Easter Snow!

Today was a great day despite how cold it was and how it thwarted all plans to wear their Easter clothes. After 2 days of sleet and snow and it finally melting off some today it still stayed a very cold 48 for the high. The children loved the snow and we got some fun pics. The pics still didn't do it justice since after we quit taking them the snow continued to fall and ended up piling up on rooftops and coating the world in a white wonderland...despite the fact it's spring and has already reached the high 80's on more than several days. I don't ever remember in my lifetime it ever snowing this late in the season or accumulating as much as it did. These were taken yesterday after a long night of sleet and snow and in the height of the snow fall that came yesterday.

We went back to the little Baptist church today after much asking from everyone in the town. It was actually one of the best feelings in the world to be there again. I'm not sure why since I don't really ever walk away with alot of wisdom or revelation after the fact....but I love the people there more than anything. I love their hearts and just being there today reminded me of why we came here. For some reason it just seems to me that we fit there. And sometimes, though I resent it at times during the periods when I am so exhausted, I think we may have more to give to them than we ever realize. They have all asked to come back on more than several occasions and we've had 4 people now come and say that we gave new life to the church and that we brought it to life after being a bit lifeless for a long while. They all have said the children are what it needed. Now that Brad is on the city council I think it is only right to play an active role in the community and really participate and become involved with everything within it. I still have yet to figure out if that means going to a church I don't really get anything out of but there is still something about it that just feels right and there's a peace that accompanies it. Maybe what we get out of it is the fellowship. Maybe it's just me and how overly accustomed I became to finding stuff wrong with everything and being so overly pessimistic about it all and maybe it's just that I have become used to being discontent. Perhaps that is why I immediately sought to find all of the needs the church did not meet of our's. I don't know.

I was reading to the children for our Bible lesson a couple of weeks ago and it really seemed to speak more to me than it probably ever did to them. But it was about Moses and the Israelites being led through the wilderness. It said in there that God chose Moses because he chose to listen to Him above all else while the rest of the ordinary people complained and whined. The whole entire time we read the Israelites were whining about everything. Even after seeing God doing extreme miracles and moving mountains they still were full of disbelief and whining. They whined about having no water, no food, getting nowhere, just about everything. And everytime they complained God met their needs but He did so only by speaking to Moses and performing wonders after He spoke with him. He parted a whole entire sea, He made water come out of a rock, food fall from the sky, a cloud to even shade them while He led them by it and a fire to warm them at night while He led them by that. It was just amazing to me. The whole point was whether you want to be a Moses for God or whether you want to be one of the Israelites that God saves and provides for but because you are full of grumbling you are only ever one of the followers. It is up to you to decide to be a leader God mightily uses and seeker of nothing but Him or a mere follower due to your grumpiness and complaining. I just kind of saw myself in it. I gripe about the house in Hurst, I gripe about eating oatmeal for breakfast, PB for lunch and eggs for dinner every night, the fact that it feels that God has all but forsaken us at times, that everything is going wrong according to what we had planned......but in reality there is a bigger picture that is so very much bigger than we can ever wrap our minds around. And if nothing else the sheer fact that He gave His own life for us and we have been forgiven is enough to be grateful. And, who I am to gripe when the Israelites ate manna for every meal for 40 years......40 YEARS! When the children and I were reading we started talking about the reality of that and what it would be like to eat oatmeal for every meal for 40 years. That thought was a very big attention getter for all of us.........Although Aubrey gladly volunteered to eat it every meal for 40 years during our discussion of it.

Anyway, I am glad for our little tiny church. I am glad that they see in us something that I don't see at all at times. Maybe it is more about what we as a family have to give rather than what we can get out of it....even when it comes to church. It really does feel like we have come home. And even though I do not want the children growing up thinking that that is all there is to God and the whole stringent southern Baptist mentality I think what we do at home and how we see God is what truly speaks. How we watch Him work and move and what we learn in our own lives is so far beyond a lesson in Sunday school and will round out their knowledge of God in every way. I got more than a little convicted about what I do not allow God to do in me as He seeks to work through me to get to the heart of my children. This will never work unless we put it into practice at home and I really start to show them the intimacy that God desires with each one of them. I have to be willing to be that example. Sometimes I feel so inept at the job of parenting. Sometimes I feel like I should be the little 6 yr old sitting down there in the Sunday school chairs.....and then I realize I have this whole family of children God has blessed us with and it is my responsibility to teach them about our living breathing risen Lord. And then I wonder why in the world He chose us...and what He saw in us....to bless us with these innocent lives that He has entrusted us to raise with the knowledge of Him. I am still learning with them in pretty much every way. Who am I to teach them these things?

On another note, Brad and I took them into town and ran errands on Fri. We kind of forgot the small fact it was Good Friday and the rest of the entire world was off work and out of school. Oops! So much for trying to beat the crowds and get everything done by 4. We took them to Cici's and as always we were the spectacle of the entire restaurant. And by now, it is obvious I am pregnant. No one has noticed up until this past week and before that if we wanted any stranger to know we had to tell them #7 is on the way. But in the last week that has changed and people have started to take notice. The place was full of really rowdy kids that wouldn't behave or sit still or even mind their parents. We went through our whole little routine when we got there of putting Garrison, Grant and Garrett into high chairs. Grayson, Evye and I all push while Aubrey followed and Brad paid. We sat and Grayson helped Brad with drinks and stuff and then with Evye they go get plates for the little ones and then themselves. It flows and everybody know their part and we get everything done quickly. During the middle of everybody eating and talking a man and his family approached us and he said we have the most well behaved group of kids he's ever seen and wanted to know what our secret is. He said they are all incredibly good looking kids and they sat over there eating their meal impressed by how well behaved they are too.

So, the point to all of that is that I decided to note in here everytime we get a compliment so that when days like a Wal Mart day do come all I have to do is read back through here and remember how blessed we are to have such great children and how well behaved and well mannered they really are......most days. LOL! And that a Wal Mart day is really not the end of the world.

Oh....and on another note. We got an offer below what the bank's price on the Hurst house is. So, we're just waiting to see if the bank will accept instead of taking action against us. If by some miracle they do we'll be closing at the end of April. We don't really expect much but it's better than nothing. The majority of all of the feedback from realtors' clients say it's just the floorplan that is not acceptable. Oh well. Maybe it's a huge blessing to the buyers if it works. They'll end up buying it for less than what we did. So much for HGTV's great promotion on the house flipping business. We definitely were not in it for that but ended up doing it in the long run only to end up in this boat! LOL! But I can officially say any emotional attachment I had to that house is def long gone. And I hope to never have to sell another house again!!!!!

And last but not least of all the pics.....this was after a very long day of playing hard in the snow. Nothing like all piling up to the Sound of Music for the 150th time! 4-7-07 removed due to space limitations

Praise worthy children

Well, after the last 2 days I just had today was kind of a recoup day. I had absolutely no desire to go into town.....despite all of the much needed food we left in the cart at Wal Mart. I forgot we got Hot Pockets at Sam's as a last minute thought for a quick fix. In all of this I failed to mention, I think, that the oven/stove got fried in the hail storm. It went crazy and flashes every number and display light on the panel and heats itself up to the cleaning mode..which is something like 600 or more degrees......and won't lock the door like it should when it gets that hot. Not to mention that it heats up the entire kitchen to about 85 or 90! So, we just had to turn the breaker off. We tried it yet again yesterday but everytime we turn the breaker on it just automatically starts heating itself up and none of the buttons will even come close to working or even making a familiar beep sound. To sum up, it's pretty dead. So, no cooking for awhile. Everything has to be cold or microwaveable....such as the Hot Pocket fix.

