The last bowling Hurrah! !

Not only I am blessed with a lovely group of ladies to call friends as I posted this summer about here. My kids are blessed with a great group of friends as a result. Life has taken us all down different paths. We see some friends more than others. But when we are all together we manage to make some amazingly good memories. Shortly before most started school and after we started school we met up for one last bowling hurrah! This summer there was a Kids Bowl Free program. We all decided to sign up and bowl together when we could. The kids had a blast, even the ones who didn't care to bowl. They found something to occupy their time. The moms and Big-O-Daddy-O managed to have some fun as well!

Finally.... I am posting this group of pics. I told the moms, I was going to do it. We won't count the number of days that have passed. Thankfully, the accountability to keep my word has pushed me to finally do something with the pictures. The delay helped me to tremendously narrow down the selection of pictures. Cause Mrs. Rebecca had to send out 8 emails to all of us moms to forward all the pictures! She was the only one to remember a camera. She let me borrow it and take pictures. It's a good thing it was a digital camera....can you imagine all the bads shots we would have ended up with cause the kids move so darn quick! I also, didn't have to apologize for using up all her film, cause I really got into my role of photographer !

Little Princess is 8

Little Princess turned 8 last month. What fun we had, good memories to cherish for a long time !

Ice Skating Fun

The kids earned free ice skating thanks to the summer reading program. Flutter Nutter gets in free so he gave his pass to Fun Mom! 2 hours of fun for the kids, a little down time for mom! A summer off from the ice rink and well, a little more okay with spending an afternoon there. So okay, we went back the next day as well.

End of Summer Fun!

School started early this year for us. We got get our days in cause the teacher is taking 2 weeks off in October. So one last hurrah before back to school.... We went bowling using our Kids Bowl Free Coupons that we signed up for the summer. We'll go again before the season is over. But we wanted to secure the opportunity before the busy-ness of school started up.

GI Joe meets Barbie

To some this would be shocking but when Big O Daddy O found out his first was a girl, HE GOT SCARED! Then he panicked and said, "Oh no! I gotta start saving for a wedding!"
He went to work and asked the GUYS, What do I do with a girl? ?

He works with a bunch of really good guys.

Their response, "whatever you would do with a boy."

They told him they took their daughters fishing and played ball with them, etc.

None of them told him about stockings with dresses and learning to dress the darling princess.

None of them told him about pink bedrooms.

Or about nail polish and the desire to do daddy's toes.

Or hair pretties and wanting to play beauty parlor.
Maybe that is why he shaved his head.

He has done with them what he would with boys.

Tackle time.

Playing outside.

Movies.

Bike riding.

The girls will talk sports with him (which is more than the wife does...LOL)

Camping

Horse back riding lessons

Swimming

Stuff, father-kid-daughter stuff

And I can tell you noone told him about this:

Little Princess is grinning ear to ear.... cause she sees me coming with the camera.
Yep! That's Big-O-DADDY-O in a pink bedroom with his daughter and
Barbie stuff on the floor ! ! !

It is a good thing he bought my (our) camera. He knows how much he spent on it.
So he didn't break it.
And he knew what would happen.
He groaned and said, " I know you are going to blog this...."
"I will never live it down!"

So now I have had my fun!
Now I will tell the story you don't see in the picture.

At work there is contest regarding the guys' physical fitness tests.
I guess there is a GI Joe being passed around.
BIG-O-DADDY-O's shop thought it would be funny to cross dress GI Joe in a bikini, before sending him on his way.
Someone said to BIG-O-DADDY-O, you got daughters and probably Barbies.
Can you bring in a bikini?
So in all honesty he wasn't necessarily playing Barbies, he was on assignment for work.
He was looking for a Bikini!
Oh...that doesn't sound much better does it. LOL

Being right is not all that it is cracked up to be......

Another Clark record broken in our household. The new record is 3 bones.
It really stinks being right sometimes.
We went to Pump It Up to have our free play time compliments of the summer reading program rewards. Getting out of the car was all we could manage. "I didn't know my finger was there.... If I did I wouldn't of shut the door...." It is so hard to not laugh with a statement like that.

