fore!

As of last night....
basketball is officially OVER.

Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you!

We took 3rd place in the state tournament.
Not bad.

But boy oh boy are my kids ready for golf.
*ESPECIALLY Nick*

I absolutely love this sport.
No, I don't play...I never have, actually.
But,
I just love how it's packed with life-lessons AND is a
life-long sport.

I love the dress-code, I love that there is so much etiquette involved,
I love that being honest is an absolute MUST,
and I love, like crazy, to drive a golf cart.

Ok wait...this isn't about me.

Anyway,
Nick has been itching to get out...if this pesky snow would go away!

Here he is in our barn with his new net.

His drive is SO explosive and loud when it hits the net...

that it scared the socks off of Lucy-bug!

And looky here...
Macy is also VERY intrigued!
Papa has started her lessons already...
right there in the family room.
And it turns out that she's got some talent!

Sorry, this was taken from my phone so it's not such a great pic.

It seems like you are either an avid golfer,
or you think it's a ridiculous game.

I gotta tell ya...
I love this ladies' and gentlemen's sport.

Let your kids give it a try!
I can almost guarantee you will like the results.

Oh, but it will drain your bank account.
Just so you know.

lucy and her lily pad

Poor little Lucy...
surrounded by big people at our house.
She never lets us forget how very DOMINATE she is,
but she really does need a friend her size.

And Zeke has come to her rescue.
Sort of.

Poor dog.

Lucy runs him ragged.
And it's only a matter of time before she starts dressing him
up in fancy costumes, I'm sure of it.

But seriously, could she be any darn cuter with her new little buddy?

This blanket is Lucy's "lily pad" as she calls it.
And she tries with all her might to convince the dog to stay on it.

After much wear and tear...
the poor baby is worn slick.

She even follows him outside in her bathrobe.

She's going to make a wonderful wife.

let's give Him a big round of applause!

"The more we applaud God,
the more likely He is to come in for an encore!"
~Beth Moore

zeke update

Zeke is THE best puppy we have ever had.
Seriously.
He is so completely laid back it's unbelievable.

Here he is taking one of his 157 naps of the day.

He does occasionally get up to eat and potty
and he'll play a bit (he is about as hyper as a 72 year old man)...
then it's back to napping.

I'm jealous, extremely jealous.

*He is a great (as in super) Great Pyrenees*

disappointed

Well,
I must tell you that I'm disappointed.

Really disappointed.

I had a big afternoon planned.

A very special appointment scheduled...
that I've been looking forward to
for weeks now.
But the place called and said they needed to reschedule me.

*sniff, sniff*

I had visions of a relaxing moment...even hopes
of a cheese & fruit platter being offered...
and perhaps a refreshing beverage.

But now,
my hopes are dashed because
my mammogram was postponed because their
stupid machine is broken.

Whatever.

Would it really hurt for them to just humor
me and pretend that it was working,
just so I could have one
of those rare times where it's all about me...with no children in sight?

Oh well.

My calendar now proudly displays a fresh new
appointment for a couple weeks from now.



*~*~*~*~

So this is what it has come to...
me, actually excited about being pressed and squeezed
into a vice that is as unnatural as anything I can think of.

Yep.

nick's birthday post

It's been 24 hours and I'm just now getting to
Nick's birthday post.
And it's not really all that exciting.
The post, that is.

Nick says that he has been 14 for about 3 years now
(which is funny because I plan to stay my age for another 3 also)
and he is glad that he is FINALLY 15!


I gotta tell ya,
I love this kid.

Brenden is the big clown of the family,
but Nick has a more subtle but equally as funny personality.

He is constantly making me laugh.

We had a lovely birthday dinner.
After basketball practice
and
after a golf meeting.

All gifts were golf-related, of course.
Nice of him to put on his best shirt.


And my camera wouldn't know what to do if Lucy
didn't strike a pose each time I fired it up.


