Having trouble loving my neighbors...

It's only the 2nd day of summer vacation and already I wish it were August! Not for my kids sake, but so the kids next door would be gone all day! The 2 neighbor boys next door think they have to have numerous boys over to play an official game of baseball in their back yard and use our yard as an outfield. They have hit the siding on my house multiple times today and their babysitter is sitting on the back porch reading a book and completely oblivious to the situation! I have glared through the mini blinds already and they saw me but continue to smash the ball towards the house! They don't let Parker play with them because he is smaller than them so therefore, he can't go out and play in his own back yard!
We have talked for years of getting a fence but I think it has now become a necessity! I emailed Jonathan at work and told him to call and send them out for an estimate ASAP! I want a tall fence and want it as close to the border of our property as possible! That will completely stop their baseball games and I will be a much happier neighbor lady! I will also be able to send the twins outside with nothing to worry about!!! (With the exception that they will be eating dirt, etc!)
Last Sunday, Parker's memory verse was "Love thy neighbors..." We had a real lesson over that one because he said, "I hate my neighbors!" :) This week it is "Love your enemies!" He and I will have a lesson again I am sure!

Happy Memorial Day from the Waldens!

My Grandpa and Grandma Brown
Grandpa Brown serving in the military

Dad's sister, Sherry (Thompson) Riley

who passed away in 1970 at the age of 23

Unwanted Solicitors...

Yesterday, the doorbell rang and all three of my kids went running to the door! (I want to pause here and ask, "Are my kids the only kids that do this?" I absolutely hate it when they go running and stomping loudly towards the door! There is no way that I can pretend to act like we aren't home and ignore the person at the door!) I opened up the door to a man of a different ethnic background and began to listen to his sales pitch. My kids all came crawling out from under me to see who it was and for a brief moment, I was afraid he might grab one of them and run. First of all, this person said he was my neighbor. I don't EVER remember seeing him in my neighborhood before. He then "said" he was raising money for some sort of scholarship thing for him to attend Ball State. He said that before people took up money for magazine subscriptions but this time, you give money and you don't get anything! (That sort of set me off on the wrong foot just by the way he said it!) He said that the money he was getting was going towards books for Riley Hospital where his Mom worked! He then went on to show me this little piece of paper in a plastic sleeve. It had pictures of books on it, no where at all did it say anything about Riley's hospital for Children, and there was no form to fill out, etc. Just some of his own handwriting saying a bunch of numbers and the price of each group of donations. He said he was trying to raise 20,000 books for Riley. I asked him how much money were the donations and he said without batting an eye, "$1000.00 each or your 20 inch wheels." (My Mom's Cadillac Escalade was sitting in my driveway at the time!) I looked at him and said, "Seriously. tell me how much these are!" He then showed me his homemade sheet and proceeded to tell me that most of my neighbors were buying the 2nd package, but if he could get three more people to buy this expensive package, he would be done! The cheapest package he had "for sale" was $78.00 but he was trying to get me to purchase one that was about $300.00 I told him I was not going to give him $80.00 and he looked at me and said, "Why??? Can't you afford it?" (I wanted to slam the door in his face right then and there! I wasn't feeling too brave at this point anyway and he was making me mad!) He tried telling me that my pregnant neigbhor lady down the street couldn't afford an entire share so she just gave half. (I don't have a pregnant neighbor down the street!) He wanted to know if he could pair me up with her for the other half...$40.00. I told him, "No, why don't you come back tonight about 6pm when my husband is home and talk to him." He kept bugging me for a little while longer and I finally said "No, you will have to talk to my husband!" He then just shook his head and said, "What about your neighbors??? Are they cool?" I said, "Yeah, they're cool" and I shut the door and locked it!!!!!!!!!! (I can't wait to ask them what they thought of him!) He didn't have a permit to be selling stuff door to door and his form was not professional. I am sure Riley would not expect people to give such huge donations for books. It would've been more realistic if it were more like 10.00 instead of $80-500.00 He was just up to no good and I was so upset that my kids went running to the door in the first place!
Today, the Schwan man rang my doorbell and I forgot he was coming! I wasn't dressed and there was no way I was going to answer the door! Luckily, the kids were napping and Parker didn't hear the doorbell!
Now, I am off to get ready for my hot date tonight and to go buy a "No Solicitor's" sign for my front door!!!!

And what is growing in your refrigerator?

We are growing Happy Meal toys!!! (At least there's no chance of it getting moldy on us!)

Buried in junk...

Sorry for the infrequent posts lately but I am buried in junk for our Jr Church garage sale. I finally took the plunge and dove in and what a mess I have made. I can't believe the stuff we still have after just doing this last August!

Lets just say, it was a real blast yesterday going through the twins toy box while they were in the room with me. I would put a sticker on something and they would run off and play with the toy or try to remove the sticker! I sent Jonathan with a load last night to the church barn to get it out of their sight!

Parker has 2 baseball games this week due to a rain out a few weeks ago. He is playing first base and loving it! He will be so disappointed when the season is over at the end of June!

We had a great time at our Sunday School class picnic last Saturday. I took my camera but never got it out of my diaper bag! Peyton somehow managed to smash fingers on both hands on two separate incidents! Several of the little ones went flying off the merry go round while it was in motion and the Dad's were totally oblivious while playing softball!

The rest of this week is going to be busy like everyone else. Birthday parties, working, Memorial Day, etc! We are going to a play with friends on Friday evening...Father of the Bride! (Our guys are thrilled!!!)

Come on summer vacation! We're ready!!!

Funny Fellowship with Fantastic Friends...

Just finding out that the waiter forgot part of Travis' order...

Good thing Travis is a preacher, he was nice to the man!

