Long time, no write

Hey, folks! It's been a while since I've had time to post, and I'm a little surprised no one else has posted. I guess everyone is busy.

Not much has happened as far as having something really great to put out here for you to read. My mentor at work left to work for another investment firm. I've taken over his duties, so I'm a bit busier at work. It's definitely a more challenging job, and that's a plus. Having to think all day sure makes the day go by quicker. And makes me tired!! :-)

Lightning got all smileys at school last week. Thank goodness! I know that sounds like a small thing, but as Bill Murray in "What About Bob?" learned, it's Baby steps, baby steps....

Prilla is having some adjustment to third grade. I don't remember if I mentioned they had stepped up the curriculum for their school. Basically, she jumped from 2nd grade work to 4th grade work. They say they're easing them into it, but it's been a pretty rough first quarter. She is managing to keep her A average, but barely.

Beck is becoming more and more vocal every day. She comes home from 'school' singing a new song almost everyday. Except the past week it has been the same one for several days. Did y'all know the "Lord's Army" is only a cavalry? According to Beck, anyway. She sings: "I may never march in the cavalry, Ride in the the cavalry, Shoot in the cavalry... I may never zoom o'er the cavalry, but I'm in the Lord's Army. YESH, SHUR!"

Well, guess that's all the news. Gotta run get the day going, etc. Someone else post something, okay???

Hugs,
Sleeping Beauty

I WON!! I WON!! I WON!!!

Fellow princesses, please do not waste your money on postage. Please do not spend another minute filling out the application. You simply will not win the Mother of the Year Award. I am happy to announce that I won it. I had to have won it. There is no possible way I didn't win.

Today was picture day at Center Hill Elementary. I sent Prilla in a PRECIOUS top with matching skort. (or whatever it is you call a skirt with shorts attached underneath) Lightning wore a nice polo-style shirt with khaki shorts and his favorite sandals. (Beck attends preschool, so she is exempt from this award, but I promise I have that one wrapped up with the go-kart burn on her leg that matches the Harley Davidson burn scar on her other leg.)

About 9 a.m. I get a call from the school. Yes, the dreaded call. From the school. Of course, this must be about Lightning. Has he hit a teacher? Is he balled up on the ground squealing again? Or perhaps (once again) he is in the bathroom screaming because he needs to poop but can't. (yes, I said again--that happened on his 3rd day of school) NOOOO> it's Prilla. Not Lightning that the school is calling about. Apparently the PRECIOUS skort that falls about 3 inches above her knee is too short. Someone must bring her clothes or pick her up IMMEDIATELY, I am told by the smug-sounding school secretary on the other end of the line.

Really? Too short? She's 8. The oldest students at the school are 10. Are we really so concerned about a skort--that has shorts under it, no less--that is an inch shorter than the requirements in the school handbook????? REALLY????

Really. Great. I work an hour from the school. My prince also works an hour from the school. Can she not stay at school, I ask? No... She must have a change of clothes as soon as possible. Fortunately, we know someone retired that lives a few minutes from the school and has a granddaughter the same size as Prilla. She took her some pants. Unfortunately, it was something that didn't really fit and certainly didn't match blouse she wore.

On the bright side, they didn't make the group photo for the class today. Hopefully the other picture will turn out okay. I hope so. I paid $47 for them.

THEN... I picked them up from after school care today. We get home and I check backpacks for notes, to clean out old work, etc. Lightning has a note from the P.E. teacher stating that he "...came to school inadequately equipped for physical education class. He is required to wear tennis shoes to physical education, and this is a crucial part of the education system...blah blah blah blah...." I really don't remember what else it had. It looked very much like it had been penned by the smug secretary that called about Prilla's skirt. skort. Whatever the heck that thing is. I have to sign the note so the teacher knows that I understand he is required to wear tennis shoes on p.e. day.

Okay. Let's explain how p.e. works at our school. Every day each class has an activity. There are four activities, so all Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the same. Fridays rotate those four activities, so we have Computer one Friday a month, Library one Friday a month, Music one Friday a month and P.E. one Friday a month. No one bothered to send home a schedule for what they do on which Friday--we're supposed to guess. I guessed wrong today. Of course.

