Easter 2016

We spent Easter with family in Oklahoma. We had egg hunts, ate tons of food and went to church. It was a great weekend of fun and remembering the reason we celebrate.

Easter is such a hard concept to grasp. God sent his son to be crucified, die and resurrected. Grace woke me up one morning this week with a serious question, "what is resurrection?". Not what I expected to answer first thing in the morning. The best I could muster was a caterpillar and how it changes into a butterfly. I told her that Jesus died and then went to be with God to forgive our sins. She seemed to accept my answer but I still felt like it wasn't good enough. It's a tough concept to take in and believe. But as the pastor at my family's church said, to believe is a leap of faith. She had the faith like a child to believe. One of my favorite Easter hymns was written by Charles Wesley and I love to sing it each Easter.

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

verse 2

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia! 

Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lizzie hunting

Give me a push!

Grace on the hunt

The haul!

Easter morning

We were lucky that my grandma and Nana could be there.

The Potters

Great-grandma and her great-grand daughters

Grandma and Papa

Dental Work

Well, Gracie is having all kinds of fun in the new year. Our dentist here wanted her to see an orthodontist for her teeth. Grace had two teeth that were occupying the same spot. He thought she might need braces to get them straightened out. 

Over Christmas, we took Gracie to see my childhood dentist for a second opinion. We made the five hour drive to Ponca City to see Dr. Jim Highfill. He straightened out my teeth and is a great dentist. 

From the Internet research I had done, I thought it looked like it was an extra tooth. But I thought, what are the chances that she would have that when only about 5% of the population has that happen. 

When we went in December, Dr. Highfill confirmed my suspicions. She had what they call a mesiodens or extra middle tooth. He told us that it needed to be pulled and that it might help correct her issues. We left thinking we would find someone in Dallas to pull it. I told Grace that she was so smart she grew an extra tooth!

The more we thought about it the more we decided to go back to Ponca and have Dr. Highfill do it. We trusted him and I knew he would do great with Grace. 

Which brings me to today, we headed back to Ponca and had the tooth pulled. Grace was so awesome. He just numbed the tooth and pulled it. She didn't hurt at all or cry. Afterward, she was as bouncy as usual. I was so proud of her. She amazes me with her strength! 

With her tiny extra tooth. It's behind the front tooth.

No more extra teeth!

Learning a New Way

From the start, we noticed the girls learn differently. Grace has struggled in school for a while. She loves the social aspect of school but learning has been difficult. During kindergarten until this semester, she worked with the most fabulous literacy teacher ever but something still wasn't clicking. In October, her teachers talked to us about testing her for dyslexia. Grace is too smart to struggle in school.

We went through meetings with the teachers and the school started the testing. The testing confirmed what we already knew, that Grace is a smarty and a hard worker. Her reading comprehension was phenomenal. She scored better that much of the population. Because she still struggled to read, their findings were that she had dyslexia.

Grace is the third generation on my dad's side to have it. It's been a learning difference that I have known about all my life but never fully understood. The thing with dyslexia is that it's something in the brain that can only be described you really can't get behind someone's eyes and see what they see or know how their brain works.

When we realized that it was a possibility that Grace had dyslexia, I was worried. Because of my family, I knew dyslexics can be very successful. However, I didn't know how she would take it or what it would mean for her future. Fortunately, I had my mom, sister and the teachers to talk me down. My mom and sister assured me she would be fine. The teachers assured me that they would do everything possible to help her and that she would do great.

When we finally told Grace, she asked a couple of questions and began to process. Her first question was if she was contagious. She was relieved that she isn't. Over the next couple of weeks, she asked more questions to understand better. Grace is a fighter. She does what she puts her mind to. I don't know why I worried. My little girl would overcome this just like she has everything else in her life. Also, I'm proud of Lizzie. She is so supportive of her sister.

Once I started talking to others about her dyslexia, so many people told me they have it or know someone that does. From Wes and my research, 5% of the population has it and as many as 20% have symptoms.That is a huge chunk of the population, many of which can go undiagnosed or untreated.

When school started this month, Grace started working with her therapist. She is working hard for her and comes home everyday and wants to do her homework. She is determined to overcome this and manage her dyslexia.

Oh Wow! I Haven't Posted About Christmas Yet!

So here we are, almost all done with the first month of 2016 and I forgot to post about Christmas. We had a great Christmas in Oklahoma and spent about a week and a half there.

While we were there, there was a little bit of ice/snow one day. The girls of course loved playing in it. We had a great holiday!

