i laughed so hard!

i am not the type of person that really laughs hard a lot. it's just not who i am. there are only 3 people who i can think of at the moment who i laugh with - who gets my sense of dry humor & i get their's. 1 of them i'm related to & the 2 others are close friends. but when i really get going i laugh a wheezy, sounds like i've been a smoker my whole life, barely breathing kind of laugh....and i did that tonight after reading this. i hope you enjoy it as much as Rachel & I did.

fall festival time

well we have started our round of fall festivals in the area. a big baptist church up near our house had their fall festival yesterday. they do it so efficiently & it's just enough....not too much candy or too many activities. it took about 1 hr & 15 minutes & we were done. we only took abigail, asher & esther yesterday. rachel was finishing up school work (yes on Sunday - she is swamped this year), levi had a runny nose & it was in the middle of his nap time & elizabeth just didnt want to go. the 3 we took were soooo excited to be in their costumes. they had a good time. we have at least 2 planned for this coming weekend - possibly 3....on the 29th, 30th & 31st. fun, fun, fun. and just for the record, the candy they got yesterday is all gone today! their little baskets or candy bags are only about the size of a 10 - 12oz cup at most, which in my opinion is plenty of candy. after we took out the laffy taffy, tootsie rolls, milk duds & jolly ranchers which i dont let them have for 2 reasons (healthy teeth & choking hazards), there wasnt tons left.
anyway, here are a few pictures of my blue butterfly, iron man 2 & the bumble bee.

ok i couldnt leave out pictures of my flashy. i say this all the time to the point that i'm sure it's sickening but this dog is awesome. i love this dog. i tried to go to weight watchers tonight & he jumped in the van & sat on the seat beside me. he wanted to go. but since he isnt trustworthy in the chewing department i didnt know if he would have chewed the car to shreds if i left him for an hour or so in the car unattended. he's only about 6 months old. again, not trustworthy enough in the chewing department. i had to physically drag him out of the van. and believe me it hurt my heart to do it. if clay hadnt of been there telling me i couldnt take him i probably would have taken him & not worried about the chewing. i'm that kind of girl....do what feels right & then worry about the consequences later. (i so hope my kids have better sense than that!)

and this picture is one rachel took 2 weeks ago when she was in her "i might want to be a photographer" mode. she got it of flashy running. i just liked his ears in this picture. I LOVE THIS DOG!! he will sit for hours beside me if i rub his ears & his ears feel like silk! he smells like a skunk most of the time but he still has silky fur & ears. i love me some flashy boy!

rachel

i meant to add this picture on the last post, just because:
my beautiful girl, rachel. such a good help to me.
she's funny.
she's smart.
i am so blessed by her.

lately

lately i am behind on everything. lately there is still illness in the house. lately i feel overwhelmed, sad & just really want to pull the covers over my head & wish the badness, sadness, ickiness to go away.

anyway...i have been making lapbooks for my children's science curriculum. i bought the cd that held all of the directions to make the lapbooks. i had to make 8. basicly 4 of the first 7 lessons & 4 for the last 7 lessons. the kids can not wait to get their hands on them. (i made 1 for Elizabeth, Abigail, Asher & Esther. I figured Asher & Esther would not let us leave them out & if they dont abuse them too badly than maybe they can reuse them when it comes time for them to actually use the curriculum & learn from it more indebth). come Monday they will get their hands on them!! the lapbooks go hand-in-hand with apologia's astronomy curriculum. apologia's science curriculum is top notch. the basis for their curriculum is God created the universe & that the earth is relatively young - about 6,000 years old. our beliefs line up with the belief they teach. and their curriculum is hard!! very hard!!! we have been using it for a few years now & i love it. rachel is doing their chemistry this year. she wishes they had a lapbook for chemistry too, but nope. they dont.

i have been cutting out fabric - just since yesterday - to throw together a comfort quilt for my sister renee. she lost her sweet little dog, oscar on tuesday.

(i took this picture off of her facebook page)
he was her faithful companion for the last 14 years & sadly he had cancer & she had to put him down. she is devastated & i understand it. i cant make it better, but i hope i can ease her pain to know we are hurting with her. anyway, i found this pattern of an easy quilt on a new website of which i am addicted; http://www.pinterest.com/ . if you havent joined, you should. there are tons of ideas for clothing, gifts, recipes, crafts, photography. it's a bunch of blogs all in one sight.
anyway, this is the type of quilt i will be making. you can find the pattern & tutorial on the blog: doityourselfdivas@blogspot.com

 

here are the colors i have chosen to make the quilt in & i will post a picture when it is done. they look really good in person & the picture isnt a good representation. i will try to take pictures as i go along & post a blog about it. i did deviate from the tutorial that the other blog gave....and it is super easy.

