I’m so grateful for cousins. Mini and H had a great time with the Texas clan this past week. Tatiana will be there next week after a brief stint here with the fam.
Paul’s mom and dad put together a photo album for each of the girl cousins to remember this week for years to come. What a great idea.
I missed mini. We have one day before she heads to Nebraska for a week with my parents. sigh.
for two weeks I’ll be missing my mini-me as she visits Texas and Nebraska family all by her lonesome. ugh. She’s not suppose to grow up this fast. She is such a joy to be around. Paul’s and my family love to have her come visit and spend quality time together. I just miss her so much while she’s gone. 
from off of the ceiling.
Yeah, only me. I can’t even blame my kids. The cup dropped off the ironing board (ok – I knocked it off) and it landed right side up. Whew, or so I thought. The impact actually caused the coffee to leap straight into the air, hit the ceiling and mostly land back in the cup. ugh.
Which brings me to my next complaint…who the heck invented the popcorn ceiling?
I got a call the other day from Mini saying she needed socks for her uniform. So, after just arriving home from dropping her off I grabbed the long gray socks and headed out the door. When I got there a young man met me at the door (he was washing windows) and saw me with the socks. He said, “you here for the shake down?” Not knowing exactly what he was talking about I said “yeah.”
I met Mini coming down the hall. She was washing windows on the other side of the school. She smiled, of course, and thanked me for the socks. She pointed to the office and I looked in to see the 7th grade class all standing there waiting for parents to bring school approved clothing. Most of them just didn’t have the appropriate socks or belts. Mini was actually dressed correctly according to the school policy on uniforms. The teacher wasn’t sure if she needed socks with the type of shoes she had on. She was fine. Oh well.
They aren’t kidding around. I better get to ironing the kids clothes for tomorrow. Wouldn’t want them to have any wrinkles. 
…comes the sun. What a beautiful sight once the sun came out. I must admit, I wanted more snow and ice and rain. It was what I’ve been missing all winter. Of course this arrives with Spring but oh well.
The timing could have been better. Had this come during the week our kids could have had a snow day or two. I LOVE special occasions when school is canceled and we are home together with no agenda.
We all did nothing today. OK, Paul got stir crazy and had to “check” the roads. Spinning out in our cul-de-sac was particularly fun – for him. Mini had to stop her artistic expressions because she was destroying our nasal passages. I don’t know exactly what she was doing – it involved modge podge, glue and a candle. Recipe for disaster and a fire truck, I know. I told her we’d have to post pone the “project” until we could open windows without freezing us out. The thing is sitting in our garage right now. The dog won’t even go in there it stinks sooooo bad!
So, that’s about it.
PLEAS BURY US IN SNOW! I LOVE THIS WEATHER.
her funny, creative side
Happy Birthday you life of Joy.
I never imagined loving something so much, so small, so helpless, so beautiful.
You’re a beautiful young lady child now. I’m so proud.
Love, mom
Last night I really enjoyed church. I think what struck me most was when Paul talked about how there are some sins that just Christians commit. He was quoting from Eugene Peterson.
He mentioned that many of us as Christians are not so quick to judge a non-christian yet when it comes to each other we’re pretty harsh. We even judge each others judgment of others. sigh. This thought combined with a chapter from “Divine Nobodies” by Jim Palmer brought it all together for me why it’s so hard to separate our relationship with Christ and our relationship with “church people”. Jim Palmer says this after listening to hip hop artists recite poetry, “so there I was, in fear of losing my salvation, when the first poet in dreadlocks was introduced and approached the microphone, then another…and another…and another…and I’m not sure exactly at what point it happened, but somewhere along the way that night something happened inside me and I’ve never been quite right since. Right before my eyes, pouring out their souls in prose, the obscene, obnoxious, immoral, irreligious, and enraged were unmasked for the hurting, broken, searching, fearing, confused, weary, hopeless people they (and we) are. The main difference being, they are in touch with their desperation, and we nice church people are often so out of touch.”
I love Wheatland because we really don’t hide our humanity. We all come as we are. Paul and I have learned (hard lessons at times) that sometimes people think we shouldn’t have struggles because he’s a pastor and we should have it all figured out. We don’t. We try like everyone else though. God is perfect – His people are not. We set ourselves up for failure and disappointment when our faith is built on a person…not Jesus.
All this to say I’m really working on changing my thought process when it comes to people (Christians) I feel have “failed” me. I’m awful. I can think of all kinds of petulant things to be upset about. I like how Chesterton stated it when asked what was wrong with the world… “I am”.
Mini me is turning 13 this month. She’s so excited. I’m so amazed.
She’s such a joy. I love having such a happy child. She’s always smiling…ok, if we ask her to do anything manual laborwise the smile fades quickly. Oh and anything math or science related calls forth her Mr. Hyde. Other than that – she’s fun to have around.
She’s been planning this 13th occasion for some time now. She presented Paul and I with a letter suggesting how her birthday should be spent. Special friends, family members and of course what gifts are befitting of a teenager. She realizes how difficult it will be to get family here – Paul’s clan is in Texas and my parents and “T” are in Nebraska (opposite end of the state). Fortunately my brother and his wife and daughter are here – we’ll include them in the festivities. This week we have Paul’s niece here. His brother and sister-in-law made a special trip this weekend – Mini loves it (so do we).
Teenager gifts are so technically oriented. The cell phone is a “no”. The video camera might pan out. Her brother got one and they both love to use it. Amongst the other items listed were a digital camera, itouch and canvases. The canvases will most likely make the cut.
We will celebrate with dinner at SUMO’s and possibly a movie. We’ll have to see what’s showing.
13 – It’ll hit me
