sweet Katie

One of the times I love best with our sweet Katie is right after her bath. I wrap her in her towel and sing the classic, "Rock a bye Baby." I pretend to drop her when I say, "down will come Katie Boo!" I love to see her smile and then kiss her little nose.

This morning I had given her a bath and gotten her dressed and combed her hair. She looked so fresh & sweet that I decided to take a few pictures of her. You probably notice that her hair is much less crazy than usual; that's because it's just been combed and is still quite wet. After it dries it starts to get more body-thus the crazy hair usually seen in pictures.


She loves playing with her kitchen! It probably keeps her occupied more than any other toy.
Here is her artwork from Mother's Day Out this week. I thought this was so cute-using their handprints to make the lion's mane.

pray for Holly

Okay, I really don't know what in the world is going on with picture posting on Blogger this morning, but I'm looking at a bunch of html stuff instead of a photograph. When I did a test post it actually did post the real picture though, so I'm just going to stick all these pictures at the end instead of trying to insert them into my text. There's about 5 lines of html for each photo and I'm sure to mess something up if I try to move it all around.

The pictures are of Gracie & LA's "skedgle" for their sleepover. For those of you who don't read phonetically, that's "schedule." They are planning a sleepover and they have all sorts of plans. Of course, LA's mom said she & her sister have to get their room cleaned up before a sleepover can take place, so we'll see.


The "skedgle" is hilarious! They have planned where to have dinner and breakfast (I kind of think LA's mom is thinking more along the lines of eating at home!), what to have for snack and which activities they'll do at which times. They do need a little practice on telling time because the last I looked, there was no such time at "8:60." Gracie said she just copied this from LA (of course, she didn't correct her so is she any better?!?!) LA said she was counting by 5's. I guess she just kept going instead of switching over to the next hour which would be, of course, 9:00. The time seems to be going backwards too!

I think the "skedgle" is precious and something I definitely want recorded for memory's sake. Such wonderful memories she is creating with this best girlfriend.



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I want to ask you to please keep my friend, Holly, in your prayers. She is a young Christian mother who goes to church with us. She found out last week that she has thyroid cancer. She has twin girls who will be 3 in September and a little boy who will be 1 in July. This news has hit all of us "young moms" really hard, I think. I know it has me. Just a few hours before she got the news, a group of us were sitting around at playgroup watching our kids play and enjoying just being together. Then that afternoon she got a phone call from the doctor telling her she has cancer! I think all of us were a little bit speechless when we heard the news. She had been having thyroid problems and had had surgery a couple of weeks ago to remove a cyst and part of the thyroid. She was under the impression that everything was fine-she'd been told that there was no cancer. Apparently, they were still waiting on a biopsy that she didn't even know about. What do you say in this situation? I feel like I keep saying the same things over & over to her.

She went to the doctor yesterday and feels better about everything. As of now, there is no chemotherapy in her future and she is glad of that! She will be having some radiation where she can't hug, kiss or hold her babies for 72 hours. She's thinking they may get to spend some time at Nana's because how do you explain to children that age that Mommy can look at you but not hold you? She will be having surgery-which is scary for her because of an experience she had after her last surgery-and she will have a body scan to see if the cancer cells are anywhere else in her body. I'm not sure of the exact order of these things, but this is what she is looking at for now.

It will be a tough couple of months but she is upbeat. Yes, she is scared and going through normal emotions but she is also upbeat that there is a reason for her to be going through this.

Please pray for 3 specific things: her complete healing, her peace & comfort and for peace & comfort for her husband & children. Maybe that's technically more than 3 things but that's okay!
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I ran away from home last night! One of my favorite series came out with their 6th book awhile back and I've been wanting to read it. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson! I had looked around in this rather small town with no luck so I drove over to the "bigger" town about 20 miles away and ran in to Family Christian to buy it. It was so relaxing in there, looking at all the books, music and pretty stuff~with NO kids~listening to the Christian music they had playing. I could have stayed a lot longer.......

The only sad part of the evening was when I'd decided to go through the Fazoli's drive-thru to get some breadsticks. Our Fazoli's had closed so we always enjoyed going when we were in this other town. Lo and behold, it is now closed too! I was sooooo sad! The one near my parent's house closed too, so I don't know what is going on with this poor chain. It was soooo good and we thought just about as good as Olive Garden and way cheaper! (no Olive Garden salad, though)
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VBS planning is continuing along. I work on it, get stuff done, get overwhelmed and have to take a break. We've had a lot of people agree to help in various aspects & roles so that has helped with taking a deep breath. Little by little it will get done and the kids will enjoy it and will learn something and all will be good. (and 4 days later, Chris & I leave to go to San Diego, leaving the kids with my parents, so life will be very good at that point!----don't get too excited for us----Chris has a conference to go to so it's not like it's just a vacation but still will be wonderful!)
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My big brother turns 36 this week. He's getting old!!!!!!!!! HA! (No offense to any of you out there 36 or older!)
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I messed around with my links list yesterday & today. I added Amber & Chelsea. I found myself reading their blogs often so I figured I may as well add them to my list! I love reading the stories Amber writes about her children-her little girl reminds me of Gracie somewhat and Chelsea has 3 sweet girls and she posts the cutest pictures of them. Also, I moved k_hall up to the top and renamed her simply 'kim.' Malia is still on the list but she has moved to Wordpress. The link has been updated to go to her new home. I'm not sure if I changed anything else; I can't even remember!

next Monet? Picasso?

Here is Gracie showing off her artwork at the art show. Hers is the one directly next to her. This show was organized by the art teacher and a company called "First Art Works." It's a pretty neat thing. They did their artwork in art class then this company framed it and displays it at the art show where parents can come in and buy it. It was a little expensive, but I'm a total sucker for this kind of thing. Gracie is my first baby in school so I buy into these kinds of things pretty easily! By the time poor Katie gets to school, I'll probably be over it! Poor 2nd child, right? That's okay....I love her just as much!



I've been cleaning for the "baby tea" tonight. For any baby born after the 1st, our church has "teas" instead of showers. Basically it is a shower but we call it a tea. It started out as something where we were supposed to go "meet the baby" and not take gifts but maybe a casserole or something. It's quickly turned into just a regular shower just usually smaller. The one tonight is for a girl who just had a boy and already has a little girl. My house certainly needs to still be cleaned some but it's looking pretty good. The rule is: if a door's closed, don't open it! You never know what may fall on you!!!!!!



Katie & I will hopefully be going to playgroup this morning. That will keep us out of the house so it can stay clean. She tends to pull out toys everywhere she goes. I guess that's typical of a 3 year old. Lest anyone think she is horrible because of the story I posted down below, rest assured that she really is a sweet little girl who I love with my whole heart. Last night was singing night at church and she sang & sang-sometimes even the right words! Gracie & her 7 year old best girlfriend just giggled & giggled.



I feel so blessed that Gracie has this best little girlfriend from church. I'm sure she doesn't realize how blessed she is to have this but I hope she will one day and I hope they grow up together helping each other through childhood, the teen years & beyond! Katie also has a good little girlfriend who is only 5 weeks older than her and I'm happy for her to have her little friend too! They have other friends of course, but I just think "best girlfriends" are so important for a girl to have (I know I love mine!) and I'm so glad for both of my girls to have one, and they both come from Christian families which I'm happy about



