Where there's smoke ...

there's fire.

In my hair.

Seriously.

I set my hair on fire at Book Club on Wednesday. I wore it down, which I usually do on the third of never, and stood too close to a very small tea light candle. A few seconds later, there was sizzling and that horrid smell, and then a few seconds after that, all was right in the universe again. Except that I had to apologize to Monica for making her kitchen smell really, really bad. :) My hair is fine. No chunks or anything missing, or so I've been told.

The moral of the story?

Make sure you have good friends in your book club who will make sure that you don't burn up, and will then laugh with you later. And forgive you for the awful smell.

So much fun!

Last week was completely wonderful! I mostly worked around the house Monday and Tuesday, doing my thing. Wednesday, I had another dentist appointment. It was great, let me tell you. I did find out that I only have one more visit (albeit a rather extensive and expensive one) until my mouth is whole again!! I can't even comprehend being able to chew on both sides of my mouth without shooting pain. Its been about 6 or 7 years since I could do that.

I had a lovely surprise Thursday. Lyndsey, one of my best friends who is currently living in New Orleans, called me to let me know she was in Katy. I told her that she should make a quick road trip to visit me, and (shock of all shocks!) she did!! She drove in Thursday afternoon, and stayed until Saturday afternoon. John was off Friday, so we drove, kid-less, to Austin and played for the morning. Then she helped me get ready for Evie's party, and gave me some great cake ideas.

Evie's party was Saturday, and it went wonderfully. We had three girls from the church over, plus her cousins Mary Jane and Emmabeth. All the girls looked completely cute, and they had a lot of fun. The cousins' mom Jenny (John's cousin) stayed later with the girls, so I got to visit with her, which I don't get to do often. They live out in Lakeway, so we don't see each other as much as we'd like.

Lynds left, and I collapsed on the couch while the kids watched Discovery Channel. Sunday, we all missed Sunday school, because John didn't get to bed until 4!!, and went to church. It was fantastic, as usual.

I'm taking this week to work on attitude training, scheduling, and a few other projects, because we start school next Tuesday. Evie's birthday is Wednesday, and John's is Monday, so we've got a lot going on in the next week, too. It'll be nice to start school and slow down, lol!!

Something Old, Something New

Well, since I don't have anything old, borrowed, or blue (except the amazingly comfy jeans I'm wearing right now), I'll just tell you about something new.

No, I'm not pregnant.

I have a new pet!! Its name is Lucky. We don't know if it is a boy or girl yet, but we should be able to tell in the next few weeks.

Lucky is a squirrel. It lived in a tree on our property line with its mom. However, the tree died a little while back, and has been dropping rather large and dangerous limbs for quite a while. One almost smashed my car a while back. It really freaked me out! But I digress. Our neighbors had the tree takes down yesterday (hello, firewood!!), and in the process, Lucky's mom abandoned it. So we have adopted Lucky, and we already love it so much!! It is about 4-ish weeks old, and possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. We named it Lucky cause it's really lucky to be alive; it should have died!

It eats puppy formula mixed with a little Pedialyte ... who knew? I'm off to feed it right now. I'll post some pics tomorrow. :)

a quick pop in

Read this article. Discuss amongst yourselves. We'll talk more later.

So many things to do today. Bathrooms and vacuuming, running a few quick errands, school, and ... starting my fall garden!!! I'm really excited, and the kids and I are going to start working as soon as we're done with breakfast (before it gets too hot!).

The Ellisons were over yesterday ... 8 kids under 9 were at our house! It was noisy and wonderful. I can't imagine a quiet life without lots of kids running around. But David just bit my arm, and I can imagine a life without teeth marks near my wrist. I'm just sayin.'

The Coop is Done!! and other pictures ...

My chickens have a home! It is secure, it is cute, they have plenty of room, and it can be completely operated by the kids. But most importantly ... it is FINISHED!!!! This is a big deal. John started the coop over 4 months ago, and just hasn't had the motivation to get it finished out. So I figured out a way to fix that. I just bought chickens anyway, and they lived inside the house in a box until they had a home. :) Talk about motivation!!

