Family Game Night

After a weekend of no baseball, we worked on things around the house: cleaning on the garage, trashing some of the old lattice around the deck, new trim, paint, general cleaning of the house. Last night, both kids wanted to play some games so we pulled out Left, Right, Center and The Ladybug game. It's funny how 30 minutes of just being silly will make your kids smile and not argue with one another. We had a great time. It's a shame we don't do this more often. Eric and I both agreeded that we would make an effort to play more with the kids. The other stuff can wait, them growing up doesn't.

Our house before

We've been working on small things in our home since we bought it in 2006. We loved the location, the yard, and the size of the house, but it was UGLY!!! We've painted almost everything in site, put new carpet in two of the rooms and just took some of the ugly away. This weekend, we put new trim in the living room and hallway and it looks so much better. As soon as I get pictures taken, I'll upload the afters.

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Life Verses?

So many of my friends have life verses for their families and for their children. I don't. I have verses that help me through things I'm going through, but nothing that is MY verse. I did find this translation and instantly was drawn to it. It says everything: "Become all that God intended you to be. Love Him. Love people. Love the life you've been given." matthew 22: 36-39. So, if I were to choose one verse, I think this one might be it.

But, I know when I'm running and struggling that last leg, I continually quote Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things..." We have James 1:27 hanging on our living room wall in support of our daughter in EE and the sons and daughters of our friends who have been born in other places of the world.

I want my kids to love the Word and find comfort and support in all of it, not just one verse. To my friends who have chosen verses for their families, maybe I'm just a little jealous that I can't narrow it down to one. Maybe I'm just scared of commitment of one verse.

Do you have a life verse? Do your children? Do you have a family verse?

Today I Write

Eric's cousin Andrea lost her battle with cancer this weekend. I met Andrea when Eric and I were still dating, and although I only spent a few days with her over the past 12 years, I knew she was an amazing woman. One I looked up too. I remeber spending Christmases together just talking about our kids and how she was doing with treatment and her speaking engagements. She truly was an inspiration. I was reading her "journal" on caring bridges the other day, and Matt, her husband had posted something that Caroline, her oldest, said the day she passed. As they were reading through her journal she wrote in, not her on-line on, Caroline said "I am so thankful mom has left us this treasure." WOW!!! I feel terrible that I haven't left that legacy for my own children. What if I was gone tomorrow? Would they know the things I found funny or interesting? Whould they know the things I really loved and the things I was scared of? My goal is to write more for my kids. To record the things that make me smile or cry or jump up and down. Some may be here on this blog, some may be in a new journal. But I do want to leave them a "treasure."

Thank you Andrea and Matt and kids for sharing Andrea and your journey with us. She will be missed by so many, but her lessons she has taught us, whether she realized it or not, will live on.

A mini day-cation

Eric works a lot. Now, he does take a day here and there to work from home or on the road, but it's very seldom that he just takes a day off. We were invited to go to holiday world with our best friends in the world and just couldn't pass up a little vacay from everything. A day to forget about the messy rooms at home, all the adoption stuff we have no control over, and everything else that's just happening in our lives.

We loaded up early and headed to Santa Claus, Indiana for our trip to Holiday World, or as I like to call it, boost-your-self-esteem world. if you have never been to Holiday World, it's so much fun. Even our kids, who are not thrill seekers enjoy their time there. We stayed in the Splashing Safari side of the park because it was in the high 90s all day with intense humidity. HW is a great place to people watch too. I'm pretty sure some folks don't have mirrors or friends to be honest to them about their choice of body art and swimsuit styles for their body type. Now, I am in no way skinny, and I'm not going to post pics of me in my swimsuit, but people, please cover up. It's a family park!

JD had most of his ball playing buddies along and hung out with them most of the day playing on some of the tamer slides, the lazy river, and the wave pool. Jules and Em spent the day with me in the kids slides (they have two different kids areas aside from the baby area), lazy river, and wave pool.

I told Eric on the way home yesterday I really enjoyed the day together. We NEVER take a day and do things like this. I told him I want to be more intentional with our time together with the kids. We're always shuttling to one activity or another and are just never really together with the kids. My goal is to take these little day-cations every other month or so with our regular family vacation in the fall(which by the way I can't wait for!) so now I'm on the search for some inexspensive family fun for the Elliott family.
All in all, we had an amazing time! We drove up, spent the day, and drove home. What a great break from everything.

Camera Straps

 I've made a few camera straps and I'm loving how they are turning out. The blue one is my personal one and the orange and pink one is going to a new University of TN student for her new camera. I used The Cottage Home tutorial to make both of them and her directions are amazingly clear and super easy to follow. I've got a few more to make for some more special folks. I'll update the pictures here when I get them finished.

Happy Birthday, Firecracker

 

John David turned nine! Our last year in single digits. He came in with the firecrackers nine years ago today--after 36 hours of labor. But, it wasn't bad. They induced and I laid there for most of it. I pushed for two hours before they decided I needed a C-section. What a wonderful nine years it's been. A few great things about my Johnny D:

*He eats, sleeps and breathes baseball. He's been playing since he was three. For the past three years, he's played on a local travel team. This year, they are awesome--winning most of the tournaments they've played in.

*He loves electronics. Video games, his DSxl, his new ipod touch (he saved and paid for half of it, the other was his birthday present.

*He doesn't love school, and that breaks my heart because I love it so much. He HATES spelling, but does enjoy History and Math.

*He's spending his first week away at camp this year. I really didn't like not being able to see him on his birthday. But, he's having so much fun at camp.