When I was a kid I was extremely shy. I remeber being at restaraunts with my family and hiding behind my mom when the waiter ask me what I wanted to eat. I've always been kind of reserved until I get to know people. I cannot tell people if they have food in their teeth or something hanging out of their nose or their pants are unzipped unless I know them very well. However, I've come a long way . People used to ask me how in the world Chad and I ended up together. Only because I was so quiet and Chad was so loud. So when we were dating and newly weds Chad thought it was so funny to embarass me any way he could think of. One time I will never forget is when we wanted to stop and get a milk shake. We were craving a big, thick, fatening, chocolate milk shake. We stopped at what we thought was an ice cream store. To our dismay it ended up being a health food shake place. We walk in, go all the way to the register, look up at the menu and see things like bran shake, alfalfa sprout combo, multigrain something etc.... At the exact same time we both realized our predicument. The lady at the register turned to face us and take our order and instantly Chad drops to the floor and crawls on his hands and knees completely out of the store without being seen leaving me standing there by myself. Not being able to walk away all I could say was "do you have anything with strawberries in it" knowing full well I was about to pay $6 for a drink that was going strait into the trash can.

The other day we went to publix. My kids love to get on the scale and see how much they weigh. I also got on the scale, and when I got off chad got on. I saw him look puzzled, get off, then get back on again. I have known Chad for 15 yrs. and he has always weighed the same amount, but not today. " Wow Chad you've gained 10 lbs" He glared at me and said " you have to subtract 3 lbs. for clothes" Then Cooper topped it off right on cue by singing " daddy is a fatty" lol

In this season of my life I am a stay at home mom, but my passion is education. I'm always on the look out for creative, out of the box teaching ideas. A good teacher is always learning. If you don't stay up-to-date on the latest most innovative teaching methods as well as the tried and true ones you risk becoming stale and stagnant in your teaching methods. I'm not saying you have to use everything that comes along but you should at least stay informed and have an open mind about different methods. One of my greatest resources this year has been my son's k-5 teacher at FRC. She has 17 students all with different back grounds and learning styles, and yet she is able to reach each one with her creative, hands on, out of the box style. Today I was watching a MLK documentary when Cameron walked into the room and announced that he knew all about this man and how he helped make the country fair again. "Really? How do you know about this man?" I asked. He began to tell me about a day of school when his teacher taught the class an amazing piece of our history with out so much as even opening a history book. From what I gathered from my 6 yr. old it seems that the teacher, who is always fair, was having an off day. Little did the kids know that their was a method to her madness. She chose 3 kids, and all day long these kids got special privileges that the other children did not. Such as candy , extra play time, special seats etc..... When the experiment was over she gathered them all together and ask them to share what their thoughts were. After the children expressed their frustration over the unfairness she told them that she had done it on purpose. Then she was able to unfold the story of the civil rights movement and how MLK played a huge part in making things fair for all people no matter what their skin color. This is one history lesson that Cameron will never forget.

Hats off to Mrs. Guerro and her creative methods!

Love

Yesterday I received a phone call from a long lost friend. Actually this woman is old enough to be my mom, and for 4 yrs. while we lived in San Antonio she was like a 2nd mom to me. She was an incredible mentor to me. I led a young mother's bible study ,"The Power of a Praying Parent", and I ask her to come to be the mentor mom. She has an incredible way of speaking the truth with an incredible amount of love. She really lives out the fruits of the spirit in her life. I've never seen her be reactionary or harsh with anyone. She is gentle, meek, humble, honest, kind, thoughtful, and above all else loving. I didn't realize how much I missed her until I talked to her again. I miss her kindness, her words of affirmation, and her sensitivity. She is an example to me of the verse in the bible that says you can do a lot of good things but if you don't have charity (love) you are like clanging cymbal. The message says your like creaking of a rusty gate if you try to do good things without love. So what do you feel when you hear a creaking gate or door? How about a clanging cymbal? When my kids get those party favor noise makers, like clanging cymbals, they quickly disappear when the kids aren't looking. Why? because it's annoying. It's noise to me that's not communicating anything of value. 1st Corinthians 13 (the love chapter)
says this in the message: You can speak with human eloquence, you can speak God's word with power and reveal all his mysteries , you can give everything you own to the poor, you can even die as a martyr, but if you don't love you have gotten no where. So, no matter what you say, believe, or do you are bankrupt without love.
If you don't love people you are ineffective and all your hard work is vain. I don't really remember any of the great advice that my mentor mom gave me years ago, but I do remember that she cared about me and that she loved me.

Thankfulness

Today I have a lot a free time. A lot of time to reflect and think. As I sit here thinking by myself what I feel is enormous gratitude. I feel so so thankful for the small things in life. I am thankful for my boys. All three of them. More specifically: The things I love about Cameron are his sense of humor, his compassion and sensitivity for others, the way he worships his God so freely not caring what others think yet (I hope he never loses that), his strength and fortitude to right the wrongs (don't know where he gets that), his happy go lucky, relaxed,laid back personality. Cameron, you are a lover not a fighter and I am thankful for your gentle spirit!
The things I love about Cooper are hmmm...lol...Well, whats not to love right? I write this with tears burning my eyes because Cooper is my tangible evidence and daily reminder that God is the creator and giver of all life. Cooper, God made you a fighter from the moment of conception. Without the hand of God and the determination that He placed in you, you probably wouldn't be with us today. God has amazing plans for you and I just can't wait to see what they are. Although you try my patience daily I can honestly say that I am thankful for your strong will and determination, your confidence, your sense of humor, and even your leadership style of never going with the flow.(I wonder who you take after?)My prayer today is that I will be the mom that God has called me to be to help these two amazing and unique boys reach their God potential. I'm thankful for my calling.

The Fierce Hunter

Florida has so many lizards. I used to be so scared to get out of my car at night because I thought a lizard was going to fall on my head. Chad is also afraid of them. We try to talk Cooper into picking them up and throwing them outside for us. He's tough. This weekend we were outside jumping on the trampoline and chad saw a little brown mouse on our porch. He ran to shut the door before it could get in the house. It ran behind some toys so it was a suspenseful moment while we all watched Chad move the toys one by one holding a baseball bat in one hand. The boys watched with big eyes to see what their big strong dad was going to do to the little brown mouse with their bat. Then it happened the mouse ran out and their big strong dad screamed like a girl, threw the bat down, and almost broke his neck trying to get back up on the trampoline. The boys were cracking up laughing. Cameron said that was the best show he'd seen all day!