Juke Box Jive

This year, Eric's agency's fundraiser was a 50's themed Juke Box Jive.  We did our best to dress the part.  Eric, as the greaser and me, as "Good Sandy."

Don't worry, at the end of the night, I did NOT bust out the skin tight leather, 3 inch heels, and cigarette.  Wouldn't that have been a sight?  I think it was in everyone's best interest that I stuck with the poodle skirt. 

It was a fun night for a great cause!

This Picture Just Speaks for Itself...

And A Little Pre-Father's Day Celebrating, Too.

I was so happy that I got to spend a pre-Father's Day weekend with my dad this year.  Dad, Sheila, Becky, and Bill all made the trip down the weekend before Father's Day, which meant that we got to spend two weekends celebrating a couple of great Dads. 

Two of the things my dad and I really connect on are UK basketball and yard sales. Interesting combination, right? Oh, we can spend an entire phone conversation discussing the Cats and how well or not well they played their last game.  Yep, I love to give or hear a good commentary on the Big Blue.  I think that may be why Eric married me.

We also enjoy hunting down a bargain together.  Dad has a lot of yard sale stamina, which is a must for a trek out with me.  He is always up for finding just one. more. sale.

Well, since it is the off-season, we spent the Saturday morning sharing the latter of our favorites...yard saling (or is it selling?  I never know).  It was a great morning for it, too.  Too bad there weren't any neighborhood sales that morning, but we certainly made the best of it.

And by the end of the day, we discovered another thing we have in common...our love for GoodWill.  After all of the yard sale fun, we came home for lunch, played with the boys, and  had a rest, and then we made our way over to GoodWill to check things out.  I LOVE A BARGAIN!  I just can't say it enough.  And  so does Dad.   However, you have to know how to shop GoodWill to make the most of it.  You can't rush a productive GoodWill trip and we certainly proved that.  We spent TWO HOURS in GoodWill.  How in the world did we manage to do that?  Well, for starters, Eric was on-call all day, so the little Workmans stayed home with him, or else our little trip into the depths of GoodWill would have been much shorter lived.  We were able to have complete focus on our bargain mission, without having to keep track of those adorable, high energy little people we so dearly love.

Secondly, since there were no short attention spans to contend with, we were able to take our time and find the good stuff.  I love how our Good Will is so organized and color coded.  It makes it so much easier.  I often find clothes with the tags still on them.  Love it!  I think the five of us who went hit jackpot.  But we should have.  After all, we did spend two hours of our life in there.

Well, all of us had luck...except for Dad.  I did buy him an army hat that he liked and a hat washing apparatus, so hopefully that was some consolation.

Our adventure definitely left us in need of nourishment.  Dad got to choose our dining destination, since after all, we were celebrating him.  (Eric got his Father's Day Chuy's fix later in the week, so all bases were covered)  So, we swung by the house to pick up the Workman boys, and headed to Red Lobster.  It was a nice dinner with the entire crew.

Our evening was capped off with a little Rook...another favorite that Dad and I share.  This, of course, made my hubby ever so happy, too, because for some reason we have very few friends here who enjoy playing cards (Gasp!), so we must go long stretches between our Rook fixes.  I also never knew Becky had such mad Rook playing skills.  Which totally rocked, because she was my partner.  Woot!  Aside from the dads getting beat by the sisters, I think it was a pretty fun ending to a busy, bargain filled day!

Happy Father's Day!!

Well, since I was late posting about Mother's Day, it is only appropriate that I also be late posting about Father's Day.  Right?  Right. 

Just because I am late getting this on here, it doesn't mean that we didn't have a great time celebrating one AWESOME DAD on Sunday!  It just means that it hasn't been made blog official yet.  Until now.

So, here we go, mushiness and all, because we want the whole wide world (or at least the ten or so of you regular readers) to know how extra special  Eric/Dada is to us. 

Oh, how these little guys LOVE their Dada!

And oh, how blessed this Momma is to parent with him! 

I have never seen a father as joyful in his dad role as Eric.  He is such an amazing Dad!  He has endless energy in the presence of his boys.  (Thank goodness, because these boys have an unlimited supply.)  He is wrestling them one minute and covering them with kisses the next.  He prays for his boys and shares the Word of God with them daily. He is there when they need him, whether they need a joke, to play, a bit of encouragement, redirection, a hug, or an answer to one of there many, many, MANY questions.  He is so creative and seems to know how to handle every situation (even if he is just winging it).  He is a wonderful leader, tremendous provider, invaluable partner, and he is truly devoted to his sons.  He has a heart for them and that is always evident.   He knows his job is important, and he has A LOT of fun with it!

We love you Dada!  And we are so happy God placed you head of our little family!!

Happy Father's Day!

YOU ARE AWESOME!!!



A Little Tennis Before Dinner

 

Keeping Watch

He is VERY proud of his new watch!

(that he bought with his OWN money, I might add.)

I Love My Sister!!

Becky and I met up this week in Bowling Green for the night to hang out and have some Sister Time together.  It is a rare treat these days to get time with Becky all to myself.  Distance, children, husbands, parents, dogs, etc. mean that when we do come together, it is usually a group affair.  Which is also great, but sometimes sisters just need some Sister Time.  And that is just what we got!  A whole evening of it. We relaxed at the hotel, went to hear a wonderful author, Karen Kingsbury, speak, and then had dinner at a favorite Bowling Green restaurant.  We got to chat (uninterrupted by little boys) about books and bible studies and whatever else happened to come up. It was such a sweet time!  The only thing I couldn't understand is, "Why do we not do this more often?"

