I’m not sure how many people read this blog, where you come from, where your faith lies, what you hold dear, but whoever you are I would ask that you stop for a few minutes and say a prayer for Brad Wims.  I know many of you already pray for them and check their blog for updates on his cancer.  I was in Aggies for Christ with Brad and Jenny, and played soccer with Jenny in college.  You can read about their story here – http://thewims.blogspot.com/. 

Apparently everyone around here needs some alone time.  At the dinner table a few nights ago Rachel came up with this:

“Mommy – need to poo poo.  And need privacy.” 

Nice.

In conjunction with celebrating their daughter’s second birthday on February 7, the Starr family of Anytown, Texas, said goodbye to their dear friend, D.  The family met D in October of 2004, and has had a loving – albeit somewhat messy – relationship since then.  D wasn’t just a friend, but really a member of the family.  The family set up a special place for D in their first and second homes.  D accompanied the family to North Carolina several times to visit family, made a business trip to Atlanta, made the long drive to Branson, and even made an impressive appearance in the water play area at Sea World. 

Lisa Starr – mom – was quoted saying, “D has always been so patient with my children – being tugged on, rubbed on, colored on…what a peeceful friend D has been to us.” 

The family’s Nana was also quoted saying, “I remember one car trip when my daughter decided to leave D at home, and the children definitely were not happy.  They were cranky and really just pooped, and D could have been such a good helper to us during that time.  Since then I have been sure to remind my daughter to always bring D with us.” 

So, while they almost couldn’t bare it, the family saw fit to say their final goodbye two weeks ago after four years of good, bad, and even explosive times.  What will change now that D is gone?  Well, several things.  The family’s son has found himself with a few less trips up and down the stairs trying to find D.  Oddly enough, their daughter has replaced her love of D with a love of jellybeans.  And Mom and Dad?  They aren’t too heartbroken as they seem to have deleted a line item from the monthly budget. 

One final quote from Dad, “With D out of the picture, I guess Rachel will just have to find someone else to put up with all of her crap.”

…of the Spirit!  For the past several weeks Ethan and Rachel’s Bible classes have been talking about the different fruits of the spirit.  My mom develops all of the curriculum for both of their classes, and I’ve really never seen anything like it.  I know there are a lot of people who think little kids can’t learn much about the Bible, but this is the age where they just soak up every word – every story – every take home.  When Ethan’s class had their first fruit of the spirit lesson, my mom told them that if they memorized all of them and recited them on the summary week, they would get a special prize.  Well, you say ’special prize’ to Ethan he’s all over that.  I love the way he really tries to understand the things he’s learning.  He is sure to tell me when he’s showing goodness or kindness, and he’s certainly sure to tell Rachel when she needs to show some patience.  He also made mention of how someone in our house doesn’t show self control when he or she eats too much. 

Last night was the summary night and he talked about it all day.  Thankfully he didn’t freeze up, and he came away with his special prize -

I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever seen Ethan so proud of something.  He wore it all night, asked to sleep in it, tried to find shadows this morning so he could see the crown on his head, walked around shouting, “I’m the king of the fruit of the spirit!”, wore it to school today, and even got to recite them for his friends in class (to which he reported that one boy had to sit in time out because he wouldn’t clap for him).  Clay and I are obviously very proud of him, but I’m more proud of the fact that he’s excited to learn about God and excited to go to Bible class and excited to share it with his friends at school.  I pray that he never loses that excitement.  And Mom – you are making an eternal difference for the kids at church…thank you.

Thanks to my wonderful, amazing, and incredible husband, I spent the weekend at a scrapbook retreat in McKinney and had a fabulous time.  Cara and I booked it several weeks ago and had been counting down the days (okay, truthfully the hours) until we could leave.  A couple of weeks ago we found out that some of our Aggie friends were going as well!  Cara & I were roommates all through college, and our freshman year we met Shelly & Camille who were also roommates on the 3rd floor of our dorm.  And then Theresa was there also – Shelly’s roommate sophomore year.  And the best part is that Shelly & Theresa both live about 10 minutes from us…God is so good.  We stayed up late, got up early, ate hot food that we didn’t have to prepare which was one of the highlights, watched movies, listened to good music, did a LOT of scrapbooking, did even more laughing, and got rejuvenated to come back to the real world.  I worked on Rachel’s baby book and got a lot done.  Here’s a sampling:

Girls – I’m already looking forward to next year!

