This is It!

I made it..."A Post a Day in the Month of May!"

Now, it wasn't exactly how I imagined it. My number of posts do correlate with the number of days in May, but they weren't all posted on time (partly due to computer problems for a week or so & partly due to a few days of just not being anywhere near my house/computer causing several to have to be "backdated"), however, this post will make number 31 for May & I am proud of that. (Especially considering how inconsistent my blogging has been for quite awhile!)

Even though I am proud of the fact that I "met" the number goals, I do not really feel like my writing has been very "inspired" (thus the inconsistent blogging over the past year...) & I was hoping that by "forcing" myself to write more consistently that my creative juices would get flowing again. After a month, I still feel like I am "forcing" it a bit & still feel that I am lacking that 'creative spark' that once flowed so easily.

I'm fairly certain that my lack of scrapbooking, card making, picture taking, crocheting, &/or any other "creative task" that I used to partake in consistently goes hand in hand with this development. I'm not really sure what has triggered this 'rut', but I am sure that I am ready to be on the other side of it! I have lots of things I'd like to do/create, but just no desire to actually do them...

I'm going to keep trying though, and hopefully one of these days, those creative juices will be free flowing once again & my writing will come more 'naturally' along with all of those other things that I have enjoyed so much too that are mentioned above. Until then, thanks for sticking along for the ride!

Happy Memorial Day!

Thanks for all those who remember and make the day special!

Thanks to everyone who made/makes this day possible!

Thanks for all you do & the service you provide and especially...

to all of those who have died doing so!

Tied Up...

with family...

(not literally :)...

the whole weekend...

sorry for the delayed "nonpost" post!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends!

Happy Birthday to You!

To my brother-in-law, Eric!

We hope that all of your girls (my sister included ;) are treating you well today!

Happy Birthday!

"That which we call a rose..."

"by any other name would smell as sweet."

This is a very famous quote from Romeo and Juliet.

It also makes me think of Luke. Of course, I love his name and think it suits him perfectly...I am his mother and I was one of the people that gave it to him! Recently, he has also developed a very special fondness of his name. In fact, if he could, every animal/pet we own would also have this very special name. I, however, do not believe that his name is perfectly suited for every bunny (oh yeah, I've never mentioned that Scott has now added bunnies to our "family" :) every new cat and any other pet that we may gain. Luke, however, seems to think that it does.

When Scott decided to get bunnies, he started with two. When Luke was asked what to name the bunnies, he replied "Big Lukies". Scott refused (I know can you believe it!) to name both bunnies "Lukie" and compromised allowing the buck to remain "Big Lukie." The female got named "Elsie" (which was a name that I loved that we had used for our kitten who died over the winter) :(
Scott then decided to pick up a smaller, easier to handle bunny (to be more of a pet for Luke) who was immediately named "Little Lukie" by, you guessed it, Luke!

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, yesterday, Luke & I discovered two (of the cutest little) kittens just off of our porch. One of our momma cats decided that it was time to bring them forward. They were quite friendly & we played with them quite awhile. My brain started working on the question of what to name them. Immediately, "Max" and "Sam" came to my mind because they could be either girl or boy names. Why is that important? (Here comes another back story~boy, I'm beginning to feel like my husband when he tells a story ;)

Last spring, our beloved cat, Sassy aka Sassafras aka Miss Sass, brought forth her couple of weeks old kitten. Luke loved it immediately. I checked, saw that it was a girl & we named her "Mabel" aka "Miss Mabes". Mabel became almost as beloved to Luke as Sassy, not quite as beloved, just almost as beloved. You get the idea, Mabel is important. We talk about her & the things she does a lot. Fast forward to this spring, we have noticed that two of our momma cats are expecting and are wondering about Mabel, but then just at a glance, it became quite apparent that she is a he. Well, we began making a few adjustments...instead of "Miss Mabes" it's "Mister Mabes" and instead of "she" we try to remember to say "he", but we are completely stuck with "Mabel" and a 3 1/2 year old who refers to this cat with every pronoun and every name because we got it wrong & kept it wrong for so long.

