Christmas is over

Graham was not too happy with me that I took the decorations down. But he was ok because he helped me take most of them down. He even helped me drag the boxes to the garage and packed up some of his stuff. I told him he could leave some out for a little while longer. (He did put his 4 ft. tree in the attic.) But now, he is having second thoughts. Seems he left out more than I realized.

I wish you could see the stocking better. He cut it out of cardboard and painted it with glitter paint. If you are looking at it from the right direction, it really looks neat. On the table is sweet gum balls from the tree outside. I think they are supposed to be pine cones. And the green garland has been all over the house for several days. But he really likes it under the mantel. Also, he has put Riley's flower from her tutu in the center.


Here are the snowflakes that he cut out.



His little tree and friends.



He cut these trees out and covered a box and made stands for the trees.


I love this little boy! He amazes me.

Happy Birthday Graham

6 years ago, on December 23rd, you entered our lives! You were not expected for another 3 weeks!!! Travis had already left for work and I had a doctors appointment. I got up early because I could not sleep for this one constant pain I had. I soon discovered I had lost my plug and I knew you would be here soon. I called Travis to tell him he needed to finish work soon because he was going to meet his son today. I called Carolyn to babysit, Memaw to get on the road and Grandma to take me to the doctor. I started having contractions on the way to the doctor and made Grandma a nervous wreck! I think she thought she was going to have to deliver a baby!

The doctor checked me and said she could give me something to stop my contractions but I would probably be back that night in full labor. So she sent me over to the hospital after telling us all the risks of having a white baby boy early. The hospital was crazy busy! Lots of doctors were inducing to beat Christmas. The nurses were in bad moods. I had one nurse that was so rude that I told Travis to get rid of her or I was leaving. He agreed and told the head nurse.

My doctor showed up around 4:00 to check on me and if she would have gone far she would have missed delivering you. You were coming fast!!!!! She delivered you at 4:23. She was not fully dressed, I was not fully draped and there was no time to get the video camera. I could not even let Travis go get Grandma to let her watch you be born.

It was a whirlwind!!!! But now that I know you, it was totally your personality! You do not want to be left out of anything. Especially Christmas! You have such a love for it and everything about it. But what I love most, is your giving nature that goes along with it. This year you have collected stuff around the house and wrapped us all a present because you want to give to us. Last year you wanted to be Santa when you grow up so that you can give gifts to all the kids in the world.

That makes you so special!!! Please do not ever lose that character trait. It is one of the best you can ever have. You are my precious little man and I love you from your "Silent Midnight" song to your Christmas decorating and redecorating and placing baby Jesus under the Christmas tree. Keep your love for Christmas and you will always have a love for mankind.

I love you and you will always be my Grammy!

Music To My Ears

I am a list maker. I have been known to make a list for my lists. I can't function without them. There is something about making a list. Its like doing part of the job. Travis has often made fun of me for this necessity. But after 10 years of marriage, he accepts that I have to do it and that he will often be handed one to do.

This afternoon, I was talking to Travis and Riley walked in. She had a pen and pad in hand. She looked up at her daddy with a frustrated look on her face and said, "I'm trying to make a list and I can't." I quickly jumped up to help her make a list for Santa.

His life will never be the same.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Conversations

I love to tune into a conversation my children are having. You can usually hear some funny stuff! But sometimes you hear yourself and it makes you worried. :(

On Friday I had to deliver some letters to a store in Brookhaven, about an hour away. I took Graham and Riley with me. They slept most of the way there which gave me some much needed peace and quiet after several Hannah Montana songs! On our way back home the two of them had a discussion on the subject of marriage. This is funny considering they are almost 6 and 4. Riley quickly claimed that she was going to marry Slay. She and Slay have been "devoted" to each other for over a year now. They are in the same class and are thick as thieves! I guess Graham was wondering why she was still fascinated with him and asked, "Riley, why do you love him?" Without missing a beat she replied, "because he is the worstest kisser!!!" There you have it.

Fall Decorations

Graham, age 5 loves crafts of all sorts. Crayons, glue, TAPE, markers, you name it! He fell in love with all of these when he started preK-4 last year. It obviously awakened a gift inside of him. In a years time he has broadened his horizons and stepped out into decorating anything and everything. There is nothing that he doesn't think "needs something else." He absolutely loves to cut paper into tiny pieces. And he can make a roll of tape disappear in a matter of moments. Now, this would not be such a problem if his momma did not spend way too much money on her own crafting projects that he now gets into my stuff!! He is learning whats off limits and I'm trying to create their own supply so they do not get into mine. He has begged his dad to move his train table out of his room so he can have more room for crafts.

