Registered for Swim Lessons!

Philip is going to take swim lessons the last two weeks of July, Monday thru Thursday of each week, at our local Swim Center. I'm so excited, but what a day we've had! I called Saturday about enrolling him and was told that I had to sign up in person. Today was the first business day since then so it was on my to-do list this morning. It felt awesome outside at 8:30am so I decided to take the kids for a walk to get some fresh air first. Well, after getting us all dressed (with some relunctantly on all parts), taking a couple of phone calls, lugging the double stroller out, and pouring three drinks, we headed out at 9:50am. After a short 15 minute walk around the block, we arrive home and I'm dripping with sweat. A quick bathroom break / diaper change inside the house, and we pile into the car.

First stop, Big Lots. As I've said, I'm teaching Vacation Bible School next week and we had our last planning meeting yesterday. The countdown is on so I'm now really motivated to begin purchasing supplies, decorations, etc. In Big Lots, I found some expensive leis, cute but unnessecary flipflops and surfboard plastic plates and Philip tried on a plastic shell, hula girl string-bikini top! I was pushing Braewyn in her stroller and asking Philip to stay where I could see him. About 25 minutes later and no purchases made, we headed back out in the heat to the car. Philip was strapped in his seat, changed Braewyn's diaper in the front seat, strapped her in, and then drove down Pine Street.

A few minutes later, I called Matthew as the Swim Center was no where to be found. He looked online at work and found it to be located on S. Church St., instead of S. Pine as I thought. He gave me back road directions to Church St., and I reassured Philip that it wouldn't normally take this long to get to swim lessons. Thankfully, Braewyn slept for about 25 minutes during this driving around process. After passing it on Church St. and doubling back, we parked and walked into the Swim Center. I was a little intimated upon entering and asking about registering for swim lessons as I was greeted by several older teen guys (think Hollister ads) and a really nice person whom I thought was a guy but then realized to be a girl. Well, I filled in the sign-up form and then was told they only take cash or check. Oh no, that's one question I didn't ask over the phone. Guess I'll have to stop back by after lunch I told her. Back into the heat, into the carseats, and across town to meet Daddy for lunch at Moe's.

Moe's has a lunch special (burrito, chips and large drink) for $5.99 on Mondays so it was packed. We were famished and hot, but enjoyed a really, yummy lunch after waiting just about 10 minutes in line. We were almost through eating, but it was time for Matthew to head back to work. He gave us all kisses and bid us farewell until this evening. The kids and I finished our lunches, I wiped off hands and faces with a baby wipe, took Braewyn out of the high chair to put it back, escorted she and Philip away from the two girls in the next booth whom they were talking to, and corralled us all into the bathroom. Philip stood on my feet to go, I used the toilet, washed our hands and scooped Braewyn up off the floor where she had been unpacking the diaper bag.

Now, I headed out across the parking lot with diaper bag on shoulder, Braewyn on one hip, box of extra chips in one hand, my drink in the other, her drink in her hand, Philip's drink in his hand, and he holding onto my pinkie finger. We made it to a grass island where Philip dropped off and played pretend basketball on top of a grate. I told him to follow me as we were still in the parking lot. He did not start walking so I told him he would receive a pop at the car. Continued walking to the car, and unlocked the doors. Asked Philip to stand beside his wheel (the left back tire, his designated spot) while I strap Braewyn in. Going around to her side, she squirmed when I put her in her seat helping me realize her diaper was wet again! I brought her back to the driver side, stood her beside the wheel as I decided just to go ahead, pop Philip and strap him in, but alas, she doesn't stay put and begins walking into the parking lot lane. I stood her between me and Philip's door, gave him the pop, strapped him in, changed her diaper in the front seat, and then strapped her in her seat. All back in the car, air conditioning on, and heading off again to the Swim Center.

Once out at the Swim Center, I gave the girl my check after telling her my checkbook had been in the car all along! I walked Philip and Braewyn into the big room where the pool was to see where swim lessons would be. Philip's registered and I was told I can take free water aerobics or enjoy $2 open family swim time (I think it's $2 for me and for Braewyn but not sure!) while he's in his lesson. Back to the car. I strapped into her carseat, a very perturbed little girl who was signing to me, "All Done!" She was sick of being in the car and we hadn't even left town. Whewww! What a day.

Just wanted to post this to let others know the joys of toting around two little ones, but mainly to remind myself what it used to be like one day in the future when I feel overwhelmed by driving them to and from school and activities. They will both be able to get in the car themselves and there will no longer be diapers changed in the front seat!

Happy Birthday to the Best Husband in the World!!

