short version

• church. Finished my children's church rotation. I love teaching the older kids!
• made and ate my first ever steak fajitas for lunch. I'm not in love....
• took the kids to mamaw's to swim
• church again.
• ate my first ever fried pepper. Hannah ate half of one also! Surprisingly, they weren't too bad! But I wouldn't have been able to eat them without the batter.
• started making lists for the beach. I'm getting stressed already!

Hope everyone has a good week!!

field day pics

getting ready for tug of war

waiting, waiting, waiting

more waiting

getting ready to run the 50 yr dash

a bunch of the kids waiting in the shade. Tye dyed kids are in Hannah's class.

Field Day

All I can say is what a nightmare!! We started the morning off with the 50 yr dash at about 9:15. I got Hannah on video running her heart out! Around 10:45 the power went out b/c someone hit a pole while mowing down by Toyato and I specifically heard the principal telling a teacher that the plan was instead of going to lunch at 11 like they were supposed to to just keep on going with the events outside until further notice. By this time the kids were hot, sweaty, hungry and just ready for a break! Around 11:15, while at the seed spitting event the lunch lady came out and said that she had to get the hot dogs made b/c they were already at room temperature and she was going to get in trouble for not serving food properly if they didn't get cooked so she started asking people for grills!! Weird, I know, but I could understand where she was coming from. Another lady and I volunteered to run home and get our grills in my truck. When we got back with my grill the principal walked out and said the powers back on!! Go figure! Now it was almost noon and Hannah and I went home to eat lunch. After we got back to the school we did several more events. Everything would have been fine but I think every grade went to the same event at the same time! So at almost every station we had to wait no less than 15 minutes before the kids in our group could go. Everyone was DONE by this time! Hannah was begging to go home and get in the pool. So finally around 2, in the almost 90 degree weather I signed her out and we went home! She only competed in the 50 yr dash, frisbee throw, tug of war and seed spitting contest so the day was very long for us! Next year I don't think I'm going to be hanging out all day! I have a few pics of Hannah that I wanted to put on here but it isn't working so...maybe tomorrow.

pictures

I wanted to add these last 2 pictures mainly for Jess D b/c she liked the ones I took yesterday and somehow these 2 didn't make it on my blog. The second one is my screen saver now and I love it!! There will be another post later about field day at school so come back soon!

pictures

I am in an exceptionally good mood today so I decided to go out and take some pictures. I think it all started when I got a text from Brad this morning saying "rise and shine hot momma." What girl wouldn't be happy after hearing that from your hubby bright and early in the morning?! So, needless to say, I haven't gotten much cleaning done today!


flowers I got for mother's day, in a pot on the porch

my first baby girl

I love her personality

trying some different angles

my second baby girl

Brad helping grandma clean her car. She is so patient with him and I love that!

flowers in grandma's flowerbed

more from her bed

her knockout roses

lily

I wanted to try some different flowers in my bed this year. I love these gerber daisies

I've never seen this flower before so I just had to get some. I think they are cockscomb or something

I think these flaming somethings are my favorite. I love how they have two colors in them and some of my other ones are orange.

I don't know what these are. They were on the $1 table so I got a bunch of them!

another cockscomb thing

I broke down and bought a knockout rose also b/c grandma's are always so pretty but mine don't look great yet.

petunias I think, from mother's day

the first of my strawberries. They are so cute and little, I dont know if I could eat them!

before taking Hannah to school. Ryan just had to had to put his arms out! Hannah and I match today. I'll try to remember to take a pic of us both later.

I think this is my all-time fovorite pic of her. She could be a model but I dont' think I want her going down that road....

I love this girl! She did her own hair today also.

And that's my day so far and it isn't even noon! Brad will be home later and Hannah has one day of school left this week before a long weekend. 4 days of school next week and then it's off to the beach and I can't believe it!!

dum, dum, dum, duuuummmm

• Went to Kmart, Dollar Tree, Walmart, McDonalds, Dick Howards (to get big cardboard boxes)
• unloaded tons of bags from the truck
• started working on a pirate ship for VBS...I ran out of big tape so I had to stop
• went to get Hannah in the last bulletin somewhere
• put all the stuff I bot away while the kids played in the little pool
• fixed meatloaf, mashed taters, carrots for supper
• let the kids eat ice cream
• showered them
• started reading a book to the kids for bed and mamaw (Brads' mom) called and said she was next door at grandma's house and wanted to know if the kids could come out and play for a few minutes.
• got the kids in bed a few minutes late
• loaded the dishwasher
• now I'm eating a bowl of ice cream

What I learned today....

