A NEW LOOK

I know, I know....Thanksgiving is the next holiday and I can assure you that I'm not forgetting it or downplaying it. Just really feeling the need to focus on the season of Hope (without the change)!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

ALL ABOUT CAMDEN

Camden Camden Bo Bamden

Banana nana fo Famden

Me Mi Mo Mamden.....Camden

In our car, the Name Game is his favorite song to sing. You can bet that if you ever cross our path you will be sung about on one of our many drives.

Camden got his first note from a girl this week. He says it is not a love note just a note from a friend (he took the words right out of my mouth). She is in his preschool class and actually lives right behind us. She made him two of the cutest little pictures I've ever seen. (That's her in the picture.)

This week we went to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class. What a fun afternoon!!

He always listens to music as he is drifting off to sleep. Right now he is listening to a cd with older songs on it. His favorite is Dry Bones (the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone.....). I think he must really ponder the words of the songs because the other day he asked me the following, "You know that song that I listen to that says He washed my sins away?" I said yes. He says, "Well, how exactly did He do that?" This led to quite a conversation, some of which I'm not sure he understood. The good news is that I was able to connect my explanation to the way we give him consequences for bad behavior. I knew he would understand that as he has been getting A LOT of consequences lately!!!

Not sure how one little human being can be such a mixture of contradictions......sweet and cuddly one minute, sassy and naughty the next. One thing is for sure.....he is our Camden and we love him!! (I snapped this picture because it reminded me of how he used to sleep when he was a baby, with his little arms over his head.)

LOVE THESE PICTURES.....

JUST ONE OF THOSE MORNINGS....

Have you ever had a morning at church where you just couldn't get focused??

The friend I usually sit by (when Sam is working) was gone today so I knew I would have to find someone else to latch onto. I decide to sit in one of the weird "5 seat" rows that we have at our church and I move right to the middle seat just hoping that other friends who I know usually sit in this area, would show up and join me. They didn't....

As we begin singing two young people (I'm going to be pretty vague here although I don't know these people and don't think any of my blog readers know them either.) sit in the two seats to my right. We are in the middle of the first song and instantly one of the person's hands is in my face. I have no problem with how someone else worships during our singing but it was just kind of distracting for me. Totally my problem. After 5 songs we sit down for the sermon. I'm doing my best to focus and then it begins. First was the humongous, I think a good 32 ounce, travel coffee mug with a flip-top lid that evidently has to be clicked shut and then re-popped open between every drink. Then came the slurping during the prayer. I know, I know coffee is hot and we are a modern church who welcomes all coffee drinkers!! Next was the chewing of the fingernails. Have you ever noticed how when some people chew their nails it makes a loud clicking noise? That was this. All I could sit there and think of was how many H1N1 (we've been calling it the high-knee flu around here as H1N1 is so cumbersome to say) germs could possibly be under those nails. Just when I finished praying that this person would be protected from all of the cultures they were ingesting, out came the anti-bacterial, fruit-scented, hand lotion. Surely that would stop the nail biting......Nope!! I should also mention that through all these noisy events there has been constant touching of the face and running of fingers through the hair. (I was thinking maybe some OCD was involved here but now my professional diagnosis is fidgetor.)

If church would have been over at this point I might not have felt the need to blog this story. Here's how it ends.....

So the next big event, again during a prayer, was knuckle cracking. I almost giggled at this turn of events. However, the cherry on the big old church sundae today, was the back rub given during the closing reflection and prayer. (No I wasn't looking during the prayer but couldn't help but notice during reflection time.) Gotta love that "right in the middle of the worship service" pda!!

No worries though....I still managed to write down a full page of notes, understand the point of the sermon and find the humor in the situation. Next week however, I'm back to my usual focused self and my assigned seat!!!!

MISS YOU.....

It's only October 6th. It's rainy, cold and gray.

I MISS SUMMER!!!!!

TAKE A PICTURE, IT LASTS LONGER....

So tonight I was walking around the neighborhood and saw this little boy that had climbed up into a tree. Evidently it was the first time he had ever done that as his dad was very excited and was calling for the mom to come out and look. Trying to be friendly to strangers, which is not natural for me, I said, "You better grab the camera." Well as most times when I try to be funny, it just doesn't translate. The dad said, "My son is up in the tree." At the time I thought to myself, "Well of course he is. That's why I said to go and get the camera." That seemed to be a weird response to someone who was just trying to share in his son's tree triumph. The more I thought about it, as I finished my walk, I realized that he thought that I meant he was staring at me and that he should take a picture. It lasts longer!! Do you really think that's what he thought? That would mean that he thinks I think that I'm all that and a bag of chips. How embarrassing!!! The moral of the story.....Don't talk to strangers.