Last day of November...

One can easily see why this boy doesn't get Cherry Coke often....

Mel & Piper throwing out gang signs. and on Thanksgiving no less. hmmph! :)

One day, Beck and I will take a serious picture.

These girls were thinking of running away.

Piper loooooves her big boy cousins, Will & Ethan.

Becky & Scott celebrated 7 years of marriage yesterday. Happy Anniversary, guys. We love you and your precious girls to bits.

these are all Tom's amazing photos, just in case there was a question....Here's Molly, kinda scary looking on the Barbie guitar.

another fun attraction of the day was to get into Gracie's doggy cage....I have to admit, it was kinda nice to know she wasn't going to hurt herself. ha ha.

These girls are fuuuuuuu-nny! I love that they are such good little friends.

I have stolen some more of Tom's Turkey Day photos and will post them later but for now, just wanted to say HI to my blogging friends on this dreary last day of November.

Are you getting ready for Christmas? Is your tree up? Once I find one more strand of silver garland, I will be able to put the ornaments on our tree. Levi asks me all day, every day. poor fella. maybe today.

On another note, I announced on Facebook this past Saturday (our 17th anniversary) that I was 10 weeks prego. I know, shock, gasp, wow! We are excited. I'm very thankful for the good comments and responses that people have posted. Once I feel better, I will believe this is really going to happen...considering that I'm older (will be 38 in June when baby is slated to arrive but I've had 5 trouble-free, easy natural births, 4 of which were at home, one almost being in the car. remember THAT?)...I'm having an iffy time, feeling poorly and having strange appetite issues. Tomorrow, we will meet a local midwife and hope that she's the one for us! So far, so good.

Well, I certainly hope that your Tuesday is a delightful one. Make someone happy.

this one's for you, Momma! and then some...

See below...to see what I mean about my momma...get past all this gobbledegook...

Hey, hey, everybody...hope this post finds you enjoying a glamorous, amorous Thursday. I know, that's a stretch but it was fun to say....

Not much happening here today...but here's a recap of the morning thus far:

1. ~ Folded some laundry, but not all. whites are waiting...woohoo!

2. ~ Ran someone to the bathroom before they pooed their pants AGAIN!

3. ~ Went thru all of the toys upstairs...and some of Levi's clothing...time for a
Goodwill trip, that boy is growing fast...and getting some winter chub on...

4. ~ Told the kids that we could put the little Christmas tree up on the lower level...

5. ~ It's way too early for that but they enjoy it, right? Velvet has me all
psyched to get into the "holiday spirit", even if it kills me. Which it just may!

6. ~ Listening to Mel tickle the ivories...Levi is screaming at Will, who is outside...

7. ~ Alison Kraus is singing "Baby Mine" on my playlist...love that. had a dream I was
pregnant last night....OMGoodness...yikes.

8. ~ No spelling tests today...yah! But History and Science are calling our names...
rather loudly, I may say.

9. ~ Is it just me or is it dreary out there again, for the third day? This calls for some action...
turn up that Christmas music and get mistletoey...

10. ~ Hug your kids...I need to remember to do this...and not just after they
have received discipline...
My kids thrive on affection, hugs, positive affirmation...so let me encourage you to hug 'em.
(your own, of course, but u are welcome to hug mine too...)
Let them be kids...do the things that kids need to do......within those loving, parental
boundaries....

Ok, that is all I have on the list...but in other news, because I know you are waiting with bated breath....yesterday was weird. rainy, solemn...but I got a good workout in with my sister at the YMCA. It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A...I'm hoping to join there for this next few months of intense working out etc. Nothing helps like some sisterly encouragement. She is such a fun one...even with a hurt neck and foot. I love you girl...I don't know how I would make it through a day without you...you. complete me. that sounds weird. but it's true. I could do with out all the workout garb on whilst in the sauna...it was sooooo warm in there, tight, dark and small...Next time, I will show up prepared...I bet that sauna is niiiiiiiiice in the dead of winter.

I think I'm taking my new Pumas back...can't find brown work-out clothes to go with them...blllpfff! how aggravatin'. :P

...Hope you are achieving a lot in your day...and just remember,

God is in Control. I'm so glad about that! not Obama, not the NYSE, or the Dow, or Alan Greenspan, or that guy in North Korea, or Big Brother....rest in that...God is still on the throne!

Blessings!


found this adorably cute pic of my loving, beautiful mother while cleaning out the storage room today...doesn't Miss Molly resemble her? and you know who else I see in you, Mom? Charlie....say it isn't so...whaddya think?

sweet little round chubba face...so kissable.

Wranglers and pet babies

what kind of cowboy IS this? Levi thinks he wants to be a cowboy for our Harvest Party...we'll have to work on this.

here are some pix to prove that my older kids actually did tie Molly up today. We were trying to clean the upper level and if you've read any of my past posts, you know that she is into everything, a human tornado. Will came up with the idea to tie her (by the ankle) to our stereo table. She really didn't mind it. Until she tried to get out of the living room. nice. see why we don't have dogs?