Anyway, back to the two kitties. "Max" and "Sam" would be perfect (I think) because they could both go either direction if we mess it up again. I'm fairly certain after today that one is a boy and one is a girl, so I asked Luke about naming the kitties. I asked, "What would you like to name these kitties? I think "Sam" and "Maxine" are cute!" He replies, "No! I want to call them 'Lukies'!"

I should have known that would be his answer...but I think I am going to push for Sam and Maxine. Only out of fear that I may have a little "TRUMP" wannabe on my hands and in my future~who'll want to see his name on EVERYTHING he touches! Yikes! :)

Did you know?

That bubbles blown into the rain don't necessarily pop right away?
I didn't until I tried it today.

That my child would rather stay "little and weak" so he doesn't need a nap?
I didn't until I was told today. :)

Freak out!

Today Luke went to the sitter (as he will continue to do a couple days during the week throughout the summer) & I got a lot accomplished. This is the first time in a long time where I have had a good chunck of a day at home by myself (with neither guy home with me! ;) It was fantastic! :)

Now, I love both of my guys, but neither one of them helps me very much with increasing my productivity level, so these summer days are a godsend in that respect!

I got the counters & table cleaned off & I got our back entry room/laundry room area tidied up (which it had been needing very badly!)

It was thrilling to walk back there into a clean area, until...

Luke & I came back home from the sitter's house...

he FREAKED OUT!!!

He was mad because he "didn't get to help!"

I am truly glad that he likes to help as much as he does & most of the time I do find him to be helpful, but I was a bit surpised by this reaction to 'not getting to help' with it. (If only his father would have the same reaction ;) hehe

Anyway, he calmed down within a few minutes & then...

he saw the kitchen table!

Repeat above ;)

Let summertime begin,...

but I always can't help thinking...

"Is there someplace that I'm supposed to be?" :)

The residual feeling that lingers for a week or so after school is out of thinking that maybe I should be at work instead. Thoughts like, "Did I mistake the schedule?" "Is everyone at work and I forgot to go in?" and "Is school really out?"

Of course, the answers to these questions are obvious, but that doesn't mean that I won't have to keep answering them to myself for just a bit longer yet! ;)

Out with a Bang!

Today was the last day of school for the kids (& me! :) It was a typical last day of school...excitement that the end was here, sadness that the end was here, kids WOUND up! Pretty typical, until...

15 minutes before the last bell would ring & the kids could begin summer!

A huge storm blew up & a wind drill (for real!) had to be done. Everything went smoothly, everyone stayed safe, and the kids remained calm. When all was said and done, everything was okay. Thank Goodness!

Reportedly, there was a small tornado just outside a nearby town-no injuries, little damage, good news, except for...

the 20-30 extra minutes of school for everyone on this, the last day of school!
(Which is every kids' dream come true! ;)

Gnats!

That's all many people are talking about around here and for good reason!

The super wet spring weather has helped to bring them out in full force! Luke, my dad and several other people I know are just covered in bites from these pesky creatures. Luke also loves to swing on his swingset, but I have had to cut his time short because of these d*#% bugs. They fly up my nose, in both ears (at the same time!) & just anywhere else they please...I'm afraid of what the doc will find the next time she has to clean out my earwax...maybe they'll be fossilized! :)

Anyway, supposedly, they'll only be around for another week or two, which would be fantastic, if it happens.

But, I know what comes next...these!

At least, they'd have a harder time flying up my nose! ;)

Weekend Agenda Lowdown

The last (foster care) class.

An overnight sitter.

A weekend getaway to the St. Louis area.

A full night's sleep.

Sleeping in (if I even remember what that is!)

Enjoying some free time.

Being excited to be away and...

just as excited to get back home too!

I Did It!

I ran again tonight! :)

It's been a good 2 weeks since I last ran...

so I started out with less mileage (only a mile), but I attempted to kick up the pace...

not really sure how successful that whole "kicking up the pace" thing really was, but...

it sure felt GOOD!

Happy Birthday to You!

To our nephew & godson, Wyatt!

