Milk + Minivan = Disaster

I know this.

Why can't I remember it?

It probably has something to do with the fact that sometimes it's the only drink a fast food place has that my children will drink.

I think I'm cured though.

A couple of days ago we stopped to pick up drinks and got chocolate milk for Mr. A - he was napping though and so we set it aside for when he woke up.

He napped until we got home and you guessed it...we forgot about the bottle of milk and left it in the car.

Fast forward two days...add to that searing Texas temps and what do you get? A funny smell in the van. Hmm, what could it be? After looking around, it hits me. The milk! I locate the bottle and see that due to the amazing heat and the ability of plastic to expand in said heat, the milk has leaked out through the still sealed cap and onto the carpet of the van. UGH!! The bottle is now half empty. Sigh. What a disgusting smell - you know what I'm talking about...if you don't - be thankful.

I know better. Really, I do. Really.

What was it we said when we got the van some years ago? No eating in the car. HA HA HA HA. No drinking anything except water. HA HA HA HA HA. Sigh.

Honey - maybe we need a steam cleaner with attachments for cleaning car carpets? (hint hint)

Just a bit of humor

I found this little comic hysterical today when I got my weekly pregnancy update from some website I signed up on.



At 4 mos. if you're still not showing, well, it must be your first baby. That, or you're one of those strange people that lose weight during the first trimester. Ugh. That's all I have to say on this subject.

Jury Duty Blues

Well, I could be singing them, but I qualified for an exception a few months ago when I received my summons. CKB, on the other hand, did not. Today he headed off to do his duty. I hope that he won't be chosen, selfishly, mind you, because today is my birthday and I'd like to spend the day with him. However, if he is chosen, it will be the second time for him to serve.

Last night Miss E was full of questions... "What is a trial?" started it all :) I answered her questions to the best of my ability and she seemed satisfied. She also hopes Daddy won't be chosen.

So, now we wait to see if CKB calls to say he was chosen or was not chosen and what our day will turn into.

My morning started off nicely with CKB not having to get up at the crack of dawn for a change. He went into the boys' room when he heard Mr. A stirring in his crib and soon thereafter I heard "Happy Birthday Mama" over the monitor instead of the usual "MAAAAA-MAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A nice change to be sure :)

Afterward I was greeted with a chorus of little voices telling me "Happy Birthday" and various homemade gifts they'd come up with on their own :)

Mr. E sidled up next to me and said "Aren't you supposed to have cake on a birthday?" :) So, I guess I will be making a cake today so he isn't too disappointed!

Well, for now I will run - there's always something that needs to be done around here!


** Update - CKB called around 11:30 a.m. and they were being dismissed for lunch. So far they had just been sitting around the whole time - ugh! He had to report back at 1 p.m. and the questioning was supposed to start. According to the judge it would last about 2 hours, minimum. Also, according to the judge, if he's chosen, the trial is expected to last a few days at the very least. Fun. On a more interesting note, the person sitting next to him had a huge book with him written by a prominent atheist. I told CKB he should be sure to bring his Bible in with him at 1 - that might liven things up a bit!

Ah well, maybe he'll be sent home in time for us to all go out to dinner together at least - or maybe for cake....I haven't made one yet....

*** Update #2 - CKB called around 3:30 p.m. and said he was NOT selected for the jury - yay. Too bad they couldn't have gotten it done earlier, but hey, at least he won't miss our Association this weekend because of jury duty potentially going through Friday.

That said, he's on his way home and we are going to all go out for dinner together - gotta get some cake for my little boy, right? :)

A doughnut day or was it a donut day....hmm

A few Saturdays ago we headed out for a Krispy Kreme breakfast, but we didn't get the type of doughnut we wanted right away.

Traveling down the highway, CKB asked if I'd heard a strange noise and I replied no. A moment or two later, the van started shimmying strangely and I told CKB I thought there was something wrong w/the tires so we pulled off on the side of the highway. Sure enough, the front left tire was flat. We didn't have enough safe space for CKB to change the tire, so we had to ride on the flat slowly for a few hundred feet to get to an area where the shoulder was a lot wider and we could pull off pretty far to the right. It still wasn't far enough for my comfort though as semis kept whizzing by in the right hand land seemingly oblivious to my husband kneeling by the car working on the tire. I watched the side mirror the whole time and prayed he would be kept safe.



While we waited, the children asked many questions about what was going on. My favorite was from Mr. E when he asked "Why does Daddy always do the tire stuff?" :)

I said "Because he's the Daddy" and then explained further that Daddy wouldn't let me get out there even if I wasn't expecting our newest blessing and if we had been out without Daddy when this happened, he would not have wanted me out there on the side of the highway changing a tire regardless of the fact that I know what to do and have done it before in my "car training days" with my own Dad.

He seemed to accept that answer and went back to whatever made up game he and Miss A were playing beforehand on the drive. After a warning from me for them to all sit very still and not wiggle the van around while Daddy had it up on the jack, they stayed pretty quiet for the duration of the tire change.

