It is better to give than to recieve...

...but sometimes it's just so fun to be on the receiving end of things.

We were blessed by a visit from Grandpa and Grandma - which is normally a fun time for the kids - but this time they brought Christmas gifts as an added bonus!

My son really wanted the Lego semi set at Target when he was picking out a Christmas gift for his friend...and that's the very same Lego set that Grandma unknowingly bought for him! What an awesome surprise! My oldest daughter received a princess dress and...drum roll please...princess shoes!
My youngest was thrilled to get "babysits." She kept calling them babysits because they are babies and they are sitting, you see. Grandma even bought extra clothes for the babysits.

As you can see by the kids' faces, they were thrilled to receive their Christmas gifts. Yes, it's fun to receive. But it's so much fun to give, too, and I know that the givers of these gifts enjoyed the pleasure of blessing their grandkids, perhaps even more than the grandkids enjoyed receiving.

That's Me

A portrait of me by my eldest daughter.

Charts and Trucks

My son and oldest daughter earn money by doing chores. They have a chart on the fridge that keeps track of the money they earn for making their bed, brushing their teeth, washing their hands, helping mom or dad, picking up their toys, setting the table, etc. They save up for a few months and then get to spend their hard earned cash.

Last week my son wanted to spend his money at the John Deere dealer in town, so off we went to visit the local green and yellow implement dealer. My son bought a new combine and semi truck, and my daughter bought a smaller semi truck. This was a big occasion in both of their lives, so I was informed that they were going to set up for a picture with their new stuff.

Here's the picture.

The important details: My son's new truck is the big one in the middle of the picture, his hand is on his new combine, and my oldest daughter's new truck is right beside her (to the left of the yellow combine).

Nativity

I have a beautiful nativity scene that I set up every year. This year, the first day of display produced a need to glue baby Jesus and the shepherd (my youngest was a little too fascinated with the baby Jesus figurine).

To combat this issue, I found a nativity scene the kids could play with and touch and drop without the need for glue. They love setting it up, and they always set it up the same way.

Do you notice that every person and critter in the scene is focused on baby Jesus? That's such a lesson for me. Focus on Jesus.

Tooth Fairy

Yay! He lost his first tooth tonight.

Health Care

My two daughters and my nephew like to play doctor. One child has an ailment, and the other two place the ailing person on the examining table and proceed to check her/his mouth, nose, ears, hands, feet, etc, and administer pretend shots and medicine. This was all okay, until today.

Today, I watched as my youngest had a "broken leg," was examined by my oldest daughter, who proceeded to announce that "she has a broken leg." Then my oldest daughter (yes, the one pretending to be a doctor) picked up a play shotgun and shot my baby!!!! THIS IS NOT HOW THAT GOES! Doctors are supposed to help people, not shoot them! We need to have a little talk...

Perhaps it's a prophesy pertaining to the upcoming change in this country's health care?

Play dough

I liked play-dough when I was little. I enjoyed the texture, the shapes I could design, and the objects that I could somehow form with my little, unrefined fingers.

My mom rarely let us play with play-dough, and I never understood why. Was she trying to stifle our creativity; to save us from a penniless existence as a sculptor; or perhaps she didn't understand different forms of emotional expression?

But now, as an adult, after becoming a mom, after looking at my kitchen floor after an hour of play-dough time, I think I now understand why.

A Good Book

Today she fell asleep while reading a [very boring] book.

Merry Christmas!

I just discovered a new website! Yay! I'm sure you really want to hear all about it. So, here's the site:

Stand for Christmas

This site rates a few retail stores and websites on their "Christmas Friendliness."

If you want, you can even be a part of the ratings and write your own respectful review. Or you can e-mail or call the stores or websites that are not very Christmas friendly and politely encourage them to use the term Christmas in their advertising. Or you can call or e-mail the stores that do use the term Christmas and thank them for respecting the tradition and celebration of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

iTunes

If you know what iTunes are, you should be interested. Read on.

