3 Day Weekend

This weekend was spent working on the main area of the house (living room, kitchen, and hall). It is still not complete, but well on its way. It was all paneling, which isn't hard to paint really, but a few extra steps. The difference is amazing though! It is just unbelievable already and I'm so excited! This is the area of the house where we spend the most time and for 9 months, it was like a dark brown cave. The moment we put the the primer on even, the room was brighter, because the light wasn't being sucked into the dark brown paneling!

Today, though was extra special, because I got a new oven! We got a sweet deal on it by buying the display model too! It looks so pretty and I had to make some cookies tonight just to try it out. They turned out perfectly brown around the edges and soft in the middle:-) I think my old oven only had one temperature and it was burn! I know I'm not a gourmet chef, but I knew I wasn't that bad either!

By the end the week, I should be laying floor. That is stinky, wet, nasty, and will force us to move out of our house for several days. But, we are seeing the end to the madness.

I will hold of and post pictures when we are all the way finished. That is still a few weeks away (we have a vacation stuck in there too)

Butterflies!!

For Easter we got the kids a Butterfly Habitat. You get larvae in the mail and then you follow the instructions and in a couple of weeks, you get some butterflies. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed watching the process up close.

The larvae start our very tiny and they don't move around very much. I was convinced that half of them were dead, but they weren't.



Then, of course, they grow to full size caterpillars and are pretty active and eat on that food in the bottom of the container.


Once they have formed Chrysalis, you transfer them to the habitat and wait for them to hatch into butterflies.



The butterflies emerged in a 3 day span. The kids got to watch a couple of them emerge. They thought it was the hamster, but it was the butterfly instead. They wriggled out and they were very pretty:-)

Today, we let them go. They needed a little coaxing, but they flew up and away in a minute. The kids were all excited. We had one little guy that seemed to lag behind the rest. I bet he was the one that was hatched last, but he finally figured it out and took off. Abbi was a little disappointed that they didn't stay in the yard, but I told her that it was Ok. I have no intentions of being a butterfly farmer;-)




Who said I can't sneak a little school in without them knowing it.....shhhhhhh!

Goats and Babysitting

Today we had a homeschool group field trip to see some baby goats. The kids had fun and they got to pet these goats and chickens. Chloe wasn't so sure about touching them, but she did like seeing them.




Last night we got a text to see if I could babysit little Miss Leah. Of course! Well, as long as they didn't mind her going on the goat trip:-) We stood in the shade, took some pictures, and she had fun watching all the kids running around. I made the kids get in the tub after we arrived home to wash the "goat" off their bodies. Ick!

She went to sleep on the way home and snoozed a bit. The kids just love to get smiles and coos out of her and she wasn't without entertainment all day. That is for sure! She seemed to like being outside, so we sat in the shade in the porch swing this afternoon too.


The funny thing is that she had just gone to sleep when Rachel walked in. Literally 1 minute before, she had spit the pacifier out and was taking a good snooze. She heard her mommy's voice and her eyes sprang open and she started smiling and cooing. So cute! You could tell that she missed her Mommy and was happy to see her. So much so that it woke her up:-) Very sweet!

The kids loved her though and the orange monkey is still the favorite toy. I saved very few baby toys from my kids. I have one small plastic container with an assortment of links, rattles, teethers, and the orange monkey. ALL my kids loved the orange monkey and any baby that has played with him since. I really wonder if I should open him up and make sure it is only stuffings in there;-) I'm beginning to wonder.

Earrings!!

All of my girls have pierced ears now! Chloe had been wanting to get hers done since her birthday (money burning her pocket), but we have not been to Paducah in a few weeks. Jamie is off today, which meant some extreme grocery shopping since my cabinets were looking like Old Mother Hubbard. I had almost forgotten about her earrings until she reminded me:-)

So, the first stop was the mall. We warned her that it would hurt, but she still wanted them done. She chose her earrings (December birthstone, which is blueish) and the girl that was working today was great with her. Since it was not Saturday, she had to get them done 1 at a time, but she was fast, and it was over quickly. Whew!

I will say that she was the FIRST girl I had that didn't want to sit in my lap for this. Should I be proud of my big girl or feel a bit shafted? I'm not sure, but nevertheless, it was fun to watch from the outside this time.

