One Fat Baby & A Bunch of Campers

Brayden is now 5 months old. He's a chunk (and you're thinking, "yeah, I've seen the pictures). He now weighs almost 20 lbs and is 27.5 inches long. He's in the 92nd percentile for weight and 90th for length. I always thought I'd have a little bitty skinny baby. But Brayden is making me little bitty skinny mommy (with big muscles)! He's a wonderful baby, though. He laughs now - it's so cute. He's learned how to give hugs and kisses - well, they are really just big open mouth slobbers, but it's "kisses" to him. He's almost sitting up and is starting to scootch. He can get up on his knees and he can push up on his arms, just not at the same time. We think he'll be crawling soon.

Camp has been keeping us very, very busy. We've maxed out one week and came REALLY close to maxing out this week. It's wonderful!!! The extra work doesn't really feel like work when you know that it's all for such a great cause. We had our first graders here this past weekend and it was so exciting to see them singing worship songs and learning about reflecting Jesus. They managed to give more money to missions than they spent on candy & pop in the canteen - which I think is an amazing testament to what kind of great kids they are. John & I are really looking forward to watching these kids grow up here at camp and seeing what kind of kids they are when they are in junior high and high school. We've already met so many great kids, so much potential!!! It's such a blessing to be involved in changing kids' lives!

PS - As much as I love my job, I hate mosquitos. Just thought you should know.

Planes, Trains and Autos - and Mommy's Day

Well, camp is about a week away (all together now - AHHHHHHHH!!!!) and so John and I have been trying to squeeze all the fun out of the last few weeks of "freedom" that we have. Last week we flew out to Denver for the wedding of an old roommate of mine. I have to honestly say - BEST wedding I've ever been to (including my own!). They had an outdoor wedding at this gorgeous place in Golden, CO; the preacher was amazing; the reception was a ton of fun; the bride looked absolutely stunning; the weather was perfect... I could go on forever!! Brayden went with us, so it was his first plane ride (and John's too for that matter). Both of them had a great time on the plane. Brayden barely fussed at all. It was also Brayden's first wedding - he got a picture with Shawna and also gave her $$ for the dollar dance. I wish we could have stayed longer and spent more time with everyone, but it's kinda hard when you have a baby who gets fussy when it's bedtime... The day we flew back to Oklahoma was Mother's Day. I was a little depressed about having to "miss" my first Mother's Day at church... But it was worth it to get to see an old friend get hitched. PLUS, while we were in the airport, people would just randomly tell me "Happy Mother's Day." It was realy neat.

THEN... this past weekend, my parents, my brother and John, Brayden and I all took off to the old stomping grounds and headed to Silver Dollar City. I was kinda nervous that Brayden wouldn't be able to handle such a long car ride (it was about 6 hours), but he did GREAT. He's just a fabulous little traveler. And he had a wonderful time at SDC. He got to play in the water a little and had his first experience with a swimming pool at our hotel. My mom's got the pics - when she gets them developed, I'll post some. He looked so cute in his little swimming suit!!!!

A few developmental milestones have been occurring... Brayden has started reaching out to grab things like toys or people's hands. This has really just happened in the last two weeks... He could bat at things earlier, but he's finally figured out how to grab on with both hands. While we were in Branson, my dad was playing with him and Brayden reached up for him! He's also on the verge of rolling over from back to front... He'll make it about halfway and then give up and flop back onto his back. I've managed to get him to sit up on his own a couple of times, but only for a few seconds... but he's getting there.

It seems like every morning when I wake up and look at him, he's gotten a bit older during the night. He's turning into a little kid instead of a newborn baby. It's totally amazing and awesome to watch it happen. I can't describe how it feels to watch a child grow up before your very eyes. But I can say now with full confidence, he'll always be my little baby boy.

Eazy Cheesy Lemon Squeezy

4 words that do not describe my life right now. hehe!! Really, though... Camp starts this week - Thursday to be exact. I think everything is okay and ready (sorta). We still have a few things to do and get before then. We've had retreats since Friday morning, so it's been a little busy around here, but nothing bad (unless you count the 911 call for a lady who was here who had kidney failure, the breakers blowing, and me doing a lot more than normal because of John's toe...).

ANYWAY...

Nothing much going on, really. John & I watched "Chicken Little" last night. That was a cute movie. I felt really bad for Chicken Little the whole first half of the movie. I couldn't help it, either, I kept thinking about that one kid from American Idol during the whole movie. !!! Then today we were watching "The Greatest Game Ever Played." We haven't finished it yet, though. But that's where the title of my blog came from. A kid in the movie said it and John & I thought it was pretty funny.

Speaking of funny movie quotes, a really good college friend of mine just got a myspace page (HEY LAURA!)... You may think, "Now why in the world would funny movie quotes make her think of that?" WELL - she's married to a crazy guy (who was also a good college friend - HEY JAROD!) who got me hooked on these few lines from "Sandlot" - and they qualify as "funny movie quotes." So... Yeah. Oh, you want to hear them, huh? Well, it's the scene where the Sandlot kids are playing ball and the preppie kids show up and start heckling them and they start bantering with each other...things go for a few seconds until Ham says, "You play ball like a GIRL!"
Then, the best two lines of the movie:
"Our place. Tomorrow. Be there, buffalo butt breath."
"Count on it pee drinking crap face."

