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

If I had known...

2009-05-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

There are some moments in life when I wish I could see into the future so I could plan things a little differently. If I had known in advance I was going to break my toe, there are definitely some things I would have taken care of before hand.

First, most important: Gotten a pedicure. The tidbits of nail polish on my toes is left over from January and looks hideous yet I'm forced to parade my feet in front of doctors and x-ray techs which causes me to cringe every time I pull off my sock. I think I can stand to actually touch it now so this issue will be resolved this week.

Second: I had plans to paint Katie's room the weekend I broke my toe. We were trying some sample paint colors in her room so for over 6 weeks, she has had a purple square and smiley face painted above her bed. I also had planned to have my kitchen painted by now, but the white walls are torturing and mocking me. I don't know how much longer I can take the boringness of it.

Third: I would have already done my cute spring shoe shopping. I feel like I've missed out on the big game for the Spring. By the time I can shoe shop, all the cutesy, fun, yet economical shoes will be gone. And, no I can't shop anyway with just trying them on my right foot. I have weird, skinny feet and one is longer than the other by about a 1/4 size.

Seriously, my toe is doing much better. I put on a tennis shoe this weekend for the first time and survived. I'm hoping in a few more days I can tolerate some ballet flats. I have to get into shape so I'll be ready to go see Mickey Mouse in a few more weeks!

Money Saver: Pest control

2009-05-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

I used to pay 40 bucks every three months to have a pest control company come spray my house. Then I met someone who worked for Orkin and told me the ingredients to look for in a good bug spray so I could do it myself. I'm sorry to say I don't remember the exact ingredients, but I can tell you I've been using this stuff for several years and it works great.

You can get the larger bottle at Walmart for around $7 and it will last over a year. It works for indoors and out and seems to kill all sorts of bugs. We've lived in lots of places and every house seems to have its own bug issue. Our last house had ants everywhere--even in the pantry and our current house has big ugly spiders. I usually spray the baseboards and around the perimeter of the house in the spring and don't spray again the rest of year unless I notice the reappearance of the creepy crawlies. Savings over using a professional: $153/year!

Head Theories

2009-05-03T15:12:00.002-05:00

Nathan wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Anytime a 9 yr. old boy volunteers to take a nap, you know something's not right. He seemed to feel the need to explain why he didn't feel good. He told Alyssa he hadn't cleaned his ears in a while so all that extra ear wax must be weighing his head down, making it feel heavy. The he told me that he hadn't gotten to bed on time in several days so his neck must be too tired to hold his head up and that's why he needed to lay down all day.

I think I need to teach him the phrase, 'I have a headache' and make life much simpler!

Not really a banquet

2009-04-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

Warning: Objects in box may be smaller than they appear. (Sorry this is sideways. No matter how many times I rotate and save, it uploads sideways.)

I very rarely by convenience foods--too expensive and not healthy. But, occasionally something will go on sale and I'll give in. Should have passed up this 90 cent deal. Disgusting! Good thing boys will eat anything. I hate to see groceries go to waste!

Motorcycles, Princesses, and Manhood

2009-04-27T21:22:00.003-05:00

I think we just survived the busiest weekend in history. How 500 events all got scheduled in the same weekend, I'll never know.

Friday, I attempted to have a garage sale. I never put an ad in the paper but I've never lived on the edge of civilization before. Pretty much after you pass our neighborhood, you're in the middle of nowhere so you're not going to be casually driving by our neighborhood and just happen to see a 'garage sale' sign. So pretty much my only customers were all the construction workers who were working in the back of the 'hood. I still made $150 but usually my garage sales bring in $400.

Our friends Robbie and Keli stopped by and Robbie gave Nate his first (and last until he's over 18) motorcycle ride.

I really doubt that bicycle helmet would have saved him from serious brain damage were there an actual wreck. But, I'm a mom and had to put something on his head.

Friday night, the girls had a Disney princess sleepover at church but Alyssa didn't actually sleep over since she had her first day of work on Sat. morning. Zac went to a youth 'man retreat'. They camped out, had 'man olympics' and peed outside--activities all designed to proclaim their manhood. Out of 100 pictures put on facebook by one of the youth leaders, this was the only one of Zac--throwing a spear in some sort of manly contest.

Saturday was filled with me and Alyssa working, picking up Kate from church, dropping off and picking up Nate from choir practice for the musical on Sunday, and Nate going to a birthday party which I almost forgot about.

Movie Review: Marley and Me

2009-04-15T09:04:00.000-05:00

Last Friday night, we had pizza and movie night. Everyone was home at the same time with nothing to do. We have to celebrate these moments. They don't happen often. To make it even better, the pizza was free. I called it in. Kevin went to pick it up and we were told we had a $40 credit. The family who owns the dominoes goes to our church. They saw me hobbling around church on Sunday and felt sorry for me. She had sent a card to let me know about our blessing but it went to our old address so we were completely surprised by some free yummy pizza in all its cheesy goodness.

Anyway, movie of the night: Marley and Me. Totally thought it was a family movie. Totally was not. Funny. Cute. But dealt with adult themes like miscarriage, job fulfillment, mid life crisis.... Zac bailed on us about halfway through. Clean and fun for the most part, but just not appealing to the younger masses.

We are a practical family. No one is overly emotional in that we don't get sucked into the trap of crying during a movie. Towards the end when......(spoiler alert)......Marley is very sick, Nathan says, "Can Marley hurry up and die already so I can go upstairs?" I'm sorry. I think I have raised cynical kids.

And then Nathan gave us yet another quotable quote at the end of the movie:
"That movie was sadder than The Pursuit of Happyness."
Alyssa: You haven't even seen that movie!
Nathan: Nope, but I'm pretty sure it was sad.

Final Flashback: All the birthdays

2009-04-14T20:32:00.004-05:00

Aren't you glad this is the last flashback? I'm getting dizzy from all the time travel! Nate's birthday fell on the same day we needed to travel to Arkansas for the wedding so his birthday celebrations were spread out over an 11 day period. It would have just been a week but we had to postpone his outdoor birthday party thanks to 6" of snow!

So it all began with opening his gifts from us on the night before his birthday. He got Wii outdoor challenge, legos, a badmitton set, a nerf gun to torture his siblings with, and a sleeping bag for Jack.

The next night, his actual birthday, we were in AR. Kevin and I had to go to the rehearsal dinner so Papaw and Uncle Weve took him to get pizza and a shopping spree to Walmart--the only shopping option in town!

Finally, he got to have his party at the mini-golf course.

We had pizza (Nathan's fave food) and Transformer's cake. 3 of the 5 friends gave him Target gift cards, probably because of the new Target that opened up in our 'hood which I'm soooo excited about! No more 15 minute drives to Tar-jay!

I'm not sure what Alyssa and Zac were doing in this picture, something of a model pose? I'm just thankful my 16 and 13 year old kids are good friends and like to hang out together. How often does that happen?

Flashback #3: The Wedding

2009-04-11T08:52:00.001-05:00

Here's a few pictures from the wedding we attended. Kevin's brother Steve took these with his new and first camera. Can you believe that? 4? years old and just got his first camera. I think it was all provoked by Facebook, but that's just a theory. You can read more about the actual wedding here.

As always, my hopes at getting a family picture were dashed again, this time with a handful of flying birdseed. Not really sure why we didn't try again. I think at this point we were all tired and ready to go home.

The Brothers Grimm...just kidding. It was fun getting to spend the weekend with Kevin's family.

Alyssa and Nathan at the reception which included a bounce house!

Katie and her Uncle Weve

How to score a free haircut

2009-04-10T17:34:00.002-05:00

I'm going to interrupt all the 'flashbacking' to tell you how we scored a free haircut today.

If you're going to attempt this, you're going to need cooperation from others. First, you need the guy who has the appointment time 2 slots ahead of you to be late, affecting everyone else's day that comes after him. We arrived at 12:55 for Alyssa's 1:00 appt. at which time the stylist was just starting on the color appt. scheduled before us. She assured us she could get us out of there before 2.

1:45 rolls around and we're still waiting. We have to leave by 2 because Alyssa has a job interview at 2:30. If you've seen Alyssa's hair, you know there is no way in heck anyone could wash, cut and dry her hair in 30 minutes much less 15. Just not physically possible. So after driving 17 miles one way and sitting for 50 minutes, we left with no haircut. Kevin is taking her again tomorrow for the free haircut that was offered when I called to reschedule.I was really tempted to go somewhere else, but we love our stylist and she did try to make it right. Plus, I'm not one to play Russian Roulette with haircuts.

Good news of the day: Alyssa got the job she wanted at Rue 21, a jr. clothing store, that is opening up next to my brand new Target just a few miles from our house. She starts on April 25, helping them get the store set up and organized for the grand opening which she will be wonderful at. (Remember her closet!) Now if we can just keep her from buying half the store with her discount!

Flashback #2: A visit from the Texas Babes

2009-04-10T08:07:00.000-05:00

The Texas Babes have been featured here before and oddly get lots of hits from the Google search engines. David and Anna, along with their parents thank goodness, came for a few days during Spring Break. We haven't seen their family in almost a year so we were very excited to have them visit. Everyone loved having the babies here except Zac, who I think secretly adored them especially when Anna kept chasing Belle all over the house.

Even though we were having a typical windy and cold Oklahoma day, we braved the Tulsa Gardens.

