Houston Chamber Ringers

We had a beautiful Saturday at the Tomball Jet Center thanks to a sweet Coworker of Charles, Julie Brand.  She is a member of the Houston Chamber Ringers and got us tickets to enjoy the show and tour a B17 bomber.  The kids had a blast eating snocones while listening to music in the hanger.  However, their favorite part was by far climbing up into the bomber plane and seeing everything.  I learned what a "Ball Turret Gunner" was and was shocked at the tight spaces inside the plane despite how large on the outside it looked.  I have family members that worked on bomber planes in WWII, so it took me a while to catch my breath when thinking about them inside and fighting enemy planes.  I am continually amazed at all our service people who made our home free because they were brave.  My favorite part of the day was running into a familiar face!  I knew he looked familiar and it took us both a few seconds to place each other.  After a few questions, I knew right away our connection!  It was Dr. Mike Alderson, my Assistant Principal at Round Rock High School for all 4 years.  He was a kind man who supported every one of my crazy ideas.  It was a joy to run into him and connect again even though we were 2.5 hours away from Round Rock, TX.  Finally after a few hours we toured some other planes on our way out.  It was such a fun family event and we were blessed by the opportunity.  Thanks Ms. Brand for the tickets!

Redneck Egg Hunt

         If you are the kind of person who looks only at the title and pictures on our blog you are probably really confused at this point and are now reading what this day was all about.  Your first thought was Easter was a long time ago.  Then you saw a boy with a gun , men with guns, and a table covered in guns.  Before you go calling Homeland Security, no my son and I have not joined, or forming, a militia.
         Today was actually a men's fellowship with our Sunday School group "Strength and Unity."  It was a day filled essentially of shooting painted eggs (hence the title of the post). We shot skeet with raw eggs, sighted in rifle scopes with eggs as a target, and of course did some tactical training with pistols of all kinds and eggs.  Cade was definitely the youngest guy there, but he held his own.  He shot a gun for the first time and hit his target! If you zoom in on the picture of him you will see he shot a green egg with a 12 ga Browning over/under at 15 yards that was sitting on top of a cow pie. If you are asking what a cow pie is I am guessing you also don't know how fun it is spending a day with your son and other Godly men shooting things up. You are also probably not a redneck and concerned that I would let 4 your old boy shoot a gun. Don't worry, he is OK psychologically and will turn out just fine.  Men if you would like to become a redneck it is easy and we can train you if you give me or one of my friends a call. Anyways, Cade was proud of his first shot even though he said it hurt his shoulder.  At the end of the day I asked what his favorite thing was he said it was two things: 1)  Eating the sausage off the grill and 2) shooting the "small" gun (referring to the .22 he shot) when he blew up the egg with a smiley face on it. What more could a father ask for?

Last day of Preschool for Cade and MDO of Caelin!

Oh my, where did a year go?  It frightens me to know a year just passed by before my eyes.  Cade finished Preschool and will start PK next year at CFBC (4 days/week) and Caelin finished MDO and will officially start Preschool at CFBC (3 days/week).  I cannot even begin to think about me writing this post next year when Cade is getting ready for Kindergarten.  Both of them have changed so much in a year.  They each got to pick their breakfast on the last day of school and both picked Eggs with Toast/Jam.  They were so excited to give their teachers gifts and start the summer!  I had the joy of taking them to school, and Daddy/Gamee picked them up.  Of course Gamee had goodies for them and they were excited to see her recovering well.

This year Cade had Mrs. Nancy as his teacher and Ms. Ivania as her assistant.  Ms. Ivania was with Cade last year and my has he changed!  Cade is still our hyperactive little boy, but we had FAR LESS trips to time out this year compared to last.  Earlier in the year, his report card had "mostly" next to following school rules and "needs work" next to play cooperatively with others.  By the end of the year, he really learned to follow the rules and had made some great friends.  There were a few reports of him standing or walking around the room during circle time on rug, but we managed to get through thanks to some great teaching skills.  He grew to really love Mrs. Nancy and respected her a lot.  On the last day, Cade told me he was "really gonna miss those nice ladies!"  Looking back on the last 2 months, we have also seemed to make it out of our screaming and unprovoked rages more.  This is how I know he is truly growing and his maturity is coming in.  Cade is a joy to be around and VERY intelligent.  Yes, I know most parents say that, but remember I have a degree as a Diagnostician (hehehe).  Cade can now count to 20 for me, recognize pretty much all letters (he mixes up J, K, U, V, and W), can do dot to dot to 10, can cut with direction and control, write his name (still working on letter formation a bit), complete up to 3 part patterns, do buttons/snaps on clothes, and has mastered language development for sure!  I am SO PROUD of his hard work and his love for school now.  I pray it continues to grow.  CONGRATS Cade Beatty, we love you!

