11th Commandment

Adelaide stole Sadie's cookie. Sadie yelled, "HEY!" Josie grabbed the cookie back from Adelaide and handed it to Sadie. Adelaide screamed. Josie said, "Well, it wasn't yours." Sadie said, "Yeah, but the Bible says thou shalt not snatch."

Thank the Lord for Snacks.

Today at church during the closing of Sunday School, Adelaide decided that she wanted a snack when we were having the closing prayer. I whispered, "You can have a snack when prayer is over." As the person praying finished up, everyone said, "Amen." Then Adelaide piped up, in her usual LOUD voice, "AMEN! SNACK!"

Bird Ambulance

On a sunny morning last week, Sadie came tearing into the house yelling something about a bird. I followed her back outside, and she and Josie and Adelaide were all gathered around the big rock, watching a red robin flop around on the ground. Sadie had a big stick she gently nudged the bird with, but it didn't fly away. She said that usually when she gets close to a bird, it flies away. Since this one didn't, she knew something was wrong with it! Sure enough, the poor little bird did seem to have some kind of injury; we couldn't tell what. Lydia told us about a place that takes in sick or wounded wildlife, so I called them and they told us to wrap it in a towel and bring it
over. I asked the girls if they wanted to be a bird ambulance, and they were SO EXCITED. Jesse came out with his fishing net (the bird had hopped under the trees by this time) and I grabbed a towel and a shoe box, and pretty soon, the do-gooders had their bird. Josie carried the bird very carefully to the car and it rode in her lap half the way there. Sadie got it the second half of the trip (there was much peeking in the box on both their parts) and carried it into the rescue center. It
was great seeing them be so caring and nurturing of one of God's creatures. On the way there, we talked about how God knows each and every sparrow and cares about them, too. I think it was a great experience and I'm glad they felt proud of themselves for helping an animal!

Young Love :)

On Friday, we went to the zoo with Melissa and Caroline. We met our friend Maeve and her 3 kids there. It turned out to be a great day, weather-wise, although there were like 50 school buses and a million children there. Sadie and Ian, Maeve's oldest son, hit it off immediately. It was like they had always known each other (which they met when they were TINY... Ian is 5 months older than Sadie and we were all living in NC when they were born). We had a good time; as much of a good time as you can have dragging 7 children around a public tourist destination, that is. Melissa said it was like herding cats. :) Anyway, after we left, Sadie whispered in my ear, "Mommy, I have to tell you something. When I was riding in the double stroller next to Ian, he leaned his head over on my shoulder and guess what he said?" I looked at her and she had this CUTE little front-tooth-missing smile and her little face was blushing. I said, "What did he say?" She said, "He said maybe we could get married some day! I didn't know what to say to him! Hee hee hee hee!" It was the CUTEST thing ever. Sigh. Her first marriage proposal.

Feel Like Travelin' On

Sunday
We got up bright and early to take my grandma up the mountain to church at White Oak. After the service and some playing outside by the kids, we decided to go down to visit Odessa at my grandpa's old homeplace. Odessa was bedridden at the time we were there and she hadn't been feeling well for some time, so she was VERY happy to see up all come traipsing in on her after church was over.
While we visited and sang some songs together (The Old Ship of Zion), which was bittersweet - it almost brought me and my mom to tears, singing along with her.
Grammie gave the kids a tour of the barn and the hog pen, and lots of the other places she talks about in her stories, and the kids just ate it up.

After we got home, the kids wanted to go play and swim with Kimmie, Noah, Dalton, and Hailey, so with no naps, they headed over to the pool for a good old time of swimming, sandbox, and splinters -- Chasity cracked up when Josie informed her that she was so much better at getting splinters out than I am. She said, "Mommy's not good at getting splinters out AT ALL!" Sheesh. Talk about unappreciated! :) I went to hang out at Amanda's for Girls' Night. Later, Becky and I went back to pick up the kids and ended up hanging out on the deck for hours, having a homeschooling debate and talking until it was dark.

After that, we headed home for watermelon with Aunt Sharon, then BED!

Monday
Monday was a busy, busy day for me. I had to go to pick up parts for Daddy to work on our van with, then to the bank to see my cousin Kristi and turn in the kids' piggy bank money, next to pick up breakfast for my grandma at Hardee's - they had a 99 cent ham biscuit! - next to Daddy's to drop off the car stuff, then to the grocery store with Melanie while Ada stayed to play with my girls at Grandma's house with Grammie Gail, then we had supper with Angela and Scotty (I really love the sound of the kids laughing at the card table in the living room and hearing calls of "more gravy, please!"). Later Amanda came by to see the girls and pick me up to go to Melanie's house... we ended up staying there until 1:00 in the morning! Nothing like girl time, is there? :)

