WFMW – Slave Labor

With the up and coming move, we’ve involved our kids in the entire process. They’ve helped pray for the sale of our house. They trudged through more houses than they would care to admit. They’ve continued to pray that God would lead us to the house in which He wants us to live. Now they’re praying that God will make friends readily available for them when we move to the new place.

In other words, they have an invested interest in this move.

So now that we’re at the packing stage, guess what my kids want to do? Let me put it this way: There are four full boxes in The Boy’s room and The Girl is cleaning out her desk so that she can pack her things away. And I’ve had no hand in any of it.

If you get your kids excited enough about anything, they quickly will offer their services to help. And having one less room to pack definitely works for me!

(By the way, it’s working for teaching The Girl to cook and for teaching The Boy to help around the yard. You don’t have to move to get your kids’ help. You just have to encourage excitement in whatever you need to do.)

Head on over to Shannon’s for some other great tips.

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It’s In The Bag…

It’s that time of year again – the time where you put all your hopes into the hands of others and pray that the Random Number Generator will be your best friend time and time again…

If this is the first time at Shalee’s Diner, then welcome! Coffee is on the house for you, and you’ve just got to try some of the strawberry pie… it’s that good. As the sign says, I’ll be serving the same slop as I always do. Now doesn’t that just make you feel special?

If you’re a regular, then welcome back. You’re seats have been awaiting your derriere and as usual, pour your own coffee. I’ll bring “your usual” when I get a moment. Oh, and I’m putting off the 1986 post until next Monday. I don’t think anyone except my Mom or Chris will be disappointed about that delay…

This time I’ve got a fun bag to give away and it just shouts “Spring!!!” And to model it, I once again enlisted the help of The Girl.

Notice the brightness of the bag and those cute, adorable dots?

Did you see how deep it goes?

Just think of all the goodies you could sneak into the pool this summer if only you had this amazing bag!

If you don’t need a new bag, can I interest you in a new hat?

Or tiara?

How about an apron?

Hey, you shouldn’t use the bag as The Girl is using it right now… Oooo, she’d better watch it! The Boy is getting bigger and stronger every day and one day, he’s gonna let her know it. I’m just saying… (Oh, I hope I’m not the one around when that happens. That should totally happen on Mr. Right’s watch.)

Alrighty little blogging buddies, if you would like to win this sweet carry-all, leave me a tip telling me what kind of suntan lotion you love to use.

And just to sweeten the prize: for every comment that the winner (yet to be determined by the handy dandy number generator) leaves on the Tuesday through Friday posts, up to one comment a day, I’ll add a mini prize to the bag. (For example: If you’re the winner of this giveaway and you leave comments on Wednesday’s post and Thursday’s post, then you get two addition prizes that will fit in the bag. Make sense? And don’t ask me what they are because I only just thought of this little brainstorm, and now I’ve got to figure out what those prizes might be. Sometimes I’m too smart for my own good…)

So the more you actually talk to me, the more you can win! It’s a win-win for everyone, especially me because I love chatting with y’all!

The drawing, open to ALL bloggers – no matter if you live in the tundra of Siberia or the tropics of South America or any place in between – will be left open until 12:00 CST Friday night (April 25th). I’ll draw the winner on Saturday, and please, for the love of trying to make things easier on poor old waitress, would you be kind enough to make sure that I can easily contact you? If you don’t have a blog, then please leave your email address so that I know where to leave the check tip.

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Sakes Alive – I’m Ready for Monday

We had one of those weekends what was so busy that it’s kind of a relief to get to Monday! I’m tired, I’m sore and I’m poorer than I was on Friday, but I’m glad to be breathing.

Friday night the kids and I watched Bee Movie. It was cute and I really do recommend it, but I didn’t think it was as funny as all the actors did. (Well, Patrick Warburton’s character really made me laugh, but that’s because he’s Patrick Warburton. I’d like to have that guy for a best friend because he could say “pea soup” and I’d find something about which to chuckle.) Mr. Right stayed downstairs to take in some more March Madness.

