Black Friday and my buddy Cooper

For some reason Cooper was really excited about Black Friday shopping this year. I am not sure whether it was the thought of quality time together or because he thought he could finagle me into buying him a lego set on sale (which he did, but won't get it until he pays me back). Anyway, this was my second year shopping, we never did this growing up. My parents were more of the philosophy that you didn't go anywhere near stores on Black Friday, with good reason.

Cooper set his alarm clock for 4 am after suggesting that I set out my clothes for the next day and sleeping in his. Then he woke me at 4:21 am and started helping me get dressed and ready. He got a stool out and stood by my closet and asked me what I wanted to wear, "Maybe a blouse, mom?" No thanks, more like a t-shirt and sweater. I didn't even know he knew the word "blouse". Then he got out other choices: a denim skirt, some brown dress pants before he finally found my jeans and we settled on a green sweater, pink shirt and jeans. He told me that my sweater and shirt would look good together because they are close together on the color wheel.

After Cooper hustled me out the door and we made our way to Walmart, he insisted that we RUN into the store at 4:55 am. Run? I was barely stumbling. But we ran in and got everything on our list. It was fun to have a little shopping buddy though I think he was expecting to find a couple of Wii games and Guitar Hero for $5. We didn't find that but I did treat him to a delectable breakfast at McDonald's when we were done.

Paris and Austin . . . Vampires?

It's my own little Edward and Reneesme!

Little Girls Are Cute

If I only knew how fun having a little girl was going to be, I wonder if I would have wished for boys so much initially. My favorite is her in the blanket.

Although she is all snuggled up next to the Anthropologie shopping bag -- that could make me wish for boys again.

Austin

Deliverance

This week at my bible study class our lecture was on Psalm 125 and specifically deliverance from the Lord. The lecturer spoke about a concept I have forgotten along the way. We have the mistaken belief that deliverance means that our trials will end or we will somehow have relief. I like how the lecturer described deliverance:

"it means living confidently as one who is protected, impenetrable like Mount Zion . . . rest in the powerful surrounding presence of God . . . living in the storm of trials and having peace."

Lately I've been very frustrated with my life, my kids, how my brain seems to have evaporated and the constant fatigue that comes with being a mom. This lecture brought me back to what we are doing here. I am here to be tested and tried and polished through the fire of difficulty. But the silver lining is that I will be able to do it, I will be able to get through it with Christ and come out better for it.

This morning something happened that perfectly illustrated this point to me. A friend and I drove 1 1/2 hours away to attend the Columbia, South Carolina temple. Don't even get me started on the fact that I had to leave at 6:30 am and had been up since 2 am with a bout of insomnia. Anyway, after the session I was definitely ready to go home quick and rest and felt weepy and nauseated from lack of sleep.

When I tried to start my car it wouldn't turn over, and the battery seemed to be dead. This was the trial and then came the deliverance. We found a man in the parking lot who was a mechanic who gave us a jump and even more importantly helped us find the battery. I'm not completely stupid, but have you ever looked for the battery under the hood of a BMW? It is in a weird spot and doesn't look anything like any other battery in a car. So anyway, this wonderful man was able to correctly hook our jumper cables up and jump us and even point out the fact that I had left my lights on, and that is why the battery was dead. By the way, I was driving Austin's car so I wasn't familiar with all these BMW quirks.

I was frustrated but just so grateful for how this played out, it could have been much different. It could have been pouring rain, we could have been boxed in by other cars in the parking lot with no way to reach the engine with the cables, there could have been no other cars there. We could have hooked the cables to the wrong spot and blown up the car! I felt like Mount Zion - we got through it with all the extra helpful things from Heavenly Father. AND I learned from my trial to always make sure to turn my lights off!