Running With Spears

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday!!!

We headed out yesterday evening to watch a big fireworks show from the roof of Misteris’ work! We thought it would be fun to get there a little early and have a picnic of desserts (Little Debbie snacks) and Slurpees and watch the air show.

Unfortunately, the excitement of that lasted all of 4.7 seconds and then the girls were bored.

By the time the fireworks started they both wanted to go home. Boo started saying her head hurt (I assumed it was from her ponytail, so I took her hair down.) And she was cold. Of course Artist was complaining she was hot. Those girls are determined to be as opposite as night and day. And then half way through the fireworks show, Boo feel asleep.

I enjoyed it, though, and with the fun pregnancy hormones found myself choking up over and over at the patriotic songs.

Artist was in tears over every.little.thing by the time we got home, she was so tired. And then I felt like a super awesome Mom when Boo climbed into our bed in the middle of the night with a fever and it turned out the head hurting and being cold was because she was sick, and we kept her out late to watch fireworks. Oy! Epic Fourth of July celebration FAIL!

Oh well, at least she seems to feel fine today. And we’re enjoying the day *not* attempting anything else special, just hanging out with Misteris, who by the way is super Dad. Apparently once Ice Cream is born he plans to carry all THREE girls at once…he says he’ll just hold Ice cream upside down by her ankle. 😉

Prayer time is serious business around here…or at least, getting to pray FIRST. Or make it to the front door first, or pee first…yeah. Sibling rivalry! Yay! 😉

Here’s Boo upset because Artist prayed first:

So we invented New First! Each moment is new and can have a new first…so if someone prays, after they are done we can pause a moment and have a new moment for someone to pray first.

It sort of worked:

The tearful praying was certainly better than the wailing.

Of course that idea lasted about a day and a half before new first was no longer good enough. Oh well. I tried.

Oh, and if you were wondering, yes Boo’s entire lunch DID in fact consist of that uncrustable. :p

It’s my quirky, crazy, creative AMAZING Artist girl’s 6th Birthday today!!!

Last night I was feeling all sentimental about having read her stories and rubber her back as she fell asleep for the last time before she was 6…but she woke up again at 11 and needed me again…and I realized her NOT needing me to get her to sleep forever isn’t a bad thing, and growing up has some pretty great perks. 😉

I *planned* to be super awesome and put up some balloons and streamers after she went to sleep so she could wake up to a special surprise…but I was tired, and it didn’t happen.

I put them up during the girls’ VBS, though, and Artist was so so so so so SOOOO excited to see them all!!!! She kept telling me it was the best “surprise party” ever in her life! Which kinda made me feel like a) maybe I shouldn’t have done so very little for her Birthdays so far, cause this was NOT that extravagant, and b) she’s super easy to please and apparently streamers and balloons qualify as a party! No cake or friends or party games necessary! Yeah buddy! (Don’t worry, she’s having a couple friends over sometime soonish for a “real” party. I’m not COMPLETELY slacking off). 😀

Also….Boo will turn 4 when Ice Cream is 2 weeks old…someone else please do something special for her…cause, yeah, pretty sure I won’t be doing much! :p

Well, time to continue celebrating! By which I mean cheese sandwiches by the pool…a candle in a cookie to sing Happy Birthday, and swimming. Her idea of a perfect evening! 😀

For the first time ever this morning, I got to pack up BOTH girls, drop them at VBS and return to an empty home with just the sweet sweet sound of rain to keep me company! (True the rain wasn’t quite so sweet when I was trying to somehow hold the umbrella over all 3 of us on the way to the car earlier, while making lame attempts to avoid the worst of the puddles…but bygones and such, now the rain is just a peaceful sound and I can forget this morning’s craziness.)

I vowed to take the opportunity this morning not to tackle my huge to-do list, but just relax and enjoy some super rare me-time. Starting with iced coffee! 😀

Then I picked up this beautiful book that I borrowed from a friend in January and shamefully haven’t finished yet. And as I got teary eyed while reading it, I remembered why. It’s not the kind of book I want to read on the couch at night while Misteris plays computer games next to me…the soundtrack of gunshots and monsters screaming really detracts from the honesty and openness and relatability.

When I started the book, we’d lost our 3rd baby to a miscarriage a few months before, and had been trying but failing to get pregnant again…I read in the chapter about Abraham and Sarah:

“Pregnancy! Blood. Anguish.

Free fall.”

A few short words, and yet they spoke to me deeply. I felt like what I’d been hearing was…

“Miscarriage. Cherish the kids you DO have. Count your blessings.

Be OK.”

Today I read the chapter on Job. And I was incredibly thrilled to read her comment, “I avoid the book of Job like the plague.” I rejoiced, because I feel the same way…but it seems like people tend to say things like “Oh, what a beautiful, deep, book!”

And then, wouldn’t you know, the chapter was really beautiful, and deep, lol. And it reminded me of one of the greatest conversations I’ve ever had with a friend. Are you ready for this?

Me: “I’m angry at God.” Jenn: “That’s ok.”

That’s it. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. Mostly I guess I just wanted to write in the peace and quiet. So have a great day, I’m going to grab more coffee and get back to my book now before it’s time to go pick up the girls and pretend that I’m just taking them to VBS for their sake so they can have a fun week and learn some stuff about God or something! 😉

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and saw our beautiful baby GIRL!!!

I expected Artist to be overjoyed when we found out gender! After all, she was so ANTI-BOY that she’d said we should give the baby away if it was a boy.

But she didn’t grin or squeal or anything. She mostly just looked kinda smug.

Then I remembered a conversation we’d had shortly after we told the girls there was another baby on the way. She’d said the baby was a girl, and I told her we’d find out. She responded, “Yeah, we’ll find out that I’m RIGHT!”