Roommates

Who would have thought that 19 years ago Bryan College would have randomly matched up 2 girls from Tennessee to be roommates and who would turn out to be such wonderful friends? God clearly answered my prayers as a high school senior when I prayed for not just a good roommate but one that would be as Anne of Green Gables says, "a bosom friend...a kindred spirit."

My first impressions of Melissa were her big hair and her strong southern accent. (I convinced her to ditch the 80's hair for the Marsha Brady style like me when I combed hair permanent solution through her hair. Hey - what are friends for? Tee hee.) She told me that her first impressions of me were my chatterbox mouth and my blinding fluorescent pink nail polish. We were inseparable in college like peas and carrots - making jello in the dorm toilets, smearing Vaseline on the doorknobs, mattress sliding down the hallways. We couldn't have had more fun! Graduation was actually a sad day for us.

We got to hook up today for our yearly visit. We met with our 10 kids at the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights. We had way too much catching up to do and not enough time or quiet moments in which to do it. Like we always tell each other, we don't get together often enough and we need to do it again soon.

Freshman Year - 1990

Today - 19 years later

4 Browns and 6 Fishes
My crew in front of the nativity

Lydia & Claire

Josiah & Mel
Caleb & Evan
Emily & Lydia
Claire & Anna Blair (only 3 weeks apart in age)

Buddies

We don't live in a neighborhood. I wouldn't say we live in the boon docks but we live far out enough that we use the phrase "go to town" often enough. My kids sometimes ask me to tell them stories about living in a neighborhood as this concept is foreign to them. They have never experienced playing with neighborhood friends. Just within the last year we have been very blessed to have friends who are like-minded and live only 3 miles from us with children to "match" ours. They have 10 kids but their last 6 are the same ages as our 6 and almost all of them match up boy/girl with ours. And as if that wasn't good enough, they provide us with an incredible babysitter. We call them our Bender Buddies.

We've been having Friday Bender Buddy play days for the last month or so. It started with Caleb heading over there for a game of football with her boys, but since they have 3 girls to match my 3, we decided to add play times for them too. This past week I made sugar cookies and let the 6 girls decorate them with icing and sprinkles.

Rules:

1. No licking the knife

2. No licking your fingers

3. No licking your cookies

4. No licking the counter where you spilled

Ruth struggled with all of these rules. The date ended with hot tea and eating a cookie of your choice.

AB's Bender Buddy had just had her face professionally painted for a photo shoot of a masquerade. She and AB decided to make a silly photo. They kept me laughing the entire afternoon.

Leah's Bender Buddy got sick after we did cookies. Leah took care of her by putting her to bed in my bedroom and covering her with blankets and loading her up with books to look at. She seemed so concerned and I thought it was so sweet of her to take care of her buddy, but as soon as she got her friend settled, she shut my bedroom door and ran off with Ruth and her Bender Buddy. Maybe she won't be a nurse after all.

Here is Ruth with her Bender Buddy. They decorate cookies the opposite. Ruth dumps on as much icing as possible, then adds tons of sprinkles, and finishes with smearing more icing into the sprinkles to make one big thick mess. Her Bender Buddy carefully spreads a small amount of icing on the center of her cookie, adds a few sprinkles to the small mound and she's done. They also eat their cookies differently. Her Bender Buddy eats her cookie like a normal child while Ruth licks and sucks every ounce of icing off her mound on the cookie and leaves a soggy cookie on her plate as she runs off to play. (Don't tell, but Ruth's mother always asks for the corner piece of birthday cake. Hmm - maybe it's just a hereditary "problem.")

NOT a Martha Stewart Day

Here's the stray making himself comfortable on Amos' bed. You may notice I called him the stray and not his name. He's in the dog house right now - literally. I'm mad at him for not taking his toilet business outside where it belongs. He now has 2 options: kennel or outside. No more roaming around. I know it sounds cruel and my kids have begged and pleaded, but they aren't the ones to clean it all up.

