tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-319673262024-03-07T16:49:22.287-06:00Hodges HappeningsKim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.comBlogger313125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-50218506791685518782011-10-17T12:54:00.000-05:002011-10-17T12:54:18.976-05:00You Can't Make This Stuff UpI took Bison, our almost 10-year-old pug, to the vet today. He's overweight, as always, we need to brush his teeth more and cut his nails, as always. The new development today was that he had a fatty tumor on his side that had to be tested. Thankfully, it was just that, a benign fatty tumor, that causes no problems and needs no treatment. His heartworm test also came back negative. Good deal. Prevention works.<br />
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So we head home. Bison is riding in the floor of the passenger's side. I drive into the garage, as always, hop out and toss my keys in the seat, as always, and as I'm walking around the front of the car, I hear this all-too familiar "CLICK." I freeze, then look at Bison. He had hopped up into the seat and put his paws up on the door and, you guessed it, locked the door.<br />
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You've got to be kidding me. "I'm sorry, I can't come pick up my kids from preschool. My dog locked my keys in my car." Who's going to believe that?!<br />
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Try as I may, I could not get Bison to UNlock the door. He was, however, successful at locking the door a second time. Amazing.<br />
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I called John, who is riding in a car full of the church office staff, as today is staff lunch day. They were finishing up lunch and graciously agreed to drive down to Flint to rescue Bison and enable me to drive back into town to get my kids, which I will do in about 20 minutes. The looks on their faces as I raised that garage door was priceless. Big grins, big waves. I was mortified. And poor Bison couldn't figure out why I was just now letting him out of the car!<br />
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Oh, Bison ...Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-24540019217366841182011-10-08T00:17:00.001-05:002011-10-08T00:17:51.097-05:00Well, this is embarrassing ...My lack of presence in the blogger world is not because of how busy we've been, or because of any injury or illness, or because of technology issues. There is no good reason.<br /><br />And y'all are just gonna have to love me anyway.<br /><br />Please?<br /><br />The summer was great. We didn't do just a ton of things. No camps or sports or even very many friend play dates. I really felt like a mother hen gathering all of her chicks under my wings and just spending time together. I think it's what we needed. It's what I needed, apparently! We did do lots of fun things together, so I'll try to highlight those.<br /><br />Mamaw and Mom came down over Memorial Day weekend! We shopped and cooked and played. What could be better? But no pictures. :(<br /><br />But HERE are some pictures from our family photo shoot on Memorial Day!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222275264/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6158/6222275264_b27c911a4e.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222275402/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6111/6222275402_1c5c298d8e_b.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222275520/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6224/6222275520_b8d3643363_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221754935/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6221754935_45ba0336d8_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221755049/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6221755049_8bc1d14a0e.jpg' border='0' width='212' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222275784/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6215/6222275784_e415120e56_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Those are my favorites!<br /><br />Glenwood hired a new preacher! We are so excited to have Wes Crawford on staff. We are getting to know his family, and they are just precious. God had worked through this long process, and now, finally, we are seeing what He had been up to!<br /><br />Here's Kate in here "little black dress":<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222275908/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/6222275908_e3a7c57c5b_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />So it's a onesie, but it was perfect for all occasions.<br /><br />John's sister Laurie, and daughter Brenna, came for a visit In June! We enjoyed eating at Daniel Boone's (a cultural experience) and also Orange Leaf (better than TCBY).<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276026/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/6222276026_507fd2d2b3_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Flat Stanley also made it into the picture. Johnathan did this project over the summer ... And the 2nd grade teachers haven't mentioned it yet. Guess Flat Stanley fell right off the priority list!<br /><br />Johnathan turned 7! For his birthday, he took his friend Silas to LegoLand in Dallas. They boys had a great time, of course. We also learned our lesson (during the 2-hour line to get in) that it's best to arrive before the doors open!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276144/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6222/6222276144_061b5503a9_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Clearly Vocal finished up recording our one song over the summer! "Pulse," one of our originals, will be available on iTunes soon! Stay tuned for more info on that. And baby Camdyn was born to Andy and Stefanie. Kate and Camdyn get to spend a lot of time together at rehearsal!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276272/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6222276272_558d4d8179_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Kalleigh and John went on a Daddy/Daughter date at Chick-Fil-A close to Father's Day. CFA came up with the whole idea. They had to make reservations and everything! There were roses on each table and a take-home goodie bag. What a great idea!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276384/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6032/6222276384_bc9835cd95_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I'll just be posting random pictures of cuteness (RPC), too. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221755861/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6224/6221755861_b9699840ce_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I had heard that the Moby wraps were the best in the world. I also knew they were quite pricy. Then I saw a lady wearing what I thought was one, except the material had a cute print. I asked her if it was a Moby, and she told me no; that it was $1/yd fabric from Wal-Mart and that she had looked up on the Moby website how to wrap it up! Brilliant! So I did the same thing. I also found that there are LOTS of ways to tie up a baby! Wait. That came out wrong.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276680/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6151/6222276680_6fa5abd474_b.jpg' border='0' width='169' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />This was a fun game. You freeze like this until somebody laughs. Good times. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221756105/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6105/6221756105_c13be7796d_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Our big family trip was going to Colorado to meet Kreg and Keleigh's newest addition, Baby Tucker. Our trip overlapped Mom and Craig's trip out there, so it was fun to see them, too! We hit Estes Park for a day:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222276916/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6111/6222276916_76c4a074da_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> The cousins had so much fun together!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222277044/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6222277044_50acdf10df_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We conquered the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and met up with some friends from when we lived in COS! It was so good to see Amanda and Kisti and their children. Looks like everyone was busy since we left!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222277144/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6060/6222277144_b9f9335635_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We also got to see Tiffany, Todd and River for a few minutes! We put the Curtis babies together as proof that we did actually see them! River, Tucker and wiggly Kate.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221756627/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6019/6221756627_fb002e5407_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />RPC:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222277384/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6222277384_b5467a91e4_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Later in July, the kids and I ran up to AR while mom had a little surgical procedure. I love this picture of Johnathan holding Nana's hand right out of surgery. He was reading her the story he wrote while we were waiting in the hospital. He's so sweet and thoughtful!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222277508/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6031/6222277508_c1b5bccd28_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />While in AR, we spent a day at the farm. Mamaw and Kate got some good snuggle time in! Mamaw also taught Johnathan a thing or two about playing Jacks!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222277624/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6236/6222277624_c7c2ce6315_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221757099/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6118/6221757099_6597c3f5c5_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />RPC: Priorities :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221757211/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6221757211_634100c22d_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221757347/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6230/6221757347_076dc18d09_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Johnathan is now in second grade, Kalleigh is in Pre-K and Jonas is in the 3-yr-olds class. Both Kalleigh and Jonas go to Little People's School MWF. Everybody is doing well!<br /><br />Meanwhile, I use that time to run. Yes, I'm back at it again. It is just so effective for me. I'm already below where I was when I got pregnant with Kate. Not my littlest, mind you, but I'm on my way! Running is my "me time." time for processing, planning and praying. Alliteration intended.<br /><br />The big kids are playing soccer this fall! They are both enjoying it. Yay!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222278128/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6160/6222278128_620e471202_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221757589/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6117/6221757589_c0f2d420e9_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Mom and Craig came down this past weekend to see the kids play. Craig was just 4 weeks out of open heart surgery, and looked GREAT! I was so impressed. They also brought down a bedroom set that they weren't using! So Kalleigh got a new bed. Not all of the pieces fit in the girls' room just yet with the crib and the changing table still in there, but we got the bed and the desk to fit! Kalleigh just loves it.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222278358/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6167/6222278358_5cea06cc28_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222278482/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6105/6222278482_1c1ec21844_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Mom and Craig got to hear Clearly Vocal perform on Saturday night, and then went with us to hang out at our favorite restaurant, Julian's, for John's 37th birthday! What a fun night!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222278576/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6036/6222278576_3d272f1771_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />RPC: Bath time!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221758027/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6232/6221758027_38edc5ed31_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Kalleigh's 5th birthday was Sunday. This was a "friends party" year for her, so we doubled up with her best buddy, Abby, and had a joint party at Jumpin' Jack's! They requested a ballerina cake, so Barbie was up to bat:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221758175/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6091/6221758175_49d9fef66e_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The girls had a blast!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6222278918/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6238/6222278918_eeb93f0339_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And so did Jonas.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/6221758423/'><img src='http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6171/6221758423_7aaac654e0_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Obviously.<br /><br />There is so much more, but this will have to do. Surely I won't go another third of a year without posting anything ... Surely.<br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-20826455590379456142011-05-23T14:12:00.001-05:002011-05-23T14:12:33.446-05:00Another Pictures/Captions Post Eliminating the Need for a Real TitleMay has been a good month in many ways. It hasn't been nearly as hectic as April was, but probably more so than June will be. Kalleigh and Jonas are done with Little People's School for the year and Johnathan has six more days of first grade. It's had its ups and downs. Some days are like this:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751552125/'><img src='http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/5751552125_81535bcb1e_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Others like this:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752097986/'><img src='http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3561/5752097986_9f03132503_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And when we're lucky, they're like this:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752098466/'><img src='http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/5752098466_f25e0c47cc_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We've grown food:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752098744/'><img src='http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3274/5752098744_d1fd927263_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And made food:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751553665/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5223/5751553665_b4eaa33574_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We've driven places some:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751554029/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5027/5751554029_474b7f1789_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And stayed home some:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751554571/'><img src='http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3296/5751554571_d63e424206_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We've read:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752100406/'><img src='http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2234/5752100406_e72acc660d_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And slept:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751555453/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5268/5751555453_effb5405fe_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And kissed:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751555777/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5264/5751555777_3dbc280ab8_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='188' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And hugged:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752101364/'><img src='http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/5752101364_725cd2ae8b_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And sung:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751556431/'><img src='http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2551/5751556431_c6ed89c3d5_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><i>(That's Andy. CV is recording!)</i><br /><br />And swung:<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5752102166/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5181/5752102166_8a96ae1213_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='202' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />And best of all, we still love each other!