And I know I'm probably really anemic at this point since I've failed to remember to take my iron the last few days. I'm back up to 2 a day since I can't keep my levels up. And we ran out of purified water so I haven't drunk any water or done the Chlorophyll thing like I should faithfully be doing. So, I'm tired....very tired. I started the children's school work this morning around 10 and while they worked I worked on cleaning and straightening the house.....which only made me more aware of how tired I really am. I was able to get the normal daily wash load done pretty much, which consists of a dark load, a light load, a denim load and 2 towel loads. I kept that going all morning so I didn't have it to face tonight. Now folding it is another issue...but they're clean. As the morning wore on it became evident Evye was very much in need of a nap due to how the last few days have worn on her too. So, it was incredible. Grayson and Evye actually fixed everybody lunch and had it on the table. I looked up and realized I didn't have to do any of it. It made my heart sing. Grayson has kept the dishes up both yesterday and today. He completely emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it with the mountain of dishes that faced him in the sink, washed those and then unloaded yet again. Today he just kept them going all day. At some point the dishwasher was full again so I started it and once he noticed it was done he unloaded it yet again. It was incredible. They have daily responsibilities of unloading it when it needs it but usually I do the dishes on most days just due to how much quicker I can get them done. He rivaled me in his speed these last 2 days. I was so grateful and so proud of him. I put everybody to bed for naps and left Grayson with instructions for the load in the washing machine. He stayed up with permission so that he could continue working on what was left of school. I also told him if Garrett woke up, since he had gone down earlier than anybody else, to just let him play in his crib until I got up. It didn't take me long, or Evye, to fall asleep. She hadn't been in the bed for even 3 minutes before she was out. And Aubrey was awfully quiet almost immediately after laying down on her mat in the floor. I woke up on my own at almost 5 and suddenly realized I was the only one still sleeping. I got up knowing Garrett was probably miserably dirty and hungry and the others were into all sorts of no good. I walked out to see a bucket of toys out for the boys to play with in their room and Grayson and Evye playing with a happy Garrett and Aubrey eating yogurt at the table. It was so peaceful. Once Grayson saw me he began telling me that Garrett woke up not long after I laid down and he was just crying. So, Grayson felt sorry for him and went and got him. He gave him a bottle and then let him play in the floor while he did his school work. he assured me confidently that he made sure he stayed in the den so that Grayson could see him and make sure he didn't choke on anything. I was amazed. He hugged me and said "I just wanted you to be able to sleep for a little while". I asked how'd gotten the toys down for the boys and he said once they woke up he gave them their snack and got the box down. He then assured me that he made them sit at the table to eat their snack just like he told Aubrey too. Evye spoke up and said she was now in charge of Garrett since Grayson had stuff to do outside.

It all just flowed. I was so blessed by how much love the children so freely give and by what is really in their hearts. It makes the really hard days so worthwhile in the long run.

Is it over yet???!!!!

What a day..........and not the sentimental sappy kind!!!!! Beware to all that are still battling how many children they should have....this is probably not the greatest entry to read. And to top it all off it really wasn't even the children that drove me to the breaking point....it was Wal Mart itself. I am somewhat sure that every large family has it's good days and bad days while out in public and this was just one of those not so proud moments.

As all of life goes, we had to go in today to do our Wal Mart and Sam's trip today since the finances were finally available....and yes, Brad was inevitably called in for overtime before even leaving the station this morning from his own shift. And today is only a 24 off so he was on yesterday, on today and is back on his own shift again tomorrow. No hope of him going......yet we had to go due to our needs being pretty great, as there isn't much to eat in the house at this point excpet for PB&J....which Garrison andGrant cry when they look at. Usually full of fun and excitment over taking the children and going in even without him I started out dreading it today simply due to the anemic thing kicking in. All I really wanted to do was go to bed. I was proud though since we planned on leaving at 4 and just then one of the Sun school ladies stopped by. The house wasn't too much to brag about but the children were all dressed impecably with hair done and I had make-up and something besides Brad's jogging suit pants and a t-shirt on. LOL! The children were full of stories about catching the snake and were full of manners and I love it when I can see all of the hard work and effort on this end paying off. So, this greatly lightened my spirit and gave some much needed energy for the trip in.

Sam's was great and fun. I love it there since it's so huge and I LOVE the shopping carts!!! Whoever came up with the 2 child seats in the front was a genious and they really need to adapt that concept everywhere! Garrison and Grant fit perfectly. I finally saw the need for an umbrella stroller since when I just have Garrett the double is a bit monstrous and a little like killing a wasp with a shotgun. So, the boys were in the front of the cart together and Evye pushed Garrett in his new little stroller. Oh.....and the ease, size and weight of putting that little thing in the back of the Suburban is just near heaven!! So, it was a fun trip. We took our time looking around, checking out the new tents, the picnic table we want to eventually put on the porch, the swingset that we eventually would love to have and all of that. As usual, we got asked every question and had every comment in the book come in. Most of the time it's just the "better you than me" or "You've got your hands full" thing 1 million times over but every once in awhile we'll get every comment in the book in 1 day. That was pretty much today. A few couples stopped and did the whole 2 sets of twins thing and then, of course, the never ending "hands full" comment and every other one everyone else has ever heard. But, I also love the days when the incredibly gracious comments come in exclaiming how well behaved they are. One older couple stopped to comment how absolutely beautiful the girls are and then went on to say, once they actually looked around and took them all in, how incredible the whole lot of them are. LOL! Grayson pushed another shopping cart behind me with Aubrey and the dog food in it and as he stopped and waited for an older lady to go ahead and pass in front of him she realized what he was doing and kindly said for him to catch us. He said a pleasant "thank you" and caught up. As we stood in line the lady approached us and touched me on the arm and said "I just want to tell you what a well behaved son you have. I havent' seen a boy with manners that great in a very long time. And he's so good looking on top of it all." She patted Grayson and I told her how nice it is to hear comments of praise since we tend to get all sorts of comments due to the size of our family. I love it when the older ones are singled out and praised by strangers since they always tend to hear the worst comments and the appalled "Are they all your's???!!! Why???!!!!"

But, as wonderful as this was, it seemed to be the breaking point for Evye and the turning point of the wonderful evening. Evye broke down in a torrent of tears and melodrama saying nobody told her how well behaved she is. I commented that she had specifically been sought out and told how absolutely beautiful she is and when people see beauty like that they know it comes from the inside and not the outside. Of course, this in no way consoled her. I got them loaded up with her crying and whining the entire time. It didn't help that she'd made herself stay awake last night until midnight. She fought off sleep unlike any kid I've ever seen. And then was up bright and early at 8 with everybody else. So, there was really no reasoning with her.

So, off we headed to the station to give Brad a uniform for tomorrow. We hung out at the station for a little while and then went on due to all of them being hungry. So, with the original plan being Sonic I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on food when we needed so badly to go to Wal Mart and get stuff. Nothing sounded good to me anyway so it was even harder making a decision of where to go and what to do. The children all voted for Lunchables as a special treat, and knowing how badly we needed water and Garrett needed formula I thought this was the best course of action. A quick trip in and out of Wal Mart and we'd have food for tomorrow too. By this time the children were really hungry.......but we were only running in and out. We arrived and did the whole get everybody settled in for the quick trip vs. the long trip. Garrison and Grant in the large part of the shopping cart, Garrett in the child seat...since he's too big and heavy for me to carry in the backpack anymore...and Aubrey holding on to the side of the cart. It's simple, easy and fast and is not quite the train that the double stroller and a shopping cart make together. We got over to the fishing nets to get the promised net for Grayson only to have Evye and Aubrey both end up in a fit of hysterics over the fact they could not have one too. Evye, of course, was just plain wailing and Aubrey was, of couse, screaming and stomping her foot and doing all sorts of forbidden Aubrey things that only she does. I explained to Evye how she in no way was capable of lifting a net full of huge heavy fish out of the river water but she in turn just tried to convince me otherwise. After figuring out it was all going no where I left the fishing section with them all....Evye and Aubrey wailing behind me.

