Those great boys!!

Last night after dinner, Michael issued the boys a challenge. He and I have gotten into a routine of going on a walk in the evenings. Very nice! So, last night, he told the boys that we were going walking and while we were gone he wanted them to clean up from dinner by the time we got home. And let me tell you, it was plenty messy. I even added the challenge to wash, dry and put away all the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher. Really the only things that WOULD fit were the plates and silverware. None of the serving bowls or pans from dinner. There was one pan that was particularly gross (imagine fried/burned on potatoes and onions) that I told them they could leave for me when I got back. The reward for doing the job: family movie night.

So, Michael and I took off. We had a lovely walk, but weren't sure what we were coming home to. We saw the boys playing basketball outside when we got home, so figured they were done. We walked into this...

The dishwasher was even running already! AND the gross pan was even cleaned. Jonathan and Jeremy said they wanted to "tackle it"! We were shocked! WOW! Didn't they do an amazing job??!!

Way to go guys! Now we know you can...you just may get to do it more! :-)

The hair color fiasco: where vanity and frugality collide

Over the last months, I've really grown to love saving money and being a self-confessed "cheap-o", in pretty much every area of my life...groceries, dog and cat food, toilet paper, shampoo, even hair color. Yes, unlike most of my friends, I choose to color my hair because in its natural state (and mostly I'm all about things in their natural state!) it's a depressing mixture of dark brown almost black and stiff gray/white hair. It's not pretty, even with a cute hair style. I just look OLD! So, years ago, Loreal and I got to be good friends. Over the years it's been various shades mostly revolving around "7 1/2 A Medium Ash Blonde". Well, as my cheapness has grown, I've discovered that with a little hunting and a little less loyalty to Loreal, I can get boxes of hair color or highlights for about $2-3 each. It takes 2 boxes to color my hair b/c it's long and thick. So the grand total has been less than $10 for about a year now. Now, don't get me wrong, I really LOVE the color that I get when I go to the salon and get highlights. Love it love it love it. However, when my goal is to spend $50/week on groceries for a family of 6, it's a little harder to justify $150 for a cut and highlights at a salon.

Until yesterday...I was just about ready to shell out any amount of money after the two-day long hair disaster. I never realized how much the color of my hair makes me feel (or maybe I do that's why I color it!!), but let me tell you....it matters.

The story started out innocently enough on Monday morning when I decided to just "color my hair really quick" before we had to go to band. The only difference was that the only color I had on hand was a Garnier Nutrisse "Brown Sugar" that I'd gotten a few months ago, super cheaply I'm sure. Well, "brown sugar" really should have been called "brick red"! Enough said...it was horrible and what made it worse is that I had to go take the boys to band. No problem, I'll drop the boys off and go fast to HEB and get another color. I wish I had a hidden camera in the car when I got in to show the boys' face. Josiah (Mr. Tactful) spoke what was everyone's mind "Mom, I don't like the color of your hair!" "Me neither!" I echoed. I was thankful that at least I could put my hair back in a ponytail. The only noxious thing to see was my bangs. You know, sometimes the turban-wearing customs wouldn't be a bad idea! I was wishing for a turban, or a bonnet, or something! "Just get to band and then get to the store" I kept thinking. But, when I dropped the boys off, our pastor's wife was there with another friend of mine to talk about VBS planning...and they wanted me in on the conversation! Rats!! They both said something kind about my hair and how nice I look with red hair. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against red hair, ON OTHER PEOPLE! I've always been more of a brown/blond kinda girl. NO RED!

Well, I'd actually forgotten about my hair during the discussion. Then Josiah reminded me! Thanks, man! With friends like these..... Anyway, after band, we headed to HEB to get some more hair color. And guess what! Coupons for Loreal! Yippee!! So I chose "Champagne Blonde", used my coupons and went home. Right away, I colored my hair. Guess what you get when you put "Champange Blonde" on top of "Brown Sugar"....slightly less red brick. Growl! By now my hair is feeling more and more like straw and I seriously wishing for wig shop nearby! The Proverb about gray hair being a crown of glory is echoing through my head!! I should have just left it alone! Go natural...go gray. It's certainly better than this hideous red/brown/whatever. The boys were feeling just about the same as me.

That night Michael had a dinner meeting with some people about football. Knowing my dilema, he offered to pick something up for me at the store on his way home. "New hair" was not really an option, so he picked up hair color remover and 2 new boxes of color. He even used the coupons at the store and saved $7.50! Love that guy!!

So, Tuesday morning I was going to use the color remover to take out the old color and then recolor, but I realized that I was going to need 2 boxes of the color remover and also realized that Michael got "Warm golden blone"-in color language, warm usually means "reddish". So, I took those back and got "Light natural blonde" and another color and rushed back home. Well, after the color remover, you should have seen my hair. It was bleach-y blond, red and orange. Remember that episode of "The Brady Bunch" where Greg was selling tonic that turned his hair orange right before graduation and then they dumped it on the rabbits? It was VERY near that color. If you thought the boys' eyes were big after "Brick Red", you should have seen it now! I guess I should have gotten a picture, but I didn't! Now my hair really felt like straw. It was pitiful! But I obviously couldn't leave it THIS color! And Carol Brady wasn't around to fix it! So, for the fourth time in 2 days, I applied the goop. This time praying! I know Jesus cares about things like that! Thankfully, this time, when it was done and I dried my hair, I looked like ME again. What a relief!! Josiah even said, "Mom, you're back!" Isn't that funny? But the funny thing was that was exactly how I felt! And relieved....I felt VERY relieved! My next option was to go to a salon and pay I DIDN'T CARE how much for them to fix the color on my hair. That would have been more embarassing than anything. But now I've learned my lesson...some things are worth paying for! (And coconut oil works great on super dry-frizzie hair!)

A scout campout

A couple of weeks ago, Michael met "a friend of a friend" at a lunch meeting. Through the course of the lunch, it was discovered that Chad (the friend of the friend) has boys about the age of ours and is a leader for a Boy Scout troop. He invited the boys on a campout last weekend that was relatively near our home (about 2 hours away). For this troop, a 2 hour campout is very "local". They've done "High Adventure Campouts" in places like the Swiss Alps, the Canadian Rockies, the North Shore of Hawaii and next Christmas they're going to New Zealand!! I've NEVER heard of that! WOW! Michael and I are wondering "What do these dad's do that they have so much discretionary time and money to spend camping???!!!" But what an adventure! Makes our goal to visit all 50 state capitals seem a little lackluster!

Michael and the three big boys decided to go on the campout. J,J&J were a little apprehensive. They were afraid everyone would know how to do everything and they would know how to do nothing. They even took some shoestrings and a book of knots to practice tying knots on the way. Turns out, they fit right in. Supposedly, all the boys and dads (there were like 85 of them) were very inclusive and kind and everyone had a great time. They didn't spend the night, just came back about midnight on Saturday.

We're praying and thinking about getting involved with scouting. The troop meets on the other side of town (of course!), but we would really only need to make one meeting a month. We'll see what happens.

Getting started on the campout.

Listening for the day's instructions in their "patrol".

Jonathan and Jeremy built this tripod to hold the dutch oven for dinner.

Here's everyone getting ready to build a "monkey bridge" across the Nueces River.

Jonathan volunteered to climb up to the top of the frame to tie the knot in the rope! Good thing he practiced in the car!!

Jeffrey was one of the first across the "monkey bridge". He was thrilled about that! :-)

Everyone else got to go across as well.

And then there was the climbing pole! Here's Jonathan on it.

And Jeffrey

And Jeremy

Jeffrey helping cook up dinner. The boys said it was one of the best dinners ever. Could it be that they were HUNGRY!!!

Here's the menu.

Jeffrey having a good time at the river.

Each group had to do a skit. Here's the Cougar Patrol practicing a kazoo number.

Call Kool and the Gang....we're celebrating!!!

We're all doing a happy dance!! We SOLD OUR HOUSE IN MEMPHIS!!! It's been 19 months since we put that baby on the market and now it's done! And now we are DEBT FREE! Wow! That's so awesome!!! We're probably going to burn our remaining mortgage coupons tonight just for fun!

