It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

All but one present is bought, all the presents are wrapped, the parents are on their way here, Josh has strep throat, I still have baking to do and it is FINALLY “cold” outside. We are down to about 59 degrees. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Today is last day at work for a week, so I maybe MIA for a while. With the parents here, and staying for a while (YEAH!) and the kids out of school (darn) I will be busy with life.

Things I am looking forward to this next week:

• My parents arrival.
• My husband getting better.
• The kids NOT getting the gunk.
• Me NOT getting the gunk.
• Baking cookies with the kids.
• Opening presents, I haven’t peeked AT ALL this year, a first I do believe.
• Watching the kids open their gifts, because I haven’t peeked AT ALL this year.
• Watching my husband open his gift, hee hee. He is going to love it!
• Making a ham AND a turkey-although not at the same time for the same meal-thank goodness.
• Shopping-with mom of course, see previous entry.
• Having my parents meet Amy’s parents. It’s almost like we have been dating for years, and are going to “take the plunge” and now the parents have to meet. We truly believe that two sets of parents who have such decent kids must be able to get along, maybe even like each other. We also don’t know how 10 years have past and parents have never met. It may just be our Christmas miracle.
• Opening our gift to “baby Jesus”-After watching A Charlie Brown Christmas with Jacob he asked some questions and decided that because we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday that he should get a gift. He doesn’t even want to open it, but keep it forever and take it with him when he goes to heaven to meet God and Jesus. I told him I thought it was a fabulous idea to get Jesus a birthday gift, but I think we should open it and remember why we love Jesus and are happy he came to earth for us. He seems ok with that idea. So I think we maybe starting a new family tradition this year with a gift for Jesus and his birthday.
• Finding a really cool nativity scene after Christmas, maybe it will help facilitate some of Jacob’s questions next year.
• Just slowing down. This has been two of our most busy weeks in months.
• Not working.
• Finishing the play-room- It has the first coat of paint, but needs another.
• Singing Christmas Carols with my kids. They love Feliz Navidad.
• Enjoying the precious time that God has granted me with my family.

Conversations with my daughter

While out doing some more last minute shopping last night with my two kids, mostly to get out of the house and away from my strep infested husband, I look over at Emily who is sitting in her seat with her eyes rolled back into her head almost comatose.
“Sleepy?” I asked her knowing full well that the last two weeks have been go-go-go for her. She has been loving it, but by about 7pm she is wiped.
“No, no” She says, and tries to perk up, afraid she might miss something. I say to her, “Well, Emily starting on Saturday, Memaw and Pepaw will be here and we should slow things down. I will be off work and we sill just kinda chill-out for a while and catch our breath.”
“What about treasure hunts?” she demanded, “and shopping!”
“Shopping?” I say, thinking what a little brat, she just assumes that because I won’t be working that she will go shopping.
“Memaw loves to SHOP!” Emily exclaims and I chuckle to myself.
Yes mother, be prepared to shop, Emily expects it!

Kevin Federline (K-Fed) cooks us dinner

Josh took me out for a nice no kid dinner on Friday night to Tokyo Steakhouse. It is one of our favorite places to eat without kids. We tried taking the kids there once, but it just wasn’t happening. While we were waiting for our cook to come over and, well, cook we got to know some of the people we were sitting with. One “older” couple (and when I say older, I mean about the age of my parents) who had requested a specific cook. Now, when Josh and I go we prefer to have an actual Asian dude cook. Even if he is as American as they get, it’s better than the white dude. Well, this very nice couple had requested K-Fed come and cook our dinner. I swear to you as soon as I saw the guy it is what I thought. So he does his little thing and we eat and leave. AS we are walking out the door Josh says-wow, now I know what K-fed’s doing since Brittney dumped him! I just about died!

From my son after I have been sick for over 24 hours.

Eww, mom, the bathroom is smelly.

I love that kid.

My weekend recap

I realized with all the worry of late I totally forgot to talk about my trip “home” to Las Cruces. I got up early (earlier than I do for a work day) and caught a plane into El Paso Friday morning. My dad picked me up and took me to breakfast at Village Inn where I had strawberry crapes without spilling any on my white t-shirt. That’s a first. We went back to their house, but the maids where there so we went pooting around town for a while. When we did finally return to the house I just sat for a minute and then went shopping. I found the coat that Emily wanted from Old Navy, that we couldn’t find in any store in Austin in her size. They had about 40 of them in her size in all sorts of colors that were already sold out in central Texas. I was thrilled, as was she when I got home with the jacket. I also purchased a gift for the wedding I was attending the next day. I didn’t want to show up empty handed. That night I went out with my dear high-school friends Heather (and her husband) and Serina (and her husband and adorable little girl). We ate good Mexican food and I laughed harder than I have in ages. It is always so nice to reunite with old friends and catch up and just laugh. We closed the restaurant down that night and Serina’s little girl Samara (I’m sorry Serina, I know I butcher the spelling of her name, I just did it phonetically) was SOOO well behaved. She was playful and liked all the attention, but she was pleasant and fun to be around. The next day I went grocery shopping with my mom. Well, we “attempted” to get to Albertsons, but it never happened. My mother hates to go to the grocery. She would rather gouge her eyes out than go to the grocery store. I enjoy going to the grocery, but she doesn’t have a wonderful HEB in her neighborhood. We first went to Glenn Cutters Jewelry and that is were I fell in love with a $15,000 set of rings. They were beautiful, but probably not going to be seen on my hand anytime soon. Then off to Target and to lunch at a new restaurant in town that was so nice. Fast Italian food-that was good. We both had salads that were good and kept me filled all day long. I truly enjoyed it. It was wedding time next. It was a nice simple ceremony in which I saw many old friends that I haven’t seen in years! However, the most surprising bit to the whole thing was there was a dance! at the reception and champagne! drank for the toast. This is a Church of Christ! What?!?! They almost had issue when we drank milk at my wedding as part of a frat tradition.

Overall it was a good weekend, I got to see most everybody I wanted to and I enjoyed spending some time with my parents without the craziness of the kids. It also gave me some time to think about how I want to change my life. We have made some decisions and choices about the next year because of the quiet time I had on this trip. Josh is going to get his tclose license, which will open doors for him in the field he has chosen for a career. I am going to hang tight where I am and save up to open my own businesses. Yes, plural. I don’t want to talk to much about them, because I have some fabulous ideas I don’t want to have stolen from me-thanks to Amy and I’s constant email brain-storming yesterday. I am very excited, but have but some real time and financial plans in place in order to make it happen. We have other fish to fry first and then begin saving for a fantastic new life! By this time next year big changes will have been made! This is the year for the Sumpters!

