Well, two more days and I leave for Houston to go sit during the surgery and probably chew every fingernail I have and read the same pages of the same books over and over again from not being able to concentrate!!!! If you are reading this, I hope that you are praying for sweet Libby. She was at my house on Friday and she told me "I not going to the 'hostital', I comin' to your house"...she also had a poopy diaper and didn't want ME to change it. She wanted me to go get her mom (who wasn't here) or her sitter. I finally convinced her that I could change it. She told me it was "stinky"....she was right!
I have a million things to do before I leave Tuesday night!

Where is your diaper????

Miss Reagan was taking her morning nap in her pajama shirt and her diaper. I guess she thought that she would like to feel the breeze from the fan on naked behind and she took her diaper off and wet the bed TWICE during her nap! I came in to find her smiling and holding up her diaper....that little monkey!!!!

Flag Day At School

Our Elementary school does some neat "extras". This day was "Flag Day". The kids were dressed by grade level in their red, white and blue. The music teacher taught each grade level a patriotic song and then at the end, the entire school sang the song "Love Can Build A Bridge" and did sign language as they sang. It is so good to see our children patriotism and to honor the flag and the people who fight to keep our country safe. My mother-in-law attended the event. They also tried to squish grandparents' day in with Flag Day. It was not a good idea....anyway, Whitney had to write about what she was going to do when she is a grandparent...she wrote "Be Lazy" I think that you can see it in the picture...she is CRAZY!!!! I wrote about this earlier, but now I have pictures!!!

Painting Shirts and Libby's Surgery

I volunteered to help paint t-shirts in Savannah's class today. The entire class got the note for volunteers, but only TWO of us came, and another mom DID come late. So, the three of us got to help the entire class. There is a high school football player that comes to the classroom on Fridays. He is #88. We let the kids sponge paint the shirts and it was interesting to watch the different personalities as they painted! Some made a real mess while others did a better job than most adults would do. We did them in our school colors of Blue and Gold! I guess the kids will wear the shirts on Fridays. Savannah did a really good job on her shirt. She is really bashfull about having me in her class this year. I guess that she has hit "that" age. She wants me there, but she doesn't want me there....she still gives me a kiss in front of her friends, but I guess those days are coming to an end too! The job that was slated to take 30 minutes took almost two hours!!!! I guess some of those mommas didn't want to get messy!

Next Wednesday is Libby's surgery...can't believe that it is here!!!! I was asked yesterday to come for surgery day. They have decided to take the boys with them to Houston and they will take the sitter too. I am going to fly down on Tuesday and come back on Thursday. I am having some friends help me out with my kids. My sister-in-law gave me a plane ticket and I have a friend in Houston to stay with, so after a rental car, I will be all set! One of my friends that is a pediatric nurse gave a me a great book about heart surgeries on kids. It is written in layman's terms and as she put it "so that I won't sound stupid next week" I am reading the book. It is very interesting. It is amazing to think about how God designed us! Please pray for the family and for sweet Libby as next Wednesday approaches. Only God knows the number of days that he has given to that sweet girl, and facing her surgery is really a sobering thought. None of us know the exact days that we have been given on this Earth. So, we need to live as though we might not be here tomorrow.....which is a convicting thought!

I will keep you posted!

A Visit to the Apple Orchard

Blayne and I went to the Apple Orchard yesterday. It was a fun little outing for us. I took lots of pictures with my friend's camera so I will post the pics when I get them from her. Blayne enjoyed the demonstration with cotton. The lady picked a piece of cotton and spun it into yarn right before our eyes. He was impressed to learn that was a way to make clothes!!! He also enjoyed looking at the chickens and the turkey an watching the ducks eat some rotten apples that were on the ground. He listened intently as the man talked to the children about bees and honey making. I sneezed pretty much the whole time that we were there! I should have eaten some of that honey. They say that it helps with allergies. I was pretty miserable with the drips and sneezing! At the gift shop when other moms were buying homemade apple goods and other crafty objects, I was asking about purchasing a coke!!! My throat was itching soooo badly! So I bought be a coke as my souvenir. That is one of the best dollars that I have spent in a long time! Be watching for the pics...there are some good ones. Especially of the apple picking part. Blayne was hilarious looking around for JUST the right apple. He got one for me and one for Mrs. Packwood because she had asked him to get one. His was about the size of a large walnut! He ate his almost core and all!

