When Blizzard 2011 Comes In.....

The parents wake up hearing the ice hitting the windows at 4:30 AM, and move into action.

Big nasty farm dogs get to sleep in the laundry room.

10 year old boys sleep in their new birthday sleds, dreaming of snow days, forts, & sledding.

The ice is covering the ground at this point, and blizzard conditions with up to 16" of snow are expected today. I love it!

Bowling & Badgering

J.D.'s dad is here for a visit this week. We have not been out and about as much as we would have if I had been on (both) my feet. We have had a very nice visit anyway. On Friday, we decided to go bowling. We have a very small, hometown alley close by and that is where we went. We basically had the place to ourselves, which left me the opportunity to work on my wheelchair skills. I had fun weaving in and out around the tables. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

My knee minus staples, hooray!

Papa John

JD teaching Eli some skillz

JD & his dad checking out the score (Arnold's are ALWAYS competitive)

I'm only putting this in here to remind myself of how much fun KK & I had. I relentlessly badgered her about her bowling because she refused to let anyone give her advice.

Fine, mom, take a picture...

It was a great day. We even went into an Antique Mall and I was able to go down most of the aisles in my chair. I didn't buy anything but it just felt good to get out! Yesterday, I was able to go to both services at church. Our worship services were both exactly what I was in need of, I'm so thankful I could go!

I hope you have a great Monday!

July 4th

We celebrated July 4th, first with a great service at church. J.D. brought a wonderful message which you can listen to here.

Then we went to Eureka Springs, AR, where we had another super experience at a Best Western Hotel. (they do not pay me, nor have any idea that I exist) This particular BW had a lot of perks! Free miniature golf, shuffle board, and ping pong. Air Hockey, pool and video games for a small charge. An awesome heated pool, and small hot tub. There is a very good restaurant on site also.
We swam, and played for two days. Here are some pictures of the fun.

The pool was divine

Eli, in his 3d glasses, ready for fireworks

Karlee, enjoying a funnel cake

The only firework shot we got, this does not do them justice,
this was by far one of the best shows I have ever seen

Monday, we went to Cosmic Cavern, it was AWESOME!

On the way home, God gave us this beautiful rainbow

I hope you had a great 4th also!

Blessings!

For My Sister

I have to admit that I have been feeling "in bondage" to the unnecessary bondage post about as much as my sister has. However, I just have not been inspired to write over here. So, here are some of my favorite pictures that my dad took while visiting here last week.

Snow Ice Cream

We had a big surprise snow on Saturday. It left us without church yesterday which was a bummer. We had a great time with our neighbor's though. We ate lunch together, played some cards, and watched some basketball.

Today, we woke up to sunshine and it is obvious that most of our snow will be gone by dark. The kids always ask to make snow ice cream. Normally, there is not enough "clean" snow but this time there was plenty. Here are the pictures!

Here is where I got the snow, I used the top few inches.

The snow!

First whisk 1 egg very thoroughly
Then add 1 cup whole milk (I used about 3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup heavy cream)
Add 1 tsp. of vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar. Add snow by spoonfuls until it reaches your desired consistency
The finished product
Eli takes a bite
He has sensitive teeth so his reaction was OUCH! (he was able to eat it when it melted a little)Karlee gets her turn

Love!

Raindance

Getting Mama Back

Edit: I just looked at this on my blog and I can't believe how bad the photo's are. I will try to do better!

I had to run a couple of errands today. When I got home my kids were scrambling around to achieve this.



After hearing the alligator story they thought it was only right to get me back. They were staging their own murders. Yes, that is ketchup on their necks. Yes, when J saw these pictures the first thing out of his mouth was, "Did they get ketchup on the carpet?" (the answer is no by the way)

Those two are so funny!

Family Night - It's a Blackout

Here in NW Arkansas, we typically have at least one ice storm each year. A few years ago we had a dandy. The power was out for days at best, and some lost power for well over a week. We live in town and our power lines are buried so we usually fair the best. We were out of power for 3 days with that particular storm. My kiddo's thought it was great! We have a gas fireplace and that kept us warm. We had the bedrooms shut off and we all slept on our mattresses in the living room. We played games and I read books by candlelight. Eli especially has been looking forward to the next ice storm.

