VACATION

Vacation is coming... Two whole weeks of blessed vacation. We're heading south on Sunday right after church to:

drive 11 1/2 hours to Greg's parents which will bring us in at midnightish

spend the next day at Fiesta Texas Amusement Park - the children are seriously hyper over this one

spend the next couple of days in prep appointments and LASER SURGERY so that my husband Bartimaus will finally SEE! Greg is seriously hyper over this one

chill, eat great food and way too much like all good Americans on vacation

read, I hope

head to my parents' house for great fun, great food and way too much of it, and see my brother and grandparents, aunt and uncle...

and head to Brian and Melanie's (Greg's brother and sister-in-law's) house in Dallas for a few days of more great fun before the trip home.

I am so thankful for family who loves us and lets us invade their homes for long periods of time, I'm thankful for the conversations and memories we enjoy and make, and I'm also thankful that our families live in really big cities! :)

I'll try to keep you posted on Greg's eye surgery - this is a gift that was given to us; we are thrilled!

Until later, Adios.

Yelling at Boz

Had an interesting experience today right before language arts. I went for a run during math - after making sure Abby and Emma knew what they were doing and setting Grace in front of a sweet little DVD about a big green bear named Boz who always knows just how small children should obey the Lord in every situation. It was a free promotional thing from a Christian bookstore.

Anyway, we had just finished spelling out on the back patio (it is a beautiful, cool day today), and Abby and Emma had a few minutes of free time before language arts. At about 5 minutes before language arts was supposed to happen, I could not find Abby.

Before delving any deeper into this story, I have to tell you that my family of origin is made up of people with exceptional vocal projection. We are not yellers by any means, but we are gifted hollerers. There IS a difference. Yelling happens when you're mad, hollering happens quite naturally for any reason.

Well, I hollered down the stairs for Abby to come up for language arts. No response. I heard her stereo playing in her room, so I hollered a little louder. No response. At this point I began to get a little irritated. She just purchased her stereo with birthday money, and our rule has been: No playing the stereo loud in the room with the door closed so that you can't hear us!

Now, I YELLED (no more hollering), "Abigail Sarah, get up here for language arts!!!!" No response. This was so out of character for her, and I refused, at this point to go down there. No sir, I was going to see just how loud I had to scream before she would hear me, you know, to prove a point, teach a lesson or something. Poor Grace looked at me like I was a maniac (can't imagine why)...

It was at this time, that Emma came inside and said, "Mom, Abby is riding her bike out in front of the house."

"Oh."

I went downstairs and saw that I had been yelling at Boz this whole time. He had just been going on and on down there, because well, he hadn't been turned off.

I sheepishly went upstairs and said, "Sorry Mommy was yelling, Grace. I shouldn't have yelled so loudly for Abby."

"No," she said, "I hold my hands over my ears for FIVE minutes! I don't like that."

"Yeah, me neither. I won't do that again! I was yelling at Boz."

She again looked at me like I was one loony lady. "Mommy, you can't yell at Boz; he can't even talk to you."

Lesson learned.

49 Years

Yesterday I called my mother-in-law to wish her and my father-in-law a Happy Anniversary. They had just gotten home from their celebration dinner at Outback Steak House.

"So, did y'all exchange gifts?" I asked.

She went on to tell me how Jack (my father-in-law) had lost his wedding ring years ago. It had something to do with separating a lot of beef into smaller portions and perhaps a sink, but after that experience, his ring went missing. And they never found it, not even in one of their packages of beef.

I couldn't believe I hadn't heard this story before, I just knew I hadn't noticed him wearing a wedding band. Well, Sandy went on to tell me that what Jack really wanted for their anniversary was a new wedding band and how they had picked one out and how it was his birthday present too (which was just on the 21st of August).

Misty-eyed, I said, "Sandy, I think I'm going to cry. I love that!"

And I do. I love that in celebration of 49 years of faithful commitment to each other through ups and downs, when most folks wouldn't really bother, Jack wants to make sure the world knows that he is married to this woman. I love that they get to shop for a wedding band.

Congratulations on 49 years together, Jack and Sandy! I love you.

Date Night

Today is a regular old home school Tuesday. I could call it typical, but that would not be quite right; because there is no such thing. What's nice about today so far is that no one (not even me) has had an emotional melt-down - yet, the girls are getting most of their work done within the time frame allotted, I don't even think anyone has said, "I totally hate ..." (fill in with the school subject of your choice).

