You know you are adult when...

Okay, so being a college professor after having been a graduate student teaching college and taking classes, I sort of still feel like I am not that much older than my students. (However, turning 30 this years sort of foiled that notion).

With flu season approaching, my university always offers free flu shots to faculty and staff. So, I signed up for one. Then when I broached the subject of flu shots with Abi she of course bristled at the thought (I can really relate to this, as many of you know I really don't do well with needles. For example: I passed out twice when I got blood taken for my marriage license). So, I called our insurance and the doctor's office to see if the flu mist would be covered the same as a flu shot and to see if it was as safe for Abi to take. Everything seemed to work out well, and I plan to let Abi get the mist....

So this got me thinking, "What about me?" I could go to the doctor and get the mist instead of the shot here at school. But then I thought about how long that would take, about having to have one or both of my kids with me to go get the mist at the doctor's office....

So, I went on over to the health center and got my shot.

Coming back to my office I thought about my decision and came to the following conclusion...

You know you are an adult when, your time is more important than the pain of a shot.

Abi's Offer

This past weekend we participated in a community-wide garage sale at our rec center. We had a 10x10 *booth* for our stuff. We encouraged Abi to put some of her things in the sale. Suprisingly she chose to sell her Little Tikes kitchen and Little Tikes Vanity. They were both items she had really outgrown and did not play with much anymore. She also chose some smaller things. We decided to split the revenue from the kitchen and vanity with her and she would keep the rest.

The sale went relatively well. We made $170 after we took out the cost of booth space ($15) and the cost of making the clothes rack ($5). However, the imortant thing to note in this is that Abi's portion of that $170 was $50! Abi made $50!

So as the sale was concluding, the following conversation took place.

"Abi you made $50!" (surprise on her face) "What you going to do with all that money?"

"I don't know." (in kind of a thoughtful tone)

"You could take us all to dinner."

"I could?" (not sure that was really true)

"Sure. Do you want to take us all out to dinner?"

"I don't think so." (kind of a reasoned out voice) "But I can take us to lunch."

"Oh, yea, where are you going to take us?"

"McDonalds"

"You know if you are paying at McDonalds you can pay for you to get a happy meal" (We don't usually get happy meals, we opt for cheaper choices)

"Really! Yes, yes yes!"

So it was settled, Abi bought our lunch at McDonalds.

John 3:16

Abi is in Awanas at a local church here. For those of use who grew up Nazarene (like me) this is kind of like Caravans at a Baptist Church. She is really enjoying it. Watch her quote scripture below.

A Zoo Visit with Friends

This weekend we visited the Columbus Zoo with my friend Amber, her daughter McKenna, and son Lawson. McKenna and Abi are good friends and had been looking forward to this trip since Lawson's birthday a few weeks back. There is a portion of this zoo that has rides for the kids. We decided to splurg a little ($6 for an unlimited rides wrist band) and let the girls ride some rides.

Flying with Dumbo

Frog Hopping

Swinging Along



More and More Swinging

Jeff's Resignation

For those of you who have not heard, Jeff resigned this past week as youth pastor at the church we were attending. He has had frustrations on many fronts and simply did not feel God wanted him to be in that position any longer.

1) Please keep Jeff in your prayers as he looks for another job.

2) Please keep our family in your prayers in terms of finance. For although the youth pastor job did not pay much it did pay something.

3) Please keep our family in your prayers as we find a new church home.

First Day of School ... okay nearly 2 weeks late

Abi started Kindergarten on August 25, I know that is almost 2 weeks ago. However I started on the 24th and Jeff started on the 25th, so we have been kind of busy. As you can see Abi was geared up and ready to go. Here we only have half day Kindergarten. Mostly she has been very excited. They have gotten started right away. She has homework every night (albeit not too much). And while Abi is already reading some, they have started with flash cards for sight words, a poetry notebook, and an alphabet journal. Quite a lot for just 9 days I think!

We have also had a couple interesting things here. Apparently her school prays before snack, which we were happy to learn. She came home with this prayer...

"God is great. God is good. Let us think him for our food, friends and family. Amen"

Great!

Then the next day she came home with this one...

"Good food. Good meat. Good God. Let's eat."

Okay, so here we had issue. Abi had difficulty understanding our concerns too. This "prayer" which I hardly consider a prayer, seems very disrespectful to us. Almost like making fun of what a true prayer conveys, thankfulness to God for what we are eating. So, I went in to discuss this with her teacher the following day. Awkward, but I think it went okay. She thanked me for coming to discuss it with her.