Mobile blogging!!!

A test run on mobile blogging!

Dear Hubby & I are driving down the highway on a good old fashioned
roadtrip to the Cotton Bowl!!! Woo hoo! Wreck 'em, Tech !!!!

Firsts...

My kids are 5 and 7...and I was just about to the point that I thought there wouldn't be a whole lot of "firsts" to commemorate - like first steps, very smiles, first day of kindergarten...

Ok - so evidently I'm wrong. On Saturday night, our family had a first - a first bloody nose....and believe it or not, it wasn't my son. My daughter, A, got smacked....by her brother...and I wasn't even there to witness it.

Dear Hubby and the kids had taken a quick trip to Nonni & Pop's house to clear out of the house so I could finish up some Christmas cleaning and stuff (and a good excuse to watch the Dallas Cowboys game, since you can only see it on the NFL network if you have Dish around here)...the story I got was that on the drive there, A kept pestering W...and pestering...and pestering...and picking...and pestering some more. Dear Hubby has long said that one day, W will get fed up with it and A won't stand a chance. Her mental gymnastics won't save her. Evidently that day was Saturday. W got pushed too far and threw an elbow her way...and connected with her nose.

A tells her daddy that she thinks something is wrong with her nose...as she wipes blood onto her hand. Dear Hubby looks back and she has blood gushing onto her clothes and her coat. He hands her the first thing he can find to put pressure on it, calls Nonni and tells her they are almost to her house and for her to be prepared for the bloody nose. Nonni was prepared...they stopped the bleeding, washed all of the blood out, and I would have never known except for Dear Hubby telling me and for W's guilty confession. I'm not sure who was more shocked when it happened, A or W. So just when I thought my kids were old enough to not have very many "firsts" left, there it is...

Another first - last Wednesday, A had the opportunity to sing her very first on-stage solo. And she did fantastic. Her daddy pointed out to me that it would be her first opportunity to tell about Jesus through her singing (at least in a public setting)...and he had the great honor of accompanying her. She was supposed to choose a Christmas song to sing at Santa Land, an event here with lights and a huge tree and Santa & Mrs. Claus. All of her vocal teacher's students were singing...alot of the kids chose cute Christmas songs, like "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" or "Rudolph", but she and her daddy chose "Do You Hear What I Hear?" because it tells the story of the night Jesus was born through different characters. Getting prepared for the performance was stressful, to say the least, because her drama monster came out and took over, but once she hit the stage, it was clear sailing....and I have to say that her daddy and I both got a little choked up....her letting her light shine and using this love for music she has to tell about Jesus. Awesome.

Here's the youtube link to her performance...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YupnF2K1oT0

She also sang in her second performance with her little trio...here they are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t65T0yvsFSk&feature=related

Wreck 'em, Tech!!!

In case anyone who reads this blog doesn't know, my Red Raiders are 10-0 and playing like I've never seen them play before!! Dear Hubby and I have season tickets and have been going to the home games and cheering our hearts out! And no, we were not part of the enormous group that rushed the field after the Texas Tech/UT game...but we watched it and screamed at them to get off the field before they cost us the game!! Ha ha!!!

Anyways, everyone in our house is Red Raider crazy these days....and then the kids discovered, while eating breakfast yesterday, that they can even cheer for the Red Raiders while partaking of their poptarts...check this out!!!

A Taste of Things to Come

So, today was the school "Thanksgiving" lunch for kindergarten and 2nd grade...Dear Hubby was going to have turkey and all the trimmings with both kiddos today. On the way to school this morning, A asks me - "Is it sandwich turkey or turkey thanksgiving turkey?" I told her thanksgiving turkey. She freaks out. "On the bone and everything?" I told her, no, they would cut it off the bone for her...

After a minute of silence, A then tells me she won't eat turkey anymore, that's it mean for them to kill a turkey. I asked her why it was mean.... "Because the turkey is scared and then they kill it..." "Don't you think the pig or the cow would be scared, too?" - after it came out of my mouth, I realized it was probably not my brightest move.

A's response - "The turkey is smaller, Mom..."

