Cousin Fun for the Day

Cousins came today to stay while Memaw and Poppa went to a training class. We started the day at the local Splash Pad, had a picnic, played in the sand, had a picnic lunch and went to the local pool. We ended our time together by going to Sonic for Happy Hour. Whew!!! What a busy time with 8 kids and one adult.

Not Flattering, but Funny

The following is a conversation between Reed and I while we were on vacation. I told Tim later that I did not have to share this with him -- I could've kept it to myself, but I did think it was funny.

On our last full day at the beach in Destin, there was a yellow flag warning out as the waves were pretty choppy. Reed and I were out riding the waves together on a boogie board and as the waves were running at a diagonal, we were being taken further and further down the beach. The following conversation came next:

Me: Reed, we're going to need to get out and walk back. Daddy's going to be worried and wonder where we are.

Reed: That's because he's the boss.

Me: Really?

Reed: Yes, because he's the oldest. That makes him the boss.

Me: Oh, because I'm pretty sure Daddy thinks I'm the boss.

Reed: No, you're just BOSSY!

Miracles Do Happen!

Miracles do happen! I am not talking about the fact that we finally chose to post on our blog again --- although Lorna has been Facebooking--- what can I say, life has been happening and we have been going with it. No, the miracle I am speaking of is that my wife cleaned the bathroom this weekend! Oh my gosh! I have been cleaning the bathroom for twenty-one years. It's not that Lorna is a slob, quite the opposite --- she turned me into a clean freak like her. No, she simply does not want to actually have to clean the bathroom and she luckily married someone who most of the time, doesn't mind.

When Lorna was living alone in an apartment pre-marriage, she grew unidentifiable things in her bathroom! I don't want to hear anything about how gross men are when they live by themselves --- her bathroom would give any bachelor a run for their money. Hence, after our nuptials in 1988, I got the privilege of cleaning our bathrooms from apartment to first house, first house to second and three kids later, numerous pets and a third house, I am still cleaning the bathroom. However, being gone for close to three weeks and because she knocked my favorite hat off my head into the Gulf of Mexico, she cleaned our bathroom! I came home to a refreshingly clean bathroom --- although she admits this may be a one time occurrance in our marriage. Miracles do happen!

Hopefully we will become more consistent at blogging again --- that will qualify as a miracle for us.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! As this is hands-down Reed's favorite holiday of the year, of course he started planning his costume months ago. He wanted to be a mummy. You'd think this would be a common costume, but neither of our children have ever been mummies before. And what a cheap and easy costume! One $4 sheet from Walmart and we were done. We already had face makeup, so we were good there.

About two weeks ago, Reed said he wanted to be Frankenstein for Halloween. I said, "Reed -- I thought you wanted to be a mummy." He said, "No, Mom, I mean NEXT Halloween!" I told you it was his favorite holiday. Stay tuned for a Frankenstein costume next year.

I took a half-day off from work to prepare. Since the holiday fell on Friday this year, we weren't under any time constraints to be in bed by a certain time, so I thought I'd make it more special. I always want to be (but usually don't attain) the good mom who has cute parties with cute food, etc. So this year, I made:

Mummy Dogs

Creepy Crawlers

Chili Pie and Ghost CupcakesAfter dinner, our mummy got dressed and headed out to get his loot!

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Count Pumpkula!

Reed's school held a pumpkin decorating contest for all of first grade. It was entirely optional, but you could decorate a pumpkin of any size in any manner except carving. Ew, can you imagine the spoilage/smell at the school if they were carved?

So Tim, being the creative projects manager in this household, sat down with Reed over two nights. The idea was all Reed's and most of the execution. Tim helped with the collar and cape.

My idea for a name was Dracu-lantern, but since he wasn't carved, we went with Tim's idea of Count Pumpkula!

Here was the process:

And the final product!

