He's My Hero

Standing at the sink washing dishes and chatting with one of my girls I looked down to see my flip flopped feet standing in about an inch of water.  It was flooding out of the already broken dishwasher that I occasionally run to keep the inside from getting gross.  I ask my daughter, with some urgency in my voice, to get towels.  She comes back with 2...TWO squares of toilet paper.  (Which, now I can't stop laughing about but at the time) changed my urgent voice into an all out crazed mother yell, "TOWELS CHILD...I SAID TOWELS!  BRING! ME! EVERY! TOWEL! IN! THIS! HOUSE!...NOW!!!"  By this time the water has found it's way under the stove and is almost out of the kitchen all together. 

Towels come and we at least stop the water from moving into other rooms of the house.  I managed to, somewhere in the chaos, turn off the dishwasher and now I gingerly attempt to open the door... more water. 

Sigh.

At this time I don't want my kids walking in the bacteria filled water that's been backed up in my broken dishwasher for who knows how long.  So I give them free reign of all electronics in the house.  Computer...video games...TV...anything. You can line up behind me for the mother of the year award...mmmk. 

I then start sucking water out of the bottom of my dishwasher with a turkey baster.   Seriously, just typing that sentence out is sad... so sad.   While I was doing that I really wanted to get angry...I mean really wanted to get angry.  But at who... or what.  So I just prayed.  Don't be too impressed.  I don't feel right now that my prayer carried much reverence.  But it was honest at least.  And it wasn't any surprise to God that I was struggling at that moment.   Anyhow, I don't know how long later, it was empty.  I manage to wrangle all the wet towels over to the washer. (Which incidentally I have never been more thankful to have in my kitchen as I was at that moment.)   Then I mopped and sat down for a second to let the floor dry.  Then we had sandwiches for supper because after the water went under the stove I was afraid to turn it on. 

I don't care much about the dishwasher.  It's been broken for going on 2 years.  What I hated most was having to meet Gregg at the door with yet another thing that broke.  Things are pretty crappy for us right now.  A lot of uncertainty.  And stuff keeps breaking.   Or there are cavities that need filling.  And stuff keeps breaking.   Did I mention that stuff keeps breaking.  While I type this, I'm so thankful that we are healthy.  I don't take that for granted.  This is all external.  I know this, but I really didn't want to add extra stress to Gregg with stuff like the stupid broken dishwasher.  But I couldn't move the stove to get to the water under it.   And of coarse after the crazed mom yelling for towels episode there was no way the kids weren't going to spill the beans. 

Anyway, he got home and was met at the door by 4 kids, all talking at once, telling a different part of the story.  I just stood smiling at him and he calmly asked me what was going on.  He changed out of his work clothes and immediately started working on the problem.  About 2 hours later we had a huge hole in our cabinets and a broken dishwasher in our back yard.  I'm not sure but I believe that actually qualifies us for higher white trash status.   

Yep, things are kind of tough right now.  We're trusting God to take care of us.  Even through the struggles we are trusting... and praying nothing else breaks. 

 
But as he was manhandling the dishwasher down the back steps, all I could think was... he's my hero, and I cannot imagine wading through the muck of our lives with anyone but him.   And I'm truly thankful...truly thankful!

Passed Down

Look deep inside this truck...

Can you see it?

It's a desk and dresser and bookshelf...
They were Gregg's as a child...

This is our boys room before...

*******and after************

I love thinking of Gregg's hands riffling through these drawers to find some shorts and a t-shirt...
and 35 years later, his boys are doing the same thing.

I don't know if you can see it, but there is a built in light under the book shelf.
It's my favorite part.

 













I love thinking that these 2 little "treasure drawers", on either side of the light, once held Greggs treasure and are now holding the boys treasures.
 

There was no chair, but we had an extra one hanging out on the front stoop.

I used my trusty mouse sander that my husband gave me and...
Cushion courtesy of my new favorite store... IKEA
I think it came out pretty well...

I love that Gregg used to sit here at this same desk to do his homework and all these years later, his boys get to sit there and to theirs...



I know that non of the furniture in there matches and I'm great with that...

The bunk beds we bought...

The blue shelf I got at a yard sale back when Sam was just a baby...

And the desk/dresser/bookshelf came from Dad...

Thanks MawMaw and PawPaw for giving the boys their dads stuff...

Thanks to Aunt Katie for driving that HUGE truck up here to drop it off.  I really wish I'd have gotten  a picture of you in the HUGE truck with the desk and shelf.  HeeHee



While I'm really sentimental, Gregg isn't the kind of guy to "gush" about this kind of thing, but I did ask him(as he stood opening and closing each drawer carefully) if it made him feel nostalgic.  His answer...


