Santa and I like cookies....as said by Luke at 4 yrs of age...

Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas! And imagine an excited 4 year old running around the house yelling this every few minutes. It was time to make Santa cookies to feed Santa on Christmas Eve night.

This is one of our favorite activities to do each Christmas. Luke is really now getting into the customs of our yearly rituals. He loved decorating Santa cookies this year. First he had to help roll out the dough with the girls. Then all of his cookies he cut out for Santa were "donut" cookies as he called them....he used a donut cutter instead of cookie cutters! The girls kept telling him to use the cookie cutters but that was the only one he wanted to use.


Once they were baked it was time to decorate! And decorate, and decorate! By the time we were done we had a huge mess at the table. Luke loved the green icing and sprinkles. I think all of his cookies were decorated with green icing.




Afterwards Luke kept running around the house yelling "SANTA AND "I" LIKE COOKIES" over and OVER again! He also said "I must eat cookies." It was fun.

This will be one Christmas we will NEVER forget....

An early graduation

I think I have blogged about my student that is ill already before. Her name is Shiann. She is dying of cancer of the spine. She entered my life this year after school started.

In the short time that I had her in class, she changed my life. She was only able to come to school for a couple of weeks. She has such a sweet spirit but is also very stubborn and hard headed at the same time! She was strongly independent as well. In the first week she was with me she lost full use of her left hand/arm. By the end of the second week she was loosing use of her right arm/hand. This broke my heart to watch. Her body weight as doubled as well, guess from the medicines they have her on.

Shiann's last wish was to come back to school. The school board honored her at their monthly board meeting. When the superintendent asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said she wanted a high school diploma.

The Saturday after we let out for break, the homebound teacher put together a surprise graduation party for her. She didn't know about it. She was so surprised! I'm not sure what they told her to get her there but she didn't know about it. Her face just lit up! One of the school board members told her what we were there for and the homebound teacher put a cap and gown on her...well around her wheel chair. She is completely paralyzed now. She can talk and eat but not much else.

I'm so honored to be a part of this. This student has touched my life in a way that I can't explain. I guess she has made me realize just how special life is and to cherish as much of it as I can. I came home and hugged my children and thanked God this special reminder.

Give the 4 year old the camera and this is what you get.....

We were leaving the Edward's house on Christmas day and Luke grabbed my camera for me. He said "I'll carry it for you mommy." Famous last words. I heard clicking in the backseat and told him to close up my camera. Mike said "all come on, he may be a famous photographer in the making." I will let you be the judge.










And there were many more!!! (these are in reverse order of how they were taken.

Awww Christmas break!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!

Woo-hoo!!! Christmas break!!! One of the perks of being in education is having 2 weeks off during the Christmas holidays. I read someones status update on facebook and she posted to all her teacher friends...not fair on how we get to have two weeks off. My answer to that is, I will trade places with you for a semester and then you tell me what is fair! I get two weeks to just love on my own children for a change, I get two weeks to just unwind (somewhat), I get two weeks to not have to stress over how a student is acting in my classroom, two weeks to not have to put up with smarta_ _ students, two weeks to not have to get up at the crack of dawn after staying up all night and trying to decide how I can make a difference in my classroom the next day....and on and on.

Awww, Christmas break! This years break started off with having an intense pain on my right kidney area. I thought maybe it was a kidney infection or maybe a stone. But after trying all the home remedies for kidney stuff I realized it was deeper than that. It was muscle or something else. This all started the Friday we were suppose to get out of school. I just woke up in great pain. I thought I was going to be sick from the pain. Constant, nonstop throbbing intense pain. I had to go to school, you can't call in sick on the last day of the semester no matter how much you want to!

By Monday morning I couldn't stand the pain any longer. Mike called and made me a Dr appt with the chiropractor. I haven't been to one since I was 18 years old! Fear set in, oh no this is really going to hurt. Turns out it was okay. He said my right hip is 1 1/2 inches lower than my left hip. Left hip was slightly rotated forward and my right leg was 2 inches shorter than my left leg. Turns out it has been this way for awhile. Falling from stairs 4 different times over the past year and half have taken its toll on my back. And apparently my sitting on a hard concrete surface the Thursday afternoon before all this started caused some type of muscle spasm that set this all off. So once I heard the verdict I thought for sure it was going to hurt to reset it.

I had to lay flat on the table and he started the process of resetting my hip. He said it will take 6 visits to get it all straightened out. Just had my 3rd visit this morning and I am starting to feel better. I hurt really bad the next day after the first visit and then less pain the next but still reminded me it was there.

Now 10 days later, I am feeling a whole lot better. The kids told me they are soooo ready for me to bend over again. It turns out they are tired of picking stuff up off the floor for their momma. Imagine that! I'm pretty tired of picking their stuff up off the floor myself. The Dr said he could give me a life long pass to never bend over to pick stuff up again! I really like that idea!

Busy as a bee!

Haven't been blogging in a while. Probably because I am working 3 jobs right now. Yes you read that right...3 jobs! 6 if you add in being a mom, wife and taking care of the house. Teaching all day, work at Stevie's on Friday nights and selling homemade gourmet on Saturdays at craft shows. And in between going to Leah's volleyball games, Luke's soccer practice and games, my life is a little on the hectic side to say the least. I forget how busy the fall is around this place! But I love it. It's my life. One day the kids will be grown and gone and I will miss all of this activity....but maybe I will be able to catch my breathe at the same time. Woo, I'm exhausted just typing all of the activities down.

Just to catch up, Leah was selected for the 7th grade science uil team yesterday! She had one of the highest scores for 7th grade!! I'm so proud of my baby girl!! And she is one of the star servers for the volleyball team. They pull her in when someone coming up can't serve. She will play a few rounds and they take her out to pull her in again when the next girl coming up can't serve. She scored 5 points last night to win the game! And her team won 3rd place in their tournament this past Saturday. I'm just sad I missed it. I'm soooo proud of who she is becoming! So smart and talented at the same time. I keep telling her if she is awesome in math and science she will win a scholarship to just about any college she wants to go to. I'm so excited for her future!

Life around the Lucas Household of late

It has rained here for the last two weeks straight in a row. I was really starting to feel like I was living in Seattle or something or worse yet in the town in the book and movie of Twilight where it rains all the time. TODAY was the first full day of sun in two weeks. Amazing how much you miss the sun when its not around.

Paige has new specs! She looks so adorable and loves them!!

I have lost 15 lbs!! Who knew not eating out, not stopping at fast food while driving to school and not sitting in class two nights a week could have such an effect on my body! But I'm excited about it either way. And my Leah has lost over 10 lbs since school has started!! She is busting her tail working out for volleyball.

Lucky was hurt last weekend on Sunday. Luke accidentally shut the back door on him and hurt his little eye. Trying to find the vet on a Sunday afternoon found to be challenging. He is all better now. Luke kept telling me he was soooo sorry he hurt Lucky and he didn't mean to hurt him. I felt really bad for him....and Lucky too. He is much better now.

Leah helped her team win one of their volleyball games Tuesday night!!! We have always told her she had a gun on her but now I think she believes us by how powerful her serves are! They were lagging behind in the first game and it was Leah's serve. She scored them 5 serves!!! Woo-hoo! They lost the first set, won the second and then lost in the third game. I was so proud and sitting on the edge of my seat watching!

I'm sure there was more but I can't remember right now. I'm too tired and worn out from it all :)

I love a rainy day.....when the rain hits my face

When it rains I can't help but sing Eddie Rabbit's I love a rainy night....I love a rainy night, when the rain hits my face. Can you hear the tune as I type the words? Takes me back to the skating rink in the 80's as I'm skating backwards and this song is playing in the background until I crash and oh wait.....I broke my right arm. My grandmother swore she would never take me skating again.

