Old Friends, Good Times

The girls and I traveled to Harrison this weekend to stay with some of our good friends, the Shrums.  My dear friend, Dixie, must have known I needed a much needed reprieve from single life in a new town.  I enjoyed myself immensely and the getaway refreshed my spirits.  It truly did.  Megan and Anna loved seeing and playing with Sydney, Blake, and Jacob as well.  Plus, we got to go to church and see all of our old friends there too, and even made it to Lucy Mae's birthday party (one of Anna's good little friends) before we left.  It was just a wonderful weekend and I'm very grateful!  Thanks, Dixie.

Jason got to come home briefly last week only to be sent back to Texas a few days later.  We're hoping he gets to come home soon.  

This weekend we're heading to Branson for my mom's 60th birthday.  We're all staying in a big cabin and I can't hardly wait for another fun weekend.  It will be so nice relaxing and visiting.  I know it will go by too quickly, though.  

Megan's still limping, but really is doing so much better.  I think by the end of this week she should be almost completely better.  At least, that's what I'm hoping for.  

Tent Fun!

It's tent time!!  The pictures speak for themselves.  Does it look like fun or what?  

Update

I took Megan to the doctor's office this morning because she still couldn't really walk or put weight on it without it hurting her pretty badly.  They took x-rays, and thank goodness, nothing's broken.  She just has a bad sprain.  It's been puffy today but I'm just thankful it's not worse.  By tonight she can actually walk on her heel without too much pain.  She still can't put weight on the front/toes part of her foot, but she's on the road to recovery.   Thanks for your prayers and for checking on her.  

Yes, Becke', Jason's still gone.  And with Ike coming in, who knows how much longer it will be.  I just got off the phone with him, and he has no clue how long he'll be staying down there.   Let's just hope Ike doesn't cause too many power outages!!!!  

Shannon, so glad to hear from you on the blog!

Well, I'm off to crawl in bed after a long day and catch the latest on the Weather Channel.  Then maybe I'll surf the channels for a few minutes to regain a little of my sanity before waking up to another busy day.  Tomorrow's MDO!  The Lord has a funny sense of when we need breaks, doesn't He?  Thank goodness He's on my side!!!

ER Trip

After school today, Megan and Anna invited two twin boys (neighbors that walked home with us) over to our house to have an ice cream snack and then play.  So we were all outside having a great time when Megan decided to jump off the ladder of her new swingset from too high with no shoes.  She fell to the ground and couldn't stand up.  She cried for almost an hour straight with her foot causing her tremendous pain.  So, I decided we needed to go to the doctor.  Long story short, at 8 o'clock we still hadn't seen the doctor and she was able to take a few steps by herself, so we headed back home.  I'm still having to carry her everywhere, but she couldn't even move it earlier today without crying out in pain, so I think it's getting a little better.  It's not swollen or bruised or anything.  I was just worried she had cracked a bone or something.  Anyway, we'll see how she is in the morning and may end up taking her to a regular clinic instead of the ER to have x-rays.  Pray with me that she'll be doing much better by morning.  A good night's rest can help a great deal.  And answered prayers can do the unimaginable and impossible.  

Surprise!

Look what was waiting in the garage for me yesterday when I went to get the lawn mower out.  It was right by the mower.  Ewww!!!

And, yes, it is a black widow hovering over an egg sac.  Did I say Ewwww???!!!???!!!

Single Mom

Jason has been so busy with work because of the hurricanes, I've been a single mom for the past week and a half.  And tomorrow he's getting ready to head back to Louisiana again.  So, instead of complaining of how hard it is, I'm going to list the positives.

-No one to impress with my looks.  I can wear pajamas and skip a shower if I want.  

-No one to impress with my cooking.  If we want grilled cheese three nights in a row, then that's what we'll do.

-No one to impress with house cleaning.  I can skip vacuuming this week, because I just feel like it.  

There are definitely positives, but we still miss Jason and we're all three ready for him to settle back into a daily routine with us.  Any time I get frustrated, I remember my dear friend of eleven years, Dawn.  She's in Seattle without a husband.  He left for a seven-month deployment after they had only lived there a few months.  She's got two children that do soccer, ice hockey, skating, and she home schools both of them too.  She definitely deserves a mom-of-the-year award.  If she can do it for seven months, I should be able to make it a few more weeks.  

Jason, thanks for working so hard and providing us with so much.  I pray God's blessings on you and the work you do.  We love you.

Shy Girl

Moving is for the birds... and last time I checked, I don't have wings or tweet.  :)  Yes, I'm trying to see the funny side even though my spirits are low.  This is probably the hardest move I've ever been through (and Jason and I have lived in six different cities since we got married).  I'm just really having a tough time.  

