If You're a Parent, You've Got to Read This

Check out this post by my daughter. If you're a parent of younger kids, it'll give you hope and if you're a parent of grown children, you'll understand why this makes me so happy.

Too Fast

Life is moving just a little too fast. I know I keep saying that, but it's true. As I said a couple of posts ago, (Scary) Kelli is now a legally licensed driver as of Friday. But as if that wasn't enough, yesterday she got her acceptance letter to the college she wants to attend. Now, ok. I want her to go to college, but come on this is all happening way too fast for mama! lol

Congrats Kelli! I really am proud of you....but do you think you could slow down just a little bit!

Scary!

It's official. I am the mother of a licensed driver. How in the world did that happen?!? She can't be more that 8 or 9. I mean where did the time go. The years have flown and somehow she's 18 and legally driving now!


She took and passed her test yesterday. Now mom and dad have to let her go and drive away from the house without us. I don't know if I can do it. Pray for me!! lol

Pray for her too, that God will send an angel to sit on her bumper and keep her safe from all those other drivers.

Kelli's driving!!!!

If you have time, click here and check out my husband's blog post about our oldest learning to drive.  Pretty funny stuff.

Kelli's Painting

Kelli is taking 2 different art classes this year and one of them is painting. She has always told me she couldn't paint, but I think she's awesome. So does her teacher. Anyway, she had a project due Friday, but she talked the teacher into letting her turn it in on Tuesday, because she had a little more she wanted to do to the picture.

Here she is working in her room

Here you can actually see her working on the painting. The top is a photo from the internet and the bottom is her painting. Here it is after it's finished showing both the picture and her painting.
Here's a close-up of the painting. If you click on the picture you can enlarge it to really see it better.

Now, I have no intention of asking if a mother can be proud, because this mother is very proud of her daughter and her awesome talent!

Mean Mom

Forgive me Lord, for I am a mean mom. You don't think so? Well let me prove it to you.

Both girls were busy Friday night. KJS went to Kings Island with her cousins and KLS went and participated in the last night of Bible School that they were helping with all week at another church. After dropping them off, hubby and I went to Red Lobster for dinner before going to a family get together at my moms.

Now mind you, Red Lobster is one of my girls favorite places to eat. Hubby's and mine's too. Anyway, while sitting in Red Lobster I got the devious idea to send pictures to both girls of the food and have them guess where we were. Yep, I started with the drinks and salads and then the cheddar cheese biscuits (the biscuits are their favorite thing on the menu) and then the entrees. They guessed it and they were drooling, let me tell you. Both girls asked us to bring them a biscuit home. We were laughing and just enjoying our dinner. It's so nice to sometimes just be without kids when going out. We realized last week, that we'll be ok with empty-house syndrome someday. They were gone every night and we did fine. Now mind you, I'm not rushing them to leave, but we'll be ok.

Anyway, now if the pictures weren't mean enough, I walked out of the restaurant without any biscuits. We had a couple leftovers and I really was going to bring them home, but I forgot. That is why I'm a mean mom!! :)

I'd show you the pictures here, but I have no idea how to download them to the computer from my phone. hahaha

Bugs

KJS had to do a bug project for Science. I've had dead bugs in my freezer for the last 2 weeks waiting for her to do this project. Yuck!!! Anyway, she just completed it today and here it is. I think she did a good job on it.

Art Show

KLS had an Art Show at he school last night. Below are the 6 pieces of artwork of hers that the teacher chose to put in the show. The 7th piece is the one we all thought should be put in, but it was not. We've kinda wondered it if was because of who it is. If you want to see these pictures larger, you can double click on any of them.

This is called a Photo Continuation. The little boy with the book is the photo and then the rest is what she imagined the picture should contain.

This is called Selective Coloring - The assignment was to pick an object and draw it using contour lines only and then to pick a symbol that represents the original object and draw that overtop of the lines and then parts have to be colored in. This is obviously the apple and the snake from the Garden of Eden.

