Happy Birthday, SAM!!!!

Yep, that's right my honey is turning the big 3-0!  Its really funny.  He hasn't really talked a lot about it.  Occasionally he'll make the I'm gonna be an old man comment, but he's not really serious.  That's because we both know he's already turned into an old fogey and has been one for several years now!  hahahahaha.  I can't say anything, though, because I'm right there with him!  Anyway, we are going to attempt to go someplace special.  He really likes Texas Land and Cattle, but I have a feeling that there's not one here, so we'll have to find an alternative.  Famous Dave's anyone?  Well, hopefully I will have figured it out before today.

So, without further delay:  HAPPY BIRHTDAY, SAM!  I love you!!!!!!!!

a little something I wanted to share

My mom sent this to me via email and I thought it was necessary to share with everyone.

None of that Sissy Stuff

Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good,

but never actually come close to reality?

Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship.

You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card-

Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.


1. When you are sad --I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.



3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.



4. When you're scared -- we will high tail it out of here.



5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining, ya big baby!!!!



6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.



7. When you are sick --Stay away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.



8. When you fall -- I'll pick you up and dust you off--

After I laugh my butt off!!



9. This is my oath...I pledge it to the end. 'Why?' you may ask -- because you are my FRIEND!


Friendship is like peeing your pants,

everyone can see it,

but only you can feel the true warmth.

Spur of the moment decision

I was standing in front of the mirror earlier today before I got in the shower and I was looking at the massive amount of hair that had accumulated on my head and decided that it needed to go.  I've been thinking about getting my hair cut for a month or two because its really just too much hair and its a pain to keep up with.  So, I decided right then and there I was gonna cut my hair.  So I did.  I first cut about 5 inches off and I decided I was getting there, but went ahead and cut another 3 inches off to make it complete.  Yep, I just did something I NEVER thought I would do, but desperate times and all that! :)  Seriously, it was getting on my last nerve!  It was heavy, I had to use a ton of shampoo to wash it, the ends look like they had been fried crispy and it wouldn't stay up in my clip, so you see why I had to do it!  Anyway, it didn't turn out too badly.  At least not as badly as I thought it would going into the whole thing.  It so does not look professionally done and I'm sure its got its uneven points, but I don't care.  I'll have someone shape it up in the distant future.  For right now, I'm lovin' how it feels and its a dream to wash! Well, comparatively, anyway.  Yay!!!!  Here are some pics for your perusal:  Sorry, I didn't think to take a before shot, so I'll just have to provide the next best thing.

 In my defense, I did just wash it and so its an unruly hairdo that I'm left with until I decide to do something with it, which I won't, so there we are.

This was the only one I could find of the long-ness of the monstrosity before.  This was a couple of months ago after I got it shaped up in Killeen, so it had some time to grow some more.  (Think weeds.)

I've been tagged.

My friend Rachel thought I needed to be tagged and so here goes.  Me from a - z.

A. Attached or Single? Attached...married 8 years in October.

B. Best Friend? Sam-head

C. Cake or Pie? well, it depends... strawberry or lemon cake and cherry or blueberry pie

D. Day of Choice? Monday.  Its usually the calmest day of my week.  That somehow has to be an abomination or something!

E. Essential Item? my pillow.  No really, I take it with me whether we are staying with relatives or in a hotel.

F. Flavor of Ice Cream? I'm quite partial to the butterfinger blizzard.

G. Gummy Bears or Worms? neither, both do something funky to my sinuses.  for real.

H. Hometown? I refuse to answer this question on the grounds it might incriminate me.

I. Indulgences? I don't know that I have a specific one.  Maybe it is that sometimes I sit/lay down instead of finishing the dishes or something like that.

J. January or July? january any day.  July has heat and we don't get along.

K. Kids? 3, but I haven't met the 3rd yet. :)

L. Last Movie I Saw In A Theater? Well, that's been well over two years ago.  I doubt I'll ever see the inside of a movie theater again.  Netflix is where its at for me these days.

M. Middle Name? Kathleen

N. Number of Siblings? 1

O. Oranges or Apples? not a big fan of pulp, but I have to have my apple peeled.

P. Phobia or Fear? not really.  I don't like bugs, but I'm not scared of them, I just cause them to be quickly deceased if they are in my house.