This is going to be hard to put into words but here it goes:

I have been watching this show on the internet called "Teen Mom." Obviously, it follows 4 teen girls who find out they are pregnant through the pregnancy, birth, adoption (with one girl), relationships with the baby's daddy and raising the kid. In one of the horrible relationships, a physcologist asked the mom (the teen girl) why she had such a hard time dealing with the fact that the dad seems not to care about their son and how he can come and go and not miss their child and so on. You know, the typical male attitude, Not involved much. She said she felt like he didn't love their son. But then it was explained to her that men aren't lovey and murturing like mom's are. They love their children but don't show it the same way mom's do--"extreme loveness" is the word he used. THey aren't all gushy. lovey dovey. It may seem like duh, we already knew that but for some reason it felt really good to hear that. I can remember having those conversations with Brad when we were younger, maybe a little less mature. About why do you want to go fishing instead of be with us this evening, stuff like that. But it wan't b/c he doesn't love them or me. It's just the way they are. Anyway, so that's my thought for the day.

weekend

Ryan's new snuggie. It's way too big but he likes it!

Hannah and Papaw, Brad's step dad, bowling. I don't know what makes papaw's so special but the kids love him!

Ryan was trying so hard to bowl just like daddy. He actually did pretty well!

getting advice from the pro

The kids spent the night at mamaw's last night and even tho Brad was on call for work, we decided to get out of the house and do something. I just had to risk going on a call with him. That has only happened once, I was pregnant with Hannah. Anyway, we grabbed a bite to eat for supper and did some shopping. Well, not real shopping. Just looking at things and price shopping. We are thinking about fencing in our yard since we decided not to move. It was an exceptionally good evening. We went in Staples to look for some laminate, which is way too expensive, but I did see a boys snuggie for $4.50 that I wanted to buy for Ryan. He had Hannah's robe on one day and it was so cute so I knew I had to find him something. When we went to check out it rang up as $0.50!! I couldn't believe it. So I decided to buy the rest of them. there were 3 blue ones and 3 pink ones. All the blue ones were 50 cents but the pink ones rang up $4.50 so we didn't buy them. But when Ryan went to bed last night he wanted to wear it so he did. It's way too big right now so it's like a blanket.

So this morning we got to sleep in. Usually we still can't sleep past seven, even when the kids aren't here. So we both woke up around 7 and then went back to sleep for awhile. Next time I woke up it was almost 9 and Brad was already up. It felt good to just kinda do what I want. So I took a shower and when I got out Brad had made me some breakfast. =) It was only a can of cinniman rolls but was very thoughtful and good. He went after the kids not long after that. I had to go to the church and work on my bulletin board in my SS room. I'm starting a new series and wanted to do the board to match. I've honestly never done it before. I think it turned out pretty good. I wish I had thought to take a pic and put on here. I called Brad at almost 11 to see if he was home with the kids yet and he said they were just getting ready to eat pancakes so it would be awhile. After I finished my bulletin board, I started looking through the closet and decided it was way overdue for cleaning and organization. When I finally left the church it was about 1:30!! I couldn't believe it. I spent like 4 hours up there and didn't even feel like 2 hours! That's my kind of cleaning/organizing!! The kids were eating lunch when I got home and then we made them take a nap and I did some cleaning around the house and then we went bowling with Brad's mom, step dad, younger brother and his wife. I was nervous about the kids and if they would enjoy it or if I'd just be chasing Ryan around the whole night. They had a good time. Ryan loved it! And that's all folks!

Yes or No?!

