I got her

The illusive Mary is caught on camera. She was not wanting to have her picture taken, but I was to quick.

Bedroom pictures

Wow, this one turned out dark. Sorry about that.
Mary's side. The picture over the bed is new (Goodwill), the plaque say's "Princess" (Dollar Store), and the flowers we made together this morning. I love the flip flops most of all. So cute.
Ruth's side of the bedroom. The flowers are felt with a yellow pom pom glued in the middle. She also got a new picture (Goodwill), her plaque says "Rock Star" (Dollar Store), flip flops, and there is a dragon fly hanging off the wall too, you just can't see it in the picture.

Almost finished

The girls are upstairs getting their trinkets, clothes, and books put on their new bookcase.
I need to run to Hobby Lobby and get small yellow pom pom's, and then I'll be done with my part of their room re-do.
When the room is all done I'll post some pictures.
It turned out really cute.

Dining Room

Here is an after photo of the dining room.
One of the old white bookcases is in the garage, the other is heading to the girls room.

Hobby Lobby

I have struggled since we left TX with a theme for the girls room. When we moved into our house, there room was pineapple colored, and I tried to work with it for a year before I admitted defeat and painted it white.
Then came the polka dots and Hawaii theme.
That was nice, but then Mary got a new bed and Ruth got an actual bed, so the room became more feminine and floral.
I bought satin comforters hoping to bridge the gap, and though they were (are) beautiful, the slippery material was not good for a six and seven year old.
So here is what $20 will get you from Hobby Lobby. (Everything was on sale 40%-66%)
The hope is that we can transform the girls room into a young lady, flowery, fun room for them both to enjoy.
There is a new rug, wind chime, felt to make three layer flowers for the wall, and these great mini flip flops.
I got some new art work at Goodwill to go on one wall and over the beds, and we are moving a bookcase up to there room, and the baskets will help them stay organized.

A love/hate relationship

Top photo is the front living room. Bottom photo is the back living room now the dining room.


Parts of my house I love.
Other parts I fight with on a continual basis.
I am not a person who loves furniture, thought I do like to move what I do own around to keep things interesting.
I also have the problem that we school out of our house, we have moved at least five times in 7 years, and have never bought really nice furniture, so I have learned to make do with what we have to keep things up off the floor and "put away".
So the problem I have now is the kids are getting bigger, playing less with toys, and that is not how the house is set up. So I am off the change some things around, we'll see how I do.
Here are the before photo's.

Pictures by Mary

Yes, these were taken atop an ice cream sandwich!
Don't ask me why, it's a Mary thing.

Help!!

How do you homeschool with no voice?
I'll let you know.
Mary's allergies went away (yay!), and then I got it to the max.
Now I am sick, have no voice, and we need to do school today.
This should be interesting.

A Grandpa's visit

Grandpa Paul came for a quick visit to see the kids and check on the property. Here he is reading Ruth her bedtime story. He read to Mary too, but she is still not letting anyone take her picture.

New church

We are searching for a new church, and we visited one we liked this morning.
It is a baptist church, but the greatest part is the kids get their own worship service.
It was a nice church overall, we'll be going back next week both in the morning and evening.

Good news and bad news

Good news! I got the house picked up and clean, donations taken to Goodwill, and all the laundry put to bed.
The bad news, the pool was a bust. After spending all afternoon trying to get it to work, we found four holes, and water was still leaking from somewhere.
Oh well, as great as a pool would have been this summer I really don't need something else to do.

We're almost done

Just finishing up putting everything away, have about 5 loads of laundry left, but we are getting done.

House cleaning before pictures

It is a beautiful spring day outside, so the weather is cooperating with our house cleaning.
However my allergies are going crazy, so the dust we are kicking up is not helping that issue.
Oh well.
Here is what we are doing, the before shots. And yes, Mary is still not letting me take her picture. The punk.

A picture from Ruth and your daily Dash

Look who is somewhere he is not suppose to be!

Our Saturday plans

Tomorrow is major house cleaning day.
We are going to clean up the house, trim our neighbors over grown tree, and clean up the backyard so we can put up our new pool!!
We also have art at the museum at 1pm.
Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it all.
I'll post some before and after pictures, the trash bags and donation piles are going to be huge.
Thank you to Ms Carrie and family for the pool, we really appreciate it.

