we're rollin'

we went roller skating last night with my son's cub scout pack. i have not been roller skating since i was a teenager. both the kids were very excited about it. the officer was not feeling well when he got home, but he decided to go with us anyway.

we arrived at the skating rink and then i realized i had set my vcr to the wrong channel so i ran back home to fix it. (we can't miss lost - then later we realized it was a re-run. what's up with that? i thought it was supposed to be all new until then end. did i miss something? sorry rabbit trail!) when i got back to the rink, the kids already had their skates on, laced up and were out on the rink. they looked so cute!

my son, well, he looked like those pictures of cartoon people who's legs are going absolutely everywhere for a minute and then they fall. he was determined to get it down. we realized they had a kiddie corner where beginner skaters could try it out without worrying about getting ran over by all the bigger kids. we went to the kiddie corner and i think he felt much calmer. every time he fell (which was a lot), he shot right back up as quick as lightening with a look on his face like "did anyone see that?" i have to give it to him. it was hard. he fell a lot. he fell on his bottom a lot. he hurt his wrist and ankle a couple of times when he fell but he didn't complain about it. he was determined to go fast. he never did but i think he liked it. he never quit or got upset. i was proud of him.

my daughter loved the roller skating. like i said when i got there, they had already started skating. i don't think they had been at it for too long. the officer was skating (that in and of itself was a sight to see) holding up each child with an arm and trying not to fall at the same time. before long, my daughter didn't want to us to hold her hand. she wanted to do it by herself. although she never was fast, she could hold her won. she didn't fall that much. she could make it around the rink by herself. the only thing that bothered her were the strobe lights. they had a disco ball (or some equivalent) that made little round circles move around on the floor. since she was always looking at the floor, when she got to that spot she would slow down. it made her dizzy. although she went to the kiddie corner, she didn't want to stay there. she wanted to be out on the rink with everyone else.

the officer did great. he helped the kids. he was also happy to get a pretzel and sprite from the concession stand and sit with the kids. :) there was something to worry about. i'm pretty sure one of the parent's of a cub scout broke his wrist when he was skating. when he fell, the dj cleared the floor. they helped him take his skates off and had ice ready for him when he got off the floor. i was very impressed with the skate staff. the officer went around the rink a couple more times before it was time to leave.

i had a lot of fun. i did not go fast. i was helping the kids a lot. i did not fall down. the most embarrassing part was at the end. the dj said, "let's get our skates off, turn them in, and come back out for the cha-cha slide." alright kids, let's do that. we turned our skates in and went back out onto the rink with our socks on. what did the officer do? he sat in the concession stand area with his iphone pointed at us. i had no idea what the cha-cha slide was. apparently they play the song and you do whatever it says. it took me a minute to realize this. i thought the music was background music, like it had been for other games. there was an 8 year old boy who had apparently done this before. he was cha-cha-ing everywhere. he knew what to do. i told the kids to just do what he does. of course our daughter was figuring it out pretty quickly. my son had his hands in his pockets with a look on his face like he was in pain. i just looked confused and silly. didn't matter. it was all fun.

the officer took pictures with his phone and when i figure out how to get them off the phone and onto the computer i'll come back and put pictures in this post.



it was fun to be able to do something with the kids that they had never done before. you don't get those chances too often as they get older.

simple woman's daybook

Would you like to linger on the simple things...then join me and many others in taking a little look into the day plans and thoughts of those who are focusing on simplicity...beauty of the 'everyday moments'.

FOR TODAY April 26, 2010

Outside my window... it is sunny, a little breezy, perfect

I am thinking... lego store and school - house is already clean! :)

I am thankful for... this beautiful weather - no rain!

From the learning rooms... dare i say it - schools been going good lately.

From the kitchen... oy, even after a couple months off from doing this daybook i still dread this entry. i am not sure what we will be doing in the kitchen today.

I am wearing... t-shirt and shorts - what else?

I am creating... a photobook on shutterfly. it's free!
I am going... to the mall this morning and then back home for school, then tae kwon do lessons, then home for dinner, then to gymnastic lessons.

I am reading... and the bride wore white by dannah gresh. great book about staying pure until marriage.
I am hoping... a great weekend with the officer. we have the homeschool convention and the kids will be with grandma.

I am hearing... kids chatting away while drawing.
Around the house... it's clean and laundry is caught up. yeah!

One of my favorite things... is summer scented lotions from bath & body works. going to pick one up today. A few plans for the rest of the week: tae kwon do - we will be doing a lot of this because his red belt test is coming up soon, school and then homeschool convention!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

the dot on the end of her nose is a result of smelling a sharpie marker.

