The Little Girl With a Huge Heart

Last year, I taught first grade at Benny Russell Elementary School. I had some precious little ones in my class. There was one little girl in particular that impressed me. Her name is Christy. She is a little blonde-haired, blued eyed, precious little girl. Close to Christmas, we were starting to exchange gifts. Kids brought me flowers, candles, and bath stuff. I just loved getting little gifts from my students. It touched my heart.

One morning, Christy came in with two small packages. One for me and one for the person I co-taught with. Inside my package was a little bear. It was obvious that the bear had been someone's toy. It was a little dirty and matted. I hugged Christy because the gift was so sweet. A day later, her mother wrote a note to us. Her mother said that Christy wanted to give us a gift and since they did not have money, Christy looked through her toy box and found two stuffed animals that were special to her. She gave us two things that meant so much to her. I was so touched by that one little girl who gave so much to me. I still have the bear. I will always keep it and treasure it.

The gift is not what matters. It is simply the heart with which one gives a gift. The bear is like gold to me. So precious. To be young again and have the heart of child. A heart that is not hard- a heart that digs deep and gives everything it has.

Sawing Pumpkins

The kids came home in great moods today. Logan, Sydney, Gracie, and the neighbor girl, Alianna, were playing happily in the back yard. I watched them as they climbed trees and read books. Since they were playing peacefully, I decided to do some Christmas shopping online. I bought a couple things for Sydney, Gracie, Luke, Logan, and Marty. I was proud of myself. I spent 30 minutes online and found some good deals. During my shopping time online, Sydney was outside with a little keyboard singing "The Star Spangled Banner". She loves to sing.

So, it got kind of quiet and I decided to investigate. As I walked out the door, I noticed several small pieces of pumpkin on the picnic table. Gracie was filling a small glove with water. Logan was playing with Alianna. Logan and Alianna were standing close together with their hands behind their back, looking quite suspicious. As I moved closer, I noticed Logan give Alianna whatever was behind his back.

To make a long story short. They had one of Marty's little saws. They had been sawing pumpkins. While I thought it was humorous, I also thought about the safety factor. So, I told Gracie that she had time out. She proceeded to scream at me, so she ended up with ten minutes and two stikes (three strikes and you're out!). Logan ended up with fifteen minutes time out and two strikes because he was the one playing with Daddy's saw without permission. There were many tears and complaints, but they finally chose to submit. They cleaned up their mess and faced their punishment. See, if they got three strikes they would miss "SpongeBob Squarepants: Truth or Square" (movie) and roasting marshmellows.

What makes kids decide to do stuff like saw pumpkins?

Things that occurred during my first month of marriage to Marty

There are a couple stories blended into this one entry-

Story #1- Most of you know that I had a hamster named Ernest Hammingway ("Hammy"). Yes, he was the hamster who promoted literacy. I did, indeed, use the word "had" in that sentence. Well, Sydney and Gracie decided to put their fingers in Hammy's mouth a couple of weeks ago. Hammy reacted as anyone who had had fingers shoved in their mouth would react- he bit! This, of course, created chaos... not by the girls, but by Marty. So, before I could put bandaids on the girls' fingers, Marty put the hamster outside... get this... he put the hamster outside with the dog. We have a chocolate lab. His name is Haze and he is two years old. He has decided to make a habit of killing wildlife in our backyard. For example, he actually killed a bird. Instead of leaving it at the back door, as a cat would do, Haze completely destroyed everything of the bird except its feathers. Back to Hammy- as you can imagine, Hammy did not have a chance. So, we are less one animal. Amazingly enough, I am not sad.

Story #2- I will title this story "The Case of the Missing Lip Gloss". A few days ago, my pot of Burt's Bee's lip gloss went missing. This is not a surprise as my girls love to use lip gloss. Well, a couple of days after I noticed the missing lip gloss, the kids were in Logan's room with the door closed. All was quiet, so I decided to go investigate. I open the door and the cat came flying out of the room. I then smelled this fragrant, fruity smell and began to wonder what the heck it was. After puzzling over this mystery for a while, the cat came back into the room. She looked wet and smelled like strawberry. A few minutes later, I realized that the kids had smeared that lip gloss all over the cat. I found the empty, broken pot of lip gloss this morning.