It's been quite a journey and the Lord has taken us on and I have to say, by His grace, for me, it's not even been a hard one. I've learned things (especially about being frugal and finding deals) that I never would have been forced to learn if we didn't have 2 house pmts. and 2 utilities, insurance 2 places, etc. and know what?? I've loved it! It's been fun and exciting and I'm not gonna quit now! Our plan is to take all the money we've been spending on mortgage/utilities and put it into our savings to pay cash for a house when we get ready to buy again. So, the adventure continues....but after taking this "class" with God, we have experience and testimony that He CAN and WILL provide all the things that we need for this adventure!

Thanks to all you guys who prayed for us! Now, step away from the computer and join us in a crazy happy dance!!!

Tea parties and tip offs: Rallyin' on Wednesday night!

We started our evening of "rallies" off late Wed. afternoon with about 5000 of our closest friends at Alamo Plaza for the "TEA party" to speak out against wasteful gov't. spending and *for*America, for the Constitution, for people's rights over gov't rights.... Glen Beck was there, but we didn't get to see him. In fact, we couldn't see much of anything, which doesn't go so well when you're 7 or 11 and all you see is a bunch of people's backs and legs! It was good to go, though. Jeffrey kept asking "Why are we here??", so he kept hearing over and over how important it is to stand up for what is right.

We stayed for about an hour and then headed off to our next "rally" which was a huge surprise. A little background here.....Michael's company is currently owned by Mr. "B", get it H.E.B??. Last Friday, Mr. B came over to the area of the office complex (which is fairly huge) where Michael works to see about a project that Michael (and a couple of other people) was working on. This in and of itself is HUGE because Mr. B has NEVER been to this part of the office (as far as anyone can remember). Well, Michael was in the meeting w/ Mr. B and three other people. Michael was very impressed w/ Mr. B in a lot of ways and was thrilled at the chance not only to meet him, but to share about the project. It was a great honor!

Well, Wednesday afternoon, Michael checked his office voicemail after a meeting and there was a message from Mr. B's secretary asking for Michael to call. Obviously VERY intrigued, Michael called back to find that Mr. B had 4 tickets to the San Antonio Spurs game that he wasn't going to use and wanted to give to Michael!!! Of course, Michael took them!! Here they are...

What you can't see (and I couldn't get a good pic of) is that EACH ticket costs $275!!!!! So we were GIVEN $1000 worth of Spurs tickets AND a parking pass! We ended up picking up 2 other "standing room only" tickets for $10 each to get in the door and then found 2 empty places just a row up from these four great seats. And let me tell you, these were GREAT seats! Row 11 off the court. The boys kept saying "We're close enough to even read the tatoos on the players' arms!" Right up the aisle is a huge lounge where you can order food and sit and watch the game (kinda like a sports bar). Michael and I sat there for a little bit and visited while the boys watched the game. So nice!

This is how close we were!!!

And man those guys look BIGGER in person! And the goals look really short, like Josiah on a Fisher Price goal!

And then to top it all off, the Spurs rallied from 7 points down, hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to tie it and take the game into overtime! The crowd was WILD!! Then the Spurs won by 7 in overtime! It was great!

Here's the scoreboard at the end of the game.

And the boys after a fun evening! We're pretty sure we'll never go back to a Spurs game 'cuz now cheap seats will seem SUPER LAME!!

It was a great lesson in how God provides, even things like basketball tickets, when we live lives that honor Him.

Jeffrey's big weekend

After months, weeks, days and even hours of countdowns, it finally happened!....Jeffrey's birthday. Saturday, my man Jeffrey turned 11.

The morning started off w/ "sticky stuff" for breakfast (Jeffrey's choice)....

Followed by opening some presents....

Then we hopped in the car and drove to mom and dad's to celebrate. As soon as we got to town it was lunch time. Jeffrey wanted crab legs for his birthday lunch, so decided to do Red Lobster so he could have crab legs, but no one else had to! I don't know what it is about crab legs, but it's Jeffrey's "delicacy" of choice. That didn't come from me!!!

Then after lunch, we went back to mom and dad's to open more presents...

And eat birthday cake. Jeffrey asked for an ice cream sandwich cake w/ Reeses Peanut Butter cups on top. It doesn't get any easier than that! After all those birthdays of slaving over icing and decorated cakes, I've gotten off really easy the last few birthdays!

