A Mother's Day Interview

In honor of Mother's Day, I did a short interview with Annalise and Abby.

They both just make me smile.

 


I have a fun post coming up either tomorrow or Monday about our last fishing trip.

Another adventure with the man I married... and some cute pictures of my girls.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day, my blogging friends!

 

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Things Mommy says...

Over the past few years, I've shared "Things Mommy Says" posts. From the first one to the sick kid version to the beach version, I've realized that as moms we tend to say the funniest things.

It isn't uncommon to yell things like "Honey, don't squish any more ants!" or say "I know Daddy burps like that but we don't need to do that in the grocery store."

Now that my girls are getting older, not only do I say funny things sometimes, but my girls often have funny responses which creates some funny conversations.


Mommy: Honey, you clipped your toenails yesterday...

Annalise: I know. These ones are growing really fast!


Mommy: Give me your flip flop so I can fix it.

Annalise: Well, don't use duct tape. It doesn't work.


Mommy: Well, do you like the pizza goldfish?

Elayna: Yeah... did you see that they are named "Pizza Explosion"? Well, they taste like a pizza exploded.


Mommy: Hurry, pick them up off the ground before they get wet!

Abby: We need to hurry so the ants don't get my goldfish!


Mommy: Why are you jumping up and down like that?

Abby: Well, I'm really dry so I'm wet!


Mommy: Sweetheart, you aren't supposed to put your Popsicle juice in your water bottle. The water bottle is for water.

Annalise: I know. There is water in my juice.


Mommy: Hey, Abby. Jump up and get Daddy a fork.

Abby: But my legs are tired!


My girls never fail to make me laugh.

What funny responses have your kids given you lately?



 

White as Snow

I love snow.

Especially around Christmas.

and, we haven't had any snow. none. even in Michigan.

Until last night...

We were sitting in my mom's sunroom and Annalise yelled, "Look! It is snowing!"

No one could believe it. The weather channel said only a 30% chance of flurries.

But it was snowing lots of big fluffy flakes.

Soft and white and slow...

There was a precious layer of Christmas snow on the ground that made my heart happy.

Just an hour later, I was putting the girls to bed and for devotions I asked the girls a question.

"What does the snow remind you of?"

Abby answered first. "It reminds me of Jesus' birthday when he came as a baby!"

"Good, Abby... Elayna?"

"Well, I think about how Jesus is pure like snow. He has no sin."

I loved her answer.

"Annalise, what do you think?"

"Snow reminds me that Jesus washes us white as snow!"

Another perfect answer...

Jesus, who is pure as snow, came as a baby to wash us white as snow.

Three amazing reasons to love snow, to be reminded anew of why Jesus came to this earth.


 

Cute Words

When Elayna was little she said "Noovies" instead of "Movies".

I never corrected her. I loved it.

One day, she walked up to me and asked to watch a "movie". She said her M very clearly and precisely.

I looked down and said, "Where did you learn that?"

"Learn what?"

"To say movie. I thought it was a noovie!"

"Daddy taught me."

I was a sad Mommy. The noovie days were over.

Fast forward to last Sunday...

"She hit me on purfice!" Abby exclaimed in the truck on the way to church.

"She what?" Jeremy asked.

"She hit me on PURFICE!!!"

"On purpose, you mean?"

"Yes, on PURFICE!"

"Abby, it's PUR-POSE not purfice."

"What?"

"Purpose, Abby. PUR-POSE."

"Purfice?"

I leaned over and said, "Stop trying to correct her. I love her cute words. Let her say purfice."

"Some homeschool mom you are," he said teasing me. "Just let her talk wrong."

"I know. It's cute. I like it."

Dads don't always get it. Mommys hear those sweet words and automatically warm fuzzy love feelings explode in our hearts.

At least, that's what it does for me.

When Abby is crying and mad and I hear her little voice yell at the top of her lungs something like, "That was not an askident! You did it on purfice!" or "Ashcooally you were coffeeing me!"

It is easier to stay calm and remember that she is a little person learning about life.

She is growing and changing and still my baby.

It doesn't mean I don't handle the situation and figure out what is wrong or help her solve the problem with her sisters.

It just means that I smile while doing it, hearing her precious kid words in my head and storing them up in my heart.

So for the purfice of recording her words here...

Cute Words By Abby - Age 5

Coffeeing - copying

Purfice - purpose

Askident - Accident

Ashcooally - Actually

A Question

On our trip to Iowa, we have been listening to Adventures in Odyssey.

We happened to be listening to an episode about storing up treasures in heaven and not on earth.

It was about a family who was preparing for a garage sale to help an orphanage. They were sorting through their things and cleaning out the attic.

One night, they were sitting at the dinner table discussing what kinds of things are most important to us.

The daughter asked, "Ok, pretend our house was on fire. We were all safe. What was the one thing you grabbed before coming out of the fire. What would be the one thing that you would save from being burned in the house?"

All of the family members had an answer...

so I pushed stop on the CD and asked the girls the same question, "If you could save one thing, what would it be?"

Abigail, without hesitation says, "A mirror!"

Jeremy and I looked at each other like "Did she misunderstand the question?"

"Abby, that would be the one thing that you would save from a fire? A mirror?"

"Yes! So I could look at myself and put on makeup!"

Alright... as if she has ever put on makeup...

Annalise exclaims, "My stuffed animals!"

Then, Elayna very thoughtfully says, "I would grab my piggy bank because then I would still have my money."

I started laughing because they all perfectly showed their personalities in their answer.

Abby is ALL girl.

Annalise is all pretend and fun.

Elayna is serious and practical.

So, I asked Jeremy what his answer would be.

"I would grab a rubbermaid bin and just start throwing stuff into it."

Ah! SO his personality! He would think of a way to still have ONE thing but make sure he could fill it with lots of OTHER things.

Me?

Well, I said my laptop/hard drive because that is where all of our pictures are stored.

Showing my personality too, I suppose.

Great family time...

Have you asked your family a fun question lately?

Daddy and Me Monday

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?
Jeremy and I were talking on the way to church on Father's Day about where we were going to go for lunch.

"Well, I have a coupon to Qdoba and to Logans. Which one sounds good?"

Before Jeremy could even answer, the girls started saying, "LOGANS!!! We want Logans!"

Abby pipes up and says, "Yeah, Daddy, you will LOVE it there. That's where all the NUTS are!"

We laughed and laughed. She meant the peanuts because they love being able to crack them open and throw the shells on the floor. But, it sure sounded funny!

How fitting that we took Jeremy to Logans for lunch on Father's Day because that's where all the nuts are!

And we sure can be nuts sometimes! Especially the Daddy in this family!

Sometimes they already know...

We were doing our nightly devotions.

I have this great animal devotion book for kids that tells about an animal and then relates it to something in God's Word.

My girls LOVE animals and science and anything outdoorsy so this was a perfect fit for our family.

This particular night, the animal we were learning about was the crocodile. How massive they are, how strong they are, how they eat other animals and so on and so on...

Then, it told us about the little bird that comes and cleans the crocodile's teeth. The bird gets a meal and the crocodile gets its teeth cleaned. Perfect harmony between two animals who normally would not exist in the same space. The crocodile willingly holds its mouth open for the bird and the bird safely sits right in the crocodile's mouth.

I knew Elayna and Annalise knew about this fun animal relationship but I told the story with all the excitement I could muster.

The lesson then told us that this unique relationship is called Symbiosis.

I thought to myself, "Elayna might know that the bird does this, but she won't know what this word is. How fun... homeschooling during devotions."

"Ok girls! Repeat after Mommy... say... Sym - Bye - O - Sis."

The girls repeated after me and then Elayna looks at me and says, "But Mom, that isn't what it is called. It is a Symbiotic Relationship."

I was stunned. She knew MY word! Before I taught it! That big of a word!

"Really? What does that mean?"

"That is when two animals have a relationship they both benefit from and they work together."

"Oh."

I thought for a second and then said, "Well, symbiosis is another word for symbiotic relationship. Where did you learn that anyway?"

"Wild Kratts."

Alrighty then.

Sometimes they already know...

and they learned it from the television.

*linking up with Christina @ Get Joy for Wednesday's Walk

The Things Her Tummy says

Abby has a favorite saying.

"My tummy says..."

Abby's tummy says all kinds of things.

It says the normal "I'm hungry."

But it also says many not normal things. Things that only a four and a half year old could make up.

Here are my Top Ten Favorites:

1. "Mommy, but my tummy says that it has been waiting and waiting and waiting to watch TV and it can't wait anyMORE!"

2. "My tummy says I want gum."

3. "My tummy really, really, really wants to go outside."

4. "But Mommy! My tummy told me it wants to wear a DRESS! not JEANS!"

5. "My tummy needs some chocolate milk."

6. "My tummy says that it doesn't want to ride a bike right now. It wants to ride my scooter."

7. "My tummy is NOT tired right now!"

8. "My tummy wants to take a bath, not a shower."

9. "My tummy doesn't like to color anymore."

10. "My tummy doesn't want dinner. It wants dessert!"

Yes, in her little expressive ways... her tummy says lots of things.

Which one was your favorite?

Linking up with Not Before 7 and Oh Amanda!

Tiny Talk - The Aliens

It was bedtime in our house.

We had just come home from running errands after dinner. On our way home, we saw an ambulance heading to the hospital, lights flashing.

So, we were up in the girls' room doing our bedtime devotions and the story was about prayer.

How we can pray anytime, anywhere and for anything.

I said, "Girls, you know that ambulance we saw? Well, Mommy prayed when it drove by us. Just quietly to myself and God heard me. He hears us when we pray to him. It doesn't matter where we are. We can always pray."

Then, as cute and serious as could be Abby says, "The aliens didn't know it needed prayer, did it Mommy?"

"Uhmm... the aliens?"

"Yeah, you prayed for the aliens when it went by us in the van."

"The ambulance?"

"Yes! the aliens!"

"Do you mean am-bu-lance?"

"Uh... am-bli-ence?"

"No... am-BU-LANCE."

"That's what I said, Mommy."

Tiny Talk

It was 6:30PM on Friday night.

Jeremy decided that he needed an evening nap.

Which is all fine and good.

But, Abby decided to climb in the chair with him and get under the quilt.

She wanted to take an evening nap too.

"Baby Gail, you can not take a nap with Daddy. It is too close to bed time."

"What?" Jeremy said. "You are going to deprive me of cuddle time with Babers?"

"Yes. I sure am.... Baby Gail, you get up right now."

Abby, in her little sing-song voice, lifts up the quilt and says with all the authority a 4 year old can muster, "Mommy! You are ruining my BABY SLEEP!"

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Daddy had surprised his girls with a gift card and a dinner out.

Olive Garden isn't one of his favorite places to eat but he knows that we all love it so he takes us occasionally anyway.

While we were waiting for our table, Elayna and I went to the bathroom.

As we washed our hands, Elayna said, "Mommy, when I get married, I'm going to marry someone who loves Olive Garden."

I said, "Nope, you are going to marry a man who loves YOU enough to take you to Olive Garden whether he likes it or not. Just like your Daddy."

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linking these Tiny Talk Conversations up with Not Before 7

Homeschool Fun

Abby has been begging me all weekend to paint her nails.

I had told her we would do it on Monday.

Well, I was upstairs today and Abby found me to remind me.

"Mommy, it's Monday! We get to paint our nails today!"

I knew we couldn't put it off again but I was just about to start homeschool with the girls.

What is a few more minutes of play...

"Ok, what color do you want?"

This began a hunt for the perfect color.

Two reds, a pink and a shimmery pearl...

After painting all three girls finger nails, and my own, I tweeted this: we just painted our nails. what subject is that? #homeschool 

I got some fun twitter @replies.

My tweet also posted to facebook which received some fun responses. My favorite one was this from a children's pastor friend of ours.

He said, "count each nail= math, paint each nail = art, crud under each nail= science, singing while you do it= music, a certain type of manicure= french, making a mistake could cause another "foreign" language (but you wouldn't do that), chasing the girls down to finish= gym, telling us all about it = computer, Sounds like a full day of school to me :)"

How creative is that? I loved it!

In other homeschool fun... spelling/grammar/English... do you ever feel like you can't begin to explain all of the different rules for our language?

Seriously!

Last week, Elayna moved into her own room and Abby moved in with Annalise. It didn't take long for little signs to begin appearing on their doors.

Elayna's sign says, "Nock 4 times to enter"

Well, Annalise wanted a sign like it for her door.

"Mommy, how do you write these words "Knock 3 times on my door"? I want to make a sign."

She had her piece of paper ready...

"Knock is spelled K-N-O-C-K."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is. K-N-O-C-K."

"Mom. Elayna has that word on HER sign and it says N-O-C-K. Knock starts with the nnnnn sound not the kkkkk sound!!!" She started laughing at me!

"Annalise, Elayna must have spelled it wrong. Knock is spelled with a K but the K sound is silent."

"Mommmmy! Only the E gets to be SILENT!" She is laughing at me even more!

I stand there thinking... I do sound crazy to her. She knows her letter sounds and she knows that the E is silent sometimes. She has never heard of a silent K.

Oh, why do we have a silent K?

"You are right, honey. The E gets to be silent sometimes but so does the K. Elayna spelled it wrong. You should spell yours with a K. Ok?"

"K...." she goes off running up the stairs. "Elayna! You spelled it wrong! Mommy said the K is SILENT like the E but just sometimes. Knock has a K so you need to change your sign!"

And this is early elementary!

Yikes!

Linking this post up to the Hip Homeschool Hop and Tiny Talk

*don't forget to enter my giveaway that ends tomorrow!

Talents and Clouds

Remember this little girl?

My sweet Annalise? My middlest daughter? My fun and fancy-free floppy girl?

Well, I'm going to start this new year on a funny note thanks to this super cute, very smart, always goofy girl.

One day in the kitchen at my mom's house she says, "I have 3 talents."

You do? What are they?

"Well, I pick my nose, bite my nails and... and........ I forget the last one."

Honey, those aren't talents. They are BAD HABITS.

"Oh.... Uhm. DANCING! Is dancing a talent? Yeah, that is one of my talents too!"

We all had fun sharing her "talents" with Daddy when he came in from ice fishing.

Of course he laughed and said, "You sure are talented, Lisi." She smiled as if she had the best talents in the world.

Then, on our way home, the clouds ahead of us were magnificent.

We were trailing right behind a big storm system. We had sunny, blue skies but right in front of us, we could see huge, dark clouds.

Being the great, always-teaching, homeschooling mom that I am, I said to Elayna, "Did you know there are different kinds of clouds?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you see the dark, big puffy ones at the bottom? Those are called cumulus clouds. I think."

I had to add the "I think" part because this homeschooling mom hasn't looked at cloud types in a REAAALLLY long time. Thankfully, I was right.

"Do you see the whispy clouds at the top?"

"Yeah..."

"Those are called stratus clouds. I think... anyway, there are different kinds of clouds and we are seeing some of them right now in the sky!"

"Can we look them up when we get home?"

"Sure. Pretty cool, huh?"

Annalise was listening to our conversation about clouds and says, "Mommy! You forgot a kind of cloud!"

"I did??" This really had me curious because as far as I know, my 5 year old does NOT know any cloud types.

"What cloud did I forget Annalise?"

"RAIN CLOUDS! You didn't tell Elayna about RAIN CLOUDS! That is a kind of cloud, right Mommy?"

"Yes, baby, that is a kind of cloud. Good Job."

Elayna says quietly, "I already know about rain clouds, Mom."

A post with NO pictures... of deer anyway...

It is no secret that I am married to an outdoorsy kind of guy.

He loves all things fishy, naturey, buggy and yucky.

The more slimy, sticky, icky an activity is, the more he loves it.

Knives, guns, tools, sling shots, bows and arrows, flashlights...


He really could have lived and thrived a few hundred years ago in the backwoods of America with nothing but some land and his hands.

Our girls love getting messy with Daddy. He has taught them to enjoy fish, worms, dirt and nature.

They know the names of birds, insects, trees... I married an explorer, adventurer and in many ways, a mountain man.

Every fall, the hunter comes out of him. He gets his license and deer tags. Brings out his bow to site in and his gun to clean.

He finds his hunting gear, washes/sharpens his knives and gets ready to hunt.

This year was extra special because he now had a truck to hunt with instead of my minivan. Seriously, you know it's bad when my dad says to me on the phone, "Tell Jeremy it is time to get some deer blood on that nice truck of his."

And Jeremy says, "I'm tryin'!"

I grew up with hunters and venison and deer gutting and wild game stories. But, I've never really ever gotten used to it.

My stomach gets queasy, I get grossed out and don't want to hear about the blood and guts.

Well, my girls LOVE it. They can't wait to go hunting with Daddy. They get all excited and sit and listen to his stories... and he had a new story this week. He got a deer.

"Daddy? How did you gut your deer?"

I look in the living room and Jeremy has the girls all down on the floor with him and he is acting out how you cut it here, pull there, rip this and that out, hang it here, rope it down there... a real hunting class is taking place in my living room! with my 3 daughters sitting in rapt attention!

All three of them loved it and Abby said, "Show me again, Daddy!" as if she is watching the best show on earth.

Elayna is getting smart though and she realized that Daddy might be making this sound more fun than it actually is.

"Uhhhmmm... Daddy? Well, I still want to go hunting with you but you can always do that part ok?"

That's my girl!

She really wanted to see his deer so he took her with him last night to process the deer. The deer was hanging in a friend's barn for a few days and it was time to take care of it. They were gone for a few hours and came back with some bags of meat.

Elayna was exhausted and went right to bed. (After I showed her this and we had a good laugh together)

Jeremy and I spent the next 2 hours getting the meat ready for the freezer.

"Can't we just call some places tomorrow and see about how much it costs to have this done for us?"

"No... I've always wanted to ground my own meat!"

Seriously? Who always wants to do that?

My husband. A real do-it-yourselfer who loves to learn, get messy and get the job done.

You all would have laughed your heads off at me.

Nauseous, grossed out, gagging, going pale... I did NOT want to touch that meat so he washed it, ground it and I carefully held the freezer bags open so that he could put the meat in and not get it on my hands.

"Jen! Come look at this!!!"

"Am I going to be even more grossed out?"

"Maybe. But come anyway."

"What is it? .... Oh! Is that the bullet?"

"Yep... Won't the girls love seeing that?"

I'm sure they will...

We now have deer meat in the freezer, a used hand meat grinder from my MIL, a spotless kitchen since I just sprayed the WHOLE thing down with Lysol and one very happy mountain man.

*linking this post up with Not Before 7's Tiny Talk Tuesday

Creative Personality

Today has been a full day.

In the middle of laundry, pulling out Christmas stuff, re-organizing our playroom and lots of cleaning, my girls were happily and quite busily making Christmas tree ornaments out of pipe cleaners.

Pipe cleaners spread out around the living room floor, scissors snipping and minds thinking.

