a thirteen year old Pookie

So I don't know about y'all, but I'm thinking life needs to slooooow down. Good grief. The Pook is a teenager.

Teenager. 

Which seems nearly impossible.

Since I just went through the valley of the shadow of death to give birth to her yesterday.

Seriously. My first baby is a teenager. I am still processing it. I know, I know. Get used to it. There are three more behind her and it's just the beginning. But I'm still just wondering how this happened so dang fast!

I'll let you in on a little secret though.

I'm kinda diggin' it.

Maybe because we've loved teenagers for forever. Or because she's so darn funny these days that I bend over at the waist in laughter at her and with her. Or because she's manifested 100 new facial expressions lately that are downright hysterical. Or because she's been so helpful in recent days and so thankful for what she has and just pretty much a gem to be around.

Maybe it's because she sends me texts just to say "i love you, mom" while she's upstairs and I'm downstairs. It's all of this and more. My sweet and funny Pookie is thirteen. Wow. We took her to Uncle Julio's {the best Mexican food in the world} the weekend before her birthday...her bestie, Emma, tagged along all the way from out of state. This was a huge surprise for KG and she was stoked. And my mom and sister came up on her actual birthday for some lovin' and lemonade cake {and to give her some presents!} Suweet! Mom and Dad got her several things but among her favorites, were her last needed Harry Potter hardback and some HP bookends. She loved it all.

Kennedy has talked countless times about how much she wants to join the military when she's older. Specifically, the Navy. I'm not sure why. She's pretty adamant about it at this point though. Who knows? She may keep sensing this leading. She may not. But she's also dying to join our school's JROTC this next school year. It's steep...$1500 for the year. And Jase and I are working hard to try and save this extra $ so she can follow through with it. She asks so little...doesn't play sports or take dance or anything really except piano. We so want to do this for her and let her join. Time will tell if we are able to or not. She participated in a "shadow day" a few weeks ago where she got to see how it works and what she would be doing on a typical Tues/Thursday. It'd be so great for her. Mom and Dad surprised her with a $100 bill to go toward her JROTC aspirations. Really unexpected and sweet.

So we decided to get her a few little Navy gifts {tshirt and hat} since we knew she'd love those. And she asked for some weights, so she could bulk up her 70lb tiny frame and be ready for the Navy when the time came. We bought her a yoga mat to work out on, a pair of 7.5lb weights to go with her 2 and 5lb ones that she already had and a rack to keep them all on.

We also made her two wooden signs like our Scripture one that now hangs in our master bathroom. Kennedy's favorite quote {outside of the Bible} is Twain's "Sail away from the safe harbor." She has it everywhere. On the toes of her Chucks {"Sail" on the left foot, "Away" on the right}, scribbled on paper in her room, her notebooks, etc. So that was an easy choice for the first sign.

The second is likened to it. Only the man who said it was perfect. "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." We thought these two complimented each other well and have the same sentiment. And both we hope, are true for Kennedy. That she will do hard things. That she will not play it safe all the time. And that her life will be lost in what matters most, Jesus.

Happy 13th birthday, Kennedy Grace! We love you more than you know. Our prayer for you is that you would see the beauty in losing your life for His sake, all the while knowing that finding it in Him is infinitely better than anything this world has to offer. Sail away from the safe harbor, baby girl.

~Mama & Daddy

Joel showing his Aunt KK that he's a "good reader!"

we got our craft on

So I just had to try this. Well, really, I just had to have one.

You know, one of those upcycled wood pallets all painted up and prettyfied with a Scripture?

Well, I've been loving them for quite a while and whenever I get on Pinterest {which is like once in three months, because really, who needs another vortex to be sucked into???}, I would oooh and aaah over these signs.

And when my hip sister in law posted pictures of one that my handy brother in law made for someone, well, I just got bit by the bug.

The crafty, DIY, gotta find me a wood pallet bug.

So whilst on spring break and visiting my parents for sweet Claire Bear's birthday, I bought up two pallets {$2/each}. And this past weekend, Jase and I got ourselves busy with the task of making a custom pallet scripture art piece for our freshly painted master bath.

Happy, happy, happy.

Thursday night, while Jase was out with the Pook and Sydney Baby at a choir concert for some of our students, I cut up an apple, took the boys on the back deck to eat it and did me some sanding of the pallets as they snacked and looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

Yes, they did.

And on Friday, Jase fine tuned my sanding and then white washed the pallets with left over paint from the bathroom. Score. You gotta love DIY on the cheap! I helped him assemble them and on Saturday, then after a series of unexpected mishaps in trying to get the template printed for the verse, I resorted to extreme measures.

Enter the overhead projector.

Circa 2001. Probably. Maybe earlier.

This joker isn't too old, it's light, made of plastic. But pretty darn blurry. And it was a struggle to see the small words.  So I just had to wing it on those. I chose the longest verse ever. From Ephesians chapter 1. But I couldn't help myself. It had to be this one. Had to be. And sure, we could have used vinyls or some other method. But this was cheap...and we were really wanting a weathered, old look for the final product. It was a killer...

However, after hours and HOURS of diligent work, we have exactly what I wanted.

Aaaaaahhhh........

And that, my friends, is how Jase and I got our craft on last weekend. As the Pook says, "BA BAM!" Take that, Pinterest!