Do Lord, Oh Do Lord

Just some randon thoughts and stories:

Being on a budget is good practice at discipline for our whole family! Today we bought groceries at Wal-mart and when we got home and were unloading them, Avery yelped, "Mom, we got to get grapes? You mean, they weren't too expensive??" Even she has figured out that we don't get to put everything that we want into our basket anymore! She was also annoyed when one of our coupons wouldn't scan and we had to wait on the manager to come and make it work - after all, it was for $1 off of toilet bowl cleaner! Hey - a dollar is a coke at Sonic, so I was willing to wait!

The other day I heard Avery in her room singing, "Do Lord, Oh Do Lord, oh do ya remember me...look away, behind, the Clue." I thought it was pretty hilarious. She's been watching too much Blue's Clues, I guess.

And...I told my mother-in-law last night that I am TIRED of being bossed around. Avery and I do a lot of playing with babies, Little People, kitchen, Groovy Girls, etc... It's pretty funny to see how she runs the show - she will tell you exactly what to do, and how to...or how NOT to do whatever it is she wants you to do...or not to do. Jill told me we should set the timer and take turns being the boss. Think I'll try that.....not sure how it will go over...but I'll try.....

Update: We tried the timer thing, and it worked! But as soon as the timer beeped, she said "Yeah, now it's MY turn to be the boss again!" And boss she did, but it was in a sweet way. Avery is such a fun girl - I am so glad I have her to play with!

Happy Valentines Day!

Lubbock Christian University

We had a great weekend at LCU's 50th year Celebration and our 11 year college reunion. Although there weren't as many friends of ours there as we had hoped for, we did get to see many of them and catch up with old acquaintances. It's neat to hear what everyone is doing now, and to see people all grown up and "middle aged with 3 kids". It's amazing how things have changed and improved at LCU in the 11 years since we've been there. Dr. Ken Jones has done an fabulous job of improving the image of LCU, which we always thought was one of it's weak points. The campus is really pretty with nice landscaping and the fairly new Bronze Chaparral statue, which we think is really cool, and some other people in our family think is hideous! There is a new building on campus between the CDC and the Education Building, and the Moody has been recently renovated. It's a pretty campus to walk around now!

We are very thankful for LCU and what we learned there. We learned academics, which prepared us for our careers, but it was also a great place to learn how to be an adult after leaving home. I still have so much love and admiration for many of my professors, many of who we still are in contact with. One professor and her husband faithfully supported us financially each month when we went to Africa. I am very thankful to my parents who paid for my education - only in recent years have I realized what a HUGE blessing that was to me. Thank you Mom & Dad for your sacrifices to send me to LCU. We hope that one day, we will be able to give gifts to the University to help keep it going. We hear that my grandparents, James & Taleta Mabry were at one of the first meetings to discuss the possibility of a Christian Univeristy in a cotton field in Lubbock. We are so glad for what God did with that dream - if not for it, things would have turned out very differently. (I don't think Gabe or I would exists, as both sets of our parents met there!) Go Chaps!

Life with Spike

Well, I can honestly say I never thought we'd be the proud owners of a Chia Pet, but thanks to Vernon's sweet mother Millie, "Spike" was delivered from Alabama to Avery via Alvin & Jill last week. The directions said to soak his head in water for a while, then just fill the glass body with water and use the container he came in as a greenhouse over him until sprouting occured! Well, when I lifted the greenhouse a few days ago, I discovered that Spike IS growing hair - the only problem is that it's all on one side! Maybe this is the Cindy Lauper version, or maybe in the coming days his hair will even out. It is growing on his right side, and my hair stylist says that our hair naturally grows faster on the right, so maybe this is true of Chia pets as well! The idea is that you are supposed to be able to cut his hair when it gets long enough, and watch it grow again! We'll keep you posted, I know you will all be waiting to hear......

Today was Jammies Day at Sonshine School, and Avery was very excited about it. Whoever coined the phrase "Terrible Twos" must have had a child that was behaviorally advanced, because all the moms I talk to agree that it's more like the "Terrible Threes". I haven't had to clean my floors thanks to Avery being a human mop as she collapses to the floor with whining and crying each time she hears the word "no", or doesn't get her way. Oh brother.....hope this phase passes quickly!! This is the first time in 3+ years that I've run to the bookshelf looking for the James Dobson books! Any advice out there?

Happy Birthday Gabe!!

Today I want to say Happy Birthday to my dear husband of 11 years, on his 33rd birthday. Only in West Texas would you get a cake with cotton burrs on it! When I asked the cake lady what they usually do for a masculine cake, she said either pine cones or cotton burrs - so I thought the cotton would be something different and it does fit Gabe quite well. I doubt if he's ever had such a cake in his honor before. We eat supper together at church on Wednesday nights before class, so tonight we'll have this cake and ice cream and help Gabe celebrate. After all, you know how he loves the spotlight to be on him!

