Lemonade Stand

Ben is highly motivated to earn money so when he saw the neighbors were having a yard sale and there were lots of people coming and going he ran outside and had himself a Lemonade stand!! He made $3.50 in an hour selling .25cent cups of Raspberry Lemonade!!

Happy 9th Anniversary

Today is our 9 year anniversary - well actually yesterday because (of course) it is after midnight when I started writing this!! I don't have any pics of us on our wedding day up around the house and it wasn't the digital age yet so I had to take pictures of the pictures in our wedding album I made!! They aren't very good pics - I just thought it would be fun to share!!

can you guess who this little guy is?? This is the boy we dropped off at Boot Camp three days ago!! Can you believe it?? Alex was Danny's Best Man - way too cute!!!

Me with my mom and dad

Danny & I with his parents

This picture has always been my favorite picture from the wedding and I think it has to do with the symbolism of family and parents giving away their kids!! I just love all of us together!

We had a very casual and small wedding at the clubhouse where my parents live. It had a big deck outside which is where the ceremony took place and the reception was inside. It was such a wonderful day full of laughter, smiles, JOY and love!! He is my man and I am lucky to have him as a husband and friend for the rest of my life!

One of my favorite things is when we go to bed together(which I really struggle with since I am the night owl) and are able to just talk. The kids are in bed, the house is quiet and we just hang out!

In 9 years we have had 3 boys plus a stepson, Danny got his Bachelor's Degree, moved twice, had 5 cars, 1 dog, 3 new couches, lots of laughter, some fighting, and an absolute faith in God and thankfulness for blessing us with our crazy life on that 24th day of June 2000.

Boot Camp

We dropped off Alex at Boot Camp on Sunday afternoon! He is a part of a group called Sea Cadets which is a program for kids who are interested in the military. This particular program is thru the Navy and he is way more interested in the Marines but since they are part of the Navy and this is the only program available to him - this is what he will be a part of!!

He LOVES it!!! He was so excited to go to Boot Camp he couldn't sleep the night before we took him!! I am a little bit nervous about it all but I truly believe God provided this oppurtunity for Alex and that it will be good for him! I wonder if he will still LOVE it when he is done?

Anyways....pictures.......

Grandma was the only one who could tie a square knot on his dress white uniform!

The HAIRCUT.......

We had been joking about him getting his haircut when he got there but I had no idea it would be this short!! I wonder what he thought when he looked in the mirror????

Not quite done......

Almost......

DONE.....

Where did my son go? When did he grow up and become such a young man???

WOW! He looks all grown up!! Looking Good!

Off he goes......

We will pick him up in 2 weeks and get to watch him Graduate from Recruit Training!

My Boys are HOME

Last Thursday I went to the Homeschool convention and since my hubby had to work the Boys(the little ones) went to stay at Grandma's house in Hampton. She met me halfway in Richmond and the boys happily trotted off to Grandma's. Their cousins were also at Grandma's so they were beside themselves with excitement to get out of my car and into hers and get going!!!
The plan was to trade back Saturday evening when convention was over! While talking to Gma on Sat we decided that maybe the boys would just stay with them since we were all driving down on thursday anyways....sounds great doesn't it????
I missed my boys!
I got home Sat night and hubby and I headed to church Sunday morning - by ourselves - weird!!! In front of us was one of the boys little friends and watching him just made me want my Boys home with me!!! I was excited to have some time to get some school planning done while they were gone but I was not prepared for the enormity of how much I missed them!!! We found out monday that Thomas had to go to the Dr. on Thursday since we will be gone for so long after that so we made plans to meet at 7 tonite to get the boys. I called my mom at lunchtime and asked if we could meet earlier - I wanted to love on my boys!!! It was so nice to hug them,kiss them and have them sitting all over me when we got home!! I truly hope that I remember how nice it is and will enjoy it longer and not fall back into complaining because they are always all over me!!!!

Summer Travels

We have got quite a busy summer!!!
I just came home from the Homeschool Convention(which you can read about on our homeschool blog) on Saturday night.
We will be heading down to Grandma's on Thursday to visit and go to the beach and to drop off Alex at SeaCadet Boot Camp!! He is so excited to go get yelled at and tortured military style for 2 weeks!!!
Stephen, Ben and Thomas will go to VBS next week when we get home from Grandma's and on July 3 we will head back down to Virginia Beach to see Alex graduate from Recruit Training! Then we will drive all the way to Canada to stay with my In-Laws for 2 1/2 weeks - until the 12th of July.
We come home for approx. 6 days and then leave again for a week of camping with my sister and my parents! Can you believe all that???
They will all be good trips but alot of driving and time spent in the car will surely make us all crazy! I am for sure that we will not be going anywhere in August!!!

