New Memory Card Reader!

Finally got my new memory card reader so I could clean off my camera! I have many updates to do, but I am tired and still recovering from a nasty root canal, so I will leave you with a couple of my favorites:

Summertime to me is all about the popsicles, we usually have several varieties on hand (sugar free of course...my kids don't need any help in the hyper department). In Texas the neighbor kids spent most of their time in our yard after we became known for handing out the frozen delights for free. I love how my boys are learning to share and that I actually thought to grab the camera during a rare poignant moment where they weren't trying to kill each other!

**Note the rainboots on Kade's feet. I picked them up on clearance one day a few weeks ago and now he insists on wearing them wherever he goes. He calls them his "hoo bops".

Locks of Love

I got my hair done today. I haven't had it colored in the three years since we moved to Tennessee (the first time anyway). Today I took the plunge and did highlights to make it harder to see the baby gray hairs that keep popping up like wildflowers on a Texas meadow. ( I am trying an experiment with imagery...stay with me here.)

I was feeling pretty sassy with my new 'do when I got in line to pick the boys up at school. They hopped in the car and I turned around and asked how their day was. The usual exuberant responses, and then I asked if they liked my new hair. "Oh yeah Mom, I like the stripes!" Trevor exclaimed. "Looks good Mom, that would look really good on, like, a teenager!" was Blake's enthusiastic response.

Ummm...what do I take from that? Half of me thinks, "Cool! I could fit in with the skaters down at the park!" and the other half of me is looking back to when I was a geeky teenager (which really wasn't that long ago, but when you are seven, eight years looks like an eternity!) and thinking that I would have felt stupid having stripes in my hair...not to mention could never have afforded to put them there. Good to know that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as far as the McGhie men and not being able to hand out compliments in a natural way.

**Let's take a little detour to a few years ago. Chad and I had a conversation about how he never gave me compliments, a few weeks later we went on a date to a movie. We got home and he said to me, "You looked nice tonight." I said, "I did?". He said, "Yeah, whatever you were wearing, it looked nice." See what I mean? (Not that I am bitter or anything.)

Back to the present. Maybe tomorrow will be a hat day. Scratch that. I have to go get a new TN license tomorrow. Great. My stripey teenager hair is going to be immortalized on film and I will get to remember it every time I have to verify my identity for the next ten years, well into my thirties. And I thought the root canal I had Monday afternoon would be the highlight of my week!

Kindergarten Screening

Yesterday was Trevor's Kindergarten screening test. I am pretty sure this is the round of questions where they determine how dumb your kid is so they can make sure they put them with the most understanding and *positive thinking* teacher. Not that I need to worry about Trevor or anything, [tongue in cheek], but it sure does leave a lot of mystery to the experience when they make you stay in the hall and wait while they lead your baby away!

We finally arrived home after a full day of celebrating Blake's "goneness" with a trip to Target (for diapers), lunch at Burger King, Grandma's house, JCPenney (to look for something to wear to yet ANOTHER family wedding on the McGhie side), pick up Blake, and then back to Grandma's house to drop her off and get some maple tree seedlings to plant.

The boy's walked in before me and greeted Chad with their usual rambunctious affection and I spent my time getting my seedlings out to plant before they died. Chad came to the door chuckling and when I asked what was up he said,"Did Trevor have his screening test today?"

I replied in the affirmative. Chad said, "He just came in and told me that he passed his screening test, but he was disapointed because he thought it was a "screaming test", and that he kept waiting for them to ask him to scream, but they never did!"

Shout out to the teachers at Barfield Elementary School...NEVER ask Trevor to scream...as a first hand witness on many, many occasions...he would pass. Just take my word for it.

Settling In

I accomplished something yesterday, and if I don't write it down I might forget about it. Also, if history repeats itself...and you know it does...Chad will pretend it didn't happen, or happened a different way!

The hardest thing to adjust to in this smaller house has been the move from a two car garage to a one car...I mean, where do you put all the junk that you need but don't really need? I have been trying to schedule with the moving company to come and get their empty boxes before I burn them on my parent's burnpile or sell them on Craigslist...but I am afraid they'll charge me if I do that, so I probably won't. I have tried to explain to them that I only have a one car garage and NO room to store my own stuff, let alone theirs, but this has fallen on deaf ears.

Now that Chad is pretty much occupied 24/7 with his new calling, a new job and wrapping up some computer programming for the last company he worked for, I didn't want to complain to him about putting any of our storage stuff up in the attic either. So what did I do? Yes folks. I did part of it myself, the boys were impressed with my almost superhuman strength carrying Rubbermaid totes up the rickety attic ladder while praying that I wouldn't encounter any larger-than-normal spiders or rodents of any kind. I said I did "part" of it, because, even I am not stupid enough to think I could lift the totes that weighed more than twenty (or so) pounds. I called my little brother and offered to feed him lunch if he helped me...and he agreed!!

I like to think he said yes out of love and a sense of duty to his wonderful sister, but in reality it was most likely the promise of free food that did him in. Either way, my garage is clean (except for United Van Lines's boxes...COME AND GET THEM ALREADY!) and my refrigerator is a bit lighter, but I think it was a Saturday well spent. I even went the extra mile and gave David a popcicle. He earned it...of course, he didn't even break a sweat, while I was still soaked from the work I had done three hours earlier! Oh well, now I can get to the freezer out there without banging my knee on something or having to climb a pile of plastic totes.

I am happy to report that I saw neither spiders nor rodents up in the attic...course I probably would have had a heart attack and died or at the very least peed my pants and been too embarassed to come back down, in which case I would not be here to write this blog. You see, it is a win/win for everybody!

Holy Sunday Batman!

We got a call last night from our Bishop asking us to meet with the Stake President today before Sacrament Meeting. All I can say is that it is a good thing he didn't give us more time because there are only a handful of reasons to have to meet with the Stake President, and our temple recommends are already current!

They have called Chad to be the 2nd counselor to Bishop Pennington. I think we are still reeling from the shock of them extending the call, sustaining him, making him a High Priest and setting him apart within about two and a half hours. Since we are so used to our lives turning on a dime we should recover in the next few days. I should say I will recover, Chad has already squared his jaw and gotten to work. By the time he arrived to be set apart he had a handful of tithing envelopes!

I am pleased to have my husband work alongside Bishop Pennington, my family and I have a lot of respect for him. I know that Chad will grow a lot and that this will be a good opportunity for him to learn from a great, yet humble man.

It was kind of an "aha moment" today as to why we were supposed to come back to TN...in fact, as I mentioned in my testimony, it was interesting that the very day we decided to look for a place in Mt. Juliet (45 minutes away), our renter called us to tell us they were moving out of our house with three months left on their lease, so we "magically" had a place to live in Murfreesboro. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for guiding us and that when we weren't really paying attention to his promptings he painted a huge red X on the map of our lives to put us back on His master map.

Maybe things will calm down now a little bit.....hahaha...please?!