My Heaven

Lately, I've been loving this song by Trace Adkins called My Heaven. download it from iTunes just as soon as you can. This song was written for me. The lyrics go like this...

Everybody has their own idea of heaven
What kind of paradise they'll see
Pearly gates, streets of gold
No getting sick, or growin old
Sounds like a beautiful place to be
But as for me

My heaven is a wood frame house with a great big porch goin all the way around
Sittin on the swing listenin to the sound of the birds singin
My heaven is a warm summer day in the back yard
While the kids all play, flies and mosquitos stay away
While we're eattin watermelon
That's my heaven

You're always gonna find a few non-believers
Those who stay lost in the dark
But I believe there is a place
Full of light 'n love and grace
And I don't believe that its all that far in my heart

My heaven is a cell phone ring while I'm at work
And the only thing that you have to say
Is you miss me and get home in a hurry
My heaven is the very worst day that I spent with you
When you were so mad but I still knew
Nobody would leave cause that don't happen
In my heaven

My heaven is where I am now on the front porch of the wood frame house
Swingin with you just lookin around at all I've been given and this life I'm livin
Is my heaven
My heaven, My heaven

Today, John, the kids, and I drove out to Salem where John's aunt and uncle have a farm. This is what I was surrounded by today...

My Heaven









See that dark sky? That's a Missouri summer storm rolling in. I'm listening to the thunder and watching the lightening ripple across the sky as I type this.



Cowboy, Take me away...

Pimp My Ride

Vroom Vroom EEerrrrrrrrrrr

(by the way... the EErrrrrrr is the sound that tires make squealing around a corner, but of course you already knew that.)

I have a million and one things to do before my mom gets here on Thursday (wait, I didn't tell you she's coming on Thursday? Sheesh. well, she's coming). and I've got a million and three things to do (I just thought of two more things). I SHOULD be working on knocking things off of my to-do list now that the kids are in bed. But, nope. I've put on a pot of coffee, I've got my USA today paper (that I really only buy for the crossword puzzle), and here I sit blogging. I'm so swank! (Not to mention a procrastinator!!)

So... I'm finally getting around to blogging about RideMakerz. (<--- click on that, it's a link to their website)

When the kids and I were in Virginia in April, as you all know, we celebrated both of their birthdays. We got to celebrate Audrey's bday ON her birthday, the 14th, but we celebrated Levi's 7 days earlier on the 17th (which is actually my older brother's birthday.) One of Levi's birthday gifts from my parents was going to the mall to this place called RideMakerz. Basically, it's a pimp my ride sort of store. It's a build-a-car. It's to boys what build-a-bear is to girls. LOL.

It works like this:

First, you stand outside the store and snap a few pics of the sign and marvel at the place in general Then, you venture into the store, completely intimidated, and look at the one thousand and two different types of auto bodies that they have to choose from... ... and ultimately decide on a PURPLE truck. (that's my boy). Then you choose how high or low you want your car off of the ground. The Chassiz. And there's two options... Street (low to the ground) or Monster (high up off the ground). Since he settled on the purple truck, I have to admit I was relieved when he decided he wanted it to be a MONSTER truck. and there's not many things in life that are as exciting as a purple monster truck!! (Take it from Levi) After you've chosen the chassiz, you get to choose what kind of sound effects the car is going to make. We just went with the free one that comes with it, and it's sort of a mix of all of them. It has an engine revving, some funky beat playing, tires squealing, and then at the end it does the beep beep sound like you've just locked your car with your remote. This is the point where you decide if you want your vehicle to be free standing, or if you feel like breaking the bank and paying $25 more to add remote control. We went with free standing but were told that we could bring it back in at any time to change to remote control. Maybe that can be a Christmas gift. Next, you head over and pick out which tire tread and wheels you want. Levi chose "Studz" tread and "Ninja" wheels... ... and you have to help put them on. Next, you can pay another arm and leg for fancy shmancy decals, OR... you can flash your darling dimples at the poor sucker that works there and she'll offer to give you some for free... because it's your birthday. There's a million other add-ons that you can buy for your new truck/car/whatever if you want. Grandma bought Levi a roll bar for his truck, and the girl who worked there gave him some flashing lights for free. WOOT!! and that completes the assembly of your pimped out, jacked up, snazzy purple monster truck. But you're not done yet. Nope... you still have to register your vehicle and give it a personalized license plate. Levi's license plate says "Levi 4" (for his 4th birthday). and LASTLY you sit awkwardly on your knees and give a fake smile while the girl who works there takes a polaroid picture of you with your new ride. and then you can go home and tear the mess out of grandpa's living room floor with your new truck. I'm going to attemp to add this video I took of the truck (with sound). The loud noise in the background is my dishwasher. *crosses that off of to-do list*... which puts me down to one million and two things to do before mom comes. Oi.

