The Big 3-0

I felt Oh-So-Loved today. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was Valentine's day. It was my birthday. My 30th birthday. I've been dreading this day for the past 2 years. I don't know what I was so worried about. Here's a recap:

~I got to sleep in until 8:00. I could have slept longer but I heard my hubby's car start up and I got up to tell him goodbye (but he was already gone).

~My mom called me at exactly 8:24 a.m. (the time I was born) to tell my happy birthday. She loves me so much! Thanks mom, you made my day!

~The kids all made themselves breakfast so I didn't have to do a thing (actually, I don't do breakfast even when it's not my birthday but this makes for a good story). Chandler decided to heat himself up a pancake in the microwave. He cooked it for 5 minutes. I guess he wanted to make sure it was done. Pancake was just fine but the plastic plate melted all over the mircowave. But not to worry, he cleaned it up so I wouldn't have to. It's my birthday, after all.

~I had to get my driver's licenes renewed. Actually, I had to get a new MS license. I still had one from Tennessee. We moved from TN in 2001 but I kept it b/c it didn't expire until 2-14-07. Yup, I waited until the very last day to get a new one. But the nice people at the DMV got me in right away and then they all wished me a very happy birthday on my way out the door!

~While I was in the DMV, digging thru my purse, I see that my sil Rebecca had slipped me $50.00 for my birthday!!! I had seen her the day before and she had given me some money, but I didn't realize how much until I was paying for my driver's license and saw the money. Talk about being speachless! Thanks Rebecca! I love you!

~Hubby called me to tell me happy birthday. He waited until later to call just in case I was still asleep, which I wasn't, but he's still so sweet!

~I took a 2 hour, uninterupted nap (with Micah). I wasn't actually that tired but I figured, hey, what the heck, it's my birthday!

~After I woke from my nap, I saw someone had slipped an envelope under my door. It was a sweet handwritten letter (the best kind) from Brooks telling me what a great mom I am and how much he loves me. He also enclosed $2.25 so I could buy myself something. If you know Brooks, you know he was giving up a lot to give me that much money! Money means a lot to him and it ment a lot to me that he was willing to share it with me. (He later asked me if he could have it back "just for a little bit" when he heard that I might be going to Wal-Mart) That kid! :)

~I checked my e-mail after my nap and see a gift card to amazon.com from my other sister-in-law Beth. I had talked to her earlier in the day when she called to give me birthday wishes, but she never mentioned it. It was a nice, very thoughtful surprise. Thank you, Beth!

~The kids were all extra sweet and nice to me all day long. I got lots of extra hugs and kisses. They didn't argue or fight too much with eachother. And they all wanted to be my "helper".

~I got so many calls and emails from family and friends wishing me a happy birthday. I didn't realize I even knew that many people! Again, I feel so loved!

~I still had to make dinner, which was fine with me. But I made what I wanted for dinner, not what I thought everyone else would like. (Black beans and rice with a salad, in case you were wondering)

~Hubs brought home a huge chocolate cake, complete with 30 candles! The kids all sang Happy Birthday to me and then helped me put out the fire that was on top of my cake. I haven't had cake in over a month so this was definately a treat!


~My two favorite shows were on just for my birthday. Actually, American Idol, and Medium come on every Wednesday night, but again, who cares. It's still my birthday and I enjoyed watching them as the kids went to bed a little early. It was just hubby and I. Nice.

And there you have it. I had a wonderfully, simple, 30th birthday with my family. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Weekend running trip

This past weekend, John Mark and I went to Birmingham so that I could run the Merecedes half marathon. It was kinda a last minute challenge by a high school friend of mine who was running the race. He sent me an email on Jan 25th saying " Birmingham half marathon. Feb. 11. Be there. or be SQUARE." Not wanting to be square, I took him up on this offer. I signed up and made hotel reservations. I hadn't seen Wes since high school so this was going to be a fun weekend. Now keep in mind, that yes, I do run, but I am NOT a hill runner. And B'ham is full of mountains! I didn't realize what I had gotten myself into until it was too late, See what I mean:


That big peak on mile 9 gave me nightmares.

JM and I got there the night before the race (my mom had all the kids) and we went to dinner at The Maccaroni Grill with Wes and his wife. We ate carbs. Lots of carbs.

Race morning was very cold (26 degrees) but the sun was out. All I kept thinking about was "What the heck am I thinking? Why did I let him talk me into this? Ugh! I'm going to die on those hills!" But once we started running, I was fine. I lost Wes at mile 3 and never saw him again. I felt so good! It was a beautiful run. One that I will be doing every year. I enjoyed that race more than any other I've done, with the exception of Disney. And I guess what made it that much better was that I beat Wes by almost 10 minutes!!!! I should stop bragging b/c if he hadn't got stuck in the portta john at mile 4 (intestional issues) he would have whipped my butt!

