For Nicole~

Our grape tomatoes, we only have one of these but it has six or seven bunches like this one.

They look like clusters of grapes until they start turning red.

We have several rows of green beans & the yellow wax beans. They are delish right of the vine. We get about two handfuls like this every other day. It's been a while since we've grown beans so I don't know how long they'll last but they're SO good!

There are two rows of squash/zuccini. We've already pulled some off & grilled them on shish kabobs!

Closest to the front of the picture are the biggest of the tomato plants. There is another row that we started behind it. No red tomatoes yet but our mouths are watering! If they don't turn soon we'll be having fried green tomatoes! At the very back of the garden is two rows of corn, I forgot to get a picture. The middle blank space is where the smaller tomato plants are & where we have put some transplants that aren't doing great but we're trying to grow some watermelons that sprouted in our compost bucket. We'll see what happens.

I'm having an off day. Do ever have a day where you're just not yourself. A little more emotional than others??? Cranky? Tired?? ANd can't make up your mind what exactly you want to do??? Well, that's been myday. No it's not PMS or pregnacy related. But I'm on overload. Tommorrow we're supposed to go to a family fun fest but I don't want to go. And as Sam so clearly reminded me I just said all I ever do is stay around the house. Yes, I would like to get out of the house with my family but NO I don't want to be around (hanging out with) other people to do it. I do understand that it doesn't really make sense but at the same time I'd like it to be just us. Sam doesn't understand this very much b/c he is a social butterfly & I like it close and personal. Anyways, I'm just feeling a little bit funky today. Tommorrow everything should be back to normal, I hope.

ps, We had a great day at the park today. The one we went to had a creek for the kids to play in. Justus LOVED every minute of it and wanted to roll around in the clay & sand all day. The water was too cold for Zeke so he screamed bloody murder everytime we put him near the water.

We're getting geared up for our vacation my 'to-do' list is still pretty long and my 'buy-this' list is even longer. Thankfully Sam is back in town & the weekend is coming up so I hope that we will be able to cut my lists in half. I've started collecting coupons again & am working the CVS angle so I'm trying to save every last buck so we can splurge a little bit later.

Sam came home a little early today so I had a great afternoon. Neither Sam or Justus wanted go to the Y tonight so Aubrey & I took the little ones and went. I only walked 1.5 miles, I try to do two or more. By then I've warmed up some so I get on the bicyicles. I usually average somewhere between 7-8 miles. Ten is the most I've done but that was only a few times & I was exhuasted.

Tommorrow we're going to meet Sam & some of the youth at a different park that is closer to our church. They're doing a cookout. Each student is supposed to bring a new friend. It's supposed to be HOT & HUMID, not really where I want to be but these days I escape the house as often as possible. When we get back the house should be at least three people quieter (niece & nephew will be at their daddy's.)

Suppertime~ We had breakfast for supper tonight! I LOVE breakfast anytime! The choices were sausage, bacon, pancake, gravy & biscuit, grits eggs & fruit salad too. Tasty! Plus we didnt have to fix it since we ate at the church tonight. Double the pleasure; good food with little effort.

Shutterfly

They're giving away 25 free prints...with nothing more to buy. This sale ends on Friday. I've used this company quite a few times before & I love their quality. But they have changed somethings around & now it's taken me forever to get the pictures upload & to the checkout. As far as I know it's not on my end but how can you ever tell??? IT took me several times to upload them and now I"ve tried three times to purchase them but it's not working. Attn: now at shutterfly free prints with purchase of a headache! Hopefully the problem will be fixed by tommorrow since the deals run out at the end of the week!

Fun at CVS~ I went today because Sam had the day off so we went to different location just to see how it was. On the way Ezekiel fell asleep so all the boys stayed in the car while I 'ran in real quick". Thirty minutes later ALL the boys came in. Sam was flustered & Zeke was being a grinch b/c he got woke up. Justus is saying quite loudly...I GOTTA GO POOP! The girl who has been helping me at the checkout giggles & take them back to the bathroom. On the way home I explained to Sam what took so long. IT was something like this. I found all my bargains pretty quick, five minutes or so. Then I go to check out & a few kinks pop up. Plus the fact that I needed to do three or four transactions b/c while it was payday the money wasn't in our account yet---makes life super special. SO we had a tiney tiny bit of money in our account.

