A procrastination post

Right now we are in the process of trying to get a house built. Well, we've actually been the in process for a good 2 years, but apparently I'm a little too picky and indecisive when it comes to house plans. But I'm pretty sure the plan we've settled on is perfect. Or it will be. After just a few more changes. Anyway, we have a plan and something has made Robbie and I believe that we can contract it out ourselves and save a boatload of money by doing this. I have discovered this week that "ourselves" mostly means "myself" and I'm feeling like suddenly I have a full-time job. And I don't care for those.

This week my days have been spent meeting with contractors, delivering plans, and picking out things that I thought would be months away. But without even a foundation being layed, I already know which sinks, faucets, and tubs we will have. Doesn't that sound more like something that should be a few months away in this process? I would like to say, though, that for a girl who is really only interested in how beautiful the inside of the house looks, I've been able to make a few decisions that I call a little unimportant. Like what kind of siding we will have and what is the ceiling of our porch going to be made of. Umm, I don't really care, but please tell me all 150,000 options that are available just in case I decide to care.

While my days this week have been spent running from one place to another, my evenings have been spent running away from storms. After a tornado hit DeKalb in 1999 and I saw trailer houses up in trees, I vowed to never live in one. Yet, here I am, living in a trailer until we can get this house built, which may or may not happen sometime before Christmas. And actually for the most part it hasn't bothered me too much. On the bright side, we've had no house payments, super low taxes and insurance, and only 1100 square feet to have to keep clean. This bright side quickly goes by the wayside when you hear that all of the storm chasers are headed to your town. My thought is not whether or not to stay here, it is whose house are we going to go to. Luckily we have several friends that offered up their brick, mortar, and shingles so we could at least feel like we had a fighting chance of survival. I must say though, after spending hours at other people's houses this week, our house came through it all untouched. And yes, I have thanked the Lord several times for this. I have seen what these storms have done to other people and it's just horrible. I am amazed that the one room of the house that the people chose to hide-out in ended up being the only room in the house still standing. Whether you believe or not y'all, that's a God thing.

So after spending my days and nights running everywhere, this morning I've found myself with nothing I had to do but one phone call to a contractor. But not spending much time in the house this week has left me with a ton of laundry (who wears all these clothes anyway), dishes that need to be done, and an entire house that needs to be cleaned. So after I got back home from taking the boys to school this morning, I sat in my car listening to my ipod and singing at the top of my lungs for about 20 minutes before I could even make myself come into my filthy house. It was quite possibly the most enjoyable part of my week so far. So I came in my house, gathered my laundry and got it started, and sat down to blog instead of cleaning the filth around me. The way I see it, it's not going anywhere. And it seems to be a storm-free, beautiful next few days, so there should be time. Or maybe that's just the time I need to convince Robbie that with my new found full-time job of house contractor, we should hire a maid.

Maybe if someone else would come in and clean my house for me today, I would have a chance of caring about the upcoming royal wedding that people can't seem to stop talking about.

Or maybe not.

I had to put this pic in of my boys on Easter Sunday. I know I can't get by with matching outfits much longer, so I'm taking advantage while I can.

LTC

For the past 3 years we have gone to Dallas on Easter weekend for the LTC convention. LTC stands for Leadership Training for Christ. It is for 3rd thru 12th graders to go and compete in different activities relating to church and worship that will help them to be future leaders of the church. There are many different activities they can choose from: song leading, chorus, puppets, drama, speech, sign language, Bible bowl, art, scrapbooking... the list goes on. We had around 20 kids participating this year, and had around 50 people with us on our trip. We left Friday morning and didn't get back home until late Saturday night. It was a long, but fabulous 2 days!

We usually bring Austin with us on the trip, even though he is not old enough to participate, but this year we left him with my parents in DeKalb. He had an Easter egg hunt at school Friday morning that he didn't want to miss and he wouldn't have been able to go to that if he had gone with us. But he had a great time with my parents while we were gone. They hid and hunted eggs several times, rode the golf cart, and even locked themselves out of the house once, so it must have been a good time. My mom told me that my dad kissed her before he was leaving the house and when Austin saw this he said, "hey, y'all are married?" Mama said, "yes, we are".  Austin said "well Poppy Loe needs to take off his ring so I can marry you". So sweet. I told him when I saw him Saturday night that he hurts my feelings because I thought he was married to me. He said, "don't worry mom, I still love you the bestest". That's all I needed to hear. :)

All of our activities were held at the Anatole hotel. They have tons of conference rooms, lots of room to hang out in a down time, and a nice big yard for the kids to play in. While the events the kids were participating in were serious, there was plenty of time for fun! 

I had Adison Wright and Emily Anderson in my hotel room this year. They were so good, I could just keep these two for myself. (Except for the fact that SOMEONE squeezed all my toothpaste out and I didn't even notice until I got home!) That's alright though, girls, I still have my paddle! ;-)

This is Brandi McGilton. She is the reason I spent a large part of these 2 days laughing my head off! Love this girl.

