Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving, that was a little chaotic thanks to these little turkeys below, but even with at least one child crying throughout our entire meal, I was so thankful for all the healthy little ones in our family.

That's Eliza, Howell, Davis, Cooper, and Betsy Hart. They actually cooperated really well for these pictures!



Eliza had a Thanksgiving program at school, and we made these little turkey cookies to take. She was sooo excited about making them after seeing them in Family Fun, and as I am somewhat "baking challenged", I thought they looked right up my alley. They were very easy and turned out really cute!

A gaggle of turkeys (is that the right plural??)

Yesterday I headed out at 5:30 am for Black Friday shopping with my sister Heather, sis-in-law Ann, and friend Suzanne. We had a blast! I usually go by myself, but it was sooo much more fun having a group to chat with while we waited in line and found all the deals. I got all but a couple of things I was looking for, and pretty much knocked out all my Christmas shopping in a few hours. I'm kind of a dork about it, scouring through sales ads and making a list of each store to go to and what I'll be getting at each place (next year I'm hoping to make a spreadsheet, instead of wagging around a spiral notebook like I usually do), but it's so much faster than browsing, and I love to have a plan. We're hoping to make it a Black Friday tradition to all go together!

It's been lots of fun being with all the fam this weekend, and we're not done yet! It's been a little wild, but it just makes me all the more thankful for all the blessings God has given us.

Classic

Everyone must have a screaming Santa picture, right? I think it's a rite of passage for childhood.

And brave Eliza; you can see the fear in her eyes, but at least she graduated to actually sitting on his lap this year. Last year she would only stand next to him, while keeping a safe distance. This is great improvement over the 2 years before when she would go into hysterical screaming fits and shaking at just the sight of good ole' St. Nick. I was proud of both of them!

CUTE site for Christmas gifts!

**UPDATE** The website I mentioned below has removed the post from their blog that said you could get a free ornament if you mentioned their site and put a link to it from your blog. I guess more people than they expected linked to it. I still haven't heard from them.

How cute is this ornament?

I heard someone who was from the north one time say "Why do southerners want to put their names on EVERYTHING??" after seeing a little girl in a monogrammed dress. And as a true southerner, I also love putting names on everything. So I came across this site, Frill Seekers Gifts, and they have about everything you could ever think of, and more, for personalized gifts (including this ornament in all kind of color combos) that are CUTE CUTE CUTE! Visit their blog, and they are offering a free monogrammed ornament like this one. While you're there, visit their site for a ALL kinds of Christmas gifts for anyone on your list!

Fun with leaves!

Wow, the leaves are beautiful around here right now. Saturday night we got the fire pit out in the front yard and had some neighbors over for hot dogs and smores. It was a little chilly, but the kids (6 of them) had a blast raking up the leaves and jumping in them, burying each other in them, and just throwing them around. It was so much fun to watch. After having carried around a marshmallow and nibbling on it for a while, poor Davis had leaves stuck all over his hands and face. But he had a blast anyway.

Yesterday we decided it would be fun to do something crafty with the beautiful leaves around our neighborhood, so we took off on a walk and collected. I'd found this idea on the Family Fun website, and here are a couple of Eliza's creations. I drew the butterfly, and she colored it in and did all the glueing. It was actually a great lesson in glueing---instead of putting one big blob in the middle, we talked about making "snakes" of glue using the veins of the leaves as guides. She requested an idea to make a turkey, so I found this idea on another craft site, but I can't remember which one. We thought they turned out pretty cute!

My first and last political post

I've said before that I'm just really not interested in politics. I honestly confess that I just find it all kind of boring. I live in a red state, and a county that was 80% red in the 2004 election (I can't find any recent stats), so I do lean to the right. But I really don't know much about taxes, healthcare reform, foreign policy, etc. And I usually wouldn't waste blog space writing about something I know nothing about. But I just have to get this off my chest.

