Choir Concert

At the end of May Callie and James had their homeschool choir concert. They both had a great time being in the choir this year. Here are some pictures and video clips. I hope all you grandparents enjoy!!

I had some better clips than this but I could not get them to download. Oh well!

Picnic Fun

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I went to a wonderful Ron Paul supporters picnic. We had the most wonderful time. I wish Justin could have come but he had to be on call that weekend. Callie has been begging me to ride a horse her entire life and she finally got to. Josh did too but James was so enthralled with the little kitten that he did not seem to care too much about the horse ride. Here are few pictures. My batteries died after only a few shots. ARG!

Sadness

Our dear sweet cat Tiger got run over by a car one week ago today. Justin left for work in the morning and saw him laying out in the middle of the street. He said it had just happened because he was just out there and he was not in the road. We all loved Tiger so much. He had really become a part of the family. We recently started up our evening walks around the neighborhood and Tiger always went with us! He would walk right beside us the entire way. It was the cutest thing. It was such a joy having him run around the yard with us when we were outside. He loved to have his belly rubbed and would purr loudly anytime he came near. He always slept on a little cushion on the back porch and would jump up on the window ledge every morning meowing to be fed. He will be greatly missed! I have vowed that I will not have another cat as long as I live in this neighborhood. We live on a very busy street and the cars just speed down the street.

We buried him in the backyard next to Gracious and we decorated his grave with pretty flowers. We said a prayer over his grave thanking the Lord for the sweet time we had to spend with Tiger. James insisted that we kneel down by the grave as we said the prayer. Later he asked me if cats go to heaven and I told him that I'm not really sure. The bible does not say specifically if they do or not, but wouldn't it be wonderful!

Right before we left on our trip to go to West Texas, Tiger got into a fight with some animal and got all scratched up. I doctored his wounds the best I could but they later got infected anyway and so I took him to the vet and had him neutered while we were there. I gave him antibiotics and he was feeling better in no time. That was my birthday present, spending the money that we really could not afford, getting him better. And I would have done it all over again for such a sweet cat.

Callie drew this picture the day before Tiger died

More Lies from the Media....How lovely!

Click here to see a video and read information that just really makes me mad and sad. I never really understood how the media is constantly lying to us everyday! How they influence the "group think" of our nation. It is truly scary. So next time you watch the news....ask yourself, "What are they NOT telling me?"

AND another thing you WON'T hear on the major media.....about the Nevada GOP just shutting their convention down when the Ron Paul supporters gain more delegates. There are many more examples of this treatment.

Like the man said at the first County Republican Club meeting I went to last week, "What about those Ron Paul people...what if they try to cause trouble?" We have a long battle ahead of us and we are not going anywhere....MWYAHA..HA...HA! (Scaring sounding laugh)

Blessings for Me in May!

Earlier this month was my 35th birthday. We celebrated by eating my favorite pizza, the everything loaded (minus anchovies & jalapenos) from Pizza King! It is the best pizza in the world. Thin crust, hardly any sauce or cheese, just tons and tons of toppings. I love, love, love, it! I have tried to duplicate that pizza at home to no avail. I just can't get it to taste the same. I must be missing the MSG or something! HA! We also had my favorite carrot cake with cream cheese icing!

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Here is a sweet poem that Callie wrote for me for my birthday:

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My Mother is Darling

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My mother is so sweet and pretty,

She is a garden, like a lily.

She teaches me God's Word in my arms,

She helps me with my school.

If she's sick I'll lay a hand,

and help her get a drink.

She has such pretty hair,

her eyes are like a blue bird's feather.

I love her so,

and I will do everything she says.

Last Sunday on Mother's Day I took Callie and James to see a play put on by the local children's theater. It was James and the Giant Peach! That is one of their favorite movies so I just had to take them. I left the house in plenty of time to get there but then the theater was not located where I thought it was and we were a little late. That was really frustrating! But we really did enjoy it when we got there. I will have to take them to more of their productions.

Yesterday was Joshua's "official" 2nd birthday, although we are not having his party until tomorrow. I can't believe my little baby is this old. Sniff! Sniff! It was also my maternal great grandmother's birthday. I think it is neat they have the same birthday. She passed away when I was 16. She was such a dear sweet lady. I can't wait to see her again one day. I always have fond memories visiting her as a girl and eating her chocolate cake with pecans on top. I also remember she always would make jello with bananas cut up in them. I was passing through the town she lived in last Saturday and I drove by her old house. The people that live there now have painted it green with purple shutters. Simply Horrid! I really miss that house and all the memories there. After she passed away my grandmother lived there for years and I spent a lot of time with her there. I loved her old timey...deep bathtub with the claw feet!

