Sentiments a la Stack

Something Missing in Translation...

2011-11-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

You know...sometimes you find the COOLEST craft. And you think to yourself, "Oh, the girls could TOTALLY do this one...and it's pretty so I can actually leave it out where other people might see it." Of course, I love every single craft or coloring page that my little darlings put their hands to...yes.I.do. But this was different...this had GREAT potential...with the right colors...ooo...I'd totally have one of two of them.

Here let me show you how totally cute this would be...

Source: leslieashe.blogspot.com via Stacey on Pinterest

Right???

So...today...the Day of the DECORATING (the tradition that follows the Day of the Thanks in our house)...I pulled out the buttons and pins and Styrofoam balls..I was VERY excited.

So they got started. And for about 10 minutes, things seemed to be going just the right direction. Of course, by the time I was done with dishes...I knew something had gone terribly awry.

No matter which angle you looked at...this was MOST definitely NOT what I'd expected...

The littlest one was not much interested in anything other than poking the ball with the pins so Beloved stepped in and helped her "make" a reindeer ornament...really, she just played with the glue...and complained bout how the Elmer's is the WORST GLUE EVER because it doesn't stick immediately. Beloved got out the tacky glue and then the hot glue...both of which offered more instant gratification, which kept her going just a little longer.

I kind of expected as much from the Bear and the Monkey Face...but THE BEAN? I really expected a pretty, buttony ball to hang on my tree. And she started out really strong, please note the "hat" portion. But alas...

Seriously? A Snowman? Pshaw!

I sat down, disgusted.

I picked up my own Styrofoam ball...I grabbed the buttons and beads...the girls had nearly exhausted the supply of pins on the table so I ran upstairs to raid the stash in my sewing room. The other thing I noticed was that I didn't have any of the right buttons. I mean...they are pretty enough...but not near Christmas-y enough...

But I did have fuzzy puff balls. Fuzzy puff balls could be Christmas-y.

But as I started, it didn't take VERY long to realize that poking pins through smallish fuzzy puff balls to cover a larger ball gets tedious...especially when everyone else is bored with it. I wish I could say, I pressed through and made a pretty, fuzzy puff ball Ball...but...well...

That's as far as I got...I kinda liked it when I was doing it...but looking at the picture...eh!

Anyway...Elf was on...and we'd never seen it. While our ornaments didn't come out exactly as planned...the movie has been pretty good.

Well, I don't have pretty button-y Christmas ornaments...but I do have a FABULOUS Snowman and a Becky ornament...and it's even possible I have a reindeer. And NOBODY else has ANYTHING like them. Everyone always wants those one-of-a-kind things and I got mine FOR FREE.

sigh.

I can't wait to tell their kids about the night of ornament making that misfired...and show them what they made.

See ya around...

Our first week of OUT school...'N Stuff...

2011-08-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

There should be a picture RIGHT HERE of the girls and I in all our gear standing on the driveway...but I'm not sure what I did with my camera...and it's only 4:35am...so it would be considered RUDE to poke Beanie and see if she knows.

It's okay with me, because a newsy post can easily be followed by a picture-y post and I hardly have to try...which is important now and then.

So...school?

Kinda fun.

The girls LOVED their very first day of "Out" school...dubbed thusly by a then-5-year-old Beanie who wished she could go to "out" school when all of her little friends on the street went to kindergarten. The wishing to go to "out" school only lasted until the middle of the second semester when several of her little friends confided the wish to stay for "home" school...but the term itself, stuck.

So what to say first?

It is SO fun to go and see friends (student and teacher alike) first thing in the morning and listen and learn and visit and share ideas. Pulling out new books and supplies is great fun too...that's pretty much the same "home" or "out"...although there are WAY more supplies needed for "out". This makes the corralling of said supplies a little skitchy. We've never needed room for 3 full 3 inch storage binders...or 3 different Science boxes...but new crayons are new crayons, even if we never progress further than, "Stick it in the pile by the piano". New crayons=Joy. Still, don't show up unannounced without your hard hat...'kay?

My kids are taking subjects we've never done formally at home before. For instance, Spanish! Monkey Face spent the rest of Thursday (our first day) and most of Friday wishing to be called by her Spanish name. P.E., which we've done always, every day, every year...but have foolishly called it soccer, swimming, jogging, hula hooping etc...holds great fascination for them...our first class of that will be this afternoon. And then there is Art. I'll confess, I'm more excited than they are...but then again...I'm all kinds of impressed with their Art teacher. I've seen him draw and paint and it makes me, the one who is more into penmanship, very happy.

The girls think lunch out of box is AWESOME. It's not so much the lunch itself...it's more the snacks. I've actually allowed fruit rope in. Technically, it wasn't that I wasn't allowing it per se...it just seemed unnecessary when they’d just eaten breakfast (at home we don’t usually eat until 8:30 or 9) and they could just grab an apple…a cheese stick…a bowl of crackers. Little did I know they had been missin’ out on a certain TYPE of junk food (Just to clarify, they get junk food a-plenty in other forms.) and the lunch box soothes their little souls.

There are a few things that we are still muddling through. One of my friends at the school told me to expect it to take about a month to really understand the interaction of the paper. And I confess…it’s my biggest stressor. In homeschool…it’s ME and THEM. I made the plan, the worksheet, assigned the book AND have it on hand. I understand where I’m going with the assignment (for instance, this one we’ll test, this other one is just a learning/reading thing) and they DO it, cuz I’m their mom and they want to see daylight at some point in their lives. With six teachers (each kid) BESIDE myself that intimacy with their school work is gone. Right now, while I’m NOT sure of the plan…things are a touch more chaotic than I’d hoped.

Still, they wanna go back. And for me, for now, that’s all that matters. There are so many things in my life right now that I can’t un-jumble. As challenging as this is…this is a finite equation…it’s answerable…AND even in the chaos, it’s still pretty fun.

Regarding the ‘N-Stuff…that’d be the Grandma.

We started this weekend in Urgent Care, as you know. Things went well Saturday, but her blood pressure climbed all day Sunday. So, Sunday night, back to Urgent Care. We had a terrific doctor who checked her over and switched her meds around…we were in and out of there in under an hour…which was really REALLY nice. He recommended a doctor for us to call first thing in the morning.

Yesterday, which was Monday, Mom called and got an appointment with the recommended doctor’s colleague for 1:45pm. Nice. Who would have thought that we’d have gotten in the same day? On top of that, we liked the doctor a lot. She was very attentive and kind. We changed meds again and go to check on everything on Friday.

Please continue to pray for her. Her blood pressure makes ZERO sense to me. We’ve learned that if she doesn’t eat it goes up and if she is stressed (like going to the doctor) it goes WAY up (another reason to praise the Lord, this doctor was so nice, Mom is looking forward to seeing her again)…but aside from those two obvious ones…there seems no rhyme or reason.

One other thing…things are pretty stressful over here. MOST of it is good, new, excited stress…the kind that makes you laugh. Some of it is bothersome, minor things that all by themselves would barely blip the radar. And there are small bursts of BAD, scary stress. But my body doesn’t deal well with it. I don’t sleep. Could you pray for that too?

I guess that’s it. Hey, look, it’s only 5:30am…plenty of time to…hmmmm…well, time to do something, I suppose.

See ya around…

In Which the Grandma Scares Stack...

2011-08-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is a pure prayer request...

My mom has had REALLY high blood pressure this week. On Monday she went for a root canal and her BP measured 203/99…

It came down a bit over the next few days…but starting yesterday afternoon her left arm was feeling very uncomfortable…of course, she didn’t say much about it…

Today, when I called to tell her that I was on my way home, she told me that her left arm was really uncomfortable and sort of numb. I called my neighbor to take the girls and rushed her to urgent care where THEY rushed to get her BP (now 218/103) down and went about trying to find out what is going on.

Long story a little shorter…they still don’t know why her arm is so uncomfortable but it does seem that she is “okay” in that she has not had either a heart attack or a stroke. And they’ve given her some medication to bring her blood pressure down to a safer level.

Because she lives out of the state so much, she doesn’t have a doctor in the area…so I’m praying that we’ll be able to find a kind doctor who takes Medicare here in the area…

Because we are a pretty natural family, we don’t know even how to approach being on a medication that has severe side effects…and until we find this doctor we have to understand what we see and be ready to take her to the ER should any of the many possible side effects come about…some of which they told us WOULD happen anyway for the first few days…so I’m praying for understanding and clarity…

And because she’s my Mommy…I want to keep her. So I’m praying for healing…and peace…and to be able to keep our emotions in check so that we can keep a level head…I say “we” but probably mean “me” and “my”.

To be clear…she’s okay…and I’m praising the Lord for that!!

But…please pray.

See ya around...

Barbeque Chicken Pizza...

2011-08-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

I am an odd duck. I readily admit it.

I suppose that if you know me at all, this does not come as a surprise...but for some reason, every now and then one of my quirks hits me and I'm still surprised by what a complete dork I really am.

Case in point...the subject of our blog today, boys and girls, is not REALLY Barbeque Chicken Pizza...nope...it's actually..."how Stackey is missing her girls after several days of planning, gathering, writing for things that don't directly concern them...and after 2 days of absolutely necessary and interesting meetings...with one more to go...and just wants to connect with them in some way when she is not here..."

You can see, dear reader, why I had to simplify the subject a little.

So, as is my nature when ANYTHING out of the ordinary happens...I've not been sleeping. So in my wanderings of late last night and early this morning...I realized that I really like handwriting.

Stay with me here...remember the Topic Sentence, "I am an odd duck" we are now getting to a supporting sentence.

I REALLY like handwriting. I've kept some sort of handwritten journal most of my life...and sometimes wrote often enough to keep a timeline. I notice handwriting...My dad's was small and succinct...Beloved has an account's hand...My brother is a lefty and a boy and he is how I learned that MANY lefties...even boys...have a more open script that as a kid I thought was a more feminine look...it's just how they hold the pencil. My cousin Oddy has some of the most beautiful script I have ever seen, and yet it was a little difficult to decipher until I'd really sat still and TRIED, because some of her letters are very flowery. I've poured over both of my Grandmother's writings...and noticed as their hands became more shakey and jagged...and yet remained the same lovely lines.

I really like typing too...but that is not the point of this ramble.

Let's stay on topic shall we? That's right, 1) Odd Duck 2) Missing my girls 3) Handwriting.

So this morning...knowing I was going to meetings that would keep me away from them for another whole day, I got thinking, "I need to write them a NOTE! That's it! At least that is REALLY me...I would have actually touched that piece of paper and although I won't be here to touch them...they can touch the paper and it's sorta like touching each other" (I'm a touch sentimental at 3 am...it's part of my charm).

So I DID write them a note. And then I thought, well, hmmmm, Grandma might like a project for them, and I might be tired this evening, so maybe they could make dinner and if I WRITE them an easy enough recipe, maybe all of them can be involved...and then I can put it in MY recipe book and when they are old and gray and I'm dead (I'm also a touch morose at 3 am) they can look at it and remember my handwriting. (Please note, run-on sentences are the norm when I'm low on sleep...I may come back and edit this...but probably not...).

So, in the end I wrote them a note...and a recipe...in my own handwriting. And THAT, dear reader, is why this post is called Barbeque Chicken Pizza...for this ONE scan.

When they are old, they will also remember that their momma loved turquoise...if it'll only hold the color...and that brings my sentimental heart joy.

See ya around...

I know the plans I have for you...

2011-08-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time...again.

Remember, a long time ago I told you I blog on the upswing? Yeah...well, life's been tough for a while...I think I'd better blog from the well...

We are going through some major changes over here...and I truly believe that they are a gift from God. But we are still learning a new way of normal.

Let's see, where to start. Last school year Beanie was in a choir in a local university style school...and they did a musical for their spring show, which I got to help produce. We had a BLAST!! But because there were MANY other people's children...you didn't get any pictures...I'm not actually sure I said anything about it.

At the time, the director and I talked and talked about this year. Things I could help with, things that she dreamed of for the school. At the time I wasn't exactly sure which part was going to be reality...so I left it for the Lord. I was a homeschooler, after all, and not really interested in doing anything else.

But God is the One who knows the beginning from the end.

For several years now, my husband and I have been struggling. He has asked me not to call him Bubba anymore, so I am going to call him Beloved. I have believed that things would sort out...I have believed it for YEARS...however, a year or so ago it became apparent that Beloved and I were not able to come together and be a stable unit for our girls. We each love them to distraction...but the unity...the peace between us...the trust and comfort that a husband and wife are supposed to provide for each other and for the family is not there.

So, a little over a year ago, I began to pray..."Lord, please PLEASE provide stability for my girls...help us to BE who we are supposed to BE...do what we are supposed to do. Help us to love as we are supposed to love."

Everything only got worse...and was no better in spring than it had been...soooo...

I forgot about teaching or anything new for awhile...and I hunkered down and schooled and loved and scolded and laughed with my kids...and tried as hard as I could to make this huge hole in my life seem tiny...something that could not...WOULD NOT...destroy life as they know it.

Then, a little over a month ago...the director came to me and said, "Hey, would you like to help with the choir again this year?"..."How 'bout aiding an academic class?"..."You seem to know about computers...could you help us with some electronic stuff?...

Before I knew it we were discussing plans for 4 different classes and one administrative position and putting my kids into this university style school full time. And the weirdest part...I could HEAR God saying..."You asked for stability and YOU can't do it all alone...but these people can surround you and help".

I think the weirdest part is the fact that I was really just looking for a choir class for all my kids...and here I am...in a little over a month...accepting a job for the first time in almost 10 years and putting my kids IN a school for the first time EVER. Granted, it's two days a week and I'll be homeschooling the other three...AND I'll be at the school when they are and aiding in the same class as one of them...but it's a complete change.

God has been in it every single step of the way. I could list 10 different "action" item fleeces that He has resolved for me in amazing ways...but it would take another post...Suffice to say, God has a different plan for us than the one I first imagined.

As for my beloved and I. I don't know. I love him. I supposed that's all that you need to know.

We are both grieving this rift in our own ways...we are both torn with the sadness of the situation...and I believe we are both praying for renewal...but for the time being, this seems to be the path that we are on...

It's hard to move forward on this path...so hard...but I know that God has put my feet here...and I know he is holding my hand...so I WILL walk...whatever may be...

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

See ya around...

(There are those of you who know more than I'm sharing here, because Beloved and I ARE in counseling and are trying to find our way through. I would ask that you NOT share what you know...or even what you think...but honor us by praying for us through all the changes that are in store for our family.)

14,110

2011-06-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned that I REALLY don't like heights? Now...it's not so bad if my feet are firmly planted on the ground and no one is touching me and all of my favorite people are well away from the side of any protrusion...but not really a fan.

However.

We went to Colorado...nearish to Colorado Springs...and had the opportunity to ride a train to the top of Pike's Peak...the highest point in the vicinity. I decided that I would put on my big girl pants and just GO!

So off we went...to the Cog Railroad Station...to have that train take us to the top...

We rode this pretty red train (this shot was taken at the top)...

There were 12 of us and we were running pretty late so we weren't all able to sit together...but each of us had someone and all the kids had at least one adult...but due to my earlier mention of height issues, I was unable to take any pictures...so Camera King had to take them all...and he was facing Bubba and the little girls so that's whatcha get...

Now I will say...I wasn't too awfully nervous the entire train ride...the cliffs and open expanses were mostly on the other side of the train...so I stared up at my side...which was hardly worth mentioning for large parts of the trip...

Lucky for you, dear reader, that Camera King is not such a chicken as I, so you can actually see the other side...

I'm glad of it too. I mean, LOOKING at pictures of heights doesn't bother me so much. It's more KNOWING that we are, say, riding on a rail on the precipice of a 3,400 ft drop RIGHT NOW! That conductor may as well have said 34 Gagillion MILES, cuz it's all gut wrenching to me...I'm not sure I've quite forgiven him for that piece of information really...

One interesting thing that we didn't get a picture of was the grade of the train...I think he said it was a 25% grade at one point and with the length of the train taken into account, the front of the train was 3 stories HIGHER than the back...which is why it was so important to keep a-hold of our stuff and our selves and our kids. Fascinating stuff, I tell ya, especially since that was about the moment that littlest Topo wanted to slide off Aunt S.P.'s lap and go for a stroll. Aunt S.P. saved me a freak out by hanging onto that kid...thankfully.

We did get to the top, completely uneventfully. And I did get to stand very still, without anyone touching me...and look...and all I can say is WOW!

We spent the 30 minutes or so in the shop...it was cold...I can't remember the exact temp, but something like 30 degrees cooler at the summit than at the base and we're from Texas...where it's warm.

But we did get the opportunity to eat doughnuts and stomp around the gift shop a bit. In hind-sight I wish I'd bought one of the "Got Oxygen" T-shirts, because we really needed it.

It was weird. It felt a little like not quite having your sea legs. I assume that's because I didn't HAVE enough oxygen...but it was weird because I felt okay...just like the ground was unsteady.

Grandma was a bit worse off...she got the altitude headache that they talk about and then we got a little worried and so had them check her oxygen levels. All she needed was to relax and take deep breaths and drink water and everything was okay...but we had a couple nervous moments.

And then it was time to go down...

I had been afraid that the train would turn around and so plunk me on the "WRONG" side of the train going down...NOPE! It was a straight up and then the driver/engineer went to the other end and drove back down...whew!

The going down was more of the same...

Some of us were not nearly as impressed on the way down...but I won't mention any names...

We did indeed reach the bottom...and while bathrooms were visited and water bottles refilled...the girls played...

And then I realized...I had stood at a spot on this planet that was 14,110 feet above sea level and looked (nearly) over the edge.

swoon.

See ya around...

Nearly Silent Saturday...

2011-06-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

Photos from Memorial Day 2011

This is just a collection of photos that don't really have a story...but they make me happy anyway.

See ya around...

What the boys do...

2011-06-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

So often you see pictures of me and the girls. There are several reasons for that...the largest is that Bubba works and so can't be with us as often as I have the camera, so I take pictures of the girls for HIM.

That is also one of the reasons that this thing we do is the "Girly" trip. The boys can't make it (or honestly don't WANT to make it) to all aspects of the trip. Pair that with the fact that both "boys" decided to have all "girls" and you end up with a lot of pictures sans Daddies.

This next set of pictures is one of the adventures the boys had. All by themselves. Apparently, I'm not allowed to call it the Boy-ly...or Boyish...or "Really-not-very-girly" trip. It was merely a MANLY activity.

When Camera King picked Bubba up from the airport on Saturday morning...he wisked him away to the Poudre River (my girls think this is a HILARIOUS name for a river) to do this...

And then they came home.

They evidently had a spectacular time. They didn't SAY it...they never do...but they looked at those pictures (and more) several times...and I hear tell, Bubba is using them for his desktop even as we speak.

For a quiet man...that is HIGH praise.

See ya around...

Well...Hello Lemur...

2011-06-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

This year we all met in Wichita, KS. This was lovely for me because it meant a much shorter drive...not so great for the Colorado girls as it added an extra two hours...but we all got there in good time and checked into our favorite hotel-for-LARGE -groups-in-Wichita.

Now we stayed in Wichita last year too...it is the home of one of our favorite functioning old western towns...Cow Town. Last year, we got back to the hotel from Cow Town and were FAMISHED...and really in the mood for Thai Food. (If you know me at all, you know this is a weakness for me...and if I'm ever offered the opportunity to partake, I jump at the chance...however, I've not found a plate of Mee Krob, good or otherwise, since we left California, apparently these people in the middle states have no understanding of the necessity of Mee Krob.) So we either scoured the phone book or, more likely, googled and found a place called Thai Traditions...they have a Musamun Curry that I would eat out of a shoe. So this year we just PLANNED to eat there on our first night...we had the Musamun, Pad Thai and Pad Prik King...and all I can say? mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Because we rarely make this a straight through trip, we usually have an event on the day after we arrive in Kansas. AND because I was sort of out of commission for the planning of our Girly Trip this year (many circumstances collided which left me REALLY busy and REALLY struggling to WANT to plan anything) true to form, my bestest buddy, Aunt S.P. stepped right up and found the coolest attraction ever...in Wichita, of all places.

Tanganykia Wildlife Park...it's just another zoo on paper. There were many of the typical zoo-ish things...ya know, giraffes ambling around way over there...a sleeping rhino hanging out in the mud...oh and a snow tiger asleep way over there in the grass on the other side that looks like a rock and won't wake up.

But oooooohhh...there's some other stuff that is just FUN. For instance...because there were 10 of us, we signed up for a tour. This was great...there were just enough of us...someone had a question about most stuff which kept even the littlest ones interested...and if everyone had a question, there weren't so many that she couldn't answer everyone.

And as an added bonus...Bear thought our guide was HILARIOUS...

But on TOP of the informative and funny guide...we got ta feed sumpin!! I did not know what the something WAS until it was revealed...I'm not sure if Aunt S.P. did or not...but if she did, she wasn't talking.

We got to FEED lemurs.

Now here are the rules...

So...we went in...sat on the rocks...received our "treat" (it was a craisin) and when we opened out hands in our laps...magic happened...

They seemed to really like Bear...

Well...and it goes without saying that they loved the Grandma...

And this one really REALLY liked Gabby...he sat there and held her hand for quite a while...I'm fairly certain it's just that she's so loveable...but it could be that she smelled more like craisins than the rest of us...