Then Sunday was Easter. We got up and went to the 7:30 AM service at church (Man, THAT's early, even for my crew!) Our family was remembering a totally unforgetable Easter church service on the beach in Hawaii two years ago. Hard to top that one! (Thanks, Welches!) Well, this one didn't, but it was still great. We weren't sure if the big boys would want to hunt eggs, but we hid some for them anyway. Turns out they really wanted to!!

Here's everyone ready to head out the door into the chilly wet to get free candy and quarters!

We hid 56 eggs and it took the boys about 2 minutes to find them all.

Then it was time to sort all the loot.

Sunday was also my parents' 41st wedding anniversary, so it was so great to be there with them to celebrate that!

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. I love you so much and are so thankful to the Lord for letting me your mommy!! It's my 2nd favorite job (after being Daddy's wife)!!

Happy Anniversary, mom and dad!! I love you both so much! Thanks for never giving up on each other!

Happy Easter everyone! Jesus is Alive!! The best news of all!!

The waterworks...or the water *works*

Good news! The water gun seems to be doing the trick w/ those crazy goats!!! Two nights ago right before I went to bed they were up on the porch. I gave them a squirt and down they ran. I didn't hear them all night long! Sweet!!! Yesterday they came up once during the day...squirt. And this morning at 4:00 am I heard the dreaded snort. I hoped they would quit so I could not have to get out of bed, but alas, they kept on. I got up, got the gun and headed out the door. When I turned on the front porch light, they ran down the steps. Hmmm, learning something already!! I was sure that they wouldn't learn that fast! I mean, if Pavlov had used goats, we would never know who Pavlov was! Well, I stand corrected...learn they do, and it didn't take as long as I thought! I still squirted them on their way down, just for good measure. We haven't seen them on the porch at all today. Yippee!!

The next thing is going to be the chickens. Unlike our last batch, these chickens feel very much at home walking on the back porch near the door, hanging out in the garage, and leaving "evidence" behind. Michael tonight gave the boys permission to squirt the chickens with the water gun if they are seen on the deck. Cheers all around!

The water worked again when this guy showed up AGAIN last night...
Yep, he came back. I went out to bring Jackson in for the night and he had Mr. Nasty IN HIS MOUTH!! Yuck! I told (read yelled at him w/ disgust in my voice) him to put it down. He did, eventually. I didn't have shoes on, so I wasn't about to go out in yard barefooted to get that silly dog, so I had to wait until Michael came out. Which wasn't long! I'm sure he was wondering what on Earth was going on! He came out "shoed" which he always does, just about the time I was getting Jackson. We stood there together and looked at that disgusting thing. Well, I was looking...Michael was thinking. Wondering actually. Wondering what it would take to get that possum up and running. He tried throwing a rock at it. He hit the thing right on target...thud...right in the gut! The rock just bounced off. Mr. Nasty didn't move at all. Then, Michael surprised me by walking to the water hose. I saw what was coming next, and took about 10 steps backward!! I didn't want Mr. N to have a sudden return to life and start breaking land speed records in MY direction!! While I was watching from the protection of the post on the deck, Michael went over to the hose, turned it on and sprayed the possum. Guess what??!! It immediately jumped up and ran off (thankfully NOT in my direction!!) back toward the woods. Now we know what makes a possum STOP playing dead!

My next question is....what bad habits can a water gun stop in boys?????

Abort the Snort!!

Our goats...you gotta love 'em. I mean they are cute, the provide entertainment, they....are cute. But there's one time of the day that they reallly "get my goat",if you know what I mean! It's early (and I mean sometimes like 4:30AM early!) in the morning. Here's the problem....they sleep on the front porch. That's not too much of a problem, except for all the poop they leave behind that has to be cleaned up (we use a leaf blower) everyday...but believe it or not "blowing poop" is one of the top coveted morning chores! Gotta love boys! But anyway, back to the goats.....sometimes they do wake me up as I hear them bumping along the wall and wiggling for the best position. But the REAL problem comes when early in the morning, for some very unknown reason, they start fighting. It used to be just every now and then. Now it's like almost every morning! And the fighting is loud. They get up on their hind legs (it's usually 2 on 2-the goats, not the legs) and stare each other down and then bump each other with the horns. Annoying-certainly! And loud!! Urrrgh! NOT what you want to wake up to. Seriously it wakes me up every time and I can't get back to sleep. Well, to make matters worse, now they start SNORTING at each other right before the "stand up on my hind legs and bump you with my horns ritual". The snorting sounds not like a pig snort or grunt, it sounds like a grown man sneezing. Over and over and over and over and over...you get my drift. So now in the early morning, here's my alarm....scraaaaape (body's moving along the wall), snort, snort, wierd goat noise that sounds eerily human, thud of horns together. Repeat about 25 times. It's like the alarm clock from a nightmare. Worse thing is there's no snooze. Now once I start to hear snorting, I get a sick sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the "It can't be time to get up yet!" sinking feeling. Or really it's more like the "Oh, man there's thebaby crying and no one else is going to get up to get him. Shoot!" sinking feeling. Sometimes I get up and turn a light on and they just look at me with that blank kinda stupid goat look...like Jeb here.....pictured here with Jessie, who definitely wins the "Extreme Snorter" award!

