bugs, bugs, bugs!!

i don't think i could possibly know any more about bugs than i do at this moment.
colby is freakishly obsessed with bugs. like, even more than he was with sea animals, and i thought that was pretty intense.
his room is decorated in bugs, he reads books about bugs, he watches documentaries about bugs, he looks for bugs, he talks about bugs, he shares bug facts with random strangers (the lady in the checkout line at HEB, or the cashier at the yogurt shop). i could keep going.
dont get me wrong. i think its funny, and hes truly passionate about it, but when we're eating in a restaraunt and he very loudly (because thats the only way he knows how to talk, just like his papaw) starts up about how bugs digest their prey, it can be a little much, if not for me, then for those sitting around us trying to enjoy their meal.

we were on our way to church sunday morning and he asked me
colby: "mommy, whats your favorite parasite?"
me: "uuummmm.....well. i've never really thought about it."
colby: "wanna know what mine is?"
me: "sure."
colby: "its the one that lives on the mosquito and when the mosquito bites you the parasite crawls into the wound and lives in your stomach. i cant remember what its called."
me: "wow, ok. why do you like that one?"
colby: "i just like the way it looks. its cute, like a little worm."
me: "you like the way it looks? did you see it on one of your bug shows?"
colby: "yep! on that one that you recorded for me on animal planet."
(yes, i DVR anything about bugs for him. ok, so i encourage it...a little.)
me: "well, i dont think i have a favorite parasite."
colby: "thats ok."
me: "thanks."

he's also told me that he wants to turn his room into a bug and parasite labratory. he wants to be an entomologist (study bugs) when he grows up, but he wants to work at home. Lord, help me.

on the other hand, i've been able to use his love for bugs to get him to pracitce his reading.
just today i told him
me: "colby, if you want to be a bug scientist, you have to be able to read."
colby: "but why? i dont like reading."
me: "you have to know what kind of bugs you're dealing with and you have to know how to take care of them. if you can read you wont be able to figure any of that out."
colby: "alright. lets read, then."

we also pray for the bugs at bedtime.
we thank God for the bugs (and sea animals too, still...for now), and he prays that molly will stop stepping on them and squishing them.

i may make that prayer list before too much longer. we are down to 2 hissing cockroaches. we started with 5 about a year ago. how i've managed to involuntarily kill cockroaches.....
well, maybe he wont want to keep his bug labratory here after all, once he knows i'm a bug murderer.

rest in peace, cockroaches. i'm sorry i failed you.

i'm siiiinging in the.....bathroom.

molly has this thing she does where she sings what shes doing. or while shes playing with her dolls, they dont talk to each other, they sing to each other. like opera...kind of.
she doesnt really care much for singing in general, as far as, like, actual songs. but the girl keeps a running musical dialogue between her toys. its awesome.
the other day she was using the bathroom, and asked to be left alone (implying she would be there for awhile). i went into the living room, or the kitchen or somewhere and got involved in doing something, when i hear her in the bathroom singing. LOUD.
i grabbed my camera and rushed in there to get it on tape.
excuse the slight shaking. i was trying to hold in my laugh, which has physical ramifications.
notice the 'air freshener microphone,' and the "bom, bom" at the end.
and no, i dont know what shes saying, but she means business, i do know that.

still there?

so it's been almost a month since i blogged and i am sooo sorry. sorry for those of you that check in to see what we've been up to and sorry for my kids in 20 years when they wonder what the heck happened from may 10th to june 5th in 2010. they probably wont care, but i like to think they might be just a little interested.

not much had been going on in the everyday lives of the frans clan. the kids had their last soccer games today. colby was not terribly into this season (no surprise to us), and molly had fun once she warmed up to it. until today, the last game, allen had to be on the field with her at all times. when the season started he had to literally carry her by her under arms around the field and kind of fling her feet at the ball hoping for some contact. she cried a lot and begged us not to make her play, but a) shes the one that wanted to play in the first place and b) we wanted her to learn that when you make a commitment, you keep it. after two or three games like that we told her she didnt have to play anymore if she didnt want to, but she would still wear her uniform and go support her teammates from the sidelines. once we told her that, it was like a little switch went off. we were no longer making her do something; she had a choice. her choice was to play, but while holding daddy's hand. every game she became a little less attached to him, and then today she didnt need him at all. she even almost scored a goal which was good enough for us to cause a small celebration from the spectator section. :-)

i doubt organized sports will be in colbys near future. it doesnt really seem to be his thing. we may try karate and next year, swim team. he loves swimming and is about to start private lessons. maybe by next summer he'll be ready to join a team. we'll give molly the option to do soccer again in the fall. her coach wants her back. i really want to look into dance for her, or gymnastics for both of them. but all that stuff costs money, so we'll see.

i returned monday from a trip to the holy land with a group of women from houston, led by beth moore. i mentioned it on here, well, about a month ago.
it was an amazing experience to say the very least. beth spoke at least once a day, and i recorded all but one of the sessions so i can listen to them again and again.
people have asked me what was my favorite part about the trip and i think the coolest and most impacting...impactful...thing is that now when i read my Bible, i can actually see the places it talks about. capernaum, sea of galilee, mount of olives, dead sea, ceasarea phillipi; i've been to all of them. pretty cool.

