...And Not Today Either!

Snow on top of ice.  Ick.  I'm disappointed because tomorrow is is the Focus on Marriage simulcast at our church in Yankton.  My mom was supposed to come down today to watch the kids, and the dog, tomorrow while we were gone.  After watching the snow fall all morning, Hubby and I decided to tell her not to come.  It isn't worth risking an accident on the road.  Plus, it would probably take her a good five hours to get here.  It probably isn't a good idea for us to be on the road either.  G's teacher has plans for tomorrow, but if they get cancelled she said she'd watch the girls for us.  We'll have to wait and see... 

I also have a prayer request/praise for you.  A lady in town is starting a Good News Club, and I was asked to be a part of it.  It will be Tuesdays after school until 5 pm.  There will be a snack, Bible lesson, memory verse, music, missionary story, and incentives.  This club is geared for kids k-5th or 6th grade.  We are really excited to share Jesus with them.  Our first meeting is March 17th and we'll be having a St. Patrick's Day "party".  Please pray for a good turn out, for words to speak, that God will soften the hearts of the kids who come, and that God would be at the center of all we do.  May this club glorify His name!  Thanks for your prayers. 

Will We Be Playing Outside Today?

...No.  It started raining ice in the early hours of the morning.  I woke up to phone messages from my husband and my mother to "be careful" while taking the kids out.  They both have known me long enough to know that I'm accident prone.  It think they were worried about me too, not just the kids :)  There was no late start for school so I took G down to pre-school.  I had missed my last few work outs, so I made the smart, or stupid depending on how you look at it, decision to drive to Wagner.  It took twice as long but I got there and back safely.  For your viewing pleasure (especially you CA residents)...

What you can't see very well from the picture is the 1/2 thick (I'm not sure whether or not that's an exaggeration) sheet of ice covering the sidewalks, street and driveway.  So although G, E and I won't be playing outside, someone at our house will be braving the cold...

Another thing you can't see very well from the picture is Drake's hair cut.  Now that it's had a day to "settle in," it's looking a little, how should I put it, choppy?  Fortunately, he's just a dog.  A dog with a bad hair cut. 

Future Dog Groomer?

I may have a future as a dog groomer.  Today I cut Drake's hair before his bath.  I didn't stab him in they eye with the scissors or cut off any appendages, so it was a successful endeavor.  He got to keep all his paws and I saved myself $20.  The truth is Mark said we'd do it ourselves. Left to my own devices, I would have paid the $20 to have someone else do it.  Because, in my opinion, it would have been worth $20 not to have to clean up all the hair ALL over the bathroom when we were done.  Here are some pics of the girls from Valentine's Day that I finally got downloaded...

Sugar Plum

Peanut

Happy Valentine's Day sister!

...and of course, Happy Valentine's Day to Drake.

I wish I had something exciting to blog about today, but I don't.  I was up most of the night with E who wouldn't go to sleep.  I'm still not sure what the problem was, I think maybe gas from the veggies on her pizza at dinner.  She's been awful crabby the last few days and I'm wondering if it's the early onset terrible twos, or two year molars, or who only knows what.  It's exhausting though.  At one point last night, when I went into E's room for the hundredth or two-hundredth time, G sat up in bed (because I have to walk through her room, right past her bed, to get to E's room) and said to me, "Mom, is E giving you a bad time tonight?"  Yes, G, she most definitely is!  I must say, G was on her best big-sister behavior.  She said to me on my way back out of the room with E in my arms, "Mom, maybe she just needs to kiss me goodnight."  So I laid E down by her so she could kiss her and whisper a big-sister pep talk to her.  It was sweet, even though it was 4 am and I hadn't been asleep yet.  I was up late watching the movie Changeling, which I don't recommend.  It was much too depressing and disturbing.  It will go down as one of those movies I wish I could forget I saw, but I won't be able to because it was just too disturbing.  Today we also had to take the van in for new tires and then over to Tyndall for an alignment.  Fun for the pocketbook.  Tires with tread, you just gotta have 'um.  Well, that's it friends.  I told you, not very exciting.  But that's my Monday so far.  Add to it laundry, cleaning up dog pee of the kitchen floor (I'm still contemplating selling him, any takers???), and maybe a little scrap booking.  Tomorrow looks a little more promising.  Bible study review at a friend's house.  Happy Monday siestas!

