Like Father, Like Son

The two men in my life             

   

Need a laugh?

Ok so I received this in an email today from my friend Jeri Ann and it was the funniest thing I have read in a while...Jay and I were both crackin' up! ENJOY...

Potty Training

This story is for anyone who has ever potty-trained or plans to potty train a child.

A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's restroom stall.

By Shannon Popkin

My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several
embarrassing times that I've wished the meaning of his words would have been masked by a not-so-audible voice, but never have I wished this more than last week at Costco.

Halfway, through our shopping trip, nature called, so I took Cade with me into the restroom. If you'd been one of the ladies in the restroom that evening, this is what you would have heard coming from the second to the last stall:

''Mommy , are you gonna go potty?

Oh! Why are you putting toiwet paper on the potty, Mommy?

Oh! You gonna sit down on da toiwet paper now?

Mommy, what are you doing?

Mommy, are you gonna go stinkies on the potty?'

At this point I started mentally counting how many women had been in the bathroom when I walked in. Several stalls were full ... 4? 5? Maybe we could wait until they all left before I had to make my debut out of this stall and reveal my identity. Cade continued:

'Mommy, you ARE going stinkies aren't you?

Oh, dats a good girl, Mommy!

Are you gonna get some candy for going stinkies on the potty?

Let me see doze stinkies, Mommy!

Oh ... Mommy! I'm trying to see In dere.

Oh! I see dem. Dat is a very good girl, M ommy. You are gonna get some candy!'

I heard a few faint chuckles coming from the stalls on either side of me. Where is a screaming new born when you need her?

Good grief. This was really getting embarrassing. I was definitely waiting a long time before exiting. Trying to divert him, I said, 'Why don't you look in Mommy's purse and see if you can find some candy. We'll both have some.

'No, I'm trying to see doze more stinkies.

Oh! Mommy!'

He started to gag at this point.

'Uh - oh, Mommy. I fink I'm gonna frow up.

Mommy, doze stinkies are making me frow up!!

Dat is so gross!!'

As the gags became louder, so did the chuckles outside my stall. I quickly flushed the toilet in hopes of changing the subject. I began to reason with myself: OK. There are four other toilets. I f I count four flushes, I can be reasonably assured that those who overheard this embarrassing monologue will be long gone.

'Mommy! Would you get off the potty, now? I want you to be done going stinkies! Get up! Get up!'

He grunted as he tried to pull me off. Now I could hear full-blown laughter. I bent down to count the feet outside my door.

'Oh, are you wooking under dere, Mommy?

You wooking under da door?

What were you wooking at?

Mommy? You wooking at the wady's feet?'

More laughter. I stood inside the locked door and tried to assess the situation.

'Mommy, it's time to wash our hands, now. We have to go out now, Mommy.'

He started pounding on the door. 'Mommy, don't you want to wash your hands? I want to go out!!'

I saw that my 'wait 'em out' plan was unraveling. I sheepishly opened the door, and found standing outside my stall, twenty to thirty ladies crowded around the stall, all smiling and starting to applaud.

My first thought was complete embarrassment, then I thought, 'Where's the fine print on the 'motherhood contract' where I signed away every bit of my dignit y and privacy?' But as my little boy gave me a big, cheeky grin while he rubbed bubbly soap between his chubby little hands, I thought, I'd sign it all away again, just to be known as Mommy to this little fellow.

(Shannon Popkin is a freelance writer and mother of three. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she no longer uses public restrooms)

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Prayer Support

I want to share a story with you and then I will explain why. A few years ago Jay went on a trip with the seniors of Longview Heights (the class we were teaching at the time) to Zimbabwe Africa. I was not able to go on that trip because I was pregnant but I did promise to be praying for them while they were gone and was journaling my prayers. One morning the Lord woke me up at 3:00 a.m. randomly and I felt the sudden urgency to pray for this girl that went named Aubrey and so I did and journaled what had happened. The Lord kept me up for about an hour or so and then I went back to sleep. The next day Jay called and said, "Amanda you will never believe what has happened. We were all riding horses today and Aubrey's horse threw her off and she fell off head first. She is ok but doesn't remember anything that happened and we believe she has suffered a mild concussion." Then I proceeded to tell him what the Lord had done in me and as we continued to talk, we discovered that the time that the Lord woke me up was the exact time that the incident had occured. We were both in silence for a few seconds and chills came over my entire body. WOW...how prayer works and neat that God allowed me to be a part of such a God moment!

