Season #13 done!

Today was our last day of soccer. We thought it might be a rainy day, but the clouds cleared out and everything was great! Aaron has really improved this season. In fact, his whole team was working together and playing great today.

DON'T FORGET THE DAILY DAD PHOTO!

Dad with Aaron - 1998

Pics with Madelyn

This morning we headed off to the park to take Madelyn's photos. I haven't got a chance to edit them yet, but I thought this was funny. I was taking Madelyn & Becky's photo and David wanted to jump in and give his mommy a hug as well. The look on Madelyn's face! I know she's thinking, "Hey! This is my photo shoot!" :)

Then we stopped at Heather's for a few minutes to drop something off. It gave Rachel a chance to hang out with her buddy Hayden for a bit.

I think Hayden had been playing in the dirt, or rolling in the dirt, perhaps eating the dirt. But I'm sure it had something to do with dirt!

"Give us a big hug!!"

AND NOW, YOU KNOW IT, YOU LOVE IT...
THE DAILY DAD PHOTO

July 4, 2001 - 4th of July parade in Lebanon, IN. Mom, Daniel, & Peter were dressed up as clowns handing out stuff from our church. But I guess if you're driving the vehicle you don't need full clown gear. The wig will do!

O Happy Day!

Yes it is a happy day at the Hackney household. Last weekend Dusty's parents brought us a surprise from our hometown. Our favorite pizza joint back in Illinois, Dimaggio's, has started bottling and selling their sauce! We've found some good pizza here, (the pepperoni breadsticks from So Itailian are hard to beat) but nothing quite as good as Dimaggio's. So I made a pizza tonight with the sauce that my in-laws brought me. All I can say is "Mmmmmmmm"! OK, so maybe it's not quite like having a pizza hot from Dimaggio's, but it was pretty stinkin' good. I even raised the bar a bit. Instead of the crust from the mix, I made it from scratch. (Using the bread machine of course) Now I'll have to stock up every time we go back to Illinois to visit family.

And now in the way too cute category - I took photos today at the Brockelsby's. They had a couple of kittens. Rachel loved them! Especially this little guy. He would just lay in her lap and let her pet and cuddle him.

Daily Dad Photo - Installment #3

This is my dad signing a permission slip for me for the last time. This was for a youth group trip and I was turning 18 soon after. But you've gotta love the early 90's hair!

Awana Awards

Awana is over for the summer. YEA!! It's been a lot of fun, but I'm ready for a break. The kids both got certificates tonight.

Here's Rachel receiving her certificate while her friend J.J. looks on.

Aaron getting his certificate -in a blur - he didn't slow down

AND NOW FOR THE DAILY DAD PHOTO!

Christmas 1976

That's me and Dad. I'm 1 and Dad's sporting a groovy shirt & some wicked sideburns! :)

Tomorrow we may go even further into the past.!

The Week of Dad

My dad called me today and the first thing he said was, "How is it that your mom's photo is always on your blog and I never get a photo?" Well I took that as a personal challenge! My reply, "You want a photo....you'll get a photo!" So I declare this as "The Week of Dad". It works out good since my dad's birthday is this Sunday. In addition to regular posts we will have the Daily Dad Photo. So here we go

My dad the grillmaster!

Most the time all is well. Look at that yummy chicken. Mmmmm

And then sometimes you just need to get the garden hose!

Tomorrow we'll have a blast from the past!

--Love ya Dad!

Memorial Day

I hope that you have had a great day, and that you will remember to keep our soldiers and their families in your prayers.

We had the family over for lunch today. We had good food and a good time visiting.

Aaron, Mema, and Rachel spent some time putting together a puzzle.

Mmmmmm....can't you just taste the sweet corn!

This is how Dusty relaxes. At least he's not studying for a test!

So what do you do for supper when you have a refridgerator full of leftovers from the previous two days of festivities? Make a menu of course! Write down everthing available in the fridge. Have your guys mark what they want to eat. Pull it out of the fridge and distribute.

Makes it all nice and easy! So I know you're wondering what's with the crown. Well I am the Queen of the Castle after all. :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Rachel!

