Tell Me Thursday: Here's a Tissue

This was taken at our favorite Hibachi Grill Restaurant. We were standing in front of the aquarium & Hannah says "Hey mom, look- that dragon needs a tissue. His nose is running"
bwahaaaa!

“Mommy, what’s an abortion?”

Talking to Girls about Abortion

I had a conversation recently I was definitely not ready, or prepared to have. One evening my nine year old daughter, Hannah, and I were sitting in my bed about to watch a movie. I was just finishing up writing something on the laptop and had Twitter open.  I saw a tweet from a pro life activist and without thinking clicked the link in the tweet, thinking it was going to an article. Oops. If I had looked closer, I would have seen it was a picture link. The tweet said something along the lines of “know the truth about abortion”. I thought that was a curious way of putting things, don’t you? Well, the truth was there, right under my nose! I quickly clicked away having Hannah right there beside me, but she saw it. It was a picture of a baby aborted … late term.  It was one of an entire album of pictures of aborted babies of varying points during a pregnancy.  She insisted I click back to the picture- “Mama, what was THAT?”.

The conversation went something along the lines:
“It’s a picture of a baby that has been aborted.”
“Mommy, what’s an abortion? Is that baby dead?”
“Yes, that baby is dead. A doctor took it out of its mommy’s belly before it was ready to be born, and it was not able to live.”
“Why did the doctor take it out?”
“Because (long pause) the mommy didn’t want to have a baby.”
“Did the mommy know the baby would die?”
“Yes.”
(long pause)

“Why did the mommy want the baby to die?”
“Some women get pregnant but do not want to have a baby, so they get abortions”
“Why do they get pregnant if they don’t want to have a baby?”
(My mind is racing at this point, sitting in utter disbelief we’re having this conversation at all)

“They don’t mean to get pregnant on purpose, but sometimes they just do. Maw maw and paw paw did not get pregnant with mommy on purpose, I was a surprise to them.”
“…and they did not get an abortion so you were born.”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t aborting a baby, killing it?”
“What do you think?”
“Yes”
“Do you think aborting babies makes God happy?”
“NO.”

She saw the preview for the “next” and “last” pictures and said “click mama, click!”. So we clicked through the entire album. Bloody pictures, an arm, a leg,  tiny feet ... little tiny bodies. She sat there staring at one picture for a minute and her voice cracked a little, and she said “turn it mommy. That’s making me so sad. I’m never going to have an abortion. I’m going to have my baby!” I give her a hug and say “I know that makes God happy. Just remember you have to be married before you start thinking about babies”

She answers me with “Isn’t that the only way you can have a baby?”

“Why yes, sweetie, it is. Let’s go get a snack.” “Okay!”

Hey, she’s nine. I’m keeping it simple!

Kitchen conversations epi 1

Hannah: "Mommy!!! I don't WANT vegetables in my chicken!!"

Jackson (as he is standing at the stove stirring the stiry fry): "Hannah don't you want to be healthy? You're gonna get the FLU and be out of school for two months. Then you're gonna have to make up ALL that work!"

:: I snort ::

Jackson: "Whuut? I'm trying to act more like a father ..."

:: I am trying not to lose it, as I'm headed to the bedroom to post this ::

Jackson from the kitchen across the house: "I AM going to be in COLLEGE in eight years ya know!"

My birthday party

My birthday was last Thursday. Jay, Hannah and I met some family members for dinner at Applebees. We had a good time visiting together. I had the best birthday in years this year. Here are some of the pictures I caught. Mom has a really good one on her camera I want to snag soon. It's a hoot. All of these pictures were edited in Photoshop CS2 and I used two- three Pioneer Woman Actions, "Boost" from pack one, "warmer" and "seventies" from pack two.

The cheese girl. The girl LOVES cheese. But she's picky. She used to only eat processed American cheese food products. Then I broke the news that it wasn't real cheese. Good thing she's not a die hard Santa player. The cheese thing was hard enough! So she started exploring. We also eat real American cheese now. She likes to be patriotic like that. She loves Monterey Jack cheese in and on everything if she had the choice.