I remember when M & I were pregnant together. She called me around noon one day and I asked what she was doing and she said, "Holding my new little girl." I was so excited to hear that her baby was here and well. I was due about 6-7 weeks later and was "next" in line at church to have my baby so the excitement was building for that as well. Already having a girl, a lot of people just assumed that I "wanted" a boy. To be honest, it kind of offended me really. Would a boy have been nice-to even it out-sure. It'd be nice to have a boy, but God gets to pick that-not me and I'm just blessed & thankful to have my children, no matter which gender they happen to be. What is that scripture: "I knit you together in your mother's womb..." or something like that. When I think about that, I think, "Wow, who am I to question what God gives me?" I can't imagine Katie Boo being anyone other than sweet Katie Boo




Anyway, when she had her little girl, I was thinking it'd be nice to have a boy who could date her little girl (planning ahead!) but then I also thought how fun to have a little girl who could be best friends with her little girl! After all, M & I are such close friends, it makes sense to dream about all the good times our little girls can have together too!




I love watching Katie with her little "boyfriends" too. I'm telling you, this little girl loves her some Bryson & Dillon! They are her buddies and she loves them. It's really sweet! Katie was upset at Mother's Day Out yesterday and the director said when Dillon came she calmed down. She didn't know if it was just a coincidence or not but that's when she really calmed down. I called his mommy right away to tell her that and we both thought that was so sweet. He really is a sweet friend!




I'm not sure how I got in this direction with my post today. Someday I'd like to do a post about all the friends my girls have. I think they'd like to read it one day and hopefully will still know all those friends! I think each friend offers something special to our lives and I'm thankful that God gives them to us!

I DIDN'T HURT ANYTHING!

I have to write down this story about our sweet-yet sometimes temperamental-Katie Boo.

Chris wasn't feeling well this morning so he stayed home until about 10:00. When he left for work, Katie was very upset. She kept saying things to him like, "Don't leave me!" "I don't want you to go!" over & over & over.

When he actually walked out the door, she lost it! I mean, she was throwing a fit! I probably should have really gotten on to her harder than I did but I found it kind of sweet so I just kind of let her have her time to express her frustration. (Is that code speak for being too lazy to do anything about it?!?!) Anyway.......

I finally tried to reason with her. I tried to pull her to me and talk to her. I tried to be all "Dr. Phil-like" and asked her why she was so upset and reassure her that Daddy would come home after work. She kept pulling away from me but I kept holding on to her.

I really was trying to be sweet and at one point I kissed her hand. She screamed, in between sobs, "I DIDN'T HURT ANYTHING!"

At first, I was confused as to why she said that, then I realized what she meant. When she hurts herself, she wants us to kiss it. I kissed her hand like I do when she hurts it. To me, that was a way I could make it all better. She let me know pretty quick & directly that the kiss did nothing to help what was ailin' her!

I guess I now know that the girl wants me to address issues head-on!

Well, I guess I learned my lesson. Little stinker!

slime the teachers!

Friday afternoon/night was "Spring Fling" at Gracie's school. From 4:30-7:00, the kids had fun watching teachers get slimed in the sliming booth, eating junk food, playing games & playing on inflatable bouncers. I had fun watching the kids play, entering a raffle, bidding on items in the silent auction & supervising the obstacle course bouncer. Well, I'm not sure that last part was much fun but Chris & I both took our 30 minute turn at it. I actually turned it over to him about 5 minutes early! It was a little hectic with kids wanting to go before I was ready for them to go (we were trying to let the previous kids get to the top before letting other ones go), making sure they gave me a ticket and generally keeping them in line.


This event is sponsored by our PTA and I think we did really well! The lady who coordinated it all did a good job and had lots of help pulling it off. I know Monday night at our meeting she was a little stressed about getting all of the volunteers she needed but I think it all turned out well. I know she was glad for it to be over! There is a service group at the middle school which is right across the street and they sent over a lot of kids to help which was great! The sponsor of that group is a wonderful lady who we actually go to church with (her granddaughter is one of Gracie's friends and is in the Sunday morning class I teach). She really helped us out by getting so many of her "Serteen kids" to help!

