Going to the Chapel

Last spring, I got asked to come back to Ouachita this fall and speak at chapel.  OBU has a chapel service every Tuesday morning that the whole campus attends.  And is required to attend.  I nearly passed out when they asked me because I could barely believe I was actually old enough to even be asked.  (Never mind that I'm nearly 44).  

We have several kids from our church who go to OBU so I dropped off a few care packages and got to visit one of my old dorms.  I got to OBU late in the afternoon and Ian Cosh, who is over chapel among a million other things, and his wife took me to dinner.  

They happen to be the parents of my audiologist Jan who you have heard me talk about.  They have five daughters total who are close in age and probably the sweetest people you will ever meet.  The Coshes are from South Africa and have the best accent.  I had the most delightful dinner with them.  I just enjoyed my time with them so much.  I had to ask them for parenting advice of course because when you have five girls that close in age and they all turn into remarkable women and are all super close - they must know some secrets! ha! They said they used equal parts discipline and love.  And a lot of prayer.  And sweet Sharon was so kind to tell me her grocery store story of having all 5 girls in the cart at once and they were all reaching for things and the cart dumped over spilling out all the girls and all the food.  And she said not one person tried to help her.  So it made me feel better! :- ) 

One of my best friends in college is now a professor of business and finance at OBU.  He lives in a cool old house that is next door to the university guest house and right on campus.  So we met outside and walked down to the campus and looked around.  It was fun to catch up and just see all the changes on campus.  (By the way - he's single and my friends and I are always trying to find him a wife.  He's the nicest guy you will ever meet.  I'm just saying.......hint!) 

This is Tracey.  She works for the OBU president.  I mention her husband in my talk because he was my first faculty advisor.  She is so sweet.  

After I spoke I spent time with the OBU president and his wife.  They are new to OBU and I think they are taking the school in a great direction! I enjoyed visiting with them.  

My friend Leigh Anne who was my pledge sister took me to lunch.  This was us back in our junior or senior year and then Tuesday.  Her husband is the dean of the business school.  We had a good time catching up. 

And I had to stop by the bookstore and buy the kids all OBU shirts on my way out of town.  Nothing like a little brain washing! :-) 

I always get nervous to speak but I have never been so nervous in my life as I was to speak in chapel. I didn't sleep one minute and just felt sick.  But it was a big honor.  I love my college and am so grateful I was able to go there.  If you are looking for a great school both academically and spiritually - take a look at Ouachita! 

If you are bored and want to take a listen........it starts around the 20 min mark.  I had to keep it short so the kids could go to lunch! ha! 

Chapel 9-26-17| Mrs. Kelly Stamps from Ouachita Baptist University on Vimeo.

Jesus Saves Bro!

We started off our weekend with Harper's class leading the school assembly Friday morning.  Each class does this once a year.  Somehow our classes have gone back to back but the good news is we are done until next year.  Harper had a line and she did great! 

Saturday all the grandparents came in town and were able to go to Hollis' soccer game.  It's almost October but it is sooooooooooooooooooo hot.  She had quite the fan club.  

Sweet Joseph wanted to come see her play.  And she was thrilled! 

This morning was a big day because Hollis was baptized.  She was saved about a month ago and we wanted to schedule her baptism for when her grandparents could all be here.  Our friend Hutch is one of our pastors baptized her.   This is him practicing with her.  We help with baptisms and it's always so neat to hear the salvation stories each week before baptisms.  

Hollis helping us with baptisms and hearing those stories helped her to be ready to make her own decision.  And since she helps us and watches people get baptized all the time - she was probably the most prepared kid to ever get baptized. ha! She was so sweet and so excited.  

We were so proud of our sweet "bug" as we call her.  She said she just felt so happy after! 

This was Hutch baptizing her.  

After church we all went out for a good lunch.  It was such a special day.  

Jesus Saves Bro! Yes He does! 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Ephesians 2:8

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

Friday Favorites

I have been using Urban Decay eyeshadow for the last several years.  I love it.  The last palette I bought was the smokey palette but it's about time for a new one.  

I can't decide between the Heat 

or the Rose Gold palette.  Any small and brown eyed girls out there? Which one do you use or would you use? I'm leaning towards Rose Gold.  

We got our Magic Bands today.  We leave for Disney in three weeks and I'm SO excited!!! 

We will be there for the big Halloween Party so we are dressing up as Disney princesses (and one prince).  I found this shirt on etsy and this skirt at Target.  And we had the headband! I ordered the girls dresses.  We will be the same thing for actual Halloween.  We always have a family theme and looks like we are keeping it up at least another year.  

We got school pictures back this week.  I think they are so cute.  I can't believe I have a first and third grader.  