I even had a chance to play at the park with Grace while Abby and Emma finished up their math. I shook the sand out of Grace's little generic crocs before we walked home, while she patted my back and said, "You're a good Mommy." That was a genuinely encouraging pat on the back.

I am feeling wonderfully refreshed after a great date-night with Greg last night. We got away to Wichita and had a much-needed opportunity to communicate and have fun all by ourselves.

The date re-cap:
We started out at William-Sonoma hoping with all of our hearts that they would happen to have the perfect espresso machine marked 95% off. We seem to have loved ours to death - literally, and now aren't quite sure what to do in the afternoons when the ICED AMERICANO calls out to us. Well, believe it or not, William-Sonoma had no such deal, but we handled it well and turned our sights toward amazing bargains at the Gap and Eddie Bauer.

Well, these stores did come through for us. We walked out of Eddie Bauer with one pair of swimming trunks and two shirts to the most amazing full moon I've seen in awhile. Greg and I were both so amazed by the sight that greeted us right outside the store that we spoke at the same time.

"Wow, look at that amazing moon tonight!"

"Did you see that car? That's a porsche boxter!"

Guess who made which statement. Greg tried to convince me that noticing the car was just as romantic as noticing the moon and that he had actually noticed the moon before he noticed the Porsche. Anyhow, we did proceed to sit under the gorgeous moonlight and have a great conversation although not while sitting in a Porsche boxter. This still qualified as entirely romantic in my book.

We capped the evening off with our favorite stand-by of Barnes & Noble including decaf coffee and Cheesecake Factory desserts as featured in the Barnes & Noble Cafe'. For only $7 and some odd cents (okay, not counting our stellar deals- but that comes out of the clothing budget), we had a fabulous night on the town, and a great reminder of how much we enjoy each other : PRICELESS!

Big Day

Big news: Abby and Emma just got their ears pierced today. They've been looking forward to this, but of course, there were some nerves going on in the car on the way to the Wal-Mart jewelry counter.

They each picked out their earrings, took their turn in the chair, and came through like champs. Afterward, we headed to the "cold drink" section of Wal-Mart for celebration beverages (1 Snapple and 2 Sobe bottles).

At check-out we encountered Ryan: a rather alternative-looking, chatty, and friendly fellow. As he scanned our drinks, I explained the occasion; and Ryan thought it was just great:

"You know, that is great to celebrate something like that with your mom. My dad didn't feel that way at all when I came home with my lip pierced. He just told me he was going to get the pliers. So, I took it out and that was over."

"Wow," I said, "sorry to hear that."

"Naw, it's okay. Getting your lip pierced doesn't hurt too bad, but there is a risk. If you don't have it done by the right person, there's a chance the whole bottom half of your face can be paralyzed."

"Thanks, we'll remember that."

Something tells me we won't have to...

Congratulations, Abby and Emma!

The Fab Weekend

Abby and I just returned Sunday night from our Fabulous Kansas City Weekend. In Abby's words... "It was SOOOO AWESOME!" Here's why-

*We got to Enterprise late, which meant we didn't get our original compact car. It was gone, so they had to give us a brand new (1600 miles on it) Ford Escape Hybrid for the same price. What a bummer, eh? :) Cool factor #1

*Abby and Greg made a CD to listen to on the trip, and this particular rented vehicle had great speakers with incredible sound. Cool factor #2

*We got everywhere we needed to be in plenty of time without getting lost. Miracle #1

*The CDs we listened to by Dennis and Barbara Rainey of Family Life Today were very well done; Abby loved them. We had great conversations, good questions, good cries, tons of laughter, deep prayer time, and meaningful times looking at scripture together. Cool factor #3

*ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS FOOD AND BEVERAGES. Our eateries included: On The Border, Panera Bread, Mokas Coffee, Starbucks, Embassy Suites Cooked to order breakfasts, and The Cheesecake Factory. Definitely Cool Factor #4

*The Moon Marble Company was just as groovy as we hoped it would be. Google this place to see the website. It's great! Abby collects marbles, and we happened to get there right when a marble was being made. They make them by hand. We had our picture taken with the famous Moon Marble Artist. He's on all kinds of posters and t-shirts; I just can't exactly remember his name right now. Anyway, he was really funny and extremely talented. What an amazing combination of art and science. O, they have a place there where you can play marbles, and ahem, I won! Cool Factor #5

*The Country Club Plaza (an amazing outdoor shopping neighborhood; it seriously covers many blocks) had more culture to experience than I've ever seen all at one time. Highlights:

outdoor jazz and blues bands

many street musicians

a begging comedian: "Hey Red, I'm looking for a down payment on a cheeseburger."