Trying to do a slideshow...

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Stay at Home Mom?

I know that moms that work outside the home wonder what we "stay-at-home" moms to do occupy our time. Well, one thing is we try to blog(!), but that is only a fraction of my day. I was thinking just yesterday how every day for me doesn't seem to go as planned. We had "Flag Day" at school yesterday, so I made arrangements for a sitter so that I didn't have to drag my two little ones up there. I still had to do carpool and with an activity going on at school and a pitiful parking situation, I had to park WAY far away and walk to the building. John decided kind of last minute that he could go, so he drove himself up to the school and we both waded through the mob of proud parents as our children lined up in their red, white and blue to celebrate Flag Day. Me, having a first grader and a fourth grader, meant that I would have to transport myself back in forth through the crowd so that I could at least SEE my children who were located on opposite ends of the parking lot! It was like lining up at Disney World for a parade. People just step in front of you like you aren't there!!!! Between the two us, I think that we videoed at least part of our children's heads while they sang their patriotic songs...at least we were there! Then, we go to tour the classrooms quickly and my 1st grader got to show off her drawing of what she would be when she is a grandma. It read "I am going to be lazy" and it had a picture of her sleeping with "zzzzzz" coming out of her mouth...all of the parents loved that! The other kids had written some funny things too. When leaving my 4th grader's room, she tells me she thinks she is sick and that she is going to throw up!!!!! She had that pale face and drippy eyes, so I believed her. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was there and offered to take her home to her house for the day. I was leaving the school to go directly to the zoo half-an-hour away to spend the day with my sis-in-law and her three kids with my two youngest kids. So, I leave school, pick up kids from the sitter, my son screams that he wants ME to put on his shoes, NOT the sitter. I threaten to take the zoo trip away, he straightens up and off we go. We spend four hours at the zoo chasing three boys and pushing two baby girls in the stroller. It is hot, but a great zoo trip. We wait and wait for the train and it never comes, so we have to drag three tired boys and push two sleepy babies ALL the way to the car NOT on the train that the boys were so excited to ride. My MIL brings Savannah (4th Grader) to me to the zoo, she hops in and we race back to our town to meet our 1st grader when carpool drops her off. We aren't going to make it, so I have to change plans and have someone else pick her up! I am asked to run an errand for my friend (which I gratefully do since she IS picking up my child). I get home with a sleeping baby and four-year-old. We get everyone in the house only for me to remember that I have invited the neighbor girl over to play! So, she plays outside with two of my well children. I give them bubbles and try to entertain them. We get dinner started, I realize that I am almost out of diapers (2 left) so when John gets home, I head to Costco to do a diaper, formula and other necessities run! I call my parents on the way home to check in because I realize that I haven't talked to them this week. I come in and put away the stuff that I have purchased. I feed myself, then the baby, bathe the baby and help put four kids to bed! I get ready for bed and try to do some reading for the two Bible studies that I am attending and I just can't keep my eyes open....my day has ended only to start over again today! I wonder what exciting things will happen. I have exercised this morning and gone to rescue a friend that was locked out of her car...what does a stay-at-home-mom do, one might ask??? Well, as portrayed in my life it seems she doesn't stay at home much at all!!!!

