This week...

1.  After nine years of living in this town Fred and I just discovered a treasure.  Are you ready for this?!?  Every Thursday at Captain D's in Paris kids eat free.  Kids eat free!  It's a game changer.  Two kids (under 12!) eat free with every paying adult.  They get a choice of chicken, fish or shrimp and one side, plus their drink.  Amazing.  Why have we not partaken of this yet?!?  I do not know.  So, if you come to visit us on a Thursday night and we aren't home you'll know where to find us.
2.  We had a yard sale at our house last weekend to raise support for our upcoming mission trip to Seattle.  He had a great turn out of people and items to sell.

Andrew thought this yard sale was the coolest thing EVER.  He shopped ALL.DAY.LONG!!  Every time he went outside he was dragging something back in my house.  (For those of you who don't know me well...I do not like clutter.)  We ended up with a 2 chairs and table, a Thomas tent (which we've had before and I sold at a yard sale), and multiple little trinkets.  It became quite the battle.  

3.  Clayton is at Lego Robotics Camp this week.  His "professor" (his words, not mine) allowed them to take a robot apart and then rebuild it.  Then they got to program it using the computer.  Today they are using a Lego Scorpion (?).  I have never heard so much excitement in a child's voice as he told me all about his class.

In the car Sunday on the way to meet up with Mawmaw and Pawpaw, I had a discussion with the boys about these camps they were going to.  I told them they might feel out of place or awkward in the beginning, but not to worry, because it would get better.  I also told them , with a lump in my throat, that I would be praying for them.  Clayton very matter of fact responded with, "Mom, you sound worried about us.  Don't worry.  We are all very social."  Fast forward to Monday afternoon...
Once he got finished with his class he called me.  When I asked him if he had made any friends he said (again, very matter of fact), "Mom, there really wasn't much time for socializing.  A kid did teach me how to play chess, though."  Good times!
4.  Jack's tball team had their final game (sniff, sniff) last week.  Jack was fired up.  We lost.  But in the end no one cared, because our coach passed out trophies.  Trophies make everything better, don't they?!?
Our coach took the entire team to Jackson for a Generals game.  He provided Jack's ticket, meal card and bounce pass AND he paid for an adult to go as well.  Jack and his team got to run out on the field and they had their team name announced.  We stayed until the end for the fireworks show and then the kids got to run the bases.  It was a magical night.
Since we live in rural West TN the little things in life excite my children....like escalators, carnivals and fireworks.  These two are amused and no, we did not set this picture up.  That really was their natural reaction.

 One is this picture was amused, one was not.  Shocker.  Although, after it was all over he did not stop talking about how neat it was.

5.  For Jack's party I was preparing water balloons.  Andrew came outside to "help" me.  I asked him repeatedly to go check on his brothers.  It was taking forever.  Finally I said, "Andrew if you'll just give me fifteen minutes by myself I can get this done a lot faster."  He said, "Oh, that's okay mom.  I've got plenty of time."  Great.

I work with our children at church on Wednesday nights.  Andrew comes with me a lot.  We always have a few things that we work on...books of the Bible, 12 disciples, fruits of the spirit, etc.  This semester I challenged them to memorize Psalm 100 with me.  About 25 kiddos memorized it.  We worked each Wednesday night.  What I didn't know was how much of it Andrew was picking up.  Janice got a video the other day.  For some reason it cut off the end, but you can get the general idea.  The hand motions that he's doing were memory cues that I taught the kiddos to help them memorize it.  I pray Andrew keeps this in his heart forever.

This week...

-It goes without saying that Clayton is a rule follower.  He went to the pool this week with some friends and then I met him there later.  Before I got there an announcement was made that PDA was not allowed at the pool.  Clayton later told me (still concerned), "Mom, I didn't know what CBD was, so I asked the life guard what it was to make sure I wasn't doing it."  Nice.  Glad we are all in line.  
-Clayton asked me last night if I would help him create his own app.  He'd like to create an app that is a site for bartering.  He loves the concept of bartering.  Unfortunately, I'm out on creating an app.  While I appreciate his vote of confidence, what he doesn't know is that I barely know how to move the icons around on my phone screen.
 -Jack is a beast.  He completed a triathlon this week with our team from Paris.  He loves all things outside and all things sports.  He is not competitive (unless it's with his brother) by nature.  I told him before the race to do his best and have fun, but there might be a chance that he could win.  Well, he worked so hard.  He came to the finish line with sheer determination written all over his face.  It chokes me up just thinking about it.  He came in 2nd place and we were thrilled for him.

-On the ball field this week while Jack was playing first base this conversation was overheard:

Kid A:  Do you think I could hit a homerun?

Jack:  Sure.  Anything is possible with God.  

-Also at the ball field this week...Jack made a great play at first base.  The mother sitting in front of me, obviously unaware that I was Jack's mother, turned to me and said, "Does anyone know how old that kid is?!?"  I answered her politely and she laughed once she saw Fred.  We took a picture of Jack's birth certificate on Fred's phone for occasions like this one.  

 -Andrew went with our friends to VBS here this week.  He was all about it Monday morning.  Tuesday morning was a little different.  Because of the theme, one of the workers came dressed in a clown costume.  Andrew was stuck to my leg from that point forward.  Fred had the opportunity to take him Friday.  The clown was back.  Andrew did not let that clown out of his sight.  As evidenced by his eyes below...

We do not like a clown, people.

-All the boys went to VBS I mentioned above.  The church challenged the children to give their missions offering to provide a year's supply of vitamins for a child in West Africa.  It cost roughly $8 to supply a year.   Each morning they would count the number of bottles they provided.  My boys were very moved by this.  Clayton got $8 of his OWN money to give and then Jack got some of his own and Andrew got some of his money.  Too sweet.  They came home everyday and told me how many bottles of medicine the group gave...after Jack told me what was for snack, of course.