This past Friday I was just having one of those days. It was only 9:30 a.m. and here's what I had accomplished:

* scrubbed doggy diarrhea from the carpet which stained badly and smelled something deadly

* cleaned up 3 tee tee accidents from my toddler who just doesn't seem to catch on to the toilet concept

* scrubbed the hardwood where I discovered doggy stomach bile that must have come up the previous evening and was missed

* cleaned up a breakfast mess of jelly and biscuit which was dropped upside down on the floor

During one of those scrubs, I sighed deeply and said to myself outloud, "This is clearly NOT a Martha Stewart day for me!" Caleb asked me what that meant and I said that when I DO have Martha Stewart days, I get a ton of things accomplished in an amazingly small amount of time. Caleb said, "Well Mom, I DO think you've have that kind of day. It's not even close to lunch yet and think of all the messes you've gotten cleaned up already."

I guess it's all in one's perspective, eh?

Give Thanks in Everything for this is God's will for you.

Cousin Party

Although my big sis and I only live 1 hour away from each other, we don't get to see each other as much as you might think. She stays very busy with the activities of her kids and church, making her schedule less flexible for hanging out. Her "little one" turned 4 and really wanted her cousins to attend her birthday party at their local inflatable indoor fun land. The Fish Sticks couldn't have been happier to receive the invitation. Nonie even got to join us for the drive up.

The birthday girl

Opposites

This is Lydia Leigh with her friend Lindsey Belle. They were born only a few weeks apart. You couldn't get more opposite when it comes to looks. Bald with some blond fuzz, bright blue eyes, pale skin vs dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and tan skin. Aren't they both adorable?

Adoption

Four of us in the Fish House have been praying for this little girl (especially the last couple of years) that she would have a clear understanding of her need for a Savior - that Jesus died for her so that she may have eternal life and live in a life committed to serving God. Both Tim and I made a decision to follow Christ at a young age and so have C and AB. Leah has taken longer but this past Wednesday our prayers were answered.

In the past she has asked us questions relating to salvation and just as I begin to explain to her that she is a sinner, God is a holy God and cannot allow sin into heaven so a perfect sacrifice was necessary. Jesus came as that sacrifice to die for our sins....then she would say, "Mom, I like those earrings you are wearing. Can I take them out then put them back in again?" Lost her. So the conversations went over and over. I would just tell Tim, "She is just not ready."

Wednesday we had an episode with her strong personality and I was correcting her late at night after our community group from church had left. Once again, she asked a salvation related question and I started telling her how as sinners we need to receive Jesus and place him in charge of our lives (a phrase I used to C and AB to help them understand their commitment to God). After something I said, she was exasperated and said she just didn't understand it all.

All at once the word "adoption" came into my mind. I believe the Holy Spirit placed it there for her to understand. Our good friends and her speech therapist just adopted their 5th child, Hope. She is from Ethiopia. I asked Leah if she thought Hope sat in her orphanage in Africa saying that she just hoped she would learn how to be a Garner one day? No, the Garners sought her out, knowing she needed a family and wanting her to be in their family. They worked hard to save money and travel far away from America to get her. Her family loves her dearly and she will always be a Garner now. She loves her new family and wants to obey her parents out of love for them. They will train her to be obedient, loving and will teach her about Jesus too. That is how God is with us. He seeks us out. He wants to bring us into His loving family to teach us and train us how to be like Him.

Leah understood completely. She knew for sure that she wanted to be part of God's family, to receive His forgiveness and live for Him. Not only did 4 in the Fish House rejoice that night for an answer to our prayers but angels rejoiced with us too on the night of November 18, 2009.

Drivin' a Hard Bargain

I admit I had given up potty training. All of my kids were well into big kid pants by this stage, but after cleaning up after Josiah for 2 solid months and only 2 times did he go in the potty (well once it was around the potty, not actually in the potty) I put the diapers back on. He'll be 3 in February and I know I need to just stick to it. I've been successful at this 4 other times. I should be a pro by now!

Today I decided to try again. I'm trying to train Tootsie too which is new for me - house breaking a grown dog. Grandma suggested I kennel him in the house and only let him out to potty and then reward him. I don't think kenneling will be the right approach with Josiah, but if it worked and worked quickly, I might even consider it.

I just took Josiah to try before his nap. As he stood waiting for something to happen, I sweetly told him to be like Daddy and Caleb and be a big boy and go in the potty. If he did, I would give him a special candy. He grins, looks at me, holds up 2 fingers and says, "No Mommy, 2 candies." Now he's bargaining potty candy?? At this point, I will shock even myself and comply if it would do the trick!