did God create horton?

i love this weather!!
allen took colby to school this morning and i went out on my deck with my cup of tea and my bible study and sat with the Lord for about 30 minutes before i had to get molly taken care of.
it was so great to sit out there without sweating! i was almost cold.

colby has show and tell on wednesdays and his class is currently learning about creation. so for show and tell today he was supposed to take a stuffed animal and this would tie into God creating the animals (i'm assuming).
he narrowed it down to ogo pogo, which is basically the candian version of the loch ness monster (allen bought it for me when he and i first started dating and he went to canada to see his brother; colby inherited it at some point), and horton, as in horton hears a who.
now i'm not sure wither one of these is what ms. brandy had in mind. ogo pogo is for all due purposes a fictional mystical creature of the deep, and horton is kind of an elephant-in a very seussical way. he settled on horton.
i started having flashbacks to my experience as a 4 year old in sunday school; the class was told by our teacher to bring our favorite song the following sunday to share with the class. i guess they assumed, like most sunday school teachers of small children would i suppose, that we would tell our parents and then bring bible verses put to music (think salty songs) or twinkle twinkle little star, something of that nature.
not me. i was, even at 4, and still am, a big elvis fan. i had my own tape player and my own cassette tapes. so i made my selection on my very own and brought my favorite song-hunka hunka burnin love. it was confiscated (which i didnt understand. i followed directions!) and given to by only slightly embaressed mother, who later explained why elvis, particularly hunka hunka burnin love, is not appropriate for sunday school and why in the future i really should let her know about the assignments i'm given. lesson learned.
back to horton. i'm imagining colby taking one of these 'animals' to school and finding out thats not really what they had in mind. but, its his choice, and i figure if nothing else, God created dr seuss, right?

how to kill a hurricane

mimi and papa (allens mom and stepdad) live in houston and decided to stay and 'ride it out'. well, not mimi's first choice, but she doesnt drive so there she sits. they are safe and sound, but i overheard a conversation between her and colby the other day before the hurricane hit.

mimi: "colby, did you know there's a hurricane comin'?'

colby: "a hurricane?!?!" (pronounced hurry-cane)

mimi: "yes, and papa says we have to stay here, so we're taping up the windows and making sure we don't blow away."

colby: "come to our house so the hurry-cane doesnt get you!"

mimi: "well, we're going to stay here so we can make sure our house is ok. do you know what that hurricane's name is?"

colby: "what?"

mimi: "ike."

colby: "that's a mean name. you know what you can do if that hurry-cane comes to your house? you just hit it in the back with your shovel."

mimi: "oh, is that what i need to do?"

colby: "yeah, just cut him right in half. thats what daddy does to snakes when they come to our house. he cuts them in half with his shovel."

mimi: "ok, well we'll do that."

it works for snakes; why not for hurricanes??

once again, mimi and papa are safe but currently tree'd in. they live in an older neighborhood with some of the biggest trees i've ever seen. many of them blew over in the storm, one right across their driveway. so we're hoping they can somehow get out and head this direction. they are expected to be without power for at least a week or two.

on another note, we went to my grandparents house last night for pawpaw's (he's the one with the stretched out neck) birthday dinner. colby found a new use for his dinner roll...

makes a lovely drink garnish, yes?

and he did drink his entire drink that way and ate the roll when he was done.

molly and pawpaw, 83 years young.

this has nothing to do with the blog, but its molly in her new peacoat. how could i not share this with you?

allen said she looks like a flasher since she doesnt have any pants on. :)

a few of my favorite things

a couple of the blogs i follow have recently listed their favorite things, and i thought "what a great idea," especially since some of the things i currently love, you might just like to try and find out you love it too! so here we go......

Hairspray- this is fast becoming one of my favorite movies. the soundtrack is incredible and my kids love it so i'm getting to watch it at least a few times a week!



Tide Simple Pleasures- this laundry detergent is some of the best stuff i've ever smelled. ever. you know those cheesy febreeze commercials where people lay on the floor, or can't stop smelling their pillows because the febreeze smells so good? well thats what i've been doing with my laundry. there are a few different scents. i have lavender vanilla and i wish i could wash my whole house in it!

