Stories for our kids - I love you Mrs. Mays!

When Dad was in college he was a music major. One day he was in the music department's office and the phone rang and no one else was there to answer it so he answered it. It was one of his professor's wife. She was from Wales and in addition to her very strong accent she always called anyone she was talking to "dear" or "love". It wasn't just a sprinkling here or there but it was how she began almost every sentence and often ended it. There may have been a few "sweeties" in there too. Do you know anyone that talks like that? Maybe you had to know her but try this....say it with an English accent with me "hello my love, how are you doing today my dear?" One could easily get caught up in her affectionate talk....can you guess where this is going?

So after taking a message for his professor from her and as the conversation was wrapping up and the "goodbye" part was about to come, still smothered in "dears" and "loves", Mrs. Mays said "goodbye, love you dear" as was her way with everyone and Dad said "goodbye" and accidentally tacked onto it "I love you too." Oh ya, he hung up the phone and said to himself "I just told my professor's wife that I love her!!!!!!!!!!"

He was horrified but of course it didn't phase her. Now, knowing Dad (the more serious type that he is), it couldn't happen to a better guy.

a few more

Zoe is doing well. Thank you for your prayers. No new updates on her
health.

Pretty little thing =0)

Look who's getting so big! Grandma brought us some pictures last night.
Isn't she adorable? She's growing healthy and strong...she's almost
sitting up and she rolled over already! She's so cute she looks like a
little doll. We can't wait to hold her some day. When Emilee saw this
picture she just stared at it taking her all in. =0) She longs to meet
her baby cousin some day. You're too cute baby Zoe! We love you!

our living room

okay, Jay, here ya go....pictures of the whole room. I don't like
putting pictures up of my house cause I know others are much better at
decorating than I am and have a bigger decor budget than me....notice,
still no curtains on the back windows..... Yes, the tree is by the back
door windows like you were thinking. You got it right. The dirty back
door that Maggie has jumped up on with her dirty paws. Oh, and that's
our scarecrow still out by the front door and our pumpkins in the
entry....see, still don't have the fall stuff put away yet. =0)

Blogging Break

I'll be taking a blogging break the rest of the week. Happy Thanksgiving.

Begging Doesn't Work Around Here

Emilee- "Mom, can I make a craft?"
Mom- "Emilee, you've made a craft already today and I really don't want you getting another mess out."
Emilee- "But I'm bored and I really just want to put up the Christmas tree!"Mom- "The Christmas Tree?!?!? I told you that we will put it up the day after Thanksgiving like we always do."
Emilee- "But please mom, please, pretty please, I want to put it up SO bad!"
Mom- "No begging."
Emilee- "please, please, please. I'll do all the work."
Mom- "ya, right...dad would have to get the tree out of the garage (we used a fake one last year) and get all the boxes down and we'd have to figure out where to put it. It only really fits upstairs (in our upstairs family room)."
Emilee- "but I want it DOWNSTAIRS this year! Please mom, please. Then everyone can see it."
Mom- "but we would have to move furniture to make it fit in our tiny living room and it's so much work. But if you can talk your dad into getting the boxes for you then I guess it would be okay."

Mom- (there's no way she'll be able to talk him into getting all that out of the garage before Thanksgiving,,,,oh wait, I forgot that she has him wrapped around her finger.)

Mom- (within ear shot of dad) "now when you go into the office and ask him you have to bat your eye lashes and say it real fast and end it with a kiss...."

Emilee- (batting eyelashes) "daddy, will you pretty please get (batting eyelashes some more) the Christmas tree box out for me from the garage? (KISS)

Dad- knowingly laughing at our plot....."sure sweetie"

(little did he know that it would require also getting down all the boxes of ornaments and Christmas decor boxes down....what a trooper)In walks Jon.....
Jon- "What are you guys doing???"
Emilee- (with glee in her high pitched voice) "putting up the Christmas tree!"
Jon- (the logical one that he is) "that's not the deal. The deal was that we would put it up the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not helping because that was NOT the deal!"

Look who got sucked in......

And so, yes, as crazy as it is, our Christmas tree is up, our whole living room is decorated for Christmas...our stockings are hanging by the chimney with care...oh wait, we don't have a fireplace....they are hanging on the wall quilt rack. And Emilee decorated all evening while singing in her usual way.
And if you're wondering why our tree is so packed with ornaments....we kinda go for the "more is better" approach....I have a thing for ornaments.....I even suggested tossing some old ones and Emilee would not have it. You'd think I was suggesting we shoot her bunny.

