Another Chase funny!

Randy's so good when he puts the kids to bed. He'll spend 15-20 minutes talking with them and teaching them Bible verses, etc. When Sydney and Bailey were younger, he taught both of them the Ten Commandments. While he was at Bryan College, a professor taught them a neat trick for remembering the Ten Commandments. It had to do with signs you make with your fingers for each number you were learning. For instance, #6 is "Do not kill." Well, if you hold up 5 fingers on one hand, and one finger on the other hand, the one finger by itself becomes a gun pointing to the other five "people." It has worked like a charm and all three kids learned it in no time.

Recently Randy decided it was time for Chase to learn them. It's always interesting to try to explain the word "adultery." We just tell them that it's when a mommy or daddy leave and find another person to be with. "Covet" is also a new term to them. When Randy told this one to Chase, he said the word reminded him of "shovel." Ok -whatever.

Today at lunch, I wanted to see how much Chase had remembered. He got to #10 and stopped. I could tell right away that he couldn't remember the word. So we waited a second to see what he would say and this is what he said. . ."Do not 'shove-it'." I thought we all would fall in the floor laughing! I guess this is what you get when you combine "shovel" with "covet."

I'm so glad that he didn't get upset, he just laughed right along with us! Funny boy!!

Corn Hole

Back in March, we visited Randy's cousin, Sharon. She introduced us to the lawn game called Corn Hole. I thought it was the strangest name for a game. But when I played it, I LOVED it! We mentioned it to Randy's dad, Paul, and asked if he thought he could make one. Well, I don't know of anything he can't make, so I shouldn't have been surprised to see that by the time we went to visit them last week, he had made one almost just like Sharon's. (It had to be UT of course, since he's a UT alum!)

What's so great about Corn Hole is that ANYONE can play! You basically throw corn filled bean bags to try to get into the hole about 25 feet away. We all had so much fun playing. Even the kids did well.

This is Sydney, Paul (aka PaPa') and Bailey

Randy and his Uncle Elbert

Evelyn (aka MaMa') having a great laugh!

Doe River Gorge

I can say that I've experienced the PERFECT job. It didn't last long, but while it did, I loved it. I had the best boss and great people to work with. It was at a Christian camp called Doe River Gorge. It's run by Terry Maughon, a man who I have great respect for. He has a vision for reaching young people for the Lord, as well as a vision for making Doe River the most awesome camp in the world!

Paul & Evelyn's church, Grace Fellowship in Johnson City had their baptism at the lake at Doe River last Saturday. They invited the church to come and enjoy the camp activities after the baptism was over. So we all headed over there and ended up spending the entire day at the camp.

These facilities are top notch. They don't do anything half-way! I'm so excited for the day when all 3 of our kids can enjoy a week-long camping experience here. I hear it's life-changing! I might just have to tag along (as a counselor, of course) so that I don't miss anything!!

Moments of Quiet

Have you ever had those moments of quiet and peace with your kids where you think, "Ahhhh, I wish this would happen more often?" This is what I thought recently when Chase and Bailey played so well together on the computer.

Peaceful Streams

The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows; He leads me beside
peaceful streams...

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his
name.

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will
not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my
enemies.

You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with
oil.

My cup overflows with blessings.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all
the days of my life,

and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23

We recently got to visit Randy's parents at their house in Bluff City, TN. They live on several acres of beautiful farmland right at the foot of Holston Mountain. We've always enjoyed visiting them. But this time I realized that I've come to view this place as a retreat of sorts. This time I needed a retreat for my soul. I sat on their porch, eating breakfast one morning, as I watched the kids playing at the pond catching tadpoles and salamanders. It was so quiet. Hummingbirds would swoop down and sip sweet nectar from the feeder right above me. It had rained so much in this area recently that I could hear the stream behind their house. Most of last year it was so dry that there wouldn't even be any water at all in the stream.

After breakfast I walked back to the stream and was amazed at how beautiful it was. As I stood there watching and listening to the water, all I could think of was the verse in Psalm 23 that says, "He leads me beside peaceful streams." I wanted to stay there all day. In the middle of our trials, I am able to find peace. This is a peace that the world could never understand. But my God is bigger than any trials I could endure.

It was such a good time for us. I feel refreshed. I may not know what the next few weeks or months will bring, but I do know that I have a God that does know and I trust Him to show me the way.

Mocha & Tiger

Ok - I'm just not an animal person. We didn't have dogs growing up. I viewed them as extra work and never did see how someone could get so attached to an animal! Well, when Chrissy and Tyler moved, they couldn't take their dog with them. They asked us if we wanted her. Randy had wanted a dog for SOOOOOO long. And this dog was an outside dog. So I thought ok, I could handle this. So when we moved into our house, we inherited a dog. I was surprised at how much I quickly came to love this dog! She is so sweet natured and does well with the kids.

