LOTS OF LITTLES

a little surprise party

2012-02-12T20:01:00.008-06:00

A few weeks ago ... we had a surprise birthday party for Buddy :)

That afternoon ... Daddy was off running errands ... and then the plan was for me and the kids to meet him for pizza. One of Daddy's errands, however, was to stop by church -- which was where the boys were dropped off -- and load these boys into his truck. So ... when we met Daddy for supper ... we pulled up by his truck. Then, he got out and opened the back door as though he needed to get something out ... and the boys -- who had been crouching down hiding -- began jumping out :) Buddy was stunned! Once he heard a couple "surprises" and had made sense of everything ... he was ecstatic! Jeff got a cute video {with his phone, of course} of Buddy exclaiming and jumping up and down :)
All of the boys wanted to be on the same side of the table :)
After cupcakes, Daddy took these guys to Lookout Ridge, an indoor playground ... while Halo, Foofie, Little Dude, and I visited Great-Grandma and played with the Target drinking fountain {see previous two posts}.
Jeff said they ran around nearly non-stop for the whole two hours! Buddy had a blast! And the day and the time and the location turned out to be a blessing for Jeff ... as he providentially ran into an old -- but dear -- friend of ours at Lookout Ridge! They were thankful to have that unexpected opportunity to encourage one another :)

a little fountain drinking

2012-02-11T20:47:00.015-06:00

Buttons are always entertaining!
Little Thirsty recently discovered {or re-discovered???} the joy of drinking fountains ...

His thirst is satisfied ... finally. I have about three minutes of video snippets from this event. Target was abnormally empty this night ... so Little Thirsty provided some amusement for three rather idle checkout gals -- one of my video clips has a Target employee telling us to take our time ... that they're all enjoying his laughter :)

a little visit

2012-02-10T20:14:00.010-06:00

My ninety-five year-old grandma, Great-Grandma, moved out of her house and into a nursing home shortly before Christmas. She's rather confused about most everything ... but remarkably cheerful nonetheless. This photo was taken before Great-Grandma was even a grandma ... back when she was a young mother ...
I was looking at it on the wall ... and Great-Grandma told me to take it down ... so I did. And the kids wanted to see it up close too. The passing of years even gave Foofie pause ... as she considered how Grandpa used to be that little boy in the arms of a Great-Grandpa she never knew ...
And Great-Grandma wanted to see Foofie up close :) She asked Foofie if she is "acquainted with large numbers" :) Foofie said yes :)
She told Ezzie he was such a doll ... "a male doll" she clarified ... and ... "you're just the top of the ... the top of the ... I'm losing my starch ... let's say ... the top of ... the ... list!" And then to me, "I bet you just get a big bang out of them!" Sometimes I do ;)

a little wintry

2012-02-05T21:24:00.014-06:00

New Year's Eve ... seems like such a long time ago now. We were hanging out at Mom and Dad's ... and when we ventured out into the night to go on home ... it was snowing! It was one of those fun snowfalls with enormous flakes ...
Isn't this a fun snowfall??? Are the biggest clumps a few flakes joined together??? I don't know how big an individual snowflake can get ...
New Year's Day found us at Panera after church. These two are pretending they are blending in Vitamixes :)
Foofie looks a little bit funny here ... but I love how Little Blender is smiling so happily at his sister :)
The following day ... Foofie had her first lunch at The Tea Room :)
This expression is totally Foofie ...
And Halo made a snowdog while there was still some snow to be had ... I think this is my favorite kind of dog :)
And alas ... January is already a memory ...

a little choo-choo train

2012-01-15T00:33:00.007-06:00

This is another one of those posts that has taken a little while because I was hoping to do some red-eye removal ... but I'm just going to post it anyway ... and do that ... later???

On our last night in Rapid City, we went to a local park where they had a kiddie train ... and hot cocoa and cider ... and oodles of lights. Foofie is in the front of the train -- on this ride -- and Buddy is in the orange hunting hat :) This was Buddy's only turn, however, as he quickly decided he was a bit too macho for the kiddie train ...
Even Halo had a turn ...
And a few pictures of Ezzie and Luke ...
Although Luke looks a little stern in this one ...
They were having lots of fun together :)
Little Trooper LOVED it. I think he went on four rides. We had done a fair amount of walking around as well and so ... while we were heading back to the car ... I said, "You are such a trooper!" "I'm a choo-choo train rider," he replied matter-of-factly :) I think this is the smile of satisfaction ...
Back at the house ... Macho Buddy modeled his new spy glasses ...
And I visited with my sweet sis-in-law :)

a little Black Hills sight-seeing

2012-01-05T15:25:00.001-06:00

The day after Christmas, Grandpa offered to show us some of the sights. We had not been on the road for very long when I noticed a tired kiddo in the back seat ...
Make that TWO tired kiddos ...
Actually THREE!!!
Even Daddy was tired!
And it was only 10:30 in the morning!

This fellow, however, wasn't missing anything!
Everyone woke up -- or was woken up -- when we reached Mount Rushmore ... except Little Sleeper.
Little Sleeper's slumber was disrupted, however, by cold, gusty winds -- so his peepers were open for our family Mount Rushmore picture :)

Next on the agenda was lunch -- at the Crazy Horse Cafe -- I'm not really sure what it was called ... probably something similar to the Crazy Horse Cafe ...
Foof used the camera and took about twenty-three pictures of this. I didn't think to take one ... so we get to enjoy this upward angle due to Foofie's small stature :) This is a model of what the Crazy Horse monument will eventually look like ... in another hundred years or so.
Here it is from afar ...
And a little less far ...
See Halo's shoes??? I mean ... slippers??? Dear Halo was helping get things out to our van on Christmas morning in her ... jeans ... and her fancy, black, high-heeled shoes. She never changed out of her dress shoes and forgot to bring any other shoes with. So ... she did her South Dakota touring in a pair of Grandma's slippers :) It's best to borrow slippers {instead of shoes} when you wear a size 9.5 in casual shoes and a 10.5 in running shoes. She doesn't think it's so funny just now ... but I assured her we'll all laugh about it in a few years :)

a little Rapid Christmas

2012-01-02T09:25:00.013-06:00

We did something different for Christmas this year. We visited my husband's side of the family in their relatively new location of Rapid City. We left for the airport a little before nine in the morning. Little Blondie was thrilled! {Read the following line to the tune of Jingle Bells, please ...} Oh, what fun it is to ride ... in an air-plane ... on Christ-mas day-ay ...
Daddy was a little less thrilled about flying and security and being stripped of our rights -- but he's a good sport :)
These two were highly excited as well ...
And we were pretty tired ... but happy :)
After our safe arrival and unloading a host of bags and belongings ... the kids immediately ventured down to the creek in search of adventure ... and ducks. So ... I ventured down too ... to take some pictures :)
Feeding the ducks. See them??? I don't know how Halo got this apron on so fast ... I don't think she wore it on the airplane ... she's an apron kind of gal :)
We get a picture together about every five years or so ... and here it is :) Maybe it will be more often now since the kids {especially Halo} are using the camera more ...
It was cloudy ... but scenic nonetheless ... and made me nostalgic for the days of Little House on the Prairie ...
Daddy just fished this kid out of the creek ...
Smile :)
Yes, this is not our usual Christmas ... that's Buddy in his stocking feet and shorts ... in the snow ...
He just scared all of the ducks away ...
Time to warm up in the hot tub!
Here you can see some of their "view" ... and a couple of neighboring homes ... and how close their deck is positioned to the creek ...
Me and Little Guy :)
A little while later, the aunt and the uncle {that would be Jeff's only sibling} and the cousin {little boy on the right} arrived :) If you notice the cousin's shirt ... you will deduce -- correctly -- that there will be TWO cousins by next Christmas!
Little Button-Pusher hardly ate any lunch or supper. He was too busy pushing buttons on all of Grandma's many ornaments/toys/decorations ...
Oooh ... more buttons!!! Not only was he too busy to bother with eating ... but he was also too busy to look over at the camera. Needless to say ... he was pretty hungry by 5:30 the following morning. While we were still in bed, Little Button-Pusher woke me up and said, "Mommy, do you have any food in your pocket??? For me???" I told him I didn't have any. "I don't ever want to be here again," he replied.
That's Grandma -- of course -- and Buddy ... and I think some important business was going on here ...

a little Christmas Eve by Halo

2012-01-01T11:27:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas Eve!! Our tradition is Christmas Eve at Grandpa & Grandma's house!!!

A great feast!! {courtesy of G-ma!! Extra special thanks to her!!}

See those HUNGRY faces? All the GREAT food is beckoning to them ;) Me and MOST of my cousins...WAITING...WAITING...WAITING :)
Isn't she cute???
Why the silly face, Daddy???
Having fun!
Little Dude was taking pictures too ... with a toy blender base ...
Family Christmas photo :)
See ya!!
Halo Jean

a little more Ezzie

2011-12-20T12:02:00.006-06:00

Ezzie cracks me up -- almost continually :) He's at that fun age where they can say everything ... but their understanding is still pretty limited ... which makes for lots of funny quotes. If you could see and hear these comments ... they would obviously be more amusing. He is a master of facial expressions ... and his voice is usually high and squeaky.

Here's a little more Ezzie of late ...

When he wakes up in the morning, instead of asking me if he can go to church on Sunday ... he's now been calling, "Foofie! Come get me!"

Driving in the car on Sunday ... "Should I hang up my coat at Bible Study please? Should I???" This was immediately followed by, "Should I shoot a crazy deer?"

Pointing at the computer ... "Should I do dot com please, Mommy??? Dot com, Mommy?"

"You are such a nice little boy," said Mommy. "I'm a dump truck guy, Mommy! A dump truck guy!"

Daddy was cleaning him up in the shower ... and Ezzie managed to get his hair mostly standing up. "I'm a hawk, Daddy." Then, as he is getting rinsed off, "Don't rinse my hawk, Daddy!"

Ezzie was laying in our bed and talking about a deer and pointing to our chandelier. "Oh ... our chandelier," I said ... kind of getting the deer connection. "That's a chandle-deer," he said. "Does the chandle-deer walk around???" Then he told me ... "Daddy left me in the dark ... and there's a moose outside."

I was telling Little Honey that he's so warm ... he could be my heater. "I'm a fire," he responded. "You can sit by me."

I'm setting some things aside for an upcoming jaunt ... and Little Funny found one of Daddy's ties and hung it around his neck and said, "Should I bring my scarf??? Should I please???"

a little endearing

2011-12-14T21:56:00.013-06:00

Little Sweetie's favorite Christmas song :)

Yesterday, I said to him, "You're just like a stick of butter!" {Yes, I'm full of funny endearments.} "I'm a robot," he replied. Then, he changed his voice into a mechanical sound and repeated, "I'm ... a ... ro ... bot."

"You're sweet as a caramel." I told him next. "A big caramel," Little Sweetie agreed. "A big BIG one!"

Shortly after ... "You're such a good potty trainer!" I encouraged him. "I'm like a snowflake," he responded ... while flailing his arms and legs about.

Later ... Ezzie was busy coloring ... "Look, Mommy! I'm making a star ... it's a horse-y ... or a hat." He paused briefly to color a little more on his doodle. "It's a mouse, Mommy! It's an airplane going zoom!" Another pause to add to his picture. "See my ... ... ... phingy, Mommy???" Yep, it's definitely a phingy (thing-y)!

I love two-and-a-half :)

a little church-boy

2011-12-03T00:01:00.002-06:00

You may recall that Little Dude loves being at church. I think I've mentioned this before ... but many mornings during the week ... he'll say to me, "Can I go to church, Mommy? On Sunday, Mommy?" I couldn't very well take photos just for blogging fun during a worship service ... but our church had a variety show recently ...
and so I snapped a few pictures of Little Dude in church :)
He likes to tuck a book under his arm -- any book will do :)

a little "thankful for everything"

2011-12-02T10:01:00.006-06:00

Foofie's Thanksgiving list {and some fun artwork of Foof's for the sake of color} ...
P.S. She's still scribing :) I came across this sheet recently ...

a little dozen

2011-12-01T23:12:00.017-06:00

Halo and I celebrated our birthdays last month. Halo is now a dozen ... and I am three dozen :) Our church was having a meatball dinner on her birthday -- and we like meatballs -- so we dined there. This might be Halo's satisfied-with-supper face ...
This guy likes meatballs too ... especially meatballs at church :)
Here's Halo's official birthday picture {with approximately 1 and 1/3 of her cousins} -- looking so grown up! I should correct the red eyes. Maybe later ... I pretty much don't bother with editing -- just happy to get them on the blog ...
Waiting for cake ...
My official birthday picture :) I'm not a big cake lover -- although I do like frosting ... provided it's free of chemicals -- so my mom made some raspberry birthday tarts :)
The kids made cards for me while we were at G & G's -- kind of last minute :) Don't you love cards full of happy smiley faces??? I do. Please don't be offended if your card for me isn't pictured here ... this was just the cards I presently had in my possession at Mom and Dad's house -- taken mainly because I like the picture of Mom and I that she {Mom/Mum} used on the card she made :)

a little about the littles

2011-11-09T23:25:00.010-06:00

Speaking of saving money -- the last post about Halo and a Kindle -- Foofie decided she wants money for Christmas ... "Because I'm saving up for an emergency ... or else a car!"

More Foofie fun ... I've noticed she sometimes writes little notes to her writing teacher on her assignments ... "HI! How are you? I can't wait to give you my assignment." And on her paper for next week titled "Last Thanksgiving" ... she wrote on the bottom "THE END. BY FOOFIE. THANKS FOR READING THE LAST THANKSGIVING." And then she put a little rhythm or such below the story ...

ME MY MO MO MO ME MY MO MO MO
A CHERRY OH ME MY MO MY MO MO MO
MO MO MO LA LA LA

And speaking of fun quotes ... when Little Dude and I were on the way to pick up the kids from co-op yesterday ... he was holding Buddy's big nerf gun and he said, "The girls they always jump on me ... BUT ... I will keep them OFF ... with my SHOOT gun!" Then he began to list off the names of most of the girls he knows ... and it seems he wasn't talking about his sisters :)

Little Blondie likes church. Nearly every morning he asks me, "Can I go to church, Mommy, on Sunday?" Tonight, while we were driving he spotted a church and said, "Look at that cool church!" And then ... "There's a church at Disneyworld." He knows we are going to Disney sometime -- he has heard the bigs excitedly talking about it -- so apparently ... in his mind ... there must a church there if it's so wonderful :)

We also have plans to visit South Dakota on the calendar ... and the kids are all jabbering about that as well ... and so Little Darling has been talking about "Fouf Akota" too :)

Oh ... and one more thing ... when I tell Little Fellow that he can have only one of something ... he seems to think it means only one at a time. So ... he has his first one and then when he is wanting a second ... he often waves his pointer finger at me while he asks, "Just only one, Mommy?" He's hard to refuse :) Then ... he'll request a third thing ... "Just only one, Mommy?"

a little app

2011-11-05T23:40:00.010-05:00

Perhaps the most exciting thing this week -- for Halo and I at least -- was my discovery of the kindle app. Is that even how you spell app??? I don't know. I'm usually late to the party in terms of technology ...

