I am a mess....but I know you all still love me.

I really wanted to blog about Toni losing her front teeth but lost the time. So much has gone by I guess I will start with today.


We had such a fun day. This morning I took the kids and the neighbors to a water play scape and it was so much fun. All free of course. One of our friends met us there and soon we had kids running every which way. I had a Doc appointment at three so we all headed home to throw some food at the kids and see what they could catch and eat (that is really what it feels like). Lia decided that she was going to take a chance at the mall with 4 kiddo's while I went to the doc apt. I drove her down to the mall and dropped them all off. Lucky me the apt only lasted about an hour and then I was back to playing. While out I decided to grab some t-shirts from old navy that had the flag on them for a cute picture that I had in mind. Well... turns out that by July 2nd Old Navy is all out of $5 T-shirts. Fine then! We all ventured home. I looked through the kids shirts and found some plain white shirts for each of them. I told the kids that we were going to clean for our half an hour and then instead of school work today we were going to paint. The kids love art. Cleaning went by very quickly and soon the kids were out and ready to go. I taped off Mikey's shirt so he could see a rectangle and showed him a picture of the American flag. OH and by tape off, I mean search the house for 10 min. looking for any painters tape or something along those line. See...I know I had my hands on the blue painters tape just two days ago...grrrr where did I put it. FINE...I was going to go with just plain masking tape. I mean, really, who is that picky anyway. So after not being able to find that, I ran across electrical tape. And not the one I bought yesterday to fix the phone because I could not find ANY electrical ANYWHERE... No I mean the really old tape in the back of a draw that I really don't want to talk about. Anyway, so now that Mikey's shirt looks like a big mess with electrical tape all over it, I let the little man have a brush. Toni refused to have her shirt taped saying that she is an expert in the Lone Star Flag and the American Flag. I pretty much just left her on her own. The kids painted there shirts with such pride that you would have thought they were painting the 16th Chapel. Once the shirts were painted I hung them on the line outside to dry. Toni's dried in about 5 min. Mikeys took over half and hour due to all the paint he piled on. Mikey loved making the dots for the stars on the flag and got a little carried away. If you look at Toni's shirt she has exactly 50 stars (and I am sure this is not surprising to anyone). It was so much fun watching them paint and have fun. After they dried I let them put them on....look in the mirror at how nice they looked...practice there smile in the mirror and then out the door to the front yard for pix. My kids are fun to take pictures of. Their faces crack me up. Mikey wants to have a pretty smile for me...but he can't help his little fake one. After all the pix were taken (you know...mommy is done)...we took off for the pool. I took the underwater camera for that adventure. Toni and Mikey stayed in the pool till 8:45. I finally made them get out and jump on the trampoline to dry off a bit. I was jumping with them and then fireworks started going off. Mikey freaked out a little saying...."Mommy, some one is shooting at us". I told him it was nothing to worry about and showed him in the sky where the lights were. Not enough. He liked the look of the sparks but could not get over the dark and loud bangs. We came in. Both the kids did not want to be alone in the house after dark and came to my room while I changed in the bathroom. Mikey was still scared so Toni asked him if he wanted her to pray for them. He was happy about this idea. It was so sweet. Toni grabbed his little hands and started praying. Not the "Keep us safe Lord" prayer either...I mean really praying. Like, Thank you God for this wonderful day and all the sun shine, Thank you for all of our friends we saw today, I know you will keep us safe even when all the noise is outside, Please help Mikey not to be afraid and know that you are always here with us, Please help the dogs outside not to freak out, and then at the end she asked one more thing "and please let Mommy play with us and do art with us every day...in Jesus name...Amen" I love her. Anyway...Mikey was doing better after that for a little while but then the noise got the best of him again. This time Mikey found sister on his own this time and said "Sister...could you pray for us again?" . She did. Anyway that was our day today. The kids had a blast and so did their mommy.

VBS Crocodile Dock

Toni and two of the girls from her crew

My interactive bayou...the baby snakes.

