Halloween Costumes

We don't do Halloween up like some people. I put up a few decorations here and there and we go trick or treating either at a friend's house or at the Grandparents' but it isn't a huge deal. I, however spent way to much money last year on costumes. I went to that silly Halloween store and bought $35 costumes that the kids wore one time. I vowed to not do that again. This year, I started early talking to the kids about what they wanted to be. John Daniel is in to Star Wars now and he decided on Darth Vader (mostly because he liked the mask). I found a cute Darth Vader costume at Walmart for $10 and he got a cool light saber for his birthday. Emily wanted to be a bride. She already had a long white dress so we went to JoAnn fabrics and bought $2 tulle, some fake flowers for $2, and a headband for $4. I made the veil and it is lovely! Gotta love a glue gun!!! She is ecstatic about it so that is awesome! I think I have posted before that I really wanted Molly to be a bumble bee but I felt so stupid for wanting to spend $40 on an infant costume for her from Gymboree so I waited. The other day I stumbled across the perfect costume on the clearance rack in Target (I am in there like twice a week so I always look). It is a pink Tu Tu ballerina bathing suit. She is going to be a ballerina. I got it for $8. She is going to wear white tights which I already had and a big pink bow which I already had. This years costumes are stress free, easy, and cost efficient!

great quote

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.' -Maya Angelou


I got this from Gail Kuder whom I believe is a woman after God's heart!

Now to teach my girls what this means!

Our camping trip!

We took off for the North GA mountains last Wed with our friends the Brewers. It is so nice having friends to go with us. We have actually "inspired" two different families and given them the "camping bug"...the Connells and the Brewers both bought pop up campers after camping with us just one time. The pop up is really the way to go...a tent is awesome for one night and for a daddy/son camp out but for a family with a baby..it is nice to have a decent bed to lay down on and a place to get out of the elements if necessary. We drove 9 hours (the Brewers really have to pee a lot!) up to Clayton GA. Our campground, Black Rock Mountain State Park, was at the top of Black Rock Mountain. Most campgrounds are in a valley but this one was literally on the side of a mountain. It was beautiful! Camping people are always so friendly and the campsite hosts helped us get two great sites...he saw all the kids and helped us find ones that were adjoining with a green space nearby for the kids to run around in! Perfect! I really do think the kids could have just stayed at the campsite...they played house in some big bushes, some kind of bad guy/good guy game, walkie-talkies, rode bikes, walked all over the campsites, etc. I will spare you all the many details about our trip because it took me way to long to write about our last camping trip but to name a few:

First day we hiked all over the campground and around Black Rock Mountain. We looked at the views at the overlooks (pretty funny because Mrs. Harriet is afraid of heights), hiked to Ada High Waterfall which is straight down a mountain, made walking sticks for the kids, and went to Tallulah Gorge (about 30 minutes away). The daddies took all the kids minus Grayson and Molly down 320 steps to the Gorge suspension bridge and then back up all those steps! We were walked/hiked out by the end of the day! Last stop was a place called Goats on the roof where goats actually lived on the roof of the business...you could feed them by pedaling a feed cup up a conveyor belt by riding a bicycle. Only in America could a family make a living by having goats on their roof!!! Love it!!

Second day, it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! Makes for a very long day camping!!!! This was mine and John's 10 year anniversary day. We decided to make the most of it and drive to Dillard to eat a yummy breakfast and then luckily we found some indoor activities! We drove to Franklin, NC and went to a "fun station" type of a place. They had indoor bowling, put-put, arcade games galore, bounce houses, indoor playground, and laser tag! Thank goodness we found this...ended up blowing a lot of money but the kids had fun! John and Jeff smoked the kids at laser tag and were so proud of themselves! We ate lunch at a little pizza joint and shopped at a Outdoors store...John and Jeff's favorite part of the day no doubt. Back to the campground we went and it was still raining. When we got back...Brewers found water in their camper...YIKES!!! Off to home depot John and Jeff went and brought back chick-fil-a for everyone. All ten of us ate in the Gay's Pop Up! This would normally make me itch but I dealt with the chaos o.k. and we all recovered nicely. I am actually very proud of our patience, creativity, and positive thinking! P.S. I made John an album for our anniversary...10 years of pics from our life together. I got so emotional making it! A lot has happen in 10 years!!!

Third day was clear but cloudy...thank you GOD!!! We drove to Blue Ridge, GA to an Apple Orchard that I was determined to visit. Turns out that we couldn't walk through the orchard (they only do that in September) but we got to shop, taste different kinds of apples, apple cider, had fried apple pie with ice cream, and bought yummy apples and boiled peanuts! After that we stopped in Hiawassee, GA and looked in some cute shops and then went back to the campground. We took a walk around Black Rock Mountain Lake and then went back and had dinner and a fire!

