I Love My Family

Where Have I been?

2014-04-10T10:05:00.001-04:00

I am certain that I just posted last week but when I look at the date, it has been almost a year ago. I generally have good intentions of keeping up, after all I WAS/AM a Jones!, but it never works out that way.

Since last year, life has gotten busier than I ever expected. I entered a new realm that I had hoped to avoid. I became a "soccer mom" of sorts. None of our children play soccer, but Number One plays basketball, Number three cheers for the basketball games, and Number Two started baseball in February. We have limited the children to ONE sport per year so they have the option of changing a sport but not adding thereunto.

I am not sure how parents do it but I guess they do. I definitely had to decide if the sport controlled us or we controlled the sport. I say I, but Mr. Handsome was involved as a silent partner. He goes along for the ride and when things look like we are taking a wrong turn, he jumps in and steers us correctly. He never leads us wrong! Anyway, WE decided we controlled the sport. Thankfully, Number One's coaches were upright Christian men who understood that our priorities were not necessarily being obsessed with the sport! Number Three's cheering coach? Not so much. But when I found out I could stand up and draw clear and definite boundaries - as in we will attend on these days but not on these (we have a midweek church service and that is one thing we have committed ourselves to not missing). The girls also belong to American Heritage Girls, which is a Christian scouting program. And if there is a game and ahg, we go to ahg. Number Two has the same rules and they are working for us.

Sports is an interesting adventure! I was an avid, yet not very accomplished, athlete as a kid. Thankfully for my parents, we lived one block from our school so it wasn't such a hardship for them. I am glad that I had the opportunity and I am hoping our children enjoy it too. Sports have definitely changed since I was young as well. I am amazed at how competitive people are. I took Number Two to sign him up for baseball and I am sure the moms were trying to be polite - most of them are Southern after all - and they asked me how long he had played. I shrugged and said, "never." They all were aghast!!! And then they proceeded to tell me how their little Johnny (named changed to protect myself!) had been playing since he was in diapers!! Well, probably pull-ups but I know I heard diapers. It never occurred to me to subject my children to sports until they were interested. And I didn't have to deal with naptimes, fussy babies, etc. I am glad we waited and we will see. They may never become Hank Aarons or Kareem Abdul Jabbars but they might come to love the sports. Their coaches have been great - except for said coach of Number Three - they want the kids to learn to love the game more than they do win. WOW!!! Who would have thought!!

Staring with May of 2013, Lindsay made this delicious cake for us!

Robert broke his arm. Rather, I should say, Lindsay broke his arm. He told her to pull him behind his bike while he rode his scooter! And of course, there was a crash. Mr. Handsome was sure he didn't brake it but I KNEW he did! We are telling everyone that Lindsay finally got her revenge on him because he broke her arm when she was 2. No there was no fighting involved. He got mad and pushed her off of a chair and her arm got caught.

Field Day. If you meet the minnimum required PRESIDENTIAL goals - you know, how many cigarettes can you smoke in 30 seconds, can you say Jihad properly?! - I'm just kidding!! - if you meet the goals, you get a badge. KK got her badge.

Beatrice, the human wheel barrow!

A quilt for a friend's new baby boy.

And here you have a port o john, with guess what streaming out of it? I know you aren't supposed to use your phone while driving, so Maddie took the picture for me. It was too funny to miss!!

Lindsay got an early birthday present.

Robert riding his Uncle's motorcycle. And mysteriously, the next time we went to visit, it was gone! Just like that! It vanished!

I can't remember what they are doing here. Watch the video and let me know! The girl on the right is my niece Lily!! We LOVE Lily!

Another quilt for a new baby. You can't see it up close but the pinwheels are actually 3-d. I know, I'm a wonder!

Robert graduated from elementary to middle school!!!

At the pool. Rachel is all the way on the far left. That is my younger brother's daughter.

Beatrice's birthday.

After church with some friends. My preacher, on the left, and my friend Aileen. Frozen yogurt is the new big thing! Someone apparently missed it in the '80s.

Robert's buddy Jared. He loves KK!

Maddie's birthday with Mr. Handsome's family in Myrtle Beach.

Our children love Duck Dynasty. For some reason.

At the beach with friends. KK on left, BB on right, their friend Kellan in the middle.

At the beach. I am a chicken mom. I don't like parks and I don't like the beach. It is too difficult to keep up with everyone. They are all too mobile now!! But we go and I pray the whole time. God protects us and I am grateful for it. As you can see, they love it!

Maddie's birthday at home.

New vehicles! YES! While I like the fact that I am driving the batmobile, I can not get used to the lack of space. We had to downsize because gas mileage was so high! And we can't fit our friends!

At the pool. Robert, KK, Jared, Beatrice, Maddie, Lindsay

My younger brother's wife loves Dr. Who (Who?) so I made their new baby - who was born August 1, Grandma Jones in NH's birthday - a Tardis quilt. I know, it looks like a phone booth to me too.

At the Battleship. Yepski, we DO have alligators here.

Maddie the gunner!

At AWANA Big Splash. I went on the slide AFTER all the kids left. My best friend and I went up in a stealth manner but someone noticed and everyone else has photos of us! We had fun!

In Charlotte for the God Bless America crusade. If you haven't been to one and they come to your area GO!! It is free and it is wonderful! Our choir sang and there were almost 500 people in the choir every night!

Lindsay's birthday.

Quilt for another friends' baby. Disregard the wonky lower right side.

I have no idea. We are at my younger brother's house.

Hubb's corn maze. Fun, fun fun!

Kristine doing school

An eclair ring. It was delicious!

Helping a friend clean her dogs. No, not me.

This is supposed to be a video of Lindsay cheering.

Birthday party at a farm somewhere.

Lindsay's pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving.

Our Christmas tree. I had to run an errand and this is what I came back to: yes, confetti!

Another quilt for a friend's grandbaby.

The children's Christmas play

Mr. Robbie decorated like a Christmas tree

Mom and Dad at my brother's house

A year in picutres.

This gigantic thing was built right here in SE NC! It was the tower where the announcers spoke in Time Square for the Super Bowl.

Taylor making venison stew. Notice the white blop in the middle of the bowl? I told him to put it in the SILVER bowl but he wasn't listening. The stew still came out great!

Mini cheerleaders!

Our Cardinal gal

Sledding in North Carolina!! These kids today!! They have no clue what being the downhill person means!

Friends! The extra girls are Bailey (in the back) and PJ (In the plaid coat)

Beatrice playing her ukelele

Robert is actually taller than the Empire State Building!! HA! Actually, he built it.

Valentine's Day celebration - Taylor was in San Jose. He now knows the way to San Jose!

Beatrice was in two Bees this year. She and Robert entered the geography bee (which as it turns out, she came home and told Mr. Handsome, "Daddy, I was in the geography bee and I don't even know what geography is!!) and Bea entered the spelling bee.

The way I make Norwegian pancakes now. Number Three is learning the art of making them. She does a great job too.

Our Elsa and Anna! From Frozen.

Church's Valentine's dinner.

At a paint your own pottery studio with the family.

On the left is Aiden, our grandnephew, Chris' grandson

Watching the boys play

My basketball mom friends! Notice how interested we are in the games!

KK with her two friends - notice how interested they are in the games!

At soulwinning class. Robert represents someone who is dead in their sins. Just for the record, I would never let him climb on a piano. But - I wasn't teaching the class so it wasn't up to me.

My anniversary present from Taiwan. A tea buddy, because everyone needs a buddy! And oolong tea which smells like stinky feet! Taylor had a business trip to Taiwan for 1.5 weeks. I learned how to take apart and reassemble the sink and take apart and reassemble the dishwasher. My Mom wanted to know why I didn't call my older brother. Wellll, I love my older brother but what took Robert and I one hour, would have taken him FIVE because he LOVES to talk. Yes he does!! And I didn't have time for talking.

Getting ready to go get Mr. Handsome

My co-op class singing Let it Go! Kristinie the Great is second from the left.

Robert at bat.

Our baseball player

I decided to color the waffles green for St. Patrick's day.

Kristinie the Great practicing her violin

Lindsay and her best friend.

Maddie's mosaic stone

Robert made unleavened bread

At the Gestapo-like pediatric dentist. We went to a different dentist who was WAY better. KK had to have three teeth pulled and about six cavities filled. She told her brother and sisters: When the pedeatwic dentis dot mad at me, I dot mad at him! I had no idea that happened because I was glad to sit in the waiting room. Apparently she got scared because I wasn't in there and when they tried to calm her down she got madder. They accused her of being afraid of the dentist. She is not afraid of the dentist, as you will see later on in my story.

Britt's famous donut shop - homemade donuts!! They are the best!

And here we are at the good dentist's!! Who didn't postpone all the work needed but did it all in one week.

And even Olaf is happy

Our last day of co-op. Our class was great!!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Handsome!

Maddie's new pets. Aflac and Waddles!

And that is the story of our last year. It has been a great year and I thank the Lord for all that He has blessed us with. Maybe I will be better at posting this year!

I will never be alone

2013-05-04T18:40:00.001-04:00

I know that is a strange title but lately, my children are driving me crazy!!! I think it is because we are almost done with school.
Well I guess its been since the beginning of April since I posted! We celebrated Mr. Handsomes birthday in grand style. We also said good bye, for now, to a dear friend. He had been sick for a long time but for some reason God kept him here. One of my favorite songs goes, We'll never say goodbye in Glory, over yonder, in the morning. We'll never say goodbye in glory, we'll never say goodbye up there. So someday I will see him again.
We saw Robert receive his God amd family badge and his Arrow of Light award. He is officially a Boy Scout. He missed his very first camping trip because he told Lindsay to tie a rope around his bike so she could pull him while he rode his scooter. I know this seems like something I would do and you're right! He had road rash all over him because Lindsay didnt realize he fell off and dragged him a few feet! He is handling the whole thing well I think.

The BIG event of the month so far, has been our Maddie saving up enough money to buy herself her own ipod touch. I am really proud of her! She saved for quite a while. We went to sams and she is thrilled!

I had a baby shower to attend for a friend decided I was tired of the rail fence pattern I had been doing. I remembered AFTER I made this quilt WHY I did rail fence patterns for EVERYONE! Because then no one would feel more or less loved! And this is a friend who moved away. So now I am working on a quilt for a friend who is here. She is having a boy so I picked out all kinds of crazy boy fabric. Pictures later.

This is Aiden John and Robert. They are buddies! And the last photo is od Lindsays cake creation: strawbeeey cake. It was excellent. Alas, there will be no seconds as our Maddie dropped the rest! :(

We are looking forward to our summer beginning. It has been a looooooong school year. We are required to be in school for nine months and this includes field trips and co-op. But our curriculum is a sokie 170 days so we end up doing more than 200 days of school! I am so thankful it is not school like sitting at your desk all day school. We have been working on getting through th e original Swiss Family Robinson. It has been fun. I have been reading to the children every night. We are enjoying it. I only remember reading the abridged version but I may have read the whole thing.

Winding down our year

2013-04-05T23:16:00.001-04:00

Going backwards now: Tonight we celebrated Mr. Handsome's birthday. It is not until Sunday but we wamted to have a surprise party for him. He got home from Charlotte about 145am. He had a job interview as well as a rehearsal to sing in a 1000 voice choir in Charlotte in September for a crusade along the lines of Billy Graham. The children chose a football theme and he was very surprised. He loves Duck Dynasty so they picked out a tshirt with Si on it. He loved it.

Today, we were the Adventure Bus. Lindsay's bff spent the night last night - she goes to year round school and was on break - and the day with us. We were all over the place looking for a duck dynasty tshirt! We went to target and Lindsay - the giver - shared her allowance with her bff so they could get matching shorts to wear with their matxhing shirts and matching necklaces. Not that anything matched each other mind you! I was also able to get a serious picture of BB and Kristinie the Great. Robert found footballs cards and plans to mail a Tampa Bay Buccaneers card to my cousin's husband. It is so sweet how they love family they dont see much.

Last night was Roberts first Boy Scout meeting. He received his Boy Scout patch. I am very proud of myself. I didnt even cry. And that is because, as you can see from the photo, I was with a bunch of oh-so-happy girls! Everyone was very tired. The next two photos were taken at my friends house. Now stay with me here. This is a bit confusing. She and her mom take care of her grandpa - her moms dad - who is a yankee. See the old guy playing with the phone? He is getting ready to move to a nursing home - hopefully today. I am there helping my friends mom. My friend had to go to the hospital to be with her daughter who was having her ENTIRE colon removed from perforation and infection. Yes! So since kids were done with school and they finished the house cleaning, I skittered over there to help watch the two (yep, two) grand daughters my friend keeps. They are a month apart. The one in the photo belongs to the young lady who had her colon removed. And I also helped watch her grandpa though he slept the whole time. I dont know how my friend does it. Her daughter will come to her house when she is released from the hospital so she cam care for her and her baby while her husband works. My life is boring compared to hers!

And Easter Sunday. We went to my parents for a couple of hours. The kids had fun with the egg hunt. And I actually got a photo with everyone in their Easter outfits! What a wonder!

We went to an Easter party the Thursday before Easter which was a lot of fun. The little girls and Lindsay made resurrection gardens. They really enjoyed that.

The little girls playing. Kristinie the Great must have learned about doctors because she has a mask on. And I learned something about food. I didnt know this but since Mr. Hamdsome loves popcorn and so do kids I will probably avoid it with more diligence. I dont like it myself but it is the worst food for you. It immediately turns to sugar in your body! Who knew! Onto better things -

The photos of the man with the big 'bum' as we say are really Robert 'crossing over' to Boy Scouts. You cant see him (Robert) because he is in front of the man with the big, um, 'bum'. Yep. Every single time I snapped a photo he got in the way. But the rest of the photos he was nowhere to be seen. The man with the big bum. Obviously. The little boy next to Kristinie the Great is one of her buds that homeschools. The young man in the photos with us is our teenage nephew Sawyer. Robert is also with his four friends from his den that he crossed over with. And in case you are wondering I did in fact cry. I am a big baby with our children. Especially with The Boy. He's our only one and we will only see those milestones once. I was pitiful! But I am good with that.

The next two photos are of Robert and his friend's Vietnam project for their history class. They worked very hard recreating an unknown battle scene using their Great Wall of China from another class. Its okay, you crack up here. I did. But that me. The other moms think i am a tad bit strange but I have come to the conclusion that it is because I am nearly 20 years older than most of my mom friends. I have two who are my age and their youngest are Roberts age. I call myself the old lady with young kids. Ironically they did all this the same week some little boy brought cupcakes to school with army men on them and he was asked to remove them because they might be 'offensive'. And I can say I am thankful to the Lord we homeschool. Robert and his friends probably would have been expelled if they were in school.

I realize the next photo looks like I am running over Maddie the pizza delivery girl but I actually forgot the leftover pizza was on the car. This is a rather common occurence for me. Not leaving pizza on cars but forgetting things. So far I have only forgotten Kristinie the Great one time in the van. She is pretty loud so she let me know VERY quickly that she was forgotten. But our Maddie was kind enough to rescue the pizza.

The children are tempting fate here. They are not allowed in the water so they are playing on the rocks.

The next photo may look mysteriously like a Norwegian pancake covered with snow. That is not snow. It is sugar. This is what happens when you step away from the table for a minute. None of the older children have the sense to stop number five from dousing her pancake with sugar. It was thrown out.

The last two photos are indicative of what happens when you send a tired 4 and 6 year old to their room and they have to clean it. Bea felll asleep with her jacket on. Incidentally, the jacket is on because she didnt want to put it away. Kristine fell asleep under the bed.