Sure enough I heard the door, then I heard the cry and turned around. Securely stuck between the door and car door frame was Little Princess's middle finger. The door completely shut. She managed to open the door and the tears rolled. One look and I remembered last December. You can check out the scoop here and here.

Unfortunately, her pediatrician is no longer practicing. We have yet to meet her new doctor, a family practice doc. The office was in upheavel as the computer system was down and there was not much left for sympathy. Being the Mom I am, who won't take no for an answer when it comes to something like this, or the other answer...wait till 5:00 for immediate care. I called the pediatrician's office (where they know me and my kids and that I have experience with broken bones and cuts needing stitches. They know I am not likely to be over reacting.) and asked if there was anyway to get her in.... Yes! only an hour and half wait. Still have to go home and deposit kids with big sis and get the motrin. They had plenty of sympathy left to pour out on her even though the computers were down. Gotta love pediatricians. I sure hope our doc's office get the girls a woman pediatrician soon.

No pictures this time. She got her nails done yesterday with her cousin Tricia. So we can't see how beautiful her natural nail color is this time. But doc believes she will lose the nail on this one as well. It took her thumb almost 6 months to grow back all the way. One less finger nail to trim, I guess. She did ask me this afternoon to not talk with anyone about it. I giggled and said, "You can't hide it babe, the splint is BIG." "I know..." So with all the love and sensitivity I could muster, I asked, "Can I put it on my blog? "
And well......she said, "I guess."

Warms my Heart....

Little Princess asked if she could read her Bible for a few minutes.
Then she brought me her Bible and started reading.
Just warms my heart. Moments like those are too precious to miss or forget.

Blowing Stuff UP!

Air National Guard had an open house this past weekend. Demonstrations with dropping bombs, shooting flares, missles and the planes' machine guns, and flight manuevers.
Kids were excited. Dad had to work. I was the lucky parent to take the crew.
The kids loved it. We had to wait in line for over an hour to get to the parking. When we left the distance it took us an hour+ to travel took us only 10 minutes leaving. The long wait didn't faze the kids any. They saw helicopters and planes. They had fun checking out the bunkers and "buildings" used for training. As we approached the show site, they saw the planes dropping the bombs. They really got excited then.

We parked and I let them climb up on top of the suburban. I didn't want to walk on down to the stands. We were way out in a field by now. We stayed 45 minutes before leaving. We missed most of the show by the time we got there. It was so packed I wanted to get out before every one else. Good thing, cause when I looked in my rear view mirror there was a line of vehicles for as far as I could see.

The kids did see the flares being shot off. Daddy's Buddy calls them fireworks.
The machine guns firing caused Flutter Nutter to break out in full belly laughs/giggles. They don't make the rat a tat tat sound you hear in the movies. The kids all thought it sounded like the plane was f*rting. Still makes them break out in laughter when we talk about it. We watched a few maneuvers. Dad of course wanted to know which planes we saw and I am like....ummmmm.... I didn't know there would be a test. "Big planes," I responded. "There are big planes and there are little planes. These were all Big!" He just shook his head.

Even though things didn't go like we expected. The kids and I had a good time. They joked and played Slug Bug in the car while we drove. Lots of conversation. Good time just the 6 of us, no distractions. Next time, I hope dad gets to take them.

Favorite Mental Snapshots

Cause the camera is not always nearby and sometimes if you get the camera out it ruins the moment. So you just take it all in and try to commit it to memory.
Yesterday, I had two of those moments with Hockey Player.

The first was listening to him in the back of the suburban teaching Daddy's Buddy how to tie his shoes. He was teaching him to make bunny ears...one bigger than the other....one goes through the hole...

The second was when I walked into the family room to see Flutter Nutter curled up next to him in the recliner sleeping. When I went to pick up Flutter Nutter he laid his head on Hockey Player's shoulder. Hockey Player, cause I was standing there, tried to make it look like he was just tolerating his little brother...but I think otherwise.

