I think I ended my last post with Lindsay receiving her American Girl doll in the mail. Julie (the American Girl doll) has been everywhere with us this week. She has been well loved. I decided since we had nowhere to go Tuesday, I would let everyone sleep in til 7:30. What a nice Mom, eh? Well, here is our Beaker smiling amidst her sorrow because she didn't get to see Daddy before he left for work. She was NOT happy and was crying and really not happy with him for leaving her. So I called him and he talked to her. She was happy after she heard his voice.
It's a little blurry but here are Kristine and Beatrice cleaning up their mess they made while I was busy folding clothes and making my bed. Yes, it's true. I DO make our bed every weekday. I don't do it on weekends. They did a great job too except Beatrice was really bothered by the fact that Kristine liked to stand on the dustpan. Not sure why, it stayed in its place for her.
As usual, we went to the nursing home on Tuesday. We reached a milestone there because Beaker was cold and I was trying to play the piano and keep her warm. It wasn't working so Mr. McNair said he would hold her and she very shyly went over by him and both of them were a bit surprised at each other I think!!
Isn't he a cute little old man. He loves the children, too. We won't be there this Wednesday and I really am sad about that but we have a good reason. We are going to visit Taylors' family for three days. The children don't know so they are going to be over the moon Monday morning when they find out.
After the nursing home, we met Dorothy and the Great Oz, and my sister-in-law and her children at the Sawmill Grill. It is probably the worst restaurant I have ever eaten at. They can accommodate our large crowd but their wait staff is very unprofessional and untrained. Anyway, after lunch, Dorothy and Oz took Robert, Lindsay, Beatrice, and Kristine home with them and they spent the night there. Dorothy and Oz were out of town for about a week and they had company for two and a half weeks before that so we haven't gotten to see them much. This left me with Maddie. So, here is where the first milestone comes in: We drove all around looking for a cellphone for her. She has wanted a cellphone and, here is milestone number 2, she is old enough to stay home by herself! Since we don't have a house phone I knew she needed a cell phone. We found a tracfone for $5.00 and on Friday I bought her a minutes card. She is so excited about it. I couldn't find my phone to take photos though so I will this week.
We met Mr. Handsome at church Wednesday night and then went to Red Robin for dinner after church. We love Red Robin!
On Thursday, Maddie and I got up and she started school and then we left to get the rest of the gang. We met Dorothy at Food Lion. They all had fun and even Cousin John spent the night and did great!! He loves his cousins and they love him!
We headed back home and everyone started school and I got lunch ready. That afternoon, some of my friends came over and we went to visit some shut-ins from our church while Maddie, reaching milestone number 3, stayed home with the gang. She was so excited!! I was a bit nervous but felt like she would do an excellent job. She is very responsible and very sincere when she has something to do. I had a great time visiting a lady from our church who has Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home. I went with a dear friend of mine who happens to be her daughter-in-law. I had a small squishy golf ball in my pocket and when I gave it to her, she just loved it!! And she was thrilled when I told her she could keep it! We then went and visited another sweet lady with whom we had a nice visit. Then we headed home. It was only about 1.5 hours but it was enough for Maddie and she did terrific.
Thursday night, Robert had his second night of Boy Scouts. He is now a Webelo I, milestone number 4, which is a bit sad because the Cub Scouts are so cute!! Webelos are cute I guess but the Cub Scouts are still little boys. Webelos are young men!! He loves scouts with Mr. Handsome. And Mr. Handsome loves Scouts with Robert. While they were gone I got ready for co-op. I am in charge of the craft class this week and I picked out a flag banner for a craft. Here is a prototype:
You may not be able to see it but it says Mom on it. The children were going to make their names on their banners. I used my cricut and my make-the-cut program (which I just found out doesn't make their program for cricut anymore - thank you provocraft for ruining my life! (just kidding)...
I decided to not make lunches for everyone the night before co-op. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. Bad idea! Kristine let me know it ALL day Friday!! ALL day!! I decided to just pack one big snack for everyone in Robert's bag instead of giving them each their own lunch bag. I did not realize she looked so forward to her "nack' as she calls it. A lesson learned!! On Friday we headed out to co-op and had another great day. In hind sight, I will definitely have to make the crafts last longer. This was the SECOND craft in a row that took a whole five minutes!! Thankfully my friend who is actually in charge of that class had a very creative idea that kept them busy most of the rest of the class. They loved the banners.
After co-op, our great adventure began. Determined to finish these curtains for my kitchen, I planned our meals so I would have enough to pay for ALL the fabric for them. OH - I completely forgot!! And to help me "save" money, I decided to find the best deals in town and USE coupons. Did I just say that? Yes, I did. Well, after two hours of trying to find coupons to match product and also having the auspicious honor of getting a virus on my computer because of the couponing, I concluded what I already KNEW about couponing: Unless you eat junk food and have LOADS of time on your hand (I don't because I'm too busy on facebook!), and money for ink and paper, it doesn't pay. And I saved one whole dollar. AND I had to bring the product back in the store with my receipt to get my dollar because I forgot to use my ONE coupon. ONE. I know, Aunt Betty Jean, it is so worth it to do it with toiletries and stuff like that!! I think that I will just drive down to Bradenton every six months and raid your closet!! Ha Ha Ha!!! :) I did use southernsavers.com to print out my lists for Harris Teeter, Food Lion, and Lowes Food for what I wanted at each store and that was very helpful.
So anyway, back to after co-op. Friday was shopping day. We love shopping day. We get paid! And we go shopping. And our friends palled around with us too so that made it even more fun. Here we are at our last stop and probably our favorite store, Lowes Foods:
Everyone is so excited about having money, it's like a free for all! They are grabbing whatever looks good! (Yes, my children spend their allowance on their own junk food. Pineapple soda? BLECH!!) And there ARE three kids shopping carts too. See? Here they are ready to roll:
Isn't that cute? Just try leading them around the store and stopping. Talk about hurting achilles heels. OH, and here's where milestone number five was reached: Beaker no longer needs my help getting in the van!! And the big kids can shut the door themselves. I sat in the van feeling sort of helpless because I had nothing to do but wait until everyone was in and Robert shut the van door. What a weird but exciting feeling!! See what I mean about menopause? Happy and melancholy don't work together!!
I took these pictures for my younger brother. He is such a transformers geek. And being the nongeek, I did not realize until I looked at this for quite a while that the -imus at the end has both vowels short. I was pronouncing it like Don IMUS!! Ha ha ha hahahaaaa......
And mispronouncing the choc in chocwave did not make sense either, then I realized choc has to rhyme with shock!! See what I mean? No geekness in me!
So after Lowes Foods, we skittered home and had, dare I say it, Cars chicken nuggets!! It was such an unimpressive meal but the children thoroughly enjoyed it. Today we had Lindsay's special birthday dinner with the Great Oz and Dorothy. One would think since we live only 25 minutes from each other we would have them for dinner more often but I am embarrassed to say this, we don't! I am so glad that I remembered to ask them yesterday. We had a great time. Pork ribs, salad, bread, and baked potatoes in the microwave. Maddie brought that to my attention: you can make baked potatoes in the microwave because our microwave has a baked potato button. Go figure. What will they think of next? A popcorn button? OH wait!! They HAVE a popcorn button!!
This is a photo of a double rainbow only I don't think you can see the second rainbow. The one is to the left of the pine tree in the center and the other is to the right of it.
I end with our Beatrice, enjoying her video game. She is bowling with Kristine and the two of them were so excited when Beatrice made a spare for Kristine!! Too cute!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment