I'm Gonna Miss This

I love the homemade cards

and the simple sentiments found inside.

Even the older kids will throw their mom a bone occasionally with a heartfelt sentiment or two.

It makes me sad though to think our days of

homemade artwork made by budding scholars are numbered.

Yes, indeed.....

I'm gonna miss this.

The Last Full Measure of Devotion

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

President Abraham Lincoln

Seeing Green

 John has been violating dress code at school the past two days.  Green is not an approved uniform color.

Three weeks in a cast at the start of summer.

Not how we planned it, but things could be much worse.

I told Mr. Smarty Pants to hold up his arm so I could see his cast.

This is what he did.

Smart a$$

It's waterproof so he can swim with it.

The orthopedic doc also said he could play baseball, trumpet, piano, etc. with it on.

Anything he COULD do, he is allowed to do.

That's good news.

Stay out of the trees, Tarzan!

Welcome Back, Tooth Fairy!

It is not Grace this time that has teeth falling out.

Grant's tooth  has hung on for weeks.

We have wiggled and tugged, but that stubborn tooth would NOT give up and let go.

I tried again Tuesday night after dinner.  It would still not budge.

After the failed tooth extraction I had to run John to his ballgame.

En route to the game Emily called me to share the good news that 

Grant's tooth had fallen out!

She then told me the bad news that they didn't know where it had fallen out and could not find it.

David saved the day.

He found the tooth for Grant.

The tooth fairy faithfully showed up that night and placed five dollars under Grant's pillow.

He was so excited the next morning with his easy money.

He wanted to know how soon he would lose his other teeth.

Before the day was over, we were at Target buying another Hot Wheels monster truck for his collection with the money from the tooth fairy.

I better watch this kid or he'll be using a hammer on his remaining teeth so he can get some fast cash from the tooth fairy.

This is how.....

This is how.....

my daughter is systematically destroying my reputation at school.

Grace's teacher now believes I am a drug user.

Based on sentence five she probably thinks I'm having hot flashes too.

I have to have a little talk with Grace.

By "little talk" I mean telling her to knock it off!!!

She's killing me.

Grantisms - Again

Grant LOVES watching a cable tv channel called Sprout.  It is preschool programming twenty-four hours a day.

Your preschool can watch children's programs even at three in the morning.

I see a huge need for this.

(yes, that was sarcastic)

Anyway, he has learned several interesting terms from a show called The Wiggles on Sprout TV.

Crunch Bucket - cereal bowl

Wrinkle Berries - raisins

Peely Beeps - Bananas

Snoozle Bunk - Bed


Snuggle Duds - Pajamas

 

Knowing what he is talking about requires an interpreter at times.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Grant - "Hey Mom.  If I were a cat I would really like you." 

Grant - "Grace and I are the same tall now!"

Grant - "When you get home, I'll stop missing you." 

Any Other Shupe Child - "Mom!  Grant _____________!" 

                fill in the blank with one or more of the following phrases

                                                - hit me

                                                - spit on me

                                                - called me a name

                                                - kicked me

                                                - licked me

                     

Grant - "Sorry."     (Lately he says this frequently hoping to avoid trouble.  Mostly it works)

Grant - "Hey Mom.  What if God made us with no brains?" 

Mom - "Then you could be a politician."  (He totally missed the humor in that by the way.)

Bet You Can't Guess

Refrigerator

Internet

Phone

Cable



Toilet

Landscape Lighting

Irrigation system

John's arm

Cell Phone

Can you guess how these things are all alike?

If you said they are all broken.....

you would be right.


**********************

It seems like every time I turn around lately something is not working right or broken.
I never expected to add my son's name to the ever growing list of 'broken' things!

But Saturday evening that is exactly what happened.


John has now confirmed the laws of gravity.
He has also confirmed that he does NOT make a good Tarzan.


The short version of John's story is.....

go visit the grandparents

climb Grandma's tree

fall from tree

grab wrist

the end

It's really not that bad.  I took him to an after hours clinic for an x-ray before letting him go to baseball practice Sunday just in case.  They confirmed a fracture in either the radius or ulna bone in the forearm (I forgot to ask which bone) (like it mattered what its name is).  They put it in a splint and said to see an orthopedic doctor this week for a follow-up appointment.  He's on the team DL until further notice, probably two to four weeks.

We'll know more when we see the doctor.


***********************

On a lighter note, we had a nice weekend visiting with family in Illinois.
Saturday we loaded up the zoo and headed over for the day.

Part of the festivities included getting family pictures taken.

On the trip to Grandma's house as i was congratulating myself on leaving nearly a full hour ahead of schedule it occurred to me that my eldest son was wearing shorts.  Upon further inquiry we determined that he had relied upon mom to pack his clothes for the planned pictures and had no jeans (dress code for the day) with him.

Upon further investigation it was determined that the youngest Shupe (also of the male persuasion) (I'm noticing a pattern here) had failed to put any shoes in the car. 

