Thursday Thoughts

Thursday July 31st. I ask you where did the summer go??? I have my first middle school PTA meeting here tonight. Hard to believe that we are in middle school already. PTA in middle school is much different than elementary...so I am looking at a good year!! For those wondering----yes, I am President of PTA at both schools. At Jacob's school this is my 4th year and we are in serious training and delegate, delegate, delegate mode. It is my last year to hold this position there and we have a wonderful group of new parents who are ready to start their turns. At the middle school they have just a few "big " events and the teams for those are all coming together so yea!! again I am looking forward to a great school year.

I am working with two of the larger congregations in the area ..we are starting prayer groups that will pray over our school and the children. Our Elementary is in serious need of prayers. Our kids come from a very rough area of town ,they are bussed in. a couple of years ago the district decide this would be best. we lost many "stable" white and black families at that time. we choose to stay and have not had one regret. Our staff is one of the best and together we are making this a safe place for our students to learn. I feel my kids are very well adjusted and have developed a heart for helping their classmates. So, please say an extra prayer as school starts and these little one get off the bus to us.

Mark and I both have a Facebook site now... we are still trying to learn all about it. So if you are on facebook come on over and check us out.

Tomorrow, is a water park and picnic day. We are excited. Jacob is having a friend over tonight to spend the night. Moms of boys.....do you ever have the need to to have girly tea party???? for the last month I have had 3 or more boys in my basement EVERYDAY and some nights. Legos, Guitar Hero, Halo, shooting nerf darts at Harrison, Harrison was roped with a lasso the other day as part of an Indiana Jones scene of the movie they were filming, burping contest and more.

I have calmly been able to stay upstairs and read and do my thing... I fix sandwiches or hot dogs everyday at 12:00 and ice cream sandwiches at 2:00.

So, as we end the month of July today......August brings on a whole new schedule: No more sleep overs here, school supply shopping, back to school haircuts, back to school sleep schedules and getting up at back to school times, breakfast before 7:30 a.m. , you know all that stuff we have do before school starts. School starts the 18th.

I guess I should be glad that my house is the house they all come to but in case anyone is wondering...mine are welcome to come to yours!!!! (don't get me wrong I love having them all over)

Happy Last Day of July and thanks for checking on our little corner of the world.

Texas Trip

I am sorry for the large pictures....I was trying to make a slide show with music...was not having any luck, I will keep trying with other blogs.

anyway, these are some pics from our Texas trip.

#1 Grandad Dixon and his wife Rachel ( Grandad just turned 94 --they both are and do not look it)

#2 Mark and Grandad

#3 Noah and Jacob

#4 N and J with Grandad and Rachel

#5 Grandad with Grandkids and Great-Grandkids

#6 Grandad with Grandkids ( Mark, Karen and Andy)

#7 - 10 N and J pics

We had a nice visit and as we left today it was 106 so we were gald to get home to a cool 100 that it is here. SUMMER!!

Thursday Thoughts

For some reason it always happens that I update on Thursdays.

We are headed to Texas tomorrow to celebrate Mark's Grandad's b-day -- 94! We will see his family on the in and out, as we are all going to be there at somepoint during the week-end.

So , this is our vacation before school starts in a couple of weeks. PTA for me is full swing and I have already been to a couple of leadership meetings over the last couple of weeks and more to come. Scouts is about to start back and Jacob is now in Karate classes. Here we go........

Rick Riordan, a wonderful Author has a new series coming out Sept. 9th. If you have boys 8 - pre teen they would love his first series The Percy Jackson Series- The Lightning Theif. Noah has loved them and is looking forward to the next series The 39 Clues Series. (girls would like these too)

Last night, Jacob had a friend spend the night and at 6:30 this morning Noah's friend came over to stay the day. (we are keeping Noah's friend during the day as his mom is away having radiation for cancer-- Pray for Ethan's family). So, Harrison and I are "hiding" in the laundry Room. They are playing some Pokemon thing and they are all LOUD!.

We are headed to the pool or a movie later today...something to break up the day for me anyway.

Stay Cool where ever you are..our heat index today is to be 105 and next week we are even to hit 110 heat index. This is messing with my pool time because it is just to hot to go. So enjoy a few of our snow pics to keep you cool.

Have a good week-end!!

Just checking in because I know for "Blog Surfers" it is frustrating to keep checking a blog and no updates ( i am a surfer-- i admit it)

Our updates are rather boring. pool, reading , pool, reading , a little guitar hero, more reading...

I am on a HUGE organizational kick.... everything has a place, we threw out about 11 bags of junk with the trash this week. The boys are tired of me asking, " does this person have a head or legs ? if not out he goes.... I have been working on PTA this week making phone calls...I am learning to DELEGATE!!! With two schools this year that means double the meetings, etc.

I am going to work at Jacob's School this year ( as a paying job) for a while at least. Lunch Room Lady!!! Jacob says I don't have a loud enough voice to do that job. ( I guess my yelling and rantings have had no effect on him through the years--hey, I am a good mom after all)

We have an age old problem with the lunch staff. (most schools do) The Principal and I have been talking and are going to try to train and explain how lunch should be. This is not a glamorous job and certainly will not throw us into another tax bracket. It is to help the Principal out with a problem we have dealt with over the past few years. I will be there 3 hours a day.

