Monday, June 28, 2010

Weekend Recap

Pic of C5 with the sister and brother-in-law

This weekend was a busy one. Sometimes staying home is busier than being out and about. Our weekend busyness began on Thursday night with Worship Lounge and a goodbye dinner with the sister and brother-in-law :-( After spending some time in the states after being in England for four years, we sent them off by eating at where else??? Taco Bueno (it's the sister-in-law's fave). Now they are in Guam for four years. We never really had the opportunity to make to England, so I'm hoping we will have a chance to make it to Guam now that the dude is a little older. I know we will certainly miss having them around since we've gotten to spend quite a bit of time with them over the past two months. Until we can go visit, I'm sure we'll be doing plenty of online chatting to make up for it. In fact, I think I will surprise the hubby with a webcam this week. A belated b-day present.

Friday started with a half day of work. You can never can tell what work is going to be like on a Friday. Some days I'm doing my best not to fall asleep at the computer, and other Fridays the half day goes by quick because I'm running around doing so much. This Friday was kind of busy. I had a friend stop by to chat for awhile (that's the joy of working in a church office), and I finished up some things for Sunday morning. The afternoon was a tad more relaxed. Chas, C5, and I did a little shopping and then came home in time to take a little rest before Movies Under the Stars. During the summer months, our church shows a movie outside on the lawn on the last Friday of the month. This month we watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It really was a very cute movie. It had the vocal talents of one of my favorite actors, Bruce Campbell.

Does it ever feel like staying home is actually busier than if you were out doing something instead? On Saturday, I decided to tackle some of the clutter in our house. With two pack rats and a semi-pack rat (the hubby will deny this is him), we tend to collect a lot of clutter. I won't lie. I contribute to this clutter collection quite a bit. Mostly with paper. Lets just say, I probably have a rain forest worth of paper in our house...most of it on top of my desk, in boxes under my desk, around my desk...You get the picture. C5 collects his own clutter. As a 5 year-old, everything he finds usually ends up a "treasure" to bring home. This Saturday, I tackled two of the biggest problem areas in our house - my GIGANTIC pile of laundry and C5's room. After 8 hours of cleaning, I managed to get all of my laundry done, weed out a ton of toys that the dude has outgrown, get rid of treasures that really are just junk, and take clothes out of his rotation that don't fit anymore. I had no idea that those two things would take me 8 hours (with a few breaks in there), but at the end I was pretty happy with what I had accomplished. There is so much more to be done. More rooms to go through, more clutter to be tackled, but it was a good start. It has me pumped up to keep going.

We ended the weekend with church (our usual Sunday activity), and by celebrating the 5th birthday of one of C5's friends at a local water park. The water park was fun! The birthday party was fun! The aftermath of spending 4 hours in the sun was not so much fun. Ouch! The hubby says he feels more extra crispy than original recipe. Poor guy :-( He kind of looks like a lobster. C5 just got a little pink but not too bad. Of course, I received my standard sunburn of the forehead, cheeks, chest, and shoulders. In a few days I will be good as new, and people will again be basking in my pastie white glow. Praise the Lord and pass the aloe!

That's my weekend. What did you do? 

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy Birthday C5!


Yesterday my baby officially turned 5. I can't believe he's 5. I know. I know. Parents always say that. One day that little baby you were holding becomes that grown up having kids of their own. Okay, so C5 isn't a grown up with kids of his own yet, but it doesn't take long. As a parent, there are days that feel like they will painfully go on forever (like that day I brilliantly thought C5 would enjoy the art museum) and days that we wish would go on forever (like the the day that he conquered climbing the rocks at his park). There's the things that they say like their first words (Momma for the record), the things they say that you wished they'd never picked up from you (yes, he got what the hell? from me), and then the goofy things he says that just make me laugh like "Momma you're freaking me out like a green bean". The frustrating moments of being a parent are quickly and overwhelmingly diminished by the happy moments, and there have been so many of those.

I fell in love with that little boy the moment I heard his heartbeat and saw him on a sonogram. We were connected from the moment I knew I was carrying him in my belly. He was on my schedule from the get-go. If I was awake and moving around, he was active in my belly. If I was asleep, he was sleeping. Before he was born, he loved Johnny Cash and loud action movies - just like his momma. Then came that day that C5 came into the world to an audience of family - a daddy, a papa, a meemaw, a great aunt, a cousin- and a host of medical staff. We fought hard that day - 24 hours to be exact - but that day I realized two things about my little boy: 1.He was a fighter. 2. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.



And in 5 years it has been an exciting adventure. There have been so many sweet memories in 5 years. I love that my kid's favorite foods are the foods I craved when I was pregnant. He is a picky eater, and it is so funny to see him make this funny face when he doesn't want to eat something. He loves Mummy movies, Indiana Jones, treasure movies, and Star Trek. C5 loves treasure hunts and doing just about anything outdoors. He loves the big kids at church and is right at home there. He loves meeting "rocket stars" aka rock bands that come perform for Ten Talents concerts. He tries to draw God and wants to know more about Jesus. The boy can move too. Watching his interpretive dance (and that's all you can call it) is so hilarious. If he isn't dancing front and center at concerts, then he making laps around the concert because he just seems to feel the music. C5 is fiercely independent and quite stubborn, but he is always curious and likes having someone around all the time to play with. He is full of life and adventure, unique and creative. He does things his own way, which as a parent can be a bit perplexing, but it's fun to see how his mind processes things. I hope that those things that make him so special don't change because they make him so much fun. I hope that they evolve and grow as he does.