Hockey Player is an amazing Big Brother. God has gifted him with a very sweet and gentle spirit. As I write that, I see such contrasts...sweet, gentle spirit and Hockey... Nothing too sweet or gentle about hockey! LOL ! More like loud, rough and stinky locker rooms. All the same, he is an amazing young man and big brother!

Sleepwalking can be sooo expensive!

Fun Mom sleep walks. She talks in her sleep. That is fun to listen to, maybe that is why we call her the Fun Mom? Nah, she gets to do the fun stuff with the younger kids while I get the Mom work done around here.
Back on topic,
So this morning she tells me..."I can't find my retainer. I had it in my mouth when I went to bed. I know I was sleepwalking last night cause I trashed my bed and the covers were all over. I had to completely make the bed this morning."
In all my motherly wisdom I asked her, "Did you check the covers?"
"Yes" (said with big sigh and exasperation with mom...she is smart enough to know to do that...
Did you check...
your purse?
the bathroom?
retainer case?
Tons of running around to do and appointments. Phone calls to the orthodontist. We will have to make a decision. It takes a week to make a new retainer and she can only go about a week before her teeth move too much! So taking turns with everyone who is at home at any given time searching the house for the retainer...
Never turns up!
I make the call and order the new retainer. We over calculated this year for medical expenses, so we aren't stressing. We have some flex money that we might lose at the end of the year...now that is something we are trying to make sure doesn't happen.
She finally goes to bed and there is a loud exclamation.
She found it, smack dab in the middle of the bed. The SAME bed she remade. The SAME bed I asked her to check and she told me she had checked. AH! well....
She feels bad, very bad and asks me if I will at least try and call the orthodontist to see if we can cancel the order.
My new motherly wisdom.... Mom should strip and remake the bed herself!

Favorite Quoteables

This one is courtesy of the Fun Mom!
Our church is having their big garage sale this week. Youth and parents work to earn credits...money to be put towards church activities. We did this last year and it paid for half her camp this year! So today was our first work day. We had a 2 hour shift. Hefting heavy boxes from here to there. Out of trucks to one spot and then to another. After 2 1/2 hours, my back was starting to hurt...we stayed past the 2 hour mark cause she begged me to stay longer. I just couldn't lift anymore.

"I like working" "It makes me happy!" she said with a big smile and bouncy ponytail!

So I left her for another couple of hours. But, she "likes working, it makes her happy!" How come I don't hear that in reference to laundry and dishes? What about weeding? Cause she was out in the heat carrying boxes in. Does this mean she likes to weed, or would like to mow grass? She doesn't seem to think so.... But she likes to work and makes her happy, and makes her ponytail bounce! **Big Sigh**

We'll see if she is saying that later this week. We have at least 2 more shifts to work!

Ooey Gooey Icky Sticky Fun !

While the big 'uns were at piano and violin lessons today I took Flutter Nutter to the library program. We have not done much with the public library summer activities this year. But today, it was on my calendar and I decided to pay attention and make an effort. So glad I did! He had soo much fun. They had stations set up inside and outside. An hour of exploring textures and colors!

Daddy's Buddy could have gone, but he did not want to do his piano lesson last. He so wants to be associated with the older ones. So Flutter Nutter and I had some You & Me time!! We had a blast.

Reminded me of what it was like when there was just me and the Fun Mom. I could have gone and gone all day. Alas, we did have to pick up the others. We did a bit of garage sale-ing.

Then home to a wonderful lunch prepared by dear sweet hubby, who took advantage of the quiet time at home and mowed the yard, did a bit of work on the basement. It is soo hard to get anything done when any or all the kids are home. So it is like a treat to be left alone to get a project done.

Flutter Nutter Quoteables !

