My Cousin is Coming!!!! (and Uncle Too!)

Woo hoo! My cousin, Skelly, is coming thru and stopping off tonight, as he heads up to OH! I'm so excited! And yes, I'm excited that my Uncle Don will be here, as well! RISK, anyone? ;) So, we're going thru the house putting it all in order!

So - let's see - in the last hour my emotions have gone from high to low to high!

High: because I was out helping a new mommy breastfeed and getting to hold the precious baby! Ummmm... that newborn baby smell! It's wonderful!

Low: because on my way home from thus said appt, my dh phones me to say the meat wagon is coming w/n the hour and will be doing part of the processing right on site! (ugh... I'm not a puker, but I about lost all the food I didn't eat today... ) And remember - we all voted she should end up in my freezer!

me... whining saying - let's really just sell her instead - because I think you'll all agree with me - having 2 cows in your freezer is just 1 too many! And she can be sold to make the mortgage payment coming up! IMNSHO!

High: because my uncle just called me saying they'll be here some time tonight!

Let's just say - I can't pull the kids down from the ceiling! They are all so excited!

Old-Fashioned Rag Tie Curls!

OK - so I've had many requests on how Gracie's hair gets so curly! Yes, she did come by some of it naturally... but we also have some help. Here's how:

1. Get an old, clean T-shirt.

2. Cut it in strips of 10" x 3"

3. Grab a small section of hair and place the strip at end of hair. (sometimes it may need to be dampened on the ends, just to keep it in place as you start to roll!)

4. Start rolling up the hair in the strip (roll towards head)

5. Tie in knot.

6. Sleep on it.

7. Wake up and unknot and unroll

8. Shake out curls! and voila`!

Disclaimer!

Some hair will refuse to curl no matter what.

Some hair curls better if it's damp before rolling.

Good luck!

A Man's Usage for a Post-It Note!

I tho't this was funny! My hubby sent it to me! In case you can't read the Post-It... it says "Jane"! That's why I love *MY* hubby so much! not only did he know my maiden name, he knew how to spell it too! and very early on in our relationship, too! Love at first spelling!

Grace! Gracie! Grace C!

What a weekend of soccer! It is in full swing for us - a family of 4 soccer stars. Today's brag bit will be about Grace, because she deserves this! When we moved here, we knew nobody! God blessed us richly, and I mean RICHLY, when he plopped us down next to Angie & Brad and gang! They got us involved in soccer and nobody would believe us that our kids had never played this sport before.

After Grace's first season she was heavily recruited to try out for the girl's select team - which she made the cut. She is one of the smallest peanuts out on the field - but I would never want to tangle against her. She is so tough and fierce and aggressive, never backing down to the competition that may be a whole foot taller than her, let alone outweigh her by 50lbs, too! We get many comments from the other parents on her boldness! I just grin as Don says he knows where she got it from! LOL

Today was her greatest day yet! She scored not only one goal - but two goals - and to top it off her team won! They were machines dominating the whole field!

We're now being 'recruited' to have her a manager and get her going on the Olympic Youth Team, being touted as the next Mia Hamm cuz she's got the look, marketability, skill, speed and that grin she's always been known for: Grinnin' Grace. Whatever... it's up to her! She loves the sport. The refs love her, the crowd loves her and we all love her! We'll see what the future holds in store for her!

The above pix is of Grace and my cousin, Skelly - who *IS* a soccer star!

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Part I

Where did the week go? Last posting was Monday and now it's Friday... I guess I was all consumed during what might be considered 'free time' by soccer practice for 4 kiddos plus one of them also playing baseball. Anywho... on to my post!

One of my fave things is when Charlie Boy whispers in my ear before bedtime to say, "Mom, I'm gunna try to come down and sleep with you tonight!" It warms my heart. Charlie has always been the best co-sleeper. He's such a sensitive, loving guy. Well sure enough last night he had a nightmare - we think he was too hot - so at 345a this morning I got to be snugged between my boys. I love it.

