Happy Grandparents Day

To Lolli, Pop, Nonnie, Pop-Pop, and Pap...we wish you a Happy Grandparents Day and we love you!  We wouldn't be who we are today without you.

Momma's Clan

Momma's Helper

Momma's Organizer

And Momma's Man (and what a handsome one!)

Tonight we had family movie night and watched one of my favorites growing up...Free Willy!  Brayden loves dolphins and whales and so they were both entranced during every second of it!  Brayden has a plastic whale that came with his lego set and so he held it during the whole movie and started calling it Willy!  He is even sleeping with it at the moment....

Chuck E. Cheese

Since Jay is leaving tomorrow for India on a mission trip and won't be back for 2 weeks, we decided to get out today and spend quality time together.  We surprised the kids when we got in the car and told them we were taking them to Chuck E. Cheese and they were more than excited!  We haven't been there as a family since Karis' 2nd birthday party and they both had such a great time....as long as Chuck E. Cheese kept his distance!

Me and Brayden playing air hockey against Jay and Karis

The kids riding the cars

Playing the drums

Karis saw the "dressed up " version of Chuck E. Cheese walking around when we first arrived and wasn't too fond of him and then a few minutes later, she saw this one and said, "MOM! They screwed him down again!"  We explained this was just a machine and then she wasn't quite so scared!

Doesn't she look frightened?  She would NOT get any closer than this.

This is Brayden's stance when he is scared.  He must have seen Chuck E. Cheese close by.

Karis driving the zebra jeep....I would like to have that as well!

Get off the road!!!

The kids loved getting tickets and then getting to buy stuff with it.  We of course picked up some "junk" but it was worth it to see them excited.  They were quite worn out at the end of the day and now are napping.  Jay and I are enjoying a quiet afternoon curled up on the couch eating a healthy snack (chips and dip) while we watch a little Ole Miss football.  Pure bliss.

"How to" lesson...whistling

Riddles anyone?

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST FIVE RIDDLES....THE ANSWERS ARE AT THE BOTTOM.

1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over
5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?

3. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away ?

4. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday?

5. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching!









THE ANSWERS TO ALL FIVE THE RIDDLES ARE BELOW:

Answers:

1 The third room. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead.
That one was easy, right?

2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry (shot; held under water; and hung).

3. Charcoal, as it is used in barbecuing.

4. Sure you can name three consecutive days, yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

5. The letter e, which is the most common letter used in the English language, does not appear even once in the paragraph.

You go girl!

Although I am not a politician and have never been...I know enough to have an opinion.  I REALLY like Sarah Palin!  From the first time I saw her, I could tell she was just the "average mom." And because of that, I felt as if I could relate to her, hang out with her, have a cup of coffee, have a playdate type.  Although I understand that will NEVER happen, I feel as if she is just one of us.  I am proud of her for going for it despite any opposition with being the first female GOP VP nominee and the many obstacles she knew she would face.  I thought she did a great job last night with her speech and seemed fearless, yet ladylike, confident and classy.  I find myself defending her when I hear opposition to what she stands for or her character.  She seems frugal, realistic, and she is a go-getter and I believe that she together with McCain can get the job done.  However, can they switch the ticket and let Palin run this thing???  Just a thought.  :)

The history behind the name...Brayden

Karis was almost a year old and we were loving being parents and were already ready for another child.  We had always wanted our children to be pretty close in age.  Being a teacher, we were trying for a summer baby.  And since Karis was a "surprise," we didn't know how long we would have to "try" before we got pregnant.  So, month 4 of trying, we found out we were pregnant (Karis was 13 months old).  On November 1, 2005, we took a test and because we thought we were seeing things...took another one the next morning.  We were delighted we were pregnant with baby #2!  God is so good!

Fast forward to week 20 the ultrasound.  For tradition sake (we did the same thing with Karis), we had the nurse write down the sex of the baby in a sealed envelope.  We took it to Shelby Farms after the appointment and opened it together, alone.  It was so much fun getting to anticipate and then to share that moment together.  So the nurse did as we asked and began checking all the vital organs as they routinely do.  It was so neat to look at that miracle on the screen!  After a very long ultrasound, she put the monitor down and looked at us and said, "The reason I have been looking so long in this area is that your baby has clubbed feet."  At that moment...although I was so glad there wasn't a much bigger problem....I was absolutely devastated.  You never can anticipate what a blow like that feels like...to think your baby is perfect and then to find out there is something "wrong."  I was sobbing uncontrollably (just so shocked I guess) and we both just sat there for the longest time, not knowing what to do or say.  A few minutes later (and after I had TRIED to stop crying), my mom and Jay's mom came in to see part of the ultrasound.  They immediately looked at my puffy and red face and said, "WHAT IS WRONG????"  I told them and they were so supportive, encouraging and uplifting.  It made me feel lots better.  However, I don't know why I was so shocked...Jay and I BOTH had clubbed feet!  And they say it is NOT hereditary...yea right!  But before walking in that day, that thought had NEVER crossed my mind.  Not to mention, it was definitely correctable.  I began to thank God for the precious life that was inside me and thankful that I was even pregnant at all!  We had to see lots of specialists to make sure it wasn't caused by some other complication and we soon found out that it was only clubbed feet; he was healthy.  

When we found out it was a boy, we started researching names and definitely wanted it to have some biblical meaning that related to his feet.  After much research, we were hooked when we saw the name BRAYDEN.  It meant "brave" and the verse that followed was Romans 10:15 which says, "How beautiful are the feet that bring good news!"  We knew instantly that it was of the Lord and then named him after his dad...Brayden James Lemonds.