Even the Casey News made the trip.  It is a sort of a family joke about how our hometown newspaper always winds up with us on our visits.  Mom and Becky still save copies of it for me to read and bring them down when they come to my house or have them ready and waiting on mom's coffee table when I arrive at hers.   It is interesting, because even though I seem to know fewer and fewer of the names in the, no more than twenty page, weekly paper, I still enjoy my five minute peruse through it.  Becky takes much longer to read through it, because she actually focuses on the details and reads through all of the stories.  My approach is much different.  I scan the pictures to see if I recognize anyone, which usually I do not, since I have been gone from my hometown for over fifteen years now.  But ever so often, I will stumble across a picture of a classmate or a story about a friend who still lives in Casey County or their child and feel a connection to my old stomping ground.

So, of course, the Casey News made the Sister Trip.  It is just a part of our fabric, I guess. 

What a great night!!  I love my sister!!

Uncle Darth

It is a wonderful Uncle who will happily put on the Darth Vader mask and willingly be attacked by a Jedi cowboy and Superman...and a coat hanger.

Thanks Uncle Bill!

June 7, 2011

With the lack of posting on the blog this month, one would think that it was a pretty uneventful month for the Workmans. 

Actutally, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

It has been a wonderful season for us, filled with much growth in Christ for all members of the household.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God." Ephesians 2:9

June 7th, will go down as one of my most treasured days on planet earth.  For this was the date when Caleb professed his belief in Christ, the son of God, as His Savior, confessed he was a sinner, and asked Jesus to forgive him and be the Lord of his life!

Since the day they were born (and probably even before that), Eric and I have prayed daily that our boys would KNOW, love and trust God and that their identity would be in Christ alone.  Nothing, I mean nothing, is more important than that!  No matter what path they choose, where they live, what they make their life's work, no matter what...the only thing we want for my children is for them to know the Lord and desire to follow Him. 

After that, we believe everything else falls into place.

Does this mean his life will be perfect?  Does this mean that he will be perfect? Does this mean he will always get it right?   Does this mean that he will never make a bad choice?  Does this mean that he no longer need to be discipled?  Does it mean that he totally understands it all now? No, it doesn't mean any of those things, but it does mean that he has been justified through his faith in Christ which gives him peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom he has gained access by faith into this grace which he now stands.  And he can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1 paraphrased)

I am so humbled by our faithful and loving God. My heart rejoices and I give God all the glory and praise! All of it! I am Caleb's mother, but he belongs to God, his heavenly father. I have to trust God with the plans and purposes He has for Caleb and just be grateful for the opportunity to parent and love him. I am so blessed to have Caleb as my son.


Praising our Awesome Savior!!

And We Have a First Grader...

Okay, this is not exactly new news, since Caleb's last day of kindergarten was a week and a half ago, but I am a little behind on the ole blog...again.  I am still not sure how this "first grader" news is settling with Momma, either, but this is just another part of life and I have discovered that little boys just continue to grow, even when we want to put a brick on their heads and say "STOP! This is going too fast."  Luckily, this big guy is still quite of fan of cuddling with his momma, so I will hold on to THAT for as long as I can!

Kindergarten was a blast!  There is just no other way to describe it!  There were just so many fun things Caleb's school and class did that made it truly a special experience.  He made some wonderful friendships with some really great kiddos and actually learned to sit still for longer than five minutes.  Now that is truly amazing!  And God gave Caleb the best teacher He could have for Caleb's personality and learning style. We had prayed for her long before we knew she would be Caleb's teacher and God was everso faithful in providing.   Mrs. Genoble was fun, but firm.  Organized, but flexible.  She allowed them to grow, develop, and express themselves, but kept them within the appropriate boundaries.  Her focus was not only on her students growing academically, but mostly on them growing in character. She knew her students well and was able to teach to them at whatever level they were at and expected from them, what she knew they were capable of giving.  And nothing less, which I truly appreciated.  She is not the picture of the warm and fuzzy kindergarten teacher, but that does not lessen her devotion and love for her students.  She is is an exceptional educator who has expectations for her students and helps them achieve their goals and in many cases, go beyond what they even thought they were capable of.  That is an awesome teacher!  And we were so blessed to have her, along with a couple of wonderful, dedicated teacher assistants, Mrs. Burford and Mrs. Miller.

The last days of kindergarten were filled with lots of exciting times and celebrations.  There was actually no kindergarten graduation or ceremony, but instead they did some pretty cool farewell to Kindergarten activities and parties.  Which I think was a better fit for a bunch of wiggly, active six-year-olds.  The Kindergarten Rodeo was part of the end of year festivities, along with the Kindergarten water party.  Both were so much fun for the kiddos...and the parents, too.

At the final P.R.I.D.E. time school assembly, Caleb was honored with the Trustworthiness award for Mrs. Genoble's class.  Each Kindergartener, at some point during the year, was recognized for a character trait that shone in them.   I couldn't think of a better character award for Caleb. 

What a fun year!!  Goodbye for now, Kindergarten.  Although Caleb will be moving on, Seth is well on his way to "Kindergarten school".   We can't wait to see you again in a year and a half!!  But not too fast.  We will do our best to take our time getting there.