Our Family.......

Some color...............

Is anybody else SICK of winter??!  I am!!  I'm tired of dull.....drab........no color.  I'm tired of trees with no leaves.......so here is some color to cheer us!

A wall at the mall........

My Valentine's scarf............

The kid's cups that I keep at my house for their visits.....man I miss them!!

Easter Bonnets!!!!  Hooray for Easter! 

Did you know that Easter comes so early this year that it cannot happen again for 227 years? 

Cool, huh?

Goodie bags I made for Meghan's shower..... she's a month old yesterday!

I'm just sayin'..........I'm ready when you are Lord!

Wow......

I love this stuff....

From Engrish.com .....

If Don King and John Travolta had a love child......

                                                           They don't care that you swim drunk.......just drown quietly......

Do you think they have a CLUE what that is in America? 

It would be like us shopping at ..... "old crappy" , or Dung-Mart.....

You can't make this stuff up...........

Seriously. 

See?  I told you my shoe had a squeak!

Sounds like fun!  Let's all go!!

And the little pyromaniac is wanted in five states....

And.....it's on a guy.......

Genius.

Probably the same guy that made 10,000 of these t-shirts......

Yes - how much do you charge to let my thong out a bit??

Guardian Angels.....

Some people have Guardian Angels.  I really do believe that.  Some people may even have two.

God has had to employ a fleet for my husband alone. 

He called to tell me he was going to be another hour til he got home.  He was waiting on the wrecker. 

"WHAT??!"

I had an accident. I'll be home in an hour.  The wrecker's here, I gotta go. 

"&^%$#@!*&(!!!!!!"

Only not outloud because I was in the car with Kendell and we were on our way to the fire station to see Chad.  And you just CAN'T rain on THAT parade.

After a few more phone calls, I realized he was okay (he was talking to me, afterall) so I figured it was probably a bit of an exaggeration.  He's good at that.  REEEEEAL good.

And I have to say that while I love our camera phones, and I think they are super, it did NOT even begin to capture it like these pictures.  When I went and saw the truck at the lot, it made me cry.  He is so lucky.  Uh....blessed.  He hates it when I say "lucky". 

He says "luck" had nothing to do with it.   

And I think he's right.

But Lord, those angels have got to be getting tired. 

I think they deserve a raise!

And if I ever get the chance.......I'm giving them a big hug.

Kendell & Ralph

It's a visit from my favorite person! 

And I think Ralphie is loving her, too. 

Could it be because of this?

She discovered that when Ralph "sits", he also does this thing with his paws in the air.

It's positively adorable.  He holds his "hands" together and it's kind of like he's shouting "BRAVO!!"

Too funny. 

Ralph has discovered something also. 

He LOOOOOOVES Honey Nut Cheerios.

Can we keep her??

Huh??  Huh????!

Can we keep her please??!!

I wish, Ralph!!  I wish!

Friends.....

One of the neatest things to see in life is to see your kids make friends.  They grow and discover and branch out and other people are a part of the process of who they become.  Not as influential as family, but close.  This is Tara.  She was in Shell's wedding, now Shell is going to be in hers!

Tara has been such a good friend to Shell.  They met in college and have kept in touch for the most part since graduating.  I love Tara, she is F*U*N!!

And a very supportive, caring friend.

She is going to make such a beautiful bride.  I just fell in love with her dress when I saw it.  The girls had a fitting for their dresses on Saturday morning. 

Shell offered to steam Tara's veil and skirt because she worked in a bridal shop while in High School and she knows how to do that.  Apparently there is an art to it.  I, personally, wouldn't try it. 

Jason is a VERY lucky guy.  Very.

And they are marrying guys that are really opposites.  But the girls  stay in touch and care about and support each other.  And I am so happy they do.  I look at how much my girlfriends have influenced me over my lifetime.  When I was in school my best friend was Sherry Johnson.  As an adult, and a new mom, I learned more than I could possibly list from my friend Carolyn.  Sometimes we are close to our moms, and learn from them.  I didn't have that experience, exactly, so for me girlfriends were so very important.  Different women influence us, and we are so lucky to have a big web of experience to draw from.  Probably, no definately, the most important lesson about discipline I learned from my mother in law.  I'll never forget it, and it profoundly influenced the way I raised my daughter, yet had never occured to me before that moment.  And I learned a lot about cooking from Ray's Grandma Heffel.  She is THE very best cook.  We all eat like starving buffoons in Oklahoma. And about unconditional love from Grandma Sunderland.  The worst thing she ever said about a soul was to call them a "butthole".  And.....wow......did he deserve worse.  And my Aunt Ruth Ann.  And I could go on forever about the things I've learned from different women I'm fortunate enough to know.  Or better yet be related to. 

I learn from my daughter every day.  And Aunt Charlene.  And my mom.  And Tera.  And Sabrina. And....and.....and...the list is nearly endless!  I am SO lucky.

I'm grateful for each and every one of you!   

Achmed

This is screaming funny.  Even if you have seen it before, you can still laugh at him!

Ah.....the weekend

I am so excited.  It's 11:22 on Friday morning, and I'm READY for the weekend!

This mom is my hero.  She made her son stand on the street corner across from his school, with this sign he had to write.  Message boards across the country lit up, a good portion in favor of the mother.  He was in no danger, mom stood there with him.  But Lord have Mercy, that woman SURE got her point across.  You can bet THIS kid won't be spending his golden years in jail. 

I don't know if there is a full moon that I don't know about or what, but the kids have been HORRIBLE.  I have one pierced, mohawked little darling that I just discovered is lying like a RUG!  Little *#%$ tells the assistant principal that we had a "miscommunication" about him serving after school detention (for excessive tardies).  Tells me that the principal never talked to him, tells the teacher that he "forgot".  Hey.  If you're going to lie, stupid, tell the same lie to at least two people.  I think I may have discovered the next Bill Clinton.  Lying is to politics and teenagers what stupidity is to bull riding.  One simply does not exist without the other.  (favorite sister in law excluded).

I know the teen years can be hard, but this kid is depriving some village of it's idiot.  It's not like he's here trying to learn anything.  Is there a box on his report card that reads something like "an intellect rivaled by garden tools"??  That's the one I'd pick.  And parent/teacher conferences are next week. Kids refer to it as "hell week".  Fraternity hazing isn't as "eagerly" anticipated as conference week.  And dreaded by teachers.  At this point in the year, you KNOW why Junior is the way he is (Meet the teacher night explains SO much...).  Now you have mom and/or dad wanting to know why he or she isn't making good grades.  Uhhhhh.  Wellll..... Um.  Here's a small list:  SOMETIMES it's because the little *^%$ hasn't been made to do a single thing he didn't want to.  He has no basic social skills because YOU couldn't be bothered to have a family meal once a week.  They have never learned to say "i'm sorry" when they hurt someone's feelings - it was always the other guy's fault. You didn't want to "brainwash" him into a religion, so you worshiped at St. Posturpedic on Sunday mornings.  You found pot in his room and told him "aw heck, I did that when I was your age".  You brag about cheating on your taxes and pretend to be aghast that he got caught cheating on a math test?  Now it's second semester of his senior year, he's failing half his subjects and the panic sets in and you are wondering WHOSE fault it is???

It's a shallow, shallow gene pool out there folks.  I think I'm voting for this woman for President.  Or at least Secretary of Education!!

Fun Weekend......

I had SUCH a great weekend!!  Charlene, Tera and I had a shower for baby Meghan, so there was lots of shopping and planning to be done!  So the four of us shopped.....

had a WONDERFUL lunch...

And laughed.....

Charlene is so much fun!  You just never know what to expect from her!

Check out Shell's expression.  Almost a "teenager" face! But she had a really good time also.

Charlene is one of my most favorite people.  You are NEVER sad or depressed around her.  It is simply not possible! And, call me strange, but I really like spending time with my mother in law.  Honest.  I know it makes me weird.  Kind of like having a third eye or something.  I don't care.

 

We had everybody over for dinner and had  "White chili" and chicken salad sandwiches.  Chad didn't care a whole lot for it.  If I had colored it red, he would have been more comfortable.  He's not a big fan of change. 

I have just recently discovered this white chili recipe and it is SOOOOO good!  I had heard of it before, but after my "secret santa" won first place in the chili cook off here at work, I decided to try it.  It is WONDERFUL.   

And I am SO glad we did this dining room.  We've used it a couple of times, but we need to have more dinner parties!

Just as we're getting to dessert, Andy, Tera and the kids got there.  Now the party starts! 
Kendell shared her dessert with Chad......

Turns out chocolate cake is even sweeter when you share a fork with a four year old...

Andy and Tera and the kids stayed with us.  I always LOVE having them here.  But this weekend was particularly nice. They didn't come until late on saturday because Riley is playing basketball right now, getting ready to move on to baseball in a couple of weeks! 

He's going to be a well rounded athlete!

This is the best $5.00 I ever spent!

Riley went with Grandma Charlene

to Evie's house to spend the night,

and I broke out the makeup kit I bought Kendell for a visit that got

  postponed.  She spent HOURS playing with fingernail polish and eye shadow, and lipstick! 

She is such a great girl.  She SHARES with her sister so nicely........

Kendell told me it looked like she had a "boo-boo" on her eye!  Oh, what we won't do for beauty....

I even got a manicure! 

And then on Sunday we all got together and had a shower to welcome baby Meghan!

It was beautiful and fun. 

Even Great Grandma came!  This is my favorite Grandma and my mother in law. All my friends comments on how pretty my mother in law is! 

And it was really special to meet Donna Reimer.  She was Ray and Rick's babysitter when they were very small.  It was SO nice of her to come!

Ray has really fond memories of her.  He came just to see her for a minute.  You wouldn't catch any of the guys within a country mile of our church....but he made an exception.

Meghan is a very lucky little girl to be born into this family.

Tera - I don't know what I would do without you.  I have so much fun when we're together.  You are really my "bestest cousin"!

and.....here is a really great picture of Shell and Grandma.  I just HAVE to put this one up!!

Yep...it was a good weekend!

Is it me???

     Do I have a "dorks welcome" sign on my forehead??  Does my magnetic field draw those with just a brain cell or two left??  I work in education (and I use that term very loosely) and quite frankly I'm worried about our future.  If you can pinch it, you can pierce it.  If it wiggles, expose it.  If you aren't getting enough attention, dye your hair some horrible color.  It's a one-upmanship of the hormone brigade. 

One colors his hair purple. Permanent hair color.

His friend colors his orange and SPIKES it.

The next colors his blue, spikes it and puts on makeup.

Then they all wear pants that look like a family of five just moved out, exposing parts NO ONE should see before their wedding night.  Sometimes I want to put a lit match in a buttcrack just to see what happens. 

Kids at my school are not allowed to even wear jeans with a hole in them.  I have never been so glad we chose this for the school district to raise our daughter in.  This rant is mostly caused by my Thursday night trip to Walmart.  Ah, WalMart.  Low Prices isn't all they offer. 

They are an Equal Opportunity Employer.  Those with brains have just as much of a chance getting a job as those that do not.  Last week I had a price match for half gallons of milk.  They were 3 for $5.00.  The little gal looked at me like I had just grown another head.  Fractions is apparently NOT something they teach anymore.  I thought she was going to throw up.  I could have told her that it was $1.00 and she would have rung it up.  Post haste. 

The week before I had the misfortune of getting in line behind the checkers current boyfriend and his father.  They continued to stand and talk (flirt) while she rang up 68 bags of groceries for me.  There isn't room for all of us here.  I was clearly the third wheel.

This week my Thursday night trip to WalMart was not helped by the addition of two new cashiers who apparently were on a day pass from the asylum.  While mine was quite competent at sliding merchandise over the little glass screen, she seemed to be having some severe withdrawls from.....something.  She shook like she was running on 3 cylinders.  And she did a super job double bagging that heavy loaf of bread.  But the real prize was the cashier in the next lane....that my daughter scored.

My feet are whining in my high heeled work shoes, I'm wishing for a pair of pajama pants to appear out of nowhere, making small talk with someone who is wishing for a bourbon to appear out of nowhere, and I hear "WELL OKAY THEN.  I WANT TO SEE YOUR MANAGER".

Crap.   We are SO going to need a cleanup in Lane 27.

We'll call this lovely cashier  Ms. Snaggle D. Tooth.  It would appear that Ms. Tooth lives in fear of the price matching Police, because apparently any price matching that is not done CORRECTLY, is deducted from the cashier's personal paycheck.   Well......she apparently doesn't understand the kind of week said daughter has had.  Right about now I am wishing for someone to yell "Air Raid" or "Fire" or anything similar. I think to myself, Ms. Tooth, she's had a baaaaad week, and cleaning up after a puking dog, 25 first graders, two adults and just finishing progress reports and a mountain of paperwork to be read by a legal team, you are not going to come out of this alive.  We're okay as long as she doesn't put her hand on her hip and do "the head bobble" as her father and husband refer to it. I look over and my darling little girl has flushed cheeks and  (not as softly as she thinks) says "did they take YOUR ads???"  Crap.  They know I'm with her.  It's okay, I'm almost done.

Ms. Tooth darts for a manager.  Then....there it is.  Her hand is on her hip.  Here comes the manager.  Time for me to pay.  I turn my back for a second to slide my bank card and when I look again, there's the dreaded head bobble.  It's going to be a massacre.  "I wish you would make up your mind.  One week, it's show the ads, the next don't show the ads. And what do you MEAN you only honor Wichita ads??@!! Yes, this store is for our small town - but this is the closest WalMart!"  I happen to agree wholeheartedly with her.  It IS confusing that they don't keep the same rules from week to week.  And the rules change from checker to checker.  I have picked out a guy that is my favorite, but the trouble is he isn't always there. 
So the manager gives in on the pizza's but not the jalapeno poppers.  Darling daughter agrees with his decision.  (She is fair, after all!) and he did get her on a technicality.  But seriously.....if you WANT our business, and YOU extend the offer for price matches,  you should make the rules the same.  Day to day, week to week. 

I am sure the little checker learned a valuable lesson.  You don't mess with ladies that have worked all day, and if you pick a fight over frozen pizza and jalapeno poppers, you get what you deserve.

And....since you are a fortune 500 company.....have your employees pull up their pants.