Open House

Listening to … the tv in the living room. Some political speaker talking about McCain.

Thankful for … my health, my home, my family, my good friend near and far, and too many other things to properly list them all.

In the kitchen … the radio is playing, the dishes desperately need to be put into the dishwasher, and Maia's homework is all over the table.

Sewing … is something I want to learn how to do one day. I envy people who can sew really well like my friend Adrienne. I can do a little freehand embroidery, etc. and I like to do this on denim for Maia.

Reading … Admissions by Nancy Lieberman, and a bunch of entertainment magazines like Star, Us Weekly, People.

In the yard/garden … I have an overgrowth of weeds that attract mosquitos and some dead grass.

Praying for … a money tree to grow in my back yard. Seriously, for our church to continue to grow in the absence of Don Wilson.

On the iPod today … don't have one.

Thinking about … why I am so unmotivated to get my butt exercising and get healthier, and the weekend list of things to get done.

Looking forward to … Trunk or Treating at our church in October since Maia and I just bought some cool decorations to do up our trunk!!

Hoping … that my kids will go to sleep with no drama tonight.

Thanks to Karen for the Open House idea. Play along if you like.

September Fun and Other Stuff

Labor Day found us in the house all day cleaning. Fun stuff. It was a major necessity though, and I sure do feel better about some of the rooms in my house that had been seriously overlooked. I should have taken a before/after photo, but why scare innocent people? Seriously people, I run a childcare business. I don't need the law on my tail. Anyway. While Chris and I were cleaning, our kids were running around like this...

... yep, they put on the dress up outfits and grabbed the stick horses and went on a ride up and down the sidewalks of our street. I particularly like Harrison's too small chaps. He has gotten so tall! Last year this time, they were fitting him as they should. Amazing. Maia had on all sorts of stuff, mainly accessories. She is an accessory whore. This is a pretty tame version of what she really looked like. At one point she had 4 of those claw type hair clips in her hair on the sides as "ponytails" and a headband. She doesn't wear it correctly, so it is very funny to see. She has on this ridiculously long strand of pearls, and, harder to see, a pink sparkly diamond necklace. She certainly outdoes her mom in the jewels department. Maybe I should have her advise me? That's a thought. Here is another of Harrison...

Darn, they are some cute kids! I am not sure what they were doing with the wagon, but it was somehow involved in their play. My neighbors got a good chuckle from their play, I am sure. Glad I can do my part to provide the neighborhood comedy act from time to time.

On another note... Last Friday, Harrison had his first spelling test. I was stressed about it. I have this fear of screwing up my child, since parent's are really responsible for a great deal of their child's success, especially in the early years. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is a second grade teacher so I can turn to her for the "how to's" of early education success. She told me not to be suprised if he (and most of the class) failed the first test. (Maybe fail at grade 1 is too strong a word, let me rephrase... don't do well on the first test!) I am such a perfectionist when it comes to all things school. Each night after homework was done (all homework for the week mainly revolves around the set of 10 spelling words) we did a mini test. After my SIL suggested a dry erase board I think it became easier. My hubby drilled him the last night. I couldn't do it anymore for fear of scaring my child for life. DH told me I was too hard on him the last time I had drilled him, that I left it in his capable hands the last night. Am I rambling?? That is about where my brain was after that night. Well... let me just get to the point. He took the test, and here are the results...

For someone who had resigned herself to seeing maybe one -four correct answers, this was a mother's dream! I figured he would at least get the word "a" right. I was so proud of him! He was proud of himself and said that he thought about each word and wrote what he thought first. Good plan, I told him. The first answer is 95% of the time the right one. This will be a weekly occurrence. He is an eager student and he may not always do great, but as long as he tries his best, then that is A-ok with me. I, in the meantime, need to work on letting up a bit on the poor kid! Way to go Harrison!!

End of Summer Update

As summer comes to a screetching halt, I thought I would post an update on some of the events that have happened over the last few weeks that have not made it into my blog. I posted about the unwillingness of Maia not putting her face in the pool back in June. Well, by the beginning of August, we had come a long way! She decided one day that she would get her face wet, and from there, just took off with swimming, floating on her back, putting her face in, jumping in the pool from the side and swimming without her vest! She is quite good at swimming on her back.

Maia floating on her back. She has gotten very good at swimming on her back and will be a backstroker like her momma was!

Maia taking the plunge

Going under the water

Harrison finally decided he would go off the diving board. Of course, the day he decided to do this I was not with him, but rather, he was at the pool with my mother in law. Once he started, he couldn't stop. He would jump over and over and then come up swimming and swim under the rope into the other parts of the pool without ever stopping.

Harrison, standing ready on the diving board...

Making the jump...

Success! Into the water! No fear at all!

Harrison also learned to dive toward the end of the pool season. His dive was quite funny and actually very good for a newbe. Check out the progression...

What form on a 6 year old!

This one looked like it hurt, which he informed us, it did.

I got a shot of the pretty butterfly trying to get some water during the rainless last few weeks.

Kindergarten and First Grade Here We Come!

The first day of school went off with any problems. The kids got ready on time and were waiting for the bus long before it was time for it to be here. Our cat, Max, even waited with us. I was doing great until another kindergarten mom started to tear up. Lucky for me, I had to leave ASAP for a trip to the Dr. so I didn't have time to dwell on sending my baby off to school. I did get a bit teary when I saw the other mom and saw my baby sitting on the bus when it was pulling off. My day was very quiet (as quiet as it can be with four 1 year olds that I keep) for the most part. No chattering by Maia and the constant, "did you hear me??" that she loves to ask us lately. No kid tv shows on non-stop, no big kid toys all over the place, in addition to the baby toys. I was ready for them to come home though. Harrison was excited about school from the start. He got his favorite first grade teacher, Mrs. Hudson, that he claims is the most "beautiful teacher, and I can't take my eyes off her." She is pretty. He has good taste in women.


