hmm...

Sitting in the drive-thru lane at the bank,

I reached over and grabbed a book from the passenger seat.

I figured I should make good use of those two minutes...

I cracked the cover

but I couldn't bring myself to read it;

it just felt wrong, somehow.

The book?

Margin

How can you read a book on margin

in 2 minute intervals??

the rest of the story

To fully appreciate the significance of my last post,

we need to go back....

way back...

~

When I was young,

I thought I could pretty much do anything.

And not only do it, but do it well.

I could cook.

I was great with kids.

I was only a mediocre basketball player,

but what I lacked in ball-handling skills

I made up in speed and aggression,

so I was a pretty great asset defensively.

Which, in my humble opinion,

more than compensated for my measly 2 or 4 points a game.

I was thrifty.

I was smart.

I was amazing in my short working-girl career.

(it's been rumored I was pretty cute in my uniform, too)
I was a fairly good wife and a fun mom.
I could handle a needle and thread just fine.
I was no slouch with finances, either.

And then,

we bought a house.

A house that needed some remodeling done.

But I wasn't a bit worried about it

because

I

could do anything.

And goodness knows, Tyler could, too!

We bought drywall to replace some highly flammable something

that was currently on the walls in one of the rooms.

And I found out real quick

that I couldn't drive a nail 

to save my life!

I was shocked!

I was

mad

!

I had never before - to my recollection -

not

been able to do something I tried to do.

And so for fifteen years, 

I never attempted to hang drywall

again.

until last Friday.

And now you know

the 

rest 

of the story.

I got skillz

The mini pantry,

which runs along the 'hallway' 

connecting the bunkhouse to the kitchen,

has been pretty much ignored.

Except for when it's been a tool receptacle.

But now that the real pantry is ready to be 

yucked up with our stuff filled up,

I sorta needed the mini pantry ready, too.

I have this insane need to only put things away

one time

which means I spend an obsessive amount of time

thinking

about what should go where.

In order to figure out what goes where in the pantry,

I had to know what all I could fit in the mini pantry.

Makes perfect sense to me...

Like I said, though,

the mini pantry wasn't getting any love.

So, Thursday night,

I left a note for the boys

asking them to drywall it.

Friday morning, Tony got after it for me.

Except that he was feeling miserable.

And the pantry isn't exactly completely square.

So

I did what any mom would do;

(attempting to ignore the persistent and increasingly worse back pain...)

I helped.

Put up drywall.

And then I just sort of took over.

That's right!

All by myself

I hung drywall!!

And then,

since it needed mudding

and all other available workers were in the loft

doing some essential job that obviously required all five of them

(T was here ~ yay!)

I did that, too!

My family is not appropriately impressed with my skillz.

Most likely something to do with the fact

that even the 5 and 7 year olds have helped hang drywall

and can 'pudd' with the best of them.

And the 12 & 18 year olds have done more drywalling

than many grown men.

Whatever.

goodbye Behbeh

She's been sayin' it for 12 months

give or take a few,

and then

suddenly,

out of the blue

and without warning,

Lex' said, "Behbeh"

for the very last time yesterday.

Now, she simply says, "Brandon".

We've tried several times to get her to say her bub's name

 the 'old way',

but she just won't.

That tiny piece of her is gone forever.

I love that she's growing up,

but it's always bittersweet

when she outgrows a 'baby' thing.

#173

When we lived in Fort Smith

we had a huge bedroom,

even after Tyler & the kids surprised me

with a bathroom and walk-in closet.

For awhile,

we had a little table set up in there

which was perfect

for an impromptu game of rummy or backgammon

and some coffee with a couple of double fudge Milanos.

We'd just tell the kids we were going on a date

and the big ones would watch the littles

for 1/2 hour to an hour.

(thank, guys!!)

We don't have that here.

Shocker, 

I know.

It's hard to get away from everyone

and have a few moments to ourselves.

For some reason,

telling little people, "No. You may not have a drink of my coffee."

fifteen times

isn't fun to me.

Enter:

Van Dates.

We tell the big boys

-  but say nothing to the little kids -            

and sneak out to the van

and drive

all of 15 feet

to the play field 

and park.

Alone. Together.

Number 173 of my 1,000 gifts:

van dates.

cubby hole

I'm almost hesitant to fill this space up;

with Lex' playing in there,

it reminds me very much of Gramma Joyce's cubby hole.