And there are snippets of the last two weeks of my life. We are looking forward to summer. We are winding down ever so slowly to the end of the year.

And the week before

2013-03-09T23:23:00.001-05:00

Here we are, the week before the Norwegian pancake incident.

I want to state right here and now that I am not a field trip person - but I LOVE field trips. The main reason is that I am afraid I will lose a child. Or one of them will be so naughty and I will go off on them in public and my friends will commit me to The Oaks *the equivalent of Graystone*. But I am getting braver. And for the record, our children behave great! We went ice skating with our homeschool group for Valentines day(pictures in next post if I am not too lazy to post them.) and so the children wanted to go again, saved their allowance money amd went with their friends. Oh! There is one other reason that I am apprehensive about going on field trips with my children. Because I am the only mom who thinks it's funny when my children's coordinations skills wreak havoc. Case in point: Kristine decided she wanted to skate without the sled to help her so ALL the big kids taught her. No one thought to tell her to stop at the wall BEFORE she came off the ice and then simply step off. Nooooooo... she was coming toward the door to the ice rink full speed ahead because she wanted to tell me she could skate unassisted. She hit the dry ground, flew through the air and smashed into the wall head first. I was in the snack bar, or as I call it the SMASH bar, watching the whole thing. I was right across from the door to the rink on a stool with a big window to watch it all. Did I run out to see if she was okay? No! I was laughing! She was so funny!!! All her siblings amd their friends were grabbing her amd helping her up and she had a huge smile on her face. She may have seen stars ands birds. I went out to check on her and thankfully she was fine. She did have her helmet on. Now I see why they wear them. We never did when we were kids. Of course there were also no SMASH bars to smash into.

See the pretty blue Porsche? That is not ours. But I did send a picture to Mr. Handsome so he could see how he is supporting our dentist. Yes, that is HIS car and I think he lives 45 minutes away on purpose, just so he can put that car through its paces.

Again another sleeping incident. This time no benadryl was involved. Only school. I left the room for a short period, came back, and this is what I found.

We celebrated our pastors' birthday with our church. We have two very talented cake decorators in our church so they each made him a cake. The Yankees cake was made by my best friend whose cakes I am partial to. And our pastor is a fan of the Yankees and NC State. Mr. Handsome went to NC State and for some reason he refers to them in the third person plural, which all gold southerners do when referring to their favorite college team, whether its Duke, Wake Forest, or Carolina. I cant understand how a 40-something person can use 'we' and 'our' and 'us' when referring to them.

My January mystery quilt block of the month. I do not like chevron. Anymore. I used to like it until I made this block. 144 pieces of fabric sewn together. Bleh.....

Maddie is pinning the nose on the clown at our AWANA birthday bash.

Busy new year

2013-03-09T22:57:00.001-05:00

Well I guess I will go backwards. Last week was basically a wash as we were - gasp - sick!!!!!! We are recovering now so all's well. But I did get a quilt block done and it was my first ever attempt at paper piecing. I am doing a mystery quilt block of the month with riley blake designs. A friend from church gave me a bunch of fabric from his wife who had passed away a few years ago. So I am going to make him a quilt out of it. He doesn't know it yet - the little girls will surprise him with it. He loves them and they are warming up to him.

The picture of Kristinie the Great is from co-op. She and her class made the digestive system. A working one at that. We decided when they blow up the lungs they look like breast implants!!!! We - my friends and I - were cracking up when the kids came out of their classroom!

Robert and his friend Alex are working on a project in his co-op class. It is a history class and they must be focusing on wars because they picked the Vietnam War. They actually took their Great Wall of China project from another class and turned it into Vietnam. If they were in public school they probably would have been suspended for using army men. I am reminiscing here about the little boy who brought cupcakes to school with army men on them and he had to take them off! The other little boy on the right is Roberts friend Noah. He and his family live right behind us! We are so excited to have a homeschool family so close! They are all boys so no girls for the girls.

The picture with Lindsay sewing is my favorite! She is making a banner for her room. In decorating cirles they are all the rage. I am a square therefore I do not fit in decorating circles. I leave that to our Lindsay - our fashonista in training. She spends most of her time staring at me or looking up at the sky. I am sure its because I have such good taste.

Here ks what happens when you give your two youngest children benadryl in the middle of the day. Yep. They are supposed to be cleaning their room. What are they doing? Sleeping. I even found Kristinie the Great under the bed sleeping!

Our weekly favlrite breakfast is Norwegian pancakes. I have gotten so talented at making them I can use two frying pans. This photo is what happens when you depend on your children to help each other but are actually behaving like pirhanas, leaving Number Five to her own devices with the sugar. This pancake was not eaten by the way. It was quarantined to the trash can.

Today was such a nice day we went to the park near us. The children are looking for baby alligators. No, just kidding! They are looking for dinner - crawfish! Okay no they arent looking for dinner but they are looking for crawfish. Our trips to the park are the most distressing paart of my week. We start out all yay we are going to the park and we are going to ride our bikes and we are going to go really fast so Mommy and Daddy dont have to walk their bikes - oh wait they decided to walk instead so we are going to pedal furiously to the cut through then instead of waiting patiently for us to catch up we are going to cry like we have broken a limb, being sure we embarass our parents terribly. And its downhilll from there. But they really love the park.

Well that wraps up this weeks antics with us. Have a great week.

Christmastime

2012-12-24T14:06:00.001-05:00

Today is Christmas Eve and if anyone came to our house they would think we were a bunch of scrooges. We took all of our indoor decorations down because we are supposed to be at Taylors' family for Christmas. But his dad has the flu and we are going to go tomorrow. Which will be Christmas day and I have been reminded by our children that our decorations are down and they already opened their presents! I think it is great to have nothing to do on Christmas eve. Well, except get ready to go away tomorrow.

The first pboto, I think, is Lindsay and her best friend singing a song in their Christmas play. The next one is some of our friends being silly at the mall! There is nothing more interesting tham two moms and ten children walking around the mall. My friend has three children and Maddie and Robert each had a friend with them. This was a big milestone for Maddie, too. She and her friend got to walk around the mall by themselves for thirty minutes! And I survived! And they came back right on time. I was very proud of them.

Roberts tenth birthday was last Tuesday. He had a big time celebrating and I made his favorite cake: red velvet, from scratch! On Wednesday we went to my moms to make ice cream cone Christmas trees. Thursday was Roberts pack meeting. He is getting ready to become a Boy Scout.

When we got home we celebrated our Christmas. I am so thankful for our children. They were thankful for everything they received!

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas and Roberts birthday with my family. Evryone had fun and Lindsay got the most annoying toy in the world: a furby! It doesn't have an off switch and I wish it came with a hammer! She really likes it too! I thought she would get it and then be bored with it after the first twenty minutes. Kristine got exactly what she wamted: craft supplies. And she has used up quite a bit already! Haha!

Today I finally got around to repairing Roberts pants. The photo is the emd result.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! :)

The week in review

2012-12-15T22:20:00.001-05:00

Here is our week in review. It has been a great week but I have dropped the ball with the three wise guys! I am sad about that but plan to pivm it up tonight. We went to Monkey Joes with our little buddy A. He had a ball with his big friends.
The glitter mess is made by none other than Kristinie the Great. She is our little Martha Stewart. And, like Mahhhhtha, she loves glitter. She wanted to make a card for Roberts friend Jacob amd assured me she woukd not use 'dwidder'. But she loves bottle glue! Yep. Thank you God for blessing me with her. I despise glitter, by the way. I meam, I love the thought of glitter but I dont like to USE glitter. I know, I know. I wam just a baby. But we'll move on. I dont want to discuss my faults, as few as I have.

The rest of the week was hohum. We went to the nursing home, Kristinie the Great made Robert an early birthday cake, we had lunch with my dad and mom at Wendys. Oh! Heres a funny story. I was in line with Mom and I heard Kristine yelling. I thought she was arguing with one of her siblings or cousins. Nooooooooo!!!! She was yelling at Grandpa! He had taken a bite of her frosty without asking!!!!! I tell ya! And to top it off, some lady was scowling at Kristine because she got upset. So I said in a loud voice so nosey lady could hear, 'Dad! How could you have such bad manners and take food from one of your grandchildren without asking?' I looked right at the lady who scowled at Kristine too! She didnt know what to do! Ha ha ha!!!!!

We went to a friends house for lunch thks week and had a great time! They have the sweetest dogs!! The children enjoyed themselves sooooo much! They evem played their kinect. I tried too but I was not too good at it.

Pinterest is my favorite website. If you see the photo with Bea and Kristine in a shirt, it is the get along shirt. Bea and KK would not stop arguing so I put them in a t-shirt and told them they had to get along. They did not like it but after about 30 minutes they realized I wasnt kidding so they got along. And have gotten along all day! Thank you, pinterest!

The other pinterest find I have a photo of is tape balls filled with candy. It is a party game. The object is to unwrap the tape and get as much candy as you can out of it! This is for awana for our Christmas party tomorrow night.

The last photo is a blanke I made for a friends daughters baby shower. Her nursery them is polka dots and dragon flies. I hope I got it right.

Next week is our last week of school and we will have winter break. I think I did pretty good with our days that we put in before Christmas. We normally reach day 100 by the kiddle to ejd of Febrauary. This year I think we will reach it by the middle to ejd of January. This is very exciting to me. I like to finish early so we can do fun stuff without having to contend with crowds. Our curriculum has 170 days and we are required to do 180 days, including field trips so we actually go over the 180 days.

Time to sign off now. I have to make two awana flyers for tomorrow night.

In the throes of the Christmas season!

2012-12-10T10:49:00.001-05:00

We have a lot of friends who use the elf on the shelf. The moms(or dads) move him(or her) around the house to keep a watch on th e kids for Santa. Everyday he(or she) is in a different spot. So the children wake up excited to see where he(or she) will be. We dont have an elf on the shelf because he it is creepy looking and I am afraid I might find it wielding my meat cleaver one day. I thought the idea was fun though our kids kniw Santa is a storybook character. No, we havent ruined Christm as we know it! In fact, our children love Santa - well actually Bea and Kristine are terrified of him still but Lindsay and Robert enjoy seeing him.

Back to the elf on the shelf. I wanted to do something similar so I came up with the three wise guys. Almost everyday they do something silly and have an attribute of Jesus and a Bible verse to go with it. Here are some of the things they have been up to:

Playing catch up!

2012-12-09T15:26:00.001-05:00

It has been over two months since I last posted. We have been busy! But I have also been lazy. I just found out I have a blogger app on my phone. This coukd become dangerous. That being said, this post will be a post in pictures.
The pivtures are in reverse time order. That is a new phrase I hope will catch on! Since I am just learning how to blog on my smart phone this will be interesting. Later I will add more pictures! :)

I wish I was better at taking pictures of the ordinary

2012-10-06T21:55:00.000-04:00

So in this post, we will be all caught up. After our trip to Southport, we came home and have been enjoying a great fall. I am not fond of cold weather. I am not fond of cool weather. I am not fond of mild weather. I only like hot weather. So I am a bit sad to see summer go. Don't get me wrong. It is still in the 80s here and will stay that way until some time in November and quite possibly through Christmas. Last year it was great. We had a short period of cool weather then it was mostly mild and warm.

Let me tell you what Mr. Handsome did. When he normally comes home from work, the kids swarm and he heads for the kitchen to eat dinner. On this particular night, I heard the door open, but no swarming kids, and I didn't know where he went. Since I was busy getting supper ready, I didn't notice. A few minutes after he gets home, my phone rings. It is his ringtone so I am starting to wonder a little bit. I answer it and he says, "Honey, can you please come to the bedroom?" He was very serious and stern so I of course think the worst. HE'S BEEN FIRED! So I sprint back there and the bedroom door is LOCKED!! WHAT IS THAT MAN DOING?! So I unlock it. Then I notice the bathroom door is shut. But it is LOCKED too! And I go in the bathroom in a new hysterical panic. He says, "Guess what?" (I don't know because I am too busy WORRYING myself sick!) I said I don't know. He says, "I am taking you to the Dominican Republic for a week in October!!" What did he just say? I couldn't even get excited because I am still recovering from living out of my car and begging for food, my children being taken away by DSS!! I LOVE my husband but sometimes he is just toooo much!! YES! I am VERY excited. Our children are staying with a homeschooling friend who will keep them doing school. Our children LOVE them. I am not saying when we are going because I don't want someone to come and rob our house or something. Although the children will be here with our friend.

On shopping day, we go to SAM's. That is where we do most of our shopping because it is much cheaper than trying to shop at the grocery store. As you can see, they are practically out of milk. Robert was more than happy to climb in the freezer case to get the milk for me.

Waiting to check out.

One Saturday, my dad took us out on the boat. The girl behind Maddie is one of her good friends. We had a great time.

Captain Robert steering the boat. Everytime something caught his eye off to the side of the boat, he would turn the wheel that way!! We were cracking up!

Maddie being attacked by a cactus plant. This was a walk down memory lane. The last time I saw someone get attacked by a cactus plant was when my family went to California. My dad was going to show us how cool he was when we were in Death Valley. He went to grab a cactus and the needles came out into the palm of his hand. He was full of them.

Lindsay braided my hair like her doll Julie, in the background.

Here is Julie's. It looks much better on her.

Our attempt to blow soda out of a bottle with mentos failed miserably. I wasted $7.00. I should have read ALL the instructions on the internet!

The "safe" playground with the unsafe playground equipment. They are about six feet off the ground. Which brings me to our new adventure. Mr. Handsome and I have started running. He is not as diligent as I am but he still runs. I can run two miles now! I never thought I could do that. When I was in high school, my track coach wanted me to be a hurdler so desperately. I was terrible at it. I would run up to the hurdle, stop, climb over it, and then run to the next one. She told me I had to keep going and I looked at her like she was crazy!! I was not going to get myself tangled up in metal. NO. WAY. So I went on to high jump, long jump, and shot put.

Kristine REALLY wanted to get on there. Until she got on there. Ignore the bald head. That's Mr. Handsome. Maddie bought him a bald head comb!! It is so funny. It has two little combs on the ends, it's round, and the middle has no teeth.

Here is our girly girl moment. Hot curlers.

The end result. I am a bit horrified because all I can think is Toddlers and Tiaras!!

Waiting.

And waiting. Just for the record, that was THREE heads of curlers I had to do.

And here we are with rag curls. This was THREE heads too and they loved it! Bea's didn't come out very good because I did her first. But Kristine and Lindsay came out cute.

Kristine isn't quite awake. It's only 7:00 in the morning.

Sometimes my children think I am Martha Stewart (I AM NOT Martha Stewart. I am more like the Cake Boss and Julia Child, thank you!) and I can do anything. So for their birthdays, I have decided I don't like wasting money on store bought cakes when I can make them cheaper. Oh yes, this cake WAS cheaper but took me a day and a half to make. She wanted a four layer tiered cake with chocolate fondant (I made chocoalte marshmallow fondant) and marshmallow fondant decorations. Here is the end result. The chocolate fondant didn't turn out so great.

Lindsay invited her best friend to her party. Her Mom is one of my sister-friends and she can make cakes that rival Cake Boss. NOT kidding! But I was thankful that Megan really liked Lindsay's cake. It was good. It was a layer of devils food cake and brown sugar poundcake.

Here is Lindsay with one of her friends. They celebrate the same birthdays so they had to sit together during the church service.

The big event after Lindsay's birthday was John's surgery. He had a tube put in to help clean out his bowels and colon. He is doing great. My Mom was so anxious about the whole matter, she took us to IHOP. Rachel is to the left of Robert.

