Opening Day

Picture Day at Busch Stadium

1986

Too many comments and too little space on this blog. GO CARDS!!

Back to the Grind

So, spring break is over. Sad for us, but I am ready to get this show on the road and get to summer. As Jon puts it, MAP testing and graduation, we can do it. I actually have a lot of work to do before the end of the year, so these next two months with out a break should fly by. Speaking of fly by. Remember February and how it wouldn't go away? Looking back, what happened to March? I feel like it just started and now it is almost over, crazy.

Spring break for us consisted of getting a lot of stuff done. I will not bore you with details, but here is what we did in a nut shell. Wisdom teeth out, Easter, worked outside, Alissa and kids came over, slept in, went shopping, painted a new dresser for Lexi, bought a new big girl bed for Gracie, Ne-o-tez rally dinner, dinner with Jon's family, and hung out as a family. It wasn't fancy, but to me, it was fabulous.

I will leave you with two stories...
When I had my wisdom teeth taken out our girls stayed with my parents. Remember the last time they stayed, Gracie came back with no hair. This time they came back traumatized in yet a different way. (I'm just kidding mom.) On Friday at the farm my mom, dad, and sister Amy were working in the green house. Well, apparently the kids were getting in the way so my dad told my niece and nephew to take my two girls for a walk. Off they went. Forty-five minutes later my dad gets to thinking they have been gone a little too long and he goes looking for them on the mule. He returns back to the house in a panic because he didn't find them anywhere. So, my sister (not panicking at all) joins him in his search. Within a few minutes they see the four kids walking, laughing, and it looks like they were having a great time. Here is Lexi's description of what happened...Lexi told how they were lost, and she fell down and got a boo boo, and she got stuck in the "Sticker Bush Forest" (cuckleburs), and she was crying and thought they would never see her mom and dad again. All Gracie said was that she fell down and got a boo boo too. Ever since that day Gracie has added something new to her prayers..."help us not get lost." It was all very funny (reading about it is just not the same), I have no doubt that if asked to go on a walk with their cousins again they would go in a heartbeat.

After breakfast one morning I told the girls they needed to clean up under the table, so I got out the dust pan and little broom. Lexi was the first to get to me so she got that and Gracie, who wanted to "help" grabbed the big broom. Picture it Gracie doing more swinging of the broom then sweeping. Well, you guessed it she knocked over the jelly and a glass glass from the counter. Jon tried to caught the plastic jelly container yet bobbled the glass. It all kind of happened in slow motion so even though the glass completely shattered on the floor I started laughing a little. Jon, not finding the humor in it, started cleaning up the mess. As I start to compose myself Lexi says, "Was that glass breakable?" Really? I think we need to revisit the definition of breakable.

What the Hail???

Note to self....weather.com does NOT show purple (indicating hail) on it's radar like EVERY other radar in all of North America.

My sister and her kids came to play today and we noticed it getting really dark outside. So I check the radar on the computer and yes the thunderstorm had spread out and would be hitting us at any moment. It starts, not raining, but hailing. Alissa informs me she is going to pull her van into my garage on Jon's side since he was up at school. Not a big deal I think. So I call him to make sure he is not on his way home at that moment, what are the chances? He picks up his phone and of course he is on his way home and would be here in 30 seconds so he can get his truck in the garage out of hail's way. What to do? As Alissa is getting out of her newly parked, undercover van, I tell her Jon will be here any second. So, back into her van she goes. I tell her to pull up all the way touching my car to hopefully block some of it. She gets her van into position and then we wait, and wait, and wait, still no Jon (little did we know he had slid past our road, slippery little hail) all the while Alissa's van is getting pelted with hail. So I tell her this is stupid pull back in and as soon as I see him at the top of the hill you can pull back out. So she backs down my driveway a little and then is stuck spinning her tires on my driveway. Yes, I did put down my camera and with the help of the snow shovel she got back up my driveway.

Jon did make it in and it looks like no one had any damage since it was only pea sized hail. But, it sure was a tense 5 hours, I mean 5 minutes.

I just put my flower pots out yesterday in preparation for spring, not more ice.

It was like Sonic's icemaker exploded in my yard. (I love Sonic ice, no I didn't eat the hail.)
Look on her windshield and see just how much hail we got in a short time.