Our door to our craft room "Craw fish crafts"...yes I drew the craw fish LOL

Toni and Elizabeth playing with the snakes on day two (Snakes are Larry and Joe)

....don't try and count them...over 50.

...I am a dork....but a fun one.

Our church has a wonderful VBS that grows every year. This year we had 574 kids pass through our wonderful Crocodile Dock. I signed up to be a station leader....crafts of course. Let me explain a little bit. First we have to have over 100 volunteers to start. I think we ended up with over 130 but needed more like 150...anyway. Now VBS is open to the public for kids who have completed Kindergarten thru 5th grade. Here is the cool part...we have a preschool VBS as well but it is only available for the VBS workers kids. So...Toni goes to big VBS and Mikey is in the preschool wing having a very fun time with 30 plus kids, he gets to enjoy all the stuff of VBS plus more because his starts when the workers need to be there....7:55. Big VBS starts at 9 a.m. and lasts till 12:30. There are several parts of VBS first we have crew leaders and these are the people that get assigned the kids when they walk in the door. We need more crew leaders than any other position so we call all the teens and adults from the church to help. Each crew has 2 leaders and between 7 and 25 children depending on the experience level of the crew leaders. In Toni's crew she had 14 kids and two very energetic teen girls. Now the crew leaders job is gather up there kids and head to there very own crew room and wait for any late arrival's. Once they are in there room and accounted for they lead there crew from station to station all day. The crew leaders act like cheer leader and help the kids have a fun filled time of learning the bible. They paint there hair...there face...and most of all help the kids write Gods Word on there hearts. They are to help station leaders keep the kids under control and behaved during station times. There are spirit awards for crews with the most spirit. Now don't think these crew leaders get off easy because they just lead from station to station. The Sunday before VBS starts we have a huge dinner and decoration party. Everyone attends...crew leaders and station leaders. We all talk about our stations and rules one last time and then everyone heads to there station or crew room to decorate for the coming week. My station and the other lady with me stayed till around 9 p.m. to rearrange our room and decorate. When we left we saw tons of crew leaders still cutting paper and making decorations for there walls. The last crew leader did not leave the church till after 11 pm. Talk about a well decorated church. Every room...every space was taken and decorated. The large rooms were divided into sections so we could have more rooms. The second part is station leaders. We have Outside games and that needs a few station leaders...we have our big production on stage with singing, dancing, and short skits....that has 3 main singers and then lighting and sound guys... so lets say 6 leaders for that...then we have Bible Blast stories (very important) and that has 2 leaders per room (3 rooms/stations so 6 people all in all)...we have a short video drama that plays 15 min. a day called chatter (3 stations...3 people), we also have craft stations...3 stations..2 people per station (this is where I come in). I am one of six craft leaders. I can not fully explain what goes on in other stations but crafts I know. First lets go back a few months. All the craft station leaders have had meetings about what we are going to be doing and suggestions on the crafts to make life easier in the rooms and then tons of projects to take home and cut, sort, measure...you name it. My station was fun! The other lady (Judy) and I worked last year together doing the same thing. Judy and I decorated our very own snake pond. We put up a interactive bayou that we did not mind the kids playing with and jumping on. We have about 20 min. with each group that walks in the station and that gives us just enough time to explain how to do the craft, relate the craft to the days bible lesson and then help and play with the kids till time is up. Some of the kids finish faster than others...some really really really take there time and make everything perfect and some just slap it together and then need to be entertained. We kept word finds in the room for the kids that finished early and needed to be busy...we also let them take our snakes out and play. The first day we took our "grow-a-snakes" out of the package they were about 12" long...by day five they were over 3 feet long and today about 4'6". The kids loved our room....but there were sooooo many piled in at one time. One of our groups (three crews make up a group) was over 50 kids. Man it was fun! From 8 in the morning till 1 every afternoon last week I was having a blast at VBS. My daughter ended up in tears when she found out the VBS was only one week long and not all summer (truly a heart breaking moment). Mikey was very well behaved and did all that was asked of him (after the first day). The first day was funny for him. He was very well behaved but my little man is a story teller. The teacher pulled out markers and Mikey informed her that he is not allowed to play with markers and that his mom would get him in trouble if he did. Then later that day she pulled out stickers to decorate there VBS bag they would be using all week.....well...same thing. "I am not allowed to play with stickers or stick them on anything". Lucky for me his teacher knew me and just kind of laughed him of and told him she would take the blame...then her happily obliged. Toni was having a blast till they went outside to game...the second day they had water balloons and one broke on the ground beside her and she refused to play because she did not want to get dirty...yep sat on the side lines. Soon she had a follower who decided to keep her company. WHAT...this is Toni...the girl who will lay in the dirt and make dirt angels. She is silly and has her moods. I thought that was funny when the teacher was secretly telling me. My kids are a trip.

