A Clean House for only $5.32!!

Well, it's a momentous occasion. My house is clean. No, wait - that's not why it's momentous. Today was the first major cleaning of summer vacation, and so the girls were here. And guess what! Today they learned how to clean a toilet, tub, sink and counter! They also helped mop, dust and make beds. Woo-hoo! So my house was reasonably clean in about three and a half hours (we cleaned for 15 minutes, watched 5-10 minutes of a movie, repeat until done) and as a reward we went to Baskin Robbins and got ice cream cones. What a bargin! There's so much good about this whole process, I hardly know where to start!

1. My girls are learning life skills!
2. My house is clean!
3. I got ice cream!

What's not to like?

One week down, Ten to go!

Well, hello there! Welcome to Summer Vacation! It's zooming by at an alarming rate, with one week already slipped past us. I'm not sure that the girls would tell you that Summer Vacation is anything very exciting yet - on about the third day Maggie asked me, "Are we going to run errands EVERY day during the summer?"

"You know, I run errands almost every day, but you are usually in school, so you don't notice. This isn't actually an unusual amount of errands," I replied. Maggie failed to look impressed.

Gracie's just disappointed because we haven't gone swimming yet. There's several reasons for this, the #1 reason being that several days this week it barely broke 80 degrees. I for one, don't want to freeze my fanny off in the pool. The #2 reason is that we have not gotten a pool membership this year. Last year we shelled out $220 for passes to the local aquatic center, and then didn't use them enough to break even on the cost. This year we've been invited to join two of the local homeowner's association pools, one at $250 and one at $175. I hesitate because A) I wonder if we will use it and B) we really do like the aquatic center, and would want to go there too. It's $7 per person, per visit. Do I want to pay for both? Ugh!!! Decisions, decisions. It's easier just not to swim, although that makes for a very pouty little girl!!!

Let's see - since it's been a month since I blogged, let me catch you up. May was exhausting, as usual. First we had Gracie's First Grade Field Trip - the Zoo. We had a very fun day, but I forgot to take my camera, so I have no visual proof. Someone took a picture of us on the tram, but I don't even know who it was to get a copy. We did see an awesome dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. The dinosaurs were life-size robotics. Some of them had control stations that the kids could operate, making them move their head, tails, arms and even roar on command. Gracie really enjoyed that part.

For Mother's Day I rang handbells in church and then we went to lunch and then we went bowling and had a fun family day. The girls bowling styles couldn't have been more different from each other, and they kept me and Jerry giggling.





The girls also gave me artwork from school that details why they love me - I just love to read them over and over! We also hung up pictures and wall art, kinda. Well, definitely the wall art, and the frames, but they still had stock pictures of unknown people in them. I finally put photos in them this week.

The next day was our anniversary, and Jerry took the day off to "be with me." Only, he didn't put on the calendar that he was taking the day off, so I had committed to help the first grade make their teacher gift for the year. Jerry went with me and helped too, so we could be together for our anniversary!

The next week ended up being not as all what we had expected. My Uncle Bub passed away the Saturday before Mother's Day and so I traveled down to Granbury for the funeral. It was quite an affair, as Uncle Bub was quite a man.

The day after the funeral my Dad had surgery for a blocked artery in his leg, so I sat at the hospital with my step-mom until he was in recovery before heading back to Oklahoma. All in all, Jerry was a single dad from Tuesday through Thursday. Luckily for us we have some very hospitable neighbors with girls that are similar ages who helped us out by keeping the girls after school until Jerry got home from work. I think the girls felt conflicted about my absence. They missed me, BUT they sure enjoyed having playmates after school every day!!

I got home from the Metroplex on Thursday afternoon, and Friday we headed off to East Texas for Jerry's family reunion. It was a very small crowd - only 30 people. We did enjoy our time with Mimi and Pepaw at the cabin, although Maggie and Gracie were disappointed that there weren't more cousins their own age for them to meet. All in all I spent over 1300 miles in the van this week. I was very ready to get back to a routine, but there were only 2 weeks of school left!

And what a full two weeks they were. Maggie had her bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts - she officially flew up from Brownies, which was very exciting. For Memorial Day we took it easy - Gracie went over to a friends house to have a sleepover, and so we allowed Maggie to invite a friend over for the same night. She and Chloe stayed up way too late - I went in to quiet them down at 11:00 and found the door shut, the light on, and them playing away. UGH!!! Needless to say, we were all a bunch of grumpy gerties the next day and didn't do much!

