Musts

Must Read: My Generation by Josh Riebock

As a guy from Generation Y, Josh sets out to explain a little about who our generation is, what we long for, and what we need. He gives stories and accounts of other Gen-Y-ers in their journey to God and community. I found it to be motivating, encouraging, and challenging. I think many of us from that generation will see parts of ourselves in the stories he recounts and see those we would like to be like. Highly enjoyable read as well. You can find it on Amazon.

Must See: Food, Inc.

Yes, it is a documentary. No, it is not boring. And Yes, it's important for you to see. Why? Because no matter how we choose to live our lives, we should make informed decisions as much as possible. Regardless of the food you choose to eat, you should at least know where it came from. "But I don't want to know. It will probably make me not want to eat that and I like to eat such-and-such." Stop saying silly statements like that and get informed. Then do what you want to do. Ignorance is not bliss. The documentary is well done, not boring, and informative.

I'll step off my soapbox now.

a big event in the morning

Yesterday morning Kate and Josh were in the kitchen while I was tidying up around the house. When I came back to the kitchen Kate wanted to fill me in on what had happened while I had been gone. Apparently, there had been an ant on the kitchen floor, which Josh scooped up on an envelope and deposited outside via our kitchen door to the backyard. Kate babbled over and over again about this ant, pointing to the floor, and to her daddy, and to the back door, and over again to make sure I did not miss out on this big event. I think she told me about it four or five times.

Toddler chatterboxes are so funny!

Arlington friends

A week ago we got to go to Arlington to visit our friends. We miss them and had a wonderful time getting to hang out and share our lives again.

Kate got to meet Daisy. They ran around Starbucks together.
Kate and Shanda are shoe buddies. How cute is that!
Kate and Grace hadn't seen each other in a long time. They had a good time running around the house together and learning to share.

We miss our friends in Arlington and are so thankful they welcome us back and spend time visiting with us.

Picnic by the river

Picnic dinner by the river with my favorite people...

...and favorite dog.

Dad Life

This is dedicated to all the great dads!

Dad Life

Love it!

BFF

A July 4th Adventure!

After all the parade festivities and resting at home through the rest of the heat of the day, we decided we needed to get out and play on Independence Day. Josh thought we should try the nature trail we had seen a sign for down near a playground we go to. All we knew was that there was a sign that said "Nature Trail .7 mi." Off we went.

In this case, "trail" is used very loosely. It was more like "people have walked here before so someone came and put a few signs with arrows once sometime ago." The nature was beautiful, though.

My adventurous husband and brave daughter. Yes, that is a fallen tree behind them. We actually encountered several of those. One time we had to lift the stroller over a tree. I didn't get a picture of that of course. Sammy was with us too, but he was not interested in pictures.
This time Josh decided to push the stroller under the tree. Oh yes, he did.
Kate was clearly not that impressed with our adventure.

We decided next time we go we will take Kate in the ergo (backpackish baby carrier). We didn't think that would be necessary since we were on a trail. Ah, learning from experience.

Happy July 4th!

Celebrating the 4th with a parade...

...remembering freedom is bought with a price.

Checking in

It's been a busy few weeks. Lots of things going on and lots of things needing to be processed. But that doesn't happen well when I am busy.

A song came up on the playlist yesterday while I was playing with Kate and it struck a chord with me. I realized that my heart is needing to be touched, to be expressed, to be sung to. I need to take the time to be still and listen to the music that sings to my soul.

Maybe I'll get a chance to do that today. Maybe I'll put aside the chores screaming to be done. Maybe I won't pick up the parenting book I'm reading to make sure I cover all the bases parenting. Maybe I won't take the nap I'm really wanting. Maybe.

(I'll post pictures soon. My computer is hiding the pictures I just downloaded from the camera and I don't feel like wasting anymore of my time looking for them. )

A Neighborhood...finally

Our entire married life, we have lived in neighborhoods, but we have not ever known more than 1 or 2 neighbors. And not from complete lack of trying. Finally, after living here for one and a half years, we feel like we live in a neighborhood.

The neighbors who live behind us have a 4 year old boy who LOVES Kate. He is a sweet, sweet boy and Kate likes to play with him too. He was gone for a week visiting his dad and when we saw him the evening he got back, he ran over shouting "Kate!" Last weekend his mom and her boyfriend came over to just to visit with us for a bit. They are a little younger than us and we are enjoying building a relationship with them.

There is a family a couple of houses down from us with four kids. Kate and I have played with the kids outside a few times after school and their mom has sent dinner over for us just because she wanted to share. Last night the parents came over to have coffee with us. They stayed until after 11pm, clueless to the fact that we go to bed much earlier than that. But we wouldn't have thought to kick them out sooner.

The elderly couple across the wall from us give us much cause for concern. They should not be living on their own anymore and we are trying to figure out how we can help them make that decision. They have trouble driving, can't remember where they live, and often don't remember who we are. It's dangerous for them to be alone.

