Update...

I told you last evening about the Pioneer Woman and her amazing donation to Haiti and the relief effort going on over there...

Well, she is almost up to 25,000 comments. That's right... TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND!!! That is one dime times 25,000 comments... I am not a math wiz, but I'm thinking that is about $2,500 dollars IN ADDITION TO the extra thousand that she has already pledged... Amazing, amazing, amazing, PW!!!

SO... the comments are open until noon today. If you haven't clicked over to her site, please do!!

Once again, here is the link: http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/

Happy clicking!!

Haiti on my mind...

I think the world is watching in horror as the images of death and destruction come pouring out of Haiti after the devastating earthquake that has rocked that poor nation.

I saw a mother today PLEADING with a television interviewer to help her find milk for her baby. I cried, because I could not hand that mother milk for her child. And then I prayed to God to send that baby some milk, so it would not die after it had survived an earthquake.

Then I googled "Haiti", and I discovered that it is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. That is saying something... there are a lot of nations that are pretty needy! And, if you look on the map, Haiti is physically close to the US... closer than Puerto Rico, even!!

This is a country that needs help. Now.

One of my favorite "famous" bloggers that I love to read is "The Pioneer Woman". Her link is on my side bar. I love her writing style and her stories so much that I bought myself a copy of her recently published cookbook. Folks, the cookbook was so good that I bought a copy for my Mom, and one for my sister-in-law, as well. Well, "Pioneer Woman" is feeling the need to help the people of Haiti, as well. If you go to this link, http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/ ,

you can help her give to the people of Haiti. She is donating $500 to two charities suggested by her readers. Then, she is also donating a dime for each and every comment left to three other charities.

I can't imagine a more worthy cause, so please take a moment to click on over and leave a comment.

And while you are at it, say an ernest prayer for the people of Haiti. May God bless them.

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday...

Well, you see, I started on this post yesterday, which WAS Wednesday... My plan was to upload some Christmas pictures, since I never got that done, as a Wordless Wednesday post.

But, you see, "life" got in the way... as it often does around here!!

So, today we are having a "Not-so Wordless" Thursday (even though that isn't as catchy as Wordless Wednesday, it will just have to do this time!! :-)

Kate and Gizmo (who is NOT happy about wearing the WebKinz clothes...)
Gracie, trying on her new ear muffs (with the gloves still attached to them!! You can see the gloves on the top of her head!!!)
Abby IS the gift that keeps on givin'!!
Kate with one of her many WebKinz...
Abby got a Fancy Nancy doll!!
Gracie loves Gizmo, and Gizmo loves Gracie!!
All 3 little ladies, standing in front of a VERY large package (which turned out to be a basketball goal!)
The girls turned their PaPaw into Santa...
Here is "Little Santa," aka Gizmo the cat. (She looks SO thrilled!!)
And, last but not least, Gizmo under the tree. She loved it under there!!
Happy Thursday!!!

Basketball...

... begins tonight!!

Abby has decided to play this year. How fun! I'm so proud of her for "stepping out of her box" and trying something new. I am helping to coach her team of first and second graders. Their uniforms are BRIGHT pink, and they have chosen to be the "Panthers"... ( get it? The Pink Panthers?!?!?! Ha ha ha ha!! They thought they were SO very clever!!) Anyway, their first game is tonight, and I am so very nervous for them... none of them have ever played before, so it may be a rough night...

Kate is playing again this year, and she has really come a LONG way from her start last year. I mean, she's no Michael Jordan or anything, but she's improved so very much. She doesn't play until Saturday, but her team practices tonight. (Luckily, I am NOT coaching her team, so I don't have to be in two different places at two different times!!!) Her team has gold uniforms, and are named the "Golden Girls." Very clever, until I told Kate that there was a TV show many years ago about little old ladies that had the same name. After she heard that, she wasn't so "in love" with the name anymore!! :-)

Wish us luck... Basketball is probably the sport I enjoy the most (or maybe softball... I guess it's a toss up!), so I really hope the girls like it and want to continue playing. At the very least, I hope they have fun and learn something new!!

These are the last pics...

... I Promise!! :-)
Here are a few pics from inside the water park.


It was great fun!!

...just a few more pics...

... from the trip we took last week!!

