Bath time drama

Savannah and I were enjoying her bath time today. Normal day - lots of pouring water, pretending to swim, and plently of sick mullet action....

Then WABAMM! She hit me in the face with a spoon.

There's actually a cut in the middle of the bruise. It seems like maybe it's not a big deal, but to one who isn't used to getting beat up, it's a pretty big thing to get pounded and given a black eye (albeit small) by your toddler! I think the worst was when I cried after she hit me (it really hurt!) and she laughed at me crying. We're getting into a tough time I think. Time to break out the discipline books.

I know she didn't mean to hurt me - she just didn't know better. I didn't know what to do so I just kept telling her - between crying gasps - "you hurt mommy".

Sincerly,

Taking advice on child training.

Dear Wendy....

Taking the advice of a good friend, I started reading this book a couple weeks ago. He suggested that if I only have time for a couple chapters - I should pick it up and just read the first two.

I am now finished with the first two chapters and here are just some of the things i LOVED and wanted to write back to myself.

The other attitude is one of varying degrees of self-satisfaction with one's Christian life. We can drift into this attitude because we are convinced we believe the right doctrines, we read the right Christian books, we practice the right disciplines of a committed Christian life, or we are actively involved in some aspect of Christian ministry and are not just"Pew sitters" in the church. (i just circled this part and wrote - yep - next to it. unfortunately, i can relate)

When we think in this manner we are in danger of becoming like the Pharisee in Jesus' well known parable (luke 18:9-14). Jesus said "THe Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, Thank you that I am not like other men... robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get".

Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector was painfully aware of his sinfulness. He didn't just ask for forgiveness of certain sins, he pleaded for mercy as a sinner. He was concerned with how he measured up before a holy and righteous God. He knew he stood alone before God with his sin, so he pleaded for mercy.

We agree that the Pharisee was dripping with religious pride, but them we think the parable doesn't apply to us because we have trusted in Christ and are already justified. (Ouch! I DID think this was about the Pharisee, not about me!)

We will own up to almost any other sin, but not the sin of self-righteousness. When we have this attitude, though, we deprive ourselves of the joy of living in the grace of God. Because, you see, grace is only for sinners.

I am praying that God will continue to work out the truth of Grace in my life.

New Building update - sorta

I went out to the church on Saturday morning to help out with the new building. They are asking for volunteers on Fridays and Saturdays for anyone else who might be interested. You can help with any kind of skill level and you can even bring the kiddios with you to help too!

Let me first tell you that I got to drive this thing around. Up and down and all around. It's soo fun. I think I know what Savannah feels like when we show her a new toy.

This is the new auditorium. It's lookin good! The lights aren't on in there yet so it's kind of dark, but you get the point. If go out to check out the building ever, make sure to check out the bathrooms! I totally love the tile in the men's room. FYI. There's so much style in this place!

This is what I did most of the time I was out there. Can you see what' happening behind the fog?

It's my dad spraying paint! I love how the picture above totally captured what it looked like in there. The paint fog doesn't really bother me or my dad because we've been around it so much, but I guess it irritates the other workers. My dad has been working looooong hours to get stuff done while everyone else is gone. He works 13 hour days sometimes. I'm pretty proud of my dad.

This is just a fun picture of Savannah at the Ames High Homecoming parade last week. She loves that Ames High fight song just like her mommy!

Students of Ames Senior High... Proud of our school are we! Cheering the orange and the black.. on to a victory, Rah rah rah!

Okay - they did lose their homecoming game, but it wasn't a fair match up! Valley? Come on!

In the last week or so....

Things we/I've been doing and thinking:

- getting more used to the mac. I've been told this could take up to two months. Making the video for sure was the encouragement I needed to keep trying!

- Painted the pontoon boat, then went out on the boat.

- Played on the giant blow up slide with the 25 people that come to the Farner's house for connection group. Leann had it there for her birthday. Savannah LOVED it! Okay, I loved it too! Thanks Farners!

- Ames High Homecoming Parade. Ames Hi, Aims High!

- I need to clean more. nuff said.

- Does my giving someone grace also allow for excuses in what they do? (blog on this topic to come)

- I'm not an organic, organized, administrative, natural mom, nor do I want to be and that's ok.

- I've been a Christian for almost 11 years and yet, it seems like it hasn't been all that long since my life changed for eternity! That's amazing!

- Date night with Travis (Carlos for dinner, then some good old "Thursday night Comedy night done right on NBC".

- Big event with the high schoolers in 3 weeks! I better get workin!

- Annnd, some pictures of Savannah playing with her Busy Ball Popper for good measure. (and for you Travis. I know you hate it when I don't post Sav pictures)

She got this toy for CHristmas but is just now really getting it.