So, CKB had to handle a big rubber donut first and then we were on our way - doughnuts weren't our first priority any more, but we were all hungry and glad when we realized we were actually right at the exit for Krispy Kreme - very convenient! So we went ahead and pulled in and enjoyed our doughnut breakfast - sweet and very unrubbery.



After breakfast, we headed on back toward the house looking for a tire place along the way. We stopped off at Sam's, but they were short handed and it was going to be hours before they would get to us, so we continued our search. We found a tire shop a little farther down the road w/a 45 mn. wait and decided to go ahead and get the tires there since we probably wouldn't find any shorter wait on a Saturday afternoon. True to their word, the car was ready in about an hour and we headed on our way - new tires and a happy crew with tummies full of doughnuts and chocolate milk.

Mother's Day Picture (Craft) Tutorial

Some of y'all have asked about the process involved in making the Mother's Day picture collage that I posted about awhile back and finally, I have found a few moments to share how to do one for yourself!



First of all, you need your picture(s).

For my pictures, I set my camera to an aperture of 1.8 and my focus was on the child's hand. Have your child hold out their hand toward you as if they are holding a bunch of flowers to hand to you - then put your camera's focus point on the outstretched hand. Done correctly, the child will "blur" and create a 3D effect in the picture. If the child is too blurry, adjust your aperture until you are satisfied with your result.

After you have your picture, the rest is pretty easy. For mine, I had 4 children to place in a frame and decided to create a collage w/4 "openings" or "windows" and therefore needed a fairly good size overall to make sure I could see each of the children well enough - my frame is 8x20. Mpix does not print that size however so I had a 10x20 printed after I enlarged my picture's canvas size in photoshop and then trimmed the excess border when I received the print (thanks to my neice Angela for the suggestion of the 10x20 and trimming the excess - I was trying to make a lot more work for myself and she had the answer I needed).

Assemble your supplies - for a single child, a 5x7 or 8x10 would work great. (you will probably not need all of these items unless you are in a similar situation as mine!) (not pictured: wire cutters to cut off appropriate amount of artificial flowers)



Here's how I did mine:

Trim off excess border of print.



Cut slit in the picture on top of the child's fist and below as well if you want the stem to come through underneath as well.



Insert flowers and reassemble frame WITHOUT the glass.



Discard glass....I currently have 3 8x20 pieces in a box - any ideas on what to do w/them?

Hang on wall and enjoy your creation!

Is there anything as cute as baby naptime hair?

You be the judge! This is Mr. A after his nap today - which was 3 hours long! Can we say growth spurt perhaps?

Now, how about that post-naptime hair!?

PBS - "The Bible's Buried Secrets"

Well, for a long time now I've known that you can't just sit your children or yourself in front of PBS and expect everything to be just wonderful (contrary to their commercials where parents talk about how all the shows are so great and they can put their children in front of PBS and let them watch w/o worrying about the content, yada yada yada).

Yesterday I heard about this new show coming out on PBS - seems to be one of those weeks for me to hear too much news and none of it good. Maybe this is why I stopped watching the news years ago. Well, it's one reason - the other is that little Miss E learned to read before she turned 3 and I couldn't even watch the news w/the sound off because she could read all the captions!

I digress.

Here's the latest from the American Family Association website:

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened. "The Bible's Buried Secrets" says the Bible is not true. It is scheduled to air on November 18.

Producer Paula Apsell said: "...It's (The Bible's Buried Secrets) designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. …it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible in a modern way a chance. If we insist on reading the Bible literally, in 25 years, nobody will read it any longer."

Among highlights of "The Bible's Buried Secrets":

• The Old Testament was written in the sixth century BC and hundreds of authors contributed.
• Abraham, Sarah and their offspring didn't exist.
• There is no archaeological evidence of the Exodus.
• Monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
• The Israelites were actually Canaanites.
• The Israelites believed that God had a wife.

I have often said that PBS should not receive tax dollars. "The Bible's Buried Secrets" is simply one more reason Congress should stop supporting PBS with our tax dollars. Congress gives PBS hundreds of millions of tax dollars to help support the network.

For more information, go here.



I agree!

If you visit McDonald's, you might want to think again...

If it isn't one thing, it's another it seems.

At LEAST once a month, we have been stopping at McDonald's before our 3.5 hr. drive to church on 2nd Sundays because, well, it's just easier than getting up at 5 a.m. to make sure we do breakfast at home. Getting up at 6 a.m. and out the door by 7 a.m. with 6 people is enough to worry with, don't you think? (especially since 4 of those folks require at least some assistance to get ready!).

So, I was horrified to read some news regarding our breakfast standby lately.

McDonald's donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in exchange for membership in the NGLCC and a seat on the group's board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress on a wide range of issues, including the promotion of same-sex marriage.

To read the full story, go here. And, I encourage you to do so. McDonald's views opposition of what they've done as "hate" and

Many have responded and are supporting the boycott on McDonald's - go here for more on this.



Just thought you'd want to know!

Scrapbooking and other "hobbies"

Hmm, what is a hobby anyway? Well, here we go:

hobby
A	noun
	1	avocation, by-line, hobby, sideline, spare-time activity
				an auxiliary activity

By all rights, I have no business having any hobbies because I am seriously lacking in the "spare-time" that is apparently a requirement to having one!

Strangely enough I have a lot of things that I like to do when I have a few moments of spare-time, which is what presents a problem! I don't just have one hobby. So, when I have a few moments, it's always a big decision as to which hobby I'm going to work on at that time.

Well, a few years ago I decided I wanted to have a scrapbook for each of the children. At the time, we only had 3. This still seemed a daunting task, as our eldest was already 4 at the time. I decided, nevertheless, to proceed. I waited for the Sunday paper and headed off to Michael's with my ad (amazingly, scrapbooks were on sale that week - go figure!) and picked up 3 albums.

Now what.

I decided that instead of trying to go back in time and start with each of their baby pics, etc. that I would just start w/the present and since each of the children had just had their birthdays, that seemed a logical place to start. I spent a few days (when I had a spare moment, ha ha) picking out pictures that I wanted to use for each of the children's books, uploaded them to my favorite picture place and put in my order. Then, I waited.

While I was waiting, I picked up a package of scrapbook papers at Wal-mart or somewhere, maybe I got them at Michael's the day I got the books...I don't remember. I also looked around for some suitable stickers to match their birthday themes and resumed waiting for the pictures to arrive in the mail.

A few days later they arrived and looked fine. Now, for some of that "spare time" to come along again. On a quiet Sunday afternoon while the children all took a nap after services, I commenced working on their books. Somehow, I got all 3 done. Miss A's was my favorite when it was all said and done. Why, you ask? Well, for some reason I'd taken the time w/her pics to add borders on all of them that had a complimentary color to a part of the picture and it just gave her pages a much more "polished" look.

So...what did I do today? I've been thinking about those scrapbooks off and on lately. Thinking about the fact that not only have I not touched them since that quiet Sunday afternoon a few years back, but I've never even gotten a book for our 4th little one, Mr. A. Ack! And now, baby #5 is on his/her way and I'll need yet another book. So, my eyes are open for another sale at Michael's and/or their 40% off coupons so I can procure 2 more books. And, today, I've been spending part of "quiet time/nap time" preparing pics to be ordered. I'd like to at the very least catch up on birthdays from the ones I did a few years ago until this year.

Today, so far, I have selected and added borders to pics from Miss E's 4th birthday. Mr. E came in a few mn. ago to see what I was up to and proclaimed that they all looked funny - he was a wee little man then and chuckled when I showed him a pic of himself w/cake all over his chubby little cheeks. Time has flown the past 7 years since we had our first and I'm sure will continue to do so as the years roll on.

Here's a shot of little Miss E at 4 years old with her first pair of glasses -


The scrapbooks are pretty simple, background paper at times and a few stickers here and there w/some journaling about the pics that have been included, but that's about it. I honestly don't have the time to figure out all the other do-dads that are available and I really don't think we need all of that in the long run. Sure, it looks nice, but sometimes it just seems a bit too much - for now, we'll just keep it simple around here.

Now, to just get Miss E's 5th, 6th and 7th birthdays...and Miss A's and Mr. E's and Mr. A's and ....well, this might take me awhile!

A quieter house...well, somewhat

Well, Mom and Dad headed home this past Friday. We sure miss them being here.

While they were here, one of the highlights of their visit was the opportunity to have a "girl's day" which included Mom and I and the girls heading off to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge, and then going out to a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel.

Mom and I went shopping one day as well and then to a quiet lunch, just the two of us (thanks Dad for watching everyone while we headed out for a bit!). And, I'm glad to say that a few days before they left, I was able to go and have a nice quiet lunch with Dad also (thanks Mom!) and treat him and everyone else to some yummy fried pies for dessert that night!

Mom spoiled me thoroughly by doing the dishes each night while she was here - sigh - CKB did them last night after I collapsed on the couch - tired from the day - what a sweet guy!

The children are seriously missing their Grandma and Grandpa and little Mr. A keeps thinking he spots Grandpa every time he sees a gray headed fellow w/a beard when we're out somewhere. Poor guy - Grandpa is his buddy!

So, it's a bit quieter around here - if it can be with 4 little ones, that is! No more squabbles about who gets to sit next to Grandma and Grandpa. No more "Can Grandma and Grandpa put us to bed tonight?!?" and so forth. Sigh.

Will we make it 'til October when we expect to see them again at their home? I hope so. Miss A has her heart set on going to spend a week w/them....I'm not sure that CKB and I are quite ready for that - we'll see. I'm not sure Miss A is ready either - she'd probably do fine for a day or two, and then she'd probably start missing her sister and brothers...might not even take a few days...the first night sleeping in a room by herself might be all it takes...we'll see.