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5751557233/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5103/5751557233_ef09454503_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-87865207919622588002011-04-21T11:43:00.001-05:002011-04-21T11:43:55.302-05:00The past five weeks ...... have been absolutely insane, but SO fun! I'll need to refer back to the calendar to remember it all. Sorry for the delay in posting.<br /><br />Way back at the end of March, the kids and I took John to the DFW airport on a Friday so that he could represent Clearly Vocal at the VoCAL Nation A Cappella Festival in NYC. While we were in Dallas for the day, the kids and I decided to go to the Dallas Arboretum. Oh, it was beautiful! All of the tulips were out, my favorite. Kate was just four weeks, but she did great!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640529025/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5640529025_719261f879_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640529247/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5301/5640529247_039ea9f12d_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640529549/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5264/5640529549_eea11f003e_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />That night, my brother Kreg, his wife Keleigh, and their son Westin came all the way from Colorado Springs for a visit over a weekend. My mom and her husband Craig drove down from Searcy as well. It was nice to have some help! The cousins had so much fun playing together. So wish we could see each other more often!<br /><br />Westin meets cousin Kate. That face!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640529775/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5640529775_c038be0939_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Nana and Pops and the grands.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640530039/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5145/5640530039_6c1ba120a9_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Silly Uncle Kreg!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640530343/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5226/5640530343_58acc357f6_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Sweet Kalleigh.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5641101318/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/5641101318_298ae00e63_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />While playing on the Brookshire's playground, Keleigh and I were watching the kids play on the monkey bars. I was saying that I was getting so much more confident in Johnathan's climbing abilities and that I just didn't get as worried about him falling as I used to when he was younger. At that moment, Johnathan came running over to us, screaming, with blood dripping from his mouth. He had bitten his tongue--badly! Thankfully, he was missing his two front teeth already, so he didn't bite all the way through. He bit a nice chunk out, though. Sheesh. I felt so bad for him!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5641101518/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5641101518_295ee82dbf_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We got one last picture in the Texas bluebonnets.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640531099/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5185/5640531099_bcedc46356_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The next couple of weeks, we spent getting ready to host the third annual East Texas A Cappella Celebration. It was on April 9th. We had four other groups sing in addition to Clearly Vocal representing choral music, contemporary Christian, gospel and barbershop. It was a great evening!<br /><br />John always does such a good job making the programs. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5641102014/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5301/5641102014_4eca2e9eb7_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />I tried jogging some when Kate was 6 weeks. I made it a mile, then walked a mile. Then just gave it up for a while. What was I thinking?<br /><br />Then began the craziest week of all. After the concert on Saturday my friend Chelsea and I began getting ready for Rodeo Roundup at Little People's School where Kalleigh and Jonas attend. I was in charge of the kitchen again this year, which means feeding about 300 people over two days. Oh, and my friend Stefanie and I were in charge of the Glenwood ladies retreat that was the following weekend. No bigs.<br /><br />Monday was probably the most hectic day. I dropped the kids off at their respective schools, helped Chelsea decorate the gym for RRU, sent information letters out to all of the ladies telling them what to bring and how to get there, went to Sam's and bought the food for the 300 people and unloaded it into the kitchen, picked up K2 and J3 from preschool, got them plus K3 down for naps, assigned roommates for the ladies retreat and called the camp coordinator with my final numbers, got J2 from school, helped him with homework, loaded all four kids (that's Js 2&3 and Ks2&3, because John and I are J1&K1, of course!) into the van, picked up some Bueno and then went to Clearly Vocal rehearsal. Well, I left out feeding Kate every three hours, but that's a given. Whew!<br /><br />So, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings were spent in boots and bandanas serving hot dogs and chili to the preschoolers of Little People's School and their parents. That's always fun! I had a good crew of parents helping me out, too!<br /><br />Thursday was spent doing last minute ladies retreat stuff: buying & stuffing folders, making copies, and most importantly, preparing for the entertainment! I decided that I would do a presentation Saturday night before the bonfire on how to roast the perfect marshmallow ... as Beth Moore! It was too fun. Our Ladies Bible class had done her study on Daniel, so I spent one of the video sessions writing down all of her funny phrases. I incorporated them into some flowery instructions on roasting marshmallows that I had found online, and it was done. Oh, and I made a fill-in-the-blank handout. :)<br /><br />The ladies retreat was Friday - Sunday. The theme was "Talk Amongst Yourselves," focusing on our speech. We brought in a group of five ladies from Abilene called The Coffee Group to be our speakers. I really appreciated all of the preparation they put into their lessons, and we had some GREAT discussion time in our small groups.<br /><br />Saturday night for the Beth Moore marshmallow thing, I wore a blondish wig, a bright green jacket with a sparkly yellow scarf, khaki pants, and huge heels. It was so fun, and the ladies were in stitches! Wish I had a picture or a video!<br /><br />Sunday morning, we had to do a sunrise service with breakfast following. Stefanie and I had to get back to Tyler to church because Ronnie White, our interim preacher, had asked Clearly Vocal to sing a special song after his sermon. I think many of the ladies, especially the elders' wives, enjoyed being back at Glenwood for services anyway.<br /><br />Now we're caught up to this week-Yea! Monday, Kate had a check-up. She's up to eleven pounds! Such a cutie.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5641102210/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5641102210_8f360d6f74_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Tuesday was my first Tuesday home since January. I guess I was a little bored, so I made Kalleigh and me matching dresses. It was SO easy. I don't even have a sewing machine any more! I bought this bolt of dress fabric for $1/yd with the intention of cutting off the top and making a Moby wrap for Kate. <br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640531825/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5107/5640531825_e2aeaa72f8_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />When Kalleigh saw it she asked, "Mommy! Are you making a dress for me?!?" She was just too excited, and I realized how easy it would be. So I did. And then I made one for me, too. And I still have enough fabric for the wrap.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5641102706/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5641102706_0c257384a4_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Tonight, Clearly Vocal is singing for a local retirement center's Passion In the Park celebration. Then we're heading to a Mercy Me concert tomorrow night with friends while the three big kids spend the night with the Deans. And then it's Easter weekend and Kate will be eight weeks old!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5640532251/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5640532251_e6a52c1033_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Happy Easter!<br /><br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-31144134451295028672011-03-19T22:27:00.001-05:002011-03-19T22:27:46.917-05:003 weeksHow in the world has three weeks gone by! Everybody says the same thing, but it's so true. It's so hard to imagine that Kate was still inside of me three weeks ago today.<br /><br />We've had a very good three weeks. Of course Mom was here when Kate was born that Sunday, but then had to leave on Monday afternoon. John took off work most of the rest of that week, and that was really nice! Then Dad came over that Saturday, spent the night (after grilling some fabulous venison-YUM!) and went to church with us the next morning. It was Kate's first Sunday morning!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541958408/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5541958408_aac947889e_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Dad headed home after treating us to lunch and then John's mother came that evening. I was grateful to have her help since that was the beginning of spring break! She stayed through Wednesday before heading back to Searcy.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541379327/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5541379327_32985e7c73_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />The weather was absolutely fabulous during that week, so we spent a lot of time outside.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541379583/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5541379583_2c638f1485_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />On Friday, we went to Faulkner park for a picnic! PER. FECT. WEATHER. I love spring time in east Texas!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541379803/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5541379803_69cfa02e3b_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Saturday night, the Deans kept the older 3 kids while John and I (and Kate) went on a date, courtesy of our friends the Rambins! Chelsea coordinated people bringing us food 3x per week all through March, and Saturday was her night, so she sent us on a date! What a great idea!<br /><br />This week has been all about getting back into a routine and figuring out our "new normal." It's been both challenging and refreshing, frustrating and encouraging. Going from 3-4 kids really isn't that big a deal. It's having a newborn that takes all of your time whether or not you have any other kids in the picture or not!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541959282/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5541959282_709ce829c4_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Johnathan, Kalleigh and Jonas love "loving" on their little sister. Johnathan, my talker, uses his talent and just talks to her while he holds her! She is so content to listen to him. Kalleigh talks about how they will play together when Kate gets bigger and showers her with kisses. Jonas keeps asking to "pet Baby Gate," and so we have the opportunity to teach gentleness. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541959488/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5094/5541959488_8c6082b338_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541959858/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/5541959858_d9fbe9d110_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Last night Kate went with Clearly Vocal to restaurant night. She rode in her sling and did great while we sang for a couple of hours!<br /><br />Today my Aunt Karla and cousin Alissa came to meet Kate. They had been staying at a bed and breakfast nearby and made some time to swing by! It was great to spend time with them. The boys got out of the house, so we had some good girl time.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541960068/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/5541960068_128d8b0434_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='188' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Tomorrow will be the first time that John and I will get all four kids ready and to church by ourselves. We'll see how that goes!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541381055/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/5541381055_73173112ba_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We're looking forward to next weekend when my brother, Kreg, and his family come to visit as well as my mom and her hubby!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5541960484/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/5541960484_d50e649f9b_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-26758964337891825082011-03-03T17:12:00.001-06:002011-03-03T17:12:29.711-06:00Kate Evelyn: A Birth StoryShe's here! Finally, thankfully, she's here. Kate was born on Sunday, February 27, at 11:46 a.m. weighing 9 lbs., 12 oz., and measuring 21 in. long. My biggest baby! We're doing just great, and in my own biased opinion, she's perfect. :)<br /><br />The rest of the story ... for those who want ALL the details:<br /><br />Mom had driven in the previous Tuesday and had planned on staying until Kate arrived. This was going to be just perfect since she had never been able to make it to one of my births before because of how quickly my labors have been! And since I was sure I was going early, Tuesday seemed like the best time.<br /><br />Saturday night I had pretty much given up on Kate arriving while Mom was here. We had spend Wednesday shopping, Thursday housekeeping, Friday walking and working on Ladies Bible Class and her pharmacy admissions work, and Saturday we all went to the zoo. I had eaten strawberries every day that week, since I had eaten strawberries the day before I went into labor with all three other kids. I had done everything I knew to do to get labor going, and it just wasn't happening. She wasn't dropping. I was going to be pregnant forever.<br /><br />I began making my list of clever remarks back to people who would see me at church the next day. "You're still here?" "I can't believe you haven't had that baby yet!" "Are you sure there's only one in there?" "Every time I look at you, it just makes me miserable!" "I thought you would've had that baby a long time ago." "Oh, your face is really swollen. You've got 'the look.'" "Any day now!" "Are you sure you're pregnant? I'm starting to think you made this all up as an excuse to get fat!" Aren't they funny?<br /><br />When I saw my cousin Deborah when she saw pregnant for the first time, back before I had ever been pregnant, I felt at liberty to say, "You're huge!" Deborah, I'm so sorry. That was awful!<br /><br />Thankfully I didn't have to use any of the comebacks I knew I would've regretted saying. About 5:00 Sunday morning, I had a distinct cervical change, to put it tactfully. At first I thought my water had broken, and I dashed to the bathtub expecting "the gush" I had when my water had broken with Jonas. But there was just almost nothing! Not even enough for a steady leak.<br /><br />But it was enough to get labor going. Sure enough, some little contractions began about 30 minutes later. I called my midwife, who agreed that I was headed that way, and then I took a shower. Because everyone knows you should take a shower when labor begins. (?) Then I woke Mom up to give her some time to get ready before we left. The bags were packed, and had been for about 3 weeks now, Kate's car seat was in, even my snack bag was ready. So I got dressed and put my makeup on, which is what I was most concerned about. There would be pictures, of course. We got the kids up and dressed for church and headed out the door! It was baby day!<br /><br />On our way we texted friends and family, including Jerry Frazier, who was on call to lead worship for John! We dropped the kids of at the Dean's house around 7:00. What would we do without church family? They were ready and would take them on to church. And of course we kept Facebook updated!<br /><br />When we arrived at the birth center, I was already dilated to a 6! But sure enough my water had not broken. Contractions were coming consistently, but I had good breaks in between during which I could rest and even joke around a little. :) We used one of the breaks to take a "last pregnant picture ever."<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5495082063/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5495082063_d93fc9ae45_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />My "labor team," as I call them, arrived one at a time. The line up was as follows, in the order of arrival: My midwives, Vicky and Sarah, John and Mom, Chelsea (friend and photographer!), Terry Dean (my Tyler mom), and Kaulie Keele (the kids' favorite babysitter who is on the health track at REL HS and plans to be a neonatal nurse). I was so thankful for this team who each contributed in their own way! What a blessing!