My Bittersweet Swimsuit

You know what's sad? I have to have a swimsuit for our trip and, though I've scoured several stores looking for something fashionable that also covers my behind, I've had no luck. Anything that might work was only available in a size 2 or a size 22. I'm neither. Soooooo, I went into the garage and opened up the tub of maternity clothes. And there it was. My maternity swimsuit I bought last summer. I tried it on and it fit - quite well, I might add. I'll also add that I look pretty good in it. It's a 2 piece tankini set with a cool paisley print. So I guess it's all good. I have a cute swimsuit. It fits nicely. I didn't spend any money........but, it's maternity. That should probably be my motivation right there to go on a diet.

I'll let you know how that works out.

The number of the day is.......

2! In 2 days we will leave for Colorado to see my family! Yea!!! I haven't been to their wonderful house since last summer, so it's definitely time. The calendar of all the fun things we will do during our visit is hanging on the wall in front of me. Check it out - we're going white water rafting at night with night vision gear so you can see all the wildlife. How cool is that???

I can't wait to be picked up in their car and driven to their house while looking at all the gorgeous mountains. I can't wait to sit on the deck my dad built and eat the steak he's going to grill for us. It's going to be great to watch the kids play with all the thousands of awesome toys my mom has just for them. I am ecstatically waiting to sleep in "The Lala" bed - THE most comfortable bed ever that is mine whenever we are there. I can't wait to use my mom's luxury bathroom! My toes want to feel their short shag carpet and the rest of my body wants to stretch across the big long couch. And my cat! I'm going to see my cat that I got when I was 13 years old. It's never worked out for me to have her since I've been married. =( I'm coming Poppy!!!

And obviously, I can't wait to see my mom and my dad. It's so hard living so far away from them for so long. Almost 7 years we've lived apart! One day, we WILL live close by.

There's so much I miss. I try to not think about all these things normally so I don't cry, but since I'm going.......I'm thinking about it!

Expect some posts with pictures and stories of all the good times soon.........

Our Friday Night

Tonight we went to the mall and ate dinner at the food court. John David ordered from Mr. Hot Dog and everyone else from Chickfila. Then we sat out in the middle of the huge food court =) and watched people while we ate. Loved it. (And I have to add that my Chickfila sandwich was so good - crispy and hot. Perfect.)

For dessert, it was all about the cinnamon pretzel from Mr. Hot Dog and lots of cookies from Coastal Cookie. (Good discounts when it's almost closing time! Woohoo!) So it was a fun night with the family. Now the kids are sitting on the couch watching Spy Kids and not bothering me. =) What a great night.........

No Dust Bunnies.....Just Children

Last night I was working on the computer late and the kids had been in bed for quite awhile. We heard some cries and decided it was Julia. I followed the cries and found her under the end of my bed whimpering in her sleep! She must have gone in there when we weren't looking and then fallen asleep. What a funny girl......

My Monkeys on the Mountain

Here's my children after they ran to the top of the big dirt pile out by the new building. They were so proud of themselves. =)

Summer Games

I think this is the third summer in a row that we've done summer games on Wednesday nights in place of a normal service. I think we lost people when we did it the first summer because the games were way too messy and tiring. But last year was good and this year has been great too. They really have a lot of fun and having the park has been awesome.

Last night was a Survivor theme. One of the games they played was ultimate frisbee, but alas, John had no frisbee. So it had to be ultimate fishie instead. Isn't my husband so very funny? =) They also got to eat chocolate covered sardines. What troopers.......

John David's List of Things That are Atrocious

"Flies are just atrocious and I hate them. I just want to go outside where Pudge is and shoot them with Mommy's rubber bands.

The devil is atrocious.

Tornadoes.
Hurricanes.
Rain Storms.
Storms are just atrocious.
Mexican food is atrocious.
But I love the enchilada things. They're so good. And the popsicles from Mexico. They're creamy on the inside. Hmmmmmm.....

Now that's all......"

(This is his favorite new word that he tries to use ALL the time.)

