Trying to understand

Last weekend while we were at the Great Wolf Lodge with the kids, I got a text saying a friend of mine had committed suicide that day. It was such a shock because this person always appeared happy, adored his three young boys (ages 9,11 and 13), and seemed to have a strong faith in God. There had been some events in his life over the past year (divorce, change of jobs, etc.) that could lead to depression, but I have never understood someone taking their own life. The grief and sadness it leaves behind is beyond words. His two younger boys go to Sierra and Pierce's school. I just can't stop thinking about how this has changed their lives.

The funeral is Saturday and should be very large. He was very active in the community and worked in the political arena as well. Please keep his family in your prayers. They will need them for a long time to come.

KB

Redeeming Love

I just finished a great book called Redeeming Love. It is fiction, which I normally don't read, but it was recommended to me by a friend so I thought I would give it a try. I loved it! If you are looking for a good book, I recommend this one. A little mushy at times, but good writing and great message.

In "Note from the Author", she writes...

Writing Redeeming Love was a form of worship for me. Through it, I was able to thank God for loving me even when I was defiant, rebellious, contemptuous of what I thought being a Christian meant, and afraid to give my heart away. I had wanted to be my own god and have control of my life the way Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Now I know to be loved by Christ is the ultimate joy and fulfillment. Everything in Redeeming Love was a gift from the Lord: plot, characters, theme. None of it is mine to claim.
~Francine Rivers~

Great book!

Back from Great Wolf Lodge and fading quickly

What a wild, and fun, thirty-six hours we had!! We left around 8:30am on Saturday morning, drove to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX. We went hard and fast until we got home Sunday evening around 11:15pm.

There were five couples total in the group and we had a blast! We rode water slides, got in the wave pool, hot tub and lazy river. Then when we weren't "wet", we were playing Treasure Quest with Sierra or in the Arcade with Pierce. The kid's ranged from 6 months to 9 years old.

WOW...what a fast and furious weekend we had. We wouldn't have it any other way! Below are a few pictures from the trip. We didn't have our camera with us inside the water park, so these are a few random shots (without Brett, of course) from dinner and inside the hotel.

Headed to the Lodge!

Well, we're off again in a few days to Great Wolf Lodge. The kids are SO excited! Sierra has had her bags packed since last weekend. Girl after my own heart :)

We will post pictures once we return. There are approximately 4-5 families going. Should be fun times!

By request...

Okay, if you know me you know I HATE pictures of myself. My dear, sweet husband :) is always hiding around the corner trying to take pictures because he knows I don't like them.

It's funny, I think my hair looks a lot different, but to others, it probably looks exactly the same. I had colored my hair back dark for the fall/winter, so when I went in yesterday I asked her to put a "few" highlights in it so I could gradually get a little blonder for summer. I left and felt like I was REALLY blonde. Hard to tell in this picture, but I am definitely blonder!

For the guys...I know you could care less, it's a woman thing. :) Just play along and act like you care.

Some things in life ARE FREE!!!

Today started out like any other day. Get up early, shower, dress, and head to appointments or run errands. I had a 10am hair appointment and as usual, was in a dilemma...what to do? I never like my hair, so I'm always trying to figure out what to do with it. I leave telling Brett I'm going to come back looking different...get to the salon and chicken out. I come home looking exactly the same. Brett is so kind. He always tells me he thinks my hair looks the BEST he's ever seen it. Even when you can't tell. He's great for my ego :) So as I'm driving to my appointment today, wondering to myself "what shall I do" - I noticed something funny about the car. About 7 miles from the house, I pull over into a parking lot to make sure nothing is wrong. Flat tire. I called Brett who immediately took care of the situation. I love that guy!

Two things came from this story...

1) Roadside Assistance showed up, changed the flat, and didn't cost us a penny! Reason number 999 I will always drive a BMW. Love the car...LOVE the service!

2) Now I have even more time to STRESS over my hair. I rescheduled for tomorrow. I'm sure next time you see me you will have forgotten this story and I will look exactly the same as I always do.

Oh...the trivial things in life.

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger

In a world where sports stars or pop stars are icons, we just got through watching 60 minutes with Katie Couric interviewing Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger - Captain of Cactus 1549 flight of US Airlines on January 15th, 2009. As we all know, the end result was the plane landing in the Hudson, with 155 passengers saved and only 2 in critical condition who eventually made a full recovery.

