You've GOT to be kidding!!! You guessed it . . .ROSS

I had dinner in the oven tonight and I heard the beeper/timer go off that it was done. I was occupied at the time and just let it go a SHORT time. When I made it to the kitchen there was Ross. He had opened the drawer (which is above his eye level) gotten out an oven mit, put it ON, and opened up the oven door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The funny thing is he looked  like he knew what he was doing. He probably did.

Gone home . . .

Just received the phone call Cliff Smith went home to be with his Saviour this morning. He has now met the Creator of the mountains he loved so much and encouraged others to love.

Go, Go Gadget Arms!!!! (bottom of this post)

Today my dad called me from Tennessee and said he had just listened to a lecture given by a British lady (an educator). The lecture told why A.C.E curriculum is so good. The basic jyst was the importance of character being taught and how it is taught to different age levels. My dad held the phone next to his computer for the whole lecture so I could listen to it. It was super! I took notes. Writing of how they teach character . . . Annalina finished memorizing Psalm 1 today! She was happy!! She said "God helped me memorize it well." I was happy to hear her say that because we can do nothing apart from Christ. We called relatives and had her recite it! Now that is a great passage for character! 

Also, in Bible today we learned about King Solomon and how he did not ask God for riches, etc. but asked God for wisdom. Annalina told me she wanted wisdom . . . I told her she can get wisdom by reading the Bible, praying for wisdom, and memorizing the Bible. Since she can't read yet I said that means listening to the Bible stories in school and church (which she does). I am so thankful for the curriculum and how it puts the stories in a way that reaches a child's heart to train it.

Quentin sent me articles from online. One article was about pop culture and Christians which really reminded me of my pastor's sermon on Sunday. Even Christians bending the knee to today's culture. He also sent me an article about today's children and narcissism. If I were only to read one I'd read the one on narcissism it is Ouch! Good.

Article on pop-culture and Christianity: http://www.slate.com/id/2190482

Article on narcissism: http://.cpyu.org/Page.aspx?id=314334

Went to the thrift store today looking for books for the nursery at church and we found some good ones for church and home! I was happy with my finds which was fun! I also found something PERFECT for decorating for a friends baby shower coming up this summer! Fun too!!

Played more basketball today. I was encouraged . . . last time I couldn't make anything and I was hoping it was from being rusty from the winter and today it seemed to be coming back to me which was encouraging! Annalina was encouraging me and told me "good job", "almost", "you're good at this!" What a sweetheart. Encourager's are a joy and a blessing.

Tonight at dinner I put a bib on Ross and he got VERY VERY upset. I kept trying to keep it on him but he kept tearing it off and was relentless as to it being off!!! Why? I decided to try something I went to the drawer and made no more fuss. I brought out a bib (a blue bib) as I rounded the corner he said "boo" (blue). I said what color is this? "boo" (blue). Put the bib on him with NO PROBLEMS the other bib was pink and purple. Absolutely amazing! A 20 month upset because I was humiliating his masculinity with a pink and purple bib!!! Gotta love that kid.

GO, GO GADGET ARMS . . . . . 

*get 8 pennies and 3 dimes (at the same time) out of Ross' mouth

*pick up the contents of a completely emptied box in the bathroom that reads 375 Q-Tips (we had used some of them!). (you guessed it Ross)

*prevent Ross from getting my EXPENSIVE sunglasses which now have a lens missing.

*grab Ross as he makes a MAD DASH into the street running as fast as he can to get as far as he can before I can get to him

*confiscate the marker Ross has just uncapped

*grab Ross as he completely leaves the thrift store on his own

*stop Ross before he lets the dog into the house without me knowing it

He has been described by a NUMBER of people as FAST and the other day another lady saw how he did things and she said "he is fast and quiet"! Ah, yes! 

And Brian and I really thought the 3rd one was going to be the laid back and easy going one! Oh well, so much to be said for an extra dose of personality! Makes life exciting that is for sure.

Babe and I were talking about his Comp2x and how it has been an exercise in faith for us. The Lord always takes care of our needs. It reminds me again of my pastor's message on Sunday talking about Shadrach, Meshack, and Abendago (I'm sure I didn't spell it correctly) and he said when we go through a really difficult thing and people say "how'd you make it through that?" you can say "didn't you see who was with me?" Just as Christ was in the flames with them he is with us and we need to draw attention to that!!

I am writing this early evening and child 1 and 2 should be in bed. I hear them and I better go save our dog Sonja!

Thinking back to Saturday . . .

The kids and I went back to Grimes Point and had a great time looking at the flowers! Gabriel said "I want to study plants because I love them". I told him that is called Botany!! Gabriel knows which plant is my favorite and he found a beautiful plant for me and I got some pictures!! We also got to see Burnt Cave (1st picture). The picture of Ross is so cute! Not that I am biased or anything!

Tidbits of my day . . . Nothing big

I asked Annalina this morning if she would like to go to a class to learn Taekwondo (don't know how to spell it-martial art!). She didn't know what that was so I very intelligently said "how to punch and kick" she said "no" she didn't want to go because "I don't want to do the wrong thing". I thought that was pretty funny! Hopefully, she'll remember she "doesn't want to do the wrong thing" the next time her little brother is merciless in his annoyance to her!!! But I must commend her with the information she had that was a good answer!!