Q. Quote? not really into quotes.  I don't have enough memory to store them.

R. Reason to Smile? I've been saved by Jesus Christ who died on the cross so that I can live.  There is nothing/ no one to fear because I am assured in Him.  That's a pretty big reason to smile. :D

S. Season? fall is my favorite because of thanksgiving and it gets cool and I can break out my sweatshirts and comfy socks.  Spring is good too cuz its cool.  I believe there is an emerging pattern here.  I don't think I would mind any of the seasons if I lived where it doesn't get above 80 degrees all year round.


T. Tag Four More? nope, I refuse.

U. Unknown Fact About Me? I'm an aggressive spades, dominoes, whatever player.  I aim to win, but I am not a sore loser....I'll just challenge you to a rematch.....yeah.

V. Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? well, for the most part, I could be a vegetarian except for fish, which is how I ate before I became preggo with my first kiddo, but I live in a family of meat lovers, so I will eat meat if its on the menu.

W. Worst Habit? getting easily irritated

X. X-Rays or Ultra-Sounds? I've had both and they are both necessary in their own ways, so whichever I need at that time.

Y. Your Favorite Food? A meal that I didn't have to cook.  My outlook changes when I'm pregnant.  Any other time and I enjoy cooking.

Z. Zodiac? don't believe in it.  what a crock!  Anything that tries to get your attention and faith off of God (Truth) is an outright destructive ploy by satan (his mission is to steal, kill and destroy, after all.)  I know that sounds harsh, but its just truth with no additives or preservatives.  Yumm.

That will be all for this session of the Olympic word relay.  Stay tuned for more obscure sports that somehow got into the Olympics. Seriously, hand ball?  Oh, man!

I'm the aunt of nephew #8!

That's right!  My sister Sara had her baby yesterday evening!  Grayson Mathew Heinicke was born at 5:27 pm and weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz and  was 19 in long.  I don't have a picture at this time, but maybe soon.  I'm very excited and hopefully we will be close enough to home soon to go for a visit and meet the newest little person in our family.:)

I've decided to take my friend Reina's advice and do a thankful list.  This is dedicated in your honor Reinababes.

10 things I'm thankful for:

1.  Babies - they are so sweet and they are brand new people that God chooses to bless us with.  They are such an amazing miracle!

2.  Sam - without him I would probably be in a little padded room hugging myself!  Seriously, he is the most amazing man I know and I never want to be without him.  He's my best friend, my husband, father of my children and best of all, he loves God with all he's got.

3.  Braden - what a treasure to have such a tender-hearted child.  He's so much fun to be around and he's constantly making me laugh.  He's such a good big brother and Zekey is definitely his #1 fan.  Its such an honor to get to witness who he's growing up to be.

4. Zekey - my little cutie-pie.  He's such an interesting little boy and what fun we have with him.  His smile would melt anyone's heart!  Again, an honor to be part of his training and molding into who he's going to be.

5.  Motorhomes - I would've gotten worn out long ago moving around as we do without our home on wheels.  I'm grateful to have been blessed with this option.  Every where we go our home goes, too!

6.  Family - though there is drama at times, man I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Nothing comes close to the support, love and friendship that I have in my family.

7. IMacs - well, obviously I use ours to check in with those that are not near from time to time.  This thing is pretty cool just to use period, though.  This gadget is at the top of my favorite gadgets list.

8.  Phones - its nice to hear familiar voices on a regular basis, especially when I can't be physically there to talk face to face.

9.  Homeschool - I like being my child's teacher and making sure things that he doesn't need to know at his age are filtered out instead of him getting extra education on the side in a place I can't be for most of his day.  Yay!  Also, we get to go at his pace, whatever that may be.

10.  Rosemary mint shampoo and conditioner - Its basically the only stuff that doesn't make me want to throw up during pregnancy!

I think that about does it for today.  I will be out of touch with the virtual world for a couple of days.  We have to take our rv in to get some things worked on, so we will be staying in a hotel for a couple of days.  The boys will have a blast and I'm looking forward to the free hot breakfast buffet that I get to partake of, but I don't have to cook any of.  Oh, yeah......  Talk at ya on the flip side!