It was so fun to watch Coach get slimed! The asst. principal had made the sliming booth. The Spring Fling coordinator said that he "donated" it to be used (he wants to keep it to use at his church also) and it worked similar to a dunking booth. If the ball hit the lever, slime would ooze out on his head! I know he sat there, at least 2 other teachers, the principal and I even saw a guy who I know is the children's minister at the large church across the street. I know the coordinator goes to church there so I guess she "convinced" him to do it. I hadn't heard his name mentioned as one of the people who would be doing it. Lots of the kids know him and from what I saw when he was done, he was quite popular! He was gross afterwards!

All in all, it was a good time! I even won a basket at the silent auction and only had to pay $15! I was a little afraid of how much I'd end up paying because I bid on a lot. I figured I wouldn't win most of them and I was right. Chris had gone back near the end and bid up for me (that was when I was working). I won an art basket-to Gracie's delight!-and like I said, it was only $15. *whew* Gracie had so much fun last night coloring with her new crayons. The basket had crayons, markers, pencils etc.

Each class had joined with other classes to make the baskets. For example, Gracie's class and 2 other classes had a "movie" theme. The parents were asked to send in donations for the baskets. I sent in a Veggie Tales movie and some candy. In those baskets were the movies, candy, popcorn & gift certificates to movie rental places. There were other baskets like gardening, kitchen, chocolate, scrapbooking, etc. There were also other baskets that were just donated items like Nascar, golf outings at local country clubs, etc. Working so much with the PTA, I really hope we made some good money. I guess we'll find out!

Gracie loves art so much. She will draw & color for long periods of time. Last night she was wanting to know what I wanted her to draw. I told her to try to copy Granddaddy's picture that he had painted. Granddaddy is my grandfather (my dad's dad) who died when I was in the 6th grade. He used to paint a lot and one of my prized possessions is this picture that he painted. I was told at some point that I could pick out one of his pictures to have. I chose this one. I found out that my dad really liked that one so I thought I might have to give it up but he said I could keep it. A couple of Christmases ago, Chris had it framed it really nice for me. I thought Gracie did a good job of copying it! She wrote a really sweet letter to Pappy (my dad) that I'm going to send him along with her version of the painting. I think he'll like it!

Today we went to the zoo. Over Spring Break we kept saying we were going to go but never did, so today we went. We bought a pass so I'm sure we'll be going back more often now. It's good for a year and basically pays for itself in less than 2 visits so it's really worth it. It was crowded but not too hot and the animals were out & frisky so it was a good day to go. We ate at Cracker Barrel afterwards which is a treat because we don't have one around here (the zoo is about an hour away). We also went to Kohl's! We love that place and wish we had one here!

Gracie is so funny! I tried on a brown & cream dress at Kohl's and she was with me. It looked really bad! As soon as I got it halfway on, Gracie could obviously tell that it wasn't going to look good. I could tell, too. I started making a face & some comments like, "I don't think so," so Gracie did too. She was so sweet though. She didn't want me to feel bad so she said, "But I think you look pretty in brown!" I love that she wanted to make me feel better!

Tonight Gracie & I went to Wal Mart. Fun! We're having potluck tomorrow so I needed to get stuff for that plus just some other stuff. As always, at Wal Mart I see some real characters. I finally found a lane that wasn't for 20 items or less and get in it. There was a lady being checked out, a couple in front of me and then Gracie & I. There was plenty of room on the conveyor and there was actually a divider there so I started putting my things up. The man in front of me had his cart where I couldn't hardly reach. I kept thinking if he would just move his cart up I could get most of my things out of my basket and be ready for my turn.

I finally just stood there because his basket really was in the way. Well, I started noticing that the lady being checked out was trying to pay. You know, one of those times when the cashier is pushing all sorts of buttons but the transaction is just not going through. The lady was saying something about how her driver's licence # was on the check but apparently it was saying that it needed to see it and the cashier said something about if they're reported stolen or something......I couldn't really hear all of it.

