Spring vacation Wednesday(March26,2008)

I am slowing getting my spring vacation post up for you guys.. sorry it has been taking so long.. We are up to day 7 now. This puts us at Wednesday March 26,2008. If you are jumping in today new and you don't know what I"m talking about.. My kids last day of school before spring break was Thursday March 20, 2008 about an hour after they got home we loaded up the van and started our spring break adventures. We headed to TX to spend Easter and spring break with my sister and her family. DH didn't go along with us on this trip, me and the kids took this trip with my parents. I have been sharing how I spent each day of this time in TX on my blog and today's post will be about Day 7 Wednesday March 26, 2008

My Sister let my niece A skip school this day so that we all could head to the Fort Worth Zoo. We got up got dressed packed up and headed off to the zoo.

Here are a few pictures of my kids before we left for the zoo. Princess is my 12 year old.Mr Man is my 8 year oldSweet Pea is my 6 year old and our baby below is Little Man who is 2 1/2 years oldI have way too many pictures from this day to share all of them with you.. So I looked at them and looked at them and cut them in half.. there are still too many to share with you all of them one picture at a time.. So I'm going to make two slide shows with captions to tell the store of our day.

This 1st slide show is on our way to the zoo and before we entered the gates.

Here is the slide show of the pictures from the zoo.

If for some reason a black screen covers either of these slide shows asking if you would like to add more photos just click the X and it will close it and the slide show will start playing.

After leaving the zoo we went to some place I'm drawling a blank on the name but it was like a bass pro shop only bigger.. I walked in with the group, only I found a bench and sat down with Little Man in my arms and waited for them to all come back for me.. Little Man wasn't well and he just slept the whole time in my arms.

We got back home(well my sisters home) around 8pm that night we ate pizza and then had ice cream.. The kids then went up to the media room with grandma to watch a movie and fall asleep. This is how we spent day 7 of our spring vacation..

To view Day 1-3 of spring vacation you can click HERE. To view Day 4 which was Easter you can click HERE. Day 5 can be viewed HERE and Day 6 right HERE. Hopefully by Thursday this week.. I'll have finished posting all of the spring break post..

Happy sort of anniversary hubby..

Today is my sort of anniversary.
It was 19 years ago today that DH asked me to go with him and wear his class ring..
I was 16 years old and DH was 19..
WOW 19 years together is a long time... SNORT.. didn't mean that in a bad way LOL..
but I have lived more of my life loving you and having you be part of my life then I did without you.. and you DH have now lived half of your life with me..
So happy sort of anniversary.. I love you..

Weekend Recap(April 4-6,2008)

Why do the weekends always seem to fly by so fast??
I had a pretty relaxing weekend this past weekend.. but then anything would have been better then spending all day Friday and most of all day Saturday in driving like how we spent last weekend..
I have to giggle though.. I just said we had a relaxing weekend.. but it was a weekend of plans changing left and right every single day.

Let me start by telling you the plans for Friday night.. Friday night was going to be Princess 1st Jr High spring league fastpitch softball game. ONLY it had rained so much over night that on Friday morning we got a call at 8:30am saying it was called off.. So DH said lets take the kids to the IX indoor amusement park.. OK sure that will work.. It was Mr Man's turn to take a friend with us.. So we got that lined up with the boys mom before school was out.. DH wanted to be on the road no later then 4:30 PM other wise it really just wouldn't be worth the money it cost to get in because we wouldn't have that much time there. ONLY When it came time to go.. Princess hadn't made it home and Little Man was sound asleep and wouldn't wake up..(no not in a scary way it's just every time I woke him up he opened his eyes and fell right back to sleep) So DH was just going to take Mr Man and his friend only that sent Sweet Pea into tear land.. When it was all said and done it was already 5:30 PM so we came up with a different game plan.. We would just take the kids to the movies.. ONLY there really wasn't anything that they wanted to see. Mr Man had a great idea lets rent a movie.. Well we didn't rent it because what he wanted to see I wanted to own and have here for all times anyways.. So we went out and bought the movie.. Princess asked if she could have a friend over also.. By 7pm I had 6 kids at my house and by 8pm we had a pizza and a movie also.
The BIG news from Friday night is that the tooth fairy made a visit to our house. Sweet Pea lost her 2nd tooth.. Here is her toothless smile now.
And for your view pleasure a slide show from Friday night.

