Exhaustion...

Only 20 minutes into our return trip home...

A Weekend With Granny!!!

SMILES!

FUN!

A LITTLE CLEANING!

SOME SILLINESS!

EATING!!!

A WHOLE LOT OF EATING!!!

THANKS FOR A FABULOUS WEEKEND!!! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS!!!

Dairy Fest...

The definition of stupid: paying $1 per person to wait in line with 9,000 people for over an hour for a horrible float and a dry hamburger! Welcome to the Clovis Annual Dairy Fest!!! We ended the evening at Burger King!!!

Fun at the Farm!!!

Who wouldn't want to move to Clovis and live on a farm!?!? We always have a blast with the Scotts and today was no exception!!! After a total blast swimming, the kids had a picnic, while we had a quiet dinner inside!!! I never knew that the wild blue yonder could be such a fabulous, affordable babysitter!!!

Our First Road Trip Without Daddy...

At 11:42, we had packed-up and headed out...destination...Granny's!!! Since we needed to return the car that FBC Texico had sooo graciously allowed us to borrow...we were without Keith, who left OKC after work and drove most of the night. It is exactly 371 miles from our home to Granny's and can take any where from 5 hours to 10...depending on the driver and passengers.

Even though I spent a great deal of time filling the car with books, movies, treats and fun surprises...we had not even made it to Yukon, before Gid asked, "Are we there yet?" and they continued to take turns asking every 5 minutes for the next 7 hours.

It is rather hard to be chauffeur and referee. Emme's goal was to see who she could irritate more...me or Gid. At one point, I told Gid to just ignore her. Later I heard him say, "I am practicing being a statue and ignoring Emme!"

We talked about many things...school, friends, Birthdays...Gideon asked, "Am I growing up? Do I look 8 yet?" My heart skipped a beat...how is my little boy fast approaching 8!!!

I began dozing off around the 228th mile. I was having a hard time keeping my eyes opened...until I heard Gid yell, "I've got to pee!!! It is an emergency!!!" He proceeded to need to go pee 4 more times...all the stops along with the 80's radio station I found, kept me awake!

The pinnacle of my irritation occurred at 278.6 miles into our trip, when we stopped for the 5th time to pee...this time in an actual bathroom. I had a bad case of the munchies and for the last 100 miles had been contemplating what I wanted to eat next...by the 178.6th mile I had already eaten all of the snacks I had packed, including 4 peaches, a sandwich, 2 granola bars, 2 rice krispie treats and who knows what else I found rummaging through my purse, the kid's backpacks and the floor of the car...I had decided on M&Ms, but when I saw a dark chocolate snickers bar, my mind was immediately changed. One minute back on the road with my snickers and 25th Diet Dr. Pepper, I was already contemplating what would be worse...jail time or listening to my kids for 100 more miles as I shoved the entire snicker bar into my mouth!!! I was sooo bummed to realize I had devoured my snack and still had 97 miles still to go!!!

I was sooo glad to see Granny's face!!!

I Love This!!!

The First and The Last
by Priscilla Shirer
January 2005

He is the First and Last,
The Beginning and the End!
He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all!
He is the Architect of the universe and the Manager of all times.
He always was,
He always is, and He always will be...
unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone!

He was bruised and brought healing!
He was pierced and eased pain!
He was persecuted and brought freedom!
He was dead and brought life!
He is risen and brings power!
He reigns and brings Peace!

The world can't understand him,
The armies can't defeat Him,
The schools can't explain Him,
and The leaders can't ignore Him.

Herod couldn't kill Him,
The Pharisees couldn't confuse Him,
and The people couldn't hold Him!

Nero couldn't crush Him,
Hitler couldn't silence Him,
The New Age can't replace Him,
and "Oprah" can't explain Him away!
He is light, love, longevity, and Lord.
He is goodness, Kindness, Gentleness, and God.
He is Holy, Righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.

His ways are right,
His word is eternal,
His will is unchanging,
and His mind is on me.

He is my Savior,
He is my guide, and
He is my peace!
He is my Joy,
He is my comfort,
He is my Lord, and
He rules my life!