Anyway - Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is a hero to me for saving lives. He also is a hero in the way that he is accepting the praise that is coming his way.... with humbleness and grace. In fact, he said to Katie when asked, "People are calling you a hero, how does that make you feel?" - " Well, I don't want to diminish the fact that they may need a person to look to, but I have lost sleep wondering what I could have done to stop ANY of this from happening". (I - Brett - have paraphrased even though it is in quotes, but good grief, have you EVER heard anything like that???) It is SO REFRESHING to hear humbleness in receiving these days!!!! Granted, it is PROBABLY motivated by his perfectionist personality, but I am married to one of "them", so I have an understanding of those emotions.

Still - thank you "Sully" for being you. For loving life, for wanting to give your all in every situation, regardless of what may come about.

Sully may not have Jesus in his heart - but for whatever it is worth, he shows Him in the way that he does his job, and even more, in the way that he accepts the praise for a job well done.

True American Hero - wish there were more.....

Now I am done, have to go watch the Grammy's. :)



BRB

Is it Spring Yet?

Okay, what is up with this weather? We have spent the past two days working in the yard. Our trees and plants are already trying to bloom. What in the world?? We are getting SO excited about spring and summer. I finally convinced Brett it "IS" fun to work in the yard :) Sorry Brett, I know you will read this. Last summer he actually enjoyed working outside. Each year we try and add something to our backyard. Last year we added a fire pit and more landscaping (mostly trees). One of our trees died, so in the next couple of weeks we are getting a new one to replace it. We now have 12 trees in our backyard alone! That doesn't even take into account all the bambo, grasses, crepe myrtles, and other shrubs. We have two new houses around us, one on the south, and one directly behind us. Our goal is to make our backyard as private as possible with trees and bambo. In our neighborhood, there are a lot of hills and slopes allowing neighbors to see directly into your yard. Not so good. As much as we love our neighbors, we like some privacy. Pretty soon our yard is going to look like a jungle and "hopefully" we will be all enclosed. At least that is the plan! And for our neighbors directly behind us (they haven't moved in yet)...I pity them. Pierce and Sierra have a fort toward the back of the yard that looks directly into their backyard. Grams & Papaw bought Pierce some new "real" binoculars for his birthday this year. He has already tried them out on the neighbors. He will go upstairs in his fort and look into others backyard. One day he shouted to me that one of our neighbors was on her back porch talking on the phone...of course she could hear him too :) Grams & Papaw...just hope you have a separate savings account for bail money. Something tells me Pierce may need it :):)

Here's hoping for warm weather soon...for good!

Friday

Well, our week with the kids has come and gone. Seems like they go so quickly these days. Maybe it's the fact that we never slow down when they are here. Here is a brief look at our week...

Friday: Hudson spent the night, Sierra had a sleep-over, Pierce had a friend over until late
Saturday: Ballet, Brett & Pierce went to watch Will play basketball, Sierra sleep-over, Pierce sleep-over, took four kids to church Saturday evening.
Sunday: Played all day with kids, had Megan, Heath & Hudson over for Super Bowl
Monday: School, went to see movie Inkheart, Will & his dad went with us
Tuesday: School, Team Tuesday LaserTag, then had family night watching American Idol
Wednesday: School, worked book fair at school, friends over after school, family night watching American Idol
Thursday: School, friends over after school, Open House and book fair at school in the evening, took the kids to see movie Paul Blart Mall Cop.
Friday: Took kids to school............... Now what?

As much as we LOVE spending 1:1 time with each other, we love spending time with the kids.

We are planning to take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge again in a couple of weeks. Everyone is SO excited because some of our neighbors are going as well. We'll be sure and post pictures when we get back.

Well, that was our week in a nutshell!

Animal Trainer??

Maybe...

I'm not sure what it is about our animals. You know how must people say their children are SO smart? Well, ours are - but so are our animals! First, Pudge loves to skateboard and go sledding. He and Kiara will run as fast as they can and stop right at the edge of our study (only room in the house with carpet and they are NOT allowed in). Kiara will even sit as close as she can with one paw touching the carpet - until she realizes we see her and she backs away slowly. And now DIVA! She is now taking after her big brother Pudge on the skateboard! We should have our own circus...we're sitting on a gold mine people! Okay, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself...but it could happen.

Buckle up because you never know what we'll bring you next!! We're still thinking about tricks for the frogs. They're kind of worthless...but we'll think of something.