Drat Those Gnats

NOT!!

This morning Eva asked me if you swallowed a gnat would it make you choke. I told her no, that they were small enough that you wouldn't choke. I then took the kids to school and went on my morning run. During my run I discovered that you can, in fact, choke on a gnat. I will have to correct myself when she gets home.

Yuck!

5th Grade Volcano Day

Emma had her Volcano Day this morning. I am choosing to blog about it instead of clean my horribly disgusting house.
She did such a good job with it. I shot some footage of it but of course, a mom stepped right in front of my shot at the last minute. She was just trying to help her son so I can't be mad. But here it is anyway...

Way to go Emma! Your volcano was a definate success!!

We All Scream For Emma!!

Do you have memories of the Ice Cream Man when you were younger? The Ice Cream Man could always make my day a little brighter with his assorted yummies.

My favorite were the candy cigarettes.

My mom hated it when I bought those.

To my kids: Don't ever buy candy cigarettes just to make me mad. You will pay.

I even remember "borrowing" money from my dad's wallet when he wasn't around when I heard the jingle getting closer and closer. I think I can even track the beginning of my forbidden love affair with sweets back to the Ice Cream Man from my youth.

As I got older and started having children, I began to realize just how creepy the Ice Cream Man actually was. An aging, and often time balding older man (this is nothing against bald, old men), luring pure and innocent little children with fun music and yummy treats. Evil, I tell ya. I vowed I would never let my kids get even remotely close to an Ice Cream Man or his creepy van.

Fast forward to last week. I caved. My kids got so excited when they heard the little jingle getting louder and louder. They ran into the house asking for money for the Ice Cream Man. I never saw them more hungry for anything in my life. I actually was a little scared at what they would do to me if I said no. For the next few minutes I tried my darndest to scrape up enough loose change for my kids all the while cursing the Ice Cream Man under my breath. Regretably, I found enough change and gave them the money, and out the door they went.

Sadly, or happily depending on how you look at it, my kids came back defeated. Apparently I had taken too long finding money. The Ice Cream Man had come and gone. I walked with them to the corner to see if maybe we could catch him but he was nowhere in sight...and neither was Emma. This girl has such a love of candy. She can sniff out any candy I may be hiding in the house. I figured she must have tried to catch him. Me and the rest of the kids walked home and I tried consoling them by playing with them in the front.

Wouldn't you know it, not ten minutes later we heard the creepy little jingle once again. In fact it got louder and louder. We turned to see if the Ice Cream Man was in fact coming back. Hearts were broken once again when we discovered it was only Emma on her scooter rounding the corner. Wait!! It wasn't only Emma! The Ice Cream Man was following closley behind her!

Emma had found the Ice Cream Man and brought him back to us!!

Since that moment, the three younger siblings have looked at Emma a little differently...with a little more respect.

And I have realized that Rafael (I don't know if that is his name, he just looked like a Rafael) is just trying to make a living like the rest of us. Will I always think the Ice Cream Man concept is a little creepy? Yes. But Rafael seems harmless enough. Maybe next time I will buy something for myself.

HAPPY

This too shall pass.

We all know those words but why is it so hard to believe sometimes?

Times have never been tougher for us, financially. Lee made the decision to take a job offer at a small company a while back. It could be a really great thing for our family...or it could not be. We haven't exactly seen the fruits of his labors just yet. It is really hard to stay positive every second of the day, but I try. I think I am doing a pretty good job. Truthfully, it's hard to be negative when so many other good things are happening. Here are just a few of the many things that are making me happy nowadays...

I crave family time almost as much as I crave chocolate. There is nothing that makes me happier than having good quality family time. We don't get enough of it, so when we do have it it's as sweet as fudge.

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After two weeks of having to wait her turn to start school, my little gal finally got to go. I am so happy for her. She loves it like nothing else in the world.

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Emma skinned her knee last weekend and has been walking like Frankenstein ever since. I am SO happy to report that she no longer feels like she has to walk like a cripple. She finally believes there is life after a scrape on the knee after all.

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After managing to kill just about everything in our garden this year and realizing my failure as a gardener, I noticed my cosmos flowers that I planted from seed decided to bloom. Everytime I look at them they make me happy.

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After a summer long hiatus from running I started up again. It was a pretty humbling experience to have lost all the momentum I had. My lungs were burning and I even had to walk some and I only went three miles. Nevertheless, I am happy just to be out running again.

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Both Ben and Ella played in their first soccer games of the season on Saturday. It made me so happy to see them both make a goal. What a way to start off!