<br /><br />I labored in one of the L&D rooms for a while, moving around as I pleased from the bed to the birthing ball to just walking around. I kept my water bottle close and took small sips between contractions to stay hydrated, since I wasn't hooked up to any IVs.<br /><br />After a while I moved into the birthing pool and enjoyed the relaxing warm water. As suspected, I think it did slow my labor down somewhat, but it was worth it! I was so relaxed between contractions that I was actually dozing off! It was nice and warm, and sometimes a little too warm. I called for a cool rag for my face and neck and proceeded to wash off the afore mentioned makeup. Pictures shmictures.<br /><br />Not long after I was an 8, finally, finally, my water broke with a noticeable "POP!" causing everyone to jump up and see what was going on! It was the last comical moment for a while!<br /><br />Warning: Birthing a child is not for the weak or the faint of heart or stomach.<br /><br />Contractions picked up. Boy howdy, did they. I felt like I needed to change positions, so I moved from being reclined in the tub to over on my hands and knees. Then had a huge contraction, almost to the point of pushing. Vicky checked me and said that my cervix was starting to swell and that I needed to get back to my back. Having heard horror stories about that happening, I quickly obeyed!<br /><br />Two contractions later, and not wanting to risk pushing on a swollen cervix, I "calmly asked" if I could push. Yes! was the answer, and with the next big contraction I pushed Kate's head right out! I was hoping to wait for another contraction to push the rest of her out, but her head starting retracting, causing her circulation to be cut off. She started turning blue. Bad blue. At this point, Vicky charged into the water, shoes and all, got me to my feet and yelled, "Call 911!" as she drained the tub. I was now standing/squatting, bent over with my hands on the side of the tub. Everyone was "calmly encouraging" me to continue to push. I was SO tired by that point, and wasn't having another contraction to help! I was pushing as hard as I could, but she was stuck!<br /><br />Then Vicky just did what she needed to do. She reached up "in there" and pulled Kate on out! I think Papaw Curtis would've been proud! How many times had he had to reach up in a cow and pull out that big calf?! Ha! <br /><br />Now she's behind me, having just pulled the purple, non-responsive child out, and she plopped her up on my back. All of this was very surreal, as I was still bending over the tub with my child on my back. No sounds other than the chorus of "Breathe, Kate!" being sung behind me.<br /><br />Then John said he saw her eyes flicker open, at which point, he stopped calling 911. Obviously all of this happened within a matter of seconds, since the call had not even gone through yet! And then we heard that precious gurgly cry. Praise God! They suctioned out her mouth and nose and the crying became stronger. Yea!<br /><br />Now my crying child is still on my back and still attached to "my innards," so Vicky hands her to me through my legs and I sit back down in the now-drained tub to examine my new daughter. She was just perfect! We had a nice long cuddle time while we waited for another contraction for the placenta to make its adorable entry into the world. It took its sweet time, but that was okay. I love that they don't rush that at the birth center. I knew that Kate was getting every last bit of goodness from the cord! Having completed it's job, it decided to come on out, and John did his traditional daddy duty of cutting the cord.<br /><br />Over the next couple of hours, we cuddled and took pictures and all of those fun things. Kate and I had an herbal tea bath, soothing and healing. Amazingly, I did not tear. Sarah and Vicky were both amazed. Sarah even said, "You have, like, I super-perineum!" I was like, "Yeah, that's going on Facebook!" jk ;) Looking back, I'm so grateful for being at the birth center for that somewhat chaotic delivery. If I had been in an hospital and she had gotten stuck like that, they would have given me an episiotomy before I could've blinked. I would still be in a world of hurt today instead of playing outside with my other kids! I'm so thankful to Vicky and her midwifery skills! And for my super-perineum. ;)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5495674230/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5495674230_2c61666ea8_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5495082353/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/5495082353_feaf9b4b98_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5495082537/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/5495082537_baba9852aa_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5495082715/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/5495082715_3d0539813f_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />We went home a couple of hours after Kate was born. It was nice to recover in my own bed. Mom was Super Nana that afternoon and evening taking care of the other three kids, fixing supper, and keeping the laundry going.<br /><br />We did it! And I never want to do it again! I will do whatever I can to keep our family of 6 a family of 6 and no more!<br /><br />I know, famous last words, right?<br /><br />Please, no.<br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-30214723293042357282011-02-08T16:42:00.001-06:002011-02-08T16:42:45.555-06:00Maternity PhotoshootI had the opportunity to have a free photo shoot this past Saturday! Here's the story of how that came about.<br /><br />I finally sold my cowboy crib bedding that I had used for Jonas. Yea for Craigslist! So, I was on Craigslist deleting my post when I noticed another post that said, "Free Maternity Photo shoot: Email me and I will choose 2-3 people from the responses." Uh-huh. What was the catch?<br /><br />Very hesitantly I responded with an, "I'm interested, but I need more details. People don't just give away free photos without wanting something in return." My guard was up big time! She responded saying that she knew it sounded strange, but she really was just building her portfolio. She had plenty of wedding, engagement, senior, family and kid pictures, but no maternity, and she needed some for her website. She then said she'd add me on Facebook and we could go from there.<br /><br />I got her friend request and looked up her information before accepting! Turns out that she is married to the son of the preacher of the Lindale church of Christ just 10 miles north of Tyler, which is where they also attend! Immediately my guard dropped. We were sisters!<br /><br />We scheduled the shoot for Saturday morning when the weather was supposed to be mid-fifties. However, as so often happens, the forecast quickly changed to snow for Friday and highs in the low 40's for Saturday! Of course we were supposed to shoot early in the morning, so it ended up being 25 degrees! Brrr! At first, I was tempted to reschedule, but then I thought about how special it would be to have the memory of the snow in East Texas as I approached Kate's due date. I'm so glad we went ahead and took the pictures!<br /><br />The photographer's name is Shanna-Kaye Fancher, and she did a really nice job. As Shanna-Kaye and I were talking, I learned that she is the oldest of 10 children, had been married a few years and is expecting her first. She asked where I was delivering. I told her I would be delivering at the Labor of Love Birth Center, and she said, "No way! Me, too!" I've never known anyone else personally who had delivered there! What a neat connection we had. To see some of her other work, you can visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.shanna-kaye.com">her website</a>.<br /><br />Here are a few of my favorites:<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5428877319/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/5428877319_5ca8f1607f_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='188' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5429481464/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5429481464_6c4fef3efb_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='188' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5428877815/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5428877815_f6c9b0efd2_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='188' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5429481952/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5139/5429481952_ac940ae1f7_b.jpg' border='0' width='188' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5428878181/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/5428878181_ac4b285fc2_b.jpg' border='0' width='188' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Sunday marked 37 weeks. Won't be long now!<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Tyler%20Railroad%20Yard&z=10'>Tyler Railroad Yard</a></p>Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-39472291041575213352011-01-30T15:37:00.001-06:002011-01-30T15:37:51.346-06:00Ready!I'm 36 weeks along with Miss Kate Evelyn and am entering the "Miserable Phase." It's all normal stuff, so I don't really have much room to complain, but each time I have gotten to this point in my pregnancies, I have remembered why I have no fear of delivery. I will do anything to be done being pregnant!<br /><br />This pregnancy, more than any others, I have been humbly reminded how blessed I have been to have four healthy pregnancies with only one early miscarriage. During the past year I have had three friends from church with ectopic pregnancies, and two who have had to be on bed rest for a huge chunck of their pregnancies! Several other friends and even family members have miscarried as well. It seemed like a healthy pregnancy was the exception. I don't know why God allowed it to happen this way, but like I said, I have been so thankful for that.<br /><br />I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow morning. It's hard to believe that we're already "checking" to see if I'm making any progress! This pregnancy has absolutely flown. In some ways it's hard to believe that February is just a couple days away. But then it also seems like it couldn't have gotten here quickly enough!<br /><br />So I did the whole pink girl room thing with Kalleigh. It was adorable and I loved it, but I was ready for a change with Kate. Her nursery is zebra stripe and red! There are tons of cute baby girl zebra and pink things, but not many zebra and red, so I have improvised. My favorite nursery bedding set I found online was a mere $400, so that was a no-go. It did give me a place to start in my thinking and planning, though. Here are a few pictures of the finished nursery:<br /><br />Crib, using red sheet from Jonas's cowboy nursery, white dust ruffle from Johnathan's Peter Rabbit nursery and zebra pillow I bought at Sears. :) The bear on top is the one we got at Kate's first sonogram that when you squeeze its tummy, a recording of her heartbeat plays! Also, you'll notice the diaper bag stuck in the crib for now, safe from the other children and dogs, and packed for the birth center.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5401893623/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5011/5401893623_017e9b809a_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Rocking chair with side table and Kate's name. The rocking chair is navy and pink ... yeah, that wasn't going to do, so Mom got me this incredibly soft throw to go over it! The table was a $5 clearance find at Bed, Bath & Beyond. It's just particle board, and it's amazing what a little spray paint can do! I got the little lamp at Canton as well as the wooden block letters that I, again, spray painted and tied bows onto.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5402494332/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5402494332_c8ab4ee914_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Close-up of Kate's name.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5402495430/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5058/5402495430_9805681991_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Wall art that I made with raw wooden pieces, again from Canton.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5402496092/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5402496092_4e109d768d_b.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Curtain that my friend, Stefanie, made.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5402496886/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5402496886_6804714fb8_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />More wall art, made by Jonas (left) and Kalleigh (right) at Little People's School. I love what these add to the room!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5402497382/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/5402497382_e976098e38_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />And art on the left from an artist I have admired for three years at the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. They remind me of my boys! And then the picture frame on the right that John's sister, Laurie, gave us. I'll put a picture of the girls in it when Kate gets here. The obligatory monitors sets safely up on this shelf. The ribbon is to hold that blanket that Terry and Cara Dean are making for me! Uh, for Kate, that is. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5401897989/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5131/5401897989_dc8a2d694e_b.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Oh, I forgot to take a picture of all her little clothes hanging in her closet! Even that's all ready to go. Speaking of closets, I moved Jonas's clothes from the nursery into the kids' room and moved Kalleigh's clothes from the kids' room into the nursery. That way when Kate is consistently sleeping through the night, I can move Kalleigh in with her and we will have a "girls' room" and a "boys' room"! I feel like I may be a little too giddy about this new organization, but I know some of you understand. ;)<br /><br />Now all I need are the disposable things that you can't keep from child to child: diapers, bottle nipples and liners, pacifiers, etc. and we really will be completely ready! Hard to believe.<br /><br />Please pray for a smooth and easy delivery and that Kate and I will continue to be healthy through it all!<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-72153636912705569152011-01-16T20:30:00.001-06:002011-01-16T20:30:51.891-06:00Recent conversations with Jonas (2 1/2)Conversation 1<br />John: Jonas, are you getting sleepy?<br />Jonas (turns to me and asks): Are you getting sleepy?<br />Me: Yes. Are you getting sleepy?<br />Jonas (comes right up to my face, stares for a while, and finally whispers): No!<br /><br />Conversation 2<br />John: Did you brush your teeth, or did you just eat the toothpaste?<br />Jonas: I eat the toothpaste.<br /><br />Conversation 3<br />Me: Jonas, you must put the balls away.<br />Jonas, not putting the balls away, slips on one and bonks his lip.<br />Jonas (fake crying): I hurt my lip!<br />Me: Well that wouldn't have happened if you had been picking up the balls like I said, would it?<br />Jonas gets this goofy grin on his face, walks straight over to John, giggles, and says: Mommy called me a Widdit!<br /><br />So silly! :)<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-3643919008761511942010-12-31T08:54:00.001-06:002010-12-31T08:54:23.530-06:00A series of pictures and the stories that go with themLong ago, like November, Kalleigh had her Thanksgiving feast. This is her little class singing their turkey song. (Kalleigh's all the way to the right.)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309822302/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5046/5309822302_1b6a39e60c_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />They feasted in the traditional way with turkey, pumpkin pie and KoolAid Jammers.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309822492/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/5309822492_8612ec706a_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />If we have an hour or so to kill in town, many times the kids and I will go to Barnes & Noble to "read books." Here we are with the kids' favorite "books."<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309234365/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5089/5309234365_f32b3c4465_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />One morning, we were about to get in the car on our way to school when Kalleigh tells John that her tummy hurts. Overhearing the comment, I very sympathetically rolled my eyes and said, "Don't worry. You'll be fine." John, however, decided to grab a big plastic bowl and put it in her lap. As we pulled into the school parking lot, the bowl served its purpose and only a little vomit got on her cute outfit. This picture was taken on our way home. She slept the rest of the morning and felt much better that evening!