Welcome Autumn

Happy first day of fall to all of you.  Autumn is so lovely here in New England.  Our neighbor's maple tree turns its lovely red and yellow very early each year.  These leaves are actually some of the last to turn and fall off.  The girls have enjoyed finding all the pretty ones.

I don't think I have a favorite season.  I love each one for different reasons.  God has given us such a blessing with these changes. 

We had a lovely and relaxing weekend.  On Saturday Ainsley had soccer first thing then we went to a local park where they were having their annual "Country Fair." 

Ainsley got her face painted.  She wanted her whole face made into a heart.

And they got to ride ponies!  See how excited she is.

Lorelei was a little nervous, but she absolutely loves ponies right now, so she got over it.

We got to take a hayride...

...pulled by these gorgeous horses.

And Ainsley walked across the rope bridge put up by the Boy Scouts.

There has been much going on here keeping us busy.  This week looks to be a little more quiet. 

Enjoy the first days of autumn, everyone.

My little one will be two in just over two weeks.  She is a little chatterbox.  She talks non-stop.  It's amazing how many words she knows, and she speaks in complete sentences nearly all of the time.  She knows her shapes, can count almost to 20 (needs a little help with the teens) and even knows a few letters.

She sleeps like this every night, with both of her feet stuck outside the bars of her crib.

She's my brown-eyed babe.  She looks a lot like her daddy.
She only sucks her thumb when she has her blankie.

She's determined.  Once she figures out how to do something by herself and not be scared, she does it over and over and over again. (I lost count at how many times she went down this slide by herself yesterday.)

And she goes potty in the big girl potty!!!!

Yup, she does.  I'm trying not to get too excited about it, but ok I'm really excited about it.  Her sister was... well, let's just say potty training her was a challenge that included many tears and phone calls to my mom because I was sure she would be wearing diapers to college.  Since we began potty training Lorelei after Ainsley started school, she has had very few accidents, and in the last few days, none at all!  I'm trying to contain my excitement and not give away the diapers just yet (she still needs them at night anyway) but I am thrilled beyond belief at how well she's doing.

Thanks for letting me brag on my baby for a little bit.  I knew you all would understand.

Those who know I used to work in television news often ask if I was working on this day seven years ago and what it was like to be in a newsroom on that day.  So, I decided to go ahead and share here what I remember.

Was I working... well, no, I wasn't scheduled.  On September 11, 2001 I had been working at WYFF-TV for exactly 1 year and 9 months.  I had been moving my way up the producer ladder, but I was still on some strange schedules.  At that time, I was working Thursday-Monday second shift.  Josh was on second shift also.  So, the night before I had been up late working.  When the first tower was hit Josh and I were still sleeping.  At some point during the 9:00 hour, my father in law called, asking if we had heard from Jay, Josh's brother.  Jay was working for the Department of Defense in D.C. at that time and with all the chaos of the moment, he just wanted to make sure Jay was ok.  We hadn't yet heard from Jay, but we did turn on the TV and begin watching the unbelievable. 

I watched for a few minutes and then looked at Josh, he knew exactly what I was going to do.  I was going to work.  I threw on some clothes and got there as fast as I could.  The newsroom, even in Greenville, South Carolina, was mass chaos.  Everyone was shouting, every TV was turned on to a different news organization.  I went straight to my news director and told him I was there to do whatever needed to be done.  I did all sorts of assorted jobs that day.   Not much of it was part of my normal workload.  I went out with a photographer and interviewed people on the street, I made many a phone call to book interviews with various pundits, psychologists, professors, etc., I wrote scripts, even ran the teleprompter and helped in the studio.  But all in all, I did little, the story was not in Greenville, South Carolina it was in New York, it was in DC and we as local affiliates just watched and waited.  If you remember, the affiliates did little in the several days after the attack.  The networks ran 24/7 with short cut-ins for the affiliates.  It was the one of the biggest days in news and one of the smallest as well.  There was just one story.  But it was very hard to tell.

What ran through my mind most that day was something Bob Jones III would say in chapel during my days as a student at Bob Jones University.  He would say "The most sobering reality in the world today..." and the students would say "is that people are dying and going to hell today."  3,000 people died that day.  Many of them, I'm sure, ended up spending their eternity in hell.  A sobering reality that certainly is.  It seemed for a short time after 9/11 that America may be having a revival, people's thoughts were turning to God.  But that proved short-lived.  What will take for God to get our attention?  What will it take for us as Christians to be bold and share the good news of the gospel?

The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today.

May those who lost loved ones on this day seven years go feel God's peace and comfort today.

Ainsley had her first soccer practice on Saturday.  She loved it, even though it was insanely humid and she was hot, sweaty and tired by the end. 

She and her friend Emily ended up on the same team.  There were about 50 4-5 year olds there.  They were just broken into teams to scrimmage and learn basics, I don't believe there will be any real games.  I'll let you know.

