Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the very lastest day of school. My kids are so excited! I am thankful that I have a wonderful summer to spend with my children, and will cherish every day!

Oh, Heidi, you know ALL of the kiddos in those pictures - they have just grown up a little bit! Love you!

Rain

I love listening to the rain. Right now I am sitting in a swing on my beautiful front porch while it rains all around me. We inspected all of our plants right before the down pour began. Our sickly rose has been saved and has 4 buds about to bloom! Noah's pumpkins are growing like crazy, and he even has a tiny pumpkin already beginning to form! Flowers are blooming left and right on our tiny little plants and we even found a caterpillar nibbling on one of Noah's vines. It has been a good and peaceful 'prevening' (wink, wink to Big Bang Theory).

At the Creek

First of all, Happy Birthday to Uncle Andy and my beautiful Evie! We miss you so very much!








Our close friends are going to Idaho for the next month, and asked if we could eat hot dogs and hang out by the creek before they left. I thought that it was a great idea, and, even though I had to force it on Carl, we had a great time.

May

I have come to realize that I am not a huge fan of the month of May. It is incredibly stressful and busy, there are a gazillion and one awards ceremonies and parties and special events, and it is the month in which my baby will graduate from Pre-K.

So if I'm not posting as often as I would like over the next couple of weeks, please know two things:

1) I would rather be regaling you with the tall but true tales of my life than doing what I'm doing
2) I will have plenty to blog about soon

Harold Mueller

Today I had the privilege and honor of attending the funeral services of a very great man. Harold Mueller was 79 years old when he passed away, and such a blessing to so many people. I didn't realize how much it would affect me until I got there. In all my years of Young Womens camp I never remember one without him - he was always kind and giving and very loving in his own way. His wife Lucille was amazing as well. She came up and hugged me and was so happy to see me. While I was there she told me that she was so glad I came, loved the plant we had sent, and that Pammy was always her favorite. If it hadn't been such a serious occasion I would have burst into hysterical laughter right then and there. She is one of the only people in the world that I know who can go 15 years without seeing someone and then tell them that she liked their baby sister better than them - and not hurt their feelings!!

Little bita this and little bita that

My husband is fishing. He is having a great time.

I am home.

And, I am just having a jolly ol' time myself.

Today was family game night. Many, many things can go wrong on family game night. Especially when your middle child hasn't gotten enough sleep and is determined to do all in his power to ensure that everyone is operating with the exact same amount of joy that he is.

It was a truly memorable evening.

And I would almost give up my entire Anne of Green Gables collection for a bag of jelly bellies, some grape soda and a bag of Milano's.

I'm just sayin' is all.

Bummer

My back really hurts. My knee really hurts, and I bumped the back of my head when I fell and my vision is a little bit blurry. Plus, I'm realizing that I slammed my calf pretty hard as well and now have a huge bruise and a knot forming.

And I'm trying this completely new form of parenting in which you only tell your child to do something once, and actually expect them to do it.

I think I picked a bad month to change my parenting habits.

By the way, our house is just a barrel of fun right now if you'd like to come by and laugh with us.

Really - lots of fun.

Seriously?!?

Today I fell down the stairs in our living room - you know, the ones going from the dining room into the living room. I landed smack in the middle of my back, mostly on the right side.

We called the doctor and she said that if my legs are okay my spine is fine, it's probably just a deep muscle bruise.

I am in so much pain that I can't move. I've been taking ibuprofen and icing it.

This is more painful than my knee surgery.

Why - Why?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my own beautiful mom - thank you for all that you have done for me! Happy Mother's Day to all of the other amazing mom's in my life as well My mother in law, my Aunt Marianne, all of my amazing sisters and sister in laws, and my Grandma, whom I miss every day. I love you all, and miss you dearly!

The Book Fairy, Happy Halloween and Little Olympics

In no particular order.

Yesterday I worked the book fair at my children's elementary school. Before we left for school, Carlye and Nathanael were asking their Daddy how much money they had for the book fair. Noah was listening in and said, "I want the book fairy to bring me something, too!"

