My strange son

Tyler apparently thinks worms enjoy swinging. Poor little worm.

Our first day of school!

Emily and I are officially Froggy Fours! Our first day was today and we did great! She really enjoyed having me as a teacher, although some of her friends were not as pleased to see the teacher-side of me come out! I have a great group of four-year-olds and I am really looking forward to a good year.

What a week!

The past 8 days of my life have been a whirlwind...and I am exhausted. Last Sunday, we set up for the clothing sale. For those of you that don't know, I am part of a group at my church that started a clothing sale a little more than 3 years ago. We have about 180 consignors and hundreds of shoppers. We take 20% and help clothe children in need in Memphis and on an Indian Reservation. The rest of the money goes back to the consignor as our ministry. It is very rewarding, but VERY time consuming. We basically live at church for 7 days. On top of that, I had inservice last week. They were very flexible about my schedule for the sale, so it all worked out. I, however, just about had a breakdown by the end of the week. To top it off, our downstairs air went out Friday and they have just fixed it today. We have been living in the kids' room, which had gotten old by Friday night! Our house is still in the 80's right now, but it is supposed to be cool by tonight. I NEED MY OWN BED!

Emily is Four!

To look at Emily's four year pictures, go to www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTP70501002010JCP and enter Elizabeth Patterson in the customer name.

At last!

At bedtime last night, we were still putting the finishing touches on the ol' Sunray. It looks great. The kids call it their playground. I am so glad to have it done!

Family Factory and Operation SunStroke

What a full weekend! We worked Friday night, Saturday, and today after church until dark and Operation Sunray (named Operation Sunstroke by Kathy, due to the HOT WEATHER) is done! It looks great. I will take some pictures of it in the morning.

Family Factory started back today after taking a summer break. FF is a program at our church that helps teach kids Bible-based values. It is the greatest program. I am the FF photographer, so I luckily had my camera today. They called Emily and Brent up on stage to be part of the Good Book Look. Emily was shy for a minute, then she did fine. They had to help illustrate one of Ramses' dreams. Emily was the small cow eating up the fat cow (her daddy- hee hee!)

Operation Sunray and Hot Weather

Brent tore down the old "Fort Fun" last night. It is pitiful! He got the whole thing down, so now we are ready to start construction on the Sunray!!!

It is going to be 100+ degrees all week. Tyler said that they can't go out on the playground for recess because they might get struck by a heat stroke. It's been so long since we've had any rain and it's so hot that all the water has evaporated and what is left is LOADED with iron, so all of our water is brown. Try convincing a 4 year old girl that it is OK to take a bath in brown water.

I can't help but think how people survived without A/C. In my lifetime, my grandmother did not have central heat or air. She had 2 window units for the entire house. At night, we would put cold washcloths on our faces to cool us enough to go to sleep. I cannot imagine what it was like before her window units.

Emily has her 4 year pictures today! The same photographer has done all of her (and Tyler's) pictures. Miss Brenda met us at the studio when Emily was 6 days old! I guess she'll do their senior pictures!

Operation Sunray, Day 6

We opened and inventoried all the hardware last night. Emily brought down her pretend tools to prove to Brent that she can help build the swingset. After the kids went to bed, we made the rock climbing wall. It is 105 again today, so I think the only work we will get done will have to be inside work! It will be Christmas before we get this done!

First day of First Grade

Tyler started first grade today. He didn't really seem nervous. His teacher's name is Mrs. Moore and she seems very nice and very

professional. She is older, which is a refreshing change from last year. This HAS to be a better school year!!! Shazeb and Jayden are in his class again this year. When I left him, he was sitting next to Shazeb coloring a picture. Emily cried the whole way home, but quickly remembered what it is like to have the house to herself!!!

