Refreshed

I've got so much to say, it's hard to know what to begin with!
As Daddy Lion has told you, my frustration with the dial-up connection has kept me from posting. (In reality, it's the dial-up connection that has kept me from posting, but I'm refraining from venting yet again!)
However, I was also gone this weekend with our church's ladies' retreat! What a great weekend! The speaker shared so openly; it was very moving. The small groups were very well arranged with attention to age so that there was a wide spectrum of wisdom and experience to be shared. However, my "A-HAH" moment came from a group of ladies around the dinner table Saturday night! God is so good to meet us where we are. I am so thankful for those ladies who heard my "cries" and openly shared their experience and advice without condemning my ignorance and PRIDE! Without even realizing it, they were God's vessel this weekend!
I have realized my struggle with Little Pumpkin is my issue not hers. God revealed some secret PRIDE in me and I'm realizing that my rocky road is meant for my humbling. So remind me of this next time you hear me complaining about my sweet girl. Don't get me wrong~ she is a strong-willed child and there will be battles ahead. But I want to make sure I'm learning as I'm training her. Plus, I want to make sure what she hears from my mouth about her is nothing but encouraging and uplifting, so that she may become a confident leader and not a labeled child.
So my "Ebenezer," my rock of remembrance, this weekend is "HUMILITY." I ask for your help in being my memory!
On a lighter note~ We did have a fun time: singing, stories, crafts, eating, shopping, pampering, chatting, more eating, although very little sleeping! I was able to ride with two friends whom I got to know so much better. Check out Josie's blog for a few pics. (You should check out her website too, she's an awesome photographer!) I look forward to her taking our family pics this fall!
I'll end with some more good news: we're getting high speed! YEAH!!! You'll know when it's official ;o) I will be better at this, well faster anyway. I'm not sure high speed will honestly help my blogging ability! ;o) Some things only prayer can fix! ;o)

Dog Days

I remember being at the DeHoop's dairy in Oregon one afternoon and one of the cows went into labor. I was maybe ten. The process was brutal, forelegs came out first, a chain/rope was tied on, then the other end tied to a swinging gate. The guys pushed and pulled on the gate until the head came out, then it seems like one more pull and the calf was 'delivered'.

It was dead.

My first real brush with life and death, as I remember it. I still kinda tear up (don't tell the guys!) Little Lion has been asking a lot of questions about death recently, trying to wrap his 4 year old head around it. He's got heaven, he's got that Jesus is there, he knows happiness, he understands that heaven is better than here. but how much should he know.

Little Lions' idol, my boss, had his mother pass away this weekend in a car accident. Mr. Idol's dad was in pretty bad shape, from what I hear, broken bones, and for an aged man that can be serious. He was wrestling with 'daddy, who died?' and 'when did she die' and 'how come she died?' and then back again to 'what happened to Mr. Idol's dad?' Four Yeas Old This Kid!

Pop asked me last night to take his dogs to the pound. It's a guaranteed death sentence (Scout & LeRoy are pitbulls, and as kind as they may be, aren't on the top of any one's adoption list!) I don't mind doing it, in fact I'm fine with doing it, but the question is Little Lion. Sure I can do it after work. I could probably even do it during lunch. But what about Little Lion? Should he see? Should he go? He'll eventually know when they're gone. I don't mind taking him, but would it be beneficial for him? Was the still birth too much for me, should I have been older? How does euthanasia get filed in a Little Boy's memory. How important is the sanctity of Mr. Idol's mom's life and the contrast of the lives of Scout and LeRoy?

I want my little boy to understand, maybe even cry because life is so precious, but I don't want him to see/know too much, too soon.

Daddy Lion

The Big Bang

Last weekend Little Lion helped me build a rocket, a water bottle rocket. Actually it was a two liter bottle to be launched with compressed air and water as a propellant. Anyway, I decided it was his to do with as he liked, so no holds barred, we designed and built together. The design was for a friendly engineering competition at work, our build went something like this:

Start with one empty Sprite bottle.

Wrap with Pink (yes it has to be pink) construction paper.

