SUDS!!

I don't think I even had time to share this with anyone personally while I was there this weekend, so I'll do it here. I was met upon my return to F.W. with Michael telling me the dishwasher was leaking. It's fairly new, so I was a little concerned that it was already broken. Anyway, I pulled it out and started it running so I could check all the hoses. I didn't see anything leaking, so I just let it keep running to see what would happen. I did think it was odd that the water coming through the hose to the top spin-sprayer look very foamy, but since I don't usually have it pulled out and uncovered, was willing to see what that was about. So I'm cooking supper, and suddenly, I see foam start pouring out the bottom of the door and washing across the floor. When I opened the door, there was foam all the way to the top. It was like an "I Love Lucy" episode, (sort of). So after I ran for towels to stop the flow, I called Michael downstairs and asked who had started it and what kind of soap they had used. He asked, and the guy who had done it (who shall remain nameless, because I'm just thrilled somebody there washes the dishes) came and said that he thought it was one of several bottles that he pointed out under the sink, none of which were made for the dishwasher. It was somewhat strange because he's used the dishwasher before many times (as I said, he's the only one who really keeps the dishes washed). I think he felt really bad, but I just thought it was very funny. It takes way more than that to get me worked up and I was thrilled it wasn't broken. Anyway, after about 5-6 runnings(?) of the dishwasher, we were finally foam free and ready to wash. And that was one very clean load of dishes. So hopefully everyone will choose dishwashing soap carefully from now on. Michele and I didn't think to take pictures until about halfway through the defoaming process, so they aren't as impressive as they could have been, but you can get the general idea.

Notice how few dishes guys consider to be a full load. But, as I said, I'm just glad someone washes them.

Guys - gotta love 'em (I guess) - I've certainly got more than my fair share of them.

The Internet is working at home and Michele is cooking supper, so I'm going to try to post some pics from Groom. I'll do a few separate posts in case it decides to shut down on me.

I'll start with cross pictures because I like them. For those who don't know, Groom is home to the tallest free-standing cross in the Western Hemisphere. I don't know if you can tell how tall it really is from the pictures. It was evening, so we got to use the sun for some nice effects.

The cross stands in a large circle that is surrounded

by a progression of scenes of Jesus carrying the cross.

The shadow of the cross. That's a great song, by the way.

After you make the entire circle, there is a depiction of the

last supper and then up a hill, the crucifixion.

A view of the cross from the hill.

There were a couple more, but it kept cutting off before it finished uploading, so I'm going to try to post this much and maybe add the rest later.

Because of my AMAZING editing skills...

This is Michele by the way, anyway I edited the picture of Michael that was on the last blog. So I decided to post it. I think this looks better.

Good luck at your first day!!!!!!

First Day of School

4 Months

4 Years

18 Years

I'll ask the question again. How did our babies get so old? Time flies so quickly. Michael's first day of COLLEGE is tomorrow. He will be attending The College at Southwestern. He'll be taking 4 classes and working 30+ hours at McKinney Bible Church. I think that job will involve less stress than the managing job at Sonic. (Dealing with the crazy people all day was getting at little old.)

I hope you have a great year. I know you'll work hard.

I love you, Michael!

My cute little skiers at 6 and 2!



My cute bigger skiers!

We gathered those pictures for Senior Recognition Service but thought I'd share them here, since those were kind of hard to see.

The other kids have started school already. They usually start with some enthusiasm, which quickly fades. We're still in the enthusiasm stage right now. Evan keeps telling me I'm the best teacher EVER! Of course, I'm the only teacher he's ever known, so with no competition, I'm not sure what sort of endorsement that is. Michele is insisting that she's going to finish in two years which is a year ahead of schedule, according to her age and starting point (since we moved her up a grade) - we'll see if she will keep up a pace to accomplish that. Aaron is still uniquely Aaron. I'm still looking for a language course in Swahili for the budding linguist. He was concerned last night that he can't type as fast as me - was becoming quite disturbed by the fact. I finally convinced him he just needed to keep practicing. He's been quite a good (and correct) little typist for several years (thanks to Timon and Pumba) compared to my texting children. They type very much like they text. They are very fast, but a typing teacher would probably have a fit watching them, and I'm pretty certain their method is not the most efficient. Note to self - pull out the Mavis Beacon (or Typing with Timon and Pumba) and try to convince them they'll thank me later if they master typing the correct way now. Teaching them all (or the three remaining ones, I guess) gets more challenging all the time especially while working too. I sometimes wish for the days when they were small and we all sat around learning together, studying anything and everything, reading wonderful books together - those were very special days. I'm so thankful we had them. I hope they've shaped in a small way the great kids they are growing in to. I love you all!
I hope it's a wonderful productive year for all of us.

And I hope this post works, since I've skipped out on work all day to figure it out.

And since I think I also figured the picture thing out, I'll post some of the other kids "doing school" soon. I'll see if this post works at all first.

I couldn't figure out how to get rid of these pictures, so I'll leave them here at the end. I'm afraid to mess with this post too much more in case I mess it up.

Just Trying...

to figure this stupid thing out for my mom (this is Michele by the way) and it wont let me download any pictures. does anybody know why???