Now into the baby section I got the needed formula and food for Garrett only to look and realize Grayson, Evye and Aubrey had taken off to get their lunchables and water so I didn't have to do it. I couldn't chase after them and look as utterly ridiculous as I felt watching them run down the isle away from me........so I just stood and watched waiting for them to come back so I could then launch into that whole thing. About then Garrett got his fat little foot stuck in the bars of the cart and started screaming.........and his scream is no quiet cry. (Oh Susanna, where art thou??!!!! Please come teach me your ways!!!!!.....you know that she taught everyone of the Wesley children to cry quiet??!!!!) So, I dealt with that and began to feel the blood rising and heat coming in. I decided it was very much time to leave. I met the children who had the dinners and the needed water and got onto them for taking off and we picked up the pace. I started chunking stuff in like yogurt and the corn dogs for the boys for dinner. Evye was being obnoxious but everytime I reprimanded her or even looked at her wrong she'd start wailing again. That was irritating on top of already being irritated. So, we finally found the corn dogs and head to the cash register. By this time Garrett is undoubtedly dirty and his rash is bringing him huge discomfort as he sat in it. I reached the checkout to discover 2 out of 40 registers were open!!!! And the line for them stretched across the main thoroughfare and into the isles. I counted 7 people in front of me. I waited through 2 of them and each checkout was taking about 5 min. All I could think of was that we had another 25 minutes due to 5 min each and 5 people yet ahead of us. Knowing how badly we needed the stuff in the cart I figured I'd just regain some of my composure and wait it out. Oh...and somewhere along the way in looking for the corn dogs I discovered Garrison and Grant had opened 3 out of one of the 6 pack of yogurts and were licking the lids and the top of the yogurts. Not only was it going to be a mess trying to get home......they had on white shirts and the yogurt was pink and blue. And both faces were a sticky mess. As we waited in line I decided to make the best of it and sent Grayson to the deli for a plastic spoon since Garrett was wailing now in hunger and I could feed the 3 open yogurts to the boys and it would eliminate that problem. About then Garrett got his thumb wedged in the bars of the cart and started screaming all over again. Frustrated I lifted him up to comfort him after pulling his finger out but it only smashed everything in his diaper up against his skin and compounded the butt problem. Evye was standing in the middle of the busy isle swinging the net around oblivious to anyone around her or attemping to get by. And Aubrey was in the cards pulling out every Strawberry Shortcake one she could find. It was right about then that the last straw broke. By this time we were swamped with people in front and now behind us and it was chaos and another 25 minutes of it to go. I pulled Garrison and Grant out of the cart in a not so gentle way as I felt my blood really begin to boil and everything skyrocketing out of control. And of course, everybody's watching our little circus. I told Evye to put the net down and go get Grayson, who still had not returned. With Garrett on my hip and Garrison and Grant's hands in one of my own I drug everybody out of the way to wait for Grayson and Evye........only to discover Aubrey pulling off every ounce of candy off the awful shelves they have by the checkouts. With my 1 free hand cupped under Garrett's sore butt I drug her away from it and started walking outside. By this time I had no clue where Grayson or Evye were and Grant was screaming in no quiet way in opposition to having his hand squished up with Garrison's in mine. Grayson appeared without Evye, having had no clue she was out looking for him, so that made me even madder. With Grant, Garrett and Aubrey all screaming I led them away to the outer part with every eye in the front of the store watching all of this. Grayson returned with Evye and I barked out the "let's go!" order. Grayson got Grant as I shoved him into him and then Grant falls out on the floor still screaming and Grayson just starts dragging him. Everyone was still watching. Kind of irate at this point I got Grant up and let Garrison go as he took off 90 mph out onto the sidewalk....stopped by a man in a cowboy hat just before running full speed into the street running in front of the doors. (Grant's still screaming). Grayson caught up to him and drug him to the Suburban while I drug Grant and held Garrett as my arm was dying and he was crying.With Garrison and Grant wailing in unison that they were "hun-gwy" and Evye wailing due to the fact we had just left her dinner and everything she had wanted I shoved them all in and shut the doors. I stood outside the Suburban for a minute and just breathed..........only to look up and see a group of people having followed me out OF THE WAL MART DOORS just to watch it all. Ok, i know it was a scene unike any one person has probably ever seen but why in the world would somebody watch that and even go as far as to walk out to watch it all unfold but never even offer to lift a finger to help????!!!!!!I guess that goes along with the whole mindset of people that "you did this to yourself!". Talk about utterly humiliating. I was so mad though that the thought of crawling out of there didn't even occur to me. All I could think about was suing Wal Mart for their shopping carts that do nothing but entrap kids feet, legs, toes, fingers and everything else even while sitting exactly as they should and belted in on top of it all and then for the absolute nightmare of having only 2 out of 40 registers open at 8 at night with a mountain full of shoppers present. By the time we left our place in line there were 5 in front of me and 5 behind me waiting.

I wheeled in Sonic and told everybody to be silent. I threatened that if anyone dared even breathe, or attempt to have an opinion at all, that we'd go home. Grayson looked back at Garrett only to discover him sitting on his knees turning off and on the TV in front of his seat. Obviously he'd never been buckled in.....I could only be grateful that we'd never had to leave the parking lot to get to Sonic. I got out and changed his diaper in the front seat as the food arrived. After buckling him in we took off for home....only to round the corner and hit a dip and have both Sprite and Root Beer go everywhere.........from the dashboard and splashing on the windshield down to the floor. Grayson now cried about his drink and Evye wailed about her's melodramtically. Finally on the road home, I ate in total silence with a car full of 6 kids. 1/2 way home I was feeling horrid and apologized to all of them saying it wasn't even really them. It was Wal Mart in general and to please forgive my outburst of anger.

Needless to say, a very tired Evye, Aubrey and the boys were immediately put to bed once we arrived home and I laid a sleeping Garrett in his bed. Grayson and I sat out on the front porch with the cool soft breeze blowing watching the amazing lightening show and the full moon rise above the dark foreboding east clouds. It was amazing to see both lightening and moonlight all come together to light the sky like daylight. We sat out and talked and laughed and finally just chilled out together and made the best of what was left of the night. I sat on the bench loving the cat and he caught a baby frog. We played with it for awhile and listened to it croak and chirp before finally letting it go in the flowerbed and relunctantly heading in.

He's asleep now and I sit here in guilt and utter embarrassment over what all just took place only a few short hours ago. Knowing what I felt I can only imagine what we must've looked like........and to have people follow us out to watch it all is really the most humilating thing about it all. I suppose it will be funny oneday. That's one of those things though that I'm not sure will ever become funny......but that's also said only a few hours after the whole fiasco just ended. Although, in hindsight, I suppose if it could be funny now it would be the fact that we left a whole shopping cart of mostly frozen food and a bunch of opened 1/2 eaten yogurts in a lone cart sitting at the front of the store. I just figure if they can't plan well enough to employ enough people to keep the store running than they can live with the aftermath of that and put all of that crap back up and dispose on their own of the opened eaten yogurts. It's really not funny but after having lived through that it really kind of is. At least there is some feeling of awful gratification that came out of it.

What a day. What a day the last 2 days have been.

On a funnier note.....

Evye had to write 4 names of common household foods down in her book as part of her spelling work. There were pictures of some ideas and she chose beans. I asked her if she knew how to spell beans and was prepared to help since it's a "lookout" word with 2 middle vowels. She expertly spouted off the correct spelling. In awe I looked at her and said "Evye, you are just so smart!!! How in the world did you know how to spell that right?! You are just so good!!!" as I gave her a little shoulder hug standing behind her as she wrote. She rolled her eyes and said in a funny, exasperated voice, "Mom! It's right there!" as she tapped the paper and the picture of the beans with the spelling of the word directly under the pic. Having obviously completely missed that part of it I smiled and just said "Oh, well, you're still good." In an effort to keep the praise legit she responded "but I only looked once when I was spelling it to you!"

Happy Birthday Garrett!!!!

Happy birthday to Garrett!!!! It's hard to believe it's already been a year. He is 1 today. It's amazing and bittersweet how fast they grow and what a difference just a year makes. Look at these pics of he only a few hours old and him today trying so hard to walk. What a difference a year makes and how very many milestones are reached! I don't care how many children we have the miracle of it all never stops amazing me. Brad's even mentioned several times how incredible it is to watch each one of them learn to smile, sit, crawl, walk, run, talk and so on. It's just so miraculous that these things just come to them at about the same developmental ages.

Garrett continues to be the happiest thing ever, though he is now starting to show a little independence and his own opinions about it all. And he's definitely just as loud as the other 5. LOL! He rolls with the flow and will sleep anywhere. He absolutely adores the older ones and has pretty much every need met by one or the other of them. They all take turns helping him walk so between all of his "teachers" he should be doing it on his own here in only a week or so. He's now to the point where if you hold a hand he'll take off confidently but if you try and let him go he'll just immediately sit. It won't be long now.

Well, on a daily note, how can so much stuff happen in just one day and so much information come in that I'm expected to be responsible for??!!! How is it possible for so much stuff to happen in just one day.......and then want to try and log it all in here???!!!! It makes me tired just thinking about it. And I still have catching up to do from the weekend's events....and pics to post of that!

