Atlanta

We're in Atlanta for the first portion of our trip to Illinois to visit family for Thanksgiving. We're staying with our good friends, the Andersons. We had a lovely day today.

For those who don't know, Casey and I are total foodies. Vacations are punctuated by where we ate, and remembered by who had the best bread, or most original dessert. For this tri, we've planned our stop for months.

We saw a segment on The Original Pancake House on the Food Network, and knew we wanted to try it. They have an apple pancake where they saute brown sugar, cinnamon, and fresh apples in a pan, and then pour the batter in, and then bake the whole thing. It puffs up really big, and slowly deflates as it cools. It's like a giant souffle, and it was awesome! Our friend Eric ordered the fruit crepes, which were served with real whipped cream, and the yummiest looking fruit I've ever seen. The blackberries were huge!

Maddy really enjoyed the whipped cream and licked two bowls clean! At the end, we swapped out her whipped cream bowl for a bowl of sour cream--the look on her face when she dug into it was priceless!

After we ate like PIGS, we went to an awesome park in Kennesaw. We played for hours and watched the guys fly their model planes.

Here's some pictures from a great day.

Cole's Story

We leave Saturday morning for Illinois to visit Casey's family!! This has been a crazy week as I try to get Angel Tree going and independent to prepare to be out of town for a week and a half! Plus Casey is in a business competition and he has a huge project due tomorrow. We see each other in passing, and have only been alone for 2 hours this whole week (but we've made those hours count! Wink, wink!!) Anyway, I've been "tagged" for the first time (thank you, Bethany, I am honored!), and I promise I am going to do that...maybe in the morning, since I'm the first one up and it's nice and quiet then.

But I just had to share Cole's story tonight.

We're going to visit my grandmother tomorrow. She's been in a nursing home for rehab (the physical-therapy-kind, not the drug-kind). She's been really lonely and lost 10 pounds, and when we went to see her last week, Cole was a little fidgety and impatient. So I thought if he made her something they could talk about, he'd be a little more engaged. So he made her a book, and he is very proud of it. He told me what to write, and he illustrated it. Here it is:

FYI, my dad's name is Bob.

Facebook

So I've kicked MySpace almost completely. I was at one time, completely addicted to it. But I got sick of the nasty ads, especially around Halloween, and I realized that most of my family is on Facebook, so I made the switch.

My favorite Aunt lives in Connecticut (most of my mom's side does, and it's where I grew up), so I don't see her like I'd like. She posted several old pictures of everyone. Ah, technology and the possibilities it opens for making fun of your loved ones!

So I decided to post some of my oldies:

My dad, me, my brother, and my sister, Autumn.

Me and My brother.

Me, 21 months

Well, I think the last time I posted, I told you guys I was discouraged. I've been waiting for my attitude to improve before I post again. My attitude is getting a little better, but I'm still frustrated and angry with some people......That said, I talked to someone this week that reminded me that sometimes people make decisions (that affect you) that don't make sense but maybe God's just telling them to. Maybe it's time to move on. His time.
So here I am, bad attitude and all, and maybe God's hand is the one shifting and moving things. I wish I knew that for sure...I wish I didn't feel like people are being petty and stupid, and affecting my sweet precious His Hands kids with their pettiness and stupidity.
Ultimately, I know God is in control, and the ministry isn't mine, it's His. And while I am a steward of it, it is ultimately His responsibility. And while some things may catch me off gaurd, he is never surprised!!!

Discouraged

This has been a very difficult, extrememly discouraging and frustrating week for me, in regards to ministry. I don't even want to get started on here, because it wouldn't be at all productive. Please just pray for His Hands-- for our Christmas angel tree, for God's favor, for wisdom, for my sanity......