Anyway, Halo is possibly saving up for a kindle ... rather unofficially though ... so we'll see. Nonetheless ... she knows she'd really like one if she could afford it ... and she truly has an unbelievable appetite for reading. In the meantime however ... we now have the kindle app. It's not quite as convenient or portable or nifty as a real live kindle ... but it was FREE :) Maybe you want to get one too ...

All I had to do was download the app from amazon -- and I was set to start selecting titles for our virtual library! Oooh exciting! And then I picked out a dozen or so books for Halo ... and they were all free as well! Can it get any better than that???

If you want any suggestions ...
here are some of our kindle picks so far ...

Teddy's Button
Probable Sons
The Lamplighter
Christy's Old Organ
Tales of Daring and Danger
Me and Nobbles
The Treasure of the Incas
Little Meg's Children
A Peep Behind the Scenes
Cobwebs and Cables

I'm eager to read some of these myself :)

a little savings

2011-10-29T11:29:00.007-05:00

http://www.shopathome.com/?IAFCG=IlLeZ94mSGid5hg4nktauA==

Here's a new little online thing I just recently learned about. If you are going to buy something online ... first check the "shop at home" site and see if they have a "coupon" for that store. Most of the coupons are 3% "cash back". If they have a coupon for your desired store, all you need to do is click on it ... and it will direct you right to that online store. By going to the store THROUGH THE SHOP AT HOME site ... it will generate a trackback number. Then, if you purchase something (and do not return it) ... the store will credit shop at home -- and shop at home will credit your "account" with the 3%. Every time you have earned at least $20 ... they will send you a check! How's that for easy savings???

I was just checking to see what stores they have connections with -- and it turns out that they have "coupons" for most everything I already do online. They have coupons for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Gap, Target, and Walmart. {I noticed Wal-mart only offers 2%.} L.L. Bean and Sierra Trading Post -- pretty much any store you can think of. Today they have a K-Mart hot deal offering a 10% cash back coupon ... and 6% at Home Depot. I cannot understand HOW K-Mart stays in business though ... whenever we drive by it {on the way to Sam's Club} their parking lot is always empty! Some of their offers have free shipping coupons ... Toys 'R' Us and many others.

So ... if you're interested ... please find SHOPatHOME through my special link below and BOTH of us -- YOU and I -- will get a $5 credit if you set up an account and make a purchase through SHOPatHOME within 60 days. Happy savings :)

http://www.shopathome.com/?IAFCG=IlLeZ94mSGid5hg4nktauA==

a little fair

2011-10-28T22:58:00.004-05:00

A couple of months ago ... we went to THE FAIR ... the state fair. We aren't regulars. It's fine if we go and it's fine if we don't. Personally, I would rather spend the money at a waterpark or out to eat at a favorite place -- in fact, you could probably do both considering how expensive the fair is. But since we did do the fair this year ... we opted to enjoy ourselves and be happy about it :)

The highlight for Little Bumper might have been the bus ride to and from the fair ...
"Look-eee dat, My-Mommy!"
After a bunch of fried stuff -- which didn't photograph well -- we headed off to the barns.

Hi Foofie :)
Its' fleece was white as snow ...
Riding on Daddy's shoulders is one of the benefits of being two :)
Isn't this a fun looking pig???
That pig has the right idea. Time for a little zzzzz ...
Okay, I'm back in action!
Of course we had ice cream! About every third blog post seems to have pictures of my kids with ice cream! Perhaps we eat too much ice cream???
This is his ice cream face ...
There wasn't much need for the umbrella ... but Buddy found opportunity to use it anyway. Did you know this kid is overly fond of umbrellas???
And then we checked out the horses -- and this young lady is overly fond of horses :)
One of the horses quickly started towards the kiddos ... and their heads are pretty large you know. Buddy was genuinely scared -- at least that's what it looks like. And Little Dude??? He appears to be more excited than afraid.
And we got some pig crowns. Oh, the things people will wear at the fair :)
Halo took a picture to document that I was indeed along :)
Little Fellow is excited to get back on the bus! Daddy is too :)
Oh, summertime ... we miss you already!

a little blogger

2011-10-18T23:27:00.003-05:00

Like mother -- like daughter. Halo started a blog :) Her plan is for it to be creation/evolution type of stuff ... because "that's my thing right now," she said.

http://thetheoryevolution.blogspot.com/

a little yoga

2011-10-15T23:02:00.008-05:00

Yoga. It's growing. It is nearly a "mainstream" activity -- perhaps it already is. I'm pretty certain I never heard the word "yoga" in the eighties or nineties -- although it was in the United States back then. Now, however, it's everywhere -- many cities have one or more yoga studios ... most brands offer a "yoga pant" ... and there are even books for kids about yoga! Oh, and I noticed that the online government school provides yoga instruction for elementary students.

In spite of this spreading of yoga ... there still are many who don't really know much about it and where it came from ... and so they are rather indifferent about it. If yoga keep gaining momentum -- as it likely will -- a friend might invite you to a yoga class in the not too distant future. And ... if you are uneducated about yoga ... or undecided about the whole yoga business ... you might find yourself joining the yoga movement as well.

I've been researching yoga a bit for the past few months ... prompted partially by encounters with Christians who are pro-yoga. How is yoga different from stretching??? Is their really some benefit from yoga that cannot be gotten elsewhere??? And most importantly, what does the Bible indicate we should believe about yoga??? It seems like there is so much one could say about yoga and its roots ... on the other hand, it seems very uncomplicated and requiring only a simple explanation.

Yoga only surfaced in the West early in the twentieth century ... but it didn't really take off until the 1960s. Its increasing popularity in the sixties was largely attributed to some Indian yogis moving here to expand this movement and also to The Beatles music group. "Yoga" isn't mentioned in the Bible. Yoga, however, is part and parcel of Hinduism ... which would be a false religion -- to Bible-believing Christians anyway. "There is no yoga without Hinduism -- and no Hinduism without yoga," said Caryl Matrisciana, author and filmmaker who grew up in India.

And what does Scripture have to say about false religions? The first commandment is that we worship the one true God -- we shall have no other gods. There is story after story in the Bible warning about false gods or telling what demise fell upon those who worshiped false gods and participated in false religion. The Israelites were forbidden from marrying pagans because of their false gods. Doing a little bit of Baal worship here or there -- alongside worship of Yahweh -- simply wasn't allowed for God's chosen people.

What if some Israelites decided they didn't want to tear down the Asherah poles??? What if they discovered that it was good exercise to dance around them??? Perhaps they could even sing praise songs while dancing around the Asherah??? Would it have been okay then??? Of course not. We cannot borrow something from a pagan religion and try to claim it for God. We are to "examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
1 Thessalonians 5: 21-22

Meditation, mantras, and emptying one's mind are also usually a part of yoga -- and these can open one up to demonic influences. How is it that this brings one to the demonic realm??? How exactly does this work??? I don't know -- but neither does anyone know how prayer works. What we can know is Ephesians 6:12 tells us that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

As I mentioned, there is lots more that could be said ... and these two sisters already said some of it ... and did a better job than I would anyway :) So ... I urge you to click over to their blog and read about how the yoga positions are prayer postures to hindu gods and are done in a certain order to open one up to an awakening ... and ultimately to union with Brahman. Also, they make an insightful comparison of yoga to Aaron and the idol from Exodus 32. Please read ... and "examine everything carefully" :)

http://solasisters.blogspot.com/2010/08/christian-yoga.html

a little stewart

2011-10-13T11:52:00.007-05:00

I am not too familiar with this Jon Stewart fellow -- and Jeff tells me he is liberal -- so I probably wouldn't endorse most of his stuff. Nonetheless, this short four-minute video does a good job of showing how the media can be biased and sometimes will use their position to achieve their own ends -- in this case trying to shape political outcomes.

Please NOTE: There is a bleep in the last few seconds of this video. I don't know what is being bleeped :) But all you can hear is a bleep ... so I hope you will not find this offensive. Just stop it at about 3:50 if you like bleep-less videos ...

http://gawker.com/5831167/jon-stewart-why-is-the-media-ignoring-ron-paul

a little whatever

2011-10-07T13:08:00.012-05:00

Hello :) It's been awhile again ... my apologies if you've been checking the blog only to see the sweaty mommies photo over and over. Here's a few random pix from the past buncha weeks ...

So happy together :)

So conked out together ...

And this is all I got for "first day of school" ... the oldest two had already connected with friends before I dug out the camera ...

This little guy thinks he'd like to go to school ... "Can I go to 'cool' too, my Mommy??? Can I go to 'cool'???" This is what he's been asking on Tuesday mornings when we drop the big three off at co-op. He started calling me 'my Mommy' a few weeks ago :)

We lost our kiddie pool in one of the recent windstorms ... as well as a croc and a couple of plastic bins I was going to hose out ... and who knows what else! Guess we need to pick up our yard a little better :) Anyway ... Halo put up a "missing" poster for the pool on the bank of mailboxes ... haha :)

a little racing

2011-08-18T12:31:00.006-05:00

Some friends of ours invited us to go to a race last night :) The mothers ~ my friend and I ~ did a six mile relay together. It was really fun -- but rather hard :) It was hilly and bumpy ... and on grass. There were six one-mile legs of the relay ... so each runner does three miles. I'll probably be sore tomorrow ...
There were quarter-mile and half-mile races for those fourteen and under ...
Foofie did her quarter-mile in 2:06 ... wow! I was surprised :)
Her competitive little self said to me afterwards, "I need to practice on my speed."
I didn't catch his time ... but he wowed me too :)
And this gal got third in the half-mile ... 3:40! More wow! I had no idea she could be so fast :) Our friends' son came in second!
Smiles and ribbons all around :)
And Little Spectator with some watermelon blush :) "I have a hoo-mongous one!" he said excitedly.

a little firepit

2011-08-14T23:52:00.007-05:00

Are you a Black Friday shopper??? Well ... this here firepit is my first ever Black Friday deal -- and we used it for the first time last week :)
I don't know if we've ever bought hot dogs before! Possibly when we were going camping once ... but that would be it ... so the kids thought this was pretty special :)
All were in good spirits ...
I had these colored flower-shaped marshmallows on hand ... so we did a little marshmallow roasting too ...
Halo said I should be on the blog more ... so she snapped a photo of me and Little Dude :)

a little fiftieth

2011-08-11T14:15:00.008-05:00

We recently went to a fiftieth anniversary party for an aunt and uncle of mine. Here's my middle two with Great-Grandma. She is largely Swedish and this is her "big smile" :)
Here she is visiting with her son-in-law {who was having the anniversary} ... and daintily nibbling a cracker. So poised! She is quite forgetful these days ... and sometimes thinks I'm an old classmate or co-worker. It's interesting that she doesn't seem to gather that she is six decades older than me. She was impressed with the food and said, "A party like this??? And all of these kinds of food??? Is this some new thing or is this the usual???"
My Mom and some of her homemade raspberry tarts ... delicious!
Halo is almost as big as me now! She surpassed me in her shoe size this spring ... her hands are a bit larger than mine now too! Crazy! It doesn't seem so long ago that she was 8.75 pounds ...
My husband monitoring Little Blondie ... and asking Great-Grandma what it feels like to have a child who has been married for fifty years ... "Oh, I don't know," she answered with a little laugh.

a little firecracker

2011-08-07T23:01:00.005-05:00

Hello. It's me. I haven't given up blogging ... although I seem to have missed July altogether. Here's a few pictures from our July though ... from Foof's Third of July Birthday Party at the cabin.
Fun with flags ...
Fun on the boat ...
Fun headbands ...
Fun with corn ...
Fun sleeping ... our newest nephew :)
Fun on the Gladiator ...
P.S. Little Guy ... clasping his hands while sleeping during the car ride ... it makes me smile :)

a little June

2011-06-23T09:38:00.016-05:00

Remember when June was HOT??? I think I do ;) Today it is 54 ... and it's been damp and gloomy ... coolish and stormy ... for nearly two weeks.
It had been hot enough to go shirtless :) Actually ... he had been dressed ... but I stripped him down to protect his clothing while he was eating watermelon.
I don't know why Foof has long sleeves on ... but she remarked, "I would take off my shirt if I was an immodest girl or if I was a boy ... I would definitely take my shirt off!"
Little Dude and what he calls the "scooter sheen" ...
Remember this??? http://lotsoflittles.blogspot.com/2009/08/little-ritual.html
And this??? http://lotsoflittles.blogspot.com/2009/09/little-ending.html
Well ... my children still like to visit with the mail carriers {we have a couple} ... and the mail carriers still like to visit with my children :)
Halo (and Buddy) are working on a "case" concerning a questionable character they call "Tonka". Halo is trying to gather information from the mail lady ...
All ready to record important clues in her trusty notebook ...
The mail lady is trying to sketch a certain vehicle she often sees ...
The kids are pleased with her cooperation ...
and Foofie is happy to be included in such confidential business :)

a little chirping

2011-06-17T23:18:00.003-05:00

Okay. Just so you have the whole story ... the pet warbler experience was very short lived.

The following day, Goldie hung out on the rock ledge in our front yard for hours ... just sitting and tweeting in the sunshine ... and the kids were guessing it was going to stick around. But alas ... some other birds came along ... and they all chirped together ... and then Goldie decided to join them. So that's good. I'm hoping we can be done with pet birds now -- for this summer at least!

a little warbler

2011-06-15T23:52:00.012-05:00

Remember my useful and helpful children??? Well ... they have been blessed with a new bird! It seems a tad strange to be blogging about birds when our country appears to be on the brink of economic collapse ... but we have another bird ... so what can I do???

The bird was resting on a tall, thick blade of swampy grass when Buddy spotted it and picked it up early this evening. We think it's a sutton warbler ... and it is really very cute. Its name is Goldie and it is sleeping in our garage.

I had a cute little video of it chirping ... but cannot seem to upload it just now.

a little Bobbin

2011-06-14T23:04:00.001-05:00

Bobbin escaped and that's fine by me :)

I need my children to be useful and helpful -- not constantly playing with Bobbin or digging up worms for her ... not to mention that we are running low on sanitizer. The kids had put a colored band on one of her legs and so they have since spotted her ... but they were not able to re-capture her.

a little FMSC ~ by Halo

2011-06-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

Hi, it's Halo again for a rare but special report!