Just call me "Lumpy"-they did in highschool

Well, it is official. I went to the doctor this morning in regards to this and there is nothing “officially” wrong with me. I just happen to be lumpy right now. Tender and lumpy. Almost an Elvis song. I can hear it now…”Love me tender, love me lumpy.” Well, ok, maybe not. I am to start taking Vitamin E supplements and return back to the surgeon in 3 months to see if my tender lumpy spot has turned into a good old fashion lump. No biopsy, no lumpectomy, no nothing. So all the worries and all the questions and all the little ladies at church coming up to me asking if I have cancer were for nothing. Now I can start worrying about something new, like how I am going to save up for this, this, this or this. These are the wonderful things that I want. It’s only about $60,000 worth of “stuff”-but at least that is what I am worrying about rather than my health.

Shopping!!!

For Emily’s birthday she received quite a bit of money for gifts. The night before last we went on a shopping spree of sorts after I got home. Taking Emily out shopping with purchasing her clothes in mind is hysterical. She loves to shop. She loves to try on clothes and model them in the mirror.

When I picked her up from the neighbors and told her that we were going shopping she asked to go to the mall. Uh, no. The outlet mall? Uh, no again. How about Old Navy? Ok, she says. Off to Old Navy we go. We find a coat, but it fits just right and we want a size bigger. I am hoping to find it at another store. We picked up a pair of chocolate velvet pants, a scarf, two long sleeve t-shirts and a pair of pj bottoms. Everything but the scarf was on-sale. We headed next door to Justice. It is a store for 8-12 year old girls. I think Emily fell in love the moment we walked into the store. Jacob wanted to go to a boy store. It was so pink and frilly. It was also very pricy. Emily found a diary here that she wanted to get. So I let her. It is a High School Musical themed journal and she was SO excited!!



Here is a picture of her in her pink sweater and velvet pants with the journal.

We ran into Target and picked up a pink sweater to go with the pants we got at Old Navy and a red shirt with sparkles. We had a good time and she still has quite a bit of money left.

We got home kinda late so I sent her into the house and we brought the packages into the house later that night. Josh was looking through the bags at things she picked out and was less than pleased with the journal she picked out. You see, it has a picture of a boy on the front, and that’s it. It is the boy from High School Musical, but he still was less than pleased with it. I personally think Emily only likes it because it is High School Musical, not because of the boy, but I will let her daddy squirm for a while before I let him in on that little secret.

After shopping!! She was so excited!

When I go shopping I try to prepare a list in order not to forget anything important. I guess I have passed this little bit of OCD onto my son. Josh had started a list of things for me to pick up at the store and Jacob took it upon himself to finish the list. Here is the photographic evidence:

I suppose he thinks we need:
granola bars
Sprite
Ritz Bitz
Ponpela Oil
Cookie Dough

Isn’t he sweet? It wasn’t all for him, he want to make sure I pick up some olive oil for my cooking as well. He is so considerate and loving. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Watch out, here I come!!

I am very excited. I am going on a mini-vacation/weekend getaway. I am flying back to New Mexico, by myself, to attend a wedding for a good friend of mine. Because I am taking Friday off from work I will have 2 and a half days there, to run-a-muck without a husband and children. I am sure I will be dreadfully bored and ready to come home by Sunday, it is Las Cruces after all, but right now I am excited to travel for fun, something I haven’t done since I went back for my high school reunion!

Birthday Weekend

Emily turned the big 8 this weekend and celebrated non-stop. Especially if you sing the words to “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to…” in your head as you read this. She is only 8 and acting like 16. Well, maybe 12. She is crying all the time, for no reason.



She had a party at Mrs. Ann’s house on Friday afternoon. I had pictures, but accidentally erased them all. She received an Easy-Bake Oven from Mrs. Ann. They are really great babysitters.

On Saturday we went to get her hair cut and then dinner, Emily’s choice. She chose Fuddruckers, and so off we went. We ended up getting it for free because they lost our order. Plus they gave us way more food than we ordered…. too many French fries. When we got home, Emily opened her presents from us and the grandparents. She received a Barbie head, a do it yourself build a bear, a beautiful necklace from her daddy, books, an electronic pet, a jewelry box and some smelly soaps. She was pleased.

On Sunday was the big party. We invited 11 girls to attend a Diva Spa party, where they got to dress up, get their nails painted, their make-up done and walk the runway, do the electric slide, eat some gold fish/cake and open presents.





It was fun. The girls had a blast and Emily got s few books from Claire, a Bratz doll (that we are only letting her keep because it has more clothes on than normal. She has flannel pj’s, a t-shirt and a robe. No prostitute action figures for my girl, no-no! And she got a lot of money fro her shopping spree that we are going to have some time this week. I can’t wait! So over all a good weekend, if she wouldn’t have cried most of the time. I think she was just way hyped up for her party. Because once we had the party, she was wonderful the rest of what was left of the weekend.

The treasure box

In Jacob’s kindergarten class everyday one person gets chosen to pick from the treasure chest. He has gotten to be the lucky winner twice this year. The winner is chosen based on how well they behave during rest time. If you are quiet and don’t wiggle and squirm you get to be the winner.

Jacob was the winner on Monday. He was so tired he slept through rest time, so of course he didn’t talk, wiggle or squirm at all. Poor guy wasn’t used to school after 6 days off.

When we all get home I have started making dinner, spaghetti (an all time fav around here) and Emily says, “ Jacob, show mom what you got from the treasure chest!” I turn around from my browning meat and addition of Girl Scout money on the counter to ask him, “Jacob, what did you choose?” He runs to his backpack and runs back to me with
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a button.



“A button, wow, um, that’s nice.”

He just grins at me.

“Well, Jacob, what do you want to do with your button?” “When we go to the store we can buy some yarn and put it on there and swing it around and it will make noise.” he says with more excitement than I could ever muster over a button. “What other stuff was in the treasure box?” I ask, thinking maybe the pickings were slim; it is near the end of the first semester, maybe Mrs. Smith needs to restock. He tells me he skipped over kaleidoscopes and cool sunglasses and pencils. For a button. Now the button rests in a very special spot in my jewelry box, safe from all things evil. He is a special boy; I wouldn’t have him any other way.

Two posts in one day!

My last week and half as told by Susan:

• Monday: Make appointment with Doctor regarding pain in breast and lack of sleep. Attempt to get work done, but am to consumed researching the internet about breast cancer.
• Tuesday: Go to work for half a day, at noon head to doctors appointment. Doctor feels something, recommends an ultrasound. Leave doctors office, call Radiology Center and schedule appointment for 2 hours later. Return to work for 45 minutes to inform bosses what is going on, finally call parents to inform them what is going on and head back into Round Rock for ultrasound appointment. Arrive at appointment and get forgotten. Finally get called back 30 minutes later and get goop put on. They proceed to tell you that you are the lucky winner and get a mammogram as well. Stick around for that, head home and worry yourself sick.
• Wednesday: Half day at work means no work actually gets done. It is now 1 full week after visiting properties and no work on reports have been started. Deadline looms ahead.
• Thursday: Turkey Day! Sleep in! Get turkey started with help from the hubs, cook all sides I am responsible for. MIL shows up with uncooked sides and seems bitter about it. Claims she has the flu and hasn’t worked all week. (She is a temp) Look at ads and plan following days shopping adventure.
• Friday: Rise before the chickens and get my shop on!!! Have a great time shopping. Come home to cranky kids and crankier husband. Receive call that I have been referred to a surgeon for the boob. Make appointment for that “consultation” and begin worrying again. Worry myself sick, literally, halfway through the night.
• Saturday: Continue worrying, try to have a decent day with the kids. Josh goes off to play Santa, for Brown Santa, has time of his life, but hurts his foot somehow. He can hardly stand now.
• Sunday: Too sick for words-No church today. By mid-afternoon feel okay enough to take kids to movie. Jacob asks to leave every five minutes, where is my peace and quiet? Attempt to ready self for school/work again. It has been a while.
• Monday: Go to work, actually make headway in reports. But not enough. It is going to be a long week. Get home from work and have to chase down Girl Scout money and turn in financial reports to peoples houses in the dark with kids in the car. Not fun!
• Tuesday: Go to work, Attempt to make more headway. Get one report first dratft done! Receive call that MIL has been taken by ambulance to hospital. Leave work, with plenty to do and head to hospital. Then there is the whole missing children fiasco.
• Wednesday: Get one report turned into big boss! Yeah, one down, two to go, by Friday. Get call at lunch from husband, MIL admitted to hospital, and dogs out loose in neighborhood. Josh also waiting to hear about an assignment change in the jail. Josh calls to tell me dogs were swimming in the lake! That is 5 miles from my house! –I still don’t know what is up with MIL, he hasn’t made it to the hospital yet, but I am sure this is only going to get better.
  
• Friday to come: DEADLINES!! All three reports due to big boss by this day. Work Christmas Party…thinking about asking good friend Amy to be my back up babysitter since MIL will probably not make it.
• Saturday to come: Girl Scout meeting I still haven’t planned and its Emily’s birthday.
• Sunday: Emily’s party.
  

Of all weeks, this is not the one where I need so much drama!! I need calm, well behaved, no issue filled days! I got enough without all this other junk!!!

How do you get 4 cops and a home searched?

I was going to talk about Jacob and his button (that will have to wait until tomorrow), but we had some excitement at our house/neighborhood last night.

Josh’s mother was taken to the hospital yesterday, no worries, NOTHING was wrong with her. But I was called out of work early to make sure nothing was wrong. So I left the office yesterday about 2:30 and headed to the hospital. I arrived and stayed with her until 5:30 at which point I had to leave to pick up the children from the sitter. When I arrived at Mrs. Ann’s house, she asked if Emily could go with her and her cub scouts to a performance at UT in regards to medieval times. They should return around 8:30ish. No problem I say. It is a little late for Emily, as her bedtime is 7:30 but I think, “I am going to be the good, cool mom and let her go” So off Jacob and I went to have dinner and hang out until Josh gets off work at 7:00 so we can worry with how to deal with the whole MIL’s car in a different city situation. Josh gets off work at 7:00, and my MIL calls at 7:11 to say they will be releasing her in about a half an hour. So as soon as Josh comes home we are off to the hospital. We pick her up, drive up to Georgetown to pick up her car, drive her home, and head home ourselves. As we are heading home, I am worried because it is like 8:40 and I hope that Emily is not waiting for us. Even though I explained to Mrs. Ann that we might be out dealing with this I still wanted to be home when they returned.

We drove up to the house, and Mrs. Ann’s garage door is open. I even commented to Josh, “Hmmm, they must have left the garage door open, that’s odd.” But we didn’t think anything of it and took my poor, tired baby into his room and down for the night.

At about 9:00 we started to worry and decided to call Mrs. Ann and ask, hey, what’s up? But her phone was not working. Hmmm. So we wait and watch a little TV and at 9:30 we really start to worry and called to make sure no accidents had been reported on the highway and none had, so Josh went outside and started looking at the garage door that was opened and noticed that the inside door to the house was opened. So now we are worried, calls to police are made and 4 cop cars and lots of interested neighbors later they “sweep” the house. We see the flashlights through the windows and guns are cocked and they tell Josh that if we hear anything there is a rifle in the trunk, come in after. (I secretly think Josh wishes there was a bit of trouble, just so he could cock a rifle, but he would never admit to it) The cops found nothing unusual, just a home that looked as though it had left in a rush, with about 10 kids under the age of 10. And that is was. The kids drove up at about 10:30, safe and sound and tired.

I am glad they are safe, but man-o-man was Emily cranky this morning. I think she will appreciate it when we put her to bed tonight.

A big fat pain in the breast--Edited at the bottom

I have had a bit of sharp pain in my left breast for about a week. Along with my more frequent that not insomnia that I seemed to have developed over the last couple of months. On Monday I made an appointment with my Doctor for the following day. Prior to arriving for my appointment I have researched the tar out of breast cancer, breast pain and anything breast related. Everything said most cases of breast cancer do not begin with pain in the breast. Well Josh thought he felt something and the doctor agreed to having felt something. I am not sure I have yet to actually feel what everybody is feeling. But I am ready to feel a golf ball sized lump, like I had while in high school and this one appears to be much smaller. She said it was probably a cyst and that I would need to have a breast ultrasound. Which I really ok with, I had to have one for the breast in high school and several with my babies.