In the last six months, she has grown a love of fried Mozzarella now. Praise God.

You know ... I cannot remember the last time we took a picture this good. Seriously. Not even our wedding pictures were this good. He was smiling, too! Yes, that's a Jay smile for pictures. He usually doesn't smile. That's why you don't see a whole lot of "posed" pictures of us. This was his gift to me.

"Mommy what made you fall in love with daddy?" Hannah has asked. Well here ya go.

This picture also answers the question to how I can have such brown eyes and my children do not. Note: no additional eye filters were done to this picture. Yes, those are real! :)

You can see the rest of the birthday pictures on the Facebook page. Enjoy!

GratiTuesday: August 4th

This is one of the easiest posts of the week. God has blessed me with so many wonderful things in my life, picking something out to talk about is easy. Of course I am grateful for my daughter. She's my daughter! I think she's everything I wasn't when I was a little girl. She's all hearts, flowers, balloons ... princesses ... always thinking of others. Her heart is a mile wide. She is the best friend anyone could ask for. Really, she cares SO MUCH about other people. There's a downside to this- it's easy for her to be hurt, too. At the same time, though, those hurts have been teachable moments to show her more about Christ, and about people's need for Christ in the way some treat others. She accepted Christ as her Savior two months before her 6th birthday, and she led herself to Christ. All we done was witness it. It was a precious, precious night for our family.

This past week has been GREAT. Jackson was with one of his uncle's visiting, so it was just me and Hannah here at the house. It was so peaceful. Usually she pecks me to death wanting this, wanting that, complaining about something or another. Not Wednesday. I realized as I was doing my bible reading in the living room, how peacefully quiet it was, even with her three feet away from me in the dining room. She was playing on Pixie Hollow and was as content as she could be. It wasn't like she'd never played on that site, it was just different. We didn't even turn on the TV that day until 4pm. Thursday was the same, and Friday was very close to it. It occurred to me that this new found peace could possibly be her changing, a result of her growing up.

I told Jay in a conversation not long ago how we were on the brink of a number of accomplishments with the kids. We were close to getting on the "other side" of some issues we were trying to overcome. Little things, such as, her insistence on sugary drinks. While we were at the beach I convinced her to drink a glass of water each day to stay hydrated. She's still doing it. As a result, she's not paying as much attention to food during the day because she's able to more accurately tell when she's truly hungry or not. That's big for us, as she was continually snacking through the day, and I believe it was more from potential boredom than true hunger. She's more willing to try new foods, which has ALWAYS been a struggle. The big thing in recent weeks is her relationship with the Lord. No matter where she sits in a church service, she always makes it down to the alter to pray during invitation. That warms my heart SO much. This past week, she brought a friend with her. A friend who is new to church, no less. What a blessing it was to see her be a positive spiritual influence towards another child!

Last week, she also figured out how to make comments on blogs, so you might be seeing links to her new blog posts in the near future. She was so excited about commenting :)

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Wordless Wednesday: Where are we?

Tell me Thursday: Unexpected Places

Tell Me Thursday is hosted by tellmethursday.com , be sure to hop over and see other participant's posts!

June 2nd was "Happy Jackson Day", and dad and I decided we would surprise the kids with lunch at The Mellow Mushroom. We love that restaurant! It is SO tastey. Each month we try to do something special for the kids on their birth-date. Jackson's birthday is on the 2nd so each month on the 2nd we try to do something special for him, and on the 20th for Hannah. Coming back to the car the kids went to check out the fountain we parked next to on the street one block down from the restaurant. Needless to say, I started snapping pictures.

They were acting like strong guys standing next to the big columns.


I was really happy to see how well the new camera done with the moving water.


This was my Wordless Wednesday pic. The original pic was done in sepia because I intended on submitting it to this weeks IHeartfaces.com contest. When I tried to get there my internet started acting wonky and I was tired and not feeling good, so I went to bed. (Still not feeling very hot)


They were having such a good time. I've always loved going by that fountain. I used to walk by it waking to said restaurant when I was working a few blocks away. Very peaceful.


