We had a really nice weekend. I got to hear my Dad preach Sunday and enjoyed the services. My Dad did wonder Sunday night as he saw my children, who are normally sitting still and quiet beside me all run down the isle to catch up with the ushers
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The Night Before Chirstmas…
I let the kids open one present before bed tonight. I thought it would be nice for them to get to sleep in their new pajamas. They all love to dress alike and I was thrilled to find pajamas where they could be “twins”.
The only problem with spending a couple of weeks with my parents is that my Dad beats me to all the pictures. So yes he has a picture of the kids in their pajamas on his blog as well.
We had a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at my Dad’s church tonight. It was real nice. Couples went up and read through the Christmas Story from Luke 1 and 2. We sang carols between the readings. Then at the end we all had candles that we lit at the end. Jonathan was especially excited about the candle. I let him sit in my lap and hold the candle with me. He was really good and didn’t touch the flame which I knew was incredibly tempting. Then I let him blow out the candle at the end.
We all had fun.
Well, it is now Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! I guess I better get busy with a little bit of last minute wrapping.
LikeScott’s in Paraguay
I took this picture of Scott right before he went through the security at the airport. My Dad took us over to the airport Monday and we watched as Scott went through the process of checking his luggage, and getting his tickets. Then we watched until we couldn’t see him any more. We did see that he passed through the security line without any problems, so I was glad that it all went smoothly. He called me from his plane in Florida, before the plane took off. That was Monday night and he said that he wouldn’t be able to call me on his cell phone after that. So I was glad he called and let me know he made it that far.
Then Tuesday evening he e’mailed me to let me know he had made it safely and would write more later. Which I also read a message that Bro. Barker, the missionary Scott is visiting wrote to say that Scott had arrived safely and they enjoyed him playing on his ukulele at a meeting in Paraguay. So I knew Scott was having a great time.
I talked to him on Skype this afternoon. He is doing well. He had preached at a prison in Paraguay and I think he attended another service. He will be preaching on the radio tomorrow. He will also be attending a Christmas Eve service in Paraguay. It will be a 4 hour long service. I can’t picture any services here in America running that long. I’m looking forward to his getting back with pictures and telling us more about what he is doing. We have 3 hours time difference. When it was 8 o’clock here it was midnight there. Tomorrow sounds like it will be pretty busy for him. He is starting the morning by going to the airport to pick up the luggage that was lost in transit. Thankfully he had all his personal items as carry-on. We are hoping there won’t be anything missing from his checked baggage. It was mostly items that we had bought for the missionary and his family.
The kids and I are doing well. My parents invited us to stay with them for the two weeks Scott is away. Monday night was the hardest for me. After I talked with him on the phone I felt sad, because I realized he really will be gone for two weeks and we hadn’t been apart that long before. Normally I would have gone with him rather than have to miss him for two weeks, but since I’m close to my 7th month of pregnancy I didn’t want to be that far away. I also knew Scott would have an easier time going from place to place without worrying about my health and keeping me comfortable. I guess if we keep busy enough maybe the time will pass quickly.
Tuesday night my parents took me and the kids to see the Christmas lights in Athens. They were really pretty. Then today we had Wednesday night service at my parents’ church. My parents even brought refreshments for everyone to enjoy fellowship after service. Tomorrow we will be having a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Also my sister and brother-in-law will be coming to visit us on Christmas Eve. So tomorrow should be pretty busy. And then of course we will have Christmas on Friday at my parents house. I’m hoping maybe Scott will be able to join us on Skype. That would be nice. I’m not sure exactly what they have planned for him that day. So I guess we will see.
Well, I was going to try to post two more pictures but for some reason my browser isn’t letting me. I guess I’ll just have to blog again tomorrow with those pictures. Maybe Blogger will cooperate better then. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Eve.
LikeOur Texas Snowman…
My brother posted on his blog some beautiful snowy pictures in France. Sooo… I decided I would post our picture of the snowman Joshua made a couple of weeks ago. (Don’t laugh all you Northern Folks. Okay, you can laugh a little.)
