A Girl's Best Friend

This post is a little belated but my arms have been a bit too full to type lengthy posts. I think Tony will understand.

When I found out I was pregnant last fall it was really no surprise when at my ultrasound they told me I was carrying another girl. Wish as we might, I have always said if I had boys they would probably turn out to be wife beaters - I don't consider myself to be top-of-the-line mother material and I know that the relationship between a mom and her son is pretty important to how he will turn out. Equally important is the relationship between a father and his daughters. Look at our little family of four girls and you have to conclude (and rightly so) that Tony is an AWESOME dad! I think God gave our girls the best.

Happy Belated Father's Day, Tony! Thanks for caring about all your girls (me included =) We often hear our Sunday School teacher, Sis. Campbell, say that her adult girls know they can call their dad anytime during the day if they need him. I know that you will be the same way when your girls are grown. And you are certainly the one they will be turning to...because you care and they know it!

Strawberry Shortcake, Arguments and the Internet

I heard the pounding of feet, two running away, the other two chasing after. And then yelling, "I wanna be Strawberry Shortcake!" "No, I get to be Strawberry Shortcake!" And on and on. I asked them to stop. They didn't comply. I TOLD them to stop and suddenly there was a girl on each side of me. "She wants to be Strawberry Shortcake. But I want to be Strawberry Shortcake because I want my pony's name to be Honey Pie!" "Why can't you take turns?" "We don't know the other pony's names."

So being the wife of "the research king", I thought I might have a solution. I googled "Strawberry Shortcake ponies" and came up with a comprehensive list of the characters and their fillies. After reading through the list, one child walked away as Angel Cake whose filly was Milkshake, and the other child wanted to be Lemon Meringue because her filly's name is Daffodil. How is it that neither wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake anymore?

I wish every argument was this easy to solve.

Mad Libs

Did you love 'em or hate 'em as a kid? Or do you even remember them?

I loved them (big surprise from someone who enjoys writing, huh? :) In fact, I bought some a while ago at Books a Million but for some reason they didn't seem as funny as the ones we did as kids (Mary and Janiece probably remember one in our teenage years about Rex's buns?!?! We honestly did mean buns as in rolls - like bread.) Anywho, my girls have been participating in our libraries summer reading program "Catch the Reading Bug" and they brought home a Mad Lib activity sheet. Each of them had some things that sounded run of the mill, but each also had a few silly surprises. (italics denotes the words they had to fill in) Enjoy!

Backyard Surprise: A Buggy Mad-Lib by Kerrigan Derscheid
Yesterday I woke up early feeling a bit sad. But I still ate my regular breakfast of corn with a glass of medicine. Then I went outside to see if anything unusual had happened during the night. Help! The sky was now pink and the grass had turned into gooey water. Noise filled the air. It sounded like a thousand flies humming. Suddenly a giant grasshopper flew right by my head and when I look down, a two-foot long spider crawled over my foot. Yuck! Up in the tree was a group of bees hanging upside down eating grapefruit and peas. Over my head another group of ladybugs was flying loops through the sky. Even stranger, the biggest bug had a name tag, Tony, and he actually began talking to me. “We didn’t mean to scare you but we ran out of spaghetti and cheese. Believe it or not, those are our favorites.”

“I’ve got plenty,” I said. “And I’d be happy to share.” So I went inside my house to the bedroom and gathered everything together to put in a box for them to carry home. The bugs thanked me and left. Everything went back to normal. I felt pretty proud of myself until I turned around and saw a group of cats standing on the lawn, which was starting to turn a lovely shade of orange.

Backyard Surprise: A Buggy Mad-Libby Janae Derscheid
Yesterday I woke up early feeling a bit happy. But I still ate my regular breakfast of cereal with a glass of water. Then I went outside to see if anything unusual had happened during the night. Dude! The sky was now green and the grass had turned into ugly dogs. Noise filled the air. It sounded like a thousand cats humming. Suddenly a giant ant flew right by my head and when I look down, a two-foot long fly crawled over my foot. Yuck! Up in the tree was a group of caterpillars hanging upside down eating papayas and cucumbers. Over my head another group of fleas was flying loops through the sky. Even stranger, the biggest bug had a name tag, Anthony, and he actually began talking to me. “We didn’t mean to scare you but we ran out of chicken and bananas. Believe it or not, those are our favorites.”

“I’ve got plenty,” I said. “And I’d be happy to share.” So I went inside my house to the playroom and gathered everything together to put in a toaster for them to carry home. The bugs thanked me and left. Everything went back to normal. I felt pretty proud of myself until I turned around and saw a group of elephants standing on the lawn, which was starting to turn a lovely shade of purple.

It Made Me Smile

Kerrigan had a bad tummy ache the other night. We have finally concluded that she gets these each time she drinks root beer (and maybe one particular brand...that's the next study). So while she was crying from the pain I told her that what Daddy and I had noticed - about it being when she drank root beer, which by the way, is her favorite pop. Her response? "My eyes and my mouth likes root beer, but my tummy doesn't!"

Then last night Janae appeared in our bedroom with a bad case of nerves. As I was talking it out with her and telling her how the devil tries to get to us in anyway he can and especially when our reserves are down. If he knows we are prone to worry, he'll use that against us. But we have to pray, quote Scripture or sing choruses to get our minds on good things. And her reply? "Well it's hard for a 10 yr old to fight the devil all by herself!" (So true, my little one, so true.)

Gonna be shopping for...

Honor Roll Field Trip

Friday, we took a field trip to Highland Park in Kokomo. Some of the kids and teachers thought it was pretty funny that we went there considering the characters in the PACEs live in Highland City.
These photos show most of the Kindergarten class. I think I missed two who were sitting quite a ways back from me. Can anyone pick out Angie's son?

Below are the four in my group. I couldn't asked for more well-behaved, calm girls. God knew what He was doing when he gave me girls of my own (I say that today. But on hair-washing day I sing a different tune!)