Three little girls creatively displaying their personalities in their art.

And, they didn't even know it.

Elayna, my oldest, made almost perfect ornaments. She is neat, a perfectionist, obedient and compliant. She knows what to do and she does it. Her creations? A window with snow on the sill and an angel complete with wings. 

Abigail, the baby of the family, is our organizer. She is CEO management material trapped in a tiny 4 year old body. Her commanding presence (as my mom calls it) is quite apparent in everything she does. She likes order and schedules. Her creations? Circles linked together to form a nice, long chain.

Now, Annalise, my middle daughter, is happy, go-lucky, free-thinking and thrives in dis-order. She goes against the norm and comes up with her own ways of dancing about her day.

She hops, prances, skips, jumps and rolls through life.

Always moving, always playing and never boring.

The other day before church I was doing her hair for the 5th time that hour and I finally said, "Annalise! No more flopping around! I don't want to fix your hair one more time before we leave!"

She innocently looked up at me and said, "But Mommy, I don't know HOW to flop!"

She turned around and skipped, jumped and well... flopped her way to the playroom.

Sigh... she flops and it just comes naturally.

Her creations?

I think they speak for themselves...

Her ornaments are fun, quirky, different and completely made-up by her.

I had no idea what the girls had made with the pipe cleaners until I saw them all up on the tree. Well, except for Abby who proudly showed me what she made...

I was amazed as their creative and true personalities jumped out from their artwork.

God created them exactly the way they are and the way He needs them to be. He has great purpose for their lives and I know He is going to use these personalities for His Glory and His Kingdom.

"Lord, help me as I mold and shape and parent these precious, different girls as you would have me to do. Show me how to inspire them to grow in their giftings and challenge them to learn through their weaknesses. Thank you for allowing me to see into their hearts through their art and catch glimpses of the women that they will one day be. And, help me patient when they flop around for the hundredth time that day."

*Linking up with Not Before 7 for Tiny Talk Tuesday!

Tiny Talk - The Gum

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a local historical park. Jeremy hadn't been there with us yet and we wanted to bring him before the weather turned too cold.

We were sitting in on a short video of the Wright Brothers and their move from designing bicycles to building and flying airplanes. In the middle of the movie, Abby leans over to me and says, "I don't want my gum anymore."

"Just keep it in your mouth and we can throw it away when we find a trash can, okay?"

"Ok."

I totally forgot about the gum until we got to the van and didn't see her chewing.

"What did you do with your gum?"

silence

"Abby... where is your gum?"

mumble, mumble, mumble

"What?"

"I put it in......(not understanding the rest of what she said but thinking she said Daddy's shirt"

"What??? You put your gum in Daddy's shirt? Jeremy, look in your shirt for Abby's gum!"

"Not his shirt! I put my gum in Daddy's SHOE!"

Both Jeremy and I just looked at her. Really?

Jeremy laughs and says, "I thought I felt something sticky on my shoe but then it was gone... her gum must be back on the floor in that room."

Some discipline and a gum-grounding later... fast forward to Sunday afternoon...

"Mommy, can we have gum? Me and my girls want gum."

"Abby, you are grounded from gum. You can't have any gum today."

Annalise walks up, "Gum! I want gum!"

Looking pathetically sad, Abby says, "No, Annalise. We can't have gum because I'm grounded from gum."

As if because she is grounded NO ONE can have gum.

"Well, they aren't grounded, so yes, they can have gum but you can't."

Tears... "Can I just smell the gum?"

"Sure." more tears...

Then, seeing her girls chewing gum she can't have, she runs to her room to cry some more.

I climb the stairs to get her...

"I really wanted some gum like my girls."

"I know but you are grounded from gum. You know where gum goes when you are done with it and it is not in Daddy's shoe or on the floor. Gum goes in the trash can when you are done chewing it. You need to learn to put it in the right place when you are done."

