A Cappella Centennial Celebration

Clearly Vocal hosted the A Cappella Centennial Celebration this past weekend. Click here for all of the details. We had a good turnout and a blast performing! All of the other groups did just great, too. Here are a few pics of CV, thanks to Chelsea Rambin.

Stefanie and I are in charge of costumes. We were excited about these!

Cute little Stef. :)

Not proper vocal technique. (Midsection of Bohemian Rhapsody "So you think ...")

John, "playing the guitar" with a really cool background.

Route 66

Don

Danny

The brass section.

Beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody.

And finally, here's a shout out to our sponsors, Healthy Figures and Joy Anguish, to Reagan and Jane who ran our concessions, Melinda, Tommy and Barbara who were our even hosts, and Bill, Andy and Clay, our sound, lights and video crew! We couldn't have done it without you!

Clearly Vocal heads to the Denton Arts and Jazz Fest this weekend to do this same show. This is our first time at the DAJF, so we're excited!

Since I know you've all been waiting ...

The Easter pics.

This is the first year we got matching Easter outfits. Deborah, I love that you and I shop and the same places! I almost got those orange and white checked shirts, too!

We hunted eggs at Mom's house Saturday morning after seeing Spring Sing the night before. We also got to spend some time with John's family on Friday afternoon. So good to see everyone! A quick, but great trip!

Come Jog with Me

6:00 am ... yeah right ...

9:05 am ... after I drop off the older two kids at Little People's School, I'm at the Rose Rudman park. I park in the perfect location, just north of Shiloh. Reason explained later. Pull out the jogging stroller that I borrowed from Chelsea. No wait, she borrowed it from Kristi W., so I guess technically, it's borrowed from Kristi. Thank God for good friends.

Strap in screaming child. For all he knows, I'm leaving him in this contraption that winds him through the woods unattended. Bless his heart. Tell other passers-by that he just doesn't like to get buckled in.

Lock car, put phone and keys in stroller pocket. Begin jogging south. Child stops screaming immediately.

It's a cold morning, so it's just "the regulars." Thoughts of potential sermons on "the regulars," integrity, perseverance, cloud of witness who have already run, etc. run through my head. I have no iPod, so my thoughts consume me. Better than the exhaustion that will threaten to take over later.

The regulars. There's the older man in the navy blue sweatsuit with big sunglasses. He's always there walking. There's the middle-aged woman who, no matter what I do, never smiles back. There's the lady who brings her old, fat beagle to chase squirrels up trees ... just doing what she was made to do. Usually there's the old lady who brings her two Chihuahuas and pushes them along in a stroller, but it's too cold for them today.

I smile to each one, and most smile back. We know we're the dedicated ones. Very few "newbies" today.

I create in my head life stories of each of the regulars and some of the more interesting "newbies." I pretty much have everyone figured out by now.

The playground is completely empty as I pass by. On a nice day there will be several SAHMs with their kids.

I cross under Reick and start on the new part of the trail. 4 bridges. One water fountain, at least when they get it finished. The construction crew isn't working today, but they have finished the cement in the gaps where the sidewalk meets the bridges. Very nice. No more boards to jump over. Very smooth.

Over the last bridge, the big one. I think I can, I think I can.

Put foot onto Grande and head back the same way I came. No short-cutting for this girl. Like line drills. You have to touch it.

Child dozes off and on. Oblivious to the fact that I've been with him this whole time. More semon possibilities.

Start reciting, "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence commeth my help?" Shove thought out of mind. It's too early in the run to be begging for help now. That will come later.

Try a song, "Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways." Now that's more like it.

Spot who appears to be a "good runner" ahead. I revert to my high school days and think, "If I just widen my stide a little, maybe I could pass him by the next bridge." Then compare his very long, trained legs to mine and laugh at myself. Hey, at least I'm out there.

Pass several "healthy" squirrels. They know they're in no danger and scurry off the path just at the last second.

Peel off outer layer and gloves and stuff in stroller pocket. Good, I'm working hard.

Try to do the math about how far I've run, since I really have no idea. The farther I run, the larger the number of miles gets. I'm almost afraid to know now. Afraid that it won't be nearly as far as I belive it to be.

