Preschool Open House

We went to punkin's preschool open house. *snif*
She is so ready for 3K, but I'm not!! It's official, she isn't a baby any more.
The school is so cute. She was able to find her name on the table, and her cubbie, two very important things for preschoolers to accomplish. :-)

She starts on Monday. I'm sure there will be pictures. She has her "packpack" already to go to "prettyschool" as she calls it.

Unto the Lamb

I realize I didn't say anything about the two songs. They are two of my favorites!

I will not be moved!

Sad article on marriage...

I found this article on cnn.com, and its tied to oprah.com

"She's Happily Married, Dreaming of Divorce"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/26/o.divorce.dreams/index.html

At first, the article starts off with a light side, and I found some of it funny.

"I contemplate divorce every day. It tugs on my sleeve each morning when my husband, Will, greets me in his chipper, smug morning-person voice, because after 16 years of waking up together, he still hasn't quite pieced out that I'm not viable before 10 a.m."

"It puts two hands on my forehead and mercilessly presses when he blurts out the exact wrong thing ("Are you excited for your surprise party next Tuesday?"); when he lies to avoid the fight ("What do you mean I left our apartment door open? I never even knew our apartment had a door!"); when he buttons his shirt and jacket into the wrong buttonholes, collars and seams unaligned like a vertical game of dominoes, with possibly a scrap of shirttail zippered into his fly.
It flicks me, hard, just under the eye when, during a parent-teacher conference, he raises his arm high in the air, scratches his armpit, and then --then! -- absently smells his fingers."

She tells us, he isn't a bad man, just like every other man, and they have every marriage.

But then, the article takes a turn that I think is far too common of an opinion in our society. That our marriages are disposable.

"The more readily we acknowledge the solid utility of marriage (as one friend's husband put it, "I'm essentially a checkbook and a sperm bank -- but I'm okay with that!"), the more ably we can splinter the box of marital fantasy that makes us feel stuck, trapped, obliged. One eloquent swing of the ax and happiness is thrust firmly back into our own hands."

This is really scary to me. The man is only the $$ and sperm???!! What kind of marriage is that?

She goes on to say a lot of things that bother me, but at the end of the article the author says this : "Maybe one day, marriage -- like the human appendix, male nipples, or your pinky toes -- will become a vestigial structure that will, in a millennium or two, be obsolete. Our great-great-great-grandchildren's grandchildren will ask each other in passing, "Remember marriage? What was its function again? Was it that maladaptive organ that intermittently produced gastrointestinal antigens and sometimes got so inflamed that it painfully erupted? Yes. Yes it was."

That is her hope for the future? That marriage will be obsolete? How scary is that?

Now I think the spirit of her article is to be funny. But unfortunatly there is usually nuggets of true feeling in comedy.

And so many people look up to Oprah, and how many people will read stuff like this and go, yep, they are right. Why try...its an "obsolete" insitution after all. I saw it in the O magazine.

Well folks, my Bible tells me otherwise. There is a picture of an "ideal" marriage there. Sure, there are ideas about that union that our current society tells us are old-fashioned and just plain stupid. The first one that comes to mind is the submission of the wife to the husband, that one is so misunderstood, abused and misused that it isn't even funny. But thats one of the hardest things for a lot of us to do, to truely submit to the husbands leadership biblically. I know its hard for me, and I've been in conversation with lots of women who say its hard. This is an area I've had God almost audibly tell me to "SHUT UP VALERIE, let him lead, thats his role" (subject was buying a house, I'll talk about that more some other time). My question, is it hard because its hard, and we are prideful, my way or the highway people, or is it hard because of the pressures we feel from society? Men and women are the same, society tells us. Which everyone really knows isn't true, but most people hide those feelings because they don' t want to be considered "old-fashioned".

Anyway this article really bothered me so I'm rambling on and on about it. Feel free to post your comments in a discussion.

Also brought to mind the Casting Crowns song "What if his people prayed" --"and stopped asking Oprah what to do"

Open House at School

We had open house tonight for Princess's class. It was nice to get to talk to the teacher, but sadly, only 7 of 18 families came. What is wrong with people? Why don't they care about their kids education? And 2 of the 7 that came complained. One complained that there was too much homework and it was too hard. The other complained that the teacher graded the spelling tests too hard. Come on!! I'm glad they have to write in paragraphs. I work with people who can't write a coherent sentence, much less a coherent paragraph. And people wonder what's wrong with kids today.

We met our teacher at registration, and I liked her immediatly. We had prayed she'd get a good teacher, a Christian who would be a good role model etc. We found out tonight she goes to church at our church. Amazing! Last year we had a teacher who went to church with us too.

