Where there is blue. . .

. . . there must then be some pink! (Disclaimer: I am sorry if I offend anyone who is only able to paint one of the colors.) Superman LOVES blue, and Princess LOVES pink! So, this weekend, Princess had her turn to paint her bedroom. The color of choice is called Fairytale Pink. It is perfect for her princess bedroom.

When we told her that she could paint whatever she wanted on the wall, she painted out her name. Now, everyone knows her real name, but we will still call her Princess!

Isn't she cute! No, she has not cut her hair, it is simply tucked into her shirt so that it doesn't turn pink. She still wants hair like Rapunzel's.

Painting stripes like Superman did.

Princess loves polka dots, and she wanted us to leave these on the wall, but they have been painted over.

Hard at work! She painted this entire wall as high up as she could reach. She loved being able to paint on her own wall!

Get your tires checked!

Well, friends, if you have bought tires from Discount Tires in the past two years, you should be aware that there is a recall on the valve stems. They will replace the valve stems for free even if you don't have the paperwork. So, you may be asking how I know this. No, I did not receive paperwork in the mail from Discount Tires as I was informed that they are sending out only 1000 per week and they must not have made it to our name yet. I informed them that they could have caused me a lot less stress and them a lot less trouble if they had simply mailed them all at the same time. Here is my story:

I woke up Friday morning ready for me and the kiddos to drive my niece, C, to Houston to meet with her mom, my sister-in-law so that they could go to a couple of doctor's appointments. The first thing I noticed on our new white car, was that there was a flat tire on the back. We got over to Dinky's work and saw the screw in the tire, so we decided to take the little Geo. We finally got on our way only about 30 minutes later than planned, but we made it there. The trade off went well, and with warm good-byes since we wouldn't see each other again until Christmas, the kids and I were on the way to the Woodland's Mall, and C & C were on their way to appointments. Little did I know that we would see each other much sooner! I was driving in the middle lane of the fabulous 5-lane Interstate 45 when there was a thunk, and Princess immediately asked if we had a flat tire. I thought that we had just hit something on this busy highway since the car did not jerk or swerve, but within seconds, I knew that I was wrong. We managed to pull over to the shoulder of the road, and I was ready to cry. Here I was on a busy interstate, in view of an exit (Rayford-Sawdust for those of you that now the area) but unable to drive any further as I was already on the rim, with two young children in my car. I called Dinky who offered to come get me, but he is of course, hours away. I call C & C who immediately turned around and came back to sit with me. And, my brother-in-law, who was on the phone with my sister-in-law, called his auto service who would send someone to come rescue me in about an hour. An hour! So, that is when Dinky called back and said to take it Discount Tires because that is where we just bought the 4 new tires just over a year ago, and his boss had told him about the recall that we didn't know about. Finally, a fabulous mechanic shows up and changes my tire to the donut, then he actually follows me to Discount Tire to make sure that I get there safely. How sweet and wonderful is that! C had already taken the kids in her car to get them off of the highway, and she met me at the tire store. I informed the wonderful worker at Discount Tire that my tire had just blown out and that I wanted all of my tires checked for this recall. The man nicely walked out to my car, took one look at the valve on the tire, and said, "Yep. That is what caused the blowout." Really! Nice time to find out! Essentially, the valve had split open at a weak point which caused the pressure to burst the tire. But I ended up with a brand new tire, and four brand new valve stems for absolutely free. Since "Customer Satisfaction" was written on my receipt, I feel sure that that little part about them trying to kill me and my children which I said very loudly in ther packed waiting room helped in getting such great service. Anyhow, the children and I ended up going with C & C to their doctor's appointments, and we had a pleasant enough day. Dinky had to drive down to pick up my keys from Discount Tire since we wouldn't get back out there in time, so he met us for dinner and then we drove home. We got home at 11:30 P.M. We were pooped!

Things that I am thankful for:
*Great family members who came and rescued me! It was very comforting to have someone there to help me make decisions.
*My brother-in-law's great auto service!
*The great guy with Milstead Automotive who also protected me and himself by the way he parked behind me to change the tire. There have been way too many incidents of cars parked on shoulders being hit and people being killed, and the tire that needed changing was on the trafiic side. He angled the van, and he turned the tires away from us so that, if hit, it would go away from us. How thoughtful!
*My friends and family who prayed for the safety of me and the children. Because of their prayers, all except one car was able to merge into the second lane and not pass close to us on the shoulder. It was like we were "removed" from the road!
*We had a great day despite all the stress and nobody was seriously injured or hurt! It could have been much worse!

When I figure out how to download pictures from my phone, I will show the picture of my wonderful tire. I will also try really hard to update you this week on our other, more fun activities!

Let's call it art!