Check out The Simple Woman's blog if you would like to read more day posts and find out how to participate in this activity!!

he got the part

we ate dinner last night at the church. usually i pick up my daughter and she helps me get all the food and the officer picks up my son from choir when he is finished with his class. last night my son came into the fellowship hall. he was very excited. their choir has been practicing for a musical coming up at the end of may.

he said, "mom, guess what? i got the part of choir in the musical. we get to sing four songs!" i just smiled and said congratulations.

we ate dinner with mrs. c. and her family. it was fun. the kids love running around outside after church. i don't mind, it releases some of their energy.

on the way home, my son was acting like he was robot peckula. i am not completely sure who this is but he is on qubo. my son gave the officer a toy cell phone and said, "just press this button when you want to ask robot peckula a question, and he will answer it. whatever you want to ask!" well you don't really say that to the officer.

the officer immediately pushed the button and asked, "what is the color blue?"

robot peckula in his robotic voice said, "what kind of question is that? ask something else."

the officer asked, "how many tons of concrete did it take to make the road?"

robot peckula did not reply.

the officer asked "how many leaves are on that tree over there?"

robot peckula did have a reply this time. without missing a beat, robot peckula replied, "i must shut down now. bye." i think robot peckula realized this was not the game he had intended.

when we got home, we put the kids to bed. the officer and i were in our bedroom watching some more i am second videos. it had been about 30 minutes since we put the kids to bed and i thought i heard them talking. this is not unusual because they will talk to each other from their own beds on occasion. as i walked into the front room i realized they were in my daughter's room talking to each other. i looked in her room and saw them both on her bed with her legos all divided out playing together. it was kind of sweet because they were just talking about what they enjoy building, but they were both being disobedient. what did i do? i went to get the camera. here are the kids in the middle of their disobedience.

my son wondered why i was taking their picture and my daughter was frustrated because she just separated everything and built something. she didn't want to have to throw it all back in the bin.

busy, busy, dreadfully busy

okay i could take out the word "dreadfully" out of there. we actually had a very good day, but very busy.

we started our morning getting ready for the day. the kids ate breakfast, watched a little 3-2-1 penguins and got their swimsuits on..... and we were off.

9:45 a.m.: leave house for swimming lessons.

10:07 a.m.: arrive for swim lessons. they did great. my daughter did the "pencil" and touched the bottom of the pool. they are both progressing nicely in their swimming. now if i could just get that older lady to shut the curtain when she showers it would be perfect.

11:00 a.m.: leave swim lessons and drive back home.

11:20 a.m.: arrive at house, get a quick snack and son gets dressed for tae kwon do.

11:40 a.m.: leave for tae kwon do.

11:45 a.m.: arrive for tae kwon do lessons. this is an hour to stop and rest. my son learns something new in his class. master lee teaches him about one step sparring. this is usually reserved for the adults so i am not sure why they are learning it. i can tell by the look on his face that he is nervous. you know the look, cheeks flushed, eyes watering, looking like he's going to throw up any second. chad, master lee's son, shows my son three new one-step sparring moves. my son ends up loving it and having a good time. however, he does come out the lessons worried he will have to know it all for his red belt test next month.

12:45 p.m.: leave tae kwon do lessons and grab a bit of lunch at the dreaded mcd's. (yes that "dreaded" is meant) and head to the soccer fields to drop off my son with my brother-in-law.

1:15 p.m.: arrive at the soccer fields and drive around aimlessly for about 10 minutes in a confused haze. i finally find brother-in-law and drop son off.

1:35 p.m.: leave soccer fields and start to head across town to a princess birthday party with daughter.

2:05 p.m.: arrive at birthday party. this was a very cute party. all the girls (about 11 in all) have arrived with princess dresses on. my daughter didn't wear one because "the sleeves are itchy!" she did wear a dress though. she only knows 4 girls but they have a good time. they played this one game called hot potato. i'm sure many of you have played it before, but there was a twist on this game. the girls sat in a circle, and the music started to play. the potato was passed around until the music stopped. whoever was holding the potato when the music stopped got one toenail painted. whoever had five toenails painted first won. some girls didn't want their toenails painted so they threw to potato like it burned them. some girls wanted their toenails painted and just held onto the potato when it came around. other girls (my daughter) took the potato out of the girl's hand's next to her when she wasn't going fast enough. my daughter and another girl (one who wouldn't let it go) won and got to pick a prize. they also divided into teams and played two other games. my daughter happen to be on both winning teams. the third time she got to pick a prize i told her to let the other girls who hadn't gotten a prize yet pick first since she already had two prizes. i said, "you know some of those other girl's don't have prizes yet." she quickly informed me, "because they LOST mom!" thank you.

