Goodyear...Good Times...

The girls are funny. They can even make a mundane task like getting the oil changed a most entertaining event!

My car has been begging for a oil change for quite some time, so I gave Ben & Nolen an hour of peace and quiet and took the girls to Goodyear. They have TV there...and a comfy couch. And since we don't have TV, this was some seriously simple entertainment. I started flipping through the channels and found Jon and Kate Plus 8. I had heard of this show, many times, and was thrilled to catch a minute of it. The girls were highly amused too. We saw Maddy get her ears pierced and Ella decided she now likes her ears "just the way they are". Time to channel surf some more.

I flipped to Discovery Health's Babies: Special Delivery. And quickly kept going. "Was that a baby being borned?" screamed Ella. "Yes, Ella"... "I want to see!!!!"..."No Ella, this isn't the place"..."NO MOMMMY!! I WANT TO SEE"...I glanced around and the only person in the vicinity was a lady laughing at us, so I flipped back and let Ella watch. "Mommy, I need to know how this works!" Seriously?? Oh my gosh, what an uncomfortable minute!

The baby came out and I got permission to switch the channel. Finally, I found the cartoon block of channels. And Little Bear was on. Gracie watched it for a second and exclaimed "Cat's don't talk!" (I guess bears and ducks do...) But neither was the least bit entertained by Little Bear and started throwing their shoes at each other.

Luckily, our name was called and our time was up. They really are funny girls. It's hard not to laugh all day!

Going Postal

This is a typical scene in my house. Things have been wildly good...but busy. And when I have to work, this is just the sort of thing I discover after any length of time at my desk. There's been a lot of stuff like this around my house because there has been a lot of work! No complaints here. It just makes for packed days. My sister graduated from Flagler in Florida and since she's home and unemployed, she's been stopping by house and cleaning up a little bit for gas money. It's been such a huge help to me!!

We turned off Direct TV back in September which means I've saved at least 300 hours of TV watching so far! It's amazing how much time it is when you add it up. Thank goodness I've had those extra 300 hours. I've needed every one of them!

So much craziness has been going on. I taught at the Novi Mega Meet a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun! The experience reignited my love for my craft. I feel like it was a vacation - my own hotel room and some serious me time. I even read a book - Raising Kids for True Greatness: Redefine Success for You and Your Child by Tim Kimmel.

Our church built a new building which is awesome...but a casualty in the moving process was that Mother's Day Out ended a little early. Luckily, my mom has been helping a few days a week. It's been HUGE for me to have those hours to get stuff done. Nolen just has a few weeks of school left - hard to believe. He has had such an incredible year. He just found out yesterday that he got "commended" on his science TAKS test which means he's commended on all three - reading, math & science. He decided to play the clarinet next year. I'm super excited about that b/c he'll be playing my clarinet from when I was in high school.

Tuesday was Nolen's piano recital. It was kind of funny. I really wish I had it on video. All of the kids had trouble with their pieces because it was the first time on this piano and on a new stage in the new church. He couldn't figure out his hand placement for the last note of his last piece. He just sat there with his head in his hand. And then he slumped off the stage. We had a long talk about the appropriate way to behave in a situation like that. In reality, he did a great job. But his dramatics were pretty funny. Here are a few pics from the night.




Off to try and knock out some more things off the never ending list of to-do's.