Bleach Pen Happiness

Not long after moving here, I began to get to know Miss J one of my dear friends. She had recommended the Clorox Bleach Pen to help remove a stain from one of my baby girls shirts. Worked great and I loved it. Recently I had run out of my bleach pen and went to Wally world where I usually buy laundry products and lo and behold they have none. Several weeks went by with none in sight so I was starting to think they weren't making my beloved product anymore. I was very distressed. Fast forward to this morning, I stopped at Lowe's to buy some supplies for some projects I am working on. What do I spy on one of the main aisle end caps, but my beloved Clorox Bleach Pen! I did a little happy dance right there and Ainsley joined me in my joy. Who knew a small laundry product could just make my day! Later!

Prayers for the Houstonians...

Houston is underwater. My parents apparently are trapped at home as their street is flooded and their office parking area is flooded as well. My sister is at her office and hopefully headed back out to her house soon as more rain is expected. As she said it ...Houston is the city that forgot how to drain. I will keep you all posted!

I love it when...

Aidan reads to Ainsley. He has read her 3 books already. These to me are moments from the Lord. Moments when he says to me...it is all going to be alright.

Same old stuff different day...

I am not going to complain. I am praying and I can't do anything to remedy this situation other than that. This time it is Ainsley with the issue not Aidan. I told them that we are not playing with the across the street kids unless we are out at the playground. I am tired of this. My children are not going to their home until I feel comfortable with sending them again. I am tired of feeling like my children are being abused verbally by children their own age. I am just tired. Why do they even want to play with these kids? It is not as if they are lacking friends. Seriously this is the last post I am making on this subject. I need to be firm about this and not just cave in because I feel bullied. I am feeling bullied a lot lately and feel like the bad guy when I put my foot down. Now the foot is down and it is staying down.

Mich went home...

and I have no pictures as it was a miserable weekend weather wise, but she was a great sport. We enjoyed time playing games with the kiddos doing a bit of shopping in town on our one good weather day. She attended Aidan's soccer game and watched from the safety of the car as it was cold and raining! We also took her to her favorite local gallery and greenspace so she could buy some gifties and treats for herself. The kiddos were pooped after church and brunch today so they stayed home while I drove her to the airport. According to B they slept for almost 3 hours! For Aidan to nap is almost unheard of. Hopefully she will come back again soon!

My Sister is here!

Sis is here. The house is bouncing and kiddo only has a half day of school today. Should be decent weather and have no set plans. Loving it!

Soccer Saturday

For the next few months all Saturday mornings will be filled with soccer games. Aidan loves to play goalie as seen above. I think it is just because you don't have to run around as much.

I love seeing the kiddos in action. His team is all first and second graders. This kid in the picture to the far right was also on Aidan's football team. He is huge! Can you believe this kid is in second grade. He is now a good head and shoulders taller than Aidan. Aidan is pretty avarage size compared to the kids in his class so he is not terribly small. But Jeez o Pete that boy is big.

My Aidan is 7!

Aidan turned 7 yesterday after a whole weekend of celebrating. Saturday evening was his party with friends. Sunday evening we took him out for his birthday dinner. Monday I took cupcakes to his class at school. This is all I am going to post for now as my time is limited this morning and I had a horrendous day yesterday. I can't believe this boy is 7! He keeps telling me not to be sad, which I am not. I am just proud of the young man he is turning out to be. So smart, so funny, loving, generous and kind hearted. I could not ask for much more. We are blessed as a family. Well, I will hopefully be back later as I have some fun stories to tell!

What a week it has been...

