Let's Be Independent Together

Independence Day means a trip to Tulsa to see Granny and the old cousins.  It also means brownies, deviled eggs, smoked ham and Granny's famous baked beans! Jon's brother Bobby and both of the boys, BJ & Jesse, all made it up. 

As usual Donnie put on a spectacular fireworks show and let the kids light and and set off some of the big ones. Got to love Oklahoma and being outside of the city limits! Plus it's always a bonus that Donnie is a retired Tulsa Firefighter should anything go wrong! 

It was good to have the Kirkwood clan together. I love how much the three boys look alike in the top picture.  There is no doubt that they are related.  I love seeing 'my kids' together.  I'm still in denial that they are all grown ups! Maybe that is part of the independence we celebrated today.   

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

    the fruit of the womb a reward. Psalm 137:3

Swing Your Partner

What’s a base stealing, homerun hitting, pop-fly catching, diamond running, fast pitching girl to do when she doesn’t have a game on Friday night?  Take in an evening of English Country Dancing with her brother and a few friends, of course! 

You say you've never heard of English Country Dancing? If you've watched Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility or any other Jane Austen movie, you’ve seen English Country Dancing. It is a traditional form of dance has been around for several hundred years, it's marked by classical, elegant music.  Many people love the beautiful patterns that you create as you dance and weave.

One of the homeschool families, who we’ve known for a decade, runs the ECD group in Plano.  It’s funny because they have a daughter Abigail’s age named Lydia.  Abigail and Lydia are on the same CHANT homeschool softball team.  So, tonight instead of sporting eye-black these ball players were decked out in dresses and swirling!  

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psalm 30:11

Game On

A night off from softball gave Abigail the opportunity to hang out with the PEACH teen group at Angelina's home.  What's not like about music, food, and some minute-to-win-it games?  

So much of Abigail's time is taken up with her two softball teams that she doesn't get to just hang out very often, so it was a good night for the baby girl. A big shout out to Angelina's family for hosting the kids! 

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Proverbs 22:24-25

Annual Celebration of Awesomeness

Birthday celebrations continued today for Caleb.  In Kirkwood tradition, the celebration began first thing in the morning, however since it's the Lord's Day everyone got ready for church and then we enjoyed gifts and breakfast.  

Breakfast was simply Pop Tarts and Dr. Pepper for the boy but I made it up to him with grilled steaks and all his favorite trimmings.  His afternoon was filled with well wishes and phone calls from my mom and Granny. The gift du jour was cash, something that is always a hit with college kids!Happy birthday to my Little Man!  

For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.  Proverbs 9:11

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Jon asked Caleb, the birthday boy, how he would like to celebrate his 19th birthday.  Caleb’s answer included an evening at the ballpark with hot dogs and ice cream.  We’ve celebrated several birthdays at a RoughRiders game.  The Frisco RoughRiders (aka. 'Riders) are the Class AA affiliate of the Texas Rangers major league baseball club; much like the Tulsa Drillers were the AA team for the St. Louis Cardinals when we were growing up.

The ballpark is just a few miles away from our house, in fact when the team wins many times they set off fireworks that we can watch from our front yard.  The stadium seats almost 11,000 people, with stadium seating, box sets and even a pool area for rental just beyond center field. 

"The Rough Riders" was the name of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment during the Spanish–American War, headed by to-be American President Theodore Roosevelt. The team was named after a historical division in order to comply with the tradition of the major league affiliate, the Texas Rangers, who were named after the Texas Ranger Division.

While we were at the game Caleb ran into his first t-ball coach when he played for the Longhorns.  The kids got a few autographs from players for the Corpus Christi Hooks.  The evening was filled with laughter and a considerable amount of sugary goodness! 

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 

Love and Friendship

It counts as an 'educational field trip' if it involves the writings of Jane Austen, right? If so, then today we had an educational field trip with the Hansen's to check out the latest Jane Austen movie, "Love and Friendship."  Somehow I missed getting a picture of the girls at the theater, bummer!  We laughed through the entire movie, it was a very witty interpretation of Austen's book, 'Lady Susan.'  

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm. Proverbs 13:20

Eyewitness Reporting

Here he is, Hawaiian Falls very own Eyewitness News with Caleb! He's now working in the offices and spends much of his day answering phones providing customer service to Hawaiian Falls patrons.  Many of the calls recently have involved questions like, "is it raining at the park," "what if we come to the park and it starts raining," and "is it going to rain today?"  Caleb does monitor the weather on the laptop in the office, but most of the time he simply looks out the window and gives callers a update on current weather conditions at the park. Management has began referring to him like the Les Nessman weather character from WKRP in Cincinnati with is 'Eyewitness Weather.'  Where Les simply looks out the window and reports on the weather! How fun is that! 

He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. Matthew 16:2-3

Teens Write Now

Abigail is her Momma's daughter, she loves to write!  Sometimes it's poetry, other times she written short stories.  She's put a few of her works on her blog and if you've listened to any of her speeches you know how fun it is to listen to her writings. , but most of them are housed in dozens of notebooks in her room.  She's even entered a few contests and had some success which is always encouraging to an aspiring writer.  

This summer Abigail's friend Elaine, pictured center in the upper right photo, invited Abigail to join her for a writer's group.  The girls are participating throughout the summer in a group of high schoolers and college students in a writing group.  Youth get together weekly with an accomplished published author to share their work, exchange ideas and discuss the ins and outs of being a writer. So far Abigail has received great critiquing on her writing.  Getting praise is always fun, but she learns so much more by listening to and processing criticism. It's a life skill we could all use. 

During today's class, Caleb and I played a few games on the touch screen game table.  Don't worry, we moved when some of the younger kids wanted to use the board! 

He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue.
 Proverbs 28:23

Mother's Day in June

My little momma made the road trip from Tulsa to Plano.  After our visit in Ada yesterday, we swung by Atoka to meet up with my mom and bring her into Texas.  I'm sure she could have made it just fine but with all of the growth in North Texas I just felt better driving her in myself. 

It was good to have a few days to hang out and visit.  We took her over to Hawaiian Falls and showed her where Caleb has worked the last three years.  We also made a run over to Nebraska Furniture Mart, it is one of those stores you just have to see to believe.  Plus, my mom loves all the home decorating ideas.  I think we could have rented a U-Haul and redecorated both houses.

After all that shopping we headed over to Cheddar's for lunch including a large stack of onion rings, always a favorite! It was a short visit but a good one. We're looking forward to her next visit.

Treat older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. I Timothy 5:1-2

Brotherly Love

Road trip!  My boy took the day off work so we could make a trip up to Ada to check out the Gungan's new home! They closed on the new house two weeks ago and we were excited to see their fabulous new digs.  So happy that they are settling in to their new home.

Richard also took off work today so we could all be together.  It was great to see the kids together laughing and hanging out.  Richard took them out on the gator to check out the two ponds on the property and Grandma took us on a tour of the house. 

I miss them so much!  We have the best time laughing together.  For lunch, Richard borrowed the church van so that all seven kids, two moms, Grandma and Uncle Jason could ride together into to town. The best lunch in Tupelo is at the truck stop! It was great!  

As a mom, it was great to see Caleb and Richard goofing off. I never had any doubts when they decided to room together that they would be a good match.  And a year later after 24/7 together they are still the best buddies!  They cut up, pick on and wildly defend anyone who picks on any of their group!  My girls have been blessed to have these extra brothers.  I would claim any of them as my own kiddo!  

We had a great day together and I look forward to the next time! 

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,

But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24