Spring has sprung!

I can't recall a time when I have greeted warm weather with such excitement.  I'm pretty sure it's because being outside brings my Kendall such absolute joy!  We have literally spent HOURS outside since the weather broke.  So far we've blown a million bubbles (who knew dish soap and straws would work so well), drawn lovely pictures with sidewalk chalk, road Dora (her power wheel that she's figured out how to ride backwards down our steep driveway), played basketball, met 2 new neighborhood friends (very sweet girls that asked permission to come and play in my driveway), fingerpainted (which I think I enjoyed more than I should have) and filled up the sandbox with new sand.  We even battled some wasps today and kicked them to the curb so we could enjoy our front porch without that buzzing.  

I truly feel like God gave us the seasons as a way to show His love.  Just at the point where we are so very tired of cold rains and 2-hour delays He sends us warmth, tulips, and the smell of fresh cut grass.  He knew those things would make us happy and rejuvenate us and give us time outdoors as a family.  Then just at the point where we're tired of sweating, He sends us the crispness of fall with crunchy leaves and bright orange pumpkins.  I am just amazed at His Creation here lately.  So very beautiful.

We've got a fun filled weekend lined up.  Tomorrow we are meeting some of our besties for lunch at Mad Hatters and a trip to the Museum of Life and Science.  Then Sunday we celebrate Jesus at Cross Culture, hunt for eggs and enjoy time with Nana, Papa, and Mimi for lunch. I'm really excited for all of those things.  We have been so very blessed with unbelievable family and friends and I love the fact that Kendall is surrounded by people that love Jesus and love our family.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Why?

Last January I wrote this post:

Please continue to pray for our family. Mikki passed away on Monday. Her funeral will be on Friday and I know that it will be extremely difficult. Please pray specifically for:


My Aunt Tina who has had to make some very difficult choices while mourning the loss of her baby daughter.

Jayden, Mikki's son. He still does not know that his mommy isn't coming home. They are telling him today.

TJ, Mikki's brother. He is heartbroken.

My brother, "Little" Ronnie who was best friends with Mikki from childhood.

My Ronnie dad who is performing his first funeral service.

I know that the Lord can be glorified through this situation.

At the time - Mikki's death seemed like the absolute worst thing that could have happened to my Aunt Tina and to my brother.  Then I got the call this morning that TJ had been killed in a car accident in the wee hours of the morning.  That's right - my cousin TJ, Mikki's brother.  As in my Aunt Tina's other child.  And suddenly I find myself at a point in my own personal life where I truly do not understand why.  There have been times in my life where I've seen something horrendous on the news and wondered why.  Or heard a story about someone that had tragedy hit and said "I don't understand".  But standing in my aunt's kitchen this afternoon, watching her try to hold her head high as she mourns the loss of another child before she's even begun to process the lost of the first one...it just doesn't make sense to me. 

Why has Tina's life been so hard?  In the course of her 45 years she has buried a husband and now has lost BOTH of her adult children?  Why?  Why?  Why?  I said in my first post that I knew that God could be glorified through Mikki's death.  And of course I pray that He will be glorified through TJ's as well.  But that nagging question still comes in - Why, Lord?  Surely I am not worthy to question the Almighty, but I feel that He can handle my questions, my anger, my disappointment.  And quite frankly, I don't know where else to turn with these feelings that I can not even put into words. 

So I'll ask again that you blog readers pray for my family.  Ronnie will again be doing the service...his second funeral.  I feel that the Lord used him in a great way at Mikki's funeral and I know He will again.  Please pray for Tina as she wonders if her life will ever be normal again.  As she figures out how to move on with these holes in her heart.  Pray for my brother "Little" Ronnie who has literally lost the two best friends, possibly only real friends, he's ever had.  Pray for my mom, who in her sweet and gentle way, provides comfort and support for Tina.  Gosh - I could go on and on - just please pray for my family.

I know God is good and I pray that the knowledge of His goodness will get our family through this difficult time.

Temper, temper

It's not really a surprise that my child has a bad temper.  After all, there was a time in my life when my only emotion was anger.  I had hoped that she would inherit her dad's calm emotional state, but apparently not.  Kendall has been throwing some pretty horrific temper tantrums and quite frankly, I'm not sure what to do to handle them.  Here's an example - Saturday it was nap time and I gave her a 5 minute warning that she'd need to be ready for a nap.  She LOST IT.  Screaming.  Crying.  Kicking.  Scratching.  She was hysterical for a good 20 minutes - which is a llooonnnggg time when you're watching your toddler go absolutely nuts.  I stood my ground and she finally calmed down and took her nap, but it was rough.  I was literally holding her and praying out loud that I would not lose it.

So my question for the mommies out there - what do I do when she is acting like that?  We wholeheartedly believe in spanking as a form of discipline, but do I spank her in the middle of her hysterics?  Do I just ignore her?  Do I spank her after she calms down and send her into hysterics again?  Help!

Did I ever tell you about...

...my 16th birthday?

Rachel's blog was about her 18th, but my 18th involved some stuff I'd rather not remember, so 16th it is!

