my new addition

soooo......one week ago tomorrow, we celebrated valentines day with some of our best friends, the lamberts.
that afternoon, before they came over, i decided to go ahead and give allen his gift.
we dont usually make a big deal for v-day, but allen is SO hard to buy for and i'd been thinking it would be great to get him a gift certificate to have his car detailed, so as soon as an opportunity came up to get him a gift, i jumped on it.
so he opened his card and was very thankful that i had gotten it for him and he said
allen: "i didnt get you anything."
me: "i didnt figure you had."
allen: "ouch. well i was thinking the dinner would be the present." (he arranged for a guy that works on our youth ministry to some over and make dinner for the 4 of us. he graduated from culinary school and was an executive chef for awhile. awesome. i was so excited.)
me: "i know, babe. we dont make a big deal for valentines. but i finally had something i could get you, so i decided to do it."
allen: "i'll get you a present."
me: "you dont have to get me a present."
allen: "no, i'm gonna get you something. what do you want?"
me: "........a tattoo!"
allen: "ok."
me: "really??"
allen: "yeah. we'll go tonight and get you one."

now this is a HUGE deal. i've wanted a tattoo since i was, i dont even know, 15 or 16. when i turned 18, my parents told me if i came home with a tattoo, they wouldnt pay for my college. i believed them.
then when i got sick and had withdraw from school, a tattoo was the furthest thing from my mind. then i started dating allen and we were married a little over a year later.
i still wanted a tattoo, but it became an issue of me being a [youth] pastors wife, and what kind of example would that set, etc.
i can understand that point of view, but at the same time, i think its a personal decision. its not that 'cut and dry'.
what i want to get is very important to me. i've wanted a tattoo not just for the sake of having one (although i'd be lying if i said i dont think they're super cool), but because it means something to me, its a reminder of my relationship with Christ; to myself and those around me, and its a great conversation starter and possibly a chance to share Christ with someone. because what i got is different, and truth be told, in the 7 days i've had it, i've had 2 strangers ask what it means.
opportunity.

ok, so anyway, i called april and told her what was going on (she didnt believe me at first) and she prepared to get hers as well (shes was also regretably tatto-less).

we had dinner, headed to the local 'ink shop' and i walked out and hour(ish) later with my long awaited tattoo.

its a western african symbol. when i went to ghana a year and a half ago, i saw it everywhere and asked what it meant. translated to english, it means, basically, 'i am nothing without God'.
i love that. i love the reminder, and i love looking at my wrist and thinking of ghana and the people there i got to meet and love on, and being reminded to pray for them.

so...heres the journey. :)

it hurt, but not near as bad as i was anticipating. i had psyched myself up for ridiculous pain, so i was pleasantly surprised.

oh, and april ended up not getting hers. she wanted words (matthew six twenty-six) on her foot, but the guy wouldnt do it, because he was afraid she would jerk and mess him up...or something. she was bummed, but hopefully will be able to find someone else thats willing.

feeling the love

i know, i know, long time no blog.
we've been crazy busy around here, and although i miss doing the 365 each sunday, i havent missed the pressure of getting a fabulous picture every day. i think i've used my camera three times since new years eve. yikes!
that being said, i havent had the motivation to get on here and blog about anything in particular.
i was telling allen the latest 'kid stories' last night, and allen said, "you need to blog!"
so here i am.

we've been having some issues with PDA lately. thats 'public displays of affection' for those of you that dont know.
for the past two wednesday nights, colbys teacher, ms chris, has had to pull him out of class and speak to him about being inappropriate with his friend tayler (who, by the way is gorgeous! at least he has good taste.) during story time.
he lays all over her and kisses her, right there in the circle while the teacher is telling them the bible story!
last week ms chris pulled him out and said
ms chris: "i dont hug and kiss my friends while pastor mark is speaking. does your daddy let the big kids do that while he's preaching to them?"
colby: "no, but they're tools from God!"
ms chris explained that ms pam is a tool of God too, and so is anyone else that is talking to us about God/Jesus.
then last night it happened again. when i went to pick him up chris said she left herself wide open because they had a valentines party and were talking about ways they show love.
when colby was kissing on tayler again during storytime, ms chris called him down and he said
colby: "but this is how i show her i love her!"
touche, colby. well played.
so then she pulled him out of class again and explained that boys are blue and girls are pink and together they make purple. and purple is not allowed.
she was telling me all this and about that time colby came out into the hallway. i said
me: "colby, what color is not allowed?"
colby: "purple! but tayler must not know that because she was wearing purple shirt tonight."
me: "no its not about clothes, colby. its about hugging and kissing tayler at inappropriate times. its ok to give short hugs when you're saying hello and goodbye, but we dont need to hold onto each other and we definitely dont need to lay on each other. and kissing is not ok at all."
colby: "but why? i love her so much."
me: "well, lets think of some other ways you can show her you love her."
the conversation carried on till we got home and started getting ready for bed.
we'll see if it sticks come next wednesday when he sees tayler again.
shes a cutie and hes super affectionate. i guess the two dont mix.

