Today I laughed and today I cried...

This is what made me laugh today....

Anna has 3 teeth that are loosening and ready to be pulled. She told her dad today that she was not going to play at recess or gym because she was afraid that during a game that she may get hit so hard that her teeth may get knocked out and she would lose them and not get a visit from the tooth fairy.

This is what made me cry today...

Anna and my nephew Reid were born to be outdoors. Anna's favorite place to play is outside at Reid's house. They go out and are lost for hours in the yard or the woods finding frogs, bugs and mud fights. Today the most horrific thing happened. I was in Amber's kitchen making cornbread for supper when Anna and Reid stormed in the house covered in yellow jackets. The dog, Bandit, found the nest and was attacked. When Anna and Reid went to see what the fuss was about, they were attacked too. It was the scariest thing. They were all in Anna's hair, down her shirt...they were everywhere. Poor Bandit was covered in them and he was running all over the house leaving yellow jackets flying everywhere. During all of this, Addie locked herself in the bedroom crying hysterically because she was afraid. She was stung by a yellow jacket this summer and that had traumatized her. It was an eventful night to say the least. Anna has had her last dose of bennadryl and is off to lala land. They are fine, just very shaken up. The yellow jackets should be drowning in gasoline right about now. All is well.

Addie's Prayer

We found this on an old SD card. I tried to video this several nights but with the lights out, it doesn't work so good. Sorry for the shakes. I couldn't let her know that my camera was on. Otherwise she would not have been quite so sincere.

Homework

Tonight Anna was doing her homework and studying for her bible test. Addie decided she wanted to join and so this is some of the things that she said:

I asked the question "What are some ways we are obedient at home?"

Anna: "When we clean our room"

Addie: "Not poking people in the eye and not hitting people with hangers"

What????????

Anna was reciting her bible verse and Addie was upset that she didn't have one to say. So I got out her Cubbies book and we went over her verse. She repeated it to me like this:

"....God created the heavens and the earth. Gennifer 1:1"

Huskers

I have been waiting to post this for 6 days. I cant figure out how to move these pics around on the computer. Anybody know anything about an Apple?????

Here's what I wrote:

This week Walmart had corn on sale for dirt cheap so I bought up a bunch! This is the one and only vegetable that Anna will eat. Not the best one on the list but at least it's a vegetable. It is, isn't it?? So I was getting ready to cook it. The girls love corn on the cob but somehow I always end up cutting it off. So I decided to cut off in the to begining with and cook it in the skillet. I cooked it with some olive oil and yes....a little bacon. Delicious!! Here are some pictures of the the girls shucking corn.

That reminds me of my granny. I shucked corn with her til my hands hurt!! I miss her so bad....

So here's a great tip. I'm always looking for tips...and I found this one in my most favorite magazine...Real Simple.

easy way to cut corn off of the cob

click,click,click

I am completely creeped out by the clicking noise that I hear in the wee hours of the morning. Here's why...Nick was out of town from Sunday to Friday of this past week in Florida for a sales meeting. I'm guessing there was a Mexican theme and he brought home some goodies for the girls. He was supposed to fly in to GSP at 11 pm Friday night but secretly and with permission ditched the last half of the day's meetings to catch an early flight home. He showed up at Anna's school on Friday to pick her up. We were all pleasantly surprised. Back to the clicking...so the goodies included some Gummy Pizzas, 2 miniature maracas, a frisbee and


Mexican Jumping Beans
Awesome!!! I used to love those as a kid. My Pop always brought us those and I thought and still did think those things were just plain cool. And I just knew that the girls would get a real kick out of them.







and then I googled them and found this...






