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Mom's Month

You know, sometimes something really important slips through the cracks. The month of March was a big deal for someone very special to me and my wife and kids... Meme!


first place winners
In late March, Meme (my mom) got a phone call from someone at the Tulsa Libraries. She had entered an essay in their 2008 Adult Creative Writing Contest, and she won first place! The picture above is all the winners, taken after the awards ceremony on April 6... click through to Flickr if you want to see their names.

Anyway, her essay was about her work as a Tulsa Police Department chaplain. Another thing that was due in part to her work with the Tulsa Police happened on March 11... in a small informal ceremony with Pastor Bob, Geoff Jackson and about a dozen friends and family members, my mom was ordained as a minister by Grace Church. We were all so proud! (I didn't take any still pictures... I shot video of the ceremony but don't have an easy way to upload it.)

Congratulations, Meme, and congratulations again! Now that it's April, how are you going to top March?

Dedicated

Today we brought Hannah up to the front of our church and got our pastor to pray over her. We don't believe in infant baptism or christening or whatever, but we do bring our babies up to kind of introduce them to the church and then Pastor Bob and Ms. Loretta lay hands on them and pray for them and for their families, that the children will lead safe lives and be raised according to the Word of God, and that when the time comes, that they will come to know Jesus as their Savior. This morning when we were getting ready for church I played the cassette tape of Mikey's dedication (eight years ago, Mother's Day!) for Mikey, and then we went off to choir sound check.

Cathy and I sang in the first service as usual, and then after Sunday School my mom went and got Hannah dressed in the pretty dress you can see in the pictures.

Five babies... a bumper crop!

Cathy sat out the choir part of second service, and I was going to sit out as well but it turned out Cathy had saved one too few seats! So I ran up to the backstage door and got there just in time. Mikey was in the service with us, and so were my mom and dad. They have baby dedications immediately after the music, so I high-tailed it off the stage and walked up with Cathy (they apparently don't allow big brothers up on the stage... just the mommies and daddies and babies! ) and Pastor Bob prayed with us. Honestly, she and I were both praying along so hard that we don't remember a word he said, except that Cathy remembers him using the word "demand" because it startled her! I hope they give us a tape or CD like they did with Mikey!

Hannah catching a snooze


Mikey catching a cookie

Anyway, after that we went to Target... Cathy had made an appointment with the Target portrait studio to take pictures of Hannah and Mikey together. We were a little early, so we went down to the snack bar to get some lunch... Hannah promptly fell asleep, as you can see. When it was our turn we woke her up and went down to the studio and got some really cute pictures done; maybe once our prints come I'll be able to post a few. Afterward we stopped my Meme's house to tell her thanks for her help, then we came home and had some dinner. We had some time before bedtime so I recommended that we watch something we had recorded on the DVR. This weekend we already watched The Game Plan and Kronk's New Groove which both have pretty strong fathers-and-children themes, so I recommended that we watch a good mommies-and-babies movie... Dumbo. Actually this time through I was a little startled by the racial stereotypes in the movie... afterward we discussed that with Mikey a bit. Plus, how do you explain bottle of stuff that got into Dumbo's water and made him see those pink elephants?? But besides those things (neither of which bothered Mikey anyway because he didn't even know what was going on!) we all enjoyed the movie a lot.

Boy, though, we have GOT to quit having such big weekends. It takes me all week to rest up from them!



Yes, I agree... she IS the cutest baby in the universe!

Happy Birthday, Cathy!

My Two Birthday Kids! (Taken Easter 2008)
Mikey was born on the fifth of April. Cathy was born on the 11th. Of course, she was born a year or three before, but every year their birthdays are right together. Today is Cathy's... Happy Birthday, Qwie! She's 21 years old today!!!!!

Mikey's Wolf Rank

Mikey received his Wolf rank in Cub Scouts last night, along with his soccer belt loop. Congratulations, Mikey!

That Mikey sure knows how to party!

Whew! What a Saturday!











Mikey's 8th birthday was really fun! After we all got up and got dressed, we went to Reasor's and picked up Mikey's cake (which had soccer players on it) and then we went to Cici's to get the party ready. Mama had called ahead so they knew we were coming, and when we got there the manager was already setting up tables for us. Daddy had to go home to pick up some matches to light his shirt sleeve... I mean, to light the candles, and when he got back Meme and Papaw Jones were there eating. A bunch of Mikey's friends from school came to the party... even his teacher Ms. Fadare showed up! Also, Jacob and Jonathan, two sons of a childhood friend of Cathy's who are friends of Mikey's, came with their dad Chris. Everybody kind of arrived and left at different times, but most everybody ate some pizza and cake and had a great time. You can get to pictures of the event by clicking on the thumbnails on the right, or you can click here to go directly to the whole set.

Mikey's soccer team had a game afterward, and several of Mikey's school friends (and Ms. Fadare!) came to the game as well. As it turns out, the team played a great game! They've had a problem with not playing very aggressive soccer, but for some reason this time they were going after the ball a lot more and giving the other team a run for their money. In fact, they scored their first goal of the season! Ms. Fadare was about to jump out of her skin, she was so excited... they've been praying in school for Mikey's soccer team to play their best for Mikey's birthday, and they did a great job. They gave the parents on the sidelines something to cheer for!

After the game we went home and got freshened up, and we drove down to the Red Robin just across the river from Jenks to get some dinner. (The food was great, but we never got to see Red himself... what's up with that?) Mikey got a free sundae for his birthday, and his newly-8-year-old mind mused over the idea of eating a "sundae" on "Saturday." I suggested that next Saturday we should do so at TGI Friday's and maybe the space-time continuum would be rent in two. Or something like that.

Hannah, as always, found something to amuse herself: she spent the whole time staring at a ceiling fan.

Anyway, we finished eating and I dropped Mikey and Cathy off at Mabee Center for the Blue Man Group concert. Cathy will not drive after dark ("I can't see in the dark!!" "Sweetie, that's because it's dark. Nobody can see the dark... that's why we use headlights." ) so I went over to her dad's house and we watched The Game Plan, which had been recommended to me by my mom and dad and which turned out to be a very cute movie which for some reason was punctuated at random intervals by a crying sound. Oh, wait... that was Hannah wanting a bottle, wanting a fresh diapie, wanting to be the center of attention, etc. etc. etc. Ah, a father's life is never done. We enjoyed the movie anyway, and apparently Mikey and Cathy had a terrific time at the BMG show! Mikey tells me he's going to write a blog post about the show so the whole world will know what goes on at Blue Man Group concerts... so stay tuned for that soon!

Mikey had so much fun on his birthday! It was a packed-full day, but it was worth it. It was a blast!

Happy Birthday, Mikey!

Mikey's last day as a 7-year-old
Today is Mikey's eighth birthday! I took these pictures last night right before bed to preserve what he looked like when he was seven. Actually since he got his new Nintendo DS headset, he usually looks more like this:

So we're having a mini-party at Cici's at noon, then everyone from the party is invited to go see Mikey's soccer game. Tonight Mikey and Cathy are going to go see Blue Man Group! It should be a GREAT birthday!