Yes - I have a 'tween. Today I brought her and two friends chicken fingers + fries from Jimmy's for lunch. Yes, I brought her a lunch from a restaurant and walked it in to school. Hunted her down to give it to her and sat a visited while they ate. No one offered me a bite - so I took a french fry and was then told that I "opened my mouth too big when I ate." Are you kidding me? No need to worry about that tomorrow, sweet girl, peanut butter sandwich for you!

Reagan was telling someone about Ratticus and simply stated that "I just love all of God's creatures." As in - "why don't you, heathen? I'll say a few hail marys for ya!

Peace and love for daughters!

If you need a chuckle - listen to the first 20 seconds. After that, it's me prompting R to tell the Ratticus story. A bit racy since they were in the tub!

BTW - loving the lime real fruit popsicles!

Peace and a good laugh!

Are you kidding me?

What in the world?

What made her pick this up? Doesn't she know you run away screaming from this?

Why would she pick it up?

Why would she bring this to me - in the house? in my bedroom?

Why would KK follow suit?

UGH!

Like Resa said, "you are remarkable. Why do you do things like that?"

Peace and a rodent-free day!

Reagan is feeling a bit under the weather and having a "surprise snack" on my bed watching "Life". This one's all about the challenges of survival. We are watching a huge chameleon tossing his tongue and sucking up a preying mantis. Without hesitation she says, "God made them to do that. We don't have to be sad."

Earlier today when she went to take a sip of coke, she started whining that it stung her throat. She was very upset and teared up a bit. She remarked that, "It feels like I have bad bugs in my throat that are trying to make me feel bad." I told her that was true, that the bugs were called "germs". She replied that, "I also have big things in me that try to eat the bad bugs so that I won't be sick."

She listens and remembers everything - it seems.

Peace and patience for smart children.

Look who's SIXTEEN!!

We celebrated with hamburgers and grilled tuna. (Cooper's choice) He didn't want a cake or cookie, just vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. We had candles that had different colored flames to match the candle and that was it! What happened to the days of getting a big box to make a bat cave?

Thanks Pa for building our boxes! Looks like Izzy is doing all she can to help out. Where's that ball anyway?

Peace and full sun!

Here are some shots so sum up the past few weeks!

Friday night of Spring Break we went out to Inlet Beach to a house rented by a few HNES families. We had a blast! KK had Ansley, R had Mia + Katherine (to name a few) and Morgan was wonderful playing with the younger kids and helping daddy build his hole that no one was allowed to play in until he "finished". It was nice to spend time with the whole family (except Cooper who opted to "chillax" at home) and other families.

Easter Sunday. Why didn't anyone tell us Cooper needed to stand up, or something.

Peace and better family pictures!

Dying Easter eggs!

This calf was born last night. Where's mom?

We have beautiful spring color at the front door thanks to these gardening hands!

All the girls (Kennedy, Linley, Reagan and Vivian) are loving Reese's bay boat at the lake!

I KNOW! It's been forever. Spring Break I was at the lake and "unplugged" from internet. This was very nice, but impossible to update. I'll share some highlights:

- William tried to knock his face off while disconnecting the trailer

- Cooper is 16 and can get driver's license May 7 (Yikes!)

- Pa (at the River) came for a visit where we wore him out with our schedule

- Hunny passed away

- Went in 3 directions for Spring Break - Ocala (baseball), Atlanta and the lake.

- Celebrated Easter, played baseball and soccer, went to the beach and the ranch

- built raised flower beds (thanks, Pa)

ETC.

Yesterday I was reading to Reagan. She knows all her letter and their sounds. She can write her letters so well. She has started trying to spell a bit - "fare" is fairy, stuff like that. So I asked her, "When are you going to start reading?" Without hesitation she replied,"I don't know. I'll ask Mrs. Sullivan." Never occurred to her that she could start on her own.

Peace!

Italian Fries

(just in case you gave up fast food for Lent)

6-7 Idaho potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/3 in thick french fry-style strips, soaked in cold salted water

4 T EVOO

1 T dried Italian herbs or some combo of dried oregano, thyme, marjoram, and basil

2 C freshly grated Romano cheese

1/4 c fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

4 T salted butter, cut into 6 cubes

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Drain the potatoes and pat dry with paper towels, Spread 1 T EVOO on each of 2 rimmed baking sheets and spread out he potatoes. Overlapping is fine.

Sprinkle the dried herbs evenly over the potatoes. Liberally spsread the cheese and parsley on top. Drizzle the remaining 2 T EVOO over the cheese. Scatter the cubed butter around the pans.