I happen to have an extra $10 iTunes gift card. This is a problem, so I thought I'd solve the problem by giving it away.

So, if you would like a iTunes gift card, leave a comment. I'll draw for the winner.

Thoughts on Education

I've been thinking and praying about homeschooling my kids. I go back and forth on a daily basis, from

"Hmmm, yeah, we should homeschool. It would be so neat and I could spend time with my kids and we could do [insert fun family field trip here] and only have school in the mornings and we could learn Spanish and..."

to

"Ok, maybe we should send our kids to the great little school, just five miles away, that I used to work at and that I like, and they have great small class size and friends for my kids and..."

Yes, it's very confusing, but I don't have to decide for a while, so it's not a large stress point for me so far.

I do believe it's making a decision between better and best. Both of my options are good. The small, rural public school nearby will give my kids a quality education. I do think that I can give them a quality education at home, too. It's a tough decision.

I do have nightmares, though. You know that there are certain homeschool families, well, you know, the families that you see in the mall and you say, "Yup, they homeschool." You know this because they have many kids, the girls are all wearing matching denim skirts and have long hair, and the boys have a tie and sports coat on. I've taken the liberty to insert a picture for a visual representation of what I'm talking about.

The father of this family is actually speaking at a home school convention; one that I would like to attend.

Now, don't get me wrong; my point is not to disrespect homeschool families or they way people dress. Most of these families are very neat people. Families have the right to do as they choose; to dress a certain way, to homeschool, or to raise as many children as they decide. I have great respect for people and their choices. I know several families who "look like they homeschool" and I admire each one.

I just don't want to be like that. I want people's mouths to drop open in surprise when they find out that I homeschool. I want to relate to people and let it take them a while to find out that I'm doing something different (ha! After they're already tricked into being my friend).

I just don't think my family fits into the homeschool stereotype very well.

Yup, all homeschooled, except for the sexy one in the light green shirt. On second look, maybe public school is kind of nice.

A Good Poop Story

Before I start, I need to define some terms.

Bad Poop Story: The poop was not excreted in the correct place. Ex: the poop ended up on the floor or someone's clothing.

Good Poop Story: The poop was excreted in the correct place. Ex: the poop landed in the diaper or the toilet.

Now that we have that defined, I will continue to my Good Poop Story.

My baby is quite verbal about bowl movements. She often announces, "I'm Pooping!" when she is taking care of that specific need. I am hoping this is a sign that she will be easily potty trained. Anyway, I have placed her on the toilet on numerous occasions, hoping that she will use that time wisely. She likes sitting on the potty, but had not realized the business side of potty time....until last night. I had placed her on the potty after she had announced her intent to poop, and she did!! In the potty! She was fascinated. She looked at the evidence in the potty in amazement. AND she really enjoyed the M&M's that she earned. AND there was rejoicing!

Cousins

They had such a fun time taking pictures.

This is not the picture I chose to put on my wall, but I think it helps illustrate a little bit of the closeness among the cousins. I am so glad my kids are able to grow up with their cousin (soon to be cousins) nearby.

Double Joy

This is me and my friend (and my daughter tucked in between).

My friend and I have a lot in common.

We are both smart, blond, blue eyed, and have white skin.

We are both named Joy.

I know we don't look even close to identical, but I've still been mistaken for the other Joy several times in the last few months. It's funny, because no matter if the people think I'm me or the other Joy, they still have the name right. It can be very confusing for the mistaken individual, but it's humerous to me.

It's fun having another Joy around.

My Baby

My youngest one likes to feel hair.

She falls asleep for her nap feeling my hair while I rock her.

She loves to feel her daddy's hair at bedtime.

She stands behind me on the stairs and feels my hair.

And, during family pictures, she enjoyed feeling her brother's hair.

Pics

I took my three kids and my nephew for pictures last week. I bought the copyright, so I can legally show you how cute they are and how well the kids posed for the pictures. All four of them seemed to enjoy the whole picture process; Praise the Lord!

