I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

The children have been gone all week to visit their grandparents in the Big D. It has been blissfully quiet and peaceful around here the last few days. Usually that means some form of mischief or another is occurring, but not this week! I made a list to commemorate such an occasion.

Five Thing I Did While My Children Were Gone That I Don't Normally Do:

1. I had dinner with some girlfriends without worrying about a sitter. I enjoyed my dinner and coffee afterwards without a mental meter ticking off the minutes.

2. I listened to the radio while driving in the car. It is just something I miss because there are little ears always listening. The children's praise CD's will up and running again next week.

3. I spent an entire day reading and watching movies that were not G-rated. The reading part was heavenly and the movies were because by the time I finished my book I felt too lazy to actually get up and get anything else accomplished.

4. I went on a "dessert date" with my husband. We ended up going with another couple and ordering appetizers as well because none of us had eaten dinner yet. The Cookie Monster from Cheddar's was a blast from the past as I spent many a Friday night after High School football games eating said dessert with my friends.

5. I went to American Eagle and felt completely out of place. I like their clothes and especially their jeans, but I usually go during normal "mommy hours" (10am-1pm on weekdays) when there aren't quite so many hip and young teens there. I'm pretty sure the only other person who felt more out of place was the teenage cowboy who was wearing his cowboy hat, wranglers, and boots.

I'm also posting a picture of the rattlesnake that Brad killed a few weeks ago. It was the first one we've seen, and luckily by the time I saw it, it was already dead.


I was a little sad that Brad had decided to house dead rattlesnake in my pretty candy jar, but at least it was dead.

Not quite sure what I'm going to do if I ever find one of these on my own, but we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. It will probably involve tears and not leaving the house for days.

Two Things Phoebe Hears Often

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good,
She was very, very good.
And when she was bad,
She was horrid.



Don't mess up cute by acting ugly.

My "Famous" Mac N' Cheese

Actually, this picture has nothing to do with my mac n' cheese. I just thought it was a cute picture of Eli and one of the many toads we have living in our backyard.

Can't you see the terror in the toad's eyes?

Back to my mac n' cheese. It's not really so famous, but I think it makes it sound so much more yummy and credible. I made up this recipe when I was trying to figure out how to make mac n' cheese with whole grain noodles. It makes me feel better about myself.

My "Famous" Mac N' Cheese

1/2 lb. whole grain noodles (I usually use elbow noodles, but sometimes I substitute whatever I have)
Velveeta cheese (I don't usually measure this, but I pulled my block out of the fridge this morning and I think I use about 4 oz.)
milk (I don't measure this either. I'd start with a tablespoon or two and then add more if needed. You don't want your cheese sauce too runny.)
a pinch of dry mustard
salt and pepper

Boil and drain your noodles. Melt Velveeta and milk in a bowl in the microwave and stir in dry mustard. Stir together and noodles and sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

** I usually add fresh broccoli to this if I have some. Just toss them in with the noodles in the last two minutes of boiling time. To make it a meal, add some cubed ham when stirring in the cheese sauce.

We have this about once a week. My supply of whole grain elbow noodles is extremely low so I guess I'll just have to go visit my mom and stock up.


And just as a bonus, I think this is awesome! Dontcha know their reception was FUN!

Not Quite Ready

What do this...



And this...


And this...


all mean?

It means I have entered the phase with Phoebe that I know absolutely nothing about and daunts me more than any other phase of parenting.

I had originally purchased these items to get Phoebe used to the idea of potty-training, but not to actually start the whole process. She starts KU in September and the 2-year-old class is all about potty-training so I wanted her to be aware of said behavior.

Her brother, however, had a different idea. He sat down with her the other night, book in hand, and entertained her until she had done her business. Then proceeded to do a very rambunctious potty-dance and tell her how proud he was of her...multiple times. M&M's were rewarded and this has only lead Phoebe to go potty when she wants an M&M. Hmmmm. I'm sure parenting books would have taken a different approach.

We're still wearing diapers and no big girl panties have been purchased so I have not really begun "Potty-Training". Yet.

Maybe I should worry about weaning her off the paci, first. Sheesh. This whole parenting thing is hard.

Summer Pictures

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A few weeks ago we celebrated Brad's mom's 60th birthday. It was great to spend a little time with all the cousins and family. The next day we headed to the Albuquerque Zoo. I hate doing montages like this, but I'm afraid if I don't do it this way, then I'll never post these pictures!