She does have one MAJOR flaw. This dog LOVES to escape out of the back yard. It drives me INSANE!!!! At first we saw her wiggle through a tiny opening in the back behind the shed. So Randy propped up some plywood and that helped (momentarily). Then we saw her scale a tree stump that was sort of grown into the fence. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Randy found some barbed wire and wrapped it around the top, so that stopped her for awhile. Then she figured out how to move the plywood and escape from the back again. Ugh!!! Randy got some zip ties and finally - finally fixed the problem She hasn't escaped now for about 2 weeks.

The funniest thing about when she escapes is that she won't come to us when we call her. We finally figured out that she loves the car. So all we have to do is drive down the road to where we find her, call her name, and she comes running to hop into the car. One day we found her across the street. Randy had to back the Saturn out of the driveway, get Mocha into the car, and then pull back into the driveway. Crazy dog!!

Well....a few weeks ago, my friend Rachel asked us if we wanted a cat. Randy is allergic to cats so we can't have an indoor one. But this is an outdoor cat. Even Randy agreed that it would be ok to have one. So we chose Tiger. She was so sweet when we first saw her. Last Friday she was finally weaned and old enough to come live with us. The kids were so excited! They played with her for hours and hours. We put her on the back porch to see how she and Mocha would get along. Bad news...Mocha does not like Tiger!! She lunges at her and barks like crazy every time she can see her on the porch. Poor kitty. After several days, they seem to be tolerating each other a little better. But for now, the kitty will live on the back porch. She seems to be happy as can be and has already learned how to use the litter box. I even find myself sneaking out to play with her when the kids are in bed. :)

If you had told me a year ago that we would own a cat AND a dog, I would have told you that you were crazy. I guess we all can change!

Visitors

My brother's wife, Trussie, and her three kids came to visit this past week. In the 24 hours they were here, we went to the Chattanooga Nature Center, Lake Winnie (thanks, Trussie!) and swam in our pool. We had lots of fun, and were exhausted by days end.

The Nature Center was so interesting! It was almost like going to a zoo. We saw different kinds of birds and snakes (in cages, thankfully!). They also have a section where they tend to injured animals. We saw an eagle and several red foxes. Very cool.

But the best part - in my humble opinion - is this tree house that they built around this MAMMOTH tree. Inside there are tables and swing to just sit and relax.

What's so funny about this picture of the kids is that you can see Bailey's pouty face. She HATES bugs. So this outing was not her favorite. I think she saw some spider webs in the treehouse and didn't want to sit in the swing. I was trying to coax her to smile, but she wouldn't budge. (It probably didn't help that we were up till late the night before and she didn't get enough sleep!)

We went to Lake Winnie right after lunch and the kids had a blast. Even though we got rained on, it was lots of fun.

This is Celina, Sydney, Bailey, Chase, TJ & Greg.

We came home for dinner and afterwards we went swimming for 2 hours! You better believe the kids slept REALLY well that night. It really was a fun day. The only thing missing was Phillip...

He keeps 'em coming...

Tonight for dinner I fixed chicken leg quarters with dumplings. YUM! We almost never have this type of chicken, since I prefer to eat boneless, skinless chicken breasts. But it was on sale - so how could I pass that up?

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when Chase came to me afterwards and said, "Mommy, your chicken was yummy. I like the chicken with the sticks in it!" :)

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Today we had to work in the yard. We recently tore down a wooden play structure that was just infested with termites! Yuk! I guess Chase just didn't hear us pronounce the word correctly, because I heard him say, "I want to see! Where are the ternamites?"



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We've been swimming alot in our neighborhood pool lately - and I mean A LOT!! All 3 of the kids are like little fish and we are so proud of them! Today Sydney and Bailey learned how to do a flip turn (you know how swimmers will swim to a wall, flip, turn and push off with their feet?). Well, Chase was not to be outdone. He decided to try it and by gosh, he did pretty well! He's never even done a flip in the water at all, and he managed a flip turn!



But the funniest thing was that we've been making the kids wear their goggles or swim masks so that their eyes don't get so irritated from the chlorine. Today Chase's goggles got all foggy (an all too common occurrence) and he looked at me and said, "Mommy, my goggles are blind!" hee hee!

HANDSOME!

We are such creatures of habit. The kids know that every Saturday night they get baths and we get their clothes ready for church the next day. Last night, however, we had a babysitter coming to watch them so we could go to a friend's house for dinner. I decided to bathe them early so we wouldn't have to do it when we got home that evening. After Chase had his bath, I was brushing his hair. I said, "Chase, you are SO handsome!" He said, "Are we going to church tonight?" (He knows we get all gussied up when we go to church.) I said, "No." And before I could explain why he had an early bath, he said, "Well, why do I have to be handsome today?"