It was a very Missouri experience tonight!
We were driving home from church tonight and Jordan spotted this huge owl in a tree right on Zora. So we stop and check it out. Very cool. I've never seen one outside of captivity.
I thought my mom was right behind me so I called to tell her to stop and check out the owl. When she answered the phone she was hysterical. I thought she said she hit a little girl. I can't make any sense out of what she was saying. So I hung up on her and called my dad. Well she was obviously able to tell him her problem before she went into hysterics. She found a snake on her sidewalk. Well she is not rational when it comes to snakes. So we headed on the her house to rescue her from this very LARGE (ha) snake. I'm going to do some investigating to see what it is. Boy Scout Jordan informed me that it's eyes were round so it was not poisonous. Although I'm not sure it's mouth could actually get around anything on my body to bite me. So it's March and we have had a very nature enriched evening.

I scrapbooked! It had only been 3 months almost to the day since I've actually scrapbooked for myself. And man it felt good. I'm over thinking that all my pages should be master pieces. I want them to be fun but I am in the get it done mode. The basketball one was actually a page kit I did last month. I had to change it a little to make it work but it's done! And the volleyball one is not my favorite but what do you do with pictures like that? I hate those kind of sports photos. So there wasn't much I could do with that. But hey it's done! I have found my style and true to my style in most areas of my life it is very simple. Not too much in the way of accessories. I don't wear much jewelry and my house doesn't have too many dust collectors either. I'm just glad that 4 more set of photos are behind me. And to have 2 pages of sports pics done is even better. I probably have another 15 sports pages to do. What to do with all those team pictures. UGH! Hard to work with. I don't scrapbook like I am behind. I know that I will never get caught up. I'm not sure I would be happy if I was caught up. I completely enjoy the process. Anyway... enough of my scrapbook philosophy. I've got to get ready for a history test. Later!

Hannah and Jordan had a spring concert last night. they did a great job. Hannah sang a special with a couple of here friends. Sorry for the not so great pictures. It's so hard to get good shoots of the kids on the stage. Jordan's the one with his mouth opened singing. He loves to sing. He takes after his papaw man!

For Christmas we got Jordan a new skateboard. His old skateboard was cheap and just wasn't doing the job anymore. We bought one at The Bridge which is a Christian skate park here in town. They gave him a gift certificate for a 2 week membership. So he has been making good use of the bonus gift. Here are a couple of pictures from this weekend. He went Saturday and Sunday.

I caught Hannah and Gerti loving on each other. This usually doesn't happen. Gert gets pretty tired of her pretty quick. But we went on a walk tonight so I think Gerti was too tired to care. The kids played outside ALL day today. Hannah's little cheeks are already showing a little sun. I even had the windows open today. It was so nice to air the house out!

Spring has Sprung!!!!!! I'm so excited. Thanks to the time change we have sun light a little longer each night. I think we will go on a family walk tonight. It is so nice! It's even better that we are having spring break this week. We are just chilling out all week. Hey Chrissy this dandelion isn't near as pretty as your flowers in your yard:( But it is yellow and it is in my yard! I'm just excited to see color again. I NEED color in my life. Blue skies, yellow flowers, green grass....

Brace Face! She looks so cute. I can't understand a thing she says though! And I can't believe it but I let her take a picture of me too. I went to a funeral the other day and they have picture of Rhonda on the screen. At my funeral they will not be able to do that since I never let anyone take my picture. I'm trying to get over that.

Did she get a new fridge??????????????

Nope just cleaned the one I have. Shocking huh? It was necessary. The health department got wind that I actually served food out of that thing and they were going to turn me in for poisoning my family. I was pretty sure that no one in my family was going to do anything about the problem. Heck they do even see the dirt. And someone had spilled something in the fridge so every shelf have something disgusting dried on. And the bottom... well it was NASTY!
I cleaned the stove while I was at it.

Here are a couple of lessons that I'm willing to share with you:

1. If you are a slob or you live with a slob or ever think you might live with a slob NEVER buy white appliances. Buy black or stainless steal.

2. A pot roast will boil over and you will deal with it for the next month. The good thing about this is every time you cook the fire detector will go off and everyone will know dinner is ready.

3. Things that spill in a fringe dehydrate and become VERY difficult to remove if you just leave it there for mom to take care of.

4. If you clean your fridge and stove it makes your whole house feel clean!

5. When you redesign a kitchen ask yourself a couple question before you decide where to put the fridge. Is this the fridge I'm going to have for the rest of my life? And if I put the fridge in this spot can I open the door all the way? I had an upright fridge when we designed this kitchen. Now I have a side by side. The fridge side door will not open all the way because the fridge is too close to the wall. Oh well, next house I remember that!

I'm sure most of you already knew this stuff but just in case someone out there didn't than I did my good deed for the day by letting you know!

