Not Just Any Ol' Moon

Last Thursday night I did something that someone who is in their 30's with children probably should not do. I went with 5 girlfriends to see New Moon, seeing the movie is not the problem. Seeing the movie at 12:06am and not getting into the bed until 3:30am....that is the the problem. Today is Sunday and I am still feeling the effects. In fact they seem worse today than any other day. I am exhausted. My body is saying, "please girl don't you know we passed this phase of life up years ago?" Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

We all met at Huey's first for some great hang out time plus a little quiz. My friend Ashleigh had some great review questions just to see which one of us really was the psycho, I mean fanatic. Tona won by a long shot. She even remembered Bella's birthday. After leaving Huey's we proceeded to the theater, which I would like to add here that they had 6 screens at the midnight showing of the film. All 6 were sold out. Some people are sick. Oh wait, maybe that was me, I was there too :).

The movie was actually pretty good. Much better than the first one. I would definitely recommend it. While we were all sitting at Huey's we began talking about how it is the "scenes" in life that you remember. The memory makers, not the day to day mundane stuff. I am grateful to have a life full of family and friends to create "scenes" with.

Braxton and I have been to a couple of parenting events lately and they all say that same thing. Create memories for your children. Give them experiences. When they are in their adult life they won't look back and remember how much laundry you did, how clean your house was, or if the lawn was neat and tidy but they will remember the experiences, the "scenes" you created for them.

I will forever remember the night I went with my girlfriends at midnight and watched New Moon. Thanks girls! Let's never be too old to make a memory like that!

House Update

Our house is coming along great. This week they are finishing up the drywall. You will notice from this picture that there are two windows missing. That is on purpose. It is a new design technique that allows for a woodsy dark feel to your home. Just kidding. They are on back order and just have not come in yet. The big mound of dirt you see in the front of this picture is what Bennett refers to as the biggest ant hill EVER. Hopefully it will be gone soon, much to Bennett's dismay. He begs to jump in it every time we go by the house. But Bennett, what if there really are ants in there? It's okay mom, I am not allergic. The child has never been in an ant hill and has never been bitten by an ant to my knowledge but somehow he knows he is not allergic. Whatever. I personally think there is a better chance of mice being in there than ants. No real reason I think this, just the fact that our city has stopped killing mice or shall I say rats (cause letting disease infested rodents run rampant in a city makes great sense...here comes the rat flu, you watch) and one of our friends who lives on the street says he has had some in his house lately. Do mice like sandy dirt? Could someone google that for me and let me know, last time I googled some sort of creature (more specifically Camel Crickets) I had nightmares for weeks.

Sorry for the rambling. We are so ready to be back in the hood. Mom's house has been great and I really don't want to move before the holidays but if we could move in January that would be awesome. Today I was in the gym at Bennett's basketball practice and a kid from our neighborhood ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug. He said, "I have not seen you in FOREVER." It is good to feel loved like that. I hope he knows we love him just as much and can't wait to get back.

Someday

Tonight I rub your back

because someday comes too soon

Tonight I sing you a song

because someday won't be long

Night Night blankies, toys and pacifiers

traded in for friends, dates and tires

Tonight I rub your back

because someday you won't ask me to

Tonight I sing you a song

because someday you'll be too busy for me to

Missing teeth, giggles and bedtime kisses

traded in for that special girl or prince charming wishes

Tonight I rub your back

because someday you'll be grown

Tonight I sing you a song

because someday I hope you'll have your own

Birthday cakes, buzz cuts, and pigtails

traded in for wedding cakes,tuxes, and veils

Tonight I rub your back

because someday comes too soon

Tonight I sing you a song

because someday won't be long

-Carrie Brady

written for my three beautiful children

I love rubbing your back and singing you songs

November 9,2009

Risks

It was my 20th time into Sherwin Williams paint store. Okay maybe not 20th but close enough. I could not make a hard and fast decision about the exterior paint color of our home. I thought I had my mind set on something but if you have ever painted anything you know that sometimes what the paint color looks like on the little card is not necessarily what it looks like on your wall or on the siding of your home. But it was about 2 weeks ago when I had decided I was walking into this paint store for the last time. To decide an exterior color at least, I knew there would be more drama ahead for the interior but this was the final decision for the exterior. I had gone round and round between light browns, dark browns, medium browns, I was playing it safe. Because that is what I usually do. I am not generally a risk taker. I like control, organization, and safe colors thank you very much. But I had a weak moment and in what I would like to call, giving in to my builder(he wanted red all along), I took a risk. I went with red.

