SLaCkin' off

Jet lag is contagious

2009-10-24T20:36:00.002-05:00

Kevin's still not back in the same time zone he should be and I think I've joined him. I keep staying up late with him since he thinks it's the middle of the day at midnight. He's still not sleeping well at night which means I, the feather lite sleeper, am not sleeping well. I now feel like I have jet lag and I didn't even go anywhere!

Alyssa took the ACT today for the second time. She took Nathan's digital watch to have a timer for each section. It kept beeping randomly and almost got her kicked out. They did record her test number so we're really not sure if it will actually count or not. My $32 hopes so.

A week from Tuesday, Kevin and I will leave for a much-anticipated trip to San Diego with no kids! We haven't had a trip for just us in a couple of years and we are way overdue. It won't be all fun and games (for Kevin). He has a conference to attend and I'm along for the (free) ride. We'll have plenty of time together and I'll have some time to do things that I enjoy by myself. Moms don't have the opportunity to put their wants first very often so I'm really excited about getting to be selfish for a few days! Uncle Weve is coming to stay with the kids so they're all thinking '5 day party!' Uncle Weve will probably be thinking 'What did I get myself into?' before it's all over with but we appreciate him volunteering anyway!

26 hours later....

2009-10-22T22:47:00.003-05:00

Kevin made it safely home today around noon. I promptly fed him some Taco Bueno and he went to sleep for a while. It'll take a few days for him to get back on Oklahoma time. 12 hours jetlag is a lot to recover from!

Monday morning news

2009-10-18T20:24:00.002-05:00

Kevin's email for today is below. Thanks everyone for your prayers. Please say one for the kids and me also. I'm not sure why but no matter how long Kevin is gone, we all get a little crabby about the half way point and today is the day. The kids start back to school tomorrow after being off for fall break and I have to drive the carpool (which Kevin normally does). I also made 4 trips to the church today--2 Kevin would have taken care of and 1 because Alyssa locked her keys in her car. So basically I'm having a giant pity party about extra responsibilities while Kevin is trying to keep people from going to hell. Sometimes I have to remind myself of this to gain a little perspective!

We had a great day of worship yesterday... We had one service with the children at the orphanage, and then two more services out in the villages. It was raining again, but we managed to make it through. We drove as far as we could and then walked the rest of the way in the rain into the second village. I was soaking wet, but when I turned into the village, I saw about 100 people sitting there under a bamboo hut waiting on us.. Wow!! That got my batteries charged. These people are so hungry for the truth. I used the 23rd Psalm to talk to them about the one true creator God and the fact that Jesus is our shepherd. It was great to see so many adults trusting Christ and leaving the Buddah behind. Today, we are going to what is called "the dead end village." There is only one way in and one way out. This is one of the places we were supposed to go to the other day when we got rained out. When I say rained out, I mean that not even motorcycles could make it there. We heard that these people waited on us even though it was raining. So, we are going to go and see them today instead of our original plan. Thanks for all the prayers

Just the Cambodian facts...

2009-10-17T19:30:00.002-05:00

Not much news from the other side of the earth...

Friday's village visits got rained out by a major thunderstorm so Kevin spent the day at the orphanage playing with the kids. Saturday was spent visiting 2 villages. I only got a one line email tonight so not much other information than that. It is Sunday morning for him now and he is preaching at 3 different villages. I know he would appreciate your prayers.

Hope to have some more details soon!

Cambodia by Motorcycle

2009-10-15T21:15:00.003-05:00

If good intentions materialized themselves into blogposts, then clever words would have appeared here everyday for the past 6 weeks. We've been adjusting to new school schedules, football practices and games, and husbands being out of town...which leads me to the real reason for this post:

Kevin left for Cambodia on Tuesday morning. Remember that as you are having dinner and settling in for the evening, he is heading out to villages to teach/preach. Please pray for open hearts for the villagers, safety for the team, and for the church planters/pastors to be able to absorb all that Kevin is teaching them.

Here's Kevin's email that he sent tonight.

