3rd Grade...Oh the humanity

3rd Grade Ladies and Gentlemen...

Let me introduce to you, Gracie, my daughter, she is nine years old.  She is in 3rd grade, and I swear to you, she is going on 9th grade, fixing to be 15, according to her attitude.  If she rolls her eyes at me one more time, I might slap her into next week (ok, let's not get offended, I won't, but Lord, I want to)

My husband and her butt heads about every.single.little.thing.  I swear I am living with two children.  I have to break up fights every night, over dumb stuff usually, but more often than not, it is about Gracie not taking responsibility for something she did, or her forgetting something she was told to do, when she can remember what she did on Tuesday, July 17, 2010 at 4:37 pm, I kid you not, this child doesn't forget a single thing.  Yet, she somehow manages to forget that her Daddy told her to pick up trash in the yard when she got home.

3rd grade is tough.  They start to learn multiplication tables, division, and take their reading tests all in the same year.  Not only that, they are dealing with all kinds of hormones!  UGH!

The recently had they 3rd grade Christmas program which was super cute, she played an Elf, which Mema and Aunt Teresa sewed the costumes up for her and Lilly.  They were so cute, she smiled from ear to ear all night. 

Hello Texas

Fall Break 2015

Gracie and I decided to take a girls trip to Austin, TX.  We got on the road early Friday morning and headed out.  Snacks in tow, music was loud, and traffic was our friend that day.   We only had four stops during the five hour drive, but we made it safe and sound.  Our friends, Adam and Angela, along with their twins, Baylee and Savanna live down there.

We went out for a girl's night dinner and went to a store called Five Below.  Everything in the store was $5.00 or below.  They had lots of stuff in there, and we bought lots of stuff.  Saturday morning, we went and watched Baylee score a touchdown in football, then went downtown Austin and walked around.  It was so much fun!  

They fed us dinner that night, had a great night just hanging on the patio.  Then a great huge breakfast the next morning before we headed out.  Of course, we had to hit up HEB for coffee before we headed home, love their coffee.

Chance Anderson Band

So, last week was Achievement day at school, which means, if Gracie got enough points in reading, and passed all her tests, she got to participate in achievement day.  It just so happens, a teacher at her school is married to Chance Anderson! 

He decided he would put on a concert for these kids, and let them "skip school" for the day.  So, they had shirts made up that said "I skipped school for a Chance Anderson Concert." and took them over to the auditorium for his concert.  Gracie can home telling all about it.

She rushed the stage she said, someone was standing on her arm during the mosh pit while she was trying to catch a guitar pick they were throwing at her.  They were screaming at the top of her lungs, and half of the songs she didn't even know the words too.  She even has a T-shirt and CD to prove it, I would say she had a great first concert experience!!

Mama will keep her t-shirt and make a quilt out of it later, I am sure of it.

Remix Take 2

Let's try this again.

There might have been just a few things that have happened since we have talked last oh, three years ago.

First of all, Gracie grew up! Like overnight! And we kind of all changed a little bit!

 

 

 

 

We went to Disneyland!  The land where dreams do come true!  We also went back to Florida for the second time and went to LEGOLAND, and took a Swamp tour on a airboat!  How awesome is that!

 

And this happened:

 

I would like to try to start this blog up again, I know I am not perfect by any means, but I am just going to write what comes from my heart.

 

 

Tomorrow is the Day!

Tomorrow, my little girl will be starting Kindergarten.  I am so not ready for her to be this old.  She is super excited about it, because “We don’t have to take a nap, MOM!”  We went to meet the teacher last night and her classroom looks so much fun!  She is going to have a great teacher, and her Aunt Rita is right across the way, so if she does need anything at all, she can go over there.  I will be packing a lunch for her tomorrow, and probably every day after that. 

Prayer Walk

Has any of you been involved in a prayer walk?  Well, I am here to tell you what an amazing experience it was.  Our small group, which Brian leads, went on a prayer walk yesterday.  We decided to go out to the t-ball field and pray over everything!  The dugout, the pitchers mound, the stands, the concession stand, the gate, etc…  It was such an amazing experience, getting everyone there to pray and praying for our players, parents and coaches.  Our t-ball season starts this Thursday, so we had to do it before it started!  If you ever get a chance, organize a prayer walk, or join one!

Living Life…

Yesterday, on my way home, I was listening to Joel Osteen preach on the radio.  I found myself mesmerized by what he was saying and forgetting if I stopped at the stop sign or not.  Has anyone ever done that?  I also found myself crying as well, not only was I crying, but Joel, himself started crying on the radio. 