But, imagine walking into a cool room, the last one of these you walked into was to take pictures of the baby inside of you. You could hardly walk because all the liquid they make you drink before peering into a mass of wiggly black and white lines until you see the precious face that will become you child. That was not the feeling I encountered once I walked into the room, I laid down and they put the goop on me, (at least it was warm) and started looking. I was scared. My very first mammogram from my youth did not show the very obvious lump that could be felt, but the ultrasound confirmed its existence. This time it seemed to me at the time that they were to just skip the mammogram and head straight to what would diagnoses what could be my greatest fear in live. Josh said he thought he saw something back that looked like a bean. But he said he could not see much more than that. I was just trying to keep my composure, and not be THAT lady. Of course the technician leaves, and then comes back to do some more, leaves again and decide to take a mammogram, even though my PCP didn’t order one. They squeeze me into (literally and figuratively) their schedule and 10 years after the first, I get my second mammogram. It did hurt more than I remembered, but more of just an unpleasant pulling that knife wielding pain. They told me not to change back into my clothes yet; they had to look at the images. The nice little nurse came back and said it looks good, you can get dressed now. My only confusion is: do the pictures look good because they are clear and readable or good because they can’t see anything on them. They tell me to follow up with my doctor, but give me no indication of when. How soon is too soon. So as the risk of being THAT lady I call my doctor and state, “ I had these procedures done today and was wondering when I could expect results? “You just did them TODAY?” I say, “Yes, I know they are not ready today, I am not THAT person, I was told to follow up with the doctor, but they didn’t give me time frame, two days, two weeks, two months? So I am simply curious, when should I start to call you if I haven’t been called?” “OK, they should have told you… By next Monday at noon, give us a call if you haven’t heard from us.” That I can deal with. Sort-Of. Now I wait. And wait. And wait. And worry.


But on the plus side the doctor gave me ambian to sleep, I did sleep all. Night. Long.
It was amazing. I am having some time in the morning shaking it off, I am not dopey-like hung over but like my mind is sharp but body is still a few feet back. It is interesting; hopefully my Dr. Pepper will help fix that.

************************************************************************************
The doctor's nurse called me the day after Thanksgiving, to inform me that I have been refered to another doctor. So I now have an appointment on December 12th with a surgon. Not sure why, they wouldn't say anything more to me.

I have turned in my leave request for the doctors appt. and now will do my best not to even think about this for the next week, I think I have made myself sick over it all. Literally.

Plus, Ambian does not work for me. It worked the first night like a dream (ha ha) but the next two nights it felt like my head was being squished, but I could never actually fall asleep. PLus, I was tired all the next day becasue I did not sleep. Yuck.

The bird

Thanksgiving

A time to stuff yourself so full you can’t hardly think. This will be the first year in my 8 years of marriage that I have been responsible for the turkey. In previous years, when we still lived near my parents or Josh’s parents we would go to their house for Thanksgiving and I would bring a dessert, because that is what I am good at. I am not a terrific chef. At. All. But I try and I enjoy it, I just haven’t had the opportunity to practice enough. Last year, when Josh’s mom was not living here in Texas we were invited to my dear friend Amy’s house. She made the turkey and I made all the side dishes. I was extremely proud of myself, because as I mentioned before, I am not a cook. Well this year Josh’s mom is living here, but I have become responsible for the turkey. And most (all but 2) side dishes. I am a bit scared, mostly about the turkey. I purchased a turkey on Sunday, a butterball at my mother-in-laws request and after frantically calling several people to find out where to put the darn thing placed it gently in my refrigerator. Now, I felt the darn thing yesterday and it is still frozen solid. I am glad I have chicken breast frozen in my freezer, just in case. Last night I call my mother to ask her how to cook a turkey. She is my mom, and I call her for cooking tips from time to time. She promptly replies, “I don’t know, I have only cooked a turkey once, and really Daddy Grand did it because they were here visiting.” Great. Now what. She suggests calling her dear friend, wife of the man who married Josh and I eight years ago, Sandy. So I fully intend to call Sandy tonight, last night was way to hectic with Girl Scout stuff, and no time was available. But just for fun I am also making the green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, strawberry cream pie and pumpkin cheese cake. All from scratch. Yeah. For. Me.

I am still worried about that silly frozen bird.

Weekend Arranging

The re-arrange is semi-completed. We moved both beds into one room and sorted through books. My children had every book they had ever owned, including the ones from Chick-fil-a that were junk. So we sorted into good, torn-ripped and babyish. We got rid of over half of the books, mosted ripped and torn! But we moved in a "new" bookshelf (one that was in the other room, but will complement the whole room once we have painted) and filled it nicely with books the correct way. Hopefully we can get the other two bookshelves into the garage -for use out there and get their pplay room worked on this weekend.

And the Christmas mess is here in full swing. But I have to pat myself on the back. We are having a hard time giving gift ideas to everybody who asks, becasue my wonderful children only have three or four things each that they want--and Emily has a birthday to take from the gift pull as well! They seem to understand that if they ask for a few good quality items that they might actually get them rather than a bunch of junk that they won't get. It is wonderful.

Rearrange-Again

Jacob will not sleep in his own bed. Only twice in the last 2 months as he sleep for a full night in his room. So we are getting drastic here. I am tired on legs in my back and being crawled on at 3:14 am for his to get snuggly in the bed with Josh and I. We are rearranging. We have already rearranged his room once; after that was the 2 nights he slept in his room. But he got scared again and is back in our bed or in Emily’s bed. This weekend, we are going to begin the big move. We are going to move Jacob’s bed and dresser into Emily’s room. This will be the sleeping room. They will keep their beds, dressers and books in this room. Everything else will be in the playroom. We are going to repaint the rooms, we are not quite sure what yet, but we are going to start with the sleeping room and get it set up, hopefully this weekend, in order to eliminate anymore bed sharing. The kids want to paint the playroom orange with longhorns. I am not sure about that! But I do want to put up some chalkboard paint and have it be a fun room, where they can keep their cool Christmas present from my parents. Plus, I hope that they can keep the sleeping room “clean” and the playroom can be destroyed and cleaned together, faster. That is my hope anyway! They are excited about it and can’t wait to get started. I plan to get busy this weekend-and hopefully have most of the project done by Emily’s birthday.