Bake until the potatoes are golden brown, rotating the pans after 30 mins, for 45-50 mins total. Use a spatula to lift off the potatoes with all the crusty cheese adhered to them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot

(From "Mad Hungry" by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

Peace + ketchup!

We are so glad Spring has Sprung (a bit) here! I'm not sure Little Tikes pictured this use for their playhouse. They love climbing in the tree behind the playhouse and pretending to watch TV there. Not sure why. They also love sliding down.
My girl loves critters. She loves looking for little things that the rest of us pass by without noticing. I love that about her. She's not scared of the goo. This day we found several of these little dead crabs washed ashore at the Yacht Club. She also found a jellyfish or two. KK was happy running between the beach and the playground. We brought home some shells, driftwood, dead crabs and a few rocks. Love experiencing spring with her.
Baseball season! Several at the house are very happy about this. Some of us, not so much. I love seeing Cooper working to get better at this. I don't love the pressure of pitching. I showed him this picture, very impressed with his form, and he told me that his right leg needed to be out wider and a couple of other things that he was doing wrong. Interesting. Maybe he does pay attention to a few details. He has really been pitching well. Yesterday, in Marianna, he was 2 for 2 with a double and a single, 3 RBIs and was put in to pitch the 4th inning with bases loaded and only 1 out. Coach told him to "shut them up!" He did. Next inning all 3 outs were runners picked off at first base. Guess they're not used to a left handed pitcher.
Here he said his right foot was supposed to be pointed at the ground. Once again, I was impressed with how high his knee was. Maybe I need to get him into yoga!

Peace and red clay stained clothes!

I don't think he means any harm, do you?

I KNOW! My stupid eyes are closed. I thought we were counting to three and THEN opening our eyes for Mallory's shot. Nope, apparently we were supposed to open on three. We were in Gatlinberg, TN for Winterfest with a group from church. I enjoyed being with these two. Great kids. They didn't want to get up early to ski so we were going to tube, but wait time was too much so we road the lift to the top of the mountain for this vista. Beautiful day.

Some memories: cattle chute (whoever thought this was a good idea anyway?), Zach's sleeping position on the way home, making pb+j crackers with Ben on the back row of the bus, but most of all - finding my diamond earrings at Varsity in Atlanta. Can you believe it? Me either? Wacky old lady thinking.

Peace!

On Saturday, when I was home with my puke-fest, William took R + C to the varsity baseball game at Bozeman. It was a cold and windy day so C took R to the car to stay warm. A bit later, Coach came to W and asked for C to "suit up". What? He didn't even have the right shoes. He borrowed everything from another player. Coach went to another team to find a left-handed glove. The only problem was that C's hands and feet are much larger than the guys he borrowed from. He said it was like wearing one of the girl's gloves.

He came in to pitch the 5th inning after the pitcher before him had hit two players, both on base and no outs. He struck out the first guy. Didn't give up any hits and was credited with being the winning pitcher. He even made the paper.

I'd show you a picture, but unfortunately no one took any of my boy. That's why mom's are supposed to be at games.

Go Bay!

Peace out!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pop and Daju brought goodies for the kids last night. Red velvet cupcakes with cute chocolate hearts.

Waking at 6:15 Saturday morning to the screaming-wretching sounds of K is NOT my idea of a good weekend. Bless her heart. She had fever and puked for about 3 hours. Afterwards she was just wrung out. No better way to get a Saturday all to myself. Oh yeah not really perfect - the puking 3 year old.

She continued to have fever off and on until 3 am this morning (Monday). So far she has a runny nose and a very short fuse. (very, very short) She is so glad that R is here to play. Unless R doesn't do it exactly right. "Right" seems to be changing by the minute.

She got to pick breakfast and chose cini-melt from McDonald's.

Look at my beautiful girl! Rachelle straightened it and put two really small braids across the front and used a barrette to secure them under some loose hair. Very cute! The top is a hand-me-down from Mallory. She said she wore it to a Valentine's dance when she was at HNES. I enjoyed watching the girls get ready at Ella Catherine's. They are all so close, it was nice for them to include my 6th grader! L'il had her hair cut this afternoon and I love the wedge. She does short hair very well. Her grandmother took her to get ready - good for them both.

What beautiful girls!!

Peace + a puke free Monday!

We went to Miami for the Superbowl. Most of the really interesting stories come from our time spent outside this stadium. I spent Sunday afternoon in the spa and watched the game from the comfort of the hotel. I met some very nice people and lost my everyday, mama earrings - I'm still sick about it.
We've had a very wet winter so far. Looks like these two don't mind a bit.

We love Ansley!

We love Mrs. Sullivan!

And the Mr. Opposite song

and valentine's parties

just about everything about 4K is perfect!

Peace!

