Today has been a great day so far. Dd4 and I just got home from the Omniplex. I haven't been in about 5 years. It is such a fun place. We were there 2 1/2 hours and she wasn't near ready to come home but we had to get dd17 to work. The sun if finally out hopefully for the rest of the day. Dd4 wants to go swimming but i'm sure the water is like ice.

Oh yeah, forgot to put pics of my first garden stuff. I was so excited to eat something that I actually grew. Very cool!! Well, pics are taking forever so I"ll put them on here in a bit b/c it's naptime. :)

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here. Summer has been pretty busy so far. I hope I will be starting my new job on Monday. I am excited about it! It has been a long time though since I had to get up and get everyone ready in the mornings and all of that stuff so it will take some getting used to. I think the kids will be fine. My main goal is going to be to get some bills paid off and get a new car. Can't wait for that!!! :) Dd9 is at camp in Broken Bow this week. We both cried when I left her there. It was very hard. It's her first time away anywhere like that. I hope she is having fun. Can't wait to see her on Saturday. Spent last weekend in Broken Bow. I was glad to see Granny...although I don't think she really knew it...at least I did. She is not doing too well but seems to be happy. I'm glad she doesn't really know enough to realize what's going on. There are times when that is a good thing. Anyway, got grocery shopping to do so I"ll write more later.

Wicked

Just got home from FINALLY seeing Wicked! I've waited for almost 2 years to see it. I was sooooo worth the wait! I wish I had tickets to go see it every night that it is here. DD17 and I waited in the pouring rain without an umbrella outside the stage door for autographs. Everyone was soooo nice. I love the girl who played Glinda (Christina DeCicco). She just made the whole show. Anyway, it was a great ending to a really bad day.

Summer...

Well, summer is in full swing. Last week was the first week out of school. We all stayed up late and slept late. I would love to have some kind of summer schedule. Going to work on that this week. We have a few things going on at the library that we are going to and our movie on Friday. Other than that, not much planned. This is my first summer just being home. Well, I guess last summer was my first one not working outside of the home. We were getting ready to move at the end of July though so it definitely wasn't a normal summer. I stayed pretty busy and the kids went to the babysitter's house part of the time. Anyway, after just a week out of school, I can see that some kind of structure is going to be neccessary to survive the summer. Anyway, I"m off to plant flowers in the back yard.

Jordin Sparks

Dh went to the walmart meetings in Arkansas this week. He is in charge of the musical guests for the meetings. He called this morning and told me that one of the people is Jordin Sparks! I told the girls and I'm sure the neighbors heard the screams! My ears still aren't the same...lol! Just one thing to say to him....if he doesn't come home with pictures and autographs...he probably should not come home for his own safety! I hope he doesn't tell her how mad I was that Blake didn't win....lol!

Dd9 received several awards at school on Wednesday. I was so proud of her. She got a coupon for a free bowling game once a day all summer. Guess we'll be improving our scores this summer!

We had fun at dd9's class on the last day of school. We had a beach party lunch. We all had a good time. I can't believe that I have a 4th grader!!
This is dd9 and her teacher, Mrs. Tilton. We really liked her a lot.

Well, here are our ladybugs. We are letting the rest of them go in the garden today. It was really cool to watch them grow from those ugly little larvae into beautiful ladybugs.

diaper cake

I found this picture of a diaper cake that I made for a baby shower a few years ago. It is made totally of diapers and ribbon. The flower thing on the front is made from baby socks. I had fun figuring out how to make it and I love the way it turned out. Wish I could figure out how to mail one so I could make one for Julie!

ladybugs

We now have 10 ladybugs. It has been really cool to watch them change. We let a few of them go in the garden. We'll let the others go today or tomorrow. The picture of the ladybug in it's house is not too good. The big things are actually pieces of a raisin (that's what they eat). The small dot is the ladybug. Most of them have turned red now. When they first come out they are not red. It takes them a day or so to turn really red and look like ladybugs. Neat project! :)

We just got home from dd4's dance recital. As far as her group goes, there wasn't a whole lot of dancing involved. They were far too worried about the snack table. It was fun anyway and they looked really adorable. :)

Limo ride

Dd9 went for her first limo ride last Wednesday. She was one of the top fundraisers for their last one. They all got to ride to the pizza place for lunch. She was thrilled! What a fun day!

Graduation!