It's good to be in a place where people know you and you know them. We have people who notice if we are gone. We have people we want to get to know. We hang out randomly and without planning. We like to be able to share life with those around us.

Goat playdate

Josh's mom recently bought two baby milk goats who have been bottle fed since they were days old. They are tame and act more like puppies than goats. We went out to play with the goats with two of Kate's little friends.

Group hug!
Helping Jojo feed the baby goatPlaying with a puppy...I mean goat.
It's funny that for Kate playing with goats is a normal childhood activity. She gets distracted by rocks in the yard or a ball to throw for the dogs and doesn't realize that playing with goats is not something everyone gets to do. She likes them, for sure, and runs over and gives the goat a hug when she thinks of it. It's so fun to watch her!

A Wild Night Out on the Town

Last night two of my friends here in Kerrville took me out to celebrate my birthday. Our husbands were watching the kids, so it was to be a fun girls' night out. We thought we'd head to Fredericksburg for something different. As we were driving that way, though, we could see the dark clouds sitting over Fredericksburg and saw HUGE streaks of lightning. When we hit torrential rains, we decided to turn around and just eat in Kerrville so we were closer to home.

The storm followed us and it was flood-quality. As we were going down one of the main streets to the restaurant, the power flashed off and then back on. The wind picked up and was shaking the SUV we were in. Barely able to see the road, much less stay out of huge puddles on the road, we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and stopped to think through our options. The electricity had flashed off and on again and we were wondering if the restaurant even had power. The wind was shaking our car and the streets looked like they were flooding. In fact, we watched as bags of trash floated down the street outside.

We all called our husbands to check in and found out that Josh and Kylie's husband were without power. Sally's husband had power, so we realized it was not down all over town. When the rain let up just a bit, we decided to race to the restaurant and salvage our dinner out.

We ran through the flooded parking lot. I was in a dress and heels, Kylie was in heels, and Sally (who is pregnant) was in white pants. Not running-through-rain outfits. But we made it inside with minimal damage.

We had a great time at dinner. Good food, fun conversation, delicious dessert, and wonderful company. We enjoyed talking without having conversations interrupted by toddlers. By the time we left, the rain had stopped. The drive home was eerie and dark. No street lights were lit. Trees and branches were down everywhere. Kylie's and my houses were still without power and remained so until 1:30am.

What a night!

I am so thankful that my friends wanted to take me out to celebrate and so thankful they didn't bail for bad weather! We had quite the adventure together and a good stories to tell.

Thank you, Sally and Kylie, for your friendship and your sense of adventure!

Wildflowers

Portraits with Children

I love taking pictures of my Kate. Of course, it's a challenge to get a picture of her looking at me smiling because: 1) She doesn't understand "Look at the camera and smile" and 2) She's way too busy to stop and look at the camera and smile.

While I do get some good shots (out of 200 or something), I also get some like this:

Gotta love photographing a baby!

So I'm prone to think that when she gets older this will be much easier. Well, that's what I thought before this weekend. I helped Josh's cousin take some wildflower pictures of her girls. They were not in the mood for wildflower pictures.

This one cracks me up:

One sister wants to run around, one sister is doing diva poses.

Josh's cousin agreed that in some ways it's easier as they get older (they understand "smile") but in other ways it's harder (like having their own ideas for posing).

Still, every now and then you catch a sweet one...

Public Service Announcement

Be Advised

Please talk to your children about the dangers of texting while driving. It starts early.

Recent Happenings

I know it's been a while since I've updated. Lately I've had my nose the grindstone studying in any free moment I got. "Studying?" you say. Yes, Studying. A year and a half after graduating and 2 years after taking my last round of finals, I took another test.

Yesterday morning I passed the National Counselor Exam.

Whoop!

It was a hard test and took just over 2 hours. I was exhausted afterwards. But it's done and I passed and I don't have to study anymore!

That's some big news for our little family right now.

I'll post more with pictures and other fun stuff later.

Beautiful Girl

You are growing up so fast...







Love those eyes!

Blogging for Books

It's been a little while since I've reviewed a book for you. This week we have a book for children. This Little Prayer of Mine by Anthony DeStefano is a sweet book that leads children in a child's prayer. The rhyming prayer asks God for His help to do the right thing, thanks God for the blessings in the child's life, and acknowledges a future of possibilities. The illustrations by Mark Elliott are beautiful and Kate likes looking at them. I think it's a great book for parents to read with their children to help teach them to look to God for help and to be thankful.


This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Easter Eggs!

This morning we had an Easter egg hunt for Kate. Josh and I dyed eggs last night and this morning we set them out in the yard for her to pick up. I really didn't think she would be very interested but I was way off! She loved finding the eggs and putting them in her basket. She carried the basket around and put all 10 eggs in them. She wasn't even interested in her Easter basket of toys. She loved those eggs!