July 2013

Happy 31st Birthday to Scott!  It was fun, on the Sunday of his birthday we had a few families from church over.  We had Hawaiian haystacks and before we sang Happy Birthday one couple (the Skollars) stood (on a chair) and shared this cute poem:

Scott:

You’re always so flirty,

But you can get away with it, because you don’t look a day over 30 (1)

Your Sunday School class keeps us close to the Lord,

Even with your microscopic notes on the board.

You’ve always been athletic and lean,

a thing of the past with your new Big Screen.

Enjoy your 30’s while you can,

Before you know it you’ll be an old man!

The night before we had a date night sponsored by BCG.  It was an iron chef competition.  Each team had 1 hour to prepare a steak, fish, 2 sauces, a veggie, a starch, and a salad—using only the ingredients they had (which were a ton).  We didn’t win, but it all turned out pretty dang good!

Like the rest of the country we also celebrated 4th of July this month.  And in keeping with the Douglas tradition, we ran the Peachtree Road race.  I was pumped to do it this year because leading up to the race I was running my fastest 6 miles ever.  Unfortunately when it came to race day I got a bad case of runner’s belly and had to quickly find port-a-potties multiple times along the course—resulting in my worst time ever (Scott was sweet and stayed beside me the whole time).  And so it goes.  But it still was fun, and Jay and Angie both PR’d, so not all was lost!

After the race, we stopped by Leslie’s house to show off Baby Rebekah, and then we all headed to the lake (joined by Chip and Michael).  The lake house is still not completed, so we stayed in the hanger (where all the furniture/RV is stored).  It worked out great.  It was a RAINY weekend, so we got a lot of visiting in—which was fabulous.

Tay loving the tube with Uncle David and Jay and Trey killing it!

So news with the kids.  Have I mentioned how hysterical Tay is??  Here is an example, for Taylor’s morning prayer EVERY single day this month she says:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please help Celeste keep pregnant.

Thank you for the birthright blessing.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Apparently the ‘birth-right blessing’ refers to a story we read in the Old Testament, probably Cain and Abel or Jacob.  Who knows?

Example number 2.  ‘Tay thank you for being quiet while I was on the phone.  “Oh it was my pleasure your majesty!”

3.  Starts running as fast as she can and screams “Apparently I just got an energy boost!!!!!!”

She had her first sleep over this month.  Didn’t miss us at all!  She is one independent gal…Poor thing did go to another friends house, played barefoot on their outdoor wooden swing set, and got a dozen splinters.  The crazy thing is, she didn’t tell us until the next day!

Now that I think of it she got pretty banged up this month, bless her heart.  She tripped over Grant getting out of the van and fell head first onto our garage floor.  Worst. Goose egg. Ever.

Grant is cute and talking up a storm, but he is in the exhausting phase—have to watch him every minute, wants your full attention all the time, etc.  However, church has recently got a lot easier since he now is old enough to go to nursery the last 2 hours—allowing both Scott and I to teach free of distraction.  As you might have guessed, snack time is his favorite part.

He is going to really miss the kids when they go back to school.  He loves grabbing a pillow off the couch, waddling over to where the kids are resting on the floor, and falling of top of them.  Once they all start wrestling he screams “Guys!  Guys!” as if to say “Settle down!” after he started it. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Jackson lost his first tooth!  He has been painstakingly waiting as friend after friend keep loosing multiple teeth.  After drilling me about where the tooth fairy gets all the money to put under all the children’s pillows, and asking multiple times “Does the tooth fairy even exist??” He begrudgingly accepted the ‘magic’ answer and excitedly told everyone “This was the easiest dollar I ever made!”

Speaking of money, he won first place at a small chess tournament and got a cash reward!  Actually there were 2 first place winners (both had same number of wins) so he split the $15 dollar pot with the other guy.  He was beside himself with exuberance-“Money is SOO much better than a trophy!”

Jackson and our neighbor Brock did a fun Lego Robotics camp at St. Martins for a week.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a week at Sugarloaf in July.  My parents’ standing offer to take their house (in Sugarloaf), when they move to the Lake, has never been so tempting:  it is gated, Jackson played golf all week, the kids took tennis classes all week, Taylor did a candy camp in the mornings, the pool is rockin, the swim team is stellar, and the people who I used to think were old and snooty are now my peers! :-) However we do love our house, our neighborhood, and the location, so no major changes for now.

Look how cute the counselors are!!  Taylor adored ‘Ms. Megan’ at candy camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Scott is getting absolutely killed on this gas station project.  He has never had such a high burn case.  I worry that he doesn’t get enough sleep.  I try to let him catch up on the weekends, but we miss him and want to see him when he is home!  Luckily it looks like BCG is going to wrap up this case early, hopefully by the end of September. 

We’ve become close with a couple from BCG, the guy (Will) actually graduated a year behind us at GACS.  Last weekend they brought us to a concert at Northpoint church—we had low expectations, but the cover band was seriously incredible and we had such a fun time!

Apparently Northpoint Church is a conglomerate of churches all over Atlanta.  They have one preacher Andy—who travels around between the 5 or so churches.  Anyways, Kristen (the wife) sent me a link to one of his sermons, and now I’m listening to all of them!  Most of them are pretty good.  In one of them he talks about the ‘Comparison trap’ and how harmful it is when we compare ourselves to others, our spouses to other spouses, and our kids to other kids.  He gave example after example—and we do it (almost) unconsciously all the time.  We look to others to see if we are ‘doing ok’.  He said just continue to tell yourself, “There is no win in comparison, there is no win in comparison.”  He goes on to say, if we compare ourselves to someone and think "I am smarter, richer, thinner, better, etc..” then we start feeling superior, which is ugly, and separates us from the Spirit.  And if we compare ourselves unfavorably then we feel badly about ourselves, and become ungrateful for what the Lord has blessed us with.  It just got me thinking, and re-motivated to always want the best for others, and to recognize/eliminate a thought that is comparative in nature.

So don’t compare my blog to other, more sophisticated blogs :-).

That’s enough for this month!

Love,

TFK