Mouth Breather

Exciting times in the Brady/Lockwood home this past week. Bennett lost his first tooth. It had been hanging by a root for days but if you will remember from a previous blog the matter of teeth makes me weak in the knees. He would come home everyday and say "Mom, look at this I can push it almost all the way over with my tongue." I would respond and say, Bennett, I told you I don't like to talk about things like that. Seriously, it makes me queazy. So Thursday night he got his dad to pull it. It just simply one of those things I cannot do. He was super excited and could not wait to put his tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy, who has still not stopped by. What can I say, she is a slacker and does not easily remember those things which make her nauseous to think about. I told Bennett tonight (Sunday, 3 nights later, nice)that I think the tooth fairy did not realize we had moved and if he would put it under his pillow one more time I was sure she would come. Promise.

Last week in school Bennett's teacher stopped Braxton in the hall to tell him about a conversation that she and Bennett had. It went something like this...

Miss Glenn: Boys, stop talking, I mean no talking at all. I don't even want to see your mouth move. If I see your mouth move, I will assume you are talking.

(Bennett raises his hand)

Miss Glenn: Yes, Bennett

Bennett: Miss Glenn, I just wanted you to know that I am a mouth breather and so my mouth might move when I am breathing and I just did not want you to think I am talking, I am just breathing.

(Miss Glenn walks out of the room because she is laughing.)

We are not sure where he comes up with what comes out of his mouth. He is the funniest 6 year old we know, that is for sure. I am so grateful for his quick wit and joyful personality. I just hope it does not keep him in trouble.

He does think however, that the newly acquired hole in the bottom row of his teeth will help with the whole "mouth breathing" issue. Look mom, I can breathe right through this tooth and I can fit a Capri Sun straw in there too!

Who knew he was multi-talented.

A New Do For Sister

Our little Billy Ray as we had started to call her due to her lovely mullet(pic above) got a new do today. I have been working up to it for a long time. I had people on both sides either telling me not to do it or to do it. When her daddy said, "get the child's hair cut" I decided it was time to pull the trigger. It seriously was a little bit of a stringy mess. Bless her she has received my genes of baby fine hair. So today was the big day. I took her to Neuvo, which is where I go. Jodie does an amazing job and since she has children herself I knew she would do great with Emma.

My sweet friend Meredeth once again saved the day by going with us. She lugged all the gear, video camera, digital camera, diaper bag, etc...I must mention here that I was prepared for the worst. I even wore a white shirt in case I started sweating profusely. I totally expected flailing arms, stiff back, weeping and gnashing of teeth if you will. But sister stepped up to the plate. She even seemed excited to be there. Like she could get used to the idea of being pampered (that's my girl.) And pampered she was. While in the chair she received a cookie, cup of water, a comb in which she got to brush Jodie's hair, some clips and LOTS of attention.

She did not shed one tear the whole time. And then when she was done she walked around the salon like she was the queen that everyone was waiting to see. She was walking up to strangers saying hello, telling people she is "almost two", etc... I was blown away by how well she did. Her hair looks adorable and I am so glad I went through with it. I see lots of salon mother daughter dates for us in the future. Just wait until she learns about a mani/pedi!

Let's Recap

Lately I have run into a few people that had no idea that we had even moved. Not sure if that is my fault or theirs but nonetheless I thought it might be a good time for a recap. If you want to read the story in it entirety you can find it on a previous blog called New Adventure. I am going to spare you from all the gory details and just give a list of the main stuff going on in our life.

1. After living in our home in Binghampton for 3.5 years and much prayer the decision was made to move and build a new home. Old hood, New home. Ummm..that might could be a new reality series...

2. We sold our house way faster than we thought we would without starting to build our new home. (Which I might add here, that some skeptics said we would never be able to sale our home and if we did we would end up in the red, well we sold it and made some money, God is way bigger than any skeptic I know.)

3.We needed a place to go. I talked to mom and asked her what she thought about 5 new roommates :)

4. September 1st we closed on our old home, closed on our new lot and closed on a construction loan. Big Day. Oh...wait, even bigger day was the day before when we moved 90% of our stuff to storage and 10% to my mom's.