Saturday the plans for the day was DH and Mr Man was going to watch our nephew D high school baseball game in the morning. Then in the afternoon I was to meet DH at his parents so he and Princess could go south about 2 hours for a softball game. After they left I was to drop off Mr Man and Sweet Pea's at my parents house for a sleep over with Grandma. Then I was coming home for a peaceful evening just me and Little Man.

Change of plans #1 for Saturday. Mr Man went with DH only to find out the game was cancelled because the fields were still too wet, Then they changed plans for the game he and Princess was headed too.. So everyone came home.. and Plans changed that my parents were going to pick up the kids at my place that evening instead of me dropping them off.. We found our self all at home.. So DH made plans to take the kids to this indoor play land they like, then to the ball field to play a bit and warm Princess up for her game on Sunday. Then as I was getting ready to head out my grandma stopped by.

Change of plans #2 for Saturday.. The 1st thing out of my grandma's mouth was "who wants to go to grandma's house to play" Well all the kids yelled I do.. I mentioned to her and the kids what our plans were but the kids still wanted to play at grandma outside with all there neighborhood friends over there.. So DH told me to let them go and have fun since it was nice out.. So the 3 older ones ended up at great grandma's house and DH and I took Little Man and went for a drive on the lake and got a late lunch early dinner. When we got back into town we picked up the kids and went to the ball park and Princess threw a bit but said her shoulder was hurting so we stopped. It was at that point that she told us it has been hurting on and off for a few weeks ever since she got fouled in her last basketball game when some girl came down on her shoulder. NICE... We asked her if it is really bad trying to see just how much it was hurting and she said, no not much.. so we went home, just telling her if it starts to hurt again she needs to tell us because we don't want her really messing it up bad. A few hours after getting home my parents stopped by and got the kids Little Man wanted to go with them also.. So DH and I had the night home alone.. We had already went out to eat that afternoon.. So we just cuddled on the couch and watch Star Wars the clone wars because it was on TV(oh and I love star wars LOL)

In other Saturday news.. about a half hour after my parents picked up the kids, my sister called.. She was in the ER with my little nice E. Seems she had a run in with a coffee table and was getting 4 stitches in that sweet little forehead of hers.. OUCH OUCH OUCH.. poor little thing..

Sunday started off normal.. but plans changed when the middle two kids wanted to go to great grandma's house after church.. So that is what they did.. The rest of us including my mom and dad went to Princess softball game, It was a double header and since Fridays game was rained out it was the 1st game for the Jr High team. All seemed to be going fine until the 5th inning.. Princess couldn't seem to pitch the ball over the plate she was struggling.. next thing you know she is calling time out.. the couch went out to talk to her and she went back to pitching.. she threw two more times and she called time out again.. this time walking off the field herself. She told the couch she was done.. he shoulder was hurting her and she wasn't going to throw anymore. Thank goodness she has the common senses to do that.. I think alot of kids her age would have tried to push though the pain just to keep playing.. I guess the 1st time she called time out she told the couch her shoulder was hurting and he didn't take her out So the 2nd time she wasn't taking no for an answer.. So here is where plans changed again.. we didn't stick around.. for the rest of the 1st game or the 2nd game.. we packed it up and took Princess into the ER to have her shoulder checked.

Thankfully nothing is torn or messed up too bad with it.. She has a strain in her trapezius muscles and it is all inflamed. So she is on ibuprofen and not to play sports or lift anything with that arm for the next 5 days.. then she is to start to toss the ball slowing at 1st to see if it has had enough time to rest and heal.

