I SURVIVED COUSIN CAMP - 2008!

Do I get a t-shirt?

Actually, it wasn't bad.

What it was...

• Busy
• Exhausting (see: busy)
• hilarious. My nephew has a future as a prop comic.
• Educational. My niece informed my that the green stuff inside fried okra is actually celery. The brown stuff is the "okra". Did not know that.
• A huge blessing to us and the kids. How often do you get to spend a whole week with your nieces and nephews?

Of course, Nana was here to help me. It kept everyone sane and tempers under control. NO ONE wants to lose it in front of Nana. :)

We had a million snuggles, read a million books, and sang "Come the Fountain*" at least a million times. Know what? I wouldn't trade it for a million dollars.

*Read: Come the Fount of Every Blessing. This is their highly unusual bed-time song. It is now a favorite with our girls as well!

Wordless Wednesday - Cousin Camp

10 Things Tuesday

I have been the world's worst blogger, lately. It's not like stuff hasn't happened daily (sometimes hourly!) that I want to write down. It's just finding the few minutes it takes to do it! I mourn all those funny and precious little moments that I have already forgotten. Got to do better!

Eliza turned 10 months yesterday so my thankful list is about her today!

I am thankful for :

1. Her buddha-ness (buddha-ocity?). It never fails, everywhere we go, people point it out.



2. she's doing some walking. Friday she walked all the way across the room. Since then she's had a case of the "jelly-legs". Our kids may not speak until 18 months, but they sure can move.



3. She goes with the flow.



4. She's become a much better traveler. Hip hip hooray!



5. She has 3 little ol' teeth.



6. She's not afraid of water.



7. She's still got a little separation anxiety. It's annoying and sweet all at the same time.



8. she cracks herself up. A bit like her momma in that regard ...



9. she will eat anything. This means veggies AND fruit! (and puzzle pieces and crayons and grass and paper and lint...)



10. Hair still blond, eyes still blue.

10 Things Tuesday

What I am thankful for today!!!!

1. My recent reconnection with Julie Swaim. She is EXACTLY what God calls mothers to be. Fantastic example.
2. That funky orange dust on cheetos. Made it super easy to figure out who had fed them to Eliza. (it was Mads)
3. My parents' cattle farm. I actually had to buy ground beef today. I am thankful that I haven't had to do that in a really long time. I was spoiled when my freezer was full.
4. My niece and nephew are coming to stay with us!!!!!!!!
5. Marilyn Carter. Every now and then she sends me sweet cards in the mail. Nothing turns a bad day into a good day like cards in the mail!
6. Supper club last night. We had a great visit with the Holders and the Shumates, and I LOVE having company!
7. A clean house.
8. A full pantry.
9. Healthy children.
10. My hubs.

Bonus: I truly love the parents of my children's friends! I am so very thankful for this and hope that this is always the case!

First day of ballet

Today was our first day of ballet. I say our because this was the closest I've ever come to ballet lessons. I learned a lot.
I learned that ballet shoes must be pink.
I learned that French is the language of the ballet (which meant that I didn't understand a word of what they said Sophie would be learning. Sandi, where are you when I need you?!?!)
I learned that it's very difficult to get my daughter's hair into a bun, so we settled on a wad.
I learned that wearing your ballet uniform to Chik-fil-a will earn you plenty of smiles and compliments. I'm pretty sure today was a success based on the Chik-fil-a experience alone.

In other news, I ate about a hundred funyuns today. Oh me, I love a funyun.

Overheard:
"Mommy can you get me a city, please?"
Me - Why do you need a city?

Wait for it...

"For my city player."

Get it? City (c.d.) player?

Ah, some jokes never get old. :)

Snippets ...

Life has been something around here lately. Here are the things I want to remember:

• Early Friday morning, I am awakened to the sound of Maddie yelling, "IT'S PARTY TIME!" (don't ask me why) I walk in to see her and this is what I find: The picture really doesn't do it justice, because it's cropped. Because the hat was the only thing she was wearing. That's right folks, evidently "party time" means wearing a princess hat and going starkers everywhere else. Must have been some party ...



