Sleeping on the Floor and the Driveway.

Last Wednesday night the kids had the big idea to sleep on the floor in their rooms in their sleeping bags. So we set up their sleeping areas for them. Elizabeth had her chair on the end of her sleeping bag so I pushed it off and to the side out of the way. She promptly told me that she had it there on purpose to keep the bottom of her sleeping bag in place so it wouldn't mess up the "picture" on it. Okay! I snapped a couple of photos of them when I went to check on them before we went to bed. The photos were taken in the dark so they didn't turn out that great.

The kids and I went to Hobby Lobby on Thursday. I think that's one of my new favorite places. So much "eye candy" from the home decor to the scrapbook supplies. I needed to buy things for my friend Crystal's baby shower. Elizabeth and Andrew love that place too because of all the crafts for kids they have. I also made some successful phone calls regarding my search to find a piano teacher for Elizabeth. We have decided to use the Trinity Arts Center for the first semester and continue if we are pleased with them. For the first time ever, I tried making chicken tacos instead of the norm, beef tacos. The kids LOVED them. I need to start a list of recipes they prefer, i.e., eat well! That evening the boys went outside to work (and play) and I worked on my decorations for the baby shower.

All last year Andrew had no interest in riding the lawnmower with Wade like he had in years past. His interest has been renewed though and I've seen him out riding with him several times this summer.

We went out to eat Friday night. I had a last minute idea after seeing something Brianna had made. I'm having to be all secretive still because my last minute idea concerns one of my blog readers and I can't divulge any info until I can give it to her. I will say it's for my SIL, Stacy. ;) I can't wait to give it to her and I think I've even talked Wade into driving up to Pennsylvania for Labor Day weekend to deliver it. PLUS, I haven't seen that girl pregnant and if we don't get to go then, I won't get to see her before she has the baby. The reason we went out to eat was because I had to go back to Hobby Lobby and get supplies plus we hit Baby Depot to get gifts for Crystal and Stacy. I start working like a mad woman to get my idea done in time for Wade to take to Stacy and Ben when he went to move them this week but alas, it's going to have to wait until our tentative trip in September.

Crystal's baby shower was Saturday. Annie, Drema, Becky and I met at 10 am to set up the room with the decorations, chairs and tables. When I had Elizabeth, my friends who gave me my shower at the church had made the cutest "clothesline" as part of the decorations so I made one for Crystal. I used two dowels, painted them white and used foam daubers to stamp circles in her nursery colors. I spray painted two terracotta pots white and tied with ribbon. (Click on picture to see larger.)

I also bought some Gerber daisies at Hobby Lobby and vases at Decorator's Warehouse for decorations. I gave this to Crystal to use in her baby's nursery because she's decorating in the Gerber daisies.

Here is Crystal! She's due the middle of September. :)

I made this card for her last minute before the shower. I realized about 40 minutes before I had to leave that I didn't have a card! (For the scrapbookers who want to know, I used Cosmo Cricket pp.)

Elizabeth came to "help" at the shower. She did. She was in charge of handing the gifts to Crystal to open and then take the gifts to the ladies to pass around and look at. She also had the trash bag and helped to dispose of any trash. LOL She really enjoyed doing this! When we came home, this is what Andrew showed me that he and Daddy had worked on:

Our Sundays are always the same - church in the morning, lunch at Daddy and Mom's and church at night. We did get a call that afternoon though that Granddaddy's kidneys had quit working. It's just a matter of time now. We went that night after church to visit him and the family.

Our trip to Walmart on Monday was an exciting one for the kids. They got to buy their school supplies! They were so cute. It makes me happy that they are ready and eager to go to school. Andrew has continued to read books. His memory for words is just amazing! Smart boy! They played for a while in their kiddy pool that afternoon. Some shots from then:

Andrew was using Elizabeth's snorkel and goggles and "going under". ;) Oh and those are new swim trunks I bought on clearance at Walmart. They are size 6/7 and supposed to be for next year, but he didn't want to wait.

For dinner that evening, I again cooked a meal that the kids raved about. LOL I made Mexican pork chops with rice and green beans. I wanted to share the recipe. I think it's one I'll include in the church cookbook I'm heading up.

Mexican Pork Chops

pork tenderloin (or thick pork chops)

pepper, to taste

8 oz can tomato sauce

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 cup dry rice

1 medium green pepper, optional

8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

8 oz monterrey jack cheese, shredded

Brown pork tenderloin and place on papertowels; then pepper. Arrange in a 9x13 inch dish. Mix tomato sauce, 8 oz of water (use can from tomato sauce), taco seasoning and rice. Pour over the tenderloin. Seal with foil and bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Remove foil, slice green pepper into rings and arrange over casserole. Cover with cheese and bake uncovered 15 minutes. Serve with sour cream. *I have always used pork chops and they are very tender and delish!

Elizabeth said this is her favorite way to eat rice. It reminds me a lot of the side order of rice you can get at Taco Bell but MUCH MUCH yummier with all that melted cheese.

We went last night to have Mom cut the boys' hair. She is a typical Nana and usually gives them a little spending money. Well, such was the case last night. Elizabeth told me when I was putting her in bed that she wanted to go to Walmart first thing in the morning to spend hers. I told her it was meant to be spent on vacation. She was not happy with that and began to pout as I left the room. Andrew got out of bed a bit later and informed me that she said she was going to run away when she woke up the next morning. I said, "Oh well, then she won't get to spend the money from Nana and won't get her chore money to spent either next week. And . . ." About this time I see Andrew's face light up, and as I'm about to say my next sentence I realize he's thinking the same thing, "And I guess I'll have to give you her money." He grinned and said, "I was hoping you would say that!" I told him to go tell her. Yes, I wanted to rub it in!! LOL

She was fine by morning but did want to pretend run away which soon became "camping" as they set up blankets and pillows and toys and chairs outside in the driveway. They played out there for two hours! Andrew even got his stereo and had Patch the Pirate blaring. It was quite hilarious when I went out to check on them at one point and "Possum Pot Pie" was playing. Oh, what the neighbors must think. Ha ha! It has to be better than what they could have been listening to. I did have him turn it down soon after I realized how loud it was.

Elizabeth was "taking a nap" when I first went out to check on her. Soon more stuff was brought out.

Here is Andrew with his backpack full of clothes and snacks for their "camping trip".

This is when they saw an airplane overhead. Gotta love those sunglasses!

More . . . Daisy even came to visit.

One last photo. I made my first "hybrid" layout a couple of weeks ago. That means it's part digital and part traditional. I made this for the owner's birthday at SBO. She turned 40 and the site members were all trying to work on some birthday LOs to surprise her with an album. I like it okay, not my favorite but it was fun to try. Not the best photo of it because I had to take it at night so I could have it packaged and ready to mail for the morning.

Vacuum. Vacuum. Vacuum.

"You're the best mommy in the whole solar system!" Andrew told me this tonight when he snuck out of bed (or should I say his sleeping bag because he and Elizabeth decided to sleep in those tonight) to tell me I had hugged and kissed him but he hadn't hugged and kissed me. Another stall tactic but it worked pretty good. He knows how to sweet talk a woman already. Ha ha!

We went to my friend Penny's house today. We had a play date over here last month and so this time we went over there. We were hoping to get out the sprinklers and play in their kiddy pool but no such luck. It rained all day long and stayed pretty cool. The kids still had a great time and Penny and I were able to chat with minimal distraction. She had requested Elizabeth to bring her nail polish over to paint Sarah's nails. The boys - well, Andrew and Jacob - wanted their nails painted as well. Elizabeth loved it. I wish I had my camera with me! Tonight she asked how she could get to know all of our other neighbors. When we asked why, she said she wanted to meet them so they would come to her makeup store. She is now an aspiring makeup artist. ;)

Yesterday turned into a fun day. It started out dreary but that afternoon we drove to Pigeon Forge. Our friends, Brian and Ericka, were there from Florida vacationing with family. They were only two hours away so we couldn't miss an opportunity to see them. Brian and Wade were college roommates for all four years and best friends. They met us at one of the many racetrack parks in Pigeon Forge. While the kids rode rides, we talked. (Click on the pictures to see close-ups. I LOVE their facial expressions in all these photos.)


The water squirt game was their favorite. They experienced their first time getting to ride go-carts. Elizabeth kept her foot on the brake almost the entire time. They loved the ride that went around and around too.



Later, we went to the house their family is renting for the week and ended up eating dinner with them. I snapped a photo of Brian and Ericka before we left. :)
Andrew vacuumed three times today. He vacuumed the living room this morning. His request. My van this afternoon. My demand. And he vacuumed the living room again this evening. Again, his request. I made him and Elizabeth clean out the back half of the van - their domain. Also the dirty part of our vehicle. I warned them that they are going to start being responsible for keeping it clean. Of course, Andrew doesn't mind the cleaning but Elizabeth was off inside rather quickly after she did a little work. I hope that having them do this will keep it cleaner. We shall see! (Notice his painted fingernails!! LOL He asked me when I kissed him goodnight if I would take it off in the morning.)

Oh, and the last photo for today. Andrew has been loving the rain. He was in and out all morning playing in it. He did this yesterday too. I made him put a towel by the front door to put his boots on when he came in.

Three Things To Ponder.