Thanks for ingraining those words into my head forever Jarod, you pee drinking crap face. And...sigh... I guess now that I have a kid, I gotta start being careful what I call people. So, Jarod, I guess you're just a drinking face. (Oh, that made me laugh out loud... Guess that means I'm tired and need to go to bed.)

Laterz.

If God Had a Myspace

So first it must be said that I'm getting kinda tired of the bulletins of "you better repost this - you never know when God may be testing you." In the old days, I'd get those emails all the time... A lot of times, it would be a really good email with a great message, but then at the end there was that stupid line - "if you believe in God, you will send this to 10 friends within the next 30 minutes or you'll burn in hell" (okay, so that's not REALLY what it said, but it was along the same idea lines).

ANYWAY...

I saw this bulletin from a friend of mine a few minutes ago about "If God had a myspace..." and it asked if God had a myspace, would he be number one in your top eight? And I stopped to think about that. (Of course I didn't repost the bulletin because... well, refer to the above.) Then I got into a convo with John about it. And he said, "Like God would have a myspace." But I think He would. I think He would enjoy having friends added to his list and posting bulletins with Words of Life. It'd be like the sermon on the mount, but it'd be the sermon in the blog. hehe. I hope I'm not being sacreligious. Back to the thought, though, of would God be number one? How many times do we (I) actually put God first in the everyday dulldroms (I know that's a word, but I have no idea if I spelled it right)? I mean, it may seem easy to say, "Yeah, sure He would be #1!!" But is he first on our list of everything else? Like our "to do" list? Or is he taken into account when we're thinking about the top eight movies we'd like to see. Or maybe the top eight things I'd do with a million dollars. Or the top eight goals for my life.

Just some random thoughts late at night. I hope they all made sense.
And... If you agree, you better respond to this blog or something bad will happen to you. (I just had to throw that in.)

Mice

So....why is it that mice on TV/movies are always so cute and cuddly and talk in adoreable little voices, but in real life they are these nasty, furry, germ infested, RODENTS that make my toes curl?

We have a mouse. And where there's a mouse, there are MICE.

Disgusting creatures. Freaks of nature. Those beady little eyes, sharp little teeth, razor-like claws (or are they talons?), and naked ugly tails.... *shiver*

Say a prayer for me, because until this thing is caught, I won't be able to walk freely about my house. I won't be able to put Brayden on the floor... I won't be able to walk around barefoot... I won't be able to open the pantry door with my eyes open.

I hate the things.

Gilmore Girls & Sleeping Babies

I have a few minutes here because my little guy is sleeping... And I'm watching Gimore Girls reruns on ABC Family, but it's a commercial. It's the episode of Rory's birthday and Lorelai sneaks into her room at night and tells her the story of how she was born. I have to say (especially after going through labor) that this episode has one of my favorite lines of the G.G. series (I say ONE of my favorites because my all time favorite is the one where Logan and his friends break into Rory's college class and do this major dramatic scene in front of the whole class and then later, Rory has Richard go to Logan and put on this whole thing where he's basically saying that he's happy that Logan wants to marry Rory and scares the stink out of him... but I digress...). Lorelai is sitting beside Rory in bed and describes labor as "Something akin to doing the splits over a crate of dynamite." Uh-huh. Sure the heck is. Even WITH an epidural. And this makes me think... I really should steal all the DVDs from Erin (she has all the box sets) and watch them all and do top 10 (or maybe top 25 cause there are so many) lines from the G.G. series.

And I have to say, if you've read all this and have never watched Gilmore Girls and are now sitting there wondering what the big deal is, RUN - don't walk - to your nearest Hastings or Blockbuster (or any other similar store) and rent you some Gimore. You will laugh, you will be amazed, you may even thank me. I swear it's one of the best TV shows on - I even got John addicted to it.

So... yeah... that's all for now.

Our Day in the E.R.

So I woke up this morning to John saying, "I need you to get up." Why? Because he had hurt himself and needed to go to the hospital. He was coming up to the house from down at the dining hall (he was on the scooter) and the wheel slipped in the wet grass and threw him from the bike. He hurt his rotator cuff. So I've been playing servant all day - not that it bothers me at all, though. It's been kind of interesting to see John being "forced" to stay still on the couch all day. That's SO not like him. But he's okay - just in a lot of pain (but the drugs help). He's antsy - tired of watching TV... So I brought him his laptop and he messed around on that for awhile (doing what else but looking at four wheelers and motorcycles....). So that's been my day. Pray for us, because with John hurt, it will be fun trying to make sure that we have everything ready to go for camp in a few weeks (not to mention that we have to fly to Denver Thursday for a friend's wedding and then next week we are going to Branson with my family, and then the NEXT week we have a retreat scheduled, so we really only have 3 half weeks...).

If you happen to live around here and you have some free time, feel free to come help us out!!! We can find SOMETHING for you to do!!

