And bring on the next......

My oldest daughter is not what you'd call athletic.
But she tries.
She tried soccer when she was 5 and then again this year.

Last year she tried Tennis for the first time.

In Junior High she played one year of Volleyball.

She just finished her first year of wishing she could play managing the basketball team.

The ONE sport that has lasted is swimming. She has been  part of a summer swim  league for the past 5 years. I haven't talked about that much here, but trust me summer is coming and I will.

Yesterday she came home and said she signed up for track.
Then she started crying.

I tried to sound real upbeat and encouraging, because I knew that's what she needed.

She said she wanted to get in shape for swim this summer and at the time it sounded like a good idea. Run around a track all afternoon with some big scary guy coach yelling at you not to stop.
She had forgotten that it actually involved meets.
So we spent some time going over the events she could possibly do.

I made it clear that she was not to even attempt the hurdles.
That sounds mean, but just trust me.

We thought maybe the long jump. You land in a nice pile of soft sand.
She was too worried it would get in her hair.

She can't do any of the throwing events because she has a shoulder injury.
from swimming.

Finally we just started laughing.
I told her how amazing and brave I thought she was and that I love how I never know what to expect from her. And that I wish I could not take life or even my own limitations so seriously.

That night as she was going to bed, she yelled...
"Bring on the next!" in a strong confident voice.

All I can say is.......stay tuned.

It is still February ya know.

This morning she broke out the flip flops and the self tanner.

Found a skirt in the back of her closet.

Dug through the dryer to find the one perfect tank top, even though her drawer is full of other ones.

Painted her toe nails instead of eating breakfast.

Clipped a little bow in her perfectly curled, sprayed hair.

Got in the car, late as usual.

Tried to quickly pull out of the garage as the garage door took it's time to open.

And drove to the bus stop in SNOW!

"Will you bring my jeans and shoes when you come to town later?" she quietly asked.



The spring like weather we have been having gave her a little too much hope!

The FUN plan

My oldest daughter has a friend who goes to a private school in California.

She is like some sort of genius or something.
She has been in public school and home schooled. When she took the WASL test and the SAT tests her scores were so high that people/schools/scholarship programs started calling. She received a full 4 year scholarship to this private school on the shores of Malibu or something.

We have no idea why she is friends with us.


Well actually I do.

My daughter is fun.

And even really smart, educated, know things I can't even fathom people need to have fun.

So, she was home this weekend and my daughter and 2 other girls were so excited to see her and have some fun with her.

Here is the problem.
We live in a very small, nothing to do, everything closes at 8 town.

So the girls came up with a brilliant plan.

The big town.

60 miles south is a large town with movie theaters, restaurants that actually stay open in the dark, and the MALL.....

So the 4 girls gather all us parents together and lay out their plan of action.
1 of the girls is 18, has a licence, a good driving record, very trustworthy, acts like an adult, respected in the community......

 this was part of their pitch. 

They wanted to be allowed to drive to this big town, get ice cream, go to the mall, and see a movie. A real movie that just came out, not one that's 2 months old and finally came to our town's 1 screen movie theater.

So, we let them.

The plan was for the girls to get home by 11 pm and all stay the night together.

I felt fine really.

Until I fell asleep in my chair because I was trying to stay awake so that at 11pm  I could call her and make sure they had made it home ok. And now it was 2 am and I had no idea if they were home, and maybe the other Mom also fell asleep in her chair and had no idea they were not home, and they were attacked in the dark parking lot after the movie, or slid  off the road from all the ice that had magically appeared............

It was rough.
I wasn't sure if I should try and call and wake the whole house up and look like a crazy Mom.

So I just slipped to my knees and prayed.

Not for my daughter, but for myself.

That I would trust the plans He has for her, and realize deep down in the very pit of my soul how much more He loves her than I ever could begin to imagine.

And it worked. I went to bed feeling full of peace and not like a crazy Mom on the verge of waking up the whole town.

Although I did call bright and early the next morning.

But instead of my daughter being extremely cranky for being woken up so early, she was so happy and thankful for being allowed to do something so fun last night.
She said her friends had the most amazing time and that the really smart, brilliant, genius friend had peed her pants on the way home because they were laughing so hard and were too scared to stop anywhere and get out of the car and use the bathroom.

