Vacation Day with Pepaw and Grandma Sue

We spent Tuesday visiting some of Corey's FBC Smyrna friends and then headed to Murfreesboro to see Gene and Sue. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then went to the Marble Slab afterward! We had a fun morning Wednesday visiting with Grandma Cain and then did a little shopping before grabbing lunch and heading out of town. Thanks Pepaw and Grandma Sue for a fun day!

The Boys First Game!

Monday we headed off on a week of vacation and started it off with an incredibly exciting day! Corey and I have been Titans fans since they moved to Tennessee while we were in college. Corey's mom has season tickets and she and JR graciously let us have tickets to a game each year. With Corey preaching on Sundays, if there is a Monday night or Thursday game then we usually get those. Who knew that coming into this game we'd be 6-0, playing the Colts for Monday Night Football!!! Well, to add to the excitement, some of our friends were able to arrange for us tickets for the boys. Thank you Matt and Stacy! We had such a great time! The boys did really well. We parked on the other side of the river, and Caleb walked all the way across the bridge to the stadium without being carried. They loved T-Rac and cheered for the Titans the whole game even though they were very tired. When the game ended at 11:30, Caleb walked all the way back to the car! He was such a trooper! On the ride back to Nanny's house, Bennett said, "Mommy, somebody's tired." When I asked him who, he told me it was Caleb! Bennett could barely keep his eyes open, bless his heart! We had a great time and are so proud of our 7-0 Titans!!!

Vacation Day with Nanny and JR

We started vacation this week by heading to Nashville to spend some time with Nanny! She took the boys to pick out a pumpkin and we visited her new office. We had a yummy lunch and then headed back to the house to try to get a nap before a big evening.
Caleb and Bennett love JRs cowboy boots and hats. Bennett kept saying, "I a cowboy!" It was really cute!

SCORE!

Last Saturday, Caleb scored his first goal! He was very excited and has been looking forward to this moment! It was bittersweet for him, though. He was excited about his goal but disappointed that his team didn't win the game. We are so proud of him and his wonderful team...we are blessed to have a great group of boys to play with his first year of soccer!

Early Voting!

Okay, I was totally torn about this issue! Should I early vote or vote on election day...I love voting on election day and feeling so much a part of the process, however, what if something happened? What if I got sick, had an accident on the way there...I know, it seems silly and like much ado about nothing, but you must know that I LOVE that we have the right to vote in America...it blows my mind that anyone would take this freedom for granted! I am so grateful for both of my grandfathers, my dad, and so many others who have fought to preserve our freedoms including our right to vote. All these freedoms have come at a cost! That's a whole different blog though. So, today, Bennett and I loaded up and headed to the courthouse annex building to early vote! We made a whole celebration out of it and stopped by Jack's Java afterward for a little voting treat! I had a vanilla frappe, but decided that Bennett didn't need the coffee, so he had "special coffee", a chocolate milk ;)My prayer is that Christians will realize their responsibility to vote not for a party, but for their values. We are held accountable for every choice we make, including this very important one! May we not pray that God be on our candidates' sides, but that our candidates would be on God's side!

Here is a little flashback just for fun! This is a picture of Caleb's first election day four years ago! He also went with us to vote! I have calmed down a little, notice I didn't make everyone dress in red, white and blue this time ;)

Firefighter Bennett

Monday at story hour the Paris Fire Department came to teach the children about fire safety! Bennett had such a great time and became buddies with Firefighter Fred! They also gave the children firefighter helmets (B was so excited because Caleb got one at Joyland a few weeks ago when they came to his school for fire safety month.) Each child got a chance to sit in the fire truck and hear the sirens and see the lights! It doesn't get much better than this for a two year old!!!

What a weekend!

This weekend was wonderful but busy! Thursday after Caleb finished school, we had lunch with some of the ladies at church and then Corey took the boys to Jackson to spend the night/Friday with my family. I worked on getting the house straight and ready for a LoopDeLou party at my home. After the party was over at 7:30, Corey and I began our weekend project. We are putting hardwood floors in our living room, dining room, hallway and den. Our goal for this weekend was the living room/dining room and the entry. (I forgot to take an official before picture) Fred came over and helped us move the heavy furniture out of the dining room/living room, and then we moved everything else out and ripped out the carpet! Another friend from church came over to show Corey how to cut out the bottom of the door frames for the wood to fit underneath, and Michele helped us pull out the staples. By the end of the night, we had the floor ready to go for the next morning.Friday morning, we got up early and went to the Huddle House for a good breakfast and then began laying the hardwood floors! We were actually moving along pretty well but had to stop for lunch and to run some errands for church around 1. We started back and around 3, our friend Kenny came over to help us! I was more than happy to have someone take my place near the saw! The three of us worked until 9-9:30 and finished up laying the wood floor! We cleaned everything up and decided to go on to bed around 11:30. All that remained was the molding and getting things settled back. Michele met my mom to pick up the boys that evening and then they spent Friday night with her!