the kids are growing like crazy.
we finished up our first year of homeschooling a couple weeks ago, and i would call it a success. colbys reading at probably a first grade level and loves to learn about anything science-y. technically he's not even supposed to start kindergarten till this fall, but he has such an early birthday, that i started a year early. so we're head of the game. we found out that we got into a homeschool co-op here in round rock. 18 (i think) families applied and only 7 got in, so we're really excited about that. colby will be going to the co-op on fridays, where i'll be teaching K-2nd P.E., and molly will be doing preschool 3 days a week at the academy at our church.
we have a busy fall ahead of us, so we're really relaxing this summer. lots of swimming!

i will try not to be as absent anymore. i've been sitting here for two hours trying to get all my pictures uploaded to facebook, so i'm not going to upload them here right now, but i will post some soon. OR, you can friend me on FB and look at them there. amy hamontree frans.

have a blessed weekend!!!

molly's adorable big mouth

sunday was mothers day as you all know.
a few years ago the kids started a james avery charm bracelet for me and each year on mothes day they both give me a new charm to add to it.
i love this tradition because the charms are unique to them. they dont get me what i would pick. they pick something personal. the first year wasnt exactly their choice. they each gave me a silhouette with their name engraved on it. last year colby gave me a croc (as in the shoe) because he loves wearing them, and molly gave my a turtle (i'm not sure about that one. its my favoritve animal, but i'm not sure she knew that at the time).
this year followed suit. allen took them to james avery on saturday afternoon and they each picked out the charm they thought would be the best addition to my bracelet.
molly couldnt wait to give it to me. allen told her she had to wait. tears ensued.
all day she kept asking and we kept telling her she had to wait till mothers day. she was a bit confused and asked me on several occasions
molly: "mommy, when is it your birthday??"


finally that night i was putting her to bed and i said
me: "molly you know what? tomorrow is mothers day!"
molly: "(big grin) i got you a princess tiara, but i cant tell you till tomorrow."
me: "(holding in a laugh) well, i cant wait to see what its going to be. i'm sure i'll be very surprised!"

even Jesus got in trouble

when we got home from church yesterday i was asking the kids what they learned in sunday school. usually they 'cant remember', but this week they were both able to tell me.
they said in unison
colby & molly: "Jesus healed the sick man."
me: "good job!"
molly: "Jesus died on the cross!"
me: "yes He did. do you know why?"
molly: "they put nails in his hands and poked him with a sword and he died."
me: "do you know why He died on the cross, though, molly?"
molly: "and then they took Him off the cross and put Him in a tomb with a big rock over the door and when He woke up He couldnt get out!! He was trapped!!!"
me: "no He wasnt trapped. God rolled the stone away so He could walk out."
molly: "and then He went home and His mom and dad swat Him."
me: "they swat Him?"
molly: "yes, becuase He was in trouble."
me: "what did He do to get in trouble?"
molly: "He ate all the food in the pantry and the refrigerator, so they swat Him on His bottom."

honestly, i didnt even know where to start. it was bedtime. i was tired.
i just said ok, and put her to bed.
i promise i will not let my daughter grow up thinking that, after He rose from the dead, Jesus got swat for eating all the food in the house.

vacation, all i ever wanted

a little go-go's reference for all you 80's music fans. i was humming that song to myself all week in atlanta.

thats right. the frans clan went on our first official family vacation.

we rode on a plane and everything. legit.

i heard about, hmm, 6 or 7 months ago of the aquarium in atlanta (the biggest in the country), and made it my goal to get us there this year. so when allen mentioned taking a vacation after disciple now in febuary, guess what i suggested. :)

but then the haiti earthquake happened and instead of taking a couple weeks off he spent 10 days in haiti.

i had to work through that to be quite honest with you.

even on my best days i'm at least 10% selfish.

he looked further into the year and blocked off a week in april, right after easter.

usually he takes some time off in the fall as well, so i had originally thought we'd do a getaway to dallas in april (theres a fantastic aquarium there too that we havent visited yet, and some great kids' museums), and visit atlanta in september-ish.