When The Well Runs Dry

My maternal grandmother's extended family has an annual reunion every summer in Dublin, Texas. It includes all the things that typical small-town family reunions usually do: potluck lunch, a whole slew of people you don't know and happen to be distantly related to, women in matching pastel leisure pant-suits and pin curls, and old family pictures and artifacts. My great-great Aunt Jean (the youngest sister of my great-grandmother, Izetta) has spent countless hours researching our family's history and gathering letters and pictures and stories from all over. (It's the reason I know that Daniel Boone was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, I had a relative in the Alamo, and another ancestor was one of the Original 300.) Among all these treasures is a letter written by one of my women ancestors to her husband during WWI (I think). She was busy keeping the home fires burning on the homefront and running the family farm. In her letter she tells her husband she is praying for him and misses him and that things are just fine on the farm. The children have smallpox, the chickens have died, the cow's milk has dried up, and they are out of flour, but things are just fine. Fine and dandy, indeed.

I kind of felt like that poor pioneer woman the last few days.

Saturday night, our water stopped running. It just stopped coming out of the faucet. We've heard that sometimes the aquifer can get a little low in our subdivision so we just waited an hour and tried again. Still no water. It was getting rather desperate 'round these parts. Our friends gave us some water jugs they had just filled up so we did have some water to brush teeth. Sunday was a comedy of errors. We took showers and got ready where Brad does his daily work-out. Called a well guy who said he would meet us at our house Sunday afternoon. Received a very generous offer from our neighbors to use their house for showers and bathrooms while they were out of town. Went to use their bathroom only to realize that they had no water, either. Great...we share a well. It was about this time I had visions of having to "sell the family farm because the well dried up." The 89-year-old well guy showed up and after Brad helped him out of the truck (literally), he discovered that the neighbors reverse osmosis had tripped a breaker and they had water again. We learned that our well had not dried up and that when the sprinklers were installed, they probably hit the line somewhere and no water was getting to the house.

Monday morning: still no water. The sprinkler guy showed up and didn't do anything. The old well guy's crew showed up, looked at our well, told us that they couldn't fix it because they hadn't installed it, and left. About this time, I cried. Brad called the company that installed it and they said they would be out here around 3pm. At 3:30 (with no well guy in sight), I took the kids to the pool. When I get home at 5:30, the well guys had a big giant truck parked out front. It looked promising. At 6pm, WE HAD WATER! I think I cried again.

I celebrated with a shower and a frozen pizza.

I have never been so thankful for modern conveniences in my life. Now I have to start on the massive pile of dirty laundry that accumulated over three days.

My Date With a A Hottie

One Valentine's Day when I was teaching at our church's Pre-K, we were going around during circle time talking about all the special things they had done that morning. (I did this every year to steal all the good ideas other moms had!)

One sweet little girl said, "My mom gave me a present. Do you know what it was?"

The little boy sitting next to her exclaimed, "DID YOU GET A STAPLER?!"

It wasn't. She had received a necklace, but the sheer delight over office supplies has always made me laugh. I can certainly relate. I get a little giddy every year when the stores start stocking crayons, glue, scissors, and notebooks. (It's a little annoying that they start stocking them in July and get rid of all the patio furniture in anticipation. Brad and I went on a wild goose chase today looking for patio furniture and came home empty handed.)

This year we actually get to purchase said supplies for something other than our own personal use at home. On the one hand, it makes me little sad that we need to stock up on school supplies, and on the other there's the typical back-to-school excitement I remember experiencing as a child. In honor of this, I planned a Back-To-School Date for Eli and myself.

Now I understand that only a small percentage of people will understand the appeal of such a date. A date including dinner and shopping for school supplies. Carrying our list around Target, looking up items and checking them off as we deposit them in our cart. I was giddy with anticipation.



Eli chose Pei Wei as our dinner destination and we had lovely conversation over our shared Honey Seared Chicken with brown rice. (I found it a little ironic that my fortune cookie fortune read: If you put up with small annoyances, you will gain great results. How fitting for a date with Eli.) Then it was off to Old Navy to see if we could find the perfect pair of socks for the boy. He'll wear anything I set out for him, but we've had a bit of trouble finding socks that weren't too big where the heel came up over where a heel should be or socks too small that slip down into his shoes causing some major melt-downs. I think we may have found some, but I won't be holding my breath. Finally we arrived at the happiest place on Earth. After explaining and re-explaining that no we could not buy Spiderman pencils or dinosaur scissors and that we could only buy packages of 16 Crayola Crayons and not 48 or 120, we filled our cart and crossed off the last item on our list and ended the evening at Marble Slab. I had Double Dark Chocolate with raspberries and Eli had plain Swiss Chocolate. When I asked him why he didn't put M&M's or sprinkles or marshmallows in his ice cream he explained to me that he didn't like anything, anytime, anywhere. Seriously, how can I argue with that?

