A Lovely Saturday

Lovely is just the word to describe our Saturday family day.  We all slept in a little followed by some snuggle time with the girls as they crawled into our bed all sleepy eyed, but ready for the day.  While they watched cartoons I made a big breakfast of biscuits, scrambled eggs, and sausage.  After we stuffed ourselves, we cleaned up and took the girls to a noon showing of Kung Fu Panda at the dollar theater.  The girls loved it and so did we.  They always feel like such grown ups getting to sit in the seats all by themselves eating bags of popcorn.  Just wait until we actually pay for them to go to a "real theater!"  Ha!  

As we left the theater we decided to take them to a local park to play and run off some energy after sitting for awhile during the movie.  We had fun, but it was incredibly hot and their little faces were beet red in a matter of minutes. Inspired by our movie we did manage to try out our kung fu moves on each other.  The girls thought it was hilarious, but I'm pretty sure I looked like a moron to anyone looking on from a distance.  

The late afternoon hours were spent at home having a "family reading time" in the living room.  The girls brought in a big pile of books from their room to play "library", a favorite game of theirs, while I settled in on the couch with my book and Mike alternately worked on his laptop and flipped through a magazine.  The girls meanwhile took turns as one "checked out" her book selections and the other (the librarian) stamped the books.  We have a very old fashioned library at our house where we stamp the books instead of scan their barcodes.  I'm currently searching for an old card catalog box and am preparing lessons on the Dewey Decimal system.  

After a dinner of leftover pizza from Friday night, the girls were bathed and put to bed without much fuss.  A storm eventually moved in bringing a beautiful cloudy grey sky and a fantastic lightning display.  Oh and the thunder to go with it was great!  Growing up in Oklahoma I've learned to love the sounds of an approaching storm.  Especially when I know it's not a dangerous one.  The power flickered a few times, so I lit a candle in the kitchen, then settled down in our big comfy chair to finish my book, The Namesake.  I ended up finishing it around 11:00 only breaking to bake a tray of chocolate chip cookies. Yum.  

I love simple days like this.  Just Mike, my girls and the day ahead.  This morning on the way to church, Hannah said, "Mama, we had a fun day yesterday?" her voice lifting at the end as if it was a question instead of a statement.  I replied, "Yep.  We sure did have a fun day."  

The Ninety and Nine

I found this video on youtube and my girls have probably watched it a hundred times now.  The claymation was done by a group of kids at a Christian arts camp, and the song is by Andrew Peterson whose Christmas album I absolutely love. So without further ado, I present to you "The Sheep Song" (as the Banana and Bee like to call it).....

">

I swear the girls have all the lyrics memorized by now, but I'm glad that they do. What an awesome little message for them to learn-- that our Shepherd will always search for the one who is lost and "rejoice when he finds his sheep!"  This is definitely our cool find for the week.  

Living for Today

Look at these faces.  So happy, carefree and enjoying the moment.  Not worrying about yesterday or even ten minutes in the future.  They are just enjoying the now.  We took these pictures last week on one of our frequent walks to a nearby park. We had such a good time.  The girls played well together and laughed a lot.  We had nowhere we had to be and it felt so good.  Sometimes I can learn from my kids, and what I've learned lately is to just relish the moment.  Breathe it in. I tend to be in a hurry, always looking ahead to the next thing we have to do or the next chore that needs to get done.  It can put me in frenzied state which is a state I don't like to be in.  So, if the girls want an impromptu dress up session or game of red light/green light, I want to embrace this time and just go with it.  I don't want to waste my time now worrying about tomorrow.  My girls certainly don't worry about tomorrow.  They just live life today. 

Sick Girl

I'm finally coming out of a few days of being sick.  Strep throat sick.  I had a round of strep back in April, but I guess it wasn't finished with me yet.  I woke up Thursday morning around 4:00 am chilled, achy and my throat felt like it was on fire.  I knew instantly what was wrong, so around 9:00 I headed off to the doctor and sure enough, my strep test was positive.  In fact, when my doctor looked at my throat she visibly cringed and said, "Your throat is as red as raw meat!" Gross.

Thankfully, my parents live close by and are so good at helping me out.  I dropped the girls off with them on my way to the doctor Thursday morning and they kept them until 5:00 that evening.  I spent the entire day in my bed alternately sleeping, reading, and watching tv.  At 5:30 Mike got home and instantly took over so I could continue to rest and let my antibiotics do their thing.  After a day like that and a great night's sleep, I feel like a new woman today.  Even still, my parents came over this morning and took the girls for another day so I could continue to recover.  I am extremely grateful for my family.  There's just no way I could have taken good care of them yesterday.  I imagine Mike walking in to find me passed out on the couch while the girls would be running around naked with every toy strewn about the house.  Not a pretty sight.  

So, thank you my dear parents and husband.  I couldn't do it without you!

Rain and Sky

I've forgotten just how nice it is to be at home on a cool, rainy day. We are happily being relieved from the blistering Oklahoma August heat with a few days of clouds and the pitter-patter of rain drops. It lulled us to sleep last night and whispered us out of bed this morning. Now I'm a summer girl. I love laid back summer days, swimming at the lake; I even like the heat. But today is making me long for fall. For jeans and jacket days. For changing leaves and a chill in the air. And the sound of an OU football game on a Saturday afternoon. When God planned out the seasons, he knew exactly what he was doing because just as I'm tired of one particular season, the next one always follows. What a reminder of His consistent faithfulness.

And one bonus to living in a "big sky" state is the awesome views we get no matter what the season is. Like this sky the other night as I watched the sun set:


Or this view from our backyard as we played with the girls after dinner:

But today we're looking at this:

And this:

And that's okay with me.  I think my grass and trees and flowers are all breathing a collective sigh of relief!

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night

And I love the rain.

--Langston Hughes

I Killed That

Yes, that is a scorpion.  I hate scorpions.  In my opinion they are offspring of the devil and are only on the earth to do his evil bidding.  I had yet to meet a scorpion face to face until a few nights ago when this guy met his ultimate demise. The story goes like this:  Mike was working late and I had grilled hot dogs for the girls and myself for dinner.  The hot dogs were eaten, the dishes put away, and after the sun went down, the girls were snoozing in their beds while I was lounging on the couch watching tv.  Around 11:00 I decided to head off to bed when a panicked thought crossed my mind, Did I turn the grill off?  I went to the back door ready to run out into the darkness with my bare feet when another thought went through my brain, I hope I don't step on anything gross (i.e. june bugs or spiders....scorpions weren't even in my thoughts).  I slipped on some nearby flip flops and turned on the porch light.  I ran outside, saw that the grill was in fact off, then turned around and headed back to the door.  

And there it was.  Staring at me with it's evil pinchers and it's tail curled up ready to sting me out of spite (I'm sure). Now, granted he wasn't a huge scorpion, but big enough for me to actually scream, run inside and slam the door as if he was in hot pursuit of me.  I quickly looked around my kitchen for something heavy.  A stock pot?  No, it's new and shouldn't have scorpion guts on it.  I couldn't cook pasta in it again without cringing.  A heavy cookbook?  No, that's gross.  Then I saw my broom propped up against the wall.  Maybe if I turned it upside down and used the handle? It was worth a try, so I grabbed it and ran outside.  The demonic scorpion was still there poised and ready to deliver some pain. I raised my broom up and started maniacally stabbing at it.  My first try was a direct hit.  The scorpion attempted to limp away, but my quick broom handling skills prevented him from getting anywhere.  At this point my apparent subconscious psycho killer personality came out and I think I stabbed the poor scorpion a few more times than was necessary to do the job.  But I eventually came to and realized he was dead.  As a doornail.  I did it!  I thought to myself. Then I looked at the broom handle and saw all the guts. One Clorox wipe later, it was as good as new.  

