Birthday Camping Trip

I'm so excited... DH is taking me, okay all of us on a little getaway for my birthday... We're GOING CAMPING! WOO HOO!!!! I'm so pumped. We got a heater for inside the tent last night, and I went today and stocked up on our favorite groceries for camping: beer, smores (well the stuff to make them), STEAKS... WOO HOO.

We get to use the new HUGE tent! Man, I am so excited!!!

More About Anthony Johnson

Okay, so I was/am disappointed that we traded No-Neck Johnson... but you have to give him props for his game last night. It seems that he will truly be a shining star with the Hawks... which he deserves! It is just a shame that he can't finish the year with a real shot to close out with a ring before moving on.

It was nice to see the fans cheer him on in the beginning, and Cuban and his former team embrace him at the end!

Way to go Anthony Johnson... but I will still miss your game with our team!

No More No-Neck

The Mavs have the deepest bench in the NBA, but they just traded one of those proud benchers... Anthony Johnson was traded. (The title says No-Neck... this is the nick name I gave him because when you look at him head on, he doesn't appear to have a neck.) Not that he would ever read this but... I thought you were a great player when you were on the court, and I hate to see you go!

To read more: http://www.nba.com/mavericks/news/trade_Johnson_hawks.html

Also, just my own thoughts on mid-season trades - I DON'T LIKE IT! I think you should wait till he end of the season before trades are made!

Here are some activities for you and your kids...
From ChildFun:

Crown of Thorns. (Great Table Center Piece)I take frozen bread dough (saves
time) and twist it into a braid and then into a circle making sure the ends are
together.Then after it has risen the last time the children and I place the
sharp round toothpicks all over the braid. Then we bake. Don't stick them in too
far as you want it to look like a crown with thorns sticking out.As the children
are caught being good, carrying out a work of mercy, or other good works they
are allowed to pull a thorn out of Jesus' crown and place it in their jar. I
remind them that every time we do these things we are truly aiding him but when
we do the opposite we are wounding Him again so they usually try a little harder
so as to be able to remove thorns from His "crown".At the end of Lent I count
the "thorns" in each of their jars and last year we gave a dime for each thorn.
Ten percent of this money goes to the support of our parish. They are then
encouraged to use the rest for a good purpose such as sending a portion of it
for rosaries for those who do not have them in foreign missions/countries. But
they are allowed to use it as they decide.

From the KIC (Keeping it Catholic) website:

MAKE AN EASTER GARDENIt is a long standing tradition among Christians to prepare
an Easter garden in Holy Week, to remember the garden tomb which the women
visited early on Easter Sunday morning. Adaptation: We make the garden in early
Lent, around Ash Wednesday and the kids love to watch the grass grow. We end up
having to trim the grass! Then around Good Friday we the put up the crosses and
the flat stone. We add silk flowers on Easter when we remove the stone. It makes
for a nice center piece throughout the Lenten Season and then on Easter too! It
has always been a great conversation piece for visitors and a good reminder of
the time Jesus spent in the garden. Many variations can work just have fun with
it. You need:A shallow tray or dish (we used an aluminum Lasagna pan)Garden soil
or potting compostgrass seedDried twigs or (we used Popsicle sticks painted b
brown) Small pot (we used a little cup)Sewing thread Flat stone large enough to
cover the mouth of the pot or cupEgg cups or other small flowersGravelTo
make:Fill the tray with soil or potting compost.Arrange it to make a hill on one
side of the tray.Cover the soil with the grass seedMake three crosses with dried
twigs together with sewing thread and place on the hill top.Press the small pot
into the “hillside” to make a cave like garden tomb. Place the stone over the
mouth of the tomb.Press egg-cups full of water into the soil around the “garden”
and fill them with flowers.Make a path coming form the tomb with gravel, to show
how the disciples ran to the tomb on Easter morning.Early on Easter morning,
move back the stone from the tomb –showing that it is empty.

From the Archdiocese of St. Paul

Lenten CrossMaterials Needed: Play dough or modeling clay, seven purple or blue
birthday candles.Directions: Form a cross out of play dough or modeling clay.
Use one candle to poke five holes down the center of the cross and one hole in
each side of the cross. When dry place candles in holes. Beginning with Ash
Wednesday, light one candle each Sunday during family prayer time to count down
the weeks until Easter.

