In Rememberance

Stopping to Pick the Flowers

Some days are just meant to pick flowers. For A. this is obviously one of those days. She was just fascinated by the flowers that she has seen a hundred times already and decided that today was the day to examine them a bit more closely. She stood screaming at the door until I let her out. She starts off innocently enough just looking but before long the desire to touch is to much. You can just hear her thinking " I really must learn more about this little flower."



Soon she is touching and feeling and learning all she can about this little yellow flower. Her intense observation of the flower is obvious, she won't be distracted. Even the silly dog jumping all around isn't distracting her from her study of this flower. Maybe these study habits will carry on into her high school years and she will be a straight A student. I can hope right.



When she is finally done with her little flower study, she seemed quite happy to finally agree to come on back inside. Almost as if she is saying "There now, I have learned all I can from this little flower and it's time to move on."

Photo Hunters

PhotoHunt

I found a new thing to do with all these photos I have been taking. I am going to start posting pictures to go along with that weeks theme. It should be fun.

This weeks theme is Music:

I love the sound of Fall, it is music to my ears. And to me nothing says fall like football. So here are some pictures of my oldest son playing football.



Just imagine the sounds of the pads smashing against each other along with the whistle blowing. This is music to my ears.

Sad but true..

It's truly a sad thing to admit, but I really don't clean as much as I used to. This is simply because it's to hard to keep up with the house as well as spending the time I want to with my children. When I only had two children I had a spotless house. When my third child was born, my house first began to suffer. Now that I have four children I am lucky if I can keep up with my goal of a deep weekly cleaning. Sometimes it is almost two weeks before I can truly clean it the way it needs to be done and not just a quick spot cleaning. I've struggled with this since I truly hate having a dirty home. But I have four busy kids and a husband who just doesn't notice the mud on his shoes, anymore than the dog notices it on her paws. So when I finally get the house clean, in invariable gets messy again within an hour.

So I have finally decided to bite the bullet and see about getting estimates on having someone come in at least twice a month to clean. How sad is that, I am a stay at home mom who is getting quotes for a house cleaner? I would just rather spend my time with my children doing something else and my husband agrees. To add to the fact that if it does get messy again right away, I won't take it as a personal affront, since most times it won't be me doing the actual cleaning. I must confess that I grew up with a house cleaner so I never really appreciated all the work that goes into keeping the house clean, but I do now. But since I still have no one but me to clean then, I guess I will have to tackle my most despised chore of all...dusting...all on my own. Or I could continue on the path that I have been on and pretend the dust isn't there and go play with my son. Guess which one I choose? Yes, you guessed right, my furniture shall remain dusty for another day.

Forms and Artwork

I am filling out lots of forms today. They are from Hoss's Pre-K teacher. She wants to know all about my Hoss and what I expect from her this year. So naturally I am trying to figure out how to write about how special my son is and how wonderful I think he is. I am trying to fit all this information into a small space of about an inch in length. Which makes me wonder if that is intentionally done. Because if she gave us mom's more space to write about what our children our like, we would fill it up. We'd fill it up with all that is good about our children and conveniently forget to put any of the their faults which drive us so crazy. Because if we did that, then we would be putting a preconceived idea into their heads and then that would probably affect the way they treat our sweet babies. Isn't it better to pretend that our angels are always perfect until we get that first note home from the teacher saying they need to work on staying in their seats and not talking so much. Because let's face it, we mom's are hopeful that all that teaching we have been doing at home for the last four plus years will show itself in how they behave at school. So instead of writing in small illegible letters, I am using self control and not going on about every sweet aspect of my son, instead I am hoping she will discover some of these small treasures on her own and that they will brighten her day the way they do mine.

Now during this struggle with words, Hoss has been completing his first homework assignment of the year. To decorate a plain boy using any means possible so that it can be hung on the wall in the classroom. So armed with markers and glitter, Hoss has completed his first assignment. And I must say I am impressed, I didn't think it was possible for a single piece of paper to hold so much glue and glitter without falling apart. As to whether Mrs. Robyn will be able to make out the true intentions of my son's artwork, I can't say. All I know is that he is extremely proud of his glob of gluey glitter and I won't have any problems identifying his artwork once it's hanging up.

Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde

I have a bully in the house. I'm really quite surprised by this for some reason. The bully in question is Baby A. my seventeen month old. She baffles me. How did I get through the other three kids without a biter or a hair puller or a head banger. She truly throws some of the most spectacular tantrums I have ever seen. I am so bothered by her bullying tactics that at her last check up I even asked the doctor for suggestions. He put most of it down to her age but did say once she was eighteen months we could effectively start using time outs. Oh is it going to be a long month. Poor K has lost countless handfuls of hair and both boys have been bitten by her. She's even biting the dog for goodness sake. Yuck! She can turn a calm and quiet room upside down in no time and laugh at the results. She is the youngest of four and I really think for her she just wants to be a part of the action. Any action, and if there isn't any then she will just create some of her own.

But don't think she doesn't have her good qualities to. She is the best kiss giver of the bunch. She will immediately come back and give kisses to anyone hurt and pat them on the back. Whether she feels true remorse, I have no idea. She just copies whatever it is that I am doing Oh the joys of having a dual personality at seventeen months. I really am looking forward to this phase passing and soon. In the meantime, I have to give my older kids a huge award for being so patient with her during all the hair pulling and biting.

Just Testing It Out

Okay, some stories are just to good to keep to myself. So let me make your day a little bit better.

The other day my husband had to run to Lowe's to buy a new seal for our bathroom sink. He decided to take Hoss and K. with him to give me a little quiet time. After he found the seal he needed he was getting ready to leave and turned to get K. who had just been right next to him the entire time. Naturally she wasn't there so he looked down the aisle a little further and saw her. She was sitting as proud as can be on one of the toilet displays. Not only that, her shorts were down around her ankles. So he runs down to get her and gets her pants back up and thankfully notices that no one was around. And in case your wondering no she hadn't "gone potty" yet. Thinking that she must desperately need to go to the bathroom he asks her if she needs to go and what on earth was she doing on the toilet display? K. simply looks like him like he is dumber than dirt and says "Daddy, I was just testing it out". How can you argue with logic like that. And since dad is dad and not a mom, he left that store as fast as he possibly could before getting the rest of the things he needed.

Summer Soap Celebration

Nan over at Life is Like a Lunchbox is hosting a Summer Soap Celebration so head on over to check it all out.

Last days of summer

I've been MIA the last few days since I really wanted to spend a few more moments in the sun with my kids. So after a few days at the pool, hitting the batting cages, reading and just doing alot of fun family time the school year officially began today. Z. was very excited to be seeing his friends today and rode off with the neighbor boys on bikes a little earlier than was truly necessary. But that's okay, as long as he is excited about school than I am happy.

You would think that by our early start to the day I would have made it to my nine o'clock appointment on time. But that was not to happen (this is me after all). After getting the three remaining kids fed, dressed and buckled we started off already twenty minutes late. Toss in the Dallas traffic and the fact that I'd never been to this office before and you can tack on another twenty minutes. But not to be outdone, Hoss got carsick and so I was then stuck wondering where I can exit if his nausea actually gets the best of him. We finally arrived at my meeting (that sounds so official but it was really wasn't) and I am frazzled. Thank goodness that it was a for a study of scripture and Pope John Paul II encyclicals so it was well worth the struggles of getting there. So once again I am reminded of God's love for us. So no matter how frustrating my day may start off I can always redeem it by a few minutes spent in prayer and quiet reflection.

Now on to another topic altogether, I just finished reading an excellent book by Kim Edwards called "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". It's about a Dr. who delivers his own twins in the 1960's and discovers that one of them has Down Syndrome. He chooses to tell his wife that the baby died at birth and send her off to a home. However the nurse who was supposed to deliver the baby to the home can't do it and ends up raising her instead. This book just grabbed me and I had a hard time putting it down. It's not an easy topic but still well worth the heartache that it may cause you to feel at moments.

Conflicting emotions

My son Z. had this to say in the car this afternoon. It pretty much sums up my feelings as well as his.

Z- Hurry up school and begin. Slow down summer so I can still enjoy you.