It warms my heart to see them actually happy together. They were having a good time being all silly.


Like I said, silly! Then I got to looking around, wondering what company was actually in the building we were having such a good time in front of.



Well no wonder! ;o)

Wordless Wednesday: Unexpected places

Tell Me Thursday is going to be great this week! :O)

#440 The things kids say

Seven year old Hannah is mad because her brother got the paid membership the Club Penguin. She's been grounded from her own TV and computer for three weeks now, recently getting limited time with both. Jackson, ten, says "Hannah you're grounded what are you going to do with a Club Penguin membership anyway?" to which I say "exactly".

Hannah storms out the door as Jackson says "I just felt like a politician for saying that".

Parent Adventures: Part Two

Yesterday I shared the adventures I've had with an ailing mother over the past week. Five hours at the doctors office with mom, gathering the patience needed to endure sitting in a waiting room for an hour. Sitting in the examination room for thirty minutes at a time. Listening to mom with her tendancy to be glass half empty (I'm glass half full). But there was another part of that equation- Hannah (7 years old) was outside in the waiting room with my dad.

My Dad. He can digress his attention away from a child very easily, especialy if get gets drawn into conversation with another adult, or if in a store finds a display that catches his interest. I remember when Jackson was four, and we were at Myrtle Beach. I left Jackson with dad in one isle while I went a few isles over to get something. When I went back, dad was there, but Jackson wasn't. Not being as close to the Lord then as I am now, I had some strong feelings going on inside me at the thought that he paid so little attention to Jackson that Jackson was able to wander away from him. I knew it was honest by the look on his face, that's why I've never really been upset with dad, that's just dad. I learned better that day.

Mom, dad, and I (with 1 yo Hannah in tow) were all over that store looking for him, and about the time my heart sank as I walked towards the door envisioning seeing my boy being stuffed into another vehicle by a stranger, I heard the sweetest words any mother could hear during a time like that- over the loudspeaker: "Will Jackson's mom come to the front desk please? He is looking for you". I turn around as I was literally in the exit doors, to see my little boy so grown, on his tip toes at the customer service desk trying to look at the worker as he was watching her call me over the phone receiver. I immediately realized my failure as a parent at that moment because that was not something I had taught Jackson to do- to go to the front desk and ask a worker for help if he ever got lost. He was such an ACTIVE (=wild) child that I always had a hand on him, and always kept him in sight because I knew how quickly he could get away when he decided to make a run for it. (That's why I could not be mad at dad, after all, he was getting "old" and I knew Jackson's temperament was totally foreign to dad).

The worker asked me if I was his mom, and I said yes. They asked him and he said yes, with a huge smile on his face. They told me he walked up and said he could not find his mommy. They asked him what her name was and they could call her, and he said "mommy" - awww my melting heart! It was that week we started practicing him remembering mine and Jay's actual names.

So from then on I have to remind dad he can't walk as fast because little feet cannot keep up; that short people have a shorter attention span and he has to remind them to stay close by.

Fast forward six years to yesterday:
Hannah and dad are in the waiting room. Hannah's patience was worn thin. She has to go to the bathroom, which is right across the hallway from said waiting room. Dad stands in the doorway of the waiting room, waiting for her to come back from the bathroom. He gets to talking to another man waiting for his wife ... and some 30 minutes later he realizes Hannah had not complained to him in a while. He looks around and she's not there! He actually processes the idea that like him, Hannah meets NO stranger.

Dad freaks. He takes off to the front of the building (this place is like a doctor "complex" with multiple offices for varying things, very large, open building)- she's not there. He goes back where he gave blood earlier (and Hannah was with him), she's not there. He goes back to the waiting room we were in for when mom got her Xays abd utrasound ... she's not there, either.

He's ready to panic, and goes back to the first waiting room to check again, and he doesn't see her. Then another eldery man sitting in a corner points to another corner and asks "does she belong to you?", pointing to Hannah passed out on a couch on the opposite side of the room from where dad had been in previous conversation. Talk about relief! I'm just glad I was not out there and he was able to work that out on his own. Maybe future ventures he'll make a point to try and pay closer attention? Who knows. But hearing the story come from him was priceless.