RapStar Names

I just couldn't pass it up... so here's how it went down for our RapStar Names:

Me: Too Short Flava (seriously is there a freakin' camera in here...)
DH: DJ Sparkz
Bobcat: Slim Dogg (totally true)
Bubba: Trick P.
Snookie: Chill Man (I see Blizzard Man from SNL)
Daisy (Beagle): Ms. Sweet (ummm, not really :-)
Maggie (little mut): Dirty Finesse (Dead on)

I know they are mine!

As you may know our three boys are adopted, but so many things they do and enjoy can only mean they were destined to be our kids! One thing in particular that just occured... they were rockin' out to Phil Collins in the Beast. They were loving it. Now they are walking around the house bangin' their heads to the awesome drum beats and melodies in their heads!
Awe...

The Same Thing We Do Every Night

So I got Pinkie on Valentines... now I have the Brain!

Oh how I do enjoy the color pink... and BLUE TOOTH... YEAH!!!!

Pinkie

It's kind of a joke around here... when DH has his performance review at work where they determine his bonus and raise... I get one too :-). This year I got a new phone! A pink phone... I've been wanting a pink phone for a really long time... and my plan was finally up for upgrade phone time at just the right time!

At 5pm Pinkie arrived. Awe, me likes!!! He's a phone, a camera, and he can play music too! He's a great little phone! YEAH PINKIE!

Thank you DH for my satisfactory evaluation!

Who do you want to be?

As we headed to meet DH at work for daily Mass and lunch I had to laugh at the boys in the back. Here are just a few things that I thought were worth mentioning.

A few conversations:

(Bobcat) "Hey Mom, can you make us some Jesus' clothes. I want to be the man Jesus, Bubba wants to be the boy Jesus, and Snookie can be a disciple. You can be Mother Mary. How does that sound?"

(Me) "Um, I suppose we can find a way to come up with clothes."

(Bobcat) "I want to be the man Jesus, and make miracles happen."

(Bubba) "I want to be Jesus because I want to CREATE STUFF."

Late, instead of telling stories they all took turns reading the Holy Gospel. That was actually pretty interesting, listening to them recount a story from the New Testament... with their own twist on the stories of course.

And then the final conversation that had me rolling. The part of Jesus is played by Bobcat, and the part of Superman is being played by Bubba... and they don't break character for any reason!

"Hey, I'm Superman, and I have a superman car that goes really fast. Who are you?"

"I'm Jesus, the One True God."

"Oh okay, hi Jesus. I will leted you drive my Super car."

Where do they come up with this stuff???

His to Hers

I went picked up my niece this morning to have her spend the day with us. Some unfortunate circumstances recently arose, and for her protection and innocense she needed to spend some time with us. Bobcat came with me to pick her and to run some errands with me before we made it back home.

Now my niece is not being brought up in the faith, and at the ripe age of 4 1/2 has not been to church let alone baptized. And while it is not our place to make such things happen, it pains DH and I to no end that these things have not occured.

While in the car, the two of them were chatting in the back and I just listened to them. It is always interesting to hear what little ones say to each other... and kind of out of the blue Bobcat asked my niece if he could sing her a song. (He had and still has no idea of the situation that she had been plucked from). She agreed to hear his song if she could sing one to him after he finished... and here is what he sang to her:

How Great is our God
How Great is His Name
How Great is our God
Forever the same.
He rolled back the waters,
Of the mighty Red Sea,
And he said "I'll never leave you,
Put your trust in Me."

I lost it... tears were streaming down... I guess his guardian angel needed to let her know that all would be okay!

A night on the town.

Many times when Friday or Saturday rolls around, DH and the boys take me out on a date. This time we called each of the boys to our room separate and had them give us ideas as to where they thought they should take me on our date. After an extensive list and much campaigning we ended up having dinner at Whataburger (thank you Bubba for that, we have found memories of WB because that is the last stop before we get to our beach accomodations for summer vacation), and then after dinner we headed over to Krispy Kreme for dessert (thank you Snookie, who knew a free doughnut and standing in front of a window watching a rolly table with fresh doughnets being made could be so much fun on a Friday night).

But it was the after dinner/dessert show that really made the whole evening worth while. On the way home the boys took turns telling stories... one in particular was told over and over with slight changes in accent and voice inflection - The Billy Goats Gruff. Seriously we have to get this stuff on film before they get one ounce bigger! And before the night was over, Bobcat annouced he would tell it one last time, but everyone needed to listen VERY CLOSELY because there would be questions at the end... what??? This kid is hysterical...