We decided to have a blackout night just for fun on Tuesday. J's day off is Wednesday so he could help me move the mattresses back in the morning. This was really fun! We turned off everything except the air conditioner and refrigerator. I put candles in the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. We played a board game and then told ghost stories. It was a night full of laughter!

Eli playing Superman

Mattresses out and ready to go

The candles- I have used that large one on the left for about 4 years now with every power outage. It has 4 wicks and lets off great light! I recommend having something like this in the closet for emergencies.

We celebrated the return of power with homemade pancakes for breakfast. It was a fun, free family night. I hope you will try it sometime.

Blessings,

Bloody Murder

The four of us were in the car driving home the other day. We got to talking about babies and how both of my kids were really rough babies. Karlee is oldest and she just does not require a lot of sleep. She never has. She didn't really sleep a solid 8 hours until she was about 5. Her brother came along when she was 2 and 1/2 and he was sick for the first couple of years, so neither one of them were sleeping through the night. Then about the time Karlee started sleeping through the night, Eli started having night terrors. If you have ever had a child with night terrors you know that they will "wake up" screaming but they are not really there. My son would hold his body very rigid and stare at me screaming. (In my family it is called screaming bloody murder) I learned to take him on a drive to bring him out of it. When this started we still lived in the country and I would just strap him in the front seat and drive the dirt roads until he would come out of it. We moved into town and I continued to take him out to my van at odd hours of the night, screaming his head off and drive him until he woke up. My neighbor at the time was in his 80's and didn't really hear very well so I didn't think he probably knew anything about it. Until one day we were talking and he mentioned hearing my son screaming during the night. I apologized to him and tried to explain the night terrors. When I told Eli that his bloody murder screaming woke up an 80 year old, hard of hearing neighbor this really gave him the giggles.

Anyway, I mentioned that story to Karlee & Eli on that drive the other day. A little while later they were being annoying (on purpose) and singing this song they had made up, over and over. J told them that if they said the words yoda, soda, or pop again, when we got home he was going to hold them down and tickle them for 30 seconds each. Of course they could not resist singing the song one more time. Then they began to dread "the tickling" for the last 10 minutes of the ride. When we got home J got a hold of Karlee first and after much laughing and screaming her 30 seconds was over. It was Eli's turn and he was scared! He started running from J, and when J finally caught him he started screaming, "Bloody Murder, Bloody Murder!" I was getting dinner ready and I about fell on the floor laughing. He had it in his head that when we said he used to scream bloody murder, he literally said the words bloody murder!

G Day 2009

I live in a small town. We have to drive about 20 minutes any direction to get to a Wal-Mart and I live within 20 minutes of Wal-Marts home office. I have lived in this small town for 13 years now, with the exception of the 3 months in Misery (oh I mean Missouri). It is a wonderful little town. Sometimes I long for the Target to be 5 minutes away instead of 30, but over all it has been a good quiet life here. Today is the 116th annual Gravette Day. I really didn't want to go, it is hot and I hate crowds. I really don't like the greedy little kids knocking each other down for a tootsie roll. But, my son will say about 10 times a year, "I love living in Gravette, I love Gravette Day, it is so fun to live in a town like this, where else can you live with a Gravette Day?!" So, I gave them their choice about going. Karlee wanted to go to the car show only. Eli wanted to do it all. So, do it all we did. I am always brought near to tears when our little band plays The Star-Spangled Banner. I fall in love with my little town all over again, standing there looking down the street, seeing people I haven't seen all year. I am always glad I went. Here are some pic's of the fun.

Eli had $5 from babysitting yesterday and he spent $2 on this slide. He said it was worth it!

Look closely this used to be a lawn mower. This guy was a character!

J's boss and also a Senator

What would a parade be without the Beauy Queens?

The guy driving this car was such a cutey! The float in front of him read 50 years and still rollin!
It was the graduating class of '59.

Hula Girls!

The band

Main Street

Karlee and one of her favorite cars

Eli in front of my favorite

Sweet!

Eli's #2 favorite

The photo above is Eli's #1 favorite car! He really had a hard time leaving it behind.