Ramblerererer

Did you miss me? Since you are probably shaking your head yes, I'll go ahead and say thanks. I missed writing and posting pics of my silly little munchkins.

I know it's been a while since I posted. I love to blog. Really, I do! Infact over the past few days, I've missed it. But lately I have been sort of blue. Maybe you could say just ran down. I didn't feel that it was productive to write anything while in such a down mood. It probably would have been reflected in my writing and that wouldn't have been any fun to read.

So, lets just jump right in with some catch-up and let my ramblings begin!

I first want to say that Rusty and I officially signed up to sale my "creations" on ETSY! I am so excited. I am going to take some (hopefully) beautiful pics of my items and post them so that I can open my shop. So, I guess in a very small way, I am now a small business owner. A dream of mine for a very long time!

I took my crosses to a little Harvest Festival thingy that a church was having and sold only one. Boooo, but no one else sold anything either and there was a lot of cool stuff there. I guess it was a bad time. I did donate one for a raffle and gave them my card, so maybe that is a seed planted for some one to see it and say, "where did you get that?" and then they can say "oh, here's her card..email her and ask about them". And then I can become a millionaire and retire early. Umm, yeah right. Anyway, I got orders for four other crosses and am excited to get them made and delivered. I am going to find as many outlets as possible to sale my stuff, so hopefully I can get the ball rolling.

On to mi familia:
Hannah is doing very well. She's having the normal (I am assuming) discipline problems that come with being almost 10. Back talking and being hurtful to her little sister are a daily occurrence. We deal with it. Maybe not always the best we could, but we are always learning.

It's amazing to me at how different your discipline has to be with each child and at the same time, make sure it's a fair punishment. In other words, if they do the same thing, do I discipline them the exact same way? I have tried this, but it doesn't seem to be working. We are having to be very creative.

Anyway, back to Hannah. She loves all things ooey, gooey, and gross! I think it's only because a.)Mallorie doesn't and b.) some older kids that she really looks up to like it. I'm trying to be open to what she likes....within limitation! She really loves the idea of dressing up as a witch, devil, or goblin for Halloween. We do not! While we don't believe Halloween is a day celebrating Satan or witchcraft, we don't think it is okay to dress up to pretend to be one of these things.

She wants to color her hair black and wear only black clothes. I say "heck-to-tha-NO!!". First off, how many millions of dollars do women pay yearly to have their hair colored even remotely close to the beautiful blond color that Hannah has? Ugh, if only she could understand how pretty she is!!

In writing this, I realise if I don't give a little, then she's going to REBEL in a bad way! We do allow her to wear clothes that she chooses, as long as they aren't representative of a hooker (aka:most of the teen pop stars popular now) or an emo kid (aka:skinny, skinny jeans, bangs in eyes, black all over, with bad attitudes) or a boy (aka:"Mommy, I want to cut my hair over my ears and have it shaved in the back" WHAT???gross!!). I totally had that haircut in elementary school. Never. Again. I got asked if I was a boy All The Time!

Okay, about Hannah again. We do this every week. She wants to be considered "cool", I want her to just get through the next 8 years without trying to worry about being cool. See how this isn't working in my favor!? So, what I've been attempting to do is build her self confidence to a level that she won't worry about being cool. I am NOT going to lie and say that I am doing a fantastic job of this. I mess up continuously. But my main objective is to make sure she has a warm, loving home for her to find solace and protection in, two parents that love and think highly of her and a home where Christ is the center and base. When I said we mess up and miss the mark a lot...I meant it!

Maybe that's all we can do?! I don't know. It seems that the older they are getting, the more lost I feel. I know what they are thinking and what they are most likely going to do next, but do I stop them from messing up? Or, do I let them fail so that they can learn to pick themselves up in the future. For example: Hannah has LOST her clarinet. The clarinet that we rented from the music store. At this point we are pretty sure that she left it at the school last year, but since the office has been closed we haven't been able to check. Anyway, my point is. How do you discipline in this type of situation. She knows we are upset. She knows it going to cost Mom and Dad a lot of money, but I don't think she truly grasps the full effect of the situation. So aggravating. And just one of the daily things we as mommy and daddies get to deal with.

