Christmas Vacation Fun

Andrea has been hard at work making Christmas presents, so I have had the chance to hang out with the girls quite a bit. Today was a great day. Among other things, we went to an indoor inflatable playground with all kinds of great blow up things you can jump on, jump off of, slide down, belly flop on, fall off of, etc.... I have taken the girls before, but this time Ava was freaked out by how loud the fans were (that were keeping the playground blown-up). She cried the first 20 minutes- hard crying, full-out, holding nothing back crying. 20 minutes. She wanted to leave, but I was determined for this to be a great day for everyone (and I had already paid $13 for us to be there). So, I remembered the most important verse from the Bible of Parenting, "Ice cream casteth out all fear." I offered Ava ice cream if she would play at a kid's dreamworld. This is her life- she gets bribed with ice cream to play at a kid's dreamworld. She played happily for the next 1 and 1/2 hours. Amazing. We went on to have a great picnic at a park, do a little xmas shopping for Ann, and eat ice cream at Chik-fil-a. Yes, we went back to eat ice cream at Chik-fil-a; this time we ate outside. These pics offer little windows into our joy.

Christmas Princesses

A Christmas Miracle

Yesterday, I got a call from the Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville. They wanted to tell me that they accidently overcharged me for some surgery I had done about a year ago, and that they were sending me a check for $250.

To quote Clark Griswald, "I wouldn't have been more suprised if I had woken up with my head sown to the carpet."

I celebrated by buying Andrea and I some books at Half-Price Books today.

Like a Chicken with Its Head Cut Off

On Tuesday afternoons Andrea goes to Dallas to tutor some Thai refugee children, and I get in some special "daddy and daughter" time. Our usual routine is to go to the park, the library, and then come home to eat eggs and biscuits. But, we have been eating eggs and biscuits every Tuesday for a while now, and a new Chick-fil-A opened up nearby with a killer playplace inside, so we went there today. It was interesting.

The place is packed because it is the new cool thing in town. We order our food, I get the drinks, and go get the girls seated at a table, and then go back to wait for the food. I order 12 nuggets and a regular chicken sandwich- fairly standard items- and it took almost 10 minutes. This is a long time when you have two precious sweeties at a table unsupervised and hungry.

I get the food and distribute it to the kids, settle in to my chair, and take a bite of my sandwich, where upon Anabelle informs me that she needs to "go tee-tee." So, we all go to the bathroom, she does her thing, and then we go back to our table. After about 5 minutes of peaceful eating, Anabelle knocks her drink over, spilling water all over the table. Fortunately, the lid did not come all the way off, so I managed to clean it up with only about 50 napkins. I was a little troubled by this, because this is the third time in the past two days Anabelle has knocked a full glass over. I took a deep breath and started to eat again. Anabelle said, "Daddy, thank you so much for cleaning up my spot." That made me really happy and warm inside, and I felt like the evening was taking a turn for the better. Feelings, however, are not always reliable.

After about 5 more minutes of eating, Ava knocked her drink off the table. I ordered small waters for the girls, but they were out of small cups, so this was a medium cup full of water. It hit the ground with such force that not only did the lid come off completely, but the bottom of the cup blew out as well, and 22 oz. of water and ice were all over the floor. Napkins would stand no chance facing this giant. So I went and asked a nice young guy who worked there if he would clean it up. He was very courteous, but I am not sure he had ever held a mop before. So he came over and sloshed it around and smeared it everywhere. I am pretty sure someone had just mopped around the fry vats with this mop, because the floor all around our table became very greasy and slick. Every time someone would walk by they would almost slip, and then glance over at me with a look that I interpreted as saying, "thanks alot buddy, because you can't keep your kids in line I almost broke my neck."

So we ate some more, and as we were finishing I thought to myself, "Heath, you need a challenge." So, I got the girls an ice cream cone. This was Ava's first ice cream cone ever. Anabelle methodically licked around the edges, making sure none dripped. Ave dispensed with such formalites, and after I handed it to her the first thing she did was smash it into her face, as if she were trying to get the whole cone in her mouth. She ate the rest of the cone like this, trying to smash it all into her mouth. It was so much fun to watch.

We finished our meal and headed into the play area. We got the shoes off, put away in the little secure cubby holes, and they started to play. Then Anabelle said, "Daddy, I need to go do gross." So, we got the shoes back on, and went back to the bathroom. Anabelle did her business, I did the closing paperwork, and we started to leave our stall. I was surprised to see a little boy (like 3 or 4 years old) waiting to come in the stall. He was by himself. Ava got in his face and, using her intimidating voice (the one she uses with Silas), said, "Hey, what are you doing in here?!" She proceeded to follow him back in the stall, and I had to go back and forcible remove her so this little guy could do his thing.

