thats my kid!

have so much to brag about i dont know where to start.
kane pitched a game on saturday where he had 8 strike outs...only 3 batters got on base! his team won 5-0. it was great! from that game we went to eleanors 1st softball game of the year. she played catcher, and had 2 great hits. kanes team didnt do as well in their next 2 games on saturday, but made up for it on sunday. on sunday it looked like we were going to loose. there was no time left in the game. our team was down by 1, we had 2 outs 2 runners on base. kane was up to bat. we were either going to win, or loose. i was soooo scared. kane had struck out 2x earlier in the day. it would either be great, or it was going to be crushing. first pitch is thrown, strike. second pitch is thrown...kane swings...its high in the air....is the kid in right center going to catch it........no! ITS OVER THE FENCE!!!!!!!! WE WON!! kane hit his 1st ball over the fence for a walk off home run! at the time it happened im sure i looked like i had won a million dollar. i was screaming and jumping with another mom on the bleachers. i lost one of my shoes under the bleachers and stubbed my big toe. i could not have been more prouder!

yes....I am still here

so, things have been very crazy for the last few weeks. i hope to be able to post a little more often than once every 3 weeks, but im not going to promise anything! it might be 6 weeks until my next post * - )
our weekends have been full of baseball tournaments and softball practice. kane and eleanor are loving it! kane had a close call last monday at baseball practice. he was pitching and one of the bigger kids on the team hit a line drive into kane's lower left ribcage. it was SCARY. that is the worse he has ever gotten hurt. it was just a freak thing that i was even there. i had gotten there before practice was over, and i am always late. i was sitting in the truck with el and shep when one of the other moms came running to the window saying kane just got hit really hard. anyway, to make a long story short. nothing is broken, he set out for a week, you can still see a baseball imprint. we have more baseball this weekend, of course! kane is so excited to get back into the game. last weekend was the first time that he had to set out the entire tournament. it almost killed him. it didnt help that it was like 20 degrees. i so hope that it is warmer this weekend. we will be watching baseball all day saturday (4 games) and most of the day sunday, it will depend on how much they win.
eleanor has started softball practice and should have a game very soon. her coach is worthless!!! i know, it is t-ball. but it is ridiculous that they let any moron that checks the box that he will coach, have his own team. you should at least have to do a coaching clinic. this is doing an injustice to the kids!
my little shepherd has been having trouble biting at mother's day out. he is doing much better now and we pray that it will continue.

happy easter

hope everyone had a great easter! we had a very nice day with family. when we woke up on sunday morning the easter bunny had hidden all of the eggs that we had dyed the night before, and a few plastic eggs. the older kids decided that the plastic eggs must be for shepherd because they were so easy to find. so, we had 40 eggs, and we could only find 22. it is the first time ever that we have had eggs disappear. casey and i even looked, no eggs. we didn't even find any shells. it is an easter mystery.
casey and i have great fun dying easter eggs. im not sure how enjoys it more, the kids or us. we love to soak the eggs. casey had his own colors this year. we only had like 3 orange eggs and 2 pink eggs, because he hogged those colors. i have to confess, i maybe used the green most of the time. we had lots of fun!

spring break!

today is the last day of spring break. i cant say that i am so sad, at least not out loud. we spent monday and tuesday hanging around the house and sleeping late. on wednesday the kids and i left to visit family in the conway area. we spent wednesday night at my granny's house in cabot. on thursday we made our way to conway to stay at my granny & pa burt's house. the kids are loving it! my dad, his wife lisa, and my little sister haley came in from knoxville to stay the weekend too. it is always so much fun for the kids to see their cousins and grandparents. haley is just 9 months older than eleanor, so they are inseparable when they get to see each other. i know, it is CRAZY, eleanor's aunt is the same age as she is.
all the kids are going to dye easter eggs together later. that will be lots of fun! we will have 7 kids dying eggs. my 3, haley, and their 3 cousins. this will be the first time my kids have ever dyed eggs away from home, not that it is such a big deal. but whenever we get home on saturday we will be boiling eggs too. i want to get the kids on video at home. we always video dying eggs, carving pumpkins, and decorating the christmas tree. i know, kinda cheesy, but it is a tradition of ours. so, happy end of spring break!

baseball..baseball...baseball

we spent our weekend in van buren at a baseball tournament. kane played two games on saturday and one on sunday. his positions are catcher, pitcher, and third base. he is the best catcher on his team, so he caught all of the first game. the second game he played third base, and the game on sunday he caught the entire game too. he was so tired! my mom kept shepherd on saturday, thank god! we were left our house at 9:30 and didn't get home until 9 on saturday night. it was such a long day. shepherd went with us on sunday, we didn't have to be down there until 12.

