The View Will Improve

We live in an awesome house, in a good neighborhood on a corner lot with a crummy view. When I open my front door, this is what I see:

This old service station has been many things over the years-a lunch counter, liquor store, wrecker service and most recently (for the last 10 years) a car wash. The car wash guy quit washing cars and the lot went up for sale and we bought it.

Front view:

We bought it just so it wouldn't turn into something else even crappier than what we've been looking at since we've lived here. At first I was so excited because I thought: Here's my opportunity to open up my shop! But no, it would cost way too much money to get this building spruced up enough for it to be my shabby chic treasure shop. We will probably end up tearing most of it down and what survives will most likely become DH's workshop. The kids think this would be an awesome spot for a swimming pool!

Everyone pitched in with the manual labor to get it looking a little nicer...well not everyone, I took pictures.

A glimpse of the neighborhood:

Our house:

Break time:

I am considering painting at least one side, the side I have to look at, PINK. We'll see. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Swim Team

Intersquad meet-just for practice. The first real meet is Saturday. What a goofball
He's not really that smooth-it's more belly-flop than dive, but it gets him goin'. It is his first year afterall.



Very serious, this one.

School's Out!

Today was the last day of school for the big kids. They are just a little excited! Not really, I made them jump off the steps again and again till I could get a good picture-they were excited about getting to stop jumping off the stairs. The picture didn't turn out as I had imagined, but after about 30 frames, they were fixin' to mutiny so I had to go with what I had. I didn't really want to start the summer with a full-out rebellion. The little guys shirt says-School is Awesome...When It's Closed! Thanks to Nana for that one.

No More 4K

The school year has ended for 4K. The 4K class did the Mass and got their certificates. I think my kid thinks he never has to go to school again. He's got a certificate, he's done. His brother and sister must not be nearly as clever as he is because THEY still have to go to school. He will be surprised next year when it's time for Kinder!

The kid in the middle is LOOOEEESAH. He smacks his food-NOT cool. My kid hadn't liked that kid since the beginning of the year-all because of food smackin'. One day LOOOEEESAH's Mom brought cupcakes and something else sugary for snack and LOOOEEESAH barfed all over the playground. Loooeeesah moved to the top of the coolness ladder in one single day-mom brought cupcakes AND he barfed too. He has been the coolest kid ever since.

The Darling Graduates

This is one of the 4K teachers.

Is that face full of JOY or what?!

Creepy

Last Sunday was our end of the year Girl Scout Banquet. It was fancy this year, we had a speaker-Docia Williams. She is an author (writes about haunted places) and volunteers a lot with injured soldiers in San Antonio.

The girls got their awards. It was a fancy occasion-just not fancy enough for my hillbilly child to put shoes on. I think the president has to be coming to dinner for shoes to be worn and there'd still be no guarantee. Shoes are never a must when you've got hillbilly in your family tree. Anyway-the other leader planned everything and did a fabulous job-Thank You! (That's her in the pic).

As we were winding things up, I glanced out the window and caught sight of something moving that was very colorful. And creepy. I have watched lots of scary movies in my lifetime and several of them flashed through my mind as I watched this pied piper of a creepy clown walking on the lawn of the church surrounded by the children. My heart started racing and I started looking around for my handgun...not really-I calmed down pretty quickly when the scene sunk in. Clowns are just creepy-especially when you are not expecting to see one and it just shows up like that. Have I used the word 'creepy' enough times? It was creepy. She had been staying at the RV park and heard we were having a Girl Scout thing and walked over. I guess some people actually like clowns and she thought she was being nice. I am sure she is a very interesting lady outside of the clown suit.

After the party the girl brought home a friend. They asked if they could play with make-up. I said sure. Behold the result:

This is usually a pretty little girl. See what happens when clowns are allowed to run rampant?

Ball Is Almost Over

May is busier than Christmas-time around here and I love every minute of it! One of our big spring activities is T-ball/Baseball/Softball. I've got one kid in each. Luckily our town is small so I can have kids at various places without too many problems. This is the last week of ball unless... someone makes an all-star team.