Cross another bridge and find myself being grateful that an emergency vehicle could in fact drive over the bridges and get to me should anything happen.

Pass the creek. Find myself hoping to see a snake to give my body a shot of adrenaline. Realize that all I have to do is think about a snake, and I've given myself the shot. No, I don't want to see a snake. Ever.

Pass back by the playground where the excercise group has begun. Thankful for the music to take my mind off breathing.

Music fades in the distance. Back to counting breaths. Out, 1, 2, 3, 4, In, 1, 2, Out, 1, 2, 3, 4 ... I'm a lot louder than I ought to be. People actually move out of my way long before they need to because they think I'm a lot closer than I really am.

Pass high schoolers from Lee, probably forced to be out here on the trail for P. E. They're laughing and talking as they jog by. It used to be easy for me, too. But then I hear one say, "I hope I'm a jogging Momma someday." All is better, and I suddenly feel lighter on my feet. For a while.

Up the hill on the north side of Shiloh. See some really fit people jogging. Adjust posture.

Now up and over the creek on the bridge that heads east into the woods. Over halfway for sure.

Stay to the left for the first part to avoid the monster hill on the right. No way. Not yet. Maybe one day. A day without the stroller perhaps. One more bridge. Now head to the right.

Curve left and head north. Another curve, no, not that one ... That one. The last curve before the straight stretch where I can look way down and see the Tyler Cancer Bell, built in 2002 and dedicated to those who have fought the fight. I think of Papaw. Man, I miss him.

Round the corner and head west. Okay, now I can say it, "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence commeth my help? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." I say it like that because that's how we sang it in college.

Round the last corner by Lee HS and head south. Soon I will be able to see the van. Like I said, the perfect spot because I can see it from far away running this route. A little motivation goes a long way.

Rejoice as I reach the van. I have survived another jog.

Go around to unstrap child. He looks at me in the same place as I was the last time he saw me, as if to say, "You have no idea where all I've been!"

Drink my Powerade Zero and go home.

Success!

Group Therapy at KE Cellars tonight!

Come hear us play!

You know, they serve Cokes there, too. :)

Or do what we do and bring in your Smoothie King from next door!

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

I found this on a friend's blog. It was just too close to home not to post. Can you relate?!

If You Give a Mom a Muffin
(for everyone who’s read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie a million times!)

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
So she'll pour herself some.
The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.
She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do some laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.

Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With a Pound of Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.
She will look for the checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two year old.
While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring. (Of course!)
Her five year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come over for coffee on Friday.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.
And chances are,
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.


Thanks Nikki!

And the day is not over yet

Sundays are usually so routine, so comfortable, so dependable. It just seemed like one thing after the next. I'll see if I can remember it all.

It started out great. We actually got all of us dressed and in the car at the right time. Praise team rehearsal went well. I filled in for one of our sopranos who just had back surgery. I got the kids to class. Sounds great so far, right?

Today was the blood drive at church. A few weeks earlier, I had signed up to donate during class time. Since I wasn't scheduled to sing on the praise team, I would have plenty of time to get back to church. Even if I did have to fill in, I should still have plenty of time, since I signed up for an early time.

I forgot that I had to have my driver's license in hand, so I had to run back to the car, which was locked. My keys were in the diaper bag in the nursery, so I just ran and grabbed John's. No big deal.

I returned, filled out my crazy questionnaire and held my breath while they pricked my finger to check the iron levels. There's always a part of me that hopes my iron will be too low so that I won't have to donate, but that's only happened once, and it wasn't the case today. 14.2. Yea me.

"Definitely my left," I answered nervously when they asked which arm. I had a bad experience with the right arm once in college, so I've done the left ever since.

I had a jacket on, so I asked if I should take it off. The lady asked, "Do you have a shirt on underneath?" Really? Would I offer to take my jacket off if I didn't?! I really wanted to answer, "Nope! Is that a problem?" but I refrained and just said "yes" with a smile.

The lady next to me was donating for the first time. "It's no big deal!" I reassured her, hoping to reassure myself as well. "We've given birth! This is nothing!"

