Party Time

Last night (Friday) was Boo's swim party for the end of the softball season. We had hotdogs and chips and cake with crazy blue icing, which Brother enjoyed a great deal as you can see.

Boo got a trophy and then the coaches rented the city pool for the girls and their families to swim for a couple of hours. Boo even did the diving board at the ten foot end of the pool.

In the end, even though Puck and Brother didn't go off the diving board, they did their own jumping and playing. Brother even did his version of a cannonball a couple of times. If you listen closely, you can also hear the lifeguard telling him to walk rather than run.

As I hope you can see the Wild Things all had a great time last night swimming, eating and just playing.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

A Family Tradition and Princesses

Tonight was the night that I attempted to begin passing on a tradition from myself to The Brother. I would pass it on to the girls as well, but to be honest they have never really seemed interested in this particular tradition. That's too bad, because I would gladly share this with them.

What is this tradition you say? Is it a ritual, a right of passage in the family? Is it something sacred and guarded? Something that is secreted away in Durham family lore, passed from father to son generation after generation? The answer to these many questions is...no. It's about the way I eat my ice cream. As far as I know, I am the only one in my family that eats ice cream this way...until tonight. Brother saw what I did and requested the same be done for him.

For some reason that I honestly can't explain I began stirring up my ice cream somewhere between the ages of 4 and 6. I remember being with Brad Robinson at the time at his grandparent's house and his grandmother giving us ice cream with chocolate syrup on it and I recall Brad stirring his and encouraging me to do the same. I remember his grandmother having to do it for me. But it was so good that way and I have done it ever since. When I have store bought vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on it, I find myself stirring it in to a milkshake like consistency and eating that way. And tonight Brother joined me in this strange tradition. For whatever reason it made me smile to have him want to do the same with his ice cream.

Later in the evening, Puck got a hold of my chap stick and wanted to put some on Brother. He at first refused. Then she put some on me. After that he decided that he could use a bit as well, so he let her put some on his lips. At this point he stood up and declared "I a princess!!" Such a proud moment for this Daddy, for my son to call out that he is a princess, and then dance around with Puck while she chants "We're princesses! We're princesses!" Boo tried to make it seem better by pretending that Princess actually just meant prince, but I know the truth about that word. Thankfully, he is only two and has no real concept of being a boy or a girl, so it truly doesn't mean anything, I just found it humorous.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Amarillo by Morning and American Girls

It has been nearly 10 days since my last update on here. That feels like it is too long. Of course I was out of town for most of those 10 days.

Oh What A Night...

So far it has been one of those kinds of nights. Roni and I leave tomorrow morning for our mission/mystery trip and The Wild Things are heading out with Gran'maw to spend the week with she and Daddy Bill. They should all be asleep now, preparing for the early morning and big week ahead.

Right now though, there is a very pronounced lack of sleeping going on. Brother has Gran'maw laying by him, yet he is still jabbering away. Puck has been even gigglier (spell check didn't even show up on that word...wow) than on a normal night and is now with Brother and Gran'maw. Boo is at least trying to go to sleep, but since she and Puck share a room I know it has been hard for her. Plus, she has been talking and laughing with Puck.

Roni and I talked about the chaos that is bedtime tonight. She pointed out that they always say that your children pay you back for what you were like as a child. Call it penance for past sins she says. What did I do as a child she asks? Nothing that I can think of to deserve this kind of repayment. Maybe it's from my college and early camp years when I wanted to stay up all night for no good reason. Regardless it's enough to make me want to cry out to God "Why God Why?!?! Why have you forsaken me in my hour of great need?!?!"

But wait, it seems to be quiet now. The Wild Things seem subdued and all in a matter of minutes. God has not forsaken us after all. He has shown us his Mercy and His Grace now in this last few minutes. As Jesus once calmed the storm raging around the boat on the Sea of Galilee, he has now calmed The Wild Things. Why did I doubt? Why was my faith so small?

I love my Wild Things, and I will miss them like crazy this week. Keep us all in your prayers. We will all appreciate that.

Peace, Love & Grace y'all.

Spilled Beans, Black Sheep, Cheese, and a Big Bite

It has been a week. Last time I updated on here UM Army had just arrived in Quitman and taken over the church. It's been a good week with them here, even though it seems a bit strange going into the office and there being so many people there that I don't know and all our space being taken up. The office is really the only space that I actually have to do anything in. It has also been a week of preparing for the mission/mystery trip that we are headed on starting Sunday. Everything is ready except for the fact that I need to write two final devotions and make copies of all of them. It will get there by the time we are ready to go though, this I know.

Those however are not the reason that I am updating tonight. None of that has a thing to do with the things listed in the title above. Those are of course things that have to do with The Wild Things.

