Two days in a Car with 4 kids and a sister, then a Mom!

On Wednesday morning at o'dark thirty my sister, my kids, and I set off for Oklahoma. Why, you say did we do that? Well, that is a very long story! I will tell a very shortened version...


First, here is a picture of the morning God made to greet us.




After the beautiful sunrise, we set off for Oklahoma. My mother was scheduled to be in Enid around 7pm that evening and since we had the whole day to kill while waiting for her, we decided to go to our old hometown to visit. It sounded like a great idea at the time!

The trip down to Hinton was great! The kids were in a great mood and we made fabulous time! We arrived in Hinton and 'toured' our old haunts and oooed and awed at all the changes to the town. Then we stopped at Hobbs, a store that will forever be in my memory as the BEST place to get drinks and candy. We ordered Cherry Salty Dogs. MMMM They were just as good as we remembered them. The kids, however, did not like them as much as we did. The youngest stated that she would throw up if she ate more of it!!

After Hobbs we went to Red Rock Canyon to hike. It took a while and let me just say that my kids are 'city kids' through and through!

When we were done hiking we went to see an old friend of Robin's in a neighboring town. We were doing okay until during the visit, the kids started losing it. We realized that it was almost 2:30 and the kids hadn't eaten since 6:30 that morning. We somewhat promptly left and went back to Hinton to get lunch.

On the way, we spoke with our mother and her ride to bring her home had not picked her up yet. UGH We sat down to eat and our step-dad called and said that we needed to drive to Dallas to get our mom. She was stranded in the hotel lobby.

Long story very short, we only ended up driving to Ardmore to get her and we spent the night in a hotel, went swimming in our clothes and then drove all the way home on Thursday.

It was quite an adventure! Come to think of it, when Robin and I travel it almost always turns into an adventure!!


Here are some of the pics from along the way.


I love it when they sleep in the car! :)



Doesn't she look comfortable? !



We saw a lot of this.


I think farming will forever be in our blood. Scenes like this never fail to make me smile.




We saw tons of these.



I took this for Robin, kind of like therapy. :}


We tried all day to get pictures of the rivers we went over. Usually, we were too late in getting the cameras out!




AHH, the red dirt of Oklahoma. I had forgotten just how red it is.

Surprise!

In an effort to clean my house before RFKC, we are working like crazy women!

Today I was folding a clothes from a basket. It had been sitting there a while, I admit it!

This was the same basket that the dog kept trying to get into. I thought that she was just being irritating. She was getting in trouble for rooting around in my clean laundry. If there is something that makes me angry, it is messing with my clean laundry! Needless to say that she was on the 'bad dog list'.

As I was folding the clothes from said basket, the dog kept coming over and trying to smell in it.

Finally, as I was getting towards the bottom, I discovered what she had known all along.

A surprise was waiting for me.

Can you guess what it was? I would never have guessed what I found. Either of them!

Here is the picture:


It was hard as a rock, but actually it is a cheese quesidilla.

We haven't had Cheese Quesidillas for almost three weeks! I am pretty sure I know who did it. I guess I should have listened to the dog after all!

As I was finally seeing the bottom of the basket, I noticed 'something that was not like the other'! It took me a minute to figure it out and then to get over the shock of it.

Can you see it?

Yup, it is a cheese stick! It was supposed to have been eaten at the same time as the Cheese Quesidilla!

It had been in there long enough that the package was tight as a drum! I hope the trash gets taken out before it explodes!

Weary but Happy!

After Cousin's Camp, everyone was exhausted. Except the youngest! She was just happy to have her Sisters home. :)


There was much napping over the weekend.


Oh yeah, and lots of popcorn!

A Funny Remembered

Over at Jewels of my own, Kristine tells a funny story about language barriers. It reminded me of one from my childhood.

When I was 8yo we moved from Central Kansas to Southeastern Oklahoma. What a culture shock! We moved smack dab in the middle of Indian country and for this pale white girl it was quite a shock.

We had only been there a short time before school started and about the third day of school one of the boys was talking about getting in trouble. I tried to listen without getting caught and was doing a good job of it until he uttered the words I will never forget.

I gasped out loud and asked a reasonable question to anyone outside of Hickville, Oklahoma. They proceeded to laugh at me and in between their peels of laughter finally explained what he meant.

Here is the conversation:
Boy one : "I got in real bad trouble last night."

Boy two: "Did you get a lickin'?"

Insert my gasp and horrified expression followed by the inevitable question:

"Your Dad licked you because you got in trouble?"

Insert their uproarious laughter, pointing of fingers, etc.

Insert my confused and embarrassed expression.

Finally they explained that he meant that he had gotten a spanking and they laughed at me about it until we moved 9 months later.

I can laugh about it now and will occasionally tell the girls that they are goin' get a lickin'!!!

Tapestry, Sweet Tapestry!

Since I have been almost alone these last few days, I bet you are wondering what I have been doing besides shopping!

Well...

I have been planning for school next year! As you know, we are changing curriculum to Tapestry of Grace. We already tried it for about 9 weeks and completely loved it.

So, I wanted to be ready for the school year since we start the Monday after dh and I get back from Royal Family Kids Camp. UGH (poor planning? maybe!)

I have been furiously copying/scanning/printing/binding and praying.

Now, I have pictures of the finished products, really I do. However, dh took the sync cable to work and I can't get them off of my camera!

