bsmiles and sunny days

Awanas continues to garner " oo's and ah's " from the Sutton tribe. A few weeks ago, we picked up four pinewood derby car kits to prepare for this thrilling event that we turned in last week. Along with the official turn in date, we were asked to make more life-size cars out of cardboard boxes that the kids would be able to sit in for the movie. This was all the rage all week long; the kids were cutting and painting and scribbling and constructing and begging boxes off all the neighbors because their mother has whittled their possessions down to sole necessity items, which means despite two moves in that past eighteen months, they do not have one single extra box to speak of. Anyway, to add to the magic of the evening, the Awana coordinator called about an hour before meeting time to tell us the kids could also come in their pajamas. It was the best news they've ever gotten over the phone, you would've thought. So, pajama clad with box-cars in tow, we hea...

...and I adore them all. My relationships with each one is distinctively different than the other two because they are very, very different. Of the three of them, I have characteristics most similar to T.R., birth-order personality traits most like Jon, and in almost every way I'm the least like David, my oldest brother. He set the standard for cool in our house growing up, while I was always a little on the dorky tip. He ruled most of the us younger siblings with an iron fist, but that's a story for another day. I don't think I'd be out of line in saying that we all sort of idolized him, even when he was chucking hunting knives into his bedroom walls. For the last decade or so he's been living in beautiful Colorado mountains where he works as a meticulous craftsman of sorts, raises alpacas, and snowboards in his backyard. He's still very cool; I'm pretty sure he's outgrown the knife chucking, but I can't verify with documentation or anything. A few ...

I was beyond tired last night, past irrational, into survival mode existence. What I missed in that last quote is that it said, "the end is not in sight..." The end for me is sight, in less than two weeks, and with that many joys are in store for me and my family. Just thought I should clear that up. These wild swings of emotion that bounce me from one pole to the other with no warning, hence the word bi-polar , both frighten and consume me. Long ago after I got married, Dale and I made a trip back to Springfield where we met in college. We spent most of our weekend with my college roommate, Christina, who invited lots of our former friends and acquaintances to come and hang out while we were in town. One of the friends that came was also named Christina, Christina Todd. She and I had a deep spiritual connection during our time at school, but when we went separate ways, we lost touch. *I would love to find her, if you know how to get a hold of her!* What was shocking about h...

Some gems from Paul's recent piece : "A job at a big company is like high fructose corn syrup: it has some of the qualities of things you're meant to like, but is disastrously lacking in others." I don't know who Paul Graham is and I don't have a job at a big company, but I've been a part of a couple of big churches which is what made me love this quote because it's so apropos. I overheard a conversation today between two women, members of the same church, bemoaning the impossibility of true connections among the other members due to the busyness and size of the parish. "You can only really get to know people if you make a place for yourself there. It's just the way it is." I attended this church on a couple of occasions and left because of this very thing, only to find that it's the same where I am now, only on the surface this church is much more friendly. While I don't love going to church, I am glad we go to the church we go t...

Alright, let's be reasonable. I'm not quite ready to sell the dogs. I think if we had to take a vote in the house, and the truth be told, I would go up for bids long before those mutts would. No one would be brave enough to say that out loud, but they love those dogs; everyone else in the house loves those dogs. So I treated Scooder again and ordered some heavy duty doggie drugs to combat the fleas. We are planning a blitzkrieg against them as soon as the drugs arrive in the mail. That gives me some reassurance that the problem with be taken care of before our sweet miracle comes home with us to stay. Regarding Max, I don't know if he is sensing the desperation or what, but he has decided he'd rather sleep all night than to be locked in his kennel for long stretches of it. For two nights he has stayed put and not chewed anything until we are up. Thank You, God, Your mercy abounds even to a wretch like me. My sincere apologies to those of you that had hoped to purchase...

I have been dreaming up this post for several days- nights actually; every time I get woken up it takes me a good forty minutes to get back to sleep- since I've realized that the baby is going to come and make it's presence known very soon and with that the realization that I am about to start living on torture sleep schedule again, waking every hour or two to tend to a new life. I haven't minded too much that Max needs to go to the bathroom at 4:30 every morning because usually I do too. But when he started getting up twice, I started to get mad. And when I realized that no one else was going to let him out when he ran up the hall, I got a little madder. And when he got up early and chewed up a brand new bottle of expensive lotion, I flew into a rage. I have since apologized to all who witnessed the fury, and thankfully I didn't cause any physical harm to the puppy, but it was probably because the only thing within my grasp was a pair of light pajama bottoms and I ...

