Halloween

Trick or Treating at Aunt Tammie's



Emily was a wood fairy this year. It took a few trys to find the one she wanted and the size that would fit but here she is.

Erin wanted to be Cleopatra. That was an easy one. Worked out good. It was cool seeing her with black hair.

Here are my two girls. Aren't they cute?

Halloween Aerobics at Trunk and Treat

Okay this is my first attempt at putting video in my blog. This is a video of the crazy people that come out at a trunk and treat.

Beware!!!!

Blessed Love

Today, 14 years ago, I was blessed to marry my best friend. I could not imagine then what marriage would be like though I dreamed of the fairy tale of my childhood as most young girls do. I don't have the fairy tale because my husband isn't a prince with a castle and more money then the country but he is my prince. He tells me he loves me every day and treats me as his princess. We have a warm, comfortable home that is the perfect size for us. Yes there are lots of things I would change about the "House" (like a bigger master bath) but not our "Home". We have two of the most beautiful, intelligent, loving children. Our girls are the perfect blend of he and I. It makes me so proud to know that we created them and that God has entrusted us to continue to raise them.

Through these 14 years, Marty and I have grown closer together but not only that we have grown closer together with God. God wasn't a huge part of the start of our marriage but He has become a huge part through the course of it and I believe that makes the difference for us. I thank God each day for the day He brought Marty into my life. He has such a wonderful plan set for us and I pray that we continue to seek His guidance in making our life together only more of a blessing.

I can't put into words the emotions that run through me when I think of my husband: love, admiration, pride, desire, comfort and peace are just a few. He is my companion, my confidant, my support and my lover. He is everything I had ever dreamed of.

Marty,
I LOVE YOU more then you will ever know.
Happy Anniversay, Baby!
Love,
Jo

My Baby is Eleven

Happy Birthday, Emmy Jo!!!!

Eleven years ago today at 3:52 pm my beautiful 9 lbs 5 oz baby girl was born. I was young, naive and scared out of my mind but she was so beautiful and sweet. She has been such a blessing to her daddy and me. She is talented both musically and intellectually. She is confident and outgoing. She is strong and yet she is tender hearted.

I have one birthday wish for you Em: may you always know in your heart that you are special and specially loved.

I don't want to see you grow up because I don't want to see you move away but at the same time I can't wait to see what you who you will become and all that you will accomplish. You have much to offer the world and I know what ever you dream, you will achieve.

Happy Birthday Baby! I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!
Mom

Juniors! Cadettes! Ambassadors! Oh My!!!!!!!!

We're back in action again. We had our first troop meeting Monday night and we have an exciting full year ahead of us. Fall sales start Oct 1st and our first outing is Oct 4th. There are some new changes for us this year though. Our troop has expanded into new territory with 2 Ambassadors, 5 Cadettes, and 7 Juniors. This is all new to me because I had Juniors last year but have never had Ambassadors and Cadettes. Course, ambassadors are new this year because they made changes to the Girl Scout structure. The new structures is:

K - 1st grade = Daisy
2nd - 3rd grade = Brownies
4th - 5th grade = Juniors
6th - 8th grade = Cadettes
9th - 10th grade = Seniors
11th -12th grade = Ambassadors

This is all fine and good but I wasn't planning on moving two of my juniors up to Cadettes until next year (I have to move them 1 year earlier then planned) and I wasn't looking at moving the 7 juniors up to Cadettes until the end of the following year. But, new rules and new changes and all is not the same. That's okay though. We will make this work. I just received new Junior training and will take Cadette training in 2 weeks and then Ambassador training. I will get this working. Cheri and I will be working hard to get us in alignment. Pray for us though. It does get complicated in a hurry.

Well, I must go work on budgets, scout level blog sites and make some scout phone calls. Well try to keep you posted with all the news.

Has it been that long?

Two weeks of school

I can't believe the girls have been in school for two weeks already. It doesn't seem like it. I haven't even posted their first day of school photos.

Emily is in middle school now and has so much going on. She works the book store every Thursday morning with her best friend Maddy. She is joining clubs, (which isn't like joining clubs when we were in school - so we will find out which clubs she in next week) and already bringing home permission slips for special trips. With GT she will be going to the Heifer Ranch for three days and two nights. That sounds like a cool trip. She will do that in October. Once a month starting in Septmeber, she will be going with GT to a local nursering home where she will play games, read stores and just socialize with the residence there. Luckily this will go toward one or more of her GS badges also. Then the big trip is in the spring when she gets to so to Huntsville, Alabama to space camp. She is very excited about. I even applied to be a chaperone for that one. We'll see if I get picked.

Erin is now in the elementary school by herself and I actually think this is working better for her. She is working really hard in school and is progressing better then I could hope. She has her first spelling test of the year today and she was ready for it on Monday which is a huge improvement over last year. She loves her teacher and is excited about learning cursive. Aunt Tammie found her a cursive book to help her practice and it just happens to be the exact one that they are using in class. That is too cool. However for us old people, the cursive that we learned doesn't look anything like the cursive their learning and it's very difficult for me to help her. Our cursive had lots of loops and curves to it. The new cursive is very blocky. I swear I didn't know that it was possible to make the letter c with straight lines when your writing in cursive. I'll have to find you a sample of it. It's crazy. That's public education. It changes one way and then changes another.

Three weeks since the Hicks moved

What???? It can't be that long! They were just packing the house. We were just at the Walk together. We were just making bookmarks together. We were just working VBS together. We were just geocaching Searcy in a mad spree together.

Life gets away from us too fast. We must learn to stop and enjoy the good things and not stress over pooh bear's head getting broke. We can't run around screaming at the kids because before we know it their not kids anymore and they moved off to college or their own life. What I'm saying is we need to take the time for those we love why their with us. Let's not keep putting it off. The laundry can get done later, the vaccuming isn't important, so there's a ring around the toilet - tell me 95% of the toilet in the homes don't have a ring around it up to 2 hours before the guest walk in the door, but who really cares? And if they do, the are welcome to clean it them selves. I've got plenty of the cleaning products in the hall closet. That's why there's a ring in the toliet, the products are in the wrong place.

I know I'm making jokes but I miss my friend. I'm still talking to her on the phone and email. I still having a pillow fight on fb with her. I know what time she's getting up. I know that she is working out. I know when she is gone to get the girls and I even know what the weather is like where she is. I do still miss her.

Kristi, I don't care if you don't have anything to blog or if you blog the same stupid routine a hundred times. It comes from you and you had a hand in it and I know that your there. That's what matters. I don't care if you post everthing you eat or drink in the day. Though I will say it because I know if I don't I'll regret it: No bathroom stop schedule. I hope your regular but I don't have to know it.

New Phones

The nice mommy has moved into my house. I don't know where she came from and I don't why but she is there. Don't believe me? Ask my girls. Emily and Erin are proud owners of the new LG scoop phones. Em's is ......... blue and Erin's is ........ purple. Duh! I don't know what possessed me to talk their dad into it but I did. I was having issues with Erin not being in the same school with Em and so I wanted her to have a phone. Makes sense right? Then why is one of the rules for Erin that she can't take it to school with her? Not that she or Emily can use it in either place but it's for them to use when they get out of school and I'm running late or need to send them a message. Yet, Em's is off all day - per our rule and Erin's is at home on the bar until Erin gets home from school via me.

I must be careful because the next thing the nice mommy might do is get them a laptop or a tv in their rooms. YIKES!!!!!

Oh and I got a new phone too. I know don't know what is up with that but I now have a blackberry pearl. And I sooooo like my new phone., except that I need ringtones. Again see missing Kristi.