He's not perfect, but he's perfect for me!! Saturday, Matthew turned 32. We had bought a Nintendo Wii earlier that week (Mike had brought his to the beach and we enjoyed it; Matthew's stock dividend check covered most of it; and I am excited about trying to get in shape once our Wii Fitness accessory pack arrives from Circuit City. More on that later.) so I decided his birthday present would consist of his favorite foods. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, BLT's for lunch (with tomatoes from our garden!), and lasagna for dinner. His mom came over for dinner which was followed up with cake (with his favorite homemade icing) and ice cream. (Lori, can you believe it was the first time I made lasagna from Ruth Ann's recipe? It turned out great so I need to put it on the monthly menu! Oh, yeah, I need to make a monthly menu first!)

Thank you Matthew for being such the wonderful husband and father that you are. We really do have so much fun together! I love you and look forward to celebrating your next 32 birthdays together. Can you believe in 32 years we'll be the parents of a 35-year-old and a 33-year-old?! Let's just work on getting them each to kindergarten for now. I love you, sweetie!

A few spots down memory lane...

The Garden!

God has blessed our garden as it is really producing a good bit and we are enjoying every bite! So far we've eaten several yellow squash, some okra, a few tomatoes, a lot of cherry tomatoes, a white eggplant, and two green bell peppers. On the vine/plants outside now are lots of the things I've listed PLUS small cucumbers, at least eight small ears of corn (!!!), more white and lavendar eggplants and a random canteloupe vine which got thrown in from there being canteloupe seeds in our compost pile.



A few of our home-grown veggies.



The makings of a perfect horror movie: nighttime, small pool, woods and scary CORN!!!

Barnet Park

Barnet Park is a fun walk through water fountain area about 10 minutes from our house. Last Wednesday we had a MOPS playdate there which was a lot of fun and one I was very much looking forward to as it would be Braewyn's first time there since she's been walking. This is the third summer Philip has enjoyed the water park and he seems to be better equipped at playing in it each year. Here are some photos from last week thanks to my friends Markel and Tashma as my camera battery was dead.


Looks like Karter and Braewyn have the place to themselves!



Eating a snack lunch. I must be eating something YUCKY!


Getting wet!!


Funny Karter.



Check out Philip on the left.



Feeling cool in the hot summer sun.



Braewyn is getting the hang of it too.



Philip's buddy Josiah loves the water... we think!



We like it here!

Beach photos!

Here's a little glimpse of our week at Cherry Grove Beach. We had a lot of fun helping the kids get used to the surf and sand, visiting Broadway At The Beach, eating out a few times, playing putt-putt, having WAY TOO MANY snacks at the condo, sleeping not at all as much as we would have liked (Holden decided morning came around 4:00am most days!), but overall had a wonderful time together and created lasting memories. We celebrated Father's Day and Mom's birthday while there which added to the specialness (made up word!).

Speculative Philip

I had to jot this one down to keep for years to come. We were getting ready to leave this morning for my Bible Study at church. Philip had a hard time last night about going to Preschool Team Kid (his Wednesday night activity at church), so I wanted to really talk up his going to church again today.

Me: "You know if we get there early this morning, you can welcome the other kids to the room. Maybe there will be a little boy there for the first time and you can make him feel special by saying you'll be his friend."

Philip: "Well, not exactly because there's a problem." (A three-year-old is saying this!! And he's wringing his hands as he says this.) "When I'm crying I don't like anyone messing with me. But if I'm not crying then I do like people messing with me."

Back from the Beach!!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Just a quick update to say we had a fantastic week at Cherry Grove beach (just above North Myrtle Beach) from Saturday, June 14 thru Saturday, June 21. The four of us shared an ocean-front condo with my parents, brother Mike, sister-in-law Andrea, and sweet 7-month-old nephew Holden. I have tons of photos and videos to post which I will work diligently to squeeze in over the next couple of days.

Lots going on otherwise as there is always the house to clean and kids to care for, Vacation Bible School in two weeks (I'm teaching the rising 6th grade girls) so supplies to gather, and MOPS Steering Team planning meeting this Friday night which involves organizing the info for which I'm responsible. God will provide me the strength and ability to get it all done as long as I remain faithful to Him. Hence, I feel Him telling me, "Walk away from the computer!"

Braewyn is up and walking!!

I know I never even posted a video of her crawling and now here she is walking all around. Just wanted to get this up before she starts running, which somedays she almost is. Such a sweet, silly girl.



As was the case before, this video was shot in widescreen mode but I can't get it to post like that so she looks stretched.

Sidebar Addition...

Since Blogger added a new easy Blog List feature, I've re-added (is that a word?)links to the many blogs I read on a day to day basis. Alison is the kindergarten teacher my mother-in-law Ruth Ann works with. Carrie is a college friend. Casey is Matthew's cousin. Ellen is a friend who I met through Matthew (her husband and Matthew grew up together). Jessie is a friend here in town. Jo Ellen is another friend here in town. Lori is my sister-in-law (Matthew's brother's wife). And Melanie is a friend who I met here in town but who now lives a few hours away. Their blogs are fun and informative so whenever you have time to kill... read away! The number under each blog tells you how long ago each blog was updated.

Today...

