This has been one crazy summer to say the least. I have found myself doing something I swore I would never do in the summer....enroll in summer school classes. However the difference is this time around I am actually going to school because I want the education whereas before I guess i liked the thought of the education but my retention seemed only for the grade not for the education. I know that at times this summer I have found myself reverting back into that pattern with one of my classes. (this next sentence is where I will justify myself for this last sentence) Let's be honest, I have 3 kids 4 and under and a wonderful wife that are very patient and supportive of my scholastic endeavor but I have found it most difficult to balance my work, school, and family this summer. I also was asked to perform a funeral this summer, the first one I have ever done entirely by myself, of a former high school student from when I was at my last church. The week I spent in NLR for the funeral was immensely challenging and immensely rewarding as I was reminded over and over again of what God has called me to in ministry, relationships, as well as being able to give some sort of support for a dear family grieving the loss of their daughter. All that to say, that week I was in NLR for the funeral I ate, slept, and breathed funeral putting me far behind in the school scene but I felt confident that is what the Lord wanted me to be doing that week so I fought the rest of the month to catch up and still haven't fully caught up. This is what I have discerned from this summer, God knew that I would be overwhelmed, busy, stressed, and crazy this summer and He knew that I would do that funeral so I will trust that the things that I learned or didn't learn, as this case may be, He will use to glorify Himself.
Okay, now that I have that intro done I can address the title of this blog post. If you have kept up with my family or heard me talk about Cooper much then you would probably recognize this as another classic Cooper story. Yesterday he wanted to tell me a story he made up so of course I was excited to hear it as I am with all his made up stories. The story went something like this...first, image my 4 year old with his dramatic facial expression talking with his active hands...okay back to the story, "me and my brother were outside the other day and this big squirken bird sprayed us with water...." My first question after laughing at whatever a big squirken bird is, was how big is a big squirken bird? "Well....the big squriken bird was about ummm ummm ummm 60 feet tall." Classic, I loved it! I have retold that story several times and have been cracking up at the thought of the big squirken bird.
We went swimming today at a friend's pool and if was so much fun. I love how much Cooper loves to be in the water, and now how much Jack is loving being in the water. A couple of weeks ago Jack was not really interested in getting in the water but now he loves to jump in and swim to me with the biggest grin of accomplishment on his precious little face. I was so proud of him and he knew it. Cooper has begun taking his floaties off and swimming between Tamara and I and that has been fun to celebrate with him about his little fish accomplishments.
Sweet Kate! Kate is crawling now and she loves it. She hasn't fully abandoned that prayer crawl yet and is actually doing a partial bear crawl/regular crawl. I guess the point is she is mobile and enjoying her freedom to move it...she likes to move it move it...she likes to move it move it. Kate still loves her big brothers and they love her too. Jack occasionally gets frustrated with Kate when she wants to play with his toys and his, "no no kate....no kate...no no kate" falls on deaf ears. I don't say this lightly but it is a good way to describe it, Kate's other new "trick" is waving. It is really cute because if you ask her to wave she will wave and she has this look on her face like...Mom...Dad, check this out, you see that.
Tamara is staying busy. I know some of you reading this are saying, thank you Captain Obvious for telling us that Tam is staying busy. Tamara always finds something to stay busy with, making curtains, combing through mountains of house plans, analyzing the market, or doing any other things that you can think of to keep her busy. Tamara is doing some work for a good friend of ours helping him do a little of this and a little of that and she is enjoying it. She is like Jose Oquendo...a real utility player. I married over my head but again thank you Captain Obvious!
We are looking forward to football season and seeing as many of you as possible. Let us know what is going on with you and your families. We miss you all and love you.
Stephen
