Senior-itis . . . . or See my Pillow

School is exhausting.

(Actually, doing all the stuff after school is the real kicker.)

Cole caught up on some good zzzzs yesterday before dinner.

The boy needs his beauty sleep.

What's up with those hands?

Actually, I took this picture to show how my lovely new pillow looks under Cole's arm.

It's doing its job.

So comfy & cute.

I made two and another is on its way.

A home full of boys drove me to the girly type fabric.

I felt bad for a half a second and then reveled in the beauty of the flowery fabric.

It's my home too.

Gotta love spring.

Veterans of Foreigin Wars Dinner

A few months back Cole submitted a drawing for a

Scholarship contest at the local

VFW.

The content had to be patriotic

so Cole made a map of the USA

out of hands with a hand

reaching out to Haiti.

He drew the thing with his left and right hands

because he used his own hands to model.

(Are there enough of the words hand(s) in the above sentences?)

He got second place!

Along with that came

$50.00 and

a free dinner for Cole and his family.

The menu consisted of:

Fried chicken

Chicken strips

Chicken wings

Fried Cheese curds

French fries and

Onion rings

Now that's American!

Cole's winning drawing.

After dinner and the handing out of awards,

there was dancing.

Everyone danced.

Including me.

I shouldn't have.

I know, 'cause an old man took me aside after my attempt to line dance

and told me so.

He said, "I know, I've been doing this a long time."

Shot down at the VFW.

Ted

Here lies Ted.

He's picked a new spot on my couch.

I suppose he feels this position is comfortable.

Here's a side view.

He looks almost normal.

Notice his eye to your left.

He's got a cataract in it.

Poor fellow.

Thanksgiving

Last night I made Thanksgiving dinner.

Don't judge me.

We had a Turkey that I purchased in December which I firgured we could eat off of this week.

So, I planned to cook it on Sunday.

Perfect. 

 Since it was Fast Sunday, I thought I'd make a whole meal.

I had potatoes, so I mashed them.

I had lemons, so I made a lemon meringue pie.

I had canned pumpkn so I made my first pumpkin pie.

I didn't have any of my trusted old Rhodes Rolls, so I had to make the rolls from scratch.

I had to make the pie crust from scratch too.

I also made stuffing - even though once I put the ingredients together and placed the stuffing in a 9x13 pan I forgot all about it. 

The stuffing didn't make it out of the fridge for the meal. 

It kind of came out to be warmed up after the pies were eaten.

We had Steven & Emly over along with Rick's parents.

Of course my mother was here to partake too.

She always is.

My big idea for eating turkey all week went out the door shortly after the meal began.

It turned out to be delicious and pleanty of people ate a lot of it.

Quinn even had a whole turkey leg.

I felt like we were at the Renaissance Festival for a moment with his turkey leg on his plate.

It was fun.

It's not so bad having Thanksgiving in April.
The only down side to this is while the rolls were rising, I placed them outside on the trampoline
to get warmer faster.
I put one pan of rolls on a chair on the porch - 'cause I didn't feel like walking all the way to the trampoline.
Well, Ted, our neurotic dog, found them and ate 4 or 5 of them - all doughy.
He was sick!
We could visibly see his swollen belly.
Three hours later, he had "brought up" four rolls - doughy and all, in the backyard.
The rest of the evening he walked like he was drunk and threw up on my carpet.
Dumb dog.

I love Easter!

Somehow Easter seems so much more fun when your kids are little.

At least smaller than mine are now.

But, I still love it.

I insist on making baskets for all of my offspring.

Including Steven and Emily.

Can't help it.

I love Easter baskets!

Sees chocolate is the best.

Here are just a small sampling of the Tipton cousins.

Quinn's the oldest of the bunch.

("Which one of these is not like the other?")

Delilah was loving her some Easter chocolate.

Can you see the drool dripping down from her chin?

Em and Steven dressed in matching Easter stripes.

She even has an egg in her hand to prove its Easter.

Truman got an Easter wound from catching the football on a burm.

Good times.

Can't get a normal picture of these two.

Whatever.

April Fools boy.

Before Truman left for school on his birthday,

we let him open a coulpe of presents.

He got an I-touch.

Cool.

Actually, we struck a deal with him.

If he paid for half, we'd cover the other half.

It sounded great to Truman so he forked over

his half of the money and I ordered the device.

He didn't know I got it before his birthday.

I'm sneaky like that.

In the afternoon on April 1st, Truman had a track meet.

He ran the hurdles, the 440, the mile relay and did the long jump.

He came in 3rd, 3rd, 1st and ?? respectively.

(He's in the first lane in this picture.)

Rick's dad came to watch and kept saying how uncanny it was to see Truman.

"It's like looking at Rick all over again."

Yeah, I knew not any of the kids looked like me.

On Friday we had a party with Truman's friends at the park.

They played capture the flag and football.

The kids were a lot of fun!

On Sunday we celebrated Easter and Truman & Gary's birthdays.

(More Easter to come on a seperate post.)

I'm so done making birthday cakes.

BTW - I've found a great recipe for

Strawberry Cupcakes

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/candace-nelson-strawberry-cupcakes

from

Sprinkles.

They're so delicious!

Try it.

So fun.

Truman is 14! Happy Birthday.

So today was Truman's 14th birthday.

I remember it like it was 14 years ago.

Seriously.

The night before he was born we celebrated

his Uncle Scott's birthday at the Tipton's home.

We had curry.

It didn't sit well on my stomach.

It very well could have been the factor that put me into labor nearly three weeks early.

Truman's original due date was April 19th - Oklahoma bombing date.

I'm glad he was born on April 1st instead!

I used to think Truman looked the most like me out of the three kids I had up to that point.

But . . . he doesn't.

Maybe just some of his freckles match mine.

Even though Truman hardly eats red meat.

He truly loves his sweets!

Each week after church, Truman would take off his shoes and place them in Rick's.

So precious.

Truman's best friend since kindergarten is Drew.

They always get along so great!

After Truman's frist day of kindergarten I met him at the bus stop and asked him how it was.

He said, "Not that great.  Don't sign me up for first grade."

When Truman was 3 he kept asking for a

"Trumpeter."

We kept trying to figure out what in the world he was talking about.

He tried to describe it and it turned out to be a

Trumpet.

He loved that thing.

I think he'll end up living in California when he grows up.

He loves the beach soooo much!

Truman ended up needing to get two molers pulled when he was 7.

He had a terrible infection which continued even after the teeth were pulled.

The swelling went up to his eye and traveled to his joints.

He stopped walking.

But, he got better.

When he was two I started washing his hair and my hands went into a blob of goo.

I took him in to the Doctor who had him x-rayed.

They found a skull fracture.

No one knows how it happened. . . .

When he was 5 he told me he had a headache,

"to infinity and beyond."

This time it was meningitis.

Since then he's had a broken foot and a broken arm.

I don't think we're finished either.

Before Quinn.

Truman was 5 years and 2 months old before Quinn was born.

That's a long time to be the baby of the famliy.

This picture is a little distrubing.

It's the distortion that bothers the eye.

Doesn't mean it itsn't still funny!

Happy birthday to my gymnastics loving,

running track

playing football

lovin music

playing percussion

& artistic

Truman.