such a tease...

fall is teasing me! the temperatures on this last day of august were unbelievable!

when i got in my car this morning, this was the temperature:

then when we got in the car this afternoon, THIS was the temperature:

we went to michaels tonight {just because i wanted to look around} and the fall and christmas decorations were already out!

scarecrows are so happy!

and there was new homespun yarn out for the holiday season!!! it makes me want to start knitting again!

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it's beginning to look a lot like christmas yarn!

quote of the day: "To dream of the person you wish to be is to waste the person you are"

oklahoma sunsets

oklahoma has the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen. as we were driving home from bartlesville tonight, i took these pictures.

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oklahoma sunset

quote of the day: "Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we're looking through the gates of Heaven." ~John Lubbock

i don't like to clean

i know, i know. i didn't blog last night, but really my day was pretty boring. i can sum up my day in 3 words:

eat.

clean.

sleep.

that's it. most of that time was spent cleaning, which i don't like to do.

spencer spent most of his time sleeping. he went to his first slumber part friday night, and as you can guess, with a bunch of 5th grade boys there was not a whole lot of slumbering going on. he did manage to stay awake all day until about 4 and then he crashed in the chair. he woke up, ate supper, and then was back asleep on the couch. we just left him there, and he didn't wake up until a few minutes ago!

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sleeping cutie

quote of the day: "When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school, we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he'd eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out Uncle Caveman was a bear." ~Jack Handy

surface tension

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surface tension

today in science we tested the surface tension of water. each student had a penny, an eye dropper and some water. they added water one drop at a time seeing how many drops they could fit on a penny. they were amazed at the results! try it sometime.

quote of the day: "Will this party involve a disco ball?" ~one of Mrs. Pearce's 3rd graders asked this today when she was talking about her end of the 9 weeks reward party at school!

5 hours

this is what the past 5 hours of my life entailed:

an unexpected visit from a bunny {oreo} the size of a small child

a visit to our local library

a heart-shaped potato that later became part of a delicious pot of potato soup

a rainbow spotted by spencer that we all "just had to see!" {smile}

and last but not least.....

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atomic wedgie...aka brotherly love

quote of the day: Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero. ~Marc Brown

life is good...

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life is good

quote of the day: "Life is good."

open house

tonight was open house. i didn't get to go to spencer's because i was leading my own meeting during that time. i did, however, get to attend colby's. he's got another great teacher this year who is definitely going to keep him in line!

she had the kids make self-portraits to leave at their spots. of course they were all super-cute, but as i was carrying colby's in the house a few minutes ago, i noticed something peculiar about his...he drew his face with his eyes crossed!

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self-portrait

if this were any other first-grader, i would just think it was a cute mistake. i know that colby drew his picture like this on purpose because he's always crossing his eyes {probably because it gives his dad the creeps!}. when i saw this i just laughed! that is SO colby!

quote of the day: “Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys.” ~unknown

series finale

tonight i finally watched the final episode of ER. i have been a fan of the show since it started way back in 1992. although i didn't always agree with their views on some issues such as homosexuality, i still enjoyed watching it each week. i'm kind of bummed that it's over now.

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new roomies

colby and fuzzy have moved into my bed tonight. they better be quiet and stay on their side!

quote of the day: "No talking in the hallway!" ~me....15 times a day! sheesh!

debut

today was daryl's "debut" at adams blvd. church of christ. he preached about being unified in christ....an army of one. of course it was an incredible sermon because he's an awesome preacher!

the coolest part of it all was that our great friends, the stewarts and the howes, came all the way up to bartlesville to be with us on this special day. it meant so much to me to have them there. i truly believe that one of god's wisest and best gifts to us is friendship. when i think back on my 35 years, i'm just so thankful for the people he placed in my life at just the right times.

so with a little help from abbey, we snuck some pictures of my friends! they HAD to be my photos of the day. unfortunately, though, the pew wasn't long enough for all of us to sit together, so brett and geeg sat right behind us. that's why there are 2 photos of the day!

photo of the day #233 A

brett and geeg

photo of the day #233 B

abbey, jacob, lisa and kim

quote of the day: "If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll stay there forever." ~Winnie the Pooh

