Category: kids

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Nebermind herself…

When my daughter was about 3 years old she spied her Daddy coming out of the shower. Questions were asked. When an answer was given, she loudly proclaimed, “No, I da peanut!!”  I’m sure you can figure out what question was asked.

This same daughter just turned 14 on Sunday. Fourteen!!!

Time has flown by and she has grown tall.  She no longer relies on me for everything, but still needs me.

I see so much of myself in her green eyes and brown hair. She has my chin and my sense of humor. She’s so smart and inquisitive, I sometimes feel inferior in her presence. Sometimes she even looks at me as if I am.

She’s a teenager, so that’s to be expected.  We’ve butted heads and yelled at each other.

We’ve hugged and cried together. We’ve comforted each other. We have a bond that a lot of Mom’s want with their daughters. Her friends think I’m cool and the best Mom ever. They might be on to something. The jury is still out.

She’s the type of person I want to be friends with. She makes me want to go out of my way to form a friendship with her and keep that friendship going. She has my heart.

She wants to move to Seattle when she graduates from high school and go to school there. My heart has already broken at the thought of her being so far away from me. Maybe by the time that comes to be, I’ll be ok with it.

Until then, she is mine to hug and comfort. To help grow into a fine woman who loves Jesus, people, kids, and owls. Who sings loudly in her room and laughs at her own jokes. Mine to fight for the spotlight with and put her ego in it’s place when need be. Mine to make sure she grows up to have a happy life. A job I am happy to have.

She’ll always be my baby girl. Happy Birthday Brenna! I love you more than shoes.

Love,

Mama

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I’m the treat, he’s the trick!

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halloween 2009 crazy hair angie

Tonight was our annual Fall Festival at our church. I painted faces like I do every year. It’s just basic simple shapes, but the kids love it. I always try to dress up just to be fun, and well FUNNY.  One year I was a clown in full clown make-up and a rainbow wig with a pink feather boa neck on my polka dot clown costume, complete with shoes. A lot of children were scared to sit down and have me paint their faces, some even ran away crying. That was the last year I was a clown. One year I was a “rock chick”, another year I was a housewife in curlers and a green face mask painted all over my face. I even wore a housecoat and slippers. That was fun and comfy too!

Like I said, I enjoy dressing up. This year I tried to go subtle. NOT! I put on gobs of makeup and bright lipstick and teased my hair and spray painted it pink and purple. The picture above is kind of dark, and it’s after I took it down.

Here is what it looked like before:

halloween pixie

This was yesterday’s “hair” raising adventure, thanks to a wig and some fun hair accessories! I wore this ensemble to the company Trick or Treat that NICE held in the offices. It was missing the famous haunted house, but the boys got a bag full of candy, so there’s that AND I had an excuse to drive around town all dressed up. Funny thing was, no one even batted an eyelash at me. I guess pink and black hair isn’t that shocking these days.

halloween pixie 2

All and all, this Halloween was very stress free. Brenna went to a sleepover/party, Lauren and Dan were a part of the Fall Festival “Bible Maze” and that left MJ with both of our attention and freedom to roam and run and play all he wanted tonight. It was not too long ago that poor Jon was carrying around babies and toddlers while chasing two little girls all over the place while Mommy the Clown was painting faces. Good times…  Jon was pelted in the face all night with wet sponges at the Goliath Booth. I got one good smack in while I was there. MJ went as a Fire Fighter and when Jon wasn’t playing Goliath, he was impersonating Hugo “Hurley” Reyes from LOST. Uncanny isn’t it? Only thing he was missing was his DharmlaLars and his big jar of Dharma Mayonnaise. So much fun!! I love it!

MJ and Mom at Fall Fest

Jon as Goliath

Jon as Hurley

I hope your Halloween was safe and fun! Next year I want our whole family to dress up as a group of something, if I can talk the kids into it. I shouldn’t hold my breath. I also would like to go trick or treating around our neighborhood as well, since we haven’t done that in 10 years. How old is too old to Trick or Treat??

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Stay-cations are the new black

This is a sampling of what we are planning to do while we are on our “stay-cation” this next week. Jon is taking a few days off and we are going to make the most of a five day weekend. Starting Saturday we are going to hit up a swim party, go bowling, get wet at the water park, see the fishes, jaguar, and stinky flamingos, and squeeze in a baseball game at the end of the week. Then it’s packing time and a two part drive to Missouri with the boys next Sunday. 5 or 6 days with my Dad and Sister and then back to Plano. I have to try and accomplish those little craft projects I was hinting at before. I may run out to the hardware store and marvel over the spray paint cans and choose who will go home with me and make me happy!

Happy Summer y’all!!

Picnik collage

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Vacation is spelled F-O-O-D…

Large families eat a lot of food. Our family is by no means as large as say, The Duggers, but we can go through some groceries. While we’ve been at Dad’s house we’ve made several trips to the local Aldi food market. It’s not really big enough to be called a grocery store as it doesn’t sell everything but the kitchen sink.  Although some days you can buy quite a few odds and ends (like corner sanders and hiking boots). What you can’t buy at Aldi, you can find at your choice of three other big chain grocery stores like, Dierberg’s, Shop and Save, and Shnucks (which I affectionately like to call Schmucks). There is a Walmart Super Center in Lake St. Louis which is about 15 minutes away, but you can find most everything you need at the other local stores. O’Fallon has a Walmart that is being renovated as we speak into a Super Center, but that won’t be ready until July, but I digress.

