randoms.

pratt turned eight months old today. i never got a picture of him in his chair. i'll take it tomorrow and post his eight month stats.

for now...here are a few random pictures.

one. pratt loves blueberries. and tonight, he enjoyed ice cold blueberries.

i just bought fresh blueberries. rinsed them off. and then pureed them. then put them in a pan over low/medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes. supposedly, this helps with the digestion of the berry itself.

it makes a blueberry syrup. and this summer, with as hot as it is going to be...i thought a take on a blueberry popsicle/shaved ice would be great. so it's sort of blueberry shaved ice. and he loves it.

two. pratt recently discovered the shadow of his spoon. it was hilarious. he would see it, and bend his little head down to try to eat from the shadow. instead of the real thing. this is the best picture i could get. we're out of dvds for the recorder. i need to get more and record it. it's so funny. i'm kind of worried what this means about him?! i mean, who notices...and then tries to eat from spoon shadows!?



three. he LOVES to play in his food. his new thing is to grab the spoon as soon as it enters his mouth. which of course means that he gets food all over his tray. and then he plays in it. boys. i HATE the feel of food between my fingers.



he is getting so big. okay, i'm off to cook dinner and watch kris allen on american idol!

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

today i signed you up for preschool.

yes, that's right. you will be eight months old tomorrow, and i'm already signing you up for school. you're going to be on a wait list at our church's preschool. apparently, preschool is popular. who knew?

i just want to warn you now that i WILL be the crazy mom on your first day of kindergarten. i will probably cry the entire day before....cry when i take you...and then cry as you walk away from me.

so please accept this letter as an apology. an apology for the many times i will embarass you.

but it's just what parents do.

when i was in the eighth grade, my dad took me to school. first let me say, there was never a dull moment growing up with poptart. in the eighth grade, you'll realize that appearance matters...at least, you'll be convinced that it does. and having parents do funny things in front of your friends...well, it's funny to everyone except you.

my dad pulled up at the school to drop me off and was going backwards. yes. like, driving his car backwards. in reverse. looking back through the back window. i will never forget it. i was on the floorboard in the backseat. so, so incredibly embarassed.

of course, i look back on it now...and wish he had done it every single day of my life.

school wasn't the only place. he drove me and a girlfriend of mine to sonic...you guessed it, backwards. and all the older, cool boys were there. AND to top it all off, we parked on the nerdy side. yes. i'm surprised i lived through it.

all this to say, i'm sorry for my behavior on your first day of kindergarten. it's just because i love you so much. and don't want you to grow up.

sleep tight little monkey.

be still, and know i am God.

i'm not your normal or average ouachita baptist university graduate.

what do i mean by that?

well...i'm not baptist. and i before my freshman year there, i wouldn't have ever considered myself "religious". when i arrived, i was told by more than a few that i wasn't going to heaven. i hadn't been "dunked"...and supposedly, that's what it took to make it to heaven.

i had never stood with my hands in the air singing praise music. i had actually never accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. i prayed like garth brooks does in "unanswered prayers". you know, "and if He'd only grant me...this wish i wished back then, i'd never ask for anything again."

that was me. and that was the extent of my religious experience.

and then i got to ouachita.

outwardly, i don't think i changed all that much. i mean, looking at me, i'm not sure you would have known that anything was really different. i didn't have the ichthys on my car. my friend whit always says those shouldn't be put on cars...just in case you do end up flipping someone off. i always thought that was so funny.

my clothes didn't change. i didn't outwardly carry my bible around. i didn't lead any student ministries. in fact, i never felt "godly" enough to do that. never good enough. never clean enough. never forgiven enough.

but my heart was different. so, so different.

it was a slow process. i think it was because my friends. my girlfriends. my oc bailey girlfriends. they were mostly responsible for getting me there. for showing me the path. for helping me when i was too weak. for allowing me to lean on them. for them guiding me.