So , we went back to the play area and played happily for about 20 minutes, and then came home.

Several of you who read this blog from time to time have kids. Sometimes it is therapeutic to here about things like this, so hopefully this story will be of some benefit to someone. I hope to God that there is some redeeming value to this unfortunate series of events.

Big News!

Ava tee teed on the potty! Hurray!! Let us all hope and pray that she will do it again.

We got our christmas tree last week. It has only fallen once.

Anabelle wrote her whole (first) name by herself.

Anabelle and Ava have parts in our church christmas program. It will be very interesting to see if they actually say their lines. You are all invited to come see them perform.

Coming later this week: a post on St. Nicolas- a real hero and saint (not the patron saint of consumerism).

carrots and 7 years

If you don't have a facebook, you havent seen my carrots! So far, carrots are the most exciteing thing we've harvested in the garden. You really don't know if you actually going to get a carrot until you pull it up. I've never before eaten a carrot the day it was picked and I have to say it is almost as if I'd never eaten a carrot. They are so sweet and crunchy and flavorful. Why didn't we do this sooner?

I other exciting news, Heath and I have been married for 7 years! We celebrated a few weeks ago by going out for breakfast when we were in Texarkana because we thought we wouldn't be able to get (or pay for) a baby sitter on the actual day. On Friday, the day before the anniversary, we went to our favorite park in Rockwall to play with our awesome new Frisbee and for the girls to play on the playground. Then we had a delicious meal of chick-fil-la sandwiches that were extra good because they were free (we got some free coupons in the mail a few weeks ago). THEN, yesterday, about 3 o'clock a girl in our church called to see if we needed a babysitter. How could we say no? So we went to Red Lobster and walmart and our baby sitter wouldn't take the money we tried to give her. It was a great anniversary. Oh, also we played tether ball at the local playground yesterday morning and after 6 games (each of us winning 3) we decided to stop in an effort to preserve our marriage for another 7 years.

Anniversary Frisbee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrea got me the great frisbee for our 7th anniverary. It is great. Perfect size, perfect weight, perfect flight patterns. It is sure to be a source of great times to come!

taking one for the team

Well, our church softball season is now over. Once again, we were the runner-ups.

I haven't given as many updates this year. I did hit alot less homers this year (2), but I had a batting average of about .800. Also, I made an unassisted double play from centerfield. Ok since you want to know, there was a runner on first and the ball was a looper in shallow center. The girl on first did not think i would catch it (she obviously hadn't seen me in action), but i did. She was already about 3/4 of the way to second base when I caught it about 30 feet behind second base. I could have just thrown it to first to double her up, but chasing her down gave me the thrill of knowing that on my blog i could tell the world that i made an unassisted DP.

We won the semi-final game yesterday. I was proud of us. The team we played beat us earlier in the season 22-4. We came back in the bottom of the 7th (the last inning) to win 12-11.

We lost the championship game because we made too many errors, and the team we played was really, really good. I knew going into this game that for us to win we would have to take advantage of every little opportunity we had. At the beginning of the game I led off with a double and the girl after me hit a grounder to the shortstop-- I knew that I needed to get to third so that if the next player hit a fly ball in the outfield I could tag and score. The shortstop looked me back to second and then fired to first. When the ball left his hand I took off for third. The first baseman made a great throw to third, but I did a nifty slide, eluding the tag. By the way, I slid on hard dirt at a full sprint wearing mesh shorts. Hence, the pic above of my battle wound. I wore it proud throughout the rest of the game. The ladies on the team were calling for a first aid kit and wanted me to bandage it. I didn't even wipe the dirt. For the rest of the game I played with a dirty and bloody right leg. It made me look pretty intimidating, I think.

The Giraffe and the Lady Bug

Children Sermons from the Cutting Room Floor

I have decided to start a new, perhaps weekly installment on our blog about children sermons I come up with that never quite make it to church. Here goes...

Hi kids, glad to see you here today. Well, what is coming up this week. That's right, halloween. What are you going to dress up as?

You know, adults wear masks too. That's right boys and girls, especially when adults come to church they like to put on masks that hide their true selves. Its ok to wear masks at halloween, but don't be like your parents who wear masks to church.

Let's pray together... Dear Jesus, please help us not to become like our parents. Amen.