mollys prayer

i was putting molly to bed last night and when i started praying she said
molly: "no, no. i want to do it."
me: "ok, thats great! go ahead."
molly: "dear Jesus, thank you for this day, and for just everything. please help colby to feel better (hes been having trouble with his asthma), and help me to find the screws that fell out of my light on my wall, and help me to not get swat. thank you for the butterflies and my pretty hair. amen."

priorities people.

ladies or money; cant have both

my friend sean came over last night to do some work on our computer.
we were sitting in the playroom and colby comes in and sits down. sean and i continued our conversation (i dont even remember what we were talking about) and colby out of nowhere says
colby: "i like ladies."
me: "what?"
colby: "i like ladies. i like them a lot."
me: "well, thats good. we want you to like ladies."
colby: "i like ladies more than money."
at this point i cant respond because i'm laughing to hard to say anything.
sean: "that will help you in the future."
colby: "oh yeah?"
sean: "yeah, cause if you like ladies you wont have any money."
colby: "i'm going to give all my money to the ladies."
sean: "yes you will. if you like them, you will."

so random but so funny.
i still have no idea where that came from.

im a heartbraker...dont you mess around with me

sorry, i couldnt resist that last part. and now i'm singing the song. dang it.
ok, i was putting colby to bed tonight and as i was leaving he said
colby: "wait mommy! i have to tell you something."
me: "ok, what is it?"
colby: (starts to tear up and wipes his eyes) "i love you so much."
me: "i love you too baby."
colby: "when you're with me it feels like theres a heart around me, but when you leave it feels like the heart is breaking."

this is all said on the verge of crying. he is the sweetest little thing. or hes a freakishly talented 5-year-old actor. at any rate i stayed a little bit longer and loved on my sweet boy.
tomorrow i will look into acting classes.
kidding, kidding.

ladies' man

i went to pick colby up from awanas last night and the teacher, ms. chris, pulled me aside...
ms chris: i have to tell you what colby did tonight.
me: thats always an exciting way to start a conversation.
ms chris: colby looked around at the girls as said, 'who wants to marry me?' and tayler said, 'i want to marry you more than a rainbow!!' i dont even know what that means, but she seemed to think it was a very big deal. then ruth said, 'i want to marry you too, colby.' so colby put his arms around both of them, but you could definitely tell there was some love there between he and tayler.

as shes telling me this, colby and tayler are locked in a farewell embrace. i guess you cant fight a love stronger than rainbows.

project 365, week 2

its been so good to get back into a routine this week after 3+ weeks of holiday craziness!

went to the gym 4 times. did all 3 days of school with colby with only minimal frusteration. grocery shopped on monday. life is good. this week we'll add awanas at church on wedensday night back into the mix and maybe squeeze in a midweek playdate.

SUNDAY, january 3rd

allen preached last sunday. his sermon was callen "new years resolutions are from hell." you can listen to it here. we hung our ornaments up yesterday. i'm not going to tell you what they're for, but if you listen you'll find out. haha, hows that for leaving you hanging?? :)

MONDAY, january 4th

molly got a serious hair cut today. she wont let me do anything to it, so it always looks stringy and scraggley. they took about 2 inches off and trimmed her bangs. she was not a fan of the idea, but i told her she'd look like dora. SOLD!

TUESDAY, january 5th

i made a greek salad today. i've been craving greek food, but cant personally cook it, so this will have to do for now.

WEDNESDAY, january 6th

no picture. i'm a failure.

THURSDAY, january 7th

worked on my blurb book for most of the afternoon. its coming along....slowly.

FRIDAY, january 8th

my water was frozen solid when i got in my car to go to the gym this morning. this doesnt happen in texas, so it was worth taking a picture of.

SATURDAY, january 9th

cute napkins i picked up at the grocery store. this picture is NOT sideways on my camera, and my computer wont let me flip it, so......grr.

have a blessed week!!!