Coulda Woulda

I'm bored, so I made up a list of a whole bunch of coulda wouldas... I didn't get this from any one of those surveys, I made all these up myself, so now you know how my brain thinks and what it thinks of.

If I could.... I would....

If I could write the next season of One Tree Hill (which by the way, there better be one), I would make Lucas break up with Brooke and get with Peyton. She's way better.
If I could go anywhere in the US, I would want to go to Boston. I think that'd be cool. But maybe Disney World...
If I could have one material thing that I don't have, I would want a really awesome plasma TV.
If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, I think I would pick pizza.
If I could have one superpower, I'd want to be able to read minds, but I could turn it off and on.
If I could pick one season for it to be year round, I would pick fall.
If I had to change the channel right now, I'd probably put it on Sirius Standards (that's the crooners station, and I love it!).
If I could pick any movie for there to be a sequel to, I think I'd pick The Princess Bride (cause, hey, the sequel is written, it'd just have to be filmed! But alas, Andre the Giant is dead).
If I could go to bed right now, I wouldn't. hehe
If I could, I would fix the search deely on myspace so that you could find people easier. Right now, the only REAL way to find people (unless they went to your school or you know what school they went to) is to search through other peoples' friends lists.
If I could pick one canceled TV show to come back for another season, it'd be the WB's "Jack and Bobby." That show was AWESOME.

I have way too many random thoughts. I think.

You know why? Cause I don't have any friends.

MYSPACE BLOG

So... John & I were just talking and I was commenting on how I wish people would blog more often on here. I mean, I get on here all the time and just LOOK at people I know/knew. COME ON PEOPLE! Spill your guts. Share your thoughts. Give me something to do other than wonder why the heck I come to myspace so much.

But John said he doesn't blog because no one reads his blogs. And then he said, "You know why? 'Cause I don't have friends." So I just want to put it out there. I'll read your blog. I'll be your friend. I'll care what you have to say - I don't care if it's what you ate for breakfast - at least I'll feel like... I dunno... I guess I'll just feel like I'm more justified for visiting your profile. And I won't have that sense of let down when I realize that I know nothing more about you than I did when I first clicked your name.

So... Yeah. That's all I have to say about that.

And another nice little bunny trail I'm chasing tonight - Don't you just love it when you check out a friend's friend list and find an old friend? But isn't it really weird when you get to that friend's page and find out that they've changed a TON since you knew them? Happened to me a couple of times tonight.

AND - I have to talk about the kid a little since I'm an obsessive mom - Brayden laughed today. His first actual real giggle - I mean, he's cooed and gurgled and stuff, but he actually LAUGHED today. Had to jot that down for posterity.
Have a nice day.

In honor of the baby brother

Happy Birthday to my baby brother. 19 years old today! I can't believe it's been so long. But it's been a really fun 19 years. Even if I was only around for 10 of them... In honor of the baby brother, let me share some fun memories.

Dress Up
Alan, the poor boy, was subjected to having two older sisters who took advantage of the fact that they were the only ones he had to play with. Alan would be so anxious to play with us that he would play anything that we wanted if he could just be included. It got to the point where he would come to us and say, "Hey, I'll let you guys dress me up if you want to!" And we would. Pink dress, red hat, and a nice big pink boa. We have the pictures to prove it. And I may just have to upload them in honor of this day...

Doctor
Alan had a funny little brain. When he was little, he used to tell us stories about his "past lives." For example, he'd start out conversation like this: "Well, in my other life, I was an Indian Chief and..." or "In my other life, I was in college and..." The funniest part of it all was that this little 5 year old could support his whole statement with things that made you think he was actually those things. But the funniest was when he was 7 and I had a friend over who had a sore foot (for those interested, it was Lauren). Anyway, Alan comes in with a screwdriver and says, "Let me help you. In my other life I was a doctor, and I know what I'm doing. I just need to take this right here (the screwdriver) and do THIS." And he proceeded to "operate" on Lauren's foot. I don't think it worked, but it sure was cute.

The Donuts
When you grow up in a family of 6, you learn very quickly to fend for yourself. It got so bad that when Mom would get home from the grocery store, we would all rush her with permanent markers to "claim" the food we wanted. And if your name was on something, you got to be the one to eat it. Of course, this didn't last long because it led to WAAAAAY too many fights. And of course, Alan never got anything because he was too small to understand what was going on. Or so we thought. One day, Dad bought a dozen powdered donuts and brought them home. I don't remember if he bought them WITH Alan or FOR Alan, but either way, Alan wanted them all. But Dad told him he had to share. The poor kid didn't like this idea, so when Dad left the room, Alan opened the box and took one bite out of every donut - he figured no one would want "used" food. The best part of the story is that we have a picture of this, too. You should see the poor kid's face. It's covered with powdered sugar and you can see the little bites taken out of each donut. Alan's sitting there holding the box with a little smirk that says, "Okay guys, is this CUTE or am I in TROUBLE? Cause you have the camera, but I'm pretty sure that you aren't too happy with what I did..." I'll have to post this pic, too....

Anyway - Happy Birthday Baby Bro! We love you!!