Our Day

Harve (Jim-if I haven't told you the story behind his two names, let me know) gets one holiday a year that Sumner County schools don't. Its Veterans Day. So, he was home today and both boys were in school. I can't even begin to tell you what a blessing this day has been. We don't get much time together just the two of us- most married couples with small children don't get a lot of that. We have struggled to find babysitters and with both of my parents being gone and Harve's parents living in North Carolina, its just hard. But, we had today.
We decided to take the opportunity to do Christmas shopping for the boys. We were able to hold hands and we didn't have to worry about finding a place to eat that served chicken nuggets or pizza. :) But most of all, we were able to talk- really talk with each other.
I've been feeling a bit down about the upcoming holidays without my mom around and I was able to sit at lunch with my husband and just talk about my mom, and cry, and remember. Not something I can really do with my boys around. I so needed that. And when the crying was over, we got to talk about us and our family and what we could do during the holidays to make it special for our boys and to help them and us through a tough time.
And we shopped-- and who doesn't get help from some retail therapy? :) We talked about how we used to get excited about buying us things but now we just LOVE getting the boys stuff. I get so excited just thinking about how excited they are going to be.
I am so thankful for this day. It was a much needed refresher.

I'm A Fur, Furry Squirrel

Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve

I've read several quotations from the author C.S. Lewis- not quotations from his books but just personal things he has said. As I was just jumping from blog to blog (I've already admitted I'm a blogoholic-ha!), I came across this quotation from C.S. Lewis. I copied it so I could paste it on this post.

I know that sometimes I feel like feeling so deeply can be a curse, especially in this cruel world. This world we live in does not reward the meek and the compassionate but then we as Christians are not to "be" of this world. I think this quotation from C.S. Lewis was a wonderful reminder to me. I just wanted to share it.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal … Lock it up safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket … it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable … The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

C.S.Lewis

Drivin' Me Crazy!

I have to admit that I don't have much in the area of patience. Every day God uses things in my life to teach me more and more the importance of patience. I also want to say that I am by no means the best driver but what I do strive to do every single time I step in my car is to drive respectfully, responsibly, and defensively. So why do I feel like I'm about to lose my religion (I know I'm praying about it) every time I drive some where? Could it be because those of us who choose to drive in this manner are in a dwindling minority?

Here are a few things that get my goat (ok-I'm using something my daddy used to say a little further down so I felt I needed to incorporate something my mom said- and that's about all I could come up with relative to the subject at hand).

• People who are in the right lane on the interstate but refuse to either get over, slow down, or speed up so that those coming on the interstate from the on ramp can merge over. (Where else are they gonna go people?)
• In conjunction with that, people on the on ramp to the interstate who SLOW down to merge on the interstate. (The on ramp is an acceleration ramp for a reason.)
• People who could very obviously change lanes but choose to ride down the lane (after seeing three or four signs-some flashing -LANE CLOSED) and screech over in front of someone else right before they themselves slam into the the orange and white construction barrels.
• People who pull out in front of you when there is no other traffic for miles behind you.
• Chronic speeders (and I really do mean people who go WAY above the speed limit). Every time I see someone passing me like the wind (while I'm doing 75 on the bypass), it makes me think of my daddy and what he used to say, "If you were in that big of a hurry you should have left sooner!"
• People who do not stop and pull over for a funeral procession. I know that sometimes its impossible to do this so I don't mean those times.

Man, I feel a lot better. :) So what gets your goat when it comes to driving? Or if you are one of those people who doesn't get stressed at other people's driving, tell me how you do that. :)

Rockin' and Rollin'

The boys had a blast at Sumner Skate Zone. We are always trying to think of fun (energy consuming) activities to do during the Winter with the boys. This was our first time at this skating rink but we think this might be a good family activity during the winter. Their favorite thing was to play the "Wipeout" game.

Friday Afternoon Fun With Our Neighbors

We played with our neighbors the Walkers Friday afternoon. The kids were goofing around. It was pretty funny so I had to grab my camera. Darryan had a Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) wig and everyone had to try it on. My boys looked crazy! :) Darryl brought out some lion costumes and he and Aidan had fun running around in them.

I'm glad we played that afternoon because as I sit here now typing, I'm thinking by the time Avery gets out of school today and home it will be 4:20pm. The news said sunset is at 4:48pm. So, I guess we won't have much time outside after school until the Spring.

Happy Halloween

My boys love Halloween. I think they really just love dressing up in costumes. They had fun going around in our neighborhood and got way too much candy (which we'll send a good portion of with my husband to his office) but just enjoyed themsleves.

Here are a few pictures from the evening. Avery is the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four and Aidan is a skeleton (shhh... he thinks he's Skeletor from the 80's He-Man series). Don't get me wrong, I think they are cuties but I miss the younger days for Avery when he picked out cute costumes like Barney or Woody from Toy Story. And because Aidan wants to be like his brother, I feel like we never had the cute little costumes with him- he just went straight to the big boy stuff. :)

Oh well... they are the cutest Human Torch and Skeleton!! :) Our sweet neighbor down the street was dressed like Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast.