Music & Movies

Posted by cokelady

It's been a really nice couple of days. Nothing much happened yesterday. That was the beginning of the "nice"--and probably the last of the "nothing happening" thing for a while! The only thing of consequence is that we had a guy up to the house to tune our piano. It hadn't been tuned in many, many years and after so many moves it was definitely time. The man was probably in his 60's, really, really cute (you know how I am about old guys!), and had so many interesting things to say. He knew quite a bit about our piano. He knew immediately (by the curved lines instead of boxy edges) that it was from the turn of the century. He also said he wouldn't be able to tune it "correctly" because at the time our piano was built they were all tuned to a lower pitch. They started tuning them to what is now considered the standard back in the 20's. Who knew?! So he tuned it to what it was originally intended to be tuned to. :-) He is from Switzerland and moved here about 40 years ago. He had a really neat accent and I kept asking more questions just because I enjoyed hearing him talk. :-) He teaches piano lessons and said that he has lots of people who play classical music come to him and ask him to teach them how to play jazz or to improvise. By that I knew that he was my kind of piano player! While I was writing out his check I asked him if he'd play a song for us and he was gracious enough to oblige. I didn't recognize the tune, but it was something very turn-of-the-century-ish ("to match the piano," he said) and it was great! I never knew having a piano tuner out could be so enjoyable! :-)

Today has been really nice, too. James took both boys with him to do some running around, so I figured it would be a good time for a girl party! We don't get to have those very often. We didn't have any Totino's, so Katie and I hopped in the van and ran down to Charlie's. He doesn't carry Totino's (can you imagine?!), so we picked up a Tombstone and a couple of strawberry shortcake ice cream bars for dessert. We came home, threw our pizza in the oven and a girl movie in the laptop and we were off! It was GREAT. And then came the talk afterwards...

It was a princess kind of movie and there was a romance-type theme entwined loosely with the rest of the plot. Katie and I got to talking about it and I mentioned that it's really crazy and silly how some teenagers act and said something about the "bad" girls and the way they act with boys--all flirty and such. I threw the statement in there, "By the way, you're not allowed to kiss--just in case you ever wonder." I was SOOOOOO unprepared for what happened next. Katie burst into tears and dropped into a little pile on the floor, sobbing. ?!?!? I asked her what on earth was wrong, but she was far too upset to be able to speak. I finally asked her if it had something to do with not being allowed to kiss. She said yes, but kept sobbing. I tried to pry some more and finally got a response out of her: "But I love it!!!" Now I was more confused than ever. I asked if she'd ever kissed a boy and she said, "Of course!" I asked who and then came the answer to all of my confusion: "Dad and Granddad and Brother Chris and Brother Sam..." Ha! She thought I meant she could never kiss anybody ever again--she made no connection with the idea of kissing "a boy"! ~whew~ I was so relieved!!! Ha! I assured her that it was perfectly fine for her to kiss her Dad and Granddad and Grandpa--and always would be. I took the opportunity to tell her that she's probably getting a little too old to keep on kissing all of the other guys (she was sad, but seemed to get over it), but that I meant that she wasn't allowed to kiss BOYS--like, boys her age. I told her that she's allowed to slap them good and hard if any of them ever tried to kiss her. :-) She's a bit young to be worried about that sort of thing, but in the world today you just never know! She seemed happy with that information and I was happy that she had no desire to kiss "boys" and was only all freaked out because she thought she'd never be able to kiss her Dad again!

I started packing today. I've got the kids' stuff pretty well lined out. I have the Traveling-to-Tennessee Suitcase, the During-the-Assembly Suitcase, and the Not-Until-We-Get-to-Pennsylvania suitcase all started. It requires a lot more thinking to pack this way, but it sure does simplify things in the long-run. Unless, of course, something ends up in the wrong suitcase. Then you're in big, big trouble!

Tonight we let the kids sit down and watch Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (that was TWO movies for Katie today--crazy!!!)--the old one with Gene Wilder, of course. They all seemed to like it, but I was thrilled to hear them say that they liked the book better. :-) Makes me so very, very happy!

And that's about it from here. Aside from a little packing, a little vacuuming and a little picking up around the house, it was pretty much a day off!

--Okay, so Willy Wonka was a bad idea. ~sigh~ I can't believe this. I just had a child come SCREAMING and running into my room sobbing, grab onto me and cling tightly while trying (through his sobs) to explain his bad dream. Remember the tunnel scene? "There's no earthly way of knowing... which direction we are going..." But get this--we didn't let the kids watch the tunnel scene. I don't remember much about it, just that it sounds kind of freaky. I was actually on the phone with Brother Dustin (THANK YOU, DUSTIN, FOR BEING THE CAUSE OF SEVERE TRAUMA TO YET ANOTHER OF MY CHILDREN!) and James was watching the show with the kids. He said he skipped that part of the movie, but let them listen to the first part of it. If I had been there I wouldn't have allowed that--I know how haunting sounds can be! Couple that with a kid's imagination and the knowledge that they skipped that part of the movie because "it's scary" and, well, you have a disaster waiting to happen. It only waited about an hour. Sam is now sleeping soundly on the floor by my bed. ~sigh~ It's so frustrating that my kids are such sissies! But it's largely due to the fact that they've seen so little of anything "scary" they're super sensitive to things that other kids wouldn't bat an eye at. Hopefully my other kids will make it through the night okay! Willy Wonka... who would've guessed you could have nightmares about a show like Willy Wonka?! I sincerely hope it's not a recurring one! Ha!

4 comments

Our Weekend

Posted by cokelady

Katie has spent a great deal of her time the past two weeks talking to the neighbors across the fence. They're fixing the place up and have been outside a lot, so that's provided lots of opportunities for Katie to visit. I keep a pretty close eye and ear on things and I love it that she's so friendly and personable... but she's become almost obsessed with it! Every time I go outside to check on her she's standing down by their yard, peering over the fence, waiting for somebody to show up to talk to! I called to her on Friday and sat down and had a good talk with her. I told her she's a whole lot like her mother, except not shy. (I was PAINFULLY shy as a child.) I told her I always wanted to be with people and right in the middle of things, too (I'm still that way!), I just never had the guts to actually do it. Still, I understand that "people person" thing that she has. I also told her how her family is missing her because she's spending all of her time with the neighbors! I asked if she'd come and spend some time with me and help me finish cleaning up the school desk. That lasted all of about 60 seconds before her Dad had recruited her for a different job!

I had finished up on the Regional Paper the night before and James was busy compiling it, so he got Katie busy labeling envelopes for him. :-) She did a GREAT job. After she had finished putting address labels and return labels on everything I sat down to help, too. Katie would arrange the papers in the correct order, I'd fold them, she'd stack them, and James would stuff the envelopes. It worked great and was so fun to have Katie helping out--and she had a blast.

(I post this next picture mainly to show off my freshly organized school table! :-) Even though it's on the wrong side of the room. James has been ripping up the kitchen floor, so it had to be temporarily moved.)

It made me think back to the good ole' days when our family did the Evening Light. Mom did all of the formatting, but when we got it back from the print shop I (and whatever friends were available--Tammy and Cathy and Melissa in 'Springs or Em & Lib in Howard) would do all of the folding and tabbing and labeling and binding and sorting... and noting. :-) We wrote lots and lots of notes to all of our favorite people! It was so fun. We were going to let Katie write some notes on a few of the envelopes but we forgot to go back and do it. Maybe next time. She's going to be such a great helper with stuff like this. It's right down her alley. What a great kid she is! :-)

I found a couple of paint books in the school desk, so I let the kids purty up a few pages that night.

James was in a playful mood that night. I was in the house trying to concentrate on something on the computer, but all I could hear was laughing and screaming and squealing! I finally just gave up and went to take some pictures.
They'll all been on the trampoline for at least 20 minutes, having a ball. Such great memories with their Dad! :-)

After the trampoline everybody headed over to the play fort for some more fun.

Then it was down to the pond to sit and relax for a while. Hershey joined us, of course. I just love this picture. You can almost SEE the relationship between James and the dog! Ha! Enlarge it and look at Hershey's eyes...

The whole fam! (Minus Mom, of course)

I've noticed that Hershey very rarely drinks water out of his dish in the house anymore. I see him almost every day outside drinking out of the pond. He LOVES it. But that's not all he loves. James threw a handful of fish food into the pond that night and we watched as Hershey circled around the pond, finally picked a spot, crawled down next to the water and began scooping the fish food toward him with his paws--then eating it! He goes nutty any time James gets it out (James has given him a few pieces here and there--and I think it has a really strong smell or something), but we had no idea he actually got into the pond and stole food from the fish! Weird dog!!!

I don't remember Saturday at all. Unless that was Saturday. Hhmmm. Oh well.

We had a really great Sunday. Good Sunday School (story of Abraham and Isaac), good worship, and a good message. Afterwards we had a pot-luck. Ah! I just remembered Saturday! I spent most of the day getting ready for the pot-luck! I made punch, party meatballs, a HUGE taco salad (twice as big as I thought it would be!) and dump cake. Anyway, the pot luck was lots of fun and everybody really seemed to enjoy our time of fellowship together. We didn't have a service scheduled for last night, but nobody wanted to leave after the pot luck without doing something, so we headed back into the sanctuary and spent about 45 minutes singing and sharing scriptures and things like that. It was soooooooo neat! It was very informal, of course, but the Lord really blessed us. Aaron went up front and shared a scripture and a few thoughts, then a little while later he said he had another passage on his mind and asked if he could share some more! It was SO COOL! How exciting is that?! It was just such a neat "service."

James took this picture of me outside the building before we left. It's for you, Mom. :-)

(I don't think that window has been washed in the past 29 years! Ha!)

We went to Borders to pick up the CD that James had ordered there last week. So, of course, the kids had to play in the fountain some more...

Joe got shot right in the face by one of the streams...
But Sam won the Over-All Wettest Award. :-) For being such a chicken last week he sure didn't have any qualms about diving in this week!
We met Sister Galaviz for dinner before heading home for the night. That was really nice, too. I just really, really enjoy visiting with her!

