Kristinie the Great is 3!

I will start with this photo because my editing program is not cooperating with me!! Grrrrrrr.... We started our week out rearranging bedrooms. Before God blessed us with our house, I had prayed for the childrens' bedrooms to be near ours so I didn't need to use monitors. Well, not that we would have used them anyway if their rooms WERE on the other side of the house. (I know, you are probably thinking I am a horrible parent - but the last thing our children needed was their parents jumping up at every little squawk to check on them!!) Their bedrooms are just down and around the hall we are on. (We only have one hall, actually.) We let Maddie have her room in the F.R.O.G. for about a year and that was enough for us to realize she was becoming extremely selfish and reclusive. So Mr. Handsome said that if I moved everything I could, she could move downstairs. He would move the large things. As it turned out, all he needed to do was move her bed downstairs. After all the furniture moving I did, I was too tired to take her bed apart and bring it downstairs. We did it all in one day, collecting about eight bags of trash and 10 bags to Goodwill. I even found baby blankets from when our Robert was a baby!!! WOW!!! So Maddie and Beaker share a room, Lindsay and Beatrice share a room, and Robert has the little green room. Everyone is happy. THEN - Scary incident No. 1 happened at bedtime: BUGS!! EVERYWHERE!! All over Robert's wall. They were black and had BIG wings. We used some bug spray we had and they all died. It was pretty scary. Tuesday morning I called Exterminator Guy and prayed. And I forgot that Heating and Air Guy came to put our new A/C unit in. Exterminator Guy came and answered prayer: the BUGS were no termites but Argentinian ants. Illegal aliens in my own home!!  

 The two rather dark pictures are Robert in his new room. He is completely turned around on his bed!! Too funny!! Back to my story: Heating and Air Guy spent Tuesday here with his buddy. Heating and Air Guy likes to talk - a lot. I need to get my brother to get a shirt that says, "Yes, they are ALL mine and NO I don't have time to chat about it!!" Would that be considered rude? I don't know. But anyway, I was getting a little concerned that he would be here until May if he kept talking. In cases like this, I always try to put a pot of water on the stove so I can politely dismiss myself by saying, "I think my water is boiling." Of course, one would get rather suspicious if I did this four to 10 times a day!!

 Beatrice reached a great milestone!! She wrote her name all by herself. I don't know if she can spell it but she can spell B-E-A. I have a funny story to tell but that will have to wait for Wednesday because it happened on Wednesday. She is very excited about this and proceded to write her name on every blank line in her Sparks book - which is where her teachers are supposed to write THEIR names. One of her favorite teachers was in Florida this week and she really missed her. Good thing her other favorite teacher wasn't. Bea would have driven me bonkers!!!

 On Tuesday afternoon we took a field trip to see my Dad and Mom's new puppy. We got to see her before Dad and Mom because she was still with HER mom at my friend's house. The puppy's official name is: Dagmar Gretchen Clover Boo Spotsy Lucy Sara Dogwood Pat-Pat Jones!! I don't know if that will even fit on her papers!! She is going to be called Dagmar except Beaker who yells, "AND PAT-PAT!" whenever we talk about Dagmar!! She is a cutie but I can say unequivocally, I am glad we do not have a dog. I wasn't really thinking about the ramifications of going to see Dagmar until after Mr. Handsome and Robert got home from visitation and I could hear Robert coughing from OUTSIDE - in the driveway!! It was his croupy-this-could-be-big-problems cough. I hadn't heard him that bad since he was about 3 or 4 years old so I knew something was wrong. And I knew it was serious because the cool night air didn't help him feel better. I gave him some tylenol and zyrtec, asked a friend to pray for him, and within minutes after he went to sleep, he had stopped coughing. Not out of the woods yet, I pumped him with tylenol and zyrtec in the morning and we prayed about it. Thank the Lord, his symptoms improved during the day. It was sometime Wednesday afternoon I realized he was reacting to being around dogs. He was around Dagmar and her brothers and sisters and another dog Tuesday evening that shed REALLY bad!! I was sure relieved to figure out the source of the cough and very thankful he is fine now.

 Here is Beaker holding one of Dagmar's brothers.

 This is Dagmar.

 And here she is again.

 The puppy Beatrice is holidng was her best bud!! That puppy just loved Beatrice. When we were getting ready to leave, Beatrice tried to sneak out of the house with it. It was so content with her!!

