Life in the Big Brother house

As Elisabeth started her tackle-spree on the first child she sees in the nursery this morning (and I'm trying to loosen her chubby fist out of Claudia's hair)  her teacher tries to excuse her naughty behavior by saying "She has brothers! It's how she plays with them!"  I heard it again a second time when I picked her back up after church. And then I heard it tonight. "Oh... I know she plays with her brothers that way.."  Really, we are family at church.  Its not gonna hurt my feelings at all if you just tell me what a mean little booger she is. 

I have been getting my classroom ready for the new school year. Desks are pretty much a thing of the past and now everyone sits in groups at tables.  Except of course I do have 2 separate desks saved out for "those" kids.  You know, the kids that end up being your favorite but are as mean as snot and likes to poke everyone with their pencils and scissors so they end up getting to sit at the "special desk". Well, I'm gonna save Elisabeth's teacher the hassle and tell her before school even starts just to go ahead and stick Elisabeth's name tag on the "special desk" sitting away from all the others. :) That would save me and the teacher the embarrassment  of sending home a student with a chunk of hair missing and bite marks up and down their arm.

I DO have to attribute some of her behavior to her big brothers.  They are so crazy about her.  She bangs on their door, chews up their xbox remotes, hides their ping ball balls in shoes etc...and they are endlessly patient. But they rough house her to no end.  Just tonight after church Jacob, Elisabeth and I are playing outside.  She finds this ball and throws it gently to Jacob. I tell him to throw it back to her. He just BEAMS it at her, hits her with it and yells "DODGEBALL!!!"  She's stunned for a second and then starts laughing.  He keeps hitting her with the ball, she keeps laughing...until I tell them that's enough.  (I'm thinkin' bruises here.) So yes, when she is purposely hitting other kids in the head with a ball, we can accurately blame it on her brothers.

The Dodgeball trainer and his trainee

If you keep up with my facebook posts you remember that not to long ago Jonathan called his dad at camp to ask where his gorilla mask was.  When Chris asked why, Jonathan said, "because I want to scare Elisabeth." Chris is like, "ummm...NO!"  Youth minister's offices are a gold mine for cool, unusual things.  Last week, there was this reddish rubber gooey pig in Sarah's room that Jonathan was throwing against her wall and it would stick.  I asked her where she got the strange pig toy and she said "daddy's office."  Case in point.  Anyway, Jonathan could not resist the temptation of the gorilla mask.  One day after church JZ retrieved the mask and gloves out of the office and took them home.  He put them on to try to scare Elisabeth, but the little smarty knew it was her brother.  She just looked at him like, "You weirdo!" and then probably bit him.  She seriously will hunt Jonathan down to bite him.  She also bit a piece of Jacob's fingernail off including the nail bed.  I do remember Jonathan getting removed from a church nursery for biting.  They actually called us out of the service to get him and would not let him back in!!! I don't believe in Karma but just maybe....

I am so thankful for my boys.  They are the best.  Elisabeth is a lucky little girl. Despite the tackling, hanging her upside down by her ankles etc...  she has good Christian brothers who will not only protect her, but will teach her all the ninja moves she will ever need to be the biggest bully on the playground.  But the best thing they do is LOVE.

"Love is patient, Love is kind..."  (1 Corinthians 13) Elisabeth has turned their world upside down and messed up more than one controller but they show nothing but love.

"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." Mark 9:37        Thanks boys....

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Crickets on the menu for today

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Crickets on the menu for today: People probably don't believe half the stories I tell about Elisabeth.  I am almost glad that yesterday one of our sweet youth got to witnes...

Crickets on the menu for today

People probably don't believe half the stories I tell about Elisabeth.  I am almost glad that yesterday one of our sweet youth got to witness the hair pulling, back biting (literal), clothes tugging, children chasing terror spree that Elisabeth went on at the Chick-Fila play place yesterday.  I just looked at Madison and said, "I'm glad you saw this so you know I don't make this stuff up!" 

So before I start my "you won't believe it unless you were there" stories, let me just say that it is perfectly acceptable to eat crickets in Thailand.  Several years ago, Chris and I went on a mission trip to Thailand that was one of the best experiences of our life.  To immerse ourselves in their culture (and come back with a really great story to tell our kids) we snacked on crickets that were being sold at the night time market. I just closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and tried really hard to ignore the crunching sound that was going on in my mouth.

The crickets we ate literally came from this pile right here.

The purpose of our mission trip was to go into the schools and teach them English, which would eventually lead to telling them about Jesus.  As I was teaching English words for food using pictures (I had an interpreter with me) I would ask them what their favorite food was.  In almost every school, at least a couple of children would say "crickets!"

I am really trying to keep a straight face when they tell me their favorite food is crickets and they point to a picture of a boy and call him "sister."  Precious kids.  Just looking through these pictures makes me want to hop on a plane and go back tomorrow.

Elisabeth would fare very well over in Thailand.  In fact, she would fit right in.  A few nights ago I could tell she was chewing up something she shouldn't.  I told her to "spit it out."  That is actually the one command she understands and follows quite well.  She starts spitting out pieces of something that I couldn't quite figure out what it was.  Until 5 minutes later.  We are all sitting in the living room and a cricket jumps across the floor.  She spots it, crawls like lightening speed towards it and catches it!  We get it from her and then start to look at the brown little bits still in her drool on her chin.  Then I remember the deceased little cricket I saw by the dishwasher earlier.  The dead little guy was no longer there and I seriously doubted he was raised like Lazareth from the dead.  Then it was like slow motion from a movie when we all realized at the same time what the brown little bits in E's drool was.  "NOOOoooooo....oh my gosh she just ate a cricket!" 

I'm keeping this story for when she's called to the mission field one day.  I'm gonna tell her, "Honey, God started preparing you for this when you were 11 months old.  You are gonna adjust to that culture better than you know..."