Today I had a mom and youth come by to get a packing list for the trip and as I was giving the mom some important information about the trip, I accidentally mentioned the name of one of the towns we will be going through. After I realized this I was afraid that the youth may have heard me so I called the Momma Wild Thing to tell her. She told Boo that "Daddy spilled the beans." Boo then asked her "What beans did Daddy spill?" thinking that I had literally spilled beans. It's so easy to forget that they don't know all the same phrases that we do. It is also at times hard to remember that she is still just a little girl. Also this evening Momma heard Boo crying in her room so she went to check on her. Come to find out, her heart was broken because she had asked Puck to play with her, but Puck chose to play with Brother instead. Like I said, it is so easy to forget that she is still little.

Then there is of course Puck. She came into our room tonight (as is her bedtime ritual) to ask about a lullaby. She wanted to know how the Rock-a-by Baby, go to sleep song went. When Momma started to sing her rock-a-by baby, Puck corrected her with her own version: "Rock-a-by baby go to sleep, Momma's gonna buy you a big black sheep." The way her four year old mind works...

Then there is Brother. It is currently 11:05pm and he is still going nice and strong, What we really desire is this:

Of course even now he is calling me heartily.

Earlier today he asked Boo for a bite of her Ramon Noodles and when when asked what the magic word was he answered at the top of his little voice: "BIG BITE!!" This is, of course, the wrong magic word. He did eventually say please however and got the bite. Thursday night he was having some nachos from Taco Bell, but he still doesn't grasp the idea of dipping the chips in to his cheese. Instead he eats it all separately, cheese first usually, and ends up looking a bit like this:

All in all it has been a good week with the Wild Things. I will miss them like crazy this next week while I'm on the mystery trip, but they will enjoy being with Gran' Maw and Daddy Bill for the week I'm sure. I feel so blessed every day to call these three my Wild Things:

Peace, Grace & Love y'all.

The (UM) Army, Mystery Trippin' and the Big Boy Bed

Sunday kicked off a week at our church that we have never experienced before here in Quitman, TX. The Army has invaded and taken over our facilities for the week. Starting Sunday afternoon and continuing on through to Saturday morning we are hosting a UM Army work camp in our new J.O.Y. Hall. For those of you who may not be familiar with this, it is the conference youth mission trip. Each summer, from early June through late July/early August various churches throughout the Texas conference (and other conferences as well) host mission trips in their communities for other churches. Our camp this week is I believe a total of 58 students and adults doing various projects throughout Quitman and Wood county. It really is a great ministry opportunity, and I know that our congregation is uber-excited to be hosting this event. It is amazing though just how much they take over when they come into a church for the week. There are people sleeping in The Well (our youth area), in Sunday school rooms, the nursery and there is even one person sleeping in the youth kitchen.

This coming Sunday Roni and I will headed out with a group of 17 youth from our church plus three other adults for our second annual mission/mystery trip. We will be putting on a VBS for inner city kids in the mornings (the mission) and then doing some fun things at night (the mystery). We are very excited about this trip for a few of reasons: 1) We have 17 youth going!! Last year we took a total of 7 youth, all boys. This year we have 7 GIRLS going (Roni is very excited about that part of it). 2) The focus of the trip is on the ministry opportunity and we really feel that this will give many of these kids a chance to put into practice this thing we call faith. 3) We are possibly going to get a chance to spend (at least part of) the week with one of our former students. We are pretty much always excited about spending time with former students. Please pray for us as we travel and minister this next week.

Finally, Little Bull is finally out of the baby bed and into his "big boy" bed. When I say he is in a big boy bed, I mean that at 2 1/2 he is already sleeping in a full size bed. I didn't start sleeping in a full size bed until I moved away to Canyon and even then it wasn't until the end of my first semester...and I was 21 then. There are only a few things that concern me with him being in this new bed: 1) We can no longer contain him in the bed at night when we put him down. He tends to wander around his room and drag out EVERY SINGLE TOY before finally crashing. 2) He has fallen out of bed about 3 times now in the 2 weeks he's been in it, and that is a bit of a rude awakening for both him and his parents. 3) It means that he is getting bigger on me. I will admit that I'm not quite ready for my baby boy to be getting as big as he is. Tonight I was laying by him trying to get him to go to sleep, and he finally told me "You go your bed." I was officially kicked out of the big boy bed and sent to my own room to sleep. That usually is the other way around it seems.

Both of the girls are awesome as always. All three will be spending the week with Gran' maw and Daddy Bill while Roni and I are gone with the youth, so keep Mom and Pops in your thoughts, as well as the Wild Things that they don't eat McDonald's too much while we are gone, and that they get the special attention they need from the grandparents while they are there. It's going to be a good week for us, but as always we will miss our Wild Things.

Thanks for indulging me and reading along.

Peace, Love and Grace y'all.