How does our Summer get so full so fast??? We are just simple people who live a simple life and every summer it seems like we turn into world travelers!!! Having just one child who is in public school really limits our ability to travel at other times of the year - if we want him to go with us - and since none of our family live near us we spend our summers visiting them!!! We used to go to the Outer Banks but we have decided that it is more important to visit our family! We do miss the beach trip but it is worth it!!!

Here's to all Your Summer Travels - make them Fun!!!!

I've Been Painting

I found these little wooden stand up plaques at the Dollar Tree! I bought a few and am thinking of making them as Christmas Presents - what do you think??? Would you want these as a gift?

I also found this one.....

They were all just plain old wood - which I can't stand - so I took my paintbrush to them!!!! I think they all turned out cute!!! Especially since each word only cost $1!!!

I found these little chicken cards at the Nursery and I just had to have them! I painted some frames I already had, glued them to scrapbook paper I already had and they will sit on

I got this idea from going here and from there I went here

I liked it so I went straight to Wordle and created some of my own! This is the only one I have finished and it is for my sister who I will see tomorrow - do you think she will like it????

Cleaning is such fun

While the boys have been gone I tackled cleaning their room, the playroom and my room - basically the upstairs. It took me close to 3 hours to get their room picked up, toys put in the right places and vacuumed!! We had to get a new vacuum because ours completely dies and with 4 boys you can't really go without for too long! This vacuum has lights on the front of it that tell you when the floor is clean or if it is dirty(weird I know) red is dirty and green is clean. I am vacuumning and vacuuming and vacuuming and th elight just keeps being red!! It would flash green every once in awhile but it stayed mostly red!!! How sad is that! I guess our old vacuum didnt work long before it died or could it be that I haven't vacuumed in forever????
I will post pics of what I painted tonight - after all the cleaning!!! I had funa nd went a little crazy!!!

The boys are going camping...

Woohoo!! The boys are going camping without me!! They are leaving after church tomorrow and will come back on Monday afternoon! What to do with a quiet house???? Well - I discussed with a friend of mine that I desperatley need some one on one time with God and now I will have it! She did warn me(knowing me very well) that if I try to sit still at home and not do projects it will be very hard for me!!! I am going to give it my all because God and I have drifted way too far away from each other and I need to be Renewed in his Love, Trust, Faith and some more of His Love!! I am very excited to have this quiet time with my Lord and Savior!!!
Maybe I will float around in the pool while I am quiet????
Do you think I could paint a room as long as I am Quiet and hanging out with God while doing it???
It is so hard for me to sit still and do nothing. It is even harder to only do one thing at a time!!!

Thomas' cast

Look at this little bitty cast......

Life is much better with it on but it is going to be a long 4 weeks of healing!!!

Mommy - I only have 1 hand is all I hear!!!

Alex

Alex is my oldest son - he is 14 years old. Now - I did not give birth to Alex but I am the mother in his life - I think of his mom as his friend. Alex has always lived with his father and when we got married he was 5 years old and has always been with us!! He calls me Julie and I am his favorite stepmom!!!

Anyways....Alex left for Mexico today on his first Missions trip!! He graduated from 8th grade at his Christian School(pictures below - ain't he a cutie???) this year and the big thing about this year at his school is the Mexico Missions trip the whole 8th grade class goes on.

Now - this year was a huge disappointment for Alex and us(his dad was going with him) because the original trip - that these kids have planned for all year long and have been anticipating for years before that was Cancelled......Swine Flu!!!! They were supposed to leave a week after the big swine flu breakout in Mexico and because of the concerns and everything being shut down they had to cancel the trip!!! This is the first time anything like this has ever happened at the school and so there really wasn't a back up plan - the kids did some local mission work with some local charities and got to go white water rafting for a day!!!! Nothing in comparison to the Big Trip!!! Praise God for his goodness and Mercy because an awesome parent who has gone on the trip since the beginning(11 years) and has a relationship with the church in Mexico said he would be more than happy to take a group if they wanted to go!! Of course Alex wanted to go - so after much prayer we decided this was an oppurtunity we didn't want him to miss - so he went!!! He is with another parent watching over him because his dad couldn't go and 2 other classmates(there was only 9 in his class) and their parents! They will be working with a local church doing whatever they need done to help out, they will be doing some group activities with the kids sunday school and an after school care group that the church holds and they might do some sightseeing!! I am so Blessed that Alex has the heart and the desire to want to do this work and wants to go and share the love of the Lord with others around him!!! We are praying for many Blessings on this community and on Alex from this trip!!! He will be back next Monday night!!! I hope I will be able to share lots of pics!!!!