Here's Luke, being splashed by a bucket above his head!
Here's Grace, coming down one of the "kiddie" slides.
Here's all three kids, looking out from a fountain.
Here's Abby on the spraying "wave runners"...
And here's the whole fam!!

Just a few more pics, I promise, and then I WILL move on...

More pics...

I'm uploading the swimming pics a few at a time...

Here's the latest installment of Great Wolf Pics!!

Here are Grace and Abby in the wave pool.
Here are Luke, Kate, and Grace in the wave pool.
And, here are Luke and Kate in the wave pool. I *heart* this picture. Look how happy they are!! Makes my heart smile...

Keep looking out for my pics... That's all I had time to load off of Luke's phone before I was "needed" by some child last night...

Happy FRIDAY!!!! Yay!!!!

Photo time

Here are some long awaited photos from our Great Wolf trip. I do have some more of the kids actually swimming, but they are on Luke's phone... I have to work on that later when his phone is here!

Here are the girls, posing on the bear by the bakery and ice cream shop.
Here are the girls in the treehouse, ready to go swimming for the first time. So excited!
The girls in the treehouse again...
Here are the firls in the kid cabin. Gracie is already wearing her goggles, ready to go swim!
Here is Kate, posing in front of one of the paintings in their kid cabin.
Here is Grace, wearing her goggles, ready to hit the water!
Here's Abby, showing the artwork in the cabin.
And here's Abs again... She loved that bear!
Now... coming soon... photos of the park and swimming!!!

Happy Tuesday!

Surprise, Surprise!

Luke has had to work over the Christmas break.

A lot.

He was on-call on Christmas day, and the weekend after Christmas, and New Year's Eve, as well.

This has made for a "Not so fun, my Dad is working, Ho-Hum" kind of school break for the kids.

SO... we decided to have a "surprise" trip for them for this last weekend before school began again.

We didn't tell them anything about it, but we planned a trip to take them to the Great Wolf Lodge!!
Great Wolf is an incredible hotel with a huge indoor water park.

We told the kids that we needed to take a trip to Dallas, because we needed to go to Home Depot.

Our kids HATE Home Depot, because when we were building our house, we used to go and spend HOURS and HOURS at a time there, picking out "exciting" things like faucets and windows and light fixtures. And maybe a little paint. And just one or two sinks. One trip in particular, we reduced them to tears at a Home Depot... it was a little sad, really, but a trip that we will always remember!!

SO... when we mentioned Home Depot on Saturday, the wailing began.

But then, we showed up at Great Wolf, and the wailing stopped, and turned into cheering!!

Our room was a suite, which had a "kid cabin" inside of it, with bunk beds and a day bed. It was painted like a log cabin and also had fun little critters on the walls. It looked like this.
The water park was fantastic, and was a balmy 82 degrees.

At one point on Saturday evening, the kids told us that the place was "kid heaven".

I think they liked their surprise, and they didn't even complain when we put them to bed at 7:30 tonight!!! :-) They were EXHAUSTED.

Actually, I am exhausted, too. I did take a few photos, but I am too tired to upload them now. Maybe tomorrow, when we get back into our "usual" routine!!

My new best friend...

I have stained concrete floors in my house, and I have a love/hate relationship with them. I love them when my kids spill something on them or when the dog throws up on them... the clean-up is FANTASTIC for stuff like that. BUT, I hate other things about them. They are cold, and they are hard. And, lately, I have been having a TERRIBLE time cleaning them. It has been raining (and snowing!) a lot lately at our house, and LO!!! FRIENDS!!! I cannot describe with mere words how much mud we have at our house right now... It's always muddy in the country, but we are trying to put in a yard, and we have about 10 fresh loads of topsoil in our yard... MUD doesn't even begin to describe what's in my yard!!

Anyway, lately I have swept and dust mopped and wet mopped until I am blue in the face, and it still looked and felt dirty.

UNTIL TODAY!!!

Today, I made a new friend.

The Shark Steam Mop.

It might change my life!!
It cleans AND sanitizes. It's my new best friend.

I had already swept, dust mopped, and wet mopped today when I decided to just go out and buy it and see if it would help. When I came home with it, I filled it (with plain water), and started in on my floors again. FRIENDS!!! I cannot describe the "gross-ness" that came up on the cleaning pad!!! AFTER the floors had already been "cleaned"!!!!!

It was like a ray of light shone down upon it from heaven. The answer to my prayers!!! Three cheers for the shark!!!!