Maybe I can leave a shelf or two open??
(maybe I can paint that nasty step ladder, too!!)

senior pics 2011

I'll get all cry-y if I try to add words to this post;

just thinking is bringing a lump to my throat.

So instead - I'll just post a few of my favorite photos

from our Senior Pictures Photo Shoot.

Looks like his papa in this one!

Dad says this is his 'get what he wants' face

and this is the "I just got what I wanted' one

More than words can say, I love you, Boy.

almost time

Tyler painted my pantry today

I am so excited!!

When I peeked in and saw the first wall painted,

Jeremiah said, "I bet you're going to cry now..."

The boy knows his momma.

sea breezes

I'm getting pretty jazzed about my pantry!

It won't be long now;

Tyler put the second coat of drywall mud on it tonight.

I picked out paint earlier today;

took me like 8 seconds.

With a name like Sea Breeze it's gotta be good.

news of the day

I have lots to post about

but I'm having issues with pictures.

As in, they suddenly started opening 

in some program (I forget which one...) 

that doesn't allow me to edit them.

In the very least, I have to crop out all the mess...

My tech guy is working on it.

(Ton'??)

Meanwhile...

I

am a knitter!

Yes, it's true - I knit.

Don't believe me? Check it out :-)

who knew?

The last time I had to pick out paint,

I walked into Lowe's,

walked slowly through the paint cards

and grabbed the first one that caught my eye.

I kept walking and looking

and grabbed the second color that caught my eye.

Both paint card were the exact same color!

Done.

Today I left the house around 2

and figured I'd be back home 3 ish.

(including a quick run to Walmart)

At 2:45 I left Lowe's empty-handed.

I had hoped the boys and I could get the upstairs painted

by the time Tyler got home from work

as a surprise

and here I couldn't even settle on a color family,

much less a color!

Tyler suggested I go to Pack's Salvage and look at flooring.

They let me bring home full-plank samples

of all the types I liked.

The boys and I laid the boards on the floor,

(or rather on the stack of drywall on the floor)

dropped things on them

whacked them with tools

and walked on them with bare feet.

Surprisingly, we settled on a favorite pretty quickly.

I talked with Tyler and told him to hurry home,

pick out the floor,

and take me to Lowe's.

 Choosing paint now

would be a breeze.

The first piece of flooring to be eliminated by Papa

was the one we'd all chosen as our favorite!

But that was fine,

'cause there were still four more boards....

Wouldn't you know it, though,

Tyler's favorite

was the one we'd all discarded first!

conundrum!

We talked and banged up the floors some more

and settled on two that everyone could live with

and headed to Lowe's.

All of us.

(except for Tony, who was MoD tonight...)

Ya'll know how much I enjoy 

shopping

with all of us.

But.

But this was going to be easy

because now, I was inspired.

And had flooring.

sort of.

We told the kids if they were really good,

we'd go out to dinner.

It was only sort of a bribe,

'cause we we're going out anyways.

But they didn't know that.

Let's just say that the kids became concerned

 that there might not even be a restaurant open

by the time we left Lowe's.

( And they really were quite good, considering....

Huge thanks to Marcos & Brandon for keeping up with them

 while we wrestled with color cards!!)

Tyler finally picked a color by it's name,

clothesline fresh

and said, "This is the one."

And when he laid it on the darker board

(my favorite of the two)

and put a bright white next to it (as trim)

I just suddenly felt peace.

This paint color, a light blue gray,

is completely opposite of what we'd normally pick,

and when I looked at those little color blobs

on four cans of paint,

I felt a little panicky.

We'll see how we feel when it's on the walls...

Just to prove that we aren't just horrible picker-outers:

in the time it took the gal to mix up 4 gallons of paint,

we picked out 2 ceiling fans,

and 2 different light fixtures.

Just like that!

Who knew it would be so hard to pick out paint?!

what's in my closet?

Since we house nine people

(five of them full-sized)

in 975 sq ft of space

I'm pretty good at getting rid of stuff,

but somehow

there's still always more that can go.

I'm joining Simple Mom's Project:Simplify 

and when Tsh revealed the hot spot

I really wasn't sure I'd have much to weed out;

I go through my clothes regularly!

I've got four 21 1/4 inch shelves

one 27" x 17" drawer

and

3 feet of closet space

for my entire wardrobe - for 4 seasons.

