Horton hears a howling wind

...Late last night or very early this morning, however you want to look at it, the tornado sirens went off and we headed for Rhett's closet for a few minutes. The possibility of a tornado was close but we were lucky. No power outage like 10,000 other Edmond residents and no tornado near us. Now that we have a chance of more severe weather today and throughout the week, I have to say I am thankful that Rhett's classroom is the designated safe room (no windows, heavy doors) and that Noah's school/church has a basement. Heck, they are safer there than here where we have no "tornado" shelter.


Yesterday, my preacher had a sermon titled "Lessons from an Elephant." It was about how we can all find something sacred in secular things. One of his examples was the cross. The cross that Jesus died on was a horrible thing. But because Jesus rose, it is now a wonderful reminder that Jesus died to save us from sin and to give us hope, he rose again. He also showed several clips on the new movie "Horton Hears a Who" and compared Horton to Jesus' humanity. How Jesus is just like us, only without sin. How he is faithful 100%. How he was resented, ostracized and arrested for caring for those that were "invisible" (like women, Samaritans, children). How he risked his life caring, loving, protecting and saving others.

It made me wonder. Did Dr. Suess have Jesus in mind when he wrote about Horton? If he didn't, then why not? I mean, it is a great story and I have always loved it. But now, it holds deeper meaning to me. It is a great reminder of Jesus' love for us.

This morning, while listening to the radio, I heard Cyndi Lauper's song, "Time after Time." Never before had I thought about Jesus while listening to this song, but immediately my thoughts turned to Him this time. I thought of what my preacher said about if I were to die today then would I be happy with my spiritual self enough to live like that forever and ever. My answer is no, of course. I know God has a lot of work to do with me still. But I am not worried because:

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me, time after time.

If you fall, I will catch you. I'll be waiting. Time after time.

Time after time.

Have a good day!

Oh, and I liked this picture of Horton. He looks like we did last night when the tornado sirens went off. :)

donuts with dad

...Yesterday, Seth went to Rhett's school for breakfast. It was like an early Father's Day celebration with the 1st graders. Some neat things to share:

*Rhett let it slip that Dad had donuts to me. Once he said it he goes, "Oh no! I wasn't supposed to tell you that he had donuts since he is on a diet!" I laughed and told him I figured he would since it was "Donuts with Dad." He said, "He only had grazed donuts, Mom. Not chocolate." I wonder what grazed donuts taste like. :)

*The 1st graders made magazine covers for their dads. Price was 2 hugs. Rhett's says:

This year we salute Seth Houston as Father of the Year! He's good at Bascketball. He's the best Dad in the whole wold. He likes to Gives me a 2000;;27 hugs. He's a egunear. Seth had a good laugh at that last one. Pretty good try at spelling engineer, don't you think?

*They also had Special Father papers that they filled in the blanks for their dads. The best: He's as handsome as a cashew. Yes, cashews are the most handsome of all the nuts. Ha!

Have a great weekend and Mom, have a great time in Italy!!

hi

...It's been awhile, so hi. Did you have a good Easter? Ours was nice. Here is a photo recap of our Spring Break:

I took this photo the day before we left on our little trip. I was cleaning house and found Seth's shoes in the living room. I thought it was funny that the two pairs were in the exact same position. I don't know how he did that.

Cows.

Wednesday afternoon we went to the Cowboy Musuem. The boys, in this picture, were at the saloon pretending to order a drink. The saloon was a part of a historic cowboy town. That was pretty neat.

Sorry, this photo isn't great because Rhett's face is too bright but I thought it was cute anyway. This was also at the museum. They have beautiful lawns and ponds and statues.

And these are my silly boys. We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at church and they decided to wear their baskets for hats. Obviously.
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Easter was spent with friends and we had a great time and great food. Monday meant back to school and we are just going and going now. Noah is loving soccer and is ready for his 3rd game on Saturday.

And now I've got to go fix supper. Till next time...

Wednesday already?

...This morning when Seth left, I looked at the clock and thought, "I need to get up now. Rhett's eye dr. appointment is in 1 1/2 hours, so I need to get up."



I opened my eyes again and thought, "Okay, I really will get up now."



I looked at the clock. One hour had passed. It was now 8:22 am. His appointment is at 8:50.



Aaaah!



In my defense, I really have been having trouble falling asleep lately. I don't know exactly why but it is annoying. I am tired. I feel like I could go to asleep any moment. But then I don't. I am still awake. Hearing my husband's soft snores.



But, we did get to the eye doctor in time, thanks to the fact that the boys were already awake and had gone to the bathroom. They understood that we were in a hurry for once and were quick as lightning to get dressed and in the car. Yay for them.



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I took my friend and her two kids to my parent's house for the weekend. The boys and her kids get along pretty well. It was funny to see my friend see my town. She is from Hawaii and has never seen such a small town. We went to a feed yard, to the town's hamburger place and I showed her around in about 5 minutes. :) We had a good time. We also drove to my old house in the country with my mom. This was the first time my mom and I had been out there in 8 years. I was saddened by the shape of my grandparents house but glad my old house still looked the same. I know why they say you can't go back. It is too depressing.