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309234545/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5128/5309234545_8c034d52b1_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />We had our Christmas church family dinner again this year. The kids gave a little program, we introduced our new Children's Minister (yea!), and even Santa showed up for the occasion. Jonas's smirk in this picture cracks me up!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309234729/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5008/5309234729_b051e6e3cf_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />And finally, a series of pictures that I took in hopes of capturing the essence of the children when there are only three. Probably the next series of kid pictures will include Kate! Only a few tears were shed in the taking of these pictures. :)<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309823202/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5089/5309823202_8acfe6fa99_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />"Ring around the rosy!"<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309823444/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5206/5309823444_7774fa6a9e_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309235427/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5046/5309235427_d893eae3bb_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309235645/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5289/5309235645_ddf79c019f_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />This was the one I ended up handing out to family at Christmas. Happy Holidays!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5309235833/'><img src='http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5309235833_65fa9eef81_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-75972911768859232172010-11-16T16:01:00.001-06:002010-11-16T21:52:55.936-06:00SoJam 2010Oh my. Where to start? I guess I'll just try to tell the whole story. Skip as needed.<br /><br />Thursday<br />By 5pm, we had dropped off the kids at the Deans, loaded up all of the equipment and picked up all the members of Clearly Vocal and left Tyler. Here's the crew in front of our CVmobile ready to hit the road:<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182989970/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1401/5182989970_2ebd0e5109_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />(Ben-sound, John-baritone, Don-bass, Kim-alto, Stefanie-soprano, Andy-tenor)<br /><br />Since there were six of us driving and approximately 18 hours to drive to get to Durham, NC, we made a driving schedule, complete with driving buddies, three hours each. John and Ben started us off. We picked up supper in Shreveport, LA and then stopped somewhere else in LA to change drivers. Don and Andy were up next and took us the next leg of the trip, and then Stef and I took over to drove the 11pm-2am shift. And on and on we drove and switched drivers and filled up with gas and grabbed snacks and tried to sleep. Some big cities we went through were Shreveport, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Charlotte, all until we finally reached Durham at 1pm eastern time on Friday. We also included a Crackle Barrel stop, which added an hour to our overall travel time.<br /><br />Friday<br />So 19 hours after leaving Tyler, we pull into our hotel to check in. The guys were gracious to go unload our equipment at the <a href="http://carolinatheater.org" target="_blank">Carolina Theater</a>, where we would be performing that night, while Stef and I slept!<br /><br />By 4:30 we were all dressed in concert attire and ready to go through our relaxation/visualization exercise that Stefanie had created for us. Then we loaded up to head to the theater to begin our sound check by 5:30.<br /><br />When we got there, <a href="http://www.sonosings.com" target="_blank">Sonos</a> was having a sound check/rehearsal. They were one of the professional groups performing that weekend. Wow. Truly amazing.<br /><br />Running sound for everyone at the theater that weekend was Tony Huerta, probably the absolute best sound guy in contemporary a cappella today. He regularly runs sound for Nota, Take 6, m-pact, Sonos and others. He was also the guy who ran the sound at the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes in which we competed last year. I just think it's pretty cool that we can claim Tony twice as our sound guy! Ben, our sound guy, was in sound engineer heaven watching over Tony's shoulder, learning, but also helping Tony know what was coming up in our songs!<br /><br />We hit our sound check and worked out our inner-ear monitor kinks and other little things. It really felt rushed and we couldn't keep a consistent pitch and we were having tempo issues and hearing issues and we were getting irritated with each other, yadda yadda yadda. And suddenly our time was up. Next on the schedule was the Contemporary A Cappella League (CAL) reception, which was upstairs, but before we ran up there, we took a minute to regroup, to remember to think as a group and to breathe and de-stress. Thankfully it worked, and our shoulders relaxed back into their proper positions.<br /><br />We headed upstairs and enjoyed reconnecting with the other CAL groups as well as the directors of SoJam and of the Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA). Also in attendance were the members of Sonos and <a href="http://basix.dk" target="_blank">Basix</a>, the other pro group that was performing Saturday night. What an honor to rub shoulders with these people! Other "big dogs" included Dave Brown and Christopher Diaz, the hosts of the <a href="http://mouthoffshow.com" target="_blank">Mouth Off Show</a>, Bill Hare, the producer of many pro, CAL and college cd's (Nota, Straight No Chaser, The Red States, On the Rocks, etc.), and Ed Boyer, one of the arrangers for the show The Sing Off. The place was packed with talent!<br /><br />Friday night, the show consisted of six college groups who were competing against each other. After they all sang, we performed for 40 minutes while the judges' votes were being tallied. The theater was JAM PACKED! About 1000 in attendance. Probably the biggest audience for which we've sung.<br /><br />We wore our black outfits, accented with purple and blue, like we wore in Denver, for those of you who saw that look. Of course Stef and I didn't wear our exact outfits, as we are both pregnant, so we had some wrap shirts made. I was pleased with how they turned out!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182990432/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1009/5182990432_b5867f004d_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Overall, it was the best show that we five have ever done! "The Moment" of our show was when we put our mics down, stood in a semicircle a the front of the stage and sang "And Can It Be." I was really nervous about doing this song, because there were some pretty anti-Christian people in that crowd! But after the show, the two most talked about songs were Java Jive (of course--always a crowd pleaser--blows me away) and And Can It Be! They were impressed that 1. we would put down our mics, and 2. that we would be brave enough to share our faith with everyone! Seems they really appreciated both things. To all of you whom I know have been praying for the hearts of those listening, THANK YOU! I believe hearts were touched and that God was glorified.<br /><br />Before our last song, I thanked Tony, of course, and then gave a little motivational speech especially to the college kids encouraging them to keep singing! Most think that if they don't plan to sing professionally, that their singing days are over after college. Our goal was to show them that they can keep singing at a high-quality level, if that's what they love to do. We can't NOT sing, and so we began Clearly Vocal.<br /><br />After the show, we signed autographs, passed out business cards and received a flood of congrats and great jobs. What a night!<br /><br />But wait, there's more! From the theater, everyone went to an after party where we all got to interact with other groups and more fans and relive the evening. We met a guy from NYC whose job it is to match groups with events, sort of like an agent, but more of a consultant as he's not tied to any one group. He was very complimentary, wanted a card and said he would look for opportunities for us! Of course, people in this industry are famous for their promises, but not necessarily their follow-through, but still, the compliments were appreciated, coming from someone who sees a lot of talent.<br /><br />We made it back to the hotel around 1am and just crashed!<br /><br />Saturday<br />We were out the door by 8:30 to grab some breakfast at Chick-Fil-A and get to Duke University to attend our first classes that began at 9. We tried to split up the classes so that everything was covered!<br /><br />My first class was called "Organic Arranging," by Christopher Diaz. He focused in on the importance of communicating the emotions of a song through the music, as opposed to just "putting together a cool arrangement." He gave examples of both poor arrangements that failed miserably at accomplishing this concept as well as ones that were very good about being intentional about it. What a difference! We were to ask the question, "What pictures are my chords and note movements painting, and does that picture line up with the words?" I was inspired. :)<br /><br />Interspersed throughout the day were mini-performances by the other CAL groups. First up was Euphonism, a group based out of Washington DC. It's just neat to see other "real people" doing what we do!<br /><br />Next class for me was Advanced Arranging, by Charlie Forkish. Charlie is kind of child prodigy of sorts. He dropped out of college because his arranging and recording gigs were so demanding and rewarding! Admirably, though, he is finishing his degree, recognizing its importance! Again, some amazing tips about chord building, digital arranging and arranging for recording vs. arranging for live performance.<br /><br />Up next for the CAL groups was Treble, a 13-member all-female group from NYC, that we had met last year. Their director is pregnant, too, and due about a month before I am. That was fun to reconnect with her and them. Only half of their group was able to make it, so I was impressed that they performed at all!<br /><br />We ate lunch on campus as we tried to process everything we had learned!<br /><br />Then it was off to the class called Sell Out, by .... huh-oh, I forget. But she was a reporter for a local newspaper who has an a cappella background, She gave us some fantastic tips on how to market ourselves and communicate efficiently with the newspapers. Great dos an don'ts for Twitter and Facebook as well as for what to put into our media kits and what to leave out. I learned huge amounts of information in that class!<br /><br />The last CAL group to perform was The Red States. They are also from NYC, and have the best recording of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" that I've ever heard. Seriously, you should buy it on iTunes, it's that good. It's on my running playlist. :) Unfortunately their female soloist for that song wasn't there, so they chose other songs to sing instead. I was able to talk to the guy who arranged it, though, and learned a lot of fun facts!<br /><br />Then it was off to a class called "Lady Power," which was a panel of women in various groups that discussed specific issues that women, especially all-female groups, deal with in this a cappella world. It was mostly wardrobe, costumes, stereotypes and discrimination issues. I was disappointed, though, because no one ever addressed the issues of singing while raising a family and juggling other real-life responsibilities that women have while still trying to sing. I think I'll make that suggestion when I fill out my SoJam survey. Something tells me there's a good chance I'll be on that panel next year, since not a lot of those present were currently challenged by that issue, but I still think it's important for them to think about as they plan for the future. A cappella life doesn't have to end when you begin a family. <br /><br />In between that class and the next, all of the CAL groups, both partial and full, were supposed to meet together to sing three songs in a jam-session sort of format. Yeah, I don't think that went as well as it was intended to go, so I think there's a good possibility that it won't happen next year. :)<br /><br />The last class of the day that I attended was called "The Cool Factor," by Claude McKnight, the founder of Take 6, and older brother of Brian McKnight, the famous R&B singer. It was fantastic. The bottom line, the take away point that Claude made is that cool=authenticity and integrity. Be who you are, sing like you do and have your own style rather than always copying other people. I certainly struggle with this since I love The Real Group so much! But I'm determined to work away from that. I'm inspired to write more original stuff and come up with original arrangements. Anytime a song or arrangement comes from the group, the group can just be who the group is and will put themselves into the song more passionately than when we're singing a song that is not ours. Great class.<br /><br />We raced from there to supper where we ate with the other CAL groups. Actually, we scarfed down our food as quickly as we could so that we could make it back to the theater to change and get ready for our last performance, which was to open for Sonos and Basix.<br /><br />Saturday night, we went with all black and white. We hated to upstage the pros, you know. ;)<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182990638/'><img src='http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/5182990638_9c6344e9ec_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Kind of small, but you get the picture. That's me singing "Fever," our closer.<br /><br />There was only one little glitch on Saturday night. Tony did not have our inner ear monitors turned on for the first half of our first song! (Words, by The Real Group.) All we could hear was the bounce-back from the back of the theater! Therefore, our tempo was a little slower than usual! We managed, though, and when we finally did get our ears back, thankfully we were all in the same tempo and key! Ha! The show must go on!<br /><br />We were told to do two songs to open for the other groups, and as we walked off stage, Thomas King, who was running the groups backstage and one of the judges for the CAL Showcase, said "That's it? You had 15 minutes! That was the first we had heard of it! Oh well. Better to leave the crowd wanting more. Plus they were really there for Sonos and Basix that night!<br /><br />Then we got to join the crowd and watch as Sonos and then Basix performed. Here's Sonos:<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182990824/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1435/5182990824_1cd5491ca3_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='202' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Boy, when Basix took the stage it was an obvious step up in class and professionalism, of course from where we were, but also a step up from Sonos, which really shocked me when I realized that. I also love that Basix, who brought their own sound guy (who ran their entire system through a Mac Book Pro!), not only thanked him, but had everyone turn around and wave at him! Very classy.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182392407/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1011/5182392407_fe504c6764_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='187' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />As Basix was singing, I leaned over to John and asked, "Are those our mic stands they're using?" He grinned real big and nodded. If you look closely, you can see them in the background of that picture! Again, I geeked out. After the show, I asked Chris, one of Basix's members, if they enjoyed using our stands, to which he replied, "Those were yours? Oh, thank you, thank you! They were so ease to slide up and down; much better than ours!" All the members of Basix were just so nice. Chris and I are Facebook friends, you know. ;) He's the one in the middle.<br /><br />The Saturday night after party was a blast, too. We had so much fun hanging out with new friends one last time and reliving the evening. We got back to the hotel at 1:30am. I had to have a shower, since I was just nasty, so I finally crawled into bed around 2.<br /><br />Sunday<br />But Sunday morning we were up and at 'em again to go to one more class and finally our master class. We got all checked out of the hotel and headed to Duke one last time.<br /><br />Our first class that most of us attended had to do with the physics of the voice; what is actually going on in your body when you sing, and how we can use that information to help us sing and blend better. GREAT info in that class. We were temporarily embarrassed and ultimately honored, though, because the instructor motioned to us and said to the rest of the class, "This is Clearly Vocal in here, by the way. They already do all of this stuff I'm talking about, which is why they sound so amazing. I don't really know why they're in here!" So sweet.