Whew....for now. I have no doubt though that the day is coming when she will tell me she will no longer eat meat at all. So here's my question for any of you out there - at what age will it be appropriate for me to allow her to stop eating meat and become a vegetarian? I posed that question to Dear Hubby - he said high school. Thoughts, anyone?

Everybody Cut Footloose!!!

A was in her first vocal recital last night at the Cactus Theater...she and 2 other girls were the finale for an '80's themed recital...singing their version of "Footloose" - mind you, these are 7 year old little girls who have only been rehearsing together for about 3 weeks!! This youtube video links you to the show! A is in the middle!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0JS_ecp74

Light the Night

So, last night, the Stevens family participated in their 3rd annual "Light the Night" at our house....we really struggled for awhile in our married life to figure out how we feel about Halloween and what we want our kids to get out of it. So, after listening to how lots of other people had done it and praying alot, we decided to try this idea of "Light the Night"...

Basically, we set out with the purpose of being the biggest and brightest lights for Jesus that we can on Halloween...all in our own neighborhood with families on our street and kids that go to the same school as our kids. As Dear Hubby puts it, how often do you get the chance to be Jesus for people and they actually come to you? So we set up on our driveway, put up lots of fun lights (this year, Dear Hubby actually put up our Christmas lights on the house, too!), and figure out ways to serve parents and kids who are out and about...we (and when I say we, it was actually 5 families from our church together) served hot chocolate & lemonade & water, we cooked hot dogs on the grill for whoever wanted one, we popped popcorn in a popcorn machine, we made cookies and brownies, we gave out candy...we TALKED to people, we engaged with them, we loved on them a little bit, all in the name of trying to teach our kids about serving people, about being lights, and how God can use every opportunity for his glory - even though Halloween is considered a "dark" holiday, God outshines any darkness. The kids get a pep talk about what we are trying to do and they work so hard, making sure everyone feels welcome...and we let them dress up, too, and join in on the fun, all in the name of Jesus, amen! Ha ha!!!

This year, from what I can determine from the amount of candy and stuff we had left, we served over 175 kids and their parents....and we had so many tell us they remembered us from last year or the year before and how much they looked forward to it. I know in my heart that when God is present in places like this, it can touch people's lives...so that's our prayer, always...God, just let us love on these people like you love them - no conditions, no costs, just openly and with abandonment.

Saving the planet one fake fur coat collar at a time

So, my daughter has a deep and profound love for all things warm and fuzzy and all things cold and scaly...basically anything she classifies as an animal. After quizzing her about bugs and spiders, I found they don't necessary qualify for the same level of intense adoration, but she likes them, too.

I've known this for awhile, but over the past 4 to 6 months, it has been taken to a whole new level. She's on the verge of being an animal activist, seriously. at 7 years old. She is drawn to t-shirts about saving animals, she has watched just enough Discovery or Animal Planet to know that there are people out there who are harming animals for what she deems to be no good reason. She is quizzing her Poppa on his hunting habits to make sure he isn't killing anything that he doesn't plan on eating. Where she got it, I honestly don't know...we recycle, we talk about being good to our planet, but we aren't what I'd call hard-core PETA members or anything.

And then...Friday. A needed a new winter coat. I had found some at Old Navy on sale that I thought were cute, but was shopping around, trying to be thrifty and smart...so we went to Target with Grandma. We came across another coat I liked but I was describing the Old Navy coats to Grandma to get her opinion. The moment it came out of my mouth, A was snapping her fingers and telling me how it was...I told Grandma that the coats had fur around the hood. A's words, as she waved her finger in the air...."Uh uh, Momma...no fur coats for me. I don't want anything on my coat where they killed an animal for no reason."

I sat in stunned silence for a minute and then had to desperately try to keep the laughter from bursting out...I gently tried to explain it wasn't real fur, it was fake fur and that no animals died in the making of those coats....it didn't matter to A...."I don't want it to even look like it might be real...people shouldn't kill animals for no good reason, Momma."

Alrighty, then....you go, girl....you stand up for your beliefs, even if it's one fake fur coat collar at a time.