First swim meet...

Ok, so I'm a bit behind... the first swim meet was two weeks ago... G, JT, and Em all did a fantastic job... Enjoy the pics... little me is trying to help me type...

Only the shadow knows...

I love my family... my kids and hubby are the greatest... I am cancer free... the margins were clear... here are just some pics from the last few weeks... Em finally got to have her birthday party... she was very excited... party at the park... CHEAP!!! Caught some of J following his daddy behind the mower... absolutely adorable... my boys... and one of the healing of my hand... much nicer looking... I like to call it my Voldemort mark... :)





Have a great week! We are!

Time flies...

It's hard to believe that it's been since the 13th since I've blogged... but I have a great excuse... I really couldn't type very quickly up until maybe this monday? I had surgery to remove some skin cancer on my right hand, and I was left with 20 stitches on the outside and who knows how many on the inside... I am left handed, but I'll be honest, I think I must only write with my left hand and play bball with my left hand... everything else is right handed... so apparently I haven't been able to "over come" my righthandedness. Is that even a word? Well, the typing is still slow going, I have decided to post a pic of the "wound" so be prepared... It's gross.... but it beats the alternative... I go back on the 1st to get the pathology report and then August is my first "full body" exam where we'll document all my "spots"... could life get any more fun than that? I tell you, giving birth to 5 children seems easier to me than baring my body totally to my dermatologist... for those of you who know me well, I have a horrible self body image... I mean, I know I'm healthy, (some of you would say too skinny), I exercise and eat right (except those occasional shakes and dp's), but having someone check your ENTIRE naked body, just doesn't seem like something I'm all that interested in... but if it will prevent me from dying of skin cancer, I'll do it...

I did learn some interesting things while my dr. was putting my hand back together... The type of cancer I have is rare in people my age... lucky me... it's mostly found in elderly people... great... and it does have the tendacy to come back in the same spot or same general area... fabulous... really...

But for now, I hope it's gone...

Have a great Thursday!

Blessings...

Can't sleep... too much DP in me...

Why do I do it? Why do I drink Vanilla Dr. Pepper so late in the evening when I know perfectly well what it will do to my system? Besides probably rotting my insides... it keeps me awake and I bounce around the house like I'm on speed! I have done 2 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen and watched the season finale of Lost in a 2 hour time span! Not to mention the fact that I mowed the darn yard again! What is wrong with me??? Nothing, I think... But this week has DEFINITELY been a more peacefilled calm week... I even had a friend come for lunch today which was SO NICE! I had an adult conversation last night with my very dear, very pregnant friend, Sarah and another adult conversation today with my good friend Carol... Life is very good... I also just saw on my FB, that a very "old" friend from HS is cancer free... Could God send me any more messages that He still has His Hand in EVERYTHING?



And as if we couldn't get any more rain, there is a thunderstorm brewing in the distance, oh about 10-20 minutes away...



I could do without all the rain and clouds... although, the sun did come out today and really helped lighten the mood even more...



Ricky is doing good in his class... although, listening to him, you would think he wasn't, but I know him and he's so darn smart... This is the guy who barely studied through college and makes the highest score on the accountant exit exam before he graduated... he can read books on how to do things, and be able to do it... he's very smart... I am biased, but I think others might agree. Anyway, today and tomorrow they are taking all they've learned the last two weeks and putting them into practice... he's a little nervous, but I know he'll do fine and finally on Friday at 9:42 exactly, his plane will land and I will literally melt into his arms and become like JEllo... I am so exhausted and tired of being "on" all the time... I feel like a doctor who's been on call for like a million hours... hang on, I'll do the math... ok, only 288 hours... but that's still a lot!



I will post a picture of little ME's new trick... it's certainly a fun trick for her and makes mornings, night time and nap time soooo much more fun because she gets "stuck" standing up and unfortunately for her and I, she can't figure out how to get down... the downside is that at 5:52 this morning when she WOKE UP, she decided to pull up and stand and then of course, couldn't get down, so she was up for good when I went in there to try and put her down and run out of there hoping she wouldn't figure things out... those babies... so smart... started wailing right away... so now it's almost 11 pm, there's a severe thunderstorm warning out and i've been up since 5:52... ugh... I need a nap!!

oh, this second picture is from yesterday. G was home because she ran a fever Monday night and so her and little G were playing Barbie and all of the sudden, little G holds up this Ken doll leg and says to G, "Oh, and by the way, do you need a leg?" It was hysterical! She is an absolute nut!


I hope your week has been as blessed as mine...



God bless you.
Oh, and BTW- 10 nights down, 2 to go... ;) (didn't want you to think I wasn't counting!)

Slumber parties every where...

I actually had a night with just two children under my roof! Em went to her first slumber party... which, I have to admit, I was a little nervous about letting her go, but she made it through the night! G and J went to the same house for a sleepover and so I only had the baby and little G... wow...
But I have to admit, I feel like it was a gift for an extremely busy, overwhelming week. Yesterday I didn't have time to blog because we had Mass with Moms and a brunch afterwards. I was supposed to run home and get the food for the teacher appreciation lunch and drop two of the three girls off at a friends house and head back to school to help get the lunch set up and tell the moms who was working where... I was so exhausted after the lunch, but I had to run and get a birthday gift for Em's party she was going to and then run back to school to drop off her sleep over stuff and pick up the leftover food from the kitchen!!! Whew!
Once we got home we packed up the older two, dropped them off and little G, ME and I went back home where two of us took naps (little G kept an eye on us both). I literally crashed and didn't move for an hour...
But now it's Saturday morning and we are down to 6 more nights with out Ricky... yea!
I think for everyone else around the world, Mother's Day is tomorrow, but for me... :) It's next Sunday... I just hope Ricky remembers that... ;)
I'm going to stop here, because the whole family is resting today...
Have a blessed Saturday and an even more blessed Mother's Day.
God bless...

Sunshine!!

Ok, the sun came out yesterday at around noon and has not stopped shining since... what a beautiful sight it is! Of course I'm scared to death to go out in it without spf 100 on my body, but what a beautiful afternoon we had yesterday and a beautiful day so far today!
We are now down to 8 more nights alone... 4 nights have passed and last night I think I was so exhausted from the previous 3 not so good sleeping nights, I slept fairly well... I didn't lay there jumping to conclusions that there was a murderer/rapist/psycho hiding outside my bedroom door (we have a door to the outside in our bedroom)... I actually fell right to sleep and slept a pretty long time... I can also chalk it up to my maniac mowing spree I went on after I put Mary to bed at 7:00pm last night... I knew my daylight was limited, so you should have seen me... I have a self propelled mower, which the verdict is still out on whether I like them or not, and I was huffin' and puffin' across the front pasture (oops, I mean yard). The bermuda grass grows so thick that it's a pain in the rear end to cut it weekly, let alone 2 weeks after a mow and 6 days of rain...
But I did it... it's mowed and I even had enough time left to mow the back yard, which I never do such a hot job on anyway because there's rocks and sticks in various hiding places throughout the yard, so I mow like I'm walking on eggshells... doesn't make for a good cut, let me tell you... But it's done for this week and if I play my cards right, it won't have to be mowed until Ricky returns next Friday...
So this morning I vowed to remain calm with the kids, because when Ricky is out of town I tend to get a little more impatient, a little more vocal, and a little more angry... And I did this because in my Consumer Reports Health magazine it said that the more anger you have, the more damage it does to your heart... well good grief, if skin cancer doesn't kill me, than my anger will... I have a tendency to get angry and mostly angry at myself and to myself and than I tell Ricky all about it, but occasionally (again, remember an earlier post about willingness to admit quirks...) I have a tendency to get a little angry with my children especially (MOST ESPECIALLY) when Ricky is out of town... So I woke up and took a shower and got ready for school because remember, I'm in charge of teacher appreciation this week, and today the children were to bring flowers for their teachers and I wanted to make sure the mom that was helping out, had some extra help, so I was all dressed and ready and sweet little Em comes in and says, "ummm, sorry to bother you, but G went poop." That was just too cute, and of course, G is only 3 and I don't allow her to wipe herself yet... maybe when she's 12... but I told her thank you and to go and tell little G that I would be right there as soon as I finished dressing... I went into the bedroom and they were all up and I sweetly asked them to get dressed.
JT comes up to me, now mind you, last night I had asked him to please start acting like the big boy that God made him to be and the big boy that daddy asked to be the 'man of the house' while he was gone... he comes up to me and says, "I don't feel like I'm a big boy."
Great... Now, I don't consider myself an expert in anything... not even children, not even giving birth, and I've done that a lot more times then most, but I do consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on the child age birth through age 8... now big G is nine, we're treading on new territory and I'll be the first to admit, I don't know much about 9 year olds and up AT ALL...
So when I say that my son is 1)extremely young, his birthday this past year was the first day of school (and the BIRTH day of little ME), so he is a young 2nd grader 2)extremely immature by most standards... I'm not saying it to be mean or ugly, or make fun of him.. These are the facts.. I have taught enough 2nd graders to know that my son is young and extremely immature... so when he comes up to me and tells me he doesn't feel like a big boy... he probably doesn't! But I calmly said, "Well, that's tough, because that's what God has made you to be." And he looked at me and said, "ok".
Anyway, we got to school, passed out some really pretty flowers to the teachers and I even made it to my moms group which was nice because it was the brunch and last meeting...
I now must get through the next 24 hours and I will be home free with the whole teacher appreciation pressure...
Hopefully i will remain calm the rest of the day... my poor heart needs a break!
God bless....