Tape construction on with aluminum ducting tape.

Spray paint entire bottle red.

Hot glue fins onto construction paper. Not carbon fiber fins, or stiff cardboard fins, no, 3/8" plywood fins.

Attach a few extra pieces of wood to fuselage, with more hot glue, simply because they are there.

Spray paint entire rocket black covering all pink, red, and silver.

Let dry overnite.



It turned out looking sharp, the results can be seen below. For clarity, I named the contraption "Stan", as in 'stan back, I urnt sure whuz bout ta happen'. The prologue of the video is me explaining to about 50 of my colleagues at work what they were about to see.



Enjoy Stan



Daddy Lion

Who What Where?

Mommy Lion Is Missing! Reward Offered!

There's this frustration thing with dial-up. Most days Mommy Lion would just prefer to not have to deal with it. This week has been a string of those days! Hold on, more is on the way. I, Daddy lion will share with you what I've got in the interim. There's talk of getting a high speed connection, but prices are just way out of our budget since we're rural. I gave her permission to get it done, but not necessarily my approval. We're still on dial-up until she figures it out.

Little Pumpkin had a GREAT evening last night. We did the unthinkable . . . gave her a plate of her own and set it on her highchair table. Not a peep, not a fuss, not a sound (except for chewing).

Just got called to a meeting with the VP, in 8 minutes, gotta run

Daddy Lion

All is well, just a little internal shuffling of salaried employees. Anyway, Little Pumpkin did Great! It seems like we've done the self-feeding thing before, but it never went this well!

There really wasn't a huge mess, and most of the food actually got in her mouth! She was happy, we were happy, all we lacked was a picture. I'll see what I can do.

Daddy Lion.

Where did the weekend go?

Hi there blogging friends! I have you know, I’m forgoing a much needed nap to blog today. Well you know how the lines between needs and wants can get a little fuzzy sometimes ;o). We’ve had a whirlwind of an Easter weekend! Lots a fun at other people’s houses, so mine looks like a tornado from leaving early and coming home late; things were left where they landed.

Daddy Lion was off on Friday, so we had an extended weekend. I was able to go do some Easter shopping Friday morning (thanks again Tia for the fashion advice). Then we spent the afternoon/evening at our friends' house. The guys stayed late at another friend's b-day bash, so Jaime and I talked MOPS! Great accomplishments made. I did take my camera to get pics of the boys playing together, but I never even picked it up!

Saturday we enjoyed our small group egg hunt. A great time of playing, eating, and fellowship. Here are the kids ready to go.All the kids lined up, so excited to start the hunt! We made the big ones wait for the little ones to go first. Just about a 20 second wait, but it felt like eternity for them.
Little Pumpkin loved the rock wall on the play-set! I'm thinking we'll have to be on the look out for one. Daddy Lion says he can add it to our existing set.The kids loved the confetti eggs Mer brought. Can you see a little bit of a pecking order going on here?!
A big shout out to Kristen and Eriik for hosting us! It was a great time with some fun memories made.

Sunday was a great Easter celebration at church with a brunch. Can you believe we managed to get 10 kids in a picture where you can at least see every face!?! All the kids from our small group decked out in their Easter best! So why is it so hard to get a good pic of 2?!?! The best I have of the two of them together from this camera. (I borrowed Pop's Sunday am, since I left mine at the small group egg hunt!)Last year I got a great picture of Gator and Little Lion in this same spot. I hope to do the same for years to come! ;o)

After church over to Lolly and Pop’s house for lunch, naps, dying eggs, games and LOTS of eating. This seems to be a recurring theme – eating! And we wonder why we have issues with our weight! ;o)
We did do another egg hunt there, but with Little Lion and Little Pumpkin being the only grandkids, it was a much smaller scale! It was nice just to hang out and relax. Happy Easter from the Lions' Den!

Monday - This morning was MOPS. Jaime and I announced to the existing group about the new chapter starting at our church. I think it went really well! I’m very excited about next year while still be overwhelmed at times. But I know that God’s got a perfect plan and He will equip us along the way!

