Texting 101 Mom vs Dad vs Kid

We recently went to eat at McAlister's. While we waited for our food, the topic came up about the differences in "girl" texts, "guy" texts, and "kid" texts. Apparently my text messages are too wordy and grammatically correct. When I text for Gene (while he is driving) I have to read it out loud and promise I haven't added extras. How was I to know that guys don't put happy faces at the end of their texts!!! I only did it once. Geez!

I pointed out that teenager/kid texts are insane because they consist of one letter or one word per text. To back up my point, I pulled out Trevor's phone and began to read his texts out loud. Most consisted of "Sup" "Nun" "O" 'Cool" "WYD" "Nun" TTYL". I must admit, if you have never done this, it is quality entertainment! We laughed so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks! Then we came across this actual, yet priceless conversation...

 

HILARIOUS!!! Guess we better work on our famous duos!

 

This is why the title of my blog is love + laugh = live. Without love and laughter, we aren't really living. I'm so grateful for this crazy family of mine that I love so much!

Rated W - FOR WOMEN ONLY

Warning!!! This post is for women. You have been warned! Still reading??? Okay…

I was torn about rather I should share this story or not. However, a dear friend reminded me that I wanted this blog to be REAL. So here is the real me and what really takes place at my house. As embarrassing as it may be!

To begin the story I must first set the stage. A couple of weeks ago, my mom bought Morgan a book of pranks. It included sticker bugs and other ways to prank people which she of course immediately started trying out on all of us and of course we all played along!

The next night, I had one of those “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe this just happened” moments! I am always reminding the kids to flush the toilet. When you live in a house full of boys, you especially try to never forget to flush when it’s “THAT time of the month”.

If your kids are anything like mine, they never need you or have emergencies until you are in the bathroom. Needless to say, I had barely gotten settled when the banging on the door began! I rushed like a great mom to help solve the crisis of the moment. 

I barely made it to the kitchen when I heard… “Hey! Someone put something red in the toilet!” Followed by… “What?!?! Let me see!”

At this point I had a choice to make. Do I own up to it and thus open the birds and bees box or do I do my best to cover it up with some story?  By now all three kids are in the bathroom checking “it” out. Think! Quick! I did what any super awesome mom would do in a situation like this! I ran down the hall yelling the first thing that came to my mind, “Ha! Ha! Ha! I got all three of you! Was that an awesome prank or what?!?! That red food coloring came in handy! I’m even better than the book!”

The moral of the story is: Always flush!!!! But in case you forget… have a cover story planned!

Taking a Minute to Brag

At some point over the past year, Trevor shot up about 10 inches and lost the little boy look. We are so proud of the young man he is becoming. He was inducted into the Beechwood Elementary Junior Beta Club which was based on academic achievement as well as character. He was also selected by his peers to be president of the club. Being president meant he had to give a speech at the induction ceremony in front of his peers, their family members, and the mayor. He handled it like a pro! We are so blessed to have such an awesome kid! The other two are pretty awesome themselves! 

 

Our Surprise Mini Trip

We successfully pulled off a surprise mini trip! Gene has been pulling some extra shifts in Southhaven to make some extra money. This means he drives to and from Southhaven (3 1/2 hours one way) and works a 10 hour shift all in 1 day. (Have I mentioned what an amazing husband/dad) he is?!?! Friday we made a last minute decision to make a quick family trip out of town. We secretly packed the kids clothes and left Sunday after baseball practice. We told the kids were driving to Jackson to eat at 5 Guys (WHICH IS WORTH THE TRIP :)) then "accidently" headed the wrong way home. As you can see they were pretty excited when they found out what was going on!!!

 

And wasted no time getting in the hotel pool!

Monday morning Gene headed to work and the kids and I headed to the Memphis Zoo!

Then it was time to pick Gene and up. We made sure to hit up the Steak and Shake before heading home! YUM!

 

Can't wait to it again, but Gene is definitely not working next time!!!

