I found some pictures of her nursery!!!  I had just started taking digital pictures when she was born so I am surprised I had some of her room on my computer.  We did not find out what we were having with the second two kids so I had to decorate the nurseries somewhat neutral.  Even if I had known I was having a girl I still would have picked this circus toile.  There is a close-up of the pattern in her crib.  It's also on curtains and table by the rocker. 

Notice the bell with the long string....I'm glad I didn't have to explain to the Dr. why stella swallowed that!!!

 One of my goals for this summer was to redecorate Stella's bedroom.  I decided to turn it into her birthday present since she also got a new queen size bed..the other night as I was tucking her into her new bed she said "this is the best birthday present ever!"  See...even little kids can appreciate a nice mattress:)  I know the orange is a little shocking at first (you should see Shelby's lime green room) but I was going for a sunset color to go with the beach theme.  The girls picked more of an OSU orange than the deeper orange I was going for, but they overruled! 

 Now how many kids have a hammock in their room that they can acutally sit in?  Hank loved me for this one...he had to find ceiling beams and secure said hammock and just the perfect height so she wouldn't have to jump in it...or jump from her bed into it.  About the time Hank and I think we have thought of every crazy thing they might do...they one up us!

 I added little touches of beach (starfish, coral, flamingos, etc. around the room).

 On this wall I did have another wall decal, like the black flamingo & birds,  of a large palm tree, but I ripped it off ( along with some paint that I had to touch up).  Applying that monstronsity of a palm tree meant getting it all straight with no bubbles or wrinkles...HA..that was a joke.  I slept on it and tore it off today.  Besides it was over done with the decals and looked a little 1980.  I went with this shelf instead that I had in the attic from her nursery.  I should put a picture of her nursery on here...I loved, loved, loved her nursery...ooohhhh.......

 I got brave and painted the wall paper in the girls pullman bathrooms.  It took some work since it was black with words...2 coats of KILZ and 2 coats of paint.  I love the yellow:) Looks like need to change some light bulbs.

 I have one more Picasso print to frame and still looking for a shower curtian that I love...I just don't LOVE anything I have seen.  For now it's a white liner. 

 I like how this cabinet looks with the yellow paint.  FYI...got this antique cabinet at the Purple Penquin here in Bristow.  They have really cute stuff. 

I did not spend a fortune on this room.  I ordered cheap online (mostly from Overstock.com), used stuff I already had, bought frames at Wal-Mart, and ordered all of those Picasso prints online for like $5.00 a piece...gee I wonder if they are originals?  

 and they say teachers don't work in the summer....ha!

In the summer classrooms are cleaned, painted, and sometimes the carpet is replaced.  It's the teacher's job to get their room ready and clean it back up.  When you are new you must also clean out all of the old stuff left by previous teachers, yet figure out what you might want to save!  When I walked in my room today, I did get excited thinking about next year and how I will be there from the very beginning.  We are going to have so much fun:)

These are the files I brought home to work on, clean out, save master copies, etc. This is only 2 subjects.  So, although teachers get 8-9 weeks off for summer we are never really "off." Not to mention the ones who teach summer school...fun times... We are preparing for the next 10 months...and I promise you don't want to walk into a classroom unprepared!!!

Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come for Sam....He got a $600 ticket on a SeaDoo while out with his friend's family at their lake house (for being an under age driver).  He had to take a boating safety course or a test online, receive his boating license and then appear in court to ask for the fines to be dropped.  He took the RIDICULOUSLY long test online since we were traveling and he couldn't make it to the class and passed.  Today his friend's dad took him to the Osage County courthouse (the dad got a ticket too) and Sam texted me this picture.  Notice the sticker on the bottom right side of the door...Sam had on shorts and he texted me in a bit of a panic.  They got out of their tickets (not court costs though) so Sam does not have a criminal record.  I told him he would not be able to get into college with a record so he better beg that judge for mercy:) 