Wow, when did this post turn into all that? I guess you can tell I'm a bit frazzled as of late with my kiddos. Don't get me wrong, I adore them. Love them more than I can bare, and yet get so frustrated with them that I could scream. I guess that's probably how God feels about us a lot of the time.His love for us is unshakable, unbreakable, but we constantly rebel and disobey. Well, I do anyway. I can't say for sure about anyone else, but considering we all fall short of the Glory of God, it's a safe assumption. I was talking to Rusty this evening about our Mayday ministry and what topic and activity we wanted to do for our next meeting. We got off topic, as usual, and instead started talking about prayer. He says that he is afraid to pray to ask God to use us fully because he is afraid God will answer him that we are going to be staying out here even longer. I figure, whether he asks God or not, God is going to do what He wants with our lives and that he might as well go ahead and ask it. Who knows, maybe God has something else up His sleeve. I know in my heart that God does know my heart and Rusty's heart. He sees how sad we are that we aren't getting share our lives with our family and live in a place where we feel "safe".

Why are we still here? I don't know. But I do know that God has kept us safe and has forged a way for us to see our families several times a year. No, it's not monthly or weekly like we'd love, but we get to see them more often than you'd think. That also brings up finances. If you've ever visited California, you know that it's pretty ridiculous how much people pay to live here. That said, we are always taken care of and provided a way to get what we need. Also, when we invite everyone here for our ministry, there is always plenty of food and we have not hurt financially because of this. I know that is a God thing. It's definitely not a Rusty and Sarah thing, because used to, we couldn't hold onto a dollar for anything. But, see how God must be watching us with his hands rubbing his temples or shaking his head in disbelief that we would even question His motives. His motives always lead to good. Our motives always...ALWAYS...don't. He lets us mess up so that we learn, but it is so hard to let go of that control and let my children mess up. I want to hold their hands continuously. To wipe up their spills, but I can't.

See, I told you it was a blog for me to hear/read myself. I don't know why I am sharing this, but I do know it's pouring out of me. Maybe it's just to make my feel better about our situation. It's not horrible and we don't live in the ghetto, but coming from a small town to this HUGE city, I am always on edge.

Okay, so if you are still reading this, sorry. I wasn't trying to be preachy. Just had something on my chest and I had to write it out to work it out. You know what I mean?

School for us is a mere week and half away. I don't think I am ready. Can they give me one more week? Mallorie is scared to death to start third grade. I hate to be negative, but I am scared for her too. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because I've always looked at her as my baby, but onward she goes. There is no looking back and I know she'll be okay. It's not as if I'm not around the school all the time anyway, and there to walk them in and pick them up everyday. Sheesh, I might as well get a job there. I enjoy it though and wouldn't trade it for anything. They are my favorite people and the two of the three creations I am most proud of. Ava being number three for those of you wondering what the third was.

I really didn't mean for this whole post to be about Hannah and her issues as of late. That's just what it turned in to. She is a wonderful little girl and the spunk to our rather boring lives.

I'm sleepy and haven't been sleeping well as of late. So I guess I should wrap up this rambling post. I hope you have a wonderful Monday and your week flies by smoothly.
Blessings!!

Park Day

Sorry for not posting for so long. I'm working on a good one for Monday morning. Well, I hope it's good. So far it just looks as though I like hearing, er, reading, myself talk.

Saturday was so nice. It is extremely hot here..90's yuck...so instead of sitting in a hot house all day, we went to a new park. This was so much fun. Hannah and Mally played for a good hour and Ava lied on her blanket...or grass, and had a ball.

In the next few pictures I will narrating the conversation between Ava and Rusty. Please use different voices to get the full effect:

Ava: Daddy, please play with me. Please.
Rusty: No, I come to the park to relax and not entertain you mean children. Find something to do one your own.

Ava: Fine, hmmm..what's this soft green stuff. I see it everywhere, but would like to learn more.
Rusty: Dumdeedummm, snore....
Ava: Oooh, this is better than I could have imagined. If I grab it just right, it comes right out of that yucky brown stuff. I think Mommy calls it dirt.
Rusty: yawn. *singing* I'm the coolest dad ever with my gangsta Blackberry and white golf shoes...oh yeah!

Ava: Mmmmmm, tastes delicious. Oh, man, why doesn't mom serve this for dinner? Man, I've never tasted anything like it!
Rusty: Oh My Gosh...NO Ava!

