Sing it like a singer

When I get tired of the kid songs, I like to play upbeat Christian music in the van. The kids have a new favorite CD, Addison Road, and they request their favorite songs and are quickly learning the words to sing a long. Bounce asks what every word means. I don't know how he understands each word, but he repeats the word he hears and wants to know what it means. Good thing it's Christian music!
Ketchup is the singer. She sings her little heart out. Then Bounce asked her to sing it like a real singer and that brought out all the serious facial expressions. I think I have American Idol to thank for her serious singer faces. Too bad I don't have a video camera hooked up to the rearview mirror to share these songs.
Here is the band's website if you want to sing along, just remember to sing it like a singer!
http://www.addisonroad.com/home.htm

The Jacket

It was a little cool this weekend, so being the good mom that I am (or so I thought) I took jackets for the kids to church. Well, by the time we hiked all the way to the van after church, I realized I had forgotten both jackets. My wonderful husband and the kids march all the way back to retrieve them. What seemed like 15 minutes later they return empty-handed. Both jackets were gone. Here's the funny part. Bounce's jacket was new or new to us as is practically everything else we have. I had bought it last Saturday at a children's consignment sale. It was a nice tan Ralph Lauren jacket but I only paid $2 for it. However, I did not write his name in it (note to self - do that next time).
When Bounce's teacher saw the jacket on the counter and saw that it was a Ralph Lauren jacket, she did not assume it was Bounce's because why would a nursery worker's son have such an expensive jacket she thought. So both she and another teacher thought it was Pastor Graham's grandson's jacket because it was Ralph Lauren it had to be his, and since his Grandma picked him up, she didn't know if it was his or not. She probably thought well it's Ralph Lauren it has to be his, too.
So about every hour Bounce wants to know when he'll get his jacket back since he never even wore it. His teacher and I had a good laugh about the "expensive" jacket. We'll have to see if we get it back.

"I Love It!"

Those were Ketchup's exact words as she went across the monkey bars for the first time today all by herself. Once she had it down, she did it several more times. Who wants to bet she won't be able to lift her arms tomorrow?
So if the showing today doesn't amount to much, at least it gave her time to learn a fantastic new life skill!

Finally - Spiderman!

We've been renting the Best of the Electric Company on DVD with the hopes that on each disk we would see Spiderman. The kids have been disappointed up until now. Today they finally saw him on disc three - third time is the charm I guess.
Despite not being able to see the superhero, they have enjoyed the shows and have been learning too, so I guess the wait has been well worth it. Despite being an "old" show, it can really hold their attention and I tell myself that it's good for them too.
It's funny to go back and look at shows I watched as a kid. I don't remember the skits, but I remember some of the songs. Bounce asks me after each skit, "did you watch that when you were little?" He is amazed at what we used to do and watch when we were kids. He loves the song "Stop in the name of Love" because that is what his Nana and Tata used to listen to.
The good old days - how f------ un f---- un f--- un f-un fun!

Lesson learned (I hope)

(this may be a long read, sorry)
So I've kept the house pretty spotless for the few weeks it has been on the market. Everything ahs been pretty much under control. But we have had only one showing so far. Our open house was today, so yesterday I was cleaning even more so things would look extra perfect. I had just started cleaning the ceiling around the airvents. This made a mess as the little white specks of popcorn ceiling fell to the floor below. I knew this would happen so I had even moved the furniture out of the way so it wouldn't get messy. I thought I had it all planned out - under control.
Then the phone rang. I listened to the message stating that we had a showing scheduled from 1:30 - 2:00 pm. I looked at my watch and it was 1:45 pm. Panic mode set in. I was not in control. I started to run out the front door to tell Daddy, who was mowing, that we had people coming over. As I stepped out I saw the realtor's car out in front of the house. I'm sure they could see the look of disgust and panic on my face. Oh well. They came in and saw our house far from the "near perfect" condition that it is described as being in.
After they left I thought about how God knew they were coming. Why didn't He just give me a feeling to wait just 20 minutes before I started? Why didn't He distract me with something else so I wouldn't have had the house looking so out of sorts.
Well, I resorted to press on. I took control again and poured all my energy into cleaning. I was up until midnight and then up at 6am this morning to make things just right.
Then as I drove out of the neighborhood, I noticed a police car parked next to a fence off the main road through our neighborhood. In the biggest yellow letters possible there was a profane word spraypainted on the fence. Our neighborhood has never had graffiti until today. I wanted to cry. I had tried to make everything perfect, but I could not control everything.
Again I began to question God as to why today, why that. I continued driving and the CD in the car continued to play. Then I heard the following words in the song...

Even before there was a drop in the ocean even before there was a star in the sky even before
the world was put in motion You were on Your throne You were on Your throne.

[chorus]
You reign glory in the highest You reign let creation testify by Your name every knee will bow
and every tongue proclaim that Jesus reigns.

And you know that even before I had made such a mess of the house and another "bad guy" made such a mess of that fence - Jesus was seated on His throne. He reigns. He is in control.
I hope I get it now that I'm not in control and can't expect to control everything. In fact in spite of everything, not one single person came to the open house today. But you know what only one single person matters in this whole thing - that is Jesus Christ. He is in control and it is His power that holds everything together (Col. 1:17). That was the subject of our sermon at church last night. So do you think that God is shouting to me or what?
And since He is holding it (everything, the sale of our house, our car, our trip to Guatemala) together, I can stand steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, not shifting from the HOPE in the Gospel (Col 1:23) (not in the hope of the sale of our house or the hope of a bigger, better house).
I hope that you have hope in the right thing too!

The winner (by a mile) is.... & the return of normalcy

Good ol' buzz has gone on to greener pastures. Last week Daddy called our insurance agent to add our new car and adjust the insurance since we wouldn't really be keeping Buzz much longer. Well, the receptionist asked a lot of questions about Buzz. To make a long story short, her nephew who has just returned from the war in Iraq needed a car for college. The great news is that he is now driving the car and we were able to help out a young man who fought for our country.

So now we just need to sell the house although it's starting to feel like that will be much more of a marathon. Our open house is this Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. We watched a show last night where no one came to their open house, so we wonder if that was a warning. We'll keep you posted!

Life is getting back to normal. Who knew that a normal routine would be so welcome. We resumed school this week and I've had time to exercise rather than just clean and complete a house project.

I've gotta run now because there is a meltdown occurring in Ketchup's room because Spiderman won't marry Barbie - see we're back to normal!

Bye-bye buzz - hello whitey!

Well, it was totally a God thing and Daddy now has a nice "new" car to drive. It's a white Camry, super clean and super quiet! I can actually hear Daddy now on his cell when he's driving.
So that means that our little "buzz" has to go; we are not only selling our house but our car as well. We'll have to see which sells first. Maybe they can race each other to the selling line.

Ketchup also had a fantastic soccer game last night. It was her team's most competitive game and it was fun to watch. Ketchup sported a serious game face a couple times when she was determined not to let her opponent beat her to the ball. She scored one of their three goals in a tight 3-2 win. She had fun and we have fun watching her.