swimming lessons

the officer and i decided to put our kids in swimming lessons. although they still thoroughly enjoy the kiddie pool (or kitty-kat pool if you talk to my daughter), it was time to prepare for the progression to the "big" pool. let me give you a little background. previously when we have gone swimming, my son has been content to play in the kiddie pool. my daughter likes the kiddie pool but also likes for her daddy to take her to the big pool. when the officer would take my son to the big pool he did like it, but was more nervous about being in there.

once, my daughter came home from grandma's and exclaimed, "i held my nose and put my head under water!" my son did not want to be left behind, so he practiced in the bathtub. he knew his cousins used goggles, so he used what he had. unfortunately they were goggles from little tykes tool bench. water got into the goggles while he was underwater.




i signed the kids up for their lessons. they are going twice a week for 4 weeks at a local inside pool. the person who helped us told me the only thing they would need is goggles. i had to go to a couple of different store with the kids to find little goggles. wal-mart had some but it made the kid's eyes bug out and we couldn't have that. too freaky for me to look at. target had some but they were $12. we found some at academy that adjusted between the nose and around the head for $5. perfect. i got the kids their new bathing suits - don't even get me started on the bathing suits that are out there for little girls!!!!! we found a cute modest one at target for only $12.99. it's shorts and a surfer shirt.


we informed the kids they would taking swimming lessons a couple of days before they would start. the day of the first lesson, my son informed me ALL day that he was very nervous. he asked me, "are they going to make me swim underwater? i don't think i can swim underwater! are they going to make me put my head underwater? i think i can do it if i goggles, i don't know - we'll have to see."

the officer came home early from work to go to the swimming lessons with us. we got to the pool 30 minutes early. this was almost too much for my son to handle. as my daughter stood at the window watching the other kids play around in the water, my son walked about the room asking what time it was every 2 minutes - literally! he kept messing with his goggles and making sure they were tight.














finally the teachers came in and took the kids into the pool. there were 5 kids in the beginners 1 class, my kids included. of course the teacher said, "you don't need the goggles for the beginners 1 class." she got them into the pool sitting on the steps. i was a little worried because there were 2 other classes with about 6 students each going on in the pool at the same time. however, it didn't seem to distract any of the kids. the kids did simple things like holding the teacher's hands while kicking. the teacher pulled them out a little ways from the steps. they also kicked with a noodle and a boogie board. my son had a huge smile on his face the entire time he was doing all of it. he loved it. you could still tell he was nervous because he was very rigid. my daughter just giggled and kicked the whole time.


at the end of the lesson the kids got to line up on the side of pool to jump in to the water and into the waiting arms of the instructor. my kids lined up. i am pretty sure my daughter cut in line to jump in quicker. i know my son let two people cut in front of him to delay his jumping in. the kids got to jump in twice. on my daughter's second time, the instructor said, "okay the lesson is over go over to your mommy." my daughter got out of the pool and got back in line - she was having too much fun. the instructor let her jump one last time. i have had a talk with her about proper line etiquette - again.

all in all they had a good time. they are looking forward to going back later this week.

what more could you ask for?

a little bit of snow, sleet & rain.

a couple of pairs of snow pants (even if they are last year's and a little small by now).

gloves & mittens (dripping wet after 10 minutes)

two pairs of socks.

two layers of shirts & pants.

two heavy coats (even if sister is wearing brother's last year coat).

what more could a kid ask for?

a smile, a giggle, a squeal of delight, and a fun time....

what more could a mother ask for?

backyard camping

the officer wanted to take the kids camping. you know the weather around here though, possible thunderstorms, tornadoes - not out of the questions, hail and high winds - maybe. the officer called the campgrounds and found out there was a burn ban in effect. however, the burn ban was not in effect for the county we live in.

the plan was formulated.

camp out in our backyard.

the officer wanted to check out all our camping stuff to make sure it was all in working order.

the officer started to work out the "campfire" issue first. he decided to use part of our grill and put wood, bricks and sand underneath it. the ground was still pretty wet from the rain the previous night. it worked out pretty well.

while the officer put up the tent, i went to the grocery stores for all the necessary dinner items, hot dogs, chips, capri-suns, all the fixins for s'mores. by the time i returned, the officer had the "campsite" completely set up. i had to babysit for my sister, so i couldn't actually be present for most of the evening.

