The Beginning of the 30's

So, I am now officially 30. I can't say I feel any more mature, wise or responsible, but I have now entered the decade that seems to be defined by these words. I celebrated the momentous occasion by going on a surprise getaway with my boyfriend. He had pre-planned all of it, and I just got to go along for the ride. It was AWESOME! I hate leaving our kids, but I do love getting to spend some one-on-one time with my favorite person. It feels like these are the only times that I can focus all my attention and affection on him. I love the way it feels when we rediscover how much we like each other. Anyway, we had a fabulous time in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The best parts (that can be mentioned on a blog :) were the awesome Mexican food and getting to be in the beautiful, snowy mountains. The one other notable thing we did was finally create our "Bucket list"--ya know, the list you are supposed to have of the things you want to do or accomplish before you kick the bucket. Pleasant thought, right? But we both liked the idea of coming up with these 'goals'. We each brainstormed five, and then decided to combine them into our "Top 10 list". Some of them are serious and spiritual, others are silly and fun. So, here it goes....the Bucket list for Dawson and Michelle Skow:
1. Live to see all of our children come to Christ, be baptized and have a growing faith
2. Go on a mission trip to a foreign country
3. Take swing and salsa dance lessons
4. Live to see our children happily married to godly people, and become grandparents
5. Live out in the country
6. Learn to and go scuba diving
7. Have a healthy and active lifestyle, and be happy with the conditions/size of our bodies
8. Die having a reputation of being overly generous (with our time, money and resources)
9. Become finacially free--without debt and with adequate savings
10. For Dawson to become a songwriter, and for me to sing those songs with him :)

And to end this thoughtful blog entry, some pics of the trip...

Our Little Snow miracle

Yes, that's right! There was snow in College Station, Texas this morning!!! I had the delight of waking up this morning by a kiss on the cheek from my sweet son, saying to me "Mama, let's go play in the snow!" This was the first snow that Ellie has ever seen. She wasn't nearly as excited as her Bubba, but we all had a good time. Just wanted to share some pictures....
"Funnest thing ever"--throwing snowballs at Daddy

All bundled up!

Our miniature snowman :)

Indescribable Joy

You know those moments when your cup overflows, and your joy just spills out through your tears. I was blessed to have another of those moments tonight. It was my turn to put our precious daughter to bed. We started out by reading two 'princess books' and then I prayed for her. After I was done, she asked, "My pray?" (I'm going to try to convey her sweet, two-year-old words through as much phonetic spelling as possible) So of course, I said sure. She starts out emphatically-"Un God" (her version of Dear God) and then closes her sweet eyes, bows her sweet head and then starts to whisper a long strain of inaudible, unintelligible words. As I listened to her, my heart swelled with joy--almost so much, it hurt. I knew that even though I couldn't understand a word she was saying, that God knew exactly what she was telling Him. There is nothing in this world more pure and beautiful than the prayer of a child. Eventually, she said "ahmin". And she looked at me with that, "aren't you proud of me, mama?" face. I tried to explain to her how happy it makes me when she prays. Of course, we wrapped up our bedtime with some good renditions of "Patty Cake" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"--or as Ellie calls them, "Pie Cake" and "Bug". :) Thank you God, for allowing me to be the mommy of my two unbelievably beautiful and precious children. I could never deserve them, or the joy they bring me.

Bodily Functions

Before becoming a mom, I never thought that my life would be so preoccupied, even revolve around, bodily functions. But as many of you moms know, when you have a child, their bodliy functions--spitting up, burping, tooting, peeing, pooping, etc--become a big part of your life. You obviously clean up after them; you observe, dissect and even sometimes journal about them; you even talk about them...sometimes during casual dinner conversation. Well, in light of this truth, I have to say that I now find myself blogging about them. I apologize to those who are still sensitized to this subject, or even feel that they are above such topics--but I must announce......ELLIE POOPED IN THE POTTY TODAY!!! Yeah! Hooray! Praise the Lord! We have been waiting for this event for months now. My sweet girl has loved sitting on the potty for quite awhile, but she has never--until this day--done anything while sitting there. FINALLY-this morning, the potty miracle occured. From all of the celebratory shouts in our house, you would've thought we won the lottery. :) Even her Bubba was excited for her, and joined in the jubilation. Of course, this is only one isolated event, but at least we've made progress. I just felt it appropriate to make note of such a landmark. :)