Spring Break (for who?)

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Saturday, was Karissa's last basketball game. They had a good game even though they were a few players short, due to spring break. Monday night was her awards ceremony. It was really bad. The kids got to run in one at a time and then there was a old time evangelist speaker who talked about hell and death and was just bad. I had a headache by the time we left from his yelling. He was preaching to a room full of K-3 grade kids. Kirk and I were not happy. We have purposefully not exposed our kids to that type of preaching. Besides, the preacher they didn't hand out awards at all. The coaches were instructed to give them their trophies after the final prayer.

So, our Spring Break has been pretty lazy. We have no plans to go anywhere or do anything. Kirk's parents came down last weekend. Our nephew is coming tomorrow, for the day. That's about it. Karissa woke up this morning wanting to have a picnic, so we packed lunches and walked\rode to the park. It was a lot of fun. Then we came home and crashed. Kylie rode her tricycle the whole way there and half way back. I think it is a little over a mile one way. She is going to have great leg muscles.

Hot or Not

She presented her project to the second graders during school today and then they were displayed tonight for all the parents to see.

This is Karissa with her science expo project. It was a voluntary family project. Next year it will be required. She also got her report card and made straight A's. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the AR reading program but that is what Karissa's school uses. Each grade level is assigned a color and the books in the library are marked with that color. The kids read their level of book and then take a comprehension test on the computer. After they make five 100's on a certain color they move up to the next. Karissa has read passed all the levels and is now at the 6th -12th grade color. Give her a goal and she achieves it. Granted this was supposed to be a goal for K-5th grade. Anyway, the content is not really appropriate in the older books so we are going to revisit some of the other lower colors for the rest of the year. Sorry I just had to brag a bit about what a reader she is!!!!

Dress up

Caleb's new do (actually, he just got a lot of apple sauce in his hair and this is what it looked like after I wiped his head with a rag)
McKenzie showing off her bling
Cara showing off her bubble ring
Caleb connecting with his girly side

Yesterday, we were all bored. I remembered that McKenzie's parents said she loves to dress up so I pulled out our stuff. She didn't want to wear the dresses and wasn't big on hats. She absolutely loved the necklaces, bracelets and shoes. She had all we had on and was saying "mo mo (more)." Kylie is sick so she didn't really feel like dressing up. Cara had fun and Caleb even got into it (don't tell Kirk). Tonight we have Karissa's open house and science expo. We had fun working on her science fair as a family. I'll post pics tonight or tomorrow.

Today is one of those days I truly miss being in Wichita Falls. I really think Kylie might have strep but I can't imagine taking all four kids to the doctor. I was awake from 2:30 to 4:30 trying to figure out who could watch them. Although I have made friends, not many of them are stay at home moms. Hopefully, she will feel better today. Last night, her fever was scary high...like 104.5. Yikes!! This morning she has none so far. Pray for us.

Woven

This weekend I bravely went where I haven't gone before. I signed up and attended a women's retreat at our new church. When we pulled up in the parking lot of the church I recognized no one. I said "Kirk, are you really going to leave me here?" For those of you who have known me a long time, this is a giant step for me. Being the nice husband he is, he helped me unload and carry my stuff to the woman with the clip board. I signed in and then tried to decide how to find someone to hitch a ride with. Finally, I recognized the children's minister. I scooted up to her group and said, with a smile "you're the only one here I know." She is a outgoing lady and she said "well then you'll have to ride with me and Alex." By the time we arrived at Riverbend Retreat Center, I was very car sick having ridden in the backseat of the car of a somewhat nervous highway driver. I also had spoken about three times and laughed a few more than that. I did know Dawn, Alex and Mendy, though. We unloaded and put our stuff in the least full side of the bunk house. Why was it the least full...it was the SNORING side, of course. Anyway, about 9pm we started our first session.

The whole point of this retreat was for the women of our church to get together and learn about how to better our women's ministry. We had about 40 women there. A retreat team named Woven (www.Woven310.org) did everything for us. They were great and most of them are local women. Friday night, we had a guest speaker (not of Woven) who taught about personality types and we all took a test and then were split up with our same types. The speaker was very good and spoke tongue in cheek about the different personalities. We did learn about each other and information that will help us put together a great womens ministry. Then we ate chili and lots of junk. There was a campfire and s'mores, too but it was freezing outside. I went to bed about 1pm. I went to sleep around 3-4. I never knew someone could snore that loud. I take that back..I never knew a woman could snore that loud.

By Saturday morning, I had hooked up with some friends. Jessica, Diana and I hiked to the dinning hall. It was a beautiful morning and we arrived early to a dinning hall full of kids. We hiked out behind the dinning hall and had a great view of the sun and a river. Breakfast was wonderful and then we hiked back to our morning session. Our retreat was tittled B4...before,belong,believe,become. The believe session hit me right between the eyes. It was about believing Him versus believing in Him. There is a great difference and the latter is much harder for me. Anyway, the really funny thing is they related B4 to our physical as well as our spiritual health. Since Kirk is on this get healthy kick I found it very humerous that the retreat had that as a theme also. (see Kirk's blog) As we were loadind up to go to the church, Kirk said "Do you know you probably drink 1000 calories a day in Dr. Pepper?" I , of course, said" you are the one who wants to get healthy not me." It's funny how God works.
So, we finished the day with an afternoon session and then headed home. The music, by the way was wonderful. Woven has two musicians (usually more I think) and then three of our ladies mixed in and made an awesome group. So, I rode home with my new friend Jessica, who is also a stay at home mom...Yeah!!! I also met Diana, who stays at home and wants to start a weekday womens Bible study. God is really growing our church and providing people who are willing to step up.

I want to throw a great big thank-you out to Kirk. He gladly took all the kids so I could attend the retreat. Karissa had a basketball game and a school carnival. The kids barely even missed me and the house was even pretty clean when I got home. Thanks also to Linda, Sharon and Ariel for helping Kirk with the logistics of four kids and one parent.