Yes, It's another Poop Story

To add to my collection of Poop Stories.

This morning, like most mornings, I put a DVD of BOZ on for the girls to watch while I took a shower. This is a fairly effective way to keep them out of trouble while I get to take care of my daily hygiene routine. However, as I put the DVD on this morning, I made the mistake of telling my daughters that they needed to get dressed soon. I meant this for my oldest daughter, and "soon" meaning right after BOZ is finished. My youngest daughter, being the obedient daughter she [sometimes] is, decided that she was the one who was going to dress herself, and that she was going to do it right away.

She proceeded to go upstairs and take her jammies off and, yes, her diaper came off, too. While she was standing in front of her dresser drawers, probably pondering how in the world she was going to attempt to open them, she had a slight leak. A puddle formed on the hardwood floor in her room.

She must have decided that it's impossible to get her clothes out of the drawers, so she went with the next best option: a new diaper. She grabbed one out of the basket under the changing table and headed downstairs. She paused outside of the bathroom door and must have felt an urge. So, outside of the bathroom door on the only carpeted part of my main floor, while holding a new diaper in her hand, she pooped.

She was horrified. She opened the bathroom door and, with an absolutely shocked look on her face, said, "I pooped, Mommy."

PTLFSP! (That's "Praise The Lord For Solid Poop" for all of you non-Internet acronym savvy people out there)

The conclusion: the carpet is sanitized, the floor in her room is drying, she got an extra bath this morning, and I have yet another poop story to add to the ever growing collection on my blog.

The Faith of a Child

As mentioned in the post below, me, my kids, my sis-in-law, and my nephew were all bumblebees on October 31. I had talked about this with my kids for weeks previous to insure cooperation (YAY! It's fun to dress up as bumblebees, kids!). Therefore, my kids and nephew were looking forward to the bumblebee day.

As my nephew was putting on his bee costume, he noticed that his costume, unlike the two girls' costumes, did NOT have wings. This was a problem. His mom, being the resourceful and creative mother she is, had a set of make-do wings attached to his costume in a matter of minutes. He was super-excited (so excited that he had trouble concentrating to get his shoes on) and ran outside towards the car.

A few minutes later, as the whole hive of bees was getting seated in the car, we noticed that my nephew was clearly upset because he "wanted to go up in the air." He wanted to fly. He had thought that he could dress up like a bumblebee (with wings) and run outside and fly like a bumblebee, so he was greatly disappointed to find out that he was still on the ground.

Oh, to have the faith of a child.

Treat

We all went trick-or-treating. The kids and I were bumblebees and my husband was the beekeeper. We picked up my sister-in-law and my nephew (who were also bumblebees) and went around our small town, mooching candy off our amused friends and relatives.

In the above picture, my kids are enjoying our neighbor's friendly turkeys.

Yup, we are rural. Very rural.

All about me when it's not all about me

All about me, when life is really not all about me.

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you are blogging?
I don't snack while I'm blogging.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
There are many, many things I wouldn't WANT to live without, but there's only a few that I COULD NOT live without: my God, food, water, and temperature regulated shelter (yup, I'm from the cold North).

3. Beach, Mountains, or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
A rural farm a day's drive from the mountains.

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
Probably the laundry.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?
My sister, my dad, my mom, the other Joy.

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the fam?
I like staying home better, but I also like getting out.

7. What's your all time favorite movie?
Boz the Green Bear, because my kids watch that so I can get a shower every day. :)

8. Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night?
I remove my makeup.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?
I have a desire to learn another language (probably Spanish) and learn some kind of martial arts/self defence.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?
Um, I really don't know.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?
His good looks, brilliant mind, silly sense of humor, and great smile.

12. What is something you love to smell?
Supper cooking. Yum!

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.
I'm too harsh and blunt too often.

14. When you have extra money, what's the first thing you think to do with it?
Maybe someday when we don't have any loans I'll have extra money just lying around, and I'd hope I'd give it away.

