Thursday, October 29, 2009

Boo

Last night the boys and I did our annual pumpkin carving.

They pick the design and I carve. But I also let them carve their own pumpkins this year.

So the kitchen ended up being three times as messy and the process took w
hat seemed like for ever.

But their pumpkins turned out great and we
all had fun.

Here are a few pictures...








I've been so busy the past few days that I really enjoyed the family time last night. So I'm taking Friday off to spend more time with the boys.

I hope everyone has a great time trick or treating!! And I hope everyone gets all they candy they can stand.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Can't even think of a title for this

I have so much random stuff going on right now I didn't think I could put it all under one title and stick to it. So I think I'll just start typing it out and let it go where it goes.

This past weekend we had our school carnival and it was a huge success. The boys had a blast playing all the games and jumping in all of the different moon walks set up.

R1 had saved enough money to buy a video game he has been saving for. But I have a feeling he will be loosing the new game due to the fact he will be grounded because he becomes oblivious to the requests of his father and I. Anyone else have this problem?

I made not one but two trips to my beloved HEB this weekend. I forgot to get a ton of stuff not just one or two things but like twenty things. And I had a list!

I had my bible study class last night and Beth Moore is still bringing it and she totally brought it last night. I got it in such a way my soul hurt. A good hurt but oh my head is now swimming with information that is going to take me all week just to process.

I'M BELIEVING GOD!!!

Sunday after church R2 helped me work in the back yard flower beds. My yard now actually looks like people really do live here. I love to work in the yard I find it therapeutic.

R1's teacher and Hubs tried to play a trick on me yesterday. Hubs' showed R1's teacher the picture of his diorama on my post and she sent me an email saying R1 was upset because I wouldn't let him help and how I made the whole thing. I have one word to describe my feelings...PANIC!!!

I was ready to throw mine in the trash and let R1 make one all by himself. Which would require me to leave the house and walk up and down each and every isle at Target. Twice.

But then Hubs came clean and told me, he and R1's teacher had planned the entire thing.

NOT COOL HUBS, NOT COOL!!!

So other than that we are just getting ready for the Halloween carnival this weekend and the plethora of candy that will follow.

How about y'all?

Monday, October 26, 2009

The dreaded class project, again

So here were are AGAIN! That time of the year where the teachers are giving out class projects.

This year R1 has to do a diorama of one of four Indian tribes they have been studying.

Diorama is a fancy word for grab a shoe box cover it in brown paper and then break out the glue gun, but not before going to Hobby Lobby to get all of the necessary items to make the project. And to stock up on 1. more glue sticks 2. more Halloween stuff (50%-75% off) and 3. Christmas stuff it's already marked down to 40% off.

So while R1 played his DSi, I went to work on his diorama. My OCD for all things crafty takes over and even if he wanted to try to help, I wouldn't let him. Just kidding.

But anyone who has ever done a class project know the parents are the ones who really make the project. There is no way a child of his age could make a life size scale of a working robot. Which was one of last years projects. I'm just sayin'.

I sat down at the kitchen table, with all my supplies and started planning and fabricating just how I was going to position the Indians, teepee's and all the other Indian stuff.

After about an hour this is what I, I mean we, came up with, that a few fingers that were burnt and still have hot glue residue on them!

We used a Nike box and since it was bright orange, I covered it in brown wrapping paper, inside out..the right side says "Do not open before Dec 25th.


The finished diorama


My bad photography skillz, trying to show you my burnt fingers covered in hot glue.


Friday, October 23, 2009

A teaching moment

Yesterday was just one of those kinda days.

Where things go wrong and words speak louder than actions.

Yesterday R1 had a bad day, made some bad choices. And his decisions affected me and Hubs.

A friend said to me yesterday evening, everyone messes up and deserves another chance. And he was right.

So last night R1 and I talked a little bit about his actions and we decided to forgive and move forward. I even let him watch TV after I told him he was going straight to bed when we got home.

Then later on in the evening, R1 did something else that just set me off. I admit it, I yelled and screamed. If I wanted him to learn from my actions, then I did a down right crappy job!

In all the craziness of the moment, I realized that God gives us second chances. And thirds and fourths and so on.

So after we fixed the problem and I calmed down. I prayed then I went to R1's bedroom and prayed with him. Actually we both prayed. We both prayed for each other along with other things.

This is the side I want my son to see. The side of me where my faith kicks in and God take control, not my anger fueled emotions with the devil sitting on my shoulder saying "go for it!"

Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. In fact some times it just down right stinks!