<br /><br />And finally, we went to our master class with none other than Claude McKnight himself. The man. Of all the SoJam attendees, he most likely has the best trained ear, especially for jazz. Who more qualified than the founder of Take 6 to coach us?! What an honor.<br /><br />He appreciated that we do actually make an effort to listen to each other and think that tuning is important! He kind of harped on the college and CAL groups for their lack of attention to that. Yes, we had a few tuning issues, but we knew them and he knew we would continue to work on those. His main focus was on presentation. The most flattering thing (for me) that he said to the group was, "When I watch this group, I want to watch (pointed to me) you! I like to watch you perform. You know your notes, so you can relax, have fun and let your personality shine through!" I died. Right there. Melted into a puddle. It was all I could do not to cry!<br /><br />Claude also gave us some very practical tips to use on each song and worked with us on how to accomplish those things. Things like grabbing the audience from the first word, standing and moving with a purpose, conversing with the audience in-between songs rather than giving speeches, and other things like that. Those seemingly little things made a huge difference as we worked. I can't wait to apply those principles to the rest of our show!<br /><br />See? We're pretty much best friends now.<br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182991698/'><img src='http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5182991698_42ddef404a_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182393619/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1035/5182393619_b1eee54cf2_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Several other people sat in on our class, including Dave Brown. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182993012/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1013/5182993012_d05543be93_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I'm kind of embarrassed at how much whiter his teeth are than mine. Hmmm.<br /><br />Our class was supposed to be an hour long, but since it was the last think on the schedule, we actually went about an hour and a half! Other than performing on that beautiful stage, working with Claude was my favorite memory!<br /><br />One other amazing thing we learned during our class was from the photographer, Michael Elderidge. He is known for picking up on people's antics and habits. Here's what he said to Stef: "You sing up here (motioned upwards about a 45 degree angle) because that's where you look to talk to your husband." To me he said, "You sing right here (motioned straight ahead with knees bent) because you're keeping your kids' attention!" To Andy he said, "You sing down here (motioning to the ground) because you're thinking too hard, and also where you look to talk to your wife." To John he said, "You sing like this (standing up tall and motioning one arm out to the side with his palm facing upward) because your leading your congregation!" And to Don he said, "You lean forward and raise your eyebrows as if your were teaching." (Don's an 8th grade math teacher!) Amazing and so telling! Still geeking out about all of that.<br /><br />We took one last picture in front of the beautiful Duke chapel before hitting the road:<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5182395097/'><img src='http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/5182395097_6f840c96f2_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />After grabbing lunch, we drove out of Durham at 2pm, rotated drivers through the night, hit a traffic jam in which we were stopped for a little over 30 minutes, and rolled into Tyler at 7:30 Monday morning so the boys could go to work. Crazy.<br /><br />It was so strange to be treated basically like rock stars! Everyone knew who we were! They acted nervous to come talk to us. They whispered as we walked by. One funny story was that Andy walked into one class and sat down by a guy and his friend. The guy said to Andy, "Now what's your name?" His friend slapped his arm and said in a harsh whisper, "That's Andy from Clearly Vocal!" The first guy turned red and said, "I am SO sorry! Of course I know you are! You guys did awesome last night!" Andy laughed and was like, "Dude, it's totally fine!" We are not used to that kind of treatment! It was good for us to get back home where no one knows or cares who we are!<br /><br />What a weekend. So physically exhausting, but so rewarding. So many connections made or renewed. We were encouraged, had our egos stroked, inspired, humbled, challenged, refreshed and refocused. I can't wait for rehearsal tonight!!<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Duke%20University,%20Durham,%20NC&z=10'>Duke University, Durham, NC</a></p>Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-55853412682760579602010-11-07T15:21:00.001-06:002010-11-07T15:23:01.501-06:00The Fishing TripMy grandparents, Ted and Evelyn Kell, have been going to Jack's Fishing Resort in Mountain View, AR, for 30+ years. They live in Brownwood, TX, but make the 10-hour trek twice a year. They stay several weeks in the summer and then another couple of weeks in October. It's just another Kell tradition that I have grown to love.<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5155853860/'><img src='http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/5155853860_dc98bb7bf8_m.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='191' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />As I've mentioned, John had several conferences this fall, and as good and necessary as they were, I was beginning to feel a little left out on the whole "taking trips without kids" game. So, in my selfishness, I asked John when it would be my turn to take a trip without the kids, and that I would really love to go up to Jack's when Grammie and Papaw would be there and fish and shop and do all the other things I love to do there. In John's graciousness, he said that we could probably work that out. :)<br /><br />That whole conversation happened before CV was chosen to represent CAL at SoJam. With all the adding in of rehearsals and gigs, I had pretty much given up on making it up to Jack's.<br /><br />Papaw called me to ask if I was going to be able to make it up there, in code of course, because speaking cryptically is just so much more fun. So, "the Championship Trout Fishing Bureau" called to see if "one Ms. Kimberly Joyce Hodges was planning on competing in that rodeo." Heeheehee. Love my Papaw. I was so sad when I called back to say that I just didn't see any possible way that I would be able to make it up with our crazy schedule and our one-car-ness. We chatted a bit and then he gave the phone to Grammie. While we were chatting, she mentioned that Karla (their daughter, my aunt who lives in Dallas) was thinking they say way--that there just didn't seem to be a way up there and that her window of opportunity was from a Sunday through a Tuesday and because she would have to go alone, it might not work out.<br /><br />Interesting. We had a gig on Saturday and rehearsal Tuesday night, but no CV commitments in between.<br /><br />So, I texted Aunt Karla to see if she was still thinking about heading to Jack's. She calls back to say, "Seriously?" As I had, she had just about closed that door and asked God to make it happen if He saw fit. She needed a riding buddy and I needed a ride. It just so happened that our timing was identical!<br /><br />CV sang at the Golden Sweet Potato Festival that Saturday afternoon and then drove over to Dallas to enjoy P.F. Chang's (what else?) that evening. John dropped me off at Aunt Karla's and drove back to Tyler by himself--what a hubby!<br /><br />Early Sunday morning, Aunt Karla and I hit the road that would wind us through the Ozarks and finally arrive at Jack's.<br /><br />The weather was perfect that day. We took a nice walk when we arrived, stretching out our car legs. Then we just relaxed in our room that opened up into Grammie's and Papaw's room and visited with them. That evening we went to church where my great-aunt and uncle go. This is my other Papaw's brother, the Papaw that finished his earthly race a couple of years ago. My Great-Uncle Frank looks so much like his brother, my Papaw! It's like hugging my Uncle Frank is about as closest I can come to hugging my Papaw. So good to see them.<br /><br />Early Monday morning, Papaw cooked breakfast for me before we bundled up and hit the river. It's those simple times around the table swapping stories that are some of my most favorite times!<br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5155240843/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1140/5155240843_4fe20f7316_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />It was chilly out on the White River, but we had prepared and stayed warm.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5155849406/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1049/5155849406_b252167586_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />This is "Ship Rock." My iPhone picture just doesn't do it justice, but you might be able to see that as you're motoring up the river, the rock looks like a big ship emerging from the river bank. It's one of those iconic scenes that you look for each time to you go up the river.<br /><br />We fished that morning, caught a few, and Papaw had me back at Jack's by noon so that I could get cleaned up.<br /><br />'Cause my mom came up to see us for a late lunch! Eating at Wood's Pharmacy is also a tradition. Wood's is a working pharmacy, but also a soda shop where they have the best lemonade, the best chicken salad and the best chocolate shakes of just about anyone.<br /><br />After that, we shopped a little, and we all found things that we liked "A LOT" or that we just really "NEEDed!"<br /><br />Mom headed back to Searcy after the shopping trip, and Grammie, Aunt Karla and I headed back to Jack's to rest a bit before supper.<br /><br />Supper was at the traditional JoJo's Catfish, there at Jack's. Mmmmmm, so good!<br /><br />Tuesday morning, Aunt Karla joined Papaw and myself out on the river for just about an hour and a half or so of our last chance to fish. The Lord held off the forecasted rain, for which we were thankful, and we pulled in a few more fish, again, for which we were thankful!<br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/55308473@N04/5155849892/'><img src='http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1371/5155849892_7eff3ef850_m.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />We booked it back to the rooms to get cleaned up, packed up and checked out so that I could make it back to Tyler in time for the tail end of CV's rehearsal.<br /><br />It was a whirlwind of a trip, but I'm so thankful that it worked out! Aunt Karla and I had some great conversation during our 14 hours in the car together. I'm kind of hoping we can make this happen every year!<br /><br />I also must mention that while I was gone, John's mother stayed in Tyler and was a HUGE help, not only to John and to the kids, but also to me! When I got home, the laundry was done, beds were made and evidence of healthy eating was left! Amazing, and thank you, Martha, again.<br /><br />I love spending time with my family. This was such a special trip!<br /><br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mountain%20View,%20AR&z=10'>Mountain View, AR</a></p>Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-90656068860700752892010-11-02T14:18:00.003-05:002010-11-02T14:22:19.353-05:00Clearly Vocal HappeningsFirst of all, I promised an updated CV pic after taking some new ones back in September. Here's our new promo pic:<br />
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Second, we've had a couple of gigs in the past couple of weeks and three more in the next couple of weeks! Sometimes it's tough being a jazz group in East Texas, though. It's hard to fit in at the Edom Festival of the Arts, where the belly dancers followed us, or at the Golden Sweet Potato Festival. Exactly as it sounds. But we try our best to force a little class into our neck of the woods, no matter how blatantly we stand out. :)<br />
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Those gigs have paid off, though, as we've already booked a couple of Christmas parties because of them!<br />
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But our most exciting news, and this is third, is that we are headed to North Carolina next week to represent the Contemporary A Cappella League at the nation's biggest contemporary a cappella festival: <a href="http://sojam.net">SoJam</a>! CV went to SoJam last year and made a ton of great contacts and found out that there were people "out there" who loved to sing just as much as we did and strived for excellence like we did! So we had already made plans to be there this year.<br />
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Side note: the Contemporary A Cappella League (CAL) is made up of groups across the country who are out of college, but not professionals. As in we have lives and real jobs and kids and other responsibilities. We joined this league about 2 1/2 years ago.<br />
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Well, a couple of months ago, the folks planning SoJam announced that they were going to have a CAL video competition. The winners would be the headlining group for the Friday night concert and then open for the two professional groups Saturday night. We sent in our video, not really expecting much ........... AND WE WON.<br />
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So off we go to pull this crazy stunt. After the initial panic and denial stages, we decided we had better get to work. We've stuffed in several more rehearsals and even a practice concert for friends and family. We have our show order and our outfits (almost) ready. Now it's just time to polish.<br />
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We've also added a full-time sound guy, Ben Crawford. Woo-hoo! Ben and his wife Leana also go to church with the rest of us. It's amazing the difference he has made in just under a month. He'll be going to SoJam with us as well and will get to attend sound classes under the master of a cappella sound, Tony Huerta (just the sound guy for Take 6, m-pact, Sonos, and has even run sound for Nota a time or two! No bigs.).<br />
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Needless to say, we are all so excited and quite nervous. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!<br />
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One more side note: I wrote a song for CV. It's my first one ever. Just finished it last night. Actually, I have been singing the melody for about 2 years, as it was what I sang to Jonas as I nursed and rocked him. Therefore the title is "Lullaby for Jonas." The group hasn't even heard it yet, so I'm a little nervous to put myself out there like that! But hey, it's something different. We won't even be able to get to it until after SoJam, and maybe even after Christmas. We have a lot of work to do in the next two months! But someday ...<br />
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Schedule: tonight, rehearsal. Friday night, rehearsal. Saturday night, family and friends concert. Tuesday night, rehearsal. Wednesday night, private party concert. Thursday, drive to NC. Friday night, big show! Saturday, classes and concerts all day. Saturday night, open for Sonos and Basix. Sunday, drive home.<br />
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It's going to be LEGEN ................ DARY!! <br />
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPadKim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-68681766425929410912010-10-30T17:07:00.003-05:002010-10-30T17:11:20.198-05:00Pumpkin Patch ... Almost a month agoOn Kalleigh's birthday we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. John was flying into DFW back from his last conference of the fall late that afternoon, so the kids and I had the day to enjoy the pumpkin patch.<br />
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I don't know how many pictures it took to get one where all three were looking at the camera. So many of you have been there. :)<br />
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Johnathan thought he needed to take a picture of our newest little pumpkin. :)<br />
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But this one just might be my favorite photo of the day:<br />
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You can see the face painting that the kids got. All of the activities at the patch were free! In addition to face painting, there was a tractor-pulled hayride, a train ride, bounce houses, a playground, two different hay mazes and more pumpkins that I had ever seen in one place at one time!<br />
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After the pumpkin patch, we ran over to John's sister Laurie's house for a quick visit with her, cousin Brenna and Aunt Elisa before going to pick up John. After swinging by DFW, we all enjoyed a Laurie/John/Kalleigh birthday dinner at P. F. Chang's. Where else?!<br />
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Good times. :)<br />
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPadKim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-38989716674872221272010-09-18T14:37:00.000-05:002010-09-18T14:37:39.185-05:00SOLD! SICK! SMILE! And Something Else!SOLD!<br />