I got some house cleaning done last night when we got home, but you wouldn't know it now! We did some school today and the James and the kids worked outside quite a bit. James got a whole bunch of weeds and stuff mowed down and the kids have been busy working on the retaining wall out back again. I went and helped them for a little while and we're pretty close to done now.

I got all of the laundry done today and the ironing, as well as the ironing I never did get around to last week. It feels great! Tomorrow I'll probably start the beginning stages of packing for The Big Trip. I'm always SO excited about this trip... and I always DREAD it, too! Ha! I LOVE going to the Assembly and I LOVE being with my family and James' family. I don't even mind the trip itself--we always have fun traveling. It's just so much work to get ready for it! But much more than that, I already dread getting home from the trip and having to recover from it! We'll have bratty kids who have had no routine, very little sleep, and only a bunch of rotten grandparents around to spoil them and make them think the world revolves around them; we'll be tired and worn out from everything; we'll have TONS of stuff to unload and unpack (going to James' mother's house is like winning the food and clothing lottery--she's already been gathering "good deals" for us, I'm sure!); and I'll have at least 42 loads of laundry: dress clothes, play clothes, casual clothes--everything we own goes on this trip, and gets used on this trip. I never mind the laundry, it's the hours upon hours of ironing that follows it! Ugh. I'll have to try to push it out of my mind so I can enjoy the trip itself and not just dread the end of it! Ha!

4 comments

Horne Look-alike Meter

Posted by cokelady

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Old photographs

4 comments

Horne Look-alike Meter

Posted by cokelady

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

1 comments

Horne Look-alike Meter

Posted by cokelady

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

0 comments

Great Template, Hu?!

Posted by cokelady

:-)

Makes me very happy. Jenna is working on one little glitch for me, but even as it is it makes me happy. Something different! And far better than yellowish pizza. ;-)

Hhmmm. I just lost ALL motivation. I started this post with every intention of actually WRITING something. You know, talking about my weekend and tossing some pictures up here. I took a short break to write an e-mail, came back and *ka-zam* the zip to write is GONE. Weird. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe later tonight. Knowing me, maybe three days from now. In any case, this is it for tonight. Just a new template!

That's enough for me. :-)

1 comments

The Big 3-1

Posted by cokelady

It was GREAT!!!

But I'm really glad it's over! I've had a really terrific birthday, but I am sooooo tired. (I know, Tammy--it's because I'm "31 years old now!" Nah--I would've felt tired after a day like this 10 years ago. So there!)

But first I'll catch you up on the past few days. Uummm... I put together the Regional Paper. That's about it! Still haven't touched the ironing. Done some minor cleaning. The end. There, that didn't take too long! We have had some more of those really great sunsets...

This morning I got up, took my shower, and cleaned the house. It had gotten really messy yesterday, kitchen and all, and I was helping James with report stuff last night and didn't get a chance to clean it. I knew I'd have a much better birthday if I had a clean house, so I spent an hour or so getting it that way.

I called and talked to Mom for a while. I learned last year that it's no good to wait around for her call--if I want a birthday song from her I'll have to call and ask for it. ;-)

After that we loaded everybody up and headed to town! First stop: The Olive Garden. You know how you get those particular hankerings when you're fasting? How one specific thing pops into your head and you can almost taste it on the tip of your dried and crackly tongue?! Ha! Well, I'd been dreaming of fettuccini alfredo for days. And I wasn't disappointed. It was sooooooo good!!! James told the waitress it was my birthday, so a horde of employees came out and sing some hip "have a great day" song and set a little plate in front of me with a candle in the middle of... a small pile of mints! Ha! I did my very best not to laugh out loud, at least until they left. I mean, come on!!! It's not like this is some super chintzy place--it's the Olive Garden! And the best they could come up with were mints?! That's kind of sorry, you know? At least they were Andes mints. Enough for everybody to have two... if the Dad hadn't eaten three. The boys ended up with one and a half.

After that we went over to the mall so we could go to Christopher & Banks and James could buy me an outfit for the Assembly. Today was the last day of the buy-any-top-get-any-other-top-half-price sale, so I walked out with four items for the price of two! Not really. I only buy things that are on sale there, so I can't really look at it like that. Still, all of the things I got were already ON sale, so it still works! Sadly, none of them will really work for the Assembly, but I've got a few really great casual shirts now! :-)

We walked the mall for a while trying to find a suit for each of the boys for the Assembly. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! The prices some people want for a suit for a kid who's going to outgrow it in 3 months!!! CRAZY. I like the one we got for Joe last year for $12. Aren't there any more of those around?! We'll keep looking, 'cuz it's just absurd to pay $64.95 for a suit for a 6 year old. Are there people that actually do things like that??? ~whew~ Not me!

We were parched after a while and sat down to enjoy an Orange Julius (raspberry for me) before we left the mall. I even got my very own because it was my birthday. :-) I usually just share mine with the kids instead of getting them one of their own.

