Flour Girls

Today while I was working on insurance stuff with Matt, our sweet little girls were playing upstairs on the main level. I heard Clarissa tell me that Abby was in the sugar and that she has it on her nose. I told her to help Abby out of the pantry and to shut the door. She told me she did and I continued to work on the computer. Well about 15-20 minutes later, I came upstairs to get them ready to pick up Aaron & Caleb up from the bus stop so we could go to the school to see Jake tryout for the annual Talent Show. When I came upstairs, this is what I saw.

Clarissa's only response was, "Mom, I told you I was making pies." I really wanted to scream, but I said to myself, "Grab the camera and call Matt." I did just that. I went onto tell Matt what had happened and I really wanted to cry at the mess that I was going to have to clean up, but we decided it was best to laugh it off. Cleaning up Abby was quite the chore. I patted her jammies and dusted off her hair the best I could. Once the girls were ready to get in the tub, I had to rub Abby's head pretty vigourously to get the flour that was caked onto her scalp. I finally ended up getting her comb and combing the globs of flour out of her hair. While I was doing all this, the phone rang, the boys walked in from school (which I was suppose to meet them at the bus stop) and Aaron hollers up, "Mom, someone is at the door." I start coming down the stairs and see the top of a man's head and proceed to tell him that I am not interested in buy anything from him. Talk about Open mouth, insert foot. He says, before I realize who it was, Mam, I am not trying to sale you anything, I just need to take a couple more pictures of your basement. He was the insurance adjuster. To see his face when he saw my kitchen floor was priceless. I quickly apologized, explained what has just happened and he laughed and said, God bless you. I have four kids of my own and boy am I glad they are raised. I have Aaron watch the girls in the tub while I take him to the basement to take a couple more pictures, he got a sample of the damaged carpet and he was on his way. I quickly had to get the girls dressed and head off to the school to pick Jake up from the talent show tryouts and swing by the library to drop off books, go to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then back to the school to pick Danny up from his first day of track. Luckily, the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home so I was able to get my kitchen all cleaned up before they tracked all the flour through the house.

Just last night, Grandpa Rogers called and I had told him what a handful Abby was and he just said, "She can't be that bad." I told him he was welcome to come visit and see for himself. I know that is not possible, so here is proof how busy Abby and in this case, Clarissa too!!

Caleb's Family Party

Today we celebrated Caleb's birthday as a family. For many birthdays now we have decided to celebrate the kids birthdays on Sunday after church and dinner. This way their birthday tends to stretch out a little longer. Especially when we have the friend party on Saturday. Caleb is always to excited about anything he gets. His eyes say a thousdand words. Happy Birthday,Tiger!

Caleb's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Caleb's birthday with 6 of his friends. Caleb had his heart set on having a music themed party. He had remembered when I was planning the girls party in February that the cake shop I rent my cake pans from had a guitar shaped cake pan. He wanted to play musical chairs, make a musical instrument and have a musical type pinata. I was able to succeed in 3 of the 4 wishes. I found a star pinata instead. The kids had so much fun making tamborines, breaking open the pinata and playing musical chairs. The think their favorite thing was the pinata and of course ice cream and cake. Caleb had a lot of fun with all his friends!

Pinewood Derby

Tonight we had our annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Jake and Aaron had so much fun. We have about 16 boys in our pack and there were a lot of unique cars. Jake's car was painted like Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars" and Aaron's car was painted like the Mach 5 from the movie "Speed Racer". Aaron is in the Wolf Den and raced against 5 other cars and he won 1st place within his den. Jake is a Webelos and raced against 3 other cars and he won 1st place witin his den. That put Jake, Aaron and a young boy who was the Bear winner racing against each other. It was really exciting to watch who would be the over all winner. The track started acting up so it took quite awhile to see who would be the winner. The results came in and Jake was the overall winner with Aaron as a close second. I was happy to see that Jake finally won an event in his Cub Scout career. He is so easy going and little things like this don't bother him. Aaron had a great sense of sportsmanship because he wanted Jake to win since this was to be his last derby. Aaron said, " I have two years to win the trophy, so it's okay that Jake won." What a sweet boy. Congrats goes out to both my boys for a job well done!

Happy 6th Birthday Caleb!!

I can hardly believe Caleb is six years old. Boy do they grow up fast! Caleb has been such a joy to have in our family. He is the son that has many nicknames. The most common one we use is "Tiger". He has been called "Mr. Googlee eyes" from Tom & Michele because he would make a funny look with his eyes and wiggle is eyebrows. Matt somtimes calls him "Mr. Personality" because his emotions show on his face and they are usually pretty energetic. Caleb is a great little brother and big brother. He loves to play with the big boys, but he is willing to play "girl" games as well. Caleb's favorite color is green so it is fitting that he was born around St. Patrick's Day. His favorite movie is still "Cars" and he absolutely loves Lightining McQueen. He loves any type of candy as long as it has no nuts. His favorite foods are Pizza, Hamburgers & Hot Dogs and his least favorite is homemade Macaroni & Cheese because it has crunchy things on top. We love you Caleb and hope you have a wonderful birthday today and a great party on Saturday. Love Mom & Dad

And the Rain Came Down. . .

