Loving Life

This is a picture of my gramma. I LOVE this picture. It captures her spirit. Her love of life. Her freedom. Everything I loved about my gramma is in THIS picture. I didn't know THIS teen, but in this picture, I see her future. I see the woman I WILL know. I see a woman who has a style that I love when she is 50, 60, and older. I see a woman who loves life. I see a Gramma who moons the valley with her grandkids. I see a woman who will tell those same grandkids that HER 100 acres are THE 100 acre woods. Pooh Bear lived there. I swear. I see the woman that had sweets for the kids no matter WHAT. You didn't have to give her notice. Her pantry was READY. I see the woman that will pay me to clean her house even though NOW, I know that she probably went behind me and RE-did all that I got "paid" to do. Even though this gramma is not alive today, she stays with me. She is in my mother's hands. I hear her in certain music. I see her in my face. I see and feel her in my garden. I smell her in my roses. I water my Garden, and she is there. I feel her in fabric. When Christmas is here, I see her in the overly sparkly and over the top ornament that I have to have. I touch her in my wrapping paper. I taste her in my soup. I see her in my love for friends and family. I see, feel, touch, and taste her everywhere. I realize that no matter how long she has been gone from me, I will carry her forever. My sons will carry her, and not even realize it. Because all that I see as a part of her in me, they will only remember as ME. This must be how it is that a person can live in legacy forever. Generations at a time. My only hope is that my legacy will be as sweet as this teenager's. Loving life, and not afraid to show it. Life is so short. How do I tell everyone I love what they mean to me? How do I make sure all that I have learned is known to them as well? I can only pray that my life will season theirs in the same way that my Gramma's spice for life has left a lasting flavor in my own.....

A visit from a friend

My friend Janet came to visit last night! Her son and Ian are the same age, and they have flown the coop for 4-H camp for the week. Janet's younger daughter went, and so J is getting a taste of the empty nest!

LUCKY
DUCK.
While Ian is gone, I
still
had
TWO
2
too
to
tew
tu
Janet came over for a girl's night.
It was such FUN.
Weird how you just all of the sudden realize
that you aren't a kid anymore.
Every once in a while, I get hit with it.
I mean, how often in your "adult" life,
do you get to spend the night with a friend?
Travis was working, so Janet and I
got to have the night to ourselves for the most part.
I say most,
because....
as I mentioned above,
I still have the 2.
and of course, the TWO had to make life a little hard at bedtime,
and there were the few times I had to go back to mommy mode for their needs, but on the whole.....
TOTAL
S
l
u
m
b
e
r

Paaaaaarrrrrrt~aaaaay!
Thanks, Janet!
I love you, man!
It was such fun to get to be with you and just
Hang
Out.
It rocked.

BTW~
the pic at the top here, is NOT from last night. I was having too much fun to actually TAKE pictures.
This is from Janet's first time with me at a Purple Pip Chick gathering.

Janet~
I will totally look at the wrists next time I send a package. LOL 

He's got BEE Hives!

Ok, so three days ago, Josh came up to me, and showed me that he had a bug bite.
OR
So we
thought.
Turns out,
DAY 1
the next morning, it's ALL OVER.
it's
HIVES.
no idea from what, because the bug bite is now a hive, and there is a red BAND around the poor guy's belly there are so many.
So~ I go on line, and diagnose the boy with HIVES.
"bee hives?" that's what he asked. A little bit panicked I think at the thought of the bees.... Not BEE hives, just Hives. Don't know why they call them that.
I go get proper medications, and put lotion on for the itch.

DAY 2
Now all the places that DIDN'T have the bee hives on them YESTERDAY, have them today.
Go figure.
So, I decide to make SURE that Dr. Mom is right, and go to the Dr.
did I mention we've moved, and don't HAVE a Dr. here yet?
well, the Dr. office that I THOUGHT was an urgent care, is not, but they take pity on the boy, and see us anyway. We'll be going back as regulars now, so the Dr. thing is solved.
Dr. Mom was right, and they have no idea how he got them either....
new foods?
no
new medications?
no
new detergents?
none
Hmmmmm
well, it's BEE Hives for sure. we may never know from what. Here's your prescription, and keep up the things you did already....
*i pat myself on the Dr. mom back*
We get the meds, and things are looking good.