Happy Thanksgiving.....Hello Christmas!

New Neighbors

I pulled the kids in from playing the other day when it was snowing and the new neighbors came in with them to get warmed up with some hot chocolate. Their little red noses were all so cute and I was happy to offer some warm goodness. Welcome little neighbors.

Comparison

I have to laugh at a comparison.....
before we moved out of state, we lived fairly close to the beach. In the afternoons I would open my windows that faced West and East and the ocean smelling breeze would blow through my W to E long house on days there was a breeze. I could smell the salt in the air and it was so refreshing.

now we live by farms...surrounded by them actually. When I open my windows now, we either get the ripe smell of cows or the smokey smell of fields being burned in the Fall. Either way, it stinks. And if either of those are under control, we live pretty close to a sugar beet factory that smells something ripe! I don't mean ripe in a good way. It has this stinky yeast smell that is so bad, I can't describe it.

But I wouldn't trade it....crazy I know....but the other good things so out way the smells.

snow before Thanksgiving? NEVER!

I was sitting here on my computer checking the weather report because it's just SO cold outside and feels like it's going to snow...the kids are outside playing regardless....but nope, the forecast says dry, no rain, no snow, no storm, and then I click off of it and look at the window and what to my wondering eyes should appear...oh sorry, I got carried away....but ya, out my window it's snowing. Go figure.

I can't figure out why I get so distracted when I'm cleaning house and making dinner....mmmm, what could it be?

"mom, watch me do this trick."
"mom, can I go do this..."
"mom, can I have...."
"mom, but I need your help to get it cause I can't reach it."
"mom, I'm hungry."
"mom, I don't feel so well."
"whaaaa!, I hurt myself"
"mom, I need a bandaid."
"mom, I need a snack."
"mom, can I watch TV?"
"mom, can I play on the computer?"
"mom, can I play outside?"
"mom, will you play a game with us?"
"mom, I need clean socks."
"mom, will you help me get this out?"
"mom, I can't figure out this puzzle, can you help me?"
"mom, I'm hungry again."
"mom, I have a question......"
"mom, did you know......."
"mom, he hit me!"
"mom, she called me a name!"
"mom, what's for dinner?"
"mom, can you take me to....?"
"mom, will you read me a story?"
"mom, can I help you do that?"
"mom, can I help make dinner?"
"mom, can you zip my jacket?"
"mom, can you tie my shoe?"
"mom, I bonked my head, I need some ice for it."
"mom, can you cut this for me?"
"mom, can you make me my own special sauce the way I like it cause that's too spicy."
"mom, can you help us get the kite/tennis racket/frisbee out of the tree?"
"mom, can you help me mail this to my friend?"
"mom, I'm starving!"
"mom, I'm tired."
"mom, my arm hurts when I turn it this way."
"mom, my shoes are muddy, can you wash them?"
"mom, see how high I can jump?"
"mom, you aren't watching....watch me!"
"mom, you aren't listening, mom, mom, MOM, FIRST NAME!"
"mom, can you buy me this?"
"mom, can I push the cart?"
"mom, can I buy this?"
"mom, if you won't buy it can you call dad and ask him?"
"mom, can you stop and get me something to eat on the way home?"
"mom, I need help with my school work."
"mom, the water is too hot."
"mom, the water is too cold."
"mom, can I chew gum like you are?"
"mom, can I have a bite of what you're eating?"
"mom, can I have whatever you have at the moment?"
"mom, I'm really, really hungry."
"mom, I need another snack."
"mom, can you fix this please?"
"mom, this needs new batteries."
"mom, why?"
"mom, do I have to?"

It's a wonder us moms accomplish any one task.

While I was typing this, my kids came in and asked "mom, can we go play outside and take the dog out with us?"

love struck

Emilee- "why do people stare?"
Mom- "they usually stare when they are tired."
Jon- "some people stare when they are love struck."
Dad- "ya, that's why mom's staring at me all the time."
Jon- "huh, I never noticed."
Emilee- "me either."