Well, to start with today since it was full of non stop activity and mischievousness I will vainly try to attempt an account of it all. It started with an awful sinus headache for me that refused to go away. I am quite sure I have another sinus infection going but have no desire to take the time to go into town to have it dealt with. If I went in every time I had one I'd just live up there. I wish some dr would just get smart enough and trust me that I KNOW what this is and it is a regular occurrence for me. But, no...they all say I have to be seen so they can confirm what I already know is going on. It'd be alot easier on the budget and schedule if they'd just give in and call me in something. Oh well. So, I took an absurd amount of pills ranging in my daily iron to Tylenol to Claritin to finally Motrin. But the headache persisted along with the longing to go back to bed. That wasn't happening anytime soon. So, I coped fairly well. But then it all started. While on the phone I discovered brand new marker marks on our bathroom vanity and cabinets. So, I wiped them off and kept talking. Walking back in there I discovered there were yet more where I'd just wiped them away. By the end of it they were all over the vanity (which easily wiped off) and all over the cabinets and even on the wall (which were not so easily removed!). I began wiping only to find Garrison coloring beside me with 4 dry erase markers as I talked away and worked on removing them. After scrubbing way too hard for just dry erase markers I finally gave up and figured out I'd have to resort to Mr Eraser, which always faithfully takes most everything off, but of course we don't have at the moment. I then ran Garrison off after confiscating the handful of markers only to find later he'd raided the candy cabinet and eaten a TON of Easter Butterfinger eggs while generously sharing and passing them out to Aubrey and Grant. That was a chocolaty mess, not to mention the little tiny foil wrappers I then had to enforce that they all pick up. Finally it was time for lunch and then naps.......but of course since I had worked so hard just trying to cope with the headache and cleaning up messes I hadn't been able to get to the children's schoolwork to help them with any of their stuff. Evye faithfully did what she could and got some of her's out of the way. Grayson was able to get his spelling out of the way but needed help with math since we are now going into 3 digit division, instead of the 2 we've been working on. So, after feeding everybody I laid the little ones down and went to work on school stuff....all the while looking longingly at the couch and having visions of my bed. I fought off the temptation though and finished them up so all of their work was done as usual. By then the little ones were now up so that routine started. After giving afternoon snacks I laid down on the couch thinking I could easily hear everybody and I'd just doze for a little while yet stay aware of the happenings. Of course, that went about like the rest of the day had gone!! After only a few blissful minutes of being on the couch the familiar little stinging started and I knew the ants were indeed present on the couch again despite the fact the windows were closed today due to the heat. So, I sat up and indeed there were many little black ants all over me. I got up and brushed away the ones I could and vacated my spot on the couch. I then did my duty and felt the need to take care of the ants before anybody else experienced them. So, out to the workshop to get the exterminator stuff. I sprayed the windowsill and then checked Evye's windowsill next to her headboard since they usually come in both windows at the same time. There they were covering her windowsill and all over the sheets and pillow of her bed. So, I, of course, was forced to deal with that. 30 minutes later I finally made it back to the den and opted for the recliner while the spray stuff had time to work, in the event it hadn't done a complete job of just yet. I had Grayson put the exterminator stuff back in the workshop before he and Evye headed to the river to fish. At some point during my doze I realized Aubrey was telling the boys something about spraying the flowers to look pretty. I got up already knowing what she was doing. And, yes....there she was exterminating everything in sight.....mostly flowers but getting the porch swing and other stuff for good measure. Let's just suffice it to say that we shouldn't be having any bug problems there for awhile. So, off I went to put it way up instead of just setting it in the workshop like what had apparently been done. So, by then Garrett is wanting dinner so I start that process. In the middle of that I hear Garrison start screaming the scream that only a mother knows is serious and maybe life threatening. I ran out to discover the fishing pole that had been in the playroom a few days ago had still not been put up. The same fishing pole with a hook on the end that had pierced Garrett's foot only a few short days ago was now hooked through Garrison's eyebrow. I'm not so great with eye injuries and all I could think of upon initially seeing it was that it had gone through his eye. I'm sure even the neighbors heard my freaked out reaction but knowing Brad was not here to deal with it I knew I had to act quickly no matter how bad his eye was. Thankfully, he was very much protected in every way as only the Lord can do, and it was in there like a perfect eyebrow piercing. It was indeed hooked all the way through from the middle of his left eyebrow all the way to right above his eyelid but narrowly escaping even hitting his eyelid. Of course, he was screaming the whole time and wouldn't be still enough for me to pull it out since he was too busy rubbing it and trying to get it out himself. I finally calmed him down enough so that I could unhook it...which took some experience and more than a little patience. His eye was quick to swell and not knowing if infection would be an issue since it was a used hook (not that an unused one would make that much difference!!!) I hurried him in and did the Hydrogen Peroxide and Neosporin routine. It swelled for some time before dying off but by bedtime it was completely back to normal size but there was no redness or indication of infection.....just a purple dot where it had gone in and come out. I later figured out from Aubrey's account of it that he and Aubrey had been "fishing" together and Garrison had somehow managed to really cast it and it came back to hook him. At 1st I automatically assumed Aubrey was the guilty one but after numerous times of telling the same story over and over I really think Garrison hooked himself. She never wavered in her sincerity and her story never differed.

So, needless to say, after that I was now near exhaustion. Knowing the day was very near coming to an end I went hunting for Grayson and Evye who were now late getting home from the river and due for some disciplinary action. I met them on the road as a car slowly followed them carrying their massive catches for the day. It wasn't until we got home that I realized it was the Bennett mom with one of her children who accompanied them. And, to sum up and save a long story for another day, we began to talk and I realized with a new heart that our ministry in this tiny saga filled town continues to deepen and grow. I don't think Brad and I even have a small clue as to what God's purpose for us here is and what all He has in mind for us to accomplish. It is huge and the more involved we get the more so much more is exposed and we are being pulled into it........and it's nowhere near by our own accord. We are just simply trying to walk in obedience to what we feel He has called us to do. In the few weeks since we have withdrawn the children we have had numerous people and yet still more coming that have asked us what exactly our reasons were and then told their sad stories about the help their children are not receiving. All I can say is that God's master plan is huge. It's so much bigger than us and we are just now starting to really feel some part of what we should be doing. In walking in obedience and enrolling them we were blessed beyond measure by the help Grayson received from Mrs Blair and the progress that was made. We have made several dear dear friends that will last our lifetime from the school experience. But in that also we have been pulled into a political school war that we would've never known existed and are being begged for help since we took action with our own children in getting them help when the school did not follow through. Once withdrawn people are coming to us either feeling let down because Grayson was their hope of getting help for their own children or begging for help since they think we have the answers after taking it upon ourselves to get Grayson help when the school wouldn't. I figured after taking the children out we would no longer have anything to do with the school but I find we are now involved more than ever as these people come to us and tell their sad stories of how their children are suffering. And I then realized too how blessed we are to be so educated about dyslexia when the majority of parents are still searching for answers and have such an elementary knowledge of it. I educated myself simply because I wanted to provide Grayson with everything he needed to succeed but I realize that is not the norm and people rely on the school to help these children and the school is nowhere near following through with a plan to help and these parents are depressed and exhausted with fighting with the school for so very long.

Anyway, so our purpose here takes a new turn everyday........and some very unexpected ones at that. The plot thickens!!!! LOL! But, the details of that whole conversation tonight can be saved for another day.