The evening ended, as all good dates should, with a good-night kiss, and my sweet boy telling me that he loved spending private time with me. Sigh.

A (Sort of) Sleep-Over Success

We survived our very first sleepover.

Actually, I have two more hours before I know we've actually survived or not, but the boys are playing outside so barring any snake bites or broken bones I think we're in the clear.

I've been a little nervous about this whole sleep-over thing. Not because of Eli, he had his first sleep-over at a friend's house a few weeks ago (and had a blast!). I was nervous because it was the first sleep-over I hosted. What if we weren't fun? What if I didn't serve cool snacks? What if they started to cry and wanted to go home? WHAT IF THEY GOT BORED?!

I decided that what I needed was a plan! A precise plan of attack to ensure that these little boys had a great time and I didn't lose my mind. It was a two part plan. Food and Activities.

First, the food. I always start with the food! A quick trip to Wally-World solved my all food dilemmas. (I prefer to shop at United, but I needed nail polish, lotion, diapers, and Phoebe's allergy medication so I had to go to Wal-Mart.) I picked up hot dogs, (Did you know it was National Hot Dog Month?) watermelon, baked beans, the ingredients for Rice Krispy Treats, and sprang for the $.78 Root Beer. We're pretty wild and crazy like that around here.

Then, the activities. We met the boys and their moms yesterday afternoon at the pool...where we got rained out. Not a good omen for the sleep-over. However, when I got home, it was sunny and bright and beautiful. Go figure. The boys played while Brad and I whipped up dinner. After dinner it was hot tub time, while I cleaned up. Then the boys cleaned up the playroom in anticipation for Movie Time! I was so excited about Movie Time because I had carefully selected a Boy Movie Classic: The Sandlot. I remember it being so proverbial and funny...too bad I didn't re-watch it before I showed it to the boys. There's a lot of name calling (Corbin was keeping a count for us and by the end of movie and he counted 27 bad names) and a few bad words. Hopefully nothing a little heart-to-heart before bed didn't fix. We laid out all the sleeping bags on Eli's floor, gave them 10 minutes to talk, and then it was lights out. About midnight, Eli comes running downstairs because Corbin was crying and wanted his mom. Then Eli started crying because he didn't want Corbin to go home. I tromped upstairs and laid down between both boys so they could fall asleep. It took about .15 seconds. Didn't seem to faze them in the least. They woke up bright and chirpy this morning (at 6AM!) none the worse for wear. Thank goodness for PBS Kids!

The boys feasted on pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then headed outside to play where they immediately made some mud and found a toad.

Good times, my friends. Good times.

And what did Phoebe do during this little boy bash? What all good little sister's do: followed them around and tried to do everything they did!


Does anyone notice anything exceptional about this picture?

Ute Lake Photos

Due to the fact that our summer is rapidly slipping away and I am still taking hundreds of pictures, I decided to make a few slide shows. This one is from July 1-3 when we went to Ute Lake with Brad's family. Great times. Good food. Lots of sun. I took about 457 pictures (most of them of Phoebe in sunglasses...they are just too cute!) and these were the best.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Let me know if you are still reading this neglected little blog and what everybody's up to this summer!

Do You Know The Chocolate Man?

Do you know the Chocolate Man?
The Chocolate Man?
The Chocolate Man?
Do you know the Chocolate Man,
Who lives in Amarillo?


And just how did Eli become this Chocolate Man?

It's all because of my friend, Stephanie, and Her Big Idea. Actually, as with all good ideas, she stole it. We were wanting something easy after our melt-downs from the night before and since all we needed were a couple of boxes of instant chocolate pudding this activity fit the bill.

Getting ready for the "surprise".


The suspense was unbearable, but instant pudding does take 4 minutes to set up!


It was a slow start...




...But they figured it out!




And there was time for a snack.



Surprisingly, Phoebe did not partake of her body art. She chose to pose for pictures instead.



Then the "real" fun started!



Just take a look at these guns!


The finished "masterpieces"


Stephanie had a great idea for clean-up!




Don't worry, we let them take showers later! :)

My bathtub may never be the same.