Operation Sunray, Days 3- 5

We took Brent to the airport Thursday morning. He went to surprise his brother for Chad's 30th birthday. So, there has been no work whatsoever done on the swingset. It's been too hot anyway. My dear friend Stephanie is having a surprise baby (her only child is Tyler's age and there were no plans for any more) and her shower was today. It was fun. She is having a boy this time and it was so nice to buy for a baby that we never thought would happen!!! The kids spent the day at Mom and Dad's and we ate supper over there tonight. Now, I am trying to get the house picked up before Brent comes home tomorrow night! I am ready for him to be home where he belongs.

Meet Pup-Pup

Have you seen that old PetSmart commercial with the dachshund that has a little dog toy named Bobo? It is the cutest commercial. If you haven't seen it, you can go on YouTube and search for "dachshund commercial Bobo" and it will come up. Anyway, we bought Lucy her own Bobo yesterday. The kids chose the name Pup-Pup, though. As soon as she saw it, she knew it was for her. She is totally crazy about Pup-Pup. She carries it all over the house. Anytime we ask her where Pup-Pup is, she runs and gets it. The kids keep hiding it from her and when she find it (usually in a place she cannot reach; it's hard being 2 dogs long and half a dog tall, you know. ) she barks and barks until I get her Pup-Pup back.

Once Upon a Time

Emily went to a birthday party for her friend Caroline tonight. It was at a place called Once Upon a Time. They do all kinds of dress up parties, and Caroline chose to have a Fairy party. They all dressed up like fairies and had their make-up and nails done. Note how HUGE Emily's wings are. We had to take them off while presents were opened because no one could see around them!

What a great day...and it's only noon!

We have had the funnest day! We had to get up at the crack of dawn, for a reason I cannot tell until tomorrow. The kids wanted to be "twins" today, so they dressed in their so cool tie-dyed shirts, much to my dismay. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's this morning with Tyler's best friend, Zachary, and Anna, Abby, and Baby Josh. (Zach's big sister and 2 friends also came, but they are too cool to mention.) Tomorrow is our last day before school starts, so we decided CEC might be TOO crowded then. So, we decided on today. It didn't start to get crowded until we were leaving. Emily would run and bring me her 3 or 4 tickets to hold for her and Tyler would bring me 75 or 80 at each time. It was pretty funny. We split all tickets in the end, so it doesn't really matter. After leaving CEC, we went to Petco and got 5 new fish. We also got Lucy a new toy, which is a whole other blog entry in itself.

Tyler's BIG mistake

I taught a class to the 2nd-6th graders at camp this summer. My class was on spiritual disciples and I used baby food as an example of how we start out eating baby food and move on to bigger and better things as we grow up. I still have the baby food sitting on the dryer in the laundry room. Tyler came and got me today and and, with his light saber, pointed to the baby food and said, "Please, mom. Tell me you don't have something to tell me. "

Operation Sunray, Day 2

Brent ended up not painting at church last night, so he and the kids moved all the wood from the garage to the backyard and then organized it according to size. I have a feeling it won't be touched for several days!!! I started painting the kids' bathroom this morning. They, especially Tyler, are so excited. Emily is a little sad to see the ducks go, but I guess it is time. Anyone want to buy an entire bathroom set of cute rubber duckie stuff???

Operation Sunray, Day 1

The parts have been delivered, and the kids are reading the blueprints. It is 100 degrees today, and I have a clothing sale meeting tonight and Brent is painting at church tonight. I think there will be little change by tomorrow.

Good-bye, Big Red

As of today, our house is officially off the market. That means we get to take down the HUGE red sign in the front yard. We decided to take the house off the market because #1 the housing market has taken a drastic drop, and #2 School starts Monday and we just don't want to yank Tyler out of school after starting. So, that means changing some things around the house since we are going to be here a while longer. First, of all, I have been informed that the kids' Rubber Ducky bathroom no longer is acceptable for Tyler. So, I am going to re-d0 their bathroom in a beach theme. The playroom also needs to be painted. And the biggest project of all, we are putting in a new swingset. It was delivered yesterday in 3 million pieces. I will keep a blog update of it's progress.