It is about 6:30am here Friday morning. I think we are exactly 12 hours ahead of you. Yesterday, we made it to two different villages. We told discipleship stories to model them for the Pastor and to encourage the believers. Six people were saved in the two small villages yesterday. Today, we are going to pick up the pace. We are headed to more remote type villages. I think I am going to pull out Luke 15 today... The travel was a lot harder on me this time. My body was aching when I got off the plane here.

We just found out that the villages we are going to today are not accessible by car. We cannot even drive close enough to walk in some of the way, because the roads are so bad. Therefore, we are going to be riding motorcycles today. I am going to drive with Joe Pat on the back. There is a funny picture for the day...

I'm hoping someone really does take a picture and I promise to post it! Check back daily and I'll post updates as I get them.

Semi-annual growth check

2009-08-28T08:03:00.001-05:00

Nathan went back to the endocrinologist for his 6 month growth check. He grew 1.2 inches and gained almost 4 pounds. That's huge amounts in the Nate world! So far we have avoided the need for HGH, but the dr. said if he is still behind when the teen years approach we may have to give him a jump start.

For the past year, he's been becoming more and more aware that he is smaller than other kids so please keep praying daily for him to grow. Someone asked him the other day if he liked girls. His response: "No, because they always just look at me and say 'Are you sure you're supposed to be in this class?'" He just doesn't realize that this is his first introduction to girls wanting to be in charge of everything!

Next growth check is in February!

Just the facts

2009-08-27T07:24:00.003-05:00

The past 2 weeks have been very busy at our house so I'll get you up to date on all the happenings then hopefully return to blogging on a regular basis with intentions of entertaining you with my wit and charm. But for today, it's just the facts.

*Zac and Kate have already completed 2 weeks of school. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is August 27 and they have been in school for 2 weeks. Remember the days of not starting till after Labor Day? Of course, that was back when bell bottoms and tie dye were acceptable but it just seems summer gets shorter and shorter every year.

*Zac and Kate are at different schools this year which totally messes up my simultaneous orthodontic appt. plans. Last year, I could drive to one school, get two kids and be on my way. This year, it's 2 schools for one kid each which requires an extra 30 minutes and some strategic planning to avoid pick-up traffic at all the other schools in between. Zac is enjoying high school but I don't think my brain has quite accepted that he is a freshman yet.

*Alyssa began her college classes last Monday. After I got over the shock of spending $313 on books which consisted of a paperback and a stack of shrink wrapped loose leaf papers, I am excited for her. She seems to be enjoying her classes. She even joined the Spanish club so she can practice conversing. There is the motivation of not having to take the final if you show up for a certain number of meetings but she actually wants to learn it, not just pass the class. Algebra has gone well so far with the exception of some of those pesky rate/time/distance problems that I would guess only 1% of America knows how to work. You would think the $100 calculator I had to buy would be able to do those for her.

*Nathan will start what will probably be his last year of homeschool next week. It is very strange here on M, W, and F mornings since it is just us at home now, but I'm enjoying the one on one time with him that I don't get very often.

Is your mama a Llama?

2009-08-10T08:03:00.000-05:00

While we were in TX last week, Alyssa and her friend Caitlin talked Aunt Liz in to buying a llama cake pan. (And yes, we are aware that this isn't really a llama. It's a Swedish horse of some sort but somehow saying you were going to make llama cake was more fun.) This, of course, led to lots of jokes about who was going to get to eat the llama head and who was going to have to eat the..um..other end of the llama.

Nathan's prayer after having cake:
"Thank you God that Alyssa made llama cake. Thank you that it wasn't a real llama."

Alyssa's car!

2009-08-08T19:44:00.002-05:00

We finally found a car for Alyssa after searching the newspaper and internet for what seems like forever! Obama's cash for clunkers is not friendly to economically challenged families like ours who want to buy some of those clunkers.

A friend of one of my coworkers has an auto repair shop and had this '99 Taurus for sale. It has a newer engine, new transmission, new brakes, and new tires and all of the work is warranted for 6 months. We are very glad to have the peace of mind that the car has been thoroughly checked by someone we can trust. And I'm ridiculously happy that I do not have to drive her to dance, school, or work. Yippee!

