hairstyles

I am now trying to "do" something with Aaliyah's hair when I have the time and she'll let me. Bows don't work b/c she likes to pull them out and just leaving it down causes this wonderfully huge afro when she gets up from her nap (I'll have to get a picture of that)! I think we've finally found a hair-care routine that works for now, but here are a couple of pics of recent attempts at hair-styling.

******Disclaimer: keep in mind that my hairstyling experience involves only my own head. I've never been able to do anyone's hair but mine...and that's limited to ponytails.


First attempt at anything. Two ponytails on top only. This is from my phone, so you'll have to excuse the quality of the picture.



First time trying pigtails. I tried to swoop up all her hair into these two, but of course the back always falls down. This is my FIL's favorite.






I've also tried just the little top ponytail (no pics of that, sorry). Any more suggestions on possible hairstyles? Her hair is still baby-fine and I refuse to do any tight styles. Oh...and I need to be able to do it in the 1-2 minutes that she'll actually sit still before I have to hold her down! :)

I love our house

There are some great things about living where we do now.
#1 - one set of grandparents are right across the street (very helpful last night!)
#2 - we are back in Rutherford County
#3 - we live in a neighborhood that everyone knows about, directions are easy to give, and most of the neighbors are actually interested in knowing you!
#4 - we live close enough to the lake to walk down and feed the ducks (with the kids in the wagon...it's a little far for them)

Here are some pictures from our little field trip this morning.

Ready to go!!



Mean Duck - he came right up to us the second he heard the wrapper on the crackers (as did about 500 other ducks!) and wouldn't back down. The kids were a little scared, but I was poised and ready to attack if needed. :)



Lots of ducks today. There were so many more than this, but it would have just looked like a lot of brown dots on the grass.



Goose!



Throwing rocks in the lake (along with some duck poop thanks to my daughter!)



Aggressive Duck - wouldn't leave us alone. I had to keep my eye on him while I was taking pictures to make sure he wasn't going to peck me!



"I just want to skip rocks, mommy." This after I have already told him 15 million times that it's time to stop throwing the rocks.



wants to be just like bubba...doesn't listen!



Do we know what "STOP THROWING THE ROCKS" means???!!



"Dah, Dah" come here!!



On the way back home, Kyler caught his first butterfly on his arm! He was so excited that he named it and called it his pet. :)




Sorry there are no pics of the kids actually feeding the ducks. They (the ducks) were very aggressive when they heard the wrapper from the crackers and I didn't want them to attack the kids. The whole sleave of crackers went in about 30 seconds...no lie. Maybe next time we'll take daddy...he'll protect us!

God-ology - The Bible

I know, I know...it's been a whole week since week 2 of God-ology and I haven't commented, yet. Well, it's been a crazy week with a yard sale thrown in, but I wanted to get this up before tonight's session.

We tackled some questions about the Bible last week:

Why should the Bible have authority in your life?
What makes it different than other religious books?
The Bible was written by humans. Doesn't that mean there are mistakes? How can we know it's truly from God? Aren't their opinions thrown in?

There are three words that we hear when talking about the Bible:

Revelation - God revealed, He has chosen to reveal Himself to us
Inspiration - the process by which He gave us the Bible
Illumination - the Holy Spirit's work of bringing light to the words of the Bible as we read them

One quote I grabbed, "People don't attack the Bible because it's open to attack...they attack the Bible because they don't want to be held accountable to what it says, they want to live life on their terms" (paraphrased)

I know this seems all over the place. I will try to do better after tonight's session!

Garage Sale

If you are reading this on Sat. the 23rd...come on over to my place for a garage sale! We have lots of stuff that HAS to go and I'd rather make money on it than just give it away or toss it! :) (the leftovers will be donated, though).

It's posted on Craigslist and the DNJ online...so if you're in the neighborhood, just drop on by and see what kind of great deal you can haggle ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!!

Today is my husband's birthday. I won't say how old he is (I think he's a bit sensitive), but I love him all the same ;)
I don't know if he reads this or not, but I will say it anyway...
Happy Birthday baby, I love you with all of my heart and I can't wait to celebrate MANY more birthdays with you.



P.S. I've been praying recently that I can understand different situations from my husband's point of view (we all know what great communicators men are) and lo and behold I just discovered this morning that he has started a blog! Don't know if he knows how many people will be going there, but let's give him a big welcome to blogland! Go here to read and leave comments. I know I will enjoy getting into his thoughts!

Adventures at Wal-Mart...

if you don't know already...I work at Wal-mart. I worked there in college and came back just recently so I could continue to stay home with my kids but still provide some income. This place is so different 10 years later and now a mom and wife. I notice a lot of things that I never noticed before. I will be throwing in a few funny blogs every now and then about things that I notice that just strike me as odd.
Nothing unusually funny comes to me right now (although I'm sure I'll have one after I get off tonight) but I do notice something. There are a lot of my former students who come to Wal-mart just to hang out. Not a problem...I did that too...in fact still do sometimes. :) The thing that just breaks my heart is the number of them who are carrying children either in the cart or in their bellies (I only taught 3 1/2 years so these are 15-18 year olds). These are not their siblings...these are their kids! Everytime I see one of my kiddos pregnant, my heart hurts for them. They have no idea. Everytime I see a former student proudly showing off their child to me like it's the newest, greatest accessory, I hurt for them. They do not know. Now that I'm no longer their teacher, I just want to pull them aside and tell them how much God loves them. How much I love them. How much having a baby probably won't make them feel more loved. It's a huge sacrifice. One that I have a hard time with at 29, I can't even imagine trying to deal with it at 16!! I just hurt for them, whether they intended to get pregnant or not.
Okay, that's enough for now...stay tuned!

Husband bragging

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know I don't talk a whole lot about my husband. Like every young marriage, we have problems. We are both stubborn control freaks who like everything to go the way we expect and plan it to...but we don't think alike so that causes a whole world of problems. It feels like everything is a battle or a competition and I'm NOT a big competitor (he very much is). He is a very hard worker (at work) but doesn't do too much around the house and expects me to take on pretty much everything. To be perfectly honest, I've had a hard time lately remembering the good qualities and focusing too much on the things that make me mad.
HOWEVER...something has changed. I don't know what, but I'm glad. Part of it is probably my attitude and choosing to see the good instead of the bad. Since we've been in our new home (one week now) he has helped unpack, done little things to the yard and in the garage without me asking...he even cleaned up dinner last night!! I am so proud of my hubby. I think that after 5 years, we are starting to get the hang of a few things, although there is a whole lot more we have to learn. We always have good days and bad days...it just depends on what we choose to focus on.
Ray, I love you and I'm proud to call you my husband.