I discovered it's very difficult to keep a 2 year old from illegally picking the tulips, but isn't she adorable?

Even the big boys had fun swinging!

And proof that 13 yr. old boys are still kids at heart...Zac just had to climb this tree and got high enough that it made me a little nervous.

After the gardens, the 'big' girls went to Utica Square and drooled over the historic mansions around the area. Then the adults got to eat a very nice dinner out at Copeland's. Gotta love date nights! One of the benefits of having teenagers!

Flashback #1: Go Celebration

2009-04-09T07:45:00.000-05:00

Flashing back to the first weekend in March, we had our GO (Global Outreach) celebration. We invited lots of workers from all over the world to come educate our church family about where they live and what they do. Each worker and their family stayed with a host family and had a host Sunday school class that took care of feeding them and providing a gift of some sort. It was a great weekend and I was very glad to get to meet a lot of the people that Kevin travels to see all over the world. Since I'm the one who stays at home base all the time, it was cool that they got to come to my territory instead.

This is Alyssa and her friend Carolyn, dancing in our opening ceremony on Thursday night. It's really not a great picture since I wasn't using a flash or a tripod but I'm proud of her for using her talent for God's glory.

The ladies in my Sunday school class call this guy the church version of guitar hero. He does an awesome job playing for us every Sunday and really gets into it.

I think this picture captures my favorite memory of the whole weekend. When Kevin goes to Asia he works with this little boy's family. Nathan prays for them every single night. It was so fun to see them finally meet and get to play together. Amazingly, this little guy speaks his native language and English perfectly!

Week in Review

2009-04-08T19:31:00.003-05:00

*I'm almost at the end of week 2 with my broken toe. No more crutches but I can't walk long distances yet. I tried to get a temporary handicap parking sticker, but in OK you have to mail those in for it to be processed. I'm just guessing by the time it shows up, I'll already be well so I've parked illegally a few times out of necessity while hoping the limp and ugly boot on my left foot would get me out of a ticket.

*Our dishwasher has broken and thanks to the marvelous internet, I've decided that it would be a waste to have someone come look at it. The part that I'm fairly certain it needs is close to $200 and I can have a new one for $400. Only problem is I don't have an extra $400 at the moment. So the current debate is do I keep hand washing dishes until I have the cash or use a credit card. Neither option is appealing but for now I can't seem to force myself to pull out the plastic. (Dave Ramsey would be so proud!) Probably should go to Sam's and buy the gallon size of Dawn!

*March was a very busy month for us...hence the lack of posts! So my goal for the next few days is to do a series of Flashbacks so I can share all the happenings and pictures with you. You can just pretend you're one of the Losties and feel right at home!

This little piggy

2009-03-28T15:47:00.003-05:00

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy ran into the ottoman and got broken....

Somehow I managed to break my middle left toe last night. Kevin took me to urgent care this morning. I knew there wasn't a whole lot they could do for a broken toe but I can't put any weight on it and I didn't have any crutches. So basically I went to the dr. just to get some crutches and the ugliest shoe ever to stabilize it. The real challenge was this was happening outside:

Katie took these pictures for me. I hope you can tell how hard the snow is coming down. It started about 8 this morning and hasn't stopped yet. I haven't heard the official totals yet, but I think we're around 5 to 7 inches. Kevin spent most of his afternoon trying to make a judgement call about church tomorrow. They finally decided on one service and no Sunday school. Personally, I'm going to stay in my chair with my foot propped up and watch it snow.

Technophobes Anonymous

2009-03-27T20:47:00.002-05:00

I wouldn't exactly say I'm a technophobe, but I would say I have no need for technology that is not practical or useful to me in a major way. I learn what I need to learn to do what I need to do and the rest of it I can do without. Mainly because technology, though designed to make our lives easier is usually a huge time vortex that I don't have time to get caught in. All of these facts make what I did today totally out of character.....

I bought a Blackberry.

I know....shocking! Especially after the whole panic attack over changing my phone number. But there was logic behind the decision:

1)Kevin was upgrading his phone for work purposes which meant our whole family plan had to change to a data package and if I'm paying for the service I might as well use it.

2)My phone has developed a mind of it's own and randomly turns on and off at will. Remember this is the ghetto phone that the Sprint guy laughed at when I pulled it out of my purse. I could have gotten a lower tech phone but it would have cost about the same.

3)Now that I have a keyboard, I might actually text my children which will make them happy. They would rather answer a text than a phone call for some reason.

Now I just have to get over my paranoia of losing it or dropping it or having lemonade spilled in my purse and destroying it. (This is a valid fear as it has happened before.) And to prove my time vortex point...I spent almost the entire day setting up this crazy phone and now feel compelled to check for new facebook updates on a constant basis.

Dot com shopping

2009-03-26T21:45:00.004-05:00

Nathan's birthday was last Friday. My baby is now 9. So the birthday cards have been pouring in all week. Nate now has $50 practically burning a whole in his pocket (or my purse where I made him keep it.) Nathan is not a saver. As soon as he gets money, he wants to immediately go to Target to spend it. I've convinced (demanded) that he wait until after his party to buy anything.

So this morning I feel Nathan climb up in my bed and I hear these words: "Mom! I want to buy Rayman TV party. I looked on target.com and it was 49.99. But then I looked on Amazon.com and it was $39.99 and it has free super saver shipping and if we order in the next 8 hours it can be here by March 30."

I just want to know when this kid of mine learned to comparison shop online. And no, I didn't order the video game in the next 8 hours. I really was going to make him wait until after his party tomorrow night, but we had to postpone it due to a 90% chance of rain/snow this weekend. (Did you read that?....SNOW!...In the last weekend of March!) So I'll probably cave in and order it tomorrow.

My hometown

2009-03-20T21:25:00.002-05:00

We're in Arkansas in the town Kevin and I grew up in. It's one of those towns where directions to anywhere contains the phrase, 'You know where the old such and such used to be..' To which I reply, 'No I haven't lived here in 20 years.' For the most part, everything looks the same as it did in high school.

We are here for Kevin to officiate the wedding of a family friend. I'd met the bride once before when she was about 6. Coming home is always interesting. One of Kevin's ex's is the wedding coordinator. The rehearsal dinner was held in a home that used to belong to a family I babysat for. I practically lived at this house every weekend for 4 years and even had my own room. Now, going back 25 years later, I expected the interior to be completely different. It wasn't. Same wallpaper, same curtains, same appliances, even the furniture seemed to be arranged the same way. Something about small towns makes everything freeze in time.

Too tired to Blog

2009-03-11T21:44:00.002-05:00

We had a great weekend, but I still haven't recovered. So....I'm going to send you over to Natalie's blog today to hear about it from their perspective.
Just click here.

I promise I'll post a full report in the next couple of days....after I take a Benadryl and sleep a lot!

My track champ

2009-03-06T09:13:00.000-06:00

Warning: Mom Brag Ahead!

Zac's first track meet is Tuesday. He was chosen to run the 4x100 relay, 100m sprint, and short and long distance hurdles. He was also timed 2nd fastest 8th grader out of everyone from the 5 middle schools in our district. Go Zac!

That's so my child!

2009-03-05T20:54:00.004-06:00

Wednesday, Nathan was helping me get the house ready for our guests for the Go celebration. He decided to make himself a list of things to do. Soooo like me! I make lists for everything. Confession: sometimes even if I'm already done with a chore, I'll write it on the list anyway...just for the thrill of checking it off! My favorite part of Nathan's list is that he added boxes for the check marks!

Brian and Natalie made it here safely Wed. evening. We had a great night, reminiscing and laughing. Brian tried to teach me how to drink coffee...I still don't like it. We had to make ourselves go to bed at 11:30 since we had a full day today.

Get ready for GO

2009-03-02T07:36:00.004-06:00

GO stands for Global Outreach. Every year we hold a conference to encourage the ministries we support and to educate our church about ways they can get involved. Last year focused solely on local and state ministries. This year is our international celebration. We have 40 workers, some with their families, coming to spend Thurs. through Sunday with us.

I'm really excited about this years' conference for several selfish reasons. 1)Brian and Natalie get to attend and stay in our home for 5 days. We haven't seen them in 3 years so we're really looking forward to spending some time with them. 2)Our India contact will be here along with his family. His wife and 2 kids have never been to America before and I haven't gotten to meet them yet. I love being around B and hearing his passion for his people to come to know Christ. 3) Alyssa will be going to Venezuela for 10 days in June. The pastor of the church we support/work with there will be here. It will be awesome to get to meet him on my own turf since I won't be going on the trip.

So....please pray this week for all the volunteers who make this possible, that everything will fall into place. This includes Alyssa, as she is choreographing and dancing at the kick-off on Thursday night and all 3 worship services on Sunday morning. Pray for all of our worker families to have safe travel and to be encouraged and refreshed after their weekend with us.

California or bust

2009-02-27T17:22:00.002-06:00

Plans are coming together for our 2009 vacation. Once again we've been blessed with free airfare, via Uncle Weve's numerous trips between Baton Rouge and Buffalo. At the end of May we'll be jetting off to Orange County, CA. We'll be checking out the California version of Mickey Mouse and friends for several days. We'll be doing some other things not associated with Disneyland, yet to be decided. If you have any ideas for 'not to be missed' fun for us, please leave it in the comments.