He was preaching about loving life and how you live it.   What if this was your last day on Earth and you knew it, would you still treat people the same way?  Would you still yell and cuss at the guy that cut you off on the way to work?  What if he had an emergency he was trying to get to.  Would you still yell at the cashier who was rude and didn’t speak to you?  What if she had a family member dying, or what if she was just diagnosed with a disease herself?  You never know what is going on in people’s lives, so there should be no reason for you to go off on them.  You should always portray yourself as Jesus would.  Live your life like Jesus would.  He wouldn’t get mad about that guy that cut him off, he would pray for him to have a safe trip.  He wouldn’t get mad at the cashier, he would ask her how her day was, and tell her to have a good one, and then he would probably pray for her. 

I want to be this kind of example for my child, I want to show her you should never be rude or blow up about some little thing.  It is not worth getting your panties in a wad over the little things in life.  It really matters how you live your life!

Be an example of God’s patience, mercy and grace.  Your kids are watching.

But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.  Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.  1 Timothy 1:16

Whining….

I don’t know if there was something in the air yesterday, but it seemed all Gracie did yesterday was whine about stuff.  And of course, back talk.  If I said go put on your shoes, she started whining, saying she couldn’t.  Brian said to clean your room, she says But Mom said… UGH!

So, at the end of the night last night, after many, many pleas for her to Do what is right and obey, I finally called her over to read a scripture from the bible.  This is what I read:

Do everything without grumbling or arguing  Philippians 2:14

OF which, by the way, they learned about obeying your parents in Sunday School yesterday too, apparently she wasn’t listening that well.  After I read the scripture to her, I asked her what it meant, and she said, quit whining!  I said YES, Jesus wants us to do all things without whining!!  Which is sometimes hard even for me to do, but I get it at least, and at least I am trying to instill that in Gracie.

On another note, we went out to eat yesterday after church, and I saw someone who had gotten saved at church yesterday, I told her Congratulations, I am so happy for you.  Gracie immediately belted out, Did she have another baby?  SHHHHHHSH!  So, began the conversation of going to Heaven and how to get saved.  Gracie said you are not suppose to go to Heaven until you are old.  So, Brian and I explained it to her as much as we thought she would understand, but I think she was still a little confused on how to get Jesus in your heart.  A conversation I am sure we will have again, and it may be sooner than later.

One more thing, if you are into reading books, you need to read this one, I have laughed the whole way through it!  Ketchup is a Vegetable and other lies moms tell themselves, is so funny!

http://www.amazon.com/Ketchup-Vegetable-Other-Themselves-ebook/dp/B0065B0ONQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329755620&sr=8-2

Worry Wart

Do you ever go through your day worrying about things and then praying for those things?  I can be sitting here at my desk and a thought will just pop into my mind, then I will start to worry about it.  I am a worry wart, but I have learned to starting leaning on God for comfort.

We are doing a new small group, 40 days in the word, and we are suppose to pick a project that we will help out.  One of the projects that has been listed is the “backpack buddies.”  These students who don’t have enough money and won’t be able to eat for a while, get backpacks full of food on Friday’s.  They are excited about this backpack, because it has awesome food in it.  One child who isn’t a buddy, asked his dad if he can be one, because those kids get beef jerky in their backpack.   This is happening in my hometown, and I am saddened by it.  I can’t imagine little kids having to take food home to provide for their family.  My thoughts immediately go to “what is going on at home?”  Where are their parents, do they work, do they get food stamps? 

I have a lot of things running through my mind about what to do, but does anyone else??  Let me know your thoughts

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  1 Peter 5:7

My little girl…

Gracie is not so little anymore!  She lost her first tooth this past week, and yes the tooth fairy was very generous to her.  It was hanging on by a thread for two weeks, and we kept saying, “Just let me pull it!”  She wouldn’t even let us touch it!  But on Monday, she went to school, and she said, “I just stuck my tongue through it and out it came.”

On Tuesday, she did another Bootlegger dance at the gym.  She wasn’t even scared.  Although, she did admit to me on the way out that she did think about crying for a minute, but she got over it!  She got out there and shook her booty with the rest of the 1,000,000 other girls.  It sure seemed like that many!

How do you know?

So, there are many things in life that we are pray for, pray about, etc…  So my question is, How do you know when God is talking to you and telling you what to do.  I mean, do you continuously think about it.  Do you have an urge?  Do you know deep in your heart that it is the right thing to do? 

I have prayed for and prayed about many things and things  always work out.  I am NOT questioning God and his will.  I am just questioning if I have ever been “talked” too? 

There is a story that Brian’s friend told him, about pulling over changing a tire for a young girl, and he said he felt God’s will come over him and he asked that girl if she had ever been saved.  She wasn’t and she got saved right then and there.  These two people had never met before in their lives, and probably would not have.  The girl was traveling across the states, she was from Oregon, and had never accepted Jesus as her personal savior.  He just so happened to see her with a flat tire along the road and pulled over.  How did he know God was talking to him that day? 