Last week the girls and I made fall cookies. We cut out cookies in the shape of pumkins, leaves and acorns and then decorated them with frosting. I regret that I do not have and pictures of the rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies. It was an amazing mess. Here are some pics of the good times.

I Love Telemarketers

I just got a phone call from a person who asked to speak with Mr. or Mrs. Church Methodist. I told him that they don't live here anymore.

we might have been wrong...

So I think that little thomas might not actually be a boy. In the case that thomas does in fact turn out to be a girl the name will be changed to Elizabeth Cady Stanton Bradley, after one of the mothers of the womens rights movement (Girls, we owe our right to vote in great part because of her) (I think she looks more like elizabeth then Susan B Anthony). We'll call her Betsy for short.

Another Softball Update

Well friends, as I had hoped, I can report my first round-tripper of the year yesterday.

I also made a play in deep centerfield that makes Willy Mays' famous catch look like a walk in the park. Running to my left I leaped at least 4 feet in the air (maybe just 1 0r 2, but it felt like 4) to catch a high line drive. As I was coming down I transferred the ball into my cannon, wheeled around, and fired a one-hop strike to homeplate to keep the runner at third from tagging and scoring. Andrea and the girls were at the game and can verify all this.

Oh yeah, Ava does a great job cheering for me. They sat in the stands right outside the fence where the on-deck circle is. When I was on deck, I walked over to the fence where Ava was standing, holding my bat on my shoulder. I said, "Hi Sweetie, I'm glad you are here to watch." She replied, "Daddy, don't hit me." (I have never threatened Ava with a bat, I promise!)

Anabelle, Ava and Thomas

Anabelle is 4 weeks into preschool. She loves it so much. she is learning her letters and making lots of friends and singing lots of new silly songs (theres one she sings called a-too-day-ta). I think Anabelle will be able to write her whole name by christmas.
Ava had a hard time at first with Anabelle being gone but now she's ok with it because we do fun stuff. Like grocery shopping (which is fun because if she cooperates she gets to ride one of the grocery store rides) and makeing cookies. Ava is staying busy doing things I sometimes prefere she not do. On monday she found a glue stick and smeared it all around her mouth because she thought it was chapstick (I also recently found that she put some all over one of the many Doras that live here.)

Yesterday Anabelle and Ava were invited to a birthday party for a little girl in Anabelles class. It was the biggest party we've been to yet. There were pony rides and the games were actually fun and they got so much treasure just for being there. Anabelle smiled the whole time she was on the pony. Ava kept shouting "YeeHaw, I'm cowgirl Dora, getiyup Pinto!" (Pinto is Dora's horse) and then the second ride Ava was Jesse from toy story 2 and the horse was bullseye. great times.

Our new kitten, Nicolas Thomas Wright Bradley, named for Heaths favorite writer and theologian NT Wright (we're calling him little tommy for short) is super cute. I think he is about 4 or 5 weeks old now. We were feeding him from a bottle but he has recently started eating kitten food soaked in kitten formula. The girls really love him, sometimes too much. Ava is learning how to use gentle hands but sometimes she just loves him so much she wants to squash him. Yesterday she accidently sat on his head and I thought he was done for but he made it though just fine. Our other cat, Flannery, named for one of my favorite authors Flannery O'Conner, does not like Thomas. She seems frightened when ever he walks toward her even though he is small enough to fit in a small coffee mug. He's a really sweet kitten and likes to be held especially when he has a full tummy.

Softball Update

I am so glad to be back in the blogosphere. My first act of business is to give an update on my softball swing. I am sad to say that in our first game I didn't hit the ball out of the infield. I was very ashamed, worried, and flabergasted- how long, O Lord, until it comes back? My teammates surround me with mocks and jokes! How long until I am vindicated?

Turns out only a week. Thank God, last week I hit two doubles to the fence. Actually, I think God had little to do with it. I think going to a batting cage and hitting 96 softballs (in 8 minutes- 1 every 5 seconds) got the kinks out. (Of course, a synergistic account of divine and human agency could allow for both explanations, but that is for another post that I will probably never write.)

Next Sunday I hope to report the first dinger of the year.

the new blog

So our other blog has been down for almost a month now and so many interesting things have happened worth blogging about. So I have started this one as a temporary or permanent solution.
Posts to come include: Anabelles first day of school, a kitten so tiny we feed it with a bottle, my new voluteer work with the IRC and hopefully soon there will be a post about Ava using the potty.
Will you all please leave a comment so I know you know about our new blog?