Not really a banquet

Warning: Objects in box may be smaller than they appear. (Sorry this is sideways. No matter how many times I rotate and save, it uploads sideways.)

I very rarely by convenience foods--too expensive and not healthy. But, occasionally something will go on sale and I'll give in. Should have passed up this 90 cent deal. Disgusting! Good thing boys will eat anything. I hate to see groceries go to waste!

Motorcycles, Princesses, and Manhood

I think we just survived the busiest weekend in history. How 500 events all got scheduled in the same weekend, I'll never know.

Friday, I attempted to have a garage sale. I never put an ad in the paper but I've never lived on the edge of civilization before. Pretty much after you pass our neighborhood, you're in the middle of nowhere so you're not going to be casually driving by our neighborhood and just happen to see a 'garage sale' sign. So pretty much my only customers were all the construction workers who were working in the back of the 'hood. I still made $150 but usually my garage sales bring in $400.

Our friends Robbie and Keli stopped by and Robbie gave Nate his first (and last until he's over 18) motorcycle ride.

I really doubt that bicycle helmet would have saved him from serious brain damage were there an actual wreck. But, I'm a mom and had to put something on his head.

Friday night, the girls had a Disney princess sleepover at church but Alyssa didn't actually sleep over since she had her first day of work on Sat. morning. Zac went to a youth 'man retreat'. They camped out, had 'man olympics' and peed outside--activities all designed to proclaim their manhood. Out of 100 pictures put on facebook by one of the youth leaders, this was the only one of Zac--throwing a spear in some sort of manly contest.

Saturday was filled with me and Alyssa working, picking up Kate from church, dropping off and picking up Nate from choir practice for the musical on Sunday, and Nate going to a birthday party which I almost forgot about.

Movie Review: Marley and Me

Last Friday night, we had pizza and movie night. Everyone was home at the same time with nothing to do. We have to celebrate these moments. They don't happen often. To make it even better, the pizza was free. I called it in. Kevin went to pick it up and we were told we had a $40 credit. The family who owns the dominoes goes to our church. They saw me hobbling around church on Sunday and felt sorry for me. She had sent a card to let me know about our blessing but it went to our old address so we were completely surprised by some free yummy pizza in all its cheesy goodness.

Anyway, movie of the night: Marley and Me. Totally thought it was a family movie. Totally was not. Funny. Cute. But dealt with adult themes like miscarriage, job fulfillment, mid life crisis.... Zac bailed on us about halfway through. Clean and fun for the most part, but just not appealing to the younger masses.

We are a practical family. No one is overly emotional in that we don't get sucked into the trap of crying during a movie. Towards the end when......(spoiler alert)......Marley is very sick, Nathan says, "Can Marley hurry up and die already so I can go upstairs?" I'm sorry. I think I have raised cynical kids.

And then Nathan gave us yet another quotable quote at the end of the movie:
"That movie was sadder than The Pursuit of Happyness."
Alyssa: You haven't even seen that movie!
Nathan: Nope, but I'm pretty sure it was sad.

Final Flashback: All the birthdays

Aren't you glad this is the last flashback? I'm getting dizzy from all the time travel! Nate's birthday fell on the same day we needed to travel to Arkansas for the wedding so his birthday celebrations were spread out over an 11 day period. It would have just been a week but we had to postpone his outdoor birthday party thanks to 6" of snow!

So it all began with opening his gifts from us on the night before his birthday. He got Wii outdoor challenge, legos, a badmitton set, a nerf gun to torture his siblings with, and a sleeping bag for Jack.

The next night, his actual birthday, we were in AR. Kevin and I had to go to the rehearsal dinner so Papaw and Uncle Weve took him to get pizza and a shopping spree to Walmart--the only shopping option in town!

Finally, he got to have his party at the mini-golf course.

We had pizza (Nathan's fave food) and Transformer's cake. 3 of the 5 friends gave him Target gift cards, probably because of the new Target that opened up in our 'hood which I'm soooo excited about! No more 15 minute drives to Tar-jay!

I'm not sure what Alyssa and Zac were doing in this picture, something of a model pose? I'm just thankful my 16 and 13 year old kids are good friends and like to hang out together. How often does that happen?

Flashback #3: The Wedding

Here's a few pictures from the wedding we attended. Kevin's brother Steve took these with his new and first camera. Can you believe that? 4? years old and just got his first camera. I think it was all provoked by Facebook, but that's just a theory. You can read more about the actual wedding here.

As always, my hopes at getting a family picture were dashed again, this time with a handful of flying birdseed. Not really sure why we didn't try again. I think at this point we were all tired and ready to go home.