"Mommy do you want strawberries with yor whip cream? "

Hmmm, never thought of it in reverse. They just brought me a bowl and yep, strawberries are on top ! LOL


He doesn't have enough whip cream !! He tries to pouty lip to get more.... Not a chance!



So he is sitting next to me as I post, "Mommy that me! And I don't have too much !"
"Abby didn't put me in charge." "It is real good!"

Today's favorite Quoteable

The Fun Mom orchestrated a friend get together today. She and friend managed to slip out the back to go ride scooters around the lake. But first she had to distract Flutter Nutter who adores all of her friends, cause, well he is cute afterall.

So she raced him downstairs to play Wii.
He beat her, she darted back upstairs and the girls escaped.

Not to be fooled for long, he was dashing up the stairs as fast as his little legs could go. Where is she??? I want her???? I gonna go out this door....the sliding glass door. The only one he knows how to work the lock. "Oh, no you aren't!"
"The girls want girl time."
"Go downstairs and have boy time."

"I DON'T WANT BOY TIME, I WANT GIRL TIME! I WANT GIRL TIME! I WANT GIRL TIME!"
hmmm, I wish I could have recorded this for later. I am sure there will be a time, he won't be wanting girl time. hee hee

SuMmEr SaTuRdAy MoRnInGs ! * ! * !

I have not had much on the calendar this summer to do. My to-do list was to let the kids get bored. Know what? That hasn't happened yet. Since our school years keep us going and going, it is nice to go to the bare minimum. Don't get me wrong, my calendar fills up. Doctor appointments, drop kiddo off activities, things I want to do for a change. But it is nice and relaxing. This morning, I overheard Daddy's Buddy say, "Come on, we got a ball game!" I just about hit the floor cause I wanted to laugh so hard. Dad of course had to get a hat to protect his delicate head of no hair. As I sit there, watching the two of them, Daddy's Buddy impatiently says, "That will work, come on." Referring to the first hat in Dad's hand. Cause of course Dad has to get just the right hat and Daddy's Buddy just wanted to "get a move on it!" So finally the two have their hats and little Flutter Nutter grabs one and they head on out to the garage to get the gear.
Well I am so tickled by all I have heard, I grab the camera and head on outside to just see what I might capture.
Hockey Player is his very cool self, as usual. He does try to help little brother find a different ball. However, little brother knows it all and resists any efforts to change his mind. Because of course, he does know it all in his own little world. Mr. Cool Hockey Player, continues on and gets what he needs and heads out to toss the ball with Dad, cause he knows while the little guys are busy chasing balls, he will get down to business with Dad.
If you will note, Flutter Nutter is only "half dressed", he likes jammies and this day he compromised and put regular shorts on with his pj top. Daddy's Buddy is suited up to do battle if need be, he has his light saber on his side as well as the bat. You don't want to have a disagreement with this ball player, he has the force with him !
Enjoy ~

Running with Friends = Laugh till Your Cheeks Hurt

I went running again tonight with a couple of friends. I won't mention names.
They know who they are.
I received quite a bit of teasing at our girls night out.
I am not a runner like they can be. Maybe one day. But I lack consistency, have allergy and sometimes breathing issues. Not to mention child issues. Getting a chance to get away from them, that is.
Tonight though was my redemption.
I got the phone call.
They would meet me at such n such corner. I was to leave 2 minutes after hanging up.
I did.
I waited and waited. I was starting to feel weird standing at the corner doing nothing.
So I waited a bit more.
I saw 2 heads bobbing up over a hill. I waved at them..
I started running. Cause I am not the runner they are, they would catch up with me.
They never saw me! Since I was not at the corner they turned to go to my house.
I quickly called Fun Mom to rush out and redirect them..."Tell them, I am on the road and I will see them when they catch me!"
She did.
Guess what?!? They never did catch me. I even had to stop and re-tie my shoes.
I finally started walking towards them.
They finally caught up to me. They were WALKING! ! ! !!
Oh, so they are never going to live this down, ever.
It was hot, but I was running.
The best part is.... When we got back to my house they pleaded with me to give them a ride home in the air conditioning. Oh the beauty of this story. Cause not too long ago, I pleaded for a ride home. They took me on what was suppose to be a mile run which ended up being a 2.6 mile run. The last 1/2 mile just did not have to be done, there was a house with a couple of vans parked in front and they could have driven me home....
But, then again I wouldn't have such a sweet story to tell.
So thanks ladies, for challenging me and pushing me (literally) along.
Maybe one day I will hold my own with you when we go running.

