What did 0 say to 8?

"Nice Belt"....and then...."better let it out a little so you have room for BIRTHDAY CAKE!"  Ba-dum ching!  So, someone in our family is eight tomorrow....let's see....who could it be?  Has anyone mentioned a birthday?  Man, I seem to recall that someone is due for one soon.

Oh, IT'S DD!

Danielle Elizabeth Sophia Foster is turning EIGHT and does she ever have birthday plans!  Did you know that eight-year-olds are the best party planners?  She has had an idea a day for about two months :)  That's better than last year when she started planning her next birthday on May 22nd.... we had about 364 days of great birthday ideas. 

So, I think she will get her ears pierced...(that is becoming an 8-year old tradition in our family and, regardless of the tradition, she really wants to get it done....)... have a sleepover in our basement with friends, and then, our family will tour the Teddy Bear Factory in Chelsea and she will get to make a bear this weekend....(she has been talking about that for for-ev-er) I think we have now zeroed in on her top plans for birthday fun and she is satisfied...that whole thing is tough for me to limit because her 1st actual birthday party ever was last year....of course she has tons of ideas!  I feel like we are a walking birthday party most days, though, and we often get mistaken for one...people always ask if all the girls are ours and they get this look on their face when they find out they are....that's so fun :)  I always know when it's coming because people look at us....then they talk amongst themselves....then they approach us with their curiosity in tow.  

Danielle, you are such a blessing to us!  We are thrilled to be celebrating your life with you and love that you can think of millions of ways to party!

Love, Daddy, Mommy, Savannah, McKenna, Kassandra, Karlayna...and Kooper too....woof!

Second Fiddle

We were at Culver's this weekend with our family and some extended family to celebrate McKenna and Danielle's May birthdays, Kassi and Karly's big gymnastics show, and Savannah's opportunity to play in the district's Honors Band.  Someone at the table asked Savannah which chair she was sitting....and she just, flat-out, told them she was last chair, but just happy to be there :)....I LOVE HER ATTITUDE...I have really learned a lot about attitude from watching her deal with life...big stuff and everyday stuff.

She and Danielle moved in with us the summer before her 7th grade year and there were volleyball try-outs that summer.  She really wanted to make that team and meet some people from school because she was having to change schools with the adoption.  There were something like 30 girls that tried out and only 14 spots....Savannah was not one chosen.  She was up in her room afterwards and I thought she might be upset over the news, but when I asked her about it she just said, "Well, I know I am good at something...I just have to find out what it is!"  (What if we could say that every time we met some kind of failure or disappointment....we would not waste so much time wallowing in self-pity, right!?)

Fast-forward a little and she decided she wanted to play the flute...so, a friend had an old one we could have and we got it all fixed up for her....she played around with it a little over the summer and then we signed her up for band.  OK, you have to forgive us for this because we had no idea....we signed her up for 7th grade band because she was going into 7th grade....make sense?  It did to us, however, since she had never played before, she was supposed to be in 6th grade band....OOOOOPS!  By the time the band people realized our error, she had already been in the class for some time....so, she kept plowing through...trying to catch up with the other kids who had a year on her.

She worked really hard and caught up...and got all 1st's at Solo/Ensemble.  Then, when 7th grade was over....she says to us, "I heard the fingering for the saxophone is similar to the flute."  So, she picked that up over the summer between her 7th and 8th grade years...now she plays flute in concert band and saxophone in jazz band...crazy right!  She also realized she's not really a speedy runner....but, she has a good endurance and she has been running Cross-Country and some distance events for Track....I just love watching her find herself...find her gifts...realize her potentials....eliminating some things, but embracing others....what a great age!

Back to Einstein for a second...sorry, I just love so many of his quotes and I didn't list this one in the Brownie Blog....I actually think I should read a whole book about him, so I am not just picking up all these fragments of wisdom, but am able to put them in to context.

Isn't that great...(not that it believes it is stupid, silly)?!  But, that sometimes we give up after one failure and we develop this "loser" perception about ourselves that is totally NOT TRUE....instead of really looking for the things we are gifted to achieve.  Pssst.....Jump in the water, little fishy.

It's Dance O'Clock

Here's a song to help you if you are "a little rusty"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM&feature=kp

While I was at "The Gathering" conference I received an email from McKenna letting me know she took over my top scores on a game in Wii Fit....totally not cool!  So, it is now Dance O'Clock and I will be trying to get back on the leader board :)  Hope I won't be too sore to attend church tomorrow....that is a Pastor's Wife joke....haha!

We had a great day today...our first day back from the conference and we had a big Gymnastics Show to attend for Kassi and Karly....I was a little anxious about getting them all ready for it and doing their hair, but I was very pleased with how my experiment went and I added sOOOoooooo much hairspray, so it would stay put :)

My blog....my show-off pics :)

Wanna see some others?...

Do you see the "V" for victory?  It wasn't really a competition...but, between sisters...everything is!

I like it.....I guess it's kind-of artsy and so cute.

