Homecoming 2008...

These next couple of posts are going to be slightly out of order. There are a few people antsy to see the Homecoming Dance pics, and I am having trouble uploading the powder puff game pics and it happened before the dance. So i am going to post the dance pics now, and hopefully in a few days I will be able to work out what ever is causing the powder puff pics to fail to upload.

The link to the dance pics is:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54582&l=9365a&id=504961760

I hope you enjoy them!

Love to all...

The Squirrel...

Last Saturday (I know I am a bit late posting this!!) my wonderful youngest son brought me home a surprise. (And not a surprise I wanted either!!)

It all started when I left Caleb home to run Kaitlin out to work. It was a cool and rainy morning, and I was just being too lazy to drag him out with me. After dropping Kate off at work, I was on my way back home (by the way this takes me all of about 3 minutes total) when I saw Caleb run across the street with something in his hands. Of course I was too far down the road to see what it was, but I knew it was something by the way her was holding his hands while he was running. To be honest I really didn't think too much about it, I pulled into the driveway and hollered at him for being outside while I was gone. He knows that is a big no-no!!

A few minutes later I hear him tell Matthew to come outside and see the baby squirrel that was in our little pine tree. Again I don't really pay too much attention to that because we have a lot of squirrels in our neighborhood, and quite frankly a baby squirrel was not something I was that interested in. Matthew goes out to see the baby squirrel and comes back in and doesn't really say too much about the baby squirrel he just saw. Again I don't question it.

As I am on my way out the door to go pick Kate up from school Caleb decides that he wants to go with me. Once we got Kate picked up and we are pulling into the driveway I hear Caleb tell Kate about the baby squirrel in the pine tree. Now, I am beginning to question why there is a baby squirrel in a little bitty pine tree, I mean this is not a full size pine tree this is one of those little Christmas trees that people plant for landscaping decor. So we get out of the van walk over to the "pine" tree and Caleb pulls back the branches and sure enough there is a baby squirrel soaking wet and shivering between the limbs of this tree. As I am sure you can imagine Kaitlin goes wild, now I must say it is really cute, but it is a squirrel nonetheless.

Kaitlin begins to pick it up and mess around with it, checking it for injuries and such. Now I am paying very close attention to what Caleb is saying about the baby squirrel. Here is how the conversation goes:

Me: Caleb, where did you find the baby squirrel?

Caleb: I found it under Sharon's (our neighbor) tree.

Me: Why did you pick it up?

Caleb: It looked lonely and it had no mommy.

Me: Well, Okay.

As that convo is going on Kate begins playing this baby squirrel, it appears to be unharmed but is cold and wet. So I tell Caleb to take Kaitlin over to where he found the squirrel and to put it back. They walk over to the neighbor's house and place the baby squirrel under the "tree" it was found in, I am watching all of this transpire from our front yard. I see Kate bend down and put the baby squirrel down, pet it a few times, and turn and walk away. Then to my horror I watch as the baby squirrel runs after Kaitlin and climbs up her leg. Oh God, this baby squirrel now thinks that Kate is its mommy. We do this a few times just to make sure that it wasn't a flewk. Nope, no such luck!!!

So we find a cage for the baby squirrel and much to my displeasure bring it into the house. UGH!!! Just what we need ANOTHER pet!!! The agreement was that we would keep it through the weekend and that on Monday I would contact the local vet for the names of a few wildlife rehabbers in the area. The kids were so excited to be able to keep the squirrel until Monday, Kaitlin researched what to feed so that it wouldn't starve through the weekend. Off we went to buy puppy replacement formula and a bottle. Kate spent a lot of time with that squirrel on Saturday and by Saturday night it was pretty well attached to her, to the point of not taking its bottle from anyone but her.

Since it was so cute I decided to take a few pics of it for the kids to have to remember it by once Monday came and he was off to a wildlife rehabber. Here is the link to the pics:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007546&l=00cf7&id=1045219109

Love to all...

New Old Music...

I grew up listening to the oldies, you know 50's, 60's and etc. My parents (both of them) constantly listened to oldies music, so needless to say I know a lot of oldies songs. I enjoy listening to it because it reminds of some of the better times in my childhood. Paul and the kids are not huge fans of the oldie's music but every once in a while they will suffer through it for me.

While I was out shopping last weekend I decided that I wanted a CD with some oldie's songs on it. Paul gets new music fairly often, Kaitlin is forever buying new songs for her ipod, heck even Matthew and Caleb get new songs and Cd's more often than I do, so I decided that it was my turn for some music I wanted to listen to.

