Wow....

I was cleaning up and found this picture back from our dating days, this was Easter weekend 1996....then boyfriend flew me to CA to meet his family! Wow, how quickly time passes, I remember being so nervous about going to meet his family and trying to decide if this was the man I wanted to marry. I look at this picture now and all I think is, WoW...I made a great decision!!!!

Playing around....

My wonderful 12 year old daughter and I are in a community play together. We signed up because we thought it would be fun and it hasn't let us down.

My daughter plays, Ivy, a wacky and colorful character that literally likes to paint people's faces strange colors; it sounds too silly to be fun but she makes it work.

I play the villainous Veronica and it is hard! I'm afraid I don't make it look nearly as easy as my amazing 12 year old!

We only have one itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny little part that we interact with each other on stage.

It was written like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Oh, Ivy it is gold....who doesn't want to find gold?

So the opening night of the play we performed it straight! And then went about the rest of our business. It was just a part performed as asked.....but I was looking for a little bit of spice for my serious role and, like so often happens in live theater, ad libbing becomes part of the game.

So night 2 went like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

I hadn't let my daughter know I was going to say that, so she almost laughed out loud when I said that to her. Most of the crowd figured out, if they didn't already know, that she was my child and it was funny. It was a plain part made a little more clever...however, good enough can not be left alone!

That brings us to night 3, it went something like this:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

Ivy: Yes!

Oh. my. word! That simple affirmative was so funny. Since it was my turn to be surprised I had to bite my cheek to regain composure and I barely guffawed my next line out. I was tearing up and the audience was laughing so hard. It took quite a few moments to regain order enough to go on with the next line! When the audience quieted down - I practically ran to my next part! I had to escape that funny girl! It was one of those great moments that will be etched forever in my brain. My darling daughter said she won't forget the surprised look on my face and I'm sure I won't forget the delightful hilarity of it either. What a fun play!

That brings us to tomorrow - closing night....let's see what we can cook up!

Happy Birthday sweet 8 year old....

My dear daughter just turned 8 years old. Where did the time go? It seems like just a moment ago I was having a very serious conversation with her trying to convince her it was time to come out and meet the world! Finally she made her debut and has lived life with a smile, a twinkle in her eye, and a hearty laugh!

We had a wonderful celebration with loving family and friends! We had these delicious cupcakes with yummy icing and rounded out the celebration with a visit to a theme park. What a great way to celebrate another year of childhood.

Now, I want to go find a corner to cry in because my babies are growing up way too fast and I may have consumed way too many cupcakes for my waist line to endure...yes, they are that good!

Hey...is anybody here....

Hey ya'll, I didn't die we are still around just too busy for words. We are using a new curriculum this year and it is eating ALL of my free time...or perhaps it is because I have more kids to instruct in the 3 R's...who knows....just it all equals NO TIME!

Anyway I just wanted to link to these 2 posts from another blog I try to read...most of the time this blog is too cerebral and prolific for me to keep up with, but I caught these 2 posts and I loved them.

This one puts into words what I have felt for a long time...however, that being said, a good love story will always put a smile on my face!

The next link is a blog post about singing from the same blog. Our family sings in the car, before bed at night, and when we are feeling goofy and we really love it. In old, old home tapes (no video - only sound) I remember hearing my great-grandmother singing with the other women while making dinner. They were singing, "Way Over the Swanee River". It sounded like they were having a grand time! Good memories!

I'm going to try to make my sister spontaneously sing while making Thanksgiving dinner, she will probably just roll her eyes.

However, if my CA brothers were here they would all sing off key and different songs at the same time....they particularly like this song by Collin Raye(the lyrics go against the first post I linked too! Sucker for a love story - told ya):



all you can really understand when they are singing is "blah, blah, blah, LITTLE ROCK!" It is great... miss you guys!

WOW....

it has been a week since I have posted anything!

Life has been crazy, CRAZY I tell ya!

I won't bore you with the details but it has involved a funeral, sick kids, and exhaustion. What it didn't involve was excess time! Oh well, that is the life of a mom!

I hope to have the rest of our first grade 2008 finished this week! That is my goal anyway - whatever that means! =)!

I will leave you for now with this funny story...

Dear sweet 3 yo was singing a song to herself tonight...

