You're Gonna Be Bored

People should know better than to "tag" me for this stuff... it never seems to be that exciting when I write them! But here ya go, Robyn... :)
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What was happening in my life 10 years ago:
1. Soph year at ACU
2. traveling and singing with Reflections
3. loving Kojies
4. took 19 hours and HATED my life for it... thinking I would flunk out of school
5. looking forward to another summer at CDR
6. lots of time on the phone with Rachel during the Clint-Saga. :)
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5 things on my to-do list
1. Pick up David's dry cleaning tomorrow
2. grocery store
3. Bible study before bed
4. wash Reagan's Snugglie before leaving town... it's filthy
5. set DVR for David' press conference! :)
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5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Oh, the blessed-ness of ice cream
2. grape tomatoes
3. crackers and cheese
4. chips and hot sauce
5. any fruit but strawberries
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6 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. build the whole Seth Rogers Center for Camp, and probably a new pool and anything else needed, but nothing too fancy b/c the kids still need to rough it!
2. college savings for our kids and nieces and nephews
3. a house with a play room to get toys out of my living room as much as possible!
4. big-time support the Peifers (our missionary friends in Africa)
5. adopt a bunch of kids
6. hire someone to clean my house
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5 bad habits:
1. chewing my cuticles
2. procrastinating
3. finishing other people's sentences for them... it even annoys ME that I do this!
4. not savoring every minute with my sweet angel
5. relying on email and not calling friends and family enough
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4 places I’ve lived:
1. Watagua, TX
2. Bedford, TX
3. Abilene, TX
4. Friendswood, TX (that really is it!)
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8 jobs I’ve had:
1. Day care provider
2. CDR counselor and Swing Queen
3. Private "home school" math/science teacher for 8th grader with autism.
4. SAT prep course teacher
5. Tutor (David would make a fart noise while reading that.)
6. Junior high math teacher
7. High school math teacher
8. Mommy
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Done. And I am not tagging anyone unless you feel the need! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Most of us blogger-types spend lots of time at the computer. I have mine up all day, and stop by off and on throughout the day to read what my friends are up to. But that time adds up. I also make wonderful use of my DVR (no more Oprah though, Susan!) to make sure I take the time to catch up on my "shows." Thanks to some encouragement by friends (and cousin-friends!) and some serious YANKING on my heart from the Lord, I am now taking more time to be in the Scriptures than I have in quite some time. And let me tell you, it makes such a difference. I don't think I can go a day without praying, but I have gone a month at a time before (maybe two!) without taking out time for studying my Bible. How wrong is that?!?! So, I'm back to a Beth Moore book, Jesus The One and Only, and going through the book of Luke. Not only does it get me back to the story of my First Love, but it has Acts as a sequel that I can go right into after this! Hopefully on Thursdays I'll remember to share with my friends some of what God has put on my heart from the Word during the week. If not, bug me about it!
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I was reading the story of "Martha Martha" in Luke 10 early this past week. It is a story of priorities, and man, did that hit home. I make so many things a priority that don't need to be! Distractions of house and home and parenting and marriage can all be good things, but He wants me to CHOOSE as "Mary has chosen (Luke 10:42)" to put the right thing first. Beth puts things in a simple language that I can understand. She says about this passage... "Many things are important, but only one thing is necessary.... Ultimately our relationship with Christ is the one thing we cannot do without." Yes, my house has been a wreck all week. I haven't felt that great and Reagan has watched a couple extra Dora episodes while we cuddled resting on the couch. I'm behind on laundry. Blah blah blah. But I can honestly say that I feel ok about it... God touched me through His Word everyday this week. And that is THE priority I hope to maintain! (but yes, I am getting caught up on laundry today too.)
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So, those of you in this journey with me, Beth has some encouragement from her book that I will pass on. "Here's a little fresh motivation: Deut 29:29 says that the truths God reveals to you are yours forever! You are allowing God to inscribe His words on the tablets of your heart. Scripture is literally becoming part of you. That's what Christ meant when He instructed us to let His word "abide" in us (John 15:7). The same passage also tells us that His abiding Word transforms our prayer lives. Beloved, the intense study of God's Word has mammoth effects. You may be the last to notice them in yourself, but I assure you, Scripture never returns void! God has a specific purpose for this study in your life. Let Him have His awesome way."
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So, like some of those other blog posts say, I am "tagging" all who read this to post a Thursday Thought of your own from what God has revealed to you this week! Or a Friday Feeling, or a Saturday Scripture, whatever.... :) May God bless the reading and sharing of His Word!

Modern Marvel of Engineering, Part 1

Evidently Cousin Marcia and I had the same idea last weekend... new swing sets for the kids! Reagan got a new swing set as an early birthday present so she could enjoy it before the July heat/humidity makes Mommy miserable. And she found out first hand how handy it is to have a handy Daddy! David got to put that mechanical engineering degree to good use, with me as his assistant. Man, I bet he was wishing some of his other friends had been free to help! This thing is a BEAST! So, it isn't all the way finished... I'll have Part 2 up with the finished product.

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Here on our back porch table is the assortment of hardware... screws, bolts, etc. There are thousands. I know that none of these pics are going to do it justice. The manual was actually a BOOK!

This was my major contribution... opening up the 3 boxes and organizing the wood pieces. Had to measure each one, categorize it, and label with a postit. We did it together, but it took almost 2 hours alone!
Here's the box with all the plastic pieces.
The beginning!
R was already so excited... she thought it was an obstacle course. She enjoyed just stepping over the beams.

