IT'S ALMOST FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my dad, my little brother, and my kids, are almost finished with the chicken coop. they had to work on it at my dad's house because, well, my brother is not allowed to leave the house. (long story, and not mine to tell) anyway, they started on it saturday, and for the most part, it's done. it just needs the nest boxes, and some stain, and i think i may put in some linolium (for cleaning). that's it! well, it needs a door, and it needs to be moved to my house.

my dad had the kids all help him. he was really impressed by zack though. he said zack was hammering like a champ. he was most impressed with the way he did it correctly (bending his wrist). how many 3 year olds do you know that can do that? shoot, i'm 30 and i can't!


alex leaves on friday for his "birthday present" trip with my stepmom. alex still doesn't know where he's going! i don't think he would ever check my blog...but i don't trust the kid so i won't say until friday where he's going.

this is bookfair week. i already have been there, and helped out. but i have to go back on thursday for the "family night" event. my sister in law and i run that. it's pretty easy. really really easy. all we do is make dinner for about 200. no sweat! we usually have about 6 helpers, and that's plenty. the money we raise goes to our library, and buying tests for the kids.

and apparently this is also the first day for the runners club at school. i thought it didn't start until next monday. i still have to send in all the sign up stuff to school. and bring clothes and snack and water up for my kids that are doing it.

that's about it for now!

miracle monday (and some other stuff)

the kids are home. they had a great time...you know, almost dying on the river.
that's how they put it...almost dying on the river.
i guess the river is a little high, and well, a little cold. they got the raft stuck under a tree. as it filled with water, my dad said all he saw were the little faces in the raft with him..."thank God i brought the kids that can swim" was what he was thinking. (he brought my 3 oldest...and skipped my 2 neices that are in between haley and grace)


this actually happened when i was a kid, too. except when i was a kid, the raft popped. my dad went under, along with the cooler, and for several terrifying seconds, we didn't know if he was going to come back up.

he did, and he still had the cooler. priorities man! the cooler had all the beer! (the soda was in the kids' cooler).

only half of the raft popped. but it was next to impossible to paddle. so they gave it to us kids, and we took an extra couple of hours (no joke) to paddle it back.

*the place we rented the raft from actually tried to make us pay for the raft...saying that we did it on purpose. i don't think we ever went back there after that.

those were some of the best hours...just me and zack and caleb (my dad's friend's 2 sons that were so very very very cute).

that is one of my most favorite childhood memories. i'm not sure why my dad almost drowning in a river would be, but it is.

anyway, back to the kids. they had a great time. no raft popping, just one lost fishing pole, some name calling, and lots of laughing and fun.

next weekend, my dad gets to help us build a chicken coop.

whooo-hooo! i am so glad he's home from detroit!

now i have to design it, and decide where it will go.

do i put it directly behind the neighbor's house? or ours? or do i move it all the way down by nathan's? who should i stick with the stink?

anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend!

**beth, i'm not sure if this would be considered miraculous...if you don't think it is, feel free to delete the link.

ballgame, ball practices, and a couple of sign ups

i love it when everything hits at once. alex plays baseball tonight at 6, haley and josh practice at 5:30 until around 7, and we have to sign the kids up for 4-H tonight.

i sure wish i had a money tree growing out back.

oh, well.

it looks like there will be 6 children raising chickens at my house.

funny, i'm pretty sure i only have 5 kids...and only 2 that can actually raise animals in 4-H...

i told the parents of the kids i watch, and those that i used to watch that it would be ok if they wanted to raise them at my house. these kids live in subdivisions, so it's not like they can raise chickens at their houses. plus, they spend quite a bit of time at my house. plus, by the time the chicks get here, they will be getting out for summer break. plus, these kids are great kids. they are always helpful. i know that they will be responsible.

so, i am really looking forward to my dad coming home. he's been stuck in detroit (apparently people up there don't like showing up for work*) and he's hoping to get the job site to a point where he can come home...with some stuff to help us build a chicken coop.
well, chicken and turkey coop. alex wants to do turkeys too. i told him to think about guineas. they eat ticks. that would be pretty darn useful!

so i guess i will be missing alex's game tonight. he's going to miss his soccer game this weekend (him and grace both) because they will be on a float trip. haley's going to miss her volleyball game (darn, 9pm game, and i'm going to miss it). they're going to be back for haley's soccer game on sunday.


