Fun time!!

Daddy came home Friday night and it was the best weekend ever for the whole family!! We waited up for him and were watching "High School Musical" the Dance along version when he walked in the door. Parker didn't let him go the whole weekend. He was a Daddy magnet!

Because Daddy is in a class and not having to go to regular work with clients, he can grow out his beard again. Sus looked at him, felt his beard and said, "Your weird is hairy, Daddy." She is pretty cute.

We got up Saturday morning and headed off to our favorite family place, SIX FLAGS! It was a perfect day...no lines at all and Grace and I rode several, "big kid rides"....She rode the "Judge Roy Scream" twice...once with Daddy and once with me....that is one brave little 5 year old!!

Thank you for all the phone numbers for babysitters in the area. After calling a few and everyone pretty much being busy, we decided to just stay home and I am so glad that we did. It was so much fun being with Daddy. Besides, I don't think Parker would have let go of him, anyway!! I'm off to meet my friend Jill at the gym for some talking and working out!!

Coming home!!

Yippee! The hubby will be home tonight and I can't wait!! It has been way too long since we have seen his wonderful face. Please don't call my house this weekend...we are going to be out on the town with someone that we love very much and won't be able to talk or return your call until Monday! he he he...just kidding, you can call.

I'm having a huge problem though. I can't find a babysitter for the Harding Art reception on Saturday night...AKKKKKK!!!! Of all weekends for the high school group at church to have a retreat....Oklahoma Christian is having a fundraising dinner at our church and Harding is having a fundraiser for the HUF program. Where are we all going to find people to keep our sweet kids? Oh, how I wish that my family was close by in times like this...of course, my parents would want to go to the Harding reception, too, so we would still need a sitter.
If anyone could help or knows ANY sitters in the FW area...let me know!!

He'll be home by 10:00!!! Yeah for us!!

American Idol

I have to admit something. I watched American Idol last night. I have never really gotten into American Idol. I really don't know, I just don't really get into reality and "voting" TV very much. I love 24 (it is my Fave), ER (yes, I still watch it after all these years), Lost (thanks, Ant, but could you believe how they ended last night...AKKK!) Grey's Anatomy (Have to have my McDreamy), Ugly Betty (she is so funny) and I really liked Men in Trees (it is about a tiny town in Alaska), but it isn't on anymore....that is about it. I LOVE sports and will watch whatever sport is on TV at the time. Okay, I just re-read that list and it makes it sound like I watch a lot of TV, so I have to defend my laziness, but who doesn't like 24, come on!! Besides, after I put the kids in bed at 7:30, I have to unwind to something!!! :)

I had seen ads for "Idol Gives Back" and so I decided to TiVo it during church last night. I'm so glad that I did. I FF thru the commercials so it didn't seem long to me at all. I loved the pieces that the show did with the children. It made me want to get on a plane and fly over and adopt a whole group of kids. I loved Carrie Underwood's song "I'll Stand By You" and the video of her with the children was great...I also loved the Children's choir with Josh Grobin...that was great!!
I won't watch the show for their voting and such, but last night's "giving back" was great and really opened my eyes and makes me so very thankful for what my family has here in my part of the US. We are truly blessed.

Another trip to the closet...

We had some big storms that were moving into our area yesterday afternoon right around time to pick up Grace from school. I decided to go about 10 minutes early and get her and I'm glad that I did. They started letting them go because there was a tornado coming our way so I'm glad that I went early. The look on Grace's face when I got her was like she had seen a ghost. She was white and her eyes were soo very big. We raced home (all .3 of the mile) and the girls ran (really, they did) to the closet where we go for tornadoes. I got Parker out of the car and got us all a snack and the radio to take to our little shelter. The storm passed and we got out about 45 minutes later. We had a quiet and pretty uneventful (and dark because of the rain) afternoon. It was great. Also, we did NOT have softball practice so it was nice to stay home for dinner and get the kids to bed on time!!!

I love Tuesdays because I have bible study on Tuesday nights here at our house after the kids are asleep. There are 7 of us that meet together on Tuesday nights and we are doing a study called, "The Frazzled Female, Finding Peace in the Midst of Daily Life" by Cindi Wood. It is great! They are short studies everyday, just to give you 15 minutes or so of quiet time with God. We just get together on Tuesday nights to discuss what we liked that week or what helped us get through that week. It is really nice for me because I get to talk to other women without my children pulling on my leg or asking me to take them to the restroom! All of us girls in the group are in the same life group at church and we all go out to eat and do many things together, but having this small group study I think will take all of our relationships to a new level. Another thing we all have in common is that our husbands all play x-box together every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights online. They call it their X-box "Ministry" he he he. So we decided that instead of just sitting on the couch and watching TV while they are upstairs all playing online together, we could all get together (in person) and have a bible study. It's great and I really do love our time together.

Okay, Parker is getting tired of being in his exersaucer so I better rescue him. Went to work out yesterday morning and had a great workout. I've lost all my baby weight and now I'm working on the "sculpting" part of looking better by lifting some weights...we'll see how long that lasts!!!

I miss him

My husband has been gone for 24 days. Yes, that is 24 days of cooking dinner, taking Grace to school, softball and nights of sleeping alone. I have decided it is time for him to come home. Okay, I know he can't come home officially for another month, but I am sooo ready for his class to be over and for him to be back here with all of the family. He flew back to Houston from their Salt Lake City "field trip" and is so tired now. They studied rock formations, learned a lot about geology and did some extensive presentations. Now that he is back in our state, hopefully they will let him have a weekend off and we can see him. I really don't care if we have to drive down there or he gets to come here, I just want to see him!!

There is a art show and auction this weekend in Dallas to raise money for the Villa in Florence and the art is all by Robbie Shackelford . I would love to go to the show and see all his work and possibly bid on something for our home, that is if the bids don't go too high. My parents have one of his paintings of the Villa and I love it!! Robbie paints one for each teacher that comes over to teach in the Florence program, and Mom and Dad got theirs a few years ago when they "played" over there. Of course, if Aaron is off this weekend, sorry Harding, I have to pick Aaron over your art show.

We had some friends from Graham come to visit this weekend and it was great. They came in Saturday evening and took Grace with them and their two oldest kids to Six Flags for a little while and I kept their 3 year old. She and Susie are best buddies and they had such a fun time playing together. They slept together on Susie's floor Saturday night and Sus took her to bible class with her on Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, the boys went to the Ranger's game and all of us women folk stayed at the house and rested. It was a short, but fun visit for everyone. Hopefully, our next person coming is Daddy!!!

What do they do?

Someone asked me the other day, "What do Parker and Susannah do during Grace's softball games?" Well, here are your answers. On Monday night, Sus was so tired that she slept thru the warm up (we have to be there one hour before the game) and woke up in time for the game to start.

Usually we go to the playground during warm up time or take a walk around on the trail that is near the fields. Parker almost always stays in the stroller for that first hour and about 15 minutes after the game starts, he wants out.

I bought some "moon sand" for Sus to play with during the games. It comes in this neat container and she can carry it herself to the game. She plays with it for most of the game and then wants to eat my ice from my Sonic drink for the rest of the game. What is "moon sand?" It is a cross between play dough and sand. It doesn't stick to your clothes and she mostly keeps it in the little container. For me, I like it because it gives her something to do during the games. An hour watching your big sister play softball isn't really exciting for a 3 year old, but she does enjoy the sand.

She got new sandals this week too. She calls them "fashionist sandals" and she thinks she is sooo big, like her Aunt Jess. What a girl. We found out last night that Grace has a game on Saturday morning and they have team pictures, too. So much for our "going no where" Saturday. We'll sneak in a nap sometime on Saturday, I'm sure!!

Proud daughter

Four faculty members at Harding University received Distinguished Teacher Awards during the University’s annual Faculty and Staff Dinner held Friday night and one of them was my very own Dad!!! Yeah, Dad!! I am so proud of my dad and all of the honors that he has received. I'm mostly thankful that he loves me (and the rest of our big family) very much.

Here is what the paper said about my wonderful daddy!!