I'm loving this lazy rainy day. Days have been so hectic lately that I'm enjoying not having anywhere I have to be today. I got up this morning and saw Mike's mom and step dad off for their trip back home and then I went back to bed....slept until 1pm! Woo-hoo! Got some much needed rest! My brain has been so tired I couldn't even think anymore. In fact I had a melt down last night when it was quiet. Think the emotions of having a student on hospice are catching up with me. I have seen her body take a turn for the worse in just one short week. Why do I have to be so dog gone emotional? Such a sweet girl in a body that can't keep up with her anymore. And to see her mom and the agony that she is experiencing is breaking my heart. She stayed with me after the pep rally yesterday waiting on her mom to pick her up. Her mom came straight in and said "finally, I have my baby girl back." She she can't stand to be away from her all day. I can understand why. Last week she had use of her hands. This week she can't use her left hand at all. She is starting to become paralyzed. I know that school is keeping her going. Usually I don't pay a whole lot of attention to a student's hands but she is in my apparel class so I do pay attention. I wonder by the end of next week will she be able to have any strength at all to work on her project?

As a mom, this is breaking my heart. As a teacher I am encouraged by her will and spirit to come to school. If only the rest of my students were so dedicated to their education and not take it for granted. She told her mom she couldn't go to the football game last night because she had to much homework to do. I said girlfriend, that homework will be there all weekend, enjoy going and hanging out at the football game. Turns out she use to be in band and she misses it to much to watch it. She can't play anymore. I wanted to cry when I got home but we left as soon as I got home for dinner and shopping.

Weekly happenings in the Lucas household:

-Monday was Labor day. Great day off. Cleaned up house.

-Anne and Jim (Mike's mom and step-dad) came in for a visit on Tuesday.

-Luke had soccer practice Tuesday night.

-Wed church night

-Leah had her first volleyball game Thursday night

-Luke had another soccer practice Thursday night and flat Stanley went with us from cousin Mycah: -Went shopping and out to dinner with Mike's mom

-Dropped Leah off at a slumber party on way home

(Enjoying dinner at Joe's Crab Shack with Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw):

-Today = laziness :)

Luke being a cookie monster. Thats what we do on rainy days....cook cookies :)

Catching up....or laggin behind...whichever comes first

So my attempt to try to blog a couple times a week after school started hasn't been so successful. We are going into our third week of school and this is the first time I have blogged.

Everyone keeps asking me, "how's school going?" Well its going. For the most part I love my classes. I have one that is truly challenging my goat right now but hopefully I can get them figured out soon. I absolutely love my early childhood class this year. Have some wonderful students in there excited to learn to work with kids. I love this!! So much better than last years class where I dreaded spending two class periods a day with them and couldn't wait for them to leave my room. I love my apparel classes too. They are so excited and can't wait to get started on projects! I love it!

I was introduced to a new student on Friday. She is on hospice care. She has cancer of the spine and has stopped chemo. Talk about breaking your heart. Her last wish was to get to come back to school, imagine that all she wants is to come to school. I can't even imagine what her parents are going through right now. She has such a sweet, sweet spirit. I will cry if I type anymore. All I can say is that I am truly blessed to have her in my classroom for whatever amount of time I get to spend with her. Make a wish gave her some really cool techno stuff the other day and she was teaching me how to use her Iphone on Friday. I'm in love with her already. I can't wait to see her come into my room.

My kids are adjusting well to school, two out of three are at least. Luke lovesssssss his class at the daycare and his teacher. He calls it his school and gets so excited in the mornings to go. I love it! Leah is liking 7th grade so far. She has one teacher and class that is kicking her tail end right now but she will get it down soon. She made the volleyball team for this year! We were ecstatic for her! She was disappointed on Thursday when she made the b team but out of 48 girls that tried out, only 24 made the two teams so I think that is pretty special. Paige is still trying to adjust to 3rd grade. She had to change schools this year and she doesn't adjust well to changes. She loves her teacher this year and has a really cool room!

Luke started soccer also. He lovessss that too! As long as he can run and kick the ball he is in hog heaven! Funny thing is his soccer coach was one of my old students and I kicked her out of my classroom twice. Its funny now. We had a good laugh about that after the second practice. She said well you get to know me now and see that I have grown up and I said well you get to know me too and not as a teacher. I think you will find I'm pretty cool :) (ha-ha)

So our schedule now is extremely full. Monday nights Leah will have volleyball games, Luke has soccer practice on Tues and Thurs and we have church on Wed nights. Luke will have soccer games on Saturday afternoons. Mike works Friday nights now also. And Sunday is church day. Our week is jam packed full. We have Saturday and Sunday nights at home. Crazy! But I know one day I will miss all of this action so I'm going to enjoy it fully right now while I can.....even if I'm exhausted!

Leah also moved into the youth group at church and she lovesssss it! They keep them pretty active with stuff all the while teaching them to follow their faith and love Jesus. Can't get much better than that!

Life is grand!

(Also the last two weekends I have seen two of my friends son's hurt. One was taken by careflight and the other one by ambulance to Dallas. I have had my lifetime fill of watching children have to be escorted off to a hospital!)

School starts in oh about 8 hrs...

That's right. School starts at 8 am sharp and I'm wide awake. Go figure. Guess its the anticipation, the excitement of a new year. What is in store for the new year? What kind of student's will I have? What changes can I make to make this year better?

After church this morning the girls and I went to purchase last minute school stuff. Did I mention shoe shopping? For my 8 year old this is a fun, exciting trip. For the 12 year it is a different story. Two melt downs later she finally found some tennis shoes that fit. I forgot to mention she is 12 and wears a size 11 shoe! You read that right, size 11. Afraid she is going to be really tall. The 8 year purchased 2 pairs of tennis shoes, heck it was a sale.

And did I mention belt shopping? Yes, belt shopping. Apparently jr high girls have to wear belts with their shirts tucked in. Here we go again, another melt down. Dang, why does she have to be so dog gone emotional? 5 stores later we finally found what we needed and they fit at Wal-Mart. Should have just gone there first. Do you know how difficult it is to find a solid color girl belt with no bling, bling or anything on it? VERY difficult!

So in the morning I will send a 3rd grader and a 7th grader out the door. Sure hope I wake up on time.

Lucky in love....

Meet Lucky.




We are in love.

He was one puppy out of over 540 that was seized from a puppy mill outside of town. They put out a call for volunteers and I told Mike he should go up there to help. Didn't realize we would get a puppy out of that though! That's why I didn't go!

Lucky was a very sick puppy when they brought him in at 5 weeks old. Mike helped to pump iv fluids into his little body. He was throwing up and running a fever. They told Mike they didn't think he would make it through the night.

When Mike went up there the next morning he just knew the puppy didn't make it. He walked up to his pin and the puppy jumped up and started barking at Mike. He named him Lucky, since he was lucky to be alive.

Everyday Mike went to volunteer he went to check on "his" puppy. It became well known that it was Mike's puppy. Other people fell in love with him to but they were told he was Mike's.

Once the humane society won the rights to the dogs, Mike brought Lucky home.

He is so cute and adorable! I haven't heard him bark yet. He is really quiet. He looks to be part pekinese and part pug. He walks like he owns the world, I think he should have been named Rocky Balboa because he has these little pug legs that just look so tough.

My first reaction to him was oh great another thing to take care of and feed. But I haven't had to do much for him except rub his little tummy until I'm content with puppy love....and he loves it!

So he is really "Lucky" to have made it and survived but I think we are the "Lucky" ones now. And I still want to name him Rocky Balboa, the underdog of champions, just like my puppy.

