Who's With Me??

Does anyone else out there think that Wal-Mart put the tiles in their entries where you get your cart just so that you don't realize you have a bad one until it's too late to turn around??

When left to my own devices, again

Something comes over me when I'm in Lubbock.

I could blame it on the medication I'm on for my coccyx.

Or I could blame the paint fumes from the painting we've been doing.

Or I could just let you all know that I'm completely insane and have been for quite some time.

Not Just Loose Change!

A few months ago I found this on my couch. It made my uterus hurt.
Wish she'd be there every day.

Spit

When Reagan got her first trophy for a 1+ at state piano contest last Friday she wouldn't put it down. We took it into Pei Wei with us for dinner because she had to show Daddy right away. I noticed her positioning it from time to time, but then I saw...
her spit cleaning it.

Apparenlty it wasn't shiny enough:c)

I guess if I'd ever received a trophy at any point in my 36 years of life, I'd know the feeling.

It's the beginning...

I usually start my backyard work during Spring Break. Raking leaves, pulling weeds, relocating plants, trimming, planting, and pulling. This Spring Break however was spent spending time with family and a last minute trip out of state. Since then I have been busy with more traveling and then a broken coccyx.

So here we are, Memorial Day weekend. The weather was beautiful....

...and the backyard looks horrible, the pool is full of slime, and I am in constant pain.

You know how sometimes you just get a feeling, an urge? I was sitting in the backyard today watching the girls jumping on the trampoline and chatting with a friend. I kept looking around at all the work that had to be done.So what did I do?

I picked up a rake. I just couldn't look at it anymore.

This is the pile that I ended up with.Things were shaping up.But sadly, I couldn't do anything about the pool. But I could make the girls do something:c)They worked out quite a system. Two wore gloves and scooped up the muck and leaves into buckets and then handed them up to be dumped into the trash bag. When the bag was full they'd switch and the bucket dumper became a muck scooper. They did it with no complaints and in about an hour they were done.And quite proud of themselves.

All that was left was a small pool of mucky water.Makes you want to dive right in, doesn't it?

We were wondering what to do next when this guy showed up.He had a borrowed power washer and got right to work. He quickly had everything cleaned up.Some people just couldn't wait for it to be done.After the sump pump and some trips up the ladder with buckets full of the remaining water the cute pool guy said it was time.

The girls knew what that meant and ran out the gate.

We have the most amazing neighbors around. They help us fill our pool every year. Shawn has always offered to pay the difference in their water bills but no one has ever asked us to.

It looks pretty funny. Hoses coming from all directions.

We couldn't keep them out of it. They had to play in the water even though there wasn't much.But...notice anything interesting about the sky? Yep. A storm blew in.

And dumped leaves off the Magnolia.

All over the patio, rock garden, and walkway I had spent hours working on. Sigh.

Such is the summer life at our house.

School's-Out-For-Summer!!

Sing it with me!

Well, that's really the only line that I know. So...moving on.

Our middle school has a wonderful exemption program that let's the kids with A & B averages and less the three absences skip out on semester tests. They go one step further and take them on trips. And the final step? They pay for it. Talk about a good reason to do your best and stay in school!

In December they took them swimming all day at an amazing indoor pool. Another day they took them downtown to an awesome snow slide.

Now, for May? Well, in their defense...Oklahoma passed a law recently that said that students needed to be in school 1080 hours. We met that before our last scheduled day. Since we have an amazing school system, they decided to let us out two days earlier!

I know that it messed up the reservations that the school had made at the locations it had chosen. That meant today found 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at a farm that is mainly a field trip destination for 4, 5, and 6 year olds.

They had the whole place to themselves which certainly was a good thing because they were all over it! They all took a train ride, played on the playground, and visited the petting zoo. Well, the girls stood around at the playground while the boys...

played. Something about boys maturing later....I'm just saying:)

McKinley has for years been obsessed with chickens. Not so much the actual bird...more the word. Ask her a question she doesn't want to answer and you'll get, "Chicken!" We can't explain it. She does have a chicken Webkins named Nugget but she hasn't asked for a pet chicken or anything weird like that. But today she saw it. While in the petting zoo there it was; a real, live, chicken.Yes, she was in heaven.

Next I stood on the scenic overlook and watched about 50 kids get completely lost in a maze.I couldn't stop laughing. I took about 10 pictures of Kristie's daughter as she passed under me over and over again. I had to comment each time and she finally got to where she said, "Stop taking pictures of me!" I still just laughed.I was the only parent there so I was watching things from a distance so I wouldn't embarrass.I was so pleased when McKinley asked me to come and take pictures of her with her friends. I really wished I could have joined them on the jumping pillows, but the coccyx would not have approved.I love this one. It looks like they're flying.After a few pictures on the hand pedal train carsand the go cartsI headed over to Reagan's party at a park.

Well, not just any park. The park where Shawn and I had our first date. And where he proposed:)

It looks a little different with 125 first graders though!It was quite an exhausting day for some of them.Kennedy and the fourth grade classes stayed at school and had 'Game Day' so I picked her up for a Sonic lunch date. A friend ended up being there also so we sat at a picnic table and chatted. I forgot to take a picture though! Her sweet friend Meredith spent the night so I did get this.They continued their 'game day' by sitting together and playing on their PSP's.

So now we start our summer vacation. What a relief. I'm ready for no schedules and no alarm clocks. Days spent lounging by the pool and nights sitting under the Magnolia for dinner.

Will someone please remind me of this at the beginning of August when my sweet girls are driving me insane and I can't wait for school to start? Thanks.

And now, just one more picture...my favorite of the day.Had you going there for a minute, didn't I? Hee hee:c)