All in all, we had a wonderful visit that encompassed about 2 weeks and look forward to our next visit.

And, I've probably said it before, but if not, those of y'all who are blessed with your parents (the grandparents) living close to you - don't take it for granted for even a second. You are immensely blessed! Let them know how much you appreciate them and never take them for granted!

Ok.

'til next time!

A new addition

No, we're not talking about "new math" here.

We would like to share some wonderful news! The Lord has abundantly blessed us with 4 beautiful children and has now blessed us with a new baby! Lord willing, we'll welcome this new little blessing into the world in January, or thereabouts. Everyone around here is ecstatic and filled with many questions :) Things get interesting when the children are older! I'm sure some of you can relate!

Mr. E is constantly wanting to kiss the baby. Miss E said she'll offer up name suggestions when we know if the baby is a boy or a girl. Very practical of her ;) Miss A can't wait to hold the baby. Mr. Baby, I mean, Mr. A - well, he's in a for a big surprise :) , but I'm sure he'll handle it well when the time comes. Scary to think of him being out of the crib though....yikes....but then, he will be almost 3 at that point.....and not so much a baby any more.

There will be a lot of new things to get used to...for one thing it'll be a new hospital for us. All of the older children were born in the same hospital before we moved a few years ago. Lord willing, we'll be blessed with care as wonderful as we received previously. Around here, well, we may have to look into trundle beds, bunk beds and the like in the future :) But, that is a little bit down the road!

Alright, I won't make you wait any longer....here is our newest little one...


Isn't he/she cute? :) It's a wonder the image isn't a complete blur - the ultrasound tech said the baby was bopping around constantly! A sign of things to come....? hmmmmm.

Belated 4th

Well, when you have company, you don't always have time to do everything - like blog - so this is a belated Happy 4th!

Mom and Dad are visiting again - yay - they came in town for Mom's 45th high school reunion last Saturday night (picture later) and this coming Saturday Mom's getting together with some gals she grew up with and went to church with years ago. Thankfully they were able to schedule that get together to be on a Saturday close to the reunion and only make one trip - whew!

Back to the 4th!

It was a nice day to start off - HOT, as usual, but then what do you expect on the 4th in Texas!?!

CKB set out to grill and things were going well, then the dark clouds rolled in, and yep, the bottom fell out! It POURED! Ever grilled w/an umbrella before? :) Too bad I didn't get a picture of that! Anyway, Dad held the umbrella whilst the grill was unloaded and the food was kept from getting ruined. Good thing because it would've been a big waste! The steaks were wonderful, grilled veggie packets turned out yummmmmmy and the ears of corn were fantastic as well - great job CKB!

We were all stuffed, needless to say!

The rain stopped, thankfully, and we were able to go out and relax a bit in the backyard to the tune of the neighbors and their fireworks.

Dad relaxing for a moment...



Now, we do not live in the country, so technically this should not have been going on, but we didn't mind it too much....at first. We could see some of the ones the neighbors were shooting off that went up pretty high and it was just enough for us.

One from the neighbors...


The fireworks were in front of us and behind us so we were able to see quite a few and the children thought it was great. Mr. A really enjoyed it! This went on for awhile as we played ball, catch, etc. until it got too dark. Just before dark, we enjoyed (well, everyone but me because I don't like it) some watermelon. They all said it was good. I took their word for it.

Mr. A looking up to his big brother for watermelon eating tips....

Mr. E: Just take a BIG bite and let the juice drip all over your
shirt, Mr. A - it'll wash....

Mr. A: O-TAY!

Mr. A: Like this?


They all like watermelon...I just don't get it....


Miss A enjoying her hunk of watermelon...apparently she was listening in on that juice dripping down your chin advice....


The fireworks continued awhile longer and when it was dark enough we pulled ours out....no, nothing big, we try to follow the rules around here :) - we had purchased some sparklers - yes, pretty tame, but w/small children, even a sparkler can be dangerous when they aren't careful! Miss E, Miss A and Mr. E had a good time w/them - poor Mr. A couldn't quite understand why he couldn't have one, but he wasn't too upset - he got to watch!

Here are a few outtakes - pardon the horrid picture quality - I haven't quite figured out nighttime fireworks photography, as you will see...

CKB....


Miss E



Miss A


Mr. E


and another...


We even talked Mom into 1 sparkler of her own - it wasn't easy though!



It was getting late when we stopped with the sparklers and we headed in to get everyone ready for bed. Remember when I said we didn't mind the fireworks...at first? Well, at 10:30 p.m. when I was still hearing them going off right outside the house I was tired of them - thankfully it stopped shortly thereafter. The only other issue w/the neighbors' fireworks happened shortly before we decided it was time to come in - bottle rockets started flying over and close to the house - not fun - instead of risking someone getting hit by one of these things as it whizzed by, we headed in for the night.