The T-ball coach ended up here from Kansas so of course the team name had to be the Royals.

The 7/8 year old boys are the RockHounds-perfect name for little boys, especially mine. He's got a rock collection that would make a geologist drool.

I am so excited about the girls uniform this year-It is HOT PINK and we found some cleats with pink on them, 0h my heart's aflutter. Anyway-they look so good on the field-kinda like bright Easter eggs. The coaches didn't wear pink, they opted for black...sissies.

Wanted: New BFF

I am looking for a new BFF. My old one is moving to Austin in a few weeks and I will become a maniac without her. Here are the requirements:

*Must have children older than mine so that you can assure me that I am not doing a crappy job and the children will turn out just fine because you've been there/done that.

*Must let me come to your house every morning for coffee-and it must be good coffee.

*Must make lunch and invite me over and not be surprised or offended when I show up in my jammies.

*Must be WILLING to play golf with me. I'm not saying I'll ever make you come along, but just in case I want you to, you will. And if you are better than me at it, you'll pretend you're not so we can be equally bad at it together. If you don't have clubs, I'll get you some and we do have a cart.

*Must love shopping-I mean be able to go ALL day long AND be able to find the best thing ever at the bottom of a moldy box.

*Must agree with me whole-heartedly when I'm venting about DH being a dh, but must also know that he's really NOT.

*Must be able to tolerate my incessant channel flipping and sing and dance to whatever I land on whether you like it or not.

*Must be able to tell me when it's time for color and a waxing and then be able to take care of that for me.

*Must be available on short notice to come over and help me with a 'design' issue ie: how's the chair look there, which color will be better on the walls, etc. AND be capable and willing to help me finish the project.

*Must be able to make me laugh till it hurts-talking to yourself outloud and dancing at Wal-mart really help.

*Must be highly creative, organized and prepared for anything.

*Must love Survivor, Desperate Housewives and consider doing Amazing Race with me.

*Must be a purse-aholic and understand that the only way I will get a new purse is if you give me one.

*It would help if you looked a little like this and hated pulling weeds:

I will miss you, friend. I am certain you are not replaceable!

No Friends, But Loved Nonetheless

It was not a fruitful Friday. I had to go it alone. My companions had business to attend to elsewhere today.

I did the regular Friday rounds and didn't find anything noteworthy-except this note that the girl put on my mirror:

What sweetness. I asked myself-what aliens have abducted MY child? Then I remembered-she's in trouble, but she really wants to go to Nana's this weekend. I'm a sucker-I'll let her go~

Girl Scout Camping

Every year we try to do a family camp-out with our Girl Scouts. We had originally planned to go to a nearby state park back in March, but it got way too cold (I'm a sissy like that) so we had to cancel. We ended up camping in the other leaders backyard. It's a big back yard (acres and acres) and everyone had a blast.

First time campers.

This was really kind of cheat camping for us. We didn't get there till after dark because the girl had a ball game. The tent was already set up for us!

This log has always been good for hours of entertainment.

For reasons I can't really put my finger on it always just makes me a tad bit nervous when it's marshmallow roasting time. No one else seemed the least bit concerned about 10-12 children running around with sticks that had sharp, pointy, hot metal things on the end. Hmm, I guess I'm just a worry-wort.It was all just too much for him.

Bathroom Shuttle

There is nothing better than camping food!

Down at the creek:

Pretty cool backyard, huh?

Make new friends, but keep the old-one is silver and the other's gold.

Tee-Ball Rocks!

Crack Baby

Sometimes, I just really can't help myself.

Dine By Design

The first Saturday of April our church sponsored a ladies night out called Dine by Design. Several ladies got to decorate tables for their guests. It was so much fun! I hope I get to do it again next year. This is my table:

Here's the Texas table:She even brought her own peace enforcement man-you know how wild the ladies can get on a night out.
Welcome to Hawaii: I think this one was hands-down the favorite-you just can't go wrong with a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! This one's called "Urban Jungle". I knew it was gonna be fun when she whipped out the lime green lava lamp!Spring Has Sprung:

Denim and Diamonds:

We were still finding the diamonds during Girl Scouts the next day!