We went to the dollar store and I waited in the Envoy while James took the kids in to shop. They each selected a gift for me... and one for themselves! It's just too painful to walk into a dollar store and not get something for yourself when you're that age, you know?! They insisted I open their gifts as soon as they got back in the car. Katie bought me a magnetic notepad on a mini-clipboard with a pencil (something SHE would love to have!), Joe got me a pack of mechanical pencils (we're ALWAYS looking for pencils around here), and Sam got me a green dish towel with a leaf embroidered on it (he thought that's what I would want). It's so fun to see how pleased they are with what they've chosen "special" just for me! It was great. What sweet, thoughtful kids.

For themselves, Katie and Sam each got a toy cell phone--Katie's is a replica of my own, which she thinks is SO COOL. Joe got yet another pirate set. Like there aren't enough hooks and patches and revolvers lying around here already.

We came home and laid the kids down for a while. I put a few more finishing touches on the Regional Paper (like the page numbers I'd forgotten to add) and then James started the printing while I worked on a grocery list. We then loaded everybody up and went to Edgewood to do some major shopping at Wal-Mart. It was dinner time though, so we stopped and ate at DJ's Doghouse (or simply, "The Doghouse") on the way. I was soooooo not hungry and I made myself order just a corn dog. Then I went and ordered a cherry cream soda float! What can I say--it's my birthday! :-)

We had a huge list and I had ads from three different stores with at least 15 or 20 comp-ad items. It takes so much longer to shop like that (especially checking out!--I'm just glad we were in Edgewood and nobody was behind us!), but it saves soooooo much money!

By the time we were finished there it was already past 8:00 and we were all beat. Sam couldn't even stay awake on the short drive home, but Joe was nice enough to play pillow for him.

We got home and unloaded the Envoy, then I put groceries away while the kids put their pj's on. Then it was time for yet some more partying! I insisted that James take pictures. I take pictures all the time and I love it. But that means I'm never in them. I love that, too, most of the time! But I hate it that my kids will look back at the thousands and thousands of pictures of their childhood and say, "Hey, wasn't Mom around for any of this?!" So I figured I'll pass the camera off one day a year so they'll know that at least I came home to celebrate my birthday with them each year. ;-)

I was real excited because Katie was arranging the candles to make a 13 instead of a 31, but James remedied it. Jerk. :-)

I had a little help blowing out all those candles...

Me and my Katie Girl

Good old Mosey...

And crazy Sambo!

I even got a Sammy kiss--which is about the sweetest thing in the whole wide world. I could get a hundred a day and never get tired of them. :-)
And all three of the little rug rats

Katie took a couple pictures of me and James--proof that they actually have two parents at one time every now and again. ;-)

(James wanted me to crop out the pajama pants. I did in the first shot, but somehow missed it in the second. Don't tell him. Ha!)

And that's about it! It's 10:30 now and I've even blogged about it all. It's been a good, fun, happy day and I'm soooooo thankful for all of God's blessings. I've had 31 really, really terrific years and I'm so grateful for them! He's just sooooooooo good to me.

I'm also thankful that my fast is over.

:-)

12 comments

Happy Fasting!!!

Posted by cokelady

I thought I'd help everybody out with our Prayer & Fasting this week for the Assembly. Surely God blesses more when you suffer more, right? Extra points or something, I'm sure. Ha! It's fair for me to play this way 'cause I'm in the middle of my fast, too. I'm not just sitting on the sidelines being cruel to everybody else, you know. ;-)

Saturday was a bittersweet day. Bitter because I had a headache. I never have headaches. Sweet because I slept the day away! Ha! I laid down for two or three hours in the afternoon. Even when I wasn't laying down I was pretty much worthless. If I was sitting or laying down I didn't feel too bad but when I would stand up my head would start pounding. Weird. Makes me glad I so seldom have head problems. (No smart remarks, please.)

The highlight of the day was when Joe lost a tooth--*POOF*--just like that. He had come to me the day before and said he thought he had a new tooth coming in. He'd never lost a tooth before, but he was right--there was a new one growing in behind the others. I felt the one in front and it moved only the slightest little bit. It was just barely loose. Yesterday he was talking about the tooth again and I told him that he needed to get it out of there. He put his finger back behind the barely loose tooth and gave one mighty yank--didn't even grab it, just yanked. I was right in the middle of my lecture. "Joe, that tooth needs to come out to make room for the new one so you've got to start pushing and pulling and shoving and twisting and--" Suddenly a small object came flying across the room and landed at my feet. I thought SURELY NOT. "What was that?!?!?" "I think it was my tooth, Mom!" Ha! I've never seen anything like it!!! Amazing. The thing wasn't even loose, just barely movable and the kid slung it right out of his mouth. He was quite proud of himself...

That was all the excitement we had that day. Or maybe it's just all I can remember because of the headache. I was just really, really thankful that I had stayed up on Friday night working on my Sunday School class, song service, and VLB service for Sunday! I was pretty well set already. Thank the Lord for that!