My Poor Floors

I just thought I would lament for a moment over my wannabe beautiful floors. In the last week they have had pink yogurt, chocolate milk, and red kool-aide spilled on them. They also survived the destruction of a wiggly headband decorated with thousands of little shiny red strings, and just this morning, a popcorn "fight". Yes - popcorn ALL over my living room floor. It was beautiful. Even more beautiful was watching the two culprits pick every single piece up.

And this is in spite of my rule that no food or drinks go on the carpet without my permission. It's just not working. I think our next house should be carpet free. For sure.

What was I thinking getting off-white carpet??? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.....

You HAVE to try this....

Yummy frozen meals are so great. What else can rescue me from macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day of my life?

I just tried a new brand of frozen dinners called "Zataraines" (or something very similar). Each one is a bowl and there are about 4 different kinds. Blackened chicken alfredo was the first one I had. Oh my! So good! Today is some kind of gumbo. Again, it's so good! They are about $2 each, but they are worth it. Now excuse me while I go finish my little piece heaven. =)

Life Goals

Around our house, we really do our best to teach our kids to reach for the stars in life. Setting big goals and striving to achieve them. It's so important. Why, just tonight at dinner, Daddy talked to John David about a very important goal for his life.

June 18th, 2007.....New Life Goal for John David

"Do not be annoying."

We'll let you know how this one goes. Like I said, we really shoot for stars around here. =)

Who Knew???

Who knew two little tiny teeth could cause such a disruption in my life? Friday morning arrived along with Aulora's first teeth. They both decided to pop up at the same time. I don't remember either of my other kids going through much of anything that would constitute the dreaded teething time. But Aulora has schooled me in this area. It's not fun.

I haven't been able to put her down much at all. In fact, just typing this blog entry is a pretty big deal. (Which kind of goes to show just how addicted to this stupid blog I am. I haven't even had a chance to take a shower or brush my hair yet, but here I am, typing on my blog.) Aulora is normally a terrific sleeper and sleeps in her own bed all through the night and for a really long nap during the day. But now she wakes up as soon as I try to put her down. (I'm sure the shrieks of my older two putting ice balls down each other's pants didn't help the situation.) So anyway, for anyone still holding out on the notion that I'm perfect and my house is perfect, please don't come over this week. You're little dream world would be so very disturbed. It's 2 in the afternoon and I'm still wearing my pajamas, my house is not so very clean, and my kids are all parked in front of cartoons eating breakfast #2.

The best teething tip I can offer to other moms at this point is to wet a baby washcloth and put it in the freezer. Let it freeze and then give it to your baby. This has allowed me my first break in 3 1/2 days. How perfectly wonderful.....

I'm off to attempt a shower. And maybe even get dressed and comb my hair. I'm excited. =)

For those who are waiting....

....you will have to continue to exercise your patience. The time is not yet right. But soon, my friends. Soon.......

These Are My Children All In A Row

If you've spent very much time with John David then you probably understand the humorous title of this post. =)

Cool Girl

Here's that baby with her shades on.......

The Bird

So last night, I'm walking through the living room when I hear a strange sound. The kids were in a different room so I knew it wasn't them. I followed the sound to the fireplace. And there it was, looking at me. A freaky looking little bird! He was frantically flapping his wings against the glass window and pecking his beak. He stopped long enough to stare into my eyes in a spooky kind of way. He had wild eyes.

I was taken back to the time when John and I were recently married and living in our apartment in the Dallas area. Saturday had finally arrived and we were getting to sleep a little longer than normal. It was heavenly until some birds just got too loud to ignore. John got up to see what the deal was and he realized that the sound was coming from inside our apartment somewhere. He walked around until he found the source of the noise. It was inside our water heater closet. He opened it (a big mistake) and when he did that scared little bird went flying out into our bedroom. I was screaming and John was running around in his underwear trying to shoo the bird out the window. In the meantime, that dumb bird must have cut itself because it was dripping blood all over our bedroom! And apparently when birds are scared, they can't contain themselves. They poop. It was lovely. So lovely....

