Good Gravy!!

I have this obsession with rereading all of my posts to make sure I don't sound like a crazy person or someone who comes from a family of Ozark hillbillies (which I do). My last post though - GRACIOUS! It's like I didn't even proof read it; but I DID! Isn't that sad?

It reminds me of a little saying on a very ridiculous CD called Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Musical BBQ.

Brak:
One time I hired a monkey to take notes for me in class. I would just sit there with my mind a complete blank while the monkey scribbled on little pieces of paper. At the end of the week the teacher said, "Class, I want you to write a paper using your notes." So I wrote a paper that said "Hello, my name is Bingo. I like to climb on things. Can I have a banana? Eek eek." I got an F. When I told my Mom about it she said "I told you never trust a monkey!" The end.

Is it too late to convince you that I hired a monkey to post that blog?

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I LOOOOOOOOOVE the theme for Friend Makin' Monday! It's all about what we love about Fall! If you'd like to join in, go see Amber at {aefilkins}!!

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What I LOVE about Fall...

1. I have to agree with Amber on this one - Cool, Crisp Days!

2. Don't tell my husband but - FOOTBALL!!

And PLEASE don't tell him I put an OU photo up here, he's a UT fan!!

3. Thanksgiving.

4. Ordering Caramel Apple Cider from Starby without getting weird looks.

5. Soup!!!!

Tonight I'm making Tortellini Meatball Soup from my Country Home magazine!

Friend Makin' Monday - MORE QUESTIONS

Ha ha! More questions! I love answering questions. This time though, it's for Friend Makin' Monday over at Amber's blog (here) and not just because I want to - mean, not because I've been begged to.

1. Do you cook every night?
I'd love to cook every night...but I can't say that it happens often. Usually I end up exhausted at least two days a week and we end up at Chicken Express.

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?
We go cheap here: Arm & Hammer!

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?
Laundry, what laundry?

4. How often do you eat out per week?
Twice a week or so...way too much actually!

5. Where do you usually eat out?
Chicken Express happens a lot...otherwise it's this YUMMY burgers and custard place called Freddie's.

6. What is your favorite retail store?
The Container Store

7. What's your favorite thing to drink?
Sweet Tea

8. Do you take vitamins? What kind?
I take a multi vitamin, fennel supplement, Acai Berry supplement, B12


9. What percentage of the household chores to you do?
95%


10. Do your children do chores? {Or will they, did they, etc}
Yes...Ethan cleans his room, picks up all the shoes in the living room and feeds/waters the dog.

11. Do you go to church?
Absolutely!!!

12. Do you have a housework schedule?
I do but it doesn't function well...I'm actually working on a new one as an assignment with my accountability partner.

13. Do you keep a working budget?
Ahem - we're working on that too.

14. What do you do at night as a family?
We watch tv, go for walks, go to church and have sword fights - don't call child services yet - they are foam swords I bought from Target's $1 Spot.

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?
Prayer, rest and double checking the family calendar.

16. What do your mornings look like?
Chaos, basically. Ethan gets up, gets dressed and brushes his teeth while I make breakfast and finish fixing his lunch. While he's eating I get ready to take him to the bus stop. After he's on the bus, I come back home and waste time until I have to get up and go to work.

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?
6am but I'm going to start getting up at 5:30 for the 5 o'clock club thing.

18. What time do you go to bed at night?
Usually after TMZ - 11:30ish. It's GOT to be earlier though.

19. How do you manage all of the paperwork that floods into your household? {bills, school work, magazines, ads, etc}
I'm terrible at organizing the bills - they are EVERYWHERE.

School papers get dealt with the moment they come in the house - homework finished, papers signed and calendars marked.

Magazines sit on the coffee table until the new issue comes in - then they get stacked on the bookshelf.

Ads are usually thrown into the trash can by the mailbox.

20. How do you keep your household organized? {calendars, charts, etc}
Organized is a relative term...HA! I'm working hard on reorganizing everything since everything changed once E got into Kindergarten. I've found some pretty great websites to help too! Lisa Whelchel's got some great info: HERE and so does Home Made Simple: HERE.

