Oooooooouch!!

Yesterday, I was using the free address labels that come from non-profits in order to get packages ready to ship. The address labels, also, came with labels that were just trash. To keep Morgan and Jaden from "helping" me with my packages, I kept giving them the trash stickers. They made daddy into a human sticker book!!! He was so into watcing the olympics, that he didn't even realize what they were doing until they already had about 8 stickers on his hairy arms. By that time, it was too late... The rest is too painful to talk about, but ask him about it next time you see him :0)

So tired!

I totally missed posting yesterday. I am so tired! It has been a long week! I have been watching the kids (ours, plus the other 3- Rebekah, Josh, and Nathan) until Friday. Then, Saturday, I watched baby Nathan until 6:00PM, and picked up two more kids right after that at 6:15PM. The two other kids are two kids that I watched once before- Braydon and Brynna. I took all 4 of the kids to the Wiggly Play Center where they have toys, bounce houses, and TVs playing the Wiggles. Then, Braydon and Brynna spent the night. It is 12noon on Sunday, and they are still here but down for a nap. Everyone got up nice and early this morning (except LeCount, of course). Whenever these kids get picked up, I am going down for a nap... and I will write a better post after I am back to being sane :0)

Thank Goodness!

Our DSL connection is back!!! YAY!!! And... After 3 years of living in our home, we finally get a grocery store close by. We were told that it would be up and running 3 years ago... It still isn't ready yet, but it is exciting to see that it won't be much longer. I don't care too much for Brookshire's, but hey, I'll save $4 in gas if I shop there as opposed to the next closest grocery store. For things that we need in a pinch, we will shop there, but I think the bulk of our shopping will still be done out of town.

I got this in an e-mail today. I don't know who wrote it, but I thought it came at a perfect time for me:

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Love the ones who don't just because you can. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Kiss slowly. Forgive quickly. God never said life would be easy. He just promised it would be worth it.

Sad and hard to deal with

Well, it turned out to be a very sad day today. I don't even know how I will tell the girls. I have been taking care of 3 kids during the week, and now, 2 of them will no longer be coming (July 3rd is their last day). The kids have grown so close, and it is breaking my heart- really... Not to mention the financial burden that it now places on us (like there wasn't one before!) I really don't know what we will do. The only thing I know is just to see what comes of it... When one door closes another opens- or so they say.

They never get tired of this!

Yuck! This gives me the creeps!

Morgan and I went outside yesterday morning to give Sparky his water and food. Sparky was playing with something, so I walked over to where he was, to see what he was doing... He was trying to play with a SNAKE!!! Good grief! I took Morgan back inside, and then, I locked Sparky in his cage for a few minutes. I wanted to give the snake some time to get away, and since I wasn't sure if he was poisonous or venemous, I didn't want to take any chances with him biting Sparky. Once Sparky was in his cage, it didn't take the snake long to get away. Now, if only I knew where he would turn up next. I hate snakes!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

We made these cupcakes on Saturday night. The girls loved them! My mom used to make them with pudding in the middle, but I don't know how to do that... To make the cupcakes that we made, this is what you do:

Get the cake mix you want and flat bottomed ice cream cones (you need about 22). Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box. Put the ice cream cones in a pan standing up and leaning on each other, so that they don't tip over during baking. I put them in a bread loaf pan because it kept them standing up. Fill the cones 3/4 full with cake batter. Put them in the oven to bake. Bake according to cake mix instructions, but add 5 to 10 minutes to the time. Check to make sure they are done using a toothpick. Let them cool, and then, add frsting and sprinkles. Enjoy!

Juneteenth Celebration

We are still on dial up. These pictures took about 1 hour to put on here. Anyway... These are pictures from yesterday. We went to a Juneteenth Celebration. Baby Nathan came with us because his mommy is working Saturdays now. There wasn't much going on at the celebration, so we didn't stay long. It was hot anyway :0) The bounce houses that they had for the kids were in the scalding sun. I only let Jaden play on them for a couple of minutes, and I told her to only touch the ground of the bounce house with her socks (because it looked like she would get burned if her skin touched it).