A more in-depth explanation

So apparently, a friend who shall remain nameless, but rhymes with caressa has expressed puzzlement over why we keep all those phone books....  Well, here's the low down.  Because we never know where we are going to go until the last minute, there's always the possibility of going to the same place again.  For instance, Killeen.  So, on the off chance that we will return to the scene of the same crime, we keep the phone books so that we will have the yellow pages handy.  Its nicer than trying to look everything up on the internet.  I hope this explanation has been most satisfactory and fulfilling. :D

Now then, I was also asked by another friend when my next OB appointment is.  It is on Sep 14.  I think I am also going to be getting my sonogram around that time.  You know, I've been having second thoughts about finding out the gender of this baby.  I'm not trying to be a hiney head or anything (I know you like that expression, Vanerrrrsa, Rachel!), but since we have so many boys in this family and there has been expressions of the hope that this one will be a girl, that I'm hesitant to find out for sure.  Let me explain.  Every time we find out we are having another boy, as in family wide, its kind of like, "Seriously?  ANOTHER boy?!"  Not necessarily in a bad way, mind you, but there is this little sense of a let down of sorts.  I don't honestly care if this baby is a boy or girl.  I'm just excited we are being blessed with another child!  Don't get me wrong.  The shopping for girl clothes is way more exciting than for boy clothes.  It would be neat to have a girl, but it would also be somewhat of a novelty, too, since she'd be the only one.  It would be less preparation if we have a boy cuz I already have so much stuff for a boy.   My cousin on my mom's side is having a girl, so she wouldn't necessarily be alone there, but we are not close and rarely see each other.  If we don't find out until the baby comes out, it will be very cool because you just fall in love with whatever you are given anyway.  I guess I just don't want to have to deal with it all.  I just want there to be a gratefulness all around for God's unending blessings, you know?   We'll see.  I may give in to my curiosity in the end, but I may choose not to find out for a while.  Sam is in the not finding out camp, but he's okay if I do want to find out.

A little ditty about some shoes and other miscellaneous items

Crocs, wonderful Crocs... what more could you ask for?  (to the tune of food wonderful food from Oliver Twist.)  I've been the proud owner of croc flip flops for about two years plus now and I just got my second pair this past weekend.  I always have the toughest time buying shoes because I have fat feet due to fallen arches.  There are certain styles that I steer clear from so my feet don't look like just made sausages trying to escape their casings.  Trust me, not a pretty sight!  Then I have the problem of support and comfort.  Most dress shoes don't last for more than a couple of hours on my feet and then I'm ready to call it a day and soak my poor feet in epsom salt:(  So, for the past 10+ years I have been on a quest for comfortable yet stylish shoes.  Unless its freezing outside, I wear my Croc flip flops everyday.  I know most people have at least seen them.  Beware of imitations, though, because they are NOT created equal!!!!!  When you put on a pair of Crocs, it is seriously like walking on a cloud.  Like a little piece of heaven decided to support your feet.  Oh, its a wonderful feeling.  I also own a pair of Aerosoles that I've had for about 9 years now.  I wore them every time I wore my blues uniform in the Air Force, which was quite often.  I'm still a fan of Aerosoles, though, again I have to be careful what style I get.  I think eventually, I will have all Aerosoles and Crocs shoes in my closet and nothing else!  My latest aquisition are Alice Crocs in black.  They look like ballet slipper shoes.  I couldn't find any shoes that I could wear to church that I wasn't trying to prevent a blister from appearing 15 mins into the service.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, I would like to report that my new shoes are a resounding success!  Yay!

In other news, Zekey is now saying two words very clearly and often.  Uh-oh, which is usually cause for concern because most likely a large mess has been made and poo-poo, which is self-explanatory.  He has also started shaking his head  no.  He also holds his hands up and looks at us while making a questioning noise if he's wanting to get up somewhere he can't by himself, i.e. the top bunk bed.  He's a funny boy.

Braden has started in asking why every time he is told to do something and we are having fun nipping that in the bud.  Lots of training going on in his world right now.  He's also gotten to where he wants Zekey to play with him all the time, but he still wants it to be done his way.  Its amusing sometimes to watch all that unfolding.  I think it will be so good for him to learn flexibility.  My eldest is also a perfectionist and it really comes out when he's trying to cut something out or draw something and it isn't coming out just right.  I think we'll be working on that a lot this year.  I've found that if I can get him giggling about something then his frustration lessens significantly and he's ready to try again.  Good times.

Another interesting tidbit that I thought I'd share is our growing collection of phonebooks.  I think at this point they are kinda like souvenirs.  I mention this because we just got a new one yesterday.  I think we now have around 8.  I'll have to count to be sure, but I know that's close.

That's all I've got for this edition of the DyessFamChronicles.  I hope you'll tune in next time when we talk of many things:

Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax-
Of cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings."

