There is no such thing as a frigid. . .

We went to a family reunion this past weekend. I got to see most of my cousins. I have not seen them in probably 2 years. When I was little we went to my Grandmothers every Christmas and got to see everybody there. When she passed away we started doing a reunion every year at someones house. This year it was at my cousin Oliva Anns' they live in Tennessee. They have a pool and horses. My kids played in the pool all day, of course. We had lots of great food. My relatives are the best cooks. The men can cook too. My cousin Chris brought a fabulous Gazpacho. No one had seen my kids in two years so everyone was giving them a hard time. That is a family tradition. You have to aggravate the children. That one has been passed down from their Dads and so on. My Uncles used to terrorize me and my sister and cousin. They would chase us and tickle us till we wet our pants. I think that may have been their goal. Well my cousin Chris was going on with Thomas and asked if it was frigid in the pool. Thomas' teeth were chattering like he was freezing. Thomas replied, "there is no such thing as a frigid." He still affirms that there is no such thing as a frigid.

Jack got stung by a bee while playing in the pool. He is not allergic, thank goodness. He cried and screamed a lot but that was about it. Now he runs from anything flying around no matter if it is only a fly. I took some great pictures of Jack jumping off the diving board I will try to get some of them uploaded sometime. They are really good, he is right in mid air.

It was great to see everyone at the reunion. I wish we could get everyone together more often but everyone is so busy. It is hard to find a time when everyone can come.

But Mommy. . .

Some days I feel like my first name is "but." I bet if I heard "But Mommy" once today I heard it a thousand times. Why is it that children feel the need to argue with every point. Jack would argue with me if I said how pretty the blue sky is. He would say but Mommy it is really a pink blue not a true blue. Is is just because he is 8 or is it just because he is a boy? My husband hit the nail on the head the yesterday. We went to out neighbors for a fabulous 4th of July party. They had a cook out and fireworks and all kinds of things for the kids to do. They had a pool, a blow up water slide, and a slip in slide. Now I ask you wouldn't any child or adult be happy with that. Well we told Jack not to go to the pool because we could not see him over there and he whined and stomped, but mommy. Mark said, "He would not be happy if he had a million $$ he would want two million $$. " But Mommy why can I not have two million $$? Well, am I the only one this happens to?

I do believe Jack will be a lawyer some day. He should at least, he loves to argue. It truly does wear me out some days with his, "but mommy." I never knew that boys could whine so much. I always thought it was the girls that did the whining. I have been proven wrong on that one.

I have decided I am going to try and stop the arguing. I do not remember taking issue with my parents as much as Jack takes issue with everything I say. If he is doing this now what is he going to be like when his hormones hit. I had planed on taking them to McDonalds as a treat while Mark was out of town last week. Jack proceeded to argue with me about what he wanted to order. I put my foot down and I turned the car around and he came home and ate a turkey sandwich. I told him I was not listening to the arguing anymore. I think I am going to take this approach more often.

Happy 4th of July!

Finally He's Home. . .

Yes, finally my dear hubby is home. The kids are so glad. They missed him so. (he has only been gone a week) But I guess a week for a little one is quite long. Thomas says, "I know you are planning something for just me and us." I think he meant "me and Jack." Mark always does things with them after he has been gone, like go to the movies or bowling ect. . . Mark has taken the week off and so we are planning a day trip to a local amusement park. The kids don't know that yet. If they did I would never here the end of it. Mommy is it time to go yet? Mommy is it tomorrow yet? Is it time to go? You know the drill. We won't be doing the pool this week since he is off. He is not a pool kinda guy. We might get to go to the lake though. We all enjoy fishing! Of course I don't get to fish as much as I used to because I am watching and making sure that nobody falls in.

Here is a little funny aside:

Mark and I had not been married too long when we bought our first boat. It was a bass boat. I love to fish and so does Mark. I always joke that I caught him because I could out fish him. HA HA HA! I like deep sea fishing personally. One day we went out on the boat and I had packed us a picnic because we were going to be out all day. It was an early April. Still a little nip in the air. We had been out for awhile when it began to rain. Now, that is one thing I do not like to do is fish in the rain. But, according to my husband that is the best time to fish. We were really catching the fish but I was cold and wet and my hands were frozen from the nice breeze we were getting. I was ready to go home and get into some dry clothes. I had on my bathing suit, a t-shirt and shorts, sweat pants, and a rain suit coat. We were in a cold rain. Well, if any of you know die hard fishermen they never want to stop if the fish are biting. I urged Mark to go in. I was cold. Much to his dismay he went toward the ramp. My job was to make sure as we approached the dock that the boat did not hit it too hard. It was also my job to get the truck and back it down in the water so Mark could load the boat. So I go up to the front of the boat with keys in hand and Mark was approaching a little too fast. Instead of getting on all fours like I usually do, I simply stood and put my foot out to stop the boat. As I said, Mark was approaching a little fast and hit the dock with the trolling motor and was scrapping it down the dock. When Mark heard that sound he through the boat in reverse to back it out. Well I lost my balance and fell between the boat and the dock rear end first. The water was pretty cold! I came up laughing because I still had the car keys. It was terribly funny except for the damage we did to the trolling motor. It had to be fixed. Mark was terrified that I had hit my head on the dock. He was afraid I might not come up. He was very happy when I did bob up with keys in hand. He was very apologetic for several days after that. Every now and then I remind him of that day. We both have a good laugh then.