Fashion Show

When I got home today, Punkin' was in one sour mood. She was just plain cranky, and nothing suited her. Princess finally got her in a better mood by playing dress up. She dressed Punkin' up, and then they wanted to have a photo shoot, with me taking pictures and Princess giving Punkin' directions on how to pose. So here are a few pictures....

The model:

The mastermind:

It worked too. She's in a much better mood, and I think I hear them playing MarioKart Wii with their daddy.

Tadpoles, day 2

Here are what the little guys and gals look like today

I moved them to a bucket that I caught rain water in yesterday. I think we have about 30!

Feel like I'm on spinning merry go round...

After a nice peaceful rainy Sunday, I began to think about the coming week. I really should have waited. I knew all this stuff was coming, but in denial I guess. So if I don't blog this week, don't hate me!

Monday: Bible study
Tues: Open house at Princess's school
Wed: Church, and kids choir practice (this is too cute by the way. Punkin' learned a song called "If you love Jesus, Moo like a cow" with the different verses having different animals (pig, duck, rooster, etc). She's been singing it ever since last Wed).
Thurs: Orientation/Open house at Punkin's preschool (she starts next Tues...*snif*)
Friday: A murder mystery dinner that I was going to awhile back, but it got postponed due to storm, sounds like fun, never done one. Get to be a character and everything.
Sat am: Promised a friend I'd help with a yard sale up in Ridgeland (and maybe make a little $$ too!)
Sat pm: SS class is having a get to know the teachers pot luck.
Sun: Church & Rest
Monday: LABOR DAY! Can we rest maybe? At least this all fell on a week we get an extra day off. Probably be cleaning though.
Tues: First day of preschool and then back to the dentist.

And normal work in there too. I hope no body wants to visit us this weekend. After a week like this, it will be a disaster! :-) Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it. Good thing Kroger had the Diet Dr P on sale this week! Can I go back to the nice, peaceful rainy Sunday???

We have tadpoles!!

Yup, eggs started hatching yesterday. Its amazing how fast the little round eggs doubled in to two little black circles, and then into little comma looking things, and then poof, they are tadpoles, all since sometime Thurs. night / Friday night.

My web search shows we'll have frog or toadlets in between 10-20 days.

The "new" house

Since we moved in almost a year ago...I thought I'd "ahem" post some pictures for some of the people in V'burg who have been asking for pictures. In honor of the anniversary and all, not because I'm just getting around to it . Yeah, thats it. :-)







Back: Our girls have somewhere to play outside safely for the very firsttime in their lives. They LOVE it
We love the backyard too!


Kitchen:
The Girls Room. Yes, we painted, but we DIDN'T paint the fairies & castles. Those came from Lowe's. (Thanks Dad and Emily! )



























Our Room: Hubby picked the colors b/c I couldn't make up my
mind. He did a great job! No pictures of the bathrooms, b/c they are
70s tile (one blue, one yellow) but they function find and are in good shape. Some day we'll remodel them.




















I dont have a good pic of the living room I discovered....but I do have the one from when the house was listed...so this isn't our furniture, but we haven't done anything in here yet anyway.


We are so blessed to finally be in a place of our own. We used the first time homebuyer program NACA, and if you know anyone who needs help getting a house, they are great. Its a great program, & really busy all the time, but it was soooo worth it!

Remember those narrowmouth toads?

That I mentioned in the last blog? Well, I think they laid eggs in the puddle near our mail box. I found them this morning. Since I'm not a frogologist, I'm not SURE they're are NMT, but I think they are. I looked them up on the web today, and the description matched. Anyway, we were leaving for work, and I stopped to put a something in the mail. I noticed the eggs, and sent darlin' back in the house for a plastic container.

I know you are thinkin' oh no, she didn't? Yup, I did. While he was gone I took off my shoes and socks, and rolled up my pants. He came back with requested bowl, and I waded into the mud and scooped up a clutch of eggs. Brought them in the house and then went to work.

WHY? Because they are cool thats why. And if they really are narrow mouth toad, we'll have tadpoles by Sunday. Which the kids will get a big kick out of. Besides, it was a rain puddle, and while I know we are going to get more rain this weekend from Fay, there is no way these little eggs would have survived. (I was right too, because when we got home from work, the eggs were all gone. I guess birds got them today)

So here they are:

I'll keep y'all posted on how egg hatching goes. I KNOW you are just dying to find out!

Crocodile is commiting fishicide!

Crocodile is eating Platy babies left and right. Now, we were over populated with platy babies, & I don't mind him eating a few of them, but he is tearing them UP tonight.