Friend Makin' Monday

Today task ~ VACATIONS!!
This task has two parts {numbered ever-so-nicely for you}. You can do either one or both ~ it's up to you!

1. Tell us about the best {or worst} vacation that you've ever taken.

2. Tell us FIVE places/vacations that you would like to take at some point your life. It doesn't have to be next year...maybe it's the vacation of a lifetime or somewhere you just dream of going years from now.

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Jolanthe at No Ordinary Moments is filling in for Kasey at All That is Good for this week's Friend Making Monday.

This week I have chosen Question #2. The Hubs and I stay so busy we can barely get a weekend away so taking a vacation isn't something we've been able to plan yet. If/when we do, here are some places we'd like to go!

5. The mountains and countryside of Montana!

My husband is a little bit in love with Lonesome Dove and since that's where they all went, that's where he wants to go too. I must admit, it would be close to heaven to horseback ride in these mountains.

4. Eureka Springs, Arkansas

This is the one that's most likely to happen, and I'm perfectly ok with that! I loved in Rogers, AR for a while and got to visit Eureka every six months or so. Now that I'm an grown up I'd like to make two trips up there: a romantic one with my Hubs and a fun weekend away with the girls.






3. The Irish Countryside.

Do you think they'd find it annoying if I spoke with an Irish accent while I was over there?

2. Greece.

I love my friend Krissy and she is Greek. I love Feta and that's Greek. I love My Big Fat Greek Wedding - so why not just head on over to Greece to that I can complete my conversion from Native American to Greek?

1. Vienna, Austria

I would like to impose myself upon my friend Kristi, at some point. I admittedly never even thought of Vienna until Kristi and her husband moved there nearly two years ago. Ever since then I've been wrapped up in their blog and their new "home country".

Wilson Family, you may want to start preparing yourselves now.

So there you have my dream vacations - in no particular order - even though I numbered them.

Friend Makin' Monday

Good Day everybody!!! This weekend was interesting, to say the least. While things didn't work out the way we hoped, God's will was done and we are SO thankful! He's too good to us!!! Thank you for all of your prayers!!!


Today is Friend Makin' Monday (hosted by Kasey at All That Is Good!) and today's task is to tell 10 things you love about summer.


This is the first year since high school I've been at all excited for summer! I used to hate the hot sun, sweating and chlorine but this year, they seem like a perfect combination.


Here are my top 10 things I love about summer:


1. Watermelon. My mouth waters just thinking about it. I'm on South Beach's Phase 1 so I'll have to hold off on watermelon for a while though.

2. We are a family of fish. We could swim all day every day. We swam twice yesterday and once the day before. We even swam on Friday night.

3. Baseball! We don't care if it's my brother-in-law's little league (he's 12) game or watching our favorite Texas Rangers (who are kicking some major tail this year!).

4. Grilling! I've been inspired by Food Network's Grill Week and I've started doing most of the grilling at our house. David loves to grill but he loves throwing the ball with Ethan more so it works out nicely for us. Saturday I grilled chicken breasts and grill baked some potatoes...my favorite.

5. Camping. We took E to my in-laws' campsite a few weeks ago and he did GREAT so at the end of July we're going camping with my aunt and uncle. I can't wait to take him out camping again!

6. Vacation Bible School! I love VBS! Especially this year, I get to teach the Bible class!

7. The sun. My favorite days, by far, are the rainy ones but I have a great appreciation for the nice hot summer days. This is really my first year to love the sun like this...I don't know exactly why I've had a change of heart like this.

8. Floating around on Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma. It's the most beautiful lake and anytime we're up there we're spending time with family. I can't wait until we go this year!

9. I can wear my flip flops without shame. I wear them year round but you get some pretty strange looks in the middle of January.

10. Cherry Limeades from Sonic. For me, this is a summer time staple. There's nothing like laying out next to the pool with a Route 44 Cherry Limeade. Mmmmm....

Friend Makin' Monday

I am lovin' today's task for Friend Makin' Monday, organized by Kasey at All That is Good! I don't come by organization, cleanliness and systems naturally but they are vital for our household, especially with a special needs kiddo, so any help/shortcuts I can get are always appreciated.

