Mother's Day

For the past 8 or so years Mother's Day has been a rough day for me. This year that has changed. This year for the first time in about the same number of years, I spent at least part of the day with each of my children. May 1999 was the last Mother's day I had with Amanda and two years later in 2001 was my last one with Jordan. Living states away from each of them, their schooling and jobs - all these things have prevented me from getting to spend this day with them. Throw in the "Mother's Day Sermons" I have sat through and Mother's day became something that left me feeling lonely for my kids and hurting over every mistake I made as a Mom.

God's grace, peace, mercy and love changed that this year.

Jordan's and our relationship is healing. He lives here in Oklahoma with us now and will until he leaves for basic in September. What a blessing this time with him has been for us and for him. I admit, I was scared of having an adult child move home and feared we would just keep messing up our relationship with each other. God's promises and his timing are doing what needs to be done. It is a work in progress - as all things are. I am trying to remember that and keep my hands off of what I have entrusted to his care. Sharing a special supper with Jordan and Brian this evening (which my Honey prepared) was such a precious closing of this Mother's day.

God has also kept his hand on us in our move. The blessings of that move keep on flowing, like the one above. A special blessing from living here: the opportunity to worship with Amanda and her family today. I haven't done that for a long time on Mother's Day and it was nice to be able to share such a special time with her and her family.

I appreciated the sermon we heard today. For the first time in a long time the "Mother's Day" service didn't leave me bruised and hurting. Instead I left reminded of the fact that God knows my heart. He feels my sorrow for the times I have messed up as a Mom. He hurts with me. He cries with me. He rejoices with me. He listens to my prayers for and about my children. He continually shows me the way to loving my children as he loves me. The most important thing I was reminded of today is the fact that He loves my children and has plans for them.

God is good and I am blessed.

Oklahoma City Memorial Run

Today Brian and I went into the heart of this city and watched the OKC Memorial Marathon. It was a first for Brian and I and we loved it! One person's shirt said, "Running to Remember." I liked that. We saw all ages, all different abilities and all nationalities. It did my heart good. I loved that a runner would flash a smile or thumbs up to us as we clapped and encouraged them. Our added nephew - Jared joined Brian and I so he could cheer on the runners - especially his wife - Annie.

I'm proud of the runners (especially OUR RUNNERS!). They trained and reached their goals. They ran to Remember a sad day in our nation's history, some ran to remember loved ones they have lost, some ran to show their disabilities don't hinder them from obtaining their goals, some ran because they wanted to push themselves to a new level and some ran because they love to run. Whatever their motivation I was proud to watch and cheer them on and witness their accomplishments today.


Our added son - Josh (ran a 1/2 Marathon), our daughter - Amanda(ran a 5K), our niece - Annie (ran a 1/2 Marathon) and people we know through the kids were all part of the 22,ooo who participated in the run. We were able to see Josh, Annie and our kids' friend - Pam (who also ran a 1/2 Marathon) and cheered them on. One confusion today meant that we missed Amanda's leg of her relay. (that made me sad, but we will be at the right place next year!) They all ran on Team OC. Here are few pictures of our day.

Brian and I Waiting For the Marathon to Begin

The Run

Josh and Annie


At the Finish Line

Celebration Brunch at Jimmy's Egg

Our Runners with Their Signs

A Children's Book

Green Eggs and Ham ~ One of my favorite childhood books. Last year around St. Patrick's Day I had an idea: to share this book with Casen and for us to make and eat "green eggs and ham."

This past Friday and Saturday we made memories. Casen came to stay the night. Before bed we read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. We giggled as I read the familiar rhyming words while Casen took pretend bites from the drawings.

Casen was not happy that the egg shells were white,

he asked, "Green Eggs?" told him that we had to

break them out of the shell and then color them.

Immie thought, "What a sweet face!"

Casen enjoyed cooking our green eggs and setting the tray for our breakfast picnic -

Dr. Suess style.

Casen loves Green Eggs -

but Immie did NOT!

Immie loves ham -

but Casen did NOT!

I drew our breakfast and Casen colored the picture. I think he enjoyed his

Casen had a few more pretend bites from his copy of "Green Eggs and Ham."

What a fun time we had. I am so very thankful God has blessed my life with this sweet little boy! Mandie suggested I find some other books and do an activity suggested by their story. I'm already thinking . . .

Any suggestions?

Oh, I have no pictures of me because Brian is in Oregon for his Mom's surgery and extended arm photo taking isn't one of my talents!

