Book Tag

I steal tags from other people! I don't think enough people know I have a blog, so I never get tagged. But, I saw this and thought it looked fun.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

This is from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

"You are confessing to me!" Jake said with a laugh.

"Yeah. We are confessing to you. I mean, I am confessing to you."

"You're serious." His laugh turned to something of a straight face.

I told him I was. He looked at me and told me I didn't have to. I told him I did, and I felt very strongly in that moment that I was supposed to tell Jake I was very sorry about everything.

"What are you confessing?" He asked.

I shook my head and looked at the ground. "Everything," I told him.

"Explain," he said.

"There's a lot. I will keep it short," I started. "Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. I have never done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened. Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics. I grew up doing that. It got in the way of the central message of Christ. I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across. There's a lot more, you know."




I know I did more than 5 sentences, but only 5 was not enough. I just finished reading this book and I loved it. It is subtitled Nonreligious Thoughts on Christianity. I am a very liberal person, anyone who knows me knows this about me. And even though I have recently found Christ I am still the same person. I have always associated Christianity with people like Jim Baker who had the TV ministries. It's a shame I didn't realize I could be me and love Christ a lot sooner.

I would really like to blog more about this, but the cleaning lady is coming and I have to go 'clean' for the cleaning lady (read: pick up all our junk, so she can clean).

Tag: Anyone who wants to share part of a book you read recently is it! And please let me know if you do this, I would love to read others posts on this. Thank you Sara for posting yours.

Chuck E. Cheese!

We survived Sophia's 3rd birthday party (read: I survived)! Her party went off without a hitch and was fun for everyone involved. I even think Gavin had a good time. He was tired as the day wore on and got a bit grumpy, but I think he did well considering. Sophia was in 'hog heaven' the whole day. She got to play with all her friends at the same time and eat pizza and cake, while getting to take home all the loot (gifts). She got many really cool gifts I think her favorite was a set of dress up accessories: shoes, necklace, earrings and other costume jewelry. She wanted to waer the dress up heals to the grocery store today. I had to explain they were not appropriate and the funny thing is if she could actually walk in them I would have let her wear them, but I was affraid she would fall in them.





Sophia got flowers from Grandma Dee delivered a couple days ago. Sophia wanted to model with them. Funny backstory on the flowers. When Mother's Day was here last month I received flowers from Grandma Dee. Sophia thought they were for her for her birthday. She was kinda crushed when she found out they were for me. So she got her own, for her birthday.



Sophia STILL has a black eye. This was taken when she was really tired and If I were any good at photoshop I would make this her mug shot!



I have updated many pictures on the dropshots account, click the family pictures link to the right to see more!

I hate having to come up with a title, so I won't.

We have been hanging in here. I have been working on preperations for Sophia's party (read: shopping for party favors). Gavin and Sophia have been workiing on having fun and growing. They are getting so big.

I came into the living room the other day to find Sophia laying on the floor with one of the throw pillows from the couch layed on the floor and her head laying on the pillow. She had taken the area rug and lifted it up to get under it and cover herself with it like a blanket, I ran to get the camera but I was too late. Here is Gavin laying on the floor instead.



For Sophia's birhtday we decided to get her a bike. Shannon went to get it and came home just before Sophia went to bed, she spotted the balloon bouquet in the car and we decided to give her the bike a few days early, here is the first shot of her seeing her birthday present.



Sophia riding her bike! Such a diva, I know!



Some people complained they could not see Sophia's name on the birthday club page, so here is a better picture.



An update on the black eye. It looks worse now. I sure hope it is gone for her party.

my poor baby girl

We went to a birthday party this afternoon for a classmate of Sophia's named Miles. The local fire department came out and let the kids crawl around on the truck. They had a ton of toys and stuff to do in the back yard. One of the things to do was a bouncy house. As we were leaving Sophia ran off to jump one more time. I wish she had listened to me now and avoided her first black eye:

I am more mad at myself. I asked her to get her shoes so we could leave and I saw her jumping into the house and decided to let her play a few more minutes. I have been feeling like all I do is say NO. All. Day. Long. And feeling like in saying no I am robbing her of some fun. So, I let her jump. Next thing I know she is screaming. And one of the moms said we had an accident. Out of the bouncy house comes my baby girl.



