My family and I caught crabs at the beach...

This is what Holdyn told EVERY person that we saw, talked to, or walked past during our beach trip. Thankfully, most people at the beach are in a good mood so mostly they all laughed. There were a few odd looks but not many.

The hunt begins. The crab hunter, armed with his trusty net, scans the waters for his elusive prey.

There! The hunter spots his crafty nemisis and the chase begins...

Once trapped the crab is a worthy opponent an epic battle of man vs. beast ensued...

Oh, the battle was hard-fought but the bounty was superb!

Note: No crabs were injured in the making of this episode....Weelll, that isn't exactly true...One surly female crab did lose a claw...But on the bright side a hungry seagull got a free meal!

The Beach!!!

Thursday thru Sunday we were at the beach and it was awesome! Orange Beach/Gulf Shores is beautiful. We had the best time. The van allowed for ample space for everyone and minimal fighting, yay! Hands down this was the best trip we've taken. Here are some photos:

I'll post more as the week goes on. Right now I'm being covered by an avalanche of laundry!

The new curtains

Thanks for all the sweet comments about my curtain project! I thought I'd show you how the girls reacted to seeing their curtains when they got home from school.

OK, so these are slightly posed pictures but the effect is the same. They were a big hit!

Hey Ya'll, Look What I Made!

So, I had this funky quilt top that I found a few years ago at my Grandma's house. It was bright and colorful but made from double knits so it wasn't very cozy. I kept it, knowing that one day I'd find something to do with it.
This is my first project conceived and completed since the kids have started school and I'm sooo excited! I took the quilt top, split it in half, added a backing made from an old sheet, added some cute hot pink gingham fabric to the bottoms and, Voila! Curtains for the girls' room.


Then the search for appropriate curtain rods, etc began. After looking through stores and not finding anything I liked for a decent price I came up with this idea.....

Two 1/2 inch dowels cut to size, $1.99 at Home Depot.


4 eyelet screws (with holes large enough for the dowels to fit through), $0.40 at HD

14 curtain clips, $2.89 at Wal-Mart

4 wooden drawer knobs, free (I already had these)

1 can "Watermelon pink" spray paint, $2.89 at Wal-Mart

First, I painted everything. Then, I screwed the eyelet screws into the wall on either side of the windows. Next, I strung the clips onto the rods and fit the rods through the eyelet holes. After that, I hot glued the wooded knobs onto the ends of the rods. Finally, I clipped the curtains onto the rods and look what I got--

As with the rest of this place, the girls' room is a continuous work in progress. Notice the lovely two-toned walls where the old pink wallpaper is peeling off (courtesy of the kids, of course). But these curtains (I think) are so cute and they really fit Evie's and Kallie's styles! I can't wait to get thier reactions after school today. Well, off to finish laundry.

A Letter to My Dishes

Dear Dishes,

Please don't take offense but, I hate you. I've told you I don't want to see you yet, everyday there you are again. Why do you insist on coming around when you aren't wanted? I know the blame is partly mine, I can't resist using you. I need you. I must have you still, I despise you! Can this relationship continue? I suppose it must. I'll clean you up and put you away. Then I'll meet you tomorrow at our regular rendezvous. Until then, goodbye!

Sincerely,

Jennie

Talking with Kallie

Sweet Kallie! She is my tenderheart, she cares for everyone and tries to always be kind. Yesterday she came home from school, so excited that she'd made a new friend. Here's our conversation...
K - "Guess what Mommy?"
J- "What Kallie?"
K- "I made a new friend today!"
J- "Really, that's so great! Who is it?"
K- "Well, his name is Germie. But its ok Mommy, he doesn't have any germs."
Cute, right? Actually, the kid is named Journee. And like other kindergardeners I'm sure he's crawling with germs. But sweet Kallie is willing to overlook those flaws for a friend. I'm sure she gets all of this from her Daddy, she really is a lot like him!

Purty New Blog

Are you enjoying the happy new blog design? I, for one, totally LOVE IT! A big thanks to my talented sister Sara who designed this for me after a frantic email yesterday. I spent the entire day trying to change the design from a standard template to something prettier. Then when K came home he spent most of the evening. Between the two of us we couldn't get it to work at all. We were so disgusted we just gave up. Then, the phone rings and its Sara calling from CHINA to say that she would design a background for us. I was so thrilled (a to hear from her, and (b for her to make such a kind offer, that I just about started to cry! It was her snazzy blog that started this whole experiment in the first place. Well, you can see what she's done and it is lovely. So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank my little sis for her help. And I want to tell her how much I love her, miss her, and admire her -- LUV U Sara!

Happy Birthday Evie and Kallie!!!

To my sweet girls:

Five years ago today I held your tiny little bodies. Counted your tiny toes and fingers, 20 of each. I cried as I saw all the tubes and wires surrounding your isolets and heard the continual beeping of monitors. Over the years we've grown together. You are my two sweet girls and I love you. I miss you now that you've gone to school. Thanks for loving me, laughing with me, and hanging out with me. Happy 5th Birthday sweeties, Mommy loves you!

5 years ago today!

Why, oh, why, do children who wake with the sun need alarm clocks for their birthday?

(K, top and E, bottom)

Mama Ford made both cakes! How sweet (literally). Kallie, of course, had Superman and Evie, of course, had Barbie. Please notice how their older brother decided to "taste" the icing of each cake (at the bottom).