The "blood sucker" prepped my arm and then I felt "a little stick." "Hmmm ..." she said as she turned the needle. I started feeling a little bit queasy. "Hang on a sec," she said as she went to get the person who really knows what they're doing. Why couldn't I have just started out with him?

He came over and took the needle and started moving it around some more. I started wondering if I had accidentally signed up for liposuction in my arm. I told both blood suckers that I was feeling pretty queasy, and the first one hurried over to get two ice packs and put one behind my neck and one on my chest. Then they flung my feet up in the air, because I guess that helps.

The second blood sucker said to the first, "I don't think this side is going to work. If she's willing," as if I weren't sitting right there, "you could try the other arm." The first shrugged and then went to work getting the needle out. "Do you think we could try the other arm? This one doesn't seem to be working very well." she said as if I had missed what the other guy had just said. "Sure," I said, and managed a smile.

Of course that meant I needed to gather my stuff and walk over to another chair for "right arm-ers." I hadn't lost too much blood at this point, so I wasn't light-headed, and most of the queasiness had gone away.

Thankfully, the right one seemed to work beautifully and my bag was full in about 10 minutes.

Unfortunatly, I was running late for church. Remember, I was supposed to sing on the praise team. I got in there as John was asking everyone to stand for the next song, so that made my entrance with two neon green bandages on my elbows a little less noticable.

But when I got down to the front row (we don't stand on the stage just yet ;)) Chelsea was filling in for me, which was great! But I didn't know what to do! She quickly slid out of the pew and handed me the mic and I tried not to be obviously light-headed. I had rushed out of the gym after giving blood without eating a snack or getting a drink to try to make it to church on time. Perhaps not the best idea.

Thankfully, I made it through the service without fainting, although I did have to take some pretty deep breaths when we "stood and sang" right after the sermon. I was seeing a lot of black there for a while, but got it to go away!

Then we went to Fazoli's for lunch. Yummy. What could go wrong there? We got water for the kids, but unfortunately there were no lids for the water cups. You see where this is going.

Two spills later I was regaining my composure when I tried to take the cap off of Jonas's bottle. Apparently the lid wasn't screwed down all the way, so the entire top came off and the botttle contents landed in my lap. I could hear Jonas screaming back at the table as I headed to the bathroom to fix another bottle and try to dry off my pants. John gave him a breadstick and all was well.

We finished up lunch and started heading home.

The bluebonnets in Tyler are just beautiful right now. Every spring since we moved here I have wanted to get a picture of the kids in the bluebonnets, but always forget or it's inconvenient for whatever reason, and then they're gone before I know it.

However, today, I planned ahead! I got my camera AND extra batteries so that after lunch we could swing by a pretty patch and take some pics.

When I got Jonas out of the van, I could smell the diaper. I couldn't see anything, so I just figured it could wait until we got home.

I told Johnathan to "come sit right here," as I pointed to the perfect spot. He did and then yelled out, "OUCH!" He sat down right on some really sharp sticker burs. We pulled them out of his pants and moved over slightly. No sitckers there, thankfully. Kalleigh sat down beside him and then I put Jonas in front. John and I make all sorts of goofy faces to get their attention. When I thought the time was right, I pushed the button and heard a weird "beep." "NO CARD," my screen said. Amazing.

We got back in the van and went home. By the time we got there, Jonas's diaper had leaked out and gotten all over his onesie. Of course it had.

It is now 1:40 pm. I think all of the children are asleep. John and I are going to play Batman on the Wii and chill out for a while before we head back into town for Life Group.

Wish us luck. There are still 6 more hours before we put the children back to bed and try to tell ourselves that it's okay to have three kids under 5.

The Nastiness In Our Yard

It was just a little hole like you would step in and roll your ankle when we bought the house. It kept growing, but we didn't think much of it because it never filled with water. I just thought it was a weird sink-hole. Every once in a while I'd put the leftover dirt in it that I had after filling the flower beds, but that's about it.

Recently it began filling up with water. I thought it was from having our sprinklers on when we got all that rain a while back. It had always drained in the past. But this time it didn't drain.

And it quit raining.

And there was still water in it.

And we turned the sprinklers off.

And there was still water(?) in it.

And then the smell ...

So we called Mr. Rooter himself. The guy who came had done the plumbing on the houses in our neighborhood from the slab up, but not underground. He said he had been back several times since to fix underground issues. Nice.

He pumped the, uh ... "water" ... out and then dug out the rest of the sludge. Wow. Poor man. Poor, poor man.

The hole ended up being about 3 feet in diameter and about 2 1/2 feet deep.

He found the sprinkler line, which ran above the sewer line.

Then he found the sewer pipe. Well, he found part of it. After digging another 6 inches down, he found the other part that was supposed to be stuck to the first part.

See? Skinny sprinkler pipe on top. Big sewer line underneath. You can't even see the lower pipe that should be to the left of the upper sewer pipe. The hole had filled back up that much when I took the picture a few minutes after digging it up.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

He then tells us that he'll have to come back with a tractor and dig back to our driveway, and hopefully no further, to try to pull up the lower pipe to the level of the higher one and try to reconnect it.

But he'd have to call his boss so he could come take a look at it and give us an estimate.

So the boss comes and says that it's too close to the other lines to use a tractor, so they're going to have to dig it back by hand.

Not poor, poor man anymore! Rich, rich man!

The earliest they can come out to fix it is Wednesday or Thursday.

I have a lot to be thankful for (as I grip the sides of my chair and grit my teeth and force a smile):

• A good, reliable plumber was at our house three hours after we called them.
• They treated us with respect; not like stupid people to take advantage of.
• They didn't charge us a service charge for today.
• I could talk to my dad, who just happens to be a master plumber in Dallas, about the whole thing and he reassured me that they were doing the right thing.
• We can still use our water. Hey, it's been like this for 3 years. What's another few days going to do?
• They won't have to dig up our driveway. Good. I like to park in our garage.
• We recently looked at our budget, went to the envelope system and had a cushion the size of one house payment. It going to cost about one house payment. We won't have to go into more debt to pay for the fix. And we'll work hard to get our cushion back.
• We're having steak for supper that I got for $2.47/lb today.

It's all going to be just fine. I didn't even cry. On the outside.

Phunny Phrases of Kalleigh

Yesterday at the zoo we saw the "birds that pray." You know, the ones that eat meat.

When Kalleigh eats a sucker, her hands get "skicky."

And right now, she's in the backyard pulling up the "weebs."

Goofy baby

I haven't given a whole lot of time on my blog for big baby Jonas, so this one is all about him.

He will be 7 months tomorrow. He can sit up on his own until he gets excited, and then he just falls right over. He never did roll over. I guess he just never really felt compelled! But he does some awesome baby push-ups!

No teeth, no crawling (thank goodness!) and therefore no pulling up. Kalleigh started crawling at 6 1/2 months, but Johnathan waited until 9. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll wait until 10 months to crawl. I'm not ready to baby proof again just yet. Kalleigh was walking at 10 months, and that was awful! No, it was wonderful, of course, but I'd be thrilled for Jonas to wait, like Johnathan, until around 14 months!

He's truly a laid-back child and enjoys watching his older two siblings play, as all younger children do. Johnathan is the ultimate funny man and can make Jonas laugh so hard!


It's probably time to introduce the sippy cup. I just forget.

His syllables he repeats are "babababa" and "dadadada" with the occasional sad "mamamama."

He loves the jumpy seat we borrowed from Reagan. (Thanks!) He's outgrown his swing, though it's still in the living room. I should move that. :)

And one of my favorite things is that he sings himself to sleep. I just love that boy!

--Proud Momma

Little Bitty Problem

Kalleigh has lice.

I found it this morning as I was fixing Kalleigh's hair.


So we treat everyone:


They were pretty patient with the whole process.

And now we're all treated.

Ew.

Monkey Coffee

First, thanks so much to all of our friends who supported Clearly Vocal with our marathon day before Valentine's. To read John's full report, click here. For our first year to do our "Love Notes," I thought it went pretty well!

But on to the monkey coffee ...

When Kalleigh stumbled into the kitchen this morning and saw me drinking my coffee, she said, rubbing her eyes, "Can I puh-lease haf some monkey coffee?" Of course I knew exactly what she meant. We have a little mug that I think belonged to John as a child that has a monkey on it. She likes to drink coffee (1/4 coffee, 3/4 milk, one pkg sweetener) out of the monkey mug, and it has come to be known in our house as monkey coffee.