And so she did. In the form of a Star Wars book. Nathanael bought a Star Wars boxed set, and Carlye bought a neat little series that I had never heard of (I'll post it as soon as I remember). Thank heavens for buy 1 get 1 free!

Today after school Noah handed me a beautiful card and gift that he had made for me. "Happy Halloween, Mom!" he said as he handed it to me. "Halloween, it's not Halloween," I told him. "Oh, well it's for whatever holiday it is. Here mom, take it, I need a drink of water."

At the Little Olympics today Carlye ran the 4 man relay. She was the last leg, which usually mens that you are the fastest runner on the team. And boy can she run! She was all legs and had beautiful form. Their 2nd and 3rd leg runners had gotten them into last place, and Carlye caught them up and managed to come in 4th! We were so surprised, and so proud of her!!! Aunt Tippy took some pictures for us, and I'll post them as soon as I can. And can I just say, my little girl looked so grown up!

FYI

Today Carl talked to the vendor, and they refunded our tickets COMPLETELY! Just thought ya'll might want to know.

In other news, my husband has much to fear. I am working the book fair at the kids school tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., which means that he will be broke by 7:45. Just sayin' is all.

I am really looking forward to Thursday, though, when Carlye competes in the Little Olympics - it will be so much fun to watch her fun the four man relay! And our Sam will be competing in the 8 man relay for his school!

I am also really, really, really looking forward to Friday when Jodi, April and I run away and don't come home until late Saturday night. We will shop, get pedicures, sleep late, watch girl movies, eat at big girl restaurants (or maybe Chick Fil A - you can't beat those nuggets!) - and not have to worry about anyone peeing on us, throwing things at us, having a temper tantrum, needing to be taken to the bathroom, hanging on us, whining, fighting with siblings, begging, pouting or sulking.

I'm sure that we'll have a terrible time.

Elaboration

So, here is the more in depth version of our Sunday.

After church we were planning on going to Carlye and Nathanael's very 1st piano recital, and then Carl's mom and I were going to drive down to San Antonio in plenty of time to find our seats before Celtic Woman began.

A little before 1:30 as we were checking our tickets we saw that they were for the 2:00 performance!!!!

I asked Carlye and Nathanael what they wanted me to do, and they said to go because I had been looking forward to it. I left the camera with Carl (no pics of Celtic Woman, or even us there) and he told me that he would video tape it. We already knew we would be late.

I called the Majestic, and they said that they would allow us to take our seats in between songs, we wouldn't have to wait for intermission.

Then, Mom and I realized we were running out of gas. We were pretty sure that we could make it to the theatre, though.

We finally found where we needed to be and drove around the corner to pull in the parking garage. Amazingly enough, it turned out that I was driving the wrong way down a one way!! But it did get us to the parking garage much more quickly!! Many honks, one super slow car and 9 levels later we were parked and walking in.

It was beautiful.

I was sad for two reasons - we missed my children's recital, and we missed the opening of the show. But I was thankful to see most of it, and the video of their recital is priceless!!

While we were gone Carl pulled up our ticket confirmation (I had called earlier and the ticket company told me that they didn't even sell tickets to the 7:30 showing so we must have simply made a mistake on the time) and the email confirmation said that our tickets were for the 7:30 showing. When he called the ticket vendor they said that they had made a mistake and sold too many to the 7:30 showing, so they just sent out tickets to the 2:00 performance instead. Of course. That's what any one would do. And a letter or phone call of explanation would have just been over the top.

We will now check our tickets very closely when they arrive to ensure that this never happens again!

A dream come true

Today one of my dreams came true. I was so blessed with the opportunity to see Celtic Woman live at the Majestic Theatre in SA with my mom in law. There were some horrible things that happened - for example, our tickets according to my email confirmation were for the 7:30 pm showing. When we opened up our tickets after church at 1:15 pm we discovered they were for the 2:00 showing!!!

We made it to the performance, but we were very late, and only saw the last 25 minutes of the first part of the performance. (We also drove the wrong way down a one way, but hey - it saved us time!)

But it was amazing. I nearly cried it was so wonderful. I cannot begin to describe how beautiful it is to see and hear them live.

Oh, and did I mention that we were on the 2nd row?!?!

Cause we were.