Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Easier way to blog

I knew I needed to blog but didn't really have an idea of what I should write about (girls' last day of school tomorrow, H.A's desire for her ears pierced, tonight's Mannatech meeting, the long talk I had with Shayne today about her attitude and my fear that she doesn't know how much I love her.....) Instead of an intelligent blog entry, I'm stealing this idea from Willena :)

A is for Age - 31
B is for Booze - none
C is for Career - Wife, Mom, Wellness Encourager :)
D is for Dad’s name - David
E is for Essential items to bring to a party - Sport, Firm, Emprizone
F is for Favorite song at the moment - I gotta get back to you on this one
G is for Graduation year - high school 1992, college 1995
H is for Hometown - Montgomery
I is for Instrument you play - I've learned one chord on Shayne's electric guitar
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - grape jelly
K is for Kids - 4 ages 9, 6 (7 on Sunday), 4 (5 in June), 2
L is for Living arrangement - 4 bedroom house with 5 other loving people
M is for Mom’s name - Jo Anne
N is for Not-so-bright-idea - letting David drink iced tea before a ballgame
O is for Overnight hospital stays - Shayne's, Harris Anne's & David's births
P is for Phobias - losing my kids, puking, and snakes
Q is for Quote you like - To go somewhere different you have to take a new road.
R is for Relationship that lasted longest - Skye & I have been best friends since 1980
S is for Siblings - 1 sister, Stephanie
T is for Toughtest habit to break - staying up late and sleeping late
U is for Unique trait - I'm 6 feet tall and I can type pretty fast (??)
V if for Vegetable you love - Lima Beans, blackeyed peas, corn, southern mashed potatoes
W is for What you're waiting for - a fully-furnished home but ultimately, I'm waiting for Jesus to return
X - is for XRays you’ve had - dental, orthodontic, chiropractic and some on my knees when I was a teenager and one of my hand when I broke my finger in junior high. Oh and of my pelvis when I fell down on my butt in 96
Y is for Yummy food you make - egg, sausage, cheese quesadillas
Z is for Zodiac sign - Pisces (Horoscopes are so stupid, though)

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Motivational Neighbor

I went to bed last night at 2:30 as predicted (decided??) by the way.

I have FOUND that wonderful neighbor that I have always wanted. First, we borrowed flour from her/them as a last minute school project needed it (making a volcano -- last minute on our part and not the part of the teacher). It was an amazing blessing that we could call on her and she could ANSWER! Next, I have found a WALKING BUDDY! She's a night owl like me and we made a plan to start walking on as many nights as we possibly could at 9:00. I was supposed to call her tonight at 8:30 to confirm but when I got no answer, I was actually RELIEVED. I was sooooo exhausted from staying up late last night and then getting up early for ball games today, sitting in the hot sun for 2 ball games (the second being at noon!) and then going to an outdoor birthday party for Seth (1 year old yesterday!) Anyway, I was pooped and LOVED the fact that it appeared to be my neighbor's fault that we didn't go walking because I actually did what I was supposed to do. But at 9:15 there was a knock at the door and she said, "Get your shoes on and let's go!" Dang.

So we went walking and it was WONDERFUL! Turns out she was on the other line when I tried calling her and she didn't recognize my phone number (I wanted to say 'duh' LOL). But she knew I was home so she got my butt in gear and we walked. It was really nice. I'm very much looking forward to this routine and encouragement. YAY!

AND, she's considering the possibility of doing Trading Spaces :)

Oh, and I have the blessing of already knowing this neighbor from when I worked at ECMI. We have LOTS to talk about when we walk and that makes it really fun.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Wasting Time That I Can't Afford To Waste

The only way I could believe it's 12:20 AM is that my eyeballs are burning and ready to pop out of my skull, run through the house and jump onto my pillows for some much needed sleep. Otherwise, it seems like it's only 8 or 9 o'clock. I have so much left to do this evening. I can't believe the hours aren't available.

So why am I here blogging? I have no idea why I do this. I think it's a lack of focus.

I bet I go to bed around 2:30 AM. I think I can make it that long.

Monday, May 02, 2005


Shayne poses with her friend Brittney. Posted by Hello

David on the trapeze bar. Posted by Hello

It took several shots before we actually got one of H.A. in the air. She is very proud of this picture! Posted by Hello

Our latest snapshot of Pearson. Ain't he a cutie? And who thinks he favors H.A.??? Posted by Hello

Our newest paintings are proudly displayed in our kitchen. The girls absolutely LOVED making these! I enjoyed it, too :) Posted by Hello

Sunday, May 01, 2005

"Ten dollar buck"

David can read. Really, he can! He's reading Hop on Pop and even though he will sometimes slip into his "memorization recitation" of the story, there are MANY times that he's actually sounding out words. I LOVE IT! He's only started reading this book Wednesday. He giggled and giggled with his hand over his mouth as he rolled around on the floor when it dawned on him that sounding out each individual letter actually made the word that was written on the page! He's memorized PARTS of the book but since he's really only been reading it since Wednesday, it's not a perfect memorization. He remembers the theme of each page and when he gets a little lazy I remind him to actually look at the words/letters. And when he does, he smiles the biggest smile knowing that he can actually figure out what the words are! It is a beautiful thing :)

My favorite part of his reading tonight was the page that says something like, "My father can read big words, too like CONSTANTINOPE and TIMBUKTU." Well, this was one of those pages where he just guessed at what it said. He told me, "I don't know this first word but I know that last one. It's 'ten dollar buck.'"

I laffffffffed!

It's times like this that I get a little sad about our decision and the recommendation of him not going to 5-year-old Kindergarten next/this year. He's SO smart! In fact, Shayne was basically only sounding out individual letters when she entered K, Harris Anne was doing pretty good and basically reading like David is now but she was a couple of months older than David is now AND she's a girl! I'm sorry, but David is really, really bright.

However, Donnie and I agree that socially..which has been the main issue with Kindergarten the whole time....it's still best for him to wait another year before doing ECS K. He will do a summer program one day a week and then do a pre-k 3 days a week (half days like ECS) in the fall.

One more big maturation process that occurred this week. I left the kids alone for about 20 minutes while I walked up and down the block in front of the house. I never got out of sight of our front yard but I still felt a little funny about it. We had a HUGE talk about emergencies before I did it and I called Shayne and talked to her on my cell phone the first half of my block. Instead of walking very far, I just walked the street a couple of laps. I don't think the kids had moved from the TV show they were watching the whole time I was gone.

Does anyone think I'm a bad mother for doing this?

I took some neat pictures today at our VERY FUN Sunday School party. We had the honor of hosting a lunch in the backyard today. I MIGHT try to post some tonight or tomorrow.