OK, LaDonna, this one’s for you (and Rose, who is apparently the only other person besides you to follow me!)

I have been swamped lately. That’s my continual excuse for not writing. Not writing here, that is. I did just write a “2500 word or less memoir” and submitted it in a contest. Don’t expect a follow up on that! 🙂

Actually, with baby Israel projectiling half of everything he eats on to me, my mother-in-law’s recent visit, HAILEY’S ENGAGEMENT (!), and a plethora of random appointments, I really have been swamped.

Wait- did I mention HAILEY’S ENGAGEMENT? My girls have been begging for her room since she met her husband-to-be (Mike Lindell- sorry, it’s official so you, Mike, are officially blog material now!) last October! These lovebirds can’t wait to exchange their first kiss (ever!) at the altar, so no long engagement here! 11 weeks (9 now) and busily counting down! In all truthfulness, I believe the Lord brought these two together and they are a great match for each other. But we all know what that means (all three of us married ladies that is, LaDonna and Rose!)…as iron sharpens iron! Growth hurts, even with the person you love the most in the world- let the good times begin!

Adrian leaves for ALERT in 3 weeks. If he wasn’t flying home for the wedding, we wouldn’t see him until mid-November. Fortunately, he will be able to fly home to be in the wedding so we’ll get a couple of days with him. His first class is SCUBA Career Diving. How do I feel about Adrian diving 150 feet into black water with God only knows what creatures, relying on oxygen in his tanks HE has calculated the appropriate of dive time and depth for? Let’s put it this way: When the kids went on their yearly trip with my parents, I told them (about 100 times) “DO NOT FALL AND DIE IN CRATER LAKE! I would much rather have had you fall and die in the Grand Canyon a few years ago, but don’t die in deep water!” That about says it all.

OK, so just some quick tidbits:

How is it possible that precious, tiny baby boy has MAN GAS?! I was sitting on the floor last night with Israel between my legs talking to Mike & Hailey. The next thing we hear is Israel erupting ferociously! (How that does not hurt his body is beyond me.) My only comment was that I wish he wouldn’t do that with his booty less than a foot from me. Like anyone who didn’t know him would think those noises came from that precious little thing!

So this wedding thing is a lot of work. Hailey always wanted a small wedding, so we are trying hard to grant her that wish. Mike’s list of family and friends has about 70 people on it. SO HOW IS OUR GUEST COUNT AT 250??? I went with them to register at a few stores. It gave me an idea about how to extract information from supposed terrorists. Send them shopping with ga-ga eyed, indecisive, can’t let-go-of-your-hand-so-we’ll-have-to-pick-up-this-crystal-vase-together twenty-somethings. In no time we will have the names and addresses of every terrorist cell in the U.S. because the torture is cruel beyond measurement. Enough said on that.

(Mike & Hailey)

I was looking at some old notes on my phone the other day and found a sweet story I think I’ll insert at this point. On April 9, 2014 (Presley would have been 7 1/2), Clara and Presley had got in trouble for playing the “blame game” over who lost a DVD they wanted to watch (which happens way too often in this house- losing the DVD not the arguing- I hope). Presley came to me sobbing, telling me that she didn’t want to have sin in her heart. I was busy, so I told her to go pray, that talking to God in a quiet place was just like talking to me. “Do it in a quiet place, and He will hear you,” I said. Well, I quickly forgot because I became engrossed in whatever had me occupied before she came in. About a ten minutes later, she came in and stood next to me. When I realized she had returned from a specific mission, I stopped and asked her, “Well, what did He say?” She replied, “He told me to do what I know is right.” And that was it. So matter-of-fact that it took me by surprise. I wish I would get such clear answers in ten minutes!

So Little Adrian and J’onn are salty not sweet people. I mean that a literal sense (no, I have not licked either one lately- or ever- I hope), I just mean they prefer to eat those flavors. Because I had brought the little kids some candy, I also brought J’onn a Push Pop- the only candy he’ll eat. For those of you who don’t know, a Push Pop looks like this:

 and the sucker inside pops up to be slathered on by drippy, sticky tongues. Well, Eva (still two-years-old) had finished her Goobers, and apparently that was not enough for her. She came into my school room and grabbed a glue stick, that looks very similar in shape and size to her brother’s Push Pop. As I turned and realized what was happening, she took the first lick. Needless to say we had a discussion about glue and why we shouldn’t eat it. Yum.

Speaking of snacks…

Madeline is hilarious. She’s been speaking in sentences lately. Kind-of. Today we were in the car and she spoke a new sentence. I’m guessing she picked up on something from her toddler Sunday School class because she said (while signing the word for EAT): “Ga-Gan ga Gan ga nak.” I understood her instantly (which often doesn’t happen). Wait- how sad is it that I speak Ga-Gan? Anyway, it was obvious she said “It’s time to have a snack.” So we laughed as I told her, Goosey, it’s time to have a snack,” and she would relpy “Ga-Gan ga Gan ga nak!” It became even more funny when I SPOKE Ga-Gan to her: “Goosey! Ga-Gan ga Gan ga nak!” (Major laughter…followed by) “Mom! “Ga-Gan ga Gan ga nak!” Eventually we went through the DQ drive-thru and I let her finish my snack:

I would have shown you the video of her speaking Ga-gan to me, but I DIDN’T press the video button to record it UNTIL I was done, when I ended up recording my hand as I put my phone down. Oh well, you know the old saying- “Don’t drive and do videography at the same time.”

I wish that writing, surfing the web, and online shopping was conducive to weight loss. Unfortunately I think it has the opposite effect, especially since I like to snack while “working” on my computer. Why would they deceptively call it surfing then? Like Marcia’s delicious taco salad, or my mother-in-law’s strawberry salad- neither encourage weight in the right direction as salads should, but both are so yummy! My excuse for that right now is, “I just had my tenth kid!” I figure I can say that until he turns two. I’ll have to come up with something else at that point. And the only other thing I have to say about that is, “Nice timing for wedding photos, Hailey & Mike. Thanks!”

Ok, well I actually have “real” work to do here, so I need to go. I hope this was enough for now, my two adoring fans. 😉