Ally has joined the blogging world! She was feeling left out since at least one child from each family has their own blog. (Thanks Tracy and Sharla). Here is her site: http://talesfromashopahalic.blogspot.com/

I take no responsiblity for content or spelling.

I could now tell you about our Christmas but there is not much to tell so just go to Sharla's blog and insert my family's names.

Quote of the Day

Said at lunch today by me, to Melania: 

"Sweetie, please don't color me."

(though the green crayon stripe down my new blue pants does add a certain charm)

The Nutcracker

Our school went on a field trip yesterday to go see the ballet, The Nutcracker, and I actually got to go! It was an abbreviated version so it only lasted an hour but my kids were still bored for the most part. I liked it. Of course when we left, I was informed by the 2nd grade boys that there wasn't enough fighting and when the mouse king's head was cut off, there was no blood. How disappointing.

 Andrew did recognize one of the songs. It was this one... 

So when we got home, Andrew was humming this part of the ballet and got a puzzled look on his face. "Mom," he asked, "is that a BonJovi song?" hee hee

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay family, I need your help. Let me tell you the whole story.

My friend, Dawn, is the school's PE teacher and also watches the pre-school teachers kids before class out on the playground. So far this year she has found - on our enclosed secure playground - some personal unmentionables, child poop in a playhouse, cat poop in our sandbox, a homeless man....twice, and the latest, a family of dying mice. (Needless to say, she wants a raise.) 

So, to lighten her mood one morning, I found one of our cat toys that looks like a real mouse and put it on her purse that she keeps in my office with a note saying, "Dawn, where are you? We are waiting to play with you!". hee hee. Laughter ensued all around. So THEN I found more mice and put them in her PE closet in a line with a note that said, "Follow me! I think Dawn is in here!" hee hee. Again laughter ensued up and down the halls. 

Well that was two weeks ago and she still has my mice and my kitty wants them back. So Tuesday, I made a wanted sign with her picture on it and posted it on her PE closet.

Laughter is now ensuing ALL over the academy since the kids have all seen the poster. (Yes, I know, I have WAY too much time on my hands. But it's more fun than working.) So today, my sweet little boy's teacher called down and said Andrew needed to talk to me. Apparently he was worried about me (I had a stomach pain-that-doesn't-exist attack last night). So I went and let him know I was fine. Came back to my desk and found a mouse toy with google eyes and lips waiting to kiss me! Dawn set me up using my own child! So needless to say he is grounded along with the whole second grade class who all knew. 

So here is my question...what can I do to get her back? My creative juices has all dried up and I can't just let it drop! hee hee

Help Me, I'm Losing My Mind!

Since we are not talking election results in my house tonight, I am pondering some of life's great mysteries. Tonight while tucking Andrew into bed, I started to tell him not to let the bedbugs bite. Which naturally led to a plethora of bedbug songs. Which then led to a giggle fest during one such song. Which led to the mystery of the evening....WHAT ARE THE WORDS TO THIS DUMB SONG!

(hum hum hum)
(hum hum hum)
The beetles and the bedbugs, were playing a game of ball.
The score was (hum hum), the beetles were ahead.
The bedbugs hit a home run, and knocked me out of bed...

I remember the chorus from here on. But help me....I'm losing my mind over this.

Happy Halloween (a day early)!

Since we are going to Sharla's tomorrow and crashing her neighborhood party, we had to celebrate Halloween tonight with our first annual "Gross Out Dinner". We had...

Mummy Wraps...

Eyeballs and Spiders...

Fried Brains...

Bloody Lady Fingers....

Giant Spider Eyes...

Blood to drink...

And for dessert, the traditional worms and dirt!

Yes, it took way too long and yes, I was tired after working all day...but it was well worth it. I love Halloween!

And here are my goblins.

I like this!

Hee Hee

The church office brought this over today to let us get a good laugh. It had come in the mail. Anybody want to go?

The old and the new

Everyone is posting videos so I'm going to try. Here is Andrew's baseball game from today. I tried to catch him batting but the kid batting right before him hit the first pitch and then so did Andrew. I didn't have enough time to set up...but I got him running the bases.