Hope you had a happy and safe 4th as well!
As promised, here's a picture of Mom and Dad before they left for Mom's reunion:


Dad said she was the Belle of the Ball :)

A Public Service Announcement (of sorts)

Some of you may have signed up with the little blogarithm email alert on the blog awhile back - this handy tool allowed you to be able to sit back and relax and only visit the blog when there was something new to read, ie. you received an email letting you know when there was a new post.

Well, you may have noticed that those emails stopped awhile back....or you didn't and you've been avoiding us here at the Old House Spill (boo hoo hoo!).

Well, we'll assume the first reason and go on!

As you may or may not have noticed, RSSFWD has taken over blogarithm. Thus far my emails from their service have been spotty and I'm not real impressed. But, that's just me. It may be working just fine for you.

But, if you want another option, I have added a new email alert signup box to the blog that is run by Feedburner. This post will be my test (first post since I added it) and hopefully I'll get a handy dandy email updating me that the blog has changed.

So, if you want, sign up w/the new email alert box and hopefully it'll start sending you updates immediately. If you want to see about the RSSFWD, click the link above. If you want, sign up w/one of the RSS feed readers that you can choose from on the blog where the little Subscribe button is. Your choice! Or, you can just check the blog every day because you love us so much!

This ends our public service announcement. Go back to your lives people!

....and continues

Well, after our fun day at the stockyards, we wanted something low key and air conditioned for the following day.

CKB had read a review of the new movie Wall-e and we decided to give it a go. We made it there just in the nick of time (opening day, mind you - eek) and sat way down CLOSE to the screen. I have no interest in ever sitting that close again, but it was impossible to find 6 seats together any farther up, so we went with it.

After a few previews, the movie began and Mr. A sat pretty still for awhile - then decided it would be more fun to walk back and forth between CKB and I (we were sitting on either end of the children). I got him to sit still for a little while longer after giving him a juice box :) Hooray!
Toward the end of the movie, one of the children HAD to go to the bathroom - and therefore, we (the two of us) missed the end of the movie. Ah well. We were told what happened and I'm sure we'll rent it when it comes out on DVD so we can see the ending for ourselves.

The movie was pretty good and everyone seemed to enjoy it to some degree. It certainly had some interesting messages.


The following day (Saturday) we decided to take a trip....to Paris! Yes, we've been there before, but we desired to go back. Paris, TX, that is :) Mt. Paran Primitive Baptist church was holding a 5th Sunday meeting and so we headed over to attend morning and afternoon services. We had a good day there and are glad to have been able to attend. Some of the ministers who were called on to preach were Elder Vernon Johnson, Elder Chris Blevins, Elder Thomas MacDonald, Elder Joe Phillips and Bro. Mike Welch.

One thing mentioned that seemed to jump out at me was the reminder by one of the brethren of the need for us to pray for labourers to be sent to the vineyard. Something I hadn't thought about of late - and shame on me - Lord willing, I will not forget again.

Matt.9

1. [37] Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
2. [38] Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Dinner at one of our favorite spots, Johnny Carino's followed on our way home that evening and then it was home to rest a bit.


That just about wraps up our "vacation" doings thus far.....it's Sunday night and we're all pretty tired from the day (we were in Madisonville today).

Goodnight!

Vacation continues....

Day 2 of vacation at home was just that...we stayed home most of the day. CKB played video games w/the children and I got a few rounds of laundry taken care of...sadly a maid doesn't come w/vacation at home!

We had a fun, quiet day!


Day 3 we headed over to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the first time. After a quick stop in the visitor center (and, of course, a quick picture!)....we headed back outside to wait for the morning cattle drive.



We arrived in time for the cattle run (walk) and then spent some time walking through the shops.


After a stroll through to see what shops there were to explore in later, we headed over to the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze - a maze where you go through looking for each letter (M - a - z - e) and when you find each one there's a punch to punch your "passport" with that letter's punch. CKB took the girls and I took the boys.



22 minutes later (drumroll please.............................................................................) The boys and I made it out!

FIVE minutes later, CKB and the girls finished up :)

The children all led the way and did great - I believe this was their favorite part of the day!

Mr. E locked up Mr. A in the jail, but let him out shortly thereafter...




It was H - O - T after running the maze so we headed across the street to a BBQ place called Riscky's (I'm pretty sure that's how it was spelled...) and cooled off while we had a wonderful lunch. I haven't had barbeque that good in a long time - and don't get me started on how fabulous the fried okra was - YUMMMMMMMMMMM!

Everyone cooled down and the shopping began. The shopping area is covered, which is wonderful, because it was hot out there. Being under the covered area (and the breeze!) kept us from getting too overheated.

We made a new friend....have you met her? Her name is Calamity Jane!



After a little while looking around, we headed over to a couple of the museums and saw some interesting items from days gone by.

