Fourth Grade Celebrity

My boy Zachary has had a big week at school. He's completed his art project at school, which was a self-portrait. I think it is pretty awesome and he's pretty proud of it.

He was also one of a handful of fourth graders chosen to have a speaking part in the fourth grade musical last night. He did great! That boy has no fear when it comes to speaking on stage.

He also completed his Native American Village diarama. He chose to do the Shawnee tribe and I think his diarama turned out great!

He's a superstar! My superstar is going to have surgery on Monday. We'd really appreciate your prayers on his behalf!

Fingering strings

I know I've said it before, but I just feel the need to say it again. My husband is incredibly good at what he does. He is gifted, but also extremely hardworking at his craft. Plus he just looks pretty dang good in that uniform!

Old Photo of Mom

My Aunt Lida emailed me some old pictures last week. This one just hit my soft spot because it of the smile. This was the girl my dad fell in love with about 50 years ago. They have been married 43 years, but were high school sweethearts as well. Look at that smile!

Fighting Closet Monsters

Okay fellow moms and dads. I need words of wisdom on fighting off a 5-year old's irrational fear of the Dreaded Closet Monster. Alec is terrified of the scary things living in his closet and the fear is getting worse instead of better. Anyone have a tried and true tactic for fumigating closet monsters from homes? I'm getting desperate!

Family Time and Catching Up

I haven't done very well with blogging lately. I taught a summer school class in July, which took up a lot of my time. When the class concluded I took on a kitchen painting project that took up much more time and energy than anticipated. Then, of course, school started back and my summer to-do list kind of went out the window. On that to-do list was: #7-Catch up on blog. Hmmm...

Anyway, here we are on Sept. 6, Labor Day. I celebrated my 36th birthday on Sept. 1 and then went home to Oklahoma with my little guys for a quick weekend with my parents. My dad was improved since our last trip home. My mom was about the same. I suppose that when she doesn't worsen in a couple of months, that is actually a good report. I spent some time with her, brushing her hair, singing to her, talking to her, putting lotion on her, etc. At one point she looked right at me and called me Mama. It hurts when things like that happen, but it hurts more when I spend time with her and she only stares into some unknown world and mumbles like she is frightened. I will take her mistaking me for my Grandmother anyday over those terror-filled looks and mumblings. I hate Alzheimer's.

It was very good to see my dad with more energy. He's still not back to "normal" but I'm not sure that we'll ever see normal again in my family. He certainly enjoyed his grandsons, and I can't really ask for more than that. He and Alec are special buddies. Alec spends a lot of time snuggling with Poppa Jim when we're home and Dad just treasures that time. Zach has kind of outgrown the snuggling stage, but he still thinks his Pop hung the moon.

My dad humbles me with his love and devotion to my mom. He is the very best of men and I ache every time I see him brush a hand over her forehead. He is so good to her. When I run into people in the small town of Wynnewood everyone says, "He's a good man, Andrea. He's doing a great job with her." I've always thought my dad was a gentle giant, but more and more I'm seeing that gentleness and more and more I aspire to his devoted love for my mom.

Anyway, so we're back home and readying ourselves for getting back to school tomorrow. I'm going to try to do better with my posts!

Four in the car

We are heading back to Oklahoma for a super quick visit tomorrow. I'm currently teaching summer school for Southwest so I need to be back in time for my class Tuesday night. I'm so thankful that Mike got a bit of time off; he's going to be able to make this trip with us. It's pretty rare for Mike to be able to go to Wynnewood with us, exceptions being Christmas and Thanksgiving. So this will be a special treat.

Some of you know that my dad's health has been poor for the past couple of months. He's still not doing well. We have recently found out that his kidneys aren't functioning properly, a result of the diabetes that he's been dealing with for the past fifteen years or so. He's also extremely anemic, which is leading to other issues as well. I'm hoping to get a better idea of his condition while I'm home. He's pretty good at making things sound better than they are. He doesn't ever want to worry me.

So, we'll leave tomorrow and will come on back to Bartlett on Tuesday.

Until then...

Fashion Friendly: Closet Makeover!

My husband, the man I dearly love, had a productive day off yesterday. He did a nice little closet makeover for the boys' room. Here is the before picture:

And now the after photos. He added shelves on the sides (see the third photo where there's a stuffed Yoda sitting on top?) and another hanging bar down below. The shelves now store most of the board games and puzzles. The lower hanging bar now holds Alec's clothes so that he can reach them without any help from me. Soooo awesome!

I love our fashion friendly closet!