this time last year

Slide Rock was......... AWESOME.

not that I'd want to be there right now but wow! whatta fine part of our trip...

that's all I've got for this wacky Monday...whew. glad it's over...

this time last year and some deep thoughts...

can't believe this was one year ago...

sweet girls!

oh, I miss this sweet, chubby baby face...don't you, B?

and then this...

I actually miss this....

Beautiful baldy and Harriet, her cousin...Toupee...isn't that what we called her?

so, this time last year, I was still carrying around Fatty Patty in her baby seat...

______________________________________________________

Happy Thursday to ya! I'm kinda low on pix right now...need some inspiration!

I've enjoyed looking back at these way cute pix of Molly and Nora...I had forgotten how chubbalicious Nora's babyhead was and how Molly looked like she was wearing a toupee...hilarious! man, time flies!

The guys from TMorgan Constr. are doing a fabulous job on the ol' homestead! If you need any home improvement, anything built, anything made to look 100% better than it does already, these are your guys. Craftsmen! Very professional, very kind, very talented! I'm hoping to get some pix of their hardwork up later....we are muy impressed!

I'm just wondering, as I sit here, if life will ever really slow down? I mean, I know it will when I die, but for real...things are just downright busy! I thought today might offer some peace, but I forgot about Mel's dental appt., and the fact that all the kids need some form of clothing or another. Mom, why didn't you tell me I would be so booked? I honestly think things are busier even these days than what they were when my sibs and I were younger! Stop! take a deep breath...choose JOY...and thank the Lord that we have the means and the freedom to go about our business, do the things we WANT to do. Realizing, of course, that we are so blessed to move about...

So sad to hear that Natasha Richardson (Parent Trap, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, acting royalty) died...Liam Neeson's wife, (Aslan, Qui Gon Jinn, Rob Roy, Michael Collins, the bad guy in Batman Begins)...one of my fave actors...she was only 45...FORTY-FIVE! beginner skiing lessons (THIS is why my kids won't ski, folks) I just feel so bad for her 12 and 13-year old sons....it's just sad. Makes ya think...bet she didn't plan on dying when she went to that lesson.

On another, less depressing note, I worked with David last night...that was kinda fun. I don't know that I'd want him to be my boss...ha ha. Get it?

Gotta run, kids are slacking. Peace!

This time last year

Brittany with my girls...

bug eyes was the theme of the evening...

one of my fave Molly pix...forgot how sweet and bug eyed she was! awww!

I put this pic on here because 1.) Molly's cute and 2.) what is David doing to his eye?

memories from Beck's 30th surprise party last year...

Kinda runnin' low on recent pix...so here are a few shots from this time last year.

this time last year was right around the time that we were getting ready to throw Beck's surprise party....man, that year flew by.

It's fun to see how little Molly and Nora were...

In other news, the weekend was uneventful...which is always fun when soccer is right around the corner....we'll take these slow poke days....

Friday night we ate food from our fave Chinese place, Egg Roll #1....and we watched City of Ember, based on a young adult fiction book...a good, clean movie...

I took Mel to Starbuck's yesterday..we enjoyed some girl time, sipping some joe and then we did our next favorite thing...walked around Target without any little people griping at us...ahh...'twas nice!

Today was an awesome church service, though I still have no voice and couldn't sing...bummer. it was family Sunday so we stayed after to sup with our brothers and sisters in Christ...and today's theme was Asian cuisine...which we currently love around our house and not just because my brother is dating a classy one...but it is fitting, isn't it?

David took Will and Levi to finish up some work at the NCAA building, my parents kept Molly and E., Mel, and I went to the YMCA to burn off said Asian cuisine...love that facility...thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of that for us! We really appreciate it!~

Now, I'm going to fold laundry and settle in for the night!

We've got your this time last year right here...

I didn't do it, I promise

snuggle bug..miss these days!

you have your father's legs, kid. why are you standing on the arm of the couch?

remember the li'l hobbit?

hello blue eyes..you look mahvelous

one of my all times...she'd be a great synchronized swimmer, wouldn't she?



First things first...if anyone you that is a regular here, knows how to get my text to show up a little bit more spaced, could you let me know? I put it all in here, nice and spaced out...and when I press publish, it's all closed in and tight...argh. very aggravating. and it hasn't always been this way.