Nothing like a little microcosm of nature's predator-prey relationships right in your own home to explain to the kids. Yes, I realize I'm a nerd. You dont have to tell me. I am one with my nerdness. You have to be do be a biologist, it comes with the territory.

And for further proof, my kids recognized a green treefrog call last night outside their bedroom. And then their dad was teaching the scientific name *singing* Hyla cinerea, Hyla cinerea, Hyla....over and over again. I realize there is no hope for them NOT being nerds. Its in the genes, and their environment. This is one time were there is no winner in the Nature Vs Nurture argument!

And in case you weren't convinced of my nerdness, I was out in the rain barefoot the other day trying to track down the eastern narrowmouth toad I could hear calling. See, they normally live underground most of the time, and that is one we haven't caught yet to show the kids. But alas, I couldn't find him.

I promised more on MOPS...

I’ve been reminiscing about MOPS the last few days, - Its almost time for the new MOPS year to start, and convention is not far away - so I thought I’d blog about what MOPS meant to me.

I found MOPS, or rather MOPS found me, in 2002 after we moved to Vicksburg from Monroe Louisiana. While we were in grad school, we shared an office with 3 other grad students, and one of them ended up being great friends with us. We were newlyweds, poor grad students, and preggers with our first kids all that first year. She didn’t come back for year two, and we kind of lost touch. After we finished our classwork, we moved to Vicksburg, to take jobs as student contractors at Waterways. I knew my friend lived in Mound, so we called her up and she came over for Princess’s first birthday. We hung out some, took the babies to library story time, etc. She told me about this crazy thing called MOPS. Which sounded like NOTHING I wanted to have anything to do with! A room full of women? Chatting, doing crafts, eating etc? Didn’t sound like it was for me. Hello, not a girly girl, remember? SOOO not crafty. Matter of fact, I would, with the exception of scrapbooking, consider myself CRAFT CHALLLENGED. I resisted.

She kept on me, saying I would like it, they had a group that met at night too that was mostly working moms…yada yada. No I said, you’ve got the wrong gal. Then Valentines Day 2003 is approaching. She knows we don’t have family or anything like that anywhere near by, & we didn’t know anyone to baby-sit. She tells me about the Vday banquet that the MOPS group does, it was dinner for two and childcare for $12. TWELVE DOLLARS….EVEN. CRAZY! So we say, we’d be stupid not to have a date night with childcare for $12! So we signed up, went with her and her husband, and had a great time.

Still, I won’t go to the meetings. Did I mention I’m shy? Not a girly girl? And sooo don’t make girlfriends easily? Finally, she talks me into the Easter meeting…and there is a great speaker. I think, hey this isn’t so bad. People we nice, friendly, and a couple like me. Not girly, not crafty, and all that. So I go back.

Next thing I know, they are asking for volunteers for the leadership team before I know it. Somehow I volunteered, and started getting close with the night group leadership team. And got to know some really great gals, who I love dearly. We had two groups, one that met in the morning for the SAHMs, and one that met at night, for the working moms. Of the women interested in getting it started before I got there had done both…worked with her first, and move to SAHM, and knew how important a good womens group was for both people, so she made it happen. It doesn’t matter if you SAH, or work, bottle or breast feed, cloth or disposable diaper, co-sleep or not, paper or plastic, toma-to or toe-MAH-toe, moms of preschoolers need other moms who are going through or have been through all those crazy ups and downs of having little ones.

All of a sudden, I’m hanging out with the leadership team, going to retreats, got to go to the National Convention twice (amazing!). Those women were there for me through everything we went through in Vicksburg. I mean really, who else but another mother of a preschooler can really grasp the deseperation of the explosive diaper? Or how you feel after you add baby number two, trying to breastfeed, not ignoring the first born and still trying to be a wife all in the same 15 minutes when all you REALLY want to do is get solid sleep for just one night - hour, 30 mins? Or understand just how NICE it is to be able to go the bathroom by yourself just once?? And they can translate toddler talk just as well as you can, which helps when ridding herd on each others kids.

MOPS meant so much to me. I learned to be more comfortable around women, girly or not. I never thought I’d be at the place where leaving a group of women would be one of hardest things I’d ever done. We felt God leading us away from Warren County, and I felt God calling me out of the MOPS ministry. I was sad…I didn’t think I was done with MOPS. But the lessons I learned in MOPS, from the MOPS women, and from MOPS International, really equipped me to move on.