If Only Everything Were This Easy

I made my famous and very yummy homemade mac n' cheese for dinner tonight.

Well, it may not be famous, but it is de-lite-ful (and easy-peasy). The easy-peasy part was important because we had major melt-downs at dinner last night. I mean Major. Melt. Downs. Phoebe went to bed sans pajamas and Eli was put to bed before 8 o'clock. But that's a whole other bowl of beans.

Back to my not-so-famous mac n' cheese. When I'm wanting to feel a bit healthier, I toss in some broccoli florets with the noodles in the last few minutes of cooking time. I say "wanting to feel healthier" because while I do use whole grain noodles and broccoli, I'm not sure anything containing Velveeta can actually be considered "healthy".

So, I was dishing up the mac n' cheese and the chicken nuggets and the watermelon and the cherries when Phoebe climbs up on a bar stool.

Phoebe: I no like boccoli. (Look of disdain up on her face.)
Me: Sure you do! (Spooning a large portion of broccoli on her plate.)
Phoebe: Oh, okay. (Proceeded to eat all the broccoli and asked for more.)

If only everything regarding our children were this easy!

Please Excuse Me

We have been having just way too much fun this summer!

There aren't enough hours in the day to all the blogging I want to do. I have blog posts floating around in my head and pictures sitting on my computer just waiting to be posted...but summer just keeps happening!

This week, my friend, Stephanie and her son came to visit. Day 1 was fun. Nobody was hurt, although Eli and I did have a set-to at the movie theater this morning. I wondered out loud today if Eli was ever going to have a day, or "phase", when he isn't difficult in one area or another. Stephanie reassured me that he would...the day he left for college. Great.

"Oh, Say Can You See"

Growing up, I always love the Fourth of July. For years, my parents had a HUGE party on the Fourth. It was hamburgers and hot dogs, watermelon, lawn chairs, and BYOF (Bring Your Own Fireworks). We lived outside the city limits and there just weren't too many firework displays like the one on Lorene Dr.

The first few years after Brad and I got married, the Fourth of July made me really sad. The first Independence Day we had only been married a month. We had no friends and no plans. We ordered a pizza and I still cannot think of anything more un-Patriotic than ordering a pizza on July 4th. The next year, Brad was clerking in Amarillo and we still didn't know anybody so we took our own lonely picnic to a park to watch the fireworks. (The whole summer was a little sad. We were living in an RV and Brad was at the law firm All Day Long...but that's a whole other bowl of beans.) Then there were a few years were we just didn't really have any plan. Sometimes we ended up at my parents big bash again, sometimes we went to Brad's parents' cabin in Ruidoso. One July 4th, I spent the few days leading up to it in the hospital and then we left the next day for Boston. (That really wasn't a fun Independence Day!)

I've only really begun to enjoy this holiday again last year and this year. And I think I've figured out why. The Fourth of July is for friends and food and fireworks (preferably the ones you set off yourself!) and I think we are just now finding our adult friends who we will look back on and realize that we have shared our lives together. Our children were children together. We struggled with all the stuff that makes up the daily drama of young families. Job changes, infertility, home building/selling, illness, child-rearing, marriage. This is the stuff life is made of.

And I always *heart* a really good bbq!

We tried to get a picture of all the children in their Independence Day finery.



"Try" being the operative word. :)

Then I decided that I needed a picture of all the mommies. Mostly because I think our children need to have some proof that before they sucked all the beauty and life out of us during their teenage years, we were young and hip and pretty.


While Heather and Jimmy made some spectacular ribs and fixins, the children played on the water slide and baby pool.




After dinner, we had some pre-firework fun.







While the pre-firework show was going on outside, Phoebe was putting on her own little show inside. The firecrackers "skeerd" her, so she decided to serenade Baby Mason. I'm not sure Mason (or his sweet mommy) enjoyed it as much as she did!


Then the REAL fun began!

If you know Eli or Kinsey, this picture should make you a little nervous.


I wish I could have posted the "firework dance" that Eli did when he was holding a sparkler or watching any of the other fireworks that were detonated, but I didn't have a video recorder so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was precious and funny all at the same time.


I believe that there's a pyromaniac inside every little boy, (maybe inside every big boy, too) and who am I hold that pyro back? I let Eli set off several fireworks. I might need to have my head examined.


He was pretty responsible (for a six-year-old) and we only feared for our lives during a short-lived Roman Candle incident.

A good time was had by all...and nobody ended up in the emergency room!