While all this was going on.. Little Man told me "mommy me cold" it was a nice warm day today so I didn't know why he was cold. then He told me "mommy me lay down" and he climbed into my arms and was burning up with fever.. 102.8 to be exact.. Needless to day he did not go to church Sunday night. he fell asleep about 5pm and slept till 8pm now it is pushing 1:30 AM and he is still awake.. UGH.. I'm going to be so tired getting the kids ready for school today.

In other Sunday new. in Awana's Mr Man did 10 pages of verses.. and Sweet Pea only has 2 left to finish her book for the 2nd time this year.

So there ya have it all my weekend.. How was your weekend.. let me know either in your comment or go make a post of your own and come back and let me know so I can be sure to make it to your blog to view it..

I still have a few more days worth of spring vacation pictures to share with you all.. So I'll do another post of those hopefully though out the day today or tonight but they will be up by Tuesday so if you have been following along as I share my spring break memories with you all.. stop back by tomorrow..

Have a wonderful Monday.

Meme Monday 4/7/08

Meme Monday is a fun way of posting your meme's you get though the week and also your awards.. To learn more about Meme Monday or to play along visit Mel's blog Living With Me

I didn't get tagged this week and didn't have time to play any fun little meme or quizzes.. but some wonderful ladies did pass an a couple of blog awards to me.
The 1st one was past on to me by one of my oldest blogging buddies. Her blog was one of the 1st blogs I started reading and she was also one of the 1st people ever to comment on my blog.. She is one Fantastic blogging buddy.. Thank you very much Fantastagirl for picking me for the Excellent award..
This next award was passed on to me twice this week 1st by Annie over at My Life as Annie

and then also by Kristi over at Music Mom of 2 . Thank you Annie and Kristi..

I'm going to follow in there foot steps and pass this one to all you Wonderful Women on the Web who reads my blog.. enjoy this award..

Spring vacation Tuesday(day 6)

Thought I would write another quick post about our spring vacation. Today I'll write about Tuesday March 25, 2008. If you have missed any part of my spring vacation up to this point and you would like to get caught up.. you can view day 1, 2 and 3 of spring vacation right HERE and the 4th day of spring vacation you can view my Easter pictures and read how we spent Easter right HERE Then Day 5 I posted yesterday and it can be viewed right HERE.

Now for day 6th.. Tuesday march 25, 2008.. My niece A had school.. So we, my parents, my kids and I went and ate lunch with her at her school. Then came home and got little Man a nap While Little Man was sleeping My Parents, Princess and Mr Man went out to yet another pond and went fishing.

My sister got her youngest down for a nap also. So while the group was out fishing and the younger were sleeping, my sisters DH was at work and A was at school.. Sweet Pea, My sister and I each grabbed a lap top and did some online stuff for a bit. I don't know what my sisters was doing, but I was trying to do some blogging(LOL) and Sweet Pea was playing her games. (she didn't want to fish) My mom came back at one point and just had to LOL at us all the house was nice and cool on a warm day and the babies were sleeping and there was the 3 of us in her living room each on a laptop.. I thought my mom got a picture of my sister also, but when I loaded her camera pics from this day it wasn't there.. These 4 pictures my mom took of Tuesday with her camera.

Later on Tuesday afternoon after my sister picked up A from school we thought it would be a good time to go SHOPPING!!!! The guys stayed back to watch some of the kids. While my mom, my sister, Princess, Little Man, Little E and I hit Ross and a few of the other stores in the Mall. As we were driving out of my sisters neighborhood we passed this house and I had my sister pull in there drive way because I just had to take a picture.. I mean where I'm from you just don't get to see long horns in peoples front yards.

Then we were off to shop till we dropped. I don't know what all everyone bought, but I do know I came home with two tops, an outfit for and a shirt for sweet Pea and a pair of shorts and a top for Princess. Then we hit wal-mart for some groceries.. It was at this point that I knew Little Man was sick.. I mean he had been clingy all day and slept alot longer then his normal nap time would be.. But while we were shopping he wouldn't let go of me and the snot started to turn from clear to green and he was running a fever.