Graduation Pics (Mommy missed the whole thing because I was in the ER with Thomas)

These boys decided - on their own - to go all out!!! Alex borrowed his Dad's tuxedo!!

The whole crew!!! An amazing group of kids that have the Lord's fingerprints all over them!!!!

A gift from us and the school - a cross necklace that has our favorite verse for Alex on it.......

1 Timothy 4:12

Getting the official 8th Grade Diploma


Always gotta take a pic with the brothers!!!

Top 30 Picture Books

Over at the Bookworms Booklist she has listed these 30 Books that have been given the title of THE Top 30 Picture books by School Library Journal! She has challenged us to see how many we have read from this list! I marked the ones we have read in blue. I would love to see your list!!!
I was totally shocked at how many of these we have actually read - considering Froggy is a big hit in our house - but I was even more suprised by how many we own but have not read!!! We will be doing some reading this week - a little good literature never hurt anybody!!! I love that so many of htese books I read when I was a little girl!!!

#1: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
#2: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (1947)
#3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (1979)
#4: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
#5: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (2003)
#6: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)
#7: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955)
#8: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)
#9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)
#10: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)
#11: The Story of Ferdinand y Monroe Leaf, ill. Robert Lawson (1936)
#12: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (1994)
#13: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (1948)
#14: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, ill. Lane Smith(1989)
#15: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (1996)
#16: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (1987)
#17: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
#18: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (1970)
#19: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (1982)
#20: George and Martha by James Marshall (1972)
#21: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)
#22: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, ill. by Mike Smollin (1971)
#23: Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban (1964)
#24: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, ill. Lois Ehlert (1989)#25: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)
#26: Corduroy by Donald Freeman (1976)
#27: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902)
#28: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, ill. Ray Cruz(1972)
#29: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)
#30: Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr., ill. Eric Carle (1967)

I am Guest posting at Today's Housewife...

go over and check it out http://todayshousewife.blogspot.com/. You should also peruse their whole blog - they have some really good posts and lots of helpful info!!!

Lots of Ice Cream

will be eaten in this house for awhile while the baby has his owie!! Every once in awhile the tears break out and he will scream that it hurts but so far it is going much better than I thought it would!!! He was screaming for me to get the splint off this morning(wait till Monday and the real cast goes on) but it seems okay now! He still has his stickers he got from the hospital and doesn't want to take the shirt off.....

Could you resist this face and his ice cream pleas???????

ANOTHER Owie....

Thomas broke (fractured) his wrist tonight! He was playing on the playground at Alex's school (we were there for his 8th grade graduation - more on that tomorrow) and fell off and must have landed on his wrist. The poor little guy was in so much pain - it was horrible to hear him just crying and crying. We headed to the ER - again - and he was fine after they put in an IV with pain meds!!! He even told the xray guy that it was okay and could take as long as he needed it too!!! I was in awe of how quickly they took care of the little guy - we were outof there in less than 2 hours! He has a splint(which is lamost just like a cast) on his right wrist and we will head to the ortho tomorrow to find out what will happen next!! We know for sure he will have to have a cast!

the Pool...

is now empty!! We went to sleep and when we woke up it was almost empty!! The spot where we put it was not completely level and so it tilted and I guess I put too much water in it because the water knocked over the top and emptied right out!! El sucko!!! My in laws are here and my father inlaw is sweet enough to help me fix it so he started to make a level spot for the pool with mulch and dirt and timbers - it is going to be sooo nice when it is full - again - and we can play in it!! My hubby keeps asking is it worth it?? YES!! Even when it is only part way full the boys will play out there and have so much fun and mommy doesn't have to drag all our 'stuff' to the pool every day because it is in our backyard!!!

Summertime is Here......

The Pool is full - it only took about 4 days off and on - the water bill is going to suck!!! It is going to be so much fun once it warms up - the boys have been in but it is still WAY too cold for mommy and especially Daddy(it might be august before daddy actually gets in it)!!

The Ice Cream truck has started coming and that means summer around our house!!! Lucky for us he comes every Tuesday and slowly makes the turn in the cul de sac we live on becasue he knows that all of our kids will come running! They are usually already out front waiting for him because they heard him coming at least a mile away - if not further!! Another item we are going to have to add to the budget Because - I dont know about you but - I just don't have the heart to say NO to the ice cream truck!!!!

A friend or two came running as well!!!

This is the second time alex has gotten his tongue stuck to this exact same flavor popsicle!!! The first time(last year) he was crying it hurt so bad because he stupidly YANKED it off his tongue - along with about 3 layers of skin!!! This time he ran to the hot water and it came off very nicely!!! Every time, we retell the story of how Grandma got her tongue stuck to the jungle gym bar when she was a little girl and how she was stuck there and how they got it off!!!!

The boys are going camping on Friday and leaving Mommy home alone - NOW that is what summer is all about!!!!

What's Up....

Alex had his second weekend of Sea Cadets and got to go for the whole weekend this time instead of just saturday. He LOVES it and is so excited to be doing this and all the military training! He has got his whole next year of promotions and skills trainings planned out and we are just loving watching him be so into this! The driving 2 hours to and from one weekend a month might not work out so well for his brothers - we left at 445 saturday morning - way too early for anybody in our house(except daddy who wasnt even going for the ride - next time)!!!! It might be time to invest in the dvd players for the car!!!Hmmm!! Target has some on sale this week....

The other boys and mommy messed around with trying to get the pool set up this weekend. We didnt get it up because it has to be on level ground and the only level ground in our yard is the front and we will not be having a big blue pool in the front yard for the next 3 months!!! Tomorrow the boys and I will be getting mulch or sna dto do what w ecan to make it a little mor elevel so the whole pool doesnt tilt and spill over!!! We got this 16ft buy 3.5ft pool at walmart last year on clearance for $25 and we are going to make it last as long as possible!!!

I finally got to hang my laundry out on the clothesline(it stopped raining briefly) that my hubby and father in law built for me last year and I was so excited!! there is just something about hanging those clothes on the line and watching them blow in the wind hanging on my line that just makes me feel like a real country girl!!! Am I weird???

I am now headed over to the homeschool blog to share what I have been working on tonight to be ready for our back to school day tomorrow!!! I needed a week vacation from life to get ready to get back on track with the boys now that I am no longer working so tomorrow our time is up!!!

TV Guardian...

I used to work at the christian bookstore and we sold this thing called clear play which would bleep out language and some violence but I could never bring myself to pay $70 for it!! Well - i have had several customers come in and say they wished we still sold TV Guardian and that is so much betteer than this clear play - I don't know as i have never had either...until Today!!!
I just got the TV Guardian at a thrift store for $2!!! I am soooo excited and can't wait to see if it actually works!!! It is supposed to be able to determine when bad language is cominga nd it bleeps it out!!! We soooo need that inour house - the boys love things like batman, hulk, xmen but mommy hates the language so.....I will be praying over this little contraption like crazy till my hubby puts it in to make sur eit works!!! I am totally stoked at my find today!!!

I have soooo missed you guys....

I am having total blog withdrawals and now that life has calmed down a little.....I am back!!! It started out by offering to help a friend get ready for her yard sale, then I had to get ready for my own yard sale, have the yard sale, then I was working on a couple gifts and things for the house - which I will gladly post pics of below - and next thing you know weeks have gone by - my goodness!!!

These are a couple of things I did awhile back that I couldn't remember if I showed you or not so....here they are!!! The mail thing is something I saw someone do on another blog and I loved the idea so much I had to try it - of course!!! The bench was a find at the local thrift store and I found this awesome chicken(or rooster) fabric and knew it just had to go on this little bench!!! I painted the bench with some left over paint I had and then distressed it!!

I keep seeing these banners all over on other people's blogs and I decided I wanted to make one! Some new scrapbook paper, a few embellishments and my creativity went to town!! You can't see it real well in the picture - it says Spring and looks super cute hanging on one of the many bookshelves we have in our house!!!

Do you remember those houses I posted a couple months ago and wanted ideas on what to do with them???? Well - I decopauged paper onto this one after painting the background and then decopauged this saying I saw on some artwork at work! I made it for a really good friend who abandoned us and moved to Texas!!! I really hope she finds somewhere special for it!

That same friend was throwing away this lovely bulletin board and I was able to rescue it for my own uses!!! I painted the corkboard part with LOTS of coats of chalkboard paint and the outside edge with(once again) leftover paint and then I wrote the verse from Deuteronomy 6 around the edge! I painted a little tin cup black, filled it with chalk and an eraser and hung it up next to it! Super cute and way practical for school!!!!

And last but not least - I made these for a girl at work who graduated from college this weekend! Ilove them and how they turned out! I have had the idea for awhile - I got the frames from super duper clearance at work after christmas(i have lots more too) and have had this idea but noone to do it for...so...I found someone to make them for and I do like how they turned out!!!

That is why I have been offline for so long and I must say when I see all the fun stuff I got to paint I am not as sad as I was at not blogging when I started this post!!! I am now off to get started on teacher gifts - a week late!!! I will share when i finish them - I have 8 to do!!!

Is it just Me????

I was just picking up and vacuuming because the house is a pit(as always) and I found two new(brand new but cheap - $$store) toys that are already broken laying on the floor!!! Are my kids the only ones who terrorize almost every toy they get and rarely ever play with it the way it is intended?? Is it because they are boys? Is it because I don't watch them close enough?? They have fun - there is no doubt about that but to what extent!!!!!

FREE....FREE....FREE....

I just found about this and wanted to pass it along....This website Learning A-Z has freebies all week long - all you have to do is register!! I have been downloading goodies and having fun looking around - hope you do too!! Pass it along!!

I just gave my 2 weeks notice......

YAHOOO!!! Praise God!!!! I am jumping and dancing with Joy - you just can't see me!!! it has been a really rough month of trying to do it all and we just decided that me working is not worth the extra stress it is adding to our lives!! I have worked almost every night for the past 3 weeks and it is sooo not worth the gas money, the kids crying, I haven't seen my hubby in weeks, the stress it adds to mommys day, the way mommy yells because she is stressed and tired all the time! This is not the life we want for our family and that comes first!!! There is such a peace in my spirit right now and the joy it brought to the boys faces was even more worth it!
We have been a 1 car family for over a month now and with me working it was causing way extra stress and we will be a 1 car family as long as needed(it all depends on how much it will cost to fix danny's car)! We have been following Dave Ramsey's plan for getting out of debt and with the last 2 paychecks I make we will have Baby step 1 - which is our emergency fund - and so that was the cincher in me being OUTTA THERE!!!

Saturday.....AAAHHHH....Saturday

On Thursday night I was able to get someone to cover my shift at work on Saturday and I couldn't wait for saturday to get here!!! The weather was supposed to be hot, my hubby was off and with me not having to work we could all hang out at home all day and putz around!!! For me that meant sleeping in, projects and hanging out with hubby!!!!
I almost finished painting the picnic table for the deck, almost finished spray painting a new bookshelf i got at a yard sale - these two projects will have to be completed sometime this week in my spare time. We got a queen size bed - Praise God because our old bed(King) was so horribly misshapen and my back was on fire from sleeping in it - from the same yard sale and my hubby moved some things around for me in our room to make it look a little nicer!!! Sleep was so good last night and we made it loud and clear that the new bed doesn't accomodate small children so we flew solo all night long last night!!! We will see how long that lasts but for now I will enjoy the quiet of my new, Hard bed with just me, my hubby and Shiloh!!!
Hubby and I also got to go on a date sat. night!!! We went to a free concert at JMU performed by their girls christian accapella group - they were fantastic!!!! Now - the concert was free but the groceries, the garden supplies for my dear hubby and the other non essentials that were picked up at a few stops we made along the way - were not!!! It was so nice to get to hang out with just my main squeeze for a couple hours!!! I highly recommend it!!

Life has been CRAZY around here.....

and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any at all!!! I have barely seen my hubby and my kids in the past 10 days between his work, my work, track meets, and all the other Life that has happened in between! We have helped my in laws move out of their house in MD, spent a few more hours in the ER getting Ben's stitches out, driven across town and back again to look for lost backpacks and so much more that I can't even remember!!!

We are back to a one car family again - after a $400 repair bill it died again after about 3 days and who knows if we will be able to fix it again and when!

Alex and I spent all day Saturday in Roanoke at SeaCadets. It is a really neat program run by the Navy for young people ages 11-17 who are interested in the military. This particular program is run by the Navy and Roanoke is the closest one to us so we visited on Saturday and Alex loved it!!! He will go to training once a month and this summer he will attend a Boot Camp that is an intro into military life! Next summer he will be able to go to Boot Camp that specializes in a more specific area of interest that he has - like Seal training or marksmanship!! This is going to be an interesting journey for Alex and for us to see if the Military is really a path he wants to pursue!!! I can't wait to get pics of him in his uniform to show you guys!!!!

Talk about BLISS.......too cute not to show off!!!

Happy Easter

Yesterday our church had a 10,000 egg hunt! It was a chilly day but that didn't stop the boys from eating sno cones, bouncing/sliding in the bounce house and hunting down alot of eggs Full of candy!!! Our church Rocks!!! Uah & Tat (danny's parents) were here to join in the fun with us.

Some pics for you all to enjoy......