Sunday was a really good day. We had good Sunday School again. Talked about the tower of Babel. We had a good worship service, too. This makes James just batty, but I get tired of singing only blue book songs all the time. There is nothing in the world like them and I wouldn't want to do without them... but I need something different every now and again, you know?! So I had typed up "I've Been Changed" and "Jesus is So Good to Me." It was GREAT to sing something fresh and it seemed to be a blessing. James preached a good message about temptation.

James took us out to Chili's after church because he wanted to feed us well before we went into our Assembly fast. :-)

My VLB service that night went well, too. I talked about being overcomers and about being transformed by God rather than being conformed to this world. We used Play-Doh and "conformed" it into a block with raised letters. Then we "transformed" it into something new. Aaron made an army tank and his little brother made a terrific little alien. :-) I handed out gold metals at the end of service to remind everybody that we are winners--we will OVERCOME if we do things God's "transformed" way instead of the world's "conformed" way. VLB services are great 'cuz you don't feel bad about pulling out the toys. Ha!

After church last night James decided we were going to McAllister's for dinner. He just discovered that we have one of those in Albuquerque (it's new, actually) and he was very excited. It's located in this snooty looking shopping center that's set up kind of like those outlet malls are... except it's mostly expensive clothing or jewelry stores and stuff. They do, however, have this nifty fountain thing in the center. Water shoots up, sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes in a particular pattern, sometimes just randomly. We were all in our dress clothes, but I told Katie she could run across it and back once. That ended up turning into three times across and back and she was SOAKED! Joe was too chicken to do it, so I grabbed his hand and drug him across and back. Then I had to do the same with sissy Sam. Joe finally went once by himself before we left. It was great fun!

After we were finished at the fountain we took our dripping brood to the Borders bookstore. I'm sure they appreciated that. We scoured the clearance section and ended up walking out with a giant book on how to draw all sorts of things. :-)

Today has been a good day. Got the whole house straightened up (do weekends wreak havoc on other people's houses, or just mine???), vacuumed everything, scrubbed the kids' bathroom and got the laundry all done. As usual, I seem to have fizzled out before I got to the ironing. Maybe tomorrow.

The most exciting news of the day is...

(Insert drum roll here...)

We're being sued!!!

(Ba-dum-bum-ching!)

Yeppers. Our church ladies were served papers today. Looks like the Prophecy church is suing us/them for the church building, court costs, damages, rent, and on and on and on. ~sigh~ It just never ends, does it?! My only concern is for our poor church members having to deal with this. They are all older ladies and things like this really tear them up. As far as I'm concerned, this building is in God's hands. If He wants us to have it, there's nothing anybody can do to take it away from us. If we lose it, then there's a reason and God obviously has something else in mind for us. No biggie. But these ladies have poured their lives and finances into this building for 30+ years and it just eats them up to think of the very people they used to worship with doing this kind of thing. The Prophecy overseer out here has been pretty... well, not nice! And now it comes down to this. So I ask that you please pray for God's will to be done concerning our church building out here. Most of all though, pray for our members, that God will give them divine peace and help them to be able to place it all in His hands and REST in Him.

That's it from here! Thanks in advance for the prayers.

15 comments

A Good Mom???

Posted by cokelady

I forgot to post these the other day. Sam found a walking stick while they were working on the rock paths.

Pretty cool, hu?

Last night James and I kept hearing terrible, scary wailing noises outside. We finally got out of bed and went to check. There were two cats over by our pond, duking it out BIG TIME. I've never seen a cat fight before and was tempted to just see how it turned out, but James started hissing at them to scare them off. Why is it that humans hiss at cats to scare them? Is acting like them supposed to do something special? Is it more effective than hollering and waving a stick or something?

Today started out pretty exciting. I saw another snake down by the pond, so I called Joe. Sam always nabs them before anybody else has a chance and Joe's been wanting to prove his manhood in this area for some time now. So he came down and caught his very first snake! He was sooooo proud of himself--and I was sure to let him know that Mom was plenty proud, too. ~sigh~ It's great having little men around. :-)

It was a clingy little snake...

I told Joe to stretch him out so we could see how long he was. :-)

The rest of the day is pretty much a blur. I know I worked on Sunday School stuff while the kids were having their quiet time.

Oh, I keep forgetting to tell you that this place we live has the most marvellous thunderstorms I've ever experienced! I've been in lots of great ones, but never so many great ones over and over again! We've been getting lots and lots of rain for the past week or two and it's always accompanied by big crashes of thunder. I LOVE IT!!!

Okay, here's where the title of the post comes in...

The kids were wanting to go splash in the puddles while it was raining this afternoon. ~sigh~ I hate stuff like that 'cuz I hate the mess that always follows it. It just means lots of muddy children and muddy clothes for the Mom to have to deal with. It's easier to just say NOPE and take 'em inside and play Yahtzee or something. But kids are only kids once, right? And they so enjoy doing those dumb things that only a kid can enjoy... So I told myself I would be "The Good Mom" and let them have their fun. "Sure," I said, "Go ahead." It started out innocently enough...

The last thing I told them before going inside was, "Try not to get mud all over your clothes, okay?" "Okay, Mom--we won't!" This is how they looked just moments later when I stepped outside to check on them. (You have to enlarge the picture to get the full impact.)