5. We have been at mom's for 3 weeks now and are starting to feel settled. Everyone seems to be adjusting well. Even the cat that had to find a new home (another Oprah show for another day, thank you Jerry Wing. )

6. We hope to be in our new home sometime in January, back in the hood where we belong.

Here are a few lessons we have learned along the way and are still learning:

1. Patience is a virtue and a pain in the rear to learn

2. The rain will put off construction on a new home

3. Camel crickets are hairy and big and if you have one then you have 10,000(don't ask)

4. James Pest Control knows how to kill camel crickets

5. Sometimes a good thing can turn into bad thing if you make it the best thing

6. My kids LOVE the trampoline at Nanach's house

7. Purging is good when it comes to stuff

So thanks for the prayers and words of encouragement, or the look of shock and awe I get when I tell people we are living with my mom and our 22 month old is sharing a room with us. It actually has not been bad at all, we are grateful and are looking forward to the future.

What You Must Know About My Momma

One of the things that you currently know about my momma is that we live with her. Only for a "few seasons" says my middle child. He is learning all about seasons in school and so instead of referring to how many months we are going to live here he says "seasons." He was at first saying 6 seasons but we said..umm..no, hopefully just two, fall and winter. I digress...

There are a few other things you need to know about my momma. I could list about a thousand things that I love about her but I have whittled down the list to 2 for now. I am sure I will blog about more in the future. These are by no means the most important things about her but important nonetheless. Are you ready?

1. She is very spontaneous and does not like "plans"

2. She LOVES Willie Nelson...(I remember being a little girl and singing Willie songs on our tape player, 8 track.)

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago I found out that Willie Nelson was coming to Mud Island in Memphis. And for a little, thank you, for allowing our family of 5 to invade her space I decided to surprise her with tickets. See the two things she loves, surprises and Willie, I am a good daughter. :)

Last night was the big night. We got on our cowboy boots and proceeded downtown with the rest of the Memphis redneck community, which is quite large I might add, and prepared ourselves for a good ol' time. We had a great time! Her friend Anita went with us. We laughed and sang and enjoyed the break from the Memphis flooding that has been going on for the past week. It was a perfect night for an outdoor concert. (Except for the humidity and the fact that my hair looks like a frizzy Texas hair model when it is humid, oh wait, never mind, I fit right in.) Here are a few observations that I thought you might enjoy:

1. There are a whole lot of really hairy men in Memphis that happen to be Willie Nelson fans.

2. There was one particular woman who thought she was at

a worship concert and proceeded more than once to raise her hands or clap in worship of Willie. (Seriously)

3. If you ever buy tickets to a Willie Nelson concert know this, he plays for about 45 minutes and then he is done. He finishes his last song, waves to the crowd and then literally gets on his bus and moves out. No coming back, no matter how long or loud the crowd chants Willie. And drunk people can chant really LOUD for a really LONG time.

4. There are a lot of people who apparently care more about Willie Nelson than they do dental hygiene. I am not being ugly, that is just the truth, I saw it with my own eyes.

5. Even if the venue tells you not to bring a camera in, you can do it anyway, about 3,000 flashes were going off last night, when the sign clearly said, "no cameras." We were one of the rule breakers but we used it to take pictures of ourselves and not Willie, so I think that makes it okay.

All in all it was a good girls night out. I hope mom knows how much I appreciate and love her. Not every daughter would brave the hairy drunk crowd just to let their momma know...you are a good hearted woman...

Someone is Always Watching

We are wrapping up another weekend. It was a good one with a little strep throat sprinkled on top. :( Emma started running a fever Saturday and by the time 8pm arrived she was having a very bad, no good, horrible day. Running 101.6, crying, clingy and looked awful. We managed to get her in the bed and about 3am she woke up crying and coughing like a seal, if you are a momma you know the kind of cough I am talking about. It is a barky cough (if barky is a word.) I opened up the freezer and we stood there for awhile until she could get under control, her fever at this point was 102. A little tylenol, a little freezer time and two hours later she was back in the bed. Took her to the doctor this afternoon and she has strep. Which is actually a relief because I thought she either had croup or flu and you can't treat those with antibiotics like you can strep. So needless to say the weekend did not end up as well as it started. But let me just tell you how it started...

