Tagged by Angie

My friend Angie, who lives in Maputo, Mozambique, tagged me to tell 10 things I like about where I live:

1. It is only 3 hours away by car to see my Mom, and only 6 hours to see Mike's mom. (As opposed to 37 hours just driving time or all day flights!)

2. All the beautful flowers and trees--dogwood, crepe myrtle, magnolia. We have a Japanese magnolia, and it just bloomed for the second time this year, see?!

3. It is such a small town that the children's librarian calls us personally to let us know when homeschool hour is cancelled. They also renew our books for us when they know we're on vacation and we forget to do it!

4. Homeschooling my kids. I probably would never have done it if we hadn't moved here, but I'm loving every minute of it!

5. Sonic!

6. We have been welcomed completely into our church, and made friends quickly.

7. We often have good old-fashioned, thunder & lightning frog-stranglers! (As long as there's no danger of tornadoes, or hurricanes such as Gustav which is expected to still be tropical storm intensity even when it reaches here, I love thunderstorms. Please, however, pray for Gustav to weaken!)

8. You can get anywhere in town in less than 10 minutes--and there is hardly any traffic!

9. My daughters are finally developing southern accents.

10. I don't have to explain what Ouachita is, or how to pronounce/spell it.

Now I tag Margo and Valerie. Are you still out there, Val? ;)

Flashback Friday: Journal Entry, August 29, 1992

(This is word for word from my journal, except for the words in red)
"Today was Mike's birthday. Karry and I went to Eric and Anissa's wedding this morning--simple, sweet, pretty. Had lunch with Ed afterwards at Chili's. Colored contracts this afternoon, then took some disaster relief clothes to Ridgmar Mall, for Hurricane Andrew victims, then got my hair trimmed, then prayed at the church for an hour with Karry, Mike, Mari, and Bro. Al. It was good.
(Here's where it gets interesting...)
Then I ran home to get ready, Mike came over, and we went to Don Pablo's. Ate on the patio, breezy and nice. Mike was in a talkative mood. He's so cute. We went to Trinity Park after that--sat on a bench by the water, lay on a hill to look at the stars, sat on another bench. As we were sitting on the bench, I sang "Happy Birthday" to him (he liked the shirts, by the way), and he asked if I'd sing it to him next year...and the next...and the next. I said, "Mmhm...mmhm...mmhmm." Then he said, "Do you know what would make this the happiest birthday ever? If you would marry me." I was stunned.
(We had only been dating for 3 months)
My heart is pounding again just remembering it. I must've looked at him in silence for at least a full minute. Finally I said, "Are you asking?" He said yes, and I looked at him again for a while, and hugged him, and kissed him, and said, eventually, that I didn't really know what to say. He said, "Why don't you think about it, pray about it, and we'll talk about it, and make a decision by December." I had just been thinking that I should know by December. Oh my goodness. We talked for quite a while after that. Till almost 2 a.m. I think I want to marry him, but I want to be sure.
(3 days later I said yes, and 9 1/2 months later we got married. I made the right decision!! Happy Birthday, Honey!)

Oh my wordie, guess who's THIRTY!

Margo turned 30 today!

But since I'm as old as Dara Torres, I can't give her a hard time about being over-the-hill. Mikayla would say she's at the top of the first hill, but I'm coming down the second one! Happy Birthday, Margo!

Good-bye Summer

Hello, School!

Our church rented the city pool Sunday afternoon for a final swim bash. The girls loved it! (Even though I had to remind them of our swimming rule in Idaho--no swimming unless it's at least 80 degrees. We made it, but it was definitely below 90.)


And then my baby started school Monday. Well, 4-year-old preschool, 3 half-days a week to be exact. I'm proud to say that neither one of us cried! I told my Mom that if I wasn't homeschooling her big sisters, and had had to go home to an empty house, I probably would've been a mess. Thankfully, their school kept me busy and satisfied, and she had 3 close friends in her class. I literally peeled her hand off of mine and put it on Claudia's before I left. She had a wonderful time each day. Mrs. Rita is a great teacher.






Also this week, I replaced my 23-year-old address book. The one that was given to me as a high school graduation gift! I found one the same size at the Dayspring Outlet this summer, so I was able to move some pages over instead of having to re-write everything. It felt good to have it so nice and new and organized, with no sticky notes or addresses Xed out...but I'm going to miss my old one. It's full of memories! Of friends far and near and even in heaven.
It has doodles from talking on the phone, directions to job interviews, and even Jessica's precious, learning-to-write writing on the back cover.

(That's our Idaho phone number and address. Kind of.)
I did bite the bullet and throw it away, but not before taking some pictures to keep forever!
I've also entered some photos, just for fun, at http://www.capturearkansas.com/. There are just a few more days to vote, so go look at my pics, and if you "dig it," vote for it! Maybe I'll make it into the book!