Happy birthday, C5! I am so thankful for you, and I love you.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ch-Ch-Changes

Do you ever have those days when you need a little inspiration - a little encouragement to even do the things that are part of your normal routine? Today has been one of those days for me. Keeping my brain focused on a task has literally been a challenge. Couple that with a quiet day at work, and that leads to an even bigger challenge...not taking a major face plant into my keyboard or at the very least drooling all over myself. 

I've been thinking a lot today about the "c word"...No it's not that c word. The one we dread the most - CHANGE! I know there a lot of changes coming for me - mostly in our ministry and growth in general. I can feel that season coming on. And I'm pretty happy with that. The unknown always makes me a little nervous (ok maybe a lot nervous), but I'm excited to see what might be coming. God has this amazing way of bringing together pieces of a puzzle that I might not have thought to put together, but He has this way of making them fit together perfectly. I'm reminded of something I wrote a few months ago for a Lenten devotion for the church - it's great to have a heavenly Father who always has His eye on the big picture. It makes the thought of change a little easier knowing He has it all under His control.

One of the biggest changes I have experienced is the change from being just me to being C5's mom. Back then the thought of being a mom was so foreign to me. It wasn't something I ever pictured myself being. Now it's something that I couldn't imagine not being. I am so thankful that God blessed me with this rambunctious beautiful ball of energy who is a picky eater, loves rock'n'roll concerts, and dances like nobodies business. Now I get to watch him grow and change. This weekend we will be celebrating his 5th birthday. He's about to start school and every day I am amazed by all of the things that he learns and the things that he says (like "Momma, you're freaking me out like a green bean!" or the time he looked right at me and said "Momma, you are so beautiful. You're my best friend.)  I know C5 will keep growing up and one day momma won't be his best friend, but these are the times I will always cherish.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Big 3-0!

This is a picture of me with the guys from Seventh Day Slumber and Kiros. That's my hottie hubby on the end in green.

Yep! I did it. I turned 30. I have heard from many a brave lady who has gone before me into that unknown territory of having a 3 in front of your age. Each one had their own experience - some sad, hysterically tearful, or blissfully happy - so I wasn't quite sure what I thought turning 30 would be like. Age is just a number, in my opinion. Because I had older parents, they always lived out the idea that you are as young as you feel. Therefore it was no shock when my 65 year-old father came home with the kit to build an airplane, or when my mom went back to college at the age of 66. You can have adventures at any age, so I was looking forward to turning 30.

And did I turn 30 with a bang! On my birthday we had a Ten Talents concert scheduled, so I knew that I would be busy...too busy to think about getting older in case I had a mental meltdown about turning 30 (you never know what those wacky hormones are going to do). I didn't have much of a choice about wardrobe since I was going to be working with the Crew (Yes! Rock'n'roll roadie on my b-day). I decided to liven things up by painting my nails hot pink, wearing hot pink shoes, and throwing my hair up in pig tails. I had one goal in mind for the day: Not to act my age! Be careful what you mention on Facebook, it just might turn up! About half way through the day, one of my wonderful co-workers brought me a hot pink feather boa! It was fabulous! It went perfectly with the outfit. Flash forward a few hours, and I was jamming front and center like a kid listening to one of my favorite bands, Seventh Day Slumber.

Overall, the day was wonderful. I even got to have 2 more birthday celebrations after that day, but turning 30 at a rock concert was fun! The concert was great. Seventh Day Slumber, Kiros, and gravity liberation front are all bands you need to check out!

Summer Time is Here


I've been such a boring blogger lately, but it seems this is only the case on my blog. I've been contributing and maintaining the TTM blog as well as another blog. My healthy living plan took a bit of a back seat between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, and now I am really paying for it. I think I've written about it about a million times, but when it comes to health I seem to be my own worst enemy. I know what makes me sick to eat - physically ill/doubled over in pain if I eat too much of it, and here I am chowing down on it like I know it's not going to eventually catch up to me. HELLO CHELLE! I know better than this, yet I fall into that same trap of my own making. I don't saboteurs. I am my own saboteur. Arg! The positive point to all of this is even though I'm back to square one, I don't have a choice about what I eat. I really have to be careful or I'll spend months instead of a few weeks trying to get my system straightened out.

Summer is here - at least the temperatures suggest that summer is here. There is just something about summer that screams nostalgia. The start of summer for me is the first time that I see a firefly. We don't get as many since we live in the city, but I still love sitting on my parents' porch swing just as the sun is going down and watching the fireflies dance around the backyard. I used to sit on that swing for hours listening to the lake, feeling the warm summer breeze, and watching those fireflies. Now I enjoy sitting on that swing watching the dude chasing after those bugs-whose-butts-light-up.

Isn't it sad that we spend half of our lives (well half of my life at this point) looking forward to summer vacations - 3 months off to sleep in, go on vacation, have a carefree schedule and then one day you wake up and realize that summer is just another day to wake up and go to work. Oh well. I still love the warm weather and all the things about summer that let me remember my childhood. This summer is going to be a busy one with all of the Ten Talents concerts that we have planned, but I hope I can sneak in a few fun days at the pool and maybe even a road trip.

Blessings!