Happily Wicked

2009-07-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

Way back last summer when we took our big vacation to NYC, the girls and I wanted to see Wicked. I called the box office 3 months before we were scheduled to leave to buy tickets. Didn't happen. Couldn't get 3 seats together...3 months in advance! Even if I was willing to pay $150 ticket (which I wasn't) I couldn't get tickets. So we ended up seeing Cirque Dreams instead, still a good show, but not Wicked. We decided we would see the touring show even if it meant driving 4 or 5 hours to another town because nothing comes to Tulsa...except it did!

42 semis and I forget how many people have descended upon our town for a month and I couldn't be happier. Alyssa and I were blessed with someone's season tickets last Saturday...orchestra center, 12 rows back. Perfecto! I really didn't know what to expect. I just knew it was what happened before Oz when Glinda and the wicked witch of the west were roommates in college.

Little did I know, I would be entranced from the minute the curtain opened, feel sorry for Elphaba (WW of the West), question Glinda's motives, and discover all the things I never knew about Oz but never thought to question, like why was the lion a coward and where did the tin man and the scarecrow come from? Thankfully, I have a date with Katie to see the closing show in a couple of weeks so I get to see it again. And if I had disposable funds, I would see it again and again and again. But at $50 a pop for balcony seats, I'll have to be happy with just twice.

So if the touring company is coming anywhere close to your town, GO! You can click here to see if they are coming to a city near you. A word to the wise: start saving now for your souvenir t-shirt; they are a whopping $39!

Who said summer was supposed to be relaxing?

2009-07-23T21:59:00.004-05:00

Every year about May 15th, I have visions of grandeur of a relaxing summer where I have nothing to do but take kids to the pool and work on my tan. And every year about July 1st, I'm thinking 'I can't wait till school starts so my life will calm down to a normal schedule.' You would think I would learn, but year after year somewhere inside me there is a small glimmer of hope that this year's summer will be different. And if you could see my white legs you would know that this year isn't my year. (sigh)

School starts again in less than 3 weeks which means it's time to buy school clothes, schedule yearly check ups, and for the first time ever....buy college textbooks for Alyssa's dual credit classes. She's enrolled for Spanish I and College Algebra at the local community college and she'll receive high school and college credit for the classes. By the time she graduates high school, she'll have at least 24 hours college credit plus credits from CLEP tests hopefully saving us a year's worth of tuition. (Her tuition at the CC is covered by a scholarship. We just have to pay class fees and books...about $200 per class.)

So back to my summer drama...this week Alyssa, Zac and Katie are all participating in a mission camp with their youth group. They are going out in teams in our area and doing VBS, soccer camp, and basketball camps. Our youth pastor shared with us that Katie led someone to Christ all by herself today and there is just no greater feeling of pride (the good kind)for your child than knowing they are growing in their faith and sharing it with others. My shy child is very bold in her walk with Christ and shares with her friends at school constantly. Who knows, maybe that's why God led us to enroll her in public school!

The 'big 3' get home Saturday around 8 and Sunday morning at 9, the girls and I leave for our semi-annual must-go-to-a-real-mall-and-eat-at-La-Madeleine Dallas trip. That's 11 hours to do a whole lot of laundry and squeeze in a little sleep!Katie and I will return home on Wed. after seeing lots of old friends and fighting lots of temptation not to shop too much. Alyssa will fly back on Monday, Alone, which I'm not at all nervous about this year. I guess after letting my child spend 10 days in a South American country, a 45 minute flight from Dallas doesn't seem like such a big deal.

A little bit of heaven

2009-07-02T05:15:00.003-05:00

One thing I love about missions is the little glimpses of 'all nations' worshipping together that we get. In this video, John, on the right, from our mission team is singing in English. Then, Alexi, one of the workers from the Venezuelan church joins in harmony in Spanish. Absolutely Beautiful!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Another licensed driver in my house, Yippee??