And the cutest Cowboys fan ever lives at my house! :-) Scott is a huge cowboys fan and I grew up wanting to be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader (ha ha ha! well at least when I was 5).  

Today is the first day of fall and we have a fun few days coming up! 

Give Grace

Back before I had kids and I was a single lady, I would go to Walmart or other places and see kids screaming and I would give total side eye to the moms.  "Get control of you child!" is what would be in my brain.  I totally judged all moms when their kids weren't behaving.

And then I HAD kids.  

And I was humbled and gained a ton of empathy.  I'm thankful for that.

Now I'm a mom of three and one very, very busy toddler who hates shopping carts.  I try to go to the store when they are all in school but I also have to pack a ton of stuff in those hours and it happens that to make the best use of my time, we need to all go to the store after school.  I also try to go at night but now that we are in school and activities - by the time everyone is in bed, I'm too tired to go. And I could do grocery pick up and I do but that involves planning ahead and sometimes it's the last minute trip after school for lunch supplies and dinner!

All that to say I'm often at Walmart with all three kids.  My girls are well behaved and helpful.  Will Holden has good days and then he has days where he won't sit down or he's yelling.  It's stressful.  I try to make the trips as quick as possible for the sake of everyone involved.

But I can't tell you lately how often I have received ugly looks from older people.  I want to say "did you not have children?" " Do you not remember?".  I just wish they could offer a simple smile and a little encouragement.  It would go so far.  Frowns and rolled eyes are not helpful.

I still remember the day that Harper was around a year old and having a bad day at Walmart.  She was throwing out goldfish everywhere and then dumped a whole package out.  I was on the floor on my hands and knees picking up goldfish and wanting to cry.  This precious woman stopped me and offered the kindest words of encouragement.  I don't even remember what she said and she probably doesn't even remember this happening - but this simple gesture meant the world to a struggling mom.

I'm willing myself to remember when my kids are grown how hard these young years are.  I may even buy a bunch of Sonic cards to stick in my purse to hand out when I see that struggling mom with an unhappy toddler. Or at the very least smile and say "hang in there".

I brought this subject up on my instastory the other day and was met with hundreds of DM's from people who agreed with me.  Tons of moms who experienced this daily - it isn't just me!

Life would be a lot better if we all just encouraged each other.

And not just in the grocery store.  And not just moms with toddlers.

Just put ourselves in others shoes and walk around a bit.

(and maybe I should smile and try to encourage the grumpy older people.  Putting myself in their shoes - maybe they are just having a bad day.)  See what I did there? Trying to give grace.

Busy but never boring!

We had a fun but super busy weekend.  I felt like I ran a marathon.  

Friday, Hollis' class led the school assembly.  She had the very first line and she did great.  Sometimes I just can't get over how much her confidence has come along.  

Saturday was a packed day.  Harper had swim team at our gym in the morning so we all went.  Scott and I worked out while she had practice and the other kids went to childcare.  We got to watch the last half of her practice.  

After her practice, we dropped the boys off and Harper, Hollis and I went to church for a baby shower.  Harper's 2nd grade teacher is having a sweet baby soon and Harper has been looking forward to her shower for months! We love Mrs. Edwards.  I've known her since she was in 9th grade and stayed at my house during a youth event.  Harper was wet from practice and I was sweaty from the gym but we were so glad to be there! 

We ran home and ate lunch and everyone but me changed clothes again so we could head to Hollis' soccer game.   As an Arkansas fan, I love my hat (even though I secretly love everything Texas).  But I felt a little bad for sporting it after I watched Texas lose in 3 overtimes to USC - at midnight.  ha! 

Hollis had a great time playing soccer.  The rest of us were baking watching her.  It as almost 90 degrees.  We are still getting the hang of this sports thing.  Everyone else had big umbrellas to sit under.  We were dialing up Amazon while we sat out there to get one as soon as possible.  

We dashed home to all take showers and eat dinner and get ready because Saturday night Hollis was a Future Miss in the local high school pageant.  Harper did this three years and Hollis was thrilled to get her turn! 

Four years of my Future Miss girls! 

One of Hollis' friends since birth was a future miss also so it was fun for them to get to do it together! 

Hollis escorted one of our babysitters Bailey.  My girls love here and Hollis was so thrilled.  Bailey gave her a little bag of goodies and you would have thought it was Christmas morning.  She did great in the pageant.  It's always fun to watch.  The high school girls are so articulate and talented.  They are all so smart and well rounded.  And it's also SO encouraging because for the last four years I've watched the majority of the girls in the pageant in their public school declare their love for Jesus and their passion to serve him.  I've been blown away by that.  