The last week of school the girls had "Farm to You" from the OSU extension service come to their school. It leads them through the body to teach them about nutrition and health. Here Gracie heads into the mouth where they learned about dental health:

And here Maggie is looking at her hands under a black light after they used a special glow-in-the-dark lotion to show how germs spread by shaking hands.

And that was it. We're here for our 80 days of summer vacation. Only 80 days this year. Last year we had 85. Oh well, we are making the best of it! We have already signed up for the Library reading program. The grand prize is a Wii - you get one entry for every 8 books you read. Gracie is a girl with a mission. She's reading every book she can get her hands on. We've also had a grand time with the girls Easy-Bake oven. They've had a stuffed animal's 'birthday' every day, and are getting quite proficient with the oven. I have learned a few valuable lessons myself, such as - you can't shove a half-baked cake back in the oven. The in-door is only as tall as the pan, so if the cake has risen above the rim, you will create a huge mess. Also, those cakes may be small, and it may only be a light bulb that cooks 'em, but they are rippin' hot! Don't try to catch one with your bare hands if it starts to fall out of that hook holder. Yowza! I'm beginning to understand why my mom wouldn't let me have an easy-bake oven when I was a kid. Still, we are having a great time. Okay, the girls are standing here begging to go outside and ride bikes - and that's what summer is for, so I've got to run -

Happy Summer!

Where's the Flowers?

I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers! Well, May is here, and I've seen a few flowers, but no decrease in the showers!

This first May weekend was ABC Day for our Brownie Troops - All Brownie Camp Day, that is. It had been raining for several days, and the whole state seemed to be a mudpit. I have to admit that I would not have been particularly sad if I had gotten a call saying this event was cancelled, but, having been a scout councilor during many rainy days, I knew the chance was slim. Saturday arrived, gray and rainy, and we packed our stuff and headed up to the school parking lot to caravan to camp. When it came time to go, my van wouldn't start. Jerry came up to the school and jumped it, and we proceeded to camp, with me hoping that it wasn't an omen of things to come!

Maggie's troop (of which I am the illustrious leader) had four girls that went along with me, Maggie, Sarah, Kennedy and Jennifer, my fearless co-leader Shelly, and David - the father of one of my girls. He's usually the only guy within miles of Girl Scout events, but he's a good sport and doesn't seem to mind.

Gracie went with her troop - Her leader, Gail, and her second adult, Kelli, brought their girls, Olivia and Cora. They had the cabin next to us, and were in our "group" for games and activities, so we were all together for the fun.

Once we slipped and slid into the mud parking lot and hauled our gear through the misty weather to our cabin we went to the lodge for the opening of camp and a quick sing-along with the Program Aides (PA's). Then it was back to the campsites for the ultimate camp treat, S'mores.

After a s'more and some more camp songs, we had a few minutes to go to our cabins and get settled in. Once we were settled in we went on a "cat-eye" hike. We got our ponchos and flashlights, and the PA's led us to a starting point. From there we shone our lights at the trees around us, looking for glowing cat-eyes. We followed the trail from eye to eye, and eventually made it back to our campsite. We brushed our teeth and went back to our cabin and tried to sleep. The girls didn't have much of a problem, but my body is not used to sleeping on a sheet of plywood with a three-inch foam mattress. When the alarm went off in the morning, the adults all agreed that it had been a very long night.

We headed up to the lodge for our morning flag ceremony. It was a very gray and overcast day, but it was not raining, so we were very happy.

After the flag ceremony we went on a hike to find our breakfast, the rare wild granola bars, muffins and juice. Once we had eaten we went on a hike to see the rest of the camp. It is pretty small, but it has everything you need. There is a "Brownie Bridge" there that goes over a small stream, and we hiked to and over the bridge - here are our girls at Brownie Bridge:
After the hike we had three sessions where the girls played games and did activities for try-its.

The first session we played games - here's Maggie running a relay where they had to dress up and then do an obstacle course. The next session the girls were given several objects and then they had to work together to construct a shelter for themselves that would protect them from wind and rain. They all had to get in it to prove it was big enough for all of them. It was a tight squeeze, but they did it.

At the last station they talked about senses and camouflage of animals. Of course, a big part of any Girl Scout event is singing songs - and they did that too! Here they are singing about a moose named Fred who likes to drink his juice in bed.

Lastly, we did our kapers - cleaning up our cabin and campsite. We walked around to see what else there was, and the girls decided they want us to stay in the "treehouse" unit next time - the cabins are on stilts, probably 10 feet up in the air. I guess this means one of us is going to have to take camp troop training!

All in all, we had a great time, despite the grayness of the days, and the girls are looking forward to going camping again.

Here's my parting shot - Gracie had so much fun climbing tress and playing in the mud - she's definitely into the outdoors!