Day 3
still have the bee hives, but they are looking better. UNTIL tonight, and I FINALLY got the camera out to show you. They LOOK like they itch. I itch just talking about them! When will they be gone? and Did you KNOW they move around? They totally do. and they get ANGRY. and when they get ANGRY.....
they itch.
So, My recommendation to all you six year old boys who are thinking about getting BEE Hives.....
DON'T
you don't wanna bee there when they get MAD.
and they can get MAD anywhere they WANT.
Spooty.

Happy First Day of Summer!

It's the FIRST DAY OF SUMMER! The weather was beautiful! My mom came to visit! We had a great day.....


This was our yard YESTERDAY. We had just gotten done taking out that patch where the dirt is now. That patch used to be GRASS. Did I mention grass is HARD to get up?


Josh made muffins for Gramma with me this morning. She spent the might at our house! He had to get his hat first though....


A moment in bed with your big brother before breakfast. WHAT A LIFE, DUDE.


Remember the green? Well, before we put the chemicals in the pool, I let the boys perform a tadpole rescue.... They rescued about 12 tadpoles. There are only three tadpoles left! The rest are FROGS! TEENY TINY frogs. Those are my fingers behind that baby. It would fit on my thumb nail.


Macs playing hide and seek today, as we celebrated the first day of summer on the beach with my mom.....


I think THE best picture of my boy Ian EVER.


My mommy and ME! Thanks for coming over, mom. I love you.


Two of my very favorite guys. Hubby and son....


Two of my boys playing in the sand. The four of them created a city of sand.


We were so busy today! After my mom left for home, Travis and I got busy in the front yard! We had the gravel in yesterday, and today, we moved the shrub on the left corner next to the drive. I took out more GRASS along the front. It's looking so nice! Things are moving along! On top of all the pics here, I took a TON more, and I also got a bunch more done. I won't bore you with any more, but Man! A great way to start the SUMMER!!!! Enjoy yours!

Two HOURS and this is what I did.....

Lookie here!
kelli, I TOTALLY blame you for this.
This flower,
(that's what IT is)
is
M
I
N
E
me i myself!
I doodled this all on my own
for
TWO
HOURS.
did I mention this?
TWO.
but it was so fun! I just kept going and going.
did I mention I was SUPOSED to be cleaning up my scrapping mess from the scrap page I did for kelli? Well.
the mess is still there.
BUT
lookie HERE!
I'm so proud of myself!
Can't wait to do a page around this.

Freestyle Challenge #8

This is for Kelli Crowe's challenge on freestyle the blog. Her challenge was to cut up your pictures, and to use ANYTHING to scrap. I used a slurpee cup from our 7-11 (which I am THRILLED to have here in our new town) and masking tape to journal on. Thanks Kelli! I had fun!

I wanna be...

"Why are you watching this movie?" asks Ian of Joshua....
"Because I wanna be just like you, and you like it, so I do too." replies my josh.
"You want to be just like me?"
"Yep."
"If I stopped yelling at you, you would stop yelling at Macs?"
"Uh Huh."

I know this isn't exactly true, but
THANK
YOU
JOSH
for telling Ian so.
Somehow, I think it hit a different spot that the other times when I've mentioned that you want so badly to be just like your big brother. Being in the middle gives you such a unique view of our family. I hope that the value of your place being BOTH a big brother AND a little brother is not lost in your heart.

Taking Action

I just heard a quote that I have decided to
L
I
V
E
by.

it will work for EVERYTHING.
sending birthday cards
writing thank you cards (i SUCK at this)
being on time
playing with my kids
being patient with my kids
going to CHURCH
eating as a family
getting up on time
keeping the house clean
having a BBQ for the neighbors
yadda
yadda
yadda

you can add the things you want and it will work for you too.

Good intentions are meaningless
without
A C T I ON.

I love it. Gonna start taking steps to LIVE by it. put some action behind my good intentions. I challenge you to do it too.

Happy Action!

Mommy Flash

Had a mommy flash today... I get them everyonce in a while.
I
HATE
them.
Usually, they mean that I have heard one of my not so nice things come out of one of my
Boys.

Today,
I thought to myself
that
the boys are expected to keep their tempers in check when something doen't go their way.
And THEN.....
"MAAAAAACSSSSSS! NO NO NO NO NO! I TOLD YOU NO! DON'T POUR YOUR SIPPY CUP ON THE FLOOR! YUCKY! THAT'S GROSS! I DON'T LIKE CLEANING YOUR STICKY MESS! blah blah blah blah blah ........"