Here is his latest project.

Daddy Discipline

Today at school, Riley got in trouble. Another child was "feeding" her a cookie. She accidentally bit the other child. I asked her to go to another room so we could discuss the situation. Instead of calmly going to the other room, she decided to throw a fit. This is the one thing that infuriates me about her. I think these fits will get the best of me one day. I got mad and told her she would receive a spanking if she did not quit. She did not. I really felt like I was going to lose my cool with her so I decided she could go talk to the principal. On our way to the office, the unsuspecting Headmaster walked in the door. So I told Riley she could talk to Mr. McCain about her biting and throwing a fit. That sent her into a hysterical fit! He calmly picked her up and took her to the office. Several minutes later he returned and told me what she had said. I explained that we have had a hard time minding Mom in school. He said he would talk to her but he did not want to scare her. Thanks for backing me up, Mr. Teddy Bear!!!

So now we are home and Daddy is going to talk to Riley about her visit to the office. I will let the picture tell the rest of the story.





So to answer your question, Anna....
No, he can't keep a straight face with her!!!!!!!

Worst Mommy Moment Ever!!

I'm sure there will be more, but this is the worst so far. Yesterday we were out of school for the flea market. Travis had planned on taking Colson to work with him for the day. I planned on sleeping a little late since I had the day off. I was awakened around 7:45 to the sound of Graham outside calling the dog. I got up, put on some clothes, brushed my hair and walked out of my bedroom. Graham was still calling the dog so I went outside to see what was wrong. "Polka Dot is not here, Mom. Someone stole her!" I assured him that she was sleeping under the deck and did not want to be bothered yet.

As I was walking back in the house, my cell phone started ringing. All I could think was, "so much for sleeping late." It was Travis. This is our conversation:
Lori: Hello
Travis:Hey, I brought Colson to work with me and the police just dropped Case off here at the shop.
Lori: (thinking, did he just say police?) what?!!!?
Travis: he wanted to come with me to the shop so he decided to walk up here. The police picked him up on Dinkin's Street.
Lori: DID YOU BEAT HIM?????
Travis: no, I can't now. I'm too mad, I may go to jail if I lay a hand on him. The dog followed him and is somewheres on Dinkins. She would not get into the police car.
Lori: Bring him home now. He does not need to stay up there any longer.
Travis: I will as soon as I finish cutting this board.

Case got up before Travis left for work. Travis told him he could not come because it was Colson's turn. He left him on the sofa watching cartoons. I don't know how long he waited, but he took off on foot. No shoes. He walked about 2 miles just to get out of our neighborhood, crossed the highway and headed down Dinkins Street which has tons of traffic on flea market day. A lady noticed him and tried to talk to him but he would not talk to her. (Thank the Lord for that, although she was a good person trying to help.) So she called the police and they came and picked him up and took him to the shop. After Riley woke up, I picked up Case and we drove around for about an hour looking for Polka Dot. We finally found her, she was heading back home.

I know that you are having the same thoughts racing through your head as did we. I have played and continual feed of "what ifs" for 2 days now. Never in a million years did I think he would do something like this, especially at his age (7). He is not a defiant child. He is my easy going, independant child. He knew he would be in trouble when he got there, but he chose to do it anyway.

Bless his heart, he has been told so many times about what could of happened, that he had nightmares last night. I am so thankful that nothing happened to him. I hope he can fully grasp the severity of the matter. And that he will never choose to disobey like this again. But it made me suddenly realize that I do not pray for my children enough. I don't know if one can. but I sure don't. And the Lord had mercy upon us and kept him safe.

This is a day I never want to re-live.

A Day in the Life of....

a k4 teachers assistant. This is my new job. We have 16 children in our class!!!! I have loved this job, much to my surprise. Not because of the job, but because I did not plan on returning to work. Anyways..... Mrs. Brown is the teacher. I love her to death!!! We are complete opposite personalities, which works well for us. We are having so much fun.

We were supposed to go on a field trip today to the pumpkin patch but we were rained out. Not wanting to disappoint our little ones, we decided to paint their feet and make footprints for our "falling feet for F" project.

Well, it was a good idea.

All I can say is we (Mrs. Brown and I) were covered in paint. I had the bright idea to use 5 different colors to make it more colorful. Yes, we were. My pants leg is displaying all the colors we used: red, yellow, orange, brown and green. And that was only after the first 4 children. Mrs. Brown chose to wear a skort so her legs were covered in paint, along with her skort! All we could do is laugh about it. I have lost my mind.