The whole idea that we got to get THIS close to lemurs...well...it was pretty amazing...and the babies? Sooo sweet...

Now if that had been all, it would have been pretty great, but that was NOT all..there seemed to be animals to feed EVERYWHERE. Although sometimes our girls took on the aspects of a shark frenzy GETTING the food to feed the animals...

There were...lemme think...
Coy Fish

Lorikeets (of which I, sadly, didn't TAKE any pictures...BECAUSE I WAS FEEDIN THEM...and was COVERED in Lorikeets...wish I had taken some though because everyone had at least 3...and the grownups who knew not to flinch ended up with between 5-7 all over them.)

There were Kangaroos with joeys in their pouches...

There was this little bitty hedgehog that my girls wanted to take home...

We fed the one giraffe...but no pictures

and We got to let a porcupine sniff us...he wasn't hungry and as far as true "petting" goes...well...he's a porcupine...still he did sniff us quite a bit...He was the first porcupine on a leash that I've ever seen...

To our animal loving girls, it was pretty wonderful.

A great kick off to Girly Trip 2011.

See ya around...

Privitization of a public tradition

2011-05-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

In my travels to meet those Colorado girls in Kansas (AKA Girly Trip 2011)...I came across this sign...

I think I was having one of those not-REALLY-concentrating moments because it took me a few minutes of thinking about it and then looking around...to notice this, just under the sign...

Huh!

You know, I haven't had to use a pay phone in at least 15 years...eh...maybe 12...I remember a distinct auto issue that drove me to a pay phone. I've noticed that they aren't available as much anymore...you never see them at gas stations, corner stores or the movie theater anymore. But it was a little shocking to see one RIPPED right out.

And then the directive...PHONE FROM CAR...well I must say...it kinda made me laugh.

It sorta states very plainly for those of us who have been avoiding the technology for our kids..."GET OVER IT...Get 'em a phone, cuz that quarter isn't gonna do them any good."

Yet another memory my kids are NOT going to share with me...digging through the couches and under the car seats for change so they can call their best friend long distance for more than 3 minutes from the phone at the pool. sigh.

Times they are a changin...

See ya around...

Reading to the Girlies...

2011-04-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well...I've been pretty quiet blog-wise for a couple of weeks. No real reason. On March 11th (the day of the Japanese Tsunami) I flew to Arizona to get Grandma...and then she and I packed up her car and came on back home. So she's with us again for the summer and you know that means that I hafta play with her all the time. Poor, poor, pitiful me...I have a ready playmate...and dishwasher...and driving buddy...and babysitter...such a life, I tell ya ;). Still it does cut down on my interest in blogging. Cest la vie.

But I learned a new trick today, so I thought I'd share.

I've been looking for a way to post audio for a long time. There is SO much that we do on mp3 these days...MOSTLY reading.

It's a fun way to hand a kid a break. If someone is in the middle of a story that's a little too hard for them...I like to read a chapter and stick in on their MP3 player for them. If we need to read a book for a class or for church and we are having a hard time all being together at the same time, I'll read and record and make a CD or put it on their MP3 players.

Anyway...this morning, because we just finished a book, Beanie said, "Hey mom, could we read "Where the Red Fern Grows"? I happened to be sitting here next to my computer...and actually had it's mic all set up...and decided to just record what we were doing...reading, eating, shushing, etc. Like a bolt from the blue it occurred to me that all these months I've been looking for "posting audio online" when I SHOULDA be looking for "free podcast posting"...well, duh!

After everyone left the table I did a little googling...found SEVERAL free podcast sites...and ba da bing...audio on line...finally. I wish that all my synapses fired ALL the time...but at least I can be thankful that EVENTUALLY something will strike me...at least so far.

So anyway...if you are interested...here are the first two chapters of "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls as I read them to my girls while they ate their lunch this afternoon. If you listen you will discover that I'm not a particularly gifted reader-alouder...but if I DO continue the story online, you are BOUND to catch me crying. Always look for the silver lining. ;)

Where the Red Fern Grows, Chapter 1 - (a little over 10 minutes) it starts a little quiet but I must've shifted around because it gets louder somewhere just after the title. Live and learn, dontcha know.

Where the Red Fern Grows, Chapter 2 - (just shy of 16 minutes) Monkey Face had decided that eating was not really her thing, so there is some shushing and snapping...just keepin it real.

See ya around...

Irony...

2011-02-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

So...really...I usually have good stuff in my grocery bag...and usually I just use my cloth bags or they give me plastic.

But this morning...a morning that all I needed was supplies for a birthday cake and a personal hygiene item...THIS is the bag I got...

FAIL!

made me laugh...

See ya around...

HAIR - Vindication.

2011-02-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

What may not be well known to those of you who know me only electronically...or have only known me as an adult...is that I'm REALLY not that into hair.

I know. I'm a girl. Hair and shoes are supposed to matter. Bubba has more shoes that he ACTIVELY wears on a day to day basis than I do...probably 3 times as many pairs. And, until the last 2 years, HE has always used more hair product (except conditioner) on a day to day basis than I.

Here's the deal...I was BORN with Barbie-Quick-Grow hair...case in point...

Yep...there I am, somewhere under 6 months old with more hair than most 2 year olds possess. (We won't speak of the hive on my mother's head.)

Because of this hair-o-mine...I've always known that ANY haircut...any style that I could dream will be short-lived...even if I liked it...but especially if I hated it.

A few more examples for your viewing pleasure...

My senior picture...

Some weeks, maybe months, later for my senior group shot...I'd gone even blonder...I'm the girl with the sunglasses center frame...

Round about this very bleached time, I put blue gel in my hair for a spirit day at school, not realizing that my very dark hair, when bleached very blond, would become a straw and suck up all that blue...and it would keep blue-ish green streaks until my mother took pity on me and got my hair reverse-weaved. I have no pictures of that traumatic event...Although the memory of the BLEACHING gives my brother joy to this moment.

I've had LOOOOOOOOONG hair and short hair...actually, I had shorter hair than Bubba when we met...

I'd had straight (that's how it grows out of my head) and curly...

So when I had three daughters, I realized that it was possible that at least ONE of them would have some wild hair...and I should probably figure out how I feel about it...so here are my rules about hair for my kids.

1.) If I have to DO your hair...it has to be long enough for a piggy tale...and what's more, I'd prefer you keep your hair outta your face so I have scissors and I will cut bangs before you are big enough to tell me not tah.

2.) Once you are big enough to do your OWN hair...you should do it how you like it. If you decide to cut it...I don't want to hear a single word. NOT one. You chose it. If you don't like it...it'll grow. If you would like a very expensive style...save up...hair styles cost money.

3.) I will continue to do your hair for you upon request for special occasions, but should never EVER be expected to have to support your style with egg products (for instance a particularly large mohawk).

4.) You may color your hair any old color that you choose, so long as you pay for it yourself...I only provide temporary spray for whimsy and special occasions. If you do not LIKE your hair color. NOT one word. See number 2

5.) If I HAVE something to say about a particular style...you really REALLY should consider my experience before you disdain my advice...

Because WHEN you and I discuss how incredibly uncomfortable the Justin-Bieber-long-bangs-that-push-to-the-side-style would be...and I say something WISE like, "That's gonna bug you...and get greasy from you pushing them out of your face...and feel like there are bugs crawling on you."...and you disregard me...When, later, you say, "Mom, my bangs are really bugging me, could you trim them?"...I will mock you.

See ya around...

Greetings from the Frigid...errrr...South.

2011-02-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

I know I know...typical Stack...don't post for MONTHS and then post too much.

No excuses...I must bow to my nature...some call it a muse...I'm just inspired in spurts and there is nothing for it but to write when I WANNA and NOT when I don't. Movin right along.

So, I don't know if anyone else noticed but this has been a CRAZY week, climate-wise. Seriously on Saturday and Sunday, we girls were out hooping in the very warm weather...short sleeves...Monkey-Face even had to change into shorts and sandals...she, apparently, has hot feet.

Monday we went to a friend's house and it was your standard February jacket/jeans weather...but we played outside...with bunnies...and horses (more on that in the next post)...

Now we KNEW it was going to get cold and we were going to have some "Wintry Mix" precipitation...which, at least since I've lived in Texas means some mixture of water and ICE...it's always got ice in it...sometimes big ole hail...sometimes little crystally stuff...but ICE is involved. But I was not prepared for what we got.

It SOUNDED like being in a Sonic ice machine...(to those of you outside of an area that Sonic has stores...I'm sorry...and they have the best ice ever...it's teeny tiny little barrels of ice that are fabulous for chewing). When the storm rolled in it actually rattled and sounded like the house was being pummled with those itty bitty chunks...and then we could hear it sliiiiiide off the roof. Very interesting. And LOUD. I was up, pretty much the whole storm.

So I got up KNOWING that we were going to have piles of ice and frozen stuff all over...I mean, this is not my first rodeo, y'know?

Yeah.

I was wrong. What we actually had was an ice rink...a HUGE, impenetrable, thick, slippery ice rink.

AND it was CaCaCaCold...it sat at about 18 degrees most of the day and dipped to 12 degrees by my bedtime. (To those of you who live in Colorado, or Canada, or Wisconsin who are thinking, "18 Degrees is nuthin, ya big baby...it was -23 with a wind chill that made it feel like -207"...I have this to say...if you CHOSE to live in Colorado or Canada or WISCONSIN...you bought your ticket, baby! I live in the SOUTH and the south has done me wrong this week. There.)

So what did that mean? Well, Bubba stayed home...he has a laptop...easy enough.

And the girls played...

Check out the frozen rings left by the hoops...very cool...

I think the most fascinating thing was that WE made no impact on that ice...no footprints...no noticeable trace of where we went or fell (ehem)...

So that was Tuesday, right? Well Wednesday stayed REALLY cold...Bubba started getting a little stir crazy...SO...using salt and a pitch fork, he hacked his way to the concrete on his side of the driveway (tossing the extra chunks onto my side of the driveway...who says chivalry is dead?) and managed to get OUT and buy us Chinese food for lunch, for which I was thankful. And Thursday, he actually went to work.

But wait, there's more.

This morning, we woke up to this...

Yeah...easily 6 inches of snow by 8 am and prolly closer to 8 to 10 now, at 4 ish...on TOP of 2 inches of ice. Um...Bubba was grounded again.

But the girls played...

And I STEPPED in it...just for you, dear reader...I'm a giver...

But I can't say that I've had the best attitude about it. For some reason, just KNOWING that I can't go anywhere makes me REALLY want to. It's possible I need to work on contentment. I do find myself saying, "Ah...that's pretty"...but I have ZERO desire to play in it...brrrrr.

And the other irritating part...it BROKE my little green house...that I put out not expecting REALLY freezing temperatures to last for days and days...

And I can't tell through the iced over plastic if anything survived cuz I'm afraid that unzipping it will REALLY break it...and release whatever magic heat might be in there so I'm forced to take pictures through the frost...

It LOOKS kinda green in there...of course so did my aloe plant that I accidentally left outside during a frost a couple years ago...it looked really green...until it melted...and then it sorta looked like an olive colored octopus...it did not survive.

At this moment, it's warmer than it has been all week...a WHOPPING 26 degrees...I might even consider taking off my second pair of socks...it's THAT warm. And there is stuff dripping off of the roof that I can only assume is water...but I'm not really getting my hopes up.

See ya around...

February 3, 2011...One Year Without My Dad.

2011-02-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

Huh. This one is long.

I've been thinking about this particular blog post for awhile. What do I say? My sentimental nature doesn't let me let it pass by without comment...but what.should.I.say?

This has been an incredible year. Really. In all my years so far...it has been the hardest I've passed.

This is the year I lost my dad...and late in this year I realized that I'd actually lost 7 friends/family in 18 months.

This is the year I grieved with my mom.

This is the year that I've had the most health struggles, whooping cough, broken rib, unexplained fatigue, heart freak-outs, girlie stuff and that doesn't include health issues with my kids.

This is the year that Bubba and I have struggled the most to find each other and actually considered what might happen if we couldn't.

This is the year we experienced the heartbreak of leaving a church that we loved.

But you know what...as hard as this year has been...I think I've witnessed more miracles and joys specifically from the Lord than I ever have before.

When Dad died, I got to be part of an incredible community of friends and family the week of the memorial. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 family members join us in Arizona from all over the United States and an entire town full of people who had loved my Dad surrounding us and praying with us and loving us. I made friends that week that I will never ever lose...friends that love me and my family and pray for me and my family that I only met because of that terrible moment that I had to lose my dad.

Because of the loss of so many of my loved ones, I've had to face God and decide whether I would follow Him even through this. There were times even I wasn't sure which way I would go. God has truly been my support in so many ways while these tragedies changed me irrevocably. Even so my faith feels more solid than it has been in my entire life.

This year of grieving has been so precious. I've gotten to know my mom so much more deeply through all of this. I've been blessed to be the strong one sometimes and the weak one at others. I've been allowed to wrap my arms around my mommy and just cry. And I've been blessed to laugh with her until my sides hurt. This has made us better friends and sisters in Christ than we ever have been. And I am blessed each day by the bond.

This year of health problems has been interesting. I'm learning to live inside my limitations. I learning not to plan for tomorrow, but to do exactly what I can today. I'm learning to let the mess roll off my back. I'm learning to pull my kids close and just hold them even if I can't do anything else.

I've worried for years about not doing everything that people think that I should...I'm learning to just get over it. And I'm learning to say, "No, I don't think so" and "I can help you so long as you realize that sometimes I won't be able to help you and can live with that." and the hardest, "I know that you think I'm good at that...but I don't think it's a good idea right now".

I don't know, anymore, that I'll ever be up to snuff again. I pray that I will, but for the first time ever, I'm done FIGHTING and have started accepting. That's not to say that I'm ready to roll over and die...but the stress when I can't FIX it is leaving me finally. And honestly, I think it's good for me.

During this tough stuff, Bubba and I struggled. A LOT. But the Lord provided us a marriage conference that has opened up topics that BOTH of us have been stuffing for years. It has allowed a level of openness and honesty that we haven't had in a long time. And even more than that, God has given us both understanding and opened our hearts to grace and mercy for one another. We aren't out of the woods yet...but for the first time, in a long time, we are both trudging in the same direction.

Leaving our long time church back in March was one of the most difficult steps of this year...But God had an amazing plan for us. He had been preparing a different church for us. He had brought them to the area...He had established several of our long term friends IN the church...and He found them a BUILDING in February...just in time for our arrival. ;)

Within two weeks of being at the new church, we knew we were home. There was no uneasy search. The kids were comfortable immediately which was unlike our last church hunt. I think the most amazing part of it all for me was how much I hadn't realized what I'd needed, until God pulled us through those doors.

Through this new church, we have a community, unlike any we've ever experienced before. We have a small group of people who we meet with weekly who have made us one of the family in a way that has been missing in all of our church experiences. Missing church is the biggest disappointment of our week, and I have to say that has never been the case before. Through this group, we are making friends as a family and it is very sweet.

We also have a counselor that has been really helpful to Bubba and I. We didn't know, when we left our old church, that we would need a counselor...but God did.

As I look back on this year that I was forced to live without my Daddy...I realize that I am blessed. I would not have chosen this path...not for a million bucks!! And I wouldn't have WISHED this path on my worst enemy. But this path was chosen for me...and I followed it ONLY because the Lord held my hand the entire way...

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

I always THOUGHT I believed that before...now I KNOW that I do.

See ya around...

Pie in a Jar...oh MY!

2010-12-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I came across this fabulous idea on the internet. Pie in a jar...Let me say that again...PIE...in a JAR!

Now, it's possible this concept is not as exciting to you as it is to me, dear reader...but seriously WHAT could be better? Especially as regards PIE? Let me convince you...Pie in a jar means more kinds of PIE, without having to try to STORE those pies. Pie in a jar means individual servings that I don't have to cut and try to put neatly on a plate. But even MORE exciting, pie in a jar means that the crust to pie filling ratio is greatly increased and that the eater of said pie gets the crispy edge bits ALL.the.way.around. Go ahead, take a minute and let THAT fantasy sink in.

From a strictly custodial standpoint...Pie in a Jar means that the baker of the pies can prepare the pies WELL in advance...slap a lid on them and freeze them in their little buckets of joy...and then pull them out days later (maybe WEEKS later)...take the lids off...fling 'em on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil...and bake them...no muss no fuss.

As is my custom, I found this idea...posted it on Facebook...and then promptly forgot about it for awhile. So when I remembered it the other day, just in time to make some for a gathering that's happening Friday, I decided it must be fate. I started rummaging through my supplies and found that I had enough of everything to make about 6 of these little babies...so I gathered the girls and I gathered the stuff an then...

We had a defugalty when one of our 6 jars went skidding across the counter and onto the floor. No matter...I run on munchkin power and they had it fixed...well, cleaned up...in a jiffy...

So onward and forward...first the pie crust must be smooshed (technical term - write that one down) into the jar and the edges prettied up. (This was gonna be a pecan pie, so no upper crust, in an upper crust situation the edges would need to be crimped...this was really just putting a pattern on the upper part so that it would crisp to perfection).

And then the pie guts poured in...

And then BAKED.

No, really look at this beautiful creation...

SO good.

Now, things I will do differently on the next batch...well, I'll follow this tutorial at Our Best Bites for getting the dough INTO the jars...we did this batch by cutting circles in the dough and stuffing it all in there...I think they have a better idea...

I also used a different pecan pie recipe. Bear has 'issues' with corn syrup, so I made this with all honey...and it was good, make no mistake...but a little too cloying in an already REALLY rich dessert.

If you google "pie in a jar", and I really think that you should, you'll find that I didn't fill mine as full as many folks are doing...I did that on purpose. The best part of this for me is the transport option, so I wanted to be able to put the lid on them, both before and after baking because I don't want to have to figure out how to transport glass cupcakes (essentially)...I want them to stay jars. I mean really, won't these be great on the Girly Trip? But if you like the poofy crunchy ones that you don't have to cart around, by all means, fill it to overflowing.

Now...I have to go. I have a bunch of these to make...because, well, we HAD to eat all of those for quality assurance purposes. You understand.

See ya around...

Geeeee-tarrrr....

2010-11-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

Ah the Guitar! I love the guitar.

Now, make no mistake...I do not PLAY the guitar. As a person who sings, but has no particular talent for instruments, (although I can honk a mean pitch pipe, if I do say so myself.) I have ALWAYS loved the guitar...or rather "the guy with the guitar" who would show up places so that I could sing along.

I don't know for certain what my first memory of "the guy with the guitar" was...but I will tell you that by the time I was 9 or 10, I had a friend whose Dad always threw those parties where "the guy with the guitar" would show up. As these parties happened at least monthly, I had a lot of exposure. To this day, my musical tastes are affected by those folksy ballads.

Now, my Dad was one of those "guys with a guitar" for a good portion of my childhood. My Dad was a pretty interesting person, musically. Never really trained...I'm not positive that he didn't have piano lessons as a little kid but nothing beyond that...but give him a piano and he could pick out anything. Sometime in the late 1970s, he got "into" the guitar.

He played and played and played until, just like the piano, he could pick out anything. So, when, at about 9 years old, I WANTED a guitar, he was ALL over it. Got me a little guitar...got me lessons...sat next to me and played...showed me how to tune the guitar to itself...all kinds of things. I specifically remember learning to play "Peaceful, Easy Feeling".

But then, I stopped. I don't remember any major life changing event the made me stop...my memories of the guitar just fade away. By the time I was 12, I KNOW I was not playing at all because I remember watching a friend who really COULD play and thinking, "Wish I could play..." And it's pretty much been that way ever since.

Somewhere along the way, where the guitars went was lost on me. Guitars are not like pianos...pianos are REALLY hard to move and get rid of...guitars...not so much. All I knew was that we'd HAD guitars in Pennsylvania and Florida, but by the time we got to California, we didn't have them anymore.

Now, my dad had been making noise for about 2 years about wanting to get a guitar again...but he hadn't been able to find a nice enough cheap one. Christmas of 2008, mom and I found a little guitar ornament...with the promise that we WOULD find one. By Christmas of 2009, I'd found one. Costco had a little Fender on sale for $99...so I got one for our family and mom and I went in together and got one for Dad.

You should have seen my dad with that guitar. It was a complete surprise. He was SHOCKED...And completely entranced. With the opening of the guitar, we lost him for the next couple of hours. He sat there and plucked...and strummed and tuned and plucked some more. He was re-figuring out all the songs he used to know and trying out all the chords he'd forgotten. I honestly don't think that I've seen him THAT excited about a gift someone else gave him, and I was SO happy.

His excitement really struck a fire in us...and we practiced and practiced and were starting to get calluses on our fingers...

As for Dad, he took the guitar home and continued playing until February, when he died...

That guitar was the first thing that I saw when I walked into the RV after arriving in Arizona after his death.

I don't want to lose this post to the melancholy into which it seems to be headed...because for the most part, this will not be melancholy...but I wanted to be clear WHY we quit playing for awhile.

During the week that we were in Arizona for his memorial, the guitar played another role. See, my cousin came. Now I hadn't seen my cousin in 13-15 years...but it turned out that he had something from Dad. Dad had given my cousin our guitars some 20 years before, so he showed up with my Dad's guitar from my childhood...and the guitar my little 9 year old self played. It was pretty cool...and pretty gut wrenching...and memory jogging.

My brother and I had a great time playing with those guitars. He got to hear the story of our Christmas gift. He had a few stories of his own. And I shared the teeny tiny bit that I'd learned at that point...