I may or may not have painted Rusty in the best light during this commentary, but it was only for the purpose of boosting my self esteem. Incase you are wondering...Yes, I am fine with this shallow attempt at making Rusty look bad to make me look better. Kidding people! Sheesh..

On to the rest of the park. No we weren't at the park in my home town. Rusty found us a park that has the exact same rocket ship slide(different color if memory serves me correct) that he and I grew up sliding down. Metal slide and all. (Big Plus: Not in the ghetto)
They also had a lot of other playground equipment that was in parks and in playgrounds during the 80's. Metal equipment everywhere. It made me nastalgic, remembering the feel of the hot metal slides on my shorts wearing legs. The way it burned so bad, but the draw of sliding so fast down the slide outweighed the pain. Ah, memories.

Hannah and Mallorie thought this was great. Until they reached the top. I barely got this picture. They said it was swaying. Whatever. I told them they were wimps. They didn't care.

Friday evening we went to a little church festival where I set up a table to sell some of my crafts. It was SO HOT! 100 degrees when we got there. The sun thankfully set soon after we arrived and the temp went way down, but yikes! Ava got to try her first snow cone. She must have loved it because everytime I took it away to get a bite for myself, she screamed at me. She didn't even lick it, she just sat there with her mouth sitting on it. My goodness she's cute!
They had free face painting. So if you guess that Mallorie went totally girly and Hannah did not, then you guessed right. She said that this particular face painting was supposed to come with pink and glitter in your hair, but she hates pink and didn't want any of that. I asked her what color shirt she was wearing. She said nothing.

Mallorie called her's Rainbow Butterfly. This is so her. It was also very pretty. And when she woke up this morning, she was wearing Rainbow Eyebrows!

Okay, so I am working on a post. All about my girls. My big girls. I will try to never go so long without posting again.

I will leave you with a picture of Mallorie outside of our house tonight. It was so hot in the house so we were just trying to find things to do outside even in the dark. We went for a walk, watered the lawn. The kids rode their scooters for a while. Then when they were putting them up, they came accross this shopping cart. No, it isn't ours. It was in the garage when we moved in and the landlord doesn't want it. I don't know what to do with it. It's too big for the garbage man.

Anyway, it made me laugh. She was pushing it back and forth infront of our house. How EMBARRASSING! But funny too. Gotta love kids!

Please note that all of these pictures were taken with my phone's camera. It does do an ok job, but the graininess is driving me bonkers! I will try to remedy that soon!

Have a blessed week.

Ridin' With The Top Down

My girls and I have been enjoying our free time so much lately . I am so ready for them to go back to school, but at the same time, dreading them being gone all day.

We've been so lazy. Wonderfully so. Not in the let 's not move and eat all day kind of lazy, but the we don't have any obligations today, so let's just do whatever today kind of lazy. It's a welcome kind of lazy. Plus the weather has been so cool and we just open up the windows and cool the house. It's so refreshing.

School shopping puts a buzz in the air and we run to the stores to stock up on all the outfits we can and find the best deals we can.

Friends call and we hang out as much as time allows because we know that once homework starts all bets are off on when we can hang out again.

Even though southern Cali doesn't technically get seasons, you can feel that slight change in the air. It feels so good. It's the refreshing coolness from the scorching heat of summer. Okay, okay, we don't have scorching heat where we live, but it is really warm. Sometimes.

Just another sign of things changing is a baby who just months ago couldn't keep her head still, now can't stand to be still. Play, play, play, hold, hold, hold. It's all we can do to oblige. And she pays us richly with her sweet smiles and coos.

Big sisters are a wonderful form of entertainment for a certain little blond. All they have to do is make a certain noise or move a certain way and the sweetest giggle I've ever heard travels through the house. It's beautiful.

Park time is equally fun. The soft grass and so many people to watch. We stay for so long, yet is seems like only minutes have passed by. Giggles and squeals erupt from their bellies.

And again, smiles are payment enough! When they're happy, it makes me feel happy.

We fulfilled our promise to Mallorie. Remember the one where if she could quit sucking her thumb on her own we would reward her with a hundred bucks. We didn't think she would quit so quickly. She did. That very day. That was almost a year ago and she was reminding us weekly that she needed her money.