Kassi has such beautiful eyes and LONG eyelashes...when I have to do her mascara I always think people will probably assume I put fake eyelashes on her...but, I do not.

Lovely!  But....it is kind-of saying..."these are my flowers and you can't have them" to me.

Getting ready for the show..."time to pump, you up!" Kassi is posing, but Karly is sort-of trying to show her muscles.

We were missing Savannah today due to Honors Band rehearsal....crazy schedules!

OK, time to get back on the leader board!  One quick thing about the conference that was just fun to think about was that when they used to carry the scrolls into the synagogue to open them and hear what God had to say to them it was such an exciting time.....they would send a man out to get the Torah and he would DANCE them in...I know dancing is not for everyone, and sometimes it can be used for inappropriate behavior, but it makes me happy that dancing can be a style of worship.... there is still much to think on from the conference, but I just need some silly down time today :)  May you feel like a room without a roof....a hot air balloon that could float to space...I guess the point is...be really happy...in the Lord!  I wish that for you!

Time for Tea?

What if we didn't have paper or styrofoam cups for our to-go beverages and we had to stop for a minute to sip, think, and rest as we drank from a ceramic cup that couldn't hurry away with us into our busyness? Other countries have time for tea...but, it really is not about the tea or the crumpets :)  it's more about having a breather in the middle of the day and fellowship with others.

REST....we are starving for it.

Brad and I are currently attending a conference called The Gathering and it has been such a wonderful experience so far (only one day...but, it feels like a lot was packed in).  As with other conferences I have attended, I am sure it will take me a little while to process the things I have heard and experienced and allow God to make those things into something tangible for our life and/or the life of our church.  Last time we attended a conference together we came home and started the process of adoption :)  We have had some great times of worship, heard from wonderful speakers, and tonight, we had an opportunity to make our way through prayer stations...that was very powerful!!!....definitely something I would love for Village Hope Church to experience.

There have been a few topics covered...mostly involving developing a healthy student ministry by first helping parents to understand and embrace their responsibility of primary discipler of their children....very challenging!  So much of the discussion comes back to us needing to prioritize what is important to us and slow down enough for our children to absolutely know we are accessible and engaged in all aspects of their lives.  Technology gives us so many advantages to multi-task, but sometimes in our multi-tasking lives we lose the personal touch we desperately need to be using to bless our children.  I almost think we need to retrain ourselves to be single-minded.  Someone suggested today that in order to do that we should find something in nature to appreciate...like the beauty of a sunrise, the simplicity of focusing on ONE THING at a time and praising God for that.  Remember the moments of discovery as a child where everything that was new was so thrilling?  Over time we learn to take things for granted...I guess the colors fade for us and things just look gray or something.... and we need to get back to seeing them as vividly as we did when we were kids....seeing them through a lens of joy and adventure as we realize it has all been created for us to enjoy and experience AND...the creator is still creating it for us as we walk through it AND....He is making so much of it just for us that if we don't see Him through it all we must be blind....AND I know that was a very bad run on sentence AND I am not even sorry!  I'll stop now because I have started into major processing mode and I should not take you through all that with me....there would be way too many run on sentences :)

So, Brad is actually sitting right here and I said..."how should I bring this back around to the topic of tea?"  not that I always have to have a theme...but, really I do.  So he said, "Tell them it will impact them for eterni-TEA"...he is sooooo helpful :)  I wish I could tell you all the ways I have been impressed with his trip planning abilities, but I am still looking for the first way...oh, there it...nope....false alarm.   JUST KIDDING! Despite the issues I have had with the lodging and trying to get over the stomach flu or whatever I had, my husband is brilliant in finding the cheapest place to stay in Chicago...$49 a night...I didn't think that was even possible.  I am going to focus on that ONE THING and be thankful :)  I am so glad I was able to come...I love sharing times like these with Brad.

A Mosquito With Bling

As I was leaving work there was a man doing some kind of construction work to the auditorium I pass on the way to my car and his work truck was parked over the sidewalk I needed to walk on...so, I stepped to the grass.  The man looked up from his work, we exchanged the polite smiles and head nods...and then he said, "hey, I want to show you some bling..."  I thought, "uhhh....weird, but OK."  So, he showed me the work he had been doing during the day....he had been installing a shiny decorative tile on a wall in the entrance of the auditorium and he wanted to show someone.....he didn't know me at all, so I am assuming he was pretty pleased with his work and wanted to share that with someone.  THAT TOTALLY MADE ME HAPPY...plus the fact that he was smoking one of those cherry cigars....not sure why, but that smell is very pleasing to me!  Anyway, I admire and appreciate when people are doing something that they can find the right kind of pride in....that they can feel accomplished in what they do.

Not everyone's job will dazzle people with lots of bling :)...my job, for instance, is not glamorous...but, it is incredibly necessary for the workings of the university.  I have to laugh sometimes when I request a day off and people are not sure how they will get by without new data for one day....that is funny, but it also feels good to be needed, I guess.