This is actually a handsome snowman for down here. I remember making a snowman when I was a kid, that was just a lump. Mainly because the snow didn’t stick that year. So this snowman was actually quite nice, and he’s even dressed in his own leaf apron. (He’s a modest snowman.) And how many snowmen do you see able to stand in such green grass. 🙂
Joshua made this snowman on a Friday night and we took this picture the next day. The rest of the snow had melted around it. By Sunday our poor snoman had a shrunken head, and he was dearly departed by Monday. But at least we got this picture before he was completely gone.
Our colds are still lingering. Scott sounds the worst. I think it is because he has to use his voice a lot more than the rest of us. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better over the weekend. He only has to work a half day tomorrow, so maybe his voice will be fine by Sunday.
Sunday, we have a Christmas Skit planned with the children. Hannah will be Mary, Jonathan will be Joseph. Ruth will be an Angel, and if there are any other girls present, they can be angels too. Joshua and Andrew (a boy at our church) will be shepherds. I’ll be reading Luke 2 and they will sing Christmas Carols between each of the sections of the skit. We have a doll cradle that we are going to use as a manger and we will borrow some hay from someone at church. We would like to use their new baby goats for the cattle but I’m afraid that would be a little too messy. The goats would probably steal the show or at least the hay. I’ll try to take pictures.
Then after the services, we plan to have a Birthday cake for Jesus. I am hoping to make the cake on Saturday. I’ll try to get a picture of the cake as well.
Then Sunday night after our service we will head to my parents. We will be taking Scott to an airport on Monday. He’ll be visiting Missionary Ted Barker and his family in Paraguay during the Christmas Holiday. Bro. Barker had invited him out a few months ago, and I encouraged him to go ahead and go. He loves helping Missionaries. He would have like for me to come with him, but I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to go with him on a trip that far away so soon, and also the fact that I’m entering my Third Tri-mester in my pregnancy. I would hate for something to happen while I was in another country. He understood and I told him that I would go with him another time, after the baby is born. I sure will miss him though.
The last mission trip we went on was to Ukraine in 2006. We spent 2 weeks over there with a group that was formed by Bro. David Smith and X-STREAM global missions. Before that we hadn’t been on a trip since right before Joshua was born. Before we were married Scott had taken several Mission trips. I find that it is good for him. It gives him a chance to use his language skills that he doesn’t get at home. He also enjoys being able to help and encourage missionaries.
Pray for him while he is on this trip. Also pray he doesn’t have problems with the climate change. It’s going to be in the heat of Summer there in Paraguay. We’ll be cold here and he’ll be melting there. Sure sounds odd.
The kids and I will be spending Christmas with my parents this next couple of weeks. We are all looking forward to it. I’ll try to be a little more prompt at posting while we’re there.
Like Dr. Hannah
Hannah caught a cold Friday evening. She had gone outside in the snow and got too cold while she was out there. I noticed her cough on Saturday. I asked her when she started coughing and she told me that it was while she was playing in the snow. “I’m allergic to snow,” she explained.
Monday morning she still had a cough. She asked me if she could have oatmeal for breakfast. “I need some hot oatmeal. And I’m not going to blow on it because hot is good for your throat,” she told me, “and I need some hot tea too.”
I told her that I didn’t mind her having some tea, and oatmeal as long as she didn’t let it burn her mouth. So hot tea and oatmeal was the breakfast of choice yesterday morning.
Hannah is amazingly good at giving us all a good laugh. She turns into the little expert about everything.
I let her feel our baby kick. Babies are a facinating thing for 4 yr olds. She asked me, “Mommy, do I have a baby in my tummy?”
I explained that she did not. And that she had to grow up and get married before getting a baby in her tummy. Then she asked, “Does Daddy have a baby in his tummy?”