(OK. Never mind. I got tired of waiting.....)

Also, I am posting the "new" Ally picture. (Stop nagging me, Sharla). In the last 6 weeks, she has gotten her ears pierced, gotten new glasses and CUT her hair.

Here is how much hair she cut off...



And here she is....

Sniff Sniff Pt. 3

Okay, this is just ridiculous now! I went back to the eye doctor today and I STILL have an infection. It's not any better and I am following all her rules! Oh, and she told me that apparently I have white spots on my eye. So now I have to go see a cornea specialist... in downtown Fort Worth or way up in Hurst. Maybe I'll just gouge my eyes out and save myself all this bother. (at least she gave me my glasses prescription so I can get out of these scratched ones.)

Sniff Sniff Pt. 2

Waaaaaaaa! I went back to the eye doctor today and I STILL have an infection in both eyes! But for this week, I only have to use the drops three times a day instead of bathing in it. Progress but still wearing 80's style, scratched, wrong prescription glasses that give me a headache everyday!

So to make myself feel better, I'll watch this.....




Thank you, Sharla for getting "Dat's mah head" stuck in mah head all day.

Sniff Sniff

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not wearing eye makeup right now.

Today our school maintenance man, Teddy, came to school for a visit. (He was in a motorcycle accident about a month ago and is still recovering). All the children lined the main hall to cheer him as he came in the door. Then one of our third graders led the most beautiful prayer. Between seeing how well Teddy is recovering and hearing those wonderful words, I'm a blubbering mess... but in a good way.

Help Me! I can't see!!

Thursday I took my daughter to get her eyes checked. It really needed to be done before school started but I ran out of time. She was hit in PE this week and bend her glasses so I figured it was time. I also figured that it was time for me to get mine checked too since I've been having some trouble with my contacts.

So there I was sitting in the doctor's chair with the big contraption on my face and the doctor flipping lenses saying, "one or two", "one or two". Ummmmm, neither? Everything was blurry! Aaauuuggghh! I'm going more blind than I already was! So the doctor removes one contraption and uses another and then proceeds to say, "Ohhhhhh" as she looks in my eye. Turns out I have a bad infection in my right eye. Let's look in the other eye. "Ohhhhh". Turns out I have a bad infection in my left eye. No wonder I haven't been able to see very well. She went through all the symptoms that I "must" have been having with the infection but I have had NONE. I just couldn't see very well.

So now I have to throw away my contacts (that I just replaced a few days ago), my cases, my solution, my makeup and have to put drops in my eyes for the next week (oh yes, and the TINY bottle of drops cost $77 WITH insurance!) But the worst part of the whole thing is that I have to wear my glasses for the next two weeks. Aauuugghh! So please don't laugh when you see me in my 5 year old glasses.

Sickness and Cemeteries

Hey, I bet my day was more exciting than yours. First I had to take a sick boy home from school then we went and wandered around a cemetery for about an hour looking for a headstone of someone I don't know for someone I don't know. I really didn't mind doing it but I just started thinking while we were there that most normal mothers don't take their children to cemeteries for afternoon field trips! Oh well.

As I was downloading the pictures tonight I stumbled across this one from a while back. I'm so proud.

What the Olympics SHOULD be

I'm sad tonight since my parents are leaving tomorrow for home so I needed something to cheer me up and I found this on the internet. He has more routines but I think the bars are the best followed by the beam. Enjoy a chuckle or two.

Prayer Request

We found out yesterday that our maintenance man from school was in a motorcycle accident on his way home. He apparently landed on his head and wasn't wearing a helmet. Please pray for Teddy Calloway. He needs lots of prayers right now. Teddy is more than just our maintenance man. All the children dearly love him and he is a good friend.

AAAUUUGGGGHHHH! School starts in 7 days and my list of 125 things to do before August 25 still has 76 things not crossed off!!!

Book Club

Every blog I read seems to recommend the latest and greatest book out there to enlighten or entertain us. I like to think that this means I have smart friends (and relatives). I love reading and am always looking for a great new author. (Of course with school starting soon, we'll see how much time I have to read!)

