party foul

I am almost a bit too embarrassed to write this but well I just have to. We had a major party foul at the pool last night. We were all swimming, having a great time and then all of a sudden I see what looks like Emma puking. Oh no! She was swimming with in arms reach of Philip (thank God) so he grabbed her and retained most of the puke. I grabbed Ryan and the lifeguard and our good friend went to work cleaning up. They assured me that this happens "all the time" and it's no big deal. I offered to help clean it up.
So maybe that was why she didn't eat her dinner and said her tummy hurt. But I promise she didn't act sick! We did stay at the pool for a little bit longer and then ventured home. Unfortunately, she continued to throw up and even Peter threw up when we got home. I have no idea where they got this bug from but it's not supposed to happen in the summer!

famous!

So I have entered a new realm to my life. I have had a first. Those don't happen too often when you're 31, have 3 kids and drive a mini-van. Are you ready to find out what I'm building up to.....
I've just had my first photograph published in the paper.
Now of course my name isn't tied with the photo because the person who submitted it didn't offer my name to the correct sources but you can find it on my memory disk!!!

Ok so just maybe the more exciting part of this is that Philip had a wonderful interview with the Roxboro paper. They published his story (and my picture) of WikiWorship.

So here's my claim to fame. This is Philip along with a few members of his team.

1 VBS down

The kids were invited to attend a VBS at our friends church. My initial thought was "I don't think so". Then after a personal invitation I reconsidered. I am very thankful that I did because Peter and Emma had a blast. Ryan wasn't quite old enough for it this year. As I was talking with a friend about "VBS hopping" she said, "all the more exposures to the gospel message the better". She was right. I realized that VBS is a fun, safe and gospel centered activity that is great for summer time. I was also thankful for the kids to have the opportunity to interact with adults and children that they don't know that well. They seemed to adapt great to the new surrounding. As I was picking them up last night, I rounded the corner of the church to see Peter throwing a water balloon at the pastor!!! I think that meant he was having a great time and felt very comfortable!

Our church's VBS will be in 2 weeks. We have been invited to another VBS in 3 weeks. Again, initially I thought, "no thank you". After this experience, I think I will give it more thought.

Just trying to make a dollar

So Peter has his heart set on buying this $10.00 "Ben10" toy at Walmart. When he discovered it he had about 3 dollars to his wallet. We agreed that he could do some extra chores to earn some money towards the toy. The next day he washed my kitchen cabinet doors and the baseboards of the kitchen. He earned $2. The next day he helped Philip clean out the garage and vacuum the van. He (and Emma) earned $2.00. He is now about $3 short of his goal. I have run of out chores for him to complete that I'm willing to pay for so he gets the bright idea to open a restaurant in our home. He names the restaurant "Wild Hog" and puts several signs on our front door. Unfortunately, there were no customers that afternoon so the next morning he puts another sign on a tree in the front yard.
Philip gives him the idea of opening a Lemonade stand at the edge of our driveway. It takes Peter a good 4 hours of processing this idea before he agrees to it. So at 4pm on Tuesday, "Wild Hog" lemonade stand opens up!


We closed up shop after an hour and half. The kids racked in $12.00!!! Unbelievable! They were stoked and ready to have another one today.

Another trail

Peter was able to convince our trail blazing expert neighbor Austin to create a 3rd trail in our natural area. This one is different from the others because it has a slight hill! Ryan also enjoys the hill on his big wheel. Emma has a hard time with it because of her training wheels.

gardening

I can't remember if I posted that we started a garden in May. We are beginning to see the first fruits of our labor. Well, for the record I should clarify the "our" of that sentence. "Our" is referring to mostly Philip with a little help from Peter and Emma!-

Here's a squash and below is a tomato plant with some sunflowers in the background. !

Softball

Church softball is a huge deal here in Person County. This will be Philip's 3rd season playing! Friday night was our first game and it was a double header. It is really a fun time for the whole family. We have a great fan club of folks that fill the bleachers. There's lots of dirt, rocks and trash for the kids to play with. Lollipops, popcorn or candy are available for purchase.
Peter was taking some pictures and he actually captured some good ones!

