Dear Sons, Love Mom

Dear Funny, Energetic little sons,

I love being your mom so very, very much.

When you get a little bit older you will likely begin to go to church or school dances.

I want you to be the type of boys to ask girls to dance. I know it is scary and can sometimes be awkward. Or maybe you don't want to feel like a nerd if maybe the girl you are asking doesn't seem quite as cool as you. Or maybe you are shy or not a great dancer.

It is really hard to be a girl at a dance being danceless. Girls spend a lot of time getting all beautified and they just want a boy to ask them to dance. It is really important to girls.

I want you to get all your friends and be determined that you will not let girls stand or sit along the wall and be a "wallflower". You boys have the power. You do. You can make those girls feel special for a dance. Isn't that a great thing to do with your time on earth? Make others feel special?

Hold their hand as you walk them to the floor.

You might worry that they will think you like them if you ask them and hold their hand as you walk them to the dance floor. They might at first. That is okay. When they see you asking all different girls they will learn that you are just nice boys. And escorting them to the dance floor by holding their hand is just proper manners.

When I was a teenage girl we use to go to a lot of church dances. There were a group of brothers who would come to a lot of the dances. All the girls would be looking to see if they came. Although they were hunky boys, we (all the girls at the dance) liked them because they asked a lot of girls to dance. Sometimes it was your only dance that night. I even got to dance with them once. Second best dance of my life. Still remember my friend giving me the excited eye as I was out there dancing with him.

Oh...and remember, when you slow dance, you need to be able to fit a book in between you.


Love, Mom

Here is a funny picture of your dad and I at a college dance. Funny. Love the crazy, grody, stuffing as clouds that was just tossed on the ground.

My mom sewed this dress. I adored it. A semester before, your dad took a girl I knew to a dance. And she had borrowed my dress. And went with dad to a dance wearing it. This. exact. same. dress. Funny.

Fossilized Fantasies (did I spell all that right?)

The other day Justine reported to me that she and a little girl in Nathan's class stayed after school to clean out Nathan's atrocious desk. That boy is going to need a good wife to help him stay organized! He does not have an organized gene in his body. That I know of. Maybe it will appear later but for now.....this is what his junk drawer looks like.

a bone...

pill bottle full of squirrel bones

Isn't it funny? It is mandatory in his life that he has a a junk drawer for all his junk....opps...I mean "treasures". Once the junk drawer gets to full he has to chuck stuff. And that is painful for him, as you can tell by how full it is!

So I am in the van with Justine and Nathan and Rhett picking them up from school and I ask him why he is so messy in his desk. He says he knows where everything is that way.

Hmm. Go figure.

The other day we had Justine and Kate's room spotless. The next day a few things already began to pile on the floor. I lectured Justine and she informed me she feels weird when things are just too clean. She likes it a little messy.

I do not comprehend. My brain does not compute! I YEARN for sterilized CLEAN!

I miss Clean. We were once on very good terms but now Clean is like a foreign country to me. A place I once visited but never really got to know.

I love Clean. Clean is my secret best friend. But Clean doesn't want to play with me any more. Clean doesn't love me back. Wah.

Anyhoo, In the car Justine hands me this folded up picture she saved from his desk. She knows me so well, knows that I would want to save it. I love that.

I think it is a SPECTACULAR picture.

Nathan wants to be a Paleontologist. He has since he was a little boy. He's so cute. Look how darling his drawings are....

Before when the dinosaurs were still alive:

After now that they are fossilized

See the little people digging up all the buried bones? The cute little box of collected bones...

And my favorite...

The little people dug up the beautiful specimen of a T-Rex head and are helping the helicopter transport it safely! I love it!

See how the rest of the T-Rex body is still in the ground?

And....just cause I want to brag a tiny bit....At the last basketball game he made 8 of the 11 points. It was so fun.

Cleanin' out the pantry! and fridge. and freezer.

In an effort to save my husband's hard earned money (he has been working MAJOR extra hours right now) I tried to go this paycheck without really buying groceries and just live off of what is in the cupboards. The cupboards were already a little low so this has been a bit of a challenge.

Tonight we had "street tacos" with a frozen package of corn tortilla some chicken and green salsa.