There was a large fly buzzing around the basement....errr...garden-level...(more glamorous?) where I work today and it was a bit irritating, but too difficult to capture quickly, so I just let it go on.  I saw this saying a while back and that fly reminded me of it...

You're not too small....what you do matters!  If you do everything as unto the Lord, you can find a lot of satisfaction in the things you are able to accomplish. 

Great Expectations and Perfect Strawberry Pie

So, I was having lunch and looking at pictures of celebrities without make-up...that was enlightening and in the middle of all the real people, Barbie was thrown in....too funny!  It just reminded me that no one is perfect.  

"You have to be perfect!" I think that is one of the biggest lies that Satan speaks to women and that lie can totally hold us captive as we start longing for "perfection" in our lives....whether it is the perfect body, or the perfect house, or the perfectly loving relationship with our spouse, or kids that act perfect and impress our perfect friends...we can be SOOOOO tempted to create unrealistic expectations for ourselves and the others in our lives....then, we can get so fixated on those unattainable expectations that we cannot really live.

  

I've been there.....actually, I go there most days.  I went there today because I had an expectation of having a perfect day all to myself to do whatever I wanted because Brad was taking the girls to a Tigers Game....then, I ended up working longer than I expected in the morning, the errands that I thought would only take a little time...took forever....then, everyone was at Meijer and the lines were long....I ruined two pies I was making for a dinner tomorrow and had to make a second trip to Meijer for two more pie crusts...I never got the nap I was dreaming of (that's kind-of funny...dreaming of a nap :) let alone had the time to go for a manicure which I thought might be a nice treat for myself....are you feeling sorry for me yet...or playing the world's tiniest violin?  I was talking to God about it when I went to Meijer the second time and I said, "Can't anything go right today?"....what I really meant was..."can't anything go my way today...or as I am expecting it to go?"...then, ironically, there was a parking space available in the pole position of section D....

"Coincidence is just God's way of staying anonymous"...I heard that somewhere once....:)  Actually, that was an Albert Einstein quote....a carry over from one of my previous blogs. 

We put lots of expectations on ourselves and on our time....and we rarely are able to meet all the things we want to accomplish....I had a huge pity party today....then, upon my second venture to Meijer I ran into someone that I know who is going through a really hard time right now....and I was able to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.  I feel humbled that even with my stinky attitude from the rest of my day not going as I had expected...my feeling sorry for myself....God still ended this day with a divine appointment for me.  That not-so "chance" encounter put my day into perspective a little better for me.  Our longings are not all bad in themselves...we can long for a ton of good things...but, if the things we are longing for or our frustrations about unmet expectations or desires are preventing us from really living...(and, by that I mean, being ready for the living God has for us each day)....then we are not hungering after the right desires.  The second time was the charm for the Strawberry Pies and in that pursuit I found a higher purpose for my day :)

Ahhh....perfection!

Ice Ice Baby

One of her cards said...."BRING ON THE HAPPY!" and it was a great time!  I think we had 12 girls there and it was perfect because most people are not thinking of ice skating in May....so, it felt like we had most of the place to ourselves...and the girls that needed the ice "walkers" could get one.

Brad looks like he is in pain :(, but everyone else was having fun.  I made it around once without falling....that is success for me....baby steps!  I seriously do not know how the Olympic skaters do it...I have enough trouble just walking on the carpet through the lobby of the skating rink...I almost need someone to hold my hand for that :)

Danielle and Karly were crackin' me up....they loved it so much....Karly wouldn't even stay off the rink long enough to eat her pizza or a brownie and ice cream because she didn't want to waste precious skating time.  At 9:20pm the hockey players took over the ice and Karly wanted to know if we could skate again once the hockey players were done....ha!  She had already been skating for 2 hours.  Kenna has had a great birthday week and I am happy she chose to use her money for a party this year....it was fun to spend time with a bunch of her BFFs!

In other miscellaneous news....Kenna got to choose an instrument to play today since she is going into 6th grade next year.  She has been tossing around a few ideas, but she got to try out the instruments today and she has selected the (drum roll please)....TRUMPET!  I am excited for her....and she is very excited to get one and get working on it.  If you know of anyone who has a trumpet they are not using....we will be starting to look for one for her.  AND....here's something cool I tried this week....I saw this hairstyle and I made Kassi the guinea pig for it...I was really happy with how it turned out.  I am experimenting with hairstyles for a gymnastics show that Kassi and Karly are in next weekend.

Super cute and so easy!  You will see the Foster girls rockin' this hairdo this summer.  Most of it just goes up into a loose ponytail...you just leave a little out all around the edges and then you french braid what you left out and add the ponytail into it little by little....love it!  It takes like 3 minutes once you have it all sectioned out.  You end up with what looks like a bun with a braided halo around it.  This would be so cute for a summer wedding or holiday too....add some ribbons, or butterflies....or sparkles....hummmm....maybe I can think of something fun for the 4th of July.  Anyway, if you have girls with long hair....this is a fun style to try.  OK, I better sign off...goodnight!