Now part of my worry was that this house already stands out enough, I did not need to paint it barn red to bring anymore attention to it. But I went with Rustic Red just to show I can be a little crazy every once in awhile. Well, last week the exterior was painted and it is absolutely gorgeous if I do say so myself. It has turned out better than I could ever have expected.

Tonight I was reading a newsletter from Bob Lupton. Bob started a ministry in Atlanta www.fcsministries.org a lot like the Binghampton Development Co in Memphis, in fact the BDC actually studied Bob's ministry before they got started. Braxton and I have a lot of respect for Bob. He is a very wise man with lots of "hood" experience. We even had the privilege of having him come to our home one time. He has written a book called Return Flight that I highly recommend. Anyway, in his newsletter this month he speaks of risks. Not paint color risks but real risks. It made me laugh because I realized that truly I have been a risk taker all along I was just wondrously covered in God's grace so much I did not even realize it.

This is what Bob says when speaking of cross-cultural ministry, "If we were aware of all the potential pitfalls, if we understood all the risks, if we waited until the way ahead was safe and predictable, we probably would never embark on the journey."

I am so glad that God did put some risk taker into this obsessive compulsive, type A, pick a safe color so your neighbors won't gawk, body. I am glad because so far this journey He has had us on for the past 4 years has been amazing and just like the red paint color of my home, it has been better than I could ever have expected.

Along Came a Spider

We like themes in the Brady household! So this year for Halloween our children went as a theme. Braxton wanted them to originally go as a Sonic combo, Emma the tater tots, Bennett the cheeseburger and Preston a route 44 drink. Well, two things about that. One, I don't sew and two I did not have the time or the money to put that little ditty together. So we went with option 2. Emma was a spider thanks to my aunt Laura and a great spider costume find at Marshall's. Preston was the spider web and Bennett was the exterminator. He wanted to be Dr. Toxic and he wore Preston's costume from 2 or 3 years ago when he was Dr. Toxic. But I told Bennett the exterminator was way more cool and he could carry around a squirt bottle labeled, THE EXTERMINATOR. He agreed but proceeded to go around the rest of the night and tell people that his costume doubled as "Dr. Toxic/The Exterminator." Kind of like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. And by the sugar high at the end of the night he was acting much like Jekyl and Hyde.

We had a fun night. We met over on our new street with the Parkinson family and three other families. We had pizza and then went over to a friend's neighborhood to trick or treat. Currently there is not much trick or treating in our neck of the hood but we plan on changing that next year when we move in. Braxton has great thoughts and plans on what we can do for the neighborhood to make it fun. Emma and her friend Romey were so cute together. Romey was a bird in a nest, Romey's mom does sew, so her costume was cute and creative.

The kids got a ton of candy. Emma was hilarious. As we approached the first house she took off running to the front door. Well she got tangled up in her costume and went flying through the air and landed on her belly. Luckily there was so much padding in the costume she was not hurt at all. She jumped right up and said, "I okay, I okay." And went right on up to the door. She then took some candy and started walking right in the person's home. I mean if they are nice enough to give out candy why not go in and sit awhile. It was so funny! It brought back memories of when Preston and our good friend Camille tried to do that when they were that age at the Dorman home. Luckily when that happened we knew the Dormans. I had no idea who these people were. Anyway, we grabbed her up and put her in her stroller to go to more houses. She was not interested. She just sat in her stroller and ate her skittles, very content with one bag. I kept trying to get her to go to more houses and then it occurred to me that I was encouraging gluttony in my 2 year old. So I let it go.

Halloween was also a treat in itself this year that if fell on a Saturday night, not a school night and it was time to turn our clocks back. So the sugar shock was able to wear itself off in plenty of time for church this morning.