My friend, Candace, emailed me this last week. I wanted to share it at some point. :)

Three Things to Ponder:
1.Cows
2.The Constitution
3.The Ten Commandments

Cows
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a single cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

The Constitution
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.

The Ten Commandments
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery", and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.

Fun Weekend For All.

Wade had an extra fun time over the weekend. He was invited by a bank to go with a few others on a private chartered jet to Birmingham, AL to watch the Rolex Grand Am race. He got to be a grid Marshall for the SunTrust racecar and eat dinner with the drivers along with other extra cool things like touring the pit and seeing the garages, etc. They flew out Saturday morning and came back Sunday night. He brought back a bunch of goodies for the kids - hats, cards that were signed by the drivers, squishy racecars (instead of balls), etc. You would have thought the man had been gone for days the way the kids went home while he was gone and then when he got back. It was sweet though.

On Saturday morning, Elizabeth, Andrew and I went to Hobby Lobby to get some crafts and I needed to look for flowers to decorate my friend's shower that is this Saturday. The kids had their chore money so we spent a lot of time roaming up and down the aisles and studying all the possibilities. Andrew said, "I want something messy." He kept saying that. We were in the science section looking at all the kits but they cost more than he had. He finally decided on a model car. It was a level one, no painting, no gluing model of a Hummer. Recommended for ages 8 and up but with my help, he did about 50% of it.

Elizabeth picked out a sketch pad. Like that girl needs more! She loves to draw though and is all caught up in "being an artist." She bought two more of the wooden dolls they sale there. She has bought one before. They are thin wooden dolls that you color or paint and they come with a stand. The clothes are already drawn on them. They are $2 each. She had set up an "art store" in one corner of the living room and then ended up making a "town" for her dolls. She cut out buildings and taped them around the corner.

While Wade was gone, I had made plans to scrapbook. It's been forever since I've had a good chunk of time at home to do it. So around 3 on Saturday, I set down to get creative. I left the kids to run freely through the house while I scrapped. At one point, I heard Elizabeth say she wanted to be an architect when she grows up and Andrew said he wanted to be an investigator. ;) But back to my scrapping! I did one two-page layout and two one-pagers. I used my Craft Robo to cut out "friends" and "sweeter" and to cut the stars. I also used it on the below LOs to cut out the 4, arrow, and "turning six". Loving that machine!

I also made a quick card. I really like how it turned out and I made it in under 20 minutes. SBO was having scrapping challenges over the weekend and this qualified for one - creating your own flower (couldn't be prefabbed) for a card or LO.

Sunday was church. We went to Daddy and Mom's afterwards for lunch. Wade called and said he may be on TV at the start of the race but they didn't show that part of the race. The kids enjoyed seeing where Daddy was though.

Andrew got to meet his kindergarten teacher yesterday morning. It worked out that when he went to summer camp last week that his class was in the room he'll be in for kindergarten. He opened up quickly to Mrs. Shelley. She seems very sweet and my two friends' children had her and they really liked her. I told her that I was available to help anytime with crafts, parties or whatever. We also talked about anything needed in the classroom and I bought her a large pack of CDs to burn pictures she takes in class. She had said she was at a loss of a way to share the photos with the students that she takes. I also offered to burn them if she wanted. I want to be involved in the kids' classes and I hope offering to do things like this will make the teachers want me there more. ;)

After our visit with her, we bought groceries at Wal-mart. I planned on buying the kids' school supplies next week but I let them get a few things. Here I've been so excited about Andrew starting kindergarten but when I saw how excited he was to be buying supplies, I felt sad. My boy is ready! That's great though.

My monthly crop at Cropper's Corral was last night. I did get one layout done but the most excitement was talking over our plans to go next month for a scrapbook retreat. Our group does this at least once a year. We had planned to go to Knoxville as in the past but changed those plans last night and are going to Pigeon Forge. We found a cabin with three bedrooms, a large living room and dining room combo (to fit all our tables) and a hot tub! :) Lorrie, Cindy and I went to Starbucks afterwards to continue talking and just hang out. We wondered why we were the oldest group of people in there and realized most people were where we should have been - at home tucking the kids in bed, being with our husbands and getting ready to go to bed for the next day. LOL

This morning I've been cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floors and washing clothes. We are going to meet some friends this evening in Pigeon Forge that are up from Florida vacationing with their family. We plan to eat out with them and then find a place to ride go-carts. I hope the weather holds out. It's very dreary out today!

Here's two photos of my robot boy from Saturday. He had planned on this box being a boat but it was converted into a robot on Saturday. We had to throw it away because all that paint was flaking off in the house. Washable paint doesn't do well on shiny surfaces!

Dick and Jane. New Kicks. Paper Pulp.