4:15 p.m.: leave princess birthday party to go pick up son.

4:50 p.m.: arrive at sister's house to pick up son. she give me several great coupons, pampers & huggies points! yeah!

5:05 p.m.: leave sister's house and head to jamin & julie's house (my cousins) for a birthday cookout. the kids have a blast here. it has rained off and on. as we drive up we see this HUGE rainbow across the sky. it has stopped raining. there are a lot of kids and they have a large trampoline in the backyard. the kids love just playing, running, and jumping around. the food is great - some of the best potato salad and the "hamburgers" are delicious.

8:15 p.m.: leave cousin's house and head home. daughter falls asleep on the way home.

8:35 p.m.: arrive home. carry daughter in and put son in bed. son asleep within 15 minutes. i check email, post this blog and have to get clothes ready for church tomorrow.

the officer is working all night tonight, so i will get to sleep all night stretched out in my bed with ALL the covers tucked in tightly.

oops, typed too soon. daughter has woken up crying and is in my bed. i'll stealthily move her back to her bed after i iron church clothes.

I Am Second Bailee Madison

i saw this video this morning. it's a video of an actress named bailee madison. she is 10 years old. she's been in movies such as letters to God, bridge to taribithia, and on several televisions shows. this video is an i am second video. check it out.

girl's night out

my daughter and i decided to have an impromptu girl's night out. we needed to go to target to purchase a birthday gift for a birthday party she is going to attend tomorrow. we went to target and had fun just walking around. she picked out the present and i asked her if she wanted to go eat somewhere special to have a mother/daughter date night. of course, she said yes. the officer had called while we were in target and told me he was going to take our son out for guy's night. they were going to eat the rib crib. we decided to eat at:

i have never eaten at the actual restaurant. when i worked in the dr.'s office we had it catered. i knew my daughter would like it because she likes pei wei. she was excited about eating there because of the big horse statues they have out in front.

they seated us at a booth and gave us our menus. i ordered lettuce wraps because we both love those. she and i devoured those. they were so good.

we ordered the kid's chicken with honey sauce for her and the sesame chicken for me.

when the waiter came back to refill my coke, he spilled my coke all over the table. we caught it before it got on either of us so it was all good. the server brought our food and instead of sesame chicken he brought me ginger chicken.

it looked yummy so i told him i would eat it instead of the sesame chicken. it was very good. the server said, "i have to tell the waiter he got the order wrong." i was getting a little nervous since he had already spilled the drink i didn't want him to get in trouble. i had just started to eat the ginger chicken when the waiter came over to the table. he told me the sesame chicken would be right out. i told him to not worry about it because i liked the ginger chicken, but he said the ginger chicken is on the house and the sesame chicken is on it's way out. thank you. they were both delicious. we have a ton left over for tomorrow night's dinner.

get ready here comes the rest of the dinner story:

when we were about half way through dinner, my daughter started coughing. after a few coughs, she coughed up a piece of chicken onto my hand that she was caught in her throat. she took a drink of her lemonade and i thought it was over. however, she kept on coughing. her face started turning bright red and she started crying. i'm trying to calm her down because i know what is about to happen.

it happens, she throws up.

she keeps coughing and i'm keep trying to calm her down. she has really gotten embarrassed because her t-shirt is all wet and she can't calm down. i am about to run her to the restroom when the waiter comes by and looks upon us with horror.

"what's wrong?" he asks. really does he have to ask? is it not obvious?

"she's thrown up. i need napkins and the check QUICK please!"

he takes his time to check on his other two tables and brings us back napkins. while he is gone, my daughter throws up again.

where's the check?????? (i didn't ask him this but i am screaming it in my head). my daughter is gagging and making the throw up sounds very loudly!

the waiter brings me the check and i quickly put my check card in it. he takes the card and stops right by the next table to put their food in the left over containers.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

finally by the time i pay my check i am laughing and crying and can't stop. my daughter has calmed down and we walk out of that place giggling. my daughter is asleep within 3 minutes in the car.

not what i have envisioned for the evening but an evening i will not soon forget.

this week on the island

i know, i know. i hardly ever blog anymore. i have been trying to think of things to write about. we've been busy, but i am not sure with what. know what i mean? so i thought i would post about random things that come to my mind as i write.

