Heaven

The following conversation took place at dinner:

Grace: Where's Nan? (Todd's mom)

Me: She's at her house in Tennessee.

Grace: Where's Pops? (Todd's dad)

Me: Pops is in heaven. He died and went to heaven to be with Jesus.

Grace: Is Pops playing with his friends in heaven?

Me: I'm sure a lot of Pop's friends are in heaven. They are all singing and praising God.

Grace: Can I go to heaven with Pops?

Me: Yes, Lord willing, one day you will go to heaven after you die.

Grace: Is heaven in Tennessee?

Me: No, heaven is not on Earth. Heaven is a place far away where Christians go after they die.

Grace: Can we drive there in the car and go see Pops?

Me: No, we can't drive there in the car. Um.....(interrupted)

Grace: Then how do we get there?

Me: You realize that you are a sinner and you need Jesus to save you by his death on the cross. You pray to God and ask forgiveness for your sins. You thank Him for sending his son to die for you. And, you show your gratefulness by living as a Christian.

Grace: Mama, can we pray right now?

Me: OK

Grace: Dear God, thank you for Chuck E. Cheese's. Amen.

Oh, well.........

Todd's 1st Day at New Job

Todd had a good first day at his new job as asst. principal. He spent time coordinating his new calendar with the other administrators and learning the lay of the land. He participated in interviews with students concerning discipline issues. One student was arrested for possession of marajuana on school grounds, and another student was interviewed for possible gang activity. There is a full-time police officer on campus that assists them when issues like this come up. Thankfully, his new co-workers agreed that days like yesterday were not the norm....usually, they are dealing with "normal" discipline issues like disrespect, not following school rules, etc.

When he was organizing his calendar with the school principal, he found out that there will be a minimal of after-school activities that he will be required to supervise. There are just three more Thursday night home football games and one Friday night homecoming game. Compared to his band director schedule, this is a breeze! It'll be especially nice to have him to ourselves on Saturdays from now on!

Update on Grace: We have come to the conclusion that she was experiencing food poisoning or an allergic reaction to red jello that she ate for lunch on Sunday at our church. She never had a fever, and after a few horrendous hours she didn't throw up again. Needless to say, I am eliminating red food coloring from her diet (jello, koolaid, etc.) just in case.

Doing Better

Grace finally stopped vomiting around 6:30 this morning, then fell asleep until the realtor came over at 9:30. Todd stayed up all night and left for work around 6:45. Grace seems to be feeling better...she asked for food and I gave her a piece of toast and Gatorade. She ate it all and I'm hoping it stays down. I've seen more vomit in the past 12 hours than I saw working in an elementary school for 7 years.

For those of you who are finding my last three posts disturbing, I'm truly sorry. This is real life as a mom!

I'm hoping she takes a good, long nap today and I can sneak a couple hours of sleep.

Thankfully, the realtor was pleased with the pictures she took today. Our house listing should be up by this afternoon!

Update

Thank goodness for 24 hour pharmacies. I just got back from Walgreens. I had to get some Gatorade since Grace seems to be getting dehydrated. She has been vomiting every 10-15 minutes.

Poor Todd. He doesn't want to go back to bed because he is afraid he will sleep through his alarm clock. Today is his first day on the new job, and he doesn't want to mess it up. I said I'd wake him at 6:00, but he's afraid I'll fall asleep too.

Right now we are watching "Cars."

The End Has Come for Red Koolaid

Warning: This post is not for weak stomachs.

About 1:30 this morning, we heard Grace coughing and crying in her room. We walked in to find that she had projectile vomited red koolaid all over herself, her bed, and about 6 square feet of carpet. With visions of the realtor coming tomorrow, I ran to get the carpet cleaner while Todd started cleaning up Grace. Todd changed the sheets and got Grace cleaned up. After 20 minutes of scrubbing I managed to get the red stains out of the carpet.

I was about to start the explanation of why "lambie" was "taking a bath" instead of sleeping in her bed when it happened AGAIN. Projectile vomit all over the clean sheets, all over Grace, and this time about 12 square feet of carpet. Todd took her and started a bath. I stripped down the bed again and sprayed the floor with carpet cleaner. After about 45 minutes of scrubbing, the carpet looks OK.

We let her stay in the bath for a while to make sure she wasn't going to throw up again, then Todd got her out and started drying her off. She vomited AGAIN all over the bathroom floor and bathmats and herself. I decided to keep her up for a while, so after we got cleaned up a third time, we are now downstairs watching Little Einsteins.

Update: she just threw up all over the couch and me.

Note to self: NO MORE RED KOOLAID!!!!