We can't believe that you're 6 years old already & we wish you the happiest of birthdays! :)

Springtime Recognition

It's that time of year again...spring sports awards/recognition night.

And in our district, middle school volleyball is considered one of those sports. This means I get the chance to talk about the team, our season & most importantly the girls get recognized for being part of the team.

I'm a little nervous about it, but not too much...I'll probably just speak in the moment & go with whatever comes naturally. I did make up a card for each girl & have considered saying something about each one, but I'm not sure that I'll actually do this once everything gets going. I'll probably follow the lead of whatever the other coaches choose to do, but at least the girls can still have the cards as a keepsake of their 7th grade volleyball season.

Our record wasn't great at all, we had sooo many close games that just almost went our way, but then didn't & which would have resulted in a much better record, however, the girls are super athletic, oozing with talent, & learned quite a lot about the game of volleyball, which are all wonderful things! And, hopefully, the fruits of their labor this year will pay off for them next year! It was a good season~here's to the next one!

Running? Oh where have you gone?

It's been almost a week & a half since I have run anything at all! I could give you a list of excuses, but I'm not going to do that either.

I am disappointed in myself that I have not made time for this activity & I definitely don't want to let myself fall back so far that I can't even run at all anymore, but this little "break" has been good in a one way.

I was starting to get to the "I guess I'll go out & run" point...meaning I was having to force myself to do something that I was really enjoying a lot at one point. I also know & realize that this happens with any kind of exercise & that I was in desperate need of adding some variety to my routine.

So...I've started looking for some different things to throw into the mix & as of this Friday (because my 'free' time is very limited between now & then), I'll run again! And after my slight "hiatus", I am looking forward to lacing up my running shoes & hitting the road again! :)

One week to go...

until school's officially out (for me anyway! :)

It's only been within the last week or so that it has even really sunk in for me though. Many others have been in countdown mode for far longer than I have been, but I've officially caught "summer fever" & am ready to be off for a while!

Instead of counting down days, I've been counting down all of the duties I have left to do. With lunch recess duty every.single.day plus 3 other before/after school duties, this number is actually quite large still. As of tomorrow, I still have 8 duties (5 days) left to go, but by the end of the day Friday...I'll be down to only ONE glorious recess duty left (and if you have ever experienced one of these, then you know that they're not always so "glorious"! :)

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about it! Bring on the summertime! ;)

Worn out Sundays

May has been a crazy month up to this point. Besides the computer breaking down, we also had to replace the water pump in our van earlier this month too, which meant borrowing a car from the in-laws for almost a week (Thanks!) We have also gotten to continue our foster care classes again (finally!)

Classes have been going well, but they are on Saturdays & they take pretty much the whole day. 2-3 hour sessions a day along with a 1-1 1/2 hour drive each way (sometimes 2 hours if you allow for the time it takes us to get from our house to whoever's house is babysitting for us that day.) This leaves one nice day off before getting back into the swing of things for the week.

It may be selfish, but I'm not always that super excited about having to "share" my ONE day off with anyone & many times would much rather be holed up at home with Scott & Luke just relaxing. I always seem to have a big "to-do" list for the weekend too, which never gets completely accomplished because, of course, I have planned waaayyyy too much to be able to do all of it in just one day.

All in all, though, it has been a good thing & we have learned quite a bit. It has also been a good thing for Luke too. He has gotten in loads of play time with plenty of friends & cousins, however, come Sunday...he is one worn out kid! It's tough going from being the only kid with adults all week long to having 2, 3, or 4 other playmates for a whole day to romp around with~it wears a kid out! So, Sundays have been somewhat relaxing around here during the month of May, but, boy oh boy, are we all tired too! ;)

Happy Birthday to You!

To our niece,

Carly!

We hope your 2nd birthday is very special!

P.S. Enjoy being 2! Eat lots of cake & cause lots of mischief! ;)

Friday the 13th!!!

Actually, I'm not really very superstitious at all, so this date has never bothered me. In fact, I didn't even realize that this would occur in the month of May this year until I overheard someone mention it at school the other day.

