Jesus Painter

Last night I had one of those moments that stopped me in my tracks and made me get my attitude in check.  I'm always thankful for them after the fact, but it's what leads up to it that really isn't pretty.  I wasn't in the best mood and couldn't have been more huffy and puffy as I hurried to get the girls ready for church.  Wednesday afternoons are hectic after school with dance and getting everyone fed and dressed before church.  Rushing around makes me a crazy person.  The kids were running around like maniacs totally ignoring the fact that I had a class to teach and we were going to be late for it.  It's never good for the teacher to be late.  And my children couldn't have cared less.  I'm being totally honest here.  You probably don't have ugly moments like this, but we certainly do.  I was two seconds away from either leaving them at home (not alone, of course) or saying, "forget it, we're not going."  They got it together and we managed to get there with three minutes to spare.  As I walked into the preschool area where I teach Cate's missions class every Wednesday night I found that there wasn't a soul there and all the lights were off.  That's funny.  I knew I was supposed to be there.  Then it hit me that everyone was in the sanctuary for the Jesus Painter event.  How could I have forgotten that?  Cate's definitely not the night owl and was ready for bed right then and there (at 6 p.m.) so she was begging for us to go back home.  I didn't want to fight it for an hour in a "sermon with no words" which is what we were having in church.  I had my hand on the door ready to leave, and something made me turn around and march us all into the sanctuary.  Towns wanted to stay, Cate didn't.  And she planned to let everyone know it.  But for whatever reason, something changed and I had a feeling it just might be alright.  We walked in, sat on the back pew, and were totally amazed for the next hour.  Do you know about the Jesus Painter?  I didn't before last night.  It was pretty unbelievable and was just what I needed to make me check my attitude at the door and prepare my heart for the rest of this week leading up to Resurrection Day.  I'm ashamed that it hadn't happened before last night, to tell you the truth.  I'd gotten so caught up in making sure we have hair bows to match dresses and enough fun treats to fill a few Easter baskets.  As I type that out, it sounds just as ridiculous as it feels.  Easter is by far my favorite reason to celebrate over any day of the year.  Christmas is wonderful, don't get me wrong.  But Easter?  God sent His only Son to die on the cross for me?  And then three days later rose from the grave?  Wow.  And sinful ol' me put more emphasis on an Easter basket full of candy and colorful goodies than taking time to reflect on all of this.  Really seeing to it that our children realize why we celebrate.  Of course they do, and they've known the story.  But it's not just a story.  It's what I should be living every day but fail miserably at.  I'm so thankful that I didn't walk out those double doors last night and instead stayed to get it all put back into perspective for me.  We watched as this guy from Cincinnati (who claims he's not an artist, but someone God chose to use) paint the face of Jesus on massive canvases.  No words, only music.  He started this one with "all my sin" painted at the very top and after ten minutes, it looked like this...

And then there was this one...

This next one was our favorite.  He first painted a man kneeling at the cross and then turned it into this...

The eyes are what gets me.  Towns was so taken by it she asked if we could buy it before we left.  We did go down front to ask about it, but I wasn't about to make such a large purchase without my right hand man there to approve it!  She overheard someone saying you can order the paintings online so she wasn't too terribly upset we walked away empty handed.  It made me happy that she appreciated it enough to want it.  If you have a free minute or two, pick a video to watch on the website.  I promise you won't be disappointed!

Eight Years!

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from J.  It was a forward of the hotel reservation he'd made to surprise me for our anniversary.  We both stay pretty busy, so a weekend away for just the two of us is almost unheard of.  It was perfection.  Absolute perfection.  And the fact that he did it all on his own without me knowing a thing about his little plan made it even sweeter!

We started out with a dinner reservation with two really fun people...

A nice European woman offered to take our picture, and I'm not sure they operate cameras the same way in France as we do in America.  It's alright, though.  The poor picture quality is no reflection on what a good time we had!  I probably accumulated a few new laugh lines after that night!!

We had the most relaxing weekend.  I love a getaway with no agenda.  And it doesn't hurt that I spent it with the most fantastic man I know.  Seems like we were just kids standing on the beach in Seaside eight years ago today...