This weekend we payed up. She was on cloud nine! Picking things up and asking me to calculate how much she had left. Deciding what was worth what and how much she really wanted certain toys. She stretched that $100 as thin as she could. I was impressed. I would have found the most expensive thing I could and bought it. Not her. At first, she wanted a new bike, then an Ipod. When she found out that it would cost her almost the entire hundred, she quickly changed her mind.

We ended up with the new Hannah Montana movie, a Barbie Horse with a shower, Bridal Barbie and last but not least, a monkey from Build a Bear she named Brownie Brown and dressed in a wedding gown.

This little girl has decided quite recently that she enjoys talking. Loud and proud. She also can't stand to be alone. So if I'm in the kitchen, she is too. No matter where I am, she'll be by my side. I don't mind it so much. She is pretty precious.

Today I cut up banana very small because she was screaming at the top of her lungs in her highchair. I just couldn't make her happy. She wanted me to hold her, but I was chopping onions and jalapenos for supper and it didn't seem like the best plan to hold her while doing it. So I gave her chopped banana. It took her a good 15 minutes of trying to pick up those slimy little devils before she gave up and starting fussing in frustration. Hannah came to the rescue and smashed them a little and fed them to her. After that, she got frozen fruit in her little teething mesh bag and loved it. She would fuss for more after she finished each one. Then we tried a little bit of the chicken and veggies baby food. She LOVED it! Woohoo!! So far, she only hates spinach and potatoes. Can you blame her? Sounds horrible. I just thought I'd try it for the iron.

Mally has been asking Rusty if he could bring home one of those cars where there is no top. Where you can put your hands in the air and see everything around you.

Turns out, he could. Strangely enough, he was next in rotation for this beautiful sporty convertible. When Mallorie saw it, she screamed so loud our neighbor came outside to see what was going on.

I think someone was very excited. They were only going down the street to return a movie, but it didn't matter. She was so happy to be in one of those cars without a top.

This one. My right hand man. The one who swears she loves her Daddy more than me, yet totally likes hanging out with me and wearing my high heals and fancy jewelry, so I know she loves me just as much. Well, she finally got that haircut she's been begging for. It took me so long because our beauty shop closed and you can't just trust anyone with this girl's hair cut. But today I did. I just walked in to a Super Cuts and told the lady what I wanted and she got pretty close to what I said. Close enough so that Hannah won't try cutting her own hair again for a while. And close enough so that she's been staring in the mirror all evening primping and trying out new ways to style her "do". Oh my, please, somebody save me from what is heading my way. Tween-land....ahhhhh

Ava on table

Mallorie has taken her camera from me. Mean. I know. So, I took this with my Blackberry & posted it via Flickr. I'm trying to be all technologically savvy here people!!

After Ava had her bath yesterday, we set her on her changing table. She decided she needed to brush her hair. She's very vain for a baby, you know.

I really just wanted to show how cute she is.

Maybe I'll get the camera back sometime today. Either way, I want to do a post just about Hannah and then one just about Mallorie. They need a post.

Hope you have a great FRIDAY!!! yay.

Limon

Angie Seaman is hosting another Foto Find Friday. This week's theme is Color. I went way, way back in my photo albums for this one. I love to take pictures of random stuff on the table at restaurants. I know it sounds odd, but try it some time. It's fun. It's also kind of challenging because restaurant lighting is horrible and your flash always washes out your image.

I took this three or so years ago at Joe's Crab Shack...yum...and it has always been one of my favorites!
I need to go to Joe's. Like right now.

Head on over to her blog and take a look at what other people post. Everyone is so creative in where they notice color.

Finally Some Videos

My Mom and Dad said they wanted more pics of the girls. Well, I'll try my best, but these girls are getting harder and harder to take pictures of.

Example A: Completely ignoring me because a movie is much more entertaining.
Example B: They make horribly dorky faces when I am trying to take a cute picture.

Ava's still pretty easy, but occasionally she ignores me too. Especially now that she can get around and has figured out that mommy is not nearly as cool as everything else in the room, including the carpet.

Here is her example, or Example C: I give her a killer Mohawk and all she can do is splash her bath water. So. Not.Cool.

By the way, aren't baby hands and wrists the best? I love the dimpled knuckles and rubber band wrists. She figured out how to splash tonight in the bath. Bath time will never be the same! I can't complain though, she is very cute when she splashes water all over the place.

