From the Mouth of a 9 Year Old!

Actually she was eight when she wrote this:
Today when I was cleaning out her room, I found 2 pieces of paper from her leftover school work. I thought I had put these in my keep folder, but somehow they escaped. Here is a recap of what I found:

"If I were president"...If I were president I would make sure that no one ever killed animals. I would not allow ars or fighting. I would make a law that every friday, we all got to eat cupcakes! I would make music for all the people.
Annah Grace

"Unicorn"...If I had a flying unicorn, would ride him to school and back. I would let all my friend pet him. I would also wish a chicken sandwhich for free!
(Insert beautiful picture of AG on the flying unicorn)

I have to say that laughter is pouring out of her this summer. She is truley a giggle box! She takes every opportunity to make you laugh or to laugh really hard at something you did or said ( making me feel like I am actually funny when I am really not!) Funny faces are the best laughter inducer, and we are very good at them ( Brian included!) I pray she keeps this laughter or ability to laugh forever. I have a sweet friend who knows how to laugh and make others around her laugh ( though she has a sweet thoughtful serious side to her too) and it is always fun to be around her. I think laughter is so attractive. Laughing at yourself is something I have had to learn later in life, but I think I would have been so much better off if I had learned it sooner. ( my mom actually said on many occassions, " you WILL learn to laugh at yourself if it hairlips you!) I am afraid I have actually repeated that line ( the hairlip part) once to my own children in a fury, but vowed never to do it again! Ag has even taught Austin to laugh a little at himself. He used to cross his arms and go off in a corner somewhere when he messed up or did something embarrassing...but he hasn't done that in a while. Not since this incredible laughter has overtaken our house.

Craziness!

Our house is a complete wreck! If I was able to upload pics fromt his offsite computer, I would show it to you - you would not believe that we are living here. Brian keeps trying to talk me into going to a hotel, but it would be so much harder, I think. This next week we have to move everything out of our house ( we will move it to the playroom and third floor which the builder is desperately trying to get finished in time) and in the garage. All of the hardwood floors are being refinished. ( The playroom has carpet and the third floor has the checkered floor like our backhouse, so that is why we can use them for storage!) Brian went out of town this past week - he always seems to pick the best times to leave - although the trip was planned by his home office a year ago...still, I think he has some pull somewhere! We ( I, really) completely moved AG out of her room so we could rip out her window seat, repair, paint, etc. She needed more space in her room so we are setting her bed in between the builtins. The window seat never really got used as a window seat, just as a junk pile.
Today I did 17 loads of laundry - carrying it all from upstairs down and across the war torn backyard of trenches to the garage and back....full day in and of itself!
I also made it to home depot tonight at 9pm for my 3rd round of paint selections for the outside trim and came home and painted it in the dark ( for 2 reasons: its too hot in the day and my hope is that the paint would dry and I would be pleasantly surpised in the morning with one of them...eternal optimist!) My neighbors are starting to think I have no plan at all!
So, at 10:30, the kids and I went to pick up a prescription at Walgreens cuz U think I am coming down with a sinus infection. ( Here comes the long drawn out story....) I have to admit, I was not feeling well at this point. So I pulled up to the drivethru knowing the script was called in at 8pm and 2 and a half hours should be enough time. I waited and waited until finally a voice came thru the speaker ( no face, just a voice) to tell me that there was no record of anything. After checking 3 times at my request he finally said well, there is something for Jana Lee? Ding Ding Ding, YES that is probably the one. But no, it hasn't been filled since there was no Jana Lee in the system. He said my doc spelled my name wrong. I told him that was highly unlikely since my doc is my uncle and that I would just wait in the pick up line for my meds. Still with voice only, no face...he asked me to leave the line, wait my 30 minutes and yes, my doc called it in wrong!
So, with a very bad attitude, I pulled up to the front of the store and went in, grabbed a new curling iron and some mascara, and sat and waited in front of him. I was thinking of all the witty things I might say back to him like " I guess you missed the week in pharmacy school where they teach you to be gracious to patients that probably don't feel good!" or "remember, the customer is always right - even int he middle of the night!" or a desperate effort of name dropping like " my pharmacist friend, Krista Sanders ( who also works at walgreens) would never treat anyone like that, I am sure of it!" (Krista, you will be happy to know that I decided to leave you out of it!)
But as I sat, I lost my vigor. Partly because I was feeling terrible, partly because Austin reminded me that God wants us to still love people even when they are not nice to us ( as he lovingly rubbed my arm telling me repeatedly that he was sorry I felt bad), partly because at this point, I had seen his face not just his voice, and partly because I know those pharmacists work long hard hours with all kinds of people in their face all day.
So, when he called "lee" I went up to the desk and said, "I am sorry, everything just seems bigger when you don't feel good." He said no problem and I could tell he was relieved that I did not make a scene at the front counter at the end of his shift therefore officially leaving him with a bad day at work. Sleep well Mr. Voice.
Thank you Holy Spirit that you override me in so many situations! I would make a mess of myself ( and often times do) if it were not for you.
Here is part B of the story (as if that drama was not enough!):
Its 11:30 at this point, and I still have my kids at Walgreens for pete's sake! I got all my chickens in the car and hopped in the front seat - the parking lot was well lit and rather busy to be so late at night. All of a sudden I look up and a lady was banging on my window. She was yelling at me to roll down the window that they needed help. My first instinct was to do just that - I always want to be remembered as someone who helps people! But I thought again and realized that Walgreens was open, there was a police man on the other side of the parking lot and other cars available with men instead if a mom with 2 children who might have been a more appropriate target to ask. I shook my head at her and left my window up and promptly started to back out. She moved on quickly. Who knows what her intentions were, but I saw her husband in a truck sitting in the corner of the parking lot with the back of the car loaded.
It majorly impacted annah grace. The whole way home we talked about it. Why did we not help her? Doesn't God say we should help the poor? The whole topic of discernment has come up a lot lately so i have been trying to take th opportunity to prep ag for all the times she might need such a word and why she should call on her heavenly father for lots of it! So, case in point. I told her that I used discernment...and if the lady really needed help, she could have gone in the store, talked to the police, etc. I told her the lady did not use discerment when she chose to approach the one person in the parking lot who had kids with her late at night. Life is full of lessons, we just got a lot of them today!

