Finding Joy in the Little Things

Lately I've been realizing how great it must to find happiness in the little things. Last night we allowed Mr. P to have M&M's after he finished supper, and he was super excited. I mentioned to Joel that few people find that much joy in M&M's...(well, except for us)...:o)

Today at the mall was another exciting adventure. We went down to the lower level of Westroads Mall and had a blast!! For those that don't know, there is a carnival arcade of sorts, complete with a shooting range, mini-glow-golf, and more! We've been down there before, and Preston was content to just 'play' on the games...it's like he never realized you had to put tokens in to actually play! :o) Today though, I 'splurged' and bought 10 tokens for $2. For about 15 minutes, we played Skeeball and I let him race on a car game. So fun! He was actually pretty good at Skeeball. He got the ball in the holes several times...but it wasn't always the holes in our lane. He made use of the lanes next to us as well. I was kinda worried when other folks came over to play. I didn't want him beaming anyone with a wooden ball. ;o) We earned enough tickets with our $2 to get a couple suckers and a little plastic guy. What more could you want?!

Then after nap today we went to the park. It is my new favorite thing to watch P chase rabbits at the park. Hilarious! At one point there were 6 rabbits in one small area, and he went after every one of them, chasing them until they were beyond the point of no return. He was not deterred until they were OUT of sight! What a hoot. 

Basically, having a child has opened my EYES to the fact that happiness is in the heart of the beholder. P finds joy every day (and also his share of tears) but it is a challenge to me to look for the GOOD in things. 

James 1:17 (New King James Version)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Plans for the 4th?

I love Summer. One of the greatest things about Summer is the 4th of July Weekend!! Joel's Aunt & Uncle are arriving Thursday night, and will stay until Sunday. They have an adorable toddler girl and a new baby (well, not too new...she's 5 months old!) that we've never even met, so it should be a fun time! During their stay, we hope to go to the Zoo, maybe walk the Pedestrian Bridge again, feast with Joel's parents/family at our house, go to the Fremont Waterpark, grill out, and watch the Fireworks show in Fremont with Joel's family & possibly my sister & her family! 

Any of you (the 2 of you or so that read my blog) :) have big plans for the 4th? There’s a great new “linky” service available and I wanted to let you know about it. It’s called MckLinky – www.mcklinky.com.  After realizing the need for a new, reliable linky capability, Brent Riggs and MckMama got together to create a free, easy to use linky service for all their blog friends.

If you want to try out MckLinky, you can create a free account, and then post about your 4th of July plans on your blog & link back to mine. (Right? I'm new to this...just learning here!) Or you could always just leave a comment. :)

Have a great weekend!

Yelling Out the Window

Mr. P loves to play outside. LOVES. IT. Sometimes first thing in the morning he begs me to go outside. When we're still in our pajamas. BEFORE I've had my coffee. (Silly child, he'll learn.) Today was a bit cold and windy...and I just didn't want to take him outside. Tonight while I was getting ready for Bible study, I had the window open, to let in a cool breeze. Mr. P spotted some kids playing across the street. He proceeded to YELL out to them. For about 20 minutes. Everyone is a friend to him. One kid was apparently on a blue bike, and one was on a red bike. He called them 'the red kid' and 'the blue kid.'

He was so intent on talking to them yelling at them that he had a lil' accident. Just a slight one. Minor really. I was in the bathroom straightening my hair, and he was sitting on 'the potty' when he told me a story that went something like this:

P: Mom, that blue kid called me a baby. [P laughed a weird laugh.] But I'm not a baby.

Me: Nope, he's silly huh? You're not a baby.

P: [P again laughs a fake-sounding laugh] Nope, I'm not a baby. He's silly.

Joel did take him outside, while I was at Bible study. I'm so glad he got to go out. That way he could show the blue kid he's not a baby after all! :)

Here's Mr. P at the Children's Museum the other day:

And at the park. Sigh. I love Summer. :)

My Two Favorite Guys

I found this photo on Joel's computer-and I had to have it. :) He took it with his phone. I thought since it captures my two favorite guys, it's going on my blog!

Fun Fridays

I've decided that from now on Fridays for P and I are going to be fun. Today we went to the Omaha Children's Museum. It was a blast! P didn't know what to do first...there was a fire truck to sit in and drive, and an amazing ball-machine of sorts, that runs on air-and the spits the balls out willy-nilly. (Don't know if that makes sense, just really wanted to use that word!) 

Upstairs they had an awesome Elmo/body exhibit, a play area, and a pretend store where Preston operated the cash register and kept asking, 'Can I help you?!' It is evident to me that most of his experience in the 'real world' has been inside retail stores. ;o) 

Anyhow, P bounced from one activity to the next like he was in a pinball machine. I bought a museum pass. It's good for a year-and they subtracted the amount we paid to get in today from the price of a pass. Basically, as long as we go 3 more times, the pass more than pays for itself! I'm excited for Joel to see what it's all about. P and I are now going to alternate between the Zoo and the Children's Museum on Fridays. This will give us something to look forward to, and P is getting to the age where he needs activities to keep from driving me crazy express his natural curiosity. 