Anxious to get her ears pierced:

Is she still sure of her decision?

Making the marks:


All done with a few tears:


Now proud of her new earrings and smiling again:

Is it that time of year already?

School is out, activities are drawing to a close, and summer is upon us! Micah finished up his last drama class (Pail of Tadpoles) at the Playhouse in the Park on Tuesday. They did 2 little skits for the finale and he was "into" character as usual. He loves being up on the stage and I hope that he can keep using his talents in the future. He did not get this from me, I know that for sure!!!!

Don't Mess with Me, Coach!

Soccer season is practically over. I really do love it. I love to watch my kids having fun and getting to shine in something that is all their own. I'm one of the idiot parents that whoops and hollers when my child scores and my favorite thing is when they do something good (like score a goal or make a good play) and turn around and beam from ear to ear seeing if we saw it all. I make sure that they know that I saw every second. I'm very proud of them.

Hannah has had the same coach for fall and spring. I know that getting volunteers is like pulling teeth at times, but sometimes I just have to sit and shake my head at this woman. She has successfully ran off 2 families this season by talking harshly and calling the little girls names. That isn't anything compared to last season where our team started dropping off like flies and we barely had enough to scrape together a team to play at the games.

This season has been a series of games where she seems to like to bench the same girls over and over. At this level, it is not skill based, it is recreational, and they should all get equal playing time. There is one girl that hasn't even looked at the bench this season and it is just really hard for me to keep my mouth shut.

A few weeks ago, she benched Hannah more than half the game, and we spoke up and told her. She then played Hannah the rest of the game. Saturday, I had to speak up, because again, she was benched half the game (while others never sat) and Sunday Jamie went over and told her that Hannah had been benched 3X and some of the other girls hadn't been at all.

It is just so annoying, because why should I have to keep up with this? Why can't she just be fair and give them all this experience? Why should my child be punished for being quiet and compliant? They usually only have to sit 1 girl out and there are 6, so all they'd ever have to sit is 10 minutes. If there are 2 spares, maybe a quarter. NEVER should a girl have to sit half the game as small as their team is.


So, today I go to practice and was the only one that showed up besides the coach. I rolled down my window and told her that I guessed everybody was busy. She proceeded to gripe (unknowingly) about the Dad that had come to her yesterday about benching his daughter too much. I looked at her very casually and said, "yes that was my husband and it was my daughter, Hannah, that you benched 3X" You should have seen the deer in the headlights look I got that moment. She walked right into that one! It was almost comical.

She started back-pedaling and I just decided that this was my opportunity to tell her what I thought. I was nice (even my kids said so...ha ha), but I told her that the kids needed equal play time, and that I was going to always look out for my daughter. She then proceeded to tell me that one of the girls (the high scoring one that never sees the bench) says they don't want to sit out. I said, "Do you really think that any 1st or 2nd grader WANTS to sit out? My child is not going to tell you that, because I've taught her to be respectful of adults, but it is not the girls' jobs to tell you who to bench or not"

I have to say that it went rather well and I said my piece. We have 1 more game and I would bet my bank account that she won't remember who Hannah is. After all, she calls another girl Hannah and didn't know that Jamie was her Dad even though we've been to every game for 2 seasons. I just keep telling myself that we only have to deal with her one more time!

I will tell you this....I will explicitly tell the people at registration in the fall to write in big bold letters that I do not want this woman for a coach ever again. I'm so tired of my little girl getting the raw end of the stick, because she is obedient and respectful. Hannah went on to score 2 goals in the measly half game that she played on Sunday.

She is moving up in the fall and will play with Abbi's team. Poor little Hannah. I'm proud of both of my girls, but mostly I just want them to be treated respectfully in this life and have fun. She has still yet to complain. It has been us (as the parents) sitting and watching this that has grumbled. I just want the best for my kids:-) They deserve it!

Don't mess with Mama Bear!

Last Day of School!

Well, we made it our first full year of 180 days! I think that we have all learned a lot, actually. I've gotten to see my kids grow, change, learn, and discover in ways that I've never a part of before. There were days that they'd get frustrated and we'd take a step back and look at it another way. Then when they'd finally learn that one thing that was frustrating them, they were so proud of themselves and their confidence soared!

This week, we finished up our curriculum and yesterday I graded those final tests and tucked all of it away in a box. I'm very proud of my kids and they make teaching them very easy:-)

We also celebrated last night by going out to eat, which is a rare treat for us. We ended in Murray, because Jamie needed some new shoes and went to the Cracker Barrel. For whatever reason, they love the Cracker Barrel and they didn't even eat pancakes this time;-)

Now we can relax a bit (or at least change our pace). We are still going to do some "light" school this summer, but fun stuff (no workbooks). The kids are excited and now it is time for house renovation phase 2! I'm excited....and scared! Our lives are getting ready to be very inconvenienced!

Today Jamie is at work for MCU graduation, so I'll be a lonely soccer mom this morning! Off we go with barely a break between games, so I'm packing PB&J to eat there.

Mother's Day Weekend

Saturday we had another day at the soccer field. It was cold! Hannah's team won, Abbi's won one and tied one. The tied game was with boys, their second game (so they were getting tired), and they did a great job. I still consider them undefeated at this point. Hannah does great at defending and Abbi is quick, and assists great! She is good at gaining control of the ball and getting it in the direction and to the player it needs to go. Her coach is really good with them and is very fair. I wish I could say the same for Hannah's. I'm really hoping I do not have to deal with her coach in the future for many reasons. I get very frustrated. 2 more weeks of soccer!

Sunday was Mother's day and the kids sang at church with Micah doing a solo. All the kids did great and their hard work showed. My mother came to see them sing, which they were so excited about. The pastor's wife came up and said, "Are you G-Mama, because all I kept hearing was that G-Mama was coming to watch." It was nice to be with my mom at church on Mother's day too. She is a great mother and friend to me. I wonder if she'll ever really realize how important she is in my life. She has helped me out several times lately (even in the wee hours of the morning when Jamie needed to head to the ER) when I needed her and has never complained. What would I do without her?

I remember a few days last year I literally called her hysterical (I wonder if she even could understand what I was saying sometimes) when things were going roughly in our lives and she would listen and bring me back down to earth, calm my fears, and help me to refocus. She was over 250 miles away at the time, but was still the first person that found out everything probably. She is my #1 cheerleader in life in many ways.

Jamie grilled out last night and didn't buy me junk food (upon my request), which was nice. I sat out on my porch swing watching my kids play. Being a mommy is what defines me in so many ways in this season in my life. I know that this time is fleeting quickly though and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it. I'm not perfect. I get frustrated, disappointed, exhausted, etc. I have the Mommy guilt like everybody else no matter what I do, but in the end, I just hope that my kids look back and realize that I did the best I knew how to do at that time. That is my hope anyways.

Beautiful!!

Yesterday we began our day at 8:00 on the soccer field and watched Hannah's poor little team get their butts kicked. It was almost painful to watch. She has fun though, and that is what counts. I think some of the little girls on the team have great potential, but are not being taught and challenged in practice, which is frustrating, but life goes on.

Abbi's team played that afternoon and her team won and she scored the final goal:-) She was so proud of herself. She turned around from that point and just beamed the biggest brightest smile I've ever seen. It made me happy, because she was so proud of herself. It was a really good team too.

Then we headed to Murray to get a close up look at Jordyn in her prom dress. I snapped a few photos, but I'll leave the real photography to Rachel! She looked beautiful and seemed so excited and happy. I can't believe that she is old enough to be going to prom, graduate, and college soon!

We came home, got washed up, ate, and headed back to Murray for Grand March. The girls went with me. I was a little worried about Chloe not being able to sit that long, but she did perfect and didn't say a word until the last little bit when she said, "I feel like I want to lay down". Yea, I bet! I was after 9:00 and we had been going since early that morning. They had a ball though and loved seeing all the decorations and pretty dresses. They all went up to Jordyn when we first arrived and touched her dress since I didn't allow it with dirty soccer hands earlier that day.

Micah and Jamie stayed home and did "guy stuff" or something. I don't really know. It was a fun day though and even though it ended in rain, the beautiful sun shone through all during the day and waited for all the "Cinderellas" to get inside before it began. Everybody at prom looked beautiful, but not more beautiful than my middle niece who is growing much too fast!