Facts and Habits

I have been tagged by my friend. This is a new one to me and sounds like a lot of fun! You get to find out some of my weird habits and some random facts that you wouldn't get to know other wise.


Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. I love to read- anything and everything. Although since having kids, it takes me several weeks to get through them now.

2. I am addicted to peach frozen yogurt. Hey it was all I wanted when I was pregnant with Caleb.

3. I have a bad habit of eating late at night, like right before bed. So not helping me loose the baby weight!

4. I also have a tendency of setting a goal and then not following through on it. I can never start with baby steps either- gotta go big (Texan at heart I guess! :)

5. I am grumpy till I have at least one cup of coffee. :)

6. We have finally found a church where we feel welcome and that we like almost everything about.

7. I bite my lips all the time. Not a good thing to do.


I now tag:
1. Marti
2. Lisa
3. Jen
4. Laura
5. Malia
6. Lindsay
7. Amy

More pictures

I loved these pictures...so I had to post once more to get them in. My kids are real good at taking pictures. There are always way to many to choose from! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Fun with a tree

One of my favorite memories growing up was climbing a tree in our yard. It was the most fun. Our tree combined with our next door neighbors tree, made for lost of scraped appendages, but TONS of fun. There is a tree in our backyard that as it grows and the boys grow will make for some exciting times. The boys already love to hang on one of its branches. Everyday they get a little more daring and try to get higher in the tree. It will be a very fun summer!

Thank You!

Ian was blessed to get an early birthday present from Grandma and Pawpaw Clement. He and Caleb were starting to fight over Caleb's big boy bike. So Ian and I headed out to Toys R Us and found a big boy bike for him. He is so excited to have it. He does really well. Sometimes we have trouble getting started depending where the pedals are, but he loves to ride it. Caleb has been a big help with teaching Ian how to ride it. When we got on walks, Ian feels so much more like his brother.

Beautiful day!

As my children have their mid morning snack, I sit at the computer breathing in the wonderful air. All the windows are open, the sky is a bright blue, the sun is shining (with the occasional cloud). This is the day that the LORD has made- we will rejoice and be glad in it!.

Hope your day is just as bright and refreshing as ours!

Prayer Request

Last week sometime, many of you might have read a post with a similar title. I removed that post, because I had not asked permission to post about that certain topic. I have spoken with my friends and they have requested that I re post our request. There are new updates in this post as well.

About a week ago I received an email from a good friend that his sister-in-law was attacked in her NY apartment. She was assaulted, beaten, burned, bound and left to die. All of these horrendous things lasted over a period of about 17 -19 hours. (I am unsure of the amount of time) As her attacker left, he set the futon on fire. She was able to escape by using the fire to melt the cords. She is currently in stable condition at a near by hospital. She suffered severe 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her body, and some trauma to her eyes and liver. She was very meticulous in watching her attacker, so much that she was able to give a complete description of him to the SVU. Her attacker has been caught and is awaiting his arraignment and trial. This week she will begin undergoing some skin grafts to repair the 3rd degree burn areas. She is in a lot of pain as they begin to heal her burns. If none of you know the process, they have to scrub the burned area to help with healing and to prevent deep scarring. It is very painful even with pain meds. She has showed so much courage over this last week- facing what has happened head on. She has openly talked about it to family and the detectives that are working with her. I ask that you lift this young woman up to our Father. Pray for not only her physical healing (as there is a lot to do), but also for her emotional healing. She will be left with physical reminders of this attack- pray that God will use these for good and that Satan will not keep her trapped. Pray for the entire family. Her parents are with her and I know that one sister has returned home. I will try to update as I get them. I will not release her name or give specific details. The Lord knows her and he will know who you are praying for.

Father we lift this family up before you. May your peace fall on them like rain. May you continue to be her strength, her guide and continue to grant her wisdom. YOU are her protector and constant companion. Help the family, LORD. Help them to heal as they help their daughter/sister to heal. Guide the lawyers and the judicial system as they bring charges to face this man. Pierce his heart, Father, that he may see his wrong and come to you. We trust you and know that you will sustain us.

My Thoughts/Ramblings

I have purposefully not written my thoughts about all of the devastation over the last 5 days I think because I needed time to soak things in and meditate on them. My heart goes out to the families of those who were lost in the shooting and those who will now live with physical and emotional scars. Being a teacher myself, that is one of my worst fears. I applaud the man who gave his life for his students, I feel the pain and hurt of his family now that he is gone. Watching the media coverage and seeing the faces of the students haunts me. I really had to quit watching. Many people are looking for answers. Many will not get any. Many want to know where the blame lies. Does it lie with the school, the shooter, his parents, the police? The list can go on and on. I cannot find fault with any of the people mentioned, except the shooter. I cannot blame his parents. I will not blame them. They raised their child the best they could and then let him out into the world to live his life and make his own choices. Not only are they dealing with the loss of their child, but they are dealing with what he has done. The nation is now asking them selves again, what are we doing wrong? Why are these things happening? Have we learned nothing in the 8 years since Columbine? I feel all we have learned is how to skirt the truth, and how to play the blame game. What then is my response as a Christian? Pray. Speak. Teach. Love. Hope. I have to be Christ to those around me- To my family, friends, neighbors, students, etc. My prayer is that we learn, truly learn, that we cannot lay the blame on others, but that we have to take action to make our world better. To get our feet and hands "doing", our actions and mouth "speaking" ,and our hearts and minds "teaching".

