……You are faithful to post entries (or eat healthy) for awhile and then suddenly you fall off the wagon! (Or the web) 

Seriously, we’ve been busy. And everytime I’ve sat down to blog, something kept going wrong with our external hard drive-the one with all the pictures on it.  It would freeze up my laptop and by the time I rebooted I needed to move onto something else.  Besides, a blog just isn’t a blog without pictures!

So imagine you’re seeing pictures of:

• our field trip to the zoo
• a family outing to Dinosaur State Park
• my boys horsing around with their little sister. Literally.  Precious, ain’t?
• big kids playing roller hockey and tennis
• little kids playing their hearts out at a gigantic “castle park”
• my boys burning leaves and chocolate for science class. Really!
• many more miscellaneous pics

You also missed out on posts about:

• above mentioned pictures and events surrounding them
• our school year so far
• updates on pregnancy
• the drive shaft blowing apart on the suburban while driving down the highway
• our visitors and how my family can baby proof an entire house in less than an hour-and clean it too!
• politics
• our trips to the pediatric dentist and how I’m funding her holiday vacation
• who knows what else?

1. It’s my birthday.  Can you guess how young I am?
2. I scored a 34 on my ACT.  Smart, huh?
3. My hubby and I met at Taco Bell. I fed him. Got to his heart thru his tummy!
4. I hate roller coasters.
5. I’ve been pregnant 11 times. We have 6 babies in Glory, and our 6th living child with be here within 8-10 weeks. 
6. I mix up my words all the time and rarely notice.  My family finds it entertaining.  Last week Kid2 got a cut on his foot while we were out.  I bandaged it and told him that I needed to take off his foot when we got home to clean it.  He knew what I meant.
7. I wear contacts because without them I can’t read the second line on the vision test.  Even the E is blurry, but come on now, we all know it’s there!
8. My greatest love is not my husband nor my kiddos, it’s my Lord and Savior!
9. I’ve got Irish skin and German gas. Thanks Gramps!
10. I’m the first-born of my generation and my daughter is the first-born of hers. (maternal side)
11. I cannot knit or crochet worth a lick.
12. I have a thing for Hot Tamales.  Oh so good!
13. My middle name is Marie
14. I do not drink coffee.  I’ll take a big mug of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows and whipped cream over java anytime!
15. I had a nose job.  When I was 5.
16. I’m quiet IRL. My hubby’s the outspoken one
17. I like to cook and bake
18. I can’t stand apple bubble gum. I think it gives you bad breath
19. I actually enjoy doing laundry. 
20. I hardly ever make my bed
21. I’m a cheesehead that moved to Cowtown.
22. I homeschool my kiddos year round.
23. I like to read
24. I will not go into our swimming pool if the temperature’s below 90
25. I’ve been induced with all my babies
26. I really enjoy Culvers
27. I’ve needed stitches on my chin 3 different times
28. I have never lived by myself
29. I like to play this game when I really should be doing something else.
30. I don’t have any tattoos
31. My first car was a 79 buick.  I got it in 95(or was it the end of 94?)

We survived Hurriicane Ike.  Actually, Ike never came too close to us, it scooted East and took the rain and wind with it.  Saturday was cloudy with some rain and wind, but nothing like what was projected to hit us earlier last week.  I am grateful. 

Regardless, we were prepared for anything.  Our gas tanks were filled up, water restocked, food bought, batteries, lanterns, etc. checked, propane tanks were both full and ready to go.  I even made sure we had light up thingees for the kids to play with if we lost power.  House was cleaned up and all the dirty clothes were laundered.    

Standard stuff, right?  Then here is my question to you all.  How come so many people were unprepared for this hurricane?  They had adequate time to get all their supplies in order, but many chose not to.  Even worse, many people in mandatory evacuation areas decided to risk their lives and stay behind.  And now they expect FEMA to come in and rescue them.  There are people who actually need help and here we are taking care of idiots.  I am NOT talking about everyone.  I’m just venting about the ones who didn’t do a thing and expect to be taken care of because they were stupid. 

And do not get me started with FEMA.  The government is way too big and has way too much power.  Whatever happened to relying on each other locally?  Taking care of your needs and the needs of your neighbors?  If that is too much then the city needs to get involved, then the state.  You should see the way Texas is pulling together here.  Texans helping Texans first.  Not Wisconsinites helping Texans.  We can take care of our own, thank you.  Even the idiots.

I just found out that we will be getting one soon. Hopefully by the end of the week!  Woohoo!!!!  Rejoice with me!  This is money from July, people, JULY!!! 

As always, just as our savings is nearly tapped out!   God is so good!!!  HE always provides. In HIS time!!!!!

Rejoicing!!  ~Kelly

Last month Mr. Graycrew had mentioned the tires on the Suburban were going to need replacing in a few months.  Ok, I’ll budget that in-no problem.   We can take care of it when we get our first paycheck.  Maybe second.  

Circumstances changed this past Friday.  Mr Graycrew took Kid1 to a local nature preserve to spend some quality time with his little girl young lady and to play around with his camera.  On the way home he made a pit-stop at the gas station so Kid1 could use the restroom.  The ones at the park were not up to her standards. According to her they were stiiiiiiinky.

When Mr Graycrew parked the car, he left the wheels turned cockeyed and noticed something.  The insides of the tires were bald.  All four of them!  Yikes!!