My Handyman

My husband is a man of MANY talents, but unfortunately he did not inherit the "fix it" gene. He will be one of the first to admit this. We have been putting off fixing the tile problem in our shower, but we had to stop procrastinating this weekend. The realtor is coming Monday morning to take pictures of our house for the advertising, and everything needs to be in working order.

Home Depot is an awesome place. They hold "handyman" classes to help people like us learn how to fix things ourselves. This morning, Todd got up early and went to a class on installing tile. He came home an expert. It took him about an hour to replace the broken tiles and re-grout everything. It looks good as new! I am SO PROUD of him. It would have cost a lot of money to hire someone to do it for us. While he was fixing the tile, I gave the master bathroom a fresh coat of paint. The end result is very nice.

I also weeded the flower bed this morning and sprayed Round-Up around the perimeter to keep the grass from growing in the bed. I inadvertently sat in an ant hill while I was weeding....lets just say I haven't danced a jig like today since I found a DVD of Barry Manilow's Copacabana on EBay.

Getting a house ready for sale is exhausting. I sure do appreciate my mom helping me while they were here the past few weeks. I hope all this work is worth it in the end!

Train in Righteousness

I am currently reading a book by Ginger Plowman called "Don't Make Me Count To Three!". I have read another book of Ginger's called "Heaven At Home" which I highly recommend. Anyway, my sweet friend Joy gave me "Don't Make Me Count To Three" when I was recovering from my surgery and had some extra time on my hands to read. I haven't finished it yet, but I was thoroughly convicted by something I read today.

I am reading the chapter on how to verbally reproof your child when disciplining. Ginger reminds us that we are not only to point out our child's sin, but we are to train them in righteousness (tell them what to do INSTEAD of sinning). For example, here's a big pet peeve of mine: whining. When Grace whines, I remind her of the Bible verse that says "Do everything without complaining or arguing." Sometimes we sing the Steve Green song, "Do Everything Without Complaining." However, I have not been training her what to do INSTEAD of whining. The Bible says we are to be thankful for all things. When reproofing Grace for whining, I should also be reminding her to have a thankful attitude to God for what He has done for us.

Today in the car I put this plan into action. After I took her to the playground this afternoon, we went to Payless Shoes to find a new pair of tennis shoes. She didn't want to go to the store and started whining and crying to go home. I verbally reproofed her for whining and complaining and reminded her that God commands us to do all things without complaining. Then I reminded her how much we have to be thankful for today (we just played on the playground for a whole hour, we are going to buy a brand new pair of shoes, we have a nice car with air conditioning after playing hard and getting hot, we met nice friends on the playground, etc.) She started naming several things she was thankful for and her whole attitude changed.

This command to train in righteousness is applicable to every discipline situation. I need to always be thinking how to reach the heart of the matter and model for Grace how to do/say things in a way that is honoring to God. Really, when you think about it, Biblical discipline has four parts:

1. Reproof (point out sin)
2. Train in righteousness (model correct way to act)
3. Chastise (spank, give consequence, etc.)
4. Repent/Pray (ask forgiveness)

When we see our child forcibly grab a toy out of another child's hands, it's easy to do number 1&3&4. "Stealing is wrong. We do not take toys from other children!" (Spank, spank). Now go ask your friend to forgive you..."Please forgive me for grabbing your toy while you were playing." If we include training in righteousness (#2), it should sound something like, "Your friend was having fun playing with that toy. When you took it from him, you put your own desires above that of your friend. We show love for our friends by being happy that they are happy. If you want to play with that toy, you can ask nicely if you can play WITH them, or wait until they are done playing then ask permission." Then you can have your child practice asking permission in a nice way.

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is! But, just like riding a bike, when we spend time training in righteousness, our children will think and act in Biblical principals.

I have a LOT of work to do in this area (#2), and I hope that God will give me wisdom and patience to administer Biblical discipline. I have only touched on many of the practical applications of Biblical discipline that are discussed in Ginger's book. I haven't yet read the chapter on spanking. I'm sure more thoughts will be coming...........

Political Rally

On television today a Democratic operative pointed out that when Obama holds a
rally 25-30,000 people show up, whereas when McCain holds one he only draws
10-15,000. The Republican spokesman replied, "That's because McCain's supporters are at work."

Todd's New Job

A couple of weeks ago, I shared that my husband Todd got a new job. Tomorrow is his last official day at his old school district, and he will begin his journey as a school administrator in a new district next Monday. After school today, we drove to his new job and moved some things into his new office. It is very nice....furnished simply but with quality furniture and bookshelves. It will be fun to help him decorate (in a manly way, of course....he said NO to curtains) and make the office his own. He also got the keys to his new school. Grace enjoyed running down the long hallways and meeting the custodians while Todd and I unloaded books.