And then to catch up about the weekend.......the severe TX storms raged through and we had some serious weather. It was incredible and once again completely awe inspiring at the power of God. It was an incredible opportunity to explain to the children just how very little we are on this huge earth and in relation to God's awesome power in the heavenlies. We took pictures of it coming in and then pictures of the storm in progress. We got lots of pea sized hail. I love covered parking!!!!! And the tin roofs were so much fun but at times got so loud that it hurt everybody's ears and nobody could hear anything over the roar of the storm hitting the tin. At one point a tornado was spotted in Ton Green county but only watches were put out for Concho county......and Paint Rock specifically! It literally looked like the sky was on the rotating spin of a washing machine. It was so cool. Mother and I sat and drank coffee and folded clothes while the hail and rain came and went. The children ran around more or less screaming in stormy excitement over it all. That was a little irritating. So, I finally turned them loose and let them run between playroom and house....only it was pouring so hard that even the gutters could not hold it and we had a waterfall pouring off the awning and into the carport between the 2 places. So, they got a little wet going back and forth but it didn't seem to bother them in the least. After the world was washed anew the sun came out and made the most beautiful rainbow to the east as the dark clouds moved their way in that direction. I finally decided it was no use trying to keep the children clean and out of the puddles so I turned them loose to run out their pent up energy they had accumulated while cooped up inside all day due to the weather. Our driveway usually has a pretty big puddle after rain but the creek that was created was more than anything I'd ever seen here. It even had a swift flowing current and came out of the gin area and raged its way down our driveway into the street, crossing over it and then eventually trailing off into the grass on the other side. The children loved it. I finally brought them all in as it continued getting cooler and cooler and bathed them all. We then headed down to the river to see how much it had risen. The power of it was pretty intimidating. The road that spans from one side to the other was not only completely submerged but was raging in a torrential current.....one that was not passable in the least. It was eerie seeing the road leading off into it. I got out to take pics. I'm sure the locals thought I was nuts but it was so much fun seeing everything so transformed. Once out I worked my around trying to find the best picture spot and, to my surprise, we discovered massive schools of huge fish swimming against the strong flowing current trying to maintain their place in the river. It was amazing! We stood watching and by the time we realized the water was still rising it was then everywhere we had just taken been that was dry ground only minutes before. By the time we worked our way up to the waterfall the place we had been standing only minutes before was completely underwater. As the water flowed from the "tide" coming in I was able to get some incredible pics of the fish right up next to the top of the water. We stood and watched as a dad and his children threw out nets and brought back in 20-30 fish at a time. I've never seen anything like it. Standing at the top of the waterfall we were able to see the fish jumping in it. At one point there were as many as 4 at a time that were all airborne. I never could seem to catch them in action but it sure was fun to watch!! I did get some great pics of the torrent of water cascading over the falls. It will definitely make you realize how very small you are in relation to the great power of so much water.

After getting our fill of that we headed into town for a very late dinner by that point. On our way in we discovered many of the low spots and creeks had flooded and not just a little! Since it was sunset we could still easily see where the water spots were and be prepared to gauge how deep they were. On our way back was a different story!!!! LOL! After I thought we were safely through the worst spot and it had just drained off, being a flashflood area, we hit it going about 70 mph! LOL! And it was much deeper on the side headed back home. By the time we were fully in it we had slowed to a mere 50 mph and could see absolutely nothing!!! LOL! We were so deep that it was hitting the top of the Suburban roof. It just kept getting deeper and though I knew we were more than likely not going to float away is was a very strange feeling wondering just how much more depth we had to go before getting to that point. I knew we couldn't have been very far from it seeing as how the water was about to the bottom of the doors. I knew it hadn't been that deep on the west bound side going in so I tried to steer into that lane without ending up bobbing in the water logged ditch. We did make it through but not without fits of laughter over the absurdity of what we'd just done. I told Brad about it once we got home and he just said once you're in that deep you pretty much just hang on and drive straight!!! Well, we pretty much did that. It was like the world's worst and most intense 20 second carwash ever! After the children recovered from it they all begged to go back and do it again! I told them we'd hold off on that for awhile.

Then on Sat Mother left to go home and Brad and I left with the children for Andrews. It was fun being able to just sit and talk and enjoy the 2 1/2 hr drive. The children were happy and all played with their bench buddies. Grant, Aubrey and Garrett were paired up on the middle row and Grayson, Garrison and Evye were paired up on the back row. It's a really pretty drive. We cooked out despite the cool front that had settled in over TX and froze everybody. Brad put the boys and Aubrey down for a nap and Grayson, Evye, Garrett and I headed into Midland with Pam and Abby. It was a long day and an even longer day for Garrett, who was very ready to get out of his carseat by the time we reached home, but I loved the drive and always love having that much conversation time with Brad. I ended up having an allergic reaction to the latex balloons that were cooped up in the car with us for the 2 1/2 hr trip home so we made record time in reaching San Angelo. Brad ran in and got some much needed Benadryl and Afrin. The inhaler worked but only for so long so the Benadryl was a very good thing. Grant, who sat directly behind me, had held onto one of the balloons almost the entire way home. Once Brad really clued in on how bad my reaction was getting he unmercifully rolled down Grant's window as we watched the balloon get roughly sucked out of Grant's little tight gripped hand. It was heartbreaking and, of course, he cried the rest of the way home since he was tired on top of it all. We hung onto the rest of the balloons since they were in the very back and he finally got another once we arrived home. It was so sad......but, admittedly, it was kind of funny watching the balloon get sucked out the window.

Alright, it's now nearing 1 am and I never did get a nap in today. And tomorrow we finally get to make a much needed Wal Mart and Sam's trip so no hope of one tomorrow either. Hopefully Brad won't be pulled for overtime so he can go with us, but if he is the children and I will go in and get it all done.

I'm still getting the hang of putting pics in here. I probably should just wrtite about taht one thing and then put the pics instead of trying to insert them everywhere in the message. But you can get the general idea for now.

Developing the culinary arts at last?

Well, this gets kind of addicting. I may just forsake all emailing and correspondance just to write on here every chance I get.

But, I may have finally mastered the art of rounding out my abilities on the home front. Feeding our crew of 6 rivals feeding a small army at meal times. They consume large amounts of food. So, I needed to come up with a plan...more of a plan than looking at the clock at 4 and wondering what I had on hand for dinner. Planning got a little better and then once the children were in school I really discovered the joy and logic of planning meals a month at a time. Evye didn't buck the system or sigh over what would face her on the plate since she knew going into it what would be there waiting for her. In order to save on the grocery bill and eating out I began to plan breakfasts and dinners a month at a time. I can make and freeze everything from waffles to pancakes to muffins to casseroles and great main dishes like lazagna, chicken spaghetti and already seasoned taco meat just needing to be thawed for tacos. We even make homemade pizzas now.

The point to all of that is that I then expanded into the whole Vita Mix, grinding our own wheat and making our own bread thing. I actually really really love it. I've found it kind of difficult to make the amount of bread we need to keep up with it all but I'm getting there. I was able to get some great recipes for homemade wheat rolls, biscuits and muffins so that limits considerably the amount of a bread loaf everyone consumes and makes it last longer for sandwich use. Who would've thought after all of those years ago that I'd be getting back down to the basics we were raised with and grew up joking about? We are now part of a farm food co-op and are getting fresh eggs and milk weekly along with vast amounts of produce and mill wheat. They have chickens and until we are able to take our's (still waiting on the ever elusive chicken coop to be built) they are giving us eggs and even offered up some chickens when we are ready for some fresh chicken on the table. Ummmmm......not sure about that one yet. I love chicken right now and I'm not sure it'd ever be the same once I called it by name before I chopped it's head off and plucked every feather out.

Now that the cooking part of me is well underway I have a great desire and am fully ready to move on to tackle other things...specifically sewing. After all of the dress hunting I have done for the girls I am fully convinced I can make some adorable stuff for them. So, in preparation I have already begun collecting patterns and the needed fabric. Evye is so excited she is able to pick out what kinds of dresses and fabric she wears. Aubrey's just excited to have something just like Evye. I have cut out numerous patterns in my life in my younger years but only ever got around to actually sewing up a few of them. I am very confident in my ability to cut out everything but the sewing part is still waiting to be mastered. The budget will not allow for a sewing machine right now so I'm spending the time between now and a machine reading all I can and preparing myself for what I need to know before I launch into this. But the more I look at patterns, fabric and read up on it all the more excited I get. So, I'm off to conquer sewing and dress the girls like I see them in my head.

I was also readying everything to start our big garden project. We talked about the location and where deer and animals (skunks come to mind???) wouldn't bother it and then watering issues and stuff. I finally decided up close to the house was the best spot. There is already a partially planted garden there that is much overgrown. I figured if we could start fresh in it and lay it out like we want it'd be perfect. But then, as always, reality seemed to make itself known. We planted flower seeds a few weeks ago and Garrison and Grant are entirely incapable of leaving any living growing thing alone. We check on the flowers everyday and once they began to pop up the boys were taken. They dig them up no less than 50 times a day to inspect the root system and make sure all is intact and growing before roughly sticking it back in the ground. And then I began to see in my head our future little garden lovingly trampled to death by small feet and tiny growth stunted carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans and everything else strewn haphazardly everywhere. The orginal plan was to plow up the middle pasture and plant a huge garden there....enough to feed us all summer and winter long but we have to 1st work on getting water out there to it. Brad's going to build a rain water tank and install a gutter system that will feed into it so that we can store our rain water and irrigate with that. But until then I'll have to figure out a way to fence off our miniature garden before I begin the planting process.