I'm glad I have this trip to look forward to because the Oklahoma weather is about to drive me crazy! Yesterday was gorgeous, high of 70 and low of 60...perfect weather in my book. This morning I awoke to my laptop informing me it was 26 outside. It hasn't gotten above 40 and the wind is freezing! This winter has seemed to last forever! Darn groundhog and his stinkin' shadow!

A strawberry cake mystery

2009-02-24T08:28:00.001-06:00

I made a strawberry cake before I left for work on Tuesday morning. When I came home for lunch, it looked like this:

Alyssa and Nathan were the only ones home and neither of them had touched the cake. Which only leaves Belle as a suspect. But, you would think if the dog helped herself to cake on the counter that she would have eaten the whole thing or at least left a crumb or two on the floor but there was not a trace of one anywhere. Just Belle laying on the floor, looking guilty and hicupping.

The funniest part of this mystery though is that no one seemed to remember to inform Kevin and Zac of the mysteriously disappearing cake and they both had a piece!

My budding cartoonist

2009-02-24T08:28:00.000-06:00

I never know what's going to be on the white board when I go upstairs in the morning for the start of school. There was the whole Tail incident. Then last week, I found this:

...courtesy of Zac.
Just in case you can't read it: The muffin on the left says 'Weew, it's hot in here.' The muffin on the right says 'Ahhh! A talking muffin!'

Grow, Nathan, Grow!

2009-02-24T07:16:00.003-06:00

Most of you know we've been praying for Nathan to grow. For several years this has been a concern. He didn't grow at all between 2 1/2 and 5 or between 6 1/2 and 8. So we were really hoping for some progress at his 6 month check last week. My prayer was that he would grow enough that we wouldn't be forced to make a decision on whether or not to give him growth hormones. When you give kids HGH, it's not a one time shot, but a 2 to 4 year commitment of usually 2 shots a day. Not something we wanted him to have to go through.

A big Praise: Nate grew 2.5cm and gained 2 pounds. Not huge numbers but when you've been looking at no progress for a while, this was huge for him. And it was enough, that the endocrinologist didn't even want to discuss HGH shots! Woo hoo! Don't stop praying for him though. He'll have another check in 6 months and we want to see some big numbers on that scale!

p.s. I've taken the 'Pray for Harper' button off the sidebar since she's home and doing well. If you want to keep up with her progress, I addded her mommy's blog 'Kelly's Korner' in the links under 'Blogs I read'.

Got Endust?

2009-02-23T08:28:00.000-06:00

Honestly, I do dust my house at least once a week. "I" meaning either I or one of the kids does it but somehow the hood on our fireplace got missed a few times. Katie decided to leave her mark in the dust. I promise you it's clean now. So here's your challenge for today: go dust all the weird stuff you usually don't, like picture frames, ceiling fans, fireplaces, etc....

You'll have an amazing sense of accomplishment when you're done and maybe a case of the sneezes.

Upward Basketball

2009-02-21T08:28:00.000-06:00

Nathan's playing his second season of Upward at our church. He's on the 3rd/4th grade team this year. Translation: As a short 3rd grader, he's pretty much the shortest kid in the league but he makes up for it in his agression on the court. He hears the whistle blown at him for fouling quite often. He scored 3 goals at last week's game!

Week in Review

2009-02-20T22:06:00.002-06:00

After housing 16 7th grade boys plus 2 college counselors last weekend, I needed a week to recover from the lack of sleep, but I have about 20 things to blog about so you might just find a post a day for the next couple of weeks!

Katie has finished her 2nd week of school yet still hasn't mastered her locker. It's opened a few times for her but they have yet to make nice and cooperate. Overall, she's doing great and has even gotten up on time except for two mornings when major bribing with a can of Dr. Pepper was required to get her up.

My van is in the shop again. We took it in in Jan. because one of the sliding doors wouldn't close, then got stuck shut. They kept it for a week and it still wasn't fixed right. So we took it back today, Kevin waited for 4 hours, they said they fixed it, but during their proud demonstration it broke again. So I have a Jeep Cherokee in my driveway that only seats 5. Guess we won't be taking any neighborhood kids to church this week!

My new word: Blogilaxin

2009-02-13T20:30:00.003-06:00

I just made up that word. I was thinking about how much I enjoy blogging, even if no one ever read it, but I'm glad you do. Now if I could convince you all to start commenting, I'd be in blog heaven!

In a few minutes, I'm going to head to the church to pick up 15 7th grade boys who are staying at my house until Sunday morning for Disciple Now, a youth retreat weekend. My dining room floor is covered with duffles and sleeping bags and pillows. And the dining room table is covered with tons of food that will probably be inhaled in 15 minutes or less.

See? This is why I needed to blogilax, even if just for a moment.

My apology to the Chick Fil A Cow

2009-02-09T20:44:00.000-06:00

I bought a cow, actually a fourth of a cow. A family in our church raises cattle and I jumped at the opportunity to buy some. We were spoiled several years ago with half a yearling from a cattle rancher in our church in Arkansas. The taste is sooo much better than what you get at the grocery store, not to mention no added food coloring, no hormones or antibiotics, and just better quality, all for less than what I'd pay per pound at the store. I told Nathan at breakfast we were getting the cow I bought that day and it was going to be his job to feed it. Priceless look on his face. Then I confessed it was meat for the freezer. He said, 'I don't think I want to know how that happens.' I probably don't either, but I'm a little too excited over the fact that my freezer is full of fresh beef and I hope I don't have to buy any at the grocery store for at least 6 months!

Get cookin': Sausage Soup

2009-02-07T08:28:00.000-06:00

This soup is quick and easy, a one pot wonder that can be on the table in 30 minutes.
These amounts will feed my family of 6, but with no leftovers, so I usually double it.

1 16oz. package of kielbasa or smoked sausage, sliced
1 small onion, diced
4 cups chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cabbage, chopped (Don't worry..the kids won't notice it if you make the pieces really small!)
Garlic, sea salt, and pepper to taste.

Saute sausage, onion and 2 tablespoons oil in a stock pot till onions are tender. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, till cabbage is tender.

Options:
If you like spicy foods, you could substitute a can of rotel for the diced tomatoes.
You could easily add other veggies like carrots and/or mushrooms.

Odds and Ends

2009-02-06T16:15:00.002-06:00

I couldn't think of any one topic worthy of it's own post today but here's some bits of news for you.

*Kevin and Alyssa drove to Dallas today to go to Ikea to get Katie's new bed. She wanted a full size loft but I couldn't find any here in town that were less than $1000. Ikea's was $250 but they wanted $300 to ship it. Alyssa desperately needs some driving hours so she can get her license so we decided to spend $40 in gas and 9 hours of time going to pick up the bed.

*Nathan has been playing upward basketball at church. He has 4 more games and I promise to get some pictures posted soon. No goals yet but he's gotten lots of personal fouls--he's very aggressive on defense!

*Katie had a good first day at school as best I can tell. Thanks for your prayers for her. God blessed her with a friend she knew from church in her first class. I don't know why I'm always amazed when He answers our prayers with such care and sovereignty even in the littlest details. When she shared this with me in the car on the way home, I almost cried.

*Zac starts track the end of this month which means he'll have practice every day after school at the south intermediate high school. I live in the far north, hence the need for Alyssa's license as soon as possible!

*Check back tomorrow...I'll have another quick and easy recipe for you!

Big Changes

2009-02-05T22:39:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow will be Katie's first day of school....ever. She has been homeschooled since the beginning. She didn't even go to preschool like Alyssa and Zachary did. We went today to walk through her schedule and find all of her classes and her locker.

You're probably wondering why she's starting over halfway through the school year, and I'll give you the quick answer to that question: It became very apparent in the beginning of this school year that I was no longer able to meet Katie's needs in the education dept. of her life. In October I began the process of talking with the school and starting the endless paperwork to get her evaluated without having to actually enroll her. I wanted to know what the plan of action would be before I committed to giving them my child every day. It took till December to get the evaluation completed, January for the first meeting, and the second meeting was supposed to be last week but it iced. We finally had our IEP mtg. bright and early this morning and she starts tomorrow.

Please pray for her as she transitions to this new world that she would be comfortable in her classes, understand the requirements/expectations, and that she would make some sweet friends quickly. Katie tends to be a night owl so also pray for her as she adjusts to getting up at 6:30 when she's used to waking up at 8.

A disadvantage of homeschooling

2009-01-30T20:40:00.003-06:00

Most of the time, the advantages of homeschooling far outweigh the disadvantages. You can go on vacation any time of the year you want, stay in your jammies all day, and take a month off for Christmas vacation if you feel like it.

Today, UPS brought me a box containing 3 items: a cow heart, a cow eyeball and a fetal pig. So now I have this box sitting in my living room and it smells just like you remember your 9th grade biology class smelling.

Someday soon, Alyssa's going to need to actually open one of these vacuum sealed packages and perform the dissection for her Advanced Biology class. She was able to take Biology at a co-op and I got to miss all this the first time around. I'm actively looking for a tutor to talk her through the whole ordeal because I just don't think I can handle it. Any volunteers?

Baby, it's cold outside!

2009-01-27T19:04:00.006-06:00

We started with freezing rain yesterday, then had a mixture of sleet and snow all night and last time I checked at 5 pm it was still coming down.

School was out today and has already been canceled for tomorrow. Since we used our snow days before Christmas, we're now tacking on days to the end of the school year which is infringing on my potential vacation the last week of May. The kids don't care now but they will when they're going to school after Memorial day.

