Blogging Isn't As Fun When You Can't See What I've Done!

This will be a boring post becuase I have discovered-- after hours and hours of hard work--that you can't see all the cool things I have done to my blog or Cole's. It isn't really all that much stuff, it is only fonts. But I found these really cool fonts, especially for Cole's Blog...it is called Lumos and it is the font used in the Harry Potter books, so Cole was especially excited about using it. The only thing I can figure is that it shows up on my laptop when I log in because I downloaded the font onto my laptop. I guess that if your computer doesn't have the font in its font library it won't show up for you. So, if you would like to see the fonts I have used on my page you can go to: http://www.rogersgifs.com/fontmaster/c.html to download "Cratch" (it should be at the bottom of that page) and "Club Fluffy" (it is also on the same page). To get Lumos, so you can fully enjoy the Harry Potter page, go to http://www.geocities.com/carpesaponem/lumos.htm and download it there. Once you have downloaded the fonts (they come in zip files). Right click on the zip file to extract the files...put them in a folder where you will remember where they are. Go to "Start", "Control Panel", the folder that says "Fonts", "File--Install New Font", browse for where you put the font, it will show up in the top box, highlight it and click "Ok". The font will then be in your font library. Of course, you don't have to go to all this trouble just to see the things I have done, but I didn't want to let you miss out on the good stuff if you have the desire to see it!

Summer Is Upon Us!

The temperature was a blazing 99 degrees today in Kilgore, TX! In order to cope with the heat, we took the kids to Wal-Mart and purchased a Slip and Slide! Loads of fun for the kids! I am so excited that my kids actually love the water and want to play in it. Ben feels more like Melissa when she said, "Can't the human race get away with never having to go into the water?" I remember riding in the car as a kid and looking at the blue sky, imagining it was a great big swimming pool that I could just dive right into. I hear the water calling to me, and I am willing to jump in! If it were up to me, I would have bought one of those big inflatable pools that the kids were begging for, but we were all happy with our purchase of the Slip and Slide. Once we got home, Ben set it up for the kids and Cole and Jacob commenced to slipping and sliding on it, laughing and having a blast. Annalisa figured out that slipping and sliding isn't as easy as it sounds, so she cried a bit at first. Then Ben picked her up and tossed her down the Slip and Slide so she could slide the whole way....She LOVED it! It was so funny. I made a photo story from the day and I hope you enjoy viewing it. (It may take a few minutes to load, so please be patient!)There are also some pics on there of Jacob playing baseball and all three kids being beautiful. Hope you have fun this summer too!

How To Teach Your Child A Lifelong Lesson....

One of my favorite things I have from my mom is a diary she kept for a while when I was about 3 years old. I love looking through it and reading some of the things I did as a child that either made Mom and Dad smile, or absolutely frustrated them. I really like the entries where I made Michael mad! In one of the entries, Michael came running to Mom crying because I had apparently hit him in the head with a hammer (it probably explains why he is like he is to this day). Well, I must say, after having grown up with him....he probably deserved it and I was most likely in the right when I hit him....but Mom wanted to teach me a lesson--We don't hit people with hammers! In order to teach me the lesson, she hit me in the head with the hammer! That is documented child abuse!! I still laugh about it to this day....but I must say, I don't hit people with hammers, so I must have learned my lesson!

No Candy for Easter????

Today while I was at Windy and Bubba's house, I was having a nice little conversation with Dawson. He really loves me, and we were talking about life, and ABC's, and counting. I decided I would ask him how his Easter was and how much candy he got from the Easter Bunny. WELL, he told me very promptly that he didn't get candy for Easter.... "Only Blake and Carter got candy." Poor kid! Then he told me he wanted to come live with me. I told him that he surely can come live with me, and I will let him sleep in a sleeping bag in a "campout", AND I will give him candy too! Windy looked at Bubba and said, "She'll only give him candy once!" HA HA! He is a very sweet boy and he sure doesn't need sugar to make him be that way!

Mayonnaise or Ketchup? Maybe Both!