yesterday was pretty productive day. the weather was fantastic wasn't it? the officer spent the day outside mowing the lawn, fertilizing the lawn, washing his car (it was caked in mud from the rain we had over the weekend), and building a garden box.


i know the pictures are small - sorry. the officer took them with his phone so that's as big as they get. the officer just used wood he had, but he went to somewhere and purchased a literal ton of dirt. it was cheaper to do that than to buy the bags at walmart. he got it the same place he always get the sand for the sandbox. the kids helped him shovel the dirt in. today we will go to home depot and get some seeds. they are buy one get one free..... and that's about all i can contribute to this garden box - getting the seeds buy one get one free. i almost laughed when the officer told me he wanted to do this. i said, "i hope i'm not the one in charge because i will kill everything in there. i am doing good to remember to water the "carrot" plants my son brought home from his boy scout meeting. i will post about the progression of the "garden". we will be trying to grow onions so that will motivate me a little.

i wish i had taken pictures of my kids yesterday. they often ask me if they can mark on their faces with washable markers. if we aren't going anywhere i say sure. my son drew a mustache on his face. it was huge. it looked like it was the "handlebar mustache".

of course, it wasn't too long before his sister had to have one too. she ran in and asked if she could have one. yes, you can have one too. she came out with her mustache (looking more like charlie chaplin's mustache), a mark down her eye, and then one across the bridge of her nose. she said, "mom, look at my mushbeard!"

we went to the zoo on tuesday with my sister-in-law and her two kids. they are visiting for a couple of week - until the homeschool convention. it was a lot of fun. the children's zoo is open now. it has a petting zoo, a place where you can see and feed birds, places to play, and a little waterfall, creek and spray area where you can play. it's open and nice. we rode the tram around and my son got to see his hyenas and go into the snake house so he was happy.

saturday we went to lawton to visit my sister for her birthday. we ate at pusans. oh pusans. it's a korean buffet. did you read that - a korean buffet. they have the best broccoli, zucchini, and bean sprouts there. it's so yummy. my sister got 4 gift certificates to there. i admit was a bit envious of that. it's probably a good things there not one up in the city. after we ate i took my sister and niece to walgreens to show them how i use my coupons. they just had stunned/confused looks on their faces.
my daughter went to with uncle glenn, her brother, and her cousin up to uncle glenn's church. he works there part time. he had to fill the baptistery.

when she got back to the house, she said, "mommy! i got to see uncle glenn fill up the pool!"

"did you go for a swim?" i asked?

"no, the water was too cold.", she replied.

"is that the only reason you didn't go for a swim?"

she said, "yes, and uncle glenn said we couldn't."

yesterday i went to homeland and got about $100 worth of groceries for about $25. they had a lot of free things there this week. i was able to get soup, fruit snacks, nestle chocolate syrup, crescent rolls, biscuit, cinnamon rolls, and sponges for absolutely free. it was a good trip.

our dog, hobbs, has been very sad the past couple of days. it's been a delayed reaction to jesse. it's sad to hear him whining out there. he kind of just mopes around. not sure what to do about that - we do not have current plans to get another dog. we just spend extra time with him.

the officer and i got new phones last week. both of our phones would randomly die. it was time for me to give up my sad little nokia.

the officer got an iphone. yes, it's a neat phone that does all kinds of cool things. i have played with the games he has uploaded and used it to check my email and fb. however, that's not the phone i got. this is the phone i got.


yeah - not that much different from the one i had. only it doesn't have the cool feature of making voice recordings into my ring tone so i just have the sad little ring tone for now. i keep hanging up on people by accident. i keep calling people by accident. when they moved the sim card from my old phone to my new one the contacts moved but they are all weird. in my old phone i had all phone numbers for a person listed under one contact name. each phone number was labeled: home, cell, work. when they transferred to my new phone, each phone number is under it's own contact name and they are not labeled. i have no idea if i'm calling someone's house or someone's cell. i haven't had time to straighten it all out yet. so if i call you randomly or hang up on your randomly don't be offended or confused. that's just me trying to figure out my phone.

this weekend we have a birthday party to attend, a bbq, the officer works all weekend, and we are going to the harn homestead. should be a fun weekend if that rain would stay away.

well i guess i had more to blog about than i thought i did. thanks for listening/reading. :) have a great weekend.

her own version

you know my son's in tae kwon do. sometimes he just likes to pester the fire out of his sister. does anyone else's kids do that???? or is it just mine?