On Wednesday, we went to the nursing home. The residents love to see us and for some reason get some sort of delight seeing my children act, well, like children. Beatrice and Kristinie the Great were going to sing a call and response song and I thought I was very clear on who was first and who was second. Apparently not. I was playing the piano while they sang and they started YELLING - yes, my little darlings were YELLING and SHOVING each other because they both wanted to be first to sing!!! It was a bit embarassing but the residents got a HUGE kick out of it!! I was mortified and decided that we would probably not sing call and response songs again. Afterward we met my mom for lunch at Atlanta Bread Company. Here's the funny story I was going to tell. Beatrice was writing her name and turned to Dorothy and yelled: (Because it's a bit loud in ABC and Dorothy can't hear that well) Grandma, Guess what? I can write my name!!! Dorothy asks, as any normal adult would ask, "Great!! How do you write your name?" And Beatrice looked at her kind of funny and held up her pencil and said, "WITH A PENCIL!!!" We were cracking up. When we got home, Heating and Air Guy was still working on that A/C. He is a hard worker. He didn't talk so much to me today.

On Thursday, I spent the morning making chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes for Beaker's birtrhday. Dorothy and Oz were coming over on Friday so we could give her her birthday present - Bitty Baby Twins!! I made two batches of chocolate chip cookie bars and one batch of chooclate chip cookie dough cupcakes. They have to be my favorite cupcakes so far!!

 Here is Beaker licking the batter off the beater.

 I was waiting for the cookies to cool and decided to take a photo of my pantry. The top shelf is usually a little neater but we have dribs and drabs of chips left that everyone got bored of and they wont' finish them. I took a picture of it because I wanted to have documented proof that we do our best not to eat anything that is processed. I've come a long way from Twinkies being my favorite food group!! Our chips are all organic, blah blah blahs. Except for those Tostitos - they are not from me. They were given to me. And there are moon pies that were given to me!! We are not above eating junk food now! But on principle, I will buy one bag of chips to last two weeks (At Costco, they are easy to find) and some sort of snacky thing like all-natural fruit snacks(I'm not sure what that means but the box assures me there are no artificial preservatives and food colors and addtitives - which brings me to another thought - if a fruit snack is not grown and it is made, doesn't that make it UNnatural - just sayin'?) which last about two months. And the rest of our food is fresh, or frozen, rarely canned and rarely anything that is a "hollandaise medley" of sorts. I am proud to say that our children will eat asparagus, brussels sprouts, shrimp, tilapia, crab, lobster, salmon, spinach(as long as it is fresh sauted), all kinds of meats and fruits, too!! Maddie is the pickiest eater out of all of them but she still does great. Everyone eats what's put in front of them. They know the consequences of turning their noses up at something I've made (and I have made some bad meals that we've all suffered through together - I"m thinking Gorgonzola meatloaf which was gorgonzola overload!!) Maddie quickly reminds them of how she had to eat her dinner for breakfast and when she refused it, had to eat it for lunch. It cured her and has cured everyone else.

 We do eat cereal - well THEY eat cereal; I ususally have toast with homemade plum or strawberry jam.

 I know, my pantry is not very impressive - in fact quite boring!! I am sure people wonder how we even eat without cans of cream of mushroom soup, ritz crackers, and boxed cake mix (we survive!). But it's a great feeling to know that I am doing what I can to feed my family the very best I can. Plus what a great accomplishment to make a meal from scratch!! I am still learning so much about cooking and hope I will get better but it is great to be able to make something - in most cases cheaper - and know that it was made from nonprocessed foods!! We do love our processed foods though. Allowance time brings home the worst kind of junk you can imagine. But since their main meals are healthy and good for them, it's not a big deal when they want fun stuff to eat.

 Heating and Air Guy was finally finished on Thursday. He said he would be back Monday because something isn't working right. Here is Lindsay playing with pieces of pvc he gave the kids. They also got some wire from him. Both of the things entertained them for hours!!

 Here are the wonderful looking cupcakes. I should have cut one in half so you could see what they looked like. Chocolate chip cookie on bottom, cupcake on top. The best of both worlds!! And both from scratch - not a box!

 These are sliced baked potatoes from pinterest.com. If you have never been there, you must try it. I no longer have to print things out!! It's a virtual bulletin board.

 Friday has finally arrived!! And here is Birthday Girl with her Bitty Baby Twins. Their names are Robert and Lindsay!!