The arrived home a little afte 4pm. I guess the bus was running late, which is pretty typical on the first day of school. Both of them hoped off the bus and no declaration was made about not going to school again, so I guess the day was successful. I only hope tomorrow goes as smoothly as today did! I leave you with some photos from the event! Enjoy!

Maia getting ready to go to the bus stop. She hand-picked her outfit.

The Sleeping Beauty backpack from Disney Store. Has a matching lunchbox that clips onto the front but I chose to put it in the bag since the bag was empty and the lunchbox was heavy.

Harrison excited to start school the first day. He has always loved going to school.

Max keeping watch for the bus. Him and Amos, below, were actually playing in the monkey grass that grows along my neighbor's sidewalk.

Amos hiding from Max. His tail was on one side and his head poking thru the other side. Maia thought this to be histerical and wanted me to take a photo.

Here comes bus 20!!

Harrison boards first, followed by Maia. Mrs. Mary has been driving this route for years and is the best bus driver you could ask for!

There she goes, off to Kindergarten!! Looking pretty happy!

Coming home, looking noticeable more tired than she did in the AM.

Off into the Big Wide World

Tomorrow Maia, my baby girl, starts kindergarten. It is with mixed emotions that I send her off into the big wide world. She is saying she doesn't want to go, but says it with half a smile. She already knows half of her kindergarten class in one way or another and her best buddy, Ryan, from Preschool is in her class. That will help with the transition. He looks out for her. It is too cute. Regardless of what she is feeling, I am not sure what I am feeling at this moment. Sad a little. A bittersweet moment to say the least, awaits me in the early hours of Monday Aug. 25. I will have to hold it together for her sake. If she see's me falter, I am doomed. I will have to be strong and save the waterworks for after she boards the bus with her big brother. He will be in 1st grade! I just can't believe that the baby girl I brought into this house is now going off to school. She was just a newborn when we moved here. Time flys, and no matter how we try, you just can't hold onto it. All you new moms out there, savor every moment of your little ones life. They grow up to fast and before you know it, you too will be sending them off into the world. I'll post an update after all is said and done. Wish me luck!

Feeling the Power

Boy, it has been a long hard few weeks for our church. I have had times when I was angry, hurt, sad, depressed, let down, you name it i have felt it. Yesterday, our Pastor preached his last sermon for FVCC. Afterward we had a suprise luncheon for him and his dear family. It was a good time of friends, food, fellowship and music provided by our awesome praise band, 24/7. They did a few tearjerkers, Michael W. Smith "Pray for Me" and "Friends" which just seemed to fit the situation. We all said our goodbyes. It was hard.

Our Senior Pastor, Don Wilson and his wife, Carol

Don was the driving force behing the forming of the 24/7 Praise Band. Our church had never had anything like this until him. He is a MEAN drum player!! A drum solo was requested. This is him playing his heart out. Just call him "Animal"!!

Today, I was hit with an idea of a new ministry for our church. I didn't know where it came from. It was out of left field for me, but I feel it is something our community needs and something I feel driven to do. We will see. I will elaborate more on this as it unfolds. This evening, I attended my second ever Church board meeting. The board accepted the resignation of our beloved pastor. I was so moved by the presentation that our youth minister gave that I could have cried. He is what we need right now to get us thru this difficult time. When the time is right, we will appoint an interim minister. I am trying to find good in this difficult goodbye.

The 24/7 Praise Band, named by Christy Wilson because "we should praise the Lord 24/7"

Christy Wilson with the future of Fairview Christian Church,
Harrison, Maia, Madeline, and Sara.

I have been trying to figure out why, all of a sudden, this has become so important to me. I have come up with only one thing. This man, our pastor, came into my life to bring me closer to GOD. Like no one before him, he has done things for me spiritually that I could never have imagined. When they talk about being called by God, I can say that I understand that now. I am feeling called by God to take a more active role in our church and to step out of my comfort zone. It is a strange and scary feeling. I think I had to have him leave us to discover this. I don't know if that makes sense or not. This is new territory for me. I am feeling very passionate about this the past 24 hours. I don't know that I would be here without them coming into my life. I don't know where this will lead me but for now, I will roll with it.

I will miss them terribly, but I know that we will meet again one day in Gods Kingdom. Until then, I bid them farewell for now. And I thank God every day that this family was brought into my life.

FVCC youth minister with Sara, Madeline (his daughter) and my beauty, Maia

We love you Wilson Family and we will MISS YOU terribly!!

Home Sweet Harrison

My baby boy came home Wednesday evening with my mom. He was talking all big about staying until Friday and coming home with my dad and nephew, but I knew he would cave as soon as my mom decided to pack up and head home. She had to come home early because of some appointments that could not be changed. He ended up spending the night with my mom at her house Wednesday night and returning on Thursday to see him Momma. He told me he missed me only a little bit. I guess that is better than not at all, huh??? He is such a momma's boy. I love it! Here is a photo of his dirty little face after a day of playing cars in the dirt with Ethan. He looks bruised and battered, but yes, that is DIRT! Gotta love a little boy! (That's my nephew, Ethan, in the background)