More Than A Box of Doughnuts

Thanks to so many of you who wrote comments or sent me an e-mail with advice concerning my kids. I have so many good friends and love to hear others' wisdom/experiences regarding these difficult parenting dilemmas. I am happy to report that Mary Alice pretty much forgot about the "mean girl" incident the moment she left the classroom. It was definitely harder on me, as I tend to hang on to things for a little bit longer than that. :)

As for Major... Thanks for all of your great suggestions. I found them very helpful. I think I have a few new ideas to work with now and will let you all know how that goes. Parenting can be challenging at times.

I just wanted to share a new little something that I've been doing that has really been brightening my day. Maybe some of you do this already? I started downloading various podcasts from the Christian radio station onto my IPod and listening to them throughout the day,(during the kids' nap, at the gym, etc.) I was inspired by my friend Susan to start listening to Nancy Leigh DeMoss from Revive Our Hearts. This woman is truly inspirational! Much of the time, I struggle with discouragement, especially regarding church issues. I feel that I am often pointing the finger at others, thinking that "if only they would change...Oh how things could be better..." Nancy has been helping me to see so many of my own sinful heart attitudes and how prideful my thinking has been. I have heard her before on the radio, but only at random times. The lessons that I have been listening to recently have stressed the need for Christians to earnestly pray for revival. I am amazed at how encouraging the thought of a revival among Christians is to me, that it could actually happen, that it has happened before and could happen again. The revival must first begin with me, though. I think God is working to change my heart on this one. I would encourage any woman to listen to a speaker who is as passionate and honest as this woman. If anyone knows anything about Nancy, do you know anything about her study called "Seeking Him?" Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this study?

Moving on... This past weekend we had a great little getaway with Josh's family. Josh's parents have some good friends who were kind enough to share their amazing lake house with us. Our family went out on Friday night and spent some time with Josh's parents, and Chad and Miranda. It was great to see them again. We don't see them often enough. The guys spent the day golfing. Nonnie and Miranda took the kids jet skiing while I watched. We spent lots of time talking and relaxing together. It was great. I am including a few pictures from that.

Pictures of lake house fun that I am not including:

Josh dragging Chad behind the jet ski...He was holding on to the rope with no water skis, wake board...simply Chad and his life jacket (and his swimming suit of course!)

Major doing the hiney dance (AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...),

Nonnie and Mary Alice running out of gas on their jet ski,

Miranda running her jet ski into a tree trying to rescue them,

Major's bloody nose at the clubhouse,

Major pouting because he had to come inside for a nap instead of continuing to golf with the guys,

and last but not least....Grumpy bragging about his golf game (I had quite a few opportunities to snap a picture of this last one!)

We really had a great time and hope that we continue to have lake house fun for many more years!







Tonight we had a little birthday celebration to celebrate my Dad. He and Mom came over to the house for dinner. He is the best Dad ever. Seriously. None can compare. There are so many reasons why I love him and look up to him. One of the things that I admire the most about my Dad is how unselfish he is. He always puts everyone else ahead of himself and his wants or needs. He has always been that way. He is generous to a fault, never thinking of himself, but only of others. He does this with his time and money. No matter how busy he is, he is always ready to help someone else. I'll write about just one example of a time that my dad was really over the top with his giving. On one occasion, when I was living at home, there was certain widow lady who needed some help around her house. This particular woman needed her house to be painted. Her house was an older home, all wood siding, two story. I remember that my dad went to her and asked her to pick out a paint color. She picked out a color and dad went straight to work. He purchased the paint and proceeded to paint the woman's entire two story house all by himself! This took him quite a while, as you can imagine! When he was finished with the entire house, the woman took one look at it and said, "Actually, I think I'd like you to paint it a shade lighter." I'm sure this must have greatly annoyed my dad. After all, who doesn't like to be appreciated for their work? He mentioned that he was going to buy another shade of the same color, because the woman wasn't happy with the original shade (that she had picked!!). I remember blowing up and being extremely angry with the woman and thinking, "I'll show her a thing or two! How dare she be so ungrateful!" I was SO ANGRY with this unthankful woman and her rude attitude. I knew just how hard he'd worked to finish that job, how he had worked for days after work and on his weekends off! Instead of following my suggestions of rude retorts, my dad just headed down to the paint store, purchased the shade that the woman requested, and REPAINTED THE ENTIRE HOUSE all by himself AGAIN!!! This story shows the kind of a man that my dad is, generous to a fault.

I have always loved my dad's sense of humor and how he uses it to make things just a little bit more special. He has several (and I mean several) silly jokes that I have heard dozens of times. His jokes continue to make me laugh wholeheartedly every time! He has a way with words. There were so many words that my dad just made up, "Dadisms", if you will. He is very creative with his words. My love for words definitely came from him. My dad is like me in that we both prefer to give (and receive) lots and lots of details. I have many memories of long discussions with my dad. He spent lots of time with me. Lots of time... I remember one trip that we took to Eastland. I was very young, probably eight or nine. He took me to work with him for the day. I don't know why it sticks out in my mind, perhaps it was the seriousness with which he said it, when he talked with me about the importance of dating only committed Christians, how you end up marrying the people that you date. Although I dated a dud or two, I eventually came around to following his advice. :) He also made lots of "one on one" time with me, usually taking me out for breakfast. He made it a point to study the Bible with me, and MADE ME STUDY THE BIBLE. I'll have to admit, I didn't want to... How easy it would have been for him to have just said, "Alright, you don't have to do Bible bowl." Not only did he MAKE me do it, but he did it with me!

Another reason I love my dad so much is that he loves my mother and has always been good at letting us know just how much he loves her. My dad has always been supportive of my mother and she of him. They are the perfect team. He has always made it a point to let us know that he will always be committed to my mother no matter what. My dad was always good at making his girls feel like girls, telling us just how special and pretty that we were and making us feel absolutely priceless. As we were growing up, our new clothes had to first withstand dad's critiques before we could wear them out of the house. There were a few times that we were devastated because dad held the opinion that an outfit was immodest. I don't know that I appreciated it back then, but I do now. There was one time when he crossed the line with my sister, Taylor, but we won't discuss that now, on his birthday post. :)

My dad has lots of quirks. I love his quirkiness. He is the best dad I could have ever had. When I was a little girl, I actually remember feeling sorry for the other girls, because their dads didn't seem to be quite as fun or silly as my dad. Isn't that funny? I actually believed that! My dad is definitely where I get my love of silliness. I'll close with this final thought... Happy birthday Dad! I love you more than a box of doughnuts!