Here we are in Chapel Hill, NC to see John. We are on a trip to see Taylor's family and it coincided with John's surgery so we went to see him.

Here he is!

I think he is loved!

He is hiding his cotton candy from another little boy on his floor. The boy kept following him around asking for some!

John was discharged from the hospital the same time we came to visit so we got to help him leave.

After John's visit, we headed to Seven Lakes, to spend the afternoon and evening with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. It's not everyday some says, "Sure, all SEVEN of you can come stay with us!" They were so gracious and we had such a terrific time. This photo is Lily, our niece, when she realizes it's us. She had no idea we were coming. Robert and Lindsay walked through the door, and she said, "Oh, Hey! OH! HEY!! HEY!!! HEY!! YOU"RE HERE YOU"RE HERE!!!" We got such a kick out of it.

And of course, Lils, as I call her, wanted her hair rag curled. She saw the photos on facebook. I didn't get a picture of her hair done up though. I wish I had. She looked so pretty.

Here we are at my inlaws' church waiting to surprise my mother-in-law. She received a lifetime achievement award for the Presbyterian Women of the Church. As you can see we are right up to the front before she realizes we are there. The hiding part was the funniest. Where do you put seven people, five of whom are over excited grandchildren, in a tiny church where everyone knows everything about everybody?!! Well, my sister-in-law did a great job. She gave a wonderful speech and Judy was very excited to be honored.

Grandma drying Kristinie the Great's hair.

The next day we headed to Charlotte. The children have never seen such tall buildlings. Or they don't remember seeing them. And they weren't all that tall! HA HA!

We went to the Discovery Place. It was a lot of fun for everyone but I think my inlaws were worn out.

The next day we went to Aunt Jan and Uncle Art's stand and had ice cream. Their ice cream is probably some of the best I've ever had.

We also walked around the Page House. This is where Mr. Handsome spent the first nine years of his life.

The whole house.

Mr. Handsome and his mom.

We stopped at Aunt Martha's to see her rabbits.

And her dogs.

Here we are at the house where my father-in-law was born.

Here is the side. The rest of it is falling down.

And here is my father-in-laws' grandpas' house.

I can't remember what we were doing here. Obviously we are eating. We were having some church function.

Kristinie the Great throwing a temper tantrum.

Maddie's Pet Rocks Galore store! She is making and selling pet rocks and giving half of her profit to feed poor people.

The man in this photo is Ricky Meeks. He is a celebrity in town. He rides all over on the bus system and everyone who's been in town a few years knows him. He is a bit handicapped but not so much that he needs help getting around. Just prior to this he was directing traffic out of the Rite-Aid!

Here is Kristine the Great's birthday present. She will be four on Monday. It is a gymnastics mat. I decided to make her one. It is not easy to hide, by the way.

When God blesses a tomboy with girls

2012-10-06T21:10:00.001-04:00

I am about two months late with this post!! I can not tell you where the time goes but it certainly goes somewhere. I think that I am all on top of things and then things get all on top of me!! We started school and all I can say is WOW! Who knew homeschooling five children was going to be like participating in the Running of the Bulls! I love it but did not expect to only have snippets of time to think. My children have taken to ask me why I am nodding my head and moving my hands around (For your novices, I am TALKING to myself!), so I tell them I am talking to myself. Only myself never answers back. We are having a great school year aside from the children's Mom (me) going quackers! I love being home and I love taking care of our children. We are rolling back the clock here and probably starting in late August, early September. But I will get us up to date in a few blog posts I think. I have said before how much I love my new smartphone. I love it even more now that I don't have to download any photos from it. It automatically sends them to my google+ account which is linked to my blog. So I pick what I want to download and VOILA it puts them in my blog.

Sometimes Mr. Jerry is a little late getting to the nursing home, and Mrs. Jackie has trouble getting the residents from memory care up to the room where we have our Bible study. (They probably forget where they are going or something!) So our Robert jumps in and helps lead the music. He really enjoys it and when Mr. Jerry comes, he is glad to help him out.

Here is Bea and Rachel having fun together. We are at Aunt Erin and Uncle Tom's house.

The little fella on the left is one of Kristinie the Greats' friends. Well, actually, he's her BEST friend. And he loves Robert and John.

Three Good Buddies!!

Yep, this is DEFINITELY sometime in August. We had a Praise the Lord you're better party for one of my sister-friends. She went through four months of chemo and so far, thank the Lord, she is cancer free!

Here she is with the card Maddie made her.

Beaker was wiped out after the party and fell asleep on my lap while we watched Andy Griffith.

Lindsay is probably showing us a gymnastics move but I am not sure.

They are anxiously awaiting going to Kristinie the Greats' BFF's birthday party at Jungle Rapids Jungle gym.

They are sooooooooooooooooooo excited!!! :)

Mr. Roger knows how to win tickets!! He has about 1500!!

Here we are at my niece and nephew's graduation party. Both of them graduated this summer! Melody also passed her nursing boards! Joe has his masters. They are Aidens' mom and dad. Here is Kristnie the Great being a Super Hero.

Captain American-ironman

Maddie and Aiden! Aiden is telling Maddie about his legos.

The two Irongirls!! :) Kristinie the Great and Rachel

Robert and John with their new Avengers shirts. They love to wear matching clothes!

Getting ready for our lunch at SAM's. SAM's has the cheapest lunches in town. We can eat for under $20.00 there and that is for 10 people!!

Maddie after her second to last game of summer basketball!! She made TWO baskets in one game!! :)

The first day of school.

A quilt for a friend who adopted a little girl and sadly, the family wanted her back!!!

Back of said quilt!

Getting ready to celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday. It was a BIG day for us.

Erin finished John's quilt before his surgery. He LOVES it! Of course he does!! Mommy made it just for him. She also finished Rachel's quilt.

Our side dishes for our Julia Child birthday celebration. Pommes dauphinois and cauliflower au gratin. They were yummy!

A dramatic yet subtle fish souffle!

That brown roof in the background is our church. We rented it out to the movie people so they could film, what we found out later, was an awful movie about some guy who is a drug dealer making believe he is married to a woman of the night so they could smuggle drugs from Mexico!

We decided to drive through. There were famous people there. I don't know who they were and probably wouldn't have recognized them if they stopped my van to talk to me. Our van looks just like a shuttle van so no one really cared that we were there.

We went to the Tregembo Animal Park down near Carolina Beach. It was a great time.

Beatrice getting ready to sing. Robert is behind her waiting to say his lines.

Here is Lindsay. She was the gypsy woman.

Getting ready for AWANA! I made bookmarks for all the kids. They really liked them.

And for our new Sunday School year starting, I made loaves of bread for everyone. It was a lot of fun. And thank the Lord, I think they came out pretty good!

A beauty pageant.

The sunbathing section. Note the flippers!

Kristinie the Great and Pat-Pat waiting for her class to start.

Our kitchen helpers helping me make the bread.

A superhero never sleeps without her cape!

While working on another bed, the little kids crammed themselves into a box! I wonder if we could ship them to Kalamazoo?! :0)

The finished loft bed for Julie!

Our family dinner to Golden Corral. We had a great time. It was quite impromptu and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Well, everyone enjoyed the cotton candy!

And ice cream

Yes, they did eat regular food first!

See?!! Maddie has a pickle! And watermelon!

A friend of ours has a BMW sports car and Robert wanted to sit in it. He loves, loves, loves, loves loves cars and trucks. He is driving us girls crazy, actually. We have no interest in them. At all. Really. And he wants us to know what make, model, and year every car he sees is.

We took a trip to Southport on the ferry. That was a lot of fun.

Our picnic from Bojangles at the waterfront in Southport.

Lindsay

Kristinie the Great. Yes, I know, it's like 100 outside. Don't ask. We don't know either.

Robert.

Maddie loved all the tigers and cheetahs at the toy store.

OK. I like funny kids' books. Really. I do. But I think this definitely crosses the line. Just sayin'.

Mr. Handsome hanging in a hammock made in some country that I forgot about.

I am sure you've noticed my title has nothing to do with the posts. But there is a theme here if you look back. Our girls are very girly and it is not in my "comfort zone". I was a tomboy through and through and have no idea how to do a lot of things they want to do. But I am learning and it has been fun. So far. A little irritating. Why do you have to do your hair five times a day and change your outfit eleven times a day? Is that really necessary? Well, apparently, every outfit, even when it has not coordinating characteristics whatsoever, has a definite and binding purpose to the event they are participating in. Who knew? So I try to oblige and be accommodating I am glad they do their own laundry.

We're not the most adventurous family....

2012-08-07T22:16:00.000-04:00

With our last week of summer behind us, we started school yesterday. I was not sure how it would go but I can say this: homeschooling five children is not for the faint of heart! But I love it. It has been much busier adding Kristinie the Great to the mix. And we are really going to try to stick to our schedule. I am a morning person and Mr. Handsome is not; thus, I have adjusted my schedule to accomodate his night owl personality. It is not bad staying up later because the house is so quiet but I like to get up in the morning and get my day going. So the past two days have been great for me getting up early. The children? A mixed bag!

Evidently I uploaded my photos backwards!! Here is Maddie. She is not a morning person!

Beatrice's first day of school.

Lindsay

Robert doing math.

Beaker's first day of school! She loves it too. She sits great, follows directions great.

This is how she dressed for church Sunday night. I tell people she dresses in the dark and turns the light on to surprise us!!

Maddie and "her Rachel". She camped all last week, came home about 10:30 Saturday morning then babysat for Tom and Erin. She was one tired young lady when she got home. On Saturday we started the couch to 5k. It is a program where you start out easy and then after a period of time you can run a 5k. Our whole family is doing it. I was really wanting to find something we could do together and we could be in charge of the time and it wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg. One of my friends runs with her family, although her youngest is 10 I think. So I was telling my sister-in-law Erin and she said she has an app she uses. I looked on my phone and I found one in the google play store by Rundouble. You start out with a five minute warm-up then run 90 seconds, then run 60 seconds. You do the 90 and 60 second intervals eight times. So we end up doing the training for about 1.25 miles. The first day I did it I thought running 90 seconds would be no problem. WRONG!!!! I thought my feet were like cement blocks!! But we completed it. Well, Kristinie the Great rode the "sag wagon", otherwise known as the stroller. When we ran Monday Beatrice ended up in the stroller too. So we may have to give them their bikes. Maddie, Robert, and Lindsay did great. Maddie has been the most grumpy about it but I think she will come around. Beatrice hurt her foot yesterday and this morning she told me it was feeling better. She said, "Mommy, my foot isn't constipated anymore!" I was cracking up!

We attempted to swim on Friday with my mom and Erin. But it rained so we waited in the lounge area (not to be confused with the lounge area) and ate lunch there.

Playing tag

Trying to catch Lindsay

Beatrice is impatiently waiting for her lunch.

Our trip to Chick-fil-a. It is our favorite restaurant to eat at.

Here we are with the marketing director at our chick-fil-a. It is the best chick-fil-a I have ever been to. They have great service, and their restaurant is always packed!

See what I mean????? We are waaaaaaayyyyy back by the play yard!! But it only took us about ten minutes. We did have to eat in the van though because there was no room for us.

Robert and Lindsay watching the olympics.

Robert warming up at basketball.

Beaker and Kristine watching the game. See what I mean about dressing in the dark?

On Sunday night the young men at our church got to take up the offering. Now that I think about it I think I posted this already.

We ate at Andy's! Another great restaurant.

The slip and slide. Beatrice

Megan - Lindsay's best friend

Sydney - our neighbor

Beaker. She kept getting frustrated because she was too light to make it to the end.

Robert

Logan - our neighbor

Maddie

Lindsay

Getting ready to run down to the slip and slide!

July is already gone!

2012-07-29T22:12:00.002-04:00

We have had a wondeful July! Last week, Robert went to camp and this week Maddie is going. But let me start at the beginning of the last two week! I have already mentioned that Mr. Handsome bought me a new cell phone. It is great. I don't even have to transfer my photos from my phone to my e-mail to my computer! How cool is that?! They go from my phone to my blog!!! Yup! That's it. That saves me a huge hassle, only I didn't realize it did all this until this weekend. I kept getting messages that my pictures were transferred successfully to google+, whatever that is. But I had this idea that google+ was somehow connected to my blog because blogger.com is a google program. And rather than taking 30 minutes to almost an hour and a half to transfer photos, they are already done for me. I have been able to keep up with sales a lot easier with my phone, too. I love love love love love that! Well, here is our week:

This is Buffy the wonder dog. She is eating a pig's ear and she really dislikes people pestering her while she is eating it. We are good friends with her owners. Glenda and Jerry are great!

This is our new friend at the nursing home. She built her nest between a window pane and the screen in the room where we have our services. She has a nest full of babies but I couldn't get a photo of them.

Here is Rachel after lunch at Grandma's. We are headed to our house.

a week and a half ago we celebrated Maddie's birthday with a birthday party. I love parties but they are a lot of work to plan and this one was no exception. My sister friends all came over early to help. The night before the party I made this watermelon cake. It is made entirely out of fruit. We also had spring rolls for lunch. Everyone really enjoyed it. Maddie picked a luau theme.

Here is one table. I am thankful that my children are not bound by age barriers. Maddie invited Kristinie the Great's bff and she invited my sister friends!! Our age range for the party was from 1 year old - 13 years old with kids and then adults. There were 19 children!!!

These are Maddie's two best friends. She has grown up with the young lady on the left. They met when Maddie was 1 and Bailey was 2. And Maddie met the young lady on the right through homeschooling. Bailey, left, Rachel, right.

And PJ, on the far right, is Bailey's little sister. She and Robert are the same age and have known each other since they were born pretty much. And actually, the running joke her mom and I have is that she and Robert are already spoken for. When PJ was about 2 or 3 and would come over to play, she would always insist that she and Robert get married and Bailey and Maddie helped plan the wedding. And she would tell whoever would listen that she was going to marry Robert! Robert would probably die a thousand deaths if he knew I put this in my blog but it's so cute I had to.

Here are some more of her friends. Toni is seated. In the back row: Rebecca, Victoria, and Zoe (all sisters). front row: Beatrice, Carmyn, Beaker, and Lindsay. The blur is McKenzie!

The little fella in the back left is Beakers' bff. He is Brayton.

And here is his little sister Kenleigh! She is worn out!

Maddie and I getting ready to go to her basketball game.

Megan and Lindsay watching the bride (the lady who is holding the guy's arm: that's her son.) go down the aisle. On Sunday afternoon, two of our church members were married. They are a sweet couple, too.

Beatrice's favoritest person on the planet!

Here are two of Robert's buds, Jared, in front, and his brother Jacob. Notice the tinsle on the table? Yes! It was the most annoying decoration EVER. It got stuck to my cup, my food, my fork, EVERYTHING! Note to self: Never use tinsle on anything but a Christmas tree even if it looks beautiful on the table!

And after the wedding, we had church. And here is what happens when you are so tired but want to go pray at the altar during invitation.

Our trip to the movies to see Spy Kids. It was very cute.

And the rest of the girls. Robert is at camp.

After sewing class we went to the park only to find out it was 100 degrees outside! YIKES! We high tailed it back home and played at the house.

We went to visit a friend at a nursing home and they have a bunch of ducks.

Thursday was dinner at Oz and Dorothy's. So Lindsay and I made an olympic theme cake. Only when Lindsay made the candy clay, she misread the ingredients and put 1.25 teaspoons salt instead of 1/4 teaspoon. YES, it did make a big difference.