Fashion Emily

It’s started. For the longest time Emily has only cared about her appearance if I made her care. I would be the one to tell her that while both pieces of clothing are pink, they don’t necessarily match and stripes and floral prints in clashing colors are not appropriate for leaving the house. This morning she wanted her hair straightened with a hair thingy placed in it and a cute outfit that she chose all on her own. BUT WAIT!!! The shoes, her pink sneaks don’t match, she is wearing blue and white. What to do? “Mom, can I wear my cheer shoes? They are all white and MATCH!!” Yes, Emily, you can wear your cheer shoes in order to match. I thought I had a few more years, but my nearly eight-year-old daughter has chosen to become a bit of a fashion diva. I hope this hasn’t happened because we watch Ugly Betty together; it is our new favorite show to watch together. Hmmmm. But I was a quick enough mother to grab the camera and mark the day my daughter figured out how to be “fashionable.”

The fog

Have you ever felt like you stopped living? Not died entirely, but stopped enjoying your children and your family and just went about your life a day at a time with not much though about much of it. Like you’ve been living in a fog for a while and your not sure when it started, but you are ready for it to end? I am ready for my fog to lift. I want to be outside with the kids and watch them grow into wonderful beings that will help cure cancer or prosecute a bad guy or check your groceries out pleasantly at the local HEB. I am tired of the fog, and I feel like I don’t allow myself to enjoy life like I should, and I want to enjoy it more than anybody can imagine! I want to say home and watch my children flourish in a clean home and loving atmosphere. I want them to be able to play with their friends after school and get all the homework done before 4pm. I want to be able to take off for a month in the summer to the hills of Kentucky and let them enjoy their ailing grandparents and learn to appreciate homegrown tomatoes. I feel like I may be in a fog until I can give a little bit of this to my family. I hope that it can happen, and we can enjoy ourselves, laughing and learning about life together.


Taken two summers ago at my Mamgrands house. The kids loved ridding the tracter and spending time with their grnadparents.

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Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have high neuroticism. It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed. You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully. You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

UPDATED******************************************************************************

Per my fathers request:
Extroversion: Nothing new there. I know I am shy in social settings. This was one of the hardest things for me to do in the hotel business: talk to stangers. I have a few very good friends and they have been my friends for years and the friendships grow stronger with time (Amy, Serina)

Conscientiousness:
I think this is sort of right on. I like to beleive I am reliable. If asked to do something I can't say no-but since I am so shy I rarely get asked. I try so hard ro be a perfectionist, but I fail at it on a daily basis.

Agreeableness:
I agree completly with this statement. I think I am very agreeable with a spice of sacasim-thanks mom and dad.

Neuroticism:
I also agree with these statements. I think I am a bit crazy-but I don't know many peopl ewho are not. I do worry, all the time. Usually about stuff I can't change, however, I don't worry about certain things like my kids playing at the neighbors, I worry about big ticket things like money and my craziness.

Openness to experience:
Also agree alomst completly. I think I want to try new things, but sometimes get scared and back out. I do find creativity a virtue, one that I don't have. As much as I wish I were creative-- I am just not.

So I think it was fairly spot on. I am not nearly as smart and successful as it says, but otherwise...

Weekend Update

Well our weekend got pooped out…we were to go to Amy’s twice this weekend, but had to reschedule both times due to sick kids and sick adults. Josh is nearly better I am getting worse and now Emily seems to have quite the hacking cough. We are a sight. Jacob had a soccer game on Sat, but the field was muddy and once he got a little muddy he didn’t want to play any more, Emily had Girl Scouts and Cheer, she got all ready for cheer and then chose to stay home at the Girl Scout meeting. I guess my safety quiz was more exciting than I thought.

We stayed home from church on Sunday and laid around doing a whole lot of nothing, getting sicker by the minute. I know Emily wasn’t feeling well when she only asked twice to play with friends and didn’t fight a nap.
We are quite pathetic. I hope whatever this crud is that it would hurry up and leave!

I was able to get some pictures off my camera so, here is a little bit of what's been going on:

Halloween:
Jacob was a fireman, Emily was Pocahontas.



I made my cake for my work's Thanksgiving Lunch, I won second prize!!!


I have been asked a half a dozen times about the cake today!!

And a picture of Jacob with his pumpkin, he was so very proud!!


That is our week in a nutshell. We have big plans for tonight and tomarrow, will post next week. Since I am without a computer until who knows when, it will have to wait until Monday when I return to work!!

Where did I go wrong? Why are my mistakes affecting her? It is not fair to her that I had her under the circumstances that I did. She is not to blame for my mistakes, yet she is the one who feels the pain and carries the burden, as we are learning how to parent. All of our mistakes with parenting have been with her, I want nothing more than to stay home with her and allow her to grow into the wonderful young lady that I know she can be. I want to grab my family and move to the country where hard work is required and fun is chasing lightening bugs. Where cable TV is a thing of the past and imagination grows with the fields. I hurt so much for her at this very moment, and I don’t know how to make things better. I need to be there for her more, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I am trying desperately to make it through the end of the year, and then, maybe I can stay home with her and attempt to make up for the last 8 years and try to be the mommy that I can only hope and pray that I can be. I know we could do better, but I now know that we have to do better or we will be in a heap of hurt. I want nothing more that for her to have the most perfect childhood, and so far she has had an extremely difficult one. I hate myself for not doing better, for not being better and for failing to raise my daughter in the way I know she should be raised. I can only hope that the next two months can go by quickly and that changes can be made in our hearts and our minds to enable us to raise our children the way God wanted them to be raised. I want so much to be able to mold her into a lovely young lady that is pleasant to be around, who knows how to deal with her anger and is a pleasure. I don’t have time to raise her now. Sacrifices are going to have to be made in order to do things the way they need to be done. It may mean no more eating out and no more spur of the moment movie trips, but we can make fun and enjoy each other and learn to be a kid again before it is too late. We have to stop her in her tracks and ensure that what is best for her is happening. It may mean me leaving my job, being home when she gets home from school and reconnecting with her in a way that I haven’t been able to do for years. I don’t think I just want it anymore, I think our family needs it.

HELP!!!!!

I think my labtop crashed!

My pictures!!!!

UPDATE:
I think I may have most of my pictures emailed to myself just not in my flickr account, which will be great, but the home computer is dead, I do beleive.

