Progress? I suppose you could say that.

Well, it's been 3 weeks now since the pipe under the kitchen sink broke loose. After a couple weeks of fighting the insurance people (they just couldn't believe the damage was as bad as we were indicating- yeah right!) we finally convinced them once we found mold starting to grow. About an hour later they told me to "get the cabinets out TODAY!" Well, here is what things are looking like. I meet with the cabinet lady tomorrow, and soon after I will go to the "bone yard" to choose my new slabs of granite. It almost seems like things are going too smooth now. That in itself makes me kind-of nervous.
They are reimbursing us for all of our meals since we have to eat out. The kids have been asking me when we get to eat at home again. And I must add, it's hard to eat out and eat healthy. I refuse to feed my kids chicken nuggets and french fries every day. We are doing pretty good not eating junk all the time, but it's actually a bit of a challenge! Maybe that 'love for cooking' thing I mentioned a few blogs ago will come back after all of this mayhem is over.

Birthday Party at the Zoo

For those of you who know me very well at all, you know that planning and throwing a celebration, ie. Birthday Party, for my children is one of my very favorite things to do. Selah wanted to have her birthday party at the zoo this year. She thought about her favorite animals, the elephant, and the giraffe. I was already picturing really cute pink and giraffe print invitations in my head, when she said "I'll have a pink flamingo party, since I love pink so much!" And that is what brought out my little "secret" love affair that I've kept to myself all these years ~ ha.
So pink flamingo we did, and it was a great party. The kids rode the carousel and then we took the train to the back of the zoo. We fed the birds in the Feather Fest exhibit, and then celebrated her birthday at this really neat little shelter nearby.
There was lots of pink and flamingo everywhere, and most importantly, lots of people we love were there to celebrate with us.
Happy Birthday Baby Girl! You are everything I could ever want in a daughter! I love the you that you are!

I've Been Tagged...

So my friend Jen Lyness tagged me... I have to list 5 unimportant things about myself. This is a pretty hard job, especially when everything about me is important! Duh! ;-)
Just kidding. I love Jen! She is so much fun to be around! Posh Sista!

Okay, here goes...

1. When I am riding down the road in the car, I find some kind of pattern in the road, telephone poles, the "passing" white stripes painted in the middle of the road, or whatever, and I tap my toes between each one (actually maybe every 3rd one or so. Okay, so it's like this... you know the stripes painted on the road, when we drive over/past the stripes, every 3rd one, I tap my left foot toes, and then the next 3rd one, I tap my right foot toes, etc. etc. If there aren't stripes in the road, it's the telephone poles, or the fence posts. (oh geez... Jen, I'm going to get you for this!) No, Nothing PSYCHO here, just a silly quirk!

2. I secretly like pink flamingos. I never tell anyone this because I don't want people to give me a bunch of pink flamingo stuff, and I definitely don't want plastic pink flamingo yard ornaments poking up out of my flower beds!

3. My favorite slice of pizza is the one with the biggest "crust bubble." And when everyone in my family gets to the crust of their piece of pizza, they give me the crust. Usually I end up eating one or two pieces of pizza, and everyone else's crusts.

4. Just before I got pregnant with Selah, I had started my own "personal chef" business. I would go to a (wealthy) person's home and cook their meals for them. I would plan the meals, grocery shop, prepare them in their home, and leave! It was just starting to take off when I got pregnant, and I knew I wasn't going to work once I had kids, so I didn't continue it. Here's the thing... I very rarely cook anymore. We eat out probably at least 50% of the time. And when I cook, it's the same 5 things every week. Every once in a while Alan will comment about how I "used to cook" all the time, testing new recipes, etc. I was not a "chef" or even close to it, just a pretty good cook. I'm waiting for that love of cooking to come back again.

5. I'm a surface cleaner. My house is usually very clean and pretty and all "set up" neat, but behind closed doors and drawers?!?!?!!? YIKES! If the area is organized, I keep it pretty organized. But if not, it's a mess. And it's totally inconsistent... a few of our drawers are nice and neat. The t-shirts are in stacks. The sock and underwear are lined up. But the swimsuit/cover up/work out clothes/ tank tops/ etc. drawer is a mess! In the kitchen the stacks of dishes and cups and glasses are nice and neat, but the cabinet with the pans?? or the tupperware spot?? I love the idea of being organized, but in the last few years, have conceded that I am not one of those people.

Okay. So there it is. Jodie and Matt and Liz... TAG! YOU'RE IT!

Birthday Girl... Selah turns 6!