9/11

Yesterday, I spent some time reflecting about September 11th. In thinking back to six years ago when that tragic day occurred, I can remember so vividly where we were and what was going on. We were actually on a trip to California for a vacation. Savannah was 3 and Whitney was 6 months old. I can remember that I had done Priceline and gotten up 5-Star hotels for our entire trip for a very good price. We had a rental car that had a problem and they upgraded up to a mini-van. Our trip was going so well. We were at our nice hotel near the LAX airport and my husband realized that he needed to change his voicemail to announce that he was out of the office. When he called his work number (He worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers at the time) there was an automated message saying the the office was closed due to heightened security reasons. He knew something was going on, so we turned on the TV. We were shocked to see the World Trade Center burning. We watched in horror as we saw the 2nd plane hit. Compounding our horrified thoughts was the fact that we had left our home without giving our relatives an itinerary, we started trying to call our family, and the phone lines were too full, and you couldn't get through. It was a sick feeling to be so far away from home and to be there watching those buildings fall to the ground on TV. We were thankful that we had our little family all there together. The girls were oblivious to what was happening and after watching for a bit, we decided to turn off the TV and not watch all of the news reports in case it would be upsetting to Savannah. We had plans to go to Chuck E. Cheese that night. I had feelings of guilt of being on vacation while our country was in such turmoil, but we figured that a trip to CEC would be good for our kids and for us. It was an eerie feeling leaving the hotel. There were people all in the huge lobby watching televisions that had been brought in. They stood there with stoic faces as they watched and read the screen. People looked distraught. You could here people on their phones trying to make arrangements for travel. As we exited the hotel, we could see planes literally parked at LAX. It was an extraordinary site. We went to Chuck E. Cheese. The adults were very subdued as the children played without a care in the world. We, adults, just kind of looked at each other and without words we communicated our sorrow. We went to bed that night with heavy hearts and I remember praying for the families that had lost loved ones. We visited a furniture manufacturer the next day that was the company that had made our bedroom furniture. My thoughts were on the people that were missing, the families that had lost loved ones and all of the people traumatized by 9/11 . We spent a few days at Disneyland. I continued with my guilty feelings of being on vacation when out country was probably headed into war and the fear of another attack was looming! We didn't watch television and hear all of the sad, sad, stories of loss. I think the Lord protected me from a lot of the emotional strain of 9/11. The airports were all up and running on the day that we were to return home. I remember how solemn the atmosphere was at the airport. There were uniformed police officers stationed throughout the airport. We had to wait in a huge line to get into the airport and then we had to make our way through two security checks. I was looking at people, scrutinizing and half-way wondering if "that could be a terrorist" it was was sick and scary feeling. You didn't want to make eye-contact with people. It was hard to get on that plan with my two sweet, precious girls in hand....what if? I pondered on the way home on the plan about how the plane victims must have felt. I had bought a magazine at the airport and I was reading about the last minutes. I realized that the people knew that they were going down! How scary. I prayed a lot on that trip home. I can still feel those emotions that I had on that trip. That is a time in my life that I will never forget. I am thankful to live here in America and I am thankful for those people who sacrifice to protect us.

Cousin Time

Here are some pictures of my kids spending some time with some of their cousins! I think of this as "Monkey See; Monkey Do"!!!

First Day of School

I always take the kids' pictures on the first day of school. We always get flowers and send a little something on that first day. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and I used to be a teacher, and I know how much it meant to get a little something every now and then! Whitney let me take a picture of her in the classroom. Savannah let me know that she could take herself to class because she knew EXACTLY where it was and she didn't need me to take her (sigh)! It is so hard to let them grow up. Blayne even got to get flowers for his teacher and he had to pose by the statue at the grocery store!!! See how cute he is??? Hard to imagine him poking a kid in the eye, huh?

Strep Throat!!!!

Savannah started 4th grade last week and had to miss two days of the first week because she had Strep Throat! She is nine and has NEVER had it before. She slept most of the day and after two days on antibiotics, she was much better. Now, I have to remember to give her antibiotic because she doesn't seem sick, so we forget!!!

Boys...they are different than girls!!!!

Blayne started pre-school yesterday and had to sit in the "naughty" chair on the FIRST day! He poked a friend in the eye in his class...ON PURPOSE!!!! The little boy is smaller than him and he is a cute little Asian boy. I was horrified!!!! To make matters worse, he wasn't sad about his behavior, he almost told me like it was a proud moment. Well, after much discussion, I don't think that it will be happening again!

Grandpa's Glasses

My kids like to put on my dad's glasses and take pictures. They have done this since they were old enough to wear them! My son puts them on and says "I'm Pitiful" and as you can see in the pics, he sure enough is pitiful looking! This is one of the many crazy things that they like to do with my dad.

Wedding in the River

One might ask about the picture of my kids in the river, well, let me explain: my youngest cousin, Jim, got married IN the Frio river this summer! Instead of a reception, the guests were invited to float the river with the wedding party. John floated with one of our kids and I stayed back with the other three kids and my 80 year-old grandmother. This will be a wedding that my kids won't soon forget!

Baby Reagan's Birthday

We celebrated Baby Reagan's first birthday yesterday (a few days shy of her REAL birthday!) I can't believe that my baby girl is gonna be a year old this week. Where does the time go? We had about 40 people in our home to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Reagan was a perfect angel baby. She didn't seem too excited about all of the commotion! She is growing up so fast. I thank the Lord for our sweet Reagan.