Oh look, Hannah smiled for me. This kid is so tan this summer. She lets me know this all the time. How pale I am in comparison to her. She has great skin. I hope it stays that way. She doesn't burn like Mallorie and I do, she just gets tan. Lucky.

I walked in to their room tonight to tell them to go to bed and their floor was covered in toys. They cleaned it earlier today and it is already completely trashed again. I can't believe how fast it gets destroyed.

My Mally. She told me that she and Hannah did not mess up the room. It was the baby dolls that did it. Hmmm. Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!

They, er, Hannah was playing with her American Girl stuff that she got at McDonald's today. They were so excited because they love to add to their collection of crap-ola from micky-d's. I know the feeling, I was the same way when I was a kid.

Look!!! I posted video today! It took no less than one hour to post all three of these, but I did it. We watched a movie while I would post one at a time. I don't know whether it was worth it or not, but I wanted so desperately for everyone to see Ava rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. Talking with me. And then Hannah and Mallorie singing me a little duet.

These are probably boring, but I wanted to share.

Ava put herself up on all fours. I was amazed. You'll notice she barely notices me, then when she does she rolls over to me.


Ava talks a lot now-a-days. I love the swinging arms and grabbing my camera. At the end you notice that she finds a pen and grabs it quite quickly. This is so crazy. It's like she just decides to hit 10 milestones in a week. She's been able to grab stuff, but now it's stuff that is small and it's not by accident. She sees something she wants and goes right to it and finds a way to get it in her mouth! She's such fun!

Hannah and Mallorie agree to sing to me. At first you can't hear them, but then towards the end they get louder. I promise their room was clean just hours earlier.

I hope you have a good week. We're cleaning all day today and then tomorrow it's all meetings, all day. Seriously, morning and then night. For somebody who doesn't have a job, it sure feels like I do sometimes.

Tidbits

I took Ava to the doctor this morning and she now weighs a whole 16 pounds and is 26 inches long. She's still in the 50th percentile. With gross motor skills she's a little ahead of her age, which always makes a mommy proud, but if you think about it, how could she not be. With Hannah and Mally always around her, she should be walking by now. Just kidding, but I was very happy with the doctor's report.

Hannah and Mallorie were bored out of their minds in there and didn't waste any time letting me know it. Summer months for doctor appointments is sheer torture to me. Trying to make the big girls behave and stay quiet like they come from a "good family" is no easy task. Today we left a toy car and had to go back and get it. After Ava was weighed she peed all over the exam table. Hannah hammered all the drawers with the "reflex hammer thingy". It was quite exciting. The highlight was of course Ava not crying too much during her shots.

The other day I said that we were going school shopping, then I mentioned that it went horribly. Well, Sunday we went to the mall here in our town and got everything we needed in an hour and a half. I hate when I make a mountain out of a molehill. Did we need to travel all that way for shopping? NO. I thought we might find something nice, but it was hot and very few shops with anything for kids. Thankfully we were able to get everything done between services on Sunday. I will have to post some pics of the cute stuff Hannah and Mally bought. I don't know if they've decided what they will wear the first day, but I'm sure it'll be cute. Rusty was very happy as well. I introduced him to the greatness that is TJMaxx. Well, it is. I always find something cute for the girls. Hannah and Mally found some fun shirts and some great jeans. I almost cried in the dressing room with Mallorie because she looked so grown up. Anyway, I'm glad we're done. Their birthdays are in a few weeks and then it'll be Christmas, so there will be more shopping just around the corner and Mimi will be in, so we need to start saving for Disneyland and my "Mommy and Me" pedi that has become the tradition when Mom comes to visit.

I made Ava a bunch of baby food today as well. All fruit today. Tomorrow I plan on making veggies. Today I made peach-apple, peach-banana, avacado, plum, honeydew,and cantelope. They were all so yummy looking and tasting. I fed her some avacodo mixed with peach for dinner and she ate it so well. The first time I gave her avacodo she didn't respond well, so this time we mixed in some fruit and she loved it! I think I'll make some mixed veggies tomorrow and some green beans. I don't know what else I have on hand, but I'm sure I'll find something interesting. I have grapes, but I wasn't sure if I could leave the skins on or if I had to peal them. If you know, leave me a comment.

Today we aren't too terribly busy. We have to return a couple of pairs of jeans that didn't fit quite right and get Mallorie a lunch box. Then we will be completely finished school shopping. I hope you have a wonderful and productive day today!