Abortion

 

Steve F.

Today at 10:20am
Honestly, I don't know what the problem is with you and Mark. Really, if you had posted "Planned Parenthood protests against mythical bill" I would have thought it was funny. I'm not sure why you and Mark suddenly feel the need to bitch about every single comment I make. I have many conservative friends who often post things I don't agree with, just as I post things they don't agree with. My friend Adam recently listed his status as "Adam thinks all Democrats are morons". I didn't feel the need to bitch him out for it and simply laughed it off.

Evidently your and Mark's ideas of friendship have changed over the last 2 1/2 years - or they weren't what I thought they were to begin with. I'd encourage you to take a look at the series of emails that Mark and I exchanged before he quietly and cowardly dumped both Kristel and I from his "friend" list. I know you don't agree with my opinions on politics and religion, but I think you will notice who was the more polite and respectful person in the conversation. On 2 occasions I suggested simply "agreeing to disagree" and even told Mark his friendship was more important than "winning" a political/religious debate and we should just drop it. His reply was basically "don't worry, I'm fine", along with a few sarcastic remarks. Then I never heard from him.

I think the way you have both behaved is juvenile, closed-minded, rude, irrational, and not the way a friend should act, and I honestly don't care if I ever speak to either of you again.


Mandy Small
Today at 1:12pm
Steve, this is the first comment I've ever made to anything you've ever said on Facebook. I have no interest in being involved in any conversations you've had with Mark. I'm not any of the things you just called me. I'm not sure why my comment made you so mad except that maybe I'm right. It seems you're far more upset about what I said then I was about what you said. I really was wondering if you were at all familiar with partial-birth abortion procedures. Take a baby that is 30 weeks old in the womb and one that is 30 weeks old in the NICU. Would you walk into a NICU, stab it at the base of the neck, suck its brains out, throw it into a pan and then into the trash? They'd throw you in jail for MURDER. You can't tell me that one is a person and the other isn't based on their LOCATION. People want to make abortion okay because our society wants to separate sex from it's God-given purpose of creating life. We are selfish people who don't want to be responsible for our actions. Notice that you're the one who resorted to name calling. In my estimation that makes you the one who is juvenile, close-minded, rude, and irrational.

I know that I was graphic, but we should be graphic about abortion.  Instead of letting people try to sweep the realities of it under the rug quietly.

A Morning Mystery

I'm sitting here wondering what happened to my mind this morning.  G and E were both up by about 7 am.  This is pretty good for G, but not so much for E.  She usually sleeps later, so it threw me off my game.  We got up and started putting on clothes, brushing teeth, eating breakfast.  Then, I thought since I hadn't showered for two days I'd take a quick one, even though I was headed to work out (I know, how selfish of me).  Somewhere along the way I simply FORGOT to take G to school.  Has this happened to anyone else besides me???  Finally at 8:30 am G's teacher called wondering where she was.  Uh, on her way???  It really isn't a big deal, it's pre-school, her second year of three years in pre-school.  I realize that, but I still felt terrible.  How does a mom just forget to take her child to school?  This confirms my diagnosis.  Just further evidence that I'm losing my mind.  First a dog, now I can't remember to take my kids to school.  Maybe I was too worried about the dog, or maybe it was the shower that got me into trouble...