Just to fill you in...once Brayden was born, only one of his feet ended up being clubbed, and he got a cast up to his thigh when he was only 14 days old.  He got a new cast every 5 days until he was 4 months old.  At 5 weeks he did have surgery to clip the tendon in the back of his foot so that they could start correcting the angle.  Although it was very time consuming to go to the doctor every 5 days and stressful at times (he couldn't have a real bath with these casts on and often pooped down into his cast and I was still working full time), we are thankful that it was so minor.  Today, he walks normally and we hope someday he will run really fast...he is WELL on his way!

The history behind the name....Karis

I have been thinking lately about my children's names and where they have come from and since this is my online journal, I want to document "their story" so that someday they will have a record of it.

Jay and I married in June of 2003 and were living in seminary housing since Jay still had 1 1/2 years of Mid-America left.  We were hoping to have children after about 2 years (after Jay graduated) so I was on the "pill."  I had been on them for about 6 months or so when I had a very rare occurrence happen.  We were on staff at Longview Heights at the time and were teaching seniors in high school and were getting out of the car at church when all of a sudden one of my eyes got extremely fuzzy looking and I could only see out of the other.  It is kinda like when you get up really fast and you kinda black out for a second and then it comes back....except mine didn't come back.  Not after 2 minutes, 2 hours or 2 days.  After lots of phone calls and deliberation about what to do...since it was Labor Day weekend and no one was open, we were getting really worried.  Jay prays about what to do and then within minutes, pulls out the phone book and is just going to start calling eye doctors.  The first number he dials is an eye doctor in Olive Branch and he "just happened" to answer his phone because he was moving into his new office that day.  By the way, it was no coincidence.  It was definitely a God thing.  Jay told him of our situation and he told us to immediately come up there and that he would check it out.  We arrived within minutes and he started looking into my eyes.  After several tests, he basically (long story short) told me that I had had a stroke in my eye due to the pill.  I was to get off of them that day and NEVER take them again.  SO i did.  He gave me some drops, saw me every 2 days for weeks and told me I had a VERY slim chance that I would ever see again in that eye.  After several weeks my sight was not only back, but my vision was BETTER than it was prior to this happening and before the stroke, I had 20/20!  I now could see at 40 feet what others saw at 20!  God totally healed my eye and proved once again that He is the ultimate physician.

All that to say that it wasn't very long (about 5-6 months later)...we had only been married 8 months, that we found out we had a sweet little baby on the way.  We were shocked, yet thrilled about the Lord giving us such a gift and blessing.  Excuse the bluntness here....but I was working at EPMS and was talking to a good friend of mine on my team (Lori) and mentioned to her that I was a day "late."  She immediately said, "have you taken a PG test?"  I said, "NO!  I am only a day late!"  She got all excited and said, "Let's go get one and you take it!"  So we left school (during our planning period...shame on us) and went to Walgreens.  I took the test in the school bathroom (yikes!) and put it in my pocket and went back to my classroom.  When we got there, I handed it to her to look at because I couldn't do it!  She immediately started screaming and yelling, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!"  I started crying...excitedly in shock...and didn't have a clue to what to think or say.  I knew I had to leave and tell Jay (he had no idea what was coming!).  I left half-a-day and told Jay to come by the house on his way to work.  When he walked in, I had the test in hand and balloons.  He was of course just as shocked and excited as I!  

Over time, after we found out it was a girl, we began looking at names and trying to pick one out (such a tough job)!  We wanted something with a biblical meaning and Jay happened to be in Greek class in seminary at the time.  We really liked the name Grace but so many people were named that so we wanted to stay away from it.  Also, we felt that it was only God's grace and kindness that allowed me to regain sight and soon after, be pregnant with this child.  So we looked up biblical names similar to Grace.  The Greek name for Grace is "CHARIS."  We loved it immediately but wanted to change the spelling.  So we changed it to Karis and gave her the middle name Taylor (no significance we just liked it).  Hence the name Karis Taylor Lemonds.  

Karis, we are so thankful that God has given you to us and will cherish every moment He allows us to spend with you.  We consider it a privilege to be able to be your parents and guide you in the Lord.

Back in the groove

Today was my 1st day back at work in 3 months.  Part of the joy of being a teacher is having the time off in the summer and once I took this TST position last year, it meant I have an extra month off.  I have enjoyed so much getting to spend day in and day out with the kids this summer.  We have been able to spend so much time together and we have many memories and traditions that hopefully we won't ever forget!  

Work....is what it is....work.  I do love my job, however I love my job as a stay at home mom much more.  My family is way more important to me than my 9-3.  I do only work 3 days a week and that is refreshing rather than working full time so I am very thankful for that.  You know how it is to start a job after a long break...hard to get started and get motivated.  I am looking forward to being back in a routine and back on a schedule (my type A personality is coming out).  All in all, I am thankful for part-time...it is a means to an end...getting more time with my kiddos because I won't ever have this time back.  And for that reason alone...it is all worth it.

My little gymnast

Just for a quick update...Karis went to her 2nd gymnastics class today and it was like night and day from last week.  She was hesitant for about one second and when I encouraged her to go and do her best and told her that I would be waiting and watching, she ran off and started stretching with her class.  She was first in many of the activities/events that they did today and with the biggest grin on her face.  She did approach me a few times but only to give me a high five! I was so proud of her!