My favorite question of the week..

"Pointy house"

About a year ago, Annabelle asked for a pointy house. Can you imagine her excitement to find out we were getting one? That's what we call the new house now.

We are working really hard to get stuff packed

Scenario: Abby is packing up her bathroom. Keep in mind we are moving a week from today. "Mommy, are you going to bathe the kids this week?".

These are my kids I watch on Wednesdays, plus a few extra special friends

These are Will's friends, Ryan and Dylan.

When I say friend, I mean that they play next to each other and fight mostly. For those of you who are out of practice with this age, that means they are best friends. ☺

Me and Annabelle at a special friend's birthday party.

Bee Ready

*DISCLAIMER* BIBLE CONTENT



This morning, I have a bit of devotional thought to share with you. Our church is going through I Thessalonians and I gave it a quick read this morning before the rest of the house was stirring. I'm a big fan of Paul's epistles - short and sweet. Paul and I would have gotten along fine, no unnecessary details. As I read something through, my mind is always struggling to see the structure or the "point". In this regard, this letter written to the Thessalonians is different indeed.

As I see it, Paul spends four chapters encouraging the Thessalonians, telling them they're doing a great job. OK, so what's next - nobody is marrying their mom, or eating questionable things, or propagating some crazed teaching... Could you not just send these people a postcard with a thumbs up?

In the last chapter, we get some good advice followed by rapid fire teaching. This particular set of verses struck me as significant.

"But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

I was struck by the amount of uncertainty there is about this life. At this time in Paul's career, he was convinced that the Lord was coming back any time. We should live this way. If there is anything that bugs me, its when I'm getting ready to walk out the door and not a single child has shoes on. I shall always preach a "shoes on"type of readiness.

Amy and I are preparing to buy a house, and exciting as that is... we can only see so far in front of us. Thankfully, God sees all the way in front of us - and we can proceed with that type of assurance. That's how I relate the Bible to our ordinary life.

a few Basinger bits...

This is Annabelle's Tuesday morning class she loves and my wonderful friend that loves my kids and who teaches the class

• Wes made the dean's list at Dallas Baptist University! I think it's a big deal but not being a learned person I am having a hard time grasping what an accomplishment it is. I do know that it means he has made a 3.75 or higher GPA for some time and held it consistently. The office of the provost invited him to a luncheon and honors ceremony next month. I am so proud! He is so good at math. :-)
• I went to a ladies retreat out church had and learned quite a few things this weekend. I did not rest much as I was in the 'lively cabin' where staying up until 3am was the norm. I think I am just now catching up on sleep. We studied 2nd Corinthians and how Paul used his weaknesses to walk by the spirit and glorify God. It was awesome. I spent it with some absolutely beautiful ladies! I did not take any pictures because I knew it would stress me as soon as I got home into thinking: I have to get them uploaded, then I have to get them printed, then I have to get them put in books. Do you see the OCD churning? I couldn't handle that kind of pressure right now in my life.
  

Annabelle coloring in her Tuesday class last spring

• We are moving along on the house thing. It was appraised by the lender yesterday. I hope to see the report today. I have not resigned myself to packing yet for fear of having to unpack them in this same house but I have, however sorted things in my mind as to how those things will get packed. If you know me you understand what I mean. :-)

Here is a tiny preview :-)

• I am getting a gold tooth tomorrow, yay!
  

home sweet home

So as many of you know we have been trying to buy a home for the most part of 2009. Several things have gotten in the way like Wes' graduation date getting pushed back and other things.


Well, the reason I have not written is because we are knee deep in house stuff again and I am pleased to say that we are under contract! For those of you who have never or who have not bought a home in a long time, that means that the sellers (not a bankthankyouverymuch - it's an elderly lady) and we have agreed on a price and are gathering financial documents and having the house inspected and whatnot. It was under contract before so it has been inspected and had some of the demands found repaired already. I meet the inspection guy there this afternoon. He did the inspection on the other house we had. He's a good guy. Anyway, I didn't meant to keep you waiting!

This home is large enough for our family to live for many years at 1800sqft! It has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a 2 car garage. I won't be excited until the keys are in my hand but things seem to be going smoothly. I actually get sad at the idea of leaving here so I'll probably be okay here if things don't work out. You always hear people talk fondly of the time when they were young and had a tiny house with a bunch of small kids...Yeah, I am nostalgic and don't want to let that time go..almost.

