whew

I feel pretty confidant in saying 

that we've all had enough celebrating for awhile.

Four birthdays,
Easter,
and a graduation
in eleven days
can do that to ya.

Aiden singing 'Happy Birthday' ~ he's gotten pretty good at it :-)


We've also had enough rain.
Eew!

Graduated

To our friends and family ~ thank-you!

Thank-you for being part of Ton's life

for loving him

and helping to shape him into the fine young man he is today.

Tony

It has been a pleasure to have you home all these years!

I love you!!

busy beavers

Lots of work going on over here these days!

 My job was to cut and tie the ribbon;

I didn't have to wait on Lily one time ~ that girl is good!

After awhile 

Lily got tired of that job and went looking for another one

Jeremiah had been helping with the programs,

but he let Daddy take over for him

and Josiah picked up where Lily left off.

He was just as speedy as Lily!

There weren't as many jobs for Lexi

but she helped where she could.

can you guess which one Lex' did??

I found a more suitable job for her

She helped me make these for the party.

I love that it is normal

that our whole family works together

to get jobs done.

puddle jumpin'

made by me

I really, and I mean really, 

wanted to sew something yesterday.

Didn't even matter what; I just wanted to make something.

It's been way too long...

But no particular fabric was calling me. 

And I wasn't eager to make clean up the mess I'd make anyways.

So I just decided not to do any creating.

My mini pantry is finally finished (thanks, everyone!)

so I was wandering around the kitchen

still trying  to think through

where everything should go.

I was thinking

(or as Marcos would say, I was 'analyzing')

maybe I could put the silverware back in the cabinet.

It's been on the counter for the past couple of years

which does work just fine,

but I'm sort of in 'get the stuff off the countertops' mode.

That reminded me 

that I'd been wanting something different for the silverware.

Currently it's in glasses in a basket

which is great, fit-wise,

but not so great in that those glasses break

if people are less than gentle in putting flatware away.

All that to say

I made something after all - just not with fabric.

I made a box! A divided silverware box!

My kids will recognize the wood;

it's salvaged from the top section of the old entertainment center.

I still have to paint it.

I was undecided about  that, but these photos have swayed me.

I used some of Tyler's awesome tools.

It's kinda funny - I never want to try them,

then somebody will force me to against my will

and what do you know?

They aren't so scary after all.

I've been using the circular saw for years, so that's really no biggie

The nail gun is amazing.

We use it every chance we get.

I asked Tyler why we've had to live all these years without it.

My family was appropriately impressed with this project :-)

Me? I'm positively giddy with my success.

Last night

- without any arguing on my part -

Tyler taught me how to use the miter saw.

watching

...and listening

 It's Friday; Sunday's Comin'

...and reading.
You want to know the must-read version of the crucifixion?

pages 286-309 of  the Jesus Storybook Bible.

I can't read it without crying.

I pre-read this afternoon,

 in a thoroughly unsuccessful attempt to keep the tears at bay.

Jeremiah said,

"Mom, you know the rest of the story; you don't need to cry!"

But I just can't help it.

~

The boys were kinda bummed

that we didn't make an Easter Mountain.

I hadn't realized it was so important to them;

we'll definitely have to make that happen next year.

new tools

Remember my broom?

Of course you remember my broom.

Well,

when the pantry started coming together,

I decided to finally get a new one.

A pretty one, even.

Once I'd picked out the paint,

the broom choice was easy.

Since I had a new broom,

of course I would need a new dust pan....

I won a CSN gift certificate awhile back

and had 'til the end of March to spend it.

Perfect!

I spent way to much time shopping,

but had a hard time figuring out just what to buy.

Then I remembered I wanted a new dustpan.

Preferably red.

Wouldn't that have been so cute??

I couldn't find a red one,

but I did find this awesome metal one

Doesn't it have a fantastic shape?

I figured I'd just spray paint it red...
Tickled, I ordered it
- and a loaf pan especially for making lemon cake -
for free :-)
(thanks, 'Net and CSN stores!)
I excitedly waited for my dust pan.
It had those lovely crinkly corners.
Yes, I am weird. Why do you ask??
Then, one day,
the UPS man brought me a very large box.

