No, It's Donielle With An O

Rebecca's Baptism

2010-05-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Rebecca just being baptized

Rebecca and her cousin Maggie were baptized this past Sunday. Rebecca's was so ready, she had been asking me for a while when the next baptism would be. So when it was announced that a baptism was coming up, Rebecca looked at me and said, "Sign me up!" You gotta love it when young ones are ready to publically proclaim their faith! The video is not very clear, but you get the point.

I'm really gonna try!

2010-05-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well.....it's been a long time since I've blogged, but in light of a friend of mine that will soon be moving, I'm going to try and blog regularly again. If any of you are even checking my blog at all to see if I've come back to the blogging world, then go check out my friend Kim's blog. I've got her listed as "Keeping up with the Joneses". A lot of you might know her. Kim Jones is her name and she's lived here for a while, but almost a year ago her husband was transferred to Hawaii and her and the kids are now leaving to go be with him. Kim is one of the main one's who has helped me with homeschooling. She is a homeschool pro and if I ever needed anything she was there for me. I'm really going to miss all of her advice and insights, but most importantly, I'm just going to miss her and her family. We love the Jones' and are sad to see them leave, but at the same time, we are happy that they are going to be reuniting with their husband/daddy. So, as I say goodbye to Kim, I'm also saying hello to the blogging world again! I'm hoping her and I both blog regularly so we can keep in touch. I love you Kim and am going to miss you to pieces!

New post

2009-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've requested the help of Mandy, the computer guru, but even she can't figure it out! I finally did post something a couple of days ago, but it won't show up as a recent blog. So I'm hoping this silly post will! Maybe it's because I haven't blogged in such a long time...hehe!

Whirlwind of a Week

2009-10-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

Jimmy and I have been married for 9 1/2 years. When we got married he was working at an alluminum plant and I was working at a local bank. Four months after our wedding, on the day of Tina and Jamie's wedding to be exact, we found out we were going to have a baby. We were both really excited! As the pregnancy months went on we started looking at our different options for childcare. The thought of leaving my baby in the hands of someone else tore my heart to pieces. For as long as I could remember I've had the desire to stay home and raise my children. Even before I was married I had this desire. However, we weren't sure at the time if we could afford for me to stay home. So as the pregnancy drew nearer to the end, we started looking harder for a daycare provider. It wasn't until I came home from the hospital with our little girl that we decided to give it a shot. I think it took seeing her, holding her, and bringing her home to make us decide that she made it worth trying. So, with hubby and baby in tow, we went to my work and gave my boss my resignation letter. I felt good about this! The desires of my heart were being fulfilled! Within the next couple of days Jimmy came home from work with devastating news. His plant was shutting down.

I knew in my heart that it was God's will for me to quit my job and stay home. I knew it because if it wasn't, He would have reversed the days. Instead of me quitting and then Jimmy losing his job, we would have found out about his job first. I don't know anyone that would quit a job to stay home to raise a family if you just found out your husband was losing his job. But I knew it had to be God to do it in the order it was done. We had peace of mind. Jimmy, being the hard working man that he is, worked side jobs until he got a new job at the paper mill. It didn't take long. And before that next year was up we were buying our first house and planning for baby girl number two! It was hard, especially for Jimmy. There were times that he was working one fulltime job and two part-time jobs to keep us afloat, and he did it for us, our family. He has worked hard for years to allow me to stay home with our (now 3) girls. When Hannah was 6 months old I started babysitting and did that for years. Homeschooling my girls was a desire, just recently in the last few years, put on my heart and when I eventually quit babysitting I started homeschooling. We are now in our second year of homeschooling.

On Thursday we, along with countless others, heard again devastating news. His plant will be shutting down. Again. Deja vous. Round two. With good reason, I was very upset initially. But I had my little pity party and have since moved on. I don't know what exactly this means for us and the girls. I don't know what our future holds. Jimmy has to start all over, again. But he will, and he will work as hard as he can for our family. Will he find a job close to home? I don't know. Will I eventually have to go back to work? I don't know. But I feel strongly that this will work out better for us in the long run. I have an amazing, loving, healthy family, great friends, and I'm holding on to God's promises. I know that greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done...!

There are a lot of people that will be affected by this shutdown, and I am praying for them. I can't imagine those who both the husband and wife work there, or those that may be in the process of building homes. How about those who may not have family to lean on for support? The trickle effect will be tremendous for our small area. Please be in prayer for all of the families affected.

Pumpkin Flowers and More on Soccer

2009-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

I will start off by saying that I have the complete opposite of a "green thumb". In fact, I would say that I have a "black thumb", everything I try to grow.....dies. Even my children have made comments when I have purchased plants saying, "Let's see how long it takes for this one to die." Now that's bad! I am pretty proud of myself though. I have a plant that I bought last Mother's Day and it is still alive! Now I won't mention how many times I almost lost it, or how bad it might look right now. The fact is, it's still alive! I'm also pretty proud of the pumpkin plant we have growing in the backyard. Yes, we planted it way too late. And no, it probably won't produce pumpkins because of how late it is. But just look at these awesome pumpkin flowers!
Now on to soccer. Leah's very first day of soccer was this past Sunday. Imagine watching a handful of four year olds kicking the ball around trying to get it in a goal, any goal, even if the goal is on another field on the opposite end! Cute! She said she enjoyed it and can't wait for her next game. Here she is taking a quick water break. Note the big mark on her face? Yeah, she ran into the molding of the bathroom door running away from one of her sisters. It was one of those cries that takes a long time to actually come out. You know, mouth opened but no noise coming out and then....blahhhhhhhhh! Yep, that's gonna leave a mark.

Here she is on the field of her first game.

Now check out Rebecca. Both feet off the ground I mean! Go girl, kick that ball!

A Day of Firsts

2009-09-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

Rebecca has anxiously been awaiting soccer season. She loves soccer, a lot of sports for that matter, but she really loves soccer. She started playing when she was 4 and we've always played in the Hertford County league, but this year we decided to sign her up to play in Roanoke Rapids. I started thinking about this last year because we go to church in Roanoke Rapids, so we would leave church on Sunday afternoons and drive slam over to Ahoskie to play ball. The years prior were not so bad because we use to play our games in Murfreesboro, but that changed last year. Now we can go to church, hang out at either my sister's or Jimmy's parent's house until the game starts, and then go home. So today was her very first game of the new season with a whole new league. And to start it off right, she scored the very first goal and it was within the first five minutes or so! Not only that, but she scored two more! Those were her first goals ever! Rebecca said this morning before church that she really wanted to score a goal today so she was thrilled. I wish I had my camera with me to snap a shot of her proud face when she turned towards us with her big ol' smile. I don't know who was more excited, Rebecca or me! She has improved a lot since last year. She can control the ball a lot better, she's not nearly as intimidated to get in there and get the ball away from the pack, and boy is she fast. So to wrap it up, today was her very first game of the season playing for the first time in Roanoke Rapids and scored her very first goal. I can't wait for next Sunday's game! Go Becca!!!

New Project

2009-09-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! There is this "thing" I've been seeing for a long time now in one of the local department stores. Everytime I see it I can imagine it in my girls rooms. I'm in love with it, and I know they will fall in love too. Finally, this afternoon Rebecca and I were in that store and I thought about using my camera phone to snap a couple pictures to show Jimmy. So tonight I showed him the pictures and right away he thought of a way to make it! Ohhhh, I can't wait! It sounds like it's going to be really easy to make and boy will it change the look in their rooms! I'll post pictures when we get to that point.

Where were you?

2009-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you on facebook, I'm sure many of you recounted where you were on "that" September day. I know I don't even have to say what "that" day means because we all get it. Unfortunately, we all get it. Eight years ago today our comfortable lives were disrupted, shattered, shaken, changed forever. I'll never forget that day. I read on someone's fb that they could not tell you what they were doing at this exact time last week, but eight years ago today, I bet we all remember where we were and what we were doing. Let's not forget why we have so many troops fighting right now, why we need to pray for our leaders, and to remember all of the many many victims from eight years ago today.

Yes, we're rednecks!

2009-09-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Jimmy has a pellet gun that we like to sit around and shoot. We just sit around sometimes and aim at different things and see how long it takes us to hit it. Jimmy has gotten the girls interested in shooting it as well. This afternoon Rebecca and I were trying to find something to shoot. I told her to go inside and cut some off of our poster board roll and draw a person, that can be our target. We hung it up and went to shooting. We both aren't that great at aiming, but as you can see, the poor girl is tore up! When Hannah came outside and saw that Rebecca had drawn a person, she got on us. Hannah said we should have drawn a deer or something, anything other than a person. lol.

Summer '09 Highlights

2009-08-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and Jimmy's birthday

The girls decorating the birthday cake

Plenty of rest

Summer cookouts

More time for rest

A ton of boogie boarding

Many vacation bible schools

Lots of time with cousins

A lil' bit of Elvis

And more boogie boarding

Vacation with family

Awesome Drawings

2009-07-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

A young and very talented girl from my church named Katie drew these pictures of my girls. All I had to do was send her a picture of each of them and she went to work. Her drawings are identical to the pictures I sent. I wasn't sure which pictures worked better for her so I actually sent her several of each girl. I was very very impressed with her work and couldn't wait to mat and frame them. Her prices are really good too. They are as follows: 8x10 - 1 person $35, 2 people $40-45; 10x14 - 1 person $45, 2 people $50-55, 3 people $60-65. They would make great gifts too. If anyone is interested let me know and I can get you her info.

This is Hannah

This is Rebecca

This is Leah

Can I get any busier?

2009-06-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

With summer in full swing it seems we've only gotten busier. The girls have done two VBS's so far, and there are two more that they want to do sometime this summer. Hannah and I have been working on her 4-H presentation for several weeks too. The big day for her is tomorrow. We have to get up pretty early and head out to Hyde County (wherever that is). Tomorrow also begins Rebecca's art lessons, so Jimmy's mom is coming to watch Rebecca and Leah and take Rebecca to her class. Along with my summer job cleaning cottages on the weekends, I've also picked up a part-time job during the week. I'm planning on using my money to pay for all the curriculum I want to order for the girls next school year. There are a couple of things I want to get that are a little pricey. I ended up having to work both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend so I missed out on spending time with either my dad or Jimmy. But all was well because my dad and mom went camping for the weekend and Jimmy took the girls to the beach. Jimmy decided Friday night that he wanted to take them somewhere, somewhere fun. After coming up with different ideas he finally decided on the beach. So Saturday morning he called to book their room for Sunday night. He went to spend the day with his dad on Saturday and then Sunday morning he and the girls left for the beach. They had a great time! He took them to Jockey's Ridge, they swam at the beach and the pool, they played putt-putt, he took them out to dinner and icecream, and they went souvenier shopping! They even bought me a pretty coffee cup! Yesterday morning they went out on the beach again for a while before they had to return home. He sent me the sweetest message on my cell phone. It was a picture he had taken of the girls on the beach and under it he wrote, "We miss you mommy!" I loved it! In a way I'm glad I wasn't able to go because it gave them some really good quality time together, something that they don't get too much of. It was a Father's Day that they will always remember. Well I'm off to get ready for work now. Hope you all are doing well!

Summer's Begun!

2009-06-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

We've already enjoyed several days swimming in the pool, and yesterday I got some really cute shots of the girls and Jimmy. He throws them pretty high and they love it!

Hannah being thrown by daddy

Hannah was trying to pretend she was "having tea" while being thrown.

Now it's Rebecca's turn to fly.

Leah doesn't like being thrown, but she loves to jump off the side.

Daddy is giving Leah a ride on his back.

This one is the funniest to me. Hannah went sideways and she has an "Oh crap!" look!

Hannah's Campout

2009-06-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was Hannah's campout. I couldn't decide when to have it because I was not sure when I would start working. Finally I just scheduled it for Saturday night because Jimmy was off and he was fine with handling things in case I got home a little late. I told everyone to be there around 5:30, and wouldn't you know I didn't get home until after 8:00! Jimmy didn't mind a bit. Him and a couple of his buddies got everything set up for the night and kids started arriving about 6:00. By the time I got there they had already eaten dinner and had the campfire going. So as soon as I got home I showered and we started the smores. Those kids ate until they couldn't eat anymore! Some of them ate so much they had tummy aches later. Around 10:30 Jimmy and one of his buddies set off fireworks. It was 12:30 when all the girls finally fell asleep, and of course they were up when the sun came up. When we all got stirring Jimmy cooked breakfast outside so it was like we were at a campground. I'm thankful to my friend Kim who was there most of the time and took pictures for me since I missed the first couple of hours. She hasn't sent me those pictures yet, so these are the very few that I did get.

I hate I didn't get a picture of the whole set-up. Jimmy had a big tent for everyone to sleep in, then he set a small one up for me (which I ended up sleeping with all the girls). He also set up our canopy tent right in front of the big tent with a picnic table under it. This is a picture of the campfire next to the tents. I took this Sunday morning.

The girls are roasting their marshmallows for the yummy smores.

This was also taken Sunday morning. Mr. Charles drove all the girls around on his golf cart. Jimmy told me that he came by Saturday night and drove all 12 girls on the golf cart at one time! I wish I had a picture of that!

Jimmy's Kittens

2009-06-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Jimmy, the one who doesn't care for cats, has now found a new love. Last week I told him that we ought to be having more kittens soon since the other cat was pregnant and looked like she would soon be having them. His response surprised me, and it surprised the girls too when I told them what he said. "Well good. I'm ready for some more kittens around here." I couldn't believe it. So I guess he got his wish when Saturday morning he woke up to three kittens and one more that came later. I started cleaning again this weekend, and when I left Saturday morning she came up to me meowing like crazy. I thought right away that she was going to have her kittens and I hated to leave. But later I forgot all about them while my friend and I chit chatted all the way to the beach. I called Jimmy when we got there and he told me all about the sweet things. As soon as he saw she had the kittens he started taking care of her. He moved her to our porch to keep the dogs away and started feeding her and giving her warm milk. Jimmy and the new mama cat have formed a bond! He makes sure he rubs her goodnight before turning in and checks on her first thing when he wakes up. She had four kittens, three orange and white and one black with a little gray and white. I think we have all agreed that if we keep one it will be the black one, so we have three more if anyone would like one! If so, let me know.

Look at this cute kitten all spread out! It looks like she just dove into her mama looking for milk.

From Caterpillar to Moth

2009-06-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago Hannah found a caterpillar in the yard, so we fixed up an old jar with leaves and twigs and put it in the jar. The very next day the caterpillar formed its cocoon! We kept an eye on the cocoon everyday wondering when and if it would turn into a butterfly or moth. Finally one day Leah came into the house telling us that she thought the caterpillar was now a moth, and she was right. Hannah was thrilled! The picture below is her holding the moth on a stick while it dried its wings. After a little while it flew away.

Grade Promotion Ceremony

2009-06-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Weekend before last our homeschool group had a grade promotion ceremony. It was the first time this group did a big thing at the end of the year like we did, but I'm sure it will be something we continue. There were lots of people who came since we all invited our family members and some of the people from the community that worked with us and helped us out during the year. Every family chose a different country and we cooked foods from that country. Since the girls and I studied Colonial America a bunch at the beginning of the year we chose the good ol' USA. Every family had a table set up to demonstrate some of the projects that we worked on throughout the year. First we all ate, then we watched a dvd that one of the mom's made for all of us. It was a collection of pictures that were taken during the year from all of our different fieldtrips, meetings, and so forth. That was awesome! Next some of the children performed for everyone. Some played the piano, one girl played the dulcimer, and Hannah chose to read a book. THAT was a big accomplishment! Reading is something Hannah despises. She loves for me to read to her, but hates to read herself. BUT, she did so incredibly well! I told her afterwards that I would love for her to read that great for me. I was very proud of her. Then at the end, all of the children received certificates for completing this school year. Even Leah got a certificate for being the biggest helper...lol!

This was a poster we made about the USA the week of the ceremony. Leah colored the Liberty Bell...can you tell?

This is Jimmy's mom and dad (Grandma Trudy and Grandpa Andy).

Chuck E. Cheese & Holly the Hamster

2009-05-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Boy have we been busy! We're wrapping up the end of the year and are ready for summer. Last Thursday was, of course, Hannah's birthday and the one thing she wanted from us was a hamster. She started telling us back in January that she wanted one, and we have been telling her that she needed to show us how responsible she is in order to get one. Jimmy and I were going to get her one, but just hadn't yet. I knew I had time since her party isn't until this weekend, but Jimmy called from work Thursday morning to tell me that I should take her to go pick one out. He wanted her to have it on her actual birthday, so I headed to Rocky Mount with one excited little girl! Well actually three excited girls! They were all anxious and thrilled that Hannah was going to get a hamster. Since it was lunch time when we arrived, our first stop was Chuck E. Cheese. We stayed there for about two hours then headed to the pet store. Hamster: $9.99....everything that goes with the darn thing:$100.00! Did you know that they put them in a box like you get chicken in when you go to KFC? Hannah was holding the box on the way home, and all of a sudden the girls started screaming. The hamster was making a hole in the side of the box and trying to get out! They were screaming and it was freaking me out so I had to pull over quickly. I would not have been able to handle that thing getting loose in my car. So I pulled over in an abandoned parking lot on the side of the road, and there just so happened to be a cop checking traffic there. My plan was to put the cage together so we could put Holly the Hamster in there for the rest of the ride home, but then I remembered that we bought a ball for her to roll around in so we got that out instead. I opened Hannah's door and peaked in the KFC box but was way too scared to pick the hamster up and move her. Hannah was too scared also, so what were we to do?? Of course! I walked right over to the policeman and told him how desperate I was. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he politely obliged. Out of his car was this 6'4" man in uniform coming to move a hamster from a chicken box to a plastic ball! It was funny! He was very polite and helpful, and he saved my life because I know that if that thing got loose I would have wrecked..lol! So now we have a new addition to our family.

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah!

2009-05-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

Today is Hannah's 8th birthday! How can that be? My first baby already eight years old! We started the morning with our traditional icecream for breakfast. After we do some school work today we will go to the park. She decided on a sleepover for her birthday, but not just any old sleepover, instead a campout! Because of other things we have going on, we will have her campout next weekend. We are going to set up tents in the backyard, have a fire pit, roast hotdogs, and make smores. My plan was to find a dvd projector, hang a sheet from Jimmy's barn, and we could watch a movie outside when the sun goes down. But I cannot find a projector! I've found some online, but they are really expensive. I saw one at Christmas that I could kick myself now for not buying. So I guess we will have to skip the movie.

This is a picture Mrs. Lowe did for us. I think Hannah was about two months here.

Hannah at age one, blankie in hand and fingers in mouth....not much has changed!
Hannah's very first dance picture! She was two years old here.

Hannah in pre-k

And this morning....with her bowl of icecream for breakfast! Happy Birthday Baby!

With all the cat drama we had going on, I thought this was cute.

2009-05-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Five Year Trophy

2009-05-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

This was Hannah's fifth year in dance and since the beginning of this dance year she's been looking forward to the spring recital so she can get her trophy. They start giving trophies for five years and longer. Last night was her night! She was really excited, and I was excited for her. This is also the first year I had no idea what her dance routine looked like. In all the years past I've either been in her dance with her (Mommy & Me) or have been the one to take her to her rehearsals and dress rehearsals. But this year, because of me testing Rebecca, Hannah and Leah were in Roanoke Rapids during rehearsals so other people took her. Jimmy had to work last night but was able to take her to her dress rehearsal on Friday so he was at least able to see it. I had heard from her aunt who took her on Thursday that the dance was kind of chaotic and had to be redone several times. That is usally the case during rehearsals, but on the actual day of recitals it all comes together. And this year was no exception. Her clogging class did awesome! It was really cute.

Hannah in the bathroom at The Center after getting ready

Hannah and I
Two of my beautiful girls, Hannah and Rebecca

Grandma Trudy and "her girls"

HANNAH'S FIVE YEAR TROPHY!!

Series Finale

2009-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

After seeing nature take its course with Mama and her babies, I came in. I couldn't sit there and watch that. But, I teetered with the idea of bringing baby in so I could feed her myself. At last I decided to leave her since she was in the basket with Mama. I figured now maybe Mama would be relaxed enough to nurse her and take care of her, so I left her. As I was getting ready for bed I could hear baby meowing over and over. My heart was breaking so I decided I would get her and feed her. I warmed up the formula mixture I concocted from a friend whose done this before, but by the time I did all of that and got outside, Mama was on her way with baby to go under the shed. Relieved. That's how I felt. I just knew then that Mama wanted her baby and would go under there to feed her and protect her. When I woke this morning she was under our carport again, alone. I went out there to pet her. She looked so much better, relaxed, flat belly. My spirits were high and I couldn't wait to see baby. Rebecca and I went to the shed to see if baby was under there and ok. Jimmy didn't nail the floor back down from yesterday, so we were able to go in there and lift the floor again. As soon as I lifted it I saw baby. She wasn't moving at all. As I was holding the floor up, Rebecca went down there to feel the baby. "Yep, she's dead," was all she said. My heart now aches that I didn't take her when I had the chance. I know that's nature, but I'm still sad. I could have saved her.

Real life or Cujo movie??

2009-05-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Do Not Read if you have a weak stomach!!!

Ok, so the saga continues. Mama has been in the basket next to the steps with baby all evening. Still looking like more babies are in her belly. I just went outside to check on them both. I brought a little flashlight since my porch lightbulb is blown and we haven't found time to fix it yet. I open the porch door and walk down to my usual step and sit down. Then I turn on the light and shine it in the basket. Another kitten!!! I knew she had more in her. Then I noticed. All that was left on it was the top half, from the stomach to the head! Mama cat had eaten the rest! Oh my gosh!!! It was horrible! At first I thought she was just cleaning it, but oh no. She was eating it. Oh my gosh. I guess it was dead and that's just how they dispose of them. Still, I felt like I was in a Cujo movie, for real. I am so glad the girls did not see that!
**Update** Mama just had another one that was dead. Poor Mama.

Test and Cats

2009-05-14T12:34:00.001-07:00

First things first....Rebecca finished her end of year tests today and only missed 2 on the whole thing!!!! Woohooo!!! Hannah is testing Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be ready for hers to be over. Now, on to the cat and her one, yes still one, kitten. For the simple fact that we don't know the name of this cat, we just call her Mama. Well, Mama returned to our carport this morning, but without her kitten. Rebecca went out to the shed to see if she could see the kitten and she could so we knew she was at least alive. Mama pretty much stayed in her basket we fixed up and we were worried her baby needed to nurse so Jimmy cut a piece of the flooring out of his shed so we could get to baby. Mama looks pretty sick and she still looks pretty fat too like she still has babies in her. She still is meowing quite a bit, and she wants us to sit right with her. If I get up to go in the house then she gets out of the basket, leaves her kitten and waits for me to come back out. So basically, since Rebecca finished her test this morning, I've been sitting right on the step just comforting Mama. As long as I'm out there with her she will stay with baby, but I can't stay out there all day. I'm not even sure Mama is nursing baby. I guess she must have nursed her some or she probably would have died already. I don't know, like I said I'm not up to date on cats. I just hope they both end up being fine.

Cat update

2009-05-13T13:30:00.001-07:00

Well Mandy, I did end up having to call Mr. Phil. Poor mama cat had one coming out and she tried getting it out for a good 20 minutes with no luck. He said to massage her belly and if that didn't help then try to pull it out. I went to help with her belly and she got upset, so I quickly left her alone and went back on the porch. My parents came over and about that time she delivered what I guess was a kitten, but I can't be sure b/c before I could get a good look, my stinking dog took it and ate it!! Yes you read right, she ate whatever it was. I can only guess it was dead b/c I can't for the life of me imagine Sammy eating a live kitten. She loves cats! Well then I had to leave to go to Jackson and when I returned she had moved to under the shed. So now I can't see what's going on. She has been under our carport since yesterday afternoon, going back and forth between the bed we made for her and Sammy's bed. So I hate we had to leave because maybe she would still be under there for us to see. I don't think I mentioned this yet, but our neighbor have two other cats that had kittens about two weeks ago. Sammy will go over there every now and then and lick them all over. Well one evening this past weekend when we returned home the girls ran over there to see the kittens. They quickly returned yelling, "Sammy has a kitten in her mouth and we think it's dead!" Sure enough, she brought a dead kitten home and just dropped it on the grass next to our driveway and kept running up to me then the kitten. It was like she wanted me to help the poor thing. She kept licking it. At first I was mortified, thinking she did this. But then after watching her, I realized she wanted me to do something. We ended up burying it. I told the neighbors about it, and she said she thought Sammy was trying to help too, because that morning they noticed that one kitten looked like it wasn't going to make it. So I think that when we got home that evening she went over there to get it for me to see. Anyway, that's why I can't imagine Sammy eating a live kitten. But who knows? Poor kitten. And poor mama cat.

The neighbor's cat

2009-05-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor has several cats roaming around. My kids can tell them all apart, but me, not so much. But I did notice a few weeks ago that one looked pretty pregnant. We've been keeping a close eye on her. Two of the other cats had kittens about two weeks ago in our neighbors house, and I didn't even know they were pregnant. Anyway, the one pregnant cat that I noticed has been acting like she is in labor since yesterday afternoon. She rarely ever lets us get close to her, and yesterday she started meowing really funny, and very frequently and wants us to rub her. She wants to stay very close to Sammy (our dog) and you can tell she wants Sammy to love on her. Well, I thought for sure she would have her kittens last night, but nothing. So then when I went to bed I thought I would wake up to kittens. No again. She keeps hanging around here, laying with Sammy and meowing like crazy. But still nothing. I've taken a laundry basket and lined it with old towels for her to birth in, and she will occasionally get in there. But I'm worried she is having trouble. I really don't know anything about cats, so I can't tell for sure she is even in labor. But it sure seems like it. Anyone have any advice??

Who did this to me?

2009-05-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

The kids went to bed around 8:30 last night and I stayed up waiting on Jimmy to get home from work. It wasn't too long after he came home that I made my way to the bedroom. Usually I put my pj's on my dresser in the mornings, which consists of a t-shirt and sleeping pants. When I went to put my pj's on I saw a t-shirt laying on my bed. I couldn't remember if that was the one I wore the night before, but I thought it must have been since it was on my bed, so I put it on. This morning Hannah came in my room, woke me up and asked, "Who did this to me?" I swear, I wish I had my camera next to my bed because it was the funniest thing! She came in my room with my long skirt on that I wore yesterday to church around her neck, kind of like a shawl. When I got out of bed, she pointed at my shirt I was wearing and said that that was the shirt she put on to go to bed! When I changed clothes after church yesterday I just left my skirt on my bed (or floor, can't remember). Sometime between me putting her to bed and me going to bed, she got up, went into my room, took her shirt off, laid it on my bed and put my skirt over her head and wore it to bed!!! She did this all while sleepwalking! It was so funny. That is not the first incident we've had with her and her sleepwalking. I have a picture in one of my albums of her asleep on the bathroom floor. Anyone else sleepwalk??

Recent Visitors

2009-05-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Recently, we've had family fly in from everywhere. My dad's brother and his wife flew in from the Phillipines, his sister flew in from Colorado, and his cousin (the mother of Jenn whose blog some of you read) flew in from Florida. I know my grandma was glad to see everyone, and it was the first time my dad and his siblings have all been together in well over ten years.

My dad (on the right) with his mom, sister, and brother

My dad with his siblings and his cousin Cheryl

We all got together a few times while everyone was here, but one of the more entertaining evenings was when we all did karaoke! That was a trip!! We do have video floating around somewhere that I might can get my hands on soon...hehe! The only one I have so far is of my dad singing. We laughed and laughed over that!

Here I Am!!!!

2009-05-01T12:26:00.001-07:00

I am so glad to have our internet back up and running. We had to have someone come out twice to fix it. The first time apparently didn't work, but the second time someone else came and realized that he had to drop another line to increase our signal strength. Even our cable was not really working, but now all is well! Many good blogging situations have come and gone so I will just highlight a few. The first of course is our embryology project. We started with twelve eggs, hoping all twelve were fertile. During the course of our 21 days with the eggs and candling them, we realized all but one was fertile. Sunday morning, April 19th, I woke up, went to turn the eggs, and realized that one of them had a crack in it! I was so excited because we weren't expecting them to start hatching until the next day. The girls were so excited that it was all I could do to get them to go to church. We left early so we could come home and hopefully watch them hatch. When we returned things were basically the same as they had been that morning. My parents invited us to go eat with them, and since there wasn't much change we went. On the way home I dropped my dad off at his house while my mom came home with us to check the eggs. Several of them had cracks in them, and one of them we knew was well on its way to hatching, so my mom stayed to watch. It was like waiting for a mother to give birth. We were all gathered around the incubator waiting for the first chick to emerge from the egg. How exciting it was! The first one was a black chick, and we all (except Hannah because she was on the couch with a bad belly ache) were able to see it hatch. That night the girls slept on the couch so they could come get me if more started hatching. Those girls didn't budge until the morning! But during the night several more did hatch, and the next day Jimmy's parents came over and we were able to see another one hatch. One of the eggs started hatching during that Sun. night, but for some reason died during the process. When we woke the shell had a wide crack almost all the way around, like the chick was just about to emerge. But it died. There was another egg that we were anxious to see hatch because the girls had named that egg from the get go. The egg was speckled, so they named it sprinkles. But that poor little chick died trying to hatch as well. They were both fully developed, so I don't know what happened. We were disappointed about that. So we ended up with nine chicks total. The girls had a great time with the cute little chicks until that following Friday when Mrs. Anne came to pick them up. They were cute, but they sure do poop A LOT!

Here is the first chick in the process of hatching.

Wild, huh?!

Poor thing was wore slam out after all that hard work.

The girls looking at them in the box. Rebecca looking like she's getting a little bossy over them!

We had four black chicks and five yellow chicks.

No Internet

2009-04-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Just wanted to give you all a quick update. I've been without internet for over a week now. Occasionally late at night and in the early morning I am able to check my emails, but that is the extent of it. In fact, sometimes I can't even finish retrieving my email before it goes out. We've had a tech guy come change our modem this past week and now someone else will be coming this week to try and fix it again. I'm going through computer withdrawals! The girls and I took a walk to my parents' house so I can post this blog. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned my blog, but my internet has abandoned me. Hope it gets back running soon so I can catch up on posts. Until then.....

"The Talk"

2009-04-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

So Hannah is 7, she'll be 8 next month, and sometimes things come up in conversation and she doesn't quite understand it so she'll ask. I'm glad that she asks, but there are definitely times when my answer is simply, "We'll talk about that when your older because that's not something you need to worry about now." And usually I'll give her a really quick response to satisfy her curiosity. And she understands that and never presses for more. They know that they can ask me any and everything (at least I hope they know) because I drill that in their head, but they also understand that some things are just not meant for little ones to hear, not yet. So on to the "talk"...a couple months ago we learned some about worms. We learned that the reason they stay beneath the dirt is because if exposed to direct light they become paralyzed. Now we are learning about chicken eggs and have been candling our eggs on occasion to see if they are fertilized. Well Hannah cannot get the words paralyzed and fertilized right to save her life. She keeps saying she hopes all of our eggs are paralyzed, and I keep correcting her and saying, "You mean fertilized." They know that if the eggs are fertilized then they have the ability to produce a chick, but she finally asked me how the eggs become fertilized. Our curriculum just says that fertile eggs are obtained only when roosters are kept with the laying hens. That wasn't enough for her. She wanted to know exactly how it becomes fertile. Well I don't know how chicken eggs become fertilized, but I know how human eggs become fertilized. So I sit her down and start explaining the whole menstrual thing, not in great detail, but enough for her to understand that at this point in a woman's life they have the ability to produce a baby. But then I go on to say that the only way a woman's eggs can turn into a growing baby is if the man fertilizes her eggs with what we call sperm. Ok, I know some of you may be thinking, "Donielle, she's only 7!" But as soon as I was done explaining she said, "I can't wait for the Easter Bunny to come tonight!" She still has her innocence!

Just another meal story

2009-04-15T10:44:00.001-07:00

I've already mentioned that I do not care for cooking. So when I made a casserole two nights ago to have for lunch yesterday I was extremely happy. When Jimmy is on 2nd shift it's good to cook a big lunch and have a simple dinner so he could eat before he leaves. I knew cooking would be the last thing I would have to worry about that morning. So, the casserole got done around 10 pm or so, and I left it out until Jimmy got home in case he wanted a little before he went to bed. Around 11:30 I went on to bed and woke up at 7 am with that wide eyed "Oh crap" look. "Please tell me Jimmy put it away! Please tell me he saw it before he went to bed! Please!" When I neared the end of the hall I saw it. The casserole still sitting on top of the counter, waiting for me to cover it and put it in the fridge. Can you believe that? So I had to throw it all away and make another one for our lunch. I was SO mad!

I'm Not Dead! - God

2009-04-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

The kids at our church practiced for a couple of months on our Easter play titled I'm Not Dead. They did it at both the 9 and 11 am services. My digital video camera does not take the best videos, and I'm not the best videographer, but you can still get the picture. These are only three of about six videos that I took. The kids and youth did several different skits and songs, but for time's sake I only posted these three. I am so so proud of our kids and youth! They are awesome!

Premeditated or not...you be the judge

2009-04-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

I was just about to start dinner. Hamburger was thawed out, Leah and I were getting what we needed to make hamburger helper, and I just turned the eye on to heat up the pan, when Jimmy asked what we were cooking. I told him what I was planning and he said he really wanted to cook something on the grill.
*Me*- "Why not cook hamburgers?"
*Him*- "No, the hamburger isn't even thawed out."
*Me*- "Yes it is! It's completely thawed out."
*Him*- "Well, that's not good for making hamburgers. Not that kind. If you could have anything on the grill you want, what would it be?"
*Me*- "BBQ Chicken"

I could tell he definitely didn't want hamburgers so my next choice was chicken. At this point Rebecca had heard the whole story and when she was asked what she wanted she said hamburgers. So he proceeded to go ask the other two girls the same thing.

*Him*- "They all want hamburgers."
*Me*- "Well, then fix them hamburgers and fix us chicken."

So he goes to the store to buy some chicken, and probably wanting to buy some hamburger meat, but I talked him out of that. We had a perfectly good pack at home, thawed out, waiting to be cooked. He returns home with the chicken. I'm in the process of folding laundry and putting it away, so he starts pattying the hamburgers.

*Him*- ***major groans***
*Me*- "What's wrong?"
*Him*- "Nothing." ***more groans*** "Where did you buy this hamburger meat?"
*Me*- "Food Lion."
*Him*- "Well it's not worth a dern."
*Me*- "Well it's fine for the girls."

I'm starting to get the impression from some of those groans that I should have been pattying the hamburgers while he was gone to the store. But hey, I was getting ready to fix dinner and he decided to change the menu, so I decided to let him do it and I would finish laundry. I finished putting away all of the clothes and then started on the sides for dinner. The mac-n-cheese is almost ready and I'm working on the cornbread (which is not going very well) when he walks in the house mad but with a grin on his face.

*Him*- "You'll never believe what I did!"
*Me*- "What?"
*Him*- "I dropped every single one of those hamburgers!"
*Me*- "What???? All of them?"
*Him*- "They were done and I was putting them on the plate to bring in and every one of them slid off the plate. Now Sammy is enjoying them. Must have been all that fat from the hamburger meat that made them slip off the plate."

Are you kidding me? So now I'm getting blamed for them slipping off his plate because I bought the more fatty meat this time. Well OH WELL.....it was on sale!

175th

2009-04-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

This makes my 175th post! Judi gave us all some homework, and I thought this was about where I am and I was right. Far from 500, and if I keep posting like I have this week I'll never get there...lol. I've been fighting sinuses this week. There is so much pollen out in our yard, on our porch, and on the cars that I would be shocked if I wasn't affected. Funny thing, I use to have TERRIBLE allergies growing up. Ask anyone who went to school with me and they will confirm that there was never a time when I didn't have kleenexes on me. I think I was in middle school when I started taking allergy shots, but they really didn't work so I quit. All you girls who played ball with me, remember when I was catcher and would have to call time-outs just to blow my nose?? LOL! Well ever since I became pregnant with my first daughter I kind of outgrew them. I still have problems several times during the year, but nothing like when I was younger, thank God! This just happens to be one of those times. I was fortunate enough to get a good couple of naps today. Not so fortunate that I had to still take Hannah to dance. But I'm home now and plan on going to bed shortly.

Looking for an excuse?

2009-04-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever just wanted to call in work and play hookie? Well, I've been out of the work force for quite some time, but I when I heard this excuse I thought it was too funny not to share with you. So, you call in work and tell them you have anal blindness. When they ask you what that is, you say, "I just can't see my butt coming to work today." LOL!!! Good luck using that one!

Why isn't it on the calendar?

2009-04-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is what Hannah asked me this morning regarding April Fool's Day. I told her it was not a holiday, and not important enough to put on the calendar. So then an email I received a few months ago popped in my head and I shared it with the girls. I thought it was cute. This is the paraphrased version: An athiest went to court to plead his case to the judge. "Judge, it isn't fair that us athiests don't have a holiday. The Christians have Christmas and Easter and we have nothing. That's descrimination!" The judge replied, "But you are wrong. You do have your own holiday." Confused, the athiest said, "We do? I'm not aware of this day. What is it?" The judge says, "In the Bible it says those who don't believe in Jesus are fools. So April 1st is your day!" LOL!! Love it!!

Chicken Eggs!!

2009-03-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Through 4-H the girls and I are doing an embryolgy project. They supply everything we need to hatch chicken eggs. Mrs. Ann brought it all yesterday and the girls are so excited. It takes about 21 days for the chicks to hatch, so be looking forward to pictures of the process and the actual chicks when they hatch. This is going to be an awesome lesson for them!

The eggs came in non other than an egg carton! We had to make sure Jimmy didn't make one of his special omelettes with them...lol!

This is the incubator the eggs will stay in until they hatch.

Fieldtrip to the big ol' town of Woodland

2009-03-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Last week our fieldtrip was to the Woodland Police Department and the Woodland Fire Department. Obviously I was the one who headed this trip up since my dad is the chief of police and my husband is the chief of the fire department...lol! I don't know what the kids liked most, lining up to each have a chance turning the sirens on and off the police car or taking a ride in the firetruck. My girls were showing off a bit. They wouldn't leave my dad alone, and before we went to the firehouse they had already made it clear to everyone that they were riding in the front with their daddy. They had a great time though, and my dad, Jimmy, and Chad did a wonderful job.

Our group with my dad in front of his police car

The group with Jimmy and Chad in front of one of the trucks

As promised, pictures from the magic show

2009-03-27T11:18:00.001-07:00

Hannah telling a joke in between tricks

The three "Magicians"

I just got done setting up Rebecca's props for her next trick.
Hannah blows into her own hand and blows up a balloon that Rebecca is holding.

I thought I had a hard name to pronounce!

2009-03-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

So I got this email today and thought it was way funny, but probably absolutely true.

If you saw a child's name written like this, how would you pronounce it? Le-a

Leah? No.

Lee - A? No.

Lay - a? No.

Lei? Nope.

The "proper" pronunciation is "Ladasha"!! Yes, that's right! Apparently this child attends school in Livingston, LA and her mother was becoming irate because everyone was pronouncing her name wrong. Well, HELOOOOOOO! When asked about the pronunciation her mother replied, "The dash don't be silent." Now I've heard it all! If I have another child I think I might name her La*. That's pronounced La-asterick. And don't you get it wrong!

Happy Birthday Baby Leah!

2009-03-22T15:31:00.001-07:00

I'm probably going to cry while I write this, but oh well. This post is dedicated to my sweet baby Leah. Leah, my sweet Leah, I can't believe four years have gone by since you were born. I remember like it was yesterday having to hold you constantly during the night, all hours of the night, hoping your pain would ease and you would fall asleep. I felt so sorry for you and the pain you were feeling. But at two months, when your pain subsided, you were nothing but smiles! You were and still are my happy baby! Hannah's gift from God is dance and song, Rebecca's is her empathy and her artistic ability, and at your young age of four we've found your gift is making people laugh, giving the sweetest kisses and the best hugs. You love to talk, boy do you love to talk, and you say some of the funniest things. You are one of the most appreciative little four year olds I've ever known. You thank me for the smallest things, and that makes me proud! You make sure we bless our food at every meal, and will stop us in the middle of eating if we've forgotten. Leah, "I'm your best friend!" ....moon moon moon.... I love you Lee Lee! Happy birthday baby! Love, Mommy

Leah's 4th Birthday Party

2009-03-22T14:58:00.001-07:00

So Friday was the big day, the deadline to be done with the kitchen and to celebrate Leah's 4th birthday. And celebrate we did! Despite all the planning, cleaning, and setting up, I love doing birthday parties for the girls. Because Rebecca's birthday is in the summer, we almost always have a pool party for her. But with Hannah and Leah, you never know how the weather will be so we try to plan something different and fun for indoors or out. This year was no exception. The girls and I checked out some magic books a while back and I thought it would be really neat if we put on a magic show for everyone. So throughout the week we made props like magicians' hats and capes, decorated stars and moons to put on the tablecloth and rigged up a curtain to make it look "real". We also worked on our actual tricks and decorated those as well. The girls wrote down jokes to tell the audience in between each trick. The night before Rebecca told me she was kind of nervous. I guess I would have been too if I was six years old and had to perform in front of so many people! But they did so so good! I was very proud of them. Jimmy and I were so busy doing the "behind the scenes" stuff that I didn't even get any pictures of them with their hats, capes, and wands. But his brother did and said he will send them to me this week sometime, so when I get them I will share. We video taped it, but not with a digital camera. The three girls got up there together and introduced themselves, thanked everyone for coming and then the show began. I had the best time at my sweet Leah's party!

Leah blowing her candles out

I did snatch this one shot of some of the people "patiently" waiting for the show to begin.
Leah opening her presents. She would wait for her sisters to read the cards to her and then open her gifts, most of the time!

Out with the old and in with the new!

2009-03-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

If you look beyond the girls, this is what our kitchen looked like before. I don't know what I was thinking, but I don't have any really good "before" shots.

And these are the after shots!

The True Meaning

2009-03-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Up until today, I didn't know what St. Patrick's Day was really about. Like others, I thought St. Patrick's Day was an Irish holiday celebrated by wearing green, possibly a shamrock, and maybe drinking beer. But today I learned the true meaning, and I thought I would share. St. Patrick's real name is Magonus Sucatus Patricius and he was born in England in 389. When he was 16 years old, Irish raiders attacked his country and he along with hundreds of others were kidnapped, taken to Ireland, and sold as slaves. While held captive he became a strong Christian and at the age of 22 he escaped and went back to his home. Shortly after reuniting with his family he had a vision from God and felt that he was called to return to Ireland to teach them about Christ. His first convert happened to be his former slave master! St. Patrick spent the rest of his life evangelizing Ireland. He founded hundreds of churches, monasteries, and schools and baptized many many people. He is known as one of the greatest missionaries of all time.

The reason the shamrock might have come about is because St. Patrick use to use a shamrock to teach the Trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to the people. This was a good way to teach them since a clover has three leaves on one and the trinity is three people who are actually one. So know you know! Yes, when I thought about St. Patrick's Day I thought about wearing green so I didn't get pinched, or I thought about shamrocks and leperchauns. But now I know what it is all about. And so do you! So, HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Sneek Peek!