Here are some Pinewood Derby pictures. Jordan took 1st place. He was VERY excited! Jordan's car is the red one. That was his own design too.

These were the clouds that I looked at as I drove down the street today. I was amazed at how blue the sky was. It has been a while since I have seen such a blue sky and the clouds just popped off. The kids even notice the clouds. Makayla said she wanted to lick them. Hummm, maybe I wouldn't go that far.
I love the verse for many reasons. It is proof that their are gifts. I know there are, I have received them. But to have God say they are from Him. And that they are good and perfect. And they came straight from Him. But the second part of the verse talks about the stability of God. I need stability. I love a plan. I thrive on a plan. And for the last year I have felt the winds of change a blowing. A whole year of change. I have been kicked and screamed and cried my way through the year. But I never doubted that God was there and He NEVER changes. He is nearly the only thing that hasn't changed in the last year.
Life is full of lessons. I am positive this last year has been a lesson. I'm still not sure what the lessons are that I'm supposed to learn. But I'm totally open to learning them. I'm watching for them. I am excited to see what God is doing. What will life be like after all this change.

If anyone is out there.... sorry I can seem to get my act together updating this thing.

We have just been busy doing what we do.

Jordan won 1st place at his Pinewood Derby. I'll have to get pictures from Leland to post for you. On the 31st he will go to districts. He is pretty excited about that.

Hannah is still in band. She is playing the flute. I'll have to take a picture of that too. Hannah is pretty busy being Hannah. She likes to irritate her siblings and play with her friends. If you ever call our house and the phone is busy it's probably Hannah! And if you need any Girl Scout cookies just let us know Hannah would love to sell you some!

Makayla is doing the volleyball thing. Her Slamrz team is 12 in our region. Not bad. We've had a couple weeks off. Our next tournament is March 10th in Springfield. They won 1st place at their last tournament at Missouri Southern. Nice to win at home! I do have some picture of that. Here is a website to see all the pictures of that tournament: http://www.ohmart.us/slamrz/ Gary Ohmart is awesome. If you are in the Joplin area and need someone to make an ad for your business or need wedding photos call Gary. Nice guy!

Makayla also turned 14 on 2/19. The next day she got braces. I need pictures of that too.

Leland has just been working. He is always busy doing something. He has a hunny do list that is a mile long! He is looking forward to the warmer weather so he and Gerti can get out and ride on the trail. Gerti has put on some weight this winter and she needs some good runs.

I'm staying busy working and going to school. I'm starting to feel to scrapbook mojo returning. It was such a stressful end of the year that I felt like my creativity had left me. Now that the store is settling down it's starting to return again. I made 3 different kits the other day. Didn't do anything else all day long! School is going ok. I think I might make it.

So here are some picture of Makayla. I'm going to make sure and take pictures of everyone else this weekend.

Happy 14th Birthday. This a picture of her favorite thing to do.... Block the ball.


I'm not sure what they are looking at. Guess they are just following the ball. And that's Mak saving the ball. It had been hit out-of- bounds.

That's our good girls thanking God. Make my heart feel good every time I see it!
Go Slamrz. They played great!

Mom and I had a Valentine Workshop at the store today. Lot of fun but man I'm tired!

I'm at work so this will be a post with out pictures. sorry. Post without pictures are kinda boring.

We have been busy! Last night we were all home at one time. At least for dinner. Then Leland had to help mom with computer problems and Makayla had to look up something on the Internet at mom and dad's house. I know we are the last of the household in the civilized world to not have Internet at home. But we haven't had it in several years. And guess what no one has died yet! We have had it show up from one of the neighbors house's from time to time. As is the case right now, if you set on my bed facing the outside wall and put your foot on the wall and hold your right hand above your head. Try taking test on-line that way! So I am push Fuller into making some decisions about the Internet. It goes something like this.... Me "If you ever want to sleep in my bed again you will get me some Internet." Fuller "..... (blank stare)...." He's thinking about it really hard and trying to decide just how comfortable the couch is. :)

Makayla has had 4 Dr appointments in the last 7 days and they were all good. Except the one to the dentist for a cavity. On top of everything else her braces go on in about 4 weeks. We are going to have to sell her to pay for her! It was all good news. There is nothing wrong with her heart. She was dehydrated. So she now gets to drink 72 oz of fluid a day. And add salt to her diet. I'm so relieved that it was nothing more than that. I stopped by Sam's to pick up the mega rolls of TP for her many trips to the potty now.

We were in Springdale all weekend for volleyball. They did great on Saturday. not so great on Sunday. But that's ok. They learned some lessons on stepping it up at the end. We are off this weekend and back at it in Lawrence KS next weekend.

We are also busy working on her potato gun science project. I'll get some pictures for you later!

Hannah is busy with her flute and starting some basketball games.

