Maximus' First Imaginary Friend

We have a new member of the family: Max's imaginary friend "Beedy." Beedy made his grand entrance on Friday when we were on the way to a friend's house for lunch. Max was a little distressed to learn that, no, we would absolutely not be asking our gracious hosts to set another place at the table for Beedy.

Since Beedy's arrival, I have learned that Beedy is a way for Max to express his view of an ideal world. For example, here are some of the things Max has told me about Beedy in the last three days:

• Beedy goes to the doctor, and she is a nice doctor. But there are no shots or medicines.

• Beedy lives next door to Addison and Preston. He gets to see them every day. Oh yeah, and "actually, Uncle Jacob lives next to him, too."

• Beedy goes to the park, and there is a swimming pool right by the park. After he swims, he gets cookies and Kool-Aid for a snack.

I'm wondering how long Beedy will stick around. He's a pretty interesting figment of Max's imagination.... and offers quite an insightful look at what's going on in my child's mind.

Moving to Arkansas!

Big news for the Roebuck family: We are moving from Idaho to Arkansas. In two weeks. :-)

This week, Lucas accepted a job as Director of University Communications for John Brown University. He is really excited about this new challenge, and we are both thrilled to be moving back to the town we consider home: Siloam Springs, Arkansas.... where we met and fell in love, and where we both have family close by.

The next couple weeks will be a whirlwind, so don't worry about us if the blog gets a little "stale" between now and August 1st. We'll be sure to update as often as we get the chance.

Catching Up

Wow..... looks like I need to up my blogging game. I haven't posted in forever!

Life has been a little crazy around here this week.... crazy in a good way. We're having a great summer in Arkansas and enjoying lots of really special time with my mom and dad. We are so thankful to be here.

Check out what we did tonight:

Moooo-oooooo! We dressed up like cows to get free dinner at Chick-Fil-A. It was so fun! We met our friends the Fields there for dinner and had a splendid time. Maggie followed the poor Chick-Fil-A employee dressed in a full cow suit around the restaurant for an hour. Literally. She was OBSESSED with the cow.

The best moment of the night was when Dave and Jen's 4-year-old daughter crawled up on the cow's lap and starting asking him for what she wanted for Christmas. I about died. It was so sweet and funny.

I don't know why, but this picture of Max just cracks me up. I love that boy.

After dinner, we met up with mom and dad at KMart. Grandpapa treated the kids to the kiddie ride out front of the store. Maggie was grinning and giggling the whole time. It was sweet!

Conversations with Maximus

[Our awesome friends Mollie and Gene sent the kids a gift from InsectLore: a set of live catepillars which spun cacoons and then emerged as beautiful butterflies, all right in front of our eyes. The kids LOVED it.)

Lucas: Max, pretty soon we're going to release the butterflies and let them go outside.

Max: (crying) No!! I want to keep them! Don't let them go!

Lucas: If we leave them in the cage, they will die. They need to be free.

Max: (still crying). Okay. We will let them go so they can live. [Pause.] But maybe if we leave them in their house, they will die, but then they will wake up later.

Lucas: No, when things die, they don't wake up. It's like Simon [grandpapa and grandmama's dog]. He died, and he didn't ever come back.

Max: Daddy, are you going to die?

Lucas: Yes, someday I will die. But it won't be for a long time. You will probably grow up and be a man and have kids before I die.

Max: When you die, will you go to heaven?

Lucas: Yes, because of Jesus, I will.