So ridiculous....

Debra loves and I do mean loves, loves, loves big hoop ear rings. This is a pair that she got for Easter. She wears them all the time. She can take this ear ring off and it will fit completely up her arm. Mom and I always laugh at her because her big hoop ear rings are so ridiculous. While Debra is very happy with these ear rings she is on the look out for a bigger pair......

caterpillars

Summer is almost here. At our house we can tell the season from the bugs that are outside (and a lot of times inside). Spring brings lady bugs, summer brings caterpillars and fall brings gnats because we live by a bean field. Its really gross.

We were outside yesterday and the kids were of course playing with the caterpillars. We all remembered the funniest caterpillar story ever and I thought I would share it with you guys.

When Debra was seven and Jessica was five they found a caterpillar. It was a very hot day and they decided to cool the caterpillar off. They got a squirt bottle filled with water and sprayed the caterpillar. Well they accidentally killed the poor thing by spraying too much water. They were both so upset that they cried all day. They both kept saying "Caterpillar why did you have to die?"

Look at the baby...

Oh my goodness you guys! I am going to be a grandma! I have of course known it for a long time but seeing the sonogram makes it so real.

The above picture is a 3D sonogram photo. All around the baby is the placenta. I think its cute. Dale said its the creepiest thing he ever saw and he wants a copy of the old sonogram pictures (you know the black and white ones).

I hadn't been sure what I wanted the baby to call me. I like the name Maw-Maw but a baby doesn't need two Granny's named Maw-Maw. Now that Mom is gone I think I will go ahead and have the baby call me Maw-Maw.

Ashley has decided to name the baby Joshua Dale. At first she liked Joshua Anthony (Dales middle name is Anthony) but Booga suggested she go with Joshua Dale instead. I think it is so nice that she wants to name the baby after Dale. I did notice however, when she was thinking of girl names, she never once thought of the name Lisa Christine...... Hmmmm....

Meganisms

When I told Megan about Maw-Maws passing. She said:

"Well from now on when I pray I am just going to pray straight to Maw-Maw"

I cried....

Poor broken hearted Debbie....

This is my Debbie. She is fourteen and in the eighth grade. Debbie is normally a joy to be around. She is just so funny. The jokes she makes are usually about herself and no matter how bad your mood is you just have to laugh when you are around Debbie.

Back in September she started going out with a boy named Anthony. Now understand when I say going out I mean they saw each other at school and school functions. They also talked on the phone and contacted each other on the computer.

They dated for about four or five months. Which is a huge amount of time to teenagers. Then one day, out of the blue Anthony dumped her. To say Debbie was devastated would be a complete understatement. The child cried, and I mean out loud moaning, groaning crying for days and days. She (and these are her words) could not believe that her "first true love" was over.

It was a very over dramatic next couple of weeks. Things would be fine then they wouldn't be. She would be happy and then she wouldn't be. I tried and I mean really tried to be understanding and supportive. But finally enough was enough. I told Debbie it was just time to suck it up and move on. She said o.k. and she did....

Her and Anthony are now friends and Debra said she will "always care about him".

Good grief!?!

Meganisms....

The other day Megan came to me "Mom" she said "Daddy is being really unfair to us kids!" I asked how Daddy could possibly be being unfair to everyone. She proceeded to tell me that Daddy said if anyone came home with bad grades on their report cards they were going to get in a lot of trouble. He said he would not accept any excuses. I questioned Megan as to how that was unfair and her answer was:

"Us kids don't grade those papers! How can we help it if the teacher gives us bad grades?"

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my thirteenth wedding anniversary. Some days I feel that number should be much lower and other days I feel its not high enough. I was twenty three the day I got married. I always laugh when I think about it. I don't laugh at our wedding. Both the wedding and reception went beautifully. I laugh at myself. I remember me at twenty-three. I thought I was so smart. I mean truly there could not of been a smarter person than me. I knew everything about everything. I definitely understood the complexities of marriage and family. I knew exactly what married life would be like and I didn't need advice, counseling or anything else. My husband and I would be just fine as long as we did everything exactly as I said we should. Now I still feel thats true today. Lucky for us I know a lot more now than I did back then. Here is what I know.

1. I do not know everything and every once in a while Dale might know a little more than I do.

2. My parents are not dumb and when I shut up long enough to listen to them they are a wonderful resource.

3. Loving someone does not always fix things, but it definitely makes them better.

4. Trying hard when you don't really feel like it makes feeling like it easier.

5. Saying nothing and nagging have exactly the same effects.

6. The most important thing I know is that my husband loves me more than I have ever seen any other man love any other woman.

