Kyle's Clam

Kyle and Dani went fishing last night at their local lake.  We received this picture from them, with the explanation that this was the first "fish" he caught!  We are thinking that maybe he should have kept it and notified Ripley's Believe it or Not to see if it was possibly the biggest clam ever!  At least it sure impressed all of us land-locked people!  I bet I received a dozen calls from hubby today to bring my phone out to the shop so he could show the picture to his customers.  I finally just printed the picture off so he could keep it out there!

A child is... what he lives

Today, Dani and Kyle borrowed our pickup to haul fencing material for their back yard.  They asked if a storm came up, would I please put their car in the garage in case it hailed.  Sure enough, it looked like weather might be moving in, so I drove their car into our garage.  As I was driving it in, I thought, I need to be careful so I don't hit the step on that side of the garage like I did my son Bryan's car one night.

Our two boy's have never been "car junkies".  Quite the opposite!  In fact, Mark always said, that was one lesson he tried to teach them, to not waste their money on cars, that he might have drilled into them a little too much!  Their vehicles were beyond old.  They were dented in, broken down vehicles that somehow, miraculously, still ran.  Bryan's was a 1992 Oldsmobile with over 250,000 miles on it, that he had purchased from his sister and brother-in-law for $200.  Being one who never liked to spend ANY money, he drove it all through his college years and beyond. Finally, last year, at the age of twenty four, he broke down and bought himself a nice car.  He was understandably very proud of it.

One night, I drove his car into town and when I came back, I drove it into the garage.  Since it was parked on the opposite side that I park my pickup, I forgot about the step.  I didn't feel a thing and got out and started watering my flowers in the yard.  Bryan came out and sounding a little annoyed and a lot amazed asked, "Mom!  Could you not feel  that you were driving my car into the step?"  I said, "No I didn't!" and went running in to defend my honor.  When I got to the car, I just wanted to die!  In fact I sat down with my head in my hands and started to cry because one entire half of the bottom of his bumper was caved in a good six to eight inches.  He said, "It'll probably come out", but when he got in and backed it up, no, it didn't.  The dent was still there and looked ten times worse.  But instead of yelling and screaming and being mad, he came over and started comforting me, saying, "It's no big deal, it's just a car."  Which made me feel even worse.  He and his Dad were able to pop most of it back out, but it still left a crinkle. I felt horrible, but Bryan just kept assuring me, it was no big deal.

As I contemplated how kind he was being to me, I started seeing flashbacks from the past.  I remembered how everyone was amazed that when we bought our pickup, the first trip it went on when we got back home, was a two hundred and forty mile round trip to a ballgame, driven by our two boys and some of their friends.  At the time Bryan was a junior and Kyle was a sophomore.  People couldn't believe that we let them take it.  We told them that they were a lot more important to us than any vehicle.   I then remembered how a couple years earlier, Bryan had borrowed our pickup, got caught in a storm, and compliments of hail, strong wind, and a huge tree branch it received over $6000 in damage.  When he called to say what happened, one of the first things he said was, "Sorry about your pickup".  We let him know without any doubt, that we couldn't care less about the pickup, we were just glad he was okay.  Don't get me wrong, we definitely had a "this really sucks" feeling, but it in no way translated into mad feelings at him.

Now, not one part of me is going to take credit for this attitude.  It has been through the gentle guidance and love of the Lord that we have learned what is important and what isn't.  My poor older kids received tongue lashings that they never should have received because we were young and stupid.  But, again, thanks to Jesus, they turned into wonderful adults that don't hold it against us and I am so very grateful for that.  I know that Bryan responded to me, when I damaged something of his, the same way he had seen us respond earlier, to him.  Several sayings came to mind, one of them - you reap what you sow!   But mainly, I remembered a poem that I had seen that goes something like this:

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.

If a child is ridiculed,
He will have no confidence.

If a child is shamed,
He will always feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He will be patient.

If a child lives with praise,
He will learn to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,
He learns to be just.

If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.      And.........

If a child lives with forgiveness,
He learns to forgive!
           

Our "Quad's"

Five years ago we started anticipating the arrival of our "quads".  Four grandbabies, born to our four daughters all within four months of each other.  Their arrival and watching them grow will always be one of my fondest memories and most poignant reminder of how good God is.  We used to call them "the babies", but we changed it to "the toddlers" when less than three years later we had four more, born within a little more than a year of each other, two of those just two days apart!  As the original four creep closer and closer to that five year mark, we will had to come up with a new name for them, henceforth - "the quads". 

We are so very fortunate that four of our children and their families are close, within 35 miles of us, and the other two are less than four hours away and we see them often.  All of our grandkids are close to each other and have grown up as each others best friends.  But there is such a special bond between the "quads", it is a joy to behold.  We have pictures of them while "still in the womb", pictures of them barely sitting, sucking on each other's toes, pictures of them in the bathtub together, pictures of them sleeping together, blowing out candles together, sitting on the potty chair together, being flower girls and ring bearers together.  But my favorite pictures of them will always be the ones when they are walking somewhere or looking at something hand in hand or arms around each other.  When we get together, rather it's only two or three of them or all four, they are naturally drawn to each other, they grab a hand or two and head off on new adventures.  I rarely remember any fights between them, other than occasionally when the girls would pair off to do girl things or the boys would pair off to do boy things and it would upset the other two.  It seems like those times are becoming less frequent as they get older.  Grandpa came into the house the other day and said "Our trouble is just beginning!"  He had witnessed the four of them, looking for something together, grabbing a bucket and the other three helping one of them up on it so he could reach the latch to the dog pen!


This weekend found us crashing after a morning of hitting over forty garage sales in our small town.  One of the sales had baby chi-uah-uah puppies for sale.  We were talking about how cute they were and one of the quads went up and told her mamma she wanted a chi-uah-uah.  Her mamma answered "she could have one when she got married."  She turned to the other three, started jumping up and down and excitedly exclaiming "We're going to have chi-uah-uah's!  We're going to have chi-uah-uah's!"  In their minds, they will be a group of four forever!

And the fun just keeps on coming.  As I said, we have four more ranging in age from twenty eight months to fourteen months.  And we just found out we have two more on the way, both due on December 31st!  God just knows we like our babies in bunches!