Andrew has wanted to read for a long time now. The interesting thing is he was the one that would not sit on my lap and let me read until he was, oh, around maybe 15 months old. Finally, I gave him a firm pat on the bottom to get his attention and made him sit to hear a book. After that, he enjoyed them all the time. No joke. That is what it took. Elizabeth, on the other hand, would look at books all the time by herself when she was 8 months old. I thought of them as her favorite toys because that is what she would always go to first. So back to him reading. He doesn't know all his letters yet but he still wants to read. Finally, the other night, he brought me the Dick and Jane book and said he wanted to learn. Fine. I will try. The next day (which was last night), he's reading through three stories by himself. How? Word recognition. He has an extremely amazing memory. We've wondered if he has photographic memory before. Maybe not like some who are gifted with it but he can recall things from three years ago to the detail sometimes. Did I mention he's only five and a half?

Elizabeth's fun thing for last night was when I found an art kit in my closet while cleaning things out to donate. I had bought it before Christmas but hadn't given it to her to keep things fair. It was a decoupage kit. She loved it! She worked on a small heart box last night. I tried to explain the possibilities of the scrapbook store's arsenal of patterned paper, Modge Podge and how anything is coverable! LOL ;)

Isn't she pretty? :)

Andrew didn't want to go to summer camp yesterday. He had fun the day before but when we pulled up to the gym, he started saying his stomach was hurting. Classic. I think I even remember using that one. I told him it was too bad and he had to get out because another car may pull up behind me and be waiting soon. I know it was mean but I felt it was time for me to give him that push. I believe I know him more than anyone and what he can take. He was ready to be pushed. So he slowly crawled out and meandered toward the gym and walked in. A teacher had propped the door open. I wondered if I should have waited to make sure he didn't run out. And I did feel bad later about doing it to him. BUT when I picked him up, he was happy as could be and there were no complaints. This morning he promptly jumped out of the van and hardly told me "bye" he was so excited to be there.

Tuesday night I took the kids to Abbie's house after dinner, and they went swimming. I was proud of Andrew for eventually getting off the ladder and then walking around the pool. Elizabeth was practicing going under without holding her nose. It began to rain while they were in it and that was a big thrill. Finally, we had to get them out because the thunder wouldn't stop (and Mom was ready to go home). They rode back home in the back of the truck. Oh how small things like that can excite a child. (I wish we could get one of those small 3 foot pools like that to help the kids learn to swim.)

We didn't go to church last night because I was sick. I think it was from no breakfast, a small lunch and going hard all day which included working out at the fitness center (and oil change, tire rotation, running back and forth to get kids, etc). Ugh. I felt awful. I tried eating a bit but then didn't really feel hungry either. After eating some dinner I still felt bad later that night when going to bed. My tummy kept turning and just feeling sour. I went to bed early.

Today has been busy too. I took the kids to school, dropped off about five bags of stuff at Goodwill and ran a few other errands before going to get my hair cut and highlighted. Afterward, I picked up Elizabeth and Andrew and we got lunch then went shoe shopping. We bought their new tennis shoes for school. Andrew said his "can breathe." Not sure why he thinks that - must be on a commercial. ?? Rack Room has their shoes buy one pair get another half off.

We ran by the library to fill out the rest of their commitment for the summer reading program this afternoon. Yay! This was our first year participating. We started a week late and ended a week early. Elizabeth committed to reading 30 books herself and Andrew (and I) committed to reading 40 books. The library turns it in to the school. They had a lot of fun things planned every Thursday during the month of June and July. We were able to go to several of them but haven't been able to lately with so much going on.

In art lessons today we, I mean, the kids got to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. (I meant they wanted to do for a long time.) MAKE PAPER!! Lots of tearing, blending, paper pulp, scooping and pressing. Mrs. Becky will be out of town next week but when we get to pick up our dried papers the following week then I'll have to take a photo of our creations.


We went out to Firehouse tonight for dinner. Daddy called me and told me that Granddaddy probably wouldn't be around much longer. We just lost Pop in March. So we went out to eat there because it was close by and went by to see him after we ate. I've never been to the Veterans Hospital, but we quickly figured it out and went in to see him. It's sad to see him like that. There's nothing I can do to help him. I don't know what to say. We stopped by PetSmart to look at animals and fish before we went home. I wonder how many times Elizabeth tried to talk us into buying her a gecko while there and on the way home. I don't think so, sweetie.

Here are the kids' new kicks.

Andrew's.

They make him run faster! LOL

Elizabeth's. (She didn't want her photo taken so no full body or running for her.)

No shoes but there's my sweet hubby. :)

Some photos from last week. Elizabeth and Andrew got out the Lite Brite cube from their playroom. They played quite a while with it. I told them we'll have to look at buying new patterns to go on it. These were just some neat photos I wanted to share.