When Johnathan saw Kalleigh with her monkey coffee, he then asked for some monkey coffee, as well. He just thinks that's what we call the "special blend" that they drink. He didn't think twice about the fact that he wasn't even drinking out of the monkey mug!

Here's my little girl with her "monkey coffee."

Has it been that long?

It's already Thursday? My last post was a week and a half ago? Wow. We'll we're certainly having fun!

It's a mad dash to Valentine's Day with Clearly Vocal and Group Therapy. So far Group Therapy is ahead with a couple of gigs under our belts, but Clearly Vocal will win out after tomorrow. We have nearly 20 singing Valentines lined up with some others in the works. We decided to do them tomorrow when most people are still at work. We're singing for doctors, lawyers, policemen, teachers, widows and everyone in between! We show up with a card and a rose and sing a fabulous 5-part love song. We have ten to choose from, if they want to choose, or we'll just pick one. THIS is so fun.

So tonight Group Therapy sings at a retirement center and then we run over to the church building to sing for our "Pure Gold" group from the area churches. Tomorrow we start our singing Valentines at 8:30 in Hideaway (about a 40 min drive)!

Meanwhile, my poor children are being shuffled from one babysitter to the next! Thankfully, they think this is the best week ever, too, getting to play with so many friends. And we are SO grateful to our friends who are like family, the Deans, the Rambins and the Keeles! I do not know what we would do without our church family.

Meanwhile, Stefanie (CV soprano) and I are planning the 2009 Glenwood Ladies Retreat that is coming up the last weekend of February. We only have 15 available spots left, so if you're on the fence about whether to come or not, sign up! 'Cause when the spots are filled, they're filled! Katie Burnett, our Women's Minister who is going to be our featured speaker, has a passion for the women of the Bible, so Stef and I went with a "diamonds" theme. The title is "Diamonds In the Rough: Women of the Bible." It's a full weekend at the Lakeview Baptist Assembly and Conference Center in Lone Star, TX. But what I'm most excited about is my mom coming down to share her story with the ladies! She truly is a diamond in my life and with do such a good job!

Meanwhile, someone asked me to make a wooden personalized name wall hanging. Of course, I said 'yes,' but it's going to have to wait until next week. Then she told me that she wanted a different font for the letters, so I'll need to run around town to see if I can find something close to what she wants, which is just a little tricky with three children, but doable.

Praise God for having the opportunity to do so many things I love! What a ride!

Interesting Little Tag

Except I don't think I'll tag anyone. It's a great way to kill 30 minutes if you need a distraction, so feel free to cut and paste!

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes. My middle name is Joyce after my great-grandmother, Joyce DuVall Kell.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Two nights ago.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? For the most part.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Chicken

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Three. Boy-girl-boy

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I'd hope so, but no guarantees. I'd probably drive myself nuts.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? I think technically sarcasm is intended to hurt, but I do like to be facetious.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? What's the reward? Just the jump? No. Cash? Well, let's talk.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cinnamon Toast Crunch

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Dark Chocolate Almond

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their eyes and smile

15. RED OR PINK? Red, deep and rich

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My temper

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Papaw Curtis

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Plaid Harding flannel pants, no shoes

19. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The refrigerator humming and a clock ticking.

20. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red

21. FAVORITE SMELLS? Fresh chocolate chip cookies, honeysuckles, fresh linens, newborns

22. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Stefanie

23. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Gymnastics, Bull riding

24. HAIR COLOR? Various shades of brown

25. EYE COLOR? Blue

26. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Not anymore. Hooray for Lasik!

27. FAVORITE FOODS? Marinated grilled chicken, Kung Pao Chicken from P.F. Chang's, pound cake with strawberries

28. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Can't I have both?

29. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? John talked me into watching the most recent X-Files last night. Talk about lame! Any hour-long CSI is better than that movie that they tried to stretch into almost two hours. Wow. So lame.

30. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? black

31. SUMMER OR WINTER? summer

32. FAVORITE DESSERT? pound cake with strawberries

33. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Romans and Galatians: The Spirit of Jesus, a meditative study by Gary Holloway

34. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No mouse pad

35. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? The Superbowl (great!) and X-Files (lame-o)

36. FAVORITE SOUND(S): laughing babies, the ocean, thunder, cows mooing, birds chirping, and any sound The Real Group makes!

37. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Who?

38. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? New Zealand

39. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? procrastinating, singing & scrapping

40. WHAT SHOULD YOU BE DOING? laundry, cleaning up kitchen, picking up toys, etc!

Completely Random Happenings

Recently I've had my sad little camera handy for whatever happens. Most of our happenings happen in the kitchen and living room areas. Just seems to be where we spend most of our time. So, here are the random happenings since Wednesday.

Random Happening #1: Johnathan let me take a decent picture of him.
Random Happening #2: Kalleigh found her sunglasses
Random Happening #3: Third Child Solutions
Random Happening #4: Cooking Lessons

Random Happening #5: Kalleigh stops whatever she is doing to watch "The Real Group."

Random Happening #5: More third child solutions.



Random Happening #6: John surprised me with tulips!
Random Happening #7: The Draining Duo

Random Happening #8: My Favorite "Last Second Casserole," with recipe.
Mexican Casserole -- Laurie Bishop

Brown 1lb ground beef with 1 chopped onion (or a bunch of your favorite "minced onions," salt & pepper. Drain. Put some Doritos i bottom of square or oblong baking dish. Pour meat mixture over chips. On top, add 1 can of your favorite beans, 1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup, 1 can rotel and top with and top with layer of grated cheddar. Heat in microwave (HI) for 15 minutes. DONE!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

It's so quiet!

I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription (for my ridiculous sinusitis!) and noticed how amazingly quiet it was in the store. At first I couldn't put my finger on the strange lack of noise, but as I got my cart, wary as I was because I ALWAYS get a bad one, I noticed that it was brand new! No large dents in the wheels, no gum or string wrapped around them, and remarkably clean! I looked around and realized that ALL of the carts were new. The silence was the lack of clanging carts or squeaky wheels! Who knew what a difference that would make? I actually had a pleasant shopping experience there, probably mostly because I kept marvelling at the quietness. Way to go, Wal-Mart!

Just a spoonful of cinnamon and sugar ...

... helps the rice cereal go down!

In a most delightful way!

Gwinks, chepchup and pinch fries ...

...are just some of Kalleigh's words these days. She also like to dress up in Johnathan's "Eena Jones" costume as well as dressing up in her own "booful dwesses" with boots. She daily tells me things like, "I yike a arm, Mommy," or "I yike a hair, Mommy." Her prayers begin, "Ghee God, Mommy, Daddy, Joffin, Kowleigh, Baby Jonas," in the middle is, "Help a to obey; sorry to 'sobey," and end with, "In Jesus' name a pway, A-MEN!" At McDonald's the other day, I asked, "Do you want chicken or a hamburger?" "Yeah!" "No, there is chicken and there is a hamburger. What's your favorite?" "My hat!" At supper, Johnathan said, "I'm full!" Kalleigh held up two fingers and said, "I'm two!" And just now I heard her say, "Sorry I cake a toy away, Jonas!"

However, the quote of the day goes to Johnathan. The scene is set in the living room. Johnathan has just given Kalleigh a Wii remote beause she told him she wants to play "Shar Vars" with him. He then says, "Kalleigh, this time when I say, 'Hit the bad guys,' don't just hit the TV with the remote!"

Life is good. :)

Tiffany Rose Photograpy

Project

You know when you think you could do or make something, but you just have to try to prove it to yourself? Just to see if you could be proud of what you did?

You know when you have several other pressing things that need to be done so you blow it off on something you'd rather be doing?

These two "you know's" came together today, and this was the outcome:


I could add a bow, and probably should, but when I get to a stopping point, it's really hard for me to start up again. I think it's going to be just fine. And now I have a winter wreath that I didn't have before!

I found a couple more spots!

Poor puppies!

Why I can no longer feed the baby

Because whenever I do ...

Stuff like this,

And this,

And this happen.

This time it's lavender paint ...

From the inside of a homemade ornament that did the trick.

Did you even have to ask who did it?