Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 has come and gone.  We made some fun memories with friends and now I am trying to figure out a way to hide or dispose of some of the candy so a certain little person in our house doesn't spend every waking and almost asleep moment asking for more candy.  This little person has no recollection of last year's event so this (not to quote a Disney movie) was a whole new world for him.  Strangers?  Giving him candy?  Lots of it?  Yes!!!

We went to our friends' house and had pizza before we headed out to a nearby neighborhood.  Since our neighborhood isn't built out yet (only 40 of 200 homes are built), we decided it might be easier with the little kids to go to another friend's neighborhood where houses were closer together. 

Getting ready for the group shot.Star Wars was well represented.  I love that Bob the Builder has his tool belt on upside down.  Glad none of his tools fell out. 

 Here they are. 

 Piling in the golf cart to ride over to the next neighborhood.

 Brothers. 

 Bob and Bob's dad. 

 Checking out the loot.  Tucker (far left) told me he was "organizing his candy."  Note that Fletcher and Luke didn't bother organizing.  They went straight to eating.  Luke wanted to stop at each house and eat the candy right then.  It took alot of convincing for us to get him to keep going. 

 I couldn't get a great picture, but the homeowner at this house was wearing a giant Pink Panther suit.  Between Pink Panther and the skeleton guy in the corner I thought there was no way the kids would go to the door.  Luke wasn't sure at first but once he saw Fletcher do it, he followed right along. 

Boo! (Update added at the end)

No, not "boo" as in ghosts and Halloween, but "boo" as in what people say when someone calls a bad play in a sporting event.  As in "this stinks."

Right before I went to bed Saturday night, I posted a picture of our pumpkin on Facebook and checked email.  Everything was fine.

Sunday morning, I tried to turn the computer on and nothing.  Fan runs, it grinds a little bit but that's it.  We have no idea what's going on.  Kevin is trying to figure it out.  Of course,  I can't remember the last time I backed up my pictures.  Boo!  I had some great blog posts planned for this week.  Boo!  We'll probably have to buy a new computer.  Boo! 

Our monitor quit just a few weeks ago too.  I wonder if any of this is related to our lightning strike awhile back.  Like a delayed reaction or something. Kevin says he doesn't think so since we had a surge protector on the computer stuff. 

I'm typing this on Kevin's laptop.  Not sure what this week's posts will look like.  In the meantime, if you are on FB, you can look on my profile and see our pumpkin for 2010.

Edited to add:  In case you didn't see the comment, my super awesome talented husband was able to get us back up and running with a quick trip to Best Buy to diagnose the problem and get a replacement part (power supply, I think).  I had no idea when I married him that he had so many cool skills. 

Teacher Conference

Thursday was Parent/Teacher Conference Day at Fletcher's school.  We met with Mrs. R and she had great things to say about Fletcher.  She said he is doing very well and is a leader in his class.  He gets a little excited sometimes and talks out of turn or interrupts his teacher, but it is never out of disrespect.  He is learning.  She also said he is a gentleman to the girls in the class too which the girls love.  We got to see some of his work.  They keep a Bible journal and a nature journal.  I wish I could have borrowed it to scan some pictures to put on the blog.  His picture of Joseph in the pit and Moses and the burning bush were especially cute.  He even had the conversation bubble coming out of the burning bush saying "I AM GOD."  She also showed us some of his sentences he made up.  One in particular said, "I am a hunter of deer."  Wonder where he got that from. 

Fletcher read a note that someone had wrote to me and it was in cursive.  I showed him how to make some cursive letters which made me wonder if he would eventually learn cursive too.  I have found out that some schools show it around 3rd grade, but never require the kids to use it after that.  So I asked the teacher specifically about cursive writing in later grades and typing.  She said they teach it in 3rd, practice in 4th and use it extensively in 5th and 6th.  In 7th grade they start using computers to type papers.  But because of our shorter school day, they don't teach formal keyboarding skills.  Well, I vividly remember Mrs. Broussard teaching Typing I to me in high school.  It was a tough class, but I am so glad I took it.  I can sit down in our dark office and type without the light on once I know my hands are on the home keys.  Now there are lots of typing tutorials online like Mavis Beacon and some others. I'll do some research and find a good for Fletcher to learn when the time comes. 

I know I sound like a broken record, but I am so thankful for his school and his teacher and his classmates.  They are unapologetically Christ focused in all they say and do and it shows.  Fletcher has told me numerous times that he loves his school (but he wishes he could ride a bus).  In a world where education choices can get overwhelming, I am so glad this is such a good fit for our family.  I am thankful God provides the money in the budget for us to send him to this school and I don't take that for granted.  Of course, we don't know what the future holds (but we know who is in control of it), but I hope we are at this school for a very long time. 

This May Be The Year

Christmas is less than two months away.  Fletcher attends a Christian school and there are some families who choose not to do Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.  From what I understand, reasons vary but one of the main one is that they don't want to lie to their children and later have their children think that their parents lie to them and that Jesus could be a made up character too.  I get that to a degree.  And I respect the fact that families make their own choices about all types of things and that's ok. 

We've always done Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny (but Fletcher says the EB is a guy in a costume).  Both Kevin and I grew up with those traditions.  I don't remember exactly when I found out they weren't real, but it didn't destroy my trust in my parents or wreck my faith in God.  Since I have two older brothers and one older sister, I'm actually impressed I believed as long as I did.  They did a good job keeping the magic alive when they could have told me many years earlier. 

