Welcome to Our Family Clan, Charles Artie Bell II

We thought we were going to have a little leprechaun -- but you arrived one day early for St. Patrick's day and a day before your due date!!!  Charlie, we're all so thrilled you are a part of our Bell/Good Clan!  God blessed us with you -- a healthy boy who seemed to instantly become one of us!

Weighing in at 7# 12 oz --19 1/2 inches

Big sister got to meet you just minutes after you were born!

The rest of your family waited for two days to find out

 what you were named -- Your daddy made an awesome video to announce your name exactly 48 hours after you were born.

Charles Arthelde Bell 

after your great grand dad.

We got to come celebrate your birth just a week later -- we couldn't wait to meet you!

Big sister, Clara fell instantly in love with you and loves to share her toys with you by tossing them into your bassinet.

C takes care of her baby as she sees momma taking care of you.

Clara and daddy are big buddies . . . she's been helping  him with all his chores -it won't be anytime until you're right there holding a wrench or hiding his tools

And we all take care of Clara. . .  she doesn't lack for attention or love from all her cute little antics

Pawpaw and big sis became fast friends!!!

Clara and I got in lots of cuddle time since she was sick with a cold for two days.  Mommy has been on call 24/7 for two weeks taking care of you both.

Sweet baby Charlie, it was such a special week getting to snuggle with you as you became part of our family!  Our family is blessed because you came to us.  We can't wait to see the special boy you grow to be.

KU PLANNING

DATE	Theme	ROUND UP Communication & social / Physical dev.	ACADEMIC Buddy Reading Addition/ Sub/Mult. Drill/ Spelling with Boards/ Story activities/	SMALL GROUP  activities: Sewing/ Carpentry/ Art/ Science/ Games/	FOODS LAB Followed by Wrap-up
Mar. 29	MAKING GOOD CHOICES BY BEING A SERVANT AND HELPING OTHERS	Remind them of the rewards program concept	Justice Buddy Reading	Missy  and 2-3 interns sewing on fabric Cutting squares/ pinning Sewing/ Stuffing Sewing by hand Terry /Andrew Guys on Wikkiup Janet: 3 Group Decorating the boxes to save their coins The group that is left (not sewing, in foods lab or the wikkiup can do games after they decorate their boxes Games: Race with big eggs Obstacle Course Steal the ball	Chicken nuggets and Lora has $30 to finish out the rest

Teaching

I just renewed my OK teaching certificate for 5 more years ---

Let's see that makes expiration in 2022.  Hmmm when I do the math -- that's age 72--that's kind of scary -- but isn't 72 the new 62 as health experts say today.  'Not sure when I'll officially turn in my "badge".

It's in my blood -- my mom taught Sunday school for 35 years -- I watched her prepare lessons and hear her excitement as she recounted later that her2 & 3 yr. olds "got it" as she taught them.  (She was a big at hands-on learning before it's time)

When I was 8 - I took over the Sunday School class for a tardy teacher and afterward she proclaimed to my parents that I would someday be a TEACHER.

Mom and Dad always said -- "Get a teaching certificate so you'll have something to fall back on."  Teaching has joyfully filled my empty nest years and I love preparing lessons for children's bible classes.

Last Sunday our Adult Sunday School teacher was ill and Terry and I were to fill in.

It just so happened that I HAD done my homework and was really excited at all I was learning from the 3 chapters of 2 Peter.   We were to tag-team it -- and Terry said he'd finish out what I needed him to.

What thrilled me the most was the way God put it all together as I was teaching.  He promises us that HE will give us words to speak.  I experienced that last Sunday.  I was on a roll and used up all the teaching time -- sorry, Babe.

I love it when my daily high school lesson plan comes together and we end up with great discussions or I see the kids laughing and enjoying some activity that I plan - I only hope they get a glimmer of Jesus from me.

I want to be just like Jesus in that he made a point and drove it home with wonderful examples and connected to the hearts of His hearers.  He was full and overflowing.

I long to do that with my grandbabies (my favorite time is bedtime Bible stories) --

Sydney looked up at me the other night as we were reading and asked "Are those your words, Nana or are they the Bible Story?"

Campbell and Sydney will pick up their little New Testaments that they have up in their bedroom and "preach" saying a few holy words they remember and close out with their daily prayers.  The other day S went through her little dialogue and then tossed the Bible aside, saying "I read the whole thing and now I'm going to Heaven." What is it Jesus said about the faith of a little child?

Jesus didn't just speak then, He speaks now when we're quiet enough to hear those insights and impressions that He's giving us.

Several years ago, these words gave me confidence when I was preparing to teach a group of ladies.

The Master, God, has given me a well-taught tongue,
So I know how to encourage tired people.
    He wakes me up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears
    to listen as one ready to take orders.
The Master, God, opened my ears,
    and I didn’t go back to sleep,  I didn’t pull the covers back over my head.

Isaiah 50:4  

(the Message)

44 Years - Married to My Man

When I first heard Terry speak, I prayed -- "Lord, I want to marry a man like that."  This handsome preacher spoke words of hope and love.

Two years later, we officially met when he came to our Church to be the youth minister.  That March when I was home for Spring Break, my mom invited him for Sunday lunch. Eating dinner with my parents and two brothers, he maintains that he was so nervous that he wiped his mouth with his tie during the meal.

 He likes to tell that when I walked into Church he saw me and there was a halo over my head --
Don't know about the legitimacy of that -- but one thing I do know is that God has been such a part of our daily lives and decisions, and the reason behind the direction we took throughout our lives.
Ministry has been our life.

Helping people understand that Jesus loves them and saves them by His grace has been T's message since the beginning.  From early on His preaching centered on understanding Spiritual Gifts and knowing that God's Spirit is alive, active and accessible.