Drake Update

So I bet you've been wondering how the dog is doing.  Well, I'm considering selling him on e-bay.  I'm only half kidding friends.  Do you think I could even get close to what we paid for him??? He's been doing okay with house breaking, but not good enough for someone with OCD.  I've been told to give him more time.  Hmmmm.  He's looking at me with those sad brown eyes as he's locked in the kennel for peeing in the living room this morning.  After having just been taken out to the yard to pee mind you.  WHAT. WAS. I. THINKING.  It's a good thing I know NOTHING about e-bay or he might already be on a plane to some other mom who has given in to her four year old's alligator tears.  Pray for me.  I know God has something to teach me through all of this, I just know it. 

What else is new?  Yesterday when I picked G up from school she had a pretty good lump on her forehead and an accident report in her backpack.  The kids had gone outside to play and another kid threw a chunk of ice at her head.  OUCH!  Her teacher gave her an ice pack (like she wanted any more ice near her face!) and some TLC and she's now fully recovered emotionally, the lump is a work in progress.  I would post a pic of the lump but for some reason I'm having trouble downloading from my camera to my computer.  Sounds like a job for Hubby.  

American Idol results tonight.  Hey, if Travis can watch it so can I.  I didn't fall victim to the Bachelor this season, but a girl needs a little reality TV once in a while.

There are two piles of laundry waiting on the bathroom floor for me...

LMP Scripture Memorization #4

"Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.  The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name." Malachi 3:16 ESV

Mother-Daughter Valentine's Day Tea Party 2009

Yesterday was the Mother-Daughter Valentine's Day Tea Party at church.  E stayed home with Hubby so that G and I could go to the party and have some time alone together, which doesn't happen very often.  

When we got there G signed up for a door prize, she wrote her name on the piece of paper all by herself, and she wrote her name on her name tag too!  Lately, she's really made leaps and bounds in writing her letters.  I keep meaning to have her write some stuff and then scan it so I can post it.  Pictures of paper don't turn out very well on my camera.  Anyway, back to the party.  

So we picked a table and seats and the party got started.  I dug into my purse to turn my phone to vibrate and I noticed my keys weren't there.  PANIC!  Where are my keys???  I told G to stay put and I would be right back.  I ran out to the van and it was locked, no keys in sight.  So at least I knew they had to be in the building.  I looked around some more, called Hubby and freaked out to him, then sat back down and waited.  Of course I had taken the van with the kids' seats in it, so if Hubby had to come get me, he wouldn't have a car seat for E.  I was just going to wait and hope they'd turn up.  A few minutes later they announced a missing set of keys that had been found laying at the front table.  Whew!  Close one.  Once I had my keys I could enjoy the party.

There was special music, a devotional, food, tea, of course (or if you're G you'd have hot chocolate and punch), and crafts.  G and I had lots of fun spending the day together.  Here are some pictures from the tea party...

Our table of friends.

You were supposed to bring your favorite doll to the tea party.  Here is G with Sally.  Her best friends since birth.

Mom with her tea party date.

One of my Valentines.

One of the craft stations was decorating heart cut-out sugar cookies.

Here is G carefully spreading on her PINK frosting! :)

Next come the sprinkles and other candies in shades of pink and red...

The finished product.

A calorie and sugar loaded masterpiece!

Another craft.  G gave this one to her daddy.

A New Addition to Our Family!

It's a boy!

Welcome, Drake Indiana Small!  Anyone who knows me knows that if I now have a dog living INSIDE my house, it's official.  I have LOST. MY. MIND!  

Yesterday we were at the mall in Yankton and we saw a sign that the pet store had miniature toy poodles for sale.  Hubby and I thought it would be fun for the girls to go see them.  This led to much pleading by G that she NEEDED a puppy.  I think there might have been tears too.  

So, today Hubby and I started calling around and looking at sites online.  Our sister and brother-in-law recommended a place in Yankton where they had gotten their dogs.  So we drove out there today and obviously it was a successful trip! 

Here are some pics of Drake our three month old Shih-Poo (Shih Tzu-Poodle mix)...

LMP Scripture Memorization #3

It's February 1st and you know what that means!  A new memory verse:

"For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." 

Romans 15:4 ESV

Happy Lord's Day!