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?
I laugh loud. My good friends make me laugh, and the many silly things my kids say and do every day make me laugh, too.

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?
Target.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?
I'd read, quilt, travel, sew, learn a lanugage, learn karate...

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?
In the middle - I think about my purchases so I'm not an impulse buyer, but I'm not super-duper tight, either. Money is made to use, but to use wisely.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time?
Maybe Don Knotts. He's funny.

20. Would you want to be famous?
No, I don't think so.

Colors

Red Apples on the Trees

White Snow on the Ground

Green Leaves on the Trees

Brown Stain on the Deck

Blue Snowflakes on the Window

I enjoy the many colors of whatever season it is; the season with green grass, snow, and red apples.

My Local Supermarket

I went shopping at my local supermarket. The groceries are all familiar and the store clerks (locally called the "payers") are quite friendly. The receipts are hand written and the service is great.

Random Thoughts on Memory & Music

I have been trying to memorize Psalm 121 for several weeks. It's a fairly brief Psalm, but it's tough for me to memorize. One of my friends suggested I put it to music, and I think I might have to do that. Psalms are songs, so that would be fitting.

My Bible study teacher talked about songs - about how much easier it is to memorize a song than a passage. I know many people (and me!) that can sing song after song by memory, but struggle with memorize simple passages.

I've noticed how powerful songs are lately with my kids. I invested in a CD a few months ago to help my son memorize his Awana Bible verses. The CD sets all of the verses in his Awana book to music, which, I'm discovering, is a great memorization tool. We keep the CD in the car, and the kids want to listen to it almost every time we drive anywhere. My son and daughters all enjoy the songs and are able to memorize them so quickly. I was amazed to even hear my 1-year-old daughter singing parts John 3:16.

I'm liking this song thing.

Names

The kids are in the kitchen coloring and drawing. They were just arguing about my name. My eldest says my name is "Joy," my second says it's "Mom," and my baby says it is "Mom-ME." They came to the conclusion that I have lots of names.

I have lots of names. In the course of a day, I can be called Mrs, Hon, Mom, Mommy, and Joy. I am a wife, mother, daughter, friend, aunt, sister, sister-in-law...

I feel blessed to have so many names.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A: A note from the Pupil's Kindergarten Teacher. Note has come after deliberation between Teacher and Pupil's Parents, redirection of Pupil, and much discussion between the Pupil's Parents.

This is a just cause for celebration.

Supper

Me working hard to make supper

Quiet Time

When it's way to quiet

and you notice you haven't seen the kids for a few minutes

you start to wonder

and then you go look

to see what they are doing.

Sometimes they are just playing quietly together

but other times...

Tails

Her very first pair of ponytails.

Bare

Every day, I find lost socks on my floors....

...and I see cute little bare toes.

Sista

This is my sister. She's so cool.

Combine

Here he is in one of his favorite spots.

Today I....

vacuumed.
put in an Awana order.
washed my bedding.
sent out an e-mail for scrapbooking night.
made a few phone calls.
attended a MOPS planning meeting.
picked up after my kids after the MOPS planning meeting.
did my Bible study lessons.
put my baby down for a nap.
paid a bill.

and I still need to...

clean out my car.
clean up the kids' coloring paper and markers that are all over the kitchen.
make supper.
bathe three kids.
mail out letters for Awana Sparks.
sort an Uppercase Living package.
finish making my bed.
put the kids to bed (snack, jammies, stories, prayers, tucking in, rocking).

Fancy Nancy Farm Girl

My three-year-old daughter is such a fun combination of girly-girl and farm-girl.

She likes shoes, dresses, and jewelry, and also finds great enjoyment is mud, dirt, and tractors.

I remember the first time I took her shoe shopping. She was one year old, sitting in the stroller, and was about hyperventilating as she tried on every shoe she could reach. She wears at least two pairs of shoes a day and often goes through several dresses a day, too. She likes to have her hair braided after bathtime so the next day her hair is all curly.