All at the top of my lungs.

and
then.

I wonder why Ian FREAKS OUT when the baby gets into one of his things.

I wonder why Josh falls apart when his toy breaks.

I wonder why Macs won't take just a minute for a minute.

It's because of me.
I
MY ATTITUDE.

and it's the spootiest thing in the world.
I HATE it.
I go for ages without a blow out, and then

K A B L O O E Y

all over everybody.
I'm going to change that.
We've been doing SO GOOD with our "new" routine now that we are in the new house. I'm going to throw in an extra challenge to myself.

BE
CALM.

I can so totally say the same things I want to scream without the scream. I NEED TO DO IT!

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I go around yelling all day long, but there of times it feels that way, and I'm willing to bet money that the kids would change if I gave them more
CONSISTENT
versions of my displeasure. I mean, I was a toddler teacher for two years! I could wrangle 5-10 toddlers with the patience of a SAINT, and I can't do it regularly for my own THREE?
Yes.
I can.
I am.
I will.
You wait and see.

MOMMY FLASH!!!! I can be the mommy AND NOT LOSE IT!

So So Busy, Boy.

Ok. I know that the boy is busy. You know the boy is busy. As I mentioned before, he follows me through LIFE with his busy. It usually adds to my busy when I have to pick up his busy. usually after I just got DONE cleaning the area he plans to get busy in next. So I like to blog. I do it whenever I can fit in a moment.... and the boy decided to get busy in the way too shallow drawer next to me. Hoever, that particular drawer is not very deep, and I had to show him the other one....it happens to be empty because I haven't gotten to unpacking much of my desk things YET. So here are a few places Macs has been in lately....

In the book case before the books were in...

In the desk drawer, waiting to be discovered, and mad that it's not closed all the way....

In the desk drawer after being "discovered"

Cheese!!

In a book as it should be....

Just
when I'm ready to Un-Grandparent my mother, and off a few children or sell them on eBay, or leave them with relatives to join the circus,
the little bugger
reminds me
that I LOVE HIM.....
and I won't ever be able to stop.

Beached Whale?

Ok.
My hubby is a Sherrif's deputy. He went to work last night in our nice new town and saw that there was a report in the logs about a dead whale beached about two miles down a beach near us.
So.
He called me and let me know in case I wanted to take the boys to see it.
As I'm typing this I realize that a dead whale is a teeny tad WAY on the morbid side. but I am a pretty explore your world kinda mom, and even though I DON'T homeschool, I live like I do, and I WAS as a kid. So it's there. even if you can't see it. but that's another post.

We drove out to the beach, and because my hubby is in law enforcement, and we want to obey THE LAW, we didn't drive on the beach to find the whale.
I didn't have an orange flag to put on the 4X4 Ford Truck 9ft above the ground.
It's the LAW.
So I took:
two 12 year olds
one 6 year old
one 2 1/2 year old
and myself, who hasn't done really ANY excersizing in the last,
Ohhhhh,
FOUR YEARS.
and I took them
Alone
By myself
ON FOOT.
ten of them actually.











We never found the whale, but we walked for about 1 hour before we turned back. I'm pretty sure we covered the two miles it SHOULD'VE talken to find it.
I did get lots of really nice pictures....
















The boys had a BLAST, and even Macs enjoyed the walk OUT. Wouldn't it have been so cool to be THAT close to a whale and see how HUGE they really are!?
















We actually all did really well, and I'm not really sore today.
I
was
surprised.











We didn't find the whale, but ian found a starfish, and we put it back in the water, because it started to suck onto his hand!












We saw a sealion! I left the front of the picture in, so that you can see that the shore break was RIGHT there! The Sealion kept peaking out at us and it was there on the trip back......

which reminds me.
carrying an almost 3 year old on the sandy beach is a WORK OUT. which I haven't done in FOUR YEARS.....
I was the only grown up, and so the carrying was ALL ME....
josh did SOOOOO good. not a peep about being tired.
macs ALMOST fell asleep on the way back.
i am getting that silly flag, and I'm gonna go see HOW FAR we went.

It was such a cool evening.
I had so much fun.
I am really going to like living here at the beach.

ANYONE out there just moved and LOVING the thoughts of all the things to do and explore in their new towns?

The pool is NOT ready.

