Reality is setting in...

My sister and her family were here for a week and left this morning for the 11 hour drive home. They took Captain C with them. When we were planning this a few months ago, it sounded like a great idea. When C was being a 11 year old annoying kid last week, it sounded like an even better idea. When we were packing his bag last night and he and I were both crying, I had my first round of second thoughts. Reality is that I won't see him for 12 days and that is harder on me than I thought. I love him so much and it was nice to see that he loves me too ;) Times of snuggling on the couch or rocking him to sleep are long gone and it seems like he doesn't really need me anymore, but he does. And I need him too. This time apart will be good for all of us, and I know that this is what God wants for us right now, but that doesn't make it any easier. Please pray for our family the next few weeks if you think of us. I appreciate it.

Wordless Wednesday: I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Now for the "not so wordless" part: A few unnamed friends give me slight grief for my...germ issues. I'm no Monk or anything (We just started watching that this week and are loving it), but those few friends know how happy this sign made me when I saw it today at Incredible Pizza.

Happy Wednesday!

Overheard...

Setting: T is wrapping a gift for his cousin.
T: How does this look?
P: Good. If it looked bad I would still tell you it looks good. This looks good.

Hmmm...wonder how P really feels?

Sweet C

My mother and father in law came over on Saturday evening to drop of some things and we decided to go out to dinner with them to Cracker Barrel. When we got there, Captain C handed me $20 and said that he wanted me and Big Daddy to have a date and the kids would eat with Grandma and Grandpa at a different table. He had apparently been planning this for months with Grandma and wanted to treat us for our anniversary. How sweet is he?!? Once we got over the shock and changed it to a table for 5 and another table for 2, we had a great evening. It was so sweet of him to give so generously from his 11 year old pockets and to plan the whole thing out. He is going to make his wife very happy one day if he keeps thinking like this!

Wax on, Wax off.

C loves karate and has done it for the past few years. Last night, he passed his test to get his purple belt! He worked hard and earned every bit of that belt by memorizing John 3:1-16, demonstrating techniques and self defenses, Japanese, breaking boards and sparring. It was hard work and we are proud of him for keeping at this. Here are a few pictures from last night's testing. There were blood, sweat, and tears by many (only 2 of the three from C - lol) but it was worth it in the end. Congrats, C. Keep up the hard work!

 

 

Plural fighting - C against 2

WOOHOO! He beat them :)

 

C against 3.

Personally, I think just not peeing your pants with this group coming for you should allow you to pass. ;o)

I love how well they treat C. He is one of  the youngest, if not the youngest upper belts there.

1 on 1 with his sensei.

Receiving his purple belt. Congrats!

Oh and I also earned my red sash in tai chi last night. I have a very patient instructor :o)

I can see clearly now...

I realized on Monday that I would be flying for many, many hours soon and didn't want to mess with contacts. I only wear one in my left eye anyway but reading or watching movies for hours on end will give me a headache. So I called my eye dr and they were able to fit me in the next day. I wanted to get some glasses this time. I haven't bought/worn glasses in years so it was hard to pick some out. The lady was very nice and helped me decide on some that look ok (I hope) and I picked them up today. I put them on in the office and about fell over. I was thinking they clearly messed up my prescription because no way did I need this much. I waited a while and put them back on and about puked after a few minutes of wearing them.  He had mentioned that my eyes had gotten slightly worse which was clearly the understatement of the year. I figured I would tough it out and wear them for a bit before taking them back ;) Here I am, an hour later, and if I take them off, THEN I feel like puking. Apparently my eyes were worse than I thought! I have just gotten used to it, I guess. I'm hoping this relieves my eye strain headaches.

I made C put his on too (that he rarely wears) for a picture of our new specs.

180...The magic number!

In our state, the only rule for homeschooling is that you have to go as many days as your district is in session. For us, that is 180. Don't get me wrong, we don't actually have to report that to anyone, I guess they just assume everyone will comply because it's out there. Well, we do comply and it was with great joy that I marked day 180 off our calendar yesterday! WooHoo!

It is a little bit surreal to me that not only did we just finish up our 4th year of homeschooling (What?!?) but that Captain C will be starting the youth group in the fall. If we were in public school, he would be starting middle school where he could possible know someone in his school that is pregnant. How can that be? My baby can't be old enough to make babies!  Oh my!