I guess in her mind Daddy is grown up and married. I did explain that Daddies don’t have babies in their tummies only Mommies can have babies in their tummies. Thankfully that seemed to have cleared it all up for her.
Yesterday, I had a Doctor’s appointment and had the kids all ready to go for my appointment. Hannah announced, “I’m going to be a Doctor when I grow up!”
Of course a sibling had to ask, “I thought you wanted to be a football player.”
I came to her rescue though, “Ah, so are you going to be a football playing doctor?”
She just smiled. The picture above is one I took yesterday. Hannah wanted to wear her stethoscope to my Doctor’s appointment. And I had to take a picture of her all dressed up to go.
LikeLanguage Learning
We had good services yesterday. We actually had quite a crowd. We had 1 first time visitor and several return visitors. Giving us a total of 23 in attendance for Sunday Morning Worship. Joshua and Jonathan’s bunk bed has arrived at the store. Scott plans to pick that up when he goes to his Portuguese class.
There is a secondary education school that offers different kinds of classes including several language classes. Scott has already taken their Russian class and is now taking their Portuguese class. He is talking about possibly taking the French class which is offered in the Spring. I think he wants to take Joshua and Ruth to that one. The classes only last a few weeks and are pretty much for beginners. But the price is good and he has such a joy in learning.
Next week, my parents will be keeping our kids for a few days. So we finally get our yearly date. Every year around our anniversary we let my parents watch our kids for a night. This time it will be several days. I’m looking forward to that. Our dates have consisted mostly of eating dinner and watching a movie or game after the kids are in bed. We’ll actually get to go out to eat somewhere besides a fast food restaurant. Scott is even planning to take me to his Portuguese class.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself without the kids while Scott’s at work. I guess I’ll get quite a bit of writing done. I’ll have plenty of time to blog, that’s for sure. 🙂 But Scott has Wednesday through Friday off for Thanksgiving so it’ll be a nice 5 day weekend for him.
Like Our "New" Van
We’ve had the van about two weeks now. Time sure goes by fast. Here are some pictures of our “new” used ’98 Dodge Caravan. This van has really been a blessing. The previous owner took really good care of it.
We originally thought we would have to save up money and find something in February before the baby was born. But the Lord blessed and through a coworker Scott found out about this van for sale at a really good price. 
This week was busy, besides what I mentioned in my last post we also went on Tuesday evening to see a replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It was a great learning experience for the kids. The only other change to the weeks plan was finding out that the singing had been canceled. However the pastor and his wife of the host church invited us to visit in their home. We had good fellowship with them.
Today Jonathan was helping Scott fix a computer. I remember when Joshua was that little. Besides the pictures of the van, I’ll include a couple pictures of Jonathan helping Daddy.
Jonathan’s 2nd Birthday
Jonathan turned 2 last Wednesday and I’m only now coming on here to post some pictures in the few minutes we have before church.
Here is Jonathan with his birthday cake. I made cupcakes and iced them all together to make them look like a big cake. I put smarties around the outside cup cakes as a border and sprinkles on the top. He liked it. Hannah liked the football cupcake wrappers. I think he was probably indifferent about that part. 🙂
The second picture is Jonathan holding his new teddy bear. It’s belly and head glow in different colors when you press it’s hand. I got if for him thinking it would ease his transition into his new big boy bed. We wound up ordering the bed after all and he hasn’t got that yet. I did buy him sheets for his birthday but without the bed they aren’t as exciting. So I hadn’t introduced those to him yet. We were originally planning to give the boys the bunkbed and giving the girls twin beds but Scott looked it over and decided they would be better off with both having bunkbeds. Since the girl’s room will be smaller with the baby bed in it.
So the boys should be getting their bunkbed sometime this week or next. Well, it’s 5:30 p.m. and we need to get over to the church. We have business meeting tonight. I’m kind of hoping it will be fairly uneventful, unless we have a lot of good motivational ideas happen tonight. 🙂 I guess we’ll see.
