Second words!

It's official....Eliott's second word is officially Dale. Yes, you read that right, he says DADA and Dale. Oh my, my feelings are so hurt that his second word isn't momma but I totally understand since we say Dale all the time and Denzil or Dale don't call me momma so why would he say something he nevers hears.
Dale's doing really good at his job. He's been there going on 3 weeks now and really likes it. He bought an 1988 Chevy S10 on Thursday also. It's pretty much all in pieces, doesn't run and needs a whole bunch of work but he thinks he can get it running in a week to 2 weeks. It's cool though to be able to watch him work on it and bring it from nothing to something. The main reason he wanted it soooo much is because it has air bags on it. I know I don't understand it either but he's really into to that kind of stuff.
Eliott has been doing pretty good at mom's day out, which I'm very thankful for!! I've been just running around though when they are both at school and I think this Thursday I'm going to just relax!
Well gotta go do the dishes before I go read some of my bible study book-
Rachel

Be Joyful Always!!

On Friday night my mom came over and I put Eliott in bed and her and Phoebe stayed up and watched movies while Denzil and I went on a date. It's been a long while since we've actually had a "date" night and it was even Denzil's idea! So he took me to Ted's to eat dinner and I even drank a huge Pina Colada, YUMMY!! That was good! I haven't had any alcoholic drink in 3 years. Not that I ever did drink a lot but I love pina colada's! It was good to get out and have some adult talk. I think it's been so hard since we used to spend alone time together after the kids went to bed, about 2-2 1/2 hours. Now since Dale's here we spend the time as all 3 of us and play games, etc. so Denzil and I don't really ever get alone time without Dale here.

Update on Dale...he did get a job at Kwik Kar as a mechanic and he starts tomorrow morning. We had to go buy him lots of mechanic tools yesterday at Sears so I think he's excited to be starting a new job. I pray he likes it and it's a good fit for him!

I have our bible verse of the week on our board as 1 Thessalonians 1:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." A friend told me to memorize that to be more positive and I have caught myself several times saying something negative or getting mad about something and saying to myself "be joyful always...in all circumstances!!" I loved the sermon last week when Greg was preaching on "Jump, then ask how high. Live Dangerously" from 1 Samuel 14:6-9. He said that the center of God's will is a dangerous place to be. Sometimes it may look like we're losing the battle but according to "the Book" we win. It's not easy being a Christian because the instance you become a Chrstian you are at war with satan. Wow, never thought of it that way before...at constant war with satan but we are and I need to pray every day that He gives me the wisdom I need to fight him off!

I think I'll close with the qualities of a good wife/mom from Proverbs 31:
1. Trustworthy/denpendable
2. Encourager
3. Hard working-does whatever it takes to provide.
4. Caring
5. Wise
6. Compassionate
7. Prepared
8. Attitude
9. Reputable-she looks good and makes the family look good
10. Optomistic
11. Plesant-teaching kindness & faithfulness
12. Godly-fear the Lord. When we praise God's creation, we honor God

Please God make me a good wife/mom, and as a women that is like a grandma to me said...being a wife should always come first because in 18 years your husband will still be there and you don't want to look at him and not know who he is.

I am so excited, I get to go to bible study on Tuesday and we're starting a new study, Can't wait!! And it will also be Eliott's first day at mom's day out (since he missed his first day on Thursday because of his ears and not feeling good) so hopefully he's happy there and they won't have to call me!!

The devil is well at work!

Wow, it's defintely been awhile!! I find it hard to blog when Denzil and I are fighting and we can't seem to make up. The devil has been working on our relationship or maybe it's just because we have the 7 year problem, LOL! We've been married 7 1/2 years and they say that most couples get divorced in their 7th year. At times like this I don't see how couples are married for 50 or 60 years. We've been fighting so much lately and it's getting really old. Please pray that we stop the fighting and start working together.

We did have a fun weekend last weekend though. We got in our new van...yes I said new van. I had a CRV and whenever all of us went somewhere (including Denzil's brother) I would have to sit in between the two car seats in the back and it was way too tight and I hated it. So Denzil went out and bought me a brand spankin' new Honda Odyssey. It's sooo awesome. I'll have to take some pics and post them but that's at a later date. Anyways, we got in my new van and drove to San Antonio on Saturday night when Dale got off work. We got there at 4 am, got in our hotel room and went back to sleep until 7:30 am. We got up and we all went to Sea World. It was great fun!! And then we met up with my Aunt Sylvia and had dinner with her.


On Monday on our way home we stopped in Austin to get Dale's driver's license reinstated so he could get an OK dl and ate lunch there. That was the main point of our drive, was to get his dl reinstated, we just thought we'd make a little vacation out of it. Now that we're home though we brought some sickness with us. Phoebe had it first, a fever, runny nose and then my throat started hurting really bad and now Eliott's got it. Poor little guy...he sneezes and snot goes all over his face!!

Then we got home at midnight on Monday night and Tuesday morning Denzil dropped Dale off at work and they let him go. NEVER GO TO MEINEKE for your car needs!! The guy lied to him from the beginning. First it was that he was going to fire the assistant manager and Dale would take his position. When he started they said they decided not to fire him, they would put him over the mechanic side and Dale over the lube side. So whatever, no biggie. Then he said he would be salary and ended up only paying him hourly and left a whole day off of his check. Then when Dale called him (Him being the general manager of Meineke) he told Dale to "Go to hell," and hung up on him. WHAT!! I thinks he's got another job lined up though we're just waiting to hear from them.

Phoebe also went and got in my powder while I was in the kitchen last week. Here she is...Is this what she thinks I look like when I put my makeup on?!?

And here's my two beautiful babies in the bath tub...loving bath time!! I love them so much and it's amazing how much Phoebe says everyday. It's almost scary but soooo cute!

Amazed!!

Wow, this is the last week of ballet for Phoebe and she stood on her sticker today and did all of her ballet moves. I was so shocked I think I was smiling bigger than I had ever smiled before-PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!!! All weekend I was having her do certain ballet moves and she would do them and she showed Daddy and then on Saturday when we were at Grammy's house she showed her her ballet moves. So I had been working with her a lot and telling her "this is the last week for ballet and you're going to dance for Miss Tonya, right?" And she'd say yes. So she did all the moves but then there's one part that the 4 other little girls go up to Miss Tonya and hold hands and walk around in a circle. She would always refuse to do that and would just come lay in my lap and say no. So today when they did it I said go up there Phoebe and dance with your friends and she got up and kind of hesitated but followed the other little girls and went up there and held their hands. OH MY GOSH, I was totally beside myself I couldn't believe it. My little shy girl is actually doing it, wow!! It was totally great!! It was pretty funny though because while she was walking up there she had her hand in her mouth, something she does I guess her way of fidgeting, and when she took her hand out and reached for the little girls hand next to her, the little girl threw her hand down and said Yuck, it's wet. And me, her mom and dad busted out laughing. Miss Tonya just said Ok, well you can just hold her wrist and puts her hand around Phoebe's wrist. Then in the middle of going around in a circle they all let go of each others hands to dance and the little girl goes on the other side of Phoebe so she doesn't have to hold her "wet" hand again, it was hilarious!! I was so proud of her!!

I never realized how much I say "can't" until Phoebe started repeating it and saying "I can't" do this or that. I guess that's another negative part of me coming out. But we'll be driving down the road and she'll say "get my phone, please mom" and I'll stop myself from saying I can't because I don't want her saying that. So I am trying to find other words to use besides I can't and now when she says that I make her try it and tell her she can do anything. It's hard to just totally get a word out of your vocabulary but when it comes to my daughter saying it, I will stop saying it!!

And Eliott's continuing to grow up so fast. He has such a funny little personality. He crawls everywhere and is even starting to do the "monkey crawl" with one foot on the ground like walking and the other leg with his knee on the ground crawling. He crawl over to something and stand up and let go he just hasn't taken that first step yet. It's so cute. Here he is pulling up on Glory and standing next to her. Here's another funny pic of him loving on her- AHHHH, how cute!!

What we've been up to-

Wow, things are busy around here but we've been doing great! Eliott's trying to walk and says "dada" now, he's so cute!

This is dad and Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary in BA. He loves being on his daddy's shoulders!

Phoebe's in ballet and a music class and both of them are fun! She's a little shy in the ballet class, actually I don't know if it's shy or just bored because she'll do all the moves the first 5-10 minutes of class but then stop and just sit there or lay in my lap. She's saying full sentences now. Four weeks ago she would say "I drew shirt" and just in the last week she now says "I drew on my shirt." It's so cute to hear her actually say all the words that go in the sentence!! And as she told me this morning about Glory, "This is her paw!" This is Phoebe giving Glory hugs in Phoebe's bed.

Here's a picture of her petting the kangaroo at the Safari Santuary.

Dale is doing great also! He's gotten one of his classes that he needed to do done and he's working on all his community service. He's been so great with the kids and helping out around here! Here's just a few pics of him...

Here he is powerwashing our fence, wow look at the difference!! Anyone interested in him doing it to your fence??Here he is on our back porch with Phoebe. We found out he is an artist and he drew this monkey off of her "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" book. She was so excited to watch him draw it!!And here he is with Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary.

Phoebe & her ballet teacher, Ms. Tonya

Our little ballerina!!