Good Stuff... God Stuff.

Oh I've had a heck of a day so far, friends. A heck of a day.

But it couldn't have been for a better reason.

BSF is on Wednesdays of course. And this morning I was in the children's program. I got to hang out with the kindergartners in my friend Nicolle's class.

Super fun and a super cute group of kids, might I add.

So, the plan was to take N up to our friend Debbie's house right after BSF to let him eat lunch and take a nap while I went back and listened to the end of the lecture with the rest of the children's leaders and attended a Personal Quiet Time seminar.

STOP... slight change of plan. Thank you Lord.

The children's leader Mary Ann kind of "convinced" me to go ahead and stay to listen to lecture and then take N to Debbie's house and come back for the seminar. I should have enough time, she said.

Well, not enough time to use the bathroom, I found out.

Sometimes I'm just convinced that I need a catheter and a bag to carry around. I don't have time for this silly stuff like going to the bathroom. *huff*

Thankfully, Tonya (teaching the seminar), I'm sure after seeing me turning yellow and squirming in my seat uncontrollably, had us take a break to stretch & go to the bathroom. THANK YOU LORD!

So, it really was a good busy. There were things that I heard at the beginning of the lecture that I really needed to hear. Thank you for intersecting my life, there, Lord. It's all still banging around in my head right now, so I can't coherently post about it except to say this... it was God ordained that I not only hear the beginning of that lecture but also to attend the quiet time seminar.

Good stuff, friends.

God stuff.

The Potty Training Chronicles (Part 8) - Prizes

I am shocked. . . AMAZED, even.

The boy may just have gotten the hang of the whole thing.

I mentioned recently that we had been using some negative concequences. We tried several things, but what finally worked has been taking toys away for accidents; specifically #2 (which in our opinion haven't been accidents as much as a sheer act of him exerting his will). Especially prized toys like Max & Monty, race cars, trucks, tractors, really anything with wheels. Then, he could earn them back by going in the potty.

We recently added a chart to give some more tangible positive rewards. He gets a sticker for each day he was clean and dry. He also has the option of earning another sticker each day if he poops in the potty. Filling up a row (10 very hand-drawn "squares") earns a prize.

The first prize was a Lightning McQueen & Mater Puzzle. It took probably 15 to 20 days to earn it. But he did it and he was excited.

The second prize was a car wash hot wheels toy which he earned this evening. As you can tell from the dates of the above pictures, this only took 11 days. And he has already earned 1 sticker towards his 3rd (and hopefully final) prize... a bulldozer train (as he calls it).

I guess I'd better go ahead an order it, huh?

Funny, though. It's all about the prizes isn't it?

And using prizes is not a new thing in parenting.

My parents like to put up a big front and say that, "You did it beacuse you were told to and because we expected you to obey." Well, yeah, but I know there were some prizes involved for me as a kid.

Hello, my name is Donna and I was a thumb sucker.

Apparently nothing worked to get me to stop until my daddy took me to the store and showed me a new tricycle that he would buy me if I quit the thumb. And apparently, I did just that.

Cold Turkey.

And I got me a tricycle.

So, prizes aside, here's the great and really encouraging part. Saturday at the family reunion all day, he did so great. He told us every time he had to tee-tee. He told us at the DQ (oh there's a separate post) that he needed to go potty and he went in there and pooped. The last couple of nights he has come and told us he needed to poop and has gone in the potty.

It's been 4 months today since my first Potty Training Chronicles post.

4 LONG MONTHS!

Could it be?

Is it possible that the boy finally has the hang of it?

Could this be one of my last Potty Training Chronicles posts?

I'm not sure, but I'm ordering a few prizes online right now...

Is it your day?

With Nathan you just never know.

My friend Val knows that.

Some days he just can't get enough of her and it's all about "Mrs. Valerie!" Other days he doesn't want anything to do with her.

Whenever we go to lunch after church on Sundays she always asks for a kiss from him. Sometimes it's her day, sometimes it's not.

There's really no rhyme or reason to it either... as if there is with anything a 2 year old does.

And he's caught on to this expression that we use. This past Sunday he told her, "It's not your day."

