Thinking ahead....

Hey family & friends,
I wanted to start thinking ahead for a place to have Isabella's 2nd birthday party this July. Sometimes places have to book several months in advance so I'm trying to do some research. I've thought of a couple of ideas, but wanted to get some input from friends that have tried and tested other places with their own kiddos. Does anyone know of any fun places to have birthday parties? July is so hot so I was thinking about something indoors. Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!!

First Egg Hunt!

So, Isabella had her first Easter egg hunt today at MDO. She was not expecting her mommy and daddy to show up at her school. She was so surprised to see us! We both managed to be there and take pictures. Of course we were the only parents to go (first-time parent thing, yes I know!). We sure didn't want to miss this first. It was so cute!


This first picture is her walking out of her classroom with Ms. Amy, who she LOVES! She just saw us waiting in the hall for her. The next one is her and daddy making their way to find the eggs.




She gave a big smile for us while she looked for the eggs. I bought her basket a couple of days ago and let her practice finding them at home so she would have somewhat of an idea what to do when it was time for the egg hunt. She seemed to catch on pretty quickly.



Egg hunt over. Back to the classroom we go! She actually does have about 12 eggs in her basket, you just can't see them. Way to go Isabella!

The Thompson household

Here lately, we've all been busy around here. Today was a fun busy day! Isabella and I went to mom's for her photography class and the students used us as "models" to practice their skills they'd learned. I thought it was only going to be Isabella in the pictures, but they put me right in the middle of it! I felt like a celebrity for about 1 minute :) About 20 women flashing their cameras, telling me to look at them. I started sweating! I'm not used to being center of attention. I think Isabella is much cuter! She was such a little actress. She laughed, clapped, smiled, and made all kinds of silly noises while everybody starting snapping shots. I think she LOVED being center of attention. Here are some of the pictures from today.

Beth Moore Live Event

I was so excited the other day when my sweet friend, Susan, asked me to go with her to Beth Moore's convention this weekend! She's the pastor's wife at Goodlettsville First Baptist and Becca also came along who is the youth pastor's wife there.

In the picture is me, then Becca, then Susan.

Although it was specifically for pastor's wives she knew I had been in that position not too long ago and invited me to go along with her. (I was a junior high youth pastor's wife for 3 years, up until last August when we stepped down.) I can't tell you enough about how amazing God is to speak through this tiny lady! I've seen her one other time when Adrienne and we drove to Cincinnati for the weekend to hear her. She's just so witty, passionate, hilarious and just down-right silly. But she's also able to connect with women like no other. If you've never heard her in person you have to check out her schedule and go to one of her events. You will not be sorry. On Friday night she asked the audience to sum up their life in 6 words before Christ. I am soooo not good at those tasks! But I came up with this: Blinded, insecure, not knowing my place. Ok, so now I'm going to tag my friends about "6 Words" and you have to do it! I love hearing what other people say. Then yesterday she asked us to use 6 words to describe how we see ourselves now, at the end of the event. So here was mine: Carnal thinking comes with Jesus alternatives. I know, not great, but that's all I could come up with in the 3 minutes that she gave us :) Basically her message was about things that aggravate us and how to use a Jesus alternative to deal with our aggravations. For instance: Relationships-an aggravation would be "Whoever we consistently seek approval from, we become their slave" and an alternative would be "Seek God's approval, find your peace". So she always had a Jesus alternative to the things that bother us in this life. Usually it's the way we think about ourselves (either more highly than we ought to or not good enough) or the relationships around us. She gave an illustration about when we've been treated wrongly. She said all of us are under authority and to humble ourselves and not lash out at people or speak badly about other people. For God will take care of them if we allow Him to. Trust God to deal with others. Let other people be ugly without us getting in the mud with them. Fight for true godliness and fight for your heart. We are called to be crucified to our carnal flesh . Starve the things you don't want in your life and feed the things of the Spirit. I could go on and on, but that was the gist of her conference. Maybe someone reading this needed to hear it. I hope so, and I hope everybody is doing well!

Here's a couple more pictures of the event. Travis Cotrell led worship and it was amazing! Beth is on the right in the corner on stage by the punching bag. (which was part of an illustration-along with pink punching gloves!)

