My sons had a birthday on Tuesday. They share their birthday – they just love it! Let me tell you – it warms their hearts! Ok, maybe I’m lying. Just a little bit. They were born on September 22 – one year apart!

Funny thing is, I think I’m still in shock about the whole thing (the fact that they are so old) because, I really don’t even know what to say in this post. Crazy. I’m usually Mrs. Blabbermouth, right?

I had taken some pictures on Tuesday morning, so that I’d have pics of the actual day (I’m sure there will be party pics) and so that I could post them to the blog, but, for the absolute freakin’ bloody life of me – I can’t find the camera cord! It’s driving me crazy! I just had it on Friday, when I uploaded some ‘before’ pics I’d taken of myself, since I’m in Scott’s workout program. (Which I can’t wait to tell you about – I know I keep saying that. I’m getting there – I swear! There’s just so much to blog about right now!) And then on Tuesday morning, I couldn’t find it! What the heck happened from Friday to Tuesday? The only room I upload pictures in is the office. It can’t have left this office.

And therein lies the problem – this office. Pig. sty. Whoa – my mother would freak! (Sorry, Momma! I’ll get it cleaned up, I promise!)

Patrick is working on getting his drivers license. He has his permit, he’s taken the class, he’s taken the written test – and now he just needs to get in some more driving time with Mark and myself.

And Shawn is constantly hassling me to start his driving lessons.


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Image by Јerry via Flickr

My mom is the uber coolest ever! I got an email the other day from USPS that there was a package coming and I knew it had to be gifties for my munchkin monsters for Valentines Day from my sweet Momma!

The box of Valentines goodness arrived on Friday, so on Friday after school I let the kids dig in! I just couldn’t wait until Saturday, the actual Valentines Day! These kids are so lucky they have a mom with a big need for immediate gratification! Ha! I was so glad it didn’t come until Friday, because, if it got here on Wednesday or Thursday – I would’ve had to have waited and that would’ve been way too hard! LOL!

For all the trouble she goes to sending these Valentines, I figured she ought to at least get to see them open it!! So here ya, go, Momma:

We love you, Grandma!!!!

Judi with an ‘I’ is my Momma! And she LIGHTS UP MY LIFE – and I just wanted to let her know that! Just like I did in the fourth grade when I sang that song to her. You see, in the fourth grade, we had a special Mother’s Day ‘thing’ – we had all our moms come into school, and I think we had drawn their pictures or something, and then we all sang ‘You Light Up My Life’ to them. And the whole freaking classroom FLOODED with tears!!! And ever since, that is mine and Momma’s song!

(And yes, that is me –> in the fourth grade! Aren’t I cute? I loved that shirt! It had one of those cute little wiggle worms on it! It was one of my favorites!)

I thought it would be really cool if I could sing it to her on video this year for Mother’s Day and post it on YouTube, and consequently, here on the blog. Wouldn’t that be cool?

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That’s right, folks! That’s what my brother’s getting. Man, he always gets all the cool stuff! I guess, though, I should really be jealous of his wife. I mean, really, take an old married man (meaning:married for some number of years) and jazz him up on Valentines Day with extra heartbeats – heck! It’ll be like they just fell in love again!

Ok, serious, my brother has a heart that just ain’t acting quite right these days. They did some testing on him at home, decided he needed to come in for inpatient testing, and decided my super-young, was-just-a-teenager-the-other-day-I-swear brother needed a ….
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My mom gets us these wonderful, personalized calendars every year for Christmas. It’s a wonderful tradition she’s started. She gets one for each of our families – so that is a lot of pictures to gather, because, each calendar has a different picture for every month.  I like to look at the pictures on Christmas day when we open it, and then I try not to look again until each month comes upon us. It makes for twelve sweet little surprises throughout the year. Last year’s calendar was a little hard to look at, as a lot of the pics were not only from Dallas, but, from the last few days before we actually moved 700+ miles away from home. Mom, Dad, Mic, Tracy, and DJ did a lot of stuff with the kids those last few days, squeezing in as much fun stuff as they could before we left. They had sleepovers and went to the zoo and all kinds of stuff.  One of the pictures was even of the moving truck. That one really tugged at my heart. It was so cute, though. All four kids – mine and DJ, my nephew – climbed up on the back of the truck when the big door was open, and I think DJ was even lying down ON the ramp, with his oh-so-precious pellow. (Not a misspelling, that is how his mom really says it. Cute, huh?) She’s from Illinois. I guess that is how they say ‘pillow’ in Illinois. Heh. That picture is so adorable – I’ll have to try to take a picture of it so I can show you!

What I can show you right now, though, is a picture of the January 2008 photo(s). It’s so cool, because, it matches so nicely with the walls in my kitchen. Whodathunkit?

And another thing that I think is really cool about this month’s picture(s) is that they were all taken at one of our three houses. Shawn is at Mic and Tracy’s house, Patrick is at Mom and Dad’s house, and Sammie is here at our house. I just really like that – kind of a symbolic ‘blending of the houses’, you know? The raising of my children has taken place in all three homes, and each home was/is very instrumental in their upbringing. Very cool.

I wonder if February will match the kitchen as well and be symbolically cool, too…hmm….

It’s Sunday night, and the kids go back to school on Tuesday, and we’re just having a nice, relaxing evening together. (And, well, I’m blogging it…uh, yeah…) It has been such a pretty day outside today, though, and this evening is more of the same. It’s been a perfectly moderate temperature, I think in the 60’s, and the gloomy clouds have left us for the time being. We have had some clouds, but, as Sammie described them, they are not the gray, icky, depressing clouds. They are the white, happy, fluffy, cozy clouds. Haha! Cute, huh?

Mark lit a fire in our firepit and the kids are swinging on the tree swing. We’ll have some grilled steaks in just a little while. And I’m blogging on the downstairs porch, listening to the kids singing, laughing, and playing on the swing. And Mark and I are relaxing on our new outdoor furniture. And Puppy is lying in the grass, sometimes getting up to bark at the injustices of the world.

Here are a couple of pics that I snapped:

In this one, you can see the kids a little bit, to the right there – and Brianna is pushing Patrick on the swing, and Patrick just happens to be upside down!

I lightened the pictures up as much as possible, that is why they are grainy.

Sammie just walked by and called me a ‘meanie’ – she’s mad at me for being on the computer.  This was just such a lovely evening, that I had to share it with ya’ll right quick!  It’s so nice out here at night.  When I walk out on the balcony at night, I love the way the sky looks out here.  It is definitely night time outdoors that makes me glad we are here.

In the morning, in the tepid shower, that’s another story.  Heh.

Now I must go spend time with my sweet girlie who thinks I’m a meanie.  Have a great night!