In Awe of my children

In the past two weeks I have been in true awe of my children. It is one thing to admire your children and see them enjoy their life successes and expand their talents, and it is something different all together to watch your children and be in awe of who they are as a person and who they are becoming. (And it having nothing to do with my parenting!)

Olivia was the lead in the school 5th grade play "Oklahoma" (of course, it is our centennial year here in the great tornado state). I watched mesmorized by her talent and sheer radiance. She literally "glowed" (for lack of a better word) on stage. I couldn't keep from watching her, and as I thought about it later it had nothing to do with her being my daughter. Just the fact that she was so good. I left amazed. Chloe's final choir concert was this week. The music teacher had asked her to write a song for the school choir and she did in about a day and a half complete with three verses and harmonies. It was called "Believe". I have heard it around the house the past couple of weeks as Chloe practiced on the piano, but it wasn't until the teacher announced the song and that it was written by one of the 7th graders and Chloe walked to the piano, set up her microphone and she proceeded to start playing the song. When the choir sang and harmonized I was once again blown away, to the point that tears came to my eyes. Here was my child writing music for the 7th grade choir and accompanying them and then singing the last verse as a solo and acting as calm as could be during the entire thing. If I could have only seen when I was engaged and dating Gale the amazing children we would have I don't think I would have believed it.

I have watched Elle closely the last two weeks. On our school lunch date we sat alone and talked and laughed for the entire 1/2 hour. Elle has to have one of the happiest souls there is. She is laughing and cracking jokes the entire day. As she starts to grow I can't wait to watch her other talents and abilities develop. I can't imagine our home without Elle, I feel like I am watching a flower as it gets ready to bloom and I have no idea of the great things that will come from her.

And then there was Ava. Last, but definately not the least. I am amazed at Ava everyday. Little could I realize how big a little 4 year old could be. You don't understand that until you meet Ava. She runs our house, is the mother to her 3 older sisters (actually more of a boss) and has no problem telling everyone what she thinks and plans. This girl is going to take the world by storm. I like to be in awe of my children. I see them in a whole new light when I am.

Name Changing

I refuse to give up on my journal. It seems like life gets so busy, and other things begin to take precedence over something I really enjoy doing. So I have recommitted to writing down the great and memorable events of my life.

In the last week everyone wants to change their name. Elle would like to be called Isabelle, Olivia would love to be called Benning (her middle name) and the originator of all this (Ava) would like to be called Sparkly Girl. I can barely connect the right girl with the right name, so I have decided I'm in trouble. Hopefully the season of name changing won't last long. And just in case your wondering what my name change is; Ava decided that I could use her name since she wasn't going to need any longer. So I go by Ava now.

Mothers Day

Instead of writing about Gale's perfectly picked out presents, a wonderful dinner and being treated like a queen all day. (Which is no different than any other day!) I wanted to write down the really important things about Gale. The real reasons that you can't help but love her and most of them need no explanation. Just a prayer of thanks to the good Lord for making her that way.

1. She has blinders on when it comes to the weaknesses of her family (referring to myself and the girls). She doesn't seem them and never comments on them.

2. She sees the best attributes of her family and comments on them often.

3. She really sees us. She is always touching us, loving us, hugging us and making sure we feel we are seen.

4. She listens. (At times for hours as the girls spill their hearts out--and loves it). I think my record is now up to 15 minutes of listening. Even when I'm on a kick and going off about something she listens.

5. She is kind and her heart is kind. No malice in that heart of hers for anyone. (Even if I try to put it there)

6. She doesn't judge. Her mantra really has become "that person is doing the best they can at the moment." She may notice, but she won't judge.

7. She is just good to the soul.

8. She has become more beatiful as the years have passed by. Why? I have often wondered, not just her physical beauty, but the traits that she has developed over the years make her an irresistable woman. (Okay--she is also still hot on the outside)

9. She does everything she can to make her family happy.

10. She is smart and getting smarter everyday. She studies, reads good uplifting books and wants to go back to school for her advanced degree.

11. She has the most phenomenal out of this world goals and she will accomplish them.

12. Not the last, but the most important of them all. She makes me an incredible person when I am around her. I would not be anywhere near the person that I am or accomplished what I have without her.

I think she deserves to be kept around for another year! I love you sweetie and have a gratitude for you that can't be measured.

