Adoption day

Adoption day

Monday, June 30, 2008

Another shout out....

Actually this is another thank you, but not a sarcastic one this time and it goes to Jon and Kate Plus 8. The kids and I like to watch this show and it has inspired not only conversations, but cleaning tips. Since we're almost constantly cleaning around here (yes, the house is still on the market), we saw some little brooms and dust pans that each Gosselin kid had
to use to clean up their own crumbs and messes. We bought something similar at Wal-mart. It was well worth the $2 each. The kids love their "sweepers" as Bounce says and they have a contest to see who can sweep up the most dirt. Competition is productive!!
Just an update, that we have returned to our normal sleeping in schedule - hallelujah!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Thank You VBS (sense my sarcasm?)

Last week was VBS at our church. The kids had a blast with all the crafts and stories and friends. I was working and had to be there at 7:30 each morning, so I would wake the kids up about 6:50 each morning to give me just enough time to get them dressed and in the van. After only 4 days of this schedule (Ketchup was sick on Friday so we stayed home), they have been waking up at 6:50 each morning since (even on our sick day). I'm hoping they revert back to our nice schedule of waking up around 8:00 am. Here's for hoping I guess.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Bounce's new outfit

I finally found the perfect outfit for our little Bounce....


Instead of the riddler, Bounce's name will be The Questioner!
I need to attempt to count how many questions this little boy asks me in one day. Even as I type this he is asking me, "what is a blog?" Last week the question of the week was "How do you make a car?" I know he asked me this at least once a day. And you know how it goes, one answer just leads to another question.
His brain must be on hyper-speed when we get into the van because as soon as we get buckled the question start flying out of his mouth. And in between questions, he asks me to turn up the music just to have me turn it down again 3 seconds later so I can hear his next question.
When I met a friend for coffee the other day, she vented about something and apologized. I told her no apology needed because there was not one question I had to answer - I just had to listen. So if you see me and I don't answer your question, it's because I'm all answered out.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Our Latest Headlines

** Pull-ups Free! **
Bounce has graduated from wearing pull-ups at night. We have been all undies all the time for about a week and no wet beds in the morning. Can you hear me singing "Hallelujah, Hallelujah"?


** Mystery Solved **

Ketchup had lost her little blankie a few months ago. It just disappeared. Even after packing and cleaning to put the house on the market, I still couldn't find it. She hadn't really missed it, but I wanted to keep it for memories. About the last week, she had been asking for it and we made another fruitless search. She was in her room whining (not a big surprise there) one afternoon and pulled her jewelry box down from a small decorative shelf on the wall. Surprise - blankie was tucked inside! It was right above our noses the whole time.

** Little Fish **

After finally feeling better (what wonders antibiotics and rest can do!), I was able to join my family at the pool. In just the week and a half I was sick, my kids turned into fish. The last time I had taken them to the pool they wouldn't even put their face in the water to blow bubbles. Sunday afternoon they were both jumping into the water by themselves and would go under and come right back up. Bounce has a floatie suit that lets him swim around all by himself. Ketchup is the hit of the pool with her little barbell float. It was neat to see so much progress in such little time.

** Little Hips **

Ketchup is a hula-hoop master at age 5. This little girl has got talented hips. She can keep it spinning for a good minute. I just sit back and laugh in amazement. She reminds us that she is the only one in the whole family that can hula hoop. She can even spin it around her neck. And then she gracefully brings it off her leg. She stopped traffic the other day when she was doing it in the front yard.

Maybe Letterman is in her future - maybe not since we would never let her out of the house in that outfit.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Does Daddy Know He's in Charge?

I've been feeling sick for almost a week now and it's all thanks to allergies. I thought it might be strep throat, but who knew that allergies could be so yucky. It's raining today, so maybe that will clear some things up along with the new meds I'm on.
Needless to say, the kids have had a lot of Daddy time over the past several days. They learned the first night he came home to sick mommy that I was happily relinquishing my role of keeper of the house and kids.
Ketchup: "Mommy, can I have some juice."
Mommy: "Daddy is in charge now. Go ask him."
Ketchup: "Does Daddy know he's in charge?"
Mommy: "I don't know. Go ask him." (Anyone noticing a theme here?)
Ketchup: runs off to ask Daddy and all too quickly returns, "Daddy wants to know what he is in charge of?"
Mommy: "Daddy is in charge of you and your brother, so go ask him for juice."
Ketchup: "OK"
and she leaves finally getting the point and I guess Daddy got it too because I got to rest in peace and quiet.

