A Star Wars Education

At this exact moment Neal has all four of our children at the dinner table giving them a Star Wars education.  It consists of the names of all of the movies in chronological order and then explaining the order they were released.  After that he pressed on  to explain/introduce Roman numbers to the children (since they use Roman numbers to order the movies).

He then told them that there is now going to be three more Star Wars movies (VII, VIII, IX) and when they come out we would go see them in the theater.

Anna Grace thought it would be fun (more fun than learning about Roman Numerals on a Friday night, I'm sure) to suggest names for the movies.  So you heard it here first; the next three Star Wars movies and their names:

Star Wars VII:  Darth Vader Chops Open

Star Wars VIII:  The Big Spider

Star Wars IX:  Rooooaaaar!

(And if they get carried way and give us four more movies; I mean why stop at nine, right!)

Star Wars X:  The Jedi's Kill the Bad Guys

So Disney and George Lucas, if you need any suggestions the Hatchett children are ready to help you out with a few ideas.  But I should warn you, they have not seen the first six movies so their suggestions might be a little far fetched but probably not any more so than Jar Jar Binks!

Halloween 2012 Is In the Books

Call us what you want - we don't do Santa but we do trick-or-treat!

We continued our tradition of going with the Clark family.  Thank you, Clark family for graciously letting us come.  Caleb got in the car and passed out; Anna Grace is calling it "best night ever;" and Dean says it was "awesome!"

Introducing:

Cleopatra, Superman, Thor and the Cowboy Farmer

 Who would not want to give this crew candy?

War Eagle Anyway

Last weekend the whole Hatchett family (minus Hudson and me - we were both under the weather) made the trip down to Auburn for the Auburn/Texas A&M game.  They had a blast even though the actual football aspect of the trip was less than desirable.

Each of them had their favorite parts of the day.  Anna Grace's was the eagle; she said it almost left the stadium.   Dean's favorite part was the pre-game fly over and he said he liked all the kicking of the ball (he can thank Auburn for all of that...Auburn punts and A&M post touchdown kickoffs).  Caleb's favorite part was the half time paratrooper entrance.

Sleep Walking, Could it Be?

All of our children are good night time sleepers; they don't typically get out of bed unless it is something big.  However in the past week or so Dean has gotten up several times.  A few nights ago I woke to him standing by my head.  (Always a little freaky even if it is your own child.)  He said nothing when I spoke, just stared at Neal's blinking (charging) phone.  After a few times of questioning he finally spoke.  I asked him why he was up and almost tearfully he said he did not know.  I suggested he go back to bed and he took off.  Before I could get in there he was back in bed face down sleeping.

The whole episode has bothered me a little but I don't really know what to do about it so the next night I told him to wake up Neal if he wanted to get up.  Sounded like a good plan to me!

So last night I'm getting ready for bed around 10:30 and he starts screaming.  I go running in the room; he is screaming crying, standing towards the foot of Caleb's bed.  Thankfully Caleb was sleeping soundly through it.  I picked him up and he stopped.  I held him a minute and talked to him to make sure he was calm.  Neal came in; we asked him if he had a bad dream he shook his head no.  We asked if he wanted to lay back down and he nodded.  As I put him back in bed Neal left the room confident that all was well.  Just before I kissed his cheek I noticed that he had a strange look on his face - peaceful but staring at me, not blinking, not looking a way, eyes glassy - a little eerie.   So I decide to try and talk to him.  Again he shakes his head about a bad dream.  This time he tells me that his name is Dean then says it is Dean Freeman but can't remember the rest.  I ask him if he wants some water and he says yes.  He is coherent enough to sit up and drink without my assistance.  Thinking that now he must really be awake I ask again why he was standing "over there" pointing to where I found him.  He lays back down and looks at me with the same glassy-eyed, weird expression and says, "Because I was listening. [long pauses, while images of Poltergeist run through my head] I was going with Bob.  Larry was about to sing the silly songs."

All fears and questions exited my body.  I kissed him and walked out laughing.  All the screaming was somehow because of VeggieTales!  No night tremors or need for exorcism just a boy wandering in his room asleep longing for more Silly Songs with Larry! 

You Don't Ever Find Things in the Trash Can

Neal has spent our entire marriage telling me that things are never found in the trash can.  And for the most part I agree with him, even though on rare occasion I have found a stray toy in the trash can by the desk.

