Tuesday Toddlerisms

Thanks, Laura for the suggestion. Here are some favorite silly toddler things my girls have said this week:

Hannah: Mommy, I love graham crappers!

Emily: Mommy, it's raining my hiney! (we were diaperless and potty training and Mimi's hiney was the only place it was raining, if you know what I mean).

But my favorite silly toddler moment was when Emily walked over, picked up her own diaper, and laid it out on the floor. She slowly lowered her hind parts over it, laid down, and let Hannah fasten it around her. Yes! My work here is done!

Don't you wish you'd had Dora when you were growing up?

I mean, really. Who was helping us learn a second language? The Smurfs? Muppet Babies? Punky Brewster? I don't think so.

Emily is a big fan of Dora lately. Two examples:

Today, she was watching with Hannah and I heard her count to 5, I mean cinqo in Spanish! Wow!

The other example's a little more intersting. This weekend, my children got to go to a wedding. At the very nice reception, they were given plates of food and seated at one of the tables. As is usually the case, about two seconds after sitting down to eat, someone had to go potty. So, everyone got up and made the trek. This was a nice place, so the tables were being waited on and cleared quickly. Hence, upon returning to the bathroom Lady Emily found her fare had been whisked away. She looked up at her Daddy and said, "Swiper taked my food?"

:0

Bummer, well not so much

So the yard sale was a great success. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the youth ministry. I could look around at all of that "stuff" and see God turning it into funds to send out his Word, to spread the gospel. That's pretty amazing.

The "bummer" part was that my bows were nowhere to be found at the yard sale. I had really worked hard on these, even remade ones that I made when I first started because they weren't good enough. Small, medium, large. Gamecock colors, Clemson colors. Cute bow holders you can hang on door knobs and coat hangers. And I priced them at bargain prices. Clippies 2 for$1 (I even learned how to make Christmas tree clippies!), small bows for 50c and up. Huge bows for 3.50 thinking the youth would still make some good money and my friends could buy bows at good prices.

Apparently, someone got to the yard sale early and lifted them? All of them. That's the only thing I can think that happened. I had labled yard sale baskets with signs, separating them by price. When I looked around, most of the baskets I had used were there but no bows. Several people remember seeing them before the stuff was moved outside this morning but then they magically disappeared. Or I guess they could have accidentally been thrown away.

Theft has always been something that bothers me, you know, just gets to me at the core. Then I thought about it--I am not going to let this get to me. Why? Well, it goes along with a devotion I shared today.

Ephesians 1:23-24 says that Christ fills every thing in every way. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. Praise God I am at a point in my life where I feel filled. Yes, there are days that I think it is really not possible to be a good mommy to a 2 year old and a 3 year old at the same time, not to mention being a satisfactory wife, housekeeper, chauffer, choir director, Sunday school teacher, mentor, and friend. But I am filled! And fufilled! Because Christ fills every thing in every way. I wasted so many years of my life looking to be filled by something or someone else and then when that didn't workout asking Jesus to put me back together. Graciously, He did, time and again. But I am to the point in my heart of hearts where I want to stop doing it backwards! I want to come to Him, to learn of Him, to sit at His feet and choose what is better. Friend, are you filled up today? If not, and you are saved, step back, breathe deep and figure out what or who it is you have been looking to all day for fufillment. Fix your eyes on Jesus and fill up! If you are not saved, will you please comment here and I can share the secret of this contentment with you? Because, see, today my wonderful hubby treated me to a spa pedicure for Mother's Day. Oh, that was amazing. But you know what happened when I got home? That beautiful, soft, freshly pampered foot ended up right in a puddle of tee tee. And I was able to laugh, clean up the offender, and move on because as great as that hour was, I wouldn't trade it for one minute with my savior. He is the Word, the Alpha, and the Omega. And He fills me.

I am so excited about...

okay, maybe excited isn't the word. Amazed. Overjoyed. Bursting at the seams. Ready.
Oh, yeah. About what?
THE TREC/AMRBC TRIP NOV 6-NOV 14!

I am beside myself with joy about what God is going to do and that He has put this trip into my life. I will continue to pray that He wants me to go, to be a part of what He is already doing in that country.

And the best news is, we need MORE people, especially people like me who know nothing about medicine! Seriously, at this point I am wondering why it took me so long to do this. Can you go? Will you come? What else could be more right or more safe than to know you are going to do God's work where He's at work?!!