When it was time to go home, Uncle BakerMan and I had decided that he would take Dad's old guitar and I would take my little-girl-guitar and the one we'd bought Dad at Christmas...that would give me 3 for the 3 girls so that we could play.

Right.

Well, as I said...the guitar has played a pretty big role in my life this last 9 months. Thankfully, we had to wait until April, when mom got here, for Dad's guitars...but our guitar was sitting right where I'd left it, in my bedroom. Can't tell you how many times I just sat there and looked at it. Can't tell you how many times I told one girl or another, "Not right now" and sadly, even scolded them for strumming it while it stood on it's stand. Can't tell you how many times I've grieved while I watched the dust collect.

Last week was actually a really hard guitar week. I wished that I knew how to play it over and over because then I could take it camping. I mean, what could be better than a girl, a guitar and a campfire?

So, this week I made a decision. For crying out loud...how is a dusty guitar a "good" memory of my Dad? So I took them ALL out...dusted them off...found a place to put them RIGHT OUT in plain site. AND.

And, I started the girls learning the teeny tiny bit that I know. And played a little myself.

Time for some new memories...

Some of them a little wistful...

Some of them downright funny...

All of them linked SO HARD in my mind.

Miss you, Daddy.

See ya around...

Camping 2010

2010-11-08T04:56:00.000-08:00

This is another one of those posts being written after the fact…but I’m afraid that SO many people know the why and where of the trip that this will be no surprise.

So without further a do…Please be aware that Stack and Family went camping for Stack’s most MOMENTOUS…errr…22nd Birthday!!! That’s right, I was 22 again this weekend.

Now it didn’t start out that way….but remember last week when the girls NEEDED a team building project…after that, they BEGGED and PLEADED to go on a church camping trip that we’d heard about a month or so ago that was happening on my birthday weekend. “Oh PLEASE…OH PLEASE, Momma!! Please!” they said and did that eye batting and kissing thing that they do.

They had a couple of things going for them…the first being that a bunch of people that we KNEW were going…the second being that I used to REALLY like camping. (But then we moved to a place that has actual seasons that mean you can’t just camp whenever…then we had a baby…then another…then we just stopped thinking of it as an option. ) The third and might I say, THE KICKER, was that it was my birthday and a big one and I really wanted to play.

So off we went.

Let me first say that the packing was incredibly hard. The last time I camped was with one GUY who could really take care of himself…and one little girl who could be stuffed in just anywhere…and it was summer…in California.

This time…Bubba wasn’t going to get to us until late in the day (he has that pesky job that we absolutely wish to keep) so it was pretty much on me. And this time I have a GUY who can really take care of himself…and one little girl who MOSTLY stuffs in just anywhere who is VERY short of clothes for some reason…and two BIG girls who are still at the HELPING phase…which is sometimes terrific and sometimes problematic…but it’s also ALMOST winter, which meant making sure that we had enough cold weather gear. The first night was slated to be the coldest night yet…and if it met it’s predictions came in a about 36 degrees…when the second night came and it was in the 40s we were feeling pretty warm.

So there was ALL of the stuff, 2 tents/tarps, 4 air mattresses, 5 sleeping bags, food, kitchen gear, wood, brickets, clothes for all but Bubba…oh, and KIDS…had to fit into that little ole van. It was STUFFED to the gills.

AND…I was running late all day. So we didn’t actually pull IN to the campsite until about 5:30 pm…not very long before dark…and still 2 hours ahead of Bubba.

Lest you think for one more minute that this lead to any kind of a BAD trip…think again!!

We had caravanned with a friend (Mrs. H) so when we got to the site, we met up with her husband, Mr. H and several other families that were already there and already set up. Mr. H called to Mr. G to come over and help me set up (I’d really just asked WHERE on earth to put the tent) and in they rode on their white chargers with extra hands and fire and an AMAZING air pump that plugged into my car battery and made short work of our mattresses. With the help of MY crack team…they had that tent up in a jiffy.

Okay…so NOW we just had to find stuff. In pretty short order I realized that all those mattresses were NOT gonna fit into even our big tent. Luckily, I brought the old purple tent. So Beanie and I got started setting up that tent. By now it was dark and we had the car going for the headlights. Not ideal! Also, not far into the setup, I discovered that one of the tent poles was broken so, as far as my experience and ingenuity was concerned…that tent was kapootz! Turns out Bubba had better ingenuity in this case, but not until QUITE a bit later in the night.

As the camp got set up and we ran into a few road blocks, I realized that it was getting late and the kids were getting hungry and my big “burger” fantasies were just not gonna happen tonight. So I as I pulled the last quesadilla off the pan for the girls…Bubba arrived.

The next part happened in such quick succession, I’m not sure what happened first. I just know that Bubba got there. Now in no particular order…

I told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

I told Bubba about the tent…

Bubba told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

Bubba started scheming ways to use the tent anyway…

I told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

I started pulling the seats out of the van for the worst case scenario…

I chased Monkey Face back to the table and told her to eat her quesadilla…

AND THEN…
up from the murky street I hear the crunch, crunch of shoes on gravel…and then the unmistakable strains of “Happy Birthday toooooooo Yoooooooooouuu!” And who should happen to “show up” but the leaders of our care group (from church) Mr. and Mrs. W and their kids and one other kid they dragged along…SINGING to me…and BRINGING me a chocolate cake with CHOCOLATE frosting and a gift…and water bottles…and plates and forks and napkins…basically everything we would need so that we wouldn’t have to FIND it to enjoy the party.

I was FLOORED! Seriously! And ENCHANTED! Seriously!

Lanterns make it hard to get a good shot...but believe it or not...that's Beanie...and that lady in there is Mrs. W.

They made it sound like not a huge deal…coming out to a campsite with cake and presents and stuff…but …See I’ve been to the Ws home and it’s about 25-30 minutes from mine. The camp site was EASILY an hour from my house, so even if they lived on the way…they still had to come 25-30 minutes over with the cake and the present and the kids. Just for me. Just for my birthday. It was wonderful…and I pretty much floated the rest if the evening.

There was SO much more to the trip…for instance, Bubba did figure out how to use the tent with only two poles…and EVENTUALLY Monkey Face ate her quesadilla…but I think that’s all I’m posting for now.

Except pictures of course...if you follow this blog at ALL, you know I'm big on, "I'll get to that later..." and, frankly, later rarely comes...

We played a couple of great games...in this one, we all took hands across a circle...each hand holding someone else...and then tried to untangle and end up in a circle again. Our team only ever succeeded in making two circles intertwined...but the other team...the one with the littler kids manage it quite a few times...

What usually happens when you have a big ole group of people with a lot of kids??? That's right, a pyramid or two, of course...

And they also got a bunch of the kids in a circle, each one with his or her feet on the back of the kid behind them...and made them do push-ups. Well, to be honest, made them try to do PART of a push up...seemed like a great idea...and there was definite giggling...but the collapsing was the best part.

We had a terrific time out there...even though it was a bit cold at night...and made some great memories. I can not WAIT until spring!!!

I came home to find that a very good friend’s brother was struggling for his life…and so I’ve been blessed to keep three of her little girls with me. Please pray for him, he was doing a little better last night…but I know how stressful this wait is for all of the family.

Until next time, dear reader…

See ya around…

Preliminaries...

2010-10-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, indeed, we ARE going camping.

We haven't been camping since the summer of 2002. That's when this picture was taken...Isn't she cute?

But you know what? I wanna. I used to love to camp. But then we moved here and the seasons for camping are so different than California...and then I was pregnant...and then had these nurslings...and then toddlers...and honestly we were too skeered to try to camp with littles. So we just fell out of the habit of thinking of camping as an option.

But, there is this opportunity to go camping coming up...and I wanna go.

So I had my girls learn to put up the tents this week. That's right, TENTS. It's sort of a long story.

I know you all believe my children to be little angels sent down from heaven to smile at you. That's not exactly true.

See, the leaving of the Grandma...well the preparing of the Grandma to leave really put my girls a little out-of-sorts...so the camping trip offered up a chance to learn a little team building...

They set up the purple tent 3 times...the first time was outside...but it was SO windy I was afraid we were setting up a flying experiment...so the other two times were set up in our play room...it just BARELY fit.

But they managed it...and by the time they were done, they were a team again...

Thank heaven, because I thought I was gonna have to pinch 'em...

Okay...but I promised to explain TENTS...

Well, you see we THOUGHT we were going to have buy another tent for the trip. I mean we maybe coulda squished into the purple tent. But then, as I was diggin out the rest of the gear, guess what I found...that I'd COMPLETELY forgotten that we owned...

And the process started all over again...

On the bigger tent they needed someone taller...ME...

You'll be pleased to know that we actually DID get a tent stake mallet...I refused to allow my meat tenderizer to be part of the camping gear...I mean what would I use when I next need to hammer a nail into the wall if it's packed with the camping stuff?

They are getting to be a pretty crack team of shelter builders...can't wait to use these new skills for real. Stay tuned.

See ya around...

And she's off...

2010-10-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well...it's actually been a week.

Tuesday before last, Grandma's dear friends Gigi and Baba (names changed cuz it's how I roll) pulled up in their 5th Wheel to sweep Grandma back to Arizona. Thankfully they didn't sweep her RIGHT away, or there would have been far more tears.

They stayed in the area until Saturday morning. We did a few things with them of which there were no pictures. They play the most interesting game of Yahtzee ever.

But on Friday night, we decided to have a fakey little Thanksgiving Dinner. Just your basic rotisserri chicken with the fixings that we LIKE to make, like cranberry sauce and mashed taters and soooped up stove-top-ish stuffing...and salad, cuz I didn't feel like any actual-prep-needed veggies...and sparkling cider. We pulled out the pretty glassware and the pretty-but-plastic everyday...ehem "china"...and the same old, mismatched, nicked cutlery we use everyday and had a real meal with these people that we've grown to love so much and adopted as another set of grandparents.

It was great. Really REALLY great.

And then Miss Baba pulled out one of her passions to share with the girls.

Miss Baba is a rock person...rock collector...rock cutter...rock placer-into-pretty-settings-and-make-actual-jewelry-out-of-something-that-used-to-be-just-a-rock person...And she had a lot to show us. Sadly, she hadn't brought any of the finished jewelry. It was already packed to go...we'd gotten to see it earlier in the day back at the RV...but no pictures. Sad.

She started with just Beanie and Bear...

But it wasn't a terribly long time before she'd sucked us ALL in...

We sorted and wetted SO many stones. You wet the cut stone to see how it will looked when it's polished. And I, for one played with them...looked at the light shining through them...

Lined up Bubba's head so it looked like I was about to SQUISH it as I was admiring the rock...in the second one the boys actually KNOW what I'm doing...hence the laugh...

HA! Mr. Gigi, I SQUISH your head!

This is my favorite one...I love that color blue...A.LOT. It is also nearly the color of my daughter's bedroom ceiling which I also love A. LOT. You know, she still won't let me move all my stuff into and take over her room so that I can look at it all the time. (sigh)

We had quite a good time with that. But there was another very important person involved in this visit. Well, not exactly a person...but loved...VERY loved.

This is Barley...isn't he sweet...

Well you can't tell from pictures, but he is sweet. One of the sweetest dogs EVER. And Monkey Face LOVED him...and that's saying something as dogs aren't always her thing...

We tried really hard to get a shot of all the girls with Barley to show to Uncle BakerMan, who also loves him...but Barley wasn't playing with us. He's a little old and a little sore and he just wanted to EAT or SLEEP...So Miss Baba fed him while the girls cheesed it up...

And in the end...Barley didn't want to go. He found our kitchen floor MUCH to his liking and Bubba had to lure him out with the promise of mashed potatoes...

And the next morning we dropped Grandma off and followed along beside them for a ways as they set out...

So Grandma is back in Arizona now for awhile. We expect her back some time in December for Christmas fun.

As I was putting this together, I really wanted a picture of Grandma and the girls as the closing shot. All I could find was this one...well, it's actually a set...and it would have been taken last Thursday night...but...teee heee...look at how silly it is. We call Beanie "strange-alien-child" when we see her dressed like this and I'm positive that were she another year older she wouldn't want me taking ANY pictures in this state. But as I inadvertently managed to get a whole series, I'm taking this one opportunity!! WOOOO HOOO!!! So this is for the Grandma and her goofy girls...

Look while you can, because I'm certain that when she's 13 she'll make me take it down.

See ya around...

One of these things is not like the other...

2010-10-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

One of these things just isn't the same...

Please notice my children sitting like little lumps on the couch (they are watching Scooby Doo, if you must know). Also notice that they are ALL wearing glasses. The third thing you will not remember if you've ever met my children or followed my blog is my children ever wearing glasses other than in a sunglasses fashion sense.

Today was the last day of our first quarter break and we set out to the mall to accessorize with whatever monies they had left from their piggy banks. On the top of each of their list was a pair of fashion glasses.

Why there is a fashion that includes real LOOKING glasses eludes me. As a long time glasses sufferer...it's just not a fashion I can wrap my head around. I mean there are really cute little fake glasses out there...but I spent my childhood being called four-eyes and fearless fly (thanks Dad) and having people ask why the doctor didn't at least scrape the word "coke" off the bottle before he put my lens in the frames...who CHASES that kind of joy? ALL THREE OF MY CHILDREN.

So we were on our way to the mall this morning so that they could BUY some fake fashion glasses...But we had a slight hiccup. Something happened other than what we planned.

I have suspected for a while that Miss Bean might need glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 7...that's 32 years to hone my "I-think-you-need-glasses-radar"...but she was a weird case. She doesn't squint or rub her eyes excessively like others I've seen...she just really REALLY doesn't like to read. She does it fine. But she has some weird reversals and stuff. About 3 weeks ago, I knew we had to at least CHECK. She was having a really hard time with comprehension in her new science book unless she was reading aloud...

So I started researching insurance stuff, cuz of course it changes year to year. But I had made NO plans as of this morning. This morning we were going to the MALL not the eye doctor.

But guess what, there was an eye doctor in the mall that I just happened to know was on my new insurance...and it was one of those can-have-your-lenses-in-about-an-hour places...so we ended up with not one but TWO eye appointments. Both Bean and Bear got their eyes checked. And sure enough...Beanie needed a prescription.

The eye doctor also thought she saw something wrong with Beanie's eye so she dilated them. So pretty...sorry the lighting is so bad...I tried it a couple different ways and just couldn't get it to show HOW big her pupils were.

Turns out she also has a cataract in there. They are unsure exactly WHY it's there...possibly it's been there since birth or some injury (although I can't think of one)...so we'll be watching it but it doesn't affect her vision. If you feel like praying that it's nothing, I'd appreciate it.

Her prescription is really just for reading and it's not corrected as far as it will be, but the Doctor thought it would be better to work her up to her full prescription over six months or so.

The silver lining is, of course, Beanie didn't have to spend her money on fake fashion glasses...she got the REAL ones that mommy took care of...and they are still pretty cute...and they are green which is a huge plus for my girl right now. They are WAY cuter than my coke bottle ones of the late 1970's and early 1980's even IF my glasses had a cute kitty cat sticker...and WAY lighter...those coke bottle bottoms are HEAVY.

Her sisters still bought the fake ones. I think getting glasses might just be easier when your sisters get some too...besides she gets to say things like, "Mine are REAL and yours are just for dress up." which is ever so endearing...

So here she is with her new beautiful glasses...huh, I guess you CAN see the dinner plate sized pupils in this shot...

She's pretty happy about them and can't wait to tell her friends...I'm pretty happy to have it done, even though it made for a really long day.

Hazaar for our newest Fearless Fly...

See ya around...

Our Secret Day...

2010-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

We are on a first quarter break this week and we are doing nothing but stuff we wanna! Well, or stuff we've put off for a long time that we wanna but haven't had time.

For instance...I FINALLY took the girls to the nail place that I've been promising since Bear's birthday in February. We finally had a moment to breathe and gathered a couple of good friends and off we went.

But today. Today was a secret. Nobody knew what we were going to do...including the children and Bubba (well, Grandma knew and I told Beanie on Monday).

For months and months we've been working on the house. MONTHS AND MONTHS. And today, we did something that we've been trying to find time to do since MAY. I didn't want to tell anyone 'cuz I wasn't positive that I could pull it off...either with timing or manpower.

Thankfully, I called a friend of mine who also happens to clean my house...Miss M., we'll call her. I said, "Could you, would you, help me?"...well she could and would...and did indeed, show up this morning at 9:00am. By the time she got there Grandma and I had cleared something out...and then were taping some other stuff...and we were still in a quandary on what to do on some other stuff (you wouldn't think that ceiling fans would make for such interesting conversation). Miss M. was unable to completely answer all of our questions...so SHE called her hubby who just happened to be home...and in short order we were directing Mr. G. to our door.

And OOOOOOOOHhhhh, are we glad that they came. Because I learned a million things that I never knew before and we were able to complete something in about 6 hours that probably would have taken me more than a day by myself...

What did we do?

You really want to know?

Do you have any guesses???

-

-

-

-

Well, I guess that I can tell you now...I mean, it's not like you are going to actually answer me in time for me to toy with you...besides...I did call this "The Secret Day" so it would be rude not to out my secret...

-

-

-

-

So...drum roll please...

check it out...

That's right we ALL painted.

Here is the first time we painted that room...this is Beanie at 4...right after we moved into the house...

Notice that the walls are purple...

In all these years...this wall hasn't changed much, but it's a great for comparison.

Again...before...

And here is the after...the young lady room that we've been "working on" since May when she got her new bed spread...check it out...

and here is that wall again...

I have to say...the 16 year old in me is GIDDY at the color of the ceiling. Seriously, I'd lie there and stare at it if that kid would get out of the way.

Oh, and by now, Bubba has seen it and so has Beanie's best girl friend from down the street. It has received the seal of approval from Bubba...and even better the ear-piercing SQUEAL that only a ten or eleven year old girl can bestow with such clarity.

I owe a SERIOUS thank you to Mr. G and Miss M. without whom I'd have had to learn some of that stuff on my own...and who wants that?

See ya around...

Charlie's Angels 2010

2010-10-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

My neighbor is so wonderful. A week or so ago, Beanie was playing outside and the little boy next door shared a REALLY cool play cell phone with her. This phone struck her heart. She was full of descriptions of this phone. "It's so COOL, Mom...it looks just REAL! I could pretend to text and everything." (She is a little disappointed in my apathetic view of texting which she believes might be nearly the most exciting thing she will EVER experience, aside from MAYBE her wedding. 11 year olds, you understand...but I digress.)

Well, it turns out that this "play" phone is actually a "blank" or "dummy" phone from the cell phone store...these are what they use as floor models and they are essentially a cell phone without the guts.

About 3 days ago my neighbor showed up with THREE of these little babies...and OOOOOOOO lemme tell you the fun the girls have had. They have been talking on them...setting up spy meetings...calling the Amazon River Valley...and calling out for Chinese food...pretending to be stranded like in "Man, Woman, Wild"...but with a cell phone (as it should be).

They've also decided to bedazzle them. Now, not REAL bedazzling...but shiny stickers do the trick in a pinch.

The question is...will they learn to stop playing with them while they are supposed to be doing school work BEFORE I lose my mind. I don't know how school teachers get anything done with so many of the kids having REAL phones.

I've gotta say, I'm a little jealous of one of the fakes...it's REEEEALLY cool...and my real phone is showing it's age. Maybe I'll bedazzle it so I can join the "Angels".

See ya around...

A Plague of One...

2010-09-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

The weather has been a little cooler here. With a couple of good sized storms behind us, I think it's probably safe to say that our days of 100+ degrees are probably finished for 2010.

With the cooler weather comes the WANT to be outside in all of us...it's kind of like "spring fever", only for fall...or nearly fall.

So we've been outside a lot...hooping...watching the clouds...and checking out the wildlife.

We have watched the wonderful aerial displays of dragon flies every night. And there haven't been less than a dozen at any given time...and one time I counted twenty-three. It was a little nerve-wracking right at first because they are HUGE and get really close to us...I think that we must scare up bug life that they like to eat because they come out every time we are out there.

And then there are the grasshoppers. They are EVERYWHERE! We have this little bug pop-up tent that the girls keep filling up with grass hoppers and then letting them go, and then filling it up again.

So catching a grasshopper isn't really that big of a deal in our yard...but check this out...

Not impressed? How 'bout this one...

That is my kid's toe. Surely just the whim-wam factor has to impress a little. I mean, I'm not afraid of grasshoppers...I've even caught them...but to let it crawl around on me...(shudder)...no THANK you!

So she found this beast today...and they made best friends. Did I ever mention that Beanie's middle name should have been Doolittle?

But I did have a little bit of vindication...

After a few minutes of this...

and then THIS...

She also got the whim-wams...and had to find a new place for her friend...a new place that was not TOUCHING her. WOO HOO! I'm not the only "girl"...I hate being the only "girl".

Maybe it's only a grasshopper...but it sure puts a new pin in "plague of locusts" for me.

See ya around...

Accentuate the Positive...

2010-09-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

So...hmmmm...yesterday, five days from my first hooping try, I still could not hoop around my waist. VERY irritating.

I got online at a new forum I just joined and said something along the line of "WAAAAAAAAHHH...my 7yo is so much better than me...why can't I hoop...WAAAAAAHHHH!" They took pity on me and gave me a ton of pointers...chief of which was "make the hoop bigger and heavier".