Fourth day was cold but beautiful! Brewers went home today and we were sad to see them leave. John got out in the freezing cold and made us breakfast. He is great in that he will get the job done. My husband is a survivor and will always take care of us! After breakfast we drove through the most beautiful scenic area in the mountains...ended up at Mark of the Potter Pottery cottage (where we have been before). Local artist sit and make pottery before your eyes. The store is in an old sawmill. Very rustic and very cool! John and I collect pottery and we always go to Mark of the Potter if we are up that way. We came away with two huge soup bowls this time! Then we drove to Helen, GA ....not really our type of a place...very touristy and kind of junky if you ask me but the kids had never been there and we got some lunch. Afterwards, we found a road to go to Shoals Creek Falls. John had looked up some waterfalls on the Internet and this one sounded cool. You had to drive down this little gravel/dirt road, through a small river, and way up in the woods to the trail head. Honestly, I was a little nervous because it was late in the afternoon to start a hike such as this but we did it! We hiked 1.4 miles down the mountain to two huge and beautiful waterfalls! Then hiked 1.4 miles back up the mountain....we were tired but it was so worth it. It wasn't a well known falls like Anna Ruby so we were pretty much on our own in some gorgeous Forest!!! When we were driving back to the campsite we looked some more at our map and think that we figured out that the hike we did was part of the Appalachian Trail....John was so stoked!!!! We figured out that John has carried all of his children on his back in our backpack up and down a mountain at about 7 months of age...Emily and Molly in the Smokey Mountains and J.D. in the Rocky Mountains. COOL!! We were so proud of ourselves for such a great hike and the kids loved it and never once complained! Molly fell asleep on the way back! Great way to end our trip! For some great pics visit this slide show below! There were too many to post! Harriet took a lot too so I will have to get some of hers too that I don't have.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=284188954115%3A1818704805

our Anniversary

Happy 10 year Anniversary to us! Cannot believe it has been 10 years! Fun fact: I have actually known John since 6th grade! I am so behind on my blog posts but I cannot go on until I write about our Wedding day. I have written about our engagement in a previous post so I will leave that sappy story out of this post. Our wedding day on October 23, 1999 was one of the most beautiful days in Tallahassee. I love the Fall season and was determined to get married in October! Our rehearsal dinner was a very intimate event between family and friends and the next day we were up very early because the wedding was at noon! My maid of honor went with me to get my hair done. I had 7 bridesmaids and John had 7 groomsmen. We were married in the church where we practically grew up with all of our friends. The music was lovely. My favorite singers and friends sang several beautiful songs about God being present and Mr. Robin sang a song about being a Man of honor. We had a string quartet, communion, two pastors doing the ceremony, unity candles, my dad gave me away, tears, organ music, the Lord's prayer, flower girls, ring bearer, and everything I have every wanted. I know every bride thinks their wedding is perfect, and I really did! The love of God and love that John and I share was dancing in the room! On our very first date, I knew I wanted to marry John and truly, I feel more love for him now! I love our life together and I am so thankful that somehow we made it through our dating relationship without hurting each other and that we kept one another pure. I truly believe that because that is the way God planned for it to be between a man and woman, that John and I have shared blessings because of keeping that command...so onto another subject...

October 23, 1999 was beautiful, sunny, cool, and breezy. After our ceremony, we went to the reception at Water Oak plantation. I knew as soon as John and I got engaged that I wanted my reception at Water Oak. The Johnson's were like another family to me and they were so kind to let us invade their house and property. We had 300 or so guests. The reception was outside. My dad had a big white tent set up and tables and chairs all over the back property. One of my favorite things....we had a jazz band preform...the drummer is a fairly famous jazz player and travels all over and was actually on his way to Louisiana after my wedding...funny thing is that now his son is in my mom's class at Holy Comforter. I was really against having a DJ for some reason and wanted something really classy to go along with the surroundings so the Jazz Band was perfect.

The food was awesome...shrimp dip was a favorite! We had heavy appetizers and punch...no alcohol. My cake was one I had chosen out of a magazine and it was perfect. We had a fabulous time with all of our guests!

John chose the most perfect place for our first night. He drove the Cadillac to Melhana plantation (where we had eaten dinner the night he proposed) and we stayed in a cottage before leaving for our honeymoon. We ordered sweet tea from room service and ate our little basket of leftover food from the reception. We even watched a little football (it was the first Bowden vs Bowden game). It was perfect and wonderful and I will spare you the details! We left for Bryson City, NC the next day. We went and stayed at a little Inn called Freymont Inn for a week. We enjoyed the mountains and being together for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. I really appreciate my parents and my in-laws for making our day special.

My parents made it perfect for me and I found out that my father is quite the wedding planner. He even thought about little details such as having white trashcans at the reception. My mom dealt with me when I had my total meltdown about bridesmaid dresses (crying and rolling around on her floor)! We still have people to this day talk about what a lovely day it was!

So now ten years later, three kids in tow, our love is stronger and has sustained much! Yeah for ten years...I love you John! Once I can scan a picture to post I will, but I am too tired tonight!