Once in a blue moon

 

Ever have those days where you wonder if your kids will EVER even like each other?!?! It seems like my kids are super sweet to everyone BUT each other!!! This summer (with all of our togetherness) it seemed like at least one of them would not survive to see the start of a new school year. I can remember my mom making my sister and I sit in the bathroom together until we could get along. From this memory came... the hand holding rule! If you are mean to your sibling you must hold their hand until I say time is up. They boys HATE this rule! I LOVE it! Their first experience with the new rule just so happened to be in Kroger. They thought it was pure torture! I thought I was the smartest mom ever! I told them that the next time the rule was enforced I would be posting their bonding experience on Facebook. I was sure it wouldn't be need again. It wasn't... until two days later. Hence the above photo!

There are many more good moments than not. It just seems that the bad usually make us so crazy we tend to forget about the great ones. Then, once in a blue moon, a moment happens that touches your heart and makes you think "Ah. There IS hope!"

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I were riding down the road when out of nowhere Morgan says, "Daddy says I can't have a boyfriend until I'm in college, but I don't care. I'm getting one in high school." I replied, "I don't think you or your boyfriends will have to worry about Daddy in high school. It's your brothers they have to get past first. If your brothers don't like them, they're out of luck." Without ever skipping a beat or looking up from his ipod, Peyton chimed in with, "Yea. So you may as well forget having a boyfriend cause Trevor and I aren't going to like any of them for you."

 

 

Thank you God for these moments that make me feel like I must be doing something right! Even if it only shows every once and awhile.

Anxiety.... my fault???

As a Christian I should be able to handle it. I pray every day and read my Bible nightly. This shouldn't be a problem for me. Your faith must not be strong enough. This is why you are struggling.

These are all things my brain tells me daily as I struggle with anxiety. I realize that I try to do more than is humanly possible in a day. I realize that I am involved in way more than I can handle on my own. However, I believe that God has brought me to this place and involvement in these activities. I don't worry about these things constantly. I am, however, somewhat of a perfectionist and don't want to just do things. I want to do them well. I don't sit around and worry or have pity parties. I don't want to feel like I am spinning out of control. I don't want to be mean and spiteful because things aren't the way I think they should be. I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night feeling like something is sitting on my chest and I can't breath.This is not me. I am happy, energetic, funny, and outgoing!

Through prayer and quiet time that I have learned that this is not something I can help, but something that God will help me through. And yes, at this time that involves medication. I do not like taking medicine at all! However, at this time, it is what is best for me. God will see me through, but I have to do my part in taking care of my body. If taking medication is part of that, then that is what I will do.

I am so grateful that no matter what I am struggling with I can rely on God, my family, and my friends!

Someone who reads this may disagree. Someone who reads this may say "Hey that's me." Regardless. This is me.

A wanna be blogger...

I've tried blogging in the past as a way to document the life of my family. I LOVED it! However, a busy life and limited internet access always seemed to put me months behind until I gave up. Now that we've entered the age of Pinterest, it is so easy to find busy bloggers who you can relate to. I decided that I want to try the blog thing again, only this time with a slightly different take on blogging. I want to share my family, my faith, my thoughts, my life, my loves, my happy moments, but... I want to be real this time. Let's face it. No matter how perfect a person tries to present themselves, and their family, NOONE is perfect. We all have faults, we all things we don't want others to see for fear someone would think we were a bad person. Or worse yet, a bad mom. I can't be the only person in the world who has had her son run in the living room, 10 minutes before it's time to leave, yelling that they have no clean uniforms for school, and then found the same child a uniform in the dirty clothes that didn't look "too" dirty, so that we could get out of the house at least having clothing on.

I am a wife to an amazing husband (totally don't deserve him), three beautiful children (who I also don't deserve), a daughter of Christ (deserve least of all), children's ministry leader, and elementary teacher. I have a sweet doggie Sophie who is my furry baby, a crazy boxer named Kaya (that belongs to my husband) who is our real life Marley, a leopard gecko named Carlos, a guinea pig named Rosie, and two box turtles named Katniss and Peeta. I recently got my first tattoo, which I LOVE, and hope to get another soon. I struggle with anxiety.

My prayer is that at least one person will one day read one of my posts and say, "Hey! I'm not alone!"

So this is me being real. I believe that in order to truly live, you must love much and laugh often!