Habakkuk 3:18-19

I will rejoice in the LORD!

I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

The Sovereign Lord is my strength!

He makes me as surefooted as a deer,

able to tread upon the heights.

Quiet

So this morning I put all my boys in our van headed to San Antonio.

I'm not going.

I have to work.

All weekend.

I must admit I'm a little bit excited about the peace and quiet but being alone for a few hours now and I already have the tv and the radio on just to have some noise.

I've already folded and put away all the laundry.

Done the dishes.

Picked up all the toys.

Made the beds.

And now I'm done.

And there's no noise.

Except for the dogs who keep jumping up to see if dad is going to walk in the door. (They were quite upset this morning when Stuart loaded the van and they didn't get in at the last minute. I think they were more than relieved though when I walked back in the house and they realized that at least mom was home. I'm definitely second on their list.)

2 Years/4 Years

Today my girl is 2...

and my sister is 4.

Married for years that is.

Happy Birthday Scout!

And Happy Anniversary Marci & Scott!

Jennifer

We miss you so much

And love you beyond words

{May 26, 2008}

I Did It Again

I totally jinxed us.

I should have never blogged about Stuart's progress with the bathroom.

Silly me.

The boys and I were playing outside when Stuart comes out and very calmly says, "I think I need to go to the ER."

You can imagine my horror as I search for the reasoning for this breach in working and see his thumb wrapped with something and blood soaking thru. "What happened??"

"I kinda hammered my thumb."

So you see, I jinxed him. It's all my fault.

Luckily his thumb is not broken, just banged up really nicely. And Stuart got to play the poor, pitiful, helpless me card all night. Touche.

Do You See What I See?

If you guess dry wall then you win!

*Unfortunately there are no prizes for winning but good for you for knowing your home improvement projects.*

Not only is this dry wall but it's dry wall around the entire bathroom. {take a deep breath folks}

I know, I know. I didn't think this possible. I mean 4 months to demolish a bathroom AND put up drywall on all bare walls? Well that's just magnificent.

Seriously though. Stuart spent the bulk of yesterday finishing up the dry wall and getting the bathroom that much farther along in the "renovation" process. He also installed the junction box so that the boys and I won't electricute ourselves turning the lights on and off, taped the walls, fixed the switch in the livingroom also making the lamp in the fan AND the fan work at the same time, fixed the porch light, and fixed the outlet under the bookcase. Not-to-mention the fact that a lot of the drywall that has been hanging out in front of our fireplace is now gone. Yay for Stuart!

Honker

Dear Honker,

I don't know who you are but believe me when I say that if I knew where you lived, I would come to your house and do the same thing to you as you do to me. {did that sound ridiculously harsh or what?}

Let me just explain something to you: when you come to a house near mine and honk your horn not once, not twice, not even three times but FOUR TIMES, I loose it. And not just "rolling of the eyes and complaining to my husband or anyone/thing with ears" loose it. I mean full on ranting and raving and daring to come out of the house in my pajamas (yes it's that bad) to confront you loose it.

You see, honking is perfectly acceptable when on a major road and the person in front of you is about to be hit by either yourself or another vehicle. It makes complete and perfect sense to alert another driver of immanent danger. It is also common knowledge that a slight honking to inform the driver in front of you that the light has been green for more than 30 seconds and therefore they may proceed, is in fact ok.

However honking at some one's house to alert the media that you have arrived or are waiting is NOT OK.

It's rude.

And obnoxious.

And loud.

And lazy.

And makes me want to come out and assault your vehicle with a really heavy piece of metal.

Just so you know.

I can "handle" it when I am sleeping during the day and know that the rest of the world {minus my fellow night co-workers} is carrying on like normal day/night individuals. Even though I might punch the pillow a couple of times when I hear you honk, I know that the rest of the world is awake and used to hearing lots of random noises.

But when you honk at 10:30 pm and my children are snug and sound asleep and my husband and I are having a nice relaxing evening parked on the couch and our dogs are being ever the guards that they are in our bed and you HONK and ruin that tranquility; by golly you have messed with the wrong momma.

Have you not ever heard of a cell phone? They are quite handy and when you pull up to a house and need to relay to the tenant(s) that you have arrived, you can bring forth this fantastic piece of technology and ever so quietly impart this knowledge.

You also have these nifty things called arms and legs. And if the aforementioned gadget is not functioning, you can use these arms and legs to walk up to the door and knock, thus allowing the home owner the privilege of knowing that you have indeed arrived.