In our home the emphasis at Christmas is Jesus and his birthday.  We have our Jesse Tree and spend a large portion of our time talking about the true meaning of Christmas.  There are a few gifts from Santa on Christmas morning and other gifts from mom and dad and family.  We may go to the mall to see Santa, but it isn't a big deal if we don't.  We don't say that Santa can see everything (only God can do that).  When Fletcher has asked a question about Santa or the EB or TF, we always ask him "What do you think?"  He comes up with an answer and we move on.  Of course, now he is bringing logic into it.  I mentioned his jet pack request in an earlier post.  He thinks that the cost of something doesn't matter because Santa and the elves make it for free.  I'm guessing that there will be more questions this year. 

There are at least two kids in his class whose families definitely don't do Santa.  And like I said earlier, that's fine. But here's where it gets tricky -- at least one of the kids has taken it upon him/herself to tell the other kids that Santa isn't real.  I think the child's parents have asked him/her not to do it, but the proclamations continue and I think they might get more intense as Christmas gets closer.  Some parents probably aren't ready for the "magic" to be over just yet.  I'm not either.  But just in case, Kevin and I need to have a conversation about how we will handle it when the time comes. 

Oh the joys of parenting!

Frustrated

This weekend near our home a 41 year old father of three was killed in a head on collision with a drunk driver.  The victim was returning from helping at church hayride. 

The drunk driver had been pulled over by police, then sped away when the officers approached the car.  The crash occurred moments later when the drunk driver crossed the center line hitting the victim head on and killing him instantly. 

Residents nearby heard the crash and came out to help.  The drunk driver kept saying, "Get me out of here. I didn't do it" while his female companion was still holding her beer. 

Three kids who don't get to have a dad anymore all because of one 29 year old man's dumb decision.

But here's the part that infuriates me:  the drunk driver had 6 previous DWI convictions.  Six.  How is he still on the road?  How does he still have a choice?  How do you explain our "fair" justice system to three kids who no longer have a father? 

I didn't know the family personally, but I grieve for them and this senseless tragedy they have to endure.  All because one man made one decision that forever changed a family. 

Please don't ever drink and drive and don't get in a car with anyone who has been drinking. 

Balcony People

The theme of our women's retreat was encouragement.  Years ago when I was still single and living in Houston, my roommate gave me a little book called Balcony People by Joyce Landorf Heatherley.  She references Hebrews 12:1-2.

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

 let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,

and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

She called that "great cloud of witnesses" our balcony people.  Those who are in our past or present who cheer us on in our Christian walk.  Somewhere along the way, we've decided that we are supposed to be Lone Ranger Christians just doing this all alone.  Or we think that we will be fine with "just me and Jesus."  But if you read the New Testament, that's not how God designed it at all.  Over thirty times we read "one another" verses:  serve one another, love one another, encourage one another, bear with one another.  As a body of believers, we are called to help one another and encourage one another because following Christ is hard.  It was never meant to be easy.  But it is much more bearable when others are cheering us on. 

At the retreat we talked about balcony people from the Bible like Jonathan who helped David "find strength in God" (1 Samuel 23:16) and Paul who encouraged Timothy.  We also talked about balcony people in our own lives - parents, friends, siblings and others who lean way over the railing and tell us "you can do this", "this life is not all there is", "I am here for you."  They don't try to take us out of the race or run the race for us, although that would probably seem easier and less painful.  Rather, they come alongside and remind us of God's promises.  We have different balcony people at various times in our life.  Some are always on the front row, while others sit quietly in the shadows but we still know they are there.  We also talked about "not throwing anybody off our balcony."  In other words, when someone offers to help us, we need to let them.  Too often we are too proud to admit we need help and we deny others the blessing of using their gifts to help us in our deepest time of need.  Or we think that others are busy enough as it is without adding something else (helping me) to their plate.

I closed my session by reminding them that their ultimate balcony person was God himself.  He is for us and nothing can separate us from His love.  I used the story of Derek Redmond's 400 meter semifinal race in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to illustrate.  Redmond was a 26 year old British athlete favored to win this race.  This was his dream.  But in the back stretch, the unthinkable happened.  He tore his hamstring.  In that moment, he knew his Olympic dream was shattered, but he decided to finish the race even though he was in so much pain. 

The middle aged man who came down out of the crowd pushing his way past Olympic security was Derek's father.  Your heavenly Father is in your balcony and just when you think you are too weak or too tired or too messed up to go on, He steps out of that balcony and picks you up and helps you finish the race.  I guarantee you no one remembers who won the race that day, but everyone in that crowd of 65,000 people remembers what that father did to help his child. 

So who is in your balcony? 

I'm Back!

This past weekend I was asked to speak at our church's womens retreat.  Last week I spent a large majority of my time planning and preparing.  It's been almost 4 years since I've done any speaking like that.  I used to do it quite a bit when we lived in Florida and were involved in college ministry.  That's why my blog posts were a bit sporadic last week.  I think it went well and I may even post a brief synopsis sometime later this week. 

Kevin did great with the boys.  Fletcher had his flag football game Saturday morning.  Then Kevin had a venison party at lunch on Saturday since he knows I don't like venison.  It's not so much the taste for me as it is the mental image of me eating Bambi.  I know, it's crazy because I have no problems eating beef, poultry or pork.  Three dads and seven kids enjoyed venison burgers and steaks.  And (here's the impressive part) when I got home the kitchen was clean and all of the toys were put back in the right place.  Kevin said the house did look like it had been ransacked before the clean up process began.  But in typical dad fashion, they made a collective decision to just wait and clean up at the end.  The kids had fun playing with each other because toys are much more fun when they are at someone else's house, right? 

So there you have it.  I'm not dead; we didn't get struck by lightning again; I'm not changing my blog format to three day a week posts.  I just had too much on my brain.