"Sissie taught me something,
Nana taught me something,
Daddy taught me something,"

Repeat....

It was the sweetest little song, so I decided to investigate what they had taught her.

Me: What did sissie teach you?
3YO: How to put my ears in the water, when I take a bath - she said they are waterproof!
Me (suppressing a giggle, but very much enjoying the conversation!): Oh! Well, what did Nana teach you?
3YO: to put my chin over the soup bowl when I eat
Me: Oh that is good too. Well, what did Daddy teach you?
3 YO: This (she then demonstrates sticking her tongue out rolled like a taco!)

That was a very favorite conversation! Another thing I will mention before I run off to sleep is a comment from the funeral over the weekend.

We were all seated in our pews, somberly waiting for the service to begin. 3 yo is sitting sweetly on my lap when our preacher began to make his way to the front of the auditorium.

My sweet 3 yo exclaims: OH NO, the man who talks!!!

I may have turned a little red!

And then I blinked...

my oldest dear daughter started to complain that her church shoes were pinching her toes. I didn't think too much of it because she has been running around in open toe shoes for the last 4 months; I just figured that her fall shoes were a little too constraining for her currant taste. However, I did reach down and feel that indeed her toes were scrunched. I told her to run along and find the nicest pair of sandals she had and to wear those to church.

The next Saturday evening I was thinking about Worship services the next day and I remembered my oldest dear daughter's shoe need. I asked hubby if he could run her to the mall to grab a new pair of dressy shoes. He said that he would and she probably needed new tennis shoes too, so he would take care of it. I casually mentioned that she was wearing a 4 when I bought her sandals in April.

Off they went.

Then they came back! My dear daughter had a lovely pair of tennis shoes and a darling pair of church shoes in a size.....8!!!! WHAT!!!! I wear an 8 1/2 or 9, how in the world can my 10 year old wear a size 8?????

So I look at dear daughter in that way that I'm sure just makes her inwardly groan! I hug her and say, "WHERE DID MY BABY GO?" She shrugged her shoulders and playfully said, "I'm not so sure why you are upset, I'm the one with BIG feet!"

Nothing could deter her good mood, she knew she was one step closer to growing up - starting to see the light where her wings were hanging for freedom. My apron strings were just a little bit thinner - she was the proud owner of her first pair of small heels!

Growing up is tough...on Mom!

So how DO you occupy all those kids????

So for the last couple of days we have had to care for extra kids and keeping them busy was the best method to combat homesickness, cousin drama, and all sorts of other mischief! Here are 2 of my favorite things we came across!

Well, first off we stumbled across a blessing at Michael's. They have these really great models for kids for $1.00! They have about 16 different models to choose from, Papa (my father in law) donated $20.00 to the model cause, probably so we would get out of his store and quit eating all the Hagen Daz! So we mossied over to Michael's and each kid got to chose 3 models! This kept them busy for quite awhile, however the glue that came with it was sorry so I let them use my mini glue gun to assemble the pieces! It was a wonderful project and I thank God for letting us discover something reasonable to help me keep them busy!

I loved the covered wagons! However, the most popular were the sailboats which didn't make it into the photos!

Another idea that we did was to hit the Salvation Army. They have all sorts of outdated electronics just begging for little kids with screw drivers to take apart! So we marched in, all 6 of us and my pregnant belly too and went to discover some treasures - there were treasures aplenty but, they wanted around $10.00 for each! Dear hubby would not be very happy if we were $60.00 lighter for stuff to take apart - so I did what any respectable teacher would do and went to the manager and explained what I wanted to do and she said, "Oh that area really needs to be cleaned out - lets see what we can find!" So we went over again and came away with an old cassette player from the 80's, an alarm clock, a 35 mm camera, a VCR, and a telephone - for $8.00! We were all very happy and we set to work when we came home with screw drivers, a mallet, electrical tape, wire cutters/strippers, & a pair of pliers! It was great fun!

The tape recorder in mid demolition!

The tape recorders guts - minus the speaker!

The VCR guts (note the scissors we used to cut off the cord - before giving it to them to play with, if we didn't I was sure someone would try to plug it in while disassembled!)

The telephone and its insides!