I am including this next picture for you to notice the brown under the hail. That would be the straw covering up the new grass seed we planted yesterday. I told Alissa the hail, since it was small, was actually a blessing. If all the precipitation we got in such a short time was rain my back yard would have been a river washing the 80 dollars worth of seed down the drain. But, the hail will melt slowly and hopefully there will be no washing away of seed. (By the way we also made two retaining wall circle things around our mail box and a tree, we cleaned out the garage, cut down two trees, and burned yard waste all yesterday--I love outside work, seriously I do.)

So, when it was all over we looked on ksdk.com (local news) and looked at their radar. Oh yea, clear as day, a small purple circle passed right over our town. I will be looking there first from now on to be a little more prepared.

Happy Easter and other stuff

We spent the night with my mom and dad last night, and we woke up to snow this morning. I took many pictures, yet none were really that good. How hard is it to look straight at the camera and smile? Seriously? My girls both can not pose for a picture and not tilt their head some crazy way, look at my feet, look at the sky, or not smile. This is the best I got with both of them together. But, cute matching dresses from Aunt Marion.

We went to Maryland Hgts CoC with my whole fam for church. They always have an egg hunt after services. They moved it inside this year due to the crazy weather outside.

There was a TON of eggs.

Here is the best family picture we got, not so good of Lexi, and I am looking at this telling myself to make an appointment to get me some highlights. Check out my wisdom teeth swelling, I know, not so much. This was actually the worst it has been.

Here are all of the "Lingua" cousins, no one with the last name Lingua.

Dying Easter Eggs

We actually dyed our eggs the day before Gracie's birthday. I figured I never know what to do with all of the eggs afterward so why not make deviled eggs for the party. The girls were a little sad that I shelled the eggs about 30 minutes after they dyed them. (Had they not seen me do it they would have never known.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We finally bought bar stools for our counter. They girls love to eat their breakfast up there. They question almost every night why we all have to sit at the table to eat dinner, and why they can not sit at the counter. (With the time change we are back to eating breakfast in the dark--I hate that.)

Lexi all decked out in green.

This was Gracie's first day in the three-year-old room at school.

Wisdom teeth free

Well, just thought I would update you on my post surgery. I am totally good-to-go. Everything went just fine, like I knew it would in my head. I remember them starting the IV and then a half second of the room going a little wavy, and then bam I was opening my eyes. I slept the whole way home and then got here and went to sleep. Jon went and got my medicine, I woke up, took it, drank a slim fast and then slept on and off till 4ish. Right now I feel completely fine, I just hope the same for tomorrow.

Random question:
Sunday's forecast is 47 degrees and spotty showers. How should I dress my kids for that? I know it's only tradition to dress all fancy for Easter, but I don't want to just put them in some old dress they have worn all winter long just because it is cold. So, do I make then suffer and dress them cute yet with a big coat, or do I dress them not-so-cute and warm?

On my mind....

Spring starts tomorrow, yea! A lot of my flowers are already starting to come up and my grass is looking a little greener these days, of course yesterday and today I had to look through two inches of water to even see my grass

Our spring break starts on Friday. I am so excited about getting any time off this year. Last year with all of the snow days and construction on our school we had ZERO days off from January 11ish till we got out in May. I am talking no President's day nothing. So this year we are all happier.

My spring break starts off at 8:30 in the morning on Friday getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. I am real nervous about this. Seriously, as I am typing this I am getting butterflies in my stomach. I am not scared of the pain at all, I can handle that, I am scared to be knocked out. I have NEVER in my life been unconscious. It is just creeping me out to think of people doing stuff to me and I have NO control or knowledge of what is happening. Am I crazy? Is it just me? Do I need therapy? OK, don't answer any of those!

Gracie has been in the three-year-old class now for two FULL days and yesterday when we were leaving one of her little friends from her two-year-old class said, "Hi." and was just really excited to see her. Gracie, the little snot, refused to look at her or say hi because she wasn't her friend any more. Are you kidding me? She's too good to speak to two-year-olds two days after she moves up. Man, I am gonna have my hands full with her. I think I need to start knocking her down to size early. I guess I should mention she did remind me at bedtime prayers to talk about her being rude. I am assuming the motivation behind the prayer was not to be more like Christ, but so she wouldn't have to sit on her bed and go without a snack after school.

