Owen is SEVEN

I mean...seriously. Can you believe it?! I have a seven year old.

I am trying not to feel too much guilt about the fact that I threw a party together in two days for poor little Owen (complete with a last minute evite). I guess he doesn't really know the difference! Friends showed up (thank you SO much for coming last minute and saving mommy's butt), cake was eaten, presents were opened. It's all the same to him.

Our fanTABulous neighbors let us use their pool for the party. Owen had three friends from his 1st grade class there, plus the five neighborhood boys that I pretty much think of as my own children.

getting prepped for some serious swimming...

pimpin in the pool...

Martha (my neighbor) was bound and determined to make Hazel get comfortable with the floaties. She screamed and cried and clung to the ladder.

But once Summer got in the pool, she jumped right to her and, as you can see, the look of terror left her face and was quickly replaced by sheer joy. Man, she loves that girl.

And my poor little birthday boy got stung by a bee in the pool! It was SO sad. He was totally brave about it, though, and even pulled the stinger out himself. Impressive, huh? It's that "hole" on his pinky.

This picture makes me want to cry!

Despite the potentially fatal poison being injected into his body, Owen had such a great time. He got lots of fun presents- including fun pool toys and a GIANT Bakugan. I loved the genuinely thrilled look on his face after ripping open each gift.

Harry (a neighbor)'s response when I tried to get him to pose for a picture.

the group that gathers when it's time for gifts.

The whole crew (minus Brody)

blowing out the candle

licking the icing

Hazel said "This was the best party of my life!"

Oh, the HORROR!!!

Ok- this is NOT the part of my post that earned it it's title. Just a few Hazelisms I wanted to share before I freak your freak.

After the blessing of the sacrament on Sunday, Hazel turned to me and whispered "Mom...was that Jesus talking?" SO precious!

Then halfway through church I was in the hall and she appeared out of nowhere
(supposed to be in class) and came running down the hall screaming "MOM! I touched poop in a bag!" Imagine my bewilderment! I just stared at her for a second. I wasn't even sure where my line of questioning should begin. Then her teachers came around the corner and explained that they had been on a walk and saw a bag on the ground. Trying to teach her about keeping God's earth clean, they said "Let's pick up the bag and put it in the trashcan." Lo and behold...the bag was filled with poop. Of course. You know, come to think of it...I never found out if they took a trip to the bathroom after that to wash hands.

As I was typing this, she grabbed a jar of rubber cement and asked me if it was medicine for cows. LOL. Get it? There's a picture of a bull on the front.

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On a far less humurous note, I stripped down last night to take a shower, opened the curtain and saw a huge cockroach chillin on the wall- just waiting for a poor, naked, unsuspecting victim like myself. So I screamed for Nathan and he brought some bug spray and a fly swatter and did work on the roach. What a man.

When I got out of the shower, I decided to spray the whole bathroom.
Within a couple of seconds, I saw a bunch of big black and red ants. Like ten of them! I called Nathan again and we started squishing them with tissues and properly disposing of them (in the tiolet). We determined that they seemed to be coming from behind the mirror, so I sprayed around the edges of the mirror and left the bathroom.

When I returned, I stepped into a real-life horror film. My entire bathroom was under attack. There were ants EVERYWHERE. They were literally scaling the walls, swimming in our sinks and dripping from the ceiling. It was disgusting. I gagged repeatedly. Unfortunately, I didn't think quickly enough to record the live evidence. My only concern was to turn it into dead evidence. Nathan fogged the whole room, shut the door and plugged up the cracks with a towel. They were all dead in the morning and yours truly had the pleasure of sweeping them up. I counted about 250, and I have seen more creeping out throughout the day which means we probably didn't even phase the majority of them. Time to bring in the professionals!

I sure wish these pictures even began to do justice....

A whole lot of nothing...

Just a share....

Is anyone else as entertained as me by the dramatic irony of a day that starts with sharing the gospel with a friend and ends with screaming curse words while throwing cleaning supplies across a customer's driveway?

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It's that time of year again!

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Projects...

One project I have been working on is finding gifts for the Young Women's birthdays. I wanted something that was cute and would make them feel special and pretty...but I still wanted to be able to give them a spiritual message. So- at Pier 1 I found these ADORABLE glass rings for $4 each. That is the cheapest I have ever seen them. So I bought a ton of them and wrote a little note for each of them. It talked about how the ring is made layer upon layer and filled with "imperfections" that make it unique and beautiful. Then I compared this to the way God has made each of us layer upon layer and how each girl is unique and their flaws and 'layers' (the paths they have chosen) are what make them beautiful. I have given them to a few girls so far, and they seem to really like it. I cried writing the note. I love these girls in a way that I can't possibly explain.

I am the crappy homeroom parent that didn't give her son's teachers anything on teacher appreciation day. So I decided to make them something cute for an end-of-the-year present. I think it turned out pretty cute. I hit up the clearance shelves and Pier 1 and got these adorable, huge green wine goblets. You can't tell how cute they are with all that wrapping, but they were cute...and the perfect size for stuffing some goodies in. I filled them with some cute soaps, yummy smelling candles, a cooling eye mask, a blockbuster gift card and a little hand-written thank you note that I rolled up and put one of those cute glass rings around. I hope they think they're as precious as I do!

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Temporary pleasures...

I know these things won't follow me into the afterlife, but sometimes just buying a new cute thing for myself or my home brings me so much pleasure. I am not bowing down to them or using them to replace the eternal joy that the Lord offers. But I see nothing wrong with having something shiny in a room that makes me smile each time I see it! Especially when it was on clearance! (For those of you that don't know already....that was all supposed to be humorous sarcasm).