when i got home that evening, the officer was sitting around the fire. the kids were running around the backyard with their glowsticks. i roasted my hot dogs and enjoyed the rest of the evening with the family. the kids headed to bed in the tent but did not got to sleep right away. i think it wasn't until the officer went into the tent at 10 p.m. that everyone settled down and went to sleep.

i slept inside because i had to work the next day. i thought they might come in during the night. it was supposed to be a low of 35 degrees. even with their two layers of pajamas, sleeping bags, flannel blankets and one heavy comforter on them, they might still get cold. the kids would have slept all night. the officer was awake at 5 a.m. he was cold despite sleeping in warm clothes and in his 0 degree mummy sleeping bag. wait - if the officer was here now he would exclaim his body was warm but his face was freezing! his mummy sleeping bag worked great. he did mention he was unable to move much - ummm- mummy sleeping bag. since the officer was awake and could not go back to sleep he brought the kids into their own beds. they had a great time - a memory made.

dog bite

i was on the phone with my sister while i watching my daughter play outside. she walked over to our dog, jesse. next thing i know, she is screaming and crying, running inside and holding her arm. jesse had snapped at her arm. he was laying outside chewing on his rawhide. she went over to him, talked to him, and then reached down to pick up the rawhide. the officer has told her to not handle any of the dog's food. i imagine she was just going to pick up to look at. jesse snapped and her on the inside of her forearm. he did get her but i think it scared her most of all.

when she came in crying, she was screaming, "this is the first time jesse has ever bitten me! he's bitten brother before, but never me!!!!" jesse had snapped at our son before when he had accidentally fallen on him. she's holding her arm and when she pulls back her hand i see this is not a horrible bite but it looked weird. the part that was red and bleeding a little was in the shape of a "3". i called the nurse because even though our dogs are up to date with their shots, i didn't know if there was something outside of putting neosporin and a band-aid on it.

the nurse could hear my daughter crying in the background and said "well she's upset anyway, so if you can take her into the bathroom and scrub the wound with a washcloth & soap for 5 minutes. try to make it bleed. okay - this is going to be fun. i take my daughter into the shower and sat her on my lap. she had calmed down and i was prepared to have to fight her to scrub her bite. i told her i had to clean it and she let me have her arm. i started to scrub with the bite and she didn't cry. she didn't cry the whole time i was vigorously scrubbing her arm. she said it didn't hurt. it didn't start bleeding again for a couple of minutes. she didn't really like the blood but she was a trooper. we put a dora band-aid (a cure-all in our household) and she was fine the rest of the night.

i was worried about if she was going to be scared of jesse, but this morning she went out to play. she came in and said, "mommy i gave jesse a hug and petted his head and he said, "i'm sorry."

it could have been much worse. she didn't have to get stitches. it's a little more red today than yesterday, but we will continue to watch it. all is good.

**update** well it's been 3 days and the bite did get infected. we took her to the doctor today and the doctor gave us some antibiotics & a topical cream. she's been hanging in there but doesn't really enjoy the washing with soap and water bit. everything should be cleared up in about a week.

nothing really

it's been almost a week since i've posted something - seems like a like a long time to me for some reason. i haven't really had much to blog about. we have been really busy here lately.

the officer and i decided to pay off our credit card debt this year. it is only for a season, but he has been working a lot! we are so fortunate that in his job he can bring home extra income just about any time he wants to. he can run funeral escorts. when there is a funeral procession he is one of the officers who is whizzing by cars at 80 miles per hour on city streets to get ahead of the procession to stop traffic at the next light. this is one of the most dangerous parts of his job, but it is one of the things he enjoys doing the most.

i will admit last year, we did not tithe the amount we were supposed to. this year we decided we would pay off our debt and make sure the tithing was on track. it's been amazing. we have been tithing, making more than minimum payments on the credit card, and then paying an extra payment per month on the credit card. it has been amazing how God has provided. any extra money that comes in, pretty much immediately goes to the card -that way it isn't spent on frivolous things. i'm sure you have noticed this before, when we are obedient and tithe, God blesses us and provides everything else we need and then some on top of that. i find we are more stressed out about finances when we are not tithing. anywho...

so the officer has been working a lot and we have just been plugging away doing our day to day things. the officer and i have to make sure we make a deliberate attempt to connect and talk when we are so busy doing these things. we often get into our own little worlds. we get busy with school stuff, homeschool groups, church, appointments, errands - all perfectly good things, but in the grand scheme of things not as important as they seem when we are doing them.

