Today is Thursday, And...

This morning, the whole house woke up feeling better. I feel a little better because I actually slept last night (and could breathe). Tessa slept really well, too. We had breakfast together and then went to the grocery store. Tessa behaved herself like I've never seen. She even held onto the cart as we walked to the car and "helped" me get it there OK. I had to stop and tell her how proud I was of her good behavior. She shrugged her left shoulder up to her ear and smiled. She was so thrilled with herself. If only that were enough incentive to keep things like this from now on.

Our Life Group has started a short study of the book, The Shack. It is going to be a challenge to many people in that group--including me. I think it will get people thinking about blurring some of their harsh black and white lines into grey. Which is always a good thing, but a little scary at first. Like, for instance, the book asserts that Jesus comes to get us off whatever path we are on to save us. In other words, our response is only that--a response to the work He already did. That will be a change from the "Be baptized for the remission of your sins" thinking. It might lean us towards the "Be baptized because Jesus' blood has washed away your sins". The only real difference is that the power and glory is shifted from us to God (where I think it should be anyway). Still, like I said, this is grey matter and hard to know the exact dimensions of. Salvation is a great mystery of eternal workings and power. I can't wait to get to heaven and see salvation from God's point of view.

Pray for me. Anthony might be catching my cold. I would say pray for Anthony, but I will be the one wanting to kill him. I must resist the urge....

My Women's Bible Study starts up Tuesday. I am leading Blackaby's Experiencing God. I've never done the study before, but everyone who has raves about it. So it should be a great avenue to gaining a more personal relationship with the Lord and other women in my church as well.

Tessa met her pre-school teachers yesterday. Her class age-group spends a lot of time on potty training. They try to get everyone potty trained before the class ends. I think it's wonderful to have other people helping me potty train her. Like teammates.

Well, today and tomorrow mark the last two days of summer vacation for me and Tessa. Our time together will drop from EVERY day, to Thursdays and every other Friday. She is going to love the change, and SO AM I!!!!!!!!!!! I just know I will be a different person with some "me" time. I might even have nice fingernails, eyebrows and hair just as a result of more time for "me". ;)

We Do It By The Numbers

1. I'm sick with a head cold.

2. My voice comes and goes.

3. Tessa found my wallet in my purse and snuck it out onto the deck and casually threw all of my cash into the back yard. Then she opened the change pocket and (one-by-one) dropped each coin through the deck boards. Then she took out each credit card, bank card, etc. and buried them in her sandbox.

4. I didn't find out until way too late.

5. While running around the yard after my money, Tessa got my glass of water from the table and stuffed a scarf into it and then dumped the whole thing onto the couch.

6. I didn't find out until I sat down.

7. While I was squeezing out the scarf in the sink, Tessa removed all of the books from an entire row of our bookshelf and THREW them around the room.

8. I knew she was doing this and hid in the kitchen.

9. When I finally went to pick up the books, Tessa rolled her baby's stroller out onto the deck and filled the cloth seat up with sand from her sand box.

10. I went to peel potatoes for dinner in the kitchen and heard a strange sound. Like sand.

11. I walked in on Tessa grabbing two huge handfuls of sand out of the stroller and throwing them backwards over her shoulders all over the living room.

12. Daddy got home late tonight and didn't call ahead of time.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dogs Tails

We found out this morning that we are having a boy! It was not what I expected, but I was overjoyed. Anthony mentioned checking off the "I'm a man" box for having a son. I guess he was pretty pleased. So here we go to the one-of-each world. Of course, we knew Baby #2 would have to be strong to have Tessa as a big sister. I mean, she will probably be feeding him bugs every time I turn my back. And if the way she treats her baby dolls is any indication...

The ultrasound picture is blurry, I know. If you can't tell, little Boy Todd is sucking his thumb. He is already taking after his daddy (who was a notorious thumb-sucker). He wouldn't mind that I told you that. Probably. OK, don't tell him I told you, OK? OK.