On Friday, my parents Sunday School group met at Feed My Starving Children. Let me tell you a little about this organization first. It is a christian organization but they invite believers and non-believers to partake in this ministry. A gal who works at FMSC told us the story of this eight year old boy named Omar. So what's the big deal about this kid Omar? Well, Omar was eight, right? So what's the average weight of an eight year old boy? About 60 pounds? If any of you have little boys around this age, you probably make sure that he's well fed before school each morning, and has lunch money or a lunch box packed full of good food for a young boy. At night, you more then likely feed him (and the rest of your family!) a good, nourishing supper. So what would you say if I told you that Omar was only 17 pounds?! Crazy, right? Well, it's true, Omar was only 17 pounds. You could see his rib cage, his eyes were sunken and hollow, his arms and legs were as skinny as toothpicks, and there was a sort of sadness about him. If you had seen these pictures, it would probably bring tears to your eyes. After 16 days of nourishing food from FMSC, he was already much improved!! After six months of their food, he was a very happy boy with an excellent weight of 73 pounds!

Most of the group helped pack "Manna Packs". There are four parts to these packs: chicken flavoring, dehydrated potatoes and carrots, soy protein, and rice. They told us that food scientists discovered the perfect combo to help malnourished children. FMSC is targeting children in between the ages of 4 to 8. Then we put the food packs into boxes. That night, 51 boxes were packed -- enough to feed 30 children for a whole year!! Amazing!! Surprisingly, the meals are totally cheap!! Each meal costs only 24 cents. To feed one child for a whole year only costs $90.00!!

(yes, we had to wear hairnets, even the men!)
This is a picture I got off fmsc.org, since I didn't take any pics, and I had to use something :)

I was at a table with a lot of kids: Timmy, Nate, Eli, Ray, and a girl named Kayla (who was not from our church) and Kayla's dad, and Mrs. Varberg, Nate's mom.

Six of the men/older boys, worked in the warehouse. As you can see in the picture, there are two plastic bins with rice and soy protein. When we ran out of rice or soy we would yell, "Rice please!" or "Soy please!" and they would run -- I mean RUN :) -- over and exchange our almost empty bin for a full one. Another job for the warehouse guys was moving the full boxes of food bags, after we packed them they would rush them away and tape them up, and stack them on pallets ... then make sure that we had fresh empty boxes sitting near by. Whew! What a mouthful ... and an evening full!! We had an awesome time and I would definitely donate some of my money to this organization -- and I certainly would go back!!

P.S. Some guys at my table were quite intense!! It was pretty funny!! One of the boys (I won't name who!) scooped rice, and like the first three times he poured it in he would pour it sooooo slllooowwwly, and say, "Look at that! Isn't it beeeuutifulll?" It was really funny. Another one of the guys, (I won't name who again, you just have to guess!) was so intense, this is what he said, "C'mon you guys, chicken. Now veggies, soy, it's your turn, rice, keep it going there!!" It was totally hilarious!!

Thanks everyone -- it was super fun!!

a little veggie garden

2011-06-11T09:12:00.028-05:00

Last week was garden week. We had been talking for the few weeks prior -- or rather I had been talking -- about attempting a vegetable garden again. We've had many garden woes in the past ... last year, I think the issue was lack of sun. Husband, however, said he didn't have any time to help with a garden ... I'm in the middle of fixing up two houses and two apartments right now and I'm behind on paperwork and ... and ... the garage is a mess and ... and ... a million other things ...

Then, we were at Menards to get some stuff Husband needed ... and while he was doing that ... I made my way to the gardening area and started perusing the seeds. I love looking at seeds! They are like little magic pellets! It never ceases to amaze me that one can put a tiny seed in the dirt -- along with water and sunshine -- and a plant will grow! What a Creator! When Husband came over to collect us, I had my hands full of seed packets ... "Wouldn't it be great to be picking squash in September??? And look here, these beans are ready to harvest in only 48 days! I think we still have time to plant. Don't you just look at these envelopes and think ... WHAT PROMISE LIES WITHIN?!?!?"

Husband agreed to help build a garden ... and that made everyone happy :)
On Memorial Day we only had enough time to do a bit of planning ... and then Husband worked on it nearly every evening that week ... and Saturday too. It involved a trip to Menards for boards and gypsum pellets, two rototillers, three visits to a dirt place {loading and unloading a trailer of dirt each time}, and lots of sweat. On Friday, he nearly gave up ... frustrated by the heavy, muddy clay. But he persevered and finished up on Sunday afternoon ... and we were able to plant Sunday evening. Needless to say ... it turned it to be fairly expensive it terms of time and money ... so we're really really hoping it is successful!

Voila!
It's not quite finished though ... we still need a fence!

a little robin

2011-06-07T09:40:00.015-05:00

Remember Swiss Family Robinson??? Ever read it??? My kids have. I think that book has contributed to their crazy ideas of capturing and taming a deer ... or a bunny ... or a duck. Also fueling these desires was an old-time kids manual {from over one hundred years ago} of stuff to do which we downloaded earlier this spring. In the manual, there were some tips about how to domesticate a wild bird ... even hawks, crows, and owls. My two oldest kids were thrilled!

One of the first sentences about capturing wild birds was ... "It is a mistake to suppose that keeping a wild bird in confinement is a sin." I explained to the kids, however, that some people are different about animals ... and might not like nor approve of their taking and taming a bird ... especially today ... in this culture ... where animals are often overvalued while some unborn children are undervalued and mercilessly killed. Furthermore, it's a culture where nature is often revered and awed without any credit given to its Creator.

All of this led to some questioning ... Why would someone have a problem with my kids taking a bird? Don't people take cats and dogs from their mothers? Do all animals serve a useful function? Were some created just to display God's glory? Why are there pests? Do pests have a useful function? Were there pests in Eden? Were they pesty then ... or is the pestiness of pests a result of sin? Would the mother bird feel sad -- or feel anything -- about her nest being raided and her birds killed? Would a mother bird mind if one or some of her birds were taken? Would the captured bird yearn to be free? Would someone care more if a given pet was a bird versus a turtle ... or perhaps a toad? And why? Or a particular bird ... like a sparrow might be considered more acceptable to capture than say an oriole? Why are some animals more "sacred" than others? What is actually different about the death of a bird as compared to the death of an ant??? Okay, I think I'm going overboard ... I was just trying to consider how other people might think about this ...

Some conclusions ...
1. Animals should be treated nicely when possible. Right??? This, however, brings into question things like bats, spiders, mice and the like. Most people try to kill these things when they are inconvenient and feel no remorse over doing so. So how does this square??? Does anyone know??? I sure don't :)

2. The mother bird isn't able to feel sad over the loss of her birdie(s). She has an instinct to feed and protect them ... but then they leave. They don't have a need to have contact with each other ... as we do ... and their lifespan is brief. The average lifespan of a robin is 18 months.

3. The earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord ... the cattle on a thousand hills ... and all the pets people have are His :)

4. It would be a learning experience for my children to care for and play with this bird ... and it would hopefully fulfill their pet-longings for a LONG time :)

5. I am definitely not a pet person and I would rather do without any sort of pet ... but Husband and I consented to let them take a bird or two.

So do you recall the baby cardinals I mentioned in a previous post??? Well ... my kids were hoping to take them as pets ... but that didn't work out since a critter got to them. But we also had a robin nesting nearby ... so the kids took her two birds ... one of which has already escaped. The remaining bird is called "Bobbin" ... named by Little Blondie who was trying to call it robin. The kids made it a cage and have been feeding it worms. The funniest and craziest part about it is that the mother is still trying to feed it! The mother bird has brought food to it when the kids are playing with it in the yard ... and also when Bobbin is in the cage! {I am going to try and get a video of this!} Someone had told my kids that once you mess with a baby bird the mother will have nothing to do with it ... but that definitely isn't the case here!

Here they are still snug in their nest ...
The cage ... it has been remodeled a bit since these photos ...
The on-my-shoulder stunt ...
Bobbin landed on one of Foofie's workbooks -- apparently Little Dude was helping her with it ...
Even Daddy likes Bobbin!

a little boy/flowers/birds/girls

2011-06-05T22:59:00.024-05:00

Lately, I've been taking lots of pictures of Little Blondie. Sometimes it's rather bittersweet watching your babies grow up, you know??? I can't believe he's already TWO and I simply love this stage of the delightful twos ... and I just want to record every smile, every laugh, every word. But of course I can't. Nonetheless, I've been making up for months of very low picture-taking ... and now you know :)

Foofie decided to wear a winter scarf for her first time ever -- and it was the first of June :)
Two of "our" cardinals hatched early on June 1.
Little Blondie checking out Grandma's flowers ...
and statues.
This shot is a tad blurry ... but it makes me laugh :)
Deep in thought???
My mother's ornamental strawberries ... I love this shade of pink ... but I think I prefer eating my strawberries over gazing at them ;)
And her "prized swedish lupine" :)
And then -- the following day -- there were three! Tonight, however, we discovered that the nest had been raided. It was disheveled and empty ... and one bird was found lying dead on the ground below. It's kind-of sad because birds are so neat ... but kind-of not so much I suppose ... because it's part of His sovereign plan and animals aren't made in His image and not one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowing.
Oh, I almost forgot. Earlier in the week two birds kept going in and out of our garage. Barn swallows. They were starting to build a nest on top of a short carpet roll we had on a high shelf in our garage. We moved the carpet roll outside ... and they have moved on :)

a little boy's birthday

2011-05-28T15:51:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, we celebrated Little Cowboy's birthday "up north". The boat wasn't in the water just yet ... but the kids went tubing anyway :) They paddled themselves out into the lake ... and then pulled themselves back with the rope. The entire process was high excitement for these three!
Little Dude wanted to get in on the action too. "Buckle coat," he told me ... he didn't know it was called a life jacket ... but he knew that it was a coat with buckles. "Buckle coat. Put on." "Oh, you want me to put the buckle coat on you?" I asked. "Jah," he answered. I must admit that I find almost every word he utters to be adorable -- but alas, I am his mother :) Then, once we got the buckle coat fastened on Little Dude ... he said, "Go in lake." "You want to go in the lake?" I asked in disbelief. "Jah."

So ... we went down to the lake :) Look at his delight! I just love his little clasped hands ...

still clasping ... and taking it all in :)
Then Daddy asked Little Clasper if he wanted to go on the raft too ... "jah" he did. He was okay and calm for a few seconds ... and then he wasn't. If you click on this image and enlarge it ... you will see that he's crying to get off this contraption and back to the bliss of being on the dock ...
Here's the cake picture -- without the cake :) He was uncertain about being sung to and kept looking down and fiddling with his fingers. He was not uncertain about the cake though. After devouring his piece, he requested "more that". (I'm temporarily adding a birthday song video to the end of this post ...)
The kids were playing with some random balloons because ... kids like balloons???
Little Honey ended his birthday rocking and cuddling with Mommy :)

a little pick-up

2011-05-26T09:10:00.005-05:00

Little Sweetie on the eve of his second birthday ... playing with one of Grandpa's trucks.

Gotta tinker with it a little ...
and check everything out ...
the underside too, of course.
Give the hood a little tap and it's ready to ride ...
close your eyes before you crash ...
or get dumped off!
And finally, amuse the audience {Mommy and Grandma} a bit :)

a little springtime

2011-05-22T22:53:00.006-05:00

I generally think of oak leaves -- not that I think of them all that often -- as being large ... larger than my palm. But of course they start out really small ...
dainty even ...
And here is a cardinal's nest we've been monitoring. It's really nicely done :) Isn't it fascinating that birds just know -- have the God-given instinct -- that they are supposed to build nests and sit on their eggs???
And this little guy is happy that it's spring again! He's got a new helmet and is all set to trike and scooter ...
and play with trucks :) I'm so thankful to have another little guy to enjoy all of our old trucks!

a little resurrection day

2011-04-26T20:24:00.011-05:00

Happy Resurrection Day! It was a sunny spring day ...
just perfect for frolicking with cousins ...
and taking pictures of squirmy kids :)
Later, we enjoyed a scrumptious lupper at the L.E. Inn with my mother & father-in-law. Little Dude only ate fruit. He laughed with delight every time I added more honeydew to his plate :)
The "bandana" is a napkin functioning as his bib -- not a fashion thing :)
The small glass goblet was a hit with Little Dude!
These two hemmed and hawed over the dessert possibilities for a good fifteen minutes ...
while this one sampled a few things and decided that a plate of candy beat all of the fancy concoctions!And the entertainment??? A playpen of bunnies!

a little St. John

2011-04-22T22:59:00.004-05:00

I just want to take a few sentences to RAVE about an author I've recently discovered. Some of you have already heard this from me -- but this is for the rest of you so that no one misses out :)

Lots of books are good ... and lots of books are entertaining ... but only a few books seem to stick with us for very long. Know what I mean??? On Wednesday night, I was at the church library talking with a few ladies ... and raving about Star of Light, Treasures of the Snow, and The Runaway ... and a gal who was nearby said she loved Treasures of the Snow too. Her third grade teacher had read it to her class. She fondly recalled this about twenty-five years later. See what I'm saying???

Oh, I still haven't said who the author is :) Her name is Patricia St. John. She was a missionary -- and an author too, of course -- and she died in 1992. Some of her books have since been revised -- and I don't know if they are as good as the originals. The three books I read were all older copies. The plot and character development is excellent ... my mother started one of the books and she didn't even realize it was a book for children. {I think the age on the back says 10-12} Read them by yourself ... or out loud to your kids ... or both :) I won't tell you what makes them so wonderful ... you'll have to read them yourself to find out ;)

a little field trip

2011-04-03T22:23:00.004-05:00

We were blessed with another winter (spring???) up-north getaway. The main goal was supposed to be a field trip to see some maple sap-tapping in action ... but we managed to cram in some fun and rest as well :)

Perhaps Skip-Bo is more fun in a bathrobe???This kiddo wants to play Clue too ... Little Honey is so happy ... I love my brother :) Some homemade bread that was promptly devoured ...
Little Blondie loves playing with this mini cast-iron stove ... and pots and pans ... Apparently the kids are ready for summer ... or at the very least ... spring! Halo made batch of sun-tea ...The kids wanted to eat supper out on the porch ... it's enclosed, but not heated. Halo had to try out this shade chair ... Foof is geared up with a life jacket and pool noodle ... don't ask me why ... actually, I think all of the kids -- even Baby -- donned life jackets for a bit. And pinwheels ... those are a fair weather thing too, yes??? As for the sugaring ... sap-tapping ... whatever you call it ... We learned that in order for the sap to run ... it has to freeze at night and then be above freezing the following day. The freezing causes the sap to travel down into the roots ... and then the warmer temps allow the sap to flow back into the tree ... and be tapped out into a bag. When it finally stops freezing at night ... the sap ~ which is like the blood of the tree ~ moves to the branches and enables the buds to form. They can collect sap for two to three weeks.
A few of their trees ... they tapped 300 this year ... How much sap is needed to make syrup depends on the sugar content of the given sap ... Sap tasting ... tastes like lightly sweetened water ... The Owner ... has been helping make maple syrup since he was two ... since he could carry a pail. He's writing down all of our names so he won't forget them ... Syrup is being made in here ... the Mrs. Owner said this evaporator machine ~ it's much bigger than what you see here ~ costs as much as a new car ... not sure what kind of car though ;)

a little snow treat

2011-03-22T23:45:00.006-05:00

It's officially spring ... but today was definitely winter-like ... and tomorrow the forecast is currently predicting "30 and snow". I'm sooo longing for a warm and sunny day ... a short sleeves and flip flops day -- I'd consider hibernating until such a day if only it were an option ;) The upside, I guess, is that it's March and not November ... so flip flops won't be too far off :)

Nonetheless, in honor of the snow that is soon to be falling in my yard -- and probably yours too -- I thought I'd share a snowy recipe with you. It's a little bit funny because I got it the idea from a friend who grew up eating this in the South :) She calls it "snow cream" ... but it reminds me of a slushie ... more drink-like than ice-cream-like. You could eat from a bowl ... we drank it from glasses ... either way works :)

Mix together quickly ... one time I used a blender for a couple seconds and another time I just stirred with a spoon ...

4 cups of freshly fallen snow
1 cup of milk (I would recommend 2%)
7 tablespoons of sugar (1/2 c. minus 1 T. ... or you could use the entire 1/2 c.)
a splash of vanilla (about a teaspoon)

Enjoy immediately!

a little office chair

2011-03-14T13:48:00.018-05:00

This is in honor of -- "use it up. wear it out. make it do. or do without." -- one of the few things I can still recall from a church we previously attended.

A few weeks ago, Husband mentioned that he needed a new office chair because the armrests were starting to break down -- entropy in action. There was a large divit -- about the size of a man's thumb -- on one armrest. Both sides were splitting some ... and little pieces of black plastic were rubbing off daily. I told Husband that I'd fix it and he laughed -- almost scoffed actually. How was I planning to remedy it??? And when would I even make time to do it??? His response, however, made me want to repair it all the more ...

Anyway, last Wednesday afternoon, Husband happened to be out and about ... and Foofie and I ended up working on his chair. It was a rather spontaneous undertaking -- and just because it seemed like fun at the time. I was curious to see if we could salvage it to Husband's liking. What did we use??? One of my favorite things -- good, old-fashioned, multi-purpose duct tape! We even used piece after little piece and attempted to build out the spot where the divit was. Foofie really enjoyed helping with this project! You know how she loves tape :)

As it turned out, that same evening, when we were driving home from Awana -- and Husband didn't yet know about his duct-taped chair -- Husband told me he had looked at some office chairs while we were at church. "Oh, what timing!" I responded ... "Well, first you need to look at your chair at home again. Foof and I fixed it up today." Unfortunately, I didn't take a before photo ... I never guessed I'd be blogging about this :)
Granted, it's not the most handsome chair -- but Husband was satisfied, if not impressed :) Plus, it has character now ;)

a little 5.66

2011-03-09T13:45:00.003-06:00

Here is some Foofie stuff at age 5 and two-thirds.

She almost always cuddles a doll in bed ...
or two ...
Foofie made a facebook page ...
Foofie is currently into "scribing". It began with copying Bible verses over and over and over ... and over and over ... and then she started scribing storybooks as well. She often leaves papers such as this in her trail ...

{She cut up the Bible verses before I got a photo of them ... and stuffed them in various cards and envelopes for some lucky recipients.}
She likes to sew little paper books. She always puts a heart on the cover and titles it "JOURNAL BOOK".
She makes lots of birthday cards ... whether it's even close to your birthday or not makes no difference to Foofie :) Oh ... and she often puts a bar code on her stuff ... see the back of the small card???
And here she is ... growing up much too fast, of course!
I love you, Foofie! Love, Mommy

a little posing

2011-03-06T13:49:00.003-06:00

And this little piece of cute is sick again -- he was posing for me a couple days ago :) -- now, however, he is about as sick as I've ever seen one of my kids. He threw up at least ten times yesterday and twice today so far. He has a fever ... is constantly drifting in and out of sleep ... and can't keep anything down :( Praying for his healing ...

a little RRR -- II

2011-03-05T23:59:00.014-06:00

Welcome to the second installment of Recent Random Reports ...

I. I was just finally looking at pictures from Christmastime and it turns out that our family Christmas pictures were not so good. But my parents' picture was good :)II. Do you happen to have a Northwestern Bookstores plastic gift card? I have two -- and there isn't a store close by us -- so I haven't been there for a couple/few years. I was thinking of going there recently, however, and was checking online the other day to see if they had some certain books ... and it turns out they've been bought out. I called to see if they would still accept the gift cards ... and was informed that they won't. They supposedly have no way of verifying the balance. Hmmm. Bummer I guess. If you have a paper gift card -- those are newer {a year old or so} -- they might accept it ... I think she said you need a receipt for it though.

III. Halo lost her purse -- so her library card was also missing. She bought a replacement card for two dollars. While we were at the library, Buddy decided to photocopy his library card in case he ever lost his -- since a dime is much cheaper than two dollars :) Then, he tried his paper copy at the checkout scanner and it worked.

IV. Little Buddy's vocabulary has exploded over the past couple of months ... and it's so fun! One night he said "I luh boo" to me -- I love you :) So precious!

V. I don't often have a book to recommend ... but I do today :) A super good book I read recently that most everyone would probably like ... Gods and Kings by Lynn Austen. Excellent storytelling.

VI. I survived helping Buddy write his very first research paper. The subject was Davy Crockett. I'm thinking we'll do a family research paper this summer for extra practice -- Halo, Buddy, and I. Don't mention it to them just yet ;)

VII. A few other forgotten pictures from last fall ...

VIII. Our pal at Chipotle -- the restauranteur, per his business card -- gave Halo and Buddy a tour of the kitchen and whatnot recently. {Those pix are on the phone ... and not so good.} Foofie was a little shy about his offer ... so she stayed behind. He also gave us the inside scoop -- sister and bro-in-law who live up north -- that they're opening up a Chipotle in your neck of the woods this summer :)

IX. I switched over from Google to Bing.

a little February fullness

2011-02-28T23:36:00.004-06:00

February was, of course, a short month ... but it turned out to be a very full month for us -- even without a vacation.

Little Buddy was sick with fevers/flu many days this month and I was slow and limping around many days due to plantar fasciitis. I guess the timing worked out good ... I was able give Little Buddy the holding he needed and rest my foot at the same time.

On the upside ... we went bowling this month -- twice actually -- and we (Jeff and I) hadn't bowled in at least twelve years! (I think the other bowling pix are on Jeff's phone ... ) Jeff took the kids on a field trip to the "physics circus" or something like that. We also had a phy. ed. afternoon at a community center pool with friends from "school".

There were a few parties in February as well. A couple of birthday parties. Halo went to a sledding and frosting-cookies party. I went to a bunco party -- my first. And finally, Buddy had a birthday this month as well :)

P.S. The ice cream photos are from the Mongolian BBQ restaurant -- one of the kids' favorite places simply because there is a self-serve ice cream machine :) I like it for the stir fry ... and the ice cream!

a little strawberry snack

2011-02-16T22:34:00.006-06:00

Today was beautiful!!! Lovely!!! 52 maybe??? The kids were having a spontaneous vacation day because I am so behind on everything and because it was nice enough to play outside. I ended up going outside too ... and somehow got sucked into our never-ending garage disaster. Where did all of this "stuff" come from??? Well, enough about that -- it's not blogworthy.

Anyway, as the kids were tooling about on the dry and clear driveway and I was in the garage ... the FedEx truck pulled up. The FedEx man delivered a box which said, "refridgerate immediately". Now, this is blogworthy ;) So ... we opened immediately opened the package ... and discovered some fancy strawberries from my in-laws :) Yum! Then, we decided to have snack-time immediately :) Foofie wasted no time in pointing out which berry she wanted ...
Eating strawberries outside in February is fabulous! Seems like spring is on the way again!

a little valentining

2011-02-14T19:54:00.005-06:00

I thought one of the reasons I signed up to homeschool was so that we could get out of making Valentines and all that goes with it ;) Oh, and prom too ... Valentines and prom. But alas, we are in two homeschool groups this year and so we need ... Valentines. 99 to be exact. We used several store-bought ones ... Hello Kitty and Spiderman ... and then Foofie and I made some homemade ones today. We made 26 hearts like this -- for Halo, who was working on a research paper ...
to glue onto white cardstock like this ... Little Sweetheart helped by smudging the glitter around and snatching the scissors at every opportunity :)
Foofie made 32 sweet little "hello" cards ... and then she taped a pencil on each one :)
Also ... I spent many hours sitting and cuddling Little Sweetheart over the past week. He had lots of fevers ... much listlessness ... and required lots and lots of holding -- even while asleep. So ... while he napped in my arms ... I began cutting out tiny hearts and birdies -- since Valentines Day was on the horizon. I realized I like hearts more than I thought I did ... and the color red -- well, it turns out I like red more than I thought as well :) Then, I made this little love tree. I might decoupage it on a pencil jar or something ... for whatever ...
Happy Valentine's Day :)

a little medical mystery

2011-02-10T22:37:00.023-06:00

Today, I am thankful to be able to stand ... and walk. Late last night I could do neither.

I was down in the construction-zone basement getting a couple of things and was about to go up two sets of stairs to take a shower before bed. {I always have to shower before bed -- I just do.} Anyway, I have no idea what happened ... but seemingly out of the blue ... I got this TERRIBLE ankle pain ... and was reduced to crawling on the dirty floor. It was as though my ankle stopped functioning and the pain was enormous ... the only greater pain I can recall ever experiencing was labor.

So ... my husband had to lug me to the shower ... shower me up ... and haul me into bed. I was about as helpless as I've ever been. I attempted to brush my teeth -- dry -- while laying in bed. I was in way too much pain to get any clothes on. The pain was centralized in my ankle ... but it went almost to my knee and all through my foot. It was sooo bad that I was nauseated and having trouble breathing. It hurt constantly ... even when I was still.

Husband gave me four ibuprofen and then asked me lots of questions ... Is it hot? Yes. Is it like shooting pain? No. That rules out a bone spur. Your ankle hurts when I'm touching your leg? Yes. Maybe it's a vericose vein thing??? I don't know. So anyway ... it hurt really bad ... insanely bad.

Husband then googled "spontaneous ankle pain" ... and said maybe it's rheumatoid arthritis??? Or maybe ... he guessed ... you have a degenerative ankle ... you know, how your aunt has a degenerative shoulder. Could a muscle spasm cause this magnitude of pain??? I really don't know.

All we could do next was pray. So we did. I pleaded with God for healing. It took forever for me to get somewhat comfortable ... for my shaking to subside ... and for sleep to claim me. And as I lay there ... praying and pondering ... I was thinking about prayer. We don't really know how it works -- but we're told to pray nonetheless. God could have just instantly healed me last night ... or He could heal me over time ... or not at all. What would God do??? Why wouldn't God heal me immediately??? And then I thought, if He heals me I will boast about it ... about Him. And then my next thought was ... and if He chooses not to ... I still have to boast in Him. And that's the challenge ... the praising God and saying "God is good" when things don't seem so good from our perspective.

Perhaps this sounds a little serious for "spontaneous ankle pain" ... I know it wasn't life or death ... but it was horrific ... and seriously painful beyond description -- very writhe-worthy. Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I was at about 85%. It was tender ... and a little painful ... but I could stand on it and move around!!! So ... allow me to boast in Him ... PRAISE the LORD! Thank you God that I could stand and walk and move around today. Sitting is fine here and there ... but being able to move around is much more desirable. I sure hope I never have to go through that again ... Husband probably feels the same :)

Now then ... does anyone know what I had {what I have}??? And what should I do??? Just take it easy??? Husband joked, "Bet you'll get a lot of great advice!"

P.S. I'm not going to the doctor -- not yet anyway ;)

a little wonderful

2011-01-30T21:05:00.028-06:00

We had ourselves a little getaway last weekend+++ ... and it was *w*o*n*d*e*r*f*u*l*. Nothing exotic or tropical ... but wonderful just the same -- simply because I desperately needed a break from it all. We played lots of games ... and Clue quickly became a new family favorite. These two are playing Othello ... it's a clever game ...
Little Dude became more proficient with the spoon ...
Little Dude positioned himself on this couch here ... plopped the hat on ... and then somehow told Daddy he was looking cute and ready for a picture ... so Daddy took one with his phone. Also, when wearing this shirt ... he frequently point to it and says "bus" :) And the way he says it ... and his tone ... well, it sounds like he has been sucking in helium -- says Daddy.I even picked up my knitting needles ~ after two years off ~ and made a little purse :) Both girls want it ... guess we might need another little getaway so I can do more knitting ;)More stuff happened, of course ~ like cooking and dishes {thank you Halo!} and laundry ... and sleeping and reading and a little sledding ~ but I only turned on the camera a couple of times. And yes, all four of my kids have a thing about cowboy hats.

Oh ... and one more thing ... MY FOOT! One night after supper ... Halo asked if she should throw away the leftovers. The "leftovers" were rather substantial ... so I said,"Throw it away??? My foot!" My response was met with gales of laughter all around. My foot??? Did you say my foot??? The kids thought this was especially hilarious. So ... now Buddy has adopted MY FOOT as his new catch-all response ... and frankly, it's gettting old. Be careful what you say, I guess ;)

a little snowflake

2011-01-29T20:52:00.009-06:00

I don't really love winter. I could probably get along just fine in the South ;) But I'm here ... in this cold, snowy land ... so I was pondering, albeit briefly, what is good about winter. Here's what I came up with ...
1. no yardwork -- unless you count shoveling
2. you can make your own parking space -- if there's room
3. cute hats to conceal crazy hair -- and we've definitely got some crazy hair!
4. snowflakes -- aren't they fascinating???
This here snowflake landed on Little Blondie's coat while he was in the Target shopping cart. "Look," Buddy exclaimed ... "It's just like the ones you make!" {I enjoy making paper snowflakes with the kids.}
Of course sledding and other outdoor activities are fun too ... provided it is relatively warm outside -- like 30 degrees at least for this wimpy mama. Okay ... maybe 28.

