peace and quiet

Quiet. It's SO quiet at our house. Almost too quiet. I guess this only child has gotten used to having noise in the house.

The kids are at Cousin's Camp in Salado. They are having fun but Lindsay was very sad when we left. She likes 1:1 attention. Who doesn't? I guess you could get the feeling you are being herded around when there are 11 of you. I know that they are making memories that will last a lifetime. Let's just hope they are using their manner, being sweet to their cousins and loving on their grandparents and counselors.

Mark and I have had a lot of fun so far. We went to an outdoor concert, saw Superman on opening night, ate at "big people" restaurants and slept late. Today is full of business--yard work and Dietetic stuff. Hopefully by the evening it will be back to the business of having fun. When you only have 4 kidless days a year, there is a lot to cram into it. We are very grateful for every minute we have! Thanks Meme and Papaw!!!!

Little girls...little girls...

Lindsay was an extremely happy little girl today. We saw Annie performed by the Waco Children's Theater. Afterwards, she got her picture with the star. We were in the front row so the actors were just a few feet from us. Lindsay LOVED it !!!!! That acting bug she has within her was stirred even more.

We survived!

Lesson #1: My three kids plus four others equals ALOT! But just for the record, these kids were great! Although they didn't all know each other, they all got along great and had a lot of fun together! Picture: a human pyramid in a neighbors yard while singing "who let the dogs out"
Lesson #2: Don't expect boys to stay with the plan. They only want to play! Drew had a surprise visitor at Bahama Bucks. We met Hillcrest's coolest teacher for snowcones and mummifying of the birthday boy.
Lesson #3: Some boys will do anything! This picture shows part of the group holding the birthday flag and posing like a dog at a fire hydrant. They were also proudly sporting their new "bubba" teeth.
Lesson #4: You should hide the toilet paper and ration it out as they need it. Otherwise, this is what could happen.
Lesson #5: We now could tell you exactly what happens when a kid has a night terror. As Drew said, "it was really creepy!"
Lesson #6: You should make sure everyone uses the bathroom before they fall asleep.
Lesson #7: Don't serve pancakes and syrup on paper party plates. It just might end of all over the kitchen floor.
Lesson #8: If party goers get sweaty and stinky, take them swimming. It really helps!
Lesson #9: You can catch up on a lot of reading waiting for kids to finally fall asleep around 5:15 a.m.
Lesson#10: The average nine year old can put about 60 marshmallows in his mouth before they all come spewing out!

Hurray for Woodway!

Well, the day has finally come for us to be free of gigantic logs in front of our house! We were so excited that we cheered them on. Lindsay had her pompoms and Drew had the megaphone! We took cold water out to them because they were downright sweaty! They invited the kids to climb aboard the front end loader but made them promise not to take credit for the clean up!


I thought by this point in the summer I would be climbing the walls with all three kids home but not so. Evan seems to be doing that for me. Literally. We've survived VBS, theater camp, math camp and almost made it through Camp Invention. The big week is coming up soon when ALL THREE kids go to COUSIN'S CAMP. Hopefully, Meme and Papaw survive! They will have 11 grandkids to entertain! God Bless them! What am I going to do with all that free time? Host an Arbonne party for a friend, paint some furniture, paint a hallway, establish a private practice, go on a few dates with my husband, clean the house, exercise without guilt, work on my 5 year continuing education plan. The list could go on forever.

Drew's birthday party is Friday which will actually be one month late. He is having a slumber party. All he really wants to do is sit around and play PS2 and XBox but I can't let that happen. After pizza, we are going on a scavenger hunt, playing gross games that only boys could think are funny, watch a movie and hopefully go to bed! If you have any great slumber party/scavenger hunt ideas please pass them on.

Family of six?

Many of you think that we have three kids. While this is technically true, we have an "adopted daughter" who became part of our life in the fall of 1996. Laura has been an incredible blessing to us. We have loved watching her mature into a sweet, generous, adventurous, incredibly intellegent young lady. Since I don't leave the Waco city limits as often as I'd like, I travel the world via Laura's blog. She is always going to wonderful places. We followed her latest journey through Africa for the last five months sometimes worrying, sometimes crying and always praising God for her safety.

We got a special treat this week. Laura met us at Jason's Deli for lunch and we got to catch up. All three kids, but especially Evan loved hearing stories of Africa. Laura got the guys matching shirts and the girls matching skirts from Africa. I'll have to post a picture soon. Evan and Mark both wore their shirts to work and VBS the next day. We've also played lots of "checkers" that she brought us made from Fanta bottle caps.

I am so grateful be able to be a part of Laura's life. I hope that my children will follow their dreams like she has.

We've prayed a lot for her parents. It can't be easy to have your daughter living solo in the Congo. I guess parenting never gets easier.

Hair

Can I just say again
that Drew NEEDS a haircut

Those of you who keep saying his hair is cute are not helping us out at all

Summer Buzzzzzz

Evan and Sadie both got summer haircuts this week! Mark thinks he is next. He'd have a buzz year round if he didn't think it would cause a rift in our marriage. I understand wanting to be cool in the summer but I think if you've got the ability to grow hair, you should. Drew could use a haircut but refuses! Girls have so many options. Lindsay's favorite do is when her hair is french braided.

It is obviously a slow day. Not much to blog about.
We seem to spend most of our time in the water.
I need something to blog about!!!!!

Monkey Chow

Evan really likes monkeys. Hopefully, he won't decide to subsist only on monkey chow. As this guy did... (excuse the graphic at the top of his page, but I think he's starting to sympathize with the monkeys in the world)

Check out his daily videos. And his blog. Really funny.

Happy Birthday Evan!

Evan is seven today
We've come a LONG way, Baby!

E.T.

I forgot to post this picture last night. You can't tell from it's current state, but this "sculpture" faced an unfortunate demise when a tree landed on it. You can't tell in it's current state, but when it was upright, it resembled E.T. (that's the base on the right and the "torso" and head on the left. Apparently, the lady who lived here before the Cressons made it. The Cressons dubbed it E.T. and the name stuck. The Cressons didn't get rid of it, so I figured I'd leave it to. Unfortunately, I never bothered to take a "before" picture, so you'll have to take my word for it, or ask the Cressons about it.



I got the stuff off the driveway, thanks to Alan and his truck.

Day 29...

It's been 4 weeks post-storm and you can finally see our driveway. With all the busy-ness of end of the school year and being busy on the weekends for various things, I just haven't had time to finish the clean up. It's still not quite done, but it's closer. I need to empty out the garage to try to get all the cottonwood "snow" out.

Here are the remains of our fence, trampoline, and swing set, ready to go to recycling. It's been reduced to such pathetic little piles. That's chain link with ivy that has grown through it, not a pile of brush. All I need is a truck to haul it in (are you reading this, Alan?).


Here's our new fenceless (except for the rigged up section to keep Sadie in) driveway that we have't seen in a while. Hope the kids don't fall off the edge...


Here's what remains of our pecan tree


and our cottonwood tree


We have some nice logs hanging out on the street, waiting for the city crews (we hope)...


Some of it was just too big to get up the hill, so I shoved it down into the ravine, using some to fill in a low spot.



Others were too big to carry, but I thought they make nice stools or something someday, so I rolled those into a corner where we didn't have any grass anyway.