My brother called me a few days ago asking what was going on for Easter? I usually don't think about Easter in February so I was a little confused by his question.

I guess I am one of only a few people who were unaware that Easter is actually at the end of March this year.

What the heck?

Then my sister, the adventure girl, calls me from Rio (yes, they went to Mardi Gras) and says they are a little home sick and will be cutting their cruising season a few months short and will be coming home the end of March.

Yippie, I say, maybe you can make it for Easter. Easter, she questions? It seems she was also unaware of this strange occurrence of the early Easter celebration.

Unfortunately, they will not be arriving home until the 30th thus missing all the fun. She did not sound happy.

I was feeling a little annoyed that Easter was happening so early and seemingly messing up every ones plans.

That is until I checked my in box.

And found these fun facts about this years Easter celebration.

I thought I would share them with you. Then you can act all smart and sassy when some one you know comments on how early Easter is this year.

I am here to serve my friends.

Lets get started.

First, Easter is always the first Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20th this year).

What is the Spring Equinox you ask? Well, I will be happy to tell you.

There are two days each year when the daytime and nighttime hours are approximately equal -- each being 12 hours long. One occurs between March 19 and 21 and is called the Spring or Vernal Equinox. The other happens in September.

Secondly, the dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

I have to admit that I had no idea that this is how the date for Easter is picked each year.

I found out some other fun things on my Easter quest.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! Only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (those 95 or older).

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228. That is 220 years from now people!

So, I guess I should just go buy my Easter bonnet and quit belly aching. It seems this years Easter will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Labels: holidays

Overheard in the Car;

Me: Is today a minimum day?

Samantha: Yes.

Me: Will you get out at 11:15 or 11:45?

Samantha: I'm not sure.

Me: Can you please call me and let me know.

Samantha: No, Mom, I Cant. I don't have my phone with me.

Me: Why don't you have your phone. Your Dad and I got you that phone so you could call us when we needed you to. I'm not very happy with with you this morning.

Samantha: (very calmly) Mom, I don't have my phone because you took it way from me. Remember?

Me: Umm, oh yeah. Sorry.

I think I am seriously losing my mind. It is so full of so much stuff I think it is rebelling on me.

Yesterday I couldn't remember which of the kids I had taken the computer away from for talking to me disrespectfully. I remembered the moment, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember which child it was.

This morning Paige comes into the kitchen and tells me Blue's Clues is over. Hmm. It can't be over yet I think. I go to investigate and their is no picture on the TV. I call the cable company who nicely tells me they turned our cable off. I forgot to pay the bill.

This was one of the few bills I don't have on auto pay. I took care of that this morning.

Hopefully, the electricity won't be going off in the next few hours. American Idol is on tonight and I will be really upset if I miss that.

Hmmm.

I'm off to make sure I didn't forget anything else. Geeez.

Labels: Mom Stuff

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was a heavenly 75 degrees.

The kids got home from school and immediately the garage door went up and bikes and balls were taken out. Within half an hour my yard was full of neighborhood kids running around having a great time.

I felt bad when at 5:00 the fun had to end and the yard had to be picked up.

We had practices to go to.

Garrett had baseball practice, Tyler had to get to Wrestling, Zach had to be picked up from his after school practice, and we all needed to eat a little something before we left.

Four hours later we all met up again at the house.

I was tired and just wanted to relax on the couch and watch American Idol. Until I heard these words.

Mom, are you ready to go?

Go? Go where?

Samantha looks at me exasperated and says "Don't you remember"? No. I say.

We have to go to Walmart and pick up the supplies for my Sugar Baby. Sigh.

You see, her sixth grade class is reading James Dobson's Preparing For Adolescence. As part of the class each student has been assigned a sugar baby (5 pound bag of sugar) which they are to carry around for a week and care for at all times.

She had to have her Sugar Baby in class the next morning.

Off we went to Walmart at 9:30 p.m.. Seriously, this was really the last place I wanted to be going. My nice comfy couch was SCREAMING my name.

Now, of course, being a girl Samantha was not happy to just carry around a plain old bag of sugar.

Her baby had to look good.

So, are you ready to see the first pictures of my first Grandchild? Samantha's dad and I are just so proud.

