Come see #3

You must see the new soccer player in our house.
Jax had his first game last Saturday, and y'all, this is entertainment at it's finest. And free! No one will charge you a ticket. Just bring a chair and have a seat. You're garunteed to laugh.
Jax did a great job last Saturday! He scored a goal, which was way exciting! He had the proudest look on his face. He assisted others. (This sounds very professional, for players who can't remember which goal is theirs.)
He was awesome! What surprised us was he was an aggressive player! Rusty was thrilled. (Not aggressive like throw other kids down and stomp on them, but intent on getting the ball, and not afraid to get in the middle of it.) Yet he was still focused mostly on snack time, and blowing me kisses from the field. Goodness, he's too cute.
We tried soccer last year with Emma, and it was an interesting season. It turned out soccer was not Emma's thing. She was the team flower-picker. She's never felt the need to follow the crowd, and soccer was no exception. If everyone is huddled around the ball, she'd rather be somewhere else. And as you can imagine, we had a hard time keeping her upright on the field. She spent much of the time on all-fours. We were always yelling "Stop being a puppy Emma!" She would bark back at us. Soccer didn't go so well last year. We got smart and followed her true passion with horses. She excels at riding horses and is dog-gone beautiful doing it! She and her horse are ONE!
But soccer could be Jax's thing. Who knows? Either way, this season is going to be so fun to watch!

The Poop-Flinger Strikes Again!

Since this story has become renown in the B-CS area (which is what I've always wanted my family to be famous for...throwing poo), I thought I'd give you an update.
He did it again.
It was approximately 5pm yesterday, and I had a million things to do. Thursday nights we have Countdown here, so I was trying to get my dessert made, plus start dinner, and get it all done quickly so I could get to Praise Team practice...it was just that kind of afternoon.
So there was no time in my schedule for poop flinging.
The worst part- Rusty wasn't here.
It was just me, alone, face-to-face with my two year old poop flinger.
I went to pick him up out of bed, and I re-lived the nightmare I shared with you weeks ago.
Poop everywhere.
Smeared on the bed.
Thrown in every direction.
Now, the first time he did not get a spanking, because I felt partly responsible. I had put him in bed in only his diaper, and I thought maybe it got heavy (wet) and came off. Then he decided, 'Hey, here's my poop. I should see how far I can go for distance with it.' Like I said, he's got quite an arm.
But this time, he went to great lengths to achieve his goal.
For goodness sake, the boy was wearing overalls.
OVERALLS! He took them off. Threw them so far, I couldn't find them at first.
Then his diaper, so on, so forth.
I don't know what he's thinking at this point? I think I have poo in my diaper. Maybe I'll use it like Play-do? Or is it purely for my face when I open the door and start shouting 'NOOOOOO!'
Anywho, he got a spanking with this one.
When Rusty came home I had him give the boy his stern Daddy face, which tends to work better than my spankings.
As I was cleaning this up, ALONE this time, I was seriously praying 'Lord, please keep this child out of prison. Please! Break this rebellious spirit in him!"
Every two-year-old must be broken, but he might take a little more work.
Good thing he is crazy cute!

JAX'S NEW CATCH PHRASE!

Okay, we've got a new one. Ready?
"Get a load of yourself!"
Interject it casually into conversation.
That's the way it's done.
If you want to say it Jax-style, it's going
to have to be a little louder than anyone's
"indoor voice" should be.
Jax is still keepin' it real.

Jax's version of Humpty Dumpty

Nursery Rhymes are a party of our Pre-K/K curriculum in the Bacak School. Jax's versions always kill me! Like when we did "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary..." He would say "Mary, Mary, white and cherry." That week, and for a long time after, he was obsessed with cockleshells. I don't know what cockleshells are!
Anyway, this week is Humpty Dumpty. This is what Jax recited today.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a big wall.
....and he fell....
All the kings mans, and all the king's horses
put him back in pieces a-gether."

It's close. Evidently Nursery Rhymes don't necessarily have to rhyme. I love it!

