Alumni Game

 

Well, tonight was the big game.  I was proud of us "oldies" for

 playing so well.

 We lost by 2 points.  Who would like to come over in the morning

 to pick me up out of bed? 

 Any takers?  I have come to the conclusion that although I am not in bad shape,

 I am certainly not in basketball shape.  

There is a world of difference between the type of exercise I do on a weekly basis 

and flying up and down the basketball court.  

Being in that gym, brought back a lot of great memories, though. 

 It seems like just yesterday, but my body reminds me that it has 

been awhile!  

The good news is that none of us had to be carried out on one of 

these....

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, yes? 

 Well, we will have plenty of opportunity to practice up for our next rendevous on the basketball court.  Our beloved coach signed us up for a women's league tournament in May.  

My left hand and I will have to have a talk about its' slack dribbling skills between now and then.  

All in all, it was really fun and I had a blast even if I looked like I might have needed an oxygen machine! 

Jessica

Faces

Hats off to bedtime.

Tonight, we celebrated bedtime by wearing our favorite hats to bed.  

Seth, an engineer at heart, went for the Train Engineer hat.  He also asked 

if he could go to the moon when he grows up.  Honestly,

I could totally see him actually doing that.  He lives for adventure.  

While using the restroom yesterday, I heard him tell Laci:

"Hey, my pooh pooh won't come out, can you come rub my back."

Ladies, watch out!  He's going to be a heartbreaker! :)

Leyton is our beanie man.  He loves beanies.  

This one is a bit too small for his big 'ole  punkin' head. 

But, he insisted. And what punkin' head wants, punkin' head gets.

He is high on life.  We are not quite sure if Leyton will be a preacher or a doctor.

He told Laci tonight, after she and Seth had commenced fight # 10 of the day:

"Laci, Jesus does not want us to fight. We are to love one another

like our scripture says."  He also tried to cut my nose off yesterday

during my "surgery."  He told me, "Now, I am going to cut

off your nose. Do not be afraid and hold very still."  The signs

are unclear, but in the meantime, we will enjoy his giggles

and story-telling.  He can really tell some whoppers.

Laci is all games and all heart.  She is trying to understand the difference

between being a twin and being a triplet.  She came to me the other day and

said, "Hey mom! We are trumpets."  I didn't understand.

"No, mom, we are crumpets."  Hmmm... one more time...

"We are TRIPETS!"  Oh...triplets.  She is a child after my cheese loving heart. 

Every day, she stops her playing to come watch me cook dinner. Begs me for 

cheesy soup and compliments every bite.  Today, she told me when

she grows up, she wants to be a princess.  Today, my sister 

was over to pick us up for some shopping. Laci's room was a 

disaster area.  Aunt G said, "Laci! Your room is a mess!"

Laci replied, "Yeah, that's what my mom likes to say!" 

Hmmm...if the shoe fits!

       

Two peas in a pod.

Seth's silly eyes.

Leyton: a ham at heart.

Practice makes perfect

The only real problem I saw tonight was a little oxygen deprivation.  On my behalf anyway.  One might refer to it as "winded," "out of shape," or simply having lost a skill or two over the last decade.  Oh where oh where has that decade gone?  

Our local Little Dribbler's are sponsoring an Alumni Basketball Game to help raise money for their teams.  I am trying playing. 

Tonight, we had our first practice.

I am still red in the face from our hour long scrimmage pretty tired.  

My calf muscles and I have been back and forth

 all night about their desire to cramp up.  

We did NOT play ahem...10 & 11 year olds tonight to practice.  

Okay, we did actually.  

Never fear.  We won, but we were pretty tired.

  However, I was really proud of our 6 man team

 for going a full game. 

 I heard through the grape vine that the 6th grade girls 

want a piece of us tomorrow.  

We will behave.

And we have 2 weeks to prepare.  

Practice makes perfect.

Jessie

Meet Rex.

Meet Rex.

Rex was having a pretty good play date until...

...tragedy struck.

I have every reason to believe no idea who was in charge of Rex's leg trauma.

But, thankfully we run a full service animal hospital.

And Rex...and his leg...went away for some much needed R&R.

In the meantime, Seth prayed that Rex's leg would be healed.

In no time at all, Seth's prayer was answered and Rex's leg was right back to normal.

