I met Monk today

I met Monk today. The kids and I stopped by Chicken Express for some lunch before heading to the park. Max needed to go to the restroom. I ordered our food and sat down at a booth. When he got back I stood up and walked to the front counter to get some honey for Anna Kate. As I stood in line, a nicely dressed man approached me and said, "Ma'am, theres' something that I need to talk to you about." I got a little nervous...who is this guy? He began to deliver his message in a very serious tone. "Your son came out of the bathroom the same time I did and there is something that you need to be aware of." My mind starts racing...Oh my gosh. What did Max do? Did he break something? Was he crawling under the stalls? Jumping over them? "Okay, what is it," I ask. "Well, your son did everything very well. He flushed and he washed his hands with soap and dried them. But when he left the bathroom he touched the doorknob. Now, I don't have to tell you that there are many, many people who DO NOT wash their hands and then touch that doorknob. You need to make sure that he knows that and teach him to use a paper towel when he opens the door from now on."

He touched the doorknob. Now, using a paper towel to open bathroom doors is a great idea and something that I do each time I am forced to use a public restroom. And hopefully this is a practice that Max will adopt at some point. But right now he is 8 years old. We're just thrilled that he hits the toilet when he tinkles.

We're back from our trip. We left last Wednesday to spend some time in Crane and Lubbock. We picked up Momma D on the way and made our way to Crane, by way of Rosa's in Abilene. We spent several days there and got to see some dear friends. It was strange being back in Crane. I haven't been in a year and a half. Since then, Mom and Dad have moved to Comanche. It was so strange driving by our house knowing that we couldn't go in. We stayed at Cathy's house, though, which is like another home. Here are the highlights (in no particular order):
-burritos
-Patrena
-Garcia's queso
-Dugout cokes
-the smell of rain in West Texas (it doesn't smell the same here)
-seeing familiar faces everywhere I went
-visiting Riley's headstone at the cemetery
It was such a great visit, but when our time there was done it was good to drive away. So much happened in Crane. The time that Chad and I lived there was, simultaneously, one of the sweetest and hardest times of our lives.

From Crane we headed to Lubbock, by way of Rosa's in Midland. Are you seeing a trend? Mom and I love Rosa's. In Lubbock we got to spend time with Granna and Papa, Carolyn and Gram. Sarah (Lowery) Cook came by for a visit, too. It was so good to see all of them. Granna had planned a fun family birthday party for Anna Kate. It was so special!! Thanks, Granna. On Saturday we went to Jessica King's wedding, which was beautiful. We saw many more friends from Crane. Great to catch up with them.
Here are a few pictures that we took after the wedding. Quick, while we're all dressed up!! More pictures to come...later.

A visit!

Amy Parker came to see us on Sunday and stayed a few days. We had such a great visit! We stayed up way too late talking about everything that we haven't gotten to talk about over the last year and a half. It was so fun! We shopped a little, ate some food and drank some coffee.
Amy and I share lots of the same interests. We love to organize (love it!) and cook. We also have some of the same pet-peeves (mouth noises/smacking...ug) and we share a love for maps. We spent some time checking out Google Maps and Google Earth finding different locations all over. If you have never done that, you should check it out. It is satellite images of the Earth. You can type in your address and see your house from space. Super cool. And it's free from the genius folks at Google. Anyway, we typed in the zip code for Crane (where I grew up) and we were looking all around. You can see Stone's and the high school, the Dugout (best cokes in Texas) and all of our houses, etc. Well, we looked at the cemetary and we saw a little line of cars and the blue funeral tent. The picture was taken during someone's funeral. Weird, huh? Can you imagine having a picture of your funeral from outer space??? So, we looked all over town like we were detectives or something. By putting together numerous "clues" we now know that the picture was taken during the winter of 2004. So, guess where I'm going when we get to Crane later this week? Yep, going to the cemetary to see who in the world has a picture of their funeral from outer space. Am I weird?

Little Man

He's growing. He's beautiful and he is so much fun!

Eight Great Years

Eight years ago today I married my favorite person in the world.
I loved that day and I love this one, too.
Because I love Chad.

Anna Kate's Quiet Time Journal

This is a picture of Anna Kate's Quiet Time Journal that she made today in Sunday School.

On the cover she has drawn a picture of a girl...smoking a pipe. We're so proud.

Pondering...

...what it means to do things in the Lord's strength and not my own. It occured to me today that I just may not have a clue what that really means. I thougth I did, but nope.
Any thoughts?

Helpful Stuff

It's Summertime. That's good. It comes around every year and I always think that I'm ready. I love the change. Then the first hot day comes and memories of the heat fill my mind. Ug. I remember that the door handles burn your skin. I remember that you break into a full-on sweat walking across the Target parking lot. I remember that our electricity bill shoots through the roof and our house still isn't that cool inside. I remember why I'm tempted to migrate north for the Summer.
We do summers a little different than most. Since we homeschool we have a few more options. While the rest of the world was busy going to school, we were busy adjusting to our new family member. So now that the rest of the world is finished for the school year, we're about to hunker down and get really busy. We'll stay inside most of the day, which may sound sad to some. But that is what the people in the north do during the extreme cold of Winter. Don't get me wrong, we'll play early in the morning but mostly we'll be working hard. Then we'll take a break when it cools off again. That works for us.
But to ensure that our Summer is not "all work-no play" I've been brainstorming fun, cheap ideas. And when I say "cheap", I really mean free. Here are some of the things that we'll be doing for fun:
-Breakfast at the park
-Feed the ducks
-Chuck E. Cheese (we have the kids cups that get free refills for the life of the cup...we take those, have a drink and play. No tokens required).
-A movie each week. Yep, this is our favorite. Regal Entertainment group offers free movies at some of their theatres each week during June and July. Click on REG Free Family Film Festival. You can type in your state and it will list the theatres and the shows. We never get to go to the movies so this is a huge treat for the kids.
-Periodic trips to McDonalds. Now, I am anti-McDonalds. Have you seen Super Size Me? If you have then you will be anti-all fast food (except Chick-Fil-A, of course!). But our McDonalds is super clean and has an amazing playroom. Even has a soft couch for me to sit on while I read. So when the kids need to run off some energy we'll head up there and have a coke and play.
-Trips to see Daddy at work. We love going to Chad's work to say hi. And while we're there we may as well have some lunch or supper, right? And if we have some lunch or supper we may as well have some ice cream, right?



And that, friends, is how we plan to stay cool and sane in the Summertime.