I'm so thankful that we are able to homeschool. I'm thankful that Oklahoma does only have that one little law about homeschooling and they don't make it impossible to educate your children at home. I'm thankful there are so many options out now for homeschoolers to choose from. I'm thankful that we survived our 4th year home together and I think we did it pretty well. We still have some work to do so aren't totally in summer mode yet, but that magic number of 180 gives me freedom to take a week off next week when my family comes (again, WooHoo!) and not stress about days. I'm a little nuts and started a new science book this week so we will be doing that for 30 more days throughout the summer but they love science so it is fun. I also want to teach Terrific T cursive. He is finishing up 2nd grade, when they teach it in public school, but I didn't think he was ready to learn it earlier this year so we put it off. We started that last week too. We have a few more things that I want to knock out this summer but we will get it done as we prepare for 1st grade, 3rd grade, and 6th grade in the fall.

Happy Mother's Day!

Last set of pictures. Me and all the kids. I had to spread this out over a few days as to not have photo overload. I promise to not post tons of pics again soon :)

Happy Mother's Day to my own Mom and to all the moms that read this. I love Mother's Day!  P couldn't stand it and already gave me part of her gift yesterday. Chocolate covered cookies...that she sampled for me, just to make sure they were ok. I love seeing what the kids make or buy. It truly is the thought that counts and I love seeing how their minds work.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lemonade....$0.50

My mother/father-in-law were having a garage sale today and T and P decided to set up a table to sell some candy, lemonade, and water. After our talk yesterday, they decided to give 1/2 of what they sold to the family that lost their house in the tornado.

Seriously, how cute are they sitting there sampling the goods?

C competed in a karate tournament today so couldn't help them. He was disappointed because he has been wanting to do a lemonade stand "forever". A few friends and I ran the concession stand at the tournament so after C competed, he came and helped out and had a blast. We raised a lot of money for our Cambodia trip today and a little money for a family in need. It was a good day.  Bed at 8:30 is looking good though :)

I'll post more about C's tourney when I get the pics. I didn't get to see him do his kata but someone else took pics for me. I did get to watch him fight though and will get those pics off my camera when I can see straight.

G'nite.

Just the kiddos

I attempted to get a cute pic of just the kids on Wednesday to. You turn your back for one second to set up the camera and this happens:

But this one turned out cute :)

Ahhh, my kiddos! Thanks for making me a mom! I love you guys so much!

Man, God is GOOD.

aka. Little life lessons.

T found $10 at WalMart yesterday when he was shopping with Grandma. He was so excited because he has been trying to save $20 for a long time and this would finally get him there (hard to make money when you are 8 and spend every penny you get as you get it). Well, enter Debbie Downer (aka. Mom). We have tried hard to teach the kids that if they find money, they are to return it. So...since I won't likely go to WallyWorld anytime soon, I told T he could donate the $10 to a friend of my sister's who lost everything in the tornadoes last week in AL. He was very reluctant but after talking to him about how God will bless him for doing the right thing, he finally agreed. 2 seconds later, C says he wants to give $10 of his money too. Then P did the same thing. I was shocked. So I emailed my sister to tell her that I would paypal her the $30 and C comes in with an envelope with $20 in it. It has T's name on it and was his from Christmas that had been put on a shelf and forgotten! What an awesome God to show that to C right then. T had gone upstairs, a little sad that he would still not get to get the Lego set he was wanting, so we called him down to tell him. He was so excited and it was a good time to talk more about how God blesses us when we do the right thing!

Me and P

Last but not least, little P. My baby is growing up way too fast! Love you too, sweetie!

PS - Happy Birthday to my favorite 5-6-78 sister :o) Kisses!

Me and T

Today, I'm posting the pics of me and T. He is such a ham and I love his personality. Love you!

Me and C

Gearing up for Mother's Day this weekend and took some pics of me with the kiddos. Today, I'm posting my shots with me and C. I hate pictures of myself but love my kids! I can't believe he is 11 already and starting in the youth group this fall. I love you, buddy, and am proud of the young man you are becoming!