In my never ending quest to get pictures with my kids, I asked Jared to snap these Mother's day night. Smiling? Check! Looking at the camera? Sorta Check! All clothes on? Uncheck! I will someday have all 3 checks...until then get a load of the sweetness.
Pardon my white legs. It's just the no tan way I roll.
My Mommy heart really wants to believe that Carson is looking at me. But in reality, I think he is looking at the wall. But it's a sweet thought. Or maybe he is looking at me???
It's pictures like this one that will make me cry my eyes out the day that Kate and Carson leave for college.
Appreciation seems like such a small word for the way that I feel about the women that blessed my children with love this school year. When you entrust your kids to other peoples care even for just a fraction of the day and fraction of the week you feel so vulnerable. You want them to love them. Maybe not as much as you do ( I mean how could that be possible???) but you want them to be loved well. You want them to temper discipline with grace, you want them to have hugs and love, and learn about God and Jesus and as a topper maybe they can learn their ABCs, colors, and numbers. That's a lot to expect. And I can say with full confidence that all of my kids teachers went above and beyond every thing I wanted this year for my kids. At the age Kate and Carson are they can't go on and on about their day at school. (Oh how I long for that day.) You have to look for their "report" about their day in other ways. I learn a lot by listening to Kate name all of her friends in her class, always starting with Jace, and then Jackson, and then kendal, Hannah, Lacey, Trey, ..I know them all and I've hardly even seem them. I just "met" Jace today in a Valentine's picture. I learn by hearing Kate say her prayers at night, "thank you for Andrea and Mikki." I knew her teachers were special when they earned the coveted spot in her prayers right in between Daddy and Elmo. :) I learn by listening to Kate's new phrases. "Thank you for helping me Mommy." I learn by listening to Carson count quietly to himself. I learn by listening to him sing, "Why does God put rainbows in the sky L-O-V-E love that's why!" And the B-I-B-L-E yes that's the book for me........." I learn by hearing him consistently say, "Thank you" when things are done for him.These ladies are reinforcing a thankful heart in my children. I am SO grateful for that.
But mostly I learn by the way they carefully fold their hands together and bow their heads and start their little prayers the same way everytime. I love that these ladies love my kids enough to pray with them. I have to tell this story about Carson's teacher Julie. At meet the teacher night at the beginning of the year I asked her if she would please remember to put a little note on his take home sheet. Just a little tid bit about his day. I was sad about going back to work and wanted to know something about his day. With out fail, every time Carson was there Julie wrote a note on his sheet. I cherished them all "Carson enjoyed singing today in chapel." "Loved all of his hugs today." Julie will never know how much that meant to me. How I loved reading those little notes at the end of my work day.
I am so thankful for these ladies. For their love, patience, understanding, discipline, and gentleness. But mostly I am thankful to them because they moved my children's hearts that much closer to God and Jesus this year. Thank you ladies, from the bottom of my heart. You are so special to us. We love you!!!!
Mrs. Julie and Mrs. Kimla
Mrs. Andrea and Mrs. Nikki
I always think about this song "Thank You" when I think about the impact that teachers have on our children. It is life changing. Yes even at this young age. The first verse always touches my heart deeply.
Today was the kids' last day at YCW. I wanted to make something special for each of their teachers but seriously, I could carve their names out of gold and it still wouldn't express how thankful I am for these amazing women. See above post. But I tried. If planning and creating special gifts was a job I know that I would thouroughly enjoy it. I have such a passion for it. I always have this thought in the back of my mind that people are saying, "Oh dear here comes Betsy with her homemade gifts. Just smile and tell her how much you like it. " I hope that doesn't happen because I absolutely love it. And now for the gifts.
Homemade Peppermint Body Scrub. This stuff is amazing. I use it everyday. It's all natural. I've made so many jars of this scrub lately I could make it in my sleep. 1/3 cup mineral oil +1 cup sugar+2 Tbsp Corn Syrup+1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract. I got the recipe HERE.
I found these little jars at Hobby Lobby. I used the stamp set I bought last year and stamped each teacher's initials on them.
