College Host Home

A few months ago, Chris and I heard about a ministry opportunity that involved being a host home to a few poor college students who are involved in the Alpha Omega college ministry at our church. We both felt called to act on this opportunity. As we investigated, most of the host families that we spoke with couldn't speak highly enough of the blessings that they receive from this particular ministry. They spoke of the wonderful relationships they built with each and every college person. One of the things that I was particularly (okay, selfishly) excited about was the possibility of acquiring a babysitter! I have to admit that I was a little shocked when we got the word that we would be hosting four young boys. I immediately thought, "Hey, where is my babysitter?" But, I can not tell you how incredibly impressed I have been with these four young men. I can truly say that I have been blessed beyond measure by them. They are such wonderful examples of young Godly men who are striving to do what God's plan is for their lives. They are also very careful about finding a mate and making sure that she is the one that God intended. Tonight, we had a somewhat lengthy conversation about marriage and the reality of it. We discussed how society tends to make marriage out to be that you should always have the "warm fuzzies," and when you don't, then it is time to get out of the marriage. We discussed how love is a choice, and sometimes(or a lot of times)we don't have the "warm fuzzies," but we choose love our spouse and stay in the marriage, because we made a committment to our spouse. They were genuinely interested in Godly marriages. Anyway, I just wanted to share how God has blessed us with "our boys." By the way, no one could have prepared us for how attached the kids would have become to them, also. It is the highlight of their week! Anyway, three of our boys will be graduating in the spring, and I can honestly say that I will miss them terribly when they move on.

The Lights are On!!

Yippee! I just wanted to post a very quick post to say that I was just watching the news and the lights at Opryland Hotel are officially turned on! I am SO excited!! To top it off, I am planning to go to Christmas Village tomorrow evening with my Mom, so it's official...the Christmas season is upon us!!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year. I love how the leaves that have changed colors are falling on the ground and are making beautiful blankets on yards all over town. I love how Smyrna has already put up their Christmas lights on the light poles. I love hearing Aaron play "Jingle Bells" on the piano five thousand times a day. I love listening to my Josh Groban Christmas CD when I am all by myself in my van on chilly nights. I love to watch the excitement of my children build up as they anticipate seeing Santa for the first time this season and wondering what he is going to bring them. But, most of all, I love the excitement of being able to celebrate the special birthday of Jesus. After all, if it weren't for Him, we wouldn't be able to celebrate any of our special moments anyway.

I just hope that wherever you are, you are experiencing the joy of the season. Try not to get too busy that you miss it all! (I'm speaking mostly to myself on that one!)

Trick or Treat...and Babies, Too!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted a new post, but of all times, this one is definitely worth posting. My sister had her sweet twin baby girls yesterday evening on Halloween!!

My mom happpened to be watching Avery for me on Friday afternoon so that I could go to Ashlynn and Aaron's school for their Halloween parties. She called me as I was on my way to her house to pick up Avery and said that my sister Candy had called and said that she was at the hospital. A little while later (around 3:00 in the afternoon), my brother-in-law Brandon called and said that they were going to do a C-section at 4:00. So, our plans changed a little...we at first had decided to go to the square in Murfreesboro to trick or treat, then I had promised the kids that we could go to Toys R Us to spend gift cards that they had gotten, and then we planned to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Well, we ended up going trick or treating on the square and then we went to Toys R Us. I had planned to leave then and go on to the hospital to see the girls. Well, I got the call that they were here, and I believe this information is pretty accurate...Anna was 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long, and Lauren was 5 lbs. 1 oz. and 17 3/4 inches long. At 35 weeks, they were a really good size.

I was a little concerned that they might have to be transported to a hospital with a NICU, so when I got the call that everything was going well, I decided to wait to go up there early Saturday morning. I'm glad I waited, because Lauren had a little trouble breathing, was put on oxygen and stayed in the nursery the entire night. She actually improved a great deal and was released to the room while I was there on Saturday.

They are both absolutely beautiful!! Candy was pretty nervous about holding them and feeding them, but so was I as a new mom. It will all come together, and I know they will do a great job!

I will post a few pictures of both the girls and of my own sweet trick or treaters...the proud new cousins. They were so disappointed that they couldn't go see them with me. Hopefully, Candy will get to take the girls home this week, so we may make a trip up there this weekend or so.