We're at the end of a full fun day. Rachel turned 3 today. So decked out with a princess crown and a crown cake we kicked the party into gear. We celebrated with my Mom and Dad, Dusty's parents, Daniel, Becky and the kids. There were new toys, new clothes, and a sugar buzz from the icing that kept Rachel going until about 10:30 PM. She's now tucked into bed with her new Dora doll and Dora pillowcase.

Landscaping, Party prep and other miscellaneous

Whew...it was a full day and I'm beat. Started out with soccer followed by an exciting round of cleaning out the car. I had to get groceries for the birthday party tomorrow, and I also decided that the front flower bed needed attention. It's now sporting petunias, russian sage, and pincushion flowers. For fun there is also a turtle stepping stone, glass frog and a Happy Birthday flag for Rachel. We are tired, dirty, and ready to party with little girl. Well almost, I still have to make a cake....and wrap presents....and decorate....gotta go!!!

Candy fueled memories

I was out shopping at Meijer this evening, and they have the bins of bulk Brach candy. I happened upon the Milk Maid flavored caramel rolls and remembered how my Grandma Lynn would have them for us to eat. It wasn't something that she had all the time, but I do remember having them at her house. Well that was excuse enough for me to bag up a small scoop. So in a nostalgia-induced candy binge I got to thinking about my Grandma. She always had Pepsi for us. She would ask if we were hungry and would get out vanilla wafers or some other snack. Or she might offer a bowl of cereal, or a "bowl of nothing" as she would call it. :) My Grandma was a kind and loving, no-nonsense and practical, generous and Godly woman. And I miss her. P.S. - I did share with the kids.

Indy's Back!

Just caught the new Indiana Jones flick. A few observations

• Indy's getting older
• Harrison Ford's stunt double gets a lot of action
• But, who cares, it's still a fun movie
• There's nothing like a good theme song
• Just like the past movies the bad guys will either get ate up or burst into flame (or both)
• It doesn't matter what some movie reviewer says about the movie; you know you still want to go see it at the theater

In fact you're humming the theme song right now, aren't you!

School's OUT!

Let the quest for a schedule that is not too rigid, but will keep me from saying, "Turn off the TV" at least 10 times a day begin!

Hard to Understand

No words to describe this: From The Tennesean:

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Please join me in praying for this family.

And I am outta here!

Today was the last night for me to have to cook at church. We're on a rotation schedule and my week comes up about every 6 weeks. My partner in crime, Jackie, had to work today, so I had to get off and running quick today. Thanks to Jen, Sarah, and Heather for all the help serving! I spent the day grocery shopping, making sandwiches, making casseroles and getting it all ready for this evening. Not only was it my last night, but it was the last night for the Wednesday night meals. YEA!! Frankly all of the help is burnt out and we would like a rest.

It was also the last night for Cubbies (other than awards night), and let me say they were all in rare form. I wasn't even back in the room for a good portion of the night and by the end of it, I was beat. There was a fair amount of yelling and screaming and general loudness. I broke up one fistfight and had to reprimand one for sticking his rear end in another kids face. Good times I'm telling ya!

Fortunately the summer break is at hand. Aaron's last day of school is tomorrow. I think I'll give him about a week of messing around time and then we need to have somewhat of a schedule. Nothing strict, but there will be a list of chores and duties involved. Ahhhh Summer! Now if it would warm up.

Zoo Fun

Today our mom's group took to kiddos off to the zoo. It was a lovely day weather wise. 8 moms and 12 kids - we were quite a sight!

Rachel's favorite part today was the sharks. I heard that for a good 30 minutes, "I want to see the sharks. I WANT to SEEEEEEEEE the SHARKS!"

And just for fun - an elephant swimming. Sorry, short post - gotta run!

Goodbye gray

...and please do not come back again! Who are we kidding; it will be back. Got the hair cut and colored today. Nothing like a trip to the salon to make you feel better. I was long overdue and the gray hairs were taunting me everytime I turned on the bathroom light with its three 60-watt bulbs. Nothing like 180 watts of light to make those gray strands shine! I also went a little shorter. That's usually how I do it; grow it longer for a while and cut it back off.

I always laugh at the people on "What Not to Wear" who get jumpy about their hair. They have given these people a whole new wardrobe and set them up with a hairstylist they could probably never afford. Their hair looks awful and they get nervous and cry about getting their hair cut. If someone wanted to give me $5000 for clothes and do my hair and makeup, I would let them do just about anything short of shaving it all off!