If you know me very well, then you know that I have eaten a strange variety of foods growing up. We were served powdered milk until we questioned mom about why she was stirring our milk before pouring it, and why it didn't taste as good as Aunt Melony's. We ate hash...which we loved...but it was just ground beef, potatoes, and carrots topped with ketchup and mustard. Sounds gross, huh? We ate beans and meat--instead of beans and weenies (gross) and I liked it when mom added bell peppers to it. For an afternoon snack we got to eat bread and butter with sugar on top. Who else does that? We ate cold pork 'n beans with mayonnaise mixed in, and we ate tomato sandwiches or pickle sandwiches. Also, our favorite breakfast was "dip strips and tea" which was cut up toast (dip strips) and hot tea. We dipped our toast in the tea and loved it. Jeffrey dips everything in tea (or kool-aid) to this day, but that is a whole other posting! The weirdest thing we ate was apparently when we were very poor. Now I have seen hard times since I have been out of the house, but never hard enough to serve this to my kids. Obviously we couldn't afford lunch meat, pickles or tomatos....or maybe mom just didn't want to take that dreaded trip to the grocery store with her three kids. Either way, we GOT to eat mayonnaise and ketchup sandwiches! Yum Yum! No, way! I refuse to believe that I ever actually liked that. Not even a piece of lettuce or a tomato on that thing! Just bread, mayonnaise and ketchup. Apparently our family used mayonnaise in a lot of dishes though, which may explain my dislike of it now!
(And I must add that since I have been married Ben did try to substitute mayonnaise for milk in macaroni and cheese....come on! Everyone knows water works fine, but mayonnaise is absolutely disgusting....In his defense, he thought it would make it creamier than water!)

Our Family

This is just a quick post to put up a pic of our family that we took today--Easter Sunday 2006. I thought it turned out pretty good. Ben set up the tripod and we posed like he told us to! It is very hard to get the kids to stand still for very long, so I was happy with this one. Hope you like!

We Went, We Rode, We Got Worn Out!!

This past Friday 2 great families went to Six Flags over Texas. Those 2 families were The Newtons and The Smiths. This means that 6 very excited kids were at 6 Flags with 4 somewhat excited parents! It was a long day, but we took a break to eat around 3:00, and after we returned to the park at about 5:00 we realized that we shouldn't even have come before that. The lines were short, and it was so much cooler after 5:00. The big boys had fun riding the Judge Roy Scream and the Shockwave. Well, Carter didn't enjoy them so much, but he did say he wanted to ride them again! Jacob was the only one who got a 48" bracelet, and that caused several problems, especially with his older brother Cole who was VERY upset that he was not taller than Jacob. He looked at me and said, "Why did I not get the same bracelet as Jacob? I am as tall as he is. You told me I am." Wow! Moment of truth for Mom. I almost told them not to give Jacob the 48" bracelet, but then I decided that isn't really fair to him. He is a bit taller. The kids' favorite ride was the Roaring Rapids and it was hilarious how they would laugh and laugh when they got soaked. We rode it 3 times in a row and it was so much fun! We went back to Six Flags on Saturday afternoon and Jacob rode the Titan. That is the coaster in the back of the picture I posted. It goes underground and Jacob was so excited that he could ride it and Cole couldn't, but the first thing he said when he got off was, ,"Cole don't EVER ride that. It makes you dizzy." We laughed! But he is brave! Annalisa and Dawson both want to ride everything also, they aren't scared of anything! All in all it was a good trip and we had some very tired kids at 10:00 Friday night! (kids from L to R:Dawson (3), Cole(7), Blake (7), Jacob (6), Annalisa(3), Carter(4) )

Identity Crisis!

I know that having boys, for me, means having costumes or dress up clothes of some sort. I never thought that boys liked to dress up until my boys got old enough to do it. That was at about 15 months old. My boys were Batman, Robin, Superman or Buzz Lightyear everyday of the week. The reason I like this photo is because Jacob couldn't decide who he was....Superman or Buzz Lightyear!

Then and Now

When Annalisa was born, the boys were so excited about having a baby sister that they couldn't wait to hold her and get their picture taken with her. Little did they know that she would later refer to them as "my boys"! They do not like for her to call them that...they constantly tell her they are not "her boys" they are "Mom's boys". I found the first picture as I was looking through some old photos and thought it was so neat how that picture matches the one we took at Christmas of Annalisa and "her boys". We will have to do that pose again in the future!

Super Model!

Today Annalisa got a package in the mail from Beemaw (Grandma) and Peepaw. It was a pretty pink dress..."that's the one I wanted!" She was soooo excited, she wanted to have a photo shoot in the backyard, and believe me, she poses! After I took the pic, she would run to the camera to check the picture, then say, "let's do that again!" It was good girly fun, so I posted some of the photos from the shoot. Enjoy!

Don't Mess With Your Sister

This is what happens when the Macaroni Boy messes with his big sister. He met my two friends thunder and lightning...there was a storm on his face. Ha Ha!

Christmas Tree Cutting

Every year our family cuts down a Christmas Tree for our house. I made a photo story of our Christmas Tree cutting experience this past year. I hope you enjoy viewing it!