On another note, Grayson and Evye both made 100's on their spelling tests today. Grayson only has 5 more lessons left in his 3rd grade spelling book and Evye is now on her 3rd lesson in her 2nd grade book. I still continue to fly through the 1st grade all-encompassing book with her to keep boredom at bay but when it came to spelling she was so far past it that we just went ahead and started the 2nd grade spelling book. She finally began to hit words she actually had to study instead of rattling off the top of her head perfectly. We will begin all of her 2nd grade work in the fall. Grayson continues to do really well at home and keep up with everything. I have to battle them wanting to be done in 2 hrs but other than that all is going really well. After being in school 9 hrs a day and then coming home and being able to work at their own pace and get done so much earlier it is a constant battle trying to keep them seated and not rushing through it all just to be free for the day. Grayson is now a full grade above where he left his 3rd grade class in math. They were still on beginning fact memorization and he has not only mastered that but has moved on to double digit division. I am just so amazed by both of them and have never felt so blessed to be teaching them myself. I love watching them succeed and feeling like they have the best of all worlds. They are here loving life with the family and loving on the younger ones, who missed them constantly, and discovering everything in their world and they are excelling spiritually, emotionally and academically too. If nothing else I love how we are able to work so much on character and how much I am able to teach them scripturally.....as I sit and learn with them. In planning this all out I won a door prize that is a book called "Parenting with Scripture". It is nothing but a bunch of versus that pertain to certain problem areas. I look up what we have dealt with in the past week and then have them memorize the following week a verse that is directly related to that issue. And I add to their spelling word lists words from that verse. At the end of the week part of their spelling test is being able to write that scripture from memory and spell it correctly. That's definitely not exactly what the public school is at liberty to carry out.

Oh.......and the other thing......
I was definitely 25 wks at my sono a week and a half ago, he is definitely a boy and there is definitely only 1. My official EDD is 7/7 so I guess I can really say I am due 7/7/07. I made SURE to tell everybody that I have yet to have a kid on my actual due date. Knowing how mine like to camp out for months on end he'll probably come more like the 17th! So, though I know he won't make his debut on the 7th, it's fun saying he's due 7/7/07 and he's baby #7. Oh well. Whatever.

The placenta is anterior so that is the reason I cannot feel him. He did all kinds of flips, flops and funny antics during the u/s and I couldn't feel a thing. I full well expected to go in and have her say I am only 21 or so wks. It really was shocking to hear I really was 25. And we solved the neg tests mystery. We got the little EDD dial out and with an EDD of the 7th I conceived around Oct 13th (the 13th was an A shift so Brad said he's going to have to wait and see what baby looks like once he gets here to determine if he's the milkman's or his!!!! LOL!!!!!). The tests I took were on Oct 6th and Oct 19th......way too early for a pos result. I didn't test again until Nov 19th and by then I was already a good 7, almost 8 wks along. So, the tests didn't lie. I just timed them all really wrong.

We took the older 3 with us and they loved seeing the u/s. It was worth it all just to have Evye fall as in love as she did with him. She's continued to be skeptical due to the fact he's a boy but after seeing him move she fell head over heels and has talked non stop about being the 1st to hold him and how she will do everything for him. Aubrey was quite convinced his heart sounded like a galloping horse and was forever asking to hear it again. She kept asking the tech (an older lady that I love!!!) to please do the horse again. Aubrey finally informed everyone that Baby "Gabin" has a horse heart. LOL! We spent 30 minutes in there talking and laughing with the tech and she gave each of the children 2 sono pics each to keep as their own. All 3 have treasured them and slept with them every night. Pretty funny. I had no clue pics would matter so much or be such a huge hit. Grayson has finally pinned his on the frig and the girls still sleep with their's and then put them in their purses and carry them around for the day. Pretty sweet.

Laughable moments with the children

I've been ordering the girls a few dresses off of Ebay since we don't have the finances right now to cover any major clothing trips for them. They are both very into wearing dresses and, though Aubrey has inherited many from Emilee and Evye, Evye doesn't have but 1 really nice one. Evye has fallen in love with The Sound of Music movie and is begging for some flowy overly feminine dresses. Of course, she pairs them up with her pink boots and looks like a cross between a 1930's magazine cover and a prairie girl advertisement. LOL!

Anyway, Mother heard of their desires to dress in dresses and picked the 2 of them up a few matching sundresses at Sam's. She brought them last night when she came in to stay for the weekend. The girls were thrilled they could match and immediately put them on for the trip into town last night. Well, and let me back up a minute too. Evye's been begging for a twin and doesn't understand why God didn't give her one too. So, she pretends she has a twin all the time. So, overjoyed at the fact the 2 of them matched Evye stated numerous times on the way in that if anyone asked if she and Aubrey are twins just to tell them yes. We get asked ALL the time if the 2 of them are twins too so this question is not unexpected to any of us anymore. So, I didn't reply to her when she repeatedly told me how she wanted me to answer. I was too busy trying to think of an answer to give her about the importance of being honest. Finally she persisted with, "Ok, mom??? Ok???" I said distractedly, "Alright". Grayson, in horror, spoke up saying, "Why would you tell them that, Mom?" I said, "Well, they do match like twins". Without missing a beat he said in his ever blunt, forthright, practical manner, "Well, sometimes Garrison, Grant and I all match but that doesn't make us triplets." I couldn't help but laugh for the next few miles.

So, a little on down the way we pass the Kickapoo ranch. A few weeks ago a young buck tried jumping the game ranch's high fence and got his antlers hung on his way down and hung himself. We discovered him hanging there just after it happened so we took pics with my camera phone and it's been a big deal every since. With it being a very well maintained ranch I expected they would get it down pretty immediately......but, no. It's still hanging there weeks later and it's the most disgusting thing around. So, every trip into town they all have to bring attention to the ever decaying deer. And you can only imagine the state it is now in. So, as we pass it last night they're all going into the details about how much worse it looks then the last time we passed it. In all of the chatter Evye speaks up in a shocked voice above it all, " MOM!!!! His neck grew! How'd it do that??!!! He's still dead!!!!!!" Looking at the horrific deer I just laughed. The sight of him nearly touching the ground with a leg now missing, compared to how we 1st found him completely in tact and up high on the fence, was completely nasty to me but so entirely exciting...and puzzling.......to her.

And on the way home we saw a group of 5 deer, our 1st in a very long while. We, of course, had to turn around to get a good look at them all. We all counted them , including the boys, and were able to shine the headlights on one of them while he stood still checking us out too. Then we headed on down to the river crossing and checked out how full it is and if the fish were jumping. Grayson and Mother were able to get out and toss jumping fish back into the river as we watched them all swim back and forth over the crossing. It was so much fun....though a little humbling at the power of the river, especially sitting there watching and listening to it in the dark. After arriving home Grayson said in such a heartfelt way that it made me want to melt,

"Mom.....I don't need anything else in life. I have everything I could ever want. I don't need a 4 wheeler or go cart or motorcycle and I don't need a basketball goal or other stuff. I've got everything I need right here. I have a river and a fishing pole and a bike to get to it and I have skunks I can shoot and snakes....(laughingly) I have all kind of snakes that are even poisenous too!!! I have 2 guns and a cotton gin and all of these mud puddles and dirt and 2 big rowdy dogs. And I even have a store and the post office that I can walk or ride my bike to. And I have Evye to do it all with. I just don't need anything else. I'm so happy."

I wrote it all down afterwards simply because it made me want to cry. Here I sit lamenting that we cannot buy them the world, or least what I think they ought to be able to have out here, and he sees and lives the joy of what life really is. It really is looking at life through the eyes of a child. It isn't about the money and things we can or cannot get them or about what I think they should have to enjoy it all.....it's about what is around us and the fact we have each other to do it all with. I do love the fact that being as extremely limited as we are it is teaching them what it is to truly value life and soak it all in no matter what they have in order to enjoy it. It really is the most incredible thing in the world to love your children so much and know that they are living and experiencing life to its fullest...not because of what we have lavished them with in a material way but because of how we have loved them and because of what we ourselves have been blessed with and they in turn are receiving it too. I can only hope that they all grow up and remember these values...not lacking in anything but not wanting for anything either......even when their world is so much smaller compared to others.......or so much larger compared to some.

