Guess where we are?!

No more rhyming I mean it!

Anyone want a peanut?

Family Night!

Tonight's lesson came from the book Way to Be.
I was reading chapter 6- Be Positive.

I read this sentence,
"...under the barrage of constant criticism ..."

Oh the looks, and the laughter! I just didn't understand.
Until they explained that what they heard me say was,
"...under the "bra" of constant criticism ..."

We all laughed and laughed. Laughed until we cried.

Reading the music

So today was supposed to be the end of the kids summer piano lessons.

After the lessons our poor teacher came out a little disappointed in one of our kids progress in the last two weeks.
She rescheduled another lesson later in the week for this one child. She wondered about his practicing.

Hmmm I wonder why?

I snapped this a few weeks ago hastily to avoid detection. After loading them I just couldn't delete it even though it was blurry. Glad I saved it for evidence.

Sunday Confessions-

Last December Luke lost the mate to his new Sunday shoes. It was a Sunday evening and we had an appointment with our Bishop. Everyone was dressed in their church clothes and when we got to the church Luke only had one shoe. The right one. He was certain he had left the house with both of them. Did the left shoe fall out of the car on the way? How would that have happened? Who knows? I only know that it has not appeared.

I have held on to the remaining lone shoe in hopes that its match would suddenly appear. Like maybe from under the seat in the car, or behind clothes in the closet. Just in case I found its missing mate, I put the right shoe at the top of the shoe holder on the back of the door. If the left shoe were to re- appear I would know where its mate was.

A few Sunday's ago I was so glad that I had hung on to that one shoe and that I knew where it was. I felt I had defeated the plans of the shoe thwarters. Luke could not find the mate to his current pair of shoes. As luck would have it that day he was missing the right one! I went to the back of his door, grabbed the lone right shoe and sent him on his way.

Never mind they were two different styles. They were both brown!

Never mind they were two different styles. Luke didn't care!

The lonely left-behind-shoe saved the day.

Tuckers first day to work-

Friday was a big day for Tuck. It was his turn to go to work with Dad.

He has been asking over and over, "Do I get to go to work with you today?"

Jay has taken the kids each for their own special day- but planned to take Tucker for half a day. The later half. But Tucker was so excited. He remembered first thing and hurriedly got into his closet, got his clothes out and got dressed. Then we heard his feet rushing down the stairs as he called, "Okay, Dad, I am ready to go." Jay paused for a moment and said- "I'll just take him now."

I grabbed Tuck to go smooth down his bed head and started for the stairs when he directed me to the downstairs bathroom. He told me, " We need to go downstairs to fix my hair. That is where the "hair jello" is."

Tucker was so excited and oh-so-cute. But don't let the cute looks fool you.
He has a little feisty side in him- that is coming out more and more.

I managed to capture a moment. Right before he popped Jay in the nose with his gun. Nice.

Jay brought Tucker home after a few hours- and Tuck was so proud. He didn't seem bothered that he was not staying for the whole day. I think the rather large ice cream cone he came home with kept him from thinking too much about it.

Three cheers for Jay-for taking the kids to work. Especially a 3 1/2 year old with a pistol.

A royal 4th

So we just finished our busiest time of year.
Celebration week.
Our Anniversary. Savanna's birthday. (13!) Fourth of July. Company in town to celebrate it all. Non stop parties.

I love it.
It is also exhausting.

So now I sit at the computer to edit all the many photos taken between my camera and Jay's.
Then I pull up the blog- and think- which story should I tell first?

I glanced at the pile on my desk- and noticed a small stack of letters that were exchanged on the 4th. Because we had so much rain, we were inside for a lot of the weekend. All the kids and their cousins got creative. I am not sure what started it, but this was how a portion of the afternoon was spent while we were inside.

While we were sitting in a food coma on Sunday- during our inside BBQ- One of the kids delivered a royal letter. All the cousins crafted a letter- and what you are about to read is what kept us laughing for a good part of the evening.