And when life doesn't go down the nice neat path and the bumps feel more like pot holes, or better yet like the earth opened up and swallowed us, we know God loves us and forgives us.

I told both boys last night, no matter what they did that day or any other day, no matter what they say or said in the past, I love them. I will always love them. God loves them.

And if He can forgive them, then so can I.





Thursday, October 22, 2009

Music Skillz

So last night Hubs and I are standing in the kitchen getting dinner ready and R2 comes running in.

And he is singing.

Singing a Steve Miller Band song at that.

He comes sliding through singing...I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker.

At this point I would seriously have to question my parenting skillz.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bed time blues

It seems I have mentioned this before, for some reason R2 gives us trouble every night around bed time.

We get him settled, he's watching TV, and the next thing I know I hear the following calls:

1. Mama!!
2. R1 won't share the covers!
3. I need you!
4. I need another hug and kiss!
5. Mama!!
6. I need a drink!
7. You forgot to turn on the light!
8. Mama!!

So last night was no different except that I was extremely tired and Hubs was doing some research on the computer.

My question is this how do you get a 41/2 yr old to settle down and go to sleep? He is usually in his bed by 8 and lights out by 8:30/9.

I've read the books, tried leaving him in his room,crying, and nothing is working. So anything at this point would be helpful or else I'm gonna ground my self to my room for the night!

Oh wait, I might like that.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

No left turns

I read this yesterday on FiddleDeeDee's blog.

It touched my soul so much that I emailed her and asked her if I could share her post with y'all. And being the gracious person she is, she said yes.

Here is what she wrote.

October 18th, 2009 by Fiddledeedee

My 85 year old aunt and I were chatting on the phone over the weekend. I dearly love to talk to her because a) she’s a hoot, and b) I can close my eyes and hear my mother in her voice.

We were discussing old folks who drive, and we talked about my grandparents driving habits. My Nanny couldn’t see over the steering wheel, so she drove only in an emergency. Like when she would run out of fresh lard and have to make a beeline to the Piggly Wiggly. But she absolutely hated to drive.

My aunt asked me if I’d ever heard the story about the old couple who never made a left turn. I started laughing because I go miles out of my way to avoid a left turn.

Because I’m secretly 90.

I hadn’t heard this particular story, so she sent it to me.

It made my day, and I wanted to share it with you all. Just in case you’re secretly 90 too. Or you know someone who is 90.

This piece was written by Michael Gartner, who in 1997 won a publitzer prize for his editorial work.

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No Left Turns

My father never drove a car. Well, that’s not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car.

He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

“In those days,” he told me when he was in his 90s, “to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it.”

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: “Oh, bull—-!” she said. “He hit a
horse.”

“Well,” my father said, “there was that, too.”

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars — the Kollingses next door had a green 1941Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth , the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford — but we had none.

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines , would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we’d ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. “No one in the family drives,” my mother would explain, and that was that.

But, sometimes, my father would say, “But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we’ll get one.” It was as if he wasn’t sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

But, sure enough , my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown.

It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn’t drive, it more or less became my brother’s car.

Having a car but not being able to drive didn’t bother my father, but it didn’t make sense to my mother.

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father’s idea. “Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?” I remember him saying more than once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps — though they seldom left the city limits — and
appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn’t seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage.

(Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin’s Church.

She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish’s two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home.

If it was the assistant pastor, he’d take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests
“Father Fast” and “Father Slow.”

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he’d sit in the car and read, or go take a
stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I’d stop by, he’d explain: “The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored.”

If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out — and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, “Do you want to know the secret of a long life?”

“I guess so,” I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

“No left turns,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“No left turns,” he repeated. “Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.

As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn.”

“What?” I said again.

“No left turns,” he said…”Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that’s a lot safer. So we always make three rights.”

“You’re kidding!” I said, and I turned to my mother for support.

“No,” she said, “your father is right. We make three rights. It works.”

But then she added: “Except when your father loses count.”

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.

“Loses count?” I asked.

“Yes,” my father admitted, “that sometimes happens. But it’s not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you’re okay again.”

I couldn’t resist. “Do you ever go for 11?” I asked.

“No,” he said ” If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so
important it can’t be put off another day or another week.”

My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving.. That was in 1999, when she was 90.

She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.

They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom — the house had never had one.. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

He continued to walk daily — he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he’d fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising — and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation
about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, “You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred.” At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, “You know, I’m probably not going to live much longer.”

“You’re probably right,” I said.

“Why would you say that?” He countered, somewhat irritated.