The Macaroni Kid

Jeffrey and I were talking the other night, and we were remembering funny things from our childhood. Yes, we have funny memories! Who wouldn't with Jeffrey in their life? Anyway, during the summer (until the year I turned 12 or so) Mom was still working, and we stayed home. We would wake up, make our beds, get dressed, brush our teeth and go start cleaning the house. Wait a minute! Michael and I would wake up, make our beds, and at least get dressed. The other stuff....that may have been a stretch. Jeffrey would hopefully wake up. It stops there. Then at 9:00 every morning Mom would call to ask if we were awake, which if we hadn't been we were then because she called! She would also ask if we had made our beds, and I guess Michael and I had such a belief that mom not only had eyes in the back of her head, but she had them in the walls or something, so we always made our bed before the 9:00 call, so just in case she could see in our rooms from her job in an office downtown, she would know we weren't lying. Jeffrey on the other hand was smarter than we were and would tell her he had made his bed, but wait until about 10 min before she would get home to actually make it! Anyway, our favorite meal was macaroni and cheese...not the Kraft brand, but Hytop. Yes, we actually liked the Hytop better and to this day I don't buy Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! Well, everybody knows that boiling the water is boring, and putting the raw noodles in the water is also boring, but more fun than boiling the water. Stirring is a little bit of action, but the BEST part of making macaroni and cheese is putting the cheese in! Never mind that it isn't actually cheese, or a cheese substitute.....it's powder for crying out loud! That is what makes it so much fun. So everyday when we would make macaroni and cheese we were supposed to (according to mom) take turns putting the cheese in the macaroni. But Jeffrey would take the cheese packet and run around the house with it crying about how it was his turn, or hide it from us so we couldn't make the macaroni unless we let him put the cheese in. He would actually call mom at work and LIE about me and Michael and cry to mom that it was his turn to put the cheese in. What a baby!!!!! Mom should have recognized that everyday Jeffrey was calling her with the same complaint and it couldn't possibly be his turn again! She probably did know, but just wanted to get him to be quiet, so she asked us to let Jeffrey put the cheese in. Being the angel children that we were (not Satan's spawn like Jeffrey) we graciously allowed him to pour the cheese into the macaroni....the only problem was that Jeffrey would shake that powder so hard only a miniscule amount actually made it into the macaroni...the rest was all over the counter and floor, and our macaroni was not very cheesy. Maybe that is why I don't like Kraft....it is cheesy!

I Am Benjamin Franklin

During the month of February, Cole's class studied great Americans. The students got to choose which great American they would research and write a report on. They could pick anyone, dead or alive, as long as they were from America. This left the choices practically limitless....I mean anyone could have chosen me! Cole chose Benjamin Franklin. Ben was a bit disappointed because he thought he should have picked Elvis! Anyway, Cole read a biography on Ben Franklin, wrote a report, memorized a speech (also written by him), made a power point slide presentation complete with hand-drawn pictures that he scanned in himself (he did all of this at school), and dressed up like Ben Franklin for the Wax Museum. On the day of the Wax Museum all of the students dressed up like their great American, stood on a certain spot in the gym, and waited for anyone to come and "push" the red sticker (button) on their hand so they could give their speech. These kids only talked if someone pushed their "button", and they only said the words to their speech. They could have 5 people come up in a row, or one Annalisa re-push the same kids' button 3 times in a row!! Either way, they did a great job. Cole was embarrassed because his shirt was full of stuffing to make him fatter, so he kept his arms crossed the whole time. We got a pic of Annalisa mimiking him.....she adores Cole!

Look Caci, My Refrigerator Is Clean!

Now, I must start this post by saying that I LOVE my Windy! I love going to her house for some girly visits. I love letting our kids play together. I love eating the food that she so graciously provides when my family shows up EVERY Saturday! So, now I can tell you that on some occasions (VERY RARE) I have been known to help her clean around the house. Sometimes it would be clothes that needed to be put in the dryer and then folded. Sometimes it would be dishes that maybe hadn't been washed. Sometimes it is helping put away all the kids' toys after my kids have helped make a disaster at her house. But ONE time it was the refrigerator. I think I liked it better when she had the refrigerator locked so the kids couldn't get in it! I thought, being the Caring Caci that I am, that I would help out Wonderful Windy because she had some things in her refrigerator that just didn't need to be in the world of the living any longer. I know that we all push the refrigerator cleaning out job to the last on our list, because honestly...who cares? I used Fantastic Green on the shelves only to practically get high from lack of oxygen inside the refrigerator. I found out soon enough that I needed to come out regularly for deep breaths of clean air. Windy was cooking and laughing at me, constantly telling me how much she loves me and appreciates me! Yeah, right! She was just glad that I am so anal I felt the NEED to clean the refrigerator. I wanted to give up when I picked up the Hershey's chocolate bottle that had fallen over and completely relieved itself of all syrup on the bottom two shelves....but NO I kept going because my mom taught me that a job worth doing is a job worth doing well! So, I finished up and I think I told Wonderful Windy something like this, "Caring Caci won't be all that caring if she comes over soon and finds this refrigerator in a mess again!" No, not really, but when we went to Windy's house on Saturday and the first thing she asked me was whether or not I had seen her refrigerator and freezer I almost screamed. Only she wanted me to see it because she had done such a Wonderful job of keeping it clean and neat. So wonderful in fact that I was extremely proud of her and wanted to post pics for all to see.....Windy's freezer and refrigerator meet my standards!!! I LOVE YOU WINDY!!! No, I am not for hire!