Story #3- A couple weeks ago Marty killed his first buck (a male deer for those who may be ignorant). Since Marty and I are going to go hunting over Thanksgiving break, I decided to watch Marty clean and cut the deer. I want to be able to clean my own deer, if/when I kill one. All-in-all, the deer cleaning was not a bad experience. It was about like cleaning a fish.
A week later a man comes over with live quail. These quail are to be used at the men's wild game supper at our church. Marty and his friend set up in the back yard so they can kill and prepare the quail. After watching the men do it a couple of times, I got brave and tried to kill one. Juvenile quail are not huge birds, but they are sure hard to kill. So, I am just-a-twisting the bird's neck and nothing happens. Finally, Marty had to step in. So, I finished by plucking and gutting the bird. This is an experience that I didn't mind being part of, but I wouldn't care if I never had to be part of it again. Cleaning quail was totally different than cleaning a fish.

The Bird

So, the girls came running in the house exclaiming that the neighbor gave them a bird. I turned around, and to my horror, Syney was holding a real, dead bird! Both girls were glowing with pride as they showed off the bird. I looked at them and asked them if they realized that the bird was dead. Sydney said yes. Gracie said no. I explained to them why touching a dead bird is not a good idea and told them to hand the bird to me. Once they handed it over, I told them to go wash their hands with hot water. They obeyed and I put the bird in a ziploc bag. I washed my hands and handed the bag to the girls and took their picture. It was such a random thing. I always seem to collect random things- bones, feathers, rocks... now dead birds. Hmmm :)

Speaking of feathers... Marty killed a turkey and plucked the feathers so the girls would have something to decorate their Thanksgiving take home project for school with. Sydney's teacher sent a big poster cut out of a feather for Sydney to decorate. Mimi worked with Sydney and hot glued real turkey feathers on the poster board. Mimi called it "Sydney's Shake a Tail Feather Thanksgiving Decoration". Perfect name. Here is how it turned out-

A Story From Aunt Kristi

I went to pick them (Sydney and Gracie) up from child care (Pace Christian Academy in 2006) to spend the day with them and they looked at me like "... and who are you?" I thought the lady wasn't going to let me have them. On that same day, I took Syd and Gracie to ChicFilA and we ate lunch then they went to play in the little play area. Sydney shoved a little boy down the slide and the mom looked at me like "are you gonna do something about that??"... And I thought to myself "well, not now because I don't want you to think I'm doing it for you!" I pulled Sydney aside (after lady EyeBalls left) and we discussed pros and cons of pushing people (turns out Sydney couldn't think of any pros ;) and I asked Sydney if the little boy was still there, would she want to tell him she was sorry? Nope. And off she went, climbing up into the play thingy. NExt thing I know, here comes Gracie giril screaminig and tumbling down the slide and Sydney standing at the top looking at me like "does she know I did it?"... Yeah, I knew. Well, I had promised ice cream cones if the girls were good. Gracie got hers but Sydney didn't get hers. Later that day when you picked them up, Gracie gave me the biggest hug in the world and told me she loved me. THe Sydney gave me a hug and told me she loved me, too, but as she walked away, she turned around and said "Thanks for bein' mean!!!"

Story #1 by Mimi Rogers

October 1, 2009

Mimi took Sydney and Gracie to McD's last night where they received "beautiful" Barbie bracelets w/ their meals. Gracie cried so hard when she lost them, Sydney lovingly gave Gracie hers. This morning Sydney said, "I really would like to have my bracelets." Gracie gave them back and said, "I want to do for Sydney what she did for me." Then Sydney gave 2/4 of them back to Gracie. I love the love they share.

I plan to start writing little events that occur in our family. I hope to one day print them out and keep them in a notebook to share with our children some time down the road. We have had so many sweet, funny, and tragic moments in the four years that Marty and I have been together. We've had cats smothered in strawberry flavored lip gloss, kids that painted each other, baby powdered each other, and used markers to decorate each other, we been camping, lost treasured items, and most of all learned to love each other.

I look forward to sharing these stories with you :)

**In the picture- Gracie, PapPaw, Mimi, and Sydney at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa Summer 2009