Flipping, Hanging, and Awesomeness

Samantha was in gymnastics when she was 1 year old. She mostly ran around but did love jumping on the trampoline, and flying through the air on the swing. It was a mom and me class. It was fun but when they went to the floor exercises she wouldn't listen. We did this for a semester and with being a new mom I just didn't realize that this is normal! Looking back I should have keep her in class and stuck with it. I don't have any pictures of that time because our computer crashed and we had to reformat. We tried to put her in something again when she was 2 1/2 years old with a combo class ballet, tumbling, and tap. This was a nightmare! LOL..She really wasn't listening and everyone was getting frusterated. Though, she looked really cute in the ballet outfit. Ha! So Tap and Ballet were like torture, but she did like the tumbling class. She is now a little over 3 1/2 years and we are trying to get her involved in something again. I feel like if you don't have some sort of thing to do..a hobby, you get bored and get into trouble. When my sister and I were little, we were in a combo class along with this we played soccer. It gave us something to do. I look around at all the kids who aren't in something and feel bad for the kids. It's like the parents spend their money on themselves instead of providing opportunities for their kids, the kids are there just basically living in the parent's life. THIS makes me sad! Because of this I have felt guilty with not having her in something but on the other hand she had disrupted class by running in and out, and just being young and not knowing.

With this being said:
A couple of months ago, we received a mailer that a new gym was opening in August. I jumped on the phone and made the phone call and got information about this new gym. I was thinking hmmm this may be interesting, it's a little more expensive than the other classes I have had her in. That worried me. But my biggest fear was repeating her behavior from her last combo class. I didn't know if I could handle that again. But with not wanting to be "those parents who don't put their kids in anything because of selfishness," I enrolled her! I took the leap of Faith then started praying. Please God, don't let us have a repeat of last time." and kept praying and praying this.

God is amazing and will answer even the smallest of prayers, if you pray in Faith that He will answer. This is a great lesson to anyone. God gives you situations so that you will need Him. So that you will be constantly on your knees talking to Him and letting Him reveal His plan to you. I have found this to be true this past year with being involved in church and forming a relationship with Him.

So we found this new gym, The Little Gym of Lubbock, it is AMAZING! The best answer to a small prayer, I prayed over and over!

 

Best part this gymt is just not in Lubbock, look for The Little Gym in your town.

Here's what happened. We walk in and I am honestly  am about to throw up because of past exeriences with Sami being HORRIBLE. She is looking around and the owner/staff are coming up to her and talking to her. They take her to take her shoes off and get them in a her cubby. Then they lead her over to go inside the gym. We (the parents) have a seating area or viewing area. She starts to struggle away..I am thinking "Oh No! Here we go again!" *SIGH*...BUT NOPE she stopped and walked in with her teacher! WHAT! There were 4 sweet children in her class Thursday. 2 boys and 2 girls. Sami stayed with the teacher and listened, fully participating in class!! I about passed out! LOL I was soo excited. But the cool thing about this gym is they have curriculum each week. Last week was safety..they worked on becoming safe gymnasts. They started on the floor mats with the instructor learning how to be safe. Another staff member came up and talked to the parents telling us what is going on!  They use all positive encouragement as "punishment" if you want to look at it..sorta reverse psychology..LOVE IT! For example, say the boys didn't want to do the mat exercise they were all into the bars and trampoline. So the teacher would say " X whenever you are ready to come back to class, we would love for you to come back..Thanks Sami and Y for staying with your teacher! (as she is giving them Hi-Fives) Then after class the teacher went around and talked to each parent about the awesomeness of their child. At one point in class, Shane and another father got up and opened the classroom door and told the kids to go back to the teacher..LOL The owner came over and repremanded the dads for doing that..He said that the gym has no expecations for the little one and that they will follow but that they don't encourage the kids like that but only with positive enforcement. LOVE LOVE IT...

 

Here are some pictures from class..please excuse the quality of pictures because we were in a glass area so I am taking the picture through glass that has a relection of more glass and the parking lot. /:

 

Here Sami is practicing her falls...if they fall off the bars, they are suppose to roll backwards, so they don't get hurt.

This picture is funny because the sweet teacher (in orange) and the girls were the only ones participating so the guy (JD aka the owner) stepped in to help make the parachute activity work. Amazing team work from the staff. I love that he is not afraid to step in.

