Lots of Fun

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge in February and had a great time. It is a hotel with a huge indoor water park. If you have children, it is a must. They are located all over the country, but we visited the one in Cincinnati.

http://www.greatwolflodge.com/

Matthew's Latest Question

Why is the future stronger (or more powerful) than love?

What is that all about? We pressed him for more information and he said it was in a book that the librarian read at school. Exactly what are they reading to the kindergartners at Heritage Elementary. I really had no answer, so I told him to ask the librarian what it meant and to ask what book it was that she was reading to them. We'll see if anything comes of it.

If anyone has an answer let me know. I thought that love conquered all, so I'm assuming that includes the future!

Should I go to prison?

If you're looking for a post about the kids, today's not the day. Here's the dilemma: should I go to prison or not?

It's really not prison. Our church is starting a weight loss group called Prism Weight Loss. What is it? It's a count your calories, give up all the "good Southern food" diet with a spiritual emphasis. :-) No sweet tea, no corn bread, no desserts, no yeast rolls. No Angel's cafe. (a meat and three that is yummy) Therefore, we've nicknamed it "prison". Terrible I know. Our pastor's wife, said "come on, go to prison with me". Do I want to, I'm still debating. The possibility of a size 4 again would be a great reward, but at what cost. Another friend of mine said "This is not real life". But sometimes it takes a little prison to get you on the right track. Maybe this would jump start my metabolism or maybe life will never be a size 4 again.

Along the same line, I tried on my wedding dress the other day. Our church is doing something where they need several women to wear their wedding dresses. Let me just say, it didn't even come close to getting zipped. Derek tried to get it zipped and very compassionately said "it's not going to work". I guess he felt bad. He can relate. He said there's no way he would fit in his tux from 14 yrs. ago either.

I emailed a friend and told her "It doesn't fit. How depressing. I need a piece of chocolate cake to cry in". That right there my friends is the problem. The chocolate cake and the cornbread and the sweet tea and the strawberry cake (yum!).

So, I'm off to an informational meeting tonight. After that, I'll make a decision about whether or not to go to prison! :-)

Matthew's Demands

Perhaps I could blog about something other than my children, but they give me so much material.

It was just Matthew and me in the van yesterday and he says to me out of nowhere (seriously, where do these thoughts come from?)

Matthew: "Why did you not give me breakfast and lunch on a tray?"

Alicia: "What are you talking about?"

Matthew: "When I was sick, why didn't you bring me my food on a tray so that I could eat in bed and then I wouldn't even have to get out of bed?"

Do you really want to know what I said. Well, I'm going to tell you...this is what I said, "When does mommy get her food served to her on a tray?"

I know that it's not all about me and I should have a servant's heart, but really, what is he thinking? I don't know where he even came up with this idea. I told Derek when I got home that obviously we have reared children (as PT would say, you rear children and raise chickens)...Back to the subject at hand, we have children who expect to be served every moment of the day.

When Derek and I were first married I was finishing college and he was working his full time job at EDS. He called one day to ask if I'd run a couple of errands for him (pick up the dry cleaning, pay the cable bill, etc.) I flat out told him on the phone "You know, I'm not your servant girl!" What was I thinking? Not a great way to start off a marriage, although I don't know if he's ever asked since then for me to run an errand for him.

I had to resist the urge to tell Matthew "I am not your servant girl." Even though, I feel like that many days. There's always something to be done, but so is the life of a mother.

Here's a picture of my man and my sweet boy!

God so loved the World

My boys like it when they're ready for school by 8 a.m. because they can then dribble the basketballs on our driveway until our carpool bus (not really) arrives. (We carpool with 2 other families, and it's a total of 5 children---2 kindergartners and 3 2nd graders travelling to school together.)

So, Tuesday morning I look out to see the boys writing something on the back windshield of my dirty van. I tell them to leave the van alone because they're going to get their hands all dirty. They go back to dribbling the basketballs. I go back into the house frustrated that they have to touch everything. I mean seriously, why can't they just dribble the basketballs for 10-15 minutes?

At 8:55 I head out to take Elizabeth to school and decide to check the back windshield because who knows what they might have written. I expected to see something like "my mom is mean", but instead it said "God so loved the world" and there was a picture of the earth next to it. (my van is very dirty!) I was no longer frustrated, but thankful for what they had written. I am thankful that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son for us! (John 3:16)

There is a story behind why I think "my mom is mean" may be on the back of our van. That will have to be a post all its own!

Easter Day Drama

Life just wouldn't be exciting if we had a simple Sunday. Instead, here's our day....

Stephen wakes up and sees the Easter baskets. He says to Derek, "Who did all this?"

Derek says, "Who do you think did it?"

Stephen replies, "Well, I've seen a lot of bunnies and I've never seen them do this."

Do you think he knows?

Matthew refuses to get out of bed even though the Easter bunny has been in our house. We manage to get him out of bed and dressed in time to leave for church.

Elizabeth stands in her bathroom and cries for 10-15 minutes because she doesn't like her blue dress. She wanted the yellow one. I thought I had convinved her that the blue was beautiful, but obviously not.

After church, we came home to change clothes before heading to my parents' house. Elizabeth decided in December that she no longer wears pants, only skirts, so I was confident that she could pick out something appropriate to wear to my parents. The boys, however, if left on their own will pick out the oldest and ugliest tshirt in their closet to wear to my parents, so I yell up the stairs, "Be sure to wear something decent". Elizabeth comes out of her room and yells down the stairs "What does decent look like?" (That answer my friends is open for debate)

Anyway, we had a great dinner at my parents even though my dad was in the bed sick. After dinner, Derek and Uncle Jeremy hid 42 eggs in the backyard. Some of them had money, some had candy and there was one golden egg. The kids ran out for the hunt and Stephen decided he only wanted eggs with money in them, so if he picked up an egg and didn't hear any jingling, then he put it back down. Obviously candy wasn't enticing enough. Stephen found the golden egg and then Matthew went into meltdown drama about how he wanted to find the golden egg and so on. Life is hard you know. So nice big brother Stephen gave Matthew the golden egg. All was peaceful at least for 5 minutes.

After we got home, Stephen decided that life is terrible because we wouldn't let him eat an unlimited supply of chocolate from the Easter bunny. His exact words were "Everyone always ruins my special days" and so the drama continues.

Derek and I collapsed into the bed that night, happy that for at least 8 hours there would be limited drama in our house.

The best drama of all and the real reason for Easter is that the tomb is empty and that our Savior Jesus has risen just as He said!

Happy Easter Y'all!

Matthew's Question

It's innocent enough.

Matthew to mom and dad "Why are you always bossing me?"

Derek "Because that's our job."

Matthew "How long will you keep doing it?"

Derek with Alicia's head nod for reinforcement "Until you no longer live in our house and have a house of your own."

Matthew has no comment at this point.