Zac tried to make a snow ball but it was too powdery.

Katelyn took Nathan for a 'walk' on the sled. Nathan got this sled for Christmas last year and is just now getting to use it.

Belle wasn't sure what to think of the ice.

Zac needed a new profile picture for facebook and this is what he got...

Our driveway is sloped so it makes the perfect place to sled.

Zac used the sled like a snowboard and landed on his butt. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of that because I was laughing too hard. I'm going to have to work on holding the giggles till after the evidence has been captured on the memory card.

Ice....Again?

2009-01-26T15:27:00.004-06:00

We're having yucky weather yet again. I'll sheepishly admit I kind of like having bad weather as long as we don't lose power like we did for 5 days last year. I never want to repeat that experience again. Today's schedule was supposed to include Kevin leaving for a 2 day conference, basketball practice at the church tonight for Nathan, and me working from 12 to 5 to cover for someone else who is out sick. Instead, Kevin stayed in town, basketball practice was cancelled, and everyone was home for the day by 2:45.

Now we have a relaxing afternoon and evening ahead of us. Kevin is coordinating some disaster relief stuff via phone from the recliner, Alyssa is using her In Style magazine to decide what swimsuit shape she is, and the other kids are battling it out with guitar hero. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to spend my surprise free evening making curtains for Alyssa's room or scrapbooking pictures from our vacation in April 2006. (I'm just a little behind on this whole scrapbooking thing.)

Sassy Sixteen

2009-01-23T22:18:00.002-06:00

Alyssa's birthday isn't until Sunday but we partied with her friends tonight. She declared it her "sassy sixteen" since "sweet sixteen" is too cliche. We started the night at Macaroni Grill, all dressed up.

This is what's left of Alyssa's chicken parmesan after she'd eaten a good portion of it.

This is Elliot, singing Happy Birthday in Italian to Alyssa. Elliot was lots of fun as a waiter and I think he could successfully moonlight at Forever 21. (If you don't know the interpretation of that statement, just ask any teenage girl.)

Here's everyone in Alyssa's room before they changed into sweats to eat ice cream cake and watch 27 dresses.

One of Alyssa's friends gave her a Zac Efron notebook as a gag gift! Her real presents included jewelry, 2 wallets, money, itunes, and leg warmers.

Alyssa doesn't like regular birthday cake so we got a chocolate ice cream cake with peanut butter cups mixed in from Marble Slab. Yumm!

Is it just me?

2009-01-22T21:35:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday, the kids and Kevin cleaned house for me. They thought they were throwing away trash from the living room when it was really my stack of coupons which I had planned to clip while watching a Lost episode. It should have been obvious that it was not trash because 1) I don't leave trash laying around and 2) Duh! It was coupons! When I realized they had been thrown away, I dug them out from the bottom of the trash can, totally unaware of the fact that they were laying on top of a paint tray from Alyssa's room. I know some you may find that totally disgusting, that I would dig coupons out of the trash, but they had the potential of being worth $20-$30. So after sitting on the couch for a few minutes with my treasured coupons, I discovered paint on my sweater and my pants! Aaagh!

Things like this make me wonder if I'm the only person on earth that these goofy things happen to. I mean, who else in this universe has gotten paint on their clothes from clipping coupons?

It's a small blog world

2009-01-19T18:21:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, I got an email from a friend telling me about a friend of hers who had just had a baby who was in critical condition and being transferred to St. Francis hospital here in my town. She asked if someone from our church could go visit the parents. She gave me a link to Kelly's blog so I could read all about Harper.

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Later I was checking my friend Cassie's blog and read about how Cassie had found out about Harper through Kelly's blog and had already gone to the hospital to see them. Cassie's husband is the youth pastor at our church.

Today Cassie and I went to the hospital to see Kelly and Scott (Harper's parents). It was truly a blessing to meet them. We talked with them for a little while and the "small world" connections were almost endless..the people we both knew, schools we had both attended, etc.. We even discovered that our sr. pastor used to be Kelly's parents' pastor when they were young marrieds. I guess when you're all from Arkansas, the family trees and stories all bound to intersect!

Check Kelly's blog for updates and pray for their family. This is their first baby and they are 2 hours from their home. Pray for us to know how to minister to them in the days to come.

Get cookin': Fettucine Alfredo

2009-01-14T13:14:00.003-06:00

In the past few weeks, I've had several conversations with moms who admit they don't cook....at all! It seems to be more and more common for us to feed our families out of the frozen food section. This is not only ridiculously expensive but also incredibly unhealthy. In order to inspire you to cook for your families, I'm going to start posting some of my quick and easy recipes.

Today I made fettuccine alfredo for lunch. We have enough leftovers that we'll eat it for the next several days for a total cost of around $3.

Sauce:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 c. butter
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. olive oil
minced garlic or garlic powder
salt to taste
1 tsp. parsley (opt.)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan on low heat until melted. Stir into cooked pasta and you're done!

Options:
The amounts above are enough for 8 oz. pasta. I add 1/2 c. chicken broth to make it enough for 16 oz. pasta, making my food budget go a little further.

Add grilled or baked chicken or imitation crab meat for variety and some extra protein.

Worried about fat? Use fat free cream cheese, skim milk, and you can eliminate the butter and increase the olive oil to 1/2 cup.

Now get cookin' and let me know how your family likes it!

Extreme Makeover: Master Bath Edition

2009-01-09T19:57:00.005-06:00

When we first moved into our house, the entire master suite was painted this lovely greenish blue color that makes the word 'Crest' pop into my mind. When I say 'entire', I mean ceilings, closets, shelves...everything. I painted our bedroom the day we got the keys. Partly because I didnt want to move our ridiculously heavy furniture but mainly because I didn't think I could sleep in there without having nightmares of drowning in toothpaste.

One of my projects while we were on Christmas break from school was to rid myself of one more room of nauseous green. (I still have a linen closet and my master closet that are this color. I don't know that they'll ever get painted just because of the work involved.) The walls were painted a creamy beigy yellow.

The cabinet finish had some water damage and I didn't really like the stain color so I painted them black, and added hardware.

I just love these knobs. I love the swirls and how they complement the rug.

Now when I walk in my bathroom, I smile, not fight the urge to hurl.

For those of you wondering how home decorating fits into my frugalness, this project was completed for a little more than $100. $20 for knobs and pulls, $60 for paint and supplies, and $25 for the rug.

In Memory

2009-01-09T03:15:00.002-06:00

It's 3 am. I can't sleep. Today would have been my dad's 62nd birthday and is the one year anniversary of his funeral. Somehow I made it through Wed., the anniversary of his death without a tear but today I can't sleep and am a blubbering mess and the day hasn't really started yet.

It's been a year and I still can't think about him without my throat tightening and tears at least moistening my eyes. Sometimes the sadness is because I miss him and wish he was here to see the kids grow up. Sometimes the sadness is regret..that I couldn't have done more in the last months of his life to take care of him. Due to the circumstances at the time, there wasn't anything else I could have done but there's still part of me that wishes things could have been different, that I could have brought him home with me and taken care of him so that he wouldn't have spent his last months alone.

And sometimes the tears are from thankfulness, that God still saved him, even in his last 6 months of life after a lifetime of rejecting Him. I treasure the almost daily conversations about what he had read in God's word that day or about how he was praying every night before he went to bed and how he was trying to make better choices in his life. I am still amazed that God chose to honor my prayer that began when I was a little girl. I honestly don't know that I could cope with losing him if I didn't have the promise that I will see him again.

Talkin' in the ghetto

2009-01-07T22:47:00.003-06:00

I went to the Sprint store today to add unlimited texting to our family plan. I tried to take care of this a few weeks ago by calling the customer service line but the lady in India and I were having trouble communicating so I had to make a personal appearance at a store. All of this wouldn't be necessary if certain people in my house (Zachary) could keep from sending 247 texts when we have no texting plan. I decided it was easier to pay the $20/month fee than to keep making Zac mow the lawn for free, keep all of his allowance and make him take his lunch to school just to pay me back for the $50/month I was spending for him to text really important messages, like "what's up?"

Anyway, the guy asked to see my phone so he could access my account and he laughed when I pulled it out of my purse. Alyssa has been telling me forever that I have a ghetto phone, but since I gave her my phone upgrade so she could get a rumor, you would think she would be a little nicer about my ancient technology. I've had this phone since the February 2005 lemonade-in-my-purse incident when I was forced to get a new one. It makes calls and receives them, most of the time, and that's all I need. How dare he laugh out loud at my phone!

The Code

2009-01-05T22:30:00.003-06:00

I have a really good reason for not posting in the past week. If you know what these numbers represent below, you'll totally forgive me because you understand....

We mistakenly started watching Lost season 1 while Kevin was on vacation around the holidays. It's like opening the Pandora's Box of time because I can't seem to be capable of anything else besides finding out what happens next. I'm actually watching the last episode of season 2 while writing this. We're racing to get through 2 more seasons before the new season starts this month. Please no comments telling me what happens. I'm purposely avoiding googling anything to do with the show to avoid any spoilers!

Twister Championship

2008-12-28T09:16:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how we've made it through almost 16 years of parenting without purchasing a Twister game but I decided we needed one and gave it to the kids for Christmas. All 4 kids played the first game.

Zac challenged Alyssa to a face off (or twist off?).

He was determined to beat the flexible dancer and managed to turn himself into a pretzel.