So that is why, when my dad suggested I get a towel and open the fireplace slowly to get it out, I refused. I was not about to have a bleeding, pooping bird flying around my beautiful house. Forget it.

So we had a stare-down. Me and that bird. He was begging me to let him out. I was begging him to fly back from whence he came.

I won. The bird is gone. No blood. No poop. No running around in underwear shouting and waving my arms. Thank you, Jesus, that Your eye was on that sparrow......

Just a quick one.....

John left today for Mexico for a missions trip. I'll have the kids all to myself until Friday night. So far, so good. Everyone's still alive. No one is crying. Aulora is even taking a nap. It would only be better if I was taking a nap. I suppose I could but I might awake to the sound of my house crashing down around me. I would just look forward to an early bedtime but I don't think that will happen either. As luck would have it, I apparently have to pick someone up in Abilene. Oh, well. It's all good.....

Julia

What can I say? She's my baby girl. =)

My Vintage Baby

Here's Aulora wearing her white battenburg lace outfit that looks so very vintage baby dollish.

My Girl in Pearls

It's Friday night and we've stayed home all day (except for John who went to work). I wanted to do something besides clean so we took pictures! These are some of my favorites. Pictures of John David and Julia will be coming in the next week or so.....

My House

Since we're getting our house ready to sell, I thought I would take pictures so I would never forget what it looked like. For those of you who have never been to our home, consider this your tour. =)

We have so many wonderful memories here. This is my most favorite place to be....

The Water Lilly Garden

This morning I took Aulora to one of the water lilly gardens here in town. We had fun taking some pictures together. What a doll! After I get John David and Julia back, we'll have to go again and take pictures of everyone....

Our House???

Here are some outside pictures of the house we are trying to buy. It's not looking too good right now - not for a quick closing anyway. Long story short, the owner had it appraised by a man who apparently did not account for almost $40k worth of repairs that HAVE to be done just to get it up to code. (We know it's that much because we went with a contractor and a foundation man also looked at it.) That's not including any money for any kind of remodeling, which it desperately needs as well. The lady is sticking to her guns, wanting her asking price, because of that much too high appraisal. Stinky appraiser....

Anyway, we still really want it. Maybe we'll still get it. Maybe not. I'm trusting that God knows exactly what we need and when we need it.

We met with 3 different agents today about our own house. It's going to be scary putting a sign in our yard, not knowing where we will move when our house sells. Talk about a leap of faith....

Corn Time

So we have this thing in our family with corn. It goes back to my grandpa, my dad's dad. Whenever he was playing with us he would say that the cow was hungry. He would make his hand into a mouth and start to "eat" the corn, which was always a very ticklish spot on our body.

My own dad has continued this tradition with my kids. They love it. A few weeks ago when my parents came for graduation they put a little surprise on the porch for the kids, rang the doorbell, and hid around the corner. When John David and Julia opened the door, there were 3 ears of corn on the doormat. Oh, you should have heard the hollering and squealing! Soooo funny!

"It's Corn Time......"

My "Handy" Man

We are sleep deprived and sore due to the many, many hours of work we've been doing on our house getting it ready to sell. We were to the point of exhaustion (actually, quite past that point) last night and on our way to being delirious.

As I was painting in the kitchen, I heard a weird noise and then John was hollering, "La! Come quick! Help me!" I'm laughing now just thinking about it. I ran into the den and there he was, standing on the computer chair, covered in spray acoustic for the ceiling. Well, it was supposed to be for the ceiling anyway. It ended up on him and the floor and everything else that wasn't lucky enough to be under the drop cloth. We both just stood frozen, looking at the mess, not quite knowing what to do. I decided the first thing I should do was get my camera so we would never forget this funny moment. It was a mess to clean up but the laughter carried us through the rest of the night.

(I should add that the pictures don't really convey the full extent of the mess. There were little white droplets of that stupid mud stuff everywhere.)