I also got some advice on how to tape the hoop to increase the friction and what type of clothing to wear...both more form fitting and natural fibers, and how to move within the hoop, how to place my feet, etc.

SO...this morning I made me a BIG 'Ole Hoop...it reaches my chin...which is about 60" across(I'm very tall, don'tcha know). Then we put 3 cups of water in it and taped up the connection (it still leaks badly, but it's hot, so we don't care). As for the other stuff, I've gotta wait until I can acquire the materials.

And guess what!!

That's right, I can hoop! And what's more, I'm STARTING to be able to catch it when it's on it's way down...

It's AWESOME! I can't tell you how great it is to have a little success after 5 days of trying. YEAH!

And what's more? Grandma is doing it MUCH better, too. She was having a hard time keeping it going like she wanted.

Check her out!!! (Can I just say how much I love this picture?)

Grandma is so much better that she has taken to taunting our reigning champ. Let's just say Bear did not take the challenge lying down...

I'd say that Bear is probably safe in her title for awhile...

See ya around...

Hoopsi-Daisy...

2010-09-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

For the last month or so I've been caught by the "hooping" bug. What's hooping you say? Well, hmmmmm, let's see...here is an example from a blog I follow...

(From The Happy Hoop)

Sara's Hooping Practice - 6.4.10 from Sara Janssen on Vimeo.

Basically it's dancing...hmmm...well, basically it's hula hooping...well, as you can see, it's sort of a combination of the two. As you look around for "hooping" on youtube and the like, you find scores of various styles of this...and it has intrigued me.

But because I'm a pretty frugal gal...and because I know that with three daughters NO hobby of mine will be independent from them for a few years yet, I'd put off buying a grown-up hoop. As a matter of fact...my mommy was scolding me just the other week because I hadn't done anything about my fascination.

And then I found this... How to Make a Hula Hoop. It's actually SUPER easy. On the first of September we made 5 hoops of various sizes...but we don't have tape for them yet...we have to shop around a bit...there are some really sparkly tapes that I have my eye on. Still black is OK for practicing...

And practice we have.

Now let me give you a run down on the skill level of each of us...This is only day 3 of actual hooping, mind you...

Monkey Face can sometimes get it going around her waist for a few twirls...

She can perch upon her momma while her momma is laying in the grass trying to get an up-shot of her sister...

And she can annoy the snot out of any sister in the middle of concentrating on learning a new trick...I am only posting this at full length so that you too can be amused by the face Bear makes as the camera stops...cracks me up...
(:33)

As of today Beanie is beyond me. But we started ABOUT the same.

-Neither of us had our hips (she totally does now...I do not)

-We both can do our arms and can switch hands...

-We are also both tall enough to swing the hoop over our heads and at least attempt to jump through it...the little girls aren't really tall enough to swing it and then swing it down and jump.

-And both Bean and I started on our necks at the same time...alas, she is much closer to perfecting the trick than I...

But then again, someone needs to hold the camera...so I guess I'm taking one for the team.

Both of these shots were just lucky, the first SHOULD have blurred but didn't, the second she SHOULD have dropped it...but for the first time, she didn't...plus I love her expression looking over her shoulder at me...very cool.

And then there is Bear. I won't say that she is better than any of us...but I will say, she has NO fear. And by nature of that fearlessness she will try ANYTHING and so far most of the stuff has worked. She started out with a benefit...she could already hoop at her waist...I don't know where she learned it...she just can. Of course now that I think about it, so can Grandma...huh...maybe it's one of those "skip a generation" thingies.

These were the up-shots I was working on before Monkey Face perched upon me...

So there it is. Our big "project" of the week. It really is so much fun. And yes, I'm hooping right along with them...and actually hooping when they are not looking as much as I can...it's nice to practice something that's just fun.

See ya around...

Another life...

2010-08-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

You know that Grandma has been with us since April and except for a couple of weeks ago when she visited my brothers, we've had her all to ourselves...well, it turns out that we'll have to share her once again.

Last week, our family lost another of our favorite people. My great Aunt Nina passed away on Thursday morning. Wow, has this been a crazy year or what? Mom is heading up to Washington on Thursday to celebrate Aunt Nina's life with our family and to visit all and sundry in our great pacific northwest family...(oooh, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get letters about that one...for the record not a single one of them is named "Sundry".)

So as the "video"/"picture" girl...I've been sharing a bunch of memories with my cousin John (he's a second or a removed or something but you get the idea) as he weeds through pictures and posts them. Some of them are so funny and some are sweet...

This is, from right to left, Aunt Nina, Nina's daughter and My Grandma Marie...all looking very "June Cleaver-y" to me...they are all gone now...

And here is another of of Aunt Nina, Grandma Marie and their brother, my Uncle Karl...also all gone...

As straight-laced as they all seem in those shots, there are also a few of these nuggets that were found...anybody else thinking...WOW!

But in light of all the other pictures...this is the one that stopped me. This is the one that made me the saddest and the gladdest...This is one of those..."I wanna do that" pictures that remind me how great my WHOLE family has always been...

Johnny titled it, "Mom and her girls---practicing for church"

What a great memory for those kids. What a wonderful moment, caught on film. I'm sure it was a typical "rehearsal"...someone was probably off key...someone was MORE than likely fidgeting or acting up in some way...someone else was probably impatient about something...but the picture of the moment...that flash of light caught the togetherness of a family. The togetherness that I KNOW carried on in her life and gave her children and the rest of her family joy. Lots of it.

After seeing that picture the other day...I put MY mom to good use. The woman can PLAY the piano...so I made her. And she made US learn a new song...and then Bear made HER play an old song for us...one that is full of meaning for us because it's played a part in the last two funerals, Grandma Marie and Daddy...and I just recorded the moments...in memory of Nina...but FOR me.

I don't know how long I'll get to keep my mommy...but I never ever want to lose the moments.

The one she taught us "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1:59)

And part of one we made her play, well BEAR made her play, again and again..."Until Then" (1:54)

Aunt Nina...you will be missed. We love you.

See ya around...

Letters to Grandma - First Day of School...

2010-08-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

My mom has gone to visit my brothers in Florida for a couple of weeks. She left last Thursday and will be back next Monday night.

We were originally supposed to start school LAST Monday, but we had some issues with shipping and organization on my part, so I just pushed it off without thinking that Grandma would miss some of the fun of the first couple of days.

With that in mind, I kept my camera handy today. As things happened I had the girls tape a "letter to Grandma"...I won't pretend that ANY of these are uncoached...TOTALLY coached...in some cases FULLY rehearsed. Strangely, it was Bear that was able to do her little schpeil in a single take. Anyone who knows Miss Bear knows that she is joyfully distractable...it's one of her gifts...so the fact that it took her more sober sisters SO much longer to get "it" said, is kind of funny...and altogether charming.

I'll give you the run time of each of these in case you want to opt out...but they are pretty cute...

Beanie to Grandma :29

Bear to Grandma :09

Monkey Face to Grandma :11

This is Monkey Face's plan for the day...or the school year...she said this one on her own in varying ways and then I grabbed the camera...

Monkey Face :23

And then here is just some footage...it'll probably end up in our year end video...but Grandma would have thought it was sweet if she was here. This is Bear reading her passage from our morning Bible Study...Gen 1:14-19...Bean is there "JUST in case"...I'm not sure "in case of" what?...but that's what sisters are for...

Bear 1:31

And this is the actual moment that Monkey Face got her pencils. We have used Prismacolor pencils for a VERY long time and I truly love them. Because of that, when Bean started school I was looking for a reason NOT to share mine with her anymore. That bit of selfishness created a tradition. In our house, upon arrival into Kindergarten, a child is given her very own box of 48 Prismacolor pencils. Daddy searches high and low to find them at a reasonable price and it's a very exciting rite of passage.

Sorry the angle of the shot is off...I was trying to be unobtrusive with the camera because she REALLY likes to play to it if she knows it's on...oh well, you still get the excitement...

Monkey Face 1:06

Well Grandma, we hope this finds you well (I know you are, I just talked to you last night)...and that it brings you a little added joy.

As for the rest of you?

See ya around...

Dude...Cool Pancakes!

2010-08-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

Happy First Day of our 2010-2011 School Year!

All three of the girls are in school this year...that's right Monkey Face is a big ole Kindergartner this year. So nothing for it but to make this a great day.

A few weeks ago, I saw a cool pancake trick on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (yes, I am a cooking show dork...moving on) and thought, "eh, I could totally do that". So I set about figuring it out.

And figure it out...I DID!

We made a bunch of them...and quite a few of them flopped. Those flops provided sustenance until such time as we could figure it out...which, of course, gave us MORE time to figure it out...but by the time the technique was perfected, we weren't really all that hungry. I think I started making them at around 8:15 and we started cleaning the kitchen around 10...nearly two hours WELL spent.

After I'd really figured out what to do, Bean wanted to give it a go. I figured that I'd offer ya'll a tutorial in case you ever want to make them.

First of all...get yourself a big flat pan, griddle or some such...We're using my electric skillet. Take your favorite pancake recipe and thin it out. Then you need TWO dispensers, one for writing and one for flooding. I started trying to write with the squeeze bottle that Beanie uses to "flood", but because I'd cut the top off to make the hole bigger, it was too big to be precise enough to write. No matter, we used the squeeze bottle to flood and we ended up having the best luck with a standard baby medicine dropper for writing.

Here is Beanie after she has drawn her picture, in this case a tree. You want to let it cook for a good long while, the darker it is the better it will show...

Then once the outline is PRETTY dark you flood it...wait 15 seconds and then flip it. The part of the pancake that is flooded will be MUCH lighter...if you wait, it will catch up to the outline part in darkness, and where's the fun in that? In this clip, Beanie wrote "Go Mom"...remember, if you are writing, you have to write BACKWARDS because you flip it...and if you don't WRITE it backwards your final pancake will be backwards...we lost SEVERAL that way...

(Oh, the weird part in the middle where I turn the camera is because I thought I was flipping it, and she decided mid-stream that she could do it...eh...with a real film crew, you'd get some sort of editing...that is not the case here...)

Here is an example of one that was left too long after the "flooding"...

Once you get the hang of it, the only limit is your own drawing ability...I don't draw much...but I am working on my penmanship...(Still too long on the pan)

It was a great first day activity...we just wish Grandma had been here to share it...

See ya around...

Um...WOW...

2010-08-01T16:21:00.001-07:00

This afternoon, I heard some hilarity...I followed it...and look what I found...

Evidently, Bean asked Grandma if she would mind a make over. Methinks Grandma got more than she bargained for...

I'm told that at one point Beanie was dabbing at Grandma's face with a paper towel. When asked why, Beanie replied, "Oh, I need to wipe off a little of your make up so that I can do that next! I can JUST imagine it!"

REALLY can't wait...(snort!)

See ya around...

PPPFFFFFFffffffftttttttt.........

2010-07-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bit of a grouch attack...

Beanie's staph rash is fabulous...she's still got some scars that are trying to get new skin...but she went back in the pool Thursday...Great, right? Of course right.

HOWEVER, she got up this morning with a pretty major rash...kinda bumpy, heat rash looking thing on her face and arms and legs...seems not to be on her trunk.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! AND BOTHER!

Well, I'm running under the assumption that this is a reaction to the antibiotic...I suppose it COULD be chicken pox or measles, but the rash-free-trunk seems to say, "Nah"...that and the fact this is my vaccinated kid, as opposed to my kid that was allergic to her vax.

AND, of course...it's SATURDAY! SATURDAY! BAH!

To those of you without children...Saturday means that if she truly needs medical attention we are on our way to the E.R. Ever had to take a child with an unknown illness to the E.R.? It lands on the unpleasant scale somewhere between licking a slimey pig nose and biting into something you thought was whipped cream and discovering it was actually rotten milk curds...it's NOT a good time.

At this moment...she is lazing on the couch. I gave her a little Benedryl to see what happens and I'm monitoring her...and everyone else again.

I told my mom that she MIGHT want to stay quarantined in her room for awhile...She's trying to leave next week to go see my brothers in Florida. Hey S&J, you want her now?? One word...INCUBATION. And no, I'm not TRYING to keep her, I swear.

Anyway...so in case you were wondering what was going on...that's it...we're stuck in the house AGAIN. PPPPPPpppppFFFFFFFffffffft.

P.S. Bubba just walked in from the gym...I showed him Miss Bean. Want to know what his first words were? "BUT IT'S SATURDAY...what are you getting sick on SATURDAY for?" (then he noogied her...)

See ya around...maybe.

Update on The Kid...

2010-07-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

Well, you will be pleased to hear that she is on the mend.

She still had a pretty good fever on Wednesday morning...around 100...which for this particular child is huge, I can count on one hand the number of times in her life she's RUN a fever. By about noon, I could tell she was starting to feel better because she was getting bored and emotional. By lunch time we'd had two unwarranted crying jags and several bouts of sheer crabbiness.

At quiet time my suggestion to "lie down and rest your widdle head" was met with fierce grumbling and then complete SILENCE when she pretty much passed out. I love when I'm right.

By the time I changed her bandages for the second time that day at around 6pm, I was pretty sure her temperature was down and her rash looked like it was responding. I won't say it looked "better" exactly, because, well, ick...but it was darkening and seemed drier. I'll put these in small in deference to those that just don't need to see them...if you want to look more closely, click on the image and it will take you to a larger shot.

Here she is all bandaged up for the night...you'll notice the smile. This is one of the first we'd seen since about Sunday afternoon, so TRY not to notice her hair...she's very irritated that I took her picture with her hair that way.

There was one little bump in the "worry" road. When Bubba and I got home from our weekly Care Group, Grandma said that Beanie thought she could feel blisters forming on her lower lip. YIKES. When I looked at her, it looked like she might be right. But prayers were going up and the antibiotic was working and we found in the morning that her lips were only chapped as could be expected in one coming off an off-again on-again fever of 4-5 days.

When we took off the bandages Thursday morning, there were even more signs that the antibiotic was working and we were on the right path...darker, dryer rash, most of the blisters either reduced or broken and dry...etc.

You can see in her eyes that she's feeling better...so good to see the twinkle again.

Thursday afternoon we went to see our Beloved Dr. B. She was very happy to see the progress and be assured that this WAS the right antibiotic even though the scraping was not back from the lab. When we told her that Beanie really was not eating, she asked us a few questions regarding her tummy and agreed that we should back off on one of the herbals to see if her appetite improved. However, as long as she wasn't sick to her stomach or having any other issues in that department we'll start that back up in a few days. Then she told us to keep the bandages OFF! Beanie was SO happy with that...she just hates them during the day. There was one caveat, she has to wear gloves when playing with the Wii remote but only because her sister is still a thumb-sucker...the rest of us are out of the woods with regard to "catching" it from casual touch.

Our Beloved Dr. B says that Bean could go into the pool as early as one week from yesterday, but that a couple more days of immune system building would not be a bad idea. Which also means, we should be able to go to church and other types of social contact very soon. YAY! I REALLY could get out of the house...it'd be okay with me.

I didn't get any pictures of the rash last night...but after several hours of being OUT of the bandages it looked even better. It looks like the rash itself will recede and only leave behind the spots of scabs where blisters actually broke open...there are still plenty of those...but the overall redness is fading...

Here she is after being bandaged for the night last night. Those bandages are only there to keep the ointment on...she was told that if she WANTED to take them off in the night (after 10pm) she could. Her grandma told her that she looked like she had her hands taped up so she could box...so she threw us a fight-face pose...

Scary, indeed.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and good thoughts...we've all needed to hear them...

See ya around...

Staph...

2010-07-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that we'd had an Emergency appointment with a Dermatologist for Beanie and I've gotten a few questions wondering how she's doing. Turns out she has a pretty good staph infection that until yesterday was just spreading...it started on the hand where she usually gets eczema and has spread to the other hand, her inner elbow and yesterday up into her hairline.

On Monday, I called to make an appointment for the Dermatologist (Thursday), and for our Naturopath who got me in right away. The Naturopath thought there may be an underlying parasite issue, but that I needed to get to a dermatologist because whatever was on top was WAY beyond what he was comfortable treating and he was glad to know the appointment had been made. I love that my Naturopath knows his own limits and makes sure I know it...no "God" complex in that one.

When Beanie woke with a spot of this in her hair yesterday (Tuesday) I called the Dermo and said, "Either get me in or I'm headed to ER"...so we got in at 10am. She was NOT particularly friendly or helpful...she took one look at this MASSIVE rash and said "oh that's infected, it's just contact dermatitis" ...during the 4-5 minutes she spent with us, she didn't want to hear anything, not that Beanie had eczema, not that she had an active fever and had for 2 days, not that she had been in a swim meet with a bunch of kids 9 days before, but hadn't been in the pool since...not when I noticed it getting WORSE than standard eczema...not what I'd tried...as a matter of fact to everything I said, she would interrupt and say, "I'm sure that aggravated it"...the best example was me saying, "She was in a swim meet" the doctor interrupts saying, "I'm sure that aggravated it" and me saying "But she hasn't BEEN in the pool in over a week"...but she did it with the cream we've always used for her eczema, the band-aids etc.

At some point she FINALLY said the word "infection" again...and I jumped on it, "What type of infection, bacterial or viral" and she FINALLY said, "Probably staph". I'm sorry, "probably staph"? Like it's no big deal this thing that is taking over my kid's body. She said that she was prescribing a heavy antibiotic but no real explanation of anything. I said, "Are there side effects I should watch for?" she said "It could make her sun-sensitive". I said, "Should I give her Probiotics?" she said "That's probably not necessary"...WHAT? Anyone else think that sets off an alarm? I asked her when I should look for there to be a change for the better? She said 3-4 days (this is VERY important in hind-site) and that she would want to see us in 2 weeks. (another VERY important thing.)

So she gave us this prescription and left the room...at the reception desk it occurred to me there were 3 prescriptions and no explanation of timing or wound care and I still didn't know if I should put band-aids or gauze on her so I made the nurse call her back. She said that I could and then left again.

Well I got home. I was perplexed. I do NOT just give my kids stuff cause the doctor says I should, and ESPECIALLY a doctor that didn't even WEIGH my kid before handing me an antibiotic that by all "google" accounts is a liver killer. So because I am who I am...I called my most beloved Pediatrician.

Dr. B has proven herself once again.

She actually WEIGHED Beanie, took her temperature and took a scraping to send to the lab to confirm what on EARTH this is (very scary to a little girl who hurts so much, but not painful because Dr. B is awesome-oh, and not something the Dermo bothered to do) and talked us through the entire protocol...including the use of this scary antibiotic...EXACTLY what to look for with side effects...how to clean and bandage the wounds because make no mistake, Beanie is WOUNDED right now...how to lessen the chances of anyone else picking it up...and how to lessen Bean's chances of the after effects of this kind of antibiotic.

And get this...she INSISTS on seeing us in two days...wanna see why?

I'm only going to show you one part of the rash...the most DRAMATIC part...this is her elbow on Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday morning...just to give you a clue how fast this is spreading...

It didn't start looking worse than her standard eczema until about Thursday and it stayed on that one hand in that localized spot until Saturday. Once it started moving there was no slow down...with it moving THIS fast waiting 3-4 days to call the Dermo MIGHT just be too late to save her face. But obviously the Dermatologist wasn't interested, based on her answers to my question.

What's more, I gave the prescription to Dr. B just to tell me how to use it. She said, "You know what, you couldn't have even gotten this filled...there is no dosage information on it." Well of course there wasn't, they didn't weigh her, how could they figure dosage?

So I've just kept the prescription for my records. I'm not sure that I'll ever do anything with it, but I'm praying about it. I don't want to do anything right now, because I'm mad. And the reality is that the Dermo DID prescribe the right drug so technically she was right...but it was useless to me until someone was able to explain what to do with it and could dose it properly.

As for Beanie. She doesn't feel good and she's still running a fever so she is NOT BETTER yet. But nothing looks worse for the first time since Saturday and the rash on her elbow looks darker, like it's trying to scab and her hands are not quite as swollen. We have an appointment with Dr. B Thursday afternoon. Maybe the scraping will be back but at the very least we should be able to see if we are on the right path BEFORE the weekend...an important feature for all worried Mommas everywhere.

So that's the update for the time being.

Please keep us in your prayers...

See ya around...

Spiders for Crossview

2010-07-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

My buddy Crossview has a spider "issue" and I saw a pretty spider out in the fields last fall...so I thought I'd upload a picture or two for her perusal...and yours too, I suppose...

Here you go...pretty, huh?

Doesn't it look a little like yours? But more colorful.

See ya around...

Worship Camp...

2010-07-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it's over. The worship camp that my kids went to last week is over. I sit here pondering my next words because the camp...the show...the production of the whole thing was so stunning that I do not want to take the chance that you will take my words as simply a proud momma spouting superlatives and think, "yeah, yeah, Stack, we know, kid's performance, yada yada".

So I'm going to appeal to the performers that I know who read this blog. This is to all of you who have ever rehearsed for a performance, practiced choreography, memorized lines, had stage fright, sang ONE song in front of an audience in a choral group or in the choir. To those who were ever behind the scenes taking care of lights or mics or costume changes or writing programs or any of the other myriad of things that go on behind the scenes in ANY performance. And then I'd like to add to that list, those of you who I know have done these things with children.

