You might be a red-neck if . . . .

Check out this fork-lift tractor. The guy that Evan has been doing some temp work for had an extra shed he wanted to get rid of, so Evan piped up that he was in need of a shed. If Evan could move it, he could have it. Not a big task, right? Well, at the construction site where Evan has been helping out (he has been working as a project manager), a fork lift tractor was regularly there. The job site is about a mile or so away from our house. So, Evan asked his boss if he could use the fork lift to get the shed to our house. Evan loaded the shed up, tied it down, and called me so I could follow behind him and keep traffic from rear-ending him. To get to our subdivision, you have to travel down a very busy road about 1/4 mile. Then, you turn into our subdivision and drive about another mile to the back of it. We looked pretty red-necked, or at least Evan did driving that tractor down the busy road and then through our subdivision trying not to slam into cars parked along the road and waving cars to pass us. It took us about 25 minutes to get home instead of the regular 5 minutes. It was kind of a fun adventure. Evan was so funny, he kept looking back at me with a grin. I think he really enjoyed himself (and got a free shed).

Unemployment is a thing of the past

Evan found a job! He was laid off from Wachovia along with 300 other employees back in November. Check the headlines and Wachovia's financial struggles are all over the headlines. It has been quite a struggle for us in finding new employment, especially employment not in sales. Evan has been in some kind of sales for 8 years now (and 8 years too long) and getting out of that niche with a salary that would support a family of almost 7 has been hard. But with a few connections, mainly the one from my brother, Dan, Evan was able to get a great job working for an oil company. We are very excited. Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers over the last several months.

Fun new tag

You can only type one word. Do the first word that comes to mind. I tag whoever wants to do it!

1. Where is your cell phone? car
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair? brown
4. Your mother? home
5. Your father? retired
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night? none
8.Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? diningroom/breakfast room
10. Your hobby? children
11. Your fear? injury/death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? family
13. Where were you last night? sleeping
14. What you're not? unemployed
15. One of your wish list items? camera
16. Where you grew up? Weatherford, TX
17. The last thing you did? eat
18. What are you wearing? maternity
19 Your TV? enemy
20. Your Pet? never
21. Your computer? blogging
22 Your mood? tired
23 Missing someone? husband
24 Your car? garage
25 Something you're not wearing? make-up
26 Favorite store? Hobby Lobby
27 Your summer? busy
28 Love someone? many
29 Your favorite color? brown
30 When is the last time you laughed? today
31 Last time you cried? today (remember I'm pregnant)

Now you do it, it's fun!

Memory Lane

I stole this from my friend, April's blog & thought it would be fun, so please play along.:)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Chick-fil-a

So I did it. My sister-in-law posted about how Chick-fil-a was offering free food to those who dressed up like cows on Friday only. I took the kids swimming and afterwards came home, dressed everyone in black, white, or brown, taped spots on them, made them hat bands with ears and horn, and headed to Chick-fil-a with my friend, Mandy and her three children.

I was a little surprised. I figured I would walk into the store and they would roll their eyes at a pregnant mom and four children in for free food. Instead, they all started clapping, took our picture, and let us order whatever we wanted. It was fun. I was glad Mandy came with me, a little support, and a great person to hang out with.

Taneal and Camie were actually embarrassed. They wouldn't drive around in our mini-van with their ear and horn hats on. They ducked their heads in the parking lot and held that little grin like "this is fun but a little embarrassing." They were great troopers, enjoyed their free lunch with a real soft drink instead of water, and had fun on the play equipment afterwards.

Thanks Chick-fil-a and Gerberta for a free lunch and the fun that came with dressing up like cows!

Who is missing?

I thought I would try a new template for my blog, http://leeloublogs.blogspot.com/ and of course anytime you try anything new there are always quirks. Getting the new template managed to delete all my links to all my friends and family. I tried as hard as I could to find all my old links, but I know I am still missing several. So, if I don't have you linked on the side bar, please leave a comment with your blog address so I can get you linked up. Thanks!

Cake Decorating?

My friend, Jana, and I had this great idea of learning about cake decorating. I took all the Wilton classes before Taneal was born, so I know a little. Since Jana wanted to learn some things and she has three children and I have four and doing anything this summer includes all of them, we decided to bake them all little cakes and let them do some decorating as well.

Good idea? NOT!!!!!!

It was chaos at my house! The kids were having so much fun decorating, or shall I say eating the frosting.The kids were all oblivious to the chaos, and were having a terrific time. Somehow I managed to forget that small children can't sit and watch instruction and then do it on their on. They ALL need hands-on help. However, they quickly adjusted to the fact that there were only two very pregnant and tired moms and seven children and they were just going to have to experiment on their own. Between the plops of greasy frosting on the floor and the cake decorating tips being licked and sucked and then squirted onto the cake and the vast sharing of germs, all was well. Jana and I finally sat back and just starting giggling wondering "what were we thinking?" It was worth the mess because the kids had so much fun, but I don't think I would be willing to do a repeat.