Toni's Kindergarten Graduation

Toni had such a great time all year in Kindergarten. She is loved by all her classmates and her teacher simply adored her. I am one proud mommy! I knew graduation was coming and I was looking forward to summer and swimming all the time... but I did not even stop and think about how fast the year went by. My mom is such a trooper when it comes to my kiddo's and let me tell you why. I am 31 and the youngest of three so that makes my mom... 29 right? Well you would think so after this. My mom works crazy long hours. She gets up at like 4:30 in the a.m. and works a 12 hour shift...then drives an hour home before crashing early just to do it again. I called mom and told her that Toni's kinder graduation was on her first day off and I would understand if she could not make it....HA. My wonderful mom worked 4 days in a row...12 hour shifts and in order to make it here for my daughter she drove strait from work all the way to Austin. That's right got up at 4:30....worked all day...left work that evening and drove into the night to be here. She did not come into the door till 11PM. The next morning my little Toni girl was up getting ready for school hugging on her grandma and was as happy as could be. John, Mikey, Kaelyn, Grandma, and myself headed to school for the 8:30 in the morning graduation. I did not expect much as I have never been to a Kinder graduation. It was fun! They had slide shows of all the kiddo's through out the year. Toni made the slide show a few times and it was fun to see all what they did in a years time. My husband even made the slide show! When we went on the field trip they captured him and Toni together and flipped it on the big screen. Then all the kids sang songs together...walked the stage and received there Kinder certificates...so cute. I know my kids are taken care of at school and you can tell because all the kids love the teachers and the principal. The principal got up to make her speech and could not get through it with out crying, she loves ALL these kids and was truly amazed at how smart this particular class was. Toni's teacher got up and talked about her class and how in the years past the lesson plans have worked just fine to keep the kids busy all day and learning...well not this year. She said that she had to come up with more stuff and lessons to do because this year the kids picked up everything so fast. She was giving our kindergartners 1st and 2nd grade work to challenge them. I kept it together for the most part only fighting tears every now and then and then feeling silly for tearing because it is not like she is graduating high school or college. Over all it was wonderful to watch all these kids shine and smile with life and love for there school. CC Mason rocks! ......ok so the last thing I need to share is when I did cry. It was the last day of school (5 school days after graduation...silly I know). Everything was normal, Toni was off to school, Mikey and I hung out for the day, the time came to go pick them up and I got sad. I took Mikey over to my neighbor's house and headed to go get my girl. I sat in the parking lot for about 50 min. waiting for Toni and the neighbor to come out and it hit me....My girl is not a kindergartner anymore...she is in school...real school. A school that is public, attendance matters, grades matter, everything matters and I don't have a baby...or a toddler....I have a grade school child. 1st grade. I teach 1st grade at church and have for 3 years....and now my daughter just turned into that big kid that I teach. WHAT?