Motherhood

Excerpt from my friend, Ann's, Blog. I love what she said and feel the exact same way and wanted to share (steal).

Where else can you go from smiling uncontrollably about something a child said to tears about something a child has said in just a matter of minutes. Where else can you want to be alone so badly that you will lock yourself in the bathroom just to get a few seconds of peace but not want your children out of your presence more than absolutely necessary. Where else can you gladly send you children off with a family member only to feel so alone in the silence. Where else do you keep some one close, "sheltered" only to eventually send them out into the big bad world to be "salt and light." Where else do you weep for joy AND sadness. What other job brings tremendous pleasure and tremendous heartache. A job that you want to be about you but isn't AT ALL about you. What other job in this whole entire world can leave you feeling so physically, emotionally and mentally drained yet so completely and utterly fulfilled as a human being?!

This and That Thursday

This and That:


Emily decided she wanted to play soccer. This actually surprised me but I am glad she wants to do something out of her comfort zone. CCS does a great thing in that they offer sports for the elementary kids and they practice once a week after school for about 1 1/2 months and then have one game..it is $40 and then they are done. LOVE THAT!


Molly is now eating some green veggies. I made green beans with my food processor and she loves them. I thought it might be a mess and I was afraid that the outer husk might be to thick to puree but it did just fine! We tried avocado again except earlier in the day in case it gave her gas and she seems fine with it now. She likes it mixed with her bananas in the morning for breakfast. Now we are up to doing butternut squash, green beans, banana, sweet potato, and avocado and I haven't bought a single jar of baby food yet! Can you tell I'm proud of myself. Thanks to my friends Kim and Ann for encouraging me and giving me ideas. Baking the butternut squash after you just slice it open and get the seeds out is way easier than peeling, dicing, and steaming! We are going to try to go all natural while we are camping too!


Molly is now crawling super good and trying to pull up on everything ....she crawls to wall and tries to just pull herself up on the flat wall...crazy girl! I have found her a couple of time (when she is suppose to be sleeping) up on her knees or feet in her crib crying because she can't get up or down. She is blowing bubbles now and thinks it is great fun!


The ladies at church love Molly. I really never have to hold her at church. They all fight over her and talk about what a happy baby she is! I am bragging of course but that is my prerogative...its my blog and I can brag if I want to!!! My Babywise book says that when people say that you have a happy baby...it is because they are scheduled and get good sleep...who knows!!!! She is a very happy baby and I love her to pieces! John might should have wished for a colicky, gassy, bad sleeper if he didn't want me to want more...b/c she is a delight!


The vacant church parking lot on a Saturday is a great place to ride bikes! This is my new favorite place to take the kids...I walk with Molly, they ride wherever they want..up and down hills...all around and I don't have to stress about cars!!!


Emily is really into teaching, writing poems, memorizing scripture, instructing John Daniel in reading and writing, making books, etc. right now. She is very creative and loves to talk!


We've been prepping for long hikes and bike rides in the mountains. Daddy has us doing pregame warm-ups. The kids and I have been taking 3 mile walks/runs/bike rides/scooter rides about everyday as preparation!

Molly really wants to play with the Lena the Dog's toys!

Lena really wants to play with Molly the baby's toys!

John was asked to be a adjunct professor at TCC in the EMS department for the Spring....he would be teaching just one class a week....not sure what he will decide.

John Daniel will start soccer or karate soon but he can't decide which one he wants to do.

Waiting at Wildwood Ballet for an hour is horrible without having my girlfriend, Ann, to gab to!
My wonderful husband knows this and has volunteered to go and sit and wait on Emily most Mondays!

The pictures that I just had taken at A Moment Captured of Molly and her Daddy were awesome! They looked so sweet together! John gets better looking every year :)

I really want to get scrapbooking again or at least do it digitally...I just got to figure out how to get motivated, have space to do it, and get organized! I have such amazing pictures of my family and our doings and I want to showcase them!

We hope to finish all the "little things" around this house eventually but I love my house and love the space, love the neighborhood, and love the renovations that John has done!