What's so precious is that she doesn't get her feelings hurt.

'Cuz she knows that it's not just her.

I emailed her recently with something that happened just to reinforce this fact.

I went in one morning to get him up and going for the day. He was lying there so still that I couldn't tell through the darkness of the room if he was still asleep or lying there awake. So I took a step further in his room.

Wrong choice.

All I heard then was, "NO! Get out of my room, mommy!"

It wasn't my day.

But I tell you what; Saturday was my Aunt Lucy's day.

This dear woman who he would never have remembered meeting before got the privilege of a sweet good-bye kiss from my Nathan.

And it couldn't have been a better day for it.

Families... you gotta love 'em

We went to the annual family reunion today for my mom's side of the family. I guess to be more accurate, it's my mom's mom's family.

The Kellers. They're an interesting bunch.

Much like any family, though, I suppose.

My Nana King was the oldest of 12 children. I suppose you'd call Pa-Paw and Ma-maw Keller very, um, passionate protestants.

My mom actually has aunts and uncles close to her age and an aunt that is younger than her. So they were all having kids when she was. Many of her cousins are our age.

I gew up hanging out at the reunions iwth my mom's cousins. Their grandparents were my great-grandparents. Weird, huh?

So, here we are, my sisters and I, taking our kids to the reunion at our great (or fabulous as I like to call them) aunt and uncle's place. Part of the 131 strong Keller Clan.


And really, not much has changed since we were kids. All the kids love being out on the farm. For my son, that means tractors.


And there is usually some kind of activity that get's most everyone involved. When we were kids and teenagers, we would many times have a pick-up game of softball. This year, there was a home made slip 'n' slide which consisted of a black plastic tarp, a water hose and a bunch of soap and baby oil. Kids of all ages got in on the action...

Yes, that's my Aunt Nell. 78 years young!

Families are interesting things aren't they? Especially extended family. We get together, sometimes only once a year, talk about not a whole lot that's terribly deep... but we have a connection.

Because we're family.

And that's just the way family is.

And you gotta love 'em.

Lessons learned from an evening at the Ballpark

1. Those free tickets aren't so free after $12 to park, $27.50 on the first round of food, $4 for cotton candy and $4.50 for a 2nd round for Nathan.

2. Ballpark hotdogs are much better eaten seperate from the bun.

3. Supernachos and jalapenos with a Zantac chaser... mmm.

4. A family of four that inlcudes a potty training 2 year old can take a total of 6 trips to the bathroom between them in 2 hours at the Ballpark.

5. Urinals are fun, mom!

6. Public restrooms are not conducive to going poo-poo, mom.

7. Nathan likes cotton candy!

8. It's fun to share a Ranger's moment with Mimi the "super fan" in South Asia over the phone.

9. Baseball has a lot of rules that are difficult to explain to a 7 year old.

10. A 2 year old can eat 2 jumbo hot dogs... that's $9 worth of hot dogs, folks.

11. The free t-shirts only come in adult large and x-large and make for a cute dress on a 7 year old.

12. When a 2 year old tries to reach down to get his bottle of water out of the cup-holder that is located at foot-level on the seat in front of him, he tends to pitch forward into the back of the gentleman sitting in front of him.

13. A game between the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers is not conducive to using our new favorite baseball heckle we learned from Big Mama and her friend Gulley. I was disappointed that I didn't get to yell, "Take it to Starbucks, ladies! We're here to play some baseball."

Hats off to you, my friends!

No wonder it takes a special kind of person to know how to take me....

Your Personality is Very Rare (ESTP)

Your personality type is dominant, driven, poised, and self-aware. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 6% of all men You are Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Grandparents Day

Today was grandparents’ day at Sarah’s school. Nanny, Grumps and my Aunt Susan were there for her. She also got a letter from Mimi and Papa to which she reacted with an, “AWESOME!”

Sarah’s class sang “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” for the program and recited a poem for their grandparents. Nanny took some video of these, but I don't have them yet to post.

So naturally I’ve been thinking a lot about my own grandparents and the legacy that they left in me.

