Since Paul has been having trouble with his back, we have been keeping an ice pack in the freezer for his back most of the time when its not on his back. Last night after he had gone to bed, Brianna was playing and bumped her toe on something. Since she was tired, the little scrape earned extreme panic and crying. I asked the standard questions from where I was inthe kitchen: Does it need a band-aid? Does it need ice? Brianna thought it needed ice, so she came in to get some, and sure enough, she was able to walk on that foot after all. Well, due to many people doing moving (for others) in the heat while based from our house, there was no ice that was frozen yet, so I said, "Well, how about Daddy's ice pack for his back? Do you think that would work?" She thought it might, so she took it back into the living room. She lay down on the sofa, put the ice pack on her back, and said, "Oh, yes, Daddy's ice pack is helping my toe a lot!"

So far, there has just been one day when Miss Angie (Brianna's teacher) has told us that Brianna was having trouble listening to her. Well, we had a big talk about listening that night at home. So the next day when we picked Brianna up after school, she explained: "I kept my listening ears on all day long but it was not easy. They did not want to stay on my head. So I taped them on with scotch tape to keep them on. But then I heard somebody say, 'Look, there go some listening ears running off down the road!' I looked and they were MY listening ears! So I ran and caught them and put them back on, and this time I GLUED them on!"

06-08-03
I think Brianna preached her first sermon last night. I guess she doesn't have a chance not to be a preacher, getting the genes from both sides. She had been playing around on the keyboard while Paul was practicing guitar, and she came in the living room to tell me that she was having trouble with the song she was writing. "You see, it's called 'When I am afraid, I will trust in God,' and this hand (the left) is going to make really scary sounds and the other hand is going to be the footsteps of Jesus coming to help, but I just can't get this hand to sound scary enough." I said, "Oh, that is a problem, but it sounds like a great song. I'll bet you can find some scarier sounds." Suddenly quite full of passion, she explained, "Because people need to know. They need to know that God will come to help us whenever we are in trouble, when there is danger, or something scary. Because God is our Father and He loves us. He will take care of us. He made us, so He's our Father. He made everything-the sun and the plants and the animals and our homes and our clothes and the weather and EVERYTHING. He is so strong. And he will take care of us, so we don't need to be afraid. People need to know that, so that's why I'm writing my song."

06-02-03
Brianna was sitting in the backseat while we were driving home and started this "game," as she calls it. I'm not sure what she was using as the people-I didn't ever turn around to look because I didn't want her to see how hard I was laughing. First, she yelled "Oh no!" (Fortunately, Paul is such a calm driver that this shout did not cause any wrecks.) Then she continued, "It's a tornado. Aaaagh! Watch out! Hurry-get in the bathtub-pull the blankets all over us! Bang Crash Everything is flying around everywhere-Eeeee! It's a fire! Hurry! Let's try to put it out! Oh no-it's melting the ice cream! Ice cream is running everywhere! Look out! That car is crashing into the table! (Quiet for just a moment) uh-oh! I just sat on the fire! Aaagh! Oh no! Oh no! (Quiet for just a moment) uh-oh! I just sat on the fire too! AAAAIEEE! Run to the bathtub. Hurry go sit in the bathtub full of water. Oooo-that's better. Phew! I am sure glad we don't have any alligators! Ah-let's just sit in the water and get the fire out. Oh no...OH NO! It's an alligator! Aaagh-There's another one ---Oh no! Here comes a big hungry shark! Aaaagh! And the wind is starting to blow everything around-it's a hurricane. Watch out for the shark! Yikes! Watch out for the big waves of water! Aaaaaaah! God, please help us. Please help us, God. (Quiet for several moments). Ah, there. Everything's fine and calm. The wind has stopped and the fire is out and the water is calm and the sharks and alligators are gone. Everything is alright. (a moment of quiet humming). Oh no-God didn't clean up my room, and it's a huge mess after all that! (sigh.) God didn't remember to clean up my room. Yuck. Oh well, let's go get some paper towels and the vacuum.

While looking for Tow, Texas, at 10 p.m.
Brianna: Daddy, are you sure you know where we're going?
Paul: Actually, I've never been here before, and it's completely dark out here. I don't even know which direction we're going.
Brianna: Oh, I do! We're going the RIGHT direction, Daddy.