I hit a milestone this week...I jogged two and a half miles without stopping. Of course it took me 30 minutes (29 min. 58 sec.). (I'll do the math for you. That's running at a 5 on the treadmill or a 12 minute mile. That is my average of course.) Regardless of the time, I was just pleased with myself. My first time on a treadmill was back in 2003ish and besides almost falling off cause it felt weird, it took me like 16 minutes to do one mile (walking and running of course). That time in 2003 was a one-time thing at the YMCA. We bought a treadmill in 2005 and we have been on and off friends ever since. I would like to get up to jogging at least 3 miles by summer. I know I will have a little set back with my teeth next week, but surely by summer I can do it.

The weight loss is slow yet steady. After the holidays I was up a total of 10 pounds from last year and 15 pounds from when we moved here a year and a half ago. On Sunday morning I was down a total of 8 pounds from the holidays, but then came Gracie's party and these. So, Monday morning I was only down a total of 6 pounds. This is the one area I am excited about getting my teeth pulled, it better pay off on the scale. I would still like to lose 16 pounds by July. If I keep jogging I know I can get there.

Well, that's all for now. Wish me luck on my unconsciousness.

My baby turns 3

I can not believe that three years ago today Gracie was born. Like so many people say...it feels like just yesterday she was born, yet I almost can't remember life without her. She has turned into such a sweet little girl. (Of course you gotta watch her she can turn all bipolar on ya in a second, I'm not kidding. I am not worried about her holding her own in the three-year-old room.) She is our cuddlebug. Always needs to be touching you somehow. She is quick to tell you when you look nice, that she loves you, or tell you, "you are the sweetest (bestest, nicest, prettiest, etc.)." Around Christmas time a family at school's house burnt down and I told Lexi and Gracie about them, Gracie went to her room and found her favorite animal and wanted to give it away to the family. Her prayers are the cutest thing ever. First off when we ask her to pray her first response is, "Is it Monday?" Crazy I know, but she only wants say the prayer on Monday. So on Mondays we are blessed at the table to hear her yell, and I mean YELL the prayer. (Her inside voice broke at birth.) We never really know what she will say from night to night, it could range from, "Dear God don't help me to feel better cause I'm not sick." to "Thank you for my potatoes, and my chicken, but not my peas cause I don't like them." Try not to laugh when that is being yelled by a three year old, impossible. Speaking of talking, this girl NEVER stops!! If she is not talking to Lexi, Jon, or me she is talking to her babies or she is singing. She always says off the wall stuff that is too funny to me, like today after church she said, "We talked about Jesus and he was alive and then he died and then the bad, bad people took him away to the trampoline. What? (Of course Lexi also told us today after church that the palm leaves she colored and cut out were called Pon Pon leaves.) Or these things were very funny too. She is just a joy to have and we thank God for blessing our lives with her. I just can't believe she is so big.

She was born talking-look at her.

Her hair was crazy black when she was born-this is her at 3 months.

She has ALWAYS been high drama.

She's 10 months old here.

1st Birthday

Here she's about 1 year 4 months, so cute.

2nd Birthday

Today-3rd Birthday Yes, pink cake with Diegio faces.

She is not a baby any more. (Wipe tears.)

Every once in awhile.....

......someone or something famous comes to town. This week the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales came to town. Why you ask? Well, they will be in Rolla's 100th anniversary St. Pat's Day parade tomorrow and we have a distributor here in town along with nice fair grounds. So long story short, these beautiful animals are staying less then 2 miles from my house and we went up to see them today after school.

What a job. I am sure these men each make way more money then Jon and I combined. Heck, I am sure the guy scooping the dookie up makes more then us combined too.These horses and dog live the high life, well as far as horses and dogs go.
Of course we were having a "don't take my picture day." Love that!
They took a little jont around the parking lot. Practice I guess?.? Not like they don't do this every weekend.

After we were done with the horses we went over the the playground to enjoy the beautiful day.

OK, someone has to give here.

That's better.