This week will be another busy one and I’m not sure how often I’m going to post. I have a Doctor’s appointment on Monday, Homeschool Park Day on Tuesday, Wednesday Bible Study, Thursday is Mom’s night out with other homeschool moms, and Friday a singing in the evening at one of the churches in our Local association. I will try to take sometime in there to post pictures of our van though. We’ll be in it enough this week.
Miss Mary Christmas…
“I want to sing the Miss Mary song!” was Hannah’s announcement the other day.
I asked her if she was talking about “Miss Mary Mack” which was a song I taught the kids that went back to my childhood. It was a song we used to jump rope to and do a hand clapping rhythm to.
“No, I want to sing the Christmas one!” was her response.
We got her to sing a phrase for us, “I Miss Mary Christmas, I Miss Mary Christmas…”
Joshua and Ruth figured it out for me at that point, “Oh she’s talking about ‘I Wish You a Merry Christmas’!” So they sang it the correct way for her.
That was the song she wanted but she now sings it, “I wish Miss Mary Christmas, I wish Miss Mary Christmas, and a Happy New Year!” Last night at the table as we were having our evening meal after church. She announced, “I’m going to marry a football player!” Scott had a brief concerned look cross his face, but then he realized this is our 4 year old talking.
I asked her if she was going to marry a good football player that went to church. She agreed he was going to be a Christian football player. She said “and when I’m a Mommy I’ll give him my football, because I won’t need it when I’m a mommy.”
She must have felt a little sad at the thought of not getting to play football anymore when she’s a mommy, so she added, “Of course, some Mommy’s can still play football, right?”
Joshua and Ruth both agreed with me when I told her that she was going to make a very interesting Mommy one day. They just giggled at the thought of what it would be like having her as a mommy. She wouldn’t be the mommy on the sidelines at a football game she would be right in the middle of it.
Scott said he could see her dressed up as a football player, hiding around the corner of the house waiting to tackle her husband when he got home from work.
The first picture above is of Scott throwing a football with Hannah and Ruth one evening after he got home from work. That’s Hannah throwing the football dressed in her football outfit.
The second picture is of Jonathan dressed up as a football player with a Soccer ball in front of him. He loves to copy Hannah.
The last picture is of Joshua mowing. Joshua was mowing that same day I was taking pictures of them playing football. After he had finished mowing he was also throwing the football. I had gone inside when Scott told me that Hannah had tackled Joshua and he went flying. He didn’t even have the ball at the time.
I’m going to be praying hard for Hannah’s future husband. 🙂
Like Surprise, Surprise!!!
I had an ultrasound yesterday. I appreciate my parents coming to help with my other 4 children. Dad and the kids waited in the waiting room while Mom and I went in to see the ultrasound. We found out that the baby isn’t a girl after all. He turned out to be a healthy baby boy.
You should have seen the surprise on my children’s faces when I came into the waiting room and I announced, “Y’all are having a baby brother!” Joshua was the most excited obviously.
Jonathan doesn’t yet understand any of this going on. He will point to my tummy and say, “Baby?” but I think he just thinks that’s the new name of my tummy. Ruth and Hannah were a little disappointed. They got over the disappointment pretty quickly though and Ruth even picked out the sweetest little boy card to give to Daddy when he got home from work.
Like Ruth did tell me we will have to have another baby so we can use the name Elisabeth. Obviously our children don’t mind us having a big family.
Here is a picture of our ultrasound. Since I know some might not appreciate the view of the bottom “stamp” that shows whether it’s a boy or a girl, I’ll not post that one. When she took this picture the technician asked me, “Doesn’t he have a handsome face?”
I wanted to say, “Um, he kind of looks like a skeleton in this picture.” But I just smiled and said, “Yes!”
Scott finally got to feel the baby kick last night. I had to really move around and rub my tummy to get the baby kicking, but once he finally started poking me in one spot I had Scott put his hand there. I think the baby just wanted us to leave him alone and let him go back to sleep. 🙂