"What could be in such a big box?" the children wondered.
They weren't alone; I was curious myself.
We opened it
to
find 
the biggest dang dustpan you ever did see!

'Freakishly large'
I believe is how Tyler described it.
He actually felt a bit sorry for me;
I'd been so excited about my cute new dustpan...


Well,
cute, it's not
but it can hold it's own against all our dirt.
literally!

the midlife

Lily and Lexi often pretend to be somebody (or something).

I'm amazed at Lexi's ability to stay in character.

I guess now that she's two, it isn't such a big deal,

but she was doing it at 18 months, too.

Once,

I was Lexi and she was Momma.

It was nap-time, and she was running her mouth

so I said, "Momma, you should be quiet so we can go to sleep."

She looked at me and said, "Lexi!" with 3 syllables
as if she had just had it with me.

The other day, 

Lexi was Aiden;

I was Lana and Tyler was Luke.

(she isn't content to pretend herself; we must all join in the facade)

I asked Lily who she was.

"Oh, I'm the midlife," she responded with a sweet smile.

"The midwife?" I asked. 

"Yeah. The midlife. I help Lana with Kieron.

That's what a midlife does.
Helps people with babies."

freebie

Here's a little public service announcement

that could save you several hundred dollars:

If 

the 'relay' on your made-after-1995

made-by-Whirlpool refrigerator

goes out,

do not allow your repair man to replace it

with a 'universal relay'

in an effort to save $40.

Spring for the real deal.

Trust me.

It's a lesson I spent $65.55

plus

the cost of a new fridge to learn,

but you 

- you -

get to learn it for free.

You're welcome.

who slept 12 hours last night?

That's right. Twelve hours!

I took the pain pill

that I'd said he needn't bother writing a script for

and a muscle relaxer - that I was perfectly fine with taking

and slept 12 hours.

And then,

because that wasn't nearly enough,

after a couple hours,

I went back to bed and I slept 5 hours more. 

I would've slept longer, but it was time for a late dinner;

and I'm sure not one to miss a meal.

pleased with my boys

My big boys were good to me today!

The house was suffering from severe neglect,

and my back was bad today.

You wouldn't know it from looking at the house, though.

Unasked,

those 3 big'uns

 picked up the living room, dining room and kitchen

(including the dreaded vacuuming)

made bread

(and lunch)

did laundry

fixed coffee and brought it to me in bed
(ok, so I did ask for the coffee..)

looked after the little ones

and even cleaned the bathroom
(that one was all Marcos!)

Thanks for loving me so well, Boys! 

in the nick of time

To say I was completely stressed

would be an understatement.

With the exception of taking Tuesday evening off,

to spend it with my hunk of a husband,

I have done nothing

since Sunday

except

look at pictures

and (starting yesterday)

work on the slideshow / video

that is due today.

Oh.

That's not entirely true.

Sorry.

Monday,  Brandon and I worked a bit on the girls' room;

we fixed them up a proper closet-type space 

over their bed

complete with a shelf and 5 ft hanging rod,

touched up the paint,

added a plywood back to their shelf unit

to replace the cardboard 

that's been falling down for the past year

and covered 2 foam insulation boards with a vintage sheet.

But besides that - nothing but photos.
It's pure torture to reduce a life to a mere 76 photos.
I told Lana I didn't remember it being so hard
the last 2 times - she assured me it was!

Did I mention I am mentally and emotionally exhausted?

And the poor little ones ~ they've just had it!

But - it is finished!

Just in the nick of time.

Luke and Lana came over to help last night

after I called, begging Luke to help me w/ the music.

I was just wanting a phone consultation,

but they offered to come over.

And bring ice-cream.

I would have been a fool to say 'no'!

At one point, we had four laptops on the table.

crazy.

I think we are all quite pleased with the end result.

It's nothing fancy,

but I think the composition is somewhat artistic

and it represents who Tony is.

Luke did a fabulous job panning & zooming

and tweaking the music

while Lana helped arrange the pictures

and she took one photo

(which really - isn't a good one, but it's so sweet)

and moved it to the end

"as sort of a goodbye".

