Hopey started basketball!

Hope was so nervous about her first game!  She told me that most of the kids on her team hadn't played before, and after watching them, I think she's right.  It was pretty ugly.  The girls weren't bad in warmups, but their coaches had obviously not practiced anything more than dribbling and shooting because they had no concept of defense.  Poor Hope would dribble the ball around and do ok, but every time she had the ball, she got it stolen.  I tried to tell her to dribble the ball closer to her so it wouldn't be so easy for the other team to take it.  She shot once and almost made it; it went around the rim and fell out:(   She seemed like she enjoyed the game and wasn't real heartbroken that her team didn't score.

One thing that really impressed me was one of her refs.  Every time he made a call, he stopped the game and asked the girl if she knew what she did wrong.  If she didn't, he explained it to her and even grabbed the ball to demonstrate.  It was nice to see someone really want to help the kids learn instead of getting frustrated that the ball goes out of bounds every ten seconds and he's one of only two people on the court who have a clue what's going on out there.  I should find out who he is and see if he wants to coach Hope's team next year:)

Convo's from the back seat

Joel:"Look, the moon is full"
Naomi: "Mom, what day is it?"
Me: "Friday"
Naomi: "Oooh, Joel, you're lucky it's Friday. This is the day I don't turn into a werewolf."

#1. It's not a full moon. 

#2. What???

She is a funny kid, that Meemers.  If I didn't know better, I'd think she hung out with dad more often.  She certainly seems to have his sense of humor.  Here's another sampling from two years ago that I found in an email to Zach:

The other day I was driving home with Naomi and she asked how I knew the way home. I told her I just knew and when she was a big girl she'd know. "You mean a big girl like Hope?" "No, big like Zach" "Zach's not a big girl, mom".

Church Hunting attempt #1

So here are my "desires" for a church: 
-Large: I don't want to go to the Crystal Cathedral, but I also don't want to go to Pasadena Park Naz. 
-Good music: self-explanatory
-Correct theology:  I don't want to sit through the service not paying attention to a word the pastor says because I'm too busy trying to decide if what he said in the opening sentence is biblical
-Good kids' program: I'm not fighting with 'em on Sunday morning just to get them out of bed and ready to go.  They're in a bad mood, I'm in a bad mood; not the atmosphere I want before church. 
-Close proximity: if we're going to be involved, closer is obviously easier
- Pastor that I enjoy listening to and learn from: we went to a church when we were here before that I really liked, but the pastor was mon.o.tone.  I fell asleep EVERY week.  And I really didn't want to- I thought his sermons were ok, but the delivery was awful.  It met every other requirement though, so we stuck it out for a few months but finally, neither of us could take it anymore:(

As I read this list, I realize how amazingly blessed I was to have found FBC.  And I had no idea at the time what I had.

We decided we needed to try the church Amy and Andre go to.  It's not in Byron, but it's the closest large church, so it was first on the list.  They had told us it was pretty charismatic, but I can deal with some raised hands.

It's large; the music was pretty good although I'd never heard a single song we sang; we got hung up on the theology before the first prayer.  They had all the pastors come up front and anyone who needed healing could come up and have hands laid on them.  I'm ok with women pastors in certain situations, but I needed to research to see if that was alright.  So then I spent the next ten minutes digging in my concordance instead of paying attention.

Problem #2: opening prayer.  Youth/Associate/New Young Pastor comes up to pray.  I understand being moved to where you can't speak, but this was 'can't string together two coherent words without sighing or saying um'.

I knew right then we weren't going to be back.

David decided it wasn't for him when Mrs. Black Southern Baptist had to yell her amen or preach it or numerous other phrases that didn't even make sense after every sentence that pastor said.  Not joking.  EVERY thing he said got a comment.

Then Daniel got kicked out of the nursery because he hit the ONE other child in there when they fought over a toy.  Miss Nursery Worker obviously didn't have kids.  They're two; they hit or scream or throw things when they're mad.  Separate them and move on.  Nope.  We can't have that type of behaviour; you'll have to take him out.

Oh well.  I got to leave 20 minutes early so I didn't have to listen to BSBL (that's black southern baptist lady).

Churchwewon'tbeattending#1

Joel...only better

Joel has gotten so much better since we moved!  I don't think it has anything to do with being here; I think it's just that he's getting older, but he's almost a different kid.  He still has his moments where he's the old uncooperative, disobedient poophead, but he's gotten to where he almost always obeys if I tell him to do something.  He and Naomi fight alot, but it's just as much her fault as his.  She's sneaky and tries to get him in trouble.  The other day she came upstairs crying and told me that Joel hit her.  When I asked him about it, he said he did hit her, but only because she hit him first. She conveniently left that part out.  

He still struggles some with bedtime.  There are nights he'll still be awake at 10, but those used to be the norm and now they're the exception.  Last night Daniel was keeping everyone up, but instead of getting out of bed to complain about it, Joel just laid in his bed and played with his magnadoodle for two hours.

The part I like most is that he's become very affectionate.  He hugs and kisses me often.  He randomly tells me he loves me.  And last night after I made energy bites, he said, "Mom, thanks for working so hard to make stuff that you think I'll like."  He's getting to be a sweet little boy!

Last Words

Tonight as I walked Hope into basketball practice, I asked her if I could hold her hand.  She still lets me some.......if she thinks no one will see.  It was cold and I had on my gloves, so she said ok because it would warm her hands up.  I said "it's ok if you don't want me to hold your hand; I probably wouldn't have held my mom's hand when I was in 4th grade.  By then Grandma Jill and I were fighting alot."

She didn't ask what we fought about.  She didn't ask if we always fought.  She asked what the last thing I said to her was. 

Thankfully, I remember.  It was either Bye or I love you, mama.  It actually was both; I just don't remember which order I said them in.

How many people's last words are something they regret?  A stupid sentence spoken in frustration, a fight walked out on.

That's another resolution for this year: make sure that, when the person I'm speaking to is gone, the words I've chosen aren't ones that I will regret.

Blog it or lose it...

I've got to actually use this blog!  I really do like writing, and I notice that when I scrapbook, I go back and read this to see what was going on in our lives during that time.  New Year's Resolution #487- blog more.

Yesterday I had out our Christmas pictures and asked Daniel who was in them.
The pic of him and Joel, he said "Danlwayne" about three times and then included Joel.
Pic of the girls, he named both of them.
Picture of all four of them sitting in a row, he didn't name any of them. 

Instead he just said, "Friends".