An update

I'm writing this to prove to Derrick that I can still blog. My camera needs a new rechargeable battery that I have not had any luck finding yet so I have no pictures. But, I do wish I had pictures of Derrick running the Dallas marathon this past weekend. 26.2 miles! Crazy! Ridiculously crazy! He says its fun! He and some guys from church ran it. They are such a neat group of guys. They are also crazy! Sometimes they get up at 4 a.m. or so and go run 12...13 miles before they go to work. They said the wind was brutal. He said a runner would rather run in extremely hot weather or extremely cold weather than windy weather because they have to work so much harder fighting against the wind. Us wives drove to some stopping points and were getting texts about what mile they were at. It was really exciting waiting at the finish line when we finally saw them (we knew what they were wearing and kept watch for their clothes.) I wanted to cry. What an accomplishment!

We got an idea from my friend, Kelly (see the teachandtickle.blogspot), and have been opening a door on our advent house( I wish I had pictures of it) every day. They hang a new ornament on the tree ( a little metallic red tree with red lights that sits next to the advent house) each day and have a mission of the day. Then we have a Bible lesson. A mission of the day might be eating sticky candy, washing our hands with Christmas soap, and talking about a clean heart. We really enjoyed going to the mall and picking candy out from the candy store (aside from the fact that I decided to do some Christmas shopping and the candy kicked in-that was a mistake!) Samantha picked out a huge pink lollipop and Bailey picked out a Christmas tree made of candy canes with icing on it. This is the first time we have done anything like this and I cannot tell you how much the advent house and lessons have helped us to keep our focus on what Christmas is really about. Though I have still found moments where I have gotten caught up in the shopping & all!