LOOOOOOOOOOOONG Day....

A day in the life of a stay-at-home mom....

6:00 - Brad's alarm goes off for the first time.
6:15 - Brad's alarm again...
6:30 - You guessed it...Brad's alarm again:)
7:00 - Brad FINALLY gets up & on this morning (this is not normal people!) goes & fixes Bish a waffle
7:15 - Shayden starts to stir in the next room so I go & get her bottle ready

By 8:40 somehow we are all ready to go...

9:02 - We drop off Bishop at his class & headed to Jenn's to get her
9:20 - We got everyone loaded & headed back to the church for Bishop's field trip
9:23 - Stop at Sonic for necessary caffiene
9:30 - Pick up Bishop to drive to Gainesville for a field trip to the zoo with 45 other 3 & 4 year olds
10:15 - arrive at zoo & spend 2 FABULOUS hours looking at giraffe's & bears...whoo hoo:)!
12:15 - We head back to Justin to grab lunch
1:15 - Eat lumch & have about 20 minutes of adult conversation
2:00 - arrive home & put Shayden down for a nap
I spent the next two hours SCRUBBING the master bath & packing boxes...OH...& let's not forget LAUNDRY
4:00 - get ready for work...grab kids & head to Mc'D's
4:45 - arrive at work & am bombarded by 10 kids ready for crafts...whoo hoo again:)
8:30 - arrive home after entertaining 40 kids at McD's...parents, I am NOT a babysitter...they are still YOUR responsibility!!!
9:00 - get kids to bed...whew
9:05 - type ridiculous blog because I don't want to go fold clothes...:)
9:30 - I'm off to pretend to fold the clothes while secretly watching Jericho...:)

Good night...HA...in like 2 more hours...

*sigh*

:)

Flash Flood

Wow. I guess if you have never been in a flash flood then you don't realize how scary it is. I was scared to death. When I got home from picking Bish up from school, I turned on the weather & there were storms with rotation in them all over the metroplex. Being the chicken that I am & yet being smart enough not to stay at OUR house, I drove into town to hang out with a friend. As the afternoon wore on, we decided it was safe to go home. In theory we were correct....
There was a traffic tie up in the five short miles between our house & Jennifer's (thank you Jenn for putting up with us, by the way:). We soon realized it was because there was water over the road. Some cars were crossing it, others turned around...Brad went across, I turned around. Brad got scared...he realized the new saying around here, "turn around, don't drown" made sense. I was smart but was also now 45 minutes from home instead of five. What should have taken me five minutes ended up taking me an hour and a half??!! I was so terrified. It was pouring down rain & there were wrecks everywhere and water was creeping up on the roads. I was wondering if I was even going to make it home the back way. Bishop was crying, I was crying, Brad was freaking because we couldn't get home...it was horrible. PRAISE GOD that Shayden stayed asleep. Lesson learned...ALWAYS have a spare bottle in your car...ALWAYS have a bottle of water...and ALWAYS go pee before you leave...!
We survived & when the storm with tornados hit later, our house didn't blow away so...WHEW & THANK YOU GOD:)!!!

It was a wild day...certainly NOT your typical Tuesday afternoon...I think I have decided I prefer ordianary:)!

Have a FABULOUSLY, ordinary Thursday my friends:)!!

Not for sale...

I have a mild obsession with bedding. Now, if it were brand new & luxurious bedding then one might think that was normal. It’s not. I have had the same pillow case since I was a child…& quite honestly, it was my parents so it is left over from the seventies. If you have EVER been to my house, you have seen it…it is green & blue & basically obnoxious. It has faded & is VERY thin but I refuse to give it up. The pillow inside of it is worse. It is not even really a pillow at this point. It is some ratty old stuffing inside of a case. I also have an attachment to my very old down blanket. I have had it since I went to college. It has survived several duvet covers & is now just a blanket. It is so worn out that there are places without feathers…just two pieces of material sewn together…it isn’t even all that warm anymore but I refuse to part with it too. The other blanket on our bed is a Cabbage Patch blanket…not from the recent Cabbage Patch craze but from the one when I was a child. It is ridiculously thin & looks ridiculous on a married couples bed but Brad & I actually FIGHT over that one...yes, fight. It has been washed so many times that it is super soft so we both want it. This is all sad I know…I have no idea why I have such attachment issues with my bedding. We will get new bedding to go in the new house but I can promise that all of these will go too. I let go of the duckies…the junky old pillows & blankets ARE staying…!!!

You guys are laughing again, aren’t you….*sigh*…

Blessings Abound

If you can watch the Home Makeover show without crying then you are STRONG! We are not regular watchers because it is just horribly heartwrenching to watch. But tonights episode is based out of Lawton, Oklahoma (thank you Elizabeth) and we drove by when they were working on it so we wanted to see the story behind it. It is absolutely heartbreaking...it literally makes my heart ache. I pray that their spirits have been lifted in their new home & that God will continue to work on & through them.

So often we take so much for granted...I am guilty. We are SO very blessed...it is in watching shows like this that I realize that we are so lucky. So, thank you Lord for all of the blessings that I take for granted...walking, talking, seeing, hearing...a loving family...we are SOOOOO blessed!!!

These pictures were taken today...Bishop being the great big brother that he is took Shayden for a walk up & down the sidewalk in front of Mom & Dad's house. A sidewalk...I can't wait to have one of those where I live....

Happy Sunday!!

GLORY TO GOD!!!

Fabulous Friday

I haven't blogged on the house in a while because it has been such an emotional roller coaster. One minute things are fine, the next...disaster. It has been quite stressful & very draining. I had no idea that buying a house was this traumatic. At the moment, things seem good. We should close on this house on Thursday, and close on our new one next Thursday. Keep praying...we haven't signed on the bottom line yet!!

Some things have changed since we started this process. We are not getting anywhere close to what we were asking for our house. (Thank you Countrywide & FHA....I hope you don't believe in Karma...:) That has been our nightmare...but thanks to my wonderful parents we are proceeding anyways. Since we aren't making the amount we thought, we were not going to be able to afford a new house. They decided we needed to be back in town & wanted us to move so they stepped in & are helping more than I can ever thank them for. I don't even feel like they should but my very unselfish parents told me, "You will inherit everything we have when we die...we have it to give so why shouldn't we get to watch you enjoy some of your inheritence?"

If you thought people like this don't exist anymore, I am here to tell you THEY DO. They are amazing, selfless people who have done nothing but encourage not only me, but Brad, and many of my friends throughout the years too. So, thank you MOM & DAD...I don't deserve you guys anymore than I deserve such a loving & forgiving Heavenly father. The best thing I can do is try to show my children the same unconditional love & support that you have shown me....I know you learned it from two pretty special people too:).

I love you....

FRIDAY FEAST

Appetizer: What is your favorite kind of bread?

I am not a huge bread fan BUT I ate at an Italian joint last week called"Pazzo" and the bread they served with marinara was VERY good:)!!

Soup: When was the last time you bought a new pillow?

It has been a while...we have memory foam pillows though so they last awhile!

Salad: Approximately how many hours per week do you spend surfing the ‘net?

I plead the fifth....more than I probably should...

Main Course: What’s the highest you remember your temperature being?

That would be a question for my mom....I don't remember stuff like that!! Bishop had 103 once & I freaked!!

Dessert: Fill in the blanks: When I ____________, I _____________.

When I drive, I SING:)!

When I shower, I SING:)!

When I am bored, I SING:)!

And if Sanjaya can make it to the finals on AI, then I should try out:)! HA!!

SHE IS STANDING...but she doesn't know what to do next:)!!

My Boo...

Princess Buttercup with her people...

Bishop is a cheeseball....just like his daddy!!

Gun control...

I want to start out saying how very sad I am over what happened at Virginia Tech...it truly put a black cloud over this week. I ache for everyone involved. I am praying for the families that have lost a loved one, for the college students who will live in fear for a long time, & for the the family of the gunman. I can't imagine what they, too must be going through.

In light of what happened, many people are already jumping on the gun control bandwagon. They scream that we need stricter laws & this wouldn't have happened. Don't fool yourself. This did not happen because a college student could go buy a gun. It didn't happen because people are allowed to own guns. It happened because we as a society have removed Jesus Christ from our society...it happened because parents have decided that any kind of punishment that hurts our kids feelings or their bottoms is bad. I have family members that refuse to tell their kids no because they think it is negative. My mother, a teacher here in Texas, was informed that teachers shouldn't use red ink to grade papers because all of those red marks make the students feel bad. We are trying to hard to make sure our kids don't get "damaged." Somewhere in trying to protect them we have forgotten to teach them that bad things happen, people WILL make fun of you, people WILL make you feel bad. But instead of blowing away half the school, you dust off your bruised ego, you turn to Christ for strength, and you move on. The only thing gun control does is take the guns out of law abiding citizens hands. The good, responsible people who just want to protect themselves lose out. The criminals will ALWAYS have guns.

I realize that this may hit a nerve with some people. I am from Texas & was raised around guns. My dad started teaching me to shoot at age 5. I was taught that they are weapons & they ARE dangerous. My dad looked me in the eye & told me that I had better not pull a gun out unless I was ready to use it. I will teach my kids the same thing...I want to know that if someone breaks into my house in the middle of the night, I will be able to protect my family...

Whew...stepping down now...

As usual, Elizabeth takes better pics with my kids than I do:)!

PRAYER REQUEST

I just got a call from my friend, Robin. Many of you know her. She had a prayer request & asked that I post it on my blog because she knows lots of mommies read it. Her girlfriend, Kristin, is pregnant & due in June. She went to the doctor last week & found out that it has a chromosone disorder & will only survive a week after birth. The doctors said that sometimes they could last a year but due to another heart issue that he suspected things would be very bad. She said that Kristin is taking this very hard...understandably so. Please pray that God will work in this situation...and give Kristin & her husband & their entire family some peace & acceptance. God is the only one that can provide "peace that surpasses all understanding."

Thank you blogging friends...Robin knew that many of you would be prayer warriors & wanted me to post it....that makes me realize how blessed I am to have all of you!!!!!

The End of an Era...

The ducks are gone. If you have known me for any amount of time, you know that my bathroom is COVERED in little yellow ducks. I have had a duckie bathroom for a VERY long time...since I was at Tech. The duckies were apart of my college culture if you can believe that. When Jodi & I lived at Indiana Village, I had a bulliten board on my bathroom wall and it was filled with pictures of ducks that people had colored, drawn or seen. There was the infamous "Hurt Duck Hotline" picture from Katie. She was poking fun at me for calling the city when I discovered a duck at the resorvoir had a coke plastic ring around his neck. And who could forget the dead duck picture from Juan who thought my bathroom was a little out of control:). I had duck Christmas lights around the mirror....it was fun. After Brad & I got married, they decorated our little tiny apartment bathroom...Brad even allowed me to paint the bathroom duckbeak orange. Then we moved ot our house now & he allowed a muted shade of orange but he still allowed all the ducks to stay. He even let me add more...:)!! But yesterday, I took them down. They are now safely tucked away in garbage bags with garage sale stickers on their heads:(. Brad rejoiced when I told him that the ducks would not be joining us at the new house. I told Jodi & there was a little sadness in her voice....it truly is an end to an era...which means we are getting old but that is a whole nother blog:). I kept a few special ones...Brad's devil duck, the pink evian duck Jodi drank lots of water & sent off for, the duckie painting & flower pot also Jodi's handiwork. The little Ernie doll that sings "Rubber Duckie" went to Shayden who thinks it is pretty cool...at least I can smile about that...:)

Stop LAUGHING...I am truly a LITTLE crushed about it:)!!!!!

Please pray...

It is late & I don't feel like going into lots of details...

Satan is attacking...we are having trouble with our house deal. It is nothing ot do with contracts or money....basically we are getting screwed by the system. I have prayed all along that we are doing what God wants us to do & maybe this is His way of halting something that is wrong. Or maybe it is Satan trying to mess up a good thing. I don't know....

I DO know that God is in control & has all the power. Please pray that all of this can be solved quickly...that we can all find a peace in this situation...that it all works out...

Thank you....I pray that I can get some sleep...

Hillary

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.

He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire Life."

"Where's Hillary Clinton's clock?" asked the man."

Hillary's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

If you plan to support Hillary Clinton in the next election, please do not tell me. I am not sure that we could remain friends & I know about it....:).

I'm kidding...

...sort of....

It was Col. Mustard, in the library, with the Candlestick...

We are dorks. I mean, we already KNEW that, but now it is offical. Nick & Shelly came over last night & we sat around playing Clue. Yes, CLUE...the board game for eight year olds. For the record...it was THEIR game:)! It is quite complex...I played it when I was a kid & it seemed a lot simpler then:). Though I was confused throughout...I WON!! It really was Col. Mustard in the library with the candlestick. And do you want to know what is worse...I had a good time & want to play it again:)!!!! Maybe we should bust out Operation & Life:).

It has been quite a day & it is only 2. We got up early to go watch a parade. Two of our friends have little boys on the same T-ball team & they were in the parade. I think it lasted all of 2 minutes but we held our signs proudly & cheered anyways:). After that we hit a couple of neighborhood garage sales. It would have been nice to know which house we were going to get...we could have decked it out today. Instead we bought Shayden some shoes, a dress, Shyanne a shirt & Bishop a light saber. Whoo hoo:). On the way home, we stopped at a furniture tent sale & then stopped off at a friends neighborhood get together. We were crashers:).

Now, we are both playing online poker & it is just NOT my day:). I have lost it all so I am going to put the kids down for a nap & take one myself. I must get rested for ladies night....:)

Happy Saturday!!

HOLY BUTTERBALLS

YES...that is Bishop's new saying:). We were driving around looking at houses tonight & out of nowhere, "HOLY BUTTERBALLS MOMMY!!" I cracked up. He was completely serious....he had no idea what was funny. I love my son:)!! His new favorite sayings are:

"No, not really."

"Does that sound like a plan?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"I need FIVE MORE MINUTES!!"

"No MA'AM!!" (He says this to Shayden when she is messing with his lego's b/c that is what I tell her when she is getting into things she shouldn't!)

