Babysitting and Painting

The past two days we babysat for a two year old boy, Joey, from church. We babysat him all day. He's such a good kid, he was no problem at all. It's always fun to change things up a bit. But there's such a difference in the way he plays versus my girls. I brought in the snow-covered Little Tikes slide and dried it off. He wanted to slide and jump and climb all over it, while my girls wanted to use it to play house.

Then today we went to Plainfield to watch Mark and Julie's kids so they could paint their new house. We got to play with Grace, Hope, and Joy in the morning. In the afternoon, Grace went to the new house to meet a friend who was going to help them. I told Mark and Julie, it's like having a day off when the kids are playing. It wasn't babysitting, it was vacation. After supper, Mike took me by their new house to see the painting progress. They are almost done. It's so cute! Julie's paining everything a khaki-green-ish color. Then the girls' bedrooms are turquoise and robin's egg blue, the master bedroom is chocolate, and the hall bathroom is sunshine yellow. Fun!

We had fun today, but when we got home the girls were tired and went right to sleep!

What a night!

Yesterday Michael went to his brother Mark's new house to put in a thermostat and check the heating/air units. He took along Shane (a guy from our church), who does heating/air. Since he was going to be gone all evening Shane's wife, Melissa, and I got together. Franklin was having their holiday candle walk, so after pizza for the kids we piled into our van to go to town. Every seat in the van was full of car seats! It was a tight squeeze, but we made it. When we got downtown, we wondered if we had the right night because there wasn't any music and not very many people walking around. Finally, we found a table with hot cocoa and cookies in front of the courthouse. The kids had their picture taken with a white miniature horse with reindeer antlers on his head. There were free trolly rides (a wagon pulled behind a tractor). Of course we didn't go...double strollers are a bit cumbersome on a hay wagon! We did go into a really neat toy store, but it was too crowded, so we piled back in the van and went back to Melissa's house. Just as we got to her house, Hannah started choking on a piece of hard candy that an "elf" passed out downtown. She was scared, and I was, too. She had swallowed it whole, but after a cup of water she started to feel better. We decided the best thing to do was to just go home and go straight to bed. What a night!

Thanksgiving

We have so many things for which to be thankful. Starting a few days before Thanksgiving, every time I asked Hannah what she was thankful for she said, "Family." After a few days of the same answer, she began to answer with, "Mom, I already told you. FAMILY!" For thanksgiving, Mark and Julie were so kind and they invited us to spend the day with them. Julie's parents and her sister were there. Also her brother and his wife and three daughters. So all together there were 19 of us in the borrowed hospitality house that they are staying in. We had a great time, they were so much fun to be around. We are so thankful to have family nearby to spend time with! But speaking of that borrowed hospitality house, we have another important "thanks" to give. Mark and Julie now own a home in Plainfield! Hopefully we will be working on painting this weekend! We are so happy for them.

fire station, etc.

Today we went to the Trafalgar volunteer fire department for a tour with our Mothers of PreSchoolers (MOPS) group. The girls had a great time. They got to try on a fireman's coat and helmet, and they got to climb through all of the trucks to their heart's content. Then we went to Wal-Mart for a few extras before Thanksgiving. When we got home it was lunch time, so we went to the dining hall for Tuesday's staff lunch at camp.

I talked to Mark Palmer (my youth minister from Burnside) today. I called him for some suggestions about VBS. He just got back from a trip to Jordan. His church is a living link for Harvey Baccus there, so Mark went to take some video and to learn some more information to share with his congregation. The Baccus' are starting a library/reading room. They will have all kinds of books there, and they plan to have classes for the community on parenting, etc. They hope to build relationships with the people there, and reach them for Christ.

I guess nothing else happened today, but we had fun playing. It was nice out!

busy sunday

This past weekend Mike was the "host" for the camp's retreat groups. The staff have to take turns hosting. They need to be here to check the groups in, and be on call for any questions, etc. Anyway, Sunday morning he had to go check in the groups that were still here. Then we left for church. Right after church we went to Plainfield to Mark (Mike's brother) and Julie's house. Matt (his other brother) was in the area. He had been at the National Missionary Convention in Cincinnati, OH, and then he spoke at the Indiana Christian Youth Convention in Anderson, IN. Julie's parents and sister were there too. We had lunch together and then just hung out while the kids played. Our girls were tired, and they fell asleep on Daddy. It was so precious, wish I had brought my camera. When they woke up we left and came back to Fair Haven Christian Church for our Harvest Dinner. It was so wonderful to spend the entire day with family and church family!

Today we went to Wal-Mart. It was very crowded, and the girls were tired, so it wasn't the most pleasant trip. But they did try hard to stay cheerful. There were some really funny things, though. Hannah's tag was itching her, but she didn't know it. She started complaining, saying, "Just get off of there, nose (or hair, or face--whatever she thought was itching)!" Then she would stomp her foot and huff really loudly. She started to get really frustrated, so I asked her what was wrong. She said, "Everything is itching on me!!" I asked her to show me where it itched, and she said, "EVERYWHERE! I think my blood itches!" We finally figured out it was the tag, and we ripped it out.

Alli said, "Mom, I got boogers in my nose!" I said, "Ok, where are they?" She stuck out her belly and pointed to that part of her shirt. She had already gotten them out and wiped them on her shirt!

