The Hankie...and More

I gave this hankie to my Jr. High Sunday School teacher as a Christmas gift back years and years ago. When she opened the little gift she said she would keep it and when I got married she would return it to me so I could carry it on my wedding day.

She did and I carried it along with the Bible my mom carried on her wedding day.

Little things like that mean a lot to me and I hope to pass both the Bible and the hankie on to my girls so they can carry them and know the stories that go along with them. And maybe they will pass them on to their girls...and so on...

My Jr. High Sunday School teacher, Jacki, went to be with the Lord yesterday. I was shocked when I read the news and so I went to her son's face book page to send a note.

While I was there I started reading the words of encouragement left by many...

So many of them where from girls, like me, who had been in Jacki's class over the years. As I read I was struck by the mark this woman left on so many girls lives.

Jacki had no daughters, only sons but there are women today in many different stages of life who bring with them little nuggets of Truth...

Truth they learned in Jacki's class...

That is an amazing gift.

So thank You Jackie, your years of service to Christ are a gift to many.

And my girls will know you through the wisdom you shared with me...

And through a hankie.

I Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that parishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

White Trash Water Park

Kristen is having a party over at We Are THAT Family for her 2nd blogging anniversary. She has asked those of her readers who are brave enough to link up a "THAT Family" moment of their own. I had a couple to choose from but this is the most recent. So enjoy the rerun and go check out We Are THAT Family for lots of "THAT Family" moments.

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Original post: 8/25/09

My hubby took a couple days off this summer to spend with the kids before they headed back to school.
That's right, no vacation for Team Babetz this year...
Or last year for that matter, but that's a post for someone else's blog.
This is Team Babetz and there's NO WHINING on Team Babetz
{cough, cough... clear throat}
Well on with the story!
There we were all set to go.
Hair combed...
Clothes on frontwards...
Shoes on the right feet...
We were headed out the door to Lowes, because where else do you go when you have time off...seriously!!
When we got out the door we found the local water company had come to flush the fire hydrant line.
You know whats coming don't you???
It all started so innocently...
Just wanting to touch the water and wade in it a little...
Even the littlest member of the team got in on the action...
But us being who we are an all...
We couldn't just walk through it...
Or splash in the puddles it made...

Oh no...
We had to swim in it...

We had to drink it...gross

Sigh...
Because nothing says white trash like...

Making your front yard a water park.

The Goings On...

Here at TeamBabetz sickness has arrived. Not unexpectedly as every virus known to man is going around the kids school.


We've had a two day virus thing that the kids are enjoying giving to one another.


{We did teach them to share after all.}


And as a result of that we got an ear infection.


Then around the 4th day of the medication my son decided to be helpful and open the bottle of pink stuff by himself and with such force that the bottle slipped from his hand and onto the floor...


Right side up without a cap which produced a volcano of thick pink goo all over both of us.


I really wish I had taken a picture... oh well.


Then the littlest team member got the croup...

Now God, in His wisdom, choose to give us the gift of good sleepers here on TeamBabetz. So when those nights come where there is little sleep...


Well, I don't think I have to spell it out...


It's just not pretty.


But it's what we do. And I'm praying for a better night tonight...for her sake more than mine. She's really pitiful...

But during all this germiness we had the privilege of meeting with our kids teachers for conferences.


It was a great time of chatting, getting to know them better and getting to see how the kids are doing.


Our 1st grader has had a good 1 quarter.

In some early testing they slated her for a special class for children who are struggling with reading. In my humble opinion those tests are not an accurate measure of a child's reading ability. The marked her low because she sounded out words like cat "c - at" rather than "c - a - t". ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? So we, with our God given parental authority, pulled her from that class and she is doing great. We bumped up her reading at home, more because she struggles with confidence in her own ability more than anything, and she is reading fine and comprehending what she is reading. Which is more important than "c - a - t"... whatever...


{Jumping down off the soap box...}


Our 3rd grader is doing great as well. No big issues and we are grateful!!!