I left the carcass out on the porch to show Mike and the girls the next day.  They were all very impressed and slightly concerned at my apparent joy over the scorpion's death.  Just call me Emily "Scorpion Killer" Galloway from now on.

Thanks.  

Red, White and Blue

I just love watching the Olympics. For the seventeen days that the games are on on tv they are my "go to" thing to watch. My favorite events to watch are swimming, track & field, and gymnastics. But I also find myself watching sports I never even think about. This afternoon I was watching the USA women's water polo team take on China and I caught myself glued to the screen. For water polo!

Me and the Olympics go way back. The first games I remember watching were the 1984 games in LA. I looked on in awe as Mary Lou Retton in her American flag leotard won gymnastic gold. I also remember the 1992 Shannon Miller craze (especially here in Oklahoma). I even remember her little poof of bangs bouncing around as she tumbled across the floor. Oh and remember in 1996 when Kerri Strug landed her vault on one leg?! I guess gymnastics really is my favorite sport to watch since all of my memories seem to revolve around it. I think I always secretly wished I was as strong and flexible and talented as those amazing athletes! I can dream.

Even more than gymnastics, the thing that really gets me is hearing our national anthem being played and watching the winning Olympians on the medal stand. I think I watch the ceremony with a goofy grin on my face and a slight tear in my eye. I'm just patriotic like that. Anyone else have favorite Olympic memories from past or present?

O're the land of the free and the home of the brave......

What I Do

Recently my dad showed the girls a picture of one of the natural gas wells he works on.  It was taken from atop a tall crane and gave a great view of all the trucks and other massive cranes and heavy equipment used.  We told them, "This is where PaPa works."  Then I overheard my mom ask Hannah, "Do you know where your Daddy works?"  Hannah replied, "On a computer."  I smiled at just how accurate she got it.  He really does use his computer quite a bit.  Next my mom asked, "Do you know what your Mommy does?"  

At this point I thought for a few seconds about her possible answer.  Would she say that I'm a teacher?  I mean, I worked for the first two and a half years of her little life.  I've told her many stories of being a teacher and she's been to my old classroom on several occasions.  Or would she simply say that I take care of her?  Or that I stay home to be her Mommy? And then the answer came....

"Oh, she just cleans the kitchen."

The Days Before Email

My mom recently gave me a stack of old cards that she cleaned out of her stash. What a cool find!  Not only do they have a very cool 1980's vibe, but I love the variety of reasons people used to send cards.  I mean, "Happy Thanksgiving"? Do people still send cards at Thanksgiving?  I love it!  These cards have inspired me to start sending more "real mail."  I so vividly remember the days before email.  When I would write a four page letter on college ruled notebook paper, send it off, and start counting down the days until I might receive a reply.  Checking the mail each day was an adventure. Now all I get is bills, Blockbuster movies and the Buyer's Guide.  The occasional baby shower invitation sometimes slips its way in there which is like a little treat.  I think it says a lot when a person sits down and actually hand writes a note of thanks or encouragement.  Don't get me wrong, I love a full email inbox, but I also am nostalgic for the way we used to communicate.  So you never know when you might get a "Happy Thanksgiving" card from me in the mail!  

  

Tenkiller

This is my aunt and uncle's house at Lake Tenkiller.  We just got back from a wonderful weekend there.  And even in record breaking heat, we had a blast out on the water.  Seriously, it was 106 yesterday!
It was the girls' first time in a boat and I wasn't sure how they would react.  Would they cry?  Act scared?  Intimidated?

No, they took to the lake like little fish.  No fear.  Yes, that's them on the tube with PaPa.  They probably went out on the tube 4 or 5 times.  I went with them twice and heard their thrilled little squeals myself.  It was like riding a roller coaster to them.  Below the tube shot is a picture of Leah practicing her floating "starfish" while PaPa and Hannah catch up to us.  

We are already looking forward to going back next year.  I think we'll be ready for water skiing.  The next year we'll turn pro.  It's a little ambitious, but I think we'll make it!  wink, wink