So maybe we need to add Art to our school schedule in the fall. Ha!
Nate drew this pic today of him and Ella.


And he called me over with, “Look what I drew for you, Mommy b/c I love you so much!” Yep, a picture of me.

For a soon-to-be-Kindergarten student, I thought his handwriting wasn’t too bad though (especially for a boy who hasn’t really worked on it!)

Way Too Much Excitement for This Mama

This evening, the children and I were traveling home from the grocery store. The sky was a little stormy on the way, but looked clear heading home. We were hoping to get home and beat the storm – nothing like unloading four children + food for an army in the pouring rain while one thinks the rain is the greatest thing ever and another screams like the sky is pouring acid on every pore. The other two carry in the smallest bag possible and wimp out on the rest – until I stronghold them and then they carry in things, but only if they can simultaneously let me know that they are very unhappy with the arrangement and I have obviously ruined their clothes by letting them get wet. So yes, I was eager to get home before my happily helpful children were traded for the children from, well – you get the picture.

Anyway, we were traveling on a four-lane highway that was unusually busy. We were talking about the big black truck in front of us. Big truck. Big tires. Very, very loud. But it was a newer truck, so I suppose the owner is one of those people that think it is cool for your new truck to sound like an old truck. Go figure. Anyway, I glance in my rearview mirror and there is another truck as close to my bumper as they could get without touching me. In fact, I was certain they were going to bump me at any moment. The truck (maroon) finally swerves around me as if to pass – but I’m not sure where, as there was an SUV up ahead. Otherwise, I would have been in the right lane myself. I was going as fast as the black truck in front allowed…not like I was a granny driver in the fast lane. So the maroon truck swerves around (Olivia said it was a girl who was laughing) and guns it to get parallel with the black truck in front of me. The black truck proceeds to rev (gun, whatever the lingo) so that his truck is ROARING going down the highway. Over and over. Louder and Louder. We realize the two trucks must know each other. Or perhaps it’s their owners who know one another. Regardless, they proceed to gas, brake, gas, brake until I am pretty much freaking out – I mean, I have precious cargo here!

So then Crazy Black Truck gasses it and takes off at high speed – just to swerve in front of the SUV (who apparently is an innocent victim as well) and slam on his brakes. Thankfully, the SUV was attentive and didn’t hit the truck. Crazy Black Truck’s owner proceeds to shoot a bird while swerving from left to right lanes so that no one could pass (as if any of us WANTED to get any closer to him). Mind you, we are traveling at about 50 mph. With traffic all around. With no median separating us from head-on traffic and a guard rail keeping us from the river. So the right lane now has Crazy Black Truck, then the innocent SUV, and then Laughing Maroon Truck. Out of nowhere come a black car, followed by a white car. In and out, zig-zaging in and out, around car after car from left to right – and then around us. Crazy Black Truck gasses it and cuts in front of them, back in the left lane. So now we have Crazy Black Truck, black car, and white car in front of us. Dear God, our turn is just ahead. Please let them go straight.

The whole time this is going on, I am trying to figure out how to avoid these words: stupid, freakin’, and ticked off. They are the only words that I really want to say, yet I have four children in the car and so my sentences go something like, “Oh – you’ve got to be … how … oh my… get away! Go away! You are … so… st…frrrr…Friday night is … oh my… I am so..” you get the point. Nothing making sense. So to add to the noise of Crazy Black Truck, I now hear, “What? What? What’s happening?” over and over x three children (plus Ella who thinks the wind in her hair is great, so she’s cheering from the back). Finally they realize that Mommy is insane and they need to be silent. Except for Ella, who keeps reminding me how precious my cargo really is.

Long story short – well, too late for that – anyway, Laughing Maroon Truck, black car and white car all zoom straight ahead and Crazy Black Truck makes a few more swerves and takes a left. Thankfully he decided to kick it in turbo and zoomed far enough ahead that the noise was no longer deafening and I could finally think clearly and try to figure out what just happened. I had to think a lot b/c I had to use vocabulary for the children that didn’t include any of the words that I wanted to use. I also wanted to convey the experience in a way that really let them know how their actions endangered not only their lives, but other’s as well. And I had to figure out how to start breathing again.