Why all this information on our shopping habits? Well…I’ve been trying to keep track of all the boxes and bags of stuff we’ve consumed in the last 21 days. Seems sort of silly but it astounds me how much our family can choke down!

Oh and as a side note-
My Dad told me to use what he had in the pantry and freezer. One problem with that. He cooks for 1 maybe 2 people regularly and so trying to plan meals for 6 people, means having to add to what he already has. It is actually easier to buy what I need and not add to what he already has. Having said that, we still require a lot of stuff to feed our family. I’m sure we could get by with less. Maybe that’s the secret to smaller butts? Oh wait. Jon and I have big butts, but the kids don’t and they are the one who eat most of the food!!!!

Anyway…

Here is a list of stuff that I can remember buying (I may have left some things out because well, I’m starting to get old and my memory isn’t as sharp as it once was)

  • 6 gallons of milk
  • 5 loaves of bread
  • 6 dozen eggs
  • 16 hamburger buns
  • 16 hot dog buns
  • 14 boxes of cereal
  • 3 lbs. of assorted lunch meats
  • 3 lbs. of assorted sliced cheeses
  • 4 bags of peanut M & M’s
  • 2 boxes of banana bread mix
  • 8 cups of rice
  • 10 lbs of sugar
  • 10 lbs. of chicken (chicken tenders, chicken breasts)
  • 8 lbs. hamburger ( 16 1/4 lb. hamburger patties, 4 one lb. pkgs hamburger)
  • 2 lbs. thin spaghetti
  • 16 pieces Texas Toast
  • 1 huge watermelon
  • countless lbs. of fresh vegetables used in various dishes
  • 10 pkgs. Mix-aid (Aldi’s brand of Kool-aid)
  • 6 cases of water (24 in each case)
  • 48 cans of various carbonated beverages (generic Aldi brand)
  • 3 lbs. pepper bacon
  • 2 boxes of Whale cheddar crackers
  • 1 case of Maruchan Top Ramen
  • 12 rolls of toilet paper ( we didn’t eat them, but it was only appropriate to add them to the list! LOL )
  • 300 napkins (out of a 500 count package of napkins- no I didn’t count, but estimated based on how many are left)
  • 12 mini concretes from Fritz’s Frozen Custard
  • 22 – 32 oz. frozen slushie drinks from Quick Trip
  • 12 twix ice cream bars
  • 6 klondike ice cream bars
  • 1 pkg. fudge brownies
  • 1 pkg. peanut butter cookie dough
  • 1 long summer sausage
  • 2 nights of Chinese Take out, 2 night of Mexican sit down
  • 1 dinner at a buffet
  • 5 tanks of gas (can’t eat that, but we bought it!)
  • 5 pairs of new shoes/flip flops
  • summer clothes for the girls
  • 10 homemade lunches for Jon while he was working upstairs

That’s all I can think of for now. It amazes me how much food and “stuff” we needed while we are here. If I sat down and counted all the food we buy at home, the list would be much longer! Now I know why my wallet cries every time drive past Wal-mart!

This is just a small glimpse into our fridge and pantry. What does yours look like??

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Thinking Dry Thoughts

One bad thing about an extended vacation is that you miss those summer staples you have come to enjoy,  like bbq cookouts with friends, Friday night card games with noshing, and Vacation Bible School at your church. For years I have been apart of an amazing group of friends who love the Lord and love to share it with the community through a summer program called VBS. I was sad to find out we wouldn’t be a part of it this year, as it’s a whole family affair that we fully embrace every summer. Jon usually takes off a whole week and we all hang out together exhausted, but happy.

This summer we are at Dad’s house and that means we can’t be at our church, but never fear! Our local Baptist Church is here!! **cue superhero muzak** First Baptist Church of O’Fallon is hosting the same theme VBS  our own PCBC is and I was thrilled to have the resource so MJ could experience it as well.

I pre-registered him online and he was SO excited  to go and make new friends. We hustled over there and grabbed our card, a t-shirt, and a CD. We made our way into the sanctuary where the singing and music was just getting started.  Afterward when it was over, I picked him up and he was giddy with joy at doing the art, having snack, and playing with his new friends. We stopped at the local RED BOX to pick up a movie, which has become a nightly ritual for us since it’s cheap and quick to pick up and drop off.

While we were waiting for our movies to come out, MJ had to go to the bathroom *really bad*. So bad he was squeezing himself the way only little boys can get away with when they really have to go potty and there isn’t one around. Since the house wasn’t more than 2 min. away, we decided he could wait until we got home.

This is the conversation that followed:

Me: Ok Buddy, I’m not going to speed, but I’ll get home as fast as I can. Can you wait?

MJ: Yeah Mom, I’ll just keep thinking dry thoughts.

Me: What kind of dry thoughts are you thinking?

MJ: crackers

Me: *stifling laughter* Really?  What else is dry?

MJ: …pretzels…animal crackers.

Me: Um, yeah…those are all pretty “dry”. You know what I think of when I think of dry? I think of SAND. Like a desert.

MJ: Oh Mommy, yeah! Like when you eat a whole entire tree. Well…not the leaves, cuz they aren’t so dry.

Me: *snort* Yeah, I guess a tree is pretty dry. The leaves, probably don’t tatse very good tho.

MJ: Oh Mommy! A brick is pretty dry! You could eat one of those, huh? Well..maybe not cuz that would break your teeth. Hahaha!

We laughed a little more and I sent him running inside the house to go before he had an accident. While he was opening the door, I could hear his yell, “NO TALKING TO ME…I HAVETA PEE”.

That kid…he’s pretty funny. And dry too.