I decided these ladies were way too awesome for just an ordinary gift bag, so I sewed them drawstring bags from this unbelievably easy tutorial.
And something for the kids. Elmo Cake Pops. I dreamed about making these and they didn't turn out as great as I thought they would. Something is wrong with the mouth and I think the pupils need to be bigger. Yeah it's one of life's bigger problems. Hmmmm...... I'm going to try to figure it out.
Have you ever been to the zoo when it was stinkin' hot? Have you ever been to the zoo when it was so hot none of the animals wanted to come out and play? Have ever been to the zoo when it was so crowded you had to use your best elbow technique just so your kid could get a half way decent view? Yeah, we have to. BUT I can tell you that Saturday was NOT one of those days. You could say that we hit the zoo jack pot. For some unknown reason it was in the 60s on Saturday! In May! In Texas! Our kids were in long sleeves for crying out loud! What?!!? We took advantage of it and thought that the rest of DFW would have the same idea, but for some reason the zoo was relatively uncrowded. The monkeys were swinging, the lions were roaring, the giraffes were um........ giraffing. It was great. There was even a tiny little baby monkey that provided great entertainment as he went from one parent to the other hanging all over them. As we passed the kids back and forth and the requests of "I want to hold you!" became more frequent I wanted to shout to the monkey parents, " I totally get how you feel!!!!!" It was hilarious they actually had that look of "I've had it!" on their faces.
The Fort Worth Zoo just opened up the coolest Dinosaur exhibit. The Dinosaurs are all animated and let out a roar at regular intervals. As you can see below Carson was in heaven as his fascinations include Dinosaurs along with monster trucks, trains, and motorcycles oh and buses. He saw all 5 that day. Like I said . heaven! We think Kate was afraid of them. Instead of her acting like a regular 3 year old and crying or trying to avoid them she tried to hurry her brother along and say "I don't want it!" We did not let this happen and Carson got all of his dino watching in.
The train. Definitely the highlight of the day. The train blows its whistle really loud. Bonus!
Have you ever carried a 30 lb girl on your shoulders? It ain't no picnic. But she loved it so I smiled through the pain. And then I heard the 5 most beautiful words that day , "Mommy, I want to walk."
Do you see it? It's a rare spotted Carson reaching for a bird. We are beginning to figure out that Carson has fear of very few things. Chuck E Cheese being one of those things that he fears. :) Side story: Tonight there was dog barking in our neighbor's yard and he was crying out by the back of our fence. I thought he was paralyzed by fear because the dog was rabidly barking at him. No... he was sad because he couldn't get to the dog on the other side of the fence. He LOVES dogs.
Taking the long walk back to free parking. But it was a beautiful day so our cheapness worked in our favor!
Ever since Mike died in April 2008 Jared and his brother Blair have hosted a Golf Scramble to honor their Dad. The first year, the scramble was held just 2 months after Mike died on Fathers Day. It was bittersweet for sure. It consisted of our family and close friends. Mike loved to play golf and that day it felt like he set up this little get together so that we all could be comforted by each other. It was very indicative of who Mike was. And despite the loss that was felt we had fun together. In the few years that followed we have had so much fun. I love this tournament because we have a wide range of people that play. Everyone from the person who has hardly played to the experienced golfer that plays twice a week. This was our group picture last year......
And this was our group this year. We doubled in size! 44 players!
Gowens Memorial Scramble 2011
There was a lot of hard work that went in to this years scramble. Players were recruited as well as sponsors. And this year Jared and Blair decided to give any remaining proceeds to a charity. This year the charity was Christian Relief Fund which is a charity that provides a wide range of support to orphans in Africa and other countries. We were able to donate a little over $1000 to the Christian Relief Fund this year. I am so proud of Jared and Blair for planning, organizing, recruiting, and just really going the extra mile so that every would have fun and that the most money would be raised for Christian Relief Fund. Blair and I were talking after the tournament about how much fun we had and we both agreed that Mike would have had a blast Saturday. He would have been in his element. :)
This year Maw (Mike's Mom) was one of the honorary tee off people. We were so honored to have her at the tournament this year.
God has said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Hebrews 13:5-6
