what a week!

allen returned home saturday after being gone on mission trip for a week. a mission trip to paradise....texas. population 450. heres a picture i got from my google images search of paradise, texas....

do i even need to comment?

at any rate it was an overall good week for them. i on the other hand, not so much. it started saturday night when colby wakes up around 10:30 with what i'm told was a night terror. then again at midnight at which time i put him in bed with me and subjected myself to kicks in the stomach (he's a really wild sleeper) and sharing my pillow with 3 & 1/2 year old morning breath. ick. then we did it again sunday night. monday night when i thought VBS (i did music for 4 and 5 year olds) was over at 8pm (which is right at mojo's betime, but i figured 20 minutes or so later isnt gonna kill her). wrong. VBS is over at 8:20, then i stay in my room till 8:30 when the kids in my last rotation are either picked up or taken off to "your parents are late" land. so molly and colby didn't get picked up till 8:40 in bed shortly after 9. molly was pretty much a wet noodle at that point. lucky for me colby got sick on tuesday (fever runny nose). i hope you sense the sarcasm in that last sentence. this means i find someone to keep my kids while i go to VBS, which i would have most likely arranged by mid-week anyway for mollys sake. thanks to my mom and grandparents for stepping in and getting the kids to bed tuesday, wednesday, and thursday nights. now, i love my kids, but 24/7 and one of them is sick, which makes him super clingy and whiny, i was about to go out of my mind. and i'm hormonal so that sure wasn't helping matters. plus i am still dealing with the kicking and morning-breath trying to share my pillow at 2am. i finally took the advice of a friend and made him a pallet on the floor mid-week and he did great with that. it's still there.... :) also on tuesday i started smelling a not so pleasant odor of sorts somewhere in the playroom-something like rotten meat. i thought maybe a had left something in the kitchen trashcan for too long, but it was only in the playroom. checked the fish tank. checked the trashcan. checked all the nooks and crannies for some long-forgotten piece of dried of cheese or hot dog weenie. nothing. i even got down on all fours and smelled every square inch of the carpet. still nothing. then my mom says "maybe there's something dead in your attic right above that vent." it did seem to be coming from the vent. fantastic. at that point i quarantined the playroom. just shut the doors and put a pretty potent air freshener in there to mask the smell. i love the smell of water lilies and dead (insert random rodent here). anyway, by friday i didn't really smell it anymore and no one else really could either, so i figured even if it was a dead animal it's either pretty much decayed thanks to the texas heat, or that just a really good air freshener. i doubt we'll ever know.

allen came home to much rejoicing on saturday afternoon. the kids ran out to greet him and as soon as allen picked molly up she pointed to her diaper and said "poop". so that's the first thing daddy got to do after being gone for 8 days. but the icing on the cake that had been my week was my getting sick about 4 hours after allen got home. i started feeling really really nauseated right as i'm getting dinner ready. i had gotten my shots for africa (im going in september) friday morning and thought maybe i was reacting to those. my arms were already killing me. seriously some of the worst pain i've ever felt. good thing the tetanus is only every 10 years. so i don't eat anything and wind up going to bed at 8:30 after i get the kids down for the night. "welcome home honey. i'm going to bed." i felt so bad for my sweet husband, but he was very diplomatic about it. colby (who was perfectly fine when he went to bed) comes in at midnight covered in vomit. it's in his ear. we get him cleaned up and back to sleep (on the pallet!!). then i throw up. then colby throws up again at 2am. allen is up with us, washing sheets, getting water, changing clothes as needed. he was a trooper. then he has to be at the ballpark at 6:45 that morning to get faith night set up. crazy. colby was perfectly fine the next morning and by about 5pm i was pretty much back to normal myself. i am soooo glad we (specifically allen) are done and home for the summer!!

i was informed last night that allen and colby "took a ride" while i was crashed out saturday afternoon--i laid down to rest while molly was sleeping. i have to share this conversation with you. i didn't hear it first hand but allen told me about it yesterday. hopefully i will do it justice....

allen: "colby, hold out your hands. i have a surprise for you." (gives colby a red a white striped sweatband-the terrycloth kind you wear on your wrist)

colby: "what is it?"