The mail ruined my day today. Or maybe the rest of my year. Or even the rest of my life! Most of you know that Brad and I have been talking about switching our insurance back to a better plan in July so we can have a baby and not pay $25oo deductible plus 20% of everything else. I got a statement from the ins about our claims so far this year and at the top it says our plan year is from 01-01-10 to 12-31-10 which means we can't change our ins for 7 more months!! I was getting so excited about having another baby. I know so many people who are preg or just had babies recently and it makes me want another even more. Even tho Brad never came out and said "let's have another baby" I was pretty sure it would happen b/c we talk about it and make plans all the time (like who's room baby will sleep in, names, stuff like that). I really thought God was saying yes when Brad went from "no way do I want another baby" to "maybe." But now I don't know what God is saying. I know one thing, I certainly don't want to wait until next year. I'm not getting any younger. I don't want the kids still home when I'm in my 50's! Now I am thinking what if I don't have another baby. I'm soooo sad thinking about that. God had totally given me peace about the situation back when Brad was not that serious about it. Now I'm not feeling so peaceful anymore. I just wish I knew what the answer was. I know God has a plan and sometimes we don't understand and he always answers pray but doesn't always answer yes. I know all those things but I don't know what the outcome of this is going to be and it's killing me. Let the praying begin!

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• did the weekly grocery shopping and some other shopping but forgot the movies so have to go back out before Thur. Ryan was such a good boy while we were out.
• got a couple new shirts that I am excited to wear.
• it only rained alittle in the morning
• cleaned up the kitchen, did several loads of laundry, refolded all the winter clothes in Ryan's closet that he threw everywhere, cleaned my bathroom
• got Hannah from school--she got green again. We are working on 2 months straight with green only! I'm continually amazed at my little girl. I just don't know why she hasn't gotten student of the month yet!
• Walked 2 miles with grandma.
• watched the kids play baseball with the new t-ball set I bought. Laughed too much at Ryan. I'll have to videotape him one day.
• Planted some flowers. The kids and neighbor kid helped for about 5 minutes.
• Helped Hannah with her memory verse for Bible Club and she actually was able to tell me what it was while I was showering her. She said the water helped her remember so she might not be able to tell it to Mrs. Jill tomorrow at church. =)
• Read to the kids and Hannah read to me before bed.
• Now I'm trying to wake up Kinny so I have someone to talk to but he's sleeping late tonight.

the short and the long

Today started out as a really dreary, rainy, blah day. I just couldn't make myself get off the couch! So I decided to make it a movie day for Ryan and I. I borrowed several movies from cousin Michael so I was excited to watch The Lion King. It's one of my all-time favorites and I haven't seen it in ages! Have you ever noticed that the cartoon movies you loved as a child have so much meaning when you are an adult?! When you are a child, you like the movies b/c the animals are cute or whatever but when you get older, it's like you never knew there was so much deep thought involved in it! So of course, I was getting all teary-eyed from the very beginning. Anyway, after that we took a break and I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the kids bathroom and then put another movie in. Hotwheels this time. Not so much fun for me so I got up! Mom stopped by on her way to lunch with a girl she used to work with before going home and gave me several things I left at Jessica's. Ryan wanted to go home with her. I almost let him but I would be lost without him! After luinch I tried to get Ryan to nap but I knew he wouldn't since we didn't do anything all morning. The sun started coming out every once in awhile so my mood changed alittle. After we got Hannah from school we all ate an ice cream sandwich and worked on Hannah's memory verse and project for Bible Club on Wed and then we went outside for awhile. They got all wet and muddy so while I was cooking they played in the tub and then after we ate we went across the river and bought some flowers to plant out front. Then it was time to read a book, brush teeth and get in bed!

Hannah brought home papers they did at school of subtraction! I was so surprised. When she brought home pages of addition problems, I was alittle shocked that they were doing that alreadu but the subtraction?! I couldnt believe it! She got them all right and got a big WOW! on the top of her page. I hope this is a sign of her future math abilities b/c I am dreading having to get back into math with the kids! With Ryan it won't be sooo hard since I will have just done it with Hannah. I have a feeling he'll need more help than her anyway.

Baby, baby!