{i think i've used this one before, but i don't care. i like it!}

girl time!

today i had some much needed girl time with nellie, lisa and gina. we started with lunch at Q'doba and several challenging rounds of bananagrams! i must say that one of my friends {lisa} doesn't like to lose! :)

after lunch we headed to downtown tulsa. the first stop was the center of the universe. it's just this circle of bricks on a bridge that runs over railroad tracks. if you stand in the middle of that circle and talk, your voice echos. it is so eerie. you can even whisper, and it sounds like you are talking loudly! this is a picture of me holding up the center of the universe with my hands!

then we went to nellie's office. she's on the 38th floor of one of the buildings downtown. this is the view! i'd love to look out on that everyday!

while we were there, we did a little redecorating for them. i left a little happy note on the board in their conference room. {i hope they like it!} and then we added a few accents to one of the attorney's door. {so if you happen to be this attorney and you're reading my blog i want you to know it was ALL NELLIE'S IDEA!}

the rest of the time we just roamed down a few streets and alleys of downtown and took goofy pictures of ourselves in front of walls. why? i don't know! some of us took more pictures of ourselves than others. {i might have taken more if i liked the way i look. sigh....}

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trouble on a brick wall

geeg and nellie tried out one of the fire escapes!

this next picture is meant to be upside down. this is how i was watching for nellie and geeg while i was crouched beside a dumpster waiting for them so i could scare the snot out of them. unfortunately i got a cramp because i was waiting so long, and when i raised my head up, geeg caught me. dang it! i couldn't have gotten them so good!

lisa found a happy place to wait for geeg and nellie.

behind this artistic sculpture was a scantily clad woman who was "working" on a photography shoot. she had on high heels, a skimpy bikini bottom and a wet white t-shirt which she proceeded to lift for a couple of the shots. she apologized saying, "i'm sorry, y'all. i'm working," as she was standing in the water covering part of her boobs with her hands. lisa cleverly replied, "aww, you're gonna mess up your shoes!" i had to bite my lip to keep from laughing! i couldn't believe that they were taking pictures like this in the broad daylight in the middle of town!!!

a happy day calls for happy socks, right?

this partial poster was on a sculpture called artificial cloud that was near the center of the universe. i really like the colors in it, and the words living and laughing. i thought that had to be a real quote, so i googled it. and it IS a real quote, so it is my quote of the day.

quote of the day: "All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems... But all these stars are silent. You-You alone will have stars as no one else has them... In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars will be laughing when you look at the sky at night..You, only you, will have stars that can laugh! And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me... You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure... It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh" ~The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

goodbye, joey

tonight we said goodbye to joey, the bird. don't worry....he didn't die. he just went to live with another family. none of us ever really attached to joey, and we didn't feel like he was getting the attention he needed. a teacher at my school took him to live with her family. {i feel a little sad, though, like i abandoned him.}

these are our last moments with joey.

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joey's new mommy

quote of the day: "We'll have to train the cats not to eat the bird." ~Joey's new mommy {sorry, Joey....I didn't know!}

rainy day

this morning it rained and rained and rained some more! it was the perfect day for cuddling up with a good book, but unfortunately today was a work day! no cuddling for me!

since half of our garage is now covered with boxes, my car is parked outside in the driveway. normally that's not a problem, but when you keep your umbrella IN your car and it's pouring down rain......you have to get creative. did you know that an empty wal-mart sack fits perfectly over your head?