Matthew and I are both sick. He has severe head congestion to the point of having a shooting pain in his left ear when he sneezes or yawns. I have some head congestion (like my head is underwater while I'm going about my day) making all sounds extremely exaggerated (not good to be in the present of a preschooler and baby) and body aches causing lack of energy. There were rough moments today (telling Philip I had played with him and now he needed to play on his own after only 5 minutes; gathering energy to bath both of them when I'm very much ready for bed myself). I know, and here I am blogging!

Just wanted to recap how the Angela Thomas Bible Study went yesterday as it was our first session. I was very nervous mostly due to the unknown factors (how many women would attend, would they like the material, would I flub over my words, etc.), and the morning was pretty rough as both kids were crying at the same time at varying moments before leaving the house and Philip did not want to go into his classroom when it was time. He probably felt my nerves and it rubbed off on him. However he was a great helper in stacking the desktop calendars on the counter which I forgot to mention for the ladies to take!

Anyway, our church is offering two Bible studies this summer. Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" really helps in uncovering some deeply hidden burdens in your life and how to work through those things. And the "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" study by Angela Thomas which I'm faciliating which deals with women coming to the realization that our God, Maker of the Universe, finds them beautiful (Ps. 45:11) and wants them to live life feeling as such and leaving behind all the baggage the world dumps on them. Well, "Breaking Free" has about 30 women in attendance and "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" has 6. God is so wonderful! I am so excited to get to know the other five ladies in this study with me as I know also those ladies in the other study will be blessed incredibly. The best part is how God brought together the group in my study. There's me who was asked about faciliating a different study (another Beth Moore) but declined due to fear of keeping up with the home assignments (Beth's studies are amazing but very time-consuming). Then "Breaking Free" was decided upon and Betty who is the veteran faciliator said yes to that which left "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" open to me to say yes to. I had seen Angela speak in March at a conference and after praying, said yes. Enough about me.

Next there's a girl who attends our church and MOPS but just wanted a change from Beth Moore. The second girl happened upon our church website after looking for a MOPS group in the area and found our MOPS summer calendar on the web. How awesome that she just showed up at our park playdate on Wednesday and as I walked by her, God urged me to say hello to her. She said she had seen the calendar online and asked if the Bible studies would be starting the next day! So she came the next day too! The third girl has been attending MOPS this spring but I just really met her at a Chuck E. Cheese playdate in May. We chatted for a while at the park on Wednesday too and have really hit it off. She's been attending our church too and is really growing in her faith. The fourth girl and I met Wednesday night at our church dinner. Her family has been visiting and her son was actually in Ruth Ann's kindergarten class this year. And the fifth girl attends a church across town but saw Angela Thomas' name on our church sign and since she attended the same conference I did, wanted to come to the Bible study also.

God works in amazing ways every day... you just have to look for Him.

And to really change the subject, we put up our backyard pool this evening!! It's identical to the one we had last summer (that one just got folded down and really dirty) so I know it will be really fun. The huge difference this summer is Braewyn will be joining us! If she can get over her fear of water (a little scared i.e. screamed everytime ANYONE jumped in the last pool we visited). Hopefully as the water warms in our crazy hot summer heat, she'll grow to love it too! Can't wait to post those pictures.

Philip's first talk with "Ms. Ann"

"Ms. Ann" is our Children's Ministry Director at church. I heard lots of friends say their children went to speak with Ann when they had spiritual questions so after a few recent questions, I thought it was time Philip had a chat with "Ms. Ann". I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Philip grow in his understanding about the Bible and Jesus. No, he's not got it all figured out, but even preachers have things they're waiting to ask God about. From the last two years in Sunday School and Bible Study, Philip has learned a lot of the stories and this year is even beginning to understand why Jesus died for us (he'll tell you, "because of our sin").

Well, the recent conversations went something like this.

Me: "Philip, why did you just hit Braewyn? That was mean."

Philip: "Mommy, I like being mean."

Me: "What? Why would you want to be mean?"

Philip: "Because I want Jesus to die. Then He can come back to life."

Me: (thinking to myself) "Whoa! That's approaching the theological debate Paul addressed in Romans 6 ("What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" v. 1-2)."

And thus came my thought to visit "Ms. Ann". After having a short chat with him, Ann told me that Philip had talked about thinking Jesus didn't love him because he had been mean to Braewyn. She reassured him that no matter if he did the worst thing he could ever do, Jesus would always still love him. (You gotta love children's ministry workers!) I also expressed my concerns to her that sometimes I worry about overdoing the spiritual teaching and that Philip will end up being a rebel. She said a lot of parents struggle with that. She made me feel better by saying her daughter Kim was a deep thinker like Philip is and she went through the same thoughts with her being their first child. However, Kim accepted Jesus as her Lord at age 4 and she has turned out to be a really great girl (today attends New Orleans Theological Seminary!). We'll see what God has in store for Philip over the next several years. It's really exciting!