3 nights down, 9 to go...

If you're wondering why I'm obsessed with numbers, don't... I have ALWAYS been like that. I count down EVERYTHING... when I was in my halo (I broke my neck when I was 19, in a car accident) I swear, I had a calendar with slash marks and numbers all over it counting down the 3 1/2 months until I could get that darn thing off... halos on earth, I hope, are nothing like halos in Heaven!!!

So on my calendar are two sets of numbers right now... 1 set that is counting down until I don't watch little ME's friend anymore, or the last day of school, whichever way you want to look at it, and the other set is now counting down the days until Ricky returns home... technically, it's next Friday, but in my number world, it's 9 more days... and i get really excited about getting into the single digits when counting... sick, I know, just bear with me... we all have funny little quirks, whether we are willing to admit to them is something altogether different... I have quite a few, but the number obsession is a willingly admitted one... Talk to Ricky about the others...

ok, so I woke up this morning and realized I still have a skin cancer spot... I prayed last night that if God would let this pass, that would be most appreciative... But than I remembered what I blogged about a few nights ago and reminded myself, that I can handle this! God knows I can handle this and He will give me rest...

But do you ever get that feeling that sometimes, just sometimes, when it rains it pours? I mean, you're going along and things seem so good and suddenly something happens that kind of stops you in your tracks and you think back to the last time something stopped you in your tracks and you really can't think of anything? Like, you have been having it soooo good and all of the sudden LIFE HAPPENS? Yea, that's what I'm experiencing right now... I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't go around thinking nothing ever happens to me, I'm so lucky, yadda, yadda, yadda... but in the grand scheme of life, things have been good... Then bombs go off...

ok, maybe not bombs, but you know what I mean... suddenly you have your husband leaving for 2 weeks, and you're happy for him, you know that the class is only offered once a year and only 10 agents get in it, but at the same time, your ticked off because you are left at home with the 5 kids, (one of whom is rather difficult... oh wait, that's me) and you signed on to chair the teacher appreciation week because you feel badly for not doing anything since school started, and you know you have a few doctors appointments you'll have to somehow figure out how to bring two babies and a really obnoxious 3 year old with you... So you start getting a little stressed and think, "how the heck..." but you remind yourself that God is with you and you'll be ok...

Well, the rain is literally comin' down here, i can't remember the last time i saw the sun for more than 5 minutes, and I feel like it's all connected...

There is a storm and I need to hold onto my umbrella and brace myself for it... but my "spiritual" umbrella isn't one you can see... it's invisible, but you can feel it... He wraps his arms around me and covers my head to protect me... I just have to keep reminding myself of that!