The man I voted for didn't win. But I'm supporting our new president, because that is what I believe, as Christians, we are called to do.

Thanks to Susan for posting this scripture on her blog, passed on by her father-in-law, who is a pastor:

"Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God's emissaries for keeping order. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government." 1 Peter 2:15, 17 (The Message translation)

I'm thankful that we have a pastor who does not talk about politics; he's only mentioned the election once, a few weeks before the vote. He is currently preaching through Nehemiah and was talking about how Nehemiah was serving an ungodly king at the time, but that he was still a faithful servant who respected the king. Mark made the statement "God is not bound by who is in the White House", a powerful truth that I feel like many of us have lost sight of. He also quoted this scripture to back that up:

"The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases." Proverbs 21:1 (NLT)

It seems to be popular right now among republican Christians to bash our new president. Fueled by many FALSE accusations floating around about Obama through email chains and youtube videos, I hear many fellow believers saying he is not a citizen, he is a muslim, unpatriotic, a terrorist, even the anti-christ, which in my opinion, is ludicrous. Most of the time, people who believe these things have never even done the research to see if such things are true; they just believe whatever was sent to them in some chain mail (http://www.snopes.com/ is a good place to check the actual facts).There is even the opinion that he must be an evil terrorist based solely on his name. His father was from Africa; that does not make him a terrorist. Or non-american. I'm confounded that educated people would actually espouse this opinion. And he is not muslim. Here is a direct quote from Obama from an interview I watched on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts when she was questioning him about various rumors going around about him:

ROBERTS: Okay. Are you a Muslim?
BARACK OBAMA: No. Made it up. They made it up. This is -- and this started back in Iowa. I am a Christian and have never been a Muslim. It's an example of the power of the internet these days, people tend to just believe what they receive. So that one would be false. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and that has been the faith that we are raising our daughters to believe, as well.

I seriously doubt the anti-christ would be proclaiming that. (Here is a transcript of that entire interview if you would like to read more.) Regardless of his political beliefs, he is a brother in Christ, and that fact alone demands that we give him our respect.

I've heard fellow republicans say they cried the night of the election as they watched the coverage. I was moved to tears, as well. But not because my man lost. But because I found it very moving to see the rainbow of skin colors represented in the crowd at Grant Park. All races united, supporting a common cause. It was a historic election, and I can't help but think about Martin Luther King, and all those who fought for civil rights; hopefully they know it was worth the fight. I can't help but think that Obama has become a face of hope for African-american children, who can see that there really is no limit as to what they can accomplish.

Instead of bashing Obama, let's pray for him. He has a big job to do, and needs God's direction. For the first time that I can recall in the past 10 years, we have a president that is incredibly popular and respected around the world. People all over wanted to hear what he has to say. He has HUGE sphere of influence. I believe that with our fervant prayers, God can use him to do great things.

So there, I'm done. That's all I have to say about that.

Fall Fun!

I love fall, it's my favorite season with the leaves changing, pumpkins, scarecrows, and all that fun stuff! Here's a little montage of some fun stuff we've done this fall, including a trip to the pumpkin patch with our sunday school class, and PumpkinFest downtown with cousin Cooper, which I hear Keith and Nicole were there, but of course I missed them! I also included some pics of feeding the ducks and Disney on Ice.

Haircuts and Hula Hoops

**UPDATE** Stephen's mom emailed me this below after she read the post about Eliza's hula-hooping skills. This cracks me up!

"Melissa, I love the haircut on Davis and Eliza's glasses. She gets
her hoola hooping skills from Gram; I can still do it. We had a Sunday
School luau back in the summer and we tried our skills at that. It was
really hilarious, but I could still do it."

Well, now we know where she gets it!

Davis got his first big-boy haircut on Thursday, and he did great. Many thanks to Hanna, my friend and cosmetologist extraordinaire. She gave him a sucker and that seemed to do the trick.
Eliza and I got cuts as well; it couldn't be a sweeter set-up, as Hanna lives down the street and cuts out of her home. The kids can play while I get my cut (which looks fabulous, I must say!).
Hanna also took this pic as I, of course, forgot my camera. What a handsome little man.