Friday night our family met up with 3 other families at a local pizza place. The Parkinson(moving down the street from us) family, The Trotter(sweet friends who are great prayer warriors)family, The Bridges(Avery is our builder) family and us. We had a great time hanging out and spending time together but there was a bigger meaning behind our fellowship. We left the pizza place and headed to our new street. The first stop was the Parkinson's new home which they will be moving into in about a month. We took a tour and then spent about 30-45 minutes praying over their new home. Praying for patience, joy, encouragement and safety. We then loaded up all the kids in our mini-van and drove a block down and stopped at our lot. All the kids (all 8 of them) sat in our van and watched a movie while the adults got out and prayed over our lot. We prayed for Avery Bridges, we prayed for laughter in the walls of our home, for hospitality and understanding and for people to see a difference in the families that will inhabit that street. Then a few of the adults went over and prayed over the Crenshaw(our old friends and neighbors who are building across the street from us, they could not join us but will next time) lot. While we were praying several people stopped, some we knew and we spent some time talking to them and telling them what we were doing. Some we had no idea who they were but they were watching. I have no idea what they were thinking but I hope they saw glimpses of light as we prayed over that street and over them. It was an amazing time and makes me really want to be back in the hood.

Saturday morning and afternoon we spent time on the football field. PDS had their annual jamboree and Preston played a mini game and then Bennett had his first flag football game of the season. His team did not win but you should have seen him. He was grinning from ear to ear and when they did score their one touch down at the end of the game you would have thought they had just won the national championship. They all jumped on top of the kid that scored and cheered and laughed. After the game we talked about what a great attitude Bennett had even though they lost. We told him that people watch you all the time and watch your reactions and that we were proud of him for being such a good sport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8ZoevMJQc

I just finished reading an article on Serena Williams and how she threatened a line judge at the US Open semi finals last night. The youtube video is above. After watching the display of her actions it looked to me like an almost two year old I know throwing a tantrum when she doesn't get her way. (Exhibit A)

Now I also would like to point out that to me it does not look like a "foot fault" it looks like her foot is behind the line when she serves but that is not really the point. The point is someone is always watching. Regardless if you are famous like Serena, Tiger Woods or Paris Hilton or if you are a group of friends praying over a street laden with drugs, poverty and crime or if you are a 6 year old who just lost his first flag football game 24-6, someone is watching. And whether or not it is fair they are making judgments on your character, maturity and beliefs.

I hope that my kids did a lot of watching themselves this weekend. I hope they saw what it means to be a family and to be intentional where you live and to live out what God calls your family to do. My prayer for this week is that my actions will shout to the people around me that I am a Christ follower and that my life is not about me but all about Him.

Worth a Thousand Words

Do you remember a few blogs ago when I talked about starting a new school year and Preston and Bennett having words for the year? Preston's word was Honesty and Bennett's was Obedience? Well, I thought I would give you an update on how that is going.

In 1st grade at PDS you move a bus according to your behavior. Your bus starts out on green everyday, (thank you Lord for new mercies each morning) and if you misbehave or have an "issue" then your bus moves to yellow and then if it continues to happen it could move to red. Bennett has done a little traveling in his bus this first few weeks of school. After day two of moving to yellow, he walks in and gently slings (because he knows the consequences of throwing) his book bag down and says, "I don't have any trouble with these hands, it's this mouth." At least he knows the root of the problem. We have a long talk about the importance of not talking when you are not supposed to be talking. I think, so far so good, until today when we run into our good friend and pastor of our church, whose son happens to be in Bennett's class room. He smiles and says, "I hear Bennett and Myles were co-conspirators this week in school and got in a little trouble." I wish you could have seen the look on Bennett's face, it was a mixture of shock and one that said, "I thought this preacher guy was a guy you could trust." Needless to say, we have had another talk. I am still not clear on the whole story of what happened but somehow Bennett did not have to move his bus. If I had to guess he probably pulled the sympathy card, with "we just moved and I am having a hard time." Trust me, he has used this before. Remember? It is not his hands but his mouth...