Farewell to Summer 2009

Tuesday is my last day of summer. Back to work officially on Wednesday. I am finding myself really sad today. Not really sure why. Mike says I do this at the end of every summer. I just want to cry. I am thinking it is from all of the life changes of here late, but maybe it is just because it is the end of summer. So to summer of 09:

Farewell sleeping late. Farewell swimming until way past dark. Farewell to staycation. Farewell to listening to my kids laugh and play all day (ok maybe that should be argue all day). Farewell to hanging out with friends on week nights that now will be school nights. Farewell to cooking out at moms with friends.

Hello to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. HELLO alarm clock that I haven't missed all summer. Hello school night bed time. Hello classroom. Hello teacher friends that I haven't talked to all summer. Hello high school students.

Hello to my own new 3rd and 7th grade children. Hello dress code that the girls dislike. Hello homework. Hello stress of not wanting to do homework. Hello projects. Hello school lunches. Hello lunch money. Hello trying to get out of the door by 7:10 a.m.

Hello daycare for the 4 year old. Hello crying fit on the first day of not wanting to be dropped off. Hello new classroom and teacher. Hello nap time again. Hello daycare friends!

So farewell to summer of 2009, you will be missed. Hello new school year of 2009-2010, wonder what you will bring?

Graduation Day finally arrived!!!

Finally! Graduation day!! Let me take a moment to let this all soak in. Ok. According to Luke it was called happy gradumacation day and Paige it was gradumawaiting. However you say it, it was awesome!

Last night I told Mike I wasn't very excited about it. He asked me why and I started to cry. I can't believe its over. Two long hard years and its over. I feel like I'm not finished yet. And this has been a lifelong goal of mine and now its accomplished. What now?

On the drive to Denton we decided to grab some lunch before I had to be at the line up. Sounds like I did some kind of crime or something doesn't it? No crime, just line up with all of the other graduates. On the way into Denton we drove around looking for somewhere to stop. We ended up making a HUGE complete circle around Denton. Mike turned on his GPS because we decided on El Chico. Well the GPS sent us on a goose chase. We ended up on some country road that dead ended with some distribution centers! Where in the world was El Chico???

So I pulled out the directions to the ceremony and we headed that way. Good thing we left extra early to eat. We found this really quaint sub shop on the campus called Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches. It was sooooo yummy! Everyone loved their sandwiches. Note to self, if ever in Denton, go back to eat there!

It started pouring down rain right as we started to leave the sandwich place. So we sat in the car for a while waiting for it to stop before running into the coliseum at UNT. I was REALLY early! This is NOT normal for me! I had to stand around and wait for an hour before time to go in for graduation.

Once I entered the arena and waited to be seated I could feel my eyes tearing up. I fought them back but I just wanted to cry like a baby. Wow was all I could think. Wow, I made it. Wow I did this with 3 kids, a husband and a full time job. Wow.

After walking across the stage I was still like wow! We went to eat dinner with mom and grandma and then when we got home I had two sets of flowers waiting on me! Two dozen red roses from my mother-in-law and a bouquet of pink and purple flowers from my wonderful neighbors. What a surprise!! I LOVE them and they smell oh so wonderful. They take up one whole corner of my kitchen table. I will put up a pic soon, they are on a different camera.

It is sinking in that I am finished. I am done. Stick a fork in me and turn me over.

So long satellite television...

So on my plan to cut back I called the satellite company today and had them turn it off. Now we will only have local channels. After many years of satellite tv with so many choices and stations to watch I think we might be in some shock for the next couple of days.

I have to laugh because while I was on the phone with them today and they took the stations off, both girls and Mike came running up to me yelling now hold on there momma! I had told them I was going to do it but I guess they didn't believe me. They were all three in the living room watching tv when it turned off, I didn't tell them I was calling when I called :)

Paige pouted for a while, Leah just sat on the couch like what do I do now and Mike informed me he wouldn't be home on Monday nights now, he would be at the Browning's house for football night!

But since no TV, my living room is cleaned and free of toys, we have talked and hung out more today, Mike built a new mantle for the fireplace (we have only lived here for 3 yrs now...so finally, and had a wii racing challenge. :)

I have to say it is kind of strange not having the channels we use to like anymore. I realized later in the afternoon I wouldn't be able to watch the food network or diy or hgtv or tlc or discovery channel anymore. The killer will be in the morning when there is no Disney channel, no sponge bob or noggin. I'm sure I will hear about it from Luke in the morning.

(and I went to the AT&T store and asked them to lower my monthly bill. So between the two I saved $111 a month today! woo-hoo!)

what a day, what a day

Officially started my last week of summer before going back to work next week. I keep thinking I need to go work in my room but heck, who wants to do that yet? I sure don't. From looking at our in-service schedule, I don't think we will get much time before school starts to work in our rooms this year. Guess that means I will go visit my room and see what all I need to work on.

So I made a commitment to myself that I would be more joyful with my life. So far so good until today. I was really tested in it today with bills and stuff. We know that God has worked in our lives and we can see him working. The hard part is being patient and understanding waiting to get out of the slump we have been in lately with the economy and real estate.

Over the weekend Mike started sending out job applications. He talked to two of his distribution buddies that run some distribution centers and they sounded hopeful that maybe they could find a spot for him. I have to say it has been so nice having him around. He gets to go to the kids schools, activities and church. Most warehousing jobs are 24/7 so who knows what kind of schedule he would end up with. We will adjust though.

Agghhh. I will NOT let this steal my joy. I just won't. It tried to be stolen today and I almost let it. Several friends replied to my request for job looking help and told me some places Mike could look at. I'm so thankful for facebook and friends! And family too. So I might be defeated on the outside but I'm going to stand up on the inside. Tomorrow just has to be a brighter day. I just know it.

And on a positive note, I received a card from my mother-in-law for my graduation. She sent me a gift to be able to purchase some new school clothes :) Thanks Anne! I appreciate it!

A house full of girls

Poor Luke. He was so out numbered today. Leah had two friends spend the night last night to go to church with us this morning. Today was their first day to be a part of the youth group. They are so grown up now....they think anyway.

After church they came back over and spent the afternoon. They went outside to play and a little later when I called them in for lunch they had found another friend! So three almost teenage girls plus my own, Paige and Luke made for a house full of kids today. And you know what? I loved every minute of it.

But you know how I wrote last night about my house being messy and how I was extremely embarrassed for some people to see it. Well that part happened today. When one of the moms came to pick up her daughter I invited her in since we hadn't met yet. She had met Mike but we hadn't had a chance to meet. I was so embarrassed by my living room! Its a mess in there and totally looks like a bomb went off. Ugh. But oh well. Like I said last night I'm trying really hard to just let it go and enjoy life a little bit more. And I did today. I really enjoyed the kids being here and I enjoyed watching my children interact with their friends. They even let Paige play with them and Lukeman too. He just thought he was too cute with all of their attention. He told Leah last night he didn't like the "grills" (the way he says girls) being here because she didn't pay attention to him. Hum, someones a little jealous of his sisters time.

So who needs to nap on Sunday afternoons anymore? I guess I don't because I'm hoping the grills as Lukeman calls them will be able to entertain more friends over. Luke wants a friend over too. He just thinks he is so big now as he likes to tell me. Whatever, your 4, you will have your time little man....I promise.

Lovin Saturdays

Ahh today was another one of those lazy summer days. I have been craving a day of nothing to do and nowhere to go. Today was just that day.