I had a great visit with my sis and her fam last night and today. I got some much needed skyline last night and a good bowl of ice cream but the real fun came today! Jess and I did a little grocery shopping for the baby shower food. First thing this morning we went to breakfast with Gram and Aunt Jenn. BTW, I didn't take one pic so you'll have to see them from someone else. After breakfast this morning we all met at the ultrasound place to see baby Sawyer. He's gonna be a big boy and I love him already! It was neat to see the 3-d ultrasound again. I miss that. But I'm so happy for Jess and Terry. I know how much this baby means to them. I think everyone (all 10 of us) really enjoyed getting to see him and the ultrasound girl was really nice. After that we went back to Jess's and cut up fruit and got things ready for the shower. The boys and dogs and Hannah left and it was big girl time! Jess got lots of great things and we learned a lot of things about each other ;) It was nice to see some of the family again. Not long after that everyone started leaving, me included. I was not looking forward to driving home but it went rather quickly! Hannah went to sleep almost immediately, woke up half way and ate a few peanuts, then went back to sleep until we got to Gallipolis! It was a nice, quiet trip. Thanks everyone for a great weekend! Love you!

great day

I'm going to try the short and sweet blogging method tonight.

-Breakfast with mom and Ryan at Bob Evans
-shopping
-about a peaceful hour while Ryan tried to nap, but didn't
-the park after we got Hannah from school
-slip n slide while I cooked
-chicken alfredo and blueberry muffins and corn(2 of my favorite foods, I could do without the corn!)
-Brad coming home
-Dairy Queen as soon as Brad gets back with it
-7 pm and it's bedtime for the kids, which means Survivor and rest on the couch for us!!

It's a boy!!!!!!

I found out this morning that Pumpkin is now Kinny. I looked on the internet last night about how to determine male or female and then I flipped him over this morning and he's a boy! So now I want to find out if he can live happily with another male so I can get him a friend and not have babies every few months!

Pumpkin

Ok everyone, I'd like you to meet Pumpkin. It is a baby dwarf hamster and sooooo adorable! We don't know what it's gender is b/c it is so small and too young so I made the kids pick a neutral name. When it gets older, if we find out it is a boy, I think I'll start calling him Kinny instead but we'll see. I'm kinda kicking myself for not getting another one b/c now it's all lonely in this big cage and too short to get into the attached wheel on the side! The pictures are decieving about how small she really is. In one pic it is sitting in the red food dish. That dish is about 2" in diameter. We love her already, I mean it! And it really does have red eyes. They said technically it could be an albino b/c it doesn't have black on it but I don't know about that.

Monday Doneday

This morning I managed to get the floors swept and mopped, the kids' bathroom cleaned and the dishes done before Ryan found a different home movie from the year 2006. Ryan wasn't even born til the very end so you can imagine how tiny Hannah was, and Kara and Michael for that matter! I ended up watching it with him and by the time it was over it was lunchtime. I'm so glad I have those movies to watch as the kids grow older. It's good to look back and see them as babies. Anyway, after we ate we buried the hamster and then played outside for awhile before I made Ryan come in for a nap. I was dying for one too but I didn't give in. Whenever I do, I find myself wanting one every afternoon at the same time and I can't give in to that. After we got Hannah from school the kids played outside while grandma and I sat on the porch and chit-chatted. Then we came in around 4 so I could start supper (egg and cheese biscuits and fried potatoes), which was really good for a change! I was planning on letting the kids stay up late b/c Hannah doesn't have school tomorrow so I fixed us some funnel cakes. But I changed my mind rather quickly!=) Ryan doesn't sleep any later no matter how late you keep him up so I decided since we have to go out tomorrow to get groceries and do other things, he should get a good night's sleep. They took a bath, I read to them and now they are in bed! So now I'm washing some laundry. It's supposed to start raining tomorrow and rain about all week so I'm not even going to waste my time putting clothes out on the line this week, which I would rather do.

RIP dear Diamond

The title says it all. I woke up this morning to a dead hamster. I put her in a little box and am going to bury her out back next to Casper and Shadow (my rabbits). She was a good girl for one day! The kids are ready for another one already and I'm fine with that. Now that I know what to look for, I'll be more cautious this time!

sick hamster

Well, most of you should know by now we bought a hamster yesterday. Turns out she is sick, like I mentioned in my last post. Hamsters can get something called "wet tail". It's a very serious disease they get which causes bad diarrhea and gives them a wet tail.....hence the name. I didn't know that, of course, when we bought her or I wouldn't have! This morning she was very lethargic and Hannah kept saying she hasn't drank anything. So I got on the internet and that's how I found out about the disease. She has gotten progressively worse thru the day and she is just barely alive now. I have started syringe feeding her water and if she makes it thru the night I may buy a jar of baby food to feed her. The kids aren't attached to her and thye know she is dying. I feel really bad for her b/c I know she is suffering but I don't know what to do with her. I called the petstore where we bought her and they said we could return her for a new hamster and they would treat this one and all the hamsters that were in the same cage as her. We aren't taking her back to them, nor are we ever going to buy anything else from them! I basically just wanted to let them know we got a sick one and the others were probably sick too. So I've spent the day worrying about her.