2009-07-01T18:26:00.003-05:00

I just watched Alyssa pull out of my driveway, driving herself to church tonight for the first time ever. I thought I would be so happy when this day came. Finally, someone else to help with all the taxi driving and since Alyssa is the cause of most of my mom-taxi trips anyway, I thought I would enjoy this new surplus of free time with which I would fold the laundry faster and clean the toilets more often. And I'm sure that relief will come eventually, but for now there's a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach brought on by the thought of my child being in command of a moving vehicle that is not a bicycle. And wondering how long she'll make it before she has an accident because all young drivers do eventually. Then praying that whenever it does happen, it'll only be minor.

I think I just wasn't ready for it to happen today even though we're 5 months past when she could have taken the test. In our 'wisdom' gained from talking to Alyssa's friends who all had to take the test twice, we were expecting her to get failed today for some silly mistake and to have to try again next week. So when she pulled back into the parking lot and said, "I passed!" I was so proud of her for doing what her friends couldn't, but caught off guard that this was really happening at the same time.

Thank goodness for cell phones. She has to text when she arrives and when she leaves which brings some peace of mind. Some...not a lot. I don't know how my mother did it without knowing for sure that I had arrived at my designated location. I think in a few weeks I'll be happy. Maybe if Kevin was here to share my angst it would help. He actually doesn't even know she has her license since he's still in the remote villages of Mexico and is being spared all this parental drama. I'll have to remind to him to thank me later for living through this rite of passage alone.

Short and Sweet

2009-06-28T20:49:00.002-05:00

I picked up Alyssa from the airport a couple of hours ago. We're just sitting on the couch catching up on all the shows I DVR'd for her while she was gone. I'm savoring all of the stories that are pouring out about her trip. I'm taking notes so I can share them with you later.

I took Kevin, Zac, and Katie to the airport at 5am yesterday to begin their travels to Arizpe. I wasn't expecting to hear from them at all since there is no internet in Arizpe and phone service is not great. But I guess the Daddy had to make sure his baby girl made it home safely because he called tonight. We had a whole minute and a half to talk and I got that it was raining, which is highly unusual, and they are supposed to have a movie night in the town square tonight. There was also some trouble at the border and Kevin's van didn't get to Arizpe till 4 am so there are some things for you to pray for---cooperative weather and no border issues on the return.

My lips are sealed

2009-06-24T21:55:00.004-05:00

I've been a full 26 hours with no news from Venezuela..no phone calls, no blog posts...but who's counting? Of course, today I have HUGE news to tell Alyssa and no way to tell her. I have her ACT scores and I am very happy with them but I can't tell you how she did because that just wouldn't be nice for her to find out after the 6 people who read this blog find out so I must be excited for her without sharing the news....a very difficult task when you have good news and a blog.

So to distract myself from the fact that I haven't seen my child in 6 days and had to go see 'The Proposal' by myself since my chick flick buddy is out of the country, I'll tell you about how Nathan got to have a light saber fight with Darth Vader.

At Disneyland, they have a Jedi Training Academy. Kids are randomly selected to be 'trained' then they get to fight Darth Vader using their newly acquired skills. Nathan could discuss Star Wars with you for 12 hours straight, go to bed, then still have more to say the next day. There have actually been times when I have banned him from discussing anything related to Star Wars with me. My brain can only take so much Darth Maul, Ewoks, and Yoda debate in one day. He also uses 'the force' to open automatic doors.

When I tell you that this was the highlight of his little life, I am not exaggerating. I think my heart might have broken if he hadn't been picked, but seriously, who could pass up that cute face?

Darth Vader didn't stand a chance!

All My Fears Calmed for $1.50

2009-06-23T22:04:00.004-05:00

I got to talk to Alyssa on the phone tonight! Woo Hoo! She actually called while I was still at work, time difference and all. (Apparently it's a genetic thing to not be able to figure that whole time thing out because she didn't realize I was still at work.) I'm sure everyone in my office thought I had lost it. I sounded like a giddy school girl when I answered the phone. And may I just say that technology is a wonderful thing when my child can call me from another continent for $1.50.