Preston on the other hand has lived up to his full potential of "Honesty." Last week in school during one of his classes he raised his hand and when the teacher called on him this is what he said, "Ms. X (not her real name but I will protect the innocent here) all those rumors about you are not true, I think you are real nice." Bless him. His next word is "Filter."

Beneficiaries

Well well well...we are moved, in with my momma that is. This has been one crazy and long week. Seriously this could probably be two or three blogs but I will spare you from all the gory details. It all started last Saturday and Sunday when we started to pack up and move to mom's. We finished Sunday night about 10:30pm. Exhausted and still have not recovered. My in laws picked up our kids Sunday afternoon and brought them back to our house about 8 on Sunday night. By this time our entire house was empty except for that last few loads of stuff when you are like, what? Where did this stuff come from? Why are my material possessions making babies and every time I turn around there is a new pile? Anyway, my kids come home and Emma runs to her room and the bottom falls out. It was heart breaking. How do you explain to a 21 month old that she is moving and no, no one has stolen all your stuff we have just moved it and in about 6 months we are going to do it all over again. Sad. Anyway, she went bananas and then would not let me out of her sight. So we all got in the car and traveled over to Nanach's house, (that is what my kids call my mom, another blog for another day.) We got inside and I could not put her down. She was crying and would literally not peel herself away from me. So I did what any mother would do. I sat on the couch and cried with her. We both just sat and cried for about 30 minutes. It felt good. There is a part of me that will forever be with that Hopkins house. It is a huge part of our faith journey and there are memories there that will never be forgotten. I am grateful for our time there and grateful for new adventures in the hood.

Monday I woke up and was paralyzed with an overwhelming sense of not knowing where any of my belongings were. I am a very OC type person and for me not to be organized and to be living in chaos about puts me over the edge. I would like to send out a big thank you to my friend Meredeth who kept me from going insane by coming over with a chick fil a sweet tea and biscuit. I love you Mere and am forever indebted to you. I also had to make a Target run with Bennett and Emma, which was a disaster from the beginning. Basically I had to buy so much stuff that Emma would not fit in the basket which she thought was wonderful and proceeded to run around and grab everything she laid eyes on. At the end she was walking out with a Milkyway candy bar and as I was paying the lady behind the counter said, "umm where you going to pay for that?" I wanted to respond and say, "no, I bring my 2 year old to shop lift the candy bars while I have you distracted paying the $300 for all of these other items." I refrained with some great self control and said yes, and ate the candy bar as soon as I could. It was so worth it.

Tuesday we finally closed on the house. Praise the Lord!!! It felt good and weird all at the same time. I took the keys over to Marcus after we signed the papers and stopped to hug a few of my neighbors on the way out. Sweet sweet relationships, that's what happens in the hood that the media does not report on.

Wednesday Preston came home with a fever and a cough. I was sure we had the swine flu but we do not. Just a bad viral cold. Truthfully I think all of our bodies are wearing down from the stress of the move. It's funny but when you tell people you are moving, not one single person looks at you and says, oh, that's great, but everyone says...bless your heart. And here is the bad part this is just phase I, we have to do it all over again.

So this week is coming to a close and I have learned a lot. A lot about friendships, what stress can do to a body, how a 2 year old responds to a move, and how to roll with the punches of not being organized. But here is the greatest lesson of all. Last week I heard someone read

Psalm 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits-

That one verse has carried me through every emotion this week. We are beneficiaries and beneficiaries of the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. So when I am tired, wanting to cry, scream or whatever I remember who I belong to, what it cost Him, and how I benefit from it. And if nothing else good ever happens in my life, He has done enough.