When I asked him why he felt this way he just replied that he missed school and was ready to get back to it. Also, he was a bit bored and wanted to see his friends. But he isn't quite ready to give up all that summer means for him (i.e. swimming, hanging out with his neighborhood friends, staying up way to late, lots of extra video game time).

I am with him, I am ready for school to begin so I can get back into a routine of sorts but I'm really going to miss having him around all the time. He really is a neat kid and I have really enjoyed all the extra time I have with him during the summer. So it looks like we both have conflicting emotions, like so many other families this time of year.

I'm in love

I'm in love. (In a totally fictional sort of way) My husband is aware of this and is quite understanding about it. You see he can completely understand why. I totally love Jason Bourne. He rocks. (Jason that is, although my husband rocks to) If I had to be chased by super bad evil people who wouldn't hesitate to shoot me, then I want him to be my friend. He is after all the best at what he does and that's what I like. And contrary to what you may think, Matt Damon is just the pretty package that Jason comes in. Don't get me wrong, I love pretty packages and he is definitely one, but it is still Jason that I adore.

As you can tell, I'm still pretty excited days after seeing the new movie. If you get the chance to go see this movie in the theater then please do it. We went out for a night without kids and the place was packed. So packed that there were no seats left in the theater except for the very front row. And since we were out on a kid free date I celebrated by spilling my drink all over my husband. Apparently I can't handle a movie without at least one mess. But anyway the action was almost immediate and I loved the way they combined the info from the Bourne Supremacy to the new movie. And I really want Julia Stiles hair in this movie, I have completely given my self up to highlight envy. I wonder how much it would cost me to have hair like hers. But back to the movie, it was great and definitely left me wanting more. So unless your still confused, go see this movie as soon as you can. It is well worth the price of a ticket. Just don't get so excited about seeing Jason that you spill your drink on your partner. That may take away from the moment and then you will end up missing some of it.

Movies, Movies and more movies

As I mentioned the other day, I went crazy at the video store the other day. Both my husband and I love to watch movies. Since we still have young children we don't get to the movie theaters like we used to. Sadly we don't even get to the video rental store that often anymore. This is due to fact that the kids are up later than they used to be. We are at different activities in the evenings and by the time we get the kids to bed we are to tired to start a two hour movie. Our children are also not great at letting us watch a movie with them awake since they are entirely to noisy for us to hear anything else going on.

So back to the other day when I was at Blockbuster's, somehow I walked out of there with I think eight movies. At least half of them were for the kids so I don't count them. Even though I should since I watch them a million times it feels like. But that left four movies for us to watch after the kids went to bed. So here are my official movie reviews, for what they are worth. We both liked Music and Lyrics okay, it wasn't great and it was very predictable but just seeing Hugh Grant doing an eighties pop video and singing was riot. The Good Year with Russell Crowe was a sloooowwww movie. Again I thought it was okay and would probably watch it again if nothing else was on. My husband said he would watch it again without sticking a needle in his eye only if it was up against Under the Tuscan Sun (one of my favorites which he just doesn't understand). We both agreed that the best one so far was last's nights showing of The Devil Wears Prada. Glenn Close is great in this role and we both liked it alot. She is such a good "mean" character. Even though it dealt with fashion, and my husband is a fashionless kind of guy he still enjoyed it and would watch it again. That leaves us with one more movie Miss Congeniality 2, which is an old one but we still haven't seen it. I'll have to wait to watch this one this weekend so can't tell you what I think of it yet. But I have heard it's good so we will see.

But since we have been on a movie kick this week, we are going to top it off by going to see the new Bourne Ultimatum movie. We have the kids signed up for a Kids Fun night at a church. Then we will go see a current movie, in a real movie theater with stadium seating. We will have real movie popcorn with real greasy movie popcorn butter and drink lots of coke. I can hardly wait. I just love Matt Damon and his Jason Bourne character. And the fact that it's the second date in a week with just my husband and I is totally cool. Almost as cool as Matt Damon.

