The Thursday Ten (on Friday)

Oops. I didn't make it on Thursday again. But at least I'm blogging more, right??

1. Chris and I enjoyed a night out on Tues. It was so nice to spend some time together, something that is usually fairly common, but we just haven't had the opportunity lately. We even went out in the rain and got soaked. On purpose. Not as glamorous as it sounds, though- we were freezing after like 5 minutes. Oh well- it was still fun. Kind of felt like some things just washed away in the water.
2. Had a blast Addison's b-day party over the weekend. I just realized that I haven't posted any pics from that. I sometimes forget between facebook and other things where I have posted and where I haven't....The adults had as much fun as the kids did!
3. Yay and double yay for this fabulous weather. When I went out to my class this morning it was drizzly and 45 degrees. And I think the cooler temps are around for at least a few more days. Busting out the cozy clothes :)
4. Definitely my favorite Addison quote of the week: (to Poppy) "You have GOT to teach me how to speak dog...." He is convinced that my dad knows what dogs (and horses) are saying. So throughout the weekend he was constantly asking Poppy what Penny, their new sweet little dog that accompanied them, was saying. Of course Poppy always had an answer.
5. Um, speaking of that, I really want a dog. It was gut wrenching to watch how my children pined over, cuddled, played with, and loved every second of my parent's dog. Someday, my heart, someday...
6. Had a great launch week at the gym this week. This is where we debut all of our new music and moves for all of the classes. Had a special breast cancer tribute launch and we had shirts made and everything. I really do love my job. So much so that I hardly consider it a job.
7. Gearing up for a busy weekend. Chris is preaching again Sunday, and I'm teaching his college class for him so he will just have to do one message instead of two! A little unsure about that (the me part), but we'll see!
8. Vanilla Sprinkles Cookie Crisp. Like regular cookie crisp but with vanilla cookies. Ridiculous.
9. Cadence singing "This is my commandment that you love one another, that your joy may be full...." You have to witness this one in person to appreciate the insane amount of cuteness represented. Maybe I will capture a little audio and video to enjoy....
10. Seeing my family. I've really been missing them. Especially my little brothers, who are all grown up now....And spending more time with family at Chris's parents last night. So thankful for family, every last one of ya!

Perhaps I will post a follow up to this top ten with some media (pics and whatnot) later on. For now, peace out from the Pate house.

The Thursday Ten

So there's a lot of blog love lately. If only it looked pretty.... Anyway, I said I would do a Thursday Ten so I must be true to my word:

1. Close call with Addison- we thought for a second we'd have to change our party plans this weekend, but his whatever it was only had a short 24 hour duration. Thank God.
2. Heroes- why do you play with our minds the way you do? Why? But we're happy you're back.
3. Chocolate caramel candy corn. Yes, please.
4. Bought myself a Starbucks mug. Didn't need it. But I love it, and I'm worth it, right??
5. Lil' C from So You Think You Can Dance. He has inspired me to look for more ways to incorporate the expression "Buck" in my life. And be more eloquent at the same time.
6. Excited to see some family this weekend. Yay!
7. Cadence is the morning-est of morning people. This morning I went in to wake her up and in the darkness the first thing I hear is giggling. She opens her eyes giggling. Gotta love that.
8. Addison has had a lot of brain references this week. First it was the comment I made a couple of posts ago about his brain falling off of the pink stick. Then he said he was imagining cupcakes in his brain and he could even feel them. And smell them. Then tonight Chris was messing with him and he turned around and said to him "In my brain I was thinking 'Just ignore him'. " I'd like to say that his witty sarcasm comes from me :)
9. I'm getting the opportunity to go in an elementary school for an hour on Fridays and bring dance to kids. So glad to bring the arts to children that might not otherwise ever be exposed. Oh, and it's for $50/hr. Yep, I'll do it :) Too bad it's just ten weeks.
10. Thankful for grace. mercy. God's goodness.

Peace out from the Pate house.

Good Lookin' Family...

If I do say so myself :) Since the blog is blah-looking right now (it's hard for me to even publish such a plain thing!) while I figure out what new look I want, how 'bout some bright, shiny faces to spruce it up a bit? When we were in Arkansas Bryan, Chris's brother, took some pics for us. He's very talented. He gave them to me yesterday, and I was so so happy. A bright moment in a pretty sucky day. To update what I said yesterday, Addison ended up with a little bug and throwing up. Not a fun day. But he's already better today, so I think we'll be good to go for the party. So enjoy the pics!

Well, excuse the "under construction"....

I'm experimenting on some different templates for the blog. I found this one I really like, but I am trying to figure out how to go in and change fonts, colors, and all that fun stuff. I can't do it the normal way- It's going to take figuring out some code and such, so you might find things looking different every time you see it for a while. I like the look of this one, but I want to make some of the elements look better. I only have spurts of time to mess around with it.... And most of you read the blog via e-mail subscription so you probably never even see what it looks like anyway. But just in case you did, I apologize in advance if it's not aesthetically pleasing at the particular moment you stop by.