Zac won the game!

The perfect gifts!

2008-12-26T12:37:00.000-06:00

Uncle Weve (aka: Steve, Kevin's brother) came to see us yesterday and he brought some awesome gifts for everyone. The boys all got NFL jerseys...

and Alyssa decided to model Zac's Romo jersey....

which then provoked Nathan to strike a pose in his Favre jersey.

Alyssa got her real present---a gift to Forever 21--her favorite store!

Katie scored an Itunes card and a Target gift card, and I got a Roomba! I'm still waiting on the battery to fully charge before I can find out if our predictions are true. (And please, no comments on how messy my desk is in the background. I promise I just cleaned it off two days ago and it's already messy again. Every miscellaneous piece of paper sends to up there. It's an endless cycle of clean and clutter.)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T20:04:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a quick recap of our celebrations:

We went to the Christmas Eve service, then came home and looked in our stockings. The kids opened their gifts to each other.

Then it was off to bed for everyone. Nathan waited till 7:30 to wake us up which was a Christmas miracle.

Since Zac opened his Guitar Hero, he has disappeared upstairs trying to become an expert.

And Katie was very surprised to find an ipod under the tree.

Uncle Weve showed up in time for our traditional Christmas lunch of Chinese takeout and the gifts started all over again which I'll share with you tomorrow!

Money Saver: Breakfast foods

2008-12-17T20:26:00.003-06:00

It's very tempting to just stock eggos and cereal at my house for the kids to have for breakfast, but not very economical or healthy. One of the biggest ways I've cut down on my grocery budget has been to make as many items from scratch as possible. The challenge is time for most of us, but I've found a way to make baking and cooking part of my schedule without too much adjustment.

Basically, on the mornings when I have a little extra time, I cook breakfast and make double or triple the amount we really need. Then on our busy mornings, we just pull something from the freezer and pop it into the microwave. You'll eventually build a stash in your freezer and only need to make something a couple of times a week.

This works great with pancakes (with or without chocolate chips!), waffles, breakfast burritos, and any type of muffin. You can click on the foods to link to the recipes on my new favorite recipe site, Recipezaar. I especially like having muffins on hand. Kevin likes to take them to work and the kids will snack on them in the afternoons. Their favorite is these chocolate chip muffins. They never make it to the freezer!

Helpful Hint: to freeze pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc., place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for approx. 1 hour. Then place in a ziploc freezer bag. This keeps them from sticking together and it's easy to pull out just what you need.

Ice, Ice Baby!

2008-12-15T14:16:00.002-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, the neighborhood kids were wearing shorts and playing outside in the 75 degree weather. By last night at 8, the temp. had dropped to 20 and it was sleeting outside. Today, we're at a high of 17, there's an inch of ice on the streets, and all the schools are closed. Gotta love Oklahoma weather!

I must admit I love these days when God forces us to slow down. The past week has been filled with activities and I was starting to feel overwhelmed by not being able to stay home long enough to take care of things here or even relax a bit. Last Sunday, Alyssa danced at the fanciest assisted living place I've ever been to. (The 'apartments' are 2400SF.)Then I had 30 minutes to get across town to the church to see Nathan's children's choir program. That was followed by a week of rehearsals and performances for the church Christmas production. Alyssa was given the opportunity to choreograph and dance in the production. Of course, I think she did a beautiful job. I'm hoping we'll have a video to post soon.

So today, I'm taking advantage of my day in to do laundry, bake lots of goodies, blog and watch "Notting Hill"--the tv edited version.

Crazy Christmas Chaos

2008-12-10T23:11:00.003-06:00

There are some days, like today, that convince me I will never be bored with my life. I know...one day all the kids will be gone and I'll wish for this craziness back. But I don't think that's ever going to happen. By the time Nathan graduates, Alyssa will probably be married and dropping her kids off here so she can maintain her sanity, all the while overlooking that I lost mine a long time ago which is okay.

I am desperately trying to finish all of the Christmas shopping. This includes the children also shopping since they still need me to drive them everywhere. So today, we hit Dollar Tree and Target. But since 3 kids needed to shop for each other and me, we had to keep changing the combinations of people who were shopping together while avoiding running into the other group. Dollar Tree was definitely more challenging than Target, but when you're 8 and 12, $1 is the right price tag for gifts so we made it work. We finally made it home and everyone took turns wrapping in my room which now looks like the gift wrap center at Macy's exploded in it. And I still have to take Zac shopping!

After a short break, I took Alyssa to dance, came back home for a quick meal of leftovers, then it was back to church for everyone but me. I was running all over town looking for green tulle for Alyssa's dance costume for the Christmas production which is this weekend--all weekend--4 performances. You would think green tulle was the 'Tickle me Elmo' of this Christmas because there is none to be had in this town. After several stops I did finally find some green ribbon that should do the job.

I would like to think the crazy, running around, wild adventures of today are unusual and rare at our house, but they're not. The circumstances change but the chaos does not. And by the way, when Alyssa put her gifts under the tree today, she numbered them--just to spite me.

Guess the gifts

2008-12-09T22:06:00.003-06:00

When I was a kid, my brother and I were terrible about finding out what our gifts were before Christmas. My mother had a habit of taking a Sunday afternoon nap, so while she was sleeping, we would open the presents under the tree to see what we were getting. She did figure it out one time and threatened to take the present she knew I had opened back to the store, but she didn't. And I'm not sure if before this exact moment while she is reading this post, if she knows that we were repeat offenders....several years in a row.

A few years ago, I instituted the code system of labeling gifts at our house, just to help keep the kids from temptation. You know..not passing the sins of the parents on to the next generation and all. Every year I come up with a new code just to make it a little more difficult. This year it's numbers...5, 20, 22, and 30. These are not random numbers; there is a method to the madness but I can't explain it to you now. My children read this blog, mainly to make sure I'm not telling anything embarrassing about them. Believe me, this blog would be hilarious if I didn't have any kid-imposed restrictions.

I put the first presents under the tree a few nights ago and guess who's giving me the most trouble? Alyssa--the oldest! She tried to convince me that she's responsible and can handle the knowledge of the 'code', but I refused to give in. Then she started trying to guess the different ways I could have assigned those numbers. I accused her of acting like she was 2 while I laughed at her and her curiosity. This may be more fun than the actual giving of the presents!

What about you? Did you peek at your presents when you were a kid?

Money Saver: Grocery Budget

2008-12-06T13:30:00.000-06:00

Sometime last June, I realized that we were spending the equivalent of about $300 a week on our grocery budget. At our house, this includes everything to keep our tummies full, our clothes clean, our bodies smelling good, and our house sanitary. The cost of food was escalating, combined with all the special diets around our house (2 with allergies, me-a diabetic), had made our food expenses astronomical. I was determined to bring it down as much as possible even if it meant spending a couple of hours clipping coupons every week.

I began by reading lots of articles at Money Saving Mom on combining coupons with sales, how to get stuff for free at stores like Walgreens and CVS, and how to find coupons on the internet which are usually worth more than the typical Sunday paper coupons.

Gradually, I was able to drop to down to $150 to $200 per week. I've also stockpiled enough soap, shampoo, toothpaste and cleaning products that I only buy these when they are on sale and I have a coupon, usually getting them for free. With 6 people that need to wash and deodorize on a daily basis, this was a huge expense for us. Sometimes I would spend $50-$60 at one time at Walmart just buying health and beauty products, but not anymore!

My current goal is to get down to $100-150. Gayle at The Grocery Cart Challenge feeds her family of 6 for $60 a week and she posts her menus with links to the recipes each week. I don't think we'll ever get quite that low thanks to our special diets, but I'm going to keep trying! I'll keep you posted on our progress. Now go save some money!

I survived the Trojan virus, almost

2008-12-05T19:18:00.003-06:00

Thursday night after work, I was innocently checking on my facebook. A friend had sent me a video in messages and I clicked the arrow to play. Then my laptop world came crashing down around me. Even though my Norton antivirus identified the virus immediately, it had already wreaked it's havoc on my new laptop. Kevin worked on it. I worked on it till midnight. Kevin worked on it again this morning and it still would not work. So....we wiped out the hard drive and reinstalled all operating systems. I use 'we' lightly here because it was really Kevin who babysat the process for 3 hours. I still don't have photoshop or any pictures loaded nor do I have any clue what was saved in my 'favorites'. I guess if they are truly 'favorites' I'll find them again.

On a totally different topic....my boys are watching a cartoon based on the song, 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer'. Whatever happened to the classics, like Charlie brown Christmas?

Down in Dallas

2008-12-02T20:56:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is my last day in Dallas and while I'm a little sad to be giving up my carefree days of only having to feed one person, not do laundry, and shop till I drop; I am excited to get home and see my boys. I managed to almost finish all of my Christmas shopping, buy enough shoes to keep from justifying another purchase for at least 5 years, and bought fabric to make window treatments for 3 rooms.

This has been a interesting trip in that there have been some unusual happenings...

I got pulled over by a Euless cop for having expired Texas tags. I was just thinking the current Oklahoma license plate on the back of my van would have been enough to keep me legal. Poor guy was quite embarrassed when he realized what he had done and I couldn't help but laugh at him. Thankfully there's not a ticket for that.

I stepped in dog poopy outside Liz's apt. building and got it in the car. I pulled over at a gas station to try to get rid of it and ended up using the window squeegee on the bottom of my shoe. I hope the squeegee had time to soak before anyone else decided to clean their window.