"Dear King Von Fancypants,
I accept your surrender! Hee-hee! Your people are so slow and dimwitted you wouldn't know a real peace treaty if it bit you on the derriere, so this will have to do. Meet me tomorrow for official surrender of your kingdom and your fancypants. Sincerely, Alex"
................

"Kind Sir,
You lad are a wordsmith beyond dispute.
I accept your decree. I shall give you my fancypants ... you shall also receive my fancy socks, and my fancy jammies, and my fancy underpants. In return you shall receive a taunting of the most genuine style. It shall begin with simple name calling and conclude with a raspberry smearing ... etc ... etc ...
Yours is as mine was, King Fancy Pants"

..................

My Dear King- used to be- Fancy pants,
I accept your gifts of fancypants & fancy socks & fancy jammies & fancy underpants. We were wondering how you would feel if we renamed your country Rabbidsquirrelia, as it is largely infested with rabid squirrels and the like.
Sincerely, Savanna and Alex
P.S. After tomorrow, you will be unemployed and without fancypants. (ha ha ha!) Therefore, we would like to offer you the position of Royal fancy glove cleaner. Please consider.
P.P.S. Are we human, or are we dancer?

....................

The line that kept me laughing?
"Meet me tomorrow for official surrender of your kingdom and your fancypants."

It may not be the traditional way to celebrate the 4th- but fun nonetheless. Three cheers for imaginations and royal kingdoms.

15 years

Jay,

There is nobody else I would rather share a spoon and a pint of ice cream with.
A toast: To many more years of sharing this.

Truly yours,
Alisa

No photos!

The paparazzi has been shut down!

He is now blocking himself out of the photos. Or he is demanding they be taken a certain way.

This boy does have us cracking up though. He was in the pool and looked up at the clouds and said to Savanna, (sounding so very astonished!) "Sister! The sky is moving!"

He cracks all of us up that he calls Savanna- "sister." We are not sure where that came from, but he always does it. I was helping him pray and reminded him to pray for each of the siblings and we went through them by name and when we got to Savanna he substituted "sister."

He is sort of cracking me up when he says exactly what he is thinking, or states what he sees. Like saying really loudly" who tooted?" while we are in the Dr.s office. Or when he is just stating the obvious that the woman in front of us has a really large bum.

He really did crack me up last week. I took him into the bathroom at the pool and with the most sincere tone he looked at me and said "Do mommies poop?"

Yep, he just cracks me up.

What to eat Wednesday- Hawaiian Breakfast Bread

So- back to the cookbook
Breakfast in Bed

I had wanted to try this and kept forgetting to save banana's. Then I re-read the recipe a bit closer and discovered that there were no banana's in it. None at all.

This bread had the most delicious resemblance of Amish Friendship Bread ... without all the work.

Very moist, easy to make the night before and yields enough for our family more than twice.
Anything that stretches beyond one round in our family is a great thing. Unless its because they won't eat it, and that was not the case with this bread.

Hawaiian Breakfast Bread

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained (I used just a plain can of pineapple, uncrushed)
1 cup grated fresh coconut
2 cups grated carrots

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; mix just until blended. Fold in pineapple, coconut, and carrots. Divided batter evenly into two greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pans and let rest 20 minutes. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean. Cool completely. (Note: This bread cuts better the next day.)

Bulls in the china shop

He finally lost his first tooth!

It did not at all happen the way I thought it would.

We noticed a little while back that his tooth had a little wiggle to it. But nothing ready to pull out.
I thought for sure that Luke would be the one to pull it right out when it was ready.

But no.

He didn't pull it.
Nobody pulled it.

It was kicked out.
By his younger brother.

After all the excitement had died down from having his first tooth out I asked what happened.

Answer?
Tucker kicked it out.

Why?
We were pretending to be baby bull's.

Oh.
I guess I am glad that the baby bull, was only kicking baby teeth.

Jack- Camp

Last week was Jack's Scout Twilight camp-

I got to go on Monday with Jack and his troop.

I was supposed to go twice. But another Mom had so much fun she wanted to go up every day! I think it is fun to go one day. Then that is about much fun as I want to have. Honestly.

The fun that I had was watching Jack have fun.

The day I attended, Jack and his friends went on a hike,

played kickball,

shot bb guns,

made nametags, (love the S)

and listened to (and hopefully remembered!) lots of great Scout info.

At the beginning and end of each day the boys would all meet together for a flag ceremony, and sing a few silly songs.
The boys cracked me up by pulling out their song books for the ride home.

I was glad to have the alone time with Jack. I was startled when I realized that Luke would be going next year. Then I started doing the math. If Luke and Tucker participate, I have about 14 more years ahead of Scouting. I think I will earn my Scout merit badge. How long until I get asked to help with their weekly meetings? Its just a matter of time.

Savanna Camp

We packed this girl up with everything we could fit into one big duffel bag

and sent her off to Girls Camp last week. She had fun working on her Secret Sister gifts, and getting everything ready to go. I sent her off happy as could be and was totally prepared to pick up a tired, cranky girl from the crash of all the excitement, and lack of sleep.

Hardly.

She came back happier than I could have imagined. I think I will have to let her do a guest post. She came back inspired in so many ways- and set right to work on making an outfit for church the next day! I am thankful beyond words to the leaders that put so much time, and thought into making camp what it was. It was exactly what it needed to be for Savanna.

I had to laugh and wanted to remember for next year:

After picking Savanna up I asked her if there is anything she would like to take different next year, or if there was anything she forgot. One of the leaders spoke right up and said,"yea, how about a flashlight?"

Oops- I guess that would be a good thing to send her with. I will try and remember that for next year!

Remembering Memorial Day

The kids and I started off Memorial day by going to the Infantry Museum. We were late and missed the parade. So late that the reenactors were walking back to their cars. (Very funny to see men dressed up in the white wigs and coat tails climbing into cars!) We walked around and saw the planes and tanks. The kids wondered if all 5 branches of the military were here in Oklahoma. I really didn't know. (I should Google that!)

I asked the kids what branch of the military would they choose to join and two of them answered out right. Luke said- Navy. Jack said- Marines. It took Savanna a little while to think about it, then she choose the Navy. While we were touring the museum, I learned that battles were fought here in Oklahoma during the Civil War. My friend Julie had told me about the Civil War reenactors, and the parade. I was talking to my Mom and I was really confused, when I heard myself say Civil War. I thought that could not be right here in Oklahoma. But sure enough, the war was fought here too.

As we toured the museum we saw many people dressed in their uniforms. I was touched mostly by one man. He had a emblem on his back that said ex-POW. I was trying to explain it to the kids, and felt like I could not adequately explain what that meant. It all just sounded like words.
Our family has no idea.

I love when we sing patriotic songs in church. I am always filled with emotion. This last Sunday as we sang America the Beautiful- and I felt once again, emotion with the 3rd verse, I remembered trying to write about it in November.

I tried to write about being grateful for those that served in the military but I couldn't finish. I just didn't feel like I had the right words. It started then with the third verse of America the Beautiful. I think it just gets me.

"Third verse of America the Beautiful: Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!

I don't really remember seeing many people in uniform growing up. I am sure that they were around but it does not stand out. I did not really know that we had a base so close by. My first realization of the military was when I moved to Colorado Springs.

I was surrounded by military. The discounts, the uniforms, the vehicles, the bases, the cadets.

The attitudes of some made it seem that they thought they were far better than the rest of us. That I was privileged to be with them.

Then there were the others. The ones that just went about their business- they were not seeking recognition. They were just doing their job.

Both groups served, though. For that I am thankful. Good attitude, or bad attitude, they were willing to do it. "

After re-reading what I wrote, I still don't have the right words. Except that I am thankful.