Our schedules

Our schedules seem to really confuse most people but John and I live it everyday and have pretty much become very accustomed to this way of life and so have our kids. Shift work stinks some of the time but has many pros as well! For instance, today John is off playing Golf with a friend today and he hasn't taken anytime off. Another example....we are going camping in the mountains for 6 days and John will not take any leave time. We hear probably on a weekly basis comments like, "how do you keep track of it?"...or "We weren't sure when you were off or what your schedule looks like." So I thought I'd share what our life, day, weeks look like. John works nights 7 pm -7 am. He works a 4, 4, 6 rotation which basically means 4 days, 4 days, 6 days, 4 days, 4 days, 6 days...and then it is just off, on, off, on and so on. So if he works 4 days, then he is off 4 days, and then he works 6 days, and then he is off 4 days....we can figure out his schedule a year in advance by just counting 4, 4,6. One of his friends must be good with numbers or something because I think he is the only one that knows exactly when he is on and what rotation it is and everything. It is funny. Once you live it awhile you know that if he starts work on a Wednesday for instance that is the start of his 6 days on and vice versa, if he starts his days off on a Wednesday then that is his 6 days off. It ends up making him work two weekends in a row and then he has two weekends off. John has staff meetings every other Monday and does drop off duty at Emily's school every Tuesday morning at 8 am for 20 minutes. That is pretty much John's schedule. Now for mine. I have to have my schedule into my boss on the 5th of the month for the next month. She makes the schedule one month ahead of time and does it month by month. This is the best job anyone can have in that I have no minimum or maximum of time to work...I can tell her any day, any amount of time, whatever time of day that I want to work. I give her the days and times and she puts it down. I have maybe had two times over the past 6 1/2 years that I have worked there that she had to change a day with me or tell me that she didn't need me. I don't get called off. I don't have to tell her if I am going to be gone on a vacation...I do have to work 1 out of the 5 holidays but I get double time/pay for doing so and I can do it from home by taking call. For instance this year I chose to work Thanksgiving and I just have to take call/beeps for 5 hours on Thanksgiving evening and do it from home. We get time and 1/2 for working weekends. So at the beginning of the month, I look at the next month and see when John is working, see when the kids have activities, I take into account church activities, other family obligations etc. I give her my time and that is that. I usually average about 30 -40 hours in a two week period but that includes the time I work from home. So the bottom line is that John and I cannot be spontaneous except if it happens to just be a day that we are both free but we can usually do anything and make any plans if we know in advance..............John can take time off but he has to no about 1-2 months in advance and if he does it last minute it causes more problems (especially since now he is a captain and only certain people can fill in for him). Other than the above my only obligation weekly is that I teach in church on Wed nights. The kids have gotten use to it. They know some days Daddy is at home, some days Mommy is at home and some days we are all at home. John sleeps here at the house after the kids go to school...(they like him taking them to school and he is always great to come home on his work days and fix breakfast and help get them ready). He usually sleeps in the kids' room and closes the door and puts the fan on. He said the bed is not as comfortable but he doesn't hear a thing. He turns his phones to silent and sleeps until usually about 3 pm which is when Emily gets home from school. When he is sleeping, I go about my normal routine of chores, cleaning, phone calls, errands, laundry, taking care of Molly etc. The only thing I can't do is put clothes away in the kids' room. We all eat dinner together a lot earlier now before he returns to work on his days on at about 6 pm. Emily does ballet on Mondays right after school and does piano lessons on Thursdays at 5:30. John Daniel is about to start soccer on Tuesdays but that only lasts 5 weeks. It all seems easy to us at this point. John is very comfortable taking care of all the kids and the kids seem used to the schedule and it really isn't as chaotic as it sounds or seems. We have many days where we are all just chillin around the house by ourselves with nothing to do...those are certainly the best days!!!

Daily Schedule give or take:
6:45 Wake up time
7:00 Get dressed and groomed
7:15 John gets home on his days that he works/breakfast
7:30 Devotion/Molly wakes up
7:45 Shoes, bag together, brush teeth
8:00 Emily goes to school
8:50 John Daniel goes to school
9:30 Molly Nap/John goes to sleep on his days working
11:30 Molly wakes up/lunch
1:00 Pick up John Daniel
3:00 Pick up Emily/John Wakes up
3:30 Molly Nap
6:00 Dinner
6:30 John leaves for work
7:00 Bathtime
8:00 Kids are in bed

Cousins and More celebrating

When you are a kid it seems that a birthday celebration goes on all week! Well John Daniel's celebrations continued on Friday night with John's family. Everyone gathered at Memmy's house to celebrate J.D.'s birthday AND Memmy's. Memmy's birthday is a few days before J.D.'s. John Daniel turned 5 and Memmy turned 75! It was a fun time and the kids had a blast with their cousins. By the way John Daniel got some of the coolest presents for his birthday this year! He got a batman cave that has rooms, an elevator, and all different kinds of stuff to play with on it..he got a razor scooter which he loves....lots of star wars stuff....and a Imaginex Space Shuttle that has lights, sounds, and a launching station. He told me today..."Mommy, I don't want you to ever give these away (speaking of the bat cave which he calls Headquarters for the astronauts and the space ship), "Even when I am a teenager!"

My Verse

I needed this verse today...no explaining neccessary..just thought I'd share! Ever had one of those times when a verse just speaks to you and it is one of those days when you needed to hear it at that exact moment! Our sunday school class is doing a study called "Shepherding A Child's Heart" and it is slammed pack full of scripture, probably more than any other Bible Study I have ever done before besides precepts. Most of the time, the scripture speaks to me as to something I need to work on or something that I need to hear and it is a study about shepherding my child...funny how that is!

James 3: 14 -17

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

She's in a hurry!