Next post from home base in OK...and now that I'm done spending money I'll get back to posting how you can save some!

Back on the web again!

2008-11-29T16:14:00.003-06:00

We've been having trouble with our phone lines and internet since we moved in August, but since the last guy who was here didn't really do anything and locked his keys in his truck, I've been reluctant about scheduling another maintenance appointment and stopping my life from 8 to 5 waiting for some guy to show up. But, it finally died completely and we were forced to make a service call. We needed some filters on our phone lines and a new modem, which ironically, is what the original guy was going to his truck to get when he locked himself out. After feeling incomplete and watching the children wandering aimlessly around the house for a few days all the while dying to know if anyone needed to be my friend on facebook, it's nice to be reconnected to the WWW.

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday with Kevin's dad, stepmom, and brother. Uncle Weve (aka Steve) is here for the rest of the weekend. Right now, he's at the movies with the boys. It's a well known fact that I don't buy drinks or snacks at the movies so Nathan was packing a little backpack with a capri sun and a snack. Steve told him to put it away because he would buy him anything he wanted at the movie which will raise Uncle Weve's hero status even higher around here.

Tomorrow morning, the girls and I are headed to Dallas for a few days. I have a list of things I need to shop for there that are either not available or not as inexpensive here as I can buy them there. The main reason I'm going though is because I need a break from my reality--homeschool, work, household stuff, buying groceries..... I learned a long time ago that it's better for everyone if I take a break every once in a while and recharge. The girls will be staying with their best friends there and I'll be staying with Liz which is strategically close to Ikea, Stonebriar center, the outlet mall, the galleria, Harry Hines wholesale shopping.....

A Parent's guide to video games

2008-11-19T09:54:00.002-06:00

We subscribe to Blockbuster Online...you know, the home delivery service of movies with no late fees. (Thank goodness because I do not have the brain cell that tells me to get into the car, drive to Blockbuster, and return the movie. There must be at least one phone call from Blockbuster, threatening to charge my credit card on file for the full amount of the movie if I don't return it, before I can actually return it. We won't tell them that the credit card they have on file has since expired.)

Once a month, we get a free video game rental. Nathan knows that on the 2nd of every month the coupon resets and then precedes to bug anyone with a driver's license to take him to Blockbuster until one of us finally takes him just so he'll be quiet. As you know, there's a lot of inappropriate games out in the world so Nathan has had to learn the video game rating system, which in our world goes like this:
E = Excellent choice!
T = Tiny chance we'll say 'yes'
M = Mommy says "No!"
And if you ask Nathan what the "M" stands for on the box, he will say "Mommy says No" thanks to Kevin's tutelage.

IT

2008-11-18T21:46:00.004-06:00

I knew IT would happen one day. I just wasn't expecting IT so soon. I thought we might have another year or so before IT occurred. I'm not even sure when IT happened, but I just noticed IT on Sunday.

I was finishing getting ready for church. Zac and Alyssa were standing in the doorway to my bathroom talking to me when I noticed their reflection in the mirror. Zac's head was higher than Alyssa's. I turned around to see if she was slouching and saw that she had on 3" heels and he was still taller than her! The little brother now looks down on the big sister! This also means he is taller than his mommy. Since I'm only 5'3", we'll count this as a good thing.

Homemade haircuts

2008-11-14T21:14:00.003-06:00

Note: We're constantly trying to stretch a dollar farther at our house so I thought I'd start sharing some of the ways we do accomplish that.

I just finished giving the boys haircuts and since boys need a trim at least once a month, I figure I've saved at least $2000 over the years. Scared to death to do your own kids' haircuts? Here's a few tips to help you out:

The next time you take them to the salon for a cut, watch carefully how the stylist cuts their hair. After a couple of trips to observe, you'll probably be ready to do a cut on your own.

Buy a set of clippers, a beard trimmer (to trim sideburns and the base of the neck), a good pair of scissors, and a cape. You'll probably spend about $40 up front but after 4 haircuts you've recovered you're investment. If your boys like the longer styles, you probably could get by with just a pair of scissors.

For your first try, just cut 1/4 inch. This will build your confidence and keep you from cutting too short. There may be books in your local library to give you some guidance also.

I used to cut the girls' hair also, but as they've gotten older that's gotten more difficult. We've all opted for longer layered cuts that don't require a salon trip very often. I still trim all of our bangs here at home to help us go longer between cuts. I also color my own hair and will share some pointers for that another day.

Don't Leave!

2008-11-14T05:00:00.001-06:00

No you didn't go to the wrong site. I was getting tired of the pepto bismol standard blogger pink and have been wanting to change the site for a while but honestly, I didn't know how. Then I found this great website where I can download blog backgrounds for free! This is so much fun I may have to change it on a monthly basis. So what do you think? Like the new design? Feel less likely to have a stomach ache? Tell me...I need to know!

School buses and motorcyle cops

2008-11-13T21:24:00.003-06:00

Last week, I was driving back to work after my lunch break, thinking about all the things piled up on my desk and unfortunately not paying attention to how fast I was going when I heard the unwelcome sound of a siren behind me. I pulled over and was told I was going 52 in a 40. Not good. Couldn't find a current insurance card. Also not good. While Mr. Motorcycle Cop is checking my record or whatever it is that they do when they leave you just sitting there wondering what your fate will be and how much it's going to cost, I noticed it was about time for Zac to be out of school. Since our neighborhood, Zac's school and my office are all on the same street, I knew there was a good chance he would be coming by soon. As I saw the parade of buses, I reasoned that his bus is usually in the second wave that leaves the school and hoped I was safe from even worse embarrassment than I was already suffering. Then my cell phone began to ring....Zac's ring. Zac hadn't noticed it was me; his friend did! "Dude, isn't that your mom pulled over?"

Thankfully, embarrassment and a trip to the courthouse to prove I have insurance are my only consequences. I think owning up to your mistakes and not making a bunch of excuses for yourself combined with politeness goes a long way. I can promise you that I'm paying closer attention to my speed through that area now. Just today I saw two more motorcycle cops pulling people over in the same area. Let's hope their kids weren't watching from a school bus window!

Blogging Sabbatical Over

2008-11-12T07:30:00.003-06:00

First off, let me say I'm sorry for disappearing from the blog world the last 2 weeks. I can't even tell you why I haven't posted anything new because I don't even know. I think it might have something to do with exhaustion though. When Kevin is gone for a long time, it's almost like I run purely on adrenaline the whole time. I know I'm the only one here and I know if I don't take care of everything, it won't get done. When he gets back home, it's almost as if I just shut down for a bit because I can. I know I've got backup again.

But, I'm done with all that now and will resume attempting to entertain you with our crazy family stories, home improvement projects, and, coming soon, how to save money on your groceries. (I've managed to cut our bill in half over the last few months!)

For now, I'll leave you with one of Nathan's infamous quotes that made me want to crawl under a rock and die since this one happened at church. Last Sunday night, a little girl kept following Nathan around everywhere and would not leave him alone. He was getting aggravated so one of the teachers decided to talk to him about it and asked why he thought she was following him. Nathan said, "I don't know. She must think I'm hot."

He's Home!

2008-10-27T19:58:00.002-05:00

Kevin finally made it home at 10:30 yesterday morning. So the kids and I did something very uncharacteristic for our family....we skipped church and went to the airport. I've been feeding him lots of American food...double cheeseburger, fries, pizza..and now he's screaming for ice cream. And he's managed to stay awake all day to attempt to reset his body clock back to the central time zone.

Delayed in Delhi

2008-10-24T14:27:00.001-05:00

I just received a call from Kevin. He and Joe Pat are stuck in Delhi. Their first flight was late so they missed the second flight from Delhi to Chicago. This flight only leaves once every 24 hours and the next one is overbooked. Please pray that they get on this next flight so they can be home Sunday morning. Also pray for safety. They are stuck in an airport with nowhere to go. It is 1am there now so it is not safe for them to just leave and go to a hotel. We are trying to contact a mission house there to see if there is a way to get them there so they can at least get some rest. They have been in the villages all day teaching and are exhausted. But, with no cell phones I'm not sure we'll be able to get this information to him. So pray he calls again after I have the contact number for him.

Update: Kevin and Joe Pat were able to get a hotel room and safe transportation thanks to American Airlines, who may be my favorite people in the world right now. They will try again tomorrow to get on the flight and make it home. Keep praying!

Friday in India

2008-10-23T22:45:00.004-05:00

My India updates have come via Facebook messaging as opposed to actual emails the last few days. As I'm typing this, it's about 9:30am Friday in India and Kevin should be close to arriving at the village where he and Joe Pat will teach for about 6 hours. Then they will travel 2 1/2 to 3 hours back to the hotel and get ready to start the long journey home. His flight will take approx. 24 hours yet he leaves Friday at midnight and will arrive here at 10 Sat. morning. I'm guessing he's going to be looking for that 12 hours he's losing for the rest of the week.

As you can imagine, by now, they are exhausted. Pray for endurance and strength as they teach today. Kevin has had the awesome opportunity to help new Christians grow in their faith. So many times, we (as in the church in general) rush in on a mission trip, preach salvation then never revisit the area to disciple those new believers. One of the things I love about our church is our mission work is focused in areas that we send teams to several times a year and we have church planters in each area that are there year round. In June, a team went to Cambodia. Their focus was evangelism and they saw around 300 people accept Christ. Kevin's purpose with this trip was to disciple those new Christians to help them grow in their faith and be able to then go to their own villages and tell them about Christ. So the good news doesn't stop just because we don't have a team in that country all the time.

