God Gave us THIS...

SO WE ENJOYED THE DAY DOING THIS.....

RIDING BIKES...

Riding 4 wheelers...Swinging.......HULA HOOPING....

GETTING THE LITTLE TRACTOR OUT....
BIG TRACTOR OUT.... EXAMINING A Dead MOUSE....Rocking on the front porch.......Even "Karmy" our dog is WAVING a happy "HELLO"!

FARM LIVIN' IS THE LIFE FOR ME!

OH HAPPY DAY!

Baby Cora-Please Pray..UPDATE!!

MOM IS REALLY ASKING FOR PRAYERS TODAY-PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LEAVE MOM, DAD and CORA a messagePlease pray for little Cora Paige McClenahan. On Thursday, Jan 22nd-Coras parents took her in for what they thought was another ear infection and ended up finding out that she had a tumor next to her kidney and mulitple spots on her little liver. Please go here to stay updated on sweet Cora. She is undergoing some chemo and her mom and dad could really use words of encouragement and prayers. Although I do not know them personally-as the body of CHRIST-we must step up and show HIS LOVE to this family.

Also please pray for TUESDAYS FAMILY as they grieve the loss of Tuesday yesterday.

The Captain-SpUGGtacular!

Ever since we were in NYC a couple months ago, I have longed for some UGGS! They looked SO warm and comfy! But WAY over priced.

I know I am behind the times as many of you "BIG CITY GALS" have probably had them for years.

I was so excited to see the UPS guy today with a delivery for ME!

The Captain has gifted me with some UGGS! He's so thoughtful and generous. He told me it was part of my PAYCHECK for all the work I do and that I deserve them.

Not a need at all but a lame old want.
I will be wearing them to Wally World tonight to do my weekly shopping UGGSTRAVAGANZA before The Captain departs Sunday.

I love you Captain...You know UGGXACTLY what I need and when-Thank you for that.

The REAL Dorothy from KANSAS!

Meet Dorothy from Kansas EVERYONE!

What a WONDERFUL and giving woman.

One of God's favorites, I'm sure.

Here are T, My My and I with Dorothy.

MyMy is holding her buffalo sugar cookie-decorated by Dorothy.

Dorothy invited our home school group to her house today for Kansas Day!

HAPPY 148th BIRTHDAY KANSAS!

She taught us ALL KINDS of Kansas Facts. She told stories of her life as a young girl on the farm in Kansas.

Then went to 4 different stations.We made the state of Kansas with the state flower-sunflower, state bird-Meadowlark and the state animal-Buffalo.

MyMy's favorite part was grinding wheat into flour-the old fashioned way!

We also made butter which we later slathered on our home-made wheat bread!
We decorated sugar cookies Dorothy made in the shapes of sunflowers, buffalos and Kansas. MyMy chowing on her Kansas cookie with sprinkles.
20 kids INVADED Ms. Dorothy's normally quiet territory and she welcomed us all with open arms.
She took the time to minister & teach the next generation about the importance of her heritage and their Kansas heritage.


THANKS DOROTHY for sharing your HOME ON THE RANGE with us! Another reason I feel SO BLESSED to be able to homeschool my kids!

Construction TEASER.

Just a little TEASER on what we are doing in our house. It's so time consuming with home schooling AND temper tantrums :). We added on to our home in 2007 and the NEW PART of the house is now complete.

This is where our OLD stove used to sit in the old part of our old kitchen in our old 900 square foot house.

This has now become MAMA'S COMMAND CENTER! Where I spend most of my time talking to you all and recording the kids home school work. As you can see, it is currently FLASH BACK to the 70's style. We are updating it to match the new part of the house.Nothing against popcorn ceilings but for me, popcorn is for movies and baseball games so it's GOTTA GO! BUH BYE POPPIE CORN!You get a glimpse of our added on great room (1600 square feet). It houses the kitchen, dining room and living room all in one-The Family Bonding Center! The boys LOVE to help daddy! Notice the WORK GLOVE on Wy Wy's LEFT HAND ONLY-reminds me of old Michael Jackson.Our house is log sided on the outside so we have a CABIN feel throughout. Here's The Captain and I putting up the NEW wood ceiling-YAY!!