The guy who asked me for a dollar and proceeded to talk about life, playing guitar, Christianity, marriage...

Harri Krishnas (have no idea how to spell that, just be phonetic, and you'll get it) playing a cool drum and singing the same dumb song over and over and over...

The street preacher who looked miserable and stood on a stool pointing and yelling at everybody that they are headed to the Lake of Fire. The thing is that Abby and I are not, but I didn't know quite how to tell him that.

The other street preacher who yelled that God is ready to give His mercy to everyone. That sounded nicer.

The lady with a saxophone on her lap who didn't actually play it. She just cried and wailed really loudly with it on her lap and her case open to receive money for... crying? Not sure what that was about, but it was definitely attention-getting.

A very cool corner break-dancer. Made me feel young again. Go 80's!

The dog that was the size of a horse standing outside of Barnes & Noble with his owner who looked like a college professor from England. I had no idea dogs that big actually existed. There was a great crowd of people taking turns petting him. Abby got to pet him; he was very sweet... "Just a great big teddy bear," in Abby's words.

Then there was the guy in front of us who aimed his finger at everyone near and "shot them" and then yelled at them. We kept a good following distance.

Cool factors #6-16

*We had so much fun being "kids" at Science City on our last day. With so much "grown up" stuff to deal with and talk about, it was refreshing to have a play day. Cool factor #17

This was an incredible bonding time for Abby and I. What a valuable blessing this was. She's already said she'll be doing this with her daughter some day. Emma can't wait for her weekend (in a year or two). And Grace is already asking if she can go to Science City and eat cheesecake when she's 11.

I do believe we've started a tradition. Thank you for your prayers.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Okay, so WHERE HAVE I BEEN?! The sad thing is, I'm really not sure... maybe you can help me. Life really took over these past two weeks. I hate it when that happens. I DO NOT thrive on busy-ness. I am not driven, high-energy, or otherwise TYPE A. Please excuse my absence; I'm just experiencing temporary (I hope) technical difficulties.

We started school, and it's really going well, but boy howdy, I'm amazed at what we pack into a day! So, I'm finding that I'm a touch exhausted in the late afternoons. Then if it happens to be a working evening, I'm off to pull espresso shots. Or I can attend a meeting I thought was critical but turned out to be a wasted hour of my life (O.K., I know some would argue that every meeting is this, but this particular meeting was really and completely not for me - turned out to be about basketball - for high schoolers). I also got to fit a "quick" doctor's appointment into the middle of a school day that was two hours longer than expected, due to an emergency he had to attend to.

Emma also started dance again this week. I got to watch her a bit today. I love that; she's a beautiful dancer, but it is also two more afternoons of trying to remember where I am and should be. I'll get it eventually...

I'm expecting at any moment to slow down or at least adjust and get over it, but it was kind of a hard week.

Well, the really exciting thing is that I DO KNOW where I will be this weekend. Abby and I leave tomorrow for our Passport 2 Purity weekend get-away to Kansas City. Pictures and stories forthcoming. My wonderful hubby is single-parenting it this weekend with Emma and Grace - perhaps more stories forthcoming, but not pictures; I'll have the camera.

I'm going to bed now to be well-rested for this weekend (all except for it is now 12:50 am) Yikes!

Homegrown Lunch

While the blazing sun cooked everything outside of our house (feels like 109 outside according to the weather people), we enjoyed the blessings of this very same summer by feasting on a mostly homegrown lunch inside our gloriously air conditioned house.

Menu

Luscious, homegrown, super-sweet corn dripping with butter and sprinkled with salt

Homegrown juicy, candy-sweet musk melon (cantaloupe, for all you city slickers)

Crisp, refreshing homegrown cucumbers sprinkled in salt or dipped in Ranch

Hard-boiled eggs that I'm sure were raised somewhere, but I bought at the store

In light of all of the griping I could be doing about the intensity of this heat, I decided not to. Were it not this very season, right here in Kansas, we could not be experiencing the blessings of others' gardens!

