Thankful for a Good Samaritan

This morning on my 6 am morning walk (can I call it regular if I have been doing it for 2 weeks?), I encountered two amazing things. One was while I was on the White Rock bike trail near Greenville and Royal. I was walking along listening to NPR on my radio walkman thing and all of a sudden there was a huge, gorgeous, black horse walking the opposite way. I told the man atop the horse, "That's a horse!" To which he replied, "Yes, it is." I then said (remember it was about 6:30 am so my brain was not yet too active), "It's huge!" I was busy thinking about the horse and how wonderful it was to see such a beautiful horse in Dallas, what would I tweet when I got home I wondered?

I had now completed my stretch on the bike trail and was on Fair Oaks heading to Abrams when I encountered something scary on my walk. As I approached I could see that there was a black dog in the street and the cars were slowing down. I thought how nice it was that the cars were slowing down so that they would not hurt the dog. As I got closer to the dog I noticed that it didn't have a collar and that it didn't look so happy. Its face looked very dirty and it started to growl at me. I was across the street of a 4 lane road but just when there was a break from the cars the dog started to run at me. I started to scream and looked at my precious water bottle, it would not do much damage since I had drunk most of it. I thought about running to a house that was right behind me and ringing doorbells. I tried to slowly keep walking while still maintaining eye contact but the dog would just growl and try to run at me. I was really scared. I had decided when the next car came I was going to wave it down and jump inside to get away. Just then my Good Samaritan appeared. That story has been on my mind since Pastor Derrick preached on that passage on Sunday at Oak Lawn UMC (Luke 10:25-37).

My Good Samaritan was in a pick-up truck and I waved him down pointing at the dog. I was screaming and jumping up and down. The man got out of his truck and pulled a rake out of the back. I started to walk towards Abrams while looking behind me to keep looking at the dog. I then broke out into a run (while trying to look behind me) because the dog was holding his own against the man. It was super scary and I am wondering where I get some mace! But doesn't a dog have to be pretty close to you before you use the mace?

I had been thinking about tweeting about how thankful I was to see the horse, but now I am thankful more for my Good Samaritan. When his truck pulled alongside me at the light at Abrams I told him how thankful I was.

I am getting ready for the 3 day in November so my morning walks will continue, but it will be a while before I take that same route.

Swim class

We are taking a 2 week swim class at our local Recreation Center with the City of Dallas. Everett goes first from 5-5:30 and Madeleine is 5:30-6:15pm. It was only $30! Everett loved it on days 1-3, but on day 4 not so much. Of course day 4 was the day that I remembered to bring the camera so I decided I might as well document! One more week left...




saddest boy ever...

What words are bad?

It started innocently enough with my daughter repeating something that I say all the time (or at least, I used to say all the time). "Oh, my gosh!" I heard Madeleine say when she was about 5. Coming out of the mouth of a 5 year old it just seemed so close to taking the Lord's name in vain, "Oh, my God." I thought when I said it it was so different, but really, "Oh, my gosh" are not the best English words ever. So, I have tried (really, really) to stop saying, "Oh, my gosh."

Then, Madeleine went to kindergarten where her classmates were teaching her all kinds of words and phrases. We had the discussion about the word hell. I told her it wasn't a bad word, it just wasn't a very nice word. We had talks when Madeleine would use words that weren't very nice or just not very becoming for a young child to be saying.

A few months ago Madeleine said, "What the...?" which Lee says all the time. Lee does not say another word after "what the" and Madeleine copied him exactly. It made me laugh so much. Children pick up on everything that you say and then, they repeat it!

Yesterday Madeleine said "heck". I don't know why it made me stop and think, it just seemed like a word that an older person should be saying, not a 6 year old. I say it, Lee says it, but should we tell her not to say it? (I did tell her it wasn't a very nice word to say).

What words are bad and what words are inappropriate for our children to say? And if they are inappropriate for our children to say, why are they okay for us to say them? There are those words that George Carlin talked about, and those words that you know are bad words, but what about those words that are somewhere in the middle? They are just not nice, or don't sound like a child should say them. But they hear the adults around them saying them...

A memorable wedding that I did in Krum was when a man asked me to speak on the passage in James that talks about how our mouth gets us into trouble. I was expecting the love passage in 1 Corinthians, but this man knew what he needed help on for his marriage!

From James 3 (The Message version)
"We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell."

stats

When a baby is born their stats are so important. Everyone wants to know them, when were they born, how much did they weigh, how long are they? When you visit the pediatrician's office 10 days after the baby is born, you are hoping that they are back up to their birth weight. You worry about what the stats will be. At the pediatrician's office on that 10 day visit, I got a book where I could keep my children's stats for each doctor visit. There would be a lot of visits, at the 1 month mark, the 2 month mark, the 4 month mark, 6 months, and then a jump to 9 months. I remember fretting, what if something happened, maybe I should make a drop-in visit just to make sure that the baby's stats were good. After the 12 month visit, it seems like the pediatrician is breaking up with you, see you again when the baby is 18 months they say. What? Did we do something wrong? Why do we have to wait so long? After you become comfortable with going to get your baby's stats every 6 months then the big shocker, you only have to come once a year. Of course, there will be the visits for the flu shots, the ear infections, the fevers, the coughs.