As I am passing on my way to other items I see the spin brushes that have been mentioned. I look down & it says 2.99 get 2ecb's back, pay .99 That is a GREAT deal. I get the three that were left. Right below that are some adult toothbrushes for 2.49 get 2ecbs, pay .49. So I take those & go grab my other stuff and head to the cash register. Everything went smoothly until the GREAT toothbrush bargains which were marked incorrectly. Spinbrushes first. 6.99 she tried to charge me, I wasn't having that. I politely go back & get the sticker, which for some ungodly reason was in the wrong place(that's what she said but I didn't really believe). She was nice & gave them to me for 2.99 a piece which was still a great price but not the .99 I was planning on. Then the adult toothbrushes, the same thing happen. This time she follows me back there & looks. The sytem was wrong & I was right but it wouldn't give me the ecbs so she voided all those transactions & gave them to me for .49 Having ECBS to spend is great but getting a good deal trumped it this time. Because of my slim budget I used my 7ecbs & payed only 1.24 in cash.

All in all it was a good day. The cashier was super friendly & very patient with my transactions and questions. I will go there if we're ever in the area. I didn't get a picture but I got three spin brushes, Smart Rinse, 5 adult toothbrushes, 8 soyjoy bars & a pack of gum including ECBS & cash I paid about ten bucks. Pretty good considering that one spinbrush is usually $6.99! I'm officially an addict who can't support the habit....once again NOT having my liscense probably saves me from trouble.

For Staci~

Questions...
Do you have a set way you clean your kitchen? I used to when I had my own kitchen. Now I just get in & out as soon as possible.

What is the purpose of the Magic Erasers? Are you suppose to use cleaner too? Magic Erasers are really good to get crayon marks off of plastic toys when the kids decide to 'decorate' or off of plastic furniture outside, it really cleans it up well. No cleaner needed, just wet with water & wipe til your hearts content.

Do spend your entire day keeping house? Or just wait and clean it all at one time? I like to switch it up. When Sam is home it's clean the house day, a deeper clean than most days. During the day I am constantly cleaning up small messes or having the boys 'help' me clean up so they can learn to pull out one bucket of toys instead of ALL they toys at one time.

Do you get Hungry at 4 pm and 11 pm??? Depends on if I took the time to eat a good lunch.

If you are ONE day late do you take a pregnancy test? No I wait for a little bit just to make sure.

Do you ask your children if they want a spanking? Have they ever said yes? I have before but they never reply with a yes.

Do you wash your feet before you go to bed? I usually take a shower before bed-yes.

Do you wash your face before bed? Or just in the shower? Yes in the shower.

Do you consider yourself artistic? NOT AN OUNCE!

Do you change your clothes more than once to find the right outfit? Only for Sunday. Any other day, I just throw on what's clean & not full of wrinkles.

Does your husband fold clothes differently than you? completely different!

Does it bother you to clean your toilet? EWE. Four big boys & three little guys...YUCKA!

Okay so those are random. But answer if they apply or if you can....
Thanks.

Extreme Play

After just a few hours of this place & we were all pooped. IT's lots of fun! Zeke mainly likes to run around and be chased. The slides are his favorite. Justus likes everything but his number one favorite is to just sit down and play video games. After Extreme play we headed to the mall and picked up a gift for a baby shower on Saturday. And finally home!!!!!

ONLY ONE MORE DAY....less than 24 hrs until daddy comes home! YEAH!!!!

CVS

Starting out with 18ecb's & ending with 7.50ECB's here's what I got in three transactions. I payed 4.33 in cash, so that plus the ECB's I used it would have been $14.83 Oop. Pretty good deals! Oh yeah, I got soap & mouthwash for my mom too. I'd already given them to her before I took the picture. What I was most excited about is the soyjoy bars, I have wanted to try them but they're pricey for something I wasn't sure my family would eat. Zeke likes them! It was an awesome deal! $4/4 & you get 4ecbs so they're basically free! We will go back and get the limit on these! Zeke is a picky eater so I was SO surprised that he ate the whole thing. These are actually good for you & have 4g protien & very few calories. We only tried one flavor so I will try the others before buying more of them.