We have had salad and soup and sandwiches. It is going okay. I might have to pick up a few little things tomorrow...like milk!...and Drano.

So my proudest concoction came today when I decided I could make pumpkin bread out of canned YAMS! Ewww. Why are those even in my cupboard in the first place? I like fresh yams but not canned. Yucka!

Sooo, here is the recipe I googled from Food.com......

For dusting the pan and topping- 2 -3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar mixture ...Uhhh, how come know one ever told me about this delightful little trick before? It looked and smelled heavenly!

Batter-
1 cup candied yams, solids
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar (Depending on how sweet the candied yams are you may want to add more sugar or use less, just to taste)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

optional spices (mix into dry ingredients if you crave a spicier yam bread or leave out)-
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

mix in options-
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips (of course you know what we chose!)

Yeah... that is definitely a freakishly grotesquely looking swollen face. Hey! Would it be my life if it weren't?

I will fill you in about this tid bit tomorrow. All is well, it is an abscessed tooth. But I did cry a little at night over it. Never, ever, never, google any physical ailment. It just never ends well. Going to see the dentist tomorrow, whom I may or may not have a teensy weensy little crush on.

Bo is insistent that he is my helper making all thing pertaining to cakey substance. It is like a personal attack if I dare to suggest he can't help.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Butter a loaf pan and dust with a cinnamon sugar mixture.
Sift the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Cream together the yams and sugar until smooth.
Add butter; mix.
Add eggs; mix.
Add milk; mix.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Fold in nuts and/or chocolate chips if using.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. 11 Sprinkle top with more cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake for 60 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

The kids adored it.Even with visible chunks of yams in it. It was really good. It did have a ton of butter (which I had to borrow) and sugar and a whole bag of chocolate chips. But I used up that can of yams!

I love those yam chunks!

Oh...and here are a few pictures from the other day that I forgot. Just for you Christina! ( Happy Birthday to your "Lover" (Hee hee, Grody, Grody-love that word!) Alan Rickman! May his day be better just because you are thinking of him)

Kate calls her Raggedy Ann Dolls "Grandma and Grandpa". Of course we think that is the most darlingest thing ever! Love that Kate has her dollies all lined up and tucked in for the night.

These freaky Toy Story pillow case crack me up. Now doesn't it look like he has a ginormous ear?

Luvs ya!

Keep Calm and Carry On, Baby! (That means me.)

There has been a bit of drama at our house this month.

High on the list occurred when the Easter candy finally filled the store shelves. I quickly learned that the Hershey Candy Coated Milk Chocolate Eggs (whomever was in charge of naming that candy needs to brush up on their marketing skills) is even more rare than it was last year. So rare in fact that the one little row of them they did have had been sold out and the spot on the shelf was actually GONE. Uhhh....yeah. That is definitely going to be a problem for me.



Corey also hurt his back early in the month. He could barely move for a good week. Our cousin came and rubbed him down several time and it eventually loosened up.

I love Kate helping to rub his back. So cute.

It was fairly pathetic. He really couldn't move at all.


Sadder than that to Corey was his super bowl team (Steelers) lost. Boo.

Our dog is on her death bed :( , the stray kitten I was falling quickly in love with ran away, and the cat we have been boarding and feeding for 4 years still won't let me pet him.

I mean come on!!! Look at that face! And she had one of those longer noses that are so cute. I actually cried. How weird is that? I felt guilty for putting her out that night. But I left the garage door open! Maybe it was actually someone else's cat and we were holding it hostage....

I slammed my finger in the van....in slow motion.

P.S. slow motion slamming still hurts! And it was in the sliding door. Why do those little things hurt so bad? I almost cried. It throbbed and swelled and HURT.

I keep having dry eyes and funny vision. Like I think my one eye is seeing not great. I haven't had an eye appointment it over 20 years and I have always had great vision but now I think one eye might have changed. And I think that pupil is a tiny bit bigger and my vision seems fuzzy. So I keep trying to look in the mirror super fast and compare but it is hard to do that on your own eyes.

Kate got Infantigo. Which is also known as Impetigo. Which I had to tell the PA what it was. She wasn't quite sure and she said I'll be right back. I said are you going to google it? I don't think she thought that was funny. But I get tired of going to the Dr. and just wish someone would bestow me with the powers to write my own scripts for prescriptions.