My lifestyle doesn't really require many clothes

so I'm usually pretty content with what I've got

(provided I have at least one decent fitting pair of jeans)

except

(there's always an 'except' isn't there?)

when we have an event that's out of the ordinary.

Then I tend to get in a tizzy....

oh ~ almost forgot,

I also have a 15 x 10 x 12 inch basket
for my jammies and Cuddle Duds.

I decided to be ruthless

and ended up with a whole box of giveaway clothes and shoes

and surprisingly,

a small bag of actual trash.

I'll never understand that one!

In my defense, though, most of the trash

was boxes I'd saved 

- you know - just in case....

I put all of the girl's dresses in their room

and suddenly,

I had margin in my closet!

I'd prefer a little more margin in my time

but hey - I'll take margin anywhere I can get it.

I have a feeling

the other Hot Spots won't be quite so easy for me,

but this challenge, I rather enjoyed.

Thanks, Tsh, for encouraging us 

to 

simplify.

Kieron, 8 days

beautiful bedhead

Dear Lex'

I admire your skill;

I really do.

Your amazing ability to resist sleep at all costs,

while nothing new,

is admirable.

Truly.

When you are a momma

it will certainly come in handy.

But you are not a momma yet

and so this skill of yours is rather frustrating.

I don't mind so much at naptime,

but at bedtime,

it makes me more than a little antsy.

You see,

Sweetness,

Momma still has lots to get done

- after you go to sleep -

before I can go to sleep.

I knew you'd understand, once we had this little chat.

I love you, Lexi, goodnight.

~

Umm.

So far,

Operation Bedtime

has been a flop.

have I ever mentioned

 how very much I love this girl??      

She took a break from picking to show me her lovely flowers
and then dashed back out to gather more.
I was overcome with love
as I watched that flash of color run out the door
and just had to grab the camera and follow.
I probably should have accepted her invitation
to join her in flower picking.
Instead, I ran back in the house to record.

Ginny wrote a post today about her 5 year old  daughter;
Change a few details - and I could have written it myself.
Her Larkspur and our Lily sound so very much alike.
Observant 
and full of exuberant joy.

If ever there were a child without a sin nature,
it'd be Lily.
Please don't consider that blasphemy;
I know everyone has a sin nature....
Hers is just tinier than most people's.

She is so forgiving
and kind
and gentle.
She loves unconditionally.
On the rare occasion that any 'ugliness' comes from her,
it is
almost without exception
 something that she has observed in me,
I'm very sad to say.

Lily ~ how you bless us!

Momma is so thankful for you!!

And I love your sideways socks ;-)

maybe he's not saving China

....but he's definitely all growed up.

Ton' worked his first shift yesterday as an MoD.

That's Manager on Duty - at MarketPlace Grill.

Pretty impressive for an 18 year old still in high school, I think.

Guess the boy is taking after his momma a bit...

~

I'm proud of you, Boy!

this just makes me laugh

Lily drew this picture 3 or 4 week's ago

and it's resided on the fridge ever since.

Her drawing has improved tremendously 

in just in the past few days

but I don't want to forget this style.

that's me - jumping on the trampoline
see how my hair is flying up with the clouds??

meeting Baby Kieron

I was still at the computer

having just finished paying the bills 

when she called.

Some women talk about how hard it is 

to watch your daughter go through labor.

I got to be at the hospital

when my mom had my youngest brother.

I guess I was about 14.

In my opinion,

watching your momma labor

is much harder.

Isn't she such a pretty laboring momma??

Lana labors well;

I'm sure that makes it easier on me.

I also think that it's in part due to the fact

that some of my own babies

are still babies.

The prize

is still fresh in my memory.
(never mind that I didn't get to labor with the last four...)

It helps, too, that

Shelley is an amazing midwife.

When Lana started wearing out

and told us she just couldn't do it;

we told her she could.

And she believed us.

And she did it.

Kieron Tyler      02-28-2011    8 lbs 3 oz      19 3/4 inches long  

I was positioned in the pool with Lana & Shelley

to catch the baby;

but that didn't happen - it went rather fast there in the end.

It was all good, though;

I got to wrap his first blanket around him

and hold his cheek next to mine

before I passed him off to his momma

surrounded by love.

Welcome to the world, Kieron!!

You are loved!!