The Land Run

My, my things have been busy around here. I think that the last two months of school are more busy than the holidays.

The big deal in the third grade at our school is the reenactment of the Oklahoma Land Run. The kids in the classes are divided into "family groups" of four or five kids each, and then their family is responsible for getting ready to stake their claim. This is no small feat - they have to have costumes, a covered wagon, a decorated family stake to stake their claim - there's a lot of prep work involved.

For the parents, this also involved a big meeting where we all met and volunteered for committees. I helped head up the "Games" committee with Carolyn, a good friend of mine who has lots of parenting experience. There was also a photo committee, land office committee, finance committee, snack committee and a few others I've already forgotten. Of course, there was a head committee person to make sure all of us committee chairs had our ducks in a row. Whew! I'm exhausted just typing about it. Anyway, what seemed like a simple task was all-consuming for the last couple of weeks.

I started out with the best of intentions to make Maggie a pioneer costume. We went to Hancock's Fabrics one Saturday and picked out a pattern and material for a dress. I got the material washed and ironed, and the pattern ironed, but then things took a turn for the worse. I looked at the directions, and what I thought was an elastic waistband and sleeves turned out to be ribbon ties with casings that had buttonholes at each end. I've never made a buttonhole before, so this was going to require some time getting reacquainted with my sewing machine's owner's manual. Only problem was that Monday's schedule looked like this: Dr. Appointment, Oil Change, Land Run Meeting, Build a Wagon with Maggie's Family, Dinner, Homework, Bedtime. Tuesday's was similar: BSF, Library Volunteering, Girl Scouts, Dinner, Homework, Bedtime. When was I supposed to make this costume? After practically having a panic attack on Monday night I came to my senses and started calling everyone I knew with a fourth or fifth grader to borrow a land run costume. We found two, and Maggie chose which one she wanted - a more grown-up looking dress that was several inches too long. I hemmed it up so she wouldn't trip on it, and did make her an apron to wear with it. The rest of the dress will be finished at a later date. (We'll still need it for Gracie in a couple of years!)

At the last meeting there were several parents talking about wearing costumes as well. Carolyn said she had a dress she thought might fit me and dropped it by. I felt flattered that she thought I was that thin - I could hardly get more than one thigh in that dress! I still managed to dress up though with the apron from the dress, a long skirt and the bonnet from the other land run costume we borrowed. Although I ended up being one of only a few adults in costume, it had its benefits. Everyone else got sunburned, but my long sleeves and skirt kept me lily-white, except for my face. The bonnet kept blowing off in the Oklahoma wind.

Finally the day of the land run was here! Maggie woke up extra early, she was so excited. We got all dressed up and headed to the bus stop. We got a few looks as we walked through the neighborhood, but Maggie loved it. As soon as the bus left I headed to the land run site and started setting up the games. The kids got there and we had an hour of games, the land run re-enactment at noon, lunch, and another hour of games. They played tug-of-war, had a stick pull, sack races, three-legged races and a clothesline relay.

The head organizer had also contacted the museum and they provided a chuck wagon with several educational displays for us at no charge.

Of course, the highlight of the day was the actual run, which took very little time. The kids got their wagons and lined up at the start.



Everyone was hootin' and a hollerin' for the gun to go off. All of the sudden five "sooners" (aka "cheaters") made a break for it! There were several volunteer dad "sheriffs" waiting for them though, and after a few minutes they were all hauled off to jail for a very short incarceration. Once they rejoined their families we counted down to noon, when the gun went off and they all took out.


Maggie's family pulled out a stake, put their family stake in its place and ran to the land office to file their claim. The we set out a blanket and had a picnic lunch on their new property.

After a full day the kids headed back to school for cobbler and a hootenanny while the volunteers cleaned up the site. I went home and changed out of my hot costume and made it to the school in time to see the kids do the Virginia Reel.

It was a good day, but one I'm glad to get out of the way.

A Visit to the Hundred Acre Woods

The time has come this year for the first graders to visit the Hundred Acre Woods. For those of you who might have forgotten, that is where Winnie-the-Pooh lives with all his friends. Each grade level at our elementary school has a program each year, and the first graders always do a play that revolves around Pooh, which is the theme for the entire first grade at our school. This year it was raining in the Hundred Acre Woods, so the adventure was imagined to be under the sea. Pooh and his friends hopped on a yellow submarine and explored the underwater world. Gracie's class all donned their swimsuits and goggles and scuba gear and swam around. Here's our little scuba divers:

Gracie is first on the second row, in the red and blue outfit.