Old Navy and hair

OLD NAVY
OK so yesterday we went shopping. The very first store we went to was Old Navy. It wasn't even on our list of stores to go to, we kind of forgot it was in the location we were shopping. So was see the sign and are always up for an Old Navy visit so we pull in. Within five minutes Jon comes to me and says, "Oh yeah, there are a ton of things in here, today will be a good shopping day." (We always judge the whole day on the first store, I know stupid.) We spend a good 45 minutes in the store, you know trying stuff on (girls too), numerous trips to see the little fake dog on the bench in the children's section, and deciding on sale prices, etc. We have our items to buy, Jon-2 shorts on sale two for 30, good deal, and 2 dresses for the girls on sale 2 for 20, again another good deal, we proceed to the check-out. There was only one other group in line in front of us and by the conversation we could tell it would take awhile (clue #1) so the manager lady says she will help us at her counter. She rings up Jon's shorts and they ring up 50 dollars or something crazy like that and he proceeds to tell her that the sign said they were 2 for 30. She very nicely says, "Oh, what sign?" Jon points to it and says, "The sign TOUCHING the rack where I got these shorts." She then walks over to the rack and reads the sign and lets him know that sign is talking about the OTHER shorts, you know the ones NOT touching the sign, three feet away. "Oh, that makes sense, our mistake, well, we don't want those." She smiles and then rings up the dresses--35 dollars. Now, I chime in, "Hold on, the sign said 2 for 20 (You see where this is going, right?) She then says, "Oh, I'll have Janna, or whoever, go check on that. Where were these located." I then give her an EXACT description of where they were and where the sign was. She then gets on her little headphone thing (LOVE THAT), and relays the message to 16-year-old-Janna, who is also a manager type person. After much headphone talking, no luck so she tells me to go back there and show her what I am talking about. As I am walking back there I am getter madder every step I take cause I know it will be a repeat of the shorts from 5 minutes earlier. Once to the back of the store I show here the sign, that very clearly says 2 for 20, that is attached to one small rack of dresses which is where I got them from. She then tells me, "Read the very small print at the bottom that says this sale is only for the low-waisted dresses all mixed in with the dresses you would like to buy." ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???? Now, I'm pissed, and I make sure she is fully aware of my "unhappiness." I then walk back to the front and motion for my family to come on and my girls look up at me and ask, "Why aren't we buying our dresses. Why are we leaving this store?" (Please hold for Best Mom ever comment.) Of course I wasn't done with my temper tantrum so I said real loud like it was gonna hurt someones feelings, "Cause this store is stupid!!" Nice, huh? I am so mature. I really didn't even LOVE the dresses. But, then of course I had to listen to my kids tell me how we don't say stupid, which helps my temper just calm right down (please hear my sarcasm). I love Old Navy, but they really let me down yesterday. I told Jon they do that crap on purpose so people will either a-not notice the price when they check out, or b-just say they will take it anyway. Well, not this cheapskate. I'll show them. (Cause ya know I am really hurting their business by not buying those few things.) Anyways, don't fret--Target came through, as always, and the girls got some cute dresses perfect for beach pictures this summer, and cheaper, so it all worked out. And, despite our first store setting a precedent for the day, not this time, we found some really good deals.

Hair
This morning I gave the girls a bath and dressed them and then left them in front of the TV so I could shower and get myself ready. At one point I walked through the living room and I saw Gracie sitting in her kid rocking chair while Lexi sat behind her fixing her hair. The thought that ran through my head was, "Oh, that is so cute. What a great big sister." Fast forward 20 minutes later. There is 5 minutes before we have to leave and the girls' hair is still wet. I call Lexi into my bathroom for me to dry it real quick. As I am drying her hair she drops something. As she is picking it up she tells me and I quote, "Oh I dropped Gracie's dollar. She had to give me two dollars for me to fix her hair this morning." At this point I am stunned. I didn't really know what to say to her, do I scold her for taking advantage of her sister, do I ignore it and let them work it out, or do I say, that-a-girl that attitude will make you the head of some company some day. Of course I'm totally kidding about the last one, well sort of. :-) Anyways, I said nothing for now and Jon and I will deal with it when they wake up from their naps. But, so much for my, "What a great big sister." thought!!

Spring turns to Winter?

Here are more pictures from Sunday morning.

I always bribe the girls to take good pictures by telling them I will take a few silly faces at the end.

Two days and 4 inches later....

At least it was good fluffy snow, we made a snowman family in about 20 minutes.

What a Tease

According to my outside plants, spring is here, and according to weather.com, today's high was suppose to be 76, however, it also said that we are under a flood AND winter storm watch starting tonight. Is there another snow day in our future? Who knows? All I know is that since I was running a fever yesterday and didn't get to enjoy the beautiful day, it was so nice to get out today. We all really enjoyed our afternoon outside, check out the pictures below. Is was also been nice to have the windows open and air out the "sick germs," Lysol spray, fabreeze antibacterial, etc.

Before church, yes I know that Gracie's sweeter is too small, and no I have no idea why she made me button it all the way to the top.

Such big helpers, I think that one tire of Jon's got washed 10 times.