Disciplining a Child

I saw a website that had some pretty creative ways to discipline your child, some of them are just silly but some of them might not be to bad to try on Gracie.  The one’s I might try are:

If you repeatedly open the door to your child's room only to catch him in an act of disobedience, take your child's bedroom door off the hinges. It sounds harder to do than it actually is. And it works wonders!

*I think this happened to someone in our family, I just can’t remember.  I am sure it was me, I was always in trouble!

**Also, Gracie’s door is see through (french door) so right now it is not a problem!

An especially tough but effective correction for teenagers who forget to wear their seat belts is to add an additional day past their sixteenth birthday before they can take their driver's test. Hey, it's important!  **I got grounded for two weeks from my car if I was caught without a seatbelt or if I let someone else drive my car!  But then again, I was always grounded!

If your children are constantly turning in sloppy schoolwork, get a few photocopied pages of printing or cursive exercises. (These can be found at any teachers supply store.) Then ask your haphazard child this: "What takes longer: a report done neatly in 15 minutes or one you've sped through in 10 that must be redone and warrants a page of handwriting practice?"  **We will see how her schoolwork is in a few years!

Does your child slam the door when she's angry? You might tell her, "It's obvious that you don't know how to close a door properly. To learn, you will open and close this door, calmly and completely, 100 times."

If your child likes to stomp off to his room or stomp around in anger, send him outside to the driveway and tell him to stomp his feet for one minute. He'll be ready to quit after about 15 seconds, but make him stomp even harder. 

**Gracie is already starting both of these, so might as well try it**

Some of these sound like torture though, like the Barney music or running the backyard to check for turds, YUCK!!  I am sure somehow, this one would backfire!  What do you think?

http://imom.com/parenting/tweens/parenting/training/21-creative-consequences/#.TyKjpq57m-Q.facebook

Blessings

Sometimes when you least expect, God throws a curveball of a blessing your way. It is nice to not be expecting anything and then BAM! Right in the kisser!


I think sometimes in life we are so busy and get caught up in the rat race of life, that we forget to slow down and enjoy life’s little moments.

Let me just say how proud I am of my husband! I love him dearly and I am so glad that God is bringing great things into his life!

Daily Devotional for Gracie

We have been working really hard on praying together as a family, teaching Gracie to pray, reading a daily devotional at night with Gracie and trying to get her to memorize memory verses out of her book. She loves to see what story is coming next in her book:




http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310714818/ref=oh_o02_s00_i01_details




A friend of mine recommended this book, and Gracie loves it. We all do! We tell her a story, then a bible verse and make her repeat it. We just finished it last night, and we are already looking forward to starting all over again tonight!

Things that are swirling around this pretty little head…

So many things that I have been thinking about lately…

We are starting a small group on Sunday and Brian is leading it.  He is very nervous and it is a very in-depth study.  It is called 40 Days in the Word.  Please pray for guidance for him and please pray that he knows where to lead us.  We are suppose to pick a project as a group to do, and he is getting very nervous and overwhelmed. 

If you were categorized as a mom, would you be a modern mom or a perfect mom?  What about as a wife?  I am by far a perfect mom or a perfect wife.  As some of you may know, I don’t do Brian’s laundry, I never have.  Now, I will help him out when he needs me to, but just to throw his clothes in with mine, I don’t do it.  I do all the other laundry in the house, but his.  Why is this?  Why don’t I do my husband’s laundry??  I also don’t have the cleanest house in the world.  Dust is on my furniture, and yes, my cabinet is cluttered with papers that my daughter brings home daily from Pre-K.  Don’t even get me started on my second bedroom.  It looks like a hoarding situation in there.  Does any of this mean I love my family less, NOPE, sure doesn’t.  I like to come home and spend time with my family, not cleaning.  Since I work full time, I like to come home and spend time playing barbies or coloring with my daughter, or even enjoying a TV show, that all three of us can watch.  Of course, this is after dinner is made and cleaned up.  Gracie is only with me three hours a day before she goes to bed, why would I want to spend that time cleaning and away from her or away from my husband who I haven’t seen all day!

What about as a friend and a sister/daughter?  I have to work on these for sure!  If anyone was to describe me, I would hope somewhere in there, they would put honest and trustworthy.  But, just being there for people in my life, I definitely need to work on.  I should spend more time with my friends/family, I should make time for girl time!  I try to get a lot of this done at lunch if possible, because like in the previous paragraph, I only get to see my daughter and my husband a few hours a day, so I want to spend time with them!  But there comes a time when you need girl time! 

Diet/Exercise…UGH!  I am trying to get back into the swing of things and I have been faithful going to Zumba, but the eating is a different story.  It is hard to get back to hungry.  I mean, it is hard going without again.  Use to, I would just shovel it in whenever I was hungry and now, I have to find healthy snacks to eat and to not overeat them!  I am also dealing with some back pain.  I want to do crunches, etc… at night, and I don’t mind doing them because it takes all of 15 minutes to do a little routine, but my back is hurting and I am thinking it is because I am trying to get used to all of it again.  ALEVE, I need you!

Year End Review

WOW, what a year we have had!!  You all know, that Brian and I both were saved and baptized this year, which has made a world of difference in our lives.  Gracie started Pre-K, and she started a new daycare.  Her world has changed too.  She wakes every morning by saying “Just let me sleep in a little longer.”  And since we have been on Christmas break, she has asked almost every day why I can’t retire and stay at home.  I finally got to see my brother, neice and SIL after 9 months, which was a great treat!   Brian and Gracie sang in the Christmas production at church and they did really good!  I learned that I should slow down and enjoy life, especially when it goes by so fast.  Gracie is growing up so fast, and learning so many new things, where is the time going.  She is getting to big for her britches is what is happening!

God, has blessed our family in so many ways this year.   We have so much to be thankful for, we sometimes forget that we are healthy, and loved!   We should be loving on each other as much as possible, and telling each other how much we love them, because you never know what could happen.  We should spend time with family and enjoy it, we should spread our blessings around , and slow down!  We shouldn’t be so selfish with our time, nor should we be about our possessions.   We can’t take them with us when we leave this earth, so why keep them?  We gave more to our toy store at church this year, because God allowed us to do so, and it was honor to do so.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I pray that everyone has a awesome New Year!  Many Blessings to you and yours! 

Be Thankful!

So…I haven’t written in a while, so here it goes…

I have an interesting past couple of months.  Gracie turned 5, Brian got saved and baptized!  Which is totally awesome!  Our family is making a change and for the better I might add.  Gracie has had a great few weeks at school, we are just chugging along at church and work, but something kept feeling like it was lacking.  On my part that is.  I kept feeling like I was lacking in the parenting department and I couldn’t shake it.  What if I wasn’t making the right decisions when it came to Gracie, why couldn’t I get her to listen, I didn’t want to have to get in her grill all the time to make her listen because then all I felt like I was doing was yelling and punishing.  I wanted “THAT LOOK”.  You know that look I am talking about, the ones our mom had, the silent but deadly look, we got and we knew we were gonna get it if we didn’t straighten up.  I realize she is 5 and just a little girl, but I want to do everything in my power to make sure she is safe and that she grows up to be a respectful young lady.

But today I read something that kind of put everything into perspective for me, and it kind of  hits home with me:

We yell, control, walk in silence, are short, abrupt, react, discipline out of anger, and so many of us make the shift from walking in GRATITUDE to walking in GRIPEITUDE!

PARENTS!! I acknowledge that life is tough at times, but we must remember that we have so much to be grateful for!

• Be thankful for kids! Some couples are unable to have kiddos.
• Be thankful that you have the resources to feed your kids.
• Be thankful that your kids are healthy.
• Be thankful that God has given your kids special gifts, passions, and abilities.
• Be thankful that God trusts you enough to give you kids.
• Be thankful that your kids have some spiritual hunger.
• Be thankful that Romans 8:29 says “all things work together for good”.
• Be thankful that when you are not in control…that God is.
• Be thankful that God loves your kids more than you!

Here are a few verses to help you regain perspective…

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Ephesians 5:20

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Psalm 107:1

First Day of Pre-K

Here it is, it came and went like a flash of lightning.  Yes, we all cried, but I did leave her there, so that is a start, right?  I had to run out the door, while she was crying but that is an everyday occurrence.  I waited until I was almost to the car and then the waterworks started.  I know she will be fine, but she is growing up!  She was so excited this morning and I can not wait to pick her up in a little bit and hear all about it!

 

Gracie’s First Day of Pre-K

Starting Pre-K

On the eve of Gracie starting Pre-K, I must say I am a little overwhelmed.  I can’t believe my little girl went from this

 

To this

 

Where has the time gone??  She is super excited, she says, so we shall see in the morning! 

What is Guaranteed?

There are some things in life that are never guaranteed.  You are not guaranteed happiness, you have find happiness, and create it.  It comes with those who you choose to surround yourself with.  Love is not guaranteed, until you have a child, and then you will certainly know unconditional love.  I mean the kind of love that hurts when they hurt, the kind of love that is never ending.  I had a friend who lost a child Saturday.  That child just recently celebrated his first birthday.  He recently got to come home from a lengthy stay in the hospital.  He was at home when he passed away with his family, where he should have been.  No mother or father should ever have to lose a child, it is probably without a doubt the hardest thing they will ever have to go through.  I can’t even begin to fathom what they are going through right now.  One thing that is guaranteed though, eternal life.  They will both get to spend eternal life with their child,who will no longer be sick, he will be a healthy baby boy in heaven!

Please take time out to say a prayer for this family for healing and grace to make it through this difficult time.