The celebration led to a discussion. Now that Jaden will be 4 years old in August, she understands a lot... So, most outings lead to some kind of discussion. I explained the meaning of "slave" and what some of the slaves went through... and why we celebrate June 19th. For thouse of you that are out of the state, or just not up on your history, here's a summarized version of Juneteenth:

Dating back to 1865, it was not until Major General Gordon Granger landed with his Union troops on June 19, in Galveston, Texas that Texans learned for real the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were free. While word may have traveled slowly around the still predominately unsettled portions of our country, this particular news arrived an incredible two and one half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation back in 1863.
Attempts to explain the delay in getting the word to Texas has spawned several versions, one being the military messenger was murdered en route, others being that federal troops purposefully withheld the information in order to prolong the workforce on large plantations and farms.
General Order No. 3, issued by General Granger, however, made no bones about it. Slavery had ended. “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
The anniversary of “Juneteenth” (June 19,1865) soon became an annual celebration in Texas, and as former slaves now created new lives in other parts of the country, they began celebratory traditions in those areas, furthered by their descendents. Today, Juneteenth is celebrated across our nation and quickly spreading beyond, encouraging self-development and respect for all cultures.

Please stand by... Please HELP!

We are having tecnical difficulties and it is killing me! I woke up this morning at 6AM because I had to get up to take care of baby Nathan. I immediately went to the computer and turned it on. I clicked on the internet and nothing... This is the worst time not to be able to get on-line. For those of you that don't know... I run a book business online (so, I check that site every few hours for new orders)... Plus, that is how we doing our mystery shopping (we have to get our assignments online & report back online... AND I have 85 listings on Ebay right now that I have to manage... And on and on and on... So, I called AT&T that is supposed to be open 24/7. An automated messag told me to call back during regular business hours... hmmmmmmmm... when would that be if they are open 24 hours?
I couldn't wait- I had to get to work. I hooked up with dial up through Earthlink as a temporary solution. I guess that wasn't such a good idea. LeCount got ahold of AT&T a few hours later, and they said that we would have to uninstall internet explorer and then, reinstall it for it to work on our DSL connection. They said we had to contact Compaq. Compaq quoted some outrageous amount of money to walk us through it. Does anyone know how to do that?
Until we can figure it out, we are stuck with an extremely slow dial up connection that keeps getting lost at the worst times. I don't even dare load pictures!! Help, anyone!!

Swimmimg Lessons

The girls did their swimming lessons again yesterday. Jaden went to the advanced class, and she learned a lot more there. Morgan stayed at the beginning class and worked on the moves from last week.
Jaden learned to blow bubbles with her nose, and even went down part way in the water to get a ring. She put her hands down on the shallow part of the pool, and kicked without me holding on to her. She is getting so much braver and more confident than she was 3 weeks ago (before she started the class).
I can't tell you about what Morgan did because she was in the other class with daddy, but he said that they did the same thing they did last week.
Since being in the class, it has helped me to know what I can do to help them learn to swim. There are so many great tips. The class is definitely worth the money, but they won't have to take any more classes this summer after this one. Maybe next year, Jaden might go to the class where they don't have their parents in the water with them... We will be on the sidelines watching.

As for what they are learning during the day... I am teaching the kids Spanish. I started at the beginning of this week. I am, also, working on letter, color, and number recognition. Then, starting in about a week or so, I will start teaching Jaden to read with the sight word readers by Scholastic. If those work out well for her, I will get the Little Leveled readers by Scholastic. Both sets of books are those tiny books with just a few words on each page. We will start word flash cards as well.

On another note... We sure miss Grandma Leslie! We won't see her for 2 weeks!! She and Grandpa Lyale took off on a road trip to pick up Uncle Kevin from school. After they pick him up in Utah, they will head over to California to see Uncle Jeff and his family. They will come back on day 14! At least they will be bringing Uncle Kevin back with them!! Yay!! Come back Kevin!!!

Under construction

OK- These rooms are still under construction, but they are looking better. The room that is right next to the girls' room, I am making into a play room. I still have to keep the books that I am selling in there, but it is getting more organized. I am going to seperate the toys into centers, so the kids will have everything in one spot for what they want to do.
I am, also, going to paint the interior of the house. I started on Jaden's room awhile back. The bottom picture is how it looks so far.