Jay and I will be leaving in less than 2 weeks to go to Israel for 11 days and I need your help. I am in the process of develping a prayer team to be praying and journaling while we are gone. I would like to get 11 people to take one day to pray HARD all day for our team. While we are there, we will be helping to develop prayer fliers that others will use in the future to pray for the area while there on missions and we will also be touring the Holy Land. Jay and I have both been to Israel but never together. We are looking forward to getting to serve once again together. Please let me know if you would be willing to be a prayer warrior for us.

"Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ,...Pray that I may proclaim in clearly as I should." Colossians 4:2-3

I need you to be praying for these things (in no certain order) and however else you feel led..

1. Our team (13 of us) and unity among us
2. Jay as he leads the trip
3. Safety while we are traveling
4. Our families back home
5. That we will be an encouragement to the missionaries we will be working with
6. That we would be an encouragement to our tour guide
7. Our driver, who we are not sure if he is a believer or not
8. Gabi (name has been changed for protection)-American Pastor's son in Israel who is in ICU due to receiving a package with a bomb in it that exploded in his face
9. Opportunities to share the gospel (without being irreverent to the culture); discernment
   
10. Our personal walks-that we are walking daily with Him and expecting God will use us humbly and that He will receive ALL GLORY

If you are interested in being apart of our prayer team, please contact us by email at alemonds@gmail.com. We will let you know what specific day to be praying for us and THANK YOU! Your prayers are coveted!

Day with Nonnie and Aunt Jessie

Today Nonnie (Jay's mom) and Aunt Jessie (Jay's sister) came to hang out with us for a while and it was great to see them. We don't get to see them too often and it is always so good when we do. We missed you Kevin! Here are a few pics from their visit....

Here they are just enjoying the beautiful weather outside and the kids were doing whatever Nonnie was doing

They went in a ride on our property in Aunt Jessie's car

Nonnie and the kids

Karis thougth it was cool to have a car like Aunt Jessie's

Thanks Nonnie and Aunt Jessie for coming to visit. We love yall!

Happy Birthday to you....

Happy Birthday to my brother Allen...today he is 20! We love you!

Our Neighbor's Lamb

Our neighbor and friends, the Henigans, have a 3 week old lamb that they handle like a dog. It lives in the house and follows Mr. Henigan like a little child. You will soon see why....it is precious! It is so small that they feed it with a bottle and it wears a diaper all the time. The kids have been dying to see it and they finally got to yesterday. Of course Brayden kept calling it a dog! Their grandkids named it "Dora" which Karis got a kick out of. See for yourself how adorable this little thing is. Jay also referred to this lamb in his recent post. Click here to see the post.

Day with Daddy

As you all know, Jay stays home with the kids one day a work while I go to work. Monday was his day to keep them and they had tons of fun! They went to see an eagle's nest (this time they actually saw the eagle and Karis thought it was the neatest thing! They went to Arkabutla Lake and Conger Park here in Hernando. Yes, Brayden got some OREOS too...he loves them!

Easter Day 2008

The Lord is Risen! We enjoyed our Easter Day (our 1 year anniversary of our church) so we had much to celebrate! The devil was working it yesterday knowing that there was much to attack on Easter Sunday. Can anyone else relate??? However the Lord was/is good and we were able to celebrate the Risen King! We started out the day by giving the kids a few surprises (the Easter Bunny doesn't come to our house). Karis' favorite was the doll and Brayden's was of course, lots of balls!



Pics with Mom and Dad on Easter morning


Karis with Mom and Karis with her best friend Mari-Morgan (they pose in the middle of their donut!)


Brayden saying "cheese" while eating his donut! Also after church we went to my grandmother's house (dad's mom) in Bartlett and stopped for a quick pic! Isn't she stunning in her pearls at 80 something?


Karis and her Lolli (and of course her American Girl doll named Josefina) and a pic of her and her great-grandmother Mimi.

Jesus rose from the what?

Today we were reviewing what Easter represents and why we celebrate Easter with Karis and this is how the conversation went.  

Mom: "So Karis what does Easter represent?"

Karis: "It is a celebration."

