Mr. Q and Miss U

Ella had a big event at school this last week. Mr. Q asked Miss U to marry him and the class had a big wedding to celebrate. Never in all three years of kindergarten with the boys did we have something so fun to attend. Mark did the honors today because I'll be going with Ella to the zoo next week. Ella was asked to wear church clothes the day of the wedding and that morning she told me, "Morgan said she doesn't have any church clothes. How come she doesn't have church clothes?" And I said, "well some people don't go to church every Sunday like we do." She looked at me like I was totally nuts.

Mark said Mrs. Jones did a great job officiating and wrote into the vows that Miss Q make "Quaker oatmeal every day" and that Mr. Q "hunt quail reguarly". There was a bridal procession and Ella was asked to be Miss U's attendant. They had a wedding cake tiered with little Debbie's zebra cakes and even danced afterwards.

Ella also brought me breakfast in bed this morning for Mother's Day. It's heavenly having the kids be older. They each get up and make their own breakfast on Saturdays and even close my door on their way down the hallway. I was sound asleep at 7:30 and Ella walked in and said, "Happy Mother's day, Momma. I brought you cereal, your favorite with cranberries." I really didn't want to wake up yet but the gesture was precious so I climbed out of bed, put pajama bottoms on and walked into the kitchen to have cereal with my daughter. I'll post more later about the things the other kids did.

After church today though, I was on the computer in the laundry room and Ella came in to color a picture. She laid her head down and was talking to me and within a few minutes she was totally quiet. I looked down and she had totally fallen asleep on the laundry room floor! I often feel like sleeping in the laundry room because it's a job that never ends but this was just too much. Adorable!

Max and Mowing

You have to love having boys that like to mow! Max has enjoyed mowing the lawn since we lived in NY and would actually get upset when he got off the bus if he could tell that we had mowed while he was at school. Our yard was much larger there so our yard here is easier for him to accomplish solo. Ben has actually started mowing too with assistance from Mark so this weekend the competition was on. Max heard Ben say that he wanted to mow so he quickly went out to the shed and got the lawn mower, started it up and mowed the front lawn all by himself. He's got a lead on Ben because as of yet the initial prep work is something Ben cannot do alone. The sibling rivalry never ends around here.

Bragging Mom

Since we've moved to Texas there is a wonderful church camp not far from where we live and last summer the three boys were able to attend because of scholarship money the camp has been graciously endowed. The boys have to ask someone for a reference and this year Ben and MT asked their teachers. I have to brag a minute and post what their teachers wrote because these forms are obviously mailed to the camp and I wanted to keep a record of what was written about each of them. The references totally made me cry. So here we go...

"Benjamin Keffer is a a fourth grade student in my classroom and he exhibits tremendous leadership qualities. I can attest that he is a young man with a promising future who would be an asset to your program. Ben stands out among his peers as he seeks opportunities to help others and regularly offers encouragement to a visually impaired classmate. He is a kind and caring person who reflects Christian values in the classroom and on the playground. He is also active in Boy Scouts and frequently responds to situations in honorable ways. I heartily urge without reservation that you offer him any financial support available, as he is deserving of any help. Your program will be rewarded for assisting this young man."

"Mark Thomas Keffer is a second grade student in my class. He has shown outstanding leadership traits and good citizenship. He is kind and considerate to others. Mark Thomas is always ready to assist others when needed. He displays a great attitude and is a positive influence on his classmates. Mark Thomas is an asset to our classroom. He is extremely bright and inquisitive and excels in all areas."

Asking for assistance can be humbling at times but this has been a wonderful exercise for our family and frankly the children would not be able to attend such a wonderful camp without the assistance. So we are so thankful for those individuals that support the camp with their donations.

Max will not be attending church camp this summer because he's going to a swim camp at the University of Texas for a week. It will be run by the US Olympic head coach and there will be 8 Olympians there as well. We are so excited for this experience! Each of the boys have skill in the pool but Max is more developed now in his techniques are they're excellent so we're anxious to see him have a wonderful swim season this year.

Some Pivacy Please

For the past couple of years whenever Ella was using the restroom and someone would walk in she'd say, "some pivacy please" and I loved it. She now inserts r's properly into her words and that sweet saying is gone but in honor of it we're taking our blog private. It's become apparent to me lately that we've had some activity on the blog that concerns me. So if you're a regular reader and I know you, email me and let me know that you'd like to continue popping in from time to time. If you're a regular reader and I don't know you, well we'll just have to see what happens. Our 4 children are the most important things in the world to us so this isn't meant to make things complicated, just give us "pivacy" in a busy blogging world.

Lost Time

Life just keeps sailing on by and my time on the blog has been zero to say the least. I know I felt as a mom to young ones several years ago that our lives were so busy and I wondered how I'd get it all done but now it's just downright nuts. We're never at home and with with the three boys playing baseball we're gone all the time. Add homework, Max's budding life as a pre-teen and church activities too, we're swamped. Life is full but very busy. So the long list of photos below summarizes some of the last month and a half.

Mark took a a trip to Augusta, Georgia to see the practice round at the Master's with his parents and only brother. They had a great time. Mark came home with a renewed desire to have the best lawn on the block so we've been out in the yard a lot this weekend. Of course it helps that I have a brother in law that works for Scott's lawn products and we get awesome freebies.