By the way, we all looked just like this by the time we were done. Grace was the only one who didn't mind publicly sharing the joy...

This and That

A Smattering of This and That Since my Last Post:

• I'm really enjoying my very part-time job at Lincoln Perk, especially this last Saturday. Two, not one, but two college students who came in at different times during the day asked me what I was studying (MEANING AT COLLEGE)! I truly savored their shock as I revealed my true stats. Now, after I shared this with my dear hubby (granted with plenty of gloating), he nonchalantly replied with, "Of course you don't have to be twenty-something to be in college, you can be fifty-something; I had a lot of those folks in my classes." Appreciated that so much, I came really close to throwing my sudsy toothbrush at him.
• We started school this week; the day after Grace was up all night with a stomach virus(didn't know about that when we planned our first day...). We're going to San Antonio for a two week vacation in September, so I'm not actually ahead of the game; it just temporarily looks that way. But, for any of you home school moms reading this, we've actually had a stellar first couple of days. It is so unusual for us to actually start a first week of school well that it has never happened. :) Here's the secret so far: A SCHEDULE! Really, I've never truly tried a real-live school schedule with times and everything before. I've always been terribly scared of them; but we had also been having trouble with grumpiness (including ALL of us), managing Grace instead of spending quality time with her, spending way too much of our day trying to finish things... It seems the more I base on a do-able schedule, the more we get done. All of you time management people are thinking, "Duh, Kelly- this is not a new concept." But this is my small personal epiphany.
• I am going through Beth Moore's Bible Study entitled Breaking Free. It's wonderful! I'm sure some of you have been through it already, but I am enjoying it immensely. Definitely an intimacy-builder in my relationship with the Lord.

Current favorite Bible verse:

O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. -Isaiah 33:2

I want to grow into the wife, mom, friend, woman who lives this prayer.

Through The Eyes of The Easily Impressed

I have to share this picture of our new, beautiful clematis vine growing on the trellis that Greg put in this summer. I love these flowers, and this is the first time we've ever planted clematis. Two thumbs up from me!

Next I have to tell you about something that has changed my life. For all of you that actually live exciting lives, perhaps you can take this opportunity to spend a few moments seeing through the eyes of one who is easily amused and impressed.

You are about to read an infomercial. I'm sorry, but I have to share a fabulous new product with you, because it really has transformed my life (well, in a surfacey sort of way - pun 100% intended). I am not receiving one drop of commission, credit, or any other business-related benefit, just so you know...

The product is called the Mystic Maid. All it is is a microfiber cleaning cloth, but it is miraculous! I was just introduced to it while cleaning the ballet studio where Emma dances.

As an aside, Emma is a beautiful dancer, and her ballet director wants her in three classes this year. Well, I only budgeted one, so she has graciously let me work a bit for her to pay for two other classes.

Anyway, Miss Dunri hands me this little cloth and says, "If you want to clean the studio mirrors, just use this a bit damp but not drippy."

"Just damp with water?" I ask skeptically.

"Yes, these are amazing," she says.

"We'll see," I say to myself. Who ever heard of cleaning a huge roomful of floor to almost ceiling mirrors with water?! Well, obviously, you know what happened. I was astounded; the mirrors were beautiful with not one streak.

So, of course, I needed one of these for my very own. After convincing Greg that this was $13.00 well-spent, an investment, really- no more cleaners, it's washable and re-usable, I now have one! It's even better than I thought. This little cloth is designed to be used with water only. The cloth is made of microscopic microfiber split into thousands of micro-hooks and channels to "collect, trap, and remove dirt, dust, grease, and grime."

I know about those microscopic fiber hook and channel thingies, because one of our science books for school last year was the Usborne internet-linked Complete Book of the Microscope, and they showed us just such fabric.

Anyway, I have done our windows, mirrors, stove top, bathrooms, grease-covered stuff that no cleaner had gotten before, etc. And I am truly amazed!

Just had to share this exciting news with you. I bought mine at a hoity-toity kitchen store, but there's a website too http://www.mysticmaid.com/ .

Hope you've appreciated this message brought to you by Kelly, a (at least for now) faithful mysticmaid enthusiast and hopefully, at least a valued customer.