first kill

JohnDavid was outside shooting his bb gun, and he hollered, "Mama! I shot my first animal!" Then he brought it up to the door!!! It was a cricket, lol. It had been sitting on the box they were shooting at. 
I laughed, then I told him his daddy said not to shoot anything he wasn't going to eat! 
Then HE laughed!

school!

Starting school tomorrow! More to do this year w/ Rebekah going into 9th grade. Spanish and Algebra! Woo-hoo! My 2 fav subjects. =D Can't wait!

true love?

When...the...moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amoré...

And this pizza has NO pizza sauce!  YUM YUM!!!  Well, it has something, but it's a creamy color, not the traditional pizza sauce.  Soooo good!

on the air!

My girls sang on the radio this morning! =) Their Grandpa had taped them last week (he records and takes the church tape to the radio station each week) and they played it on the church's broadcast this morning!

7 loads of laundry!

Wooo!  Finally done w/ laundry!  SEVEN loads of laundry from kids being at camp this week.  It was teen week, and they had to dress nicer for evening service because it was also revival week there.  All my kids in teen camp.  Hmmm, not sure how I feel about my babies growing up!

Arriving at camp.
Rebekah in the flag shirt, Bethany in the lavender, and JohnDavid is #27.   The others are their cousins.

duh!

Crazy sign in Hardees this morning!

lol

egg on the floor

JohnDavid got me good! (and Bethany was in on it, too!) He told me to stand behind the door and put my thumb and finger thru the crack like the letter C. Then he put an EGG in my grasp. Now I was stuck holding it there or dropping it on the floor!!!
Then I thought he had his hand below mine, so I let go of the egg, and it broke on the carpet!
He cleaned it up, tho.
What a cool prank!  (especially since HE cleaned it up!)

my "invisible" deer

Coming down my driveway today, I saw a deer partly hidden behind a limb of a tree about halfway up the last hill. I could see his legs.
"Oh, I wish someone were with me to share this. Hey, I have my camera in my pocketbook!"

I put the camera on video mode and zoomed in.
I slowly inched the car forward, watching... finally the deer stepped out! I pressed the shutter. Two seconds later, he bounded across the driveway into the woods.
"But I got him running for a few seconds at least," I thought.

I pulled up to the house and pressed the buttons to make the video play back.
"Hmmm, I don't see the 6 second one... this one is 29 seconds... Maybe it kept recording."

I pressed play.... and I saw... my lap, the steering wheel, the speedometer...NO DEER.
I had videoed the part where I was inching down the driveway!!! And when I saw the deer step out and had pressed the shutter, I had STOPPED the video! lol.

So here is my picture of my invisible deer. He had been standing about halfway up that hill, on the right just behind some protruding tree limbs.

my "invisible" deer, lol

4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th of July at my brother-in-law's house!   =)

…grilled pork chops, potato salad, corn on the cob, lemonade, watermelon… volleyball, popcorn game, basketball, playing in the tree house… Grandpa’s birthday card, arrowheads (we presented to him - found on "our"/HIS land where we live =)… looking thru old picture albums, singing with Grandpa, playing the piano… fireworks,roasting marshmallows...lots of fun!
I can hardly get a pic of JohnDavid... he won't let me!  In pics, it seems like I only have 2 kids... =\

twins are 12

JohnDavid and Bethany turned 12 years old this month!  So big.  Almost as tall as I am now...

Here's Oscar, their new hamster.

A great time having a water fight!

return of the dementia

(For the first dementia story, read "Chili Bean Dementia".)
Still having allergy problems, JohnDavid and I stayed home from the campmeeting again.
A few minutes after Travis and the girls left, the phone rang. It was my niece Abigail. She wanted to see if we'd left yet, but she hadn't been able to get us on the cell phone. Oh, no! I bet Travis forgot the phone. We only have one cell phone. I checked, and yep, it was still in my pocketbook in the bedroom.
"They should be at the campmeeting in about 10 minutes or so," I told Abigail. "Are you going?"
She said yes, she was. So I told her she should see them in a few minutes.
After I hung up, I saw on my cell that I had 2 missed calls. I checked my messages, and one was from Travis. I hadn't paid attention to what time it said the call came in before I hit delete, so I thought, "Maybe he called me on the way to church. I'll call him and see if he did."
I walked back in the living room, dialing on the home phone. A few seconds later, the cell phone in my other hand started ringing. "I bet that's him calling me back," I thought.
I looked at the cell phone.
It said, "Home is calling."
I just sat down in the living room chair, and laughed. All by myself in the living room, laughing and laughing!
(I am really, really crazy)
Oh, can I blame it on allergies? Hmmm... I thot not.

on chat too much

Ha ha, about six months ago, Rebekah was reading a book, and she said, "I'm mixed up; I don't know who is talking." There were two people in the book talking back and forth for a long conversation, and she'd lost track of which person was talking.
Well, instead of telling her to look back at the top of the page, I unintentionally told her to scroll back up! LOL, I've been chatting online way too much.

surprise perks at summer camp

JohnDavid is a cut up. Two summers ago (2007, age 10), he went to Gospel Light Youth Camp along with sisters, friends, and cousins. One evening, before the service started, he was talking to some other boys about GIRLS! He looked over and saw two very pretty girls. He told the boys, "I bet I can get those girls to kiss me just like that!" and snapped his fingers. The boys said no, they didn't believe he would be able to do that!
"Hey, you, girl," called JohnDavid, "come over here a minute!"
One of the girls came over right away and asked, "What do you want?"
"Give me a kiss on the cheek." The girl did so without hesitation.
The boys were amazed. "No WAY! How did you do that?"
"Watch," continued JohnDavid, and called to the other girl to come over and said again, "Here, give me a kiss on the cheek." This girl, too, kissed him immediately, and with a smile!
"Wow! No WAY! How can you get girls to kiss you like that?" They were just astonished!
With a smile, JohnDavid replied, "It's a gift!"
He never did let on that his sisters love a good joke too! :o)

by Mamaw Norman (my Mom)
The Norman Grandkidz Gazette (that she wrote monthly for the grandkids while she was still able)
October, 2007

all about Durham!

The pics are up at TeenCraft about our trip to Durham.

they did it!

Sahm has not been doing her usual sahm duties. Not been studying.... kids not doing much school.... BUT...

the girls have raised enough money for the trip to Durham next week! Two girls, ages 11 and 14 raised $400 in 6 weeks. Well, I know their dad paid for about half the materials... but still, that's pretty good! They actually sewed all those pocketbooks - over 50. They used some of the money for supplies, and a few pocketbooks were given away to people who helped.

And we could not have done it without help. So I should say the girls and people helping them raised that much money in 4 weeks! ...their Grandma Shelby, Aunt Geraldine, Amy B (Mom of a child Geraldine babysits), Josie (Grandma's friend), Robin (my friend and Josie's daughter-in-law) Mabel (goes to my Mom's and Josie's church), Hannah (Shelby's sister's daughter-in-law), and of course, me -- doing the blog, posting on facebook, emailing friends, making business cards, etc. I'm the advertising manager, ha.

To learn more, read What we do.

Later I want to get pics of the people who helped and tell a bit more about how they helped, and will post that on TeenCraft.

So, now... catch up on school!

try them and you may, i say, part 2

Well, we tried them. Eggplant that is. That's Bethany on the left grilling it. Rebekah is frying squash! :o) We've never had eggplant, so I'm not even sure we cooked it the right way! I looked it up online, and will definitely look up more ways to cook it! It wasn't terrible, just not tasty. Hmmm... maybe a little terrible, lol.

We'll have to try again... Any suggestions?