No Joy in Mudville. . .

Well, we lost our game today. Actually we lost two games today. It was sooooo hot. The poor kids were just little puddles. We won our game last night and then played this morning and lost then had to play again and lost that one too. So we are out of the tournament. Poor Jack came out of the dugout crying and said it's over Mommy we don't get to play anymore. He was so sad. It broke my heart. They were playing some really good teams from other areas.
We will retire his jersey this year and move on.

Our next adventure will be football. Yes, I am a ball park mother. As long as my kids are having fun and want to do it I am there for them. The football thing I am a little worried about though. He moves up to tackle this year and he is not that big. He is fast though so I hope that will help.

I guess we will spend the rest of our summer basking in the sun at the pool. Yeah!!

Some more Thomas- isms. . .

While we were at the doctor for Jacks' physical Thomas had to remind the doctor that Jack is allergic to "dust bunnies" HA HA, He is in fact allergic to dust mites. Thomas insisted that they were dust bunnies. Anyway.

Today we were getting in the car and Thomas wanted to kiss me on the lips. I told him my lips were for his Daddy only. He said so when I get married I can kiss on the lips. I said yes. He said, "Mommy I hope when I grow up that I can marry you." I told him that was very sweet but I bet that he would meet someone later that he would want to marry. I also told him he needed to marry someone his own age. He then said, " OK maybe I will marry Jessica and Jarrets' Mommy." I just laughed. Wendy is one of my best friends I thought she would love to know that my son wanted to marry her. Wayne you better look out. Thomas is trying to move in on you.

Something cool for the kids. . .

I was reading this magazine, "All You" and it had a cool idea for your kids this summer. Their readers send in tips and cool stuff to save money and such. One reader said she let her kids create their own movie. She said they wrote their own scripts and rehearsed it and then filmed it. She said later the whole family would sit down and watch it together. I though that was pretty cool. I may try that with my kids. Who knows we may have another Lucas on our hands. You never know until you try.

I told Jack about it and since he is the only one that can write I told him he would have to write the script and that I would help film it for them. I think the reader that suggested this had more than 2 kids. He seemed pretty interested but who knows. I may try it later in the summer after All Stars calms down. I will keep you posted.

Here is another Thomas- ism:

Yesterday the door bell rang and of course the herd went running. It was our neighbor and I told the boys they could go out and talk for a while. Thomas shut the door on me and said, "We need our privacy mom," Now I ask you what do a 5, 6, and 8 year old need privacy for? That was a hoot!

God? ? ?

My husband and I watched a really good movie the other night. "Facing the Giants" It is about football and one man that had so much heart ache and pain heaped upon him it could have made anyone crazy. But he had an amazing faith in God and prayed. God answered his prayers not on the mans time schedule but on Gods' time schedule. You know he is famous for that. We pray and he answers our prayers only sometimes it is hard for us to wait. This was an awesome movie. Of course I cried through the whole thing. It was great.

I feel drawn today to write about this because it moved me so much. Sorry but I am just that way. My husband and I are Christians and are trying to raise our children in a Christian environment. I am a firm believer in prayer and its' power.

In 1996 my father fell through the roof of our barn. It just so happened I was at home for a visit. My mom called me on her cell phone and told me what happened and I called 911. I raced to the barn and when I got there, there were 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and several volunteer vehicles. They had my dad on a stretcher taking him to the ambulance. When we got to the hospital they did x-rays and found that dad had crushed his right arm. He was going to need emergency surgery to save it. He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours. In the wee hours of Sunday morning the doctor came in and told us that he made it through surgery and would be in ICU for a day or two and then would be able to go home. We prayed a lot that night for God to help dad. We found out that not only had he crushed his arm but he had cracked his pelvis and lacerated his kidney. He was in ICU in traction for the pelvis. Well things went for ok to really bad in 24 hours. Dad had to be put on a respirator. A lot of things went on during that time and he ended up in ICU for 3 weeks. He turned 64 in ICU mostly unaware of anything that was going on. We were only allowed to see him at certain times and for short intervals. It was during this time that I became very close to God. We were on a first name basis. I prayed all the time. Everyday there was something new that was causing problems. He had good days and bad days. After 3 weeks he finally got to be moved to another floor and was off the respirator. He was still in traction for the pelvis though. After 2 weeks he was released to go home to a hospital bed in the basement. He had to stay in it for 6 more weeks. He had to learn how to walk again. My Dad is truly a walking miracle. The doctors never expected him to recover the way he did. He took 18 units of blood while he was in ICU.

My dad is now 76 and people still tell the story of when he fell between 17-23 feet through the roof of the barn. He told me years later that while in ICU that there was one time he felt real peace and he said I could have let go. I am at peace with my life and with the Lord. Then he said he thought about Mom and said he could not leave her with all the horses to take care of. He also said he made several promises to God. He didn't elaborate about that part though.

I still pray everyday and I feel that my life has truly been blessed. I am also teaching my children to pray. They pray for their friends when they are sick or when they are traveling with their families. The night after the tornadoes came through Thomas prayed for the people and the children whose homes were damaged. That really touched my heart.