Pleasant Noise

The kids are back.
How do I know?
Mario Kart is playing in the background, as well as some sort of made up Lana song.
Oh wait, and now here comes the griping at each other.
But I like it.
While I enjoyed their absence for the past week, I have also enjoyed their return.
As a Mother that also homeschools, my days are pretty much filled with the kids.
I would not have it any other way right now, it is where God has us, and I mostly enjoy it.
On the flip side of being a mother that homeschools, a week off here and there is a TRUE joy!
I don't have family here, so I don't get those weekly breaks. Therefore I gladly welcome the times my parents take them for an extended stay. Thanks Marmi and Pappy! You're the BEST!

I have to say though, I miss my kids when they are gone.
They are a part of me. They make me laugh, cry, relax and be lazy, or get out and be crazy.
OK sorry, I couldn't resist a ryhme!
But seriously, I like having them around. Who else is going to carry the laundry?
One day last week when I was home all alone for 12 hours, I forgot to eat.
Then when I went to find something to eat, all I could find was some graham crackers, PB, and grapes. See, they remind me to fix food.

I accomplished A LOT last week! Including the room makeover, of which I will try to take pictures of tomorrow.

Stacy and I had 2 fullish days to spend together and that was so nice. We played tennis, and golf, ate out, and watched lots of "Lost". It was just nice to hang out and see him relax from being off work.

And speaking of Stacy, I've gotta go pick him up from work...but I promise I'll get those makeover pics posted soon!

Family Day

Yesterday we went to Oak Mountain for the afternoon.
I love Oak Mountain and I love my Family, so there ya go!
We even ran into our good friends Nick and Michelle and their kidos too.
If you knew Lana two years ago, then you know that the following pictures are shocking...



There was a day when she would scream bloody murder at the site of an animal up close, or anything dressed up. Now she is a tough girl!


Well, until it comes time to pick up worms!
Although, I will say, that at the end of the day we told her that if she would eat a worm we would buy her any pretty dress she wanted. Instead she took a worm off a hook and asked for a pretty dress. Sorry chic, that wasn't the deal!

Logan threw up in the morning before we left and didn't perk up until he got a Mtn Dew, a fishing pole, and some worms!



I love to watch Logan fish. He is so intent and I wonder what he is thinking about.
Everytime I've ever been around him at a lake with a fishing pole, he has the best time. I love having a typical boy that loves boy stuff like fishing!

And this picture I just love for obvious reasons!

We went on the "Tree Top Trail". In all my years of going to Oak Mtn, I have never done that. It was pretty cool and a great idea!

I love Oak Mountain, and I love my family...I want to do that everyday.

I like it...

I want to make some of these and hang them on my patio and porch this Summer. You could use any colors of ribbon, and you can usually find ball jars for really cheap at the Thrift Store. The wire is wrapped around the rim 3 times and then you attach 3 more pieces with beads on them, to hang with.

Now if these clouds would clear out and our spring like temps would return!

The torture of living in Alabama.

Hello, my name is Mom and I'm a Kill Joy!

"Mom, where are the matches?"

"Why do you need matches son?"

"Because I made this cool torch to play in the woods with my friends!"

"Sorry son, but I can't let you do that."

~dissapointed slump of shoulders and heaving a heavy sigh~

6 Year Old Style

Hello, my name is Lana, and I am Stylin!
I put together this lovely ensamble for this lovely spring day.

The key to this outfit is to gather the side of your shirt into a rubber band and DO NOT forget the lime green socks with pink sparkly shoes.

I put this outfit together when my Mom would not let me wear my bathing suit. I'm pretty much ticked about it because it is my favorite bathing suit, and my Mom says its too tight.

So if you have a pink and brown bathing suit from last years Chidrens Place bathing suits, in perhaps a size 7, I sure would like it. Otherwise I will probablly not like swimming this year at all.

Real Life Day 7

Say it aint so...say it's not over. WAAAA, WAAAA.
Ok, I am done.
I just have enjoyed this little life documenting journey this week.
But I guess now I must move on to other things, like VBS events that are fast approaching.
March 29th is only 3 weeks a way, and I have much to do.

Anyhooo...today was Sunday.
Last night was the dreaded, hour of sleep losing, time change.
I suppose I will appreciate it when I have more daylight, but now I am DRAGGING.
I haven't been sleeping well anyways, and that just makes it even more annoying.


But I digress...onto the day at hand.

Normally on Sunday we eat breakfast at Church, but today Stacy had Deacons Meeting first thing. So the kids and I had to eat breakfast at home and wait for Stacy to come back to get us.
Here Logan is happily eating his usual, Waffles with Sugar. Don't judge me.

HMM, what do we have here? Oh I know...Lana's bagel with no Lana.
That would be because Lana (who I told last night before I went out) did not get her clothes ready for church, therefore coming out in tights with a HUGE hole in them, a black and white polka dot jumper dress, with a navy blue snow princess shirt on under it.
I'm sorry, I am all for freedom of expression, but holey tights with compeltly non matching jumper and shirt for church just aren't going to work today.