I am a crazy person and I am taking this boot camp exercise class at 5:45am on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. I did not go today....oops. Slacker.


Wes is taking another mini-mester class at night. I can't wait until it is over. This is the home stretch! He'll only take two very easy (in his mind) classes in the spring! Hooray!

5 Days of Fun

This is what your brain looks like after taking a mini-mester over the book of Jeremiah. I learned so much in five days it made me ill. Strangely enough, it was fairly interesting and I still get to exhibit that knowledge on a fifteen page monograph... whatever that is. If you've never read Jeremiah, I would definitely recommend it. Pay attention, because the nation of Judah did not and we all know what happened to them.

My favorite part was the object lessons - potter and the clay, etc. If I were to pick a favorite passage, it would come from 9:23-24.

²³ This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

²⁴ but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.

Unfortunately, I have another one of these that lasts for two weeks starting next Monday. Poor Amy... The good news - the Cowboys might be the NFC East Champions by that time. Surely Will and I get a chance to celebrate a few touchdowns together tomorrow.

it's a chicken Christmas, y'all!

So if you've been in Texas lately, there is something strange in the air this week. We normally do our usual chinese food (okay, not usual) for Christmas Eve dinner after the candlelight service that I so labor over finding (and doing) sitting for. I was looking forward to eating it after driving in the treacherous snowy weather (again strange for Texas) and after begging countless amounts of people to join us ( I guess it is a strange idea). Apparently normal people have places to go on Christmas Eve and family to be with. Well... Anyway. We asked some new friends from church to join us and they were so nice to oblige but the Chinese place lied to me and closed early so we found out once we got there (after driving in the treacherous snow - strange for Texas). We had nowhere to eat on Christmas Eve in the snow at like 7:45pm. I was embarrassed that we had asked these people then we left them without dinner. So, we did what any normal people without food on Christmas Eve would do. We rescheduled our Chinese dinner with friends. Then, we got Church's Chicken.









So, we are driving around DeSoto (many fried chicken places there, by the way) and Wes said, "Hey, lets go look at Christmas lights!". Okay, so we drive around. I figure out pretty quick that it may seem portable but it is not. Drumsticks are messy. I don't currently understand, nor will I ever understand why they give you 3 napkins when you order the family box (it's fried chicken!).








So we retreated (in the snow- strange for Texas mind you). We went home and had a wonderful dinner of Church's Chicken, mac and cheese, fried okra, carrots in a bag and a plate of cookies and candies our friends brought over.









I know, it's pretty fancy. You can't handle it, can you? You just want to reach through that screen and grab it, right? It was very good, really. I hadn't had fried chicken in a very long time. It's nothing like Chinese though...




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Nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like Chinese food, except maybe fried chicken.








Are you wondering what our friends did? They had Jack-in-the-Box...

I love shopping at Christmastime. I don't really like to think of myself as that girl who always has the newest and greatest thing from the trendiest shop in town. I don't value my life on racking up large amounts of things. I do like the feel of the mall at Christmas. It seems the way of the mall is dying what with all the strip mall shopping areas and whatnot. I miss the actual mall. It is completely impractical for a mom with 3 kids in a hurry but it is such a wonderful idea. I miss back when Abby was 2 or 3 and I worked at the mall in Plano. Most times on my lunch break I'd just walk around and sniff the Godiva chocolates (someone actually gave me some once- she was my employee and she went to school at Hockaday - she could afford it). I'd look at the large tree and listen to the swanky music playing. I'd go to Aveda and try their holiday scented lotions and scrubs. I'd go to the coffee place and get some fancy $5 coffee and sip it. I kinda miss that. But I am a mom of 3 kids. I live in the suburbs of Dallas. It is a long way to the mall and I have to get a sitter so I can actually shop. I think that this year was my absolute favorite, though. Wes and I argued about how many gifts to get each kid. We argued about how he doesn't need to spend that much money on me (seriously, don't). But ultimately, we did it together. We held hands walking through Target (off the mall, of course) and listened to the peppy new Christmas music there. We talked about how we "know" what our kids want. Maybe some day, a long way away, we'll be walking hand-in-hand at the mall, shopping for grandkid #3 and the young whippersnapper behind the counter will be getting ready for her lunchbreak to go sip coffee. In that case I'll probably give her a $5 bill and tell her to have one for me.