Caelin had Mrs. Stefanie as her teacher this year and Ms. Lauren as the assistant.  Sometimes I think she loved them more than me!  Caelin's big growth this year was in language.  She started the year with a few words and a lot of pointing and sometimes grunting.  Not anymore!  She is now our talker and is hard to make quiet (I have no idea where she gets that from).  Caelin appears to be our free spirited child who has the wild hair to match her personality.  We have often nicknamed her "little pistol" as she comes firing out at top speeds at any given moment.  She loves to be outdoors, get dirty and do artwork.  I have watched her many times walk like a pro into class and go straight over to a crying friend and hug them or start playing with them.  Even with a fiery attitude, her compassion is amazing.  She has a grasp on following directions (so far) and was always right in line with the entire class.  I love how she walks right into her class, puts away her lunch/backpack/napmat, and goes to play.  She is a routine driven child and never ceases to amaze me at what she can accomplish for such a little thing.  We love you Caelin Roe and are proud of you.  Can't wait to see what your Preschool year brings!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is so very special to us.  First and foremost because we are blessed enough to have 2 great Moms in our lives.  Our Mom's (AKA: Nana and Gamee), are the most loving, caring and thoughtful people we have ever met.  Charles and I both were talking about how lucky we are and how blessed to have such fond and loving memories from our childhood.  Neither of us can ever remember a time when we were not loved and cared for.  The sacrifices our Mom's made for us were never as clear for us until we had our our children looking to us.  So, thank you first to our own Mother's who have made us who we are and taught us to rely on God and each other.  The best part about looking at how lucky we are is thinking about the women who raised our Mom's and Dad's.  How can we be so blessed to have generations and generations of such amazing women and examples?!  Thank you Jesus for providing.  We love our Mom's more than anything and our love grows daily.

Now, I will try to do this next part without crying.  It is a good thing our computer screen doesn't have a camera or you might see that "ugly cry face" start soon.  Being a Mom just changes EVERYTHING.  I never let a Mother's Day pass without praying for those women out there who long so hard to be a Mom.  It wasn't too long ago that I was crying out to Jesus for him to work a miracle in us and provide us a child.  My heart ached and I was bitter at those women who did have this blessing.  I can remember people asking me, "Have you just given your troubles to the Lord?".  And I can clearly remember thinking, "Of course I have you crazy person?!" (maybe it sounded a little different in my head).  However, one afternoon after almost 4 years of fertility troubles, tests, and dead end roads, I broke down.  By break down, I mean the true ugly cry on my closet floor and questioning God about who he is and why I can't have "just this one thing".  It was in that painful moment I realized I had not truly given it over to God.  I learned total abandonment that day.  That day changed my life forever.  It was a lesson in patience from my heavenly Father and that he will provide what we need in HIS TIMING, not ours.  Little did I know that I was already 3 weeks pregnant that day!  So, to all the women out there who feel pain on this day for whatever reason, just know God will heal you, and God will provide what you need in his timing.  As the song goes, "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord".

This brings me to about 5 years later when I have been blessed with 2 amazing miracles ages 2 and 4.  What a magical day of reminders of joy and faith that came from pain.  We started the day with breakfast in bed for me!  Both the kids brought in breakfast of waffles, eggs, and strawberries and a LOT of syrup, ha!  They also gave me cards where they answered some questions about me.  Those were my favorite!  After breakfast, we headed to church with Gamee and Grampee.  Cade got to attend "big church" with us and even went to the front with the rest of the children for a Mother's Day chat.  I was so proud of Cade for not only going up alone, but also raising his hand to answer the questions of "What can you do to show your Mom love today?"  He was called on and replied, "I can wash dishes in the kitchen".  Well that would make any Mom proud!  After church we ate a great lunch and played outside with the kids.  It was a magical day or rest, love, and family.  I am so grateful that God trusted me with two of his own, and I just love my job as a Mom more than anything else.

Happy Mother's Day to all the women out there!  Even if you do not have children of your own, God has used your nurturing and love to impact someone along the way.  THAT makes you a Mom as well.

Random pics

So, here is the random pics collected on cell phones in the last 3 months.  I actually like cleaning out my phone as it makes me laugh.  I found a LOT of pics this time, Enjoy!