We all know the saying, "When it rains, it pours." This week has been one of those weeks that we couldn't wait to get over. On Monday, Matt called me around 5 p.m. to let me know he was stranded on the freeway. I couldn't believe it. Matt never has this kind of bad luck. After giving the phone to Danny so he could gather all the tools and things that Matt would need, I left Danny in charge of finishing dinner and Clarissa and I were off to "help Dada fix his broken car". This is what Clarissa kept repeating on the way to assist Matt. Matt was able to switch the battery to get him on his way, but the battery wasn't the right one, so he needed a piece of rope to tie the hood down. After seeing him looking on the roadside, I rolled the window down and asked him what his was looking for and he told me a piece of rope. I got looking in the car and there in an emergency kit that his mom, Pam, had all the family make over 9 years ago was a piece of rope. I gave it the Matt and he was surprised we had something like that in the car. Thanks Pam! After having to charge the battery twice on the way home and examining the car, Matt figured out the alternator needed to be replace. It has been six days and we are stilling trying to find the right one. It's a little unbelievable that we live in the Auto City and we can't find the part for our little Ford Focus. We are very grateful that Matt is able to use a test car from work.

On Wednesday evening around 11 p.m., Jake got up to use the bathroom and stepped in water. He came running up stairs yelling, "Emergency, Emergency." I honestly thought--what now? Anyway, he continues on telling us the carpet is wet in the basement family room. Matt, being sick and already planned on taking Thursday off, mumbled as he got out of bed, "what next?" We followed Jake downstairs and as we saw how wet the carpet was, the sump pump started cycling again and we could hear the water shooting on the other side of the door. Matt opened it up and saw that a pipe on the sump pump had come completely loose. Luckily the door was there so the water didn't spray our treadmill and other stuff directly. About 2 hours and 60 gallons of water later, we headed off to bed with the plan of cleaning the carpet in the morning. Thursday was an exhausting one. Matt rented a carpet cleaner from Lowe's and spent all day working on the wet carpet and we decided since we have been wanting to clean all the carpet for awhile, he cleaned all the carpet in the house. Around 8 o'clock that evening after he had taken the machine back to the store, he was doing a further examination of the carpet downstairs and realized it was worse than he originally thought. He then began pulling up all the carpet to let the padding get more air to dry out. He had to work on Friday so after the work day, he came home telling me that he had contacted the insurance company and the carpet guy. We then had to rearrange furniture throughout the house so we could fit what was downstairs. Nothing like an impromptu change of scenery in all areas of the home! Saturday involved the removing of the padding and carpet so it can dry so the garbage man will be able to haul it away. This is so sad since the carpet was in really good shape and was only about 5 years old. We will see how things turn out with the insurance.





Things happen in threes. Isn't that the saying? Well, tonight while one of the boys was carrying Abby to the family room, she slipped and was caught leaving all her weight suspended by only one arm. She ended up dislocating her right shoulder. Matt could feel the ball out of the socket and Abby was unable to move that arm. We called a friend who is just finishing medical school and he recommended not waiting til morning to take her in and get it set back in place. Here is the part that makes it all OK. While Matt was upstairs putting Abby in her PJs before we left for the ER a strong spiritual feeling came into the room. Matt checked her shoulder a second time with clothes off and could not feel the dislocation anymore. She had been whimpering and whining (she could not use the arm) and now began again to laugh and giggle like we are used to seeing. She even reached up with the right hand, yes the right hand, to wipe away her tears! What a contrast... We call it nothing short of a miracle. A loving and kind Heavenly Father fixed Abby's shoulder. We knelt down as a family and gave thanks for His blessings. Things like this let you know you are not alone in the challenges you go through.

Loose Tooth

Today when Caleb came home from school, he saw me in the driveway and ran over to me. "Mom, he said, I couldn't wait for school to get out so I could tell you about my loose tooth." We went inside so I could see it and by golly it was ready to come out. I told him to wait for Dad to come home so he could be a part of this happy time. About 30 minutes before Matt was due to come home, Caleb comes over to me and asked, "What is Dad's phone number so I can tell him about my tooth?" I was just laughing to myself as I told him the number and listening to him tell him about it. Well you better believe that as soon as Matt walked in the door, Caleb was as excited to see him so Dad could help him pull out the tooth. Matt and Caleb gathered a towel and a pair of pliers and I grabbed the camera. Caleb was a little nervous at first, but once Jake helped calm him down, one firm tug and the tooth was out! This first thing Caleb said was, "Can I take it to school tomorrow for show & tell? Aaron told him about the money he would be getting from the Tooth Fairy! I can't believe that my youngest son just lost his first tooth! Boy, they grow up too fast.

BEFORE THE TOOTH CAME OUT!

DURING -- I"M NOT SO SURE OF THIS!!

AFTER, THE EXCITMENT IS BACK!!

SHOWING IT OFF!