We did some house work this morning. And after that it pretty much was a lazy day. Next weekend is my official last weekend "off". Not that I don't get weekends off because I do but they change once I go back to school. Once I go back to work weekends are for catching up on housework, going grocery shopping, church, and anything else that comes into play there. Not much time for just lazying around the house just doing whatever I dog gone feel like. And I'm usually so drained from the week that doing most of these items during the weekend is more like a chore than anything else. Like one more thing to do and ugh.

I know by looking at my house sometimes it looks as if I "never" do anything around here. But I do. This summer I have been able to get caught up on some projects and clean out all 3 kids rooms, closets, dressers, toys and the forbidden under the bed area! Hopefully once school starts we can keep it straightened up. When we moved into this house three years ago I had a 3 month old baby and then started back to graduate school the next summer so there really hasn't been much time to worry about things around this house to much.

I realized something a few weeks back that I was holding back on allowing the kids to have friends over because of my embarrassment of how the house looked. I talked to the girls and told them that I didn't mind if they had friends over but they needed to step up to the plate and help to keep things picked up. They always ask if they can have friends over and before I have pretty much said no. So much so that Leah quit asking if she could have friends over because she already knew the answer. She hadn't asked to have a friend over since 2nd grade and she is going into 7th grade in a few weeks. How sad is that? Very sad if you ask me.

Well tonight we have two extra friends of Leah's over. Talk about an overwhelmness of estrogen in this house tonight! I told the girls if they didn't care what the house looked like then I would try my best to not worry about what their friends would think of a cluttered, messy house. When I have friends over I always tell them "put your blinders on!" to pretend like they don't see the messes. And usually the only friends I have over are the ones that I wouldn't care what they think about it anyway. Now there are some that come over that I worry extremely about what they will think about my home. I know I shouldn't worry about it but I do. I hate the anxiety and worry over if my house is perfect enough and what comments will be said about it. I'm trying to get better about not letting it get to me but hey, I'm only human right? I do get my feelings hurt over silliness like this. I'm not a perfect mom nor a perfect house keeper but I have relatively happy kids and a happy husband and that's all that matters.

So bring on the friends kids, momma will relax a little bit. Welcome to our home kids. Its messy. Its cluttered. Its a fun place to be. We have a little bit of everything you would want to do or play with in this home. It is well loved....and lived in for that matter.

Making $100 go a long way....

I got home last night from my teachers conference and I told the girls we would go shopping for school clothes when I got home. I meant some time after I got home but they just knew I meant the day I got home.

So we went out to shop for some new school clothes this afternoon. After Mike looked at our checking account I could only spend a little bit until he has his next closing. Ugh. So ready for closings to start coming in on a regular basis. So I gave the girls $100 a piece to buy clothes with. I told them that was all they got and when it was gone it was gone. They will get to have more once the closing is done because originally we had the yard sale and Mike's mom sent the girls money too. So that would allow them $200 a piece. They were good sports about it though and understood. I didn't say they liked the idea mind you.

We started by stopping at a friends yard sale and Leah found the cutest bag to use as her book bag for only $1. Yes one dollar! Great deal! Way to start off our school clothes shopping! Mom has already taken them to get school supplies so our mission today was clothes, socks, undies, shoes, etc. NOT bags, purses or jewelry! But for a dollar she couldn't pass it up. I reminded them what our mission was for the day. We had Avery with us so I called Stephanie (Avery's mom) and asked her if she wanted to go shopping too. So we kidnapped her for the day as well. Shopping is more fun with friends anyway!

Our first stop was a late lunch at Steak and Shake. This was a new place for me and it was good. I didn't realize it was a sit down and order kind of place. Interesting. Order hamburgers and a shake at your table with a waiter. Our waiter needed a little more training on how to be a waiter. Next stop Target. I had seen in the Sunday sales ad they had plain t-shirts and Polo's on sale so we made this our first stop for our mission. Paige made it out of there spending $60 of her money. 6 shirts, pair of shoes, undies, a package of gum and a Sunkist. Leah made it out of there with $50 left. New shoes, three shirts and I think that was all....oh a drink from the snack bar. I would have bought the girls the drinks but they didn't ask. Older girls stuff tends to cost more than little girls stuff.

Next place on our agenda, Bath and Body Works to return something. Old Navy was next door so two stops in one. Paige hit the jack pot on pants there. A skirt and 2 pairs of jean Capri's and another a pair of navy Capri's...oh and another pair of shoes! She is my shoe lover and Leah is my purse lover. Leah made it out of there with 2 more shirts. Paige had like $9 left leaving there and Leah had $40 left.

Our next store was Kohl's. I had told Paige she had done really well with her money so she could pick something out that she wanted. Want to know what that child bought? A package of socks! I was so proud of her. Now they are funky fun knee high socks but hey they are socks. Leah tried on a dozen pair of jeans until we found the right ones. She only was able to buy two pairs and went into debt at this store. She now will only be receiving $80 for her next shopping spree.

At every store we went to people were so impressed that my children were paying for their own stuff and with cash. What do people not pay with cash anymore? I laughed at Stephanie at Old Navy because the young lady asked her if she would like to apply for the Old Navy card and earn blue points....or something like this...and Stephanie blurted out no thanks, credit is evil. I busted out laughing. What? I though it was funny because for us they are! The look on that girls face was priceless. She didn't know what to say. And she looked as if she couldn't imagine her life without credit cards. I wanted to ask her if she was on her own yet but didn't. I figure she will find out one day that credit cards are evil! She was like you earn points and Stephanie said yes but you have to pay all the interest with it too, No thanks.

Two check out folks told me they wished their parents had made them learn about money at a young age too so they could know how to work with money now. I was very impressed with how our girls spent their money today. Stephanie gave Avery the same amount of money and Avery had to figure out what to spend her money on as well. I almost forgot to mention the melt downs we had over all of this in the store. Paige had one in Target, Leah had one there to and one at Old Navy. Seems its not so fun when mom isn't footing the bill and they have no clue what they are spending. It's hard to figure out what you can buy with a certain amount of money and what you have to put back because you don't have enough. But when we got home they couldn't wait to show daddy what all they bought and how they spent their money.

Paige had bought a pair of converse tennis shoes at Target and after going to Old Navy she found another pair of pink tennis shoes with white polka dots. She fell in love with them. She asked if she could exchange the other pair for the newer ones she found. I said ok. She was so excited. She borrowed ten dollars from Leah and we went back into the store to buy them. Once back at Target she walked right up to the customer service desk and told the lady she wanted a refund. Then she went to the shoes and picked out another pair of zebra striped flat shoes for $12 and purchased those. She handed Leah back the ten dollars and she was so proud of herself because now instead of only one pair of shoes she had two! She is quite the bargain shopper.

Our last two stops for the night were PetSmart and Dollar Tree. It was so funny in PetSmart. We had to get crickets for the lizards and while the lady was counting them out one jumped out of the bag and landed on Avery's shoe. That girl jumped out of that shoe faster than lightening and ran down the aisle screaming like a little bitty girl! It was hilarious. Another priceless look on a face today. I laughed and laughed. And our last bargain for the night was 5 for 5 Arby's sandwiches on the way home. What a bargain shopping day we had today! Next shopping outing will be for tennis shoes for p.e. and athletics. I figure that trip will take a big chunk of the girl's money.

Barbie doll dream world and the revival...

Last week when I cleaned up Paige's room I dressed her barbie dolls. They were all naked! So now one of the perks to Paige having a clean room, I can go in and sit down on the floor and play with her instead of feeling like I have to get up to clean her room!

Yesterday Paige asked me if I would play barbies with her. Neither one of my girls have ever been that too interested in playing with barbies and that has been ok with me. I loved playing baby dolls instead with them. I don't know but barbie just seems to put a damper on my life. And here is why.

