zumba

you know those times when you just have to laugh at yourself? well today was one of them

i went to zumba for the first time in probably about 2 years and felt like an idiot...but had fun

i kept laughing at myself and my lack of coordination

in fact, all i could think of was this episode of friends where monica tries to tap dance...so click the link below and imagine me as monica :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsgYiyTpNc&feature=related

parents...and grandparents

as a kid, i remember getting little notes from my dad-all the time (come to think of it, maybe that's why i am now so good at reading bad hand-writing :) )

i loved those notes! loved that every trip he went on, he always left a note with mom to give us the day after he left...in fact, i saved a ton of them (a bit of pack-rat in me)

he and mom were also very good at getting us girls gifts when they went away...or for no apparent reason

and still at the age of 25 and living in my own home with my family, i still get these little notes, emails, and random gifts

i love it! i couldn't ask for better parents! and now sophia's grandparents :)

they love us so much...it's so evident

and not just in by the gifts and notes, but in their actions

the fact that they can't handle going one day without seeing little sophia, or that dad thought of her at target and bought organic baby food :)

or that they just love to give us random little 'i thought of you today' gifts

i am truly blessed to have been raised by two Godly parents who now are an amazing example of Godly grandparents to our little sophia

thanks mom and dad! love you both tons!

parenting

as sophia continues to grow (she's 7 months and one day now!), i continue to see areas that i as a mom have to work on

i was going to say 'for instance' but decided that would mean i had to share something i needed to work on :)

two of my good girlfriends and i are reading 'shepherding a child's heart' and discussing it

it is a great book but man alive, do john and i have a full-time job ahead of us!

the chapter i read today discusses how experiences shape your child, family experiences, life experiences, etc

and all i could think was 'i'm going to totally screw my kid up'

i mean, there a hundred different things i do each day that i don't think about...talking (ok fine, a hundred thousand things), how i interact with people, how i interact with john, what i get mad about, what i don't care about, etc etc etc

and each of these will cause sophia to see what matters to me and what doesn't

in fact, this blog probably shows proof that i worry alot...as i'm worrying out loud about how i'll raise her

i know that i need to lean more and more on God to help john and i raise our child to love Him and others

at times, many times, it is easier to think we can do it on our own...but there is no way we can raise sophia without some divine intervention!

time for lots and lots of praying and soul-searching as i inspect my life, my desires, my intentions and see if they line up with God's and are worthy for my daughter to learn and imitate

valentine's day

for the past 9 years that john and i have been together, we have never really celebrated valentine's day

i take that back-john got me a pink light bulb with flowers and a frying pan shaped ash tray one of the first years we were together

but since then, we decided not to really celebrate valetine's day...at least in february, sometimes we celebrated it in june or july but not on february 14th

well, this year was the same...we didn't again, which was fine

but evidently sophia is going to like to celebrate it...since she got a flower!

our small group right now has 1 boy (jude) and 3 little girls (sophia, lina, and alisa)

and jude arrived at our small group valentine's party with 3 carnations...one for each of them

it made me think...when will she come home saying 'i have a boyfriend' for the first time? or come home crying because her 'boyfriend' said something mean or broke her heart?

and how will i handle it? and how will john handle the boys that she dates?

i have a feeling our life is going to get way more interesting from here on out!

dancing

evidently my daughter likes to dance

this being said, hopefully she discovers her inner rhythm as john and i do not have much at all

tonight i needed to cook for our upcoming superbowl party and a meal for our friends the mclaurins (congrats on baby #4!!!)

so sophia sat in her exersaucer watching me...then got moved to the floor on her blanket with her toys when that became boring

all this time i had a very upbeat station on pandora playing pretty loudly

after i got done cooking (not cleaning up the mess but at least cooking :) ), i picked her up and started dancing because the music was still going

well, this is just the funnest thing sophia has apparently ever done as she giggled and giggled and giggled

then we started dancing towards leila, who did not enjoy it as much as we did...but did jump at us, which made sophia laugh all the harder

it was one of those moments that i wished someone was here to video us...not a reality show, just a video camera for me to watch later as it got me laughing too

questions for God

when i was about 7 years old, i had a list of questions i wanted buried with me so i could remember to ask God when i got to heaven

now i have no clue where that list is, but i still have some questions :)

here are a few...

1-since Jesus was perfect and never sinned, was mary in pain when she delivered him?

(that one prompted me to think of my questions)

2-again, since Jesus was perfect, did he cry and scream at night? (i don't see this as sin but i know some people say that kids are showing their sin nature when they scream...before they can talk)

3-how hard did you cry when Jesus was nailed to the cross?

4-why did you allow Jesus to die on the cross when you knew that so many would turn and reject him? i know that i don't think i could allow sophia to die for people if they would later reject her and not care at all

just a few thoughts i had and figured i would put them down before i forgot again

little miss sophia...by carley kay

poser

we have been finding that sophia likes the camera...any kind of camera-still shot or video

in fact, if she is doing something cute, you have to sneak up on her to get a picture or video because she will stop what she is doing and look straight at the camera when she sees it

last week i tried to hide the camera in a onesie so she wouldn't see it...she saw it

anyway, my good friend carley came over to do pictures for me on Sunday-last minute but carley is awesome!

well, we got sophia all cute and with bows and carley says 'i saw a picture once where a the girl was facing away from the camera but looked over her shoulder towards the camera...we should try that'

neither of us thought it would work...or we would have tons of fun trying to get it to work

well, miss sophia posed exactly like that for almost a solid minute...what a poser

thanks carley for capturing little sophia so perfectly!!!