A New Hairdo

Eric bought some clippers for us to use to start doing his hair. The clippers were $30, so we aren't saving money yet, but we will after a few shavings/cuttings. This is one of our steps toward saving better. I need to get sharper scissors before I tackle the girls' hair. The clippers will not be used on their heads.
Eric has an incredible cow lick. He tried so hard to get the mohawk to stand up. It wasn't hawking at all. He shaved it off before going to bed. I'm so glad. I didn't want the motorcycle that often comes with a mohawk.

Random Hattie

Wow, Hattie has come up with some good ones today.
Hattie #1
As I got out of the tub this morning, I heard Hattie crying. I found her with tears in her eyes, sitting on the couch.
"Baby, what is wrong?"
"Sheldon doesn't think my face is pretty."
"When did Sheldon tell you that?"
"He barked at me and bit my hand. All other dogs like me and think I'm pretty but not Great Danes. I don't know why."
We then went to snuggle on my bed and took a short nap. Everyone except Isabel feels sickly in the house. The nap was needed.
Also, don't worry about Sheldon biting her hand. He is still a puppy and that is one way he plays a little. It doesn't make a mark, but anytime his teeth even graze the girls, they call it biting.

Hattie #2
"You know I have a bad cold."
" I know Hattie."
"Do you know what it is called?"
"What?"
"It is called poison ivy."

I'll leave you with that to ponder.

Sweetheart Goes to Kindergarten

What starts with the letter "T" class? Tortoise and turtle and tomatoes start with a "T."
Hattie brought her tortoise to school for the letter T. Her teacher requested I bring him. He was a big hit with the kindergarteners. Emogene not so happily missed part of a math lesson to come out and feed Sweetheart some tomatoes while the kindergarteners watched. Hattie's teacher and teacher's aide were fascinated by his tongue. They said, "It looks like a person's tongue."


My friend Holly let me use her fence for Sweetheart. I was so relieved. I didn't want him to have to stay in a cold classroom all day. My friend Kelly let him wander around her classroom when he wasn't outside. He was nice enough not to poop in her room. Sweetheart had fun and helped educate students.

"Sweet" Emogene

Doesn't Emogene look sweet as she waited for me to finish in my classroom? Think again. Have you noticed Hattie? Look for her fingers.

Also, just ignore Emogene's shirt. Her ever so observant teacher didn't notice that her shirt was on inside out all day. The mistake was realized right before Emogene got in the tub tonight. I have got to start giving her a once over before we leave the house.

We're on the Lamb

We saw a house that is in the process of being renovated and is also for sale. Eric and I were curious and were secretly in love with it. We walked around the exterior and peeked through the windows. It still needs a lot of work and our house is nowhere near ready to sell and the market is terrible for people selling and we would have to live with my parents while we finished renovating and we wouldn't be able to take Sheldon to my parents and and and ..... Could there be anymore cons?
After walking up to the back door and peeking in, I tried the doorknob. It opened. We were breaking and entering. Emogene was panicing. Hattie was pretty freaked out as well. They were sure the cops were on the way. I then found a basement. That is almost completely unheard of in our area (another selling point for us). I said, " It's got to flood." Emogene heard, "Its got blood." She freaked out completely and ran outside to wait for us to finish illegally touring the house.
Eric and I finished looking and went outside to join the girls. Emogene told me that the house was scary and she was worried we would go to jail. I told her it was unlikely that would happen. She said, "They might take to to juvi!" Now where my child learned about juvi, I can't be sure. It was probably from me. I tend to be the one to blame for such things. Well, I eased her mind that she was not going to juvi and everyone would be home safe soon.
For the record, we called and checked on the house as we were leaving and the owner said, "The back door is unlocked, you can go in and look around." Whew! We got off scott free.

Isn't it breathtaking?

This was our point of entry.

This is the basement window. It was soooo cool.

I had never been in a basement before.

That porch is the selling poing.

I have my prayers going strong over this one.

Cinderellas

My mom and dad are out of town this week. My mom put me in charge of cleaning the church. Eric and I were a little tired, so we thought Emogene and Hattie would do a fine job. We will wait and see what the other church members think.

ZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZ

Don't forget about the trash in the office.

Someone complains when it is not dumped.

The bags need to be puffed up before putting them in the trash cans.

Mop that entryway.

Shhh! This Cinderella was in the boy's bathroom.

I better not hear any complaining about the condition of the floors.

What do you expect when a 5 and 7 year old do the mopping.

I really think these Cinderellas could start contributing to our

family finances really soon. They were really hard workers.

Sweetheart's Bath Day

Sweetheart got to take a soak today. I put him in the water and watched him have a good drink.

Doesn't he look nice and clean?

Ooh, gross, that is nasty Sweetheart. You totally dirtied up your water.
(Shhh, it isn't dirt.)

He then got to take a walk in the front yard and visited with our neighbor.

He was sporting the farmer look for about ten minutes of his walk. I had Eric run to get my camera so I could get a picture. He is a cute farmer.

A Fairy Good Day

Hattie is a fairy today. She has informed me of a few things that fairies don't do. They don't put things up. They don't like dogs or turtles. I also made the mistake of saying a bad word in front of the fairy. Here was our conversation.
"Hey pooterpot. "
"I'm not a pooterpot."
"I think you are my pooterpot."
"I'm a fairy, and fairies think that is a bad word."
I popped my mouth.

What is That Smell?

Our fridge was smelling a little ripe this morning. I took a peek to find the smelly substance. Well I guess it would stink if someone put Pooh in there.

I also found an elephant.

Hattie heard Eric and I discussing the elephant and Pooh. From somewhere in the house we heard, "Don't take them out! They are in their room."

When I got back from Houston, Hattie was very excited to present me with a present. She HAD to have this key chain at the auto parts store. I think Eric didn't want a scene. I was very honored to receive the gift. It was freezing. Hattie had kept it in the fridge all weekend.
She has a few quirks, and I love everyone of them.

Warning: Dangerous Meal Up Ahead

Someone is soooo comfortable being in a safety helmet that she doesn't even notice she is eating with it on. This is so Emogene. She is extremely concerned about safety.
Hattie didn't think she was concerned enough last night while they were riding in the B*rbie Jeep. Emogene was driving a little too reckless. Hattie yelled at her to stop so she could get off. I asked Hattie what was wrong with her driving, she said. "SHE WAS GETTING TOO CLOSE TO THE SNAKE THING!!!" Translation: "She was driving near the ditch."

I Love You Pet Co

We stopped by Pet Co to get some more class pets tonight. A few weeks ago I took the girls and noticed that they had torn down the racks that held all of the child, eye-level candy. I thanked the cashier for removing the Hattie fit enducing items. She sadly had to tell me that they were not gone, but they were just reorganizing the area. The girls did not listen to our conversation so they believed that the candy was gone. Well, tonight as we were looking at the pet magazines, they found a box. The box was full of the candy they use to restock the shelves. The girls let out a harmonious "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." You know that kind of "Ahhh." It is used in the movies when something heavenly appears. I told them to keep walking. I then thanked the cashier in Pig Latin for placing the candy in a new spot that was not child, eye-level. In fact, the girls have not even seen it yet. It is awesome.

Here is the box of "heavenly" goodies.

This is me kneeling on the floor taking a picture of what the girls see if they look way up. It is glorious. I think our trips to Pet Co will be more enjoyable. I'm sure their candy sales will drop though.

Emogene at School

Emogene has so far proven herself to be an excellent student. She is very well behaved and learns quickly. She has slid very effortlessly into her role as student, not daughter. Friday I pulled one number from a bucket for a student to get to bring home our class traveling pet. Emogene's number was pulled. I was a little upset about it. I have a fear that the other parents will think I show her favoritism. I decided I wasn't going to worry about that anymore because a visiting aide commented on how she noticed I try to avoid calling on Emogene when she has her precious little hand in the air. My heart sank. I was ignoring my child because I was her teacher. My teacher friends had already told me that I was bordering on being mean to her just to avoid suspicion. I announced, "No more." I am not going to ignore my child during her second grade year just because I'm worried what the other parents will think. I called on her a good bit today. I also did not feel guilty when I told her she was doing a great job. She is my child, but she is an exceptional student as well and I am going to tell her she is awesome.