Isn't she just precious? She is lovingly wrapped in pink duct tape, with a pretty little hat and bow. Samantha has also decided that her baby will use a pacifier. So sweet.

Here's a pic of mother and daughter. Look who found the other pacifier in the 2 pack? Her eyes lit up like a long lost friend had finally returned.


I am allowing her to play with it this morning. Then, IT WILL GO INTO THE TRASH. I don't want to go through that again.

So, basically, we had another crazy day in the Laundry household. To be honest I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm so thankful for each of my children. I'm thankful that they are healthy and happy and able to participate in sporting activities. I truly feel so blessed.

I don't want to make you in the east feel bad or anything, however, this was the temperature outside this morning at 8:00 a.m..
Paige and I are off the the park to enjoy it while it lasts.

Labels: Girl stuff, kids

Samantha (11) is upstairs bathing her little sister. Well, she is suppose to be bathing her little sister. She is actually talking on the phone with a friend while pretending to watch her sister in the bath tub.

Zachary (16) is downstairs mopping the wood floors for me when he feels water on his head. It seems the ceiling fan in the family room has turned into a water fall.

Lets all try not to panic.

I run upstairs to the master bath sure that the water was left on in the bath tup. Nope. Just a few wet towels laying on the floor.

What the heck? Where is the water coming from.

I call the plumber and he asks "Was someone just bathing?" Yes, I tell him Paige got out of the bath tub about five minutes before.

Did the tub over flow while she was in it. Umm, I don't think so.

Saaaaamantha! Did the tub overflow while Paige was taking a bath?

Umm, just a little.

It seems the overflow valve got "overfull" and malfunctioned thus spewing water out of the over flow area of the pipes (or something like this). The plumber says he sees this all the time with people who have little kids.

Guess who has lost her phone privelidges for a few days?

You got it.

Labels: kids

Happy Monday everyone. We had a great weekend full of baseball, hanging out and playing scrabble. Yesterday I over slept and by the time I got all the kids ready for church it was time to leave and I had no time to get myself ready.

Bad mommy.

Dave stepped in and took the kids with him to church and I STAYED IN MY PAJAMA'S ALL DAY LONG. I thoroughly enjoyed it but had to keep suppressing my guilt over missing church. I really think God understood. I needed a few hours to myself.

We have had a lot of late night discussions trying to decide the path we were suppose to be taking with this adoption. I told you a few weeks ago that we were praying about the possibility of adopting siblings. We took this decision very seriously and wanted to pray over it and not make a snap decision.

This weekend we finally agreed that we really felt God leading our hearts toward siblings. I am really excited and feel such peace about this decision. To have my husband tell me he thinks we should adopt siblings could not have happened without God working in his heart. He was COMPLETELY against this idea as little as a few months ago.

God is good and I am so excited to see what he has planned for our family.

The agency we are adopting through does not place children out of birth order in most cases. The director of our program is contacting Ethiopia to verify what age children we can request. Most likely it will be children four and under. She has asked us to give her a few days to investigate our options and then she will get back with us.

I am so excited we have almost come to the end of the paperwork NIGHTMARE. Again, I really hate paper work. Not a good trait for an adoptive parent. I have a big stack of papers all notarized and just waiting to be sent off. The last step is putting the age of children we are requesting in our home study and then we are on our way to finishing up and hopefully can have all our paperwork in Ethiopia within the next eight weeks.

Then the big wait for a referral will start. So exciting!

I know many of you have been praying for our family as we have tried to make a decision that would be pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Your prayers and well wishes are appreciated and felt more than you can ever know. Thank You my friends.

I will let you know what we find out from Ethiopia as soon as I receive word.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious
might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving
thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1:10-12

Labels: Adoption

Do you ever look at your calendar and feel like screaming? I do.

This is the time of year when we always get really busy. So busy that my dreams are usually full of days where I can just stay home and clean my house.

At times, this can make mommy a little grouchy. However, I am really going to just try and enjoy it this year. My kids are growing up way to fast.

On the other hand this makes for a very happy Daddy. This is his favorite time of year. He love, love, love's it, and for the most part so do my kids.

The time of year I am speaking of is Baseball Season.

Opening day is March 8th. Practice has begun and the season is already in full swing.

Once again I am in charge of the Opening Day Carnival. No, I am not crazy. Just a loving wife.

