New Look

So yesterday I played around a bit and gave the ole' blogaroo a facelift. I added the picture of the girls but I can't figure out for the life of me how to edit it and make it smaller. Maybe my teacher friend that is about to be out of school (and never going back in order to stay home with her baby, yea!) can fix it for me? Hello? Can you hear me?

I'm a bit uninspired to blog. It takes forever for me to add pictures and what's the point without pics, right? Anywho, I entered a giveaway today to win a blog makeover. Lord knows it's needed.

Good Luck to me.

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween. It's on a Sunday. I guess Halloween has fallen on a Sunday during my lifetime but I don't remember it. I was hoping Jon would blog a list of possible Sunday sermon topics around Halloween but he disappointingly didn't.

We're not at church today. Chris is working and my upper lip has broken out in a joyous display of blisters. Lovely. I'm curious if anyone dressed up? Adults, probably not. Kids? Possibly.

I grew up in a home that didn't 'celebrate' halloween. We never went trick-or-treating instead getting to go to the movies. A rare treat! I did, however, get to dress up for school. Never as anything scary like a witch or a goblin. Just happy, cute costumes. A valley girl, a California Raisen, an old lady, an Ace of Spades.

Since Halloween wasn't a holiday in our house I was shocked by my Mother's reaction to a statement I made one night in our kitchen.

I was often holier than thou. Not something I'm proud of but I know I had my share of judgemental thoughts and words toward those less spiritual. It was in this spiritual (overly so) attitude that I declared to my Mom and sister the night before Halloween that, "I hate Halloween. It's the devil's day." Instead of my Mom declaring this fact along with me and insisting that we should pray for those celebrating this pagan holiday she totally shocked me.

Pounding the kitchen counter she firmly stated, "I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. THIS is the day the LORD has made. I will rejoice and be GLAD in it."

I was embarrassed. I made my statement knowing she would whole-heartedly agree with me but instead she convicted me. It IS the Lord's day. Everyday is the Lord's day and we shouldn't give any acknowledgement to anything or anyone declaring otherwise.

We don't celebrate Halloween in our home now. We participate. The girls dress-up, we go to carnivals and tonight we're trick-or-treating. We're not celebrating. We're participating.

DISCLAIMER: I know this comes across that my Mom and our home was uber-spiritual. Where my Mom is a Christian and a spiritual mentor in my life she most certainly isn't uber-spiritual in the weird tamborine shaking snake charming kind of way. She never had rebuked anything I said before. This is why, now, we laugh at this event in our life. It was meaningful and a life-lesson based on biblical principals. BUT it is funny! And we laugh about it every year and Mom blushes and laughs too! So today when Mom comes over for a haircut I'll answer the door and proclaim, "This is the day the Lord has made." She'll laugh and roll her eyes and then she'll kill me for posting this on my blog. Love you, Mom.

Three

Jencee: Is it time to go yet?

Me: No - we aren't leaving 'til 7 and it's only 3. So we have 4 hours before we can go.

Jencee: 3? That's like me!! And I'm almost 4...

Change of A Dress

I once received a card from a friend that had a clothes-line on the front with a variety of dresses hanging from it. The inside of the card announced her new address. She'd moved.

I just realized that I never told the blog world that we moved, AGAIN! I was just re-reading my New Year's 2010 post. I focused alot on my new home in Levelland. We'd moved in. Painted, carpeted, installed a gas log etc. I was so proud of my home. And proud that it felt like HOME for my little family.

Fast forward to May 2010. We moved again! To Odessa, Texas. Before Levelland we lived in Midland for 8 years but Chris mostly worked in Odessa. We moved to LLand for a great job opportunity with a bank we had been doing business with for a few years. After being there for 9 months Aim Bank decided to open a Loan Production Office in Odessa and asked Chris to run it. Soooo - here we are! We moved May 18. Our house in Levelland is STILL for sale ;( so pray it sells soon!