On our way home we stopped by sonic for burgers guess Tuesday is there sale day for them.. and took them back for everyone for dinner.

That is how I spent day 6 Tuesday of our spring vacation.

Faith-Lift Friday (4/4/08)

Encourage others and yourself! Share a scripture, quote, devotional, lyrics, or anything that has blessed you and strengthened you in your faith.

Earlier this week when I was reading I Peter a few verses jumped at at me and I have been reading them alot this week. So I thought I would share them with you today.

I Peter 5:6-11
5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
5:9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
5:11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

For More Faith-lift Friday visit Taking The Challenge

A post I read today got me thinking..

Lauren over at Baseballs and Bows had a post titled I Am Starting A Movement

When reading this post she pointed to Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer post that she posted HERE. about her 12 year old son being invited to a co-ed sleepover. Being a mom of a 12 year old this caught my eye.

My very first thought was "NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME" I mean who does co-ed sleep over are they just asking for trouble.. not only was this my first thought but it was also what everyone who commented on both of these post had to say.

I was getting ready to jump on that band wagon also in a comment, when God brought back to my memory that when I was a year older then 12 I went to a co-ed sleepover.. true it wasn't at a friends house.. but at my "boyfriend" at the time church. We both went to the same christian school but went to different Baptist churches and lived in different towns. I took my best friend along with me and we had a great time. We had a cookout at the church had fun picnic games balloon tosses, egg tosses, Then a bible lesson and some bible type quizzes and game back inside the church that night lots of yummy food and fellowship, then sometime late in the wee hours of the morning the guys went to one side of the church to sleep while the girls went to another..

I went to a few of these sort of overnight co-ed church functions.. Also had one in elementary school at the christian school I went too.. I don't really remember why we had it, just for fun I guess.. once again the boys went to one room with a few of the dad and the male teachers and the girls went to another with the moms and female teachers.. All of these things were a blast and never once either in elementary school or as a teen did anything happen that shouldn't have been happening.. They had adults with us at all time and separate us when it was time to sleep.. even if it was the wee hours in the morning.

When I was an older teen I worked at a church summer camp one an island us staff members were at the camp from early Monday morning till Saturday afternoon(campers were there from Monday afternoon till Saturday morning) On the weekends that summer we had to leave the camp some of those weekends us staff members both girls and guys would plan outings to hang out. In doing this we would spend both Saturday and Sunday night at one of the teen staff member parents houses.. both the girls and the guys. once again, nothing ever happened.. the parents though not in the room at all times was there keeping an eye on things and when they were ready to go to bed, they had the girls all move some place and the boys move someplace..

One of those weekends we even had the group of us spending the night at my parents house. We all got off work(the camp) Saturday afternoon and went to Cedar Point for the day my house was the closet to The Point so afterwards we all went there to stay the weekend before heading back to camp. all the girls slept upstairs all the boys stayed out in my parents game room behind the garage. We woke up Sunday morning and went to church, hung out all Sunday afternoon went back to Church Sunday night and then headed off back to the camp on Monday morning..

So after God brought all this back to my mind.. I had to stop before saying NEVER NEVER NO NO NO, NOT IN THIS LIFETIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

None of my kids have ever been invited to a co-ed sleep over.. but if it happens.. I'll consider it, looking at who it is for, who the parents are, who is being invited.. and handle it how God leads.. There might be times I will say OK you can do that, others time I might say, NO not to this party... Or other times where I might say OK you can go to the party but not stay the night I'll pick you up at so and so of a time.


I'm all for teaching purity and protecting that purity in my children.. But I also need to trust God in the life of my children.. I can't lock them in a box to keep them safe.. Well I guess I could.. but that isn't teaching them anything either.. that doesn't let them live life..

My job is to train them, teach them, pray for them.. and I want to say trust them.. but I think what I"m looking more for is Trusting God with my children.. Then send my children out there to live there lives and pray that there lives will be pleasing to God and others might see Christ though them...