News Release: Bigfoot Sighting

I almost forgot to tell you that I have found "BIGFOOT". There is no more searching to be done. I have found him. Well actually her and actually two hers. We took Emily and Erin to get new tennis shoes for school. We went to Penney's because they were having a sale. Bad idea because they only had one girl working and the place was a mess but that is another story. Emily found a pair that the liked and she asked the lady for a six. Now, I don't know if you know anything about shoe sizes but they start at 0 and go through 13 for infants to kids then they start back over at 1 and go up for adults. Emily was asking for the 6 that comes after the 13. The lady is taking a long time and I'm thinking about the fact that Em has asked for a 6. Penney's has all the tennis shoes for the kids and womens and mens in the same area so I walk over to the womens and find a size 6 Nike. I ask Emily to come over and try it on. IT FITS!!! WHAT? Erin walks over and really likes the shoe and wants to try it on. I know that she likes to take my flip flops and wear them so I thought what the heck. IT FIT HER TOO! WHAT? Em is 10 (though she will be 11 in 25 days) and Erin is 8. Let me say that again: Erin is 8. "BigFoot" has moved into my house and ate my daughters. Erin can wear a size 6x childs shirt and a size 6 womens shoe and her daddy can touch thumb to thumb and middle finger to middle finger around her waist. That ain't right I don't care how you slice it.

A Whirl Wind of Activies

I can't believe how fast the last two weeks have gone. It's just crazy.

Marty's Birthday, Mom's Birthday, Women's Walk to Emmaus #135, Hicks moving to Omaha and School n Scouts start next week.

Walk to Emmaus #135

If you haven't heard me talk about the walk to emmaus then you must not have heard my testimony about my faith and about Marty's and my decision to help start a new Methodist congregation in Cabot. The Walk to Emmaus was second of two major turning points on my faith walk and now I have oppurtunity to go back and work walks and be a servant of God for others as they take their piligrim walks.

I was lucky enough this time to work the walk with three of my best girl friends and my best best friend, Marty. Going back to work is such an awesome experience. It helps to refocus my life back on God because the activities of life pull me away so quickly.

This weekend I re-experienced His love in away that I have only found when I've been on a walk. Though I worked and am now physically exhausted, I'm so ready to go back and work. It was even better being there with Marty and the girls, but I found that I have so many wonderful people there that mean so much more to me then I will ever be able to tell them. Grace, Shelly, Lana, Rick, Joy, Chris, Veda, Vada, and the list could go on and on. These are wonderful people who I just can't wait to see again when I go back to the next walk. September seems like a very long time away.

I did get some very special news though, my friend Wendy is going to go on her piligrim walk in Oct. I'm so excite and can't wait to see her and then to talk to her about her walk. I wish I was working it. If I could take that much time off and they would let me, I think I would work every walk, but that isn't allowed for very good reason. I just so enjoy being a servant of God on those walks.

Corn Girl :(

As with every Emmaus Walk, you have to come back to reality on Monday. Sometimes it happens Tuesday or Wednesday but you do have to come back from that Mountain Top experinence. It's just the way it is.


It's no different this time but is more then just a bad day at work or a problem with the car or house. This time I got to come home each day to watch movers pack one of my best friend's house so that they could load her stuff into a truck and move her from here to Omaha, 10 hours away. No more quick hugs, no more lets go have dinner, no more "Hey can your run get the kids.". She's only a phone call, text message, facebook, blogspot away but it is still extremely painful. I'M NOT CRYING. I have vowed not to cry because God has a plan for her and her family and it's in Omaha at the moment and I support her family in this. I love God and trust Him but it is really hard to accept everything, I am only human here. Some think that I'm just crazy for not crying but to be honest - if this dam breaks it will be weeks before the flooding stops so it's best to keep the plug in it. It has almost broke all day but I'm still hanging in there.

Guess what I had for dinner in her honor? Well corn of course. Gonna have it tomorrow and the next day too. Why? Because I can. Good thing I like corn. I was teasing her yesterday about being corn girl and she started calling me rice girl because I work in the rice fields. So, here we are: Corn Girl and Rice Girl.

Okay, I'm done writing. Think I'll go climb in bed with a container of ice cream.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Today is my adorable husband's birthday. I spent all morning Saturday trying to get him a gift and still don't have anything that I think is good enough for him.

If you never been around my sweet fabulous husband then you don't know how wonderful and great he is. I am trully blessed. He is my dream come true and I'm so very proud to be his wife.

I LOVE YOU! Have a great day.

Braces are on!!