Our new house is soooo lovely! I L-O-V-E love it! We don't have any major projects - like carpet or knocking down walls. Just paint here and there. I hope to post pics of all the rooms as we improve! And it too feels like HOME. Like it's mine! And it feels permanent. My sister, Jennie, was recently here for a visit and as I was giving her a tour of our new home she said, "This is YOUR house. You realize that, right?" She new that it was a perfect fit for us!

Anyway, Odessa has been so good for us! We swam all Summer - when we were home! We've made lots of new friends and been able to catch up with some old ones. We really like being back!

More to come!

Pillows

I bought some pillows one day last week for my living room. I like them. They're not perfect but they basically with go with my stuff and they're bright and fun.

Since they aren't perfect I decided to go back to Target today to see if there was anything else that would work better.

I found something better alright. My pillows on clearance. At lease $5 off the price I paid.

I know at GAP that if you buy something and it then goes on sale within like 5-7 days then you can take in your receipt and get the credit back. I asked if they would offer me the same service.

Of course not.

But I was told that if I returned the original pillows that I would get full price back and then should just purchase the pillows on clearance.

I had a better idea. I had my original receipt in my purse so I thought I'd purchase the pillows on clearance and then go directly to the service counter and use the clearance pillows with the original receipt to return them.

It didn't work.

Shocker.

So, now I have two sets of pillows and will have to trek back to Target tomorrow to return the original set. Since they are light in color I haven't let the kids touch them so they ARE unused. BUT, I did Scotch Guard them already! Shhhhh. We'll just look at it like I'm doing a service for the next customer! Right?

Summer's Over

I remember always being so sad that Summer was coming to an end and the school year was starting. Of course up until about my Sophomore year in high school I couldn't wait for school to start. But once I was 15ish the end of Summer was depressing.

Especially in my adulthood...there was no more pretending I was a kid. With adulthood comes too much responsibility to waste the Summer days away.

I never felt like I sucked every ounce out of June, July and August. I felt like I needed more time by the pool. More time on fun vacations. More time sleeping late, reading books, playing outside, spending time with family and friends.

How do I feel with this Summer coming to a close? Good, actually. We played at the pool almost every chance we got. We got to go as a family to a friends' ranch for a long weekend and also to Ruidoso without the kids. I've read several good books and Chris has let me sleep late a few times. We've gotten to see both sides of our families at a wedding, an anniversary party and a "photo shoot". And finally, being in a new town we've made new friends and gotten to catch up with some old friends too.

Sounds like a pretty good Summer to me. How was yours?

The Sweetest Thing

It's been one of those days. Two days actually. Yesterday Marlee was fussy and clingy and I couldn't pacify her. Today, Jencee threw a dozen fits.

I've typed and re-typed the sequence of events from today and all that happened with my ever fragile firstborn. The fits aren't important. What's important is that I didn't manage her or myself well.

Today, I roared at my kid. "Stoooooop Crying!!!" She was upset about wearing shoes. I'd explained myself over and over and tried to reason with her. "We are going to a birthday party and it's 50 degrees outside. You. must. wear. shoes." I ran out of patience and me yelling over her wailing wasn't working. So, I roared, "Stoooooop Crying!!!". Her fit was eventually over. We went on with our day.

Tonight, after I put the girls to bed I did my nightly routine of loading the dishwasher, picking up toys, checking email. I ran across this blog post and was hit in the gut. I cried. I asked God to forgive me. To grant me discipline in controlling my frustration. To help me be a better Mom. A better person.

I went to see if Jencee was still awake so I could apologize. She was on the floor outside her room waiting for permission to go potty. I brought her to my chair and sat her in my lap and cried. I said, "Mommy's sorry for yelling at you today." She touched a tear running down my face and asked what it was (sounds dramatic but that's really how it happened :)). I explained that it was tears and that I was sad. I told her that it made Mommy's heart hurt that I had yelled at her. I said in a quivering voice, "Mommy loves you very much." She stared at me a moment and then gave me the biggest tightest hug.

It was truly the sweetest thing.

The sweetest act of love that filled my cup to overflowing.

How does a three year old know compassion?