This is called Picture Weaving. Take 2 pictures with a similar theme and weave them together. This is Daredevil and Elektra the Super Heroes.

This is called Image Distortion. Obviously it's Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.

This is Scratch Board. It's originally a black board and you scratch off the black to engrave the image in the white underneath the black.

This is the one project KLS really hates, but I love this picture of her with her pastel portrait.

This is the one we all thought should have been in the show. Fingerprint Portrait. The whole painting is done entirely with fingerprints. KLS said she chose to do Jesus because she thought He deserved to be in the show somewhere. I mean Elvis was there and he's just the king, but Jesus is the King of Kings!!

Concerts and Bible Study

KJS had her choir concert last night which was also the last night of the Women's Bible Study (Beth Moore's "Esther") that I facilitate. They both started at 7PM. Remember, hubby was out of town with KLS at a Pastor's conference. Well, they came home early so he could take her to the concert and KLS and I drove to the school too. We watched the first 2 bands play and then her choir came on. We were able to stay for their whole performance.

They did such a good job. I was so proud of them. Unfortunately mom and dad didn't do as well. I took pictures and hubby video'd. None of the pictures came out very well at all. When I finally got the right lighting, then I somehow managed to always catch the kids talking or looking goofy and KJS had her eyes closed in 2 of them. Hubby's videos didn't do a whole lot better. Actually his weren't that bad, but in the best one I could hear KLS and I whispering, so I won't post that here. Man the mic on that thing is strong. :) I can't hear what we're saying, I just hear whispering. Guess, I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. ;) As soon as the choir finished KLS and I cut out before the final band performed. We then flew across town to our church for the Bible Study.

Fortunately, I have 2 wonderful women in our study group that were willing to take care of the discussion part of the study. We arrived in time for the last 15 minutes or so of this part. They did an awesome job. Plus since it was the last night, everyone brought something to eat. Man, we had a feast. There were about 6 or 7 desserts, sandwiches, fruit, crackers & cheese, pasta salad and I'm not sure what else. It was awesome.

These women are just absolutely terrific. We have grown so close and I really hate to see it end (except I'm tired and I need a bit of a break). I learn so much from them, and they are such prayer warriors. I just love them so much. I'm just so glad we plan to start up another study in August. I can't wait!! I meant to take a picture of our group before we left last night, but I forgot. So I guess I'll have to get one in August when start up again. Maybe I can lose a few pounds before then. lol

Memory Lane

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

I didn't go back as far in history this week. This would be about 1998 or 1999. These are my 2 girls with their daddy's mom. Aren't they the cutest clowns you've ever seen?!?

Just Some Fun Stuff

A few weeks ago my youngest got her ears pierced again. The first time she didn't let them heal up enough, I guess. She wore a pair of earrings that were too heavy, plus she pulled on them all the time and ended up with a slit instead of a hole. So for the last year or so she's been letting that heal. It's done pretty well, so we had them re-pierced in a little different place and they are doing really well. It's been about 3-4 weeks. She looks so cute with her ears pierced. Of course she's cute when they're not too.
We went Geo-caching today to five different places. We found 3 of the 5. Well, actually I should say my oldest daughter found 3 of the 5. I have been a part of 8 different finds, but have yet to find one myself. One of these days I will though. If you want to know more about geo-caching click on the button down towards the bottom of my sidebar. Here's a picture of KLS looking in a tree for one of them. We never could find this one. Note to self, get a good flashlight so you can see in the holes. It's a little scarey sticking your hand in places you can't see. Could be little critters or spiders. Yuck!!

This evening the girls attended a progressive dinner with their youth group. While they were doing that, hubby and I got a sandwich from Subway and found a place to eat it and then went driving around the area where he grew up. It was a lot of fun seeing how some things have changed and some have stayed the same. It had been years since I had been out there. About 2 houses down from where he used to live we saw this in the yard. Yes, it was real!! It's an albino squirrel. How cute is that? I just wish my zoom was a little better. If you click on the photo it should enlarge so you can see the squirrel better.