BEFORE

 

 

WOW! I can't tell you how proud I am of my baby. She got her braces on today. She didn't scream and carry on at all. She listened and was a true champ. She is hurting some now but that is to be expected. I know that the pain will be there but will be so worth it in the end.


AFTER

 

 

Time Management

I now believe that I'm terrible at time management. I am behind or was suppose to do so many things and there really just isn't any excuse except that I'm not managing my time. I don't post like I want (though I'm really rather boring and don't have much to tell). I haven't been exercising, biking, hiking or caching as much or at all. Okay..... I was just thinking about what my next line would be and I've decided to stop right there. I'm whining and I hate whining. You don't want to hear me whine, your just nosy (isn't that why we read other peoples blogs) and you want to know what's been happening with me. At least that is why I read my friends blogs. What are they doing and what are they enjoying. So... change of subject.


The last three weeks

July 14-18 was VBS - Power Lab. I'm the children's ministries director for our church and so I'm the head hauncho to make sure that it all gets done. Luckily, I've learned to deligate (well I'm learning) and this year's VBS director and co director were outstanding. They worked hard and we had another outstanding week with a few minor devil caused hiccups (like one of our pastors falling during setup and breaking her wrist.) We had 106 children on Monday and Tuesday, 104 children on Wednesday, 105 children on Thursday and 94 children on Friday. We had a Thursday night dinner and performance and sliming and had over 200 people in attendance. Plus we were able to raise over $1800.00 for the local EXCEL program (www.excelarkansas.com). This is only our third year of VBS and each year we are growning. It is so exciting to see Jesus working through all the volunteers that week. It always exhaust me but I'm always so proud of the team that comes to work during that week and before making decorations and special project to make it happen. God is so good.

Saturday was relax day and that's what I did. Our close friends have a house on Greers Ferry Lake and a party barge and so on Saturday Marty, the girls and I joined them up there for nothing but lazying around in the water all day. If you know how busy I am then you might be able to guess how little time I have to be out in the sun. So this white girl got cooked. I mean make yourself sick, can't walk cooked. I know what your thinking, I should have used sun screen, well rest assured I'm not crazy enough anymore and I did and I reapplied it 3 or 4 or 5 times. I still got sun burned. I was so sun burned I couldn't make it to church on Sunday morning and the kiddo sang their VBS music during the worship service and we had visitors. Oh how I hate that I missed it. I thought I was being smart. Guess I need stronger sunblock for these white legs.

It's Friday and I'm still suffering from the sunburn. Now I'm peeling and itching. Doesn't matter how much lotion I put on, I itch. Oh well. Leaving my DNA all over the place is kind of funny.

The other latest adventure accured last night. My godson, AJ, had an accident with his hand and a door jam. The door jam won. He got his left hand middle finger caught in it and he pulled it out leaving about an eighth of an inch of his finger missing. So off to the emergency room with a race to see which aunt, uncle or parent could get to him faster. See he was with his babysitter. I won, I got there about 5 to 10 minutes after the babysitter. Course, his momma had to come from the other side of Little Rock in rush hour traffic so that wasn't really a fair race. I make light because other then a scare and the fact that the finger is a little bit shorter then you would expect, he's fine. As his uncle Marty kept telling him, Chic's dig scares, so it's all good now.

Well that is the highlights and if I get ambisious enough then I might even get some photos up. Don't hold it against me if I don't. I'm trying.

The Cat Fairy

 

Okay, which one of you has decided that VBS is the time of the year for the Cat Fairy to come? Last year at the end of VBS, we were "blessed" with a kitten on our front steps. This year, on the first day of VBS (today), I come home to find that the Cat Fairy has made a drop on our back porch!!!!

HELLO! We are not shopping for cats. We are not the city cat people. So please stop delivering them to us.

Now - Anyone want a cat????

Just one word.

My friend Grace emailed me this one but I thought I would put it here and tag Tiffany, Laura and Kristi instead of emailing it around.

Here's the deal: answer the following question but the catch is to only use one word answers. ONLY ONE WORD.

