Today marks a special countdown:

King has exactly one year

to plan

what we will do to celebrate our

20th wedding anniversary!

The traditional gift for a 20th Anniversary celebration is bone china.

Um, am I alone in thinking that is dumb?  Oh wait, I know... it's because in the past 19 years, your children have smashed all your dishes to pieces.

Well, the tradition of giving china was probably thought up before Corelle was invented. 

So, let's move on to the contemporary gift: platinummmm...  Much better!

Oh, and what about the really, really, really contemporary, (as in I-just-made-this-up) gift idea: trip to New England.

Now, see, those are ideas I can really get excited about.

Bone china?  Hmmmff, please!

9/11

It's not that I am not proud to be American.
It's not that I don't value all the beautiful lives that were snuffed out that day.
It's not that I don't know that there were countless heroes born that day.

I will never forget any of it:
The second plane hitting.
The voice of the newsman.
The image of people falling to their deaths.

It's that I just can't revisit the pain, the fear, the panic.

yella

We had some green and gold balloons left over from one of the ballgames.  The kids were having a blast playing with them.  A friend of #5's came over to play.  Since my last born is such an "organized" and "in charge" kind of gal (read: OCD), she told her friend,

"Here, you can have this yellow one since your name is Gabriella."

please tattoo this on my forehead

Funny, I needed to be reminded of this.

How 'bout you?

Love,

Martha

(Mary Wannabe)

*************************************

"...He asks it soft, “Been a long time since I’ve heard you talking like that.” His hand finds the nape of my neck, strokes me kind. “You just fallen sick with perfectionism again?”

I don’t open my eyes…. To my dust and my smudges and my grime and my love-smeared mess. Why can’t I remember: the state of my space doesn’t reflect the state of my soul........."

“...God doesn’t ask me to be perfect; He asks me to praise.”

Ann Voskamp

more braggin'

Pardon me while I brag just a little more.

Guess who's team is 5 and 0?



Numero Uno at bat.



AND, as if all this high school football and softball wasn't enough to put me into orbit, my exactly-in-the-middle child is on her school's softball team!

First game next week!

Expect pictures.

guess who's getting some playing time?

Warming up to go in JV game

Gorgeous snap!



*Swoon*
I love my son!



My freshman football player who rocks center position came off the field Friday night after the coach put him in the last of the 3rd qtr and all of the 4th.  His awesome snaps helped the team get a touchdown! (not that they needed it to win, since our team had 40 some odd points and the opposing team had zero)

So he climbs in the car all sweaty and smelly and adorable and says, "Wow.  Playing in a Varsity game is a lot different than playing in a JV game.  The guys are HUGE!  And they hit HARD!"

I am in football heaven.  Not only did I get to see my second-born play in the JV game Thursday night, the Varsity game Friday night, I got to watch Auburn beat Utah State today in the last 2 minutes of the game!

War.Damn.Eagle!

now we are six

The proud six year old celebrated his birthday Monday.  He came into my bedroom fiendishly giggling and told us that he had pulled one over on his sister (#3). 

"I played a joke on her," he boasted. 

"You did?" I asked trying to keep from killing my sweet boy with my morning breath as he was right.in.my.face.

"Yeah, I tricked her into telling me 'Happy Birthday.'  I asked her, 'What do you say to a boy on the day he goes from 5 to 6?' "