What Is Your 80s Theme Song?

Your 80s Theme Song Is:

Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

What's" Your 80s Theme Song?

Well - I'm kinda shocked by this answer to the blogthings.com quiz. I'm not really a Bruce fan - never have been - despite the fact that my dh use to set up his tents for his concerts in Jersey! At least it wasn't a DuranDuran tune! ugh! That was one part of the 80s that *I* didn't partake in! But really, I'm surprised it wasn't a Prince tune, or the Artist formerly known as Prince - but back in the 80s - he was Prince.

Let me know what you came up with! (even for those of you who are too young to remember much of the 80s!)

SHOTGUN!

Hannah & Mel @ H's bday ice skating par-tay!

Well, after 13 years of feeling like a chauffeur by driving solo and having my posse hangin in the back seats... my life of front row loneliness is now over. Hannah has taken upon herself to force the issue of riding upfront - calling 'SHOTGUN' - when we are out and about. Can I just say how bizarre this is? Think about it - all those trips to the store, to church services, to outings, to therapies, to wherever in the world we had to go - for the past 13 years I have been solo up front. But not no mo' tho'!

What truly scares me is that next year Grace will by vying for 'SHOTGUN' ~ and let the fighting begin once again! ugh... Thankfully I have one year reprieve!

And just the rest of you wait... once they're sitting upfront with you, blink again, and they'll be the ones doing the driving. AAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!

Menopause The Musical - a must see

A few years back I went with Aimee, her mom, and her g-ma to go see this hilarious musical. We had such a great time! I enjoyed it so much that I went last night with a group of 20 women from church! Such a hoot! I'd love to plug in their silly logo for the musical - but once again, my computer illiteracy is showing thru... so anyone out there want to take some time to give me tutorial?? please... anyone... someone...

Anyway - here are the details for the musical in case any of you have opportunity to go: Menopause The Musical was launched on March 28, 2001 in Orlando, Florida. The location was a 76-seat theatre that used to be a perfume shop. The musical features four women busy shopping for lingerie at a Bloomingdale's sale. They sing 25 songs about loss of memory, nocturnal sweats, chocolate cravings, hot flashes, and sexual predicaments. This is all quite in sync with the title, and the lyrics parody popular music that era, which was the baby boomer era. Several local references are made in the show, and they are tailored to the location of the musical. One example of this is the 'Dubbo Housewife' in Australia, which is a 'Waikato housewife' in New Zealand. Also, America's Bloomingdale's becomes Smith & Caugheys in New Zealand.

A Political Road Sign Funny

This is a real NC highway road marker, about 40 miles from Fayetteville, NC. (at least from what I was told via an email funny)



Well - what more is there to say? Hope you have a good laugh at this one... and truly - where are the true social conservatives? Anyone??? Can we quote Reagan and say, "Gov't is not the solutions to our problems! Gov't *IS* the problem!" and yes, our President Reagan really said this...



You can catch it on the Nearly Famous Barry Young Program of AZ's KFYI 550 AM (ok.. so you can tell I don't know how to do a hyperlink w/ just the name... Aimee - someone - anyone - help me out here!) http://www.kfyi.com/pages/Barry_Young.html

SHARE LIFE: DONATE BLOOD

One of the things my G-pa left behind as a legacy is the notion of giving of one's self! He did this in many ways, one of which was by donating blood. I remember as a kid seeing one of his bumper stickers, and it said, "Don't be a chicken. Donate blood." Every other month on the second Tuesday a mobile blood unit comes to our community and I do my best to get there (all 4 kids in tow, as well as the baby that we watch from time to time). The kids are amazed to see it all work! Seeing their faces when the techs give them more info on how "mommy's blood will save 3 lives!" is just priceless. So - I encourage all of you to do what you can - when you can! And just as an fyi... for those who are too close to the minimum weight requirement or those who take too long to recover, they will allow a "minimum blood donation."