*i've never been to detroit. i'm not "hating" on it. that's just the issues my dad's had with some of the contractors up there.

ok, maybe 30 isn't as bad as i thought..

last night my family threw a surprise birthday party for me. i was TOTALLY surprised. i had no clue they had this going on. it was at my dad's house. i thought we were going over there because we had started this tradition of the adults going out for an adult's birthday. even when i saw all the cars, i still had no idea. it wasn't until i saw the crowd on the front lawn. my wonderful husband started planning this in may. he did such a fabulous job. i guess my kids had known for a while too...well, at least the older ones. josh and zack had no idea what was going on. the boys and i had had the day to ourselves. we went up to the fairgrounds, we went to a feed store, we went out to lunch, zack helped me wash the pig. it was a great day for us. they were just as shocked as i was.

this is my 3rd surprise party. i have had no idea anything was going on at any of them. my best friend jessica (she was there last night) threw me a surprise going away party when my parents split up and i was having to move away. well, she and her mom (we were like 13). her mom was there last night too. she was like a second mom when i was growing up. i actually called her mom and her husband dad for a time. i practically lived at their house for months before my parents split. i was so glad to see them, and jess's 2 kids. i hadn't seen them since they were like 4 and 2. they are like almost 9 and 7. beautiful, well behaved, and i could totally pick them out of the crowd. brady looks just like he did, jenna is the spitting image of her mommy.
i think jessica threw the second one too. for my 14th or 15th birthday . she and shawn. maybe sara helped too. and my mom helped of course. i can't remember my teen years to well. i want to say my 14th birthday because i wasn't into drugs at that time...and shawn was around a lot then...but i don't remember that well. i just remember thinking (before the party) wow, the house sure is clean. then friends started showing up. i can't believe i have been so blessed with family and friends that find me so worthy of all that planning and sneaking around.

what's funnier is i had told hubby i didn't want a party. no thanks. not because turning 30 bothered me so much. more because i don't like putting my mom and dad and diane in the same room...or town. it is too nerve wracking. i spend the night hoping mom doesn't drink enough to decide she wants to start something. my dad and diane, i don't worry about them. mom, well, she's another story. i would have been sick for weeks had i known about this party. (like i was before my wedding and my sister's wedding...and jeff's 30th party). mom "had a little captain in her" but she was well behaved. i am so glad. (maybe i'll put this in for my miracle on miracle monday)

thanks to my dad, diane, hubby, mom, sister in law deb, for putting this together for me. i have truly been blessed with you all in my life. thanks to all the friends and family that came. you people totally rock! for those that couldn't make it, i'm sorry you missed it, it was a great time.
thanks to my kiddo's. you didn't spill the beans, you decorated the house so beautifully, and you got along! i couldn't ask for more (except you to help clean the house and your rooms once in a while!). i love you all! thanks to God for putting you all in my life!

stress extravaganza

i just have to hang on until the 11th. if i keep telling myself this, maybe i won't go totally nutso. of course i may already be.

what happens on the 11th? well you see, i called my step mom and asked her if she would mind if i made an appt for a haircut. seeing as she owns the shop, i always like to call her first. she tells me she will call me back about what day and time would be best. long story short (because the long story is long and boring) i am now going in at 9:30 for a pedi, facial, oh yeah and a haircut. is she not the best ever?

dawn's new girlfriend is in town. she is really nice. she had a horrible car accident last month. i say horrible because if you saw the car, you would have a hard time believing anyone lived. she had no major life threatening injuries. but she did have extensive damage to her left hand. the doctor said it looked like she stopped her car with her hand. she lost her index finger because it was so damaged. she broke no bones. she just had muscle trauma and major road rash on her hand. she is lucky to be alive.

i was not good company last night. we went out for jason's birthday to o'charley's. home of the kids eat free deal. being as i have 5 kids, this helps when going out as a family. but wait there's more. i also had 4 extra kids. why? well one of the girls i watch, her mom goes to school in the evening. her mother watches the kids normally because her hubby works until 9 or 10. her mother couldn't watch the kids. she had no one else to ask, so of course i said yes. she's a nice lady trying to better herself. her kids are nice kids. they were all fairly well behaved. i just was done with kids. you know you can tell when you are getting pretty stressed. i can atleast. i can feel it in my chest. i had that feeling last night. my sister in law (kim the funny one) asked me if i was ok. sure i am. but, i was thinking i might like another table...closer to the bar. she cracked up. she knows. she's lots of fun. we are definitely getting out for a girls night sometime soon.