There is no burden out there that is bigger than HIM! I just have to remember that. So we'll get through this, and yea, God didn't make the spot go away while I slept... (I know you used to pray like that, too... sometimes the inner child still wants to believe like that!!)But He did give me greater wisdom into this whole crazy mess we're a part of... LIFE... it's hard, but it's temporary, and I'll be honest, yesterday reminded me that we are not IMMORTALS! There is a much greater, better, happier, loving place we are all destined for...

Ahhhhhh... doesn't that make it all good???

God bless you...

I posted a pic of Little ME's new trick... enjoy... ;)

I have WHAT???

Ok, two nights down, 10 to go... today was a bit crazier than usual, but let me start by telling you all about my sugared up evening... I did wind up buying a vanilla Dr. Pepper yesterday around 4 and drank it pretty consistantly until oh around 9:30 PM... mind you, that is caffiene I'm consuming and we all know how caffiene affects most... I finally laid down in bed at 11:00 pm but i'm pretty sure it was after midnight before I actually fell asleep... no more caffiene that late again... but i did get a free route 44 drink out of the whole deal! My receipt said if I called and did a phone survey I could get a free route 44! I did it! yea!
So I woke up at 5:15 this morning... no I don't know why... well, yes I do. See about 2 weeks ago I had a biopsy done on a "sun spot" that has doubled in size in a year 1/2... so trying not to worry about it, I guess this morning the worry set in... My appointment was at 9:45 and I had a very dear friend who was watching all the girls for me... so i get there and you know what a pain it is to go to the doctor... This doctor is really nice, but i rarely get in to see him until I've sat for about 45 minutes... so I sit there and read this magazine that's called "Cityscapes" it's the NorthWest Arkansas fufu magazine that has all the colored photos of the galas and hoopla that people get all gussied up for and smile for every camara that snaps their way in hopes of getting in a magazine... sorry, maybe i'm jealous... I don't think so... ;)
Anyway, looking at this magazine and all the rich and famous NW Arkansans... finally I get back there and the nurse cuts my stitches out and leaves me for more tortuous (is THAT a word?) minutes... and no fufu magazines this time!!
Than the dreaded time arrives and my sweet doctor comes in and as soon as he starts talking, I totally faze out... I'm hearing him, but I'm not hearing him... I see the paper that says I have some type of skin cancer, but for some reason I keep waiting for the punch line to walk in and say, "just kidding!"
"The good thing," he says, as if cancer can have a good side??? "The good thing is that it's not deep enough to require chemo or radiation." Wow... what a total shock... so when he asks if I have any questions... are you ready for it? My all powerful, well thought out, mind boggling question? Here is what comes out of my mouth, "So is this cancer?" Brilliant, Amy, Brilliant...
I'm sure he looked at me and thought to himself... "where was this girl the last 10 minutes I was explaining this???" But in fairness... he never said the word cancer, only melanoma and quite frankly, I have trouble distinguishing between melanoma and non-melanoma...
So i walked out with an appointment for surgery to remove my little spot and 5 mm around it which I just put a half dollar up to my hand and that's how big the spot will be that is cut out...what a scar...
I know God is watching out for me because not only did He have my wonderful friend waiting for me at my house and she gave me a big hug and said she would help me, but another wonderful friend was calling me as I was walking in the door and said she felt compelled to call me and stop by to visit... another messenger from God... He does take care of us, whether we recognize it or not...
Oh well... So my new soap box is this...
Please don't ever be discouraged by your beautiful pale skin and don't wish to be like your tan friends and do stupid things like tan in a tanning bed, or put baby oil on your skin at the beach... (don't ask, at least it wasn't crisco oil)
And above all else... use sunscreen, ALL OVER YOUR BODY....
God bless you...