And I just had to share this of Eliza below. It just cracks me up, as you can tell by my cackling in the background. I'm not sure where she got this skill, as it is most definitely NOT inherited. I must confess, I'm a little envious, as I've wanted to be a hula-hooper my entire life, yet mastering this skill has always been just out of my grasp. Bless her heart, she practices every day, and has really gotten pretty good. It's a great lesson in perseverance. And according to my sister Heather, it's the newest fitness craze. Maybe Eliza will give me some lessons...

Blog tag!!

Yippee!! I've been tagged! I've seen these on other blogs---you tag people and ask them to tell certain things about themselves. In this case, 6 quirky things about myself. Thanks to my friend Susan for tagging me. And let me just say that Susan is really on the ball. She has some "mad skilz" when it come to time management--she works part-time as an attorney, is mom to two small (and precious!) children, sews beautiful clothes for her kids, blogs regularly, and reads lots of books. Susan, please share your secrets!! So here are my six tidbits:

• I've had several jobs over the past 17 years, including "Float Girl" at the Wave Pool (the quinessential job for a teenage girl--I worked there for 4 summers in high school), wrapping gifts at Castner Knott, summer day camp for kids, college library,a dry cleaners, waiting tables at Mozzarella's and Logans, Bath and Body Works, Old Navy, SteinMart, Sylvan Learning Center, and 5 years of teaching high school math, which included 2 years as a cheerleading sponsor. That was the worst job of them all.

• I'm an extreme bargain shopper. It absolutely kills me to think I've over-paid for something. If I make a big purchase, you can rest assured I've done hours of research to make sure we are getting the best deal for the quality. As a result of this, I am an Ebay fanatic and love to shop on "Black Friday". On Thanksgiving day, I will sit down with all the sales ads, strategizing my plan of action for the next day. Getting a bargain is my version of a runner's high.

• I love vintage things from the 60's, especially illustrations in children's books and sewing patterns. I have a new obsession over vintage Christmas ornaments, like these.

• I am politically apathetic. I will vote, but I despise the debates and am so thankful our state is not being bombarded by ads. Go ahead and judge me, I'm OK with that. I'm content in my own little world.

• I have flat feet.

• I love to label and organize. "Really??" you may ask if you've been to my house. I really do like to organize; I'm just not so great at maintaining it. I have that problem with housework, as well.

Ok, I was kind of hard up for those last two, but there it is, nonetheless. Now, I tag Tiffany S., Staci W., Brandy N., Jennifer M., Heather W. and Ann H. TAG--you're it!

Eliza's new look

Well, I guess when you have two vision-impaired parents, it's inevitable that you will need glasses as some point. We just didn't think Eliza would be getting them this early. But at her 4 year check-up, the vision screening they did showed her eyes were not quite up to snuff, so we took her to the eye doctor and turns out she has astigmatisms in both eyes, just like Stephen and me. So we picked out these two pairs and she is THRILLED. And yes, they are pink. And purple. What else for a 4-year-old little girl? You'd think it was Christmas or something, she was so excited about getting them. I'm very thankful for that. As strong-willed as she is, that was battle I did NOT want to fight.

Here is Eliza and her sweet friend Eden from school. They love matching!

And of course Davis wanted to be in on the action. He borrowed these from Mr. Potato Head.

