Teenager in the house!

Today is Jessica's 13th birthday! She is growing up into such a graceful and beautiful young woman; she just amazes me. I am so very thankful for her. I'm re-posting her birthday post from 3 years ago, with pictures now that I have a scanner. :)

10 13 years ago today, I held Jessica in my arms for the first time.

It had been a long wait, but she was worth it! 5 years after we got married, 3 years after stopping bcp, 8 days after her due date, 2 days after they tried to induce labor, 10 hours after arriving at the hospital--there she was, all tiny and perfect and pink. (And a little blue, but that went away.)




She is my sensitive, intuitive child. Before she could talk, (was there really a time when she didn't talk?!!) we would be out on our deck and she would look up in this one tall tree and smile and wave and babble something...I used to wonder if she saw an angel. Corny, I know. But what if?

She was not even 2 when we got the news of the Wedgwood shooting, and when she saw me crying she climbed up in my lap and cuddled with me.

For years after my Dad died, there was one praise chorus that always made me tear up, but I never said anything about it. One Sunday after we sang that song she looked up at me and said, "That song always makes me think of Grandad." Last year (4 years ago now) a friend of hers in Conway lost his dad, and when she saw him last weekend she said, "Mommy, ever since Mr. James died, Mrs. Marnie and Fraser and Pearl don't look as brightly colored as they used to." I wondered if that was her way of seeing their grief?

Although she's never been as mischievous as Mikayla, I do have some favorite stories. Like when she was 3, and Mike said, "I need to pick up so-and-so for church," and she said, "But she's too heavy!" Or when he asked if she wanted to go on a date to McDonald's with him and she said, "Oh my goodness, YES!" And when we were on our way to Baskin Robbins when she was 4, and she said, "After I eat ice cream can I play outside? And run around in circles, and lay on the grass and watch the sunset, and sleep on the grass?" And when she was potty training, and she tinkled and I said, "Yay, did I hear you go potty?" and she said, "No, just gas." HA!

She also has added to our family vocabulary. In my family, if someone pronounces something cute when they're little, it sticks and we all start using it. Her contributions are: excuse me = miki, ponytail holders = ponynails, hamburger = hammigigger, side by side = two-by-two-by, Barbie = Arbie, eyelashes = ashlyes, octopus = octopudis, and peppermints = peppernuts.

I don't know how she went from that tiny baby to this beautiful young lady so quickly. Happy Birthday, sweet Jessica!

The day I turned f-o-r-t-y-f-o-u-r

Mike woke up sick. :(
The girls fixed me breakfast--"sparkle muffins" (official name: French Breakfast Puffs) :)
Mike had to go to an all-day meeting 3 hours away. :(
I was blown away by all my facebook birthday messages. Friends from childhood up to today, from all over the world. Such fun! :)
Rebecca lost a front tooth! I love the snaggle-tooth look. :)

We did NOT take a day off school. :(
But school's not THAT bad--Mikayla got to plant radishes! :)

Jessica baked me a cake, and helped Mike fix me my favorite supper--chicken and dumplin's, mmm. :)

 I opened presents after we ate our cake--I got Bath and Body Works stuff, new houseshoes, a muffin tin, and a new printer/copier/scanner that I looove! :)

I can't believe I'm 44. 44? Seriously? Wow. I know it doesn't end in a zero or anything, but it really hit me hard this year. Coupled with Rebecca's missing tooth, which means her face will never look the same, and Jessica turning into a teenager tomorrow. I don't mind growing older, it's just that...wow. I'm seriously middle-aged now. Mikayla says I'm over one hill and half-way up the next! Oh, well, maybe I can use that as an excuse to make them do more housework for me...

At least they didn't try to put 44 candles on the cake!

What we've been up to

So our house is on the market again, because there's a house down the street (we love our neighborhood) and it has four bedrooms and about 800 more square feet than our current house, so we're trying to buy it. And we've had about 8 showings in the past week and a half...which means me running around frantically trying to make the house look like a picture out of a magazine, while trying to homeschool and lead a Bible study and meet with students and do kids' choir and sing in adult choir and get the kids to all their activities. With a trip to Texarkana thrown in for my family to buy me birthday presents. (TEE HEE!)

So it's been a little crazy around here. But good, for the most part.
Here's a video of Rebecca SCORING at last week's Upward game (her only score so far). They don't keep score at her level...but Mike does, and her team has won every game so far. Yesterday's score was 56-14. But everyone's a winner in Upward. ;)

"What's the big deal about John 3:16?"

(I'm giving the half-time devotion tomorrow morning at Rebecca's Upward Basketball game. Which starts at 8:00.
a.m.
In the morning.
Bright and early on a Saturday!
So here's what I'm going to say.)
Good morning! My name is Kecia. My husband and I have 3 daughters, one of whom is playing on that court this morning! When we were practicing her Upward verse for last week, and saw that it was John 3:16, one of my girls said, "Everybody knows that verse. What's the big deal about John 3:16?" Well, I know not everybody knows John 3:16, but it is very popular--you see it in a lot of places. T-shirts, bumper stickers, football players' faces, football fans' signs. So what is the big deal about John 3:16? As I told my daughter--it's a big deal because it changes everything. Before Jesus spoke those words, the world didn't know that God loved them--especially the non-Jewish heathens like me. And Jesus didn't just say God loved them, He said God loved them so much. He doesn't love us like we love mochas, or our pets, or even, hard as it is to grasp, our children. Judging by His actions, He loves us more than we love our children, because He loves us more than His own one and only, beloved Son, whom He gave up to die in our place, to pay the penalty for our wrong-doing. And not because we're so good and lovable,either. Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And whoever--Jew, non-Jew, male, female, good, bad, young, old--whoever believes in Him will not die! That changes everything! Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. We can't just believe about Him, we believe in Him. That He is God, that his death on the cross is the only way my sin could be paid for, that He lives today. When I make a commitment to follow Him with my whole life, He makes that life last forever.
Yeah, John 3:16 is a pretty big deal.
It changes everything.
Thank you for listening. Let's pray.