He is immensely thankful for his decade of teaching experience in the realm of music education. I know that a part of him will miss the excitement of halftime shows, drumline competitions, and band trips to Disneyworld. I also know that he will miss the positive interactions with students as he has helped them develop a love for music. He realizes that most of his interactions with students as an assitant principal will be negative discipline issues. However, he's looking forward to the opportunity to impact the campus on a broader level, not just in the area of music. I'm sure that in the future, he will teach an occasional band camp or maybe even private lessons. He'll probably still write drum books for local school districts. And, he'll continue to play in the orchestra at our church.

He was so excited tonight as he walked the hallways of his new school, pointing things out to me and trying to memorize the names of the sweet Hispanic ladies that were cleaning the classrooms. Grace enjoyed dancing to the Mexican mariachi music that they had blasting from a boombox.

God has been good to give him this opportunity for a fresh change.

Real Estate News

Well, I just finished meeting with the real estate agent. I like her a lot, and she was encouraging. She thinks my house will sell. Despite the fact that there is an explosion of new houses being built around us, statistically houses are re-selling in my neighborhood.....fourteen in the past few months. She complimented me for keeping the house in good repair and decorated nicely.

The bad news is that due to the current market, we can't list it for as much as we had hoped. However, I should be thankful that we will come out ahead, hopefully with enough for a down payment on a new home. She is coming back on Friday for us to sign the papers, and the house will be listed by Monday morning. She seems very aggressive and she has the top sales record for her office. We will schedule open houses and show the house as much as possible.

We're praying that it will sell before the end of the year. And, since this is the first time for us to sell a home, we're praying that things will go smoothly and not be too stressful.

Almost....

Well, I almost got everything done that was on my to-do list yesterday. I wasn't able to touch up the paint in the hallway or clean out the flower bed, but the house looks nice. The gameroom especially turned out nice. I even managed to get three hours of sleep last night! Hopefully the real estate agent will have good news for us. We have no idea what price our home can be listed for, and we just hope to come out with enough money to put a nice down payment on a new house.

The agent will be here in 20 minutes, so I'm going to go sweep the porch....

I Love Naptime!

I love naptime! Grace and Kie (the little boy I keep) are taking a nap, and I am putting my feet up for a few minutes to try to recover. I have a new-found respect for women who give birth to boys. I never realized how easy Grace is until I started keeping a little boy. The way he plays is exhausting: monster-hunting, super hero rescuing, play fighting, wrestling, car racing, fascination with bathroom activities, soccer, baseball, etc. Today I took them to the park so we could have "races." (I learned some of these tricks from my sister-in-law, Audra). They were both worn out by naptime!

I'm used to quietly sitting around a table and pretending to have a tea party. I'm used to dressing and undressing baby dolls. I'm used to lazily pushing Grace on the swing outside. I'm used to helping Grace bake cookies in the kitchen while listening to the Food Channel. We are being exposed to a whole new way to play!

I'm also amazed to keep a child that actually eats. He is always hungry and he always eats all the food on his plate without me telling him to eat. He even ate 2/3 of Grace's hot dog after he had finished his own for lunch today.

Grace and I are having a lot of fun, and she is constantly asking when Kie will be coming over to our house again? During naptime, Kie sleeps on a napmat on the floor in Grace's room....they do very well going to sleep in the same room. Anyway, last night at bedtime, I heard rustling on the baby monitor. I went upstairs and peeked in Grace's room. She had gotten Kie's napmat out of the closet and set up his bed on the floor. She put one of her baby dolls on the napmat and covered him with Kie's blanket. Then she told her doll, "Go to sleep Kie. No talking. It's bedtime."

She really does love having a playmate.

Busy, Busy

I have been incredibly busy lately trying to get the house ready to sell. We chose a real estate lady who is coming to see our home tomorrow morning at 10:00. This is the list of things I have to do before then:

1. Fill all the holes in the gameroom walls and get it ready to paint.
2. Paint the gameroom.
3. Set up Todd's desk area in the gameroom.
4. Move the treadmill into the gameroom.
5. Move the leather chair upstairs and stage it in our master bedroom.
6. Clean bathrooms.
7. Vacuum house.
8. Dust.
9. Touch up paint in hallway.
10. Clean up front flower bed.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but if I get all that done by tomorrow morning, it will be a miracle. Oh yeah, I'm babysitting two 3-yr-olds all day today and I have church tonight from 6:30-9:00.

It's gonna be a caffeinated day!

Palin Cartoon of the Day

Palin Cartoon of the Day