Of course the biggest deal was getting my license, and my fabulous mother took my on my birthday so that I didn't have to wait even one day past the big 1-6 (not that she let me drive right away, but that's another story). One of my BFFs at the time went with me and I almost killed us all turning left into oncoming traffic on the way to the DMV, but hey - I passed the driver's test and got my license.

That night my friend spent the night and the next day after school, my crazy parents took a whole bunch of us 15-16 year olds to the beach to celebrate. At the time my Papa had a beach house and my parent's had their beach place as well, so Ronnie was the official chaperon for the boys at their place and Mama was the official chaperon for the girls at Papa's house. This probably sounds nuts to some of you - but for real - I was still a relatively good girl at this time and it really was just a whole bunch of friends, my brother and sister and my parents, celebrating a milestone birthday. We weren't like shacking up or anything. Actually - the guys didn't pay a whole heck of a lot of attention to us - Ronnie made them mow the grass and play Frisbee and manly stuff like that while we basked in the sun.

Anyhoo - my parents wouldn't even let me drive while I was down there, so I begged and pleaded for them to let me drive to a restaurant and go out to eat with just my friends and no parents. They finally said I could - it was literally less than a mile away (anyone that's been to Salter Path, NC can attest to the fact that everything is less than a mile away). But I didn't care - I thought I was hot stuff driving to eat shrimp with my friends.

I opened my presents out on my Papa's huge deck and even managed to laugh at my parent's wittiness in giving me the Mustang I had asked for...as in a little key chain Mustang that revved it's engine when you pushed a button. They are just so funny, let me tell you.

Honestly, it was a wonderful birthday and even though I only still speak to a whopping one person that went - I'm glad we got to go. Eat your heart out, My Super Sweet 16!

2 Year Checkup

So even though Kendall turned 2 back in January, her mommy didn't get her a 2-year checkup appointment until February. Who knew you needed to call in advance for those suckers? We actually couldn't get in with Kendall's usual doctor (who always calls her a boy anyway, thus wasn't going to be her usual doctor much longer anyway), so we saw a doctor that we hadn't seen since Kendall was 3 days old with Jaundice. Kendall did really well - she doesn't like the doctor's office now that she's figured out she gets shots there, so I was expecting drama, but there was none.

I don't remember her exact measurements, but I know she's 85th % for her noggin, 50th for her length and a measly 10th for her weight. She certainly doesn't get that petite-ness from her mama, but the doctor ain't worried, so neither am I.

We also talked to the doctor about her Sahara-dry skin (which she definitely gets from her ashy daddy) and are now lotioning her down all. The. Time.

Other than that it was a very uneventful visit (thank you Lord).

Did I ever tell you about...

...my never ending People magazine subscription?

I've always loved People magazine. I read it cover to cover and although I know there are those that think it's a junk magazine - I would definitely disagree. Not saying everything that's printed is especially important, but they do write some really good articles and generally don't print things that turn out to be false. I used to pick up the magazine whenever it caught my eye at the grocery store, but couldn't justify the $100+ price tag on a yearly subscription.

So shortly after James and I got married there was a giveaway at his job and he came home and surprised me with a year-long subscription to People! I was so excited and enjoyed getting my magazine every week. That was 4 years and one move across town ago and I'm still getting People every week. I've never paid a dime.

Now - I know you're tsk tsking me right now, but I have honestly called People more times than I can count to tell them that I'm getting the magazine for free and to ask them to bill me or to explain why the magazine keeps coming. Every single time they've told me that they are not sure what's going on and that someone will call me back and they never have. James laughs at me about this all the time - he says I'm going to go to the mailbox and in place of the magazine will be a $1,000 bill for all the years I've gotten it.

Until then - I shall call People periodically to tell them (again) that I'm getting a freebie and sincerely enjoy every celebrity-filled word.

Did I ever tell you about...

So I have a knack for picking very smart, creative girlfriends. This was most recently evidenced by my friend Rachel. She is a faithful blogger and I want to be more like that for the few folks that I know read this blog. Her newest idea is to share things that we've never really blogged about. She posted about it on her blog, got suggestions from friends about what random things to write about and posted her first one this week. I shall shamelessly steal her idea each week and write about the same thing.

This week's random blog was: Did I ever tell you about how I picked my children's names". Except in my case - there is only one child, so far.

Kendall Anne - My very favorite girl name in the whole wide world is Maycee. However, I knew that I would never be able to name a sweet baby girl Maycee after marrying James and taking the last name Mason. Maycee Mason sounds like Casey Kasom (you know - the weekly Top 40 dude) and that's just weird. James really liked the name Jasmine, but #1 - I hated it and #2 - I didn't want to be one of those families where everyone's name started with the same letter (no offense to any of those that have decided to go that route). So that left us picking a girl's name from "scratch". Which ended up being really easy because one day I thought of the name Kendall and just knew it was right. James loved it, my mom (whose opinion is probably way too important to this 30 year old woman) liked it - all was well. It's the right mix of different without being pure crazy. As for the Anne - that was easy. My grandmother's name was Ann, my mom's name is LuAnn, and my middle name is Leann. Then I added the 'e' as another tribute to my grandmother, who shared my absolute obsession with reading and who gave me the book Anne of Green Gables when I was just starting to enjoy books.

So there you have it. Post me a comment with anything you'd like me (and Rachel) to blog about!