allen: "it's a sweatband. you wear it on your wrist like this." (puts it on colby)

colby: "daddy, this isn't very interesting."

allen: "it's not?"

colby: "no. it's not very exciting either. i wanted a sea animal."

allen: "a sea animal?"

colby: "yes. i wanted you to bring me a sea animal that i don't already have."

allen: "colby, i wasn't near the sea. i brought you this cool wristband that says Jesus Christ on it."

colby: "but i want it to say colby tyke frans"

allen: "ok. we can fix that." (allen gets a sharpe and writes colbys name on the sweatband.)

colby: "it's still not very interesting."

allen: "well, what would be interesting?"

colby: "vanilla donuts."

allen: "vanilla donuts? you don't want chocolate donuts?"

colby: "no. i want the white donuts like we had at the beach." (translation: the powdered donuts he ate for breakfast on senior trip)

allen: "oh, you mean powdered donuts. you know what goes great with powdered donuts?"

colby: "what??"

allen: "chocolate milk!!"

colby: "YES!!"

and off they went to wag-a-bag for a father/son donut run.

toilet water

well, the adventures never cease, and my precious mojo never ceases to amaze me.
her new drink of choice? toilet water. don't read it again. i'm sure you read it right the first time. yes, i found my sweet, beautiful 20 month old daughter drinking water from the toilet with a plastic spoon. or would that be eating? like soup? thats a good visual....
i guess the upside is that it had been flushed (thank you colby).
colby had used the bathroom and i was in there to help him finish up (i.e. wipe his bottom). he flushed, shut the lid (again, thank you), and we were outta there. molly stayed behind, which i wasn't to concerned about. the lid was shut. there are safety locks on the cabinets. how much trouble can she really get into? right?
after about 10 minutes of being in the kitchen i realized i hadn't seen her since colby used the bathroom, so i went to check on her. i walked in right as she was coming around the corner of the little separated area where the toilet is, water on her shirt, dripping down her arm, spoon in her mouth. in two very large steps im at the toilet. the lid is open (definitely not how we left it) and there's water all over the seat. "ohhhhh molly. did you drink the water out of the toilet?" she looks at me with her big blue eyes and nods as though to say "yes ma'am, but aren't i cute?" i wasn't really sure what to do at this point. i didn't get mad at her, because technically she didn't know any better. i really didn't think this was something i needed to explain but apparently.....
besides that, quite honestly, i was speechless. toilet water from a spoon?? seriously? where do we go from here? i don't think i can put toilet locks on the toilets because i'll end up with pee on the floor (been there done that) as colby stands there and tries to figure out how to get the lid open. our bathroom door doesn't shut (stupid french doors), so thats out.
then i figured, hey my kid flushes the toilet, i flush the toilet, allen (usually) flushes the toilet. it's just water. toilet water.





anyone thirsty? :)

traveling tips from a 3-year-old

we woke up this morning and allen was getting ready to leave for mission trip. colby helped him pack up his last few things and then sat down on his lap and said "daddy, i need to tell you something." this is how it went.......

allen: "yes, colby?"
colby: "daddy, you need to wear your hat (puts hat on allens head) so the sunshine doesnt shine on your head."
allen: "thank you colby."
colby: "don't look at the sun because you'll get spots in your eyes." (or go blind)
allen: "ok, i wont look at the sun. anything else?"
colby: "yes. make sure you dont get any fire ants on your nose, because they bite."
allen: "no fire ants on the nose. got it."
colby: "fire ants like grass."
allen: "yes they do."
colby: "so don't go in the grass. just stay on the steps because fire ants like the grass. and carpenter ants like grass and carpet, but they're nice. ladybugs are poisonous, but they're nice too." (i'm not making this up)
allen: "ok, thank you. i'm going to be driving one of the church vans. do you have any tips about me driving?" (at this point we wanted to hear what all he could come up with)
colby: "be careful on the road. watch out! don't run over anything nice. doodlebugs are nice. watch out so that you don't run over any doodlebugs."
allen: "so i can't run over nice things, but i can run over mean things?"
colby: "yes, like fire ants. they bite. and be careful of people walking across the road. they'll back up so you can go forward." (i'm sure the numerous pedestrians on the highway are grateful for this one)
allen: "ok, got it. is there anything else?"
colby: "ummmm, yes. be sure to take this with you (pats suitcase)."