Two Weeks

I'm afraid I haven't been doing such a hot job keeping up with this, but the people i was mostly doing it for, AREN'T EVEN READING IT! I asked my mom last week when they were in if they read my blog... no... are you kidding me? ;) Well, don't complain to me when you get all sappy about missing out on the Blair's in Arkansas...
onto something a little lighter...
For those of you who are interested in us, (or just have nothing better to do with your time and enjoy wasting it on us) Ricky shaved his beard and mustache Saturday night after performing as Jesus in the show for a group from our church that are ballerinas... He was fantastic and with his outfit on, and little tunic like hat thing, he really could pass for the real thing... it was very emotional and the girls in the performance did a beautiful job... Haven't you ever wanted to dance on your tippy toes??? I have, but now can live through my children who can walk around the house on their tippy toes...
So the beard was shaved, I shaved his hair and he was all of the sudden the most attractive man again!!! He and I decided that I didn't realize how "bad" he was getting... We went to Walmart that Saturday morning and I kid you not... you've seen them, the mountain folk with their 20 kids coming down for their once a month shopping spree at the Wal-mart... (you gotta hyphenate when your talking mountain man) WE WERE THAT FAMILY! All 7 rednecks of us... gatherin' at the Wal-mart... it was a sight to see... kids running around screaming for food only those mountain folk eat... "mom, can we get some more twinkies? Can i carry MaryElizabeth, I promise I won't drop her." And little G doing her best to sing as loud as is humanly possible some particular rendition of God Bless the USA... (big G's school concert last week had that song)... Anyway.... after all was said and done... the rednecks headed back to the love shack where we packed away all our monthly stashes...
Sunday we went to Church and came home and packed Ricky up to attend a class he has really looked forward to for a while... We're hoping it makes him more... oh crap, i can't think of the word... marketible??? is that even a word? Anyway, it's for the tech program and apparently not many tech agents are certified in this particular skill, so that could open the door if any tech agent positions opened up closer to home...
We took him to the airport and the kids just talked and played... Little ME cooed and talked and as soon as we dropped him off, she wailed all the way back to Fayetteville!! Are you kidding me??? NO! Cried all the way and almost made herself sick! I guess she was expressing how I was feeling!
So one night down and 11 more nights to go... I really don't know how military spouses do it...my heart goes to them... here I am whining about 12 lonely nights and they get 12 lonely months... It's like I always say to myself (the last few months of struggling with faith) God molds each one of our problems, burdens, pains, for us... what i can handle, someone else may not, what another could handle, I probably wouldn't be able to handle... but He gives them with the promise that He will be right here to carry us when that burden is too heavy... "Come to me all who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest..."
sorry no pics... just a vent today...
God bless you.

First Communion

Yesterday we celebrated Jackson's First Holy Communion. The first time he actually got to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know, some people do not understand that whole aspect of our faith, and quite frankly, I haven't the bloggin' time to explain, but I can say this... When Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist, he did it at the Last Supper when he told his disciples to do this in remembrance of Him. Well, our church has a lineage of Popes that you can actually trace all the way from Pope Benedict back to Peter. We believe when Jesus gave Peter the keys, that is where he made Peter "in charge", the Pope, our shepherd here on Earth. Remember when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him? And Peter said yes? It wasn't just forshadowing Peter's denial of Jesus 3 times, but Jesus told him to feed his sheep. Who are His sheep? US! All of us!! So that is where all that comes from... There is a lot more to the beauty of the Catholic church, but I want to keep this on Jackson today!

My boy was so handsome! He was so excited! We had such a great time Sunday. The Mass was beautiful and I was even honored to be the extraordinary minister of the cup and he timidly walked up to me and wet his lips just a bit and then gave me that smile that only Jackson could give! Having only one son with 4 girls can be tough sometimes... especially for him, but in a way, that boy is very special because he is the only son in our family!!! (I won't remind you how he keeps walking around with all 8 fingers crossed on his hands in hopes of another boy in the family....)

Anyway... we had a beautiful Mass, and afterwards we had a picnic at the house. My parents had come up Friday afternoon and Jackson's godparents Uncle B and Aunt Laura and their 3 kiddos surprised us Saturday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun. A few other very close friends were also able to come and help celebrate this very momentous occasion!

Gardening in the rain!