Molly is certainly in a hurry to get big! Yesterday I walked in her room and she was standing up in her crib holding on to the rail! It totally freaked me out.....she's only six months old for goodness sakes!!! She was so proud of herself and wasn't quite sure what she had done. She is now crawling all over..she's got the arm and leg motion going on really good now. She is also trying to get next to things to pull herself up. She is now messing up the kids toys which I think is so funny. The first time she crawled over to "play" with J.D.'s batman cave, he looked up at me like, "what in the world is she doing?" They don't know what they are in store for do they??? We got the playpen out so that we could actually sit her down without having to watch her constantly. Just last week I asked John to lower the crib from the very top (newborn) setting. I only wanted him to lower it a little bit like down to the next notch but he let it all the way down so that now I have to reach way down to get her. I argued with him and told him she wasn't big enough for that and that it was a pain to have to reach so far down, etc. etc. He said that it was safer and that it wouldn't be long anyways before we had to lower it all the way. I, of course, disagreed! Well, when I found her standing yesterday, I had to eat my words!

Baby Food

I decided that I wanted to try to make my own baby food this time around. I actually think I tried with Emily but started with something messy like peas and that was the end of that. With the help and encouragement of my friends Ann and Kim and the reading of some good books and online materials...I decided to give it another try. I thought it would make me feel nutritious, cost effective, and earthy...and it does! I started with avocado, then bananas, and sweet potato. Those are easy because all you do is mash them up. She loved them all but the avocado gave her gas. This week we started squash. I bought two butternut squash and peeled and diced them. Then I steamed the chunks on the stove. Next I put the soft cubes in my handy dandy food processor with a little of the cooking liquid and blended until smooth. I put it in individual servings by using an ice cube tray. After frozen, I popped them out and put them in a freezer bag. Now when I go to feed her, I just take two of the frozen cubes out and pop them in the microwave to defrost. She loves squash. She started doing this cute mouth thing when I sit her in the high chair this week. When she is hungry and wants to eat she moves her mouth really slowly..... open and close. It is the cutest thing. She eats the squash as if it were candy. I loved making it for her and I love my food processor. We have even been eating butternut squash because it was in the house for me to make for her and it is not something I would normally fix for the rest of us. Next is a green veggie!

Being a Missionary

..is something that I have never really wanted to do until I realized that I didn't have to really go anywhere...I can be a missionary right here in Tallahassee and so can my kids! Over the summer, not sure why, I got the missionary bug. God laid it on my heart to work alongside of my children to serve others. I did a study on James some time ago and my was it convicting! I must admit that in mine and John's profession you see a lot of pitiful people, ones that don't want to work, ones that let themselves go, ones that are lazy, and on and on. It is very hard to not get judgemental and honestly you can become very apathetic but in James it says, "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" James 2: 15-16. I also get saddened by the attitude of most of us Americans. I believe that most people have a sense of entitlement...feeling like we/they deserve whatever it may be. So over the summer as I have talked about before, we as a family did Summer of Service projects to get us thinking about others and not just ourselves all the time. It was very rewarding. This semester, our church does GAs on Wednesday nights. I was asked to help and teach which I have really enjoyed. Part of the curriculum is a Mission Emphasis and I felt led to take that on. I really have become very excited about it! Our church right now is doing a Mission Focus and teaching from James on Having Faith and Taking Action. It is funny when I look back at my Christian walk and some of the things I remember most about high school youth group and College group are the times that we "Had Faith and Took Action." I remember packing lunches in High School for the homeless people and we drove around town and gave the brown bag lunches to the homeless People that were standing on the road. I also remember grilling hamburgers and hot dogs on campus during the moving in weekend at the FSU college dorms and handing out free lunch, snacks, and drinks to all the college kids and their parents just to show kindness. When I volunteered to do the Mission Emphasis for the kids at GAs, I had free reign to share what I wanted so I did some reading and praying and came up with some Mission Opportunities that I wanted to share with them about. We started our "Mission Moments" two weeks ago. I talked to them about filling boxes for Operation Christmas Child. We showed a great video from Franklin Graham just last night (I posted it on my blog last week) that makes me cry every time I see one of those kids open the shoe box and be so thankful for dollar store toys! We also have a food pantry at church called MANNA. I have been talking to them about meeting people's immediate needs such as feeding a hungry person. Our MANNA food pantry serves over two hundred people every other week. We had a MANNA food pantry drive for our GA lock in last Friday and collected lots of food. I found out last night that one little girls (second grader) decided to write a letter to all her neighbors about MANNA and asked them to donate food. She left the letter on their mailboxes and after several days later went to collect food. She collected over 25 bags of groceries for MANNA!!! This was her idea...she caught the vision! I have made little flip books for the kids for their MANNA shopping list. I also decided to join the HOPE TO HAITI project that a friend and former Pastor of ours heads up. On his website he talks about how the cost of ONE cup of Starbucks coffee, or the cost of ONE MacDonald's Happy Meal, or the cost of ONE greeting card can feed a child in Haiti for ONE whole month. I shared this with the kids and they really understood.......many of our kids probably spend $3 on a daily basis and they couldn't believe that that was all it would take to feed a child for a whole month. They have been bringing money for two weeks and putting it in a big Water Jug. We have well over $100. I tried to emphasize that if they saved the money it took to buy the Happy Meal and instead ate a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, look how much good they could do! Last night, I had a first grader come to GAs with a canister full of money. She and her Dad went door to door for two hours one day and shared with their neighbors about Hope to Haiti....she brought $77 that she made to feed the children in Haiti!!!! One little girl made enough money to feed 28 children in Haiti for a month! These kids are getting excited and thinking about others and I love it!!! I tried to tell them that I sometimes get overwhelmed by all the bad out there and how many people need help but that we don't all have to be passionate about every project, but that we can all do something, even something simple...I wanted to give them some ideas and opportunities and I told them that if something seemed meaningful to them then run with it and we would do anything we could to help. I think everyone of us can be used in a different way! My friend Ann and her kiddos recently started helping with Meals on Wheels and have enjoyed meeting new people and delivering meals once a week to those that are in need of personal contact and food. How awesome is that that she and her four kids can put a smile on those that she delivers food to! You know I used to get annoyed by our church leaders asking for "help" for so many people or causes and I felt overwhelmed by all the "needy people" and really didn't understand fully why we had to "feed" people....can't we just teach them about the Bible...but I had a Ah Ha moment.....I shared this with our GA girls. What if I sent Emily to school without any breakfast and had made her sleep in the rain all night...could she learn the math Facts or even want to learn the math facts that Mrs. Smith was trying to teach her...of course not..she is hungry, cold, and tired....this goes for other people too...if someone is hungry, tired, cold, dehydrated, etc , they aren't going to want to hear what we say about Jesus...Jesus did things to help others....he healed the blind, he met BASIC needs in order to show them the WAY!!! We have to do the same...we can try to meet people's basic needs and then maybe we can share with them the love of Christ and the Gospel...at least that is my take right now plus as it says in James, It is commanded of us to do so!!!

