It's Been a Year Now

Strange, this thing called time. It goes so quickly... sometimes. I can hardly believe that it's been a whole year since Dawne died. We miss her. I miss her. When I think about her my heart hurts. Even with the knowledge that we will be reunited one day... my heart hurts. I feel blessed to have known her for the first 10 years that Geoff and I were married. What a true blessing.

Last year I posted about Dawne. You can read these posts by clicking here and here. Interestingly enough I took pictures at the graveside service but never posted them. I think I was hesitant because of the raw emotions at the time. So, I thought that I might share some of those now.

L to R: Allen, Abigail, Hannah (top), and Sam (bottom).

Each of the grandchildren that were present were allowed to place one yellow rose on to Dawne's casket. It was very touching. And for the older of the children I'm sure it was difficult. They loved Grandma dearly.

Here little Sammy is giving Grandpa a well needed hug. We all miss this lady. But we shall never forget her.

I Got Flogged

Just kidding....

I got tagged by two different friends. Normally, I delete these and don't even bat an eye. But I'm feeling especially vulnerable to peer pressure and maybe somewhat guilty so I will do them.

The first tag was to post 6 quirky things about myself. Here goes:

1) I buy only white or green plastic hangers. White ones for me and Geoff, green ones for the kids. Why do I do this? I don't know. But today, just to prove I could, I hung some of the kids' clothes on white hangers!

2) I have stinky feet. There. I said it. Now you all know.

3) I used to have a really pronounced Oklahoma accent. I first noticed it when I lived with a girl from New Hampshire right after high school. I thought to myself "I like her accent better". And the rest is history. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't had an Oklahoma accent since then.

4) I like potted meat sandwiches. What is potted meat you might ask... exactly. Click on this link for a colorful explanation of what it is. But just to give you some history - when I was little, my dad would make these by spreading the potted meat on one piece of bread and Miracle Whip on the other and then put a piece of American cheese in between. Oh.. and it HAS to be white sandwich bread... preferably Wonder Bread. Now, I have to admit that nutritionally this is horrible for you and I will say that I RARELY eat them. Usually I only make them when I'm trying to get the missionaries to taste something they have never had before. AND I try REALLY hard not to think about what it's made out of.

Should I go on? I mean really, that last one was a doozie. Pretty gross. Surely you don't want to know anymore...

Alright, alright... settle down. I'll try to think of two more.

Cue the Jeopardy Theme Song.

5) I've never had a Klondike Bar.

6) My big toe and 2nd toe are webbed together. From too much skiing as a kid. Not really. I only said that because my brain hurts from trying to think of one last quirky thing about me. Feel free to share quirky things about me that you're aware of!

The second tag was to go to the 4th folder and post the 4th picture you have.

I didn't like that picture so I chose the 9th folder and the 21st picture instead:

Because I'm absolutely sure that if I don't tag anyone, this will end tagging on the World Wide Web, I choose no one!

Preschool Breakfast Theatre

A couple of Sundays ago I made Biscuits & Chocolate Gravy for breakfast and the kids loved it so much that they broke out into song!

This is a picture that Geoff successfully captured of the experience:

I captured some really good video of the whole event!

Blogging Addict

I guess I am officially an addict.... 90%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Flashback Friday

In the spring of 2002 I had just weened my 2nd child from nursing after being pregnant and/or nursing for 2 years straight. I decided that it was high time that I had a break. At that time my sister Terra was living in Sarasota, FL so I planned a little meet up with my Dad (living in OK) and my sister. A 6 day, well deserved vacation! I kissed Geoff and said "Good luck!" and I was leaving on a jet plane. These 6 days created some very special memories for me and I'm pretty sure for my dad and sister, too. The number one thing that my dad and I wanted to do was to go deep sea fishing. So... we went deep sea fishing. This is a photo of how much my dad enjoyed it: This here is how much my sister enjoyed it: See that boy? His name was Dax... Terra really enjoyed Dax. And that was a Marlin fish that he helped her catch!

Then there is Dad... really getting after it! And Terra... "Oh my, I'm soo weak... how can I ever catch this BIG fish? Is there anyone who can help me?" "Here he comes to save the day!!!" We really had a GREAT time!!! It was so exhilarating to catch these things! This is how many fish we caught: Actually, there were two other couples on the boat and they caught some of these, too.

What a great blessing to be able to spend some real quality time... dad and daughters. Ahh... good memories.

Dad was there for just the weekend but I stuck around for a couple of more days. While Terra was at work I went to an aquarium near by. This was pretty much the only picture that I took that was worth posting: Creepy, huh?

