Day 504

Since I am on the subject of bugs....how would you like to walk out your front door and see this spider every morning??? I have a pretty intense fear of spiders and have even hyperventilated over them before. Seeing this thing about does me in, but the kids won't let me kill it. They like to watch it spin its web and catch bugs. At least it is much smaller than the one we had a few years ago. It was as big as a frog. My curious children even threw a poor frog in its web...let's just say it wasn't pretty, but the kids thought it was really cool.

Day 503

Today I had lunch with Samantha at school. It was nice to sit and just chat with her. THEN tonight was church. One child brought in the biggest locust I have ever seen! I can't imagine why he thought it would be a good idea....

Day 502

Today we went and got Samantha's soccer shoes and other gear!

Day 501

Have you ever been in the right place at the right time? It very rarely happens to me. Monday I was running some errands before grocery shopping. I finally got around to going to the Vitamin Shoppe to restock. As I was driving through the parking lot I saw the van from KSBJ at the Christian bookstore. Hannah and I got out and went in. We got Hannah some stickers...as you can see in the photo below. LOL Turns out they were having a cd release and signing. I got a cd and Matt Maher signed it for me. How cool is that??? It is a really good cd too.

Day 500

Today was the pizza lunch at the Clubhouse. Caleb is new, so we got to go get the lowdown on what goes on. Have I mentioned how much I love our church? Our children's division is amazing and they make it so fun for the kids. I was amazed at Caleb just sitting there. He didn't get up and run around the whole time we were in there. LOL He also ate about 10 pieces of pizza. Sometimes he will inhale food, other times he will pick...go figure. We weren't in a hurry to leave because of the choir Christmas rehearsal. Hannah also fell asleep in my lap, so I sent Josh to get the stroller. Caleb helped clean up while we waited.

Day 499

I guess it would probably help to finish the post I started!!! Saturday we went to a fish fry for my Sunday school class. It was pretty nice and I enjoyed getting to chat since I don't have much time during class. I arrive late due to choir and leave early due to choir. Caleb was a bear. I really felt horrible and embarrassed because he would just not focus enough to behave. I know with him some days are good and some are bad, but I was really hoping for a good one. The sweet family who hosted the event had a cabin on the Lake. It was really nice, I can't remember the last time I was near the lake. Of course since Caleb's near drowning over a year ago I am paranoid with all 4 of them around water. I made them wear life jackets out on the dock. I felt like a meany and let Josh take his off, but Samantha was pretty mad at me for a while. We ended up fishing. Josh caught a fish kind of. I say kind of because he got the bite and started to reel it in when the line snapped. the line still had the bobber thingy attached so we could see this little orange ball floating around in the water. The kids and Dean (one of the hosts) followed the orange ball. It went over near a neighbors dock. Dean went over there and came back with the fish. It was really too funny. There are pics of the fish. Josh also caught a Christmas tree....really, he did!!! After the line broke they set it up to bass fish...no bobber thing, just a hook and rubber worm. The line drags the bottom (I guess). Well, it got hooked up. Josh couldn't reel it in, neither could I. Finally, they got it in and well....Josh caught a Christmas tree. Sad to say that I don't have a picture of it. I was too busy laughing. Anyway....here are some pictures. Hannah insisted on walking and sitting near the edge just like the big kids. I was a nervous wreck!


For a minute I thought he might have fallen asleep. He was sitting so still and quiet!


The fish that almost got away!



Josh and Dean with the catfish!

Day 498

Josh and Samantha munched on some carrots during movie night.

Day 497

You can't tell by the "cheese" smile on her face, but Miss Hannah is not feeling well here. Let me just say all these Shamu's, puppies, and the blanket had to be in a certain spot or she was freaking out!

Day 496

Josh and his friend are being funny during High 5 practice. I laugh at them and then feel old because they don't know who "Urkle" is.....

Day 495

I have several miscellaneous pictures from today. The first one is my shopping cart at the grocery store....one piece of precious cargo is missing. For the first time in years I went grocery shopping alone....it was so nice. The next picture is of clouds. There are layers and layers of clouds with the sun shining brightly through the cracks...and God said, "isn't that great?"...from our Shiny Touchy Feeling Creation Story book. The final picture is of silly Hannah. After my run I came in to take a shower. She had gotten all of the stuffed whales/dolphins--not ALL of them, just the ones this size-- and put them in a nice neat and orderly row to watch Barney...yes, Barney was the babysitter while I showered.

Day 494

Ahhhh, this picture...oh the joys. LOL Today (Sunday) I had to be back at church for Christmas rehearsal...yes, I know it is only September. Anyway, we have a little bit of time between getting everyone out the door and needing to be back at church. Our first attempt at lunch was Jason's Deli, but it was closed. Didn't know many places still closed on Sunday's, but this one did. Looking at my watch I was trying to figure out if we had time to sit down. It was a gamble, but we ended up at Black Eyed Pea. It was pretty good. For the most part I think I was the youngest adult in the place....other than our servers and hostess. In this picture Hannah has discovered how to make things stick to her face. She sucked this cup on her face and left it there forever. I was so afraid she was going to have a big "hickey" around her mouth. Thankfully she didn't and thankfully I didn't have to explain "hickey" to my other children.