These pictures are from October 2009.  I am reposting them for a friend who's mother is battling cancer.  When these were taken my mom had breast cancer and Hank's dad had colon cancer.  Sam decided not to play that season so he could spend weekends with his sick grandparents.  When these were taken we had only lived here one year and really didn't know very many people.  However, his football team made it to the play-offs that year and they wanted to do something special to show Sam their support.  Pink is a well-known cancer color (colon cancer is blue) so they all taped up...even the cheerleaders!  Hank beat me to this game and called me and said "you have to bring your camera," but wouldn't say why."  When I walked up I was so overcome with emotion, I bawled.  The newspaper ran the story and pictures. My mom is now in remission, but sadly Hank's dad passed away in May of that same school year.  This story truly moved both of them.   This is why I love living here.  People really come together! What a great group of boys....I love that team:) 

I'm so proud of Sam and Shelby.  They both got up on the wakeboard for the first time on the same day!  Now it will be a fierce competition to see who can go outside the wake first, spin first, ramp another boat first (kidding). 

Jack's wipeout!!!

My brother taught me how to kneeboard years ago....I taught his son how to kneeboard!  I wish JohnT. could have been there to see what a natural Jack is:)

Look at his air!!!!!!!!!  Woo hoo Jack - this was only on his second time up.

strapping in...

making it look soooo easy:) 

Sam and my nephew Jack at the lake

yes...he got some air...yes...he managed to stay on! 

This was taken later...

Can you see the reflection of the boat in her eyes?  

This post is about finding strange things is strange places...this week I have been painting Stella's bedroom and the girl's pullman bathroom.  I opened up the cabinet under Stella's sink and found a tub and a cup both covered with picture frames.  I lifted the frames off and out came a horrible smell:(  Stella was keeping FROGS in there, but trying to hide them because we keep telling the girls not to keep them as pets.  Those tiny pellets in the tub (with the dehydrated frogs) are food.  There are several more frogs in the cup.  She got this idea when Shelby had a friend over and they turned Shelby's secret room into a frog room.  They had probably 20 containers full of frogs mostly.  By the time I caught them they had transported water, bugs for the frogs to eat, and all kinds of messy things up there. 

I also found a dead frog under her bed when I moved it to paint.  That frog was from one of those little aquariums that have a piece of bamboo and usually 2 frogs.  Anyway, my mom got it for STella for her birthday and one night some friends were over playing up in her room.  WE heard a HUGE crash upstairs and when we walked in, a tall chest of drawers had been knocked over onto Stella's bed and everything on it (including the frog aquarium) went flying!!!!  WE cleaned up the mess, but I guess we overlooked this poor guy who ended up under the bed.

Last night I crawled in bed and my arm felt this strange feeling...it was a bowl of grapes.  Stella was sleeping in my bed since there are paint fumes in her room.  I guess she wanted to have a healthy snack just incase she woke up during the night.  I took this in the dark with my iphone.  

Twin mattress/ box springs, slipcovered headboard and bed frame

FOR SALE!!!!

Mattress is 4 years old and the brand is Lady Americana.  Has been in a smoke-free, very clean home.  Has 1 juice stain from a sippie cup leak.  The bed is from Pottery Barn and you can order a new slipcover (with monogram) for the headboard.  Rails included too.  We are re-decorating Stella's room and she is getting a queen bed. 

$200 for everything. 

I noticed last night that the slipcover on the headboard can be turned around and still fits.  The back is solid white and it can be washed.

Stella had a friend over this evening and they decided to spray paint (with colored hairspray left from Halloween) Barbie hair.  This project started in Stella's bathroom until I smelled a strong smell all the way downstairs.  It was a huge mess, but I am proud to say that I did not get mad:)  I just helped them move their beauty shop outside.  I think Mario is high on fumes....

This past week I have made salsa, stuffed tomatoes, sliced with salt, salads, and tonight I threw some garden squash in my grill pan, sliced tomatoes and added them to my 3 cheese tortellini.  I drizzled some olive oil and soy sauce over it and it was really good. 

  This is what I mean when I say I need to can tomatoes!  I would have given anything to have this problem last summer when it was too hot to grow 1 measly tomato. 