It's perfect there, but now I can't look at it 

without choking back sobs.

I can't tell you how relieved I am that the video is finished.

And

that it isn't crap!!

quarter of a century

25 years.

We met at Shoney's.

He worked nights; I worked days.

(except Fridays - then I worked both)

He started coming in a lot after school.

He always sat in the atrium

and ordered onion rings and a Coke.

I always brought him a monkey bowl of parmesan cheese

and a bottle of ketchup.

And of course, my charming smile.

He blew straw wrappers at my other customers.

I may have flirted a little.

What can I say?

He was so stinkin' ca-ute!!

We started dating  May 18th.

And well,

the rest, as they say,

is history.

Here's to fifty more years

and lots more onion rings with ketchup and parmesan cheese

Tyler, I love you more than words can say!

whew

So.

Last night,

I put all the photos we have on the external hard drive

on the computer.

All 13,634 of them.

And because I organize my pictures so well,

I looked at all 13, 634 of them.

That's on top of the 4 totes of photos I went through Sunday.

I'm not done yet ~ there are still a few more boxes.

I'd like to call it quits;

we already have way more than we can use, 

but what if there's a better one, lurking in a box???

Needless to say,

looking back over the past 24 years 

in such a short amount of time

has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride.

I'm quite pooped!!

I know  - I'm looking for Tony pics,

but this was too cute to leave buried.

Poor Josiah looked so nervous when Lily started to cry.

Lots more goodies where that came from....

power in the L.E.M.

The natives

(and by 'natives'

I mean Tyler and Uncle Guy :-)

are getting antsy;

it's been six days since my last posting.

Never mind that we are crazy busy

and the internet has been spotty at best.....

The exciting news here this weekend is:

We have power in the LEM!!

(Lou.... Expansion Module)

The lofts are completely finished

and the 3 big boys are now sleeping up there.

Their closet is finished, except for trim

and they've been moving clothes in.

My mini pantry hasn't been touched (ahem!)

but I've pretty much got the main pantry filled up.

I still have to label everything.

The kitchen is in limbo 'til the mini pantry is complete

and

the rest of the house is in a state of chaos
but
we
have power
in the LEM.

just a few more

...more pictures, that is.

From my Saturday nature nap...

shot at 300 mm - just before it was blown to bits
shot... blown to bits...    haha   I tickle myself far too easily

It's an extra busy week here;

we've got to get Tony's graduation invitations finished

and in the mail.

The printer is giving us fits, 

so we'll need to address them by hand.

I realize that's the proper thing to do,

but golly;

our entire family is cursed with lousy handwriting.

They'd just look so much nicer

not to mention, more legible

done on the computer.

We also need to turn in his video in 9 days

and we haven't even started going through pictures yet.

I still need to get the pantry organized & filled

(and the mini pantry needs to be finished. ahem)

and the kitchen re-organized

and I'm attempting to take it easy 

to allow my back to heal, too.

fresh from nap ~ and who does Lex' want?? Brandon!

Oh, and we've got an appt. with the lawyer

in NWA Friday

which'll pretty much take up that whole day.

Sure hope I'm not forgetting anything....

lesson learned

I walked in the dining room

to find Marcos standing in front of my sewing table.

I went over to ask him what he was looking for,

but before I got any words out, 

I saw

what it was he wanted.

He had my sewing scissors.

unsheathed.

in his hands.

"What do you think you're doing with those?"

I shrieked.

He looked at me as if it was the most normal thing in the world,

"I was just going to cut something outside."

?!?

I don't remember exactly what transpired next

except the scissors were returned to safety

and Tyler later said,

 "I'm just glad the boy's still alive."

I don't think he'll make that mistake again.

my little flower girl

Rx

I prescribed

- for myself -

Nature Therapy.

aka 

a nice long nap outside.

Since I'm babyin' my back

I asked for a cot,

but this is what my sweet Brandon set up for me

I didn't actually sleep, seein' as I had lots of company

but it was quite pleasant.

I don't suppose we could just leave the bed out there??

Nah? I didn't think so.

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.