"BUT! You didn't LEARN ME YET!"

Tiny Talk

My girls have had a recent interest in growing up.

Elayna wants to go to college and be an artist, an astronaut or a scientist.

Abby wants to be a mommy with two girl babies and two boy babies. She is going to name them "Ash-a-ley, Cyn-ti-a, Sun-fow-er and Johnson."

Annalise wants to live at home forever.

One night before bed, Annalise said, "Mommy? When I grow up, can I have a big bed? Because I'm going to need a bigger bed to be growd up."

Elayna heard her and said, "Yeah! She is going to need her own room too! Then, when I come home from college, I can have MY own room!"

Then, this morning when I was getting ready, Annalise came in the bathroom and said, "Mom, I can still live at home right? Well, can I still drive a car if I live at home? Because I want to drive a car. But you'll have to teach me and drive with me because I won't want to be by myself, ok?"

Oh, I love my girls!

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Don't forget to hop over to My Awake Journey and check out our Bible study on Galatians! There are quite a few bloggers participating so feel free to jump in with us!

And, Wednesday's Walk is coming up again tomorrow. I'd love for you to come back and link up a memory - new or old - to share with us!

Finally, my sister is in the final countdown of her first pregnancy. In fact, she is at the doctor today and I am hoping for a phone call so I can pack my bag and drive the 6 hours to the hospital. Come on, baby Sloan! We want you to come out now! Please? Aunt Jenilee can't wait much longer...

Jonah and the BIG Whale

*this post is linked to Tiny Talk Tuesday!

"Abby... what did you talk about in your class tonight?"

It was Wednesday night and we were in the van leaving church. Normally, if I ask the younger two, I hear "I don't re-nember" or "I can't be-nember" depending on which one answers.

"I learned about Joseph!!" Abby yelled up to the front.

"You did? What did Joseph do?"

"Well... he disobeyed God and then got on da boat..."

"Joseph did?"

"Yep!"

"I don't think you mean Joseph. I think you mean JONAH."

"Yeah! Jonah."

"So, Jonah disobeyed God and then he got on a boat. Then what happened?"

"Da men frew him off the boat into the SEA! And den a BIIIIGGGG WHALE swallowed him up!"

"Wow... what happened then?"

"The whale frewed him up on da land."

I am loving the fact that Abby can remember the story this well.

"What happened then?" I asked.

"Wait!" said Annalise, "The whale did NOT throw him up. Jonah swam out of the whale's mouth."

"No, Annalise, the whale frowed up and Jonah landed on the land."

Annalise is getting frustrated and says, "Abby you are wrong. The whale did not throw up. Jonah swam out. I know. I saw it on the movie."

Trying REALLY hard not to laugh I said, "Well, Annalise... I think the whale did spit Jonah up on the shore... Daddy, do you have a Bible to check?"

He looked it up on his phone and read, "Jonah 2:10 says, "And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."

From the back seat we heard, "Oops. I guess I was wrong. You were right Abby. The whale DID throw up."

"Ok Abby... what happened next?"

"Uhhhhmmmmmm..... Jonah went to the very bad, scary town."

"So, did he obey God?"

"Yep!"

Later, when I was putting Abby in bed, I told her how proud I was of her for remembering her Bible lesson about Jonah.

She smiled and said, "I told them about the bird too, Mommy."

"About the bird?"

"The bird, Mommy! The one I found DEAD with it's GUTS out by the bushes... It was my special thing for my class."

Each week, she can bring in a special thing. One week, it was Daddy with his drum from Africa. Another week, it was her princess silly band. Last week, it was a dollar coin. I guess this week it was a story about a dead bird with it's guts hanging out.

"How nice."

A Wheel Chair and Some Tiny Talk...

We were on our way to Cleveland. Jeremy was driving and I was trying not to think about the fact that we were traveling so I could go to the Cleveland Clinic.