Math whiz

Ruth is now learning multiplication. I can't believe how fast time flies.

No help needed

Mary is going through a phase where she does not like having her picture taken.
I am hoping that changes soon, but until then, she has now started reading on her own.
She is taking the initiative to do her school work with as little help from me as she can, and she is doing GREAT!
We are really proud of her!!

A bright idea

Testing, Testing

Here is the first photo taken from our new camera.
What do you think?
I think we'll keep it!!

It's official

The camera is dead. I lost the pictures I took from our dinner with Mr David tonight.
I'll be getting a new one Tuesday, so never fear, pictures will be back soon.

Pictures from today

Matt took the kids to the Petroglyph's this afternoon.
Here are some highlights from their hike.

It's been a while

Sorry I have not posted in some time, things have been busy this week.
I'll try to do better posting this week, it is another busy one, but I'll try to post more anyway.
Happy Sunday, we are off to church.

We've got Netflix, how about you?

I broke down and ordered Netflix this morning. We had it years ago in TX, and they now have it where you can watch certain movies and TV shows online. I think it will work out well, it will be nice to have new movies to watch, not the same one's all the time from the library. Plus you know they'll work.

The most beautiful thing I own

A dear family friend made this absolutely gorgeous arrangement for me, and brought it over today as a Thank you. Every time I look at it I get tears in my eyes. We owe Dave so much, more than any amount of money could ever repay, and he was so kind and thoughtful to make this for us. It is now the most precious thing I own.

The best cookie recipe

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx

I made these tonight, and they are the best cookies I have ever had.

Learning about stars with Dad

Matt is teaching the girls about the constellations, and then they go out at night and look at the stars before bed. Tonight's lesson was about the North star.
Also, for now my camera is fixed, thank you Matt.
I'm hoping it will stay fixed for a while, part of our cooler is not functioning too, and I'd rather not have to replace things right now.

Good new, bad news

Good news, I finally tracked down a new Pokemon League, we're trying it out this Thursday.
Bad news, my camera is not working again, so it might be a few days until I can post pictures.

Reason for my Mother's Day #2

Here is Mary. She is silly, smiley, and despite her hearing loss did amazing Friday on stage.

Reason why I am celebrating Mother's Day #1

This is my Ruth! She was so great Friday at the recital, who knew she was such a ham.

Mother's Day

Mom, I loved you yesterday, I love you tomorrow and everyday.
You were there for me my first day of school, to hold my hand and give me courage to go.
You listened to me when I needed to talk, you talked to me when I needed to listen.
You let me grow and learn from my own mistakes.
You never left my side when I was feeling down, I knew you would be there to pick me up.
I wish there was a way I could repay all the things you have done for me, but there's nothing great enough to repay the greatest mother of all.

(I did not write this poem, but thought it was great!)

I am furious

So, I found out today that our Pokemon League has been disbanded. Some mom with a bee in her bonnet decided we were not playing by the League rules and complained, and they are shutting us down. Now what I am wondering. This was such a great thing for the kids, they had such fun, learned a bunch in two weeks, and it was something we looked forward to. So I now have no idea what we are going to do now. Bummer.

School

Both Ruth and Mary are doing great in school this week. Mary is reading so well, she figured out the word "holiday" by herself today!! Ruth is reading out loud more, finishing more of her chapter in "Little House on the Prairie". It is so nice to know that they are doing well, and developing a love of reading and learning.
Now if they could only get along after school!!

New neighbors, front yard and the tire swing

A few weeks ago we hung my old car tire in the front yard tree, and since then our house has become a kids paradise. Three houses down some new neighbors moved in, now their kids are here in the evening and weekends. Across the street the neighbor kids are spending more time at our house then in their yard. It's great for the kids, not so great for my landscaping. Good thing we have lava rock, so five minutes with a broom and we are almost good as new.

Recital

Both Ruth and Mary are performing Friday at their dance recital. The first rehearsal is today, and then they have one Monday night and again Tuesday night. I am really excited to see them perform, if I can I will get pictures!

A new picture

I trimmed Ruth's hair last night. It was long enough in the back to cut it all one length. So now the front is a little longer, the back is one length, and it look super cute!

The pool

Tonight was .50c swim, so I took the girls, and we swam for two hours. It was great fun, and they are now enjoying bubble baths with steamers to drink.