Watch Out for This Toy!

So, here is my lesson for the week. Once a toy begins to break, just pitch the whole thing:)

Here is the back story. One of the very few things that Meredith liked about MDO were the vacuum play toys. So, one day I was at a consignment shop, and saw this toy for $1.50 and thought "Excellent, what a steal!" All things went well for the next couple of months, until the attachment part fell off. So, no big deal -- Meredith still played with it and enjoyed pushing around the toy.

That is until this week. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but while I was playing with Russ/watching TV/just minding my own business, my daughter comes swinging at me with this toy vacuum attachment. First, every boy out there better watch out, because my daughter has an arm -- and she is not afraid to use it! After placing her in time out, I walked out of the room to collect my thoughts and let the stars stop coming (don't worry, I didn't have a concussion); and then quickly took the offending toy out to the trash. A nice little goose egg appeared after a couple of seconds (which I later learned is actually a good thing - bleeding outside of the skull, as opposed in inside), but has now become a pretty bruise.

Don't let that nice smile and funny eyes fool you.....it is not a toy that you want to mess with! Or maybe, just not a toy for the Lipsey kids :)

Music Camp

It's the last week in July, and that means one thing -- PHBC Music Camp! Think VBS only the kids learn a musical in a week and perform it on Sunday night. The kids do all sorts of things -- like drums, handbells, xylophones, ukulele, snacks and recreation, and bible study. I'm teaching the older kids (5th and 6th grade) Bible Study, and we had a great first day. If you live in the area, and have a 1st through 6th grader, bring them on over to Park Hill. Musical fun will be had by all!

Image from: http://www.littlebigstuff.com/music/music.html

NLRHS Class of 98 Reunion

My high school class celebrated its 10 year reunion this weekend. A meet and greet, and family picnic, and a social event were the highlights of this ingathering of Wildcats. I would say that most people are pretty much exactly the same. Now, I feel like we were missing several people at this reunion, especially after I was quizzed by one of my friends about "Where's _______" until he found a person that I didn't know at least some amount of information. So, be sure to come to the next reunion!

Here's Matt and I waiting in line at the flying fish for something to drink. The social was outside, and that summer heat in Arkansas was as you would expect. Thankfully, there are lots of places to cool off down in the River Market.

Susan and Me

Give me a C-A-T-S
(It's the Cheerleaders)

One of my favorite band buddies, Esther

Look, its all the Bloggers (well, minus Shana)!

Beth, Megan, Rebekah, Amy, Whitney, Susan, Shana, and me

Go check out Amy's blog for bunches of pictures!

Vacation at the Beach

My mom has been hinting for a few years that she would love for the family to go down to the beach together. So, last Monday when she said that she and dad were leaving the next day to go to Gulf Shores I thought to myself "Well, should I just pack us up and go on down as well?" As any land-locked crazy stay-at-home mother of two would tell you - of course you should! So, after a slightly busy Monday afternoon and evening, my parents loaded us up for a trip to the beautiful Gulf Coast - leaving Matt to fend for himself with his new job, but a nice bachelor week none the less.

Traveling was about what I expected. Mostly good times, with a few "get me out of this car seat" meltdowns that would last for a little while, but generally subside with some Little Einsteins, food, or a little lullaby. If that didn't work, then I would let my mind drift to a happy place.... All in all, they both did really well.

The beach was beautiful, and similar to what I remembered from 3 years ago traveling with Matt's family. There are still areas that are being worked on from past hurricanes, but generally it was a paradise only 8 hours away from home. Since we are the slightly stir crazy type (and easily sun-burned), we did some sightseeing as well. We took a quick trip up to Pensacola, and took a trip over the big bridge across the bay and ate at yummy Landry's. We also went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, and Meredith was very excited because she got to feed goats, deer, a llama, and ducks. Of course, she loved to throw the food at the animals feet, where as the animals would have just preferred to eat out of her hand, or even just take the plastic cup away from her. If you are ever down there, its a pretty small zoo; but a nice change of pace from the beach scene.

Probably the biggest hit for Meredith was the city park. Lots of swings, slides, rings, and monkey bars made our little toddler a happy camper. I was trilled to get the kids down for a good afternoon nap one day, and finish reading my Between Sundays book on the condo balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. It's the small things that make this mom smile.

We also were fortunate to meet up with one of my dad's college friends on our way back to Arkansas. Lee and his wife Rhoda hosted a wonderful dinner for us, and we enjoyed getting to know them - and Meredith enjoyed going through all their little trinkets.

So, all in all - it was a wonderful vacation. I'll have to snag my parents camera to see if there are any other interesting pictures.

Patrick and Krecia

The Lowerys and the Lipseys hosted a wedding shower for Patrick and Krecia a little over a week ago. An evening filled with food, presents, laughter, and Rock Band (without our little munchkins running around) brought back memories from high school, and started some new ones as well. Patrick and Krecia -- we are so thrilled for you guys as you begin this new season in your life. Marriage is a blessing, and will benefit you in ways that you can never imagine. We pray that you will grow closer to each other and to God through your union. We can't wait to see you at the wedding in just under two weeks!

Summer Reading

This post is devoted to the summer reading of Meredith, Russ, and Rachel. Matt's reading is currently about Digital Signal Processing and writing in C computer program language....so I'm just going to skip over him :)




Russ enjoys having books read to him, and we really try to carve out individual reading time for our son. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but some of his favorites are Goodnight Moon, Corduroy, and Mama Loves Me.