Jeremy had a few stops that he wanted to make as we drove up 71. It was a gorgeous day and, although I wasn't extremely thrilled with his chosen stops, I knew we would have fun anyway and it was a good way to take my mind off the whys of the trip.

We were talking about how I had been feeling and how I was doing better after another bad spell about 3 weeks ago.

"Well, my neck has really been hurting me this summer too."

I looked at him and said, "It's a good thing that you are going for your physical next week. Tell the doctor about it but your not allowed to have anything serious."

Glancing over, he said, "I don't think it's anything serious."

"What's the pain from? Do you think it is from your accident in June?" (he was hit by a car while driving the church van on a kids missions trip)

"I think a few things happened that week... the car accident... then I fell over backwards in a wheel chair..."

"You what??" I start laughing hysterically. He just said it so seriously as if we have all fallen over backwards in a wheel chair at some point in our lives! As soon as he said it, I knew exactly what he had done. Somehow, he had gotten his hands on a wheelchair and he must have been showing the kids how he can spin in a circle, ride on the back wheels or something crazy like that. His trick must have failed and he fell over backwards. Only a children's pastor...

"Why are you laughing? I also rode a lot of roller coasters at Cedar Point... that could be it too."

More laughing from me... way too funny. Yes, he can for sure tell his doctor that his neck pain is from falling over backwards in a wheel chair or riding too many rides at Cedar Point.

I think I'd stick with the car accident story!

We stopped for a visit at Fin, Feather and Fur, a place near and dear to my heart because Jeremy's old Festiva died by the engine blowing up right in their parking lot while I was 8 months pregnant with Annalise. no joke, really. don't laugh... it was not funny. In an effort to save gas money, we left our brand new 2005 minivan at home in the garage and drove his car to Columbus that day. It was great fun, let me tell you! Trying to find a car shop, calling his aunt and uncle to bring us their car, finding a way to Columbus for our conference, explaining to my dad why we were stranded while I was pregnant... (True Story Tuesday? I think so.)

Across the parking lot from this very fun and memorable outdoorsy store, is Grandpa's Cheese Barn. Remember the prison van? Yes. Nervously, we went into the chocolate/candy barn first...

We walked out spending a whopping $3.46! And, I had to snag a picture of the Buckeye Recipe because my husband really wants me to make them this year.

Next stop... the Cheese Barn...

Jeremy found some cheese curds, which I VERY reluctantly tasted and the girls LOVED... bringing his taste buds back to Iowa for a few minutes...

Our next stop was about 20 miles north. It was a small primitive, pre-1800s store called "Log Cabin Shop".

The front porch is adorable with old furniture...

great fall decorations...

an old cannon and very worn wooden benches.

Inside is full of old books of all kinds... you'll also find weapons, clothing, tools, cast iron cooking wear, animal skins... some Civil War period uniforms... all very interesting!

While Jeremy handled Abby, (the girls had been warned not to touch anything) I took Elayna and Annalise up in the attic to look around. The majority of the books up in the attic were very old but I did see some newer ones. Dee Henderson, Karen Kingsbury...

I didn't really look at the newer ones because I was busy pointing out all of the very old books that I saw to the girls.

Well, Elayna and Annalise found a table over in the back by a window. It had books on top. As I walked over to the table, I heard Annalise exclaim, "Elayna! They must have had this book wayyyyy back then!"

I had to tell her that no, they didn't have Barbie books in the 1700's. I'm not sure she was convinced.

When we got back in the van, Jeremy asked the girls if they'd had fun.

Annalise yells up to the front of the van and says, "Yes! But I did touch some things though!"

Well, that pretty much sums up our educational, exciting and very entertaining trip to Cleveland.

I'm linking Jeremy's Wheel Chair statement and Annalise's amusement at Barbie books in the 1700's to Tiny Talk Tuesday. I told Jeremy he would be featured in my Tiny Talk post. He didn't seem to mind.

I'm often told I have 4 kids.