This is Austin and Ashley. They are like two of our favorite people....don't they have great smiles!Number 14 is "Preacher". I still am not used to hearing people refer to Philip as "preacher" or "preach". You hear it a lot of the softball field. "Good hit Preacher". " Good try, Preach".
Ryan on the other hand enjoyed yelling, "Run fast daddy, run fast."
Emma realized halfway through the first game that her daddy wasn't doing a lot of playing. So she asked him, "Daddy, why aren't you playing". He replied, "I'm a bench rider". We are thankful that he rides the bench because the less playing time he has means the fewer chances of injuries, pulled muscles or sluggish Saturdays!!!

It's watermelon time!

On the way home from a play date at the park and a few errands, we stopped by this truck on the side of the road and bought our first watermelon of the year! Watermelon is just the best example of American summer time! We wasted no time and sliced it up to go with our lunch.

caught

in an after dinner snooze---- like father - like son!

having fun

We joined about 100 other youngsters this morning at the Library for the first of the summer reading programs. Today was the kick off with Fish the Magish. He is a humours magician. He did a good job of keeping all the kids and parents laughing while wowing us with his magic! He was great. Then we headed to our friends house for a little bit of fishing.

The fish weren't biting and it was getting close to lunch time so we packed up and headed home. After a nap, snack and a early dinner we then headed to another friend's lhouse at Hyco Lake. Philip and the kids were there yesterday for a canoe ride but they didn't go swimming. Tonight we did some lake swimming. It is admittedly not my favorite way of swimming but it was a beautiful night.

It's back to work for Philip and business as usual for us tomorrow!

tomato soup

It is the strangest thing but one of Peter's favorite foods is tomato soup. When we lived in Wilmington and had a huge garden, I discovered a yummy creamy tomato basil soup. I would make tons of it throughout the summer and freeze it. I made some our first summer in Roxboro because of the half and half it really made Peter sick. For some reason, it has taken me this long to find a tomato soup recipe that doesn't call for milk or cream. (For the record, I did start making another one but it had wild rice, carrots and celery in it and Peter didn't like it as much). Last week I found a recipe to try and we had it for dinner.
4 BOWLS for Peter.
2 BOWLS for Emma
1 for me (that was all that was left)
1 Ryan size bowl
1 teaspoonful for Philip b/c he was eating at church

Unbelievable- my kids ate this almost like they would eat ice cream. Needless to say, this recipe will not be lost. I told Peter we should make this on a weekly basis for lunch. He heartily agreed and suggested breakfast as well.

In case your interested in trying it out yourself, which I would recommend because it was very good. I ran it through the blender after simmering so it was smooth!

#3 and 4

Peter lost his 3rd tooth while we were away last week. It is really amazing how much his teeth have naturally adjusted to make room for his adult teeth. His second upper tooth was just hanging on by a thread at this point. He was definitely getting lots of comments at church yesterday about his missing tooth!

He lost this other tooth tonight after dinner. That's 4 down!

getting close

I guess if I want to break the 1000 hit mark I need to start posting something worth reading! However, I don't have much worth posting as of right now....but let me think....

The kids and I arrived home about 30 minutes earlier than Philip on Saturday afternoon. We both had a good time away but were thankful to be home and together again. We headed to the pool after an early dinner. I was hanging with Ryan on the steps trying to entice him into the pool. He wasn't interested until he decided the diving board was calling his name. I was skeptical that he would actually do it so I walked over with him to the board. He had his floaties on and Philip was in the water below the board. I walked behind him holding his hands. Without a moment of hesitation he walked right off and I dropped him into the water. His floaties worked really well because his hair didn't even get wet!
He loved it and was ready to do it again. I wasn't so I was diverted his attention to jumping into the shallow end.
I'll have to try to get a picture of this!

unbelievable

I can not believe what just happened....I clicked over to my hubby's site to see how far behind I was in our race to 1000 hits....and to see what he's been up to at conference.
Can anybody guess what my hit number was?????

1000

He won- but he had to get the whole church on his side in order to pull it off!

Hijacked...

It looks like my site has been hijacked by a friendly competitor. I guess it's ok since it did increase my count while he was trying to divert your attention!!