Getting ready for our mission at Space Camp. You're looking at the Space Station scientist and Pilot of Endeavor. M was so nervous about making mistakes pushing buttons and saying her lines. She did great! The biggest problem was that these suits are washed weekly - on Friday. Our mission was Thursday afternoon. Yuck!
This was our group for the space quiz bowl. Our team won! Thank goodness we knew which Apollo mission rocket was struck by lightening not just once, but twice. Do you?
New duds from mom + M after our trip. These girls love getting "surprises" and love it even more when they're clothes.

Pax!

This evening we had Raphael (I'm sure that's spelling incorrectly) from Cuba join us. He is in the US for about 6 weeks and came to Panama City for a few days. He knows about us from the members at his church who met Wm on his recent visit. We really looked forward to this visit to talk about Cuba and just visit - however, he speaks NO English. Not a word. We speak few words. C has just finished his second semester of Spanish but he is by no means fluent. He would be staying with us Tuesday and Wednesday nights and during those days visit C's Spanish 3 class and church. Luckily, Carmen has Latin American roots and lived in Brooklyn for many years. She was pretty sure she could translate 90% of what he was saying. She explained that Cuba has a very distinct dialect that she was not familiar with. After W + C + M had spent about 3 hours alone with him, they didn't care how little she knew - it would be more than the slow talking, hand gesturing communication they were attempting. After Carmen had been at the house for about 3 minutes, Raphael said it was like he had been on "pause" for the afternoon.

We invited a few others for dinner and had a wonderful time visiting. We asked him tons of questions and he was able to ask us a few. M + I were leaving the next day for Space Camp and leaving them with it. Luckily, Carmen's sister was available to translate for them.

Paz!

Our first 4-D movie. We loved the music and movie, but did NOT like the water that squirted on us when Donald sneezed. I mean, who would? The girls wore the glasses most of the time and tried grabbing the objects as the appeared to float towards us. We were able to ride all the majors on the first day so we hit a few of our favorites on day 2 (Saturday), but the crowds were ridiculous so we did a lot of no line things. Like this movie, the street and castle shows, It's a Small World and the 100 Acre Wood playground.

The "cabin" at Fort Wilderness was perfect for our crew. I was so pleased by how much M enjoyed her sisters and being with us. She and I got to ride all of the "mountains" and we had a good mix of big sister and little sister fun.
Rauha!

(Peace in Finnish - loving "It's a Small World")

We finished up January by going to Disney World. This was the first trip for the little girls and they had a blast. We left C back at home so that he could sleep late and chill. We missed our big brother and I'm sure he missed us too! (wink, wink) We had a good seat for the afternoon parade just outside the candy shop.
After a train ride to Toon Town, we toured Mickey's house and got in line to take this picture. Kk was completely on board and R was NOT. After a bit of cajoling from daddy, she decided she's wait in line with us. After a few tentative moments, she warmed up and posed. This was the beginning of our first day.

Where has the time gone?

Oh yeah, internet problems at home, Disney, Space Camp, Super Bowl in Miami, good book "In the Woods" (2 nights of disturbing dreams, so far)

Yikes! Have hauled this computer from here to there and never willing to spend the $9.95 for hotel internet. Why don't they just provide it? I'm paying enough to stay and it's nothing more for them. Capitalism - ugh!

T is snowed in in Pennsylvania because L wanted to go sledding. "what's the use in all of this snow if you can't even play in it?" From a boy who has spent most of his waking days playing in it. Fun tubing and then sliding backwards down the hill into the ditch trying to get home. Dumb Florida/South Carolina driver.

Have more to say, but good book (see above).

Peace!

"Bless her kind heart, sweet darlin'." -Grandma Morgan

This girl got a boo-boo at school today. Apparently she was in a hurry to get to a tricycle and tripped and hit her mouth on the handlebars. She's a trooper and says it doesn't hurt, but we can't kiss it because it's "puffy". Luckily it appears that her teeth are fine. I always worry like crazy about teeth. She said she can still suck her paci - "just on the side more".

On a paci note, someone at school told her about a paci-fairy that comes during the night and takes all of your pacis, but leaves a toy. She's considering this idea. Man, she sure does love them. I think she thinks maybe after a night or two she can get them back.

R is still loving the "warm fuzzy" jar. No one can escape the dinner table without commenting. Tonight she had 2 fuzzies out before we even started the meal.