Isn't it pretty?

The Captain AMAZES ME with all he can do. Farming, flying, construction and being a great dad! Doing all the interior work ourselves has made us appreciative and proud of our accomplishments!

Can't wait to show you more! We hope to get all of it done by FARMING TIME! We still have to remove and replace all trim, doors, flooring and repaint, re trim and re-door. But with God and The Captain as my partners-NO PROBLEM.

Road Trip Survival-How WE do it.

As soon as The Captain walked in the door last night we loaded up and headed out to Menard's to get some construction supplies we needed. A DVD player is a MUST HAVE for us as much driving as we do and living so FAR from most places.

Sure The Captain could go alone and pick everything up with much less hassle BUT we love each other & we love to be together. It's worth all the work & stress. Family time is SO IMPORTANT.

4:45pm-left house-immediately inserted TINKERBELL for the kids to watch.

5:00pm-arrived "in town" to get gas. I Ran into Wal-Mart to buy juice TIP I must buy ALL SUPPLIES for 7 days before The Captain leaves each week-I have this down to a science. We ran out of juice RIGHT as he was pulling in the driveway :)

5:15pm-got to our friends house who we borrowed a trailer from-hooked it up

5:30pm-headed out for THE BIG CITY. 13 degrees. TIP-I like to catch up on any magazine reading while The Captain is driving-tonight-I read my People and chatted with The Captain-good stuff.

6:15pm-Arrived at McDonald's-Bean and I ran in and got all the food to include:

1-20 piece nugget-split between all 6 kids
3-large fries for all to share
1-chicken wrap (for me)
1-Big n tasty (Captain)
1-diet Dr P (Captain)
3-waters (me, bean, T)

6:30pm-I dole out the food-TIP-I always get extra small fry bags and split their food into these I put 2 nuggets and a bunch of fries so they can hold their own bag and make less mess. They love having their own separate bags. Movie #2 goes in-DORA.
7:30pm-The Captain drops us off at the front door of Menard's and within minutes they have the USUAL fight over who gets which car. 7:33pm-WyWy having meltdown on the floor because he wants the yellow car. 7:40pm-Captain is inside and he takes the boys to the lumber department and I take the girls in search of a large, heavy, thick door mat for porch-never found it.

8:15pm-We have everything we need, we have to go around back to pick up our 116 pieces of 14 ft. lumber-meantime I buy some NIBS to bribe the kids later and some chocolate covered peanuts and water for my own sanity in the car.

8:30pm-The Captain pulls up to front door to pick us up-TIP we do this because carrying 6 coats inside is cumbersome and for long car rides the coats are too hot and bulky. It's much easier to quickly load/unload right at the front door than have 6 kids stumbling through a busy parking lot after spending another 30 minutes putting their coats on.

8:40pm-We head to the back to pick up our lumber. Movie #3 goes in SPIRIT. This took almost an hour. The pallet of wood we got had damaged pieces in it so they had to take the whole thing apart and take the damaged ones out then replace them with new ones. Tip-that's what I bought the candy for :) Kept them quiet for a while.

9:20pm-The Captain and Menard's dude FINALLY loaded lumber on trailer. The Captain gave BIT BUT a quick diaper change before we headed out. TIP during all the time in the car I am popping choc covered peanuts secretly like a mad woman.10:00pm-SPIRIT over. TV off, time for mom to sing some lullaby's. They start dropping off one by one.....

10:30pm-Home, unloaded all 6 sleeping children and junk from the car. Diapers on the 4 littles and tucked them all in bed. Another Road trip down...

AND THAT'S HOW WE DO IT.

Hittin' the bottle=SANITY!