Puddle Jumpin'

Last week we had some really good rain storms that passed through, and they left some nice puddles in our driveway. We went out to ride bikes, but the lure of the puddle was too much. Being the good mommy I am, I encouraged them to jump, slosh and play to their hearts content. We didn't stay too long, since it was a cool evening, but they had so much fun! Riley mainly ran around in circles. She did try jumping once with the boys. They were the master jumpers and splashers. by the time I got them in the garage, they were soaked up to their bellies. I don't think they will be singing "Rain, rain go away" ever again- they want the puddles!

Crashed

On this particular day we had gone out early in the morning and had run several errands. As they watched a movie, they crashed hard. I went in to check on them and this is what I found:


Amber was the only "kid"still awake. They had played so hard with their cousin that I think sleep was far from their mind till they settled down. Note: Had I tried to lay them down for a nap, there would have ensued several getting up, crying and fits. God knew this was the way to get them down! :)

Visitors

This past weekend we were blessed to have family come to visit. Matt's mom, Nan and cousin Amber drove down Wednesday afternoon to visit for a few days. Amber was on her Spring Break, and the kids LOVED that she was there. I don't think there was a moment that they didn't want her to play with them. I really thought that Amber would be ready to leave the next day. But she was a real trooper and had a blast with them. She has been prayed for ever since (by name, not just included in the "family"). We played outside as much as we could. We blew bubbles, rode bikes and played basketball. We also went to the Rain Forest Cafe. Everyone loved it exept Riley. When the lightening storm came and the gorillas went bonkers she freaked. She was not to sure about the Hippo out front when it grunted, but was ok with the moving, non-noise making butterflies. :) What a difference a year makes. She loved it at 6 months- oh well maybe she will have come around by our next trip there.

Finally

Our taxes are done! We normally don't wait this long, but had some difficulty (understatement!) getting all the stuff we needed. We thought we had everything and then discovered that we were missing house information (AR and TN ones) so that began half the battle. We couldn't efile this year since we had to override (???) on the federal and were only part time residents for AR. Lots of fun (hear the sarcasm). So at least it is now over for another year. Hopefully no audits or issues will be found- if so I'll go crazy!!!!! :)

Way too many updates! :)

Sorry for the long updates and the many posts. After a fun weekend it was had not to include some of the pictures and comments. Trust me when I say, they could have been a lot longer!! Today I went to a church down the street for a bible study. It was a little weird to be walking into a place that you don't know anyone and say "I saw your marque and wanted to start the bible study". Luckily the kids had a blast and were taken care of very well. The ladies are very nice and I was pretty shocked to find out that many of them were not members at the church, but were from other churches and denominations. I am excited about the fact that we are all from different backgrounds and coming under one roof to grow closer to God, and to support and edify each other. The study is Beth Moore's "When Godly People Do Ungodly Things". It looks like it will be very good. We did the introductory lesson today and we will break into our small groups next week. Please pray that I will not be shy and not open my self up to add in the discussion, because I don't know them. I am sometimes quiet bad about that. I'll let you know more about the study as it goes on.

Our Easter

We got back home on Sunday evening and we thought about giving the kids their Easter baskets from us then. But I decided to wait till Monday after they had gotten all their energy and candy out of the system! So last night we let them have their baskets. I found some metal ones that I really likes at Target. The boys love to play with them and the previous baskets had all gotten broken or ruined. I figured that metal would be the way to go. They got some candy (of course), PJ's and a car. The boys had found their spider man toys that were supposed to go in the baskets about a week prior, so they got them a little early instead of in the baskets. Riley loved her purse, but was not quite sure what to do with the My Little Pony.

Other news and pictures

Over the weekend we got to spend some quality time with Matt's parents, his sister and brother in law and their daughter Kaitlyn. There is a picture of Kait and Riley playing together. The last time we saw our niece she was not quite crawling. Riley was pretty darn excited that her cousin could now move! So now the baby proofing really begins in the Clement and Stewart households! Linda and I laughed at how the kids always go for the things they are not supposed to have (TV remotes, plugs, outlets, cords, etc.), but isn't that just like us sometimes? It just reminds me that we
are all still learning how to proof our lives! When we got there Linda had this huge fruit tray with this really ( I mean REALLY) good dip. Talk about addicting. But the funniest thing was that as we all devoured it, Heather was feeding Riley grapes. She dipped one in the dip, handed it to Riley, who decided that the dip was great, but not the consistency had her Aunt feeding her one grape after another. So now my child is a dipper. She also loved the strawberries in there. Paw paw held her while she gnawed on a few whole ones. That is one thing my kids are pretty good at is eating
their fruits and veggies. On Saturday we went out for Lunch and it started to SNOW! There were intermittent flurries all through lunch and later in the day. It gathered on the sides of the roads, but never stuck. Linda, Heather and I went to Archivers in the mall. Let me tell you- that store just sucks you in! It is the biggest scrap booking store I have ever seen. I am starting to get into the scrap booking and stamping scene. I think it will be a really neat thing once I get into and am able to put some really neat things together. While I looked around with Heather, the boys played on a tugboat in the kids center outside the store (inside the mall for those of you who were worried I had the out in freezing temps). It was a lot of fun. The weekend trips my be crazy and even thought there is never enough time to do all the things we want to, they are so nice to have every now and then. I am glad that we are closer so we can make more frequent trips up to see our family. **On a side note, please be praying about Matt's parents house hunting. I know they are starting to get an itch to find a home and move out of the apartment. There are not to many options in the area they want. Please pray that God will give them an insight as to where he wants them to go. **

