Raise Your Hand

Do you know what Justin Beaver looks like? Audrey posed this question the other day: "Raise your hand if you know what Justin Beaver looks like."

I raised my hand but it wasn't to answer her question, it was to ask my own: How do you know who Justin "Beaver" is? Her answer: I just do.

This whole scene was hilarious because on the one hand I was like "you are 6" and on the other hand all I could hear in my mind was Dwight Schrute asking "Who is Justice Beaver?" (You Office fans out there are sharing in my laughter right now!)

I am not looking forward to their tween/teen years because unfortunately the members of my immediate family can tell you about the phase I went through when I wall papered almost every square inch of my bedroom walls with magazine photos of JTT. Raise your hand if you remember JTT!!

Today was twin day and this was the best we could do!

It's HARD having boy/girl twins at times like these. Couldn't

convince Audrey to wear camo and made James hopping mad

when the suggestion was made for him to dress like a princess!

I am not ashamed to admit that my creativity is limited to a camera

lens and the occasional table spread. But they were happy with it

and in the end that is ALL that matters today!!

Facebook Status

Do you ever have things happen during the day or have thoughts that run through your mind and you  are like "oh that would be hilarious to put on Facebook?" No? Well I thought it would be funny to post a few of my recent mind updates: note these updates have happened in my mind over the course of several weeks. they did not all take place in a single day. i'm not THAT sad :) but lets not point out the fact that i actually remembered all these mind updates.....

1. Hello there young mother. Did you miss the memo that leggings are NOT pants?

2. To the old lady of darker colored skin than I at Wal-Mart: I did not appreciate you hollering across the parking lot at me to tell my 2 year old that she is indeed old enough to walk and that she should get down and give her mama a break.

3. James told me I looked like a village person this morning when he saw me in my old, ragged flannel shirt that I have been wearing during the cold months since I was in high school. When I asked what a village person was he said "you know. somebody that is really poor." Well son, if I haven't tossed it by now not even your comment can make me part with it!!

4. Should I be embarrassed or proud that I had on the exact same boots today that a student of my husbands was wearing????

5. Treating myself to a nice oreo blizzard this evening. Wondering if Kerry Miller Johnson has had one lately? note: this is what I like most about Facebook. being able to tag people in your thoughts and have them be notified instantly. i probably wont ever know now if kerry miller johnson has indulged in our shared treat lately :) or be able to taunt her with it hehehehe!!!

6. Posting random, weird, hilarious e-cards and laughing uncontrollably at myself for being the genius that found it and shared it with the world!!!

7. Olivia is the worlds best photo bomber. She almost broke her neck trying to get in the picture this morning!

Today is mismatched day! See the sequin skirt Audrey finally got to wear?!

Yee Haw

Today starts Red Ribbon Week at school and today was Cowboy/Cowgirl day. James was PUMPED about today and as he was getting out of the car he told me "I been waitin' for this day for so long!" LOL, bless his sweet little heart!!! Audrey squeezed her feet into her pink cowgirl boots from last year, promising that they weren't too tight. I'll be interested to see what shoes she has on this afternoon, since they had to take their tennis shoes because Monday is a P.E. day. She wasn't too excited about today because she had her heart set on wearing this sequin skirt that someone gave her. I have to appreciate her love for all things sparkly and girly but we had a long conversation about how it's the kind that you have to wear leggings with because it borders on being too short for a 6 year old. And what if some one saw your rear-end on the playground?? That remark just sparked the question of "What's a rear-end?" (and at this moment we are clean out of leggings, tights, socks and any thing else that could be considered cool weather attire for one's legs and feet.)

We have several cowboy hats around here and Olivia loves to put one on and say yee haw and then throw the hat in the air. I wonder just where this child gets her personality from. Every one here at my house is always so dull and boring. As the picture below demonstrates. Dull and boring.

Not pictured below are: Olivia's matched socks, Audrey's hat on her head and James's other cowboy boot and both of them actually on his feet. He had to dig the other out from under a pile of junk in the back of the van and he got stuck on the back of the seat. Oops!

Spotlight Award

Wednesday marked the end of the 1st nine weeks of the school year and report cards were sent home. James and Audrey both received all M's (mastered) and both got excellent remarks on their conduct and progress in school!! This morning the 1st Spotlight Awards assembly was held and we had been informed by their teacher that Mr. Moore, the music teacher at school, had chosen James to receive the Outstanding Music award but that it was a surprise!!

Olivia and I went up there for the assembly and got to sit close to the front and across the aisle, one back from the Kindergarten class and James just happened to sit on the end of the row. We sat through about 20 minutes of perfect attendance (which they missed by 1 day due to their allergy tests!), honor roll, reading programs and a few more for Kindergarten and 1st grade. By the time the music award came up, James had heard so many names that weren't his, when they did call his name he said out loud "James Mizell???!!" and bolted from his seat and ran to the stage. It was so cute and I am so glad I was close enough to him to be able to hear him say that. Haha!! He was pretty shocked and pretty proud of his award and our librarian offered to laminate it for us. Sweet!!

Time Out

I am one of those people that has a serious love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love it one minute because I get to "keep in touch" with family and close friends. But the next I am seriously hatin on it because I sat down for "just a second" and the next thing I know it's been 15-20 min and I've accomplished nothing but finding out what so-n-so had for lunch or reading about how so-n-so thinks America and everybody in it is going to hell in a hand basket.

I have a lot going on right now (who doesn't?) and need to get rid of the distractions of some stuff so I can focus on what I need to focus on for the present time. I am enrolled in an on line class for manual exposure and it seems like every time this week I have sat down to read the pdf or watch the videos or read the forums, my fingers automatically check Facebook first and POOF!!!! What little quiet time I have during the day (and night) has disappeared and I've accomplished nothing. So frustrating!! I think I have a serious problem but I wont take the time to dive into that subject. Talk about wasting more time!!

I have deactivated my account for the rest of the week and maybe even for the month. We shall see. There is really no point in keeping up with Facebook so much any more because I have made the decision to seriously limit my picture share on there. And aside from the fact that I can get instant feed back on Facebook, I enjoy blogging more any way and the pictures usually look better on here than FB. If I can keep my posts short and to the point :) There's another of my problems right there!! I also set myself up a Flicker account and have added a few of my photos on there and plan on doing more at some point. I'm not exactly sure how to find someone on Flickr but you can try to look me up!!

TTFN!!

P.s. I just tried to "look myself up" on Flickr but it took me to a page that has 2 pics of Jon and I at a church meeting in Illinois about 10 years ago. STRANGE!!!! if any one knows how to "search" for someone on flickr, please by all means enlighten me :)

Goodbye, Goldie

Our school had their annual Fall Festival over the weekend and even though it rained and everything had to be moved inside down different hallways through out the school, there was a good turn out. Olivia got to take her first horse ride, my husband was pied in the face a little over 100 times, Audrey got her face painted and James won a goldfish.

It was so crowded in the elementary hall that I was not really paying attention to the "Go Fish" game James wanted to play. I know, I know. The name should of tipped me off but I just thought he was going to be fishing for a prize or something because I couldn't really see what was going on. Much to my chagrin, he won a gold fish and we got to tote it around for the rest of the night. James was SO EXCITED because he's been wanting a pet of some kind for a while now but we just aren't on bored for any of that yet. I have enough to feed and clean up after as it is and most of Jon's experiences with pets when he was little were slightly traumatizing.

Any who, we got Goldie home and in a temporary dwelling place and transferred him to a fish bowl yesterday. James was excited to put this little castle he had painted in there. Well, this morning when I got up I found that Goldie had departed this world. Oh boy, I was so nervous for James to find out. #1 because I didn't want him to be sad and #2 I didn't want to get blamed for his 1st pet kicking the bucket. I knew he would say it was my fault because, well, I'm mama and most things are my fault if they go wrong just because I'm the easiest person to blame!! Well he came in the kitchen and saw Goldie just floating there and said "Hey look I guess Goldie is still asleep." I just smiled at him and then he said "Or is he dead?" I had to break it to him then and surprisingly he din't start crying! He took it like a champ, scooped the dead fish out with his hand and went a flushed him down the toilet. Then came back and said "I know why he died. Cause you wouldn't let me feed him last night." See????

Well, he wasn't angry just matter of fact. But I gently reminded him that DADDY(!!) didn't let him feed Goldie last night because he still had food floating around. When I told him that gold fish just don't live very long usually that seemed to satisfy him. All in all our short lived pet ownership went well and maybe just maybe we will be getting us another one some time soon. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I had to help out at Jon's pie booth for awhile so James tagged along with one of his buddies and they got their faces painted so that why I have no pics of J getting his done. Audrey tagged along with one of her friends and that's why I have no pics of her on the horse. My mom brought Olivia about 5:30 and while I was helping at the Kindygarten booth I was able to snag a few pics of her doing some stuff. James racked up and won a fishing pole, a 2 liter drink and the goldfish. Not to mention the amount of candy they came home with was like Halloween!

When the water bill comes due. . . .

Lately when I am in the kitchen (which seems to be all the time this week) she wants to be in there with me. So I usually give her a "job" to do to keep her busy and out from under my feet. She loves to help me "wash" dishes and even though it can get a little messy (but it's just water, right?!) she adores it and will stand there for 30 min sometimes, like she did this morning. And this morning I figured I'd better snap some pics to remind myself why it's OK that the water bill is so high when it comes due next month :)

What's in the food processor, you ask? Zucchini. It's feeding my new obsession for Zucchini bread.

This was totally caught on accident as I was just trying to catch a shot of her cute tooshie :) I didn't even know the water was there until I pulled these up on the computer. Cause all I heard as I was taking the shot was "Uh-oh I spilled it mama." Pretty cool catch if I do say so myself! And see what I mean about messy? Oh and I assure you it was WATER and not, you know. . . .even though it looks like it :)