the season...

Its no secret Summer is my favorite.  Whats there to plan?  july 4th?  labor day?  Perfection.  This fall has been swallowed up...I like always tried to get ahead of the game but to no avail.  Still no Christmas cards mailed out (Sorry they are coming!)  Still things to find, buy and wrap.  Still one VERY big school production featuring my very own cookie.  And still so so much to teach the littles about the real meaning and the real reason that this season is celebrated.
We are working on it though...its like I always say, "just keep walking."  One of my very favorite ministers preached one Sunday last spring and he said  "after mary saw the empty tomb and the angel of the Lord came to her He said "GO and tell"...
He didn't tell her to conjure up our own strength to run as fast as she could, or to find our bravery to shout what she had seen...all he said was GO, TELL.   God's got the rest.
With that promise I know my job is to just keep walking, the rest is in His hands.
As an aside...next Tuesday and Wednesday night Madonna will be doing their annual Christmas play at the GPAC.  I have gone to productions before Murphy was as student, so I promise you this is not about my boy.  This is honestly a sweet sweet way to celebrate this season and to share in the joy that these students share with us.
Merriest of Christmases everyone!! We have so much to celebrate!  

Skippers Birthday

Tinkys school pic

Bo and Bridget visit from AUSTRALIA!

MLC Christmas Program!!!!

Hutch Thanksgiving Feast

Talk about a BLUE CHRISTMAS!!!!!  GTG!

Buddies

Tinkys ballet recital

BE STILL MY HEART.

The trouble with passports---

Is really two fold if you ask me.
#1.  It takes and act of congress and two littles present in the middle of a school day
#2.  Everyones first question is "are you going somewhere exciting!"

Whew.  No we aren't going anywhere, not in the next 2 weeks, or the next 2 months that would require a United States passport (and yes I do swear this before all of the people in the line at the post office behind my family -1 little member with strep throat.)  Nice.  Nope. Nada.

Anyway, in typical Culpepper fashion  this year is off to a weird start...seems like we almost didn't loose speed from spring enough to soak in summer and we jumped right back on the crazy train-which brings us to now.
Murphy is a bit out of sorts because I am not taking him to Madonna..."please take me to my school today."  Ugh thank goodness its short lived, right?  I may go over there and help them build it myself!  And Tinky well is typical Tinky...in her happy place.  A happy little soul who cries sometimes because her "friends are so sweet it makes her heart so happy she feels sad."
And then there's work...hmmm.  Not sure what to think about that right now.  Its making me think about using those passports for sure!
I was going to cut back on a lot of things this summer and this year...hahahaha.  Things picked up quite a bit this summer...leaving me feeling kind of ...torn, and defeated.  I didn't get the bucket list done, I didn't really scratch the surface of the list.  That. makes. me. sad.
This summer I had in my mind I would not over schedule the littles, in fact they each got one week of camp and that was that.  Well, until I had to work everyday...ENTER SAWAH.  The Poseys are precious friends of ours and Sarah, one of their 7 kiddos watched my kids A LOT.  The Poseys are life savers!
Add a little splash of drama to that and voila one heck of a summer...leaving me so hungry for more.  More time with my littles more time with our family, more fun, more pool , more energy, more pouring into their little tanks, just more.  Which brings me back to the passports...so sometimes I make these plans and more often than not God says...not so fast...thats not MY plan.  That got me to thinking, you never know maybe we will use our passports...maybe the effort will all make sense one day...just think, The Culpeppers taking this show on the road.

Tinky at Hip hop camp

Few things as entertaining as driveway day

happy place

And he's off!  So long daddy...momma and the littles on their own at the beach!  Thank goodness "ms. gayle is in charge"

happy place happy littles

Mrs. Reatha got married...and meet SAWAH.  We. love. her.

pals in their wedding best

LAND!!!

Family Dinners are the best...look at those grown ups

Hadley daddy has a truck, Murphy may move out. seriously.

Skipper and CC do the dentist...thank you!

First day of school for my boy

Mommas birthday in muscle shoals....so much fun!

yep you read it right, SK.  sigh.

A smile through clenched teeth, "please don't let murphy drive please!" Supa safety

And our captain

Sweet friends

annual by the lake picture -3rd annual what!?!