• Uncle Danny was here!!!!! They stopped by en route to London. The girls LOVE IT when they get to see Uncle Danny. I love to see him, too, but he's kind of a goober.



• We drove by our beloved Optimist Park today and it was gone! The trees were gone and all of the old, scary, someone's-going-to-get-tetanus-or-worse playground equipment had disappeared! In it's place was a bunch of tilled up dirt. Sophie says, "oh good. Now they are going to plant some seeds and grow some good playgrounds." Let's hope so.



• Speaking of Sophie pants, she had her big debut singing "Tomorrow" with the Horizon alumni kids. (Each year they do an alumni concert to benefit a CRA family dealing with grief or illness. It began 3 years ago when my mom was diagnosed. It's always big fun, like a reunion, only better because it's more than one class that comes back.) She did good! Of course I didn't get any photos of this because my camera was being pre-menstrual. Maybe someone else did and I can get one of those.



• Got to see Andria! I just love her.

As has become the norm...

Here I am thankful and it's not even Tuesday!!!!!

Things I am thankful for today:

1. I get to see my old (and I mean old, snicker, snicker) friend Andria tonight!!!!! I think I only had one kid the last time I saw her.


2. Sophie's burgeoning nurturing side. The other day all the girls were in the playroom and I was in the living room folding clothes. I hear Eliza start fussing, and before I can turn to walk in there, Sophie says, "c'mere shug. You're okay." Eliza quieted right down. She's really starting to take this oldest sister thing seriously.


3. Little Einsteins on t.v. so I can sit and write this.


4. Leftovers that Jeff can eat while the girls and I are gone this evening.


5. The girls picked the least expensive lunch boxes at the Target, yesterday! Whaat?!?!


6. My far-sightedness. I haven't worn prescription glasses since college. It's nice getting by with just those little reading glasses.


7. I get to see my little brother tomorrow before he heads to Europe! (wish I was going to Europe...)


8. Sophie is registered for school. They'd just misplaced her open-house letter earlier this week. (and I only had a minor panic attack )


9. Donuts for breakfast!!!!!!!!!


10. Olympics, baby! They've kept me up way past my bedtime each night, but I just can't seem to get enough of those awesome swimming wins in the last second or those little underage Chinese gymnasts. (who, evidently, are ripped away from their families at age 3... another topic)

We're raising gold medalists.

Well, we Ramseys are doing the very same thing that every other person in the world is doing right now: watching the olympics and deciding which sport to push each of our children into so we can bask in all the glory. And get free tickets.

Eliza - her one talent seems to be her ability to reach things that are at least 30 feet away. Hmmm... maybe rowing? They need long arms, I think. And there are SO MANY opportunities for rowing here in Jonesboro (cough, cough). Maybe by the time she's old enough there will be an olympic sport where they shove inappropriate things in their mouth. She's awesome at that.

Maddie - we asked her what she wanted to do at the olympics (because we are not pushy parents) and she said, "okay", which we translated to mean she wanted to do lots of events so it's track and field for her!!! This will be her uniform:

Sophie - she wants to be a dancing Chinese girl/mermaid. Not exactly politically correct, but hey! someone is developing an imagination!!!!! We're pumped!

Here is Soph doing some Chinese acrobatics:

Remember tickle deodorant?

Okay, I realized there is a huge generational divide between myself and my children today. They were playing with their pretend phones and were running around going, "say cheese, chair!", "say cheese, wall!"

Now of course, they had a major case of the sillies, so just ignore that.

But, could you have imagined as a child taking pictures with your phone? OR even having a phone that had no cord? That could fit in your pocket? I remember the first time we got a phone that was touch tone (ooh) not that dial thing-a-ma-bob.

Play phones were those pink plastic ones that the cords would get all stretched out and not make a pretty little spiral anymore. That is if the phone doubled as a microphone (as all aspiring Debbie Gibsons knew that it could) ...

