My Resting Heart Rate

Now, I know you all are thinking, "What in the WORLD is she blogging about NOW?! And why in the heck do we care?!" But I have to share my exercising success story with you people who love and care about me so much.

I want you to know that I have been faithfully exercising FIVE times a week since just before Thanksgiving and I am so proud of myself for that. HOWEVER, I have not lost any weight, nor are my jeans fitting any looser. I was getting depressed about that until just recently when I took my resting heart rate -- it has dropped SEVEN beats/minute! What does this mean? This means even though I don't look any better on the outside, I am getting beautiful on the inside (and everyone knows "it's what's inside that counts"). I may die of obesity, but I surely won't die of a heart attack anytime soon. Wahoo!

Walkie Talkies

I've had walkie talkies for years but just pulled them out yesterday for the boys to play with. Evan hasn't stopped talking since I put batteries in them. Yesterday he was on the toilet talking to me on his walkie talkie. The conversation from the toilet went like this:

Evan (into his walkie talkie): "I hope the poop doesn't get on my hands again."

Me (into my walkie talkie): "Evan, put the walkie talkie down before you wipe your butt."

Evan: "Got it, Mom...(pause)...I did it...bye.....(long pause)....I love you, Mom."

Rambo I and II

Here are my tough little Rambos. I'm so proud. Ugh. Whatever happened to the Cinderella and Snow White I thought I would have? (Make-up and tattoos courtesy of the Valentine costume boxes from Grandma and Grandpa White.)For Valentine's Day, I purchased the boys each a book. Nice idea, right? Not quite! Ben, who didn't know I had aleady bought the boys a gift, walked in from work and presented each boy with his own toy automatic gun with laser lights, and army vests. Guess which gift they liked best?! Next year, I'm buying each kid a pony!

If Batman and Robin had a child together...

OK, I know it's impossible, BUT if Batman and Robin had a child together, this is what he would look like.

Grandma and Grandpa Popcorn (White) sent THREE Valentine boxes FULL of costumes for the boys. Drew immediately picked out the Robin costume, but he wanted the bat wings on it too. So here he is..."Batrob!"

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

Grammar 101 Taught by Joel

My current "Joel project" is to change the way he corrects Evan's grammar.

The other day Evan said, "I catched the ball, Joel!"

Joel then said in a rude tone, "Evan, what's wrong with this sentence? 'I catched the ball.'" (It was rude, but I had a hard time not laughing at the way Joel said it.)

I scolded Joel for being rude and he responded, "Well how am I supposed to tell him it's wrong?" I suggested he repeat the sentence, the correct way, back to Evan in the form of a question. "For example, you could have said, "You caught the ball, Evan?"

Just yesterday we had success. Both boys started to play Candyland and Evan said, "Mommy teached me how to play."

Joel: "Mommy taught you how to play?"

Yeah, Joel! I rewarded him with a marble in his jar for that one!

FYI: The "marble jar" is our new behavior modification technique. When the jar is full, Joel gets to go to an arcade with Dad. He loves getting marbles and quite honestly, it is working extremely well.

"The Box Givers"

Evan came running upstairs today and excitedly proclaimed, "Somebody knocked on our door and it's the box-givers! Maybe it's for me, Drew and Joel."

UPS had delivered a package. Unfortunatly for Evan, it was only a scrapbook I had ordered online, but his new name for the UPS driver made me smile.

Germ-a-phobe Joel and Prayer

Yesterday Evan was really sick with the stomach flu and now Joel is scared to death that he will get it. "I don't want to puke" he keeps telling me. He was at Grandma and Grandpa's house when Evan came down with the flu, so he told them he didn't want to go home until nighttime.

At 6 o'clock when Joel walked in the door, he briefly greeted me and went straight up to his bedroom and closed the door. I went to check on him and he told me to "close the door quick, I don't want the germs getting in here." When he went to the use bathroom, he held his breath until he was "safe" in Mom and Dad's bathroom with the door closed (he wouldn't use the kids' bathroom because "that's where the germs are").

Do you think I have a germ-a-phobe like Howie Mandel on my hands? I recently heard Donald Trump is also a germ-a-phobe. Hmm, I'm thinking...both guys are making lots o' money... maybe it's not such a bad trait to have?

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here (yes, I've had coffee!). After Joel was tucked in bed, he was so worried he'd puke that he asked me to pray for him. I prayed once and then five minutes later, risking catching a germ in the hallway, he came to find me and to ask me to pray for him again, "I feel better when you pray, Mom."

First think this morning when Joel heard Evan awake, he ran to Evan and asked him if he was feeling better. Evan said he was better and Joel proudly said, "That's because I prayed for you this morning. I prayed for you, Drew and Mom and Dad." Evan responded with a hearty "Thanks, Joel!" Joel repeated the same thing to Drew when he woke up.

Now here's what I need you, my faithful readers to do for me:
Please, PLEASE pray that Joel does not get the flu! He has all the faith in the world that God will keep him safe. I also believe that God will keep Joel safe, but I also know we, as sinful men were cast from the Garden of Eden and now live in a world where we are exposed to many germs. (Wow, one cup of coffee and now I'm preaching!) I just want Joel to experience the power of Jesus and of prayer.

Thank you in advance for your prayers!