The kids used their electronic finds and had so much fun discovering new things. Hubby taught them about positive and negative wires and they used a 9V battery to make the phones bell ring and they used the speaker from the phone and the tape recorder to make Morris code and had a great game of spies! However, the boys were most pleased when they realized if you held the positive wire onto the positive terminal it made a sound very similar to passing gas - which elicited REPEATED belly laughter!

The girls however decided to make a robot that could talk! They used a very old repeater from a very old baby doll that would repeat ANYTHING it heard! (I was happy to let the girls disassemble the doll - it was eerily like CHUCKIE!) So Daddy helped them wire the apparatus and they duck taped it into an oatmeal box and thus they created a robot!

Can you see all 7 eyes from the robot they lovingly plagiarised named Wall-een!

I think Daddy enjoyed this project very much! I think it made him feel a bit MacGyver-ish! Although his life didn't depend on wiring a bomb from a VCR and a tape recorder, but the glint was in his eye!

My sweet nephew is now home recovering and went home with a pic line to continue IV antibiotics, but at least he is home! So today ended our kid duty as they packed up to go home and lovingly embrace their brother. Thanks for all of the prayers!

An Update...

My nephew is still suffering terribly in the hospital. We are now on his 4th surgery. His parents are worried and tired.

We are still on kid duty and they are doing really well, considering they have spent the last 6 days together. (However, they are constantly rejoicing that summer was unexpectedly extended!) My wonderful mother in law just rescued me and ushered them all off for some fun and left me with a dirty house, a caffeine free Dr. Pepper and a bag of peanut M&M's - I think someone may wake me and say it is a dream!

On another note we had an elderly family member die last night, we were sad to hear but also relieved that her suffering has ended. So this weekend we will be dealing with out of town guests and a funeral. Sometimes life is like this and we just plug along and thank the Lord to have so many people in our lives. It would be terrible to be lonely!

What happened?????

So I was all planned to have a review of first grade this week, but that didn't happen....so what did happen? A family emergency.

My dear sweet nephew had broken his arm last week and had surgery with pins put in. This week he has developed a horrid infection in the bone, elbow joint, skin, tissue, and surrounding muscle. They are not sure if he will regain full use of his arm at this point. So as families do, we are pulling together.

I'm on kid duty with my other niece and nephew. So that is where we are right now...I hope to be back into my regular routine soon.

As far as homeschool goes, that is why I love it. Life comes up and we live life. My niece and nephew are also homeschooled so we have been dabbling at it here and there over the last few days, but mostly we are just keeping kids occupied and busy.

I love being part of a family who doesn't mind pulling together without a grumble or complaint. We all know we are doing what Christ would have us to do and when those tedious moments come we pray for strength and put a smile on our face and go on. My sweet mother in law has shown me that over and over again.

So that is where we have been....

Preschool 2008...day 4

otherwise known as "Thank Goodness Today is OVER!

We had a very busy day and if it wasn't for wanting to chronicle a week worth of preschool I would have scrapped it all together. Sometimes in homeschool life, life happens!

We started our day with an optometrist apt for 3 kids, 2 of which ended up in glasses. We arrived at 9:15 and got home about 1:00! It was quite an adventure, complete with 3 year old emphatically telling the eye Dr. that "she DID NOT like the dark!"

I was very tired by the time we came home and sweet hubby had to dash off to work, but he was so wonderful to go to the appointment with me! I was so grateful to have him there, I don't like making any kind of medical decision without him and I knew that it was going to be an expensive day so I needed him there.

So we ate a quick bite and rested for a moment, then it was off to pick up glasses and Tae Kwon Do! When I got home I was overtired but sweet hubby got kids tucked in for me!

Anyway, back to preschool. Our schedule for the day was gone and I just decided it would be a preschool day for everyone! So we went outside for a nature study.

I love the Bottle Brush tree in the backyard!

The roses are beautiful, I especially love the bee on the outside of the flower!

Dear son liked the fronds, he wore his shades to protect his dilated eyes.

Dear daughter took protecting her dilated eyes to a new level with shades, a hat, and an umbrella!

She also over estimated my instructions for a rather large leaf. However the large palm frond was very neat to look at up close!

One of our leaf rubbings and my sweet preschooler examining a leaf!