Just for fun

I love snowmen. I started collecting them when I was teaching school, and got several as Christmas gifts. Now I leave them out all through January, just because they make me smile. (Seriously--I smiled just watching the pictures upload!) Here are some of the smiles you can find tucked around my house right now:

On our school calendar

And today, oddly enough, on Rebecca's school work! (Ignore the background mess, please.)

Most of my collection

My newest additions--they're so adorable!

Rebecca made this guy (in the back) in Sunday School last year. He's one of my faves.

Rebecca made this card, too, in Sunday School this year.

One of Jessica's best friends in Idaho made this and sent it to her a couple of years ago.

Oops! That's not a snowman, that's our fluffy white cat! She sometimes makes me smile, too, but I'm still against inside pets!!

We even have snowmen on our toothbrush holder in the girls' bathroom.

This is the little one that gave me this idea--it's a wallflower, and it's the same pink as in their bathroom. I have a hard time resisting things I find that match their shower curtain! (And I don't know why my new camera takes yellow pictures sometimes. It bugs me.)

Gotta love Christmas clearance! (Look at that dweeb in the background. I told you they make me smile.)

And last, but definitely not least, this melted snowman made by Mikayla in kindergarten greets you as you come in our carport/kitchen door. I just love this one!!

Poems by Mikayla

Elephant

Massive, grey

Stomping, eating, spraying

Africa, tusks, tail, little ears

Crawling, nibbling, running

Furry, diminuitive

Mouse

                           Birthday 

Looks like streamers, balloons, and party hats

Sounds like singing and talking

Tastes like cake, ice cream, and punch

Feels like wrapping paper under my fingers

Smells like candle smoke

10 on the 10th

It's still the 9th, but I know tomorrow will be busy, so here are 10 of my favorite (random) things:
1. Lindor truffles by Lindt. Milk chocolate. Ohmyword, those things make me feel so good I'm surprised they're legal. I got some in my stocking and I'm eating one a day, taking 3 bites out of each one to make it last. *dreamy sigh*

Can you hear the angels sing?

2. "The Middle" The first comedy to make me laugh out loud since "Mad About You." It has to be written by actual parents.
3. This jacket. My dad bought it for me at Sam's in Little Rock when I was in college a hundred years ago. I loved it then and I love it now.

4. Campbell's soup: beef with country vegetables. Not old fashioned vegetable beef, or hearty beef with barley, but beef with country vegetables. Tastes like what we used to eat on toast when we were camping when I was little.
5. Winter weather. It's snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sleeted from 9 am to 5 pm (YUCK) and has finally turned to honest-to-goodness snow. We're predicted to get 4-8".

This is all sleet and ice--my flag was frozen solid.

Still all sleet

Finally started snowing!! Rebecca is saying, "Look at my snow angel!"

Ice on the van

Happy girls

Can you see the joy in her eyes?

I told her to wear a hat.

My favorite part!

6. Microfleece throws -- I can't get over their softness!
7. My new silky pajamas. They're silky on the outside, fuzzy on the inside. So I'm cozy warm, but not velcro-ed to my flannel sheets.
8. Hearing all three of my girls humming/singing. Different songs. At the same time!
9. When I'm watching football with my husband and he says something, and then the announcers say the exact same thing, word for word. Even better is when I do it, and show him I know a little about football, too!
10. Spider solitaire--I especially love the sound effects on my laptop.

Happy New Year!

Several bloggers asked about Christmas traditions this holiday season--my family has fun New Year's traditions, as well!

A tradition Mike and I have started with our girls is playing games to pass the time on New Year's Eve. We let them each pick one, and if it still isn't midnight, Mike and I pick some, too. This year we played Cranium's "Zooreka," Life (board game, not wii), and Clue (wii, not board game). Mikayla won the first 2 games (which is good, because she is SUCH a sore loser)(don't tell her I said that), and Jessica won Clue. (I love our Wii Family Game Night we got for Christmas, but Clue is my least favorite game on there. No, Hands Down is. The only fun ones are Life and Mouse Trap. Just so you know.)


Growing up, of course we always stayed up 'til midnight on New Year's Eve, and we would get pots and pans and bang on them with spoons on the front porch yelling "Happy New Year!" to all our neighbors. Mike didn't grow up doing this, and won't do it because he feels silly, but so far I've been able to get all 3 girls to participate with me. We'll see if Jessica will next year when she's a teenager...

In a family of college football fans, no one wanted to leave the tv to eat when I was little. So instead of eating around the table as usual, my mom would make all kinds of yummy finger foods, spread a tablecloth on the family room floor, and we would eat all.day.long. And watch football. We called it our "spread." She always made shrimp cocktail, which I didn't like, and tater tots, which I loved, and a veggie tray and other dips and spreads and treats. We have continued this tradition, my football-loving husband and I. Today we're munching on hot wings, sausage/cheese balls, mozzarella sticks with marinara, tater tots, veggie tray with ranch dip, crackers with beef dip, and chips with Rotel/chili/cheese dip. That's a lot of food for a family of 5!! We'll have some good lunches next week. :)