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. What are you wearing right now? clothes
3. Your hair?: brown
4. Your mother?: Sherwood
5. Your father?: Heaven
6. Your favorite hobby? geocaching
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? margarita
9. Your dream/goal? healthier
10. The room you're in? cubicle
11. Your ex? not
12. Fear? snakes
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? bermuda
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? fake
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? contenment
18. Where you grew up? Sherwood
19. The last thing you did? read
20. What are you going to do this weekend? entertain
21. Your TV? old
22. Your pets? cats
23. Your computer? dell
24. Your life? crazy
25. Your Mood? joyful
26. Missing someone? Emily
27. Your car? Suburban
28. Something you are not wearing? socks
29. Favorite Store? JCPenneys
30. Your summer? Hot
31. Like someone? Everyone
32. Your favorite color? purple
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? Sunday
35. Who will/would repost this? Tiffany

Changes

Changes are good right? Then why do most of us resist change? Why do I get sick at my stomach at the thought of having to change anything? Change is all around me these days.

Job Changes) For those of you who don't know - my job has changed and has many uncertainties to it now. I am now the State Irrigation Engineer and technically my office is on the fifth floor of the federal building in Little Rock. Now the idea of being the SIE is really cool but the new responsibilities are huge. The location of the job is an issue for me because this is the same federal building that Timothy McVay once considered as a location for bombing though he chose Oklahoma's Federal Building instead. I don't think like an extremist so to think that one person out there thought of this building makes me concerned about the other extremist that exist in the world. The scope of my job is the other issue - I've been working on irrigation project almost since day one on the job and I believe in the irrigation projects. They are designed to reduce the ground water consumption of farmers to a tolerable amount in order to keep from depleting the water source. The solution to the problem is to divert excess drainage water out of local rivers for their use. I fully believe in being good stewards of the land and believe that using our resources wisely is how we can honor God. How this relates to change is that because of legal suits against the government, funding for my office has been almost nil and thus the powers that be want to shut the office or reorganize it, as is the latest endeavor. I believe in these projects and don't want to stop working on them, but I work for the federal government and thus must do what some bureaucrat in Washington feels is important and not what I feel is important.

Girl Scout changes) Scouts is a huge part of my world. I have two girls who love scouts, a husband who should have made Eagle Scout, a mother-in-law that was a scout/leader/training for GS and the one of the first den mothers, two nephews who are Eagle Scouts, a aunt-in-law that is a life time scout and my very fond memories of my little time in scouts. Well, like all things people move up in positions and think that they need to make their mark on something and they start tinkering with it to make it "better." Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm sure that this too will work out fine but I like scouts how it is. I'm a very old school type scout and like the structure of the organization and I even like the uniforms for ceremonial purposes.

Friends change) It's moving season again in Cabot. We live in a community that has either lived there their entire life or are military (usually) transients. Every spring/summer, the moves start happening and we have to say good bye to someone that we have come to know. Well, this time it isn't a military friend but a UP friend. Thanks UP for bringing them here but do you have to all the good promotions in Omaha? Can't there be any really cool plush engineering jobs here in Arkansas? My family has grown extremely close to the Hicks family in the last year. The girls are more like sisters and Kristi and I are more like sisters then I would have thought possible for only really knowing her for a year and a half. I was there with her through the darkness of her sister's death and now I have to watch as she moves away to a city 10-12 hours away. With gas prices and economic trends, I know face to face visits are going to be very limited at best and that just isn't the same. Again change is good, but change still hurts.

Kids change) Hey did you know that my first born is now 10 years old? She is leaving elementary school next Tuesday for the last time as a student there and will be officially a middle schooler. Do you know that she is on the edge of becoming a teen and all those wonderful hormonal changes that come with it? I didn't either until just the other day. Wow, were did the time go? Just the other day, I was pregnant and scared out of my mind about child birth. I'm so very proud of her because she is an awesome, sweet, respectful young girl but am I ready for the next phase? I don't think I have a choice.