Let me join in on the "Book Recommendation" club. I just finished the following book and it was wonderful. It's full of love with some scary parts and lots of drama. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

My week

I am one child short this week. Ally is at church camp in New Mexico! So while we are fighting 107 degrees, she is having to wear a jacket in the evenings. So not fair. This is the longest she's ever been away from home and I'm having a hard time.

My other child is going to day camp at the school. Today was "wet" day. When I went to pick him this afternoon, this is what greeted me....



Apparently it was also "slime" day. At least he had fun.

SHOES!!

I had to show everyone what I just found at Target. They are having a HUGE sale. These shoes were $3 each pair!! So cute. Lots of toys are also clearanced!

Lunch anyone?

There is a new chinese buffet down the street that we decided to try yesterday. Very good food with lots of choices. But then I came across this....



For those of you who can't tell, it is a crawdad and yes, people actually eat these nasty looking things. Don't ask me why a Louisiana dish was on a Chinese buffet but it was. And it was staring at me. All 75 of them sitting there. Staring. Eeewwww. So, being me, I put one of the little critters on my plate and he shared our dining experience with us. (Okay, he had to stay under a napkin the whole time since he was grossing us out.) Then he went on a field trip to our house. I had a whole "Crawdad Tours Texas" blog planned but our kitten found him first and gnawed off his claw. After that it just seemed best to throw the little guy away. Again, just let me say "Eeeewww!"

If It's Not Nailed Down, Out It Goes!!

So what have I been doing the last few weeks? I'm glad you asked. For some reason I got the cleaning/tossing bug. If we haven't looked at something in the last 3 months it either got thrown away or donated. (for an excellent example of the donating, please see Sharla's very sparkely blog). But I may have gotten a bit carried away. This is now my house....



We have also been dealing with domestic problems. My big fluffy kitty has been moping around the house and not eating very well. Since it was time for his shots anyway, I took him to the vet today.



Needless to say, he wasn't happy with me. But on a happy note, he is fine. Apparently he is still just mad that the kitten is still in his house. I may have shocked him out of his funk since today after we got home he actually slept on his chair at the end of my bed (hasn't done that in days). So to keep him from getting lonely, I napped too.

Newest Family Member

I'd like you to meet Maggie, our newest daughter. She is 11 weeks old. Very cute and very much a lap cat (which is what we wanted since the other kitty is definitely NOT).

I was going to write this incredible blog about our "Super Saturday Family Fun Day" last weekend, complete with pictures and a moving poem about the joys of family....but...I can't find the cable to connect my camera to the computer so I had to make due with this.



I think this pretty well sums it up.

Blake told me yesterday that I should get rid of my blog since I don't seem to do anything with it anymore. Hello....it's summer. I'm not suppose to be doing anything. We have basically been lazy bums for the last few weeks (with a few hours of work thrown in). Since we are not going on vacation this year, I decided that our summer theme was going to be "Summermoviepolusa". The kids and I have already seen Kungfu Panda and are waiting until next week to see Wall-E. And we are going to try to go the the dollar movies ALOT! Hey, cheap entertainment and free air conditioning. Not a bad deal.

Have you ever been wasting time on the computer and find yourself at very odd sites with no idea how you got there? That happened to me today. I found myself reliving my childhood with lots of 70's references. No idea how that came about but the kids just laughed and laughed at the stuff we used to watch and do. So for those of you who used to wear plaid pants and can only sing the constitution's preamble thanks to School House Rock, may I present the following...

This means nothing but I laughed when I saw it. Although I do see this in my future at some point.

Blech. What a week. I finally got my house back in order. Of course now I can tell that I need to vacuum and dust. Hey maybe the thieves made that mess too! See, we are still smiling and going on.

I found this guy for sale in a catalog at work and his picture sits at my computer. I thought he sums up things pretty well.

Birthdays, Baseball and Musicals!

Happy birthday to my boy! If you can't tell, the cake is a pokemon ball. Just don't look too closely. I have been so busy at work that I didn't get to make the cake until Saturday night. So it was decorated fairly quickly.
He got to draw what he wanted his cake to look like and of course he choice something from Pokemon. See what you poor families with all girls are missing! The joys of Pokemon! We will be having his birthday party in a few weeks. We couldn't schedule anything until the baseball schedule came out.