Other things that doubled as microphones: Tickle deodorant, hairbrush, thumbs, one of the poles on my canopy bed, eating utensils, writing utensils... I'm pretty sure I never had a real fake microphone. My girls have two, and I expect Eliza to be asking for her very own any day now.

Fake camera phones? fake microphones? I am spoiling them rotten.

Maddie and Eliza under the dining room table where they spend the majority of their time. If you can't tell, they are posing for Sophie's phone. Not the best photo, but I don't like my blogs to be naked.

10 Things

Today I am thankful for:

1. The girls are going to spend the night at Grammy and Granddad's Friday night.
2. ALL THREE OF THEM!!!!
3. I'm thankful that mom feels good enough to handle them.
4. Even though I am still figuring it out, I'm thankful for a computer that works like it should.
5. Ice makers, air conditioning, shorts (alright, I hate shorts, but ...), shade, popsicles, breeze
6. Our Sunday school class
7. My hubs working really hard doing something he dislikes (teaching class) to help bring about something he cares a lot about (getting people plugged in and involved at church)
8. Flip flops
9. Sophie's cartwheels, Maddie's drawings, Eliza's funny noises (things that made me smile today)
10. Indoor playgroup!!!!

102 degrees

Boo to you, Arkansas August! From inside the house you look so pretty. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, shimmering sun. Poems are written about this very thing.

Walk outside and then you remember, ugh, it's all a ruse. It's not fantastic, it's oppressive. I swear I gain at least 5-10 pounds just from the humidity.

Guess how long we made it outside today! 10 minutes! And popsicle time took up probably 8 of those minutes.

In my book, it's crazy having cabin fever when the sun is shining. Fuss, fuss, fuss!

I did take some cute pictures of Eliza eating her first popsicle (like an old pro!) but blogger and this new computer are not getting along very well, and I can't seem to put any pictures on here. Maybe I'll figure that out soon. In the meantime, you can picture this: chubby little nekkid baby, devouring her intire popsicle and then attacking her sister's popsicle. Very funny. Should have known she would react that way. We Ramseys love us some popsicle.

*Update* Jeff figured out the picture thing!!!!

Excuses

Ah, me. Remember the days when I could blog everyday?
My first excuse is that now that my pleater is in, I have been playing major catch-up on sewing and smocking.
My second excuse is that we got a new computer (finally!) and it's been a booger for me to learn how to use.
It's a laptop and for some reason, I can't seem to be able to use that little touch pad/mouse thingie. Jeff, out of devotion (and okay, probably a little bit out of frustration), went to the Wal-mart and got a wireless keyboard and normal mouse for me to use. Woo hoo! I don't like keeping up with the times. I was sad to see our big old monitor go, but I was really attached to the old school mouse.

We went to the Alyssa Edens/Randall Baber wedding last night. I love weddings! (side note: Sophie thinks weddings are shows about a princess named Mary. Even though she knows Alyssa, she called her Mary all night.) Got me to reminiscing again. Here we go ...

Stuff I remember about my wedding:

• shut my veil in the car door and got grease all over it. Meta Winters miraculously got it out. Bothered everyone but me.
• Had my hair "done", came home and brushed it all out. I just felt silly with fixed hair.
• Don't remember much about the wedding. I thought I remembered Jeff tearing up, but then one day about 6 months into marriage he informed me that he didn't cry at all. Of course, I immediately start bawling and refuse to talk to him for a few hours (or days, who knows). He now says that he cried through the whole thing. :)
• All we had packed were "Jamaica clothes", so after we left the wedding , we went to the Wal-mart and got sweatshirts to wear to the airport. Our one matching experience and we wasted it on gray sweatshirts...
• I'd left my shoes at Ashleigh's house, so in most of the wedding pictures, I'm wearing my mom's shoes.
• Dreaded the "you may now kiss the bride" part. Jeff and I both loathe pda.

I'm sure there's lots more important things that happened that day, but I only seem to remember goofy stuff. :)