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. 

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.

 

 

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

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

What about when I get older?

Gracie is 4 years old, and she is always asking for things for the future.  Like she wants an iPad when she turns 7, and a cell phone when she is 5.  What makes her think we are buying her an iPad, before we buy ourselves one?  So, I started thinking, what do I want when I get older…

• To go to the restroom by myself, with no little fingers or dog paws under the door.
• I want to be able to take Gracie to Disney World, and let her get dressed up by the princesses
• I want to be able to hold a conversation with my child without her whining, “but MOM!”
• I want Gracie to be able to trust me enough and not hold anything back, I want her to tell me everything, even though I may not want to hear it, I still will listen!
• I want her to never be afraid to tell the truth, no matter what, I don’t want her lying.  That is a personality trait that I can’t stand!
• I want her to understand that even though I sent her to daycare every day, I loved and missed her dearly.  But Mama has to work baby!
• I don’t want her to remember the times that I was too tired to play, or that I used the TV as a babysitter, I want her to remember every time I got in that floor and colored with her, or played Barbie's with her.
• I want her to know the countryside, I want to be able to take her on trips all over the place!
• I don’t ever want her to be too spoiled to wear Wal-mart clothes, I want her to embrace it and wear it with pride, and never make fun of someone that is wearing it.
• I want her to be friends with everyone, be nice to everyone, no matter the color of their skin, their looks, or a disability…be nice to everyone
• I want her to know the Lord, and pray to him when she fears something, he will guide her through it
• Most of all, I want her to know that her Dad and I love her very much and that we would do anything in the world for her…except bail her out of jail (the first night anyway) LOL!

Well, have you missed me?`

Things have been a little busy around here lately!  It seems like we have been going non-stop for the last few weeks.  We had Baby Cole’s Birthday party,which was fun!  Then, we had vacation bible school at Aunt Amie’s church, which Gracie loved!   She really liked the teachers!  Then, this past weekend, Gracie and I ventured out on our own to Ft.Worth, and went to Cindy’s wedding.  We had a great time!  The wedding was awesome, Cindy and James truly put on a great party for their family and friends.    Gracie and I stayed in a hotel by our self, and Gracie was in heaven.  She got to eat in bed, and lay all over me at night!  Of course, I didn’t get any sleep, but it was worth the trip! 

Does anyone else feel like this year is in fast forward, I mean Gracie’s birthday is right around the corner, then Halloween, then Christmas, O lord.  Do ya’ll remember the blizzard, it just seems like we were crawling out of it like a month ago.  And that stinkin’ ice storm, wow, no electricity for two weeks!  How can I forget that? 

Well, as some of you may already know, my brother and his family are moving to Mangum.  They have already placed their house in Duncan on the market, and will close on their new house in September.  I cannot wait to see it, I hear it is beautiful!  All I have to say, I better get my new webcam working on my pc, so Gracie can Skype with Addy, along with Bailey and Savana down in Texas!

Gracie is having a little bit of difficulty dealing with the fact that everyone is moving, and her best friend is going to school and she is not.  It is a great opportunity for Gracie to meet new friends and I know first chance she gets, she will, but right now, she doesn’t understand that.  I know kids are very flexible at this age, and adjust to change easily, I just think it will take time!  We have our daily talks about it, and we somehow adopted our secret handshake, that seems to make her feel better!  And of course, this morning, I promised her sonic for dinner :)  I am such a sucker!

All in a days work!

Have you ever had a day where you thought God was looking down on you and snickering the whole time while he watches the world unfold?  Well, I have had a week like that already.  Our dog threw up on the couch and pillows, Gracie painted herself with red paint, along with the carpet, and then she decided that she would play with the gum that was in her mouth and she smeared it all over her leg, hands and chin.  Yes, I know, at least it wasn’t her hair.  We were in the car at the time of that incident, so I made her ride home with her hands in the air, not touching anything.  Good thing, I could laugh about all of this later, because I thought, man I should have taken a picture of that paint, AND that gum, but I didn’t.  Both times, I was so worried about her getting it on other things, I had to get it cleaned up right then.  It is only Wednesday, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for the rest of the week!

Oh yeah, and if anyone wants to get me a belated birthday gift, throw pillows would be nice :)

On a cute note, Gracie was so tired the other night, she passed out in like 5 minutes, and when Brian went in there to check on her, this is what he found.

Fancy Nancy Party

Gracie went to her Fancy Nancy Party at the Library yesterday.  She had a blast!  They had so much fun, making tiaras, and getting jewelry.  They even gave them little snacks.  Addy and Haylee were there with her, and even Brian showed up at the end to surprise her. 

It’s On!

I get this song stuck in my head every time it is on, and Gracie jumps up and starts dancing, well finally I caught her on video!

Branson

What can I say?  We had a great time!!  First and Foremost, thank you so very much to Mema and Papa Ron for everything!!  We appreciate it more than you will ever know!!  The car ride there, was short it seemed, although Gracie ran out of things to do within the first hour of the trip.  Oh well, she still did great in the car.  When we got to Branson, our room was awesome.  1400 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 4 beds, washer, dryer, dishwasher, whirlpool tub, this rooms had the works!!  And it wasn’t on the 32nd floor either, we got a great spot.  We got to go do all sorts of great things!  We went to a fish hatchery, and let Gracie feed the fish, we rode the Ducks, of which, Gracie drove.  That little toot, just walked right on up there and was the captain of our ship for a little bit.  We did a ton of shopping and of course, no trip would be complete without a trip to Wal-mart.  Brian needed a new bathing suit, and Mema wanted to buy Gracie some headphones for her DVD player for the car ride home.  HA!  We went swimming, we watched fountains at the Landing, had some great food, and Brian and Gracie enjoyed morning walks together around the hotel while everyone was getting ready.  All in all, it was a great trip!!  Not quite long enough break away from everything, but it will have to do!

I know you all want to see pictures, but I will have to send those out hopefully later tonight!

A Newborn's Conversation with God

Not Sure I have ever read this before, but it certainly brought a little tear to my eye…
A baby asked God,
"They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"
God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you and you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life."
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked,  "God, if I am to leave now, please  tell me my angel's name."
God said, "You will simply call her, " Mom ."

She has grown up so much!

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Came across this the other day! Too cute not to share…

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My Daughter is CRAZY!

She thought this was a great look for her!


She was so proud of herself.