We have fun.  It's that simple.  It's been an adventure, and I wouldn't have it any other way!  He's the best daddy three girls could ever ask for, my best friend and my whole heart.  And I'm 99.9% sure he deserves an award of some sort for putting up with yours truly for eight whole years.  He'd 99.9% agree!

We always enjoy our time together, and this time was no different.
But Sunday we couldn't wait to get our hands on these two doll faces...

Those aprons are a sure sign we had a project to complete when we got home.  We dug into our glittered eggs and put a little color on them.  I originally complained about Martha's complicated glue and glitter ordeal, but of course she always knows what she's talking about. That's the frustrating thing about that woman!  They turned out really pretty.  You can't go wrong with neon food coloring when it comes to dying eggs...

We didn't fool with the wire things that you use to dip your eggs.  Those are for the birds!  It always ends up being a disaster when an egg falls off and cracks or one of the girls knocks the cup over with it and the dye goes all over the place.  We wised up and went the easier route...
Plastic spoons...they worked like a charm and there were no catastrophes!
I love how egg-dying is serious business.  They concentrate so hard and put lots of thought into it...
Yesterday I caught Buggy like this...
It never fails.  If there's something to be gotten into, she's going to get into it!
She knew she was caught...

It's hard to get on to her, though...

She's sort of got me wrapped around that little finger of hers!

Delano Mile Run 2012

Blondie got the first Delano Mile Run of her elementary school career behind her as of this morning.  I can't explain to you how much Towns was looking forward to it. And after hearing talk of how this is one of the most fun events of the school year, I was excited about it too!  The kids have had the opportunity to take part in a marathon of 26 miles that they completed both on their own and at school during PE.  Today was the mile run for the physical fitness test (that I refuse to tell Towns I despised when I was in school - our mile was four laps around a track on the playground - no hype, no event, no nothing) as well as their 26th mile needed to finish their marathon.  Some kids did more than that over the course of the school year, but we were doing good to log 25.2 before the run today.  Trust me.  Bethany was so sweet to take her to Delano last night and do a practice run with her.  Sister of the year award is coming your way, Bebs!

It was an event, no doubt about it.  It's a 5k atmosphere on an elementary school level which was beyond exciting for all the kids!  It was at the track in Delano Park a few streets over from our house, and with us being the newbies I was amazed at how big of a deal it really was.  Parents, teachers, kids all lined up around the track cheering on the grade that happened to be running at the time.  So fun!

It was pretty official stuff, you know.  They had these...

And these fancy timing chips...

Mrs. Propst's class was the first one to the starting line and they were all smiles...
But poor Towns and Emma, they've both had ailments in the past week and I think they were a little nervous...
When the 1st graders were all lined up, Coach Q went over the rules in hopes of preventing a major stampede...
They listened intently, and then they were off...
J and Cate ran over to get a spot where she'd be sure to see them cheering her on when she ran past...

She was struggling a little, bless her heart.  She's missed PE for the last week which means she's also missed running the mile a few times for practice.  She hasn't done much in the way of physical activity since her surgery so I was worried about her.  She kicked it into high gear when she saw us, though...
Two boys in her grade raced each other the entire way around the track and both finished in just over seven minutes with a huge crowd yelling for them...
At this point, it kind of hit me that this is one of the signs that the school year is almost over.  I'm ridiculous, I know.  But it took all I could do not to lose it right then and there.  I was standing with a friend who was also trying to hold it together, so I didn't feel so bad about being a major sap.  She just had a baby, so she has an excuse whereas I have nothing to blame my emotions on!  But then I saw Towns coming down the hill and around the bend and went into crazy, screaming mom mode...
In all the commotion I totally missed her crossing the finish line so I have no idea what her official time was.  And I missed the picture I'd been waiting for all morning of her running under the banner...
I could kick myself for missing it!!
One thing I definitely wasn't missing...
Let's try that again (there always has to be a second try when J's behind the camera)...
I love that little runner!
Her daddy had to have a turn with her, too...

All she really cared about at that moment was us leaving her alone to let her finish her popsicle and Gatorade!  Buggy found her way to the class cooler and helped herself, naturally...

