Month: May 2009

This week has been quite odd.  I am feeling not very “put together” and it is overflowing to my blog.  There is so much going on….so many pictures….so many stories.  I don’t know where to begin, so I am just randomly throwing this stuff out there.  

Only the girls hung around for all of the gift-opening and card-reading Mother’s Day weekend.  The boys were distracted and too busy.  I hope you have some sweet girls in your life that will watch you open your presents and “oooh” and “aaah” with you….nieces, daughters, granddaughters, cousins, friends,….

This is a piece of wood that a lady put a picture of my kids on for my Mom’s present.  It is much neater looking in person.  

Mack LOVES golf-carts.  He is content to sit on one all day long.  If anyone got on the golf-cart, he immediately started making his way over so that he could go wherever they were going.

He also loved this red & yellow car.  He learned this move from his Daddy….driving and talking on the phone.  

Mack was napping during this golf-cart ride.  They were all going to fish.

What a sweet little picture!  Vance is proud of the Mother’s Day present he made for her at Aunt Cacy’s house.  It was just precious watching him deliver it to his Mama.

Six of the seven grandkids are all eating together.  Somebody is going to have to scoot over when baby Rennison grows up!

Aunt Marcy and Aunt Cacy live on the same street as my parents, so this is how they got home that day.  It was very cute, and I assume everyone made it safely home.

 

Is that enough randomness????  I am going to get on with day and try to bring some order to it!  I can’t go on much longer like this.

Sunday morning started early…about 4:45am.  I went downstairs in search of coffee and my Bible while Josh got ready for his trip to Vegas.  Jeff was picking him up at 6am for their 8:30 flight.  ANYWAY, I got myself and three kids ready and fed and out the door by 7:40 (at breakfast Molly asked if Daddy was riding a camel to Vegas).  I valet parked at church because I wasn’t sure if it was going to be pouring down rain when church let out.  What a wonderful service that valet parking is!!!  I was thankful for it Sunday morning.  I took Ruby to her class first, and she immediately hollered out to her teacher, “My Daddy is on a plane to Vegas!”  It just didn’t sound very ummmm, wholesome.  The teacher laughed and knew that he was there on business, but still….it just didn’t sound right. After church, we ate lunch, took a nap, then got ready to be back at church for a 4:00 meeting.  Ruby had a certain outfit she had to wear because she was in the children’s musical.   She wanted to wear a navy headband to match her shirt, so I said ok.  I knew that it wasn’t the best decision, but I really was not feeling like fighting over her hair tonight.  We went to church in the rain, which is always fun when you are getting three munchkins in and out of a car and into the building.  I was seriously missing Josh at this particular point of the day.  Throw in a mean case of PMS and life was just lovely.

I kept Ruby with me until her 5:00 drop-off time, then I finished my meeting, then went and got Molly from her class because she wanted to see Ruby in the musical.  (In reality, she just wanted to sit in laps and eat crackers.)  Anyway, while walking through to get Molly I saw that Ruby’s headband was falling forward.  I asked my sweet friend, Melissa, to please go check on Ruby and make sure her headband was ok.  She fixed her headband and all was well….until I saw Ruby walk up on stage.  It was in the proper place while walking down the aisle, but then it slid.  It was at the place that it looked like a sweatband instead of a headband.  She should have been on a workout video from the 80’s instead of the Children’s Musical 2009.  THEN, in between two of the songs, she held herself because she needed to go potty, I reckon!  Good grief.  Then, my camera, my lovely camera was giving me grief.  It wouldn’t take a normal picture.  I have no idea what the issue was, so I just put it away and tried to enjoy watching Ruby sing and do her hand motions with her sweatband on her head.   I was glad when the performance was over.  We got out of there and came home.  I fixed the kids some pancakes for dinner, and then we all went to bed.  

Above is one picture of Ruby standing next to Katherine…as you can see, her headband is a little “off.”

This is a picture of the whole group.  There were a bunch of kids up there!

And here is a very blurry picture, but it is all I have!  