Then it was time for the piez de resistance - we took the Trinity River Run! What's that, you ask? It's a 1 hour run via the Grapevine Vintage Railroad that departs the Stockyards and takes you on a 1 hour ride. Mr. E was thrilled, as were the girls. Mr. A seemed to enjoy it as well.



When we returned, we stopped for some Blue Bell and enjoyed a visit from one of the locals ;)



After everyone finished their ice cream, we visited the Cowboy Hall of Fame and then headed on back toward home after a quick stop at Sonic for some COLD slushes to cool everyone down on the ride home.



All in all, a fabulous day which we all enjoyed and hope to repeat sometime in the future!

Vacationing at Home

Well, we are officially on vacation - hooray! Even though CKB works from home, we don't get to see him all day so it'll be nice to have him around all the time for awhile!

Instead of a long trip in the car, gallons and gallons of ridiculously expensive gas, eating out 3x a day and a bunch of tired and grumpy children, we decided to vacation around home. Great minds think alike it seems - my friend over at The Zoo is doing the same w/her family right now! (wish we lived closer!!!).

Anyway! Yesterday afternoon after CKB finished up some work we started our vacation with dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse and thrill of thrill, we sat in the trolley car (yes, at 2 tables across the aisle from one another). Dinner was nice and everyone enjoyed the unique atmosphere. I was going to get a picture, but got self-conscious and decided against it. Next time I'll take a pic when we get there (there wasn't hardly anyone there when we showed up right at 5 pm - oh well).

After a nice dinner we headed back toward the homefront, and decided since we were "on vacation" that we'd explore a new shopping area that was recently built and is still being worked on. We drove through it and decided it was nice, but a bit on the "fancy" side of things for us :) We then drove around through the outlet mall that we pass quite often, but never stop at, just to see what stores were there. It was alllll clothing stores and a few shoe stores - maybe a suitcase store and a kitchen store, but NO BOOK STORE! Horrors! So, we kept driving....closer to home we remembered a street we pass every time we "go to town" and that we've always thought looked interesting and decided it was high time we explored down that road - we managed to not miss the turn and are so glad! The road headed out of town some and through some lovely, more "country" neighborhoods with LARGE lots and beautiful homes - and TREES! Sigh. We stumbled upon a public playground and stopped for a quick break - the children enjoyed it, but the playground was built for much bigger children - there was a slide that was at least a story high - yikes!


Here's Mr. A enjoying the swings - "higher Daddy!!!!"

"Look at me!!! MA - MA!!!! Look at me!!!!"




Anyway, we didn't stay too long, but stretching our legs and enjoying the semi-cool summer night was a treat. We got home "after bedtime" (Miss E kept noting the time and how we were out past bedtime :) ) and got everyone in bed.

Sigh.

It was a nice first day of vacation! No schedule. No requirements. Nowhere we HAVE to be. We have some places in mind we'd like to try to go in the next week or so - hoping it all works out, but if it doesn't - there's always another day! We'll probably have a lot of "crazy dinners" and some nice dinners out - we're saving a ton on gas and hotels so we can treat ourselves around town - we may never go out of town for vacation again! :)

Here's the crew before we left the playground (I forgot to change my camera settings and didn't realize it before this pic and the ones of Mr. A on the swing - sigh - so my others were blown out completely - ack!).




Stay tuned for Day 2!

It's all Russell's fault!

Russell Stover, that is! Once a month we drive 3 hours to church and on our way home, inevitably the potty chorus begins when we get to the outskirts of Corsicana - home of the Russell Stover Outlet.

From the backseat(s) of the van: (you know the song - "Maaaa-ma....I need to go pahhhh-ty")

Oh, man, stop here? It's such a burden....sigh, but we do it and as a result we seem to have a lot more chocolate around the house than any person in their right mind should have!

Well, recently we've discovered their vintage replica tins - and now I have a new thing to collect (just what I need - more stuff! Thanks Russell!).

Here's a pic of the most recent additions to the collection - aren't they sweet? My favorite is in the forefront with the pink flowers - and those little ones are just darling! (Now to just figure out what to use them all for! One of the small ones did a great job of transporting jewelry on a recent trip and one of the larger holds my crochet hooks perfectly....now for the others....I'm envisioning a pen/pencil box use for the red/gold Whitman's tin....thoughts on other uses for them?



So, if you happen to pass through Corsicana, take a break and visit the store - you might just run into us sometime!

Store bought produce or Down Home Goodness?

Well, in my book there's no comparison!

I bought some peaches at Wal-mart about a week ago and they still weren't ripe (sitting out on the counter since I bought them) a few days ago, so I put them into a paper bag to help them along. A few days later one of them felt ripe and with great anticipation I took a bite. Sigh. It was tart... soft and "ripe", but tart. I took a few more bites, not wanting to waste it, but it wasn't very good.