This past Friday was a big day. We started out by going to Uncle Chris' to make a loft bed for Maddie's American Girl doll. It only took us an hour and twenty minutes. We're getting quicker.

Here is Beaker wearing bumblebee's mask. Note the long sleeved dress and winter slippers. I know, crazy, right?!

Here is the almost finished bed.

And voila! The finished product. From this point forward, our day was one big race to prepare for our Olympic party. We had to go food shopping, get party supplies, decorations, and eat lunch with Dorothy. We have a family tradition of celebrating the opening ceremonies of the olympics with LOTS of junk food. We do this because we don't eat a lot of junk food as it is and it's a great time to enjoy it and we have fun. Well, this year, Mr. Handsome and I decided to ask our friends Jerry and Glenda to come. Somehow, the little girls, Beatrice and Kristinie the Great, got the idea everyone in church was invited. So last Sunday evening, the were inviting everyone! It was sooooo cute, too. It didn't bother me because I love a great fun party but I had to make sure Mr. Handsome was OK. And he was. He's such a good guy. So we spent Friday preparing for the party:

I won't list all the names but my brother Tom is in the back next to the wall.

I must have thought I messed the picture up and took a second one. So you get to see it twice. Note the American flag in the background on the right. It is to the left, slightly higher then the OTHER flag! Which you will see below.

Here is another view. AND the Norwegian flag on the left BUT to the right of the American flag!

Two of my AWANA buds!

Mr. Handsome with our friends Melissa and Robbie, who are expecting a baby in February. We are so excited for them. They are going to be awesome parents.

Evanne cutting her homemade Olympics cake. Not only did it taste great but it looked great!

Beaker's new friend, Mr. Philip!

Beatrice and Megan

The kids got the floor.

Kenleigh likes Sarah!

Saturday was a fun but relaxing day. I cleaned out my sewing room and rearranged it to try to make it uncluttered. I think it worked. Here is Lindsay on the slip and slide.

Maddie

Our neighbor Logan

Robert, whom we also had to pick up in the middle of our day Friday. He had a great time at camp.

Beaker did not go very far on the slip and slide and she was very disappointed everytime she went down the thing.

Our neighbor Sydney

Megan

Beatrice

After church Mr. Handsome took us to Andy's. Robert showing off his mustang!

Tonight in church the boys were given the opportunity to be the ushers. They are all Roberts' best buds. On the left is William, then Jared, then Jacob, and Robert. I know I am probably being irreverent by taking photos during church but this was such a cute photo of these guys.

I am very sad to see Maddie go to camp but not for her; for me! I will really miss her. She is such a terrific kid. she is growing into such a sweet young lady. I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord does in her heart at camp. She is going with one of her good friends and Jacob and Jared. She is very excited and packed yesterday. She doesn't leave until tomorrow afternoon!

A month's worth of busy - or it's never occurred to me I can't do something

2012-07-16T23:21:00.001-04:00

I thought about getting on here last week and ranting about how awful a day could be because I proved how awful a day could be! But I decided I needed to cool off before I wrote. Because, who really wants to listen to someone complain on their blog? Not me. Well, I don't mind hearing my self rant because it's me. But that's how I roll. It's been a busy month. I think the last time I posted was Beatrice's Birthday, which was around June 21. So it's been almost a month but I have worked hard to document it in living color. And I will start with these:

Our final set of banners - I think! :) (Ignore the children who appear to be disobedient and running around the platform - it is NOT Sunday morning so they are allowed up there if I am up there. Which, I am not at the moment because I am taking the photo.) I thank the Lord for the hands that made these banners. If it were not for my sister-friends, there would be NO banners!

Here is some of the best bread EVER! I mean, EVER!! And boy is it easy! I may have posted this photo but I can't remember.

http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Here is the recipe. It's great. AND easy. I know I said that but it really is.

One of my sister-friends likes to pin these really cute dresses with "easy" tutorials. Bea's dress is the end result of the "easy" tutorial. It was supposed to fit Kristinie the Great. It is not as long as it appears on Beatrice either. But it came out sort of cute and was different from any dress I had ever made. Next time I will use lighter weight fabric and not make such a big swoopy pattern so it's easier to sew together. Beaker is wearing a simple pillowcase dress. Bea's dress was not an "easy" tutorial, by the way.

Her is Rachel, Krsitine, and beatrice dancing to something. I am not sure what. Kristine looks like she got whacked in the face but I think she's laughing.

This picture should be above the others. But I had to sub for my sister-friend at the nursing home two weeks ago and Beaker gets nervous when we go to the nursing home. She doesn't mind the assisted living place but she gets intimidated so she would NOT let me put her down! HA! Is that multi-tasking or what?! :)

Here is what we saw before the service started. The picture below was what is to the right of this sign. I thought it was pretty funny and I was cracking up. The birds were NOT quiet. But I guess they can't read so they don't know.

We met Grandma at Sawmill Grill. They make the best fried porkchops. But I didn't have that this time. I forget what I had. Dorothy is talking to Kristinie the Great and Rachel.

Here is how we go to the pool. The Clampetts meet Richie Rich!!

After the pool, we went to Orange Leaf, one of a million yogurt places in Wilmington. They are like gas stations now. One on every corner.

Lindsay loved the big bear.

The week of Fourth of July we went to Myrtle Beach with Mr. Handsome's family. Maddie made a Fourth of July cake. the candy clay (aka stretched flag) was a bit softer than it needed to be. But the cake tasted great!

Maddie was snot expecting a photo but I bet she is thinking, "If I could break that camera and all the cameras in the world, I would do it. In a minute." Our children have been trained from a young age to despise the camera. They are like all kids. Enough with the flash already!

This is what Myrtle Beach looked like on the night of Fourth of July. Everyone waiting for the fireworks. There was some *guy* shooting fireworks right NEXT to the dune so I went and asked him if he was local. He said yes and I told him that with it being so dry here lately, he probably ought to go closer to the ocean and shoot them. He said OK, Thank you, thank you thank you. He moved TWENTY FEET. THEN a half hour later, set the dune on fire at the neighbor's house! Not kidding, true story. If he did that where he was, he would have lit the house on fire!

Here is Lily's cake she made to celebrate Maddie and Beatrice's birthday. She did a great job with it, too.

Our family is just an untapped wealth of talent. Lindsay showing off her skills.

Upon arriving home, we had to immediately begin making Maddie's birthday cake. Lindsay and I did this. It is a tie dye cake. But not really, I was afraid to swirl the cake batter because it might have turned bleh.

Maddie rolled out the marshmallow fondant that Lily told us about. She wanted that tie dye too. It was fun to make the cake.

Happy Birthday Big Sister!! :)

And here is what the inside looks like!

Yes, it is edible. OH - and we were not done on Maddie's birthday. We still had to go to Dorothy's for the present piece de resistance!! I have been waiting all year for her to get this and almost started crying when she opened it and jumped around the room screaming and yelling!! (Just for the record, I would NEVER do that over a doll. A stuffed animal, YES, but a doll, no. But our girls? They love dolls and you will see how much in just a bit.)

Maddie got the American Girl doll Julie. We have always told our children we want them to be what God wants them to be and with that was the freedom to be themselves. So I have not had an influence on their personal likes and dislikes to the point where I wanted them to like what I liked. But it was so sweet to see our Maddie overjoyed to receive this present.

Maddie's sparkler candles and cupcakes at Dorothy's.

This is Kristinie the Great (on the left) and Uncle Chris working on a set of bunkbeds for her bitty baby twins. YES!! Uncle Chris is teaching ALL OF US (except Mr. Handsome but that's another story!) how to wood work. We put it together in 2.5 hours, with a very brief intermission of entertainment by the Great and Marvelous Oz. He was kind enough to saunter in, tell us it was wracked (twisted for you novices out there - no, I didn't know what he meant either- I thought he said wrecked!) and he picked it up and started whamming it on the workbench. Imagine a short little guy picking up a child's toy and banging it like some maniac on my brother's workbench and you have my dad! Chris and I nearly had a heart attack! We both were trying to get him to quit it and tell him he was going to break it. He did stop and we finally got to explain it was our first one, we didn't sand, we knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but he was already muttering something and left! But Chris, being the talented guy that he is (even though he DOES get on my nerves sometimes), fixed it. He put the bottom on the bed and pushed it in place. Just like that! Kristine was thrilled. Our next project is a loft bed for Maddie. Then two more bunkbeds for Bea and Lindsay. Then a replica of the Taj Mahal. Nah, just kidding about all those bunkbeds!

We also went swimming - and I had more pictures but I do not know what happened to them. Mr. Handsome bought me a new phone and it is like learning a new language. But I love it! Well, not as much as I love Mr. Handsome but the phone helped me have a stress free grocery shopping experience. I even got a free set of headphones with it and they have this cool little volume control on them.

This past Friday, Maddie, Lindsay, and I went to Golden Corral. That was LOADS of fun. They had two helpings of cotton candy. That was the only reason we went. (OH - the bottle in the photo is ROOT beer not to be confused with the OTHER stuff.) I only got one helping but really wanted two. Don't worry. We ate dinner first.

And here we are. I tried my camera backwards which was a bit strange looking at myself in a camera.

It occurred to me some time ago that I am not very adventurous anymore in the areas of skiing (because I don't do that anymore), sports (because I CAN'T do many anymore), and any other fun stuff that puts me in danger. It's not because I don't want to be but I learned that I have an extreme fear of heights. As in, if I am on a tall building I start getting dizzy, the earth spins, my stomach gets upset, I feel awful and all I want to do is stop the feeling. This is how bad it is. Robert and Lindsay were asking me if a person could live in a house with a glass floor on the second floor so you could see through. And while I was explaining that yes you could, and then discussing with them that you could see everything on the second floor, I started getting sick and dizzy!! I told them they needed to quit talking about that. I am a baby. Well, after I had this epiphany, I realized that I may not be able to be the daredevil I used to be but I can do all sorts of things on pinterest. Like learn how to make bunkbeds, make bread, and do all sorts of stuff. So, I am happy to report my adventurous self has not left me, it is just taking me other places with my five children. Hey! Having five children within 10 years is adventurous. Tomorrow is my next adenture: teaching sewing to five excited young ladies. Sharp objects, fast machines. Oh yeah!! Maybe I will juggle the scissors before I being just to impress them!

On another note, I said earlier that Mr. Handsome was not involved in the bunkbed making experience. He was at work. Our children's oldest and best friends came over Saturday and we ate lunch with them. Mr. Handsome was helping them and I was working on my cookbook shelf while listening to them. They were impressed with our bunkbeds and proceeded to tell us about all that their Dad has made. He is very talented and makes things all the time. So, after listening for a little bit, our Beatrice says, "Yeah, my dad is lazy. All he does is sit around and watch TV all the time!" I about fell on the floor laughing!! Mr. Handsome is the hardest working guy I know! And it's true, he does love TV. Well, he LOVES PBS. It's great sleeping medicine for me, thank you very much.

The Adventure Bus Strikes Again

2012-06-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

One of the amazing things about a blog is that it's like typing your diary and anyone can see it. Well, except I don't have a diary, and I don't really have any desire to have one. So, scratch that! Having a blog is a lot of fun. It's my family's daily goings on and an occasional rant by me. God has blessed us beyond measure and last week was no different. Except that, for some reason, our children are becoming a bit unsettled. I will use this term because I think it's temporary but I am not sure how to move them beyond it. I think it's because we are off of our routine now that summer is here and we have been doing something fun every single day, nonstop. So when they get to rest they are unsettled because they are used to going and doing all the time. I am working on this. I bought them all "bridge" books - summer school of sorts. To keep them in school but not "in" school. I have found this year, that the most difficult part of homeschooling is the four to five extra hours we have in our day now. If they went off to school, THEY would have the four to five extra hours, not me! But we all have them and some days filling them is not easy. Friday, I sent everyone to their rooms for about 1.5 hours in the afternoon so they could rest and I could do some things - like get the fourth of July banners completed BEFORE Vacation Bible School starts! And we did it! But I am working in reverse here. Here is how our week began:

Monday morning Lindsay, Beatrice, and Lindsay's best friend made pancakes. Megan had a great time making them I think. She and Lindsay have known each other, and been best friends, since they were babies. I don't have any friends like that near me. My cousin is my age and we have known each other since we were babies, too, but I don't get to see her as often as I like. I cherish the friendships our children have because they remind me of my cousin! It is so sweet to see how much Megan and Lindsay love each other.

Here they are working together. Too sweet!! I can't remember what Tuesday brought because it was so long ago (just kidding, it was only a few days ago, but I believe one of our events was going to the Kangaroo gas station to get drinks for 25 cents. The children used their allowances to buy big huge 32 oz. cups and they can fill them for 25 cents whenever they want at the Kangaroo store. I am so opposed to any kind of drink with sugar in it! Even sweet tea! (You can shoot me now!) But I agreed with the Lord that they would learn how to spend their money better if I didn't interfere with their purchases. It is difficult sometimes but it is working. If it's my money they are spending, I get to have total control, but theirs? They get total control. It is working because they are beginning to think ahead and determine that they might need to save some money to get something big they want. Maddie and Robert are grasping this concept. Beatrice, Lindsay, and Kristine not so much. They have good intentions but walk in Party City, go down the coin candy and party favor aisle some Friday and it could be bedlam! That would be my children eeking the most they can out of their allowance to buy their treasure.

Wednesday was nursing home day and we were celebrating Beatrice's birthday at Mom and Dad's. We were also picking beaker up from Grandma's. She spent the night there. Each of the children have spent one or two days with my parents which is so thoughtful of them! They have had a great time. Maddie may end up going. She doesn't like to stay away from us - at all. In fact, she is going to camp and I know she is going to doubt her decision when the time to go rolls around. She is very excited about it now and I think she will follow through with it with no problem but she is also very nervous. Anyway, Beatrice is holding our newest addition to our American Girl Doll store, er, family. Rebecca. She is so cute with her. That is all she wanted for her birthday so, of course, Grandma was happy to oblige!

We had veggie flowers for lunch. It was such a great idea Mom had. The kids loved it. AND ate the veggies. Here are their creations.

Beatrice actually had a chocolate raspberry pie for her birthday cake but the candles wouldn't stay in so we used this part of a cake.

And now to the fun part. Our drive home. I have threatened the kids numerous times to put, in neon pink of course, "Adventure Bus" on our van. And this is precisely why:

I finally figured out how to get my videos from my phone to my computer: a mini sd card. They are sooo cute but very easy to lose. So it stays in my nook most of the time.

Thursday was really Beatrice's birthday. And we surprised her with two outfits for her bitty baby doll. (also an American Girl doll.) She was ecstatic because she thought she was just getting her bike.

Her beautiful cake! :) She asked me to make it three layers of different sizes. It was kind of tiny but nonetheless she loved it.

Our table decorations.

I mentioned the Fourth of July banners, didn't I? Here they are. They were only up temporarily because we had to see if they were the right length. And they were not crooked. Have you ever tried to sew nine feet of straight seams in four rows? Me either!! It was a new experience.

Here are the wonderfully delicious bread loaves we made. They came from this website: http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

It is sooooo easy! I am making it as we speak for tomorrow. I am going to make a bunch of loaves to give to our favorite older people. They do so much for us and we love them and they will love this. Of course, I need to get them out of the house BEFORE we devour them!

