Weight Update

Ella is 16 lb 10 oz at 3mts--the same as Streed at 8mts!

Blessed

Every Sunday at church I learn or experience something that makes me want to blog when I get home, yet I fail to do so. (Follow thru is not my strong suit.) We love our new church! It is such a worshipful experience each week.

Thoughts from 12/10/06:

Music: The worship team at Crossroads truly leads us into worship. One of the choruses we sang yesterday said...
You walk on waves
You run with clouds
You paint the sky for me to see
Your majesty is why I sing, Your majesty is why I sing.
While we were singing this, in walked a dad with his 20-something year old son who was blind. God painted the sky so we could see. This guy could not see, this man's son could not see, yet they were praising the Lord. I don't know if he was born blind or if it was do to an accident or illness. I just know it didn't stop them from worshipping. There is another family that visits sometimes who's 19 yr old daugther spends her days in a wheel chair at a nursing home due to a nearly fatal car wreck. They too love the Lord and love to sing His praises. It is because of His majesty that we sing.

Message: Matt 1:18-25--Yesterday our pastor (who's name is Chip) began a 3 week series focusing on certain characters in the birth of Christ. He began with Joseph.
We learned that Joseph was righteous (Mt 1:19); contemplative (1:20)--he considered his rights (he could have divorced her or had her stoned), he was thoughtful, not reactive; he was obedient (1:24) he did what the angel commanded him.

Joseph Recognized...

1. The Christ (v21) as the saving power in our lives
2. God's sustaining power (v22-23--Immanuel means God with us). Matthew began his book with "God is with us" in Ch. 1 and ended Ch. 28 with Christ's words "Lo, I am with you always..."
3. That his life was all he had to give and he gave it (he was God's earthly dad--what an incredible responsibility)

I will miss next week's sermon on Mary but will definitely post the notes on Jesus.

To all you faithful readers

You're not the only one who's so glad I got a new digital camera!

Amen and Amen

Well, yesterday was the dreaded day...the day we take our annual Christmas photo. Anytime you try to get two small children to cooperate in unison for anything, there is likely to be some frustration on the side of the parents. Take the time we took Ella's pumpkin picture, for instance...not a pleasant experience for anyone. But, the photo gods were smiling on us yesterday. The FIRST picture was not only acceptable, it was actually good. But, we took one more just to get a better smile from Streed. So, without further ado...

Anything she can do I can do better

Just a few observations from these pics. Remember, without accurate interpretations one cannot make proper applications.

OBSERVATIONS
1. Streed loves his sissy...Or does he love the camera?
2. Streed lives in his pajamas...Or are ALL of these pictures taken right after breakfast?

INTERPRETATION
1. Streed loves his sissy...and the camera
2. Streed looks cute in his pj's...and his mom is tired

APPLICATION
*Always dress your kids in cute clothes before taking their pictures and posting them on the web*

"Sweet Cheeks"

These have to be the most kissable cheeks ever!

I love this face!

I can see the light

Ella is amazing. She is less than three months old and has stretched herself to a 4 hour feeding schedule. This means I feed her at 8am, 12pm, 4pm & 8pm. I don't think Streed did that until he was about 7 months old. Plus, she is flirting with the idea of sleeping through the night. She did it once last week (9pm-5am). She sleeps really well on her stomach. However, current research indicates that the rate of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrom) increases in babies who sleep on their stomachs. Chip is totally against her sleeping on her stomach. It is so hard for me to put her on her back because she doesn't sleep as well and therefore I don't either. Last night she went down at 10pm. Around 12:30am she woke up. Rather than feed her, I gave her her paci every few minutes until 1am. At that point I did what any tired and selfish mommy would do--I flipped her to her stomach. She slept till 8am. Needless to say, it is 8:15pm, Chip's not here, she's asleep on her stomach.

Milk Break

I just don't have any words to describe this picture. It just cracked me up to see him drinking his sippy cup through the face mask. I guess he was taking a time out from yelling "go go" and kicking his "ball ball" all around the den.

FYI: I am an Alabama fan. Chip's parents just buy more Auburn crap for him than my parents do Alabama. But, after this season, I am not sure AL stuff isn't crap. Streed doesn't know one team from the next. He just growls like a lion whenever he sees anything remotely resembling the game of football. (Our mascot here at Southeastern is a lion and Streed is obsessed)

Under Contract

Well, as of last week our house is under contract. It was only on the market about 1 month and we got what we needed in order to pay off all of our school debt! Tomorrow is the inspection. Assuming all goes well with that we will be packing up. It is not set to close until January 12 so we are not in a desperate panic to pack and find a place to go.

Why January you ask? Well, you know how we wanted to move closer to school because students don't like to come ALL THE WAY out here (4 miles). Well the irony is we are selling it to the parents of the starting quarterback at SLU. He and a roommate will live here. They live in the dorm now and can't move out until the end of the semester. They are so excited. It is really funny to us. The neat thing is that our connection with this player came as a result of Chip spending MUCH of his time with the football team.

Where will we go? We do have leads on that. The couple that lived in our house this summer is renting a house on a street called Elm less than 1/2 mile from campus. They are hopefully moving soon as the husband is trying to get a new job. Chip has seen their house and says it is great. So, we called Candy, the wife, the other night to see about renting it. She proceeded to tell me about a house on the same street that is going up for sale soon. It is on two lots, is the biggest house in the neighborhood, has a fire place!, but...apparently it needs a lot of work. We are not sure what this means yet. We really don't want to buy but if we can get it for a good deal, fix it up and then make some money then we're all about it. Candy wants to have us to dinner Thurs to meet the owners of the other house. She has told them about us and they are interested in selling it to us for the appraised value.

What can you pray? For the inspection to pass with no major issues, wisdom, favor in the eyes of whoever we need to find favor

I will keep all you faithful readers posted...

My Twin & Me

I am usually the one taking the pictures so you rarely see me. However, I wanted a picture with my sweet baby girl. We think she's going to look like me. I have heard multiple times in the last two months the words, "I think she looks like you". These words are music to my ears. In two years I have heard that only once regarding Streed. They usuallysound more like...1. You look just like your daddy, 2. Hey little Chip, 3. You can't deny him (directed at Chip). I say all that to say, even though Streed is beautiful, I wanted a baby to somewhat resemble me. I mean, afterall, a mom deserves some sort of reward for all of the work she does, right?
Note: The cute hat and shoes are compliments of Kim Griffin.