Tuesday
I had my first stomachache in literally 25 years until 3am Tuesday morning. Weird. Later, when I finally DID get to sleep, Adelaide decided to wake up and get in bed with me. She decided to help herself to my water glass on the nightstand, which she then proceeded to dump right down my back as I slept. YIKES!!! I screamed! Talk about a rude awakening. She cried and yelled, "Sowwy! Sowwy! Fault!" Later that morning I took the kids to play at Chasity's while I went to have lunch with Sherry, who was so sweet to buy my lunch, THEN I found some World's Finest Chocolate bars at the checkout- hooray! Hadn't seen any of those in years! Then BACK to the car place to pick up a part they had to order, then BACK to Chasity's, where I found that Adelaide refused to let Chass change her diaper... they had a great time with the birds, the dog, and a little toad that they found, which they named Henry. Next we went to Heather's to see her new house and so the girls could play with Sydney, who went around yelling "Shake what your Mama gave ya!" (Heather didn't know where THAT came from :). Leaving them there to play, I went to Daddy's with Adelaide (he was finally feeling better), who enjoyed "helping" Papaw work on the van; he gave her a big magnet on a stick to pick up stuff off the floor with (FUN), then they both got super dirty oily hands (cute picture), and Adelaide fell asleep on the porch swing with me and Mamaw for 15 minutes because she was SO exhausted. Later she stayed with Mamaw while I took Daddy with me to Heather's to pick up the kids, and Sadie read him Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (he tried to trick her to make sure she was really reading and not just memorizing), and Adelaide showed him and Mamaw how to play "Tick Tock, Tick Tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock, tick tock tick tock, now I'm striking one o'clock... CUCKOO!" Josie found a caterpillar outside and played with it for an hour... she named it Henry too. Then the girls shopped in Mamaw's toy store, ate corn on the cob, then headed back to Grandma's for some desperately needed baths.

Wednesday



We took Angela with us (the boys were at school) and met Natasha and Bayleigh at the playground, then we went to lunch (the girls were in charge of getting our free ice cream, and Natasha ordered Banana Split ice cream but they came back with A BANANA SPLIT), then we went shopping at Walmart and the Dollar store for Mother's Day. Next it was home for napping, then to Village Inn Pizza with Papaw and Mamaw for wing night - it was very smoky in there! Afterward we went to play at a little playground... there was much yelling by Adelaide: "Swing! Swing! Slide! I Slide!"

Thursday
Our last day of this trip. We hung out at Grandma's house all day until we went to
Daddy's... then we went to the park to play in the creek. The kids thought that was AWESOME. They pretended to look for gold, and Mamaw kept track of all of their "nuggets" for them. Of course, they all got completely soaked while looking for said "gold," so I had to strip them off in the parking lot and they all rode home as Nudey Butts!

Chugga Chugga Woo Woo!

Thursday
After a basically uneventful car ride down (it actually felt SHORTER this time), we were welcomed into Grandma's house by the smell of fresh chicken and dumplins'. Nothing like dumplins' to help you sleep at 11:30 at night! On Thursday, the girls begged to go over to Great Aunt Nettie's house next door, so I went up to visit with Angela and help her clean. Well, she did most of the cleaning; I did most of the visiting. :) Later she took the girls to her house to play with Cameron and Caleb, but Adeladie decided that Scotty was her new arch-enemy. She ran pell-mell from him through the yard, crying, "SCOTTTTTY! NOOO!! SCOTTTY!" That night we went to the Igloo (a little ice cream and sandwich shop shaped like a real igloo) for a picnic with Papaw and Mamaw, and then we went back to their house for some "woodwalking." All three of the girls love to go out in the woods with Papaw (and withOUT me). That night after they were in bed, I went to hang out at Melanie's, even though the pollen was too bad for us to sit out on her new deck furniture.

Friday
On Friday we went to visit Chasity and check out their yard sale. I took over my Japanese food (they don't have sweet Japanese carrots in Ohio, so I have to eat them when I get a chance!) and we sat on the screened porch, newly renovated and SO COOL... I wish we had one! Sadie and Josie got to make their own sign to go up on the wall inside. Sadie made a bunch of flowers with her name and Josie drew a fairy princess in a blue dress. After naptime at Grandma's house, we had a big family supper (which Grandma loves) with Angela, Scotty, Cameron, and Caleb. Later we went riding around on the golfcart and we checked out the bees and the giant potato patch... Adelaide LOVED riding on the golfcart with Angela and kept saying, "FUN! FUN!" After that, we went back to Grandma's for watermelon and an impromptu birthday party for Josh with Britt, Natasha, Bayleigh, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Josh.