Daddy did a great job keeping up with the kids and thanks to their daily trips to the community pool, I think they may be expert swimmers by now.
For the few times when I did have to entertain them by myself, I learned a few couch-friendly
tricks: blowing bubbles with my gum, hitting a balloon up in the air to them, asking them lots of questions and of course a lot of TV (thank you Jon & Kate Plus 8 for entertaining my kids).
And then last night I had moved to my bed and Ketchup and I repeated history. We watched my favorite movie from when I was a kid together - E.T. She held on to my E.T. lunchbox and asked about a million questions, but she really seemed to like it. She also liked that she was able to stay up late with me because Bounce was a little scared and tired and had already gone to bed.
Despite Mommy being sick, the kids had a great time with Daddy in charge. Thank you to the best Daddy in the whole world!!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Ketchup's new trick & AI Finale

Ketchup stopped me today and said "look, I can make the number one with a different finger." Well, you can probably guess which finger it was and no I didn't teach her this trick. Maybe she learned it from Daddy after his encounter with Misty.
I tried to keep a straight face and tell her "Yeah, I see, but the best finger to make a one is still your pointer finger." She seemed to go right along with it.
Speaking of right along with it....she was singing right along with all the songs on American Idol tonight. Although I think our (I brainwashed her) favorite David Cook will probably lose, it was a good show.
Ketchup was excited that the winner would make a CD. She also wanted to know why the stage looked smaller-that was a sign she's been paying too much attention! She also was concerned that once the show was over would it ever come on again and was relieved when I told her they would start all over next year. She'll probably be counting down the days.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Top 10 Highlights of our Vacation

Last week we were blessed to be on vacation in beautiful Arizona. Here are our top 10 highlights
10. It was a break from cleaning our house
9. Enjoying the yummy Tucson food (eegee's and Lucky Wishbone)
8. We all attempted to catch the 6 fish in the pond at my parent's house. Attempt is the key word.
7. Ketchup had her hair braided for the first time and has now discovered a new hair-do. In fact she has a hair full of braids tonight, so she can have that crimped look in the morning.
6. Bounce wrestled his little heart out.
5. Riding the quad and learning (or confirming as we already assumed) that Mommy is faster.

4. The kids learned to cross the pond all on their own despite the super cold water. They would tell you they swam across because they paddled their hands as they walked.

3. Bella, our dog, learned to swim and now hates our small fenced in yard compared to 40 acres.

2. Daddy survived a vicious dog attack - we will never name our dog Misty. (Misty might have been small but those super sharp teeth packed a mean bite).

1. Spending a wonderful, relaxing time with family.


Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Sing it like a singer

When I get tired of the kid songs, I like to play upbeat Christian music in the van. The kids have a new favorite CD, Addison Road, and they request their favorite songs and are quickly learning the words to sing a long. Bounce asks what every word means. I don't know how he understands each word, but he repeats the word he hears and wants to know what it means. Good thing it's Christian music!
Ketchup is the singer. She sings her little heart out. Then Bounce asked her to sing it like a real singer and that brought out all the serious facial expressions. I think I have American Idol to thank for her serious singer faces. Too bad I don't have a video camera hooked up to the rearview mirror to share these songs.
Here is the band's website if you want to sing along, just remember to sing it like a singer!
http://www.addisonroad.com/home.htm

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Jacket

It was a little cool this weekend, so being the good mom that I am (or so I thought) I took jackets for the kids to church. Well, by the time we hiked all the way to the van after church, I realized I had forgotten both jackets. My wonderful husband and the kids march all the way back to retrieve them. What seemed like 15 minutes later they return empty-handed. Both jackets were gone. Here's the funny part. Bounce's jacket was new or new to us as is practically everything else we have. I had bought it last Saturday at a children's consignment sale. It was a nice tan Ralph Lauren jacket but I only paid $2 for it. However, I did not write his name in it (note to self - do that next time).
When Bounce's teacher saw the jacket on the counter and saw that it was a Ralph Lauren jacket, she did not assume it was Bounce's because why would a nursery worker's son have such an expensive jacket she thought. So both she and another teacher thought it was Pastor Graham's grandson's jacket because it was Ralph Lauren it had to be his, and since his Grandma picked him up, she didn't know if it was his or not. She probably thought well it's Ralph Lauren it has to be his, too.
So about every hour Bounce wants to know when he'll get his jacket back since he never even wore it. His teacher and I had a good laugh about the "expensive" jacket. We'll have to see if we get it back.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

"I Love It!"

Those were Ketchup's exact words as she went across the monkey bars for the first time today all by herself. Once she had it down, she did it several more times. Who wants to bet she won't be able to lift her arms tomorrow?
So if the showing today doesn't amount to much, at least it gave her time to learn a fantastic new life skill!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Finally - Spiderman!

