On Grace

Yesterday, I went to a networking luncheon with one of my co-workers. It was in the Tower Club, 48 stories up in the heart of downtown – breathtaking view of Dallas and surrounding areas. I wish I had snapped a picture, but we were fashionably late and by the time we were seated, our speaker was about to start. 

I walked in not knowing what to expect, and walked out feeling very blessed.  Kat, the speaker and founder of this all-women organization called Polish spoke about Buddhism and the 8-fold path to enlightenment.  She talked about the 8 steps and how Buddha laid this all out for us to follow but leaves it up to the individual to follow it and complete all the steps.  Sounds like a good plan to me.  If I follow the steps that are laid out for me- I will achieve enlightenment.  It’s up to me – I control my destiny.

Then she spoke about Christianity – about grace. She described grace as something that we are given but did not deserve. Believing in grace is to have faith that no matter what we do, God’s plan for us will prevail. Believing in grace means to give up control. What?! Who wants to give up control of their own destiny and leave it up to somebody or something else?  Not this girl!

But then I thought about it some more.  What have I done to deserve this life that I am living? What have I done to deserve such wonderful people around me? What have I done to deserve parents who have given me so much, to deserve a loving husband, to deserve such beautiful, precious children? Probably no more than anybody else who is suffering.  So there must be grace. If I believe in grace, I must also have faith and trust in God and His plan for me – to let go of control, anxiety, fear, and envy. Because in the end, things will work out.  It has for the past 36 years.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast. -Ephesians 2:5

Wednesday Randoms

It’s cold and raining here.  Great soup weather, but not so good that soccer practice has been cancelled for Matthew, especially since they have not had a real practice and their first soccer game is this Saturday! I actually don’t mind the dreary weather.  I’m actually excited for the thunderstorm tonight – that’s what the weatherman said, anyway.

M is home, so tonight we will be watching “The Bachelor.” Yippee! AND, M is picking us up barbeque tonight for dinner from the Feedstore.  I love that place!

And since I have not posted pictures of the boys in almost a week, here they are. This was taken yesterday morning before we went outside to wait for the school bus.  My precious little boys!

My Monday Night

I had an evening planned for watching the “The Bachelor” last night.  It’s something the M and I do together, but recently, Michael has joined in on the madness.  I’m not sure if he understands the concept really.  I think he sees the show more of like “Survivor” kind of show – more of a competition than a “love connection.”

Anyway, I was all ready to sit down with a glass of wine to indulge, but when Michael saw that I was about to watch it without his Daddy, he protested.  He told me that we should wait to watch it on AppleTV when Daddy gets home. I couldn’t refuse.  Plus, I was already feeling guilty about watching it without him.

The only thing is, I have to avoid reading my regular blogs today because I don’t want to know who got the boot.  I had to avoid my favorite talk show on the radio this morning because I just KNEW they were going to discuss it. M gets home tonight, but it will be too late to watch so I have to wait until TOMORROW and keep my blinders on.  It’s hard work!

Weekend Date

I can’t believe that we are almost done with February already.  I am ready for Spring!  M and I had a overnight date in Dallas this weekend and it was really nice.  We fell asleep before 9 – talk about exciting. Haha…

Saturday morning, I had to work at a tradeshow in Dallas starting at 8am so to be fair, I had a very early start to my day.  After I was done with work, I drove home, packed up the boys’ stuff, packed up my stuff, dropped the boys off, and M and I headed over to the Dallas Fairmont to check in.  We had a couple of hours before our dinner reservation so we stayed in our room and played on our iPhone. 

Then we got dressed, walked across the street to Stephen Pyle, had dinner, walked back to our room and fell asleep.  I had a great time at dinner-we actually had conversations about things that were mostly related to the boys, but they were uninterrupted conversations. I'll take it.

On Sunday, we went to breakfast at the Dream Café and then decided to check out the Dallas Farmer’s Market.  There weren’t very many vendors there because February isn’t exactly the peak of produce season, but we got some yummy fruits and “cage-free” eggs. I’ve always wanted to go check it out, but never did so now I can check this off of my long “must check out list.”

We stopped by Costco to pick up some household stuff (TP, paper towels, baby wipes, etc.) before we picked the boys up.  I know - riveting.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  What a beautiful day - sunshine and warm.  Nothing at all like winter. I was able to drop by the boys' Valentine's Day party at school.  I had to get back to work so I didn't stay long, but long enough to feel bad for their teachers.  Everyone was hyped up on candy and sweets! Can you imagine having to corral 20+ kids after all the sugar they've had. I can barely deal with 3.

I made these treat bags for the boys to pass out to their classmates

My little man - he lost a tooth 2 days ago.

