Splash - March 2016

March's splash is all about the Irish.  I found the little Irish Derby hats at the dollar store and I didn't even plan on JMichael's orange pop in the middle.  Truth is, there's very little Irish blood in our veins.  James' family is English and Scotch.  My family tree is planted in Wales, with some roots in Scotland and England.  Still, it makes a great theme, and since my birthday is St. Patrick's day, it works even better.  For the record, let me just interject that Charlotte and Samantha volunteered to face the fence.  I have been wanting to use this grouping for a while, and this picture was taken at about 10 am, so Samantha and Charlotte had literally been awake for only about thirty minutes at this point.  They are good sports, all around.

Parisian Paisley

What does the Vera Bradley Parisian Paisley Campus Backpack have to do with this picture of Josephine mowing the grass?  Well, Josephine has been wanting a new back pack for a while.  Vera Bradley makes some nice backpacks, but, man, they are pricey.  $109.00 for a kid's backpack?  Really?  So, with a little ebay hunting, I found one for a price I could swallow and Josephine will mow the yard all season - starting now.  Not a bad deal, huh?

And this zentangle of Josephine's hands?  Yeah.  It has nothing to do with this at all, but, it was on display as her art exhibit during parent teacher conferences and I think it's cool.  Josephine is a busy eleven year old.

Rachel is 18

 Rachel turned 18.  It happened very quietly and I didn't make a big deal out of it because she didn't want a big deal made out of it.  I'm not taking it as well as I thought I would.  I'm proud of her.  She's had a rough road sometimes - she's created a few messes only she could clean up and she's done an amazing job of overcoming and moving on.  She's funny; she's thoughtful; she's quick witted and honest to a fault.  And now she's an adult and she gets to vote in this presidential election.  She's so excited about that.  This picture is all of us - we went out for dessert to celebrate; the guy behind Samantha is Evan Haines.  Rachel's boyfriend.  He's a cook at a local restaurant and very sweet.  He sure seems to think the world of our Rachel.  Rachel is thrilled with him, too, but, not in any hurry to make the relationship too serious.  Whew.

She turned 18 on Monday and moved out on Tuesday.  She rented a two bedroom apartment with a co-worker.  It's a town about five minutes away by car.  So far she has electricity, but, still no water.

This is her refrigerator.  She says, I'm a work in progress.  You go girl.  And you can always take a shower at our house.  We already miss your face.

In Arkansas, your license expires on your birthday.  Rachel renewed hers on her 18th and under that yellow mark, she put her apartment's address....ah, the joys of raising independent kids.  You go girl!

Super Size Snickers

Maybe you are a fan of the American classic - the Snickers Bar.  Josephine is a huge fan.  She found this super sized five pound snickers bar a local store around Christmas and begged for it.  She said if Santa really thinks I've been good this year, he will put this in my stocking.  Every time she saw this crazy sized confection she would ask for it - and every time I would remind her that Santa has to have parents approve lists and she would NOT be getting a five pound candy bar for Christmas, even if she had been good as gold all year.  Not only was the candy too big, but, so was the price - $10.00!

Finally, after all the good kids got oversized candy for Christmas, and all the Valentine's day shoppers had picked through the racks, Josephine, to her utter delight, found one more big ole candy bar for her - in the sale bin - down now to $5.00 - which she had from a recent babysitting gig.  Doesn't she look happy?  That's what sugar and adrenaline will do to an eleven year old.  She finished it in about two days, with some help from the family.  The silver lining here is that she is not so big on supersized candy bars, or any size of snickers bars anymore.

Nite nite Samantha

This is a picture of Samantha at Walmart, seeming to pray with a bottle in her hand.  This particular drink, according to the label, will help you sleep.  Samantha doesn't need help with sleep - she's been a pro since she was little.  She LOVES to sleep.  Lately, though, she's had some bizarre dreams.  Recently she dreamed that she had to run from zombies and climbed a tree to escape them, only to be "bitten" by her boyfriend, Jonathan, who, in a creepy/sweet way, infected her, alleviating her of her fear of the zombie apocalypse.  She also dreamt lately that Rachel had married a man she didn't know and that everyone seemed fine with it while Samantha was not accepting it all and threw a fit, which got no reaction from Rachel or the rest of us.  "What's wrong with you people?"  So maybe you can understand this picture a little better now - sleep is great, but, these weird dreams, they gots-to-GO.