I'm excited to do the Shred today. This will be Day 9 for me. Yes, I have missed a mega amount of days, considering I began the workout about 2 1/2 weeks ago! Yikes. But, I do plan on moving up to level 2...tomorrow. ;o) I'm giving myself ONE last day on the 1st level! Considering it still makes me sore, I think that's ok. Yesterday I tried to do deeper lunges, and maybe that's the culprit-but last night my legs were sore going up the stairs! AND I still hate the pushups. With a passion. I even do the 'girl-kind'...I already knew I had basically no upper-body strength. This just confirms it.

Happy Friday!!!

My Partner in Crime

Today is Day 3 of the 30 Day Shred. Jillian Michaels is kicking my hiney. I love how P has been doing the 'esercise' with me. Last night he even went to go get his shoes on and was lying on the floor with me during the abs portion. He really helps my morale. And he makes me laugh.

He also likes to sit on the couch and hold my hand weights up in the air. Ok, I realize they are not heavy hand weights since my 3-year-old can lift them, repeatedly. However, after about 20 curls or arm raises in which I am also doing lunges, they FEEL like they weigh much more. :) 

Here's Mr. P showcasing the dreadful awesome dvd. I think his face says it all.

Back to the real world

Joel went back to work today, after having 6 days off! We had such a great time in Branson and definitely want to go back someday!! We got to see 4 shows and one movie! Our time there was jam-packed and kinda rainy so we opted not to do Silver Dollar City. Hopefully next time! :)

On our way into Branson, we stopped off at a discount ticket place that was being advertised on a Branson radio station. They asked where we were staying and we told them which resort tour we were doing. The guy was like, 'How about you skip going on that tour, and come stay with us. We'll give you 3 nights instead of 2 and 4 show tickets!' Um...okay. After being reassured that we would get no cancellation fee with the other resort, he 'convinced' us to stay with the Grand Crowne Resort. Really, it was too good of a deal to pass up! After the 3 hour sales pitch for the time-share (or partial vacation ownership as they called it) we were able to really enjoy our time in Branson! The sales presentation wasn't too bad, just way longer than the min. 90 minutes that we had been told. Guess it was worth it to get 3 nights and 4 shows, which we would've never been able to do. The shows alone would've cost over $200! 

We got to see the Redhead Express-a family singing/instrumental group from Alaska! They were amazing!! We really enjoyed it and now own 2 of their CD's. :) We also got to see Yakov, a Russian comedian, who had us in stitches for over 2 hours. He was hilarious and also had some heartfelt stories that moved me to tears also! Yakov actually painted a huge beautiful mural that was hung on a building near the 9-11 site and paid $100,000 out of his own pocket to get it there. He has an incredible life-story! We also saw Pierce Arrow, a singing group. They did some Gospel and a lo

t of early 90's music. Joel really enjoyed them! Lastly we saw Kirby & Bambi VanBurch, magicians that performed some incredible illusions that left us wondering, "HOW did they do that?!" :)

Our last day in Branson we went to the Hollywood Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe it or Not. Both were pretty impressive, and we got some pretty fun pictures at the wax museum. 

Our fun time in Branson was a good distraction for me from what happened on the WAY to Branson. I was driving, and had the cruise set at 72 (in a 70 mph zone.) Joel had been watching a DVD and had it angled towards me. Took my eyes off the road for a moment, looking down at the movie. Felt the car slip off the road. Scared, I panicked and over-corrected. Lost control. Slid sideways down the shoulder of the interstate. Our car struck a steel highway marker and plunged down the embankment. So grateful to not be hurt or have hurt anyone else. It honestly happened SO incredibly fast and left me wondering what happened?! We took the car into a local tire shop there in Lamar, MO and had the tires examined. It was driving BUMPY but it turns out it was just because of all the mud in the tires. Guess that happens when you do extreme off-roading in a car. The tires were FINE and the guys didn't even charge us anything. So we gave both of them a tip. We talked about it after the fact-ok, I talked about it a LOT...and it is just incredible that we didn't roll the vehicle or get hurt, and were so thankful that there were no other vehicles involved. Nothing was hurt...except my pride. Big time. 

I don't believe that I have ever felt so protected. It may sound crazy, but it was as if God had us in the palm of His Hand, and safely placed us at the bottom of the embankment. Joel and I have said that it is amazing that we didn't feel 'jarred' at all...All of our stuff was in place, nothing had bounced around. A semi had just passed us. His protection amazes me. It was honestly a mindless activity for me, to be driving with the cruise set, etc...and I had NEVER expected anything to happen. It all happened so fast, yet looking back it almost seems like things were in slow-motion. We had just passed a long section of road where there were rumble bars on the yellow line, on a hard-shoulder...This was a soft shoulder, that dropped down, with lose gravel. A simple 'mindless' activity turned into a major wakeup call! I am unbelievably thankful for the Lord's protection! Also I am grateful for my husband who helped me feel alot better after my stupid move. And I am thankful for life-in general. 

Here are some pics of our Branson trip and a couple from the Zoo on Monday!

Jennay and Forrest :]