Fun stuff

This soccer picture was something I was trying for a Christmas picture. Soccer is such a big part of our lives so I thought I would give it a try. While I like it it made the cutting room floor this year.


While getting down the Christmas decorations, the boys noticed two huge tubs of beanie babies that I used to collect. They begged to bring them down and have not quit playing with them or sleeping with them as you see here. Cameron is not only sleeping with the beanies but he decided last night, after I tucked him in, to get his soccer trophy and picture. I went to check on him and this is what I found. :) So sweet he is so proud of it. Of course I moved them so he did not bonk his head in the middle of the night.

These last two picture are Cameron and his Pepere enjoying a little unscheduled nap. They sat down to watch a cartoon and both were asleep within minutes.

Chandler asked his sweet girlfriend, Cathleen to the Winter formal last week. I did not know that when the boys ask the girls it is supposed to be in some creative fashioin. So her mother got her out of the house and we put streamers all over her room and balloons. ( I know you only see one in the picture but there were several) We also picked up some roses. I left so she wouldn't know he was there and when she came home her mother sent her to get something from her room and there was Chandler waiting to ask her. ( normally their bedrooms are OFF LIMITS but her mom was right there and I wasn't far behind. It was fun but what's up with this generation???? I thought you only were supposed to be creative with engagement. Oh well at least it is teaching these boys to think creatively and maybe it stick with them.
Sorry for the long post just had these pictures to share.
Have a great day in the Lord.
Blessings,

Fun with boys

A simple trip to Sports Authority to purchase two soccer balls turns into a one hour adventure for Carson and Cameron. Oh and dad will say he was just an innocent bystander but he was right in the middle and loving it! By the way, even thought there is not a picture we did actually purchase the soccer balls. :)

Fun times/Soccer

Carson's birthday is in May. This is an incredibly busy month for us so it seems if there is going to be anything then just a family get together it has to be later, in this case 2 months later. We had originally planned to have a pretty big back yard party when he decided he just wanted to have some friends spend the night. Now I know 6 year olds typically don't have sleep overs but I also have a 15 year old who always has friends over so my little ones are always begging to have friends spend the night. Well I told him two friends from soccer and two friends from school could come and so it was. Now we purposily had it last night knowing my oldest would be gone that way they wouldn't bug him and he wouldn't bug them. What I was not anticipating was that hubby would be gone as well. (I'll explain further into the post).

The kids ate pizza, then Carson opened presents, then of course they played with them. I gave the kids some little toys to thank them for coming one of which was the glow necklace's which they quickly cracked open and went outside in the dark to jump on the trampoline which was a really neat sight. We all watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and ate popcorn after the sleeping bags were layed out on the living room floor. I think the last kiddo went to sleep at 12:00am. Of course all were up by 6:45am and I being on WW and being the health conscience person I am offered them cake for breakfast. :) Now I also made waffles for them but some did eat cake as well. The kids were all gone by 9:30am and I am exhausted. It really was a really fun, easy, little get together. I really enjoyed hearing the conversations 6 year olds have with one another. Bodily functions seem to be the universal topic that cracks them up. So Silly :) Which reminds me that Carson went to a Soccer camp a month ago and he loved it but when you asked him what he favorite party of the whole week was he told us that it was when his friend taught him how to make "special noises" using him arm pit and hand. Yes bodily functions are a topic of comedy for sure for 6 year olds, boys in particular.

My oldest is at Regional Olympic Development Camp for Soccer. He is having a really great time. The state teams play games in the morning against each other and from those games the regional coaches select a few players from each state to play in pool games(combination games of players from each of the different states) He was selected to play in last night's pool game and we just found out tonight's as well. My husband took him to this camp which is at The University of Alabama and said he would stay to watch if he were selected to play. Of course since he was selected last night hubby stayed.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him playing soccer. Even thought those two other players are on his back he still has his eye on the ball.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Blessings,

Hello again,,Hello

I am back. Yeah for my family as I know they have been tired of not hearing from me through my posts. The computer did crash thanks to several virus' then it did not help that I purchased an anti-virus program that was a virus itself and gave freely my credit card information. I have been a little anxious about that because I have seen no evidence of purchase but probably need to cancel the card. As I write this I am thinking how dumb that I haven't already cancelled it!!!

We went to North Carolina for Soccer regionals with my son's team where they made it to the quarter finals which was exciting. Then we went to Hilton Head, South Carolina for some relaxation at the beach. Then home only to leave the next day for Nashville for 2 more days. I have never been gone that long from home. It was busy but a lot of fun.

I have enjoyed lurking around and getting caught up on so many blogs. So many wonderful things happening to so many wonderful people. Some sad things that are hard to hear but neat to see how people are choosing to lean on the Lord to get through their pain. Tears flowed from my eyes as I read that Kelly is finally pregnant and doing well, and as I read Angie's blog about several mothers that have lost little ones met up at the deeper still conference this past weekend. And Lisa's post on selfishness wow!!! I can so relate!!! And Nester's computer down... oh the horror ( I have enjoyed her sister's guest posts though) and Kat's great news.. No Cancer! Isn't crazy how we can feel like we know someone so well and we haven't even met them in person? My husband laughs at me when I begin to tell him stories about some of you. He asks, "and who is this person?" Oh well the connections can run deep even if through a computer. :)
Happy fourth of July to all of you. We are heading to the drive in with the little ones.
Happy Anniversary to Helene and Bruce we love you guys!
Blessings,

A birthday and an Anniversary

Yesterday was my sister, Debbie and her husband Matt's Anniversary. They got married in Hawaii and it was beautiful right at sunset. Hope it was a great day!

Today is my sweet mother's birthday. She and my dad live in Germany so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. They will get to visit this September though so we are looking forward to a visit from Nana and Pop Pop. Please go check out the pictures that my sister posted from when my mom was a little girl. Somehow she has all the photos from our childhood and I guess my mom's as well.
Mom Hope it was a great day sorry we missed you on the phone.
I love you,

Just playing around

Well now that school is out I am finding that there are a million things I want to accomplish but so many of them will take so much time that I say to myself, "I can do that later." I have bought several plants and two really cute pots. I have been planting most of the time that David and Chandler have been gone. These are the pots that I found at Lowe's.

My sister, Sandy, sent me this really cute towel. I told her I thought I might add some ribbon to it with my handy dandy glue gun. So I will take you through the before and after with these photos. I don't know why I asked the opinion of my 6 year old, Carson, but I did and he does not like the "furry stuff". So of course now being the insecure person that I am I will fret over the "furry stuff's existance and whether or not it is really needed.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. I did not get a "mud cake" but a very real one with lots of calories. YUM! My father in law and mother in law got one and we ate it and went swimming at Helene's (my sister in law) house. My children did get up and put several of their own things into gift bags, tissue paper included( I was very impressed). Then they waited anxiously as I opened them. They were so excited that I oooed and awed over the presents they chose to sacrifice from their own collection of things. How sweet are they?? That is until they told me that since they gave me some of their toys maybe I should take them to buy them a few new toys. I mean after all that's only fair, isn't it?
Have a great day!
Blessings,
Linda

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my sweet Mom and Mother in law. We appreciate both of you and the sacrifices you made to parent us. We hope you both have a wonderful day! We love you!
Happy Mother's Day as well to all of you out there that are a mom, about to be a mom and are waiting to be a mom.
Blessings,

Lots of trivial stuff

I have a lot to post so you might need a cup of tea or coke or something. Sit down and stay a while......and try to focus or I will lose you. This post will be a real writer's worst nightmare.(hehe)

First- On Friday April 11th I had Carson's haircut. It needed it but it was exactly one week before his Kindergarten graduation pictures and I did not want that brand new haircut look for his pictures so thinking ahead I scheduled the appointment and his hair looked adorable. Fast forward to Thursday April 17th. The day before his pictures. On the way to school he begins to cry with a tooth-ache. I knew we had been recently so the tooth could not be too bad but I assured him I would take him to the dentist after school.(He only goes 1/2 day so I new he would be okay) We go to the dentist and the tooth turned out to be abscessed! He had to have it pulled and had to have an impression for a space maintainer. We left the appointment and hurried to big brother, Chandler's soccer game where Carson began to play with other children and I did not give him a second thought until it was time to leave and he comes around the corner with a big fat lip. Now I worked as a dental assistant in a children's dentist office for 10 years and I always reminded children not to bite their lips or cheeks after dental work because they were numb and could do a lot of damage since they couldn't feel it. What a bad mom I am, not only did I not mention it.. It didn't even occur to me. Oh well needless to say, his hair looked great for his pictures but his lip.... not so much. I must say though that I have matured because had it been my first child I would have been calling the school trying to reschedule the pictures and I would have been all upset. This time I thought oh well we will look back at these pictures and remember a crazy day. All Carson cared about was that he made the 2008 lost tooth poster in his class! I have to add that I walked into the bathroom the morning of his pictures and he was laying his lip on the bathroom scale... I inquired what's up and he let me know that he was trying to lose lip weight.. (I am quite sure he was confused about how the scale works) MMMM don't people pay alot of money to have lip weight added???????


Second- My in-laws recently came back from a two week trip to Hawaii. I had only one request and that was to please bring me a pineapple. My parents lived there for 10 years and I had eaten plenty pineapple thanks to our 3 visits and my parents bringing some to us when they visited. Making a short story much longer here... the bottom line is the pineapple was carried into our home, cut with our special pineapple cutter, and devoured. All this took place in about 10 minutes. Yippee!!! I just love fresh pineapple it was so good! Thanks Mom and Dad!!



And Yes we always cut things without a cutting board and with our children on the counter don't you?(hehe)


Third- Sunday my oldest was upstairs doing his homework and he heard a some what familiar sound from his past, one that he has not heard in at least 5 years. He came barreling down the stairs and said "give me some money, hurry, quick!" turns out the Ice-cream man had just passed and that 15yr old teen quickly became 8 again. He ran out the door with the other two following him. They had to run down the street a little but came back quickly with 3 very novel, quite expensive, probably been in the truck a while, ice-creams. The smiles that come after visiting that annoying musical truck are priceless. I am sure the ice-cream man thought it parculir that my oldest only had on shorts and my youngest had on shorts, a short sleeve shirt with a long sleeve shirt on top of it and of course one camoflauge glove. I do believe my middle one was dressed fairly normally. Needless to say I am glad they had to run a little down the street to catch the truck. Maybe just maybe no body saw them come from my house.(hehe)


Lastly, I am an avid reader of this blog. She has great decorative style and is very funny. I tried some, what she calls, window mistreatments in my bathroom. Very easy just material, glue gun, trim, and upholstery tacks. Just thought I'd share. I kind of like them. I might try to glue a liner on the back. Not sure yet.


Well, I do think I have posted plenty so to my faithful few that visit often sorry and to any new lurkers I hope I did not scare you off I usually don't post so much at one time.
Blessings,

Pondering

As my son, Chandler, tried to get in the car I locked the door, then unlocked it, thenlocked it again. This went on about 5 times before his teen-age self scrunched up his face and rather loudly demanded that I unlock the door and let him in. I was in a playful mood so as I let him in I just smiled which melted something in him and we both began to laugh out loud. What fun for me as those times of connection are few and far between right now during these teen years. As I backed out of the drive way I looked at him and was amazed at how big he is. I asked him when he had gotten so big to which he replied with an unamused "I dunno." I asked him if he remembered when he was little I would ask him "How big is Channie and then we'd both reply as I raised his hands in the air..."So Big" he did not have the foggiest idea what I was talking about and asked if he could please quit talking and listen to his i-pod. This little chat made me think of Mary and how the bible says she treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart right after the birth of Jesus. I began to tear up as I wondered if I have truly treasured the time I have had with my children or if I have been so caught up in the business of life I will have nothing to ponder in my heart in later years. As I looked at my teen-age son I soon realized that I do have a lot to ponder in my heart. God has been good enough to allow me to remember little moments that he and I shared together and still do even if it is only in a brief moment of silliness and a car door lock.

Blessings,

Fun, Fun, and more Fun!!/And a suprise award!

We have had another busy week around here. My sister, Debbie and my niece, Hannah along with my nephew, Andrew came to visit for the week. It was so fun having them here. It is really nice to see the kids playing and forming bonds with their cousins. They don't live too close so anytime we can see them it is exciting. We went to build a bear and of course when we saw the cute University of Memphis t-shirts for the bears we had to get them. That was a special treat from Aunt Debbie. We went to Chuckie Cheese then to the Merry-go-round at the Galleria which is always a fun fiasco because everyone wants to ride the dragon.:)






Saturday we watched with great anticipation as the Memphis Tigers played UCLA, what a game! There was a lot of cheering, loud cheering going on around here. My husband is very funny about watching the Tigers. He never wants people to be over while he watches because if they lose he will have to be a "fake entertainer" :) He likes it to just be our little family and we do have fun. My sister took this picture right before the game started. Dallas our Lab just had to be in the middle, she is so sweet. Our Jack Russell just barked the whole time in the back ground.