One of my sister-friends pinned a cute sundress that someone commented it was "cute and EASY". While it was definitely cute, I wouldn't describe it as easy. It didn't take long but it was supposed to be for Beaker (on right). Instead it fit Bea. It looks REALLY long but it goes just beneath her knees and the top part I cut to long but everyone loved it when they saw it. And Beatrice loves it so that's all that matters. Here is where I got it from: http://www.theribbonretreat.com/blog/lets-fly-a-kite-sundress.html

Sometimes I think I have the best job on the planet. I am so spoiled by Mr. Handsome and he loves me so much that he really loves having me home. In fact, I think I will make a loaf of bread for him to bring to work for his coworkers.

The Bucket List.... I don't have

2012-06-17T23:09:00.000-04:00

You read that correctly. I have been feeling so guilty because so many people have a bucket list. first of all, what is a bucket list? I mean, I have lots of buckets but apparently you're supposed to write all the things you want to accomplish ,or do, or attend, or see. And why bucket? Why not To-Do list? I don't have a bucket list OR a To-Do list. They both encourage To don'ts. If I did have a To-do list or a Bucket list there would only be one thing on both: To see my whole family know for certain they are going to Heaven when they die. That's it. Yep. Not very imaginative or adventurous! I have never written a To-Do list in my life. Nor do I plan to. It's not because I don't want to get things done. I do. A lot. But if I write that list then I limit myself to accomplishing the things in a certain period of time and I will be thoroughly disappointed if I don't accomplish something on the list. If I don't accomplish a lot on the list, I will become depressed, then I will have to rewrite the list and add other things I need to do, thereby creating a LONGER list that will make me even MORE depressed. See the cycle? Now, ask me if I have goals? Yes, I have LOTS of goals. I guess you can tell I was born before 1980, eh? But goals are always moved and adjusted to accommodate where I am at in life. And I don't have to write them down. My lifetime goal is to see our children grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and have a desire to serve Him faithfully in whatever He may have for them to do. Of course, Mr. Handsome has the same goal so we are working at this together. After they all accomplish that goal, we will go visit each of them for two months and then spend two months at home! That way, Lord willing, no one will get tired of us. OH! I do have a goal that is immediate. It is to really work on having a great relationship with my sister-in-law. My younger brother's wife. I never had a sister. I don't regret it. I had a cousin who is the same age and we were pretty close growing up so it was like having a sister. After our trip to Myrtle Beach, I was talking with the Lord and He reminded me that I have an opportunity here. I think Erin's always known it but I have not been as cooperative about the whole matter. So I have decided to work harder at it. And it has been worth it, that's for sure! She is a great friend, too. And our children love each other. She is also not afraid to tell me when I am annoying. Because I am my dad and mom's child: this means I am an overbearing control freak! God has worked with me on this and I am learning to get better and not think about me all the time. Last week was such a great week. I got to spend a few days with Erin, and some time with my sister-friends. Erin and I worked on making pillowcase dresses for Bea, Rachel, and Kristnie the Great. It was a lot of fun.

On Thursday we surprised two of my sister-friends with a birthday party! Their birthdays are a day apart and our other sister-friend (not pictured) was not going to be in town for them so we had it this past Thursday. It was a great deal of fun. Beatrice made the best, melt in your mouth cupcakes EVER! They were from that mouth-of-the-south world famous chef Paula Deen. I have one of her cookbooks - a kids' cookbook and that is where the cupcake recipe came from. Please don't buy me any of her books or send me any of her recipes. I don't have any interest in her. I know a lot of people LOVE LOVE LOVE her. I am not one of them. I am a Julia Child fan through and through. Anyway, these cupcakes were even better than my sister-friend Amy, whose cupcakes rival a professionals'. Robert made homemade lemonade, too.

Here is everyone eating.

Here is Beatrice at our friends' softball game with one of the cutest babies in the world.

I just realized my photos are backwards. Ack. Oh well. We went shopping for Beatrices' birthday party, which is next week. Well, THIS week. Her birthday is June 21. She is going to be SIX! I can't believe it. Our Oppy-Stoppy is going to be SIX years old. she chose a cupcake theme. And she is getting an American Girl doll from my parents. We got her a new bike and some outfits for her baby doll that goes everywhere she goes. Anyway, we are in our favorite store! Party City! We love to go there.

On Friday Lindsay had her best friend spend the afternoon with us. We even got to pick her up from school and that was exciting for everyone since they have never had the experience of even being picked up from school. Well, unless you count the times they fell asleep while doing school and I had to PICK THEM up off the floor. Yes, that HAS happened!! It's easy here. They just redo what they missed.

Notice that there is one little kid missing! They are standing on the edge of the lake with the sign below near the lake.

Yes, I am a big chicken. Of anything that could eat me. So while they had a grand time at the pond (right near us by the way), I was a nervous wreck, trying to figure out how to escape if an alligator tried to attack us. I just kept thinking, "Serpentine, run serpentine." I pretty much stayed on the path. I used to be this gung-ho, over the top adventurous person. What happened to that person? I left her somewhere in the year 2000 after I had our first child. From that point forward, the things that never worried me, scare me to death. I can't even get more than 6 feet above the ground without feeling like I am going to pass out, get dizzy, and feel nauseous. I did attempt the halfpipe at Jungle Rapids last year and that was a mistake. I nearly broke my neck. I didn't mind the ocean much, but now I will not go in above my ankles. My knees are pretty far away from the water and a great white could probably bite my legs off if I was in knee high water. I do occasionally go out far but I make sure Mr. Handsome is with me and try to keep close to him and pray something tastes him first. That being said, I do love the beach.

Here is a semi-group picture at the park again. Beatrice is awol. She was grumpy because I made her and Beaker walk around the pond. It is 1.24 miles. They both did it and I was so proud of them. It was a bit warm, though I won't say it was hot.

The speck on the path is Beatrice, very put out that we still have to finish our walk. If you look past her you can see a pavillion. That is where we are walking to. At this point, we have gone one mile.

On Friday evening, Mr. Handsome and I went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, that has really turned into a drunken sailor bar. Thankfully, they have an upstairs that is rather nice. This was our view. After dinner, we went to Barnes and Noble and we got Maddie her birthday presesnts: a nook case and a nook stylus. She will be so excited. My parents are getting her an American Girl Doll, too. I am really excited about this because, at some point, she decided she wanted to be a tomboy. I say decided because she was the girliest girly girl there was! Then she found out I was a tomboy growing up and suddenly decided she needed to be one. Dorothy was nice enough to regale her with stories of all the things I did. (Unfortunately, Dorothy also has no restraint and obviously still thinks I was the most horrid kid in the world. Thankfully, Maddie has not noticed that yet and I don't take Dorothy very seriously! I am going to be responsible for picking out her nursing home someday so she has to be nice to me!) So Maddie decided she needed to be like me. She is so cute trying! But she is no tomboy. She is as prissy and girly as they come. We don't ever, ever, ever try to change her, though. We love her just the way she is and as long as she is content and comfortable with who she is and she is what God wants her to be, that's all that matters.

Here is the cake Maddie made to celebrate Father's Day, Beatrice's Birthday, Tom's Birthday, and Oz's birthday. She did great and it tasted wonderful!

Here she is with her cake, too.

One of my sister-friends had the toddler nursery today and Beaker loves her. Her son is her best buddy! He gave Beaker a hug this morning and said, "Dis my fwen!" to one of the other little boys in class and he tried to give Beaker a hug but she wasn't paying attention.

Here she is taking a nap. All the little kids LOVE being under the table! They crack us up. And with that, I think I will take a nap - a loooooooong nap!

The Week of F-U-N!

2012-06-10T23:44:00.002-04:00

We began our week - Sunday - with church. Of course! And Sunday night was an exciting night. We had our AWANA awards night. All the children are rewarded for their hard work. And of course, since I am the director of our Trek club (6-8th grade), I did not have time to get ANY pictures of our children with their awards. BUT they were very excited and I am so proud of all of them. Maddie earned the highest awards for her grade and in her club, along with her friend Rebecca. They are both in Trek. Robert earned two of the three highest awards in his club, T&T. Lindsay and Beatrice both earned the highest awards they could earn in their club and level (Sparkies). Kristinie the Great also earned her book award in Cubbies. The total verse count, roughly, that everyone learned this year is somewhere around 400-500! Yes, you read that right! And that is not including the sixty or so verses they each learned for school. Well, Beatrice was probably more like 40 for school. God has blessed us with industrious and hard working children. They don't just do their basic verses, they do their reviews, and extra credit. In Lindsay's case, she did extra extra credit! And Robert set a goal of completing an adventure (which is 7 sections with approximately 5-10 verses) a week. And he finished his book in eight weeks! Most kids finish them sometime in March or April. And Maddie finished her book by February or March (I can't remember which) and she decided to do her challenge sections which are very difficult. And she completed them! I am really proud of them.

Here is my sister-in-law (Chris' wife) and their grandson, Aiden. He earned a participation award because he started kind of late in the year. He is in Cubbies with Rachel, John, and Beaker.

Here is John, Rachel, and Erin.

After AWANA, two of Maddies' friends came and spent the night. She was so excited! And so was everyone else. We have known them since they were babies. On Monday, they went back to their friends' house to swim and I took Beatrice and Kristinie the Great to a place called Power of Play. I used to call it Power of Bacteria because they place was so dirty and nasty! I am no germophobe - we have the 5 minute rule in our house! But the place was a dump. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had been renovated and it was great! Clean, bright, open, and lots of fun stuff to go on. Here are Beaker and Beatrice on the play jungle.

Beatrice

Kristinie the Great

See saw - I thought these were safety hazards!

Here is Beaker playing doctor. I think I got fifty shots and my blood pressure taken a million and one times!! I guess I am healthy.

Dr. Beatrice looking all serious!

Monday evening, we watched our grandnephew Aiden. He is 4, six months older than Kristinie the Great. He loves superheros and he was playing batman. Kristinie the Great was supposed to be Starfire but she wasn't getting the whole concept. She kept going in the batcave the wrong way and doing the wrong thing. Aiden was a tad bit frustrated with her! We were enjoying the comic routine. It was sort of like Abbot and Costello - but not.

While the little kids played on the playground, we played badminton with our neighbors, Sidney and Logan. They are Lindsay and Bea's ages.

Here is what happens when your kids get your camera! Lindsay!

Aiden!

Good buddies! The first thing Aiden does is run and jump in Roberts' arms when he sees him. He doesn't care about anyone else. It is so cute.

Fun on the slide with Starfire.

Being the ever industrious person that I am, I was inspired by my sister-friend and made Bea and Kristinie the Great a similar dress. Pay no attention to the grumpy little girl on the right. She just woke up from her nap. And then, while Rachel and John visited, I made Rachel a dress to match. I put it on her and she was so excited, she hugged herself!!! HA HA HA!!

Thursday was knitting and crocheting and we had a great time sitting around and not knitting and crocheting but talking! After dinner that night, we went to Mayfaire Town Centre and walked around. It's an open air mall, sort of. We ended up at Atlanta Bread Company. Did you know, I could eat there every single day and never get tired of their California sandwich? After 8:00pm, their pastries are half price. Mr. Handsome treated us to some delicious pastries! They don't have a huge selection but they had things we liked, so no one's complaining.

Friday was our fun in the sun day. It's the day we head to Landfall pool to swim. As soon as Beaker found out, she ran to dress herself. And this is what happens when a 3 year old dresses herself. In case you are unsure of what you are actually seeing, she put her board shorts UNDER her bathing suit. YES! You read that correctly. She put her board shorts UNDER her bathing suit. We were cracking up.

The water was very cold because it had rained quite a bit.

Beatrice underwater! This is our olympus tough camera. And I can honestly say it is TOUGH! I love this thing. AND it takes great photos!

Lindsay

Fight for the ladder.

Erin and Rachel

Lindsay and Maddie

Saturday was a banner day for our Beatrice. She got an early birthday present. Mr. Handsome took her to pick out a bike! She is rather self conscious riding it but she really loves it. It is, of course, pink.

Kristinie the Great didn't want me to forget about her.

For dinner, Robert decided to set the table in a special way. Here is his handiwork.

That is our week. It flew by and we have one whole week of summer behind us already. We did have quite a few sleepovers last week, too. I will try to remember. Beatrice spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. I already mentioned Maddies' friends coming over. There was one more but I can't remember. This will be the summer of the sleepover. OH - and I started working on the Fourth of July banners! Right now, they look like referee shirts - blue and red - but after I add the stars, they will look fabulous. I was thinking that these banners remind me a bit of Richard Simmons because the fabric is so him! Shiny and crazy and just plain fun. I might need to incorporate feathers into my next set. I also made an easy french bread recipe, which you can find here: http://www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_09.html I made 15 pounds of mashed potatoes and froze them, as well as black beans and froze them. In hindsight, I should have used seasonings when I cooked them. They are rather bland and hopefully, they will taste good when I use them.

The Week in Review - As we begin our summer!

2012-06-02T22:48:00.003-04:00

I am in a really bad mood right now. Nope, it's not because my brothers were stupit (note the spelling), though that does foster a lot of irritation in my heart. But I do forgive them because I know I irritate them too. It's because my sewing machine is broken. I am really, really sad about this but I can't be too sad because I did get one of my sister-friends' dresses done for her daughter - as you will see below. I am praying it is an OE (Operator Error) and tomorrow when I am in a better mood - I will take a look at it and see what I can make of it all. Anyway, we celebrated Memorial Day at my parents. Here are Kristinie the Fearless and Lindsay the chicken hearted deciding whether to get in the water. Kristinie the Fearless had no qualms. Lindsay, on the other hand, was not convinced.

I think Beaker is flaunting her fearlessness here. She is about 15' above the water when she climbs on this railing.

THE BOY having a ball - as usual! He is jumping from the boat launch, which is all it's good for right now. It works well as a boat launch, but people keep stealing Oz's propellors off his boat! Renecks! Go figure! So he has to leave his boat on his trailer parked in his driveway. It stinks for us kids - and him - because when we want to use it, we have to go find him, get him to meet us at the boat ramp he uses, then he has to come back and get us. You get the idea. Big pain in the neck! So, we just swim off the pier.

Kristinie the Fearless and Aiden the Daring getting ready to swim. He was so excited!

Here they are - in the water. This made all the older kids feel a bit foolish so of course.......

They had to join the fracas.

Beatrice, who is in the back, is still unsure but finally gets brave and joins the fun.

My sister-in-law Jackie and my parents' dog Dagmar, who thinks it's a cat.

We celebrated my birthday at Dorothy and Oz's house. And a friend of my sister-in-law Erin's was there. Her little girl's birthday was the day after Memorial Day so we celebrated it together! That was fun!

Lindsay spent two nights with Oz and Dorothy. Of course, she had a great time. On Tuesday we found out the girls' glasses came in. Here is Beatrice with her new glasses. Did they really make a difference? YES! They did! In fact, I was AMAZED! She was doing pretty well reading so I didn't give it much thought, except that she had to really practice a lot! When she got her glasses it was like a light switch went on. She is reading everything - really well, too!! :)

OH, they are getting along now but you just don't know what happened AFTER I snapped this cute photo of two smiling ponytailed girls!! :) I can't remember either but there was a lot of screaming and fussing going on. Because, in our house, we are like the Duggars. Every fifteen minutes, there is some crisis that demands a scream or seventy.

On Wedensday, after the nursing home, we met Dorothy and Erin at Wendy's for lunch. Here is everyone peering over the wall wondering where on earth our lunch is because it takes forever to order seven kids' meals, all with different toppings and sides, drinks, and three adult meals! We bring fast food restaurants to a grinding halt! It's only fast food if there is one order. After that, it's hurry up and wait.