Less Than Five Percent Of The American Population Donates Blood, Yet 95% Of All Americans Will Need Blood At Least Once In Their Lifetime! Besides 8 Million mosquitos can't be wrong!

13 Years!!!

Today marks 13 years of wedded bliss for Don and me! How we celebrated? Well, he got to fly to TX for a couple of days... leaving me to shuffle kids to soccer practice and baseball practice and piano practice. Lucky me! But he did leave me with 4 different types of chocolate bars! He must know I need the extra stamina. I'm working on the Dove right now! So, while he's in TX, I'll be kickin it with the kids watching American Idol and flippin to Biggest Looser! The W-Day... still seems like yesterday! I love him dearly!

Kid's Say the Darndest Things Part II

Ok.. Slow morning and I've been doing a lot of catching up and long posts the past 3 days. So, I'll make this one short. Kellar, our youngest, is the family comedian, and since we homeschool (have I mentioned that before?) also doubles as the class clown! Every class has one, right? Anyway, a year ago we were in a courtroom for an adoption hearing, and as we left Kellar had a very downcast face. When asked what was wrong, he commented, "I thought the guy was going to hit his hammer on the table and yell out 'Quarter in the Quart... Quarter in the Quart!' " Such disappointment!

The next time you're around a judge and courtroom or watching some law series on the tube, think of Kellar and his wanting "Quarter in the Quart"!!!

A Horse is a Horse... Unless it's Star!

We received Star from Joy and Brian! Some of the best neighbors one could ever dream of having!

I've been meaning to post about the most awesome Christmas gift we received! We have some precious neighbors who have become like family to us! And they gave of their hearts this year! We received Star from them! She is a pony, as she is only so-high. And she's absolutely sweet! She's great with the kids and me! I never in my life tho't we'd own a horse for the kids and through their generosity, we're now 'horse-people'! Hannah and Grace had taken classes for a year when we first moved here on horse care and riding and tack and triage and on and on. Because of their knowledge, and the fact that our neighbor up the road is an equine vet - we're on our way to perfecting our skills! Before Christmas, I went over to their barn and video'd Joy wishing the kids a "Merry Christmas from KY and oh by the way, we're giving you a gift... Star." We played the video on Christmas day for the kids and their faces were priceless! Joy, awe, dumbstruck! Grace was crying - Hannah couldn't move a muscle - Charlie was jumping for joy - and Kellar - well - he was pretty excited too! Thx a million! Paying it forward!

OpryLand!

I'm still trying to catch up on life's events for the blog! The 4th weekend of March, which happens to be Easter weekend, hundreds of congregations East of the Mississippi gather at 4 different locations for the annual Lads to Leaders (ettes) competition: Orlando, Indi, Memphis and Nashville. This year we took a group of kids from church and they performed very well! Our middle school team placed in the top 5 for team Bible Bowl (Hannah & Grace were both on it). Hannah got 85 out of 100 questions correct for individual Bible Bowl testing, and believe it or not, she didn't score in the top 10! We were for certain she'd place with that! However, the group got 2d place for their group banner! They got awards for knowing the books of the Bible and being able to quote one major highlight of each book! Quite impressive! And Hannah got awarded for reading the entire Bible in a year's time! The photo above is Hannah's entry for the color photo contest. I love it! Many other awards/trophies were given out - but that sums up my kids! If you haven't stayed at Gaylord's Grand Ol' OpryLand Hotel - it's quite impressive! I think we must have walked over 15 miles in the 3 days. And the Hotel is pretty much sold out for our group, which is about 10,000 ppl! The other cool thing for the weekend was Nashville Star tryouts were going on! So, we had great entertainment as the hopefuls would bust out in song to keep their voices warmed up!

Catching Up!