We've been renting the Best of the Electric Company on DVD with the hopes that on each disk we would see Spiderman. The kids have been disappointed up until now. Today they finally saw him on disc three - third time is the charm I guess.
Despite not being able to see the superhero, they have enjoyed the shows and have been learning too, so I guess the wait has been well worth it. Despite being an "old" show, it can really hold their attention and I tell myself that it's good for them too.
It's funny to go back and look at shows I watched as a kid. I don't remember the skits, but I remember some of the songs. Bounce asks me after each skit, "did you watch that when you were little?" He is amazed at what we used to do and watch when we were kids. He loves the song "Stop in the name of Love" because that is what his Nana and Tata used to listen to.
The good old days - how f------ un f---- un f--- un f-un fun!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Lesson learned (I hope)

(this may be a long read, sorry)
So I've kept the house pretty spotless for the few weeks it has been on the market. Everything ahs been pretty much under control. But we have had only one showing so far. Our open house was today, so yesterday I was cleaning even more so things would look extra perfect. I had just started cleaning the ceiling around the airvents. This made a mess as the little white specks of popcorn ceiling fell to the floor below. I knew this would happen so I had even moved the furniture out of the way so it wouldn't get messy. I thought I had it all planned out - under control.
Then the phone rang. I listened to the message stating that we had a showing scheduled from 1:30 - 2:00 pm. I looked at my watch and it was 1:45 pm. Panic mode set in. I was not in control. I started to run out the front door to tell Daddy, who was mowing, that we had people coming over. As I stepped out I saw the realtor's car out in front of the house. I'm sure they could see the look of disgust and panic on my face. Oh well. They came in and saw our house far from the "near perfect" condition that it is described as being in.
After they left I thought about how God knew they were coming. Why didn't He just give me a feeling to wait just 20 minutes before I started? Why didn't He distract me with something else so I wouldn't have had the house looking so out of sorts.
Well, I resorted to press on. I took control again and poured all my energy into cleaning. I was up until midnight and then up at 6am this morning to make things just right.
Then as I drove out of the neighborhood, I noticed a police car parked next to a fence off the main road through our neighborhood. In the biggest yellow letters possible there was a profane word spraypainted on the fence. Our neighborhood has never had graffiti until today. I wanted to cry. I had tried to make everything perfect, but I could not control everything.
Again I began to question God as to why today, why that. I continued driving and the CD in the car continued to play. Then I heard the following words in the song...

Even before there was a drop in the ocean even before there was a star in the sky even before
the world was put in motion You were on Your throne You were on Your throne.

[chorus]
You reign glory in the highest You reign let creation testify by Your name every knee will bow
and every tongue proclaim that Jesus reigns.

And you know that even before I had made such a mess of the house and another "bad guy" made such a mess of that fence - Jesus was seated on His throne. He reigns. He is in control.
I hope I get it now that I'm not in control and can't expect to control everything. In fact in spite of everything, not one single person came to the open house today. But you know what only one single person matters in this whole thing - that is Jesus Christ. He is in control and it is His power that holds everything together (Col. 1:17). That was the subject of our sermon at church last night. So do you think that God is shouting to me or what?
And since He is holding it (everything, the sale of our house, our car, our trip to Guatemala) together, I can stand steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, not shifting from the HOPE in the Gospel (Col 1:23) (not in the hope of the sale of our house or the hope of a bigger, better house).
I hope that you have hope in the right thing too!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The winner (by a mile) is.... & the return of normalcy

Good ol' buzz has gone on to greener pastures. Last week Daddy called our insurance agent to add our new car and adjust the insurance since we wouldn't really be keeping Buzz much longer. Well, the receptionist asked a lot of questions about Buzz. To make a long story short, her nephew who has just returned from the war in Iraq needed a car for college. The great news is that he is now driving the car and we were able to help out a young man who fought for our country.

So now we just need to sell the house although it's starting to feel like that will be much more of a marathon. Our open house is this Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. We watched a show last night where no one came to their open house, so we wonder if that was a warning. We'll keep you posted!

Life is getting back to normal. Who knew that a normal routine would be so welcome. We resumed school this week and I've had time to exercise rather than just clean and complete a house project.

I've gotta run now because there is a meltdown occurring in Ketchup's room because Spiderman won't marry Barbie - see we're back to normal!

Friday, April 04, 2008

Bye-bye buzz - hello whitey!

Well, it was totally a God thing and Daddy now has a nice "new" car to drive. It's a white Camry, super clean and super quiet! I can actually hear Daddy now on his cell when he's driving.
So that means that our little "buzz" has to go; we are not only selling our house but our car as well. We'll have to see which sells first. Maybe they can race each other to the selling line.

Ketchup also had a fantastic soccer game last night. It was her team's most competitive game and it was fun to watch. Ketchup sported a serious game face a couple times when she was determined not to let her opponent beat her to the ball. She scored one of their three goals in a tight 3-2 win. She had fun and we have fun watching her.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Likely story (bad guys part 2)

Since we've been busy getting the house ready to list, Daddy hasn't had a chance to repair our stylin' car w/ keyless entry and keyless startup. That means I had my first "thief" tutorial this weekend so that I could start the car w/ our handy screwdriver and drive to work Sunday.
I was assured since I was a quick learner (maybe I'm not as innocent as I seem :-)) that I would be fine and have no problems.
Well, I was off and running early Sunday morning. I had even remembered my IPOD since our radio is now a big black hole in the dash. I was jammin to "You are God Alone" singing along that God is on His throne through the good times and bad (good thing because I was just about to get to the bad part) and I stopped at a red light at a major intersection. I was the first car in the center lane and then the engine died. I'm thinking "don't panic," so I pulled out the screwdriver to turn the car off and try to start it up again. That didn't work. I am in the worst place possible so I turn on the hazards and call 911. What seemed like half an hour later (more like a super long 10 min.), I see the wonderful flashing lights behind me. This is maybe the only time I've been glad to see those bright lights in my rearview mirror.
My next dilemma is about to begin as the cop walks up and I have to try to explain why I'm driving a car w/ no ignition and using a screwdriver for a key.
Despite my worry, he was very kind and I must have either looked innocent or too scared to have actually been the "bad guy" and he laughed about my having to drive that way.
Long story short, our little "buzz" is in the shop again and we went to look at a "new to us" car yesterday.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bad Guys

Today I answered the phone to hear the words ...."This is 'so and so' with the Dallas Police Department...." Those are never good words to hear. Well, the bad guys struck and broke into Daddy's car at work. They broke the ignition and stole the radio. They drove the car from the first floor of the garage to the sixth floor.
We are ready to get rid of the car anyways, so I wonder why they just didn't take it. Come to think of it the car is so LOUD (Ketchup and I unaffectionately call it Buzz because it sounds like a giant bee), they couldn't have snuck away with it so they gave up.

Daddy just told me that another good thing is that the cd I had just given him for Easter was not in the car because I took it out to put it on Itunes. The other cd's in the car were sermons on the holiness of God. Too bad they didn't take those; they could have used them.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The dreaded words....

We went at lunch today at McDonalds (our normal Wed. routine), and I asked Ketchup if she played on the playground outside or inside at church. I was not prepared for the words I heard next.
"Me and a boy played boyfriend and girlfriend on the outside playground."
Oh, I can feel the knife in my heart as I type this. Boyfriend & Girlfriend- eeck!
I tried to calmly find out more about this "game" as my mind started racing to her wedding day (ok, I'm exaggerating a little:-)) She said she doesn't remember his name (oh, no!), but can remember what he looks like. He has blond hair and the last time he was there, he wanted to play this game with her. I asked if there were other "girlfriends" and she said she was the only one. She said today she planted flowers for his birthday. I guess that can't be all bad.

If I'm not posting as often (like I did anyway), it's because we're putting our house on the market. We would love to be closer to daddy's work and our church. Less time in the car equals less money on gas and tolls. God willing, we can sell quickly and get back to a normal life. Until then, we have to have a clean and clutterfree house. Needless to say, I'll be busy around the house for a while.

This is a picture of what the kids were doing as I blogged. They're going to hate it when I have to pack up some of their toys. Now they have proof of which ones they might be missing.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Meet our new family members!


SnowKetchup and SnowBounce. They joined our family yesterday, but have just about melted completely now. We had lots of fun in the snow. We got about 4 inches of really nice thick snow. Winter isn't bad when you just have it for about a day and a half. I can't imagine having to bundle kids up like that every day for a few months.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Snow!

We were supposed to be studying plants this week in school and take a field trip to the arboretum, but this is Texas. That means that it did not snow one flake all winter long and this week it has snowed twice (each time on soccer practice night - thank you God!). There are big, fluffy flakes falling as I type. So we will be studying the fine art of snowman making tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have some good pics to share.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

A Tale of Two Teams

Since we have 2 soccer players, the past two Saturdays have been soccer filled. The difference between Ketchup's team and Bounce's team is striking. Ketchup's team is the one scoring all the goals and every player is interested in playing and does a great job. Bounce's team is much younger and is the team being scored on most of the game. The coach is often just looking for a player who isn't crying and who wants to play. Bounce was a "cryer" the first game, but since has improved so much. He is excited to go in and play and actually played a large portion of the game today. We are proud that he didn't quit. He is so much smaller than most of the boys (who are older) that he does well to keep up.
Ketchup had a great game and scored 2 goals. She is very fast (her long legs help a lot) and often breaks away from the rest of the players to score. Today we were proud that she was a great teammate and didn't take the ball away from her teammate as they both ran down the field to score.
It is interesting to experience both sides of the game: the dominating team and the team just trying to play and learn the game. Regardless of the score, they both had smiles at the end of their games and were happy to devour their snacks!