I am such a better and happier person now, then on the day I got married. I would not go back for all the money in the world. I have learned that nothing makes a person happier or smarter than experience. If I keep going like this when I reach my one hundredth anniversary I really might be the smartest person in the world.

Invisible Mothers

This is something that has been being forwarded in emails. I found it very touching and oh so true. So I decided to post it for all you Moms out there to read....

Invisible Mothers...

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way on of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisibke. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?
Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'
I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:

'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Great Job, MOM!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things that none of my four older kids did but my baby Faith does... 1.Sucks a pacifier. We call it a ninny and boy is this baby addicted to it. 2. She has a security item. She is so in love with a stuffed bunny we call Bunny Foo Foo. We can not go anywhere or do anything without Bunny Foo Foo being involved. 3. She is afraid of "scaries". Each night I have to spray each window of her room with our speacial scary spray (water) and say "go away scaries" or she won't go to sleep. 4. She loves t.v.! When my older girls were babies I always wished they would sit and watch t.v. like other babies, but they wouldn't. They would watch for a minute and then wander off. Faith loves t.v. and will watch it all day if I let her. Sounds good right? Wrong. I am so sick of kid shows. I swear I can repeat every episode of Dora The Explorer by heart. Plus if I turn the t.v. channel she gets really mad.... 5. She really is a Daddys girl. Most times it is really a cute thing to see, but sometimes a grown man should be strong. 6. She is two years old and can work the computer. I am not kidding. She can control the mouse and not only go to games but she can play them as well. It is incredible... 7. She walks on my treadmill. Seriously, she uses that thing more than I do. 8. She has temper tantrums. Yes, all two year olds do, but do they copy the dramatics of their teenage sisters? heres an example; Mommy: Faith, stop pouting and come talk to mommy. Faith: NEVER! Mommy: Faith, We can't have a fit, we need to use our words. Faith: NEVER, I WILL NEVER, EVER TALK TO YOU! and if I feed into it we can go like that for hours. 9. No matter how hard I try I can not get her on an eating schedule. Don't get me wrong she eats at every meal. She also eats about five more times in between. If I don't give her food. She will get it herself. 10. She loves to read books. And like with the t.v her attention span is long. She can get any one of about twenty books and tell you what they are about. 11. Loves to swing high. We have a tire swing in our yard. Faith loves it. But if we don't push her as high as that swing will possibly go (which is too high for her) she will cry. While she is swinging so high she likes to let go of the swing and wave. 12. This one is gross and I always said my kids would never do it. She carries her potty around the house. It is not suprising to walk in the living room and see a potty full of doo... Yuck... Once I opened the microwave and her littl potty bowel was in it. Thankfully it was empty, but I don't use that microwave anymore. 13. She does not like to be in her stroller. My older girls would sit for hours if I pushed them. Not Faith, she can not stand the stroller for more than ten or fifteen minutes.


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Wow!?!

It seems unbelievable that a year has passed since I last posted. I would love to say the reason I haven't posted is because I was busy traveling the world or learning exciting new things. But alas, I have just been lazy.

But just because I am lazy does not mean there haven't been a lot of changes. I will do a quick recap of my year. Each highlight will have its own post later.

*The worst thing that happened last year is that my mother became very ill. She has spent the last three or four months in the hospital and has had some pretty close calls. She is now in a nursing home until she gets well enough to go home.

*The girls have of course aged another year. Their ages and grades are now as follows; Ashley is eighteen (nineteen in July). She dropped out of school but I am constantly nagging her about getting her GED. Debra is 14 and in eighth grade. Jessica is 11 and in sixth grade. Megan is 7 and in first grade and our baby Faith is two. I of course stopped aging this year and do not plan on ever starting back up again.

*Ashley no longer lives at home. That is definitely a post all on its own.

*Debra had her first broken heart (a very sad but funny story that will be coming soon).

*Sadly so very sadly Jessica is becoming like every other tween aged girl and I am seriously mourning my lost little girl.

*Megan is still Megan. She is still the smart mouthed, tell it like it is, guaranteed to make you feel like an idiot little girl we all know and love.

*Faith is growing by leaps and bounds. Every day she amazed me with the things she shouldn't know but does.

*Dale is still Dale. He spoils us all rotten and then gets mad because we are all so spoiled....

*And last but not least I who have admittedly been lazy have still managed to alienate several members of my family. I have been kicked out of several homes and cussed out by an incredibly lot of people. This is another sad but oh so funny story.....

So a year has passed and much has changed. However some things haven't changed. Like how I am on a diet (again) and how I am going to start keeping a cleaner more organized house. How I am putting my foot down and these kids are going to start listening. Also unchanged is how very much I love my husband and children and how lucky I am to have them....