Kindergarten Field trip

Last week The kinder class at CC. Mason Elementary took off for Sweet Berry Farms only an hour and a half away from their school.   You would think be the excitement from the 6 year old's they were leaving the country.  All students had to ride the bus there and then fun and activities all day.  Lucky us the PTO picked up all the cost for the students and parents and siblings were invited to go as well.  Mikey was so happy to go hand out with his sister and see all her friends.  John, Mikey, and I all loaded up in the car bright and early as we did not want to miss anything.   We ended up getting to the farm 20 min early  (this might be a first for the Tichi family....early).   We decided to just go play with the baby goats running around till they got there.  When we entered the farm we saw little cups of goat food for 25 cents and bought a few so our boy could feed the goats.  At first Mikey and goats were shy of each other and only one or two would come up.  He loved petting them and now wants a baby goat for our house (we already have too many animals).  Well the more acquainted the little goats got with Mikey the pushier they became.  Soon several goat were fighting for Mikeys food and attention and as luck would have it Mikey was on the receiving end of a head butt.  Yep....one of the goats raised up and went to butt the other but the defending goat moved and Mikey had a head butt planted right square in his chest causing him to fall onto the ground rather hard.  Mikey freaked out and I had a hard time not laughing.   Mikey cried for only a min until he realized he was fine and not hurt in the least.  He went back to feeding the goats but this time with a little more respects for them.  

The buses finally pulled in and tons of little kids with stars in there eyes came off the buses.  All the teachers lined there classes up and we fell in line with Toni's class.   They all had a picnic lunch out at the tables and then off to the strawberry patches we went.  They learned about good bugs and bad bugs first and then they all got there very own ladybug to go release on a strawberry plant. (Ladybugs eat aphids and aphids are the main destroyer of straw berries).  All the Kinder kids were happy to release the bug but Mikey....not so much.  He was in tears because he wanted to take the bug home.  Daddy talked him down and then finally he let his bug go.  Next all of the kids got to pick a basket full of straw berries to take home.  They loved picking there own food.  After all the picking everyone headed to the strawberry guns...it was air powered straw berry flinging messy fun.  Each class was given a banner and all the kids took turns shooting straw berries at it until it was very colorful....the teachers took it with them to hang it up in the classroom.  If was sweet watching all the kids explore the farm and learn about fruits and veggies.  They planed there own pumpkin seeds and played games until the day came to an end.  Parents were allowed to sign them out there or pick them up at school at the regular time.  We asked Toni what she wanted to do and of course she opted to ride the bus home with her class.  It was a fun day and I am so glad the whole family had the day to spend together.  Toni loves her teacher and her class...she is the biggest help with all the other kids...and Mikey.