Hey Jimmy, Look What Ben Got!

This post is for Jimmy. We have some friends whose last name is Johnson. The dad's name is Don. So, our kids refer to their family as "The Don Johnson's". As in, "Are we going to the Don Johnson's house for dinner?" Well, Don is a really good worship leader, and he played for Paul Baloche on his new CD. Cool, right? Well, Don wanted Ben to go with him to the Worship Leader's Conference, so he signed them both up. Paul's concert was Friday night to launch his new CD, and Don really wanted his family to go to the concert. The only problem was that it was $10/ticket and Don has 7 kids! Since Don and Tanya hardly ever get to go out because it is hard to find someone who wants to watch 7 kids, Ben and I offered to babysit for them while they went to the concert. We were watching 10 kids on Friday night, and they had a blast at the concert. Paul recorded a message for Don's kids telling them he missed them and it was really cool. Also, Don was very excited that the Vice President for Integrity music listened to his music at the end of the concert. When they got to the Worship Leader's Conference on Saturday Don introduced Ben to Paul as his bass player, so all day Paul would call Ben "hey guy" or "bass player." Ben didn't care. He said it was awesome to be in a room full of worship leaders and that Paul did a great job leading. Don bought Ben the book that is pictured here on the condition that Ben would get Paul to sign it. Paul did and he wrote "thanks for baby sittin' " so that Don and Tanya could go to the concert! Ben says the book is awesome, just in case you were wondering!

Two Beautiful Girls

Melissa, I found this pic today while I was getting some pictures together for my mom. I took it at Thanksgiving, and I thought it was a really good picture of the girls together. It kind of reminds me of us! I wish our kids could get together more often....Annalisa definitely enjoys playing with other girls!!

Baseball Season Is Here!!

Now I know that I am not very good at posting on a daily basis, and most of you are probably tired of coming to my blog site and not seeing anything new (Windy), but today I will post about my boys! Opening day of baseball season was yesterday, and it was chocked full of fun! We slept a bit late (7:30!) and got dressed so we could go get team pictures taken. During the getting dressed process Cole informed me that we had forgotten to get him new socks and a belt. You see for the past 2 years he has played for the Cardinals and worn red socks with a red belt. This year Jacob plays for the Cardinals and will continue to wear the red socks and red belt, but Cole moved up to the 7-8 league and is now on the Blue Jays. We made a mad dash for Wal-Mart hoping they would have something in Blue. They had ONE belt left! And we managed to get some blue baseball socks in Cole's size also. Altogether $8.00 even! (Let's add that to the $150 I already paid so both boys could play, and the $7.00 for new uniform pants, and the $19.95 for a new glove......) Baseball is expensive. I did not purchase team pictures or individual pictures because the way I feel about that is....Ben can take those pics for me! The first year Cole played, Ben was the team photographer snapping shots of all the players for their parents to forever cherish. They loved the pics so much, one lady, who worked at the Ark-La-Tex Color Photo Lab, had memory books for all the players made with all the pics in them (and a CD!). It was really neat. Well, yesterday Ben was at a Worship Leaders Conference with Paul Baloche in Tyler, so he was not there to remind me to get the camera. I was a single mom yesterday and I didn't like it! We got to the park for team pics at 9:15 only to find out team pics weren't until 9:45--ok so the kids had plenty of time to play in the dirt before their pics....which is exactly what Jacob did. First base line looked good to him, so he took off running and slid as far as he could. Now he was covered in red dirt! But he was thrilled at the way sliding felt, so what could I do? He is all boy! After team pics we went home for lunch, and then Cole's game was at 2:00 and Jacob's would be at 3:00. I told Cole I would have to leave his game to take Jacob to his, and I wanted him to walk over to Jacob's field after his game was over. He was so thrilled that I was giving him this responsibility.....I also asked his coach to keep an eye on him and make sure he made it over there! I am not good with leaving my kids where I cannot see them...especially at the baseball field, but I really had no other choice since I was there alone with all the kids. Cole played well, and his team won 13-2!!! Cole played right field and pitcher. At this age they make the pitcher wear a football mask so they can't get hit in the face. One of our pitchers did get hit in the head though, but the ball bounced right off and he got right up! Good thing he had a helmet! HA! Jaocb's team also won, but I am not sure of the score. Jacob played first base and pitcher. All in all it was a good day and my boys are so excited about playing again. When we got home last night, after grocery shopping, it was about 8:30 and very dark, but Jacob said, "Hey Cole, let's go throw the baseball outside." And off they went with the back porch light to guide their throws!!