The Start of Summer

The 2008-2009 school year came to an anti-climatic close Thursday when I turned in my classroom keys for the summer. I felt like I should celebrate an end of hard year... but I didn't really feel like I had a lot of success on my part to celebrate. And I need to go back to tie up loose ends in the next week. I then got in the car to meet up with Lindsey to go to ATL for a mini AOPi reunion (which I will post about later.) I am not sure that the fact it is summer has sunk in. Perhaps tonight when I fall into bed and don't set an alarm. Or tomorrow when I kiss Adam goodbye and he leaves the house instead of vice versa. Or maybe Wednesday when I still at home playing with Noah and Charlie. To say I am excited is an understatement! I do have big plans for toddler art and play, organization, decorating, getting fit, cooking for my husband, encouraging friends, studying God's Word, but most of all I plan to RELAX! I thought I'd make a brief list of things I love about summer:

long lasting daylight
sleeping past six thirty
guilt free lounging
drive in movies
fireworks
sounds of children playing in the neighborhood
fresh produce
grilling out
pools
sprinklers
cooling off
cool whip and fruit
slow pace
watermelon
day trips
sun
running the ceiling fans
bright colors
rest

What do you love about summer?

The Love of My Life

Adam,
I wish I had the time and the money to celebrate you the way you deserve. To somehow thank you for your steadfast love and patience. And to thank you for your constant support and love of me as your wife and partner in life on for our son. I wish sometimes you could see yourself through the eyes of others just to see how amazing you are. I admire the way you let the insults and wrongs others commit against you just roll of your back. Even though it frustrates me sometimes I really do love the way you accept the things you can't change and just move on. I love your calm and how it soothes me. I love that you sometimes give in when you shouldn't. I simply love the way you love me. I love the way you live your life, sticking to your convictions and doing the right thing. I am thankful to share this life with you! Happy Birthday!
Love,
CJ

The Hillen Visit

This weekend our friends Dan, Jana and Micah came to town. We were thrilled to get to spend some time with them and our close friends Thomas, Dusti and Sela. These two families have meant so much to us since coming to Tuscaloosa. We met in our young married Sunday School class. We spent many hours playing cards, drinking coffee, making milkshakes, taking yoga classes (just the girls;) laughing and praying together. Then we had kids and each of us moved. Some across town and Dan and Jana to Indy. God continues to use these couples to bring me closer to him!

Micah and Noah are two days apart. Sela is six and a half months younger than the boys. When we were newly pregnant we of course dreamed they'd grow up best of friends. But God had different plans and put a little distance between us. For now we will settle for some good visits, like this weekend!

This first picture is of the boys when the Hillens visited last year the same weekend. The first set is of cupcakes to celebrate the boys half birthday and Sela's first birthday a couple of weeks ago. After that is from dinner Sunday at our house. We miss them already!

The Number 18

This weekend Noah celebrated eighteen months! He has grown so much from this helpless baby born several weeks early. As always I reflected over these past months and thought about all the sweet and funny memories created with Noah and all of the struggle and uncertainty of being a mom. I am so blessed by the love Noah has brought to our family. I thought I'd celebrate these memories with some of our favorite images from the last eighteen months.

Noah is growing up so fast. He is full of personality and laughter. He is definitly testing his boundaries. I thought I'd celebrate his present by listing 18 of his current words:

1. please (newest and my favorite!)

2. babies

3. gone gone

4. shoes

5.heeyyy

6. ball

7. quack quack

8. meow

9. woof woof

10. roar

11. juice

12. papa

13. nana

14. momma

15.dada

16. bye

17. clock

18. bubbles (Noah's favorite!)

Sunday was Senior Recognition and I began to tink about Noah at 18 years instead of 18 months. His little personality has been developing at such a fast rate and he is already suprising me daily. I can't begin to imagine when it is time to let him go. To cry at the sad sentimental songs sung, throw graduation parties, pick out baby pictures for the slide show. What will he be like? How tall will grow? Will his left eye still keep that brown spot? Will he love me? Will he resent that I didn't stay home? Will he have big dreams? Will he love God? Will he walk with Him?

The Good in People

Its no secret how ready and desperate I am to get this school year behind me! I have been in a perpetual bad mood for weeks. This week I have really tried to get my normally positive outlook back in gear by being proactive. I have been meeting my neighbor J, B's mom to walk at five am in the morning. This has given me energy and forced me to have more time in the morning for a devotional and breakfast. These three things have really changed my outlook. Wednesday I had a great devotional about long suffering and faith. It gave me some perspective on what real long suffering is and its not hating your job. The kids were decent and when a few weren't (it is not decent to applaud the Nazi Death Squads and say you wish you could go on a killing spree) I let it roll off my back. A graduating senior knocked on my during my lecture to give me a Reese cup. She remembered when I taught her three years ago that I liked them and wanted to give me one on her last day. Sweet. I got out of the building quick and decided to rake Noah to TCBY. We enjoyed our vanilla yogurt both as food and as something to color on the table with. Luckily the two teenage girls working there found Noah to be adorable and didn't seem to mind the mess he made. After putting Noah in the seat I turned to see an older man in an SUV trying to get my attention, "Mam, that boy in the red pick up truck just hit you." I was confused for a second, until I saw the huge dent along the passenger side. How kind of the man to stay and make sure justice was served. The teenager had obviously considered making a clean get away, which he could have done. I had not been anywhere near my car when he did it. I had been totally absorbed in cleaning yogurt off the floor of TCBY. He was very apologetic. I felt bad for him. At least all the vehicles I have hit were friends parked in front of my parents house. I was impressed in how he quickly called the police to file a report and relaxed as I entertained Noah by making faces and wearing his baby sunglasses, while he baked in the backseat while the NPD filled out the paperwork. When we were wrapping things up I told the teenager with the giant truck without a scratch, " I know it would have been easy just to drive away. I'm thankful that you chose to do the right thing. Its good to know there are people who still do the right thing." He was shocked. But God had allowed me to see the good in people all through my day so I could be patient and kind to this teenager who is probably grounded for the summer after his parents got the the 3,000 dollar base estimate on the damage to my car(the full and official estimate will come Monday and just might total it!). It was God's way of giving me some perspective and to see the world isn't all bad.