Jordan is getting ready for the big Pinewood Derby Race next weekend. He loves to veg out!

So if you didn't know I went back to school this semester. ITS KICKING MY BUTT! Totally not getting any sleep freaking out about it. Still now sure what I want to do but I'll be a Jr by fall so I'd better get it figured out! Still working at the store.

It's official a month before we are turning 7 were are closing the Joplin store. Sad but time. So we'll be busy with that in the next couple of weeks.

Leland is still working, doing Boy Scouts, and irritating me! :) He's even learning how to do some housework! Good for him.

Miss everyone!

Volleyball's our business and business is GOOD! !st game of the season and it sure feels good to win! I could go on and on about how hard it is to set and watch them play. How frustrating at time it is to see them not living up to their potential but today I'll just say GREAT job girls!

It was a very good volleyball day. We are Springfield Winterfest Champions. 1st place!

Go Slamrz!

Makayla getting ready for one of her awesome blocks of the day. Man when she is on she is good!

Getting ready to move as soon as the ball is served.

I received a new digital camera for Christmas. It's the perfect size for throwing in my purse. So I've had these pictures on my camera for a week and just now figured out how to get them off. I'm such a rote learner that I can hardly change the way I do things. See you really can't teach an old god new tricks.

This is from this Monday. We ran to Diamond which is about 10 miles southeast of Joplin to pick up Makayla's friend Hannah for volleyball practice. We thought we had a lot of ice until we started driving to her house. We had to stop and get some pictures because we could not believe how much thicker the ice was there.

Most of Joplin has electricity now. Our store didn't get it back until Friday. That was a whole week. I'm so glad we didn't live at the store. We were so blessed to not have lost our electricity for even one minute. 75% of Joplin and 90% of Springfield (250,000 people) lost electricity. Some will not have any for another 2 weeks.

And we are so exited to be getting another ice storm tonight. It was fun to drive home from Makayla's volleyball game in Springfield tonight in an ice storm. Dad, Hannah, Grandma and Grandpa are heading home from Indiana tomorrow. Please pray for safe travels.

Here are the ice pictures. It's amazing. We just don't get weather like this. The kids have been out of school for a week. that makes 8 snow days this year. I can't even tell you how long it has been since that has happened.

This is what it looks like at my house right now. Gross huh? Why can't it just snow? No it has to be ice. That white stuff may look like snow but it's ice. You can't even make a foot print in it. This started Friday and wont be done until Monday. Monday was supposed to be a make up snow day. Now we don't have school again. We are just thankful we have electricity. 90% of Springfield has none and most of the surrounding area is out.
While Makayla was making breakfast this morning she passed out. We arrived at Urgent Care at 10am. WE got home from the ER at 5pm. What a long day! Still not sure whats wrong. We know it's not blood sugar, thyroid or electrolytes. They are calling it Superaventricular Tachycardia. I think that's what they call it when they don't know what to call it. She goes to the Heart Dr Friday. She is most BUMMED about no sports until then. So please pray for her. And pray that this is a one time deal and they find nothing wrong. I'll keep you up-to-date.

"SHE'S ALIVE!!!!!"
(in my best mad scientist voice)
Where have I been?
Well I didn't get any picture that were worth posting of Christmas. I should take time on Christmas and make the kids pose for some good shots.
I didn't take any picture at out New Years Eve party. I'm not sure what I was thinking! We had about 20 people from church over (only those who were brave* just kidding). We ate (now you know me better than to think we could have a get-together with out eating), played games, and gabbed. Everyone was home by 12:15 and the house was clean (including toilets) by 12:45. We had a great time.
New Year's Day we slept in and went to grandma's for the traditional New Years Day lunch. Corn beef, roast, potatos, carrots, cabbage, bread and cheese cake. Did I take pictures? NO!!! Whats up with me. They are going to fire me from my job of family record keeper.
Since then.... not much.
The kids were home from school for 14 days. Makayla waited until the day to go back to come down with Strep throat. So she didn't go back until today.
On top of being a mom of 3, a job, teaching at church and being the only person in my house that can do any house work.... I've decided to go back to school. It's only been 15 years no big deal right? That's what my pushy friends have been telling me! Well I got my books and syllabus today and I'm pretty sure THIS IS A BIG DEAL! I felt my chest get tight today. I was pretty sure that my arm would start tingling and I would have a heart attack (and my cell phone was dead so I couldn't have called 911). Ok, so I'll keep you up-to-date about the living hell I've just signed myself up for.
We are making some big decisions at work right now. Please pray for us. Needless to say it's been kinda hairy. I've got some big things going on this month. Trying to get everyone excited about scrapbooking again. What's wrong with everyone? I can't imagine not having that as a creative outlet.
Well I promise to not post anymore without pictures. I'll dig something good up and post later.
I think about so many of you so often! Thanks for being part of my world!