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recycling

after school the boys and i went to barnes and noble to find us all a new book to read. spencer was searching for the 3rd book in the eragon series. they didn't have it so he got another ranger's apprentice book. he likes that series, and more importantly, it will work for his book report!

colby, on the other hand, had no idea what book he wanted. he hasn't really decided what genre he likes yet, so it's always a long event when we go to a bookstore. he thought he wanted a book about dragons, and we finally found one that was on his level. as we were walking out of the kids' books to find me a book he spotted some non-fiction books about animals, the earth and sea creatures. he always tends to lean towards those kinds of books, and so of course he put the dragon book back and got one about sea critters. i told him he should be a marine biologist.

for some strange reason, i bought a biography. i don't think i've ever gotten a biography. i'm sure i've read them for assignments, but i really don't think i've ever chosen to read one. maybe it was the cover that struck me, or maybe it was the person. i ended up getting the story of charles shultz's life. in case you don't know he's the creator of the peanuts comic strip. i've always liked that comic, so i thought it would be interesting to learn about the guy who brought it all to life! i'll let you know.....

quote of the day: "I wouldn't exactly call it trouble....." ~Colby's response when Daryl asked him if he'd been good at school today.

sleepy

i stayed up too late last night reading, but i finished the book!!! and it had a happy ending!

this is the only picture i took today, so it gets the honor of being my photo of the day by default.

photo of the day #229

welcome

quote of the day: When your mother is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?" it's best not to answer her. ~

Megham, age 13

tonight

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pig and a book

nothing to tell you about today except the maintenance guy at school FINALLY believed me about there being something wrong with my air-conditioner!

that book and pig are calling my name, so i'm turning in early tonight! i can't wait to finish reading that book to see if kathleen and johnny end up together! no, it's not quality literature, but i do enjoy a sappy love story!

quote of the day: “All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them.”

~Walt Disney (1901-1966), animator, film producer

blank.

i couldn't think of a title for today's post, so i'm going with blank. nothing earth-shattering happened today. just another monday in my world.

around 8:00 tonight i was scrambling around here taking pictures trying to find something that would be my photo of the day. first i went in the back yard and took pictures through the holes in the fence, hoping i'd get a really cool pic....not really. {although i did discover a removable knothole!}

then i came back in the house and decided to mess with colby by taking a picture of him in the bathtub! he kept screaming and hiding behind the curtain and the bottle of soap! {finally......he's becoming modest!}

then i went outside in the front, but all i got was a picture of these flowers. that wasn't speaking to me either tonight because i've taken lots of pictures of flowers lately.

so i came back in the house and heard squirt squeaking. i know i've taken pictures of him recently, but he's so stinkin' cute!!! i sat down in the floor right in front of his cage, and rocky didn't like that AT ALL. he kept barking and jumping up to see squirt. but when i picked him up and held him high enough to reach squirt, he couldn't get out of my arms fast enough! little, hairy chicken!

after all those photo shoots i thought, surely, i would find something worthy of being called photo of the day. when my photos uploaded, the perfect picture all but slapped me upside the head! duh!!! i already had my photo of the day from early this morning!

when spencer went out to feed rocky, he noticed a small piece of a rainbow in the morning sky. he ran in the house shouting, "mom!!! hurry, you gotta see this! get your camera! it's a rainbow and the sky is beautiful!" {smile.} i know i've said it many times before, but i absolutely love that my boys take time to notice all the beautiful things god has created! so here it is....

photo of the day #227

morning rainbow

quote of the day: “Set out each day believing in your dreams. Know without a doubt that you were made for amazing things.” ~Josh Hinds; motivational speaker, author

new beginning...

today was the first time we worshipped with the family at adams blvd. in bartlesville. someone was already lined up to preach, so daryl didn't preach. next sunday is his big debut!

after worship we had lunch with 2 really sweet families.

this afternoon i just spent my time reading and taking a nap. ahhh......i love sunday afternoons!

then we had dinner with a bunch of our friends from here. i'm just so thankful for the blessing of friends!

when we walked out of jason's deli tonight, the sunset was beautiful! even though it was behind the clouds, the rays were spreading out in all directions. this picture doesn't even begin to show just how amazing it was!

while spencer was taking out the trash tonight, he found this little guy hopping around. i've always thought frogs were cute, so i had to get a picture of him! i wasn't planning on catching him, but he hopped on my foot... of course as soon as i picked him up he peed all over my hand!!! you can see that my pinky finger is wet in this picture! nasty little thing!

photo of the day #226

ribbit

quote of the day: “Don't worry so much about your self- esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.” ~Laura Schlessinger (b.1947); radio host, author