What do you find redeeming about winter???

a little hat-making

2011-01-13T16:11:00.002-06:00

It was "crazy hat night" again at Awana. Every year, it seems that one of my kids ends up with a hat that obscures their vision ...
Halo's first design plan failed and so she resorted to a gift bag adorned with crepe paper ...
I got in on the action too. I just can't resist paper and scissors ...

a little 35!!!

2011-01-12T23:02:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday, Mommy! This post is a little dated as this birthday was in 2010 ... several weeks back ... but you all know how December is ... insane. Anyway, I still wanted to share the birthday banners my kids made me :) I can't believe I'm thirty-five now ... I'm growing up so fast! It was a happy day ... it began with breakfast prepared by Halo and ended at my parents' place for supper. A blessed day :) I just love Little Blondie's sweet expression here ...

a little briefcase

2010-12-31T23:37:00.016-06:00

I flew into Sam's Club yesterday to grab some fruit. As I was whisking by the front entrance lady and waving my member ID card in her general direction ... she said something to me. I guessed that she didn't see my ID card ... so I slowed down some and flashed my card at her a second time.

"I was wondering if you had something to return," she called.
"Nope," I answered.
"Oh ... I just thought ... the ... bag," she continued and gestured towards this ... this stylish, ultra-cool, bag slung over my arm ... with random stickers for the "finishing touch" ...
"No. Nothing to return. I just have a ... very ... strange ... purse." That was the first thought that came to mind. I didn't tell her that I've been calling it my pink briefcase.

Why the pink briefcase purse??? Several months ago, back when it was nectarine season, I had a nectarine in the tote bag I was currently using. {I am a washable tote bag kind of gal ... no fancy designer purses for me.} Anyway, one of my children happened to kneel on my tote bag and the nectarine got squished of course ... and made a fine mess in the tote. In a pinch and in a hurry, I temporarily transferred most of my stuff into this plastic pink gift bag. I also have blue and green gift bags just like this one ... all ready for the next fruity fiasco ...

But alas ... my out-of-town in-laws ... who didn't even know about my plastic pink briefcase ... gave me this darling tote for Christmas. So I guess it's time to relegate the pink briefcase to the trash can. Farewell ...

a little witchcraft

2010-12-30T21:50:00.010-06:00

One of my husband's realtors wrote this in his Christmas letter about his seven-year-old son ... "He became obsessed with Harry Potter this year." Obsessed??? I'm not sure that's a good thing ...

Furthermore, my oldest two have recently encountered Harry Potter via some of their peers.

So ... it was time to educate myself {and my oldest two kids} about this Harry Potter business. I will only briefly share my findings with you as several sharp minds have already done extensive research and writing about Harry Potter ... and much of this is worth examining for yourself.

Here's my "nutshell" ...

Harry is a wizard with magical powers, a witch. He attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Guess what he learns there??? You're right ... witchcraft! This includes broom riding, spell casting, how to mix potions, and how to concentrate when you want something. Furthermore, he lies, cheats, steals ... and remember ... he is the hero. Harry is not punished for these sins and his teacher even says that rules are made to be broken. The Harry Potter books present a twisted morality TO CHILDREN which doesn't square with the Bible.

Here's a quick glimpse at just one of these books ... "In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there are descriptions of bad behavior, bad language, violence against parents, rebellion against authority. Occult practices like translocation, speaking in a trance, casting spells, fortune-telling, amulets, interpreting omens, witches and wizards, practicing witchcraft, white and black magic, putting curses on people, mind control, engaging with spirits, acting as a medium, contacting the dead, ghosts, astrology, and transfiguration ... are also present." {letusreason.org} Does this list of stuff sound good, wholesome, and edifying??? Of course not.

Some may ask ... well isn't Harry Potter just harmless fantasy??? No, it is not. It crosses over the line of fantasy because it is educating readers about witchcraft/wicca, which is a religion. A false religion. The Supreme Court has declared it to be a religion and the IRS has given it tax-exempt status as a religion. "Both the books and movies are full of occult imagery ... {and} the author herself has said that more than a third of the content of the books is from occult research." {youtube700club}

How does Harry Potter differ from The Chronicles of Narnia??? In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ... there happens to be a witch character, but the witch is bad. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is purported to be a good witch {of which there is no such thing} and is supposedly using witchcraft and occultic practices to battle evil. God, however, doesn't distinguish between white magic and black magic ... good witches and bad witches. In addition ... lying, cheating, and stealing are not portrayed in a positive light in Narnia. Anyone who reads both of these books would notice that they are very different.

Witchcraft is real and has been gaining many converts as a result of Harry Potter, television shows such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch {and several others}, and all sorts of "how-to" books. You don't have to look long or hard at your local library or bookstore to find a book on wicca. Remember, Satan is alive and active ... seeking to devour and destroy.

What does God say about witchcraft???
Dueteronomy 18:10 has the answer...

What is the big deal??? The big deal is ... should we be consuming this stuff ~ which God abhors ~ as entertainment??? Might our children wonder if casting spells really works and want to try it out for themselves??? They might. Might we open ourselves up to evil influences??? We might.

a little RRR

2010-11-30T15:00:00.016-06:00

Recent Random Reports ...

I. Little Dude has discovered how to operate the volume on the boom box ... and he likes it loud :/ While listening to music, he often sits on the floor and taps his right foot ... to be more accurate, he thumps his entire right leg.

II. Little Buddy likes chap-stick. With the cap on, he'll pretend to put it on his lips. He is quite cooperative when I apply it around his mouth {which has been rashy lately}. His fondness for chap-stick is generally a good thing ... except for when Little Buddy tried the glue-stick out as though it was chap-stick.

III. Several days ago, I bopped into Sam's Club while the rest of my family waited for me in our vehicle. All I was planning to do was purchase a few gallons of milk. {We go though about six gallons per week. Maybe it's time for a cow???} Anyway ... as I was aiming for the back of the store and the milk coolers ... I heard this announcement being made ...

"Come on over to aisle thirty-five. Every shopper in the store will get a free knife. That's right. Ev-er-y shopper. No purchase necessary! Just head on over to aisle thirty-five and pick up your free, yes free, knife!!! Each and every customer can get a free knife. Come on over!" Now ... I like free stuff! I know you do too :) So ... I veered off the milk track and headed instead ... for aisle thirty-five. When I got there, lots of other people who like free knives were there too ... as well as a saleslady ... and a cloth-covered table. I could not, however, spot a single knife ... free or otherwise. Then ... she, the saleslady, began her spiel ...

Apparently, we had to listen to a little sales talk in exchange for our free knife. Apparently, I'm a little gullible ... and apparently, there's no such thing as a free knife. Now you know :)

IV. Speaking of milk and cows ... do I really want a cow??? No. I was talking to a couple of friends recently about some farm-fresh milk they've been buying. When I inquired about the milk, one of the gals replied, "Well, it's not pasteurized. And it's really creamy ... because it's whole milk. But it's kind-of chunky ... and it tastes ... a little bit ... like ... straw."

V. I drew my very first lego mini-figure this morning per Halo's request. The kids deemed it "famous". Then, I played around with enlarging it and made photocopies so everyone could color one :)

a little Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T22:35:00.010-06:00

This was Thanksgiving ... although you might not guess that from the pictures :)

Little Stoic and Grandpa ...
Give him a ball and he'll probably smile ...
The third-borns ... dressed up and parading about ...
And the cookies ... no, I'm not having a baby. But my sister is! She made these darling cookies and handed this tin around as their "announcement"! Isn't that clever??? It's extremely exciting as they have been hoping and praying ... and waiting ... a long, long time for this blessing.

a little perch

2010-11-16T22:16:00.011-06:00

We had, as most of you know, the most wonderful fall ~ nicer than any I can recall. And here is Little Dude about a month ago ~ on one of those lovely fall afternoons ~ sitting on the front step. He is quite happy to perch himself here ~ probably because it's just the right size "bench" for him :)

Anyway, as I mentioned, the autumn days were overwhelmingly beautiful ... and it almost seemed like the cold and the snow might never arrive. And then Saturday came ... and we woke up to several inches of *S*N*O*W* ... and it was beautiful too. For a few brief moments ... it was beautiful ... until I started to feel a bit trapped. Then, my husband suggested I venture out into the cold and shovel. Oh joy! I guess winter is here after all ...

a little firstborn

2010-11-06T22:06:00.024-05:00

Happy ELEVENTH (oh my!) Birthday to our precious Halo!!! We were telling her a bit about the day of her birth today ... and so I got the idea to blog about it for posterity ... for when Halo is older ... and the details are more fuzzy in my mind. So if you're not up for a birth story ... or if you've already heard how we got our precious Halo ... then come back for my next post :)

So ... Halo's due date was November fourth. I don't remember what time I went to bed on November fifth. Probably late ... as I'm prone to be a night owl. Anyway, it was a Friday night. I think I was just laying in bed for a while in a state of uncomfortableness and then I was suddenly in agonizing PAIN. Anyway, by 1 am ... maybe 1:30 ... on November sixth ... I was writhing around on our bedroom floor. Insane pain in my back. After having more children, I now know that we should have been heading straight to the hospital at this point. But no, I was told to call the nurse hotline when I thought it might be TIME. So I did.

I told the nurse that the pain in my back was so crazy that I couldn't determine when the contractions were beginning or ending. The nurse then instructed me to get in the bathtub, try to time my contractions, and she would call me back in about an hour or two to see how I was doing. Oh ... and Jeff was supposed to pour hot water over my back. Okay. Here I am ... past my due date ... in TONS of pain ... and I'm being directed to get into the tub??? It was time for the baby to come! What else would it be? I'm past due. But no ... I needed a dip in the tub.

Sooo ... how does a full-term pregnant person WITH BACK LABOR get in and out of a bathtub??? Not easily. No ... not easily at all. Nonetheless, we followed the nurse's orders. We had never been through this labor and delivery stuff before ... and so we knew very little. The bathtub idea was disastrous ... and I ended up on the carpet again ... continuing to writhe. When are they going to call back??? When are they going to call back??? That's all I kept asking whenever I was able to utter anything.

Finally, they did call back and gave me permission to proceed to the hospital. My lucky day! When I arrived, I was too far along for the epidural ... so that decision was already made for me.

So ... back labor ... we heard about it in birthing class and that "it's so rare" ... so I figured it probably wouldn't happen. But it did. We had brought our Brookstone Thumper Massager along and Jeff used it on my back for a half hour or so ... until it blew up. Then ... pop cans! We recalled from the birthing class that pounding pop cans can help alleviate some of the pressure from back labor. So ... Jeff spent the next hour or two pounding full pop cans into my back. I was quite bruised after all of this ... but he couldn't pound hard enough! I wanted it harder.

Then came over four hours of pushing. The top of Halo's head kept peeking out and then slipping right back in. The blood vessels in my face were shot. My eyes had changed shape. I did not look like myself. By this time, two nurses and my husband were constantly holding my limbs ... nearly holding me together ... I was so weak. Next, my midwife decided to give me another fifteen minutes to try and get the baby out ... otherwise she was going to resort to suction, vacuum, whatever it's called. {I, however, didn't know about the fifteen minutes and suction.} But ... lo and behold ... Halo came out in the next fifteen minutes! 11:52 in the a.m. Praise the Lord! She was 8 pounds 12 ounces and I can't remember her length anymore ...

Then, I looked at Halo and called out, "It's a boy!" In celebration, Jeff repeated after me, "It's a boy!" I think I was anticipating a boy ...

"Um, no. It's a girl!" said someone. Probably a nurse.

I was very happy about that. Way back then, I felt a bit unsure about having boys. I have two boys now though ... and they're wonderful ... of course :)

"Well ... I would rather run a hundred miles in my bare feet ... tomorrow ... than ever have to go through that again." That was the next thing I said. My commentary on labor and delivery. And I was determined that next time ... I would make sure to get to the hospital in time for an epidural. Did I??? No, but that's the story of Buddy ... and I'll save that for February.

a little bravado

2010-10-25T22:25:00.015-05:00

One day last week ~ I can't remember which day anymore ~ was a busy and full day. Like most days. And the sun ... it set hours before I prefer it too. And so it was evening ... and it was dark ... and I was still hoping to cram a walk into my day. I announced I was going for a walk and Foofie said she wanted to bike along. Then Buddy ... trying to practice his male role of protector ... informed us that he was coming too. He didn't really want to go ... but he wanted to keep me safe. What a son I have!!!

So ... we bundled up a bit and set out. Not long into our jaunt, Buddy spied something and remarked, "Mama, I see a figure."

Now most kids would have said person ... instead of "figure" ... but if you are an eight-year-old who reads lots of mysteries and obsesses about legos ... then you say "figure". The correct term for lego people, by the way, is "mini-figure".

"No, you don't. It's probably a sign." I disagreed.
"No, it is a figure. I know the difference between a sign and a figure! It even has the form of ... legs and a body and a head and stuff." Buddy continued.
"I don't see any figure. You're just imagining things," I insisted.
"There is a figure, Mama. And it's moving now. And ... it's ... watching ... us," he said.
One might think he was trying to frighten his little five-year-old sister ... but he wasn't. He was definitely convinced he saw a figure ... and he ~ our protector ~ was just a wee bit scared.

Next, Foofie piped up ... with rather impeccable timing ... "I had a nightdream the other night. We were on a walk and a bear was coming at us!"
"Don't talk about that! You're giving me the creeps," Buddy ~ our protector ~ said.
"What color was the bear?" I asked ... wishing to hear more of her nightdream.
"Seriously! Don't talk about bears right now! I'm cold and I'm ready to go home!" Buddy stated.

Needless to say, our walk wasn't terribly long. Lord willing, Buddy will have a greater supply of bravado in a few years ... and we will be able to go on evening autumn walks with more confidence :)

a little mist

2010-10-22T22:17:00.015-05:00

So ... back to facebook :) A couple weeks ago ... I was on facebook and this guy I knew from my junior year of high school ~ this was the only year I attended a private school ~ had posted an album with old ... er vintage ... pictures. We aren't "friends" ... but the reason I could see his album was because he "tagged" {facebook lingo} a gal in one of the pictures that I am "friends" with. As I was clicking my way through the album ... to my surprise, I came across a picture of myself!!! It was of me and the guy I went to prom with ... almost half a lifetime ago... AT PROM! Kinda funny. So ... I thought ... I wonder what he {prom date} is up to these days ... I wonder if he ever got married ... stuff like that. He was one of those charismatic whirlwind types ... full of energy and big ideas ... a disarming smile ... always fun to be around.