Meredith is still enjoying many of her favorite books. These days she likes to recite the books back to you. Some of her favorites are The Potty Book for Girls, Tails, and Peek-a-Boo.

I am convinced that my kids favorite part of reading is getting to take most of the books off the shelf to find just the right book. Meredith has started a not-so-favorable habit of taking most of the books off the shelf and spreading them out on the floor. However, we are very thankful that our kids have an interest in reading, so I'm happy to spend a couple extra minutes cleaning up if it helps our kids learn.




On to my list of good reads. I started off the summer with Flowers for Algernon, and that is a "classic" book that I would recommend. The rest of my reading has been centered on Bible Studies and Christian writings. A group of ladies from church did a book study on the book Balcony People that was really good. A nice short book that discusses affirmers and evaluators in our lives, and how important it is to be an affirmer, or Balcony Person, in the lives of our family and friends. Another good one was Is That All He Thinks About? at the suggestion of this blog. It was a great book on intimacy, and I was really convicted about things in the entertainment media and how they affected my view of that 3 letter word. Let's just say that I now fast-forward through a lot of the soap operas.


Finally, my two current reads are Between Sundays and Refresh. Between Sundays is a Karen Kingsbury fiction book that I am about 100 pages into. She again does not disappoint the reader, and I think did an excellent job of captivating the reader early in this book. Refresh is a summer bible study book, that takes a look at several women and the struggles that they face. While most of the struggles seem more extreme than anything I may have been through, it does have good application questions and helps you to focus on the #1 thing - honoring and serving God.

What are you guys reading? Any good books I should reserve at my local library?

A Week in the Life....

Because I have misplaced my memory card, I don't have any exciting pictures from the week. However, I'm going to see how many photo bucket images I can use to describe our week.


First, a sprained ankle. Ms. Meredith knows that she is supposed to always sit on her bottom when going down the slide, however her independent spirit came out and bit her on the bottom -- or shall we say foot. The poor girl spent about 2 days doing everything possible to not walk on that leg, but, on a positive note, we did have a couple of successful potty training days. She is doing much better now, and thank you to all the friends that called and checked in on her.



I had a great time with 3 of my friends on Monday night - Jennifer, Kim, and Stephanie. We went to The Flying Fish down in the river market, and had a wonderful time catching up with each other. Girl's nights are FANTASTIC!


Yesterday, was Chick-fil-a's annual Cow Appreciation Day. The kids and I met Matt for lunch up at the Chick-fil-a in Conway and saw kids and adults dress like cows for a free meal. There were lots of creative folks up there! I loved the black socks pinned on for a cow's tail, and the kids that went all out and painted their faces black and white got into character well. Meredith enjoyed giving high fives to the guy in a cow suit. I guess next year we'll have to participate.



Today I was honored to help host a Bridal shower for a sweet high school friend, Beth. Beth is getting married this month, and I am so happy that she has found a wonderful man to spend the rest of her life with. It was wonderful to catch up with all my friends from Park Hill, and meet Ms. Gracie!

Going to get a new memory card now.....

Fabulous 4th of July Weekend

The Fireworks, the food, and an appreciation for the freedom of the United States were the centerpieces of the Lipsey's 4th of July weekend. We had a fairly low key weekend, however we were very thankful to spend 4th of July night with our friends up in Searcy for a very yummy BBQ. Our friend Jono has entered the world of BBQ smoker extraordinaire, and we enjoyed some good fun with them and their other family and friends. Meredith and Russ enjoyed the food, but Meredith really enjoyed getting in the pool after dinner. I'll have to see if Brooke got any good pictures, because we let her just play around on the pool steps wearing her regular clothes. She was a little wet, but had such a good time splashing that I just couldn't make her stop.


Meredith helped me do a little cooking this weekend with some 4th of July Rice Krispie Treats. She got a little carried away with the sprinkles!

Another weekend flew by, and now we are starting another normal summer week. We ventured out to the pool this morning, and I'm sure we will make it to some of our other fun places (the zoo, the lake, and the park) later in the week.

I don't think I've mentioned it on here, but Matt started a new job last week. While its a little longer of a commute, the hours have been almost identical to his previous job as far as when he leaves and gets home from work and he is excited about his new position.

Amanda and Kevin

Matt, Rachel and Russ took a quick trip up to Fayetteville this weekend for Amanda and Kevin's wedding. I only got one photo from the wedding, however go and check out The Smith blog for pictures of the fun day. Russ did pretty well for the long car ride up there, and stayed asleep the whole ride home. The beautiful wedding took place at the Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista. Since I played flute and sang for the wedding, I honestly think I got one of the best seats in the house. While I didn't get to see Kevin's face, I watched as a dear friend pledged herself to the man of her dreams in the glass chapel in the Ozark woods. It was beautiful, and I think exactly what they wanted.

They really outdid themselves for the reception. The Inn at Carnall Hall was filled with happy guests, and it was great to get to catch up with some of my sweet sorority sisters and their families. It's funny how you can just pick up with these gals like it was yesterday, even though so much has changed in our lives.

Meredith had a great time with her Dee Dee and Big Daddy. The Zoo and Chick-fil-a were the highlights of the exciting Saturday without her parental units. Thanks mom and dad for watching our energetic MerBear.

On a side note, we have discovered that one of the best ways that Meredith has learned our friend's names is from those magnets they use to save the date or as party favors for weddings. She'll play with those when I'm in the kitchen, so for the past 6 months or so she would come to the fridge and say "Amanda" and "Kevin." So, if you're needing your child to remember some distant cousin for your next family reunion, that's my suggestion :)

Photos Courtesy of Kristina Smith.