Team Babetz is not only the name of our blog...it's what we call ourselves here at home. We know our positions, and that in order to get things done we have to work together as a team...


Well apparently our little girl told her teacher all about it. Explaining who plays what position and what their jobs are...


So at our conference the teacher said, "I want to be on Team Babetz"...


We're thinking of getting t-shirts made and giving her one...


And last but not least our 4th grader...

Our oldest...


Our guinea pig...


Poor guy...


We've been so hard on him this year...


He's in a program called Challenge that takes him out of class over 3 hours a week for some "creative learning". Right now they are studying bridges across America and in a few months will be in a county wide contest to build a bridge with only craft sticks and glue. It's a really fun program and he loves it. But we were having trouble getting him to tell us what he was missing from his regular class. We thought it was because he was missing assignments and such...


But rather than push really hard we decided to wait and talk to his teachers (they have 2 in 4th grade) to see what we could find out before we followed through with pulling him out of Challenge.


Well, as it turns out he wasn't bringing it home because he was finishing it in class...


Feeling all of 2 inches tall right about now...


His teachers laughed with us and said they were the same way with their oldest children too...


Both his teachers are believers and understand our expectations and the reasons behind them. They were very kind.


Another issue that we've been dealing with in our 4th graders class is the little boy that sits next to our son. He's constantly getting in trouble. And then when he does get in trouble, he gets very upset and causes a huge scene...


Well we (my son and I) talked about what we should do and decided that our coarse of action would be to pray for this little boy, for our son to be kind to him and encourage him to make good choices.


After our initial discussion I would ask occasionally how things were going and we prayed for him every night.


In our conference, his teachers told us that he has really reached out to this little boy. Been encouraging and kind. Helping him with work he doesn't understand and when the little boy is removed from class making sure he gets the work he missed so he doesn't fall behind. And even just talking to him about things he likes and stuff 9 year old boys talk about during free time in class.


We tell our kids often...OFTEN...


"Be a part of the solution...not a part of the problem."


I got that from a great book I read a few years ago called "Going Public" you can read more about it and the ministry of David and Kelli Prichard here.


I don't write that to praise us as parents or our children...


We have many, many faults. We choose this road for our kids and God is seeing fit to use them and us within this little school and we are humbled and count it a privilege to serve Him there. Matt 5:16


And back to the sleeping thing...


My 4 year old...

Who will be 5 this week...


Has taken to waking up between 1 and 5 every night and getting into bed with us...


Not a huge deal, except that we have a double bed...


There's not enough room for the two adults who sleep there, let alone an additional 4 year old...


So I get up and take him back to bed...


Sometimes...


Sometimes I just cuddle up with him, because I know how fast these years go.


So those are 'the goings on' here at TeamBabetz...


And I hope all is well with you!

Back by Popular Demand

Remember this jacket...
Last year I wrote about it here...
Well I still can't get him to give it up.
His birthday is this week. Maybe I'll let him pick out his very own...
New jacket...
Preferably, not 3 sizes too small.

An Ornament Exchange

It's getting to be that time of year again...

Christmas is just around the corner...

One of the highlights of the Holiday season for me is the ornament exchange I'm a part of...

Some friends and I started the group about 12 years ago...

The idea came from my mom who was in an ornament exchange group at the time...

There are 9 girls in our group and we get together the first Mon. or Tues. night in Dec. We have food and fellowship and each hand make enough ornaments for all the ladies in the group.

That's 9 ornaments a year for 11 years...

You do the math...
We have some talented ladies in our group but we don't take things too seriously...

Now if you're thinking you may want to start something like this, it's good to be mindful of group size because you'll be making that many ornaments from scratch.

I have to have 8 made by the night of the exchange...

I also like to make extra to give as gifts and for my kids...