The Brothers Grimm...just kidding. It was fun getting to spend the weekend with Kevin's family.

Alyssa and Nathan at the reception which included a bounce house!

Katie and her Uncle Weve

How to score a free haircut

I'm going to interrupt all the 'flashbacking' to tell you how we scored a free haircut today.

If you're going to attempt this, you're going to need cooperation from others. First, you need the guy who has the appointment time 2 slots ahead of you to be late, affecting everyone else's day that comes after him. We arrived at 12:55 for Alyssa's 1:00 appt. at which time the stylist was just starting on the color appt. scheduled before us. She assured us she could get us out of there before 2.

1:45 rolls around and we're still waiting. We have to leave by 2 because Alyssa has a job interview at 2:30. If you've seen Alyssa's hair, you know there is no way in heck anyone could wash, cut and dry her hair in 30 minutes much less 15. Just not physically possible. So after driving 17 miles one way and sitting for 50 minutes, we left with no haircut. Kevin is taking her again tomorrow for the free haircut that was offered when I called to reschedule.I was really tempted to go somewhere else, but we love our stylist and she did try to make it right. Plus, I'm not one to play Russian Roulette with haircuts.

Good news of the day: Alyssa got the job she wanted at Rue 21, a jr. clothing store, that is opening up next to my brand new Target just a few miles from our house. She starts on April 25, helping them get the store set up and organized for the grand opening which she will be wonderful at. (Remember her closet!) Now if we can just keep her from buying half the store with her discount!

Flashback #2: A visit from the Texas Babes

The Texas Babes have been featured here before and oddly get lots of hits from the Google search engines. David and Anna, along with their parents thank goodness, came for a few days during Spring Break. We haven't seen their family in almost a year so we were very excited to have them visit. Everyone loved having the babies here except Zac, who I think secretly adored them especially when Anna kept chasing Belle all over the house.

Even though we were having a typical windy and cold Oklahoma day, we braved the Tulsa Gardens.


I discovered it's very difficult to keep a 2 year old from illegally picking the tulips, but isn't she adorable?

Even the big boys had fun swinging!

And proof that 13 yr. old boys are still kids at heart...Zac just had to climb this tree and got high enough that it made me a little nervous.

After the gardens, the 'big' girls went to Utica Square and drooled over the historic mansions around the area. Then the adults got to eat a very nice dinner out at Copeland's. Gotta love date nights! One of the benefits of having teenagers!

Flashback #1: Go Celebration

Flashing back to the first weekend in March, we had our GO (Global Outreach) celebration. We invited lots of workers from all over the world to come educate our church family about where they live and what they do. Each worker and their family stayed with a host family and had a host Sunday school class that took care of feeding them and providing a gift of some sort. It was a great weekend and I was very glad to get to meet a lot of the people that Kevin travels to see all over the world. Since I'm the one who stays at home base all the time, it was cool that they got to come to my territory instead.

This is Alyssa and her friend Carolyn, dancing in our opening ceremony on Thursday night. It's really not a great picture since I wasn't using a flash or a tripod but I'm proud of her for using her talent for God's glory.

The ladies in my Sunday school class call this guy the church version of guitar hero. He does an awesome job playing for us every Sunday and really gets into it.

I think this picture captures my favorite memory of the whole weekend. When Kevin goes to Asia he works with this little boy's family. Nathan prays for them every single night. It was so fun to see them finally meet and get to play together. Amazingly, this little guy speaks his native language and English perfectly!

Week in Review

*I'm almost at the end of week 2 with my broken toe. No more crutches but I can't walk long distances yet. I tried to get a temporary handicap parking sticker, but in OK you have to mail those in for it to be processed. I'm just guessing by the time it shows up, I'll already be well so I've parked illegally a few times out of necessity while hoping the limp and ugly boot on my left foot would get me out of a ticket.

*Our dishwasher has broken and thanks to the marvelous internet, I've decided that it would be a waste to have someone come look at it. The part that I'm fairly certain it needs is close to $200 and I can have a new one for $400. Only problem is I don't have an extra $400 at the moment. So the current debate is do I keep hand washing dishes until I have the cash or use a credit card. Neither option is appealing but for now I can't seem to force myself to pull out the plastic. (Dave Ramsey would be so proud!) Probably should go to Sam's and buy the gallon size of Dawn!

*March was a very busy month for us...hence the lack of posts! So my goal for the next few days is to do a series of Flashbacks so I can share all the happenings and pictures with you. You can just pretend you're one of the Losties and feel right at home!