THE NECKLACE THIEF....A LIFETIME STORY

When Josh was in third grade he had a "girlfriend" named Rachael Brock who he wanted to impress with a special gift. He had started his own chauffeuring business, which involved pulling his friends and brothers around the block in his wagon, to earn an extra quarter here and there, but this wasn't the kind of cash he needed to finance his plans of buying her a necklace. When the wagon ride funds weren't adding up, he decided to barrow his mom's necklace and give it to Rachael with all intentions of getting it back later. Josh was, and still is, a very honest person, so the thought of stealing it never crossed his mind. His mom eventually figured things out and in the end, Josh reneged on his woman to make things right with his mom.

You know how sometimes stories from your childhood follow you for a lifetime? This is Josh's lifetime story. And when we visited his mom a few weekends ago the kids brought along a special present to make her smile.....a beautiful pasta necklace!

Emerson is really into maps right now. He followed the map with his finger the whole way to Grandma White's house. Grandma White and the kids with her homemade, not stolen, necklace.

BEETHOVEN LEADS THE CROW

I have a fear for singing in front of people. I can sing in a large group in front of an audience, but NOT by myself with everyone watching and listening intently to how precisely off pitch I sing. I get extremely nervous and end up sounding nasally and my voice vibrates with nerves causing me to squawk like a crow. Though, I must brag that I am very consistent in my untalent. Josh is a GREAT singer. Emerson and Ida both love to sing as well, and by the sound of their beautiful voices now, they will be able to carry a tune in the future as well. They can memorize the words to a song after hearing it one time. The kids are also great at leading music, so when Emerson was asked to participate in a talent show, we made a list of his talents and had him choose his favorite: showing his animals, leading music, showing his puppets, sharing his letter sounds, eating popcorn with no hands, and running really fast. Emerson chose to share his Beethoven side and lead music. And guess what he wanted to lead, "I want you to sing Twinkle Little Star and I will lead you." I was SO NERVOUS and sweaty, but the show must go on, especially for your kids, so here is a picture of Beethoven leading the crow. He did a fabulous job and didn't miss a beat. Good thing he was SO darn cute the crowd was focused on him and not my singing.
I didn't have my camera, so this is an awesome picture my friend took. I just found it in my email and decided to make a post, though the talent show was a month ago!

NO GREEN?

Mr. Leprechaun visited the house yesterday morning and left the kids a pleasantly dreadful surprise! Ida thought she was the most unlucky girl alive. "Not green! I want it to be pink tomorrow." Emerson was a different story, "Green pancakes are cool! Can I have green ones tomorrow, too?" Just so you know, Emerson ate green pancakes again this morning. Ida.......Lucky Charms. She didn't want anything to do with oatmeal.

All dressed in green to avoid a pinch!

Finally, outside in SHORTS!

THE BIG TIME...WELL, ALMOST!

I have been sewing dolls like crazy, thanks to all my AWESOME friends and family who have spread the "doll" word like wild fire and generated so much interest. THANK YOU!
Yesterday I took a custom order to a woman who asked me to make two dolls to look like her girls by using a photo she gave me. She works in a shop down town and she and the many other ladies working with her have gotten to know me from all the times I have gone into the store to buy fabric. I LOVE these women. Being with them is like an episode of Golden Girls, except replace the characters with all your favorite Aunties. They are FUN, and I think they may love me as much as I love them. Before I left the store one of "the Aunties" approached me and asked if I would be the store's featured artist during Spring Fling, a huge arts and crafts fair celebrated by the city! Can you believe it? I am so excited! This means I need to make a huge batch of dolls. I will be CRAZY sewing until May 2nd! Yippeee!

CONSERVING SPACE BECAUSE JESUS LOVES ME

Living in 900 sqft as a family of 4 teaches the useful, awful, and life lesson of conserving space. I guess the kids have caught on to the concept as well, probably because of my chipper reminders to "sort the toys into their buckets," which helps make our cozy living space seem bigger than it is. What creative kids our situation has invented! They are forever "stuffing" and "sticking" to make things fit.