THIS is why I don't like being The Good Mom!!! The Good Mom always ends up with things like THIS to have to take care of!!! ~sigh~ They had been picking up globs of mud and slinging it at each other. They were having a great time, of course, but they weren't exactly trying not to get mud on their clothes. I knew there would be some mud, but come on! I told them that they and their clothes would have to be hosed off before they could go inside. This is the part I really don't get. It's chilly outside. They've been playing in the cold rain and the mud puddle that couldn't have been too warm either. When I tell them they're going to be hosed off, they start freaking out like it's so terrible to be wet and chilly. ??? What is that all about?! Katie wasn't too happy, but Joe went nutty on me--bawling and wailing and saying in that long, drawn-out whine of his, "Mo-o-o-o-o-o-o-om!!!" (So much for my snake-snatching manly-man from this morning! Ha!) You can see his face in the picture--he was not very happy. I knew that even though it didn't make any sense they'd be all freaked out about the hose and I figured it served 'em right, the bunch of pigly little things! (Dad hoses them off for fun sometimes and they think it's terrific; Mom hoses them off before taking them in the house when they've gotten too dirty and it's like being thrown in the torture chamber itself!)

This is a picture I took after the hosing. Joe is still deeply upset (he's got a strip of tape across his forehead, in case you're wondering. It was scribbled on to look like a "mustache." I asked why it was on his head instead of his lip, but the answer isn't worth repeating), Katie wasn't much better... but as you can see, Sam is just fine. Ggrrr. That kid is always happy when he's not supposed to be happy!

I wrapped the boys in a couple of blankets and made them wait on the porch while Katie went in for a shower. (One of our tubs is out of commission right now, meaning we all have to take turns with the one.) They were all cleaned up and in their pj's by about 5:00 tonight!

Question: By trying to be The Good Mom, my laundry duties resumed today instead of next Monday and my children were put through the torment and mental anguish of their mother hosing them off while saying, "Hey, this is what you get when you don't listen to your Mom--I said not to get mud all over your clothes--you should learn to listen to your mother..." Sooooo...??? Seems to me that The Good Mom would've just said, "No, you're not playing in the puddles because I know where it leads!" It would have spared me the extra work and them the trauma. Right?! Still... if I had done that I wouldn't have these great pictures! Ha! The Good Mom (in my definition of the term) records moments like this pictorially, no matter what. :-)

That's about it from around here. Tuna casserole, peas, corn and left-over carrots for dinner tonight. No dessert and an early bedtime. The kids have been really... hyper lately. Not sure what it is. Maybe the rain??? (Ever seen a dog go nutty when he gets wet?) I finally had all I could take and tied Joe up for a little while tonight.

It didn't last nearly long enough. I'm really hoping they'll get back to their normal selves soon. The past week or two has been off and on with really, really terrific kids and really, really rotten kids! Surely they can't still be all screwed up from the commotion of Camp and all that, can they?! Nah... they're just rotten. Ha!

12 comments

Ho-Hum

Posted by cokelady

Nothing much to report here. But you know me... I can ramble anyway. :-)

Yesterday the kids worked outside a lot. They've been collecting medium sized rocks to surround the play fort area and also to line different paths around the property. They worked hard and got a lot done! We don't pay the kids any allowance or anything like that, but James gave them each .75 cents for their hard work. They were sooooo excited!

I can't remember much of anything that I did! I've been managing to keep the house in decent shape, so there haven't been any big projects to accomplish.

For dinner last night James loaded us all up and took us to Burger Boy. He even got us ice cream cones afterwards. :-) We came home and watched the new Veggie Tales. (James had brought it home yesterday afternoon.) I was pretty disappointed. It wasn't any better than the Wizard of Ha's. Oh well. They hit a slump every now and again, but they always seem to bounce back with something really great like Gideon. :-)

After devotions today I went to Albuquerque to shop and left the kids home with James. Yes, you heard that right! I went to town ALONE!!! While James watched the kids!!! Wa-Hoo!!! Can't even remember the last time that happened, but I know it was at least a few months before we left Andrews. ~sigh~ It was great. Sometimes you just need to get away for a little while, you know? It helps you feel more kindly toward your family when you come home, right, Em?! ;-) Anyway, it was great. I wasn't gone just real long, but I was able to take care of some important business and I was able to do it ALONE. :-)

The kids have been talking up a storm with the neighbors around here (our fence line borders three other yards), but I've never actually met any of them. I don't get out much, you know?! Anyway, there is a father and two grown sons who are fixing up one of the houses to sell and they've been working on it a lot the past couple of weeks. I finally met them today and one of the boys told me how relieved he was to finally meet me. He was beginning to think that the kids didn't have any parents and just lived in the house all alone. Ha! They are outside all the time and I never am. He also said that today is the first time he's ever seen "the little one" (Sam) when he wasn't in some sort of costume. I wonder if this is the guy Sam met a while back... He came running into the house saying, "Mom, I met the neighbor--he's nice!" I turned around and beheld a little boy with a pirate patch over his eye and a bushy beard hanging from his chin. HA! "Greeeeeeat, Sam!" Anyway, all of the guys are really nice, especially the one son. He invited us to come over to the house and check out the work they've gotten done, so the whole family did that tonight. They do AMAZING work. Their work is top-notch and very classy. Not "me" at all! Ha! I, personally, prefer the rustic, old-fashioned look. (It's a good thing--'cuz that's all we can do!!!), but I amire the amazing craftsmanship that these guys produce. They shouldn't have any trouble at all when they put the thing on the market.