I love you, Mrs. Brown!!!!

Times Change

Change. Such a complicated thing. Unless your change if for the good. But even then it can still be hard. We have gone through so many changes over the past 5 months. And if I was a good blogger, I would have posted them along the way. But as you can tell, I am not. This has been difficult for me and most of the time I feel like I have nothing to say. Which is probably for the best. Hopefully it has kept me out of some trouble.

I have started back to work. No facials. Preschoolers. I am the teachers assistant to the K4 class at the school my children attend. This was not planned, but I was fortunate to have this huge blessing dropped in my lap.

My Dad is now living with us. Another unexpected change. I am enjoying getting to know him all over again and having my kiddos know him better.

Travis has closed his business due to lack of business. He did not have any work the whole summer. Instead of enjoying our time together, we spent it all worrying about the next day. He is not one to take off work or go on vacation so it was a big adjustment to have him home most of the time. It was also a constant reminder of our situation.

But through it all I have been amazed at how God has provided for us in this situation. We had money in savings that has sustained us mostly. We have also been blessed by wonderful friends and family. But it wasn't until we used all of our provisions that His kicked in.

Last night as I was taking a load of laundry out of the dryer I was thinking, "I'm not passing the test." See, I believe that hard times come to test our faith. Its not so much that I have a lack of faith, but that I'm weary from the fight. I want to give in. My enemy wants me to think that God has not been there for us, that we should never experience any discomfort.

But God is faithful. Something I must meditate on. It must be a ticker scrolling through my brain at all times. God is good. God loves me, even if He allows me to experience some pain. And now I must take my own advice and continue to give this battle to Him. He is the only one who can win it!

Happy Birthday Case!

This day, 7 years ago at 10:38 pm Case Daniel Lambert joined our family! It was a day much like today. There was sunshine, followed by a thunderstorm that we drove to the hospital in. This was a much anticipated day. I knew this was going to be your birthday that morning. I got Andrea to babysit Colson and I drove to Target to get a few last minute things. While I was there my contractions became more frequent. I left, drove to the house Travis was working on and told him he had to come home and shower because it was time to go to the hospital. We got there about 5:30 and anxiously awaited your arrival.

We were so ready to see your little face! We had to know that you were perfect and healthy. When I was 5 months pregnant with you I had a sonogram. The doctor told us you had a sack of fluid around your heart and a tiny hole in your heart. We were devastated. This led us to a specialist and a heart doctor and they told us that you would either continue to grow and the fluid would dry up or that it would not dry up and the fluid would stop your heart. There was nothing we could do. There was no medicine that would fix it. Nothing, but to wait and watch you through a sonogram every week. Oh, how we prayed and prayed for you. You were so brave and overcame so much before you ever entered this world. Thank you God for healing our baby!

Now here we are, seven years later. You are so precious to us!! I love you so much that my heart breaks to think about almost not having you. I love that you are your own person. You don't feel the pressure to be like anybody else. I love that you love to wear boots and wranglers. I love that you think necklaces are cool and that anything can be one. I love that you turn my living room floor into a giant truck stop or farm with all your toys. I love that you can build for hours and make so many things with that giant imagination you have. I love that you snore like your daddy when you sleep. And I love that you still crawl up in my lap and let me love on you like you did when you were little. I love you Case Daniel and everything about you. I pray that you will always be your own person and that you will always be brave as you serve Jesus Christ. You are a wonderful son. I can't imagine my life without you and I'm so glad that God chose me to be your mom. It is truly and honor that I don't deserve. Happy Birthday my baby boy! I love you, Mom

My Favorite Song

I think this has to be my favorite song: Bring The Rain by Mercy Me. So often we don't want to choose this but really, it shouldn't matter. These are the words to the chorus.

Bring me joy, bring me peace, Bring the chance to be free, Bring me anything that brings You glory. And I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, But if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus, bring the rain.

So often we don't want the rain. In 2007 we were in a drought. In 2008 we ended the year with and extra 8 inches. For someone with small kids, the rain can be quite bothersome. From couped up kids, to tracking in all the dirt, its just not much fun. But we need the rain. Rain makes things grow. Growth is good.

Sometimes I don't want the rainy days of my life, but most often that is when I see God working in my life. It helps to think that spring, in all its beauty, comes after so much rain. If only I could remember that when it pertains to my life. The winter prunes back, kills off some things, and then the rain comes. Bringing forth new life, freshness and beauty. I'll remember this tomorrow when its raining.