Tessa's Pick of the Week

BUGS = COOL

I was unloading the dishwasher this morning when I heard a crash come from the living room. The crash was the sound of Tessa falling in her haste to get to me in the kitchen. She was yelling,

MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!!!!!!

(Yes, Momo is gone...sigh). She burst around the corner and said,

Look at that! See that?

and she pointed inside her mouth. I looked inside wondering what I would see (I'll be honest here, I was a little reluctant to know). I didn't see anything, but I said,

WOW! What is that?

To which Tessa swelled her chest out and replied (with obvious pride),

A BUG!

I looked again, still seeing nothing, but I asked,

Did you eat a bug?

And Tessa leaped in the air and yelled

YES!!!

with a huge smile on her face. Trying to suppress my laughter, I said,

Oh! What did it taste like? Was it yummy?

Tessa looked at me seriously for a moment and then said

Bug was dirty. See that?

And she pointed in her mouth again. I explained to her that she shouldn't eat bugs or other dirty things she might find on the floor. While explaining this, with little point I'm sure, Daddy called. He was on speaker and immediately Tessa began jumping up and down in her excitement to tell him about the bug. When Tessa gets excited, she sounds like

WafimstasruksfordurtysanthesgubanthesBUG! See that?

So usually, the person listening will gather about 2 words--just enough to get the gist.

JONAS BROTHERS = NOT COOL

My new camera is supposed to get here tomorrow, so I am anticipating that. I can't wait to start snapping pictures everywhere. It would have been so easy to get a picture of Tessa holding her mouth open and pointing inside this morning if I had a working camera. Another exciting thing happening tomorrow is the big ultrasound that will reveal whether we are having a boy or girl. I am 22 weeks pregnant right now, so it's a few weeks later than usual. Oh well. We are pretty excited. I will be sure to write about it then.

Oh yeah, and then there was the Jonas Brothers. I took Tessa to the Great Clips by our house to get her bangs trimmed again. She remembered the routine exactly. From hopping into the chair, to sitting really still. She did great. Her favorite part is at the end, of course, when they give her a sucker. Before they even offered, she hopped around and yelled sucker. So I reminded her of her manners--hahahahahahahahaha (sorry, I had to get a hold of myself there)--and she said please and thank you in her charming way. The hair dresser then asked her if she would like a poster of the Jonas Brothers. Tessa just stared (she has Proverbs 17:28 down pat). So the lady handed her a rolled up poster. Tessa held it in her hand a few moments looking from it to the sucker in her other hand and back again. Making her decision, she handed the poster back. I'm sure she felt like it was a no-brainer, but maybe was trying to not hurt the lady's feelings. So we left Great Clips plus one watermelon flavored dum-dum, and minus one Jonas Brothers poster. I think we got the better end of the deal. ;)

Soap, Hell and Fire

I don't soap box very much on this blog. Even though, if you know me, you know I have...ahem...opinions. But I guess this has been on my mind lately. So sometimes writing it down helps. Our new preacher, young though he is, gave a great talk last Wednesday night about leading others to Christ. Evangelism. It's a word that many people shrink from because of its implications. Namely getting out of the Lazy Boy and being among the masses. I can understand--evangelism has so many forms and formulas these days--which do you choose? Our preacher discussed those good-intentioned Gospel meeting preachers of old who would try to "scare" people into the water. Jesus was described as a get-out-of-hell-free card. He went on to plead with people to present Jesus as a Savior from sin, an amazing Redeemer, and a loving Shepherd. It's almost revolutionary to think on these terms. I mean, if you don't first "help" the lost know they are, at this moment, hanging from a thread over the fiery lakes of Hell, then how do you present their need? Many have grappled with this question. What is the best way to be Jesus to others? What can you say to logically introduce the salvation conversation? How do you get your foot in the door, so to speak? These are very important questions, and they are usually asked by people given the gift of a passion for the lost. But (yes, there is the but), I hardly ever hear talk of the Holy Spirit in these discussions. I am beginning to feel like the Church of Christ is a little reluctant to mention His involvement. Actually, I haven't heard mention of the Spirit in a long time at our church. And that is a whole other soap box I won't mention...for now. ;) Taking the story of Acts chapter 2 as a powerful example of Evangelism, I notice two key points. One, there was no mention of hell, just a testimony of Jesus' character and validity as the Messiah. Two, they did it through the help of the Holy Spirit. It wasn't them--in fact, they waited what must have seemed like a long time before they spoke to the people (the lost) because they had been told to not go ahead without the Helper. When was the last time I heard someone give the testimony of waiting to hear from the Spirit for the go ahead from the pulpit? It's been long enough. I bet the apostles had a very captivated audience, though. The timing of the Spirit is perfect. Still, wouldn't you listen to someone with fire burning out of the top of their head? I mean, I would at least watch to see if anything else caught fire. Like, just maybe, the hearts of the listeners.