Dr. Mike James, professor of communication, who has been a faculty member since 1973, has served as chair of the Department of Communication since 1993. He holds the bachelor of science degree from Harding, the master of science degree from Arkansas State University, and the Ph.D. in mass communication from Florida State University. An active member of the Broadcast Education Association, he was one of 30 faculty members nationally and internationally selected as a 2007 faculty fellow for the National Association of Television Program Executives annual conference. Because this is James’ third time to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award — he previously received it in 1989 and 1995 — his rank becomes distinguished professor, a designation that has not been applied to a faculty member since 2002.

Now we have to find a way to spend the reward money....Disney world, anyone? By the way, the picture is Dad holding Parker (he is in the cammo green) and Jonas when they were little bits in September!! My how they grow fast!!

Tornado, hail and crying, oh my!

Here is what we had in our yard about 20-25 minutes after the tornado that came through our area tonight. It hit in another town, but we stayed in the closet under the stairs for a while, just in case. This is the size of the big ones in our yard. They are a little smaller than a baseball but not as small as a golf ball.

The little ones are ping pong ball size if that helps any....wouldn't have wanted to be outside during this hailstorm! Aren't we thankful for garages and strong brick homes!

Grace cried for about the first 15 minutes. "I don't want to die, Mommy, I don't want to die." I said, "Grace, where do we go when we die?" "Heaven, but I don't want to leave you, Mom!"....Then she prayed for who knows how long..."Dear God, please make the tornadoes go away and don't let us die. In Jesus name, Amen." She calmed down after she talked to her daddy on the phone and then we played with some toys and read some books.

This was taken when I finally found a baseball-about 45 minutes after the storm. The yard was pretty clean by then and most everything had melted, but they are still pretty big, I think.

I'm done

I'm done. Yes, I am cooked. I have washed 3 different sets of sheets today and I'm still not finished. I put the girls to bed after their bath last night and was going to relax in front of the TV and enjoy some of my favorite shows, you know....Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and ER. Yah, right. First off, Betty and Grey's were both recap shows....AHH! I just wanted to veg out and watch something new, but oh well, I'll FF thru most of it and just enjoy sitting down. You know because the little one wanted to be held most of the softball game and of course I had to stand up the whole game! :) CAUTION: The story below is about little ones and throwing up (isn't that all I blog about lately?) read at your own risk.

I was just minding my own business when Grace comes down, yes, she did it again. No fever, no tummy ache, but she threw up anyway. What is with my babies and why won't this virus leave? I thought it was all out of Grace's little system. I thought wrong, I guess. So I cleaned her up and got her back in a bed and decided to just go to sleep myself. Not for long.

Sus came down about 2 am and she threw up, but she is running a fever and feels horrible. I put her on the other side of the bed from me so that I could keep an eye on her, plus she was crying and wanted me. Of course, I made her sleep on towels, I don't want to wash my sheets, again.

I got to go back to sleep.

Then Parker started crying about 4:15 this morning. He almost always sleeps until 7 or 7:30 so I went and got him and nursed him back to sleep until about 4:45 and I heard someone throwing up in my bed (good thing I had towels everywhere, right?)...I thought for sure it was Susie. It was Parker. Yes, I had no idea that a little one could throw up that much. Neither one of the girls threw up when they were that little. Most of the time it would show up rather ugly in a diaper, but I can handle that, no biggie. It was sad. So, Parker and I went and finished out our morning on the couch. Needless to say, I am cooked. I'm tired and I know I'm going to need a second cup of coffee. Of course, I don't have to worry about going in public today so I can concentrate on getting something done here at the house....we'll see. I think I just might take a nap. Don't you want to come home now, Daddy?

Game #2

Because of the being sick in Searcy thing, Grace missed 2 softball games. They play twice a week so she'll be fine, she was just nervous because she had been gone for a while. We went to Academy and got her some "official socks", a big girls' visor, and a purple scrunchie with softballs on it. Yes, and Sus and I have shirts to match Grace's team, but I couldn't take a picture of all three of us so you will just have to look at the little ones.

Here is Grace up to bat her first time and she did GREAT! She got a double and then 2 plays later, she got to run home. Now she knows what it is like to be a real ball player!

Does she look excited? I took this right after she ran into the dugout! She also got another hit, but she hit it to the pitcher and she threw her out at first base.

Grace played shortstop last night and loved every minute of the game... I only had to tell her to pay attention one time. I think we found something that this little girl really likes!!