How long would it take in rehearsal time alone, to put together a show with 12 numbers in it? Okay, 12 numbers and 20 Speakers, 7 dancers, 20 Soloists and at least 2 Silent Actors (although there were more)? How 'bout all of that coming out of a group of somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 kids that ranged in ages from Kindergarten to 7th grade and had NEVER worked together before the first morning of the camp? How long would you estimate that to take?

My experience with similar stuff took WEEKS...sometimes months.

They did it in five, three hour days of a Summer CAMP.

And it was amazing. Every song was good. Every song had choreography of some sort and some of them quite a lot. At the beginning of every song, kids had to move up and down the risers, and shift around to their places and there was not a single mishap.

And the individual kids who did solo performances? Every single one of them did a GREAT job. They stood where they should, they put their shoulders back and they SANG, and DANCED, and ACTED...and if a few of them were a little nervous (or even a lot) they pulled it off and blessed us all with their visible joy, beautiful voices, and funny lines.

I have been thinking about it all night. I don't know the three (correction, there were four) ladies who took on this task personally. But I am stunned at the result. Even with the huge amount of support that they received from the parents in the church for the nitty gritty tasks, I believe in my heart that only through the grace of God could such a feat be accomplished in so short a time.

Watching it I was reminded of the Bible story of Gideon. He was the one that the Lord wanted to fight a battle but told him that his army was too large. So through a series a events Gideon whittled down his army to a mere 300 men. Using only those 300 men, horns, jars and torches, the Lord defeated the Midianites. Judges 7.

I am so thankful that all who were involved took on the task and I am humbled by their faith to do it. I'll admit the very human part of me, who has done it, makes me feel just a little proud of them for their accomplishment...I don't believe ANYONE could have done it better and that the Lord chose very well, when he chose them.

As for my kid's parts? They LOVED it. I asked them early on how this experience compared to other summer camps in the past and they both agreed (only Bean and Bear were old enough) that, although there was a lot of work to do, it was AWESOME!

Here is Miss Bean singing HER solo. If I'm granted permission I will post more...if not, those of you who get our year end DVD will probably see it there.

Praise the Lord for these women who ministered to our children this week...for hearing God's voice and rising to His challenge to teach with joy, thank you for touching my kids in this way...

See ya around...

That Grandma is a GENIUS!!!

2010-07-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

This week the big girls are in a "Worship Camp" at our new church. They are having a blast and there will be more on that later. But them being gone leaves something of a void for their littlest playmate. She misses them. A LOT.

So yesterday I said, "Alright Monkey Face, what do YOU want to do?" "I wanna paint! I wanna play with play-doh"...so, dutiful mother that I am, I put on my big girl pants and said, "ooooookaaay!" (Have I ever mentioned how little I LIKE to play play doh or paint?)

As we were playing play-doh (the slightly lesser of two evils in my mind)...it came to me...Grandma bought us some pre-made sugar cookies back in June when I was lamenting my skills as a cake decorator. She said, "We'll make these...you can practice...it'll be FUN". I, of course, had put said cookies in my fridge and had forgotten about them.

But as I sat there...cook cutter in hand...I looked at Grandma, and she looked at me...and almost without spoken word, we had a plan with a capital P. Off we went...me to prepare to roll out the cookies...her to fashion some kind of icing that Monkey Face could "paint" with.

And then we DID commence to baking SOME cookies...

Here she is mixing up our colors...

and here is Grandma's prized hand cookie...the one we practically had to draw lots for...

And this is what happens when *I'm* holding the camera and Grandma feels that there is a sub-standard cookie...(the role of grandmas has ever been thus)

Monkey Face is QUITE adept at sprinkling...well...it might be more "DUMPING" but she's really REALLY good at it... (note the close up...watch out Uncle Baker Madness...she's hot on your tail)

And THEN...a sweet friend, who was bringing the big girls back from church, agreed to come to our completely impromptu cookie party...and then allowed her children to EAT these beautiful, artificially colored, sugar bombs BEFORE they ate lunch...just because Monkey Face was excited to share.

There is nothing more wonderful to a 5 year old than 8 friends and family to show up and crow over cookies that you got to make and decorate with your momma and GRANDMA! Except maybe, a Daddy coming home from work and snatching up one of these beauties and pronouncing it terrific.

It really is a wonderful life.

See ya around...

Eat My Bubbles...

2010-07-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

So that child...you know the one...with the funny hips, that drives me crazy? Yeah, her. Well, since November she has been Sah-wimmin'. And swimming and swimming and swimming...

Through the winter it was 2 hours a week...but since June it's been every single day for an hour. She has a great coach who, understanding the implications of these hips, in May, INSISTED that she MUST swim every single day she could this summer. He has also been saying all summer, "You should go to a meet...you can compete...". To which she has replied, time and again, "I can't...I don't want to...I'm not ready"

Well, she changed her mind.

And for the first time in her life, ever, she competed at swimming today. She didn't win the event...but she gave some definite competition...and the best part? She WANTS to do it again. I call "VICTORY".

oh and Legg Perthes???

See ya around...

GT 2010 - Down Time

2010-06-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

May 26 – June 10, 2010

Now I should say, I’m writing this June 23rd…this is one of those posts that just didn’t get done on the trip…mostly because there really WASN’T that much down time. But as I look over the pictures, I see that there were some pretty great moments in the down time…

First things first, earlier this year Camera King and S.P. became proud foster parents of 6 laying hens…that’s right, CHICKENS. Let’s see if I can remember their names, (lucky for me this isn’t a live chat, I can ALWAYS ask the girls) Wendy, Fiona, Tootsie, Snow White, um…hmmmm…and two more….Belle and…Jasmine (thank goodness for little girls).

Those poor chickens were chased, and picked up and put down and chased some more. At every cluck and bawk the hen house was checked for another egg. Now, it is true that the chickens definitely put up quite a raucous clucking alarm when any egg has been layed…but I mean EVERY noise sent, especially the middlest girls, scrambling. Oh, and scratch…the chickens only got offered “a little” scratch everyday…but a little meant a few handfuls by each girl (6 wanted to feed them) several times a day…It was quite a life for a chicken…

Check out that last picture with Bear...she kept carrying them that way...with their legs sticking out behind them. We, adults, sang "SUPER CHICKEN" several times...and it gives me joy even now...Bear looks so happy and unaware that she's stuck it's feet out so weird...

Then there was the fencing with Light Sabers. Sorry, I realize that that’s an odd sentence…but while, if they’d been swords I could have said, “there was the sword play”…they were Light Sabers…you can’t say “Light Saber play”…and “Light Saber fighting” just sounds geeky…suffice to say…they had Light Sabers and at least two of them knew what to do with them. (No chickens were harmed in the shooting of these pictures.)

There were several games of crack the whip…

And variations on ring around the rosey…

And at least one performance that the camera missed. I guess down time should probably be renamed unstructured time. Everybody knows that some of the most fun moments are those unstructured moments when you get the chance to just be…and chase chickens, if you want…

For myself, I cooked a little and read a little and took pictures of clouds. The clouds I could see from the back yard were just beautiful every.single.afternoon. S.P. says that it’s kind of a feature of Colorado…very cool…

See ya around…

Topo loves Beanie...

2010-06-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

Sometime during the GT 2010

But she doesn't love me...

Good thing she's cute...

See ya around...

GT 2010 - Mmmmmmmm...Beauty...

2010-06-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bubba got here yesterday to shouts of joy!

This morning was our first "outing" and sadly there was a slight issue. Not all of our new girly trip 2010 shirts fit. Our biggest girls got adult small this year instead of the 14/16 they'd been getting. No real reason, we just figured that adult small would fit. NOPE! Adult small pre-supposes curves that are not apparent in 10 and 11 year olds. And not the curves you would think. Adult small t-shirts from Hobby Lobby have a tapered waist the likes of which I haven't seen a true woman posses since that teeny tiny lady from White Christmas...the one that looks like she hasn't got any room for her organs...you know the one I mean? Anyway, so they wore their green 2009 t-shirts, comfy and happy in the box like structure.

We could not convince our boys to wear anything of the sort, no matter how we cajoled them with offers of writing "The ALMOST Girly Trip" or "The Not Really Very Girly Trip"... they would not be moved to wear EITHER a pink or green shirt...not even a complementary pink or green...but we let them come anyway.

Where did we go, you ask???

Estes Park! And then on to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we purchased a seven day pass in the hope that we'll get a chance to come again...

In Estes Park we stopped for a little while at this hotel. Sadly I can't remember the name of it...Standish...Standiver? Something like that. S.P. says that it is the inspiration for the Steven King book "The Shining" and looking at it I can understand that. Although S.P. says that this particular hotel is in use all year round...so potentially creepy as it may be...it's not!

It gave us our first "Girly Trip 2010" picture opportunity...and guess what...with boys there, BOTH S.P. and I got to be in the picture...although, I look like I'm looking for the camera...d'oh...you can't have it all...

Okay...name run down for you newbies...front row left, to right, Beanie, Tibbie, Monkey Face, Coco, Bear, Gabby, back row, left to right, Me (Stack), Grandma, S.P. and Topo...

We tootled about a bit...

And then....

WOW...Once again, this Seattle-born-in-the-shadow-of-Mt.-Ranier-girl fell in love with the landscape...This was Sprague Lake...and we scampered all the way around it.

Some scenery...

Some wildlife...

Oh look, here's Camera King and that baby...how'd he get IN a picture...I thought we had him chained to his camera...you can be assured his freedom was soon mended...

We also saw some REAL wild life...we saw big horn sheep and elk...I'm not sure what happened to the picture of the big horn sheep...but here are some elk...they were standing basically in the middle of town...

which is where 'cropping' and 'angle of shot' comes in...

And what did we do when we got back to the house??? Duel with Light Sabers, of course...

AH, the freedom and eccentricity of Girly Trips...there's nothin better...

See ya around...

Wake up-a little Suzy...

2010-06-21T17:13:00.001-07:00

Well, hmmmm...today went really great. Our new summer schedule of swim team and lighter school done early so we can play in the afternoon came off perfectly...we were DONE with everything we actually NEEDED to do by about 2...

3 wonderful, free hours...what to do...what to do?

Well, we decided to do a few errands...and then we were gonna build a planter box...sadly, I couldn't find the screws...so the girls decided to play.

This seemed fabulous...except, USUALLY, we have quiet time...at which point Monkey-Face falls asleep.

Things went swimmingly until 5:30 when she decided that "offended" was her lot. Round about 6 pm she'd had as much 'fun' as she could take...and then she passed out. COLD.

As it was nigh on dinner time it was time to wake her...

Grandma tried...

to no avail...

Beanie tried and managed to get her upright...

but it was soon apparent that Monkey Face was only using her for her comfortable shoulders...

Bubba tried...but the first picture didn't work out...
Then he tried again...

and then a sudden stirring...and some twinkly eyes...

And then a pinch on the ear for his trouble...

But she still didn't come to dinner...she lazed about and is now eating a cheese stick...hope she actually sleeps tonight.

What have we learned? Regardless of summer fun, quiet time will remain sacred for awhile yet. Ssshhhhh...don't tell my kids, but I'm so glad to have the excuse.

See ya around...

GT 2010 - Game On...

2010-06-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

May 29, 2010
8:19 am Colorado time (9:19 am REAL time)

Well, we made it after all.

We, Texas girls, left about 9 on Thursday, May 27 and got here yesterday, Friday, May 28th. The Colorado girls, stayed in Colorado due to a scheduling difficulty, so we Texans came all the way, with nary a 'girly trip' event to be seen.

The entire trip was uneventful...there was no barfing...no fighting...no car trouble...we never ran out of water or food...there was not a single 'accident' of the potty variety. The brakes were and are a little shakey...Bubba will be here tomorrow to figure that part out for us...but other than that our biggest 'worry' was my need for a cat nap at 3pm REAL time. While a bother, it wasn't terribly exciting.

I have to say...the postponement was the VERY best thing that could have happened. It turned out that had we actually left on Monday there were MANY items that could have gone wrong.

For instance...there was a big ole jack-knifed truck, multi-car collision that took hours to clear on the main route of the Colorado girlies...then there was the tornado warning in Colorado...then there was the big rain storm at Cowtown...and the LOOMING rain storm that would have arrived and mudded Cowtown the afternoon that we were supposed to visit...and the nasty high wind warning all across Kansas...which is VERY exciting in a highish profile vehicle. In the end, we found, once again, that God did indeed, know what He was doing. Of course, we wish it hadn't meant Monkey Face barfing...but it really was NOT that big a deal and a PERFECT closed door.

I personally LOVE obvious closed doors. Makes it much easier to know what to do next.

Well, that picture doesn't really fit...but it made me happy and we DID take it in Colorado...

More to come...
See ya around...

GT 2010 - Postponed

2010-06-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

May 24th 7 am...

Okay...so Monkey Face ended up throwing up twice more...once at 2:30 am...I'm tired.

We've decided, for the moment to reschedule departure time to 7am, Thursday, May 27th. I'm bummed. Not that I want to take a barfing, feverish child on the road AT ALL. But we are all packed. I have ZERO plans made for school this week. The girls were looking forward to VACATION!

Still, on the other hand...we've all been exposed again...and the REALITY of this exposure could bite me two days from now, in a hotel in Kansas or out in the middle of I-70 with little access to clean facilities. I'm not sure I've ever shared with you, dear reader, the ultimate JOY of having someone throwing up IN the car as you speed farther and farther from safe haven. Let me just say this...always carry towels and wipes and an old quilt...AND...if possible...AVOID IT.

So we sit. Nothing to do. Waiting to get sick.

---

7pm

We ended up watching movies and lounging on the couch. It was relaxing and a little guilt making...but it's not like the house is NOT stocked. We have so much stuff in the fridge at this point, I really don't need to cook anything.

I've kind of decided to enter into 'vacation mode', and squelch the guilt of not having a plan. Ask me in a couple days, how it's workin...

See ya around...

GT 2010 - Canceled??

2010-06-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2010 6PM - Scheduled Departure Time? May 24, 2010 7AM

Monkey Face BARFED!!! ARRRGGGGHHHHH!

See ya around...

Girly Trip 2010 - The Prequel...

2010-06-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

May 21, 2010

Since hearing about the person who posted on facebook that he/she was going on vacation and came home to find the house robbed, I've been a little leery of posting all of our comings and goings as they are happening. It turned out, based on security camera footage, that the perpetrator was someone that he/she had known 20 years prior who had tracked down his/her house when they were certain it was empty. Not that I believe any of my friends/associates/family members are criminals...but I figure 'discretion is the better part of valor' or something like that...

So I will be posting these when I get back or when Dave gets back...he's meeting us along the way...note the dates in the text of the blog...I think I'm also gonna post them one at a time...that way, I can write while we travel but I'll be ahead enough to edit just a little, daily...that seems better. Besides then you'll get to feel the excitement AS it unfolds...albeit a few days late...I'm all about you, dear reader.

Okay...so we're going on another Girly Trip!!! It seems a little anti-climactic being that we JUST went on a GT in August...but that one was LATE because Miss Bean was in the Hospital during our normal GT time...and then we JUST saw our friends in February when they came to watch the girls so Bubba and I could go to my Dad's funeral...and here we are again...GOING!

The thing is, THIS is the traditional time to be going...and it's been loosely planned for 8 or 9 months...AND Bubba is coming WITH us this year. He never gets to go...AND we're going to check out Colorado Springs...very exciting...never been there before. AND Grandma is coming with us!

So...needless to say...WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

We are planning on leaving May 24th...

See you around...

P.S. You see the ease I told you that? The exact date...the exact place...I'm digging the freedom of just not worrying about it...

Daddy's last trip...

2010-06-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Came across these the other day. Actually found them on my desk. I'm not sure how they came to be there, if they were unearthed in some of the re-organizing or if someone sent them to mom and she left them out for me to see...but look...

I believe that these are the last pictures of taken of my Dad...

What WAS he doing, you ask?

Well, he and my mom had just driven from Arizona to California to celebrate the retirement of my dear great Unka from the ministry...you can see he and his wife, Auntie in the foreground. It was, evidently QUITE a party.

During the party there must've been interesting parts that reminded mom of something she wanted to remind Daddy of...and it made them smile...

And there must've been some sweet moments...sentimental moments...that brought a tear to his eye. I can tell that Dad's eyes are 'leaking' in this one...(mom's, too.)

There was certainly something to make him laugh right out loud. I wish that this picture had him in better focus, but I don't really think he was the main target of the shot...still when I see it, it makes me smile...cuz I can hear him laughing...I pray I never forget that sound.

Thank you to whoever took these pictures...and thank you to Auntie and Unka for letting me post them. I wish I could have been there, but barring that, I love looking at how much fun my Daddy was having...how alive he was...just 3 days before he died. I pray that I also get to live live live right up until I go home to Jesus, just like my Dad.

See ya around...

A little beauty...

2010-05-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

Okay...so this is one of those posts I started a bit ago and didn't finish...

Actual Date was May 6, 2010

I wanted to write a proper post but have found that the volume of my activities has hampered my ability to sit and write...this is a really good thing...it means that the ssssssppr-summer season has started here. But it's kinda of less than optimal, too (can't quite get myself to "bad") because I USE this blog for things toward the end of the year...if I don't write...I am a less joyful person in the end. So it's kinda like being behind on a year long term paper...all the time.

Here's the biggest problem that I have...IF I don't blog for over a month...as has happened here...where do I start?

I think for this moment because I'm inundated with pictures, I'll start a week or so ago, when Grandma got here...

Okay, Grandma got here last Tuesday afternoon (3/27)...WOOO HOOO! Oh wait...I have to go back further...

See...If you recall, in a recent post (3/20/10) I was sick...and had been sick since February. Well it turned out that I had whooping cough...so I coughed and coughed until sometime in the middle of April (so February to April, fun stuff)...well the week before Easter, I was holding Monkey-face and had a coughing fit, as I had been doing since the beginning, but this time something didn't feel right in my side. It turned out that I had cracked a rib (or at least that was my doctor's best guess being that the pneumonia X-Ray didn't show the ribs. Because, even if I HAD cracked a rib, there wasn't much to be done...we decided to forgo the cost of a separate X-Ray so I never got 'surer' than best guess.). Since Easter I've been nursing this rib...which is a story in itself...I will tell you that I actually feel MUCH better this week...but was still having a hard time last week...

Okay...where were we? Oh yes, Grandma arrived last Tuesday evening. I knew, before she came, that once she arrived all real productivity on SCHOOL would stop for a few days...so I prepped lesson plans accordingly and just planned incidentals and then to play the rest of the first week with her. So she GOT here on Tuesday...silly-broken-rib-me picked up a table (without thinking about it) and put myself pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night.."Welcome Grandma, now I must lay down!"

Thankfully I woke up on Wednesday feeling O.K.! So off we gallivanted to the local big city Farmer's Market. I didn't manage to get any pictures and I'm sad about it because there were some very beautiful things there...and we had a lovely lunch at the Mexican Restaurant in the middle of the market that used all fresh produce from the market...and mmmmmmm...brought home a mess of tomatoes (only to find a mess of tomatoes all ready AT home...ain't that always the way?) and other wonderful produce that we plowed through in record time.

On to Thursday. Thursday dawned bright and beautiful and I'd been wanting to go to a local park to play in the wild flowers. We did it a couple of years ago with SP and Camera King and had such a great time...and it just so happened that I'd SEEN Blue Bonnets and Indian Paintbrush on a recent trip into the country side so I KNEW there would be wild flowers if only I could get myself out there.

Check it out...

Pretty, huh?

And then there was this bit. Grandma and I were sitting at a picnic table across a tiny street from this big ole field of flowers which the girls were exploring. I stood up to call them and they shouted "Coming" and started running toward me. As they were running Bear fell down and disappeared completely. Grandma turned to me and said, "Whoops, lost one!" which got me gigglin. So I made them recreate the situation for my camera. Now, Beanie was pretty sore that day so her "fall" is more comedic than true to life...(I love the squeaks.)

Now...THIS is why I hate pulling back old posts...I'm sitting here trying to remember exactly what we DID on Friday...but...no pictures to remind me...and I'm finishing this so much later that my mind has released the information...sad.just sad.

So I guess that must suffice for now...

See ya around...

Pictures!!!

2010-05-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH...I've got 2 blog posts waiting in the wings...what are they waiting for? Time to sit and critique and edit. You know what's gonna happen, don't you? By the time I have time to DO that...the subject material will be old and tired and I will be bored with the subject and then I just won't do it...

BUT I HAVE PICTURES!!

Now I suppose I could just post the pictures on facebook...instant gratification and all that...but believe it or not I know people who AREN'T on facebook...can you imagine?

So anyway...here it is...a totally random post...just to get rid of them...

Grandma is here and we went a-scampering through the woods and fields of wildflowers sometime the week before last...it was just beautiful...

The girls especially liked the flowers...

Look...it's been so long Bear's finally got her teeth back...

So then LAST week was the craziest week we've seen in a while...we had 3 soccer practices, 2 swimming practices, 2 birthdays (one an extravaganza), 1 funeral and 1 homeschool fair...phew...

These pictures are from Bean's birthday...she's now 11...we took the day off of school and went to the Botanical Gardens and walked and walked and walked!!!

Monkey Face was a little disturbed by the dead thing with "holes in it's eyes"...but Bear was intrigued...

A couple of cutie pie shots for your perusal...

these are just from around the gardens...can I just say, Cindy Brady had NOTHING on my Bear's banana curls...