Sorry, I got a little side tracked from today's prayer request. Energy for the day, health as their bodies are getting tired, and safety in the villages and in the air, but most importantly that the Word would impact the villagers' lives and that it would spread through India like a wildfire.

Mystery Lunch and Refreshment Seminars in India

2008-10-21T08:34:00.003-05:00

I was able to sleep most of the day today, so I am feeling much better. Joe and I will be eating dinner tonight with our church planter and his family. Tomorrow morning, we will head out to the first village. There is supposed to be about 300 people there that are believers/new believers. Joe and I will be walking them through the discipleship principles from Acts chapter 2. We will be teaching them a Bible story for each principle. Hopefully, they will be able to remember the stories well enough to pass along the discipleship points contained in the stories.

These training sessions are called "refreshment seminars" here in India. I would relate them back to an old fashioned tent revival back home. Picture a tent or a small room, and then pack as many people as you can possible squeeze into the tent or building. It will be people sitting on the floor shoulder to shoulder. There will be people standing in the door ways. There will be people standing outside looking and listening through the windows. It is really something to see.... There will be worship with instruments of different kinds with a small praise team. Believe me, these new believers can teach us some things about worship. They are all in...After the worship, Joe and I will teach for about an hour at a time. After the first 2-3 hours, comes the highlight of my day.

That is lunch time.... My stomach is turning just thinking about it. God bless them, these ladies in the village spend all morning preparing this special food for us and the people in the seminar. Yes, we pay for it, but they do all the work. This is one of those times when you NEVER want to know what you are eating. It will be rice, with incredibly hot and spicy sauces, with "mystery stuff" mixed in for good measure. Now, I am sure there are insects and parts of other things mixed in there... Yummmm. We just are not sure. Some of my friends would say it is just all the parts of a chicken, but I am not so sure... I am sure some of you are thinking, Kevin, you are nuts, now is the time to be fasting and praying. Just tell them you are not hungry. Well, that might work in the states, but not here. Not eating what they place before you is an insult to them and would hurt those nice ladies feelings. Also, before you say, well I would just kind of move the food around on my plate to make them think I am eating... Well, the problem with that is a lot of times they watch you eat to see your reaction to make sure you like it. If you just move it around on your plate, they will simply give you more. Last time I was here, my friend Joe that is with me now, was putting his food on my plate when I was not looking. Pay back is coming! After lunch, we will continue to teach until about 4:00pm and then start the exciting journey back to hotel.

Please pray for our safety. This is an exciting opportunity to teach a group of people that really want to learn. It is an honor to be here. Even with all the "stuff" involved, it is awesome to think that God would allow me to be one of the people that brings his good news to a very dark and lost part of the world. Some people do not understand why we do what we do, well, I just cannot help myself. I must go and share. It is who God has called me to be... I love you all!

Kevin

Arrival in India

2008-10-20T11:01:00.002-05:00

Kevin and Joe Pat have arrived safely in India. As you'll see in his message below, he is getting tired. Pray for supernatural strength this week as they go out to the remote villages and for protection. In the neighboring state, there has been extreme persecution in recent months.

It is about 8:30pm Monday night. We just got here a few minutes ago. I am one tired kid.... We will take the day off tomorrow to rest and study. Joe and I will be teaching groups of about 300 people on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We will have about 6 hours per day of teaching time, so we need to get our ducks in a row. Please have everyone pray for our safety this week. These villages are about 2 1/2 to 3 hours away from us. The traffic here is horrible, so we need prayer for safe travel and safety from the Hindu folks that do not like us very much.

Last day in Cambodia

2008-10-18T19:38:00.002-05:00

From Kevin:

Yesterday was a lot of fun.... We went to the orphanage and spent the entire afternoon teaching and playing with the kids. There must have been over 150 kids there. We taught them Bible stories, songs, played jump rope etc... I even got the opportunity to teach the men that were there how to throw a football. It might seem strange that they have never thrown a football, but if you saw where and how they lived you would understand. In just a few minutes, we had a pretty good game of pass going on in the yard of the orphanage. I was thinking this morning about all the things that I worry about, get upset about that right now seem very petty and silly. These people would love to have the problems that we face on a daily basis. They would trade with us in a heart beat. For example, yesterday, we were playing in the yard and a little girl scraped her leg. It started to bleed a little, so we pulled out our handy dandy first aid kit and were about to help her. My friend Henry reminded us that a lot of those children have AIDS, and we need to put on gloves before we help her. When was the last time you ran inside to put on gloves before you put a bandaid on your child's scrape. Wow! I just pray that the Lord would use me in some way to bring a smile to some faces and introduce these people to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Today, is my last day here. It is Sunday morning. This morning people from all over the area will gather on the orphanage grounds for worship. Many of these people are believers and hopefully many new believers will be there as well. I will be talking to them this morning about the importance of prayer. Most of these people used to be Buddhist and some Hindu. They have been taught all of their lives that they need to go to a temple or somewhere special to pray. Now, that they know Jesus, I am going to teach how to live a life of praying without ceasing everywhere you go. I will be using the ACTS model of prayer. Please pray for me that the Lord would use my words and the words of my translator to sink the truth into their hearts. Now, I am sure the devil is not going to let this happen without a struggle, so please pray that nothing will stop the preaching of the Word!

After the service, I will be leading the new believers into the river to be baptized. Please pray that no alligators or snakes or anything else would be there to be baptized as well. (Can you tell I have watched too many movies????). People tease me sometimes for being a country boy from South Arkansas, but you know, all the times that I went hunting with my dad as a little kid has prepared me for missions. Many of the little lessons my dad taught me hunting about staying safe in the woods and watching and thinking ahead are being used every time I go on a mission trip. Thanks POP!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

2008-10-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

One of the ways I have learned to cope with Kevin being gone for extended lengths of time is to recognize there are some good things about being by myself for a little while. (By myself, meaning no spouse. I've still got 4 kids and a dog running around here. I can't seem to get rid of them.) There are also bad things though, and then there's the ugly.

The good:
*Sole possession of the remote control--this is very important. (Name that movie!) This means the tv is more likely off or on 'Say yes to the dress' or 'Dallas cowboys cheerleaders making the team' as opposed to shows that irritate me beyond comprehension like 'Cops' or 'World's dumbest criminals'.

*I have a whole King size bed to myself and no one to wake me up by snoring or moving too much in the middle of the night. (I'm a very light sleeper.) Not that Kevin does this every night, but it does happen.

*I get a little vacation from making sure I cook dinner on my nights at home. The kids are just as happy with a grilled cheese sandwich as they are with pork chops.

*I can stay up till 2am reading a book if I want and not feel guilty even though I'll probably regret it the next morning.

The bad:
*I'm stuck with all the carpools, drop offs and pick-ups. I especially dislike the 9pm dance pick up after I've worked till 8.

*He's not here for me to chat with about all the little things that happen each day that no one else would care to hear about.

*I'm in charge of everything, and despite what you may think, I don't want to be. I like knowing there are some things I just don't have to be concerned with, like paying bills which I was supposed to do on Wednesday and haven't yet. (Kevin's having a coronary as he's reading this on the other side of world, I'm sure. Don't worry sweetheart, I'll take care of it soon.)

The ugly:
By next Monday, I'm going to start getting tired of being both parents to 4 kids and I'm going to get crabby and it's not going to be pretty. And, I'll still have 5 more days to go before he comes home. Guess I better go read a book and sprawl all over my bed to make myself feel better!

We're goin' green

2008-10-17T21:04:00.002-05:00

No we're not becoming more environmentally friendly--probably less so since we just painted two rooms and filled our house with fumes. Nathan's favorite color is green and he's been asking to have his room painted green since he was old enough to know it was called green. In my practical nature (aka controlling nature) and thinking green wasn't the greatest color to paint a room when you know your track record of moving every few years, I always said no. The cuteness and the hope that this is our permanent home took over and I agreed.

I did learn that it takes 2 cans of green paint to cover up builder's white. Unfortunately I did not possess this knowledge during my first trip to Lowe's. So after coat one, I changed clothes to go back to Lowe's and buy the second gallon. Changing clothes was necessary because sometime during coat one, I sat on the large paintbrush that one of my boys so kindly left laying in the floor so my backside had a large green stamp on it. I was pleasantly surprised though at how well the green looks and he is thrilled to finally have his green room.

I also committed to painting Zac's room this week. He was home for fall break and wanted to work on his room. His was easier, and only took one coat for which my wallet was thankful.

All this grey just reminded me to tell you that Kevin called this morning (Fri. night for him). They had 7 more salvations today and Kevin rode an elephant. (This is where the grey comes in.) He has promised me there are pictures that I cannot wait to see! Tomorrow is the big evangelism rally then Sunday, Kevin and his travel buddy, Joe Pat, will be flying to Thailand then on to India on Monday.

Cambodia--Friday

2008-10-16T22:28:00.002-05:00

Kevin's email for today is below. Remember they are 12 hours ahead so as you're going to bed, pray for them to have strength for the day and as you wake up, pray for them to have a restful night. There has also been some unrest between Thailand and Cambodia this week. We think it has been resolved, but Kevin is supposed to fly through Thailand and on to India on Sunday. Pray for them to have wisdom to know if they will need to change their flights and go through another country.