Speaking of meals, we took advantage of living on the coast and had a seafood dinner. R and I went to the seafood market to choose our protein for tonight. She commented that she LOVED fish - and shrimp - and oysters - and crablegs - pretty much everything in the case. We ended up with filets of grouper that were thin and perfect for frying, huge shrimp to make Barbequed shrimp (with butter, lemon juice + rind, worchestershire sauce), a pint of shucked oysters (that we baked on deviled egg plate - thanks C!) and organic yellow grits. It was all so very, very yummy. We had Pop + DaJu over before family group. I put some sharp cheddar in the grits and M loved them. Who knew! Cooper had Cliff and then stayed for the girls' soccer game. Pop picked him up for us. He was frozen. He was so hot after baseball that he kept on his shorts. It's like 40 degrees out. Silly boy!

We're all prepping for finals next week. No fun. I was able to brush up on my weather and metric information tonight. Maybe I can do molecular and empirical formulas with Cooper tomorrow. It's just what the momma looks forward to at the end of the day.

I finally went back to tennis. The courts have been frozen. Had a lot of fun playing and seeing everyone. Picked poor A's brain at lunch. So funny. I love a girl that can be honest and tell it like it is, while still being respectful of her husband. She's livin' the dream! For some strange reason I thought it would be a good idea to go to bootcamp at the gym in town at 4:30. I hope all of this exercise in one day doesn't kill me. I was nice to move around a bit, but maybe should've spaced it out a bit.

Peace and a sore back

Well, more cows! Mom says they're early, not supposed to be here until March. Can't believe she has something to do with someone being born early - wow!

R loves these pictures. KK just wants to talk about all of the poop piles. So very glad they have this to experience together.

Peace and Cow Pies!

American Idol started tonight - a bit weak. Went for supper at W's with Tam + KK. Learned that one worked at Clinique + Estee Lauder through college and one was on Spanish Dancing team in high school. You never really know people, do ya?

Victoria Beckham was nicer than I thought, but still really reminds me of Laura G.

Wm fixed pancakes for kids for supper - the kitchen was so clean. What a man!

Had coffee with Pamm + Susan D to discuss Girls' Night group. I worry that if it's this hard to get started, it won't have staying power.

M's pierced ears are gonna kill her. She's a trooper, though.

What random blathering.

Peace out!

I forgot about these precious pictures. That Jacob is so sweet! Victory sits well with him!

Kennedy is so very - Kennedy. After having nothing to do with Daju during the game, she must have sensed that Daju was in a hurry afterward and ran after as she made her way to the car. She found her scarf to be the perfect maypole streamer and began dancing around. Since I had the huge lens on the camera I was all the way across the field and couldn't hear their conversation, but I imagine it to be something like:

Daju: Kennedy, I need to go sweetie - let me have my scarf.

Kennedy: Wheeeee!

Daju: (laughing) Kennedy, really - I need to breathe, sweet girl.

Kennedy: (laughing and dancing) Wheeeee!

After a few rounds Daju escaped and Kennedy continued dancing:
God sent that girl for a reason!

Bay Haven victorious! Checked the big kids out to support Jake at the county championship. Beautiful day! A bit chilly for this Florida girl at 41 degrees. Loved being there!

I loved that my kids could support their cousin!

What is it about the "Kardashians"? I love watching that show. Their so very dysfunctional family makes me laugh. I love their eye make-up - lashes anyone? I love their hair extensions. I love their clothes + shoes. Who are they kidding with those heels at the grocery store?

However, they are still mothers, sisters, boyfriends, just people living this thing. Somehow their crazy makes me feel more grounded.

Another thing...

Prewitts + Kughns are coming next weekend. I hope everyone likes them. I think I really do They are very different from me, but that's a good thing. We are asking them to do a job that I wouldn't want to do - so maybe we need someone really different, right? I'm ready to follow their vision. I think they are looking to follow God and take us with them. Sounds exciting!

Saw "Leapyear" and really enjoyed the scenery and the actors. Script was a bit weak, but I'm always a sucker for a good chick-flick. Afterward, we got the girls from mom's (they had a blast at the ranch) R took some good "baby cow" pictures. (Kk calls them "caths") Took C over to a friend's for surprise 16th bday party. Then W + I went to Hooters for some wings and Cowboys football. I think everyone had a good day - we had a load of firewood delivered - so we get to have a fire to end the freezing cold day.

How do we teach dating to a 15 year old boy? How can we get him to understand how to treat girls and how to recognize the girls worth the time?

Little girls went to the ranch with Gma CA to see new, baby cows. They love going up there and I love that! Wm and I needed to spend an hour or so somewhere so we could see movie at 4:10 - "Leapyear"

Well, it's Saturday, 3:41 pm and I sit in Starbucks creating a blog. My iced triple white mocha about gone and I'm writing my first entry. I'm supposed to be preparing for my Wednesday night ladies' class at church and I'm starting to write a blog. Now THAT'S procrastination.