It's How She's Wired

I've been thinking a lot about Kami while she's been away in North Carolina. Here she about 9 years ago. Wow.

Out of my 3 kids, you hear a lot about the (mis) adventures of Luke and the wild ways of Elle Belle, but Kami may be a bit neglected on this blog.....

As Luke and Ellie live their lives out loud....

so Kami goes along in her quiet way, making little waves....

but what she is making is.....
purposeful decisions
goals with determination
wise choice of friends
good grades
as little drama as possible
competitive moves
a choice to be the best she can be

It's amazing at 10 to have this outlook.... (I still strain to be these things myself!)

But I do believe it comes naturally to her... a gift to her from God!

I remind her a lot though her abilities seem "natural," she should not forget that without Him, she could not accomplish anything... and never to take for granted what she has... but to thank God for each and every positive event that happens..,

-all good and perfect things are from above....

I clicked on Kami's blog label: Queen Kamryn the First, and it was fun to see what I saw. I had to pull some of the pictures from the last couple of years... because they are so typically... Kami.

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Little Miss Independent

Well, she's officially off!

It's 4:30 in the morning, and Tom just got Kami packed into the car headed to the airport to get on a flight to Raleigh, North Carolina.

By herself.

Yup, you read it right! She is flying as an unaccompanied minor, and though I've heard that those kids flying alone get some cushy treatment, she is feeling pretty grown up.

In fact, I have a hunch she'd rather fly alone than in a group of people. You should have seen the look on her face this morning as she popped out of bed at 4:00 A.M!!!

She's traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina for the ORU vs. North Carolina basketball game. Ummmm.... yep, the Tarheels are currently undefeated and the #1 team in the nation, but Tom and I figured that even if ORU got beat by 50 (God forbid!!) that it would be a memorable experience for her. She loves the history of basketball, and the Dean Dome is a pretty historic. Every time for the rest of her life she sees NC on TV, she will have that experience to refer to. She loves our team. She loves watching our games. So, it is our Christmas gift to her.

And...
One of her best cousins on Tom's side of the family lives in Raleigh. So, she gets some time with Jennifer, who she sees, at best, once a year.

The girl is pumped.

Even though I don't really understand it, being the ball of emotional complexity that I am, I am so thankful for the solid and unflappable personality God gave her. She didn't miss a beat when I asked her if she'd be willing to fly alone (the tickets on Tom's flight were waaay expensive). She is savoring the moment of pure independence.

I pray God's strong hand of protection upon her as she travels this weekend. I pray God will bless her with a wonderful trip, and that she will rely upon Him in her time away. We talked about her true source of strength and protection and wisdom and I pray she will seek God if there is a moment she feels unsure about something.

It's an interesting moment as a parent to look up and see your child so willing to walk away. I guess it starts when they are little toddlers running away from you as fast as their chunky little legs can go, and you have to run after them and swoop them up. This time, I won't be running after her, but I will be swooping her up when she flies home on Sunday!!!

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I Know Someone Who Is Going To Be Famous!

Meet Madisen, otherwise known as the young Cate Blanchett in the upcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring, none other than Brad Pitt!!!! Madisen is the niece of my best friend from high school, Kim, who I went on the cruise with a few weeks ago AND who JUST started her own blog, perfectly titled KimNOW. We have all been looking forward to this movie coming out... and now it is finally here!!! Go Madisen!!!

Ok, I must admit that I may have only met Madisen a couple times when she was young, but I feel a very close connection with their family. My friend Kim is a triplet... I graduated with Kim and her brothers Craig and Chris. Chris married our classmate Kelly and well... the rest is history.

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Family Night

You don't know how rare a word combination that is with us....

In the last 2 weeks, Tom has traveled to Canada, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota and North Dakota. Someone asked me when Tom was coming back and I answered "who??" Just kidding of course. So having him home is one thing, but then having him all the kids home too (and not off at activities) is another.

We did it all last night:

Family dinner- (I cheated and put in a frozen lasagna)

Tom did the dishes- (he is that husband!)

Made puppy chow together- (complete with aprons and chef hats - Ellie's idea of course)

Trimmed the tree- (side note: my tree is depressing this year. I bought it half price after Christmas last year because our old one was getting bad. When I set this one up, the girls came home from school and had a disappointed look in their eyes. Maybe you can't tell, but you can see through the tree... it's just not real Lush, you could say. My sister has this amazing tree, so humongous and incredible... so it's hard not to compare! I need to find a great tree for a decent price - any hints where to look? Is it possible to get one on sale after Christmas? Or are those just all the Charlie Brown trees?)

Listened to Christmas music- (Luke's favorite: "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" - he has his, so I don't know why he wanted to play this one over and over)

Played a knock-down-drag-out game of Mario Kart on the Wii- (There is only one non-competitive person in the family, so the game ended with tears... and then...)

Luke melted down big time- (glad Tom was here for that one! He did the honors of getting him to bed.)

Girls game of Crazy Mixed up Zoo- (Ellie has a rocking memory and beat Kami and I both!)

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God's Mercies on a Hurting Heart

I have a friend.

A very, very good friend.

And she is going through a hard time.

A very, very hard time.

An I-may-not-make-it-out-of-bed-today hard time.

A life-really-stinks-my-heart-is-breaking-help-me hard time.

And when you have a very good friend whose heart is breaking, little bit by little bit, so goes your own heart.

When the end of this heartbursting time will come, no one really knows.

