Where Have I Been??

Well, I'll tell you. I've been at work! But as of last week, I have gone back to part-time and I couldn't be happier about my decision. I am so glad to be back at home with my kids two days a week!

Since I will be at home a couple of days a week again, I will hopefully be able to update a little more often. Since my last post at Easter, a lot has happened! Scott graduated from LCU on May 2nd, earning his second Masters degree, a Master of Arts in Biblical Interpretation. Scott's parents and grandmother were able to join us for the event. We are so proud of our daddy and all his accomplishments!

That same day, when we got home from Lubbock, we had Will's 4th birthday party. This year, we went with a pirate theme; Will dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow in the costume we got him. It was a crazy day, but we had a lot of fun! Since we were going to be out of town the day previous to Will's party, I bought his cake from the bakery this year instead of making it myself. They did a great job and it was delicious!

Will's actual birthday came on Mother's Day, May 10th. That day we celebrated by going to Midland, eating at Rosa's, shopping, and having birthday cookies on Spider-Man plates at home. It was a good day for all. We just can't believe that our big boy is FOUR!

Here is a random picture of Claire reading in her chair that I thought was too cute and had to share! The next picture is Claire at her end-of-the-year CDO program. They are singing "Twinkle, Twinkle." I don't have a very good picture of Will; we took more video of him than pictures.

We are excited that my parents are here this weekend. They are going to take care of the kids while Scott and I get away for a couple of days (our anniversary is coming up). Then, summer is right around the corner and our lives will be filled with VBS, camps, mission trips, youth rallies and the like! It doesn't seem possible that summer is so close.

I am looking forward to updating more often and keeping myself updated with all of you!

The Highlights

We were able to go to Master Follies this weekend and it was a great show! Here are the highlights:

Koinonia's Golden Marching Band


"Sweet Dreams" performed a cappella by the hosts and hostesses


If you didn't get to go, I missed seeing you! We had a great weekend and loved seeing everyone. We were also blessed to have Robyn take our pictures, so hopefully I will have those soon to show :)

Chorus Reunion

We had such a great time this past weekend at the LCU chorus reunion. Friday night was a little nutty because we had our kids with us, but it was still good. Scott and I had to tag-team parent during the dinner, so I missed some speeches and he missed some presentations. Oh well. My mom arrived during the first rehersal session to take the kids and after we got them squared away, things went much more smoothly! Thanks, Mom, for taking care of our kiddos!

We enjoyed getting to see lots of old friends and singing with a choir again. Dr. Hinds directed us in six pieces, Dr. Camp directed two, Eddie Cox (Brother Cox's son) directed two, and Dr. Rogers directed one. So, we sang a lot of music! I think we did pretty well for only rehearsing a total of six hours. We recorded a CD on Saturday afternoon and then held a performance on Sunday morning after worship. I was bad, as always, and didn't think about taking pictures until it was pretty much too late. Here are a couple that we did get:

Mom took this one of the whole chorus

Me, Jen, April, and Marla after the performance on Sunday morning

Home to Harmony

No, I'm not going "home" to Harmony's house, I'm talking about a fantastic book! Home to Harmony was on a booklist for Scott's Introduction to Christian Ministry grad class at ACU and he read it and gave it to me to read. It is a fiction book written by a Quaker minister about a Quaker minister and his "flock." The author, Philip Gulley, is very funny and tells great little stories about the town, Harmony, and it's quirky inhabitants. If you've had experience with ministry of any kind, it's even more funny and poignant. Just thought I'd share!

As this was the first book in a series, I took Will to the library with me on Tuesday to get the next couple of books. It was the first time I'd taken him to the library, so we picked him a few books, too. When I went up to the check-out counter to borrow the books, the librarian scanned my library card and asked to see my ID. It seems I hadn't been to the library since 2005. Wow! I knew it had been a while, but two years!? Of course, I have read plenty of books in the past two years, but I guess they were all either borrowed from friends or bought. Well, I've been twice in the past three days, so maybe I'll make up for it soon :)

In other news, we are headed up to Lubbock tomorrow for the LCU Friends and Family, or Family and Founders (or whatever they're calling it) weekend. We're planning on doing the chorus reunion thing, so hopefully that will be fun! My mom is flying in to Lubbock tomorrow night and will be with us for the weekend to help us out with the kids. Then she'll come home with us and stay until Tuesday. In preparation for her taking care of Claire, we have been feeding Claire from a bottle once a day this week. Or I should say Scott has been feeding her. On Monday night she screamed at him for 10 minutes before she would finally eat. He almost gave up, but he persisted! Tuesday night she took it with no fuss. Last night, she did fuss a bit, but it was a different type of bottle, so that may have been the problem. Hopefully, she will eat well for my mom this weekend!

We are very much looking forward to seeing a lot of friends this weekend...if you're going to be in Lubbock, we hope to see you there!

Wednesday Report

I would like to thank everyone for their congratulatory comments on our new bun in the oven :) We are so excited and we are so thankful for all your prayers and well wishes. It seems like now that I have announced this, so many other people are turning up pregnant, too! Congrats to all my fellow expectant-mom blogging buddies out there! We will have to compare stories.

Today we woke up to a beautiful, peaceful white blanket of snow. I think this snowfall was a little heavier than the snowfall we had in November. It was colder and and the sun didn't come out til much later, so it stuck around longer, too. Scott was supposed to go to school at ACU today (his first day of class), but we didn't want him to risk driving there and back, so he called his professor and said that he would not be coming. ACU had already delayed their first day of the spring semester by one day. When Scott got off the phone with ACU, we got an interesting phone call from the LCU Alumni Relations office. The main A.R. lady went to camp with Scott back in the day. She was calling to tell us that there was an LCU student who was stranded in Big Spring because of the weather. This student had taken a bus to get back to Lubbock and ended up in a motel in Big Spring last night and didn't have enough money for another night's stay. Would we take her in? Of course, we said. So we have spent the day getting to know Sarah, a senior psychology major. She had started her travels last Thursday from Wisconsin and got stuck for 3 days in Dallas--sleeping in the Greyhound station--and finally ended up here. At first, we thought she might not get back to Lubbock til tomorrow (Thursday), but there is a bus running at midnight tonight. I hope that she gets back home safely and can finally relax. What an experience!!

Speaking of good ol' LCU, we are planning on attending the festivities during Master Follies weekend. This year is our five year reunion, so we are planning on attending that function, club breakfasts, chapel, the afternoon show, and a couple of receptions for past big time award winners like Scott (that's sort of a joke--Scott was Mr. LCU and recieved a special award from the Bible Dept. his senior year). Anywho, we look forward to seeing all of our friends in February!

I really can't think of anything else to report right now, so I'm signing off. Have a great Thursday :)