Saturday morning was spent at the soccer field (big surprise)  All of  our teams lost.   Everyone played well and had a good time though.  Bekah is sick again (a fever w/ a cough)  We are hoping she is better very soon as we leave for vacation on Friday. 

I did get a good action shot of Mark on Saturday. 

All of the coaches loved their cards and brownies we made.  The children all have a make-up game to play on Thursday evening.  They are so excited to play one more time before we leave since they are missing their last game of the season on Saturday.   Sam and Bekah's divisions are having tournaments the weekend we return from vacation. 

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I had told Brooks not to spend any $$ for Mother's Day and we could just use that $$ for vacation.  He did not listen to me :-)  I must say I'm glad he didn't as he totally surprised me with a GPS.  Anyone that knows me knows that this will be a much used item.  My sense of direction is HORRIBLE.  Thankfully, the children seem to have a better sense of direction than I do and they often keep me on track and going the right direction when we are out and about.  The children all made me beautiful cards.  I love homemade cards!!!!!  The children, especially Sam, can't wait to use the GPS.  We have quite a lot of errands to run this week to get ready for vacation and Sam wants us to use the GPS for those errands.  Rebekah made breakfast for all of us yesterday.  At church we always have a fellowship meal after service.  Yesterday the church blessed us moms by providing the meal so we moms didn't have to cook.  It was a very nice day.

Here is a picture of me with the children:

So you are probably thinking this entry is about how much Mark likes Dippin' Dots ice cream, huh?  Well, of course, it isn't that simple.  :-)  Mark has a baby doll that he loves.  He has spent much time trying to come up with a name for this baby.  He says the baby is a boy but he is always calling the baby "her" and that's not typically something he confuses.  So I was coming up with baby girl names.  He would tell me, "Mommy, it's a boy"  So then I started naming boy names.  He would say "we know a Luke.  We know a John etc....."  So if we knew someone with that name, it couldn't be the baby's name.  One day he came to me and said, "My baby's name is Dippin' Dots" and it has stuck.  I didn't think he would stick with it but he certainly has.  Dippin' Dots sleeps in a crib right by his bed and I have to give Dippin' Dots a kiss and hug each night at bed time.  Dippin' Dots takes a nap each day just like Mark does.  He takes Dippin' Dots for a stroll each day. 

WHEW.  Where has the time gone?  I can't believe it's been over a week since I last blogged.  My wonderful husband was off work last week so we spent the week enjoying spending time with him.  It was so nice having him at home. 

We are done with school now and will start our new year when we return from vacation.  Music is done for the summer.  Normally, we don't take music lessons off but the music school is moving buildings so they are taking the summer off.  Of course, the children will still have to practice but I am going to enjoy not driving to lessons.  :-)  Bekah did well in her solo competition despite being sick the day of.  :-(  She didn't win but she played very well.  Her end of semester evaluation was yesterday and she did great on that as well.  We should get grades within the next couple of weeks.

The Spring soccer season is going wonderfully.  The children will all miss their last game because we will be on vacation but we hope to be back in time for Sam to play in tournaments (his team is undefeated thus far)  I have been working on thank you cards for soccer coaches. 

Here are the thank you cards I made for soccer coaches:

We have had a busy couple of weeks.   My pictures were all still on the camera.  I pulled a few to share here.

Brooks' best friend from childhood was in town with his family last week.  We joined them at the indoor pool at their hotel and had lots of fun swimming and catching up.

I know this picture isn't the best quality wise but I like seeing the guys enjoying catching up. 

Here are the children with one of Perry's daughters.

Here is Bekah while we are on the boat in the hotel waiting for our ride through the Delta to begin. 

We went to the zoo one day.  We didn't get a lot of pictures but did get a few:

We've had more soccer games.  I'm doing terrible at getting soccer pictures.  I get so into the game that I forget about pictures and it's really hard to get good pics with my camera.  I love my camera but it's hard to get action shots with it.

Sam played his best game ever on Tuesday night.  He had an EXCELLENT game. 

Bethany had a great game on Saturday.  She played hard and did really well on defense. 

We have some baby birds in a tree by our house.  The children discovered the nest and WHILE they were watching/looking, the first bird hatched!!  Not a great picture but this is the best they've gotten so far.