I am still not sure that it's hit me yet that dd17 just graduated. When did she get so grown up?? I'm excited for her to go to college and all of that but I'm feeling kind of sad too. :(

We had a great time today. Dd23 and her husband came up last night. It was nice to see them. I think Dd17 really enjoyed herself today which was my only goal.

Blake *sigh* :)

Go Blake!!! So, dd9 and I were watching AI in my bedroom and dd17 and ds16 were watching it in the living room. For some strange reason the tv in my room is a few seconds faster than the one in the lr. So, when they said that Melinda was going home, we screamed so loud from the bedroom that it totally ruined their moment in the lr. They were still waiting for Ryan to say the results when we screamed. We scared little Mollie half to death. So, we all need Blaker girl shirts to wear next week (even Mollie b/c she loves him too)....hehe...except ds16 of course. I swear that when Blake was singing Mollie ran over and put her nose to the tv. :)

We were at dd16's soccer banquet tonight during American Idol. I rushed in the door to watch it only to discover that not only had someone turned off the recording but no one even watched it!! What is going on here???? I called Natalie and got Blake's voting numbers and voted for him several times anyway.....so there!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to Natalie and Julie! You both deserve it! :)

Yesterday dd20 walked in the door around 11. I had no idea she was coming. She drove 3 hours to spend the day b/c she couldn't get off work today. We had a really nice day.

I've had a good morning. I got a beautiful hydranga (sp?) plant, chocolate, gardening stuff, a movie, necklace and tupperware. Dh didn't want to buy the tupperware b/c it was for the kitchen. I kept telling him that it is really what I wanted! Man, when did I get so old?? So, my dd20 took dd9 and dd4 shopping and they got that for me. I am wearing my new mother/daughter necklace and my tupperware is all in the cabinet. I have stuff to plant in the garden and I'm itching to get out there and get my hands dirty but have to go to Mom and Dad's for lunch and then dd17's Baccalaureate is this afternoon at 3. Maybe I'll get to plant stuff this evening....hope so.

Blake

Well we have no nails left but made it through another American Idol. So glad Blake is still on there. Dd4 has informed us that she is going to send him a letter with her picture and a picture of our house so he can find it and come here and marry her because he's a hottie!!! :)

Movies

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
ummm I can’t think of any that I’ve seen that many times. I have maybe seen Gone With the Wind close to that many times.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
I can’t think of any at the moment. I usually only see them once in the theatre. I might rent them after that but that’s it.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Jon Bon Jovi…would he be considered an actor since he’s been in several movies? I also love Matthew Macanahey

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Robin Williams

5. Name a movie that you can quote from.
My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Gone With the Wind, Grease are a few that I can think of. My kids and I have gotten into older movies the last few years.

6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs.
Grease and of course, High School Musical!!

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
Grease (listening to the cd in my car), High School Musical

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Gone With the Wind of course. I LOVE that movie!!

9. Name a movie that you own.
John Tucker Must Die is the first that caught my eye on the movie shelf.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Does Jon Bon Jovi count??? Hehe…can you tell I love him??

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Yes. The only one I can remember at the moment is Footloose.

12. Ever made out in a movie?
Ummm sort of, so, yes I guess so. Can you tell it's been a looong while?? lol

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t gotten around to it.
Music & Lyrics

14. Ever walked out of a movie?
Can’t remember doing it.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. As I recall, my friend and I cried A LOT during this movie.

16. Popcorn?
not usually

17. How often do you go to the movies?
Every few months depending on what’s out. We rent a lot of movies.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Night at the Museum

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Psychological thrillers for sure.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
E.T.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Man, there are many that after I watched I wondered why I sat through it but can’t think of a name right now.

22. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?
Halloween…the first one

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?
Does Everybody Loves Raymond count since I’ve been watching it on dvd? That’s one of the few things that I watch that makes me laugh out loud.

Our new babies...

I had a hard time getting a picture of these little guys...but here are a few...sort of. We received our ladybug larvae yesterday. They had just hatched from their eggs. I had no idea what ladybug babies looked like. My first reaction was that we got the wrong thing...lol! I have probably squashed a few here and there over the years. They are black with a few yellow spots on their back. The example that the paper said was that they look like little alligators. That is their body shape. Weird huh?? We have had the butterflies a couple of times before and have watched them come out of their cocoons but never the ladybugs until now. Did you know that there are 600 different kinds of ladybugs?? I sure didn't! So, we are gonna have fun watching these little guys hatch out as beautiful ladybugs, or, Colleomegilla Maculata, which is their scientific name.

Okay here are a few more pics from this morning!