13 YEARS

Happy Anniversary Babe! I can't believe we've already been married for 13 years. My how time flies when you're having fun. These have been the best years of my life and I wouldn't change a thing about them. I look forward to the joy and adventures yet to come. Thank you for saying yes to that dance. I've been madly in love with you from that first dance and 'I love the way you love me' (thanks John Michael Montgomery).


aahh...don't we look so young? What happened?

Tag...I'm it

I was tagged by Tanja. I'm supposed to list 7 things about me, so here goes:

1. I would rather do most things myself than give up the control and let someone else do it. (I'm working on this!!)

2. I can't stop buying things for new crafts....even though I already have more things than I could ever get made. And I'm still buying things to try something new.

3. I love to read. If I'm enjoying the book I can put off doing almost everything else until I'm finished.

4. When I give gifts I get so excited about it I can't stand the waiting until it's time.

5. It drives me crazy for the forks/spoons/knives to be in the wrong spot in the tray in the silverware drawer.

6. My favorite time of the day is sunrise. I love to be outside before the rest of the world wakes up.

7. I'm crazy about Snoopy.

I read another blog (well, far more than just one other) but on this one she always posts a Thankful Thursday post. Today she asked (if you don't have a Thankful Thursday post) why not? I thought it was a good questions and I didn't have a good answer, so here goes mine.

I am thankful:

1. that Dax & I own our own business which gives us the freedom to be more involved in our children's lives.

2. for the wonderful sense of play and imagination that my children show daily.

3. that I was able to open my home to my parents in the wake of hurricane Ike and again to friends this week to watch something that was very important to me.

4. for my many creative outlets that bring me so much joy.

5. sitting down most nights at the dinner table to eat as a family and share the days happenings.

6. autumn days when we can have the windows open.

7. rain (we need some more of it).

The Two Musketeers

Last night in class Wyatt and Addison got to actually suit up and fence. They really loved it and I thought it was great watching them! Woohoo! We all win. lol



Addison is on the right in the above photo. She's fencing against a boy and she'll have to learn to be more agressive with it. She didn't have any problem with being agressive when she was fencing against Wyatt though. lol



In this picture Wyatt is the one on the left. He's fencing against another boy. Wyatt started off really well but then backed off a bit.

They both seem to really pay attention to the coaches and try to do it the way they're being told (not like when they played soccer.) When they're at home they practice fencing with Star Wars light sabers. LOL

Impromptu Party

A couple of our friends came over last night to watch Leno with us. (They don't own a tv). They wanted to see it because they own Birdsong Guitars and the band on the show last night has a bass player that plays with one of their handbuilt guitars. How cool is that? We actually know somebody, that knows somebody, that might actually be somebody. Are you impressed or what? Want my autograph? Better hurry before the price goes up!

Oh well, here's the clip:

Oops! I guess I lied. I couldn't find a clip from the tonight show anywhere. But here's their video and I believe that the bass player is playing a Birdsong. (I think)

Doing her part

When I got home this afternoon these signs were hanging all around.




Addison drew them. They're all about saving the pandas. She also made a big stack for me to hang all around town.

I don't know what's made her decide on pandas, but they are currently in her sights. There seems to always be something that needs her help. I think its incredibly sweet of her to care, even at this young age.

Road Warrior

This big, scary guy was walking across the road when we were on our way to school this morning. Bleck!!!



It's hard to tell how big he is without anything in the picture for comparison but I wasn't about to get out of the car to do that!! I did stop in the middle of the road though so the kids could look at him. *giggle* (and NO there was no other traffic) The way he's standing in the picture he's probably about 5 inches front to back. He's bigger than the hamster in that picture down there. At different times of the year we see them on the road a lot. It just gives me the heeby-jeebies.

Some of our 'extended' family

I let the kids have the camera to play with the other day and they took pictures of some of the rest of the family.

Meet Bob



Bob is a robo dwarf hamster (he's in the upper right corner in the picture). He's a little thing but boy is he fast. Bob belongs to Addison and that's his name because it's Addison's favorite name. She's already decided that she's having three children and they'll be named Grace, Bob, and Bunny. Lord help us!!


