iwantmk.comLuanne Storer,IBC

This weekend was a little crazy. Isn’t it funny how we think that when school is over, things will slow down a bit…wrong…we want so badly to enjoy summer that we book ourselves for twenty-million activities? In the end we just exhaust ourselves. Even vacationing is hard work anymore. Babble, babble, that is not even what I wanted to talk about. Anyway, this weekend was difficult in more ways than just a packed schedule. It was hard on my heart and heavy on my soul.

I found out something about a friends child that could not be ignored. I had to, for the sake of the child and the parents find out the truth of the matter and let the child’s parents in on it. It is hard enough to love a friend, love their child, and find out the child is in trouble, but to have to break the parent’s heart….well, it sucks. There is no other way to say it. Nobody likes to be bearer of bad news, or stir up trouble, or be the snitch. The truth is, the easiest thing is usually not the better thing. It was also hard because I want the child to trust me enough to come to me when he/she is in trouble. I don’t want to be the person who tells, I want to be the person who they know will walk beside them and help them on their way. I thought about it and prayed about it and in this instance; I knew I had to tell the parents.

As a parent, I want to know. I want to know if my children are in trouble or need help. Believe it or not, there are parents who don’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss, even at the expense of the child. There are parents who don’t want to punish or deal with a child’s issues just because they don’t want to be the “bad guy.” It is more important that their child likes them than it is for them to correctly love their child which includes being unliked sometimes. Take the risk…don’t make parenting about you. Know that being a parent is a God given gift of serious responsibility. It is not to be taken lightly or used for selfish appeasement of our own insecurities. Love your children enough and your friends enough to tell them the truth and not waver from it. Accountability is hard to take sometimes, but it sure is a safe place to be.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer (if your name is Debbie…sorry), but I just wanted to share and see what you guys have to say about it all.

For spititual, mental, phyisical and emotional health……laugh a little…..or alot!

Sorry for the delay in getting this up, we had technical difficulties due to weather.

(p.s. we were shooting a video for brothersstudios.com , called “It’s Not The End Of The World, But You Can See It From Here” , and Luanne had a little trouble getting started, she couldn’t stop laughing for about 5 minutes straight! So go check it out here. )

No, we didn’t just have an addition to our family, he’s been around since November. The deal is….today is the first day I get to really be Auntie Luanne. I am so excited! My brother and sister-in-law’s son Ethan is usually taken care of by his Grandmother, but they are away on vacation this week. I am filling in….all week! I am so glad I am going to get to be close to him when he is growing up.

 It seems like now a days families are spread out and even too busy for each other. Every day is manic for some….not just Mondays. Today I just wanted to remind you to enjoy your family members. Especially the very young and very old. It won’t be long until the young aren’t young any more and the old aren’t with us any more. Give extended family members a call today. Tell them you just called to say “Hello.” Call the little kids and let them be trilled they got a phone call. Write a letter….yes a letter. You know, pencil and paper. There is just something special about a hand written note. Thank the Lord for your family today.

It has been 12 years since I have spent a whole day with an infant. It is going to be awesome!

 Kisses!

Krisha and I have decided that we are going to put our best foot forward and try to save our butts financially from this liquid gold crisis. We spent last week walking everywhere we possibly could instead of driving. We live downtown which I know is not too attractive to everyone, but we love it. We like being close to the Art District and we enjoy being close to the Victoria Theater where Krisha dances. We also have a market downtown that is totally awesome. Fresh veggies, fresh fruit, beautiful flowers for my table, and the homemade breads and deserts are to die for. The market is a little over 5000 steps (we used a pedometer) and the Theater is a little over 2000. It has been great exercise. We even walked to CVS downtown (this is for Jenny)! We stopped and had coffee at Boston Stoker (that is for Daniel,) it was awesome! We definitely love the walkin gig. I really think it is going to make a huge difference in our budget. We also noticed that we bought less at the market than we would have if we had gone to a superstore, mainly because we had to carry every thing we purchased over 2500 steps home. I am sure we are saving more than just gas money. I have a friend that says that if you go into Wal-Mart with just your hands, you’ll spend $50. If you go in with a cart, you’ll spend $100. I am usually lucky if I spend less than $200. We spent less than $20 at the market (that included our lunch!) I think this is going to work out.

Today we drove to the Lake so Krisha could participate in the race that our Sailing Club was having. I figured out that we spent almost $20 in gas to get there and back. We drive a huge Expedition and it only gets 15 miles per gallon. Ugh!!!!

Walking is doing us a lot of good. What are you doing to save on that liquid gold?

I have to tell you that this weekend was awesome! The girls shopped til we were all about to drop, they went to see a movie, swam, relaxed in the hot tub, blared music and danced around the hotel room, had creamer and ice fights, ate pizza, cookie dough, chips, and candy, and well……at 2:30am I got a call from the front desk. They said that if they got one more complaint, we would have to leave. I had no idea! Every other year we have done this, my friend, who was the manager, who is obviously not the manager anymore, would get us two rooms and not put anyone on either side of us. Apparently it didn’t work out this year. Oh yeah, did I mention the hotel was full of out of town soccer teams that were in town for the tournaments. The hotel was packed and we didn’t get the run of the place. We had a hard time adjusting, but truly, they could have called when they got the first complaint. Anyway, the girls seemed to have a good time. They were totally exhausted when we got them home Saturday evening.

Thank you so much for you suggestions and encouragement. I ended up giving her money to shop with in the mall (good idea Tiffany!)  I remembered that I had a few jewelry items that I got from Just Jewelry that she liked. I put the money card in one of the boxes. The mall had an American Cookie Factory, and so I got her a big “Happy Birthday” cookie. My BFF Jenny from Momminitup went on Saturday and picked up a handmade purse that Krisha said she liked when we were at the market last week. I am going to give that to her when we go out with family on Tuesday (her actual birthday.) Thanks Jenny J

My point of all this was to not only fill you in, but to remind you of something I have to remind myself of all the time. Why worry? I was worried about what I would get her and how all this would come together. Isn’t it funny that even when we know the truth, we still believe a lie? The truth is, worry is not from God. I certainly need to quit focusing on what I am going to get (or get someone else) and focus on the blessings I have. Lori, you were right; Krisha was my sweet blessing from my Heavenly Father 14 years ago.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus!

Amen.