Pirate Island

We had five children this weekend, Tim's boys and my brother's three babies. Gavin had been sick so I took one for the team and spent plenty of time resting with him.
Saturday we ventured out to Pirate Island. The kids had a riot. Gavin spent the entire time in his high chair staring at the pirates and strobe lights. B, Ada and Miles tore it up in the arcade, each getting enough tickets to win some prizes.

The pictures of course were priceless. The balloon animals were a hit, a dog, a cat, and of course a sword.



Miles was still fighting off the bad guys with his sword yesterday.


Who doesn't love a pirate hat?


Maybe next time I will consider an actual camera with an actual flash instead of my phone. Nothing but high class.

Unfortunate Fashion

Of course my findings of such bad fashion come from the gym, other than work I don't really go anywhere. These are not the actual photos of the offenders. I really need to work out some type of spy phone because there are some amazing things that I miss out on because I am afraid of being beat up or mistaken as paparazzi.


Guys, if you are going to the gym together, DO NOT, wear matchy matchy clothes. This isn't a pic of the guys I saw, but almost. They had identical shirts, pants, etc. Creepy.

There is a guy who wears some pretty interesting clothes anyway, but my favorite was the day that he was wearing just the hood of a hoodie, held on by tying the strings. I guess there was no reason for the whole sweatshirt. Maybe his ears get cold?


Seriously, if you are a male and your hair is long enough to need a hairband, cut it. I know it may make me sound old, but the girly headband does not work for me.


And finally...Yes, the t-shirt says "HOG". It was being worn by a girl, not a particularly thin girl. Surely she had another option in her closet.

Valentines

Yesterday Tim surprised me at work when he walked in with these. Not only are the flowers beautiful, but the smell is amazing. I love receiving flowers. His thoughtfulness made me happy all day.

I thought the flowers were the extent of my Valentines' surprises, but Tim was just getting going. First a little bit of background: when we moved into our house there were a few little spots in the bathroom where the paint needed touching up. I pulled out the supplies, painted some big patches and didn't discover until the paint tried that I had used the wrong color. Fast forward a few weeks when I decided to fix my walls. This time I had to paint much larger swatches to cover all of the mismatched paint. Small problem though, you guessed it, I used the wrong paint again. So now we had seriously mismatched walls in the bathroom and I had given up trying to fix it. When I walked in the house last night I could smell paint. Tim had spent the day taking a sample to get a matching paint color, and then repainting the entire bathroom. He even cleaned everything so well it was as if no one had even been there. The bathroom looks great. It was such a sweet thing, maybe even better than the flowers. Thanks babe.

Rock A Bye Babies

I keep telling them that it doesn't matter how old they get,
they will always be my babies.

Outcasts United

Outcasts United is the story of a refugee soccer team, a remarkable woman coach and a small southern town turned upside down by the process of refugee resettlement.

In the 1990s, that town, Clarkston, Georgia, became a resettlement center for refugees from war zones in Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to help keep Clarkston’s boys off the streets. These boys named themselves the Fugees -- short for refugees.

Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees, their families and their charismatic coach as they struggle to build new lives in a fading town overwhelmed by change. Theirs is a story about resilience, the power of one person to make a difference and the daunting challenge of creating community in a place where people seem to have little in common.

My friend Amy gave me this book for Christmas and the plane ride to Arizona was the perfect place to get started. She said it looked exactly like the type of book I would like and she was right. The story was compelling and inspriring. The author had a nice mix of background on Luma the coach and the refugee families, and the current struggles everyone was facing. It would have been very easy for him to have painted some of the key players in a very bad light, but he really didn't do that. In an interview he said "I generally go into most situations assuming that people are doing the best they can and I challenge myself to try to understand the motivations behind actions that I disagree with or that strike me as wrong...there are no simple answers in Clarkston."

There were some great lessons to be learned, one of my favorites was from the preacher of the perviously named Clarkston Baptist Church. He felt that if the church changed and welcomed the international refugee community, they would be following a great plan that God had for them. they renamed the church the Clarkston International Bible church and had a main service as well as numerous small meetings. Phil Kitchin, the pastor said "Jesus said heaven is a place for people of all nations, so if you don't like Clarkston, you won't like heaven".

Luma, the coach, not only mentored the kids in soccer, but in all aspects of their life. At one time there was an issue with one of the kids being involved with a gang. She had a discussion with the team about gangs and some of the concerns of getting beat up for being in the wrong area. She finally told them "If you keep getting beat up on the same road, take a different road." What an amazing life lesson.

A-

Arizona Boys II

Remember how I was headed to bask in the sun? Well someone forgot to inform the Phoenix weatherman. It was cold, especially by Arizona standards. I may not have been able to break out the bikini, but Arizona did not disappoint.
The highlights included(not in order of importance):
1. Shoes at Last Chance;
2. 12 1/2 mile run on the canal;
3.Dinner with a friend at California Pizza Kitchen (I highly recommend the Mediterranean salad);
4. And of course, time with my boys.

Introducing Roman Horton Broadbent
Born January 25, 2011
Proud Parents, Craig and Hailey Broadbent

Have you ever seen anything so precious?

Arizona Boys

So Mister Calvin and I have never had a lot of time to just hang together, always too many cousins and grandparents. We had so much fun together in AZ. It was great to just be able to play, and laugh and be silly. He is super low maintenance because the only things he east are wheat thins and muscle milk. We read stories, played baseball in the house (don't tell mom), and had races with strollers, cars, scotters, skateboards, etc. When Cory and Jenna got back he kept telling Jenna, "mama, Monica's funny". Clearly he has a great sense of humor.
The only downside is that our tie together was way too short. Apparently he feels the same. When he sees a plane now he tells his mom that they need to hurry and go get me from the plane and take me back to his house. Love that boy!

The park was great, lots of kids, sand, and trucks.

This was Calvin's imitation of Buzz Lightyear, he was about ready to take off.

Just a casual shot at home.

Clearly he has his father's photography skills. He wanted to take his own shot.