It was great watching her concentrate so hard.  She is really starting to grow up.  She was listening to what the coach said and trying very hard to do it just right.  Just a few months ago, she would have been off doing her own thing.

Doesn't she look like a natural?  Uncle Jim what do you think of her form?

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In other news, we'd appreciate prayers as we make a decision about Josh's job.  He may transfer to another (read, farther away) location, but his job would be more secure there.  He is most likely going to be laid off sometime after the first of the year if he stays where he is.  The problem is, he'd have to travel farther (he'd need a different car), he would be on second shift and his job would be boring... but he'd make more money and his job would be secure... with the possibility of changing shifts in the next few months and even returning to his current work location hopefully in a few years...  So, we have a lot to think and pray about. 

• Everyone fed three meals
• Ainsley brought to and from school
• EIGHT loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away
• Entire house swept or vacuumed
• Downstairs mopped
• Read lots of books to Lorelei while she sat on the potty.  (She went, once.)
• Talked to my mom on the phone.
• Had the girls clean up the play area
• Watched the girls swim in the pool in the backyard.
• Froze all the blueberries we picked yesterday.
• Talked to a friend who put her baby on a bus to school for the first time today.
• Got a new stroller in the mail... it was REALLY cheap... and it's REALLY nice.
• Cleaned up kitchen, several times.
• Gave the girls a bath.
• Trimmed and painted pink 20 little fingers and 20 little toes. 
• Sold couch and chair that did not sell in our tag sale on Saturday.  (Tag sale went well, we made nearly $300!!!)
• Chatted with my husband.
• Watched Republican National Convention and got a little aggravated... at Katie Couric.
• Talked to a friend on the phone who needed some parenting advice.
• Blogged.
• And much more I'm sure I'm forgetting...

For tomorrow:

• Grocery shopping!!!  My freezer has only chicken nuggets and frozen corn in it.
• Work more on potty training
• Dust the whole house and get the upstairs mopped
• Play with my girls
• Take a walk with that new stroller
• Go to the bank
• Go to church.

How was your day?  What's on the agenda for tomorrow?

Our Sunday was wonderful.  We had a great day at church, fellowshipping and learning more about our Savior.  We've been studying through the book Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament in our adult Sunday School class.  I highly recommend it.  I often find some of the Old Testament hard to wade through.  But this book points everything back to Christ; how to find the symbols and types that point to our Savior.  It has been quite eye-opening.

Today we were looking specifically at the Tabernacle.  We talked about how the sacrifices were made, the sprinkling of blood to quench God's wrath over our sin.  We also talked about the High Priest going in to the Holy of Holies once a year to mediate with God on Israel's behalf.  I am so thankful that we no longer need a mediator.  What a privilege we have that we can go directly before the throne of God, casting our burdens upon Him.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.  I Timothy 2:5,6

Tonight we sang the song "Arise, My Soul, Arise" by Charles Wesley.  The words fit so well with what we had been talking about that morning.  I love those great hymns of the faith.

"Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;

The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,

His blood atoned for all our race,

And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,

With confidence I now draw nigh,

And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

"I have a record,” said a Wesleyan mis­sion­ary la­bor­ing in the West
Indies, “of two hun­dred persons, young and old, who re­ceived the most
di­rect ev­i­dence of the forgive­ness of their sins while sing­ing
‘Arise, my soul.’ The con­ver­sion of the great­er num­ber of these
per­sons took place while I was a mis­sion­ary abroad.” (from My Life and the Story of Gospel Hymns by Ira Sankey)

Tonight the kids sang some songs about missions that they had learned in the summer Wednesday night program.  It was so cute.  Ainsley is such a little ham.  I love seeing her up there singing her heart out for the Lord. 

We also had a meeting today with all the parents of kids who are 3 years old to 6th grade.  Josh and I are taking over the school-year Wednesday night program we have at church.  We are looking forward to what God has in store for the kids and for us through that.

Ainsley has been begging to go fishing.  We have a little pond down the street at the park that is stocked with little fish just so kids can have their first fishing lessons, but there just hasn't been time... until this past Saturday.

Josh got her little fishing pole all set up, only to have it break on the first cast.  So, then she had to try to use daddy's pole, which worked... with help from daddy.

Josh was sure she was going to hate it and be bored to death, but she loved it.

It helped that they caught FOUR fish.

Also on Saturday we bought four new doors to replace all the sliding glass doors on our porch.  The fifth door will be replaced with a gas fireplace insert and some shelving.  I can't wait to get them all in.  It is going to look so much nicer out there.  It's going to be a lot of work, though.  We have to fill in some cement under the doors and it's not easy to do.  Why can't any house project turn out easier than first envisioned????

After Josh got home today we took to the sidewalks to create some artwork.

Notice the choo-choo in her hand.  It's her new best friend.  She even wanted to sleep with it tonight.

Most of the artwork was Josh's.  I can't draw... at all.

Lorelei stole all the chalk and took it to the front stoop.  Doesn't she look grown up????  She'll be two in just over a month!  Where has the time gone...