Then I caught a picture of the sun going down. All in all it's been a good day!.

Help

My daughters both participated in a drama yesterday at the church where they attend youth. Our church is really small and they are the only teens that come all the time so they actually are part of a youth group in a sister church where my husband grew up. Does that make sense? Anyway, they are part of the drama team too. So they had to go there for Sunday morning church to participate in the drama. Hubby and I got to see a run-through of it on Saturday when we picked them up after practice. Anyway, I got my sister-in-law who attends that church, to record it with my camera as hubby and I couldn't go because he's the pastor and I'm the pianist at our church.

I wanted to download it here, but I seem to be having trouble. It's about 5 minutes long and a little over 500mb's. I've tried twice to download it to Blogger and after over an hour both times it's still not downloaded. Anybody have any suggestions on what I need to do? I didn't have any trouble downloading the video on the previous post but it's just a few seconds long. I really want to share it with you all, if possible.

Nativity

My youngest daughter participated in a live Nativity last night with her youth group. Thought I'd show you a couple pics from that.

Isn't she about the cutest Mary you've ever seen?

Sshh! Don't tell anyone, but I think Joseph and Mary may be crushin' on each other a little!

See what I mean? Look at that smile!

Stuff

Sports - My daughter's got her 2nd basketball game tonight. They didn't do to well at their 1st game. But win or lose I love to watch them play.

Fun Day - I can't wait until tomorrow! I'm taking a vacation day and going shopping and out to lunch with my sister who is on vacation this week. Planning to have a fun girls day out. I don't know where we're going yet or exactly what all we'll be doing, but it should be fun. We always have a good time together. I'll let you know tomorrow if we get any good stuff or any good deals.

Dieting - yuck!! Hubby and I both are trying to lose a few pounds before the holidays. I've been up and down so much this year it's unbelievable!

TV - Plan to watch Survivor tonight. Is anyone else watching that this season?

Reading - I'm reading Ted Dekker's book "Blink". If you're looking for a good book to read, this is really keeping my attention.

That's all for now.

My Kids! I love them! Really I do!

Last night after going to the YMCA and walking for about 45 minutes and then coming home and helping hubby finish up dinner and then the girls and I cleaning up the kitchen, then she tells me.

Okay, you gotta figure at this time, I'm thinking ok, everything's done and now I can relax and watch Survivor. But nooooooo. KJS informs me that we're supposed to fill a shoebox for a child that's due today! What!?! And you're just now telling me? But mom, I thought I did tell you. No, no I haven't heard a thing about this and it's due tomorrow?! Now mind you, it wasn't the giving something to a child, it was the late notice that got to me.

So, what did I do? I sat down and watched Survivor. (I don't know why I like this show, but for some reason I do and it's one of the few shows I watch all the time).

After it was over, I decided I better do something about the box. So first of all I looked around the house for a shoe box. Fortunately, we had one. And then I looked to see if we had anything to put in it. The only thing I had was a couple pencils that hadn't been used and some floss. Don't think a little child is only gonna want only those, so into the van I went and off to Walmart.

Now I don't know about you, but I seldom go out at 9:30 at night anymore. I guess I am getting old. Anyway, off I went and guess what. I had a really good time being out by myself and shopping for a few minutes. Who knew shopping at Walmart at 9:30-10:00 at night would be so nice (no crowds, no waiting)

I bought some socks, hair clips, crayons, coloring books, 4 little babydolls (awww they were so cute), SpongeBob toothpaste, light up toothbrushes, Crazy8's Cards, 2 bottles of shampoo, some bars of soap, and a notebook with a cute puppy on it (to go with the pencils at home). I think that's about all. The box was full.

My prayer is that the Lord will bless the little child that receives this box and that she will have fun playing with the baby dolls and using the other stuff. Hopefully, through this she'll learn that the Lord loves her and will take care of her. Plus I got a blessing because I had fun getting to buy for a little girl again!

KJS thanks for the opportunity to do something for someone else, but next time could you let me know just a little bit earlier?