Day 493

It is hard to tell from a picture what exactly is going on here. This is the the view under our kitchen table. I was getting ready to put dinner on plates. Hannah came running in with this stuffed dog and grabbed the little chair. She put the dog in it and pushed it over to the table right next to her chair. In the second photo you can see Hannah's head peaking under the table. Really, don't laugh at the last picture. You may remember THIS POST about the boys cream. Lately Caleb can't seem to keep it out of his hair...then again he is putting it on his face a lot. It makes him look like he has nasty dirty hair that never gets washed and I assure you that is NOT the case! My solution was to have him wear this thing for a while after he put his cream on. I don't know if it worked because when he took it off his hair still felt aquaphor-ish. Of course that could have been left over because it doesn't wash out easily. If you look at the picture close enough you can see the aquaphor glow on his forehead. LOL

Day 492

Gotta love it when it rains at the bus stop. I asked Josh over and over if he wanted me to take the car so he could sit inside and wait. He kept telling me no! He wanted to use his poncho. It kept him dry....just not his socks and shoes. Hannah wanted to get in on the rain too! We usually sit on the steps and watch Josh until the bus comes. Hannah had fun playing in the rain wearing 2 different shoes.

Day 491

I am really bad with Bible story time. Don't get me wrong, we read a lot of books and a lot of Bible stories. We also talk about those stories and pray, but I felt like it was time for a change and some direction. We do things a little differently now. During my own quiet time I will write down Bible verses that stand out to me on an index card. I will give the kids a card and let them spend time reading it and then one night during our family devotion time I will have them read the verse and explain it. Obviously, Caleb doesn't get hard ones. He got to explain the fruit of the spirit the other night and he did a GREAT job. I recently read through Job again, so Josh snatched up those cards. Let me just tell you we turned one verse into about 30 minutes of discussion. If you aren't familiar with the story of Job---he is blessed beyond measure. He loses everything and still praises God. Then his skin is attacked (we can relate to that one in this house) and he STILL praises God. Josh can really go on and on about this one. Samantha had a hard time with it, so we broke it down to losing her favorite puppy. We talked about how God sees the big picture while we are sitting in the middle of lost puppies. She honestly told me she didn't know if she could thank God if she lost her puppy. We talked about the big picture though. What if a little girl whose house had just burned down found it. She lost all of her toys and she finds a sweet soft puppy to love. Samantha said that would be ok. I told her that she might never know what happened to that puppy though...would she still be able to say thank you while she didn't know? I could see God working in her little heart. Anyway, back to our devotional time. We read a story out of this family devotion book. Then I ask questions about the story and we go over the memory verse. After that the kids pick a song from the hymnal to sing. I am trying to get the kids to dig deeper in their prayer lives too. I will ask each one of them to say something they want to pray for THEN ask someone else to pray for it. It is neat to watch them pray for each other. I have picked out a Bible verse to pray sometimes. I want to teach them that they can pray the Word of God too. This has really been a wonderful time for us as a family to do. Caleb gets pretty upset if he thinks we aren't going to do it. It is far too late when we get home on Wednesday nights, the first few weeks he threw himself a pretty good tantrum.

Day 490

Another Wednesday night come and gone! The first picture is the 3rd-5th grade choir kids...there were about 10 missing. The second picture is of a piece of fruit I picked up at dinner. We were trying to figure out what it was and what we were supposed to do with it when Caleb blurted out that it was a "smiley fruit"---we were just a little speechless for a minute. He was adamant about this because there was a smiley face on it. Just check out the picture and you will see it. LOL

Day 489

Last week I took the plunge and ordered a Nike + sensor for my shoes. I can't go on enough about how awesome it is! No worrying about a stop watch and driving my course, just push a button and go! It measures everything! It even gives you updates as you run. You can set goals, make courses, adjust playlists (still need to set up one for running). When you are done, just plug your iPod in and it syncs the info with Nike+. You get a cool looking graph like in the picture. The circles tell you the pace I was running at the time. It is just way cool---for the record, those (dips) were at red lights. :)

Day 488

Today the girls helped Meema make toffee almond bars.

Day 487

As many of you know, Sunday's are the favorite day in the house. We get to get up and go to church. The kids love it! So do I. There is always so much to learn. So much to give! A time to truly be who I am in Christ without the fears of what is so and so going to think of me. (don't worry, I am working on that) Here is a picture of us girls before church. The little ones are just so beautiful! And if you happen to see me around church, I promise I do own clothes other than black. I sing with the Gathering Singers and we have to get the privilege to wear black when we sing. That way we are not a distraction and not taking away from true worship.

Day 486

Gulp! I have NO picture for today! Josh and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince again. I hadn't read the book yet when we saw it originally. Let me just say that out of all the movies, this was the biggest disappointment. Now Marc is always quick to point out how they can't possibly fit everything in....I know, but they should at least include the important stuff. Well, in this movie they left out the major battle scene at the end. Yes, yes...for those of you who did see the movie, there is a "battle" scene, BUT it is lame and absolutely nothing compared to the book. I wouldn't even call what they did in the movie a battle scene! It was more just BAM and your dead. The movie had me on the edge of my seat...er chair, bed...well wherever I happened to be reading at the time. Even though I knew the outcome, the book was too good to put down. Enough of that, I know books never measure up to the movies anyway!

Day485

Sandy (our dog) got the picture of the day. We finally called the mobile groomer to have her washed and trimmed. Hannah waited and waited for her Sandy to get done. She spent most of the 2 hours on the porch. Here are some pictures of our beautiful clean flee free dog!

Sandy is terrified of cameras, that is why she is "hiding"

She thought I put the camera away.
Hannah thought Sandy did so great, so she gave her lots of toys and hugs.

Day 484

Samantha practices her piano when she gets home from school. Today Hannah wanted to practice too.

Day 483

Here is what some mornings look like. Hannah blocking the door so no one can leave. This morning Caleb and Samantha barely got passed her to catch the bus. It was here when we managed to get the door open. If you want to see a video of Hannah's new dance moves click here.