On Craigslist! And the Consignment Sale! This whole week has been about getting rid of things that we no longer need. I LOVE getting rid of things. Admittedly, I'm a trasher. I throw old toys away without blinking. We haul stuff to Goodwill about four times a year. But this time, I made the effort to organize and put up for sale everything worth reusing! I've already talked too much about the CCC sale, but today I'm going back to pick up my leftovers, if there are any. I figure if they are all hung up and organized, surely I can sell them on Craigslist.<br />
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Speaking of, this weekend I have sold crib sheets, a Bumbo and a box of boys clothes on Craigslist! These were things that were just up in the attic, not being used. The box of clothes was one that I had missed when I was tagging all that stuff for the CCC sale! Of course, while I was selling, I was also shopping. But I still think I'm going to come out ahead in the end. :)<br />
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I think cousin Elizabeth said it best when she said that consigning is being a good steward with what God has given us! You should do it. It's worth it!<br />
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SICK!<br />
I love animals, but I don't like spending money on them. Especially when it's because of their own stubbornness and stupidity that they are sick. Bison ate something again. A few years ago, I posted about Bison getting sick because he ate something, and I graciously posted a picture of what it was ... After it came out. :) Well, he's back at it again. This happens a few times a year, but it usually passes by itself after a couple of days. Oh Bison. It's been a week now. We just got some medicine to help with the complicated IBS. But he's just pitiful. I'm going to have to take him back in on Monday if he doesnt have the "guts" to "get through this" on his own. Stupid dog.<br />
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SMILE!<br />
Clearly Vocal took new pictures today! These are the first ones with our new tenor, Andy, in them. It's about time; he's been performing with us scince July! I'll make sure and put some up when they're ready. Of course, they will also appear on our Facebook page and our <a href="http://clearlyvocal.com">web page!</a><br />
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Something Else!<br />
I just couldn't come up with anything clever that summed up, "I never tried PW's mini brownies," so I just said "something else." If any of you try them, you'll have to blog about it, and I'll do the same.Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-21133930015978703412010-09-14T12:15:00.000-05:002010-09-14T12:15:39.004-05:00Kate EvelynMost of you know by now, but we are having a girl! And Kate Evelyn is her name, named after my Grammie Kell, Evelyn. She represents strength, confidence and a fierce love for family that I hope will be passed on to this sweet one!<br />
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I can't remember if I've mentioned before, but John and I did a lot of research before trying for this baby. We read many articles on how to naturally increase your chances of having a boy or a girl. Well, it worked, I guess. I mean, we got the result we were hoping for. Of course it's a 50/50 chance, so maybe nothing we did mattered at all! Sometimes I wonder if it makes God chuckle when we think we made something happen. Like the baby lion scaring the hyena away, when in reality his daddy is standing behind him! Either way, we're having a girl, and if anyone is interested in the methods we learned about, I would have so much fun telling you all about it!<br />
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Sorry for the delay in the blog announcement. We found out on Saturday, and of course this is Tuesday. What happened was that I got such a rush of excitement after finding out that we're having a Kate that I spent the rest of that night and any time I had Sunday, Monday and this morning pulling out, hanging up, safety pinning, tagging and labeling all of the boy clothes I had size 0-2T to take to the big consignment sale! No suppers were cooked and no laundry was done during this time, either! But at last, everything is in its place at the Harvey Hall Convention Center, and I can't wait to start pulling out all the little girl things!!<br />
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I was 16 weeks on Sunday. The baby books say that Kate will go through a major growth spurt over the next couple of weeks. I'm STARVING.<br />
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I will reluctantly post some belly pics. Eventually. When I'm having an emotionally stable day. I have WAY too much estrogen in my system.Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-9135608907876858712010-09-09T14:29:00.000-05:002010-09-09T14:29:37.356-05:00And now for a change of paceWow, my last post was really depressing! But like Tiffany said in her most recent post, it really does help to get it all out from time to time. It helps me put things in perspective and sends me running back to God to thank him for so many wonderful blessings that always outweigh the frustrations in life.<br />
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So sorry to all those who were afraid that I needed medication or therapy ... or even a chili-cheese coney. I think I'm okay without all of that.<br />
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For now. :)<br />
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So, today I'll let you faithful readers (and apparently there are a lot more than I realized based on the fallout from last week!) in on some of the near-perfect things about my life right now.<br />
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I buy a cantaloupe about once a year. My kids will eat it okay, John doesn't really prefer them, but I'll get a "hankerin'" for one about once a year. So I bought my 2010 cantaloupe at the Buckly Farms farmer's market in downtown Flint just yesterday. Cantaloupes are like watermelons. Mostly they're pretty good, but occasionally, they're amazing. The Hodges 2010 cantaloupe was AMAZING. That ought'a do me until next summer!<br />
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I just like to say downtown Flint to see if anyone laughs out loud. It's the four-way-stop.<br />
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Speaking of the farmer's market, while I was there, I just happen to let a jar of pear preserves jump into my bag. They are my favorite, and if anyone ever wants to make some pear preserves for me, I will gladly award you with a million points. Did you hear that? A MILLION. <br />
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Terry Dean, my other mom, surprised me with a phone call a couple of days ago saying that she wanted to take me to Stork Vision to get an early look at the gender of this new baby! I am so excited! We're going on Saturday, which will be the day before I'm 16 weeks. If this baby cooperates, it will be the earliest I've ever gotten to find out the gender of any of my babies!! It's really for practical purposes, though, since that consignment sale is next weekend and I need to turn in my stuff by Tuesday, and if I know the sex of the baby, I can get rid of all of my other baby gender stuff, too! See how practical we are? ;) Of course I will keep all of you up to date as to pink or blue!<br />
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Speaking of baby, I'm feeling the first little flutters of this child! This, for sure, is going to be our last child. We're going to take drastic measures to make sure of it. We, of course, means he. :) So, I have just been treasuring each day. This is my last time to do this, and instead of being sad like I always thought I would be, I'm just enjoying it! I don't want to be pregnant again and I don't want any more children than these four. This is a great place to be, mentally!<br />
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And speaking of consignment sales, of course I'm going to sell my stuff, but I'm also going to get to take advantage of some really great deals! It's such a good way to clean out those closets and fill 'em back up again. Um, that didn't come out right. Anyway, I can't wait!<br />
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John does NOT have a meeting tonight or tomorrow night! These days, two nights in a row without a meeting of some kind is almost unheard of. So we're going to make the most of this time at home together as a family, because it will be another week until we're all home together for dinner again! Right, focusing on the good. Tomorrow is also John's day off, so we'll get Johnathan and Kalleigh off to school and just have Jonas at home with us. Very nice. <br />
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Speaking of Kalleigh, she got her little cast off yesterday! She's still limping around as if she had the cast on, and the Dr. said she would do that for a week or two. Poor thing. Limping without a cast makes people worry more about her than when she had a cast on! But this morning, she was begging me to let her jump on the trampoline again. Of course I let her! She did just fine.<br />
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Tonight I'm making PW's pan-fried pork chops and I might try those little mini brownies that she had on her page yesterday. Anybody else try them yet? They look so good!<br />
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So see? No need to worry about me any more. I'm just me. Plain, happy, hormonal me. :)Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-87829281821907073792010-09-02T14:17:00.000-05:002010-09-02T14:17:35.802-05:00Feeling compelled to writeExcept I don't know what to write about. Is that so weird? I mean, I dropped my second major in college because I didn't want to write the 50-page paper. Seriously, that's all I lacked to complete that major. And I still don't regret it.<br />
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But why now do I feel compelled to write? Perhaps the purpose will unfold if I just keep my fingers moving.<br />
<br />
Maybe it's just the two cups of coffee I drank that makes me a little manic.<br />
<br />
I feel like a little bipolar today. In some ways I'm so very bummed. The preacher search is not going at all like I would prefer. But then again, I'm not in charge. The committee isn't either, but sometimes they forget that. I'm speaking in harsh generalities, but it is how I feel today. The bullies have won. And they're going to get away with it, too. Man. I'm really sorry if I've offended anyone. Please come talk to me about it if you feel that way.<br />
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On the other hand, my coffee did fully kick in and I'm ready to conquer the world. The Children's Clothing Consignment Sale is in two weeks, and I have a load of stuff to tag and sell! The organizing of that stuff will get done today. Tagging, tomorrow. That's exciting!<br />
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John has a meeting tonight, so I'll see him just before bedtime. I'm also car-less, which feeds my feelings of helplessness. Thankfully, I have Tina who runs with me in the mornings and takes Johnathan to and from school, so I don't really have anywhere I need to be.<br />
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Jonas is wanting to potty-train. He's giving all the signs that he's ready, and I've been dragging my feet for months. Well now, the Pull-Ups have been purchased and he's been keeping them dry as long as I initiate going potty, which he is glad to do. Except for the poopy part. That's still a little scary for him. The first time he actually pooped in the potty, he jumped when he saw it fall in! I guess he wasn't expecting that! We'll see what happens.<br />
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Tuesday was a rough day for the kids. Someone was crying at least 80% of the day and I had had it. When I picked John up from work at 5, he said, "You okay?" He got "the look" and I proceeded to whine to him the same way my children had been whining to me all day. Wonder where they get it. Anyway, rather than John pointing that out to me, he said, "Sounds like you need to get out of the house tonight." I just nearly cried right there. We ate the supper I had prepared, and after I pulled the dessert out of the oven, I went to Starbucks. I drank a smoothie, I talked to my mom, I read my book for ladies Bible class and I played games on my phone. About an hour and a half later, I was a totally different person! When I got home, the kids were bathed and in bed. I do love my husband. God, thank you for blessing me and our children with John!<br />
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The laundry sits on the counter, almost all folded, the coffee pot is empty, the younger two children are napping and Johnathan will be home in a little over an hour.<br />
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Thanks for letting me get all that out. I don't know what the purpose was for that string of nonsense, except that I do feel better. I'm hormonal and if I could just have a foot-long chili-cheese coney from Sonic, the world would probably be perfect. Sounds like I was a little more down than up today. Time to count blessings: John, kids, this precious new one growing inside, a house, rain, church family, blood family, God providing for us always, a God that understands and listens and loves anyway. And coffee. And chocolate. And coffee and chocolate.Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-16050406000731269032010-08-26T13:25:00.000-05:002010-08-26T13:25:24.650-05:00Firsts<b>First day of school</b><br />
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All three kids are in school this year! Woo-hoo! Johnathan, first grade, of course goes everyday. Kalleigh goes MWF. Jonas just goes MW. Everyone was excited and ready to go! Interestingly enough, in each of my kids' classes there was one or more children crying on that first day. In Johnathan's class, it was the little girl sitting next to him. He whispered to me, "Mommy, what's wrong with her?" Not using this as a lesson in compassion as I probably should've, I said, "I don't know, Baby. Just be nice to her." Similarly, in Kalleigh's class, a child was crying. Kalleigh looked at me and said, "Mommy, she's hurting my ears." Oh, we need to work on that compassion at home! Jonas just ignored the crying kids in his class and went about his business of playing. I'm thankful that my kids are pretty independent. I'm sure this 4th child will be "THAT" child.<br />
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And we should be compassionate. Not my strong suit.<br />
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It's okay to call your first grade boy "Baby."<br />
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Just had to show this comparison of Johnathan and Jonas on their first days at Little People's School. :)<br />
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Obviously I had more time for photo editing when Johnathan was 2.<br />
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Obviously I had an actual camera when Johnathan was 2.<br />
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<b>First time on the Praise Team</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKdklfsucDeH_q0C2NjfH9Yn8KrmsSMfFBiR3S_i2qOisJz1rdT_zRuLFzvLGgm1xL37gBEcuv6KKGOuEvqKBikG-14d_AElwZ7JwXWpiWsV4_edU6b1VTfyehW3oFTz6Iox0/s1600/Praise+team+debut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKdklfsucDeH_q0C2NjfH9Yn8KrmsSMfFBiR3S_i2qOisJz1rdT_zRuLFzvLGgm1xL37gBEcuv6KKGOuEvqKBikG-14d_AElwZ7JwXWpiWsV4_edU6b1VTfyehW3oFTz6Iox0/s320/Praise+team+debut.jpg" /></a></div>Kalleigh "sang" with me on the praise team this past Sunday! Well, we turned her mic off, but she thought she was! I thought it would give her a way to feel more involved and responsible rather than coloring or eating the whole time, which is what we usually do. For the most part, she did great! She got a little tired toward the end and started scratching the top--it just feels so weird, you know--so I'm glad we had it off. :)<br />
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<b>First time ever to see a picture like this:</b><br />
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Okay that's a lie. I just think it's so funny when Bison sleeps upside down. Forgive him for his lack of modestly. He just doesn't care.<br />
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I doubt you've seen this kind of picture with a Batman Croc in the background.<br />
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I always try to have shoes in my pictures. It makes it them so much more real.<br />
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<b>First Ladies Bible Class</b><br />
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Our assignment for the first day of LBC was to read the introduction of the book we will be studying this semester. We were also all supposed to bring salads for our salad luncheon. Also, at the beginning of each class, we all meet together for a devotional before we break into our groups for our book study. I was asked to do the first one.<br />
