Perspective

Ever have one of those days where you are feeling down about something? Maybe your parents have moved to another country and mornings are kind of sad. Maybe your sister has suffered the loss of a child, has moved across the U.S. and you can't show up at her door to give her a hug; and when you think of it you tear up. Then it happens. Something to pull it all back into perspective. Like God is pointing out all the things you DO have in life and what is a little more important than your pity party for one. That happened to me this morning with one phone call from the middle school.

"Someone ran into the back of Wyatt's bus this morning". When the assistant principal said those words I felt like I couldn't breathe. That one second felt like several minutes and many things were running through my mind. Is she calling me because he was hurt? Is everything okay? Was he scared?

"Wyatt is fine, all the kids are okay, no one was hurt. They even got to school on time on a different bus". Exhale. I thanked her for calling and letting me know. Then I looked up and said, thank you God. I get it now. Thank you for my children and my husband and everything we have. I am more than blessed with family (my own family and my wonderful church family).

Thank you.

First Sleepover

The buddies had a friend over to spend the night over Labor Day weekend. The first hour was a bit hairy as they tried to top each other with things for him to do.
I had to talk with each of them separately, as they were running the poor boy ragged. I think we need to have two friends over next time. Now I know what triplet moms are always talking about. They finally calmed down, and had a great Nerf war followed by a trip to the movies to see the Smurfs.
Cheesing it up for me in front of the corn header. :)

New Combine

The hubs is in the middle of corn harvest 2011.
New addition to our farm.
I need a sticker for it that says "man magnet". The day I took these pictures there were five men standing off to the side watching it. :)
The buddies like to watch the top fold up. They say it looks like a transformer. What do you think? A new Bumblebee 2.0?

First Soccer Game 2011

We had our first soccer game of the fall season. The uniforms had not arrived so we were black and white. As was the other team, lol.
Even though we have moved up to the next age level, it appears there will always be a grass picker in every group. :)

First Day

School started last Thursday and everyone was back on schedule without much trouble. I was actually amazed by how smoothly everything went. Levi is on the bus at 6:25, the Buddies are on at 7:35, and Wyatt brings up the rear at 8:30.
It is actually pretty nice because I get to spend some time with them all before they leave. Above are the second grade supplies minus the 4 extra composition books the teacher asked for after the first day. This year we also had to pay a supply fee to help off set the budget cut backs our schools have been suffering from. So far they are all loving their teachers and classes. I have my fingers crossed that it stays this way all year!

Pool Day

We finally remembered to take the camera to the pool. Aren't these diving board shots cute?
My nephew wins the prize for best form. He said, "Oh man, a diving board! Been wanting to get on one of these all summer!"
The crew during a rare pause. They were nonstop playing for two hours straight.
Levi doing one of his weird dives. :)
And Wyatt making everyone laugh. We had so much fun!

Gold Rush

The buddies have been wanting to pan for gold for months now. We farm some land near a local gold mine and pass it quite often. I always reply....wait until this summer.
Well, this summer has flown by and I was reminded of my promise, so we finally made it out there. Here is our find after panning for about thirty minutes. Allot of work for a tiny speck of gold, but the boys were happy.
They thought every thing was awesome, especially walking inside of the mines. Wyatt and I enjoyed seeing it through their eyes, as we have been there several times before.
I think we will have to go back to Reed Gold Mine for their haunted mine trail this October. It is just right for 7-9 year olds.
Cross "panning for gold" off of the buddies bucket lists. They were on cloud nine when we left that afternoon!

Beach Trip 2011

Buddies at Southport fishing pier
Pirate Camp at the Maritime Museum
Riding scooters
Supper at the Provision Company
And allot of this.....relaxing!

30 Hour Famine

My older boys participated in the 30 hour famine with our youth group this week. One way they raised money was this toilet. To get it removed from your yard, you gave a donation. For a few bucks extra you could send it to another house. They also went to neighborhoods and collected canned goods for our food ministry. That night they slept in cardboard boxes on the church lawn. Both boys have not stopped talking about it yet and Wyatt wanted to know when the next one was, he had so much fun! Thank you to our youth leader Bonnie, and all her helpers, for making it so enjoyable and memorable!

Laundry

Conversation on the way home from the airport.

Hubs: It has been hard finding clean clothes this week.

Me: I thought Wyatt was doing laundry.

Hubs: He has been.

Me: Then what was the problem?

Hubs: No one wanted to fold them, so they are in baskets and piles everywhere. It was getting hard to tell the clean piles from the dirty piles.