Be sure to visit Angie's Blog for a hilarious post about our evening together. The group picture on her blog is priceless! I was doubled over laughing, about to potty right there, at Gene and Jonathan. What a combination when you get our three men together. Add Angie to the pot and you never know what might happen!

Angie told Gene she would wait until he got food in his teeth before we took their photo together. He said if she did, he would just take his teeth out! (Gene got teased all night for being the old man of the crowd!)

Jody was not trying to catch flies during my group photo, but talking to the bald waiter. This one was taken right before Gene got acquainted with the goose and before Angie had to grab onto to the wall!

Check out our men's suits...I think they all called each other before we met and said to wear gray suits and lavendar shirts. Gene must have only gotten part of the message! :)

Thanks Davis' and Johnson's for a great night of Christian fellowship!
Next time we'll have to sing the Doxology together for our prayer though!

Time to diet...

Tonight after supper Parker decided to weigh himself. (He was weighed at the beginning of the school year and at the end and we could NOT believe the difference! Therefore, we decided to see for ourselves!) Much to our dismay, the scales at Parker's school were correct! He weighed 50 pounds at the beginning of the school year and now weighs 61 pounds! Yikes!!!
Peyton and Paige decided they needed to be weighed as well and had to have a turn on the scales! When they were done, I decided to take a turn! (No...I am not telling what I weighed and the scales on the left are not true either!) :( Parker came running into the family room to tell Jonathan what everyone weighed! Jonathan asked, "Did Mommy weigh too?" Parker replied, "YES..and she's fine, the scales didn't even break!!!!!!!!!!!"

Mother's Day Pictures...

Click on the picture below to view photos from our Mother's Day! If you watch the slideshow, the picture of me with my kids, and April with hers are quite hilarious!

Mother's Day 2008

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to Jonathan's Mom!
Happy Mother's Day to my Grandma Thompson! Happy Mother's Day in Heaven to my Grandma Brown

Happy Mother's Day to all of my blogger Mommies! I hope you have a nice, restful day, and are surrounded by your wonderful families! With any luck, you won't have to cook or do the dishes and can sneak in a long afternoon nap! (I couldn't find a recent picture of myself with my three kids so I will try to get one sometime tomorrow!) Getting 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time is a difficult task, much less trying to get them all to smile! We'll attempt!!!

Enjoy your special day!!!

Another chapter of life...

Last night was Parker's pre-school "graduation." It made me sad to see this part of life come to a close! It was sure nice keeping him home if I wanted to spend the day in Greenwood shopping or taking off and running to Tenn for a week in October! From now on, it won't be so easy to "get away."
Another tough thing I did last night was turn in his Kindergarten papers for our Christian school for next fall. He will go all day everyday. Makes me sad because I know this means he will be in school from now on. Don't get me wrong, I think I will enjoy him not being here to fight with the twins all day! It just makes me sad to realize that he is growing up like everyone else!
Here are a few pics from his little pre-school program...

Singing "Down by the bay..."

Proud of his blue ribbon...

With Mrs. Vanarsdale...(He is almost as tall as she is!)

With Mrs. Gill...

Have you voted yet today Indiana bloggers?

I did!

Hurray for Paige-e!

Last week, little Miss Paige decided she was ready to go potty like a big girl! I hadn't been pushing the idea so was surprised when she told me she wanted to "go potty!" I have been working with her since last Monday and she has pretty much been dry all day every day! She hasn't conquered the "dryness" at night yet but I am so encouraged that she is doing this well already! We haven't tried "big girl panties" yet, I am not that brave!

I had forgotten the dreaded part of knowing where every public bathroom is in every store! :( I also forgot how many trips out they can go in one church service too! I haven't trained a girl before and what a hassle taking tights off each time so she can "sit" better on the toilet!

Peyton, on the other hand, has no desire to ever sit on the potty! Parker didn't either until he was almost 3 1/2 so I am not even worrying about Peyton yet! It must be a boy thing!

I will just take it one kid at a time!!!
Go Paige-e!!!!!! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!!!

Mother~Daughter banquet...

Last night was our church's 3rd annual Mother~Daughter banquet. It was very nice and the food was delicious. Linda Scarbrough was our guest speaker, coming to speak for us all the way from Georgia. She did an excellent job and everyone seemed to have a great time.
This year we tried something different and had 8 different ladies be responsible for completely decorating and furnishing their table. I tried to get pictures of all of them. It was a fun idea and some even mentioned trying it sometime with a "holiday" theme! (Click on the photo below to see pictures from all the tables.)

Mother~Daughter Banquet 2008

Finally Friday...

The kids seemed to quickly get over their "bug" on Wednesday. Jonathan arrived home last night around 9:30pm and were they ever excited! Around midnight, we were just going to sleep and I heard a coughing noise in the twins room! Jonathan said, "Oh, they are just coughing!" I said, "No, I don't think so. I know that sound!" All of a sudden, she did it again! All over her bed and her hair was covered! Gross.... So, bath time at midnight it was! She was fine the rest of the night but got to sleep with Mommy and a bucket nearby! (Our Mother/Daughter banquet is tonight and with any luck, I will get to leave her at home with Daddy and the boys! HA!)
Speaking of our Mother/Daughter banquet, we are doing something different this year. Several of us are responsible for decorating our own table! This means plates, silverware, glasses, etc! It has been fun but I'm not sure how fun the clean up with be with us all waiting in line for one sink! (I think I will bring mine home and wash it here!) It's really neat to see the different ideas everyone has! I'm sure Jenny G. and I will have pictures to share.
On that note, I am off to shower and get ready for a busy day. I have to put the finishing touches on my table and get my house cleaned for my father-in-law who will be spending the evening with the boys!
Have a great weekend, everyone!