Last week it came out on the blog/Neal's Facebook that I keep a running inventory around here of things...toys, dishes, anything that I can count.  I can't help it; I am constantly counting things as I put them away.  I am sure there is some sort of drug I can take to make this quality go away or tone down but honestly I like it; it helps keep our home as it should be.

This morning, while unloading the dishwasher I counted 11 juice glasses instead of 12.  On alert I counted again...still 11.  First thing, I called Neal to ask if he for some strange reason took a glass with him to work.  Then I remembered that I heard a "glass clank" when I pulled the trash out of the can in our kitchen before taking it out on Tuesday night.  The first obvious thought is, "Someone accidentally threw away their glass while throwing away their napkin.  I will have to go get the trash bag out of the can and get the glass."  I report all of this to Neal; he said he would do it tonight but I can't wait anymore and the desire to have my glass back took over a few minutes ago.

I go out to the big can; push my sleeves up; pull out the bag and begin to dig.  I think about how gross our trash is as I rummage through.  An overwhelming sense of disgusting over comes my left arm as I dig deeper to get beyond the egg shells and sandwich scraps.  I finally get to the glass, the glass spaghetti sauce jar!  Then it hits me. I agree with Neal once again; you don't ever find things in the trash can so why am I so willing to look?  Why is it almost always my first thought, "guess it got thrown away; lets go look in the trash."?

I come inside, scrub my hands (and arm) and think "WHERE COULD IT BE?!"  Then on some whim I decide to look under the chair.  Not a dining room chair but a club chair in the living room.  Not sure why I did but there under the chair was the glass turned on its side.  If only my first instinct was not the trash and I had looked there first!

I hate it when he is right!

I Go for Two Teams

I realized today that it has been almost a month since my last post.  Neal and I went on an anniversary trip a few weeks back.  That took some planning up front and then we were gone and it has also taken some time to get back into the swing of things around here.  However with the excellent help of some friends and much family everyone had a good time while we were gone.  The running joke that Neal and I had before we left was that there was no telling where things would be when we got back.  The funny thing is the list of what I still have not been able to find...

1 salad plate 

the large container of feta cheese 

(consumed?)

one of Neal's Auburn cups

Anna Grace's hot pink hair band and a few of her ribbons

(currently blaming Hudson for this one)

However I can't complain about any of this too much because we did come home to find...

happy, healthy children still in tact

a couple of bottles of partially drunk wine in our frig

children on fire for more time with their grandparents

a playset in the back yard

When looking at the two lists I say the pros certainly out way the cons.  Therefore making our time away even more worth it.  

Since we have been home though there have been some great quotes by the children; none of which have anything to do with missing us or anything of the sort.

"Hey, Mama, when I think I have silly poop I go upstairs to the hall potty.  But when it is regular poop, like right now, I go in here."  Dean

~

"God said I can pull everything up."  Caleb
(He said this after I asked him if he needed help after coming out of the bathroom.  I chose to nod my head and roll with it;  he had done nothing wrong and who am I to argue with what God says!)

~

"I go for two teams:  Auburn and God.  God has the really good team."  Anna Grace  

Confessions from sassy, half-hearted hearts

All of this happened a few weeks ago but things have been going too fast around here for me to get this posted.  And I promise this all took place in one lunch I shared with the children.

Rewind:  One of my sweet grandmothers has cancer...again.  This time being in her 90s she has declared that she does not want any sort of aggressive treatment.  I completely understand that and am thankful that she is prepared to step into eternity with her faith secure in Jesus.  This however has meant that our family start praying for God's mercy in her life during all of this.  The children knew she had been in the hospital with some other complications.  Neal and I felt that we needed to have an honest conversation with them about her health.  The first conversation was fast one evening at dinner with not much said other than she was really sick, she might die before Christmas and we needed to pray for her.

Well in typical fashion that lead to thinking which lead to questions...

Now here we are:  There were some concerns expressed by the children about her dying during lunch.  I told the children that she was going to die; that we all are at some point but we needed to be thankful that she would go to heaven.  Instant relief hit their faces but Anna Grace asked how I knew for sure.  I told them that Jesus lived in her heart and he was in charge of her life....la, la, la...Caleb asked some relevant  yet uneventful question; I answered it.  Anna Grace tried to interrupt I pressed on because I wanted to share the gospel with my children again.  Dean continued to enjoy his meal.  Anna Grace stopped me and said she already did that then finished the gospel in her own words.  I agreed; all was well.  At some point during the meal it was said, "You have to ask Jesus to come into your heart before you can go to heaven when you die."   Dean, who had said nothing up to this point continued to stare down at his plate and eat as if he was a homeless child, says at the first silent moment: "Oh!  Jesus come into my heart.  Amen.  Did that!"  And he took another bite never looking up.  I almost fell out of my seat!  I quickly told him I did not think it worked quite like that you had to really mean it in your heart.