This past Saturday we took a quick drive to a roadside produce stand we've spotted before and brought home some peaches and tomatoes - in paper bags - the next day some of the peaches were ready. I tried one last night and it was FANTASTIC - sooooo much better than the ones from the store. Peaches are my favorite and it's hard to justify getting any more from the store....maybe ever :) We also happened upon a sign pointing the way to a Farmer's Market and plan to visit it next weekend for more peaches, at the very least :)

If you have a Farmer's Market or fruit stand nearby, I highly recommend taking the time to stop and pick up a few things - your taste buds will thank you!

One of my favorite memories is of a Saturday morning when I was visiting home before CKB and I were married and Dad had gone to the Farmer's Market and came home with peaches. These were no ordinary peaches. They were perfection - you had to stand over the sink to eat them because the juices just came pouring out with every bite - ah, the quintessential peach - one day I will find some like those again....one day...until then, I'll enjoy these yummy Texas peaches, direct from the farm!



Oh, and those tomatoes - they're on the menu for the weekend and I expect them to be fabulous too!
:)

The skirt - finally!

Well, since I wore my skirt today, it was the perfect opportunity to get a quick picture of it. So, here 'tis - what do y'all think?



Aside from the slippery nature of the fabric, the construction of the skirt was very simple. I decided to go with an elastic waist pattern for the first skirt for myself and it was a very quick project.

(excuse all the wrinkles - I had a wiggly 2 year old in my lap all morning during church services) :)

Father's Day and camera play

Well, Father's Day has come and gone. The children showered their Daddy with some thoughtful gifts and the biggest gift was from all of us - a new grill that Daddy wanted. A few nights ago he cooked dinner for us on it - it works great :)

Here 'tis the new (in the foreground) and the old (in the background). The old grill became a table of sorts during the grilling the other night - it's still useful for small cookouts, but then, with 6 people in the family, we don't do a lot of "small" cooking!


Hope y'all had a great Father's Day as well!

On another note, I've been meaning to figure out the 'manual shooting' mode on my camera for a long time, but the manual for my camera is missing in action - a product of all the moves we've been through since CKB got the camera for me. Today I decided to run a search online and see what I could come up with and ended up finding the manual online in .pdf - hooray - a quick search through the .pdf and I found the information I was lacking on how to adjust the aperture - I never could figure out how to change it after adjusting the shutter speed!

So, a quick test on Miss E (since she happened near me at the time) and here's a before (no flash)





and after (no flash, but w/much better settings - in manual :) ).





I'm so glad to finally have unlocked this door on the camera! Now, for much more playing! Not a problem :) I have so many good subjects around here!

Also, one shot of Mr. A playing outside a few days ago :)

'tis the season

for blueberries!

And thusly, I can't help but think about the superbly wonderful blueberry preserves we bought in Gatlinburg this past January. (Yes, I know, I never blogged about the trip like I said I would....sigh...maybe I will...one of these days?)

Anyway! We're planning to go and pick blueberries tomorrow morning w/some good friends - I'm hoping to pick blackberries as well - yum!

But, if you don't have the "You pick 'em" spots nearby, you'd be thrilled with some of the preserves from Gatlinburg - you can purchase them online (actually you'll need to give them a call, but they have a listing online of all the varieties they sell) from the Pinners - they are really sweet folks and would be happy to help you!

Jams, Jellies, Nuts & More
Smoky Mountain Arts & Crafts Village
170 Glades Rd., Suite 5 & 6
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
(865) 436-8911

Hmmm, wonder if I can talk my sister into popping over there on her vacation next week and procuring a few jars for me......hint hint?

If I didn't say it before - BLUEBERRY is the way to go!!!

At the dinner table.....

....you never know what you might hear....

Tonight CKB was asking the children some questions about sin.

CKB - Can you tell me an example of a sin?
Miss E - Taking something that doesn't belong to you?
CKB - And what is another way of saying that?
Miss E - Stealing?
CKB - Yes.

CKB - Mr. E, can you tell me another sin?
Mr. E - taking someone's goldfish?
CKB - (smiling) What is it called when someone tells you something that isn't true?
Mr. E - mmmmmmm
CKB - (offering a bit of help) Liiiiiiii...? (sounded like Lie, of course)
Mr. E - Lyology?

CKB and I hide our smiles for a moment before responding.

CKB - well, some people do seem to study Lyology, but it's called Lying
Mr. E - oh

Miss E - I think he's thinking about how we've been studying Biology (smirks)

:)

3, then 2, then 3, then 2, then 3 again.....and holding

What on earth does that mean, you ask?

Well, it all began a few months ago. We decided to get some fish for the children. Why? We're insane, naturally. Actually, I suppose this goes back farther than that....about 2 years farther...we went to the pet store to get a fish, maybe 2, and came home w/2 mice instead - ack - that didn't last terribly long - one of them bit CKB during a cage cleaning and shortly thereafter we found some folks who were looking to add more mice to their mouse family and we gladly handed ours over.