Our last stop was the pharmacy across the street from the office building. We're all four in the car and I say "Dad you can go in and get the medicine" to which Hannah answers "Yeh and Papa don't get in any conversations with anyone!"

raising foodies 5-28

Not long ago I posted about our venture with apple slaw. We really liked it, and enjoyed making it together. The same night I prepared a large pack of chicken so I could do garlic-onion crock pot chicken. I'm totally sold on the crock pot now, and think I'm going to try and snag mom's crock pot tomorrow when I am over there! Have you tried anything new in the crockpot latey?

This particular night I decided to let Hannah try her hand at a knife. This is something I have not been looking forward to considering she cut her knuckle using a hand grater. She done really good with the broccoli though! Her job was to cut the "trees" off the stalk.

I might add here, that Jackson took these pictures with my Mother's Day gift, and NO EDITING was done to these before posting! Awesome, right?

Do you have a recent post about cooking with kids? Leave a comment so I can come see your post! Are you looking for information about raising a toddler foodie? Hop on over to Grace's Kitchen and see what other moms of toddlers are up to in the kitchen with their little ones!

Tell me Thursday: Catch up edition

I realized on Monday I did not post a Tell me Thursday post past Thursday ... oops! To view last week's Wordless Wednesday, click here.

Picture #1-
"What happens when ..."

you miss the ball? That really good player from the other team will come and get it.
OR
you're born three days apart? One day you'll end up playing on opposing soccer teams (next year, we're going to find out before sign ups if they're playing and ask to be on their team!)

This pic is so special. The boy is the son of dear friends of ours we don't get to see very much anymore. (He was born 12-17 and she was born 12-20.) His older brother of a year is also on the "blue" team, and boy are they good. We've enjoyed getting to see them each week. What's also cute with the pic is Hannah is #6 and he is #7 (and the other one is #8, lol)

Picture #2-
"What happens when ..."

you let the girl get past you? she scores! LOL!

This is probably one of the best goals of the season, she done such a good job getting past Jackson (lol)! everyone laughed at his reaction, and I was so happy to find how detailed this pic turned out considering I took it zoomed in 15x from the other side of the field- lengthwise!

Picture #3-
"What happens when ..."

You choose not to put on your chin guards during practice? You get kicked in the chins!

This week's Wordless Wednesday was "Skate dude at work".
I explained some about it in my contest entry here. We had such a good time trying to get those pics. I had a hard time choosing which one to enter in the contest, as you can see. I chose the one for the contest for the height he had and his form- not to mention the hints of orange from his hair you could see at the top of his head! But these were equally as awesome and I really think I'm going to create a poster with the second one. I LOVE the angle of the third though, with the blades of grass- just how I planned it! He's getting really good at skating, I believe. I just realized today I had a video already uploaded of him, check him out-



Not all that fancy, but hey, he's an amateur! He's got some good stuff- trust me, there's more skate videos in your future if you're a regular visitor here :o)

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Wordless Wednesday: What happens when

Be sure to come back tomorrow for @Tellmethursday to learn the stories behind my pics :)

When kids get grounded

So its been an interesting week this past week. Hannah has entered a very selfish, angry, defiant type of stage. I'm chalking it up to her little attitude getting amplified with the sudden school change she has experienced this month. It's not that she doesn't want to be there, she does. She REALLY does- she loves being back there. But she got in a LOT of trouble last week, and has lost her computer and TV priviledges totally, indefinately. Because of this, her whole world is disjointed :p She has no idea what to do to fill her time these days. She's slowly figuring it out though. Like today- I tell her to go to her room and play. She says she has nothing to do in there. I remind her she has a room full of toys in there, if she's not going to use them I can get rid of them quickly! She goes in her room.

A lttle bit later, she brings me this, to show me what she's taking to school tomorrow:


(Click here to view larger version)

Do you notice the same thing I'm seeing?
There's something interesting about this pic, I wonder if anyone else will see it.