Six Months Old

Some little girl turned 6 months old on Friday. She is doing so much these days. Yesterday in the car the girls were singing and shaking their heads back and forth so she joined them. We were all getting a good laugh out of it.
Here are a few things she is doing:

• sitting up completely without help
• sleeping all night
• rolling all over the place to get from point A to point B,C, D,E & F
• she's obsessed with the carpet texture and recently we've noticed Rusty's arms(?)
• she talks more often now
• she's throwing fits...when she doesn't get her way
• total separation anxiety

There are many more, but at the moment I am having a hard time thinking of any. Oh, we still don't have any teeth:

Mally took some pictures of our garden this morning. We're very happy to see that a lot of our stuff is coming up. Rusty is pretty sure he planted most of the seeds too deep. We have 6 corn, 5 squash and 4 okra.

Here's a weird thing that happened. Last night I had a dream that we were in the garden and we found another squash plant. Random, I know. I told Rusty about this morning and he said no all that other stuff is weeds. So while we(I mean, them, not me) were pulling the weeds in the garden this morning. Guess what they found? Another squash plant! It's the little one to the left of the big one below.

Our corn is really coming up.

This next pic is awful, but it's ok. We had not been up very long this morning and it felt so good outside, so we went and say on the back porch in our pjs while Rusty busted his hiney pulling weeks. Hey, at least I made him some coffee. I have no makeup on nor had I brushed my hair.

Last night Rusty and Mallorie went to Harvest 2009. It was held at Angel's Stadium. It was also FREE, how awesome is that!?! Anyway, I guess it was a lot of famous Christian bands. There was standing room only! That's the most awesome part of all. Well, that and the fact that Mallorie actually wanted to go. She never does stuff like this, so it was nice that Rusty and Mally got to spend some one on one time together.

That's our friend Ray with Mally in this next pic. He's such a nice guy and a good friend to Rusty.

This was at the Alter Call. Rusty said thousands of people went down there.

My sweet girl.

Here's something I don't have a lot of is these two together for a pic.

Our shopping excursion went horribly! The outlet stores were not kid stores at all. Any of them. If it was adults only shopping or if our girls were teens it would have been wonderful, but the only thing we ended up buying was some Converse tennis shoes and Mallorie some shirts. Hannah bought see through Converse tennis shoes. So funny. Mallorie bought red hightop Converses. We are headed to the mall after church tomorrow to finish shopping. At Old Navy they're having great sales. We got Mally all the Yoga pants she'll need for the year at $5 each! (You know, since she hates jeans, yoga pants are a the only thing she really likes) I hope you have a good week. School is not too far off. I hope we're ready. This week we will start getting into our school schedule mode. It's going to be difficult!

Pretty Day for SHOPPING

Angie Seaman is hosting Foto Find Friday again this week on her blog and the topic is water. Well, it just so happens that I live near a little bit of water. Interestingly enough though, I am not going to share those pics today, I want to show you some other water that I fell in love with a couple of years ago.


My little sister lives down in the Bayou and I LOVE it down there. Yes, it's hot and humid, but something about it just makes me happy. The music, the food, the rain during the hot part of the day. The first time I visited her I was napping on her couch after a red eye flight and I heard the most horrific noise outside. It was thunder in the middle of the day. I wasn't expecting it because here in sunny SoCal, we don't have thunderstorms. I felt foolish for being so frightened, but what can I say, it was just unexpected.


I am not posting all of my pics on here, but I took some pictures of one of the marshes down there (with my old, now broken, sweet Canon Camera) and they are so pretty and almost unreal looking to me.
Every time I look at this picture, I think back to that day and remember wondering if a big gator was going to jump up and bite my leg off. Every log laying in the water begins to look like a alligator.

Seriously. Do those trees even look real? These pics were not touched up. I am not kidding when I tell you that I love it down there.

I took the girls to see the "Scary Jesus Statue" today. I took pictures. With my phone. What did I remember when I got home and tried to email them to myself? That I cancelled my Sprint phone internet today. NOOOOOoooooooooooOOoooo. I forgot all about that. So, I'll be going back with Mallorie's camera to take pictures. They were very freaked out. Mallorie said "they're following me!!" talking about the eyes. I love Jesus. I just don't particularly like it when you see a statue of Him and it makes you feel like He's going to haunt you in your dreams.