The kiddos seriously had a great time and were so proud of their finished cakes. Josh, Jana's oldest, decorated his cake for his mom. He wrote on it, "happy labor." Jana had to ask him if that was really what he wrote and he confirmed that it was. He couldn't understand why we were laughing. We tried not to, but, well . . . I don't know. We were so caught off guard it was funny. He is such a thoughtful boy.

Danielle proud of her cake!

I made templates and then put them in a Ziploc bag for the kids to practice on. It was easy to wipe off and practice again.

Camie practicing and then showing off her finished cake.

Taneal hard at work.

Spencer was even interested. He didn't decorate his own cake but enjoyed squeezing the frosting out and tasting.

Josh with his "happy labor" cake.

New pictures

It's all done! I like to get my children's pictures made around their birthdays. Well, Spencer just had his, Danielle's is at the end of the month, and I didn't really have Camie's pictures made other then her school pictures and they could have been better. I usually wait and do all different settings so I can use the $9.99 coupons. Well, I'm tired. I found this place that I could do all the pictures at once, no coupons or sitting fees, and I ended up spending about what I do when I break up all the visits. Only I got it all done in one visit (I had Taneal's made for her baptism so she was already done). It is so nice to have their pictures done for a while, at least for two months until the baby comes. I hope you enjoy. I really liked how the pictures turned out.

A Pioneer Park

No, we aren't in Utah at their Pioneer Park, but there is a park around this area that has a remake of when the pioneers settled this area. There was a Pioneer house with the chicken coop, out house, outdoor oven, smoke house, barn, ice house, etc and right around the corner an Indian village. My friend has been there before and invited us. The kids had so much fun. They loved looking at the "Mary and Laura" house with the loft and everything and then pumping the water and checking out the wagons in the barn. They had a lot of fun even in the blistering heat. I did not bring enough water even though I thought I had way over-shot on it.

My favorite comment from Camie. I asked her if the pioneer house was large. It had the loft in it, but on the main floor, it was one room with a fire place and barely fit a bed and some chairs. It was small, but I wanted to hear her opinion. Camie said, "Mom, your closet is bigger then the whole house!" I don't think that my closet is, but boy we have come along way since the time of the pioneers!

Taneal and Camie's bedroom

I have always wanted to decorate my girl's bedroom but have never really had the chance, we've always rented. Until now. I've never even really had the opportunity. Until now. So, over the last almost year since we bought our home, I've been thinking through things, gathering ideas, etc. and I finally decided to take the plunge and decorate their room. Evan said "NO" to any paint, what was wrong with the new paint on the walls already? I tried and tried to convince him, but he wouldn't budge on the idea. So, I pulled color into their room in other ways. Hopefully it wasn't overdone, the girls love it, and I had fun doing it.


I started out with Camie's blanket shown in the picture on the bottom bunk. I hand drew picture of bugs and flowers. They are definitely hand-drawn and very imperfect. I appliqued them onto the quilt. My mom helped me finish it. Then came Taneal's quilt. I wanted it to match, but Taneal wanted it different. So, we brainstormed together, she free-handed some items such as the lipstick and the perfume bottle and we designed her quilt. My job was to transfer the hand-drawings onto fabric, applique them and then make the quilt. That is what I have been doing over the last two months. I had fun and I am pleased with the results as is Taneal. Then came the curtains. They were fun and simple to make. Jana, my neighbor, helped me with the ideas on them. Of course after I got them hung I realized they need to be lined. That will be my next project. And finally, I modged-podged the magnetic boards with scrapbook paper. It was so much fun. They turned out a little too bright, but the girls absolutely love them and they add quite a splash of color to the room. So, besides lining the curtains and somehow decorating the lamp shade (if you have any ideas on how to do a lamp shade, please share), I should be done. Their room took a lot of time but it was so much fun doing it. Of course maybe it wouldn't have taken quite so much time if I had a little more energy and could stay up past the kiddos at night, but what can I say? Even a tired momma can get the job done, just quite a bit slower.

The magnetic boards are different to match the different fabric appliqued on their quilts.

The girls were really insistent on the pillows. They wanted their names on them with a letter designed to match the applique on their quilts. They insisted on a roll pillow and absolutely HAD to have an envelope pillow. Funny kids!

A Day at the Beach

All of my family living somewhat close came into town for Taneal's baptism a day early so we could go to the beach. Well, it was super windy and the beach was at a level red, which meant you could not go in the water higher then your knees. For a child, that is pretty shallow. Evan was ready to turn around and head home, but the rest of us convinced him that even if we couldn't get into the water, it would still be fun to play in the sand.