To add insult to injury she is bruised basically from head to toe. We went to the pool last week and she got a bruise there and the gnarly bruise on her kneee is from a fall at the movie theatre. When do they outgrow the clumsiness? It seems she cannot walk anywhere and in her haste she falls. Here is a picture of my lovely girl in all her bruisiness.


Here is to hoping we have a better week this week. Hopefully I will say Yes more often and my kids will turn out safe and have had all the fun a summer day can bring.

Summer!

We have really been enjoying our summer. The kids LOVE to go to the pool. I have been trying to take them to different, fun and exciting places. I have not been shopping much (which for those of you that know me, that is amazing!). I have a few pictures to share. Hope you enjoy.


Here is a picture of them this morning being silly!


and a picture of them loving each other.


Gavin Cowboy.


Sophia Cowgirl.


And Sophia's name on TV! We are member of the Kids Club and as such each child's name is on TV during the month of their birthday. Sorry for the shadow, it was the camera, not the TV.

Blowing Rock Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures I took of the kids in Blowing Rock.

Been MIA!

We have been MIA for the last few days. Went to Blowing Rock, NC for some R&R. It was fantastic! The kids loved it! The weather was not scorching hot! They spent a ton of time playing outside and at the park with Steve and Mary and I got a little time to myself. The sleeping arrangement left something to be desired, but Wednesday before we left, Sophia slept until 7AM and Gavin until 730! So we are on the right track!

I did not take many pictures, but did get a few. I will need to download them from my camera, so look for them sometime this weekend.

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For my coupon buddies, I went to Target on Tuesday night, BEST EVER! I got $210.xx for $43.xx! It was truly exciting watching my total go down, down, down! Needless to say I have about 30 things of Pantene to donate now!

I need to go to Kmart again, maybe tomorrow! The deal there is trial sized temptations cat treats are .20 each and there is a $1 off 2 so you get paid .60 for every two you buy of those and trial sized jumbones are .20 and there is a $1.50 off giving you 1.30 overage on each one of those! Sophia needs some overnight diapers, so I am going to try to make it there tomorrow.

Dandy

Church

I am part of a Sunday school class called Neat Young Christians. We generally study something for a few weeks before moving on. Sometimes between these studies we do a stand-alone study. This week we studied TODAY. I decided to google Rob Bell (the guy who made these videos) I stumbled across his website Mars Hill. You can download his teachings on MP3. I have really enjoyed the few Rob Bell video's we watched. Check it out, you might learn something!

My Big Boy!

Gavin had his first 'salon' haircut. I was shocked at how well he did. I was affraid at first the lady was going to take off an ear because he kept trying to turn around and look at her. Eventually he settled in (with a little help from the movie on the TV) and we were able to avoid losing an ear! The gentleman with his son in the booth next to us was even amazed at how well Gavin did. Here is a picture:

Sleep.

Gavin woke at 4:00 with a very wet diaper. Then again at 4:15. I popped the paci in his mouth and went back to sleep. Then he woke again at about 6:00. I decided to let him cry. Not sure how long he cried, 10 minutes maybe and slept until 7:15! I will be trying to move his nap to a little later, keep him up until about 7:00 PM and then 'make' him sleep until 7:00 AM. I do see a light at the end of this tunnel with Gavin, now I just have to work on Sophia!

TEN!?!

10

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Monday humdrums

We have a cleaning lady. Her name is Bernarda. She comes to our home every 2 weeks. I fear I may be divorced without her (just kidding, I think!). So, we stayed home most of today. Mary and her best friend Vicki came over for a bit, here are a few pictures from today.

Sophia and Vicki:


Sophia doing the 'Hokie Pokie'




Gavin got a hold of my camera and took a picture of himself. Not bad considering...

Curtians

Gavin has been waking earlier and earlier, much to my dismay! So, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and purchased curtains very similar to these:



I spent about 20 minutes putting them up. I don't know why I did not tackle this sooner. I thought it would take far longer than 20 minutes. I think they need some tie backs and maybe some sort of crown molding looking valance. At any rate they are the blackout kind and his room is very dark! I will let everyone know how this works out.

Before:



After: