Better grab your favorite beverage...this might take awhile.

Updates first:

1. The Princess' headache continues. She is currently in Texas with her dad, but yesterday we went to a Chinese herbalist. He diagnosed her problems (and named them without any history) by her pulse, from her wrist to her elbow. It was an interesting process. We were given an herb mixture to make into a thick tea, which she is to take 4 times a day, at four hour intervals. By the fourth dose, she had major gastro-intestinal problems. :-( So, I sent her off this morning (at 5:00 a.m.) with her dad, and without the herbs. She just can't be cooped up in a car and have these problems right now. I'll be contacting the doctor tomorrow about this.
2. My weight. I don't talk about it much. If you haven't read way back, you don't know that I lost 35 lbs from April of '07 to about September of '08. I then hit a plateau, and maintained...until a few months ago. I've now gained 10 lbs. I feel AWFUL. It's only a matter of getting back on my program, and moving along again...and letting God handle all the garbage in my life, instead of eating.
   
3. The Prince and I are on our own until next Tuesday or Wednesday. As I said before, The Gearhead and the Princess are in TX at this very moment, currently looking for lodging for the night. They will attend a car show in Austin over the weekend, then head to Dallas area to stay with our friends there, then head back on Monday or Tuesday. I'm voting for Tuesday. There's a certain AWESOME house that is just a few blocks from our friends' house that I want him to look at. The dream has not died. :-)
4. 
   

Now, for pictures! This first set is The Prince and his "homey," who we affectionately call "Tyleroni."

Here are two little piggies.














"Come on, Tyler! Let me take your picture!"













All I said was, "Can you guys get closer so I can take your picture?" They just can't be normal.












This is *normal* for them.














'Course, you'd have to ask around to see if anyone's ever seen Tyler truly act normal. He's basically a bunch of silly wrapped up in a 12 year old's body.










Remember that sweet baby, "E?" My kids and I were blessed to watch their three older siblings last Saturday while their mom and dad went to a wedding. That park down the street from our house really comes in handy. :-)





























Before you lecture me on letting kids go face down on the slide, I have to say this:

We homeschool. We march to the beat of...our own drummer. That's how we roll. And I checked with his mom later, who confirmed that they too allow the kid to slide face down. Ha! They homeschool, too, so I knew she wouldn't mind.

'Course his older, mature sister, Riley, had to make sure he wasn't going too fast.









And about that tow-headed boy you see there. Let me tell you a little tale:

This is Jacob. He's 4. He is cuteness personified, even when he's naughty, as illustrated below. He got a drink of water from the fountain, and soaked the entire front of his shirt. That's not where the naughty comes in.















This is where the naughty comes in. He laid down in the sand, and rubbed his wet shirt into it.














And did I stop him?! Nooooooo! All I could think was, "I can't wait to show these to his mom!"


He finally got up and realized I was taking his picture, which didn't really seem to bother him.












He calmly walked over to where I was sitting, and promptly fell on his knees again, right in front of me.










Yeah, he wasn't AT ALL ashamed of his sandy ways.


















The Princess was hanging out with some friends and met us at the park, before heading back to our house.


That's The Princess in the middle, flanked by her two best friends. They are such cute girls. And that's Mel the dog, if you didn't know.











This is how the girls spent their afternoon:
















And this is how the boys spent theirs:















It was major estrogen in one room, and testosterone in the other!

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This is The Princess with her friend "K," her brother and a family friend. They are very colorful, no? That shirt the Princess is wearing was white when she left home! They had just concluded a Hindu spring celebration wherein, for some reason, they throw powdered colors on each other, and squirt each other with water.

"K" has been a friend of The Princess' for a number of years. They are also homeschoolers, but they moved away last year, and we don't see them very much anymore.










It was K's 16th birthday, so they met at a local restaurant in the morning, then proceeded to the park for this festival. The Princess was the only Caucasian there, and they really made sure her blondish, reddish hair got LOTS of color in it. Which would have been fine, except...














...it's henna. And y'all may know that henna is darn near permanent. So, after resolving to never let her color her hair again, this is what we have. Her comment? "When I was in 3rd grade, I used to think how neat it would be to dye my hair blue. I don't think it's very neat now."

Some of the color has washed out, but there are still decidedly blue sections. I've never used the term "It'll grow out," so many times in such a short period of time!

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Note the swelling on the left cheekbone. The Prince and his sister were horsing around, chasing each other through the house. I was peacefully taking a shower.

The Princess came in the bathroom and said, "Um, The Prince got hurt." She wasn't hysterical, so I just said, "Okay. What happened?" She said that he went in his room and closed the door. She had her hand on the doorknob, and started to open it just as he grabbed the doorknob from the inside and pulled. The door smacked him in the face, and pushed his glasses into his cheek. It doesn't look as bad here as it did in real life. Oh, and that expression? Strictly a re-enactment of his distress, not the real thing. I'm not that heartless.


And this is a few days later. Ah, a lovely shade of black and blue.

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And now, if you haven't fallen asleep already, I have more scrapbook pictures. These are some of the first pages I'd ever done, besides my dad's book. I've decided to take a totally different route with scrapping, which I'll elaborate on after I show you these:

These are The Prince's first and second birthdays. I had so much fun doing these pages. I didn't get too crazy, but they are colorful and fun. He loves them. Every so often he asks me to pull them out so he can look at them.
























These are pages I did of the construction we did on our house about six years ago. It was quite the ordeal. Whenever you act as your own contractor, and then do all the work yourself, it's gonna be dirty, messy, stinky, stressful. And it was. But, we now have a family room and The Princess was able to move out of the room she shared with her brother, and got her own room. My kitchen was enlarged and completely remodeled.

And, let's not forget The Gearhead. He got a 1,000 square foot garage, with a bathroom, office and a loft. Poor guy.

My new tactic for scrapping will be to use a color scheme for each child. The Princess chose pink and green, and The Prince chose black and green. My girlfriend in Texas has mastered this approach, and accomplishes an incredible amount when she is able to work on it. When I return from Texas in June, I'm sure I'll have lots of pages to show you.


Blessings to you (especially if you got this far!!)!!!