She also likes playing in the mud and getting filthy-dirty. She's a great helper in the garden and spends hours in the sandbox during the summer. She enjoys wresting with her dad and jumping off furniture. She loves going farmin' with her dad and spending [a short amount of] time in the tractor or truck. She's such a fun girl with a personality all her own.

For her birthday, she told her Nana that she would like, "necklaces, shoes, and a quad trac tractor."

Teachability

The first five years or so of a kids life are the most impressionable years [or so I've read]. So it's important to teach things during these years if you want them to really sink in and last throughout their life. Things like values, integrity, respect, and how to pose for pictures.*

My children have really picked up on random picture poses, thanks to my siblings. Here is my family's Christmas photo. Now you see. My son believes all children should pose this way, especially his dear cousin. In this picture my son is teaching his cousin some of the finer points of picture poses. Sometimes I wonder why my sister-in-law lets us influence her son, but I'm sure glad she does. Think of all the fun family pictures she will have in the next 18 years.

*please note that the importance of these items are not equal.

First Night of Awana

My kids and my nephew were extreemly excited to attend the first night of Awana. Can you tell?

Pink Markers

There is much to learn and discover about life. Let me share some of the recently acquired knowledge of certain members of our household:

• If you put a pink marker in the sink with water, you get pink water.
• Pajama day at Kindergarten is fun - even the TEACHER wore jammies!
• Staplers can staple more than just paper.
• Kittens scratch you if you hold them too tight. Or if you try to pick them up by their head.
• A turkey (the oven kind from the grocery store) have a red and white belly button that pops up when they are ready to eat.
• Everyone gets a birthday every year!
• Kittens like to play hide'n'seek. They hide, you try to find them.
• Cherry pie is really good. Well, the ice cream on top and the cherry filling is good. The crust looks cool left on the plate by itself.
• Kid's scissors can cut through Mom's nice tablecloth.
• Markers can be used to make a "kitty face" on little sisters.
• Dinosaurs are really cool.

Crops

We had a good corn crop this year. The kids enjoyed picking the corn, running down the rows of corn, shucking the corn, hauling the cornstalks over to the pasture in their wagon, throwing the cornstalks to the horses, and eating corn-on-the-cob. It was all good.

Birthday

My three-year-old daughter loves being three, especially now that her cousin is three, also. She likes to come up with different ways she can hold up three fingers to show people she is three years old. She also loves talking about her birthday at Nana's house when she had a pink cake. She was telling me about her pink cake a few days ago, and I casually asked what kind of cake she would like at her next birthday and was amused at the conversation that followed. This is how our conversation went:

Me: "What kind of cake do you want at your next birthday?"
Daughter: *gasp* "I get ANOTHER birthday?"
Me: "Yes, in a few months you get another birthday!"
Daughter: *very pleased* "ANOTHER birthday!" *getting extremely excited* When will I get my next birthday?"
Me: "After it gets cold and snowy and after Christmas you will have another birthday."
Daughter: "Will I be three?"
Me: "You will be four years old on your next birthday!"
Daughter: "Four years old? FOUR YEARS OLD!!" *hold up four fingers and stares at them in amazement*

It's amazing watching her little mind and personality grow, learn, change, and develop. Children are such amazing wonders of God's creation.

A Random Before and After

I decided to do a little project in my little house. Our house is a bit on the small side, so I am always looking for ways to make better use of the space in my house. I sold the oak buffet and ordered white cabinets to match the upper cabinets we had installed back when this was the office space back before the basement was finished so the office could be down in the basement. You got that? :)

This is the before picture.

Anyway, I was thrilled that I could figure out how to build this [almost] all by myself. I did need a little help installing the counter top because I couldn't be on top of and underneath the counter top at the same time.

This is the after picture. I really like the use of space. I have all of the kids' crayons/markers/paper/stencils/etc in one drawer, and my pretty dishes and tablecloths in the middle two lower cabinets, and my uppercase living stuff in the other drawer. The kids' art stuff used to be on the fridge and in a basket and tucked here and there, so I really like having it all in one spot, and the kids enjoy having their own drawer and being able to get their coloring paper and crayons out all by themselves.