SO. There you have the whole long story of how I managed to win Mother of the Year Award. I sent TWO out of THREE kids to school dressed improperly on the SAME day.

I'm going with Meatloaf on this one. "Two out of Three Ain't Bad"....

Hugs to all!
Love,
Sleeping Beauty

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to Prince Phillip!!!! hope your birthday "hops" right along:))) hehehe hope you are hopping a bit less so you can enjoy the day-

hugs and kisses-belle

Cake & Family Update

Here's the new Hannah Montana Cake. I'll probably go back and fix the writing (too light and a bit crooked) but other than that, it's done. This mom brought me a doll and a napkin, plate & cup to get the color scheme. The colors were pretty hard to match. I sooo didn't get the purple right for the napkins, but it matches the backstage pass, so I think it'll pass.

So, here's the other news: Lightning had a good week. He got all smiley faces every day two weeks in a row. Maybe he's getting used to school. He hasn't told me that "those people are mean at that place" lately, so maybe he'll make it. He did tell me the other day that he didn't like school. He was quite disappointed when I told him it was too bad. He'd have to get used to it because he had to go for 13 more years.

Prilla decided to make flash cards for study tools the other day. She was writing her definitions for math terms down. I looked at them and they had 'associative property', 'communicative property', 'negative property', and some other fairly advanced looking terms. I was stunned. This is third grade math??? I just learned this stuff last semester in COLLEGE ALGEBRA! That settled it right then and there. Lightning has no hope of me pulling him from school and homeschooling, because I can't teach past 3rd grade. (not that there was ever really a chance of that happening....just saying.

Beck has gotten used to her preschool, too. She actually runs into the classroom and hugs the teacher in the mornings. No fussing or trying to stay at home anymore. Yea!! Makes the workday go much smoother if you know your little ones are not sad at school, ya know?

Prince Phillip hurt his ankle again the other day. He flew an airplane that a friend owns. He hasn't flown in years, and this was one of those airplanes that you have to hold pedals down while you fly. Seems to have disrupted something with the ankle. He's experiencing a 'different' kind of pain. So, if y'all would, please say a little prayer for him.

Well, I guess I better go get the day started. Doing this cake this morning put me a bit behind on my day....

Friday Night Football

Hey everyone! We managed to get through another football night with out making a hospital run! Yea! DJ (#68) played great tonight. His orthopedic was at the game (for the other team), but came up to me and ask was he playing and he would be on stand by incase he was needed. It was pretty funny. Anyway, we WON and he didnt get to beat up in the process.

Princess Snow White...............I hope your party went great tonight!! I hate I couldnt be there..

Love to everyone!

Princess Ariel

Reunion 2008

Hey my fellow Princesses!
I have been working a little today on next years trip. I'm back on Lake Martin. I have been looking at cabins and pricing them. Princess Snow White said they could bring their boat for skiing and my Prince might could possible slip away for a day or two and bring our boat for fishing. I have not got all the research, but I saw they have gun ranges too! If anyone has any other suggestions, last chance! We really cant wait much longer to get something planned. I will keep looking.
Love ya
Princess Ariel

PS....the only thing going on with us this week is work and football, so I'm afraid my life this week want be very interesting! I am counting on Princess Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas!

The Beginning

Going through my old emails and saw this. I thought it would be fun to remember the beginning. Yes, this is what started all(most) of the craziness. A trip to a tshirt shop in Pigeon Forge. That poor man probably still hasn't recovered from our visit. I know he thought we were a bunch of nuts! We are, but that's okay!!!

Remember our motto: What happens in Pigeon Forge stays in Gatlinburg.

Changes/Updates

Hey! If you've been looking at the blog before today, you may notice one or two small changes. I changed the bible verse on the side because the one in Belle's post was much more fitting, considering the title of the page and how we came about, etc.

I left Matthew 18:20, just moved it to the bottom. I thought that verse was also appropriate for this webpage, since we are using it to gather together and share our "Aha" moments as well as our daily life experiences.

Yes, I'm admitting to shamelessly plagiarizing Belle's post. If anyone else thinks of something that you would like to see up there, just email me. I'd be happy to shamelessly plagiarize your ideas too!