Now this might be acceptable behavior where we come from in Kentucky, but when traveling to other regions of the country we try to conduct ourselves in civilized manners such as observing the practice of the wearing of shoes in public.

Good thing we had an extra hour.


Oh yeah, Rural King in Princeton has some really cute cowboy boots for little boys.

And how can you buy for one little Shupe and not the other?
You can't.

Rural King in Princeton has some really cute cowboy boots for little girls too.

We pulled in to the photographer's driveway right on time.
Several dollars poorer and one pair of jeans and two pair of boots richer.

Life at the zoo, ahhhh.

*****************

Double bonus for the day......

I enjoyed a lovely evening of entertainment at the alumni banquet hosted at my childhood elementary school.  What a joy to visit with old friends I have not seen in twenty or more years!  Plus I shared the evening of fun with my family.

Thanks for suggesting the idea, Grandma!

*********************

Five more days of school!
The end can not come soon enough for the Shupe zoo creatures.

The zookeeper is ready for a break too.
The clubhouse pool opens Friday.  We might be first in the gates this year!

********************

Happy Monday!

It's All In How You Look At It

If you were working in your garden hilling potatoes (our chitting must have worked, the potatoes are doing great)

(thanks for asking)

(I still like saying 'chit')

(I'll stop doing this now)

As I was saying......

if you were working in your garden hilling potatoes and turned over a stone such as this specimen.....

you would probably be unimpressed and continue hilling your potatoes.

Not so if you are five years old.

This one small stone was the launching pad for thirty minutes worth of five year old speculations as to why there was a dinosaur tooth in our garden.

What kind of dinosaur was it mom?

Is it still alive?

Will it get me if I go in to use the bathroom alone? (for the record, it did not get him)

Are there more dinosaurs here?

Did it hurt when the tooth came out?

Will my tooth hurt when it comes out?

What color are real dinosaurs?

and on

and on

and on.

Really, I was happy to be finished hilling my potatoes.

I was happier to discover my son would make a great paleontologist some day.

I was happiest to move him on to a different location and a new topic.

Thursday I went out to check the garden and to meet the farrier who is taking care of the horses.

The garden is fine.  The farrier did his work and left.

David started taking hay off the back fields.

Life is good.

Even if there are no dinosaurs living on our farm.

But we know there WERE dinosuars there once.

We have their tooth, remember?

He Wasn't Kidding!

When Grant yelled at me that I needed to come see the big ugly bird on the deck I told him I would come see it in a minute.

It's not like a crow on the deck is really newsworthy.

When he practically screamed that I had to come RIGHT NOW because there were two of them on the rail, I decided to see what all the excitement was about.

<<< Can you see both of them on the rail? >>>

This ugly guy is what was causing my son to practically give birth to kittens.

I'm not sure why they decided to visit us, but I am sure Grant and I were both glad to see them leave.

Grant wasn't kidding about the big ugly bird on the rail.

They ARE kinda ugly.

Kid Stuff

Grant has taken to drawing on himself lately.

I believe he has the code for his safe written on his arm here.

Pretty safe place to keep it huh?

Showing how to wink....

Not what Mom expects to wake up and find in bed with her on a Saturday morning.....

This one made me do a double take!

Julie

and Mackenna

playing with Grace.

The fierce dragon coming in for the kill.

Grant being.......

well,.......being GRANT!

Isn't that lovely?

Happy Wednesday!!

Goodbye Dear Friends

Today marked a milestone in the zoo.

Our youngest is no longer a preschooler.

After receiving his 'diploma',

we gathered for pictures with the other graduates.

Mrs. C has taught all four Shupe kids.

We love her.

Grant wants to have his birthday party at her house this year.

He told her so today.

We packed up our things.

We said goodbye to those we love dearly.

This is the school's coordinator.

We love her too.

Everyone headed to the playground for one last picnic and playtime.

We said goodbye to the girls from the class including Grant's bestest friend in the whole wide world...

Audrey.

Grant loves her too.

Goodbye preschool.

We will miss you.

Bargains and Tents

Times are hard.

We've resorted to this....

Grant decided to sell off Dad's inventory surplus of hats.

He was trying to make some money to buy more Hot Wheels Monster Trucks.

Unfortunately, he was reaching only a small market and sales were slow.

In fact, I was his only customer.

Business closed within a day.

The mother of all tents ever made in this house.......

and look who was in it......

She seldom ventures upstairs, but I guess she felt safe from kids and dogs under the kitchen table.

These were taken right after my floors were refinished.

As you can tell from the pictures there was virtually no change in color.

Now if I could just figure out how to keep dogs, cats, kids, toys and balls from destroying the shiny new finish.

I know....in my dreams.

Road trip

or more accurately

off road trip

Load up the Rhino with a few kids

and head to one of the creeks

Let your youngest pick flowers for you

and more flowers

and MORE flowers

What better gift could a mother want on Mother's Day?

Happy Mother's Day!!