I'm Ready!

The other night Rea came home long enough to change his clothing and get something to drink before heading back out of the house to an appointment he needed to be at. This schedule left no Daddy-Taz play time unfortunately.


While Rea asked our oldest son if he was ready to go, my little Jacoby patiently followed behind his Daddy throughout the whole house. With a broad smile he repetitously said "I ready. I ready, Daddy. I ready."


He had no idea where Daddy was going, no idea how long he'd be gone, and no idea what would be asked of him once he got there. But he didn't care. His Daddy was going and that was all that mattered to him.


May we all maintain the simple faith of a child and answer our Lord with the same answer on our life journies.


I'm ready, Lord.


Proverbs 8:32
"So, my dear friends, listen carefully; those who embrace these my ways are most blessed. Mark a life of discipline and live wisely; don't squander your precious life. Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day's work. When you find me, you find life, real life, to say nothing of God's good pleasure. But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul; when you reject me, you're flirting with death."


John 12:26
"If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me."

Photo Shoot Attitude

I've decided that I was specific photos on my wall of my children and since I am very specific and uh... particular...and uh...precise about what I want, I figured why bother someone else with my vision, right? That, and I'm cheap. Do you know how expensive it is to get a group shot of 6 kids and then individuals of them and then actually purchase all that? Holy bankroll, Batman!

This is where I decided that I'm now a photographer, because it can't be that hard, right? I mean it's just a photo!

*sigh*

I was humbled in my attempts. My failures drove me to research some good pointers for novices like myself that feel they need to drive the photo shoot and want to save some poor unsuspecting photographer the headache time.

Armed with ideas and a day that is overcast but not raining, I figured we'd get this down! I am proud to say that 5 of the children complied. Some needed some cajoling, but overall they complied. Then you have my 2 year old that doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do and lately, thinks it's hilarious to not comply with Mommy. *sigh* At least he usually giggles when being difficult so I figured it was a win-win, right? Uh, no.

Here is when I sat him on his spot and asked him to please smile for Mommy. Clearly this was a very hard request.

Since he didn't want to sit, I figured he could stand! He didn't want to do that, so we tickled him. Apparently that was torture too.

We continued to play games with him, and since he likes being swung around and hung upside down, I figured we could at least try it. Perhaps if he smiles upside down, I could just flip the picture, or leave it... he's an odd duck anyway. It worked and he just couldn't resist laughing. He is such a smart cookie and knew what I wanted and was absolutely determined to make sure it didn't happen. Just like any good natured 2 year old. So here's what he did:

Wait, it doesn't end there! I tried some more while on the swing. I begged. I pleaded. I tried tricking him. *sigh*

May Mommy please take a picture with you smiling in it? At this point I'm aware that the background is too busy and I can't use this for my wall, but it's the point of getting a smiling picture now.

No is what he said:

Of course I tried bribing him. As you can see from this picture, it wasn't good enough. He does think he's funny though. See the smile he's trying to hide?

I'm a pretty funny Mommy so I got him to smile, but because he couldn't resist me he made sure he didn't look at me.

He finally complied. I won! WOOOHOO! Of course I still don't have one usable for my wall, but I won him over!

Yeah me!!

Happy April Fool's Day!

While my mother in law was inside working, we filled her vehicle with balloons. You would be surprised by the number of people that stopped by to speak with us about what we were doing and the equally large amount of people that drove by laughing and pointing at us and the car.

So, while inside working, my mother in law hears all sorts of people talking about the car full of balloons out in the parking lot. The employees start talking about it and share laughs and my mother in law mentions that she can't imagine who would do such a thing to someone they knew!

Imagine her surprise when she walked out of work that evening!