Now, where was I...oh yes, present day insanity. So, we went to the pet store, procured a 1 gallon tank and brought home 3 small goldfish. A few days after that, 1 died...then there were 2. We didn't realize at that point that the size of the tank was the problem (hey, we're not fish experts! and weren't warned at the store), so we took Mr. E to the pet store to get a replacement. Then there were 3 again. A few days later, another one died, then there were 2 again. Still not sure what the real problem was, we took Miss E to the store to get a replacement. It was about this time we were starting to think about a larger tank b/c the 3 fish looked cramped in that small aquarium. The fish looked a lot smaller at the store. So, then there were 3 again.

In the coming days, we took the plunge and purchased a 10 gallon tank and all the accoutrements, transferred over the 3 fish and so far we are holding....at 3. It's been a few months and they're all growing and doing well. Whew!

The 1 gallon tank has been commandeered by the brine shrimp/sea monkeys as a larger home for them - they seem happy in there.

Here are our 3 new pets:

Orangie (Mr. E's) on the left, Shiny Silver (Miss A's) (in the middle hiding - the only one remaining from the original 3), and Sunspot (Miss E's) (on the right, the smallest as it was the newest addition)

They like to hang out under the bridge at night :)


(here we have from left to right, Orangie, Shiny Silver and Sunspot - incidentally Sunspot got its name b/c it had some black spots on it when we got it - they have since disappeared - strange!)


and here in the background is Shiny Silver, foreground is Sunspot and on the right is Orangie - who had black around its mouth at first, but that has faded away as well!

Sign

Driving along today, I happened to notice a big sign on the back of a semi as it passed me in the other lane - it read:

Air bag test
KEEP
TAILGATING


Ha ha - that was a good one :)

Apron Giveaway

If you like aprons, you'll want to hop on over to the Apronista and sign up for her apron giveaway. I've become more interested in aprons lately because it seems I can't cook w/o getting grease spots on my shirts and then they get washed and then have to be rewashed because I didn't notice the spot the first time....I could go on and on, but I won't - just go and sign up! The apron she's giving away is very cute and perfect for summer!

http://apronista.blogspot.com/2008/06/carolyns-kitchen-summer-holiday.html

Adorable Mother's Day Project

Well, now that Mother's Day has come and gone and we were able to deliver gifts to both of our mothers, I can share our present with everyone. I found this idea a few years ago on ilovephotography.com message boards and thought it was cute. I toyed w/the idea of creating our own for awhile, but just never got around to doing it. I decided this was the year to make it happen and commenced shooting - after finally getting some pics I was happy with, I used fotofusion to create the final product and made my order.

I waited for it to arrive, hoping it would look like I wanted it to and when it arrived I was very pleased with the result. After a little trimming to fit the frames I'd purchased, we were in business.

I hope you can see the effect in this picture - the odd angle is to help show the 3D of the flowers coming out of the frame/picture at you when you look at it. Mr. A showed his personality by holding up both hands - how could I not use that picture! Mr. E had his Aggie hat on, of course. Miss E has her bonnet slung around her neck - true Laura-style. And, Miss A is just Miss A - always ready to have a picture taken and the most cooperative of them all in this endeavor :)

Now, to have one printed for myself and put it on *my* wall!

Are you a hillbilly housewife?

Well, I don't know about being a hillbilly, but I found a neat website a few days ago and have been trying to look around there in my spare time the past few days ( ha ha, which means I didn't get too far!). She has an "emergency" menu for feeding a family of 4-6 for a week for $45 as well as a version for $70/week that includes more meat in lieu of beans. Also, a lot of interesting recipes. Those menus also come complete with a guide on what to do each day/night to prepare for all the meals - looks interesting although I don't know how well a few of the menu items would go over around here ;)

Anyway, you might enjoy it - check it out!

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index.htm

A skirt sneak peek...

Had some problems w/the lower tension and got that straightened out - this a.m. have been ripping out the messed up seam and getting ready to re-sew it....here's a sneak peek....



Stay tuned....after I put the elastic in, the skirt will have to hang for 24 hours for the bias to set and then I'll hem it and see how it looks.....

Feelin' crafty?

I've had the "craft bug" the past week or so - just wanting to make something and have found much inspiration on the multitude of blogs out there.

A few that I've visited a lot lately are:

Crafty Daisies

and

Laughing Daisies especially this cute post with a stamped onesie - now to figure out how to do this properly and keep a stock on hand for friends' baby showers!

along with

The Apronista

If you're feeling crafty, stop by and visit these gals - they have a lot of cute ideas!

I worked on my skirt for awhile today (yes, this one that I started off on the wrong foot with), but this fabric is not like what I usually work with for the girls' dresses (cotton blend) - the fabric I'm using is a slippery polyester blend of some sort and is a royal pain - the next time I shop for a skirt I might not be so upset at the price tag because whoever has to work w/this stuff on a regular basis deserves what they're getting paid (and more!).

Ok, gotta run - have a great weekend everyone!

Subway Apology to Homeschoolers

Well, what do you know....

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65585

Maybe I'll have another tuna sandwich after all..... ;)