Today is Rachel’s 2nd birthday and we’ve been celebrating all weekend.  I absolutely love birthdays.  I really think she “gets it” and it’s been so much fun.  Yesterday morning the kids and I walked to the donut shop to start the celebration off right.  Nothing like some pure sugar to get the day going!  We had a few party errands to run, and I had her nap time perfectly planned out in my head.  Of course that didn’t happen…she was just too excited about her party to sleep.  I’m pretty sure I was the same way growing up.

We had her carousel birthday party last night and we all had a great time.  I lost count at how many times she rode so I guess that’s a sign of a good party.  She is so blessed to have good friends at 2. 

This morning I fixed her some biscuits for breakfast and she enjoyed them with Holly sitting right beside her.  Clay actually picked this out by himself for her birthday, and she hasn’t put it down since.  She named her “Curly Hair Holly.”  Again – her own creation.

Ethan went to Nana & Poppa’s this morning to play with Addi, and Clay and I took Rachel to Build-A-Bear for a birthday surprise.  She had never made one and of course she was thrilled…probably more thrilled with the undivided attention, but thrilled all the same.  She walked in, immediately picked out a Hello Kitty (have I ever mentioned her obsession with all things Hello Kitty?), stuffed it, washed it, picked out HK underwear, shirt, skirt, shoes, and HK purse and never looked back about one of her decisions.  I really love this kid.

We met Nana, Poppa, Ethan & Addi at Red Robin for lunch…since they have balloons there.  These restaurant marketing people are geniuses!  I guess part of the $4.29 macaroni went toward the balloon that popped on the way home.  Oh well. 

And here we are in the present time.  Ethan & Clay are playing a video game together while Rachel, Curly Hair Holly and Hello Kitty are taking a nap and I’m here at the computer – all is right with the world.  Last night Rachel had a tough time staying asleep.  I’m not sure if the coughing woke her up, or if she was having bad dreams, but at one point I just went up and held her in her chair.  I sang the song Lullaby to her, and I really got choked up.  There’s just something about 2 that says goodbye to all things baby.  The chorus of the song says, “How long do you want to be loved?  Is forever enough ’cause I’m never, never giving you up.”  My hope and prayer right now is that she always knows that she is truly and deeply loved.  Through the tantrums 2 will bring, through the tough school days, through the teenage breakups and everything else we’ll go through, I just pray that she always knows she is truly and deeply loved and always will be.  I’m mad at myself that somewhere in the past 2 years I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again my little baby was 2 and talking and sassy and opinionated and funny and stubborn and moody and sociable and a thousand other things. 

My goal for this next year is to try and stop blinking. 

I’m turning into the coupon lady.  I’ve clipped a few coupons here and there in our married life, but I’ve never been a coupon seeker or anything like that.  One of our family goals this year is to be more frugal…not cheap, just frugal…and I figured coupons would be a good way to help us reach that goal.  Well let me tell you, it’s a bit addicting.  I don’t love everything about Jon & Kate Plus 8, but I laughed at this week’s episode when Kate said something like, “Jon, you know we don’t EVER buy anything unless we have a coupon for it!”  I don’t want to be like that, but when I trimmed quite a bit off our grocery store bill last week I realized that coupons are one of God’s gifts to moms.  You know, right up there with long naps, car DVD players, velcro shoes, ketchup, empty wrapping paper tubes and doughnut holes.  Anyway, I think I’ve figured out this Walgreens thing.  I spent way too long looking through last week’s ad, but I came out with this after only spending $6.97 out of pocket:

So, I think my “if the house is on fire this is what I’ll grab” list will now have to be rearranged to include my coupon folder.  Oh what an exciting life I lead.