the final step...me accepting Jesus into my heart was because of a girl that i had never met. i had only heard her sing.

i consider her to be one of my best friends now. and she was right where i needed her this morning.

i went for a run. grabbed my ipod. because i hate running. but it's at least semi-tolerable with music.

as i got to the bottom of the hill...and started to climb the next one, the song came on.

i think i'm gonna walk away
you're messing up my life today
this time i refuse to pray
but still you keep calling me

that is EXACTLY how i felt this morning. EXACTLY. like i was too tired to pray. too tired to ask for help. too exhausted to be patient. i didn't want to pray. didn't want to see what He was telling me. didn't want to listen.

yet, i still felt His pull on me. in my ears. in my heart. all.over.

by the time the song was ending, i was at the end of the road. a dead end. the river was rushing in front of me. all muddy. and cold. and wet.

and i heard the words...

you win.

i've been trying to do this on my own.
but right now God, i surrender.

you know what's best.

it's not easy waiting on you.
it's not easy believing you've got this together.
but without faith
it's impossible to please you.

you got me.

had you seen me at this point, you would have thought i was a crazy person.

because it hit me like a ton of bricks.

i DO surrender. it's not easy waiting. it's not easy being patient. it's not easy letting You do this Your way...as opposed to me doing it my way.

i think i'm so used to getting things done around here...that i forget what God has blessed me with...

none of this is mine. it's His. all of it...all of it is His.

pratt is His. i'm just caring for him right now. while we're here.

and so i must wait on Him. i must believe He has it all together. He actually does know what's best. less of me...more of Him. less of my thoughts...more...so much more of His.

and that, my friends...that is heavy. and deep.

i'm going to go try to digest that.

i'm going to go and try to be still.

have wonderful tuesdays.

like 99% of it came off...

my husband is a great gift giver. always has been.

i honestly cannot remember an occasion where i thought, "man...seriously?".

it's never been about the amount spent on a gift. it's the thought. it really is. i mean that.

there was one birthday. when he first got out of dental school. had a new job. a new house. and he had begun paying off student loans. for my birthday that year, he gave me "the secret life of bees". the book. and in the front of it, wrote a sweet note. about how a patient of his told him that she thought i would love it.

i thought it was so sweet that he talked about me to his patients. that was my favorite. and the book was a perfect gift.

so this mothers day was no surprise.

i had been asking for a bible with my "new" name on it. mine still said "hannah pratt". i know it doesn't really matter, but i did mention one day that i wished i had one that said "hannah fulks". apparently, he listens to me.

so saturday night, i noticed he was sort of searching through my desk drawers in the kitchen. i asked him what he was looking for. he said "tape". i asked why. he smiled and said he was wrapping my mothers day present!

wooohoooo!

i was so excited. i knew that he would let me open the gift that night! i knew he wouldn't make me wait until sunday morning! after giving me a hard time about it, he brought my gift downstairs.

it was wrapped perfectly. in black and silver wrapping paper. perfect creases. perfect tape job. perfect. this is no surprise. the man is a perfectionist. BIG TIME.

the card was really sweet. and the gift was the best.

it was a bible. the message and niv, combination. with my new name on it!

he said, "pratt helped me. open it up and see."

and here is what i saw...



when i asked where he bought the paint, he laughed. and that's when i got nervous. he said, "well, i used a marker." and before i could say anything, he said, "but it was nontoxic. and i called jason (our sherwin williams friend) and he said it was okay. that i could just wash it off his foot right after."

i laughed out loud. it was so funny because he was a tad bit nervous about it. and i could tell. i said, "well, did it all come off?"

and he said, "um...yeah...most of it...like 99% of it came off."

i think the next line was, "i mean, he may have to lose a little bit of skin to get the rest of it off."

priceless. sunday morning i looked and it was all off. well, almost all off.

but...yes, i think it's worth it.

thank you clint. and pratt. thank you both. what a wonderful mother's day it was!