When I was little I always thought I would grow up and have "The Barbie Doll Dream World" life. Barbie could do anything and she always looked pretty doing it. She had the best of the best. And I thought that was how life was when I was ten years old. I think I was around 27 when I realized I wasn't going to have the barbie doll dream world that I had imagined when I was around 10 or 12 years old. So this is ok with me if my girls don't want to absorb themselves into barbie. Guess when I was a kid their wasn't much other options to play with like there are today.
See my grandma's whole entire family lived on one street when I was a kid (dad's mom). Grandpa Walker use to pick Matt and I up from school every afternoon. Our school was on the same street that my grandparents lived on which made it all the more of a merry world. My great-grandmother lived next door. Aunt Ruby and Uncle Homer lived across the street and Uncle Richard and Aunt Bonnie lived down the street a few blocks. I spent countless hours on that street. I just thought that was how life was suppose to be. We lived a few blocks away and my other grandmother lived on the other side of town not to far away as did one of my aunts. All of my cousins were right there to play with every afternoon and the world was a safer place to us back then. We ran the street.

When I was 10 we moved away to another town way out in the country. I hated it! I didn't have anyone to play with and I couldn't go see my grandparents like I did every day. Crashing of my barbie doll reality. So I thought when I grew up I would have all of my family living on the same street with me again. I just knew my brother was going to live across the street and Darren was going to live next door and we would just live happily ever after. So NOT reality! First of all I'm the only one that had children! And second of all they don't live here anymore. Matt moved away to New Hampshire with his wife and her family. He doesn't come home anymore. Darren just moves around to different places.

Playing barbie dolls with Paige brought back this flood of memories yesterday! Although this may sound like a sad memory, it's really not. It brings back wonderful memories of growing up on that street with my grandparents. I can still taste Aunt Ruby's sweet tea. Man alive that tea would knock the socks off you today. Just take red diamond sweet tea and add a whole content bag of sugar to it and you had Aunt Ruby's tea. Making black eye peas and sugar cookies reminds me of Grandma Copeland's house. Many smells take me back to that street. I do wish my children could have this type of special street too.

I had another special sweet memory at church this morning. Our church kicked off a summer revival this morning and brought in a barbershop quintet and a really old time preacher. One of the hell fire and brim stone kind. Now mind you our preacher is not this way at all. So I was expecting some real hard hitting pulpit preaching this morning but it wasn't to bad. He was really good. But the quintet was amazing! I remembered how much I loved the old gospel hymns and especially the way they sung them.

So the special memory I have is of my grandpa again. He wasn't much of a church going kind of man. He loved the Lord though. There was a church on the corner into their neighborhood and every time they had a revival he was there. And he would usually take us with him since we spent a lot of time with him. Grandma John didn't go with him usually just him and us. That man got baptized at every revival!! That's what was cracking me up this morning. As an adult now I know that you only need to be baptized one time and you are re-born and forgiven of all of your past sins. Some how my grandpa felt like he had to really be re-born! I wonder now what all he felt like he had to be forgiven of! This brought a smile to my face this morning and made me laugh out loud. Funny how things from my childhood keep creeping up on me like that here lately.

So back to the barbie doll dream world. When I was 27 I hit rock bottom. Was ready to run away from life and then totally crashed at 31 and wanted to end my life. I spent a year in counseling and that image of the barbie doll dream world came up. Now I have had to re-create what I think my world is and you know what, its better then the barbie doll dream world I use to have. Because when I was little my barbie dolls didn't have a crash 'em up bang 'em kind of roll over car wreck like ours did yesterday on their way to the Hannah Montana concert in Paige's bedroom. It was such a sad wreck to. Hannah Montana had to cancel her show because she was hit by a flying ball across the room and our barbies had to go to the movies instead. Guess that's what happens when you have a 4 year old little brother come trying to invade in barbie land.

Paige getting the barbies ready to go to the concert.

Leah washing the barbies hair.

Yard Sale....Or Maybe Just A JUNK Yard!

After talking to Mike Thursday morning about our checking account we decided at the last minute to have a yard sale. Did you know checking accounts can talk to you? Well ours did and said it was very, very grim! I have had three boxes in the garage collecting junk in them for the last six months or so. Amazing how much junk you can collect in just six short months. Back in January I hauled off tons of junk to the Salvation Army here in town and cleaned out the garage. I had just planned on donating again when the pile got big. Well it was big and I hadn't donate stuff yet. Thank goodness because we needed it.

The girls and I spent all evening Thursday going through the closets and cleaning stuff out. Mike went through the garage and took stuff out he didn't want anymore. I cleaned Paige's bedroom last week and re-arranged it while she was at camp and had tons and tons of stuff from her room also and from Leah's room since we re-did her room also.

I was up until about 2 am pricing stuff and getting everything ready. Around 8ish we started throwing it in the front yard. I don't like to have one in the back anymore. Just too personal back there and I don't like having people we don't know in our back yard checking everything out. Around 9ish I went and put signs up in town and we were flooded with people all day long. The girls loved seeing that they could earn money for selling their stuff and Luke just loved being outside all day. He was in hog heaven out there. I looked over one time and he was laying in all of the toys just lounging and playing. He was having a great time. I think he could just live life right there and be perfectly fine. He kept going around yelling "gard" sale come in.

Finally around 2:30 it slowed down and we decided to call it a day. I went into the living room after it was all done and fell on the floor under the ceiling fan to cool off and fell asleep for a little bit. Mike and the kids woke me up to go swimming at mom's and let me tell you that was the best swim all summer!

Saturday morning started bright and early. I went to put our signs back up and the city enforcer stopped me. He said I had to have "written" permission to hang up my signs. Well I knew the people who yard I was putting it in but it didn't matter, I didn't have "written" permission and they weren't home. He took the one I had in front of the laundry mat. Now anyone that knows me knows that I am pretty much a rule follower for the most part...I said for the most part :) On the form I signed with the city while getting my permit states that you have to have permission. It does NOT state that you have to have written permission. When I went back home I put one on our corner and the enforcer guy just sat there and watched me the whole time. I told Mike what was going on and he was furious. Next thing I know he is leaving and going to track him down. He almost got arrested. Imagine that, my husband almost getting arrested!

Afterwards I thought I will show this man. I went and bought some fancy signs from Ace Hardware and took one to a business on Washington street. I asked the lady if it was ok and asked for her "written" permission. I wrote it out on the back of my yard sale stickers page and she signed it. Next I went to try to find someone else's yard I could put my sign in. Mike called and said come home it was fixing to start raining. Ugh. I get home and it starts sprinkling. Before I know it, the flood gates opened and it started pouring. We hurried up and packed everything up but it was pretty much wet by this point. We all looked like wet puppy dogs when we were finished.

Ahh, now its over and I have a cleaned out garage again, a clean front yard and a destroyed house that looks like a bomb went off in here. In the process of pulling stuff out, not everything got put back up in its place and now I get to work on that next. Its just a never ending process around here. We did make a little bit of money off of all of that junk. Enough to buy school supplies and maybe some tennis shoes for each girl to start school with. Thank goodness grand parents can help out because we would be in a world of hurt.

Remembering Jim

Our lives changed tremendously two years ago today. Today was the 2nd anniversary of loosing Mike's dad, Jim. You know I didn't get to see that man very much but I knew when I was around him that he loved me very much and he was very proud of Mike. Mike became a different person when he was around him and I only wish we could have spent more time with him. He lived in Memphis, Tn. so we didn't get to go that way much.

In June, 2007, we had been planning a family vacation to Galveston. I never could find a place to stay out and had been looking for several weeks. Mike came home from work one night and said you know I would really like to go see dad, he hasn't met Luke yet (he was 2 at the time) and spend time with him. And off we went the next week. Packed up the mini van and spent a week with him and Tiffany. We spent 4th of July there and then came home.