We went to the Memphis campus today and wow what a busy place. People searching for shirts and anything blue to support the Tigers in tomorrow nights championship game against Kansas.


My other sister, Sandy, is the crafty one in the family but Debbie and I saw this on another blog and gave it a try. It was so simple. These were for teacher appreciation day at our church today I actually had a great time making them.


We joined WW again for the umpteenth time and had a pretty good first week. David lost 7lbs and I lost 4.8 hopefully and prayfully we will maintain a losing pace and get this much unwanted weight off. We shall see!!

I have not been blog lurking or commenting for a little over a week now and I went to one of my favorites and saw she had passed an award to me. Thanks so much Paige I feel the same way. Now I would like to pass it on to Jessica and Kelly.


Hope you all have a fabulous Week!!
Blessings

Happy Easter.... Glad to be back

Wow!! I can hardly believe how long it has been since I last posted. Thank you to those who checked in just to see if I was okay, it really meant a lot to me. I guess I will get started with all that has taken place over the past couple of weeks.

First, we put the house on the market and wow what a job getting it ready. When our realtor came to take pictures I shoved everything in my already messy closet. I decided to let you take a peek at the before and after.



Carson and Cameron had their first official sleepover. Their good friends Caroline and Christian spent the night and part of the next day with us. They had a blast. This is them blowing bubbles with these huge bubble wands that I found at the dollar store. Their big brother Clayton, stayed the night as well. He and Chandler are great friends too but no pictures of the teens together.


Then we celebrated Chandler's 15th birthday! I honestly feel like I just brought him home from the hospital. It is time for the dreaded driver's permit. I keep telling him to study and reminding him that there are no cliff notes or spark notes for the test he really has to study. I am sure he will study and pass that test very soon. Here is blowing out the candles on his very basic, almost embarassing to post with all those creative people out there, cake that I made. He just recently made the Varsity soccer team at his school. He and 4 other freshman. We are excited about watching the upcoming season. On a side note my sweet niece Hannah also celebrated her 7th birthday in the beginning of March. She is my only niece on my side of the family. She is a brownie and sold her first Girl Scout cookies this year. If you go to my sister, Debbie's blog,you can see a picture of her and all of her curls. My Nephew, Austin, also celebrated his 14th birthday. He is such a neat kiddo. Very tall and extremely smart. He loves basketball and did really well this year on his school team. Austin is my sister, Sandy's oldest son. My children are all very blessed to have such great cousins!!

Yesterday we went to the annual Easter egg hunt that our Sunday School teachers have and the kids had a blast. Cameron seems to have already had a piece of chocolate or two. Here are a few pictures from that fun time.



This morning the kids woke up to their Easter baskets that had to be placed on the mantle due to a certain 2 dogs that live here. The kids were excited and so far the dogs have not gotten to the baskets yet.
After church we took a few pictures of the kids in the back yard and then in the front. Here is also a picture of a small flower bed in the front. David brought the tulips home from Holland this past winter and we planted them. I am so excited at how they look coming up in the middle of the pansies we planted last fall.




I pray that all of you and your families have a blessed Easter Sunday. What a wonderful day to celebrate the Risen Savior!!
(I accidentally posted the pictures on small size. If you want to see any of them better just click on the picture and it will enlarge)
Blessings,

A little bit of this and A little bit of that

Today was the Valentine partys at the preschool and Kindergarten. I had them in my class yesterday and today. Carson just had his today and Cameron, because he goes to school everyday so that I can teach, he also had one yesterday and today. He thinks that is great. The K-5 class goes everyday. The 3 and 4K classes meet on MWF for 18 kids and then another set of 18 on T/Th. So he gets to do two of everything during the week which hasn't bothered him a bit. Needless to say with all the candy around here we are on a mucho sugar high!












Sunday after church we went to Pepere and Memere's(French for Grandmother and
Grandfather)The boys always have a great time. They put on buckets for hats and get sticks and walk around like they are going on an adventure. From the picture you can tell that Chandler opts to stay indoors and usually falls asleep on the couch. I made him let me take this picture. Cameron also has on his Pepere's hat that he wanted to borrow but Pepere wears it too often to let loose of it.














I was so excited to open my mail today and find these two picture frames that Christy sent me, for no reason at all. What a suprise and a sweet blessing. With three boys I know I will put them to good use right away. I won a give away she had a while back and I was having camera trouble so I did not post all that she sent but it was a bunch of really great things. I really loved these pot holders she sent I thought I would show them. Thanks Christy!!










Blessings,