More epic tales in our wildlife adventures

Alright, so there are a million things I should be doing this moment but I have to catch this quiet moment while I can. Clean laundry and dirty dishes will undoubtedly not have done themselves by the time the children awake from naps.

So, we can now add skunk to the ever growing list of abnoxious animals living peaceably, or not so peaceably, amongst us. Last night AFTER Brad leaves to get groceries in Ballinger we are headed into our evening routine........clean up outside, clean up inside, feed all animals, showers, gowns and pj's and so on. While Evye cleans their room she starts screaming that there's a skunk in the yard. I didn't believe too much of it and thought she was seeing the black and white cat that has now taken up residence with us....in addition to the black cat we've already adopted as our's. So, I walk in there leaving Garrett screaming in the highchair for more food (heaven forbid you actually pause from shoveling mouthfuls in one on top of another!!!). And to my absolute horror and dismay there is a real live skunk waddling slowly along below the windows of the vacant house next to us. I then screamed with her. ALL of the windows in the entire house were open and I just envisioned reaking stink in our house for days. So, like any fool would do, I ran outside to scare the freakin thing away. Ummmm........so what exactly was the logic in that???!!!! Grayson, pumped full of adrenaline at the thought of actually shooting a real live something, runs for his gun. He takes off after the skunk......chasing him into OUR carport! So, now he's at our house where the Suburban had been parked with windows down all day so the children could play on the paved carport. All I hear is Grayson's gun being shot 50 million times and then the skunk waddles out hurriedly back into our driveway....where I'm standing! If Grayson might have stood still for 1/2 a second I'm sure he might have stood a chance at actually hitting the thing. But, no, he just runs around in excitement just shooting. The house started leaking carefully pent up kids and so I ran around trying to get them back inside, as Grant is very near catching up to the slowly moving skunk. He laughed in the chaos of it all just repeating the word "kitty" and chasing it full speed. Oh....and I did learn skunks are not known by any means for their speed....just accuracy for hitting their fast moving targets. Grayson shot again as the skunk stopped all movement and lifted his tail at Grant. As Grayson's bullet flew past the skunk he put him on the move again and kept Grant from reaking for hours....or even days. I swept Grant up and chased the others into the house carrying Grant like a sack of potatoes. Grayson took off across the fields and pastures chasing the now petrified skunk. I called Brad asking why in the world the various species of dangerous and just plain nasty wildlife have to show up when he's not home. It's like they all have the same internal body clock that the roaches in Hurst had....we call them the A shift creatures....cause inevitably they're all going to show up on A shift. Brad called Russ, the constable, who then flew from his house over to our's and I pointed him the general direction that Grayson had taken off in. By the time he arrived to aid Grayson in his shooting endeavors the skunk was long gone into the fields behind town. He patted Grayson and said to call him 1st thing next time. I laughed since, had Russ actually gotten a chance to hit the skunk with the shotgun he took out of his truck, he would have blown it from here to San Angelo. And then he tells Grayson to come home and tell me to call him if we see it again since skunks are territorial once they find a good source of food......like our front porch cat food!!!! Ugh!!!!!!

Oh...and in the choas of children laughing and screaming, Grayson's gun continually being fired, me yelling at him and Garrett crying in the house for more food.....the dogs wouldn't stop barking at the freakin thing! They barked incessantly the entire time our little rodeo lasted. I thought about turning them loose on the skunk but they undoubtedly would have caught up to it and then stunk for months. So, I decided against trying to aid our wildlife riddance efforts with dogs.

So, now I can really say I have seen and dealt with more wild things in the last 6 months then in my entire life. I don't think I was really up for earning this bragging right.......that is, if one would ever consider it that.

A little off humor for the day

written Mar 17, 2007

A little off humor for the day.Today Grayson, Evye, and Aubrey were playing outside in the farthest carport. They wanted in the trailer to play house so I let them unlock it and play in and around that area as usual. Evye was barefooted and Aubrey had on flip flops while Grayson had on sandals. He came in yelling about finding a snake. Mother has been here for the weekend so we both put our boots on and took our time getting out there. There, curled up next to a board, was a decent sized baby snake. After not really being at a good angle to see it I finally just got a stick and flicked it in a deep bucket Grayson had gotten. We messed with it in the bucket and got it to strike a few times at the stick trying to decide what kind it was. After seeing so many rat snakes now I just figured the likelihood of a real rattlesnake is nearly non existent.....especially for it to be the 1st snake spotted of the season. So, after getting it kind of rowdy I told Grayson to let it go in the pasture since it was, afterall, a rat snake and we needed it for the rats. Grayson, after begging to kill it and being told repeatedly by me that it was NOT a rattlesnake, finally gave up trying to convince me. He asked that instead of dumping it if we could keep it until it got a little bigger so that the owls wouldn't eat it. I said "sure" that was fine with me. When Brad got home they could decide what to do with it and how to keep it. I thought about it a little longer and then realized Brad would probably want pics since there's nothing better to do at the station on a slow Sat. So, I figured it'd cheer his day up...though by now we've seen many rat snakes. We couldn't get any good pics in the bucket so finally I just decided to dump him out in the middle of the driveway in the sunlight to see if we could warm him up and get him a little more active. Rat snakes are fun to play with since they're so aggressive. We dumped him out and got some good pics after poking and prodding him and then warming him up to snake along the rocks. Once moving he moved much quicker then we all gave him credit for and he took shelter under Mother's boot. Not typical for a rat snake who chooses to stay and fight with you! The tail to me was no great indicator of what kind of snake it was since every rat snake I've seen I've been absolutely convinced was a real rattlesnake. So, everything that should've been an indicator I just dismissed since every time we've seen a snake I've been told that it's NOT a rattlesnake. Anyway, he completely crawled under Mother's boot from one side to the other and then decided he'd take shelter under it and proceeded to coil up completely under it. The pic is of him backing up under her boot to hide! HA! Anyway, she picked her boot up and exposed him again once he was completely under it and we'd had about all of the fun we wanted with him so I tried getting him back in the bucket. I finally got him back in there and Grayson made a nice cozy habitat for him. We lowered a big rock down there for him to coil up under and then Grayson put all kinds of vegetation in for him. I downloaded the pics and sent them to Brad for him to get a look at and then called him to go see our new friend. It took too long and we both wanted to lay down so he gave up and went to take a nap and I laid down on the couch. Grayson kept coming in saying the snake was climbing out due to all of the tree branches and in my irritation of continually being awakened I just said irritably "Go stick him back in there!" So, he did. As I'm finally drifting off again the phone starts ringing incessantly. Frustrated, I just tuned it out. It kept ringing and Brad kept calling back. Finally I had Evye answer it and Brad, in a more than alarmed voice ,asked where the snake was. I told him he was out in the bucket in the carport up close and Grayson was playing with him! HA! Brad about had a fit. So, as we all know by now.....I was then enlightened to the fact that it was indeed the real thing this time. Not really knowing exactly how easy it is to kill it I asked Brad what to do with it. We debated on who to call since there's a million people that would come over. We finally decided on the neighbors so he called the preacher who then came over with his wife and smashed it with the handle end of the hoe! I could've done that much!!!! I figured he was going to chop his head off or something and shoot it.......like Grayson was begging to do. Anyway, we all stood staring at it and I asked him to please share with me the difference between a rat snake and a real rattlesnake. So, we got an in depth lesson today on the differences. I felt bad for Grayson since he tried and tried to tell me and I kept telling him he was wrong and to be quiet. Apparently each grade had a little lesson about them after having found that one on the school sidewalk. So, he did know. Anyway, after being told over and over again that he was wrong he finally gave up trying to convince me! So sad. And, yes, I had to apologize afterward. So, now we sit with a dead rattlesnake on top of our garage freezer as it awaits target practice for Grayson once Brad gets off shift Mon morning. He was on shift yesterday, he's overtime today and is on shift again tomorrow so he'll be gone a full 72 hrs. It was kind of sad and funny how upset it made him. Talk about a nervous wreck! I guess it is a little alarming that we actually played with one. But, I guess I can really say now that my fear of them has dwindled considerably. At least I can say I've messed with one now and it's not quite as big a deal as I thought it would be. Now, my biggest concern is the children playing. But, after having seen one, he was incredibly afraid and only looked to get away. He only struck when provoked. He was too afraid of Grayson and the stick to challenge him so that wasn't too bad. Mother's only seen bigger ones while out hunting so she wasn't familiar with what a baby looks like. This one was guessed to be 2 yrs old and the ones she has seen have been about 4 based on the differences between the 2. Apparently we all got a good lesson today!