This year Gracie was very into her program, excited about all her songs, playing her instrument, and describing her dance to me in advance of her program. Here she is singing her heart out (second row, next to the penguins):


Next up was the dance. She held a hoop the first part of the dance, and then they made a circle and did a little dance. You can see her "scuba" gear in this shot:



Lastly, she had her instrument part. They played hand chimes - a group of them would have the chimes to make a chord, and they would play their cord when the director held up their number. As a handbell player, I was impressed with Gracie's focus on her director!


They did a great job! We ordered a video of the performance, and I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to see it soon!

Spring Break

Well, Spring Break has come and gone. Apparently this year, that meant that for a small break we would have spring, but now winter is back, again! Seriously, as I type this they are forecasting four inches of snow tonight and tomorrow.

Oh well - at least the girls had some good weather to play outside for Spring Break. Their first stop was to Nana and Granddad's. Gracie promptly got into mud mode - I got this picture the first day: Eventually they got all cleaned up and headed to Dallas to the American Girl Bistro and shop. This was a request that the girls had begged Nana for, and of course, she was only too happy to oblige. This was also the culmination of a period of saving for the girls. They have been getting allowance for some time now, and a portion of it is put aside for something they are 'saving' for. Both girls had listed American Girl items as their goal, and although neither bought the item they listed, they did spend their money on American Girl items. Now they've decided to save for a Wii, but at the rate they are saving, it'll be several years before they get it.

Mid week they returned to Oklahoma, and Thursday we spent the entire day at the zoo. The girls spent the first half at a Girl Scout Badge workshop in the zoo school (while I read a book in the parking lot) and the second half we enjoyed the beautiful weather and saw the rest of the sights. It's a pretty nice zoo, for its size. When they announced that the zoo was closing the girls got rather paranoid that we were going to be locked in, but we managed to get out!

For the second weekend of our Spring Break, Mimi and Pepaw came up to visit us. It was a bit windy while they were here, but still warm. We visited a lot, and checked out a garden center where Mimi and I dreamed big, but bought nothing. What self-control we have! Still, it's good we didn't purchase anything, because it would be freezing to death this weekend! Here's the girls and Pepaw decorating little wood cars:
The finished products: And here's a good shot of Mimi having tea with Ms. Grace-ita Chiquita Bonita: and Ms. Margarita Picklesworth:

Anyway, that was our spring break in a nutshell. Now we are back in the school swing of things!

Inner Beauty

Last night, as I was putting the girls to bed, I sat down to talk with Gracie. She was looking off towards her desk, and a picture that one of her friends in New Mexico, Annalise, had drawn and given her with her birthday present one year.

She asked me, "Why did she make her hair red and mine blue?"

"I don't know. Hers was a lot lighter blonde than yours was. She maybe only had red and blue and wanted to make them different." I replied.

"Do you think maybe she thought her hair was prettier than mine?" She questioned.

I mulled this over and was still thinking of a reply when she said, "Hair is pretty on the outside, but what counts is what's on the inside, like in your heart."

"Yes, that is true." I said.

"And your bones." She continued, patting her arms. I smiled and started to speak, but then here came her toes from under the bedspread, "And toes. I have pretty toes."

"You have beautiful toes," I smiled, "But I think it also is important to be nice and kind too."

"Yeah," she replied thoughtfully.

"Good night sweet girl! I love you." Inside and out...

Cold, Clowns and Cookies

Oh my gosh, what happened to spring? After a beautiful weekend, I dropped my girls off at school today, and it was SNOWING!!!! It snowed for several hours, coating all of the fully budded out trees with powdery white stuff. I took a picture, but it didn't really come out well:

Today at Gracie's girl scout meeting they learned about clowning. They had a real, live clown that told them all about it, and at the end she painted their faces. Maggie got her face painted too when we got there to pick Gracie up:










I stopped today to pick up more cookies for our final cookie booth. Afterwards I saw the weather report for the weekend, and now I'm wishing that I had just cancelled the booth and said, enough! Oh well. . . hopefully it will go much quicker than our last one, which was really too early in the morning. This one is in the afternoon, and at least the grocery store we are at has a big covered patio so we are protected from the elements. Arghhhhhh, I want spring back!!!!

