Gone Fishin'

Well not exactly gone fishin' but close enough. Be back next week.

Spring Season Results

All in all, I think my boys had a great spring baseball season. Hoss got second place in his tournament and Z. won first place in the city All Stars tournament. And mom and dad, well we enjoyed cheering them on the entire time.

The Wild Animals at the Zoo

It's been a while since I've posted many pictures. It's partly because I haven't been as good about taking my camera out and about with me. And then when I do take it out and about, I'm having to keep up with my four monkeys. That can be challenging at best. But I do have a few days where I've taken some pictures and some of them have even been a bit fun.

You may remember me returning my monkeys to the cages they escaped from earlier in the month. While we were at the zoo I got some funny pictures here and there. It seems like anytime I went to snap a picture, the animal in question would decide that it was then that it had to relieve itself. So as a result I have tons of pictures of animals peeing it seems. No, I'm not going to post those ones so don't worry. I am going to share a picture of the rhino in the water.

About this time I was actually really jealous of him being able to get cool like that. It was way too hot for me.

K. wanted to see one thing only at the zoo that day. Pink Flamingos. If it's pink then it's for my girl. So we went off to find them for her. They were smart enough to be near or in the cool water also.

Are you noticing a theme here yet. Don't worry I'm about to break it here.

Then we went back past the orangutans. There was one in there that caught my eye since he had a plastic lid in his mouth and was playing with it. But then he got tired and decided to lay down next to the water and rest and cool off. It was then that I took his pictures only to have to stop. It's obvious at this point that I wasn't being very mature. I couldn't stop laughing about this guy and it seemed like it was only me who knew what was going on. Because none of the other people were watching him anymore and it's a good thing. Or maybe they were and they were just more mature than I am. Who knows. What was he doing? Well he was laying there in all his glory playing with himself. And he was very happy and content with how it was all going.


Then he got bored after about 30 seconds and went and cooled off in the water. And I was left standing there without anyone to share my immaturity with. Until I posted it here today. Sorry, I'm very ashamed of myself. I promise I won't laugh at this type of stuff again. I'm a grown up and I should have more control of myself. But sometimes it's just to hard. And this was one of those times.

But by now we were all dying of heat and since we couldn't go jump in the water we opted for over sized, over priced sno cones. And guess what, it worked. We all cooled off and it gave me a chance to grow up again. And now you guys are probably wishing I wouldn't have posted my pictures today. I promise next time to make them nicer pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

I can't believe I talked to him, with this on my face.




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Popcorn everywhere

There are some foods that no matter how careful you are, it gets everywhere. Popcorn is definitely one of those for us. The kids love it and will eat lots of it. I find it everywhere. The obvious places like under the couch cushions and the floors. The not so obvious places like in the diapers where it somehow ends up. I really don't want to wonder on that one to much though. Then when you add in the fact that popcorn is the most requested snack at baseball and movies I also seem to find it in the most unusual places in the car. We naturally have it all over the floor in the van along with the car seats and seat benches. But how does it end up in the driver side door pockets when I know it's not me that puts it there. And how does it end up in zipped up bat bag when the popcorn is purchased after the bag has been closed. Now since it seems like lately we have popcorn and baseball every night that means my van is a mess. Which means that the birds around the parking spots that I park at must love my children. My kids think that every bird out there loves popcorn as much as they do, and do their best to leave it for them. And if that means they brush out old stale popcorn out of the van for them, even better. It just means that there is less of it in my van. But I must say, that is some expensive bird seed that they are eating and I hope they enjoy it.

Happy Birthday K!

Your four today and oh so proud.
Your feel like a princess floating on clouds.
Your laugh is so sweet.
Your smile so big.
Happy Birthday K.