And the final, FAVORITE, moments were spent scampering in the "Frog Fountain"...I'd like to say, those creatures were most obviously TOADS, but I don't want to be too much of an amphibian geek...

Look how cute...they are PRETENDING that they are going to stay dry...

still dry-ish...but notice Beanie's pants...by the second shot they are wet quite a way above her knee...

Well...hmmmm...this is kinda like my mom telling me that I could "wade" and finding me neck-deep...and me explaining that technically I was STILL wading as my feet were still on the bottom...(I'm not sure if it ACTUALLY happened to me or to my brother...but the sentiment is the same...). Still once the breach was crossed...there was no holding ANY of them back...

Bear LOVED this toad...errr...frog...and spent most of the time on his toes...I think it might have been because he was made out of metal and was warm...there's an interesting irony...being WARMED by an amphibiam...

They had a really good time. And on the tram ride back to the front, our driver sang 3 different songs to Beanie...she was a little embarrassed and a little giddy...but she just couldn't stop grinning. I think it was a pretty happy birthday after all...

So for now, I'll pretend that's all I have to say, cuz it's all I have time for...stay tuned...I haven't emptied the camera in 4 days...

See ya around...

Earphones...

2010-03-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

When you home-school you learn to PROVIDE distractions...the littlest people get VERY bored during spelling or math...especially fractions...the littlest people care NOT for fractions...and leap pads, mp3 players and laptops are very VERY handy for keeping little girls busy while bigger girls learn...especially if used judiciously.

However, when you home-school you also learn to MINIMIZE distractions...the bigger people have a very hard time concentrating on reading or spelling or diagramming or fractions when these lovely electronic distractions are buzzing and chirping and singing. Add to that the tendency to repeatedly poke the exact same spot, creating a cacaphony of persistent repetition, it is enough to drive all of us insane. Ergo, we all have earphones.

I have taught my children the proper storage of the earphones...the proper earphones for each of them (did you know that those ear bud things are just TOO big for certain people's ears?)...and the proper placement of the earphones on each child's head.

It seems, however, that I forgot just one thing. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

See ya around...

Sick and Busy!!!

2010-03-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

Well, look at that, 15 days from my last blog post...for shame.

I'd tell you that I'd been sitting here wracking my brain trying to think of something intelligent to write for your pleasure, dear reader, but then I'd be lying. See, the real deal for me is that I write when A) I have a cute picture and a few minutes or B) the wild-eyed muse hits me and won't let me go. Recently (end of February, beginning of March) that muse had me writing 2-3 posts a day. True, you didn't see a lot of them...but I did write them...and most of them were not fit for happy eyes. One or two of them you may see later. But the major point here is, the muse left. I got all my emotional stuff OUT and then like the crying, the writing kinda petered out. I was actually glad. I didn't like feeling like I couldn't do anything else except sit here and write.

So, thankfully, life has started back up again. Now, I am STILL coughing. I think that my first facebook post about being sick and pitiful was on February 26th or 27th so that makes this day 23 of coughing and officially the longest illness I have personally ever survived. (yes, I'm still assuming that eventually I'll survive.) About 2 weeks ago, I decided that at some point I must not be "contagious" any more and I REALLY needed to get out of the house...so I braved the store with the girls...coughed too much and headed back home again.

This last week was spring break for the kids in our area, so Bear's soccer organization threw a camp. From Monday through Thursday we all headed out to the field by 8 am. Now, make no mistake, I LEFT her there...but it did start our day much earlier than it usually starts.

Having early mornings and one less girl was a very good thing because we are in the process of RE-DOING the house. And by re-doing I mean switching the furniture of AT LEAST 5 different rooms...honestly the only rooms NOT affected will be my master bedroom suite and the kitchen/nook. So the earlier mornings made it easier to start the-girls-that-I-had-left on school and then get tossing and organizing.

The impetus of this drastic move is twofold. The first being that Grandma is coming to stay with us for the summer (WHEEEEEEEE!). By moving our guest room downstairs she will have a bathroom really close and a much quieter little cubby to hide in...plus it's a little more private. The second falls simply under the "IT IS TIME" category. You know, you live in a house long enough and the stuff simply piles up, until you are not sure what is really in that cabinet/bookshelf/closet/pile anymore.

So the PLAN is to...
1) Move the guest room from the current game room to the current school room

2) Move the stuff we are keeping from the current school room into the current play room.

3) Move the stuff from Bubbas office into the current game room with MY craft stuff so we have one big crafty/office-y room for Bubba and I.

4) Move the little girls from their current bedroom into Bubbas current office moving stuff from elsewhere in the house to complete the room, keeping the dressing room intact in so much as it relates to their stuff.

5) Leave Beanie in the girls current bedroom and gather other bedroom stuff from around the house to complete her room...ie dresser from the dressing room, nightstand and desk from the gameroom, stereo from her Daddys office (she doesn't know yet, shhhhhh)...

Now throw in there a recent couch and TV purchase that actually happened in January and the fact that Bubba wants to paint EVERYTHING, you put the whole house in flux.

Here is some of the progress so far...

The old school room as I tore it down...and the blank wall that became apparent once I moved the book shelves...

The old play room and the new school/play room...sorry they aren't from the same angle...my before shot from the same angle is terribly blurry...meh!

The old couch...and love seat and old tv...

The kids WAITING for the new couch watching the new TV...can you tell what show they are watching??? Click to get a bigger picture the second one SHOULD give it away...

And here is the new couch being used as we use couches...it all it's messy glory...Poor Bean REALLY needs a carpet...

This last one is one small part of the process...a pseudo-organized part of the chaos that has enveloped my house...

So that is a part of what we've been doing. Stay tuned for further updates as they are completed. I'm getting so excited because this project ACTUALLY has an end (I think)...Grandma is supposed to BE HERE sometime the last week in April and it SHOULD all be done by then...that doesn't seem too long, does it?

See ya around...

The Lucille Ball in me...

2010-03-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well...I'm still sick...for crying out loud. Coughing to beat the band. It is somewhat better but gggggrrrrrrrrrr...

Because of that, I've not been terribly "chatty"...don't really wanna talk (makes me cough), don't wanna blog, don't wanna post stuff on Facebook...don-wanna, don-wanna, don-wanna.

But something happened to me yesterday that is the epitome of me and my clumsiness that made me laugh RIGHT out loud...and I know that you, dear reader, need a laugh from time to time...

We got a new vacuum yesterday. A fancy schmancy one. See we've bought three vacuums in the last three years...the cheaper ones...and they all died, tragic, stinky, dusty deaths. So we "invested" in a new Dyson. It REALLY sucks...and I do mean that in the best possible way. Well...I mean...look...this is a smallish rug that I vacuumed last week with my dying vacuum...check out what that Dyson picked up...A-MAZE-ING! (Oh, and GA-ROSS!!)

I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to vacuum EVERYTHING. I ran to the phone to tell Bubba how much this new vacuum sucked (yeah, I know, I'm still something of a sixth grader)...and decided that I would empty the canister before I moved on.

So I walked over to the trash can and pushed the button on the canister that must certainly unlock the LID of the canister so that I could tip it over and dump it INTO said trash can (just like my LAST THREE vacuums)...and imagine my surprise when the entire thing dumped onto the floor because there was no LID...the bottom flopped down...

To say I got the giggles would be a huge understatement. I laughed and laughed and laughed...and coughed and coughed and coughed...and then giggle snorted my way through putting the vacuum back together and sucking all that stuff BACK up. The idea that I would suck up all that stuff just to walk over and dump it onto the floor...it's making me laugh even now.

See why I'm feeling a little like Lucy, without the cute clothes?

See ya around...

Tangible Beauty...

2010-02-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

I've had a bad day. I'm sick. Sicker than I've been in a while. When I lay down my breath sounds like a bag-pipe. A Bag-pipe? Yes, a bag-pipe, I take a breath, it whistles, I stop breathing and it keeps whistling. Snot does amazing things inside the body...and apparently it's able to slow the air down long enough to produce sound far longer than I want it to.

Anyway.

So I didn't do much today except sleep. My head hurt so bad this morning that I couldn't eat anything. I ended up taking activated charcoal to settle my stomach but still sinus headaches are no fun and my neti pot was doing little so I basically entertained myself inside my own head most of the day.

Being alone in my own head isn't so great right now. I think of my dad a lot. I think of our lives a lot. And today, I was thinking about how beautiful my childhood was and how not as beautiful my kids' childhood is.

I moved a lot as a kid. By the time we moved to California when I was 14 years old, I'd been to or though 42 of the contiguous states and had lived in Washington, Oklahoma, Washington again, Pennsylvania, Florida and then, of course, California. Today I kept thinking about Florida. I was still a really little kid in Pennsylvania...we moved the second half of third grade...and by the time I was in California I was a busy teenager. But Florida? My childhood in Florida was pretty idyllic.

See, back then, 30 ish years ago...people weren't so worried about kids getting swiped. Oh sure, it happened. The incident with Adam Walsh's son happened while we were in Florida...but it was shocking instead of commonplace. And Florida, unlike any other place that I've lived (except MAYBE Washington, but I was too young to enjoy it) was FULL of nature. I mean you couldn't get away from it.

We rented a house that was set on two lots...we had SEVEN mango trees, an avocado tree and a banana palm...never mind the palmetto bushes, the swath of ferns, the huge big Norfolk pine and the aloe vera...well and the grass that in summer could swallow you, that, at times my dad had to use a machete just so he could then go at it with the push mower.

And that is just the flora. We had fauna too...lots and LOTS of fauna. So much fauna that all of us school kids went to the Environmental Center every year to learn all about the fauna. The reality was that in some cases we were MEAT and we really needed to learn about the alligators and stingrays and snakes and spiders and such...you know...all the stuff that really COULD kill us.

There was a place that you could get down to the Indian River just two blocks from my house...a big old palm tree had been taken down by some storm or another and we'd climb up and over that tree down onto the beach and play in the alligator infested waters. We never saw one. Never saw a water moccasin either...but bites and attacks were common place even back then...so we just didn't tell my mother. Not until MUCH later.

That doesn't even COUNT the friendlier fauna. The squirrels...the raccoons that were nightly visitors to my dad's little cement coy pond. The armadillos that waddled and were run over everywhere. The manatees that really WERE in the rivers and we saw them on several occasions.

I think a lot of my sense of beauty comes from Florida. Watching the storms come across the water...Black sky butting up against the almost turquoise water...it always looked more blue with the storms coming in. Playing at the bathtub beach that was enclosed a little way out by a coral reef, that on clear days had the BEST tide pools I've seen to this day. Riding in my dad's 22 foot sail boat out from the river into the salt water and seeing dolphins jump alongside the boat. Mangrove Swamps...if you've ever canoed through one, you know what I mean...they're just beautiful...sometimes stinky, but beautiful.

Because of all this nature...we all learned a bunch of stuff accidentally. Like how to bait a fish hook. How to clean a fish...well and how to freak out mom with the heads and tails of said fish jutting out of the pavement...it was art...I thought it looked like the fish were jumping through the pavement. She wasn't NEAR as keen on it as I was.

We learned a LOT about fire ants...how to break open the nests from afar and then wait a minute and creep up and check out the tunnels and caverns from which they were scampering to remove their children.

We learned how to climb trees...and more importantly how to get down from trees, when you KNEW your brother wasn't going to get home in time to rescue you.

We learned how to DIG HOLES...big deep ones...that in time would fill in with water which taught us about something called a "water table".

My kids don't have that opportunity. We live in suburbia...where they cut down all the trees to build houses and then put up all these little ones. Our backyard is pretty good sized, but it's boring. We haven't figured out what to do with it yet...it's been 7 years...and still nothing. Everywhere around us is pretty much suburbia or city. We live in north Texas...there is no beach around here...the best I can hope for is a lake, and it's not close enough. I'm going to have to actually search it out. MEH!!

So as this was going around in my head...this crabby old, feeling sorry for myself cuz things are so much harder right now. I realized...that's not how my kids feel, they don't know what they are missing yet...and maybe they don't have to...I can do stuff to bring them tangible beauty. I can plant a garden. Take them to the lake (if I can find it), teach 'em how to fish. I can take them to the nature park. I can. I can. I can.

And what's more...it occurred to me that some of the beauty in life isn't outside. It's in our hearts and if we just keep TRYING...there's beauty there too.

Here's some of my tangible beauty today...look at the sun on her hair...breathtaking...

Sunshine, almost all the time, makes me high...

See ya around...

Balloon...ESCAPE!

2010-02-26T05:19:00.000-08:00

Now, this last couple of weeks things are not quite what they should be around here. I'm not on my feet yet...there I said it. I'm working on it...but grief stinks...and there seems no way to go but straight through.

That being said, I'm not watching my kids as closely as I usually do and over the last couple of weeks this has lead to a few incidents that aren't nearly as funny as this one. This one, actually made me laugh.

I give you exhibit A. Children swinging decided outdoor toys around in our playroom area...They were also saying things like, "Come down, come back..." I figured it was some sort of game and that high wall was Rapunzel's tower or some such...

So I left 'em...(couple of weeks ago, I'd have made them at LEAST stop swinging the yard toys)

A few minutes later, Bean says, "Hey Mom, could you please help us?" I'm thinking, "sure, whatever could they want?"

Wait'll you see!!

THAT, dear reader, is a statically charged Valentine's heart balloon that they had been rubbing on each other's hair to make it stand up...that got out of control...and stuck to that high wall. The balloon didn't much like being bashed about with yard toys either...

See ya around...

Music???

2010-02-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

November 2009

Okay, back in November, maybe even before, I knew that I wanted to take the kids caroling for Christmas. Back then I had big dreams...maybe getting a few of the neighbor kids in on it and going to an elderly care center or some such.

But singing with children is an interesting thing. Well singing with, and getting them to sing, isn't really that big a deal...but getting them to be able to stay on their note while someone else sings harmony is a tough thing to teach...especially if there are only 2 of you singing. When it was just Beanie and I singing, it was impossible. But over the years, my parents would come...or S.P. and Camera King...or Dr. Bo's family (6 GIRLS, 2 BOYS...there is lots of singing potential there) and we'd have the opportunity to have more than one person sing melody while those of us that could would do some harmony or other.

This year was kind of fun because Beanie and I had a bunch of practice with the little worship team we did at church and Bear was old enough to want to sing, too. So Bean and Bear would concentrate on singing together while I harmonized in the background. And, of course, if her sisters were doing it, there was no keeping Monkey Face out of it.

I thought I'd show you a "rehearsal" of The First Noel that we were working on...it should be noted that *I* was flat on the high note...something has gone wrong with my soprano over the last few years...eventually I'll warm up enough to hit the high notes, but it takes awhile...but they were so cute with the blame placing...

This next one is the one "in which the children REVOLT". This is the second or third time that we'd pitched it BADLY...in this case too low...and they had just had it with REAL singing. I'm so glad I had the camera on...SUCH fun.

By the time Christmas rolled around...we'd had some illnesses and it was COLD and so all my big plans boiled down to a single night of caroling on Christmas day with some of the girls around the neighborhood...there were 9 of us traipsing around in the sub-freezing weather, singin our little hearts out. It really was a lot of fun. Wish I'd gotten pictures, but at least I have the memory.

See ya around...

Nearly Wordless Wednesday...

2010-02-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Smell my BREATH!

These pictures came to mind as this directive was leveled at me once again today...made me laugh.

See ya around...

Ginger Bread 2009

2010-02-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

As I finally sit down to review all the pictures that I took in the last year, it occurred to me, how terrible I've been at blogging. FOR SHAME!!

There is some gold in last year...and as I never DID get around to finishing my year book...I'll site technical difficulties...it's about time I caught up.

Over the Christmas Holidays, nearly 3 months ago, my folks came to visit and we absolutely did some of the things that have become tradition...for instance, our yearly Gingerbread offering...(remember 2008).

This year, we...ehem, I...was VERY ambitious. Grandma had bought us a kit, in the hope (I'm sure) that I wouldn't make her try to build another one (Silly Grandma).

I had EVERY intention of building another...and what was fabulous about the kit that grandma bought is that I could STEAL the pattern from already existent cookies...ni-ice. What's more, this particular kit had a gable situation that made it easier to stabilize the roof during the drying of the cement (I mean royal icing).

OOOOOooo, what a lovely house we would create...but first, I had to try my chops at cookies...I'd read a post on another blog that talked about pre-painting sugar cookies with kids, seemed like a great idea...so we gave that a whirl.

Here is the mess part of the sugar and gingy cookies...

And here are the girls painting the cookies. As you view the pictures on this post, I would draw your attention to Monkey-Face. Who knew, when I dubbed her Monkey-Face back in 2005, how TRUE the name would remain well into her fourth year...prophetic, I tell ya...

And here are the fruits of our labor...I somehow failed to get a picture of them all laid out. Bubba and my dad pretty much ate them all over the course of the month of December. The verdict being that the sugar cookies (the painted ones) were okay...but the gingies were REALLY good. Which was just fabulous in my mind, because now, I thought, I had an awesome Gingerbread House recipe...

Now as the day of the DECORATION loomed in, our recollection of the chaos of trying to set up last year's house came to the forefront. Grandma and I remembered how UNhappy the little girls were to wait for the house to dry before they could decorate. So we decided to get the business part of the houses taken care of during quiet time a few days before the big day.

Here is the kit house...it went together SO easy. Once we had it together, we stuck it in a perfect little shoe box to dry and then completely forgot to make the other one until the day before we were supposed to be decorating it. Yeah, not so good.

Here is the one we made...it DID NOT go together so easy...it wanted to break and buckle. I'm positive it's because I rolled it too thin...or maybe because I used the COOKIE recipe...I don't know...but hmmm...it was slightly less that perfect...but VERY tasty. When all the votes came in (you know there were 7 of us) it was well decided that although the kit house really stayed together, the homemade house was so yummy we pretty much ate the whole thing. That really was a vote in it's favor...so much less to throw away!!

Now if you look you'll notice the gable situation on the front and back of the house...the ORIGINAL kit house only had the gable on the front. But it was SO handy holding up the roof while it dried, on my copy I put a gable on the front and back...but, well see...I didn't take into account the roof needing to be shorter to take into account the gable section. So when I put that back roof on, it overlapped the front by 1/2 inch. "No worries," said I and whipped out my handy dandy serrated knife. And it actually WORKED...I was indeed able to shorten that roof. However, there was a structural issue with the thickness of the roof and in the midst of moving it back and forth, it split right down the center.

Not a terrible tragedy...we decided it was a sun-roof. The bigger problem came later when we discovered that the front roof also had the same issue....you'll see.

And then we decorated...BOY HOWDY, did we decorate...

There were concerns ALL through the decorating of the homemade house...for one thing we'd only given it a couple hours to set up before decorating...the kit house sat for about 3 days...the homemade house only about 3-4 hours...

We used MANY fingers to hold it up...We also used many fingers to POINT out issues....

Eventually we knew for certain that the roof was not going to make it without some SERIOUS help...

But we did finish them...and as much as the pictures don't show it, we laughed a lot at our predicament. And you can tell that the WHOLE family was in there because there are actually pictures of ME in there!! I don't think we'd win any prizes but it really was so much fun...

Needing a caption for this one, we thought and thought. Bubba thinks it should be "Location Location Location"...and an old friend who grew up to be a real estate agent suggested that one is "welcoming" and the other is "newly remodeled"

And here we all are...

In the interest of completing the "Monkey-Face" examples...I give you several OTHER pictures I could have chosen...

A true adventure...

See ya around...

Hiding and Seeking...

2010-02-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

So it's winter here...and OH what a winter that we've had. I think I read that we've had 4 snowfalls so far this year. Now that may not seem like much to you, but trust me...for this area...it's huge. We've actually had enough snow that I'm not looking forward to any further snow, no matter how determined the weather man is to send me some, thank you very much! Mostly snow means mud, dry grass, wet-underdressed kids (note: we do not own snow clothes, nor snow pants, only one really warm jacket each etc) and hours of wondering what ELSE to do. You can really only eat so many bowls of blueberry syrup slathered snow before you just wish for a warmish day.

You northern people, hush. I'm well aware how much of a baby I am about the cold weather...but the reality is I've lived in the warmer climes since I was 9 years old...and that's...well that's...well suffice to say it's a really long time.

So what do my children do? Same as everyone else's children. They wish for the outdoors, and their bikes and scooters and sidewalk chalk. In other words, they run wild.

Hide and Seek is one of the few outside games that has made the transition inside at our house. It's a little sad because there just aren't that many places to hide...and what is available is known to all and sundry...and if you ARE the hider, you know it is only a matter of time before all 6 places are searched. When you are 4, this is a wonderful thing, because it means there is ACTUALLY a chance you might find them...but at the same time, you are almost always INSTANTLY found. It's a trade off she is learning to deal with...

This is the aftermath of a game that happened just before quiet time. See, Bear has discovered that she fits under the sink in the guest bathroom. Of course, to fit, it takes a little...ehem...remodeling. Hmmmm, wonder how long it took the seeker to find her. There were a FEW clues apparent to my untrained eye...

hmmmm...she didn't EXACTLY pick it up now, did she?

And so it goes in winter. It's far messier and louder than I would choose...however, methinks it's still pretty sweet...

See ya around...

Blessings...

2010-02-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

Huh, s'been a long time again.

On Wednesday, February 3, 2010, my dad went to be with Jesus. I have a memorial post that is waiting in the wings...it involves several other people, at least one video and maybe an audio file...but it is taking time to gather and life has been going on around here...and I didn't want to WAIT for that post, before I could blog again. So I guess this is the announcement...and then we'll just move on, for now.

