Church Lady's Blog

Graduation Approaches

We're planning Shelby's Graduation Open House right now... it seems like this moment has literally snuck upon us without warning.  Yes, we've had 18+ years to prepare for it's arrival, but it all seems too quick.  Too soon.

She's ready.  She's ready to jump into college and get her "grown-up-life" started.  She has so many plans.  So many dreams.  And they're seemingly coming true for her one step at a time.  She's done a lot of planning things out - a lot of careful consideration of her options.  I think she's made some wise choices and some silly ones too.. but they all seem to be working together to bring her to the exact spot she's been aiming at for years.  There's an immense pleasure, as a parent, watching your child reach for their dreams.  I've been blessed to watch our Shelby reaching for hers - and I'm glad I've been able to be right there beside her the whole time.

Times They Are A Changin'

I'm sure everyone with children over the age of 10 has had more than their fair share of "what happened???" moments when facing the reality of your kids growing up.  It feels as if five minutes have passed since I was wiping Slime out of my sons Barney pajamas and now I look over at him (now 21) while we're watching the Olympics and he's finishing up a Heinekin Dark Label.  Less than three minutes ago we were throwing away the 6,718th Barbie doll head that our little girl had left on the floor and our dog had chewed up and now she's about to get her Driver's Permit.

WTH ????  I want to shake my fists heavenward and cry, "BUT I'M NOT FINISHED YET !!!!"  To no avail, I realize, but it just makes me feel so helpless.  There's still so much to tell them, protect them from, to reward them for.... yet, they don't want us to do those things for them anymore (well, maybe they still want the rewarding part.....ie: $$).  "Big D" and I find it perplexing that, despite the fact that they have two adults (with resources {meager, YES, but resources, nonetheless}, love, guidance, advice and a modicum of social tools) willing to shower them with all we can offer...... they'd rather scuffle along on their own with only a polite nod in our direction from time to time. Ok, sometimes the nod isn't even polite.

I'm enjoying the "letting go" part of being a parent.... (IT HURTS - MAKE IT STOP!!!!) watching them branch out into the world on their own, while still coming back to the nest for recharging (and lots of cuddling) but at the same time, I find it boggling that as much as we let go and resolve ourselves to the fact that THEY DON'T WANT ALL OF THE HELP with the "Growing Up", they still scratch and push so the "Letting Go" happens at a speed similar to that of the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft instead of a speed that would more suit us, as parents.

Then.... it happens.

I remember how I scratched and pushed (and bit and kicked and smacked and clawed and spit and cried) to get my parents to let go.  (Yes, I was a challenge.)  And I remember all of the bumps and scrapes I suffered along the way.  Indeed, listening to my parents would've saved me a lot of heartache and money, but I did manage to live through it.  (And, miraculously, so did my parents.)

Today, I'm praying for the ability to keep my mouth shut.  Stop laughing - all of you.  Everyone who knows me knows how impossible how much of a challenge that is for me.  But I'm trying.  This is the most challenging stage of parenting for me so far - not being entirely sure when you're offering too much, and when to step up and offer without being asked (cause they NEVER ask).  I'm sure many of you have had this same dilemna in your parenting as well....and I know all four of us will live through it.  But sometimes it just feels endless.  Oil and water.

I'm hopefully awaiting the time when what is now "oil and water", turns back into the nicely tossed salad that it once was.  Each of us uniquely their own, but working together to make a wonderfully interesting, tasty mix of insanity.  Wait..... I think that might STILL BE what we are.......  maybe if I remind the kids of how well we all work together when EVERYONE COOPERATES and how well we all get along when EVERYONE JUST DOES WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO..... but instead, I think I'll just keep my mouth shut.

This time.

New Leaf

Oh how quickly things can change...... and so much changed for the better, too.

Days after my last post, "S" left for almost two weeks in Europe.  I know.  I know.  Anyway, while on her trip, she met the nicest young man I think I've ever met.  After nearly passing out in the Zurich Airport, this caring young man came to her rescue and looked after her for the entire trip.  Needless to say, she was about as safe as she could ever be.  They've been going strong now ever since returning from the trip on April 1.  She's soooooo crazy-in-love with him : and sure does seem like he's crazy-in-love with he, too.  "Big D" and I are sure happy for her to have found someone who fits into her life so well - and fits into our family so well, too.