 And here is Birthday Girl with her twins in their carrier. She gets up first in the morning and opens all the doors to every bedroom and you can hear her dragging her carrier behind her!!! Too funny!!

 Here is Birthday Girl with her cupcake and her Hello Kitty candle (doesn't that candle look familiar?!!)

 Making every effort she could to blow it out. Mommy had to help a little. Beaker needed an old windbag to blow that thing out!! HA HA!

 We went outside after dinner Friday to play with the children while Mr. Handsome and Oz hid our wires from our entertainment center. They had to drill holes into it and pull the wires through. It looks fabulous now!! OH - and the Great and Powerful Oz being the Great and Powerful Guy he is hit our mailbox when they arrived!! In his big black Honda pickup truck!! Yep, yep, yep, he did!! It's nice to know not much has changed!!

 My third finished chore card organizer. This is for a lady who won it at our homeschool support night meeting. I donated it. I think I've arrived!! Someone asked me if I had an etsy shop!

And I end with Beatrice working on her AWANA verses with one of her favorite teachers - the one who was in Florida last week!! Our arrival home tonight brough the realization that our Lindsay has a phobia of crawly things. We pulled in the driveway to find a baby copperhead. Our friend, bobtail cat, is not around anymore so I guess the snakes are coming out to visit. Mr. Handsome got a broom and a shovel and killed it. As we were recovering from that, I heard a blood curdling scream behind me (Mr. Handsome had us all wait in the van while he took care of said snake.) and Lindsay screaming, "SPIDER! SPIDER!" And yes indeed, in our van, there was a spider. So I grabbed Mr. Handsome's nose spray he had just bought from the pharmacy and beat the spider to a pulp - I hope. And that is how we ended our Sunday evening!

The road less travelled

I am glad to greet the first day of the week tonight. We had a great week but I am glad it is over and we can look forward to what this week holds for us. We started out our week, of course, in church. We had a fun time and even though AWANA was rather crazy - we have the sixth through eighth graders - it was a lot of fun as usual.

Monday brought a trip to my inlaws. It has been a long time since I have been out there and a month or so since the children had been out. So we decided to hit the road at 6:45am. We arrived around 10:00 due to slow-moving traffic between Raeford and West End. Those towns probably mean nothing to most of you but they are very small towns on Route 211. Raeford is where Raeford chicken is produced and processed. West End is where my father-in-law grew up. It is two towns away from Eagle Springs, the town my inlaws live in.

 Here is Beaker in her Mickey Mouse dress-up outfit. The younger girls love to dress up and dance around at my inlaws.

 This is a picture of my inlaw's pond in front of their house. We usually go out on the boat but the pond was too low from no rain in the summer.

 A mushroom - oooooooh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!

This is Eagle Springs, which the town is named after. I think if it had been raining more in the summer it would look a bit more austere than a pipe in the ground.



Here is Buzz's Creek, named for Mr. Handsome's beloved family dog. And the stream that runs off of Eagle Springs.



Robert jumping rope.

We also went riding on the four-wheelers and walking in the woods. I even went on the four-wheeler with our maddie and didn't get lost. We came home on Wednesday around lunchtime. This way, we only missed two days of school. We did miss the nursing home, but Lord willing, we will go there this Wednesday. It was good to be home. I do not like driving and I am very thankful that God kept us safe on our journey. My inlaws had a great time and we also were able to see my niece and nephew and brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

The big excitement for the day was that Beaker got her own bike!! Grandpa Blake gave Beatrice an old bike they had and she gave Beaker her bike. So I put the training wheels on and in no time she got the hang of it. I had a photo of Beatrice riding her bike but I don't know what I did with it. I must have lost it somewhere. I will post one. Kristine is so thrilled to have her "own" bike.

On the left is our buddy Little A; on the right Little K, the two sixth cutest babies on the planet. Aren't they cute - they came to visit and they were talking to each other!! Little A would say something and Little K would try her best to imitate him. We were cracking up.

I am having some kind of trouble with uploading my photos so some of them are not showing up. What a bummer!! I was going to post a photo of Little K because she is so diminutive and cute compared to Little A, who is all boy!! Little K's big brother is Beaker's buddy.

