look what I found

I opened the ~Stickies~ application on my Mac. I planned to write out some Things to Do. Instead of a new list, I found this precious list that had obviously been edited by someone pretty savvy with the computer.

kiss peter
goodwill drop
water plants
hang pictures                            
hang up Campbell's clothes
cheer camp c0nleigh
RANDOM DANCING #1
play duck duck GOOSE
Drink cherry soda
feed conleigh 1000 lolly pop
Have a PARTY!
see smurfs
play sharks  and minose
brush teeth
kiss teddy bear
make funny movie
go to the GYM
drive car

PS.  I'm pretty sure the editor is an eight year old girl who lives in this house.

My first project with my new Cricut birthday gift.

So Proud

I wish words could express how absolutely proud I was today of my children.  Our church has hosted an interactive program this week called "Step into Africa".  People from the whole city have had an opportunity to walk through a village set-up and learn about the life of a child in Matete Kenya, Africa, and their plight of living amidst HIV/AIDS.  Many, many children in Matete lose their parents, siblings and grandparents to this horrific disease.  A whole generation is at risk of being lost due to HIV and Aids.

So, with that said. Our children did not participate in the exhibit; however, I picked them up from Sunday school today and we went to the end of the program where there was a wall of kids needing sponsorship.  Our Pastor had reminded us during service that God didn't ask us to solve all the problems of the world, but to be a seed and ~do something!~  276 children had been sponsored as of yesterday.

And continuing...  Peter was not with us this morning. He was working at the ACL Music Festival. Before we walked into the exhibit, I asked the kids if they would choose a boy or girl.  Conleigh & Alex instantly said "boy!" So, a boy it was.

They looked at all the precious faces on these children.  Alex went up to one photo and said, "he is so cute."  Then I looked at him and said, "look at his name.  His name is Peter."  Well, that pretty much sealed the deal.  Alex feels like he has gained a brother.  I wish I could repeat or could have video taped him calling his grandparents to tell them about the new member of our family!  He is just thrilled and would love to meet Peter one day. Conleigh is also happy but not as excited about going to Africa to meet him.

Peter is four years old. He lives with his grandmother and has no siblings.  Peter's grandmothers struggles to meet the basic needs of this little boy.  Please include Peter K. in your prayers. He is living in an environment that is wrought with HIV & AIDs.

Our family has committed to corresponding with this child of God and to helping him financially.  Peter & I both hope to one day visit Matete. Our church has joined with WorldVision to help this community.

Truly, our kids feel like they've gained a brother.  More than once today, they talked about Peter, wanted to know where his picture was, talked about how cute he was, wanted to tell their friends about him, wanted to know who was older Alex or Peter K.  I am beyond thankful for the sweet spirit that my children have. Whew! Tears are flowing now.

The pictures throughout this post are from yesterday when our church had children's activities set up for the kids to learn what life is like in Africa.  Campbell wore her African face paint until this evening at bathtime.
The kids learned how children have to carry water for miles. Conleigh participated in the walk around the church parking lot which is big. She did it one time, kids in Matete walk the equivalent of five times with three plus gallons of water. Conleigh carried close to two.
The kids mashed corn trying to turn it into meal to make meals.  We got to taste beans and ugilie (?) and one other food item that are made over open fire. Surprisingly, the food was good. Other things they got to try were washing clothes, dancing and making a soccer ball (out of plastic bags).
It was an eye opener. I hope we can all remember how fortunate we are.

3rd grade = Bible

Conleigh received her Bible at church this morning. Beautiful ceremony. She has already noticed that some of the words are very hard. :)
I pray that she will read and soak in the Bible and that she will follow Jesus her whole life long.

9/11

We will never forget.

Ten years. So long ago and so close at the same time.  In ten years, so much much has changed.  We took our children to the field of flags outside our neighborhood this evening. We went for the flag lowering ceremony. The Boy Scouts did the ceremony and Alex was very interested to see how they participated. 

Each flag had the names of three people on it that died on 9/11.  Even five year old Campbell seemed to get it. She said, "this is really sad."

9/11 is just so sad to think about. I can't even write about it.

Going home.

big garbage pick up

I found a treaure in someone else's trash.

I know you are thinking, "what in the hell is she going to do with that?"

Peter was thinking that too when he redressed last Sunday night and then we drove up the street on the golf cart at 11pm, picked up this baby and he held it tight all the way home as I gassed it down the hill.

Check out this link to see my high hopes.

Before the trash guys came by on Monday, I did unscrew the sides and only saved one end of the crib.

Wish me luck.

Soccer start



I love that Peter always has his team give a shout out to the other
team for playing hard.
Then of course, they give themselves a shout out too.



Victory for Team Madrid today.  Soccer has begun and I can't believe how improved the boys are one year later.  They played excellent.  It's a whole new game out there this year.  No coach on the field and it is a much larger field.  It's also the first year to keep score. 
Team Madrid 3, Team Roma 1. 

As Matthew's mom said, "We can play against each other and still be best friends."

.





Meanwhile on the sidelines, the girls found ways to entertain themselves.


 

Alex came out dressed in his purple jersey this morning.
He told Peter, "I don't feel cool."
Funny.

We finished the day by hosting our great Sunday school class to game night at our house.  We had about 16 people here. Great fun.

Saturday stuff posted on a Sunday

I've had a dull headache for days.  Friday night it got so bad I couldn't lift my head off the pillow.  Saturday I pretty much lived on Sudafed and it has  helped.

Grace and Katie are here spending the night with Conleigh. We spent some time at the pool today and they played this evening. Then Peter introduced them to Mr. Bean. Our kids love that silly British show. I hope GandK liked it too.

This week I made ribs in the crock pot. I've never made ribs before, but my mother-in-law was here and she, Peter and Conleigh are all rib fans.  Plus, Kelly's Korner had hosted Crockapalooza and I found a super simple recipe.  I basically mixed bbq sauce and apricot preserve, poured the mix over the ribs and let the crock pot do its magic.  Easy and very tasty.   I have to go to Dallas for an overnight for work on Wednesday evening. I'm going to attempt to leave a crock pot dinner cooking for Peter to serve that evening.
Speaking of work, I officially turned down the full-time job offer.  Part-time has been great, and I think it is the best scenario for our family right now. The kids are still so little and I like to be able to pick them up and be available to them as much as I am.
Our neighborhood 'big trash' day is this week. All sorts of stuff is at the curb throughout the 'hood.  We dragged some old patio furniture out that we've had stashed on the side of the house for no kidding at least two years. It was taken within an hour. We also put out an old Roomba, and and old computer screen. Gone!  A couple of months ago I got the bright idea to be the taker of a free desk from craigslist.  The guy said, "oh, you could use it for a planting table." I thought, yes, that's a good idea.  The desk never made it into the house. Today it hit the curb and some other sucker loaded it up and took it away.  All our 'big' trash is now someone elses treasure. It feels good to purge that stuff. Peter and I spent a little bit of time in our garage today and purged lots of paper that is hanging around in there.
The end.

Triathlete

 Alex completed his second triathlon last weekend.  He was excited to do it and we could not believe how fast he did it this year.  Just goes to show that the right size bike can make the cycling part go super fast and the running that follows the biking much easier since you didn't use all your energy to pedal a little 12 inch bike.

Cheering section waiting for the start

Ready to swim!

This organization has tons of lifeguards in the pool for the swim portion.

First transition. Swim to Bike. "This helmet feels funny. Oops. I have it on backwards."

Check out the difference a year makes in size of boys and size of bike. Click Here.

Alex's buddy Marko participated again this year too, and he got first place of all the five & six year olds.  Alex placed 8th among the 50+ five & six year old boys. We learned a few tips from Marko's success.  Don't waste time putting a t-shirt on after the swim, and have sneakers that don't need to be tied.  Peter & I think Alex added 2-3 minutes to his time just in the transitions.

Campbell was running around with us from swim to bike to run to cheer on her brother.

All done

Proud sisters. Hopefully, next year we can convince them to participate also.

Moving Bears

A third child she is.  Green, Yellow, Red. Where is your bear?

Conleigh in Kindy. She looks so small!
2008

I can remember Conleigh, our first child being in kindergarten (2008) and one time during the whole year she had her bear moved to yellow.  She was so distraught that she had done wrong and had her bear moved. I mean, really upset.

Fast forward to fall 2011.  Here comes Campbell.  Fifth day of Kindergarten.  "I got my bear moved."  No biggie ~ whateva!  She didn't skip a beat. She could care less. 

Oh, sweet third child of ours. We love you.