Been Scrapbooking this weekend

"Jacob and Lainey" page 1 of 2
ALL the patterned paper on this page is from the dollar store (from the other weekend in Garland). How cool is that? Oh, and the alphabet stickers were $1 at Big Lots for 2 full alphabets. :)

"Jacob and Lainey" page 2 of 2 

page 2 of 2 

Pg 1 of 2, finished these yesterday. 

we spent the afternoon/evening in Garland today. YES the car made it to Garland. Big Allan looked under the hood and said that they boys (Dave and Jimmy) did a good job with the plumbing parts. Steven made fried shrimp, fried mini-pizza and fried chicken for dinner. You can probably gather that his new toy is a deep fryer that he found at WallyWorld. I liked the shrimp :)

this page will be the partner with the layout I posted earlier. I had these recent photos on hand, so I used them. I like that the title-thingy says "Stars & Stripes" and Pawpaw is wearing those patriotic suspenders again.  

Pawpaw was in the Dallas paper today. Big Allan let me get a copy of the story from his newspaper. I copied the newspaper on to acid-free lignin-safe paper and made this scrapbook layout tonight. I had a stash of WW2-themed scrapbook supplies, so I had no trouble getting two layouts done in 2 hours.

Here's the link to the article about Pawpaw. It's on page 17. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/dn/neighbors/pdfs/garland070806.pdf

her lil black eye from Allan's headbutt. When it happened, I asked if her eye hurt, because she was holding it. She said, clearly, "No, but my cheek does".  

better?

We haven't driven the car anywhere yet, but we think it's better. Dave and Jim used a hack saw, some tubing and plumbing supplies to Frankenstein a solution. Looks good and Dave says we might get better gas mileage now. They also bought and put in new spark plugs, since it needed doing.
The cubbards are looking bare, so I think we'll test drive the car out to the Krogers tomorrow. -I'll let yall know how it goes.

p.s. Yesterday Allan headbutted Elaine on the cheek and today she had a little black eye. She says it doesn't hurt. :(

STILL Stranded

After Micah got off of work this afternoon, he drove Jim to the Ford Dealership to find the part we need for the car. The dealership wasn't open yesterday when Dave tried. They don't sell the car part either!
The car dealership is gonna call around and find the part at another dealership. Pray for us. this little repair is becoming a BIG annoyance.
-----/
Micah is driving Jim by the Krogers to fetch diapers, bread and Milk. Then they'll be home.

We're starting to potty train Allan, since he's constantly pulling his diaper off. He doesn't mind sitting up on the toilet, on Elaine's potty seat, but he's not stable enough to climb up on his own. We need to buy or borrow a lil' potty chair, so it's at his height.

*cheese* 

Noitice: when following your baby brother up a slide, if he falls, so will you. 

She told Daddy that he's too close to the slide for her comfort. She thought he'd tickle her....she was right. 

Allan with his Buzzed hair. He takes his shoes off and climbs up the slide barefoot. We had to buy him two new pairs of shoes last weekend, when we were in Garland. His feet grow SO fast at this age. We bargain shopped and got two pairs for under $15. 

I buzzed Allan's hair again last Thursday. Elaine said she wanted a haircut "like baby's again". I just trimmed her bangs and told her she looks just like baby. She was happy and I didn't have to buzz off her hair. :)  

Elaine painting yesterday 

asleep in the middle of the living room floor 

STRANDED

On Friday we went out to the Minimalls around Denton's square and had fun window shopping. I kept my impulse buys down to $10. I got 2 disney VHS's and an Eeyore doll. :) Our non-impulse buy was a large 5-drawer all-wooden dresser. It has a fresh coat of paint and is in good shape. Robert met us with his truck so we could get the dresser home.
We noticed the car was overheating and by the time we got home the car was super hot. So, we've been car-less since Friday afternoon. Jim and I traced down a leak in a hose on Saturday, but when Jim has found rides to AutoZone or O'Reilly's, no one knows the name of the part he needs. Jim didn't know how to take the part out, so he could take it with him.
Today Dave came over to take a look. (Jim's boss picked him up to work at Ranchman's). Dave got the part out of the car and took it to AutoZone, but the AutoZone people looked at it and said they don't sell that part at all. So we don't have the replacement part, and now that the busted part is missing from under the hood, we can't drive the car at all.
------In other news, MICAH'S BACK!! He's been gone to Florida on a Mission Trip for 10 days. We all missed him a bunch. When we saw Robert (Micah's Dad) the other day, Elaine ran to the window and asked when Micah was getting home. We let Elaine call Micah's cellphone a couple times while he was gone. It throws her off when she is use to seeing someone almost daily and then they are gone.
------/
I've been organizing the house, room-by-room. I cometed the bathrooms last week and thoroughly organized the drawers and bathroom cabinets. I picked up and vacuumed our bedroom and fixed the broken bookshelf. I cleaned the kids room, with clean linens and all the toys off the floor like 4 days ago (not that it's still clean NOW). I need to tackle my craft room. It's a mess. Too many projects going on at once.
------My brother and mom are coming here for Thanksgiving, for 4 days (including traveling days).

Jim got registered for Devry and he ordered his books online. Some of this classes start next week and then another class starts like a week later. Odd, but all of Devry's schedules have seemed odd to me from the get go.
I think that's all the news here. Happy 4th Ya'll!

GOAL! 

soccer in the church courtyard 

We went with Steven to an Asian market on Sunday. Jimmy picked up a morter-thingy to grind up herbs in. It was only $15! (Jim saw a similar one at 'Tuesday Morning' for over $100.) The kids liked trying the interesting candies sold at the market. Some was like fruit-filled M&Ms and others were gummy. They all came in baby-sized boxes. 

"Big Allan" and Baby Allan on Sunday 

they say that the sign of good parents are happy kids 

he did this to himself! He wanted me to pull him around by the ladder. Baby Al got mad when I stopped. The outfit is from his Grandma Robin 

now THATS sleeping 

Jim's boss told him that he needed to shave off his beard or they would make him wear a hairnet thingy over it while he cooks. He said he'd rather wear the hairnet, because his wifey likes the beard. Eventually his bosses got their way and JImmy shaved off his beard this last weekend. 

Miss Kaylee and Sam. Kaylee is almost 6 years old 

like father like son. We went to Pam's earlier this week. Allan enjoyed Kaylee's play kitchen and chasing their dog, Sam.