I know, I know, it has been 3 days...

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days - I've had a cold and so haven't done much of anything until today. Kelly has it now, so hopefully it will be short-lived for him as well.

My mother-in-law's surgery was finally set this week. She will be having a "modified radical mastectomy" on May 14 at noon. I know a great many of you have been praying for her and my father-in-law for several months now while she has been undergoing chemotherapy. She is very grateful to have that behind her, but she still has a hard row to hoe with at least 2-3 surgeries in the next several months as well as radiation. We would appreciate your continued prayers for her as well as the rest of the family as we make plans to help Kelly's parents through this time.

We are coming up on the end of our school year as well as the end of scouts for the year. We only have two more weeks of both. Then scouts will be taking a break from regular meetings until September, although there are always activities interspersed throughout the summer months. We will take off school until sometime in July. Which means this is one of my favorite times of the year - time to evaluate the year just ended and make plans for the upcoming year. I'll be making curriculum orders soon. Later this week, I'm hoping to post more about some of what I'm doing.

Kelly and nearly every male that attends our church will be going on a camping trip this coming weekend. Then the rest of us will be joining them on Sunday morning for an outdoor worship service and meal together. My daughters are a little disappointed that they aren't included in this, but it will a wonderful time for the men and men-in-training of the church to spend time together. I'm sure I can think of a few things to make it up to the girls. ;)

One of those mornings

It started off with something from the "girls can be just as gross as boys" file:

As I'm throwing on my make-up this morning, I hear my four year old wailing. As this is not an unusual occurrence and it didn't last too long, I finished up what I was doing. When I came out of my room, Kora looks at me with a thoroughly disgusted look on her face.

"Hailey had the potty seat around her neck and it got stuck. So I had to help her get it off."

FYI, this is the potty training seat insert that we set on the toilet for Lauryn to sit on when the need arises. Can anyone say, "Eeeeeeeeeeew!"

When Hailey came back downstairs, I asked her why she had the potty seat on her head to begin with, and she told me, "Brynna put it on me." I didn't even bother to ask WHY Hailey had just stood there and let her.

Me to Brynna: "Why did you put the potty seat on Hailey's head?"

Brynna: "'Cause I didn't know it would get stuck."

!!!

From there (after some hot water and soap) we had to eat and go to a 9:30 doctor's appointment. We left the house before 9, and arrived at the office at 9:15. At 10:10, we were shown back to the exam room. Thus far it hadn't been too bad. We always know this doctor runs late, so I had everyone pack books, plus the office has a few toys, and has the Disney channel playing in the waiting room.

The exam room has none of those perks. By this time the children are read out and are tired of sitting. The tiny exam room does not have enough seats for 5 children plus Mommy. Did I mention that 3 of our kids are sick? Lauryn is the sickest, and was at her fussiest best. Between trying to keep her from crawling all over the furniture, under the furniture, over her sisters, etc., and keeping the kids who don't want to do anything but lie down pacified, I was a little frazzled.

By 10:45 I was seriously debating about even trying to keep getting onto Lauryn and trying to get her to settle down and behave. After all, I know she doesn't feel good. And if the kids are bad enough and loud enough, maybe they'll hurry up and see us so we can LEAVE! Is trying to set a good example of a larger family really more important?

Finally the doc shows up at 10:55. And leaves at 10:57. No joke. We were in the suburban at 11:03. Nearly 2 hours waiting for a 2 minute consultation. Sigh. I think trying to keep ill children under control and waiting for a really long time is probably some sort of Chinese torture device.

Fortunately there is always Dr. Pepper and chocolate.

Oh, and Brynna's legs are still doing well. After all that, they'd better be. :)

Price matching

UPDATE: CVS has milk for $2.49/gallon. If you take the flyer to Walmart be sure you get the Oak Farms brand milk since that is shown in the picture. If you go to CVS you need the Extracare card.

I suppose most of you know that many stores will match the prices in competitor's ads. Well, if you live in San Antonio, don't throw away the La Fiesta flyer from today. While I would probably never shop there, I have used their flyers to get items at Walmart for their lose leaders' prices.

Today, they have:
Seven bone Chuck roast for $1.47/lb (limit 2 with $10 purchase)
Russet potato 5 lb bags for $0.99 each
strawberries for $1.38/lb
Oak Farms half gallon ice cream for $1.00 each
Borden gallon orange juice $2.44
Suave 15 oz. shampoo for $0.77

and probably others I missed. Just take the flyer with you when you check out at Walmart and give them the flyer, showing them the price, and they will adjust the price. Just make sure that if the flyer lists a brand or shows a brand in the picture that it has to be the exact same thing. Believe me, I had to carry 4 gallons of milk across Walmart one time because I had picked up Walmart brand milk when the ad was for Borden. :)

Does anyone know of HEB price matches as well? I'd much rather get any produce from there.