Alone

"Alone, alone. All, all alone. Alone on the wild, wild sea. And never at saint took pity upon my soul in agony." --The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.
Today is my first full alone day in 7 years. Although I do miss the kids and the house is really quiet the above quote is not quite accurate. It's just the been floating in my brain. Whenever I think of "alone" I think of that quote that I had to memorize in Mrs. Bennett's AP English class or I think of that song by Heart, you know, "How will I get you alone?" Are those the right words? I'm not sure. Anyway, I must now go and take a sick goat to the vet. (Yes, the same stupid goat that was sick before apparently my goat healing skills still have a ways to go!)

School Days, School Daze??

Today was the first day of school! Evie and Kallie are Kindergardeners and Holdyn is a 2nd grader. Traditionally, I take pics on the first day of school by the car before we leave in the morning. This morning was crazy and we were running around like idiots trying to gather everything (like we haven't had months to do so). I needed to gather up tools for some work on the school's playground so I asked the girls to hold the camera for me. Here's what I found just now as I downloaded the camera...

(This is the only photo I took)

Some Saturday

This Saturday was jam packed with hot sweaty work. To begin with we are in the process of remodeling our old bathroom (after adding new one). We're working on it when we have time and this was the first time in about four weeks that K didn't have to work or do something church related on Saturday. But before we could get started on the bathroom we needed to make some adjustments to the chicken coop. Marshall is still trying to get to those chicks. Now he has resorted to chewing holes in the chicken wire surrounding the coop. The chicks have gotten out several times but thankfully each time I noticed before Marshall did and was able to get him on the chain before there was an carnage.

So, to repair the coop and halt the chewing we surrounded the perimeter of the coop with railroad ties. And sister, let me tell you, those boogers are heavy! We moved about 6 or 8 and stacked them around the edge of the coop. For now they seem to have stumped Marshall but just give him time. He'll figure something else out.

Now, back to the bathroom. Here are some pics of Holdyn helping knock down the old walls. He's been begging since we started this project, "Can I bash a hole in the wall, pleeeease!"

This kid's definitely got a future in demolition!

So as if all that work wasn't enough K and I headed up to the kids' elementary school to help with some more demolition at the playground. We spent about 3-4 hours with me digging in the dirt and moving chunks of cement as K ran a jack hammer. That's right a jack hammer. Our work was halted as a storm came on. And I mean a huge storm! We rushed to Mom and Dad's to get the kids and found everyone in the basement as we'd been driving through a TORNADO, with out even knowing. The storm sirens never sounded until, of course, after the storm had passed! When the worst had passed we loaded up the kids to drive home. On the way we passed tree after tree down, downed power lines, etc. As we approached our house we saw the highway was blocked from a downed tree, a tree from our yard! We were able to slowly maneuver around the tree and get to our driveway and house. Once there we saw we had another tree in the backyard that had fallen over, roots and all out of the ground. Thankfully, none of our property was damaged and no one was hurt. We even had power! So today begins our tree removal efforts. Here are some pics of the tree in the backyard. K estimates it is about 75+ ft tall.

Dr. Horrible--A Man Warning or A Must See?

The man standard for watching good manly movies or TV shows requires 45% heart pounding action, 40% things blowing up, 10% attractive female cast, and 5% well rounded story. There is also a man standard for bad girly movies and TV shows as well. Girly movies breakdown to 35% romantic comedy, 25% shirtless men, 25% thought provoking story, and 15% sappy lovie dovie happy ending. Also it should be noted that if the movie has dancing, singing or dancing while singing, or singing with rhythmic movement qualifies as girly movie with a "Man Warning: DO NOT SEE" advisory. With this being said please let me share the following story.

While running on the elliptical machine of death the other day at the gym, I was forced to watch Oprah. (I must say that I have never watched Oprah until that day.) Oprah's guest for the day was one of my favorite actors Neil Patrick Harris from "How I met your mother". Anyway, Mr. Harris was talking about a short film that he did with Joss Wedon creator of creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. The title of the project----"Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog"!! So even though the project seemed highly likely to have the dreaded singing and maybe some dancing in it, I decided to check it out. I have to say I have found the one musical that I truly love. Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog was not only laugh out loud funny, but even the songs were funny. It is a must see for Men and Women. You can watch the show for free online at http://www.drhorrible.com/ or buy it at Itunes. The show runs around 45 minutes long. Man Cave Out--

Questions from Holdyn

Yesterday Holdyn and I were watching "American Sharks" from the Discovery Channel's SharkWeek. The program was outlining all the types of sharks found in the ocean waters around the US from New England to Alaska. Anyway, we'd been watching for about half an hour and the narrator was talking about how most sharks don't "attack" people they just "mistake" people for fish or sea lions. Whatever, the things have a gazillion sharp teeth and know how to use 'em. I digress.
So, we're watching the show and Holdyn says, "Is a shark's visual accuity based on movement?" WHAT?! This is a seven year old, visual what? So of course, I respond like any loving, college educated mother would, "Uh, what?" He sighs this exasperated sigh like he's wondering why he's cursed with such an ignorant mother or wondering how I managed to get my stupid self out of bed this morning. Then he slowly says, like he's talking to a baby or puppy, "If you stay still, will the shark not be able to see you? Like a T-Rex?" (Of course, to him everything is comparable to dinosaurs.) Still shocked and amazed by the question I reply the only way I can, "I don't know. Maybe they'll say during the show. Let's watch." (PS, they didn't discuss a shark's visual accuity.)