From jacob's comments you can tell that there has been alot of screaming in the lunch room and the kids are afraid to eat and some won't. When you have a three hour job and get paid very little to do it and you need to take 3 15 minute breaks during your shift, can you imagine the caliber of workers we have had in the past? Can you say work ethic???? ( my big pet peeve---another topic for another blog some day).

Today is grocery day, dry cleaners, more organizing, yard work....A great productive Saturday.

Noah is out boating with a friend of his and Jacob and Dad may go see a movie this afternoon.....what???? the house to myself??? I better get on with my chores so I can enjoy the alone time --- probably reading.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Random thoughts and pictures on a Thursday!!

1. picture #1 is of Noah and Jacob in the fall.

2. picture #2 is from today --- Harrison and his new haircut

3. picture #3 is Happy Harrison after his bowl of frozen peach yogurt -- his favorite

Random Thoughts and exciting new things:

1. School starts in 5 weeks

2. For those that care...PTA is NOT spelled P.T.A. (look it up in the PTA handbook if you think I am wrong!!)

3. Have you tried the new Apple Jacks Straws by Kelloggs? YUM

4. Today, I cleaned out the boys backpacks from the last day of school.

5. Two new things I found at Wal-Mart today.......Pillsbury Crescent Rolls now come in a one roll sheet with no seams --- great for me and my crescent chicken recipe!! and Cascadian Farm - Organic chewy granola bars/ sweet and salty/ Peanut Pretzel YUM YUM!!

6. I really wish we had a Trader Joe's in Ar!!!!!!!!!

7. I really love the back to school isle at Wal-Mart, Target and Office Depot.

8. Now that we have Guitar Hero...if i hear the song Surrender one more time..........

9. The boys and I spent 2 1/2 hours in the new Wal- Mart supercenter looking at everything! Buying pool and picnic snacks and looking at all the books.

10. I went Christmas shopping on e-bay today.

Happy Thursday. Big Brother starts on CBS this Sunday.

Thanks for checking in on our little corner of the world.

Poison Ivy

our backyard "scruff" is all cleaned out and what we think is snake holes are closed up...it looks nice out there not to have all the over grown weeds. No, I will still not go out there. the price of the clean looks comes with Noah having Poison Ivy and Mark is full of chiggers.

Today I am washing bedding, pillows etc.... and poor Noah is confined to the downstairs recliner.

Excuse the striped sheets in the above pictures, trying to keep poison ivy and calamine lotion confined to one area!

Yesterday, the boys and I took a trip to the mall. they have been saving up to get Guitar Hero for the X-box. Sunday night they both went through all the old games for every system we have (all of them -sad to say). Gamestop will trade in. I thought for sure we would only have about 40.00 if even that for a trade in..so in the car I gave them the big "lecture" about begging in the store, I'm only buying this amount, etc..... much to my surprise they had $120.00 trade in. They were able to get Jacob's Guitar Hero for the DS, TWO guitars for the x-box and the guitar hero game. WHAT A DAY!! at our house that is a big thing.

My Book Club meets tonight, I am fixing my food to take, then Jacob and I are off to the pool for a couple of hours. We are to have rain the rest of the week so I have to get my sun in while I can.

This month we read Same Kind of Different as Me. GREAT READ!!! We are also having a book swap tonight. I'll report back on what good reads I bring home tonight.

How about Deana??? Did anyone else think she would pick Jesse??

Happy July 5th!!

July 4th was very uneventful at our house. We went up to the V.A. grounds around 7:00 and hung out until fireworks started. We were the only people there until about 9:00 so it was nice a quiet. A stop at Sonic (WHOO HOOO) for ice cream on the way. The fire works were on the other side of the river from which the boys are standing. That is not a very good pic of the LR skyline.

The weather was great and once the sun went down it was actually very cool as you can see from Jacob's picture.

The fireworks were really NO BIG DEAL (Sorry Little Rock but they were a little on the lame side)

Today the boys are cleaning the back yard and closing up what they think are snake holes, chopping down bushes and cleaning out the old wood pile. I will have to make a special treat for dinner for all their hard work today. notice I am NOT out there with them. ( I am doing laundry and mopping) --- what a productive day this is turning out to be...maybe i will make something special for dinner!!!

Happy rest of the Holiday week-end!!!

can you say PHOBIA???

yes, i have a huge snake phobia. i can not even watch Indiana Jones when he is in the snake pit and no i never saw the movie snakes on the plane----(did anyone see that see movie??)

I took this picture this afternoon from our sliding glass door in the basement. a little to close to the house for me.

harrison is going wild since he knows something is out there. the boys are having

a grand time making fun of me.

so, will i go out into the backyard again??? probably not for a long time. luckily there is nothing out there for me to warrant going out there. so, all you that are laughing go ahead and have your fun but snakes are not for me at all!!

mark and i did look it up in google and we think it is a yellow belly racer -- not harmful at all but still gross.

(may i also add that mark decided not to mow this afternoon)

So for all you snake lovers...this one is for you!