sights & sounds of Summer

lots and lots of laundry, thanks to all the water-playing festivities
towels hung over every surface in my garage
dirty feet, because who in the world wears shoes in the Summer???
late to bed
later to rise
cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for not only my chi-ren's, but their friends...my extra kids :-)
birds chirping
air conditioner humming
voices in the front yard
the vibrant green I see out all my window
flip flops
painted toe nails (who am I kidding?  Mine are always painted.)
sun-kissed skin (something I'm actually trying to avoid, the older I get.)
not having to wear makeup
lazy days spent doing...whatever

Sound good to you?  Me too.

Love to all.  (And thankful that I have the privilege of being a stay at home mom.)

Middle of the Week

Have you heard the dreaded words, "I'm bored" yet? 

I have not, but let me tell you why my kids don't say that.  They used to say it, pretty frequently, I'd say, until one day about three years ago.  It was a blistering hot summer day.  They weren't in the mood to swim, they had no friends over, and the complaining began.  Since they were so nice to complain in front of me, I promptly found some things for them to do.  Let's just say that by the time 5:00 rolled around, my house was spotless on both floors.  Ceiling to floors. 

They don't say those words anymore. 

But really, we haven't even been home that long.  It's been glorious so far.  Our weekend was so nice...since Todd was home for such a long stretch of time.  God love him, he is such a hard worker, that between work and the sheriff's department, we don't see him as often as you would think.  (Was that a run-on sentence?)

We enjoyed our time together.  And while I don't have pictures of my favorite man, I do have pictures of my other favorite little men.  :-)  Wanna see?

This is the West Tennessee Veteran's Cemetery.  We went here Monday for a Memorial day ceremony.  We go every year with this precious man:

He was standing while they played the Navy's song.  And yes, I got a little teary.

What's a holiday without Drew acting all crazy?

I love these guys.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  They make me so happy, and I am so proud of who they are.  I am a blessed mama!

And speaking of blessed mama's...remember Trey Erwin?  The teenaged boy in The Ville battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer?  Please continue to pray for him...these shirts are such great reminders for us to do the same.  I haven't read his caring bridge in a few days, so I don't know his latest status, but that whole family blesses me beyond words.  Their faith is a beautiful thing to witness.

And this is a good reminder to pray for our troops who are deployed.  And for the families of those with loved ones they've lost. 

It was a really amazing weekend.  I even have really good books from my happy place that I'm reading.  I just started Francine River's Her Mother's Hope.  It's kind of a tough read...I think all of her books are, so I can only take it in small doses, but it is really good.  I plan on taking it with me to the lake this weekend. 

The lake being Pickwick.  We're leaving tomorrow (Thursday) for a three night stay with some friends of ours who have a house on the lake.  :-)  I am so excited!  The boys and I are leaving tomorrow, Todd and David are driving up on Friday after working a half day.  I am seriously beyond excited. 

Well...my dog is whimpering at the door and I need another cup of coffee.  Enjoy your day! 

Love to all.  

Memorial Day

It's almost eight thirty as I write this, so you have plenty of time to get up and get moving...if you want to.  Each Memorial day we have a tradition that we participate in with my dad and Sandy. We go to the Veteran's cemetery on Forrest Hill, off of 385.  It's a Memorial day ceremony, in honor of all our fallen heroes.

This morning's ceremony starts at eleven.  We plan on leaving my house at ten.  We usually take lawn chairs, blankets for the boys to sit on and drinks and snacks.  I don't remember how long it lasts, but it's not that long.

It's important to teach our kids that today is not just another day off from work or school.  We always try to really honor whatever holiday we might be celebrating, whether it be Memorial day, Veteran's day, or another one.  I've said before that our blood doesn't just run red...it runs red, white and blue. 

How are you celebrating this day?  Even if you don't come to this event I've told you about, I encourage you to take some time to pray for our soldiers who are still deployed, the families who have lost loved ones and our country and her leaders.  My pastor made a really profound statement from the pulpit yesterday, and it kind of struck home.  He said, "God, I pray that the pressures of that Oval Office be so great that it drives our President to his knees." 

I do too. 

It's funny how I complain about how horrible all our politicians are, but I don't really take the time to pray for them the way I should.  I do pray for them when I remember, but it's not often. 

So today, I will be praying for all those things I mentioned as well. 

I will also not only thank a soldier, but I will tell him or her that I'm praying for them as well.

I'll probably post pictures later.  Love to all. 

Saturday

It has been an amazing weekend so far...and it's not even over.  Last night, some of my family from Texas drove in for a weekend visit.  We got to meet them for dinner at our favorite catfish restaurant.  It's all the way out in Slayden, Mississippi, but man, is it worth the drive.  It's an old gas station, that is now a very rustic restaurant.  We had a party of 16 (yes, we have a large family!), so we were given the side room...complete with an amazing waitress who was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.  Her name is Rebecca.  I love meeting people like her...I just wish my nephews would marry someone just like that.  Insert dreamy sigh here.

After our delicious dinner, we stood outside and chatted with one another for a long time.  The boys took it upon themselves to try and get the eighteen wheelers to honk as they sped by.  Some didn't.  But some did.  Drew amused himself with throwing rocks at Tricia and me.  He wasn't really aiming at us...he was trying to get as close to us as he could without actually hitting us.  Yes, we had to jump a few times.  All the while, he cackled like a madman. 

See?  He's all aimed and ready.  (Isn't this a cool picture?  I love the contrasting colors...the only thing I did was enhance it a little by using Instagram.  Have I told you that I adore Instagram???  It's a photography lover's dream!) 

It doesn't take much to amuse my children. 

We went to Mom's and Bill's afterward for a little more visiting time.  Jonah and Noah decided they wanted to spend the night with them so they could help Big Daddy spread some mulch around.  Well...at least Jonah did.  Noah was just along for the ride.  They were back home by 9:20 this morning.  They woke up at the crack of dawn to eat and get to work, then Auntie Trish brought them home. 

She's so great.

Graham went to my Dad's to help him cut his grass again today.  And didn't come back home until almost 4:00!  It was a long day for him, but he spent the last part of it searching for the knife he dropped somewhere on the several acres Daddy has in front of his house.  Luckily, he found it. 

While he was gone, Todd and Drew fixed our basketball goal.  It was the kind that had a base, but it doesn't anymore.  Todd cut it off, bought a steel pipe, poured concrete around the steel pipe, then placed the goal back into the pipe.  It looks very professional...and like it's always been that way.  I have a super handy man for a husband.  I love how he is a jack of all trades. 

Jonah, Noah and I swam.  Well, they swam, and I did this.

Except that I was in my swimsuit and coverup, so I could at least get a little sunshine.  :) 

They had fun making their first jumps of the season into the pool.

They were pretty great at posing for me. 

It was a magical day.  We were back and forth several times from our house to our neighbor's pool (they're out of town and gave us permission).  In between pool times, we watched marathon episodes of Survivorman.  I made breakfast for dinner...then we went back to the pool, and ended at home, eating dessert and watching...

You guessed it.

Survivorman. 

It's the new favorite, what can I say? 

How was your day? 

Share the love!

Love to all.

Did you know...

that blue is my favorite color? All shades...royal, teal, periwinkle...I could go on, but I'll stop. 

that I love to sing, and desperately miss singing in choir and on a worship team?  (I'm thinking of re-joining the choir at CFBC, if they'll have me.)

that I have a little bit of weird in me?  I've always been my own person, who dressed in a way that not everybody dresses like...and as a teen, I was a little goth?  I was into the black clothes and dark, dark lipstick...even before all those Twilight movies came out.  I still have a tiny bit of that...hence the dark fingernail polish and my love/hate relationship with tattoos.  (As in, "I want one, I don't want one.")  I know, I know...this is a weird one about me. 

that when I was young, I never played with dolls or barbies?  I was always outside, or pretending I was a singer or something.  The dolls and barbies did eventually come along, but not until I was almost thirteen.  Strange, huh?  Well, I was also busy changing outfits a thousand times a day.  Just ask my mom if you don't believe me.  It's a wonder I didn't drive her bonkers. 

I always wanted a house full of boys?  God has a funny way of working things out, does He not?

I was a really good Christian when I was younger and in my earlier teenage years?  But then...I fell off the bandwagon.  I started running around with a really rough crowd and started trying things a young teenaged girl should never try.  I was always sneaking off to do something my parents would have had a conniption fit over...if they had known.  :-(  But, thankfully, I believe that when we ask forgiveness of our sins, and invite Jesus into the empty recesses of our hearts, He never leaves us.  His word says that over and over..."I will never leave you or forsake you".  We leave Him, but He doesn't leave us.  (And I don't mean that once we're saved we keep on living life like we want to live...we have to live the way He wants us to live...not be in church on Sunday and out getting drunk the night before.)

Whew.  Where did all that come from?

Anyway...continuing on...

that my husband and I dated in high school?  We started off as friends, then we started dating.  I don't remember where we ate on our first date, but we went to see The Little Rascals in the movie theater.  I kind of didn't think we would continue dating...but we did.  I remember the night I realized I had fallen in love with him.  We were at my sister Lisa's house.  My mom was babysitting the kids that weekend or something, and Todd and I were there with her.  We had been jumping on the trampoline with my niece and nephews, and they had gone inside to get ready for bed.  We were laying on the net, looking at the stars, and when I rolled over to look at him, I remember being shocked that all of a sudden, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I loved him and wanted to spend forever with him.  I wrote it down on a piece of paper (we were only eighteen, keep this in mind) and handed it to him when he left that night.  I told him to promise not to look at it until he'd gotten home.

:-)

that we've been married for almost sixteen years?  Well, it'll be sixteen years on October fourth. 

that we chose that date because we both hate hot weather but love the fall?  I remember thinking that there was no way that I was going to spend my wedding day being all hot and sweaty.  We even chose our honeymoon spot according to our love of the cooler climate (and because his brother and sister-in-law had been there a year and a half earlier).  We spent our honeymoon in Banner Elk, North Carolina.  We shopped a lot, and ate, and bowled once or twice and did all the other fun stuff that honeymooner's do.  ;-)

that I wanted my wedding to be just like Annie's wedding from the movie Father of the Bride?  Seriously...right down to the style of my dress, the way I wore my hair (lucky for me I had the same hair she did in that movie) and our music?  Yup.  It's my most favorite movie of all time.  I love the second one, too, but it's not quite as good as the first. 

Well...I suppose this will be the last of what I like to think of as Thoughtful Thursday. 

Oh, and GO TIGERS!!!  We are undefeated this season...and our last game is this coming Tuesday night.  Against another undefeated team.  Should be fun!

Love to all. 

First Official Day of Summer

Happy Thursday and Happy First day of Summer!!!  I am beyond thrilled that Summer has arrived.  I let all the boys miss school today because it was only a half day.  Graham and I attended the eighth grade graduation at Germantown Baptist Church. 

I do love a pretty church...especially one with a steeple and a cross at the top. 

Drew had a friend spend last night with us (one of my extra son's, Will Hopper).  They stayed home this morning...choosing not to attend graduation.  Can't say that I blame them...Graham's the weird one for wanting to go last year and this year.  He's always friends with the eighth graders.  Funny how that works.

Jonah and Noah were beyond excited to get to go to work with their Dad today.  :-)  I'm so thankful they have such a hands-on, involved Dad.  He is quite the man, this man of mine. 

So, here I sit.  I'm alone in the kitchen, with Klove playing on my kitchen radio, typing out this blog post as I wait on the laundry to finish drying.  Story of my life...waiting on the laundry.  I'm thinking I'm going to get off here and read my Bible plan for this day.  I got all caught up from being a week behind yesterday, in my Chronological Bible reading plan on my phone's Bible app (YouVersion).  I need to do that now. 

So, have a wonderful day!  Enjoy the beauty of this day...God's graced us with a gorgeous afternoon.  Love to all. 

So Thankful!

I made it through my final day without shedding a tear.  I did get teary eyed a couple different times, though, but I was able to pull it together before anyone caught on.  The first time was when all the assistants hugged me.  I've come to know and love them all and I will miss seeing them everyday.  The second time was when Beth Sansone hugged me...and told me how much fun she'd had with Jonah and Noah this year. 

I'm blessed. 

I was blessed with homemade cards from each grade level, too...with all the kids in each grade signing personal little messages.  I've only looked at a couple and I got choked up, so I put them down. 

Today was a really strange day...a lot unusual for the elementary school.  I was especially thankful that today was my last day.  Just another God-thing.  He is so good to me...thankfully, I don't have to be "good enough" for Him to do that...I just love Him and honor Him.  And He shows Himself faithful.

My dad sent me the sweetest text right as I sat down in my car after my day was over.  It said, "An era has ended...and I know it was fun.  Love, Dad." 

Then the for-real tears came.  Talk about timing!  He is so precious to me, and I appreciate the love and support my amazing family has given me...all of them.  Once again...I'm blessed.

I turned my badge in...so now, my cutie-patootie little Vera Bradley lanyard is all lonely.  I'll have to attach my glasses to it, or something. 

Graham and Drew walked to Yolo's after school today with some friends.  Their plan was to walk around the town square, then get a ride back to their friend Gavin's house.  I'll pick them up after I get drop off a couple of my extra kids.

It's the first time they've ever done that.  Weird. 

To celebrate the end of school year, I drove myself to my happy place.  Otherwise known as Collierville Burch Library.  And got a whole pile of books to keep me occupied. 

I cannot wait to dig in!

Love to all.