Life is grand...we have a contract on our house. We looked at three this evening & fell in love with two of them. We will place bids but won't hear anything until Monday! Please keep praying for us to find the RIGHT one....I just want to be where we are supposed to be.

I should go to bed...I just lost all of my online poker money to BRAD!!!

I'm the lucky one!

Sometimes these things just happen....

Right, Shawnee?!

Anyhoo....

Today was a stressful day. Shayden was fussy & I later found out at the doctor it was because she not only had an ear infection but her eardrum had burst. I only had to donate $85 to find that out. (No worries...your ear drum bursting is not as scary as it seems...I too PANICED but the eardrum can heal itself...science lesson of the day.) I am too tired for words due to the fussiness of said baby at nighttime. We lost another house in the bidding world of foreclosures so we STILL have no place to live. I yelled at Brad because I was stressed & that made me fell more crappy. I sent something by mistake & was upset about that....suffice it to say....not a great day.

I am edgy, grouchy & cranky. But as I sat down at the computer I looked at the pictures on my desk & I remember the sleeping husband in my bed. I HAVE the important things....I have 2 beautiful children that I adore. I am looking at the picture Bishop colored Shayden because he was sad that she didn't feel good & thinking....gosh, I am lucky. I can not imagine my life without my son....beneath that wild boy exterior is a heart of pure gold. His hugs could cure anything!! I love my family....Shayden has a personality all her own. She demands attention but she will reward you with a smile that makes you forget how high maintenance she REALLY is:). And then there is Brad. He has his flaws but he is my everything. He loves me far more that I deserve most days. I am lucky...he knows that....just ask him:). Above all of these things, I have a GOD who also loves me when I definitely don't deserve it. I am not worthy & yet he holds my hand anyways. I feel like i have let him down in this search for a house. I know that He will work it all out....I just have to trust. TRULY trust...."If you have a faith as small as a mustard seed NOTHING will be impossible for you." (Matt 17:20) I just need to remember that that is not a lot of faith....a mustard seed is small. I KNOW it will be okay....JESUS, I am making a public declaration...I TRUST YOU!! Put me in a house that is where you want me to be!! Let me be open minded about many things....stomp out satan & let us live in your will.
To my friend who has been wavering as well....we can make it. We need to look past the small stuff & see the big stuff. My dad has a ridiculous quote but it rings true..."Don't sweat the petty stuff & don't pet the sweatty stuff:)."

And I will leave you with my favorite quote & there is a prize for whoever can name the movie it came from....:)

"Don't let the man get ya down..."

Whew,,,

WHAT a weekend!!! It was a LONG weekend, I am EXHAUSTED, but it was FABULOUS:)!! I may not recover for weeks, but it was worth it:). Friday started with a bang when we hosted our first Bunko party. We have been saying we were going to do it since we moved here & didn't. We decided to go ahead & I am SO glad we did...it was a blast!! I hope everyone had as much fun as we did. We will definitely do it again & those that missed need to come. It was very fast paced & kept everyone energized & I didn't realize half of my friends are comedians:). I laughed too hard:). That was a late night but we still got up early to hit the garage sales Saturday morning. Shelly. Elizabeth & I left around 9 (I know...we are not TRUE garage salesr leaving that late:) & we had fun browsing through other people's castoffs. Elizabeth decided to buy a pool float (a nice one) and it never occured to any of us that we were in the BUICK!??!? OOOPPPPSSSS....where are we going to put that? Somehow we fit it in the car...we must have looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. I should have bought the cheap ficus tree I wanted...we could have just hung it out the window with the bright blue raft:). We migh be redneck's if....I'll save ya the trouble:)....
Elizabeth took the kids with her after lunch....that left me solo. Brad & Tammy went to Lawton to see his grandpa. I went shoe shopping & to get my nails done for the birthday party that evening. WOW....I had NO idea what to do with myself. I am NEVER alone....it was almost scary. Having two kids with me ALL the time almost makes me scared to be alone...it was weird:). After some drama upon arriving home, we went to Summer's THIRTIETH birthday party. It was an ABSOLUTE BLAST!!! I don't think I can top it for Brad's 30th which APPARANTLY I need to start planning now!! We stayed out until FIVE in the morning (it was really only four due to the time change) but sheesh!! I haven't done that in years!!! But it was SO much fun!!! (It was amazing Summer...many kudos!!!) Sunday, we slept in...THANK YOU ELIZABETH! We met my parents for lunch & went & looked at a house. More shopping after lunch, a trip to the park, & a fabulous dinner of sushi with family & friends. It was an amazing weekend. The weekend was not without drama, however. There are some issues that I have become aware of that I guess I have been ignoring that now HAVE to be dealt with. I can't say much, just that my feelings were very hurt & I am just totally unsure where to go from here.
I must go to bed now...I have mucho sleep to catch up on!!!
Adios...