Ok, it rained yesterday, which sort of put a slight damper on my flower garden plans, but not too badly. The girls and I ran errands in the morning... found a really cool bunkbed for G and Em... Then I dragged them to Lowe's where we bought a few more plants for our flower gardens... After we returned home, Ricky let Em and I go to Home Depot and buy a few more things I needed for my herb garden... (it was in the back yard, so I forgot to take pics of it... I'll post it soon) But the storm and rain didn't damper our planting and weeding... I had a ball and I know the kids did, too... Just check out the pictures... ;) BTW-the boots little G are wearing are big G's... so they are, I'm guessing, a size 4, and little G wears an 11???? It was too funny...

Random week facts...

Last night I took the kids and we met Ricky at the Fayetteville town square for a small gathering (probably 1000) people for a TEA party. It is a non-partisan movement to educate people to where all our "stimulus" money is going and what the current administration is raising taxes on and so forth. It was very informative and encouraging that there are lots of people who feel they are Taxed Enough Already! A good experience for the children to see how important it is to stand up for something you believe in... not to mention, I don't want my children to worry about this debt that will carry over into their working generation.

Today was the first day I have gotten to attend my MOMs group (Ministry of Mothers group)since before spring break. I think sometime around my birthday was the last time I attended it... It was sooooo good and soooo uplifting... It's one of the biggest reasons I'm so glad I'm staying at home (other then being with my little angels, a bonus to say the least!) The moms in that group are just awesome and so convicted in their faith. I'm so honored to be a part of such a group.

So now that I'm spiritually filled! Life is good. I'm going to put some random pictures of this week. I think Little M is eating carrots in one of them... I'm teaching her to take self portraits like her momma has done all her life...Just enjoy.

Easter, Rice East and what more could you ask for???

Even though Easter Sunday has been a rainy, cold yucky outside day... it has been a beautiful, spiritual filled wonderful indoor day for the Blair family! Our day started out as it should at Mass this morning. We went with all our fellow two timers... (Christmas/Easter goers...) I playfully considered making a sign that read, "If you weren't here last week and you're not planning on coming back next week, please don't take my seat/parking space..." But being that it wouldn't be the Christlike thing to say... I refrained... But Mass was beautiful and there is something about singing "Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia." I LOVE that song. We had an "indoor" Easter egg hunt after Mass and the kids collected even more candy... just what we needed for an indoor day at home!

Little M's godfather took our family picture at church and it turned out pretty good considering how hard it is to make 7 people look at the same spot and coordinate a smile with it! I love my church and I love my fellow parishioners... They are some of my very best friends...

We got home and began our preparations for our traditional Easter dinner. I don't care how many of my kiddos move away, get married, start their own traditions, I want to always have Easter Dinner at my house and leave it open for WHOEVER!! (hint, hint) wants to stop on by! We had a delicious ham (that we got a deal on at Sam's!) and I attempted to make Rice East. My grandma Grace used to make Rice East (at New Year's) as long I can remember (haha, no not since yesterday...) I remember her making it every New Year's Day. I thought, Easter Dinner would be the perfect time to debut my cooking "talents" to see if I have what it takes to make that delectable dish. Which may not even be a word, but in my world, we'll make it one...

I collected the ingredients this week and I'll be honest, there is enough sodium in the original recipe to dry your insides completely out! I think I estimated over 2000 mg of sodium? CRAZY! So I found some lower sodium soy sauce, and only used one cube of bouillon (one cube has like 600 mg of sodium, but it's so GOOD!!), and used a real stick of butter (which technically is "healthier" than a stick of margarine) if butter can be healthy. Any way, I DID IT! It was DE-li-cious! I took pictures... it was beautiful! I even took pics of the kids clean plates, but unfortunately, I can't figure out how to have more than 5 pics on here at one time... maybe another blog another day??

I hope you notice how we used our good china for Sunday dinner! We started a tradition a few years back when we started cooking our Sunday dinners that we were going to use our good china every Sunday. We don't have a china cabinet/hutch to display it and really it had been boxed away up until a few years ago, and why have it if you're not going to use? It's been almost 13 years since we got it, so the newness has worn off!