Next is Patches. He's Abigail's mouse. He's really laid back and mostly wants to sleep. He doesn't even care to play with any of the things we buy and when she puts him in his ball to crawl around the house he just sits there. lol





This is Thin Mint. The kids went through a period where everything got food names. Thin Mint is the sole survivor of the tragedies when we got home from vacation. The bunnies that passed were Chocolate, Caramel, Snow Ball, and Anchovie. I don't even know where they come up with the names they do. When we got our most recent dog Addison wanted to name it Addison, Jr. They're just too funny!!




This is Rainbow. Yes, she's all black, and yes, the kids named her. lol I found her walking on the side of a very busy road when she was just a tiny little kitten so I stopped and picked her up. She's really been a good cat because she put up with the kids carrying her around all the time when they were only about four. The look on her face was always one of 'please, God, let this hurry and be over.' She's put up with a lot!!




And, this is my baby Thunder. He really couldn't much be bothered with the rest of them but he wants to be wherever I am. He's losing his hearing so he doesn't always know if I've left the room so if he can't see me it doesn't take long for him to be wandering through the house looking for me. When I go outside without him he sits in the house and whines. He's a big baby!!

Sleep Over

One of my children had a friend spend the night this weekend. I'll refer to the 'guest child' as G. I'm really used to my own kids (duh) and find many of their friends to be a little odd. G is no exception. I made dinner - hamburger patties & mac-n-cheeese. Don't know what G eats so figured mac-n-cheese was safe. G wasn't hungry so didn't eat when the rest of us ate. 30 minutes later G was hungry. G wants pepsi and chips for dinner. Sorry, not for dinner at my house. G pouts a little then asks one of my kids to make some peanut butter toast. Said child gives G the stuff to make it. G puts the pb on the bread (3 slices) and then asks how to toast it but decides the microwave is fine because the pb has to be warm. The next morning G has 6 more pieces of this pb warmed bread. The other kids had pancakes but G didn't want those. Then at lunch time my kids had left over mac-n-cheese (there was a lot) but G wasn't hungry again. Then when I put everything away G came and asked for some mac-n-cheese. grrr! Then G proceeded to eat 4 bowls of it. (why couldn't G eat it the night before when everyone else did? I don't get it.)(and why can't G eat at the same time as everyone else? - G has spent the night before and we went to Pizza Hut. G didn't eat any pizza until I started boxing up the left-overs to leave) G also ate 2 big bags of chips during the stay. I guess all of this is okay at home, but I don't let my kids eat that way. We eat at dinner time as a family and not junk food instead. They're not allowed to just randomly graze all day either. They get snacks but it's not just constant grazing. G also got a new glass, plate, bowl, etc. with each serving. For mac-n-cheese alone that's four bowls to be washed. When I loaded the dishwasher G's dirty dishes outnumbered the dishes for my family of six!! I feel terrible about it, but I was so ready for this child to go home (a/f's arrival didn't make me feel any more kindly either). I felt like a waitress running back and forth trying to keep this customer happy. I did tell my children last night how wonderful they are and how much I love and appreciate them. I think my kids were actually getting irritated by G's behavior. Needless to say, it will be awhile before G is invited back over. I need time to forget again. lol

Tell me, should a parent with a child that is a very picky eater or has odd eating habits tell the parents of the friend about it if the child is going to be spending the night? I just felt like I could have used a little insight or at least a heads up. kwim? Maybe being able to plan for it could have kept me from getting so irritated by it all......or maybe not. lol I just don't know.

Okay, I feel better now. I just had to get that out. lol

Why?

Why is it that every night when I start to cook dinner, one of our dogs does this?



It drives me crazy!! She lays right in front of the stove the whole time I'm cooking so that I have to step over her. I can't begin to count the number of times she's almost caused me to fall down. And with five other people in the house couldn't she find anyone else to be close to? And it's not like we give her people food. I guess she's just hoping.

Ahh, the trials of life. lol

Pizza Night

Last night I set out all the ingredients and let the kids make their own individual pizzas. It's amazing how much they love doing this. I used pita bread for the crust and let them go from there. It also allows me to get other things done while they're getting dinner ready. If you've never tried this before, you really should. It's great fun for the kids.