kitchen sink bath.

look who enjoyed his first kitchen sink bath courtesy of cookie.

for my own mom.

this morning in church, our pastor told a story.

he said that this week he was visiting an older woman, "a woman 30 years his senior". i would assume that would put the woman in her 80s or 90s. anyway, he said as he walked up to her, she was deep in thought. when he asked her what she was thinking about, she told him, "i was just sitting here thinking of my mom."

he said something about how no matter how old we get, we will always think of our mothers.

i couldn't help but cry. i'm crying now as i type this.

my mother lost her mom a long time ago. i was just a little girl. my sister was a baby.

i remember my mimi. but not nearly as much as i wish i did.

poppy had a heart attack on valentine's day. and mimi died very shortly after of a broken heart.
i have seen the pictures of my mother after both her parents passed away at such young ages. she is extremely thin. too thin. and she looks tired.

for some reason, this mothers day, this is what i've been thinking of all day long.

my mom. and her mom. and how she must miss her so much. every day...but especially on mothers day.

i've thought about how my mom has been so vital in keeping me sane. how she has been the one i call whenever anything is wrong with pratt. how she is the one that always reminds me that clint loves me. and that maybe i'm being overly emotional. and to relax. and yet, at the same time, she's the one that understands. understands that i'm sometimes tired. and sometimes hurt. and she allows me those bad days.

it hurts me to think that my mom missed out on any of that with her mother.

so, mom...or cookie :), if you're reading this...please know that i love you. and that we are so lucky to have you. and i honestly cannot imagine my life without you.

happy mothers day. have fun with pratt. i know he's loving all the attention.

see you soon.

take me out to the ballgame...

hi everyone!

mom and dad took me to the arkansas travelers ballgame last night. it was my first trip to a baseball game. i asked mom if i could blog about what all we did...she said sure. she said it might be a jump start on becoming more like john grisham. i don't know who that is...but she says maybe someday i'll write like him. she is crazy.

anyway, things started off by cookie and poptart picking me and mom up. we met dad after work. here is me and poptart. and dad changing clothes in his truck.



dad was upgrading tickets for everyone. while we waited, cookie took me to see the aquarium. courtesy of the arkansas game and fish. i LOVED it! and i kept grabbing the girl next to me. i didn't know her, but she was cute. blonde hair. mom says i like blonde hair.



there was midget wrestling. my mom is afraid of small people...so she couldn't get too close. cookie said the small people looked like that show on tlc after jon and kate plus eight. this family of mine is crazy.



i was so excited for the game to start! here i am clapping my hands together! go travelers!



i got to wear my new hat from coco. and drink from a big boy water cup. and poptart let me chew on his program. poptart is great. he says one day we will travel around the states going to different ballparks. i can't wait!

oh, also...you may notice i'm wearing a shiny, silver necklace in these pictures. well, it was my mom's. but i love to chew on it. so she let me wear it. dad said it was my "mr. t. starter kit necklace." my dad is funny.

and here is poptart making a silly face. he lets me pull on his nose. it's my most favorite thing to do right now. pull on people's noses. i draw blood sometimes. because mom won't clip my fingernails. she once nearly cut my pointer off...so she's a little gun shy. i'm cool with that.



oh, and here is noah. noah is my new friend. his dad and my dad went to high school together. my dad has the best friends high school. lucky guy. anyway, noah loves my dad. he thinks he is funny. oh, and noah has a sister named hannah. mom says baby hannah was named after her. have i told you that my mom is nuts?



here i am posing for cookie's camera. anytime someone gets a camera out, i will look right at it and smile. i've even started smiling at the monitor in my room. i'm hilarious. and it freaks mom out...so i do it all the time. ha.

here are a few others that mom took. she takes pictures all.the.time. let me tell you...it gets old.

and here is a picture of all three of us. mom forgot to get one while everyone was at the game. so we took one ourselves on the way out. and look, i'm smiling in it too.