As a child, you didn't question it. They were beans and since they were special "Mexican" beans, then they could jump. End of story. As an adult with a bit of curiosity and modern day perks such as Google, you can research just about anything. So this is what makes these things jump. There are larva inside those beans inside my house moving around and yes jumping. Its a survival method or something. So with every click, and tick that I hear, I think of this little fellow. I can promise you that these things will not make it through the night. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hand Sanitizer and Super Mario

I feel like all I ever do is blog about cute things Addie has said. The truth is that Anna isn't saying crazy things any more. She's out of that stage. You know the stage where you look at your child and wonder how they got so grown-up looking. That's where Anna is. She probably said a million crazy things and they are lost forever in my crazy mind. I don't want Addie's to be so even if my post is a sentence long, I will try to get these things down. Here's just two things from today:

This morning on my quest for healthy eating, I had a bowl of oatmeal and a grapefruit along side my children who ate a bowl of high fructose corn syrup and milk. I asked Addie if she would like to try my grapefruit. She said "sure" as her sister and father both turned their noses up at me. After her bite, she had a look of confusion on her face but didn't spit it out. I took that as a victory and said, "See she does like it don't you Addie?" and she said, "Well um it tastes like Hand Sanitizer."

Her fourth birthday is fast approaching and I got on the computer and pulled up Party City and asked her to pick a "theme." I'm thinking my little pony, tinker bell or something in that area. As I was scrolling she screamed, "That's it! Super Mario Bros! I want a Mario party!" What????????? Guess she's spending a little too much time on the DS.

Addie, Addie, Addie...

Friday night we were in the car on the way to Greenville for a friend's birthday.  This was the conversation:

me: "Addie stop picking your lip." (they are chapped and she picks the skin off constantly)

Addie: "I'm not picking my lip mom, I'm picking my nose!"

me:  "Lovely Addie, just lovely!"

Earlier that day I picked Addie up from school and we went to the mall for lunch and returns until it was time to pick up Anna.  We went into a store where I had to return a shirt that did not fit.  All of the jewelry was strategically placed in front of the register (for impulse buyers like me.)  Addie browsed at all the sparkle while I finished my business.  I had a million things on my mind all while trying to talk to the nice lady at the register and also trying to make sure Addie stayed near.  I finished with my return and grabbed her hand to leave.  She said, "Mama, I picked you out some pretty bracelets." I said, "That's so sweet of you!" and we headed to the car.  As we got to the car I loaded her up in a hurry as usual and as I sat down I felt something poke me in my pocket.  To my surprise were the nice bracelets that Addie had picked out for me.  Back into the mall we went to return the bracelets that she had swiped.  She just didn't understand why we had to leave them there.  I was afraid that all the people in the store saw what I was oblivious to and thought that I was one of those twisted parents that put their children up to thievery.  I never felt her stick those in my pocket...I swear!  And they were huge too.  What planet was I on?

Today Anna said that her favorite thing to do was for me to sit with them on the couch and play DS games or watch TV with them.  Two things I read into this: 1 I don't sit with my girls enough and 2 they watch far too much tv and video games.  Of course I said that if I didn't have so many messes to pick up that I could sit more than I do.  Anna then got up to drag out the markers and paint and create another mess for me to clean.  Addie ran into her sister's room saying "mom I'm doing a surprise!"  Nick peeked in on her as she was stuffing all of Anna's clothes under the dresser and the under the bed.  He asked her what she was doing and she said, "Daddy what do you think I'm doing...cleaning Anna's room!"  He then gently directed her to the hamper.  If only we could just stuff it under the bed!!!

It has been 2 months since my last post.  A lot has happened...most significantly was the passing of my grandmother.  Boy do I miss her!  It has now been 19 days since I last spoke to her.  I have really struggled with her passing.  She gave me a very soft, comfortable place and I will miss that.   I really miss that.   

I would post a picture but I don't have any on this NEW COMPUTER!! woo-hoo!  That was part of the reason for the sporadic blogging.  My old one was 7 years old and it gave up on me.  Anyway, I hope to catch up on my blog but at least keep it going from here.  

She likes to walk in his shoes...

Anna found the fun dip that I obviously didn't hide well. I loved that stuff when I was little! Even though it was a school night, how could I deny them that little pack of joy???

Addie had never had this before. She said, "mama here open this and don't spill my power!"

Later we were giving Anna a hard time about the fact that she had not pulled her tooth yet. She went into her room to get ready for bed and we heard a very high pitched scream. The rest went like this...

A tid-bit from Addie

This morning we were lying in my bed (since school was called off again--woo-hoo) and she pulled her leg out from under the covers and said, "Look how long my leg is mommy!" I of course commented on how fast she was growing and that I wished it would stop. Then she took her little finger and skipped it up her leg from her thigh to her toe saying one, two, three and so on...until she got to seven. She said, "See mama, my leg is seven far."

Why now?

Ok so Sunday night I began to plan my menu for the week. I knew that if I did not plan I would fall off of the wagon and my attempt at trying to eat healthy would fail. Monday was great. Eggs and grapefruit, chicken salad for lunch, triscuits and cheese for a snack, and sweet potatoes and salad and grilled chicken for dinner. I was so proud! So you can imagine my bitter-sweet reaction when she came to the door. The sweet little girl scout had arrived with all FOUR of the boxes (samoas, thin mints and peanut butter & chocolate) I had purchased just six weeks before. That totally sabotaged my intentions and I have been off the wagon since Tuesday afternoon. All of them are gone. Now that they are gone, maybe I can get on with my plan.

Tonight me and the kids and family went to the Flounder (since I was off the plan and all.)
Nick is off on a men's retreat (we miss you) and so I decided to take the girls to Krispey Kreme for dessert...and the "Hot Now" sign was on. Ahhhh!!

Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night!!

Addresses and Valentines

I am sitting here watching the Address and trying not to throw up...from the nausea...the knot in my stomach. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the future of our country as we know it. How can I sleep at night??

God is bigger than him...bigger than this mess.

on a much lighter note...



Because I think Martha is the greatest...I had to make things hard on myself and buy some

Mod Podge (you know that stuff we called "paper mache") i cannot spell. New to me, but I thought my kids would love it. We had to make boxes for the sweet Valentines the girls would get at school. They turned out really cute...but I am still scraping that stuff off of my table!!

Anna is big enough to sign and assemble her Valentines (yessss!!!!) so she wasted no time.

Addie decided she would like to do hers too...


can you see the chocolate under her fingernails??




not sure where the "M" came from


Addie's Valentine's Day Party


Addie and Ella Kate



I tried to get one picture of her but everytime I snapped one, she was eating. Just like mama...


This is the only picture of Anna. She was out of school and we got to go to Addie's party together which is something she never gets to do because big sis is always in school.

Archeologist

My nephew, Reid came to play today with Anna and Emma, my little sister, who spent the night. He was so excited to show the girls some very old bottles that he had "unearthed" deep in the woods behind his house. The girls thought it was so cool and decided to go behind our house and dig for their own treasure. Low and behold...they found some old bottles. About 4 to be exact. 30 min later this is what I find on my back deck...

Well I freaked out because they thought that they had found old antique bottles. They were old alright. Old orange juice bottles, listerine bottles and of course a few liquor bottles. There was still some mysterious funk in some of them. I tried to explain to them that Reid's bottles were antiques and that all of these bottles were someone's trash. Behind our patch of woods is a trailer park and apparently this is where someone discarded their glass????
Here is Reid pleading with me to let him take all of these bottles home. At last count it was 42. I was really afraid they would get sick or something. Emma even tried to go green on me and tell me that they had to get them because it would take a million years for the glass bottles to go away. I was proud of her for that and told them we would recycle them.

My sweet Anna who has now asked me to call her "Ann"

(not ready for that)

Blizzard '09

And finally...snow pictures...and a lot of them! With news of the upcoming snow storm, I ventured out to Walmart with all the rest of the crazies in Spartanburg. Not out of fear, but necessity. We were out of everything. I also had to get snow food. Hot chocolate, cookies and muffins for baking in the morning since I was sure that school would be canceled. So we made hot chocolate and waited and waited...like little kids, Nick and I were at the door every hour checking for the first flake...

and finally it started to snow and as you can see not for very long. Just enough to get school called off and just enough to get the girls excited about the "dusting" we had.

Squint has some hot chocolate

making muffins

My Snow Angels

Oh happy day!!!!