I am always amazed at the drive that kane has to play sports. it takes so much physically, and mentally. he works so hard, and is so serious during the game. i love nothing more than to see him get someone out at the plate, or slide into home.

i made it!

i made it 18 days without my husband! casey is home! well, he isn't home at this very second, but he is back in arkansas. i picked him up at xna at 1:30 this afternoon. he rode the bus route with me to pick up all the kids and now is with eleanor at her fiddle lesson.
eleanor has been taking fiddle lessons for almost a year now. she has her second recital coming up this weekend. casey most always takes eleanor to fiddle and practices with her. while he was away pop filled in, but she didn't get much practice in. she doesn't think that i know what i am talking about when it comes to how she should play.
we have a pancake breakfast on saturday at applebee's in rogers from 8-10 to raise money for kane's baseball team. anyone that wants to come $5 a plate, all you can eat. casey and kane will be there the entire time serving. this is our last free weekend before the baseball tournaments start. between now and july 4th we have only easter weekend off. i should take bets now as to how many hot dogs we will consume while we spend every weekend this summer at the ball park. did i mention that eleanor is playing softball too.

over the next week i will try to post some pictures of casey's travels.

not a week can go by....

only 3 nights

i only have 3 more nights to sleep alone. casey will be coming home thursday! it is hard to believe that it has been 14 days since he left. let me rephrase that, it is hard to believe that i have made it 14 days with him gone. we are on the home stretch now!
everyone at my house is feeling better. we all had a good weekend, the weather helped alot!
kane went on an over night trip with his youth group at fellowship bible church to the new life ranch in colcord, Oklahoma. this was the first over night church trip for him. he had a great time! unfortunately he didn't use his camera at all! i even sent a disposable with a zoom! one of his good friends, matthew mauby(not sure if i spelled that right), went too. i think that helped kanes decision to go. Matthew is a really nice kid. im happy for kane to want to go to church things like that. and im glad that he has a friend that goes too. kane was at the ranch from saturday at 9am until sunday at 230pm.
while kane was gone eleanor and i spent the day together. we went to different strokes and painted pottery. it was nice to have some time one on one with her. after we went to different strokes eleanor went to the razorback basketball game with jim. she loved that, it was a great excuse to wear her razorback cheer leading outfit!

i'm back! '-)

my phone line has been down since saturday! kane and i have been dying! we have been trying our best to use my phone for some stuff, but all you can really do is look at email. i was so glad that i did have my email...but i NEED my Internet!!! the man came this morning. when i got home from taking shep to school (he is the last drop on the but route) i was so happy! it was too bad that he had to come inside and see the huge mess left by the morning rush. oh well, i'm not that worried about it. he said that he had raised four kids and now has three grandkids. i usually DO NOT let repair men inside if i am home alone (crazy phobia i have, long story) but i HAD to have the Internet! anyway, he didn't kill or rape me. that doesn't mean he won't come back tonight! i always think the worst.
so, casey is still gone. it totally sucks. he has been gone twelve days now. we have seven more days to go. it has been VERY HARD. wow! no more three week trips! shepherd has been so mad at casey, anytime i am on the phone and the other kids talk to him shep refuses. i will put casey on speaker phone and shep gets sooo mad. he hides his eyes and covers his ears. eleanor has slept in one of caseys shirts and then she holds one at night.
so much has gone on since the last time i blogged. i will be trying to get it all in , but it may be random.
all my kids have been sick this week, but are better now. i took all three of them to the doctor on monday. that was a treat! casey's dad (jim) went with me, thank god! what a life saver..so nice to have great family. i really don't know how i would do it without them. kane and eleanor had strep, they thought shepherd might have the flu, but he didn't. good thing that we went when we did. they are all better now. thank god for amoxicillion.