anyhow, he was pestering her and doing the "knifepan" on her arm. it's basically just a karate chop. without missing a beat she turned around and did her own tae kwon do move. she pushed him away and yelled "cookie cutter"!!!

tropicana juicy rewards are great!

hello blog world. i wanted to tell you about tropicana juicy rewards. have you heard of it???? it's a "rewards club" for those people who purchase tropicana juice. you may not purchase that particular orange juice all the time (i don't); however, if you sign up for the the rewards club here, you get some points just for signing up. often times, you can redeem those points for coupons. i always print out those coupons because when you buy more of their products there is a code under the lids.

they have a lot of other things you can redeem your points for. now i will admit most of the stuff i wouldn't use. however they have a category i will use. it's the "great discounts at a variety of museums" category. it's specific to oklahoma and they have the harn homestead on there (i mention this because many of you may be going there for oklahoma land run stuff in april), jasmine children's museum (and i NEVER see coupons for this anymore), oklahoma sports museum, oklahoma firefighter's museum, oklahoma history center, national cowboy and western heritage museum, sam noble museum, tulsa air and space museum, and philbrook museum. most of these offers are for "buy one admission get second admission for free". the cost to some of the museums (jasmine children's museum) is more expensive than a carton of tropicanaoklahoma aquarium (in jenks) - it's $2 off up to 4 admissions (i never see coupons for this either and that place is a little expensive).
orange juice, so it's totally worth it! they also have a coupon for the
alright as i'm looking around more at the rewards they offer i'm seeing a lot of cool stuff. you can redeem points for shakespeare in the park, oklahoma children's theater, ice skating, paintball, laser tag, little river zoo, tulsa zoo, alligator andy's, cactus jacks, bouncin craze, jump zone, and a ton of other stuff. many of the coupons are for BOGO and some are just for $?? off admission. either way, saves money.

i know we are going to the harn homestead in two weeks to do the land run so i will be redeeming some of points then. i think a lot of the coupons for the BOGO admissions only last two weeks so i will wait until the time gets close to redeem the points so the coupon doesn't expire.

don't live where i do??? well they have a US map where you can click on your state and see what kind of great offers they have for you.

hope you sign up and save a little bit of money!

there mrs. b., i wrote another blog - that's for you. of course they don't have a map of romania (but they do for virginia if you go sightseeing at all) so i don't know that this will be that great for you. :)

jesse

jesse

jesse & hobbs

it was a sad day on the island yesterday. we had to put one of our dogs to sleep. we noticed a couple of weeks ago he was limping. he had done this before a long time ago. he had jumped out of the back of the officer's truck and landed on his shoulder (crazy dog). it turned out his shoulder was just inflamed. they gave him a shot and medicine and that seemed to work.

this time we made an appointment with the vet. by the time the appointment came around, jesse could hardly walk. we had to bring him his food. however, he never seemed like he was in pain and he never became grumpy or mean toward the kids.

the officer and the kids took him to the vet. when the vet checked him out, he noticed a large tumor on jesse's shoulder. he decided to take x-rays and do some tests. it turned out jesse had a tumor on his shoulder, in his lungs and somewhere else. he had a bacterial infection in his blood and all his lymph nodes were enlarged. the officer asked if there was anything we could do and the vet said, "if you had a million dollars you could extend his life for a couple more months, but that's it."

jesse was about 13 years old i think. the officer and i got him from second chance. we went to wal-mart one afternoon, and second chance had their adopt-a-thon going on. it was a 72 hour event. they stayed in a field by wal-mart for the whole 72 hours so people could play with and adopt the dogs. we went just to see what it was and left with jesse.

we think jesse may have been abused by a man with a stick of some sort at some point in his puppy life because he would freak out any time he saw a man (other than the officer) with a stick. jesse was a watch dog. in our first house, we lived close by a school that had a huge field. jesse loved running in that field. mostly he loved just hanging out with the officer. jesse hated thunderstorms. when we lived in our old house, the officer was in the shed working on his motorcycle. it was raining and the thunder clapped so loud it shook our house. it sounded like an explosion. ever since then jesse has not liked thunderstorms or thunder. he knows not to come in the house, but when it rained, he would try to see if we'd let him in. when our kids came along, he kind of just tolerated them. he didn't know what to make of these small humans. however, i am sure my daughter won his heart over. even after he bit her when she grabbed his rawhide, she still loved him. this past week jesse would just wag his tail and lay down when the kids came over to love on him. my daughter took the picture at the top of the post of jesse last week.

we'll miss you jesse.