And our church has a ministry to single moms and so we all usually makes an extra to decorate a tree for a single mom who may not be able to afford one.
Above was one of the ornaments made for our 10th exchange. See the 10 hanging off the bottom. So cute. There are several in the group who stick with themes. The girl who made the above snowman out of a terracotta pot...makes a snowman, of some kind, every year.
The above sweet little Christmas tree was made from paper...by a girl in the group who makes her ornaments every year out of ...paper.
Above was a 4 year long series...so funny, I laugh every time I get them out.
My current theme is buttons...see the snowman with the HUGE carrot nose...

Above is a felt purse...how cute!!! Each one was different.
Santa...heeheehee Goofy cloths pin soldier...and of coarse that Santa made from buttons...
Above are a simple set of chopsticks painted with some ribbon and jingle bells. My sister in law made those the year the started the process of adopting their daughter from China... That was 2005. Lord willing they are going to pick her up next month!!!!!
This poinsettia flower was made by her too, the year her husband was out of work. It reminds me of how God provides for His children every year when I get it out.
These two stay up all year in my kitchen...
See...
And this wooden "B" covered in buttons stays up all year long in my bathroom...
But for all the ornaments I've gotten over the years...

And for the memories of how they got made...

It's more about the ladies and the fellowship than anything...

Some of us have gotten married over the years...

Some have had children...

When we started we all went to the same church...

Some have moved to different churches...

But we can always count on getting together that one night a year to reconnect...
Share some good food...

Fun stories...

Fantastic crafts...

And friendships that give us great...

Joy...

Teeth

We have teeth issues at our house...

If you've looked closely at any of our children's beautiful smiles you know that the bulk of our money will be spent at the orthodontist...

And college...

And weddings...

Oh man...

Back to teeth...

This little girls has two new teeth coming in...

But if you look really close...

You can see she still has her teeny...tiny...little...baby teeth...

So my husband told her she needed to get about the business of wiggling...

Or he would get about the business of pulling...

So she started wiggling...

Her teeth that is...

And I started sending things like bagels in her lunch hoping that would help things along...

And it worked...

Yesterday she lost her first little tooth...

Praise God because if it's one thing that really grosses me out...

It's loose...wiggling...pulling...loosing teeth...ish...

But even with the teeth issues we face...

We still have some lovely little smiles!

Football Fun

My guy was given tickets to a Clemson Football game a couple of weeks ago.

So we bought us some Clemson t-shirts...

{Disclaimer: for any family members who may happen upon this post, let me state for the record...that we are now and forever will be LONGHORNS... Hook-em-Horn...Amen!}

But for a few hours a couple of Saturday's ago we wore a brighter color orange and taught our 4 year old how to spell C-L-E-M-S-O-N...

Death Valley is really a fun place...

And, lets face it, if you're a college football fan...

You have to appreciate the home field fun that goes along with the game.

The boys were so excited and then when we got there...

It was a lot to take in...

We all had a great time...

And our seats...

Well they were under this...

So when it started POURING DOWN RAIN...

Unlike these poor souls who, well
Got soaked!

We were nice and dry.

Thanks to my husbands boss for giving us some great tickets...

Fun was had by all!!!

I Roll My Eyes and Laugh...

Our sweet baby had her 18 month well check last week and everything looks great. She weighs 21lbs and is doing all things toddler.

Except...

She's not talking yet. We aren't overly concerned at this point because she hears fine and understands what is being said. If I ask her to go get a diaper...she goes in her room, gets a diaper and brings it to me. She says Yes Mam...in tone only...when responding to me and she says "Da" for dad.

Over and over and over...

She will carry on an entire conversation with you in "gibberish", and that is about it. If at 2 years she's still not made any progress, then they will start to look at therapy. So we shall see. My guess is she will suddenly start using words and then it will come quickly. But sitting in the back of my mind is always the fact that I was on so much medication before she was born.

And in other news...this is what she has started doing when she doesn't get her way.

Good times...

And while we were in the Dr.'s office {because I needed a good dose of humbling} my oldest son (who was home from school sick so he had to go with us) discovered that my 4 year old put his pants on backwards...and made sure our pediatrician {who, by the way, is also an elder at our church} was informed.

What else could I do...

But roll my eyes and laugh.