P.S.

Please know that I am speaking truth! IT IS NOT 4:00 IN THE MORNING HERE, I AM NOT SURE WHAT TIME ZONE MY BLOG IS IN BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME ONE I AM IN! HAVE A GREAT DAY!

A day late and a dollar short

My sweet friend Regina and her family are moving this weekend and I went over to help her while all my kids except Jacob were in school. I am so excited for them cuz this house is going to be perfect for them (there are some little and big changes they will be making to make it perfect) Jacob and Gibson were playing outside and having a great time! They found some sand! Man they were having a great time! About two hours after we got there my son came to me a said "Gibson was playing and he didn't mean to but he dumped sand all in my hair, and I telled him I didn't want to get all the way dirty". I looked down at my sweet little boy and started laughing. Because it was very clear to me that long before the "accident" sand made contact with his sweet little head-------HE WAS FILTHY. On the bright side of things his eyebrows could be seen for the first time in his whole life. So we dusted the sand off so he wouldn't be "all the way dirty" and he resumed play!

Just a little note

Hello All!

Just alittle note. I hope you all have a great day with your fmailies. Hug your children, do your chores and play! Type to ya soon!

Focus LaDonia Focus

Do ya ever have one of those times when you need a GREAT BIG reality check. I do. (More often then I care to admit) The latest occurred while my loving husband was trying to go to sleep cux he has to get up at 4:30am and I was busy whinging about all my undone chores. (By whinging I mean trying desperately to find a way to blame the undone jobs on anyone other than myself.......cuz that's how I roll.) After a two or three minute rampage I ended with something like I feel like I am letting you down, when I don't get these things done. (cuz then I don't seem like I am whining so much) Do you want to know what HE said? If your answer was yes, continue reading. If your answer was no, STOP here. (But why don't you want to know?----FOCUS LADONIA FOCUS!) He said, STOP IT! (Not the response I was hoping for.) He reminded me that our home may not be perfect and things may not be TOTALLY organized but I spend my day doing what He considers to be very important. I take care of our family and help anywhere I can, so if he has to over look a little mess every now and then that was fine. He reminded me that I put this things on myself. I told me he loved me and went to sleep.(Cuz he still has to get up at 4:30am) So I laid there and chewed on it for a while and you know what? HE WAS RIGHT!!!! So I am officially removing myself from the PERFECT HOUSE club. While I don't want CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) a family of SIX lives here. AND BOY DOES IT SHOW!

????WHAT????

A few days ago my husband and our daughter Emily were sitting together and talking. Emily was asking uqestions and daddy was answering them. Our favorite questions were the following:
Emily: Daddy, did Joshua ever have his nose cut open?
Tim: Not that I know of.
Emily: Well then how did they take his nostrils out?
Now this is only funny if you know that Joshua had his tonsil and adnoids removed when he was five.

Kids are great! They are so funny! Our son Jacob keeps us laughiing! Friday everyone except Jacob had something special going on so at bed time I asked him if he wanted to watch TV and sleep in my bed with me until daddy was ready to come to bed. Since this NEVER is offered he said a great big Yes Mam! I was playing with him and I said Do you know I love you? He said Yes, do you want to snuggle with me? I said Sure, and snuggled up to him. He looked me right in the eyes and said "You are toooooooooo cloooosssee tooo meeeee." I started laughing and said that's what snuggling is, he then informed me the "right" way to snuggle was just holding hands. So holding my hand my bundle of joy went to sleep.

HOLY STINKING COW!!!!

There is just no other way to start this blog. Yesterday morning around 5:15 I woke up and my head was hurting so bad I thought I was going to throw up...so I did.....then I realized HELLO you are getting migraine, get up and take some medicine......so I did......I had to call the mom I babysit for and very quietly and quickly tell her sorry but I am not sure how I am going to watch my own kids today. She understood, so I went back to bed until our youngest son woke up. I explained to him and his siblings what was going on and that I wasn't going to be able to help much today. So I waited, with my eyes covered and stayed on the couch unless I was throwing up until about 1:00. I fixed lunch for the kids and sent them to bed. I took more medicine and went to bed also. Everybody was resting great. Tim got home from work about 4:00, and it was time to get ready for church, I didn't feel great but I also wasn't wishing I could disconnect my head from my body. Our daughter Emily came to me and said my eyes feel weird. I looked at her AND THE WHITE PART OF HER EYE WAS SO SWOLLEN THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE HER BOTTOM EYELASHES!!!!! So without screaming (hello, getting over a migraine) I went to the phone and called our doctor's office...they couldn't see us (neither could Emily at this point) so I took her to LeBohnner Urgent Care while Tim took everyone else to get supper and go to church. I knew she was having an allergic reaction to our cats (which we got right before we knew she was allergic, but thought if we bathed them it would be fine NOT SO MUCH) but I wasn't sure how to stop it cuz this was way pass the Benadryl stage......(cuz that's what the doctor said) The doctor was able to look and make sure that there was nothing in her eye and gave us steroid eye drops, and 5 days of steroids to take.........So long story ends with short question.....Anybody want a kitten or two? If I have no takers my sister is going to take them to a shelter that will adopt them out. Anyway at the end of my day I laid down my hurting head and thanked God that His timing is perfect. He is completely amazing and so........HOLY STINKING COW!!!!!!!!!! Keep your eyes on Him and all passing things seem not so bad.

Thank you

MY friend Diane fixed my blogger so I can blog again (maybe).

Hello again!

I thought I would blog today so that I would not have gone 3 whole months with no blog! You ladies amaze me! How do you do it! I've been to your homes, I know that things are no growing in places other than the flower beds and you blog faithfully! It is so much fun, but I just can't seem to fit it in! Anyway, enough whining! Much has happened in our family in the two short months since my last post. We purchased a new to us car for Tim, our cat died, our dog dug a whole to China just to get out of the back yard, Tim was laid off because the company didn't have enough work, Tim had emergency surgery the same day to remove his appendix, a mommy bird built a nest in our garage and we are watching the baby birds grow, I have three bulging disk in my back, I have to lose 75! pounds---3 down, 72 more to go!, Jacob our baby turned four, Tim is recovering and has a new job lined up after the doctor releases him (Please release Tim, let him go-----sing with me now----Please release Tim, Let him go-----that's all I know of that song!), we got not one but two kittens from our friends Lori and Jeff cuz we TOOK OUR FOUR KIDS TO PICK OUT ONE KITTEN-----learn from us, pray for us, laugh with us--not at us!, and once again GOD HAS COVERED US IN HIS LOVING HANDS AND WE ARE FINE!!!!!!!!!!!! That's the best run on sentence ever! My high school English teacher would cringe----hee hee hee! Anyway, I will try to post more faithfully in the future----but you've heard that before! See some of you soon and too the rest not so soon! Keep smiling!

What a way to start a day!

I don't know about y'all but I am blessed with the ability to forgive easily and to extend grace to all except me. You can say or do something that hurts me and then as soon as you say "Man, I am sorry" (or anything that might accidentally sound like an apology) forgiveness flows and grace washes over the hurt. The only exception is when I need to forgive or extend grace to myself. It's like I worry I will eventually run out so I don't want to use is when it's not needed.......blah, blah, blah...... So anyway, life has been WACKO- NUTS-O>>>>> I think I just typed Spanish! Cool! For all who don't really know me, I would much rather build forts in the woods that do laundry. On the surface this sounds great, but let me tell you there is nothing fun about walking around looking for just one pair of clean something so that each person can get dressed so you can go a build a fort. Yesterday, I reached that place where I decided it would be easier to just move than actually clean this mess up. There was no one room that I could go to and say "Well at least this room looks okay." I spent all of my morning at the doctor's office with four sick kids, and the pharmacy waiting on prescriptions, and at my mom's using here high speed Internet taking a test (which I passed!) for work cuz I had to have it completed by last night to complete my training (which I completed). Anyway, I got home in time to rest for about 45 minutes before it was time to start getting ready for work. I went to work and came home to the same mess, cuz my husband was trying to fix a mower so he could create a path in our jungle we call a yard, and going to Wal-Mart to get things that had to be gotten. Anyway that's it I'd had enough! So what did I do.............I made a list, and all consuming, list that lumed over my head while I slept.....mocking me, nah, nah, na-nah-na you're house is a mess.......Okay enough drama! But do you want to know how I got to start my day? Do ya? Huh Huh do ya? Sure you do.........I woke up to my radio alarm............MY CHAINS ARE GONE I'VE BEEN SET FREE. MY GOD, AND SAVIOR HAS RANSOM ME. AND LIKE A FLOOD HIS MERCY RAIN UNENDING LOVE AMAZING GRACE! How awesome is God! Just what I needed to jump start my day. I am typing to you in a living room that will soon be clean and with bedroom that is clean and a bathroom that is clean and with two kids rooms that are "kid" clean. If you come over now I will not extend and invitation to come inside just yet but soon and very soon! I hope you all have a great day!

Long Time No Type

I would love to say that I have so many exciting and fun things going on that I just haven't had time to blog. But that would be a complete and total LIE. First, we have been very busy, not fun busy---just busy! Second, I FORGOT my password. After trying and failing many times I just picked a new password. Then I wrote it down and stuck it to my printer, cuz apparently my computer is just kidding when it says it will remember it so I don't have to. I don't really have anything intresting to type about but I was so excited about being able to blog that I just had to type a quick note. I hope you all have a great day, and I will try to blog more faithfully for all my "devoted" fans!

Right Brain living in a left brain world.

I had such high hope for the day. Get up early, get dressed, have my quiet time, prepare breakfast, wake-up the kids, and start their day. Well, it all was going great right up to the wake up early part! I don't remember hearing my alarm, and at 8:00 I heard children playing in the living room, so much for a quiet start to the morning. My attitude stinks, and I am extremely frustrated. I have been reminded often of my huge flaw! I am a perfectionist. Not like my friend Jenny. She is a good perfectionist. She sees a problem, comes up with a good plan, and then carries it out smoothly and ALL WITH A SMILE AND A SWEET SPIRIT! It is amazing! Not so much with me, I want everything to go smoothly, and if it doesn't, I want to just do nothing-----for example, kids can't find chart folders, laundry needs to be folded---not on my morning chore chart----we need to eat breakfast, and school should have started one hour ago, none of these things have taken place so I am ready to put my pj's back on and call it a day! How crazy it that! I don't usally make list cuz I end up very frustrated when my list gets out of order, but if I don't make list and charts--my whole world is CHAOS----Can'tHaveAnyoneOverSyndrome. So where is the happy middle ground.. Do people actually live in a place where list help with direction but don't consume? Can you actually make a list and adjust it? It seems to me that I can either 1. Make a list, be a mad woman and make sure everthing is done in order, and have very unhappy children and a stinky day. OR 2. Don't make a list, don't get much accomplished, and end my day very frustrated that nothing got done today! Neither are very appealing! For my friends that seem to be naturally organized, be thankful. It is not easy for a right brain girl to live in a left brain world. There is a constant battle going on---One side is list consumed and the Other side is playing with a lady bug. Things are behind, kids are hungry, house is calling, laundry is lurking, floors need to be vaccumed, school needs to be done and mom is BLOGING!!! Makes perfect sense. Love you and I hope you have a great day! Ooooooh look a butterfly!

A lesson RE-LEARNED (maybe)

Hello again! Well yesterday carried into the night and early morning and today. Today I made one huge mistake! I forgot to pray without ceasing! Today, there was more fighting, frustration, complaining and less productivity! Ashley began throwing up about 11:30 last night, and it lasted until about 8:00am. By this point she was dry-heaving. It was awful! She is such a trooper! She cried alittle, but mostly just wanted to lay around. about 12:00 she started feeling better. But after naps we were back to laying around. It's about 8:00 now and she seems fine. I was so thankful to have the laundry caught up, if this would have happened yesterday I would have just cried. I am alittle tired, but my house is mostly cleaned. Tommorrow we will be able to finish for sure! I am so excited. About an hour ago I was thinking, what was different, why didn't today go as smoothly as yesterday? That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks as I was fussing at Joshua for not really listening, paying attention and following my direction, when the Holy Spirit covicted me of the same crime. I just stopped mid-sentence. How often God has brought me to this same intersection? Atleast a dozen times (this week) and each time I react much like Josh-------completely stunned that I am here again! But God's forgiveness runs deeper than my sin, and His grace last longer than my willfullness. I am so thankful. Josh almost always instantly repents, and turn and trys to do right, I wish I could say the same, but today I tried to be like him. I repented, and turned, fewer things got done, but I think over-all God is pleased when we are obiedent to Him even if our house is not spot-less.

Can I get an Amen?

Okay, have you ever had one of those days where you just can't take it anymore? Remember lying is a sin. Well I had one of those days that started on Sunday and was still going strong this morning as I stumbled to the bath room cuz my room was cluttered with clothes that were tossed in there so the EMT wouldn't call DCS on Sunday when they came to help with an asthma issue with Emily. Anyway, I was done, today was the day! My house was getting cleaned! The problem------four kids, three really messy bedrooms, one messy living room, two messy bathrooms, and one semi messy kitchen and ONE ME! But because God is who He is and He loves me, He poured out GRACE, GRACE, GOD'S GRACE! If you've never experienced this you are missing something special! He allowed me to COMPLETELY clean the kids room and mostly clean our bedroom. I have an almost cleaned living room and kitchen and bathroom. We're getting there, not here yet but all this occured while my four kids played without much fighting. This was not a perfect day but it was a day filled with God's grace, cuz He is all He claims to be. He is AWESOME! Anyway I hope you all atleast one time get a glimpse of what I am talking about!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

Okay, admittedly some of the things that occured this morning could have been avoided, but then my blog wouldn't be quite as amusing. First I started my day not feeling great and tired, cuz I am having some trouble sleeping still...anyway...I had a ton of things to get done today. So before I left, I called a sweet friend and asked her to pray for me when she thought of me, today. The words patience and kindness may have been used. So I loaded the trash and off we went. I got to the dump and almost fell into the dumpster cuz my shoes were wet and I slipped, twisting my back. So I grateful whisper a prayer for my safety and head out for my next stop. I told the kids we could get breakfast at Sonic so I pulled in and Jacob said I'm not hungry, I tried to explain this was breakfast and we would not be eating lunch until late, still he said I'm not hungry. So, I said ok, are you fee..........too late, he started throwing up all over the place. So jumped out of the van and ran around to open his door and get him out of the van, okay it was more of a hobble, hobble, limp, limp really fast, but his door was locked. So I did somthing that shocked the snot out of me. I pitched a fit, I stomped my foot and grunted very loud right in the middle of Sonic's parking lot for all to see , wearing a christian t-shirt, I pitched a fit , and went back to unlock the door and come back to finally help Jacob. By now he has finished throwing up and is very pale and wanting to go to sleep. And IT BEGINS TO SNOW!!! So I sat Jacob back in his seat, drove to Dollar General and went inside, I asked the lady if I could please get so clothes and clean him up and then I would pay for the items, she said that would be fine. So I went back to the clothes, Geuss what! They are over acheivers and have already put the spring clothes out. Not a long sleeve shirt or pair of pants could be found So I found a sweat shirt that wouldn't fall off of him, it wason a talbe at the front of the store and was 70% off and had to scrap the throw up off his pants, that were made of the slippery material so it didn't soak him. After that the kids and I go back to the van, they all got in a turned on the heater while I cleaned the van. Did I mention it was snowing. Anyway, Everyone got buckled and off we went to out next stop, Wal-Mart. After two hours at Wal-Mart and wanting to smak someone I said, grab some cheeze-it, and we are leaving. I had a list, I went prepared, I had a goal and I was completely DEFEATED! I never looked at the list, I went down the same isle five time, and I couldn't for the life of me tell you what my goals were. All I know is now I am home, I am in my jammies and I am taking a nap as soon as I am finished. So the van is officially broken in and is smelling a little less like a girl, but I can tell you that the little wipes that you can buy really work for quick messy clean ups! So I hope you are having a good day, and hopefully this will make you laugh, cuz now that I am home it's beginning to be a tadpole funny! Please don't feel sorry for me, it's funny! Life happens, somedays you just have more life than engery and this just happened to be one of those day! So for the rest of the day, I will snuggle with my kids, let them eat spaghetti in the living room while we watch a movie together. I will play blocks and cars, and color and work on puzzles. I have officially left grumpy, fit pitching mom were she belongs............out in the cold! Enjoy your day!

The Final Chapter

Well Ladies, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. It's a van. White with medium gray interior, front and rear air and heat, all windows and doors are in working condition, and I/We are so excited! Three prayers were answered by this transaction, 1. We got a much needed van. 2. Stephanie got rid of a much unneeded van. 3. She got a car that she loves, from my brother who just happen to mention to me for the first time ever today that he wanted to sell his car, which happened to be a car Stephanie liked! God perfect plan for three individuals that waited on Him instead of running ahead, a task that I do all to often. I had such peace that God was in control and while I wasn't sure how He was going to work this out I knew He would. So the next time you see me driving I'll be in our van, with the windows down wind blowing through my hair, smiling and waving...........unless of course it's 30 degrees (and I'll know cuz my van will tell me so HEE HEE HEE) then we will be using the defroster and heater! Thank you for each prayer you said, and for each time you offered or actually gave us a ride to somewhere. I completely understand the kind of people Paul must have been talking to when he said "I thank God upon ever remembrance of you". I bet they looked, talked, and walked alot like my wonderful circle of friends. I am so blessed by you and I thank God each time I remember you!
I hope you have a wonderful day!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the only bad thing about our van is that it SMELLS LIKE A GIRL! But I am going to try very hard not to complain about that.

The Adventure Continues

We test drove so more vans yesterday. We went to Covington Pike to a dealership, which shall remain nameless cuz I don't know how to spell it. Anyway, we test drove two different vans.
The first one was a 2003, something for $3800------so what's wrong with it, well aside for the fact ath I am sitting here blogging at 4 am cuz I still can't breeve fru my nose from the smoke smell that the "covers all smoke smell" spray, that was still in the van, failed to cover and the cigarette butts that were all the floor beside the seats in the very back and the burn wholes in the seats and the little plastic things that kept falling off when my mother in law touched them and the trash that was in the back of this "really clean van" and oh yeah,when ever we stopped we began to smell a burning smell and one more thing the oil was milky, and it had over 140 miles, not much.
So we move on the a 2005 Ford Windstar $4995, whats wrong with it.........well, the inside was very clean and I was able to breath much better (sidebar---the lady that rode with us in both vans, who kept saying how impressed she was with the first vans ride and couldn't seem to see my eyes swelling shut and mouth breathing cuz nose has completely stopped working says, wow, this one is really nice on the inside---what does she know, I think between sneezes, she said that about the first one too.) Anyway it had lots of cool things about it ,but all of which were automatic things that tend to break on us very quickly, but Tim seemed very concerned about the fact that it had no oil on the dip stick but lots of oil on the motor, ummmmmm not sure why. Oil in the motor, oil on the motor---one little letter off, why must he make a big deal about such little things? But what a great price as long as it doesn't BLOW UP BEFORE WE GET HOME! Is it bad thing when both vans you drive gets moved to the back of the lot to be "moved" instead of sold? Ok, well that only happened to the first one, the second one had just been traded in and they hadn't had a chance to even clean it so they were going to do some checking on Monday and call us back.
Last but not least, we met a very sweet young lady that used to go to our church at Burger King to test drvie her van, that apparently a 20 doesn't need. She apoligizes about the mess, grass in the front on the floor, but she had been moiving all day and didn't have chance to clean it out. She does a walk around showing us all the "problems" tow tiny dents on back hatch and one medium dent on side of bumper, and her hub caps fell off so she didn't buy new ones. She handed me a stack of maintance papers to look over while Tim drove, shame on her the oil should have been changed last month. The only complaint came from Josh, and I quote: "If we buy this van will it still smeeell like a girl?" Explanation: She had an air freashner that smelled like flowers, good heaven! Absolutely not! If we buy this van it will all to soon smell like french fries and chicken nuggets! We'll be sure to get rid of any nice ordors that might linger! What a boy! So I'm not sure, but I am leaning towards the one that is NOT GOING TO MAKE MY EYES SWELL SHUT, AND THAT HAS THE OIL IN THE RIGHT PLACE AND THAT SMELLS LIKE A GIRL! But we might have to think about it for awhile longer. Just one quick question.....How do you think our van would sell if we advetised something like.........1988 Ford Aerostar Van. 250+K miles, engine needs tender loving care, inside mostly clean, runs sometimes, and when it does run it beats walking in the snow barefoot up a hill carrying something heavy. OR Great charater building van for sale? I'm not sure which one would help it sell faster!

Pokeeta! ?What?

Ok, if you have never seen Chicken Little, you are so not going to get this blog! But more importantly, you don't have time to read this cuz you have more important things to be doing like, oh I don't know, WATCHING CHICKEN LITTLE! This movie is one of my favorate movies ever!
Yesterday was a classic Chicken Little day in our family! It started the night before at church, when our daughter, Emily, was brought to me by her teacher cuz she was having an accute asthma attack--(which by the way, I don't see anything ah cute about an asthma attack). Anyway, I went to my purse to get her rescue inhailer only to discover it was not in my purse. So the teacher said, would you like me to take her to the freezer? (Sure I thought, why not torture her by making her cold on top of shortness of breath and wheezing-----it'll be fun.) Well, I know that helps some people so I said sure, that would be great, I am going to see if Regina is still here, cuz I can just use Mackenna's inhailer for Emily, alas she was gone. So I said I'll call my pharmacy and get a refill on our rescue inhailer----Closed. I'll call doctor---advice---go home and get inhailer or take her to ER. OH yeah, Emily's still in the freezer, I go over and check on her, she looks at me and says, it still hurts, and it kind of smells like pizza in here. Great now I am hunger----focus MOM, Emily's having an asthma attack. So I went and got my husband to tell him we need to go home, many people steppe up to help us with adivce like give her a coke, that's what they do sometimes at some schools, it helps open them up?---Tried it, didn't work, now several people have entered the "oh, she the overreacting mom" mode and are telling she is fine, I listened, felt, and she is fine. Well, I told Tim, I want to go home, and he said why don't you go get her inhailer and bring it back, and leave Emily here, so I say ok---------cuz it would be silly to take her with me so she can get relief sooner. Anyway, live and learn , right? Anyway, by the time I got back her PFM was barely above 50, at 50 or below we have to go to the ER/Doctor Office for breathing treatment. Anyway, we got home finally and she went to bed still wheezing a little. At about 12:00, our son Jacob threw up on his brother Josh, cuz they were sleeping together for the night. At about 2:00 he threw up for the fifth and the last time. At 7:00 I got up to check on everyone, and could hear Emily wheezing from her bed while still in my room. So the day begins---my major problem---getting Emily to the doctor's office for a breathing treatment in a van that won't stay cranked,(my husband pointed out that I could always call 911 if the van stopped and Emily was having a major asthma attack! She would have to go to the ER alone, cuz they won't let you take FOUR KIDS IN AN AMBULANCE----NO THANK YOU!) but I can't call friends cuz I don't know if Jacob has the virus that no one wants. So after about 2 hours I finally get a plan in play and we are on our way to the doctor's office. Did I mention, I have had a headache for about three days? And my house is so messy that I will pretend to not be home if you ring my door bell? FOCUS! So sure enough Emily need a treatment. We got back home at about 2:00, very tired, and weepy cuz I am very tired! But on the bright side we now have the medicine, and machine we need to do treatment at home if this happens again. The even brighter side---the treatments make her very hyper!!!!!!YEAH!!!
Anyway, what does any of this have to do with Chicken Little, well in the movie the little out of space baby was trying to tell Chicken Little's dad where is parents were. He kept saying, POKEETA! POKEETA!--which means Mom and Dad! and all I wanted yesterday was to yell POOOOKEEEETTTTAAA, cuz then someone else is in charge and I can go take a much needed nap!

Cha-Ching

On Tuesday Night I went to Covington to look at a van that was WAY OUTof our price range. Why? Well, because the sales guy said they had another one without all the things that made this one WAY OUTof our range at thier Dyersburg location, but he didn't want to bring it down if I hated the really nice one at the Covington location. So I went, with four kids to look out this van. We get there and at first I am not impressed (much). Then I load all four kids, and cars seats and stuff, shoes, jacket, keys,purse---you know--the norm. The kids are cold, I said give it a minute to warm up and I will turn on the heater. Before I pull out of the parking lot the heater is ready, how cool, actually warm, is that. So I test drive this van for about 15 minutes. The whole time I am listening to four little debt encouragers, formally known as my children, tell me why this is the "COOLEST VAN EVER!" If I had a dollar for every "coolest thing ever" on the test drive, I may have been able to pay cash for the COOLEST VAN EVER when we returned to the dealership. I pulled back into the parking lot and it was confirmed in my heart that I should not have driven the COOLEST VAN EVER cuz it was way out of our price range and there was no way we were gonna buy it so why, oh why, must I torture myself and kids. As I turned the engine off, told the kids to unload and reload in our borrowed van, I slide out of the COOLEST VAN EVER, said my tearful goodbye with promises to visit soon, only to see a grinning salesman looking at me. I very bravely and firmly said, that was a bad decision to drive this van. His smile faded and he said "You, didn't like it?" I said are ya nuts, of course I liked it! It's the COOLEST VAN EVER but it's not even close to our price range. The grin returned, and something that looked alot like dollar sign appeared in his eyes. I used my mommy voice and said, please don't make any advance purchases on this commission cuz we are not buying this van even if it is the COOLEST VAN EVER. I was firm, I was sure, Iwas confident-----and then I followed him inside to fill out the prequalfacation paperwork to see if we could get a loan. Why? you might ask. Well, duh cuz it's the (say it with me now) COOLEST VAN EVER! Seriously, we are not getting this van! I think that any time you can actually hear the money leaving your checking account before you have even decided to but something ----that my friend is a sing that is never a good thing!

OOOPPPSSS

As some of you may have noticed, I had a blog listed for my sweet friend Diane. However, it was not the correct blog, sorry for the mistake. You may be asking why is she telling us this? Weeeeeellllll, apparently it was not the kind of blog Diane would like to be linked to. OOOOOOPPPPPPPPSSSSSSS! I love her very much and she is so funny! When we talked, she said " I saw your blog and that you had my listed, well the funny thing is that's so not my blog. " Then she read a couple of the tittles and we were both laughing so hard we were hurting! So since I announced to the web, hey look at what my friend Diane likes, I feel obligated to say THAT'S SO NOT MY FRIEND'S BLOG!

Oldies But Goodies

I have GREAT friends, I am so blessed! And I know it. Many of them have heard/read most of these, but Ithought--Yeah what makes you snort once might work twice, so enjoy!

Famous Quotes from my Family:

Mom: "We don't hit!" As I am popping Joshua's hand for hitting

Ashley: "There was a farmer had a dog and Nemo was his name-o. E-I-E-I-O"

Emily: "The people were waving thier trees in the air and saying Jalapeno" While teaching Easter story to her sister.

Emily: "All I did was roll over once, and fell out of bed twice" (Are your eyes twitching?)

Emily: "I feel a whole lot better than tomorrow" (We all had the flu)

Jacob: "If mommy doen't fall off the edge I am gonna say Phew, that was close" Eye twitching moment

Joshua: "Your are the best momma I've ever had"

???Could we, Nah!, Maybe, Nah!

Well, we went Saturday to look at some vans, because as I previously shared ours is a yard ornament. Anyway, we just decided to look and see what kind of vans were available for a price that would not require the selling of any body organs, such as a kidney---I mean you have two, but no we are not selling any body organs, and that's final.
We test drove four different vans, one we knew right away was wrong for our family. It could have been the pieces that kept falling off as we explored the van for any damage that confirmed it----- but I am not sure.
Needless to say our kids were having a blast. Riding in this one then that one. I could almost hear the song in thier hearts, "We're getting a new van, We're getting a new van, Uncle Jeramy won't have to follow us anymore, cuz we're getting a new van." (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell--kind-of-- What do you expect from kids!) Anyway we had lots of fun. As our trip was drawing to an end, our kids were a little disappointed that no new van was comming to live at our home, but over all they were handling it well. Then our youngest, Jacob, who is three, said Mommy, when our we gonna sell the brown van?----What's the problem you ask? IT'S NOT OUR VAN, A FRIEND LOANED IT TO US FOR A VERY SHORT TIME. Although, they do have four kids, and are very busy, maybe they wouldn't notice the missing van until the transaction went through----hum----NO, IT WOULD NEVER WORK! Maybe? NO, NO, NO. Can you hear the song in my mind? (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell) " We're not selling their van. We're not selling their van. I mean it, I am serious, We're NOT selling their van!"

Ahhh, Memories of times past

Okay, I admit it, we have had some transportation problems, everyone has I am sure. The thing I think is very funny is that our kids have all these story about: "the time we had to walk home", or "the time we almost ran into the thing that hold the arm that comes down when a train is coming cuz our brakes decided they weren't gonna work--they were taking a break---HA HA HA, ok that was bad. But one of my favorites happened last night on the way to church. Currently our van in parked in the grass, and is not working. When this happens we talk a walk down the "Hey, mom do you rememeber the time we.........." road. Last night was no exception. A very kind friend loaned us a van to use until this weekend, so we were on our way and our daughter, Emily said: "Hey mamma, do you remember the time we had to go to the place and the really tall man had to ride home with us to take our van back to fix it?"--- I can't imagine why the shop didn't want four kids playing at the shop all day while they fixed whatever was wrong. Anyway, I said, I do remember that, Emily said "He was really tall, I mean it, he was just a tabpole taller that Bro Ian (our Children's Ministry who is very tall). I love kids, they say such funny things and bring some joy to things that might make your eyes twitch. I hope you all have great day.

Keep on keeping on........
In Christ
1MomUnderGrace

Hind Site

Our three year old son came to me a few days ago while I was on the phone with a very special friend. He had gotten hurt and wanted me to pick him up. So I did, and I felt something in his pants, so I said:"What is in your pants?" Loaded questions right? LOL! He said "Anything" Translation: "Nothing." I pulled his pants out and saw something green sticking out of his tiny bottom and so I do what any red-blooded, very tired, not thinking mom would do, I pulled it out. Only to discover that it was a green Polly Pocket Jacket, yes you heard, read, correct. I said, how did a polly pocket jacket get in your underware? He so very sweetly said: "Oh, I didn't mean to leave that there." Well, now that just explains everything, right? Ok not really but it will make an awesome, first girlfriend story one day!

Keep Smiling
1MomUnderGrace

Hello to all

Thanks to all my sweet friends that encouraged me to begin a blog. I finally did it and now I am blogging, I know, it is so exciting! My blog site tittle pretty much sums up my life, I am just a mom who is trying very hard to let her four kids and others see Jesus shining in her life. However, I don't always obtain this goal. Case in point, just a few short days ago the kids and I were having a tough day, week. It seemed that their mission was to make my eye twitch and my mission was to make it throught the day without blowing a gasket. Well, the kids mission was accomplished and my mission crashed and burned when I came into the living room after hearing counting. I entered the living room just in time to see our oldest son, age 9, leaping from the school table that he was standing, not sitting, but standing on, and our youngest son, age 3, jumping from the couch and barely miss each other in mid air. Say it with me now, Emergency Room Here we come. So I, in a very mommy voice say "EVERBODY FREEZE!" So now I have four sets of eyes looking at me, and I know I have their attetion, so I begin:" What are y'all thinking, all day you have been pushing me closer to the edge of my losing my cool. I am trying very hard to be kind, but I am about to lose my cool." To this our very funny 3 year old says: "If mommy doen't fall off the edge I am going to say Phew, that was close." Needless to say, we all started laughing, and I sensing I have just lost the battle, sent all to thier bedrooms for some "regrouping" time.

Hey, I know when I am defeated, it is very hard to laugh, cry and twitch at the same time.

The moral of the story: If God has givien you a natuarlly funny kid, be careful when using word pictures unsupervised.

In Christ,
1MomUnderGrace