We have designated this as anniversary week doing our favorite things together all week  -- starting last Friday with seeing "Hidden Figures".   Monday we used our MLK holiday to work on our favorite project -- Kids University-- converting a storage room to a KU Klubhouse.  Never mind that we worked ourselves senseless lifting and moving heavy boxes -- we transformed the room closer to what we were hoping for.
We finished up the week celebrating with our 3 little "Goodletts" on Friday night and Saturday going to OKC Science museum.

 

I thought about all the ministry projects we've shared in together -- this is the guy who built a submarine in 1973 for the Sunday school classes to have a Bible Learning Center.  A couple of years later, Terry was known as "Mr. Shiney Shoes" in Memphis, TN as he led Bus Ministry to 300 inner city children at White State Church of Christ during his graduate school years.

During those Memphis years - we traveled to India three times holding ministry teaching schools -- Terry had already been there twice as a young college man.

He started a weekly radio program in the early 80's called HOME TALK -- following up with a weekly couples class -  that we hosted 100 for dinner on Wednesday nights.
Marriage and Family Institute of Tulsa was birthed in 2007 to help area couples strengthen communication in their marriage.  Kids University grew from a desire of ours to reach at-risk children in West Tulsa.

For the past 17 Years Terry has ministered to the a church plant on the West Side where he felt God was calling us - investing his energy into the stabilizing this group of Believers.  During this time his has taught countless college classes - and specialized in writing ministry courses for OKWU.

We wanted our kids to see the real in life -- not feel like they were living in a glass house -- but be free to be themselves.   They would travel with us wherever we got to travel in ministry -- be it Spain when they were 18 mos and 3 1/2, Mexico at 15 months and 2 and 4 years of age, Austria in 1st and 3rd grade or any place Stateside that ministry took us.  We've done Disneyland while daddy had a COBE conference -- Disney World while Terry spoke at a Church conference and other places.  He kept up a busy speaking schedule throughout our kids early elementary years and we tried to make it a family affair and packed up and went with him.

These 44 years have gone quickly --time does pass quickly when you're having fun -- and involved
in a work you enjoy together.

Blessed!

I got what I wanted for Christmas -- tied up in a big bundle of four sweet babies for 3 whole days!!!

To start it all off --we were able to leave work to attend 
Sydney's Christmas performance.  It was certainly delightful as she had been dressed since 6:00 that morning hence she was a bit over it before it even started

We followed that up that evening with a night of baking cinnamon rolls with our 3 little Goodletts for gifting their many neighbors.

Jack found he didn't like to get his hands messy in the dough

Campbell attacked that dough with her rolling pin!
Sydney loved the cinnamon sugar topping.

Then on Sunday, we officially kicked off Christmas week with our annual trip to the Nutcracker at the Tulsa PAC.

 

Marshall and Katie and Jim and Jan arrived mid-day on Friday.  The cousins had been estatic for days looking forward to "baby" Clara's arrival.

There were so many fun memories. . .  seeing our four enjoying sharing toys. Bethany and Mat had thought through every detail of the holiday and worked tirelessly to make sure it was a magical one.











M & B planned Friday night couples' night at Cedar Ridge where they are members.

We hosted Sat. morning brunch . . .

Jack experienced every bit of Christmas -- in his own delightful way.  He would put the little
 wooden lambs from the creche on his rocking horse and take them for a ride.

Christmas Eve was complete with  Services at Life Park and Redeemer Covenant where Bethany and Mat's family lit the fourth Advent Candle

Jack was so attentive to it all

It was so fun tracking Santa's  trip on the computer Christmas Eve

Jack was hilarious as he would run back and forth -- jabbering where Santa was last spotted wanting you come see the last sighting

And there was even a late night visit from the Jolly Old Elf (aka Uncle Marshall)

 B arranged for Matching pajamas -- which I monogrammed

Snuggle time with momma

Christmas morning was the usual clutter and chaos of unwrapping -- but the highlight was the video of Santa's visit the night before that they watched on tv before discovering he left them something pretty wonderful.  The kids squealed with sheer delight

Big people enjoyed sharing gag gifts -- Marshall kicked it off by giving each of us - Animal Spirit shirts -- telling us that he had logged into a data bank and created animals most like us based on our personal information -- I was believing all of it -- (pretty gullible -- this momma is).

We have an old fiber optic lamp from the 80's that both kids would sneak out of the house and give to each other as spoof presents.   This year they both wanted that for the other.  We decided to turn the joke on them... and find a second one - Believe or not they still make those things - they were shocked, to say the least.

No one wanted to jinx the family celebration by remembering the Christmas of 2011 when the Christmas crud hit the whole family

Her Daddy decided to make it a shrine 
with B's fiber optic gift!

  Bethany was the first to go down and as family tradition goes Marshall set her picture in her place,  It's what we do when we have the holiday hoopla and can't join in on the fun (i.e. Christmas 2011 - 7 Bell/Good /Hammetters in bed on Christmas day)

This year we ended our holiday with a lesser version of it.  Papa and I spent all Monday in bed.  No more celebrating for these two old Geezers.

Marshall and Katie left on a 6 am flight Monday-- we're already looking forward to seeing them in March as baby boy Bell is scheduled to make his appearance mid-March.

Some of my favs of the holiday:

Pawpaw (as he calls himself) kept the two littles busy

Can you tell they are all Bells?

We do lots of eating, telling our big stories, discussing the weighty things of life and some brainiac convo these doctors come up with. But  above all, most of our time and energies is spent enjoying the kids. You can see that from the fact that this blog is mostly pics of the little ones.