First, I had to get all the 'mama' questions out of the way: Are you sunburned? A valid concern since she is practically sitting on the equator and has her father's redhead fair skin. Thankfully, she reports just some pink cheeks and that they're staying in the shade most of the time. "Is your stomach upset?" Also a valid mama question given the fact she's in a South American country where she can't drink the water. Good news on that front too! No one on the team seems to suffering any maladies. All that paranoia and trip to the dr. for prescriptions for doxycycline and cipro paid off.

I had to calm the potential mama fears first before I could move on to the actual important news of her trip just in case our call got dropped. We were dealing with a pay phone in a small town in Venezuela and a cell phone in America after all! Anyway, the ministry is going well. They are visiting different villages each day. Some team members are doing door to door evangelism while others do VBS or sports camps with the kids and teenagers. The team all wrote their testimonies in Spanish before they left and they also have translators with them. Alyssa's also part of a drama team and they are doing a drama in each of the areas they minister to also.

It was great to hear her voice after 5 days, now just 5 days to go. I'm glad she has this opportunity of a lifetime to make an eternal difference in the lives of others, but I'll also be glad when she's home again. Because seriously, The Bachelorette and So you think you can dance just aren't the same without her. We're going to have some serious DVR catch up to do next week!

Finally!

2009-06-22T12:10:00.003-05:00

We didn't hear from Alyssa yesterday at all which I'm okay with. I know they are extremely busy and it's not convenient to find a phone to call home on when you have 18 people in your group. But, there was no new post on the blog yesterday either and while I know that more than likely everything is fine, I like seeing something tangible that reassures me of that fact. So finally, there are 2 new blog posts today along with some pictures.

Here's an excerpt from Sunday's post:
It is hard to imagine just how large your Christian family is and today we were reminded of this. It was great to meet together with our brothers and sisters as the morning began and worshiped our Lord together. We sang songs (half the time not even knowing the words but still singing!), listened to preaching, and even spent some time teaching students and children. Afterwards we gathered together and enjoyed an amazing meal. It was a picture of Biblical community! Brothers and sisters united together through Christ; smiling, laughing, and worshiping together in fellowship!

Tonight we spent some time with the church and reached out to the community. We gathered together at a local park and played basketball, volleyball, and soccer with the community. We took some time with the people and shared our testimonies and got the chance to see over 30 people accept Christ!

I tried to put some pictures on here for you but I'm having techinical difficulties saving it from their blog and uploading to mine so here's a link for you. If you want to read more about the trip than I've posted here, just click 'daily blog' at the top of the page. Thanks for praying continually!

1 Missed Call

2009-06-21T16:07:00.002-05:00

Alyssa's team finished their traveling yesterday. She tried to call us but, sadly, we missed it. My phone was in my purse and set to vibrate since I had been at work all day. And the synapses that registered the phone was vibrating more than once, meaning it was an actual call, to realizing it was probably Alyssa, to leaping from the couch across the room, to digging it out of my purse...the call went to voice mail which when played back was a bunch of static. Bummer. I'm hoping she'll try again tonight. Today is their first full day of ministry so I'm anxious to hear how it went.

Here's a post from the team's blog about yesterday's travels:
So your probably wondering how was the drive. Well, we were told it would be a 6 hour drive. Thank goodness this wasn’t the case. It actually only took us a little over 4.5 hours. The sites were wonderful as we made our way through Caracas. The mountains, the ocean, all the house on all the hillsides made for a great first part of the trek. It’s amazing to think over 4 to 5 million people call Caracas their home. The houses are in places on the side of mountains that you wonder how you could even walk up to the houses. We had the opportunity to relax in our wonderful bus until the police decided to pull us over. Come to find out the police pull you over just if they feel like it. No reason, no purpose, but I guess to say hi. Turns out our driver knew one of the police men. We get back on the road then all of a sudden our bus dies. Our driver opens the hatch inside the cab and starts going to work. Cranks the engine to no avail. Vladimir decides we should pray. So, he prays in his native tongue and we pray in ours and we once again were being protected by Jesus. A few minutes later, a few cranks, a few turn this and that on the motor and it starts. We pulled over a little later down the road to stop and use the el banó. What was sitting in front of us? Did you think it was fast food, because it was. Burger King and his royal burgers awaited us. We all ate some Whoppers and pappas, some had ice cream sundaes(Alyssa) and of course Coca-Cola. We arrived at our hotel, checked in, changed clothes, and then came to the church. They prepared a wonderful lunch for us(yes it was our second lunch) and we felt so unbelievably welcomed to be apart of their work in the kingdom. Well we have just been hanging out here at the church for a while now and we are meeting some really incredible people. We have been able to share our favorite music with them. John and I were amazed to learn that they loved Hillsong United music and knew most of their tunes(of course they knew them in spanish).