Here is Beaker trying to reach her clothes. No, she did not feel like finding a chair so she opened Maddies' dresser drawers and used them for stairs. YES! I know it is a serious safety hazard so, now that school is done, we will be rearranging the dresser so the little darling can reach her clothes without climbing on it or into it.

Here is the dress I made for one of my sister-friends. My brother embroidered the name and the one next to the ladybug. It was so easy and cute to make. Here is where I got the pattern from: http://www.themotherhuddle.com/tutorial-front-or-back-tie-pillowcase-dress/ Well, actually, it is a pieced dress and this is not so I had to rethink it but it was simple! And fun to make. It only took a short time to make. As in maybe 1.5 hrs. And I made bloomers (below) Here is an example of the dress from etsy but not the original inspiration because I can't find it: http://pinterest.com/rainbocow/pillowcase-dresses/

On Friday, we kicked off our no more school for the summer by making our annual pilgrimage to Mecca, I mean Britt's Doughnuts! (I hope I don't get threatened by Al Qaeda!) Anyway, they are way better than Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts hands down! We go once in the beginning of summer and will probably go at the end of summer, after the tourists leave. Britt's is right on the boardwalk of Carolina Beach. Well, if you can call it a boardwalk. It's a little piece of land that is about three blocks long with a small amusement park and some shops. They call it a boardwalk but it's a shortwalk really. It's very cute and I like it but it doesn't compare (Oops! There I go - I will stay in the south, thank you!)

On Friday, it's cleaning day, too! And when we got home one of my dearest sister-friends (who also cleans my house every other week thanks to Dorothy) had made me a cake and left me a birthday present - which coincidentally matches my kitchen curtains and walls perfectly!! The cake is homemade. Did I just say that? Yes!! Even the flowers are HOMEMADE! She makes them by hand and the cake is a yellow cake with chocolate swiss buttercream frosting. And it is covered with yellow fondant! YUMMMOOOOO!!!! As Rachel Ray would say. I have been very nice too. When we eat it, everyone gets one flower and I get three! (They don't know I have three but I do! SHHHhhhhh!!!!! Don't tell them! And I am saving the center!) The cake will now live in infamy on my blog!

Friday night, my nephew and my niece watched four of the children while Lindsay went to spend the night with her best friend. They already decided they are going to college together! (Not my nephew and niece, Lindsay and her best friend) Mr. Handsome and I are so thankful for our nephew and niece. They have a son, Aiden (Aiden the Daring), who loves Robert. In fact, when we dropped them off, he ran around the van, jumped in Roberts' arms, and grabbed him and dragged him inside, forgetting about his girl cousins! Anyway, Mr. Handsome and I went to Brasserie du Soleil. I'm not even going to try to pronounce it because, as I told my friend Scharlotte, all I was getting was Bra of the Sun! She said it sounded like some gentlemen's club! HA!! We were cracking up. But not to worry! It was no, ahem, "gentlemen's club"! It was a lovely restaurant and the food was outstanding. Mostly local, too, which was great! We had some kind of root vegetable soup with sour cream and meatballs. (It was a whole lot more technical but for the sake of my laziness I am just leaving it simple.) It was better than our dinner. In fact, I wish I had ordered three bowls of the soup. Our dinner was great, too, though. Three small hamburgers with roasted vegetables and guyere cheese. And french fries.

Here are the one year olds' bloomers!! Cute, eh? I left them simple because it's on her bum.

Saturday we went to a birthday party (cake will be below and birthday girl) and afterwards swimming. Here is Beaker ready to swim!

Here is Beatrice and Mr. Handsome!

When we got home from the pool, there was a big envelope for Robert from none other than President Barack Obama. For school, one of his assignments was to write the president. So he wrote Mr. President and told him he was praying for him. Mr. President had someone who has no idea how to write a letter to a kid, write a letter. It began as, "Dear Student". Even our church generates generic form letters that say, "Dear Mr. and Mrs. R. Taylor Blake"! Anyway, his "letter" also said nothing of what was in Robert's letter. Okay, I will stop there because I don't want my blog to be political and then have some secret service guy show up at my door accusing me of saying bad things about the president like some kid in western NC did and was told it was illegal!! Anyway, THE BOY was over the moon about the letter and picture but his and his sisters' favorite part was the photo of the First family's dog!! He is a pretty cute dog. Maybe he could do better.... oops... onto other things... LIKE Robert's camping trip!

Robert went camping. I don't remember when but I want to say around May 19. Here he is with his buds in a boat. This scene brings back fond memories of Fourth of July at my aunt and uncle's house. If you can imagine SIX adults in a small aluminum boat trying to row out onto the lake. Nope? You can't? Of course you can't! They sank it before it left the dock! Fond memories!

Here is THE BOY getting ready to go on the zipline!

And last Sunday night was AWANA's Get Wet Night! The little fella with the red shirt is my grandnephew, Aiden (Aiden the Daring)! He is a cutie and loves John, Rachel, and Kristinie the Great!

Here is Lindsay's and Bea's class. Bea is on the left with her pink rashguard. Lindsay is on the right behind the little Asian fella (Her friend Daniel) and to her right is her best friend.

Beaker having fun in the pool.

What I love about Get Wet Night is not the time Commander Jeff spends getting games ready for us. It is such a great time for a water fight!! My goal in life, every year, is to soak Commander Jeff!! This year, I wore my rain coat so I wouldn't get too wet. That's me in the yellow coat. I am a little camoflaged by our yellow bus but I am there. I was standing by the wading pool with a big bucket and Mr. Jeff had a puny water hose and was going to spray me!! ME!! Can you believe it? Needless to say, I got him good. And I didn't just get him once. I got him two more times after that! Then I went inside because once the Cubbies and Puggles go inside it's bedlam. While I don't mind bedlam, I am realizing that I am too big and too old to get hurt. So I go inside and stay safe!

Here I am with two of my sister-friends. On the left is Tanya, she is our Cubbies and Puggles director. On the right is Jennifer. She is our Sparkies director.

And here we are at the beach on Friday. Beatrice having fun.

Beaker trying to snorkel.

AND - the birthday party!! It was loads of fun. The little fella on the slide is Kristinie the Great's best friend. It's his little sister's first birthday.

Beaker sliding down the slide!

THE BOY!

Lindsay!!

The Birthday girl and her Mommy!

And the amazing cakes! The birthday girls' aunts made them. Arent' they cute as a button?! My aim was to stay dry at this party but it was not to be. Beaker had a cup of water and I wasn't paying attention, though Birthday Girls' mommy WAS trying to warn me. I saw Beaker out of the corner of my eye, and not realizing who it was, as she was throwing a cup of water on me, I shoved her back! YES! I am an awful mommy!! I shocked her and myself! She got me good though and was a good sport about me shoving her! This will pretty much be how our summer is. One fun day after another. Unless I can't get my sewing machine fixed. Then it will be one grumpy mommy to contend with day after day after day after day. I am praying it will be a simple fix, though! And hopefully I won't have to rant on my blog anymore about it. There is something about a blog or being able to say what you want and people have to read it that lends itself to two things: Careless abandon and abuse of the person reading it. (Because, really, who wants to read about someone griping about something every single week?! Well, the exception is a broken sewing machine). Or: careful restraint bordering on boredom. I am trying a happy medium so once in a while I may be a runaway train in ranting but I think a broken sewing machine warrants it. Just sayin'!

I'm getting older!

2012-05-27T22:28:00.000-04:00

This was a terrific week! I can't remember what day last week I posted to my blog and I could check but I am too lazy! So, I will start with Monday. Monday was a normal day. We are trying to get through school! Most years, we are done by now but this year that has not been the case. We only have 11 more days left!! Two weeks and one day!! We are very excited. We haven't played hooky very much but I think it's because we had to start later due to one of the children's curriculum being updated. That usually happens when important events in history occur and they need to be included. Tuesday we had a great day. We met a friend of ours at the park and the children played for a little bit then we came back to the house because they were "sooooooo hot"!!! The children were soooooo hot, not me and my friend.

Here is one of my sister-friends' dogs - a lab mix - and her daughter's HUGE bunny!! He is a cute little bunny but he is sooo big. His name is Wocket and I call him Wocket the Rocket!

Wednesday was my birthday. I am 45 for those of you who really want to know. We really had a great day. We went to the nursing home, then to get John and Rachel. I wanted to do something fun on my birthday so we spent it walking around Mayfaire Town Square. It's kind of an outdoor mall. My sister-in-law, John and Rachel's mom, went with us. We had a great time! Then we came home and had a party for me. This is the cake - obviously.

Here is everyone waiting for me to blow out the candles. As you can see it's not always easy to get seven children to smile. And in case you are worried, we DID eat dinner first.

First Beatrice is grumpy, then Rachel is grumpy!! Go figure!!

Mr. Handsome only got 10 candles. I don't blame him. I probably would have set off the smoke alarm if he tried to put 45 on the cake. Or the candles would have melted all over the cake!

Here I am blowing out the cake!

Mr. Handsome does not seem to realize that little kids need little pieces of cake! This is Rachel.

Beaker. Doesn't she look cute in pig tails!!

John!

Beatrice

Lindsay

Maddie - Take one

Maddie - take two - no better! HA!!

Robert!

One of my birthday presents. A laptop lapdesk - for the laptop I don't have! Don't ask. I can't figure it out either. But as the saying goes, it's the thought that counts! (I must have given him a present he really, really, really hated and instead of just TELLING me, he is going to make me pay, pay, pay, pay, pay forever and anon!!!) And he also gave me a big bag of Giardelli candy. Yummy!! (Don't think that I am upset with him about this gift. It is really nice!! He never forgets my birthday, our anniversary, Valentine's Day, etc.!! So who am I to complain about a gift when he has taken the time to go out and get it for me and I don't have to remind him when important holidays are!)

Thursday was a finish the banners day! I worked hard on them. And then one of my sister-friends came to visit. We had a great time. Friday, we did school and then headed to the beach for the first time this year. I don't include our vacation because that was not our beach. Wrightsville Beach is OUR beach but it really belongs to the tourists. They don't want locals so they jack the price up so high for parking, you might as well go to New York City and back!! It is like a Caribbean beach and it's the only one like it in North Carolina and South Carolina and Georgia - until you get to Florida!! That's probably why it's so popular. I have a love-hate relationship with tourists here. While I am so glad they bring money to our area, I am so glad for Labor Day! I know that is awful, but Wilmingtonians drive bad enough, add a bunch of tourists who don't know where they are going because Wilmington is laid out in a very confusing and twisted way, and you have mass chaos and traffic. It is typical on a road I travel at least three times a week - and that's being conservative! - that although the speed limit is 55 most people don't go over 45, actually don't even come CLOSE to 45!! Not kidding. In NJ, you could get a ticket for going under the speed limit!! Here is another example. At lights, most people stare dreamily at the green light for what I consider an inordinate amount of time and then go. As if that isn't bad enough, each car has to do that, which only affords maybe three cars the opportunity to go through the light. In NJ, fifty cars could get through that light in the same amount of time. (I know, go back north you say!) Anyway, after the beach, we came home and awaited the arrival of Shelly/Sheldon the turtle. We are babysitting a turtle this week. Kristinie the Great and Beatrice sit and watch Shelly/Sheldon(they aren't sure if it's a girl or boy) like they are watching their favorite TV show! After Shelly/Sheldon was dropped off, we met our friends for dinner at Atlanta Bread company - one of my favorite chain restaurants. Did you know after 8:00, their pastries and bread are half price!!!! HALF PRICE!!! WOW!! In the photo above are two of my children and my friends' children. She has five children too but three are out of high school. The younger two are Maddie and Robert's age. They have known each other since they were babies.

Yesterday is a day that will go down in infamy. I finished the banners and rushed over to church to hang them. Much to my chagrin, I realized I didn't listen to my friend who sells fabric!! They were over a foot too wide!! YES THEY WERE!!!! HOURS and HOURS and HOURS of work down the drain?!! NOPE!! I prayed about it and I trimmed off 10" from each banner, repositioned two letters, got it done, after seven hours. Then I went back to church and one of my friends met me and we hung them. They look great!! This is a very arduous task I have volunteered for!! The more I do it, the more I realize I love making them but I am WAY over my head! It is a testimony of what God can do with a village idiot!! HA!! Just kidding! It's a testimony of what God can do with someone who is willing!

Today was a great day in church. This evening we had our Get Wet night in AWANA! Everyone had such a great time!! It was soooooo fun! And everyone DID get wet. I wore my raincoat because I am a big baby. There is irony in that as my family is a water throwing, crazy pitch you in the lake kind of family! I did get our commander soaked so I feel like I accomplished my task. The evening starts out nice and calm and lots of fun. Then the little kids go inside and bedlam breaks loose!! An all out water fight ensues. I, of course, do not participate in that because I am afraid of getting hurt so I go in and help the Cubbies and Puggles get dressed. I feel obligated since four of them are from my family: Beaker, John, Rachel, and our grandnephew Aiden! That's half of the Cubbies! It was a great night and the last AWANA night before our Awards Ceremony next week.

God is good - all the time

2012-05-21T01:10:00.001-04:00

So, here I am! I decided I would really make an effort to try to write once a week again, and that lasted, well, a week!! But I think this it has only been two weeks since I wrote last. I hop anyway. I have a lot of pictures. The week before Mother's Day we went to Myrtle Beach with my family. My niece and her husband couldn't come down because they were both still in school. Her brother and his family came down for a couple of days. We had a great time. BUT - before that there was work to do. People always wonder how I do what I do. I make time for it. It's up to me what I spend my time doing and I love having fun! So here is some fun!

Here is Grandma Jones' (aka Dorothy) Mother's Day present. Hopefully you can read what they children wrote. Thank you pinterest for the inspiration! I found it here: http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/06/fathers-day-photo-collage-free.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PositivelySplendid+%28Positively+Splendid%29 Being the rebel that I am, the "real" one was WAY too symmetrical for me! HA! So here is our version.

And here is the one for Grandma Blake. Note that our Maddie knows how to flatter Grandma Blake - she's FASHIONABLE!!

And here is the first day of our vacation. The view from the beach house we rented in North Myrtle Beach - Cherry Grove to be exact.

And we have my brother Chris to thank for this great house. Of course, Oz and Dorothy, being used to five star establishments were not to impressed with the place. It was simple, charming, had plenty of space for seven little kids plus one who came for a couple of days!

And here is Fearless Beaker riding the waves!

Trying desperately to walk with flippers on land.

Oz and Dorothy!

My brother Chris and his wife, Jackie. (Not to be confused with MOI of course!)

My brother Tom and our Maddie.

Beatrice and Rachel. Yes, we did in fact remember their bathing suits. No, we did not plan on them swimming! But once again, the Hansen/Syvertsen gene takes over and they are drawn to the water!

THE BOY running. But what else would he be doing?

Cousin John - running of course! And probably not from THE BOY!

Beatrice

Rachel

Dorothy and Maddie

John

Part of the Gang! Everyone loves Uncle Tom.

Some of the children brought their bikes. Including Tom, Erin, Chris, and Jackie. So they were excited to be able to ride them on the beach.

Tom riding around Maddie!

Kristinie the Great rode her bike about five feet before she realized it wasn't easy to pedal in sand!

Tired children! Beatrice on left, Erin (Tom's wife), and Rachel (Tom and Erin's daughter)

Tom trying to wake up John.

Oz keeping Beaker company.

So who takes photos of food, right? Me! Dorothy made this terrific salad and it looked so nice I wanted to take a photo of it. It was a green bean salad with a homemade vinagrette that I did not try. I am one of those weird people that DOES NOT like salad dressing on my salad. I can not get the proper ratio of salad dressing to salad and so I just don't bother. I will eat a caeser salad with dressing at a restaurant but usually it's soaked in salad dressing. BLEH!! I like to taste the fresh vegetables I am eating. Enough of that rant already.