So they talk back & forth and the cashier walks off as if to check on something. By this time the lady in front of me has told her husband to move his basket so I can start putting my things up. So I tell her thank you and proceed. I get this weird feeling that this lane is not going to work out so I stop and tell the lady in front of me, "I think I'll wait" (to keep putting my groceries up there). She kind of laughed and agreed.

The cashier comes back and the lady starts looking in her wallet....and keeps looking.....Finally, she gets on her cell phone and says into it (very loudly & quite emphatically) , "Do you have my driver's license in your wallet?!?!" "Well, you need to get up here to Wal Mart and bring it to me 'cause I can't check out and I'm not leaving without these groceries!!!!" (She had over $200 worth of groceries!) She tells the cashier she might as well shut down the lane 'cause she's not leaving this lane until she gets her groceries. She told her she was not going to void all these and start over. (She didn't seem to care that there were 2 customers behind her---with groceries on the conveyor already!)

I said, "okay!" and started taking my things off as did the people in front of me. The man grumbled something about, "I'm not going to be up here all night" and the lady retorted back with something like, "You will be too" to which he said, "No, I'm not!"

The lady was seriously going to stand there until her husband came to Wal Mart from their house to bring her her driver's license! She told the cashier to close down her lane until it got there!

My question is this: Who tries to write a check without proper i.d.? Also, she obviously had driven without her license. Also, I'd be very leary of taking her check for over $200 at this point.

On a good note: the lady who had been in front of me told me that lane 15 was open. I followed them over there and she even helped me unload my groceries out of my basket! I thought that was sweet! I think we kind of felt sorry for each other having wasted our time in the other lane. By the time I left, the "no i.d. lady" was still standing at lane 11. She WAS NOT leaving! The cashier where I ended up checking out said she really couldn't do that....but she did! I didn't see any manager telling her she couldn't. Crazy, I tell ya!

On another good note: when I was putting the groceries in my trunk, one of the "cart guys" came over and helped me put them into my trunk......at Wal Mart! That never happens there! I must admit a moment of panic when he came towards me (it was dark already) but he simply helped me and told me I'd already done enough work for the day. Another sweet thing!

This is going to be a fast week. I have Ladies' Class Monday night and Chris has a meeting at church also, a PTA general meeting and "art show" Tuesday night (a fundraiser for the school where a piece of Gracie's artwork will be framed "professionally" and I can buy it with a portion of the proceeds going to the school-you know I'll be a sucker for that one!), church Wednesday night and a baby shower at my house Thursday night. I'll be glad to see Friday!

Wilbur

the scene is our family of 4 watching the live action "Charlotte's Web"

Katie: He's talking, Mommy! (referring to Wilbur)

me: Uh-huh

Katie: He not say 'oink oink' anymore.

I'm afraid she may be a little confused now!

comfort for the day

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter! May we always be thankful for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross and ever grateful that He is risen & alive today & always!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

the annual requisite picture of dying eggs



Next are some pictures of the girls right before we went to the COLD church Easter egg hunt. Can you tell that Katie wasn't in the best of moods?!?! It was at just the perfect time for her to be ready for a nap & not getting one. I thought these were all so funny that I included many of them!



Here we are at the egg hunt and Katie's mood has brightened considerably! As you can tell, Gracie was having a good time as well! (Yes, Katie has changed clothes. The pants she was wearing were just too short-looked like highwaters-and the shirt & sweater were too small-kept showing her belly!)

the girls with "Penelope."

on the trail with Daddy (I don't know why he's making that face!)

