Okay, what's gone on in the past WEEK... Well, on Saturday we went into town to meet Erika & Tayde for lunch! They were here to do some Chili Fanatic business (and bring us some chili, the dears) so we met at Dion's for pizza. It was so nice seeing them and catching up!
That night I made fried chicken, potatoes, corn, and the BEST gravy ever!!! I know that probably doesn't seem blog worthy to most people, but for me it is a major accomplishment. I have real problems with gravy--you just never know how it's going to turn out. But this was PERFECT and oh-so-tasty. If only I could do it again...
That night James started shuffling through all of his old vinyl records and--for some yet undetermined reason--he pulled out his old Mousercize album. (The more I've thought about it the more disturbed I've become over the fact that he EVER owned such a thing...) He put it on and had Katie and Joe "work out" with him. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I laughed sooooooo hard--and was soooooo embarrassed! (The most embarrassing things are when other people don't have the good sense to be embarrassed for themselves. ~ahem~) Poor Joe. Katie, uninhibited soul that she is, jumped right in there and had a blast, but Joe was totally mortified. He begged and pleaded with James with all his might ("Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Dad! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't make me do that!!! Spank me if you have do, but PLEASE, PLEASE don't make me!!!!"), but to no avail. He was forced to participate a little bit. My heart was breaking for him--I know the dread and humiliation he was feeling! Joe's a much better sport than I am though and managed to not burst into tears OR get a spankin'--things I'm not sure I could have pulled off at that age. Ha! I don't know where Sam was, but he managed to miss the entire ordeal, so at least one family member won't be scarred for life by the experience of watching their Dad "exercise" to Mickey Mouse's instructions. :-)
Sunday... I don't remember much about Sunday, just how much I'm enjoying the Sunday School lessons. I especially enjoyed the story about Jack the sheep who just kept breaking through the hedges and running away and putting himself in great danger; the shepherd finally--because of his love for the sheep--had to break his leg, then carry the sheep until he was healed. In the end, Jack straightened up and became the most loyal sheep he ever had. I wonder how many times I fail to learn my lesson and continue to make the same mistake. Sometimes God has to "break our legs" and bring some deep suffering into our lives--but oh, the love of God that would cause Him to do that for us!!! I pray I will always respond correctly when God loves me enough to chasten me.
Monday was a great day because I had all of the laundry AND ironing done by noon. Wa-Hoo! I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a first in my lifetime. Scrubbed bathrooms that day and who knows what else.
On Tuesday Brother Chris brought Cainan with him to work here at the house. The kids thought that was fantastic. :-) We took Cainan with us and headed to town at about noon, went to the library, used our McDonald's gift card (so glad to be done with THAT!), then went to Penney's to pick up Sam's new helicopter that had come in. The one he got for Christmas was defective, so we returned it and they had to order a new one. From there we made another stop or two on our way to Sadie's birthday party at 3:00 at the Clarkson's house. We had a lot of fun, but I'm not sure Sadie did. She spent most of the day getting herself in big trouble and suffering the consequences for it. Not a good way to have your own party! In the end, we all had cake and ice cream, Sadie opened her gifts, and we had time to squeeze in a couple of games before we left.
Wednesday was a regular ole day around here, save the haircuts. I cut all three kids' hair--they were all looking horrible and were way past due. I've never trimmed Katie's hair before (just bangs), so I watched a tutorial on YouTube to figure out how you're supposed to do it. Ha! I'm not sure it helped. I ended up taking off way more than I intended and way, way more than Katie was prepared to loose! She shed lots of tears over it and handled it in her typical "the world is coming to an end" drama-queen sort of way. I would say it still classifies as long hair easily enough (it HAD been all the way down to her rump), but since I took 6-8" I'm wondering why I didn't just go ahead and take 10" and send it to Locks of Love--then at least Katie would feel there was some purpose in her losing her glory. ;-) I'm just happy that I can actually get a brush through it again. It looks and feels sooooo much better.
Yesterday we pulled Brother Chris in from his work and made him help clear out the left-overs we were trying to get rid of. He did a great job and we enjoyed the fellowship, as always. He's such a goofball and keeps us laughing!
We left early for church yesterday so we could return Sam's new helicopter to Penney's. Sad, isn't it? The first one had a defective power charger outlet thingie (technically speaking) and this one's lower propeller stopped working almost immediately. It's such a shame--it was a COOL toy and Sam was so crazy about it. But rather than try a third one we just took the money and ran. I hate it when Sam has money. He reminds of of the Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight, a super villain in a certain animated TV show we've seen. He tries to act normal and low-key so as to not get caught, but he's so bad he just can't pull it off: "Who, me? I'm just washing my hands and I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA BLOW THIS PLACE UP, BABY! IT'S GONNA BLOW! HA! HA! HA!" Sam starts out well, but just can't seem to stick with it. "I'm going to put my money into savings and then I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA SPEND IT, BABY--SPEND IT ALL TODAY!!!!" --Whatever happens to be for sale right in front of him is what Sam simply HAS to have. If you manage to walk him around to another aisle his passion changes and he must now blow his money on whatever is in front of him there. He has no self control whatsoever. It's exhausting for practical parents! Ha!
This morning James went into town to take a bag of stuff to Brother Chris. I forgot until we were at church last night that I had some things to send up to Colorado to be passed along to the Smiths. So last night I dug through Katie's closet and dresser in search of clothes that are too small that could be sent to Abbie. I stuffed everything into the biggest, froofiest, girliest bag I could find in hopes that Brother Chris will actually remember to give it to Jon. Surely he'll be anxious to get rid of it, right?!
And that's about it, except for pictures. I finally pulled the pictures from my camera--first time in two weeks or more. Crazy. Let's see what I've got...
Uh-oh. As I'm sure you feared, most of the pictures are of the dog. ~sigh~ Sorry! If he'd stop being so stinkin' cute I'd stop taking so many pictures of him! I'll tell the kids they're going to just have to step up their own cuteness a few notches so as to not be outdone by Charlie. ;-) Anyway, here we go!
First we have the boys engaged in a deep and serious battle of wits. Looks like Sam had been playing cops that day. I love it when he dresses up. :-)
This must have been a day when Katie was sick because she never misses out on a chance to play in the snow, but I only have pictures of the boys. They were sledding on cardboard boxes. :-)
Charlie LOVES the snow. It's so funny to watch him bound through it, grabbing mouthfuls of it with every landing.
When I was doing the big un-decorating for Christmas thing (a two day project with the deep cleaning that accompanies it) the kids went through a huge stack of James' old book and record sets and thought they were the coolest thing ever. They listened to these ALL DAY LONG. I think everybody's favorite one is Lazy Jack. They also like the Flintstones, Popeye and Swiss Family Robinson.
Ha! This was taken on a Monday night sometime. It's Joe's job to gather all the trash every Monday night, get it into the dumpster, then haul the dumpster down to the street. He usually tries to get it done before dark, but he failed this time and needed a flashlight to find his way. With both hands pushing the dumpster he had none left for a flashlight, so Katie let him borrow her book light. So here we have Joe sporting the angler fish look. :-)
And finally, Charlie doing what he does best: wreaking havoc and interfering with whatever anybody is trying to do. When he thinks he needs attention, he needs it NOW. :-)
Joe had great plans with this length of yarn--it was to be a rope of some sort, no doubt to be used in creating a booby trap of some sort... if only Charlie would leave it alone. :-)
Looks like that's about it for the pictures.
This weekend my goal is to NOT think about the guys being a Men's Retreat in Colorado (not James this time, of course) and how it's the weekend of The Girl Party that I love so dearly. ~sigh~ I was doing great and actually hadn't even had a twinge of "wish I could go" at all until Jamey called me last night--then it was suddenly killing me that I'll be missing it again! Ha! I hope they have a GREAT time and that the guys have a fantastic Retreat. I know I'll hear more about the Retreat than all of the girls who actually have husbands there because Brother Chris will be coming back here--and he shares more than all of the rest of the guys combined. :-) I'll have to depend on Emilee to fill us in on The Girl Party (even though it's just the Emilee & Jamey Party this year) on her blog. I would say that was a reminder for her, but I'm sure she gave up long ago on this blog--I ramble way too much to keep her attention to the very end! :-)
4 comments:
It's about TIME you posted! Thank you very much. Love all the pictures. You're right . . . Charlie is just way too cute! Of course, my grandchildren are, too.
HA! This is the first time in ages that I've actually sat down and read your entire post...top to bottom. So there! :-) I enjoy reading about the kids a lot more than the dog. That's probably why I actually read this one.
Anyway, Jamey and I aren't the best party-ers...we're both sitting in the living room with our laptops right now. But we do wish you were here to liven things up!!
Looks like the big, girly bag worked...it's sitting in the living room next to Abbie's door. We'll look through it tomorrow. THANKS!!!
I try to not ramble about the dog now that he's not brand new anymore. But he still seems to invade my posts more than I intend for him to!
Sooooooooo... How was the Jamey & Emilee Party??? I'm hoping you put the laptops down and at least played a few games or watched a good girl movie or something.
Glad the bag made it to you. Tell Abbie not to get her hopes up--I don't think there's anything real great in there this time. The only thing I know for certain is that there are six and a half pj's/nightgowns in there!!! CRAZY. And yes, there really is a "half" included. How can you lose the shirt but still have the pants?! Anyway, your book is at the very bottom.
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