The Award

On Thursday my sister in law, Robin, gave me a blog award, Kreative Bloggers. I feel privileged to make her list as she is a fantastic writer and I truly enjoy her humorous, insightful and emotional descriptions of her life!

Here are the rules:
1. When given the award you write about seven things that you love.
2. Pass the award onto seven blogs that you love. Be sure to tag them and let them know you've given them an award.

So here are my lists:
Things I love.......
1. Laughter and delight from children over new discoveries

2. Long summer days with nothing to do

3. Sleeping babies on my shoulder

4. Falling asleep to the sound of the ocean

5. The sense of accomplishing something good

6. Cooking for friends and family

7. Driving with the windows down and music blaring and singing at the top of my lungs

Blogs I love.....
This list is in no certain order nor is it all inclusive :)
#1 and #2 go to Megan and Laudan. For starting new blogs this week and how excited I am to be able to keep up with B and B and JH through stories and pictures that I would otherwise miss!

#3- the LJM because Laura is witty and I love reading what she writes. And I miss her so much.

#4 - Micheal Looney, I love hearing about motherhood from Michael's perspective and she always has great ideas, I am always impressed with her adorable digital scrapbooking

#5 - Beth, her advice has helped me out so many times and her stories about K and A always cheer me up!

#6- Shea, her heartfelt words and love for her family always touch me! Laura always said Shea and I would be good friends if we were in closer proximity. And I think she is right!

#7- Kerri, her new adventures into motherhood always leave laughing and wanting more!

The Night Spots Took a Bath

Noah loves lots of things. Bananas. Yogurt. Cars. Charlie. B. Chalk. Books. Balls. Clocks. And Spots. We used to think Spots was like any other toy. Until one night several months ago when all three Spots were in the washing machine. He cried for three hours straight until they made it through the wash and the dryer. When he is tired and cranky Spots is the only comfort. Well, last night Spots took a bath. He just could not be pried away and before I knew it... there was a giraffe in the tub. Luckily Daddy came home from working late at the office just at the right moment with a dry spare Spots in his back seat. You wouldn't want to sleep with a wet giraffe in your crib either!

As a footnote... eight days until the season premeire of SYTYCD. If you ever took dance classes as a little girl or have worked really hard to reach your dreams, or love dancing, appreciate competition, and love sappy stories, its for you! I've already cried at the commercial, cheesy I know.

The Saturday

I told my mom today that I feel like I have two lives. The me at work, who is more desperate than the kids for the school year to come to a close and the me at home. I love being at home playing with Noah, spending time with my neighbors who are becoming more like old friends, cooking for Adam, redecorating in my head, and spending time outside. Noah adores being outside. ADORES IT. Our backyard is not kid friendly. We are in a low lying area with unplanned drainage issues. So out backyard looks like this.

Muddy. Everywhere. Impossible to grow anything in the ground without drowning it. So this weekend we called in reinforcements. Our wonderful parents came to help us reclaim parts of our yard. My hope is to make it a relaxing oasis where Adam and I can escape to and where Noah and Charlie can play without us worrying about them being sucked into a mudpit or arguing over who will have to give them a scrub down. So Adam and our dads built up a bed along the house where the biggest mud pit used to be while our mothers and I made potted gardens.

I could not be more pleased with the results. Everything came out much better than expected. We are a wooden sandbox, umbrella, and hammock away from a little piece of heaven right here in Northport. Please come and relax with us. We would love to have you! And thank you again to our parents. We would have quit on this project thirty minutes into it without your guidance, labor and patience. We love the four of you so much. We are so grateful for your help.

The Little Boy in the Mud

I may have mentioned before how much I love my neighborhood. In the afternoons we pour out into our front yards with our plastic toys , chalk and bubbles. We stand together watching our children laugh and play together while we have conversations about televisions shows, funny things that happened at work, fitness. diet ideas, the kids, and many other things until the real world realities like dinner and sunset call for our attention. I was outside standing with J watching B and Noah play together. We were talking about my job and how bad I want out of it when I noticed things were a little quiet. Noah was no longer right in front of me in the driveway with B. I thought ,'Where is Noah?" I look between our two houses and there he is, sitting in the pond that several days of storms and rain had created. He was splashing away being a true little boy. J laughed as she carefully blocked B from seeing how much fun Noah was having. I ran inside to get my camera to record my little angel and his mud. Enjoy!

The Fairytale

Sometimes the princess doesn't get rescued from the tower. Sometimes the prince doesn't kill the dragon. Sometimes the team doesn't win the championship. Sometimes the patient doesn't get a miracle. And that's life. It doesn't mirror the fairytales we were read as children or the stories we now read to our children. Sometimes you don't get the things you desire. Even if they are good things. Sometimes you don't get rescued from your circumstance or relived from your burden. Like Paul.

"To keep me from becoming conceited because because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Do you know what makes my story a fairytale? Love. When I choose to turn from away from the struggle, despair, hopelessness, and fatigue I feel at work and look into the eyes of my husband, listen to the laugh of my son, and feel the warmth of the afternoon I see the love of Christ for me. A princess whose fairytale is being written day by day.

Look at my baby in his new boots! He had so much fun Saturday in the mud in boots I bought at a garage sale. My batteries on the camera died so I missed the mud. But I'll get it again.