Trent Family Blog

Snow Day (or should I say Days?)

About 4-5 days before we ever saw anything fall from the sky, our weather forecasters here in the Atlanta area started talking about the possibility for large amounts of snow Sunday night into Monday. I love snow, but didn't want to get my hopes up. By Saturday evening, though, it was starting to look much more promising. YAY!

Unfortunately, I had already planned a short week of school because we are leaving to go out of town on Friday. So... I hated to miss another full day of school. I gave the kids the option on Sunday morning to come home after church and do their schoolwork for Monday so that they could have a snow day on Monday with the rest of the neighborhood kids. They gladly jumped on this opportunity.

Jump to Monday morning and a whopping 5 1/2 inches of snow was on the ground. I think that is the most snow I've ever woken up to (at least in my own home). It was absolutely beautiful! And still is. We're now on Day 2 of the Big Snow. We did school this morning, but just the basics and the kids were able to head out for round 2 of fun in the snow this afternoon.

Now, we just found out that public schools are out for a 3rd snow day tomorrow and all of our Wednesday night activities at church have been cancelled as well. Can you say cabin fever?  For my sanity, we will probably have as close to a normal day of homeschool as possible tomorrow. I'm sure though at some point, the kids will be bundling up to head out and enjoy some more play time in the snow. And I might just have to join them :-) After all it might be a while before we see this much snow again.

Home Sweet Home

Walking to the neighbor's to do some sledding

All bundled up - ready to do some sledding.

Dillon does great for his first time to sled.

Abby's turn

Love how quiet everything seems in a blanket of white.

A pretty North American Cardinal

And a pretty girl!

Thanks for letting me share about our fun days in the snow. It's been so beautiful and so much fun.

Seven Questions (and answers) for a Lazy Saturday Morning

My friend Jamie over at See Jamie Blog tagged me on this last week. Doesn't she know I'm doing good to get a weekly update posted? Hee, Hee! I'm the slowest blogger (speed-wise) on the planet. But on this lazy Saturday morning, I thought I'd give it a whirl. So here goes...These are the questions Jamie posed to me:

1) What is your biggest spending/buying weakness? We love Disney and tend to make about a trip a year to visit Mickey and friends. We are all big kids at heart.

  
2) What is something BIG in your life you never imagined but God made happen? I never thought I would be married to a minister, but now cannot imagine my life any other way. I love serving alongside my husband in the local church and raising our family to love God and His church. I've also been married to my best friend, who makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis, for almost 18 yrs.

3) What is your favorite book of all time? (Or one of them.) I read a lot of books, but don't think I have ever read a book twice (Except the church answer - The Bible) I love books, lots of them. One of my favorites from this summer was Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

4) If you could give your teenage self one piece of advice, what would it be? To make wise choices according to God's Word and not according to what makes you happy in the moment. The choices you make during your teenage years will shape the rest of your life.

5) What is your footwear of choice? none, I love going barefoot. But, if I had to choose something, I would go with flip-flops. Except when I'm doing a lot of walking, then it's Chacos or tennis shoes.

6) If you had to name your home-decorating style, what would it be? Yikes! If I had to pick what I lean towards more, it would probably be traditional. (But, can I just say that I absolutely love IKEA!)

7) Tea or Coffee? OK, I'm not a tea or coffee drinker, which I'm quickly learning in blogland makes me a little bit of an outcast. Thanks to WeightWatcher's indoctrination nine years ago after the birth of my first child, I am a water drinker. I drink 6-8 glasses a day because I'm a rule follower. When I'm not drinking water (or in the bathroom), I drink sweet iced tea or the occasional diet soda:-)

Tex is a good dog, oh yeah.

Back in the summer of 1994, Wendy and I decided to become dog owners.  We were young seminary students living in Fort Worth, Texas and we didn't want kids, so we got Tex.  He was a large pomeranian with lots of attitude.  I remember the day we took a "Don't Mess with Texas" bumper sticker and cut the last part off so that it read "Don't Mess with Tex."  We stuck it right on his kennel... the place he would happily go if you simply offered him a snack.
Tex retired back in December 0f 2002.  I say retired because he went to live with Wendy's great Uncle and Aunt, Marvin and Mary Nixon.   They were retired and had recently lost a dog of their own.  They took a liking to Tex while we were home visiting family over Christmas break.  Wendy and I had been considering allowing the right people to have him since our youth ministry traveling and having kids didn't make us the best owners.  Since that December of 2002, Tex has been living it up all over the country by way of motor home. 
We got word last week that Tex died yesterday of old age.  He lived almost 14 years.  That's a long time in dog years. 
Thanks Uncle Marvin and Aunt Mary for taking such great care of such a great dog.

Back to work... back to life...

Truth is... I really like going to Disney World... a lot.  I know, I know... long lines, hot, expensive, etc.
I think I understand the secret of Disney World though.  What I've learned, is that the "secret" of DW is not the mouse, the rides or those really geeky mouse ears.
DW is a place where families can check out of the world for a while, leave your worries behind, play by a different set of rules and laugh together. 
I've been blessed beyond wildest dreams with an incredible family.  We know how to have fun together.  The memories we made this past week will last forever. 
Gotta run.  Back to the real world. 

Great Book

I've started reading a great book called The Preacher and the Presidents.  It is a fascinating account of how Billy Graham has had influence in the lives of every president since Truman. 
I've only read the introduction and chapter 1, but I have to tell you that Billy Graham's honesty about his early mistakes in ministry is very powerful and humble.  If you like biographical type books, this may be worth your time.

Man Chair

After many years of dreaming about owning my own "man chair", my dreams became a reality yesterday as I went to pick up my very own Lazy Boy.  Don't get me wrong, in a lot of ways, I was already a lazy boy. But now, I have the chair to match my personality.
I felt very manly as I went to Lazy Boy store to pick it out over the weekend.  As I walked around the store trying out every recliner they had, I was accompanied by several other men who were there doing the very same thing... picking out their man chair.  We all gave each other the "manly head nod of understanding" as we walked around the store.  We had an immediate bond of manhood that only few will understand. 
I'm here today to tell all of my lovely ChrisTrent.net readers to keep your dreams alive because dreams do come true... if you truly believe... uhhhh... if you get a job... uhhhhh... if your wife tells you it is ok to buy that thing you really, really want.
Thanks babe for understanding my needs.

Baby, it's cold outside...

I feel like I'm back in Dallas.  Crazy cold mixed with ice and bad road conditions.  Dillon was hoping school would close, but he missed out.  Cobb county schools don't close very often. 

Where have I been???

This blogging thing can be crazy sometimes.  Before you know it, a week or two has past and you've not posted a thing.  For those who keep coming back anyway, thanks for being here.  If you're reading this, you are probably a great friend or part of our wonderful family.  It really means a lot to Wendy and I that you come here to find out what is going on in our lives(of course we really know it is about Dillon and Abby, but Wendy and I will get over it...).  We hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Oh yeah... gonna eat some turkey

I can't wait to get out of town and eat some turkey on Thursday. I'm not crazy about all of the commercial parts of the holidays, but I do love the family part. It is going to be great!

One man's junk...

... is another man's treasure???  I'm sitting in my garage at this very moment watching people walk around our garage sale.  I'm still amazed after all these years how people want to by the stuff we don't want anymore.  What's up with that?  I think you could put a 25 cent sticker on a stick and someone would buy it.  We've already made a couple hundred bucks!  Unbelievable.