The Weekend

I didn't take one shot all weekend (Coley took that one for me) but it was a busy one none-the-less...

- Courtney asked if I could wake her up early on Friday morning so she could get her room ready for a friend to stay the night. I helped her find the perfect quilt for the spare bed and then we borrowed a few of Annie's cutest pillows to make it perfect. Then she finished it off by placing a few leftover Easter chocolates on the pillow. (No, she did not come from my womb, but somehow she got my genetic detail-loving DNA anyhow.)

- I took the kids to school and Shindand to the vet to get his man-parts snipped. (Here's to hoping that a decrease in testosterone is going to solve our dog-problems.)

- I took Shelby (our other dog) to Annie's school for show-n-tell.

- My mom and I spent most of Friday planting and working and laughing and running to the coffee shop together.

- On one of three trips to the Grange (For steer manure this time.) we drove past Annie's school and saw her standing underneath the play structure by herself, crying. I pulled over and walked up to the fence to ask her what was wrong and she said she missed me and wanted to come home with me so that's precisely what we did.

- Josh picked Cole and Courtney (and Courtney's friend) up from school.

- Annie had been looking forward to staying the weekend with her Grandma and Grandpa, but called in tears (just 10 minutes before a photo shoot I was doing) because she missed me and wanted to come home so that's precisely what we did. (Josh picked her up.)

- Cole stayed Friday night with his Paka because he couldn't bare the thought of being stuck in a house with so many girls. (Poor Coley is almost always outnumbered by girls since we've got nothing but girl-cousins and girl-neighbors.)

- Courtney and her friend rode scooters around all evening. (Courtney took her reading timer with her so she could check in with us every 30 minutes.)

- After coming home from looking at baby chicks at the Grange, Courtney made me close my eyes and told me she had a surprise for me. I was afraid it was a baby chicken, but thankfully it turned out to be a pot of orange-sherbet colored begonias. (She spent $7 of her own birthday money on them.)

- I took the girls to pick-up Yummy Yans (Chinese) for dinner (their pick).

- The girls played Yahtzee.

- I laid in bed watching Friday Night Lights (My mom got me hooked.) on Netflix while the girls watched a bazillion episodes of The Muppets. (Aside from the accent, I swear that my husband looks/acts just like the coach on Friday Night Lights.)

- Josh and my mom and I worked in the yard all day on Saturday.

- There was a city-wide yard sale here in town so the girls rode their scooters around, picking up garage sale finds all morning.

- Coley's friend came over at about 1:00 pm so I went and grabbed five Happy Meals for lunch.

- Josh spent about seven hours weed-eating our half-acre back yard. (I came home from Target one night last summer to find a fire truck and police cars lined-up in front of my house and as hopped out of my car and ran towards the house (with my heart in my throat) someone stopped me to tell me that everything was ok and that one of our neighbors had accidentally shot a firecracker off into our backyard and since the weeds were so high, it set off a big fire. Josh Downs would be sad if I failed to mention that he put out the fire with a hose in one hand while he dialed 911 with his cell phone in the other.)

- I took Annie to a birthday party at 2:00.

- I took Courtney's friend home at 3:00.

- I dropped Courtney off at the same birthday part that Annie was at around 3:15.

- I laid in bed and watched another episode of Friday Night Lights before we headed to Chely's for Mexican food. (Since the girls got to pick Chinese on Friday, the boys got to pick Mexican on Saturday.)

- Josh and I and played catch in the road until I pulled a stomach muscle or something throwing my fast (slow) ball. 

- Josh and I sat on the front porch with a drink, reading books and admiring our yard work. (And when he realized I was out of limes for my drink, he ran down to the store to get more.)

- Josh and the boys slept on top of the roof.

- Sunday morning, Josh made french toast with fresh strawberries and blackberries and real maple syrup.