No F in Art

We have been having issues.
And a lot of fun.
Issues + Fun= no computer time

Issues: Sunday night storm blew our router,our modem, our cordless phones and our PC (thankfully not the Mac!)
Fun: Piano recital, Memorial Day weekend at my Mom's attended by all of my side of the family, swimming, more swimming, eating, getting Savanna ready for girls camp, some more eating, fire pit, late nights.

I totally planned on writing about the kids last day of school, and their answers from the surveys that I found when I cleaned things up,and everything else that happened last week. But this mornings story comes first. I guess I will take the advice to start current.

I could hear someone in my studio (or art room- as some of the kids call it) this morning moving things around. Then I could hear a punching sound. Kind of like the way my paper cutter sounds when I slap the bar down and then punch the paper with the blade. I heard it over and over again. Then Tucker came out and announced:

"Mom, I arted."

Then held this up.

A friend had given us a bunch of cardboard sheets, for the kids to make things with.

Tucker took a pencil to each one.

Then poked holes all over.

He "arted."

Blah!

End of the year field trips!
Year end awards!
Smiling children!
Last day of school!
First day of Summer!

Sometime I will blog it.

I was so proud of myself ... I had found the surveys that I had the kids take at the beginning of school. Then I lost them. Then I found them in time to put them with the end of the school year ones. Then I misplaced BOTH of them. Blah! I am dropping so many balls, I look like the ball pit at McDonalds!

I have put myself on a blog break until I file all the take home papers from the kids, and I find the desk. Or the surveys. Whichever comes first.

Be back in a bit.

Birthday turns into birthweek-

All week Tucker kept telling me that a lady from church was going to bring me a brown cake. Sure enough, Sunday night his teacher brought me a "brown cake" along with flowers for my porch.

Then yesterday, when meeting girlfriends for lunch I was given a giant birthday cookie, and a set of handmade cards.

How long do you think I can drag this celebration out?

Playlist of my life

I am listening to ...

Ice Cream- Sarah McLachlan

and I am ...

With Jay visiting Oklahoma during the summer, after just celebrating our 1 year anniversary. I was sitting in my Mom's kitchen and Jay was sculpting ... me. We packed up the unfinished sculpture, and took it on the plane back to Utah. It was all smooshed when we landed.

I can do anything good!

I first saw this here- and just like her ... I keep watching it over and over. Our family now is quoting one liners from it.

Enjoy!





You can do anything great- you can do anything good.
Make it a great weekend!

My 37th birthday recap- or- The story of the corsage

My birthday really was great. I had fun birthday packages in the mail the day before.

I had decorations ...

A delicious breakfast ...

Surprise little packages

Lots of email freebies ...

Sonic, CVS, Baskin Robbins and Godiva Chocolate!

My mom surprised me with a drink and a new apron then stayed to visit for a while.
My sister Janelle showed up and the three of us visited. It was nice to have an afternoon of chatting. Without all of my kids around. I was glad to have a free day with nothing planned so that we could just sit and visit.
I had calls, and emails, and cards from friends. I went and picked up flowers for my front yard, and a friend dropped off a beautiful Dahlia.

But the best gift of the day?

A corsage-
All wrapped in a box waiting for me in the fridge yesterday morning.

I had told Jay recently that I thought we should start celebrating all holidays with a corsage. We laughed about it. But he did not forget.

He went and bought wire and ribbon. Then at midnight he snipped off one of the two Peonies that were outside. He brought it in and started creating the birthday corsage. Right as he started wiring the whole thing together he realized that the table was being covered by little tiny bugs. Crawling out of the flower. He quickly got rid of the bloom and then set out to "make" another flower. Out of a napkin. Then he put a small bug free flower in the center.

I laughed and laughed. And wore it proudly. I think its my favorite birthday gift ever.

SPT-37

I am 37. Today.

I looked through my photos of the day and realized I had not taken a single self portrait! What?!

Several ones were taken of me, but none by me.

So I grabbed my camera at 10 P.M. and shot one. Because how many times do I get to celebrate my birthday on a Tuesday?