The title of this post is blessings. As hard as losing my dad is, this last two weeks has been incredibly full of blessing. (This is bound to be a long post so saddle up...or get a cuppa-whatever...or open a new tab... ;) )

For instance, I flew nearly immediately to Arizona to be with my mom but that left Bubba and the girls here to deal with school/work etc. It became clear within hours that we were going to NEED Bubba in Arizona to help us figure out some of the financial aspects of this loss. What to do? What to do?

I'd been talking to my friend (S.P. elsewhere on this blog) throughout the long night of surgery. She knew that we were going to need help regardless, so she started organizing in her own little head (she's like that) and called Bubba after I left and they worked out a plan between them. Seems that they love us so much that Camera King (her husband) was willing to take off work and drive S.P. and her girls the two days to our house to make this terrible week seem like more of a girlie trip.

While they were here they made the girls EAT, and NAP, and do a little school work...bossed them as needed...made them do chores and all the other things that are necessary to keep moving forward...check out the fun they had...

During the week they all went to a local-ish museum for a day of fun. The huge blessing from the momma perspective was that our family had recently paid for a membership to the museum and after explaining the situation to the staff at the museum and showing a companion membership to a museum in Colorada, they let them ALL in, no further questions asked. Kudos to the folks in Ft. Worth for making it even possible for them to go...

Here they all are once again...Topo, Coco, Monkey-Face, Gabby, Bear, Beanie and Tibbie...

And THEN, we got home. Another little blessing (well HUGE, considering how much I hate driving in precipitation) we flew through some snow...it seemed not that big a deal in the plane...a matter of moments really. Then we landed on dry pavement. Drove all the way home on dry pavement. Kissed our friends...kissed our girls...slept in our own beds and woke to this...

And it snowed like that for the entire day...and stayed snowy like that for another whole day...we got somewhere around 10 inches...I didn't measure, but them that did came in with numbers from 8 to 12 inches...and we PLAYED. Who has time for grief with this kind of stuff going on? Well, we still had time for it, but this was a welcome distraction.

I made blueberry syrup that pleased me GREATLY and we also had real maple syrup, a la Laura Ingalls...twas a terrific "snack" of colored snow...

We had a big ole snowball fight...

Here I am, BEFORE the snowball to the head...I think

A rare picture of our boys together...Bubba and Camera King with Monkey-Face, Tibbie and Beanie after our EPIC snowball fight...notice how wet they are...I was worse...well I was about the same as Beanie and Tibbie...my hair literally dripping...

And here is what Auntie S.P. was doing while we were flinging the white stuff...she was warm and dry (except for the one snowball that Bubba threw at her to make sure she was part of the "fun") and making sure we all got fed...these were so nummy...I'm not sure what I would have done without S.P. there reminding me in her quiet way that it was time to cook/clean/eat/live and DOING a lot of it for me when I just couldn't face it...

That night it snowed some more...and we played some more...

And then we relaxed...watched a movie...celebrated a birthday a little early...and that was a blessing too. The quiet...the peace.

It was a terrible reason to be together...but it was still a joy. God provided us the peace that we needed to feel "okay" again. As far as the sad...and what Bubba and I were doing during most of the time that our friends were with our kids...that's another post for a different day...

See you around...

Christmas is Coming,...The Goose is Getting Fat...

2009-12-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

Huh, well THAT'S not terribly polite...especially since my children have started calling me "Elephant Mommy", (no, I have no idea why) still it's one of our favorite Christmas ditties...so good enough for a blog title.

Yes, my pretties, Christmas IS coming...and right soon.

When things are going well...our Christmas festivities start on Thanksgiving. I'd like to say that there was some major tradition here...but in the interest of honesty...it's more because Thanksgiving is a REEEEEAAAALLLLLYYYY slow weekend here. November is full full full of stuff...various sports...my birthday...end of season parties...AND our family doesn't come into town for Thanksgiving so we usually take it as an opportunity to hang out in our jammies eating far too much food off of pretty plates and decorating the tree.

Bubba, while a willing participant...is not usually EAGER. So imagine my surprise when, the night before thanksgiving, he announced that we would be getting a new tree this year, one with lights pre-installed.

Now it should be said, Bubba HATES putting up the tree and the lights. He does it...but we have to leave the room for the grumbling. The girls and I usually go and mess up the kitchen or something until that "business end" can be finished. Then he can stop worrying about someone stepping on or falling over things or picking up things and swinging them around like a lariat...and he can find his "joy". Over the years I have often put the tree up myself, just to avoid the worry and crab-attack that follows. (yes, I AM a relatively kind wife ;) ) Though I suppose there is a certain amount of worry in that too, as I have to use the ladder and am perhaps the clumsiest person on the planet...but I digress.

So on Wednesday night nothing must do but we all trudge off to the local home supply store and gaze up at the trees that, in their showcase placement, soar 15 feet in the air. Did you know that MOST of them look pretty good from that angle? We decided that our current tree must be a 6 footer...and we'd like it a little taller but not 9 feet. This one has lasted 15 years...we figured it's an investment but we'd rather not have to sell one of the children.

Turns out they didn't have the exact one we wanted. So, AGAIN, imagine my surprise when Bubba was the first one up and dressed on Friday morning and off to another localish home supply center, in search of the elusive ONE that will fill our needs.

He was back before 11:00am...tree in hand. The gregarious gargoyles gallivanted to their peering position with many a "Daddy, why?" and "Hey Dad, whassat?" ...

When setting up a brand new tree it is difficult to concentrate when being peppered with questions so it wasn't too awfully long before they were banished..."GET THEE BEHIND THE COUCH!"

Once it was up, then the fun could begin...

Since the lights were already pre-installed, I think Bubba felt a little left out...so he decided to arrange the ribbon on the tree. You know, we've never had ribbon on our tree before...it's really quite pretty. However, I'm starting to feel a little less sorry for him about the lights all those years...I though it was me...I wanted too many lights...I find now that it is actually HIM and his artistic eye.

After it was all said and done, the girls settled UNDER the tree to sing and listen to a chapter of Little Women.

It's nice to be getting in the spirit...

See ya around...

Clear the Deck...

2009-11-22T03:54:00.000-08:00

As I said, I'm TRYING to work on my "Yearbook 2009" video. Well, I AM working on my video...but I take, easily, three hundred pictures for every one that shows up on my blog...so weeding through them is an onerous, odious, o-boggling task. Scatter-shot, the amateur digital photographer's bane.

Last night, as I sorted, and cropped, and straightened, and sharpened, and SAVED (very important step) I noticed a troubling pattern. My counters are never clear. Seriously...if you wanna know how the day that I took the picture was going, look BEHIND my children.

Here is an example...

Bean had decided to make an "experiment"...it was late-ish afternoon, sometime between 2:00 and 4:00pm. After lunch but before my 5:00pm "clean the kitchen before I make dinner" time slot. Now the stuff on the counter in front of her is stuff she is working with...but I draw your eyes behind her...note to self, either change the "clean the kitchen" time or stop taking pictures in the kitchen until the ten minutes per day that it IS clean.

Here is another one...

This is from our Girly Trip 2009. We were dancin to Jim Croce. Note the counter in the fore-ground. See all those apparent "medicine" jars? Those were there on purpose; we had seven kids between us all taking the same vitamins AND several of them had colds...so our herbal cold stuff is right out in the open for any 'ole mommy to grab...still looks messy, but understandable.

HOWEVER, see those spritzy bottles...the blue and the pink? That's how I untangle Bear from her curls each morning. It would appear that we got too busy dancing to find a proper home for those...and yes, they were pretty much there the entire Girly Trip.

And those clothes...I don't know what they are or what, on earth, they are doing on the counter.

There are more...so many more...most of the pictures of my kids at the kitchen table are very telling too...next time you see one, look behind them. My kids "clear the deck" to the next closest flat surface, and you know what, I often forget to notice.

I had a friend many years ago named George. He said that he suffered from an ailment called "Flat Surface Syndrome"...in other words, flat surfaces were there to pile STUFF on, so pile stuff on them, he did. I never really thought about it, but I, well, my whole family, seems to suffer the same malady. And it REALLY shows up in pictures.

How embarrassing...

Here now, I was going to show you a picture of my kitchen clean...so I dug around for the pictures I took to show my counters to a friend...so the counters are indeed clear...

From 02.2009.Pics

But there is another flat surface here...one that I don't think will ever be clear except for once every couple of months when I get up there and clean it...yep, the top of the fridge.

So, there it is, my failing laid bare. Now, when you see my pictures you can say..."Wow, look at all that stuff"...but you won't have to say, "Wonder if she knows that's there?"...cuz now you know, I do.

See ya around...

Oh Bother...

2009-11-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

Look at that...another month gone...very few pictures taken...no blog posts...

I blame Facebook. It's an evil construct that promotes instant gratification...and I've fallen to the 420 character limit too many times...sigh.

But do you know what this REALLY means? It means I've made all my holiday stuff harder. See, last year I sent pictures and DVDs at the end of the year as Christmas cards / presents. It was pretty easy last year...I had all these blog posts and pictures to help me remember. This year? Not so much.

And this year, for my birthday, Bubba got me a new fancy-schmancy DVD maker software...and I'm really excited to use it. But my inspiration is lacking. Guess I need to figure out how to power through it, because if I don't, that fancy-schmancy software would go to waste...and we can't have that now, can we?

Here is a little sample of what my new software does, all by itself. Being an old techie, I, of course, have not yet read the manual...but I DID do a wizard with some pictures of Bear's newest lost tooth... Look what it did. (56 seconds)

It comes off pretty dramatic...but it was just the template that I chose...what is funny about it to me is just how goofy she was during the TAKING of the pictures.

Alright...so what is the moral here? That's right...Facebook is evil...Self-control has been lacking and Stack needs to get a grip. I think it also means that ya'll are about to get more blog posts...maybe (how's that for commitment). But you definitely have the potential of seeing more videos. Note that is a potential...not a promise.

I hope you all are having a wonderful autumn and are looking forward to Thanksgiving...

See ya around...

Color Change...

2009-10-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

Haaarrrumph...well, I was trying to give my blog a more Autumnal color palette...but didn't realize that blogger wouldn't let me change their title bar color.

So after all was said and done...I tried to change it back...but now I can't find my original background color.

Oh well...welcome to my blog...I've re-decorated. Since I can't get my beige back...have some terra cota...I think I may try a hint of aubergine or celery on the next go-round...

Isn't aubergine and romantic color name???

Sorry, apparently I'm channeling Anne Shirley...

See ya around...

Scottish Rite Check Up

2009-10-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Aaaahhhhh...Scottish Rite. Nothing quite like Scottish Rite. Fabulous hospital. Fabulous doctors. Nice, new cafe. Lovely art. And place whose very name renders all my strength and courage into gelatinous goo.

But they make us come. They make us have X-rays.

They make us wait. A.LOT.

We often get very bored...and sing louder than we should...(please note the bend-i-ness of that child's left leg in this next picture.)

Sometimes I even push Bean across the floor on the very-speedy-doctor's-stool...I ALWAYS make sure to look the other way in the doctor comes in...wouldn't want him to think that I, too, was bored. Bored enough to put my very grow-up feet on her hiney and SHOVE her with all my might across the room so she can feel like superman for a moment...(alas, I didn't get a picture.)

Eventually, they come in and tell us what we want to know...

That her left hip has rounded the corner...after 2 years and 7 months there is some growth there...WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!! And her mobility is great in that leg. It ALMOST moves normally...and you'd have to MAKE her do something to prove that it doesn't move normally for you to be able to see it.

That her right hip is still in the fracture stage and it's GOING to fracture pretty close to the same amount that the left did...it's heading toward that C status that means 50%...all I can really say about it is "PRAISE GOD for growth plates!!" Apparently it can't fracture much further than the growth plate, so I, for one, am glad she's young enough to still have them. The mobility in that hip isn't GREAT, but is well within normal ranges for the fracture stage...and I will say, so much better than it was in May.

Having spent the last 2 years and 7 months looking at her left hip...this right hip is breaking down FAST! It's hard to tell you exactly HOW close the two are in the digital X-ray that they wave in front of me...but between the growth on the left and the break down on the right, the femoral heads look to be within a couple of millimeters of one another in size. Now, a couple of millimeters is still quite a big difference when you are talking about break down or growth; but where the left femoral head looked like an orange rotting as it broke down (you know slowly diminishing)...this one looks more like someone took an electric sander to it. Sorry for the heebie jeebies that visual might have caused.

AND they made us give back the walker and the zoomy pink wheelchair. Now to be fair, we haven't used the walker in a couple of months. And the wheelchair only really gets used at Walmart and Costco. And, I really do have to say, they did offer to let us have it until they could order us one...so it's probably unfair to say that they MADE us give it back. But we don't have it anymore and we left it there...sooo... They do think she is stable enough to go without it most of the time...(sigh)...and this really is a good thing. A VERY good thing. If only I could get my irrational fears and "what ifs" to pipe down already.

So there it is. The event that I let wreck me on Sunday...the one that made me burst into tears turned out to be not such a big thing. My head knew it was gonna be okay...that we would deal with whatever came...my silly ole tear ducts just didn't get the message. Just keepin it real.

She's good. She's still broken...but her body is doin just exactly what they said it was gonna do...and we don't have to go to that wonderful (terribly stressful) place again for another six months...God willing and the crick don't rise.

See ya around...

The Trials of Womanhood...

2009-10-25T13:57:00.001-07:00

Well technically, the trials of curly hair. Eh...I should have such trials!!!

See Bear...

Bear's hair has gone from luscious curls to straw in the last few weeks...

Bear's mom, can't stand it...

See Bear...

Bear doesn't understand why mom dragged her to the sink...hosed her head down...schmeared very smelly conditioner in her hair and put a bag on her head...

See Bear...

Bear wishes everyone would stop gigglin at her "hair-do" and that 15 minutes felt more like 2 minutes because she is bored bored bored of this beauty ritual...

See Bear...

Bear is happy that the timer beeped...

See Monkey Face...

Monkey Face is happy to see the camera AND has finally gotten control of her giggles.

Bear's mom hopes that Bear will look less like a scarecrow and more like Goldilocks momentarily...

hmmmmm...Demented Goldilocks...some girls have ALL the luck...

See ya around...

Blogging Trips...

2009-09-26T04:43:00.000-07:00

(Saw this coming at me on the 20 Fwy in West Texas (I think)...took a bit of adrenaline and about 2 minutes to decide what I was seeing...it's being towed...but at first I thought it might be coming at me...as I was going about 80, it didn't take too long to realize I wasn't dashing head-long into an on-coming truck...taking the picture at that speed was something of an adventure...but I won't tell you cuz my mom reads here and she REALLY does not want to know.)

This has been the year of trips...

The first trip was not fun, but a trip nonetheless...that would be the hospital trip back in March. Now that one wasn't too hard to blog. We were in the middle of something big emotionally AND I, personally, was bored most of the time...well maybe not bored...but certainly with not much to do. Besides, I had people emailing me questions all the time and it's much easier to answer questions than come up with something out of nothing when you are stressed...

(Mt. Rainier out the window of my plane. This is one of the about 10 pictures that I took the entire trip...)

Then in June my GramMarie died and I traveled alone to Washington state. That was a trip too. And if I'm to be honest, it was fun...and heart wrenching...and nostalgic ...and too full of emotions, both good and bad to write anything WORTHY of the experience even now. In the midst, I didn't blog because I was busy. SO busy. Cataloging her life...scanning photos...singing songs...chattering with cousins and aunts, uncles, 2nd cousins, Greats of all kinds...remembering...

(The girls in their traveling clothes on our trip to Arizona. This was a rest stop in Texas somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was Texas because by New Mexico all the rest stops had "Beware of Rattlesnake" signs.)

Then there was the trip to Grandma's (my mommy) in July. It was a spur of the moment trip, if a 4 day road trip can be called "spur of the moment". And it was a HOOOT!!! We had a blast. Bubba got to come out and be with us and see some sites and just play in the pool. July in August in Arizona means submerged or air conditioning, there are no exceptions...

I've actually TRIED to blog the Arizona trip a couple of times...but there are just too many pictures AND it's been a little over a month ago and there's this other trip we are on RIGHT NOW...

(this is the first night in our hotel...My best friend (known on this blog as SP) made our shirts...which we have worn all over the place...that green garners us quite a bit of attention.)

That's right. Our third annual GIRLY trip. You know the one. Where my friend and her girls meet me and my girls in a central location in these United States and then come back to my house to explore the sites...

I'm living it, RIGHT NOW, TODAY! But as I'm looking over the pictures...there's just so much stuff. There are songs that we are singing...bugs that we are finding...food we are cooking/baking/eating...giggling that we are doing...

And you know how dumb giggling sounds after the fact? Here, I'll give you an example...In the car yesterday, Monkeyface was having an issue with her seat belt...and I'd just issued my standard GITCHER-BELT-ON-RIGHT-NOW-growly-momma-face when she said in her sweet-little-4yo-trying-to-be-macho voice "Buckle-up Buttercup!" The CAR fell apart, laughing.

Okay...so all that to say...BAH, I'm a terrible trip blogger. AND expect when things get a little dry in our school year for me to pull back some of these trip images COMPLETELY in the wrong order.

There, you've been warned. And I've blogged. HA! Two birds with one stone...

(Here are their faces...is Tibbie, Beanie, Bear, Gabby, Monkey Face, Coco and Topo...quite a crew, I'll tell ya...and yes, we are having a blast!!)

See ya around...

Baptism...

2009-08-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

Beanie has been talking about getting baptized for a couple of years now. She was actually scheduled to attend the baptism "party" at our church last year, when our newest little cousin-type-person was born and her momma needed our help and we took off to Colordo.

So when the party came around this year...we were DEFINITELY going...

It was quite a party. For some reason, I didn't GET that there was a pool party to begin it. I should have gotten it. I should have worn my suit or asked Bubba to wear his because the little girls couldn't go in without us and so ended up scampering around in the grass, tackling their Daddy...I think they had fun anyway...actually I think Bubba had MORE fun...

I really took a bunch more pictures...but as ever...other people's children were involved so you don't get to see them...so sorry...

When it came right down to it, Bear decided that she also wanted to be baptized. We'd talked about it a bit before to be sure she knew what it was all about. I'm so thankful they got to share this. I share my baptism date with a best girl friend and it is such a wonderful memory to me.

Here they are waiting their turn by the side of the pool...

Bear ended up going first...here's Miss Bear...

And here is Beanie...

It was a blessed day and a great experience.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we ...also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection...Romans 6:3-5

See ya around...

Critiquing my Bedroom...

2009-08-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

You know...after 6 years in a place, things start really looking a little run down. They aren't what you fell in love with when you moved in.

Take my bedroom, for instance...

I mean seriously...When one of my children decorated my bedspread with sharpie marker, I never dreamed I'd be standing here over a year later still just using the under blanket...and what's with the pillow sticking out from under the bed...oh and that blue thing...that's a heating pad from several months ago when Beanie was alternating heat and ice...when did I stop putting this stuff away?

Just look at that night stand...SHOES? Shoes go in the closet...and SURELY I'm not reading all those books...I'm a homeschool mom...I have proof on this VERY blog that there are BOOKSHELVES in this house...and I'm not even going to mention the laundry on the dresser...

This would be Bubba's side...I had to be honest because my mother reads here and even without caption, she would know whose side was whose simply because she lived with me for many years. But the nice thing about Bubba's side, is that you can see the furniture...I guess I really do like my furniture. It was Bubba's pick though. I am not terribly good at choosing furniture for the "pretty"...I'm all about comfort and not above sitting on gold and green velor IF it's comfortable...but I digress.

Yeah, I really do like my furniture...the fluffy pretty part needs some work...but I think the room has good bones.

Still I wish I could do something about the pillows...they are SO lumpy...

See ya around...

In Case Daddy Shaves me Bald...

2009-08-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

From 08.2009.Pics

The little girls and I stopped in to Sam Moon on our travels today, I'm looking for a bigger bag (didn't find one). In Sam Moon is this WHOLE wall of hair pieces and wigs and stuff that we looked at.

About 10 minutes later, we were out in the car and Bear said, "Momma, if Daddy accidentally shaves me bald, can we go to Sam Moon and get me a wig?" I said, "Bear, seriously, what are the chances that Daddy is gonna shave you bald." She said, "Just in case!!"

I laughed so hard that I'm afraid I could not confirm.

See ya around...

On the Occasion of my 15th Anniversary...

2009-08-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

On a wonderful blog that I've found called Malphi, I discovered a poem that SHOULD have been my acceptance of Bubba's proposal a little over 15 years ago...bless his heart.

Yes, I'll Marry You by Pam Ayres

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.

Yes I'll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It's you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It's you that has to whack him.

Yes, I'll marry you,
You're virile and you're lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!

It's you who has to work the drill
and put up curtain track,
And when I've got PMT it's you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do!

Happy 15 years, My Love...you've filled me with laughter and joy and love and a million other things that make me who I am and I will ever be grateful.

As for the rest of you...See ya around...

Welcome to the Movie...

2009-07-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, I attended my weekly bible study. When I got home, I received an urgent invitation. It said, "Welcome to the Movie. It is called "The 2 boys that are lost. That are really girls" COME NOW."