Shoes shoes shoes

How is it that I am the only person in our family that knows anything about shoes? No, I don't mean what style is all the rage now or what pair would look best with what outfit. No, what I mean is that I am the only person in our family who knows where to find the lost shoes that have disappeared around the house. Could it also be because I am also the only person who puts shoes in the closet where **gasp** they belong. I counted out the pairs of shoes that were in our living room alone the other day. Now of course we have six people in our family, but really having fourteen pairs of shoes strewn about one room is really to much. And don't even get me wondering where all the mismatched socks are. My children come straight to me these days when it's time to get their shoes on. My observations skills are such that I can usually tell them what room I last saw the missing shoes in. This is generally followed by the ignored comment of put your shoes in the closet and then you will know where they are. Funny thing is, Z. actually gets mad when the shoes are put in his closet because he can't find them. He will look all over the house and get all upset and never once consider looking in the closet. Am I sure this child belongs to me? No, I think he belongs to dad, whose shoes are also all over the house.

Last night a friend and her son went to watch a baseball game with us. it was late when we got home and the kids had taken their shoes off in the van. We had to look all over the van for her son's missing shoe and we located it. Then this morning I got a call from my friend "Have you seen my son's shoe?" I can't find it in the house and am wondering if he put the other one back in your van. I looked and still didn't find his shoe. But I know for a fact that this child does not belong to me so how come I'm getting calls about his shoes in a different house. But not to worry, because if he can't find his shoe I'm sure he can use on of my son's shoes which has been left over at his house. They might not match but by gosh there will be two shoes on those feet.

Isn't it Fun

Now that my kids are getting a bit bigger it's fun introducing them to some of my favorite movies and things to do. Most of them are the edited versions that are on TV but sometimes they get to watch the real DVD. Today I have both my boys begging to watch a favorite of mine from years ago. It's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, there is just enough fighting to keep them interested in it all. Of course I end up getting twenty questions but they soon quiet down and then I get to enjoy the movie also. The same thing happened earlier in the week when Forrest Gump was on TV. Before long both boys were into it and enjoying it. Then Hoss discovered we had it on DVD and asked if he could watch Forrest the Skunk again. But since it was late we didn't watch that one. Instead we sat down and had another of my favorites, ice cream cones. After that it was much easier to get them to bed. And the plus side of that was that I got to have one also. Yes, it can be fun sometimes.

Crazy Busy...and Baseball

It just seems like it's been crazy busy the last few days. Ever since Z.'s birthday last week. He had his friends over for a sleepover with lots of junk food and video games and very little sleep on Friday.

Then on Saturday Hoss played in a tball tournament. They actually kept score for the first time and when it was all said and done Hoss and his team came in second place. They really should have come in first place but those poor boys had already played three games in 99 degree weather and were playing a team that hadn't played all day so they were fresh. But that's a rant for another day. And just for the record I'm really not one of THOSE parents at your kids games. It was just really sad that these boys who had been out all day long barely lost the game. But none the less Hoss is quite proud of his very big trophy. In fact Z. said it was bigger than his and that made Hoss even more excited.

Z. starts his All Stars games this week also. So now we go to the more serious games of our older son. His games are fun to watch but a lot more competitive. It's amazing how good some of these boys can be at 10 years old. Since they have so many pitchers on his team for the all stars I'm not sure Z. will be pitching as much. But that's okay with me, it's always more stressful for me with him pitching. But Z. takes it all in stride. I will however be trying my best to avoid sitting next to or anywhere close to one of THOSE parents during the games. That woman drives me crazy with how great her grandson is and how bad the rest of the boys are. Makes me just want to throttle her.

The kids are also doing VBS this week and loving it. It's giving me a bit of time in the morning to catch up on a few things. I guess this will be a bit of what it's going to be like this fall when I only have one child home three days a week. I have to say, it's kind of nice.

Happy Birthday

Today we celebrate Z. turning 10. We have a fun and busy day planned. It's hard to believe it's been ten years already. Happy Birthday Z. now I'm off to return you to the monkey exhibit you escaped from.

Messy messy messy

How is it that one little boy can make such a difference in how messy things can get? My children are not neat freaks by any means what so ever. But...and this is a big but...my son's friend is messy. I've noticed it before when we've been at his house before but since it wasn't my house I really didn't notice it that much. But today Hoss has his friend over here playing for the afternoon. Things that my son knows better to do are being done.

Clothes that should stay on hangers are coming out and being dropped on the closet floor...winter clothes. This means they have to push all the summer clothes to the side to get to them in order to take them down. Why? Because they were being newsbroadcasters in a very big winter blizzard and wanted to look the part. I must admit that it was a very reasonable answer to my question and I did see the humor in it. But dadgumit, I just cleaned that closet out two weeks ago.

I thought I was giving his mom a break for watching my two middle children while I went birthday present shopping for Z. Now I'm really not so sure. Maybe it would have been easier to take the three youngest to the stores then it will be to get his room back in order before the grandparents arrive. I'm really not so sure. But I can definetely appreciate my kids messiness which isn't nearly as bad as I thought before. Now if some of that cool air from that blizzard would come down this way then everything would be perfect.

Did ya know?

That ITunes can be a bit addicting. You can spend hours and all kinds of money on all those great songs from way back when. Guess it's time to go listen to some of that money spent.

Another victory for mom

Today has been one small victory after another small victory for mom. It's the first day with everyone home for the summer so I expected a few problems. I just didn't expect them to involve Wal mart quite so soon. Z. was promised a new video game if he got all A's on his report card. So naturally he was ready to collect on dad's promise immediately. I agreed to take him to the store but told him I had to pick up a few things as well. We also had to make one short stop along the way. So the one small stop along the way was to get my boys a haircut. Now normally this is met with much whining,crying and complaining. But not this time. The call of the video game put both boys in a much more agreeable mood. I then did go to buy the promised game along with a few groceries and here is where the other small victroy came in. I actually didn't end up with a ton of other things the kids wanted in the basket. No, it was only the few things I couldn't do without over the weekend. So miracously the shopping trip wasn't a beating for me. I have now got four happy and content children all doing thier own thing without fighting. And that's one small pleasure I intend to enjoy. And no I don't think it has anything to do with the root beer that's been promised to them at dinner if they behave.

Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school for Z. All week long he has been riding his bike back and forth so he can be counted present in his attendance. I have it on good authority that no actually learning ever occurs the last week of school. All my teacher friends assure me that the last two weeks are pointless because the kids have already checked out.

And so the last week's activities are at best just busy work. Monday he had an awards ceremony where he specifically said "mom don't come it's to lame and you don't want to waste your time". I just wanted to hug him for that one. How sweet of him to excuse me from attending the lame ceremony where he gets the ribbons he has won the last six weeks. I guess I may have mentioned that all his siblings would be there as well and he knew it would bore them to no end.

He had his business trade days on Tuesday where he ate no less than two snow cones and two rootbeer floats. I know this because I witnessed him while he was supposed to be selling his cheesy little cowboy hat bookmarks we made the night before. All the siblings went for this fun day and they also scarfed down as many red snowcones as I would let them.

Wednesday was his class party where they pigged out on pizza and then it was followed by an auction. The kids brought things they wanted to auction off and in the process used up all the fake money they earned from business day. I can't say I was really excited about this. I had just finished getting rid of alot of his junk and here he comes home with more junk than will fit in his backpack.

Today he rode off with his empty backpack for his last day of school, I'm not sure what I will find in his backpack today but at least I will have three months before I have to go through it again.

Wordless Wednesday

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Better Late Than Never

That seems to be my motto in life lately. We finally had my youngest daughter A. baptized this weekend. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get it done but we did and now I can finally stop fretting about how she hasn't been baptized yet.

I have also finally gotten some of the summer schedule figured out the last few days. Again, better late than never. The kids are all enrolled in thier different levels of swim classes. This has actually been a bit more challenging than you might think. Four children of all different ages is not easy to figure out how they can all be in the water at the same time. But it's done, yay!

And we have finally figured out what we are going to do for our fun family trip this summer. Hubs and I didn't feel brave enough for the beach this year since A. can be a pistol and keeping up with her and the other three seemed a bit daunting. So if you can't cool off at the beach than you better cool off in the mountains. So we did what every other Texan has done for years to drive the New Mexicans crazy, we reserved a cabin next to a creek for a few days in July in their mountains. It should be lots of fun and not only does our dumb dog Gigi get to go but so do Grandmama and Pappy. The kids will love it and so will we.