I
love the look of happiness on Gracie's face as she looks at the things the "Easter Bunny" brought her. She is still in love with horses so she got some horse books and horse stickers along with some candy. Katie got some Dora & Diego books, a baby animal book and some candy.


a couple of pictures of them in their Easter dresses hunting for eggs & smiling for Daddy. Brett will probably take some "official" Easter pictures of them soon which will be much better than any we could have taken in the yard today.

past week

Week in review:

*in-laws from New Mexico arrived last Friday; Chris & Katie picked them up at the airport while Gracie & I enjoyed her Spring Party at school

*Chris & I looked at some used cars; didn't buy anything but interested in one; his truck is just not reliable at this point

Saturday:

*bought some things at Home Depot to make our yard prettier; I don't claim to be Elizabeth but this little island sure does look better than it did; maybe slowly but surely we can get some yard things done around here

Sunday:

*church; nap; Life Group with a cookout at someone's house afterwards

Monday:

*the Masters! Well, the practice rounds anyway. In order to get tickets to the practice rounds (Mon., Tues. & Wed.), you have to submit your name and hope to be chosen to buy them. Chris has been chosen twice out of the probably 5 or 6 times he's requested them. This year, his mom was chosen so she bought them and Chris & I and Gramps & Gramme went while a friend watched the girls. I'm not really a sports lover, but it was pretty cool. The course is absolutely beautiful! The grass is like carpet and being so close to Tiger Woods was neat. I knew only 1 other player and it's because he's from around here and is on the news a lot. The other ones were all foreign to me! I recognized one other name that Gramme was hoping to see but he never showed up on the boards as being on the course so he must not have been practicing that day. To get tickets to the real thing (Thurs., Fri., Sat. & Sun.) is pretty impossible. Over the years we've heard of a few people we know who know someone who gives them tickets but really only 1 or 2. I think people actually leave them in their wills to people.

*I had a wedding shower to attend that night and Chris & his parents watched my friend's children for that since she had watched the girls for us earlier in the day.

Tuesday:

*We were all pretty worn out so we nixed the idea of going to the zoo as we'd planned. We went shopping all day where Gramme was quite generous (thank you!) with buying for us as well as the girls.

*That night, we left Katie to have some "Gramps & Gramme" time while Chris, Gracie & I went to play putt-putt with some friends from church.

Wednesday:

*We again nixed the idea of going to the zoo and opted to hang around closer to home. The girls rode bikes with Gramps & Gramme at the park and Chris & I ran some errands. Chris & I also visited a friend in the hospital who was having surgery this week rather unexpectedly.

*Church that night and Sonic afterwards.

Thursday:
*Time to take Gramps & Gramme back to the airport for the long trek back to New Mexico. About 13-14 hours later-riding in the plane & car-they were safely back home.

*Chris & I and the girls went out for breakfast then Chris ran some errands while the girls & I went to playgroup. Gracie misses playgroup each week since she's in school so she was excited to go. It was a small group but she still had fun! We ate out for lunch then all 4 of us crashed for naps. Did I mention we looked for Sunday shoes for the girls?!?!? Yikes! What a job!

*After naps, we continued searching for Sunday shoes and finally bought some at the 1st place I'd looked that day after looking at about 6 other places! No fun!

*Came home, ate dinner, watched t.v., went to bed.

Friday:

*Well, the day isn't over but my husband has successfully bought a new car today! Not new new, but new to us! I'm excited because it's cute and clean on the inside and one I will enjoy driving (unlike the ugly trucks he's had in the past!) I don't like having to pay for it, but having 2 reliable cars in the family will be a relief (again, unlike the ugly trucks he's had in the past!) He's actually keeping his truck for now. He debated trading it in but they wouldn't give him hardly anything for it and it's paid for (the truck) and he'll enjoy having something to haul yard waste in and stuff like that. He may try to sell it outright later.

*We have plans to go to the movies later tonight and go to the church Easter egg hunt tomorrow. It will be coooold unfortunately!

*I also heard from a former student of mine who is MARRIED! I feel oooooolllllldddd! It was so good to hear from her and to hear that she is happy!

*Have I mentioned my new favorite show: Ace of Cakes!!!!! It's awesome!!!

Mulligans, Birdies and TIGERS, oh my!

Guess where we were today?