It has been acting funny the last couple of days and I brought it to work today to download pictures from this weekend, and to start saving all my pic to a flash drive, but it appears that I will not be given the chance. I know I lost some Girl Scout pictures, and possibly some from a long time ago, but I can't remember when I bought the camera, so I don't know how long ago to look for. I have pictures from my trip to Kentucky summer of 2005, but not much before that.

Man oh Man.

10 years

It was a cool but sunny Wednesday afternoon in Lubbock, TX and I had accompanied Lori and Carmen to dinner in the cafeteria at Lubbock Christian University. Once we were finished eating we needed to head over to the boy’s dorm to pick up Lori’s boyfriend Allen (who was making some kind of health shake in his room) to go to church. As we were waiting, we were goofing off in the lobby of the boys dorm, talking about Halloween the next night. This guy that I knew from Pine Springs summer camp, Josh, was working the desk of the dorm and agreed to take Lori, Carmen and myself trick-or-treating the next night. After the Halloween plans were made I started playing “Speed” with Josh as we continued to wait. Allen was taking an incredibly long time to make that stupid shake. I remember being annoyed at first with the length of time he was taking. My goodness, it is a shake, how long does it take?!? When Allen finally came down from his room ready to leave for church I decided to stay and continue playing card with Josh. I had a class with him (Math-and he flirted with every girl in that class but me Thank you very much) and I knew him from camp at Pine Springs years ago. So we continued to play speed until we grew bored with the game and decide to watch “Young Guns II.” By the end of the movie we were smitten. We ended up holding hands and going for a walk around the campus. We made our way to the benches outside the Education building where we shared our first kiss.

Now don’t think I just saw an opportunity and took it, he may have, but me? No, I had been eyeing him in the weeks prior to this, thinking that he was quite fetching and quite a ham.

The next day he took the three of us trick-or-treating. I dressed as a scarecrow, Lori as a mime, Josh as a werewolf and, well, I don’t remember what Carmen dressed up as. So we went trick or treating and had a great time. I don’t think I had been in a few years and had a great time. We got a few “looks” but had fun none the less. Now earlier in the day during our Math class I had been discussing “Romeo and Juliet” and how much I wanted to see the flick as it was opening that Friday night. Josh gave me a hard time about it in the classroom, but on the walk back to the dorm he asked if he could take me to see the movie. Of course, I said yes. The next night I dressed in my best jeans, a white shirt, my new kicking boots and a wonderful sweater (I owned that sweater for years, not allowing myself to part with it. I am not even sure I have parted with it.) I looked HOT! Now, Josh on the other hand, still needed some help in the “dress to impress” category. He wore white pants(!) and a white shirt and a green silk jacket with a zipper. Was it 1984? If he hadn’t been such a gentleman I probably would not have forgiven him for the outfit. He still sees nothing wrong with the clothes he chose to wear, but I got rid of that green silk jacket thing as soon as possible once we were married. We enjoyed the show and I don’t remember if we got dinner or not that night.

On Saturday we had signed up for Chap-A-Kid, a program where underprivileged kids got to come over to the campus and watch a movie and eat hotdogs. Before we went to pick up our “kid” we went to Fuddruckers and still consider this to be one of “our” restaurants. Especially the one in Lubbock. We ate at Fuddruckers dozens of times in the 2 years we lived there. Anyhow…We had the cutest little boy and enjoyed our time together watching the movie and eating cold hotdogs in the SUB. The poor child asked if we could pick him up a Burger King kids meal on the way home so that he could eat it for lunch the next day. Heartbreaking! He called Josh for a few weeks, then he stopped calling. I often wonder what happened to that young boy, he would have to be 17 or 18 by now.

So that is it, our story. How the Sumpters became the Sumpters.

I got nothing

We have had a fairly regular couple of days here. Emily got in trouble at school yesterday for hitting (twice in one month-UGH) and Jacob got in trouble for messing with the timer on the oven while it was on. Nobody had brownies last night.

This weekend, we have a very uneventful time planned; comp aired to the last couple. We have soccer, cheer, pumpkin patch and well, that’s it. Sunday we have the fall festival at church-but also, that’s it. So I am looking forward to catching up on laundry, cleaning out the summer clothes and weeding out the two small winter clothes, as it may have decided to become cold enough to at least wear pants to school. It is warm by 3, but the mornings are extra chilly.

Today is day 32 with no/limited tv time for the kids. They don’t seem to miss it too much, only on the weekends. We caved a little bit and they watched a movie last Friday and 1 hour of cartoons on Disney on Sunday. I think that maybe the compromise the come to. Choose a movie and that’s it or 2 half hour shows. Emily’s attitude is improving, she still has a hard time in the mornings, but we all do. She doesn’t want to take a bath when she wakes up, but she doesn’t want to take a bath at night either. And with her need to read 2o minutes a day for homework by the time I get home, cook dinner, clean up, bathe Jacob it is usually time fro bed. We are going to have to figure out a different system.

We are trying to save for a vacation to Disney World we want to try and go right before Christmas, BUT that may not happen. If not we are looking at Spring Break. There are a few factors that may keep us from going in December. One being flights. I will have two free tickets, but there are four people in our family. If I could get a $49 flight that would be ok, but I can’t. It will cost almost $1,000 extra just for 2 flights. That is the major one, second is we can’t book any of it until almost right before we would go. Timing and whatnot. So it maybe Spring before we go, but Josh and I are excited about the idea. We have not told the kids, as to not get them hyped about it if it doesn’t happen. Anyhow… I think the kids are old enough to enjoy it and Jacob can ride all but 1 ride!! The Rockin Roller Coaster, which I don’t know if I would like him to ride anyway! It is an AWESOME ride as an adult, I mean you go from 0-60 with the force of a super sonic F-14. Cool for me, not so much for my skinny little man.
So I guess I did have plenty to say and didn’t know it… who knew?

The Cake

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this:

I made a cake from scratch today!!! And it was good!!!

