Ry and Ty are playing games on the computer. I love to listen to them giggle and get so excited it is one of my favorite things in the world!

So the faucet thing was cute and funny the first time. Now it is just getting annoying!

Ok this may get silly! I can now blog on my phone! Get ready for random and short posts!

wet and dry

i walked into my kitchen and saw the counter tops covered in water. ty said he was playing with cups. no biggie, it will dry. then later i went to turn on the sink, and it was like april first. i got sprayed. right in my face and all over my shirt. he had somehow gotten the little lever stuck so it stayed on spray.
now my kitchen is dry, my shirt is wet.

love him.

Life goes on

Ty: Mommy, when you go out, will you please not mow my dandelions?

Well, in our yard, i may as well just stay inside!!

We are still alive and kicking, but my camera is broken, so no pictures to prove it.

Wy learned how to drive the riding mower today, not mow, just drive, and he loved that.

We can finally see the end in sight for Lonnie's school, i don't think he feels that way quite yet though.

Ry and Ty are... well... Ry and Ty. Lets just say never boring.

I am striving for order from chaos and structure from laziness. Some days are better than others. But there are glimpses, so that makes me happy.

Off to bed.

?

dilly has a shirt that says T-rex on it.
it is cute.
wyatt looked at it the other day and said
"that is a triceratops, not a t-rex"
i looked
he was right
how funny is that?
how cool that wyatt knew that

Fyi

The soaking ratio of my hallway bathroom toilet is 2 1/2 rolls of cottonelle double rolls. any more and the rolls don't get completely saturated. any less and there is still standing water.

FYI

Sunny with a High of 75

"Because on and off,
The clouds have fought
Their control over the sky
And lately the weather
Has been so Bi-polar
And Consequently so have I

And now I'm sunny with a Highof 75
Since You took my heavy heart
And made it ligh
tAnd its funny how you find
You enjoy your life
When you're happy to be alive


Yesterday was just a great day. highs in the 70's. After Bible study, we met some of the moms and their kiddos at a local park for a picnic. Then off to take Ry to school. The little boys took some good naps, even Ty, then it was time to pick up the big kids.
Daddy had class, so Grandpa came over, and we headed out to a different local school to check out their play ground. This is my new quest with them, to try out all the parks in town instead of the same favs all the time.
Then we went to the river and took a walk.
Then to dinner with Grandpa.
Home, bed.

A great day was had by all. It would only have been better if Lonnie didn't have class followed by work. Those are long nights and I miss him, we all do. But school is almost over and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Today is supposed to be in the 70's again, and I can't wait to see what the day will bring.

Enjoy!

Pixie

No, Lonnie is not washing a rat. That is his new dog Pixie. She is a Pomeranian, about 11 weeks old. She is about 2 lbs and

will grow to be about 4 lbs. Small, fluffy, cute.

Oh my Dilly

Yum. Spaghetti Oh's!

My builder

This is the tool box Ty was carrying around all day. I thought he was being Bob the Builder or something like that. Until I opened it. Now who wouldn't want a toolbox full of marshmallows? Maybe not the best building supplies, but definitely easier to carry.

If you are squeemish leave now.

Here is a gross question. It would seem I should know the answer already, nut I don't.

Tyler is basically potty trained. On pee at least. He will even go all night and have a dry pull-up. He gets up in the middle of the night to pee. He wants to wear underwear all the time.

This is good. Except that he won't poop in the toilet. I would rather have him in pull-ups for the ease of cleaning that up, but the underwear are nice the rest of the time.

The question is this, how do i get him to stop pooping in the under wear? This is why he still isn't done, because it is the single thing I hate about being a mom the most. Cleaning the underwear.

Please help.

improvements

Ok so here goes.

no word on my sewing machine yet, but i am keeping my fingers crossed.

my vacuum was shot. no hope. but a great friend called me today to tell me she has one that she doesn't use, almost new, and i can have it. i went and got it and it is awesome! thanks so much!!

my garbage disposal is totally fine.

i found the extra phone we had around here and was the first one in the door when they opened this morning and got everything switched over. so i am back online and texting and such. boy that was a long 17 hours.

all in all a much better day was had around here. laundry was worked on. kids were all on time to their appointed places. stuff got done. better. much, much better.

thank you for putting up with my grumbling.

good night.

My day

My sewing machine broke
to some not a big deal
to me a VERY big deal
it is off getting fixed now (i hope)

my vacuum broke
again in some houses not a big deal
in my house, a daily necessity
it may or may not be fixed now, we will see

my garbage disposal broke
i fixed that

my van tail light broke
a nice lady in a blue van and i got to greet each other
the part to fix it was ordered and should be here soon

my cell phone broke
apparently they aren't made to throw
who knew?
it will be getting fixed tomorrow

my new bedtime schedule was way broken by all of the above
maybe tomorrow


when i was at the store getting my kids out of the car, a car with a ton of bass came pulling up next to me.
i realized i was starting to get an opinion about the person in the car.
then a man about my age got out, and right away i saw all of his tattoos and bandanna on his head and didn't think any thing about it. he looked at me and said he was sorry if he startled me. i laughed and said it was ok.
then he looked quickly in my van and headed off.
normal right?
i saw him look at the back of the van at the family of stick people there. no biggie.
then he came back, and brought a cart. told me he knew how hard it was to move a lot of kids around, and was there anything else he could do to help?

i admit that threw me off.

all i could think as i gratefully pushed the cart loaded with kids into the store was of unleash, and how surprising and welcome it is to just help some one, to just take a second and grab them a cart.
i am quite certain he didn't think twice as he went into the store.

but i have to say it was one of the bright spots in an otherwise very dismal day for me.

Storms

God impresses me. That may sound silly but he really does. I am constantly amazed at how when you listen, He will tell you exactly what he wants you to do. Where he wants you to be.

The thing that gets me is how often, no matter how sure you are of where He has put you, or how certain you are of the path he has chosen for you, life always gets in the way.

Even though you are totally aware that this is where God wants you to be, you still wonder why, and for how long, and for what purpose.
Especially when it gets hard. Or it hurts.
It would be so much easier to say forget it. It is too much. Most people around you would agree that it is too much.

But God... He has a different plan. So you step back from the situation. You take a deep breath, close your eyes and sing in you head, probably something like "strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord" or "give me a revelation, so me what to do, give me a revelation, I've got nothing with out you" and then that still small voice comes in. The one you don't tell you therapist about. The one that is always there, you just have to shut up long enough to hear it.

It says something like "do what I told you, and I will handle it all"

Then it all makes sense again. Sometimes just for a moment, but it is a moment that you remember when the storm starts again, and you listen and obey, even though others don;t understand.

A wise friend told me once that we spend so much time asking God to remove our problems and trials from us, but instead we should be asking him what we are supposed to be learning, what character is He trying to build in us through that situation? Then gradually it may not seem so bad coming from God's perspective instead of our own.

So we seek to grow, and listen and obey, and then before we know it the storm is over, and God's promise is before us, and we know why we were supposed to do it His way and not our own.

Memphis Model

So a last week I was in Memphis over night.

As I was sitting in the hotel room, watching the local news, a story caught my eye.

They were doing a piece on some local churches. Actually on a group of women from several local churches. These women got together and decided that the lines that have existed in Memphis for generations need to come down. So, they formed a little group. Not really so little, around 200 or so at last count.

They came from what they called the large suburban mega-churches, which they said are predominately white and upper middle class, and they came from the small, 20-30 congregations of the inner city churches, mostly lower income and mostly black.

They decided to get together and live life together. They are having lunch meetings. They are have play dates. They are swapping baby sitting. Then something else happened.

The men in these families started to pay attention. Then the Church leaders began to pay attention.

Now they have a very large and very active intercongregational, inter racial group of people.

They women said they looked around and said "Now what?"

So they began to step outside of themselves. Started taking on project in the city. Helping people with their homes. Running errands for people. Serving in all areas of the community before being asked.

Then something else happened. The local government began to notice.

This group of women have impacted some real change in their community. Real change in peoples lives. Real change in God's people.

All because a group of women got together to see if they could do anything to help and get to know some other women they would normally have walked by.

I have been thinking about this a lot since I got home.

The boundary lines and years of aggression and stereotyping these women confronted must have been so very daunting. But they listened. They did as they were asked.

Would I have the courage to do the same?

just because i want to remember...

wyatt has a blue striped sweater.
not sweatshirt, sweater.
light blue and dark blue.
looks kind of like a blue's clues shirt.
he loves it.

sadly, when wy grew, the sweater did not.
so, quite logically, he sleeps in it.
it is too small to wear in public, but not to wear at home.

i think he might be the only kid i know that wears a sweater to bed.
love it.
love him.

don't want to forget as he grows and it gets handed down to the others

Walls spots

Last night Lonnie gave Ry a wet rag and told her to clean the spots on the wall.
Then he told her she was his special wall cleaner.
She was very proud of herself.
She spent the rest of the evening walking around the house looking for walls to clean.
She wants to do it again today.
OK.