Scott took this picture before we left.  This pretty much sums up all of our personalities.  Scott and Will Holden stayed home to watch football while we had a girls night.  

Today was church.  We taught Will Holden's class which is always an adventure.  

The girls had choir and GA's and we got ready for another week! 

Busy but never boring! 

Ears and Tacos

Today Harper had an appointment at her audiologist in Little Rock.  It was a 10:00 appointment so we left at 6.  Scott worked from home today and took the other two to school and picked them up.  It was so nice to have a day with my big girl.  She has been so excited for about a week about our day together.  

We had a great appointment.  Her hearing remains stable which is an answer to prayer.  She got new ear molds made and she picked out ocean colors with glitter! Because of course! 

Today was very bittersweet.  Our audiologist, Jan, has been such a blessing to our life.  Her dad was one of my professors at OBU and I was so happy to have a connection with her when we first came to ACH when Harper was two.  It was a time when we had a lot of unknowns about hearing loss and were very scared and sad.  She is probably the kindest human I have ever met and has walked us along on this journey.  She has made this whole thing so pleasant.  Harper adores her and I do too.  She is cutting back on her workload and we have a new ACH going in in NWA so it's time for us to switch doctors so we don't have to travel to appointments.  Even though we hate it.  I cried like a goose in her office and she cried too.  

She will always hold a very special place in our hearts! 

We finished our appointment early and went to have lunch at a place I have wanted to go to forever but it's never worked out when I'm in Little Rock - Local Lime.  It was so delicious.  They have six kinds of salsas.  My favorite was the zucchini with the pumpkin seeds.  Doesn't sound too great but it was DELICIOUS! 

I finally turned her into a taco fan.  

It's such a cute place and so good.  And it's in a super nice shopping area that I had never been in.  So after we ate, we decided to visit some stores.  We had the best time! 

They had my favorite store, Altar'd State.  Ours closed down and I have been mourning ever since.  They have the cutest clothes.  And hello - they have a place to write prayer requests in the dressing room area.  

Then we hit up Anthropolgie and a few other stores that we need in NWA! We went to Evereve which had a whole play area for kids.  The lady working there was SO friendly and said it was a store designed by a mom for other moms.  I've seen bloggers talking about it - but I loved visiting. 

When did she turn 13? 

We just had such a good day together.  I love love love having an 8 year old.  

Lately

We have had pretty amazing weather for September lately.  Cool in the mornings and night.  I'm always a burning flame so it feels so good to me but Hollis felt the need to wear a coat and scarf to play outside one night.  For the record it was like 70.  But I guess that feels cold after an Arkansas Summer.  

Will Holden.  Bless him.  I am not great at getting him frequent hair cuts.  The girls get their hair cut like twice a year ..... maybe.  And I try to pretend that  I can let him grow his hair out but he ends up looking like the before picture which is ROUGH.  How adorable is he with the short little boy cut? Does he not look like a junior senator? Swoon. 

We got our school pictures back this week.  Sweet girls.  

Friday night we had our back to school carnival.  I took the girls and I worked in their class booths while they had the time of their lives.  Everything in me wants to skip the carnival and stay home but they love it.  And I love their school and their teachers so I'm all in.  I actually love getting to meet other parents and visit.  Carnivals are Scott's worst nightmare and it's best if WH just stays home so the boys just had a guy night.  This is what happens when an extrovert marries an introvert. 

Saturday, Harper had swim practice in the morning.  It's at our gym so I was able to get in a quick workout while she swam and then watched her for part of it.  

Saturday afternoon Hollis had her first soccer game.  I was SOOOO proud of her.  We have to work on helping her be a little more aggressive but she ran so hard and LOVED it.  Two years ago she would have NEVER done this.  

My dad has been in Nepal for the last two weeks training pastors and he flew in to NWA Sat night.  My mom came to pick him up so she came and met us at Hollis' game.  My dad's flight got delayed until late so she ended up coming over and hanging out until he got back.  And then those crazy kids drove home super late.  I didn't take a picture of my mom but the kids had a great time with her. 

Hollis asked Jesus in her heart 3 weeks ago and because of some things we had going on she finally got to go forward at church this morning and make it public. Joseph was saved this summer and decided he was ready to go forward today. His mom texted me this morning to tell me and she was worried people would think they were just doing it together. I said who cares what people think - when Jesus calls you - we follow. That applies to all of us. We can't worry what people might think. Take up our cross and run after Him with all we have!

(This might not be the last time they are at the altar together. 🤣🤣🤣)

And I can't end this without saying we are praying so hard for the people of Florida.  And the people of Texas still.  Constantly on my mind.  And on millions of our minds, prayers and hearts.