Stories for Our Kids- Grandpa: child actor

So, here is a clip of my dad when he was on Dragnet. If you go to 12:24 you'll drop in right before the scene that he's in. Dragnet was a cop show that was on in the 1960s. He was a child actor as were some of his other siblings. I don't know how long this link will be good for but for the sake of this journal, I'm putting it in here. It's the episode called The Big Frustration. My dad is the first boy to walk in with the light hair and the second one with the dark hair is my uncle Tim. Uncle Tim found the link to this episode and is trying to get copies of all the commercials that he and their siblings did. I look forward to seeing the Ovaltine one and others. If we get them, I'll post them.(dad-front row second from the left-Vincent Price and Janet Blair are right above him to the right a little)

I think my mom told me a story about when she was a little girl she actually went to some performance and saw my dad perform on stage for something. He used to do Peter Pan with Vincent Price on the stage in Hollywood but I don't think it was that. In Peter Pan, dad was John....I was picturing John but said Michael earlier. Sorry about that. Mom, maybe you can fill me in on what it was you went to see when you saw him as a kid.

"Aunt Glennis took us kids to see Peter Pan before I had met your dad. We also saw "The Sound of Music" there. It was a beautiful theatre in the round. Stage in the middle and audience all around it.
love, Gram"

Ruffles have Ridges

Jon was discussing which coffee houses he likes best. (yes, I know....there's a problem when your 9 year old has an opinion about which coffee houses in your city he likes best)

He felt that one was his favorite but that there was another one he liked too because it has chocolates there.

Dad asked "what kind of chocolates?"
Jon answered, "Ruffles!"

(he meant "truffles")

Happy Birthday Aunt Jenny

Sorry this is so late! We'll get a real birthday wish into the mail soon! We love you!

Stories for Our Children- A plane, a musician, and a boy that stuttered.....

For some reason there is this childhood experience that always stays close on my mind. It's strange how some things just stick with you as if they were yesterday. I never talk about this....ever....other than to my husband. There's really nothing to talk about, it's just something I think about from time to time and for some reason more often the past 5 years. Maybe because my daughter is now about the same age as me or maybe because just recently I made a connection with my fear of flying...I've always hated airplanes and flying which is ironic because I married into a flying family. My husband loves flying and it makes perfect sense since his dad worked for Delta. Maybe because a musician was involved and I married one, maybe because my son stuttered. So, I want to get this on paper because it might be interesting to my kids some day. I've never journaled about it before....this is a first.

I was in 1st grade at a tiny private Christian school and I was as girly as it gets. I had lots of friends that were girls but I had one friend that was a boy. His name was John. John sat across from me...as in, our desks were facing each other and touching front to front. The teacher had us all set up that way in twos. She probably figured that a girl and boy wouldn't talk much and was probably trying to prevent talking in class....and I did talk in class a lot. It was second grade.

John was a twin but I could tell them apart easily. I don't remember now if other people could tell them apart easily or not but I know I could. James and John. James wasn't so friendly to me but John was my friend. We would laugh together constantly. That I remember well...getting in trouble for talking in class.

John stuttered.....
John stuttered pretty bad. I remember him getting up in front of the class to read his report of some sort and painfully watching him struggle through it. I hated it. I wanted to read it for him. I think I did once but my memory is foggy. I just remember wishing I could always read his reports for him in class.

My buddy John wasn't ashamed to have a GIRL for a friend....he invited me to his birthday party. Yep, he and James had a birthday party that year and I was the only girl at the party. I remember doing human wheel barrow races and other relay races in their backyard for party games and it was all boys and me.

John was one of six kids in his family. I remember his oldest brother, Chad who was in 6th grade which seemed so old and grown up to me at the time....but I don't remember the other siblings...just that there were 6.

Then, the school year ended and John had to move. I remember asking my mom where they were moving to and she told me, Connecticut. That was far from our S. Cal. home. We had a going away party for them...I think...or maybe it was just our end of school party at the park. For some reason I think it was a going away party but maybe it was just the same timing. I knew that their family was packing all their stuff and moving soon.....we said our goodbyes.

One day I was in my room playing on the floor and mom came in with a newspaper. She showed me the picture. I've looked for that picture and can't find it online but I'm sure the newspaper archives still have it...but actually I still have that picture in my mind. The picture of the plane crash.

John's parents were John and Dede Smalley who were church plant missionaries on their way to Connecticut to plant a church. They were good friends with the Christian singer and music writer Keith Green. They wanted an areal view of Keith Green's new Last Days Ministries future site. The pilot took all 8 of the Smalleys with Keith Green and two of his children in his 6 passenger plane. I've read the crash reports and it's written up as pilot error. Keith's pregnant wife, Melody and their youngest daughter, Bethany didn't go with them on the plane ride. The over loaded plane crashed shortly after take off. They all died. All 12 of them.