And Rex was back terrorizing the women and children in no time.  

Love is in the air.

...and so is laughter!

Refined

The outlook was not good and I could read between the lines. I was dying. My babies could be dying too.   I was twenty-six weeks pregnant with triplets and my contractions were less than three minutes apart. I had heard the nurse’s words: “We need to keep her alive to save the babies.”  “Alive?” Was it that bad? I went from pre-term labor to fighting for my life? 
The words broke my heart.  My heart was tired and because of this my lungs were filling with fluid. 
If delivered that day, my babies would probably not live or be severely impaired.  As the nurses scrambled to hook me up to oxygen and administer medicine that would put me to sleep, tears filled my eyes. I grabbed the Head Nurse and asked, “Once I go to sleep, will I wake up or is this it?” The nurse looked at me with sad eyes and said, "I can't answer that." 
 She told me to “have a moment” with my family.  I took my husbands’ arm and through tears said I love you.  We waited. In the midst of my panic, the Lord reminded me of His promises to my family.  So, I began to repeat one verse that was particularly meaningful to me: "Lord, you promised to give breath and life to all things in Acts 17:25. Please give breath and life to us today."  And He did. Today, as I watch my triplet's run and play, I am forever grateful that God gave breath and life to us all.

Leyton, Laci, and Seth Kirkland

3.4 lbs, 3.8 lbs, 3.2 lbs

Laci, Leyton, and Seth today.

A True Friend

"A friend loves at all times..."

Proverbs 17:17

They say a picture paints a thousand words, but even a picture does not give adequate honor to a friendship that is 24 years in the making.  Meet the swing set.

This is a very old swing set.  This swing set belonged to my best friend's granny.  Granny is with the Lord now, but miraculously the swing set is still swinging her great grandkids.  Granny's swing set has seen lots of kids grow up.  Granny's swing set represents a lot of giggles and fun times with my best friend.  Meet Megan.

Megan and I have been friends for 24 years.  We met in the nursery at church.  Now, our families populate our subsequent church nurseries with a total of four children combined.  Meet Avery.

Avery is Megan's firstborn. She is not this tiny anymore.  This was the first time I met Avery, however.  She is funny like her mommy.

Don't let her fool you.  Avery's mommy is funny.  Like the time she wet the bed when we were in Grade ____ (well we just won't say how old we were) and she blamed it on me.  Never mind that my clothes were dry...I still believed her.  Don't worry Megan - I will publicly admit that I was a bed wetter for a long time (and I hear these days they call it a hormone problem so we can rest now).  There is just no replacement for a good, Godly friend.  When we were little, we used to belt out loudly in public places  sing the song, "Friends are Friends Forever" by Michael W. Smith.  The lyrics say "and friends are friends forever when the Lord's the Lord of them."  Those lyrics ring very true to me as an adult.  I have had many friendships come and go, but when God is first place in a person's life, even little rifts and spats are overcome.  So, Megan, here is to:

*Eating cheese popcorn at 4 am.
*Punching keys that we were not suppose to on cash registers in public places.
*Blasting KSBJ into every hole in the ground we ran across so that Satan would be mad.
*Eating black olives at 4 am. with our cheese popcorn.
*Screaming like maniacs in your pool while horsefly's tormented us.
*Running into a stranger's home when "you know who's dad" tried to coerce us into the car.
*Dancing around the levee near your house.
*Jumping on Cory Craig's trampoline.
*Rocking babies in the nursery at church (even though I still can't figure out why they let elementary school kids keep the nursery solo...shhh! our little secret).
*You buying the same outfits as me at the mall and me hating you (for a few hours).
*Singing in your mom's van.
*Walking to Happy Chap after school for a snack (every day).
*Hide-n-seek.
*Rolling in Mamma's barrel and getting sick.
*Playing pool and being bad at it (I was anyway).
*Slumber parties and many hours of begging my mom to let me come play (she still notes your notorious begging and still has her "don't ask me in front of anyone policy" thanks to you.
*Singing Brass Monkey to our teachers even though we did not understand the meaning.

Thanks for being such a wonderful friend.  As soon as Jeremy lets you move back to Texas, we can raise our kids together Texas style.  Avery told me she was in need of some companionship. :)

Jessie

Some of my favorite pictures from 2009