Selah is 6 years old! I cannot believe it! Before I go gettin' all sappy, I'll just say that it was a GREAT day! We had so much fun! Selah started the day out getting a new bike as a birthday gift. She wanted powdered donuts for breakfast, so we went to Wal-mart and ate donuts and milk. We came home and she spent most of the day riding her new bike around.
The evening was spent with family at the River Walk in Jenks. We all ate dinner at Los Cabos. The kids got their faces painted by a clown, we all walked along the river, and we finished the evening hanging out listening to the concert. It was such an enjoyable time together! The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful reason to celebrate!
We have always loved it that Selah was born on my Dad's birthday, which is also flag day (hence all the red-white-and-blue).
Selah is one of my favorite people in the world to be with. She is a special child. She is very analytical. She doesn't express her thoughts or feelings too often, but thinks things over in her head. She is a pretty quiet girl, and usually pretty serious. She does not like to be the center of attention, and usually when people talk to her, she talks back, but has to kind-of force herself to do so. Her whole life, almost everywhere we go, people tell us and her how beautiful she is. By now, of course, she knows it. I usually still have to remind her to thank people when they give her those compliments, and she'll offer a very quiet "thank you." It's that whole center of attention thing. Even when she was a tiny baby, it took her time to warm up to anyone she was around. She still has to do that, but once she does, she has a great time and she is fun to be with! I know she wishes she could loosen up and be silly more often, but she is more mellow by nature. She is very observant. She notices things about people or places or situations that surprise me sometimes. One of my goals in raising Selah is for her to be comfortable with who she is, and to love herself. God loves her just as he created her to be, and so do we!
She loves stuffed animals (particularly her Build-a-Bear animals), watching movies, crafts, playing sports (soccer and basketball), riding bikes, being with her friends, and being with me. She has GOT to be the biggest Mommy's Girl around. She wants to do what is right and what is good. I can tell already that someday she will be a strong Christian. She is intuitive, and has a really good head on her shoulders.
One of the neatest qualities about Selah is that she is extremely loyal. I see this in her relationship with me, and in the way she acts with her friendships. I know that will go well with her in life. Another one of my favorite things about her... anytime she hears a word that she doesn't know, she always asks me what it means. And usually, I will hear her using it later on. This is part of that analytical/observant thing I mentioned earlier. She is so much like me. In some ways I love that, and of course, in some ways I wish I could "fix" her now so she won't share some of the same struggles I have. But, I know her heart. I know it will be a heart for God, and a heart to be and do what she knows is right. That will make her one of the neatest women! I am proud to have her as my daughter. It's pretty cool when they get old enough that we can see a glimpse of who they will be as adults. Thank you Lord for my precious Selah. She has my heart, and has since the moment I saw her. I love her so much. We prayed for Selah by name for 2 years before we had her. Just as Hannah said in the book of Samuel, "We prayed for this child, and the Lord granted us what we asked of Him."

Family Photos

We figured it was about time for some new family photos. So, "Unkie J" did the honors for us. Hope you enjoy! Awwww, they grow and change so fast, don't they!

PS. I must say, I would make one HOT alien!

"Pick Up Your Feet! It's a Flash Flood!"

Well, the day started out great! I was almost dressed, on my way out the door to make a presentation for my business at a Mom's Club of Owasso meeting. Kids were dressed, platters ready to show off. I was getting my make-up on and about to flat-iron my hair when I heard Selah crying in the back yard. On my way from the bedroom to the back door, I heard the faucet running. "That's weird!" I thought. I looked at the kitchen sink, but no water was coming out of the faucet. I had started the dishwasher a few minutes earlier, but my dishwasher is nice and quiet. I knew it right away, but hoped I was wrong. As I looked over the bar, I saw the water gushing out from under the cabinet doors beneath the sink. I ran to the bathroom, grabbed a stack of towels, and made a barrier around where the water was already pooling, also trying to protect the carpet in the living room. I got under the sink and tried to turn the valve, but the water kept gushing. About 10 or 15 minutes later I realized there were 2 valves. Finally the water stopped. A few minutes later James and Alan got home, and we worked frantically to sop up all the water. It covered the entire kitchen, the other side of the island, the nook, all the way to the back door. Some water still seeped onto the carpet in the living room. We had a restoration company come out to help. With all the wood flooring, 1 measly fan from Home Depot just wasn't gonna do the trick. As I type this blog, there are 7 fans and 2 dehumidifiers running. Apparently we won't know the extend of the damage to the wood for a few days. The carpet is ruined. It has began to dry, but now has a yucky stain of color where the water damage is.

And now for my little SOAP BOX:
Why is it that people try to make you feel like a heel, acting all put-out when you ask for estimates these days? And why is it that not only do they want you to practically sign away your birthrights in order to let them do as they please to your home... but then they make you sign away their responsibility for any mishaps! So I signed a paper saying that I was responsible for any damage etc. that might occur to their machines while in my possession, and I also signed acknowledging that they would NOT be responsible for any damage to my persons or property by any of their machines that are in my home. Double protection for them, none for me. ?And I'm paying them too? ugh.
Oh well. I suppose the bright side is that maybe we'll end up with some new (clean:) carpet.

I love blogging! It's so much fun keeping up with my own blog, and I really enjoy reading all my friends blogs too. Today I want to share my brother's blog with y'all. Remember Saturday Night Live back in the 90's..."Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy?" Well, my brother's blog is kind of like the whole "deep thoughts" thing (but without the SNL flare ;) A couple of my friends have told me they have visited his blog, via my blog. And one of you even went to his website and listened to one of his sermons on-line. Pretty cool. Well, since we live in this day and age where we love to "link and learn" I just had to offer it for your intellectual pleasure.
I'm sure it would boost his ego... I mean... I'm sure he would be happy to have you keep it in your blog lists if you so choose. Matt is 2 years younger than me, he and his wife are planting a church in Chicago. I know I've said it before, but he is my favorite preacher! He's so insightful. I often wonder if all he does is sit around in a winged-back chair, puffing on a cigar (one of the things he likes about living in Chicago...preachers can do that~ha), and ponder the intricacies of the Greek New Testament.
No pressure Matt, obviously your blog is your spot to be philosophical, spiritual, critical, sentimental, analytical, or just plain goofy. In any case, I like the intellectual boost is gives me when I read your blogs. It's kind of like flipping the little daily (or lately, more like weekly) calendar next to the sink... getting that little encouragement, accountability, "ouch", or inspiration for the day.

Just check out his blog www.matt-summers.com

Now, if I could just get his wife to start a blog too! I'm sure we'd get to see more pictures of our nephews that way!
I love you guys!