A little catching up

Monday I had a conversation with Sabian that went like this:

M: I'm not sure what's going on with my phone.


S: What's going on?

M: Whenever I turn it on it immediately powers down. I even took the battery off and put it back on and it still does it.


S: Is the battery charged?

M: Silence.


It started out as one of those weeks. But, it's okay. Since last week was so busy, we've had a bit of a more low key week, which has been nice. Yesterday and today so far have been extremely laid back, as it has been rainy, which has forced us to stay inside. It hasn't been bad, but I really see the value of being able to be out and about, even if just in the yard. Once we've exhausted stickers and crayons and toys and meals and making cookies, Curious George comes to the rescue and a nap doesn't hurt, either. It's just too bad that when I have more I need to get done, all I want to do is take a nap when Addie's sleeping. 

Last week I was bad about taking pictures, which is really sad since there was a horse in our front yard and we had our 3o Hour Famine last weekend.


The horse was courtesy of one of our girls in our youth group. She stopped by with a couple of other friends, also part of our youth group, one day last week when they were taking advantage of their senior skip day. (This caused me to reminisce and think of my senior skip day - I spent it with my friend Jessie laying out in the park.) They got the obligatory shameful look from me for skipping (all contrived, of course) and then came in to hang out for a bit.


Hayley, the horse owner, competes with her horses and since she lives about 15 minutes from Wewa and she can practice in Wewa, she often tows a horse behind her truck to church or other activities when she is in town. We headed outside to say hi to her horse, Dallas. Addie wasn't too impressed at first and wouldn't touch him until I did and there was definitely no getting her to ride him. It did strike me as funny that we had a horse in our front yard, but not at all odd, really. I guess you just come to expect interesting things in Wewa.


As for 30 Hour Famine, it went really well. Sabian did take pictures but they are in the other camera. Maybe when we get them loaded on the Mac I'll post them on here. We had about 20 kids participate and it seems they all had a good time. They were troopers, working hard and trying not to concentrate on food. The meal at the end of 3o Hour Famine is always one of my favorites - after not eating for 30 hours, it is the quietest meal you'll ever have with a group of teenagers.

While out running errands over the weekend Addie and I took the car through a quick car wash. The pollen here has been pretty bad and I'd made it worse by trying to clean the car windows one morning. This was her first car wash experience.

In other news, Sabian and I had a quick date earlier this week. Since we'd been running around so much lately I thought it would be good for us to have just a bit of time to sit. We went to Port St. Joe, a small town I have mentioned before. It is small, but bigger than Wewa and is on the water. While we were there we discovered they'd built a pirate ship in place of a little playground area we'd seen there before. I guess it had been a while since we'd seen that area, so we decided to check it out. We were only gone a couple of hours or so but we were able to have dinner and take a walk before heading home to our girl, who seemed to miss us so much that she just didn't want to go to sleep that night.

And, last but not least, in our attempt to come up with things to do while were cooped up yesterday, we built a tent. Addie, however, was more interested in her part as the tent destroyer...and finding an opportunity to take off her pants.

I did it! I got in a post. I am thankful for this cooler weather we are having. I think it calls for soup for dinner tonight.

iPod, iTired

It's been an exhausting weekend. Good, but tiring. Our bellies are now full after the 30 Hour Famine, Addie is in bed, snoozing away and I'm about to go sit and do nothing. Really, I should just go to bed.

But, before I do, when Addie lugged her chair into the kitchen earlier this evening and plopped it down right in front of the refrigerator, I took a picture of her lounging and came across a couple of other photos on my iPod that I wanted to share.

With these photos, I bid you good night.

(I am thankful for a good weekend, but thankful for a somewhat normal week to come!)

Addie's self-portrait: "Foot with Pacifier."

Sir Mix A Lot would be proud

When I put Addie to bed tonight, she smelled like meat.

Boston butt, to be exact.

We're up to our elbows in meat.

You wouldn't believe it by the looks and smells of our kitchen, but we're preparing for a fast this weekend. 


This is not the first time we've pulled pork and it won't be our last. Usually (and thankfully!) the meat is cooked for us and we're selling sandwiches with it for something to do with our youth group. This time, the butts (tee hee) have been donated to us, we cooked them at our house (two at the house, one was done for us), and they will be part of the meal that breaks our fast Saturday night.

By the way, pulling meat is disgusting. We're quickly making our way to perfecting the art of it, but I think I'd rather be good at doing other things. Ew.

We're hosting our annual 30 Hour Famine this weekend, starting a fast at noon Friday and ending at 6 on Saturday night. The point is to fast, pray and focus on our missionaries for those 30 hours. The kids will have some fun Friday night and then will participate in community service projects on Saturday before gathering for a service and a meal Saturday night.


This weekend will be the end of a busy week for us. We hosted a dinner Wednesday night in appreciation of the parents of our youth kids. This is something we've done since we moved here. In lieu of a normal Wednesday night youth service, the parents come to eat and the kids come to serve the parents. It's always a good time, can sometimes be a bit chaotic, but we end up meeting new parents and spending some time with ones we've come to know already. Sabian takes the time to greet the parents, let them know how much we appreciate them and last night he also took the time to talk to the parents about the importance of knowing what their kids are involved in online. It's a fun event but takes a lot of preparation and help (for which I am grateful!) and leaves us wiped. No time to be tired with the weekend ahead of us!

Back to Addie - after a much needed bath this evening after a day of playing outside for a long time in the dirt, (and inadvertently pouring a shovel full of dirt down my shirt, resulting in a second shower for me - it really was an accident on her part but I was none too happy - it almost seems comical now), she hovered while Sabian pulled pork, eating and playing, eating and playing. It never fails, any time we're doing this she is always near and always eats her weight in pork. She loves it. This resulted in my squeaky clean girl smelling like meat instead of Johnson and Johnson's. Sigh.