Technology Challenged

Okay, must of you wouldn't think that I'm technology challenged but I'm. I love blogging and reading other's blog pages. This is how I know what my wonderful friend Tiffany is up to in Japan and that my friend Laura just had a baby boy. I love myspace and facebook, though I am completely challenged trying to make it look the way I want it to. However, I see things that other do and I want to be able to do it too. Like putting video online. So dug out our old RCA camcorder that we purchased just before Emily was born so that I could "record" ever aspect of her life. Yeah, right! I had to remember how to use the thing but was able to make some recordings. Okay that wasn't so bad, but know I have to figure out if I can get this old technology camcorder, which well before usb ports, connected to my computer. Well I asked my technology expert friend and of course she knew exactly what I needed. So for Mother's day, I got a dazzle converter. After several attempts, I managed to get the software loaded correctly and the recorder connected to the computer. I was even able to make a small move clip. GREAT! I can do this.

Well, here's were it goes wrong. Last night was Emily's last elementary school musical and I was all excited because I was going to record it and post it on my blog. Alexis could see Emily way over in Japan. Yeah, that didn't happen. I went to make sure that I had the tape in the right spot because I didn't remember if I had after I had learned to download. Well, the recorder ate the tape. Okay no biggy there because I had nothing of importance on there really because it was a new tape we had purchase when I dusted the thing off and had only recorded some none important things. So, I fix the tape and tried making it play. No dice. No video is on that tape now. Okay, so I try recording. No dice. Flashes "Tape" at me and locks up. Okay, try another brand new tape. No dice. Press record, it starts, then it hangs up and flashes "Tape" at me. Get it froze and it will rewind or fast forward or play but try to record an "Tape", "Tape", "Tape". Okay, I get it.

So instead of me blogging and showing you my first video of my "baby girl" just before she leaves behind elementary school and enters the world of middle school, I'm blogging about crappy technology. Sorry, but you missed a GREAT musical. Oh and you'll also get to miss her second piano recital, because it is Thursday night and I just don't see me getting over this technical hurdle that quick.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

My baby is 8 today. I just can't believe that it has been 8 years since the day this precious child came into my life. She was happy, healthy and a ray of sunshine and she still is today. She is a thoughtful, selfless child. She always seems to put others first and just loves to give things to people who mean something to her. She likes bugs and flowers and biking and cuddling. She is my cuddle child. She swarms a lot but she just loves to cuddle.

I didn't get to spend the day with her like I wanted to. I have found that with the end of school, Memorial Weekend and Mother's day, May is a very, very busy month and if you happen to have birthday in that month it's almost impossible to get a birthday party scheduled. So like most of our month, other things took president today. That makes me very sad. My beautiful, precious child spent the day at church and then at a friends where she wrecked her bike and skinned her arm and leg up. I wasn't even there to hold her when she cried.

She did get to have her birthday party last night though. She had a swimming party at the local indoor pool. She was so excited because she got 7 new webkinz and now she has more than her sister. I don't have her pictures handy to post but will get them up soon. She has grown so much in 8 years.

My baby!!!

Tagged by Tiffany

Tiffany tagged me about my husband...

How long have you been married? we will be married 14 years this October.

Where did you meet? We meet at a friends house. He had been dating a girl for 3 years and I was dating one of his friends.

How long did you date? We started dating June 9th, 2001 and got engaged March 28th, 2003.

How old is he? He is 8 months older then me.

Who eats more? He does

Who said “I love you” first? I did

Who is taller? He is

Who sings better? We sing about the same.

Who is smarter? I think he is. Neither of us have had an iq test so who knows.

Whose temper is worse? MINE

Who does the laundry? we both do

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Is the right side when your laying down or when your standing at the foot looking at the headboard?

Who pays the bills? I do

Who cooks dinner? We both do

Who drives when you are together? 90% of the time he does

Who is more stubborn? Me

Who kissed whom first? We kissed each other first.

Who is the first to admit to being wrong? He is.

Whose parents do you see the most? we see them about the same

Who proposed? He did

What’s his best physical attribute? His blue eyes

Who has more friends? I do

What are you most proud of him for? wow - what am I not proud of him for?

Who has more siblings? I do

Who wears the pants in the family? We rule the house together.

Okay Tiff, there are the details. I tag Laura because other then Kristi, whom Tiffany already tagged, none of my friends blog.

Not the Mommy!