(if for some reason you don't have legs or arms...well, why and how are you driving?)

Honking, however, is not on this list of approved means of letting yourself be known. Let me just reiterate:

It's rude.

And obnoxious.

And loud.

And lazy.

And makes me want to come out and assault your vehicle with a really heavy piece of metal.

Just so you know.

Very respectfully (but donning a hammer),

Clarissa {a person whom you don't know but might hear screaming at you to shut up}

Apparently I'm on a Lady Gaga Kick

Difference between Us

Me: So...are you ready to tackle the house this weekend?

Stu: ummm

Me: I mean, it's kinda now or never.

Stu: We'll see.

Me: By "we'll" you mean you right?

Stu: Sure.

Me: Are you listening to me?

Stu: Uh huh.

Me: Really?

Stu: Did you know that yesterday was "Draw Muhammad Day" on facebook?

Me: What?

4 months and counting

I'm not going to complain.

I'm not.

I'm just going to inform you that it has been over 4 months since Stuart started working on the boys' bathroom.

4 months.

And counting.

And while I know that it's not entirely his fault that it's not done yet, I'm getting kinda anxious about it not being done.

We knew when we bought this house that it was old. Really old. There were several things that we knew we would have to "help out" in order to make this house more user friendly. Stuart got a little demo-happy with the bathroom with no real plan of attack. {just like he did with the floors and the kitchen}

I know that the biggest reason that things are still helter-skelter is school. I am 100% devoted to him finishing school. {we are ALMOST there} But I also know that Stuart is quite the procrastinator and he has a touch of ADD. He's wonderful and great and blessed with so many talents but time awareness if not one them {lucky for us it is for me}.

I'm just hoping we don't hit the 6 month mark on this.

A Few Fashion Tips

I am by no means of the imagination a "fashionable" person; I leave that title to my two beautiful sisters. BUT I do know when something is really, really bad. Unfortunately I see most of that really, really bad category at work. This weekend was no exception. So to impart some of my very limited knowledge, I have compiled a list of fashion tips.

1. A bra is a woman's best friend. Please, please, please invest in at least one. And when coming to the ER for the 3rd time in three days, wear it.
2. A fanny pack is never ever acceptable. Ever.
3. If you have time to get food on the way to the ER, you have time to put real pants on.
4. Being that we live in TX, flip flops are a staple in 95% of closets. At least throw those on when leaving instead of house shoes. Better yet, at least wear house shoes instead of nothing. Gross.
5. Man or woman, an A-undershirt is just that: an UNDERSHIRT. Meant to be worn UNDER another garment.
6. That piece of cloth that's covering your dairy-air is not a skirt. If you're slightly embarrassed by it, we are big time embarrassed for you.
7. Underwear should always be a must.
8. Pajamas with cartoons are cute...for KIDS. {OK, so I may wear pajamas with cartoons too, but only IN my house}
9. High heels do not always dress up an outfit.
10. Remember your seasons. If you wear a Christmas sweater in May, you are going to be laughed at.

*Now if you have a TRUE emergency, throw all these tips out the window. But since some people consider a sore throat that they have had for two weeks an emergency at 3:45 am, these tips count for them.

Oh, and while I was busy at work this weekend noting what not to wear, my boys were busy doing this.

Stuart, in his infinite online searching savviness, came across a Lego website that lists tons and tons of directions for different creations. This was just one.

Greyson Chance

Stuart introduced me to this young talent last night (apparently I missed the craze the past two weeks)...but seriously, amazing!

Save a Cow

I so could eat some of this right now.

Just saying.

Too bad Wichita Falls DOESN'T have one.

Mess

My oldest

is very much

a mess

My Sister's Famous

At least within her city.

Spring-Done.

Today is Stuart's last final

Of the spring semester that is

He is ALMOST done

4 classes this summer

2 in each term

And then he's done

Bachelor's degree in hand

No more school

No more chaos and whirlwind of schedules

Hallelujah

Potty Trained?

So...potty training...

Yeah.

Not so fun.

Why in the world we decided that the Saturday before Mother's Day would be a good day to start this herculean process, I don't know but now we have to live with that decision. Sigh.

I think there were three main reasons why we started when we started:

1. I was off this past weekend
2. Poopy diapers really stink
3. Huggies is no longer making (or at least Walmart is no longer carrying) size 6 diapers in the mega box.

Some might think that the reason we decided to potty train Tucker is that he is three. THREE YEARS OLD. But no, that had nothing to do with it.

Starting out we knew that this ridiculous endeavor would not be easy. If there's anything that we've learned about being parents is that neither one of your children are the same and don't let your kids see you naked; they start asking questions and pointing things out and then you've started down the slippery slope of explaining the difference between boys and girls and why mommies have "owies" once a month. So we knew that Tucker and potty training would be completely different than Tyson and potty training. If nothing else we knew that while Tyson is very much a pleaser, Tucker is much more of a barrel-his-way thru and hope everything is still standing when he's done. This would be a perfect interlude into the fact that Tucker is three and weighs half a pound less than his 4.5 year old brother.

Friday night we started talking to Tucker about using the potty the next morning. Tucker has been more than adamant about NOT wanting to use the potty and quite frankly was more than happy to stay in diapers. (At this point I'm kinda siding with underwear being overrated) But we had a trick up our sleeve. Something that Tucker just can't stand.

Tyson getting something that Tucker doesn't.

You see, Tyson got a new bike helmet. Tucker did not. And Tucker has been beside himself with jealousy. And Stuart and I are crafty if anything else. We knew that Tyson getting a new helmet would drive Tucker bonkers. We completely used that against him.

Apparently A+B=C. Who knew all that high school math would come into play when parenting?

All we had to do was dangle that new helmet in front of Tucker's face and he was done. Big boy underwear and all.

Unfortunately, where it only took Tyson a day (seriously a single day) to potty train, Tucker's still working on it.

Saturday was a complete trail and error. We had some great successes but were left drained and wondering why in the world we had done this to ourselves (and our floor). Sunday was a bit more error than trail. Apparently the fog of having a new helmet had cleared and Tucker realized what we were really trying to do. Monday seemed to be better and Tuesday was a testament to aim.

Here's where I bust our my trump card. I'm a G-I-R-L. I don't have to deal with things like aim and sitting or standing and weird appendages. Stuart is a B-O-Y. By default I don't understand and therefore Stuart is responsible for all things AIM.

The good news is that we are wearing underwear all day and the majority of pottying is done in the potty (just some word knowledge-"potty" is the training potty, "toilet" is the actual toilet that flushes). Also good news is that all this pottying is going on before we get new carpet. Point for us.

Thanks to Amy for rubbing it in that her sweet little, not even two year old girl totally beat my boy in the potty training race! (But really congrats to you!) And Jennifer, hang in there!

Oh and today is this guy's birthday.

My big six year old.

And one more thing. Yesterday Luke turned one. ONE. God is good!

Just to be clear

The one on the left is 16 months older. Just so 'ya know.

Exodus 20:12

Day One: The Results

Well, it was a day. Just when I thought that there was NO WAY that Tucker was ever going to go in the potty, he did. Now don't get me wrong; today was NOT an easy day. Tucker kicked and screamed and bucked us every step of the way but it turns out that his desire for a new helmet won out over his desire to still wear his diaper (at least for today).

So the tally:

20 attempts at using the big boy potty.

5 actual goings in the potty.

2 pee-pee accidents in underwear.

1 poo accident in underwear.

4 total pairs of underwear worn.

1 load of laundry started because of accidents.

No hair loss due to mommy pulling it out of her head.

I think we faired pretty well.

P Day

Today is THE day folks.

P day to be exact.

Potty, pee and poo.

We are going to get Tucker to go in the big boy potty, by golly we are!

New Spider Man and Toy Story underwear: check.

New helmet as an incentive: check.

Ice cream as an incentive: check.

Potty chair: check.

The desire and will to USE the aforementioned items: unclear.

We will succeed. We will.

Pray for us.

Cinco

Me: Today is Cinco de Mayo.

Stu: And?

Me: And nothing. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Stu: Are you trying to bring this back to the fact that the bathroom still isn't done?

Me: Well, now that you mention it...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To Do List

• Grocery shopping (it seems like we are ALWAYS out of milk)
• Restart the laundry that I started in my awake-for-24-hours meltdown (not good)
• Mow the more than foot high grass (really not good)
• Do some dishes (ehh)
• Strip the beds
• Take some pictures (it's already March 4!)
• Get things back in order after working all weekend (a lot easier said than done)
• Catch up on some emails
• Vacuum (like NOW)

May

2007

Moving since our house was demolished

Thanks base housing!