 

How cute are the kids here. Behind them is the A-frame bar, I wish I had gotten pictures of them on that but this will have to work.



Last picture. This little guy kept running up to the window and growling at us! So cute!

 

God is soo amazing to not only answer a small prayer but to answer many worries I had and hand us this amazing place where Sami can grow and be herself. As well as giving Shane and I the place to know that it's ok for them to run and not participate. Where it's encourage so they will try things at their own pace. God is wonderful. I thank Him for this opportunity for Samantha to have fun and get involved with Gymnastics. And for kepting things just normal enough to where we will always have a relationship with Him. I say this because if things are always perfect then we wouldn't need God. Think about what would happen if we didn't drop to our knees to ask Him to figure things out for us. God wants us to have that special relationship with Him. He wants us to run to Him whether it's in good times or the craziness of just daily life!

 

I challenge you this week to test this theory out. Say a small prayer in Faith and see how God answers your prayer. Remember it may be longer than a week for God to return your answer but He always does. Then step back and ask yourself why He asnwered the way He did. (He's revealing His Plan for you)

 

Have an amazing week and open your minds and hearts to listen to what God has in plan for your lives.

 

Obeying & Spreading His Awesomness!

Patty

 

Pictures, Pictures, and more Pictures...

These first pictures are from my photography class that I took, didn't make the "cut" for the class but I love them none the less. ( :

 

 

All these are from our road trip we took the first week of school - Fredricksburg, San Antonio. The Animal pictures are from a drive through Zoo. It is called the Natural Bridge Zoo?? Natural Bridge Caverns??? WOW! I totally went blank on the name! The Zebras were MEAN!!! They didn't like us feeding them at the rate we were so they started chewing on my door handles!! MEAN MEAN!!

 

 

 

This next picture was in New Braunfels- We literally drove around 2 hours to find a decent hotel! It was a nightmare! BUT we ended up finding this gem! Look how awesome this is...To the left of this area was a beautiful lawn area. The hotel was just as gorgeous! I think it was a Marriott? If you look in the back the river is right there! GORGEOUS!!! We all decided we should have found this hotel sooner so we could relax a little longer at this place. This picture was taken after we checked out. ) :

 

I thought this was the funniest tree! At first I thought wow a pregnant tree! I don't know what tree this is but it is pretty cool. After I downloaded the picture..It looks like a pig is peeking out from behind the tree.

 

ABC's

Tonight I am helping Samantha learn her ABC's. I want her to be very ready for Kindergarten. We are going to take a letter and work on it till she has it down. Tonight of course we are starting with A. She can sing the ABC song but she doesn't recognize the letters. This is what we are going to work on and when we are done, I think we are going to move on to our numbers

A

is for apple!

Happy Happy Birthday

Yesterday we made a mad dash to Midland for our nephew's 1st Birthday Party. My sister out did herself!! The birthday party was AMAZING! This little boy is sure lucky to have great parents who love him dearly!! This party being an jubilous celebration of the first year of Mr. G's life and also a celebration of life for his mommy! We almost lost her on July 3rd. Here is looking to many more years with both of them! We love you guys dearly!

The theme of the party was Cars and the colors were very bright bold colors, reds, blues, oranges, greens, yellows. It was a fun birthday, for an handsome boy!

AND not only did she hold an amazing 1st birthday party, she held an after party (who does that right?) So she hosted 2 BIG parties in 1 day! I love my sister, she is soo Martha Stewart!! I will have to post pictures later because none are uploading yet!

God is sooo goood! I am thankful for Him answering everyones prayers so that my sister could be there yesterday to see her handsome boy turn 1. Giving it all to Him!

Amazing Grace

This week has been full of going and going practically non-stop. Our church had Vacation Bible School, VBS, both Shane and I helped with that! I guess the one thing I have learned this week is God is just amazing in everything! If you stop and look at your life, really stop and take a step back from everything, you can really see His work in your life. He truly has amazing grace for everything and everyone! VBS was a learning experience for me. Samantha is 3 so she was able to participate this year. She absolutely LOVED it.

We asked her cousin Sha'Von if he wanted to go to VBS this year with us. I think he felt the same way Samantha did! It was just really fun for him! Here is a picture of the two of them! Aren't they adorable! Another blessing, I think his Mom and Sha'Von are going to start going to church with us!! That makes me happy!