Haven't had any get up and go to take pix this week...so while digging thru the pic files, I figured I'd do a this time last year segment...oh, how I sorta miss Molly at this time last year. She was so little and immobile, soft and snuggly...and Levi, he has changed so much in the last year too. I think he's getting his chub on for a major growth spurt of sorts!

I must head to bed...I think I'm getting an earache...David's not home from work yet and it's 11:30 pm...poor, hard working fella...on the road all day! so I will go to sleep for him.

Until next time, adios amigos! Hope you have had a superb week! Hugs, love, peace...

over the top fun

this little event is upon us again...can you believe it's Christmastime again?...Piper has her preschool Christmas program tomorrow night...and if you can find her in this picture, I will give you...a...umm, the green sucker that I got from the bank yesterday.

Molly and Nora...weren't they just the cutest? can't believe they aren't teeny babies anymore.

Grandma with Molly, back in the days when we could keep Molls pinned down.

Levi loves to snuggle with his 'Pa.

desperate times call for desperate blog posts.

sorry 'bout that dad...

I have a good excuse though, as to why I was MIA yesterday...

Our sewage ejector gave up in our downstairs...(did I mention this already?) when you have 7 folks using the toilet or needing clean clothing, it's kind of a big deal.

We woke up to the looooooovely smell of raw sewage yesterday...good. stuff.

David, being the go-getter that he is, wasn't going to sit by and make us smell it...he pulled the thing apart, to get a head start on whatever work was going to need to be done. a fun, warm day ensued.

not really.

Praise God that our awesome friend Tim stopped to get us a new pump and the ability to hook it up, get it running. I didn't take any pictures because, well, yesterday was just a not good day and taking pics was the furthest thing from my haywire brain. Thank you, Tim, from the bottom of my 2 sizes too small heart...we are so grateful for your expertise, help, willingness, and friendship. (The kids used to call him Timmy, I don't think they do so much now.) Thanks Timmy. he is soooooo not a Timmy.

is that a good enough excuse?

so here we have our way too often feature of "This time last year"...

I just wanna say that I thank the Lord for a new day. Nothing gives you different, better perspective than a new day. I know there's a verse for that and i will try to find it but right now, the kids are in need of my presence so off I go.

Have a glorious Wednesday. choose JOY. Embrace those holidays.

time capsule 11/07

Will looks like one of my daughters here...

regarding each other

ahhh, sweet slumbering sprite

We borrowed this exersaucer from some folks, and we really need to get it back to them...Molly, where did you take this sweet, baldish baby?

Here's Miss Melanie, trying on my wedding dress...which was 66 years old last year, if I'm remembering my numbers correctly. 52 years old when I wore it, plus 14 years last year...I'm a math genius! admit it.

Felt like doing a this time last year post...always good fun now and then....for me.

I think I'm going to go to bed...I'm bushed. G'night mateys.

this time last year

Sorry for posting YET again...I had to get the GW coloring down the line a bit.

Can you believe it's almost October? Where has this year gone? This time last year, I had this little chubbette laying around my house. she didn't do anything except squeal, smile, cuddle, eat, poo, sleep...today? climbing up on everything, getting everything out, leaving a trail of madness that I have to keep picking up...I love it. I do. it just makes me laugh. she's like all of her siblings rolled into one little ball of fire.

pistol. spitfire. whirling dervish. sweet little punk.

Maybe I will take some cute pix today of just my girls. All 3 boys are heading over to a "sleepover" at Uncle Tom's. whew. see ya, boyos. thanks, Tom. are you sure you wanna do this? (please don't read this post till I've dropped the boys off to you)

I'm outta here. I'm boring myself horribly.

Random is my middle name

our visit to the Creation Museum...if you haven't been there yet, you must. it's amazing and reaffirming to one's faith! the lighting on this shot is iffy...I'm all lit up and David is in the dark.

feeding baby Molly to Rex



Will looks like he may have been super-imposed into this shot. We were trying to get Molly sunburned again. ooo she was so tiny!

I know that all of these pix may have been on here last year at this time but I wanted to put 'em on again...my sweet, smooshy baby girl is so big now. I do this to quell any desires to have more sweet, smooshy babies. o but she was so cuddly and precious. She is into throwing little fits nowadays.