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Anyway, Spring Break is half over and we have lots of things planned. So I better go and start doing them!

Some things

...I have almost eaten a whole bag of jelly beans in 3 days. So much for my "lifestyle" change. Ha! Seriously, I am addicted to jelly beans. Halloween, I have to have my fill of candy corn. Christmas, it is candy canes. Valentines, those candy hearts. Easter, jelly beans. I really did good around Valentines. I didn't buy the candy hearts, so I didn't eat them. But I got sucked in with the jelly beans. I had to buy candy to fill some eggs and they were there on the shelf, looking so yummy. Good thing it has been nice outside. I have done a lot of yard work, so maybe I've worked off those extra calories I've consumed. :)
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Harry Potter's final book is going to be made into 2 movies. November 2010 and May 2011 are the release dates of Part 1 and 2, respectively. That is exciting. I know that I won't want it to end. I think they are filming "The Half-Blood Prince" right now. It is strange to know that Rhett will be 11 years old when the last movie will be out. He could actually go with me, if he wants. Wow.
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Noah is having his last school Easter Egg Hunt this morning. Rhett asked when his school egg hunt was and I told him he didn't have one. He answered, "So, I only have one Easter Egg Hunt this year? Darn." I think some years we have had 3, so the boy is used to hunting a lot of eggs.
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Noah's teachers brought in some chicks to watch them grow. When they first brought them in, Noah was so excited. He wanted one to keep. I told him chicks aren't babies very long. And what would we do with a chicken, I asked him. He said, "Mom, we can just let it go." Duh. Can you imagine a chicken running around the neighborhood loose? That would be a funny sight. Then he asked if our dogs might eat the chick. I said it was possible. He stopped wanting one after that.
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Spring Break is next week. Yay! Rhett wants to do everything that he never gets to do during school. Go to movies, museums, you name it, he wants to do it. I hope he leaves a little time to relax.
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Have a great day!

whew

...what a day. It started waking up late, boys too, and ended feeling like I could drop. We all stayed up too late last night (I had a girls night out, the boys got to watch a John Wayne western with daddy) and it was so hard to get out of bed this morning. But we dragged ourselves out and then at 7:30 am, Noah's preschool director called and asked if I could sub for a teacher. Ok. Now we need to go faster. I am also taking care of my neighbor's very high-maintence pooch so add that to the mix and it was a hurried morning. This afternoon we had to get eggs to fill with candy for easter egg hunts that happen later this week and the next and also some abc workbooks for Noah (who bless his heart, still cannot say his abcs correctly). Then off to get Rhett, go to guitar lessons, then to swimming (Rhett) and soccer (Noah). A quick stop to get fast food and we got home, ate fast and boys in bed by 8:15.

But I made sure today to stop and thank God for all of this. Sure it is busy. Sure it is frazzling. Sure I want it to slow down. But I am blessed that we have the opportunity to help others, to meet new people, that we have active, healthy boys and that we can still get in bed at a reasonable hour.

Speaking of bed, I am headed that way...

What?!?

... A bombing occurred at Times Square this morning. Seth will now be even more apprehensive about letting me go to NYC. I've been wanting to go since forever and finally he told me he never wanted to see that place. So I invited my sisters and mom instead. We are going sometime in September.

And we will be just fine. And everyone who comments today, please tell Seth that we will be just fine. Thanks!

:)

--A note on the title: Yesterday, I told Rhett and Noah that they had 10 minutes left to clean their rooms and then they were going to get ready for bed. Rhett says, "What?" So, I repeat myself a little louder. Again, Rhett asks, "What?" I yell it this time. He says, "No, not that kind of What. This kind, What!?! You know, like, What?!? I can't believe it."

Oh. Of course.

Oh that Rhett is a funny one!

In the past week, here are some of the things Rhett has said:

After seeing a commercial for a beauty product for women, he asked Grandmom why girls use that stuff. She answered so they can feel or look sexy.
R: I don't want my mom to become sexy. I like her just the way she is.

This morning on the way to school, Rhett was staring at me. I wore my hair in a ponytail. He finally said,
R: Mom, right now you look younger than you actually are.

To his grandparents who came to visit this past weekend, he was explaining our "diet" because...
R: My dad is getting bigger. {giggle, giggle}

At the grocery store, where Seth and I fought about the "diet" I kind of forced on him:
R: Mom, I guess you and Dad are getting divorced now.

And that night, after Seth made a delicious meal on the grill. (We had made up by then):
R: So, Mom, how's the "diet" going? (I kid you not, he really used the hand motions for the quotation marks.)

spring is here--never mind

...I saw a commercial the other day about this couple sitting in a car, listening to the weather on the radio. The man on the radio was saying how beautiful it was going to be that day; sun shining, a warm 78 degrees, no rain in sight. The couple looked at each other and then looked out the front windshield. Outside, it was dark and raining. Then it began to hail.

It was a commercial for the unpredictable nature of Oklahoma weather and some insurance company.

I laughed out loud. Because it is so true!

Sunday: Cloudy, windy, still warm with thunderstorms and threat of tornado late in the day.
Monday: Snow in the morning, cloudy and cold the rest of the day.

To have spring weather on one day and back to snow the next is crazy.