The time has come to paint the children's room. We allowed them to pick out their paint with just a little bit of guidance from us. Then, after all the prep work, Superman got a chance to paint his own room. He had a great time! But, everytime that he got a spot of paint on him, he stopped painting to go get a wipie to clean up. I tried to explain that we would clean up when we were done, but he wouldn't have any of that! This blue that he has chosen is called "Artesian Water." The color is very similar to the blue painter's paint. Imagine that all over the walls. It is quite bright, and it even appears to be glowing off of the walls in the hallway. I sure do hope that with a second coat and the blinds back on the windows, that the glowing goes away!

He has already done quite a bit of the wall here.

Let's see how high I can reach!

As most of you know, Superman likes things to be done in a certain way. This did come in handy because he made sure that his painting met up with my painting so that it would be "one big blue."

This is the art of it! Superman is very proud of his long, straight stripes.

Bowling with our Buddies!

I have a very dear friend, W, who used to be my roommate, then she had her first child 6 months after Princess was born, and her second child and Superman were actually born on the same day. She now has a third child. We have known each other for 13 years now, and we know that this friendship with us and our children will go on for many more years. Anyhow, end of the sappy story! She invited us to go bowling with her and the girlies, and we had lots of fun! Thanks for inviting us, W! We would love to go again one day!

Princess had the best form of all of out there! She was very pleased with herself! Of course, last night she was complaining about her back hurting, and her hip has popped three times now. She is actually limping a little bit. I hope that she didn't hurt herself bowling because then she will never want to go again!

Superman thought that he was so strong!

Superman bowled by placing the ball on the lane then giving it a slight push. Most of the time, the ball went about halfway down the lane and then just stopped. We would have to go down and push it the rest of the way. However, as I was snapping this picture, I heard a loud clunk and then another one. Superman ending up throwing his ball into the lane, then it bounced over the bumpers on the left and ended up on that little strip of blue that separates the lane! It rolled about halfway down and then it just stopped perched up there on the blue part. The guy at the bowling alley said that that was one that he had not seen before!

Busy on the Fourth!

To celebrate the nation's birthday this year, we went to Gram's and Granddaddy's house. Their county has festivities each year at the county seat which include an arts and craft show, a parade, and some good fireworks. The kids have always enjoyed going to these things. I am hoping that it is because they feel good living in such a great country and want to celebrate that, but I am pretty sure that it is because of the snow cones and the candy that they throw out at the parade.

This is Princess with her cousin M who is only 5 days younger than her. Unfortunately, my baby is going to be quite a bit shorter than her! We have pictures of them together as babies when they were actually about the same size, but as the get older, M gets taller and taller!

This is Princess with her cousin G who is one month younger than her. Once again, look at the difference in height! Anyhow, they are practically out in the street about to be runover by the floats because they want at any candy that is thrown first.

Superman was content to sit on Daddy for a little while, until some candy was thrown (see picture below). You can see his snow cone all down the front of his shirt. I thought that it was ruined after he also played in the dirt at the house, but thanks to Oxiclean, we have a white shirt again.

Superman going after the candy! He would sit on Daddy until candy was thrown acting all hot and tired, but as soon as he saw candy, he was on the run to get it!

The fireworks lasted nearly 40 minutes. This is Princess, Superman, and cousins M and B "dancing" to the "music" created by the popping. It was great!

Swimming Lessons

You will all be pleased to know that I registered the children in swimming lessons this year. A sweet young lady who is the daughter of one of the teachers at my school taught the lessons in their backyard pool. It was wonderful because the groups were small and she was so patient with them all! I am pleased to report that Princess and Superman will both put their face in the water without screaming like they are being killed, and they no longer cling to me like leeches at the pool. I actually got to swim by myself on the last trip to the pool because they were off playing on their own. They even went down the slide in the deep end! Now, there is still lots of progress to be made before they are actually swimming on their own, but this is a dramatic improvement from even just a few weeks ago!

Princess using her big arms to "swim" across the pool.

Superman swimming with his face in the water!

I can fly! This is just a happy picture. I love it! Superman is jumping into the pool from the side which is something that he had never done before.

Princess kept the dogs occupied during Joshua's swimming lesson. This is Sadie and LouLou. Bailey did not move from her spot to be in the picture.

We need a fashion consultant!

I think that I have become the ultimate relaxed mother. Yesterday afternoon, we decided to go out to eat, so I told Princess and Superman to put on some clothes. (They were wandering around in their underwear as usual!) We went out to eat at CiCi's Pizza in these gorgeous outfits! People did look at us, but we just didn't care! The kids loved their outfits so we just acted like this was perfectly normal!

Don't you love the soccer socks and the hiking boots?

Princess says that this shirt matches this skirt because they both have blue on them and they both have flowers on them. You can't see them here, but she is wearing her red, white, and blue flip-flops with this outfit. She admitted that the blue was not the right color to match the outfit, but that it was close enough.