 

Today I got up and had to take Mack to an ENT appointment.  Y’all would not believe the wax that they pulled out of that boy’s right ear.  It was amazing….and disgusting.  We also did a hearing test and all checked out just fine, but we do have to go back in about 8 weeks to make sure the fluid that was on his right ear has gone away.   He was so good the whole time we were in the office.  He just sat in a chair next to me and watched every body.  He was adorable.  It wasn’t until the very end of the visit that he started saying, “Go, Mama, Go” and pointing to the Exit Door.  (The girls were at home with Mrs. Mary, Ben and Katherine…thank the Lord above for good friends!)

Tonight Ben and Katherine are spending the night with us. (Mary and John are celebrating their 13th Wedding Anniversary.)  The kids just had pizza.  Now they are playing some sort of game involving Sea Bears and a pack of penguins and all of my pillows from my furniture.  As long as they aren’t tearing the house down or hurting one another, all is well.  We will break out the popcorn and movie around 7:30 or 8:00, I suppose.  No hurry because I am doubting that sleep will be coming easy for any of them!

Are y’all keeping up here?  Because I am seriously providing all six of you with new pictures and stories at a phenomenal rate.  You can thank me later.  

Alrighty, let me start this post with pictures of the cousins (note the title of this post…I am so creative).

This is sweet little Kaybeth.  She is Cacy’s youngest daughter.  And she is just a darling little girl that totally gives Vance and Jud a run for their money.  She seems so innocent, but if you don’t watch her, she will have every toy around and leave the boys to whine and cry to their mama’s!  Ok, that is a bit harsh…but she is a pistol, and I think it is hilarious!!!  You would never, ever guess it about her if you just went by how sweet she looks and acts towards us adults.

This is her precious big brother, Jud.  He is very social.  I saw him run and hug Sweetie EVERY TIME  he saw her for the first time.  He also would walk up to each person and wave or say hi or something.  It was so cute!  He is all boy…just a very social boy.  He is built exactly like his daddy.  It is crazy how much they look alike!  He also stopped what he was doing and pee-peed in the yard at my mom’s house.  We aren’t quite used to that around here since only two kids are potty-trained,and they are both girls.  We sit on the potty—most of the time.

Now this is Vance.  He is Marcy’s oldest.  If you know Marcy I didn’t even have to tell you that, seeing how he looks approximately exactly like her.  He played so hard the entire time we were at Sweetie and PawPaw’s house.  He was sweating and red-faced and happy as could be!  He, unfortunately, is on the receiving end of Kaybeth’s attacks.  If he wasn’t so kind he might knock her on the floor.  BUT, his mother has taught him better than that, so he just turns away and looks for someone, anyone to help him.  He ate a ton of Sconyers and let me take a million pictures of him.  He is so stinkin’ cute and still very squeezable at the ripe age of  2 and a half.  

And this is baby Rennison, the last of seven grandkids.  Isn’t she so cute?!  She just lays around or sits around or lets anyone carry her around.  She didn’t even freak out (like my kids would) when the dogs just came up to her and took her cracker.  And she always lets Ruby and Molly hold her even in the most awkward of positions.  She is very sweet, and I can’t wait to see how she and Kaybeth end up bossing the boys.  That will be funny to watch.

 

My kids have such a fun time with all of their cousins in Augusta.  They cry and cry each time we leave.  I have more pictures coming in the next few days that will show some of the fun they had.  I remember growing up with lots of cousins.  On my dad’s side there were 9 of us!  And we always had so much fun when we were together.  In all the pictures of us we look dirty, unkept….like no one took care of us.  Now I know why that is!  We must have been like all these cousins—they just play and play and play some more.  No time for being clean and neat and taking pictures.  

 

On Saturday, May 9th, the girls had their dance recital at the church.  It was a so sweet!  We couldn’t take pictures during the performances because I can’t get the no flash pictures to turn out great when everyone is moving all around.  It was nice to just sit, watch, and enjoy!  Here are some pictures from before and afterwards:

PawPaw and Sweetie came to see the girls dance.  Gran and PawPaw wanted to be here, but they had just come the weekend before to see us.  Her chemo date changed at the last minute.  We were sad that they weren’t here, but they will see the video very soon!!

We went to eat Mexican afterwards, then we all headed to Augusta to spend the rest of Mother’s Day weekend.

Mack and Ruby ate some left over tortillas in the car.  It looks like Mack was making his into a baseball!  Crazy boy.  He did very well during the recital, though he must have eaten a pound of goldfish crackers!

