bsmiles and sunny days

My mom told my kids about this incredible sight called Eagle Eye Cam . It's worth taking a look at. (Click on the black box; when you hear buzzing you're in. Wait for it and try back if you can't get it to load. The eggs should be hatching any day now! It's so cool that they can't manage all of the traffic concurrently.) Dale's love of this majestic bird has permeated all of our hearts, so watching this has just been amazing. I couldn't help but be a little overwhelmed as I watched the live feed for the first time. When I was in college, my favorite professor preached chapel one morning and actually brought an eagle in to use for his illustration. I knew they were big, but I didn't realize how big. A mature, adult female has a wingspan of nearly eight feet and weighs between ten and fourteen pounds! In the midst of over a thousand students, just having the massive creature in the building was intimidating. It shook us all; the auditorium was completely...

I have the spaghetti sauce in the crock pot simmering away for the second hour now and the white cake from scratch with the yummy whipped frosting that doesn't have cream or powdered sugar in it is in progress- five minutes on the cake, thirteen minutes on the frosting. They should be done- cooling and all- just in time to come together. It's a going away dinner. It's a sad day for Snarcy's. I would dare say the average friends talk about three hours a week. I don't know that for sure, I am guessing. If you go out to dinner once or twice a month and you see each other at church or work, or wherever you find your friends, and we're talking solid conversation here, three hours is probably a good, solid average. Bear in mind, some people do not conversate well and struggle to meet the average. They are playing a role here too. If my theory holds up, in the course of a year average friends talk to each other for a total of 156 hours a year. That's a lot of conve...

This is my hamster. He's really funny. He ALWAYS gets out of his cage. And he's the nicest hamster, and he's really sweet. His name is Hampy. One time, his back toe was kind of fat and it was looking funny. We had to take him to the animal doctor. * inserts laffy taffy* And when they listened to his heart he was so cute. *giggles* They were gonna put him to sleep and cut his toe off! Isn't that gross? But he got better on his own. AND that night when he got in a fight with my other hamster, Hampton, (he's dead) he had a spot on his back and he was bleeding! It was really sad. And my mom put some books on the cage and that's when my Hampton died. (B: books fell into cage, crushing poor innocent hamster while minding own business scavenging for nuts and wood chips in the bottom of his cage *exit Hampton, stage left, stiff as a board*) Oh! One time he got in the air conditioning vent! It was scary! I forgot to shut the lid to his cage. My dog always finds our hams...

WOW! I got tons of mail on this one! And so I've reach my goal. I'M FAMOUS! I sent an e-mail to my family and a few friends last night to notify them that I had changed my URL. In the e-mail I mentioned that I wanted lots of comments because I wanted to be famous in the blog world. Haha. FAMOUS IN THE BLOG WORLD! I changed my url so that my name wouldn't be anywhere on this site. I laughed while I was writing it because I thought everyone that I sent the e-mail to knew me well enough to know that I was kidding. It was so ridiculous that I thought you'd all laugh and say, "That girl..." But some of you really think I want to be famous. So excuse me, could I get a boost up on that large box? I have something to say. I had a long conversation with my friend Tiara Fairy just two nights ago. It was a repeat conversation. We have lots of repeat conversations, mind you, and we don't care. We generally talk for eight hours at a time when we are working. In the cou...

If you could hear the audio on this one Micah would be saying, "I think Jasmine clogged the toilet. Her turd was this big, Mom!" *feet running in the kitchen* Jasmine's voice follows, "It was this long!" I would not trade these days for the rights to the entire Reese's industry. They are PRICELESS!!! **Note to friend or stranger: if you see me having a nervous breakdown, open mouth, insert peanut butter cup. It's ok. I have a prescription. So the big Military Ball was this weekend and it was a BLAST. Lots of marching, and uniforms... and little sandwiches too. Oh yeah, they had a really cool fountain that the punch streamed out of. It was awesome! You put the cup under and it fills it up with- punch! And then there was cake, nice yummy cake. Lots of cleavage and bare backs and parading... I'm telling you, I can't WAIT to go next year! Hold on to your hats girls, keep your daughters' eyes covered because this guy will ROB you of your senses. T...