So whew...thats some of the summer in a nutshell...like we say in the car..."and we're OFF!"

Jesus pushed Murphy in the water...

Yep you read it right.  It's tough being Murphy sometimes.  

EVERYONE has pushed poor Murphy in the water this Summer.  Just this morning Clay told Murphy he had to wear his gym clothes today instead of his regular school polo....pitter pats all the way down the hall...

M:  "momma I need you" (in between sobs)

ME:  "what happened buddy?"

M:  " Daddy is soooo mean to ME."

ME:  (laughing to myself because I know what has happened) "oh no Murph, what happened?"

M:  "Daddy pushed me in the water."

Then he makes a quick exit and is ready for breakfast, with Daddy no less.

So this started after the first couple of times we went swimming this year.  I think we made such a big deal about "NO pushing around the water."  That it has become the end all of bad behaviors...even if the person has never been in any water with murphy ever.  Sweet buddy Mark has pushed him, Skipper has pushed him, CC too!

So Where does Jesus come into this saga, you ask?  

Tinky came home from school in quite a funk. 

ME:  "whats wrong bear?"

M:  "nothing"

ME:  ok same questions different technique..." what was your favorite thing you did today?"

M; "nothing"

ME:  HMMMM well what made you laugh, made you happy made you sad,etc, who do you want to move to mars?

M: nothing. no one.

ME:  maybe you should go regroup in your room for a minute until you feel like talking?

ME:  (bad decision -better...Ill go with you...I will get to the bottom of this.)

M:  SO and SO was so mean to me today.  I wanted to cry and stay in the bathroom until you came to get me.

ME:  ....under my breath what is wrong with this kid....ugh! 

" well Tinky did you tell her you would like to be her friend but she needs to act like a friend first? " 

M: "No but I did tell her she should say sorry when she was mean on the playground.  And she said she wouldn't."

ME:  what on earth..."well you should tell her that it makes Jesus sad when we are ugly to each other"

M: "Ok Ill try that tomorrow " (great this is a daily thing)

ENTER A little voice from outside the door (and eavesdropper named Murphy)

 

"Madden, Jesus pushed me in the water!!!"

WOW.  Poor Murphles....it can't get much worse than that. 

Feel free to pray for us anytime anywhere.

What I am realizing...

is unfortunately I am really selfish.  Selfish in kind of a weird (recovering control freak...) kind of a way.  Summer is off with a bang around here.  While the end of the year was as usual (very emotional) hard to see come and go...it did just that, came and went.
It was a great year for both of my littles (which just proves my mom right ...again.)  Every year does seem to get better and better.  I feel like we are in such good places for the littles, they love their friends, we love their friends, they love their teachers, we love their teachers etc.. etc...
BUT now that summer is here, I am being selfish.  I don't want to give up many days or hours with my guy and my girl.  We have been to the beach with precious friends...I had the kiddos solo on our first road trip and not only did we all survive-we had a blast and the drive was easy peasy.
When we were unpacking I got an email that therapy was cancelled last week...SO we played baseball, went swimming, played baseball, swam, watched a movie together, swam, played baseball on the driveway, went swimming.  We were on our own clock...just the three of us doing whatever we wanted to do.  It was kind of crazy...but so wonderful.
So with that said, I am thrilled that for some reason I thought 2 weeks of camp was plenty this year.  I keep telling myself that one day in the not so far off future my littles will want to do more, and to hang with someone other than momma---you can look into places to commit me now if you want.  I am prayerful that we will enjoy everyday of this summer, the heat, the spats, the water in the nose, the sand all over everything, and hey if summer is half as fun as the first month...I might just put them on a boat and homeschool.   The thought of being on our own clock and having them all to myself...well its too indulgent even for me...for now I am working on this selfish tendency, it's not pretty!

people can't even imagine how pajama obsessed Hef is...this is him on the hunt for the right pants to go with his rocket shirt....

 
Murphys sweet class on the last day..they gave us such sweet gifts for being the room moms!

My littles T ball team the LOVED it!

The Salies went South...but we did not sell seashells by the seashore...too much work!

Bless her...mawmaw and her daily doze...