Day 73: I Complain Too Much

Posted by: Cris

How nice was it this morning to go back to sleep for an extra 45 minutes after I heard the girls wake up and drag my mom upstairs to get breakfast? Pretty nice, I'll tell you!

Emilie and I have had the pleasure of going to one of the coolest churches in the country for the last 4 years while we were in Hawaii. New Hope was started by Wayne Cordeiro who is probably the best speaker I've ever heard and is nationally and internationally known as such. We used to get to hear him every week but as the years have gone on and he has become big time as a speaker, author, church planter, etc., he speaks less and less and his "understudies" speak more and more. Recently, he also took on the role of president of a small Christian college in Oregon and has handed off the main campus of New Hope to others.

I'll just be honest and say I'm not a big fan of Wayne not being there so today, I decided to check out the satellite campus of New Hope that is just down the street from our house and actually meets in the movie theater at Windward Mall.

On the way, I asked the girls if they were going to kid's church and of course, Juneau excitedly say "Yeah!". Nova of course, said "I'm going to go with you daddy". We spent the short ride telling Nova how much more fun she'd have at kid's church and even Juneau said "Go with me sissy, we will have fun". But, even as we were driving through the parking lot Nova was insistent that she was going with me, even though we kept telling her that meant she had to sit quietly and not play...she was okay with it.

I parked the car and when I opened the door to get her out of her car seat, without warning Nova said "I'm going to kid's church with Juneau"...and she did...and had so much fun.

Have I ever mentioned that Nova loves to lift heavy things? :) Today she found that a full box of pull-ups was the perfect weight that it would cause her to strain but could stil lift it.

Tonight we headed over to cousin Melody's house (which gave me great bargaining power over the girls at naptime - "If you dont' take a good nap, you will have to stay home and not get to go play with Melody")

I'm not sure who was happier to see each other: my girls and Melody or my mom and Aunt Wallie.
As usual, the girls got busy destroying the house...
Which freed up the adults to sit and talk story over Chinese food...
This story time reminded me that I complain way too much about how "hard" my life is. Tonight, Oma (Aunt Wally's mom - a woman who has only lived in the U.S. for about 10 years and grew up in WWII Germany) told us about the time she rode her bicycle from Weisbaden, Germany to Weimar to visit her uncle (about 300 km) and just stopped and slept beside the road along the way...mind you this is in WWII era Germany (just before the war). This reminded me of the stories I've heard her tell in the past about the many times they experienced their neighborhood being bombed during WWII.

Let's just say some people have had tougher times in their lives and I complain too much. But, all of these experiences explain why she is such a feisty lady...as I was leaving tonight, she said to me "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!". She cracks me up!

Tomorrow starts the new semester and I will be super duper busy but I'm hoping it will help keep time moving quickly toward April and Emilie will be home before we know it.