Man does she look guilty or what? I went and washed my car today and when we arrived home I noticed that my window has finger smudges all over it. I asked Mallorie if she did it and she said no way! Then I caught her in the act. She was smudging!!

I'm making her clean it with Windex tomorrow!!

This girl has been my helper a lot lately! Thanks a bunch Hannah. For some reason Ava loves to fall asleep on Hannah & I appreciate it so much! Now I'm going to tattle on her. Today Mallorie was asking everyone in the world had a blog. Hannah said no. She asked if MiMi (my Mom) had a blog. Hannah said no, Mimi's like 80something years old. I can't help but laugh, but Mom, you do not look or act anything like you're eighty something years old. Dear Sweet Hannah.

And this little girl. Well, she's 6 months old today. I'll post her couch pic later. I think my life has been in fast forward lately because there is no way six months has already flown by. Well, even if it did, I've enjoyed every bit of them. She's a sweetie. She slept all night in her crib last night. That's because when she woke up, I put her pacifier in her mouth instead of picking her up and feeding her. It worked. She slept.

We're heading out to school shop for clothes and shoes this weekend. I know Rusty's really excited. I can tell by the way he's been rocking back and forth while grasping his credit card.

We're heading to an outlet mall in another town. They have tons of stores with cute clothes so I'm excited. Shoes always end up being the most difficult thing to buy, so wish us luck.

WWSJD

What? You think that means "What Would Jesus Do"? Well, no it means, "What Would Scary Jesus D0".

Today I will go and take a picture of the most horrifying of all Jesus statues I have ever seen. My Pastor/friend took me to this Korean Catholic church last night to show me the scariest statue she had ever seen. I figured it would be a little creepy and she was just being dramatic.

She wasn't being dramatic.

First of all when you drive into the parking lot you are greeted by a white statue of Jesus with very BLACK eyes. For that I was remotely creeped out. It's like the baby section of Target. There is a baby picture above the aisle that Mallorie is totally creeped out by because she says it follows her. Well, scary eye Jesus totally does that.

Next thing you see when you look across this parking lot is two poles with a Jesus statue hanging between them. OH MY GOSH!!!! Total freak-out! It looks like what you would normally see in a Catholic Church, only on a cross. Not hanging between two poles like they just hung some one. I am going back tomorrow to take a pic. I assure you, you will have a nightmare. It's that bad.

We were at the beach yesterday. It was so pretty. The temp never even hit 80. It was also very, um, exciting. Now, I have been stung by a bee at the beach a few times and I know it hurts, but today a very "vocal" woman was stung. It looked like she probably stepped on the poor bee and was stung. She was screaming and could barely walk. A woman, presumably her friend, ran to get her help from the lifeguards. They come walking over, the woman is borderline hysterical at this point. I do have pity for her, well a little. Bee stings hurt, but not THAT bad! Anyway, she was just not stopping with the dramatics, so eventually several more lifeguards show up. Then the ambulance and fire truck get there (which by the way, gave my single friend a wonderful eye-candy kind of day). I know that the lifeguards had to call, just incase, but come on. How many tax payer dollars did that cost today? I have never laughed so hard or been more amazed at a grown woman acting like she had just been bitten by a shark. Oh, I am sure some of you might think I am being mean, but truly, it was pathetic. I hate to say it, and will probably regret it, but if she's married...poor guy! And before anyone says anything about how she may have been allergic, she wasn't. I was sitting right next to where all of this happened and could hear them talking to her. Trust me, once she calmed down, the pain was much easier to bear.


Okay, sorry. Just part of my day. Hope she doesn't read my blog. Doubt it. Pretty sure I have nothing to worry about.

Speaking of my blog. Did you know that this post marks #100. I can't believe I have written that many posts. I love writing them so much and while most of you probably don't laugh out loud with my ridiculous tidbits, please know that I do. They're always true and a part of my life that I find so funny that I feel that I must share them with you.

Things like my kids cutting their hair, my oldest daughter cussing, the fact that they tell me that I am in fact not fat at all (my personal fave) then they say something about my fat butt. Man, you've gotta love kids. They're just precious. Even if one of them says that Daddy is their favorite. Ouch. Whatever, I know who she'll run to when sweet ol' Daddy says no to an expensive pair of shoes. Me. And then I'll say no too. And laugh. Poor kid. Maybe he is her favorite for a reason.