She did something quite funny at lunch today. She was sitting next to me and I had asked if she liked her sandwich. It was made with a dark chocolate peanut butter. She said it was very good. Then this is what she told me. "My dad gave me some this weekend while my mom was out of town." Did you catch that? She was talking to me as if I was not her mom. She never realized what she said. We laughed about it at dinner tonight. I am looking forward to the rest of the year with my super student Emogene.

Tollbooth Phobia

I thought it could not be possible, but it has happened. I am afraid of something new. I had a very bad experience that has made me fear the tollbooth.

Let me take you back to that moment. Isabel and I were driving into Houston. I was aware of the upcoming tollbooth. I had my dollars in my hand. All was well. Then it went down hill quickly. I realized, too late, that I had gone into the wrong booth receptical. It only took change. Can you guess how much change I had in my purse? NONE! Thankfully Isabel had some in various places in the van. We dug around for close to five minutes. You would think at 11:30pm, we would be close to alone on the road. That wasn't true. A long line was forming behind us. They were starting to get angry with me. We thankfully found exactly $2 in change. I rolled down the window. I tossed in the handful of change. One measly dime did not make it into the change catcher. Instead, it flew to the ground. Ahhhhh! We had no more change to give. I put the car in park, took off my seat belt, and opened the door. I immediately started hearing the angry crowd. "MAM, DO YOU NEED HELP?!!! I'm soooo sorry, but I dropped a dime. GET BACK IN YOUR CAR LADY! THEY RAISED THE BAR FOR YOU!"
I quickly got back in the car and took off. I was close to tears. The good news, before getting back in the car, I spotted a quarter on the ground. I stopped ever so quickly and picked it up. I quickly called my cousin so she could try and calm me down. Whew! I had started to calm down. Then I saw it. It was a sign. It said, "Last Free Exit." DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? Another toll booth was up ahead. The panic returned. Toni and Isabel talked me through it, and we came out on the other side unscathed and feeling better. I still don't want to go through them anymore. Eric is going with me next time.

P.S. I want to personally apologize to others from my state. I just gave the Texans another reason to think we are idiots.

Road Trip

I went on a road trip to Houston for my first Thirty-One party. I had such a good time. I went to visit with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I loved it. I always like visiting. It always seems to be a rushed visit though. Hopefully we can stay longer next time.
Isabel went with me. We stopped for something to eat. I rescued Isabel from the mouth of a gator before we walked into the restaurant. Of course I had to take a picture of her impending doom before rescuing her. All for the blog, baby.



I stayed at my cousin Toni's house. It was great. I slept in a recliner by choice. It was actually awesome. Isabel wasn't sold on the whole recliner thing. She switched to the couch.

Toni has three boys. She is my opposite. I will eventually have three girls you know.

This is Dakota. He was almost too old for a picture.

Zackary was all smiles. He is very excited about first grade. His teacher better watch out.

She has his mom and grandmother to deal with. They are SCARY!

This is Hunter.

He was not picture friendly. You may not know it, but he smiles a lot, except for Sunday morning. I'm pretty sure Toni was torturing them while I was trying to sleep. Zackary and Hunter were not happy about staying out of the living room while Isabel and I slept. When Hunter was allowed out, he immediately came and told on his mommy.