I haven't quite given in to giving them glasses to drink out of yet... maybe next year! My Grandma Grace gave us the glasses that Ricky and I are drinking out of. I call them our "sophisticated" glasses!

After our delicious Easter dinner, Ricky and I cleaned up the kitchen while the kiddos got ready for bed and then we prayed our Sunday Rosary and prayers together. We try to pray every evening, but on Sundays, we pray the Rosary together. I hope they will want to continue that when they get out on their own. Today we prayed the Glorious mysteries all about the Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and the descent of the Holy spirit and the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven... (hey, if Jesus is our King, she is the Queen mum... can you deny that?)

Our day was wonderful and I capped it off by calling my sweet grandma to tell her about how delicious my rice east turned out... She sounded very pleased that I had managed to make it without any problems... another one of her wonderful traditions that I have tried to bring to my children passes with flying colors!

I hope your Easter Sunday was as special if not more than ours. We are so blessed. More then we deserve... Have a GREAT Easter week!

The Hunt!

First I will blog about the Easter Egg hunt, and then I'll do a separate one about our Easter Sunday. We decided since the weather was supposed to be bad on Easter Sunday that we would do our Easter Egg hunt Saturday night. They had a ball... Just enjoy the pictures... (Ricky is laughing because G literally climbed the tree to get the egg...)

Coloring Easter Eggs

This face shows it all in the excitement of coloring Easter Eggs today. We had a ball with the 12 different colors we were given in that classic Paas coloring kit... This is what having kids is all about! We had the best time.
Little M did the usual eating of the boiled egg, but she threw a curve ball, LITERALLY, and dropped the egg on the table and therefore caused me to eat a delicious hard boiled egg! Nothing like forcing yourself to eat something you enjoy! But seriously, coloring Easter eggs is one of the great traditions we have. We attended Mass for Holy Thursday, the Service of the Death of our Lord on Good Friday and today we spent together coloring eggs and watching a great movie... We have really enjoyed our family time together... I will post later a picture of the girls and their finger nail polish. During the movie, the older 3 girls got their toes and finger nails painted! Em stared at hers the entire time! She's such a girlie girl. Ricky actually wanted me to have my nails painted, so Big G and Em convinced me to paint not only my toe nails, but my finger nails as well... and if you know me, you know I DO NOT paint my finger nails... short of looking like I'm giving blood out of my nails, I am very self conscience of my fingernails and putting anything on them that would actually make them stick out for others to see!

The Great Gardening Gurus...

The Blair family garden went into action this weekend! The weather was beautiful Saturday about 70 or so degrees (of course yesterday the high barely made it above 40, today 30...) love spring time in the Ozarks...

Ricky tilled up the garden again and we planted some broccoli, spinich, lettuce, and my all time fav, GREEN ONIONS! Those of you that know me well, know I LOVE green onions... dipped in a little salt, they can ward off evil spirits with the breath they give you!!!

Seriously, the two older ones were making "Stone soup" as you'll see in the pics, little G and little M were asleep and Em was at a birthday party.

I also attempted planting blueberry bushes AGAIN! For those who don't know this, I have a 96 (almost 97) year old neighbor, Mr. Bonds and my dear sweet Mr. Bonds (who btw, has been married to Mrs. Bonds for 75 years!!!) loves to help out in our yardwork, like he really thinks we have no yard work skills at all (really, he just loves to help out a neighbor and he has been around the block a time or two) but during one of his "helpful" endeavors last summer, he mowed over my blueberry bushes that we planted behind the fence... so this year... I planted them in the fenced area, hey we have no more dogs, so I only have to keep the kids out them, and the squirrels...

On to a different note...

This is Holy Week in the Christian world and one of the most exciting times in the Church. I am on the downside slope of getting through this Lent without Facebook! That was TOUGH! I realized I had become quite addicted to FB, so I am glad I made the "sacrifice." Maybe I'll even wait until Easter Monday to check it...or not... ;)

Spider woman?

G now loves the Spider Man mask and gloves... unfortunately, one glove has magically evaporated from our home... hmmm... but today she was wearing the glove and mask and playing with M... it was hilarious...