Well it sounded like a real adventure to me...so I rushed off, without my camera, to watch the...ehem...movie...

After watching for mere seconds, I realized that this one should really be photographed. They'd worked on this a bit...had a costume change and everything.

So, they had to RE-dress and that would explain the slightly "out-of-character" face on Miss Monkey-Face in this shot...

See these two little girls were orphans...I am unsure as to their parents demise...but make no mistake, they were alone in the world...and there were bad guys (again, not positive who or what bad guys, as there was apparently a casting shortage) so they dressed up as boys to be safer in the world. (Boys, APPARENTLY, wear a LOT of clothing...I mean A LOT...big jackets, scarves and hats...AND one of the "boys" had to be pinned into her coat.)

Well, the "boys" made a grand entrance down the staircase...postured a bit about how sad they really were. (Bear's character was dutifully sad...Monkey Face doesn't really have the concept of "sad-in-character" down quite yet, besides her hat kept falling down and her coat was a little long...AND it was about 80 degrees in the house, so she was MOSTLY hot...and that emotion came through beautifully).

After about 10 seconds of establishing their SADNESS...the music started and the clothes came off...well the stage hand had to come in and un-pin Bear...she was JOYFUL about the removing of the coat...it had apparently been a trial for her.

But wait, there is more.

Not more STORY, mind you...more dancing. For some reason, not explained in the script, there was this stage hand...she stepped in for the dancing...as the tallest, she, of course, lead all dancing...and she did have one line, "Where have you been all my life?" that accompanied a merry spin.

I laughed RIGHT OUT LOUD. They were so surprised, they actually slowed down. Apparently the time line switched a bit and these were no longer the LITTLE girls but old enough to have found SOMETHING in the stage hand...or the stage hand found something in them. It was a very confusing plot line, I'll give you that. So I decided to just sit back and watch them.

OH, were they having a good time...

There was even dipping...

When the music ended, they even, SORTA, bowed...

It was truly an enchanting production...

I found out later that there HAD been another "boy" originally cast, but as the third boy needed to help out with the costuming of the younger "boys", timing became problematic...by the time the third "boy" had his costume on, the smallest, first "boy" dressed was suffering from heat stroke and had to be given copious amounts of water prior to the opening curtain.

One other piece of trivia from "The 2 Boys that are lost. That are really girls." The names of the original 3 boys were "Aidan, Ethan and Troy" and in the end the remaining boys were "Aidan and Troy", but their girl names were (ready?) "Buttercup and Star". I was informed LOUDLY that "Buttercup and Star" were INDEED not horse names.

I see.

See ya around...

P.S. After proof-reading this, it is NO wonder that one of the favorite words of my youngest is "apparently". Obviously, I need to get out my thesaurus and change that up a bit.

Shoes Tripled...

2009-07-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

See, I told ya we were alive.

Yesterday, we decided that it was time for Beanie to have some new tennies. The heel lift that she wears in her left shoe makes her outgrow shoes much faster than ever before.

So after lunch, I took Beanie and Bear shopping. Monkey Face went home with Daddy. After trying on shoe after shoe...and agonizing over the increasing ugliness of the choices, we came across those little pink Converse. I thought those would work, and I have always thought they were cute. And I know we are no longer IN the 80's but y'know, retro is cool.

So I went in search of bigger Converse. Well, of course, NOWADAYS, the girl Converse are low top (at least in this store). We tried them on, hoping against hope...Boy, were they cute...but to no avail. Bean's heel-lift is a 12mm which pretty much puts her right out of the top of most shoes and this was no different.

So before I allowed tragedy to reign...I thought..."Hey, maybe there will be something in the boys section...I mean c'mon, Converse are Converse, RIGHT?" So off we trudge with Beanie making those, "Don-wanna-wear-boy-shoes" faces. Come to discover, old mom is right, Converse ARE Converse...and black is cool.

Back to our trying on spot...I stuffed the heel lift in there...and then I sat cross-legged on the floor dealing with the unlacing and re-lacing that comes with a new set of Converse on a kid who can't bend her legs.

You should have see her face when she stood up. Positively beaming. And then she cantered about the store..."Mom, MOM, my heel lift doesn't slide in these...I don't feel like I'm going to fall...Mom, I LOVE these"..."yes, dear, now come over here and shhh, people are staring"...No, I didn't really say that...I thought it a teeny bit, and then got over myself.

Anyway, one look and Bear wanted those EXACT same shoes. Never mind that she NEEDS sandals...no, she was having the same shoes as Beanie. I caved. I am a child of the 80s who never got my very own pair of Converse...I borrowed a pair from my friend...it wasn't the same and frankly, it makes me weak in these situations.

So then came the next difficult portion...finding a 13, wait, no a 12, oh wait, you look like a duck, maybe an 11...in black. There was a black one with flames that BOTH of the girls decided was too boyish...I'd have had them...flames are cool. Anyway, in time the proper sized black all-stars were procured.

Of course, they couldn't have matching shoes and leave Monkey-Face out. My kids are considerate that way. And determined. "Mom, just think of how she would feel...oh, Mom, pa-lease, look at how cute these pink ones are...C'mon Mom, you know she loves pink...Plllleeeeeeesssssseee!!" So what happened? I don't know why you ask...you can see the picture right there...I melted...just like a marshmallow in the microwave. Just sad.

They tried to talk me into getting a matching pair myself. They were so cute, searching up and down for just the right shoes for mom, while I, dutifully searched for the new pair of sandals I actually needed...and they found some pink ones. But I was strong. Number one they were low tops...not my favorite...AND they weren't the plaid ones...if they had been I'd have been lost.

So for awhile, you'll be able to recognize me around town...I'll be the one with the herd of Converse traipsing behind me.

See ya around...

I almost felt like blogging today...

2009-07-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

I've been sorely neglecting this blog.

I know it.

I see it and feel guilty.

Just thought I'd let you know, we are all alive and all is well.

I'll be back...

I almost had a post today...but then it passed.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th.

See ya around...

SWINE FLU??? How the media creeps into my child's brain...

2009-05-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

Monday is always fun for blogging because something ALWAYS happens at church...ALWAYS. Yesterday was no different.

I help with the Children's Worship portion of our Sunday school. This would be called Song Service in some of my extended family's churches...but it is basically the time that we all sing together...clap...do hand motions...learn great songs...and all around have fun and get in the mood for the lessons that will follow.

Now our little "band" consists of Mr. B doing guitar and vocals, Me doing a few vocals and crowd management and a various smattering of kids...we have one that plays guitar, one that plays drums and several others that sing. Now this "band" has been through a lot of changes this year...and one of the things that is starting to be an accomplished goal, is that they are STARTING to sing together and actually sound pretty good. We still couldn't lift Mr. B out...but I can NOT be mic'd MOST of the service because the kids are starting to carry it...YEAH.

The kids are starting to be pretty good friends and that's good because Mr. B and I are constantly talking and improving the songs and telling them to shhhh...or talk quietly among themselves...Well during our last few minutes of clean up yesterday...you know coiling cords, finding mics that traveled, putting away percussion etc. I hear Bean and the young man who is our second guitar player chatting (we'll call him Rocker). She says with wide eyes and straight face, "My sister has SWINE FLU."

I spun around...

To his credit, Rocker did not fly across the room in horror...but OH did his brows go up..."Really???!!!"

I said quickly, "She does NOT." Bean said, "Yes, she does...she was coughing all night". I assured all bystanders that indeed Bear had been coughing in the night (for about 1/2 an hour)...but that she was just fine or would be shortly...

MOVE ALONG THEN, NOTHING TO SEE HERE...

I was mystified..."WHA??? Swine flu?" So we talked a bit. Apparently our trip to Scottish Rite the other day was very informative to Bean. See they had all these signs up that were talking about covering your cough and washing your hands and really making a big deal. So we talked, in general at the time, about how they were just reminding everybody about how to be extra careful because there was a pretty bad flu going around. I don't think I ever mentioned swine flu...but even if I did, most of the conversation was about ways our family already tries to stay healthy...you know eating right, washing hands, taking our vitamins etc. But all the signs really stuck in her head.

Now, I didn't know it at the time, but we also visited with some friends who definately watch the news and are in medical circles, and Bean got even more information from the kids...SWINE FLU is terrible...it's all arooouuuuunnnnndddd....you could have it tooooooooo...etc.

So when her sister woke her up with her coughing...Bean just simply assumed the worst. Now no matter how I asked the question, she hadn't discovered the information on how dangerous the swine flu is supposed to be (I didn't want to put words in her mouth, just figure out what she'd been told)...and that is probably best because Bean is nothing if not protective of her little sisters. I did enlighten her on the symptoms and circumstances of swine flu...and we both agreed that other than a slight cough, Bear didn't display any of those symptoms.

So to all of you who may now believe that the leader of your children's song service has a child with swine flu...rest assured...Bear is just fine this morning. We spent the day yesterday putting vitamin C in her mouth and vicks on the bottoms of her feet and saline rinse up her nose...and she slept all night and hasn't coughed since. She has no fever. She has no stuffy nose. She does have bright, smilin eyes this morning.

Poor Bean has had to learn a couple of little lessons. First, don't believe everything that you hear...if you hear something that frightens you (or anything really), verify it, question the source and by all means gather MORE information...don't just take it at face value. She is also learning that not everything that comes to her head should come out of her mouth. But then again, who doesn't need THAT lesson once in a while.

So that was fun. After all was said and done Bubba and I had a pretty good laugh.

Ain't kids grand???

See ya around....

Back from Scottish Rite...(May 2009)

2009-05-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well...here I am back again.

Our trip was decidedly pleasant. The check up portion was pretty good. We had a new "resident" "fellow" or whatever they are called. He was so cute with Bean. He had her at "Hello, you must be the famous Sarah Hamlin I've heard so much about"...and just kept her charmed from there. It helped that he was young and pretty...she notices that stuff, now that she's 10.

Anyway...the X-Rays were just ugly. I ordered them and will post them when they come (here are the last ones I posted)...but suffice to say...the left has a little regrowth but not much...and the right is definately breaking down. On the upside, her left hip has even better mobility than before...as a matter of fact it looks almost normal to me (I caught her in criss-cross applesauce position with that leg yesterday...woo hoo), but what do I know???

The right. What to say about the right hip? Young Mr. Doctor probably said it best when he said, "That's an angry hip." It's very inflamed. She still has very limited mobility in it. As they were trying to rotate it they got very little rotation in anything but her whole pelvis because that hip is basically locked for the time being. But for now we are still just waiting it out. Our main doctor thinks this will calm down just like the other hip did as the break down progresses. He did say that at least at this moment the right hip seems to be maintaining it's height, so we are hoping that it won't break down as far as the left, but it still is too soon to tell.

As to how she is. Overall she's pretty good. We need the wheelchair on long distances...things like any store or the library...and she uses her walker for a while first thing in the morning...but she's starting to recognize when she'll be able to "walk it out" and when we've got a problem and need to get the ice going. That has been a huge blessing, because it's helped her to realize it isn't ALWAYS going to be terrible pain.

After the business portion of our trip, we got to go up to the children's ward and visit everyone. That was so much fun. All the kids and nurses and physical therapists called her by name and stuck around us the whole time we were there. We got to check up on their status and play a few games and go outside and toss tennis balls up against velcro "gloves"...even WITH the velcro gloves we legged folk got a run for our money chasing down the overthrows. It was fun and very funny and heartwarming. Beanie said that she wished she could come and play everyday...and in some ways I wish she could, too.

On to other news...she turned 10 on Wednesday. She is SO excited to be double digits, dontcha know. Bear says, "I won't be excited until you are TRIPLE digits!" Ain't sisters grand???

From 04.2009.Pics

See ya around...

P.S. To those of you who have NO idea what is going on here, please click Legg-Perthes or the same category on the left...you learn plenty...

A Rock In My Stomach...

2009-04-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well...remember I said that I blog on the upswing...this last week has not EXACTLY been an upswing.

We've been pretty busy with our standards...you know, homeschool, soccer, church, random photography endeavors...and dancing...there's been a fair amount of dancing...oh, and laughing...a good portion of laughing...

But we also have an appointment on the books with Scottish Rite next week. That always puts a rock in my stomach. Sort of like the test you didn't study for in high school...I've got a mixture of fear and dread going on...and it isn't exactly pleasant. I gotta tell you, this parenting thing...it ain't for sissies.

Her? She's just fine. Looking FORWARD to it, in fact. Hmmmmm...maybe I just need a tattoo...

See ya around...

Fun with Flarp...

2009-04-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

In the girl's Easter baskets this year, they received a product called Flarp. Ours had pretty much been used to capacity when we received a sweet care package for Beanie from a friend. Inside the care package was another, wonderful, fresh can of Flarp.

After wrestling the can from the children once or twice...I knew that it was made of something SIMILAR to the oooobleck that we made a couple of years ago.

So, being that there was only one GOOD can left...and being an extremely fair mother...I decided that nothing must do but that we see if we could make some more.

Here is that tutorial for you...

First things first, you need

1/4 cup white glue
1/4 cup water
Food coloring (optional)
1 TBL Borax (you'll find it in the laundry section in the grocery store...and one box'll last you FOREVER)
1 cup of water (yes, I've listed water twice.

Okay...first thing...get yourself two bowls...

In the first bowl mix 1/4 cup of white glue and 1/4 cup of water together...

Now mix the food coloring into the glue mixture...

Now in the other bowl mix 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of Borax...once this is mixed get out a 1/2 cup measure or something that your kid can pour easily and get ready. You want to pour a little Borax mixture into the glue mixture and massage it around until you have slime...but you don't need to use the entire 1/2 cup for Flarp. Flarp is less brittle than the standard slime...

This is what it will look like as you add it...and if you are taking pictures of the fun you really will need another hand...(perhaps my brother's friend Hans could help me next time.)

If you use too much of the Borax mixture, it will still be slime...but it'll break under too much pressure...and Flarp is all about pressure...it's total purpose is the rude noise it produces...and the giggles that overtake the children in the aftermath.

Below, my lovely assistant with the slime that got too much Borax...looks like Flarp, but it breaks...

After you mix it all up...get it out of the excess Borax mixture and hand it to some lovely assistant or other...she will knead it...and shortly it will be Flarp with which she will proceed to pose...

And then do it again with a different color...knock yourself out...do it until you run out of glue, cuz you are NOT going to run out of Borax anytime soon...

Have fun...

See ya around...

The Blur that most people call Easter...

2009-04-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Easter. Didja hear?

You know, celebration of our Lord Jesus resurrected for our sins. Big holiday over here, most years. Second only to Christmas over here, most years. Something we usually look forward to for several weeks.

This year...hmmm...not so much. Because I was helping at church, a few things kind of fell apart at home. Oh well. We'll schedule better next year. We did get a few things in and it was a lovely day over all...just not traditonal...or rather not OUR traditonal.

We did color eggs on Saturday. My girls LOVE coloring eggs. And we go it one further because we also dye paper towels...as evidenced in my last post. We dye paper towels because Bubba HATES plastic grass (with a purple passion)...so I use the dyed, dried paper towels in their baskets...

Here is the set up and the egg dying in all it's glory...

And after the fun of all that...the next morning we got up...went through their baskets...went to church...were there for two services...enjoyed ourselves. Went to TGIFriday's for lunch (not exactly Easter Dinner but I didn't have to do the dishes :) ). Came home...napped. Got up...ate dinner and watched a movie. Didn't remember until bed time that we hadn't hunted eggs, played with our Resurrection Eggs, read from the Bible or watched Cotton Patch Gospel...or any of the other things that make Easter, Easter over here.

I'm a little sad about it. But then again, it was last week and the memory is fading quickly with the fun of this week. As it should be.

See you around...

Me and Photography...

2009-04-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

I've never been what could be considered a photographer. Actually, until I had kids, I wasn't even much of a picture taker.

But recently...I've been exploring my camera. Ever since I started reading Pioneer Woman and discovered her blog of tutorials on Photoshop and photography in general, I've gotten more and more interested. However, for the most part, I don't have the time or the inclination to sit down and really READ my manual. (I blame my past, I was an MCSE, after all, and a computer hardware girl beside...we don't READ to set up things unless it's to teach a class or pass a test...and we CERTAINLY don't look at the manual FIRST.)

But I have been learning in short bursts. Taking one thing and looking it up. Mucking about a bit. Then back to auto-point-and-shoot. Then some picture will catch my eye...or a new tutorial...and I'll take 3 minutes to see what my manual says about THAT. Then off I go again.

This makes for TONS of pictures that don't FIT anywhere...like this set from the other day...First I took it on auto...then flipped it to manual because I wanted to see the ripples...then after changing the shutter speed (ISO) and time value finally got close to what I was looking for. Of course, I'm not showing you the 6 other pictures I took as I got to where I wanted. PTL for digital photography technology, eh?

Or these two shots that simply show the difference between auto and manual/vivid...I was actually surprised at the difference...it's pretty subtle...but it's there...

Or my tiny foray into macro-photography...where else would I ever use this picture?

I stood in my kitchen the other day while the girls dyed paper towels and played with ISO (shutter speed...I think...it would have been film-speed on my old camera)...I discovered how much closer to the same light you are seeing without using a flash that you can get with this button. For instance, the first two are too light (used the flash) and too dark (no flash)respectively...The last two looked the same in the camera as what I was seeing with my eyes (I was standing with the bright window behind me and I think it was set at 400)...

I'm started to ENJOY taking pictures a little more. I'm starting to notice pictures out in the world that would be fun to take if only I could control my camera a little better. I'm even having better luck with first time straight out of the camera shots that actually LOOK like what I'm seeing...

Now if only I could figure out Photoshop. Oh how I miss my friend, The Camera King, who is always available by phone but of course knows FAR more than I know to ask him. Oh how I WISH that I'd studied less TCP/IP and more Photoshop...Guy, Gina, Dan...sorry I missed your classes...

Oh well...it'll be 2095 before I get all the way through this manual...but at least I found a place for a few of these extra pictures. PHEW!

See ya around...

Some things cause pure joy...

2009-04-16T17:03:00.001-07:00

It's true...

I can't embed this because it's too new on youtube...but watch this clip of "Britain's Got Talent"...

It will bring you joy, I promise.

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009

See ya around...

Drumroll, please...

2009-04-13T03:19:00.000-07:00

Attention...may I have your attention...TAP TAP TAP...

Bear the Great...my child...the mighty...the photographer in these self and mommy portraits (6 words, "Get that old hag some makeup')...the artist formerly known as one of the ones with a full set of teeth...

The same Bear who we chased last week with shouts of "EWWW!!" "GA-ROSS!!" "You are giving me the creeps!" The one who insisted on showing us the convolutions of her loose tooth. And who, even when not actively trying to make her sisters squeal, still caused many a shudder because she definately looked a little odd...

This Bear has OFFICIALLY lost her very first tooth...She has crossed the threshold into that "I lost a tooth" status that seems so important to this set, where there are truely the haves and have nots.

Please forgive the crazed look...it was after bath, on the way to bed. Daddy had "helped" her brush her teeth and between the slight pain of the...um..."brushing" and the sheer excitement of the whole tooth fairy aspect, I was lucky to catch her on film (or digital media in this case).

And here is the tooth, preparing to be placed in the VERY official tooth cup. That cup was brought into our family from a local fast food restaurant during the first run of the LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring movie. Beanie found it WAY in the back of one of our cabinets when she lost her first tooth and it's been the official cup EVER since.

I will not go into the details of our tooth losing traditions. I know not who is reading or what they would think. But I will say, this is one of my current favorite milestones...it's nothing but funny to see how excited they are to get rid of those pearly whites.

See ya around...

The Hilarious Predicament of Skirts...

2009-04-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

It's beginning to be spring here in Texas. This means some of the same things that it means in the rest of the country. Warmer temperatures and wild flowers are part of it indeed, but in Texas, we make these signs into a quartet of Ws by adding weather and WIND.

This story is REALLY about the wind.

Yesterday, we went to church, as is becoming our habit once again. Due to the warmer temperatures, both Beanie and I wore skirts. Because I help with the kid's song service, Bean and I left a little earlier than the rest of the family and so were alone.

Getting to the church was not that big a deal. I don't even think we noticed the wind much. But on the way home, because we were now a little later than the rest of the family (I also help with song service in the 2nd service...so Bubba takes the little girls home) we stopped to pick up take out for lunch and Bean WALKED into the store.

As she was getting out of the car, quite unexpectedly the wind blew right up Beanie's skirt. "WOOOOOOOOO", she squealed and clutched herself and then started laughing. I mean laughing so hard she could hardly walk especially with all the clutching of the skirt and the buffeting of the wind. Which, of course, got me gigglin'.

We finally got into the store...got the merriment under control and were standing calmly at the counter to order or pay or something (I truly forget at this point), when a man walked out the door behind us. The wind whipped in that open door and flipped BOTH of our skirts around...thankfully mine was longer so I mostly just got a draft...but there was Beanie, skirt flipping, squealing, clutching, blushing and now REALLY laughing because it'd happened to me, too. The man behind the counter lost it. Hilarity took over and reigned for close to a full minute...a really long time in a public place.

So hmmm...the moral of this story is ... Well, I don't know what it is. I should say that you shouldn't wear a skirt in the wind, but then the squeal comes back to my head..and the shrieks of laughter.

Maybe the moral is, you should ALWAYS get your 9 year old to wear a skirt in the wind...because it's funny, man...seriously funny.

See you around...