Good News

Our pastor is undergoing some radiation treatments although they have only been calling it a 'pill'. I guess they are trying to down play everything. SO far it has worked. He took the little pill & then on Monday they did a body scan to see where the cancer was. The scan revealed some good news. Originally they had found more spots on his lungs and liver. The scan revealed that they are not cancerous!!!! THANK YOU JESUS for your healing blood! This upcoming Monday he will get the BIG pill that will make him radioactive for several days. He wil have to stay in the hospital for several days until his levels come down enough to be around his family and others. Talk about having time alone with GOD. I know that this is most definetely a test of faith. Even after coming home from the hospital he can't be near children or animal because by being around him they could become sterile! That is super scary to me, that that is what he has to go through to keep living. I have come to hate the word cancer. My grandmother has had it several times. Aubrey's (step) brother died from it, and there are several people in our church who are or have battled cancer within the last year (three besides our pastor). In fact am man we used to go to church with who was just a year older than my dad died last night. I'm so over cancer & ready to tell it to go back to the demon that sent it here!

Hello all, I am doing some work on my blog so I can do get paid for blogging. Things might seem a little out of place. Sorry about that.

life insurance

Thursday~

We met Nathan, Traci & Andrew at the library today. We have three of them in our county and so we went to the one by the YMCA/splashpad. We have never been to this one. IT is very nice with lots of room for the kids. They have a play area set up for the kids. With a puppetshow stand which they loved! Books especially made for small kids which I loved bc Zeke still rips them and the all popular puzzles. I didn't have my camera with me because I knew that keeping up with the two boys would be enough for me to handle! I was right they were busy as bees! Good thing I put Zeke in the stroller or it would have been mass chaos. We let them play a few minutes before loading up again to go across the parking lot to the Y. The weather was cooler than last week so when the breeze would blow everyone wet would get goose bumps. Justus had a rough day but other than that we all enjoyed ourselves. I never did get a pic of Andrew.

Watermelon is yummy!

Justus begged me to eat the last piece of watermlon. This kid is hilarious!

Lunch at the park

We met Staci & the kids at the park today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! A breeze and lots of sunshine and not to hot either. This entire week is supposed to be milder weather. Sounds great to me & feels even better since we don't have AC in our van right now. The cheapest estimate we've gotten to have it fixed is $800! OH yeah, the inmates of our county were out about working....in the parking lot right next to the park. I was not happy about that. They didn't come close but still I'm thinking there are plenty of other places for community service besides next to a park!

Check out the inmate van in the right corner


In the left corner is the building they were working on the entire time we were there.


Zeke not cooperating with the camera!

The Lovely Inmate Van

GGGGGGGrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Pink eye again!

Tonight was interesting. Aubrey & I get the kids in the van all buckled up and the van won't start. My dad tries to jump the battery and it wasn't working. I was just dreading finding out what could possibly be wrong ; I always expect the worse. So we hear this ticking and it's coming from the fuse box. We take a look and fiddle with it a bit & try to jump it off again. Eventually we got it started. SO then we're trying to decide if we should go to the Y or not. We vote yes! The ticking stopped so we went ahead. No ticking when we get to the Y so we think all is well. So we come back out to go home and the ticking is back. Again, I expect the worse. My dad comes, jumps the van and we head out the parking lot, it cuts off again. No power, no lights, no nothing. Not exactly a good way to try and come home. We finally got in touch with Sam at the ballpark and he headed our way. He suggested that we try to tighten the connectors to the batteries......ALL IS WELL. OK, now that's stupid. I guess any other time we would have tried that first but the ticking threw us off. I sincerly HOPE that that's all it was since a car repair would cancel our trip all together and Sam will be gone for 6 days. I don't want to be homebound that entire time! PS I still don't know what the ticking was but my guess is the it was just trying to connect to the power source.

I started another blog. I plan to keep using both. If you want to read the other one as well let me know & I'll email you. I know that you're ALL wanted to read them both.

What happens when momma sleep til noon.....

Justus wasn't in on this but he sure wanted to be. So instead he settled for a pic with his cousins. Pretty funny. I hope they're washables.

Summer magic

The lightning bugs were out tonight so I took the kids outside for about twenty minutes, they were running around like mad men chasing & catching the bugs. Ezekiel was the least impressed. Jaiden didn't want to hold them but was very interested. I remember chasing them as a kid so it's fun to watch them and listen to them giggle when one tries to fly away & tickles their hand. They're funny when they are looking at the bugs & trying to figure out how the bugs are making light. IT's just one of the things that make summer magic.