Good and Bad Days

Hattie has really wowed us this week. I had put the fear into her teacher and teacher's aide before Hattie started school. They were quite afraid that she was going to live up to my description of her. They have also seen her in action. They braced themselves for my little hurricane. I was very pleased, surprised, and over joyed to hear that she is nothing as I described. In a classroom setting, Hattie is respectful and attentive. She is quiet, well I'll get back to that later. She is courteous and obeys. This was music to my ears and quite frankly made me feel like a weight was lifted. She really had me worried.
So far, Hattie enjoys kindergarten. She loves the playground and has been talking nonstop about her "sister" Grace. "She is my real sister mommy. Really."
The "earrings" Hattie was wearing in my previous post, were supposedly from China and given to her by Grace. I'm glad she is having fun.
Now onto the little clicker. For the past two days, one of the kindergarteners has been making clicking sounds with their tongue. It was driving the teacher a little crazy, because she couldn't figure out who was doing it. Did you know Hattie has a future as a ventriloquist? She can click her tongue without changing anything on her face. Her conduct sheet showed that she had to move her stick one time today for clicking her tongue. I talked to Hattie about this. Her excuse, "I don't like raising my hand. They (her teacher and the aide) don't talk to me. They talk to everybody but me, and I don't like raising my hand." Hattie had to resort to a different way to get their attention. She did get their attention, but it wasn't good attention. Well her daddy and I talked to her about the clicking. She is adamant about not wanting to raise her hand. I am anxious to see if she does it tomorrow. She also likes to sing to herself in line. She does it very quietly, so I hope she doesn't get into too much trouble.
Also Hattie has a test tomorrow in Bible. Just for the record, Hattie thinks that learning the memory verse is boring. She needs to get used to boring. She is in school now and it can't all be bells and whistles.
We have been practicing for that test everyday. I'm still not positive she will get an A. Here is her version.
"All have sinned, and things come short of the glory of God." Romans free: twenty-free
I say "No things Hattie."
Hattie tries again. "All have sinned, and no things come short of the glory of God. Romans free: twenty-free"
Do you sometimes want to pull your hair out? This has been all week. I don't know where she got "things" from, but she can't get rid of it. We will practice again in the morning. Cross your fingers everyone.

Miss Safety

I could not stop laughing at Emogene during her talk about recess. I asked her how she has been doing with her friends. She wzent into the long description of her recess activities. It mainly involved the monkey bars. She said that she didn't want to get teased about being a scaredy cat about going to the top, but she only went so high (demonstrated with her hand) because she thinks it is a little not safe all the way at the top. Her descriptive talk and hand motions and eye movements had me laughing. She kept getting a little aggrivated with me, but I just couldn't stop. Here are a couple of pictures from tonight. I don't know where she saw these poses, but I'm not liking them.

Hattie's Finds

Hattie announced right after school that she found some little coconuts on the playground. She showed them to everyone that showed interest.

"Do they make me look like a pirate Mommy?"
"Well baby, the chocolate ice cream mustache helps."

The First Day of School

Emogene and Hattie were a little tired this morning. I was a lot tired thanks to Hattie climbing into my bed and "digging" under me. This is her favorite thing to do. If she gets her whole arm under you without you telling her to stop she says, "This is the life." Well it is very uncomfortable for the other person.
Emogene was such a good student today and showed her knowledge. She told her daddy what she learned.
"We live up. South America lives down, and Africa looks like an elephant's ear." She was just confirming what Eric thought already. Her teacher is fantastic! I wonder what her classmates told their parents about today? I am a little worried.
We took the girls out for dinner and ice cream to celebrate a great first day.

Emogene was ready to start the day.
Here we were just before leaving the house. I was having a psycho moment because I couldn't find Hattie's new shoes. I didn't find them until after school. She had to wear last years shoes on her first day. I also got mud on my pants while setting out Sweetheart's food. I was not a happy camper this morning.

Hattie the Kindergartener

Well I did it. I sent Hattie to kindergarten with only a little crying. She had a great day and told us she got to color. She wasn't too thrilled to do her homework though.

Here is Hattie in front of her locker.
Here is Hattie telling me it was time to go to the gym to be with her class.

Hattie was having a good time with one of her friends. He didn't seem to want to hear what she had to say.

Here they are playing a little game. Hattie would pretend to fall asleep and land on him. He would push her back up with his elbow. I stopped the game after I snapped the picture.

She doesn't look too bad for working hard all day. She did get to take a nap though. Kindergarteners are so lucky.