I done gone and made a video!

My Mac frustration is fading a little bit. I finally sat down for a few minutes today and made this video. Nothin fancy folks. Just seeing what I can do.

On a budget

Let me start out by saying that we are not currently on a budget of any kind.

Travis and I have loved the idea of a budget for years, but have never had the time/discipline to even sit down and make one. Basically I just keep an eye on the money from our online banking (a habit I picked up in my 4 years of working at the Bank) and when it starts to run down we start to slow down our spending. I'm not proud of of my ways. So we're working on it.

Our Bank (First National Bank) just came out with a program on their online banking that helps you budget! I checked it out last night. Through pie graphs and tagging things and other cool tools it figures out on it's own what category most of our purchases (using our debit card) go to and tells me how much we are spending on what. Love it. Last month we spent %8 of our money on clothes (it was a birthday month though). I'm not really happy with that so I set a new goal and the website tells me how much I have left.

Another area Travis and I greatly need a budget in is our TIME. I think this is more pressing. I think my plan right now is that we will sit down and figure out on a weekly/monthly basis how many approximate hours we want to spend where and with who. Like, we should spend at least 3 hours a week just the two of us, 8 hours a week as a family, X hours a week doing ministry with high schoolers, X hours with other adults... you get the point. Things are just spinning out of control!

Shhhhh.....

I caught her on camera sleeping. This is a rare picture.

For all those who are SOOO interested in our lives - here's Savannah's current sleeping schedule.

7am Wake up

9:15am go to crib and make noises hoping someone will come play

9:30am nap in crib

11am wake up for lunch

1:30pm go to crib and run around making mommy think I'm destroying the room. No one comes.

1:45pm sleep

3pm get up and play play play

7pm 8oz bottle in my rocking chair in my room/book

7:15 play it all cutesy because I know they're getting ready to put me to bed, fight it! fight it!

7:20 sleeping for the night

9pm wake up and cry until someone lays me back down - go right back to sleep

I've been told that she should be down to one nap a day now, but hey - I'm not going to push it! She sleeps for long stretches so I know she does need all that sleep.

We started Savannah on a sleeping/eating schedule on day 3 of her life. It's been so good to us. I can totally predict when we need to be home for naps and when I will be able to run around town. It makes it easy to plan ahead! I've also always been able to tell what her needs are most of the time (is she hungry, does she need sleep?). We thrive on it.

That's us.

Inlawapolooza (title inspired by dewhurst)

Over the weekend we had some company from down south. Travis' parents and our sister inlaw (his brother's wife) and their kids came up for a few days of fantastic family bonding. One great thing about our house is that we can easily host a big family weekend and everyone gets their own space! We have been totally blessed by this house and I hope to be able to continue to use it however God would let us.

So pictures:

This is baby Maggie. She's sav's cousin. She's about 5 months old. Our new Mac has this iphoto program that can recognize pictures of people and pull up all the ones that look like them. When I put Savannah's pictures in it pulled up all the pictures of Savannah and all the pictures of Maggie. I guess my computer thinks they look the same!

Here's Savster and cousin Lani in the bath. Lani will be three in November. Savannah LOVES playing with Lani. She learns a lot from her about how to be a little girl and how to interact. It's great having them together.

They took a little bike ride with uncle Trav. I don't know if either one of them really liked it! Lani was all for it in the beginning but I guess she wasn't a fan of uncle Trav's driving.

Here's Grammy and Poppy. A One Of a Kind set of grandparents.

This was Travis' Inlaw part of the weekend. We went boating with my parents on Monday night. It was a good time, but I think Savannah was a little tired from all the other excitement. Below: with my mom.

My parent's got a pontoon boat earlier this summer. Savannah has a little pool ON the boat so she's never bored. Here she is playing in the pool on the boat. What a deal!

Thanks for tuning in. We'll see ya later!

Overdue family photo

I realized yesterday that we didn't have a family picture newer than December!!!
This is the best we could do on our own - good old one handed photo opp!

In with the in crowd...right?

Our five year old Toshiba computer had it's last crash on Friday.  It'd been having problems for the last year or so and we decided it wasn't worth the $250 it would cost us to fix it again.  We knew the time was coming to get a new computer, so the time became now.  We did some computer deals research all weekend and finally we held our breath and jumped in.  We became a Mac family! 

This is day two of MacBook living and I'm still not %100 sold.  EVERYONE I know that has one said we will never regret it and it will work awesome and blah blah blah.  I've also been told that the transition from PC to Mac could take as long as 3 months.  Here we go.  I have yet to figure out how to install the Rosetta Stone program I was so excited to start and put a couple other things on here.  

My name's Wendy Pierce.  I'm a Mac.