Inks Lake State Park

John, Toni, Mikey, Kaelyn, Jessica, Devon, and I all went camping this weekend.  As normal around here we were getting off to a late start and I don't like to be late to anything.    John on the other hand is always on Tichi time which has nothing to do with real time.  I am a frustrated person and I try to stay in a good mood but BAM  I am grumpy when things go crazy.   I really wanted to get some bamboo sticks before we left for the park because you can't chop or cut wood in Texas State parks so you have to bring it all with you.  I decided for time sake to forgo the bamboo and just head out on time.  Turns out loading up all the stuff onto the trailor made my husband sweat so he decided to take a shower....hmmmmmm.....I needed to calm down.  I grabbed my little hatchet out of the car and went for a walk in our neighborhood down to this blank lot that has bamboo growing on it.  While walking down the road carrying a hatchet a cop passed me....slowed down and then stopped some ways ahead of me.   I just knew I had broken some non hatchet carrying law or something so I decided to visit my neighbor for a while till the cop left.  What a sight.  Some ticked off little white girl carring a hatchet (I should have thought this out).  Anyway.....I got the bamboo and my husband came to pick me up because.....well....he does not like to wait (so funny).   I hopped in the car and decided no matter what, I was going to be happy on the trip.  We showed up two hours later than planned.  Lucky us we had purchased our cabin that we were to stay in on line.  When we checked in they gave us a map to choose from the remaining cabins.  One handicap, and only two regualar ones left.   Nothing near the restrooms was my first thought......I have 4 kids with me and no cabins anywhere near a restroom.   Looked for the playgrounds.....nope....nothing near that either.   I smiled to mask my frustration and John picked the furthest cabin from everyone and everything.  Again I hopped into the car and said a quick prayer about being happy that we are able to go camping and to help me control myself.   We pulled up to Cabin 14 and it was not much to look at.   A concrete room is the best description but.....it had AC.  While unpacking our kayaks, fishing poles, bikes and other gear I glanced around and saw a swamp looking thing next to our cabin and hated the look of it.   I kept staring up the hill toward the restrooms and thinking....wow we have to climb that hill everytime anyone has to go.   We set the camp up and John started the fire.  We all sat down and roasted hotdogs and chili.  After lunch the kids spotted a trail from our camp site...we took it and it lead right to the best swimming hole....all granite hills and no mud to worry about.  The kids changed and we let them all swim.  Toni loved it except some times she would touch a slimy rock that had not been stepped on in a while and say "I touched the allergies again".    While the kids were swimming and playing John and Devon got the kayaks into the water.  Turns out a different trail lead to the perfect launch place and it was close to the site.  Here is this huge open park and somehow we have private trails and our own granite hill.  Also on our camp site was a jungle of vines that provided endless entertainment for my climbers.   I felt spoiled and silly for being upset at all.   We had the best place in the park and I loved every bit of it.   After all the playing, exploring, and kayaking it was time for dinner.  We had corn on the cob to roast over the fire and steak bites fully maranated.  For the kids I brought a cucumber for healthy reasons and then cut a small pizza up in pieces for them to roast on the fire (it was really good...you should try it).  They loved making there own pizza bites.  Mikey liked the steak too.  Everyone made smoores and life was good.   During dinner I heard all my favorite Christian music echoing off the rocks.  After I ate I went exploring and found a Christian band in the ampatheatre.  I sat for a while and then went back to camp.  We jumped in the kayaks and went back out to the concert to listen from the water.   It was great and not one mosquito bit anyone.   Oh...and that swamp looking thing is a heaven for birds when night falls.  So many birds flew in during the evening that it was crazy to think how many could fit into the cattails.  At night the swamp thing sounded like our own personal frog chior.   When it got to dark we played uno in the cabin with everyone till the kids passed out.  John and I went for a night walk to look for critters and saw snakes, tons of fish (cause the water is clear), crawfish, all kinds of frogs, and we snuck up on a coon....he ran off before we got a great look but he was fishing in the water and you could follow his wet trackes for a while.    I am glad God snapped me out of my mood.  We had the best time and with all the big kids with us we just took turns going to the restroom...it was really not a big deal at all.   I love Inks Lake State Park and from now on I really really really want cabin 14.  I think I should remember what I preech to the kids "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".   

Hello to all my people.