Saturday was a race from the get-go. We had a Pancake Breakfast at our church to meet the new Youth Minister and his family, who will be arriving from Stillwater, OK in June. They seem like really nice people. When wearing my Shantih jersey (from my college days), he stopped me and said, “Did you go to Harding?” As it turns out, he was at Harding the same year that Mr. Right was there. (He didn’t stay, but really, I can’t say much because I didn’t either. I moved to be close to Mr. Right. But just for the record, I would have stayed if it weren’t for that whole love thing we had going on.)

Next stop, I needed to pick up a gift for a friend’s birthday party that night. She was turning 40, so I wanted to get her something I thought she would enjoy. We headed to a bookstore, of course. So naturally we spent an hour’s time perusing the store. By the time I left, the quick $10 gift turned into $30. We got something for everyone, even if Mr. Right doesn’t know what his something is yet. (tee hee)

We ran to grab some sales at the grocery store and eat lunch, but then it was off to Skate City for the LTC (Leadership Training in Christ) wrap-up party. I wasn’t planning on skating, but what do you say when your girl looks at you with sweet eyes and begs you and her daddy to skate with her? So we went skating as a family. For two hours straight. With lots of other kids. And it was totally worth it. It was worth it for the shear joy of watching others fall on their tushes and for the rockin’ music. (But I didn’t. I was too smooth of a skater for that.) We laughed, had fun, exercised and did the Chicken Dance. What could be better? Oh and we found out that they do a Retro Skate Night. We’ll be partaking of the skating to the 80’s soon, I can assure you of that! I keep forgetting how much I enjoy going around and around in that rink, gliding along to all sorts of music. It’s a great way to get the body moving and to hold hands with ever family member at some point!

Next up was the LTC Awards ceremony. It was wonderful to find out how all the kids did in their events. The Girl received gold metals in 5 events, silver in one and a bronze in another. (When she started to comment on the bronze, I just reminded her that she totally earned it because really, she just slapped something together. If I were judging that event, I would have given her a “Participant” level. the bronze started looking pretty good to her after that. Hey, maybe she’ll try harder next year. (I don’t fall into the “But my child is perfect and deserves a gold for breathing!” mothering category. She’ll never try harder unless she accepts the consequences for her laziness is the way I see it. I did, however, give her a gold in Signing for the Deaf – yes, we judged her because we didn’t teach her. She didn’t do it perfectly, but she did really well. She forgot to do a small part of her introduction, but after that she aced the signing fluently. Oh and there were a total of three judges. One of the judges gave her a gold as well, but her father (!) gave her a silver. Hmph. who’s the tough parent now.)

After all that, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to the birthday party. I was really glad we didn’t bow out. For some reason, out of the 30 people who said they were coming, only about 10 showed up. I felt so badly for our friend, but she didn’t care. She said that all she wanted was a small gathering of friends to celebrate with her and to play some games. So we did. And my team totally got our trash hauled out to the curb by the other team. That Laura. she totally wailed at Taboo. (Jenni, in case you didn’t hear, your team won by a landslide!)

What did we do after the party and getting the kids to bed? More March Madness, of course! (Well, I read and then went to bed.)

Sunday, we woke to The Boy having a good cough. No fever or anything, just a good, nonstop cough. We medicated him, when to church and then found that the medicine didn’t do a thing for him. One person came up to Mr. Right and suggested that we get him to a doctor right away. Y’all, it’s a cough. I think it’s allergies, really. We’ll see how it goes before I shell out good money just to hear, “It’s a cough. It will pass.” We kept the boy home after church. He said he was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. So he rested for the afternoon. We gave him some Children’s Nyquil and that helped him sleep last night.

As a last minute date which started around 9 PM, Mr. Right and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. We loved it. I don’t know what all the booing was about it when it came out. It was fluid with the other movies, and it was full of wit, action and had a great ending to each of the story lines. We’ve learned to forward to the end of the credits because often directors will slip in some additional closure that the audience will miss if they turn it off at the credits. We were glad we did this time as there was a sweet little nugget at the end.

So that’s my weekend. That’s why I was really glad to have Monday roll around. Maybe I’ll actually get some rest now that I’m here. What about you? Were you sad to see the weekend end or were you like me – ready to get back on schedule?

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Role Reversals

I don’t know why, but I’m just so tired. Around 3 PM, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Unfortunately, I was at my desk at work, so no nap for the weary. I don’t feel sick. I don’t think I’m coming down with anything. I’m just tired, which is odd considering that I’ve had great, uninterrupted sleep for the last several days.

I think it’s this crazy weather. It’s a beautiful 74° one day; then a cold 50° the next. My body keeps thinking that winter may be back upon us soon and it’s trying to thicken up my blood. Who knows. I just know that I’m cold and tired today.

Praise be to God that I made dinner yesterday morning. Ham and bean soup in the crockpot. Yum! It was delicious, not to mention perfect for the cooler day. Plus, it was a great way to use some of our leftover Easter ham. All but The Boy had seconds. That’s a good sign in our house. (And as usual, The Girl stated for the record, “Mom, this is now my favorite soup!” If you haven’t noticed, everything is her favorite. I love cooking for her. The Boy? Well, let’s just say that he has lots of meals that he wouldn’t always request to have again. But he’s not suffering at all. He’s still growing like Jack’s beanstalk!)

Here’s what the kids did with Mr. Right last night. They invited a new type of basketball. I have a feeling that if they play it often, Mr. Right will be back in shape in no time.

(I love this picture! This totally captures the spirit of The Boy.)

They kids came inside and warmed their feet in a bath. Afterwards, we had our Bible reading time. Normally we read two chapters and move on to something else, but this time, they both uttered words that made my heart melt. “Just one more, Mom!” they pleaded in unison. What a delight to hear! So we read one more chapter as requested.

After the reading, Mr. Right came up with the most brilliant idea. He turned to the kids and said, “I think that you guys should tuck us into bed tonight!” The kids, struck speechless momentarily, quickly agreed to this change in plan. Mr. Right and I acted like their kids, with all the requests for water and the little things done to keep us up just a few minutes more. The kids laughed and then became quite strict with us. (It was amazing to hear how they think that we are on a nightly basis. I need to lighten up some!)

Finally the songs were sang, the prayer was said and we were kissed good night. They went off to their rooms to go to bed as well. Mr. Right and I stayed up to make sure that The Girl quit reading at a decent time. The Boy came into our room and ever so sweetly asked if he could turn off my side table lamp. I asked if it was bothering him and he said yes. Y’all, my lamp couldn’t have bugged him at all seeing that he couldn’t even see it from his room! But I let him turn it off and he went on his merry way back to bed. We all promptly fell asleep.

It was 8:30 PM for goodness’ sake! I’m telling you, we were all tired!

So here I am, awake and full of life, having the pure joy of knowing that I had about 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep again. Today is going to be a great day. I can just feel it!

(Someone just sent flowers to the office for our move. I love that they get to sit on MY desk! Mmmm, smell that scent of spring!)

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Reunited – Makes Me Feel So Good

Oh. My. Lands.

My ears are still ringing.  Between the The Girl and her friend Bailey laughing and singing and playing and then The Boy and Bailey having a few tickle wars, my senses were on overload, especially since it’s been so calm around the house for the past week.

I knew I missed the little critters, but it’s always amazing how much my heart leaps when I see them after a long visit.  It really makes me want to cry with sadness from the depth of realization that I’ve longed for their hugs and then tears of joys that I get to have that sadness immediately removed.  Last night was such a wonderful time to meet, greet and eat… and then pile into the various cars for a 2 hour drive home.

On the way home they kept saying how tired they were.  (They had been up late all week long and it was really catching up to them.)  But because we’re mean, we made them stay awake the entire time.  Hey, I wanted them to go to bed when they got home!  But wouldn’t you know it?   They perked right up when they saw the new addition in the garage!  They opened every door and crawled into the backseat as if they were ready for another trip.  We’ll give them a ride in it sometime later.

Oh, it’s good to have the family back together again!  As much as we longed for the couple time, it’s always so nice to have the daily squirmishes in the background to seal our love.

Oh and with all the car stuff that we had been through on our “romantic break from the kids” (HA!), I’ve been meaning to share with you the news about our office.

Look at these… 

In addition to preparing a house and looking for new wheels, I’ve been packing up our office. Not just my stuff, but all the items in our copier space and just yesterday, I had the good news that I was also packing up my boss’ office. Joy oh joy. This is the same man that doesn’t want anyone to touch his stuff. I’m not kidding. He’s a little OCD when it comes to fingerprints, natural body oils and just his stuff in general. Wanna mess with his mind? Go in and ever-so-slightly alter the position of a picture either on his desk or on the wall. It will drive him nuts until he gets everything back in order. (Not that I’ve done that, mind you… It’s all just a hypothetical guess. Oh look, something shiny!)

Come Monday, they’ll all be in a new office. Yeah, baby!!! This move has come so quickly (not really, but with the car thing, it seems really fast); I’m going to have new walls beginning next week. Oh, I can’t wait! No more wall of uncovered windows. No more misdirected traffic. No more 14 steps to walk to the office door. (Hey, that’s actually bad… I need that exercise. Well, having a large, shared parking lot will make up for it.) Hopefully I’ll be able to post pictures of my new digs on Monday.

As it’s almost Easter, I wish you all the joy of knowing our Savior who died on a day like today for all of our sins. Even if you don’t believe it, it still happened just the same. You think this thought is amazing? Just wait two days from now when that same man came back to life and brought redemption to this world. Now that’s amazing.

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Things You Might Do When Your Kids Are Gone

1. Read a book or four.
2. Watch several episodes of Lost online to catch up with the world.
3. Spend time with your husband without locking the door. (*ahem*)
4. Take a long bath.
5. Eat cookie dough without fear of being caught.
6. Take a nap.
7. Watch some movies (Inside Man, iRobot, Invincible – so far)
8. Go out for coffee with your sweet man.
9. Get all traces of laundry done.
10. Read every post in Bloglines.
11. Eat out, thinking that the kids would have loved to eat at that place.
12. Sort out clothes to give away from your closet, wondering if The Girl would want any of them for herself.
13. Look for a car to buy, all the time asking if the kids will be comfortable in the back of it.
14. Bake a bunch of potatoes only to realize that you’ve made way too many for two people to eat.
15. Get a craving for snuggle time in the morning time.
16. Call them at Grandma’s to make sure that they’re behaving and having fun with their cousins. Really, you just want to hear their voices.
17. Realize that the house is really quiet when they’re not here.
18. Count the days until you can get them back.

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My 15 Minutes of Almost Fame

So I had another one of my dreams last night.

This dream was great because I went to spend some Girl Time with BooMama in Alabama.  And boy, did we have all sorts of excitement!

First off, Sophie had been remodeling her house.  She was just taking the crow bar side of a hammer and pulling up beautiful wood floors.  There were sections of her house where you could see way down (like 20 ft) to the next floor and on the lower level she had done the same thing in another area to where you could see in the basement.  But she was doing it in such a way that it looked like a modern art piece, really unique and inviting, despite the fact that you could fall to your death.

(Now before y’all start telling me that there are no basements in the South, let me remind you that I grew up in the South and already know this bit of housing information.  When I met Mr. Right, decided that I couldn’t live without him and that I just had to get married to him because, gosh… I really did want to have his babies, I moved to Nebraska.  Where they have basements.  I had to ask him what that area was called and was it really safe to go down to a room below a house.  He gave me a strange look, took me by the hand and led me down there.  I think he was sweet because he wanted me to have his babies too…)

Anyway there was a basement.  But it’s a dream and you can do weird/neat things in dreams as you will see.

So while Sophie is remodeling her floors, she looks up and decides to pull a few boards that lined her staircase… which was exactly where David, Alex and The Boy were relaxing.  Those kooky boys.   They were all calm, peaceful and still.  This is where I should have realized I was in a dream – no movement from The Boy is a rarity.  They all paid no mind to Soph because this was life with her, and what can you do?  (The Boy looked a little leery, but he’s used to some sort of kookiness all his life.)  

We were all wondering if BooMama had gone a little wacky after her return from Africa;  stress was getting to her and we were just going to let her do what she needed to do to work her way through her emotions.  If she needed to take apart her house the way she’s taking apart her life and put it back together where she could live in it, all the better.  Somehow we all knew that it would be a better place to live when she was finally done.

Sophie then decided to call it quits after that so we went into the kitchen and she started filling up her flour containers.  Yes, containers.  They were big, too.  I asked her why she had such big containers and she said it was because she bought her flour in bulk because she needed it for all her baking.  Who was I to challenge that kind of wisdom?  Plus, I’m sure I would get some cake or something if I kept my mouth shut.

We went to bed.

Next day, we woke up to David settling the boys back into the stairway, but he was being real thoughtful.  He had laid the area with a king-sized bed sheet and was holding it around the boys while they laid there so that they wouldn’t fall through the holes in the wall.  Wasn’t that sweet?

Sophie had invited a couple of friends to go with us on our adventure.  To be honest, I can’t remember them except that one had long black hair and the other one was African American.  They were both really nice, but let’s face it, even in my dream world it’s all about me.

And our adventure?  Well, we all know how much of an outdoorsy person BooMama is, so we did one of her favorite things: we went for a long walk on some mountain trail which followed a nice big stream.  Big rocks, lots of sunshine and joy.  That’s an adventure, I tell ya!

Coming back to the car, we realized that we had lost one of group.  It was the African American friend.  We split up looking for her.  As I was looking through the parking lot, I saw a young man who was singing and doing some sort of musical number with lots of dramatic hand movements and stage moves.  He was a cross between someone from Stomp and Corbin Bleu.  He was cute, young and energetic.  He looked at me and I did what I would have done in real life:  I joined in.  So while looking for my new friend, I was singing some song and holding my own in our two person scene.  It was cool and fun!

As I headed to the car, I saw that my new friend was learning to dance.  She was afraid to tell us that she couldn’t dance, so she hired someone to teach and slipped away to have her lesson while we were on the trail.

Didn’t she know that I’m as white as they come and I couldn’t dance to save my life?  I’m pretty sure that I would have gotten an “Amen, sister!” from Sophie as further proof…  So I let her dance and headed back to the car to wait for her.

While waiting for the others to arrive, my musical partner came up to me, handed me a paper and pen and said, “I’m in lots of plays around here.  You need to write your name and info on here because when I get back, I’m going to tell my directors that they’ve got to hear you!”

As I looked down, the first line said “America’s Model” and I looked up at him and laughed.  He had to be joking because I don’t know of any 36 year old models with two kids, one of which is now taller than her.  I rolled my eyes at him and started to write my contact info (first name and phone number only guys… I’m not completely stupid and unconcerned for my safety!) when Sophie ran up to me and said, “Are you CRAZY?   You don’t even live around here!”

I told her to hush up because this was my chance at doing something fun and ON STAGE and I wanted to see where it would go.  She started to poke me to get my attention.  I told her to knock it off because one can’t write legibly when being poked.  Then I heard her say, “Mommy?”

And I woke to The Girl poking me and saying my name.

Sigh.  I was almost famous.  I just about had my chance to be somebody.  I coulda been a contenta.  Now I’m back to being a mom and short order cook.

Somehow this role fits me like a glove.  Waking up wasn’t such a bad thing after all.  Well, if you don’t count the fact that I didn’t have a chance to get Sophie’s favorite recipes for all things Southern and yummy, and we never get to her favorite Mexican restaurant.  Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.  All I have to do is eat a couple more tacos with onions, and I’ll just see where they take me. 

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Where’s My Membership to AARP?

This past weekend, God blessed us with fantastic weather – weather that would permit us to finally get some things done around the outside of the house.  Which was really good since we’re aiming to get the house on the market this week.

So, taking advantage of the warmer days, I gathered the kids to bag the leaves that I would rake.  (What?  You don’t wait until almost Spring to finish raking the leaves?  Oh, well, welcome to the upside down world of Shalee.  We raked all but half of the backyard last fall, then overnight the cold weather came to stay for several months.  This was our first opportunity to take care of it.)

Anyway, after raking a bit, my left foot developed a really painful cramp, one that started by my toes and worked it’s way across the bottom of my foot.  It hurt so much that I gasped and my breathing became more labored.  After a couple of moments, the pain receded a bit, but only enough to travel to the other foot too.

“But I’m a mom, and I have to get things done while I can.  I can still do this!” I kept that encouragement running through my head.  Mercy!  It hurt… and I really wish that I had a recording of what I looked like.  I was contorting myself in all sorts of position to ease the pain while still raking.  I would have laughed at myself if I could have seen myself stretched to the max while still gathering leaves together.

My kids, not ones to miss much, inquired what I was doing.  I said, “I don’t know what’s going on but my foot really hurts!”

And my son, as sweet as could be and with profound wisdom, stated, “That’s because you’re getting old, Mom.”

Man oh man…  if I was having those cramps because I’m getting old, then I don’t dare tell him how I feel after shoveling and spreading mulch for 4 hours.  He’ll tell me that death’s knocking on my door.

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It’s Official…

We have a momentous day in our house.  

A day that has already been noted on the calendar.

A day that caused much celebration and smiles of glee.

A day that I knew would be here soon enough…

Today is the day that The Girl is taller than me.

I can’t tell you how many time she has come up to me doing the hand measure test… or the back-to-back test… or the “Come stand by me in front of this mirror” test.  She’s all smiles and happiness right now.

Yeah, well…  She may be taller, but I’ve still got 20 pounds on her.  Hah!  Beat that, The Girl.

At least I’m still a half a head taller than The Boy, though I know that won’t last long either.  (But he too has me beat in one department… I also officially have the smallest feet around here.)

Please send condolences… and chocolate.  I could use both today.

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Snippits

Yesterday we ran to H&R Block to have our taxes done.  The kids were so good as they sat in the waiting area; all the tax advisors there even commented on their surprisingly most excellent behavior.  (Evidently our kids’  behavior was the exception, not the norm.)  Our advisor suggested in a joking way that we should take them out for ice cream.

Since we found that we were actually getting money back, we decided that we would treat them to Cold Stone Creamery.  It was to be their first time ever to this heavenly place.  

On the way to the creamery, The Boy asked for a snack when we returned home.  We said he could have a snack, chuckling on the inside because they were about to have the best form of snack ever!  We went, they gasped, oooed and ahhhed over everything, took 5 years to make a decision because there were SO MANY CHOICES!, and then they smiled with realization that God made ice cream and it was good.

With full tummies we made our way home.  The Boy quickly quipped, “Do we still get to have a snack when we get home?”  and then he laughed gleefully.  

That Boy… he’s such a kidder.

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The Girl is finding that though she is now a member of the body of Christ, The Boy annoys her just as much as he did before she became a Christian.

She’s struggling to find the right reaction to him, but at least she’s trying.  Oh girl, this is just the beginning…

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I was reminded again last night how incredibly blessed I am to be married to Mr. Right.  This realization came as we were watching the fourth hour of Pride and Prejudice, and he was enjoying it as much as I was.  But he likes chick flicks and always has.  We love to watch When Harry Met Sally, Return To Me, While You Were Sleeping, Notting Hill, Always and many more.

Sigh.  I just love that man.

Edited to add:  Mr. Right would also like it pointed out that he likes Enter The Dragon, LOTR series, The Dirty Dozen, Tora Tora Tora, The Matrix, the Die Hard series, Gladiator, Mission Impossible series and many more.   He’s not a wuss.  (Lucky for him, I like all those movies too.)

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