Letter From A Friend

Dear Friend,
Thank you for being my best friend. I really appreciate what you do for me and for being respectful, helpful and caring. You are the only friend that has been faithful and you are fortunate that you have a lot of caring friends.

From your friend,
Jane

I would love to be able to share that this letter was addressed to me, as this is the type of friend that I aspire to be. I mean, shouldn't we all strive to treat others in a way that would result in someone writing a letter like this to us?

Yes. Yes we should.

But last week, I learned that there is one thing better than reading a letter like this addressed to me.

To read a letter like this that's been addressed to my child... now that's worlds better.
To read a letter like this that's been addressed to my child from a girl in her class at school... Universes better.

I tell you.

I could learn a thing or two from my girl.

My Text Message

I had a realization today. It's kind of silly. It's kind of fun.

I'm fairly new to texting.
And no, that was not my realization.
I know I'm behind the times and there's probably some newer more fandagled way to communicate than texting. I'll probably get to that when it's outdated too.
So, I sent a text today and at the end I was running out of room. All I had left that I needed to say was "thank you" and I only had 3 character spots left to use. Is "character spots" even a legitimate texting term? Probably not. But I don't care because the spellchecker on here keeps putting that red squiggly line under the word "texting" every time I type it. I guess I'm not the only one behind the times.

Anyway, I was running out of room....I couldn't leave off that important part and I didn't want to send a whole other text. Suddenly I remembered the shortened text for "thank you."
TY

And then it hit me.
That's my little man's name.

So today I declared that my youngest is now my daily and eternal text of gratitude to God.

If God had a cell phone, I'd send him this text daily:

TY for TY.


But God doesn't need a cell phone, so I'll just be praying it instead.

The Sounds of Silence

I'm not normally one for those long-winded-photo montage types of posts. But there's no hiding the fact that I haven't been around these here parts for almost 4 months now. I hope that you'll excuse my absence and excuse this photo-recap of a Fuller Summer. Believe me, I have more important things to blog about, but I feel that I won't quite be able to move on until I do this. This was My Fuller Life after all.

First of all, I kicked off summer with a bang - literally, and landed myself in Urgent Care on Memorial Day with these:

And about 10 days later they turned into this:


I probably don't have to tell you that bandaged hands aren't very conducive for performing any sort of task, let alone changing poopy diapers. I have never been seriously injured or operated on or really been in any situation (besides giving birth) that has required me to depend on others for help. So let me tell you, this "burn victim" thing was a huge lesson in pride for me. And I stand at this end of it able to look back and be so thankful for my amazing husband and servant-minded friends and family who gave and helped so selflessly. Amazing.

With bandaged hands I was still able to run with my Anna in her first 5K. She did amazing and wasn't the least bit embarrassed to run with her mummy-hands mom!


I also made 120 of these puppies for my dear friend's wedding! I think my house smelled like honeysuckle for the rest of the month, but it was so worth it.


Half of our electricity bill this summer has been from charging the batteries for these:


Charge the batteries overnight - put them in the vehicles in the morning - drive around the yard all day - bring the batteries inside and plug them in. Repeat.
The good news is, both boys are excellent drivers and should be able to pass their drivers exam by the age of 8. The bad news is they sometimes suffer from road rage and will resort to chasing one another down. Ty has been known to carry part of a fence post in his vehicle which he has tried using as an offensive weapon on occasion. We're working on that...

We've also spent a lot of time here (bonus points for the times we went with cousins!):


Tony and I are working hard to raise our kids to have great taste in music. So far we've been successful! We were excited to take Anna to her first official concert this summer. She loved it and sang along with these guys to every single one of their songs:


And those guys are NeedToBreathe. If you haven't heard them, I suggest you go take a listen. Now. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you get back.

The biggest excitement of the summer is that this little man...

IS TALKING!!! Prayers are being answered....speech therapy is working! And I just can't tell you enough how much I love his voice. Love it. Love. It.
I don't always understand what he's saying yet, but he's trying and that's the most important part.

And finally...just a few days ago...in a matter of minutes, my sweet daughter went from this:


To this:

Yikes! They grow up too fast!
Case in point:


When did I get old enough to have a 3rd grader and a Kindergartner?!?

In closing, I wish I had a picture to share of a big fat "SOLD" sign in front of a certain house, which shall remain nameless.
Ugh.
I don't.
So we keep praying.
One of these days I think I'm going to make the persistent widow in the Bible look pathetic.

I Wonder Wednesdays - Episode 3

• I wonder if you wondered if I'd ever wonder again.
• I wonder why my neighbors have a light up palm tree in their yard.
• I wonder if I'll ever be able to formulate the blog post that has been swimming around in my head for 2 weeks now.
• I wonder if I will ever feel organized.
• I wonder why my 2 year old keeps getting up at 6:15am.
• I wonder what our house will be like when we're finally able to buy one again.
• I wonder if I should keep my bangs or grow them out.
• I wonder how my kitchen floor gets so dirty so quickly.
• I wonder if there is a connection between #4 and #5 in this list.
• I wonder if Anna and I will have a good relationship when she's a teenager.
• I wonder why I'm not in bed already.
  

Could I Get Some Help Here?

Have you ever been faced with a "task" that seemed pretty doable?


The kind of thing that you've seen others do plenty 'o times before. And you're sure that you are perfectly capable of doing it too.


It just seems so easy when someone else does it.



But for some reason, things don't seem to work out the same for you.



And, dagummit, you just want to scream!
So you do.


But then Someone steps in and gives you a hand. And then you realize that if you would have just asked Him to help at the beginning, things maybe wouldn't have had to be that hard.


And suddenly life is happier again.



But maybe next time you might want to ask someone to wipe your nose too.
Just sayin'....

I Wonder Wednesdays - Episode 2

• I wonder how many of you figured I would forget this week. HA!
  
• I wonder who ordered all this rain on spring break.
• I wonder when our house in Indy will sell. (still)
• I wonder what TV show I'll get hooked on when 24 and LOST are officially over in a few weeks.
• I wonder why Ty always insists on opening the game closet and clearing the shelves.
• I wonder why some people are missing the filter between their brain and their mouth.
• I wonder if anyone else is addicted to browsing Land's End Overstocks like I am.
• I wonder how all the ink pens keep disappearing in my house.
• I wonder what it is about "Walk the Line" that can keep my kids mesmerized every time.

Who says fish are boring pets?

Just the other day, Ty discovered that the fish in our tank are not only fun to watch, but fun to share toys with too.



Didn't you know that Guppies like Hot Wheels just as much as the next guy?


And just for good measure you should always throw in a pencil and one of your sister's ribbon pony tail holders.


No one can accuse us of pet neglect, that's for sure!

I keep trying to convince my kids that fish are better than puppies because they don't chew on your toys.

I think Ty just helped me prove my case.