Isn't she sweeeeeett? uh huh.

Tell Me Thursday: Sleeping Beauties

The Story:

There's been a bag of scrapbooking supplies traveling with us through two moves. I just keep moving it from here to there, it's like m best friend now. However, I have not looked in this bag in a good three years at least! So the other day I decided, I'm never going to use this stuff- how about I give them away here on CalvaryGirl? So I went through the bag seeing what I had, and found a small envelope with just a few pictures in it. All but three were of Jackson's k4 Heritage program class performance (awwww!). One was a pic off of the balcony at our old apartment once when it snowed.

The last two were these precious pics of my babies sleeping in the cutest positions! Hannah was 1 and Jackson was 4 in these pictures. I remember finding Hannah a lot of times in that position. (The blanket she's snuggled to was my "huggie blanket" when I was little.) Jackson had fallen asleep watching TV early one night when that picture was taken. I remember laughing so hard when I walked in his room and found him in that position. He had gotten too quiet so I had went in to check on him ;o)

They say I'm "always" taking pictures of them while they're sleeping and ask why. I simply say it's because they're so peaceful that way! But obviously I'm not sneaking into the bedrooms as much as I used to cause I had to look back to my JANUARY file to find the most recent sleepy-pics!





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Wordless Wednesday Sleeping Beauties

Gratituesday 5-5

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This week is SO simple, if you have seen last week's post. (By the way, the last two videos in that post should be available now, there were some reports of complications with those two.). In the past week, my son has went from being miserable on a daily basis, to now his worst "problem" is his sister. He gets up in the morning without protest, and gets ready just as fast. He is open spiritually. We were actually able to have a conversation last night about him responding to his sister in a godly manner and he was actually listening, open to what I had to say- even though what I was saying did not sit right with his flesh. He is willing to TRY.

This is a stark contrast to what we've dealt with this year. I believe he thought God had left him. Now that his prayers have been answered, I believe he's on the road to restoring his relationship with the Lord- they had not been having a two way conversation for a long while I think (Jackson once asked me what good it done to pray! MY Jackson!). I'm so grateful for this. I have no doubt the road we've been on with the charter school was the one the Lord had us take, but I am SO grateful that we are through this trial! Now I need to work on myself and my fears of a school bill each month ;o)

It's funny because they went back at the perfect time. Last Tuesday was an "off" day because of assembly type gatherings, Wednesday was 'normal', Thursday was a community service day so they were on a "field trip" (Hannah ran into a gate at the park and got a bad goose egg on her temple, she's recovering); Friday was ... Friday ;) That day Jackson fell off the parallel bars on the playground and go a scratch on his forehead, go figure. Yesterday they had no homework (scratch that, Jackson didn't, Hannah did- homework was a sore spot for Jackson at the old school) because guess why? We're going on a field trip today! The annual trip to a huge park about 45 minutes away. I remember last year the decision had been made already that they weren't coming back, the intentions then was to homeschool- what a change in plans!

Then Friday Jackson and I are going BACK to Raleigh with his class (we just done the same trip in March with the old school, LOL). Hannah brought home a permission slip yesterday about a field trip for her class. How perfect could this be for a 1st grader and a 4th grader?

Happy Gratituesday!

Gratituesday 4-28

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thankful for using the #gratituesday hashtag!!

God is good, ALL the time. We followed the Lord and put the kids in a charter school this school year to get caught up on some financial issues, etc .. the plan was always for them to be back in their private Christian school the following year. It's been a very, VERY rough school year for Jackson, overall. You just cannot beat "home". It wasn't that he as much didn't like the new school but it wasn't "the" school he wanted to be in. So we're been through the fire this year exalting him to do what's right in the middle of a situation none of us really cared to be in but knew it was what the Lord was having us to do.