I'll try to keep you all posted...you know how that will be, though. You may get a picture when they start first grade! :)

Oh, What a Night!

Have you ever had a horrible vacation experience? Well, so far, I think our horrible experiences outweigh our incredible experiences. Most of you have heard our "Gulf Shores story." If you haven't, drop me a line and I'll be happy to give you the short story version of it.

Anyway, our latest experience was just last night. Since Chris was going to be out of town, I decided to venture out and visit my sister who lives in Rock Island, which is only about an hour and a half away from here. Her husband was out of town, and my dad had to work last night, so my mom and I took off for a one night "vacation" at her house on the river. Well, everything was going well until about 9:00 last night. Avery was beyond tired, was incredibly cranky, and he wanted no part of going to bed in a strange place. (Have I mentioned the fact that we don't travel very often?) He finally drifted off to sleep in my lap at around 9:15 or so. I carefully put him in the bed that I was going to sleep in. Immediately, he woke up very upset. It took a couple of minutes, but he finally calmed down and went back to sleep. "Whew!" I thought. "That was a close one, but that was pretty easy." **Note the foreshadowing!

I decided to go and check my email on my sister's computer. I was just shutting down the computer when Aaron appeared by my side with a very disturbing look on his face. He said, "Mama, I don't want to spend the night. I want to go home." He looked as if he were about to burst into tears. I asked him what was wrong, and he said that he was feeling sick and needed to throw up. Of course, every mother hates to hear these words. It is bad enough when your child is sick at your own house. But, when you have a sick child, you're away from your own home, and you're in the home of someone without children, it can be even more disturbing. We immediately went to the bathroom and patiently waited for the inevitable. After about half an hour of vomiting and diarrhea, he finally began to feel well enough to go and lie down.

I decided to sleep on the floor beside Aaron since he wasn't feeling well in case he may need some help. In the meantime, after we had all gone to bed and had gotten comfortable, the cuckoo clock on the wall in the hallway just outside our door, struck the hour of eleven. After it finished "clucking" Avery woke up, fussed a little, but eventually plopped his head back down on the pillow. I thought, "Oh, no! He is going to wake up again at midnight. I hope he will just roll over and go back to sleep." Sure enough, midnight came and so did the bird in the clock. Once again, at the end, Avery woke up. This time he flipped out and was hysterical. I couldn't calm him down, and I couldn't go anywhere in the house to escape others' sleeping ears. After about fifteen or twenty minutes, we finally sat in the living room until he decided that he was ready to go back to bed.

I wound up sleeping on the bed with Avery, the acrobat. You know...feet in my ribcage, on my forehead, head boring a hole in the nape of my neck. I think I slept a total of thirty minutes between "acrobat Avery," worrying about the cuckoo clock waking him up, and wondering if Aaron was going to have another "episode."

Fortunately, Aaron did not get sick anymore that night, and he even woke up the next morning and commented that he felt great! Avery also slept pretty well, despite the fact that the cuckoo went off every hour and half hour. I think I heard it every time.

Anyway, I'm so sorry Candy, that we kept you up. (Did I mention that she is very pregnant with twins?) And, thanks for inviting us and trying to salvage the night. I'm sure we'll be up for another visit...when the kids are grown. I'm wondering...should we really still entertain the thought of going to Disney World next year? :0)

Drumroll, Please...

I'm sure the three of you who faithfully check my blog on a regular basis only to notice that it hasn't changed in several weeks (okay, months!) will be thrilled to see that we have a new post!! It is funny...my life is full of drama, and I am always thinking, "Hmmm. I should really tell that story on my blog." But, while my intentions are good, they don't always formulate.

Anyway, our latest story consists of Chris and his attempt to build our boys' bunk beds. I don't mean buying a kit and merely putting them together. I'm talking, bunk beds from scratch. I have to admit that I was a little leary of the idea to begin with. Let me say this, though...I was always certain that he was capable of building the beds, but Chris works an awful lot and is out of town an awful lot. That being said, I figured it would take an absolute eternity to get them finished. Well, it only took half an eternity to complete, but they are done and they are so beautiful! I am so proud of him and his handy carpentry!