Saturday morning we had a golf scramble to raise money for our Honduras mission trip. It was so much fun! It began at 8:30 and then Caleb had a soccer game at 9, so after it got started I ran to meet Michele and the boys at the soccer field. They played so well and Caleb almost scored 2 times...so close!!! Afterward, I ran back to the scramble while Michele and the boys went to a tractor show. When they finished the came to the golf course and we jumped in a cart and caught up with Corey and his team. The boys even took their clubs and hit a few balls, too! It was such a fun morning! We grabbed lunch around 1 with some of our Bemis friends who played in the scramble and then headed to the house to finish the work. By 6:30 we had cut, painted, and installed all the molding. We met Michele and the boys (who had been at the park playing tennis and painting a pumpkin at the "Spooktacular" event) for a good dinner. Fred then came over at 8 and helped move the heavy furniture back into place. Corey moved the remainder of the big stuff in before going back over his message for Sunday and then I worked on getting all the little things back into place. We finally got into bed around 1. WHEW! It was a long weekend, , but it was well worth it! Here is the finished product!We want to say an extra special thanks to all our family and friends who helped us so much! We love you all and couldn't have done it without you!

Caleb's Half Birthday!

Caleb's wonderful preschool celebrates half birthdays for the children who have birthdays when school is out. So Caleb got to celebrate his on the 8th. Corey was away at school, but Ge and Natiley came up from Jackson to help make the day extra special. Caleb and I made homemade fall leaf sugar cookies and had milk and Cheetos to go with them (Caleb picked the party food ;) He received special gifts from his teachers and all the children drew birthday presents for him and placed the pictures in a book. It was such a sweet idea! He had a wonderful time and his best half birthday ever!!!

Three down, Three to go!

Corey was out of town last week for his third doctoral seminar in Kansas City. He flew out of Memphis on Sunday afternoon and got back Friday just in time for the race! I am so proud of him for his hard work and grateful for our church, friends and family who have been so supportive! Continue to keep him in your prayers as he completes the last three seminars in January, March and one in the summer. Then he will begin work on his project.

Happy 30th Birthday, Jennifer!

I've written many times about the wonderful friends God has blessed me with. One of my best friends is Jennifer, and I am happy to say that now she is 30 also ;) She enjoyed a few months of teasing me about being 30 while she was still 29, but no more! As most of you know, Corey and Fred have begun biking and competing in triathlons. Several months ago, Jennifer started looking at races that she could do and found one in Memphis on her birthday, the Fit City Splash N' Dash. She decided to do it, and I think at first jokingly said that was going to be her party and that I was invited if I wanted to come. Not being one to miss my best friend's party, I jumped on board and Corey and Fred got on board, too! It has been such a fun process. Jennifer and I both had to learn to "swim" for the race (we knew how to swim, but not the actual lap swimming where you have to keep your head in the water and turn to breath). The guys coached us on our swimming, and Jennifer worked on her time running (I just had to start running again period!) Needless to say, we have been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Jennifer, Corey and I did the short race (a two mile run and a 150 yard swim) and Fred did the long race (the same thing, but twice). Jennifer and Fred's parents and sisters and brothers-in-law watched the four boys during the race...THANK YOU! We had so much fun! We ended up getting to spend the whole weekend with the extended Shackelford family who so graciously allowed us to be a part of the family for the October birthday celebration (Happy Birthday to Elizabeth, too)! Happy Birthday, Jennifer! You make 30 look amazing, and I'm so grateful for your friendship!


Thanks, Elizabeth for the pictures!

Discipline

This is something that has truly been one of the most challenging thing about parenting for Corey and me. We have often asked, "What is the line between mercy and tolerance?" How do we know exactly when to punish a behavior and when to let something go? How do we avoid exasperating our children by constantly correcting behaviors that are not acceptable? It is hard! I still don't have all the answers, but if you have some advice, I'd love to hear it! One day last week when I was struggling with this, I found wonderful words of encouragement in God's Word...they are always exactly what we need.

Hebrews 12:10-11 says, "For they (earthly fathers) disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

So my prayer, as we train our children and discipline them as it "seems good to us," is that it will lead our children to yield the fruit of peace and righteousness in their lives. Thank God that He is a Heavenly Father who always knows what is best and disciplines us for our benefit, that we will "share in His holiness."

If you are going through a painful time in your life, examine yourself to see if it is God's discipline. It may just be a trial that you are going through, however, sometimes God is correcting something in our lives that doesn't line up with His holiness. Remember that it isn't enjoyable at the time, but God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness. I would much rather my children be safe, be kind, be good people than always give them what they want to make them happy. How much more does God know how to mold us into the image of His Son's holiness and know that only then can we truly be happy and have peace!

If you'd like to comment and share how you deal with discipline or share a time when God has taught you through discipline, feel free! Maybe it will encourage others!