it has been a short week for us school wise but a long week for us otherwise. The weather has been amazing so the kids have had the chance to play at the playground afterschool and yesterday many interesting things happend. First off, I came to feel like a total oddball in that the other Mom's were wishing for year round school. I am waiting for school to finish so that I can have my children at home. I love having them at home. Don't get me wrong we have our moments when they just drive me crazy but all in all I love it when we are all together. Not the feeling I was getting from these other moms. I am not saying that they don't love their children. I am sure that they do. Just different ways of parenting I guess. I am not sure. Secondly, the little sister to our neighbor/troublemaker for Aidan is causing me almost as many problems with Ainsley. I don't understand it really. She comes over and immediately says that Ainsley has done something to her when Ainsley has only been out of my supervision for a few mintues. The child is constantly complaining about my daughter even when she is playing at my house. I am starting to think that she just likes to see me put Ainsley in time out or punish her in some other way. I have no proof that Ainsley does the things that she says because they are usually on their own playing. Yesterday they did not play together at all. I know my child is not perfect, but this is so constant. Any suggestions anyone...whenever I am supervising their play closely they are usually fine so why does this happen only when I am distracted or dealing with Aidan or some other thing. Only one time did things get so bad, I told this girl that if she and Ainsley could not get along that I was going to send her home. She had Ainsley in tears at that point and I heard everything that went on. Just need the summer time buffer to come!

Tomorrow is the official start of soccer season. Aidan has had two practices now and am very pleased that he finally has a decent coach. I am hoping that he has lots of fun and actually learns some proper skills. Last years coach was such a dud and she ended up disappearing mid season. She asked my hubby to coach one Saturday and never came back. After about 2 weeks of this they finally got another coach in. She ended up being very good, but the kids were only with her for 3 weeks. She ended up teaching Aidan's t-ball class as well.

Saturday evening is Aidan's birthday party. We will be overrun with boys. I was trying to keep things small and not invite the whole class (for which I feel guilty) at school since Aidan wanted to invite one of his Kindergarten friends and a friend from church/Mommy friend and a neighborhood friend. Not working out to keep things small. It is looking like we will have 8 boys and a few siblings of said boys. Not too bad really, but when you have that many boys together...one never knows. Sunday I have nursery duty and the remainder of the day will be spent recovering from Saturday. Who knows they could surprise me. Aidan's little friend/troublemaker will be there so I am praying for peace among all the children and that Aidan doesn't get frustrated with him. I hope Aidan gets the chance to play fully with everyone and that maybe B could even organize a soccer game in the yard or something. Prayer prayer prayer people.

Happy Easter Everyone...

We had a busy week preceding Easter Sunday. First the kids and I made treats to take to the teachers at both schools. Aidan has such a sweet heart that not only did he want to take treats to his teacher, but also to the other first grade teacher and to the ladies in the office as well. I did not have enough materials on hand to take treats to the office ladies so he was satisfied to take treats to the teachers only. I will have to remember to buy more chocolate for next year.
Saturday we dyed Easter eggs for the first time. My children don't eat hard boiled eggs so I have avoided this in the past. They had a blast and actually ate the "duds". We had 2 eggs that cracked during the boiling process. Aidan did let me know that he preferred the "skin" (the egg white) to the egg yolk. At least they tried them so for that I was grateful.

Our finished product.

Easter Sunday in their finery. We went to church Sunday morning. Ainsley looked lovely in an outfit that she picked out. Aidan is happy to wear what I get him which makes me happy. I like to dress him in sweaters and slacks. He looks so handsome.

We stopped for breakfast at our favorite place. For dinner I made a amazing roast and all the trimmings. B took the kids to the park as the weather was nice. After dinner we had some outside playtime with some neighbor kids. I hope everyone had as nice a weekend as we did. Aidan is off from school until Tuesday. Today is cloudy and I am thinking it might rain later, but I am hoping to get the kids out for some outside playtime even if it is just in the back yard. I do have some limbs to remove before our festivities of the next weekend to come. That is more for another post though. Later taters!

Appropriate for today...

I am not going to post much today. Today was Linda's funeral and it was uplifting and fun and sweet just as she would want it to be. She had us laughing through our tears. I will refer you over to The LPM Blog on my blog list. Read the post for today it will break your heart, but timely since Linda suffered with breast cancer as well. Have a special Good Friday everyone.

Difficult day...

difficult week. I have been so off this week. I can't even really explain why. I have been super busy. Yet, I can't seem to accomplish anything. Tomorrow is my friend's funeral. I think this is the first time I have been to a funeral of someone I considered a friend. Maybe that is why I am feeling off. Not sure. We have had some happy days around here really. Aidan has been especially joyful due to increasing outside playtime because of the nice weather. Ainsley is just being a pill in general. The sassiness is at an all time high and she is trying to give up her nap. She will stay in her room, but she will stay in bed playing and singing for 2 hours. The other evening she was so tired she put herself to bed around 4:30. I had to wake her up for dinner about an hour later. Ahh, well...off off off. I am just off. Tomorrow will be a better day.