when we got to the church to 'see them off' allen was giving some last minute instructions and what not to the group when colby pipes up, "i have something to say." allen said, "ok, colby, go ahead." colby with a very serious look on his face addressed the whole room of about 50 or so students (or big kids as he calls them) and their parents. "make sure you drink water so you can be living."

i couldn't have said it better myself.
we'll miss you daddy.

my boy can swim!!

i was going to go up to the church today and work on VBS stuff, but then i realized my husband, who happens to be off today, is leaving tomorrow for 8 days and we haven't done anything as a family in about 3 weeks. then i thought, will i be picking my husband over Jesus?? no, i'll be picking him over shelly cook. i can live with that. :) love you shelly.
so we went to the pflugerville pool-the small kid friendly one off 685 behind sonic. if you've never been and you have little kids, you must go now! this can wait till you get back....
but really, we had a great time and let me just tell you colby can totally swim!! he wanted his life jacket, which has been a huge help to us this summer. it makes him pretty much self sufficient in the water (unless he forgets he's not wearing it and jumps in without it on!! but that's another story-yes that happened. geesh!) so i can hold molly-my completely fearless daughter. i honestly think i'm going to gray prematurely if our poolside experiences continue as they have been thus far! anyway, so colby wanted his life jacket, but the water is pretty shallow so i told him to wait a little bit and we could come back and get it later. we got in and went past the toddler area to where the water gets about thigh deep on me-that area where the sprinklers are before the current starts pulling you into the lazy river (i'm telling you this place is crazy cool!)-and colby says "look mommy" and goes under, like his whole body, and starts swimming!! moving his arms kicking his legs holding his breath swimming!! he can only stay under for about 5 seconds and if the water is too deep for him to stand he needs some help; he hasn't figured out how to keep his whole head above the water yet, but i couldn't believe it! he's 3 & 1/2, never had a swim lesson, and he'll probably be totally able to swim by the end of summer. i'm so proud of him!! we went down the slides. a lot. we made many circles around the lazy river. the current is pretty strong, and colby kept getting too close and would have to fight it to get back over where i was. he'd start pulling at the water and saying "mommy, this water is too thick!" i guess that's the only way he could describe it. pretty cute. we figured it was time to head out when we saw the kids' lips shivering. molly's were purple. it was very overcast, so it was only about 80 degrees (yes, only, and yes, thats cool. it's texas people). a great day to play golf according to allen, but a little chilly for swimming. we dried off, went to the playscape next to the pool for about 20 minutes, and topped off our trip with lemonade and vanilla cones from sonic. gotta love it.
what a great day!!

sucky

thats the name of our new fish. sucky. it is a sucker fish , so i suppose on some level it is an approprite name. it's actually a chinese algae eater.

i wouldnt let colby get an actual sucker fish because they can get up to like 20 inches long or something. i'm not ready to sign up for that. especially since i'm the one taking care of colby's fish. so we're up to two fish now. sucky is getting along nicely with lady--our albino tiger barb who colby says is a boy. a boy fish named lady. fantastic.

today at the pet store the lady working there asked him what he was going to name his new fish. when he said "sucky" she laughed and said "i hope this fish lives 10 years!" i guess she was implying that it would be funny for a 13 year old guy to have a fish named sucky. i then proceeded to ask him (since we were on the subject of fish names) why he named a boy fish lady. his response? "because some fish are boys." i'm pretty sure that doesn't make any sense, but i'm not about to try and reason with a 3-year-old.

on another note, we made it back safely from camp and the kids were in one piece, or should i say 2 pieces. :) molly ended up getting a virus and my mom took her to the dr and paid $40 for them to tell her it's just a virus. gotta love that. i'm fairly certain my kids' viruses pay my pediatrician's mortgage. but i digress. she was fine by the time we got home and i am beyond thankful to shelly cook and my mom for being so awesome to take my kids for the week so i could go enjoy my other kids (about 50 of them).