My mom’s parents taught us all about family and fishing. We used to go down to their place on the lake and spend weeks in the summer and grew up very close to my Nana’s side of the family.

My PawPaw K was a quiet man, but incredibly sweet. He had a quiet strength about him.

My Nana K is definitely where I get my way with words. Only, I tend to think I’ve tamed my tongue a little more than she ever did (imagine that for a moment). But, oh, she passed on the musical genes. Sarah has them. It’s funny to think back now on the bond that Sarah had with her. Even when she was not very responsive and confined to a wheel chair, Sarah was never freaked out by it. Did you know she passed away on Sarah’s 5th birthday?

My dad’s parents definitely left a spiritual legacy in our lives. We would spend weeks with them in the summers as well and got to know their church as well as our own.

My PawPaw P was so sweet and such a leader in their church. I didn’t like it at the time, but I miss they way he prayed with all the “King James” lingo… “Thee,” “Thou,” “Thy,” “Thine.” How rich.

My Nana P left a mark of all things artistic and beautiful in my life. I view anything visually artistic that I do as a tribute to her. I also definitely get my love of cooking from Nana P. Oh, the pies. The PIES! Her award winning coconut pie was to die for (so I hear… I don’t eat coconut). And my sister has gotten very good at the chocolate pie with the “mile high” meringue… it’s real close to Nana’s.

Did you know that I can’t wait to be a grandma? (No pressure, Sarah and Nathan. Really, no pressure.) Oh to be past the child rearing stage and to be able to just have some fun with them.

But it’s more than just fun. I can only pray that I leave such an indelible mark, a legacy for my grandchildren. A legacy of loving Jesus more every day. A legacy of leadership and strong personal character. A legacy of things beautiful and tasty.

I really want to be a Nana just like mine were. What do you think? Does it suit me?

And the winner is...

I wonder if anyone holds the record for leaving a doctor's office with the most prescriptions... if not, we may now hold that title.

I took N to the doctor yesterday because his cough has just persisted, his nose has been snotty and we've been giving him everything we had on hand to make it better. And it just wasn't getting any better.

The nurse practitioner and I spent some time talking through everything and we came away with 4 new prescriptions for him. So, daily right now, he's taking:

1. Mucinex (we seem to live on this)
2. Bactrim (antibiotic for possible sinus infx)
3. Xopenex (breathing/nebulizer treatment)
4. Zyrtek
5. Singulair
6. Pulmicort (breathing/nebulizer treatment)
7. Veramyst (nasal spray)
8. Benadryl

I'm sorry... is he 2 or 82???

I tell ya though, the allergies right now are just terrible. It's the trees. Those gosh-darn trees.

I think we need to move to Arizona.

I told M that God told me we needed to move to Arizona.

He isn't convinced.

Way back when...

Our fabulous new children's minister at church stopped me in the hallway on Sunday as we were leaving. She told me that during the children's opening session (called JAM) they had been talking about going to the baseball game to see the Rangers play.

You see, there was a give-away of tickets a couple of months ago and the game that those of us who won tickets to is this Friday evening.

So, for some reason, Sarah shoots her hand up in the air. Kristine calls on her to say whatever it is she wanted to say... which with Sarah, you just never know. She said something to this affect...

"Well, when I was a little girl, we used to go to the baseball games and see the fireworks."

When she was a little girl the oh so big 7 year old says.... yeah.

Softly call the Muster...

Today is April 21st and that is significant to any Texas Aggie out there. Today is Muster. Basically it is a time that began in 1883 when Aggies gather to honor those who have passed over the last year, since the last Muster. It is also a time when we reaffirm our ties to Texas A&M and to our Aggie family. As I would not come anywhere near doing an explanation justice, if you are interested, please read this.

Some may boast of prowess bold,

Of the school they think so grand,

But there's a spirit can ne'er be told,

Its the Spirit of Aggieland.

We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we.

True to each other, as Aggies can be.

We've got to fight boys, we've got to fight.

We've got to fight for maroon and white.

After they've boosted all the rest,

They will come and join the best,

For we are the Aggies, the Aggies are we,

We're from TEXAS AMC.

(I like the old lyrics best. Call me a purist.)

Gig'em!