Saturday
Tweetsie Day
On Friday night I got a call from Sylvia (aka Mamaw) to let me know that my Daddy (aka Papaw) had come down with a fever, cough, chills, etc. This was NOT good. Not only did we not want him to be sick, but the next morning was TWEETSIE DAY. No one knows how much Sadie and Josie had been looking forward to going, and I just didn't have the heart to tell them that we had to cancel. Mamaw and Papaw decided, in their infinite wisdom, that we should just go without them... they gave me the money for our tickets, lunch, and souveniers (this was their birthday present to all the girls) and sent us on our way. I would definitely need help to corral all 3 kids while in the Old West, so my mom said she would come with us to help out. After a slow start (trying to get breakfast together and running into a silly bird with the car, then stopping to get sunscreen and bottled water), we made it there shortly after opening time. Their motto is "Blast from the Past," and it certainly was for me, since I hadn't been there since I was a child. It was almost exactly the same, though, and we were so excited! Here are some of the highlights:



-Riding the 'horses,' pretending they were Pet and Patty and Bunny from the Little House books
-Riding the train around the mountain, and getting held up by the outlaws and saved by the marshal who cracked Mommy and Grammie up with, "I'm Texas Pete and this here is my sister Tabasca." "Well, looky here, Mr. and Mrs. Sauce."
-They each got to pick out one souvenier... Sadie got a pink cowgirl hat with a sparkly spangly thing on the front, Josie picked out an "Indian set" with a pink feathered headdress, Indian 'braids,' a drum, and a tomahawk, and Adelaide picked out a teeny little real-fur mouse, I am sure with which when I find it eventually at the bottom of my purse I will scare myself to death.
-Grammie and Sadie and Josie rode the chair lifts up to Miners' Mountain, with Grammie screaming all the way; meanwhile, I almost killed myself walking up the steep, 2 mile long, newly graveled trail while trying to push the stroller containing Chubbalaide. I ended up having to make the poor child get out and walk. She followed along behind me, panting, "I comin', I comin'! Mommy! I comin'!"
-When we finally MADE it to the top (much to my surprise), we found Grammie and Sadie and Josie having a fine old time on the playground.
-After working up a thirst on the playground, we all got giant snow cones and Sadie and Josie got their faces painted, then we watched (and danced along with) The Hopper and Porter show, a giant engineer rabbit and conductor tortoise.
-Next, to Sadie's dismay, she found that she was TOO tall for the airplane ride, but Josie wasn't! Then Josie and Adelaide got to ride together in the boat ride with REAL water underneath them... they were very impressed, as this was Adelaide's first "big girl" ride with no grown ups around.
-Then I rode the Tweetsie Twister with Sadie and Josie, which was great fun, especially when they both started screaming like, well, little girls!
-Next, all three of them got to play in the mud when they went panning for gold.
-We went up the hill to the Petting zoo, and we bought ice cream cones full of feed for the animals... a funny emu kept popping his head up at Sadie from behind the fence, trying to steal her cone, and Josie cracked up at a baby goat who nibbled at her fingers.
-Thank goodness, there was a BUS back down the mountain - I was going to brave the chairlift WITH the stroller if there wasn't - and all three girls liked riding the bus. I don't know what it is with them and mass transportation, but they're all about it.
-Back down the hill, we watched the dancing girls in The Can-Can Review, then we watched the Blacksmith and headed over to see the cloggers, one of our favorite parts. The girls got up to clog on stage with the real cloggers, and they had a blast learning a step, "Pretend there's a bee on your toe. Now kick it off, stomp on it, and do it again!"
-After a couple of rides on the Merry-go-round, we decided that we were Tweetsied out. What? After only 7 hours??

We were SO tired, but amazingly, all three of them got their 2nd wind when Cameron and Caleb came down later to Grandma's. We finally had baths and got ready for church the next day.

Adelaide's favorite sayings... any time:

"Eeeeff!" Any time she tries to pick up something heavy or move something.
"Scooching!" Any time she tries to sit next to you.
"Chomp!" Any time she takes a big bite of something.
"Nuffing." Any time you ask what she's doing and she's not supposed to be doing it.
"(A)gain, gain!" Any time you're doing something she thinks is fun.
"I do it... I DO IT!" Any time you try to help her do ANYTHING.

Big News

Well, much has happened since my last post. For one, I found out that we are expecting Baby #4! This is somewhat of a surprise, honestly, but we are happy about it. I wanted to be 'done' by the time I was 35, and I'll be 34 this year, so I guess the timing is right. The funny thing is, ever since January, I've been trying pretty hard to lose weight (I wanted to lose 30 pounds or so before I got pregnant again-- losing 30 is a lot easier than losing 70) and nothing was really working. I had gotten REALLY frustrated and so I called my primary care doctor to make an appointment to find out what I could do. Well, two days later I finally took a test (after being urged by friends and family) and got a positive result. THAT explained things, so I cancelled my appointment and made a DIFFERENT kind of appointment. Turns out I was almost 9 weeks along! When we told the kids, Sadie and Josie were pretty darn excited... they both want a 'brudder,' but Sadie says she'll be happy with another little sister, too. When I pointed to my tummy and said, "There's a baby in there!" to Adelaide, she ran over, lifted up my shirt, looked under it, and said, "Where?" Too cute. Josie (who is completely infatuated with Baby Ben, Lynn & Deanna's little boy) informed me yesterday that she hopes the baby will be "a little black boy." I said, "Ummm... I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen." heehee! Anyway, I'm excited but anxious (as usual). Will it be healthy? Will I do okay in delivery? Will I do okay in recovery with 3 other kids needing me? Will my back be able to stand it? Will I be a good mommy to FOUR, count 'em, FOUR children? I think the last question is what worries me most.