I guess a bubble beard makes it all better.

Today I am thankful for my bed. I'll be visiting it soon.

Mish mosh Monday

It's back to the grind today here in Wewa. 

Last week was spring break so today everyone, much to their chagrin, I'm sure, is back to school or work or both. I miss having a spring break. Of course I don't want to take for granted the freedom and flexibility we have, which I am sure I will be 100% more grateful for when our kids are in school and we no longer have it, but I do miss that anticipation of a break. I don't miss the anticipation of going back to work or school, so I will enjoy that even though last week may have been like any other week for us, we can enjoy the freedom we do have for now.


I digress.

This is a picture of my productivity today:

That, my friends, is  a clean oven. Well, relatively so, anyway. As I was humming along through my normal Monday "duties" I realized, upon opening the oven door, that there was a smattering of powdered sugar throughout the oven, evidence of the cookies I made yesterday. While it would have been easy to just clean up the powdered sugar, it only revealed how dirty the rest of the oven really was. So, I bravely broke out the Easy Off, sprayed it on, and waited the two hours before I was able to wipe the grime away.

I waited more than two hours. I was sidetracked by a trip outside to play with Addie, an impromptu lunch out with Sabian and two of our college students home for their spring break and then a jaunt to the park with everyone in tow when it seemed evident Addie was no longer going to sit quietly in the restaurant. All of this did wonders to wear her out and made it easy for me when it came time to "wipe the grime away." I have also been able to get other things done for which I am very glad since Sabian won't be home until the late tonight and the rest of our week and upcoming weekend are, well, really busy.


Approaching this busy week prompts me to think of things more serene, like the beach. Last week, in honor of spring break, we did make it to the beach for just a little bit one day after Sabian was done working for the day. We, of course, fed the birds and Addie, of course, was covered head to toe with sand and salt water before we left.

This was also St. Patrick's Day and, not that you'd even know unless I told you, but Addie is wearing a pajama shirt because I realized she has no other green shirts. Weird, because I love green.

In other news, the kitchen table and chairs have been painted. Hallelujah! If you read my post about my disdain for painting then you will know that this is a major feat. A few weeks ago we reluctantly bought the paint for this project. I say reluctantly because as much as I didn't want to do the painting I had also failed to save the paint swatch from the last time we painted, which meant I'd be redoing the whole table and all five chairs. My fault. I'd already resigned myself to this but then, a week ago, an angel appeared in the form of my husband.

As we were outside cleaning up around the house and I was involved in another not-so-fun task, Sabian rounded the corner and asked, "How much do you love your husband?" I gave some sticky sweet answer and from behind his back he revealed a gallon of paint - THE paint I used the last time I painted the table and chairs! I jumped for joy (really I did) and realized how quickly the job would go being able to use the same paint. The purpose of the new paint job was not only to cover the chipped areas, but also to go over the table and chairs with a clear coat meant to help fend off more chips. I'm not so naive to think that the top coat will keep all of the nicks away, but I've noticed it has made a big difference with our bar stools. And, the top coat doesn't have to be perfectly brushed on when you use it.

You may ask, "Why Melissa, if you dislike painting so much, then why do it?" The answer is simple - I do want things to look nice. In some cases, chipped paint can add charm to some things, but in others, as in the case of our table and chairs, it just looked sloppy. Sabian had offered his help but when I was finally able to tackle the task this weekend he was busily working to get Addie's pool together after it had been sitting all winter. I was able to get it all done pretty quickly and while I still have to add the clear coat to the table, that won't be a big deal and is something I can do pretty fast.


Phew, it's almost done. I'm sure something else will surface that begs to be prettied with a new coat of paint but for now, I'm just going to be happy that this round is completed.


I am SOOOOO thankful that Sabian found that paint! I'd forgotten why we bought a whole gallon when I first painted it but I am sure glad we did.

Adelaide's birthday bonanza

Okay, so it wasn't exactly a bonanza but it was a lot of fun.

This year we opted out of a party and decided instead to take Addie out for her day. I'd been tossing around a few ideas for a couple of months and was excited when one of my ideas that looked like it wasn't going to work did, in fact, work out well.

Our day included a visit to Pier Park, an outdoor shopping/amusement area in Panama City Beach. When I was looking for a butterfly house in the area I'd discovered that they built a butterfly pavilion at Pier Park late last year. This was good news, as Addie loves butterflies and the nearest butterfly house was two hours away.

Also at Pier Park are a few amusement rides that used to be part of Miracle Strip, a now defunct amusement park in PCB. I remember going to Miracle Strip way back when our family vacationed in PCB. It's always fun to go to Pier Park and see the rides and reminisce. 

The plan was to tackle the butterfly pavilion, a couple of rides and some other things, lunch and then later on possibly hit the beach. After doing all we set out to do, except for the beach, Addie passed out as soon as we finally made it to the car so we stopped for cupcakes and made our way home. This wasn't so bad considering spring break is in full swing in PCB.


Along with butterflies, rides, some clothes shopping for the birthday girl, lunch (with a visit from a life-sized robin and a balloon), cupcakes, Sabian making Addie's favorite meal for dinner and awesome weather all day, it was a really good day.

It was tough narrowing down the photos for this post but I didn't want it to be a mile long. Those are just a few highlights from our day. We missed being with family for Addie's birthday but I think she enjoyed her celebration.


I am thankful for a good day with my girl.