"C" is back home after a loooooooong ordeal.  He's starting over from scratch and we're just so happy to be here to support him as he grows into a man.  It's never easy starting over, but it's so much easier to do if you have the love and support of your family, and he certainly has that going for him in spades.  His Dad ("Big D") has him out getting a lot of necessities taken care of today (ie: haircut, opening a bank account, filling out job applications, etc.) and we'll probably just hang in the pool tonight....... much like we did last night.  Sure is wonderful having our little family back together again.  God's blessings are so bountiful.  And I am so thankful.

 

Tears & Laughter

TEARS :  Oh, what do you do when your child's heart is broken for the first time?  I wish I had the answer... I felt like I had been turned inside out when I saw the look on her face and the tears on her cheeks yesterday afternoon.... and it really wasn't as bad as it could've been.  They're on a "break".  They're "just friends" now.  Her expectations and hopes were crushed.

LAUGHTER :  But I'm so proud of the way she's handling this.  This is her first real heart break.  Yes, she was broken and sad about it.  But she wasn't sobbing and coming apart at the seams like some girls do.  She was thoughtful and pensive about it - even trying to see the "bright side" of it all.  That's my girl !  When I asked her if she wanted her father to kill him, she shook her head 'no'.   When I asked her if she wanted her father to scare the crap out of him, she laughed and shook her head 'yes'.  I'm so grateful to the Lord for making her first love.... and subsequently her first heart break - with someone so sweet. 

This trip to Europe is exactly what she needs EXACTLY when she needs it.  God's timing is so wonderful - so perfect.  And when I felt my own heart aching alongside hers last night, I was reminded of how much more His heart must be aching for her sadness.  I'm so thankful - so blessed - to know my Savior loves my daughter even more than I do.

Little Things

Even with a large issue playing itself out before my eyes (and my heart), I'm doing my best to appreciate and be thankful for the little things....because there are SO MANY little things to be thankful for every. single. day.

When Did the Zork Tiff its Snollywog?

Our daughters English teacher is a friend of ours.  He's a pretty unique fellow with a quirky imagination and bizarre, hysterical sense of humor.  (We love him.)  We think the world of him and couldn't be happier that he's guiding "S" through her first year of high school.  He recently gave his class a hand out with 15 sentences on it for them to diagram.  You have to admit, after you read the sentences below, that he's pretty creative.  He really made the kids think hard to diagram these babies !!  Here they are:

1. Some birkly flimbles forced the jemmies.
2. Norfl whigging of the stumfigs will clug the gork.
3. Wow! Did the rukkly tiggles and the vallos kunnies wharl the gumpf?
4. Harsome gallacies should never flisk the shartle.
5. Three hundred stikes must have fobin in the buckry.
6. Nine gubbie gubbies nickened the wirsome chekkles yesterday.
7. The urfous wurgle often hassles in the parsor.
8. When did the zork tiff its snollywog?
9. Careful spiring will belitch a fustle's volarbont.
10. The vastly bonks and the harsty jemmies whambled our quirdles.
11. Two gluggish dworps krenkly squangled those looful stroshes in the thiggy glipment.
12. He told me the plook nogged some noiidy cloanies.
13. Most numptious luprongs gleep bretl at a glump.
14. Every reapish whimple lipperly paggered the first two drupwhups.
15. The grumption klags both canooshes in the orplon.

Wow, huh ?????  "Big D" and I think these sentences are kind of a cross between Lord of the Rings meets Dr. Seuss, don't you ??

Current Events

So excited - we've been planning our upcoming trip to California...getting all of the details worked out and reservations made.  I can't wait to go !  I'll finally get to meet my sister-in-law and we'll get to see my two nephews and brother-in-law while we're there, too !

Yesterday was a snow day - kids had no school and Big D was off work because it was Presidents Day.  I didn't even attempt to leave the house.  Snow was thick on our roads here and I wasn't going to take a chance on having a wreck or getting stuck.  This morning I actually cried a little on the way to work, it was so scary !  But, I made it into work just fine, even though it took a long time to get there.

Daddy had one of his eyes operated on about two weeks ago and will have the other one worked on next week.  He's had his cataracts removed.  So far so good - there were no complications from the first surgery and the doctors aren't anticipating any problems with the one next week either.  Thank God.