Max was confirmed on Palm Sunday and my parents were able to make the trip down to celebrate with us. It was a very special service seeing Max publically profess his beliefs. He wrote an excellent faith statement and we were so proud. All the confirmands lit small votives and Max was the last one to light his and it just wouldn't light. He finally got it to work and Pastor Harland commented on how tough it was but then as he began to pray the candle went out. I was so concerned knowing Max would be aware of it but at the end of the prayer it came to life again. Mark closed the service and said he was praying during Harland's prayer that the candle would burn brightly and it did! Max will most certainly burn brightly in the world. It's our prayer all the time as he leaves our house and enters his big world of middle school.

Baseball has been so fun this season. Max is in his last year of Majors and we prayed so hard that he'd have a coach that was encouraging, instructional and would mentor him to improve his game. We got all that and more. Coach Morrow loves the game as much as Max and he's been having a great season. His stats so far are great and we'll post them all at the end of the season. I thought I was stressed enough with one pitcher in the family but it looks like we could have two more coming right behind Max. Ben was put in as a relief pitcher two weeks ago with two boys on base and the team was attempting to make a come back. Ben struck out three boys in a row and was given the game ball that night. His face when he came home to tell me, I had a migraine that night, so Mark was thankfully on hand to catch the glory, was just priceless. And Mark Thomas is one of only three kids on his team that can throw the ball across the plate. So he's a budding star as well. He looks so cute on the mound and is also a killer short stop making excellent throws to first base tagging out more runners than I can count so far this season.

Let's see now, little Miss Ella Bella. She wanted to buy chopsticks a few weeks ago at HEB and all the kids use them regularly. Cracks me up but hey, if they eat more on their plate then I'm all for it. I've bought her a few new dresses for spring and she's had fun getting all dressed up. She managed to rob her grandmother of some jewelry while home on spring break so one pic has her with her pearls. All the kids went to Mount Vernon on their trip and had a ball. Ella told me when she got home that they saw Martha Washington's dress, necklace and hat but she immediately said, "well her dress was a reproduction but her necklace was real." Someone was listening to the docent.

And lastly, little Whiskers. One little photo of the cat that has come so far from her humble beginnings. She was left dumped in a trash can nearly a year ago at the YMCA and now she roams the house with a sense of pretentiousness. She's super sweet and will purr at just about anyone or anything and lately she's taken to napping in the front dining room window in a hand painted southern living at home bowl.

We're crazy busy but happy, healthy and thankful for all that the Lord has given to us. Especially on this Easter Sunday. Ever mindful of our imperfections and the grace God bestowed upon us to send his son to give his life for ours.

Pet Rocks and Middle School

There's just never enough time in the day to post to our blog it seems lately so this will be brief. Baseball season has started so we're home even less but we're all ready for the big capping ceremony and for the season to get underway. Three boys in different leagues, practices each at least twice a week and you can tell why I'm never at home. Maybe I should take my laptop to the fields and post from there.

Anyway, short, funny story. Max is now in 6th grade at the middle school and he's a great student, in all honors classes. The work is not for the faint of heart though. I can't even help him with his math anymore. Thank God Mark is gifted in the subject. He gets in my car most days when I pick him up and tells me how bored he's been all day. Not sure if things are not challenging enough or if he's just giving me a line. So earlier in the week Ella is wandering around the front yard looking for a rock. She asks her older brother to help her find one and he is quite puzzled at the request and asks her why on earth she needs to find a rock.

She quickly tells him that she'll be painting it at school the next day because they're all making pet rocks in class. Max turns and looks right at me and says, "I want to go back to kindergarten."

Boys will be Boys

I have known for years and years that boys are different than girls. From the very beginning when we had one and then added two more our lives have been full of noise, dirt and squabbles. When Ella finally made her debut I was completely shocked at how different they really are. So needless to say I could write about story after story but will let only detail this one for the day.

We've seen a lot of things break through the years but since we've lived in this house the boys have broken three panes of glass in different windows and if you know me well enough you'll know that my house is my sanctuary and I take great pride in keeping it clean and having it look nice. So broken window panes don't exactly fall under either of those categories. My husband, whom I love dearly, is not the most handy dandy of men. So he's just covered them up with plastic and duct tape. Oh so lovely. I cringe every time I look at them because they look awful and if I knew how to fix them believe me I would. I also know that I could call a glass company but money is never in abundance around here so it wasn't high on the priority list.

Well yesterday Ben and MT came running home while I was out front working in my flower beds and they had these two rather large dogs running right behind them. Ben said they were up in the road several blocks down and they didn't want them to get hurt so they just brought them home with them. "Oh no you don't" I said, "let them go and they'll find their home." Being the ever obedient child, Ben took the dogs and put them in our back yard and then got the phone to call the owners listed on one of their tags. I could hear him say, "Do you have two golden retrievers?" and then he said, "We have them at our house." I said let me talk to them, thinking that they'd think they'd been kidnapped since Ben gave no other details. So I told the man where we lived and he promptly sent someone over to get them.

When the owner's fiance came over she was so glad the boys had found the dogs and thanked them for being so kind. She then looked at me and said, "my fiance owns a glass company and he told me to tell you to call him if you needed any glass work done and we'd do it for free." Did you hear that FREE!!! So obviously, I then looked at the boys after the nice woman drove away and thanked them for doing such a kind deed. Ben looked at me and said, "you're only happy now because we can get our windows fixed."