Mermaid Madness

I volunteered to bake a mermaid cake for my friend's little girl. Braylee was a little shy about the cake and didn't talk about it until the next day. Her response, "Mommy, my mermaid cake was enormous."
The cake was pretty big, and they had a lot of leftovers. One of Braylee's kitties almost lost its life after I finished the cake. I went to wash a knife and when I turned around, the kitty was licking the icing off the tip of the tail fin. I had a mini-coronary. I patched it and then announced during the cake cutting that the tail was my special piece. I threw it away and then got another special piece.
Hattie frowned at the sight of the cake and wondered why she never had a mermaid cake. I guess I know what cake I'll be making for her next birthday.





We spent the majority of the party outside in Holly's gorgeous backyard. I took some pictures of her new pergola because I have been begging for one for 5 years. Eric is just thinking about it right now.
I got very amused by Emogene and Hattie's reactions to my picture taking. They didn't realize I was taking pictures of the pergola. They thought I was photographing them.

Isn't it gorgeous!

Emogene begins to pose. Hattie hasn't noticed the camera yet.

Emogene is still posing, and Hattie has noticed the camera.


Emogene is striking another pose. I finally decided to zero in on her.


This one is my favorite.

A Day With Emogene

I took Emogene out on Friday to lunch for some one-on-one time. We went to a pizza place. It was a fancy pizza place, and Eric almost had a stroke when he heard how much we spent.
Emogene ordered a cheese pizza. I ordered a salad. We had a moment of weakness and ordered spinach and artichoke dip (this caused the Eric fit). The waiter convinced Emogene that it was more cheese than spinach and she agreed she would like some. Well that wasn't the case when she saw the dip. As you can see from the picture, spinach is a natural Emogene repellent. She would dive out of sight if I suggested she have a taste. It was funny. I did it over and over again. We also played three games of tic-tac-toe. I whooped her on the first game. She won the second. The last was a tie. I'm trying to teach her how to win almost every time. We need to practice some more. After lunch, we went back to school. Emogene helped me with my books, and she then fell asleep (LUCKY). I continued working. We had a good Emogene and Mommy day.

The Emogene Repellent

Here we are documenting our outing. Her nose is cute and crinkly.

Ignore the other big head in the picture. It was difficult to take a

self-portrait with my phone.

A Day With Hattie

Thursday I took Hattie out for some one-on-one time/attention before she started school. I told her she could pick our lunch place. I suggested a fancy sandwich place or a place that has quessadillas. Hattie picked the quessadilla place. We had gone there the day before just to use the restroom and buy some drink (for the use of the restroom). She was semi-excited about our time together. When we got to the lunch place, we waited in line. It was almost our turn to order. We had quite a few people behind us and then Hattie says (loudly), "I didn't want to eat here!"
I said, "You told me you wanted to eat here."
She said, "I was joking."
"Well how was I supposed to know that. We are eating here now."
She then proceeds to fake gag as she watches them put chicken on her quessadilla. She said it looked "gigusting." She did manage to eat most of it without puking. We ate and visited a little. We discussed kindergarten and what she thought would go on in her new classroom. FYI, kindergarten is just a place to play. Let's hope her bubble isn't burst too quickly. She finished her cheese quickly, and I then realized she was licking the inside of the cheese container because of the disgusted look on the man's face that was seated near us. I took it away.
We then went back to my school and found Emogene. I caught a lizard for the girls to play with. Hattie was the one that found it in the hallway. She got really close to catching it, but I did it for them. I am proud to say I caught it without passing out from fear. I do soooo much more for my children than I thought I would ever be capable of doing.
We then had to carefully transport Eggy to the car. Hattie made her a nest and insisted on carrying her. She thought Eggy was a quite heavy. Emogene tried to explain that it was the box and towels that were heavy. Hattie didn't pay her any attention.

Here is Hattie and Eggy. Eggy was lost in my classroom for a couple of days. I was sure she was lost forever, but nope, I found her in a desk.
Hattie is showing her awesome lizard.
She and Emogene had to release it into the wild together.
That was tricky considering its size.
Hattie had a great day together even if she fake gagged and joked about her choice.

School Preparations

My mom has been helping me get ready for school this year. We had to separate all of the pages of each students math book and stack the same pages together. We filled up my mom's dining room and her couches. We did this three times. It was a tough day. I then helped my dad with my van. Summer is just about over :(.