Well...so so so much has gone on that I really can't write about all of it.  Toni was diagnosed with Asthma and our whole family is suffering with allergies.  We went to Virginia for spring break to visit my sis one last time before she moves to Cuba.  Loved the visit.  It was my kiddo's, my 19 year old niece, my mom and myself in the car for the long haul.  It was so fun having my sisters kids and mine together....they play so well.   I have tons of pictures but can't share any of them.  My main computer is on the fritz and I have not had access to it for about a month.  My husband keeps "fixing" it but it still does not work.  I love that he keeps trying.  I think we need a new computer.  Anyway.  We visited my mom a week and a half ago and that was a blast.  Took the babies on an unexpected 6 mile bike ride...they did great.  I was proud of them for not giving up.  We took pictures in the blue bonnets on the way to there.  I love one of the pictures so much (again...I would share but......)  Easter was a blast.  We had a BIG eggstravaganza at the church and 1000's of eggs were hunted by 100's of kiddo's.  It was a fun morning.  They had games, crafts, shows, and of course the hunt.  We spent several hours there.  We had a little Easter egg hunt of our own here at the house too.  The kids have too much candy.  All in all we have been good.  Well....after spring break we all took turns at the doctor for about 3 days and spent over $600 to get all the proper meds to deal with the spring allergies.   It feels like the flu when you get hit hard.  We still have bills sneaking in the mail because of things our insurance won't pick up.  But the Lord never gives us more than we can handle. Check this out.  I was getting money saved to travel to my sisters and still be ok with the budget but then my mom ended up going and she paid gas and food for the whole bunch of us.  My sis picked up our hotel for two nights and my mom picked up the third night.   So when we arrived home with all of our sickness we did not even worry about the bills at the doc.  Anyway...I might be oversharing but we are just so blessed to be able to live like we do.  It seems no matter what we are always taken care of.  Ok...lets see...what am I missing here.   Let me see, I have kinda lost my mind lately too.   I can't remember what day it is most the time now.  I walk into a room and can't remember what I needed in the room.   Or I finish half of something and walk off and then can't remember what I was doing or why.  I have missed appointments, meetings, and all kinds of stuff in the past month.  I have never missed my mommy group at church and yep....you guessed it.  April snuck up on me and I just forgot we had a meeting.  I signed up for Vacation Bible School crafts this year and we had a meeting planned....totally forgot and missed it too.  April is hard LOL.  Toni is doing great in school.  I know her teacher loves her and she always does so good in class.  Her hand writing is pretty and getting better all the time.   Toni's teacher was gone for a few days and the class had a substitute teacher.  Well...Toni comes home with a thank you note from the sub saying how great she was and how much help Toni was during her few days there.   It seems everywhere my girl goes she is loved and appreciated.  She is such a wonderful little girl.  Ok...that's it for now.   Wish me luck on getting my computer back and my photoshop....and all my pictures to play with.   I need access to all my stuff.   Love to all my readers and sorry for not signing on for quite some time.   

Gotta love it!

I just wanted to update everyone. I have been so busy lately and so much goes by. Toni was sick again....but this time it was not strep....yay for Toni. Now both my kiddo's are well and happy. Good thing too because Toni will turn 6 next week (crazy girl thinks she is allowed to grow up on me). Mikey and Toni are wonderful kids and almost everyday Mikey gets his Guitar out and sings to me...or the dog...whoever seems to like it the best. Mikey can write his name finally... such a long name...Michael. I don't let him get away with Mikey....nope it is Michael. Just to show off when we were at the doctors office getting Toni tested for strep he wrote it out for the pediatrician (such a show-off). Toni's love for school reminds me of my sister. She is a truly gifted student and we received her report card today...Hand written over the top of the card was "Toni is an awesome student!" She is marked as "above expected level" the highest mark available. She has mastered every section and I am so glad she does not struggle. That being said...we found out before Christmas that Toni's best friend was moving and this was just sad news for Toni. I blogged about it because I picked her up from school and she was in tears....yep...real tears for her friend. With all that was going on in the world I felt selfish about tossing a prayer up for my daughter's happiness at school. I instead talked to her about other happy things at school like how much she loves her teacher and how much her teacher loves her. When I compare our problems with the rest of the world they seem weak. I mean should I really pray for a new best friend at school when so many kids in the world don't even have an opportunity to attend a school....or even eat every day. See...in the grand scale of things it seems selfish to pray. Instead I prayed to be thankful for what we have and not what we don't have. But we have an awesome God and I know he hears my thoughts whether I pray about them or not. He kinda spoils my family a bit and I know he loves my kids as much as I do. Last week Toni came bouncing into the house telling me about a new girl in her class room "and momma...Mrs. Douglas sat her at my table with me". I thought how lucky she was and I asked Toni what her name was. "Angel" my daughter gleamed. Now Toni draws pictures of her and calls her her new best friend. Yep that's right...God sent a friend for Toni....he sent her to Toni's class instead of any of the other 6 classes down the hall...and then sat her at my daughters table. Just to make sure I knew this was from him...he named her Angel. So the next time you think anything is too small to bring to God...just remember God loves us as much as anyone ever could and he does not want to see us hurting over anything no matter how simple or small the request is.





I hope this blog finds everyone in great health....and just know I love all my readers.