The Spider Man rain coats

These are the rain coats that the boys got from Lee and Linda. They had a blast with the coats and their Cars flashlights. They put on the coats and turned their flashlights on for a walk around the apartment halls. They went on a hallway safari and had a blast. They found hippos, lions, monkeys and flamingos. Riley went on the second safari run with her bug lantern and was not quite sure exactly what everyone was so excited about. Her imagination has not quite developed yet. I am sure it will get as big as my guys soon!

Weekend at Grandma's and Pawpaw's

We were blessed to be able to spend the weekend of Easter with our family in Indiana and Kentucky. I don't have too many pictures (I wasn't good at taking them this time) plus it was wickedly cold there. It was amazing to go from the mid 70's and 80's down to the 30's and 40's. I had to dig out Riley's winter clothing as I had just finished packing them up. The kids had a great time. These pictures are from Saturday, when we did the Easter baskets. They hit the mother load, too! They enjoyed the chocolate eggs, the plastic eggs filles with coins and all the neat little toys in their
baskets. I think the biggest hits were the fishing poles with magnetic fish, the Cars flashlights and the Spider Man rain coats. Riley had so much fun with the plastic eggs and her little bug lantern. Ian kept trying to confiscate her pink baseball glove! All in all the weekend was a blast.

Gone for a while

We are heading out of town for the weekend. So I will not be checking, commenting or posting till Monday! (this is my blog-fast!) I pray that each of you have a blessed weekend and a wonderful time with family and friends on Sunday. Happy Easter!

In Him-
Us

Not so cute little buggers

so a few posts down I was talking about all the caterpillars I have seen. Well last evening we were showing Matt after he got home from work. What do we find but a bunch in the bushes on the brick and in the dirt out front. Then as we are playing out back we find more just crawling around. So now we are going to try and figure out how to get rid of them, since we literally have an infestation of them. I would like to keep what plants are here. Not to mention we have a million little green inch worms hanging from one of our trees out front. It is pretty neat looking actually. Who knew bugs would get so annoying??

Neat Idea

I just found this cool idea that we might try in the boys room. See we have this little nook that really is not big enough for anything, but the exactly right size dresser or random things. This idea, is neat and "manly" :) It looks cheap (big plus) and I think the boys would love them. We could line the sort wall with them and then put a light and cushions in there for a little book nook. I'll let you know how it turns out if we do it!

Dyson

Over here they are giving away a free Dyson vacuum. Now I know you want one (I do!!). There are a ton of names already on there, but add yours and you just might win! Here is the Dyson web page if you want to check out their products.

Cute little buggers

Apparently they forgot to tell us when we bought our house that this was the breeding ground for these "cute little buggers". Today I counted 22 on our front porch! 22! then after the boys got up I opened the front door to show them. Many had already left the stoop, but there were still 10 moving around. I asked the boys if they wanted to catch one (thinking they would), but Caleb wanted to leave them so the birds would eat them. What a sweet boy, thinking of the demise of the caterpillars and the hungry bellies of the birds! :)

I got this idea from Lisa. I tried to make the questions about things I have written on the blog- so good luck to all!



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Palm Sunday

We had an amazing church service yesterday at Community. Growing up, I never really heard much about "the other holidays" that many other denominations/ Churches observe. We celebrated the entry into Jerusalem, leading to the death of Jesus. Up until recently I will admit, I have been ignorant of these observances. We had the children's choir preform a song and then as we were led in a really powerful worship, the choir was walking in waving palms and placing them on the floor by a cross. Now let me go ahead and state this, Matt and I are not use to a choir, but they don't preform- we all sing together and it is so wonderful to hear all the voices lifting and praising our Father. I am looking forward to the Easter service. In some ways I wish we were going to be at Community, but we will be equally blessed to spend it at Southeast Christian with our family. Try to take time this week to read through and remember what Jesus went through this week leading up to his death and resurrection.

April Fools

After an amazing service, celebrating Palm Sunday. we went to lunch with Jason and Leah. As we were eating, Leah proceeds to tell me that they found out the hard way that what I said was true, that the nursing BC is not fool proof. I seriously thought she was pregnant! But then I find out it was April 1st! I usually don't fall for them, but I had no idea it was April Fools Day. So props to Leah for giving me a shocker and a good laugh!