If you asked me how we do it, I'd tell you I go a little crazy sometimes. It's real. I am no fan of "supermom" or the connotations that it implies. I am just a real girl with real insanity looming on the brink of every moment. It's getting worse with each day. I mean, this is what we *do*. I have five children under the age of eight. We teach school at home. I work full-time. Nights. In an Alzheimer's unit. Dale is in school working on his masters. He has two jobs. One of them is like a residency and he has to write papers and do research for it. Twice a month he is on call and stays over in the city and then goes to class at the end of the second day. When I'm working he gets up with the baby at night. I'm not kidding; it's nuts. The fabric of steel that I was apparently intended to wear for the duration of my existence is narily a shelter in desperate moments. It's like the armor you see in battle, only there is a huge gap in the front and I...

If I could take one picture to sum up the past three years of our lives, it would be this one right here. Well- if you can imagine me sleeping on the picnic table behind Dale. It's been quite a ride. God called us out of conventional ministry for Dale to go back to school to work on his masters in 2002. With four children at the time, and no money saved, the only option was for him to go full time and for me to go to work. It was quite a transition. I opted to work nights and have a part time sitter which made for the most time home together. This picture was taken last fall on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I am constantly amazed at how things just work out when you are in God's will. We left Nebraska without a plan except to move home and just wait. After Dale got laid off from his job, he started looking at schooling options. God shut every door except the right one. We moved again before a full year had passed and have been here ever since. I have never felt more co...

Morning came SO fast... Lulu fussed at 6 and I rolled over and pretended that I couldn't hear her. Isn't that funny? Sweet irony chokes hypocrisy. Easter came and our house is full to the rim with candy. We went to one of the local churches for their annual Easter egg hunt Saturday. This kids piled into one room and to listen to Bible stories and wait for a huge drawing to begin; little did they know that every kid would get a prize. Parents lined the room and spilled into the hallways. It's so funny how excited people get about stuff. I'm telling you, mothers were falling all over themselves to get their kid to the front for his prize. Now, I gotta be honest. I was pretty curious to see what was in those bags. There must've been a huge push in the congregation for months ahead becuase the bags were stuffed full of cool stuff- all different. It was as if every Grandma in the place shopped for their favorite kids and donated all the findings to the church. Dale was n...

It's 1:02 AM. I have been hesitant to commit here. A few attempted entries, but nothing to write home about. B's is so cool and I have dragged my feet because I just don't have time to make my much of my space... but it occurred to me as I held my precious baby in my arms that this is the perfect platform for me to write what I can when I can, regardless of how pretty the wallpaper is. To be quite honest, the wallpaper in my house isn't a reflection of me either... so welcome to my world. Lulu woke up at 12:30, just after we went to bed. She has been sleeping through the night off and on since about four months. She's seven months now. I don't mind. I enjoy the quiet moments I have with her when I'm not working. I was thinking about how much we all compare our successes to our babies and their performance. I heard a guy ask a woman if her baby was sleeping through the night on tv last week. The baby was four weeks old. She shyly answered, "Not quite ye...

After a wild weekend, we are two days into our *normal* lives. The trip could not have gone more smoothly. We left early, early on Friday morning and got to Emporia at 11:45, just minutes before Nanna arrived for her lunch break with hot pizzas in hand. I spent the afternoon napping and the kids and Sarah went to Sonic. Dale arrived about 3:00 just before I rolled out of bed. Papa was home from retrieving the church's new lawn mower, by 4:00, the kids were home and Nana came in close behind. The big surprise was a party we had been planning for Sarah for weeks. Originally Shanda, my work buddy, and I had intended to do a luau to celebrate her birth on Friday night here in town. But when Mel called and said that she was having a baby shower, we chucked the plans for the party and promised a rain check. Well, Sarah had no idea we were planning and sneaking around with the intention of only moving the party to Emporia... gotta switch the laundry. We managed to get her to the party wit...