HOW Can something as simple as this make you lose or REGAIN sanity you ask? VERY EASILY.... Since Bit But turned 2 this week-I decided it was time to also say goodbye to his bottle which he affectionately calls his "MAMA."

I was doing GREAT the first day-no bottles at ALL-YAY ME!

But then then last night-the stress of 4 screaming kids

in addition to trying to help one of my best friends out over the phone who was in a crisis situation,

while trying to decypher "Grey's Anatomy"

made me almost want to check into the crazy house.

I GAVE IN PEOPLE!!!! I GOT SUCKED IN BY A 2 YEAR OLD!

Screaming MAMA MAMA MAMA-and he wasn't calling for me...

Forgive me for not being the perfect mother but I'm trying to be good and normal. Even if I'm not, Lie and tell me I am. Thank you!

PS-The Puker was PRINCESS :)

The Captain will be home to save us ALL from the insantiy in a matter of hours-PRAISE THE LORD!

We will be in full CONSTRUCTION MODE as soon as he gets here!

I CAN'T WAIT to show you all what we are doing with our house-so totally cool!

STAY TUNED

EVACUATION!

No matter how much I preach it, they still drink it.....

PUKING after Gagging on bath water forced me to do an EMERGENCY TUB EVACUATION tonight.

Threw off my whole bath-time, assembly line GROOVE I have when The Captain is away. Can you guess who the puker was? Princess, Fireman, Ladybug or The Dragon?

PS-MISS YOU HONEY-Love you!

Jet-SETTER!

Ever since my parents put me on a plane alone at age 7 to visit my Uncle Jack in Colorado-I HAVE LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT TRAVELING!!!

Airplanes, Hotels and Shirley Temples WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT?

It's in my blood.

God obviously knows me well-after all he did hook me up with a pilot!

I WAS SO EXCITED YESTERDAY when The Captain called to tell me he would be released from flying for the day and would be spending the night just ONE HOUR away from our home! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 5 YEAR WITH HIS COMPANY THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED.

SO, I quick packed up 6 kids, booked our room with his Hilton points, cancelled violin and piano lessons and headed out the door around 2:30pm. We got to The Embassy Suites, picked him up and headed out for an EARLY dinner.

(best bet with 6 rugrats)

We made it FAIRLY SANELY through a dinner at the Olive Garden with the bribery of the hotel pool at stake for any disobedience.

THE JET-SETTER

Who needs toys when the microwave's at TODDLER LEVEL??

ROOM SERVICE ANYONE? Serving WY WY ala cuteness!
All made it to the pool only one had a 5 minute time-0ut.I know it must be VERY DIFFICULT for The Captain to leave these darlings 14 days a month-I can't imagine how his heart must miss them. Although I guess I can because my heart aches for him when he is gone. And in less than 21 hours-we are home again and still missing our daddy-The Captain like crazy....

Goodbye BABY!

BELOW is a picture of "the TRIBE" I had at home in September 2006 when I got THE CALL

16 year old

7 year old

5 year old

2 almost 1 year old

1 almost 2 years old

We were also in the middle of transforming our 1000 square foot home from THISTO THIS-doing ALL the interior work ourselves.
SO I WAS IN NO WAY PREPARED FOR THIS
(yes this is really his birth mama)
But God had other plans and on January 19, 2007 our baby boy joined our already swollen family.

A FULL SIBLING TO MY MY
His gestation and even the day of his birth were filled with methamphetamines, cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana. BUT GOD AGAIN PREVAILED! Protecting our BOY in the womb!
MY MY is so proud of her baby brother-they TRULY have a special bond.
I didn't think I could handle another child with The Captains schedule and all that we had going on-but GOD KNEW!
He is LOVED!BIG SISTER...A BOND THAT CANNOT BE BROKENGOODBYE BABY!HELLO LITTLE BOY!HAPPY 2nd Birthday SON!WE TIP OUR HATS TO YOU TODAY!
You are a true and precious GIFT to our family!

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