So...

Here is a picture of the notebooks I made each of the girls. They include the Overview pages, Student Activity Pages, and Maps. I left the covers blank so that the girls could decorate them.


Here is their writing notebooks/binders. I included the Writing Level Overview, looseleaf paper, tab dividers, two pocket folders, and art quality paper for drawing. I also put in the older ones the state notebook pages.


Here is a picture of the 'tub-o-books' that is for the coming weeks! I have yet to divide them by weeks and child. But that is coming.


I will add the pictures when dh gets home with the cable!

I finally got the pictures loaded!! 7-21-08

Changing the dynamics

Well, the three oldest girls are at Nana's and Gramps' house this week for Cousins Camp. They were excited and nervous to go! There are 6 girl cousins there and they will be spending from Tuesday night until Saturday afternoon there.

Nana has all kinds of things lined up including a study of Esther. I am excited to hear all about it!

In the meanwhile that left our youngest home alone. I think that this may be the first time EVER that she is without her sisters.

We were a little nervous for her because any time just one of the girls would leave, she would cry for them and get very sad until they came home.

She is doing well, so far! We went to the zoo yesterday and went to see Wall-E last night. She LOVED it. Today we went SHOPPING for shoes. She needed them and it was kind of fun to only have to buy for one child!! She ended up getting two pairs and I got one as well!

Tonight we are going swimming with Daddy! I am not sure what is going on tomorrow during the day; but, tomorrow night we are going to dress up and go to a fancy restaurant! That should be interesting!

It is odd only having one child! I almost don't remember what it was like with just one. I am much more easy going with just one. That makes me sad.

On the other hand, the other girls help me keep an eye on her in the stores and now I am having to do it alone. It has worn me out!!

I am anxious for the other girls to get home (I miss them terribly) but, I am also glad to have had this time alone with the youngest. I don't think that will happen very often and I will cherish every minute of it.

For now, I have to go and watch The Wizard of Oz. (I HATE, LOATHE, DESPISE THAT MOVIE) But, I will do it for that little blue-eyed blonde that is asking PLEEEEASE and smiling at me!

Funnel Cakes

Kristine over at jewels of my own asked for this funnel cake recipe, so here it is:

Ingredients:
3-4 c. All purpose flour
2 c. Milk
2 t. Baking powder
3 Eggs
1/4 c. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
Powdered sugar (for topping)
Vegetable oil (for deep frying 375 degrees)

Preparation
Beat the eggs, then add the sugar and mile. Sift 2 cups of flour, the salt, and the baking powder, then add to the milk mixture. Mix while adding more flour until the batter is smooth and not too thick. The funnel should have an opening of at least 1/2 inch and be able to hold around a cup of batter. Put your finger over the bottom of the funnel and add about a cup of batter. Remove your finger and allow the batter to pour into the center of the oil. Be careful, the oil may splash! Gradually swirl the batter outward in a circular motion, or criss-cross back and forth to make a cake about 7 or 8 inches in diameter. Check it with a pair of tongs and turn it when the bottom becomes golden. (usually only a few seconds) When both sides are done, remove with tongs and let it drip on a paper towel. Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar.


Now, I did not have a funnel so I used a zip-lock and cut the corner out. That got too messy so I just used a measuring cup and it worked just fine!

Enjoy. :)

Some pretties in our yard

I am not sure what this is, but it sure was pretty!



I love how the vine is growing up on the gate.


These bushes are on both ends of the house in the backyard.



This one is outside my my breakfast area window. The hummingbirds dance around this one and we get to watch them.

More 4th of July!!

This is the snake that we use to scare my mother half to death! It was tossed around quite a few times this weekend!



This is my brother's dog. Her name is Tasha. She is one of only two little yappy dogs that I like.



Drying off and being cute. ;)



Are you doing ballet? Maybe kung-fu?



This is someone's leg ( I won't say who) let's just say that they were in a lot of pain later.



My nephew, who is so sweet with all the little girls that were vying for his attention.



My other nephew who played Ring-toss for hours on end with my 3yodd.



My sister's sunburn. EEEWWW did it hurt!



Yup, that is her!

I can't wait until next year. It is so much fun to be with my family and just hang around. Next year though, we are going to have bigger and better prizes. Like Chocolate! ;)

4th Of July

Every 4th of July we gather in my Mother's back yard and camp out. It is so much fun.

We really do sleep in the tents all weekend and even eat outside!

Here is the layout of the yard:

The Pool - where we spend a majority of the time.



Here is our tent. Yes, ALL six of us slept in this tent!!



This is my sisters tent.


The Outhouse!!! It is actually a tool shed. BUT, there used to be a little port-a-potty in there that the kids would use. I think that my step-dad got tired of emptying it out!



The snack/plate and utensil/music/drinks area! I think we had 4 or 5 coolers full of soda and water!


This year we had a Wii tournament. We had 6 events (I think!) and played to the death.



I have to admit that my 6yo dd beat the pants off of me in Boxing. She would hit me so hard that my buy would come up off of the floor. She knocked me out in the third round. :)


More Wii...


My dh got fried this weekend. He ended up being lobster red.


The all important grill is in the background. My dh is carrying some food back into the house after one of our feeding times!


I have more pics to post and to catch up with all the time that I missed; but, I will have to do it later.