2009-03-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

Jimmy and I worked all day yesterday tiling the backsplash, and about 9:00 pm last night we finally finished putting it all up. Boy were were we tired! It's still not done because we have to grout the tile now, but we have to wait 24 hours for the glue to dry first. So the grout will have to wait until tomorrow. Jimmy had a hard time cutting some of the stones due to his blade getting dull and the stones being so small. The scrap ones were put aside and of course the girls found them. Below is a little girl that Rebecca made out of the scraps she collected. She is so creative!

Here is the sneek peek!

Blogger Blast '09

2009-03-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

All diets were off and the fun was on! I had a blast Friday evening seeing everyone and meeting the ones I've never met. It was great to put a face to people I've been blogging with for a while. Thank you Judi and Wendy for setting this all up and for our super creative gifts, and thank you Mandy for making those cool "blogger blast" plaques! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that I got.

All 19 of us!

No counting points tonight!
Rhonda and Shari just cheesing

Using my brain....finally

2009-03-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

So, the kids are tired of sandwiches, which are very convenient right now, and another lunch day has approached. What to fix? What to fix? Ah ha....I finally realized that it was quite possible to heat things up or maybe even boil water on my griddle. So todays lunch menu, compliments of my griddle: ramon noodles, fried egg (with ketchup of course), green beans, and an apple. Yay, something hot. Sound good?

Overwhelmed

2009-03-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to feel the stress of having a really really messy house. I never realized how much I love my kitchen sink and my washing machine. I can do without the stove...haha! Jimmy and I have never had a dishwasher, and that's so not a problem. But I would give almost anything to have one right now. The bathroom sink is not cutting it. We have issues with our washing machine backing up into our kitchen sink, so without the kitchen sink we can't wash clothes. I've been having to take clothes to my mom and dad's to wash. Thank God they live right up the road. But it still is difficult, and there is nothing like being able to throw a load in here or there. Jimmy has been working so incredibly hard trying to get this done. He's been working nights, so when he gets off in the mornings he comes home and works till after lunch and then goes to bed and gets up to go to his real job. We're trying to get this done before next Friday because we're having Leah's birthday that night. Did I mention we're doing a magic show for her birthday?? Jimmy, the girls, and I are doing it, so somewhere between school and working on the kitchen and finally putting everything back and cleaning the house really well, we need to practice our magic show. Ughhhhh!!!

Prayers needed

2009-03-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

First I would like to say thank you for praying for my cousin Jenn. Many of you have been following her blog and know that she has been carrying a little boy they named Matthew and that they were expecting sad results. This weekend she posted that she went into labor at home and was blogging until the contractions were close enough to go to the hospital. Well, on Sunday her mom emailed us to let us know that Matthew was born at 9:40 in the morning and looked beautiful. She said he was put on life support so that they could spend some time with him. They were able to say their goodbyes and get pictures and then he was taken off life support. He lived for about an hour longer before the Lord took him. She said it was very hard. I can't imagine it being anything other. No matter how prepared they were, or thought they were, I can't imagine the pain being any less. I know their hearts must ache, not to mention Jenn's c-section causing physical pain. To go to a hospital to deliver a child you're most certain won't be coming home with you. To have to deal with all of the postpartum issues...hormonal changes, breast milk coming in, baby belly, but no baby. My heart aches for them, and I know you all have been praying so please now pray for strength and emotional healing. Thank you, and I know she would thank you too.

What a difference a week makes!

2009-03-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

These were some pictures from this past Monday

And these are pictures from this weekend!

We went from snow on Monday to beautiful carwashing, get sprayed with the water hose Saturday. Good ol' North Carolina weather for ya!

Dishes and Coffee in the Bathroom?

2009-03-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been to hotels before that had a coffee pot in the bathroom, but never thought I would be making coffee in my own bathroom. Nor did I think I would be washing dishes in there. That's what we're dealing with here in the McDermott household, no sink, no microwave, no stove, no oven. But we do have a refrigerator!!! There's a lady I go to church with who had to go without a kitchen for 3 years while they renovated their's!! Can you imagine? I pray that this will not take more than two weeks. Our goal is to have it done before little Leah's birthday party (March 20th). Think it can be done??

This is a picture of most of the kitchen. Notice the stuff on the table that belongs in those cabinets. We weren't sure where to put everything. There is a bookshelf to the left of this table and it is covered with stuff as well. We've been eating our meals in the living room on towels. The kids think this is a blast because they NEVER get to eat in the living room!

Another table in our kitchen that is full of stuff.
Quick peek of what the cabinets and backsplash that we picked out look like. As soon as I saw this stone tile I knew that's what I wanted. I love it! I can picture it all in my head, and can't wait for it all to come together! My husband ROCKS!!

Major Renovations

2009-03-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

Jimmy and I bought our house, our first house, a little over seven years ago when Hannah was just a baby. It needed a lot of updates, especially with colors. It's a good solid house, but we're always making plans to do something to make it like we want. But, as I've said, we've been in here for a long time now, and yet to do anything major. The first thing we did was paint because this ENTIRE house was mint green, molding and all! Everything was green, oh, except the bathrooms but they are lemon yellow and some bluish/greenish color (tubs, showers, and sinks match the outdated colors as well). We didn't paint all the rooms, we left the kitchen, dining, and bathroom alone. Our thought was that we would get to it when we could. I always joked that the kitchen made me hungry for mint chocolate chip icecream because of the green colors and black hardware. But the green will be gone soon and a newer, fresher kitchen is waiting for me!!! I'm so excited!!! This is the first big renovation we have done. Jimmy ripped out all of the backsplash and is in the process of ripping out the countertops. I have taken some pics for you. One of the mint chocolate chip colors from before, and a couple of what it looks like this very instant.

In this picture, the top cabinets have already been painted with new hardware installed.

This is what my kitchen looks like right now!!

New Blogger Ya'll

2009-03-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, a friend of mine named Billie Jo has just started a blog. So please welcome her to the fun world of blogging!! Her site is www.bjflyhe.blogspot.com Let's get her hooked folks...lol!

Relay Luminaries

2009-02-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Hello all! First, thank you to EVERYONE who bought a Fight Like a Girl Relay shirt! I sold many of them and our team was so excited with the money we raised thus far. Now we are selling luminaries. For those of you unfamiliar with luminaries I will tell you quickly what they are about. In April we will be having our all night Relay. This is my first year participating, but it sounds like it's a blast, tiring, but fun. All of the 50 plus Relay teams will be together on this final night of Relay for Life. They have things planned for every hour throughout the entire night. Lots and lots of fun silly things. But at 9:00 pm Friday night they will be having the luminaries ceremony. This is a beautiful and touching ceremony where candles are placed in luminary bags and are lit to honor those fighting cancer, or to remember those who have lost their battle with cancer. These candles burn all night to remind us of the purpose of Relay for Life. The luminary bags are decorated with a pink ribbon and the name of the person the luminary was purchased for will be written on the bag. However, if you would like to decorate your own bag you can do so. The luminaries are 1 for $10 or 3 for $25.

They have an addition to the luminary and it's called the Flame of Hope. With this, a special torch will be lit in honor or in memory of someone you love that has been affected by cancer. A display sign will be placed in front of the torch recognizing that special person. Also, a picture of your loved one will be put on the big screen along with their name during the luminary presentation. This Flame of Hope is $50. If anyone is interested in either one of these, please send me an email or call me at 578-0514. My email is usfive@mchsi.com Please feel free to call or email me with whatever questions you have. The deadline for these are April 1st. Thanks guys!! Oh, the big luminary presentation is on April 24, 2009 at 9:00 pm.

New Blogger

2009-02-23T05:55:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I wanted to share with you my cousin's blog. Her name is Jenn Harden and she lives in Florida. I want to share her blog with you so that you all may pray for her and her family. Jenn is married and has a daughter and a son, and a son on the way. She is about 31 weeks along. However, this pregnancy is supposed to end very sadly. At her first ultrasound they found some things wrong with Matthew (the baby). These things could be fixed with surgery during her pregnancy, but they were not a candidate for the surgery. So now the chances of survival after birth are very very minimal. In fact, the doctors are telling them that he will not survive long after his birth. But because of her strong faith, she seems to be doing well. So I am asking that you all pray for her, her family, and baby Matthew. I know God is in charge, and it's up to Him to determine what will happen to baby Matthew. Only He knows what He has planned for them. Please check out her blog, and let's pray, pray, pray. We all know how powerful prayer is! Thank you guys so much! Her blog is www.themiracleofmatthew.blogspot.com

Fancy Nancy Party

2009-02-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

The girls were invited to a birthday party with a Fancy Nancy theme. Fancy Nancy is a storybook character who likes to use big words and French words too so that she sounds fancy. Sierra was the little girl who was celebrating her birthday, and her mom had such a great idea for the party. She set up different stations with different things for the kids to do. One station was a dress-up area, one was a nail polish area, there was a make-up and hairdo barbie area, and an area to make picture frames and door hangers. There were a few games too, and one of my favorites was the icecream station! We had lots of fun putting on pretty clothes (and silly clothes as you will see below) and making crafts. The party was a hit, and a great idea for you all looking for birthday ideas.

Leah in the barbie make-up and hairdo station

Hannah and the birthday girl Sierra in the nail polish station

Rebecca doing none other than making crafts

I don't know who this is. Oh wait, it's Leah in the dress-up station!

Toni and I playing dress-up...aren't we cute??!!

Thank You!!

2009-02-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

I want to thank you all for my birthday wishes!! I had a great birthday, and have been so busy since then to even blog. Jimmy and the girls made me my favorite cake for my birthday which we enjoyed after lunch....yummy! That night was dance and then we met Jimmy's family for dinner. His parents just bought a house and are in the middle of the move and Jimmy wanted to help with that, so we packed our bags and just stayed in the Rapids for a few nights. That worked out well because I had a dentist appt. the next morning anyway so that saved me a trip there. We came home Thursday, but then turned right back around and went there again on Friday for a field trip. Our group went to Cici's Pizza. They gave the kids a tour of the kitchen, showed them what everything is and how it works. Then they all got to make their very own personal pizza! The kids had a blast, and the people there were so nice and friendly.
This is our group with some of the Cici's workers.

Weekend Recap

2009-02-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

Friday morning the girls and I were invited to a friend's birthday party at her school. Joy the clown was a fun surprise for everyone. She was so much fun, and really good with the kids. She had several tricks which she performed, including growing a bunny and making a live bird named Cookie out of cookie ingredients! The kids thought that was great! After her performance she did face painting and made animal balloons for everyone. I think every girl except one chose to be a princess, and every boy chose spiderman. Leah chose to just play with the toys! Below is a picture of the wonderful clown Joy. If anyone is interested in getting her to come to your party, picnic, school, etc., the number is 800-851-4873. The card says they serve NC, VA, and DC.