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not going to let them run wild and do things that I think could harm them or set them in Sins way.. but If God gives me a peace about letting them go here or there even if temptation might be there(because there is temptation to sin everywhere in every part of life), then I'm going to pray and Trust God that my children will make wise choices though Him.

That all being said.. I'm sure DH is still going to say NO NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME if this issue ever araises and then I'm going to have to share this post with him.

Spring vacation Monday(Thursday 13/ Throwback Thursday)

As most of you know the kids and I took a little vacation over spring break. We went with my parents to visit my sister and her family in TX. My kids got out of school on Thursday March 20, 08 and we left shortly after they got home to head to my parents house.. Friday we drove and drove, Saturday we drove and drove and got to my sisters about Dinner time.. You can see the few pictures I took from those days(day 1, 2 and 3 of spring vacation) right HERE
Sunday March 23, 08 was Easter Sunday and our 4th day of spring vacation you can view my Easter pictures and read how we spent Easter right HERE
Today for my Thursday 13 post.. I thought I would share more of our spring vacation with you all. So I'm going to share 13 pictures taken Monday March 24,08 Think I'm also going to make this my Throwback Thursday post.. seeing how I'm lazy like that LOL.. yeap throwing it all the way back to a week and a half ago. :P
Monday morning we took it easy no rushing here or there just nice and relaxed.. we ate breakfast I got online a bit then took the kids outside to play.. that is where my 13 pictures comes in.. Here are 13 pictures of the kids playing in my sisters back yard.

#1 my mom with her 5 younger grandchildren out by the swings.(Princess was inside getting caught up on her email)
#2 Sweet Pea and my niece A trying to catch a butterfly.

#3 Little Man coming down the slide #4 Mr Man on the swing

#5 My niece Little E
#6 OH my goodness.. look at this posed smile LOL.. see the black and blue knot on his head he did that running into my sister couch.. He rammed his head on that thing more then once.. the boy just runs and doesn't pay attention to where he is going. #7 a more natural pic of Little Man
#8 Mr Man and Sweet Pea
#9 standing by the swing looking down at the back of my sisters house. #10 Sweet Pea on the slide fort part. #11 my niece A
#12 Mr Man again#13 sitting on my sisters back patio looking out into her back yard.

After playing Monday morning and early afternoon.. We all at lunch and then took my sister peddle boat out to the big lake about 5 minutes from her home if even that far. here is a slide show of that.

After getting back from the lake.. My sister and I put Little E and Little Man down for there late naps. While Sweet Pea and A went and played and Princess and Mr Man went fishing at my sisters neighbors house with my dad. These are a few of the pictures of them fishing.

That night we had a lovely dinner of chicken breast with spaghetti .. Then got all the kids bathed and ready for bed. A had to go to school Tuesday morning her spring break was the week before my kids. So when my sister put her girls to bed.. I took my kids up into there media room and we watched movies on there big screen which is the one wall in there media room sort of like what you see in a movie theater.. My kids just thinks that is the coolest thing ever.. I find it very cool myself :) and that is how we spent Monday of our spring break.
Some time here in the next few days I hope to get my how we spent Tuesday of spring break post posted..

Before and After (wordless wednesday)

Taken April 1, 2008 Here is the Before Shot. During
And After..
and as a side note for those of you who have been reading everyday this week.. I have to pull her out of school once again tomorrow(Wednesday) because at 8:30pm Tuesday(got the braces around 11am Tuesday) one of the brackets already fell off..

WOW what a day..

I'm so tired.. I'm sorry folks.. the trip pictures I promised will have to wait.. Life was just crazy today.. 1st day back in Eastern time zone, 1st day back to school after spring break and alot of running..

This morning Princess had to be to school early for Academic Challenge practise so my grandpa took her. I got the other kids up at normal time.. I really didn't have a problem getting them out of bed, they got up just fine put there cloths on and told me what they wanted for breakfast..