John Daniel's Day

John Daniel had a great day. He is so glad that he is finally 5! We started the day with pancakes and bacon with a candle in his pancake. At school, all of his friends and teacher wished him "Happy Birthdays" all day long and we celebrated with cupcakes with chocolate icing at lunch. He chose the cupcakes and I made them homemade so that we didn't have to buy the Publix kind with all the icing piled on top! He wore a birthday crown all day at school. We told him to pick a place to eat dinner before church. He chose Chinese food! I tried to recommend other places but he held strong to wanting Chinese! My brother will be proud! We went to our little Northeast China Gourmet in Market Square and ate dinner as a family. The kids love Chinese food and John and I do as well! At church, his Mission Friends class sang to him again and he got lots of wishes from everyone there! What a busy day he had!!! Oh, almost forgot...I took the birthday boy on the longest razor scooter ride of his life....three miles up and down hills in the neighborhood. I pushed Molly and he rode his brand new scooter in the heat of the day. He was a trooper and never complained that Mommy got a little carried away with our walk while it was so hot outside...and it being the first time he had ridden his new scooter for more than a few minutes. He is awesome!

Birth day of John Daniel

Like I said previously, I was scheduled for an induction on October 7th, 2004. I went in at 6:00 am and they started me on Pitocin. I don't really remember much about the labor. I was having some really bad back pain. The nurse midwife came in to break my water and when she did, John Daniel's heart rate dropped really low. They immediately put me on all fours and put oxygen on me and it came up. After that, his heart rate would go up and down. I just had a feeling something was not right. I knew I was making the midwife nervous because she kept checking me and the baby and kept whispering to the nurse. I got to the point where I didn't think I could take the pain any longer and asked for an epidural. It took the anesthesiologist FOREVER to get up there and I am pretty sure that I was in transition and might have been able to go all the way without meds but I was so scared. After he got the epidural in, I rested some. This epidural worked better than the first one (with Emily). I really didn't feel anything. They checked me and said I could start pushing but my body was not working with me. They put me in all kind of crazy positions and I just couldn't feel to push. I was having to push even though I didn't feel the need. Finally the head was crowning and the midwife was with another patient so Dr. McAlpine came in with a med student. I remember laughing because I couldn't feel anything and every time I would laugh, the baby's head would crown further and the med student was still trying to get her gloves on. Finally, one last push and the head was out and then it got very crazy. I remember Dr. McAlpine saying "it's too tight!" over and over and he pushed the med student out of the way. He motioned to the nurse and she pushed my upper body down. She got on top of me, straddled me, and started pushing my belly top to bottom as if she was pushing the baby out. It hurt SOOOO bad. Everyone seemed to be worried and it was very chaotic all of the sudden. My mom and John's mom were making faces. It was crazy! All of the sudden, Dr. McAlpine said we got it! Out came the baby. John Daniel was blue as could be with purple spots on his head from loss of oxygen. He put him straight in the warming bed and the nurses went to work on him. They called in the NICU. They rubbed him vigorously and gave him Oxygen. John didn't even get to cut the cord. Finally he started crying, the NICU nurses checked him out and he seemed fine....just a little beat up!!! His shoulder had gotten stuck up under my bone and was not coming out. So his head was out and the cord was around his neck, so oxygen supply was being cut off. Dr. McAlpine said shoulder dystocia is not something you can predict. Thank you God that Dr. McAlpine was the one that delivered me!!! Our baby boy ended up being fine and was perfect. John Daniel weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 22 inches long!!! He was a chunk from the very beginning and has not lost those sweet cheeks yet. He is wonderful and such a blessing! I love having a boy!