My sweet kids with their new glasses! They look so cute and too grown up!

The results are in...

the derby was a great success and we all had such a wonderful time!

Oldest 10 yo DD decided to go a little out of the ordinary this year and create a float car!



She won Most Original Design; however this car didn't make it to round 2! I'm sure all of those flowers were not aerodynamic, but they sure where cute!

8yo DS decided to go for the patriotic look and built a tank!





He won Most Patriotic and did advance to the 2nd round but that is where he stayed!

My 6 yo DD decided to go for a Polly Pocket car! She even added glue to the driver's hair so it would look like it was blowing in the wind! That made me laugh!



She won Best Driver and also advanced to the 2nd round, but again got stuck there!

3yo DD started crying last night because she wanted to race a car! I didn't plan on this so I was a little at a loss until 10 yo DD saved the day and said 3 yo could race 10 yo's car from last year! So 10 yo DD and Daddy dusted it off and made some adjustments about 10 minutes before leaving for the race. It was a Texas flag last year and this year with 3yo DD's sticker additions it is the Texas Migrating Butterfly!





We were shocked when this car just kept winning and winning! It ultimately won first place out of 30 cars - not bad for a last minute entrance! 10 yo and 3 yo decided to share the title!



Then we came home for this:



So how is that for a busy, but fun day!

Facebook...

is going to be the death of me! There are so many people to reconnect with and get to know again! My sweet friend Sally is on there and Smockity Frocks and my dear little sister and my best friend Aimee (oh wait, no she isn't because she claims to not have time, time - shmine! You make time to find out what became of the geeks from high school - it turns out the really do RULE THE WORLD!)

Well my little sister's Facebook had an album from when she visited me a couple of years ago. There was a particular picture on there that made me laugh out loud! I stole it off her page, because she is my sister and we can do that sort of thing!

The setting is the San Diego Zoo, we had been there ALL day long! Sis and I felt like we were one of the attractions walking around with all of our kids! This picture is from the end of the day and it still makes me laugh out loud!

I couldn't tell ya what we were talking about or what we were trying to find on the map or WHAT dear daughter is doing in the stroller, but I bet I was thinking - I want a Dr.Pepper and the exit!

Fun Memories!

UPDATE....

We had our perinatologist appointment on Wednesday. Thank you all who emailed and said you were praying and thinking of us. We really don't know anymore than we did when we went in, but hopefully we will have all of the information by next Thursday.

They did a long ultrasound and concentrated mainly on baby's heart. They also did an amniocentesis and I have been lounging around recovering from that. It wasn't that bad, but I don't want to ever go through it again!

We did find out one thing though - the sweet baby boy is a thumb sucker! Nine months is a long time to wait to cuddle a baby!

The heart of the matter...

We are getting prepared for our high resolution ultrasound on Wednesday. I mean we aren't really doing anything to prepare for the actual process but we are praying for peace. We were told after our first ultrasound that our baby's umbilical cord only has 1 artery instead of the normal 2. Then the dr proceeded to tell us that sometimes this goes hand in hand with genetic anomalies, but "don't loose any sleep over it!" When he first told us this I said, "Uhhh....yeah... OK!"

Hubby did a little research and found out that in 70% of cases things turn out just fine. So until today I didn't fret or worry. Landing in the 70% category didn't seem that hard; until today and then the terrible "what if..." monster reared its ugly head!

After mulling on it all day and praying and thinking, I was able to put the "what if..." monster to rest. Yes, what if.... nothing would change. We would still love and care and nurture and praise God for a blessing.

Pray for peace of mind on Wednesday if you think of it.

Keeping it close to my heart...

So we have had really BIG news for awhile now and I'm finally letting the rest of the world in on our excitement! We are expecting our 5th child in December! We are so excited that God would grant us another blessing! We have recently learned that this little pumpkin will be a....

BOY!!!!!!

Our dear son was so excited he couldn't quit jumping around the living room! So since things have been a little slow around here, I thought I would liven it up with our excitement!

Summer...

is going by too fast and we are enjoying every sun filled moment of it. Needless to say blogging hasn't been on the forefront of my mind!





Rather we have been here a few times:

and here a couple of times:

and we have been here once:

It has been a busy time and we have been making lots of fun summer memories. Soon enough it will be time to pack away the canning supplies, the water shoes, and the sunscreen and buckle down to school, but for now we are having too much fun!