Random Things

It's been a crazy week so far, full of out of the ordinary things. We have had the pleasure of watching my neighbors two boys for a few days the last week or so. The oldest is my son Z.'s BFF (if boys at least admit to having a best friend forever). The younger son is closer to Hoss's age so they usually have a good time. Now this younger son was affectionately called BAM BAM as a baby and toddler. And although he is now six I think it is still provokes the appropriate reaction in regards to his behaviour. I'm surprised that my four children have not done or thought up what BAM BAM has been able to come up with in five short hours. But thankfully everything has been restored to order until his next visit, I can only hope that my supply of patience is restored as well. And my poor dog (never thought I'd ever actually utter that phrase) can go back to being a dog instead of being treated as a means of transportation. Granted she is as big as a horse but I don't think she likes being ridden like one.

We have also had two of our close neighbors move out of their houses. One I am sorry to see go but really didn't get a chance to say bye to properly. The other is more of my husband's buddy but is great friend to me and the kids as well. I know we will still be hearing from him and seeing him on a regular basis despite his moving out of state. He is actually renting his house to my neighbor's mom for a while so we at least already know one of the new neighbors.

Z. is in full football mode. He received his jersey yesterday and I must admit that seeing his name on the back of it is way cool. Must still be some of that old high school girl in me yet. I had a lot of friends and boy friends that were football players in my youth so it brought back lots of fun memories for me. When I asked my husband his thoughts on it, his response was "Never thought I would see my last name on a football jersey in a million years." Spoken like the true band geek that he was. How the two of us ever ended up together, I still wonder. I have repeatedly told him it was a good thing we never met in high school or I would never had dated you. He takes it good naturedly and just says he would never had dated me either. Anyways, Z. is loving it and that is all that matters. That and I get to go to football games again.

And to top of our out of the ordinary week, we have rented a lot of videos to watch. Which we never do since we never get to watch TV that much, and have been staying up way to late watching them. So that being said I am off to watch a new one.

Defending the Caveman

Have any of you seen this one man show called Defending the Caveman? It's been a hit running on Broadway for years. Anyway, my husband surprised me by getting tickets and arranging to go out with some friends. Totally surprised me. Normally I have to talk him into to doing these things so I was completely physched. As for the show itself, it goes into details about the difference between men and woman and how we communicate. It was amazing how accurate it was on so many different levels. But for us it was nothing but hysterical, we laughed for almost the entire two hours. I had heard of this show before but didn't really think much of it but if you ever get the chance to see it, then jump on it. Afterwards we went out to eat at a restaurant without any kids menu and ate our food while it was still hot. So for us it was a great afternoon of fun with friends and laughter. I just love it when we get grown up time alone or with our friends.

Look at me!

Hey mom...look at me! This is a phrase that I hear hundreds of times during the day. It may come in different variations of hey look what I did, look what I can do or just a simple hey check this out. But for all four of my kids it's a cry for some of my attention and validation for whatever new achievement they have accomplished. I hear this so many times in a day that some days I just really want to tell them that I am just to tired of looking at every little thing.

When we went to Six Flags last week I heard this exclaimed over and over again. But along with the normal cry for attention they were also begging me to "Take a picture". Something that I readily did as long as it didn't involve me actually being on a roller coaster ride with them.

Anyways here are a few of my favorite "Look at me moments".

Here is Hoss driving the bumper cars and feeling quite proud to have just knocked into somebody only to have the favor returned.


Not to be outdone, A. really enjoyed the carousal ride where she held on all by herself and laughed anytime she went up. All the kids enjoyed it since it was one of the few rides running during the rain storm at the time but A. really liked it the most.

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In between all the roller coasters he kept going on, Z. would humor the younger ones by going on some of the "easy" rides. He really is such a camera ham.


This one was a favorite of both K. and Hoss. I guess it takes a child to find the fun and enjoyment in being bounced around by a giant cowboy boot in a circle. But since it was close to a big roller coaster, they got to ride this a few times while Z. went on whatever scary ride he talked his dad into that day.


If I had to pick a favorite it would definitely be the old fashioned car drive. I really like being driven around by the kids for a change. But on this day I missed out on my ride and dad took it instead. He seemed to enjoy it just as much as I normally do and Hoss was nothing but sheer concentration when it came to him being a chauffeur.


It was just a fun day for everyone involved and we are already looking forward to the next time we go back.