Then sometimes I dodge the poop and walk out there and talk to them and tell them to mix it up somewhere else. The two that are nearest the stairs walk down to the very bottom step, the two that aren't near the stairs jump off the porch...but just until I leave. Then it's "back to business"....up on the porch!

My bleary bloodshot eyes and mornings of moaning prompted Michael to find a solution. We googled and found basically nothing. Michael went out last weekend and bought a box of mothballs, thinking the smell might keep him away. I was thinking "Honey, if they can stand the smell of the BARN that they leave for us every night on the front porch, I'm thinking they may not be so turned off my mothballs". But we gave it a try. *I* was VERY turned off by the smell of mothballs. The goats never missed a beat. Do goats HAVE a sense of smell?? Surely if they did, they would counsel each other to go roll in some sweet smelling grass or something! Well, we got rid of the mothballs. Honestly, I'd rather smell "barn" than mothballs! So, tonight, we're bringing out PLAN B.....

One website Michael saw suggested squirting the goats with water guns anytime they were in a place where you didn't want them. So, we're going to give that a try. The main logistical problem with this is...you guessed it....I have to get out of bed to get them. I just might give my sweet hubby a "poke" and send him on the mission, but he's not the one who hears the "things that go bump in the night". Kinda like having a newborn, ya know. Mom always hears them! The boys brainstorm all kinds of tripwires and alarms and lights, etc. but really that defeats the purpose. I still wake up, and the goats, I'm sure, would still stare blankly!


So we'll see how this plan goes. In the mean time.....

We're ready for action!!

That Pigeon is one "lucky duck"

Last Thursday we had an almost "deja vu" scary moment w/ the hens. Josiah was noticing how all the hens were on the back deck hovering around near the back door. He was calling everyone over to come and look at it. I was moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, barely noticing what was going on UNTIL.... Josiah thought he would go outside and look at the chickens. Well, my sweet son, and his not always astute 7 year old brain didn't notice who ELSE was standing at the back door wanting to go and see the chickens...Jackson!! As soon as the door opened, out flew Jackson chasing after the birds. Jeffrey immediately noticed what was going on and went screaming out the door. I perked up instantly and started out the back bedroom door while Jeffrey went out front, all the while *I* was screaming "WHO OPENED THE DOOR? WHO OPENED THE DOOR?" I had visions of a Gloria all over again! So as I headed around back I saw Jeremy lunge and almost get Jackson as Jackson is trying to get one of the birds. Seeing Jeremy on that side of the house, I went to the other. As I got around the front, I see Jeffrey holding Pigeon (we call her "Pidge") and Jeremy holding Jackson. The story from the boys was that Jackson had Pidge in his mouth and Jeffrey gave him a swift kick in the side, which surprised Jackson enough to let Pidge go. She was alive, whew! The only problem was she couldn't walk on one of her feet. Other than that, she didn't seem injured. We took her to the coop and put her in the nesting box, prayed for her and gave her a homeopathic remedy (actually we put the remedy in the water. It's not easy at all giving a chicken a little round pellet!) She stayed there for the rest of the day and we kept hoping things would improve.

The next day, she was a little better, but still had to limp and hobble around, not really using the foot at all. She stayed pretty near the coop, but she was out and about. We were kinda thinking she may just have to live her life "onefooted", which is better than the alternative...not living!!

