We have this routine when Poppa and Rara come to town, we always go load up on fresh produce Saturday morning.
Noelle loved pointing out all the scales, I mean clocks! Noelle learned the word lime in this picture – she thought that was a great word.
Noelle and Poppa just a playin’.
In a real sense, all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality.
-Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Poppa and Noelle playing in Rara’s green room!
"Noelley, you can’t get away from me!"
Noelle loves her new purse!
"Thanks for my Valentine purse, Poppa and Rara! Meredith did a great job creating something special just for me." Love, Noelle
Poppa and Rara are on their way to Arlington! Noelle is going to be so excited when she wakes up from her nap and finds them here. We are going to Dallas tomorrow to see John’s pictures from his France trip, then we are going out to eat at Celebration. We are so excited – it’s time to play!
We have had a busy week in the Pond household. We were honored last night to host the Tarrant County AIDS Interfaith Network as they came speak at our mid-week church gathering about how we can get involved in helping those infected in our area.
To be honest, I was a little scared and uncomfortable about this possibility, but I just needed a little education. The director of TCAIN, Daphne Myles, told us churches and families are the first to reject those with the illness and that really saddened me.
Although counseling at the pregnancy center is where I feel most comfortable, I’m ready to practice what we preach as followers of Christ and show the outcasts of our society the care and attention Jesus showed them during his life.
Our volunteer activities will include: Bringing food to their "El Sol" support group for people living with HIV (this group is 16 years strong, and is the only family some of the group members have), delivering vital medications to those patients who are homebound, and office work (Mike volunteered to help them with IT needs).
I need courage, but to turn my back on this opportunity would be a contradiction. Mike and I are blessed beyond measure to have people surrounding us who are in their element caring for the weak. I’m so proud of all of you guys who care so much for these people, and if I were sick, I’d pray to God there were people like you in my world. Thanks for helping me be a better person.
For more info: www.tcain.org
This morning I was doing laundry and I asked Noelle what I had in my hand (thinking she would say pjs). Instead, she saw the puppy on her pjs, and said, "Puppy – HE GOES – woof, woof!" It was hilarious! I immediately called Mike and asked Noelle to tell Daddy about the puppy. She said, "He goes (dramatic pause) woof woof!" She thinks she is so cool and has been saying that phrase over and over again all day long. That and begging me to go to "MOPS" to see her friend "Jillian," which we will do bright and early in the morning.
Aunt Michele painted this beautiful canvas for Noelle for Christmas. We finally got it hung, and it looks so cute in her little room. I also updated Noelle’s desk shelves with all of her Christmas presents.
Michele is custom painting canvases for our friends and family. If you would like to order one, you can email me at melissajpond@gmail.com, and I’ll pass her info along.
Putting two and two together!
We learned all about knees from the Addison’s Christmas picture. We look and point at all our Christmas pictures, and this is by far Noelle’s favorite one to talk about. She’s points out the girls and the boys, the glasses, the green shirt, the necklaces, the hair, and the KNEES!
Caught in the act of putting stickers on her knees after our little "knee" unit! Oh, and when Mike got home he found these stickers in the toilet. Earlier this afternoon I told her to go throw them in the trash – sometimes she gets confused, but she’s doing a really great job!
Noelle modeling Rara and Poppa’s Montana souvenir shirt. She LOVES scaring the bears off with her bear bell around the house. It was literally 80 degrees today, but Noelle insisted on wearing her hat (I’m shrugging my shoulders – not going to fight that battle).
We all had a horrible cold last week but rested the entire weekend and are finally feeling much better now. The next couple of weeks I am on a mission to get Noelle’s scrapbook updated, so I don’t think I’ll be taking too many pictures. This week we are starting to host a mid-week gathering with our church at our house, so that will be really fun, and good for me because I’ll have to stay organized with housework. Last week, I planned and booked two really great trips for our family this year… that was a lot of work but now I’m getting really excited. So, all in all, we are busy organizing and getting ready for a great ’08!
