Peace and Quiet

Thanks Jessica for all of your GOOD help tonight. I could not have made it through this day without you. You are a true friend.

Spunky Oma

Thank the good Lord, Mom made is out of surgery alive and kicking with a new left hip. Thanks to Martie for staying with her this weekend at the hospital. I am looking forward to seeing Oma and Papa dance together at their 50th wedding anniversary party!!

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe...

She had so many kids she had to go to the E.R. to get away from them. What an eventful day it has been!!! Febuary 22, 2007 - I will NEVER forget. At 5:00 this evening (20 minutes before I was leaving to go and teach my Nutrition Class) Peat and Repeat came in the front door screaming bloody murder. Asher was hurt, all I saw was a quarter sized hole on his forehead and blood running down his face. David hit Goliath with a smooth stone. No, really Levi pushed Asher down the driveway in the little yellow car with the red roof and Asher fell out and conked (sp?) his head on the pavement. I told Aunt Florence to call 911, the good 'ole Maumelle Police were here in one minute, firetruck next and then the ambulance. Wow!! That is why I pay my taxes with a smile on my face. Thanks to all of them and Dr. Bacon at Springhill Baptist. Asher is glued up and good as new, no neck injury Mom and Dad. Needless to say, Chapter 6 was not taught tonight, will catch up next week. I know my class missed me!

Words of Wisdom

My Aunt Florence gave me this article this morning that reads:

True wisdom is the ability to learn form other people's experience. Therefore, child psychologist Dr. Charles Schaefer asked this question of 50 parents who had successfully reared children, "Based upon your personal experiences, what is the best advice you could give new parents about raising children?"

The most frequent parental responses were:

1. Love abundantly

2. Discipline constructively

3. Be clear, consistent and authoritative

4. Punish in private

5. Be flexible, reasonable and understanding

6. Discourage continued dependency

7. Spend time together

8. Develop mutual respect

9. Really listen

10. Tend to personal and marital needs

WOW!! Can we all help each other in doing this with our children?

The Day of Love

I have a great husband. Our marriage is constantly changing, full of peaks and valleys. I think he would agree that we are on a peak right now. Thanks Randy for being such a good man.

34 is looking good!

Thanks Mom for all the hard work you put into Marria's Birthday party. Here are a few pictures.

Jake Warner's Fan Club

What a great day we had on Saturday!! We went to cheer on Jake in his freethrow contest. He did great, 4th place. We are very proud of him!!

What happens if a boy does NOT play video games?

Have you ever asked yourself this question? I see SO many boys (ages 7-10) walking around this world (stores, sporting events) playing their hand held video games. That is all they are doing. I call them "game boy zombees". I even made up a song to sing about them. These boys are not looking up to see the world around them. They are not talking to people. They are not interacting with their families. They are addicts. Game boy addicts. Dr. John Rosemond starting warning parents in 1980 NOT to let their children get addicted to these types of games. Why? Electronic stimulation, constant stimulation, constant adrenaline. Boys (and girls) get addicted to this type of stimulation. In turn, they do not do as well as they could in school, in college, in the workplace, in their relationships. I wonder how many of the 50% of marriages that fail, fail because of this type of addiction. Have you ever thought about this?

A Way With Animals

Stella has a gift. She is not afraid of any animals, only bugs. Recently, she got to spend some time at MawMaw and Paw Paw's house by herself. Paw Paw tells me that she grabbed on to Smooch's collar as soon as she got there and Smooch (who is a dog) did exactly what she said the whole visit. When she goes to sleep in her "big girl" bed, she wants either Anikan (one of the cats) or Daisy (the new dog) to sleep with her in her bed. She wants them near her, so that she can hold their hair and suck her thumb and go to sleep. On Wednesday, I took her to see some horses and she loved it. She went right up to this horse who stands 17 1/2 hands tall and stuck out her hand for the horse to smell. No fear whatsoever. It is amazing!

Snow Day

We actually had snow in Arkansas. It was great. The kids and I got out and took all the snow off of my car to make two snow kids. They had fun. Ms. Laverne, the most wonderful neighbor in the world, came out and took a look. She loves the kids and is a great "grandma" for them.

Friends

How great it is to have good friends

for our children to grow up with.

Here are a few pictures from the

night of the Super Bowl.

Ping Pong

Randy and I are in a Ping Pong game challenge tournament. It started the first week of January 2007 and the current score is 8 to 8. We try to play a game almost every night after we finish eating supper. It is a lot of fun, especially because we are so evenly matched at this certain game. Randy is a really good dad and he has a lot of fun playing with his kids.

"I saw the tooth fairy..."

Levi lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. He pulled it himself at school!! I was hoping that Aunt Pinky would get to pull it since I got to pull Jake's first tooth, but that did not happen. So that night, he put the tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. The next morning when he got up he had two quarters and two dollars under his pillow!! I asked him if he saw the tooth fairy and he said "YES!, she was this big and she was blue!" Wow, that is the wonderful thing about motherhood, I learn something new every day.

Orange hair girl

Here are some cute pictures taken by Aunt Marria in the Summer of 2006. The pictures are of Stella. I want to thank Aunt Marria and Aunt Pinky for being the main inspiration for this blog.

The Ski Trip

Randy and I took Levi on his first ski trip. He had a great time in ski school and skiing with us down the mountain. Randy got some good practice in. He is becoming a good skiier. I had a great time, only fell once, after I was hit with the ski lift!!!! The weather was COLD, it snowed every day that we were there.