Pregnancy # 2

Today is John Daniel's 5th birthday. I have already written about pregnancy # 1 and # 3 so I can't leave out number #2. I found out I was pregnant in January of 2004. I wouldn't say it was planned but I wouldn't say it was an altogether oops either. I was so hoping that this pregnancy would be different than the first but it was NOT! I started vomiting at about week 7 and didn't stop until well after week 14. I was in the middle of planning Emily's second birthday and just knew it would all be o.k. until February 19th (her actual birthday), I woke up feeling terrible, could not keep anything down, and had to call my OB who made me come to the office immediately. I was admitted to the hospital for the first time on Emily's 2nd birthday for dehydration and hyperemesis. I remember crying to my friend Debi and getting her to call all of our friends to cancel Emily's Elmo Birthday party :( Before I went to the doctor that day, I called my friend Harriet and she said she would come get Emily. She took Emily and her son, Brenn, to Emily's music class that she was in. She made cookies for them all to share. What a great friend. Harriet kept Emily all day until John could get off work that evening, come see me, and then go get her. The doctor went ahead and ordered a PICC line to be placed in my arm as I had had with my first pregnancy. I went home the next day with the PICC line and fluids. I once again had home health care. This time the PICC line actually lasted until I no longer needed it. I remember in early March, my aunt Ginger planned a "make up" Elmo party for Emily at the park and included my grandfather in the celebration because his birthday is in March. We have a picture of them blowing out the candles together. Half the cake was decorated "Elmo" and half of it has grown up flowers and such. During my first trimester I had some labs drawn and my thyroid level was really out of whack! This got me a referral to an endocrinologist. I had to then see her along with my regular OB doctor about every 2 weeks. She watched my thyroid levels very closely but never put me on any medicine. She checked my thyroid for tumors by ultrasound but never found anything and decided that my thyroid had gone crazy due to the constant dehydration and vomiting. I actually think the vomiting and dehydration was the worst with John Daniel but it lasted the shortest amount of time, thank God. With the girls, I have vomited longer. Thank you God for good friends. Karen Hollenbeck, Debi Bearden, Kim Bailes, Harriet Brewer, Rebecca Cummings and all of our family members were lifesavers. My girlfriends really took care of Emily when I was so sick...it was really hard having a two year old and feeling that bad!!! Emily would hold my throw up bucket for me...she got so use to seeing me sick! My friend Harriet took me to Radiology Associates and had a friend of hers scan me to find out the sex of the baby at 18 weeks. They saw boy parts and we were so excited!!! We went straight to Target and bought a baby blue onesie and took it home and gave it to John. He was so excited! Once I started feeling better, I did really well. We even helped with Camp Charis as Medics for a whole week when I was about 6 months pregnant. We slept in a camper and stayed the whole week in the hot sun. At about 28 weeks, I went into preterm labor. I started having contractions one night and went to L & D. Sure enough I was having pretty regular contractions. They tried to stop them first by giving me a shot..it was horrible. It made my heart race and I got all flushed and IT DID NOT WORK. So I was admitted to the hospital again and given Magnesium Sulfate to stop the labor. I was in the hospital for four nights while they stopped the labor, watched the baby, and gave me steroids to get the baby's lungs ready. After that I had a pretty normal pregnancy and actually never went into labor again. I had to be scheduled for an induction about 4 days after my due date...go figure!

Surprise, Surprise!

This is a post for my mother. The surprise is.....WE are RECYCLING at my house!!! Confession...I have not been a recycler (if that is a word). John got mad at the recycle man about 9 years ago and well I am lazy in that department and have never felt the need to add one more step in my cleaning up process so we have not been green by any means at our house. My mother has told me for years that I needed to...she couldn't believe I would not recycle after doing a science project in Middle School on the landfill and after my visit to the actual landfill. She would tell the kids how great it was to recycle and get them to throw hints at me. I really don't have any good excuse except that my kitchen isn't near my garage and I didn't want green bins in the kitchen and it is just one more step in the cleaning up process...etc etc. My babysitter and cousin use to come to babysit and take the recycling with her b/c she knew I would throw it away! So I don't really know what happen over night...John and I at the same time just kind of decided to do it today and got it all set up in the garage so it can be as easy as possible. We even printed out the "Recycling Rules" off the county's website so we know exactly what is o.k. and not o.k. to recycle and posted it above the bins. I Hope this will prevent another run in with John and the recycle man! I don't really know what spurred it on....guess it just had to be our idea!!?!?!? So I took this picture today specifically for my mother! However, I will point out that we have "greener" cars, use less water for bathing and do not wash dishes twice like some people we know! HA HA HA!