When we got home we ate lunch. Hannah started talking about the milk in her cup. She said to me, "Mom, there's not much milk left." There was some left, so I told her once it was finished she could have more. Then she asked Alli, "Don't you think that it's almost gone?" Alli replied, "No, Hannah, it's a little bit full." hmmm...

silver dollar

Today Hannah and Alli were pretending Hannah was a queen and Alli was a princess. I overheard Alli say, "Hannah..." Hannah reminded her she was a queen, so Alli said, "OK, Queenie." Then Hannah told her princess, "Now go to sleep Silver Dollar." Alli promptly stuck her thumb in her mouth and pretended to go to sleep.

This morning when we woke up there was frost on all the grass. Alli pointed to it and asked, "Mommy, is it chalk on there?"

This afternoon we went for a long walk around camp. We met Mike as he was driving through, so we climbed in the truck for a ride back to the house. As we were getting in, we all heard a kitty meowing loudly, and it sounded like it was coming from the front of the truck. We checked but couldn't find it anywhere. We had to make a couple of stops to blow the leaves of sidewalks on the way home, and we kept hearing the kitty. We never did see it, but Mike left the truck outside for a few hours; hopefully it's gone. When I asked Hannah what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "Hearing that kitty that we couldn't find."

Hannah seems to know all the "Sunday School answers." Today I was telling her about Thanksgiving. I said, "It's a holiday where we give thanks for..." and she finished my sentence with "blessings?" I heard her making up a song today. It went something like, "Jesus takes our sins away. He washes the sins of my heart."

Circus Act

Today we had to go to the doctor to get Carrie's ears re-checked from her ear infection two weeks ago. She was fine. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get some new panties for Alli and Hannah. Exciting, huh? They were very proud of their new panties.

The past few days the girls have been taking all the pillows off the couch and bouncing on the bare couch and jumping to the pillows on the floor. That entertains them for a long time. And they really get a workout from it. Today they pretended they were lions in cages at the circus by setting the pillows up against the couch to box it in. Then they had their handsome ringmaster (Mike) use his "whip" (an empty wrapping paper tube) to train them. They performed by standing on a giant pile of pillows and roaring, then they each took a turn standing on an upside down soup pot on all fours. The crowd (Carrie) loved it. I asked Hannah what lions eat. She said, "I don't know. Peanuts??"

Tuesday the weather was nice, so we decided to go for a walk with the wagon. Hannah and Alli both wanted to be in the wagon, so I put Carrie in the sling and started towards camp. After a while, I suggested we let Carrie ride. Both girls decided to get out, and they pushed and pulled while Carrie rode. They all had fun, and I didn't have to pull the wagon all the way! We picked up leaves and sang songs along the way. Then the girls played in the sandbox until lunch time. We ate lunch with Mike and the camp staff in the dining hall. The walk home wasn't quite as easy, but we made it. Hannah and I pushed and pulled the wagon most of the way.

Recently...

On Halloween our church had a Hallelujah party. It was a huge outreach to the community--there were over 500 people there with their families. We had "trunk-or-treat", Harvey Wadlow performed his illusionist act, and the Vince Lombardi trophy was on display. (That's the Super Bowl trophy that the Indianapolis Colts won last year.) Each family had their picture taken with it. Hannah's costume was a fairy ballerina, and Alli wore a Monarch butterfly outfit. I was Pocahantas with my papoose, and Mike wore a sign that said "John Smith." We had fun.

Yesterday we had small group at our house. We just started a new study, "Priorities" by Charles Hummell. There are six simple lessons so we're going to cram them into the last three Sundays that we meet before Christmas. We have 22 people signed up for our group, but only 14 showed up last night. That's really not such a "small" group.

Today we have played outside quite a bit. I feel like we need to soak up as many nice days as we can. Rich Green (who volunteers for Mike every Tuesday and Thursday, but often comes 3-4 times a week) ate lunch with us today since he was mowing for Mike.

Please be praying for the Steve and Angie Burkett. This afternoon Parker, their 3 yr old son, was taken to Riley Children's Hospital in Indy. He had a sever reaction (major swelling) to an antibiotic for strep throat. We heard from them this evening, and he's doing better, but they'll keep him 24 hours. Angie's mom is coming to stay with the other 3 kids.

another day...

Today it's cool again. I think it's supposed to get to 51 degrees today. I dressed the girls up in coats and we went outside to play. Even though it's cold out, it sure is nice to be out in the sunshine. This evening there is a used book sale at our NEW library. We went to see the new library on Monday after Mike got off work. They were having a pajama story time, so Hannah and Alli joined in. They loved it. Since it's only a mile from our door, I think we'll have ourselves a permanent parking space there.

getting started

Well, here goes... I wanted to start this blog to keep a record of what we do and what the kids are up to. There's no better place to start than today, right? Today was just an ordinary day. Nothing too exciting. It's getting colder out so we stay in more. They girls have been playing with a big cardboard box for the past few weeks, and that provides hours of entertainment. Yesterday I heard Hannah and Alli playing house. Hannah was the mommy and Alli was the baby. Alli said, "Hannah tell me a story about when you were a little girl." So Hannah said, "Well, when I was a little girl like you...about two or three...ummmm...well, I played with books and toys and...well I did all the same things you do now. Except, I couldn't reach the light switches!"