Flower Garden

front of our house... lillies, snap dragons, lillies, alyssum, more dragons, bee balm.
bee balm
neighbor's rose

crazy daisy pansy

playing around with some effects

Son Light Island

Here are pictures for our church's Vacation Bible School this week. Pretty cool, huh?
Classrooms.

He's home!

Surprise!!!

Now that Paul won't have interent connection for the day, I can share my excitement with you. No, no baby on the way. But wouldn't that have been news!

After 15 years of driving the same vehicle, Paul is getting a new truck! We've been talking about this for a couple years. I've called several dealers with my specifics:

• 2001 or newer Nissan Frontier
• 4-door
• short bed
• non-metallic blue

Every dealer was telling me they didn't have one, and that was it. I called Gilbert Auto because I had a secret shop phone call to make. I liked these guys, but had to call on a new Jeep. When I got there I told them what really brought me there. I did tell them that I was indeed car shopping. Within an hour they found online the truck I wanted. It was in Utah, but they would have it shipped up that next week. I was hoping the truck would be here Friday so Paul could have it before he got home that night, but it wasn't in yet. I got the call this Monday the 16th it was in and would be ready in a couple days after they detailed it. I went in Wednesday, signed paperwork, and brought it home.

Paul is on his way home today from another trip, so he doesn't know about it (unless he got all detective on me and found out). So when he pulls in tonight at 6:30, he'll find out. I'm totally giddy over it.

The great thing is that we are paying cash for most of it and I took out a small $4000 loan that I'll have paid off in less than 18 months since my van will be paid off in about a month. Cool, huh?

Relay for Life, 2008

I didn't know it, but I was suffering from strep throat during this event, so I didn't have as much fun as before. But it was still a great time. I don't have our group's total for fund raising, and will let you know later. Thanks for your support.

Here's a new one...

We get about 5 emails a day saying we are a beneficiary of some $5million and we just need to send all our personal information to them to get the check. This is a new one to us;

FUND COMPENSATION FOR APPROVED SCAMMED VICTIMS SCAMMED VICTIM/ $4.2million COMPENSATION-REF/PAYMENTS CODE: 06654

We are approved committee delegated from the United Nations and World Bank to pay 100 Nigerian/World 419 scam victims $4.2million each for the loss suffered financially. Fortunately, you are listed among the beneficiaries of this gesture and approved for this payments as one of the scammed victims in the last ten years. As a compensation therefore the UNITED NATIONS With the support of WORLD BANK and IMF approved paying 100 victims of the internet, telephone and postage scams. The payment of the fund are to be paid by Barclays Bank Plc under funding assistance by the WORLD BANK AND IMF.

According to the number of applicants at hand, 80 beneficiaries have been paid, half of the victims are from the United States and Asia. We still have more 20 left to be paid the compensations of $4.2million each only and this is the reason for this notification. You will receive your compensations payments via a DRAFT PAYMENT/CHEQUEOR BANK TRANSFER depending on your choice of fund claim. I shall furnish you with further modalities as soon as I hear from you.

Contact the Secretary of the committee on his email address: frances_carterngn@,.,.,. with your full name, address, tel# and choice of fund claim

Congratulations

Yours faithfully,

Kaix SmithDe-facto
Chief Compensation Officer,
United Nations Compensation Committee,

Good grief!!

Winging their way...

Mom and Dad are en route to Africa right now. Prayers for their safety would be appreciated. They had to circle DC for 30 minutes because there was a tornado. No problems for them, thankfully!

LDOS!!!

We take a picture each year on the last day of school by the front door. She's always so happy!



And she is with Mrs. Proctor.

this is last year's:

http://rizaroni73.blogspot.com/2007/06/last-day-of-school.html

Wednesday

Stuff in general.....


I am in my first full week of being an employee of Curves. We just had Curves Smart installed. It's like your own personal coach and it will really enhance your workout. It's kickin' my hiney! It's great! I work 9-1, 4 days a week. I'm planned to work through September.




We have quit buying bread. *gasp* I have been making bread for 3 weeks. I have yet to have a good loaf turn out! I either don't let it rise long enough.. .or go too long. My loaves are about 2" tall. Not good for a big sandwich. I have my dough rising the first time right now. We'll see how it goes.

The dining room is finished! Paul got the trim up around the window and A/C yesterday. We do have a tiny bit of touch up paint to do, but it's done. Now I can do a good vacuum, shampoo the carpet, and we are ready for a B.R.E.A.K.! We are so tired of painting!

Okay... not much newsy stuff. But it's been a bit since I updated. Karen has one week of school left. Curtis is fully potty trained. His speech is doing well. We are all happy, doing well, and loving life.

Goals

As you may have heard by now, the Steven Curtis Chapman family lost their youngest child on Wednesday. I've googled her and read about her, watched videos of her... she was a precious little girl; Maria Sue. She was 10 days past her 5th birthday.

Steven had a song released not too long ago called Cinderella. If you haven't heard it, find it, read the words, listen to it. I've had part of the chorus going through my head a lot today.

So I will dance with Cinderella, while she is still in my arms.
Cuz all too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone.

The song is a story of a little girl going to 'the ball'. Then prom, then dancing at her wedding. The story says to spend time with your daughter before she's married and out of your home. But this chorus says over and over to me... cherish, love, spend time with your children now, because you don't know when your midnight will be.

So today I had a lot of To Dos on my list. Some of them got done, but when Curtis called "cuddle me!", I did. He helped me make bread. We tossed the ball. Because I don't know when midnight will come for him. Hopefully he'll be a grandpa when the clocks strike twelve.

Praying for peace and comfort for the Chapmans. Rest in Jesus' arms, Maria.

Healthy Me!

I started working at Curves 2 weeks ago. I worked out 3x this week so far and am already seeing good muscle tone. It's kicking my hiney!

Three weeks ago I finally went in to get my blood drawn for labs that my doc ordered 9 months ago. Oops. I got my results today. My hemoglobin, blood sugar, liver, kidney and thyroid function tests all came back normal. My cholesterol was 182, my LDL 122 (under 130 is good) and my HDL was 48 (over 50 is good). So yay for me! I think high cholesterol runs in the family. I should ask. But I'm glad it's low!

General Life Stuff

My aunt Jeanne is up from Cali for a week to visit before my parents leave for another 3-months in Africa.

This is Grandpa Cecil listening to J's iPod.

My first peony is about to bloom!

We got up to about 85/90 yesterday

Shameless Product Plug

I saw these in my new Parents magazine last night, then today a friend mentioned it on our bulletin board. I think these are a great idea.

http://www.safetytat.com/



I used to write my number on karen's hand with a sharpie, but that's not the best idea. These are temporary tattoos that you apply to your child's arm (forehead?) when you are in public areas... amusement parks, the mall... and if your child comes separated from you, they can show an adult your cell phone number to call you.

Happy Mother's Day

From my sweet babies.

Karen's first spelling bee

The Altrusa club had their first Spelling Bee during the Balloon Stampede. Karen was one of 35 spellers. She did a great job and we are so proud of her. The most tenseful moment... when her word was /pleasure/... she spelled pleasur....[pause]...e. You could hear everyone hold their breath until that last e. Then they all cheered. She ended up getting 3rd prize... a $25 gc to Book and Game. She was pretty bummed tho; 1st prize was a laptop! Next Year!