And a story just for fun............................................................................................. Josh had the day off today so I was able to do some grocery shopping this afternoon by myself while the kids were napping. A few of the top priorities on my list were tomatoes, cilantro, and limes. I have been dying to eat some homemade salsa and got a great recipe from Desarae yesterday. My time in the store was great, no rushing, just me and my brain thinking. I have always liked those times. Anyway, I pulled into the checkout behind a women with a huge cart of groceries. Things seemed to be moving quickly and in no time I was loading the belt with my stuff. Just as I got started I realized I forgot the limes!!! Oh dear! I quickly told the cashier, who was still working on the other lady's order, about my lime predicament and skipped to the produce section to grab my citrus. As I turned the corner between the watermelons and the strawberries and approached the limes I met an elderly lady, I would say around 70. She made eye contact and said, "Excuse me." My brain started rushing.....Oh, I need to get back to my groceries in line, I wonder what she wants. If she asks for help I am just going to help her. I would never turn down helping an old lady, let alone an old man. They just get to me. Boy, I would push her shopping cart to Jackson if she needed me to. O.k., What if she starts telling you a story about he Auntie's limeade? Jeez, I need to be polite....but my groceries! "Yes?" I said very politely. She gave me a smile, stared me right in the eyes while we both squeezed the limes and said," I want you to know that Jesus loves you very much." With that she plopped her limes in her cart and off she went. She wasn't moving very fast so I gave a little yell, "Thanks!" I had to say something. I really believe in respecting my elders. After that I raced back to my groceries, which hadn't really moved anywhere and my day went on. I kinda wished she would have asked me to help her in some way, but maybe she thought she helped me instead. She sure gave me a laugh. Oh, the salsa is AWESOME!!!

OH MY MACARONI AND HOLY CRAP!

Let the truth be known, I have a little kid potty mouth. I know, that isn't something to be ashamed of, but my skin crawls a little when I hear Emerson and Ida yell "Holy Crap" after seeing something interesting, shocking, amusing, or funny because they learned that from me! A REALLY good high school aged friend of ours from Texas, and one of the "olders" in his family of NINE children, humorously exclaimed "Oh my macaroni" out of "little sibling habit" whenever that "crappy" urge came. I have been trying to do the same lately, but when HUGE "stuff" happens in the house I sometimes steer back to my "crappy" ways.

Two nights ago the kids asked if they could wear their pajamas right after dinner and watch TV until bedtime, skipping their bath and making it a huge treat. I thought it was a great idea and got them suited up for bed. Bedtime came and we went upstairs, brushed our teeth, read some books and got into bed. Nothing big, right? Right. It was a fun night with the kids. The next morning everyone woke up and went downstairs for breakfast, but before I started feeding the "cattle" Ida had to go to the bathroom. To my discovery I forgot to put a diaper on her the night before. She has been potty trained since she turned two but hasn't quite gotten the whole night thing yet. She was COMPLETELY dry. She proudly looked up at me with a smile and said, "I didn't pee in my bed. I don't need night diapers anymore!" This was TOTALLY a Holy Crap moment and I let it be known by yelling, "Holy Crap! I mean, Oh my macaroni." I was so proud of her for doing that all by herself, though I felt like the biggest flake mom for having my child go through the night without a diaper because I forgot. I told Ida how proud I was of her, and her sweet response was, "Holy Crap. I mean, Oh my macaroni!" It was too funny. I gave her a huge hug and went back to flippin' pancakes.

A NEW AGE OF BARF

We had been so lucky this winter to escape the doom of the sneaky colds, coughs, and flues the winter brings until last week. Unfortunately, the enemy surrounded us and attacked from every angle possible. Ida got the flu, Emerson got croup, Josh got a cough and migraine, and I remain the soul survivor. Amid the battle we introduced a new barf bucket. We had previously been using the dingy green Tupperware bowl that shares the responsibilities of catching out-coming projectiles, as well as, storing our freshly baked sweets. Fortunately we have two green "buckets," but the never ending task of remembering which one stores pleasant things and which one doesn't was daunting.

So, taking over the responsibilities of the green barf bucket is a new and improved barf bucket that bounces from car to bed in a blink of an eye, catches moving projectiles with ease, and is wonderfully recyclable. My friend, Marian, posted about a family adventure where barf buckets were needed and this is what she used. I thought it was an awesome idea. Thanks Marian, we are converted to the handled barf bucket!