So if I can just get a few more better late than never things taken care of then all will be good.

Fun in the Sun

It was very hot last week and the kids were begging for relief. I wasn't quite ready to get in the cold pool water again so soon so decided instead to let the kids just run through the sprinkler toy that I had bought. I got it primarily for the little ones but I must say even the big boys had fun with it.

It all started out innocently enough. They would take turns running back and forth between the spraying noodles. Then Hoss decided that he needed to spray water into his mouth. So they all had to start spraying water into their mouths. Again, nothing to bad about all that, is there?


But you add in a few more boys and next thing you know the girls are left standing on the sidelines while the boys and their friends pretend to be firemen and put out the fire with the various "hoses". Again really not to bad. But these are boys you know, and next thing I know the girls are standing right next to the boys and their friends as they all have a peeing contest to see who's water will go the furthest or who can put out the most fires. My girls will not be left out of any peeing contest if they can help it. (Did I really just say that?)


I'm all about equality, my girls will always be told they can do anything boys can do. Especially if it means that all the kids get to play at the same time without whining and crying to mom about one thing or another.

Photo Hunter- Shoes

This week's theme is shoes. So I grabbed the first pair that I tripped over and decided to take a picture. These are a pair of baseball cleats from my son. I recently went through my boys closets and found nine pairs of cleats in varying sizes. Not to be outdone, my girls have at least as many if not more pairs of flip flops to choose from, but since I wasn't actually tripping over these this morning I didn't get their pictures.



So there's my take on this weeks theme. For other views on this week's theme visit TNCHICK.com or PhotoHunt

Final Score

We have a small bird problem right now. I guess it's really not so much a problem as really an annoyance. We have two little birds that have decided to build their nest over the arch in our front doorway. Now any other place around the house and I wouldn't care. In fact I would probably even like to see them flying and zipping in and out around the place. But on our front porch, I really don't like them so much. I am constantly trying to clean up the bird poop they keep leaving on my welcome mat. I mean really who wants to have a bird poop covered welcome when they go to someones house. Not me! And then what happens if for some reason they decide to poop just at the moment that someone is ringing the bell. Now that would be a great welcome wouldn't it.

The first time I realized what these birds were doing, I was mean and sprayed their nest down with the water hose. It didn't deter them, they just came back and rebuilt again and again. Hubs decided to get in on the action. He then tried to scare them away by hanging up some different types of "stuff" to scare them away. He tried hanging Walmart bags all around where they were nesting. I was quite impressed by his ingenious idea because it seemed to be working. I was however quite embarrassed about having Walmart bags hanging and blowing in the breeze all around our front porch. But these little birds are persistent, they just waited until the bag closest to their nest blew down and back they came. Hubs then decided that he would just cover the entire front porch window with a big black lawn bag. Again the little birds just stayed away long enough for the bag to be blown down. Like I said, persistent little birds.

Not to be outdone, Hubs sat there one evening trying to figure out a way to get rid of the birds without actually hurting them, at least not badly. He then had another idea ( I won't say this one is really as brilliant as the walmart bag one though). He decided that he would take the laser tag gun my oldest son has and have himself a birdie stakeout. So for the past two nights, Hubs has gotten the little Nerf darts and the dart tag gun and gone huntin'. (Hubs has only gone quail hunting once before and had such a hard time seeing the little birds he couldn't do it again...hmmff..and he calls himself a Texan). Right, back to the story. Hubs has been out huntin' the last two nights and he has shot lots of Nerf darts. All I can say about that is that his accuracy leaves room for lots of improvement. And those darn little persistent birds, well I could hear their chirping laughter as they swooped all around him. Then they must have gotten tired and decided to rest for the night. And of course that would mean that they went to sleep in their nest, over our front porch with all the Walmart bags blowing in the breeze and amidst flying orange Nerf bullets.

Final Score

Birds- 3
Humans-0

Wordless Wednesday

The Graduate...Pre K Style

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