(I should have taken a picture, it was ridiculous)

4th of July Parade

This year our kids program at church walked in the parade to advertise for our VBS. I took a pic of the Sundrop monster truck to remind everyone that we have always known how awesome Sundrop is. It is our claim to fame, as it comes from Cabarrus County.
We lined up at the middle school and went down main street handing out icee pops. Yeah, it is as hot as it looks. I would like to add here that it is not cool for an adult to walk up to one of my kids and ask for a WHOLE bag of icee pops.
Some kids started out in the wagons, but we ended up trading them out for the coolers of icee pops. How cute is she? Couldn't you just eat her up? When I asked her she told me NO, lol.
The line of people at the start of the parade. We had allot of fun, and I saw many people that I haven't seen in a while. Several kids were shouting to the buddies so I made G get out of the truck and walk.....since they were all there to see him, haha.
P.S. I will be taking a week off from blogging to drive out to California with my two sisters. We leave in an hour, so I should probably be loading the car. ;)

More Beach Shots

This was a cute one. All the ones without faces were awesome.
Southport. I told them to show me their muscles.
Not sure why he is pouting, but this was funny.
Check out little man patiently waiting his turn to see Old Baldy.

Family Portraits

My sister in law, Brandy, had an awesome idea when we were down at the beach for Memorial Day. Let's take all the kids to the point, when we return in June, and get a shot of all the grandkids for my parents before they leave for the misson field. Great idea, I said, let's do khaki's and solid polo shirts. Ha! The clothes were the LEAST of our worries. (as you can see one of my kids said I NEVER said "solid")
Posing all these people with everyone else standing behind us was quite comical. No one would listen to us, and the kids all wanted to run around and go swimming. If all are smiling one will be rolling his eyes (Levi). Or as you can see above "stagers" didn't get out of the shot fast enough.
We both decided that if we do it again next year we are paying a photographer to do it. Let them worry about getting the clear shot and staging everyone, and WE will worry about our kids smiling and acting like they are happy. Also they should be taken after a day of playing or with some type of bribery offered....like putt putt and the arcade.
The best shot ended up being one of everyone from the backside. At least then you can't see my 14 year old rolling his eyes, lol.

Middle School Awards Day's

This year Levi won an award for having the highest Math average in his group, the Hurricanes. The eighth grade is divided into three groups: Hurricanes, Beach Bums, and Pirates. You only change classes with your group of 80 or so kids. He also received a Presidents award for having a 90 or above average in all of his classes for all three years of middle school. The 8th grade doesn't give out behavior awards, but he was on Gold Level all year long. Uncle Shaun got to come, as well as my dad. Shaun kept asking me if the other kids were 7th graders. No, all the kids in here are 8th graders. He couldn't understand how big the middle school has gotten since he was there, lol.
Wyatt really rocked it out this year. He won an award for being on gold level all year long, an award for meeting and exceeding his Reading Counts goal all year in ELA, and an award for AB honor roll all year long. They are also divided into three groups called Panthers, Cheetahs, and Jaguars. Wyatt was a Cheetah this year. Our sixth graders had the highest and second highest Math and ELA scores in the county this year in their EOG's. The principal couldn't brag on them enough. Wyatt made it into the end of year slide show many times. I quite enjoyed his silly poses and faces. (if anyone can get me a copy of that I would be forever grateful)

Banana Pudding

Conversation with the hubs after he had been digging around in the fridge for several minutes.

Him: Where is it?

Me: Where's what?

Him: The banana pudding.

Me: Banana pudding?

Him: Yeah.

Me: There is no banana pudding.

Him: What? The kids ate a whole banana pudding?

Me: No, I haven't made banana pudding today.

Him: But....there are vanilla wafers out.......

Me: Let me get this straight, you saw vanilla wafers and automatically assumed that there was pudding?

Him: Yes.

Me: The buddies were eating the vanilla wafers for a snack.

Him: That's just wrong.

(Here in the South some of us take our "naner puddin" VERY seriously. )

Memorial Weekend with the fam

To spice up the last hole, my brother told everyone to hit their ball and beat it to the bottom.

Happy Birthday Levi!!!!

Okay, so I am a wee bit behind in blogging. Levi turned 14 on May 3. I really can't believe he is that old. I can still vividly remember calling the hubs and telling him it was time to go to the hospital.
His response was....are ya sure? Yep, my water broke, and the doctor said to go on and he would meet us there, was my response. As you can see, 14 years later, we spent the afternoon and evening at MPHS on the track.
He did very well. As we were leaving, he noticed the huge board on the stadium with all of the track records for the high schoolers. Talk about incentive. He didn't even have to say it outloud, I knew he was thinking how awesome it would be if he was on that board one day.
I am really not sure when the short, chunky boy turned into the tall, lanky boy that he is today. It was a gradual process that seems lightning fast presently. Happy birthday to Levi, my firstborn. I love you!

Egg Hunt 2011

Since our new building at church was built on our egg hunt hill, we moved the hunt to the middle school football field. Angie and I aren't sure what the final egg count was. Our goal was 3,000 and we stopped counting after that was reached. The donations of eggs and prizes were such a blessing!
It was great! We had so many volunteers step up to help with the set up and hot dog lunch and supervising the bouncy houses. My kids had a blast. Wyatt followed the buddies around, and Levi was in the obstacle course house to help little people get up the climbing wall.
The best news was we had people register before the hunt so we could see how many people came. We had FOURTY people come that do not go to our church. TWO of those families came to Easter Service on Sunday!
It has been such a blessing to watch the growth of our church since we have been going there the past three years. Sunday morning in our new building I found myself quite emotional. I can't wait to see how the youth and Kids for Christ programs flourish.