God is working in soo many ways right now! I am blessed to be able to recognize those ways. I am loving every minute of it and being able to realize this is all Him. Much of these things wouldn't be possible with out His doing. I have been praying over my husband for awhile now and this week, most of those prayers have matured and come into full light. It has given me a love for my husband that I didn't know I had. He has changed dramatically within these last couple of weeks. His personality has grown and attitude changed. He no longer is the "hard" guy he has been these last years. I say "hard" because in the past few weeks, I have seen him break down, I have seen him love on Samantha and I more, I have seen his energy to help others, He is on fire lately. I have this amazing gift from God and I feel very humble in saying that most times I take it for granted. I am by no means the perfect wife/mother I had visioned. This week has opened my eyes to this. I do have a great life and am VERY blessed. God has shown his amazing Grace to me this week.

I am thankful for prayer! Without it I don't know where anyone would be? It is the only way to have an intimate relationship with God! Yesterday I had my teacher workshop. I was scared! For one last year's ( my 1st teacher workshop to put on) was a little small. OKAY let's be honest. It was bad! I only had 7 teachers show up and I had my boss and her boss there!! Yikes..A lot of teachers RSVP'ed and didn't show up. So we purchased a lot of to-go lunch boxes, so to speak. To me, we just "wasted" money. I am not the one to really do that. So I am feeling guilty and to start with I just didn't have that much direction on the last workshop. This year I just saw how God answered my prayer on have at least 8 people show up! LOL...He came through as always. I had a total of 29 people!! It went well and I made a ton of new friends! and hopefully will get to travel to area schools to teach them about water conservation!

My next activity for the week is driving to Midland for a certain special 1 year old's birthday party today! I can't wait to see my family! I love you Mr. G! That doesn't require much stress..at least I hope not because I have had plenty this week. By far the most stressful week of the year!

God is soo good and if you have that faithful relationship with Him. You will truly see the blessings He has promised you! These have been the blessings in my life this week? What has your blessings been?

Sweet Samantha

I haven't posted in awhile. Well on this blog! I have another one called My Photographer Too. Please go there and add it to your blogs. http://www.myphotographertoo.blogspot.com/. I have been trying to get my photography business up and going! It has been a slow process so hopefully it will stay around. ( :  I have also created a FB page with My Photography Too. Please "like" this also! It is fun taking pictures! Ok so enough about my new venture!

This post is about Samantha, Sami. She has been so sweet lately! She constantly wants in my lap. Lately she will just randomly look up and tell me "Mom! I love you!" This melts my heart. I overheard her tell her daddy that " MOM said I was AWESOME!" I had just told her she was awesome because she was really helping me clean for Mother's Day! It just made my day to hear her say that to her daddy!

I took the above photograph last night. If anyone knows Sami, she LOVES "Brown Puppy" (as she has recently named him) This just make my heart smile. You can really she her love for Brown Puppy in this photograph! I think she was actually saying to Brown Puppy.."Brown Puppy, you okay? You need a drink? You hungry? Okay I will get you something"

I love this little girl with all my heart!

Spring is here

I am soo bad at posting on this blog! I am a sit back and read other peoples blogs kinda person, I am going to try to post more. So Spring is finally here! I love love love this season and all the refreshing "newness" that comes with it. I love thunderstorms and we have had one this spring!! Hopefully we will get more. Everything just seems peaceful this year for me. Ready to tackle some home improvements and try my thumb at planting some flowers.

I photographed a wedding the other weekend ...so I have my card full of wedding photos..hopefully I can download the rest of them and clean my card up so I can shoot some spring photos today! If you know of anyone in the Lubbock area who needs some pictures send them my way. I am trying to get a side business open...if you could call it a business more like a hobby because my prices aren't ridiculous like most photographers. I look at it this way..I love to photograph people, places, and things. Why would I want to charge people a lot for something I love to do?  To me that just doesn't seem right. I want to be your "My Photographer Too." Oh she isn't just your photographer..she is "My Photographer Too!" Hence the name I picked out..My "business" is called My Photographer Too!

ok I really need to get off here and get Samantha up..we need to leave in 20 minutes! ( :

Have a blessed day and be still and let God bring some wonderful new thing in your life, if you will just let him!

Signing Off
Patty