Hot Summer Days

We have officially entered into what I truly consider the dog days of summer. The only time we really get outside to play is in the morning or late afternoon when it starts to cool down. Unless we are sitting by a pool we tend to be indoor during the heat of the day. But even though we are not out in the worst of it, the heat still slows down the kids a bit. At which point they beg me for their favorite cool down treat. Popsicles.

Depending on what kind of Popsicle they are having they can end up with any where from one big Popsicle or even three or four small ones just for the sake of keeping cool. It's really funny how they can all enter their own special zone while enjoying their Popsicle. And you better not talk to them or get them to participate in anything major during the consumption of said Popsicle because your just wasting your time.

Z. had a certain focus while enjoying his Popsicle. His main objective is to try and get it as pointy as possible without it breaking off. He is quite adept at making a shank out of a Popsicle that any inmate in any prison would be proud of.





Hoss is my true popsicle connoisseur. He will gladly turn down ice cream in favor of these any day. Times like this I really wonder if he is of my own flesh and blood since I adore ice cream. For him it's all about Popsicle's and the quiet serentity that they bring to him.



A. loves hers as well but I think it's because she is finally big girl enough to eat it on her own without mom having to help.




Which now leaves me to examine how K. slurps her Popsicle. I really don't know how much she enjoys it since she always seems to be in a catatonic state while she is eating them, but I have never known her to refuse one yet. So I guess she likes them, since they help her get to her happy place.



Now how do I enjoy my Popsicle your wondering. I like to do a little of all of the above depending on my mood. But whichever way I choose I am always the first one done so obviously I don't savor my Popsicle in the same manner as my children. Something I guess I should work on.

The Jesus One

Nicole at 4andcounting tagged me for the Jesus meme. I'm supposed to list 5 things I love about Jesus and then tag 5 people.

1. Jesus is loving. Regardless of all the bad or negative things we have done, He still loves us.

2. Jesus is compassionate. He never runs out of compassion and love for his children. Even towards the weakest and those considered unworthy by others, He always showed compassion to his children.

3. Jesus knows your heart. He knows what we are feeling in our most innermost thoughts. And He accepts us and loves us regardless.

4. Jesus was a teacher and example. He showed us how to live our daily lives in a way that would guarantee our entrance into His Kingdom. He did this by the way He lived his life and the words He left for us in scripture.

5. Jesus died for me (and you and you and you and so on). Seems obvious, but I know I don't think about it often enough. He died just for me. He died for each individual. 4andcounting actually came up with this answer, but I think it's definitely worth repeating.

Okay, I tag anyone who feels like doing this meme. Just play along and let me know so I can go read your comments.

42 inches

Did you know that 42 inches is the most important measurement that can be found for my children today. This is because yesterday we took our four children to Six Flags with some friends. And the height requirement for a lot of the scary roller coasters that I refuse to get on, is 42 inches. Now just because Hoss and K. were tall enough to go on the loop de loop Shockwave didn't mean that I wanted them to. But they soon realized that dad was the complete opposite and would let them go on any scary ride with him (and our friends). So for them it was run as fast as you can to the measuring sign, line up and then whoop for joy when they passed the height requirement. K. wasn't always tall enough to get onto all the rides but she was a good sport and stayed with me and Baby A. until everyone else was done.

The lines weren't even that bad but after we had a small thunderstorm move through it improved even more. By the time the park was back at full operation there weren't any people left. You could get on a ride and not even exit it to go again, you just sat there and waited to see if anyone else would come and if not away you went again. So by the end of our very long day I think there were only two big rides which my oldest son Z. wasn't able to ride. Which in a park that big is pretty cool. As for me, the sole person of the day who truly doesn't like roller coaster rides, I had a blast as well. I was able take the kids on some of the smaller rides and even Baby A. got to get on a few rides.

The extra bonus of this very long day, all my children were so worn out they slept past 9am. Something completely unheard of in our house.

Grandma town

We have obviously been out of town a lot lately. And this is just one of the funny things Hoss asked me about while we were at my parents driving in the car.

Hoss: Mom are we in grandma town?

Me: What are you talking about?

Hoss: Well mom look in all the cars the only people driving are grandma's.

Me: Looking all around at all the cars around us at the light and laughing since every car is being driven by a senior citizen. No Hoss, they have kids in Lubbock to we just can't see them driving.