Three weeks later he died. Mike was at work when the call came in that his dad was missing. Uncle Don had called and we hadn't heard from him in years. When I called Mike at work he called him back and thats when he shared the news. Don never told me what was going on. When Mike called me from work he told me to pack some bags we were going to Memphis. I asked what was wrong and he told me. He said I think he is dead. I asked why do you think that and he said I just do. An hour passed and the worst news came in, he was found dead.

I think one of the things that has hit me hard in the pit of my stomach is when we were pulling out of the driveway to head home Mike looked at me as his dad was waving good-bye to us from the porch and he said "I hope this isn't the last time I ever see my dad alive". What? I asked him why he said that and he said I don't know just have a funny feeling about it. I so wish I would have made him stop the van and jump out and give his dad one last hug. And one regret of that trip I have is that we didn't take any family photos together like we normally would do. Looking back now I truly don't think his dad was feeling 100% but he wouldn't never tell us that. Just things about him during that trip were out of the norm for him and I didn't see it then. I felt something was wrong but I didn't say anything.

I do know that God has his plans and that trip was deliberately planned for us even though we didn't know it at the time. We did get to go to Galveston after the funeral. Jim passed away on July 27, 2007. That was the date put on the death certificate as we don't know the actual time or day he passed away. It is a very long story of how he passed and that will have to be another blog later. Mike had to quit his job after all of this because of the memory of it all when he went to work.

Jim loved St. Jude's hospital. He was a computer programmer/software developer for them. He was so proud of that hospital. He wouldn't even allow them to furnish his work supplies. He would buy them out of his own pocket because he didn't want to spend any money on himself, he wanted it all to go to the kids of the hospital. It is a remarkable hospital. Jim took me on a tour of it during our visit and all I could say was wow as I was walking through there. I watched as a dr. told a family that their child was sick. Very moving.

When we went back to Memphis we had seven dollars in our checking account. I had no clue how we were going to pay for that trip. My mom gave us gas money to leave and then we just prayed for the rest. When we were looking for Jim's will we found $1000 in quarters in his closet. We all had a really good laugh over that. Why would someone have a thousand dollars in quarters in their closet??? Only Jim Lucas.

The funeral was beautiful. We found a beautiful weaping willow tree (Mike's fav. tree) to bury him under. The people at the funeral home were awesome. They treated us so kindly and respectfully. They told us that they had never seen so many people come to a family visit as they did for Jim's. The people of St. Judes were awesome as well. Very touching. I think Mike's brother was more moved by it then any of us. One lady kept commenting how much Mike looked like his dad over and over again. I had always thought that myself. I met some wonderful people during that time.

I wrote a story about our trip to the zoo during our fun visit with Jim. I couldn't sleep the night before the funeral and wrote a story. Tiffany and Leah said I had to read it at the funeral. I didn't want to but ended up reading it anyway. I couldn't get through the story at first but I looked over at Mike and then I was able to finish. I will post it below but you might want some kleenex handy.

So even though it has been two years and time does ease your pain I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. So farewell Jim Lucas. I love you and miss you. I still feel you around us.



Jim 1947 -2007

This is the story I wrote.

To The Butterfly of Death:

You entered my life on a whim unexpectedly this 4th of July. Little did I know what you were about to prepare me for. You landed on my six year old daughter during our visit to the Memphis zoo. I thought "Oh how sweet of you". You were beautiful your fuzzy yellow and black wings fluttering in the air. Then I heard the story of you.

As I was about to walk away, a young zoo worker would explain your history. I had no clue the impact you were about to have on our lives. Upon her approach, she exclaimed how special Paige was to have you land on her. I asked why that was. She explained to me that your name was the "death butterfly" or the "butterfly of death". As my memory is fading I’m sure that she gave me your "technical" name. When I asked her why this was that such a beautiful butterfly was known as this, she explained that when you land on someone that death is near. She said it was an old wives tail. I said how to do mean because I wasn’t grasping what she was saying. She said that when this butterfly is seen it means that either someone close to you is about to die or has already died.

Well you didn’t land on me, you landed on my Paigey. So I quickly shooed you away from my baby girl. For the rest of the afternoon I prayed to God for you not to take my baby girl. This was all I could think because she hasn’t had anyone close to her die recently. So for the last three weeks I have prayed you away.

Little did I know in late July that you would pay us a call. For now my daughter’s grandpa is in your care. I have no worries of where he went for you can look around this room to see his heart. He loved those in his care. The lives he touched will forever be reminded of his loving embrace. For the kids of St. Jude’s who go on to the clouds above, Grandpa Lucas will be there to give you a hug. While he may not have met you he already loves you.

So to the butterfly of death I have seen you once more. You fluttered by me tonight outside at the Memphis funeral home to remind me of your presence. When I tried to catch you, you flew away. So the next time you see my family, please keep fluttering away.

Pic of the butterfly:

Ahhh a lazy Sunday

After all of the party hopping yesterday I was one tired momma this morning and ended up sleeping until 11:00 am. I slept right through Sunday school and woke up just in time for church to start. Needless to say I didn't make that either.

Didn't do much today. Paige made lunch for everyone....chicken nuggets, corn and kool-aid. Her specialty. She wanted to make grill cheese sandwiches that I taught her how to make last week but I'm not sure what happened to that idea.

Mike and I watched Slumdog Millionare. Interesting movie. If you haven't seen it you should. I keep thinking about it. Wonder if its from a true story? I love true story movies. The girls got in a fight after the movie and I was so mad at them I made them go outside. Sometimes I just want to loose my mind with them fighting. Paige came in crying and saying how she was sorry but I just wasn't in the mood to talk about it with her. We have been talking and reasoning with her all summer. I'm done and tired of it. Later we had another come to Jesus family meeting. Mike layed down the law of the land or household as I should say. He told Paige she better get her attitude checked at church camp and really think about her life in this family. She has been granted so much and doesn't appreciate very much.

Afterwards we had a really healthy dinner of chili-dogs. I know, I know....not so healthy but hey it was a lazy Sunday. Afterwards we went outside to play and I finally planted my 3 rose bushes that almost look as if they want to curl up and die. Hope they will make it.

Then another movie! Two movies in one day....wow! What a treat! We watched Confessions of a shop-a-holic. Cute movie! The kids liked it too.

Bedtime! What a lazy day, come visit us again real soon. I think the only thing I did today was load the dishwasher and turn on the washing machine. What a great day!

A going away party, a chuck-e-cheese b-day party, a wedding and a swim b-day party....Whew what a day!

What a day Saturday was. Started off with one of my friends from Monday Primary that is leaving for another school district for a principal's job. She will be greatly missed. Next was Luke's little friend from daycare, Eva's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. He had so much fun seeing all of his friends from "school". And he loved Chuck E. He kept running up to him and smacking him on the butt and running away.

Next the girls and I went to two of my old student's wedding. It was so sweet. The bride and groom met in my classroom. Robin was a freshman I think and Brian was either a junior or senior...I can't remember. At first Robin wouldn't talk to Brian. He was a red-headed punk kid that liked to be the class clown. She was real quiet and shy. Everytime he would talk to her she would roll her eyes and ignore him. A couple of months after school started I noticed one day they were holding hands. Ought-oh I thought...time to seperate them. And I did. After they would finish their work they would move over and sit by each other again. And if they had a fight it totally changed the dynamics of the classroom. I cried through the ceremony. I cried through most of the reception. It was just so touching to see the two of them so happy and knowing their history just made it even more sweeter.