Well, we bit the bullet and re-upped our dial up. It bites. 'Nuf said. At least I'm back on line!

We've had the most wonderful week! Too busy to stop and record it all while it was happening - so here is our week in a big nutshell!

Our eldest child, Hannah, was baptized on Sunday, March 30! We are so thrilled to know that her salvation is secure as she has been born a child of God into His family, by her own choice! We had been studying over the past 2 mos and were able to have some of my family come out to bear witness to this and to celebrate with us! My parents: Charlie and Sue; my sister and her baby: Casey and Ellie; and my nephews: Tanner and Zachary all came out! So, we had quite a full house!

Aimee - you'll appreciate this one... I got a speeding ticket coming home from picking them up from the L-ville airport! Not just speeding... but flying! 22m over the limit - in - a - construction - zone! Needless to say, my tags were overdue... and now I get to go to court far far away! I haven't had a ticket since before I got married (coming up on 13y next Tuesday, BTW!) and I think this is only my 3d ticket ever! I was so nice - and he still nailed me... oh well - such is life.

I got to bond w/ my neice! She's such a cutie pie! Love her and miss not being w/ my fam! She loved the animals, so that was the opportunity to take for bonding! The chickens were her fave - but the rooster... she did not care for him! Neither do the hens, FWIW!

While here, the kids fished in our pond, canoed in our pond, built rope swings over the pond, dirt biked, cared for the farm animals, collected chicken eggs, ate at the local Family Affair restaurant, went antiquing ('Teeking' as we call it), played kickball, basketball, capture the flag, trampolined, played Shang-Hie Rummy, Rummy 500, RISK (no, I didn't play... I'm not allowed), Bluff (aka... BS... like on "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days), had a cook out, met more relatives, drank tons of soda, drank tons of bottled water (as evident by my growing pile of recyclable bags in the garage!), shot off fireworks consisting of Roman candles and M1000s... and they also had opportunity to do some cow wrangling as a result of the fireworks!

Our cow, Dory, yet again defied gravity. On Monday morn Don went out to feed the beasts of burden and it was my sissy who said - "You're missing one." So - we all gear up and start the search. Three hours later my dad, sister and I were far far from home, and out of nowhere we see cow tracks that lasted about 50 feet and then mysteriously disappeared. We were getting close to some scary looking homes and I suggested we best turn around and head back. By the time we made it to the RR tracks we heard 6 shots fired off from a 22 pistol. We got home and told Don that the 3 of us needed to go back to investigate the shots. So, low and behold, we drive to these scary looking properties and an old farmer is coming down the dirt lane in his pick up. Don gets out to ask him if he's seen a roaming cow. And the ol' man said, "Yep - Bear Tree Farm - Dory? Well, we got her locked up in our barn up yonder. She sure is a pretty thang!" So, we head back to get the trailer and load up all the kids. The farmer's wife was waiting for us in her jeans and muckin' boots, make up and hair net! She swore up and down that Dory was so gentle and easy to lead into the shoot! (yeah, right...)

Anyway,she's home now - pinned up in one of our horse stalls until Don gets back from Chicago. She's angry as can be! As best as we can surmise, she jumped over a total of four 4' barbed-wire fences, climbed up the RR embankment, across the tracks, down the embankment, over more fences and came within 300 feet of stepping out on the major highway that runs by our place.... she went at minimum a mile from home. How we found her - only the good Lord knows. I guess there's something to the nursery rhyme "The cow jumped over the moon..." If she goes again, I'm not going after her!

So - all in all we had a great time, lots of laughs, many memories made, many videos shot, and pix taken. Sorry - not able to download right now... but I'll get some pix up asap! Tanner is excited to come back this summer - we told him he could live w/ us and go to college here... the wheels are turning... just preparing you, Jennifer! And let Zach know that the animals are all depressed now that he's not here. PugPug hasn't left the couch! Hurry back!

Life is good... real good - as Nacho Libre says!