Love & Hugs,
Sleeping Beauty

John 1:12

to all who recieve Jesus and believe in His name, He gave the right to be called His children.... daughters (and sons) of the King..... PRINCESSES (and princes too)!

what a wonderful family we are a part of... God's own precious family!


(i figured it out!! yea!! thought a scripture was an appropriate first post! hugs to all of you. i love you all and miss you too xoxoxooxox) -belle

How the "Princesses" came about

I thought a little background on how the Pigeon Forge Porch Club and the Princesses all came about was in order. Just to get everyone up to speed.

For close to 15 years now, our extended family, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, have got together for a week. I think around 13 years of this time was spent going to the beach. Lots of eating, fishing and quality family time! Due to hurricane Katrina.....we lost our wonderful beach time together. In 2006, we made our destination Pigeon Forge. The "more mature" generation had a cabin together. That would be our mom's and dad's! And ALL of us cousins stayed in another large cabin.

I must say, we are not the typical family to start with. We really do love each other and care about each other! The picture to the right is just about all of the cousins when we were very young.

Anyway, God blew that hurricane in and everything changed. Not like you would think. Looking back, you just know that God had his hand in our 2006 trip. Something happened to all of the cousins while there. We sat together, laughed together and even did a little crying together. But what came out of that was this tremendous bond between us! There is no way to describe what happened.

The picture to the right is all of us at meal time in 2006. Just for fun, some of us decided that we would become "disney princesses". Cinderella, Pocahontas, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Jasmine, Mulan, Belle and Ariel. What fun! We have crowns and matching cloths. Email and call each other regularly.

The real deal is, this past year, our family has been handed some hard life lessons. We have lost 2 members of our wonderful family. My mother and her brother. Within 10 months of each other. And if that was not enough, 2 more members in that same generation has had serious illnesses. What a hard year for all of us!

I can personally say from my experience this past year, I dont see any way I could have come out on the other side of all this with out my family. Not just the "princesses". But everyone!

We spent our 2007 family reunion in Pigeon Forge again. Minus several members, but thinking of them every minute and missing them even more!

So that is kinda what this is about. Just sharing and caring for each other. Sharing how God touches each of us every day. More later...............but I promise, not this much.

Love to everyone, Princess Ariel

Saturday

Hey! Well, I see we have a few people up and running. I re-sent invitations to y'all if you weren't listed as an "author". Belle--I'm not sure what happened, but you're not listed as a contributor. You'll need to accept the invitation and sign up to be an author in order to create posts for the page. (maybe it'll take the next time)

So, after reading Ariel's post about needing to put funny stories about Lightning on here, I started thinking about if he had done anything lately. Of course, Prilla & Beck tend to provide their own brand of entertainment, and they surely will do something worthy of writing about soon. Nothing new has happened with us that was of particular interest. Since the pressure is "on" to put something funny out there for Mater to read, I thought about what we could do today to make something interesting happen.

Trust me, it doesn't take much to "make something interesting happen" in my family. Usually it only takes going out in public. What better idea could I have than to take them out to eat at a nice (-er than McDonald's) restaurant? Surely that would provide a week's worth of posts. Sadly, they weren't in the silly mood that I had hoped. They actually sat in their seats, kept their food on their plates, didn't make a ruckus and waited until all food was served and blessing said before they dug in. I don't think that has EVER happened before.

So, there you have it. My kids that usually provide tons of entertainment decided to be well behaved. Oh, we went to Walmart after eating at Colton's. I did see a tshirt and would have gotten it for our Eyeore had it not been pink. It had a picture of Eyeore on it and said "How Should I Know?" I thought that sounded JUST like him.

Well.... This is fun! I like communicating through this blog, and can't wait to see if it develops into anything.

Love, Hugs, etc.,
Sleeping Beauty

pictures

I figured the picture part out!! Yea!! I will get the pictures of us up in a little while.

Ariel

I am up and running!

Well...........I am pretty tired this morning. We didnt get home until 2:30 am from the ballgame last/this morning. We won, but those road trips.........

Thanks to Sleeping Beauty who managed to stay awake long enough to get this up and going for us!! I want this to be a place that you can tell us everything Lightning McQueen does every day. Tow Matar gets his laughter for the day from his stories. When we Pocha onboard, she can fill in the gaps with her crew! Laughter makes the world go round!

I am so excited!!!!
Ariel