The Lord Gives and He Has Taken Away

I have not really been to very many funerals in my life. It's a blessing. Yesterday I went to a funeral for a 7 year old student from my school. I worked with her last year when she was in Kindergarten. Hayley was one of the sweetest little girls you could ever meet and her smile was one that would light up a room, everyone who spoke at the funeral commented on her smile.

Her death was very unexpected. She had strepp throat with a low body temperature. Her parents took her to the emergency room and they sent her home. At home, she had a seizure and died. I can't imagine. Her poor parents were so grief stricken. There is a fund set up at Washington Mutual to help her family with expenses.

The minister who was in charge of the service was "good", if anyone can be good at funerals for children. He had a wonderful "object lesson" about God making a bouquet for the heavenly table an He wanted a variety of the most beautiful flowers possible so He chose mature full flowers and on Tuesday, He chose a precious little bud to create His bouquet. I liked that story. However, I didn't like when the minister talked of God's "good" plan and how it doesn't make sense to us etc.. I get that on some level. I agree with that on some level. We're not in charge. However, it felt inconsiderate to me. Of course, it's God's plan but there is NO WAY any of us can understand that. There is NO WAY to see how God will bring "good" out of this right now or probably ever. I wondered if it's required funeral talk to say those things. Can't we focus on God's comfort? Can't we focus on God's love and eternal promise?

Please pray for Hayley's family. Her father buried her yesterday, the day before Father's Day. Love your children dearly.

Wow! I'm gonna Blog- 5 months isn't that long

Yesterday we took the kids to see Iron man. I took Emma to the bathroom in the middle of the movie and as we were walking to the bathroom I heard, "Mrs. Citizen!" I turned around and it was the "kid" who worked at the movie theater, selling popcorn. He said, "I thought it was you. Do you remember me, Luis Garcia?" I do remember him. I was his fifth grade teacher- 7 years ago. He's 17 and a senior- crazy. That means some of the kids I've taught will be voting in November, I hope I taught them well.

Also, just to prove that He has a sense of humor and that Meghann Peterson is an actual prophet- we have an offer on our house. Please note that it is EXACTLY 5 years this month since we moved in and we got the offer on May 1. We are still praying that it actually closes.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, It's the Best Time of the Year

I'm not sure I quite got that quote right, but it's the way I feel this year. I am actually enjoying the season very much. I am listening to Christmas music almost non-stop, Apex sponsored 70 kids for Christmas, which is amazing! I'm super excited about a lot of the gifts I am giving which is always exciting.
The kids have been busy performing different Christmas presentations and making gifts which they always love. Jack keeps saying, " (insert your name here) is going to love me for this" as he's making his little trinkets. It's fun to see them embracing the giving side of the holiday instead of focusing on what they might get. Loredana keeps reminding us that Christmas is about giving not getting. Jack is playing with his "Baby Jesus" Little People nativity-he throws in some Transformers, but I think they (the Transformers) are working for Herod so it's all accurate and Emma is on a constant countdown and can inform you how many days until Christmas it is. She will also tell you what she got you if you are willing to exchange information.

Doug has been working like a crazy person. He's been working a number of parties and some of our artists have family hardships and can use some prayer. It's hard to focus on the joy of Jesus' birth when you have other very pressing matters at hand.

Most Nativity scenes paint a very peaceful picture with a very NOT pregnant looking Mary and quiet animals and calm, focused shepherds and Kings who do not look at all like they are fearing for their lives. If you really think about it, it was probably not like that at all. It was probably a little stressful and dirty and smelly and scary and serious/somber and a little sad-baby in a yucky barn etc. So when it seems like Christmas sucks a little just remember that it's been something like that for 2000 years now.

I got off on a not so cheerful tangent there but anyway....

Merry Christmas and I hope you are enjoying Christmas as much as I am this year!

Halloween is the New Christmas & Thanksgiving is the New Arbor Day

Halloween is three days away. Everyone I know had a crazy busy weekend. There are parties and carnivals and costume contests and more parties. It is like everyone realized that December is too busy to host parties so they all decided to do Halloween instead. Except Wal Mart- I was there on Tuesday and they had already cleared out all of the Halloween stuff from the Garden Center and replaced it with Christmas stuff.

Even though everybody knows that Thanksgiving is next- we should just give up on Thanksgiving and move Christmas to November and Thanksgiving to December. THEN maybe everybody could be thankful for the stuff they got.

Determined

We have a video of Loredana at about 13 months old. Emma has a coke from McDonalds and Loredana is crying for some. Emma just ignores her until Doug tells her to share it. Emma holds it out, but won't let Loredana take the cup. Loredana keeps crying until Doug tells Emma to let her hold it. Emma holds it out for Loredana to take it and she just pushes the cup away. She was just too mad to accept it at that point. That is Loredana in a nutshell.

Last week she informed us at dinner that a boy hit her in PE but she didn't do anything to him. As she went on with the story we found out that they were running around the field and Loredana passed this boy, so he got mad. That is also Loredana in a nutshell- if someone else can run that fast, so can she. Besides she loves to run.

At Drill Team on Thursday, the girls were doing gymnastics. For their last turn they each got to pick whatever trick they wanted to do. When it was Loredana's turn she said to the teacher, "What was that one I couldn't do and I cried?" THAT was the trick Loredana wanted to do, the one she couldn't. That is Loredana in a nutshell.

She draws about 35 pictures a day and she is a natural artist, but she restarts drawings when she knows they don't meet her standards-and she can already draw better than I can.
She has overcome so many obstacles from asthma to speech to middle child to young for the grade she's in to stitches and staples in the head and surgery on her kidneys.

Loredana is a determined, competitive perfectionist. Watch out world-here she comes.

Halloween Correction

It's only 43 days until Halloween, which makes my last post incorrect. I was using a website, which obviously needs some updating. Doug bought me & the kids some cute Halloween bathroom accessories (shower curtain, glow in the dark soap dispenser and some rugs). I just love Halloween. I got the kids' Halloweeen books out today, but I'm waiting on the decorations- I don't want to scare people.

This morning Loredana and Emma were talking about a boy in Loredana's class that she wants to be friends with. (they probably are friends, but no official designation has been made) Emma said, "Why don't you ask him if he wants to be friends with you?" Loredana responded, "I want him to ask me. I'm more comfortable with that." Women's Lib is just old fashioned, I guess.

60 Days......

It's only 60 days until Halloween. It's one week until autumn officially begins. About 2 weeks before my Halloween decorations come out. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Technologically Challenged

I have tried several times to post a comment on people's blogs. Since they changed over their system I can only post comments anonymously. It doesn't matter, but it's kind of annoying.

In other news, our house is still for sale. Pray for a miracle, it's obviously going to take one.