He actually got the beds finished and Avery's room painted on Tuesday, so the boys got to sleep in the beds that night. Avery was so funny!! He was SO incredibly excited, and so was Aaron! They went right to sleep that night, and we never heard a peep out of them.

The next night, I hosted a Bible study at my house, so the kids all went to bed very late. Avery actually fell asleep in Chris' lap, so Chris put him in the bed in his clothes and everything. Aaron climbed up into his bunk, got comfortable and said, "I don't want to sleep here. I want to sleep in my own bed in my room." I told him it would be fine. So Aaron slept in his bed, and Avery slept in his.

Fast forward to last night...also known as night number 3 for the bunk beds. Avery comes running into his room last night and exclaimed, "I wuh ny bed!" Which translates to, "I love my bed!" He excitedly climbed into bed and was immediately settled. Aaron slowly walked into the room, sluggishly climbed the ladder and crawled into bed. Right after all three of them had said their prayers, Aaron anounced that, again, he didn't want to sleep up there...he wanted to sleep in his own bed. Ashlynn immediately shouted, "I want to sleep up there!" So, last night, Avery slept in his bed (for the third night in a row!) and the top bunk has been vacant one night and has had each of the other two Kennedy children sleep in it at one time or another. Apparently, we are playing musical beds. Hmmm. I'll let you know how it goes!

I have attached a slide show of the pics of the bed and the room. Let me know what you think?

Check out my Slide Show!

Feast or Famine

Okay, we've had so much going on, so I'm going to try to do this in one blog. I did a picture slide show highlighting all of our fun events. I had way too many pictures to share, so I tried to do just one from each activity.

A couple of weeks ago, my best friend Melissa and I decided to be brave and take most of our children out to the new Olive Garden in Murfreesboro for lunch. Between the two of us, we had four children aged 2 1/2 and younger. It really went quite well, and we all enjoyed a great meal. We decided to take the kids to the park afterwards, and the kids had a great time. I got several pictures, but my favorite one was Hadleigh and Avery holding hands.

A good friend of ours, Alli Beth, had an Easter egg hunt on Good Friday, so the kids and I were excited to take part in that. We had such a good time playing at the park, playing fun little Easter games and having an egg hunt. Once again, I took tons of pictures, but my favorite one was of Ashlynn, Aaron, Avery, Alli Beth and her little brother Jackson all looking at their baskets after the egg hunt. There were probably fifty people at the egg hunt, so this was definitely a quieter moment.

We went to church on Easter Sunday and then over to my parents for lunch. The kids had a very small (and quick!) egg hunt there. We also went to Chris' parents on Tuesday for Easter. We got pictures made at Sears of all seven of the grandchildren, and that went surprisingly well. We got some pretty good pictures. Again, the kids got to hunt eggs there, too, but their favorite part was visiting with their cousins.

The final story of the day is that I tried to begin potty training Avery yesterday. I took a picture of him in his sweet little Buzz Lightyear underwear. He just looks so big in his underwear climbing up the stairs by himself. Anyway, potty training is not going well. He actually pee-peed in the potty several times that morning; however, by 1:30 or so in the afternoon, the idea of a sucker wasn't nearly as appealing as it was that morning. At one point, he had just finished tinkling, got off the potty and immediately finished in his underwear. He said, "Oh, I pee-pee!" I thought he was excited that he had just pee-peed in the potty, but he was in fact standing in a puddle. Not more than ten minutes later, I, myself, had to go potty, so I thought it would be a good idea for him to come along and see. So, there we went, and as I was going, so was he...in his underwear, again! Once again, I cleaned up the little puddle in the floor. Then, we decided to go outside and play, and I thought, "Well, at least we will be outside, so if he has an accident, I won't have to clean up the floor." For about thirty minutes or more, I asked him literally every ten minutes if he needed to go potty, and he consistently turned me down. He was way too preoccupied riding on the John Deere tractor. I finally decided to pick him up and take him in to potty. That is when I discovered that he was wet. The wetness was quite cold, so I know he had been sitting in it for quite some time. He obviously was not bothered by being uncomfortable. At this rate, he will be in Middle School before he is potty trained. I'll keep you posted.

Hope you all had an awesome Easter and week!

Christi