Singing Mice and Birds Not Included

We just ended a day that never left the 50s! And it rained the whole day! It was a strange day to have in August because it really felt like fall. Tessa and I snuggled on the couch and watched Cinderella together. She hardly ever gets to watch TV, and it is a huge treat for her to get to watch a whole movie (all 76 minutes of it!). She loves to point out princess things whenever she sees them. I think she was a little enchanted with Cinderella and her animal friends.

When Anthony got home, he took his cabin-fevered family to the mall where we could run amok through the stores and go up and down all the escalators. I actually freak out about escalators. I keep having images of Tessa's foot getting sucked down through the iron teeth. Or a part of her clothing. I always have to hold onto her when we hop on one of those. She hates it and wants to do it all by herself, but that is one of those things I won't bend on!

We spent some time in the Disney store. Tessa enjoyed pointing out all of the princess gear to her daddy. A funny note: she calls the prince on Cinderella "daddy". And he doesn't have a goatee.

I picked up a hot chocolate for the ride home. It tasted sooooo good. Of course, I only drank half of it. I asked for a small, but I guess they only had one size which looked like large to me. When we got home, I put the half-full drink on the counter and went to take a shower. When I got out, I could hear sounds of tickling happening in Tessa's room. Anthony was changing her into her pj's for bedtime. I walked in and saw that her shirt was COVERED in chocolate. As was her face and neck. I guess I hadn't pushed the drink far enough back on the counter. Anthony said she "might" have had a drink of my hot chocolate. I looked down at Tessa and asked her if she had some of Mommy's drink. She said, very cheerfully, "YES!". I asked her if it was good, and she chirped out another "YES!". There was no shame in her voice or knowledge of wrong-doing in her eyes. Just a complete admittance of a very enjoyed beverage.

I am about to get off this computer to go watch a movie with the SO. We love our new TV--we are literally the last people we knew who hadn't succumbed to the huge TV urge. So it's still new and fun to watch movies in the dark. Bye!

Saturday In the Park

Well, we drove to Clement Park today for a little sit-and-watch-Tessa-play good time. There happened to be an event going on near the park. We must have got there before the crowds. There were two bounce-castles ready to use with only a few little girls on them. For $1 we could let Tessa go play to her heart's content. It was her first ever bounce castle experience. And boy did she love it! The only downside was getting her out so we could go eat lunch!

After she woke up from her nap, we went to Tiny Town. It was overcast, and we probably had a 50/50 chance of staying dry, but went for it! We rode the train first. As we were sitting on the train waiting to go, another train ran into us from behind. It was a huge jolt! The old guys who run the trains had a good laugh at the one who crashed into us and then started on their merry way. Tessa wasn't so sure it was all OK:

Then we strolled around the tiny houses peeking in and out of the windows:

After wandering in and out of the houses, we settled for a while in the playground where, if I remember right, Tessa learned to slide with her Memaw and Papa. Today's play time was mostly involving her Daddy:

And most of it was pleasant. :)

The rest of what was left of the evening after we got home was spent playing hide and seek and other fabulous 2 1/2 year old games. Daddy just put Tessa to bed, and now we are going to pretend to be grown-ups until we can't stay up anymore (which is in, like, and hour). Hope y'all are having a blessed time this weekend with your loved ones!