Rebecca's princess face

Hannah's princess face

After the party I had a few more shirt orders to fill, so off to Murfreesboro we went. My friend Toni (Mary Lou's niece) met us at Los Amigos for lunch. That was a trip!! My girls LOVE Toni, and we had the best time. I'm glad the restaurant wasn't any more packed than it was, because they may have asked us to leave. We were taking silly pictures (hence the blog two below) and laughing so loud...well maybe that was just me! I do have a loud laugh. Toni told Leah that if she could put the lemon in her mouth, bite down on it, and not make a sour mouth face, then she would give her a dollar. Well, she must not have realized how much my girls LOVE money because Leah was all up for that challenge. She put that lemon in her mouth and sat there with her mouth closed...no sour mouth! Toni ended up giving all three of my girls a dollar and of course they went straight to the bubble gum machines.

Friday night the girls and I had some friends come over to play and eat dinner. They really enjoyed themselves. Saturday morning we got up and just hung out until Daddy came home. He brought the girls their Valentine's which they loved. A neighbor's grandaughter came over for most of the afternoon to play, so while they played Jimmy and I cleaned some. Saturday evening my parents came over to babysit while Jimmy and I went out to eat. It was good to spend some alone time with my Valentine. We weren't out late at all. In fact, Hannah was still awake when we got back. Today was church and a big lunch afterwards. Jimmy stayed home with the girls today because he had to go help a friend cut down some trees, and I had to help with the lunch at church. The lunch was great, and we were able to hear the testimony of one of our church members. Him, his wife, and their five kids are leaving Saturday for a three year mission trip! How awesome is that?? I love our church, and I love that my kids love our church! I'm excited to hear updates from this family and see all that God has in store for them. So, that's my weekend....now I need a nap!

Ever wonder what your house would look like if you had three little girls living there?

2009-02-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

Well here is a small glimpse.

The girls said they had to leave the dolls there on the porch for the night so their hair could dry. There were more on a towel on the floor. Earlier in the day they were playing hair salon and coloring the dolls hair, but come on, who goes to the hairdresser naked?? Maybe today they will take the dolls shopping for some clothes!

Crazy picture highlights from our day yesterday....Can you guess what they are?

2009-02-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, yesterday the girls and I had a busy but fun day. We had a good time taking silly pictures throughout the day. See if you can tell what they are pictures of. Have fun guessing, some are easy, some may look gross, but they are not. Good luck!

2.

3.

Busy Weekend Ahead

2009-02-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

We've got a busy one coming up. It starts tomorrow morning. The girls were invited to a friend's birthday party in the morning, and they are really excited. They're having a clown at the party! Tomorrow evening the girls and I are having some friends over for dinner. Jimmy is going to the Rapids to stay with his folks. Saturday...Valentine's Day, we're just going to hang out until the evening. My parents are going to babysit while Jimmy and I go out to dinner...yay!! Sunday is church, and right after I'm helping serve lunch for a fundraiser we are having for a family from our church who are heading to Vanuatu to serve as missionaries. This will be their last Sunday with us for about three years, so we want to send them off with lots of love. Hopefully Sunday evening will be restful! I hope you all have a great weekend, and happy Valentine's Day!

Fun With My Cricut

2009-02-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Cathy, I so stole the idea from your candy jar...lol! I loved it so much that I came home and decorated a candy jar for my grandma for her birthday. Then last night, a friend wanted me to do one for her friend, so voila! I think she's going to like it. I can't wait to do one for my girls' rooms. I'm going to girly it up a lot!

By the way, I added a followers list to the right side if you'd like to become a follower! Ya'll have a good day!

T-shirts

2009-02-09T17:02:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank everyone who bought a Relay for Life shirt from me! I will be selling them for a while, but I am thrilled with how many I have been able to sell so far. I'm sure we'll be doing more fundraisers in the near future and I'll keep you updated on those. But as for now, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

A new spot for the computer

2009-02-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

The end of last week we decided to move our computer desk to my classroom. I've been wanting to move that thing for a while now, mainly to get it out of the kitchen. Also, I use the computer a lot during school. So instead of me going back and forth to print things off for the girls, I can do it in the room with them. Another good thing is that our computer desk is made for a corner, and the spot we've had it in for years is a flat wall. It never looked good there. So now it's in its perfect spot! I have something in mind to take up the space in the kitchen where it was, but I have to clean it and paint it first. As soon as that is done I'll take pictures. But knowing us, the king and queen of unfinished projects, it may be a while!

The new computer area.

Hannah's New Do

2009-02-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Hannah got a haircut yesterday, and it's the shortest it's ever been! I've been talking to her for several days telling her that they may need to cut it to her shoulders to get the dead ends off....I'm really bad about getting their (and my) hair cut. So she was prepared to go that short. While we were at the shop the hairdresser said she only needed about two inches off, but Hannah told us she wanted it to her shoulders. So....here's the old do...

And here's the new one!
I love it! It's so cute, and that part that she's excited about is that her and Rebecca will look like twins!

A couple of self portraits

Batman, Dora, and a Belly Full of Babies

2009-02-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

Leah and I went for a walk today (yes it was freezing and she's getting a cold, but she begged!), just the two of us. Actually, she rode her bike while I walked. Not far into the walk she started telling me that her buddies Blake and Ben have a scooter like hers, but their's is batman as opposed to Dora. I asked her if she knew that they were twins (Blake and Ben, not batman and dora). I said, "They were both in Miss Terri's belly at the same time." Her response was, "Oh my gosh!" Then I told her about the lady who recently had eight babies at the same time, like twins but there were eight. I told her that this lady had eight babies in her belly at one time. This time she said, "Oh my gosh....I bet she was so full that she couldn't even eat." LOL!! Oh the simplicity of a three year old's mind!

Silly Kids

2009-02-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

The girls have this rolling babydoll bed that has a canopy over it. They usually roll all their dolls around in this thing. The nice thing is that we can store a bunch of dolls in it when it's time to clean up and because of the canopy, you can't see all the millions of dolls! Here is a picture of the bed.
This morning Rebecca was wheeling it around the house. When she saw me she stopped and said, "Look what I have Mom." All of a sudden, Leah slipped the curtain to the side and poked her head out. I laughed and laughed because none of them had ever gotten in it before, and it took me by surprise. I don't know why they hadn't thought of it until now!

Lincoln Logs and Pig Tails

2009-02-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

One of the girls favorite things to do is play with their lincoln logs. I stink at it! If left to me, I wouldn't be able to build squat, but the girls and Jimmy have got it going on. Here is Rebecca and Jimmy with one of thier creations. Rebecca is very patient; they sat their and built several different things. Maybe that's why I stink at it, lack of patience!
I was getting the girls ready for dance last night and ended up putting each of their hair up in pig tails. Jimmy thought it would be funny to put mine up in pig tails too. So....voila....

I quickly took mine down. Their just not as cute in a soon to be 33 year old!

Relay for Life

2009-01-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying that on Monday we switched our internet provider, and our internet has been down ever since! It finally came back up this afternoon. So, I have some catching up to do with reading everyone's blog. Plus, in case I forgot to send any of you my new email address, it is usfive@mchsi.com

Our homeschool group has started a Relay for Life team this year. Monday evening we had a meeting where I was able to purchase this really cool shirt. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, please send me an email. The money will go towards our teams goal.

These shirts are brown with pink lettering. The short sleeved t-shirts are $12, and the long sleeved t-shirts are $18. The sizes we have available are YS, YM, YL, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL. We are also selling koozies (drink huggers) for $2 that are brown and have the same saying as the shirts.

Nothing much

2009-01-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd let everyone know I'm still here. Nothing much going on though. Basketball ended this week for Rebecca. Funny story...they don't keep score in her age group, but the kids (at least Rebecca) keeps up with the score. Well, her team never wins. But we all know that's not the point. A couple of games ago the other team was short a couple of kids, so they asked Rebecca and another kid to play for the other team. At first I didn't know this, so I was wondering why Rebecca was passing the ball to the other team. During halftime she came up to me to explain the situation. Then she said, "Out team never wins. Today I'm playing with the other team, and now our team is winning." I thought, "Go figure!" Poor Beck! Oh, another funny Rebecca story. A couple of days ago the girls were playing barbies and it when it was time to clean up and get ready for bed I went in there to help clean. Hannah proceeds to tell me the storyline for barbie playing that night. They were pretending that one of thier little girls was lost and they couldn't find her for a whole day. The little girl was outside alone lost all day. Rebecca says, "Yeah, and I had real tears coming down." I said, "You mean you were really crying?" Hannah confirmed that Rebecca was really crying! When I asked her why she was crying over a make-believe game, she said, "Because it was making me really sad." Such a tender heart my Rebecca has!

Facing the Giants

2009-01-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

Have any of you seen this movie? I've heard of it, a lot of good stuff, but didn't really know what it was about. I was at my sister's yesterday after church with some others folks from church and we got to talking about movies. They brought this one up and went on and on about how good it is. My sister happened to have the movie and so I borrowed it. After breakfast this morning, Jimmy, the girls, and I piled up in the living room to watch it. What a great movie!! I cried so many times during the movie! It's a movie about a high school football team and their head coach. This movie is so filled with scripture and the message is clear, it's an awesome family movie. But did you know that a church in Albany, Georgia is who made this movie? If I'm not mistaken, the church is called Sherwood Baptist Church, and they did this movie as an outreach ministry. So majority of the actors are not really actors, but members of this church. They made one before Facing the Giants and one after. I can't remember the name of the one before (I think it's Flyaway??), but the one after is called Fireproof. That one has Kirk Cameron as one of the actors (maybe the main one). I'm anxious to get this one now. I thought I would share this info. So if any of you have not seen it and/or are football fans, this is a GREAT movie to see!

Field Trip

2009-01-18T18:10:00.001-08:00

Friday, the girls and I set out to Wilson with our homeschool group for a field trip. We went to the Imagination Station where kids learn about science from hands on exhibits. Jimmy and I took the girls there about a year ago, so I recommended it to our group. The first floor is filled with tons of hands-on stuff. One of the favorites amongst the kids was the animal race (I don't know the exact name.). Here, the child chooses which animal they want to race, like a turtle, a bear, or a cheetah for example. You push the button, wait for the light to turn green, and then run like crazy. It tells you who wins. Those kids raced the animals over and over and over! We signed up for the "courtroom boom pop fizz" show. So after they played and played downstairs, we went upstairs to see all the cool experiments. The last one was the best! Everyone in the room jumped from the explosion! Also upstairs they have reptiles for the kids to see. Thankfully they were all in aquariums! One of the workers took out a snake for the kids to pet. I couldn't believe it, but Rebecca actually went up and touched the snake! She couldn't wait to tell her daddy.

The is the last experiment....notice how far back the lady is standing as he's holds out a lit stick!

Rebecca learning about levers

What better way to learn about teeth then to play in them??

Rebecca being brave enough to touch the snake...ewww!!

Curlers & Funny Faces

2009-01-18T18:02:00.001-08:00

I Know My Man!

2009-01-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night was the annual Ladie's Night Fireman's Supper. I always look forward to it every year. Bill's Barbeque caters our dinner with yummy barbeque, slaw, fried chicken, stew, boiled potatoes and hushpuppies!!! Yummy! This year they either started something new, or just started doing what they use to do. The firemen had roses for all of us ladies, and the Newlywed game was played! Jimmy and I were asked to participate in the game, and of course we agreed, along with three other couples. The ladies were escorted into one room to anwser two sets of questions while the men went into another room to answer two different sets of questions. Then we were all brought back together, and in front of the entire department and their wives, we had to guess what each other answered. It was hillarious! Some of the questions and especially the answers were way too funny. Jimmy and I won first place!! We were so proud of ourselves! It was a team effort, so not only do I know my man, but he knows his woman!

She was trying

2009-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Little Leah is a character! Right before lunch she was begging for a snack. She finally came up to me and asked if she could have a poptart. She said, "It has fruit in it, it's healthy! I saw it on tv." Although she tried hard, she still didn't succeed. But she sure made me laugh. Update: This morning during breakfast the tv was on and the poptart commercial came on. Leah said, "Watch Mommy!" Then at the "made with real fruit" part, she looked at me and said, "See, I told you." Too funny!

16 Random Things

2009-01-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

I've got a facebook account which has been a lot of fun. I've reconnected with a lot of friends from college, and I even found a friend that I use to live with when I was in Korea. Well, someone started a 16 random things list, and I thought it would be fun to do it up here too. You're supposed to write 16 random things about yourself and then tag friends for them to do the same. But since a lot of us have the same blogger friends, I thought I would just list my things and leave it to you all to decide if you want to participate or not. So, here are my 16 random things:

1. I lived in five different states by the time I was in the 3rd grade. My dad was military.

2. I'm a nail biter, bad.

3. Peanut butter and cereal...I could live off of those (not together though).

4. I went to UNC-Greensboro, but only for a year and a half.

5. When I was there, my major was elementary education.

6. I had stitches between my eye and my nose when I was like four. Sledding accident.

7. I use to live to play softball. I played from middle school all the way up until the summer I found out I was pregnant with Hannah.

8. I love black and white pictures!

9. I lived in S. Korea for six months when I was 20.

10. I flew in an airplane by myself for the first time when I was in 3rd grade (or maybe it was 4th).

11. I laugh really loud.

12. I always knew that when and if I had kids, I wanted to stay home with them. Yay me!!

13. Jimmy and I were best friends for a long time before we even started dating.

14. I'm always coming up with some way to make a little extra money. No one knows what I'll be into next...baby frames, cakes, necklaces, ect. I'm waiting for the big one!

15. I've been to Japan for one day only.

16. I'm allergic to dogs, cats, and shellfish.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program

2009-01-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over, the new year has begun, and so has our regular schedule. We started back school on Monday, along with basketball, dance, and more basketball. The girls were surprisingly ready to start back. I was especially taken aback by Hannah and how cooperative she's been with school starting back. She's the one who thinks of any and every excuse to not do her work, but so far so good. It was funny, last Fri. Rebecca asked me how many more days until school starts back and when I told her we start in three days she was bummed. She said, "Oh man, I was hoping we only had two days left." She's my little nerd! She loves to read and loves loves loves to do math. Hannah does not like to read, but she loves very much for me to read to her. Just since the beginning of school I've read to her Anne of Green Gables, The Call of the Wild, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Secret Garden, and now we're reading Huckleberry Finn. Hannah is my Bible nerd. Just yesterday we were reading about Moses and when I stopped reading she was upset because she wanted me to continue, and she already knew the story. I am surprised almost daily at how much she knows and understands about the Bible. There was one part that I couldn't understand while we were reading, but she kept trying to explain what she thought happened. I wasn't convinced by her answer, I thought I was reading it wrong. So I asked my pastor last night to explain it to me so I could explain it to her. And embarassing as it may be, she was way more on track than I was. Such sponges kids are, huh? And Leah, she's getting better and better with occupying herslef during school. I let her bring her toys in the living room, which is the room adjacent to our classroom, with hopes that some of this will slip into her brain through osmosis (sp?)!

Give-a-way

2009-01-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I meant to blog about this yesterday, but family came over to visit so I'm a little late. But I wanted to let you know that at http://www.missymadeit.blogspot.com you can scroll down a few posts to find a Vera Bardley coin purse that Missy is giving away. You get an extra name in the hat for following her blog. She has a really cute blog, and it's always fun to see what they are up to. You have to leave a comment on that particular post to have your name entered. Good luck!

More pictures

2009-01-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

(Pictures are random and out of order)

This is Hannah, Jimmy, Rebecca, and Grandma Trudy playing with the Nintendo DS's that the grandparents bought the girls.

Jimmy and Paul in their new personalized Bill's jersey's
Grandpa Andy giving Leah the new barbie bike from them. And like her Dora house coming with a Dora house, her barbie bike came with a bike for barbie!

Jimmy, Leah, and Rebecca. Rebecca testing out her new tooth tunes toothbrush. Notice the gift in the back of Jimmy for me? We don't usually buy for each other, but he surprised me with two awesome gifts! And he wrapped them in butcher paper! Too sweet! One was a beautiful jewelry box and the other was the cricut!!! I felt silly because I did buy him a couple of things, but they were like shirts and jeans. Woopdeedoo!

The girls in our bed waiting for us to get ready so we can all go out together. Leah not quite awake enough.

Finally some Christmas pics

2009-01-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hanna's big gift from Santa...an electric scooter!

Rebecca's big gift from Santa...a box FULL of craft supplies!

Leah's big gift from Santa...a Dora the Explorer house!

After all of my griping about Jimmy missing out on Christmas morning, his schedule was changed! He ended up having to work second shift so he was home in the morning. The girls woke us up about 6:30 and waited for us to get up and dressed so we could all go see what Santa left together. Jimmy's family came around 9:00 and we all had breakfast and exchanged with each other. Before they got there Rebecca spent forever organizing her craft supplies in her new craft tote. Even after all the other gifts were opened, she still spent more time organizing! Hannah was ready to jump on her new scooter. She took several trips around the block. Leah was very occupied setting up Dora's new house. Her Dora dollhouse even came with a Dora dollhouse!! Funny! Jimmy's family left and Jimmy had to go on to work. Then the girls and I went to my parents for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts. Here is a picture of all the kids eating. One of the kids is the daughter of a cousin of mine that I've never met! Or if I have met him, it's been wayyyyy long ago. His name is Dimas and him, his wife and little girl just moved to VA with the military. His mom is my dad's niece. So I was very pleased that they joined us for Christmas. It was really great meeting them.

This is my cousin and his wife.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a very happy, prosperous, and blessed new year! Shari, good luck with all of your goals. I think they are all very achievable, and I'm sure you'll do it all! Kelly and Rhonda, good luck with your goals too! I can't wait to see the updates every week. I think this blog will hold you accountable and keep you on the right track. And Missy, I'm with you for sure about the fruits and veggies thing....I so bad about that. My goal this year is to get into running. I've never been a runner (Tina and Mandy, you remember everyone calling me speedy??), but I'm not looking to become a speed runner. I just want to get into running for my health. I think running will help get me in shape, and hopefully give me more energy, something I definitely lack. So with this goal, I too hope to lose weight! And if I start to feel like I can't do it, I will look at the Christmas card my Aunt Becky sent me that had my scary picture on it! In fact, maybe I will tape it to my mirror in my room for motivation everyday. Good luck to everyone that has set goals for the new year. {{Cheers}} To us for making plans for a better new year!

I'm Back

2009-01-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your words, thoughts, and prayers. We came home yesterday and spent a lot of the day cleaning up, unpacking, and doing laundry. Despite the circumstances, we all had a nice time being together. Jimmy's grandma was a strong woman. She had been in the nursing home for the past 11 years. It was just a few years ago that she became bedridden. And even then, she kept busy popping bubbles and visiting with family that was always there. She's always had a very sharp mind and a funny sense of humor. I have some really good memories of her from when she lived with Jimmy, his mom, and brother years ago. Grandma Bailey (that's my Leah's middle name) had 9 children, 28 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren!! Isn't that awesome?

I'll be out for a few days

2008-12-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I will catch up on my blog and everyone else's in a few days. Jimmy's grandma passed away last night so peacefully in the presence of almost all of her children, many grandchildren, and even some great grandchildren. There was so much love in that room. His grandma lived a wonderful 94 (two months shy of 95) years. She has to be one of the strongest women I know. There have been many times when we all thought that her day was coming, but so many times she turned around and surprised us all. Yesterday was a little different. I think we all knew for sure. Please say a prayer for Jimmy's mom and her siblings, as they have spent the last 11 years going to the nursing home EVERY day to feed her and spend time with her. Pray that they will not be lost in the days ahead with not having to go there everyday. Thank you guys! And I'll see you in a few days.

I just don't know where to begin

2008-12-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

So I'll start with the funniest gift I got. I guess I need to give you all a little background info though. As a lot of you know, almost all of my family lives up north. Everyone on my mom's side lives in upstate NY. Starting when I was in elementary school, I would fly to NY and spend every summer there with my Aunt Mary. As I got older, I would only go for a week at a time with my family. My parents use to take us out of school during the winter for a week every year so we could go up there and go skiing. And then we would go in the summers when my Aunt would rent the cottage at the lake. And when I was a junior in highschool, I begged my parents to let me go live with my Aunt Mary and go to school there. I know that sounds crazy, but I really wanted something better than what good ol' Northampton had to offer. So they let me go. Even though I only lasted two months before becoming so homesick I had to come home, I spent a lot of time with my family there. And throughout all of those visits to NY, I formed a good bond with everyone there. And they are CRAZY!! I don't mean loony crazy, I mean funny crazy. So I fit right in! I went every year until Jimmy and I were married (then came children and you know how life goes after that.). Well, the summer that Jimmy and I got engaged I flew up there to visit while my Aunt Mary had the cottage at the lake. I wasn't sure they were going to be there to pick me up (hmmm....you ladies know why, Aunt Mary, Aunt Becky, Aunt Irene...I won't go there), but they made it. My parents and my sister, her husband and my nephew Ryan all came a day or two after me. One night while all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were all there cooking out, they threw me a surprise wedding shower! BUT, not just any wedding shower. A tacky wedding shower!! It was the BEST! They gave me stuff that people probably wouldn't even buy at a yard sale. Just the story about the shower is a long post in itself, well worth the reading and pictures, but I'll save that for another time. We had such a fun time, and I laughed so hard at all those crazy gifts I'm sure my jaws were hurting. Well that's a little more than a little background on my folks up north. So on to the gift. I received a package in the mail from my dear Aunt Becky (you know, one of the crazy ones like me) with a card I would not dare post a picture of. This summer when we were all at the beach, she had me try on one of her bathing suits from like the 70's (a two piece) and I was also wearing tattoo sleeves and she took a picture. So needless-to-say, that was one funny picture. That picture was on the front of her Christmas card. The inside said she made me a gift this year and was wondering if it would sell on etsy, and oh, by the way "Hope you like what I've chosen for my Christmas cards this year"!!! Then I opened the package and laughed and laughed and laughed some more. Here's a picture:

They're maxipad slippers!!! How practical, right?? I mean, her note said they were hypoallergenic, had nonslip grips, they make your feet smell fresh, and they come in three convenient sizes, light, medium, and get out the sand bags. AND, no more having to bend over to clean up all of those spills my little ones make. I can "slip" them away! I love how decorative they are too. So, do you think they'd sell? heheh!!