My hubby loves it. Our baseball league always had kind of a boring Opening Day when Zach (16) was little. Four years ago I asked if anyone would mind if I planned a little carnival of sorts to make it a little more fun.

No one minded.

This is now my fourth year. It is bigger and better than ever.

We have Rock Climbing walls, A 40 foot zip line to propel the kids across the sky, a dunk tank, lots of carnival games and of course yummy food just to name a few things.

Yes, I like to do things big.

Surprisingly, no one else wanted to take over this year. I know, I know, you are all amazed that no one would just jump at the chance to be the new Carnival Queen.

Anyway, this is why my blogging has been a little erratic of sorts. I have a carnival to plan, pizza parties to organize, banners to purchase and practices to sit through.

Add to that the fact that Tyler (14) has decided he wants to wrestle next year in High School. Baseball isn't really his thing. Lucky for us the High School has a spring wrestling program for incoming Freshman which meets two nights a week. I am thrilled. Ahem.

Samantha starts a new season of Tennis in a few weeks and I signed Paige up for gymnastics and swim lessons because, well I don't know, perhaps I have developed a hole in my head which makes it impossible to make rationale decisions.

Throw in Zach's High School Baseball schedule, piano lessons, and Garrett's little class he is taking about being babtized and I think you get the picture.

We should sell the house and buy an RV to live in because WE ARE NEVER HOME between February and June.

This leads me back to the calendar.

I added all the kids new activities to it today. I had to use two calendars and hang them side by side.

I believe I can fit house cleaning into the schedule every other Tuesday from 10:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m..

I really need to remember to take my vitamins.

Next up.....an adoption update.

Labels: Girl stuff, High School, Mom Stuff

A few weeks before Thanksgiving our children's beloved piano teacher, Ms. Debi, lost her oldest son in a motorcycle accident. He was 34. She and her husband were understandably devastated.

They had two sons. Now only one.

Ms. Debi had suffered from an irregular heart beat her whole life. She took medicine to correct this and had never really had any problems. After the death of there oldest child this all changed.

She not only had to deal with her grief but with a heart that was litterally breaking. She was hospitalized with an extremely erratic heart beat (there were some other complications) and was in very serious condition.

We were all so worried about Ms. Debi. She is a wonderful Christian lady who has been a part of our lives for many years. Her best friend called me one evening a few weeks after the accident to let us know that Debi did not think she could go back to teaching. Her health issues along with her grief were making it unimaginable for her to go on as if nothing had happened.

Over the next few weeks our family, as well as many others, prayed for Debi and her husband. She did improve and was released from the hospital a few weeks later.

I kept sending her cards and emails to check in on her. Not wanting to intrude upon them but at the same time wanting them to know they were in our thoughts and prayers.

Ms. Debi is a wonderfully gifted teacher. The thought of her not teaching just broke my heart. Her enjoyment of the children she taught was evident and I so hoped she would change her mind once she felt better.

A few weeks after Christmas I received a note from her letting me know she was thinking of taking on just a few students. Would we be interested?

Samantha started back a few weeks ago. We ask Ms. Debi how she is feeling and give her lots of hugs. I'm never sure if I should bring up her son. I don't want to remind her of her great loss though as a mother I can imagine it is never to far from the surface.

Today she spent an entire hour with Samantha so she could help her with some difficult songs she was trying to master. Samantha loved the extra attention and I was so thankful to Debi for giving it to her.

As we were leaving Debi was asking me about our life and what was going on. I told her that this was our busy time of year what with the boys baseball schedules. We seemed to just run from game to game.

Then, I saw it.

The far away look, a memory being retrieved.

He boys had played baseball. She was also a crazy busy mom at one time.

I felt so awful for saying anything. Felt as if I had been so incensitive.

She looked at me and smiled. She had obviously noticed my face when I realized what I had said.

We hugged and she told me to hold on tight to my little ones.

Life can change in an instant.

A shudder ran through my body at the thought of losing one of my children.

I pray I will never have to endure the grief of losing a child. However, I am thankful to have a God in my life who will carry me through no matter what.

Just like he has done for Ms. Debi.

Labels: Mom Stuff

Apparently I am Mother of The Year. I know. I know. You thought you were.





Sorry. It is actually me.