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Eva is a sleepwalker/talker. I love it when she puts on a show for us. The other night she came down the stairs in a drunken stuper. She plopped right down next to me on the couch and started talking to me about these people that wrote super fast. I could tell she had been crying. It was very upsetting to her that these people were writing so fast!!! She went on to tell me that they were writing so fast that they began to scribble. She then started crying because she didn't like them scribbling. I asked Eva if she had had a bad dream about people who scribbled. She said yes. I asked her if she would like to go back to bed and she said yes. She then got up and clumsily went back up to her room and that was that. The next morning I asked Eva if she remembered any of it. Of course she said no. We all had a good laugh about it, including Eva. Laughing with my kids makes me happy.

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Ben has discovered the world of reading. I get so happy inside when I see him pick up a book and read it because he wants to, not because he has to.

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I helped Ella clean her room the other day. It was really messy, messier than I have ever seen it. After quite a while of cleaning we finally finished. We were both so happy. Ella turned to me and said "Did you know that Jesus is here?" I asked her how she knew that. She replied, "I feel Him in my heart".

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I have been really trying to notice all that I do have instead of all that I don't...and I have been a lot happier because of it.

Wasps...

...Why?!?!

MoZo No Mo

Sadly, Monte and Zoe are no longer an item. In fact, they never were an item. Monte wants so badly to be "more than friends" with Zoe but Zobaby wants nothing to do with Monte. I have tried everything I can possibly imagine to get these two kitties to bond but it just isn't happening. I am afraid we must find a new home for Zoe. She really is the best cat. She is a very petite 5 years old and we want to avoid having to take her to a shelter if we can help it. If you know anybody that wants a sweet and snugly kitty (free of charge) please let me know.

Quiet

It is way too quiet around this house. Now that the oldest three are in school I just don't know what to do with myself. For the last few months a quiet house usually meant kids were up to no good. Now I have to get used to the idea of quiet being a good thing again.



I miss my kids. I know they are in great hands...but I still miss them. I have a long list of things I could be doing, but none of it provides the fun that my kids provide. How am I going to survive the school year? I will need to rely completely on Ella to provide my entertainment. So far she has not disappointed.



This girl is non stop entertainment. She has sang to me, danced for me, colored me pictures, weeded with me in her own unique way...and man, does this girl talk! Maybe this school year won't be so boring for me after all.

The Hill And Mr. Sparks

The Hill and Mr. Sparks...that title pretty much sums up the Summer for me. We spent every moment we could at Cherry Hill and loved each and every second. I am so happy that my kids share my love of the sun and swimming. We didn't do much else these last few months but in some odd way I consider this Summer one of the best. My relationship with my kids grew and we all had so much fun together doing the simplest of things.

This was Ella's first year swimming all by herself in the deep end without her floatie. She is such a big girl.

Sorry, but I just couldn't resist this picture. I just want to take a big bite out of those cute buns!




The days when Lee was able to go with us were probably my kids favorites. It's just not the same when Mom tries to throw them into the air...

While at Cherry Hill I got a lot of reading in also. It was the first year I could read and not worry (as much) about if my kids were OK or not. It was so nice to be able to relax a little more. When Summer started I was reading the Count of Monte Cristo. I was around page 800 out of about 1400 pages. I decided to take a break for the Summer. I desperately needed some easy reads. So I turned to Nicholas Sparks. I read all 14 of his books throughout the Summer. I learned that they are all pretty similar and pretty predictable but I enjoyed them nonetheless. This was my favorite...

In a few weeks he has a new book coming out and I cannot wait to read it. It may need to wait though. After my little vacation away from Monte Cristo I am now excited to finish it.

Gone are the lazy days of Summer and I am really having a hard time about it. I may need counseling. If you see me balled up and rocking back and forth with drool pooling in one corner of my mouth, it's only because I am daydreaming of the fun times this family had this Summer and I don't want it to end.

281 days and counting until next Summer!

Now Playing...

I am SO very excited to annouce that I finally have some of Lee's songs ready again for you to enjoy. I know, I may be a little biased, but I think they are awesome! I am his biggest fan. And how many of you can say that you get to sleep with your favorite singer?! I am so lucky! Just click on a song at the right and listen away. Check back often. I am hoping Lee will put more of his songs online soon. You can also click here for Lee's online site and future song additions:

Priceless

While the whole family was in town a few weeks back we had the opportunity to have our picture taken by my old neighbor and friend. Emily is so talented and such a joy to work with. Here are just a few of the moments she captured...

One cute side note: I recently found out that Emily and my sister in law, Julie were good friends when they were teenagers and had not seen each other since. Emily happened to find Julies blog and then happened to see our family on her blog. What a small world we live in. You gotta love blogging.

I thought for sure I knew what pictures I was going to use for our Christmas cards, but now I am not so sure. Between Elise and her beautiful pictures and Emily and her amazing pictures I am going to have a hard time deciding. One thing was easy for me to decide. These two girls are awesome photographers!