Weekend update~

We had a pretty good weekend. Starting with my sister bringing home her 'friend' who stayed at our house for three hours on Friday afternoon. HE was here when none of our husbands were here and Sam was TICKED that my sister would bring someone over that none of us knew. I think the reason that it was such a big deal to him was b/c of the company my sister keeps. Most of her friends are her clubbing buddies/hangout buddies. I would think that this guy would have a job during the middle of the day. Or at night but since he has been to our house both during the day and night I assume that he is like my sister- unemployed. That might be a rash assumption but maybe not. I guess I should just ask. Anyone got an opinion on this? How would you handle this awkward situation??

Friday evening we went to the softball banquet & Sam did the devotion. Short & sweet just the way I like it. What was awesome to me is the amount of girls who played on this team. There were fifteen or so, not really a ton but that is a lot considering that they are all homeschooled. They were all 'normal' contrary to the view that some people have of homeschoolers. This homeschool groups has teams for eight different sports. And there is also another HS association in our county. All this is good info for me since Sam wants me to homeschool Justus which I am seriously considering doing.

On Saturday I washed all our clothes & they have been sitting on the couch ever since. That was only a day ago but the kids have reeked havoc on them today. Procrastionation is not a good thing when it comes to laundry! We also went to a LEE outlet store, my brother Josh got a new job at a warehouse & now he needs winter clothing b/c it's freezing in there. He found a Northface jacket for only $15 pretty dang good but two sizes to big.....they're getting a new shipment soon so he's hoping they will have his size next time.

Today we had grilled pork loin, mashed potatoes, rolls, broccoli & cauliflower. IT was delish! Followed by brownies for dessert. We usually do take-out for Mother's & Father's Day but no one could decide what to get.

And finally~ I went to CVS. I didn't do all that great but I got stuff I needed and walked out with $18 ECB's. Sam was patient with me but it will take a few 'transactions' for me to get into the swing of things. One question though...I"ve heard you guys talk about $4 off 20 & other deals like that...how do you get them? And do you have any tips for the newcomer?

#2

Today is Leah's second birthday. We're not celebrating today because the kids will have their party together. It is also the day that a couple in our church is getting married. And one of the only days this month that there isn't a mandatory church event. I take that back we have prayer at 9am this morning. I will be praying from home Sam can't do that & since there is a wedding and everything is set up prayer will be held outside. How perfectly special. No I am not happy that my husband has to go to the church and pray outside for an hour. That one hour will cost us $4. Enough said.

TGIF

Yea! It's Friday!!!! My sister took her kids to their dads house early today. Is it bad to feel relief??? They really are good kids but three extra kids in your house all day adds a lot of wear & tear on the ears. The funny thing is I wouldn't mind having three or more kids myself.....IF we had our own place. It's HOT & again I wish we had to pool up. It would be so refreshing right now besides running around in the heat or staying in the house.

Tonight Sam is speaking at a softball banquet for our homeschoolers. We have TONS of homeschoolers around here & alot go to our church. They asked us to bring the whole family but I don't think Ezekiel is ready to sit still and quite for that type of thing so he's staying here with Aubrey and Justus will go withus. Plus an 'entertainment' bag...crayons, cars, men, etc.

We wanted to go to a movie this weekend but there isn't alot out that I want to see. Next weekend will be different. Narnia is still in & I haven't seen it yet so that is a possibilty. Other than that there isn't alot going on. We might go out for 'Father's Day' because Sam will be gone to youth camp that day this year. I think that is really wierd but I'm not in charge.

Which brings up another dreaded thing: six days without daddy around while Sam is gone to youth camp. Since we will have the van while he is gone Aubrey & I will GET OUT OF HEAR as much as possible.

Ideas for during the day:

Splash pad (free)
Library (free)
Extreme play ($7 for Justus, $5 for Zeke)
Park (free)
Getting groceries; definetly not free but still a time away from the house!!!!

At night:

Good ole' YMCA ( we usually go three nights a week)
Wed~ Church of course
Emergency sanity trips~ CVS? Walmart??? or Sonic; ours is open late & they have a lit playground for the kids to play on.

Other than hanging out at the house these are the things I will be doing next week so long as Aubrey is up to it & no one is sick!