Yep. It's Friday. It's already Friday and I haven't published a word in three days. Please forgive me if I don't come around as much as I normally do. And please don't feel discouraged if I don't return your phone call. As a matter of fact, if you ring my doorbell and I yell from the back for five minutes to just wait and then I never answer the door, it's not you, it's me. I'm getting a little flaky. I mean, it's not uncharacteristic of me to be flaky in various situations at random times of the day, but right now it's becoming more and more real to me that I'm having a baby soon and quite honestly, it's a bit overwhelming; the thought of bringing home a sweet smelling bundle of wonder into our little dollhouse to live the transient life that is coming in trying to find the quietest room to sleep in and shifting all the clothes so that there's a place to keep the onsies... it's all hitting pretty close to home. It hit...

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things about going on vacation was lizard hunting. I don't remember catching them personally, but I remember the thrill we all shared when one of the boys caught one. Sarah was never squeamish about that kind of thing so she very well may have been one of the catchers too. At any rate, we never lived where lizards ran free so it was always exciting when we had one in our possession. Some things just don't change. It has been warm here for a week or so which has brought the lizards out from under the sidewalks, and that has coaxed my children out into the sun for hours on end. They are all sunburned from this new activity. After the neighbors dropped yet another lizard off at our house yesterday, this one twice the size of any my children had found, I decided to drop the bomb. Being the generous, warm-hearted soul that I am, I announced yesterday that we would not be keep all the lizards we find, along with a long discourse on how whe...

If we have to live out here a million miles from home, I might as well have a baby every spring. My house is getting really clean, I'm getting things done that I've been meaning to tend to since we moved in, and we will be seeing family we haven't seen in a year!!! I'm really starting to get excited. This week I cleaned the kids' rooms first instead of saving the insurmountable mountain for the last thing on the to-do list after pedicure. Seriously, it has saved me SO MUCH GRIEF!!! I have been checking on the rooms every couple of hours to make sure all my hard work doesn't get away from me. It helps to move furniture because the most dreadful aspect of the task is what is hiding under and behind the beds. So rather than send the kids under with a trash bag, I move the entire piece of furniture to different part of the room and start sweeping at one end until I have a pile at the other end. Generally three-fourths of it is trash and the other part contain...

As much as I would've liked to stitch together costumes for Purim resembling Kings and Queens of Bible times, I did not. Like most of my great ideas for events like this, I waited until three o'clock the day of the party and then said, " What'r you guys gonna wear tonight?" Obviously I have a creative bunch of children that are willing and able to participate in any sort of celebration full throttle. The girls wore their poodle skirts and scarves and t-shirts with butterflies on them, Leila wore a *fancy dress*, Tre wore his karate suit with a greet towel tied to his head with black yarn, and Micah chose not to dress up but to stick with the old faithful Conquistadors football jersey. Even though we didn't much resemble Bible characters, except for the karate/shepherd, everyone but Micah went up for the costume contest. Kennedy was sincerely surprised that she didn't win the costume with her kimono wrap and poodle skirt with full slip. I told her...

We had a great day starting with Kennedy's pancakes, which she decorated with food coloring markers. Dale got up too early for breakfast in bed, I think he was excited to see what we had in store for him. Besides, you can't really eat pancakes in bed without a real serving tray. The disposable aluminum tray wasn't going to cut it this time. After breakfast the kids gave him their presents, which he cheered and adored. Then there was a rousing game of Pin the Tale on the Donkey. Since you couldn't be here, I captured the greatest moment of the day so that you could share it with us. We had delicious In-n-Out Burger for lunch, video games at Boomers, shopping at Target, and grilled hot dogs for dinner. It was beautiful so we spent part of the afternoon at the park. A chocolate layer cake and a carrot cake will be doled out into the neighborhood as soon as I get home from Bible study today. Wish you were here, I'd drop some off to you. These are the days I...