Not sure if I got the point across, but I did manage to only say “That ticks me off – Mommy shouldn’t have said that – don’t ever say that” one time.

Heart-Stopping Action

The oldest two have been in swim lessons for six days now. I’m not sure what I envisioned. I have memories of taking swim lessons as a child…of being the best in the group, of being old enough to think the teacher was flirting with me when he asked me if I was interested in joining the swim team (yeah…flirting with a pre-teen, I’m sure -ha!). I remember being on the swim team and alternating between loving it and hating it, depending on the coach, the fellow swimmers, and my emotional state (by this time being a teenager). But as an adult, I am grateful for those years, because it continues to be the only exercise that I can do without my joints screaming in protest and threatening to quit working altogether if I try even one more bicep curl. Plus, I wanted the children to have at least some ability of saving themselves – and of fitting in when they are with other children.

They haven’t been able to take before because we always have babies…I can’t get in the mommy-and-me class with them because I also have a baby. Don’t get me wrong – my babies love the water. But they love it so much that they want to put their faces in it and don’t understand why they come up coughing. Every time. So while I could pop a baby in the sling and work with the two-year-old, I wimped out and just waited. The result has been that I now have a 6 ½ and 5 year old who don’t really know how to swim. Sure, the 6yo can jump in and swim to the side. But nothing really to impress the friends when we are trying to get that socialization time in that everyone else seems to worry about so much.

So anyway, they’re in swim lessons. The typical dunk-the-kid-under-water routine. A little kickboard action. Some floating. They love it. Their favorite parts? Free time. Gotta love it. Let’s spend money on swim lessons so that you can enjoy free time. But I do see them improving. At the start of class, Olivia could get 2-3 rings off the pool floor at a time before coming up sputtering and gasping. Now she gets 10 at a time and comes up confident and shining. The secret? A little good-natured completion. The one with the most gets to jump off the diving board first. Eeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!! Stop the music – they get to do WHAT first? Sure, I’ve see the toddlers being hung by their arms and dropped into the waiting arms of the lifeguards – barely getting their faces wet. But how are they going to catch the bigger kids? (and by bigger, I mean…there are some bigger kids in the class). I just smile and wave and hold in my nervousness. Because that’s what moms do, right? Cheer on the outside and cringe on the inside? All the while, looking and searching and finding everything in place and no reason to call off the exciting leap into the twelve-foot-deep waters.

So Nate goes first (his class). I just knew that he’d stand at the end and be the one the lifeguard had to drag to the end, prying off his arms and legs and ending up with both of them falling head first into the depths of the pool – that my child would be the “don’t do this” example for the rest of the class. Ummmmm….no. Nate walked to the end, gave a smile and stepped off into the air, then water over his head, and back up without so much as one sputter. Just a swipe of his hand over his eyes and he dogpaddled to the side of the pool. Sure – he did it. But his standard is do it once and pass on the next turn. Nope. He did it again. Wow. I am so stinking proud of him! He has matured so much in the last few months…since April, I guess. I asked him how he felt and if he wanted to do it. He said, “They made us do it – but I am glad I did it without crying.” Me too. Glad that someone else’s child was the one with legs wrapped around the legs, arms around the arms and the child’s mother hollering, “Just throw her in!”

Olivia’s class almost didn’t get a shot – the teachers forgot. Not the children, though. They made sure to remind them! Olivia was supposed to go first, but thankfully didn’t make a fuss when they forgot. Three went ahead of her…the lifeguard dropping them into the water, into the waiting arms of the lifeguard. Olivia gets to the end of the board and rather than being dropped in – she jumps! Definitely no shyness there. Water all over the lifeguard’s face and surprised each one of them.nHer disappointment was that they only got to have one turn.

So, my heart only had to stop three times today. I guess that’s not too bad. Of course, the day is not over and we still have ball games and gymnastics to go to. Plenty of heart-stopping action left in the day!