camp was fantastic! 2 kids in our group accepted Christ over the course of the week. no major injuries or anything like that. i did, however, discover the fabulous sport of tetherball!! how i've lived 27 years without ever playing this game i'll never know, but i'm now on a mission to get one in my backyard!! "colby, get out here and play tetherball with your mother!"

allen leaves saturday for mission trip to paradise texas and i'll be staying here and working at VBS. i'm teaching music to the pre-k and kindergarden group. it should be lots of fun. i need to learn my music. kidding, shelly.

after that he's done and we can hopefully take a few mini vacations. we want to take the kids to sea world and down to the texas aquarium in corpus. i'd also like to go up to dallas and do the zoo and aquarium up there. we're into fish if you can't tell.

that about wraps it up.

until next time....

and we're back

we managed to spend 3 days at the beach without getting sunburned, praise the Lord!

we had a great time. colby's week was filled with sleep-deprivation and sugar, but now that i think about it the sugar probably helped him stay awake for the late night activities!! :)

the seniors enjoyed having him around (i actually didn't spend much time with him because they kept taking him with them!), and he LOVED the attention of course. he got to ride a horse and play miniature golf and wave jump. alas no sand castles were built. i guess he was too busy.

this is the game-playingest group we've ever taken. we played games a lot, which was great cause allen and i are big game players too. if you've never played apples to apples you should. it's way fun.

wednesday night we ate at the crazy cajun-a senior trip tradition. they bring a bowl full of crab legs, crawfish (whole), shrimp (also whole), corn on the cob, sausage, and potatoes and dump it on the table. it's every man for himself and you just dig in, eat what you want, and carefully avoid what you don't--for me that's anything with its head still attached. no thank you. i'd rather my food not look at me knowingly before i bite into it. ick.

colby didn't eat any of the seafood but he enjoyed putting the heads of the decapitated crustaceans on his fingers like finger puppets and creeping out the 18 year old girls. pretty funny. he's his father's son. no doubt.

i got a great tan and didn't feel like a total fatty standing next to the skinny teenage girls-always a plus. allen started peeling from the sunburn he got the week before. he went out a few times though. i have pictures to prove it. :)

molly might possibly have had more fun with grammie than we did at the beach. not really, but when we got home my house looked like the disney store came over and threw up in my living room. as i predicted in my last post, they spent most of their week shopping.

i get a few days with her before we leave for youth camp on monday. such is the life of a youth pastors wife, and right now i love it. i may not so much when allen leaves in 2 weeks for mission trip and i don't get to go.

much thanks to our sweet friends matt and shelly who, having spent plenty of time with my kids, are still volunteering to take them while we're at camp!! i hope we'll still be friends when we get back. :)

here are some pics from this weeks trip...

a nutritious breakfast of powdered donuts.

told ya allen got out there!

riding a horse with ms jeanie

the shrimp head finger puppet

colby and mommy

off to the beach

2 hours and counting...
we're going to the beautiful texas coast today--beautiful if your favorite color is brown, brown water, brown sand, brown seaweed. you get the picture. but it's the beach so you won't hear me complaining. colby is beyond excitement. he was ready at 7 o'clock this morning. we're actually going with the 12th graders from the youth group. it's their senior trip and allen and i tag along and call it a vacation. well, i call it a vacation. i love the beach. allen would rather be anywhere else, but he does look forward to hanging out with the seniors so it's not a complete loss.
last time we took colby he was 1 & 1/2 and hated it. he hated the sand under his feet. he hated the water. too hot. too cold. but now he can't wait. mimi and papa took him down to the coast back in febuary i believe and he had a great time playing so we're hoping he's remembering that experience and not the one previous. i'm hoping to see some crabs and a washed up jellyfish or two. he knows more about marine life than anyone i've ever met personally. this kid would rather read "The Complete Guide to Sharks and Rays" than Clifford or Curious George or whatever other 3 year olds are reading. seriously, we own that book.
my mom is staying with molly so we don't have to mess with nap times and early to bed.
i am so grateful. she'll have fun with her grammie. i think they're going shopping. you're never too young to learn about a good bargain.

sunscreen? check. sand toys? check. camera? check.
off we go!