This is a picture of Molly during the rehearsal.   She was about this excited during the actual performance, too.

You could tell this was Ruby’s second year of dance…check out that form….she was basically a professional!  ha.

And, evidently, brothers of dancers were to wear camo pants and orange shirts and play with cars and roll around on the floor.  Atleast that is what these two did!  Oh, and eat another pound of goldfish crackers.  

Molly earned her Cubbie Bear pin for saying lots of verses over this past year of Cubbies.  

Ruby earned a “Hopper” Medal for saying many verses and their references.  

You can clearly see how excited Molly was about being awarded the bear for her vest.  She loved the idea of going on the stage and seeing her Daddy out in the audience.  I was there, too, but I am her teacher (note the hideous jacket I am wearing).  HOWEVER, her excitement was brought to a halt when the Big Cubbie Bear came out on stage.  Someone was dressed up as Cubbie Bear, and I must say, while he isn’t super-scary, he isn’t the most normal looking bear you’ve ever seen.  Molly grabbed around my neck and would. not. let. go.  She was panicking.  I tried to peel her off of me and talk her through the situation, but she would have no part of it.  No part of it.  Finally, Mrs.Traci, the Cubbies Story Lady, saw the predicament I was in and graciously hid Cubbie Bear until Molly was done walking across the stage.  She didn’t have to do that, but I sure did appreciate it!!  And Molly appreciated it even more.  The rest of the time she kept her eyes on Cubbie Bear while hiding behind me.  It was nice to get out of the room with Cubbie Bear!  Molly was visibly relieved.  When Josh asked her why she was scared of the bear, she simply said, “He is a sleeping bear who walks and waves, but does not talk.”  Hmmmm….again, I don’t know what that means exactly, but Molly feels totally validated in her assessment of Cubbie Bear.

Sweet Sisters

And  here is Mack, sporting the medal, though he did nothing to earn it.  I have a feeling that as the younger brother of two sisters, he will be riding their coat tails many times in his future.  I mean, look at his face.  He totally thinks he deserves that medal….maybe for drinking the most grape Crystal Light of any other two year old in the world, I don’t know.  I mean, not that his mother would let him do such a thing.  Moving on…..

 

We really are proud of our little Cubbie Bears!  They have done a great job with their verses.  And though Mack didn’t memorize any verses, he does act like a little bear himself—that must count for something!

Life just keeps on happening, which makes it very difficult for me to cover all the pictures from Augusta and from the dance recital!  Maybe I will try to double up on my posts.  We’ll see.  Considering the dreary rain (AGAIN), I may have time today.  It doesn’t seem like May at all to me.  I cannot believe how rainy and dreary it has been here!  Is it just me or does it really seem that way to y’all, too?  (Side note:  I just saw my cute little neighbor leave her house like she does every day while her mom comes and plays with her one little girl.  I am not bitter.  Not. one. bit.)

So instead of getting out and doing something…anything…we are here today.  We pulled out our sight words after we read together.  These were given to me by Gran.  She always gives great educational tools to me!  If any of our kids aren’t very smart, it won’t be for lack of materials to help in this area!  It may have to do with the teacher of the material though!  A-hem.  Yes, that would be me.  

These are so neat.  They are magnetic little spongey words that stick onto these cool lap boards.  The girls love placing their words on the boards.

We also have some flash cards that Molly wanted to use.  They lack the “fun” of the magnetic words, but she enjoys holding the ones she gets correct.

We started with the word “pig.”  Then, the next word was “is,” but Molly couldn’t stop herself from saying the “p” sound first…”piss” is all she could say until she was redirected to the short “i” sound.  Gotta be careful with these sight words.  🙂

So, what does Mack do while these precious girls are learning????  Hmmm.  Well, I try to include him by getting out some cards that are more age appropriate for him.  It never goes quite as smooth as I would like…..

I think he is more interested in Science and why these magnetic words stick together…..

Let me get off of here.  Ruby just asked me in a very alarmed fashion if she could take all of her clothes off because she is trying to catch a fly.  Not sure what the two have to do with each other, but I would like to find out.

Oh, and one more closing conversation from last night while tucking in the kids…

—————————————————————————————————————————-

Me- Let’s pray for the little boy who is so sick.