I'll figure this out if it kills me.


Got a few movie lines for you...see if you can guess which movie these are from...

"Moving buddies. If you don't have one, Get ONE!"

"That's not flying, that's falling with style"

"You're...mocking me, aren't you?"

We watched this movie 3 times last night (which is tonight according to the date on this post, since this is an edit) and once this morning, all ready.

that's all I've got...out the door to the first of 3 soccer games.

Peace

Five days and counting...

Till my U-verse shows up...I'm sooooooo excited.

I must say though, I'm really going to miss my dial up. We've been friends for 8.5 years.

Wow. that's a long time, faithful friend (well, you aren't that faithful)

Ok, just wanted to put a post out there...time to make the donuts. o donuts.........that sounds good right now.

Happy Friday to you! hope you have some amazing weekend plans ahead of you!

good customer service IS hard to find...

I'm a people person.

I don't necessarily have good eye contact all the time.

I like it when my cashier greets me, makes small talk, acknowledges that I've just dropped a wad of money at the store that pays their check. AND says good bye, thank you for shopping here...blah blah blah.

I was in Meijer the other night. I had all FIVE of my kids with me. I sent the boys out to the car with Molly and Levi. (they are responsible and aware. usually)

I chose Cristina's lane. Big mistake. I've chosen Cristina's lane before and vowed to avoid it like the plague. I gave her another chance. Thought maybe the first time she was having a bad day, whatever.

I walked into her lane, said HI, finished emptying my cart, pulled up to the debit machine and proceeded to get quite aggravated because she hadn't said ANYTHING, and had only sighed to herself that being on lane 15 that night WAS TOO MUCH for her. I mean, heck, does she not have a JOB?

By half way thru this torture, putting my bags into the cart (with Mel's help) my shock grew. Then this older dude walks up behind me, plops his 2 items down, and she, very loudly and almost amiably, says to him, "Ohh, I'm not done yet!!". She still hasn't said anything to me and barely made any eye contact. (ooo, I'm steamy annoyed). Finishes my order, DOESN'T even tell me my total, which, may I tell you was over 100 bucks...could I get some decent customer service for this fee, PLEASE???

When I finished up my part and got ready to push out of lane 15, she sighs very mousily "thank you"
not even loud enough to hear.

I think I had smoke coming out of my ears...I calmly walked over to guest services. Be our Guest. Be our Guest. Put our service to the test...yup, that's what I was gonna do.

After Gertie at the desk got done selling the dude in front of me every lottery ticket EVER, I walked up to her and told her, while pointing to the different front line managers, main store managers pictures hanging up on the wall, that I didn't see any of them present but I felt it necessary to point out the complete lack of courtesy given to me by Cristina...

Granted, I murmur. We all do in our own ways. I was very calm and decent, not ranting and raving at all, and I just feel like they would want to know that their employees are giving their company a bad name. I had just started shopping at Meijer again after not going there often because back in the spring, was dealt with very nastily by a little blonde bimbo cashier there....so I made sure to tell front desk Gertie that I would probably not be back and while I know that doesn't hurt a company as big and global as Meijer, it sure makes me feel better. I did do the survey that is on every receipt for Meijer...and got to give my 2 cents there as well!

I will tell all my friends about this too...that's why I'm boring you with this...demand good customer service...is Meijer not an American company? I think they still are (I will have to ask Charmaine about this).

I guess I will stay a Target girl. they just don't have as good of a selection and their produce is non-existent and too highly priced.

Oook. Thank you for letting me rant and rave. I will try to dig up some pix to make up for this befuddled mess.

Another one of those...

This is what I do when I have no fresh pix to share...I dig. But you gotta admit, these little walks down memory lane are pure sweet...have I mentioned how unbelievable it is to me that my 5th child is not a newborn any more? I need for that to sink it but it isn't.













glad she grew out of the cross-eyed phase...but it really is so cute and I'd love a minute or two of this stage....it flew by waaaay tooooooo faaaaaast! such a cutie baby

first and last...beginning and end...A to Z...#1 and #5...

Levi and his van.

Baby Kitten Head..

Hello Folks...Sorry for being away for so long...it's been an unusually weird week, what's new?

Just thought, since I hadn't really taken any pix of late, that I would post this time last year...I know how much "you" must love this.

Not much worth mentioning is happening...LIFE...so I will get back to this in a day or two...D's working, I'm trying to keep up with EVERYTHING, the kids are doing their things, E. has been down and out with an ear issue...please pray for him...he's hurting! Other than that, it's just yard clean up after a couple of nasty, windy storms! Good times!

Up next, Piper dreams...Pipes will be turning FOUR on Sunday...so I need to start digging up a few shots of razzle dazzle P!

Hope you all are healthy and enjoying these dog days of summer!