You live in a zoo.. and you look like one too

Earlier today it hit me: we really do live in something resembling a zoo. Maybe it was the puppy dog crawling around my feet that made me think so.

Or perhaps it was the parakeet flying around (the friends we had dinner with yesterday have a pet parakeet and the girls are now captivated).















Are there spiders in a zoo? (This one's for you, Kim.)

And of course there are always horses!

Kora is actually showing signs of being human,

although we have been accused of growing a giant (she's nearing 5 foot tall even though she just turned 10 and is often mistaken for a 12-13 year old). But I measured today, and Brynna and Hailey are even TALLER than she was at their perspective ages. And Hailey is as tall as Aubrey was at age 7! (Hailey is barely 4.5). As it stands now, she is just the right size for a tall Hobbit. :)

Sunday Sums

Well, we stuck with the potty training, and I am happy to report that things are going very well. I learned something this week: training underwear is hard to find in the stores. I was looking for the super absorbent type, and could only find them at Babies R Us.

We are still waiting on the surgeons to set a date for my MIL's surgery. Evidently, there are some scheduling problems between the breast surgeon and the plastic surgeon, so they are working on that. We were hoping to hear a date last week, and now we are hoping it will be set sometime this week. They really don't want her to go too long without any kind of treatment, as they don't want to give the cancer an iota of a chance in coming back and spreading. So hopefully we'll have an update on that soon.

You know the old adage about it raining as soon as you wash your car? Well, IT'S TRUE - at least in San Antonio. We washed both vehicles yesterday and of course it rained today. But it was worth it as we will take as many of these cooler days as we can get. But it was worth it as we had a great worship service today and had lunch with some friends at their house. We didn't leave until 4:30 pm, so Lauryn will be in bed early tonight!

I really wish I had more family updates, but we are in waiting mode right now, just ticking off the days until we can make plans to go be with my mother-in-law. The girls are finishing up some of their school work. They have finished their science and their grammar books. We plan on planting a small vegetable container garden soon, so that will be their summer science project. We officially have 3 more weeks of school left. By then Rome will have fallen and their other books will either be finished or to the point I had planned on stopping for the year.

Our plan is to then take off the rest of May and June. This will give us plenty of time to be with our family, for me to get ready for the next school year, and to enjoy the visit of some international friends. Then we will resume again after 4th of July. But we are all looking forward to a nice break!

Our big Friday night

Last night Kelly and I had a night out - always a big deal to me. It's slightly amusing to me that we are at the point when even a night for various shopping excursions to look at and discuss things that we both need to look at but which would bore our children to distraction is considered "a night out." But when we are able go to eat a meal alone and talk uninterrupted for hours on end, it is always a banner night.

It's also funny to us that we are not all that many years away from having a babysitting-aged girl of our own. Our babysitter last night is only 4 years older than Kora!

We also watched a movie after we got back. I give Flyboys 3 stars. It's not an epic film by any means, but I enjoyed watching how they trained these pilots who fought in the Lafayette Escadrilles during World War I. Amazing when you consider all the simulators and computer programs of today. I know the film didn't do that well in the box office or according to some critics, and we wouldn't have gone to the theater to see it, but it was a pleasant rental. :)

A rose by Any Other Name...

Our kids are not overly picky eaters, for which I am very grateful, but they each have a couple of things they don't like. Hailey doesn't like gravy. She refuses to eat gravy on anything I make, white or brown.

A few weeks ago, I made what in my family we call "Granny's Meat Patties," a dish named after Kelly's grandmother. It's meat that simmers in a sauce, and is served with mashed potatoes (a good comfort food kind of meal). Hailey has always refused the gravy, either on her potatoes or extra on her meat. Well, this meal I told her, "but Hailey, this isn't gravy, this is sauce. Do you want to try some sauce?" Sure enough she did, and she told me that she "really liked the sauce."

Well, on Easter I made a roast, complete with brown gravy made from the drippings. Kelly was quick to say after prayer, "Hailey do you want some sauce on your meat today?" Sure enough she did, and liked that sauce too.

Last night I made a soup that has sliced mushrooms in it. Mushrooms are one of the few other things Hailey doesn't like, but my husband was up to the challenge.

Kelly: "Hailey, Mama used toadstools in this soup. You ought to try them, I think you'll like them."

Hailey (smiling): "Okay." (Tries the mushrooms.) "I like toadstools!"

Kelly and I were trying to hide our amusement all supper long. Kora and Aubrey weren't doing such a good job hiding theirs. Now, I wonder if I can convince Kora, who can't stand macaroni and cheese, that it's really "pasta with cream sauce"??? Somehow I don't think that one will fly. :)