I’m still shy, but I’m in such a better place than I used to be and I say it’s because of God’s work in me, and my experience in MOPS. Not only did God use MOPS to grow me as his daughter, a woman, a mom and a wife, it also brought my family into church. We weren’t going to church, it hadn’t been a priority. But hanging out with those godly ladies, and seeing their peace even in the midst of the crazy early mothering years, made us want to find it too. So we started attending the church that housed the MOPS meeting, and decided it felt like home. My husband and I both came back to Christ, and haven’t looked back since.

*Snif* I love you girls, and y’all have FUN at Convention this year!!

A Lobster named Crocodile...THE ARK IS FULL!!

So a friend of mine at work has some really cool crawfish. I saw the male at work...hes bright blue and she says they glow under uv light. Anyway, her female had about a zillion babies, and she asked me if I wanted one for my tank. Hello, me turn down a free animal? Surely you don't know me!! HA!

Anyway, I said yes, and she brought it the lab for me. I brought the little guy home, and Princess said "A LOBSTER!" and Punkin' said "Can we name him Crocodile?"

I laughed and told Princess to please never tell anyone she was born in Louisiana and couldn't recognize a crawfish!! Or that both of her parents are freshwater biologists.

So, our Bright blue crawfish, is named Crocodile.

Seriously, the ark really is full now!!

No more animals...or someone, perhaps me will have to find somewhere else to live!!

The Dentist, and Gods Provision

The first of this month, I took Punkin to visit the dentist for the first time. She was SUCH a big girl! Of course she had to wear a dress...would mine wear anything else? She did everything they asked her to do. We found out she had an abcess...she hadn't even been complaining (she may be girlie, but she's tuff stuff apparently). So they referred us to a ped dentist, because Dr Rushing thought she would need to be sedated. So....

Off to the pediatric dentist we go, on Wed August 6th. Found out our dental wouldn't pay them anything, even though it was a referral. Uggh! Got the treatment plan, and total cost. YOWZA! $1100!! She needed two teeth pulled, and space maintainers to help her 6 year molars and other adult teeth come in straight, which will save big bucks later. (for those of you who dont know, we've been taking care of my mom since June, including some of her bills, our new dog has heartworms, and Punkin starts preschool next month). Needless to say, I dont have $1100 lying around. AND we have to have $300 to even make the appointment!

So we come home, and I tell Darlin'. He says hmm. Guess we'd better ask God for some help.

We go to church wed night, and wouldn't you know it, Jehovah Jireh - God the Provider was one of the topics. So I filled out my prayer card, and dropped it in the basket. I felt at peace...didn't now how God was going to do it, but knew it would work out. We found the $300 to make the appointment, and set it for the last week in August, thinking that would give us the time to rearrange stuff and so forth. Well, late last week, Punkin started complaining for the first time with her tooth. It was rough! She cried and cried, I felt so bad.

So we called and asked the dentist about it, and they moved her appointment to yesterday, Tues the 19th. Still didn't have the other $800, and no idea where it was going to come from. Figured we have to whip out the plastic, and really hated it. But God was telling me not to worry, so I wasn't (new for me too). Monday, I got the mail, and there was a check...for more than $1400!

What happened was Darlin used to work for a contractor in V'burg, and participated in the 401K. When he got his current job in Jackson, we couldn't move his 401 K right then because they weren't going to put the company match in for like a year later...something crazy about fiscal year, whatever. So we just let it sit, and really forgot about it. They decided that the amount was too "small" for them to maintain, so they docked the taxes and sent the check as a dispersment. Darlin' knew they were going to do it, but had NO IDEA it would be anywhere NEAR that much, with the market being so crazy the last few months AND the check wasn't even supposed to cut until later in the year. So imagine MY suprise, when a check comes the DAY before we have to have the money!! I nearly fainted, then I cried, and then we both praised GOD!! HE knew we'd have desperate need for that money back when we couldn't move it. He helped us "forget" it, and then sped up the process so we wouldn't have to use the plastic. And he even made sure there was enough for most of the heartworm treatment too.

Godly Arthemtic has certainly been working for us this summer, Praise GOD!

LOST MY JESUS

Sunday, I went to pick up Punkin after church.

She saw me and came running to the door - little cutie-. Right before she got to me, she goes "MOMMA! I lost my JESUS!!" And started running around the room like crazy looking for him. It was so funny and cute, I chuckled out loud. Someone had taken "MY JESUS!" The teacher was able to find her another copy of the lesson, and we walked out to find the rest of family. The whole way she was saying, "Momma, I found my Jesus, I found my Jesus, I'm so GLAD I found my JESUS!"