And here I have gotten Lana some matching clothes with non holey tights.
As you can see she is unhappy with her Mama.



I went to Starbucks this afternoon and got a "Vanilla Iced Chai".
I don't regret it at all! It leaves me with $3 in my wallet for the week and I DON'T CARE!
I got it, opened the sun roof and drove around for about 30 minutes before I had to go to a 3:00 meeting at Church.

~Insert cheesy sales person voice~
"If your company would like to sponsor a hole for our upcoming Golf Tournament, please let me know."
There, I have done my sponsorship duty for today.



Because of our one car situation, Stacy, and or, I made a total of 4 to and from trips to church today. Thankfully church is only about 3-4 miles away. But still, that was a lot of trips.

My favorite part of the day was listening to my husband preach. I don't want to say I was suprised at how well he did, but really I was a little bit. Not that I thought he wouldn't do well, but I was just suprised with the amount of passion and clarity that he preached with. It was so natural for him, and I think our Church should definetly know what the Gospel should mean to our Church. I am very proud of him. Proud doesn't quite portray it enough.

I now come to the end of my 7 days of Real Life. Maybe I'll do it again sometime.

And Scene.

Real Life Day 6

What? Day 6 already? My how the time flies when your documenting your life.
I am doing this in the middle of the day because I am going out tonight with girls from church. Fun times, jah. And let us not forget that tonight we loose an hour of sleep....Missy does not like losing sleep. Just so you know.

Anyhoo, I thought I would blog about Real Life Day 6 while I have a moment.



I made some Yummo Lasagna today.
One for my family, One for some people from Church that just had a baby.
This is my Mom's recipe and she has only shared it with Me, my sister, and my friend Stacy is who is like her other daughter...so don't ask for the recipe! I am forbidden from sharing. But let me assure you, this is the best Lasagna you could ever put in your mouth.

~Insert licking lips, and slurping sounds~

I went outside and worked in the yard some today. Blah blah blah.
Just trimmed some stuff and raked some pine straw into piles. Yada yada yada.

Came back in and had a tiny sliver of said Lasagna. I had to make sure it taste good before I share it!

Have I told you that I love to drink out of a straw?
I save my cups from chic-fil-a and fill them with water and drink from the straw.
Why yes, I am slightly odd! But at least I am drinking water!




My friend, Crissy, went out of town last night on a trip that I wanted to go on but couldn't. So instead, I have her son. He and Logan have been having much fun. And its nice that they include Lana in their fun too.

~I think Logan is using clippers to make weapons out of sticks~


Speaking of my little LanaLou, she drew me a lovely picture today of my favorite flower, a daisy. I love my sweet thoughtful little girl.



I am currently listening to "Pandora", free music on the computer. I love Pandora. You can customize your own station. When I am alone, I listen to the "ColdPlay" station. Usually we listen to the "Third Day" station while we do school. They don't just play that group, but others that are similar in style.
I like it, I like it alot.


Well, the time has come to freshen myself for the evening activities.
It's such a joy to take a shower in my shower.



Doesn't everyone turn on their shower with a screw driver???

Real Life Day 5

I want to tell you about Day 5, but Day 5 has offically moved into Day 6 timewise.
For whatever reason, pictures aren't uploading, AGAIN!!!

Suffice it to say, Day 5 has been a blast...
~Fun Girlfriends came to my house today, and some stayed till after midnight!
~I did some cooking today which I love! Homemade Mac and Chz, Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, Meatballs and Gravy, Ranch dip and veggies. Lana helped too which also makes it more fun.
I'm happy to be raising a little girl that likes to be in the kitchen.
~I laughed so hard tonight that my cheek bones are actually sore. Of course the laughter WAS at my expense. Ah, pictures and story for another day when it is not 12:45 am.
~My husband got home around 8:30, and it was fun to have this evening cutting up with him and 2 other girlfriends.
~I am not looking forward to driving Stacy to work in 7 hours, so I should go to bed.

In Summary...Day 5 was a good day.

Real Life Day 4- Part Deux

~Finally got my pics to post...if you read part one, you may want to scroll down~

I have some good stuff for you today folks. Day 4 of my real life was a fun day.
Plus I ammused myself today, which is, well OK, not that difficult to do...but I do have a funny little story for you.

Last night Crissy and I were IMing on the computer and made arrangments to meet today at the park. Well sometime during the course of the night I had a very real dream that Crissy and I were IMing and she said she would just come pick me up. So this morning I told Stacy that I didn't need to take him to work cause Crissy was coming to get me.

I went back to sleep for a little while, and woke up because I thought my children were outside digging a trench in the back yard. I looked out the window to yell at them, and low and behold they weren't there. I realized I had just dreamed this in a very real and vivid way.
It got me to thinking...maybe Crissy and I did not discuss her coming to get me...So I looked at my chat history and SURE ENOUGH no record of that conversation. Yep, I had a very real, very realistic dream about this so called coversation. I'm a little scared to go to bed now I tell you.

Another amusing thing about my day was when I couldn't find my phone and IM'd Michelle and asked her to call my phone, which rang....dun dun dun....right next to me!
I'm telling you people, I am losing my ever loving mind!

Anyways, as it turned out Crissy and the kids came over here and we had a wonderful day.
I prepared us lunch and we ate....

First of all, I bought REAL Paremesan Cheese at Aldi. I am making Alfredo sauce later in the week and have never used REAL Parmesan before...let me just say that REAL Parmesan is very hard to open. Its like they seal the package 800 times or something.

But I finally got it, and sliced it with my slicer I got in Amsterdam, like they do in a restraunt!



Crissy, Maggie and I had a Caeser Salad bar. I sugar toasted some Almonds that I am thinking about even now, wishing that I had a handful in my mouth.



The kids had Pigs in a Blanket, Cheese Puffs, and Fruit Cocktail.

My back screen door has been half way off for some time, so Tye and Logan got their tools out and took it completly down....

Along with another old screen we had (yes people, we have screen issues), a couple paint tarps, duct tape, and some nails, they created this very fun club house.

Now you are probablly looking at this picture and saying "What the heck?"

No, its not a bunch of body bags...

Give up? Ok, I will tell you. Before Logan and Tye built that fort, Logan and Lana had been working on a fort of their own...out of wood and trash bags. They were trying to be like survivor man. The funny thing is that they used up all my trash bags last week, and so every day for a week I would say "Go out to the yard and get me a trash bag."

You know you live in Alabama when....

Real Life Day 3

Wednesday is my busier day of the week.
I take Stacy to work...usually entertaining him with my smart mouth and witty wit.
Yes, we only have 1 car. Wait, isn't this 1957?


Came home and did school with the kids...or was schooled by the kids, I can't remember which.
Then it was off to Aldi....

Look at all I can get at Aldi....any guess has to how much this all cost?

The razors and shaving cream , and the slim fast shakes did not come from Aldi.

Normally in the middle of Wednesday afternoon we would go to ballet and piano lessons...however after grocery shopping, Logan who is still getting over sickness, was coughing and feeling warm. He kept complaining about being tired, so we all took naps. He slept for 2 hours and seemed to really feel a lot better after the nap. Sometimes as a Mom I second guess my judgment calls...but letting him rest this afternoon proved to pay off.

Anyways....when I got up from my nap, I had a headache, but I also had 4 boxes of VBS orders waiting at my door! Woohoo, that is some fun stuff to look through.

Now this has been annoying me for days. Sunday night on Snow Day, I made Chilli. Lana dumped the rest of hers in the trash. Except she obviously missed the trash can.

I keep meaning to get her to scrub it off cause I assure you folks, its not my mess, I'm not cleaning it up!

I got on Aldi.Com today and looked at recipes. This was the first one I came across and I just so happened to have all the ingredients on hand. I modified it a bit, but all in all, I thought it was goo-ood! It's basically lazy mans (or in my case woman) Chicken and Dumplings.

Roll out crecent dough. I cut it into 18 pieces. Top it with some small pieces of cooked chicken.

Roll it up like little bundles. Top with Salt and Pepper.

Top with a can of cream of mushroom and half a can of chicken broth.

I think next time I will do two cans of crecent dough, 2 cans of cream of mushroom, and a whole can of chicken broth, cause what I made only took up half a 9x13 and I hate to only use half a can of broth.

Went to Church tonight, but I didn't take any pictures.

I didn't want to be THAT person.

So there you go people, my real life Day 3.

Chinese Food Night

I meant to post these over the weekend, so now I am just blogging twice in one day. Uh Hum, Mother, I accept your apology.

I made a Chinese Buffet Friday night when my brother and his fiance were here. It was a lot of fun to prepare and everything tasted really good!



I made these P.F Chang style Lettuce wraps.

MMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a pouring sauce for the wraps, and also a spicy thai peanut sauce.

Hot and Sour Soup and Pork Satay to dip with the peanut sauce.

MMMM, Hot and Sour Soup!

Crab Rangoon...My mouth is officially watering!

My happy buffet attendees!

We rounded off the night with Fortune Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, and PB Chocolate Eclair Cake. ALL low fat of course!

So there you have it! I want to make it again, so if you want to come over one night and join me for a Chinese Buffet, just let me know 24 hours in advance! This kind of thing doesn't just happen ;)

Real Life Day 2

I like to drink my Slim Fast with a straw. I like straws.




Suprisingly we still have some snow, and not so suprisingly, Lana went out to play with her Hannah Montana Sandals on.



This is my real life. I've been wearing the same thing, and haven't showered in 2 days. The dirt you see is on my shirt and on my mirror. This is raw-real life folks.

To counter act the Slim Fast shake I ate some of this yummy yumminess.

Confinscated this stuffed animal collar and leash from the kids after they were trying to put it on the cat for unknown reasons.

All that laundry I washed yesterday had to be folded and put away today. Well, it got folded anyway...

My favorite part of today was when Lana was reading this story out of her reader. The dogs name is Ruff. To which Lana replied...

"I don't think you should name your dog "Ruff" cause it would be freaky if a dog could say its own name!"