Rain Dances and The End

Well I'm going to go just a little bit out of order from what the title says, but hey, I'm the one writing this so I can do it how I want really. Tonight was the end of Boo's softball season. We gave it a valiant effort, but just could not over come the Outlaws of Mineola. I'm not sure what the final score was, but I believe it was something close to 8-3, maybe 9-3. Either way, it is over and I'm not sure that is really a bad thing. It was a good season, and Boo for sure had fun with it, but it's July 9th and she has been practicing and playing since late April or early May. It was time for it to end. We are not the parents that feel like our Wild Things need to be involved in something all the time.

The game tonight was good for Boo. She started on the bench, but when she came in she played well. They had her in center field, and she did a good job there. The Mineola team did not seem to be full of heavy hitters, but that was OK. She got a force out at second and chased down one hit that squirted through the infield. Batting was about the same as it had been all tournament for her. She had one plate appearance and was thrown out at first. For the tournament she was 1-6 with a run scored I believe. Overall she had a good year and I think she really enjoyed it. One thing to share from the rain out Wednesday night that she told Momma Wild Thing in the van: On Tuesday night in the game they won, Boo got taken out late in the game. She informed her Momma that the reason they took her out was because she had played so well and they needed to give her a break and let someone else have a turn. I do love the way an 8 year old can view things like that.

Once we got home from Lindale tonight we encountered some rain. It was nice really since it did help to somewhat cool it off. Our family has a love for the rain and running around in it when we get a chance. Tonight was no exception. As the rain started to come down, we stepped outside to watch it and to do a "rain dance". Well to do said dance, we lined up and held hands so we could all run out into the rain together and then "dance". Great idea...except that Little Bull's legs are still rather shorter than the Momma's and Puck's and so when they took off, each holding a hand, he made it about two steps before crashing belly first onto the ground and being dragged through a puddle. In all fairness, he laughed about it and then began to run on his own around the van splashing in the puddles.

There was a calamity or two in all of this however. Boo started running around the van as well and after a few turns on the wet concrete, in cleats, she had a crash and skinned up one knee. This of course brought about an onslaught of tears and wails. Again, there is something about the innocence of an 8 year old, even in an instance such as this that touches my heart. As we were tending to Boo however, Little Bull continued to run and finally came running back toward the porch where he commenced to immediately slop on the saturated indoor/outdoor carpet and mud and fall right onto his booty, bumping his head on the sidewalk in the process. Through all of this Puck somehow managed to remain unscathed. I am happy to report that all injuries were minor and both injured parties seem to be resting comfortably at this time.

Well I guess that is all I have for now. It's a little longer than usual it seems, so I hope you will forgive my wordiness.

Peace, Grace and Love y'all.

Playoff Squared

Well we finished night #2 of our playoff run. I am proud to say that we are still in it at this point and playing tonight at 6:00 and if we win there we will play again at 7:30. So we have a possible double header going this evening.

Last night was fun really. Moma Wild Thing and I were far more in to it than we were the first night, but I guess that happens when you are on the winning side more easily than it does when you are on the other end of it. Boo moved to center field last night and played that spot pretty good. Of course there were no balls that were hit to center field, but if there had been I have no doubt she would have fielded them without a problem. On top of that she hit decently, 1-3 and scored a run. Her first two at-bats were just the opposite of what they were the night before: the first night she popped out and then got tagged out heading to first; last night she got tagged heading to first and then popped out.


Quick update on tonight: The games have been canceled it seems due to weather. So now I won't have an update until Thursday night at the latest. Regardless, last night (Tuesday) was a good game, and I am so very proud of Boo this year.

Peace, Grace & Love.

Playoff time

So Boo's coach pitch team has made it to the playoffs. Last night was our first game in Lindale and I must say it was an ugly affair. Our team, The Wildcats, lost to the Groovy Chix 15-5 in 3 innings. Like I said, it was ugly. In fact as I write this and reflect back on the game, I'm tempted to break out a chant of "U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi...You UGLY, yeah, You UGLY!!"

For whatever reason, we seemed to be playing a little bit tight. I would guess that it has to do with having a large number of girls who are between 7 and 9 years old and this being the first time that many of them have gotten to play in a situation like this. We had difficulty making our throws after fielding the ball it seemed and when we did make the throw we often had a hard time catching the ball. On top of that, our hitting was sketchy as well. We had a hard time getting the ball out of the infield.

Boo personally played as well as she could. She fielded the ball well and didn't really let anything past her. She got to bat twice, but both times she failed to get on base even though she did make contact each time. The first time was a little pop up right to the girl playing short stop who caught the ball, and the other time she made contact but was tagged out on the way to first.

We play again this evening and if we lose we are done (not an all together bad thing). The upside is that we are playing the other Quitman team, so at least we will know  some of the fans that we will be cheering against. I will let you know how it goes, maybe even tonight. Until then...

Peace, Grace, and Love y'all.