Aaron participated in 2 different events this year, puppets and chorus. Last year was his first year to be able to participate and he said, "I'll do puppets, but only one or two lines". Well, he did great with what he was given last year, so this year he was given the main puppet role in their skit. He held his puppet the right way, spoke loudly, and spoke clearly. Really couldn't have been any better. I was so proud of him. We had a pretty big group that participated in chorus this year. They sang 3 different songs, and were judged on several different elements. I was a little worried about Aaron not standing still for all of it because he was on the front row and he has trouble standing still for 1 minute, much less trying it for 8! But he did well so at the end of the day I was not only just a proud momma, I was proud of all of our kids that have spent the last 4 months preparing for this. 

This is the chorus during their performance.

This was Aaron's puppet group walking in the room, ready to perform.

Aaron with his friend, Garrett Brooks.



The book of the Bible that the theme was based on this year was the book of Revelation. It is all about how Jesus is coming back and we need to always live our life in order to be ready for His return. The t-shirts that our group wore on Saturday says "BE READY" in Greek, or at least that's what we were told!

Fighting on the bed

Ok, there is a video here but apparently it is not showing up for anyone but me. I'm working on it!

At least once a week my boys will beg me to "fight" with Robbie on the bed. My rule is that they can play until someone cries, but the first cry is usually from Robbie and it is fake because he's worn out from throwing boys and he's looking for an excuse to stop. This is the type of play that little boys need their daddy's for, because it's a little rough for what I consider 'fun'. It reminds me of when I was little and my brothers would all watch wrestling on Saturday mornings and then they would proceed to wrestle each other in the living room. I would get so upset and stand in the corner and cry because I thought they were really hurting each other, but now I understand that is just how boys play. Weird. But unfortunately true.

I'm not perfect

I just heard a song on Nick, Jr. called 'I'm not perfect' and for some reason it struck a chord with me today. It's a song that was written for kids, but I needed to hear it today. Here's how it goes:

I'm not perfect. No I'm not.
I'm not perfect, but I've got what I've got.
I do my very best. Do my very best.
Do my very best each day.
But I'm not perfect and I hope you like me that way.

We're not perfect. No we're not.
We're not perfect, but we've got what we've got.
We do our very best. Do our very best.
Do our very best each day.
But we're not perfect and we hope you like us that way.

You're not perfect. No you're not.
You're not perfect, but you've got what you've got.
You do your very best. Do your very best.
Do your very best each day.
But you're not perfect and you know I love you that way.


After I heard this, I remembered a song by Natalie Grant called 'Perfect People'. I googled 'perfect people' and guess what came up first? Celebrities who supposedly look perfect. Really? Is that our idea of perfect people? The people that have their lives the least together are the ones that we think of as 'perfect'. That is so messed up.

I think a lot of times as Christians we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be perfect, or at least act perfect when everyone is watching. But I just don't think that's what it's all about. We can act perfect and we can act like everything in our lives is perfect, but the truth is that we ALL have our weaknesses and we ALL have our moments that we wish we could go back and have a re-do. But because we're not perfect, I think we need to have those times to learn and grow to be better people. If we don't stumble from time to time, how do we learn? That is what grace and forgiveness is all about. And a lot of times we come out on the other side stronger and better than we were before.

Here are a few lyrics from Natalie Grant's song:

Suddenly it's like a weight is lifted
When you hear the words that you are loved
He knows where you are and where you've been
And you never have to go there again

There's no such thing as perfect people
And there's no such thing as a perfect life
So come as you are, broken and scarred
Lift up your heart and be amazed
And be changed by a perfect God.

I think some days we just need to be reminded of this. We are not perfect, but God's love is. He knows what we've been through and what we're going through, but His love is unconditional. The best we can do is learn from our mistakes and bad judgements and not make that mistake again and remember to rely on God through the whole thing.

 I think that's just about as close to perfect as any of us can get.

Trikes, Bikes, and Scooters

I don't understand

As I was driving down the road this morning, I couldn't help but wonder why there are so many lanes closed for road construction when there is not any actual construction going on there. I can't stand it when there are barrels in one lane for miles and no evidence of any kind of construction taking place any time soon. Are they not aware that there is probably a reason there is more than one lane needed on that road? Do they not know that when I'm in a hurry, I'm almost guaranteed to get behind the person who goes 20 mph the entire time and I can't pass because of their barrels?  I don't understand. Which led me to thinking about other things I don't understand. They are completely random thoughts, so I think I'll just do a bullet list for this.

So here it is, some things I just don't understand:

• why I always put off doing taxes til April
• why doctor's need to know ALL of your medical history just to treat you for a sore throat
• how I ever made it without my iphone
• why junk food tastes so much better than healthy food
• why we don't appreciate our parents until we become parents ourselves
• why family members can't just get along
• why I ALWAYS have to tell Austin what's on the kids menu at Tamollys, even though we eat there every week
• why God chose to bless me with the family, friends, and things that He has
• why we always want more than we can afford
• why I have to worry about acne and wrinkles at the same time
• why I have to hear a song 3 to 6 times before I can decide if I like it
• why my husband loves me as much as he does
• why I can't make up my mind about having bangs
• why Americans make such bad political decisions
• why my spell check is not working (which explains any misspelled words in this post)

So there it is. There is SO much more, but these are the things that I've realized in the past hour that I just don't get.