I think it must have calmed down pretty soon after we arrived because the waves didn't seem so strong and as long as my girls were wearing life vests, I felt comfortable with them going out a little further and the life guards were letting them. I ventured out deeper, but the waves were crashing up against me pretty hard and I started to have more contractions then what I was comfortable having. I ended up sitting in the shallow area for hours while Danielle and Spencer played around me. They had a lot of fun splashing and picking up sand and throwing it at my brother, Rob. They were a lot of fun to play with. We ended up staying about 5 hours and had a great time.
Of course it seems like every time we go to the beach, regardless of how much sun screen we use, we always end up getting burnt. My children fared very well, I don't think any of them got sun burned. Camie's cheeks got a little pink and my legs got burnt (I think Danielle and Spencer rubbing sand on my legs must have worn the sunscreen off). Because of my history with skin cancer, I bought all my children swim shirts which helped tremendously.

I can't say the same for the rest of the family. My niece Rebecca ended up at the doctor because of the blisters and swelling on her face and back. She didn't use sunscreen at all.

I guess we all learn the hard way.

We had a great time and hopefully we can go again together next summer.


Spencer
Stephenie sitting in the shallow area with my Dad while Danielle and Spencer play around us.















Danielle


















Camie playing in the ocean.


















Taneal enjoying her lunch.



Evan building a sand castle with Taneal

School is OUT!

School got out a little later this year then we are used to, although we didn't have plans to go anywhere so it didn't make much difference. We ended on June 7th. The girls were excited although I think Camie is going to miss her kindergarden teacher a lot. SHe had the best teacher ever. Taneal may miss her teachers, but I don't think she will miss the homework. She stressed out a lot when she had too much homework.

Camie and her teacher.

Taneal and her teachers. She had a morning teacher for reading and an afternoon teacher for Math and Science

Although school is out which means I don't have to remind the girls every five minutes every morning that they better hurry so they don't miss the bus, I still think we will try to keep some kind of schedule. Becky (my sister-in-law that lives a few miles away) and I are going to plan to twice a week doing something with the older girls. I think Becky is going to take next week and go berry picking with Taneal, Camie, and Audrey one day and then the other day teach them how to make jam. I have in the works to teach the girls a little cake decorating and a maybe some painting or sewing. I still need to come up with a 4th idea to do with the girls, but I have some time to come up with it. It should be a lot of fun and give the girls something to look forward to and also to break up the monotony of each week.

As for Danielle and Spencer, I see the move Cars in the forecast. Just kidding. I will do things with them, little crafts and simple things that keep their attention. We all plan to spend every morning at the pool and wrap it up with a picnic lunch. I'm only seven months pregnant in the middle of a summer, so we will see how all this actually goes as the summer progresses.

Swim Team

This spring I signed Taneal and Camie up for the local swim team. We haven't done anything like this before, but I've heard great things about it. It started the last week of April and goes through the end of June. Practice is Tuesday -Friday in the evenings and now that school is out it will be Tues- Friday in the mornings . Each Saturday is a meet that begins around 6:30am and usually end around 2pm. Taneal and Camie are in different age categories so their practices are at different pools with the time overlapping. Danielle and Spencer don't seem to mind because during practices they get to play at the park next to the pools. And thanks to friends who also have their children on the team, we have been able to rotate who goes to which pool minimizing all the running back and forth between pools.

The girls have done so well! I was sure Camie was going to get kicked off the team within the first week because she forgot how to swim from last year. But, she surprised me and remembered and has done really well. Taneal is a very fast swimmer and really likes the practices. I'm just so impressed with how well my girls know how to swim. They both swim better then I do! And, we joined a team that has won every meet!








Camie after finishing up her relay.

Taneal diving in!

Camie getting ready to dive (she has good arm position but still jumps in feet first! It is very cute!)


















Taneal swimming the breast stroke.


















I think Camie asctually posed for this picture during her relay!











Taneal climbing out of the pool after her swim competition.

Any suggestion?

I was looking through my own blog and was thinking that I had documented the last year better on my blog then anywhere else. With the move and then pregnancy, I haven't done any scrapbooking in the last year and I haven't been a very faithful journal writer, but I've been fairly good at keeping my blog updated, even with pictures. Someone mentioned that they were having their blog entries made into a book. I thought as long as it wasn't too pricey, that would be a great idea, a great way to have a written document of this last year. So, last night I went on-line and google searched how to do this. I found a website that looked pretty good, http://www.blurb.com. Has anyone heard of this? Or has anyone done this? If you have any knowledge on the subject, please let me know. Thanks!

Really cool!

I was logging onto my blog and noticed that google bloger had some new features. Of course I am not that updated on cool computer techniques, but I thought I would try to read it and see if the computer jargon made any sense. What I found was so cool! I now have a very cool list of my favorite blogs on the right side of my blog page. I already had a list, but what google has done for me is they put them in order of most recent posts! The ones at the very bottom google couldn't find, but I think there are only two that fit that category. So, now when I log onto my blog, I can quickly see who has updated their blog and click away. If you are interested, read about "snippets" on the blogger home page. It is very cool!