See the little sore on side of mouth? Infantigo. Then it went to her wrist from rubbing her mouth and became a rash on her wrist.

Bo has an abscessed tooth. He has been on antibiotics for infection and his poor little face was so swollen I cried. I'm thinking I cry a lot, huh? He is going Thursday to be sedated and have dental work done. I am a little freaked out about having infection so close to his brain because evil google says it can sometimes attack.......your brain. Great. So this week he is going to the hospital for dental damage control.

I am sorry that I think my kids are adorable and you have to tolerate some of my stories, but the other night we were making Bo some pudding because of his sore mouth. He had already thrown up a chewable antibiotic and this time I had to crush it in his pudding. Bo takes good care of Kate. He was making sure she had a bowl and carrying it for her to their little table. He says, "Here Kate, here is your porridge." Justine and I melted. And then Justine sweetly says "Ahhh....Just like Goldilocks and The Three Bears." And she was all melted. And then I melted more that they are all so sweet.......sometimes.

Kassidy quit piano. Broke my little heart but we are calling it a "break" hoping she will appreciate it more and decide to start up again. It is hard when they get older to "make" them do things and she didn't want to practice. It sort of puts a damper on the future of if I can keep my boys plugging away at their lessons as they get older. I'll pay them. I swear I will.

I likey, I wanty. My new motto! I breath deep when I read this.

and that is what I shall do.

http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/collections/poster

Am I terrible to admit I like my kids more when they are asleep?

Eagle eye is watching!

Yes, Justine was awake for this one. But she had just laid down, and instantly sleeping Kate smooshed herself right up against Justine. Justine informed me she is a bed hog! And who puts their kids to bed with a messy face???

Little smarty pants! She looks like she is clawing Justine but they were both just asleep.

Buzz Light Year at your service! Ready to protect and serve!

I loved how Bo got his place setting all ready for a midnight snack.

Dear Sons, Love Mom

Dear beautiful little Sons of mine,

It is among one of my greatest honors to be raising sons.

More than anything I desire for you to grow to be men with integrity and charity.

I desire for you to live every aspect of your lives in holiness and gratitude.

I desire for you to change the world for the better in small ways and in huge ways. Sometimes that will take searching for those changes that need to be made, for looking outside yourself and working harder than you may have to... or even want to. Sometimes valuable ways to serve need to be sought out.

I desire for you to grow to be men of depth and character, of bravery, determination and fortitude.

I desire for you to have constant vigilance in living the Gospel, in respecting others and in being a husband and fathering your children. I desire for you to learn to speak softly, to not be a yeller.

All of these things are no small task. I know. I ask a lot from you. But you boys can rise to every ounce of my desires. You are that good of boys and you have it in you to do so. Where much is given much is required.

I am your mother. It is my job to train you. In these "Dear Sons, Love Mom" posts I am going to start telling you all the big and little things you should know or do to be all that you can.

So lesson number one from your mother...

Lets start with a little one that will be easy to do...

Heed to my words.... You will be a happier and better man.

When your wife gives birth to your child, send her flowers. Every single time. Every. single. time. From a florist. A real live florist.

If you are a a struggling student and cannot afford to do so, call me and I will help you. It will be our secret.

Love, Mom

Khronicles of Kate! She's baaaaaaaack! And more....

There you are, baby girl! I was beginning to wonder.

I have missed you!...and have been wondering if you have been feeling okay!

But your curious spunk is still availing.!



And a happy 100 day to you too, kind Sir!



Nothing to see here. Just reading to the local stray. ON MY BED NONETHELESS!

This cat is trying to coax us into adopting her. Why do people drop strays off? The pound has little cubbies to accept them anonymously. And why does it have to be a boring black cat!

Did you know that there are special society's to help the adoption of black animals? People don't want them. But I have sort of seen a trend in black cats being nicer. Anyways, she has won our hearts.

Big Daddy's is a different story!

weirdo!



Loves to our beloved Josie....

who is winding down her days/weeks with us on this earth. Can't tell you what a gift she has been to us.

*Sniff*

(that's not poop by the way)