5 years old!

So I wrote about birthday parties already and well we had a great one on Saturday. I was busy the whole time, it was chaotic, but John Daniel had a blast. Again, I struggle with just hanging with the family and partying for my kids birthdays...I know our families would probably enjoy it more but it is so cute to see J.D.'s little friends enjoy the time and I love hearing what they have to say. As I said in a previous post, we did a "camping" party. We had 9 of John Daniel's little friends over. We set up tents at "Nee Naw and Pop Pop's Campground". My parents' backyard is perfect for this. We had hay bailes and a campfire. They played on my Dad's treehouse that he built for the kids and rode the zip line all the way across the back of the yard. The Zip line was a HUGE favorite! We only had one casuality and he turned out to be just fine. I had them decorate little pumpkins. We ate hotdogs. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. We had a silly string war. We ate cake and ice cream. I gave them each a flashlight to take home and towards the end of the party they had to find little plastic bugs and lizards that Emily hid in the yard with the flashlight. They loved chasing each other around the yard in the dark with their flashlights and glow bracelets . It was a fun time! At the end of the party John Daniel said "I am five" and I said "no actually your birthday isn't until Wednesday" and he said "you mean I'm still four??!?!?!?!" He was a little bummed about that!

GA Lock in

We had a grand time with all our GA friends on Friday night at the annual lock in. It was very tiresome but so much fun and very special. It started with painting of fingernails, then on to dinner, next was our BIG GA leader kick off with costumes and the Hoe Down Throw down. I seriously felt like a movie star. We had given each girl a camera to take pictures of whatever she wanted during the night and when we started that dance, the flashes did not stop!!! It was fun and embarrassing all at the same time! Next was our craft. We made each girl a devotional book. Each leader wrote a devotion which consisted of our favorite verse and why and what it did for our walk with Jesus. We put the eight devotions along with the material we were teaching that night in a folder. Each girl then decorated the front. Our theme was "Keep Your Eyes on Jesus" from Hebrews 12: 1-2. Next was our Bible Study portion. The leader taught about four ways to keep your eyes on Jesus through reading His word, Praying and praising, Spending time with Him, and memorizing scripture. Then we let them Praise him by dancing and singing to praise music. Next was a sweet snack and a "get to know you" game that consisted of switching shoes! Then we had our second portion of Bible Study and prayer time. After that was a fabulous fashion show. We split the girls up in groups and gave each group some toilet paper, trash bags, butcher paper, and paper bags. They were told to dress up for a fashion show. It was hilarious. They really got into it even though it was already midnight!!!! We played music and they modeled on the runway! Lastly, we put on a movie and had everyone get settled in their sleeping bags. They did not all fall asleep until about 3 am!!! I snuggled up with Emily in the middle of all those girls in my own sleeping bag. She loved it. We held hands and fell asleep together. It was nice having this time with just her. Can't say we slept that great...we had a girl have some night terror type crying, some were grinding their teeth, some snoring, and well it was the hardest floor I have every slept on!!! We all woke at 7 am and ate breakfast and tried to find every ones' stuff which was a giant job seeing as though there was stuff strung all over that room! 40 girls can make a big mess!!!!!! Parents came at 8 am...all of us leaders were walking a little stooped and had bags under our eyes but were very happy that the girls had such a great time.

P.S. My wonderful husband kept Molly from 6 pm on Friday night until 9 am on Saturday. He had no problems with her and only brought her to me on Friday night for me to feed her before bed. I was really worried about her waking in the middle of the night because she has not been consistent but he kept saying to go and have fun, that he could handle it and he would manage! He did awesome!

P.S.S. You really learn a lot about your own child when watching her around all her peers. I saw that she is a lot like me in many ways...most of the girls had no clue where any of their stuff was after about an hour but my little Emily had all her stuff in one little stack, would put stuff up when she was finished, and always knew exactly where to find her Bible, clothes, etc. SO funny that my Type A personality has rubbed off on her a little. Another beautiful thing about my daughter is that she tried so hard to include all the people that wanted to play with her. Two moms had told me that their daughter was nervous and really wanted to be with Emily and I told Emily this. I watched her and every time we moved on to another activity, I could see her looking around to make sure the two girls that wanted to be with her plus the two visitors that she had invited were with her...it was so sweet that it made me cry one time. She was trying so hard to make sure everyone was happy and that they all felt needed and safe and wanted. I love this about her! She has such a big heart!