“Because you’re 102 years old,” I said.

“Yes,” he said, “you’re right.” He stayed in bed all the next day.

That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night.

He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said: “I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet.”

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:

“I want you to know,” he said, clearly and lucidly, “that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have.”

A short time later, he died.

I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I’ve wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long.

I can’t figure out if it was because he walked through life,

Or because he quit taking left turns.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday Hubs and I took the boys to the pumpkin patch to take a few pictures.

A local church puts on this event every year.

R2's pre-school took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. And he was sick that day, and I didn't want him to miss going so I made the decision on the next nice weekend we would go.

This weekends weather did not disappoint. It was beautiful!!!

And here are the boys...






Friday, October 16, 2009

Busy busy busy

So tonight is Homecoming.

And while R1 is still WAY to young to date or even have a date, we go to homecoming. Mostly to show Hubs some support.

But I actually love to see the girls all dressed up in their gowns and hair done. I also like to see the guys all cleaned up wearing a suit and tie.

So tonight I will put my school colors shirt, spike the boys hair up with colored hair gel and pray we win!

What are y'all doing tonight?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Charm House

I have to tell you about my friend Yvette, of The Charm House.

I have known her over a year, thanks to blogging.

She is super talented and amazing. She has so much creativity it just oozes from her soul.

Over the last year she has inspired me to make things I never would have thought to even try. I mean I consider myself to be a pretty creative person. I love to scrapbook and that takes some imagination. But she puts me in shame!

Like this memory jar. Hers was awesome! But I thought I could do this and it would be a great way to display all the stuff the boys collected. And I love how it turned out too.

Right now she is in what I call creativity mode. She's totally on a roll! Her daughter is getting married and had made somethings for the junior bridesmaids to carry that are just stunning.

She has also made some necklaces for Christmas which are just darling!

And I can a test to the darling factor, she made me a Santa domino necklace last year and I receive so many compliments every time I wear it.

So if y'all get a minute pop on over to her blog and check out her crafting. And leave her a sweet comment too.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The great costume debate

I can finally say my boys are costume ready for Halloween.

And it only took a sweet forever for R1 to decide what he was going to be this year.

R2 was all set on Iron Man until he saw the Bumble Bee, from Transformers, costume with it's built in muscles and body armour. He grabbed the costume off the rack and wouldn't let it go until I told him I would buy it.

R1 well he was on the fence about several different ideas he had and couldn't and wouldn't commit to any one thing.

So after much gnashing of the teeth and trying to find the one he wanted in his size he has decided to be a ninja.

A black ninja with a body shield and shields for his shins and arms. And a sword. Because no ninja is complete with out a sword.

My only problem is that half way through the night I will end up carrying said sword along with their candy bags/buckets.

So tell me what your kids are going to be for Halloween?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Pumpkin carving time

Just a little something to make you laugh...


I ran this picture last year and loved it!

How are you going to carve your pumpkins?

The boys usually pick out one design for me to carve and that one goes on our big pumpkin. Then I cut our self adhesive black felt in the shape of eyes, noses, and mouths and the boys decorate their smaller pumpkins.

I feel there is neither a right or wrong way to carve a pumpkin. It's all about having fun.

But for those of you that are serious. Check these out!

Monday, October 12, 2009

More baseball stuff and other news

Here I go again. I'm late putting up a post.

We had a busy weekend. But when don't we.

R1 had a friend spend the night Friday night. And they had a blast. They even included R2 in pretty much what ever it was they were doing.

I still managed to spend most of my time in the kitchen though. Why is it that boys are bottomless pits when it comes to eating?

R1's friend stayed at our house all day Saturday and we brought him home when we left to go to our Sunday School party.

Loved the fellowship Saturday night and the food...AWESOME!! My baked potato dip was hit. And it's so easy, here's the recipe.

BAKED POTATO DIP
1 12oz tub of sour cream
1 8oz pkg of real bacon bits
1 pkg of cheddar cheese (2cups) Your preference of sharp or mild
1/4 cup fine chopped green onion
Mix all ingrediants together
Serve with plain Ruffles potato chips
See told you it was easy! And it's even bettter if you let it sit over night. YUM!!!
Sunday we went to church and then R1 had is select baseball team kick off. More good food. We got to meet everyone on his team and their parents. We also got to order uniforms and parent shirts, sweat shirts, and all the other baseball paraphernalia.

We also got our fundraisers. UGH!! I don't like fund raiser but it's a necessary evil I guess.