Just to make you smile

written Mar 16, 2007

Just to make you smile......

The children have been living outside. And we have all of these incredibly beautiful spring bulbs popping up everywhere. There are some beautiful white lilies that Garrison, Grant and Aubrey particularly fell in love with.........so they started collecting them yesterday. Garrison just kept bringing in more and more and giving me "bouquets" of roughly picked flowers. Most were just huge buds that hadn't even bloomed yet, though they were on the verge. WERE is the key word there. Anyway, I finally had the heart to really get on to him and tell him to quit picking the flowers. I took my ever growing bouquet of them and put them in a little cup of water on the kitchen cabinet. Garrison started crying uncontrollably and it eventually turned into a fit. I told him that we had to leave them in the water so they would be pretty and maybe possibly bloom. His fit continued until he was sobbing in the kitchen floor. I finally thought it was really trivial to be making such a huge deal out of flowers and if he thought they were pretty he could have them back to enjoy. He was awfully proud of them. So, I took a bud out and handed it over. He looked at it and said angrily that he didn't want it. So, I put it back and gave him the one in full bloom. Again, he was not to be comforted. So, I finally figured it was stupid to be so anal about it and I just gave him the whole cup with all of the flowers in it since he apparently wanted them all. He started laughing and clapping as soon as I put my hand on the cup and lowered it down to him. As soon as I handed it over he pushed all of the flowers aside and drank the entire cup of water....flowers and all in it!

So much for really being attentive to your kids and knowing what they need! Needless to say, they all got (I guess what was a much needed) clean cup of water after that. Really gross but really funny.

We are home schoolers again...I am so blessed

written Feb 27, 2007

As of 10 am this morning the children are now legally withdrawn from the school. After much debate and having only 3 months left of the school year and then even more prayer and conviction we contemplated it heavily over the weekend. They missed school Fri to go to Abilene on a field trip with the homeschoolers here and then we kept them out yesterday due to Grayson and Garrett now being sick. Grayson was diagnosed with allergy induced asthma. They've been gone so much that the school called yesterday while we were in town to see where they are. So, we knew it was time to make up our minds for good. We drew up the withdrawal letter yesterday after returning home and doing some major research on the TX Home School Coalition's website about our legal rights and what is required to take them out. Following their legal advice we sent the letter via certified mail. But get this! HA! This is small town mail for you. I told the post master it was imperative that the letter get there today and I asked if there was any way that he could do same day service since it was from our home to the school 2 doors down. He said slowly, "Well, I'm just going to take this from you and walk over there to the school's PO box and stick it in there. They come and get their mail at 10." That was at 9 am. HA!

Anyway, I was able to talk to Grayson's teacher tonight since we fell in love with her. We knew better than to tell anyone what we were doing until after it was said and done so not even she knew before it all took place today. But, I was able to get feedback from her and, to put it mildly, the school is in an uproar about us taking them out. They're up there saying that this is the worst thing all year that could've happened to the school. We've seen kids come and go every month since we've had them in so I'm honestly not sure why our family made such a huge difference.....other then the fact they put Grayson in sooooo many special ed classes so it'd help their cause with the state. The school decided not to pursue the dyslexia stuff since the more stuff they could get away with like speech, handwriting, phonics, etc, made them look like a mighty school to the state that had a whole bunch of special ed classes going. If they'd gone through with the dyslexia stuff like they planned on it would've taken out all of those except the one specific class since the dyslexia class covers all of those things. Anyway, they're pitching quite a fit about it. Kind of funny.

But I get to go have a potential show down with them tomorrow if they dare attempt it since I have to go up there and return books that Grayson had as homework and they both have stuff in their desk they want to bring home. I'm hoping to avoid the office but I'm not afraid of them either. Anyway, seems we've turned this little tiny town upside down! Grayson's teacher said just to expect no less then the cold shoulder. I just said I expected as much. There's nothing quite like telling an entire town that you've been convicted about teaching your children Godly principles and telling them they cannot be expected to build their lives on a strong Biblical foundation based in truth and God when the only knowledge they have been given for 12 years came out of state regulated textbooks that do not allow even the slightest mention of God or anything remotely from the Bible........And that they've spent more then 3/4 of their lives in an environment that has forbidden prayer within its walls. Yep, there's nothing quite like telling that to a bunch of people who have never known what it is to hear God speak! We have learned that in this tiny town God is something you do on Sun and leave at the door until you reappear the following week.........except when praying for rain. Everybody here prays for rain every day of the week.

So, we shall see what happens. Hopefully they don't get too irritated and start calling in truancy officers. They can still do that. It doesn't hold water anymore in the state of TX as long as we have sufficient evidence that we supplied them with a letter of withdrawal that they will be schooled at home. The worst it could get is that we would have to call in lawyers from the coalition to defend what is already state law and perfectly within our rights as parents to do. Anyway, we'll see.

But......as of today they are homeschooled!

An Aubrey moment

written Feb 27, 2007

Alright, so we're all in Wal Mart yesterday early afternoon with Brad. I'm beginning to think it's easier when it's just me with them since I know I am the sole one responsible for their whereabouts. But when with Brad it's always this thing of him assuming I know where they are and I'm thinking he's got them in his view. Communication at it's best! LOL! So, we're over on the fan isle and then wander over to the water filters and stuff. We then make our way through toys and over to the hygiene area where toothpaste and stuff is. He starts looking at humidifiers as we near the front of the store when I causally look around for Aubrey. I then ask Grayson where she is. It didn't take long to figure out things had been way too peaceful for quite some time.......like many isles ago. So, with tons of people around him on the humidifier isle I just mouthed the words that we're missing Aubrey. He was already irritated and said an even more irritated "What?" since he had no clue what I just said. I casually walked over to him and repeated it quietly but out loud. Of course he freakin panics. So much for the take charge fireman in him. He told the rest of us to stay put and not move so we didn't all end up lost. HA! So, on his own he begins his search....to no avail. He comes back 5 minutes later empty handed! So, I then overrule and send Grayson with him in his search endeavors. Many minutes later they'd covered all of Wal Mart and still had no sign of her. I then begin to wonder if I should tell somebody but knew that they'd then call a code red on the store and shut down all of the exits. That seemed a little drastic to me. So, while I'm trying to get his attention to see if he wanted me to flag down an employee to tell them our predicament one of them happens to walk by and ask if we are missing a little girl. I casually said "As a matter of fact......yes, we are." She said she was over in customer service. I caught Brad's attention and off we went to customer service. And, of course, there she sat all prim and proper not saying a word to any of the 5 girls that were falling all over her. After not telling them anything, not even her name or age, they asked her if I was her mommy. She shook her head NO!!!!!!!! So, of course, they don't know whether to turn her over to me or not! When I started talking to them telling them how independent she is and what a firecracker she can be she suddenly just chimes in as I'm talking and says "That's not my mommy........she's my mama." HA! Nothing like being a little literal about it. So, the employees with her finally said somebody that was shopping found her in electronics but she wouldn't go with them to an employee. That person ended up asking an employee to come over there and get her since she refused to budge so they could get her help. They reported to the employee that she didn't have an adult with her. Anyway, all in all she'd been missing about 8-10 minutes or so. It was a weird feeling but kind of funny. Once we walked out of the store and Brad calmed down, since by that time the relief of finding her became overshadowed with anger, he just asked after several minutes of silence........."Is it always like this when y'all go shopping?" LOL! I said it was actually because he was with me that we lost her!

Only Aubrey would do that and have a grand old time in the process. Needless to say, she had to sit in the cart for the remaining 5 minutes we stayed in the store. As she sat she happily told us her story about how "I was just lost and then I went right there" pointing expertly over to customer service and then excitedly telling us how she saw Dora over in the dvd's. Brad seemed to be a little skeptical of how I can regularly take them all to Wal Mart with me on my own and not lose her on a regular basis. I had to convince him that really was a 1st. HA!