Sometimes Ross exercises with me. He has his own weight and today he was saying about his weight "RRRosss". Yep, it is Ross' weight! Then when it came time for pushups Ross sat on my back! He thought it was funny when I tried to do pushups with him on my back! Pathetically, I could only do 3 with the extra weight!!

Christina Z called today and it was GREAT catching up with her. She is about ready to move from England to Germany since her husband is taking a job with Lockheed Martin.

Sunday was a mentally draining day, not that is was a bad day, but just emotionally draining. It must have tired out brain cells because today Annalina had some pretty good laughs at my mindlessness . . . when I was praying before we started school I prayed "thank you for this food" (Hmm, probably wasn't in the proper mode of prayer, huh?). Annalina laughed VERY HARD at this!!! Then tonight at devotions I was reading and said "King Harold" instead of "King Herod". The kids were there to get me back on track!!!

One thing that happened on Sunday was that I found out one of the little boys that had been in my Sunday School class at my last church had gotten in a 4 wheeler accident and was life flighted to Reno. He had surgery for a severed intestine! Ouch! I am so thankful he seems to be doing well. He is a great kid. Also, on Sunday I ran into a lady at church that I had met awhile back. She is a fighter pilot out at the base and she has a little boy between the age of Annalina and Gabriel. They came over Sunday afternoon and that was a great time.

We finished reading Farmer Boy on Friday night. Tonight we started a book that has 16 TRUE stories of dogs rescuing people. Tonight was about a dog named Caesar (Gabriel said "like Caesar Augustus!") that helped U. S. Marine forces in WWII. It was an amazing story. Gabriel ate it all up especially the part when the dog alerted the soldier to the enemy when the soldier couldn't hear them at night and a grenade ended up at his feet and he threw it back and the next morning they found 8 dead bad guys. Dead with their own grenade! The dog also attached the enemy and got shot 2 times, etc. I think the kids will enjoy this book!!

Ross update:

1) He likes to take the heat registers off and drop things down into the piping! He dropped both of Gabriel's sandals down the other day and one was just about irretrievable!

2) I have caught he a couple of times taking the night light out of the electrical outlet and put the prongs of the night light into his mouth and take it out and immediately put it into the outlet again!! I thought I saw a spark! It looks to me like he intentionally does it!! Maybe, the night light isn't so important! 

The Water Horse--Make sure you have a kleenex

No, this is not the title of another one of Annalina's stories it is a movie I watched with the kids tonight. Yikes!! It was VERY intense and sad!!! The Scottish boy misses his dad and is marking down the days on the calendar till his dad gets back from being in the British Navy during WWII. He finds an egg and it turns into the Loch Ness monster and he becomes best friends with it but has to release it because of danger. He never sees the monster again and finds out his dad is never coming home again (died on a boat that sunk). Annalina, I could tell was deeply touched which is very unusual for her to get emotional over stuff like this. She never let a tear come but she said later "It almost made me sad" and asked "Is Daddy going to die in a ship?" Gabriel was fighting and fighting tears. He was having a rough time after the movie and finially broke down. When he heard how the people had to live during the war he said "must have been hard".  After the movie we went to eat the brownies we had made before the movie but we were held back some by Gabriel. As I was talking to Gabriel, Annalina went to look at the brownies and came back to us and said "The brownies are still brown!" and Gabriel and I just started LAUGHING!! Gabriel said "brownies are always brown!" Annalina said "I thought they turned green if you left them to long". We laughed again and she said "I was trying to make Gabriel happy again". Tonight was emotional for me to see the kids emotional but on the other hand it was heartwarming to see MY FAMILY encouraging each other and laughing and although not all of us shed tears the emotion was there. It was just so amazing to me tonight to see the different personalities . . . Gabriel with his soft spirit and Annalina with an inner fortitude. God has a purpose for them both and it will be the adventure of a lifetime to see what it is!!! I feel beautifully blessed tonight . . . and I am missing a husband who would love to enjoy such a night with us.  But whoever might be reading this know I am behind him 100% and as my hubby has told me many times "Nothing worth doing comes easily". His job is worth doing hence it doesn't come easily. I am BEAUTIFULLY BLESSED, BEAUTIFULLY BLESSED.

Prayers for my Children . . .

I read these verses and thought that they had good concepts to pray for the kids.

Jeremiah 24:7

*That they may have "a heart to know me {the Lord}, that I am the Lord"

II Samuel 22:36-37

*they may have the gentleness of God upon them-"thy gentleness hath made me great."

*that the Lord may enlarge their steps under them so they don't slip. "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip."

On a different note Gabriel asked if Daddy would be home on May 29th and I  told him he would! "Yah, daddy will be home for my birthday!" he said. Annalina was supposed to be working on cleaning her room and she came to me and told me that "the clothes told her they did not want to be picked up" I told her to tell the clothes that I said they have to be!!