Okay.  So I guess that was more than a few.  :-)

 A brag on Bekah --  Bekah's piano teacher encouraged her to enter the solo competition for her age group (10 - 13 years) at music school.  Bekah was uncertain about it but she really likes her piano teacher so she decided to do it.  Her teacher told her it would be good experience.  So she entered.  The preliminary competition was a couple of weeks ago.  Afterwards Bekah told me she was glad she entered but she didn't think she did very well.  I didn't hear her so I didn't know.  Well, last week in the mail she recv'd a letter.  The letter was informing her that she made it to the finals.    I'm so proud of her!  She was so surprised and excited.  She kept saying "Mommy, I really didn't think I would make it."  The finals are this Friday, 25th.  She's been practicing a lot every day.  In fact, today, when Sam had violin lessons, she took her music and practiced while he had his lesson.

 A brag on Sam -- Sam had violin lessons today.  He has them every Monday.  At the end of every semester, you have an evaluation.  The evaluation is done by a panel of teachers.  Sam was supposed to have his evaluation next Monday, 28th.  When his teacher arrived today she said "isn't his evaluation supposed to be next week"  Yes, we confirm that this is our understanding.  She then tells us that she has just been told that his evaluation is today.  Sam handled it so well.  He practiced a couple of times and then had his evaluation.  Normally, you receive your grade in the mail but they went ahead and gave him his grade today...... A+!!!!!!!  I'm sooooo proud of him!

ARGHHH I had this entry all typed and HSB lost it.  I haven't had that happen in a while but I shall go back to copying and saving the entry before I click "add entry" again.  This is frustrating!!!!

Last night we went to the first home game for the Predators in the hockey playoffs.  It was a GREAT game.  The first part wasn't that great with the score being 2-0 (Wings)  It was especially not fun with some obnoxious Red Wings fans sitting around us.  To be fair, there were plenty of obnoxious Predators fans as well.  :-)  The excitement really picked up when the Predators did score and the final ended up being 5 - 3 (Predators)  Whooo hoooo.  It was a great game and a fun night.  The Red Wings really are a better team (you know, in my vast hockey experience .... NOT!)  :-) 

The children loved the noisemakers.

We had some great conversations on the way home about the game and the attitudes of the fans.  It's all about having a biblical worldview and teaching that to our children so they have that to filter life through as they journey along.  We had some great conversations on the way home about it all and the children had some great input into the conversation.  One of them commented that if we honor Christ in all we do, we can't go wrong.  Yep, that about sums it up, doesn't it.  :-) 

We did have a funny just as we were leaving the game.  Bekah asked me if she should take her noisemakers home.  I told her that it was up to her.  She said, "We should probably take them.  You know what a junk mouse daddy is."  This just cracked me up.  It is a well known fact that Brooks is a pack rat but I just found it so funny that she re-named it "junk mouse"  I know it doesn't sound nearly as funny to read it but last night it was really funny -- well, it was funny and it was wayyyy past my bedtime :-)

Saturday we spent all day at the soccer field -- well almost all day.  Bekah's game was at 9:00 am  It was quite cold.  We all grabbed blankets and jackets and enjoyed the game.

Bekah almost scored a goal.  Had she kicked just an inch to the right, she would have scored.  It was sooooo close.  It was a good game.  I think the final score was 4-3.  (we lost)

Sam's game was at 11:00 am

He played goal keeper for one quarter and then varying other positions the rest of the game. No goals were scored while Sam was goal keeper.  Actually, the other team didn't score any goals at all.  It was a really good game.  It was 0 to 0 until the last couple of minutes and Sam's team scored a goal. 

Bethany's game was at Noon.  She played offense the first quarter and then they moved her to goal keeper the rest of the game.  She did a great job and no goals were scored while she was goal keeper!  Go Bethany!!!!!  Sadly, all the goals scored in the first quarter, cost us a win.  I can't remember the final score but our team lost.

Mark's game wasn't until 2:15.  They had to reschedule the U6 games because their fields were flooded.  We came home for lunch and Grandma and Grandpa invited the three older children to go with them to see an air show in their town.  The girls wanted to go but Sam wanted to stay with us.  So off the girls went with Grandma and Grandpa.  They had a great time. 

Mark did great at his game.  His team won (8-6)

It is hard to get an action shot of just Mark in this age group.  They are all almost always bunched together when running up and down the field.  This age group cracks me up and my husband is the most patient man I know.  There is no way I have the patience to coach this age group. 

