A Couple More Garrett Sayings

I've been meaning to post this for the past week and just haven't gotten around to it. But I thought it was worth it, even if it wasn't "new news."

Part One:

On Palm Sunday, Matt left right after church for a week of training in Salt Lake City. While he was gone, Garrett had to adjust to Mommy putting him to bed instead of Daddy. Some nights, I would lie down beside him and sing hymns to him. Since Easter was coming, I would often choose some of my favorite Easter hymns to sing. One of my personal favorites (both for content and the fact that it's just such a joyous song) is Christ Arose by Robert Lowry:

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain:
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Refrain

Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!
Refrain

After Garrett started picking up on the words and tune to this song, he asked me a very serious question: "Mommy, why did He low in the gravy lay?" No matter how many times I tried to explain that "Jesus lay low in the grave" or that "He was lying in the grave," Garrett did not understand. Garrett can now sing all of the words to the song and is pretty much on key. Perhaps someday he will know what the song means and will no longer wonder what "gravy" has to do with burying people in a tomb and with Christ's Resurrection.

Part Two:
Another of Garrett's memorable sayings also occurred while Matt was in Utah. During that week, I ended up having 3 sick kids (high fever, aches, etc.). Garrett was the last to come down with this awful bug and he seemed pretty miserable. One time as I was changing his diaper, he said, "Mommy, my head really hurts." I replied, "I'm sorry that your head hurts, honey." He sweetly answered, "Mommy, you don't need to say sorry. You didn't hurt my head; something else did." Those kind of sweet moments melt a Mommy's heart.

AWANA Games, Year 2

Last year I posted about our exciting day at the AWANA Games. (If you're interested, you can look here).Today Karissa and Micah participated in the AWANA Games and the Sparks-a-Rama for a second time. Matt was able to come along this year and was one of the coaches for the Sparks team.

Micah made up for not being able to participate in more than a couple of games last year by participating in both sessions today. After the Sparks were done, the T&T group was getting ready for their turn in the afternoon. They were looking for two more third or fourth grade boys to round out their team. Micah isn't in third grade, only second, but one of the judges mentioned that it was also okay to pull up one of the second-grade Sparks if there weren't enough people. Micah was quickly recruited and had to quickly adjust to the idea of participating. This was a little hard for our boy that likes to think through everything at great lengths. Impromptu events are not usually his style. But, he handled the pressure well and did his best. Since he is a little small in stature for a typical eight year old, he looked very small out there with the third through sixth grade boys. He did tell me later that he was nervous and that he thought the other boys on his team could tell he was nervous and were very encouraging to him. A couple of times he was pretty unevenly matched, but still "scrapped it out" until the end.

Karissa participated in a lot more events this year than she did last and did pretty well. She and her partner didn't get "tagged" out in the three-legged race (which she was afraid of). She also seems to really enjoy cheering on her teammates.

None of our teams won, but they all did their best and had fun.

As usual, I forgot my camera. I think someone may be e-mailing some pictures to me. So, if there are any good ones, I may come back and post them later.'

After working about 22 hours (give or take) on Thursday (and Friday morning), Matt stayed up last night and painted the girls' room. Tomorrow, after church, he leaves for a week of training in Utah. This weekend, we will have family in town to celebrate Garrett's third birthday.

Two Dropped Out

Here's the question that Matt posed to everyone in our house this morning: "Do you know what two people dropped out yesterday?" Well, I figured that based on the Texas and Ohio primaries that Mike Huckabee probably had dropped out of the presidential race for the Republicans, but I couldn't imagine who else might have dropped out. The answer to the question: "Mike Huckabee AND Brett Favre." For all of you Packer fans out there (and for those that don't care but still read our blog), Brett Favre announced yesterday that he was retiring. Micah is glad that he got to go to Lambeau Field and watch Brett Favre play this year. Matt is glad that Aaron Rodgers seems to be a fairly good quarterback. I'm just wondering how long we have to keep all of the Brett Favre paraphernalia that we've accumulated.