In the meantime, there are holidays to attend to... like Halloween and Thanksgiving.

And birthdays. Big ones. 40th birthdays.

A day that's supposed to show you that what you've been doing the last 40 years has really paid off. A day that you're supposed to be secure and mature, looking forward to the years to come.

But how could she look forward to this milestone of a day when it seems that looking back is depressing and looking forward is frightening?

There is not a happy ending to this story (not yet anyway), but I will say there is kind of a pleasant interruption of sorts... a God given respite... kind of like an unexpected refreshment of rain on a hot hard day.

That's actually what this post is about. What I really want to communicate here is God's daily mercies (click here for others), specifically the way He worked amazingly in the life of my friend this past week.

I knew her birthday was coming up, but in all honesty, had put little to no thought to it. How could I possibly plan a celebration knowing the condition of her heart? But another friend brought up to me that they wanted to plan a party. A party? I wasn't so sure about that, but after brainstorming for awhile, we had an exciting alternative: a week of birthday blessings. Then, I called another friend, and we brainstormed a theme for each day:

Monday: Flower Shower
Tuesday: Words of Encouragment
Wednesday: Pamper Party
Thursday: Gifts of Inspiration
Friday: Gift Card Crazy

With the magic of email, we had 5-6 people a day lined up to send flowers, drop by gifts, bake dinner, take to lunch, and so on and so forth. (I think it turned out to be more than that.)

It was easy, because God was behind it.

It wasn't me at all. I take absolutely none (zero!) credit. And I'll prove it.

Tuesday was her actual birthday. In the email, we had asked everyone to get her a card that day. In her mailbox or in person. And at the end of the day, she called me. Astonishingly, she had gotten a lot of cards that day.

Guess how many?
Could it be?
40.
40!!!
Forty.
40 on her fortieth birthday.

I COULD NOT have planned it this way. I know it was another of God's little mercies for my friend, just telling her "I love you," "everything is going to be OK." "I'm with you." "You have my support and I'm NOT leaving you alone."

The rest of her week was amazing, with treats around every corner. A scripture Bracelet. Gift cards galore. Coffee. Surprise visits. Mani/pedi. A great Italian dinner. An edible fruit bouquet. A poinsettia. A Happy Everything plate!

She said this: she said that she never expected to be happy on her birthday. But she was. I'd venture to say that the whole week brought her great joy thanks to God, who is good and provides for His children.

She had to decorate the Christmas tree tonight. I say "had" because it wasn't easy. There were ornaments and memories and tears, all mixed together. This is not an easy time for her. But I think last week gave her a glimmer of hope and encouragement that she needed.

I keep telling her I am expecting God to do some more amazing things in her life. So if you get a chance, say a prayer for my friend. He'll know who you're talking about.

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You Know It's Bad When....

I joined Facebook.


After I discoverd Ashley and Katie, two of the cutest girls I know, were on Facebook, and then my sister sent me an invitation, and then, two cool bloggers I know, Baloney and Dawn, talk about it all the time... well... I decided to try it out.

That is not the Bad part. I am actually amazed at what a great tool it is and how I am already connecting to people I haven't seen in a long, long time.

I do have some questions though. What if you said "yes" to a new friend but then that person barrages you with all kinds of weird green patch somethingorothers and other odd requests? That bugs me, but that is not the bad part either.

The bad thing is this: I found a word game that I am kind of obsessed with. It provides you with 6 letters and you have to spell every word you possibly can using those letters. As fast as you can.

Do you remember that I read words backwards to see what they may spell? Well, anyway, I have to make myself stop playing that game. I'd like to play it right now.

Actually, this is not exactly the bad part either. Here it really is, the bad part.

You know it's really bad when you are driving behind a SUBURBAN. And you start thinking of all the smaller words that big word could spell.
BAN
BANS
SUB
SUBS
BUS
NAB
NABS
BRAN
URBAN
BUN
BUNS
SNUB
STOP!!!!

Ok, the light is green. Move on!!!

Next stoplight, I pull up behind a LIBERTY.

BILE
LIB
LIE
IRE
TILE
RILE
I told you. It's Bad.

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A Sweet Activity

It seems like this time of year, my kiddos are in the mood to do a craft any given moment of the day. As I am elbow deep in making pumpkin rolls or up to my eyes in wrapping, my 5 year old boy will say sincerely (and with gusto), "mom, I am feeling creative. Can I pleeeease do a project?" Aargh. Mom guilt. I cringe as I think.... There is no way I can go pull a project together for my kiddos right now with all MY projects going on!!!!

Problem solved:
Last year, I found a big square box (12X12X12) and then cut a piece of cardboard that would fold in half to make a roof. After hot gluing that together, I cut out two triangles to fill in the empty spaces under the roof and hot glued that on too. Then, armed with lots and lots of graham crackers, I hot glued and hot glued until it was covered.

I made sure to use the homemade icing that really dries solid. The storebought icing is too greasy and never completely hardens. Then, I left the enormous gingerbread house out on a little table with the icing (tightly sealed) and bags of a variety of different candies that I bought from the dollar store. The kids spent some jolly time designing it and every time a friend came over, it was a ready-to-go activity that they really enjoyed. Probably because candy was involved; however, the house turned out darling. After Christmas, I stored it in a bubble wrap in a big plastic tub and when we opened it this year, it was perfect! There is another side left to cover, so I'm thinking next time I get that craft project question, I'll know exactly what project they will be doing. Look at Works For Me Wednesday for more great ideas!

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