We are in our third week of soccer but due to all the rain, our first game was yesterday and then it was only Mark that played.  The other children all still have two games to make up.  Mark's first game was so much fun.  The weather was beautiful and he had a great time.  Did his team win or lose?  He couldn't tell you.  He was clueless about that. 

Here he is receiving instruction from the Coach (aka as Daddy)  :-)

Because the U6 fields hold water so badly, they recently dumped some sand in spots on the field.  BIG mistake for the U6 players.  In this picture, Mark was standing in the sand area and was spinning and playing.  He happened to look up for this picture.

Well I have been horrible about blogging last week.  The week flew by and I kept meaning to blog but just never got it done.  On Tuesday, we went with our church's homeschool group to see Go Dog Go at the local children's theatre.   We had lots of fun.   Afterwards, we went out to eat with one family.

Afterwards, they came back to our house for lots of fun playing time.  One of their children ended up spending the night with us.  They really enjoyed that!

Brooks was home and in charge of putting them all to bed as I was at a Mom's meeting with our church group.  My husband is such a great man!  He gave them the treat of sleeping on the floor of the living room.  That's not much of a treat to me but they love it.  I arrived home to find 5 children all sleeping in a row. 

On Thursday we celebrated Rebekah's spiritual birthday.  We took her out for breakfast and I prepared her favorite meal for dinner.  She also chose some new music for her MP3 player. 

Her smile is kind of silly and I didn't even notice until I was uploading the pics to the computer.  Oh well. 

All soccer practices and games ended up being rained out.  It has rained sooooooo much.  Thankfully, it did not rain on Saturday and Sunday and we were able to have a wonderful retreat with our church.  It was so much fun.  We are so blessed to have such an amazing church family.  They are so precious to us.  I did take my camera; however, it does not good to just take it.  I didn't get any retreat pictures.  Oh, well.  There will be more retreats. 

Well the weekend was filled with rain.  Yes, it is rain we need but we're still tired of it.  :-)  The children were all disappointed that their soccer games were rained out.  On Friday evening we received an e-mail that Sam's game would not be played due to the opposing team not having enough players for Saturday.  He was soooooooo disappointed.  He LOVES playing soccer.  Then Saturday morning we got an e-mail that U6 and U8 games (Mark and Bethany's division) were cancelled due to flooding on the field.  So that left just Bekah playing.  We loaded up and went to the soccer field for her 11am game.  Upon arriving, they called off the current game and ended up cancelling Bekah's game.  Of course, this happened AFTER we had umbrellas and chairs etc... all out of the van and were seated and ready for the game.  So back home we went.  Bekah and Bethany had a birthday party to attend and the boys ran some errands w/ Brooks.  My sister had come to watch soccer games so we ended up going out for lunch.  It ended up being a great day -- despite all the rain.

Sunday -- more rain -- though not as much as on Saturday.  We went to church and didn't stay for lunch like we normally do.  Brooks had a few things he needed to take care of and he needed to get it done before this coming weekend as we have our church retreat this coming weekend.  Anyway, Brooks and I were able to go on a lunch date.  WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!  It's been a long time since we've been on a date.  I always enjoy alone time with my husband. 

Sunday afternoon it had stopped raining and the children asked to go to a local park that we hadn't been to in a while so off we went.

We have always tried to be aware of the love language of our children.  When I have one on one time with each child, I just always ask them what they would like to do and we do that (within reason)  This has been my way of keeping their love tank full.  Recently I was listening to some of my Mom's Notes.  From listening to the Mom's Notes I decided that since they have gotten older, it would be good to find out their love language so I can be certain to meet it regularly.  So yesterday I gave the older three children a love language "quiz".  It was neat to see the results. 

One child is just like Brooks -- this child scored even across the board, which means, in order to feel loved, you have to do ALL FIVE of the love languages.  This is how Brooks is.  This child's exact socres were: 16 for Encouraging words, acts of service and gift giving -- 14 for quality time and 13 for touch.  I have suspected that this child was like Brooks but this "quiz" confirmed it for me.  I knew when we sat down to do the quiz and the response from the child was "oh, it's so hard to choose" that I was in trouble. 