is my tv broken??

i wake up at like 5:30 turn on the tv and down half a bottle of water (trying to drink more water). I lay there for fifteen minutes think about the day ahead of me. did i pack everyone's lunch last night? does kane have socks in his drawer? are there any more diapers in shep's closet, or do i need to go to walmart today? so i decide i should get up, my alarm is about to go off anyway. i go take a shower come back downstairs and what do i hear?? " school closings that we have in are: bentonville and berryville, we will keep you updated on anymore that come in." I grabbed the remote and hit rewind, then play.....yes that is what they said. bentonville schools are closed. wow. i look outside...its not even raining at my house. so i'm like, well maybe channel 9 was wrong. i switched the tv to channel 7, they just said it too. it must be true...........bentonville schools are canceled. but why, why, why, why??? don't they know that the only time i have any free time is while my kids are at school? did dr. compton not get the email that my husband had left me to find him an asian wife? (he decided that he better get a head start for whenever i loose my mind) with school being out we will have to get out and do something. kane will want to go to the mall, which would be great if we didn't have the other kids with us. el will want to go to chuckie cheese, which is okay, but its alot of work for me to keep up with shepherd and keep eleanor happy. shepherd will want to go to walmart, and im sure we will get to go there. and i want to go to the spa...for 12 days!
thanks to life&kids for posting the kids eat free nights and where. we will be at one of the free spots for thursday! i love free stuff! and not having to cook!
kane has baseball practice at the batting cages tonight. thank god for my wonderful family that helps us so much. nate is on pick up patrol while casey is solving walmart-japans problems. it is great too, kane has practice 3x a week and they all end at 9 or later. it would be so crapping to have to get the other kids out just to pick him up.
kane got his hair cut yesterday! i wish i had my camera so i could post a picture.(casey took the camera) i need an excuse to have post a picture of my baby boy! he looks great, and i can see his eyes! it is hard to except that my little boy is growing into a young man.

ok, my first post today was so old. I'm not sure why i didn't post it on that day?? who knows, I have been REALLY BUSY. casey left this morning for his three week tour in China and Japan. he will not be home until March 7th! he has never been away for more than a week, maybe two weeks once or twice. it is going to be crazy....it might make me crazy....if you find one of my children on your door step, please take care of them.
shepherd has already been asking 'where my daddy go?' he knows that casey didn't ride his bike, and his truck is still at home. I could never be a military spouse. it would be soooo hard. on top of taking care of the kids and the house, you have to worry about if your husband or wife is going to be blown up. I feel like such little b**** complaining about 3 weeks.
I hope that i will have a little more time to do things that i want to do. hahahaha

Happy Very Late Valentine's Day!

ahh, yes....valentine's day......class parties where sticky little fingers are doing their best to read and open valentines.....the men at sam's looking like they have never seen flowers before. tell me what is better?? i personally really dont expect much, just a card. anything more than that is bonus. this year we made an inside rule that we have to make each others card.

i had told casey's grandmother how casey didn't like valentine's day, and that i didn't expect anything from him. she showed up with a basket full of cookies and said that she wanted to make sure that i had a valentine's day present. it was so nice!!! grandmother is so great!

last weeks snow!

eleanor came home from school last wednesday with an early pick up form. the school was so scared that they would have to let school out early because of the bad weather. i'm glad that it snowed over night. the kids were so excited to get up and see that it really did snow while they were sleeping! casey and eleanor went out to build a snowman. shepherd didn't want to go out much, it was too cold. kane went out to throw snowballs, mostly at el. after the first round in the snow we had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream..yum! the kids were in and out lots, with hot chocolate in between.

so happy its monday....(kinda)

it is monday and my kids are at school, my husband is at work, and i put the dog outside. finally, i am in an empty house......listen.....its sooooooo queit. then i walk to the washer and realize that there is enough laundry to swim in. i have ran the dishwasher twice today, and will need to run it again after dinner. i didn't get anything done over the weekend. casey worked all day saturday and most of the day sunday.