Halloween '08

Halloween is normally a pretty big deal in my house. We don't do scary stuff, no spiders, bats, monsters, and definitely no witches. But when I was growing up, we didn't do anything for Halloween. It was the devil's holiday, you know.
But when I became an adult and had a kid, and developed my own personal theology about things, including Halloween, I was like, "Hey, since when does the devil get a day?? What's up with THAT?"
And what can be more fun than dressing up in costumes (LOVE it!), walking around in the cool air (LOVE it!), and CANDY (another thing that I missed out on as a kid! LOVE it!!)
So usually I make elaborate costumes for the kids (and me and Casey), and make it a big party. This year, I'm a little tired, so while I made Maddy's costume, it wasn't a big deal, and Cole wanted to wear his Spiderman costume he got for birthday (gasp! A store-bought costume!), and CJ waited WAY too long to decide what he wanted to be, so he was on his own.
I was somewhat disappointed in the not going all out, but we still had lots of fun.
We had a bunch of friends over, and the adults all dressed like crayons. (We joked that we were Family Dollar crayons, which why our labels don't say "Crayola" and why some of tops don't match our bottoms very well...) CJ had some friends over and for the first time ever took off on his own. He was excited to be on his own--in the dark.
Cole wanted to hold my hand tightly all night, which was very sweet, since he usually dashes off independently. He and I walked up to one house by ourselves, and the lady scooped up a huge handful of bubble gum and cheerfully dumped it in his bag. He was so shocked, he just stared into his open bag, and she said, "Oh, wait", and scooped up ANOTHER handful and poured it into his bag. He was speechless!
Enjoy the pictures!

Independent Candidate to vote for!

This morning when I woke up, this was on my lawn:



The story behind it is several months ago, Casey emailed out a link to this silly "news" video that declared him a presidential candidate. (To see the clip go HERE.)

Somehow it has become almost viral. I've actually recieved an email promoting Casey and containing the link from several people (one of whom I didn't know)! This morning there was even a bulletin on MySpace with the link.

But the sign takes the cake. I have a list of suspects...I'm sure someone will call here giggling around noon to confess. (Casey's friends know he's not a morning person. He hasn't even noticed the sign yet and he's been up for about 30 minutes.)

GO VOTE ( for someone who's actually running) TOMORROW!!!

Preschool Shows

I know I shouldn't admit it, but there are a few of Maddy's shows that I really enjoy.


I love the songs and the humor on Bunnytown. It's a great little puppet-based show on Disney. The best episode is the one where Underwear Bunny keeps interrupting all the musical numbers by running across the screen yelling "Underwear!"

There are some that aren't very appealing, even though the kids love them: Dora and Diego always seem to be yelling. Yo Gabba Gabba is just too psycholdelic. I hate the ads Nickelodeon has, too- both the number and the type: They actually had an ad for the Bloody Mary ride at Six Flags!!! (During Preschool TV?!?!? Have you seen that commercial? It's awful! It shows "Bloody Mary painting her lips with what seems to be blood and them she bursts screaming through someone's mirror! I'm sure it was a mistake, but still...)

My absolute favorite, though, is Charlie and Lola (pictured above). It's adorable. First of all, it's Brittish, and I love their little accents. Also, Lola has a great imagination and so many of her antics are so right in-line with the crazy stuff my four-year-old comes up with. Plus, she drinks strawberry milk which Cole at one time obsessed over, and she even calls it "pink milk" just like he does!

And then there's Charlie, Lola's long-suffering big brother. He's just so sweet and kind to her, he reminds me so much of my CJ. He never yells at her, even when he gets frustrated (well, CJ does raise his voice occasionally, but he is a good big brother). The show even opens with, "I have this little sister Lola. She's small and very funny."

I love that Charlie and Lola love each other, when most shows now depict a irritating younger sibling and a mean older sibling. On those shows, even if they don't DO mean things to each other, they TALK mean. But Lola adores Charlie ( I love the way she says "Chaaah-leeee"), and Charlie is obviously besotted: "Oh, Lola."

We got a Charlie and Lola book from the Library and Cole makes me read it with a Brittish accent. Maddy asks to watch it every morning when she wakes up. They even had an episode last week about pumpkins. I think I've seen 5 times already.

And I don't mind.