie with Michael's TEN groomsmen and ushers! Didn't know he had so many friends! :)




Philip made a run for it during the picture-taking. Too many girls!! He'll change his mind one day.





The wedding was picture-perfect (just another blessing from the Lord to a couple who each committed their lives to Him and He is again glorified in the joining of those two lives). Philip and I watched from the balcony as the wedding would fall right at his nap time. Matthew was videotaping from the balcony so I figured we could all be up there. The service began with two girls playing bagpipes from the balcony. Nothing like hearing bagpipes live. Little-music lover that he is, Philip was singing at the top of his lungs through the song. Bagpipes are definitely loud enough to drown out a little voice, but I was worried he'd still be full volume when they stopped. He let out a little blip but nothing too distracting. We continued through the service pacing around the balcony, up and down the stairs and walking around the vestibule. Anyhow, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Philip made a new friend, Cole, the ring bearer. My mom had Cole in her 1-year-old class at the nursery last year. Small world!


Just before the wedding sound guy Mark let Philip take a turn on the sound board. Before I knew where he was, Matthew said, "Did you hear the music just get really loud? Philip's on sound." Funny boy! He won't pass on a chance to get his hands on anything with a bunch of buttons and knobs!


Unfortunately for the blog, once we headed to the reception, I began videotaping friends' and family's comments, entrance of Michael and Mollie, cutting the cake, flower and garder toss, and the couple riding off into the sunset (actually just around the back of the church) in a cart pulled behind Michael's dad's vintage John Deere tractor!! Maybe I can pull some still photos from the video or find someone else photos to post here.

Now I am counting the days until they return from the honeymoon. Michael and Mollie went to Williamsburg, VA for the week. As Mollie said, "We're going to Williamsburg. Virginia is for lovers!" There is such excitement in knowing a man and woman have each remained pure in hopes of the day God will bring them a suitable partner. There was definite excitement in this couple as they approached the time of experiencing God's wedding present in the physical aspect of marriage. The world has degraded and destroyed the holiness with which sex should actually be seen. I know God smiles when couples such as Mollie and Michael do things His way!