Oh well, I guess that even if it doesn't bother me, at least, it can make an appearance here for a very not-so-noteworthy blog post idea ;)

What's in your foture?

I was assisting a 2nd grader with her spelling words today. We were working on a list of "-tion" and "-ture" words. We talked about the endings and the sounds that they each make. We talked about how, for the most part, you could hear all of the sounds of the letters that come before the endings too. So, basically, once you knew how to spell the ending, you should be able to figure out the other letters in the word by listening for their sounds. Here is the conversation that followed...

Me: "Spell 'future'.../f/ /yoo/ /chur/...remember that you can hear the 2 letters in front of the ending../f/ /yoo/.../chur/."

The student proceeded to write f-o-t-u-r-e.

Me: "Good job, you got the ending! Now let's look, remember I said that you can hear each letter before the ending. You wrote 'foture.' What letter needs to change to make it 'future?'"

Student: (smiles) "Oh Yeah! Well, at least I smelled foture right!"

Me: (hesitantly) "Umm...yes, you did."

Student: "Oh wait, foture isn't a word, is it?"

She smiled again and then changed "foture" to "future" :)

Classroom Help Rocks! :)

"(insert name of helper here) makes me rock!"

A couple of the kindergartners that I work with wrote this line in the class book that they gave to the student helper on her last day of working with the class this year. It was cute, but a bit confusing to all of us adults in the room, until she read a little further and some of the other students had written,...

"(insert same name here) Rocks!"

It was definitely a cute twist on that phrase, although, the meanings are just a tad bit different ;)

What the Heck Happened?!

If anyone has been following along, then you know that I promised "A Post a Day in the Month of May!"

Sorry! Fate decided to intervene and...the power supply component of our computer went bad/broke down just minutes after I published the "Go to bed" post. Apparently, my computer decided it needed to rest as well ;)

So, being without a computer (& not willing to trek all the way across the yard/barnyard area to my in-laws to use their computer every.single.day~I thought it would seem silly to do that just for this purpose), I decided to write down my posts with "old fashioned" pen & paper :) I will be backdating posts & posting them here for you all to read, but it may take several days.

Therefore, I am hoping to be able to keep my original promise, but your just may be getting a whole lot of them "caught up" all at once here over the next few days!

Go to Bed!!!

That's all I have to say to anyone who is still waiting up for the post of the day, including myself! :)

Good Night!

"M" Day

Warning: If reading about children, mothers, anything related to parenting is upsetting, especially on a day like today, please do not continue. All of you still out there "waiting" please know that you are in my thoughts big time today & my hope for you is that you will have all that you are hoping for by this time next year! *HUGS*

Dear Luke,

Thank you for being my son! I love you more than you will ever know. Your entrance into my life brought an end to many years of despair. I know that you had no control over this fact...it was a bunch of us grownups making those decisions for you, but I do remember sitting in that hospital room holding you & just how much joy I felt in that moment. It was unreal! I hope that you will always know that my love for you is just as strong as the love I felt for you in those first moments...in fact, it is even stronger now.

Life will not always be easy for you & it hasn't always been easy for you even in the few short years that you have had. I want you to know that up to this point in your life & as you grow, even when others don't understand you, even when others don't understand your choices, even when others don't understand your actions, please know that your mother always will (or will at the very least being doing her very best to do so! :) You are a great kid & I just love you for being you!

I love your sweetness, I love your hugs, I love your kisses, I love your enthusiasm, I love your humor, I even love your orneriness (although, at times, it has made me crazy! :) I love you!

Thank you for giving me the gift of motherhood~it is something that I cherish EACH & EVERY day!

Love,

Mom

Missed a Day! :(

Blame it on being away from my house & computer from 6:45 a.m til 9:30/10:00 p.m.

Long Day+Feeling extremely tired=missed day yesterday...now on to today's post.

Reading...

has not been high on my priority list lately. I've been reading books here & there...and I actually have several 1/2 started (that will get finished eventually), but I just can't seem to pick up a book and just read it until it is done AND do so in a reasonable timeframe.