Miniature Golf! For the record, no one was harmed in this very confusing, wild, crazy game of miniature golf. I think it lasted maybe 21 minutes! If we didn't have a family of four in front of us, it would have lasted about 3 minutes. Only two balls were hit in the water. And I actually got a hole in one!

As you can see, some of us were more interested in the decor around the miniature golf course! Ha Ha!

Like my shorts? Yes, they are true golf shorts. and they would have looked even better if I had remembered my belt. These are my Loudmouth Ladies! I would have preferred a LOUDER pattern but oh well! I still love these.

How many children does it take to retrieve a golf ball?

Beaker getting ready to swim.

Beaker asked Uncle Chris to brush her hair. And Uncle Chris did better than I did. And I don't think he's ever brushed a little girls' head of hair!!

The puzzle that took up one whole table for half the week. Everyone worked on it. Well, except Beaker. She did want to take some pieces. The Great Oz even opened up the vacuum cleaner to find the last and missing piece.

How did I get them to stand still?!

At Ripley's Aquairum

The blur to the right of Robert is my great nephew. He is my brother Chris' grandson. It's his stepson's son. His name is Aiden and he is a cute little boy. He, Robert, and John are buds.

Beatrice wanting to touch a horseshoe crab.

Aunt Jackie trying to help Lindsay and Kristinie the Great.

Finally!! She caught one.

Here is everyone at the stingray tank trying to touch a stingray. You can see Mr. Handsome in the white shirt in the background. I think he is holding onto Beaker so she won't fall in.

John and his two new stuffed toys.

Back to the beach! Beatrice

Aiden checking things out. He is more apprehensive than his cousins are.But after awhile he was right there with them.

Beaker

The pool was a lot more fun than the ocean! From the bottom in the red shirt, going clockwise, Aiden, Rachel, Kristinie the Great, Beatrice, and John.

We also got to celebrate Aiden's fourth birthday!

At Wonderworks! If you have not been to wonderworks, go! It is so much fun. We are in the hurricane house. My sister-in-law Jackie, and I got such a kick out of it because we have been in so many hurricanes 45 mph winds were nothing to us. But it did make for a couple of funny photos.

Before wind starts.

After wind starts

On a pulley ride

The bed of nails. Glad we have tempurpedic!

Jackie taking photos of the ropes course. I was planning on going on. I knew I had a fear of heights when I was on very tall buildings or tall places but I figured I would be fine on the ropes course since it wasn't very high and I was hooked to the course with a cable so I couldn't fall. BOY! Was I wrong! I lasted six inches. I tried to step my foot out onto one of the platforms from the platform I was on and it felt like the platform was moving and I couldn't get my balance! So I chickened out. It turns out my brothers both have a fear of heights too. I didn't realize it. I was never, ever afraid of anything. Never. Nothing. I lived on the edge of crazy most of the time. If someone had a great idea that was dangerous and lacked common sense, I was all in! Well, unless it involved something illegal. Then I wasn't. I fear of heights must be hereditary. Anyway, Taylor, Lindsay, Robert, and Beatrice went on the ropes course. Maddie also got scared and changed her mind. I sort of regret it because I really did want to go on it. Jackie and I did do the virtual rollercoaster and we were both sure we were not going to make it due to motion sickness. I have turned into a real whimp!

Beaker going into space.

The BIG bubble area.

Beaker worn out!

This is apparently Vanna White's house in North Myrtle Beach.

Our sunset view.

Back to the real world. Yogurt bars must be the NEW thing because Freshberry moved into town and had a grand opening and they gave out free cupcakes. We were all in on that one, let me tell you. But just for the record, they were not as good as my friend Amy's cupcakes.

After Freshberry, it was off to the nursing home!

And here are John and Beatrice on the way home.

On May 19, we had our ladies banquet at church. Ladies volunteered to decorate tables. Our theme was Lily of the Valleys. So I did not want to buy real lilies and I didnt want to buy fake ones. I would have just thrown the fake ones out. So we decided to make origami ones. I wish I remembered to take a photo of our table. We won Best Table! The girls and I had fun decorating it. It was greens, blues, and browns. And later on down the way, you'll see a picture of the party favor, which we filled with candy and tied the Bible verse around the lily.

Eating peanut butter and jelly cupcakes! Woo hoo!!

One tired young lady! This is our Maddie!

Another tired young lady.

Here we are with some of our stuff packed and ready to go to Myrtle Beach. I guess these photos are out of order.

Beaker spending her allowance at the Disney Store.

Friendly's - where you can get the best kids'meals EVER! Here is the dessert that comes WITH the meal!

Rachel has a tattoo on her head.

We took a bike ride.

Tired Beatrice.

Robert made basketball cookies. Which came out great.

Ah, here we go! Here is the globe vase that I etched a lily on. I put the Bible verse reference on the other side. What's so funny is, I had to make 8 because each table sat 8 people. Well, all of us were five! So we brought home four globe vases filled with candy and origami lilies! I gave Lindsay's best friend mine. What would we do with Five vases?!!!

An origami session. Don't ask me how many lilies I got done on this day. Thankfully, I began well before the banquet so I had time to teach them and make the lilies.

Maddie made birds and hung them from the ceiling.

Beaker working hard.

John is exhausted!

Beaker won a door prize at the banquet!!! And there is our last two weeks - or three. I do not have much to say - shocking I know.

The Slacker that I am!

2012-04-30T22:06:00.000-04:00

I think I have used this title before but I am not sure! My nook has all but replaced the laptop so I am lazy about getting my blog posted faithfully every week. In fact, except for posting Maddie's band concert link, I have not posted anything in, dare I say it, A MONTH!! But don't worry! I have been taking plenty of photos so all's well!

This is right before Easter. In back of Maddie is Mr. Jerry. He is one of our friends from the assisted living/nursing home we go visit every Wednesday. Mrs. Everett is right in front of him. She is 94 years old! Both of them are so nice!

Robert earned his Webelos II patch. This is his Cubmaster shaking his hand.

Here he is with his den leader. He and Mr. Handsome LOVE Cub Scouts! :)

Here is Mr. Handsome and Robert.

Lindsay, Beatrice, Beaker, and Maddie

One of our spring banners

This is what the little girls do when I am working on something REALLY important...... in my craft room....

And not wanting to leave the kitchen free of mess and craziness, here is Kristinie the Great's handiwork. Yes, she did this all by herself. And YES, she also cleaned it up all by herself!

Maddie really wanted to play an April Fool's joke on Mr. Robbie. So she made him a cupcake with Old Bay seasoning. He does not look very happy does he? He was such a good sport. He knew she did something!! The sad part was, Mrs. Melissa and Mr. Kenny wouldn't eat their GOOD cupcakes so two of the kids in Trek got them!

It was crazy hat and hair night. Here are two of our club members having fun with a soda bottle....

and a cup!

We went to Dorothy's to decorate eggs. The little fella in the lower left is our nephew's son, Aiden. He is going to be 4 next week! He is my brother Chris' grandson.

Everyone is working hard and Dorothy did a great job making sure everyone had the same amount of eggs AND the same amount of colors! From the bottom it's Rachel (Tom's daughter), Beatrice, Maddie, Kristinie the Great, and Lindsay.

Beaker and Lindsay having a great time!

Robert and John working hard!

Here is Aiden. He really enjoyed himself. He loves his cousins, too.

Beaker showing off her handiwork.

THE BOYS!

Beatrice and Rachel

Beaker, Beatrice, and Rachel. We were blessed! We got to bring home five DOZEN eggs!!!

We owed Lindsay a trip out to a restaurant all by herself. She picked Hiro's, a Japanese steakhouse.

Lindsay's effort to get a photo of Mr. Handsome and me.

After lunch, we went on an Easter egg hunt at the nursing home. Boy, was that ever fun!!! The staff there is terrific. They really do a lot of fun stuff to get all ages of people around the residents. Our children had a ball.

Beaker getting ready to find eggs!

Robert won a rabbit. He named him Georgie! And he won a big Easter basket filled with a soccer ball, kickball, and basketball.

Getting ready for the egg race.

Beaker's turn at the pinata.

I also had to make a chocolate poundcake for Mr. Handsome's birthday..... AND....

A danish for our Easter breakfast at Church. The danish was wonderful, if I may say so myself. We were advised to get the danishes from SAM's but they are so unflavorful and boring! The great part about this was one of my sister friends tried it, loved it, and came over and I showed her how to make them herself!

Here we are eating breakfast. From left to right: Rachel, Beatrice, Robert, John, and Lindsay.

After the breakfast, the children put on a play. Robert had a main role and he was on the other side but I did not get his photo. This is the choir. Everyone did terrific except something happened to the sound and I was so sad for all the hard work the children and the directors put into it! Even John and Rachel joined the fun. Beaker had had enough and she came and sat with me.

Here is Robert watching the maintenance guy at Champions, where we go every Wednesday, unlock my car. YES! I locked my keys in the car. NO! I did not have a spare! But now I DO have a spare. It is hiding on my van. Don't worry, you'll never find it. You have to be at least six feet tall to reach it. I nearly gave our song leader, who also happens to be a Mr. Jerry, a heart attack! When he realized what I had done, he was so worried, but I added to it when I turned to him and said, "Do you think AAA will mind coming out more than once in a month to unlock your car?" Yes, a week and a half prior to this, I did lock my keys in my car. Mr. Handsome was so relieved to know I had finally gone and made the extra key after this incident! There is a reason my friends call me Lucy! OH! And the maintenance guy DID unlock my car!

The OTHER spring banner taking shape.

After band we decided to go to the local park by us. Lindsay accidentally dropped her glasses in the pond. THE BOY graciously volunteered to get them, which he did. And then everyone wanted in on the fun. It wasn't until AFTER we went up by the playground and read the rules for the park, that we learned it was illegal to swim in the pond. My friend and I were mortified. And what's even worse is, someone was arrested over the weekend for swimming on park property! Not at this park, it was downtown in the Cape Fear River. I would never swim in there - ever again. There are all kinds of snakes, alligators, flotsam and jetsom. It's like a little Hudson River - well, except we have alligators.

Beaker got to go to a birthday party! By herself! One of her little friends had a birthday party and she had a ball! We are terrible, horrible, bad parents. We don't do birthday parties with friends. Not because I don't want to but we celebrate everyone's birthday about three times. Once with my side of the family, once with Taylor's side, if we are there or they happen to be here, and then with just us. By the time, we are done, I am partied out. And we have SEVEN birthdays to celebrate, which translates into approximately 21 birthday parties. Now, when they children turn seven, they get a big sleepover birthday party. They can invite as many people, providing they are the same gender as the birthday child, as they want. And I try to pull out all the stops. The girl parties, quite frankly, are the most stressful. Robert's was drama free, everyone obeyed, no issues going to sleep, and we even had to babysit a younger sibling of two of the attendees! The girls tend to be a bit bossy, dramatic, and overall emotional. But they still have fun.

Here is a montag of our attempts at being crosseyed. The winner of course, is our Beatrice!!

Here is one of Beaker's friends. Mr. Handsome and I have been teaching the 3-4 Sunday School class the last two weeks. It has been a lot of fun for Mr. Handsome! Poor Beaker doesn't know what to do with us in her class! Mr. Handsome asked each of the children if they had ever disobeyed their parents and her friends were glad to share their sin (weird, I know) but all Beaker did was stare at Mr. Handsome when he asked her!! Ha Ha Ha!!

Here is her other little friend. It was his birthday party she went to.

And Our Beaker!

This rather nondescript and confusing photo is important. For, below the mug you will see a coaster. It belongs to Mr. Handsome and our Maddie made it for him!! He was so delighted. And you can me in the frame behind his mug! I never knew he had a photo of me on his desk!! He is so sweet!! I married Prince Charming!!

Well, that's all the photos! We have had a busy month. Couple that with Mr. Handsome working very long hours and lots of activities going on, it has been crazy. I will make a better effort at writing weekly now. I am glad to be caught up, though.

Trying to be more on top of things!!

2012-04-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

We have a homeschool band and, while it is small, it is a lot of fun for Maddie. There are three second year players (Maddie is one of them) and the rest are all first year players. Here is the link so you can watch her. She is, obviously, the one closest to the camera:

http://youtu.be/WslJ8qT4V8s

Let me know if the link doesn't work. Have a great day!

It's been far too long.....

2012-03-28T22:20:00.001-04:00

It's been rather busy the past three weeks but I really don't have any excuse for not posting except my laptop has become obsolete. As in, my nook is my new computer. It does everything but print!! I can type on it but I am not very good - yet. I'm learning. Once I get the hang of it, I will be able to type my blog on it. It does everything but clean the house and babysit the children. Oh wait!! It DOES babysit the children. I've found lots of "educational" games for them to play and it is great, as long as Beaker and Beatrice are getting along, to let them use it while I am trying to get a few things done and I don't want the TV on, which is all the time.

Here we are eating lunch with Grandma at the Italian restaurant near us. It's not a "real" Italian restaurant, for there is no "real" Italian restaurant within 600 miles of here. No offense, south, but you can't hold a candle to John's, Steve's, and Michaelangelo's! Robert on right and John on left.

Here is Lindsay - she's on the right just in case you're not sure - and Mr. Jerry with Lindsay's rabbit. We are at the nursing home. The little girls and Robert always bring some stuffed animal to show our friends. They get such a kick out of it. When I am in a good mood, I let Kristine and Beatrice bring all their doll stuff with them - diaper bag, stroller, carrier, and of course, the well loved doll!

Here are John and Robert. Robert spent the night at John's house and they are both very tired.

This is Dagmar the wonder dachschund.

And here is Teddy Bear. He is pretty old and very cute.

Krsistinie the Great and Beatrice working on multiplication tables. Seriously!! We are cracking up at them. Kristinie the Great has no idea what she's reading and Lindsay is telling Beatrice what to say!! And Kristine repeats it. Notice they are NOT the easy ones, either!

Here we are on one of our favorite field trips: YUP! World Market!! We love world market. You can get marzipan here. That is only important if you grew up in a European home where marzipan was a staple. And you can get toffifay, my most favorite candy in the world.

At the park with friends, though they are not in this photo.

Or this photo!

Ah, here is one of the friends - on the right!

Getting ready for the AWANA Grand Prix.

Robert working hard on a car he won't be able to race because he has a scouting camping trip.

We had a Sunday School party at our Sunday School teacher's house. He, obviously, lives on a small lake. Robert is out there showing off his boating skills.

Lindsay fishing. No one caught anything.

Here is Kathy and Preacher Correll. He's our Sunday School teacher. We had a great time. The food was great. I had two helpings, I'm embarassed to admit. We have a terrific Sunday School class, too.

Here is Kristinie the Great wandering around. Beatrice got a hook in her thumb. No surprise here as we are truly the safety "party crashers". You can depend on one of us to have an accident at a party! Sort of like when I was a kid you could depend on me hitting my head on something. Sometimes it was even serious enough to go to the ER. And the Chinese doctor there knew me!!

Here is Beaker fishing. In the background is Glenda and Jerry Smith, THE Mr. Jerry we go to the nursing home with. They really enjoyed fishing. What was funny was watching the adults, including myself, fish with Scooby Doo and Barbie fishing poles!! We did bring regular poles but never got around to getting them out. When you have as many children as we have, there's always a lot of paraphernalia to be shared!

Maddie fishing!