More excitement ensued for Eliza when I made these below last week. My little mini-me loves her some charts and graphs. And structure in her day. I made these in Excel and got all but a couple of the clip art pieces from within Microsoft office. I laminated them and put them on the fridge, so she makes a smiley face with a dry-erase marker each time she completes a job. When that chart is full, she gets to go pick out a small goodie. The schedule is also great for both of us. I guess it's from my days teaching high school when my day was broken into nice 1-hour increments, but I like having that idea for us at home, too. Otherwise, I am guilty of leaving the TV on too long, or just being lazy for most of the day. And this way, Eliza can watch the clock to see when snack time is, instead of asking for food ALL day long; she usually just wants snacks out of boredom anyway. Of course we don't stick to this religiously every day, but it does give us some direction. And she consults the schedule at least 5 times a day to see what's next; even though she can't read most of the words yet, the pictures give her clues. Does anyone else use anything like this? I'd love to hear any tips!

A couple of recommendations

I'm home today with a sick Eliza; she was supposed to go to school today, and I had breakfast planned with a friend, and a relaxing, care-free day of errands. Instead, we have been curled up on the couch watching Sesame Street and other various cartoons. But that's OK. That's my job as a mom, and I love being able to comfort her when she feels bad. She came running in our room last night at 2am trying to talk with her mouth closed; thank goodness Stephen was a little more coherent than me, and he rushed her in to the bathroom where she puked on the floor. Evidently she had been HOLDING it in her mouth. Bless her heart. But we were actually grateful as that was a much easier clean-up than carpet.

So anyway, she is settled for now so I wanted to take the time to do a post.

Ok, for some reason I get a little annoyed when reading someone's blog and they say things like "you need to go out today and buy this book; it will change your life" or "you are not a productive citizen until you read this book." It's not necessarily the recommendation that bothers me, because if there is any platform in which to express your opinion, by golly, it should be your own blog. I think it is more the tone, as in "I'm obviously more educated and well-read and more informed than you are so it is my duty to enlighten you." So as I make these recommendations below, I promise it is not that place that I am coming from. In fact, I am probably the least-informed person I know. I only watch the weather portion of the local news so I'll know how to dress the next day. I prefer reading blogs to newspapers. And the presidential debates literally put me to sleep. If it's not a Comcast headline, then I don't know about it. So, please don't feel like I'm trying to "educate" anyone by recommending any books or movies. Rather, I'd rather just tell you about something that has changed me, and just might lighten your load.

• This past weekend, we saw the movie"Fireproof" , which was fantastic. Sure, the acting is a little weak at parts, but the message about marriage is wonderful. And since I'm not great at critiquing movies, Here is a good article about the movie, actually from the New York Times. And sweet Stephen surprised me with 2 copies of the accompanying book "The Love Dare", which provides 40 days worth of devotions and ideas of ways to serve your spouse. Your marriage doesn't need to be "in trouble" to benefit from the wisdom and message about marriage that God speaks through this movie and book.

• I just finished the book The Shack, and to put it simply, it changed my life. If you've ever felt that God couldn't possibly love you, that you were too small or insignificant for Him to notice you, or just ever been confused by the concept of the Trinity, then please read this book. It has been controversial, even within Christian circles, as seen in this article , but I am in the camp that found it profound. It changed my entire perception of how God views us; I've always known that God loves us, but this book shows us just how deep and lavish that love is.

And one more thing that I found especially poignant after just finishing the Shack. Aunt Amy forwarded this post about Eliza and the rainbow to a couple of friends of hers, and this is what one sweet friend had to say. I've so appreciated all the precious comments on that picture!

" And second favorite would be the rainbow shot. Before you even told us the story about your neice and not ever seeing a rainbow before, I could tell in her face how much that moment meant to both of them. I love photographs that tell more than just one story. I could see soooooo many things in that picture. First, the little girl's expression. Pure Joy in her face. Her mommy is holding her, protecting her, she's at the beach, the wind is blowing and to top it off, she gets to see a beautiful rainbow. Second, Mommy is loving her baby girl, holding her, protecting her and just absorbing the moment with her child. Third, God working in the background. Loving them, showing off some of his best work, looking over them and protecting them. Through the clouds something beautiful appeared. Isn't that how God works. When something ugly or nasty appears in our life, God shines through somehow. I love it when pictures make me say, "wow" out loud. That one did. Keep up the good work."