At first I thought it was just funny, I mean what a better place to lose Jesus than in church? Should be easy to find him there, right? Then as more time has passed since Sunday, I've thought, really is it easy to find Jesus in church? The church we belong to now, I say yes, its easy to see Jesus there. Some churches I've been to in the past, Jesus might be in a window pane or on a cross near the altar....but he wasn't really there. After having been in a couple of churches where you can see YES, the spirit of God is here...its easier to tell when you are in one where he ISNT. Can you find Jesus in your church? Or is He hard to spot? When you do find him, are you glad?

Then that got me thinking...I've had an intresting religious journey through the years...but a true relationship with Jesus for me is a relatively new thing. When I realized I didn't really KNOW Jesus, much less know how to find Him, I was like my little girl. OH NO! I LOST MY JESUS. I was relieved when I finally found Him, and knew without a doubt it was HIM, and He was REAL...really real, not just religion. I had all the head knowledge in the world (though some was skewed), but no relationship. I'm glad that I found him...just like Punkin was.

A New Blog

I've blogged awhile on Myspace...but as a dear friend pointed out, she couldn't see my pics b/c she didn't have a log in, and she didn't want one. So fine. Just for you - You know who you are!! I PROMISE at some point pictures of the house will be here.

Its going to take me awhile to get this little corner of cyberspace up-to-date, so bear with me. I'll probably do some juxtaposition (like that word?) of time and events as I think of them. I really want to capture some memories I have of our family---before my feeble mind forgets them. I also have a tendency to jump around, so hang on for the ride. HA!

Ok...so where to start?

My name is Valerie, though most people call me Val. It drives my mom crazy, but doesn't bother me a bit. So feel free.

I'm a Christian. Saved by the grace of God and praise him, I'm growing. I haven't "arrived", and I have rough edges, but he loves me the way I am, warts and all. To sum up the current stage of my faith, you can listen to the song out by Sanctus Real - "Whatever your Doing" - the line- "Whatever your doing, inside of me, it feels like a chaos, but I believe, you're up to something bigger than me, larger than life, something Heavenly" that pretty much sums it up. Also Natalie Grant's song, "I will not be moved" is really speaking to me right now -"I will stumble, I will fall down, but I will not be moved"- God speaks to me through music a lot, and I love it! Other times I need a 2x4 to my head to hear Him, but I'm getting better - or trying to - there's a reason its a journey, right? More about 2x4s, my rough edges, and testimony later.

I'm married to a wonderful, sweet, amazing husband -I'll call him Darlin. We've been married 8 years. You'll understand why he's all those things as you get to know me. He puts up with my crazy side...with grace.

I'm momma the two most beautiful, intelligent girls on the planet, Princess and Punkin. You'll also hear WAAAY more about them than I'm sure you'll want. But thats ok, because this is MY blog, I'll blog if I want to. You'd blog about them to if they were yours.

I'm a biologist for the state, which is a challenging, intresting career. You'll probably hear just a little about that. I work to live, not live to work. :-)

I have some of the best friends on the planet...and I don't see a lot of them much anymore. I'm hoping to make some more great friends...and have started the steps that are needed...we'll see. Its difficult for me, and you probably read about that too. My Vicksburg MOPS /BOWMAR girls...I miss you daily, even a year later, and knowing we made the right decision. Y'all have too much info about me you could use for blackmail. :-)

Don't get me wrong, I do have some great friends here too. Matter of fact, I have two I consider sisters, and one has practically adopted my kids as nieces, (and my dogs too!) She's awesome. Fabulous...rocks...but she doesn't like to get too girly or mushy.

I'm NOT a girly girl, but I'm not granola crunchy either. I don't wear make up, don't care about clothes or shoes -other than the fact that I have some that fit and aren't ratty. I'm a pony tail girl that can't remember her last hair cut (!). I'm a jeans and tshirt girl. Yet somehow I manged to get to very girly girls born to me. Really, those genes must have come from someone else...or God's sense of humor is out. I'll have to hire someone to teach them how to put on makeup...seriously!

I'm more comfortable with a bunch of guys in a creek up to my rear in mud than I'll ever be in a room full of women...but I'm better than I used to me. Thats an area God is working on, and has been for five years (more about MOPS later).

I care about the environment, I use CFC lightbulbs, have a compost pile, set my thermostat to 78 and use a clothes line during the summer - but I'm not a "greenie tree hugger" buying carbon offsets (stoopid waste of money!). I'm a converted conservative. I used to be a liberal, but I'm reformed now.

I have a lab mix shelter dog, who is awesome. We've had him almost a year. We also have a recently aquired crazy cocker spaniel - more about her later. We have two cats, a tank full of fish and a blue crawfish named Crocodile.

Thats a quick overview. Stay tuned as we fill out some of the themes and join me on my life journey.