It has been a beautiful day, in many ways. So much fun throughout the day. I got to share parts of it with so many of my favorite people. It was a little rough near the end, but I think we will make it. We will just keep celebrating all week.

Happy Birthday to me.

A perfect story for a perfect month

I first saw this book at the kid's school last spring. I fell in love with its story.
I have always thought May was such a beautiful month, my favorite of them all.
This story just intensified that thought.

I think this book is now out of print, but Jay found it for me for Christmas. I was so excited. I was stunned when I found an inscription on the inside, from a child to her teacher. I could not believe someone would get rid of such a charming story.

It is a story of a young month, May, who lives with her mother, April. She has not yet met her father, December, who lives very far away in a cold place across on the other side of the year.

May takes a long trip going from month to month, family member to family member to meet her father and then return back to her mother. As she travels they all have something interesting and new to share with her.

I loved how the story explained how the months came to be in their places, and why sometimes we have unusual weather.

Let me know if your library has it. I will share mine with you if it doesn't.
Have a wonderful May.

He is honest ... and he rhymes too!

Ahh just warms my heart. I will look forward to our yearly visits.

Blogging Etiquette

I am joining in a panel discussion next week on blogging.

Will you share your thoughts with me?

How do you feel about blogging? Why do you blog/not blog? Are you a commenter? If so, do you comment all the time? Why/Why not?
If you blog, how do you feel about your comment section?
Have you had any negative experiences with blogging?
What about the positive side?

What do you think the rules are regarding "blogging etiquette?"

Leave a comment or email-
alisaspear at gmail dot com

Thanks in advance

Create

I have the loveliest little beaded "Create" hanging in my studio. I love its beads and curves. It makes me happy when I see it twirling from the ceiling fan chain.

It had been a while since I had actually sat down in my room to create just for the fun of doing so. This room is also home to the treadmill, all the kids extra toys, our "clean" laundry armoir, and anything else that doesn't have a home but doesn't get put out in the garage.

Well it has come to my attention in a subtle way that it is time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to what I enjoy doing. As I was rushing out of the room from trying to find one of the boys a clean pair of pants, I noticed that something had been added to my beaded word.

Some little thing had done their own creating. Apparently I have not been paying close enough attention because it looks like it has been there a while, it even has dust on it!

As a result I have been doing a little spring cleaning, adjusting my schedule and priorities. Along with cleaning and organizing I have started setting a crafting goal every week. You know, like "this week I will create for 5 hours."

It is going alright. Some days are better than others, but I am starting to be much more conscientious of what I am spending my time on. Everything isn't clean and orderly yet, and there are many, many projects to work on. But I am creating.

What do you want to work on? Any projects you need to dust off?

SPT- create order

self-portrait-tuesday
No challenge this week-
So I made up my own challenge.
Get my house back in order.

I need to spend some time cleaning, and putting things where they belong. De-junking and organizing. I had to laugh at myself today when I looked around my house at such a disarray and remembered I am going to go help someone organize their home tomorrow morning.
What is that saying? Do as I say not as I do?

So I am working on the house. It may take me a few days. (and maybe a trip to Sonic!)

I even got myself a new apron. At first I thought it would be for the kitchen while I was creating in there. But now I think it is going to be my create order apron. I love the little ruffle at the bottom.

The scariest thing about today?

It wasn't that I sent my boys to school with dirty socks.

It wasn't when Luke asked why I had sent him kiwi and apples in his lunch and I explained (while cringing) that I had not put kiwi in his lunch since last THURSDAY!

It wasn't realizing that although now everyone has clean socks and underwear, they don't have any clean pants for tomorrow.

It wasn't the scary-screaming-obscenity-man at Walmart.

It wasn't Tucker repeating a word from a private conversation that Savanna and I were having.

It was the biker Grandma at Walmart, asking me what carseat I thought would work best on the back of her motorcycle. She planned on attaching it to the sissy bar with a bungee cord.
That is all kinds of scary.