He had to help me push down on the counter top because my son just didn't quite weigh enough.

Combines

My nephew told me today that, "your house is fun because you have combines." So, if you want a house that's really fun, all you have to do is buy a few combines. :)

Today

Today I communicated with a group of ladies who are older, wiser, and more respected that I am. I had been hurt and frustrated by a decision their group made, and I needed to tell them that. Kindly tell them, but in a real way. That's not a very fun thing to do. It took me a month of prayer, thought, and discussion with my husband for me to figure out what to say to them. And I still don't think I got it exactly right. But then maybe my words don't matter so much; maybe it's the One who I let use me that matters.

I think that the Deceiver can use these things to cause division, resentment, and bitterness. But I also believe that God can use these things, these hurts and frustrations, to heal and to deepen relationships and to ultimately bring Him glory. And I'm planning on Him using this to open up relationships and to build and deepen understanding among people in this group and me. I'm counting on it.

My Daddy

Occasionally my girls don't get along, especially while driving. Their car seats are right next to each other and they seem to enjoy giving "love touches." If you have siblings, you probably know how this goes. One daughter pokes the other, therefore receiving a poke themselves, so they must give another poke, which is a bit harder than the last poke, then they earn another poke, and so on. You get the picture. Anyway, during one of these "love touches battles," I thought maybe I could talk about the things outside the car as a possible distraction. Looking around at the scenery, I noticed some forklift-type-things next to the highway. I'm sure there's a technical term for this type of equipment, but I don't know what they are called, so bear with me here. They have a scaffold on the top of the forklift that someone can stand on and they extend about 40 feet in the air. Great for putting up Christmas lights, but I don't think that's their main use. So I say to my girls, "Look at those tall forklifts! Do you see how high they are in the air?" My distraction method works - my oldest daughter looks out the window at the 40-foot-high forklifts and says, "WOW! Those are tall! Are those as tall as my daddy?"

My husband is over 40 feet tall, in the eyes of his daughter.

Just another day of being a mom

My three-year-old daughter came speeding down the stairs this afternoon yelling, "Mom! There's a poop on my floor! It fell out of my sister's diaper!"
I imagined the possibilities as I quickly responded to my daughter's call. Would it be solid or liquid? Will it be easy to clean up or was a room sanitation needed? Had the beautiful rug been violated, or was it the hardwood floor that had been contaminated?
It turned out that it was solidly easy to clean up, and this is likely the most uneventful poop story on my blog. Which is good, because I didn't really want to spend my afternoon cleaning up poop. I can think of a whole lot of things I'd rather be doing. Really, I can.

Theology

I'm hoping someone, maybe who attended Bible college, could help me out with a few questions. I've been receiving a few theological questions about the Creator God and his qualities, and I often don't have an answer, or struggle with explaining the answer.

Some recent questions/comments from my pupils:
1) Does God have big, fat shoulders?
2) Does God like milkshakes?
3) Does God have legs?
4) God doesn't like pink and purple.

I have no idea what God's shoulders look like, and I'm not sure about the milkshake thing (although I believe milkshakes are a good thing). My son did conclude that God has legs, because he knows God has hands (because God touches people to heal them), so if God has hands, then legs would be a given. And I believe God likes all of the colors he created, even pink and purple.

Off to read my Bible...

Off To School

My son is now in school. I find this very strange. He thinks it's great.

Strange: It's so strange to have him gone all day, three days a week. The girls miss him and ask where he is. I am slowly adjusting to this whole school thing.

Great: He thinks school is great. He had his backpack packed for a month before school started. He likes his teacher, the four other kids in his class, recess, learning about numbers, and school buses.

Hopefully he can enjoy school for another 12+ years.

Bikes

I like this picture. These two have spent many hours enjoying riding their bikes this summer.

Bike

My husband and I have been helping my son learn how to ride his bike. We've both done a little bit of the hold-on-to-the-seat-and-run-along-side-the-bike this summer. My son wanted to ride his bike without the training wheels, but he was a bit apprehensive about the whole process. Only occasionally would he take the training wheels off, ride for a few minutes with a parents holding onto the seat, and then put the training wheels right back onto the bike.

We were visiting a friend a few weeks ago, and my son picked up a small bike in her yard, hopped on, and started riding (without training wheels). He was excited, but not sure he could ride his bike at home without the training wheels. About a week later, he decided to try it. He hopped on his bike and took off!

He wore a huge grin on his face for about two hours.

Dotty

My 3-year-old daughter is into counting things. Lots of things. Her counting is vocalized as follows: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleventeen, fourteen, seventeen, eleventeen, seventeen, fourteen (repeat eleventeen, seventeen, and fourteen until remaining items are all counted).

She cajoled our friend into counting the [many] dots on her jammies. This is not an easy task. My daughter only holds still when she is sleeping, which makes wiggly dots. Wiggly dots are difficult to count. Second, there are lots of dots on her jammies. Guess how many?


























Eleventeen.

What goes up...

What goes up...

Must come down.

The best horse

Snack

Afternoon snack is a regular routine in our family. Today it started out normal, but it ended with a quite abnormal event. The story goes like this:

The kids were all eating little cups of trail mix at the kitchen table this afternoon when I decided to grab something from the living room. I walked into the living room and heard my son exclaim, "Mom! Come here! There's a real, live snake in the kitchen!" (that would be the abnormal part) I very quickly moved back into the kitchen to see the real, live snake. Yes, there was a real, live, and very freaked-out snake slithering around my kitchen. It was green with stripes and it was slithering towards my very nervous three-year-old daughter who was frozen in place. I told my daughter to get on her chair, and it took her exactly .02 seconds to comply. Ack! What do I do!? I don't want to grab the snake, and I don't really want to smash it on the kitchen floor with my bare feet. Where did this snake come from?! Why is it in my kitchen?! This is a freaked-out fast snake, so I did the first fast thing I thought of: grabbed an empty ice cream bucket and trapped the snake under the bucket. Then I sat the kid's full sippy cup on the bucket for some weight, just in case the snake got wild in there. Now what? The snake is still in my kitchen and my kids are all still sitting at the table staring at me. Whose job is it to remove snakes from kitchens?
So, I called my husband and said, "There is a snake in my kitchen."
He said,"What?"
I repeated, "There is a snake in my kitchen."
He replied, "That's what I thought you said. What is a snake doing in our kitchen?"
"He's hiding under a bucket," I replied, "You need to come get the snake out of the house."
My husband replied, "I'll call my dad; he's on his way there. He'll take care of it."
So my husband calls my father-in-law and tells him the news. I told the kids that Grandpa was going to come get the snake out of the kitchen.
About 15 minutes later, Grandpa pulls up in the pickup. He asks what's going on and the kids tell him all about the snake and show him the bucket on the kitchen floor. Grandpa tips the bucket, grabs the snake by the tail, and asks, "Where should I put this thing?" We suggested he put it in his own kitchen, but he didn't think Grandma would really like that. So, he walked out to the burning barrels and deposited it there. I'm pretty sure he was chuckling under his breath the whole way.

Out of the mouths of babes...

My 3-year-old daughter just walked up to me with her little doll, turned the doll around, and stated, "This doll has a big, honkin' butt like you, Mom."

Ouch.

Totally hilarious.

Marriage

We ventured a few miles (about 30) from home this weekend to attend my husband's cousin's wedding. The wedding was held at a nearby park - in a beautiful gazebo. Very pretty.

Here we are on the way to the park.
















Walking over to the gazebo...I don't know why my kids are all posed the same way, but it's pretty cute.


















Watching the wedding and trying to keep the kids quiet.

The kids and a cousin playing in the water fountain outside of the gazebo - during the end of the wedding.

















The kids and their cousin dancing the night away.