Famous Dave's Barbeque

So, being a southern girl and all and married to a barbeque lovin' southern man, let's just say that if we are going to eat BBQ, it better be better than good.  It better be great!  Sam and I have our favorite BBQ places, of course.  His is Rudy's.  There was one in Tyler, but I think it closed down, so they are mostly in south Texas in the Austin/San Antonio area.  The original one is close to Boerne (pronounced Burney....yeah).  Mine is Bodacious BBQ hands down.  I LOVE their sauce.  I still have part of a half a gallon bottle of it sitting in my fridge for when I need it.  I put it in my baked beans, for example.   YUM!!!!  Well, we happened to notice a BBQ joint called Famous Dave's and for a few days, every time we saw it we kind of made fun of it like, "Its not famous to me, I never heard of it!"  That type of thing.  Anyway, today after church, we decided to go try it out.  OH, MY WHOLE LOT OF YUMMINESS!!!!  Its really good!  They have several kinds of sauces to choose from right on your table and after trying them all, I really like the sweetest one and the mustard sauce.  Sam, of course likes the peppier ones.  Braden downed his portion of a pulled pork sandwich and I just finished the other half of mine.  (It was just as good the second half around;)  Sam actually opted for one of their chargrilled burgers and was full and happy at the end of it.  They have a diverse menu, including fried catfish, which I will be trying out when we go next time.  The other cool thing was we told our waiter that it was our first time being there.  The manager came after we finished our meal to make sure everything was fine and dandy and then he came back with a welcome first-timer packet and a bottle of free BBQ sauce!  I thought that was pretty cool.  I told him we are from Texas and that was some dang good BBQ!  He said they get that a lot from Texans.  Interesting, huh?  Anyway, I now have a favorite BBQ restaurant on this side of the U.S.  Woo-hoo!

Blinded by hairy bum cheeks!

Vanessa, this one's for you:    One day, Sam came home from work and proceeded to tell me about a person who lives in a spot close to the office on the way into the rv park we live in.  He was on his motorcycle and only caught a glimpse, but he said the person was laying out in the sun and mostly what he saw was a pair of hairy bum cheeks.  We were both discussing the possibilities of what that could mean.  Was it a man or a woman?  If it was a man that would be scary because of the bare bum cheeks.  If it was a woman that's really scary, too, because of the hairy bare bum cheeks! ;)  Anyway, he didn't see anymore of the mysterious bum cheeks again after that.  That is.....until yesterday!!!  Yeah, we were coming home from the store and both of us were looking in the same direction and lo and behold there was a man in lean shape (picture long-distance runner), I'm thinking around mid-30s early 40s.  I didn't get the best look at his face because I was too busy being shocked at his shiny rainbow thong speedo!!!!!!!!!  He was outside washing his vehicle just a singin' with his bum cheeks hangin' out!  Sam's reaction was pretty funny.  He was like  Aaaaawwwwwww!  GROSS! NO!  I just couldn't stop laughing!  I'm telling you that people here dress like they are at the beach.  Not, mind you, that I think people ever have the right to dress like that even at the beach.  To put it another way, why on earth should I have to look at that?!?!?!?!  If this is a free country, then what about my poor eyes' freedoms?  Aaaaaahahahhahahhaha.  I'm still laughing pretty hard writing this.  It was such a funny situation.  The other thing is, we almost took a spot across from that guy!  OH, to be saved by the grace of the Lord from such a view! --- My name is Shelly Dyess and I approve this message.

More on the Homeschool Front

I'm very excited because I just started really putting my curriculum together.  I went ahead and ordered the DiscipleLand curriculum.  It should be here in a few days.  I also went and got a heavy-duty hole punch and went to town on the Big and Easy Patterns Book by Teacher Created Material, Inc.  The only thing I was disappointed about was there were no coloring pages of lower-case letters.  Both my mom, an occupational therapist, and my mom-in-law, a kindergarten teacher with a Master's in childhood development, advocate not even introducing children to capitalized letters until they are well versed in the lower-case.  Its harder to break kids of the habit of writing all capitals than having them write all lower case and introducing capitals at the first of certain words.  So anyway, I found a website that has the lower-case letters and I printed them out last night after my printer decided it wanted to cooperate with my computer again....finally.  I also found a great site for making homemade musical intstruments.  I will, of course, put both links at the end of the post.  I also went to Wally world the other day and got some supplies.  I bought a box of divider tabs and made my own dividers cuz it was cheaper that way.  I already have a large supply of card stock and just used those.  I made one divider per letter/number.  I also added dividers for the main holidays:  Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day (I know, but its always a good training time to teach your kids to show others that they love them.), Easter and Memorial Day.  I'll probably add a few others as I go along, but that's what I've got so far.  I'm also going to get the Betty Lukens Small Deluxe Bible Set.  I saw the idea on my friend Michawn's blog (thanks, Michawn!) and was just blown away.  Its such a neat way to make the Bible real and tangible for kids.  Anyway, I found a website that has a great price on the set.  I will also put that link at the end.  