On another note, I had a pretty good mother's day. I missed having my own mother here but I'll be seeing her on Wed. The kids put their handprint on this cute paper with an awesome poem on it. I'll type it at the end of my post. It brings tears to my eyes. Brad and the kids fixed lunch for me and cleaned up afterwards. Then I even treated myself to a nap while the kids were napping! Brad took us out for supper and then it was back to church. Tomorrow Brad goes back to work in Cols. and on Wed mom comes up and we go to Cols for my sister's baby shower on Fri.

Here's the poem:

Sometimes you get discouraged

because I am so small,

and always leave my fingerprints

on furniture and walls.

But every day I'm growing--

I'll be grown some day

and all those tiny handprints

will surely fade away.

So here's a little handprint

just so you can recall

Exactly how my fingers looked

when I was very small.

Just another sad reminder that one day I'll be all alone!! =(

Diamond

Today has been a really good day. We left the house early this morning, I can't even remember why...oh yeah, laast minute mother's day shopping! We got Brad's mom an airbrushed shirt with all the grandkids on it and it says "grandma's lil angels. It was cute and she liked it. Hannah finally broke down and said she wanted the hamster (or hampster?) when I mentioned Ryan going in on it with her. The silly thing was only $10 but I wanted Hannah to pay so maybe she will want to take better care of it and appreciate it more. I think she's old enough now for some responsibiliy and buying some of her own things if she wants them. Of course, we bought the cage and food and all that stuff. I didn't want to take all her money! So we picked one that didn't try to bite us when we were picking it up and she seemed super sweet and has been so far. On a side note, I think we picked one that has some sort of problem. Her rear stinks and she has this thing hanging down near her tail/girl parts. I noticed that she was stinky when we bought her but thought maybe she sat in poo or something. But after putting her in her clear ball to walk around the livingroom, I was able to look at her better and it doesn't look normal under there. I hope she isn't going to stink forever or die already!! Sammy doesn't know what to think but Patch stands there and watches her in her cage. When I had her in her ball in the livingroom she was nudging it with her nose like a toy that drops out treats if she pushes it the right way. So I'm not sure if she likes it or not. I dont' really want to find out! So after spending all morning and early afternoon out and about we came home and I cut up my fruit that I was taking to the cookout at mamaw's house and we left again. It was too cold and windy for a cookout but we did it anyway and had a lot of fun. And that was my day.

Hannah painted this wonderful picture of the flowers they bought for me last weekend. I love the picture, she did so well. She even said she wants to be an artist. This picture of her picture just doesn't do it justice....then she gave the picture to grandma.

I love this picture of a tree frog we spotted hanging out on the porch one day. He had a beautiful orange color on his belly and under his legs. God was so gracious to create such wonderful creatures for us to enjoy.


Today Ryan and I had a picnic lunch outside today and we took lots of good pictures of each other.

washing the truck

my boy and I

What can I say about this?! Peanut butter and honey is one of his favorite lunches.

Poor Sammy got a bath today. She looks so pitiful!

Today was a pretty good day. I managed to get some cleaning done this morning and had a picnic outside with Ryan. Talked to grandma for awhile then Brad came home in time to get Hannah from school. She loves it when daddy can pick her up! We've got a lot going on this weekend so I've been busy cooking. Tomorrow I have to take 2 pies to the school for the teacher appreciation lunch (yes I made the pies, not bought them). Then tomorrow evening we are going to a cookout at Tim and Stephanie's house and I am bringing a dessert. Then Sat Brad's mom is having a cookout for mother's day/their anniversary and I am taking a fresh fruit dish. That isn't a lot of cooking but cutting up fruit. So I'll be busy this weekend!