my sister lisa & her 2 daughters (olivia & emily) are facing the 10th anniversary of Jim's death - her husband/their father. words just cant even begin to help anyone. but we are thinking of them. Jim was a good guy. he loved lisa & pretty much did whatever she wanted. (i love that in a man....i seriously do. he knows what is important - to make his woman happy - & only puts his foot down when he really feels strong about it - & Jim did do that on occasion but mostly he just went with the flow). he loved his girls. he loved to laugh. he loved a good joke. he is tremendously missed. my biggest regret is that i never showed jim the respect he deserved in this life. it's amazing to me the clarity we have when it's too late. hindsight is 20/20.  the following video comes to mind when i think of jim. go rest high on that mountain, Jim. we love you & you are missed. (remember to pause the songs at the bottom to listen to this video)



also abigail is sick...way sick. she has the croup & it is scary. she coughs to the point that she cant breath. it scares me to death. she is on an oral steriod. she is on round the clock breathing treatments. i put her in a steamy bathroom after her breathing treatment because i got scared of her coughing so badly. she has been throwing up tonight - after her breathing treatment. i hate when you are so sick that the albuterol does that. i wish i could take it all for her - the illness. i hate my babies being sick. she handles it well. i gave her motrin to help her sleep. when she sleeps she doesnt cough. she is sound asleep now. this started the day (Monday) she received her blackbelt in the little dragons glass at karate. i was very impressed with what she had learned. she will start taking the beginners - orange belt class in the adult karate class next week. and come december she will belt test into the orange belt. so she will basically be 6 belts away from her black belt. (it's a 9 belt total timeframe to black belt if that helps explain where she is in regards to the adult class). anyway i'm impressed.
abigail with sensei lucas.

and for the record i am sick also. i slept until 3:30PM this afternoon. we were suppose to go down south today but it didnt happen. oh & i also joined weight watchers 1 1/2 weeks ago. it's going ok. i refuse to spend my 40's fat.
anyway, please continue to pray for us.

this is how he rolls!

ok i know y'all are tired of seeing pictures of this dog, but well, too bad. this is my blog & this is my dog & i LOVE HIM. he is the best dog. he learned to play fetch with a ball yesterday in a matter of 20 minutes. he throws a ball up in the air & catches it by himself. he is so much fun & so cute.
well we got new carpet so the dogs havent been allowed on it...until tonight. we put up a gate so they couldnt get in. anyway tonight flash got into the living room & made himself comfortable. i didnt have the heart to make him get up & he didnt want to wallow on the carpet. he wanted to be on the sofa where his people were. i took this picture when Abigail got up to brush her teeth for bedtime. she had been snuggled up in the blanket with Flash. i didnt decide to take the picture until i realize he wasnt moving. soooo cute!!!

how cute is he!!! i love this dog! i cant believe how much i love this dog.

and there is the gate with the other dogs behind it. yep i showed favortism. they werent fast enough when the gate was open. actually calpurnia came in and laid at my feet while i folded clothes. readen is just not trustworthy at all because she doesnt have good training. we are trying tho. the gate isnt the prettiest but it surely serves a purpose. & it was one of the few that i found in my price range that actually stretched all the way across that opening.

hair cut day 2

ok so i took esther to get her hair fixed by professionals. it was just not even & i couldnt handle it. so now it will grow out in a fairly even way instead of one side all short & jacked up & the other side well...not.  i tried to talk clay into letting me get her ears pierced but he wont let me. so now we have a very large collection of foofoo hair clips, bows, ribbons...etc......& some sticker jeweled earrings. now the big deal will be getting her to actually wear any of them - even tho she picked them all out.
also i am throwing in a picture of levi because's he's cute & one of me with my new perm.

on a final note i will say this....& this is huge for me to admit...but i realized 1 of the reasons having her brother cut her hair bothers me so much is because it hurt my pride. i was so proud this hadnt happened to me before. i pride myself on paying attention to what my children are getting into. between rachel, elizabeth & myself...we missed this one big time.

also, even tho she is sooooo cute, she looks like a boy. she really does. i could cry everytime i look at her... but maybe because she is happy i will stop tearing up when i look at her. but she still is so precious. i have really had to hammer down on all of the other girls about what they say around her. all 3 of them have said at one point "she looks like a boy." i corrected them. even tho i am sitting here writing it out, i really have tried to let her know how special she is. i have not told her that it looks bad or that she looks like a boy. she has not heard me say it & she wont. she is still my beautiful, wild esther & i think she is beautiful. i'm just glad hair grows back.
when the lady cut her hair, esther sat so patiently & allowed her hair to be cut. i was amazed.
also another humbling experience about the whole thing is when esther was getting her hair fixed, the stylist sitting next to us didnt have a client so she started to talk to us. she started telling esther how cute she looked & that esther reminded her of her 3 year old niece, who had the exact same hair cut - length & all. why? i asked? well the 3 year old niece just got over having leukemia. yep, i think i will take asher cutting esther's hair in stride & move on. thank you God that my children are healthy & whole.
also esther told us this afternoon she wanted us to call her "adlai", which is her middle name, but really? who is this kid? i'm still in shock at how different she looks & the cut seems to have changed her personality - taken the wild out of her. say it ain't so!!

ok as for me, i got a new perm because my hair was just lifeless & i fixed the color. no more red/pink streaks for the time being. back to auburn/brown for me. and it's growing & when they trimmed it there werent any dead ends. that is huge for me.
also there is a picture of readen our cocker. she is a beautiful dog. she was letting esther hold her down. and flash is in there also. i would swear he poses for the camera. the dogs are not allowed on the new carpet except for there on the stairs. i've never seen them use the bathroom on the stairs - they just sleep there so i think that carpet is safe.

also, i realize i will need to be more careful with esther's clothing choices. her outfit today didnt help her any not look like a boy. but she loves her some elmo & that jacket was a score at the thrift store. i'm not sure how i can keep her out of it. and in a day or two i'm sure i will take on the attitude of "i dare anyone to say she looks like a boy" worse than i have already.

and as you can see from my picture i have put on some weight. i am starting weight watchers on monday. i am hoping it will go quickly if i am diligent. i need to lose the weight so i can get pregnant again! (ha!ha!ha!)