This is her "ballerina" stance.
Ahem.
She fell off backwards right after
I snapped this pic.
Don't tell her, but it was pretty funny.

help bring drew home!

Golly, I'm super busy
and I'm on my way out the door to buy some chicken feed.
*I gotta remember to put make up on first*
I have a very glamorous life, don't ya know.

BUT...
I wanted to take a second to tell you guys to
check out my friend Mandi's blog
because they really need to raise some $$ to bring
their ADORABLE son Drew home from China!

She has some AMAZING things that you can win!

Go check it out!

jealousy rears its ugly head

"I don't like consequences!!"

Lucy said, as I explained for the 100th time
why she was grounded from watching
Dora this morning.

What I may have failed to have ever mention on my blog before
is how very jealous Lucy is of Macy.

Yes, she adores her...and mimics so much of what she does.
*Including some orphanage habits*

But, yeah...for some reason she gets jealous
and acts out as a result.

And last night for whatever reason, Lucy got frustrated
and grabbed Macy's glasses off her face and threw them
on the floor.

Yikes.

Did she ever get in trouble!!!

And the trouble continued this morning as she suffered
the consequences of her actions by not being
able to watch her VERY favorite show.

And it's killing her!!!

She even went up to Macy, unprompted,
and apologized.
Then quickly asked if she could watch her show now.

Ummm,
good job saying sorry and that was the right thing to do
but...yeah, your punishment isn't over yet.

As I type this,
she is looking at the timer on the stove,
which says 18 minutes until she gets
Dora back.

Good heavens parenting isn't fun sometimes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today is Nick's 15th birthday!
I'll be back later to post pics of that.
Hopefully.

puppy love

Introducing.....

Zeke!!

These pictures aren't exactly in chronological order.
In fact, Lucy didn't hold Zeke until 8:00 PM,
when I finally convinced her.

And wouldn't know,
the poor pup was out-cold and wouldn't budge...
even with Miss Wiggle Worm holding him.
--Or maybe he was playing dead, hoping she'd leave him alone--

Very likely.

Listen, I am NOT an animal person. At. All.
But this puppy is so sweet and cuddly!

Nick is crazy about him too!

The cat was feeling left out so I thought I'd include
a pic of him.

One last picture...

We are really enjoying him.
Well, except for the accidents.

There's always a catch.

Oh and in case you were wondering...
*I know you were*
Macy likes him but would not even pet him.

And Brenden loves him also, I just didn't get a pic
of him for some reason.

OK, I'm rambling.

Have a great rest-of-the-weekend!

drivers ed

I have 3 minutes to post this.
I am on my way out the door to take Nick to driver's ed.
Mercy, I now have TWO teen drivers.
*And the third one could technically drive too. But, ummmm, no.*

The games were super great last night!!
We won, we won!

A lady behind us whipped out some bubbles during the final game
to entertain Lucy.

Uhhh, hello? Why the heck, nice lady, did you show up
at the LAST game of the season for this??

Lucy LOVED it!

UGH. BLUR.
Well, it was a great shot but dang it, I had my camera
on the wrong setting. Again.

We are getting our puppy today!
(Thanks for remembering, Julie!)
I'll post more later!

Gotta go!

check it out

Remember my bloggy friend Gayly that I met in person
not long ago?


She's doing a fun giveaway on her blog.

Check it out!

rejoicing

The basketball fans still look perky
(well, most of them),
even as the season comes to an end.

*Rejoicing*

Tonight is the last (regular season) basketball game.
*tournament next week*

*Rejoicing*

And it's my last chance to get some good pics of
my star player.

Now that Nick is playing on the high school team,
I'm a little frustrated by how difficult it is
to capture those great action shots.

Good grief, those guys move fast.

I'm thinking about requesting that
they slow down just a bit.
And while I'm at it...perhaps I could suggest that
the other boys move out of the way
to make for a better photo-op.

I'm sure Nick would be OK with that.

Yeah, maybe not.

*~*~**~*~*

Golf meeting on Monday.

YAY!!

That can only mean that spring is almost here.

*Rejoicing*

homemade convenience foods

It's been a while since I've done a frugal post.

So, I'd say it's time.

This subject always strikes a chord in some of you thrifty gals.
I just love that.

Since we homeschool all four kids,
(All.four.hungry.kids.)

*Mercy be*

and two of them being teenage BOYS,

lunchtime is an issue.

*side note: my punctuation was out of control in that last "sentence."

We need quick-fix mid-day meals, but unfortunately,
that usually leads to convenience foods,
aka, pre-packaged, calorie-loaded, obscene amounts of fat,
salt and other things I won't even attempt to pronounce,
(not to mention high $).

But still,
we eat them.

So in an attempt to pry ourselves away from
this cycle of chemical dependence,
I spent two+ hours of my life (that I'll never get back)
frying chicken strips.
Some were for dinner that night,
and the rest I froze individually, then put in a zip-lock
bag so we can pull them out and eat conveniently for lunches.

I was fairly to highly disappointed when all my efforts only
filled one gallon-size bag.


And it left me in a whirl of wonder if I saved any money at all.

Just so you know, as much as I went out of my way to take the above
pic without my kids seeing, in a desperate effort to save myself from harassment,
Nick saw it on my camera and did the obligatory
teenager eye-rolling.

But...
at least they taste dee-licious.
I really do have a knack for fried chicken.

Anyway...
I'd love to hear some of YOUR similar ideas!


~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And only because I know some of you will ask,
here's my "recipe" (it's not an exact science):

Mix a gob of flour (white or wheat, or both),
salt, pepper, LOTS of Cajun seasoning.

Cut chicken breasts into strips,
roll in flour,
then in an egg/milk mixture.

Then back into the flour mixture.

Fry in a generous amount of canola oil
in a cast-iron skillet.

Put fried chicken on a wire rack with a pan underneath
to catch excess grease.
*This is essential to them staying as crispy as possible*

If necessary,
just before serving, pop in the oven, under the broiler
to re-heat a bit.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Now don't forget to give me some of your ideas, OK?

Oh and one last thing...I should note that I DO realize
that fried chicken is far from healthy.
But it's a better alternative than pre-packaged chicken
nuggets, which my kids tend to eat a lot of.

lucyism

Not much to chat with you about today.

But I will share the song that has been on Lucy's top ten list recently,

"Row, row, row your boat....gently down the street."

I'll let you ponder that a while.
But I'm pretty sure there's a spiritual metaphor there!


What's that sound?
Oh, just my ores scraping the pavement of life.




"They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble..."
Jeremiah 31:9

Now there's where peace resides...following the gracious path of our Savior.
Even when if feels bumpy.
He is faithful.
Always!

guarding the good deposit

Gracious be.

Lucy had a rough night last night and I'm paying the price
this morning.

But,
it's nothing that my giant mug of coffee won't fix.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There was a rare moment yesterday
when all my kids were home and looked decent enough for
a picture.
And they all cooperated.
Amazing.

Look at these lovely children.
Blessed, is what I am.

I just wanted to take the time to thank you all for
your prayers for Macy.
NO DOUBT, they make a difference.

I am blown away by how much the Lord is speaking to me
through all of this.

The Word is coming alive to me like never before
and I'm learning the unconditional love and patience of Jesus
in a whole different way.

And even though I'd really love to skip the next six+
months and get to the day when Macy
is not so lonely and can let her guard down a bit,
it would be a shame to miss out on
all these lessons.

Here is one of MANY verses I have been meditating on:

"Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-- guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." 2 Timothy 1:14

I simply have no idea how anyone could do
this (or life in general) without the Lord.
I just don't.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a picture of Macy's
very first Valentine's day flowers
that she received from her dad.

tutus and chicken feet

We had a good day yesterday.
Though I really wish I had taken the girls the the Chinese Church
since I know they would have made a big
fuss over CNY.

I guess I need to educate my friends and family
(actually, thanks Mom, for ALL you did for the girls! They loved it all)
that it
is as big as Christmas to the Chinese.
I hate to compare the two but speaking celebrating-wise,
it's that big, or bigger because it lasts for a good week or so.

Anyway,
we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and
it was PACKED with Chinese people.
They were serving dim sum but we just ordered off the menu.
Which I kinda regretted because as we walked
through the section they had designated for dim sum,
Macy just kinda of ooed & awed over it all.
We'll do that next time we go since they serve it often.
I'll just beg them to make me some sesame chicken
while Macy eats her fill of bean paste buns and chicken feet.
Actually, there's no way she would eat chicken feet.
She would assure me that they only do that
in Guangzhou, where they eat anything
and EVERYTHING.

Lucy pretty much was refusing to wear her Chinese dress that I
bought her in Guangzhou, specifically for this day.
That is, until I told her that Macy really wanted her to wear
it (Macy confirmed that to her).
And voila, here she is!
She didn't take it off until bedtime!

No outfit for Macy though, because...

At one little shop in China, I was trying to get her
to pick out a pretty dress or top for herself to wear on CNY.
She was SO not going for that idea.
I just couldn't understand why in the world she wouldn't
want a special outfit.
Then the sweet shop owner kindly told me that since
Macy is from China (thanks for the reminder), the traditional Chinese outfits
aren't exciting to her at all!

Ok, that made perfect sense.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Off the subject slightly,
one evening the girls and I ended up in their bedroom
and Macy started pulling out dresses she wanted
Lucy to try on...just for fun.
We had THE best time and laughed a lot.
But it made me sad because I'm starting to see how Macy
seems to be realizing all the girly things she must
have missed out on in her sweet life.
She even looks at patterns, pointing to things that would
be fun to make for Lucy.
It makes my heart hurt, quite honestly.
I want her to know that I would gladly make her a tutu
and a boa and she can dress up to her heart's delight.

No girl should miss that kind of fun.

Heck, maybe I'll make all three of us a tutu and
we'll have us a big make-believe tea party.

I'll make sure to post pics of that.

CNY

Happy Chinese New Year to all of you!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We had a meltdown last night.
I don't want to go into details but a few things
that happened, led to Macy and me
in a big embrace, her sobbing, for the longest time.
I knew what had upset her,
but I also wondered if she was missing China
because of the big celebrations going on there right now.
If you don't know, CNY is a HUGE deal there.
Huge.

I asked her if she wished she was there instead of here
and she quite convincingly said no.

Bless her heart.

It was a rather difficult time but with both Kelly and me involved,
we feel we made a breakthrough with her last night.

I sure hope so.

I know our hearts feel closer to her.

So today we will go to church
(*fingers crossed* hopefully I can convince
Lucy to wear her Chinese dress. Convincing her to wear anything
that isn't her idea ain't no easy task, let me tell ya).
Then we will go out for Chinese food...hopefully, some REAL Chinese food.
And celebrate, American style.
Oh but who knows, we may be able to find some fireworks
to set off, close our eyes and pretend we are
on the streets of China!

*********

To my prayer warriors out there,
if you think of Macy today...
please lift her up as her heart continues to grieve
and ask that the Lord will soften her to realize just how much we
love and adore her and that she is a vital part of our family.

awkward number

It was just over a year ago that I did a rather
unconventional thing, blog-wise.

Ahem.

And now I'm in a similar circumstance,
but in stead of
49 followers, I'm at 149.
That's pretty cool, huh?

And once again,
it's bugging me that it's sitting there at such
an awkward number.

But this time I'm not able to become my own follower
to manipulate the system.

*Believe me, I tried*
Not really...well, maybe.

Anyway,
perhaps someone could do something about that to
help me out a bit.

I'm just sayin'.

baking mishaps

The girls and I made Valentine cookies tonight
and Lucy is the only one who let me take
pics of her.

Ahem.

Between you and me, the camera-shy thing is wearing thin
on me. For golly's sake the girl's gotta learn
that in a family....we take lots of pictures!

I'm not sure if there is an issue over her not wanting me
to post them on my blog or not....
if so, I guess it will come to me having to promise her that I won't post
them anymore.

I told her recently that she is going to have to let me
take some though because our post-placement
report is due soon and they require a certain amount of pics.

Anyway,
here is Lucy....
with her cookie that she spent, what seemed like hours,
frosting. Only to drop it on the floor (icing side down, of course),
she retrieved it, continued her task and then broke
it in half.
And then announced that that one was for Brenden.

Nice.

No baking mishaps will wipe the smile off this
sweetie girl!!

Here is Nick
(who never minds a good photo of him being shown to the world)
at his basketball game the other night.

Not much else to report to ya'll.

I'm not sure how I can be so crazy-busy every
second of the day,
but not having anything to say.


I must be coming down with something.

Liberace {not}

Well, I'm grumpy.

Plain and simple.

But, I'll spare you the details.

I have nothing to say today except to show you a couple of
pics,
one of which I couldn't get to post.
But just imagine a really cool shot that Nick made in
his game last night.
And that's all I'm going to say about last night's
game (and its location), otherwise I may have to repent.

On a light note....

Here is Brenden practicing the piano
(YES, I'm happy to say that he has been practicing every day).

I told him to give me a nice Liberace pose
(sorry, I couldn't think of another famous pianist)....

Thanks, Bren.

Oh and basketball will officially be over on February 27.
Please plan on attending my celebratory party.

Par-tay.

guacamole is very funny

Sorry, I have no pictures.

I know,
my blogging is lagging lately in that regard.

Followers (stalkers) really like pics, I know, I know.

But,
here I am anyway.

So, I had to tell you about some huge progress goin' on
'round here.

First of all,
Macy has a new-found love of guacamole.

Guacamole.

Have you ever?

Now that is progress.

But even more than its rich flavor,
she loves the word,

guacamole.

Really though, what's not to love?

It makes her crack up every single time I say it.

And when I told her that it's made out of
avocados,
she just laughs all the more.

Learning English is super fun.

Oh and get this.
Macy says she wants to play golf.
On a golf team.

AND....
she actually liked the idea I proposed that she could
be a cheerleader next year.

GASP.

You have NO IDEA how big this is for us.
This girl is more shy than anyone I've ever met
but she is slowly becoming more and more confident.

I love it.

Gotta go.
Lucy is complaining about her bangs
and we are discussing pretty heavily whether to let them grow
or trim them up.
That's our dilemma of the day.

chinese new year celebration

Saturday night Macy and I had the opportunity to attend
an amazing Chinese New Year celebration,
put on by our metro Chinese community.

It was BIG and really great!!

Macy kept looking over at me during the show,
as if to make sure I was having a good time.

It was so sweet.

Almost everything was in Chinese so she would also
lean over and try to explain what was being said.

She knew most of the songs and sang along quietly.

She laughed hysterically at the comedian
(who was Caucasian, but spoke fluent Mandarin).
I'm still left in the dark over what was so stinkin' funny.
But it did my heart good to see my shy girl
in a full-out knee-splappin' chuckle!

The show ended with a mask-changing presentation.
If you aren't familiar with this ancient performance,
I'm not sure how to explain it
but trust me,
I was sitting there in true amazement.

But Macy told me she would explain how it was done later.
And she did.
And I was a tad disappointed to know how it's done.
She thought that was funny.

Anyway,
I'd show you my array of pics of the very special day but....
my camera that I had been sure to put in
my purse DIDN'T contain the battery that I was SURE
to put on the charger for this big event.

UGH.

My mom let me borrow her little camera but it
just didn't cut the mustard.

I'm hoping that the website of the Chinese community association
we belong to will post pics.



**Hey Leah, how about next year you plan to come to the show
with Abbey and we'll all go together!
We can go to dinner first and maybe squeeze in some shopping!
The girls would have a blast!

you asked for a pic...

You guys totally rock with all your comforting
comments about my bad d0!

But I suppose I was a bit shell-shocked
when I first posted about it
and I'm feeling,
and looking
much better, thank you very much.

The cut is actually VERY good.
The gal is a great stylist and she did a great job.

Biggest problem was...
it was just way more layers than I wanted
because I told her I really wanted to be able to wear
it curly on days I didn't want to fix it.

But, it's Ok.

I'm actually just happy to have a good cut
that's even all over and symmetrical, etc., etc.

And as for a picture....

I took 19 pics of myself trying to get
a decent shot to show you.

19.

The girls are in bed, so they were no help.
My fellas are driving home from a
far away basketball game.
*They would just make fun of me anyway for the reasons I want a pic*

So I set up my own late-night photo shoot
like some sort of desperate old maid trying to get
a pic posted on an online dating site before
the stroke of midnight.

Geesh.
Yes, yes, I know it's blurry.
I had other options that were more clear but
that just depressed me more.
So instead of re-doing my make-up and
whitening my teeth real quick,
I opted for this softer version of me.

Now if the whole world could just see me like
that, things would be dandy.

peeled onion

Well,
there's a lot that I would do for you,
my lovely bloggy friends,
but post a pic of my new haircut
is not one of them.
At least not now.

Sigh.

It turns out that my hair just looks
better with my
whimsical willy-nilly self-inflicted haircuts
and not that of someone else's.

Yes,
I did indeed enjoy the good head scrubbin'
and even though the stylist
chatted a bit more than I cared to hear,
at least she was sweet and personable.

But sadly she really didn't quite understand
*apparently*
what I wanted because I vividly remember
NOT mentioning peeled onion.

I left feeling so sad.

That's crazy, I know.
People who get caught up in high emotions
over their hair,
just drive me crazy but I'm here to admit
to you that I cried, yes cried, when I got to my car
and took a glance in the rear-view mirror.

I got home and the first thing Lucy said was,
"I don't like your new haircut."

Sweet, isn't she?

Then later she said,
"Your haircut is da-dorable."
but was quickly
followed by,
"Your new haircut isn't cute."

A woman of lower standards would have told
her to shut up.

But I refrained, of course.

Anyway, I immediately headed to MY shop
and washed my hair
and styled it.

MUCH better, but still....it's not very flattering.

Oh well,
it's only hair.

The experience will build character and compassion, I'm sure.

Hee.

greek food and piano lessons

Brenden and Macy started piano lessons yesterday.
It went well
and they both seem excited about learning.

And my plan is to sneak in some lessons of my own
by practicing what they are learning.

So Mom, there's hope that all those years of lessons,
millions of dollars spent (or so it seemed)
*and not taking practicing seriously*
could possibly pay off for me yet!

Oh and thanks to our dear friends Mike & Angela
who offered to entertain half our crew last
night so Kel and I could go out on a date!!
We ate our weight in Greek food.
There's simply nothing better than a plate
full of gyro meat.
Nothing.

our richest treasure...

Could we but for one moment get a glimpse
into the mighty depths of His love,
our hearts would spring out to meet His will,
and embrace it as our richest treasure.

Hannah Whitall Smith


Gracious.
I read this quote tonight and had to share it with you.
I just love it, don't you?

little {big} thrills in my life

Yesterday was fun.

Brenden down DOWNHILL skiing.
Yep, that's right.

And Nick went golfing.

How funny is that?!

All within well under 100 miles of each other.

Well it seems funny to me.

Oh, and the girls and I went to the library
and checked out a ton of books.
We're such nerds.
But hey, at least we were warm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~More exciting news~

Let me set this up so you fully understand why
I'm so tickled about such a simple thing...


I've been cutting my own hair for YEARS.
Years, I say.

I've been a hair stylist for almost 20 years and
it's just something I've always done.
*With the exception of when I worked in a salon & let
friends cut it*

But---
I'm SICK of it!

I hate giving myself a full hair cut
so what ends up happening is,
I just snip here and there, as needed.


But it needs a good old fashioned
(ok, change that to modern),
hair cut.


I told Kel that for Valentine's Day...or Mother's Day
I wanted him to get me a gift certificate
to a nice salon.

He said,
"Good grief, Lori, you don't have to wait for it to
be a gift...just make an appointment and GO!!"
He's so cool.

Soooo,
this Saturday at noon,
I'm going to a nice place to have Amanda (I think that's her name...
I really can't remember. I didn't know who to ask for),
give me a super cute new do!!!

It's the the littlest things that give me the biggest thrill, folks.

patrol dog and whimsical brenden

Oh, you guys are SO good with name ideas for
our new little (soon-to-be-big) one!

I LOVE your suggestions.
I'll let you know what we decide.

And I'm impressed at how closely you all pay attention
to my blog and actually remember the
whole dog request fiasco while we were in China!

Here's the thing....
Brenden wanted a German Shepherd...completely on a whim.
If there's anything we've learned about Brenden,
it's that you don't let him
act on his every whim.

Trust me.

Which is why I'm a wee bit worried about his sudden interest in piano lessons.

Plus,
we had a horrible experience with a German Shepherd
we had when the boys were little.
The crazy dog
got a hold of Nick's teeny tiny new kitten
and shook it violently til it was limp....
right in front of sweet, then about 4-year old, Nick.

It was AWFUL!!

Don't get me wrong...I know they are great dogs
but they MUST be trained.

And I couldn't see Brenden following through with that.

Ok,
so that brings us to now.

We have an AMAZING outside dog, Domino, who is an
Australian Shepherd.


He is as close to a human as I've ever seen a dog be.
But he is SO OLD, completely deaf, and really wobbly.
Sadly, we know his time with us
won't be too much longer.

We live on ten acres and we really need
a big dog to take over patrolling.
That way, Domino can retire and relax
on the front porch.

*****************
And now,
I gotta get whimsical Brenden ready to go skiing for the day.
If you know where we live,
you will appreciate oddity of that.

pianos and puppies

It's February,

which means that basketball will be over
THIS month.
*Ok, the end of this month, but still.

I love watching the games, don't get me wrong.
But I'm just really ready for spring.

~Exciting news~

First, Macy expressed that she wanted to take piano lessons
a while back....I let that idea simmer for a while,
just to make sure.
Well, indeed she is sure she wants to learn
so we have arranged lessons AND bought a new keyboard.

Well,
the big boys were with friends when we bought it,
so once they got home they were a little surprised to see
this big thing in our living room.

I handed them each a can cozy that I got for free for buying
my new cell phone.
Brenden said,
"Wow, Macy got a new piano and we got can cozies?"

Yes, that's right.

Then he proceeded to tell me that he wants to take lessons
too.

So after giving him the run-down of what will be expected of him,
aka, DAILY PRACTICING,
he agreed and Macy and Brenden start lessons
this coming Thursday.

That teacher has no idea what she's in for.

One student who is sketchy on her English.
One student who is well, Brenden.

Good times.

Oh!

More news....
we have a new little one joining our family!!

No, not a child...
a puppy!


Our new little one will arrive in our home on February 20
but we have pics from the first "meeting"....


So, I introduce you to.....
Ummm, we have no name yet.

He is well, a male,
and is a Great Pyrenees...
so he will get big. REALLY big.

I'd love to hear your name ideas!


**And I'll be sure to keep you updated on the piano lessons.
Could be very interesting.

be still my heart

While I was busy cleaning up from dinner tonight,
Lucy was busy getting her Barney
put to bed.
She came and told me that she read him a book,
put his pajamas on and told him that
he didn't need the dimmer on the lights turned up too bright.

Then she said,

"Mama, am I a sweet mama, just like you?"

Oh child,
all your stubborn meltdowns from today just
vanished into a vapor.