Random Acts of Kindness

There is a Foundation called Random Acts of Kindness. You can check it out at: http://www.actsofkindness.org/

Drums of the World continued

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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Here are the swiiming pictures from Monday

Jaden and Morgan are both doing great in the water now. Jaden wants to jump in all of the time. They practiced their kicking, floating on their backs, going down the water slide, and walking in the water without me holding on to them (of course, I was right there).

Ayubu Kamau Kings and Queens- Drums of the World

Eating popcorn and waiting for the show to start.

Wow! We had a great day today! Grandma Leslie arrived early, We had already planned to see the Drums of the World event that was starting at 2:00, and then, go swimming afterwards. The kids ate an early lunch, so that they could take an early nap. They were all up by 12:15... I guess they were excited for all of the fun we had scheduled. I have a few pictures of the Drums of the World event, but a lot of video of it. They were amazing!!! Jaden was even brought up to the stage to perform. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. When she looked over into the audience and saw Grandma Leslie- Grandma was showing her the moves that she was supposed to be doing :0) Then, she went to take a look at the guys playing the drums behind her. That is when she got hit in the face by another dancer. Hahahahaha!! They put on a good hour long performance. They taught the kids words in Swahili, and told tales, and told them the names of the dances that they were doing. It was very interactive. I wish I could afford to bring them to Jaden's birthday party... It would only cost $150. Hmmmmmmm... I guess I'll have to catch them at the next event. I will post the swimming pics tomorrow. I will, also, try to get some of the longer video clips on here.

http://www.ayubukamau.com/

Morgan uses the potty!!

For the past week or so, Morgan has been getting frustrated with us. I am not trying to potty train her, but she wants to be potty trained. If she is running around in just her diaper, she will tug and tug at it until she gets it off, and then, she goes to sit on the potty. When her clothes are on, she needs our help. She will say "potty" and tug at her clothes. I don' like playing this game because it sets me up for a whole day of playing potty where I take her diaper off, she sits on the potty for a few seconds, and I put the diaper back on. It can get exhausting when she says she needs to go potty 30 times in 1 hour! So, she came up to me 10 minutes ago with her footed sleepers on. She was trying to get the zipper all the way down, and she just kept screaming, "diaper!" So, I took her diaper off of her, and she ran off to her potty. 2 minutes later she came back with something in her hand. She said, "trash, trash". I look over, and sure enough she went potty, but she took the poop out of her plastic potty and brought it to me in her hand!!!! YUCK!!!! We still have a lot of kinks to work out :0)

Saturday entertainment

First of all, I will explain the photo. We have been in need of another toy box for awhile now (we, also, need to go through some of the toys that they don't play with and get rid of them- even temporarily). Well, I found this toy box on craiglist, and we went to pick it up today. I can't wait to get all of these toys in there!!
Today we went swimming again at the place where the girls had their lessons. We worked with them some more on the things that they learned in class, and I added some things, too. I actually got Jaden to jump into the pool (into my arms)!!!! I was so excited that I just kissed her and kissed her and told her how proud I was of her. She had jumped in before, but only while holding onto my hands. I told her I wanted her to jump to me and I would catch her. It was a big struggle with lots of crying and tears. I just kept telling her "1,2,3, jump!" When I had said it for about the 25th time, she did it!!! When I was telling her how proud I was and told her about "trust" (what I had discussed with her before- to explain the meaning), she said, "Well, you just kept saying '1,2,3, jump!', so I just jumped."
Morgan wouldn't do any jumping because she just didn't really understand what she was supposed to do... but she has no fear of the water. She was doing everything (except going under)- kicking, splashing, blowing bubbles, etc. Both girls even practiced floating on their backs.

Swim class

The girls had their first swim class last night. They had a blast! Unfortunately, Idon't have any pictures of the actual swimming because LeCount and I had to be in the pool with them. They learned to kick, move their arms, float on their tummies, and blow bubbles. Jaden will go to the advanced class next week because I think she will learn more over there.

Beautiful day for a walk

Grandma Leslie came by today. She took the kids out for a walk almost as soon as she got here. Each one of them had their own stroller/shopping cart & baby. It always cracks me up to see them walking down the street like this :0)