So far, this is how I'm going to organize my curriculum.  After each letter /number divider, there will be five days worth of activities having to do with that letter and number.  I intend to introduce a new letter and number each week, but we will go at Braden's pace.  Each day, Braden will get to color the same coloring sheet with the lower-case letter and the number.  (Repetition is good.:)  Then, we will have a Bible story that starts with that letter, i.e. A - Adam and Eve.  Each day there will be a new Bible story that starts with that letter. The Betty Lukens set will go along with each Bible story.  The DiscipleLand curriculum probably won't fit into this mold because they go through the books of the Bible in order, so we'll just add it in an not worry if the letter of the day doesn't begin the title.  This way, Braden will get the Bible in order, but also get reinforcement of the letters we are learning.  You just can't have too much Bible! :D  Then there will be a new animal each day that starts with that letter and we'll learn all about that animal, including coloring, activities, pictures, maybe even a nature movie when I can get a hold of one.  We'll also have a new object or job or whatever each day that begins with that letter to learn about.  Reading books will come in handy here. I'm going to be ordering some books from the Sonlight curriculum.   I've also got activities planned.  Numbers will be incorporated in all of this.  Any of the things above can involve counting.  My main goal with the letters and numbers is to have Braden be able to recognize written letters and numbers and be able to count to 20 using items as well as the written numbers.  Mostly, though, I'm more interested in teaching Braden about God.  I want him to truly know his Creator.  I want him to know the Bible because God reveals Himself to us through His Word.  You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you miss God, what's the point?  I would rather Braden knows and truly lives in honesty, valor, servitude, submission, righteousness, honor, friendship, love, from where authority truly comes, mercy, grace, wisdom, thanksgiving, prayer, truth, peace, faith and most of all salvation.  I want him to be a mighty man of God!

I'm also trying to get involved with a homeschool group here and also a Mom's Club.  That will be good for all of us.  There are some other resources I have found for certain things.  For instance, I want to teach Braden about dinosaurs, but I don't subscribe to the millions-of-years-evolution THEORY, so I set about looking for some alternative teaching materials.  Here's what I found:  Dinosaurs by Design by Duane T. Gish (Author), Gloria Clanin (Author), Earl Snellenberger (Illustrator), Bonita Snellenberger (Illustrator),  God's Dinosaurs: An Activity Book All About Colors by Earl Snellenberger (Author), Bonita Snellenberger (Author),  The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible (Revised Edition) by Paul S. Taylor,  Dry Bones and Other Fossils by Gary E. & Mary M. Parker.  There are others, you just have to google it.  Also, my mom along with others gave many suggestions for manipulatives to go with everything.  I'm going to make my own flash cards with lower-case letters and my mom suggested that I trace the letter in glue.  When it dries, there will be a raised edge your child can trace.  My sister Jennifer gave me a great idea for the flash cards as well.  I'm going to make my flash cards become a choo-choo train.  I have a three car train in the Big and Easy Patterns book and I'm going to put all the letters on copies of the train cars.  Each time I introduce a new letter, we'll put the piece on a ring.  By the time all the letters are introduced we'll have an engine, lots of cars and a caboose.  All with the raised edges of the glue.  I'm going one step further though by using glitter glue.  This way I'll have a raised edge along with a rough surface.  Oh, yeah.... I'm also going to make my own lace-cards.  I bought some cardboard at the store and I'm going to draw thick letters on each piece of cardboard and then punch holes all along the letter.  I bought long shoe strings for Braden to lace through the holes.  Another idea is to fill a cookie sheet with shaving cream and have your child trace letters in the shaving cream.  You can do the same thing with sand or corn meal.  The more researching I do on certain things, the more I will share my findings.  When I am completely done with putting all of my school stuff together, I will take pictures of it all and post it.  Maybe my research and toil:) will benefit someone else!  Okay, on to the linkage...

Homemade musical instruments

lower-case alphabet printouts

National Geographic Kids

Sonlight Website

Betty Lukens Small Deluxe Bible Set