Well, the opportunity presented itsself Sunday night for us to have the kids finish the year at thier old school (I didn't think you could do that!!). We went up to the old school yesterday and signed all the papers. I picked up the kids, took them home and went back to their current school to tell their teachers, fill out the withdrawel forms, and clean out their desks. I went to my parents to go through their supplies and compare it next to what they needed today, then went to Target to get supplies, and back home to get ready for church.

We never thought about their to-be teachers announcing to their classes (filled with allll their friends!) that they were coming back (today)! One of Hannah's friends immediately said something to her last night at church cause he was so happy to hear the news. Hannah and him flew up to the soundbooth with Hannah asking Jay what was going on. Jay convinced them there "had" to be "another Hannah W." the teacher was talking about ;o) poor kid! LOL! I was able to reach Jackson's friends in time so they were BOTH clueless overall.

We got up this morning and I felt Hannah, said she was warm and needed to stay home, and that was it! Jackson puts up NO fight to go to school. This morning was SOOO "as a matter of fact". I said "well, I have some stuff to do at church so since y'all are home you need to go with me.." "here, put these clothes on so you'll look nice and not like a bum if the (visiting) missionaries are up there" (we had International Sunday ... Sunday, and a bonus service last night.). Little did they know their backpacks were packed with empty folders, their pencil cases from their desks, lunch packed and ready to go :p

Jackson was whiney over his clothes, but the Lord gave grace as it was needed. The batteries in my camera were gone cause Jackson had been playing with it, that made me tense cause we needed to leave ASAP and Jackson was too busy with a brewing attitude (that we've dealt with all school year, well, since October). As soon as we wer ein the car he was ok, and I got him videoing his self talking about why he missed his old school etc ... I pulled into the school parking lot saying I needed to pick up something for the church- my kids were OBLIVIOUS!! No clue whatsoever!

This is them getting the news (I expected more reaction, but Jackson was actually SPEECHLESS!)

more reaction, moreso Hannah this time-



Them sharing why they were glad they were back-



Jackson reunting with his BFFs-

Praise the LORD!!

Family Update- April 24th

It's about time for an update, isn't it?
I'm doing ok. It seems if it's not one thing it's another going on (with me). If I'm not hit with a migraine I'm just overall feeling ... "uhg". I'm sure a lot of it has to do with my weight, so I am going to be focusing a lot of attention on that in coming weeks. I really do need a lot, a LOT of prayer regarding my motivation and will power as it pertains to eating habits and exercise. The problem with exercise is hip pain due to arthritis and now my right knee has been hurting significantly. I know it has much to do with the pressure my weight is putting on it. I'm still working on habits and routines, we're better than we were, but have a long way to go ;o) I did apply to Gymboree, but never heard anything back, so I'm going to assume it was not the Lord's will for us right now. Thing is, I have no peace about anything else, other than keeping children at home during the summer.

Jay's traveling a lot more with his job. We're so thankful we have not been affected job-wise because of the recession. The thing is, with his line of work, they are always hiring (not for what he does, but ...)- but you have to be physically fit to qualify. Oh~ and drug free :p Please do not apply for a job and waste yours and the company's time if there's a remote possibility you're not going to be able to pass a drug test! And do not think companys don't do random drug testing, because people are getting fired there for that, too! (Hence additional openings.) Very shocking news the other day was his boss as fired, which is bad because he really liked him and respected him. If you think about it please keep that situation in prayer- that his replacement won't be a royal jerk (it's true, right?) and that his new boss won't have a problem moving on to bigger and better things.
We got to take a mini vacation over Spring break in Virginia Beach and .... another town (lol) where a friend of Jay's lives. It was very nice. More pics to come, but you can see quite a few here.

We're looking forward to getting a garden planned soon (we're late!) and having a HUGE yard sale. We have SO much stuff we can get rid of, we're going to have to have a few yard sales just to get rid of it all. There's just too much to be able to get everything out at one time.

The kids are both playing soccer, and enjoying it a lot. Last week was their first game, they've been practicing about a month now. There are only three teams in Jackson's age group, so every other week he will be playing two games back to back. He has been deemed the primary goalie for the team though he's going to have opportunities to play in every position throughout the season. As active as he is I find it funny he'd choose goalie as a preferred position ;o) Hannah's just excited to be there, which makes me glad.