So ... I tried to look him up on facebook ... and from what I found, I was guessing he and his wife maybe shared their facebook. Then, I was looking at their friends ... and I could see someone had posted on their own facebook to pray for the wife of their friend from a certain college. It sounded drastic or serious or something. I can't remember the exact wording ... but this guy {prom date} went to that college and I got this funny feeling in my gut. So ... next, I googled ~ what an age we live in ~ his name to try and figure out something more. And I did.

He died. Back in May. Pretty shocking. I couldn't find out any cause of death online. I contacted a friend and she had heard that he perhaps had an unknown heart issue.

Why am I writing this? I don't know exactly. I think to remind all of us not to get hung up on the little things. Our life is but a mist. It was just so weird ... when I saw our picture from prom and began looking him up ... I assumed he was still alive. You know??? He was thirty-four and one just assumes that thirty-four year-olds are usually still living.

The next day, a friend of mine told me a story. I can't remember it too clearly anymore ... but here is the gist. A friend of my friend realized she had never really had any family photographs taken. So ... she arranged a portrait sitting for her family to remedy that. One of her children, a son, happened to be engaged ... and his betrothed, however, was not invited to be in the photo. When his betrothed found out about this, she was really mad ... outraged ... and the future mother-in-law was in the doghouse for a long, long time. Seriously??? Waging war over a family portrait??? Our life is but a mist ...

a little facebook

2010-10-18T22:58:00.022-05:00

I wrote this a couple of months ago ... and was kind of reluctant to publish it ... but I've decided to go ahead and post it. So ... here goes ...

In real life, we are busy people. Busy, busy people! Twice recently, I've heard that we can know ~ on a surface level ~ maybe seventy to hundred people. But we will not really be close to all of those people. It's not even possible. We are busy people with limited time and we are finite. We can only be really close with ... and really know ... a handful of people. Like a lego, which only has so many places to connect other bricks onto it, we can only have so many connections before we are basically filled up ... time-wise ... emotion-wise ... even memory-wise. How many people are we really even able to remember what all is going on in their lives??? {Thanks to my pastor for the lego illustration.}

Facebook, however, is not real life. It's not an intimate gathering of just your closest and dearest friends. Facebook is more like a collage or a web of the people you know ... or people you knew and are knowing again ... and the word "friend" is used loosely. Facebook is constantly seeking to help you find the people you know. Facebook is more of a casual connectedness ... and I don't think there is a limit on the number of friends one can acquire. The thing is ... when you ask someone to be your friend or vice-versa ... there is virtually no level of commitment required ... no "skin off your back". You don't even need to carve out time to get together for coffee!

Although facebook does not always reflect "real life" ... real feelings are at stake. I hesitate to admit this ... but I have been no-friended and un-friended by a couple of women at my church. It is particularly baffling because nothing, as far as I know, ever happened. No incident. No confrontation. No anything. Someone just doesn't prefer me, I guess. And that's okay ... but mostly it is rather shocking that they are brazen enough to do this. I hopefully have forgiven these people ... {and I really try hard to say hi and smile when I see them ... it isn't always easy though} ... but it has led me to do a lot of pondering about why some women act the way that they do.

If someone from church that I don't know very well or isn't my favorite person requests that I be their friend on facebook ... I click CONFIRM. One lady from my church friended me and I had never even met her! I only recognized her name ... but of course I confirmed her offer of friendship. Why???

Here are just a couple of reasons ...

1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build up one another ...

Romans 12:18
So far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

To reject this lady's friend request, in my opinion, would have been unkind. If I clicked the IGNORE button would that be encouraging ... building up ... and doing my best to live in peace??? Of course NOT. Moreover, does it really seem like a good or wise idea to no-friend or un-friend a fellow believer ... someone you go to church with??? In the words of my husband, no-friending or un-friending is a "major dis". Furthermore, it just seems odd to me that the un-friender or no-friender would actually be worshiping the very same God, in the very same room ... with the REMOVED or IGNORED friend. Odd ... yep ... odd.

Just imagine that you REMOVED or IGNORED someone on Facebook and then, some Sunday, you are in line in the ladies' room. You, obviously, don't know who is using the restrooms until the door opens and the restroom user appears. So then ... the door opens ... and guess who it is??? Voila! It's ... the woman you un-friended or no-friended!!! What then??? Do you dig in your purse and look busy ... attempt to start up a quick conversation with the gal waiting behind you {hopefully there is a gal behind you} ... or will you smile and try to pretend that everything is cool???

On the flip side, if you are like me, and you find yourself getting "dissed" ... what shall we do??? I don't know for sure. Turn the other cheek??? Perhaps. When our pastor visited a few months back, I briefly mentioned this and he advised me to question the other person(s) about it. Maybe I should ... I don't know. Maybe I'll just blog about it ;)

So ... the question is ... where is the UNITY??? Fellow believers cannot even be facebook friends??? Isn't that nuts??? We will, of course, not experience complete unity until we reach heaven ... but in the meantime, in the true Church, it seems there will only be pockets of unity, small glimpses of unity ... perhaps because the church is so fragmented, divided, worldly ... so focused on the minutia.

Our pastor had given a sermon on unity back in May, shortly before our "pastor visit". During the visit, I commented that there is almost no hope for unity because of garbage like this {the facebook stuff, catty women who behave like junior highers, gossip} ... and also because we are lacking any major persecution. We are so selfish, so indulged, so distracted, so entertained, so wealthy, so sufficient, so everything ... that we don't really need anyone else for our survival.

Thoughts anyone???

a little "pregnant lady"

2010-09-18T22:25:00.014-05:00

Today, during a lovely Saturday afternoon walk, a neighbor darted out of his house and chased me down, bearing a large tomato in each hand. "Oh thanks!" I said appreciatively. "We're getting down to the end here," he said ... by way of explanation for he wasn't offering me eight or ten of the red spheres like he had on other days ... earlier in the summer. "Say ... what's your name?" he asked.

This man lives on the street that my street connects to and I have walked past this man's house dozens ... probably hundreds ... of times and we {and his wife} have exchanged many a pleasantry. I've admired their gardens and they've admired my kids ... but we had never exchanged names.

So ... I said, "Dana. And how about you?" "Dave," he replied, "and Wendy," he added ... pointing towards his house. "Good to know," he continued, "We've always just called you the pregnant lady." "That's funny," I said ... with a laugh and a wave.

As I was continuing on homeward ... now holding a large tomato in each palm ... I laughed again when I realized we had been calling them "the tomato people" ... or "the tomato guy" and "the tomato lady".

So ... is there anyone that you've made up a name for???

a little doctoring

2010-09-13T22:44:00.014-05:00

On Saturday afternoon, after Foofie abandoned her doll playing and headed outside ... I discovered this ... Foofie's poor dolly had needed some doctoring. It appears that dolly got a "smooosh" on her chin ... just like Foofie's "smooosh" :) Some snipped pieces of kleenex and blue tape were the bandage. See the bed dolly is laying on? The bed was a puffy book supported by a candle on one end ... and then a toy cup with a roll of blue tape stacked on top to hold up the foot of the bed. I don't know what else befell dear dolly ... but apparently it wasn't good. Dolly also needed a tube in her mouth attached to a silvery vial. The tube was made out of bendable, gummy eraser and the vial was some foil-wrapped nail polish. Poor little dolly ... And another little Foofie story from just yesterday ...

"There's only two big boys in our family ... because one of our boys is a baby. But there are THREE big girls. You are big and Halo is big ... and I am big."

"Oh yeah? How big are you???" I teased.

"Oh ... like 42 ... or 41 ... or 43 inches .... probably."

a little Hermie {by Halo}

2010-09-08T20:33:00.022-05:00

On Monday afternoon, my Mama found a HUGE, HUGE ... I’m talking HUGE, people ... caterpillar! She named it Hermie. It was really neato. It had a light green body with spiky orange, yellow, and blue knobs on it. We only had it for ONE day until it started making its cocoon! This morning, it was already fully encased in the cocoon. How cool! I hope it will be a butterfly ... but Daddy is guessing a moth.

P.S. This is a jumbo-sized peanut butter jar ... 40 ounces I think ~ Dana {Mama}

a little smooosh

2010-09-07T22:21:00.025-05:00

It was the first day of officially being a kindergartner for Foofie ... and her second experience of racing off to get stitched back together :( She had a biking accident this evening. Apparently her brilliant older siblings constructed a little makeshift jump with some scraps of wood that were lying around ... and you know Foofie ... she just had to give it a whirl.

The doctor called her injury a "smooosh". He said it with seriousness as though it's a technical term, but I'm guessing it's not. A "smooosh", he said, is more hole-like ... versus a wound that is like a split, or a line. Poor little Foofie ...{PHOTO TAKEN THE FOLLOWING NIGHT}

a little speaking

2010-09-01T21:16:00.064-05:00

Last night, I went to the annual kick-off meeting for the home-school co-op that we belong to. "Co-op" sometimes confuses people ... it's just a group of families ... we don't trade seeds or granola or anything. When we first started homeschooling and my kids would get asked where they go to school ... they would say, "we go to a co-op". This reply often raised some questions ... if not eyebrows. Rather quickly, the answer changed to ... "we're home-schooled".

Anyway, I went to this meeting ... and for the fifth straight year ... listened to all of the teachers give their little talks and then each of the board members shared a bit too. Every year, when I hear the speech teacher speaking, I think something like ... she's neat ... I like her ... I bet my kids will enjoy her class. She teaches seventh through tenth grade ... so I hadn't had any reason to make her acquaintance thus far. Last night, however, the speech teacher and I just happened to find ourselves at the snack table at the same time {getting cookies, of course} ... and I said, "I think you're so neat and I'm looking forward to having one of my kids in your class." She thanked me and then I added, very spontaneously, "You know ... when I was in school, I never had the chance to be in a public speaking or speech class ... maybe you could offer a little elective class for the moms sometime." Where did this idea come from??? It seemed totally out of the blue ... I had never even thunk this thought before ...

Then, tonight, my mother called me and we chatted about this and that and some nonsense too, I suppose. We were about to hang up when she said,

"Oh ... I've been meaning to tell you about this guy that I met at Savers a few weeks ago ..."

"Yeah?" I encouraged.

"Well ... there was this guy with a cart full of yellow tee-shirts ... new shirts. So I asked him what he was going to do with all of those shirts. And he said he was sending them to Africa. So I told him that my daughter {that would be me} had been to school in Kenya for a semester. And I found out that he is the pastor of a church. And he said it would be great if you would come speak to his young people."

"Hahahahahahahaha." This was me ... LAUGHING.

"Are you kidding??? Did you tell him I was there like fifteen years ago???"

"There's plenty of things you could talk about." Mom encouraged. "He gave me his business card so you can call him."

"Hahahahahahahaha. That's really funny. Really funny," I said. "Actually ... you know what makes it even funnier?" I continued ... and then, I proceeded to tell her the story, from just the night before, of my asking the speech teacher to offer a speech class for the mothers.

"See? God's lining it all up," Mom declared ... half-kidding ... half-not.

a little scribble II

2010-08-26T21:28:00.007-05:00

Well friends ... Daddy and Halo returned to Wal-Mart again today with the now scribbled-on prescription in hand. A different gal assisted them this time and the mission was finally accomplished! Halo's new glasses will be ready on Sunday :) Can we get a woo-hoo???

THE END.

P.S. She loved reading all of the comments on the last post :)

a little scribble

2010-08-24T22:13:00.032-05:00

Honest to Betsy! I think it would be easier for me to go out tomorrow and purchase some illegal drugs ... than it will be for me to ORDER SOME EYEGLASSES FOR MY NEARLY BLIND (okay, not quite) TEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER!!!

In the afternoon, on the day when we returned home from our blissful cruise ... Halo's glasses broke. Boo Hoo! I think two other mishaps happened as well ... but I can't recall them just now. Anyway, her glasses broke ...

So ... a day and a half later, Sunday afternoon ... we went to Sam's Club to buy some new glasses. Although we had a paper prescription in hand, the gal there tried to verify Halo's prescription on some database and couldn't find it ... so she would not order any glasses for us. Is there some shared database for this type of stuff??? It seems goofy that there would be. Anyway, she was going to call the doctor the next day to see if it was supposed to expire six or twelve months from the date of issue. I said, "Look. We have a prescription. It doesn't say that it is expired. It has been less than twelve months. She can still see well through her old, broken lenses ... so this is still a good prescription for her. We just need a new pair of glasses. We're not ordering these for kicks ..." She refused to bend.

Sam's Club did call us the next day to say that the prescription is indeed valid and we should return to the store to do the actual ordering. In the meantime, however, I had learned that Wal-Mart has frames for at least $50 cheaper ... and decided to look there instead, given that eyeglasses are quite fragile and prone to breaking ... especially with a baby brother who likes to grab at them.

So ... I didn't make it to Wal-Mart until last night ... eight days later. Halo and I picked out some frames ... waited a little while until THREE customers were helped ahead of us ... and then handed the lady our prescription and the frames we had selected.

"Oh ... I'm sorry ... I can't order these without a doctor's signature," she began.

"Are you kidding??? Sam's Club was going to order them but wasn't sure about the expiration. They never even mentioned a signature. There's not even a spot or a line on here for a signature. See the list of doctors? See how the doctor's name is exed? And I've already had this prescription filled once before ... last fall ... for the glasses that are now broken ..."

"Well, if we were to get audited ..." she started saying.

"If you were to get audited, it would be terrible that you filled this DOCTOR'S PRESCRIPTION for EYEGLASSES??? Are you serious??? It's not like we are getting these for fun. Oh ... my ... stars!" I said.

"I can't do anything without a signature," she continued.

"Okay," I said, very calmly. "How about you forget that I came in here ... and I walk out the door and then I just scribble something on here ... and then I come back in and we order the glasses?"

Wanda, that was her name, Wanda ... also refused to bend ... not that I expected her to. Nutso, I say! Who or what agency has time to see that all prescriptions filled for EYEGLASSES are signed by a doctor??? Good night! Eyeglasses, dear readers, eyeglasses! It's not like we are trying to acquire some drug ... pick one ... I can't think of any scandalous ones at the moment ... okay, Jeff just suggested oxycotton ... there you go!

Anyway ... tonight we tried again! We had a plan. Jeff was going to scribble on the prescription ... but then he advised me to do it since, "a woman scribbles differently than a man." So ... I did a little scribble ... I didn't try to sign her name ... I just scribbled where one might have signed if that was actually necessary ... and then Jeff was going to take Halo in and attempt to order the glasses provided that Wanda wasn't working. But guess what???