My big little man

Being silly...

The card my honey gave me

And the pretty flowers I got when I got home from work after 1-hour commute.

Mark's little footprint heart Sarah made for me

A card for Daddy from the boys

Soft Lockdown

The schools in Southlake are on “soft lockdown” since yesterday. We’ve been getting email messages giving us updates on the situation which has been very helpful.  Yesterday morning, a fugitive escaped in Grapevine (next city over) while he was being transported from Florida to Nevada.  He stabbed the officer who was escorting him in the neck during a stop in the Wal-Mart parking lot with his eyeglasses.  I’m not sure how that all played out and I have some simple questions such as how did he get out and how did he escape when he was shackled and handcuffed. I don’t want to say that the escorts were careless because I don’t know, but it seems to me, there had to be some carelessness there.

In any case, Southlake DPS is making an effort to put out more police patrols and the schools are increasing the number of adult supervision in and around the school.  They have heightened there security level, but normal school activities are in place.

We are not sure if this guy is still in the area, but we are being very careful.  Doors locked at all times and garage closed at all times. This will continue until we are told that he has been caught or that they are sure he is no longer in the area.

Year of the Snake

Happy Chinese New Year!  Welcome to the Year of the Snake. I don't do much for Chinese New Year  but my mom and dad celebrated it with my sister, my brother and his family last night. I miss it, especially the food. Abalone, fresh chicken, noodles, pork buns, fresh fruits and fish fin soup -yummo!

This year, I bought some red envelopes and put a penny is each one for Matthew to pass out to his classmates. I'm so happy I did it because the day I brought the envelopes home, Matthew was so excited.  Apparently, one of his classmates did not believe that he celebrated Chinese New Year and told him so.  When he saw the envelopes, he said, "Now I can prove to Sophia that we do celebrate Chinese New Year!" So happy to be able to help my Matty prove someone wrong.  Hahaha.

Earlier this morning, I gave the boys their red envelope from my parents, and from M and me. I love this tradition and I hope to keep it up as long as I can.

It is so nice outside today.  The boys have been playing outside all day.  Even Matthew is out playing with the neighbors.  He typically choses to stay in and play Minecraft.

Broken Foot

A broken foot, as I suspected.  M took Michael to the doctor to get his foot looked at yesterday and that was the verdict.  I was a little surprised to be honest because he was walking on it just fine and didn’t really complain about it.  Anyway, he is out for 3-6 weeks.  Not physical activities which is going to be hard for him because he’s so active. He has to wear this special shoe to protect his foot.

Mark went to story time yesterday and Sarah told me that he went around hugging all the other kids. She says he’s definitely the most outgoing of all the kids.  His favorite thing to so there is to run under the parachute.  

Matthew had his first soccer practice with a new team. M said that he liked it and didn’t want to come home after practice was over so that’s a good sign.  For the past couple of weeks, he’s tried to keep meltdowns down to a minimum.  I think my talk with him about it worked.  Haha! I told him before he has a meltdown, he needs to stop, take a deep breath, and think if it’s worth it. I love my little Meltdown Matty!

Weekend Recap That's Not Really a Recap

Yes, this was written on Tuesday and not posted until now. To say I'm behind is an understatement.

Hello Tuesday.  I actually meant to post my weekend recap on Monday, but time got away from me.  Before I go into the recap, I have to mention that my little Mark has learned to whistle.  It is one of the most adorable things ever!  He puts his little lips together, purses his little lips, and blows.  And real whistling sound comes out.

He had been super-duper adorable and happy so it’s been very hard for me to leave him for work every morning.

Michael hurt his foot last night and woke up with a huge, swollen bruise on the top of his foot.  He went to school this morning, but I’ve asked his dad to take him to get it looked at.  He was limping.  Poor baby.  I hope it’s not a fracture.

Our weekend was pretty mild and so was the weather.  All I did was grocery shopping. I tried to get some pruning done, but with Mark being so curious about everything, I had to stop because he was getting into too many things outside.  

On Sunday, we watched the Super Bowl at our house this year.  I thought it was a very exciting game towards the end.  I would have been great if the 49ers had won, but oh well.

I guess there’s not much else to recap this weekend.  I found out that Matthew will be playing soccer with the Quasers thisSpring.  I missed the deadline to register and we were put on a wait list so I’m glad that he’s going to be able to play.

One side note-one of the girls at work brought her 9-day old baby boy to work yesterday and he’s so perfect!  He’s such a cute little itty-bitty thing with the most perfect round little head!

Watching the Super Bowl - Go Niners!

 The 49ers were doing so poorly that Mark fell asleep!

Football with Daddy