**side note: colby is WAY into all things ocean. that why we're planning our vacations around aquariums.**

after further deliberation and planning (and going on 9 years experience as a pastors wife) i know theres no guarantee that he'll take vacation in the fall, so i figured we ought to do atlanta while we have the week to do it.

i assumed we'd drive. i thought 'its only 14 hours. no biggie.' we'd drive thru the night so the kids could sleep in the car, and allen and i could tag team naps at the hotel on monday.

perfect plan, right?

allen was never a fan of this idea, but i was trying to save us money. plus we wouldnt have to rent a car, because we'd already have ours with us. and we could put an ice chest in the back and take all our own food. brilliant.

allen and i had a heart to heart about two weeks before we were planning on leaving.

i love my husband.

he basically said, if we're going to do a vacation, we're going to do it right.

we both arrived at the same conclusion; if we drive all the way there, 14 hours (plus stops for bathroom breaks, gas, etc) we're going to end up hating each other before the vacation even starts. this is probably true.

so i researched and researched and found a hotel right across the street from the aquarium and the coke museum that serves a full complimentary breakfast every morning and has a refrigerator in the room where we can keep our own food and drinks. the CNN tower, which has a food court, was located right behind it, so we could go there to get dinner in the evenings.

we'd pack our own lunch everyday. so our only purchased meal would be a food court dinner.

the MARTA train (atlantas subway) is half a mile from the hotel if we wanted to go anywhere else. we ended up riding that from the airport and back to the airport as well. total cost $9. awesome.

i booked the room and the plane tickets and 12 days later we were in atlanta.

we had a fabulous time. we flew crazy early so we were there by 9am. we went to the coca-cola museum on monday and the aquarium on tuesday.

wednesday we took the MARTA train, and a bus, and a very short cab ride to stone mountain, which is probably one of the coolest things i've ever seen. its the single largest piece of granite, standing 825 feet high, and i dont even know how long. the park is 3,200 acres if that gives you an idea. we rode to the top and had a picnic lunch, then came back down to the 'village' to ride the train, see some shows, and play a little.

it was a great first vacation, with the exception of atlantas ridiculous level of pollen (it hung like smog over the city. gross.), it being spring break, and the fire alarm going of twice wednesday night, or should i say thursday morning; 3:30am and again at 4:15am.

embassy suites will be getting a strongly worded email from allen this week.

hey, maybe that will get us a free night in dallas for our fall vacation.....

pictures!! (there are a lot!!)

the first few are from easter sunday.

a few days before easterm colby showed this pose to my mom and said he was going to do this in all his easter pictures because, and i quote, "it makes me look cool."

so of course molly had to come up with a pose for her pictures too. what a ham.

colby is attempting to do his pose in this picture, too. i'm not sure what mollys doing. and she insisted on having that ceramic cat on her lap...and a sticker on her leg.

the first thing we did when we got to atlanta--lunch at johnny rockets. colby had his first cheeseburger. he's a chicken nugget kid all the way, but he said he wanted to try something new since we were on vacation.

posing for the camera again.

the coca-cola bear. this thing was a little creepy. it was run by animatronics. there was a guy in there doing the arms and walking around and stuff, but he had a computer that he was operating to make the mouth open and the eyes move. the bear would look right at you. cool, but a little unsettling.


one of the jellyfish tanks at the aquarium.

this tank was 20-something feet deep, and as long as a football field. HUGE. all different kinds of fish and rays, and the only aquarium in the country with whale sharks.


view from the top of stone mountain. yes, it drops off right there.


colby and allen on stone mountain

sorry this is sideways. the yellow on the bottom of her shoes? pollen.

i'm not even kidding. it was awful.

there was a booth at the stone mountain park where you could get your hair done. molly wanted to get hers done, but she wanted me to get mine done too. i think i look like a dr seuss character.

i have a funny molly story to share, but it'll have to wait till tomorrow. i'm done for the day.

25 things

i was reading thru all my notes on facebook that i've written over the past couple years or so...however long i've been on facebook. i came across this one. just 25 things (goals, facts, habits, etc.) about me. some of them made me laugh, because they're so random. i havent changed any of them. this is exactly how i posted it and they're all still true.


1. when it comes right down to it, i don't think i really want a dog.

2. i suck at drawing.

3. i've always wanted a big brother.

4. i love a good sandwich.

5. when i was pregnant, i would eat a whole pizza and not think twice about it.

6. i regret not pursuing anything passionately in high school. i wonder how good i could have been had i picked one thing and stuck with it.

7. i don't have a college degree, nor do i have a clue what i would want one in.

8. i used to steal that sticky tack stuff off my teachers desk in 2nd grade.

9. i really really love to dance. all kinds.

10. i used to prank call people and hold the phone up to the t.v. on a spanish channel.

11. i like the way skunks smell.

12. i am terrified of grasshoppers.

13. i'm scared of tubing on a river. i almost drowned in one of the rapids when i was in middle school, and about 5 years ago i got dumped out of the inner tube and twisted my knee. i hate it.

14. i love flying.

15. i've never had eggnog.

16. when allen goes out of town, i almost always end up calling the police on our neighbors barking dog, because i get paranoid that theres 'someone out there.' she only seems to bark when allens out of town.

17. in 8th grade, i got pantsed in front of the guy i had a crush on. he pointed and laughed.

18. when i was a junior i would sneak of campus with a friend of mine who was a senior, by hiding in the trunk of her car.

19. theres always a song in my head.

20. i marched in the rose parade on new years day in 1996.

21. i wish my rib cage was smaller.

22. i like rap music, but i dont listen to it...much.

23. i hate cleaning my house.

24. i would love it to be super cute and fashionable to wear pajama pants and tshirts all the time.

25. i really really love my family and cant believe how blessed i am.