After visiting with the neighbors and checking out their house we drove down to Charlie's to pick up a few things. He had some good looking fruit--and was cheaper than Wal-Mart--so we bought a bunch. I came straight home and made some peach-pineapple jam tonight. Yum! Can't wait to try some tomorrow. :-)

Well, that's all of my not-so-exciting news. Oh--we finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a day or two ago. Katie and Joe loved it. Sam only lasts for a little while before he's ready to be up doing something. He's not much of a book or movie guy--too much sitting still for too long! He's a man of action, I guess! Anyway, that's about it from here. Have a great night!

~Bec~

Since this is a pretty boring post, I'll add my favorite Sonic commercial here at the bottom.

"May I sub-respond before you finish?" HA!

5 comments

And Then it Came--A Toad Drowner

Posted by cokelady

We're all hoping that Mac pulled through anyway. ;-) You wouldn't believe the storm we've been having tonight! It started on our way home from church. By the time we got to the house it was just coming down in sheets. Joe wasn't very excited about getting the gate down at the bottom of our drive (that's usually his job) and while we were discussing the matter Katie jumped out and got it for us, earning herself a cookie before bed. :-) James was thoughtful enough to park the passenger side of the van directly underneath the eave of the house where was gushing a regular waterfall. I didn't notice it until I stepped out of the van and nearly got washed away by the icy stream. Then he was thoughful enough to watch all safe and dry in the van while his wife and children stood under the river and fumbled with the keys trying to get the door unlocked. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by his wife. She doesn't miss much--at least of this sort of thing. ;-) Strangly, just as James reached the door it was slammed shut and locked. He had to stand in the downpour and fumble for his own keys. Ah-HA! It turned out to be a fun night after all! :-)

The kids and I went to the library this morning, although Joe was forbidden from checking out any books due to a bad attitude and talking back to his mother. I HATE punishing him like that! Reading is GOOD for him and I love it that he loves it--and it just seems wrong to take away his library privileges! But that's where it hurts, you know?! ~sigh~ I picked out a few extra books like I always do for the kids, but made sure to get a few things that would interest Joe. This way he still feels the punishment (since he wasn't able to select his own books), but he'll still have things lying around the house that he'll enjoy reading.

Katie got a book on Origami (is it supposed to be captitalized, Amy?!) and we practiced making paper boxes with lids and little butterflies and a party hat. It was fun! She also got a book on secret codes. (Actually, it's one that I picked out knowing Joe would enjoy it, but Katie nabbed it for her own.) She wrote me a note in Morse Code during quiet time today, then a code with pictures of flags that the British Royal Navy used to use or something like that. Cool!

We had left-overs for lunch. I got all of the ironing done. I read several more chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids. We had a good CPMA service. James and I watched a movie tonight. And now I'm blogging. A short, sweet little blog, it appears. I'm out of things to say! Isn't that GREAT?! It's just been a nice, regular day around here. I LOVE that I'm not swamped with other THINGS right now and I'm able to just be a regular wife and Mom and concentrate on doing things with the kids and taking care of the house. ~sigh~ Life is so grand! :-) Hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same. Until then... or later. You know me. ;-)

~Becki~

P.S. -- It's still raining. There's been TONS of thunder and lightning tonight. Sooooo cool! :-)

7 comments

Titleless

Posted by cokelady

Ever have a post like that?

It's been a good couple of days. We had a good Sunday. Good Sunday School (Noah's ark) and I finally feel like my class is GLAD to be my class. :-) The kids other than my own are usually a little late (and sometimes a whole lot late!), but they seem to really enjoy Sunday School now and look forward to the next time. And I'm AMAZED at how little they know about the Bible. You really take those things for granted when you're raised in the Church. These kids didn't have a clue about Noah's ark. I thought that's something EVERYBODY knew about, Christian or not! So I really enjoyed sharing it with them. :-)

Yesterday afternoon I finished up on my WMB service--I hate not finishing until the last minute. We had visitors last night!!! Sister Bailey's son was there and the Placencio family was there. That's Aaron's family. They are always there on Sunday mornings (Aaron's siblings make up my Sunday School class), but I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've ever seen them at an evening service. It was so exciting! We're trusting the Lord to keep working in these hearts and lives. We're seeing His hand at work in so many ways and we are just so thankful!!!