Chris

Garage Sale

The Preparation
I have always hated garage sales. Well, I like them when they are over and we have a few hundred extra dollars to blow, but the preparations are the worst. This year I talked Gale into doing it right. We went through the house and got all of the junk out and just piled it into the garage. The night before the sale we took two hours to organize our junk and got it ready to set out. We were ready to go. The Sale
I had so much fun at the sale I think we are going to have another one next month. My favorite part is all the stuff that I know for sure is going to bring in big bucks. I watch the buyers peruse and touch all the top end good merchandise just figuring out the max price they will pay for my wares------and then they walk away, go grab the junk and buy it. I was dying laughing by the end. All of the good stuff that had value was left and everything that I considered junk was sold and gone. So what does that tell me about what I value? Maybe it was all junk in the first place!

The Aftermath
Everybody wants a deal and wants to check out what you have lying in your driveway. After the sale was over we piled everything next to the garage and called the Salvation Army to come and pick it all up. They couldn't come for two days so our stuff had to sit in the driveway (neatly piled) for two days. The best part of the whole situation was our neighbors. They had to check out what was left over and one by one they made their way over to get some of the remaining stuff. (Free of course!) No one called the homeowners committee to tell on us for leaving junk in our driveway for two days, wonder if it had anythign to do with the free stuff all of the neighbors came and took. By the time Salvation Army marched on over there was barely anything left!

What did we spend the money on?
Gale and I decided that we would treat ourselves to a nice sushi dinner so we spent $30 on the meal (we never spend that much on date night dinner). As for the rest.....hhhmmm I don't know, Gale probably spent it on groceries etc. I did notice a new phone system in the house so maybe that's where it went. Chloe and Olivia got some new shorts. I did sneak $5 and went to Starbucks for a Venti double chocolate chip cream based shake....only $4.85 what a deal. I think we all came out happy.

The house is going up for sale next Thursday. (If the stars align with the carpet and paint people) and we are going to do another clean out and garage sale before we move. Getting rid of stuff is actually really fun.

Tennis Day and Elle goes on a big Date!

Chloe had a tennis tournament today in Shawnee. She plays doubles and they placed 5th in the state tournament! This was great due to the fact that she just changed doubles partners. We did not go due to conference, and it was the first real big tournament that we missed. The team actually got to go in an official team bus with the coach so she was excited to ride with the team.

Today was a great day for Elle. At the school auction a few weeks ago Elle won a date with her teacher. (Who she really, really, really likes!) Elle spent her morning watching conference and making a necklace for Ms. Rath. When they met up to head to the mall for a movie Elle had her gift all wrapped and Ms. Rath had a gift for Elle. Elle was the happiest person in the world. They went to the mall, saw a movie, had some popcorn and then went out for some food. Elle couldn't believe she got time with the teacher all to herself.

Olivia had a friend sleep over and stay until 6 the next evening and Ava had a friend over the whole day as well. Let's just say my kids all had a great time today.

Dolly Is in the House!

We have a fascination with Dolly Parton in our house.  It is quite unexplainable, yet is the cause for much joy.  If Dolly is on Hannah Montana we watch, if she comes in concert to Oklahoma we go, if she comes out with new songs we download them.  It is a funny thing.  

Dolly was on American Idol last night so we had to watch.  We crack up at her songs, we like how she talks in the middle of her songs and gets cheesy sometimes.  Elle's favorite song right now is "He's Alive" by Dolly.  It is a resurrection song that Dolly wrote that tells the story of the resurrection.  During Easter we would play the song and all sing along.  It has a really big ending that tops off with Dolly belting out "Sweet Jesus".  The other day Ava got all excited about going on some errands and she yelled out, "Sweet Cheese!"  So the song from here on out has been ruined as we all sing out "Sweet Cheese!" during the big ending.  So much for the spirituality of the song.   

April Fools is Banned

April Fools Day and the Bray household have never gotten along well.  It all started when Chloe was in 1st grade and for an April fools joke Gale put a potato and an onion in for her school lunch.  Gale then arrived early to school and had Chick-Fil-A in hand for when Chloe opened the lunch. Well, Chloe opened it and immediately burst out in hysterical tears and even after seeing Gale with Chick-Fil-A in hand she was not to be comforted and spent the rest of lunch time crying.   We should have learned our lesson.  But we didn't.

We decided to revisit April Fools this year so we made some delicious morning juice complete with tons of salt.  When Elle tasted it she looked at Gale and said, "this tastes really funny!"  Gale and I yelled "April Fools" in which Elle burst into tears running from the room.  She rarely cries, but she held onto this one for a good 20 minutes making the rest of the girls late for school.  

April Fools is now banned in our house.  We won't even acknowledge this horrible holiday in 2009.