My angel baby

So...each child has their own unique personalities. I think so far my third has to be the most entertaining. He is his own person, no matter who is around. Sure, he has his shy moments occasionally when in a new situation (especially if tired). But then there are those times that he greats complete strangers with, "I got a band-aid! I got ant bite!" Here are a few of the stories that just had us smiling:

He had surgery on his neck sometime last year. His brother and I both wake up crying when we have anesthesia. Not Lincoln. The first thing he does when he wakes up in recovery? "YOOK!" (look!) as he holds up his arm with the IV in it to the nurse. "Yook at my arm!" He thought it was the coolest thing.

Nate was eating his spaghetti (second plate) and said, "I'm going to grow up strong - like Samson and Daddy!" So sweet! The next day Lincoln was eating his taco and said, "I'm going to be strong like Samson!" I prodded, "And who else?" "Jesus! Jesus is STRONG!" "And...???" "John Henry!" So I asked, "And Daddy?" To which Lincoln replied, "No...he not strong." Gotta love him!

Lincoln has been wearing a spiderman cape EVERYWHERE lately! We do not allow him to wear it to bed, but he wears it pretty much everywhere else. Usually, he puts it on first thing in the morning and exclaims, "I'm a SUPERHERO!" He jumped off his great-aunts porch (as high as he is) so he could fly (brings back Kevin's memories of his escapades as a child). The boys and I were discussing the places their Grandpa Mike has lived. When I mentioned Saudi Arabia and that you have to fly there, Lincoln got all excited and began to look around, "Oooh! I need my tape!" (cape) Absolutely the truth. I honestly think we need to watch him because he really does think he can fly when he wears that thing.

Another cape story...he came out of his room one morning with a stethoscope around his neck, "I'm a doctor!" Then he goes back in and comes out wearing his cape, "I'm a SUPER DOCTOR!!!"

He can't say his "k" sound - so imagine the humor when he tells people about our new kitties. Except it comes out like, "We have TITTIES! A mama titty and yots of baby titties! Black baby titties and bwown baby titties." Yep. Keep a straight face while he tells you about it. I dare you!

I love this child. This child who I wondered if he would ever learn the names of his family members or his colors. If he would crawl forever or finally walk. If he would ever ever remember to "use big boy words" instead of whining or crying. Now he's learning letters and letter sounds and begs for "school work like ya-ya." He can be loud and "high maintenance." But he can also be oh, so affectionate. And funny. And absolutely fun to be with.

My Lincoln, the one I call, "Angel Baby."

Wow! What a memory!

Last Christmas when we left KY to go to TN, the van began stutter-starting at red lights when I turned right. By the time we arrived in TN, it was doing it for left and right turns, but not straight. Then it was doing fine when we left TN. Then over the course of the next few days, it got worse and worse. Kevin took it to Madison and got a part the car part store guy said it needed (but it didn’t work). Kevin ended up having to rent a vehicle to get home (I can’t remember why I couldn’t help…I think it was because he knew he’d need a work vehicle). People from our church had an extra van for us to borrow, so we followed, got, etc. until we got our van to the mechanic and me in the “new” van (1997) and Kevin in the HHR. What a blessing! The mechanic had it for about six weeks – it was the PCM box, the major computer for the van. We got a refurbished box. About a month later, it began to stutter a little, but not as bad. Back to the mechanic. The smaller box was messing up. About $800 this time and it took two weeks. We received a warning that it was most likely our wiring causing shortages and it was going to be costly – perhaps not worth the effort to replace. We decided to plug along and do what we could to keep this van – hoping for another two years, until we paid some “stupid tax” off and could get another.

When we left KY this last time, it began stuttering a little – but only on hills if we used cruise control. If we took it off cruise, we were fine. We figured that we’d need to take it eventually, but it wasn’t misbehaving too badly.

The Texas trip began poorly. Let me see what all I can remember:
1. Stuttering on hills, some starts
2. Lincoln put a "itty-bitty rock" in the fuel tank and almost got his arm stuck trying to get it out.
3. Spare tire wasn’t replaced and Kevin didn’t have the tools, so he just crammed it in the back – this caused a malfunction in the hatch and we could no longer open the back of the door (thus could not remove any of our luggage without disassembling the wooden ledge he created to help with space).
4. He turned the music on for the children while we did last-minute stuff. When we got all officially loaded, the battery was dead. Had to be jumped off.

