My Day

Nothing much to write about except that I am fully convinced that God has a really, really special house for us. Why? Because I've worked my butt off searching for a cheaper place to live for the past 6 weeks, and the results have been rather bleak. The couple of homes we liked that were actually in our price range rented immediately or I even had one lady say, "I'm sorry, this one would be too small for your family." ~like she can determine that. Do ya want to rent the place or not?!? I'll bet she lives next door and doesn't want kids around.
Today Jarrod and I took our list of 16 possibilities and headed to the North Valley. Most of what we saw was trash. Ok, the homes around them were cool, but who wants to live in a trashy home NEXT DOOR to coolness?
Anyway, I'm rambling. We have 4 weeks left. My heart could get all freaky that it's only 30+ days, but my spirit knows that my God is way bigger than "30+ days". We've laid out our needs and our "really, really wants" to God so many times that I'm sure He's going, "Ok, already, I hear ya!" If there is one thing I've been learning during this past year and a decade it's to "Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking."

So, God, I'm baaaa-aack! Guess what I'm gonna ask you about again? :) I'm sure glad He never gets tired of me!

Public Snoring

As many of you know I use public transportation everyday to get to work. Every morning about 6:20 I board a 57-passenger bus that heads north on I-25 to Santa Fe and then again about 4:25 back south to Albuquerque. During this 45-50 minute commute, twice a day, it is... hmmm... interesting is the word that comes to mind. Yes, very interesting. As the old song goes, "It takes all kinds to make a world" and whoever wrote that probably rode a bus.

Well, one of the benefits of having a commute where you personally don't have to drive is that you can do other things, such as read, write in your journal, listen to music or sleep. I actually do a combination of these things, and just about in that same order. Now, especially in that early morning hour, but certainly not limited to it, there tends to be a lot of sleeping on the bus. And as you can imagine 57 passengers sitting fairly close to one another, you get to see a lot of... oh yes, interesting people.

Now, public snoring tends to be something that happens quite frequently on public transportation and my question is what are the rules or protocol for dealing with such a nuisance. Sometimes I just put my headphones on and try to drown out the annoying sound.

So, last week there was this guy sitting in front of me that was snoring. The guy sitting next to him was obviously annoyed as well as he kept glancing, no glaring over at the snorer. Well, in the RARE occasion that I've been told that I snore, it's been mentioned that one way to alleviate the problem is to nudge the person and they stop. Yes, I tried it... just barely... and it worked. For a few seconds. So, I waited... and waited... then nudged harder. It worked again. This time even longer. But then he started sawing logs again. Ugh! "I'm trying to read here buddy!", I wanted to shout. So, this time I nudged even harder. Oops! Too hard! He turned around and looked at me like, "What are you doing? What do you want?" He didn't say anything and I just looked at him like, "Oh, sorry. Did I bump you?" He turned back around without saying a word and started snoring in 2 seconds. I gave up.

Last night, an older gentleman was curled up on two seats snoring away. What can you do? Well, I think that nudging is reserved only for someone you know personally, and wouldn't mind saying, "Hey, you're snoring" if they look at you.

School Morning Reflections

Will there ever come a time when kids actually get up and out the door all on their own? We have a daily tornado that blows through our home. It's a simple process, really, but one would think that my kids have never gotten ready for school in their life. Uniforms SHOULD make it all the more simple. I even made their lunches at 6:30am so that I could make their breakfast at 6:45, so they could simply get out of bed, put on their clothes, make their beds, fix their hair, come down the stairs, blah, blah, blah.

Today is "Picture Day". Mind you, we never order pics from the school because I personally think it's ludicrous to pay upwards of $35-40 PER CHILD for a bunch of wallet-sized likenesses of them that will get lost in some drawer. Plus, we don't HAVE $35-40 per child for these pictures. Either Jarrod takes their pics, or I take them to the local Walmart for about $8-10 per kid, and I think they look every bit as good. However, they still have to get all gussied-up for this occasion. Jacob and Anna have the fashion thing down. They looked great running out the door this morning.

Caleb?? Well, since birth, his idea of dressing up has been an old pair of sweats and a grubby football jersey. Only today he picked out a shiny jersey, but I had to inform him that play clothes are not for school pics. Here come the tears....again. There IS no changing his mind. We've fought with him over clothes since...well, since birth. He still will only wear elastic waist pants...no matter what! For those of you who are saying, "Well, who's the boss here?", let me state that I've chosen my battles with Caleb for now. With Jarrod gone at 6am, I mentally cannot deal with getting kids out the door at 7:25am and Caleb screaming and crying over "normal" pants! I'm completely willing to begin bribing the kid. When Jarrod is here some glorious morning, we'll tackle it together. So, until that time Caleb will have to wear his khaki shorts to school...even in December. #1- I am not searching all over Tarnation for elastic-waist khaki pants in a size 8! #2-he has outgrown his last two pair of elastic-waist khakis. Not to mention that he is totally unaware that only "old men" wear elastic!

Who would have thought that our battle with Caleb would be over his clothing woes? But looking into those beautiful eyes helps me to see the bigger picture. I love this kid.

Everybody Loves the Fair

The Midway at night.

Saturday proved to be a "Great Day at the Fair"! We met my sister and her family there and had a great time.

My favorite part of going to the fair is PEOPLE WATCHING. I come from a long line of "people watchers". Don't try to deny that you get a kick out of it, too. I think God has a great sense of humor! I'm including several pics of what one will see at the New Mexico State Fair.

Hey...if he's going to fix his hair like this he's just asking for me to take his picture!

My sister freaked out when I took this picture. He wasn't looking, Donna! And, I kindly covered up the bad stuff.

Now, this was a common look at the Fair. Who knew that shorts and cowboy boots were the latest fashion?

Now, I mentioned on my Facebook status on Saturday that I couldn't wait to eat a Navajo Taco. Well, I actually got to eat one, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!! Only mine was, of course, smothered in Green Chili.

The nine of us basically ate for 5 hours straight, because that's what you do at the fair, right? Everything from snow cones, to cotton candy and roasted corn, corn dogs and pizza, to BBQ sandwiches. Are you feeling a little woozy?

To top it off...I will not be ashamed to tell you... my sister and I shared a... DEEP FRIED CHEESECAKE!!!

Oh....my...gosh!!!!!! It was unbelievable! The kids all thought it was gross, which made it all the better, because that means Donna and I didn't have to share it with anyone...well, Jarrod took a couple of bites. If that doesn't make you hungry, then perhaps you would opt for a...

deep fried Twinkie, or a deep fried Snickers?

One of my piano students had 2 rabbits entered at the Fair, so we all went to the animal barns to see them. Cute? Of course.

We let the kids choose one ride each, because it adds up fast, AND to be honest, I don't trust those rickety rides or the people who run them. They all chose the kids bungee jump. They had a blast!

Anna

Jacob

Caleb

Lindsey (the only one who could actually do back-flips!)

We left about 10:00, with sore feet and tired bodies.

Good times.

B - R - E - A - K - I - N - G N - E - W - S!

This just in!

One more picture that was not available at press time has been presented. I wanted to you to be sure to get the full "picture" of what our time at the fair was like. You're welcome! Here it is:

Anna Mary...the rest of the story

I love that my Anna Mary is such a "Puss in Boots". A friend of mine in Siloam gave me that description of her after I told her about the "real" things that she does when it's just us...I've called Poison Control on her more than once! She's a scientist in the making; always inventing, experimenting, playing tricks on the boys (or her parents). One would never suspect this of her simply by looking at her beautiful, angelic face.

If you've ever seen Shrek...then you know what I mean by "Puss in Boots". The big eyes that capture anyone who looks at him are only a cover for the true adventurer he really is.

Well, this last week my sweet Anna Mary began a new adventure: The Road to the "Celestial City".

For the past week Jarrod has been reading "Pilgrim's Progress" to us before bed. The kids are loving it! If you've never read it, the story is about Pilgrim, and his journey to the Celestial City. Granted, we had to find a child's version because John Bunyan wrote it in the 1600's, so even the "modern version" that we first began to read from was waaayyy too hard to understand. Thanks to the public library, I was able to find a kid's version "The Dangerous Journey", and we love it!

So, after reading one night Anna was tucked into bed, and within a few minutes she was crying uncontrollably. I ran in there, and she couldn't tell me WHY she was crying or WHAT was wrong. Momma knew...God was opening up her little heart to show her how much she needed Him. So I called for Jarrod and we asked her if she knew for sure if Jesus lived inside of her, and if she knew if she was going to heaven, like Pilgrim. She said, and this for the first time ever, that she DIDN'T know. We've prayed for several years for her to see her need for Christ, and it was obvious to me that she finally did. So, she prayed with Jarrod and me, and she asked Jesus to save her and live in her and forgive her for her sins. It was beautiful!

Now to know that all three of our kiddos belong to the King is the most incredible feeling in the world! Jesus can come back to take us home now, as far as I'm concerned! That is something that I've asked Him to wait for. I wanted to KNOW that Anna belonged to Him first.

And, miracle of miracles, afterward Jacob offered to let her sleep in his bed and he on the floor so she wouldn't have to be alone. Wow.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

So Anna Mary and I were watching "Night at the Museum" Sunday afternoon. All the creatures had come to life and she says, "So, is it 'Tequila the Hunn'?

Jumping on the Couch

Did I get your attention? Below is my definition.
Jumping on the Couch ~ something Mom's secretly do when their kids aren't looking; a blissful reaction to the realization that the house can now be kept clean for 5-7 hours a day; occuring around September and January.

This post is about my kids going back to school. Tuesday, Sept. 2nd was the big day. The kids were actually excited to go back.
On the way to school Tuesday morning, I was driving along and so it began:

"Mom, when we get there, no 'huggies and kissies', ok?...Well, just 'huggies'," says Anna.
"And don't call us any silly names, Mom!" Caleb chimes in. (What? Me? Like "Sweetie" or "Cay-cay") Oh, alright. I'll refrain.

"You're not, like, going to walk in with us, are you?" asks Jacob, very cool-like.

"You bet I am!" says I. Hey, I got dressed up. I'm not in my sweats and a ponytail. And, as long as I feel the need, I'll be taking them in on their first day every year!
So, as we hauled all of the STUFF into their classrooms (see "Wifey-Poo's" post on how ridiculously long the school supply list is!) I tried my best to be the cool mom, and just let them go to their desks and ignore my presence. I did require a hug from Caleb and Anna, who secretly wanted one, but didn't want to ask. I held myself back from kissing their heads and calling them "Sweetie", and simply took one picture of each of them before their friends saw me...GASP!!

Then I walked to the car feeling rather melancholy about the whole thing. (Good thing I AM melancholy so that these feelings don't take me by surprise). I sat in my van and took a picture of myself to send to Jarrod. This was to prove that I looked good sending them off to school...and that I was about to go home and JUMP ON THE COUCH!!

Proud Dad

One of the other things we got to do Saturday after the fun center was go out to eat. Our family loves to go out. Yes, our kids definitely get it from us. :) We haven't been out for a long time, so this felt like a real treat.

Melissa and I shared a special moment during this meal.

One of the things we have taught our kids to do is their own ordering in a restaurant. At first they were embarassed and talked so quietly they could hardly be heard. Not so now. They are now so used to talking to the wait staff, they will ask on their own for a drink refill, or just speak up on their own if they are missing something. We had Lindsey, a cousin, with us too and she is also very capable of speaking up for herself. (Good job, D&D)

Everytime the waitress brought something to one of the kids, or interacted in some way with them, they were very polite and said 'please' and 'thank you'. And she noticed. She said to them that she appreciated their manners and "Good job, Mom and Dad" and patted us on the back.

I was proud. Great job, kids!