Addison is seeming to not feel well today. He is complaining of a stomach ache and headache, which could be a myriad of reasons having nothing to do with a bug or being "sick". In his words, "I feel like my brain has fallen off of that pink stick that holds it up." Never heard it put quite that way before. We'll see what ends up happening....trying not to get paranoid or discouraged since his party is this weekend.

Have a fabulous day. Enjoy an extra cup of coffee because it's National Coffee Day. Ah, beloved coffee. I should do an entire post dedicated to my love of coffee.

Peace out from the Pate house.

The Thursday Ten (on Friday)

Well, in an attempt to blog more frequently, I thought I'd try a top ten list once a week of whatever is going on at the moment for us. I figured The Thursday Ten would be clever, except today is Friday so we can just pretend that there's brilliant alliteration since I didn't have a chance to do it yesterday...

1. Yay for cool weather. The tease of fall weather this week was delicious. When I woke up to do my class this morning it was like 50 degrees. Too bad it's going to be 90 on Sunday. Boo to that.
2. Addison and I have started going to Starbucks on Monday mornings while Cadence is in dance class and we do a Bible devotion together while enjoying yummy treats. These are quickly becoming very precious moments to me, filled with lots of good conversation.
3. In the environment of the last point, Addison made an interesting observation while we were talking about faith and what it is. We were discussing the scripture in Hebrews about being the substance of the things we hope for and the evidence of things not seen. He said, "It's kind of like having the superpower where you can see what's really underneath things that are hidden." Brilliant. Faith is totally supernatural.
4. Bought the kiddos a couple of cute things this week. Since it's fall, we are slowly replenishing the closets and starting over again. New wardrobes twice a year. They grow too fast! My favorite was a shirt I bought Addison that says, "Holla @ your boy" We're ghetto like that :)
5. We still haven't figured out what happened or what she ate, but Cadence threw up last night and was up most of the night. Thank goodness she is fine now. This equals a very tired mommy and daddy today. Chris was so awesome and tried to let me rest, but neither one of us slept much. He slept less though.
6. The reason it was very bad to have a tired mommy is because I am in another intense pilates training that started yesterday and will continue through Sunday. Seven hours a day. The training is called Injury and Special Populations....very thorough and detailed into the mechanics of muscles and what happens when things go wrong. And how to help that. Words like zygapophyseal joints. My brain is very, very tired. And I ran out of coffee in the house. That makes me a little cranky.
7. Really desiring to write songs right now. But I guess that would require time to sit down and actually devote attention to it. Does anybody have any minutes I can borrow?
8. Chris and I would really love to have a little getaway right now. Like really bad.
9. Cadence is thoroughly enjoying Mother's Day Out. The teachers get a kick out of her. But really, who wouldn't get a kick out of Cadence? And I sewed a cute cover for her nap mat all by myself. I was so proud. Trying to hone in on the mad sewing skills (this is a statement projected at the future in faith).
10. Majorly bummed that I am going to miss Chris preach on Sunday because of my training. Of course it's the Sunday I can't be there! The man can teach that Word, now. We will all pray for him as he attempts to prepare while having the kids all weekend long! I pray he can feel my love and support even though I won't physically be there. He is amazing. Look out world- Chris Pate is coming. And he has plenty to say.

Peace out from the Pate house :)

Dear Addison:

Hello, son. On this day, six years ago, we entered into a new phase of life because of you: parenthood. Your entry into this world was a rough one, and we immediately knew you were special because the enemy had already tried to count you out of the game. And now you are six. I don't really know how that happened so fast, but it did. Here's a quick snapshot of you at this fun age:

You...

1. are so smart. I have a feeling I will have a hard time keeping up with you! Homeschool is already proving to be challenging at times (for me), but you are doing so great. I'm trying not to push you too hard (although you would enjoy it) because you will already be ahead of your years, and I don't want you to grow up too fast!
2. love playing video games. You are the only kid we know that gets a workout playing a regular video game because your whole body gets involved. The front desk at the gym likes to watch you through the glass, and they get a kick out of you kicking your legs and shaking your arms while you play.
3. had one of the worst weeks of your little six year old life a couple of weeks back. You went into the dentist with a toothache and found out there's so many problems in your mouth you'll have to go in for dental surgery in Oct (much to the shock and dismay of your parents). The day after that you started running fever and got the flu. I hope we don't have another week like that for a long, long time. Poor guy.
4. are such an awesome big brother. You LOVE your sister, and she loves you. You also LOVE being ornery to her. I don't fault you for that because you come by that honestly :) When I was baking cupcakes for your birthday yesterday and was telling you guys to stay away from the oven, you said to me "I don't care about me if I get hurt. I only care about my sister, because she's smaller than me." That about sums it up. You put up with a lot, and she's lucky to have such a loving and patient big brother.
5. are NOT a morning person. I think you will take to coffee drinking at a young age. We are on most days dragging you out of bed for the day's festivities.
6. currently like watching SpongeBob, Electric Company (and most other PBS shows for that matter), ICarly, Scooby Doo, any cartoon with video characters, and enjoy the High School Musical movies. And Barney (we don't tell many people about that one :)
7. are really enjoying your Musical Theater class. We love to hear you sing and perform.
8. can sometimes have an attitude like a teenager. And suffer the consequences :)
9. also theologize better than most adults. The spiritual matters we speak of (and just plain life stuff) blow me away sometimes. You are asking me questions all day long, and the random things you bring up make me wonder what goes on in that little head.
10. love to have Daddy give you Bible trivia at bedtime. He makes up questions for you to answer.
11. almost always beat us at the game Trouble. What's up with that.
12. just enjoy being with family. Whether it's Carter or all the way in Arkansas or Oklahoma, you would choose to be with family 24/7 if you could.
13. really like popcorn. And root beer.
14. also fortunately eat good things like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and love salmon and green beans.
15. would prefer to stay clean. You're not really into getting your hands dirty very much.
16. are very witty. You are always making us laugh, although you don't really like it when we laugh if you aren't trying to be funny :)