We still have not heard from "C".  We know he's at his MOS training in Virginia, but we only know that through one of his best friends from school who stops by frequently.  "C" still hasn't called or written.

"S" earned a silver medal in her flute competition last Saturday !  We're so proud of her !

Below are some random pics to share with you -

Alice looking very guilty.  Why was she looking guilty you ask ?

Because she's just stepped on S's sandwich.....

Here's a little bird my Mom brought in from the cold.  As soon as S had warmed her up, we let her go and she flew away without a problem. 

And, to wrap up these shots, here's the sexiest man I've ever seen...... my Big D.

   

Little Gray Kitty

I swear, I don't know how little furry babies in need find our family, but they do.  IN DROVES.

When I came home from work last night, "S" was cradling a TINY TINY TINY gray tabby kitten.  My Mom found him in the parking lot at the high school while "S" was having her flute lesson.  Keep in mind, we've had POUNDING rain here for several days, so this poor child (no more than 4 weeks old and STARVING) has been on his own for at least 4-5 days in terrible weather.

Mom spent about 10 minutes outside in the rain coaxing him out of the engine compartment of a pick up truck with a Fig Newton before she was able to grab him.  He spent last night snuggled up next to "S" in her bed - warm, safe, full, and happy for the first time in a long while.  God love him.

Well, when "Big D" got home, (he already knew about the kitten) he told me that we were taking him to the SPCA.  Well, I won't go into detail, but our little refugee won't be going anywhere.  =)  And after watching the little fellow curl up in "Big D"'s lap last night - and hearing "Big D" baby talk him, I don't think we have to worry.

I mean really - we already have eight.  It's not like we're going from 4 to 12, right ?  Eight to nine won't even make a difference.

=)

I didn't take any pictures of him last night because I figured he'd been through enough already without me scaring him to death with my camera.  I'll post some in a few days when he's chilled out more.

Did I mention who is so jealous she can't see straight ??  Guess who.

Birthday Cake, Cucumbers, Tomatoes & Eggplant

I think we've picked the last veggies our garden has to bear this year.  The eggplants produced SO MUCH more than I anticipated. We've enjoyed eggplant more often than we thought we'd get to. It's one of our families favorite dishes and I have several ways to make it.  Our pepper plants were also very fertile this year. Although not many of them grew very large, they were delicious and abundant.  My daughter, "S" and I love to eat them raw, so we loved having fresh peppers growing right in our own yard.  And, the handfull of cherry tomatoes you see here are all that made it into the basket.  Many many yummy more made it into our mouths !!  =)

  Here's my girl, "S" on her new bicycle.  She turned 11 last week and this was one of her presents. I cannot get over how long her legs are !!  She's such a good kid - her brother "C" too.  I've really lucked out in the kid-department.  They're both well mannered, fun-loving, intelligent, witty and kind kids. We receive compliments on them everywhere we go.  I'm just so glad my fumbling through life has created two happy children.  They're both full of fun and laughter all the time and that makes me so happy. To know that both of them are instinctively happy must mean we've done something right.  Right ??  It made me feel wonderful when "S" made out her birthday wish list.....1.  Seashells  2.  Craft Supplies  3. Ice cream.  Needless to say, she got everything on her list PLUS a new bike which she really did need.  But, what made me happiest was this....

We told "S" she could invite two friends to her birthday party (which consisted of cake and ice cream at noon on Saturday).  She invited Alma - a 94 year old woman from church, and Hershell - an 83 year old gentleman from our church.  These are two of her closest friends.  They both came (thank God) and enjoyed her get-together with her.  What a good kid.  =^..^=  Below is a pic of "S" with Alma and them with Hershell and his lady-friend, Opal.

Wonderful Saturday

Wow - this weekend was really nice.  Had the best day with my daughter on Saturday.  She was patient with me Saturday morning when I got up and didn't start BUGGING me to death about when are we leaving - when are we leaving right away.  =)  She let me relax for about an hour and a half and then I took a shower and got ready.  She was about to crawl out of her skin, I know, but she knew if she started in on me right away, the trip would be called off entirely.