For some crazy reason, I foolishly thought going back to Anna Grace and whatever she wanted to talk about when she was trying to interrupt me had to be something more normal and maybe it was for a family like ours.  "Mama, there is something I've got to ask you about it.  I've been wondering, if Jesus lives inside my heart then what's going on with my attitude?!?"  (I wish I could convey the amount of sassy attitude and frustration in her voice as well as her body language as she spoke.)    I could continue our lunch discussion with poise no more; I erupted in laughter.  Somewhere between our once somber and serious conversation turning into an at best half-hearted sinner's prayer followed by an enormously sassy attitude confession, laughter bubbled from my soul.  Anna Grace even laughed when she realized how crazy she sounded.  After a few minutes she told me that she did not know that she was supposed to be praying daily for the Holy Spirit to help her use self-control.  She was hoping for full sanctification this side of heaven.

Through it all I could not help but think think that God had to be laughing too and sadly their actions funny and somehow appropriate for their age are but a glimpse of our sinful adult hearts wanting only short-cuts, easy roads and a checklist.

Four Amazing Imaginations

I went to the grocery store today.  The children on the other hand went on a boat ride (the buggy) through a swamp (the floor was brownish) with killer rhinoceroses all around (the other buggies) and one roaming giant green crocodile (the large green dust mop that was moving about the store) that was looking for children to eat of course.

Out of our trip I got groceries...they experienced an adventure.

First Day of School...Again

  

Today we had our third first day of school since mid-August around here.  This time it was Caleb heading off to Mother's Day Out for the first time in his life.  He was so excited.  I'm sure I have said this before on here but Caleb lives his life not wishing he was a "big kid" but he really thinks he is a big boy, no different from his older siblings.  In Caleb's mind he is a 5 year old trapped in a 3 year old's body.  I cannot wait to see what this year holds for him at school and watch him soar on his own wings doing his own thing.  He is such a funny, excitable character.  He is 100% boy...very tough, a little bit sloppy, loud (oh wait that is not the boy in him but the Hatchett in him), and loves his mama.  He had not even the slightest hesitation about running in there and getting in the mix.  He has been asking me since last May when his first day of school would be; I am very thankful that Ms. Jennie and Ms. Mikelyn did not disappoint.

He was excited to see me pick him up, show me his room, his craft and tell me about his day.  He was also very excited to tell me about the boy in the blue shirt who did not obey today.  He told me that he was going back next time so he could go on the bear hunt with his class!  He also loved dominating the table conversation this evening sharing with us about his day which is something he has never been able to do.  He has always been the listener when it came to school  He beamed from ear to ear as he told us his experiences...he sat by a girl at lunch; he had to potty during lunch so he could not eat all of his food; he played at the playground two times but not outside because of the rain; he sang several songs - some new, some old; and most importantly he made his craft - a pair of bear ears - by himself!  He also told us that he tried to play by himself but kept getting interrupted by his new friends.

I told the children that we were having popsicle after dinner tonight to celebrate Caleb's great first day of school.  After Dean's popsicle he tried to thank me for dinner and his popsicle to which Caleb said, "No, Dean, thank me!"  We got a good laugh out of that.  I don't think his first day could have been any better!   

Here he is before we left this morning; absolutely ready...a fresh cut thanks to Ms. Danna, new shoes, new lunch box and a big grin:

 

  

New Shoes!

 

 

It was time for new shoes the other day and what an adventure we had.  Our feet are ready for whatever the fall/winter bring our way!  Everyone except Hudson picked out their pair of tennis shoes...I picked out the church shoes (Well Anna Grace was able to chose between several options but not ready to unleash her in Sikes especially after seeing her "loud" tennis shoe choice!)  I will say they picked things that I think testify to their personalities.  Anna Grace chose a collision of brightness; Dean went with grey and mustard (his favorite condiment); and Caleb chose chocolate and orange.

Thank you so much, Honey and Big Daddy!  In case you did not notice the past few days we are very proud of our new shoes.  Anna Grace talked the boys into hiding them around the house for Neal to find when he came home from work that night.  She said she wanted to have an Easter Egg Hunt but with shoes!