I remember trying to wrap my mind around the fact that John was just gone. I remember wondering what would happen to all their belongings that they had already packed to move. I remember mom saying to me that DeDe was the kind of mom that when they were going down in the plane she probably would say something like "we get to go see Jesus now!" to her children, with excitement in her voice.

It was July 28th, 1982.
26 years ago.
I was 7 years old.

I kept the little treat bag from John's birthday party in my sock drawer for years and years. There were just these silly little cheap plastic toys in it...nothing special. It was the only thing I had to remind me of John and I remember being afraid that I would forget him. I'm almost 34 for years old now and I haven't forgotten him. I can picture him perfectly in my mind even though I haven't seen a picture of him in so many years. I can actually still hear his stuttering voice in my head. It's like my brain purposed to record him in my memory forever and it worked. You can find books and web pages dedicated to the life and death stories of Keith Green and the lives of his wife and daughters that continued on....but I can find virtually nothing about the Smalley family before they died, but that's okay. It's in my head.

Any time my husband does Keith's songs in church it brings me back to little John's smiling face.

I think this is why I hate flying....

Our sweet baby niece....

Grandma sent us an update...thanks Grandma.

Zoe weighs 13 lbs 2 oz and is now completely off oxygen!

---- next Tuesday is the next doctor appt, where they will find out if she gets the feeding tube out.

Teacher Emilee

Emilee teaching pretend class at co-op after our presentations were
done. mmmmm, her mother's daughter maybe?

Visitors over the weekend

We had a very busy weekend with our good friends visiting us who have been living in China for the past two years learning the Chinese language. It was such a fun and super busy weekend with them that I failed to take more than a few pictures.....We had a dinner with lots of friends to visit with them and catch up on their lives. We were so honored to have them in our home and get that time to connect with them. They will be heading back to China soon and they will be greatly missed.

Uganda

We studied Uganda this past week for our homeschool co-op and here are some pictures of Jon and Emilee presenting their presentation. Their topic was Geography/Weather/Animals. They did such a good job on their own this time! We are so proud of them!

Church Library

For the past two years, Mom, with the help of many other ladies have been trying to get a church library started. Thanks to a long time friend, Donna in CA, we've been able to make our library completely computerized with self check out and self check in. It's been so much work but we are really excited to open it next week for the first time. As you can see, Jon and Emilee have been using it for awhile now as they are often hanging out there while mom works on it. So, we know that the children's section is tested an approved. The picture above is mom's friend Tanya helping.

It's okay...you should see our house Gram!

Emilee making a mess at Gram's house....

Gram walks into the living room and is astonished at the mess from paper dolls all over the room and Emilee replies "It's okay Gram, this happens at our house too."

psssst......

Head over to Heavenly Homemaker's blog to get in on the sale I'm running over at Legacy Prayer Journals.....

I'm running this 20% off sale for a full week... 11.12.08 through 11.19.08. Go to her blog to find out how to get the 20% off.

well, that's it....

here's our blog design for now. I'm in a really simple mood lately. All the scrapbooking looks are getting to me...maybe because I've been scrapping a sample book for our LPJ business so I'm just scrapped out. I know it's pretty plain but I'm liking the clean and plain look at the moment.

Oh, and I may not have blog links for awhile. I know that will irritate some, but they tempt me to be on the computer too much so I'm taking a break from them. =0)

wisdom from my daughter

Emilee- "whatcha doing mom? dishes again?"
Mom- "yep, it just never ends."
Emilee- "that's what it's like with a family, it's just part of life."

(thanks for reminding me, Emilee...and I wouldn't have it any other way)

Zoe

She is steadily gaining wieght. They also took her off one of her meds and hope to take her off the other one soon. They also plan to take her off the oxgen at night at the end of November. She was already off the oxygen during the day.

I'm sorry but I don't have any new pictures of her for you, but Emilee did write her this song....of which I will attempt to capture her performing it on video soon.

Zoe, Oh Zoe, little baby girl
I miss you, I miss you
I can't wait to meet you
my baby cousin
I love you dear, Zoe
I love you so much.
Love, Emilee

Blog Maintenance

our blog is getting a face lift today...so bear with us. I've been unhappy with it's look lately so it's getting a new and fresh look.....it just might take some time today as I'm working with the kids on their school work at the same time.

Emilee did her hair herself

Stories for our Kids - peed my pants in class

Mom-

"When I was in 2nd grade the teacher asked me to come up to the front of the class to pray to begin our day. I went to a private Christian school at the time which is why we prayed before class started. I knew I should have gone to the bathroom before that but I was too busy talking to all my friends as we had all just arrived at school. When the teacher, Mrs. Walk, called on me to pray in front of the class I was mortified because I figured I could hold it longer if I was sitting still rather than have to walk up to the front of the class, stand there praying, and then walk back. I bravely walked to the front of the class, said the morning prayer and then began to walk back to my desk but that's right when I couldn't hold it any longer. Panic over took me and so instead of going to my desk I went right past my desk to the bathroom in the back of the class room. Problem was, my pants were soaked. Now what should I do? Well, I didn't know what to do so I did nothing. Yep, I just stayed in there never to come out...waiting for God to solve my problem I guess. I was fine with staying in there forever if that's how long it took for my pants to dry.

So, the first part of the day went by and the teacher dismissed the kids for recess....all the while, I was still in the bathroom. Bored mind you. Then came the little tap on the door. Mrs. Walk in her kind and sweet grandma voice asked me "are you okay?" NO was my simple answer. "Did you have an accident?" YES "Was it number 1 or number 2?" THANKFULLY I could say it was number ONE! She said, "okay, don't worry, I'll call your parents and have them bring you a change of clothes." Boy was I relieved (in a different way this time).

It was still a long wait in that bathroom but my dad came to my rescue. He was home at the time and mom had instructed him that my sister had a matching pair of pants that he could take to me so that my friends wouldn't know that I had changed...not that those other second graders were smart enough to notice....but my mom was extra thoughtful that way! Soon dad came and I was finally willing to unlock the door and get my clean clothes from him. THANKS mom and dad and dear Mrs. Walk who at the time was elderly and has since gone home to be with the Lord. I'll never forget her, she was one of the best teachers I ever had. I remember more from my one year in her class than I do of several other teachers I had."

Grandpa M

This is a picture of my dad with 3 of his 4 siblings. They were a band and my dad is the center one on his knee. His other brother played too but wasn't in this picture. Their dad, my grandpa, owned an electric guitar making business. The business is no longer around but many family members have some of the guitars. Hopefully I can get one one of these days. I'll try to get some more pics of them to post. He also did commercials and modeling...I'll have to post some of those too....
Mom

lacks faith in his mother's teaching abilities

Mom - "let's do a science experiment today."
Jon - "why?"
Mom - "for the fun of it"
Jon - "will it help us at all???"

but it still hurts us

Mom - "Jon and Emilee, I'm really proud of you guys today when we went to lunch after church to take the guest speaker/missionary out to eat. You did a great job of keeping yourselves busy, being quiet so the adults could talk and you had really good manners. Thank you and I'm so proud of you."

Jon- "Ya, we are getting used to it but it still hurts us."

(apparently having good manners and being quiet is painful)

the owner

Emilee- "Mom, do you get tired of being the owner of homeschool co-op?"

(mom leads the group so I guess that makes her the owner)

More pictures from Stone Soup Harvest Party

we don't like school work

my kids always tell me that they don't like school work. They love being homeschooled but they always complain about doing actual school work. Today when we were getting ready to head out the door they both asked if they could please bring their math books with them to do in the car. I had to laugh because remember, they hate doing school work so much that they beg to bring their books in the car to work on. mmmmm....I'm seeing some inconsistencies.

tired girl

after a long and fun day today, Emilee came to me at 7:30pm and asked if I would come tuck her into bed. She was very tired from lots of hard playing today and couldn't wait to climb into her cozy bed even before bedtime at 8pm. I thought it was cute that she couldn't even make it till bed time and had to come ask if she could be put to bed. =0)

Family Business at Work

The kids have always begged to sell something....can we sell rocks? can we sell pieces of concrete? can we sell pieces of paper? I think kids are enticed by the idea of entrepreneurship. They just want to sell something! Jon and Em have gotten a chance to taste a bit of the family business which so far they think is very fun. I'm sure 500 CDs later they'll be singing a different tune. But for now, they are happy to help mom out especially with a coming fund raiser we are doing for a church awana program this month.

Harvest Party

Today we had our home co-op harvest party which was so much fun. The kids heard the Stone Soup story and then got to each put into the pot the ingredient that they brought for the soup after the stone was put in of course. Then we enjoyed stone soup for lunch. After that they got to frost and decorate fall sugar cookies and eat them. Yum. There was much playing for kids and lots of fellowshipping for moms. =0) What a great day it was! Thank you, W. Family, for hosting us all!