Tulsa, Dallas, Miami, Caracas

2009-06-19T14:12:00.004-05:00

I took my baby girl to the airport this morning to send her off on her first mission trip without her mission pastor dad present. I did get a little choked up which is unusual for me, but in my defense, just before we left for the airport, I had gotten the news that a friends' mother passed away during the night and I was already feeling sad for her. Then, Alyssa started rubbing it in that she was going to have a stamp in her passport before I did and then I wasn't so misty eyed anymore.

She should be in Caracas by 6:40pm Venezuelan time but I have no idea what time that is for us. I'm a fairly intelligent person but for some reason, time zones require way too much thought for me, coupled with the fact that President Chavez gets an ego trip from declaring that Venezuela doesn't fall into any of the internationally accepted time zones and adds or takes away 30 minutes from whatever time zone they're supposed to be in just to be difficult so I've decided I'm not even going to try to figure it out.

In other news, I am aware that I still haven't posted anything about our vacation yet which I'm planning on working on in the next week. As soon as we got back, we had VBS, lots of dr. appointments, Alyssa taking the ACT, and football practice everyday. I haven't been home long enough to fold the towels I washed on Monday yet much less blog about Mickey. And now, I must go color and highlight my hair since I have a black stripe going down the middle of my head with a few gray hairs poking through. It's reached defcon 5 status and I can no longer comfortably go out into public until it is fixed.

My Boys

2009-05-30T23:23:00.000-05:00

My boys are almost 5 years apart in age, but amazingly, they still hang out together--a lot. They light saber fight on the trampoline, play basketball or soccer in the front yard, wrestle, nerf gun fight, and shoot each other in video games. So while we're off enjoying Space Mountain and the California beaches, you can enjoy some pictures of my awesome boys.

Man Code Education

2009-05-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

We were watching the Bachelorette on Monday night when one of the guys mentioned breaking 'man code'. I asked Zac to tell me some 'man code' and he only knew two rules. But then Alyssa wanted to know about whether bikinis or skimpy clothing was really a temptation to guys. (According to Zac, this depends on the girl.)

I sat in my chair, listening to this conversation, and it made me smile. Why? Because my kids feel comfortable enough with me and their siblings to talk about whatever comes to mind. There are no off-limits topics or ones that are met with condescending looks or immediate reproof. That is not to say that we are accepting of all things or inappropriate in our speech. My kids just feel okay bringing up any topic. I give them my opinion and guidance when needed, but for the most part we just enjoy being together.

I think we accomplished this in our family by what we did when the kids were younger. When we were in the 'preschool' phase, we were consistent in our discipline--the rules stayed the same every day of the week. The result is that now we very rarely have to discipline our kids other than an occasional attitude check or chore reminder. Instead of griping or nagging them all the time, we can just enjoy each other's company and 'hang out'.

We definitely haven't done everything right with our kids and definitely have some regrets about things I wish I had done better, but this one thing we got right. A lot of parents I know don't enjoy being around their kids. I'm glad we've transitioned from being the rule-makers to developing the friendships with our kids that will last the rest of our lives.

All cleaned up for Vacation

2009-05-27T22:09:00.003-05:00

I'm taking a break from packing and laundry and cleaning and making lists of all the things I need to remember to do tomorrow before we leave for our vacation. Why is it so much work to go on vacation? I probably make it more complicated than it needs to be. To truly enjoy my vacation I need my house to be clean before I leave. Otherwise I spend the last 3 days of my vacation, stressing out about going home to a dirty house. Pathetic, I know.