After we put the kids to bed last night James spent a few hours working on putting some video and pictures together onto a DVD to send to a member who currently has no church to attend. (That's where the Convention video I posted came from.) I've been falling way behind on my magazines, so I gathered up three of them that I'd never finished reading. I laid in bed and finished 'em all off last night. It was great! I never do that! I think it was one Country magazine, one Country Woman, and one Reminisce (my favorite). I was back on the April issues, so I'm still a bit behind, but it was great to have one nice, leisurely evening of reading. :-)

Today has been good. Did all the laundry, but didn't touch the ironing. Maybe tomorrow. It was a rainy day today, so the kids couldn't play outside much. That's tough when they've got a new play fort out there! They handled it pretty well though.

We had a plumber come give us an estimate today on replacing the "stuff" that goes to the tub in our room. It broke this last week. The plumbers neck almost got broke, too, when he spit out his "shot in the dark" estimate. I thought he was kidding at first. ~sigh~ I hate plumbers. Some of them might be nice as individuals, but they're all out to wreck your life and swipe every last dime you've been saving for other things, say, a bedroom for your sons or something silly like that. At least this guy was nice, clean, and friendly. (Why shouldn't a plumber be happy?! Just think of all the money he's going to suck out of you!) He's going to do some research and get back to us with his estimate. I don't want to know.

I made Poppyseed Chicken Casserole for dinner tonight--one of the kids' favorites. And I made Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for dessert--one of James' favorites. It all turned out GREAT. :-)

After the kids had their showers (they all STUNK!), I sat down and started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to them. At the end of each chapter they begged me to go on to the next. That lasted for about an hour and a half, I think. We were on chapter 18 (just over half way through the book) when I finally told them we'd have to quit. They've never seen the movie and are thrilled with the story. I love that. :-) So far they've only heart about Augustus Gloop and his gluttony getting him into trouble. I'm hoping Joe will learn something from it! Ha!

It's been a week or two ago now (I just forgot to post about it), but Katie made her first "hot meal." We got a book some time ago by Pearables that she is CRAZY about. It's a home economics book for 6-8 year olds and it teaches one thing each week... that you shouldn't need a book to teach! Ha! But she LOVES it coming out of the book. So she's been peeling vegetables and organizing drawers and things like that. She'd been begging to do the chapter on cooking her first hot meal, so we did that. It was a recipe for Bottomless Stew and she was sooooo proud of herself. I did the chopping for her, but she washed and peeled most of the veggies herself and read the recipe and watched the pot on the stove for just about the whole hour it cooked. Ha! And it's amazing to me. If I would have made the stew, all three kids would have complained about it. "Ew--there's green stuff in it! I don't like the green." (Celery.) Since Katie made it, all we heard was, "Wow, this is so good! You did a great job, Katie!" All three of them ate two bowls of it and just went on and on about how great it was. ?! Oh well--I'm glad they all enjoyed it and that the boys were so good to compliment their sister's efforts.

Sam hasn't caught any snakes in the past few days, but a week or two ago he was staying real busy at that job. He caught a real small one about two weeks ago. It was a very mild natured little thing (I hesitate to use the term "nice snake"--just doesn't set right, you know?!) and Sam ended up holding it by the mid-section (he's always held them just behind the head before) and it just sort of crawled around on his arm and checked things out for a while. Joe was so excited when it stuck its tongue out at him. "Hey, look! He's learning about me!!!" (I'm assuming he read that in one of the snake books he got from the library a while back.) We took the snake down the hill and the kids took turns holding it before Sam turned it loose.

The next day Sam caught a much bigger snake (the biggest one yet) and we were walking down the road to release it somewhere. Suddenly Sam said, as calmly as could be, "Hey. He bit me." That was it. I looked and he had a little red mark on his hand, but it just looked like a crayon flake to me. I brushed it off. After a few seconds I looked down and Sam had two little red dots of blood where I had just wiped the old away! It really had bit him! If it had been Katie or Joe they would have screamed and cried and thrown the thing down and started running. Sam wasn't phased at all. He had been holding the thing a little more carelessly after playing with the "friendly" little snake the day before and this one turned out to be not so friendly. We walked quite a ways and I had Sam throw this one as far as he could! (Served the thing right--he's lucky I didn't have him killed!) I wondered if it would make Sam a little edgy about catching any more snakes. Nope. This happened the day before we left for Texas, I think. We hadn't been home from the trip a full five minutes before he'd wandered down to the pond and nabbed another one! I think he's caught 6 now. He's my hero. :-) He also saved some silly girls at Wal-Mart from a big beetle on the floor the other day. They were employees and trying to figure out how to get rid of the thing, but it was too big for either of them to be able to step on and kill. (You know--the creepy feeling when you CRUNCH a bug that big?!) I asked if they wanted me to have my have my son take care of it for them. They said YES and I called Sam over and asked if he'd save the girls from that big, nasty bug. He walked right over and stomped it with all his might and was about to pick it up and dispose of it, but the girls said they'd find somebody with a tissue to do that. Ha!

That's about it for tonight. I'll post a few more pictures before I go though...

Hey, Mom--this is what those plants turned out to be. Pretty, hu??? :-)

James likes to pick up ice cream bars at Charlie's every now and again and drive us up into the National Forest to enjoy them. These are pictures he took the last time we did that.

That's it for now! Have a great night!!!