- I read part of an excerpt from a book I'm reading to Josh and cried while reading this part about feasting versus fasting (Not literal feasting and fasting, but more like giving versus taking.): "At some point, the church stopped living the Bible and decided just to study it, culling the feast parts and whitewashing the fast parts. We are addicted to the buffet, skillfully discarding the costly discipleship required after consuming. The feast is supposed to sustain the fast, but we go back for second and thirds and fourths, stuffed to the brim and fat with inactivity. All this is for me. My goodness, my blessings, my privileges, my happiness, my success. Just one more plate." (Ouch.)

- We went to church.

- Annie cried and held onto my leg because she wanted to go to grown-up church with me instead of little-kid church so that's precisely what we did. (All of this is pretty unlike Annie, so even though I'm not big on caving into crying, I'm just going to give her the mommy-time she's needing right now.) 

- I made lunch for the kids (grilled cheese and blackberries) while Josh and Cole went to Fred Meyers to find a new pair of sunglasses for Josh.

- We got to our softball game an hour early so we warmed-up for awhile (since almost everyone on our softball team got injured during out double-header last weekend) and then I read my book while the kids all played on the playground.

- We lost our softball game. (We've lost every softball game so far.)

- We went out for pizza and beer (except I don't like beer) with our softball/Bible Study group and all our kids.

- Josh spent the evening getting all of our bikes ready for bike-riding season and then we rode around the neighborhood together.

- We tried to reintroduce Shelby and Shindand to each other after two weeks of being separated. (Apparently, a decrease in testosterone is not going to solve our dog-problems.)

- I blew up a huge exercise ball and threw it out in the backyard for Shindand to 'herd' (per the advice of a dog trainer I'm working with.)

- Courtney Lee few over the top of her handlebars in what was her worst bike-wreck to date. (She's still limping this morning.)

- The kids got to bed 45 minutes late.

- Josh and I laid in bed listening to a sermon on marriage before calling it a night.

- Boring to read I'm sure (I know, it was boring to write.) but it's stuff I want to remember anyhow.

Hope yours was good.

Comments

[Huyen]

I'm exhausted from reading about your exhausting weekend! Hope Courtney feels better soon after that bike wreck she had and hope you figure something out that is causing Annie to hang onto your leg like a magnet.

[Julie Pilch]

Hope Courtney is OK after her accident and stops limping soon! Not sure if this will help by my youngest is almost the same age as Annie and has gone through a phase at the moment where she really cries if I go out in the evening and really hugs me when she gets out of school because she has missed me all day. My others never did this but I figure its just something she will grow out of and I'm happy to get extra hugs any day of the week ;)

[Holly]

Bravo!!! Love how you fill each day with so much goodness ...and documenting it all is really perfect. Isn't FNL superb? I think you look like Tammy. Thanks for posting the thought provoking reading...pondering that.
Xo,
Holly

[Holly]

Oh, and sooooooo not boring to read. Very inspiring & enjoyable! Blessings!!!

[Shannon]

I've actually thought the Coach Taylor thing too. I even told my husband while watching an episode "A husband of a blog I read reminds me of Coach Taylor". He didn't seem impressed. :)

[Nicky from Canada]

loved the read - I sometimes think remembering those weekends are the best - just life!!

[Karen F.]

I'm reading 7 right now too . . . recognized the quote right away.
The book is wrecking me, in an absolutely fantastic, hard, much-needed, amazing way. So, so thankful for the wrecking that needs to be done so that Christ can rebuild me the way He wants!!

[Addie]

Love FNL and some Coach Taylor!:)

[Deb Medina]

Love that you take the time to documents the moments.

[Kelli]

Cesar has a lot of good tips. We had to do a lot of rolling the alpha dog over and letting the other dog sniff her. Now that the older dog can't hear as well or see as well, they get a long a lot better. We thought they'd be bff's and play together. We were wrong.

[Jenwcom]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Taylor's relationship. True, fought-for love! The quote was right on. Ouch indeed. Thank you so much for sharing your life. It's not boring at all. It's encouraging and real.

[Ellen Patton]

FNL?!? I love it! I burned through 5 seasons in about a month (thanks to Netflix and the local libraries). I want my own Coach Taylor.

[Shannon R]

Cute picture!