Lookie here.
Our pool was left out in the weather all winter long.
It is NOT ready to swim in.
We JUST moved here.....
I don't know HOW to get it ready YET.
It is GREEN
say it with me...GREEN
tadpole green
algae green
fungi green
growing green

G R E E N

ian has been BEGGING to go in because his new friend here dared him for $5 to go in
in the GREEN.
I ofcourse, told him no.
NO
en oh
NNNNnnnnnnOOOOOOO
NOOOOOOOO
Nuh Oh.
NO

but

the other day, my mom and dad were here.
ian asked again.
I remembered how my mom once let me go out and play in the rain gutter overflow in my bathing suit.
it was pink and yellow and aqua marine blue.
the suit.
I remember it as one of the best days
EVER.

SOOOOOoooooo. this time I said YES.
yes.


I said yes to a great cloudy day and GREEN


I said yes to a day we will all remember. look at my husband behind the BOY.


I said yes to a little boy who LOVES to be just like his brother.


I said yes to "mom! I can do it here, it's not too deep!"

I said yes.
I am so glad I did.
even the said new friend called his mom.
she said yes, but I am pretty sure if she had seen the GREEN......

So here's the question:
Is there a memory you have of a time YOUR mother said yes?
AND
Have YOU said yes over that one thing that you weren't going to say it for, and been ever so glad that you did?

I did TOO!

I spent the night at my mom's last night, because I had to
A. take the cat to the vet to get SPAYED...
B. load up more CRAPPE at our old house and take a load to the dump there too.
C. go to a 2 hour graduation for 17 kids (one was a relative) at my husband's old school. WITHOUT HUSBAND.

Then I had to pick up said cat today, and so after my

L O N G day, I said to myself, "self, why should you go 2 hours back to your new house and then drive BACK here tomorrow for above mentioned cat when you could Torture (yes, torture) your mother with your company and the company of your THREE boys?"

To which I said, "me, you are totally RIGHT. I should ABSOLUTLEY torture my mom."

So I did.
I did TOO!

Then when I was PRETTY sure (we left before ABSOLUTLEY) that we had driven her to maddness with our insanity, we left. and got the cat. I totally thought that was going to pretty much be the day,
BUT
there's
MORE.
I was really productive today.
I got a lot done!
I did TOO!

I......

• got the cat
• drove 2 hours home
• went to the store for dinner stuff for today AND tomorrow
• took a NAP
• unpacked the rest of the kitchen
• took the trash and empty boxes out to the truck and got them all ready for the dump
• made dinner as in ACTUALLY COOKED
• got the dinner stuff for tomorrow ready too
• ACTUALLY sat down AT THE TABLE for dinner (I did TOO!)
• cleaned up from dinner
• got the coffee pot ready for my morning brew and preset the timer on it
• Bathed two of the three boys (the oldest one did his own ON his own)
• read bedtime stories to the boys
• got them all (did I mention there are THREE?) to bed before 8:30
• boiled sugar water for my hummingbirds
• put out the new necter that comes from boiling said sugar water
• watched a new TV series THE 44,000 which I think you ALL should watch
• called and cleared up a bill for the internet that the provider SCREWED UP
• blogged TWO blogs!

I DID TOO!

I know. I can't believe me either. Don't worry.

It

won't

happen

again

for

a

L O N G

time.....

SPLISH SPLASH

Just love this picture of Macs in the new house.... having a bath. He LOVES the new tub, it's deeper than our old one, and thus, MUCH
more
fun
to

S
P
L
A
S
H

in.

Dude. Gotta LOVE picassa.... this picture took SECONDS to do and get here to blog!

The pictures

My moving face. It's still early, and the coffee hasn't kicked in.... This moving thing really brings out the bags!

My Flag on Memorial Day. It will stay up forever now. I have not taken my flag down since Sept. 11th, 2001. I don't plan on stopping now... I will not forget.

Please notice that even though there are boxes PILED inside....

you

can

just

barely

see

them

in

the

W I N D O W......

My yard is mowed, and my plants are put in their spots.

My hummingbird feeder... like, TWO seconds after the thing was THERE!

FINALLY.

a

few

days

later...

A picture of the little bugger! Isn't he cute? I get to sit in my recliner and watch these guys over coffee... AAaaahhhhhh. What a life.

So it took a little while to get the camera dock ready for these.... and ofcourse I have more goodies to share, so I'll be BACK! Might take me a few days though. Hubby gets craby when I'm on the computer too long.

Toodles!