Spelling Tuesday

Yesterday I had the morning to spend with Loralie, so we loaded up and headed for the zoo! We hadn't been in a month or two and I was amazed at how much more involved and talkative she was this time. Here are some funny quotes from our day... "He says Hi Loralie!" "The monkeys are climbin' way up high! Don't fall off monkeys!" "elephants is strong!". "He is orange...no brown." "I see giraffes!" "Where the lions? LIONS! Oh Lions! Loralie want to see you!" "I ridin' my hippo!" "I swingin'. I a monkey!" Mr. Polar Bear was fun to watch. Zoo admission with season pass: $0 Corn dog and pretzel with cheese: $10 Loralie's zoo comentary: priceless.

Yesterday I went to my first BSF class. If you have never heard of BSF (bible study fellowship), like I hadn't until last year, it is this pretty intensive bible study for women that meets once a week in independence (and internationally). It is non-denominational, and intergenerational. There is a kind of cool energy when you get that many women together in one room! I liked that there were girls younger than me, as well as women in their eighties. You get together to sing, and then break off into small groups where you discuss your homework (yes, homework). And then you listen to a lecture about what you read that week. This year they are studying the book of Isaiah (which I am really excited about, because there are some passages in Isaiah that I have always had trouble with). We will go through Isaiah verse by verse, which is my favorite kind of bible study. One cool thing is that you can bring your preschooler and they get to have a lesson as well while you are in class. They ...

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Today my baby is 23 months old, and nearing the terrible twos at a break neck speed! We went to her first Toddler Storytime at the Library today, which involved a lot of old favorites from Baby Storytime, and a few new ones! One of the new aspects was craft time, which Loralie really enjoyed. She loves to glue, but hasn't really gotten the idea of turning the glued piece OVER and sticking it to the paper. Mommy had to help with that! And here is the finished product! She is talking up a storm and repeating everything that we say. She has become even more picky about her food and some days I swear she barely eats three bites. She loves books and singing, with her newest favorite song being "Baa Baa Black Sheep". As soon as we get in the car she starts screaming "Mommy seat belt! Daddy Seat belt!" So we call her the seat belt Nazi. She will also put in a request for "Moo-sic On?" She loves babies and does not consider herself one anymore :( This morning ...

The other day Loralie was sitting in her high chair eating breakfast and she looks at me and says "Mommy, where my brudder ?" Thinking quickly, mommy said "Do you mean your cousins, Michael and Daniel?" To which Loralie replied, "No, my BRUDDER !". Short answer: You don't have one. I solved a mini mystery today. Over the weekend, Loralie got a new baby doll which she christened "Baby Powder". We all chuckled at her silly name for a baby, BUT, today I told her we were going to see her friend Sofie, and she piped up "and Baby Powder?" Suddenly, it clicked, as Sophie has a little brother named Porter. So the new dolly is Baby Porter. Never mind that it is clearly a girl...

Loralie got to meet her cousins Michael and Daniel for the very first time this week! Caleb's brother Levi, and his wife Robyn are missionaries in a remote area of Papua New Guinea. They only get to come back to the states every couple of years, so we have been missing them for a while now! Loralie loves her cousins, and the first thing she said on Friday morning was "Daniel wake up?" She was ready for day two of play! This is the only decent picture that I (actually Caleb) got of the three of them together. Man, if you think it is hard getting one squirrelly toddler to pose for a picture, try getting three to do it! This was at the Bass Pro Shop with the Daddies. Mommy put Aunt Robyn to work at the Tuscan (what, just because she is a pregnant missionary doesn't mean she gets out of helping?), and then later that night we went to "messy play" at the Early Childhood Center! Lots of fun! Here is Loralie during the messy play. I couldn't get a picture of...

On a beautiful day like today, my Dad would have been on his motorcycle. He would have knocked on my door first thing in the morning with his helmet in his hand and said "Hi Nick- oh's . Where's that baby?" Loralie would have come running down the stairs yelling " Boppa !" and jumped into his arms. She would have asked him to go outside to " swide and swing" and he would have said Okay, because he could never say no to her. He would have pushed her on the swing for as long as she wanted while I looked out the kitchen window at them. He would have read her story after story and fed her cookies and ice cream and all that stuff that mom usually says no to. He would have been in the kitchen at the Tuscan Ballroom making rolls when I came in today, and his voice and his laugh would have filled up that big room. He would have given me a hug before he left, and said "bye Nick, see you in the morning". On a beautiful day like today...

This morning I gave Loralie her breakfast and started making my coffee when I heard her say, "talk to Jesus". I looked over and she had her little hands folded and her eyes squinched shut. She said "Thank you for eggs. Thank you for nannies. (bananas) Thank you for plate. Thank you for pink. Amen.". I am sure Jesus cherished it even more than I did!

Today we decided to take advantage of our day off and headed to smithville lake to walk the trails and have a picnic. The butterflies and dragonflies were out of control and kept landing on us. We tried to get Loralie to get in the stroller, but she kept saying "I walkin'!!!" We had a nice picnic by the water. Loralie conked out in the car on the way home so it was a successful trip!

My last week of blog posts have been total downers, so I thought I would go ahead and post about our Vegas Vacay and try to bring on the happy! We met our good friends Curtis and Candy at the at the airport, and headed straight to the Hoover Dam, and damn, is that a big Dam. Haha . See what I did there? However, the dam is in the middle of the desert and it was August, so it was pretty DAMN hot! Notice I look really sweaty... We checked into our hotel, which was the fabulous Mirage. I can honestly say that it was the biggest and coolest hotel that I have ever seen, let alone stayed in! We chowed down on some overpriced burgers (Caleb was not a happy camper in Vegas, as everything is UBER expensive), and then hit the strip for some sight seeing. That night we went to see Circ De Solie's Beatles "Love" show at the Mirage. It was amazing (albeit overstimulating). Day two included more sight seeing, but from a much different perspective. We went to the stratosphere, wh...

So, I have been a good baptist girl for a good deal of my life, and we are definitely skeptical of all things "spirit filled", including prophesy . But there have been some prophesy over our family in the last couple of weeks that are pretty hard to brush off. First, my mom went to a prayer meeting a few weeks ago, and there was a woman there who had the gift of prophesy. She pointed my mom out of the group and said that she had a son whose name started with a M and that he was wrestling with God, but God was going to win. She also saw a big white building with white columns on the front and she said that it was a sort of headquarters for something, with boxes coming in and out, and she asked specifically if we were doing something to help orphans or homeless people (we had just started to partner with a church to help feed the homeless with our extra food at work). And she said that her husband was a businessman and that he was going to have a revaluation from God ...

"Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live." Even in this dark time in my life my heart is full of thankfulness. I am so thankful that my Dad got to spend the two days before his death with Loralie. My mom says that he pushed her on the swing for hours on Tuesday. I am thankful that I got to speak to him on the phone on Tuesday, and hear his voice one last time. I am thankful that he got to spend Wednesday night at church, hearing the familiar message of God's love, and enjoying fellowship with dear friends. I am thankful that one minute he was doing something he loved, riding his motorcycle, and the next minute he was walking and talking with Jesus. I am thankful that he didn't have time to be in pain or to be scared. I am thankful that last Christmas I got my Dad a book of interview questions that we worked on together. Even though we didn't get all the way do...