She and her friends had a fun time cheering on the 2nd graders once they recovered from their own race...
The funny thing about that one is that I asked the four of them to get together so I could take a picture of them.  Tyler and Bo looked at each other and immediately moved two feet further away from the girls.  So I settled for an action shot.  Got to love 1st graders!
They all had a ball for the next little while before loading themselves on the school bus to head back to school...

Class picture full of hot, sweaty, precious kiddos...
And with that, we said adios to our first ever Delano Mile Run...
As with most everything at this age and stage I love, it came and went way too fast!
But Buggy couldn't wait to get her hands on her new baby Annie (who looks so real it's scary), so we came on home...

 If we can't have the real Annie P., this is the next best thing!

A Weekend at Home

For the first time in a long time we had a weekend with everyone home and no place we had to be.  Do you know how good that feels?  Pretty great, actually.
If we went anywhere, it was by bicycle.  And if we did anything, it was outside.
That pretty much sums it all up.

Friday afternoon the girls pulled out the moon sand.  My inclination was to redirect them to something a little less messy.  But it was Friday.  And Fridays usually do something to me.  So we played the afternoon away on the front porch and enjoyed the sunshine...



Saturday morning we were up bright and early as not to let a second of the day get away from us.  We rode our bikes to breakfast.  Let me try that again.  J and I rode our bikes while the girls had the luxury of riding a battery operated scooter and Escalade.  Talk about the stares we got as we pulled into the parking lot.  It looked like the circus had come to town.  That's not too far off if you want to know the truth about it!
After our breakfast date, Towns picked some flowers from the yard and decided she was going to try her hand at flower arranging...
We pulled out the tiny little Easter tree from last year and decorated it while we were in the decorating mood...

I thought it would be fun to try an Easter egg crafting project I saw in my Martha Stewart Living magazine.  The idea behind it is to paint hard boiled eggs with glue, cover them in translucent glitter, and then dye them once the glue has dried.  After just trying the glue and glitter part of it, I'm convinced that Martha wasn't prettifying her eggs with help from children.  Thank goodness we were once again on the porch for this little project.  Otherwise the kids would have painted the walls with glue and covered the house with glitter.  It was everywhere.  The good thing about crafting outdoors is that you can sweep it off the porch and it looks as if the glue/glitter malfunction never happened!  The girls thought it was fun, though...
We haven't dyed them yet.  I'll report back on that once we've tackled it!  Wish us luck...

 While we were busy going crazy with glitter, B was prepping for her JUG Spring Date Night.  As I've said before, I dare not pick anything out and buy it without her seeing it first.  So shopping for an outfit consisted of me texting her a picture of a cute dress I found and me crossing my fingers!  She gave it her seal of approval, so I made the purchase and it was a done deal.  As always, she looked beautiful...

Towns wanted a picture with her sister, but the hair in the face sort of threw me off...
And this one, well, Cate jumped in the middle of us nearly knocking us over when Towns snapped the picture....
Anyone surprised by that?  I didn't think so.
Bethany and her date...
Who might still lose a limb if I see him after he left her
to find her own ride home.  She had fun anyway, so in the end he didn't rain on her parade.
What's wrong with boys these days?! Moving right along...

 After church and a family lunch yesterday, J being the sweet and fun daddy that he is decided that we should go fishing.  Fishing with little girls is quite the experience.  I fully expected Towns to be the one to sit it out and Cate to be the one to enjoy it.  They always surprise me, though.  Towns loved it and was determined to catch the first fish...

She caught the only fish of the day!

Buggy was perfectly content with her iPod touch and a baby doll...


She did give it a go, but it only lasted about .5 seconds...

I kept her entertained with worms while the fishermen did their thing...

We tried to catch tadpoles but had zero luck.  That might have something to do with the fact that tadpoles don't hang around when a 4 year old is stomping around in the shallow water in her rain boots while screaming, "there's one Mommy, get it, get it, get it"!

The afternoon ended with climbing trees, church, and a nighttime bike ride around the neighborhood...

And it's Monday again.
Why do Mondays come around so fast?
If it's got to be a Monday, at least it's a hot and pretty one!