Pericope: No.7

{pericope [puh-rik-uh-pee]- noun.  something taken from a whole, or as I like to say, bits of our life}

Experiential Birthday

With our rental past capacity and still being a bit shell shocked from the loot scored at Christmas, thinking about buying Julia presents {stuff to store and maintain somewhere!} just short circuited my brain.  So I marketed the “experiential birthday” and she succumbed.  LOVED IT!

We put them in a little lesson so they would enjoy their time on the ice more.  They both did great.

This just flat out made me laugh.  Nik called it a "photo bomb".  He did NOT ride over to Dallas with us but I am sure he is a very nice man.

I love these girls.

The Learning Curves of School

School looks a little different, but not much.  We are in a small space just like the last house but papers and things are everywhere.  There’s no good place to put everything but we are making it fine--it’s just not a tight operation!  Looking at this picture, I am very grateful for all the windows in this house and I am THRILLED there was this little spot I could dedicate to school-- and laundry and my little desk.  {It’s a hard-working space.}

And you see Gabe there and every time I spot him in an odd space, my future compassion goes out to him because when we move again, he will wake up from this amazing doggie dream of freely roaming about the house relaxing wherever he chooses and drinking water from the strangest places.

And while we are on school, fall semester was a learning curve for all of us and just when I thought I had the systems down, we moved. {Are you sick of hearing that yet?}  Yes, the systems I had in place didn’t move as easily as, say, my couch.

The kids left all their hard work on the school table in their homework folder more than once when the winter semester started.  Then I had to make that most dreaded decision, do I go get it and then take it to school or do I let them take the “turn it in late” grades?  Well?!?  What did I do?  Those are among the secrets of motherhood.


The best thing about this school year is getting to do schoolwork together.  We regularly do math at one of the libraries in town.  

Great kids.  And no, Julia cannot do math with her eyes closed.  

One new thing with someone else sending home the assignments is that there have been projects this year.  The biggest one of the year culminates this Thursday night- the International World’s Fair.  Each kid researches a country and turns in small assignments all year in order to be ready for this one night.  I will have more pictures later but one thing they make is a board to represent their country.  They are SO proud of them.  {Excuse the quality of many of these pictures- having trouble with my real camera!}

Over the weekend, we had an adventure visiting the Hong Kong Market in Grand Prairie to purchase artifacts from Vietnam for Brighton.  While B looked for tasty treats to serve his friends, Julia spent birthday money on this.

And she’s worn it-- a few times already with jeans --minus the coolie.  And she looks darling in it.  Makes me wonder what kind of outfits she’ll be wearing when she’s 17.

Pictures Just for Me

So there are times when there just isn’t a camera around and there is no time to get one because the moment is over so quickly.  Saturday, Julia wanted to ride her bike to a sleepover with good friends who live two streets over.  I said yes and here is what I saw as I watched her leave from the porch.

Julia in her screaming pink Vietnamese tunic and jeans, hair slicked back in a ponytail, bike helmet and Emily’s NorthFace backpack strapped on- navigating the broken sidewalks of our old neighborhood.   She turned the corner and I could still see pink.

My Part Time Job

I see this kind of picture on my phone a lot-- not all are this nice looking as some are Lowe’s or Home Depot, keeping track of items and prices as we build.  Lots of time is spent comparing, deciding and typing into the “master” list.  Have I mentioned Craig's List yet?  That might be for a story all its own.  (And no, I am not buying the china cabinet.)

BLUEPRINTS!!!

And just to break it up a bit....

Pharmacy and the GP

That’s what the inside of our drive-thru window looks like at Walgreens but usually WITHOUT the smoking cigarette butt, burned spot and ashes.  Oh, yes.  The joys of working with the general public (GP)..... the GP that was mad with me for not letting them have their Lortab seven days early.  It took us 5 minutes of spraying air freshener to figure out why the odor just wouldn’t go away.  If I had bodyguards at night to escort me to my car, I would have called him and told him that was just NOT appropriate and I knew his momma taught him better than that.

He Knows

Okay-- ready for real time?  So after I typed those last words, I got up to go to the rest room at Panera.  While I was in there, I looked down at my hand, for whatever reason, and saw what no married woman EVER wants to see.

Nausea. Panic.  And from my mouth, the words, "OH MY GOSH!" and "OH NO!" too loudly and too intensely to go unnoticed by the other lady in the bathroom.  I can only imagine what she might have thought coming from inside my stall. After awkward silence, she said, "Are you okay?"  I was stunned.  We just had it reset at Christmas!  I have no idea what I said but I heard her say she would tell the manager and I got out as fast as I could.  It could have been anywhere from home to Panera but I felt I needed to go home.  Embarrassing tears flowed as I called Jeff and people were trying to help look for this small, beautiful, sentimental piece.  I solicited prayers from a friend who cried as well..... {I want to be able to do that with people!! Cry with them.}  And when I got off the phone, I remembered as I got dressed this morning I thought I heard a bobby pin fall-- a normal occurrence as I don't always get them out of my hair.  I spent 5 seconds looking for the bobby pin and that was that.  When I ran into the house just a few minutes ago, I got down on my knees and began rubbing the carpet, nose to the ground and saw this under the bed.

Amazing.  God knew where it was.