Here are some things I love about Gabe:

• he can fix anything!
• he plays with Avery on the floor of her room each night when he gets home from work, sometimes before he even gets to eats supper
• he always opens doors for me
• he can prepare a class or lesson in an hour or less!
• he has 2 great hobbies - both of which he is an expert in - toy tractors and 4-wheel drive vehicles
• he is a great writer
• he happily eats leftovers
• he often picks out a surprise for me on Mother's Day, my birthday and other special days
• he doesn't take business calls on the weekends (well, maybe just a few really important ones)
• he is a great leader for our family
• he's not a complainer
• he always orders the unexpected thing at a restaurant
• he is well respected by everyone who knows him
• many more things, but I can't write them all down! (as I think of them, I'll add more, so you might want to check back!)

I think I "married up" and I'm so blessed to have a great hubby! I hope he has a great birthday today! Jill

Catching up

If one were to go back and read my blog as the journal I have intended it to be, one would gather that Jill doesn't do much Jaunting. My life really isn't as dull as it has appeared, but I have sat down to the computer almost every day since I started this blog and just haven't quite figured out what to write about! Thanks to the proding of my sister-in-law Lynsey, I have been told that "it's time to update, my dear!" After all, I do have a hilarious 3 year old daughter who is constantly providing me with a good story. Like the other day when she was riding along in Dallas with Aunt Sessie and Aunt Julie and she pointed out a GPS on a tower they were passing! I mean, she said, "There's a GPS!". And today when she told Gabe that the birthday gifts we got for his 33rd b-day tomorrow were NOT something to drink, and that the cake we got him does NOT have cotton on it. (I hope he doesn't read this before tomorrow because we got him a case of IBC rootbeer in the bottles and his cake actually does have icing cotton burrs on it - lovingly created by Mrs. Camp's bakery!) We (I) got him a few more things that little eyes haven't seen so at least he'll have a surprise or two.

Last week Avery and I made a very fun trip to Allen to surprise my parents with an Alaskan Cruise to be taken in June. This summer is their 40th wedding anniversary, and they are both turning 60, so it's a big year for them. We 3 kids and our families thought that now would be a great time to help them celebrate and to thank them for raising us so well. We don't want to wait TOO long, since as mom said, on their 50th anniversary they'll be turning 70 and "will have one foot in the grave already!" I don't know if they were more surprised about the cruise, or about us coming! They thought they were meeting Mike & Julie at a restaurant for supper, but when they got there, Les and her boys, Avery and I, AND Mike and Julie were all there. We immediately had to tell them that no one was pregnant, since we figured that would be their first thought (and it was). Then we read them a funny poem we had written which revealed all the essential information about the Cruise and then they opened their present which was the Cruise Line book. It was thrilling for us all! They were gracious enough to let us go ahead and crash at their house, and we had a great week there and in Sulphur Springs with Caleb & Carter, Les, Iz, and Snoopy, of course!


We have started the dreaded Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Course, but it is actually very inspiring to do it with a group of friends and to know that you are not having to be disciplined alone! He has really common-sense stuff to say, but it really helps to hear it and be committed to living within our means, not above them. Mom and I were talking about how difficult it is for our generation - to be in a time when you can basically have most anything you want, when you want it.....on credit. It's almost difficult to go back to the mindset of not getting something until you can afford it. Anyone else struggle with this about our culture? It's just a belief system that I think maybe we have bought into that there is no reason to wait for anything. It is hard to practice that discipline in this day and age, but we are going back to the basics! We are ON A BUDGET!!!! So....if you want to go out to lunch with me, we can either go get a 99 cent burrito with water, or you can put lunch on your credit card! We should be in good shape in about a year, and then I'll take you out to lunch.....promise!

Well, I hope I've made up for lost time with my lengthy update!

Learning Curve

I'm just testing this out - blog world is new to me - but I'm trying to be cool like the younger generation. Is it working? Really, I think blogging is something I should do because it's almost like a diary, and I'm so NOT good at writing things down, but I'm wondering if I blog fairly often, if that could be like a memoir (I love that word!) for Avery and our family to have of cute things she does, says, and the stages she goes through. And then if any of you out there care to read it, it's yours for the entertainment! I have enjoyed reading so many of your blogs because bloggerworld gives a place for people to write down thoughts and ideas that they wouldn't normally share in everyday conversation. It's also a great way to stay up on what is going on in people's lives.

It's amazing how old Gabe and I feel - mostly when it comes to all this computer stuff that the kids and "20- somethings" are into. We were at an event full of college students recently, and realized how far removed we are when they listed about 5 ways to communicate over the internet - most of which we hadn't even heard of. We HAVE heard of MySpace, and Blogging, but there were all these other things like something that had the word "face" in it. If anyone knows what this is, you can help me out. Anyway, I don't want to be like the grandma who can't adapt to new changes in the world - I always want to be learning and using the new good stuff out there. So, please excuse me on my learning curve as I figure out how to be a blogger! Maybe I can even get Gabe to write some things, or set up his own blog.