If you want to know more, ask me! I'd love to talk to you about it and I'll be posting a video soon, as soon as I figure out how that works.

Two Years of Emily

It was a struggle to become pregnant the first time but not the second, and just as we were celebrating Hannah's first birthday we learned I was pregnant with Emily. We were overjoyed, of course, but just a bit suprised to be having a second so soon after the first! The only child in me had to adjust to a lot of emotions...how could I ever love anyone like I loved Hannah? What do you do with two at once? And, heavens, what if they fought? I would not know what to do!
Unlike her sister, who came four weeks early, Emily took her sweet time. Three days past my due date, I went to see Dr. Gabe for some pressure point encouragement. That night, at midnight on April 20th, I had my first contraction. However, having had contractions for five months at this point I did not panic, took my shower, called my mother, woke Daniel, etc. And then things began to intensify. Remembering the 16 hours of labor with Hannah, I tried to remain calm. We woke her, dressed her, and headed to my friend Laurel's house. By the time we arrived, though, I was in some major pain and began to feel the urge to push. :) When I got to labor and delivery, they calmly found me a bed. Nothing was calm after they found out I was 9cm dialated. I have never seen nurses run and things happen so quickly at a hospital. All my pleas for an epidural (even when I let the receptionist know as soon as we arrived!) fell on deaf ears because it was too late. Emily was no longer taking her sweet time and my body underwent what I call the Emily makeover. :) She was delivered by the nurses around 4am, several minutes before Dr. Nichols arrived.
I remember seeing her for the first time and whispering, "Emily Grace" because the name we had picked seemed to fit her so perfectly. She was so adorable and immediately I felt this love for her well up inside of me, so different from my love for Hannah and yet somehow the same. She graciously made things a lot easier on me the second time around, eating well, sleeping pretty well, and being a content baby girl most of the time. I think the moment she came home she fell in love with this little person that studied her and wanted to touch her eyes and nose so badly. She adored Hannah from the moment they met and her aspiration in life has been to catch up. The week after she learned to sit up, she began crawling (no blanket time for Mommy!). She walked just after the ten month mark, she began potty training herself around sixteen months, and she has recently begun to speak in full paragraphs.
I love you, Emily. I love that you look like your Daddy and that you want to grow up so fast but you want to do it your way. I love that you want to play your own way on your own time and that your stubborn strength will be used of the Lord one day. I love your repentant heart and your little apologies, and I love that you love to "nuggle." I love saying prayers with you and watching you sleep, listening to you sing, and hearing you laugh. You are my sweet baby girl, my "Mimi."

Home Sweet Home

I am so happy to be home where I have my very own bed and my children sleep in their own rooms, an entire floor away from me! Haha! Actually, we had a lovely Easter weekend. I am so thankful to be a redeemed child of God and to be at home raising my children. I am also thankful that we have a home so I don't have to raise them in a car because I have learned I have my limits. The girls have both grown up so much and they handled the 15 or so hours in the car VERY well but I am pretty sure I answered about 697 questions between here and Alabama. But we got to see our precious family and we had safe travel and got to worship in my home church, and my best friend from high school made a trip down just to visit us! She has a 3 year old as well, and Hannah, Emily, and Vivi played like long-time friends for hours at my parents' house while Julia and I had adult conversation. Good times.

Thank you for the cross, Lord. Thank you for the nail-pierced hands.

Favorite Sister Conversations

Today, my girls each came home from an activity with a bag of Easter eggs. Wisely, the adult had taken the candies out of Emily's, assuming I was picky about which candies I allowed her to eat. I found some acceptable candy and put half in one of Emily's egg and half in one of Hannah's egg. I put Hannah in charge of passing one to Mimi and got in the driver's seat.

This conversation ensued:
Hannah: Pick a hand Mimi (holding both eggs tauntingly beyond Emily's reach).
Emily: My hand, Hannah!
Hannah: No, Mimi, pick a hand.
Emily: My hand, Hannah!
Hannah: No, Mimi, which one?
Emily: Ah!
Hannah: Point, Mimi.
Emily: Point, Hannah! (thinking this must be the new word for egg).
Hannah: Point, Mimi!
Emily: Poooinnnttt! (gesturing at the eggs)
Hannah: Which one, Mimi?
Emily: My mouth Hannah!
Hannah: Mimi!
Emily: Hannah!
At this point, I don't remember what happened next because I was laughing too hard. But everyone got candy in the end.