Day two

Today is the second day of NO school around here. That probably doesn't sound important but believe me it is! Justus can get along with anyone, but when you throw five kids of five different ages together it can get complicated! So during the day when our school ager was gone life was a little more simpler. And no, I'm not blaming him cause he is a really good kid in general. But when you have two big brothers trying to take up for the little brothers, well I tend to get a headache at least once a day!!!! How do I cope? CHOCOLATE & I ran out yesterday. Luckily today was a good day. They all got along for the most part & played in the other room while I did laundry and their mom slept till noon. Not to happy about that one but the day is done and I have survived!!

I really need to get some crafts together so we don't go nutso!

Gotcha!

I just couldn't kill him, we finally caught it & took him outside. We being Sam of course!

Nothing like a baby mouse walking across the floor to wake you up at midnight. I wish I could have gotten a pic but the little booger was to fast. Why can something so disgusting be so cute??? The little creature was so itty bitty. I wonder how many more there are? How many does a momma mouse have at one time???? How do you get rid of them without killing them? I dont want to live with mice in the house but at the same time I don't want to kill them either. Sometimes I'm so weird!

ps My feet are NOT touching the floor!!! GROSS! Cute or not, they're GROSS!!!!

I got sunburn yesterday. How stupid!!!! I lathered down the kids but not myself. What a dork! And no wonder, yesterday it was 99 degrees, tying the record in 1913. I think that today is supposed to me 'cooler'. However, it didn't feel that way when we were outside weeding the garden. My sunburn was burning through my clothes. We didn't stay out very long. I wish we had the pool up! About to pull out the slip n slide & go for a ride myself.

Hot, hot ,hot!

The splash pad at our YMCA. We can go for free since we have an membership!

Zeke

I took Zeke to the doctor on Sunday. His eye kept getting worse & worse. The doctor thinks that he had an allergic reaction to the eye drops he had prescribed for Justus & had told me to use for Zeke if he got pink eye too. We left with an prescription for new eye drops & an antibiotic just in case it was something else going on. This is what his eye looked like before we left. It looks MUCH better now!

Stinky pink eye!

Zeke has pink eye & I"m supposed to do nursery this morning. Someone else will have to do it since we're headed to see the doc & pink eye is too contagious to be working with the kiddos anyways.

On Thursday we took Justus to the doctor for pink eye. It really looked more like allergies but I didn't want to chance it. Even the doctor said that it looked liked allergies but still gave me a prescription for pink eye. It's a good thing he did because it got worse. And Zeke woke up with it this morning! Check out his eye!

I finally got a bathing suit that fits! So very exciting to a person who hates to try on clothes! I actually ordered it from ebay, so I am amazed that it isn't a horrible fit. I am still looking for another one. One that is chlorine resistant so I can wear it at the Y. I'd like to do the water aerobics! We'll see. Gotta run, getting ready to go to the movies. $2 woo-hoo.

Justus can't wait to see this movie!

Dang dogs!

I stepped in dog poop today & slid across the laundry room. I do not even have a dog. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Um, Ebay is addicting!

Since today is Sam's off day we took the boys to the park. We played for a while & then had a picnic lunch. I forgot the camera....tis sad but true. Josh & Aubrey went with us as well. We had a great time. IT was pretty warm but there was a nice breeze to break up the heat.

Then we went to Walmart. On our way there we saw the scene of a bad accident. There were three cars that I could see. The worst one was overturned on its side & smashed in on both sides. I cried when I saw it. I can't imagine someone living through it. The EMT's were using the jaws of life & had a huge bar stuck inside..I'm guessing to stablize it. The car was tore up! The other two car were the ones that hit that one & it looked like they had only minor damage to their cars. We had to take a detour to get to walmart.

Walmart was as fun as ever, taking every last penny that I own & then some. When we came home the boys played out back in the little kiddy pool. We haven't put up our usual pool that is a little bit bigger. Last year it got a hole in the inflatable ring that holds it up. We couldn't find the hole so we had to blow it up every couple of days. ANNOYING!!

After supper we went to the YMCA. And now I'm avoiding bed even though it's calling my name. I did get one or two pics of Zeke playing in the pool so maybe I can post them tommorrow.

Today is June 1st, to me it's now officially summertime. The weather last week was summer weather so I'm thinking we're in for a long hot summer. What fun!