On a different note--last night the girls started Awana's at church.  I'm helping in Anna's class.  Living with her and spending all my time with her, I see a bubbly, funny, laughing, ornery, lovable and even outgoing Anna.  Her spirit is truly inspiring and she brightens my day with her humor.  She tends to laugh at stuff and quickly change my outlook on something that might have annoyed me otherwise.  See, right now as I'm writing this she just asked to play a computer game.  I told her no, she has a friend over (AG from across the street) so she needs to play with her and Megan and let me work.  She had a princess wand in her hand, so she smiled an ornery smile and waved the wand at me and said, "Then I'm going to change you into a bear!"  Then off she went.  She's carefree and loves spending time with me.   She has no qualms speaking her mind around us.  In fact, she's quite stubborn and downright mean sometimes to Megan.  Let's just say she's a very head strong little girl when she wants to be.  

Anyway, being around all the new people last night brought out a whole new side of her.  I know she has a shy side.  I see it when she's around new people she's not used to.  But last night she was painfully shy.  They played a game where they threw bean bags into a laundry basket and then said their name.  It was truly a difficult thing for Anna to do while all eyes were on her.  She s..l..o..w..l..y stood up with the bean bag.  Then she looked down at the floor for a few seconds.  Then she glanced at the teacher who was telling her what to do....looked down again...grabbed her pants....looked my way.....looked down again....and after about 30 seconds that seemed to last forever she threw it in.  Then the whole process started again.   She looked down...looked at the teacher....glanced my way....looked down....then finally blurted out her name,  "Anna."  I'm not lying.  Her face was red and splotched.  It really was a hard thing for her just to say her name in front of the new people.  

Friends in Harrison know it took her over a year to adjust to the church and kids there.  Now, she has to start over again.  I was praying today that God would help her with it.  He knew before she was born that she would have a shy side.  He also knew we'd be moving.  So I know He'll work it out for her good.  It may be good for her that we've moved so she has to get over it to an extent.   

What was funny is that when we got home she was telling Jason about the game.  She sounded upbeat and happy as if it was all great.  He asked her if she did the game and she just said, "Yeah!"  If I hadn't been there, we'd never known how hard it was for her.  

Canine Visitors

Anna and I walked Megan to school one day last week, and we were followed home by two of the cutest little dogs ever.  They must have been sisters.  They were still puppies with puppy breath and everything (how can you resist that?).  Anna was like a different person with them.  She just talked and talked to them.  Took great care of them and didn't want to stop playing with them.  So I agreed to let them in the back yard for a little while and gave them some water and scrap food.  Well, needless to say (even though I showed them the open gate) they were still there when Megan came home from school and when Jason came home from work.  He insisted we were NOT keeping those dogs.  I called the pound, but they never came.  The next morning, they woke up whining (hungry, I'm sure), but ended up wandering out into the front of the house before the girls woke up.  When Megan and Anna got up and realized they were gone, they were heart-broken.  They had grown to love those sweet little puppies.  

We just haven't had much luck with animals with the girls.  Jason and I had two dogs before the girls were born.  After Anna came along, we realized we just couldn't keep them because they did not do good with kids at all.  So my parents took them and still have them.  Then we got Addie in Harrison, but she didn't adjust well when we moved and snipped twice at kids so we had to give her away too.  Jason's mom is keeping her for now (but she may get sent to the pound) :(.   Anyway, that's why Jason says no more animals.  They're sweet when they're puppies, but they just don't seem to work out for us.  

When we got to Megan's school the next morning, there they were trying to get all the kids to love on them.  I guess they had followed someone else to school.  I hope they find a good home, b/c they sure were sweet.  At least we had fun for a day with them.  

Kitchen Table

This is the table we got at Sam's that I was so excited about a while back.  A few of you wanted to see a picture so here it is.  I really have enjoyed it.  And, no matter what the girls spill on their seats, it wipes right up.  That's almost the best part!  :)

I was so excited about this picture....so I'll share the story.

I was looking for a picture for the kitchen that would tie in a little of the blue from the living room.  I found this one at Garden Ridge and really liked it, but it had a few scratches on it.  So I asked a worker if they would offer it at a discount.  He told me generally if merchandise was damaged they sold it at half price, then he headed off to ask his manager.  Within a few minutes he was back and told me that their discounted/damaged items were in a different location and this particular picture was full price.  I was disappointed and went to put it back on the rack when I noticed a tiny sticker in the bottom corner that said "Damaged."  The new price listed on that sticker was actually $5 less than half price.  I was so excited.  I think it looks great in the kitchen too.  The Lord sent a special blessing my way that day, and I wanted to share it.  

Homework

Megan came home with her first homework assignment the other night.  She had to complete a book about her family, pets, favorite colors, etc.  We used some photographs, but I wanted her to draw some of her own pictures too.  She was working hard on her picture of our family.  She drew each of us, put pretty "church clothes" on us, and started on our hair.  When she got to Jason, she looked through the crayon box and paused.  Then she looked at me and asked,  "Where's the grey?"  

I laughed so hard and called Jason in to share in the merriment.  He didn't think it was quite as funny as I did, but he was grateful she wasn't looking for the peach instead!!!!!  :)