Robin's dad passed away some time ago. She had thought her dad had abandoned her when she was little. Years had gone by and she tried to search for him. She found him. He hadn't left her, he had passed away. She found this out her senior year of high school. Three months before her wedding she found her other siblings from her father and just met them for the first time in her life. Her new found brother walked her down the aisle in place of her dad. See why I was crying.

Then at the reception she told everyone how I was her favorite teacher and how she had met Brian in my classroom. I of course told the whole story of how they met and then I cried again. Other people started crying too. I was moved, it touched my life. Before that Brian danced with his mom to the song "A Simple Man"....I cried. Robin danced with her mom....I cried. Then she danced with her brother....I cried. Then he danced with the other sister and I watched her as she cried.

Robin cried when I hugged her after the wedding ceremony was over and someone asked her why she was crying and she said because I was her idol and how much she loved me. So to Robin, you have touched my life more than you will ever know. I don't let many students get close to my heart as I have allowed you to. YOU mean the world to me. I am so proud of you as well as Brian. I know you will go far in life.


(Robin and Brian Campbell. Check out Paige's glasses....look like big bug eyes to me!)

To end the day off we went to one of Paige's close friends birthday swim party. I got to hang out with some of my favorite friends and just relax. It was a perfect ending to the day. Luke got out of the pool at one time towards the end of the evening and came up to me. He said "Momma". I said what son. He said "I love you mommy the bears" (he calls me mommybear). My friends said "Ahhhh". What a special little boy he is.

At one of the parties I shared with someone about our day and all of the activities. They said "wow, you must be popular". What? Popular....isn't that a term for high school? Ummm, NO, I think not! I have a 4 year old that goes to daycare....friends. I have a 12 and 8 year olds who go to school....friends. We go to church....lots of friends. I work a full time job.....friends and lots of contacts. So no, we are not "popular". We are involved and love all of the special people in our lives.

Off to the city for another day of staycation

I love that saying where you can't take the country out of the girl or however it goes but for me, you can't take the city out of the girl. I love big cities. Yes it's true. I will admit it here once and for all. For a girl that grew up on a ranch and pretty much has lived most of my life in the country, I am very much a city girl. I use to take the ads from the Sunday paper when I was little and just daydream looking at them of how when I was grown up I was going to go shopping all the time! I always wanted to go to the store right then after looking at the ads but that was when we had "Black (or maybe it was Blue??) Sunday" and no stores were allowed to open. I would beg my mom to take me shopping to no avail. Now I understand why! It costs money to go shopping and when you don't have any....well, shopping becomes kind of difficult. So I get excited when we get to into downtown Dallas. Call me crazy but I love the city life.

Our adventure today began with a trip to the Science and Natural History Museum. Luke kept saying we were going to the "night at the museum" place like in the movie. That brought a smile to my face. He was cracking me up. He does this often to me so thats not new. Once there the girls were so excited to show me around. They went on the day of my certification test without me. Mike went ahead and bought a family membership because by the time he paid for everyone to get in it was about the same price to pay for the membership and heck why not what a great place to spend a day or afternoon when its really hot or rainy and cold outside. I hadn't been there in many, many years and let me just say...Wow! What a terrific place to take the kids. I was very impressed.

Our first stop was at the dinosaur dig. Luke jumped right into that spot. You get to go run through two huge sand boxes with paint brushes and "pretend" you are digging up dino bones! What 4 year old little boy wouldn't love that!! They even do birthday parties there....hum...note to self maybe next year??? We only stayed there a short while because we had tickets to the planetarium showing at 2:15. Well that wasn't all that much to write home about...kind of neat...kind of not. I could have skipped that part. We went to one when I was like Leah's age and I remember it being really cool, this one wasn't like that.

Next was a stop for a snack....next time we will pack our own snacks because we could have eaten a meal for what we paid for snacks for all of us....so another note to self....pack snacks for the next trip. But a pretzel dipped in nacho cheese sure was yummy. We had popcorn too and had to share just two drinks between the five of us. The next item up for business was the spy kids adventure. Mike took Luke downstairs to the little kid area while I went spying with the girls. Lets just say I wouldn't make it as a spy. I got busted like 3 times as a little spy guy! The girls kept laughing at me. What a cool way to spend an hour or two.

Next was a stop into learning about the human body. Wow. That exhibit was cool!! My personal fav. They had a video with a catchy little tune about the digestive process and how your body makes poop! And the best one was showing you how you vomit! Coolness! Yes, I love gross stuff too. Makes me laugh. So guess your figuring out I have a very sick sense of humor. But actually it talks about how the brain makes you throw up. Pretty neat but the demo of it cracked me up.

Ahh and then the kids area! It reminded me of the children's museum in Memphis that Mikes dad use to take us to when we would visit him. I think going to these places reminds Mike a lot of his dad and things he did with him when he was little. I see this smile on his face like its bringing back memories. And trips to the zoo do this to him too. I love it. I love to see a smile on that man's face.

So anyway the kids area has all of these neat things for little ones to do like work on a farm (pretend), construction, firetruck with firemen suits (Lukeman's personal fav today) and animals.

They even have a pretend spider web that kids can crawl through. Luke made me pretend like I caught him in the web and I was the spider coming to get him. The giggles coming out of that little boy are priceless.

We closed the museum down for the evening. Luke was sad because he didn't want to leave. I had told Mike earlier in the day that I would like to take the kids to dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse. Not his favorite place but he said ok, he liked the idea. In the car Luke kept telling me he was oh so hungry and thirsty. His favorite thing to do in the car right now is point out all of the octogon shapes he sees and tell you what color they are. I love that too and its a good thing because we were getting a cultural drive through downtown because Mike didn't want to get on the highway at 5 pm so we saw lots of octogons! We showed the girls where JFK was shot...Leah was more interested in that.

Finally we arrived at our destination. As we are walking up to the restaurant a black man selling flowers starts in on Mike. Of course Mike just keeps on walking past him and tells him I don't like flowers. Ha. We all passed by him except for Luke. I turned to him and called him my way. He came running to me and said he wanted to give the man a hug. I said a hug? Ok. So I yelled back to the man and told him my son wanted to give him a hug. Wow the look on this mans face was priceless. He just looked at me and said ok. Luke went running up to him with open arms and gave the man a huge hug. The man loved it. He gave Luke a hug and patted him on the back and kissed him on the head. Luke ran back to me with a huge smile on his face. The man had one too. I don't know what that was all about but God knows and I felt good about it.

Once in the restaurant I made everyone go wash their hands since we touched all of the stuff at the museum and that is one of the things that only God knows what was on all of that stuff. Yes see I'm a good mom. With swine flu and all you just got to be careful you know....see...I'm a good mom :) I could hear Luke in the bathroom with Mike crying because he didn't want to wash his hands! Still I'm a good momma!

I asked the waitress if we could sit in the train car. She took us to the end of the train and Luke loved it because he could pretend he was driving us around.

The girls were so well behaved at the restaurant.

Even a lady came over to tell me how well behaved they were. Ok so maybe she wasn't a lady .....a young girl but you get the just of it. We had an appetizer and that was yummy then salads and bread. Paige told me she was full before she ever got her meal. Luke ordered cheese pizza and they make theirs with real mozzarella cheese so it was loaded with cheese. When he picked it up (the cheese) he said "uuuuu mom, I'm eating brains". BRAINS??? He said yes mom. I said ok as long as it will make you really smart then ok. He kept laughing saying he was eating brains over and over again. Then the pizza sauce started getting on his hands and he said "uuuu mom its blood, its bwweeding". I just laughed since I had no clue what else to say at this point. I was proud of Leah, she tried a new dish tonight and she was proud of herself as well.