I try to remember about a month before a birthday to make an appointment with the pediatrician. And then it cracks me up because the insurance company only lets you go a year from the last appointment, so even though Madeleine turned 6 June 20, we couldn't visit the pediatrician until after July 2 because we went July 2 last year. The earliest appointment time was July 6. So, I took Madeleine to see what her stats were now. From 19 1/4 inches on June 20, 2004 to 46 1/2 inches on July 6, 2010. She has been consistent with her growth curve for about 3 years now, she is in the 75% percentile for height. Her weight went from 6 pounds, 12 ounces on June 20, 2004 to 45.4 pounds on July 6, 2010. She has also been consistent with her growth curve for about 3 years now with her weight, she is in the 50% percentile for weight.

Time to get out her growth and development record book that I got on that 10 day visit and put in her new stats!


Madeleine getting her first blood pressure reading.

Birthdays - Madeleine

It seems like only yesterday that it was June 20, 2004 and Madeleine Nicholls Smith was born. We were clueless as to the extent of how our lives would change forever.

And before we knew it was time for her first birthday party at the parsonage in Krum, Texas in June 2005.

In June 2006 we were in process of moving from Krum to Dallas, so we had a combined 2nd birthday party/house warming party at our new home in Dallas.



For her third birthday party, we went to the Lake Highlands spray park and had a great time in June 2007.



And then she was 4 in June 2008.



And then she was 5 in June 2009.



And my baby turned 6 on June 20, 2010.

summer begins

Summer has begun and with it the eternal question, what to do with the kids? Everett is easy, he goes to school where I work at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Madeleine was harder, so in March I began planning her summer. Every week she has a different activity. This first week she is going to Vacation Bible School at Church of the Incarnation, 5 minutes from my church. Monday she learned about Adam and Eve and how God made everything. She told me in the car that girls have one more rib than boys (this is not true, both girls and boys have the same number 12 pair. I had to google it, because I kept thinking, I do not think that is true and it is not true.) I began to wonder if it was okay to send her to another church for Vacation Bible School…. (just kidding!)

We went to Peggy Sue’s BBQ for lunch because she told me that she wanted to eat ribs for lunch. I suppose all of the talk about ribs made her have a hankering for them? While Madeleine inhaled her kids plate of ribs, she innocently asked me where they came from. “Is this from a person” she asked? It didn’t seem to affect her desire to eat it, and when I told her it was from a cow and in fact hamburgers were from cows as well as milk, she seemed to turn a little green. It seemed to be more appetizing from a human than from a cow…

Then, we went to Festive Kitchen (they were the caterers for our wedding) where we picked up our last month of free cookies (we bought 4 free months of cookies at the Moss Haven Elementary Auction this spring), went home to put those cookies in the freezer, Madeleine watched one TV show while I emailed, then we went to Half Price Books so Madeleine could get her free $3 coupon since she had read 15 minutes a day for 5 days. She picked out a book of mazes and a Hannah Montana calendar (what can I say, they were on clearance..) Then, off to the Barnes and Noble where she picked up a free book for reading 8 books. She read the 8 books all by herself! Then, to yogurtland because it was a yogurt store that we had not tried yet! VERY GOOD by the way. Then, we picked up Everett from school, dropped off the car at the body shop because my car was keyed last week (sad, but thank God we have insurance!), Lee picked us up, we went to get haircuts, then dinner at Fuddrucker's, and on this the first Monday of the summer, I gave the kids a bath, put Everett to bed while Lee put Madeleine to bed, and I just laid down for a minute and woke up 11 hours later!!! I went to bed at 8 pm!!!

This summer thing is going to be harder than I think! Today, after Vacation Bible School, Madeleine and I ate our lunches from home in my office, and she happily colored and played in my office until 3 pm when we picked up Everett and then spent a few hours at the KayCee pool before we picked up Lee at work. Going to the pool makes me so happy!

Madeleine made me laugh so hard on the car ride home that I was crying. She was telling Lee that her Vacation Bible School is called Saddle Wrench Ranch and I kept telling her it was Saddle Ridge Ranch. Her stubbornness was coming out and she carefully explained to us that it was saddle like what a cowboy rides, and then wrench like a tool, and ranch where the cowboys are. She was so insistent and Lee kept agreeing with her, she could not be reasoned with. Wrench like a tool, mommy. Don't you get it? So funny!

Wedding photo

So, I finally got around to scanning one wedding photo! We look like babies (skinny babies)! May 6, 2000 at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Two thoughts about this picture: I love the pink peony and the photographer's wife was crouched behind me with a light pointing at my head so I could look heavenly (I suppose). When I look at this picture I think about Mrs. Hegler crouched behind us. And, I think about how the photographer was 30 minutes late but no one told me so that I would not get upset. Lee knows me so well (I would have gotten upset).