Aww, look, here they are! How cute!! (Yes, that is a light saber in the chicken yard. We find light sabers to be surprisingly effective herding tools when the occasional jailbreak is discovered.)


David would really, really, really like to get into the chicken yard and play with 'the girls,' as we usually refer to them.


John had just finished patching a few holes in the wire when David crawled over to him, and they were too sweet together not to take a picture!! I tell you, this man still makes my tummy do flip flops and my knees a little weak!!


And speaking of making my tummy jump, this is a whole different ball game!! I cringe and have to walk away when I see how high John swings the kids ... I just can't watch most of the time.


Evie, always the little lady, doesn't swing quite as high yet, luckily.


What's that? You'd like another picture of that adorable baby you saw earlier? Well, ok. Since you're being so persuasive and all ...


(Notice how green the front of my back yard is?? All the plants around here have been loving all the rain we got this spring and summer after that awful drought we just came out of. But I digress.)

Now, you have to be careful with that cute little ball of energy. One minute, he's sitting there and grinning at you. The next thing you know, he's trying to attack you and lick your cheek!


With a giant booger in his nose.

Tell you what, people. I've done been bit by the Baby Bug. Although we're not planning or trying right now(like we've planned or tried to have any kids yet!!), I wouldn't be sad if I was able to make an announcement in the next five or six months. I'm just sayin.'

But don't tell my mom. She'll freak out.

Good grief!

First of all, that thing that we're not talking about is still hurting. I think they didn't put my temporary crowns on correctly, and they're killing me, but I don't want to go back, because I have to go back in two weeks anyway for my permanent crowns. And I'm a wuss, and I just don't want to go. What's a little pain, anyway?

I woke up in a truly foul mood this morning. This doesn't happen often, but by 8:45 I had all three kids playing upstairs while I was on my knees in prayer. I forget sometimes that I can't do anything apart from God, including (but not limited to):

-getting out of bed
-being in a good mood
-being a good wife (and mother, friend, daughter, sister, etc)
-getting anything done
-functioning.

There is a reason that Paul tells us in Philippians 4 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (KJV) Philippians 4 is one of my favorites to turn to when life gets kinds hard. I also love 1 Corinthians 13 and the entire book of James. It never ceases to amaze me that I continue to learn from verses I have read a million times already. I love that the Bible is the Living Word!!

When I'm in a bad mood, and feeling sorry for myself, I have found three no-fail ways to get out of it.

1) Prayer. Lots and lots of prayer.
2) Making a list of things I'm grateful for. The 'smaller' the things are, the better (ie: I woke up this morning. I have coffee in my pantry. I have money to make sure there is always coffee in my pantry. I have running water. I have a kitchen I love ... this is all just in the first 2 minutes or my morning!).
3) Doing something for someone else, especially if they will never know who did it. Try this sometime. It is amazing!! And it is a double edged sword: the person you do something for is blessed, and by following one of God's commandments (Matthew 6:1-4 and ), you are also blessed!

Just some food for thought. :)

I mopped my entire downstairs today. All of it. John helped me move the couch, coffee table, dining room stuff, etc, so I could get the entire floor clean. With all the work John and the kids have been doing on the chicken coop, the floor has been trashed for the last few weeks, so it feels so good to have all the floors looking so good!

John just put the kids to bed, and on that note, I'm going to get some ironing done so I can make bread with Evie when she wakes up!

Please tell your kids to take really good care of their teeth!

I sat in the chair at the dentist's office for over four hours this morning. My appointment was at 8, I got called back right away, and I didn't leave the office until almost 12:30. I had 4 teeth worked on, consisting of 3 fillings and two crowns. One of the fillings was on a wisdom tooth. It was all very fun. We will speak of this no more.

John is outside working on the coop for the chickens. My master plan to just buy chickens and force him to finish the coop has paid off, because the durned birds are driving both of us insane in the house. They are getting so big and so cute!! I love it.

David is almost 10 months old, and Evelyn will be 4 at the end of the month. It's all very depressing. And now, I still have a hangover-esque headache from that thing we're not going to speak of again, so I'm off to nap. Good day.