Some may have been wondering the stories behind my Wordless Wednesday post this week, I'm gonna share that separately. One hint- nothing to do with soccer ;o)
Hannah is still dealing with some degree of bullying (previous post), but what's being reported now is more regular mean-self-centered kid-type bullying. Jackson is determined he is going to make straight A's this quarter, after bringing home his best grades this year for 3rd quarter- two As and 3 Cs. That sounds good but for a child that has made all As his whole life ... not very hot- and he knows it.

I've always said that I would never pay or reward my kids for their grades, because they should get good grades anyway. Considering how rough this year has been, knowing he needs more motivation than fear of failing 4th grade (no danger at all, but apparently his teacher has brought it up enough generally speaking to the class it's been a fear of his...). We've told him he would get $20 for every A he makes for 4th quarter. He wants a new, "good" skateboard so he has a goal in sight. So we'll see how that goes. I know it's excessive, but I wanted to do something that would not only "get" his attention, but KEEP it for ten weeks. Please continue to pray about them getting back in their old school for next school year, that the Lord will give Jay wisdom to make the right decisions for our family concerning the many factors that plays into their return. We'd greatly appreciate it!

Jackson and I went to the local TEA party on tax day 4-15. We had a good time and enjoyed the experience. I was so proud to be an American that day. I had never attended a protest before, but it was so peaceful, and respectful. For us to be a group of extremists, we sure were nice! I thought it was hilarious when I saw on TV the next day some guy from Vanity Fair was saying "oh they weren't mad at all, they just seemed a little miffed more than anything" (paraphrase). Apparently, the liberal left thinks that you have to scream, holler, vandalize, interrupt speeches, and otherwise act like 5 year olds having a hissy fit for it to be a "real" valid protest. Apparently peaceful protesters just don't know what they're doing. Hmmm ... I'd be willing to disagree and call them to the floor on that!


Our local reps are planning more TEA parties in the future, and definitely one on Independence Day. It meant a lot for me as a parent to take part in it, and include Jackson in it. A long time ago our old Pastor said (paraphrase) "...one day when this country has went completely downhill, my grandkids are going to ask me what I done to stop it- and I want to be able to tell them I done everything I could...". I'll never forget that, and hold the same opinion. When Jackson is an adult, after conservatism reclaims this country through conservatives getting involved and finding their voices, and using them- he will be able to say "My mom and I were there when it all started ...". Some people think it's a moot point to talk politics with their children, but for me, that's HISTORY. I know nothing of the Regan years from first hand experience, and I was the same age then Jackson is now. Hannah is too young to appreciate what's going on, but Jackson is genuinely interested. Saturday we're going to the first meeting of our local 912 project. It's more of a meet and greet than anything I believe, but it's going to be fun. We're meeting at a local park and having potluck, etc ...

Hannah had her first field trip for the year. I know! They had one planned earlier in the year but it was cancelled. It was to this Health Center that was SO neat! I wish I could testify to how informational it was, but the models of internal organs freaked Hannah's little friend out, and we had to stay in the break room the WHOLE time we were there (2 1/2 hrs!). We had a nice time together though, it wasn't boring or anything. Time went by fast. Since her friend got NOTHING out of the field trip its self, I took the girls by the Krispy Kreme we passed on the way in (we were out of town). We had two of her buddies riding with us, and one her never been there before, so that was really exciting, especially since they were making the doughnuts when we got there!



Church is going great as always. I've been going out on Monday night visitation for a few weeks now, and it has been a great blessing. I've been wanting to start going for a good while now. I hope our family routine allows me to continue to do that :o) Jackson went out with some guys this week and he really enjoyed that. I learned Hannah has the option of staying at the church while I go out if needed, so that was a relief. Some weeks she's ok, others she's fickle about it. So we'll see.

Hope you all are doing well, and please link me to your own family updates by commenting! Don't forget about the giveaway!

Wordless Wednesday: hurricane Hannah