Have you ever woke up and realized that you're not the Mommy that you wanted to be? We all make jokes about "you're turning into your Mother," or "I sound like my Mother" but do you have an idea in your head of what kind of mom you wanted to be?

I don't like the mom that I am becoming. I believe in being strict because I believe that my girls need to be taught that they are resposible for their actions and no one is to blame for their bad choices, but lately their choices are getting them into trouble. They're not doing anything that most people would get upset about, but again I'm the strict mom. I'm after them all the time and I'm loosing my temper almost on a daily bases and I don't like to. I've seen both of my girls in tears because of me almost everyday for of the last 7. That isn't what I want at all. This isn't the mom that I want to be.

I love my girls and I know they are great. I know that Em is intelligent and outgoing and confident but I'm always on her case. I know that Erin is intelligent and kind and loving but I'm always hard on her about school work.

I've been feeling like a monster lately and I just want to be a loving Mom. Not a best friend Mom but a loving, care what I think, be there to talk to Mom.

Today is my birthday and I'd rather not celebrate it because I've become a person I don't like and that isn't something to celebrate.

I love Spring

Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day. The scouts had a planned butterfly garden work day and so we were up and out of the house working in the garden by 9:00 am. I just love doing that. It is hard work pulling weeds and digging holes and watering routinely but the garden is so beautiful and smells so sweet.

I enjoyed it so much that after we were done up there at noon, I came home in ripped out my front flower bed. Though you really can't call it a flower bed because the only flower in there is a rose bush that I keep trying to kill (it isn't something I want to spend time up keeping) and the gardenia bush that I planted two years ago that has not bloomed yet. I want to expand my bed to 8 feet by the length of the house south from the front door and then I want to create a bed that goes north that you would walk through to go to the garage. I want to also put one there along the side of the garage. The plans are all in my head but I'll try to take some time and draw then out so you can see. I'll also take some pictures this weekend of what it looks like now. Crap would be the word I would describe it as now.



Since I've got this project in mind, that is what I told the girls I wanted for my birthday. Flowers for the flower beds. I want to see butterflies and hummingbirds and birds all around my yard. I've always loved flowers and having gardens. My grandmother and mother had flowers and flower beds everywhere when I was growing up. I love the smell of gardenias because of the one that grew just out the door of the playhouse. That is my favorite scent.

She blogs!!!!

Well now that March has come and gone and April is almost too, thought it would be a good time to catch you up. Not that anyone reads this anyway, but here goes.

Severe Weather

We have had record severe weather here in Arkansas. Snow at the first of March, then rain that caused flooding and then tornadoes that came way too close to home and then more rain and more flooding.

I am trying to figure out how to get my old camcorder hooked up so I can share the video I shot of the Arkansas River. It is absolutely amazing to see the river completely out of it's banks. I drove over to our construction site by the White River and was just in total awe of the magnitude of water. You have to see it to believe it. I saw it and still can't wrap my mind around it. It's actually a good thing that our project is stopped for litigation because that site is under water.

The tornadoes where a little too close for comfort and too many of my friends were even closer then I like. There was officially 10 come through from one wall cloud. I just consider it one that just kept touching down but they call it 10 separate ones. Marty and I were watching TiVo TV so we were behind on the warnings that were coming out. We had just caught up with real time when we really started looking at the path projections. I don't usually get worked up about storms (guess I've been through too many that were nothing) so we don't normally even do more then just watch the broadcast but for some reason we both felt that we needed to get up and get dressed for the weather. So we did and we even got the girls out of their beds and put them in ours. I've NEVER done that. (They slept through it though.) About that time, the phones started ringing. First Mom, because it had just past her and she knew it was projected at us. While I was talking with Mom, John called Marty's phone. I called Stacey because they are just down the street from us and if it was coming our way it had to pass them first. Her family went next door then to a neighbors storm cellar so I didn't have to worry about her. Marty called his mom while I talked to Stacey. She said that it wasn't bad there because it had gone east of them. Christine called me after I got off the phone with Stacey. They were doing well but they were concerned. Their power went out while we were on the phone. We had lost satellite but we still have an air wave TV in the kitchen so we could still see the news plus Marty has his ham radio license. So I stayed on the phone with her. The tornado turned and took the path it had taken when it wiped out Cabot in the 70's. Which was a lot closer to Christine than to us. Like I said too close. They didn't have any damage but there was lots of damage around the city park/pool off of Richie Lane. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night. I was on the phone calling friends to check on them.