"I can remember what was in every drawer." 

The Secret Family Sign

For more fun tips/recipes/good ideas head over to WFMW at We are THAT Family...

We have lots of rules here at Team Babetz and one that ranks pretty high is being kind to your brothers and sisters.  Now I know all kids fight.  You can't have this many bodies in this tight of a space without running into a problem here and there.  But the funny thing is that we weren't running into the problem here.  It was at school.

My girls would see their older brother and be so excited. Well you can imagine his reaction to their... warm greetings.  Early on, when we had a 1st grader and a K5er, they would walk into school hand in hand(those were the years we didn't have a camera and I hate that the picture of that is only in my mind).  But as they got older that was just - not - cool.

I don't care so much for being cool but I did understand that it was embarrassing to him for the girls to draw attention.  He's not big on attention... kind of likes to blend in.

So we've had to talk to the girls about toning down their excitement and not embarrassing him, and we had to talk to him about not ignoring them when they did see him in the hall or at lunch.  

Things got better for a couple of years, but now he's a patrol, working car line, and the girls would be upset if he didn't respond to them when 'on the job'.  So we had a team meeting and came up with the idea of a sign we could give each other  that would be secret... only for our family.  They love the secret idea... lends an element of excitement to it I guess.  We looked on a sign language web site and came up with a very modest (as in doesn't draw attention) sign that is meaningful.

{I'd show y'all the sign but then, ya know, I'd have to kill you...} 


The kids have really bought into it.  They give a little side grin and eyebrow raise along with the sign.  HeeHee

And that's what counts... and what works for us... A secret family sign.

Blogimony

Blog + Testimony = Blogimony

I'm humbled and excited to be sharing my 'blogimony' over at Gathering Inspirit today.  Head on over and check it out and while you're there look around a little.  Those girls have some really fun things going on over there.

Thanks and have a great Labor Day.

Steph

Marriage Fitness

Stress can reek havoc on a marriage.  Little things that pile one on top of another and get heavier and heavier. Slowly communication breaks down and selfishness leaks out and you feel like your way is the best.

Gregg and I had were talking about this recently as there's been some extra stress in our lives lately.  We talked about communication.  It's so hard to do.  Sometimes our own thoughts are so confusing... how could our husband or wife understand if we don't?  So rather than cause further confusion and in an effort to protect we stay silent.  Trying to figure things out in our head before we say them out loud.  But in the absence of communication, we often interject our own ideas of what is going on.  Which are never truth.  

We could see this starting to happen...

And Satan was on the doorstep waiting.

We decided that communication, even confused, and prayer were a better option.

See ya, Satan!

And at the same time, our church is doing a series on marriage called Marriage Fitness.  I'm excited to build on what we already have to make our marriage even stronger.  We love each other very much, but we also know it takes a lot to maintain a good marriage and when your tired and confused... it's easy to just sink into your separate roles and go about life trying to figure things out alone. 

If your interested or know someone who may need some encouragement in their marriage... please let them know.    Thanks

Happy Birthday

There's a little more grey...

There's a little more stress...

There's a little less money...

There's a lot more fun...

There's a lot more noise...

There's a ton more laughs...

There's a little less time...

There's a few aches and pains...

There's a lot more love...

There's you and me...

There's our crazy kids...

And

There's Texas football tomorrow...

Happy Birthday

I love you.

Always!

Trip to DC

My oldest had the opportunity to go to Washington DC last weekend with his grandparents to the Restoring Honor rally held on the Mall.

The Mall during the rally... wow

He's a pretty good little photographer...

I can't imagine being there and seeing all those people there just to show support for bringing honor back to our country.  I watched the rally on C-Span so I could talk to him about it.  He's funny, information sort of trickles out over time.  So we will continue to chat about if for a while I'm sure. 

He really enjoyed being with his grandparents and they got to see some pretty amazing things...

WWII Memorial

White House

 

  You didn't think we'd actually get out of this without a reference to Star Wars did you...

Thank you MaMa and PaPa.  He will never forget it and we love you very much!

Classy like that...

This is how my youngest went through car line yesterday. 

Shirt with food stuck on it - check

No pants - check

Purple crocs to match dirty shirt - check

Toothbrush in hand as chew toy - check

brother was home sick... only 3rd week of school... nice

So in the interest of full disclosure I want it to be know that we do this kind of thing often, cuz we're classy like that!