I serve Him because
His bond is love,
His burden is light,
and His goal for me is abundant life.

I follow Him because
He is the wisdom of the wise,
the power of the powerful,
the ancient of days,
the ruler of rulers,
the leader of leaders,
the overseer of the overcomers,
and is to come.
And if that seems impressive to you,
try this for size.

His goal is a relationship with ME!
He will never leave me,
never forsake me,
never mislead me,
never forget me,
never overlook me,
and never cancel my appointment in His
appointment book!

When I fall, He lifts me up!
When I! fail, He forgives!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He is the way!

When I am afraid, He is my courage!
When I stumble, He steadies me!
When I am hurt, He heals me!
When I am broken, He mends me!
When I am blind, He leads me!
When I am hungry, He feeds me!

When I face trials, He is with me!
When I face persecution, He shields me!
When I face problems, He comforts me!
When I face loss, He provides for me!
When I face Death, He carries me Home!
He is everything for everybody everywhere, every time, and every way.
He is God, He is faithful.
I am His, and He is mine!
My Father in heaven can whip the father of this world.
So, if you're wondering why I feel so secure, understand this...

He said it and that settles it.
God is in control,
I am on His side,
and that means all is well with my soul.
Everyday is a blessing for GOD Is!

Peer Pressure Has It's Benefits...

Gideon has not been a big fan of "swimming"...he likes going to the pool, playing in the water, but has not really wanted to swim, go under water or jump into the water. Today, we spent hours at my brother's pool. We were all in the water and having a blast. Gid was having fun just playing. Parks, his cousin, was having even more fun swimming. By the end of the day, Gid was trying to swim!!! Face in the water, feet and hands moving and LOVING IT!!! He was so proud, but mommy was even prouder!!! Way to go Gid!!!

Father's Day Fun!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Dad,
I am so thankful that I could celebrate Father's Day with you today!!! You are the best and I love you!!!
Kristie

To Obey Or Not...That Is The Question!?!?

I am not ready to have theological discussions with my soon-to-be First Grader. Yesterday, I bought Gid a Root Beer, but told him he needed to wait to drink it (a total of 2 minutes!).

He asked, "WHY?" with a whiny twang.

I said that Daddy only wants us to drink water in the van so we could keep the van clean and nice.

Well, Daddy is not here!

No, but we still need to honor his requests and God is here.

Well, it is not like God can talk!

I did try to go on to explain that God does talk to us, through the Bible.

And Gideon said, "He can't talk, so he wrote a book!"

Fun With Friends

ME, You Got Talent!

ME loves to dance, tumble and show off her moves...I don't know that I would necessarily call it talent, but lots and lots of enthusiasm and energy!!!

The Splash Park

The temperatures are rising and so is the energy level of the kiddos. We had planned to go swimming, but I totally forgot that our pool was closed on Mondays...sooo, we detoured the fun and headed to the neighborhood Splash Park! The kids had a blast and I enjoyed a great time of fellowship!

Movie Reviews

I love movies and so does my family. I have, for the most part, given up TV for the summer, but love REDBOX...only $1 a night!!! I am critical and opinionated, but hardly qualify as a professional movie critic. However, that has never stopped me from stating my opinions!!!

Bride Wars was a cute, fun movie, not as good as some of their other flicks, but great anyways!

New In Town was also a great girlie movie.

Our whole family watched Mall Cop and loved it...these reviews are not about our movie or parental choices, just whether or not we liked the movie!!!

Bedtime Stories was another great movie that our whole family loved. Adam Sandler is a great actor and this is a darling movie!

Taken was great...I will never let my kids travel anywhere...EVER...without me AND a body guard, but a very entertaining movie.

Slumdog Millionaire was a great movie. Even though I have never been to India, I have heard it was very realistic and was fascinating to me.

This was a good movie, but absolutely heart breaking. I don't think I could or would want to watch it again.

This was so boring, I could not wait for it to end and had to laugh with Keith that we even watched it.

Also, Doubt was very disappointing...not as boring as Revolutionary Road, but almost!