My daughter just turned 6 and is in kindergarten as well. I had to go pick her up from school last Monday because she was crying, saying that she wanted her Mommy. I was just going to talk to her but couldn't leave her there. She has been going through this phase where she wants her Mommy. I can't really resist it, though I have been making her go to school (I did check with her teacher to make sure everything was ok there). Seems like her & Annie are going through the same thing.

[christa]

That sounds like a great weekend. Family time is the best. I think.

What is that book called? It sounds like something I need to read!

[barb]

7 By Jen Hatmaker - such an amazing book!

[allison]

I always thought your husband resembled the coach in FNL!

[Julie]

Ummm.. I can't imagine doing all that in a weekend. Or I can't imagine you doing a week in the life - like Ali Edwards.

I forgot to mention - thank you for speaking about the church. I've down loaded a few of the sermons and really enjoyed them and of course have several take aways. Thank you

Julie

[Angela]

I think you might be reading 7...I recommended it a few weeks ago :)

I want to move to your town...being able to let your kids ride their bikes around, sleeping on the roof, it sounds like Mayberry!

[Kelly]

SO
NOT
BORING!
God Bless you for including the details of your life.
I love your family!
Prayers to all.....
:)

[Stacey R]

I have totally thought the same thing about Josh and Coach Taylor. Love, love, love FNL!

[♥Debbie]

I love reading about your extraordinarily ordinary weekend!

[cinback]

Uuuggghhhh...I haven't picked up my (big) camera in over a week. Need to get back at it.

[jen@thecottagenest]

I actually enjoyed reading about your weekend. It's those little moments that make up our lives! Hope Annie and Courtney are back to their old selves soon.

[Cori Turner]

This is going to sound strange but try giving Shindand a pink Benadryl. It’s safe for dogs and it might calm him down. My sister has a dog that itches so she gives her Benadryl and she said a nice side effect is a calm dog. (Her dog has anxiety) :)

[kelly]

Not sure if the vet told you or not, but it takes a bit for the testosterone to decrease. I'd give it at least a month before considering it lowered..

[karin c]

Hi there- I' m no one when it comes to dog training, but I have owned big (big) breeds my whole life. It will take quite awhile for that testosterone level to receed, honestly. Also this strange phenomenon occurs when we seperate dogs after a dog fight- they stop belonging to the same pack when we seperate them and play musical chairs, as in one is in and the other is out.It is our natural desire to not have them fight and injure each other, but the pack becomes singular instead of a group that must learn to get along. So then we put them back together, they see each other as a threat. And the fighting intensifies or at least continues.

On Cesar' s website you can connect with a Cesar trained professional in your area. But better yet use the "email Cesar" area and tell him your story, I would bet he would love to come and assist a family who serves this country as bravely and proudly as yours does.

[Danelle johnson]

Karen,
I remember our Pediatrician telling me about children somewhere around the age of 5 go through a separation anxiety phase. Delaney did this and started a little earlier than 5. It was pretty extreme in that she couldn't be in our house alone, she would come outside crying, looking for me, etc. It was new to her about 4 or so and continued for I would say almost 15 months or more of a trend for her. The Pediatrician said it's common in all kids, sometimes more pronounced in girls and especially can come out more dramatic for those kids who are known to be that way. That would be our Delaney. We were worried at first that it was related to some of the dynamics associated with separation from her when McKinley was in the hospital, but it proved to just be a very normal phase and I was glad to know that.

[gorras new york]

Creo que podría ser la lectura 7 ... me lo recomendó hace unas semanas :)

Quiero ir a tu pueblo ... ser capaz de dejar a sus hijos andar en bicicleta alrededor, durmiendo en el techo, que suena como Mayberry!

[tienda camisetas]

Esto va a sonar extraño, pero trate de darle un Shindand Benadryl rosa. Es seguro para los perros y puede calmarlo. Mi hermana tiene un perro que pica por lo que le da Benadryl y me dijo que un efecto secundario interesante es un perro tranquilo. (Su perro tiene ansiedad) :)