Okay enough stalling ~ back to the clean-up efforts after Hurricane Easter! ;o)
I hope you all had a great celebration – it was worth the clean-up for me!

It's Official ~ it's SPRING!

What better way to celebrate the first day of spring than to be outside with friends!
Little Lion and his friend Luke doing some digging! They were having so much fun.
Little Pumpkin catching bubbles with Randall.
We were all over at a Luke's house for an Easter egg hunt today and had so much fun! (Thanks again Josie!) It was a beautiful spring day!This is the one lone egg she was interested in. I finally coaxed her into picking up two more, but we still only made it home with one. Can we say not interested yet!?! Probably because she doesn't realize there is candy inside!Little Lion, on the other hand, didn't slow down for me to take pics. He was going to town.So proud! He found the special "Jesus" egg!

This was his prize for finding the "Jesus" egg and knowing what Easter is really about! Celebrating that Jesus is alive! And this isn't even all of them! I think there were 18 kids all together. Our hostess was awesome! :o) There will be more Easter egg hunts to come, but had to share this great start to spring with you all! Happy Spring!

Bovine, Bags, Birds, and Basketball

I knew Daddy Lion would be working later than usual this evening, so after naps we headed outside. The sun was shinning and it just beckoned us seeing how we had been pinned up the last few days with sickness. First we went to see if the cows were close to our side of the fence, they weren't. :o( But we sure tried "mooing" them towards us. One did begin to walk our way, but quickly realized we were no real threat, and so turned around. Maybe tomorrow!

After returning to our yard, we took to the swing set. I've mentioned before Little Pumpkins obsession with purses. We are hardly ever without one! The proof’s in the puddin’, right?!?

Well, here’s my puddin’.Yes, you are seeing this right. This is my sassy little girl swinging with her purse.
And like any true female she is multi-tasking while moving. She has managed to slip on her bracelet and open her cell phone! A girl after my own heart. ;o)
This is her "shooing" stance. There was a neighborhood dog in the lot next to us! She makes this silly sound with her nose and swats her hand at the air. It's really cute.

Sliding down the slide, purse in tow!

Little Lion and I decided to refill the bird feeder (as we have to every other day it seems).

Waiting on Little Pumpkin.

She wanted to help too. (I tried getting away with giving her an empty container to carry, that didn’t fly!)

At dinner we looked out and saw the fruits of our labor. Okay maybe that doesn’t quite fit. More like the reward for our sharing. ;o)

While feeding the birds we noticed one of the little neighbor boys outside. Little Lion wanted to go play. Poor guy, neither my hubby nor me excelled at sports, so he is a little disadvantaged compared to “Baby Jack”. (He was a baby when we moved in, now almost 3 years old!) Baby Jack is the third of three boys born to the Athletic Director of our local school district.

Baby Jack’s free throw.
Little Lion’s slam dunk! ;o) He kept calling it a “home score”. I tried to tell him it was called a basket, but home score must have sounded better.
And Little Pumpkin will actually drop her purse for a ball!

100%

I feel like I'm functioning at 100% now or at least 100% better than I was yesterday. I don't know that I ever function at 100%! Some little thing called human nature seems to pull me to laziness and convenience over productivity! So I thank you again for your prayers!
We were able to make it to our first fun event - Pump It Up JR. This truly is a great place! The kids can run and play and there is no getting lost and not too many injuries. Bonus: they get wore out! I hope there is one near you.
Now we are home for our sweet naps and I'm fighting not laying down myself! But I need to do some catch up from yesterday. Laundry. It's a never ending battle.
But more exciting, I've just gotten my new book for a "book club" I'm doing with my sweet friend Mer. Long story short it's a blog book club and I'm hoping that this will keep me accountable. We are reading The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity. (Grammar fanatics can tell me how I'm suppose to designate a book because I couldn't remember and I'm too lazy to find my MLA handbook. Hum? I recurring theme this laziness!)
I digress. I've only read the intro, but I'm anxious to get started. In the intro she talks about her mother's hands. This is such a beautiful picture of her remembering her mother's hands and the sweet things they did for her. I remember my mom's hands very vividly. She always (and still does) grew her fingernails long and was never without them polished.
I wonder what my children will remember about my hands!?! Are they ever still enough for them to see? Or am I too busy to read that book or too anal to get them dirty with play dough? I pray that I am intentional with what I do with my hands. So that I may truly touch my children's hearts for eternity!