A Child's Birthday + Family + Friends = Blessings

Balloons, Paper Streamers, Plastic Table Cloths, Birthday Cake, Children and Family & Friends. Those made up a day of blessings for me. Today we attended our Grandson, Casen's birthday party. It was his second, but the first that we were able to be a part of. It was a good day! It brought back so many memories of our children when they were little and made lots of new memories for us to cherish.

One memory . . . for our children's birthdays, Brian normally drew the design on their cakes, I would fill it in with frosting and we'd try to keep little fingers from swiping a taste of the icing. Funny, the same thing happened today. Casen was looking at his Train Cake. I went over to see his face as he looked and out came a finger and with a quick swipe a taste of icing went into his mouth. He looks up and tells me, "I tasse choo choo, it good." (not a misspelling - just my attempt to mimic his phonics) My heart filled with love and the memories.

Today was special also because our son, Jordan was there to share the day with us. It has been so long since we have been together as a family, just enjoying one another and making memories. To see Jordan and Amanda together. To see Jordan joking and being ornery as he and his dad used the helium to fill the birthday balloons. (This one is not part of the birthday party, but. . .) To hear him tell me, "I love you, Mom," when I dropped him home to get ready for work. My heart again fills with love as I remember today.

Today we were able to also spend time with our added family - our son-in-law Josh's family. We saw some of Amanda and Josh's friends, ones we now count as ours. It was good to catch up with them all and to see their children. It was fun to visit with Josh's Mom and talk about our grandsons. To watch the kids taking a quick taste of icing from the birthday cakes, letting their balloons go, sure that a nearby tall person will retrieve it. It was good to see them enjoying the fact they are together and having fun!

Finally, it is so good to NOT be leaving in a few days to go home to Arizona. Instead, we just drove home to our little apartment, with the knowledge our kids will spend time together this week and we can see Liam and Casen just about anytime we want to.

Like I said,

a day of blessings!

BROTHERS

Being a Big Brother seems to just come naturally to Casen. He has been so sweet right from the start with Liam. At first it was, "BABY!" but now the little guy is Liam to Casen. It is pronounced by Casen as one syllable - it sounds so sweet out of his mouth!




Casen reminds me so much of Amanda when we had Jordan. She was so in love with babies and to have one of her own put her over the top. Casen is that way with Liam.

At home, Casen will be busy playing and he will spot Liam. He drops whatever he is doing, runs over and gives Liam some love. It is so sweet to watch him rub his check against Liam and give him little kisses.

I love the thought of them growing up together. I am praying already they will be friends as well as brothers.

Our Second Grandson

Liam Benjamin Nichols

Born Monday, Dec. 28th

At 4:36 p.m.

Weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz.

Length 20 inches.

He is a bundle of blessings!

Tea Parties and Little Boys

If you know me at all - you know I have dreamed of grandbabies for years and years before we were blessed with Casen, our almost 2 year old grandson. I couldn't wait to hold them, love on them and to eventually do all the things Grandmas do with their grandbabies. One of the dreams I had was to have tea parties with any granddaughters we might have. I figured that dream would be on hold for a while with having Casen and now his little brother on the way, but today I was proved wrong.

I have a toy chest that holds bags of fun things - a camouflage bag with toy soldiers and tanks, an ocean print with pirates, treasure and a shark - you get the picture. One the bags is definitely a girly bag - big, bright daisies on a bright green background. Inside is a children's tea set. It has not seen the light of day since our "faux" grand-daughters in Arizona had played with it. Well this morning, Casen discovered the girly bag. I thought, "Oh well this might last a couple of minutes." I began to show Casen how to set up the tea set and "serve" tea. I found out that having a tea party with a little boy differs from having one with a little girl.

Difference #1: when setting up for a tea party, boys - unlike girls, do not like setting it up in the traditional manner instead it is much more entertaining to stack the tea cups, saucers, plates, teapot, sugar bowl and flatware until the tower comes tumbling down (reminded me of Jericho's wall - I think I know why little boys love that song and story!). This action demands a break from the tea party to hunt up the tea set - thank goodness the tea set is made of plastic!

Difference #2: when pretending to add sugar to the tea in the cups - little girls daintily stir the imaginary tea with a spoon but little boys apparently stir it so vigorously that the tea cup eventually is spinning (sometimes off of the table!) which brings lots of laughter and more stirring!

Difference #3: instead of pretending to delicately sip from the teacups, boys like to make slurping sounds and end the drink by tossing the cup aside and immediately repeating with a new cup. I'm still not sure why this occurred, Casen has pretty good table manners and doesn't toss dishes from the dinner table. Maybe he thought since it was pretend it may as well be fun?

My tea party with Casen may have been different from the tea party than I had dreamed of but I wouldn't trade it for anything! I love my Boy!