Molly- The one in the Lellow class?

Me-Yes! Molly, that is so smart to remember that from last week.

Molly- Is he a bear?

Me-***just looking at her***  No, he’s not a bear.

—————————————————————————————————————-

Where does she get these things????  I have no idea.

Ruby lost her first tooth today!  On the morning of her recital (Saturday), she told me that something was weird with her teeth.   She said that they were “wiggley.”  When I realized that this was a huge step in her growing-up and not that she had knocked her teeth loose while playing, I got excited.  She was not so excited and didn’t like the idea of her tooth coming out.  I reassured her that it happens to all of us and that she is just getting so big and getting ready for Kindergarten.  Things just seem much better when you tie it into the fact that she is starting Kindergarten.  She reluctantly let me take a look in her mouth, but then let me know that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.  OK.

I made some cinnamon sugar tortilla chips this afternoon because evidently I don’t mind all of my jeans being tight and feeling quite frumpy I am a fun mom like that!  The girls were eating them when the tooth came out, so excuse the cinnamon in her teeth.  Also, we can’t find the tooth!  I told her she probably swallowed it ,but she insisted that she didn’t and eventually said to me, “Mom, you have got to believe me.  I was eating my chip and then I felt something and was, like, ‘What is that?!’ and then I pulled it out, but it was slippery.”  We searched the chair and all around the chair, but could not find it.  She is upset about not putting it under her pillow.  Josh says she should mail it and send it to her Sweetie (my mom) because Sweetie told Ruby that the tooth fairy leaves $20.  Ummm, this fairy is broke and will, hopefully, be able to scroung up a dollar.  We’ll see…

Molly was proud of Ruby and wants to know when she will be big and lose her teeth.  

So even though we’d like to make Ruby stop growing up and just keep her at 4 years old a little longer, it doesn’t seem that is going to happen.  Now, if you will excuse me, I must go find some change….or maybe Ruby will take a check?

And if you can look at her without smiling, there is something seriously wrong.  (This is my older sister, Marcy’s, little 9 month old baby girl, by the way.  More pictures from our weekend to come later….much later…unless the laundry attacks me and eats me alive.)

 

Mother’s Day is quickly approaching.  I never appreciated this day completely….until I became a Mother.  Wow.  You have no idea how much your mom did for you until you actually are doing all those things for your own kids.  Why life works that way, I am not sure, but it just seems so.  I remember a lot about my mom growing up.  She stayed home with us until I was about 13 years old.  Then, she started working in real estate; it was far out of her comfort zone, but my Dad encouraged her in this endeavor, and you should see her now!  She is the manager of the rental department at one of the biggest and most respected Real Estate Agencies in Augusta.  She works hard for the money.  ha.  Seriously though, one thing in particular that I can clearly remember about my mom is her hands.  I can clearly remember how her hands (that were always painted and well-manicured) smelt when she would button my shirts.  I also remember that she was the crossing guard right outside of our house.  We would say good bye to her right there as we walked down the hill to school.  Then, she was always there as we walked up the hill on our way home.  We could always count on the Debbie Snacks to be waiting on us in the kitchen, too.

 She taught us about being ladies….some of her rules were for us girls to NEVER talk to a guy while he was sitting in his car and we were standing outside of the car…NEVER, under any circumstances, were we to sit in a boy’s lap….and NEVER call boys.  There were more, but these are the ones that most definitely stand out!  She spent time with us a lot, but she also was quick to make sure she and my dad had their own time.  They still put each other before any of us, and I am glad to see that.  Now they have each other in that house.  We all left them!  

I am more thankful now for my mom than when I was in the house and she was doing so much for me and my sisters.  I appreciate the time she invested in us.  I appreciate all the places she drove us.  I appreciate how she made sure we went to church camp each summer.  She was involved.  My room mate in college loves her because of her practical and honest advice.  I didn’t really notice it so much until Paige raved about it.  I am glad I will be able to spend Mother’s Day with her this year.  

It feels weird to put a picture of her with just me.  She is usually in a picture with me, Marcy and Cacy!  I can’t find one of those right now.  (Sorry, sisters.)  Here is one of Mama as “Sweetie” with all SEVEN of her grandkids.

