Hard to Understand

No words to describe this: From The Tennesean:

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Please join me in praying for this family.

And I am outta here!

Today was the last night for me to have to cook at church. We're on a rotation schedule and my week comes up about every 6 weeks. My partner in crime, Jackie, had to work today, so I had to get off and running quick today. Thanks to Jen, Sarah, and Heather for all the help serving! I spent the day grocery shopping, making sandwiches, making casseroles and getting it all ready for this evening. Not only was it my last night, but it was the last night for the Wednesday night meals. YEA!! Frankly all of the help is burnt out and we would like a rest.

It was also the last night for Cubbies (other than awards night), and let me say they were all in rare form. I wasn't even back in the room for a good portion of the night and by the end of it, I was beat. There was a fair amount of yelling and screaming and general loudness. I broke up one fistfight and had to reprimand one for sticking his rear end in another kids face. Good times I'm telling ya!

Fortunately the summer break is at hand. Aaron's last day of school is tomorrow. I think I'll give him about a week of messing around time and then we need to have somewhat of a schedule. Nothing strict, but there will be a list of chores and duties involved. Ahhhh Summer! Now if it would warm up.

Zoo Fun

Today our mom's group took to kiddos off to the zoo. It was a lovely day weather wise. 8 moms and 12 kids - we were quite a sight!

Rachel's favorite part today was the sharks. I heard that for a good 30 minutes, "I want to see the sharks. I WANT to SEEEEEEEEE the SHARKS!"

And just for fun - an elephant swimming. Sorry, short post - gotta run!

Goodbye gray

...and please do not come back again! Who are we kidding; it will be back. Got the hair cut and colored today. Nothing like a trip to the salon to make you feel better. I was long overdue and the gray hairs were taunting me everytime I turned on the bathroom light with its three 60-watt bulbs. Nothing like 180 watts of light to make those gray strands shine! I also went a little shorter. That's usually how I do it; grow it longer for a while and cut it back off.

I always laugh at the people on "What Not to Wear" who get jumpy about their hair. They have given these people a whole new wardrobe and set them up with a hairstylist they could probably never afford. Their hair looks awful and they get nervous and cry about getting their hair cut. If someone wanted to give me $5000 for clothes and do my hair and makeup, I would let them do just about anything short of shaving it all off!

Just the Guys

Dusty and Aaron went to a Men and Boy's overnighter at Highland Lakes this weekend. They met up with Paul and Bryson and spent the time doing manly man things like building fires, archery, shooting, grunting, scratching, and the like. Since I wasn't actually there, if you want the full account you will need to head over to Paul's Blog. Meanwhile Rachel & I went to Madelyn's 2nd birthday party. It had a ladybug picnic theme. You know, girly girl stuff. :)

Photos courtesy of Painter El Cinco

I did learn the Aaron attempted to start a coffee addiction!

And now...

for the musical stylings of Rachel!

*First some background - I was practicing a song called "Lift High" a couple days ago and Rachel has since latched on to it and likes to sing...loudly. The only phrases that she remembers are: "lift high, your chains undone", "Jesus Christ", and "lift up your heads". But she sings those parts with gusto!

Field Trip

Let's just say up front, field trips to the art museum and 10-year old boys are not the best combination. Sure, they enjoyed the contemporary art installation of the floor that they could walk on that was made up of thousands of little PVC people holding up a clear floor. That was cool.

But I could have really done with out the snickering and pointing when they would walk past a sculpture or painting where someone was not fully dressed. Not that we were seeking them out, but after all it is an art museum and you're bound to walk past one here and there.

I discovered that the place for us to be was the contemporary art floor because you can't really figure out what you're looking at up there anyway. This is called "Egyptian Barnyard". Sure, whatever!

However the highlight of my day was when we went outside on the 2nd floor balcony and my son just happens to lose his papers over the railing. The papers that he had to turn back in...for a grade! Immediatly came the response, "I'm sorry, it was an accident, I didn't mean to..." What they just jumped out of your hand? We found out after hoofing it all around the museum (on a gimpy foot) that it's virtually impossible to get to the outside ground level on that side of the museum. Fortunately we ran into the teacher and she had extra papers.

We finish up the day in the gift shop. Why? No one has any money! But hey, we need to look at the overpriced souveniers. After several minutes I heard one of the boys in my group say, "Hey Aaron, come here!" I see the boys in the back corner of the shop. Sure enough they're pointing and snickering at the art books with the, you guessed it, nude paintings on the front. "All right! Time for everyone to clear out." Mercifully the buses pulled up not too long after that and we were gone.