We'll leave on Friday morning to fly to Houston where we'll meet up with Kevin's brother, aka Uncle Weve, then fly to Orange County, as in the OC baby! We've got big plans to ride everything in both Disney parks at least once, star stalk at the Land of the Lost Premiere at the Chinese Theatre, drive on the PCH, and for a little culture, go to the Getty Villa in Malibu.

One of the things on my to do list is to schedule a few posts for next week. You'll just have to come back to see if I actually get that done or not!

It's a holiday, supossedly

2009-05-25T18:51:00.003-05:00

I would like to request a 'do-over' for my holiday weekend.

Reason #1: Kevin had to go out of town on Friday for a conference. He needed to meet with a guy who's going to be a guest speaker at our church in the fall and the only time they could get their schedules together was this weekend at Bike week (as in Harley) in Ridgecrest NC. He got home last night around 8:30.

Reason #2: Kevin had to leave again today for another conference in Dallas. He'll be back tomorrow night. So in 5 days I will have seen him for about 20 hours, 8 of which we were asleep.

Reason #3: The city of Broken Arrow felt the need to call me at 8 o'clock this morning to tell me they would not be picking up my trash. And while I appreciate this information, they had already called on Friday so I already knew this and would have assumed it anyway even without a phone call. I work Tues, Thurs. and Sat. On Mon., Wed., and Friday, I also get up at 6:30 to get everyone out the door on time. On Sunday, I get up to go to church. As you can see, this leaves no day of the week for me to sleep in. Today was my day and totally ruined by a stupid pre-recorded phone call that I didn't even want!

On the good side, I did manage to get the garage cleaned out. Found lots of mice poo and 7 gloves, only 2 of which actually go together. And, I can now locate a philips head screw driver in less than 30 seconds as opposed to the 30 minutes it took last week. Spending time looking for things that should be in their proper place sends my organized personality to the brink of a breakdown so getting the garage organized has probably saved me from a panic attack in the near future.

What you missed

2009-05-21T07:48:00.000-05:00

Some how I managed to go a whole week without posting. I've been working tirelessly on my 'to do' list that has grown to novel status while my toe has been broken. There are still a few things I can't do, but it has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks and I'm almost to 'cute shoe' status.

Last Wednesday, I painted Kate's room purple then put her loft bed together that we bought in February. It's very tall so then we had to take the ceiling fan down. Currently, she doesn't have a light at all with the exception of the lamp she stole from the living room. Home depot is on my list for today.

Alyssa's recitals were this weekend. She did a marvelous job as always and as always I didn't get any good pictures. Something about the lighting, the motion, and the fact that I'm not allowed to use a flash challenges my photography skills. I get blurry photos with weird lighting every time and there's just no way to fix blur even in photoshop. This is one of my better shots of her doing "Swans" from Swan Lake.

Her professional pictures should be ready by the end of June.

Zac and Kate will be done with school on the 28th then we fly out to California the next day! Woo Hoo! We are all very excited about our trip and it can't seem to get here fast enough! Nate has been done with school for a couple of weeks and Alyssa is working on ACT prep. She's taking it for the first time in June so that she can take dual credit classes at the community college this fall.

I must get back to my list, but first I need to find out why Dora the Explorer is on tv in the living room when there are no children anywhere around.

Communicating with Teens

2009-05-20T07:33:00.002-05:00

If you want the lines of communication to stay open with your teens, then you need to become proficient at texting--their preferred method of conveying information. It's still cool to text your mom since no one probably knows who they're texting but a conversation with mom is out of the question.

Katie and Zac went on a church choir trip to Kansas City this past weekend. Katie doesn't have a cell phone yet so I have to rely on Zac to provide me information about how the trip is going. Great. Here's our conversation on Saturday night:

Me: Are you having fun? We're at dance recital #2. I know you're sad you're missing it. (Notice my complete thoughts and correct grammar.)

Z: at the park

Me: Have you seen Kate at all?

Z: A little

Me: Are you capable of texting more than two words?

Z: I'm having lots of fun mother.

Me: Much better. Love you!

Z: K