Would You Hurry Up!...Oh...I Love You=)

Many of you already know that Josh has been putting the finishing touches on his very first book, The Discovery. I am so proud of him!! It is a devotional book through the book of John geared toward High School and College-aged students. He has been so diligent to get it written and so obedient to the Lord's leading in it, but I'm ready for it to be at the Press already! He warned me about a week or two ago to "just consider this exam week" and I thought I prepared myself, but I just realized that we have another week left in this "exam week". See, he has a strategy...he finds a place to sit, pretty much anywhere, and puts his headphones in his ears and his computer on his lap and zones out, completely engulfed into perfecting this book. This means that 1. he cannot hear Areyna yelling out her door that she has to "peepee" while I'm across the house doing office work 2. he somehow cannot see (or feel) Zeke pulling on his pant leg and whining to hear the music too 3. he cannot hear the front door bell ring even though he's right next to the front door 4. he cannot hear the timer going off in the kitchen while the beans boil over on the stove while I'm changing a stinky diaper 5. he somehow missed that Areyna and Zeke kept coming in to sit on my lap or talk to me while I try to give a violin lesson 6. he cannot hear his phone ringing off the hook right next to him...you get the picture=) His deadline is next Friday and then I'll have my husband back. All joking aside, though, I never realized everything that goes into writing a book and I can't wait to see the finished product. You are going to love the book, no matter what age you are.

G-Daddy

Zeke and his G-daddy - just a few days old

My dad is Grandaddy, but for some reason my kids can't say it quite right. It usually comes out something like "dadadaddy", so we have nicknamed him G-Daddy. My parents live in Colorado Springs, CO so we don't get to see them much and we miss them so much. The week after my sister had her baby in the DC area, my parents flew in to be with her but my dad had a meeting later on that week in South Carolina. He decided he'd drive down to stay with us and we're SO glad he did. Every day since then, oh for about three weeks now, Zeke has not failed to ask for his G-daddy AT LEAST once. We miss you and love you G-Daddy.

Why We Do What We Do

We are in a stage right now with Areyna that, when I ask her to do something and she doesn't really like the idea she either starts to whine (which I CANNOT stand) or starts to throw a temper tantrum. We began to give her a "choice". Here is an example, starting after the temper tantrum has begun.

Me: "Areyna, can you please have some self-control and listen to mommy?"
Me: "You have a choice. You can either choose to stop playing with your toys like mommy just asked you to with a happy heart and come enjoy a nice dinner...OR...You can choose to continue to throw a temper tantrum and choose to disobey mommy and choose consequences. Now, what choice would you like to make?"
Areyna: with a surprisingly much better attitude "I will choose to obey."
(This doesn't work EVERY time, but most of the time.)

In my quiet time today I finished up the book of 2 Samuel. I learned so much in this last chapter. The Lord had allowed Satan to tempt King David and he had a choice to make. David chose the WRONG choice, and his conscience let him know it. He was going to have to deal with the consequences. He went to the Lord and asked for forgiveness and for the Lord to take away his guilt. The Lord replied "This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three choices. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you." He had to choose his consequence. See, he ALREADY chose the path leading to consequences and now he had to choose which consequence he wanted from the Lord. We don't necessarily allow Areyna to choose her consequence, but hopefully by giving her options early on in her life, she will learn how to avoid that path all-together.

Who Stole The Hats?

My mother-in-law has made an art out of Christmas. Let me just tell you why; she has 5 children, 4 of which are married, plus 4 grandkids and another one on the way, her in-laws, her husband's brother, her husband and the honorary Via family (the Hambrick's), not to mention her friends and family that do not come to the Via household for Christmas. One thing she started this year that was pretty creative was to give each grandchild a different type of wrapping paper so we don't spend 30min. looking for their next gift. Back to the post at hand; at the end of Christmas she gives us all an envelope with ALL the gift receipts for each family so if something doesn't work, doesn't fit, or isn't what we particularly liked we can take it back. Well, I was organizing the office last week and I ran across our receipt envelope and I wanted to make sure that we didn't need anything out of it. I ran across one item that she had paid for that we didn't get (it's not uncommon to lose a present here and there) and I wanted to make sure that she didn't receive something she'd paid for. Last Wed. after Charlotte One, which was incredible by the way, we headed to VA to do all our taxes and end of the year paperwork for the ministry (that's a completely different post) so I brought the receipt with me and asked Janet about it. She got this look and without even a word led me into their office and pulled out what you see in the picture. She said that she had wanted to get Zeke a little construction hat to wear when he and his daddy work with their tools and this is what came in the mail. This was clearly NOT WHAT SHE HAD PAID FOR. She was supposed to get 2 matching hats for $11.99 and instead got PLASTIC PARTY HATS from the $1 store. She then drove to "Toys R Us" and asked for a refund with receipt in hand and they said with accusation "Ma'am, we don't carry those here. They aren't even our brand", to which Janet replied, "well, this is what I got in the mail after ordering YOUR construction hats on-line." Anyway, she gladly gave me the 2 packs of plastic hats from www.beistle.com for Zeke's birthday party this summer and is becoming very close to NEVER shopping on the internet again.

OK, That's Just Weird

Josh and I were heading back from a winter conference at Ft. Caswell last Sunday afternoon and we decided it was past time for lunch since the kids were getting a little too cranky. Wendy's seemed like a quick, cheap fix so we stopped. We noticed that all the senior citizens in town had also decided that their Sun. afternoon lunch fix would be fulfilled at this particular Wendy's. We all got our favorites, sat down and devoured our food. Josh finished first so he decided he'd go fill up at the gas station next door while I stayed with the kids. Areyna takes forever because she talks to everyone around her, eats little bites and squirms; Zeke takes forever because, well, he eats more than I do!! Anyway, every couple of min. or so we'd get an elderly visitor at our table who would come over and talk about how cute our kids were, how polite they were, how they warmed up to strangers so quickly, etc. Well, while I was trying to get Areyna to "eat ONE MORE BITE" and clean up Zeke so we could take one more try on the potty before the rest of the ride home, we had a rather ODD encounter with another older couple. After their compliments on our children we just started small talking and as soon as he figured out we were in ministry I knew I was in for it!! He starts going on about how he knew all these SECRETS in the Bible that "not even the good preachers know" such as identical chapters within the Bible, and certain verses that you could "repeat 3 times" to stop bleeding, headaches and various other ailments. It just weirded me out!! Josh came back toward the end of the conversation and has vowed never to leave me alone like that again=) Areyna looked at me later and said "that man was weird". I completely agree Rainy.

Charlotte ONE

If you are in college or around that age we better see you at Charlotte One tonight. Return Worship is privileged to be partnering with Charlotte One as we lead worship every Tues. night (except for an occasional concert).

WHEN: Every Tues. night following the general college class schedule
WHERE: First United Methodist Church Uptown
WHAT TIME: 7:00pm
HOW MUCH: IT's FREE, so no excuses!!
GUEST SPEAKER: Voddie Baucham

I'll see you tonight.

Relax, Relate, Release

Did any of you ever watch that show called "It's A Different World"? That was one of my favorites. It used to come on right before or after The Cosby Show. That was my 1 hr. of TV that I got for the day, I always loved that rule mom=) Anyway, there is one thing that Whitley, one of the main characters, taught me that stuck with me through all these years. It goes something like this (you should probably close your eyes to get the full effect), raise your hands up to the sky and say "relax", then bring your hands down along your sides shadowing your body and say "relate", and finally flick your hands in a matter as to say that you are letting it go behind you and say "release". I guess you really just have to have seen it, but it really works for me when I've had a bad day or something is just driving me crazy and I need to just stop talking and "relax, relate and release".

On The Road Again

I had such a good birthday yesterday. I saw snow, I didn't run out to the store for a single thing, I didn't change 1 poopie diaper, we got to drop the kids off for a date night (thanks Dan and Raina, Areyna definitely didn't want to leave last night and I think Zeke could have danced with Barbie all night). Josh took me out to eat and then we hung out, just the 2 of us=) Today I am trying to pack our family up because we are heading out to Oak Island at Ft. Caswell for a Winter Conference. We'll be leading worship of course and Josh will also be teaching 3 sessions. If you think about it, please pray that Rainy and Zeke will behave themselves so we can focus on our mission there and not of fussy babies, because as we speak they are trying my patience as we try to get out the door.

P.S. My sister-in-law and her 2 little ones came to visit us last week. We had a BLAST. Let me just break it down for you...Areyna isn't even 3 yet, Cana is 8 months younger than Areyna, Zeke is 8 months younger than Cana and Kayil is 8 months old. We had 4 kids here under 3 years old. You can see more pictures on Kelly's Blog and read a little more about the week, but I just had to share this picture. Here is Areyna and Cana sitting at the big girl table eating lunch!!

A special thanks goes out to the Singletons. Pastor Rob and his wife Michelle had us over for breakfast last Saturday morning and his daughter gave Areyna 2 of her dancing outfits that no longer fit her. They saved the day a couple of time with the girls. THANK YOU Julianna!

SNOW!!

When I was a preschool music teacher and the threat of snow was in the air, I would literally set my alarm, whether it was 2am or 7am, for whenever the weather man said it was supposed to start. Not only was I waiting in great expectation to see if my school was canceled but I LOVE snow. I just love weather in general, especially storms, but snow is one of my favorites. Josh would always make me so sad because he'd say things like,"babe, you know it's not really going to snow", "it's almost over", or "it won't last" just for kicks. What a nice husband=) All this to say that we were supposed to have a wintry mix and possibly snow and ice tonight and tomorrow and I've had butterflies in my stomach since I heard about the possibility. I said "were" because I just looked outside and saw SNOW. That's right, it's snowing!!! It's my birthday in exactly 1 hour and 14min. and I can't think of a better birthday present. So, I'm off to go play in the snow.