You are just a joy. That's what you are. We have our challenging days, but this age is very fun. You are so inquisitive and have such a thirst for life that we appreciate life so much more for it. Your heart is bigger than Dallas, and your sweet, tender spirit is always encouraging someone or something around you. I look forward to the years ahead of us when we will continue to discover, along with you, who it is that God made you to be. It's going to be amazing. We love you so much, my precious son.

This was your tough guy pose and you said you weren't going to smile

This is classic Addison "Actuwee"...(actually)

Riding the bumper cars at Mr. Gattis where you picked to eat lunch

He can play a mean air hockey game!

We're Back!

Busy times around the Pate house. We had a great vacation visiting family and relaxing as much as possible. (see pics below and for the full album click the "Shutterfly" link at the right) Thankfully, between two families are the beautiful mountains of Arkansas and the wide open Oklahoma plain, which means although it was "just" seeing family (and an extra kid in tow) it was nice to get away for a while. And thanks G-ma and G-pa for giving us some alone time while enjoying their precious grandchildren. Fortunately we love seeing and spending time with our family :) Especially before the chaos started.

And it has started.

Our schedule was pretty busy through the summer, but this week ushered in a new chapter in the Pate family book: APAC. (Abilene Performing Arts Company) I was very anxious for Monday because I went back to teaching dance, something I haven't done in a long time. I am teaching Tap and Musical Theater to 3rd-5th grade kids. And not only was I a new teacher getting to know students and parents, I was also a new parent with two children in dance and musical theater class. All happened on Monday. And I'm happy to report that it was all fabulous and we're looking forward to this year. Both kids were beside themselves to start their classes. It is a fantastic place with wonderful people and a positive, encouraging environment and high priority on the kids. And what a blessing that I have the opportunity to teach there because that means my kids take whatever classes they want for FREE. Extra curricular activities for kids are not cheap, people! So it was worth squeezing a couple of extra hours into my Monday.

As busy as I am, I continue to remain so thankful that God has given me the opportunities to help us out financially doing things that I truly love and am gifted to do. And that still allows me to stay home with the kids and homeschool. Never thought all of that would work together. God has truly, truly blessed us. You won't catch us complaining. Or at least when we do we slap ourselves in the face and get our perspective back quickly :) And not to mention my very amazing husband who is right there in the middle of it all, doing everything he can in the middle of his busy schedule to support and help me out. The ministry part of our life is equally consuming, wonderful, and challenging. And not only that, but he goes above and beyond to be a tremendous father and husband :) It's all hands on deck around here. We're working it all out together, finding our life rhythm, keeping first things first, and loving what God is unfolding for us. Good times. Good times.

There is so much to say, but I've said enough for now. I will hopefully be more frequent in our snapshots of life so you can hang on for the ride around here. If you blink you might miss us, but if I can stop time long enough for you to glimpse into our sweet little home you will find laughter, activity, dress up, learning, singing, hugs and kisses, wrestling, bedtime Bible trivia (Addison's favorite game), wagon walks, puppet shows, late night Mommy and Daddy talks (no that's not code for something else...)and lots and lots of love :)

Riding on Sanchez, one of the horses (lots of riding horses)

That's Carter, our nephew, with the kids

Yay! We were there on Poppy's birthday!

Granna reading a nite nite Bible story

Going fishing at Poppy's pond

Not sure what to think!

Proud fish catching face

Carter's turn!

Catfish were plentiful!

The kids caught 18 fish between them!!

Sitting on the mule with Granna. This is a favorite for going on rides through the pasture. Lots and lots of mule and four wheeler rides!

Silly boys

(I also took some great video, but I haven't even had a chance to process that yet so hopefully one day it will make it on here...)

Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get any of the fun pictures from Arkansas off of Facebook and on here that G-ma and G-pa took, but I did have this cute one from when they came in town to pick up the kids. What good lookin' kiddos :)

Peace out from the Pate house.