Craziness!

Summer Update

The summer has gone by so quickly with the remodel and all the activities! Here is a quick update of the Lee Household:

We got out of school really late...2nd week in June! We felt like summer was here and had a hard time getting ou the door for school in weather that we felt like we should be packing for the pool!

Kids Kamp at our church, Christ Chapel, came quickly after St. Paul dismissed...what fun! Our church does such a fantastic job of making Christian activities fun...like crazy fun...baounce houses, wet sponges, etc. The Lee kids took full advantage and we got the summer started off right.

Since Brian is still leading worship for the middle school and gets up and out by 8am Sunday mornings, I volunteered to help teach Annah Grace's class of 3rd grade girls. So that is another fun summer adventure. We are studying Missions and whats cool is that they have a different missionary come in every week to talk to the kids about their adventures. We have learned some really neat stuff. There are a couple of girls in the class who have been adopted from other countries so it has been neat to hear their stories and for them to have a realization of Gods protection over their little lives when they see the devistation in the home countries. Austin is in a great class Sunday Mornings too - his teachers are wonderful and he has such fun that he ahrdly wants to leave when it is time. That is exactly what I prayed for since our family goes to our worship service at 5pm together. I didn't want the kids to be bored or have to repeat the same lessons twice ( though they could probably gain from the repetition!) So each Sunday morning as hard as it is to get up and going...we are blessed significantly by what God has for me and my children.

Music Camp - next on the agenda....this is our first year and I wasn't sure if my kids would take to the structure although they do love music. After the first day they got into the swing of it and had a great time. The learned the musical "Pirates of the I don't Care-ibbean" We went to see the show on friday night and they did such a great job. Annah Grace has decided that she wants to try out for a big part next year. One funny story...Austin was front row the whole time and about a third of the way through the show he started to grab his pants --it looked like he had an itch of some sort. So Brian and I got tickled...laughing hysterically in our seats, yet hoping that he would soon get it taked care of and stop! However, it kept on....and on ......and on.....until he actually pulled up his shirt stuck his hands down his pants! Brian and I were literally crying int he audience. At the height of his tugging, the stage lights dimmed and moved to a spotlight on the actors who happened to be standing right in front of Austin. So, yes, it was all spotlighted!
After is was over, we complimented him on a job well done and later I asked about what was going on up there witht he ants in his pants. He said " well, the lady in charge said no going to the bathroom once you are up on stage and I had to go...so finally I just went in my pants" Poor guy! I felt so sorry for him! The bright said is that he did obey, the down side is that in an effort to stay on stage he created his own scene!

Another blessing this summer has been that we get to keep my new nephew Will while my sister stars back to work a few days a week. He is so sweet and loveable...it definitely makes me slow down a little to have him in tow. The kids have loved it and wish that Will and Grae were their real brothers - not just cousins. They help a ton, so my job is really easy. They might not be inclined to be so helpful is they were their real brothers, though, don't you think?

Austin has had an amazing time with a couple of friends from his class this summer - Christian and Nathan. These boys were friends before Austin was in their class and have been so gracious ( along with their mom's) to include Austin in thier summer activities. He has spent the night, gone swimming, hung out at their houses, gone to the water park, etc etc! I am looking forward to him spending time with these guys next year - he has a great class.

Molly's Mini camp....a precious family in our church has amazing girls that run two camps (1 for boys and the other for girls) They swam and played games - the boys did a study on the armor of God - they made everything from swords to shields to cool tshirts. The girls studied Proverbs 31 and came home with picture frame calendars, cleaning supplies in baskets they made, jewels and tshirts. What wonderful memories they made - and made new friends with kids from our church that they might not have the chance to interact with had they not come to the camp.

We went to NRH2O - the water park as a family a couple of weeks ago...Brian is all over the scary water slides! For those of us who aren't that confident in a bathing suit, I would suggest to take a trip the the water park - I promise you will feel better!

This week we will have time at home to swim and have fun and then the next week we are looking forward to Leisure and Learning camp - the kids went last year and loved it!

I want to try to plan a time for all my nieces and nephews to come for a few days at the end of the summer - we are waiting for the house to be finished so it might have to move to a weekend in the early fall. But I would love to schedule a week each summer for them to come and have fun together. Even though we don't live that far from each other, it is really hard to get our calendars together.

Ok - that is the quick update...I will fill in more later. Since we no longer have a home computer ( melted in the power surge during the construction process!) I have to update from an off site computer. I have a ton of pictures I have desperately tried to add and there is a block on this compuetr from uploading the pitcures. I will try to get them on asap ( Sorry Gramma!)

Jenna