Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

Andrew! He was 3


Jacob was about 6 months old!


Annie looks so little in these pictures.

All the VBS ladies.

Another group of pictures from our family reunion. From the top right:

AJ: He's my newphew who lives in Illinois. He & his sister are staying with us for the summer to go to camp with our church youth group. They're also doing random jobs for us around the house, and we're doing lots of Movie Watching - or we will be now, since VBS-week-from-you-know-where is now over. Pirates & LOTR here we come!

Katie: She was having WAY too much fun eating her food that night.

Landra: Um, there are no words.

Dad & Katie: Lanae had just finished french-braiding Katie's hair, so she was posing for a photo with Daddy.

Me & Jacob: Post-haircut. Ain't he a cutie?

Center: All the little guys with Granny & Grandaddy. They are all my sweeties!

I hate garage sales. No, to quote my sister, Leanne, "I don't just hate garage sales. I loathe them." Me, too, Leanne.

My son, however, does not share my disdain for this American ritual. He is saving for Nintendo DS, and wanted to supplement his "income" by selling some of his toys. So, he wrote 13 flyers (I counted) and duct-taped them up around the neighborhood. They said, "Downs Toy Shop. Opening Saturday, 8-12, All Toys $1." THEN, he decided to tell me what he had done.

What the heck, I thought. They're already up. So I put an ad up on www.southeasttexas.com, and we pulled out a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to take to Goodwill anyway. I told the kids if they would 'work' then they could split the profits.

It's hilarious to me how kids view the world. The things that they cherish are the things the world calls "worthless", but, since they don't know this, they assume that everyone puts as much value on their treasures as they do. They also don't mind sharing this information. The combination is great fun to watch.

As they are pulling out things for the garage sale, there is an interesting mix of junk (trash that they don't want anymore, but, hey, maybe we can make some money off of it!) and things that they think are valuable and are SURE will sell for hundreds of dollars (a baseball bat, all the pictures they have drawn in the last 400 years, etc.). They think these things are valuable because Mom and Dad have told them they are valuable for the last 6-8 years. Who knew they took us seriously? :)

Annie even made a card for Granny, and put it in the pile. She said, "Granny won't even have to pay for it," but it was still going in the garage sale pile. She wanted Granny to find something for free!

I have TONS more stories, and I'll be sharing them over the next few posts. Stay tuned!

Ok, I have had a ton of requests for MORE INFO about our E.R. trip. Sorry for being so ambiguous in my previous post - I was in a hurry. :)

In order to better serve you, I am posting two versions of the story: the Long Version and the Short Version. You may choose which format you prefer.

Short Version
Mom (Granny) went to the ER after a really bad fall. They did X-rays and CT scans and nothing was broken. She was given pain medication and sent home around 1:30am.

Long Version
The day of Landra's wedding dawned rainy - that sweet, warm kind of rain that feels nice and refreshing.....okay, okay just kidding - it's not THAT long!

After Landra's wedding, we all went home to rest, except for mom and Leanne. They stayed to finish up some cleaning in the reception hall. We had been home about 1 1/2 hours when Leanne called and said Mom had fallen - she had tripped over one of the parking curbs and fallen straight down on her face. She had hurt her wrist, cheekbone and knee. They had called an ambulance because they thought she had lost consciousness for about 30 seconds.

They got her right in at the ER, and the doctor saw her and ordered a CT scan and x-ray for her cheek and wrist. Then we waited...and waited...and waited...

They finally came back and said nothing was broken, nothing was wrong, and she could go home - with some really strong pain medicine!

She spent yesterday recovering and seems to be doing really well today - sore, but lots better.

Thanks for all of your concern!

This was the last night of Awana for the year. Andrew's no longer a Puggle - he'll be in Cubbies next year!! Matthew and Annie will still be in Sparks.

Anyway, here is a picture of "Granny" with a pie-face!