Here, you can tell that she was REALLY helping Daddy. Too bad this piece was to go near the roof!

Sitting on the piece she helped with.
I think she was pretending the slats were a raft because she kept laying on them and telling me she was swimming.

You can tell this was an all day thing since R now has on a jacket!
Day 2: big helper.

Daddy hard at work with the instructions. I was so proud how he actually followed them! :)
R having a picnic with some snacks under the fort. Sharing with Gloria of course.
This set is so cool because it has a playhouse! It is just so cute, and I would have LOVED this when I was a kid! Unfortunately for David, it was like building a log cabin log by log. He had to put in each slat with 4 screws! It took forever.

R standing on the roof.

She had so much fun outside for 2 days straight. Made huge messes with Gloria's water bowl creating mud that she obviously sat in. In 2 days she went through 5 pairs of pants I think! Fun times!

Before she was allowed inside, she enjoyed the shade underneath a lot.
I couldn't resist this pic of David drilling into the floor of the house! :)
The house is so cute... has a mailbox, chimney, even a doorbell. Here, R found the doorbell before it got attached!

The bell is blurry because she was having a BALL with it!
She ate lunch outside, then fed her baby too.
This was the first time she got to play inside the house. I think I was even more excited than she was though!

A little peekaboo...

Somehow I never caught a smile... but she does love it, I promise!
She was FREAKING OUT over the ladder. It is quite the big kid ladder, and we both thought we would have to help her up all the time. WRONG. This little monkey has no trouble at all with it! I don't even stand back there anymore... she so doesn't need me.
Lovin' the slide!!!

The swing set will be out to the left of the fort section. But for now, she doesn't care!
She had to have help with this maneuver.
Not this one though. She went up the wrong way all by herself!
Then the baby got a fast ride!

I'll put up swinging pics next! But for now, here is a glimpse of her in action... before we were brave enough to let her climb the ladder by herself. She runs like this all the time, but even worse when she is excited. SO CUTE!

My Little Jokester

Two posts in two days! Wahoo!

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I am not a scrapbooker, so this blog is about as good as it gets for me. When it comes to "writing things down" in the life of my child, this is where it goes. So, she just had one of those "have to write that down moments", and I thought I would share.

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At naptime and bedtime we have a routine where we talk about our day before we pray... "did you have fun painting with Mommy?", "was your bathtime fun with Daddy?", etc. Well, she has gotten where she will remember things from the day and asks to talk about them. Just now as I was rocking with her before nap, she stuck her tongue out over and over again, reminding me that we watched a lizard outside on a leaf this morning. I asked her what color that lizard was... and she got a little twinkle in her eye and said "Mink (pink)" with a smirk, then started cracking herself up! I laughed, tickled her, and said, "noooooo, it wasn't pink!" She went on with yellow, blue, red, pink again, just laughing and laughing! Then she sighed, said "green," then asked to go night night.

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This is the account of Reagan telling her first joke. To this proud Mommy, it was a priceless moment. :)

A Little Light Reading

This went on for quite some time, so I cut it down some. And the only ones who will be disappointed in that fact are probably the grandparents! But, I just wanted you all to hear Reagan's fabulous reading skills. :) It's funny, most of the time when she is talking, she is past that whole gibberish thing and I can understand what she is talking about. Unless she is reading. Then she just makes stuff up as she goes, and uses an entirely different voice than normal. It cracks me up. If you listen closely, and you are really good at speaking Reagan-ese, you can hear her mention some colors in her book. And some animal sounds. Other than that, she just has lots to tell you about Noah. But she reads mostly in a rhythm, as if all her books are rhyming books, which this particular book is not. And "Thee-Aye" at the end is, well, The End. :) That much I know.

Two Days, One Outfit

Not much to report around here... just a lot of normal days. But the weather has been super, so we have played outside a lot which is great! Getting as much time in before the mosquitos take over! Just got R a new swing set which I am SO very excited about... we'll see when her poor Daddy has the time to put it together. Pics coming hopefully sometime in the semi-near future.

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Anyways, here are just a few pics from the last few days. There are some days where I just find her to be scrumptious and I want to take a big ole bite out of her! Julie told me one time that when you have your own, you realize why hampsters eat their babies! True! This was one of those days. Not sure why, she was just having a delicious day. Maybe it was the cutie capri leggings. Anyways, here is one of her favorite passtimes... writing in the dirt.

Then asking if she could eat it.
Silly!
Could you resist this face?!?!
Taking time to stop and smell the flowers/weeds.
They are pretty clover weeds, so I leave them alone.
Reagan chooses to poke them.
I love how she sticks that hiney out!
Looks like she is eating one... I sure hope not.
So this is practically the same outfit... same shirt and pants, different colors. We stick with what works around here! Some of these are blurry (my stinking camera!), but I had to put them all. She wanted a tea party, so she is pulling out all the tea set from the basket, looking specifically for the "tablecloth" which is what Mommy always puts down first. Except I wasn't helping...
...so she proceeds to try and spread the table cloth out by herself. I don't think I realized how difficult this could be when your arms are small and you've never done it before.
It seemed smart to me that she kept looking for the corners, but never could hold them right.


Concentrating with the tongue out of course...

She got a little further than this, then asked for "help please." I was cracking up and snapping pics as fast as I could! We had a great tea party eventually...
And this is just a sweet pic from Saturday. No better way to wake up from a nap than snugglin' with Daddy, her Snugglie, CareBear, and Final Four "bee-ball." She is quite our sports fan!