One of Those Moments

Do you ever have one of those "make you feel old moments?" I had one recently when we received a graduation announcement in the mail. The daughter of our former pastor is graduating from high school this Friday night. I am not quite sure how that can be. After all it was just a mere fifteen years ago in January that I first went to church with Brian and met the wonderful Williams family. I had not even been a high school graduate a year when I first watched that little girl take the microphone and sing to the Lord in front of our small congregation. I watched that little girl grow up over the next few years, doing the penny march each Sunday, singing with her family, and growing spiritually until the Lord called her father to a new church and eventually led us to a new church home as well. While I haven't had the pleasure of watching her mature through her teen years, each time I do see her it is easy to recognize Christ in her life. I know the Lord has great things planned for her, and I pray that she will always follow His lead. I just wish her growing up didn't make me feel so old...

Something a Little Different

We recently started a new prayer group at our church. It is a Moms in Touch group and we meet once a week to pray for our children and our schools for one hour. We had our first meeting on May 5th and I decided to go just to see what it was all about. After listening, I knew it was something that I needed to do. All was good until it was actually time to go to the first real meeting. We were supposed to start at 6. I got back to town after work at 5:30. This gave me 30 minutes to talk myself in and out of going - I actually felt like those cartoons where there is a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. While I knew I was supposed to go and that God wanted me to go, the devil kept tempting me not to go. You see I am one of those people that rarely prays out loud, and that is one of the key elements of this group. So the devil kept popping excuses in my head, reasons not to go. But in the end I went, and I really got a blessing from it. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined, and I know I will grow spiritually from it, not to mention my kids and our schools need all the prayer they can get.

Can you believe...

School will be out in just two weeks. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was taking Skylar for her very first day of preschool? Now she is registered for kindergarten and we go next week for her evaluation at school. And Stephen is almost a third grader. How did that happen? Where did the time go? I know they are looking forward to being out of school - my mother on the other hand would probably prefer year round school for them since she will have them at her house most of the summer. I do have plans to be off most Friday's while they are out. Maybe we can plan some fun stuff to do. I would love to take them swimming some, and of course there are our trips to the library. I am so glad my kids like the library. Go ahead and call us nerds - we don't care.

As for summer vacation plans, so far we have none. We don't want to get too far from home - gas is too high to travel to far off - but we would like a short getaway. Skylar says we have to go back to Tennessee this year and stay at the same place because she really liked the pool. While I don't foresee us going back there this year, we will have to be sure to find a place that lives up to her swimming expectations. I am sure we will think of something - if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment.

A Day Off

Yesterday I took the day off to go on a field trip with Stephen and his class. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite like sitting on a bus with 40 second graders to make you very appreciative of their teachers. Not only that, I am more thankful for my job today than I was on Tuesday - at least we only act like 8 year old kids on occasion around here.

It wasn't a bad trip at all really. They spent the morning at the park playing before having a picnic lunch. After that we went to the IMAX theater to see a movie. While the actual movie left a little to be desired, I would like to go see something interesting at the IMAX now. Luckily the movie - The Living Sea - was only about 45 minutes long. I really don't think it would have held their interest much longer. After that we headed back to school and I checked Stephen out early. I treated him and Skylar to snow cones then we went to the library. So how is that for an exciting vacation day...

Here We Go Again

You may remember back on February 5 that tornados blew through our part of the state. Well last Friday, May 2, we had yet another stormy day. This time it was in the morning. At about 9 am, I got a call from Brian that Conway County was under a warning and that a tornado had been confirmed to touch down. Of course my first thoughts were of my kids. They were at school, and here I was 25 miles away. All I could do was pray that they were ok. I spent the rest of my morning checking up on people and watching the local news on the internet. The kids were safe, but I soon found that several people I knew had lost their homes, including one of the little girls in Skylar's preschool class. The last I heard, there were eight deaths caused by the storms, so while losing a home is devastating, it could have been worse.

When I picked Skylar up from school, I quizzed her about her morning. She said when the sirens started going off they went to their safe room and Mrs. Cindy started praying over them. I once again feel so blessed that she is in a preschool where there is such a strong Christian foundation. She didn't know what had happened to her friend's home, and I struggled to explain it to her in a way that wouldn't scare her or upset her too badly. She was very concerned for her friend and all of her toys. I told her the toys could all be replaced and that we should be thankful her family was alright. She accepted that and then suggested we buy her something to replace her lost toys. We will be making a trip to the store very soon, and I won't be surprised if she and her friend end up with new matching outfits and something fun too.

New Goal

For my birthday, Brian got me exactly what I wanted, a treadmill. I have done really good at using it ever since. I started keeping a log of my distances and times on the second night. That night I walked 2.4 miles in 46 minutes. I have been increasing my distance ever since, but walking a minimum of 45 minutes each session at least 5 nights a week. On Tuesday I went 3 miles in 45 minutes. I even managed to jog one mile of that, which led me to set a new goal for myself. As you may remember, each October I participate in the Race for the Cure. By this October I want to be able to run the entire 5K - that's just slightly over 3 miles. While that may not seem like much, for a couch potato like me, it might as well be a marathon. So - I will keep you all updated on my progress and let you know when I finally reach my goal.

As far as the weight loss goals I have, I am still holding steady. I haven't been able to shake those 5 pounds I put on during the Christmas season, but I haven't added any more. I am hoping the new walking/jogging routine will whittle them away. I can already see a difference in the way some of my clothes fit. Even though the scale hasn't shown a loss, some of the fat has at least shifted around, so I have to consider that a non-scale victory.