How do I know this you may ask?

Well, there was an award ceremony and my name was called. Mommy is the winner. Thats my name.
See, here is the proof. The actual pencil that was used to scientifically calculate all of my wonderful qualities. The one's that sealed the deal for Mother of the Year.
Here is a self portrait of our announcer for the evenning.
You'd think if she had such a great mom she would actually have her hair brushed and the proper attire for the evening on.

You may want to demand a recount. I think the whole thing was rigged.

Happy Valentines Day my friends.

Labels: holidays, kids

Many of you have been following the story of Ashley Adams over the past few months. If you are not familiar with her story you really must click on over and visit with them. Ashley's story is truly a tale of a families love for their precious child.

Ashely is back in the hospital and very sick this evening. Please go and visit this sweet family and leave them some words of encouragement. I know any prayers you can send their way will be greatly appreciated.

Labels: faith

Our weekend of excitement continued on Sunday when I took the four younger kids to a birthday party which was held in a giant warehouse.

The warehouse had been made into a party zone with lots of giant inflatable slides and obstacle courses. It was basically a kids dream come true and they definitely were having a great time.

I was really enjoying watching them run around and Paige (4) was doing a great job keeping up with all the big kids. This was a large area but it was enclosed with only one exit so I just let her run freely and took a seat to talk with some of the other parents.

About 45 minutes into the party, I am talking with one of the other moms, when we see some sparks coming from a corner behind one of the giant slides. We get up to see what is going on and just as we are reaching the area a large puff of smoke emerges and flames appear.

It seems they had an electrical short and one of the heavy duty extension cords decided to burst into flames.

To be honest I didn't really see a very big flame. What I did see was lots of smoke and the warhouse was filling up quickly.

One of the Dad's asked the employee who was trying to blow on the flames (yeah, unbelievable right?) where the fire extinguisher was? It seems he had no idea.

At this point I walked away trying to forget about the fire. My main concern was to get all the kids out of the warehouse before it filled up with smoke (there were about 25 at the party).

I began to panic. I had no idea where my kids were. We began to yell for the kids to get off of the inflatables and to run outside. I still could not find my kids.

In that brief moment I had a panic attack wondering if I could only save one child which one would it be? I know this sounds ridiculous but it was a thought I actually had in that instant.

I knew I had to find Paige because she wasn't old enough to realize what was going on. The other kids should see the smoke and head for an exit.

That is exactly what happened. Tyler was with Paige and he scooped her up once he figured out what was going on.

The owner of the warehouse finally came running in with a fire extinguisher and someone opened up the roll up doors at the back of the warehouse which let in the fresh air and let out all the smoke.

Lets just say all of us mom's were a little shakky at best after this experience.

The kids could have cared less. The whole experience didn't faze them one bit. When it was over they went right back to playing.

I on the other hand had nightmares all night about my children being trapped in a fire. You know the kind where you can hear them calling and even see them but for some reson your legs wont move and you can't save them. Awful.

I believe God was definitely looking out for us that day and I am so thankful no one was harmed.

I guess it was actually a good day after all.

Labels: kids, Mom Stuff

Tyler (14) stood at the door, white as a ghost, and blood gushing from his leg.

I had been busy curling Samantha's hair for her big night out with her Dad.

Everything stopped for that minute while I was trying not to panic and at the same time try to figure out where all that blood was coming from.

Earlier in the evening the dog had knocked a glass off the coffee table and it broke. In my rush to get Samantha ready, and out the door, I picked up the glass and threw it into the trash without wrapping anything around it.

My middle son was now paying the price for this mistake.

While he was doing his nightly chore of taking out the trash the bag knocked against his leg. The sharp glass went right through the plastic bag and into his leg.

I am so thankful that the glass cut him in the front part of his right calf and not into a main artery somewhere. This definitely could have been a lot worse.

After we got the bleeding to stop and I could actually get a good look at the cut I quickly realized this injury was beyond my butterfly bandage and super glue technology as a Mom.

Zach changed his plans for the evening and stayed home with the younger kids while I ran Tyler over to urgent care.

Four hours and nine stitches later he was all better.

He hobbled out the door with a doctors note that stated no PE for two weeks. I'm sure that alone made the whole experience almost worth it.