oh rachel, no one knows about this, and i hope they never do. i wouldn't be able to make fun of them as easily if they know i'm saying it for the whole webworld to see. so shhhh!

oh yeah, i found out my dad had colon cancer. he had it removed on monday, and found out yesterday it was cancerous. they got it all, and he doesn't have to do anything else right now. but he has to have another colonoscopy done in a year. thank god my step mom kept on him about getting the test done in the first place!

my dad

i finally did it. i went back to being a brunette. i got tired of the upkeep of highlights. well not so much the upkeep, but the brown strip that marked my part. i don't get in to the salon as often as i should if i want to be a blond. atleast if i want to be a blond that doesn't look like she belongs in a trailer park. so i went darker. back to my natural color. i think that in the last 10 to 15 years i have been my natural color 1 other time. since then i have been blond, varying shades of blond, but blond none the less. do blonds have more fun? i don't know, but i had 5 kids while blond, so i think i am due a change. i also decided to deviate from the "cut it as short as possible" bob i have been getting. i figure it i am not going to be blond i should at least leave it a little longer for jeff. he likes long hair, and blond hair. so i figure, i can do one for him. when i cut it short, i have been going blond. now that i'm dark, i figured i could leave it a little longer. anyway enough about my hair.

i tried to think of things to do about dads, you know with father's day on sunday and all. well i decided to do a 50 things about my dad list. i hope i can think of 50 things about him.
1. my dad's middle name is edward, and so is my oldest son's
2. my dad named me
3. i was named after my youngest aunt, and she is also my dad's goddaughter
4. my dad is one of eleven kids
5. he is the 4th kid, and the 3rd son
6. he has 3 kids
7. my dad has been married 2 times
8. my mom had a crush on my dad when she was in 6th grade
9. she is 6 years younger than my dad
10. he turned 24 two months after i was born
11. his birthday is the first day of fall
12. his best friend wrote a book about their childhood, and teenage years
13. i never read it, and i don't think i ever want to
14. my dad has dinner with my grandpa every week
15. my dad is a carpenter by trade, but is a project manager now
16. my dad has helped us build 2 houses
17. my dad built the house we lived in when i was a kid
18. some of my favorite memories are of float trips we went on with my dad and the Field family
19. my dad and his friends had a book club back when they were kids
20. my dad turned me on to books i would probably not read
21. my dad can't spell
22. i mean he really can't spell
23. even though he can't spell, he still writes notes in every card he has ever gotten me
24. my dad likes german shepherds
25. my dad had a crow when he was a kid
26. he found it when it was very young and raised it
27. he hated my cat "muffy"
28. my dad wanted to have 5 kids
29. my dad loves being a grandpa
30. he loves it when alex asks to go fishing
31. he used to sneak back to the private lake behind our old house with us to go fishing
32. my dad tells me he thinks i'm a good mom all the time
33. he doesn't tell me he thinks i'm a good housekeeper
34. he never badmouthed my mom when they were splitting up
35. he never badmouthed my mom's family
36. my dad always told me i could do anything
37. my dad is proud of me for being a stay at home mom
38. he loves my husband like a second son
39. my dad falls asleep around 9pm
40. he never let us sleep late
41. he used to say "suns up, you're up"
42. he didn't like it when i would bring stray dogs home
43. he didn't mind the turtles and lizards
44. i don't think he liked the snakes getting lost in the house
45. my dad only liked one cat, that was tiger
46. he actually spent alot of money on him when he got sick, trying to get him better
47. he did the same for our german shepherd, louise
48. he liked to name our dogs after people he knew that had rough lives, louise was a lady he knew that had lost 2 kids to a drunk driver, but still could smile.
49. i used to watch john wayne movies, and clint eastwood movies with him
50. my french teacher had a HUGE crush on my dad

well that's 50 things. i hope you enjoyed it. as you can see, my dad is supercool (yes, it is one word in this context, say it fast). try to think of 50 things for your dad.