 

And then there is my mom’s mom, MeMe.  She was with us a lot growing up.  She taught the toddlers in nursery for soosooo many years.  I can’t even begin to guess how many.  My sisters and I used to spend the night with her, and she would let us rearrange her furniture.  I remember that she wrote little Christian “ditties.”  She would sing them and record them onto a tape, then we would listen to them at her house.  She made the best Vegetable Soup.  She let us POUR sugar onto our Rice Krispies cereal.  She taught us what “french baths” were (I guess she didn’t want us to take a real bath at her house.)  She wouldn’t let us walk around her house bare footed.  We always had to wear socks or we’d “catch a cold!”  She would fuss at us for being loud in the car while my mom was driving….except it really wasn’t fussing.  I don’t ever remember her fussing at me.  Every Halloween we got a Kit-Kat and some money from her in a ziploc bag.  I am sure there are so many more things I could write about her, but I couldn’t possible cover them all.  I will say that she is a godly grandmother.  She freely talked and sang about Jesus.  She loves to read her Bible even now.  

Love you, Meme!!

On the day I married Josh, I got another Mom.  Deb is such a great Mother-in-law.  Understanding.  Compassionate.  Caring. Giving.  Loves my kids so much!  Not bossy.  Not nosey.  Not critical.  I appreciate these things and so much more about her.  I suppose I am one of the greatest recipients of her mothering since I got to marry her son!  Josh is an incredible person and husband and daddy.  What can be a better testimony to a great mom than that?! Josh has wonderful memories of growing up under her care.  She has a knack for focusing on what really matters and not letting the other stuff bother her.  She is battling cancer and winning.  Her spirit is soaring.  She is a great light for Jesus as she allows Him to meet her needs and carry her through this very difficult time; I can see how she is allowing it to bring glory to HIM.  She is wonderful.  Josh loves her so much.  I love her.  And my kids—they adore her.  I hope she has a fantastic Mother’s Day!

Gran/Deb’s mom is Charlene/Grandma/GG.  She is such fun.  She is one of those ladies that speaks her mind.  She also is a “Mama Bear” who would totally fight for any of her kids and win, even today!  She loves her family.  She cannot say enough good about them.  She feels the same about her grandkids, too.  Though I never attended any of Josh’s games pre-college, it seems that she was one of his biggest fans!  I love to see her with my kids.  She is close with all of them, but it does seem that she and Mack have this special thing.  She cracks him up.  And vice versa.  She is a very active great grandmother, too.  She volunteers at the hospital.  She swims at the Y often.  And she serves her husband and does anything that Deb or Irv might ask of her.  And I must add, GG can make a mean pecan pie.  

I hope all of these Mothers have a blessed Mother’s Day!  I know that I am greatly blessed to have each of them in my life.

 

OK, so I am laughing so hard that I can hardly type.  Let me start with what happened two days ago.  Ruby was outside playing and evidently got bitten by some mosquitos.  She has horrible allergic reactions to mosquito bites.  Last year, she got bitten on the thigh and her entire thigh was swollen, red and hard.  It was awful.  We kept cortisone cream around for the itching.  Anywhere she got a bite, she would have swelling and major itching.  SO, two days ago a mosquito bit Ruby on her forehead.  Yesterday she woke up with a goose egg on her forehead, and I wondered if she had gotten hit in the head with a bat while sleeping.  She said it didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t imagine that it wasn’t painful because of how bad it looked. I finally put two and two together and realized that this was the doings of a mosquito!  This morning when she woke up and came downstairs, I had to control myself from gasping at the sight of her eye being almost swollen shut.  I called the doctor, and they said to have her take some Benadryl and to keep cortisone cream on it for the itch.  Here is what my little Ruby looks like:

NOW, for the funny part….Ruby and Molly were decorating Ruby’s birthday party invitations with Hello Kitty stickers.  I had already filled them out and written each kid’s name on the envelope, so I let them just use all the stickers to decorate the envelopes.  Molly really gets into stickers and placed each one perfectly on the envelopes.  Then, she said, “Aw, Mama, look, is this Hello Kitty sick, too?” (Take a good look at Hello Kitty’s eyes in this picture.)

Apparently, Hello Kitty is allergic to mosquito bites as well.