Another child scored:  23 encouraging words; 19 acts of service; 15 gift giving; 10 touch and 8 quality time.  The quality time didn't really surprise me as this child will sit alone and read for hours at a time.  The acts of service DID surprise me so I was so glad to know this.  It really helps me in knowing how to best show love to this child.

Another child scored:  20 encouraging words and touch; 12 on acts of service and quality time; 11 on gift giving.  The encouraging words on this child really surprised me.  I really thought that this child's top one would be quality time.  WRONG!!!  Again, I'm so glad we did the "quiz" so I know how to best show love to this child.

Mark didn't take the quiz.  He's too young so I just work on meeting all love languages for him.  Right now, I suspect his top two are quality time (he IS a sanguine after all) and encouraging words because he is always walking up and saying "mommy, I love you". 

I asked Bethany Grace to prepare snack for us the other day.  We almost always have the same thing for snack each day (string cheese, apples and pecans)  When I came into the kitchen, this is what I saw:

YIPPPEEEE  We recently recv'd our Mrs. G order.  We love Bible Stories with Mrs. G.  I had forgotten how good these are until a couple of things that happened recently.  Both instances resulted in an adult asking the children how they knew "that".  On both occassions, the replies were "I listen to Bible Stories with Mrs. G."    We aren't able to buy them very often but I'm so glad when we are able to get them. 

Here is what my dh received in the mail yesterday:

Whooo hoooo!!!!  I'm so excited.  Brooks and I haven't been on a trip (just the two of us) in about 9 years. 

My husband has a side biz.   It is called (our last name) & Sons.  He really needed to go do some work and take care of the side biz stuff yesterday but wasn't physically able to do so.  So we all loaded into the van and off we went to do the family biz.  It was a lot of fun.  I usually just take care of invoices and billing etc... with the business.  I am usually home with the children that don't go with him that particular day to work on things.  Today we all pitched in and got the work done.  Brooks went with us to tell us what to do (I sure know nothing about it) but we can certainly follow directions.  Sam and I ended up with blue dye on us so we look like the animal from Put Me in the Zoo. 

We got home just in time to eat dinner and then off to soccer practice.  It was a busy but fun day. 

whoo hooo!  We bought a cow.  Well, we bought half of a cow.  :-)  They called us this week telling us it was ready to be picked up.  Sam and I went to get it.  He's such a good helper and hard worker.  We loaded it all into two coolers and one box and brought it home and packed our freezer. 

Yipppeee for good farmers that don't use hormones or any other drugs and grass feed their cows. 

They began predicting this big snow storm on Thursday.  Oh the build up to this snow storm was huge.  The news was going on and on and on about this big snow storm.  They even said "it will be the biggest storm we have had in 5 years"  The "storm" arrived much later than they predicted and then we only got about 2", if that.  It worked out to my advantage that we didn't get a lot though as we had to go pick up Brooks at the airport in the a.m.  The children did enjoy a little play before it all melted.

Oh my!!!!!!  I recently purchased this software and WOW WOW WOW.  It is sooooo super easy to use. I have tried digital scrapbooking in the past but I just could not figure out how to do it.  I quickly became frustrated and said "forget this".  I planned to stick w/ my regular way of scrapbooking.  Of course, I rarely ever get around to actually doing it but that is a different story.  I just don't have it planned in my day and, honestly, I don't like dragging out all the stuff and then putting it away so I don't make the time to do it. 

The Creative Memories software makes it sooooo easy.  It is so user-friendly.  It is also very good for people, like me, that are not at all creative.  Of course, for the people that are creative, it works great too.  The creative person can create page after page after page of beautiful layouts that are full of creativity.  I have a friend that is this kind of person.  Her pages are beautiful and it blows me away that she puts that together all on her own.  NOT ME!!!!  But I can copy and I can drop in pictures to layouts that are already done for me. 

I also LOVE the ease of sitting down to at the computer and if I have 5 min., that's great.  I can work on it for 5 minutes.  If I have 30 minutes, I can work on it for 30.  I don't have to put anything away or get anything out.  I LOVE IT!!!!!  

Here is a layout I did with pictures from Feb., 2007.

Creative Memories also has a tutorial that you can watch.  This is actually what sold me on the software.  You can watch the tutorial here. 

If you don't have a Creative Memories Consultant, e-mail me.  I have a sweet friend that is a consultant and would love to help you.