Here is our Preacher rowing our children. He is very brave. Most people get tired of being around us or try to avoid spending time with us but he, and Mr. Jerry and Mrs. Glenda, and several other friends, never tire of being around us! Boy, are they an encouragement to us!! We really thank the Lord for them.

Here is everyone hoping a fish will just jump out at them! Actually, I think they are watching Maddie and/or Robert row the boat.

Um, yes, that IS our girly girl Lindsay holding a worm.

Mr. Handsome rowing Beakster and I think that is Lindsay.

At home, practicing using the bow. We're not very good but hopefully we will take some time to practice. We need some kind of weapon to protect ourselves since guns will become illegal at some point. I will not elaborate here as I may get some bleeding heart liberals on here and I don't want to offend them too badly.

I thought we would get a photo of Kristinie the Great shooting the bow, but obviously you got yours truly. Don't I look like I should be living off the land?!!

Robert showing us how it's done.

Spring banner design nixed. We are going with vines and lettering that says, "I am the vine; ye are the branches."

This design is also nixed. This one is for Fourth of July. We are going to make red and blue VERTICAL stripes because, yes you probably guessed it, it looks like a tie!! And vertical are a lot easier to cut. Horizontal would be very difficult to stitch on without the thread showing on the other color when I make the hems. So we are going with blue and red VERTICAL stripes and white stars appliqued on top. I am hoping we can do 25 on each banner but I think I will give my sew out helper a heart attack. I'm a bit overzealous I suppose.

Ahhhhhh, the joys of killer badminton. Yes, in our home it's a dangerous sport to play. But fun. Seven to eight racquets, six birdies, and lots of children equals craziness central!

Here are the Cubbies getting ready to Start yer Engines at our AWANA Grand Prix!! What a great time we had, too!! Beaker, Rachel, and John waiting to be called to bring their car to Mr. Jason.

Here are the Sparkies waiting to race. Beatrice, Lindsay, and Megan.

And our Trek club: from the left, Maddie, Jared, Jacob, Evanne, and Toni.

And the winners are!!! Everyone in our family won a trophy so no tears. I can tell you, that was a HUGE relief!! And John won first place in Cubbies. Tom was a proud daddy. He couldn't be there so he had to live through Erin's photos she sent. Maddie's car went about 203mph!!!

Beatrice happy to have a trophy with her new webkinz, Pucky. Yes, Pucky. I have no idea.

Here is Beaker with her car.

We had a lot of other things going on. Of course, Robert and Taylor went camping with scouts. We are getting ready for Easter and Taylor's birthday which is April 7. That is always exciting because we have a big party at church for him and one of his friends, whose birthday is a day later, or earlier; I can't remember. We'll also celebrate it at my parents on Easter. Around here, we usually have at least three birthday parties for each person. Have a great week! :) Shhhhhhh... Don't tell but my absolute most favorite holiday is coming up. Seriously. Yes. April Fool's Day. And I have got some great pranks to play on Mr. Handsome. I am going to sew all of his underwear together. Don't worry, I won't use my sewing machine; I am just going to get a needle and thread and run it through the whole pile twice and tie it up. What do you think? And if I can get my groove on, I am going to paint a bar of soap with clear nail polish and put it in the shower. I really am torn with this one, being the cheapskate that I am but I guess I can use the veggie peeler and just peel off the nail polish, right?! Don't tell him!! It's been quite a number of years since I have played one but I love to play jokes on people. The last April Fool's joke I played was on my family. I made meatloaf cupcakes and tinted mashed potatoes to look like frosting. I didn't tell them what I was doing and served them for dessert. We even pranked the neighborhood kids, too!! Ha ha ha haaaa.... Remember Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart doeth good like a medicine...

Wee wee wee alllllllll the way home.....

2012-03-11T22:00:00.001-04:00

Yup, that's my title and I'm sticking to it! Thinking we were going to just jump right into Monday after our vacation, it came as no small surprise on Monday around 10:00am when I started feeling kind of bad. I told the children to start school and make lunch and I was going to lie down. Well, what I thought was going to be a short rest became a five hour nap!! I was sick. By Tuesday I was feeling slightly better and back in the land of the living to a certain degree. I still slept from after lunch until around 3:00. But by Wednesday, I was a lot better and I had noticed something: (this is ironic because at one of my friends' blogs she is ALSO discussing potty training!!): everytime I turned around Beaker had a new set of clothes on. I know that Beatrice and Kristinie the Great love to change their clothes on a whim but this was getting ridiculous. As I was musing to myself, quite loud but definitely not yelling, well, I was really complaining, Maddie happened to hear. She said, Oh, that's because Grandma Blake put her in pull-ups all week!" Well, that explains a lot! So we had a little course in re-potty training last week. I thank the Lord it was not a long process but it did take a little "prodding" to convince her that it would be in her best interests to use the toilet. After that, she was fine. We finally left the house on Thursday, though I thoroughly enjoy being home. It is a lot of fun to spend time with the children when I am well, but when I am sick they get kind of stir crazy, even when they go outside to play, so they were thrilled to go out. We went to my mom and dad's and had lunch with Mom.

We celebrated our pastor's birthday last Sunday and here are two of the cakes we picked out. It was a fun time and it was great to have a Birthday party for him.

It is ironic in this photo that Kristinie the Great has a pull-up on but it was Wednesday night and right before she was to go to bed. She is teaching Pat-Pat how to play Angry Birds! She is also using my Nook Tablet which for some reason has become not-my-Nook-Tablet! Everyone ELSE wants to use it. I highly recommend it. It does everything but my wash, the kitchen, and vacuum. I put my grocery list on it last week and it was great not to have to carry a pen and paper. I even managed not to get confused and miss things! I also had my Food Lion list on my phone so I could cross reference. I know, I'm just a nerd!

Here is Maddie in Dagmar the Wonder Dachschund's cage. She thought it would be funny to be in there. Dagmar is my mom's and dad's dog.

Friday Frenzy came quickly last week due to the fact that we only had two days of actual days! Here is one of my friends' children after his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We're at co-op. He is so cute. He is one of Beakers' buds.

And here is what happens when you leave the house at 8:30am and don't arrive home until approximately 5:00pm. We start with co-op then have lunch except today I made the VERY BIG mistake of going shopping at Sam's. I say VERY BIG mistake because it wore the children out. Then we went to band, then art, back to band, then back to art. Don't I sound like a boomerang! It was a great day but clearly tiring. We raced home, I fed the children, we brought them to church for play practice, and Mr. Handsome and I got a date! And free babysitting! HA!

Saturday, Robert got to race in the regional pinewood derby for Scouts. He did not place but he had a great time racing. His car ran approximately 213 mph, while the fastest cars were going 118 mph and upwards to 221 mph!! We came home, I finished food shopping, then we got to have a great dinner. After being sick last week, (I did forget to mention that everyone else but Maddie was sick too, because I was too focused on myself.) we have ramped up our healthy eating. That is not to say we don't eat junk food. I have been trying to be sure that our main meals, especially lunch and dinner, have a lot of good healthy food. Saturday night we had a roast beef and blue cheese salad with parmesan bread and grapes, served up buffet style. Everyone LOVED it! I couldn't believe it. The purple lettuce was kind of bitter but everyone ate it. And I have decided to try to find a new vegetable to give them each time we go shopping. Everyone is pretty much on board now with brussels sprouts and asparagus, so I bought some sugar snap peas and they liked them. I did have to explain to them that they didn't need to take the peas out of the shells, though. I am glad that they are patient with me! Short post this week but hopefully we will have more excitement this week.

My children think I wear a cape....

2012-03-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

And this is why:

Well, it's not the ONLY reason why but it's one of many! I could not find this photo two weeks ago to post on my blog and lo and behold it was still on my phone. One of our homeschool friends had car trouble so one of my sister-friends and I helped out. I pushed them from a VERY busy and VERY dangerous intersection with EXTREMELY rude people (And I seriously doubt they were ALL from the north!) to the Home Depot just up the street. By God's grace we got them there safely. Then my sister-friend drove them home from there. It was pretty exciting. I had another sister-firends' children in our van and everyone was soooo excited and yelling and couldn't believe that I was PUSHING another car up the road!!

Here is one of my roses in full bloom!

Easter sign Number One! The other one says He is risen. I am going to attempt to put lilies of the valley on this one. Since I have more time on these I figured I would try to add a little verve to them!

Here we are at my sister-in-law's getting John and Rachel. Ning, their dog, loves Beatrice. She did not want to leave her side. It was so cute!

Best cousins!! :) John and Robert love each other so much. It is soo cute.

We had french bread pizza and everyone got to help make them. And yes, I survived! Seven kids, six pieces of french bread, sauce, pepperoni, cheese! Wow!! They all had a great time and everyone ate their food.

I promised Robert's basketball coach I would make cupcakes for his team. Beaker and Beatrice wanted to help. Thankfully, they are VERY helpful. Well, except when they miss the bowl with, of all things, the sugar! Messy. But we got it cleaned up fairly well. The boys loved the cupcakes too, which is always a plus.

I think our family has some sort of hereditary anomaly that involves underwear on the head! Beaker and Kristinie the Great are being super heroes and for some reason think they need underwear on their heads!! Ha ha ha!! They make me laugh. Please don't notice the VERY messy room in the background - we live in our house!

Here is Robert's hero! No, not Beatrice - the fella to the left. He is a Senior in high school at a high school on the south end of town and Robert and Mr. Handsome go watch him play football whenever they can. Now they are going to watch him play baseball. He promised Robert he would come to one of his games and he made it to his last game! He is such a great young man. He even has a full scholarship to play baseball at North Carolina State University!!

Here is Beaker with Mr. Handosme's hat on - always willing to strike a pose!

Here is Maddie posing for her "team" photo. She does not like getting her photo taken AT ALL.

And here she is with her trophy!

We decided to celebrate our anniversary two days early because we were going away and we didn't want the children to miss the celebration. Didn't I do a great job wrapping?!! Wait till you see what we got Mr. Handsome. Everyone but Maddie helped me pick the stuff out! She was at band.

Here is Mr. Handsome with his present!

No explanation necessary but if you look at Mr. Handsome's neck, he is wearing one of his presents. We bought him a NC State lanyard. And toothbrush. AND key chain. AND.......

Everyone needs a trashcan with a big wolf and NC State logo on it, right?! And Beaker is holding his card.

Beaker does not like to take naps - or sleep for that matter. I don't know what's wrong with her. All of our other children followed my well planned, well tuned, and very precise schedule. She won't and doesn't follow it. In fact, I don't think up until last week, I've slept five nights in a row since she was born!! And here, on Sunday afternoon, I just gave up and told her to go sit in the big chair, I walked into the kitchen, and walked back out and VOILA! She is asleep.

After Beaker woke up, we headed out to AWANA for our Birthday Bash/AWANA store/Pizza Party!! It was great. I was in charge of the pin the tail on the donkey with one of my sister-friends! We had a lot of fun. Here is Beaker trying to pin the tail.

And John....

Rachel getting a little help....

Lindsay and the egg race....

Maddie (who told me not to take a photo).....

Rachel at the egg race...

Beaker at the egg race.....

Robert getting ready to pin the tail on the donkey....

Beatrice..... (Notice the bow placed precisely on her head so she looks beautiful!)

Maddie and Rachel playing....

Last week, Mr. Handsome and I went to Myrtle Beach for the week. (which is why I got five nights of sleep!) Mr. Handsome headed toward Eagle Springs to meet his parents, who were watching the children for the week. And I finished getting ready, ran a few errands, then headed to Myrtle Beach. We had a terrific time! I didn't take any photos because we didn't do anything exciting. I did take a picture of this puffer fish at Bass Pro Shop. And below is a photo of a shark hanging in the store. I think it's fake - I hope it is anyway. That's it. God's blessed me with Mr. Handsome. If you had told me 20 years ago, I would be here, I would not have believed it and neither would anyone in my family or any of my friends. But by God's grace, I am here. And I couldn't be more content and happier. Mr. Handsome wasn't always Mr. Handsome. He was actually Mr. Annoying!! That was before he got saved. I know that sometimes we think that having the Lord in our life is not that big of a deal but it really is. It not only assures your passage to Heaven when you die, but He (the Lord) changes our lives for the better. It doesn't mean our life necessarily GETS better, but we are changed for the better. And that is precisely what happened to Mr. Handsome in March of 1998. He became a different person. He had been in love with me for quite some time but, for obvious reasons, I wasn't not interested in him. My friends, even my Dad!, were encouraging me to consider him, but I knew at the time, that it would never work out. And one thing I told the Lord was that after what I had gone through, I would not marry ANYONE ever, until they met every criteria on MY LIST. I tell young ladies they should always have a list of what they are looking for in a husband. Not things like "must have money" but things that would make the person compatible with them. I even taped my list into my Bible to remind me. Because, I can tell you, when you're in a church and you're faithful, and you're busy working, single men come out of the woodwork!! Thankfully, my list kept them at bay! I personally think they were pretty desperate, but anyway! I had something to look for in each of them. I didn't need to date them to find out they were not "the One" - I only needed to watch. But the funny thing is, my list fit Mr. Handsome and his list (Yes, he had a list, which really surprised me!) fit me! Well, actually that's not true - the one thing on my list that didn't fit Mr. Handsome was that he had not gotten saved and surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew that but never told anyone. I did not want to embarass him. I knew he wasn't saved because he told me he wasn't. But he thought he was. It wasn't until a Monday night in our Bible Institute in March of 1998 that he realized he was not saved. The following night, he received Christ as his personal Saviour. And then on Wednesday he came in my office and told me. We worked together - well, I worked for him because our boss thought it would be a good idea!! HA ha! I thought he was quitting and I was so worried he was going to leave before he got saved, I didn't even notice when he told me he got saved. But it finally sunk in. So I watched and he was a different person! So different in fact, that in April of the same year, he asked me if I would go to lunch with him so I acquiesced. (I was not happy about going somewhere with him and having people think we were an "item"). After lunch, he said he had to fly to Canada and then to Madison, Wisconsin and he wanted me to think about spending the rest of my life with him. He said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I don't even know what I muttered but was so surprised he actually confronted me. He said he wanted me to think about it and he wanted an answer when he got back because he had to move on with his life or prepare for a life with me. So he left and I didn't know what to do. I don't even think I told anyone what he said because I didn't want anyone to get their hopes up. One of our good friends noticed I was not myself and called me and told me I needed to make a decision (they had no idea that Mr. Handsome had even spoken to me!) so I said OK. And hung up. I really sought the Lord about this. I was pretty happy doing my own thing and serving the Lord faithfully. I did want to be married and have a family but figured that would happen when I grew up. At that point, the Lord reminded me I WAS grown up. I was 31 after all!!! So I stepped out in faith and decided that I would commit myself to Mr. Handsome. When he got back from his trip, I was pretty stressed out because I figured maybe he was just kidding and by that time it was the beginning of May. He asked me out on a date and I said yes, which I believe surprised him. I don't think he ever said anything about his question, though I know he didn't forget about it. After about two weeks, he was supposed to go to his cousin's college graduation but he got very sick. It also happened to be my birthday weekend. He ended up cancelling and I made him some soup and brought it to him on that Friday and the next day he was much better so he took me out for my birthday and we went down to Wrightsville Beach and he asked me about spending the rest of my life with him. I told him I thought that was what God wanted for me and then he "offiically" proposed! We were married on February 27, 1999. God has blessed us with 13 years together and five terrific children. I am amazed everyday how God has given me above and beyond anything I could ask or imagine. I hope never to take Mr. Handsome for granted! He is the best!