Well, except for those big needles they used......

and the fact that one of them broke off in his skin when they were stitching him up.

Yep, my poor needle phobic teen had quite a time of it.

Now, here are some before and after photos. If you are squeemish at all I would skip this part. He wanted to show his friends so I said I would post them.

Here you go.....



You wont believe this but our weekend got even more exciting the next day when I found myself in a building with my kids when a fire broke out.

Yes, I will be staying home for a while now.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I promise.

Labels: kids

The Valentasia Ball was last night at Samantha's school. This is always a big deal. Samantha and her Dad have been going to a Dance like this each year since she was in the 3rd grade.

Now that she is in Middle School I let her wear high heels to the event. She was so excited she has been wearing them non stop to "break them in" before the big night. She had such fun trying them all on in the store. I just had to laugh and smile as I watched her. I'm sure neither of us will every forget this first trip to the shoe store for some pretty black pumps.

As I was touching up her hair for the last time before they left a very weak cry came out of Tyler's (14) mouth. He was just outside the front door and their was blood gushing from his right leg.

They danced at the ball. I fox trotted to urgent care.

More on that story tomorrow.

Labels: Girl stuff

I let Paige and Garrett get the paints out the other day and they seemed to be much more interested in painting their hands than painting on the poster board I put in front of them. Isn't that sweet? Do you see my irritated looking husband in the back ground (He's actually checking email on his laptop)? He had just cleaned the kitchen for me. He's such a good hubby.
Paige has taken to wearing her water wings most days. Always hopeful that the sun will shine.
Don't you just love that hair? Why is it I brush it and she prompty messes it up? I would like just one picture with my daughter not looking like a street urchin. Garrett's hair is really long right now and he likes it that way. Mom doesn't really. It is always messy. We will be going to the Barber this weekend for some touch up.
So, whats a lazy mom to do when it's time to clean all the paint of the kiddos? Heat up the spa and let the little princess use those water wings. Taking a real bath is very over rated.

Labels: kids

For the third time in what feels like as many months someone has broken the charger to my laptop. The kids just grab the cord and pull when they want to disconnect it. Why oh why will they not realize that when they do this the cord seperates from the very nice wires that actually talk to the computer and then MY COMPUTER WILL NOT CHARGE.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

I will no longer be sharing my computer. I am ordering a new charger and it will be all MINE. The kids can fight over the other computer and beg and plead for just a moment but I will say NO. I am done being nice. It is costing me to much money.

That being said, I have really loved this week.

Well, other than the fact I have almost coughed up a lung due to all the conjestion in my chest.

Why you may ask have I loved this week? Politics. I love politics.

I have stayed up late into the night listening to all the arguing and heated discussions. I love love love it.

I know. I am strange.

I'm sure most of you had already figured that out a long time ago.

I'm off now to order a new charger on EBAY. I have commandered the kids computer until I can get mine back up and running.

I'm just nice like that.

Life has been to busy lately. Three of the kids had big projects due at school, baseball started, and life is just driving in the fast lane.

I woke up yesterday with a cold. Could my body be telling me to slow down? Maybe.

Saturday morning we woke up to ten teen age boys asleep on our living room floor. I'm glad we have the "hang out" house but at times I could really do without the mess.

Two dozen eggs, two pounds of bacon, and two dozen donuts later they all went home.

I then decided to cook a bunch of food for Sunday so we could lay around and watch the super bowl after church. I made homemade mac and cheese, baked beans, deviled eggs, dips and other yummy stuff. Then I called subway and ordered a sandwich platter.

Besides these items we had suchi, lots of chocolate and a yummy cake the younger kids made.

I am sure I gained at least 5 pounds.

It was pure heaven.

So, yesterday when I rolled out of bed with a nasty cold I figured either my body was tired or just rebelling from all the junk I put into it the day before.

Today I feel better but the nose is running and the energy just isn't there. However, my house is a mess and there is no time to lay around. So, I took a double dose of vitamin C and am hoping I can get the house back in order before I feel the urge to crawl into bed.

What I really want to do is lay on the couch with the computer and go and visit all of you. I've missed my bloggy buddies.

I guess that will have to wait for tonight.

What about you? Did you over eat on Super Bowl Sunday? Please confess so I wont be the only one feeling like a total piggy today.

Labels: Mom Stuff