Category: Totally Tatum

Back in March, we visited this wondrous heavenly place! We knew that she had a project on AZ coming up, and this is what she picked, so we had to go.

Now, May 1st, it would be due:
We picked out all of the supplies to construct two of the monuments in the lower canyon: The lady and the eagle.

First, we bought some Terra Cotta clay; got a box; and figured out what would be the “holders” that would be under the clay.

We laid the foundation

Sadly, when the foundation dried, it crumbled a bit. But we carried on.

We figured we’d use spray bottles to put the clay on as the lady and the eagle.

We then used carving tools to make the lines in our clay and VOILA!

Here are our two structures:
(eagle which is on the right)

Lady with the wind swept hair is on the left:

THEN GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? The clay dried and it all started to peel off. DADDY to the rescue!
We bought some glue spray and some paint, and got it all fixed. HE IS OUR HERO! She made him a little book to tell him so.

Look at it now with the light!

We then added our pics.

And took it into school!

(Her buddy Hayden had a great design of the Air Force Base!)

What a fun project!

We are so grateful we got to visit there.

If you were to tell me that Austin would be a future LOPE, I would have fainted or maybe thought I was dreaming. Austin…at GCU!? YES! He did it.

Austin was part of the Pre-Apprentice 16-week program through GCU to become an Electrician. After the program completed, he graduated at the TOP of his class with STRAIGHT A’s! And, guess what else? An apprentice job with Iron Mountain Data Security. ($18/ hour stop start). Now, that ain’t bad. He’s also cleaned up his life in a matter of months. His papa is proud!

Here is the program.

Brian Mueller, President of GCU, gave some encouraging words to the 30 graduates.

GCU joined forces with Rossendin to pilot this program.

He challenged the graduates to work hard and to always put safety first. More importantly, to just keep showing up and be the best you can be. (Even when it’s hard).

Here he is with the Director, Shelly.

Austin, you did it!

Go LOPES!

Let’s try that again!

Stay tuned for more excitement in the world of ELECTRICITY!

She enters the room. She plops this book on my lap.

We had just had a deep talk about honesty and the Holy Spirit. You see, she confessed something which had been on her heart all day, and until she could talk to me, she was a bit off.

After we spoke, she was so grateful for a clean conscience. AND, for the grace bestowed upon her.

She wanted me to read the “akollagments” Now, she is an A speller, but on this book? It’s more “invented and phonetic” I guess? (to my presice mommy? I’m precise? no…precious!)

And I’m BUTIFUL! ((yes, that butt of mine!)

Oh dear. I love this chickie. You are my sweetheart.

Doug brought this to me the other morning. It came right out of our beautiful front garden.

Side note, these beauties surround our fountain as well.

Aaaahhhhh, flowers. They communicate to us:
“I am a beautiful diversely colorful creation from God’s omnipotent mind!”

Each flower is totally different; they are so fragile; so delicate. They come and go… die so fast. But when they are alive, OH BOY are they glorious!

Well, such is life. Each day is truly a gift. However, each day is fragile; delicate. It has moments of highly colorful, brilliant moments. Then, yes, they do die, but do we remember that storms bring more flowers? They literally plant a garden.

OH, and the thorns? You know those intense stings we get when we grab a stem? We hold so tightly to our lives and reluctantly release our grip to give it to God. Well, guess what happens when we grip so tightly? We bleed! And do realize you never grab the beautiful parts..the petals! NOPE! Such as we never grab the beautiful moments of our lives with gratitude. Gosh, we hold so tightly and try to CONTROL those thorny stems. OUCH! BUT, if we trim those thorns or we allow him to trim and prune us, guess what happens? The flowers are much more abundant and the color! Oh the field of colors!

So, relish the flowers in your life. And more importantly relish the process of being pruned because the result is a garden of colorful creations and more blessings.

Last year, Tatum told me she wanted to be in the talent show the next year. I wondered what she would do in front of the school. The show is not a competition but merely just a fun celebration of various student talents. Mrs. Cline, the music teacher, puts it on.

About 2 months ago, Tatum said she was going to participate, but she wanted to do it solo. She also said she wanted to do a puppet show. Confused, I wondered what she would do and why a puppet show?

Well, you see, Tatum often comes home from school a bit somber and frustrated. The “girls” in the class are very cliquey and not very nice. She has chosen to hang out with more often boys or Milania. She just doesn’t participate in the whole drama thing; in fact, she despises the drama, gossip, and meanness. So, she decided to write a script that would be a fun/funny way to depict how it affects a person (but in this case an animal since we often learn best by parables or fun stories with animals!)

Piggy and Gerald are classic characters in Mo Willems’ books:

She wrote the script:

Practiced practiced practiced….

She rehearsed with Mrs. Cline and this is what she said:
” it is so cute and powerful!!”

It was time to present to the WHOLE school. I mean K-12!! WOW.

There were only about 15 kids performing!

She was 3rd in the line up. She got behind the table and EVERYONE cheered!!!

Gerald and Piggie began….

Here’s Scaredy and Piggie.

Now, the all clapped before she was finished. SHE WAITED…then restarted and finished. WOW.

They loved it!!!!!!

SO MANY approached me and said they were so proud of her to make such an impact and give this message with love.

The other kids showed their talent (yoyo, dance, gymnastics, piano), so Tatum’s was a bit different in that she sent a message. I’m so proud of you my sweet girl.

She wanted to sport her new shoes to the field trip.

I didn’t go, but so many wonderful parents sent me pics. She had an informatively great time!
She and Milania hung out the whole day!

And her whole class…

The Red 4 group: Milania, Lincoln, Hayden and Tot.

She brought some spending money and bought this cute little guy…and also some trinkets about our wonderful state.

June 2016:

That little chickie! She is so stinkin’ cute. Fast forward to today, 7 years, before school!

We like to go on Fridays, so why not revisit an old flame?

We still adore each other, and she STILL loves her brekkies. Those little dollar cakes have a way to her heart.