Friday came and we had co-op. The children loved the candy clay chicks that we made in our craft class. They were very excited that they could eat them! We spent our lunch at the park with our friends, dropped Maddie off at band, then skittered home so Beaker could take a nap and everyone else could finish school. Maddie arrived home, finished school, and then the girls and I went on a big adventure. Robert and Mr. Handsome had a men's fellowship at church so the girls and I got to go to Happy Days Diner and eat out. Our waitress was outstanding, and that is saying a lot because I think that Wilmington has the worst wait staff in the world, bar none!! She was wonderful and was very accomodating. Most wait staff get very angry with us when we try to keep our bill down but she even helped me find ways to do it!! After Happy Days Diner, we headed to Belk to exchange and buy clothes. All the girls were very satisfied with what they picked out. Maddie is wearing a dress we really liked but it is too short for her. And for her Mom and Dad! She found some shirts and a sweater; Lindsay found some shirts, pants, and a dress; Bea and Kristine both found a shirt and a pair of pants. After very poor customer service we headed over to Coldstone Creamery where we each had some delicious ice cream. We then headed home and all the girls fell right to sleep!! We all slept in on Saturday. It was great.

When I woke up, I had one thing on my mind (even though I had this crazy dream that I went to the mountains to perform for a 9/11 memorial service, only to return with the wrong saxophone - I woke up with a start and nearly had a panic attack thinking my saxophone was gone!! Thankfully I awakened enough to realize it was a dream.): finish the kitchen curtains. And - I did!!! Here they are sans tie-backs. I can't decide how to handle the tie-backs.

I love them!! They really add a lot to the room and they will look fabulous with the seat covers I picked out for the chairs. They are a surprise so you will have to wait until my friend comes back from Walt Disney World. She is going to help me with them.

It was such a great relief to be done with the curtains. Now I am going to start working on Christmas presents and a quilt for Little A. I found this cute, well, you'll just have to wait until I finish it!! I am also making a skirt for one of our teenagers at church as well as one for myself. Then I have to make curtains for Robert's room - apparently almost 9 year olds don't want truck curtains anymore. And a curtain for Maddie and Kristine's room.

Today we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day at our church. October is Clergy Appreciation Month and we had a big dinner on the grounds (that's what they call it in the south) after the morning service. What a great time we had. One of our older gentleman loves to help by cooking barbecued chicken. And our pastors' daughters and one of my dear friends pulled out all the stops to make sure everything was done properly. From the setting the food out to cleaning up. In fact, Aunt Twesa, one of our pastor's daughters, loves to spoil Beaker. And ALL the little kids. Here is Beaker after Aunt Twesa gave her an ice pop:

Yep, that would be a blue tongue!!! Thank you Aunt Twesa, we love you!! :)

Then the disaster happened. Thankfully, not involving any food. All the toilets in the nursery wing - which also includes our fellowship hall/gym - flooded over. ALL of them!! Thankfully, Mr. Handsome, our pastor, and his son-law were there to save the day. They meticulously and carefully cleaned everything up. Mr. Hamdsome and Preacher could not find where the pipe was broken, collapsed, blocked, or whatever could be the problem. Here they are after several hours of searching and digging.

Mr. Handsome is on the left, just in case you're wondering!! HA!!!

While they were digging ditches and filling them in, we spent one hour of our year taking a stand for something God despises. We took a stand today against abortion at a silent protest. We held signs and stood quietly for one hour. My favorite sign is one my friend made: It's a life not a choice. This year the response was rather pleasant. Usually, people say mean things and give mean gestures but we only had a handful of that sort of stuff. I am glad that God gives us the opportunity to do that.

Here we are!! It was strange not having Mr. Handsome and Robert here. They have never missed a time to do this.

After our time at the life chain, we headed home and got ready to go to AWANA. It was another whirlwind night. We are having pizza next week!! Here is Beaker with her Cubbies director. She loves Mrs. 'Anya (Mrs. Tanya):

This week will be filled with lots of fun things; getting ready for Grandma and Grandpa's new puppy, rearranging rooms, making skirts, refinishing chairs for one of my dear friends. See you next week!! :)

What doth a day bring forth?

I am a day early so my post will probably be short since I only posted last Tuesday! But each day this past week has been full of fun, busy, craziness. We reached milestones that had me jumping for joy and getting all sentimental at the same time. I guess it will be that way from here on out. I don't think women go through menopause because their hormones change, I think they go through menopause because their children are growing up and don't need them as much. My children are in the midst of toddlerhood through the cusp of being a teen. How much more emotion could we honestly cram into our home in a given day I ask with a bit of sarcasm!!

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!! :)