Canon PowerShot- my new digital camera. i can now take pictures and put them on my blog the same day! i haven't figured out yet how to get a video on here. i tried but it never uploaded. still working on that one. here's a picture of colby in his chapel uniform for school ...taken with my new camera. :)

Mary Kay Mineral Powder- and i'm not just saying this because i sell it. this is the best powder i've ever used. i don't use foundation anymore, becuase this powder gives the skin such a flawless smooth look. seriously. and if you want some, i can hook you up! ;-)

Sweet Leaf Tea- diet mint and honey is so yummy and doesnt have any calories!

there are many other things i am quite fond of, but these currently top the list.

and for those of you that read my blog regularly, colby is now going to be a tiger on sundays at church. while not quite as ferocious as a lion, a tiger is a pretty close second i would say.

as far as his identitly crisis, well, i haven't broken the news to him yet. i'll have to get back to you on that one.

identity crisis

as most of you know, colby is going to MDO (mothers day out) on mondays and wednesdays at RRCA, which is at our church. in addition to those days, we're also up there for church on sundays and wednesday night and womens bible study on thursday mornings.
lots of church going on.
thursday morning was the start up of the fall bible study (we take a break for summer).
we're getting ready to leave...
colby: "where are we going?"
me: "we're going to church."
colby: "i don't want to go to church!!" (this is followed by tears and a dramatic collapse to the floor)
i have to admit i felt sorry for him. 5 times a week at church is alot for a 3 year old. especially when its really all happened at once. up until last week we had only been going twice.
me: "why dont you want to go to church?"
colby: "i just want to be a lion."
....give me a second....processing....a lion?......what's he talking about?.........ooohhhh! got it........
me: "colby you're a lion on sundays. at school you're a fish, and on wednesday nights you're a cubbie; thats a baby bear."
colby: "oh, i like baby bears. what am i today?"
me: "well, today, you're a 3 year old."
colby: "what about the penguin?"
me: "you were a penguin. now you're a lion. you got promoted."
thats quite a step up the food chain if you ask me. penguin to lion? then he goes from lion to lamb. wouldnt you think they'd end with the lion? he is after all the king of the jungle. but no one asked me. i'm just the youth pastors wife. if we ever "name" the youth sunday school classes, i'm all over that. 7th graders can be wal-mart and seniors can be....louis vuitton, or maybe gucci. i'll have to do some research on that one....i digress...
he's having an identity crisis!! he can't remember which loveable forest/jungle creature he is from day to day. no wonder he had a melt down. penguin to lion, then a fish then a cubbie, back to lion. i thought i had a lot of "hats" to wear. poor kid. i don't know what i'm going to do when molly starts getting 'animaled'. then i'll have 6 to remember. she's already a firefly. now, thats a good place to start. you don't get much lower than that. except maybe an ant or a roach, but i dont imagine those are very good names for small groups of adorable children.

so my precious children, for today, are just colby and molly.
tomorrow they will be the lion and the firefly.
...and i will be the mother trying to keep it all straight.

mollys almost ER visit...

fortunately there was a nurse present, so she was able to "talk me down".

we went to the smiths house for labor day burgers, dogs, and hold 'em. plenty of people around so i didnt worry too much about the kids. then i hear molly cry. not just cry, but really cry. you know, moms, that deep from the gut, take your breath away, "oh, crap, she's hurt," cry. i make break for the kitchen, where i see someone (it was such a blur, i dont even know who) holding molly against her. i hear "she's bleeding." i cant see her face, but then she turns and looks at me, and theres a trail of blood coming from her forehead, running right down the center of her nose and pooling in that little crease where the nostril meets the cheek. from there down its just smeared with her tears. poor thing. i take her and set her on the counter while someone (again, a blur) dabs her forehead. theres a very small (holy cow, the head bleeds!!) gash, only about a cm long but its pretty deep. apparently she fell down the stairs and landed on the corner (solid wood, so its pretty sharp...obviously). she was only about 3 steps up, so i guess it could have been worse. allen comes in and my first reaction is, "we need to take her to the ER." allens like "we? what about colby? should one of us take her and the other one stay here with him?" and i said, "well, i can't take her by myself, with her bleeding in the backseat. colby can stay here, we'll get him later." then anna steps in and says, "you just need a butterfly bandage. thats all they'll do at the ER anyway." thank goodness she was there. i'm so thankful we have friends that are nurses! i have been saved many a visit to the ER, because i can just pick up the phone and call one of our 3 or 4 nurse friends! anyway, so we got her calmed down. she was very happy that she got to wear a band-aid, and thats that. not that injuries are ever cute, but this is just a precious picture....

she's just pitiful, isn't she?

cheese!!! she can still smile for the camera.

david and goliath...colbys version

colby did fantastic at his first day of "school".
allen took him so i could finish getting myself ready; allen will take him pretty much every day (well, the days he goes) since he has to be at work 30 minutes later only 2 floors up.
my mom had to pick him up since we were in waco for the funeral. she said he had a great day and he stayed on green (the happy face on the chart). i called my friend shelly to see if she had any insight to the day. she works up there at the school and was actually in/near colbys room this morning assisting with traffic flow. she said she didn't see him much during the day, but that his teacher came up to the library where shelly was working and said "i'm taking colby home with me." so i take that as a good sign. :)
when we got home i asked colby what he learned at school and he told me that he learned about goliath, but he couldnt tell me the story because its too scary.
i tried again at bedtime...

me: "colby, tell me about goliath."
colby: "its too scary mommy."
me: "was he a giant?"
colby: "yes!! he was mean."
me: "what happened to him?"
colby: silence.....
me: "was there someone named david?"
colby: "yes!! david killed goliath because he was mean."
me: "did he hit him with something?"
colby: "with a bat."
me: "a bat?" (i didnt know they played baseball in biblical times)
colby: "yeah, david hit him with a bat and then cut his legs off." (hmm, not quite...)
me: "his legs?"
colby: "yeah, and his face. then he threw them in the water." (this was followed by a lot of big hand motions and loud sound effects)

i proceeded to "clear up" the story, turning the bat into a slingshot and a rock. i also gave goliath back his legs and face, and instead took his entire head from the neck up.
colby agreed that this was, in fact, the version that he heard. glad thats taken care of. i'll be interested to see what he does with the fire-y furnace....

oh, and to top off my last few days, i got a speeding ticket on the way to the funeral this morning, with allen in the car, so that made it that much worse. not that allen reacted badly at all, but i just hate disappointing my husband!! so now i have to take defensive driving, which i'm sure will be loads of fun.

.....aw, man, i should have told the officer i was "speeding for Jesus!!"

sigh...

it's just been one of those days.
one of those weeks actually....and its only tuesday.

i went to the american idol concert with haley sunday night. we left right after church to drive to houston, making a stop in brenham to antique (yes, it can be a verb) and have some ice cream. you can't stop in "the home of blue bell ice cream" without having a scoop...or two. :)
when we got to houston we parked about 2 or 3 blocks from the toyota center in an area with a lot of restaraunts. we figured we could eat and then walk to the concert. we had about an hour and a half before go time. too bad all the restaraunts, yes all of them, were closed. apparently that end of town is "pretty quiet" on sundays. i guess they didnt get the memo that we were going to be there!! actually there was an italian place open "in honor of the concert", but they were backed up and wouldnt have had the food out in time for us to eat and get out.
so haley and i headed over to the venue and split a $9 chicken finger basket. not exactly what we had in mind, but i guess you make due with what you're given.
the concert was, eh. good music. bad format. not worth blogging about.

i got a text from allen at midnight on our way home that his uncle james had passed away. we were expecting this, as he has been sick for awhile (cancer), but that doesnt make it any better.
allen was in waco all day yesterday to help with arrangements (he's 'the man in charge'), and went back this afternoon for the viewing. the funeral is at 2pm tomorrow. waco and back 3 days in a row! yikes.

i had a meeting this morning that i had already bailed on because i've been hosting a summer bible study on tuesday mornings at my house. i ended up cancelling on them too, because i had sooo much to do today that i didnt get done yesterday. the kids basically spent 2 days in the car running errands with me, and not fun errands either. the ones you hate doing, where you load the kids up, then unload them to stand in line at the post office, then load back up to go stand in line at the bank, then load back up to go....you get the picture. they were troopers. actually molly was a pill, but colby did pretty good. molly likes the word "no", even if she doesnt mean it. i'll ask her to hold something and she'll tell me "no", but then hold it anyway. and she's very independent and stubborn. it made for quite an afternoon.

to top it off, tomorrow is colbys first day of preschool. ahhh!! i'm actually doing ok with it.
he'll be at the academy at our church, in the same room he's been in for sunday school the past year, and i know his teacher. i honestly don't think it could be any better. i am bummed that i won't get to pick him up from his first day, though; we'll be at the funeral in waco. my mom is taking care of us as usual though, so grammie will be a nice surprise for him when he's done.
i've been going through my mental checklist of all the things i need to have to send him off tomorrow morning, and listening to the vince gill song that i've had about 24 hours to learn before i sing it at the funeral tomorrow.

i'm sure i'll have some colby "preschool stories" later this week.
keep us in your prayers.