Giddy to be in the Groove

I am so glad to be back in my routine! Since my last post, we did declare a break from all activities. In fact, I don't believe I left the house once I got home from the pharmacy on Monday until the next Saturday. See, after my post on Wednesday, I developed an "adverse drug reaction" - a lump in my throat that made it difficult to swallow. It felt like I had a ping-pong ball lodged in the base of my throat! The doctor's office said to stop taking my antibiotic, since I might be having an allergic reaction, so I did. Then, that night, as I was taking my Aciphex (for acid reflux) I remembered that last time I had taken it, I had a similar reaction after 15 days - and I was on day 10 this time. I called the doctor again the next day and they said to just stop taking everything. I was concerned that the strep would come back, but the doctor's office said that it should have been weakened enough by the antibiotics that I had so far that my body should be able to fight it off. I just didn't want the strep to come back and get Jerry and the girls sick too, but I decided that since I paid the doctor for his professional advice, I should trust him. He ended up being right, but I still fell into a very bad mood.


I spent most of Thursday in bed - not that I was hurting badly or anything - I was just down! I was questioning, "Why can't I get well? Does God hate me?" Of course, it was rhetorical. I know that God does not hate me. My sister said, "No - but maybe he's disciplining you. You know he only disciplines those he loves." My glib response, of course, was that God must love me a lot! Really though, this week, through Sunday School and BSF (gosh, I was so glad to be back, I was giddy!) I was reminded that when we are presented with difficult circumstances, each choice we make is either a step towards God, or a step towards self. And really, you can't count on how you feel - it's human nature to question - but you have to go with what you know from the Word. So, what do I know? Sometimes it is a good exercise to remind myself. . .

• If God allows a trouble, he will give me a way to make it through that trouble. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)
• I am commanded not to worry. (Matthew6:25-34)
• God wants me to cast my anxieties upon him. (1 Peter 5:6-7)
• He knows what is going to happen. (Psalm 16:5)

So, although things aren't quite back to 'normal,' health-wise, I am making a choice to once again have faith in what I know to be true of God, and know that whatever he has in store for me (and my family) is the best thing for us - even if it doesn't always 'feel' that way.

Where Does the Time Go?

Ah, here we are, at the end of February. It doesn't seem possible, yet it is. I think the first few months of the year go by faster than the rest. It just seems as if we put all sorts of things off until the "first of the year," and then BOOM! It's over!

February has been full of activities. It is a heavy birthday month in our family, including Miss Maggie, who is officially a tween now. Just ask Uncle Aaron - she talked his ear off for about 45 minutes the other night when he called to wish her a Happy Birthday! Maggie's party was a bit of a quick affair. I didn't get the invitations out as soon as I should have - not like I didn't know when her birthday was - but we still had a good turn out. Granddaddy, Grandma and Papaw made the drive to attend the party as well.

We still aren't out of the woods, sickness-wise. Gracie got double ear-infections last week, and this week I'm sporting another round of strep (woo-hoo)! I'm debating calling a moratorium to all extra-curricular activities for about a week, including church and scouts, just to see if we can't put a stop to it, but I'm not sure how effective that would be. We can't opt out of school - and chicken pox is making the rounds there. I know all the kids are supposed to be vaccinated - how is it we are seeing an outbreak of chicken pox? Ugh! Anyway - I finally took a list of all the meds I'm on now when I picked up my antibiotics and ran it by the pharmacist to make sure I'm not going to turn into the incredible shrinking woman or anything. I feel like a walking medicine cabinet sometimes.

The kids have given us some memorable moments since the last post. The morning that Gracie stayed home from school she was flipping through one of my scrapbooks while I was trying to get Maggie ready for school. All the sudden her little voice piped up from the chair, "Why does this man have on no clothes?" My mind was whirring as I tried to think of what scrapbook she was looking at, as I don't recall ever having put a picture of a nude man in any of my scrapbooks. Turned out she was looking at our Europe trip - at the statue of David. I tried to explain about art, sculptures, Renaissance, etc. and thought I had done an okay job of explaining when she came up with another question. "What's that thing between his legs?" I gave the short, simple, anatomically correct answer, but then she pondered the difference between the picture and other "little" boy parts she had seen before. Her conclusion, "That's gross." Not at all the conversation that I thought I'd be having on a Tuesday morning.

Maggie came home from school with the sobering news that a child she knew was moving due to a less than ideal home situation. She said that his step-dad, "spanked him too much." When asked if she thought she was spanked too much her reply was, "No, because most of the time I'm really, really, really good!" :-)

I've found THE great time-consumer. I joined Facebook. The reason I joined was because there is a group of CM consultants out there that started a group to exchange digital scrapbooking ideas. Less than a month later, I have 49 friends! Since we have moved around quite a bit, I knew we had made lots of friends over the years, and I am really enjoying catching up with everyone, but I am spending entirely too much time out there. I'm going to have to put myself on a timer just like I do for the girls Webkinz time! Oh well! If I haven't posted in awhile, you'll know where I am!