So the drive home was another cultural experience. Maybe I should rename the title of this as a "culture" day instead. Mike didn't want to get on the highway because the traffic would be bad. Dude its 7 o'clock, get on the highway already. His excuse was its Friday afternoon and well people stop for happy hour and get on the highway late. Ok, whatever was my thought. So we ended up....well I have no clue where to tell you but we learned some interesting facts about the south side of Dallas today. A cultural experience at its finest. Finally I started getting my bearings and said we should eventually run into I20. And we did. Took us probably 45 mins to get there but we made it. I never felt like we should get out of there its not safe. I never felt that way at all, just the opposite like we were suppose to be there. Interesting but I don't know I rambling now.

Last stop on the way home, Wal-Mart or as my friends like to call it around here....Wally World. We have a going away party, two birthday parties and a wedding to go to tomorrow (Saturday) so I needed to make a pit stop for some gifts. During the shopping expedition Paige gets mad because I won't give her her allowance for the week. I go through the usual questions of the week. Did you clean your room this week? "No". Did you do all of your chores this week? "Yes". Did you get in trouble this week? "Ummm". Her head started to hang low. Mike comes up and asks me whats going on.

Now normally, Mike doesn't have any patience at all when it comes to Paige being mad. He usually blows up which makes Paige blow up and over and over again...its a vicious cycle between the two of them. Hum...wonder where Paige gets her temper from....wouldn't be me :) Also keep in mind that I have been praying about this for some time now. Because the tempers flying in my home here of late have been about to send me through the roof. See, I still have all of my temper so I'm convinced she got hers from her daddy.

Can you say family meeting on aisle 9 at 8:00 pm in the middle of Wal-Mart? And that is just what happened. We all collaborated around the grocery basket as Lukeman wore an iron man backpack and ran up and down the aisle. We talked to the girls about how they have been getting their allowance and how it was changing. Leah in her little 12 year old ways started really getting into the collaboration while Paige had her arms crossed, head down, pouty lip stance. She wasn't hearing it. She wanted her allowance and she didn't care that she had got in trouble this week or that she hasn't touched her room in oh about a couple of weeks. We should just give her her allowance since she empties the dishwasher for me and thats it. Leah wanted to look at something and we sent Luke with her. We had a pow-pow, come to Jesus meeting with Paige right there in the middle of Wal-Mart. Good thing it was there and this was all an act of God because I promise you had it been at home or in the car it wouldn't have been pretty and I can just hear Mike's yelling right now. It was actually a very good talk and I don't know how long it lasted but it felt like a long time. (just as this blog is getting long!)

Amazing thing! Paige's whole little attitude changed 180 degrees while in that store. And it has stayed that way since being home. She even cleaned Luke's desk off for him so they could play school tonight....to bad it was time for bed but she did a great job. She came into the bathroom and asked me did I notice her attitude had changed. I just gave her a big ole hug and kiss. I love that little girl and I explained to her that no matter what she did in life I would never stop loving her. I was her momma and I would love her no matter what. She skipped off to bed with a smile on her face. I love my Leah too.....I didn't want to leave that out.

What an adventure today was. Wonder what awaits me tomorrow. So to be continued about the 3 parties and a wedding. Isn't there a movie with that title or something???

The day in a nutshell....or maybe the nut house...not sure which

Today started off as an ordinary summer day. Mommy slept till 11 o'clock after finally falling asleep at 5 am. I know, I know...bad mommy. I just can't sleep as hard as I try I can't fall asleep. It truly does frustrate the mess out of me. As soon as I woke up and walked into the living room the girls started fighting. Mind you they have been in there for two hours by themselves with no problem but as soon as I walk in .... bam! So off to their rooms I send them. Luke goes to his room and starts cleaning. Paige ended up getting a spanking because of her behavior. I hate spanking but sometimes you do what you have to do. Luke comes in and tells me he is being a good boy. I tell him yes he is and he tells me he "qweened" his room. I think he thought he was in trouble too. He told me he needed "lovins". I sat down and let him climb into my lap. I just loved on him and explained to him that he wasn't in trouble and that he was ok. Then I went in and talked to Paige. I explained to her that she needed to write me a paper telling me how she could change her behavior to be more positive. She was like duh mom. I can write that in a minute. Great, let me see it I said to her.

Off to work on the painting in Leah's room and start in the living room.

(Before Pictures of Leah's room below)

We made lunch and then all three proceded to help me with painting the living room. Luke made a huge club house in there too.

The clubhouse:

Why is that when you are working on one room all of the rest of the rooms blow up? And the living room just totally looks like a bomb went off in there! Once the first coat was done in the living room I told the kids to gather up their library books, we were getting out of the house. They were excited now. Off to the library. Luke informed us that we have to be "qwiettt" in the "wibrary". Yes son, I'm glad that lesson has stuck with you. The kids had a great time there. We did puzzles and read some books. I think we ended up checking out like 16 books today! Wow a record for us. Luke even checked out 2. He was so excited and told me he had to bring them back. I was so proud.

Then for our next challenge....the grocery store with three children. Did I say challenge? Because that's what it is. I just needed bread and milk today but ended up buying crackers, bananas, yogurt, on and on. $50 dollars worth of stuff for just needing bread and milk. And we picked up Leah's new inhaler. She has to use that everyday now along with 2 allergy meds. She is not feeling well right now and this is the time of year she gets pneumonia so the dr and I are trying to head it off before it gets to that point.

Back home now. Mike has returned from his all day fishing trip. Lucky man, gets away from us for all day. Peace, quiet, calmness. No wonder he was all refreshed when we got home. Hey, think I need a day to run away too!!!

Time for dinner, pulled out two homemade gourmet items out of the cabinet. Paige helped me make dinner tonight and it was yummy! Paige and Leah both had second helpings tonight! We are trying to eat better and eat at home more. I have lost 10 lbs and Leah has lost 2 lbs so far!!Paige had a second helping of broccoli and cheese (little trees as Lukeman likes to call them). And Leah had more chicken and rice. I really liked the garlic, cheese biscuits and salad.

Luke refused to eat dinner. He wanted a snack. This is a bad habit he has and we are trying to break it. While I was in school he just kind of ate whatever whenever and now that momma is in full attention mode he doesn't like it to much. I bribed him with going swimming at Grammies if he ate his dinner. He had to go to his room a few times until he realized he really had to eat his dinner. No trees tonight for him but we are working up to it.

Off to swim at Grammies house. Mike had to fog for mosquitos because they are bad at moms and it was only 7 pm and they were already ready to bite us. The water was ice cold tonight! I didn't stay in long. We made a train in the water. Mike acted like he was incredible hulk throwing and tossing the kids around in the water all the while grunting at them as he showed his muscles. I'm sure he will feel it tomorrow and be sore.

Back home and Luke had demanded to me yesterday that I make him some cookies. I was like what dude??? Anyway I bought some chocolate chip cookie dough during our shopping trip (part of that 50 dollar expense) and made cookies as a dessert when we got home. Luke was staring at the oven door just drooling for them to come out. Once out he couldn't wait for one. I put one on a plate for him and he had to have a napkin so he could wave the hotness away. I think he ate 3 cookies! He is officially the cookie monster.

Luke "fanning" his cookie

And finally getting to eat it!!

Next we made polka dots in blue paint on Leah's newly painted brown wall. She is going to have the coolest teenage hangout room. Must be a rock star room. She even let Paige help paint polka dots. Luke just jumped on the bed. I tell you painting with three children helping you takes on a whole new meaning to life itself.

The blue polka dots:

Awww, bed time. Quietness, calmness, peacefulness. Awwww. I think this is why I don't want to go to bed and fall asleep. I enjoy the quiet time to much that I get wrapped up in it and before I know it half the night is gone.

What a full day.