Wanda was working :/

a little cruisin' conclusion

2010-08-21T21:26:00.022-05:00

Halo ... happy to be helping with cousin Luke ...Our Anniversary ... complete with song and cake ...
Our last stop was Skagway ...
where we just bummed around a bit ...
appreciated the flowers ...
visited Sarah Palin ... and posed with totem poles :)
See if you can spot Halo and Foof ...
Ping pong was a hit ...
Our little cowboy ...
A visit to the bridge ...
Refreshing our palates ~ with something sorbet-like ~ in between courses ...
My lovely in-laws ...
The napkin wave ...
done to the tune of When the Saints Go Marching In. Isn't my sis-in-law the most dignified napkin-waver you've ever seen???
During this hoopla, the servers paraded in with the famous Baked Alaska dessert. FYI ... my father-in-law, a seasoned cruiser, informed us that they do the Baked Alaska dessert on every cruise that he knows of ... it wasn't just because we were in Alaska.
A formal shot ...
The last creme brulee ...
The babies ...
Foofie playing frogger at the airport ... running back and forth across the hallway ... dodging people, suitcases, and motorized carts :)

a little cruisin' III

2010-08-20T22:06:00.012-05:00

It was all six of us, my father-in-law {aka Grandpa} ... and an afternoon in Juneau. We went on a fifteen-minute bus ride which brought us to this salmon creek and a hiking trail which led to an enormous waterfall and the famed Mendenhall Glacier. It was about a one-mile trek each way.

The glacier from a distance ... the waterfall is just to the right of it.
Happy Hikers :) This little adventure, by the way, was the first thing Foofie mentioned when I asked the kids what they liked best about the trip.
And here it is ... the reward at the end of the trail ... I don't know how to take those two strangers out of the photo though ...All three ... Halo, Buddy, and Foofie are great hikers ... and no, we didn't see any bears. Grandpa was a great hiker too ;)

a little cruisin' II

2010-08-19T21:38:00.015-05:00

FYI ... photos can be enlarged by double left-clicking on them ...
This was Tracy Arm Fjord morning ... 6 to 10 am. We got up early ... snagged a table with a good view to have breakfast at ... and then returned to our room to enjoy the incredible sights from our deck.

a little cruisin' I

2010-08-18T23:00:00.024-05:00

First things first! Why, the kids wondered, are there nine pieces of silverware at my place??? They are used to three ... or less :) Daddy then proceeded to educate them on some of the finer points of fine dining ...
while Foofie gave one of her knives a dainty, little lick ...
Bingo! Halo was the first winner!
Foofie wasn't a winner ... but she knows how to look like one ;)
Daddy's first course one evening ... fried frog legs! Even though they are said to taste like chicken ... I passed ...
For the past decade, we have not allowed our children to play ~ or even go ~ under the tables at restaurants ... but sometimes the 2-hour-long dinners got to be just a bit long for Little Cruiser. So ... he ended up playing under the table a couple of times ... making music on the table support with a fork or spoon. It seemed like the safest option at the time!
In Ketchikan, waiting for a lumberjack show to begin ...
Isn't it wild that people get to live here???
Foof with G & G ... and my dear sis-in-law ...
the sisters ... so happy together ...
I liked this shot of Foof ... not quite sure how to describe her expression though ... doelike???

a little seattle

2010-08-16T21:47:00.019-05:00

This would be the very beginning of our trip to Alaska ... we flew to Seattle ... ate supper ... doesn't my meal look yum??? It's making me hungry right now ... I can almost smell it ;)
spent the night at a very nice hotel ...
determined that all six of us could fit on the smallish balcony ...hung out with our baggage while waiting for the rest of our group ...
observed Little Blondie breakdance in the fancy foyer ...
boarded the ship ... Halo spotted two pieces of luggage that the crew dropped in the water ...
posed for a quick picture with the Space Needle ...
checked out our accommodations and generous deck {it turned out we could see the Space Needle from our private deck too} ...
{Seattle seems like a neat city ...}
... and viewed the blue angels from our deck. They flew sooo fast ... I just barely caught them with my camera! Kind-of neat! I wouldn't want a ride in one of 'em though ...

a little Alaskan Cruise

2010-08-13T20:57:00.022-05:00

We are home from our Alaskan cruise with the in-laws, mine that is. A lovely time was had by all ... pictures to follow ... just as soon as I stop swaying. Coming home with so much stuff to do, however, is rather overwhelming and I currently feel as though I never want to drag all six of us on another vacation ever again. I will, of course, quickly change my mind ... just as soon as winter begins to rear its ugly head.

I asked the kids what they liked best from the trip ...

halo. the whole thing overall. the stops. the buffets. dressing up for dinner. looking for souvenirs. swimming. palate cleansers.

buddy. everything. the slingshot. ping pong. swimming. looking for whales. creme brulee.

foofie. going to the waterfall and going to the glacier in juneau. swimming. ice cream cones.

little cruiser. watching the luggage slide down the chute at the baggage claim. waving at cousin Luke. seeing the planes at the airport. playing under the table during the four-course dinners.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law celebrated their 45th anniversary on the cruise ... that was the occasion for our excursion. It also happened to be our 13th anniversary :)

The scenery was fantastic ... awesome! The food was excellent and abundant ... and the kids enjoyed trying lots of new foods. Jeff and I also enjoyed visiting with some of the staff from all over the globe ... 57 different countries, I think.

P.S. The song I made up while cruising was ... People Just Wanna Wear Bathrobes ... it is to the tune of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The first day, we saw people heading to the pool area in the bathrobes which are provided. They looked just a tad funny parading about the ship in white bathrobes ... but we decided to follow suit {or robe, I guess} since we didn't bring any swim cover-ups and we had to go outside to get to the pool. So we ended up being quite a sight ... especially while we were traversing through the cafe!
More to come!

a little peer-pressure

2010-07-24T22:54:00.012-05:00

I love to hear stories of my children resisting peer pressure! And I just heard a new one today!

About a month ago, a boy at church told Buddy and another boy to meet up with him at a certain place after the service. Planned meetings are exciting ... so they agreed and followed through. The boy, the first boy mentioned, then directed Buddy and the other boy to go up to the balcony with him and collect the communion cups. So ... they went and gathered up lots and lots of the small plastic cups. Buddy said he was wondering what the boy wanted them for. Next, this boy went to the side stairwell and proceeded to place a cup or two on each stair. Finally, he stomped down the stairs ... smashed all of the cups into pieces ... and made quite a mess. At some point during this, the boy told Buddy and the other boy to do this too. Buddy, however, knew it was wrong and thought he and the other boy might get in trouble for this. After all, Buddy and the other boy were left holding the cups ... lots of cups.

So ... Buddy said, "I started shouting commands to {my friend}. Run! Drop the cups! Run!" And they did just that.

Woo-Hoo, Buddy! Thumbs up!

a little cousin

2010-07-14T23:14:00.014-05:00

Tonight, we met the first little cousin to be born on my husband's side. The little guy is Cousin Luke ... isn't he a cutie? Little Dude was a bit stoic ... he was not sure what to think about Grandpa's antics and LOUD hollers for them to look at the cameras ;)

a little camping

2010-07-12T22:24:00.039-05:00

We camped and then we cabin-ed. Let me start by saying that cabin-ing at a nice lake home is a good debriefing of sorts after the camping is over and before returning to real life. One often needs to rest up after camping.

Yes ... well ... back to camping. This was, by the way, our second time camping. We arrived at the campsite with hopes for a grand time. Almost immediately upon hopping out of the van, I thought, I love camping ... and even though there is a LOT of preparation ... there is just something appealing about camping. A little bit later ... I love camping. Camping is just great, I was thinking as we roasted turkey franks, enjoyed baked beans, and gobbled up some delicious strawberries. I love camping ... I thought a few more times that evening. Camping ... outdoor living ... glorious and relaxing ... even with all those Daddy-long-legs on everything. Then ... when bedtime arrived ... after all of that wonderful "camping" and chilling by the campfire ... I angled my body into the tent, stepped over and around some of my children ... then crouched over to where my sleeping mat was laid ... getting around in a tent is sort-of like playing Twister ... and finally, plunked my thirty-four-year-old body down ... basically on the ground, as the mat was thin. Yes ... it was basically like I was laying on the ground ... and definitely NOT my precious sleep-number bed. Did I mention that the mat was t-h-i-n??? So ... I was no longer thinking that I love camping. Nope. I was thinking ...

I feel old! It seems like I can feel every single bone in my body! How many are there? 206??? And the ground ... is seriously hard ... there's no give in it ...

So I said to my husband, "Husband, people older than us do this ... how can they stand it?"
And he said, "Well, Abraham slept on the ground ..."
So that was that.

Yep. The first night was really bad. And I was cold. And Little Dude was waking up and fussing every hour or so. Oh ... and I saw a skunk when I was trekking back from the bathrooms in the middle of the night. And the second night? Not much better. So, as aforesaid, after two nights of this, Jeffster and I were quite happy to be sleeping in the rather comfy bed at the cabin. {The cabin time was great too ... I didn't take any pictures though.}

Back to the camping again ... aside from the sleeping, or lack thereof, we did have ourselves a grand time :)

I think I made about fifty pancakes ... not sure where they all went though ;)
A nice sandy beach ... fun for everyone :)
Our temporary address #33 ...
The baby backpack ... couldn't have managed without it ...
Mr. E. and the fire feeders ...
Daddy and his boys ...
These two are often in the same place {or chair} ...
Little Camper squealing out at the kids from inside the tent ...
It's getting late ...
One down ...
I'm so tired I must hold my eyes open ...I love staying up late!!!
Our second breakfast ... eggs, cantaloupe, and yogurt a la messy table ...
Behold, a new rock discovered ...

a little sparkler

2010-07-04T22:37:00.028-05:00

You might remember from my previous two Independence Day posts ... that the 4th of July is also Foofie's birthday. So ... ever since she's been around, the holiday has been kind-of a combo deal ... birthday party and Independence celebration.

Our little sparkler, aka Foofie ... and sometimes Foofie Sparkle, is FIVE! I can't believe it! The following is what I did five years ago today. I thought I should get it written down {for posterity, you know} before I forget anything. Here goes ...

I can't remember the morning too well ... I probably puttered around a bit. That afternoon, I squeezed in a workout ~ 2 miles of walking and 2 miles of running. Then, I probably showered. Next, I drove my in-laws to the airport ... I had contractions the entire drive, but then they tapered off. Around suppertime, Buddy and I went to a picnic at my parents' place ... hung out at church a bit {for years, but not THIS year, the city fireworks have been near our church and so our church would have some festivities going on as well} ... and finally, watched the fireworks. I was having some contractions during the fireworks ... but I had been having them for weeks ... maybe an hour or two each day. I'm not sure why ... but after the "grand finale", I told Buddy we were going to RUN for our car so we wouldn't get stuck in the traffic jam exiting the parking lot ... just in case we needed to get to the hospital. So ... we ran.

Once in the car, I called Hubby {he and Halo had stayed home} and said, "I kinda feel like I might have the baby tonight. Maybe I should go to the hospital." "No, you won't. It's still ten days early. Just come home." Obedient wife ;) that I am ... I drove home. En route, I called the nurse hotline to get a second opinion. Those nurses, it seems, always have to call you back. So ... by the time I got called back and they advised me to go to the hospital since I have fast labors ... I was nearly home. So, I continued on home to drop off Buddy.

I told Hubby they wanted me to go in and he said, "Well, Halo's sleeping. But you should be able to drive yourself." "Okay," I agreed, "The cell phone is almost dead though." Next, I went downstairs for my pillow and I don't remember what else ... "Wow, look at me!" I exclaimed, "I'm even going to bring stuff to the hospital!" {I'd never brought anything to the hospital for the previous two births. Husband had brought whatever was needed later.} My "packing", however, was very short lived because I promptly fell over and screeched, "It's time! YOU have to take me! Buddy get back in the car!"

Daddy wrapped Halo in a blanket and plopped her in the car ... and we were off. Getting to the hospital was slow and agonizing because there was so much traffic from various fireworks displays ... lights were out ... and the police were directing traffic at some intersections. I kept banging my fist against my car door ... and Buddy was copying me in the backseat ... he said he was helping me. When we arrived at the hospital, I had a little wait for the midwife to show up. Then, three pushes later, at 11:53 p.m., our little Foofie miracle was born ... with only seven minutes to spare :)

Here is how we celebrated this year ... we had a lot of fun!!!

My parents new neighbors gave the kids a ride in this little train of sorts ...

Lining up to get their sparklers lit ...
Sparkling ...

Ooohing Uncle's fireworks show :) Who was messing with Baby's hair???
Oh ... and Mom's green dish ... whatever she puts in here is sure to be yummy :) This would be her potato salad. I'll have to get the recipe from her and add it here. Generally I'm not a big potato salad eater ... but hers is delicious ... so much so that it's pretty much the only potato salad I'll eat. ♥ Thanks Mom ♥

a little guessing game

2010-07-03T21:22:00.009-05:00

And the winner of the cappuccino guessing contest is ... GIANNA! She guessed 150 boxes ... which was only 10 under. So yes ... I ordered 160 boxes! 160 x 6 = 960 individual packets ... enough for five months, we hope! Now, if only I could order an organic-milk-producing-cow from amazon.com ...
Gianna, I'll bring your prize to church :)

a little watermelon

2010-07-02T21:51:00.013-05:00

Watermelon time ~ complete with quotes!

Halo: "Sometimes when I'm eating watermelon, I pretend it's sushi."
Buddy: "I could win a watermelon {eating} contest."
Foofie: "When I see inside a watermelon, it makes me happy."
Baby ... this is one heavy ball ...

It seems I had a little smudge on my lens :/ Oh well ...

Isn't watermelon beautiful??? Gotta love summer :)

a little Foofese

2010-07-01T21:44:00.011-05:00

A few recent Foofie~isms ...

"I want my nails painted," requested Foofie.
"Well, first they need to be clipped. They're long." I answered.
"I know. They're beaming high ... with ... glee," she agreed.
{I painted her nails ... orange.}
"Oooh ... they are gleaming with glitter and gold."

"I'm done with samwiches {aka sandwiches} for seven weeks."
"Well ... what are you hoping to eat?" I asked.
"Fruit."

After returning, a bit sweaty, from a bike ride ...
"My hair is gleaming wet."

Trying on some underwear ... "These are gulping big!"

