Got any favor in your eyes lately?

Princess P was praying this morning and added in, "please help Daddy get favor in his eyes at work today." I had to chuckle. When we pray in the morning, I'll often add a request for Big T to find favor in the eyes of his bosses. Seems she has been listening...lol.

Hoppy Monday :)

Do you think he was there to deposit or withdraw something?

Jonah was a Prophet - woo woo

I worked in the nursery on Sunday and missed the message at church, so listened to the service tonight while making pizzas. Our pastor is doing a series on Jonah (hard to not sing the VeggieTales song whenever he says that Jonah was a prophet). Terrific T was sweeping the dining room while I was cooking, so he was listening too. He was started to get annoyed and finally said, "Why would God let Jonah do that if He already knew what he was going to do?" He likes to keep me on my toes with spiritual questions. I love it. So we had a nice long talk about free will and if God just made us do what He wanted, we would be like robots, or remote control cars. No will and mind of our own. How special would it be to God if we told Him we loved and adored Him, simply because He told us to say it? Like the difference between making your kids say the words "I'm sorry" and them genuinely showing remorse and being sorry. Night and day difference. I think it is the same with God. He doesn't want us obeying because he is making us, He wants us obeying because we want to because we love Him. We talked for quite a while and he ended it with, "You should be a preacher. You answered that good."

Well, thanks for the encouragement, honey, but I think I'll stick with teaching you guys ("when to use 'well' and when to use 'good'" will be next on my list!) and leave the preaching to someone else!

100 workout

I have been seriously lacking motivation lately (can I still use "lately" if it has been over a year?) but decided to, once again, get back on that wagon. I am tired of my clothes being too tight. It's grossing me out. So, I could either go buy all new clothes, or move my fat hiney more and eat less. Hmmm....tough call but it seems more prudent to do the later. So, today, Captain C and I started the 100 Workout. I have tried to figure out where it came from but I have no idea. I like that it is easy to do and doesn't require anything extra. We printed out this...

...and got to it. We did it in about 18 minutes...but only ran 2 minutes instead of 10 and then ended with 10 totally girly pushups. It's too hot to run outside and we were bugging the dog by running laps in the living room. I thought someone was lighting my legs on fire about jumping jack 70, but C kept going and I wasn't going to let him show me up so I pushed through it. We are going to see how long it takes us to do this 100 times. If we were to do it every day, we would be done the end of November. I'm also going to see if I can lose 10 pounds during this 100 days. Surely I can, right? Anyone want to join me on this fun journey? Please? I need accountability! So...how about you do it too (yes, you!) and post about it and keep asking me about it. Kinda like going to the gym together but it is totally ok to be wearing your too tight gym clothes since we won't be in public, and we don't have to worry about childcare. Bonus! :)

Who's in?

What's a "butt-eye"?

Anyone know. It seems to be my kids favorite word and I have no idea what they are talking about. Please enlighten me....

For example:

Me: You need to go finish your reading.
Child: Butt-eye don't want to.

Me: It's time to shower.
Child: Butt-eye just showered last night/week/month/etc.

Me: I need you to clean your bathroom today.
Child: Butt-eye want to play Wii.

Seriously - If hear butt-eye one more time today, I'm gonna start spanking some butt-eyes!

Monday, Monday

Princess P got up this morning whining, "Why can't every day be Monday?" Yesterday was our first day back to Classical Conversations. Everyone had such a great time that they want to do it everyday. I love that. We have a great team of people making CC happen, and happen well. It takes a lot of work, but is worth it to have the kids loving it and learning in the process. Thank you to all the families in Classical Coversations of Owasso - you guys rock!

Wish I could pull off a moo-moo like this.

I am loving this dress that I got for $1.99 today...even if it totally is a little girl moo-moo. Someone tell me that she looks freakin' cute and she doesn't look like Mama. Thanks.

She just got home from the best birthday "party" evah...Build-a-Bear and Cheesecake Factory with her BFF. She had a blast and has a new furry BFF to sleep with now. She made me laugh telling me about "the cheese that was like chocolate chip or something". She said it didn't taste like cheese at all! She will likely never eat cheddar again *sigh* Darn friends spoiling our kids ;) Reminds me of the friend that took Captain C out after school in 1st grade and he came home saying, "Did you know you can eat INSIDE Arby's?!?!" Shoot - that was one cat that wouldn't go back in the bag. So much less germy to just take it home but we do suck it up and let them go in more now that they quit putting everything in their mouths.

Back to School Pictures

It is hard to believe another year has come and gone already. It is also hard to believe that we started our 5th year of homeschooling on Monday. Wow! Here are the kids back to school comparison pictures. I love to see how much they have changed. I'm so upset that I lost 2007 in a computer crash but glad I still have the others. You can click on them to make them larger.

And yes, Paige is wearing long sleeves but the dress matches her backpack and lunchbox so she had to get it ;)

CC starts on Monday but we started a week early to get a jump start on things. So far, so good!

I love these little pupils so much and am very blessed to be able to teach them again. It's going to be a great year!

Thankful for a mohawk.

A guy at karate had a mohawk.

Terrific T liked it and wanted one.

I gave him one, against my better judgement.

That was 3 summers ago and he has had one every summer since.

I had no there was a mole under there that was harboring atypical cells.

We were able to watch it every year and noticed when it changed.

Thank you, Lord, for mohawks.

PS. Wear your sunscreen, people, 

and get anything that looks odd checked out sooner than later!

Not so Wordless Wednesday: Jesus Bring the Rain!

But please leave our trees....

Terrific T was concerned about the bird's nest that was in it. Big Daddy said it was ugly anyway, but that was our only shade tree in the backyard. Oh well, more firewood for winter :)

We were in a serious drought here so this soaking is so wonderful.

Speaking of Jesus Bring the Rain - love this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU

Will you allow me to rant?

While I was doctoring up Terrific T's head (which is looking fab, by the way...oh and I finished Mini-Shopaholic while we were on vacation and it was fab too), he says, "I'm being such a lame@$$.". After I regained the ability to talk, I asked him, "What?" He repeated it the same. I said, "You are being a what?" And he said it one more time. So now we have established that he was, in fact, cussing. Moving on. "Where did you hear that?" "Well, Gulliver said it in Gulliver's Travels."

Oh My Goodness. Why do they put stuff like that in KID'S MOVIES? ( <---see, told you I was going to rant, you knew the CAPS were coming, right?) Makes me so mad.

So we had a nice discussion during the Neosporin applying phase about @$$ being a bad word and we don't say bad words and blah, blah, blah. So frustrating that you can't put in a kids movie and it be...kid friendly. BTW, I'm inclined to agree with Gulliver here... He is pretty much a lame@$$ for teaching kids bad words!

No More Mole

Thank you so much to everyone that prayed for Terrific T. He was a champ today getting his mole removed. I wasn't going to post about it but figured it might be a good time to throw some mole education out there to ya...you are welcome! First, a friend and her hubby have had way too many mole encounters so was a huge help to me through all of this. Thank you so much, CW (and for the surprise for T when we got home!). I think she is the one who told me about the ABCDs of a mole.

Asymmetry

Border

Color

Diameter

A- asymmetry. Suspicious mole does not look like a round or oval blot. Often, early melanoma looks rather like a blot with an odd shape.
B- borders. Borders become irregular, uneven, fuzzy. The edges of the blots become notched.
C- color. Color of normal mole should be more or less homogenous. Change in color is very suspicious . There are shades of brown, black, tan, red. Mottled color is suspicious.
D- diameter. Change in diameter is suspicious too. Mole that is bigger than 6 mm is suspicious. Everybody compares 6 mm to a pencil eraser (though few people actually use it extensively). Just to get idea about the borderline size.

T's hit too many of those for comfort .....

So we had it removed today.

He got a new Webkinz to hold during the procedure and the promise of a wicked cool scar, and we got peace of mind that since it is gone, it can't cause trouble later on. If you have any suspicious moles, please get them checked as soon as possible. It really can mean the difference between life and death if caught early enough.

They will give us the results in a week or so but I have a complete peace that all is ok. They took enough around the mole that she felt like even if it were starting something (really hate saying the C word when talking about my kid!), they got it and he will not have to go back for it again. Thanks again for the prayers. He really impressed us being so brave through it all. I had been putting numbing cream on it for about 4 hours before the surgery but those shots still hurt pretty bad and he just curled his knees up and let her do it. After that it was a breeze. Big Daddy and I were there with him, playing ipad games with him to distract him, but he never tried to move or anything (except when he was reeling in a virtual fish and it was a big one - lol) . It was a huge answer to prayer. If it had been a struggle, I might have just left and not done it ;) I'm so glad to have that behind us!

Heat Wave Perks

All the talk lately has been about the heat. Help me thinking good things about it possibly breaking a heat record today in our town. I've read all the negatives in everyone's status updates for weeks and I'm trying to think positively.

1 - We just had slushies before breakfast. Nothing like cooling off your insides to start your day and Captain C made them for us (crushed ice, lemon juice and I'm pretty sure I was chewing some sugar in there too).

2 - Saving money drying clothes outside. As soon as one load is finished washing, the previous ones are already dry out back...making laundry go faster (in theory). It would take an hour for them to dry in the dryer...and we can use the money saved on running toe dryer to pay for the a/c that is trying to keep up.

3 - Family bonding. We don't want to leave the house so have been staying home. The house is getting cleaner and things are getting done.

4 - Getting caught up on work. I am slowly getting caught up on work, both photo and CC work. It is too hot to do much else :)

5 - No rain = no growth = no mowing. Woot!

6 - Keeping up with the Jonses. Heck, if all the neighbors are going to have dead lawns, we don't feel so badly about ours being dead. Finally, we fit in around here!

7 - Gas tanks are staying fuller which saves money. Again, who wants to leave the house?

What else? Add yours in the comments.

Faith of a child

I just overheard Princess P getting frustrated that her Didj isn't working. Then heard, "Dear Jesus. Please make my Didj work right now!" and instantly it turned on. Praise the Lord for her faith and Jesus caring enough about the " little things".