Mom: "You are right Karis it is a celebration but what are we celebrating?"

Karis: "JESUS ROSE FROM THE GARDEN!"

I am not sure where she got that from.  Two ideas possibly: 1)we do have a garden at home, or 2)we have been discussing Adam and Eve so maybe she had the Garden of Eden on her mind.

For whatever reason, we sure did get a kick out of it.  

On another subject, my brothers came with Faith Baptist out to our camp this weekend and here are some pictures from their visit.  The kids adore both Allen and Jonathan!

          

          

           

 

         

Easter Egg Hunt

Today, we got together with some friends of ours and did an Easter Egg Hunt in the Tillman's backyard. They loved it and wanted to hide the eggs multiple times. However, even after I bought Brayden a special "ball" Easter basket, he was still not interested in hunting the eggs. So while everyone else was egg hunting, Brayden was doing this...

This is Ellie Potts who goes to our church

Atley, Karis and Mari-Morgan awaiting the green light to hunt eggs

Peyton using Brayden's special "ball" basket that he cared nothing about. I am glad someone is getting some use out of it!

Brayden "taking care" of Eli Potts

After hunting the eggs, the kids enjoyed playing in the backyard. It was gorgeous outside today!

Your Calling?

Good thoughts, Annie Laurie (click her name to see the post). Thanks for your transparency. I echo your struggles, you are not alone!

My "Tomatoes"

Well we have been at the doctor all afternoon because Brayden is having trouble breathing and had 103 temp. The doctor says that he has tonsilitis caused by a virus (that evil word) and there is no meds that fix it...the famous "it will just have to run it's course!" He did give him some steroids because his chest sounded so bad and is on breathing treatments every 4 hours. He has been pitiful today...just wants to lay quietly in mom's lap...and i sure don't mind! He rarely does that anymore!

Also, I have come across a GREAT WEBSITE! It is called "Raising Godly Tomatoes" (www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com). I don't know where she got the "tomatoes" but it means kids. If you are a parent out there and truly desire to raise your children to be godly, this is the website for you. I heard about it through a friend and I have not been able to quit reading it...it has such great words of wisdom!

History of St. Patrick's Day

St. Patricks Day.. why do we celebrate it and what is the truth behind it? Click here to read.

A few random thoughts...

So Thursday and Friday I kept mom's kids (6 of them) while she was at Faith Walk and the kids had a blast!
Then on Friday we did an Easter Egg Hunt which they also loved. Karis was very sweet and helped all the little ones find eggs.

Today, Saturday, we went to Karis' best friend's 4th birthday party (Strawberry Shortcake). Her name is Mari-Morgan Tillman and her mom is a dear friend of mine also (Paige).

This is Karis, Ellie Potts, and Mari-Morgan Tillman

This is Karis after eating a bright pink cupcake and her teeth are stained pink! I guess she fit in with the party theme (strawberry shortcake).

Brayden got to stay home with daddy today while we went to the party. He is full of himself recently and we are seeing that sin nature coming out frequently. He is growing up and is saying new words all the time. His new ones for this week are "cupcake," "thank you," yes," "Loll-E," "bye-bye daddy," and "hold ju!".

Grace Defined

"Grace is being treated better than we deserve. That's how it is with us in relation to God. We can never treat God with grace. We can never give Him more than He deserves which means that He NEVER owes us thanks. God never says "Thank you" to us. Instead He is always giving us more than what we deserve, and we are ALWAYS owing Him thanks. So the lesson for us is that when we have done all we should do...when we have solved all our church problems, and fixed the attitudes of all Christian people, and mobilized many missions, and loved the poor, and saved marriages, and reared godly children, and kept every promise we've ever made, and fulfilled all business responsibilities, and boldly proclaimed Christ...God owes us NO THANKS. Instead we will at that moment relate to Him as debtors to grace just as we do now."

Pray with me that we would acknowledge that we need Him for everything and nothing that we could do would ever be enough. Pray that HE would receive all the praise, thanks and glory for EVERYTHING that happens and that we would find COMPLETE JOY in just that.

The Zoo

The kids and I went to the zoo today because it was the PERFECT day for it. Brayden is finally old enough to recognize and remember the animals (or so I thought). He thought that every animal he saw was a DOG! So we have some work to do. And oh...he didn't like posing in this first picture....can you tell?