After finding a penny on the ground ... "I found a little snick of money!"

a little hourglass

2010-06-22T21:42:00.012-05:00

Oh dear me ... the sun set tonight at 9:02 ... and I missed noting ~ and cheering about ~ the official beginning of summer yesterday ... when perhaps the sun set at 9:05??? I love these spring/summer evenings when there is so much daylight that it makes your day feel a little longer. Now, it's all downhill back to the winter solstice ;)

I was just pondering ... time. How time keeps flying by, slipping away, and seeming to gain momentum {if that were possible}.

Sunday is like the downbeat for me. The marker, so-to-speak, in each week. Sunday ... then the rest of the week ... and Sunday again. However it feels more like ... Sunday, three days, Sunday, three days, Sunday. I guess I'm in 4/4 time :) Anyone else have this rhythm???

A second is virtually nothing. And a minute? Tiny as well. An hour? Not terribly long.
A day ... often over before you know it. A month ... only about thirty fleeting days. I feel like I should still be twenty-something ... but I'm not ...

Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom."

a little this 'n' that

2010-06-18T21:36:00.038-05:00

A journal entry for today ... a little something to note about each of my miracles ...

Halo's quote of the day actually begins with a story about me and a hat. Today, I mended this sweet, adorable, little, tan, babyGap hat for PoorLittleDudeWhoOftenHasToWearAPinkHat :) It has been one of my favorite hats for years ... I think it might have been Halo's at one time with a tiny ruffle on it that I removed for Buddy's use. Anyway, one side of the velcro was finally kaput. {Hey! I wasn't sure if I knew how to spell kaput ... but it must be right ... the computer didn't underline it in red.}

The teeth side of velcro might last forever ... but the more fuzzy, grabbing side has its limitations. So ... all I really did, mending-wise, was rip out the chunk of velcro ... cut a new piece of velcro {actually two, because the first one was too small} ... locate some close-enough-colored thread ... and sew it on. It was challenging, however, because it was very difficult to push through ... my needle bent to a near right angle quite early on ... and I was trying to sew in the existing holes from the discarded piece of velcro. All that to say, I succeeded ... but it took much longer than I expected. It was worth it though. I like the hat. So I was pleased :)

Of course I wanted someone else to be pleased and excited about the improved baby hat ... so I showed my handiwork to Halo and told her I was so pleased. Pleased with how it turned out ... but even more pleased that it was finished ... and pleased that it was now less likely to get yanked off and lost.

You'd never guess Halo's response ... "Are you so pleased that you want to go get a hot fudge malt???" she immediately asked with a cheeky grin. Yes, I like hot fudge malts ... Here is the little piece of velcro that was such a big deal ... please notice the carefully stiched oval and not the cracker crumbs :)

"Boys get stung less than girls do." {Buddy's conclusion from looking at all of the female legs in our house.} Also ... he has been motivated to get more fit for soccer camp which is coming next week. He's been doing a combo of walking and running about two miles with me lately :) I'm just walking though ... and thinking about running ... and almost sort-of getting the itch to maybe do another race ...

Foofie was holding an antique doll with "hair" ... "She has a BANG. I don't want a bang." Then, running her hands through her own hair, "I like it just the way it is." Well good :) Please keep saying that for the next fifteen years ... "I like it just the way it is."

After watching the older kids kick the soccer ball around ... Little Buddy decided to try it too ... from his sitting crawl position, of course :) Also, he's at that age where he thinks he is hiding just by covering his eyes ... it cracks me up!
Voila ... here is the hat that better stay on now! Oh, and I should try to get a picture of Baby kicking the soccer ball ...

a little cappuccino

2010-06-17T23:04:00.030-05:00

See what the UPS fellow heaved onto our doorstep??? Three BIG boxes of ... imagine a drum roll please ... french vanilla cappuccino coolers!!!!! Each of these boxes is filled with many small boxes like the little red/white/blue one ... and {side note} each of these small boxes contains six packets to mix up six yummy iced coffee delights.

So why did I order sooo many cappuccino coolers??? Well ... a little over a week ago ... we stopped at the local grocery {the only one in our area that sells this product} ... and the shelf was empty. We had a few remaining at home ... so we were set for the following morning nonetheless. Then, the next evening while we were out and about ... we drove out of our way to a different one of these stores to stock up on our can't-live-without-most-favorite drink mix. We went down the coffee aisle straight to the cappuccino spot ... and lo and behold ... it was barren. Yes ... empty again. All gone. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Can you believe it?

"What are we going to do?" asked Dr. Edge with more than a little concern in his voice. "I'm never been so sad about a food item in my life," he continued. Are we pathetic or what??? You can choose the "or what" option ... thank you kindly :)

"Let's call your Mom," I suggested. "Maybe she has a stockpile." {She is a fellow ~~addict~~ appreciator of these fine coffee beverages. In fact, I think she's the one who started me on them.}

So ... we called Mom and she said come on over :) She shared a few boxes with us ... and then told us that the last time she bought cappuccinos she received a little slip at the checkout saying that General Foods had been bought by Maxwell House.

Back at home ... I googled cappuccino coolers and found that Amazon sells them. Yeah! So ... I ordered ~~some~~ a lot ... just in case there is an interruption in production or ~ perish the thought ~ they get discontinued. Actually, if they are getting discontinued ... I will order more.

So ... now for the fun part ;)
WHO can guess how many boxes I ordered? {the small red/white/blue box}

Here's the rules/guidelines ... pay close attention ;)
1. Leave your guess in the comments section.
2. The winner will be the one with the closest guess ... regardless of whether the guess is over or under the actual amount.
3. Also, for your information, there were a few air packets tossed in each box too.

a little muddy

2010-06-17T22:58:00.005-05:00

Boys and mud. Mud and boys. The two just seem to find each other.

a little egg-laying

2010-06-11T20:45:00.009-05:00

Today's excitement was viewing a snapping turtle laying a whole slew of eggs. They sure do lay a LOT of eggs! Several eggs were already in her hole when we arrived on the scene ... and then we witnessed Mrs. Turtle plop out egg after egg after egg after egg. Lots of eggs! Can I say anymore about the eggs? I don't think so :)

a little blanket

2010-06-10T21:50:00.016-05:00

On Mother's Day, my mother-in-law presented us with some photo gifts ... mugs for Jeffster and myself ... and aluminum water-bottles for the oldest three kids. Little Buddy's gift, my mother-in-law said, wasn't ready to be picked up from the store yet. So ... she ended up bringing it up to the cabin and draped it over a few dining chairs. See the big baby face during the middle of the video??? I thought I had taken pictures of it ... but no ... I only found it in this video. So ... you get to see his crawling technique again :) Anyway, Little Buddy had fun poking and pointing at his enlarged features on the blanket :) Quite the baby blanket!

My little joke that I say when I pick up one of the bottles or find one in the stroller pouch or somewhere is ... "How can I tell whose bottle this is???" I know ... not-so-funny :)

a little vintage

2010-06-09T22:20:00.014-05:00

In my ongoing organizing and purging of junk in our insane basement, I came across three pairs of my old shorts, vintage shorts if you will ;) They're really, really old. For example, I remember wearing the navy pair in high school ... and I recall buying the denim {Gap} pair the spring of my freshman year in college (age 18 1/2) ... and the khaki {Gap} pair probably the next spring. So ... if I'm 34 and 1/2 ... the shorts are really old shorts. Okay ... I did the math ... and these shorts are between 15 and 17 years old!!! Anyone else have vintage clothing hiding out in their basement {or closet}???

Generally speaking, vintage stuff is good and desirable. Vintage Gap shorts, however, are not ... good or desirable. Out of curiousity, I tried the shorts on and I felt like I was in maternity clothing! The waists on these babies ~ no pun planned ~ was close to 3 inches ABOVE my bellybutton! Seriously! Downright crazy! Now I know why all of my older shirts are sooo short and square/boxy ... versus more long and rectangular.

Sorry ... no pictures ;) Maybe later ... maybe. {The denim pair is already in the trash though.}

a little growl

2010-06-03T21:40:00.009-05:00

Baby and the Beam! I love how Foofie says something and then it sounds as though he is answering back to her :)

And one more pix of Little Sweetheart from our "little getaway" ...

a little playpen

2010-06-02T20:36:00.019-05:00

Okay friends. Get ready ... I am about to reveal my newest brainstorm. It happened yesterday.

Helpful Background Info: Little Dude would not be interested in hanging out in a pack'n'play type of playpen for more than a few minutes ... I mean seconds ... and I can't say I blame him. On the other hand, we {the parents} are not interested in fencing in our yard. So ... the question was ... how can we let LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap play safely outside while Halo or Buddy is watching him for a little while??? Initially, this spring, when Halo was helping she would quickly just buckle him somewhere ... the stroller, the swing, the carseat. LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap wasn't so keen on all of this buckling ... obviously!

Enter giant playpen. Once again, this post title is deceiving ... because it is not a little playpen. It is a giant playpen ~ or could perhaps be called a play-yard?

How, you ask, does one accomplish this most wonderful thing??? {Notice I did not say beautiful.} Well ... first you need three {or four} trees that are fairly close together. Thankfully we still had all three of these pine trees. My husband and I had talked about him sneaking out under the cover of darkness {so as not to alert our neighbors who might get sad or mad} and fell one of these three trees of ours ... since they're a bit too close together. Plus, we could enlarge our space for frisbee tossing and other fun in the backyard.

Anyway, yes, you need at least three trees ... it wouldn't work very swell with only two. Then, you go scout in the basement for that big green roll of snow fence or silt fence or whatever it is that you almost pitched a few times ... but kept hanging onto it because "it might come in handy" ... for such a time as this! Next, you tightly wrap those trees with the fence and secure the two ends together with a long pole and maybe some other doo-dads. The ends can be opened to function as a gate ... but we found that it's faster for all of us just to jump the fence. Finally, if one enjoys the shrub clippers ~ and I do ~ one can just start randomly trimming the trees to enlarge the inside play area and also to relieve stress ;) Oh la la!

And the best part??? All four kiddos think it's neat :) You know ... there's something novel about smaller spaces. It's not foolproof ... LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap has gotten out ... but it does slow him down some, keep him fairly contained for a short period, and prevents us from losing him to the long grasses growing in our yonder meadow. He has only tried to escape when everyone has jumped the fence and left him momentarily by himself. If someone is playing in there with him ... he's happy as a clam ... until he needs his Mama, of course :)

Oh ... and much of the time there is built-in shade to boot!

a little getaway

2010-06-01T21:00:00.014-05:00

A little cookout ...

Dr. Edge is roasting some dogs or franks or whatever you call 'em ... while sitting on this wonderful glider Father-in-law recently purchased. Can anyone guess what it is made of???
And what was Little Blondie doing during all of this fun??? Why he was peacefully napping amidst the trees, of course!
In the kitchen ... playing and helping and making messes ...
The hot tub is always a hit ... Recognize these colored rectangles of paper??? All told, we ended up playing several hours of Monopoly here and there. The kids love it! Notice that Buddy must play Monopoly standing up and wearing his helmet! No ... I'm just kidding about the helmet part ... I don't even know if he realized he had it on ... but he did play most of the game standing up. Halo stood up much of the time also. It's just too exciting to stay seated, I guess.
Foofie was my team-mate ... and here she is wheeling and dealing with Grandpa ... successfully too, I might add :) She's pretty persuasive!
Kind-of lame picture quality ... but had to include this photo anyway ... a glorious moment for Halo ... winning the money pile that had accumulated for the FREE PARKING spot!!! She was, as they say, cheering to beat the band ... what does that really mean anyway?
Some nature shots ... JFF ... {just for fun} ...
Pinwheeling ... Tubing ... Shooting ... Fishing ...

FUN fun FUN for everyone!!! Happy June :)

a little picnic

2010-05-22T22:32:00.017-05:00

A few pictures from Little Buddy's little Picnic Birthday Party ...
Wheelbarrow races!!!

Three-legged races :)

I'm not sure what was so funny here ... but I liked this profile shot of these three gals laughing :)Baseball too ... and beachball! Oh, and a big foam axe from the dollar section at Target = FUN!

a little robin

2010-05-20T22:55:00.012-05:00

My kids discovered a nest a few weeks ago with eggs in it. They waited for the eggs to hatch and even began helping the busy mother by bringing worms to her babies. Then, one day, this day in fact, when the birds were nearly too large for the nest but not quite ready to fly ... Buddy was checking on them and accidentally bumped their foundation {a branch}. The three birds were ousted from their perch. Two were still pretty close to the nest and eventually got back in, but one landed on our lawn and ran right into the street. Halo and Buddy immediately rescued him {her?} from getting smooshed by a vehicle and then started playing with the birdie. Holding it, petting it, putting it in our birdbath, showing it to their baby brother, trying to feed it. Voila!

Isn't this cute???
Little Dude ... content just sitting in the rocks ... studying the rocks.When the fun was over, they returned "Chirps" to its happy home. All's well that ends well :)

a little "Wild About God"

2010-05-19T22:46:00.007-05:00

I took this video about a month ago when we were "rocking out" in the van on the way home from somewhere ... rather late at night, as you can see. This is one {of two, currently} of our family's favorite songs. Isn't this a fun song???

LOTS OF LITTLES

a little surprise party

a little fountain drinking

a little visit

a little wintry

a little choo-choo train

a little Black Hills sight-seeing

a little Rapid Christmas

a little Christmas Eve *by Halo*

a little more Ezzie

a little endearing

a little church-boy

a little "thankful for everything"

a little dozen

a little about the littles

a little app

a little savings

a little fair

a little blogger

a little yoga

a little stewart

a little whatever

a little racing

a little firepit

a little fiftieth

a little firecracker

a little June

a little chirping

a little warbler

a little Bobbin

a little FMSC ~ by Halo

a little veggie garden

a little robin

a little boy/flowers/birds/girls

a little boy's birthday

a little pick-up

a little springtime

a little resurrection day

a little St. John

a little field trip

a little snow treat

a little office chair

a little 5.66

a little posing

a little RRR -- II

a little February fullness

a little strawberry snack

a little valentining

a little medical mystery

a little *w*o*n*d*e*r*f*u*l*

a little snowflake

a little hat-making

a little 35!!!

a little briefcase

a little witchcraft

a little RRR

a little Thanksgiving

a little perch

a little firstborn

a little bravado

a little mist

a little facebook

a little "pregnant lady"

a little doctoring

a little Hermie {by Halo}

a little smooosh

a little speaking

a little scribble II

a little scribble

a little cruisin' conclusion

a little cruisin' III

a little cruisin' II

a little cruisin' I

a little seattle

a little Alaskan Cruise

a little peer-pressure

a little cousin

a little camping

a little sparkler

a little guessing game

a little Christmas Eve by Halo

a little wonderful