New Blogger

2008-12-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, and fellow homeschooler just started blogging. Everyone please say hello to Wendy at http://wendyharringtonsfamily.blogspot.com/ I first met her when she moved to town, but really only since we both started homeschooling have we gotten to know each other. I'm looking forward to reading your blog Wendy and learning more about you and your family. On another note, I'll be blogging very soon on all of our Christmas events, but we are just so busy right now. I'm glad to see that you all had a great Christmas and I'll be posting pics soon. But in the meantime, visit my new blogger buddy.

Christmas Caroling

2008-12-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

This afternoon twenty children and about eight adults set out to local nursing homes, the senior appartments here in town, and a couple of elderly people's homes to sing. What a great job they all did! Everyone we sang to seemed to really enjoy it. One lady was in tears when we were singing....I'm pretty sure they were happy tears, not tears from awful music..lol. At each stop we sang about six or seven songs, and the kids did awesome. I encourage everyone to take the time to reach out to people who may not be able to get out and spread the Christmas cheer. And this doesn't have to be just during "Christmas time", and it doesn't have to be caroling. Visit some elderly neighbors or people that may be sick or disabled and take them some goodies, or when the weather turns back warm offer to mow their lawn. Take their trash to the road every week, bring them a bag of groceries. Little things make the biggest difference. Who knows, maybe you can advance God's kingdom by spreading your love. What are some of your ideas?

Happy Anniversary

2008-12-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

I want to wish my mom and dad a very happy 40th anniversary! Forty years, wow! What an example we have to follow. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad, I love you!

Thankful, but a little bummed

2008-12-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

Jimmy and I have been together for over ten years, married 8 1/2, and the whole time he has had a job with swing shift hours. I wouldn't know what to do if he had a regular 9-5 job. Not only does he work swing shift, but for a majority of these years his schedule hasn't remained constant. So with that, we are really never able to plan ahead. We might think he's working one shift, but the week before he finds out he's being changed to another shift. But life goes on, whether he's with us or working. Poor Jimmy, has missed many plays, programs, a couple of recitals, family gatherings and so forth. But he's only ever missed one Christmas. That was Hannah's first Christmas. I'm sure I was a little sad then, but she was only seven months old, so no big deal. Well, with the recent economic meltdown, jobs being eliminated, people being layed off, Jimmy said last week that there was a chance that he might have the whole week of Christmas off to eleviate some overtime. He wasn't going to be able to find out until last night when he went to work. He was scheduled to work 2nd shift (3-11) which would be a good shift if he had to work. I was in the shower when he came home this morning, so I sent the girls to go ask what his shift will be. They came back with these words, "The worst possible shift." Which means days. He won't be home Christmas morning. For the first time since Rebecca and Leah have been born, and the second time for Hannah, he has to work that morning. I'm sad. YET, I am very very thankful at the same time that he has a job. I know I shouldn't complain, because we are so incredibly blessed and Christmas is NOT about Christmas morning. But still, I'm sad. I'm not sure how we will do things this year. I would not want him to miss anything, so I don't know whether to wait until he gets home to open gifts or what. We'll figure it out. I just thought I would share this. Is is wrong to be upset? Like I said, I am very grateful that he has a job. All I keep hearing from the news and people's everday conversations is how this company is laying off this many people and so forth. So, we are blessed that that hasn't happened to us, but I'm still bummed.

FYI

2008-12-16T05:23:00.001-08:00

My friend Katie just opened an etsy shop and I thought I would share her site with you. She makes Colonial style dresses, and does an awesome job. My girls love wearing theirs. If you or anyone you know is interested in this time period, visits historical sites, or has little girls who love playing dress-up and going to tea parties, then you should check her out. She makes the dresses, aprons, and caps. We've just recently gotten her to make Hannah a different size cap since the one in this picture is too big. So, if you're interested you can check here out http://ColonialKatie.etsy.com

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

2008-12-15T05:52:00.000-08:00

Trash Day

2008-12-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well, today is trash day. And as soon as the truck headed down our street Leah was waiting. I watched from the porch, as I usually do. Today after he wheeled our can back up, he told Leah he had a Christmas gift for her. He gave her $5! She was so so so excited! She ran back inside and told her sisters (who have been plotting on how she should spend it). Then she got a piece of paper, scribbled a little on it, then handed it to me and asked me to write "Thank you" on it. I couldn't beleive it. I saw him handing her money, but I thought it was a dollar, not five! Well, I guess we'll be off to the store after school today.

Cookie Swap

2008-12-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

Our homeschool group met yesterday afternoon for a day of making, decorating, and most importantly, eating cookies! I've never done of of these "cookie swaps" before, but it was a neat idea. And the girls had a blast! The day before, everyone makes a dozen cookies per child in your family. Make sure you copy your recipe for everyone to have at the swap. On the day of the swap, gather all of your cookie supplies, cookie sheets, rollers, cookie cutters, sprinkles, etc. Don't forget your tins (one per child) to put cookies in to bring home. Everyone also has to bring a batch of sugar cookie dough to make cut-out cookies. When we got there, they had two tables set up for the kids to roll out the cookies and cut out their shapes. Some kids decorated with sprinkles and such before they baked them. I've never heard of that. We always ice them and decorate with sprinkles afterwards, but it worked out great. We had plenty of undecorated cookies to ice when all was said and done. In between the cookies cooling, and decorating them, the kids moved to another table. Here they passed around the cookies they made the day before for everyone to put in their own tins. This part might have needed a little more organization....but again, worked out just fine. At the end, everyone had a tin full of assorted homemade cookies! Yum! Then, after they finished all the decorating, they were able to eat their masterpieces. Always, the best for last!

Hannah, Leah, and Rebecca working frantically to create that "special" cookie (ok, maybe like 20 special cookies)
Rebecca trying to make her cookie match the gingerbread girl on her apron. You got it Becca, a little more green.

Hannah decorating her star pink...such a girl!

Leah....not quite sure what she's doing since she has a cookie right in front of her, already decorated waiting to go in the oven. Must not be flat enough.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2008-12-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving, I ventured to Rocky Mount to go shopping...all day. And when I returned, Jimmy and the girls had put up the tree to my surprise. It wasn't decorated, but it was up and the lights were on. So of course, as soon as I came home they were after me to decorate it. And so we did, as tired as I was. They usually do the decorating, with some guidance, but this year, I didn't care what was where. I unwrapped their ornaments and handed them out, and the rest was up the them. I think they did a superb job! The girls learned how to make this icicle at a 4-H workshop, and we've since made a few to go on our tree. Very cute, easy decorations they can make.

Here's our tree. I've always had a real tree up until about three years ago. I would much rather have a real one. This tree is just too slender and soooo not full. If I could find a big, round, full artificial tree then that would be great. But this tree makes me just want to go cut down a real one. But, it'll do....for this year!
Oh, the presents under the tree are gifts that the girls have been making since about September! I have no idea what they are. They'll go in their rooms and hide while making them. They've even wrapped the gifts by themselves!

Day of Parades

2008-12-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning our homeschool group was in the Murfreesboro Christmas parade. The girls had a good time participating in this. They especially loved throwing out the candy. Hannah ran out of candy fairly quickly, as did everyone else, but Rebecca hung on until just about the end. (For future reference, if you want candy, be at the beginning of the parade!) Then that afternoon at 4:30 was the Roanoke Rapids parade. We had such a busy week with school, basketball, and dance that we were all exhausted. But we didn't want to miss it. So off we drove to Roanoke Rapids, yet again, to hang out with all of these girls. Can you believe all these girls?! And one girl was missing from this picture. As was Ryan and a friend's little boy who went with us. He didn't want to sit with the girls, but do you blame him? The parade was much shorter than it usually is, which was great. Everyone was happy since they filled up their bags with candy. It didn't take the younger ones long to figure out you had to be quick with all of these kids if you want some. I had a good time watching them, and the parade.

Abigail, Michelle, and Mike
Ryan

One little elf just couldn't take anymore.

Pictures of my dancer

2008-12-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hannah in her costume, hair slightly messed up. But not to worry, they had to wear cowgirl hats, thanfully!

Sweet Hannah
Leah, Hannah, and I

Me and Hannah

Me, Jimmy, his dad Andy, and Leah

Hannah's Dance Recital

2008-12-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hannah was the only one who decided to dance this year and she is doing clogging again, her second year of clogging. Her class last year was small, only five kids, and two of them were Hannah and Rebecca. This year she had 19 in her class! Here are a couple of short videos from her dance last night. We were kind of far back, so you can't see that great. But you can see her, she is one of the smallest, if not the smallest in her class. In the first video she is in the front center, and the second she is in the back, again the smallest one.

Pecan Picking

2008-12-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

The girls and I had a great time at my parents this afternoon picking pecans, playing, and drinking hot chocolate.

My mom helping Abigail load her bag

This is one of the girls bags. Some of the pecans still have the shells on them.
My mom and dad, my girls and my niece Abigail

Leah and the Trash Truck

2008-12-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write about this, but keep forgetting. It's quite funny. Let me start with my Rebecca. Rebecca has always had certain fears, one being the trash truck. Well, not even the truck, but the men. For at least a full year, possibly longer, she would ask me EVERYDAY if it was trash day. And if it was, she would not go outside at all until they came and went. She would even ask me at night before she went to sleep if the next day was trash day. I guess she wanted to know what she would be up against the next day. She finally told me one day that her fear stemmed from a nightmare she had one night about the trash men taking her. That would scare me too, but for a whole year?? Anyway, she has since outgrown that fear (thank you God). Leah, on the other hand, LOVES trash day! Every Friday when she hears the trash truck coming she runs to me to remind me to take the trash to the road. Then she runs and gets her shoes and coat on and waits for them in our driveway. I have seen the days where she just sits in the middle of the driveway waiting. When they get closer she jumps up and down and hollers. She gets sooo soo excited! She has developed a small friendship with our trashman. I think he gets as much excitement out of seeing her as she does from him. For the past month and a half, after he empties our trash, he wheels our can all the way back under our carport! You're doing good if your trashcan is still standing and out of the road usually when they are done emptying it, but he takes the time to bring it back up for us. And then he speaks to her for a minute or two. She loves it! I just think this is the cutest thing, and I'm thinking about getting the man and his driver some gift cards to like McDonald's for Christmas. Just a little something to let them know that we appreciate what they do, and for taking the time to make Leah's day.

Sweet new necklace

2008-12-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

This was inspired by my girls. We like reading the book Guess How Much I Love You and we say this to each other quite a bit. I even have a sign hanging in my kitchen over the girls pictures that has this quote.