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The day before, I remembered one of the three things: my devotional. The night before, after my children had gone to sleep, I remembered the other two: salad and introduction. Introduction, no problem. Got it read. Salad, problem. Kids were asleep (with John out of town) and I have no lettuce, no spinach, no cabbage, no salad-y things of any kind. What do you do when you need the perfect recipe with only the ingredients you have? Go to Mamaw's cookbook, of course! Found it: potato salad. Who cares if I had never made potato salad in my life? If Mamaw says it's good, it's good.<br />
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For my devotional, I had decided to share the forward of Mamaw's cookbook. It's a devotional thought for sure as it compares the need for both physical and spiritual food! Then, as I was chopping up my ingredients for the potato salad, I thought, "Why don't I just bag up the separated, pre-measured ingredients and stir this potato salad up while I'm reading the devotional?" Sounded great, so that's exactly what I did.<br />
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It was a lot harder than I had originally thought. I was READING, people. I couldn't look at what I was putting into the bowl! Thanks to half-decent peripheral vision and a little luck, I got that thing made about the time I finished reading the forward. The ladies loved it, I plugged Mamaw's book, my salad for the luncheon was made, and I'm done with devo-duty for the semester. :)<br />
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Of course, I had to call Mamaw right afterward to tell her all about it!<br />
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Hope everyone else's "firsts" of the semester are going well, too!Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-59530319881654416722010-08-12T11:43:00.000-05:002010-08-12T11:43:02.421-05:00Two Big!Jonas turned two a week ago. For our little family/Deans celebration, Jonas wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese.<br />
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This is nothing new. If we are within 5 blocks of CEC Jonas starts looking out the window, quietly saying, "Chuck E. Cheese? Chuck E. Cheese?" I think he's been once that he might remember. At the end of the school year, Johnathan's class had a party there. Anyway, as soon as CEC comes into view, Jonas, in an excited/panicky scream yells, "CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! CHUCK E. CHEESE!! CHUCK E. CHEESE!!" until he can no longer see it. So of course, when asked where he wanted to go for his birthday ... exactly.<br />
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With as much energy and motivation as I could scrape up that day, I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, and "decorated" them by spelling out Jonas's name a couple of times across the cupcakes and then slapped a "2" candle in the middle. Poor 3rd child! For Johnathan's 2nd birthday, we had two different celebrations for some reason and I made two cakes: Big Bird and Tigger. And we went to CEC. I just hope and pray that Jonas will not need therapy because of this discrepancy. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcjvBEkwt6gwUhJ62l_kCEYmIc6pqBJAd1hGl5vHvtkGiD29dccVz0i_k40QzlHs9J6FDSmEkiW3ouhNxVapV2z01eLPHV-FugC9tyb1DMiqrNbf2ms1XIJ7MkJ-IrCQsAEk2/s1600/Picture+042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcjvBEkwt6gwUhJ62l_kCEYmIc6pqBJAd1hGl5vHvtkGiD29dccVz0i_k40QzlHs9J6FDSmEkiW3ouhNxVapV2z01eLPHV-FugC9tyb1DMiqrNbf2ms1XIJ7MkJ-IrCQsAEk2/s320/Picture+042.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Anyway, we had a great time, ate all of the pizza and cupcakes and Terry and I had some great conversation while the rest of the grownups took the kids around to play games! Perfect!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMbAH9DcRi0Wko0eB7y3q0wbmIUpi6wc8ySvzFS5IJgysXr3LqvKkehotlyn_XD4ZsCGMxnWkzpT53aR39U_g2sM_lhbJNpWfJlDsRgGAQX5wcfBwwlnMc2cTrj1Fqlg8JSwj/s1600/Picture+043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMbAH9DcRi0Wko0eB7y3q0wbmIUpi6wc8ySvzFS5IJgysXr3LqvKkehotlyn_XD4ZsCGMxnWkzpT53aR39U_g2sM_lhbJNpWfJlDsRgGAQX5wcfBwwlnMc2cTrj1Fqlg8JSwj/s320/Picture+043.jpg" /></a></div> Backing away from the flame and still trying to blow it out. Heehee. We might have helped him a little. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UFNJftpqyJ_wEZfzRTttmLJSxaWui-otdIcN9MNm91qL626CIzlygNjsT4NwmH24MogW_DuBtSTZ_e1xnLgkGOY6UYV40U9efUa3Tl_zRBnovEh7ECHV3nKqlgyG9pSBeTTv/s1600/Picture+039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6UFNJftpqyJ_wEZfzRTttmLJSxaWui-otdIcN9MNm91qL626CIzlygNjsT4NwmH24MogW_DuBtSTZ_e1xnLgkGOY6UYV40U9efUa3Tl_zRBnovEh7ECHV3nKqlgyG9pSBeTTv/s320/Picture+039.jpg" /></a></div> Jonas's biggest reaction was to new clothes. That's my kid. :)<br />
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Speaking of clothes, Sunday morning, Jonas decided to outgrow all of his 2T pants. Luckily I had pulled a 2 & 3T box down from the attic some months ago and we found an outfit for church. So, it was time to go through his clothes. I had 6 boxes already out in the garage of clothes that all of the kids had outgrown over the past year that I had just piled there to sit until I could no longer put off putting them up in the attic. The time had come.<br />
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Tuesday I had a burst of energy (Woo-hoo!!!) and decided to get it done. The plan was to pull down the couple of 3T boxes and store the others. When I got up to the attic, I remembered when I saw them that a friend had given me FOUR boxes of 3Ts a year ago. Add that to my two, and I suddenly had SIX boxes of 3T clothes. People, Jonas is set. After putting away all I could, I still have 2 full boxes of 3T winter clothes and another almost full box of 3s that looked big or were actually 4s. Crazy, but I'm so thankful!<br />
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So my barely-2-yr-old is square into 3s. Bless his heart. What can I say? We make 'em sturdy. :)<br />
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Happy birthday, my sweet big boy. You were the perfect labor & delivery. You made our 8-year anniversary extra special that year! You do everything in your power to keep up with your brother and sister. You love your blanket and your thumb. You entertain yourself quite well. You are a clown and a half, doing anything for a laugh. And I love you so much!Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-7768250324986500702010-08-10T16:06:00.000-05:002010-08-10T16:06:12.765-05:00The Broken Leg ... oh, yeah, and the family reunionBless her heart. Kalleigh broke her leg almost 2 weeks ago. She was jumping on the trampoline and from what I can tell, it just buckled underneath her. Our orthopedic surgeon said that this kind of "buckle break" is common for her age! Crazy.<br />
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She broke it around 1pm on a Wednesday. I had said she could go jump on the trampoline for 5 minutes before nap time. Brilliant. I went out when I heard the screaming, but had no idea what had happened. I carried her in, examined her leg, and couldn't tell anything from looking. No bruising, swelling, nothing. So I told her to go ahead and go potty and she could rest it during her nap. Well, she took a few steps and then just collapsed, screaming. So I helped her take care of her potty business and went ahead and put her down for her nap. Thankfully, she fell right asleep.<br />
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I made the phone calls for advice to John and Mom, then spent a little time reading about broken legs in children and came to the conclusion that it warranted an x-ray. I called my pediatrician and the soonest we could get in was 4:00. Thankfully, "Miss Terry" was ready and willing to watch the boys while I got Kalleigh to the doctor!<br />
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The doctor mashed around on her leg while she and I both cringed and he said his best guess what that she had hyper-extended her knee because she winced the most when he put that backwards pressure on her knee. But if she had a broken tibia just below the kneecap and he was trying to hyper-extend it, of course that would hurt like ... a lot!<br />
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We sneaked into the x-ray place just before they closed. Since I'm pregnant, I couldn't be in the room where the x-rays were being taken, but instead of having me wait out in the hallway, they just brought me around the corner where the x-rays were being scanned in! I could see that something was not normal, but of course the technician wasn't allowed to say anything. They said they didn't know when the radiologist would be in to read the x-rays, so we should just wait for a call either that evening or the next morning.<br />
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Needless to say, church was a bust for us that night. I took the kids home while John took care of church duties. I wrapped her little leg with ice and an ace bandage, propped it up and let the kids watch a Veggie Tales before bedtime.<br />
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Thankfully, I did get the call that evening saying that, yes, the leg was broken and that I needed to call the pediatrician's office first thing in the morning to set up an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, because of course our insurance requires a referral ... more to come on that ...<br />
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I put Kalleigh in the now-vacant crib, since we moved Jonas into the other kids' room into his big boy bed. I could just see Jonas trying to climb into Kalleigh's bed early in the morning with her broken leg. That would be fabulous. Thankfully, Kalleigh didn't object to the crib, and thought it was kind of cool for one night.<br />
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By the way, we were supposed to leave the next day for the Curtis family reunion up in AR. Timing ...<br />
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First thing in the morning, as instructed, I called the doctor and asked if an appointment with the Orth. Surg. had been made yet so that they could cast my daughter's leg. The poor, uninformed receptionist was defensive immediately. "Well, we're going to have to call over there to set that up, and a lot of times they don't want to cast it for 2-3 days." Seriously. Okay, I could understand if we already had a soft cast put on, but my baby's BROKEN leg had been COMPLETELY unprotected for 18 hours now, and we were leaving town that day. Oh, how the momma bear comes out. I filled her in on the crucial points of our situation and asked her to call me back as soon as they had an appointment.<br />
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Well, whaddya know, but just ten minutes later she called back and said that we had an appointment at 1:00. Thank you very much. :)<br />
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Now 24 hours after the breaking had occured, we get to see only the best pediatric orthopedic surgeon in the world, Dr. Mayfield. He and his staff are like NORMAL people. Caring, understanding, practical, all those things that most doctors office people usually are not! Yes, of course the leg was broken. We'll get a full-leg cast on it right away. We'll take it off in 3 weeks to re-x-ray it and probably get a short cast put on for another 2-3 weeks.<br />
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Kalleigh chose pink for her cast, of course, and while it was still sticky, we picked up the boys from the Deans and drove to AR!<br />
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My poor family had to deal with me tense and on edge and just worn out. Kalleigh was still in pain most of the weekend and so very frustrated that she couldn't run and play with her cousins as much as she wanted to. I was frustrated that my hands were tied up either carrying her or pushing her around in the stroller! After this whole mess, the reunion seemed to fall to the back burner.<br />
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BUT ...<br />
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I'm so glad we went ahead and drove on to AR! It was sooooo good to see so much family.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjeqzUxMh0_-lweCVIQVSEQBCSYNneByKMITI8iVR8OL_qY7EtRdVsFjinJl0TE-GV4ABwqCGnBF1LhrXRqUJKrcnpVTXF_IjuKMGpB6Xr-rc8GTYYA_zIYrJ9z3wvEQpW-gB4/s1600/Curtis+fam.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjeqzUxMh0_-lweCVIQVSEQBCSYNneByKMITI8iVR8OL_qY7EtRdVsFjinJl0TE-GV4ABwqCGnBF1LhrXRqUJKrcnpVTXF_IjuKMGpB6Xr-rc8GTYYA_zIYrJ9z3wvEQpW-gB4/s400/Curtis+fam.JPG" width="400" /></a></div> And this is, what, 1/2 of just the Dean Curtis family? And we just keep getting pregnant. Thanks, Deborah for the pic. :)<br />
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One of the best things about having a cast at a family reunion is that everyone gets to sign the cast!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2IYc6KcPlk-yKjyzUwlouSfHrC7Dd7akKSHKgmODf2lR22SvxzeC-Fvxs9cKBgAeqbpwzJkYO9bnTPMEYjInvMiYdVKRIOCmyKzpLNDJp1JosSxtkQcN8kKAMs9MNMk-lqRpr/s1600/Picture+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2IYc6KcPlk-yKjyzUwlouSfHrC7Dd7akKSHKgmODf2lR22SvxzeC-Fvxs9cKBgAeqbpwzJkYO9bnTPMEYjInvMiYdVKRIOCmyKzpLNDJp1JosSxtkQcN8kKAMs9MNMk-lqRpr/s320/Picture+015.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Oh! Mamaw got her cookbook published! It's called "Recipes for Body and Soul," and you can order it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-body-soul-Glenave-Curtis/dp/1452037183/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281472819&sr=1-1">Amazon right HERE!</a> I think I'm going to get rid of all other cookbooks. What's the point? It's not like I'm going to use them anymore now that I have my very own signed copy of Mamaw's book. Everything that people repeatedly ask me to make here in Tyler is in that book. You just need one.<br />
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My favorite tradition: singing together.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyWTwgF5ucKNcOqfHk3Q4EmSwseAwwMqaCRGyhFomgmdyp84vRSbrtwFTshHlFcJ6tdFp4yGYUcZ0iNdZIzOpKNXW-7BmwkrBUDgWL9fPq6DG0N3wS5r0DvDukYWclUMsFKcS/s1600/Picture+021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyWTwgF5ucKNcOqfHk3Q4EmSwseAwwMqaCRGyhFomgmdyp84vRSbrtwFTshHlFcJ6tdFp4yGYUcZ0iNdZIzOpKNXW-7BmwkrBUDgWL9fPq6DG0N3wS5r0DvDukYWclUMsFKcS/s320/Picture+021.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2__-CKi9c3-q5JNMG2kEGF_TU29JRJt31MVekKJRXopZ7vljOBrKdXMJU-i8O_11RHqgaG0HTykcjvmX6Tl1vBQz8Qfr5D-STbggGK_uoCTNbeFo6cRfCYaC32s3yowbTUb-/s1600/Picture+022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2__-CKi9c3-q5JNMG2kEGF_TU29JRJt31MVekKJRXopZ7vljOBrKdXMJU-i8O_11RHqgaG0HTykcjvmX6Tl1vBQz8Qfr5D-STbggGK_uoCTNbeFo6cRfCYaC32s3yowbTUb-/s320/Picture+022.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Blessed Assurance--oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Indeed!<br />
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It took Kalleigh a week to start walking on her cast. Dr. Mayfield said that whenever she was okay with putting weight on it, that it was safe. Truly amazing.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjZDDQoJMtsw3ah8i8WM3NOh0f2D1Ct2KpB37Cm6xLC1H0SvHHkwjxeLkNlYCS8icGLF4OBi35uVWsmb48kvtYnXw0eU86h4NI6ITPwCoaT2OSlRauCelbiMq82lsw55XxnCM/s1600/Picture+037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjZDDQoJMtsw3ah8i8WM3NOh0f2D1Ct2KpB37Cm6xLC1H0SvHHkwjxeLkNlYCS8icGLF4OBi35uVWsmb48kvtYnXw0eU86h4NI6ITPwCoaT2OSlRauCelbiMq82lsw55XxnCM/s320/Picture+037.jpg" /></a></div><br />
She now walks, runs and even jumps with that silly cast on. Poor baby! It will be great when she gets a shorter cast so that she can walk more easily on it.<br />
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A huge THANK YOU to the anonymous donor who felt led to help us financially during this minor crisis. We have a massive deductible that we probably will not reach, and I don't know if these people knew that or not, but obviously God was a huge part of that. Whomever you are, we did receive it and are so very grateful. Praise God for providing!Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-52814309283290949582010-07-16T13:08:00.000-05:002010-07-16T13:08:18.744-05:00How did we get halfway through July already?Didn't the summer just start? And here we are with a month left until school starts again!<br />
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We had a wonderful trip to AR at the end of June for Mom's wedding. Time spent with family is just so precious, and I cherish every second! The wedding was wonderful. Very meaningful and "real." My children behaved shockingly well. I'm going to put together the wedding scrapbook, so I look forward to getting the pictures! I took very few pictures the whole time, but here are some:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JMrTNDV37WUis5s-x-1PTvaqUZp-vSRzqa3TO6c9TUzhc99e-DFWv029SvrHIufpODmV-ibLSvV6-UdcT8wmwhzWRWDiNzP2QyW4516vz-XUoGyUAInQyNx-sP4U1FTUWLf6/s1600/spiked+hair+like+Uncle+Kreg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JMrTNDV37WUis5s-x-1PTvaqUZp-vSRzqa3TO6c9TUzhc99e-DFWv029SvrHIufpODmV-ibLSvV6-UdcT8wmwhzWRWDiNzP2QyW4516vz-XUoGyUAInQyNx-sP4U1FTUWLf6/s400/spiked+hair+like+Uncle+Kreg.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> Uncle Kreg and Johnathan with their spiked hair.</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVSuZuV2HDgtRIMl9R6ERtEaN6_m_wJ32-2DHFbjcLIuo8BnCb_FiUgppe7UgRLint9JgqTiBf6yPLW4JMrrgKRpWT0GlzMng_wvxFF6QEVlh3H-jpRSYN7K43LajjKyY8M_Nv/s1600/wedding+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVSuZuV2HDgtRIMl9R6ERtEaN6_m_wJ32-2DHFbjcLIuo8BnCb_FiUgppe7UgRLint9JgqTiBf6yPLW4JMrrgKRpWT0GlzMng_wvxFF6QEVlh3H-jpRSYN7K43LajjKyY8M_Nv/s320/wedding+pic.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The ONLY picture I got at the wedding: Jonas, Abby and Kalleigh.</i></div><br />
