School Supplies

This week Grace and I went shopping for her school supplies.

Pencils


Erasers


Notebooks


Folders


Before long I began to realize how grown up her list has become.
Someone just looking into our shopping cart wouldn't know if these items were for a first grader, or a college freshman.
The last thing on our list was also the most special to Grace.
The backpack.
We had a conversation on the way to Wal-Mart. Grace wanted to know if she could pick out her backpack all by herself this year. With a sigh of release I told her yes; that this year she was old enough to choose whichever backpack she wanted.
I watched her as she carefully looked through the wide variety of choices.

Hannah Montana.

Wizards of Waverly Place.

Pink skulls and crossbones.

At last she made her selection...

Barbie.




I agreed that it was the perfect choice.

It's pink and sparkly.

It's sweet and Innocent.

It's young and beautiful.

It's Grace at this moment in this time.

It is a first grade girl's backpack.

In the midst of a shopping cart full of adult looking school supplies, I could not have been happier to have that pink Barbie backpack lying there; reminding me that I do still have a few years left with Grace as my little girl.
I pray I treasure each day for all it is.
I don't want to dredge the future.
I don't want to mourn for the past.
I want to take today as the gift God has given me
and I want to invest in that.
In these precious lives that are here.
Today.

~The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.~
Isaiah 38:18-20

The New Addition

We are excited to announce the newest member of our household...Zody! Zody is a retired racing greyhound whom we are adopting through Hounds of the Heartland. She was four years old last March 4th. (My mom's birthday as well.) Her racing name was Greta's Zodiac and from what we can tell, she was quite the racer at one time. Now she is quite content to lounge around our house and follow me from room to room. We read in our greyhound book where the breed in general likes to be very close to their humans, but they are never in the way. Which means, either the author has a house much larger then ours or, Zody is the exception :) She is almost always under foot, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It is nice to feel wanted, I think for both us and for her. -As I'm typing this, Ben has his rabbit call out playing with Z. He is pretty determined to get her to fetch as well. He read in a book where one lady had to work with her greyhound for years to get the dog to fetch. Ben considers this his long term mission. Anyways, Zody is a welcome addition and we look forward to many years of happiness with her. We feel very lucky to be her chosen forever home. If anyone else is interested in greyhound rescue here is their website. http://www.greyhoundpetsok.org/


Playing "fetch" with Ben.


With her new toy on her new bed. -We quickly learned the original bed I had gotten her was way too small, as she likes to stretch way out.


Greta's Zodiac

The Great Mystery

Question: How does one get a two year old boy to look directly at the camera for a picture?







Answer: You put them in pink vibrating house shoes, standing inside a drawer that they are not supposed to have.

4th of July '10

Happy 4th of July to all! Today we spent the day at Cindy's with Ben's family. This is pretty much the way we spend every 4th, which is fine by me since I'm a tradition type of girl. I remember Ben and mine's first 4th of July together. We weren't dating yet, we just really enjoyed each others company. We made a chocolate-swirl cheesecake together and took it out to his Grandma Jean's. This was my first real time to meet all of his family. As a child my family never really did fireworks, Ben's, however, has a lot of fun with it. That was 13 years ago and here we are, still celebrating at his family's with lots of good food, good fun, and explosives. :) Colt, however, does not yet see the fun in the fireworks. The poor guy was outside for about 2 minutes and he was done. I took him inside to watch from the living room. He kept saying, "too loud" and then he would yell "bang, bang!" Grace had a great time and Ben just loves to have someone to shoot off little fireworks with. He got her some really cute fireworks that looked like ladybugs and he even got me a frog one. It was a great 4th of July weekend. I am so thankful for all that this holiday means to me and my my family, as well as to our country as a whole.

In The Hood

The other day Ben bought a new welding hood. Before he could take it to work the kids got a hold of it. They had more fun with that hood. It was so funny to watch them try and walk around with it. The hood probably weighed more than their whole heads do. lol
I love little moments like these when the simplest things can bring such joy.