They wanted to watch cartoons so I let them eat in the living room with the tv on.. and while they were finishing up breakfast I went and packed lunches and made the phone call to the dentist to see about getting Princess in.. When I walked back into the living room to get them moving on brushing there teeth and hair, 10 minutes before my grandpa was going to pick them up for school This is what I found.
LOL, yeah I know.. a normal mother would have woke them up and said "HURRY UP your going to be late for school" Yet I had to grab the camera because I knew I would blog about this later in the day LOL..

Then I yelled hurry up.. I had them all dressed and ready to walk out the door when Grandpa got here to take them to school.. ONLY I still think they had here eyes shut as they walked out the door. Poor things.. I think our spring break adventures took it out of them..

Anyways.. update on Princess and the tooth pain.. I was able to get her seen at her dentist this afternoon.. Her dentist is a hour away from our house.. so I got her out of school at 10:10am today and she never made it back..

It was weird.. the dentist couldn't see anything wrong with her teeth at all, so they took another set of x-rays(she had them done at her cleaning in November) and there was no change, no cavities nothing.. The dentist said the filling that was in the tooth that was hurting her seem to look like it was still in tacked.. so she had the other dentist in the offices come and take a look the two of them went over Princess's complaint about how it hurts when she is eating or chewing anything surgery.. and they said it sounds like something is getting behind the filling but the filling itself looks good.. They knew Princess is getting her braces on so they didn't want to just do nothing because it would be so much harder to work on her teeth after they are one.. so after about an hour or longer of them debating what to do and what is the problem they gave us two options.. remove the old filling and refill it or put a sealant all around the filling and tooth.. They said since the filling looks good it could just be a pin hole and a sealant would stop anything from getting it and if it was there daughter(they are both mothers) they would go for the less invasive option.. So that is what we did.. they sealed the filling and the tooth and best of all they didn't charge me a dime.. YEAH...

Afterwards on our way home we passed a Kohl's and Princess wanted to stop.. you see we have been in a search for a bathing suit.. that is modest yet not too geek-ey and she and I don't agree too much on this issue LOL.. Last night she was looking online and thought she found one that I would approve of(or more so daddy would say yes too LOL) and I did like it so she wanted to stop and try it on(oh yeah it was at Kohl's) It looked GREAT on her covered everything I wanted covered and still was extremely cute not too grown up and not to baby-ish.. Just perfect so I had to buy it.. she and I both left very happy... Here is the suit this is the picture from the Kohl's sight. When we got back home I had enough time to pick up Little Man who grandma had watched for me.. and get the other kids from school.

Then we went over to my grandparents so they could give the kids there Easter bunnies that they didn't get to give them since we were gone for Easter..

I got home at 4pm and had to have Princess at softball practices for the Jr High team at 4:30pm

When I got home I made dinner it was nice so I grilled.. Then it was time to get Princess from softball and we ate dinner.. got whoever needed bathed bathed.. and got the homework done and the kids ready for bed and DH was getting ready for work at 10 after 9 PM when Mr Man said.. OH mom the teacher sent a note.. tomorrow is my dad for snack... WHAT??????? Thanks for letting me know there buddy..

I'm too tired to bake anything.. so off I ran to Wal-Mart to buy a snack for the class..

Now here I sit super tired and needing to go to sleep.. yet wanted to get a blog post up to let you know what went on with Princess and the tooth..

Tomorrow I'll be gone alot also.. Princess gets her braces put on tomorrow morning.. SNIFF my baby is getting braces... she is scared out of her mind right now.. she was still up at 10pm surfing the web to find out any information she could about how they put them on what all they use to do it, how long it takes how painful will it be.. sometimes information is not a good thing.. at 11:30pm she was still awake thinking about it.. poor thing.. So we prayed and she went to bed.. I don't honestly know if she is asleep or not yet.. My goodness I sure do hope so seeing as it is pushing 12:30AM..

Well goodnight all..