First Sleep Over

Callie had her very first sleep over last month. Her friend Sarah was the guest of honor and they had a grand time. It was hard having "girl time" with little brothers wanting to be in the middle of things. They watched movies, pigged out on junk food, painted their nails blue, made some silly videos of themselves, danced around the room to music, and played out in the backyard! We all enjoyed her being here! Here they are after just falling asleep around mindnight. Oh to be a kid again!

The Revolution is Alive and Well

Ron Paul Hits it out of the Park on CNN American Morning
4-28-08

Ron Paul #1 on New York Times Best Seller List
ARLINGTON, Va. — Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul's newest book, "The Revolution: A Manifesto," is number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list for May 18th, 2008. The ranking is yet another of the many successes Dr. Paul has had during his presidential candidacy spreading his message of personal freedom and constitutional government.

Upon its official release on April 30th, "The Revolution: A Manifesto" was the number one bestseller on Amazon.com and remains the number one bestseller in political books.

Almost Home

On our last night camping we stayed at Lake Arrowhead State Park which is a few hours outside of Dallas. By this time, I was getting rather sick of camping and sleeping in the tent! I was so looking forward to coming home. We took a different route back and I really enjoyed driving through some old towns that I had never seen before. I loved seeing all the wildflowers along the side of the road. Then we drove to Justin's sister's house to visit with her and her family for a few hours. It was good to see them. Then we drove back to Oma and Granddands in Dallas to spend the night again with them. As much fun as we had on the trip, it was so good to sleep in a bed!





James and cousin Max!









After we left Oma and Granddads we were on our way home and Justin just did not want our trip to end so we stopped at one of his old childhood haunts called Samuel Farms. I had never been there before and it was so much fun! It is farm outside of Dallas where people go to have picnics, fish, hike etc. They have old tractors and barns all over the place and beautiful flowers planted everywhere. I went a little crazy with the picture taking! Here are some of my favorites!!!

Caprock Canyons State Park

On our way back home we drove through Caprock Canyons State Park to see what it was like. It was not too far from Palo Duro. The scenery looked very similar to Palo Duro. They had a buffalo heard there that a man named Charles Goodnight donated to the state of Texas back in the 1920s. These are supposed to be the closest bloodline to the original buffalo that originally roamed in Texas way back when. They also had a neat nature center for kids with a really nice park ranger lady that showed us around. It looks like it would be a neat place to camp. They actually have a place to swim there, where palo duro did not. It also looked like a great place to go bike riding. It also had a nice play area.

Palo Duro Canyon Part 2

I'm finally getting around to telling you about the rest of our trip!! We had such a wonderful time just walking along the trails in the canyon. We felt like explorers seeing all these new sights. Driving through the canyon we passed what looked like a large opening to a cave...well that could not be passed up, so we stopped the car and Justin just had to walk up to it to get a closer look. So he took Callie with him and I stayed with the boys. Several minutes later, I look up at the cave and I see that Justin and Callie had climbed up to the opening of the cave. I was in shock! I quickly grabbed the camera and tried to take a picture put it was so far away it did not come out too well. You can't tell from the picture but this is a pretty steep climb. When they got back they were so excited that they had climbed up there ,but thankfully he was not about to go inside because it looked too dangerous. Then James begged to go so Justin took him up there too. What a great adventure!

Before and after
the climb!























There was a nice little museum there that had an observation deck. It showed fossils as well as all the animals and plants found in the canyon. There was a lady there showing a real live owl to a group of school children. It had a room there showing how the CCC put down the road into the canyon and built the State park back in the 1930s.


I really enjoyed all the wildlife in the canyon. There were tons of turkey and deer that would just walk right up to us at our camp site wanting to be fed. Someone said that a coyote had walked through our campsite right before we got there! We also saw a lot of brown rabbits running across the road and tons of beautiful birds. We are studying birds right now so it was very thrilling seeing some that don't frequent our area.


We met some interesting people there at the campsite. There were several there from Canada who said they always came down south for the winter. One lady said that her relatives called and said the snow had melted and spring had come so she could come home now! HA! After we told her we were a homeschooling family, she said her grandchildren were home schooled too! I always love to hear about homeschoolers from other countries. I know it is illegal in some places. How sad!


Here is a slide show...it was hard picking from the over 600 pictures we took on our trip. We all love to take pictures so I think we overkill a bit but it is so much fun!!! Digital cameras are awesome!