casey replaced the floor in the kichen this weekend! YAA! it is 1,000x better that the **** tile that was on the floor. i can't beleive that he got it all done. he finished just in time to watch the super bowl. what a game! i am so glad that the giants won! go eli manning! its to bad eli is so goofy. i could put up with goofy if i got to see him take off his football pants and had access to the bank!-i didn't say that-

enough dreaming.....i have to go empty the dishwasher and change over the laundry

100 years old

like i thought i would be, i'm behind already....oh well. eleanor celebrated the 100th day of school day on tuesday of this week. the kindergarten kids and teachers dressed up like they were 100 years old. eleanor looked really good! Shepherd has been sick since last thursday. he is finally well enough to go to school and the weather is suppose to get bad....it figures!

next school year my first born son will go to junior high! i can't believe it, junior high. well, to make it a little better my mother-in-law works at washington and got kane switched over there from lincoln. kane really didn't care which school he went to. he has lots of friends going to both schools, but he preferred washington. all the kids he goes to school with now are going to washington. for the most part all the springhill kids will be at lincoln. i think old high is kind of split between the two jr highs. barker (kane's) goes to washington. so, diane will be there to keep check on kane. if he does anything wrong, she will know. it will be great for me, we will see for him. hes not worried about nana being in his buisness, he said that he doesn't do anything wrong.

a night out

I'm on the count down......I am going out with some girlfriends tonight. For the first time in weeks I get to breath different air than these little messy creatures. The little messy creatures I refer to are my wonderful children that I love and adore! Of course I love my kids and my husband soooo much! but, it is so nice when I get to go out friends and just have fun!

Casey came home early from Kansas City late Wednesday night. His booth got shut down so he packed his stuff and stood outside the hotel. He said that he asked everyone that came out with a bag where they were going. Can you believe that I am married to this hitch hiker? It didn't take him long to convence a very sceptical guy to let him ride along. The guy lived in Bella vista so Nate went to pick my roaming husband. It was a nice surprise to see him walk in at 11. It was also sooooo nice to sleep in Thursday morning. ( he got up and took the kids to school)

Shep isn't feeling well today. I kept him home from school...I think if I watch one more episode of Curious George I might go blind! Curious George and Trains, those are Shep's favorites. Needless to say we watch alot PBS!

So, tonight me and Tara are going to hang out with one of our friends,Jackie, in Fayetteville. It should be lots of fun. We are going to George's to hear some good music-well, I don't know that they are good. I'm taking Jackie's word for it. We will see I guess. Either way, I get to go have adult conversations with really live people.
For a little while I will just be Kim, responsible for only myself.

you just have to make do....

So, who saw the news on channel 9 last night? For all those who didn't see, i'm sorry. They did such a wonderful segment about this poor lady that left Fort Smith around 5pm and didn't get home to Fayetteville until 12:30am because of all the ice. They asked her how she made it for 7 hours with no bathroom, She said that she just had to make do in her car. I hope to goodness that she didn't really have to make doo! Makes you think twice before you buy a used car!

Eleanor lost a tooth at school today. I hope the tooth fairy remembers to come tonight! I always enjoy listening to the conversations that take place between Shep and El in the backseat. Today Eleanor asked Shepherd what he wanted to be when he grew up. It didn't take Shep a second to think about it -Santa Clause- I want to be Santa Clause he says. If he is Santa I will never have to spend hours waiting in line for the newest electronic device the day after Thanksgiving...sounds great to me!

yes....yes....it is true....i am BLOGGING! if anyone is reading this for correct spelling and grammar, STOP NOW! my blog will be totally informal and im sure at times it will be a gripe session.

Casey left for Kansas City meetings this morning, he will be coming back on Friday. While Casey is away Kane is the man of the house, all that means is that Kane will have to roll the trash bin out for trash day.

I am soooo glad that Bentonville did not cancel school today. It is like the first time in history that it was freezing and the school district did not cancel school. My kids were not all that thrilled about having to bundle up and go to school, but it sure made my day! Kane said that in his first class it was him and one other child. I can't believe that there was only one other mother with any sense in Kane's homeroom. Most of the kids got there around nine. It only took those other mothers an hour before they realized their kids belonged at school. Especially after the second three-day weekend in a row! Have a great day at school..mom loves you....