Saturday Smogasbord

I meant to share my new favorite Bible verse in that last post, and forgot.
It's Proverbs 14:4 (NLT): An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable.
Can you mothers of small children out there understand why I love that verse?!

Yesterday Rebecca and I were going to an out-of-town friend's house to check on her cat, and she said, "Don't forget to clean the glitter box"!

For the last 2 days I've been composing a "Flashback Friday" in my mind, but we ended up doing our weekly grocery shopping after school and then headed over to Texarkana for supper and to take advantage of "tax-free weekend," so I ran out of time. I don't have a scanner, so I can't post pre-digital pictures. My flashbacks are more...verbal.
My friends Charlie and Angie went back to Mozambique this weekend, after a whirlwind of a summer living less than an hour away from us. We got together several times, and crammed so much fun and talking and laughter into them! I met Angie my first day at Ouachita. She lived next door to me on Flippen 1st floor. All 12 of us on Flippen First became SUCH good friends, and had crazy fun together. I wish I could show you the picture of us in our freshman beanies! She was an MK from St. Vincent, "a small island in the Southern Caribbean," as I heard her explain many times. The next 3 years of college we were roommates, and as close as I imagine sisters would be. We laughed and cried and grew together. I learned a lot about missions from her, and some things about St. Vincent, including some fun Vincentian praise songs. We sang them together last week when they came for supper (and the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics!) and to say good-bye. Here are the only pictures taken that night...which also qualify as pay-back for Mike's hair pictures!



But Angie, I remembered another song yesterday--"Leave Babylon"--remember that one?! It made me smile this morning when Mike started singing, "He's pouring the oil and the wine..."
We got to know Charlie eating Cap'n Crunch before speech class our sophomore year, and he became my shekamabubba and Angie's fiance! (They celebrated their 19th anniversary on Tuesday.) We were together all the time. For some reason I mostly remember hanging out in OC Bailey lobby and doing laundry. :) The movie "Beaches" came out our senior year, right before I graduated and moved to Fort Worth to teach and they got married. We went to see it together, then went back to our dorm room and BAWLED! We promised to be friends forever, and we have. She and Charlie are so faithful to our Lord, going where He sends them, and raising 4 awesome kids. I am honored to be a part of her life. Happy Anniversary and welcome "home," Lechners!

Oh, and one more thing. Those of you who've known me for awhile may want to sit down: I eat tomatoes now. I know, I know--crazy, isn't it? The same out-of-town friend whose cat and plants we're watching told me to take any tomatoes that ripened while she was gone, and I know how healthy they're supposed to be, so I took her up on it, and enjoyed it! In other things, like salad, cut up really small. But still, it's progress!

Randomness

Did you hear about the shooting at the Demo. Party Headquarters in Little Rock? You can go here for more details. Afterwards, the shooter ran into the Baptist Building (where the people my husband works for/with all work, as well as some other friends) with his gun, went upstairs and up and down the hallways, then left, without firing a shot. Thank the Lord. Who knows...maybe God blinded his eyes to the people there, or had "armed" angels at every doorway...whatever happened, I'm sorry for the Gwatney family--pray for them-- and relieved/thankful for the Arkansas Baptist family.

Mike thinks I should explain the previous post. During family devotion one night, Jessica's hair was draped over Mike's head. I thought it was funny and took a picture, so the other two wanted to try it. And the rest is history. Can you match the hair to the girl?

We started school Monday, and it's going great! I think the girls are enjoying it, too. Whether you can get them to admit that or not, I don't know. But Mike asked them on the first day what grade they'd give the day, and they both said "A". That made me happy.


After over a week of temperatures in the 100's, we got rain (yay!) and temps in the 70's from Sunday until today! It felt wonderful--a little preview of fall.

Last week I bought a pink softball bat on clearance at WalMart. We played "softball" with the girls in the backyard tonight after supper. Sort of...
Jessica: You're out! You're out!
Mikayla: No, I'm in, I'm still in.

Jessica (every time she touched homeplate): I got a homerun!

And Rebecca took one swing (steee-rike) at the ball, put the bat down and ran to first, grinning ear to ear.

I think our homeschool needs to have a few softball lessons.

And I only got about 4 mosquito bites.

Did you read Beth Moore's post about malapropisms? We have too many for me to even comment on her blog, but here's a recent one I'll share with you. I put hot bread on the table, and Mikayla said, "We better get the tonsils (tongs)."
She and Jessica also used to mis-sing the Steve Green song/Bible verse from Psalm 139: "You knit me together in my father's room..."
I love my kids!

Mike's New Hairstyles

We did a little experimenting with different looks for Mike last night...
The Nerd:

The Surfer Dude:

The Granola Hippie:

What's your favorite?