Isabella is finally loving Mother's Day Out and church now! Yay! She practically jumped out of my arms to go play this morning at church. I wanted to cry just thinking about how happy it makes me that she's happy. I know that sounds silly, but I can't help it. Anyway, Peter's working a lot more now that it's almost Spring. The baby tigers are out on display at the zoo. He says they're so cute and should attract a lot of attention soon. I'm hoping we can go visit the zoo in the next couple of weeks. I'm especially looking forward to Spring Break. I can't wait to have a week off and just have fun with Peter and Isabella. I'll hopefully blog soon again. Until next time...........don't forget about the "6 Words" before and after Jesus..... I tag Amanda, Mom, Leshia, and Nicki!

Update on us

So, I guess we've been pretty busy at the Thompson house. Isabella started Mother's day out this week. I was so excited to get Isabella in because she so desperately needs to socialize with other children with other caretakers. I figured a couple of hours twice a week without me, Peter, and my mom wouldn't hurt her. She of course threw a screaming fit when mom dropped her off Tuesday and when Peter dropped her off today. But when they picked her up she was playing and didn't really want to leave. That is such a huge step for her! I'm hoping this will help her realize that she's in a safe place and that everything is going to be ok when we're not around. She made me a Valentine card today. Melted my heart! Of course anything she "makes" for me is so special since it's her first at this kind of thing. She's 19 months old now and weighs 2o pounds. She's tall and I'm having to buy her 2t clothes to fit her length. She must get that from her daddy. Isabella loves playing with her daddy lately. She insists that he push a stroller right beside her while she's pushing hers. It's halarious to watch! She gets so mad when he quits pushing his stroller and cries until he starts again. I had to get pictures of it. You know his back was killing him! I decided to give him a break so we take turns now going round and round the house. I counted 50 times around the house once!





Isabella loves pancakes, but she decided to grab the frozen box out of the freezer and start munching. She took a bite out of every single one and then threw them on the floor. I guess to save the rest for later? I put them back in the box for another day. Go figure.



So, all you Karen Kingsbury lovers, I am almost done with the "R" series. I'm on book 5 out of 5. They are so good! I love the Baxter family! I can't wait to see what happens in Reunion. Then I'll have to start another one of her series. I don't think I've read this much ever in my life. :) Til next time.....

I haven't posted in almost a month. My goodness, time goes by fast. Not much has been going on lately. I've enjoyed a few snow days off and we've had play dates with friends. It's been fun. Peter was home with Isabella the other day and she got a hold of all the grocery sacks in the cabinet. Of all things to play with, she loved playing with all of them. As you can tell by her big "cheese" face.

Amanda dropped Tessa off at my house so she didn't have to take her to the doctor for Harrison's check up. The girls played and Tessa read Isabella a book. They are just like sisters to each other. So precious.

Here's Peter at work at the zoo. He got to play with the baby tigers one day. He loved it! When he got home he showed me the little scratches all over his arms from them playing with him. They are so cute. I can't wait for nice zoo weather to go and visit him there. He said there are a lot of animals that they don't even showcase that he gets to see. Not fair!

6 Random things about me

I was tagged to list 6 random things about me. I've been asked to do this before, but it seems like I'm a pretty "normal" person and I couldn't ever think of anything my readers might find interesting. Anyway, here's just a few things you might not have known about me otherwise:

1. I was engaged in Istanbul, Turkey in 2000 in a small cafe on a beautiful sunny day that summer.

2. I've run 2 half marathons and several 5Ks. I ran my first half marathon to sponsor a little boy with leukemia through the leukemia/lymphoma cancer society program. It was in Virginia Beach, VA.

3. I've lost several toenails from those marathons! Yes, they've since grown back.

4. I'm a stickler for being on time. I hate running behind or being late for anything. Drives me crazy!

5. I hate washing my face at night before bed, but I make myself do it anyway. I'm usually so tired that I just crawl up in bed and then I'm mad at myself in the morning for not doing it.

6. I love playing volleyball and softball. I feel like I'm a pretty athletic person, but I absolutely cannot play basketball to save my life. I never could figure out how to dribble the ball, run at the same time, all the while trying to make it to the other end of the court to jump up and shoot it in the basket. Not my thing! Maybe it's also because I'm 5'3. :)

Ok, I know those weren't the most exciting to learn about me, but I did my best.