It is about 6:50am on Friday morning. This is the last day for the two teams to be together. Yesterday, Joe and I went back to the villages where the first team had been and had success. We spent some time with them on discipleship. In the first village, we used the story of Jesus calming the storm to talk to them about the power of God and how we can trust God even in the worst of times. We also taught them the parable of the talents and taught them about using whatever God gives them for His glory. These people love stories and are great with detail. The second village we went to was the one where the first team had 18 salvations the day before. We taught them the parable of the sower and talked to them about staying close to God and making sure their hearts are ready to receive a word from God at all times. At the end of the teaching time, I felt that I needed to take the story and explain the Gospel once more. When I did, the 18 that had trusted Christ affirmed their decisions from yesterday and then 2 more ladies in the group prayed to receive Jesus Christ. It was awesome! In that little village, salvation has swept through, and they will never be the same. That little village now belongs to Jesus Christ. Today, the first team will pack and get ready to leave for the states. Joe and I will be back out in the villages sharing the truth with anyone that will listen. Saturday, there will be a large group on non-believers gathered at the orphanage. I am going to use the Parable of the lost sheep, lost coin, and prodigal son to explain to the group what it means to be lost and then found by the Savior of the World. Please pray that any and all opposition will not be allowed to enter the gates of the orphanage, and I will be able to very clearly explain the truth so both the translator and people in the crowd fully understand.

Thursday in Cambodia

2008-10-15T20:45:00.003-05:00

Below is an email from Kevin. They are 12 hours ahead of us so he is already starting his Thursday. In an earlier email, he shared that on Wed., 18 people accepted Christ even though the focus for the day was discipleship!

It is about 6:30am here on Thursday morning. I am getting ready to begin day two. Yesterday was pretty much what I expected. Henry took me to see the killing fields where Polpot had all those millions of adults and children murdered. It was very sad and you could just feel the evil there. Polpot was a lot like Hitler in his methods, just killing people out of pure evil. It was very very sad. We walked along the path beside the mass graves, and I could see old pieces of clothing coming out of the ground and even saw an old tooth on one of the paths. It was an interesting way to begin the day to say the least.

I saw the orphanage yesterday, and prayed for God to allow that ground to become "Holy Ground" because of His presence. After that we went to three different villages. The villages are a lot like the ones in India. They are very poor and focus day by day on survival. The people were so glad to see us. The children were climbing on us and playing with us like they had known us all of their lives. One of the things that always grabs me on these village type trips is that these people have absolutely nothing, and yet they are all smiles and happy. Once they hear the truth of Jesus and trust Christ, it is like all the pieces of their lives are complete. They are sleeping on the ground in these very primitive huts. They are walking around with very little clothing, no need for storage buildings or large closets. Just a happy day to day existence with their families. It is so cool to be able to walk in there with the greatest news they have ever heard. I love my job and calling! Today, I am going to see the prison where the people were kept before their executions. After that, we are going village hopping again. It will be a day of telling discipleship Bible stories to the new believers in each of the villages in an attempt to grow them up a little bit in the faith. God willing, people that do not know Jesus will sit down and listen and hear the gospel as well. Pray for us to have safety and energy to complete the task. It is super hot and draining out in the sun standing, playing, and talking all day. Please pray for safety in travel and for the leaders of the villages to allow us to come in and engage their people with the Truth. Many of these villages require long walks into the middle of nowhere to get to the people. The long walk in is exciting, but the long walk back out is a little different story. I keep thinking about the Apostle Paul going people to people saying "How beautiful are the feet that bring the good news."

Almost there! (Kevin's Mission trip update)

2008-10-14T06:50:00.004-05:00

I really meant to post this information yesterday, but one of the side effects of Kevin being gone is I get stuck with all the drop offs and pick ups of which there were seven yesterday. Seven times I had to leave my house to deliver a kid or retrieve him/her from whatever they were doing plus take Kevin to the airport at 4am. I usually try to avoid 4am but since it was my last time to see him for 2 weeks I decided to make an exception to my 'I don't do morning' policy.

So as of now, Kevin is somewhere between Seoul, Korea and Cambodia. When he lands, he will have been on a plane for a total of 24 hours with an additional 8 or 9 hours being spent in airports for layovers. Obviously, he's going to be exhausted so today pray for safety as he finishes traveling and for him to be able to sleep tonight even though his body will be telling him he should eat breakfast.

For the next few days, he will be traveling to villages and teaching Bible stories that center on evangelism and discipleship. The people are illiterate so our team memorizes chapters of scripture and tells it as a story. Sometimes they will have the villagers act out the story or draw pictures to illustrate to help them remember. Kevin has 12 stories memorized for this trip. Pray for his mind to stay fresh and to be able to recall all of the chapters easily.

This picture is of one of our team members that arrived earlier last week with some of the children at the orphanage. Kevin's trip will overlap with theirs for a few days. They'll return home and he'll head to India.

I'll post updates as I get them. My understanding is that there is easy access to the internet in Cambodia. Next week, when he goes to India, it will be more difficult to get information.

Porch Surprise

2008-10-09T22:00:00.002-05:00

Today, I came home for lunch from work like I always do. As I was pulling onto my street, I noticed the UPS guy in front of my house but I hadn't ordered anything lately so I assumed he was delivering to one of my neighbors. But then, there was an amazon.com box on my porch. I didn't think I had ordered anything but earlier in the day Kevin had accused me of not remembering an entire conversation so I was already questioning my sanity. If I had known what was inside, I would not have been so casual about opening the box. Someone sent me......

I was so excited I screamed when I got all of the air bubble packing material out of the way and saw my surprise. No way I was expecting this one. Then, with a cruel twist of fate, I had to leave it laying on my desk, still sealed shut, while I returned to work. I have now loaded it on my computer and played around with it some. But could someone send me "Photoshop Elements for Dummies" tomorrow? I think I'm going to need it.

Monday night football--Not the NFL

2008-10-06T21:13:00.002-05:00

We are 2 games away from the end of Zac's first football season. I'll admit there are lots of activities that I have been to that involved my kids, only because they involved my kids and it's my parental duty to be there. But, I have loved going to all of Zac's football games. Part of that enjoyment results from the fact that I actually understand the game thanks to two events in my life:

1)Coach Burson's 7th grade PE class--He made us learn the ref. calls and signals and all the rules of the game. And because I've always been the studious type (aka nerdy) and wanted to make A's in all my classes, I learned them all, although pass interference still confuses me to this day; no matter how many times my patient husband explains it to me.

2)My entire dating relationship with Kevin and our first year of marriage revolved around him playing football where I was welcomed to the world of hang time and punt averages and national rankings and waiting outside the locker room after the games where the smell of sweaty football players permeated the air.

Now, I get to wait outside the locker room in my minivan and pickup the football practice carpool so the smell of sweaty football players permeates my van. Sometimes we ride home with the windows down and then I spray lots of febreeze.

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the season when Zac was trying out the running back position. Recently, he's been playing safety. I don't really care if they win or lose. I just love sitting in the bleachers, enjoying the cool fall weather. After tonight's game, Kate and Nate decided it was cool enough we needed to have hot chocolate after we got home. Then Nate said, "Mom, we need to stock up on marshmallows for the winter." Which brought to mind the question: When did we turn into squirrels?

Marriage Movie Grace

2008-09-26T20:10:00.002-05:00

I went to see 'Nights in Rodanthe' today, alone. Most of the theatre was filled with middle age women (not that I fit in that category) or younger women with their dates/husbands. Kevin would have gone with me if I had asked him, but I love him enough not to subject him to a movie I know he wouldn't appreciate--marriage movie grace.

Oh, and the movie? Since I had read the book, I knew about the shocker ending that sent sniffling sounds throughout the theater. If you're wanting to see a romantic comedy, skip it. If you're wanting a reason to use a whole box of tissues, go! Nights in Rodanthe is an intense, emotional drama, but I'm not sure how much I can like a movie where......................

Spoiler warning

Richard Gere dies in the end.

Meet Jude and Noah

2008-09-25T20:42:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, we had the privilege of babysitting for my new friend, Cassie, while she went to the dr. to check on baby #3. Noah is 2 1/2, Jude is 7 months, and baby #3 will show up in May. This brings back so many memories of the beginning years of our family. Alyssa had her 3rd birthday party one day and the next day, we found out Kevin had gotten a job in Texas that would allow him to attend seminary. The day after that I found out I was 10 weeks pregnant with Katie. Zac was only 6 months old at the time so I think I responded appropriately when I sat in a chair for 2 hours, alternating between crying and a semi-catatonic state. We adjusted to the surprise quickly and wouldn't change a thing about our family. I may want to amend that statement when they are all in college at the same time.

Back to the cuties playing at my house....Nathan wasn't happy about the little guys coming over. Being the typical baby of the family, he didn't want anybody getting in his stuff and stayed upstairs away from everybody else for the first hour they were here. Then on the way to get a snack, he got caught up in the cuteness and was doing everything he could to make Jude smile.

Here's Noah.. He was too busy watching veggie tales and leading Alyssa by the hand around the house to pose for any pictures. Somehow, his mom manages to take amazing pictures of both boys which you can see over on her blog. She has the same camera I do but her pictures are way better than mine. I think I'll tell myself it's because she has photoshop and I don't.