Wednesday, September 22, 2010

It's Fall...

Ya'll.

Woo hoo. One of my favorite times of the year...of course I say that when every new season begins (except maybe Winter...love the snow, hate the snow)!

Unfortuntely, it's still REALLY hot right now. Unseasonably hot according to the weathermen on TV. I'm ready for the cool weather. Ready for the leaves to change color. Ready for Halloween. Pumpkins. Thanksgiving. Turkeys. Fall pictures. READY!

Of course, when Fall hits, that's also when it feels like the start of the "Merry Chaosmas" season begins. In the meantime, we're going to enjoy every minute of Football Season, Fall Baseball, Hunting Season and so on...

Fall Break for the boys will be here soon -- trip to Florida, Florida State Football game...already counting down the days.

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have Seasons...
Chasity

PS...Browns, Golds, Maroons...all beautiful Fall colors are about to shine through...

Friday, September 17, 2010

No more...

soccer for our family (or Palmer)!

You know, according to the title of this blog -- Discovering God's Perfect Plan and Amazing Sense of Humor Each and Everyday -- we are constantly discovering God's perfect plan. Sometimes it takes a while for us to discover his plan...

Nope. Not. this. time.

On Thursday, after a very stressful evening of soccer (with multiple breakdowns from Palmer throughout the one hour practice), homework, etc., I'd had enough. Something in our crazy, fast-paced life needed to change. Granted, I could easily give up my 4:45 workouts (to get an extra hour of sleep, but truthfully, I like my hour of quiet workout...it's peaceful at 4:45 a.m.) So, I prayed. Prayed that God would somehow put an end to the craziness and let us gain a little control. I think at that time, I knew what needed to happen, but couldn't make the call...

And then, Saturday happened...

You know those people on the TV shows that you see fighting at their kid's game -- you know, the ones...that all the parents are looking at, while shoving their kids in the opposite direction because the ones fighting have clearly lost it. That was Brent and I at Palmer's Soccer Game. I laugh about it now. But at the moment that I just got up and left the game in the middle of the game, I was not laughing.

It seems in our haste to integrate Palmer into the world of "extracurricular activities," we forgot to ask him...do you want to do this?! But, you know, children have a way of telling us things. Sometimes we listen. Sometimes we don't. This time, we did!

He clearly didn't want to be playing Soccer -- that was apparent when the coach sent him out of the game for a "break," asked him to go back in the game and a minute later when the coach asked the other kids who wanted a break, Palmer asked for his break. 1 minute of playing and he was ready. His lack of effort about drove Brent crazy, which in turn drove me crazy, which in turn led to "big ears" Peyton making a comment that sent me right over the edge. Yep, I left. Got so angry, that I left. Jumped in the car, drove home and called my Mom crying. Crying. Crying so hard my Mom couldn't understand what I was saying. That's bad. Very bad.

So, after some apologizing by Brent and a quick "Palmer do you want to play soccer?" with a resounding "No!" We made the call. No more soccer. Just like that. God showed us His plan. And the craziness ended. And, I didn't even feel bad about it.

Got also revealed his other plan -- Palmer + Wednesday night KidsLife at Church = A great evening. Since Palmer wasn't playing Soccer anymore (thankfully), and since Peyton has baseball practice on Wednesday nights, we decided I'd take Palmer to KidsLife (45 minutes of music, 30 minutes of games, 30 minutes of storytime) at Church. The first 10 minutes included our typical "I don't want to do this" breakdown, which then ended with crying, which then ended with him finally going into the room with the other 20 kids already in the class making "musical instruments" out of plastic bottles and rice. I stayed for the music portion and when they left to play games, I snuck out. Went back an hour later and this was what I heard, "Palmer, did you have fun?" "Yes!" "Do you want to go back?" Yes! Yes! At which point, he wore his artwork around his neck as a necklace and proudly showed it to Brent when he got home.

WIN. WIN. WIN.

God had a plan and it didn't include Soccer. Thankfully.

So, we're no longer those crazy parents yelling at each other. The Lord is in control and our little Palmer, well, he's learning the Lord's ways and the perfect plans He has for our lives.

No more soccer...we're all ok with that!

Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have a God that is not afraid to "make the call" for us,
Chasity

PS...the Church is crazy on Wednesday nights...WOW at the children that were there!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day...

weekend is supposed to be a time of relaxation. A celebration of sort's for the last weekend of Summer.

"Supposed to be" are the key words.

What began as a weekend intended for relaxing, quickly became a weekend of "we've got to get our house clean." Oh, and take our little Brooke to the vet (our little Brooke is going to Broke us)...

I thought I kept a fairly neat house. Thought. But, clearly, after this weekend's cleaning spree, I am wrong. wrong. wrong. And, we didn't even touch the things that just need to be given to Goodwill.

We cleaned the carpets, dusted every nook and cranny, windexed every window, cleaned every inch of every bathroom and there's still more to do. More that we didn't do. And, oh, somehow managed to find the time to decorate my Sunday School classroom and buy a new pair of jeans (very important tasks -- yes, the decorating part)!

But, amongst all the cleaning, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Chris and Jody came to visit us. As my Mom said, "At least I know you two can get along without me being around." You did good Mom. And Chris did good when he asked Jody to be his wife:) She's the perfect sis-in-law and Aunt...and she puts up with Chris! I would have killed him by now (JK) -- although he is really good a technical stuff. So thanks to him, he fixed our Wii, cleaned our computer, secured our WiFi and even managed a little Star Wars lego building time with Peyton.

Chris and Jody were so sweet. They watched the boys for us while we went to a 40th birthday surprise party -- did I just say that. We've officially reached that age, that it's not our parent's friends turning 40...it's our friends. WOW! But, we did feel like teenagers that night. Getting to go out and party without having to pay someone to watch the kids...ROCK ON!

Of course, we always try to make their visit memorable (the last time they came, they got engaged), so we arranged for them to see Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at Starbucks (ok, no not really, but dang, we've lived here for 4 years and never seen anyone like that). Pushed them to eat at my favorite restaurant -- Whiskey Kitchen. We even made it to the pool and managed to grill out and eat some awesome Paula Deen Mac & Cheese:) The boys L-O-V-E Jody. So with a little chanting -- stay one more night, stay one more night -- (and Uncle Chris' mistake on the location of their next "intended" stop), they decided to stay another night! After some talk about Peyton staying up all night to wish on a shooting star, Jody left the boys the sweetest message:



So, after a weekend of crazy cleaning and visiting, we all got to get up and go back to work. Except Chris and Jody -- they were headed to the Spa (Oprah's favorite Nashville Spa). I'm not hating them right now. No. Not. At. All. And of course, they're next stops: Loveless Cafe and Arrington Vineyards.

What a weekend...whew. I need a Non-Labor Day weekend from my Labor Day weekend!

WE ARE Beautifully Blessed and Truly Thankful to have Chris and Jody in our lives. What a great visit,
Chasity

PS...Little Brooke is having surgery right now. Praying all goes well!!!!