On to other things...I told Philip a month ago that my goal was to order my homeschool curriculum during the time I was at my parents (this week). I have been thinking, reading, researching, thinking, reading and researching this big purchase for quite sometime. I do have a tendency to have some commitment troubles when it comes to spending money so I new a goal would work well for me. I knew I wanted to go with Sonlight Core K for history, geography, literature and science. I was hoping to find it used but I knew that this could also be challenging. I got "permission" from Philip for an estimated budget and his "blessing" to order on line.
I looked on ebay yesterday and found the curriculum I wanted. I watched the bidding and signed on with 15 minutes left. It was still at $175. I placed a few bids and was finally the top bidder and with 2 minutes on top I won the set for $204. I am nervous that I will get the package and it won't be exactly what I thought but instead of dwelling on the nervous thoughts I am choosing to focus on how God provides. I set a goal and He allowed it to happen. I believe He is in control of all things and He is faithful!
I am excited about Peter beginning "1st grade" when we get our stuff!

Bring it on

I just want to let all of you know out there that you ain't got nothing on me. I am going to stomp DeAnne on reaching one thousand. I just sent an email out to my entire church to check my blog. Also click on the blue letters to help me out. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Blessings, Philip

Happy Birthday Dad

We are excited about getting to be with my parents on my dad's birthday. This seems to be the year that everyone is understanding the fun that comes with Birthday's! My dad has requested a chocolate pecan pie for his big day!

Good times in Charlotte

When the Chryst family gets together it is a big group! It is so fun to be with everyone. This time the gathering was to honor Bob and Barb's 4oth wedding anniversary. It was a great reason to have a party!The family has gotten larger over the years so there are now 3 categories of tables. The little kids table, the big kids table and the grown ups! These are the little kids. It's always a toss up as to who gets to be at the big kids table. This time I was one of the lucky ones!
We were able to spend some time with Philip's grandmother on Monday morning. This is the first time that Gram has been able to see all of our kids at the same time. We had fun with Gram and I think her neighbors enjoyed our visit as well.

Friendly competetion

As I am raising two boys and in partnership with a great man, I am learning to understand the fine art of competetion. Until reading the book, The Wonder of Boys, I didn't appreciate or like for that matter the competitive spirit of my oldest son. It frankly got on my nerves that every little thing was a matter for competition. Who got up first, who got down first, who is the fastest, best, cutest, smartest.....it goes on and on. Now that I understand that boys are genetically wired to be competitive I am learning how to use it for my benefit rather than fight it.
So why am I writing about this. I'm glad you asked.

Philip and I added a "free counter" to our blogs about the same time. I think he added his about a two days before I added mine. I just checked out his blog and realized that I am only about 40 hits behind him. Not that I'm starting a competition or anything...really I am just amazed by my numbers. Who is really reading this thing anyway?

So if you are reading this and haven't posted a comment before could you please post a comment so I know who my audience is?

Who knows maybe I will break 1000 before he will.

cries from afar

I had just changed Ryan's diaper; had the complementary pep talk about using the potty instead of using his diaper and then went about whatever it was I was doing. I heard Ryan go into the bathroom, get out the little potty seat, place it on the potty, sit down (fully clothed) and say potty. I congratulated him on his efforts but reminded him that he just used the bathroom in his diaper and he is supposed to sit on the potty before. Again I carried on with my business and soon heard some crying. I didn't immediately investigate because I hear crying all the time! I completed my task and then found Ryan in the bathroom holding the potty seat, fully clothed but this time fallen into the potty. His bottom was soaking wet and he was saying, "fall potty". Peter mind you is in full view of this episode. I calmly ask him, "why didn't you tell me that Ryan was in the potty". Peter responded, " I was in shock. I didn't know what to say". I don't know if I truly believe that but it was quite a response!

Fortunately, it doesn't seem like Ryan experienced any Post-potty falling- in- trauma!