And on Saturday afternoon we got some bad news.

My stepmother's father passed away. He was 90. He had just turned 90 last month and had a huge birthday party and all of his children, grand children, and great grand children were there. I'm so glad everyone got to attended and have this special memory.

My stepmother works for the FDIC and is usually out of town working but it just happened that she came home on Friday night and then her brother called her Saturday.

So please keep my dad and stepmother, M & C in your prayers, along with her family.

Hope y'all have a great week!!

Friday, October 9, 2009

It's Friday and I got nothin'

Well once again, I'm late putting up a post for all of my three readers, do I even have that many?

I do need to shout out to Beachy Mimi, I won a give away she had and she sent me a gift card to Target!!

THANKS MIMI!!!

R2 is now sick and Hubs is at home with him today.

Clouds are moving in and it's suppose to rain today and turn colder. Woo Hoo!!! But even that will be short lived, high for Tuesday is back in the 80's

Hello, it's October, where is my cold weather Mother Nature?

Other than that, I got nothin'.

Have a great weekend y'all.

Peace out!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

When it rains it pours

OK so I have a little pity party going on right now and after I vent out my frustrations to y'all I will feel much better.

So I missed work on Monday because R1 was still sick.

Yesterday he broke a bracket off of his braces and I have to take him to the ortho today to have it replaced. Mind you hasn't even had them on a month and he was eating a carrot when it broke.

We have a party on Saturday that I need to get ready for and then R1 has a select baseball kick off BBQ on Sunday afternoon.

UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!

OK I feel better now, thank you very much!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Handy Hubs

This past weekend Hubs and I loaded up the family and went to help my dad.

Dad lives in Houston and he needed some help with a project he has been working on. He built a deck in his back yard and covered it and needed help putting the roof on.

I volunteered Hubs to help because he has skillz.

Actually Hubs has done this sort of thing before with his dad. And I knew that he would know what needed to be done.

And here is the proof that Hubs was pretty handy.






Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Believing God

Last night I attended my first Beth Moore bible study.

Now don't go gettin' all envious because it wasn't an in person event, it was taped.

Two ladies at my church
, Beth and Karen, did this study over the summer and thought it would be wonderful to share it with the rest of us. And I love these two ladies and would have gone even if it wasn't a Beth Moore study but once I found out it was, I couldn't sign up fast enough.

And true to what I have heard here in bloggy world, Beth brought it!

SHE WAS AMAZING!!!

Can I get an Amen?

We are doing the study "Believing God".

So for the next nine weeks we will be meeting once a week to hear Beth speak. And when I say speak, I mean speak right to me and my heart and my soul and my very being.

I am so excited to be apart of this study. I am ready to for God to show him self once again in a big HUGE way to me.

I am ready for him to move me to places I have never been. I am looking forward to growing more in faith and my relationship with the Lord.

So to Beth Moore I say...BRING IT! I'm believing God.

Friday, October 2, 2009

The other great sickness of 2009

I'm sorry for posting this so late but I was short on time last night and this morning wasn't much better.

We got over the great stomach virus of 09 but now we have another visitor to our household and I don't want this one at all!

THE FLU!!

R1 went to the nurse yesterday and complained that his head and stomach hurt. The nurse called Hubs and he went to check on him. They gave him a peppermint and talked him into staying for the rest of the day.

Hubs also had football last night and after I got off of work, I went to meet him at the game.

I found R1 in the press box, where it was air conditioned, thank you very much. But he was asleep with his head on the counter. And when I touched his face he was on fire.

So we promptly left the game and got home and took his temperature.

102.00 was what the thermometer said. And just for good measure I took it again and it read 101.8 so I knew it was right. And he was complaining that his bones hurt too.

One dose of Motrin coming up.

Then R1 went and got on the couch for the rest of the night. R2 was so sweet, he kept checking on him and asking if he needed anything.

So today he has a doctors appointment and hopefully he will get a hefty dose of Tamiflu and we can get past the sickness.

And in the mean time, I have once again donned my hazmat suit and hosed the house down in Lysol.

Now if we can just keep the rest of us from getting it.

So this weekend when y'all are playing and having fun, think of me walking around my house in my bright white attire and packing a can of Lysol.

And it's OK if you laugh at the thought, because hopefully, I will be laughing to, hopefully!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Baseball stuff again

I know I know, how can one person, that is of the female nature, post so much about baseball.

Seriously.

Hubs sent me this clip and I just couldn't pass this up.

Now only if Mike Blowers would send me the lottery numbers, I be all set!