Dale's birthday is never predictable. He doesn't like the fact that everyday makes him one day older, and he especially doesn't like that each year we landmark the fact that another year has passed with a party and celebrations of various sorts. To combat the birthday blues, I generally try to dream up something that will surprise him enough to distract him from the inevitable, if only for the day. When he turned thirty, I invited some of our college friends to come from far and wide to stay the weekend and party with us. When he turned thirty-two I wrote him a poem. Last year I had the honor of requesting he get half the day off to spend with us; I called his boss directly. You know the unreasonable master mentioned in the Bible? That's the kind of boss we're talking about. I sweet-talked him with the promise of a chocolate cake and he conceded to let him go. It was the greatest gift for him because he was working such relentless hours and he was exhausted. This ye...

My mom is quite the seamstress. As kids, my sister and I wore a handmade Easter dress almost every year until we discovered the wonder of shopping. After we started building our family, I knew she would be creating all kinds of beautiful things for Kennedy and she did. When she told me she was making a little dress for Leila I was anxious to get it in the mail; Leila loves to dress up so I knew it would be super exciting for her. This little number turned out to be a little more detailed than my mom expected it to be. Not only is there a zipper, a side-zipper at that, there is a full tool slip underneath to give it a greater spin factor. If you don't sew, I'll tell you that a zipper is much more complicated than buttons and buttonholes. I've never even done a side zipper, but because it is not along a main seam line, I'm sure it's tricky. The slip... the lining... that's out of my league. But wasn't it worth it? Look at how precious she is!!! The...

You just wouldn't believe how fantastic the sights are out here. The boats always mesmerize all of us. There's just something about being able to load up in one of those and sail off into the wild blue yonder; it's a fun thought even though I get terrible motion sickness in the car and have never sailed before. I'm sure I'd be sick as a dog the entire time we were sailing, but it's fun to dream. This little crab was just busy working away on this rock, running in and out of the water while we watched. I still can't believe we can lean over a railing and see such things in everyday life. I love the starfish too. One day we were walking on the beach and saw an otter carcass had washed way up on the beach in the night. It looked like a pile of furry seaweed until we walked all the way around it and it was barring it's nasty little teeth in the final moments of it's life, and that's how he stayed. It's just amazing to me. We walked all the way ...

It never occured to me the effects that living in California would produce in my children. A couple of weeks ago I asked the kids to paint a tree for art, the way an artist sees a tree. Jasmine painted a black tree with red apples on it that was pretty typical otherwise- it had a puffly, cloudy top and a chunky bark. Tre, however, painted a palm tree. His had apples in it too. I thought it was so adorable I couldn't wait to take it to conferences and share how he sees the world differently now that we are Californians. I was not as excited when I saw this sign. Jasmine came in and asked me how to spell homeless the day she made this sign. I asked her why she was making it and she said, "I want to see if I can get some money." On a weekly basis we pass a surfer-looking kid in his twenties standing on the corner outside of Wal-Mart holding a sign asking for some kind of help. Some of the same kids frequent the corner; some of the others looking for help stand on bu...

The other night I drove to Wal-Mart by myself to get dog food since we spent the day out and the dogs spent the day locked up only to discover that they would not be fed at the end of the day. While I occasionally despise them, I also feel bad for their small lives knowing that the only joy they experience comes from us and when we don't feel like giving them any it must make their existence pretty unbearable. On the way to Wal-Mart I heard a clip of a guy speaking. He started by asking the audience to think about the last seven times they said I love you. And then to consider how many of those times by saying that, they meant they were surrendering their rights to be placed under the priority of the other person's. Then he said, "Not exactly, right? What you meant was, 'I love what you do for me." I don't know who it was or even what station it was, but those words have been rolling through my mind for days. I can't even begin to tell you what lies swirl ...

The Friday morning Bible study completed the book of Habakkuk and commenced a new study of 1 John. As I was finishing up my homework for the first lesson, I found myself wondering how the content could be so appropriate to my circumstances again! That's when it occurred to me that the Word of God is living and active. It spans every generation and every culture. It is eternal, both directions. And yet I find myself so surprised that it fits me like a glove every time I put it on. Am I so naive to think that God cannot really know how to set me up with tools for living a life in His shadow when I need them? And why am I not devouring this Book, pages at a time, every spare second that I have? I'll tell you what is the most striking to me right now. 1 John speaks directly to the hypocrite in that if you say you are without sin, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. However, if you obey the Word, then you can rest assured that Jesus Christ is who you say that He is in your l...