I made this scrapbook page in a frame for my sweet little one year old niecey poo, Nora! She had her birthday party Friday night and I got some pictures but my Canon broke yesterday so until I can get it replaced, Nora's party pix are on hold. Sorry Christy. I really wanted to put that one on here for you this Monday!

~We attended Sunday morning worship at Horizon again...awesome! Do everything as unto the Lord. EVERYTHING. it may seem pointless, you may want to grumble, but do whatever it is as if you are doing it for Him! That will surely make you want to rephrase what you were going to say, change your attitude or do that icky, gross little thing you were trying to avoid, like working in the nursery (convicted on that one here), changing diapers, wiping noses, dealing with a disobedient child, making that phone call that you don't want to make, etc. Pastor Randy's message was applicable and powerful! And I was impressed AGAIN today at how caring the people here are...not afraid to reach out, hug you, talk to you, look u in the eye...We are so blessed to have literally "stumbled" onto this place and these Spirit-filled peeps!

~Well, we are enduring the remnants of Hurricane Ike. He's a fierce one! The wind is whipping every which way here at our place and I'll admit, I'm kinda spooked (it doesn't help that D. and the 3 boys are out of town on a job today, Mel and Moll have been sleeping for the past 2 hours and we watched "The Village" last night (no, not "David Young: Village of Dreams although that is in my Blockbuster queue to get next)...and on top of that (as if we could TOP any of that)...with all this wind whipping around, I heard a funny noise...went out up here on the porch...observed the yard...looked straight out and noticed one of our trees (not too far from the tree we lost in July) split and a good hunk of it fell over, toward one of our neighbors. In the short time of observance from my porch stoop, I hear this cracking, creaking sound...kind of a freakish noise, especially because I was not sure which tree it was that was falling...where was it going to fall, onto what? yikes...it was the second part of the fallen tree from today...and it went down HARD & fast, >>whump<< (yeah, just like that), falling onto the tree that I actually SAW fall back in July. Do I have a gift for observing these grand objects fall to their deaths? I dunno but it's pretty weird to me that this was the 2nd time I have observed one of our trees fall dead over...David was quite jealous...

Well, I need to get my house cleaned up and make some rounds 'round here to make sure nothing else is falling over or blowing away. Be safe and God Bless you on this day of rest.

Edit: Just checked my blockbuster queue to check status of DAVID YOUNG: Village of Dreams...and while you can put it in your queue, it is NOT available. Seems kinda stupid to me...so I guess I won't get to see his motion picture debut any time soon! Dang!!

Yet another this time last year...

can't believe how much he's changed in the last year!! mind-boggling!

Eman hasn't changed too much

people catchers and torn up porches...the roof is gone this year and the siding around the door is outta here...looks really classy....I'll put a recent pic below. don't laugh, please! remember: work in progress...husband that does all the work and works his job a lot...not a lot of time...I don't do siding or framing....ok.

tiny little greasy baby...don't you just love that overactive oil thing they have going at one month? And I love the archer pose (reflex) um, where did this tiny thing go?

beautiful girl

courageous boy!!

This is what I do when I don't have anything to post or any new pictures. You know you love it.


Tory, sweet cousin o' mine, let me just say before I go any further that I loved the pics that you put on your post today! For some odd reason, it made me cry, (http://butterbeansrock.blogspot.com/), looking at those old pix of our family...seeing my gpa and your gma as younger folks with Gpa. Brown and siblings that I've heard about over the years but never had the honor of knowing...sent chills up my spine, transported back in time. And the pic of my gma with Granpappy and Granmilly with Tina (long i...that is what Gpa T called her when she was in trouble, which was often)...priceless walks down memory lane...prompting me to want to dig thru my pix to see what I can find! I get so emotional (can you believe that Stickers?? I really do)!!



These pix from this time last year make me laugh...Molly was getting so chunky (as if) and we were just starting to dig the footers for the revamped upper porch (remember the people catchers??) It is still such a work in progress here...David has ripped off the upper porch roof so now we look like total Deliverancy's...but when it's done, it will be magnificent (in that recession...we will wish we had lentils and potatoes but loooook at our roof, really!!)


No, David knows what he's doing and he usually plays his cards right (with the help of God, of course)...and he takes such good care of his family! (I'm missin' him today!!)

Porch: August 2008