Yes, we are spending every Saturday watching little boys play baseball. Blake is coaching his team this year so we get too watch all the boys in the family play. (and Blake has only hit my son twice with a pitch!)

Alyssa had her school's musical this last week. They did a play called "Donkey Tales" that told three stories from the bible about donkeys. It was very good. She had one of the speaking parts so they were off to the side for most of the play.
.
Of course when she went to the center of the stage for her solo, other kids blocked my view. I can't tell you how many tapes we have of half her face during a solo! I always seem to sit in the wrong spot. They performed on Thursday night and then did it again on Friday afternoon. All the kids in the play signed the other student's programs after each show. Even Andrew ran around getting all the "stars" autographs

This entry is dedicated to my husband of almost 17 years. This is now his favorite song EVER!!

Yesterday Alyssa and some of her classmates were asked to perform parts of the school's new musical at a church function. So we headed off to the little town of Cleburne for the afternoon. The church was having a "Cowboy Cookout" at a ranch that grows Christmas trees. They had singing groups performing, hayrides, a maze and playareas for the kids, plus cooking around the campfire. Andrew liked the maze and "shooting" area. Alyssa and her friends seemed to like the sack race best. (By the way, Alyssa and crew did a great job performing!) It was really a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon. It almost makes you want to live in a small Texas town, way out from everything. Almost.




By the way, Andrew has lost some teeth. (and the last front top tooth is VERY loose)

Do you realize that two weeks ago we were here? Raise your hand if you are ready to go back!

Today's quote

Raising children is like being pecked to death by chickens.

YEAH!!!

I am so hooked on this show! Hello. My name is Michelle and I am a Dexter addict. I got my first fix during a Showtime preview. I would count the hours until my Dexter would come to my tv. I have been going through serious withdrawl since the preview ended but now I am saved because my show is now on CBS! True, it is a tad morbid, a smidge dark but I still like it! It is starting at the beginning of the series and I came in at the end of the last season but I think I can manage. Now, if you will excuse me, my Dexter is calling to me.

Blech

Well, my lysol didn't work! I managed to get sick so today I did something I haven't done in years (3 years I think)....I took a personal sick day. And I felt guilty all day about it. Actually, not too guilty since I slept most of the day. Got up and drove the kids to school and then went back to bed until 2. Hopefully this will knock it out and I'll be back on schedule tomorrow.

For those of you who are living under a rock...Hannah Montana is the biggest thing EVER! (at least at our house). With that in mind, I took my two children to see the new Hannah Montana 3-D movie today. We actually had to buy tickets weeks ago to make sure we got them. It really wasn't a bad movie, for a kid's concert movie. The kids absolutely loved it. Ally liked everything (especially the Jonas Brothers) and Andrew liked the 3-D effects. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. I figured I'd be bored silly but I actually enjoyed myself (if anyone repeats that, I'll deny I ever said it). Maybe this will appease my tween who has never let me forget that she didn't get to go see the real concert when it came to town and some of her friends did.

I'm hoping my week will go a little easier this week than last. The flu is running out of control through the school halls and has knocked out quite a few teachers as well as students. Luckily we have managed to stay healthy so far. I just keep lysoling everything CONSTANTLY. I think tomorrow I will wear my haz-mat suit just in case. Or at least my very stylish face mask.

Bad mommy

I took my cute little kitty into the groomers on Tuesday to make him all pretty again. (he doesn't like to be brushed and had gotten quite a few tangles.) Last time I took him, they were able to brush them all out. Oooops. Not this time. So we now have this at our house.....















Before:


And you saw the sad after. I promise to all in blogger-land. I will never let my kitty get so tangled again that he has to be shaved like a lion. I still don't think he has forgiven me. (And stop laughing at him. You'll hurt his feelings. HeeHeeheeehehehehehehehheheee) poor kitty.

The quote that topped the bad dining experience:

Waiter (after bringing the children their ice cream): Oh, do you need spoons with that?

Duh.