I'd say my daughter's plan worked perfectly.

It's healthy to live vicariously through your children...... right?

Friday we went up to the highschool to watch the basketball games.

My oldest is the basketball manager so she was busy filming the game. She has to go way up to the top of the stands and sit in a booth with the game announcer and the guy on the radio.
She was so cute up there looking all official and I kept taking pictures of her from across the gym.

Until she finally looked at me and mouthed "knock it off!"

Later I kept talking to her about her filming career. I told her she needed to get into the photography classes that the school offered and then I told her that the paper was having a contest for best local video or photograph and that she should enter.

I guess I was going on and on (her words) about it, because she finally looked at me and said that maybe I was the one who wanted to do all this.

hmmm. Interesting.

How I love His Word

He never disappoints.
I on the other hand tend to dissappoint myself far too often. But He knows this about me, He's talked to me about it before. He also knows that when I do something particularly hard, for Him, well...He never disappoints.

That's how it's been getting into this reading the Bible in a year thing. I've done this before, with my church, on my own....
But I knew I needed to do it again this year.
I've been going through some things that I know will only get resolved if I keep my mind filled with Him and His ways.

This week I needed to catch up and stay with it. So, I did a lot of reading.

He decided I was ready for some meat.

Don't you love how alive the Bible is sometimes, when scripture you have read over and over again becomes new and He teaches you something amazing from something you've already read?

At first the specific verses He had for me this week were hard to understand. I couldn't get why I needed to hear, know, feel them. But as they wouldn't leave me and I had to go in search of what it was He was trying to tell me, my eyes were opened in new way.

Meat.

Sometimes meat can be hard to chew and sometimes I want the easy digestion of my all familiar milk.

But I've been asking for some tough questions lately and He must think I'm ready to handle some tough answers.

He never disappoints.

I would share the scripture, but it is so painfully personal that I don't feel I'd do it justice trying to explain.

Is that weird?

I will tell you though to keep asking. Keep reading. Keep not being satisfied with the all familiar milk.
And if you disappoint yourself like I do. Know that He knows that, and wants you to know that it is He that never disappoints.

He/Him/His= Jesus
Just to be clear.

going random

Joining Mer again this month.
(Hope it's ok to use her nickname)





#1 One of the reasons I love 10 on the 10th is because of the challenge. It's like my version of playing Suduko, which they say keeps your mind sharp. But I don't really like Suduko. at all. I don't like numbers. I like letters. To me numbers and letters are complete opposites. I almost like letters as much as Marla.
obviously coming up with this 10 isn't much of a challenge since I'm going random.

#2 Speaking of Marla I have always wanted to make her a necklace from an M scrabble game piece. But I have no idea how or will probably never get around to doing it. Does anyone want to make her one and send it to her? If you do, could you just in tiny print sign it from O Mom too. Do you think she already has one?

#3 Speaking of Scrabble. You know how sometimes they come out with stuff for a limited time in the color pink? I would love the scrabble game in pink. Can ya just see the light and dark pink board and the tiles all in pink....I would play everyday. every day? June ?

#4 Do you think it was a little rude of the grocery clerk to look at me weird after she saw my tiny heart box of chocolate I was buying and asked me who it was for and I said myself?

#5 Speaking of the tiny heart box of chocolate, I know it was only .88 cents, but it totally could have fit more than 3 pieces in there. My body was having a freak out moment and it was craving chocolate. It happens every so often once a month.

#6 My oldest daughter called me from school this morning with a bad headache. She said the school nurse would not give her any advil, so I called to give my ok. They said there was a new policy that they were not allowed to give any medication to students even with a parents' permission.
hmmm.

#7 Is this random enough for you? Random is kinda fun.

#8 I am a little confused as to why Ellen is on American Idol. Does she suddenly produce records or something?

#9 And speaking of Idol, has Kara grown on anyone a little more since last year? At first we were so annoyed by her being there. This year she seems a little funner.
And funner is totally a word.

#10 This is my favorite song right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gz3QR_0EIE

I don't think they're talking about bad tacos!