That night after the wedding, all of the "new siblings" hung out together at Rees and Shanna's house for pizza and games. We had so much fun, and I look forward to more sibling time in the future! We are so blessed to be combining families who already know and love each other!<br />
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We stayed with John's mom the next couple of nights and the kids got some good "Momo" time in. We went to a great used book store at the River Market in Little Rock! It had a fun kids' section with a tent, that coincidentally was made out of the same fabric as Jonas's nursery. This is one of my favorite pictures, though such poor qualilty! It's everybody in the tent. Poor Johnathan had Roseola that day. Yeah, the kids passed it around during the trip, but didn't seem to suffer too badly. Johnathan was the loudest complainer. :)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrWg5Eg2BpGyLot24YAGrFYyJNOuxHTt_7oFoKDFsov12iFkKuaqQqC_2UgJWwh6q0d9v_rBjlShtT3-8k6yXEKOFxqZonqsbQGwcDRjky00cXwF4m4ZpeP7prLcEwLeF-OQR/s1600/tent+in+bookstore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrWg5Eg2BpGyLot24YAGrFYyJNOuxHTt_7oFoKDFsov12iFkKuaqQqC_2UgJWwh6q0d9v_rBjlShtT3-8k6yXEKOFxqZonqsbQGwcDRjky00cXwF4m4ZpeP7prLcEwLeF-OQR/s320/tent+in+bookstore.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Then we drove over to Mountain View to spend some time with the Kells. That afternoon we did the Blanchard Springs Caverns tour. I love that big cave! We saw several bats this time!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmtiDAyBVcmrr0mSIXOEMv3JjtI12PTHn3FTkSK-lGvCHY-4h8c_rL3j3jHpWf4W3fxrv6-B45_hB1DhB7kblUoZp6x9TpoWlRFHmauO71t_45mp38dwqWaEl83vHq8qoTPH5/s1600/IMG_0744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmtiDAyBVcmrr0mSIXOEMv3JjtI12PTHn3FTkSK-lGvCHY-4h8c_rL3j3jHpWf4W3fxrv6-B45_hB1DhB7kblUoZp6x9TpoWlRFHmauO71t_45mp38dwqWaEl83vHq8qoTPH5/s320/IMG_0744.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Johnathan's highlight, by far, was going fishing with Great-Papaw all Thursday morning. Papaw would hook the fish and let Johnathan reel them in! I even bought a license and brought in a few myself. :) I could've fished all day and the day after that and the day after that ...<br />
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After the fishing morning we drove up to Branson. The children were blown away by the Dixie Stampede and the Cirque Montage show kept the older two's attentions while Jonas fell asleep.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TJKx73FBPaY-XW9Kmou9awJdnkkyBbEAkt2b17IHODQlAZmss-_NeCJMUOYpxUTX7Hh2os7aDCTWzKUKfg5OuX_aA5H8u68e3WE6_B_DetcRVPUfR2WHn4VKS26O4n9zTFnP/s1600/Jonas+at+Cirque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TJKx73FBPaY-XW9Kmou9awJdnkkyBbEAkt2b17IHODQlAZmss-_NeCJMUOYpxUTX7Hh2os7aDCTWzKUKfg5OuX_aA5H8u68e3WE6_B_DetcRVPUfR2WHn4VKS26O4n9zTFnP/s320/Jonas+at+Cirque.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The next morning we slept in, swam in the hotel pool and then drove all they way home. We packed in a lot in a short amount of time!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTh_IExn3y0Ovkhyphenhyphen3AEOv7ijyLnf-A1-uGdWI2IPoXmKOaz0VSuZphasRUAwKcqswRdEvQ4AkfQTIPGLoT76qWVbZuXf_5A6HLrbIyw-UNwi_93SH8v6Ib0MxEhy-5ENaBaUxK/s1600/child+labor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTh_IExn3y0Ovkhyphenhyphen3AEOv7ijyLnf-A1-uGdWI2IPoXmKOaz0VSuZphasRUAwKcqswRdEvQ4AkfQTIPGLoT76qWVbZuXf_5A6HLrbIyw-UNwi_93SH8v6Ib0MxEhy-5ENaBaUxK/s320/child+labor.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Child Labor</i></div><br />
Since then I've been trying to catch up on laundry and housework while being slammed with early pregnancy exhaustion! So basically the laundry is done, but the cleaning ... hmmm ... call before you come over!<br />
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We moved Jonas into Johnathan's and Kalleigh's room! He's now sleeping on his big boy Nemo bed, while all of the toys are now in the nursery/playroom. He's so proud of his new bed! Every time he wakes up after a nap or sleeping all night, the first thing he says to me is, "Leep Nemo bed!" He loves it, and thankfully it was a smooth transition.<br />
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Keep our church family in your prayers as we continue the search process for a new pulpit minister. It seems these days that the most obvious choices are the hardest to make.<br />
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That's about it for our family! It's been a nice lazy summer since the wedding, which is exactly what I've needed!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZu8CwjGLl7g7NT0UVB6RUSy9pgPzGelHymLYa7nxjDy_UEdrIrsAjz2AA8XSZdk95-RERlIXnBDTrbNuJybAhAqoreogo4PxBGyJT3OOm2ahiu-CrnG7dTlC6ibsB8DJyLLas/s1600/sleep+swimming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZu8CwjGLl7g7NT0UVB6RUSy9pgPzGelHymLYa7nxjDy_UEdrIrsAjz2AA8XSZdk95-RERlIXnBDTrbNuJybAhAqoreogo4PxBGyJT3OOm2ahiu-CrnG7dTlC6ibsB8DJyLLas/s320/sleep+swimming.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Don't worry folks. He's sleeping. :)</i></div>Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-51263740265509024532010-06-21T10:18:00.000-05:002010-06-21T10:18:02.462-05:00In Case You Haven't Heard ...I'm pregnant again!<br />
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Here are the answers to the most FAQs:<br />
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Yes, it was planned.<br />
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Yes, we're excited. <br />
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Yes, it would be nice to even up the score with another girl, but of course, healthy is the most important thing.<br />
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Yes, we're going to find out if it's a boy or a girl. I'm way too impatient to wait unnecessarily! <br />
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Our favorite names are Jack and Kate. Are we LOST fans or what? Our last two children's names are from TV shows. Why stop now? A little embarrassing, but we still like those names!<br />
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I'm only 4 weeks along. <br />
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I'm due March 1, which means I'll probably deliver toward the end of February, if my delivery history is an indicator for the future.<br />
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I feel fine. Morning sickness will probably hit next week.<br />
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Yes, it's okay to tell people. It's "Facebook Official." ;)<br />
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Yes, I'm still running. Did 4.38 this morning! I'll keep running until it starts hurting my tummy, I guess.<br />
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I'm REALLY looking forward to being big and pregnant in the winter for the first time!Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-88605296917970960392010-06-05T10:50:00.000-05:002010-06-05T10:50:32.809-05:00No Longer a Kindergartener!This was the last week of school for Johnathan. We've had a great year at Owens Elementary! Here are a few pics to document the last day. Sorry for the poor quality. Maybe someday we'll actually get a camera.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8Kg9XLnCW5E-IFWls2wWjBNEaAoUjK9DY6CmJ-e-9a8MSEqQnovAZ8sE209RnlhoOGUNrKzDITnWzBANhIWscg8mJa-ucHSrR3S66fLlF-HdCOOJleA8sqWsVL3fSBkdCvCn/s1600/marching+in.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8Kg9XLnCW5E-IFWls2wWjBNEaAoUjK9DY6CmJ-e-9a8MSEqQnovAZ8sE209RnlhoOGUNrKzDITnWzBANhIWscg8mJa-ucHSrR3S66fLlF-HdCOOJleA8sqWsVL3fSBkdCvCn/s320/marching+in.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Marching in. But my favorite is the look on the kid's face in front of Johnathan! Ha!</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5IcEEikkLmVAaTOCx93t9etRJBg-zeiVNMlttW7Ti_j5lMtN0dg-QDExjFSS0wVcoG1slU9ibhMQjeb8-TY2eeZgpfaR8zQM5X3aJ9fK8KXTc1L0L4lb260DSi9c1V0rejFfO/s1600/all+6+classes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5IcEEikkLmVAaTOCx93t9etRJBg-zeiVNMlttW7Ti_j5lMtN0dg-QDExjFSS0wVcoG1slU9ibhMQjeb8-TY2eeZgpfaR8zQM5X3aJ9fK8KXTc1L0L4lb260DSi9c1V0rejFfO/s320/all+6+classes.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>All six kindergarten classes. And we actually had pretty good seats!</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguhAtBoR36oU2TGmV7kxt_kBKmb4LquK3vF7T80KJFaQvKB88Y8MyCnl3G6zojbXZ0ENOQbXephOrnGGcTq3ybcBf5l03UHd_mk9P2OabM34OeQ7EGiuJjB1KzhKCRr9OjKkmT/s1600/Kalleigh+enjoying+graduation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguhAtBoR36oU2TGmV7kxt_kBKmb4LquK3vF7T80KJFaQvKB88Y8MyCnl3G6zojbXZ0ENOQbXephOrnGGcTq3ybcBf5l03UHd_mk9P2OabM34OeQ7EGiuJjB1KzhKCRr9OjKkmT/s320/Kalleigh+enjoying+graduation.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Kalleigh's having a blast.</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGnBYI0Rjs7uy51jUOpefrtd_5WmZn7ENyv2WPaHASYqK4Gv41ZUr0OIg-UsTyLZeopPKDeoFJXXB5fM6CE_WOE0i8VUH8w60S9TnTSeqkXE5tH8jTXhHsfeiB9pr1AP6D_ok3/s1600/Jonas+21+months.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGnBYI0Rjs7uy51jUOpefrtd_5WmZn7ENyv2WPaHASYqK4Gv41ZUr0OIg-UsTyLZeopPKDeoFJXXB5fM6CE_WOE0i8VUH8w60S9TnTSeqkXE5tH8jTXhHsfeiB9pr1AP6D_ok3/s320/Jonas+21+months.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Jonas did remarkably well! Whew!</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3yiwlYOEtw1V3qUwLXTJN1Dr3n8qamUkq7QXBKl8ls1WQndI_w6h8zVcy3r6n8kUegZkj42DgCA6zq0lu7_VXpeuETY0J2kECzWhxSbptLankhtf-9g-0EV7_h80lEEVZr-Y5/s1600/getting+the+diploma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3yiwlYOEtw1V3qUwLXTJN1Dr3n8qamUkq7QXBKl8ls1WQndI_w6h8zVcy3r6n8kUegZkj42DgCA6zq0lu7_VXpeuETY0J2kECzWhxSbptLankhtf-9g-0EV7_h80lEEVZr-Y5/s320/getting+the+diploma.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Getting his diploma.</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganNGxDO2erVbYsdZYPAEqBHfK8ykwFP7JNGUH37Y2867qGlPr5EzhWoHzcP-4nWBYAjt65VIWq8RkeuVoTUY0kOR_YwAsQQtB9WtHpvw8CPdVAuDfcabzoshCSkE3VaeL8poc/s1600/the+grad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganNGxDO2erVbYsdZYPAEqBHfK8ykwFP7JNGUH37Y2867qGlPr5EzhWoHzcP-4nWBYAjt65VIWq8RkeuVoTUY0kOR_YwAsQQtB9WtHpvw8CPdVAuDfcabzoshCSkE3VaeL8poc/s320/the+grad.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Not sure what this face is ... :)</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4jVHFiLVwu8PVNu-lIMjO_aDSuna5ihUAjXyPbaYC0P-17_gKkqkM_S4wVyq2n_uVoryVY7HgFvqFqzd4wWNo3mkHD_EyTBMI0bKvvCY28S1uJfPxHmKUek8YbJftITo_QDK/s1600/Johnathan+%26+Mrs+Miller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4jVHFiLVwu8PVNu-lIMjO_aDSuna5ihUAjXyPbaYC0P-17_gKkqkM_S4wVyq2n_uVoryVY7HgFvqFqzd4wWNo3mkHD_EyTBMI0bKvvCY28S1uJfPxHmKUek8YbJftITo_QDK/s320/Johnathan+%26+Mrs+Miller.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Johnathan and his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Miller. We love her!</i></div><br />
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The "after party" at Chuck E. Cheese's:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7oiLymULqIB4IOPCF_2IMrw-1Qqyxk-WgELOlvR2wfX52uFyr1nC8OxEgnEChQof8TgDHITlY6kY92gX5pAK23f643LxG38AYDzwA2-XtVBmgxLulW23zrP9n1qHqnXuo3AFp/s1600/Jonas+%26+CEC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7oiLymULqIB4IOPCF_2IMrw-1Qqyxk-WgELOlvR2wfX52uFyr1nC8OxEgnEChQof8TgDHITlY6kY92gX5pAK23f643LxG38AYDzwA2-XtVBmgxLulW23zrP9n1qHqnXuo3AFp/s320/Jonas+%26+CEC.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Jonas watching Chuck E. Cheese from a safe distance. ;)</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl8G4ufMrlrNMI7DaN1cXwBHonHU-flr30uW20ipbx597evmwWq2PHpqkIlZYxt8YNGuB8k8DwqGsE-JiT91qfDt-4fOt8T7WaR_HZO0CqaceV12O07NKXwuJkNAntdQx84mz/s1600/Johnathan+plays+Mrs+Miller+in+air+hockey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl8G4ufMrlrNMI7DaN1cXwBHonHU-flr30uW20ipbx597evmwWq2PHpqkIlZYxt8YNGuB8k8DwqGsE-JiT91qfDt-4fOt8T7WaR_HZO0CqaceV12O07NKXwuJkNAntdQx84mz/s320/Johnathan+plays+Mrs+Miller+in+air+hockey.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Johnathan and Mrs. Miller going head to head in air hockey!</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHx5rmNTCKFrqL8Ex9Yagyxs_ENwzcN6173Ov2l3orjQ40Tv9XBWGMVhUJwPGRsIi24dUZ0chJOsJ5Tu0znA0wSYLta-f0kpIyg3Ip28FeqWtVOwqz68YCrw5abxqAdlTmTFIW/s1600/CEC+loot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHx5rmNTCKFrqL8Ex9Yagyxs_ENwzcN6173Ov2l3orjQ40Tv9XBWGMVhUJwPGRsIi24dUZ0chJOsJ5Tu0znA0wSYLta-f0kpIyg3Ip28FeqWtVOwqz68YCrw5abxqAdlTmTFIW/s320/CEC+loot.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The loot!</i></div><br />
It's been a great year, but hooray for the lazy summer schedule!!Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31967326.post-11869212622266866662010-06-02T12:56:00.000-05:002010-06-02T12:56:21.368-05:00Girls' Weekend!This past weekend, Kalleigh and I drove up to Searcy to spend the long weekend with my mom. As you know, Mom is getting married in less than a month, so we had some things to do!<br />
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We went to a dinner hosted by one of mom's friends. It was kind of like a shower, except it's like it was just the hostesses there. They gave her a joint gift: A beautiful wall decoration with the end of Joshua 24:15 on it. Kalleigh did her best to be a big girl, but the child took over and she excused herself from the table to go play while the grown-ups visited. ;)<br />
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We did a LOT of shopping. Mom has a beautiful dress for her wedding. Of course, two weeks ago, when I hadn't seen it yet, I bought a beautiful dress to wear to the wedding (way on sale!). It was mostly a champagne color, knee-length with shutter pleats. The problem was that when I sent a picture of it to Mom she said, "It's beautiful! It's just like mine!" Oops. We have such similar tastes! So, she was on a mission to buy a new dress for me. Hard to say no to that! And we succeeded. I now have a beautiful black & white summer dress to wear to the wedding, with a great necklace to match!<br />
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Kalleigh ended up with two dresses as options for the wedding, as we took advantage of the fabulous Memorial Weekend shopping deals.<br />
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We also found several more things that we "really needed." It took us two full shopping days to do it, but we successfully conquered Little Rock.<br />
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While we were there, we also did some work on Mom's house. She and Craig plan to sell both of their houses and start together in a new one. Great idea, I think! We got up on the roof and found that there were more than a few leaves and pine needles that needed to be removed from the roof as well as the gutters! We also cut down some limbs that were hanging over the house. I only got wobbly once. :) No injuries, save a small scratch on my hand. It's healing quite nicely, as I'm sure you wanted to know.<br />
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And, of course, we had dinner out at the farm with Mamaw. There's just nothing like being out at the farm, and you cousins know exactly what I'm talking about! What a special place.<br />
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After a fabulous dinner (as always, including fresh cherry pie--I died), we spent a couple of hours out on the porch while Kalleigh had a very successful first firefly catching experience. She managed to catch a tick, as well, and rather than being scared or grossed out by it, she was fascinated that he wanted to go home with her! She is my animal lover, for sure!<br />
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So, we had so much fun. Kalleigh hardly knew what to do with herself as the only child, but she caught on pretty quickly. ;)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVT_37sUaCL0cEDHRjn50PjAs-1Y5wWVN8ZVfEHORrbHkWd5WW8nCsVy7SVOGvkJh9iQ7GokKQWPvlG_CFXAG3_Joj8cXwTThYYC_VeQ1tPNbJabbR9SyPCQZ1L2uzqpoCmGO/s1600/Kalleigh+%26+Nana_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVT_37sUaCL0cEDHRjn50PjAs-1Y5wWVN8ZVfEHORrbHkWd5WW8nCsVy7SVOGvkJh9iQ7GokKQWPvlG_CFXAG3_Joj8cXwTThYYC_VeQ1tPNbJabbR9SyPCQZ1L2uzqpoCmGO/s320/Kalleigh+%26+Nana_2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Thanks, Mom, for being you! For teaching us how to play, work, cook and shop like pros! I love you!<br />
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PS *Pearl of Wisdom* Mom sent home our old Slip 'N Slide with us. It's not made for adults. I sure was the coolest mom yesterday afternoon, though! But I can hardly lift my arms today.Kim Hodgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03633674223779694118noreply@blogger.com6