Summer Fun..

We have family visiting this week and next and have just had way too much fun enjoying them! They live in the Lone Star State so we don't get to hug their necks as much as we would like. My kids have been dancing around singing, "my cousins are here...my cousins are here..." It is really cute. Sooo if I'm not around too much in the next 2 weeks it will be because I'm busy enjoying these sweet people and my wonderful nephews. I'll be busy building forts out of blankets and baking cookies with too many chocolate chips and hugging on these little people. I'll also be reading to them... this wonderfully favorite book of mine that has totally captured the emotions behind visiting relatives. A wonderfully favorite book - check it out!

Sibling Squabbles

I'm sure most siblings go through it every once in awhile, but it is something that really bothers me...sibling squabbling! It really irritates me. It also signals a problem in the home; something is a little out of sync. When my children start to squabble I have a game plan that I immediately put into action...

1. They will do for the other until they are so used to serving each other that they no longer question, "Why do I have to put his clothes away, clean up his mess, or make her bed?" We have a motto in this house that we stick by: We were put here to serve, not to be served!

2. They will cease outside play dates of any nature until they can treat their siblings with as much patience and compassion as they treat their friends. This is a big one in my book, I have taken them out of Tae Kwon Do, park days, and any other social outing if I see that their friends are becoming more important than their siblings. Our family was created by God and it deserves our respect from each other and toward each other. I have told my children many times that our family is like the meat and potatoes that you need for nourishment; friends are like dessert - sweet additions, but too much isn't good (I also tell them that if in your whole life you have one friend who is like a brother - then you are blessed.)

3. Praying for each other. I make sure that they say a little extra prayer for the sibling or siblings that they are having a hard time getting along with.

4. Work together. We try to work together as a cohesive unit as much as possible. When you work towards a common goal together and you put your heart and sweat into it then in the end you are automatically closer and more cohesive. On Sundays, between services, we go as a family to my father in laws grocery store and dust and restock shelves. We are tired, it is dirty and it isn't always pleasant but it is those next to us who we bond with the most.

5. Spend time relaxing together. We watch movies as a family - not the kids in front of one TV and the parents in front of another. If it isn't good for the kids to watch then it isn't good for me. We go to the zoo or to the museum together - whatever it is we do it together.

Many of these things are implemented all the time but if I see discord in my ranks then numbers 1 - 4 are stepped up a notch. Just thought I would share what works for us in this area. What are your tactics in unifying your troops?

A time to breathe....

We just returned from a wonderful weekend of camping in the mountains. It was beautiful and serene and LOUD. We had 2 Boy Scout troops (cub scouts) next to us, my son is a member of one of the packs. Hubby and dear son camped out at night in the tent, but the girls and I relaxed in our snug RV. It was great. After we would send the men out for the night, we plugged in the DVD player and watched The Walton's on DVD. My oldest daughter said,"This is my idea of camping!" Oh how I sooooo agree!

Fun kids

Today the kids and I sat down to eat dinner and my dear son started to get a little fidgety at the table. This is a common occurrence and have found that if I steer the conversation in an interactive direction he calms right down and is interested in what the others are saying. So I used my traditional, "What was your favorite thing to do today?"



Our day was jam packed with errands, a play date, lunch at Taco Bell, and a bit of time at the library - so there were many options to choose from. The kids went in a circle and most immediately said park, but dear sweet 2 yo said, "Going on a Bear Hunt!"

This morning I had introduced her to one of my favorite songs as a little girl and she loved it too! So I thought how sweet that was her favorite part of the day. So as we were clearing dinner dishes she looked at me and said, "I'm ready to go on the bear hunt now!" Well, I smiled and we started the song again, but she emphatically stopped me to reiterate that she was ready to GO on the bear hunt now. I stopped to explain that this was just a song, when 7 yo DS and 10 yo DD decided that would be fun. So after table chores they set about making a bear hunt course.

It was very complete with a blue blanket wrinkled for the ripple effects of the lake. 2yo DD's teddy was hidden as the bear and the stairs were the TALL mountain. It was a fun end to the evening and 2yo had her favorite part of the day!