Two mommies road trip

Last week, my buddy Shannon and I loaded up the car and took our six kids to the beach. We often call ourselves Lucy and Ethel because of our many escapades and this trip was no exception! We had a fabulous time!

Here's a story...we felt like the Brady Bunch with three girls and three boys all week, but we never did find Alice to cook and clean and offer pearls of wisdom for us!

Here's the whole gang at the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Carolina-California League All Star Game. That was a fun night of baseball!The girls at Libby Lu's...true divas!

The funny story for the week...my kids had these matching outfits, and Shannon had bought the same outfits for her kids, so we thought it would be fun on the last night to dress them all alike and take some pics. Then after pics, we went down to a place called "Broadway at the Beach" to eat and walk around.

What a spectacle we were; people acted like we were a circus act coming towards them. Suffice it to say, we attracted a lot of attention. Then, at the restaurant, Emma said something about to the waiter about that she and Asher were sitting with the mommy and daddy and the big kids were sitting at their own table. Well, then Millie pipes up (very innocently), "we don't have a mommy and a daddy, we have two mommies!" We were looking for the quickest exit!

From then on, we made sure to tell everyone that we left the daddies at home working!

It's not about me

Yesterday, my son taught me a huge lesson. He is on the All Star Team for c-ball this year, but he is an alternate, so that means that he could play in every tournament except for the district tournament. Well, this weekend the district tournament began. We told him that he didn't have to go, but we would leave it up to him.

Our main concern was that one of the boys might ask him why he wasn't playing, and that was a lot for a 7-year old to explain, and we had already had a bad experience at one of the early practices where one of the boys had made a comment to him about being "just the alternate". Well, being the mama bear that I am, I didn't want to risk someone hurting my baby's feelings (he is very tender-hearted). So, I had really discouraged him from going.

Well, it came down to Friday night, when we got our uniforms, I asked him one last time if he wanted to go to the game or not. He said, "Mama, I need to be there to support my team. It doesn't matter if I don't get to play, and besides, Coach Bruce told me that he needed me to help him keep the books and help warm up the outfield."

All this month at PC All Stars, we've been studying humility: putting others first by giving up what you think you deserve. Colton got that. He taught me a big lesson. He suited up in his uniform, warmed up the outfield, was Coach Bruce's little shadow yesterday, and cheered for his team...with no concern for himself. He absolutely has the biggest heart and is mature beyond his age when it comes to giving of himself for others.

What if we all "got it"? And realized it's not about us...or about our recognition...or our success...or about this church or that church... but about THE CHURCH?

Quirky

I've been tagged! Aimee tagged me this time. I could provide a link to her blog, but it's private, so I won't.

Here are the rules:
*Link the person who tagged you.
*Mention the rules in your blog.
*Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.
*Tag a new set of six following bloggers by linking them.

My Quirks:
1. I can't sleep unless my pillow is cold. I keep two pillows at all times so I can rotate them so that one is cold all the time. When we first married and our air conditioner didn't work that well, Jerry would put my pillow in the freezer before we went to bed. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I think that's why I love him so much. Ridiculous, I know.

2. I have to have diet coke out of a bottle (preferably the 16 oz size). I don't like it over ice, I can't stand it out of a fountain. It taints the taste. I like an ice cold one first thing in the morning...breakfast of champions. I was pondering giving up my diet coke for lent one year and Jer quickly requested that I not do that. Apparently, I'm much nicer when I've had my diet coke.

3. I cannot go to bed with dishes in the sink. I will stay up late no matter how tired I am just to wash them. I've tried to go to bed and deal with it in the morning, but I end up laying in bed thinking about it, give up and go to the kitchen and get them done.

4. I secretly love trash day. If the trash can isn't full on Tues. night, I will go around and find more stuff to throw away before we take we take it to the curb. I can't wait until they come pick it up the next day and I bring the empty ones back down. It's so cleansing. I can't stand clutter, so trash pickup day is a little-known favorite day of mine.

5. I love for all of the bands on the towels in the cabinet to line up perfectly. I don't demand it anymore because three children later, I'm just happy if the towels are clean and in the cabinet. I have been known to refold all the towels in the cabinet to have them line up, but not so much anymore. (I think this quirk can be traced back to working in the linen dept at Dillard's for 3 years of high school)

6. I don't like to talk on the phone. I'm a terrible phone caller. I am always late RSVPing, put off as long as possible any kind of "duty" phone calls that I need to make, I'm terrible about returning phone calls...this probably goes beyond a quirk to a character flaw, but it's the truth. If I've ever not called when I was supposed to, I apologize. I'm the worst in that area. It's nothing personal. Really.

Okay, now I'm tagging:

Steph
Jan
Shannon
Cindy
Lanier
Kerri

I hope you'll join in the fun! Come on! Fess up! What's quirky about you?

One Prayer

This morning

One Prayer

begins in over 1200 churches worldwide

all denominations

One God

One Prayer

four weeks

We start this morning at PC

So many divisions in the "church" at large

how amazing would it be if

four weeks

would start a movement to unify

and do what we're supposed to really be about

being used by God to change lives in this world

four weeks...

one prayer...

don't you want to be a part of what God is doing?

The Getaway

After we had survived a tornado and class parties and team parties, and put Grammie and Grandad on the plane back to Texas, we hopped in the car for a quick getaway to St. Simons. It was incredible! Our sweet babysitter and friend, "Miss Kimmie" went with us...

The weather was perfect...cool evenings.

Nice breeze all day long, so we could ride bikes, build great sandcastles and sand cities and play on the beach and never break a sweat!

What is it about the beach that gives you such great perspective?

I really needed a big ole heap of perspective

I got it

I'm still processing, but I'll be blogging about it as I go.

I'm back!

Hello everyone! Yes, I'm back to the world of blogging!

May was crazy!

My parents came for three weeks. My kids loved having Grammie and Grandad here all the way from Texas! Here are a few highlights...

We went to the peach farm in Fort Valley... and picked strawberries...
stole lots of snuggle time...
went and played on the river one day (thanks Clay and Lynn), what a special night!

Grammie fell in the river fully clothed!

What a great time! We had lots of laughs and fun! Wish they were closer...it was hard to see them go!