The van stuttered occasionally as we drove. We passed under a sign for Quitman, MS and I asked Kevin if it was possibly a “sign” for us to “Quit, man!” We laughed uneasily and Kevin decided that we’d gone this far and we’d be fine. So we continued the journey and the van continued to stutter in increasingly more frequent intervals with fewer restrictions. We grew more uncertain, but still hoping. However, by the time we got to Tyler, Texas, we knew that we were quite likely in trouble. We didn’t know of the loops to circumvent the red lights and boy, did this town have some! And not just red lights – but red lights on hills!!! Kevin was putting it in neutral and revving and doing everything he knew to do to keep us going. Each red light, we didn’t know if it would be our last. I actually pulled out the pottette and let Lincoln use it while we were driving (maybe 30 mph) b/c we were afraid to stop long enough for him to go (btw…the baggies do a bang-up job of holding in the smell…once you get them closed!) We had the hazard lights on until we made it through the town, then we were okay once the speed picked back up. Then another town. Same story. Felt okay about things until it got dark. Then the reality of things started to creep in and we were ever so grateful to see signs for Waco – we knew we were close enough to be picked up by Mike should we putter out completely. We got lost in Waco and had to call Mike. We sat and idled for about 7 minutes while we waited on him to come get us. Surprisingly, the van was still able to putter to his house. Whew! Made it!!! And *only* 14+ hours with four children!

The next day, Mike rode with Kevin to Autozone to get them to do a diagnostic reading – it came up with errors every time! Someone else was in there and said that he had the same problem with his vehicle and it was just a hose with a hole in it. They went out to check out our van – and there was a huge hole in the hose. Whew! A $20 fix. What a relief! Except that it didn’t fix the stuttering. Still as bad as ever. Soooooo…now what? We had Paige's graduation that night – and somehow had to get home on Saturday! We realized that if we sold it now, we might get a little more than if it was completely dead. And if we headed home and it broke down, we’d be stranded completely. So we decided to leave the van with Mike and let him sell it (did I mention that we just paid it off last month?). We’d just rent a van to get home. Except that NO ONE rents vans or large SUVs for one-way trips with only a day’s notice. I do mean NO ONE. So we begin checking out airfare. With that little notice, Southwest had least expensive rates for $240/ticket. And that was 5 tickets b/c Linc just turned 3. No way. Couldn’t do it. We’re trying to figure out just how we are going to get home…talking about having Mike, Charles, and Royce on call just in case we broke down (depending on where we had issues). But no one felt comfortable with the thought of us + four children walking away from the van down the interstate. Finally, it dawns on me: two adults = two drivers = two cars. So back to the auto rental companies. Enterprise doesn’t rent one way, Period. The others didn’t have two vehicles available for one way. We finally got Hertz YIKES on the price!!! Went back and forth and finally got her down to a reasonable rate. The only problem was that we needed a credit card. We had brought cash and debit. So I felt like a teenager, getting my dad to go with me to pay for a car! Actually, we put it on his card and then when we got back to Huntsville, he got the $400 deposit back and we were able to pay for the rental with cash/debit. So, we made it back home with two vehicles. The boys road with Kevin and the girls road with me (I had the easier drive :)).

Whew! What a memory maker!

While we were there, we just all piled into two vehicles for Paige’s graduation, Sonic, and zoo trips. It worked out fine. We had a wonderful trip - the children were able to swim (and even soak in the hot (warm) tub) and were actually willing to talk and play with their grandparents this visit, rather than playing shy like they have in the past.

We have some stuff to pay off by the end of the summer and then can reevaluate and see the likelihood of getting another vehicle anytime soon. In the meantime, we've canceled some stuff. Thanks to friends and family, we've had some help with swim lessons and such.

We are trying to look at it all in a positive manner – that perhaps this is a great way to save $ on fuel and eating expenses, etc. When I mentioned to a friend that “lots of families function with one vehicle” she replied, “yes, but they don’t usually have four children!” True, but we’ll manage until it comes a time for us to get another vehicle. We know that God will provide what we need when we need it. And we’ve learned some lessons along the way.

So there’s the story, long version :).