All better

. . . sike!
Little Pumpkin is doing lots better. The dr's office confirmed it was probably just a virus and let it run it's course with lots of clear liquids and bananas. Thank you to those who were concerned and prayed!
So, now you can pray for me! Since it seems that I now have whatever it was Little Pumpkin did. It seems to be running it's course more quickly through me and hopefully that means I'm over the worse of it.
This really stinks it being spring break and all! Anyway, I pray I'm better for some fun events we have planned for tomorrow and Thursday and Friday! Not to mention EASTER.
Your prayers are coveted.

Happy Shamrock Day

Top of the mornin' to ya! Okay it's not morning anymore, but 1) I had intended to post this first thing this morning and 2) I still hope you had a great morning! :o)


I started this tradition, prompted by a very great friend in Oregon, to ask Little Lion questions every year at the same time to see the difference in his responses and knowledge. Well, I knew if I wanted to remember to do it every year, I needed to pick a date I could remember. So, since March is his half year mark (i.e. he is 4 1/2 right now), then what better combination than St. Patty's day? I love this holiday and never really had reason to celebrate or scrapbook it other than we wore green today! ;o) So now, we ask our questions. (We'll do them tonight when Daddy Lion is home to help with picture taking).


So here are my sweet cubs this morning all decked out in their green!

Little Pumpkin is looking for her cup, that I hid in hopes of getting a good picture without it in the picture! No go!

He is such a GQ man- just like his daddy! At least we don't have the cheesy tight lips with no eyes grin!

Little Lion loves his Little Pumpkin so much. He still wants to hold her all the time. She is appeasing him briefly here! I pray that they will always be the best of friends!

Go kiss someone! ;o)

Busy Saturday

We had a busy, but fun Saturday. Little Lion decided on pancakes and helped Daddy Lion make them. They were yummy ~ he brought up animal pancakes and requested a kangaroo so start practicing Grandma Lion!
Off to Gator's soccer game after breakfast. Those girls are so fun to watch chase the ball. Today was especially hard for them since both teams were bright pink! Little Lion just chases Little Lamb around and Little Pumpkin was just a bit cranky. She has been for a few days now. . . more on that later.
We stopped by the consignment sale because today was 50% off. Little Pumpkin got a baby doll stroller just her size and of course of few little clothing items Mommy Lion couldn't resist. Little Lion picked out some pool toys - a snorkel, goggles, flippers and beach ball. I did manage to find him some short sets too.
Next stop Toys R Us. Yes, I said it. And yes, we all went in. They had a special Easter egg "hunt" today from 12-2. I have hunt in quotations because there really was no hidden eggs. Just 2 randomly place employees with baskets of eggs. Oh well, Little Lion was super excited to get another Spider man egg! Made it all worth the trip.
Michael's was having a special art day for the kids to promote the new crayola line. Pretty cool stuff. So we made the three free projects and headed on our way to our final stop of the morning.
Jake's feed store. No we don't live on a farm, ranch or even own pets. However, the Easter bunnies were there! They were so cute and fluffy. I fell in love with a grey Holland Lop! Then I remember how much I don't like to clean up after animals. Note to mention what a mean little rabbit we had as kids. Oh well, they were really cute to look at. Little Lion enjoyed roaming the store looking for more animals (there were none, but we had to search every nook and cranny). He also enjoyed "trying out" the saddles. Papaw, he sure needs a trip to the farm!
Home for a quick lunch and shorter nap. Then out the door for all of us again!
I was headed to the consignment sale and Daddy Lion and the kids were headed to a b-day party for a kiddo in our Sunday school class. After only about a half hour of being at the sale, my cell rang with my home ring tone! Surprised they were home so soon I answered the phone to hear Blake on the other end. "Mommy, we couldn't go to the party! Little Pumpkin threw up in the car." Maybe the reason she has been so cranky the last few days and eating so finicky. Poor thing. I must be honest, I'm glad I was at the sale!
My superman of a husband cleaned her all up and the car and the car seat all before I got home. (She was sound asleep at 7pm!) So not only was taking care of the kids for me, but also dealt with the yuckiest part of being a parent w/o me! He definitely deserves a super daddy award!
So here's praying that tomorrow will be calmer! We'll have to flip a coin to see who stays home and who teaches class! ;o)