Here are some of the shinies I bought on those awesome Pier 1 clearance shelves. It's been nice to add a little bit of color to my otherwise VERY neutral home. It's much easier to buy a couple of colorful trinkets than it is to commit to the time and energy it takes to paint all the walls!

*Ms. Fishy - thank you for making my hall bathroom sparkle*

* Teal drum lamp- thank you for completing this tiny corner of my home and shining your light on the pictures of my precious niece and nephews. You have really brightened up my $5 chair and picked-it-out-of-the-dump table.*

*Throw pillows- thanks for adding such color and life to my old, mangy sleeper sofa. Your beautiful embroidery makes me giggle with excitement.*

*Gorgeous misshaped turquoise dinner plates- thank you for bringing your charm to my otherwise bland dining room. But most importantly, thank you for being marked down to $1.50 a plate so that I could afford to buy a lot of you!*

I also got a new throw. What are the chances that the EXACT throw I have been wanting for my living room was being majorly clearanced out?! And a couple of other decorative things that ranged between $.48 and $3.00. For that price, I can find a place to use them.

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The Hales (a family @ church) invited me to come to their oldest daughter's senior recital. I can't turn down the chance to listen to beautiful music and get out of the house right at the kids' bedtime! But I'm pretty sure I will never be invited back. I sat by Melanie (one of my young women) and she brings out the 'best' in me. ;)

All my goofing off aside, though, I really enjoyed myself. I watched/listened to these people and kept thinking "I need to go back to school." I mean, why didn't I finish?! Obviously I want to be able to play like Rachel! Obviously I want my fingers to be able to fly across the keys like crazy weird mechanical spiders. What am I doing just sitting around on my butt (aka working like crazy and raising two kids) when I could be continuing my education!?

I will attempt to upload videos tomorrow.

Less than a week to go...

Pretty much the best show ever created. Can't wait for it to start. I am watching YouTube videos to prep myself for the excitement.

I had a panic moment today where I thought "What if Wade Robson isn't on this season?!?!?!"

But surely the producers understand that it would no longer be So You Think You Can Dance without him. I mean, what would we do without routines like this?!

If you have a few minutes....

Have you seen this movie?



If not, go rent it right now. Anyway- the moment in the movie that he realizes he might lose his wife and unborn child, a Kate Bush song plays. This Woman's Work. Holy beautiful. This song is just so darn cool, but I happen to be not too fond of Kate's voice. She's like Bob Dylan- a writer...not a singer.

Anyway- this was already posted on my Facebook page, but I will share it here, too. That's how obsessed I am with this girl's voice and this group. I just can't stop listening to them. I think they are so unique and fun. It's a crappy recording, but I still love it!

I hope someone will get as much enjoyment from this as I did.



On another funny note, Nathan and I went to Scottsdale to enjoy a concert in the park with Erin and Baby T. While playing on the playground, Nathan overheard two little girls (between 9 and 11) talking about another little girl's outfit and one of them said "Ohh. I like that. I think it's Chanel."

Yep. That's Scottsdale. Lol. Sorry Erin.

Chasing The Clouds Away.....

My friend Shelley got free tickets to Sesame Street Live. Her little girl, Alex, is the same age as Hazel and they love each other (sometimes).

Hazel and I talked beforehand about what this performance was. She has never been to anything like that, and it was kind of hard to explain. She asked if it was going to be at a movie theater and I said "No- it's the real characters from Sesame Street dancing on a stage." She thought about that for a while and then said "You mean there are people wearing costumes from Sesame Street?" She's always one step ahead of the game.

I had no idea what she would think of it. She was excited when we walked into the theater and saw them dancing on the stage. Then we were led to our seats.....three rows from the stage. She got quieter and quieter the closer we got. She sat down and assumed a timid position of uncertainty:

Almost immediately, this girl:

got reaaalllly close and was touching children close by. Hazel freaked out just a bit and didn't completely let her guard down for the rest of the show. Even when the girl wandered away, she continued to look around the theater and ask every couple of minutes "Where's the girl with the blue headband?" And I don't mean in an excited way...I mean in a preparing for danger way. She would lean towards me and look around anxiously as if she thought headband girl would jump out from behind her at any moment.

Everyone got a little more comfortable as the show went on. Hazel would relax and actually let go of the armrest for a moment, and then some other character would creep over and she would resume the lean and clench position.

But in her defense, wouldn't you be slightly worried if this glob of fuzzy spasticness was towering inches from your personal space?

Luckily Mommy was there to keep her safe.

I loved seeing their precious little entranced faces.

Even Shelley was too spellbound to pose for a picture.

Then Hazel got pregnant. No, seriously....what's up with her shirt in this picture?

Thanks to the amazing lighting technicians (whatever they are called), it even rained on stage! Pure magic.

But not near as magic as the cotton candy. Hazel didn't want her hands to get sticky, so she just dove right in with her teeth.

All in all, she was a happy camper and enjoyed the show.

However, here are a couple of videos that cracked me up. This was toward the end of the show when she was a little less leery of the performers. She was dancing and enjoying the music, but in the second video, you will see that The Count got a little too close for comfort. She practically dove towards me and clung to my arm with fear.

These girls are so funny. At the sitter's, they are inseperable. They talk about each other at home. But when we finally get them together (away from their normal meeting place), they will barely make eye contact. It's so weird. Here is the one brief moment that they touched each other.

But when I tried to get a better picture outside, they wouldn't even stand close to each other. Funny girls.

Thanks Shelley and Alex for making our day so memorable!