A Car of His Own

We finally found a car for Lane. He despaired of us ever finding one as it was taking sooooo long. Seems that I always found something wrong with every one we saw an ad for or that we went to see. But in early October, we went and looked at a car, drove it and decided it was the one. It's a 1999 Ford Taurus with only 72,000 original miles on it. Lane paid for it with his own money e had earned and was quite proud of that.

After the purchase was made, we took the car to our mechanic so they could look it over. When I went to pick it up, the guy said, "I know I'm being nosy, but can you tell me what you paid for this car?" When we told him, he said, "You got a really good deal. This is a great car." He said it needs an alignment at some point, but had nothing else wrong with it at all.

However, the key word there was "had." Lane didn't drive the car to school the first week he had it as we spent that week transferring the title and obtaining insurance. (Beware all ye out there with sons who will someday become teenagers as ye car insurance premiums will surely double)

So the following week, Monday morning arrives and Mr. Independent is ready to drive to school. And he does, but because he is independent and has his own wheels, he stops at Sonic first. And in backing out of his parking spot to leave, hits a metal railing on the other side of the drive. The car that had nothing wrong with it -- now does. He had condensation on his rear window and couldn't see out of it. He wiped it off, but it kept coming back and he didn't think about the defroster. But hey, if you can't see out of your rear window, just back out anyway and hope for the best!

Before:

After:

It really doesn't look all that bad and he's learned something from it. He wants to have it repaired, so we'll have to get an estimate for it and see how many pennies he'll have to save for that. Though none of us are really worried about that because on any given day, we all know Lane has much more available cash than his parents!

Lane's 17!

So we've been a little (okay, a LOT) behind on our blogging. Laundry gets in the way. Life gets in the way.

But we're back now and I'm here to report that Lane is 17 and has been for oh, four weeks now. Poor Lane had to work on his birthday, but we went to lunch at Bennigan's after church. His big present was tickets for he and I to go see Jeff Dunham when he came to town a few days after his birthday. We both love this guy -- Lane has seen all his specials on Comedy Central and I in particular am a big fan of Achmed. Look up Achmed on YouTube. It's hilarious.

On the night of the show, Lane and I went to dinner at Mighty Fine Burgers. We then looked around Barnes & Noble and then headed to the show. We were in the 11th row, so that was pretty cool.

I can't believe my first baby is 17!

Visual Adventure on a Early Saturday Morning

This morning, Reed, Maren and I got up before 5 am and went to Lake Travis to watch the Central Texas Ballooning Association's Annual Flight. We wondered how many people would get up this early on a Saturday morning to witness this event, but we were surprised when we got there around 6 am with hundreds of other interested onlookers. It was really fascinating to see all the prep work and then to witness about 12 balloons inflated and lift-off. We had a good time and then we went to breakfast at Denny's. I highly recommend if you have something like this in your area to make the effort to go. It was a visual adventure.

Broken or Not Broken? That is the Question!

Broken little piggy? The photo doesn't do it justice.

Normal little piggy

I stubbed my little piggy this morning against the vacuum cleaner that I put next to our bedroom door (silly me). After grumbling and mowing the backyard, it turned this funny purple color. Now I can't decide if it is broken or not. Your opinion? Comment please. It hurts badly if that helps any.

Art Boy - Chip Off the Old Block

Art Boy in his Mud to Music ceramics class.

Art boy with his flower drawing.

Art Boy in his gallery space.

So we all spent the week at The Art School. I taught 12-14 year-olds painting and drawing. Maren volunteered in a 6-8 year-old drawing class and a 4-5 year-old class, and Reed (Art Boy) took a drawing class and a ceramics class. He is definitely his daddy's boy. Reed loves to create. He had a ball in drawing (see the photo from today with charcoal all over his face) and LOVED his ceramics class. The clay class was entitled Mud to Music and he made different, functional instruments out of clay all week. Watch out art world, Reedster is an Art Boy! Go Art Boy! Go!