Awwww

I took the kids for a walk tonight, bringing my camera with us. We found this cool little wooden bridge going over a creek with a bunch of big boulders to climb around on. I snapped this picture of the kids on the rocks. Next time they're fighting with each other and I don't think I can take another second of it, someone please remind me of this pic...

please and thank you. =)

A Teensy Tiny Pick-me-Up

John's daughter, Madison is having her 5th birthday party next week. I designed these invites on Photoshop for John to print out and hand out at pre-school today. It only took me an hour. I'm pretty proud of myself.

The party is High School Musical themed.

Me... in six words or less

Overworked
Under appreciated
Overwhelmed
Stressed out

I feel like I'm drowning

*I think I can, I think I can, I think I can(?), I'm not sure if I can, Maybe I can't*

My Turn

You spend so much time taking care of sick kids for such an extended period of time, and you're bound to catch some of the yucky germs.

*cries*

I feel like crap.

Long Day

Today, more than usual, I really wished I had someone walking in the door at 5:00. Adult conversation, emotional support, physical help.
I haven't had so much as a phone conversation tonight.
This single mom stuff... it's tough.
It's been a long day.
woe is me, right?
*gets back on the horse*
goodnight.

New Get Rich Scheme

Levi woke up this morning sweating his little self to pieces, running a fever, and crying that his throat hurt. My friend Mindi had just been diagnosed with strep throat, and after hanging out with her and her kids yesterday, I was afraid that Levi might also have strep. So, off to the doctor we go. Levi's throat was swabbed for strep and came back negative and it was determined that he's got the mystery virus that Audrey had last week.

What you DIDN'T know though, is that Audrey was also sick this last weekend. We ended up not going to church on Mother's Day because Audrey threw up and ran fever all night Saturday. She literally slept all day Sunday, poor girl.

So, anyway, I brought Levi back home and he was watching a Disney movie curled up on his favorite soft chair. I felt his head and his fever had returned and since it'd been four hours since his last dose of meds, I decided to give him another round, only, I'd ran out of the Tylenol meltaways and only had liquid Children's Motrin. So, I made him down a teaspoonful and a half of that, and just as soon as he'd swallowed that last half teaspoon full, he started violently throwing up. He threw up twice in the chair he was in, once on the way to the bathroom, and two or three more times once he got to the bathroom. Poor guy.

*sigh*

Right now he's resting in my bed. I've scrubbed the living room floor where he threw up and stripped the cushions off of the chair to toss in the wash.

I want to know when it's going to end. This LITERALLY having a kid sick EVERY week business is getting out of hand! If any of you know of a way to get rich by sitting at home taking care of sick kids on a weekly basis, run it past me! I'll be making six digits by the end of next month.

*sigh*

Since Mindi was sick and I couldn't call her for a favor, I called my minister Eric and he ran to the store, bought more Tylenol meltaways and delivered them to our house. THANK YOU ERIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Levi chewed two of those and kept them and half of a pop-ice popsicle down.

please join me in praying for my sick kids (again)

*sigh*

Things I Don't Understand

There's been a few things on my mind lately, that I just don't understand.

The other day I was behind this cute girl in a cute little sports car. I noticed that her license plate said "nd dancer1". I like to try and figure out what people's personalized license plates say. I sat staring at that one for a while until I realized that it was saying "nude dancer" and I was wondering... why would someone advertise that on their license plate? I mean, talk about being a target for weirdos!! All of a sudden that girl wasn't so cute anymore.

Then, a couple of days later, I was behind a suburban whose license plate said "dedfoot." Again... why would you advertise that? That's like saying to a cop "I SPEED!!" Idiot.

THEN...

... and this one is my favorite...

I'm walking through "Barnes and No Books" (that's what Levi call Barnes and Noble) when this catches my eye on the bargain book table...



seriously? a DINOSAUR POCKET GUIDE? You know... for those days when you're walking along, minding your own business, and you run across a dinosaur you've never seen before, you can whip out your handy dandy pocket guide and immediately identify the rare beast.

pocket guides for poisonous plants, insects, birds... I get those... but a DINOSAUR pocket guide?

now that's just funny.

Proverbs 31:29

I know that Mother's Day isn't for another two days, but I've had this blog on my heart all day and wanted to go ahead and jot it down.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day that Audrey was born...



What you don't see in that picture, is this woman...



My beautiful mother.

I'll always regret that I don't have a picture of her with me in the labor and delivery room. Many of you may not know that besides the doctor and nurse, my mom was the only other person in the room with me on the day I gave birth to Audrey.

I had a natural labor and delivery and my mom was just wonderful. Talking to me when I needed distractions, being quiet when I just wanted silence, rubbing me when I needed rubbed.

When I got the sensation that I needed to push, mom came to the side of the bed and held my hand. What I didn't know until later, was that, as I pushed my 7 and a half pound baby out with no drugs, I had squeezed mom's hand so hard I bruised it.... and she never said a thing. She didn't wince, or grimace, or try to pull her hand away. She held on tight, letting me squeeze and coached me all the way.

She really pulled through for me that day, and the thing about mom, is that she always has pulled through, and I know she always will.

I don't know what got me thinking this today. Perhaps it is Mother's Day coming up that is making me all wax nostalgic. But, today, I wanted to say thank you to my mom.

Mom, thank you for always holding on tight and coaching me all the way, even when I squeezed so hard it bruised... not just on the day I had Audrey.



"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
-- Proverbs 31:29

Chelsea 2008

Today is my younger sister Chelsea's 21st birthday. In America, that would be a big deal... but Chelsea has lived in London and Paris for the past two years, and it's not such a big deal there, darn her luck. That's what you get for living in Europe, Chels! ;)

Chelsea... she's a pretty cool girl. There are a lot of qualities about Chelsea that I'm just crazy about that include (but are not limited to)...

She can grow her hair really long



She makes really good silly faces





She comes up with brilliant plans



(I can just hear it... "hey Tess, let's put this doll on the swing and swing her out over the creek!")

When everyone else is in a bad mood, Chelsea is still smiling!



She's very stylish, always keeping up with the latest trends



and last, but certainly not least...

she can make one heckuva pot holder!!



Happy Birthday Chelsea! I hope you had a fabulous day.

Dino-ROAR-us

While we were in Virginia, we took Levi into D.C. to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur exhibit. Our first stop though was closer to where dad works, for lunch at Corner Bakery. Oh my, how I've missed thee Corner Bakery!! Life just isn't the same without you. We first discovered Corner Bakery in Chicago. If you ever have the chance to eat at one, please do. It will change your life! Or at least satisfy you in a way that other restaurants just can't.

Waiting for the train:



I actually witnessed a strike going on at the airport. Tried taking this pic from the train window. It obviously came out horrible, but that's not the point here. Stay on task!



It just happened that those are American Airlines pilots that were on strike, and it just happened that I was flying American Airlines! Obviously they weren't still striking when we flew back. Thank goodness.

When we got off at our stop and took the escalator to ground level, we found that there were all of these little model airplanes all over this part of the area. Levi wanted to stop and take a picture of every single one with his camera.



The building my dad works in... and another little plane...



my favorite of the planes...



Thessali holding up the Washington Monument...



The National Museum of Natural History...



waiting to get in the museum...





The lighting was horrible in the museum. I ended up using my flash a lot (which I hate doing... and I'm sure it's against museum rules too. ssssh.)

T-Rex:



Triceratops:





Stegosaurus:





Pterodactyl (are you impressed that I know these names? Admit it, you are):



yeah ok, so I don't know what this one is called:



Or this one, dang it:



Then we went into the Paleozoic Era

but mainly just goofed around.

there were a lot of fun colors and textures in there.







Audrey documented it all on her travel MagnaDoodle.



ok, that's all I'm gonna do for now. Whew, I'm exhausted. LOL