It actually turned into quite an ordeal because I couldn't find just one CD with all the songs I wanted. Plus my attention kept getting diverted because I kept hearing...I want to go home...I'm hungry...I'm tired (oh wait that was me...lol) and all the whines of 3 children (even Kate was chiming in by this point) not wanting to be out shopping on such a gloomy, rainy, and nasty day. Finally I sent the kids to the next aisle over to look at computer games, DS games, and PS2 games, so that I could figure out which CD I wanted. After much deliberation and debate I finally settled on a 4 disk set that was cheaper than some of the single disks.

I walk around the to other aisle and tell the children to come on we are ready to check out, I am so excited about my new music. I was already singing the songs in my head, I turn to Kate and say:

"I am so excited about new music. I can't wait to get to the car to listen to it."

Kate takes one look at my face and says:

"Mom, that is NOT new music. That is old music on a NEW CD."

Well, I couldn't help but laugh, and thank her for ruining my "new" music moment. But I got my real revenge when I played it full blast in the van all the way back to Bushnell!!!

Love to all...

Slipper Doesn't Fit...

Kids say the funniest things, but very rarely do we document them. I have a friend who often blogs the funny things her children say, not that I want to copy her blog but I love the idea. Now she has a younger child (3) and an older child (10) and most of the funny things said are from her younger child, so I am cutting myself some slack because I have all older kids (16-11 almost 12, and 9) so they don't say all the cute funny things that the smaller kids say. But I am going to start sharing with you the funny things they do say. So here goes:

On Saturday last week I took the kids and ran to Wal-Mart to do some shopping, we were there mainly looking for Homecoming shoes for Kate as Homecoming is this weekend. Anyway we didn't find a single suitable pair Homecoming shoes, so we were just browsing in the shoe section when I came upon this really cute pair of white flip-flops. (This is probably the point that I should tell you that my two younger boys hate to shop, especially for shoes. Plus I had told them that as soon as we were done looking at shoes, I wanted to pop by the music section for a CD and then we would go home. So the boys were patiently or shall I say not so patiently waiting for Kate and I to finish looking at the shoes.) OK those of you that know me also know I LOVE flip-flops...love...love...LOVE them. So, I look at the shoe size and thank you God they are a 6 1/2 which is what I wear. I have a very wide foot, and these flip-flops were cut kind of narrow, but hey trying on is free.

I am sitting in the middle of the aisle trying to shove my fat foot into this little (but very cute) flip-flop when Matthew (my comedian and crazed Disney fan) walks over and says:

"Sorry, Cinderella, but the slipper doesn't fit. Now can we catch the coach to go home before it turns back into a pumpkin because it is almost 12?"

I actually dropped the shoe because I was laughing so hard. I pulled out my phone and looked at it and sure enough it was about 2 minutes til noon. He is just too funny sometimes!

Love to all...

Apple Pickin'...

Well we are in the throws of apple season here in not so sunny Bushnell! I have peeled, cored, and sliced almost 21 gallons of apples for my freezer so far this year. And let me tell you that the tree doesn't even look like it has shed an apple at all. For whatever reason this year the apple trees are very heavy with fruit. In addition to the apples that have gone into my freezer I have also made an apple pie, and apple cinnamon bread. We have apples coming out of our ears, it is crazy how many apples that tree has produced this year.

Oh I guess I should tell you that the tree belongs to my Grandma. I am not exactly sure how old the tree is, but it has sat on the corner of her driveway for as long as I can remember. It is probably one of my fondest childhood memories, I USED to love picking the apples. Of course that was when I was young and Grandma would hand me a whole 5 dollars for picking them up for her. Also she would be the one responsible for them after I picked them up. Now my kids get paid for picking them up and guess who gets to be responsible for them once they are picked up?

Anyway, just a few days ago we decided that we wanted some of the smaller apples from Grandma's neighbor's tree (don't ask me why she still has a million on her tree, but anyway...) so after asking the neighbor if we could have some of his apples Paul and the boys set out to pick the apples off the tree. They looked so cute out there picking apples together that I thought I would take a few pics and share them with everyone.

Here is the link: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007545&l=2aa05&id=1045219109

They are very sweet pics of them, I hope my children remember this as a fond childhood moment.

Love to all...

Crazy Frog Bros

Kate actually came across this today and we all cracked up over it. What we found so funny is the kid in the red shirt in the background. He reminds us of Matthew when Matthew doesn't take his medicine, he is a total crack up. Plus his body build is a lot like Matthew's all skinny with the long arms. Well anyway we all thought it was very funny and just wanted to share it with all of you.

Love to all...

PS Yes Matthew thinks it is just as funny as we do, and said he would not be offended if I put it on the blog, and said that it reminds us of him.