Is there a 12-step program for us?

Okay the real reason that my house was a wreck was blogging, but only because blogging takes so, and I mean SOOOOOOOOOO long! Yes, my blogging friends, I admit . . . My name is Mommy Lion and we are still on . . . dial-up! :o(
I will be enrolling in a support group soon!
This weakness comes mostly because DSL is not offered in our neighborhood. I have now come to realize that this is just an excuse – a denial!
Because . . .
(Disclaimer: if you are a true computer mastermind – you know who you are – bear with me as I explain the following in my inept terms!)
There is now this “guy” who has a “tower” and if we get some little “box” and point it toward his “tower” we will have a high speed connection! Now, to me this sounds a little science fictional, but I know for a fact (hearsay) that it works. And according to my hubby (who just happened to check out the houses while on a walk with the kids), quite a few of our neighbors have this “box” device.
So now the challenge is to convince myself and more importantly my hubby that we should join the “program” and free ourselves from this bondage. Now mind you, my hubby is rather frugal. And the $8.95 for PeoplePC is only a fraction (somewhere around 18% - don't worry, I got out my calculator) of what the “box” costs. (yes, my dial-up friends, PeoplePC will lower their price to beat any competitor and keep you!) See, how quickly I relapse!
My request to you: please pray for us. As silly as I’ve been, it’s a serious decision. Finances is an area Satan loves to sneak into (I’m not calling high-speed internet Satan!). Just that we want to be good stewards of the money God has given us. And honestly do we really NEED high-speed internet?
I think so, but I’m still going to commit it to prayer! ;o)

Catch Up

Housework prevailed over blogging the past few days. (It was bad ~ the reverse had been happening!) SO, here I am with a clean (for the most part) and quiet house to sit and blog:

Wednesday
After BSF, Little Lion rode home with our friends Gator and Little Lamb. (They attend BSF with their mommy. Little Pumpkin will be old enough to go next fall!) So we met at the church playground for a little picnic since it was a beautiful spring day!
Literally cheese-y grins!
Gator wanted to do an Eater egg hunt and so she and Little Lion hid the eggs from each other. I’m not sure that an organized “hunt” ever took place, but they all seemed to have fun. It was just so nice to be outside again!

Thursday
School and cleaning: not much exciting to report. Although, I did get all my cleaning done! That’s a huge accomplishment. Oh, I worked at a local consignment sale tue eve and thurs eve. The good news is some of my biggest items (size and price) sold! Which, more than anything, means I don't have to bring them back to my house! ;o)

That brings us to today! FRIDAY!!!
Today we had our organized PlayDay that I coordinate at the church. We had a great turn out! I’m sure the 84 degree springtime weather was a huge reason! We had 11 moms there with 15 kids. It was a wonderful time to get out and chat and enjoy the weather and let the kids run and play. (as re-read that was alot of "and"s)
Little Pumpkin took some time warming up to the sandals we wore! This is only the second time she’s worn them, and the first for an extended time. So combine that with the pebbles that are used in the play areas and she was one cranky little girl. And made sure everyone knew she was unhappy!
I think I finally ignored her complaints long enough that she moved on and enjoyed her time. Here are some pics from today:
Little Lion and his gang of friends playing on one of the structures. They were way too busy taking care of the bad guys to stop for a picture! Believe me I tried . . . many times.Little Lion and a new friend James Henry. Little Lion is always so excited to see his friends. I pray that this compassion for others always prevails!Little Pumpkin and her friend AJ. They are "twins from different wombs" (they were born on the same day). AJ always starts to dance when she sees me. I find this very ironic since I can't dance myself! ;o)Little Pumpkin and Audrey. I don't think Audrey was too sure about these backless swings. Little Pumpkin loves to swing this way! She holds on tight ~ and hasn't fallen yet. Another reason I think she'll be great at gymnastics.

