And we're off!

Tomorrow we'll all be up bright & early (well it won't be bright) to get ready to get kids off to school & to Kearney. Thank You to Dad & Mom, Joyce, Seth & Melissa, Jason & Tonya, Chris & Nikki for taking care of our kids!

We are so thankful to have willing people to care for our children while we're away.

A big thanks to Sonja for making my trip more fun by helping me with my "driver" choices. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Kasey Kahne & Ryan Newman do!

Watch out, I may be another Nascar fan in the making.

lucky girls

Nikki & Kennadie had a great time at the Hannah Montana concert last week, and they didn't even have to pay over face value for their tickets!

Amazing since some people were paying several hundred dollars for their tickets & some people paid that much & never received their tickets.

Such a Good Friend

You know you've got a good friend when she'll do your homework for you! My dear Sonja sent me pages of NASCAR tidbits & good ways to choose a driver. Brad & I are headed with several other couples to Texas on Thursday to watch NASCAR all weekend long.

I'm very much looking forward to getting away, but since I'm not a huge NASCAR fan myself (although Brad & the boys are) I don't have a "driver" to follow. I was actually kind of stressing out over who I should follow when my very wise friend showed me a smart way to choose a driver...

She listed all kinds of stats for the top 10 drivers & gave facts about them, and then said, and I quote, "HERE’S the latest STATS. This can help you determine who to follow. Or go with whoever has the cutest car. Ha. Or even better the cutest driver."

Nice! Now why was that so hard to figure out? Of course, I can just pick the cutest car or driver! I just needed my friend to point out the obvious! That's what true friends are for.

By the way, I've narrowed my choices down to Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman & Jeff Gordon (Hunter's favorite). Maybe I'll choose who has the cutest car to see which one I'll really root for...

Here's my choice, Kasey Kahne & the Dodge car. I think he can do it even though he's only #17 right now. He has 1 win at Texas Motor Speedway, he has experience! See how much Sonja's information helped me?

Kites, Pumpkins & Movies

Sunday afternoon was very nice. We flew kites (thanks grandma!) for awhile before the wind pretty much mutilated them, then daddy helped with pumpkin carving. We topped off the day watching Matilda together.

The Bus Barn

The pond across from us has been so great. The other night the kids & I walked around enjoying the evening. My two favorite parts of the evening were:
1. Kamrie posing for her "senior pictures" in the gazebo. She thought it was so funny to pose like that.
2. Cooper looking at all the buses in the bus barn. The Bus Barn is in between the school & the pond. He truly didn't want to come home, it was the first time I'd taken him that close to all the buses. We've seen them plenty of times driving by, but hadn't walked up to them.

Sister Picnic

Kamrie & Chloe shared a fake-food picnic across the road the other day. What sweet memories these girls will have growing up as sisters.

The Surgery is Done

As I was sitting at the table earlier today, Parker came in from outside & said to Hunter in the living room:

"The surgery is done."

I'm chuckling in the other room, because I know they are talking about a dead rabbit we came across yesterday in the field behind our house. I didn't say a word, but heard this next:

"I took out the other lung & that stuff by the stomach too." "The intestine?" "Yeah." "Oooh, Parker, you should spread it all out & see how long it is!"

"YUCK!" I'm thinking from the other room as I hear the boys talk. All I said was, "Parker are you touching that with your hands?" "No, I'm using a stick."

OK then, I guess it's ok.

Top 10

Here's my Top 10 reasons to not have a dishwasher:
10. You get to wear rubber gloves at least 3 times a day.
9. You get creative about using as few dishes as possible.
8. It's a way to get out of doing something you don't want to do..."oh, I can't change that dirty diaper because I'm washing dishes."
7. You get time to reflect on whether the meal was worth the mess.
6. It's a diet in itself..."Hmmm, I don't feel like washing dishes, so I won't eat!"
5. You realize how good your tennis shoes are after standing in one place for a long time.
4. You get to refine your debating skills by deciding whether or not the dish means enough to you to make it worth washing.
3. You don't let leftovers in the fridge start to grow because you don't want to have to scrub moldy dishes.
2. You hone your competetive skills by racing to get a pile of dishes done before the washer/dryer dings.
The Top Reason to not have a dishwasher:
1. It's good prayer time. Actually this is true (as were the other reasons). Just like it says in Diapers, Pacifiers & Other Holy Things (thanks sonja!) it's a time to say, "Thanks God for scrubbing me clean just like these dishes."

calm your heart down mom

terri's phone call to her dad: how do you get spray paint over spray off of our suburban?

hunter & parker were trying to make robot halloween costumes & were in the garage spray painting their boxes, with the doors shut, right next to the suburban.

the boys have been begging for their privileges back all weekend.

as parker was telling daddy how it all came about he said, "i should have told mommy to calm her heart down."

yep, mommy could use a lesson in calming her heart down.

side note: suburban is fine, the paint came off no prob.

2nd note to self: don't forget to feed the children

last night brad & i were fortunate to got out for supper with another couple. when we got to my parent's house to drop the kids off, parker said, "i'm hungry."

brad & i looked at each other & said, "did we forget to feed the kids?"

good thing grandma saved the day with hotdogs & peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.