so many kids! ... and some thoughts on music

One thing I love about our church is the size of many of the families. We went for a play date to the Ellisons' house today, and there were 8 kids there. The Oliver and Guy families each have 6 kids, the Seales have 5, and there are some families even larger, with 10-12 kids. Talk about an inspiration! I love watching these families interact with each other; to watch the older children interact with the younger ones is truly a blessing.

After chatting with Kristie this morning, I just felt so blessed and encouraged. And she let me borrow a very cool book called Managers of Their Homes, about scheduling and other things Christian-homeschool related. I'm already on the fourth chapter!! The couple that wrote the book also have a website that looks really neat, but I haven't had the chance to really play yet.

Catherine had her baby a few weeks ago, a little boy names John David, whom they'll be calling David. I love it! And Sam and Evie are very amused that there are not one, but two Baby Davids. I'm taking their family a meal tomorrow, so I finally get to see the baby. Yay!!!

Ok, confession time. Ready to hear this one? The kids are playing in the loft behind me (with the baby gate at the op of the stairs, thank you very much, so he doesn't fall down the stairs ... again), and I've been doing stuff here at the computer for a while, and put a fun playlist of music on Windows Media Player, so we can have some tunes in the background. And Bohemian Rhapsody just came on. And I know pretty much all the words. Now, The Joker is on. Yeah, that one. By Steve Miller. At least my kids will grow up with a well rounded knowledge of music. :) And now, we have the Four Freshmen playing. Think early 50's jazz vocal group with very slicked-back hair.

It's my mom's fault, really. She listened to every kind of music under the sun (well, she did deprive me of punk and the Beatles, but we can talk about all the another day), and I love everything now!! Bluegrass to Queen to Steve Miller to the Supremes to Amy Grant to 2Pac to the Deftones and Ramones to Debussy... I love it all!! Thanks, Mom!! You and your taste in music totally rock!!

Except ... um, I don't know if I want to mention this one ... um ... R Kelly? Seriously? We may need to talk about that one...

But for the rest, thank you so much. I owe my love of all music to you!!

new pics!

Sorry, this week has been crazy. I've been busy around the house, starting back up with the school schedule, buying more chicks, and every day life with three kids under 6! It is still so strange to think that Sam is 5 now, and Evie will be 4 in a month. Oy!!

But anyway, here's some long overdue pictures.

Here's our chicks!! We have 10, all with names, of course! (Lucy2 & Ethel, Zsa Zsa, Thelma & Louise, Laverne & Shirley, and Paris, Nicky, & Britany) (oh, that's right, I named my chickens after the Hilton sisters!! Mwwaa hahahaha!!)


And Evie with Laverne and Shirley.


Here's some river pics.

Sam and Evie with a fish my brother Kevin caught.

Evie with a huge slice of watermelon and a Popsicle. Hey, some of us have a hard life, ok? Lighten up already, and stop judging. :)

Moi and my handsome, loving, strong, sweet, mmmm ... well, that's none of your business, is it? John and me. He still makes my tummy do flip-flops and makes my knees wobble a little. Or sometimes, a lot. He's the most wonderful man I've ever met.


This is David helping me in the kitchen, making supper the other night. Ain't he just the cutest? I want to eat him up!!


And since I didn't feel like I posted enough pictures of the darling Evelyn Grace, here's the little troublemaker before church last week.

That's what I know for now. More in a few days on a new thing in my life. And no, its not a lover. I am very boring, and raaawther happy in my marriage. Sorry.

We're back!

We are back, and we had a fabulous time. We didn't get back until laaaate on Tuesday, because we stayed in Fredericksburg on Monday night; kind a spur of a moment thing. Everything was amazing, I had a blast with my family and Wes' friends, and my legs are less white then when we left. We took some great pictures, so I'll try to post those tomorrow when I have a little bit of time.

We got our chicks this week, too!! We have 6. I'll tell you their awesome names and what kinds they are tomorrow.

And now, I have to get off the computer because a) I'm not supposed to be on the computer on Sundays, and b) there's a thunderstorm coming. Again. Surprise, surprise.

going, going, gone!

We leave for the river in the morning, if we haven't been washed away before then. We should get there around lunch Friday, and be home by supper on Monday. I am so looking forward to this ... I need a break!!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend, and I'll take lots of pics and post 'em for y'all when I get back!!

And then there were none ...

None that missed the awful stomach bug, that is. John got sick Saturday night. I talked to him at work around 10:30 that evening, and he was fine, in a good mood. He called me around 12:45, and the kids and I had to go pick him up from work. That was fun, by the way. Nothing makes my night a little better than waking all the kids up from a dead sleep and loading them up in the car. And sitting in the Chili's parking lot for 40 minutes. And driving home with a very sick husband. And finally getting back to bed at 2:45. And then getting up 4 more times with the kids, before the baby wakes up early for the bad at 6:45. Wow, that was one of the worst nights I've had in many a year.

But enough grousing. I finished Great Expectations, very sad and wonderful book, and am about to start The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I haven't read anything by Hugo before, but I'm looking forward to it.

David is trying to pull himself up on things, and thinks he can talk. Maybe we just don't speak his language ... who knows? But he is darling, and I just want to eat him.

Evie and I had a date this afternoon, and had a blast. We went to Starbucks, and then up to Bastrop Gardens. The gal that owns the place, Deena, is a doll, and I just love her. The kids think she's pretty great, too, and she likes them. She gave me a few free plants (I love knowing people, and bringing them cookies and coffee from time to time!) that I'll put in tomorrow, and gave me some really good advice on some of the things I've got growing.

We leave for the river Friday morning, early, and I'm starting to get ready for that tomorrow. So little to pack, so much time ... Wait! Strike that. Reverse it.

And I'm still lacking on sleep, so I'm off to bed raawther soon.