I'm tracking my books for a future post & have somewhat been tracking my page totals, but I hesitate to list a book until it is completely finished, thus the "1/2 started" books issue.

I did actually finish reading a book today~bonus! :) It was a Nicholas Sparks book & everyone who saw me reading said the same thing, "Oh, that is a good book!" It was....not great...not fabulous...just good. That's really all I have to say about it...my opinion is that all of his books are pretty much the same. Girl & guy meet...fall in love...crisis occurs that could devastate that love...one of them or someone close to them dies. This book did not disappoint in that regards & stuck to this same tried & true formula. In fact, everytime I heard the statement mentioned above, I would respond with the same question/statement, "Who dies? Someone always dies & I now read them like a detective novel just trying to figure out who is going to die." Sometimes I'm too cynical for my own good I think ;)

Sorry folks!

I know I need a post for today...

only because I promised a post a day in May...

but I am completely lacking inspiration at the moment...

and it is getting late...

and I should have been in bed awhile ago already...

because I've had one too many late nights this week...

which is my own fault...

but I'm tired...

and suffering from a major case of "blogger's block"...

and did I mention that it's getting late...

thus I am apologizing...

for just how lame this post has turned out to be...

and for completely wasting your time with it!

(Here's hoping tomorrow will bring something better :)

In 3 Weeks...

School will be out for summer!!!!!
I'm not sure yet just exactly how Luke & I will spend the summer & what things we will be doing, but it's summer...so who cares! :) I'm not one for attempting to overly plan/lay things out, but I do know of a few things that I would like to do & get accomplished. We'll see what actually gets done though ;)

On a different note, we will also have just finished up our last (foster care) Saturday class at that point too. I'll be glad to have them done~that's A LOT of babysitters to have to find & you all know just how much I enjoy finding sitters ;)-5 "whole day" Saturdays (BIG THANKS going out to all of you who have helped us out thus far, who have signed on to help out in the next few weeks, or who were willing but plans/class dates changed and you couldn't! It means A LOT & I know Luke has really enjoyed hanging out with all of you too & your kiddos (oh, the stories he likes to tell~just kidding! ;)

Isn't it odd?

I don't really have much to say on this matter, except that I find it to be very odd.

What am I talking about?

On one hand, news reports/articles about the death of Bin Laden and on the other hand, news reports/articles about the royal wedding or items connected to the wedding. I find it intriguing that both items sit right "beside" each other & both are considered "top" news items. I'm not trying to diminish the importance of either here, but I just find it ironic that two such different events can share so much space together! One seems so frivolous (& is just the type of stuff I enjoy to no end~just ask Scott who gets to enjoy it with me :) & the other seems so important to our country & humanity in general.

At least, I know one thing they share in common & may just be why they can share so much space together...both have brought happiness & hope to many people!

Rain, Rain...

Will thou ever go away???????????????

I swear that I saw a forecast at the end of last week that had 1 day with a chance of rain and all of the other days were sunshine, sunshine, sunshine! I remember because the previous week had a forecast that stated the exact opposite (& it came true), thus I was soooo looking forward to a little bit more sunshine coming back into our world here.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature seems to feel otherwise & that wonderful forecast disappeared just to be replaced with more of the same from last week.

RAIN!!!

I'm going to get me a pair of boots just so I can make it through all of the mud, that is our yard, to the boat that I am going to be needing to build here very soon! ;)

A Post a Day in the Month of May!

I have a friend who works at a radio station and I have totally "ripped off" this title from the contest that the station holds each May. Sorry radio station contest! I'm going to blame it on laziness ;)

I have not been a very good blogger lately...I just backdated a post for a birthday that I "missed" because I've not even been to my poor little blog since the last time I posted (April 19th!) I'm pretty sure that I've even missed my blogoversary-I need to check the date, but I think that should have been right around or on Easter-YIKES!!!

So...in an attempt to be a better blogger and to get those ole blogger "juices" flowing again, I'm going to attempt bringing you "A Post a Day in the Month of May!" We'll see how this turns out! :)