The very next morning my Mr Safety purchased 4 brand spanking new tires and had an alignment done.  The wheels were so misaligned that they barely showed up on the ranges.   What’s funny is that we never noticed.  The Suburban always drove straight on for us.  I guess you could say that the car was perfectly misaligned!

Sorry to be offline for awhile.  Mr Graycrew had minor surgery 2 weeks ago and I was busy taking care of my man!  He’s doing better and is slowly on the mend, Praise the Lord!

Kids are doing great.  We took some unplanned time off school last week due to the teacher not feeling well!  The substitute never showed up, teeheehee.  The kids already had some days off, I just opted to make it the whole week.  I did manage to sort through all the baby and toddler clothes and divide them into new storage buckets by gender and size.  Whew, that job is finally done! AND my closet is much, much cleaner.  It only took 14 buckets, including outgrown dress shoes.  (All other shoes get donated or tossed)

Our extracurricular activities are starting back up.  Kid1 is REALLY enjoying her choir class.  PE starts this Friday.  Kid1 will be playing roller hockey, Kid2 tennis, and Kid3 kickball this month.  The boys are anxious for Spring to come so they can get back into Little League.  Now that should be fun.  3 different boys on 3 different teams, all with conflicting schedules I’m sure!  No need to dwell on that right now.  I have a few more months before our busy season hits!

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This is what happens to 10 year olds with too much energy! Bwaaaahaahaaaa!!!

 

The lawn needed mowing earlier this month and we found ourselves without MowerMan(that would be dh) for the week.  Kid2 has been eager to start manly yard work; You know, things other than picking up toys and dog poo and hauling garbage. So I gave in and let him mow the lawn AFTER he picked up poo and toys!!! 

He was so eager to please his Dad that when Mr Graycrew came home he was marched straight out back to check out Kid2’s work in the dark.  My boy has already mowed a second time and is doing a great job at it!

 

..so why don’t I just stay gone?  …..Ok, flashback to the 80s and Randy Travis is over. Back to the regularly scheduled blog.. BTW, I’d never stay gone for too long.  How long is too long, anyway? 6 months? 6 years?

We have not been enjoying these dog days of summer.  Too many 105° days for my yankee blood.  Mornings are spent deep in school subjects.  Afternoons are spent swimming, then back to school till supper. Which lately has been after 7pm.  It’s too hot to eat enything but ice cream before than. I’m starting to understand the whole Mexican tradition of siestas though!

We celebrated Mr Graycrew’s birthday the end of July.  He had been out of town all week and we were expecting him home on his birthday, so out came the paint and big roll of paper…

 

 

Kid2 and Kid5 made the most mess…Cleanup duty!!

 

Pretty girl!  See the blue paintshadow?  It’s an 80’s theme today!!!

 

Mr. Graycrew’s view when he came home!  

Want to know the best part of his birthday?  It was when I was going through his suitcase to get laundry started and happened upon a present for me!!!  Our anniversary was two days later and apparently he had been saving up to buy me a beautiful diamond necklace!  Now you’ve got to understand the surprise here.  Money had been crunched due to a major delay in pay and a new job.  Which means no extras, no trip back home for a wedding we wanted to attend(boo hoo), and no new camera for dh’s birthday.  He only got an IOU for after payday!!  I wish I would have thought of putting extra money aside to surprise him!  I am blessed, people.  I am blessed!!!

Till next time! Sooner than later :)     ~Kelly

 

 

 

I have spent half the day looking for Kid2’s math CDs. Checked the bookshelf by the table where I keep stuff we use daily. Nope, not there.

Checked our desk drawer in the office where some other cds are.  Nada.

On the breakfast bar under a pile of papers? Zilch.

Oh I know, let’s call Mr Graycrew. I betcha he put them somewhere.   He has no clue.  

In comes Kid1.  “Mom, have you looked on the math shelf?” Now why would they be there? That’s for math that no one is currently using.  I mean come on, who in their right minds (in this house) would put math cds on the bookshelf designated for math curriculum?   Hmpphhh    Guess what?  FOUND ‘EM!!

So now Kid2 is happily working on his next lesson in Math5. He won’t need a new cd for another 30 lessons or so.  That gives me a month to lose ‘em all over.

I have heartburn. Gotta go find me some Tums. Does this mean that our baby will have a head full of hair? Stay tuned. Dom…dom….dom.

Toodles!  ~Kelly

Yeah folks, you heard right.  We have been bombarded with mice. (Maybe bombarded is too strong of a word).  Ok, we have been invaded.  Now Mr Graycrew has been diligently setting traps and they have remained empty for the last 2 weeks.   So great, mice problem solved-right?  Nope. 

I was talking to Mr Graycrew the other day on the phone when I noticed our dog had her attention on something under the pool table.  Thinking that one of the children left a snack under there, (No, not my kids, they know better than that. Rolling eyes here) I casually moved a storage container of Magnetos so GrayDog could clean up after them.  Well, it wasn’t crumbs. It was a mouse.  I shrieked into the phone and jumped onto the nearest chair, causing my dear husband to go deaf. (Remember, I was on the phone with him)  It got away from Graydog, but she managed to catch it later and proceeded to eat it.  Who needs a cat anyway?  I keep telling myself it was the same mouse…Mr Graycrew will be home tomorrow and he’ll take care of traps.  Till then, I’ve got my mouser!!

So this week has been spent thoroughly cleaning nearly every nook and cranny of this 4000sf house. That’s in addition to our normal school routine.  I’m finding the time in the evenings. With hubby gone, it gives me something to do.  Let’s call it early nesting folks, shall we?