What 'trip' you ask ?  I'd promised her we would go to a place in town where you can paint your own ceramics.  It's such a neat place - we'd seen in there before as we walked past, but had never stopped.  I was delighted to discover once we got there that the prices were exceptionally reasonable and they had the store set up SO CUTE - it's like a Starbuck's for kids (in atmosphere, I mean).  Really hip decor - lots of unique stuff to paint - not just figurines of horses and fat Santas - really stuff anyone can USE.  She and I spent three and a half hours there and had a BLAST together.  I was so proud of her - although the place wasn't crowded, there were a couple other Mom's in there with their kids.  Several of the kids needed a collosal butt whipping and the Mom's seemed almost powerless to do anything about it.  Meanwhile, my girl was so well behaved - no running, no overt loudness to annoy everyone in the place who was concentrating on their projects - she was (as she almost always is) the perfect little lady.

I LOVE the age she is right now.  She's just beginning to depart from the 'little girl' stage and just entering the 'tween' stage.  She's so much fun to talk to and spend time with.  Not that she hasn't always been, but there's something special about watching her become her own person and find her own tastes and quirks.  I love who she's turning into so far !

After our ceramics adventure (you can see the mug I made "D" here on the right), we walked down the block a little ways and had  very tasty wraps for a late lunch.  By this time, we were starving (I hadn't planned on being in the ceramics place for over THREE HOURS !! - WHO KNEW it would be so cool !!) and we scarfed down our wraps.  She had a chipotle beef wrap and I had a southwest steak wrap.  Yummy.

Our last stop was Target for school supplies.  I endulged her tastes a little bit and let her buy whatever she wanted - regardless of it was what I would've bought for her. She really did pick out some awesome things though !  Where were these new fangled locker shelves and magnetic mirror w/attached do-dad basket when I was in school ??  WOULD'VE LOVED THAT !!!  Anyway, we bought her tennis shoes and all of her gear and headed for home.  She was so excited about her new shoes (pictured here at the left) and new purse that she plucked them out of our bag before I was even in my seat.  On the trip back home (about 20 miles) she swapped everything out of her old purse and into her new "cool" one. She also broke open the bag of socks we bought so she could put on her new shoes (she'd been wearing flip-flops when we left home).  When we pulled into the garage at home, my husband - "D" - came out to help us bring in whatever we'd purchased.  She RUSHED him and thanked him while hugging him excitedly for all of her awesome school supplies.  MY GOD, if I'd known some fashionable school supplies would've made her this happy, I would've taken her weeks ago !  She kept the new shoes on until she climbed into bed - and then wore them to church Sunday morning, too.  What's the coolest thing about these incredible mojo shoes, you ask ?  Well for me, the coolest part is - I would've picked them out for myself, too.  =)

Sunday was church and then home to do this and that around the house. "D" smoked a pork butt on the smoker and we ate it last night with corn on the cob fresh from our garden and a side  of fried potatoes.  YUMMY YUMMY - and to top it off, homemade peach pie - YES, with peaches off our own peach tree.  Doesn't get much better than that !

A funny note - our son has a new pup, as I mentioned in my previous post.  Well, she is SO GOOD, I just can't believe it.....but some bad things are bound to happen when you have a new dog.  You don't know  the dogs habits - the dog doesn't know your habits - there's a learning period where everyone figures out when ~ how ~ what each other does on a normal basis....that's how you learn what each other expects and requires from the relationship, right ?  Well, our son learned Saturday night what one of Phoebe's "signals" means.  He said she kept jumping in and out of bed and he couldn't figure out what her problem was.  She typically snuggles up on the pillow next to him or at the foot of the bed next to his feet.  He finally decided she just couldn't get comfortable and decided to go to sleep and let her figure out where she wanted to lay down on her own.  Suddenly, he felt warmth on his ankles.  =)<  She'd been frantically trying to tell him she had to PEE - REALLY BAD - and he just didn't get it.  So, at 11:30 Saturday night, he was up changing the sheets on his bed.  Luckily, he has an extra blanket that he keeps folded at the foot of his bed in case he gets chilly during the night and she chose to pee right on top of that.  So, only a drop or two actually hit his sheets.  Anyway, he's learned a valuable lesson about the "signals" Phoebe puts out when she's trying to get his attention !  The picture here of her isn't real clear, but I wanted to show you her playing with her "baby".