By the way, I was talking about Hannah. The other night when we took them to dinner, she told us that Rusty was her favorite. She didn't give any reason or seem to care that I was on the brink of tears. She just so matter-of-fact said it. Honestly it makes me laugh so hard because she idolizes every single thing he does and ever did. If he jumped off a roof when he was a kid, then she thinks she should too. If he happened to suck his thumb for an extended number of years, then she should too. We have this argument atleast once every two months with Hannah. That just because Daddy did it, doesn't mean she should too. It falls on deaf ears. After this many years we have learned not to talk about Daddy's past too often. We don't want her to pick up any other fun/deadly habits. (ehemmridingbullsehem)



Mally's funnies are more quick witted. She always has a comeback or says something sarcastic. I know it's probably a gene she picked up from my family. It's not always a good thing and I am trying to teach her how to use this curse/gift to be funny and not hurt people. She also thinks very deeply and never keeps secrets from me, which I love. I hope she doesn't change from this. At this point in her life, she trusts my fully and I love that. I think if she could, she'd still sleep with me every night and be perfectly content to be homeschooled. Hannah on the other hand can't wait to get back to school to see everyone and get 4th grade started. Man, I am pretty sure she did NOT get that gene from me. I didn't hate school so much, but I was never excited to go back after summer vacation. I mean, who is??

Ava. Well, we're still figuring this one out. She's snugly. So far that makes her just like both of her big sisters. She's a blondie. Again, the same. Blue eyes. Ditto. The only thing so far that has really stood out to Rusty and I is that she is the easiest child so far. She created her own eat/sleep schedule. She eats whatever we give her. She handles the loudness of our house and she smiles so sweetly when we're all a little tense. I think it's safe to say, she fits in.


I bought Ava this on Tuesday night. So far she loves it and so do I. I just shove a piece of fruit in it and she goes to town. The first time I used it, I put pear in there and she really enjoyed it because it broke up easier. I put apple in it last night and she didn't enjoy it quite as much. I am just happy that she is getting fresh fruit and also feels like she is feeding herself. I also bought her a sippy cup and she played with it today and we put it to her mouth a few times, but she wasn't as interested in it. We'll do it again tomorrow and she what she thinks.

So, as a family we've started a new thing. As we've been trying to cut down on our spending we've tried pulling a few things from our budget. Eating out was one of those things. Now we get one night per week to go out somewhere. It has to fit with our budget for that week, for example, when rent is due, we don't go eat at the finest steak house in all of California. Another thing we decided to cut was our cell phone internet. Kind of sad about that one. I enjoyed checking facebook and email via my cell, but I'll live. I hope.

Going back to the not eating out, but once a week thing. I have been having so much fun cooking. I've discovered that given the right ingredients I can make one kick a..butt meal. Yes, I know, whatever. Anyway, I didn't know I had it in me. Mom, I love ya, but you used to drive me crazy when you would just mix everything together from the Hamburger Helper box without precisely following the directions on the box. Even though it would all turn out fine in the end, I couldn't handle the utter chaos of the meal preparation. I'm still like that, but now I am venturing out of my complete comfort zone of directions and have started making up my own recipes. One's that I hope my children's children will be talking about to generations to come. Dramatic? maybe. I get it from my Dad. (what? yes, I said it)

I think the next thing I am cutting will be my coffee from el Starbuckio. You would be surprised how addicted I have become this summer. I figured with the girls being with me all day that I wouldn't go. Uh, just the opposite. I go more now than I did while they were in school. Granted, I was pregnant much of that time and didn't drink caffeine, but you'd think I need AA for coffee drinkers. Well, I say coffee, but real coffee drinkers will laugh at my punie girl drinks. Whatever the case may be, I love the stuff and I am going to try to give it up and only drink tea or water from now on. You never know, I may even stop being as fat. It's been known to happen when you stop drinking sugar filled coffee drinks.

As I usually say on here, I have been trying to post videos of Ava's newest accomplishments, but I cannot get them to post. Grrrrr. I don't know why. I'm getting a bit aggravated by it. Hopefully I'll get this little issue fixed soon cause she's getting cute(er)!

I hope you have a great day today and I'm charging my camera for pics today with the girls.