My office has its annual Thanksgiving Luncheon with a dessert contest. The prize is a one paid day off. So I am all about that!! Last year I entered my pumpkin cheesecake and didn’t crack the top three. Boooo!!!! So this year I am out to win! I attempted a new recipe on Saturday that was supposed to be THE best dessert recipe EVER! So I tried it. It had some flaws (too much vanilla in the icing and the pecans where too much for me, I may have to figure out how to get the flavor without the nut), some personal changes I will make, but over all it was good. So next time, with my changes made, it will be AWESOME!!!! I am so excited. So I had Josh take the rest of the cake to work, as we don’t need a two layer cake with frosting which has 2 sticks of butter in it sitting around our house.
But I made a cake AND icing from scratch!!! I may not be able to make a lasagna, but I can bake with the best of them. I only want to win this one contest. Just one. Banana pudding has won two years in a row. Lets hope my Hummingbird Cake can break the cycle!!!

Busy Weekend

This was a busy weekend for us.
Friday night my dear friend Amy and I went out for a night on the town. The plan was to go to a movie but Austin traffic decided that we should miss the movie and just hang out. We grabbed some dinner at Village Inn and spent her birthday gift certificate at Kohls. We had a great time. Our main goal was to get her mind off her big performance at The Cross Festival, as the comic and MC on the main stage. While we were out Josh watched all four kids. He is amazing. He completly set the whole evening up, offering to watch the kids. He took this picture of the kiddos, the one and only picture we have of all four kids together, it is a shame really...


Look how cute, Mackenzie is snuggling with Jacob. Awwwww!

On Saturday we had tons of stuff going on. Jacob had a soccer game at 8am on Saturday (they lost 6-2) and Emily had to cheer at a football game at 11am PLUS we had a girl scout meeting at 10am. So Josh "got" to run around alot Saturday morning. He even mowed and edged the front and back yard in between games.
Here is a picture of Emily doing her cheerleading stuff, Josh took video, but I have to figure all that out before I can post it. I am going to try--but no promises. The uniforms were not in yet, so they wore their practice shirts. Emily had fun, but didn't realize how much work was actually involved. Josh said she was asking every couple of minutes what time it was and how much time was left before they were done.



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Oreo went to the vet and had a horrible bladder infection. We have to give him medicine twice daily to help him. Thank goodness it is a liquid and he takes it better than a pill, but he still gets all crazy when he sees us coming at him with the dropper. He is still peeing everywhere, but he has been going more in the box again, which I take as a good sign. I just hate that he doesn't feel good, he is such a wonderful kitty.

Oreo the kitty

My kitty is sick. I am so sad. Josh is taking him to the vet this morning, but I am very scared. I love my Oreo and I hope he is ok. As you may remember he has not had an easy life, but he is SO good with the kids and is such as easy going kitty.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

On Monday night I was on the phone with my mom talking about nothing I can remember frantically putting the last minute touches onto Amy’s birthday present. I was home alone with Jacob as Emily was at cheer practice and Josh had gone straight from work to the YMCA to pick her up. When we arrived home I told Jacob he could have 1 ice cream sandwich, I got on the phone and went into the other room to “finish” my work. After about 15 minutes I realize that he is super quiet. Now the boy LOVES ice cream. He can eat an ice cream sandwich in about 3 minutes flat. So when I had not seen him in quite a bit more time than that I walked back into the kitchen to find him with ice cream in hand. Knowing full well that this was not his first I made him throw the remainder away ands go to his room. ARGH! But the next morning he gets up from bed in his little underwear and walks to the kitchen for some “breakfast” and helps himself to another ice cream sandwich. But he knows what he is doing this time. He stuffs it down his underwear and heads to his room!!

Josh saw him and removed the ice cream and sent him into the kitchen for some cereal.
Only my child would put ice cream down his underwear!

Photography

I would love to have an ounce of photographic skills. This is something that has always interested me, but I just have always fallen short. I have never taken a class, I have never owned a REALLY good camera, in fact the one I have now is horrible, and I found one I want to replace it with, but it is a couple of hundred dollars, maybe for Christmas and birthday--- who knows. Anyways, I digress. While I was in Little Rock last week by myself for work. No kids in tow, nobody pulling on the camera as soon as the picture is snapped to “see” it. So I went down by the presidential museum on the one day that was not 40 degrees below freezing, me without a jacket, and thought I have my work camera, time and a semi-sunny day. Let’s see what comes of it. Nothing. I suck. I can not take a good photo on purpose for the life of me. I guess I will just have to appreciate good photography from a distance and continue with the semi-focused, wrong angled photos I take of my family.
Here is the proof:







And these are the halfway decent, non-emabarrasing ones.

Oh well, maybe something will be my calling, becasue photography is SO not.

Quilting Square

So a while ago I mentioned the quilting square that my Mamagrand made. Well I have it and it is now framed and beautiful!!! I love it! Here are some before and after pictures of the wall I put it on. I am not sure if I am completely done, but I love the square. It is now the center piece -but now I feel like I am missing something, I am not sure what... And I am sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but I could never get a real good and clear one.

Before


After


The poor picture quality just doesn't show how wonderfully beautiful the square is, I am going to attempt to take another picture because I truly believe this may be one of my most prized possessions now. It is right up there with the kids, the wedding pictures and my jewelry. I LOVE it!! Thank you Mamagrand!!!!

Awwww babies

Sometimes it is so hard to believe how old my kiddos are. They are almost 8 and 5! It seems only like yesterday that they were itty bitty babies!!!

Here they are:

Emily



Jacob

What's in a name? and a TV update

Jacob is wondering around the room, attempting to procrastinate the impending bath which is headed his way when he starts to discuss his name with me. As I sit in the chair listening to him spell his name out again and again (J….A….C……O……B) he declares that sometimes he likes to be called “Jake.”

I reply to him, “Really? Would you like to be called Jake?” Knowing his father is going to have a fit about it.

“Yes, sometimes”

“Well do you like Jake or Jacob?”

“I like Jake, because it is like Jacob! Or Up, You know…..Jake Up”

At this point I am in a fit of giggles at the logic of my fantastic 5-year-old son. Of course, it would have to be Jake or Up. Those are the only two that make up his name.

Boy, do I love his craziness.

On a side note I have “made a deal” with Emily regarding her television time. She was very honest with Mrs. Ann about how long she cannot watch TV, even when her father and I forgot to tell Mrs. Ann of the added time. If she comes home tonight and cleans her room AND keeps it clean through the weekend I will knock a week off the punishment. I think the whole no TV thing has gotten through to her; I think she is finally getting it. And unfortunately, TV is the one thing she seems to “miss” the most when it is gone. But on that same note, she doesn’t seem to miss the cartoons as much as just the sitting and vegging out. So we have to conquer that next. I do think when we bring back TV there will be some strict rules enforced as to how much and exactly what it is she is watching.
Today is Day 14 of no TV and she is already a much more pleasant person to be around. I think we will still stand firm on the whole month of October, but she maybe able to earn some of her most recent punishment back. As long as the lying, and back talking stop we will continue to allow her to earn back the time she lost last weekend. She has been mostly pleasant and sweet this week, except for the occasional 7-year-old outburst, that we expect. We just don’t appreciate the 17-year-old outbursts.