Near or Far

I was having a conversation with a friend this morning at our church's Father Day's breakfast. She said,"it must be great to have family at the beach and you can go whenever.". I have to admit that it is great to have family that live at the beach and have family that live in the big city of Charlotte. It's like the best of two worlds. We can go to the beach and do the beach thing. We can go to Charlotte and do the big city thing- where you are minutes away from all my favorite shopping, resturaunts, and sky scrappers!
However, I got to thinking later this morning as I was driving around with 3 kids in the 90 degree heat. I had 3 places to go and practically one item to do at each destination. Instead of being thankful for my family living in such great locations I was now envious of my friend who has both sets of her family within minutes of her. How nice it would have been to drop the kids off with their grandparents (or aunts and uncles or anyone I felt confident would be glad to help) so I could get my errands done without kids in tow. How nice it would be to call up a loving relative and say, "Hey, I'm having to fix dinner tonight for 6 adults plus our family tonight, could you come over and help me get ready???".
I'm not sure who has it better. I guess this is what learning to be content is all about. Although my family isn't just a phone call away, a 2.5- 3 hr drive is a lot more doable than another friend whose family live in Canada!

Who's tired???

I think these two were officially wore out! It was 7:36pm when we arrived home and I grabbed the camera.

It's pool time

One of the things that we are so thankful for and feel is a blessing from God is our pool membership! The church has a membership with one of the community pools and pays for all the fees for our family to participate. It is awesome. It opened last week and we have so far been there 3 times since Monday.I am really proud of the kids. The second day for them but first for me was Tuesday. Emma was a little skittish of jumping in the shallow section even with floaties on. By today, she was jumping in the deeper section with me just in the area and swimming to the ladder. She finished the day off with a jump off the diving board.
Peter is really swimming! He's jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder without any assistance from us. We're just there for moral support and my well being mostly. He can swim from one side of the deep end to the other as well. I am really excited about the both of them really doing some good swimming this summer. I told Peter my goal for him is dive in and swim a 25 yard lap.
The water is still a little chilly. When Ryan and I first entered the water he was saying," all done; home; no swimming; go home". We stayed in and he got used to the temperature. In no time he wanted to "jump" in off the sides like his siblings. Since he doesn't really jump yet it was more of a step in.

cool happening

Philip showed this to me this morning....check this out
Philip is hoping to connect with this other guy so they can talk about their experiences and ideas. The internet makes life a whole lot smaller sometimes.

Nothing exciting

I don't really have anything exciting to write about this afternoon but I just felt like making an entry. I did receive the first of 3 expected packages in the mail yesterday. I finally made a decision about a handwriting curriculum for the kids. I picked A Reason for Handwriting. I ordered everything used so they are all arriving separately. I got my handbook first. I realize that I will probably have a bit of reteaching to do with Peter but hopefully I'm early enough with Emma that she can begin with good strategies. I picked this curriculum because it is Biblically based so the kids will be using scripture verses as their "copy work" when they get there. I figured if there going to have to write it might as well be scripture! This curriculum uses the phrases "bubbles" and "sticks" to describe how to form your letters. Since we didn't have our books yet we spent some time outside blowing bubbles to get a good mental picture of what a good circle/bubble looks like. I read that in the manual; it wasn't my creative idea.

the buzz

Ryan's hair was getting pretty long and with the warmer weather he was really starting to get sweaty. So it was time for a hair cut. I left him with a head full of thick blonde hair and he returned with a buzz. Philip decided he really needed a "high and tight"! Philip was the barber by the way. Peter got the same hair cut . His doesn't look quite so short because of his dark coloring.

Begining steps

For the past month or so, Ryan has begun to tell us when he needs a new diaper. The logical next step is to introduce him to the potty. I have gotten the little potty out a few times and tried to have him sit on it. He would cry and scream when I tired to "encourage" him to just sit on it. However, recently I just put the potty next to the big potty and was able to entice him to sit on it. I told him if he sat on it I would give him another drink of juice. (I do not believe in bribing my children as a means of achieving obedience. Potty training is my only exception.) He actually took me up on my offer. Since his bottom is actually too big for this little potty, I got out our other potty seat that fits inside the big potty. Today he sat on the big potty twice. Nothing happened but he did sit on it and was excited about it. That is a big step for us!
As far as I can recall, I have had at least one child in diapers since August 6th, 2002.

Sunday visitor!

We were blessed to have a visitor on Sunday. Our good friend Mandy came to see us. She even volunteered to babysit so we could go out on a date. Since I don't get to see her often, I had a hard time agreeing to the plan. BUT we had plans set up with friends for a joint-belated birthday dinner pending a babysitter on our part. So we took her up on the offer.

I think she had fun! I know the kids did.