Have a great weekend!

Just Because

I don't want her to get second child syndrome and she is just so darn cute! Little Pumpkin playing at home today while brother was at pre-school.

The Hunt

Today was the BIG day at pre-school – the Easter Egg Hunt! I’ve come to realize that Little Lion is truly a laid-back , even-keel, just like his daddy kind of kid. Don’t get me wrong, he gets excited about things, but for the most part he just goes with the flow. (I'm not complaining!)

After we (parents) hid all the eggs 12 per child, 3 classes of 8 children . . . let’s see that’s um . . . math’s a little slow . . . where’s a ten-key when you need one? OK, 288 eggs. Since you can see how well I am with numbers, I won’t try to describe how small the room was (yes we were inside – yucky outside). So with eggs literally on top of each other they paraded the 3 classes in by age. (So Little Lion’s class was last – I’m okay with that!) Each child was told to get 12 eggs – we’re talking 2 and 3 year olds, well some 4’s like my Little Lion. Then left to a free-for-all! I would say over half of them can’t count and if they do it’s not past 10! Well, needless to say Little Lion was not competitive enough to get his 12. I'm not bitter . . . can you tell he doesn't get that laid-back persona from me?!?

Oh, but he didn’t have time to look at the camera ~ too busy watching everyone else and scoping things out. He may not be competitive, but he is definitely goal oriented - he didn't stop looking even after all the eggs were found!
No matter the number, he was still proud of his treasures! Especially the Spiderman one!
Little Lion and some classmates check out each others’ loot. Anna was quiet concerned that Little Lion didn’t get his 12. So sweet! We reassured her that Mrs. Debbie would make sure everyone had the right number. She seemed okay with that answer.
Now to enjoy the bounty, just one and of course it had to be the Spiderman one!
Oh, to be 4 again ~ when your only care was which Easter egg to open first! :o)

A mom's got to do what a mom's got to do!

That's really all I have to say. The pictures say it all. Daddy Lion caught me doing Little Pumpkin's hair this morning.

To comfort all of you who are worried, we normally do hair while Little Pumpkin is safely strapped in her high chair and filling her face with food. Her happiest moments ~ wonder where she gets it? ;o)

A Masterpiece . . .

. . . in his eyes! Little Lion loves to paint and it's not very often that my anal personality allows such a mess. However, he is quite OCD himself (you can tell by his paintbrush placement), so that's no excuse really! I'm just lazy about getting the stuff out. I digress.

After completing his work of art, he asked that we take a picture of it to put it on the internet for everyone to see. (Especially Grandma and Grandpa!)

SO here it is, our budding Picasso's work! Enjoy.

Post Script: This too is from March 7.

SNOW!

No, that’s not a typo! It really is snowing here. (Which if you know where we live you realize this is a small miracle.) It began around 6 am and now (11:30) it is starting to become slush again.

Little Pumpkin was so excited to see the snow. The entire time during breakfast she was pointing outside and saying what I believe to be “sie” for outside. So getting as bundled as we have the attire for we went outside.
Little Lion on the other hand was very reluctant. He wanted to stay inside and read his books, but once we were out he joined us. Here he is telling me that the snow is getting inside his sweatshirt ~ in that how dare it tone of voice.
We did discover, once out, that Little Pumpkin (much like myself) enjoyed the snow much more from inside! It looks so soft and fluffy! Who would have thought it would be cold and wet!?!
Needless to say we enjoyed our 5 minutes of snowing and retreated back inside to our nice warm house with all the blinds raised to enjoy the snow from inside!

Post Script: This is from March 7. Our computer has had issues with posting.