we do get to take a camping trip in july. we are heading to colorado. we will camp for a few days and then meet up with the officer's family in colorado for a couple of days. as long as it is not 85 degrees while we are sleeping, i will enjoy it. i know the kids and the officer will.

so that's about it. i know i need to post another shepherding a child's heart, but i was gone one week, then the teacher was gone one week, and it's been hard to get back on track. i finally bought the book from mardels. i did get the book from the library but i like to write/highlight in my books so i had to buy one. i have the notes from the teacher and one of these days soon i will post the next couple of week's worth of notes. it's moving from the mental/thinking/heart issues to the practical parenting issues. so it should get good! of course if you do not agree with spanking, you may not agree with the book. it will be interesting to get your feedback and some of the things that have worked for you.

i have an appointment to get my taxes done tomorrow. fun stuff. we usually get money back, not that it matters because it will be going to you know where. ... the credit card. we have already been working on not spending on the credit card so that when we get it paid off we will be in the habit of not using it. that way we don't get back into the same circumstances. however, then it will be onto paying off our last car. :)

i know most everyone has been on spring break. i hope you've enjoyed it. the weather has been pretty awesome. my allergies haven't been bad at all this week. lovely. well until next week.

sopapilla cheesecake

i had this at a mom's night out. my friend, h, made it. it was still warm when we ate it. it was SO delicious! you will see from the ingredients that it is very rich and very sweet! i loved it so much i thought i would share the recipe for you. it is best served warm.

SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE

2 cans of crescent rolls

2 - 8 oz cream cheese packages

1 1/2 tsp of vanilla

2 cups of sugar (divided into 1 1/2 c. and 1/2 c.)

1 stick of butter

cinnamon

~~pat 1 can of crescent rolls into a 9 x 13 pan

~~mix both cream cheese packages, vanilla & 1 1/2 sugar together in a large mixing bowl.

~~spread the mixture over the flattened crescent rolls.

~~place another ca of crescent rolls over the top of the cream cheese mixture. i only placed this layer over the mixture, i did not spread or flatten these rolls out.

~~melt the butter and pour it over the top.

~~sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar and cinnamon mixture (mix the sugar and cinnamon as you would for cinnamon toast) and sprinkle over the top.

Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve Warm!

i found out you can add things to this - chocolate chips or nuts, whatever you like in your cheesecake. it is SO easy to make. take it from me - the one who doesn't cook! :) ENJOY! if you make it, let me know how yours turned out and if you changed it up a bit.

Mom/Kids Survey

okay this is a survey i did on facebook. some of you aren't on facebook so i decided to post it here because i thought it was cute. my son's (6 years old) answers are in the blue. my daughter's (4 years old) answers are in pink. anything i have to add is in parenthesis. i asked them the questions separately so we didn't get the same answers.

1. What is something Mom always says to you?

i love you

"go to your bed" (this is true, she will find any little reason to get out of bed!)

2. What makes Mom happy?

when i have a good attitude

when i give you kisses

3. What makes Mom sad?

when i don't obey

when i don't give her kisses

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

when you tickle me

tickle me

5. What was your mom like as a child?

nice (hmm good thing he didn't know how honery i was).

like a barbie

6.How old is your mom?

36 (right on the button - i was surprised he knew this)

3 (interesting)

7. How tall is your mom?

30 inches (isn't 30 inches like 2 1/2 feet tall?)

100 inches (this is interesting see how my son thought i was only 30 inches)

8. What is your mom' favorite thing to do?

spend time with me

play with me

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

gets sad

make dinner for us

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

for being nice

telling jokes

11. What is your mom really good at?

cleaning (this is a sad observation - notice he didn't say cooking)

making cheesecakes (this is only because i got a new recipe from heidi and they loved it.)

12. What is your mom not very good at?

lightsaber fighting (my fingers always get hurt)

you can't make hamburgers (this is true. so once again like #9 she mentions my cooking but doesn't outright say i'm not a good cook - good daughter)

13. What does your mom do for a job?

she teaches me

cleaning

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

taco salad

broccoli

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

when she does good at things

when you clean up my room all by yourself - i think she's hinting at something here.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

suzie - from sid the science kid

emily elizabeth from clifford

17. What do you and your mom do together?

we do school

drawing/coloring

18. How long do you think your mom will live?

100 years

really long

19. How did your mom and dad meet?

in high school

when he was a little boy - you were his babysitter (hmm.. i didn't even go into this with her - she just knows i'm older than the officer

20. Do you think you will always live with your mom?

no - i will be big and live in my own house (i'm so GLAD he said this!)

yes (we'll work on her, but she did say when she has kids she will take them places so spend the night like at grandma's house - good to know i will get an eventual break)

21. How are you and your mom the same?

we both have black hair (i see i'll have to do a little more training with him on this)

we both like to laugh

22. How are you and your mom different?

you are bigger than me

we don't have the same shirt

23. How do you know your mom loves you?

because i'm so so so nice

because you give me hugs and kisses

24. What does your mom like most about your dad?

that he's real nice

because he plays with us

25. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

golden palace (the green beans are AWESOME!)

golden palace (she actually said "the place with a green roof, with birds, the green beans, and ice cream")

our smallish collection

our collection of "plants" on our window sill is growing. we have the two small plants that came in a kid's meal from braums that are still alive (amazing - i know). this past sunday when i picked up my kids from sunday school i was dismayed to find two more plants i would have to take home and tend to. in the small paper cup is a bean. the bigger styrofoam cup has a thing in it where grass should grow on the top of the "head". the last blue cup has a small branch from a tree from our neighbor's yard. it hangs over our backyard fence. my son was so excited there were leaves on it he tore it off and brought it in to show me. he is so excited things are starting to green up and bloom. i hadn't realized until dinner time when we sat down to eat that he put it in a cup to keep it alive. i can almost assure you by the end of this year, 4 of those things will be dead.

**update** - almost two weeks later, we have growth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is that korean?

i was sitting at the kitchen table with my kids eating lunch today. my son was trying to read these plaques with scriptures we have on our walls. he got to top one and noticed the writing was different. it was cursive writing. we haven't worked on this in school yet. we've talked about it and told him we would start it later in the year.

he said, "which letters are those up there mom?"

"it's d.e.l.i.g.h.t." i replied.

we talked about how he could recognize some of the letters but not all of them.

"oh okay. well you know that's korean up there and i can't read it because i'm from oklahoma." he tells me.

he knows it's not korean but he can't remember the word "cursive". :)

the grace of God

i have seen this on a church sign before. i saw it again today and it still resonated as strongly with me today as it did the first time i saw it.


The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God does not provide for you.


He knows where you are going, what you are feeling, what you are going through. He will provide everything you need at the moment you need it (even though it may not be what you think you need).


II Corinthians 12: 9,10
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

5 a.m. wake up call

so my daughter came in this morning right before 5 a.m. and informed me her shirt and pants were wet.

"honey, you must have wet the bed."

she hasn't done this in a long time. we made the mistake of letting her take a nap yesterday. since they go to bed at 6:30 p.m., they don't usually take naps. they have to be really wiped out to want to take a nap. when they do nap - like yesterday - they do not go to sleep until 10 p.m. - like yesterday. i should have known when we were reading books right before bedtime - which was still 6:30 p.m. - and my daughter drank half a glass of water that we might have trouble. however, like i said she hasn't wet the bed in a long time. she's always been so good to get out of bed in her sleep stupor to use the restroom.

"honey, you must have wet the bed."

"na-uh!!!" (this is her emphatic "no" reply she uses all the time).

"let's go check the bed."

sure enough it was wet. however, we did have a waterproof matt under the sheet so we just changed the bed and cleaned her up. she went right back to sleep.

i stumbled back to bed and 5 minutes later the officer's alarm goes off, snooze, and off, snooze... you get the picture. well i'm up now. he suggested maybe i could make breakfast for him. hmmm...

i did. my son woke up while i was cooking the bacon - he loves it the smell must have woken him up. now here i am. i have gotten to eat a full breakfast, have checked my email and facebook and have time to post this post. it's only 6:50 a.m. wow. is this what you can get done if you wake up at 5 a.m.? it might be worth it. i have to go to work today so i usually don't get out of bed, even if i am awake, until 7 a.m. the kids have usually woken up and hopped into bed with me to chat. i'll let you know at 1 p.m., if getting up at 5 a.m. was still a good idea! :) have a great day!