Emmanuel, God is with us

It's time for the Potters annual Christmas card. Every Advent season as we move toward Christmas, I seem to have a theme to my thoughts. This year it's Emmanuel, God with us. God sent his son to live a life like any other human with an extraordinary end. God chose for Jesus to be born a baby, something that is dependent on others for survival. He could have chose for him to come at any stage in life but He wanted him to experience life with all the things that go along with it.

I know each of us have had our ups and downs this year because that is what life is. Times that were joyful and times that were sad. As we move closer to Christmas, I hope that you will find peace and find comfort that God is with us always.

Merry Christmas,

Wes, Melissa, Lizzie and Gracie

Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, And they will call him, Emmanuel. (Emmanuel means “God with us.”) Matthew 1:23

November

Our November was another busy one! Not only did we have a great Thanksgiving, but also had my 40th birthday! I can't believe how time flies! Here are some pictures from the month!

A daddy and his girls

Aunt Laura and Grace

My grandma and me

My sister, mom, grandma and me

October 2015

October was a busy month! A lot happened during the month. Wes and I celebrated our 13th anniversary, we went to the state fair, and celebrated Halloween. In addition to all that, Grace and Lizzie lost more teeth. Lizzie celebrated the milestone of donating her hair. For the last year, Lizzie has been growing her hair to donate it. This month it was long enough to cut!

Daddy can still carry both girls

Celebrating our anniversary

Before cutting her hair

After the cut! Very cute!

Gracie didn't donate but she did get her hair cut.

We attended one of Wes' high school friend's wedding.

At the Texas State Fair

Crazy day at school

Hello Kitty and Black Cat at dance class

Decades Day at school

Halloween HullabaBoo

Caught a chicken!

Playing games

At the pumpkin patch

Our Jack-o-latern

It was a great month! It was busy but fun!

What do you do?

Recently, we went to a wedding of a friend of Wes'. He saw many friends that he hadn't seen in years. Through their multiple conversations, one question came up often, "what do you do?".  It was a question related to occupation to which he would reply, "I'm an engineer".

This question got me thinking. "What do you do?" is a question that is looking to get at "Who are you?". There was a time in my life, when the answer to "What do you do?" defined me as a person. I'm a marketing professional, would neatly define the whole package that I am. But now with age, I realize we as people are not so easily summed up with just our occupation. This became especially clear to me when I decided to quit my job and stay at home with the girls.

The real answer to the question, is not just "I'm a marketing consultant" even though I do love my job and am thankful for the flexibility that it provides. The answer is more than that. It is child of God, wife, church goer, mother, aunt, sister, daughter, niece, neighbor, friend, co-worker, and the list goes on. In addition to those things, I could be described as happy, sad, beautiful, insecure, organized, disorganized, fun, dull, funny, and maybe not-so-funny after all. To Wes, I think he would say, loyal, loving, kind, doesn't take crap, nagging, and annoying.

So the real answer to "who are you?" is Melissa. I am a uniquely made person who was formed through God, family, genetics and life experiences. This Melissa person is made up of so many contradictory things and just when I think I have it all together, something happens that tells me that I don't. During those times, is when I rely on others and God to help me through.

So, the question "what do you do?" goes beyond just what you do as to who you are. It is knowing you are a whole person and not just the sum of parts and to be OK with that.

Labor Day

For Labor Day, we headed south to the Big Bend Region of Texas. For me, it was heading home. I was born in Alpine, TX where my father was a professor at Sul Ross University. We lived there for the first five years of my life. We moved right before I started kindergarten and my sister started third grade. We have a lot of memories of Alpine. My sister loves animals and used to catch horny toads and tarantulas. It was fun showing the girls were I used to live.

After we left Alpine, we toured around the region and camped in the Big Bend Ranch State Park. The state park only had a dirt road in that took an hour to get to our site. There was no cell reception and not many bathrooms. It was pretty primitive. We saw a ton of animals. There were tons of jack rabbits which are really fun to watch. The desert is beautiful too.

We hiked around the state park and then went over to the national park for more sights. Both parks were beautiful. As it was the desert in September, it was really hot. Poor Grace had terrible allergies the whole time.

As we were driving back from the national park, we noticed rain clouds and that they looked like they were close to our camp site. We were concerned that all of our stuff was wet so Wes drove in high. We didn't have cell reception so as soon as we did, Wes pulled over and made hotel reservations. We finally got to our campsite with about 30 minutes of light to pack everything. We got it packed up and thrown in the car. We made it to our hotel late and all of us were happy to be in a comfy bed.

It was a fun vacation. We really loved the scenery. I liked going home and putting an adult perspective on my 5 year old girl memories.