an opinion paragraph by: logan

my brothers' messy room
i think my brothers' room is so messy because everytime friends are over i hear BAM! and their room is a train wreck! after that my brothers have no friends. then- one day while i'm doing my homework BAM! my brother was like a cannon. he threw stuff everywhere. that's how my brothers' room is messy.

my mother's day

courtesy of my boys

www.itsonmessage.com/jeni

(it will probably take a minute to download)

help wanted

ok, ashley, this one's for you! i'm going to try and make it non-emotional and just a plee for help! you're so sweet to ask about my bottles, yes, that was a picture of one on the last blog and you have always been a huge supporter of them....thank you, thank you! my plea of help is that you and everyone else continue asking me about them and have i done aything else with them. i have so been sitting on the pot about ideas i have in my head and i really want to stop procrastinating and make at least one new idea happen soon. so here's the plan...i will have moved forward in some direction with emmageorge. i really like this plan b/c it's vague. expectations aren't set too high (ok, so maybe not at all), one thing at a time;) but i am sooo grateful that any of you still inquire about my little venture. next, maybe i should have some kind of deadline in mind. hmm...maybe by the end of summer. b/c summer is all vacation right? no worries, nothing to interfere with the plan except the pool boy bringing me my margarita every now and then. the three children who will be with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week will not be an issue at all. so, deanna i'm taking your lead...you dreamed it and look at you now! you can also look at her at:
www.devine-memories.com
On another note, this past week has kind of been emotional in manys ways for several people in my life. i am really inspired by these people. so here are my 3 things today:
*seeing friends be there for one another
*jenn getting married
*finding my five year anniversary video from fred (can you remember 5 years ago for yourself? amazing what happens...i had just found out i was going to have fisch. then, i remember fred crying and maybe not tears of joy yet;) )

gratitude

...it's everywhere, oprah, books, the secret...why not truely add it to my own life? i have been trying recently before i go to bed or when i wake up the think of at least 3 things to give gratitude for. It's so easy! and you know that's the biggest blessing of all! things are always so crazy and hectic and usually seem hard or frustrating or impatience keeps rearing its ugly head.
fischer's sweet little raspy voice talking to me about 'important stuff'; logan wearing his mavs shirt to bed to continue a winning streak and as we sit there he's sneeking in for a hug that seem to becoming fewer and fewer; jack reminding me immediately this morning that we must start on a birthday banner for nana and being so proud of it and the manners he used when he spoke to her on the phone, what a sweet boy:) then there's fred, taking off early every nite to take the kids to practice!i'm so excited! i know it's hard with work but the most grateful aspect i have is that he's there for them b/c that's where he wants to be.
yesterday fred wanted to take us all to dinner b/c i finally accepted a job...yeah (he's just so grateful he doesn't have to hear about it anymore;) ) and it was a dinner i just loved! it being at cantina laredo helped tremendously but, we had such a fun time as a family!YEAH!!! no yelling, no whining, they were traded with laughing and listening and compliments...do you hear the angels singing?
i know i sound so silly but i am the most impatient person in the world in every aspect and fred's the poor witness to it. but what i'm trying to get to is that i'm truely understanding the purpose of patience and how it works with God's plan. By knowing that God's love never changes and that he is forgiving is helping me to sit back a little more and live the life that is in front of me and not the one i'm searching for . you miss soooo much when you're looking for tomorrow and losing the gratitudes of today. ok, totally rambling but her are my 3 for today:
***watching my boys find each other after school and make it home together as a team and as buddies
***watching fischer bring smiles to several people today who really needed a smile
***watching fred take the boys to hit balls in the rain even though he had so much work to do but he didn't care about the work part :)
***being able to spend time with my dad, of course selfishly for me but, also for the boys
***last but not least i have to add gratitude for my friends who listen to me drone on and on about blah, blah, blah and act like they care;) but also for the friends who trust me with their own tales and secrets and lives. God has blessed me with such precious relationships in family and friends:)
hope i didn't bore. just trying to figure this peaceful life thing out :)

they really do love me!

my poor, poor children! yet again they have let me take scissors and clippers to their precious little heads. i know, you must be laughing your heads off. they love me so much that they willingly sacrifice their scalps to fulfill their pitiful mother's secret dream of being a hair stylist! i really, really stink at it too;) shocked, huh? but nothing makes you smile more than when you hear one of the children you just tortured by grabbing his face in a manner that no real stylist would just so i could try to get some sort of good angle to buzz away (fred got a kick out of this maneuver!), and this is also the child who cries could be heard for miles b/c his awesome stylist offered no shelter for his bare back from the prickly ape-like hair that continued to fall and scar his body...after soaking in the tub and calming down, he looks at me and as honestly and as sincere as he could be says, "you're the best mom ever in the whole world! you're the best parents ever!" all fred and i could do was smile b/c we feel like the luckiest parents ever.
like i've been reading and watching so much about lately...it is all about the little simplest things in life. everyday continues to grow more crazy and hectic only b/c we enable it to be that way. if i could just try a little more each day to be so grateful for what is right in front of me in the most basic form...God, family and friends....sweet dreams....

relaxing weekend...not!

it started with 4 games...jack and fischer had baseball @ 11 (it was fisch's first game and too funny!) then hurry home for lunch and to change for jack's soccer game @ 2 and lo's baseball game @ 2:40. thank goodness lo's soccer game @ 11:30 was cancelled! next we rushed home to pack to meet the scouts for camping. it was at lake ray roberts, north of denton, and we had a great time! we actually slept in a tent this time instead of a gazebo and no one go their head stepped on. miracles do happen!:) the kids had so much fun riding bikes and scooters and running around free like crazies! it's so rare you can let them have freedom any more. we had a scout meeting, made smores, went on a night walk and fisch loved the 'present' moon (crescent). we are definitely going to try and squeeze more of this into our schedules. my only condition is that if the weather can be guaranteed to be as beautiful as it was yesterday...ha! i couldn't wait to get home and shower and take a nap! the boys just jumped in the pool to clean off...chlorine counts right?! now it's off to bbq with friends and start the week of practices and games all over again. :)

3 boys

life with 3 boys, ok 4, is non-stop action, literally.
from hockey
and basketball and sports center before school even starts to
experiments (usually as i blink), to swimming, to a 3rd snack, to
baseball, soccer and t-ball.i'm here, fred's there...maybe we'll see each other for bedtime prayers! oh and there's a little bit of whining
and crying always to make things really pleasurable. these are my fave
pics to show the boys when things get really bad. but in the end it's
so much fun to see fisch play t-ball like a pro with his shades and super smooth run and lo gaining confidence with each practice and game and to have fred and jack spend some time together. it's all good:)

i'm gonna try this again!

alright. i'm a total slacker with this blog thing but, with the coaxing of friends i'm going to try again to give little blurbs of our life for all to read about and for my kids to maybe have as memories one day.
today was pretty normal...craziness in the morning, rushing so noone got tardies, made it through the school day, come home and eat the entire pantry, and hey, why not go for a swim in the freezing pool?! the crazies all jumped in and swam and then treated themselves to freeze pops like it was 100 degrees outside not 60.
then we went to see grandpa ed at karin's house. the new swing set was a hit. miss audrey spent the evening bossing us all..."alright! okay?" pretty cute. while elliott was only happy when food was immediately in his mouth, reminds me of another fatty i used to know...jack:)
well, time to make the bed and slide in it. here are pics from the dip in the pool.