Later I found out I had friends even closer then I knew: Laura, Melanie, Mr. & Mrs. Merritt, Ronnie & TJ.

It did a lot of damage to the baseball field at Sylvan Hills and my old high school, Sylvan Hills High.

Emily

The other things that have been happening is that Emily has started singing with the Praise Band at church on Sundays. She is really good and is starting to not look scared to be up there. Again if I can get through some technical challenges I'll post some video of her.

She decided that she wanted to do a talent show, so she looked in the paper and found the "Babies and Children's ABCExpo". She was very serious about it and kept reminding us what date and that she really wanted to go. So we took her. She performed Hannah Montana's "Rock Star" for the audition. They only took the top 10 talents for the show. She didn't make the show but she was great about it. She did well but it was her first audition and there were many of the "pageant/talent show" kids that were there also. Who knows, we maybe doing it again.

She is working hard at the moment on getting ready for her second piano recital. She is working on 4 pieces. I don't know the day of the recital yet but will be posting about it soon.

Erin

Little Miss Sunshine is working hard at school. She is still struggling with reading and writing. So if you get a letter from her, would you please be her pen pal? She doesn't like story writing so we are trying to let her write letters to friend telling about her life to get her to practice. She just finished benchmark testing at school and said that it was easy, so lets hope we're moving in the right direction. I do think the glasses have helped though.

Church

We have our first annual Easter Egg hunt and it was a huge success. I got to do the planning this year but I hope to have someone serve as Family Events coordinator and take that off my plate. We had it at a new members home and it was fabulous. They have huge yard out in the country. It worked out great except that it was really wet from loads of rain that we have been getting. Didn't dampen any ones spirits though and we all had a fabulous egg hunt for over 1500 eggs.

On Palm Sunday, the kids started the service with a parade of palm branches then stole the show with a performance of two songs. It was so wonderful to see the kids sing "Come to Jesus" and "Get Up, Get Up". Again, if I can get the technology worked out, I know where a video of it is.


There is more but I guess I can try to type that soon.

Snowing in Arkansas in March

I know that some places it isn't strange to have snow in March but for those of us in Cabot, Arkansas it is. Especially when it was in the 70's only one week ago. We were running around in shorts, getting sunburned and now we don't dare expose any skin to the 29 degreee weather.

My kids are so over joyed at the snow and I'm very glad that they did get to see such beauty. Here are some pictures of the "Spring" wonderland.

How do you like the Christmas decorations in March??? Marty used the big C9 set this year on the Snoopy tree and he liked it so much, he has left them up. He asked me to get different colors so that he could just change out the bulbs with the season. Unfortunately by the time he asked me this they weren't out any more. So if you see ANY color C9 bulbs please let me know or pick them up for me. I'd love to present him with: purple, pink, spring green, kelly green, blue, orange, sky blue, royal blue. It would be so funny.

Check out how it looked like the burning bush in this picture!!!!

Pretty cool, uhhh?

Proud Momma Moment

Emily has a very beautiful voice. This isn't a Momma opinion this is what I hear all the time when people hear her sing.
Emily reads very welll. This again isnt' a Momma opinion, this is what I hear when someone who doesn't know her hears her read aloud.

Well, Emily has decided to join the praise band at church and yesterday was her first day singing on stage on a microphone. Not only did she sing but she read a passage by herself for the congregation. Other then she looked a little unconfortable, it was her first time after all, she did a very good job at both. It isn't her first time reading a passage for the church, because she read one of the readings during Christmas of the lighting of the advent candles.

She is still taking piano lessons and now I guess I will have to get her voice lessons. Oh well, if this is the talent that God has given her, and she is comfortable using it, then I will be glad to encourage her every step of the way.


EMILY - your daddy and I couldn't have been more proud of you yesterday. Keep up the great work for God that your doing. WE LOVE YOU!! Mom