Thumbs Up for Eggs!

Flutter Nutter has added eggs to his diet with no problem.
Fun Mom chatters at me tonight while I work and she makes pizza for diner,
"so much easier to fix food now."
"No nuts is no big deal."
"He can have real Oreos now, too!"
Guess what is going on the shopping list.
But she is right. It is great, only to have the nut allergy now.
Flutter Nutter made a comment yesterday at the table and he was irked about his peanut allergy. I suggested we start praying for him to be healed from his nut allergy and he calmed down a bit. He looooooves chocolate. The one food he would get into during his "avoidance" years. Benadryl would come out. I would ask him, "was it worth it?" His answer was always a resounding, "Yes!" So to have some chocolate be okay and other chocolate not happy tummy, really bugs this guy.

Laugh until your Cheeks Hurt!

That is my blinkie for now.

That is what we did tonight!

With dear husband on day shift and knowing this fact a month ago. I contacted a group of ladies that get together once or twice a year or whenever one of us needs a ladies night. I just sent the FYI that I would be available certain dates. They did not disappoint! It was wonderful to get together and share and laugh. Several of these ladies this is the only time we get to catch up face to face. The rest of the year, word of mouth or the computer is all that we have to connect us.

I sat at our table and marveled at our differences. Yet our love for the Lord connects us, as well as the womanly need for connection with other women. We are a melting pot of stages of life, single, married, been married for long time, older kids, younger kids, no kids, homeschool, not homeschool, work out of the home, and work in the home ladies. We cover it all! For this I am grateful. Grateful for friends who look beyond the titles, job descriptions, labels. Instead, friends who look more to the heart, love to laugh, and are yet comfortable with the silent pauses in conversation. Women/friends who are willingly to openly share their love for the Lord and the times they have experienced His presence.

Grateful for learning about home remodeling projects, beam removals. Crazy antics of little brothers. Being the center of much ridicule and comedy. Getting to be the source of great humor and laughter for my friends is a particular gift of mine. Parenting encouragement from those who have been there and done that. Sharing what has worked for others.
Of course it is particularly amazing to not have to get the 5 kiddos ready for bed and answering the bizzillionth question and request for water. Wonderful to have a husband who lets me have these special mom times.

Laugh till your cheeks hurt........

Today's Quoteables

Courtesy of Flutter Nutter....
Snuggling in bed this morning, watching tv with bleary eyed mommy, he leans over and pats me, "You a beaudiful woman"
Took my breath away. I don't know where he got that line, but he's gonna be a charmer.
Later, at noonish--- "I want a snack"
No, I am fixing lunch.
"I don't want lunch, I want a snack!" All said in that perfected 3 yr. old whine which is followed by cries and howls.

Summer mornings!

This week with Dad on first shift summer mornings have been a bit different. I haven't been able to enjoy the first two mornings as we had morning appointments.
But this morning....
I woke to snuggling on sweet boy.
Dozed off, until
another sweet boy came and woke me up to tell me he went potty in the toilet (ah those are sweet words, believe me)
More snuggling as we watch a little tv to let mom wake up.
Another drifted in just before 9.
Time to move, and another arises from his cave.
at 915, the Fun Mom is still snuggled deep and is lost in dreamland.
I just can't let my teenager sleep till 10, so she is awake now.
Silently awake. Disappointed I am not going to be her social life driver. But she will survive. A quiet day at home is a good thing even if you are a teenager.
Now the other 4 are intensely playing wii and/or watching someone play wii.
I better get busy before they need me.