I have figured out a few things along the way...

1) My little guy is in pre-K. Well, at least until tomorrow, then he'll be a kindergartner. If you guys have every had children in pre-K you know they bring home lots and lots of art. At our house we display two or three of his pieces at a time on the side of the fridge and put the rest in a binder with the clear sheet covers. Since we started this we no longer have loose art sheets floating around, instead we have a whole notebook full of his art! In August we'll start another for kindergarten. It'll be fun to see how it changes over the years.

2) If there's one thing I hate it's taking pills. Sadly, I get to take 9 pills a day - between my two prescriptions, herbs and vitamins. Every morning my first stop is the kitchen sink where I keep a clean glass ready for water and a small bowl set out with the pills I need to take that morning. This has really helped me be consistent with something I loathe.

3) When Ethan turned 3 and was about to graduate out of children's church into the main worship service his dad and I really started to panic about how he'd do sitting with us; especially since he has ADHD and BP. In order to help him adjust to the new environment we would play church in the living room together. We'd turn off the tv and practice sitting quietly and listening to a sermon with him. At first we could hardly get through 3 minutes but now, with the assistance of snacks, crayons and a nap here or there - he's better than most adults in service! Well, with the exception of the occasional "BRAVO!" hollered out mid-service. I think the pastor likes it though. At least, that's what I tell myself.

4) I have subscriptions to lots of home magazines and I often borrow home decorating, cleaning and organizing books from the library. Why? They motivate me to keep my place clean and orderly. That and they help me pass the time while Ethan watches Spongebob (I know, I'm a bad mom for letting him watch it).

5) I love cooking veggies with chicken broth! Not only is it lower in fat and calories, it makes them taste yummy! My favorite dish to do this with are my mashed potatoes...I've cut the butter in my taters by at least half and Hubs loves the flavor. Win-win, I must say.

Well, that's about all I can come up with off the top of my head right now! Swing by All That Is Good to check out some more ladies with some great tips and tricks!

I'm Excited

I just found a new thing to do on Mondays!! I know I'm a little late but I am soooo going to jump on the bandwagon right now!!

It's called Friend Makin' Monday! Kasey from All That is Good puts this thing together every week!

This is my first week and I already late! How exciting!

I love making friends and I love answering questions so this should be good!

Here we go...

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Today's task: Copy and paste these questions to your blog and give them your own answers.

You wouldn't be caught dead where?: At a Jonas Brothers Concert - or anything involving them - for that matter.

Do you have any hidden talents?: In my dreams I can play the keytar.

Name two things you consider yourself to be very good at: answering the phone and learning the Robot

Name two things you consider yourself to be very bad at: Actually doing the robot and not being scared when somebody jumps out at me.

Have you ever won a trophy?: I have won many for softball!

Name one thing not many people know about you: As a child (up into my teen years too) I used to jump from 50ft. bluffs into water.

Name your earliest memory: This is a hard one...the earliest thing I remember is a crushed velvet picture of a horse running through water that used to be hung outside the bathroom door in our old trailer house.

What was your favorite musical group in jr. high?: Hanson and Sublime.

What was something the worst roommate you ever had did?: Let's just say when I went to move out I saw the evidence of her...ummm...promiscuity in my suitcase. I'll spare you the details.

When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?: A horse trainer.

What was your worst dating experience?: I have only dated one man and we got married a year later. Let me just say though, our first date was to see Mr. Deeds and then dinner at Denny's. Classy, huh?

If you were about to die what would your last meal be?: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans with bacon - HANDS DOWN! Mmmm....

Who is the most important person in your life?: Aside from Christ, my husband for sure! He is just an amazing man and makes me so proud! Third, would be our son, Ethan.

If your house was on fire what 3 things would you grab on your way out?: Aside from my family and pup of course: 1.) My Bible written in Cherokee from 1853 2.) The family photo album 3.) E's stuffed animal named Leonard. We already lost Hippo, I don't think he could handle losing another. I don't think I could handle it either!