Just the Guys

Dusty and Aaron went to a Men and Boy's overnighter at Highland Lakes this weekend. They met up with Paul and Bryson and spent the time doing manly man things like building fires, archery, shooting, grunting, scratching, and the like. Since I wasn't actually there, if you want the full account you will need to head over to Paul's Blog. Meanwhile Rachel & I went to Madelyn's 2nd birthday party. It had a ladybug picnic theme. You know, girly girl stuff. :)

Photos courtesy of Painter El Cinco

I did learn the Aaron attempted to start a coffee addiction!

And now...

for the musical stylings of Rachel!

*First some background - I was practicing a song called "Lift High" a couple days ago and Rachel has since latched on to it and likes to sing...loudly. The only phrases that she remembers are: "lift high, your chains undone", "Jesus Christ", and "lift up your heads". But she sings those parts with gusto!

Field Trip

Let's just say up front, field trips to the art museum and 10-year old boys are not the best combination. Sure, they enjoyed the contemporary art installation of the floor that they could walk on that was made up of thousands of little PVC people holding up a clear floor. That was cool.

But I could have really done with out the snickering and pointing when they would walk past a sculpture or painting where someone was not fully dressed. Not that we were seeking them out, but after all it is an art museum and you're bound to walk past one here and there.

I discovered that the place for us to be was the contemporary art floor because you can't really figure out what you're looking at up there anyway. This is called "Egyptian Barnyard". Sure, whatever!

However the highlight of my day was when we went outside on the 2nd floor balcony and my son just happens to lose his papers over the railing. The papers that he had to turn back in...for a grade! Immediatly came the response, "I'm sorry, it was an accident, I didn't mean to..." What they just jumped out of your hand? We found out after hoofing it all around the museum (on a gimpy foot) that it's virtually impossible to get to the outside ground level on that side of the museum. Fortunately we ran into the teacher and she had extra papers.

We finish up the day in the gift shop. Why? No one has any money! But hey, we need to look at the overpriced souveniers. After several minutes I heard one of the boys in my group say, "Hey Aaron, come here!" I see the boys in the back corner of the shop. Sure enough they're pointing and snickering at the art books with the, you guessed it, nude paintings on the front. "All right! Time for everyone to clear out." Mercifully the buses pulled up not too long after that and we were gone.

Adventures in Modge Podge

I admit that I was less than thrilled when I found out that we were doing paper mache as the art project for Cubbies tonight. And "yes" I know that isn't how you're supposed to spell paper mache, but the real spelling uses a bunch of fancy pronunciation marks and looks French. I am neither French nor fancy so paper mache it is! Back to Cubbies. So we let sixteen 3-5 year olds loose with paper and glue to make a pinata using a balloon.

I'll admit, it was not the unmitigated disaster that I thought it might be. (No really, I'm having a wonderful time!) It was even, dare I say it, halfway fun. By the end of the night I was only partially covered in glue.

But at least I didn't have a manicure earlier in the day, right Jackie! :)

Tomorrow I'm off with Aaron on a field trip to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for a little culture with a group of 4th graders. Fun times! Since the foot is still giving me problems, I believe I will face the day with an ACE bandage and an Advil to boot!

What?

You've never wondered what your family would look like as M&M's?

If you want to burn up at least 30 minutes, Go Be An M&M!

Tonight's musical entertainment....

provided by Rachel - the 4 note wonder. :)

We have a winner!

Several days ago I noticed that my site meter was getting close to 1,000. So I decided that visitor #1000 would get a prize. I didn't want to tell it ahead of time because I figured some of you out there would just hit refresh until you got to the magic number. It hit 1000 around noon today and the winner is - Sarah Bohrer! Congrats and I'll get your surprise to you soon.

Happy Mother's Day

The reasons I get to celebrate today: My wonderful kids!

Soccer in the Sun

After a bad start to the soccer season weatherwise we had a great sunny morning for soccer. A little on the chilly side to start, but it warmed up.

Taking it down the field

Rachel spent the morning running with Hayden

This is the group photo I do every season. It's taken from a 2nd story window at the church. I think it looks like a bunch of Skittles! Aaron is under the arrow.