We are Elite wanna-be's.


The medal is the coolest. It's a Merecedes hood ornament. Wonder if it would sell on ebay?



It was a great weekend. My husband was a great sport. He's not into running at all but is there for me when I need him. I know I couldn't do it without his support. :)

And thank you Wes for letting me beat you. I have a feeling next year I won't be as fortunate.

Wanna see something that only happens once every 5 years?

Our Family Pictures!

Kid Funnies

Micah-3yr. getting ready to get into the bathtub:
Me: Come on Micah. get in.

Micah: Is it hot?

Me: No

Micah: Is it spicy?


Tyler-4yr. asking when we can go to McDonald's to play:
Tyler: Can we go there today?

Me: Nope, not today

Tyler: Tomorrow?

Me: Nope, not tomorrow either

Tyler: Tolater?

Me: Yes Tyler, maybe tolater (while giggling to myself)

Shelby-6yr. while trying to play a card trick on me
Shebly: Pick a card and rememberize it.


*this will be updated whenever I think of more or one of them says something worth remembering, so please check back.

This makes my heart melt

My day has finally come

When I was a kid, I loved going grocery shopping with my mom. Not because I loved to shop, but because I could sneek stuff (aka junk food) into her cart without her realizing it. Sometimes she would see what I had hidden while we were checking out, but I don't think she wanted to cause a scene, so she would just give me the "look" and then pay for it. (My sister and brother both did it too so it wasn't just me.)

Now that I have kids of my own, my mom always tells me, "Your day is coming". Meaning, payback for all the michevious things I have done to my mom. And today I got payed back for my little stick-stuff-in-the-cart-while-mom's-not-looking stunt.

I HAD to go into Wal-Mart today and all the kids were with me (all 6 of 'em). I was out of shampoo and other "beauty-aides". The isles were so packed that I couldn't fit my cart and kids down the isle so I parked the cart off to the side, told the kids to stand still and don't touch anything, and made a mad dash down the isle for the few things I needed. I got what I needed, then we checked out. I noticed that my bill was a little higher than I had expected but I still didn't think much about. It wasn't until later when I was unloading everything that I see Micah had stuck 4 boxes of haircolor (at $7.97 each !!) in my cart when I wasn't looking. Brooks also put in two bags of jellybeans in my cart that he said were only $1.00 each, but they ended up being Jelly-Belly jelly beans on those things aren't cheap- $2.97 a bag! So I ended up spending $37.00 more than I should have thanks to my sweet little angles!

I'm keeping the jelly beans but I'm taking back the haircolor!

Never bet your child one hundred bucks...............

...durring a spelling test because there is a chance you could lose!

For spelling we use AVKO's Sequential Spelling, which I think is a wonderful program (I like it so much that I've actually blogged about it before). It gives a list of 25 words a day that you test your kids on. A lot of words, yes, but the words build on eachother ( ex. in, sin, pin, spin) and a lot are repeats of words they have already learned before. But they also throw in a few new words, and new spelling rules every so often. Yesterday was one of those days. The words to spell were: it's too bad. Simple and easy, yes. But only if you know whether to use to, too, or two. We have not yet covered that rule. So I just knew , KNEW , KNEW that they were all going to get it wrong and then I could teach them when to use the correct spelling. So I give the words and wait for them all to spell it.

Then, after they are all done and waiting for me to give the correct spelling so they can see if they got it right or need to correct their paper, I open my big, fat mouth (because I'm just so sure I'm right and they all got it wrong) and say " I'll bet $100.00 that none of you got it right ".

Brooks-8yr. starts jumping up and down with his hand shot up in the air and yells,"Let me spell it! Let me spell it! I know I got it right! " I am still VERY confident that everyone had gotten it wrong and put to instead of too so I tell Brooks-8yr. to go ahead and spell it. He very loudly says " I-T, apostrophe S, skip a space T-O-O, skip a space B-A-D". My face went white and my jaw hit the floor. All I could manage to say was "How did you know when to use T-O-O?" His reply (while jumping up and down and all around) was, "I dunno, I think I read it somewhere and you owe me ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!"

Moral of the story: Never bet your homeschooled child that he doesn't know something just because you didn't "teach" it to him. Chances are he might of learned it on his own.




*and no, I didn't give Brooks $100.00. He was a bit disappointed to find out that his mom was not rich and did not have a one hundred dollar bill in her wallet. He settled for a new pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards instead.