One other thing that I remember... I thought it would fun to bring back a souvenir from the beach. So, I found an old hermit crab shell and stuck it in my back pack. Uh. It wasn't empty. After we got back to her apartment ants and stench quickly ensued! Oh well. We all have to learn somehow!

I love you, Dad. I love you, Terra. Thanks for the memories!

Waterfront Property

For now, we live in a townhouse complex... until we can close on our house in Oklahoma and buy one here in Arkansas. This complex is right along a river. It's actually pretty nice. One day Geoff took the kiddos down to the water and loaded all four of them and himself into a blow up raft to cross the river.

In these photos you can see Geoff paddling the kids to the other side of the river. (Notice that his end is about to go under the water!)

This next picture demonstrates where we live (A). I'm showing you this because to get across the river takes all of 5 minutes in this little raft but to actually drive to the nice little park across the way... it takes more than 20 minutes! Crazy, huh?

Fun was had by most... Ainsley wasn't real happy that she had to actually help carry the raft back home:

This Is Weird...

This is weird. I love it!

This is weird, too. I found Asher like this during one of his naps.

This is also weird... I found Ainsley like this one morning after a GREAT night's sleep!

Shout It From the Rooftops!

This is what I listened to all day yesterday....

Can We Fix It?

Proof... that I know my way around a table saw!

Two days before we moved out of our house in Oklahoma the AC unit backed up into the house and ruined our laminate flooring! Argh. We put fans on it to dry it out and prayed that the buckling would disappear. Four weeks later, no such luck! It was still buckled up and even though we hired some to fix the problem with the AC it was scaring away buyers so Geoff went down to try to replace the flooring. He pulled up a couple of planks and realized that we hadn't dried it out as well as we should have and we had a bigger problem on our hands... mold! So, he bagged it and we filed a claim with our insurance and a couple of weeks later Geoff and I returned and replaced the flooring... paid for by our insurance. Nice, huh? Joys of home ownership!

Flashback Friday

In honor of the fact that we don't hardly get any snow and that I gave away all of our snow gear because of it, I thought that I would post these great pictures of Aspen when she was a baby! We lived in Michigan where they get snow 11 months out of the year and basically, I'm glad we don't anymore!!!

Cross between Oompa Loompa and a Christmas Story!

Funny Asher Quote

"I know how to say 'peanut butter and jelly' in Spanish... PB&J!"

Changin' Things Up a Bit

Well, since it isn't technically summer anymore I thought I would take down the Summer Movie List from the side bar. You can still refer to it here: Kick Back & Enjoy the Show or you can just click on the link on the right under my new handy dandy "Great Posts You Might Have Missed" widget on the sidebar! After moving to New City, I (believe it or not) have new friends! And these sweet people have missed out on so much of my crazy, fun antics!!! And for those of you old timers to my blog... now you can revisit the days that made you laugh (or cry)!!! Unfortunately, I have over 350 posts so it's hard to remember all of the funny ones but I picked out some that I chuckle at when I think about them! Of course, I have the whole mousecapades listed as well as the 'crappy' times in Branson. Let me know if there is one that stands out to you and I'll add it!

2008 McClain Family Reunion

In September we had a family reunion on my dad's side of the family. It's always a lot of fun! I really enjoy seeing some of my cousins, aunts & uncles that I don't normally see. As you can see in the following pictures, there is a lot of fun stuff to do for the kids. I think this is where some family reunions fail. I also like that while I was chatting with family members there were ladies there that were perfectly happy helping my kiddos figure out some of the games and toys! There is a lot of love at this place! But then again, that's really how my dad's family is... really loving.

Did you notice the picture of my nephew Preston? He's a teenager. He's actually a very good teenager but at some point he got bored and took his electric guitar behind one of the buildings and got away from it all!

Of course, no family reunion would be complete without some sort of drama:

Asher totally biffed it on the gravel driveway and was pretty inconsolable. Call me a mean mommy but I yelled at my sister to grab the camera! He's pretty cute.

Cousins and BFF

Emma and Andyn = BFF! It is SO stinkin' fun that my sister and I have girls that are the same age! They love each other so much! They generally play well together, aside from the typical two-year old stuff. Just so cute!

2 For 1!

Can you tell that I'm trying to make up for lost time?! This post is about Geoff and Andyn's birthday.... Sept 29th!!! I'm such a loser! Check out these great cake designs!!!

Geoff's cake

Andyn's cake

Geoff with his greatest joy... his kids. (and Syd)

So I didn't make grandiose beautiful cakes this time. So what? At least I didn't forget their birthdays. I just didn't have the time to make a cute cake. I'll make it up to them next year.

Freak of Nature

My friend Bree just posted this on her blog and I thought it was hilarious!! It's a real thing! At Sam's club for 200 bucks!