Art Night/Book Fair

So last night was the Art Night/Book Fair at the kids school. I was not sure what Art Night was, but my mom left the kids money to use at the book fair so off we went. The book fair was a succsess. Emily was disapointed at first becasue they didn't have one of her wish list books anymore but we found "Super Fly Guy" which is by the same author as "Parts" "More Parts" and others that she LOVES!!! So she was thrilled when I showed it to her, becasue it doesn't look like a book she would have ever picked up, but as it sat there on the shelf, I couldn't help but pick it up. The cover was shiny, and I like shiny. So books AND bookmarks were bought with Memmaws book fair money, mom picked up the tax and off we went to Art Night. Here is a picture of the books that were purchased:



Art night is the cafeteria full oif paper, crayons, markers, finger paint, chalk and string art. WOW, what a mess. We didn't stay nearly as long as they wanted, but I have a cold and I wanted to go home. Here is the product of Art Night:



We went home home and had "dinner" Here is Jacob eating his dinner:



Yes, those are pop-tarts. He is so picky, and I think he is tired of nuggets and rolled tacos. All he wants to eat is cheese for dinner, and I won't let him only eat cheese.

Here is what should be a familiar site to my parents minus the Spagetti-o's. I never was much of a fan.


I haven't been able to get her to put those books down all evening and again this morning. Which isn'ta horrible thing, I suppose. She loved "Super Fly Guy" and it is a chapter book, and she read it to me and Jacob last night. It was a great time.

Weekend Update II

We arrived in Marble Falls, were the retreat was taking place and unloaded our stuff and were put into boys and girls cabins! How funny. I had not even thought about how we were all going to sleep. It was so funny. It was SO HOT!!! I could not believe how much I sweat on Saturday. The kids got in the water and swam, and kyaked and rode on an intertube behind a jet ski. The had a lot of fun in the water. Jacob tried a s'more and decided he liked them, just with out the marshmellow cooked. So he likes his s'mores the way he likes his brocoli. Here are some pictures. I tried to get some good ones, but when they are in the water, it is hard.

Here is Emily and Jacob in the part of the lake that had a "floor" they could feel.


Here is Jacob and his little friend Emily Ann in the same pool.


Here is Emily coming down the big slide. Jacob wouldn't come down at all, and Emily only would do it once. This is the only picture I got. You can kinda see her head--sort of.


And this was the "Gloob" you would jump onto it and then move to the end. Then a different person would jump on to it and launch the first person off and into the lake. I don't know who this person it, but it was so much fun and quite amazing to watch. Jacob thought he wanted to do it, but once he got to the top he changed his mind.


Over all it was a fun trip. Emily got into some trouble and can not watch TV until her birthday in December. I will blog about that at a later time. But the kids were decent and everybody had fun. I can not wait until the next one.

Long Weekend Update

We had a great couple of days. My folks came into town late Wednesday night. I meet up with them on Thursday afternoon and hung out until the kids came home from school. After that PePaw took the kids to go treasure hunting and mom and I went and took my quilting square from my Mamagrand to get ramed in the frame my daddygrand made with glass. It will be ready on Thursay--I can hardly wait! We ate at Chuk-e-Cheese. Yum! Or Not! On Friday Josh and my dad played golf and mom and I went to visit the school and went shopping. I loved being able to hang with my mom without the kids or the boys. I don't know when the last time that happened, maybe before we even moved to Austin. After the kids got home we got all dressed for pictures and went to the mall for our yearly pictures! They came out so cute! I need to scan them, becasue I can't seem to get them off the website, something about copyrights and what not.

On Saturday Jacob had his very first soccer game! He played and had a great time! He was goalie and let the first goal be scored, but he had fun. Here are some pictures of Jacob.
Here he is sitting in the car, ready to go!!


Here is Jacob being coached as goalie: first by the coach and second my Emily.



She was telling him "You can catch the ball with your hands when you are the goalie!!" She wanted so much to help him do well.

After the soccer game we went on the family retreat, but I will post about that in a bit. I need to get to work.

Banned Books?!?!

I am a little slow on this, but I ran across the news story this morning. This week is banned book week. I had always know that there were books thst we couldn't have at school, but it never seemed to bother me becasue as a child I spent so much time in the public library, I knew how to get a book that the school district may not have wanted me to have. My parents never stopped me from reading any book I brought home. The only thing they would not allow me to read were certain magazines while I was in middle school. Those would be Cosmo and True Romance. As an adult with a child now I understand why however, at the time I was angry. I went back to reading babysitters club and anything by R.L. Stein.

So here is the list of banned books that I found.
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier


So now I know some are not appropriate for children, but really, I don't think a parent is going to be upset because some are not in schools, but others. Every girl NEEDS to read "Are you there God? It's me Margaret." and "Brave New World" and "Of Mice and Men."
I remember reading at least 20 of these books, and wanting to read several others. Two of them were required reading in high school. Emily just finished reading one in her second grade class and reads another while in church. I guess I don't understand. If it gets people reading how is it bad? And how can it be any worse that what people watch in tv? Seriously?

So I think I will be heading to the local library, where, if you remember I paid all my fines and picking up a few banned books to read. So there.

I love being a mom

Do you know what the best thing about being a mom is? Embarrassing pictures of the kids before they know how to be embarrassed by it. This is a photo from a few months ago, but I ran across it yesterday and laughed at it all over again. Let me set the stage:

I hear rustling in my closet and both the kids yell to me to stay out!! So I mind my business and get the camera, I know it is going to be good.

Emily comes out in her PJ's wearing my old flannel robe, one of Josh's ties and my high heels. Jacob comes out with one of Josh's t-shirts, three of his ties, a hat AND Emilys tinkerbell shoes form her Halloween costume last year!!! I about died! They proceeded to put on a show for me, singing, dancing and posing for the camera. I can't wait to show this to their future spouses!