I have been canning this summer.  This is some of my peach jelly.  Hank grows all sorts of stuff.  The only problem is that it all seems to ripen at once.  In order not to waste it you must either can continuously, eat continuously, or give it all away. My first batch of white peach jam and blackberry seedless jam turned out pretty runny.  Acutally the blackberry is syrup, but it's awesome on pancakes and waffles!  I have a wheelbarrow full of tomatoes that need to be canned, but I'm also in the middle of redecorating Stella's room this week.  

Friday and Saturday Sam and I went to Youth Conference which is a yearly conference our church holds for kids age 14-18.  I was a chaperone for 7 girls and we had a great time.  We did service projects, learned about missions, had a dance and got to know some new friends.  Hank taught a class about his mission to South Korea and let the kids sample foods from there.  We didn't sleep much and when we got home Saturday evening, Sam instantly fell asleep.  He woke up at 8:30, came in my room and said "I'm glad I woke up early today."  He truly thought he had slept all night and that it was 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning.  He was totally convinced we were all wrong and he was right.  We had a good laugh:)  

I guess I got some DDT in my eye cleaning the garage...JK!  It was a piece of something and Sam helped me get it out.  He put some eye drops in and then I stuck my finger up into my eyelid and started digging.  All better now:) 

You city folk think you have spiders....look at the size of this bad boy!  There were hundreds of spiders in my garage.  Part of the reason we have so many critters in there is because we leave the side door open so it will stay cooler. No more!  This guy doesn't scare me, it's the millions of brown recluses we have here.  I know I picked some up today with my bare hands becuase I was in a fit of cleaning rage and skipped the gloves...haha.  If Hank's clients are reading this listen up... Our garage also doubles as storage for spare computer parts.  Which means that Hank may install a comptuer part into your machine that has a brown recluse in it - BEWARE!!!  Hank will love it that I said that:) Spiders bother me becuase they are small and sneaky - don't trust em'.  In our pool I find scorpions, snakes, tarantulas, and moles on a regular basis - but that stuff doesn't bother me too much.

And I call myself a clean freak...shame on me for letting my garage get this bad!  This morning after I hugged and kissed my girls goodbye (they went to spend a few days with their grandma Wanda at the ranch) I "attemped" to walk through the garage and open the refridgerator door.  Because of the massive pile of dirty boots, cases of water, frog gigs, BB guns, computer parts, bikes, DDT (maybe not that, but a huge tub of toxic chemicals (in above picture in the blue tub) that Hank got from his dad's barn) I said ENOUGH!!!  I went to work cleaning the garage out.  Mario helped me.  There is a dead mouse in that picture with him.  Why would I post these embarrasing pictures?  In hopes that my family will look at this and appreciate my hard work...doubtful:(  

Okay - so we thought today would be a good lake day. Why not right? Wrong! After packing food, towels, kids with sunscreen, & driving an hour to the lake we got there to find the battery dead:( so I hauled the kids to mom's house, got the charger & headed back to the marina with my tools...feeling pretty manly (the only thing I've ever jumped is the law mower) I proceeded to hook up the battery charger. Oops - I put red on black & black on red & the sparks flew! Quick switcheroo & we are in business. Don't ask me why or how I mixed them up..don't make fun. We hung out at the house & 1 1/2 hours later the boat was charged & ready to go. Woo hoo! Wrong:( the wind was so strong it created waves in skiatook lake that you could surf on. Right off the bat we hit one that completely covered the boat with water. Scared all of us. Did we stop? No! I had 3 boys who were determined to try their new wakeboard - in the high seas!!! I went to the calmest part of the lake I could find, but still felt like I was in a hurricane. Sam & Robert tried to get up but we just kept blowing into the shore so we gave up. I very, very carefully drive the boat back through "the perfect storm" & we swam at the public beach for awhile. I have seen grand lake look like that but never Skiatook. I was worn out from driving the boat through it! I think the dead battery was a sign. Next time I'm checking wind speeds before we leave the house. Oh lastly * thunder lost>:(