No one can say their vote doesn't count

www.htrnews.com/article/20090408/MAN0101/90408485/1984


I am having trouble getting this to link properly. Basically the point is in a local election yesterday, our new mayor won the election by only 15 votes. I am proud to admit that I went and voted yesterday when I don't typically vote in small elections. Glad I did even if my candidate did not win.

Quilts...

Once upon a time one of my readers asked about some pictures of my quilts. I wasn't sure where they were. In looking for some pictures of Tucker this weekend I found some. I think seeing them and having my sewing machine back in good working order has inspired me. This is a bad time for inspiration as I am swamped these next 2 weeks, but maybe I can make a little magic happen.
Storybook quilt that I made for my dear friends little boy. It is the creation story. I really enjoyed all of the bright colors.

These blocks were part of a block of the month program. The recurring them here was the center square in each block. These are the types of colors that appeal to me most naturally.

This was another block of the month quilt. The recurring theme here is they are all varieties of stars.

This was another miniquilt I made for my sister using a Hello Kitty pillow pattern. I thought it would be cute to turn the squares into quilt blocks and give her a unique Hello Kitty piece. I have various other things in various degrees of completedness. Maybe I am realizing that life is too short and I have to spend a little bit of time working on things I enjoy again. I am working on a cross-stitch piece that I plan on keeping for myself. So many projects so little time.

Miss Linda...

passed away last night. Here I am in the middle of the night writing because I can't sleep and thought if I get this off my mind maybe I would be a bit more settled. I am struggling with a migraine so that is actually what made me get up. My apologies for how incoherent this must sound so back to Miss Linda. Even though I was expecting this call since last week especially my breath was taken away. She was so full of life I hated to think of her suffering in pain. I know three things for certain in the wee hours of this morning...1. Linda is with our Lord tonight. 2. I consider it an honor to have had to opportunity to have known her and 3. She is greatly loved and will be missed by her friends, family and all of those whose lives she touched.

Tucker

My Dad called today to let me know he had to put his beloved dog Tucker down yesterday. He has been ill for a very long time and honestly I am surprised he lasted as long as he did. This is a photo of him in his better days. They had a bond that I never quite understood. My Dad loved this sweet dog and is very sad to have lost him. They still have 2 dogs at home as they inherited one recently from friends who moved overseas. I don't think he will ever be as bonded to them as he was to Tucker though. If you have a moment pray for my Dad tonight.

Math

Aidan is working on more advanced math than the rest of his class yet he still participates in the same class work. Meaning he gets sent home the same worksheets. Typically they are basic math concepts of addition, subtraction, graphing, etc. Yesterday we were sent home with the most ridiculous worksheet in my opinion. I had to give him numbers and he had to write down the number and then add 0 and then add 1. I am sure this is teaching some sort of math concept, but we are way beyond this already, people. I think even the other children in the class were beyond this with the other work that has come home. Because he works separately with the teacher he is not getting bored, but for heavens sake I think they are beyond adding 0 and 1 to other numbers. Just my thoughts on the subject.

This weekend we were invited to a friends for an Easter egg hunt for Sunday afternoon. After watching the weather, I think we are going to be hunting eggs in the snow! I am hoping they move things indoors otherwise I am going to have to bring boots and snow pants for the little people. Enough snow already! Well, have a great weekend everyone. Later taters!

Drama!

Who knew there would be so much drama at the first grade level? Aidan wants to invite friends over, but another boy is very aggressive about invitations so Aidan backs off and gets upset. Other kids are upset because they can't come over today. Others are upset because they want to come too and Aidan just wants the one kid today. I can't win! I can't win seriously. I miss the isolationist days of babyhood. I seriously dread the afternoon pick-up so much so that I would almost send Aidan home on the bus but we live so close to the school that we don't get bus service. I can't win. Someone will always be hurt or upset. I can't wait until the weather is a bit more consistantly warm so that we can just play at the playground afterschool and at least my children will be happy with that. Later! Sorry about the rant.