Caught Red-Handed

I know, the title was just too easy.
This is our two-year-old.
This is him playing on the porch, with the grown-ups pre-occupied with the dishes.
He got a hold of the red paint and was just squeezing away when we found him.
You can't see it in the picture, but red paint is everywhere! All over the porch and grass.
Rusty says it looks like a bad scene in CSI.
He wanted to draw chalk outlines around some of it for effect.
That's his innocent face he's giving to his Daddy, who is looking at him AND me disapprovingly because I got out the camera. This is not the face he gave me after the poop flinging incident. He was purely proud of himself for that one. But his Daddy wasn't there either. That seems to make a difference. Rusty assured me, while scrubbing everything and everyone of red paint, no matter how many cute babies I see at church, prompting me to beg him to get me another one, this is it! In these moments he feels very sure.
You gotta love the 2's!

The Amazing Race Predictions

I love this guy! Phil. I love the way he talks. He's got an accent. Rusty hates accents, but I love them. Everything he says sounds smart.
This show rocks. My friend Bethany got me going on it, and I love it!
Amazing Race watchers, any predictions?
I want to hear who you think will be top 3?

Meet Jodi!

For those of you who don't know, this is the angel, Jodi, who is living with us right now.
(And Emma has a blue balloon above her head.)
Justus is madly in love with her! He stalks her in the house.
Jodi is also the kids' Homeschool Math teacher. She is doing a fabulous job! Emma is counting to 100! They love math time with Jodi. (Jax is mainly in it for the stickers, but whatever works.)
Jodi will only be here this semester, sadly. She will be headed back to Dallas with her family, and then will be marrying Andrew in June. (Andrew's great!)
We love Jodi, and wanted to fill everyone in on the latest in the Bacak house.

Me at an Aggie Game

This is me at my second Aggie game ever.
I'm even wearing maroon under that pancho, can you tell?
This is hard to believe, considering how my husband loves Aggie football (or hates it, depending on the moment), I'm a Baylor Bear, and the fact that we live in Aggieland.
Most of the time, he watches the games at home.
Alone.
He doesn't like to watch them in groups.
He watches them standing up...the whole time...pacing.
Now that we have kids, he TIVOs them, and watches them without interruption.
He doesn't watch too many sports on TV, but Aggie football is important to him- so it's important to me.
Because we had been living far away in Amarillo, it had been years since he had attended a game when we moved back here. For his birthday that year, I gave him tickets to a game. We went together. Considering my first game experience, it is most surprising that there was a second.
We had just moved here, and I hadn't fully appreciated what the Aggie cult was about.
Now, keep in mind, I love living in Aggieland, and love Aggies!!!! (i.e. my husband!) So I feel one must embrace this world, to a degree, Aggie or not. I went to Baylor and loved every minute of it, but I will probably never again attend a Baylor game, and that's totally okay with me. It's not even on my radar screen.
So we went to this first game in 2003, in the afternoon, in the blazing sun. The sun was directly in our eyes the whole game, and we STOOD the whole time. I was wedged in on every side by tall, sweaty guys. (One of them was Rusty, which was okay, but the rest of them, I was not excited about sharing skin-to-skin contact with.) I could only see about a third of the field, and I don't know that much about football anyway.
There was sweating. Then singing. And SWAYING. It seemed to be constant, sweating, singing, and swaying.
Now I love you Aggie people, and have great respect for your tradition, but I draw the line at singing and swaying, yelling hell, and "sawing horns off." This is where I have a seat. I have some real thoughts about the fact that your school song is almost entirely about UT... I mean just love yourselves! Why is there so much focus on them? Is there school song about you? Isn't that kind of sad? But I know no one is interested in my thoughts on that, so I'll move on.
I think whooping is fun...except at my wedding...and I asked Rusty if someone brought one of those air horns to church and just blew that little tune, would everyone whoop out of reflex? He said adamently yes. It's a little strange, but a well-placed whoop can be fun. (Not for me, of course, but for others.)
At this first sweaty game, what followed the sweating, singing, and swaying was dehydration. I went out to buy $4 water! How wrong is that!!! It's like in NY, where the umbrellas sold on the street go up $2 when it's raining! On my way out to buy water, I watched a boy puke into a trash can. I'm thinking- THIS IS NOT FUN!
I was glad Rusty could attend a game. But I was sure he would be attending the rest of them without me. That was 3 years ago. He has attended a few freebie ticket games since then with guys, and had a good time.
Last weekend, Jodi and her fiance Andrew, who have season tickets, offered us tickets to go to the game with them. I was excited for Rusty! And I love hanging out with Jodi and Andrew, obviously! I know Aggie tickets are like gold, so I felt honored.
My weather savvy husband was up on the weather report, so we packed our backpacks like we were going camping for a week. We were fully prepared, with water bottles, rain panchos, towels, trail mix, and granola bars. (No lie!) This came in handy for the two hour rain delay. But this was a much better experience, barring the 2 hour delay...and the rain. It went fast in great company.
I love watching my husband revel in his Aggiehood.
Jodi and Andrew have amazing seats. And we had fun! (Thanks again Jodi and Andrew!)
But still- the singing and swaying! All the time! And that song gets so stuck in your head!
I enjoyed the Aggie Band. That really was impressive!
I have to say, coming from Baylor, some things are really different. (Like we don't often win games.) But our school mascot is so much cooler. We get to watch the bear drink Dr. Pepper at games.
You've got a dog who barks- a lot! A dog. We all have dogs at home.
If she were really like Lassie and saved children stuck in wells or something, that would be cool. But from what I hear, her only trick is biting people.
This poor dog lives such a strange life! I think she's wondering about the singing and the swaying too!
And the strangest Aggie thing I've heard so far is that you have former Revellies (sp? sorry) buried under the outisde scoreboard, so that they can always "look up at the score"! Come on! That's creepy, and weird! Give these poor dogs a break! And everybody knows all dogs go to heaven, so they are free from their duties as Super Aggie Dog. In heaven, they're free to just lick themselves and sleep all day, like other dogs.
All in all, we had a great time, and truly, I know I'm skating on thin ice with some of you Ags.
But I love you Aggies. I would be pleased for my kids to go to school here. You can't live here without just rolling with it.
Beside my husband, I have deeply loved so many Aggie girls since moving here! Starting with Camile, Arlene, Morgan, Sarah, Lisa, Jodi- and so many more! I adore you!
It's all a little strange, but I love you Aggieland.

"Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." James 1:19

A while back, we taught this verse to the kids, and we were working on not interrupting each other. We wanted them to learn the value of listening to others, and not just thinking about what THEY had to say. (Something we grown-ups can work on too.) So "interrupting" has become a major offense in our home. This is huge for a four and six-year-old who are constantly fighting for talk time. I don't know what we'll do when Justus finally tries to get a word in!
So Jax gets quite frustrated when someone interrupts him, but he says "Emma! Please don't uncle-rupt me!" "Uncle-rupt" gets me every time! So there's a new word to work into your vocabulary. Uncle-rupt is way more fun to say than interrupt!

The Poop Flinger

I hesitated to put this story on the blog when it happenned because I fear that some of you childless people, with weak stomachs, might not be able to take it. Or that you might swear off having children. Or you young marrieds would immediately double up on your birth control. But the story has been requested by more than one, so I'm posting it. Read at your own risk.
Our precious little two-year-old bundle of joy had a surprise for us one afternoon. I went to get him out of his bed after nap time on a Saturday afternoon. What I found was him standing in his bed, covered in poop, poop flung all over the room, (I mean, to every corner of his large room! On the guest bed, etc. As Rusty would say- He's got a good arm.) He had also rubbed it all over the rails of his crib.
Somehow, his diaper had fallen off, and he had peed on his pillow and thrown that out of his crib. Then he pooped, and just had a big party with it I guess. When I went to pick him up, tip-toeing through a mine field of poop, I couldn't stop saying "Sick! Justus, gross!" and of course, hollering for my husband. I very gingerly plucked him from his bed, and headed straight for the bath, since the poop was now getting crusty all over him. Now the real hero of this story is my husband!!! Yes, he cleaned and sanitized the room. He's a man like no other man. He's my knight and shining armor. Single girls, marry a man who will do such a thing for you! It's just lucky for me my husband is a doctor, and sees and does things in a day that would make the rest of us common folk dry-heave on the spot.
As for Justus, he was quite proud of himself. No kidding, in the bath, he was giggling away. It was nothing but good fun for him. The adventures of Parenthood!

Addition to Favorites List

Faithful Bacak bloggers: Remember the favorites list? I want to make an addition. (Is anyone else hooked on that creamer? It gets me up in the morning.)
Are you ready?
Jogging in the rain.
Yes, Rusty and I went jogging in the pouring rain last night, and I felt a little like Rocky. It was awesome.
The sad thing was that when I returned home, despite the theme music playing in my head, I didn't look so hot. I forgot I put on eye make-up, and it was streaked down one side of my face. I looked more like that messed-up chic on Star Trek with, like, half of her face melted. Jodi was frightened of me.
But jogging in the rain- you got to try it! Okay, I know, it's still jogging, but that's just a necessary evil in my life. If you're going to jog, you ought to try it in the rain.

Noah was a righteous man

The kids and I have been reading through Genesis. We learned about Noah, and that he was a righteous man. When I taught them this, I told them that I thought their Daddy was a righteous man too. He tries to do what is right for God.
You never know when your words will come back...
Jax was talking back to Rusty today, and Emma piped in, how she doesn't talk back to Daddy...because he is a righteous man!
She then was saying a prayer for "Mommy to be a righteous Mommy, and Jax to be a righteous Jax," etc. She was praying for our whole family to do what is right for the Lord.
I covet the prayers of this sweet child of God. She has such a pure relationship with Him, it humbles me. I pray that we would be a family who does what is right for the Lord. It's just that simple.

Emma's new slogan

I knew this day would come. From the time she could point and make noises, we knew she was passionate about animals. Not in the normal, little kid way, but to the point of obsession. Still, as a five-year-old (almost 6-aaaaaaaaaahhhh!) she lives half of her life as some sort of animal.
This week we are studying farming. I knew I needed to tread carefully in the subject of farming for meat. It's not as if I showed her pictures of a slaughter house. No. I simply told her that some farms raise cows for us to eat meat, and chickens, etc., so on.
Well, at the lunch table today, she declared to Rusty and I, as we ate meat, that killing animals for meat was "not fair" and she would not do it anymore. This slogan was actually almost verbatim what she said. She wants to save the lives of animals. She wants to buy her own farm so that she can raise them to live.
Rusty tried the whole "God gave us animals to eat...blah,blah." But her adament response is "it's not fair." So she will not be apart of it anymore. I told her she was becoming a "vegetarian", which is strange for a child who boycotts vegetables.
We'll see how long this lasts. I told her I respected her decision. This may last until tomorrow, or until she's 16. Or maybe she has made a life-long choice at 5. I don't know. But knowing my Emma, it doesn't the least bit surprise me.

The Grandparents Day Luncheon

The Grandparents Day Luncheon was a smashing success! (If you ask me.)
As I saw Grandparents Day approaching, I remembered when I was in elementary school, and my grandparents came to eat a nasty, tray lunch with me in the cafeteria...and I thought it was the coolest thing that happened to me all year.
I wanted to make Grandparents Day cool for my kids in our own homeschool way.
(When my Dad arrived, he asked where my Prairie dress was? I have yet to don the prairie dress, and we have not yet made our own soap. We are on our own unique homeschooling track.)
We invited my grandparents, Rusty's parents, and my Mom and Dad. I told the kids this would be theirs to host, and Jax immediately told everyone when they came through the door that "he was in charge." These are rare words for a four-year-old, so he was drunk with power! (Please pray for Jax to come to love Jesus, so he uses his powers for good and not evil!)
They served everyone, and were as cute as they could be. They also got to show off all that they are learning. Emma read some books to them, and they both signed a book "Ten Little Ladybugs." The Grandparents were able to peruse their journals and their review book, a scrapbook of everything we've done so far, as well as their artwork already on display. We had a great time!
It was good to celebrate Grandparents. We feel so blessed to have them in our lives. The legacy of love and Godliness they have passed down to us continues to trickle down to my children. That is priceless! We love you Ed, Cindy, Ray, Bern, Bob, and Betty!

Emma's new supertalent

My daughter has many talents. Like the uncanny animal noises she makes. Or travelling at the speed of light on all fours! (Challenge her to a race if you don't believe me.) She can climb any tree. She can catch a bug, no matter how fast, slimy, or disghusting it is. (Some may not deem this a supertalent, but in the Bacak house, it is.) But we have a new one this week...
READING! My little girl read three early reader books today!!! I am awed and amazed! We are just in our third week of Kindergarten, and she has begun reading! I feel like I just gave birth, or potty-trained a kid, or one of those achievements that Moms remember for a lifetime. It's so exciting! She has come so far so fast, and I could not be prouder of her! So come over and let Emma read you a book!