Softball and that Darn Cat! and Dog!

Nathaniel is also very excited to see his daddy when he finally gets home from work. So much so that he usually is the first one to him when he walks in. In the picture below, he climbed up onto the back of the couch and was hugging him and patting him on the back. Also notice the haircut. His daddy did that. At mommy's request, since Nathaniel won't sit still for me.

I took this one this morning; because the boys went to bed so late cause of the softball game, David didn't get up until 9:30 am. He came downstairs and cuddled with Nathaniel while he was waiting for me to get his breakfast.


Richard's softball game didn't go as planned. His team lost 13-6. Which was considerably better than the previous team's loss (there are back to back games) which was 26-5. They would probably play better if they did a couple of things. One is practice. Two is not start drinking until AFTER the game is over. Because it was basically dark when the game started & I was taking pictures through a chain link fence, they didn't come out all that great. We sat in front of 3rd base, which is the position Richard played, and I did get a few, but they aren't all that decent. But for your viewing pleasure....

Here's David being a ham as usual.

Richard through the chain link fence.

Right after lunch I opened the front door to let Stormy (my dog) outside and what do I see? A dead mouse. Morgan the cat brought us a present. And Stormy apparently thought the gift was for her, cause she grabbed it. Luckily I got her to drop it before she ate it (yuck!!) and I scooped it up in a dustpan and took it out to the burn barrel. We've seen her catch mice and let them go & play with them, but this is the first time she's brought one to the front door. Lets hope she doesn't make a habit of it.

I think I'm going to regret this

Monday was the start of Richard's softball league tournament. His team's game was at 8:15 on Monday evening, so we didn't take the boys, but promised them that they could go to the next game, which is tonight. At 9:15. I found out earlier this afternoon. So, because we promised, we're taking them to the game. This is going to be interesting, as Nathaniel didn't have a nap this afternoon because I had a meeting for VBS that starts Sunday night. He's already had a couple of crying fits, and its only going to get worse as the evening goes on. Maybe he'll fall asleep in the car on the way to the game. I can only hope.

I'm planning on taking my camera, so maybe I'll get some decent pictures of Richard playing ball. He's very competitive when it comes to sports. Last years team was pretty good, this year's is so-so since most of them just come to drink beer and attempt to play softball drunk. Idiots. Anyhoo, if I get some decent pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

Is it Friday yet?

No? Only Tuesday? Darn. I was hoping it was Friday. David and Nathaniel seemed to be at each other's throats today. All day. Except the 2 1/2 hours that Nathaniel napped. Then there was peace. You see, David likes to play with his Transformers and have the Autobots fight the Decepticons and set up these big battle scenes. And Nathaniel? He likes to come knock them all down. Which then upsets David and he either gets mad and tries to beat Nathaniel up or he gets upset and cries and says that he doesn't like his brother. Which we all know is not true. David also likes to color, and he's very good at it and he doesn't like to share his big box of Crayola crayons or the Crayola art kit Grandma and Grandpa got him for his birthday. Which I can understand. I wouldn't want to share those things either. Especially with a little brother that tends to break crayons 2 seconds after he picks them up.

So what did I get to do all day? Try to distract Nathaniel and keep him from bothering David, which only succeeded about 50% of the time. That child is so stubborn. Anyone care to venture a guess where he gets that stubborness? Yep. His Daddy. Cause I am not even close to being that stubborn.

I'm going to bed now. I'm exhausted. I feel like I played referee all day or something, and ended up being at the bottom of a pile of kids. Well, I didn't really, but I sure feel like it.

Some FPU pictures and a Deluge

I decided to post some pictures of our FPU graduation from last night, since I didn't last night. We had a lot of fun, and I cried. No idea why, I just did. Gratitude and appreciation, I think was part of it.

Here was most of our class, watching the DVD lesson. If you see the guy to the far right in the red hat, look back & a little to the left and you'll see Richard, back by the window below the clock.

A friend & co-worker of Richard's is a professional chef and made this credit card cake for us for free. It was chocolate with raspberry filling. Yummy! I had one couple who had not cut up any credit cards during class cut this one up.

In this quart sized mason jar is approximately 45 credit cards & about $100,000 worth of credit. We had 3 very sad ladies that cut up their Kohls' cards, but they did. Someone even chopped up their Victoria's Secret card! Much to her hubby's disappointment. :)

There's me, actually not waving my hands around as I talk for once.

It was a great class, I'm very proud of all of them! We're going to be starting another class in September and I'm very excited about it.

This morning was bed linen washing day. I stripped the guest beds and threw everything (not all at once) in the washer, then hung the linens up to dry outside. It was cloudy, but I didn't think it was going to rain anytime soon.

So after lunch we all head upstairs for naps. Nathaniel, David & I. I'd slept horribly last night, and could hardly keep my eyes open for most of the morning. Sometime while we slept it started raining. And all the linens were still out on the clothes line. When I woke up at 4:30 pm, I heard rain hitting our roof. I was hoping it was just sprinkling, but Noooo, it couldn't just be sprinkling. It was pouring. I went running downstairs, grabbed a laundry basket & threw a jacket on and rushed outside to bring the laundry it. Soaked was what I was when I was done. I was out maybe 5-7 minutes, but I was soaked when I was done. My hair was dripping wet, my pants were soaked and the only part of me that wasn't was my shirt cause I'd thrown a jacket on before I went outside. Note to self: check the forecast before you take a nap next time laundry is on the line. Literally.

Now I've spent the rest of the afternoon/evening getting everything dry. Serves me right, I guess.

Graduation Day!

Today was Graduation Day for our first Financial Peace University class. It was a lot of fun. We had drawings for 3 of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makerover" Books, had lots of yummy food during our potluck and had a little graduation ceremony & cake afterwards. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. We had 16 families out of an origianl 20 graduate. The main requirement to graduate was that you attend 12 out of 13 classes, and we had several couples that had perfect attendance. It was great.

The last lesson is entitled "The Great Misunderstanding". Its about giving. Not only tithing, but giving in general. I had a lady comment to me after class that her husband had been commenting that he wasn't sure that the classes were very good, since they all seemed to be centered on getting out of debt/getting more money. This one lesson changed all that. It brings everything you learned in the previous 12 classes together, and it totally makes sense. Its awesome!

Our next class starts in September. I'm hoping to get at least 15 families signed up. Anything above that will be awesome!

Gone Fishin'

Not me. Nope. I don't fish. Well, I would if Richard put the worm on the hook & took the fish off the hook & cleaned & gutted it. But other than that, I don't fish. However, Richard & his dad took the boys fishing today. They left about 10:00 am and got home about 2:15 pm, after a stop at Pizza Hut.

David was the only one to catch a fish. And Nathaniel carried it up to my bedroom (I was napping when they got home) to show me. Almost put it on the bed. He was so proud of said fish that you would have thought that he was the one who caught it. But it was David's fish. I went out to take a picture of it but Richard's dad has already started to clean it and I didn't think anyone wanted to see a cut up fish, so no pictures. Nothing huge, just a little trout, but my boys were sure proud of it!

The Smothers Brothers

were hilarious! Just got home from the show. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I think my favorite parts were the Yo-Yo Man and a clip from one of their tv shows from the '60s. It went something like this...
"You know, you can tell who is running the country by how much clothing they wear."
"Really? How do you tell?"
"Well, the normal people, like you and me, they don't wear so much, so they're the less-ons"
"And the people who are running the country?"
"They're the morons."

Have a great night!