But the next day, she was walking with some weight on it and today she moves around almost as well as all of the others! The exception is that she doesn't run well. Ever seen a chicken RUN?? It's pretty hilarious! Well, Pidge HOPS! She puts both feet on the ground and HOPS. And she's getting pretty fast!

Praise God, THIS chicken incident had a happy ending! And HOPEFULLY Josiah will really understand what Jackson thinks of those chickies!
Josiah holding Pidge...this was before that fateful day!

Pigeon is the black and white one in the back.

OK, so it's not going "invitation only" on the 5th...

But it will soon. Tasha and Celleste, could you please send me an email (mldagerath @ earthlink.net) or leave a comment w/ your email addresses? Thanks!!

Oh, Poteet, it's not so sweet...

In these parts, one of the largest and oldest festivals around is called the Poteet Strawberry Festival. HEB even makes an ice cream about this time of year that is made w/ Poteet strawberries. It's THAT famous. Well, one of the things we really wanted to do this year was go to it. I mean, what can be anything but great about a festival that honors one of our favorite fruits, or foods for that matter. We figured there would be lots and lots of yummy strawberries to taste. So, we put it on our calendar. It was last weekend, and we planned on heading out there on Saturday to enjoy some of the festivities. When we checked the website, we were amazed at how huge this thing is, but we were looking forward to going and doing some fun things. Well, Friday night, at about 7, Michael read in the paper that admission was FREE on Friday night! How did I miss that???? We'd had an exhausting day doing things away from the house, but the idea of saving $40 in admission fees alone was enough to propel us into high gear getting ready and hitting the road for the 35-40 minute trip to Poteet. When we were about 10 miles out of Poteet (a town of about 3000 people), we started seeing stands set up to sell strawberry shortcake, chocolate covered strawberries, the usual festival fare of smoked turkey legs as well as tacos and fajitas. We thought that we interesting until about 4 miles away from the festival we saw the reason for their existence....we saw nothing but tailights...bumper to bumper traffic at 8pm at night on the way to the Poteet Strawberry Festival. We could see the ferris wheel and other lights from the festival so we knew this was festival traffic, but Michael estimated that we were probably 4 miles from where we PARK, and then would probably have a hefty walk after that. OK, change of plans!! We turned around and found a stand (this stand was actually a church) serving tacos, and gorditas...
Had a quick bite here...then headed to...

Strawberry shortcake. Michael and the boys said it was ok. The cake was supposedly good, but the strawberries were FROZEN! Go figure, I mean we've crossed 3 counties to take Fresh, famous Poteet strawberries and we get FROZEN and paid way too much for it!!

Then right down the road, I saw a fresh fruit stand where they were selling watermelon, pineapple and strawberries. I thought this would be great, BUT the produce was overpriced, and the strawberries (which didn't even look good) were from MEXICO! Not feeling so good about eating those! I'm wondering if the strawberries at the festival are actually from Poteet. Maybe I'm just naive!

Here's Jeffrey w/ a pineapple. Sorry about the blur!

The boys didn't mind at all turning around and going home. They got food! AND they watched a movie the whole way there and back. It was almost like Michael and I were on a date b/c we didn't hear from the boys the whole time. We had a complete conversation!! Nice!!!!!

We pulled into the garage and I was getting out and reached for my purse. It wasn't there. I asked the boys if they could see it. Jeremy said "Mom, did you get it out of the seat at the fajita place?" I didn't remember until that point that I had taken my purse out of the car. Major sinking feeling!! We came inside and called my cell phone, but no one answered. Then we looked on the internet for the number of the church and called, but no answer. Let me tell you, we were SOOOOOO glad that we'd stopped at the church, b/c they at least had a phone and a higher chance that my purse wasn't stolen. Well, my sweet and wonderful husband got back in the car and drove BACK to Poteet. Right after he left, the church called back (thank goodness for Caller ID!!), I explained what happened and they checked outside. My purse was still there!! They held onto it and Michael picked it up about 10:15 and got home about 11:00. Man, he's good to me!!

While he was gone, the boys and I got ready for bed and did our family devotional/family meeting that we try and do each night. Josiah didn't last. He fell asleep....

Seriously, JUST LIKE THAT!! He was even snoring! I had to get a picture of it or he wouldn't have believed it!! Thankfully, this wasn't Michael at the steering wheel!! :-)