Albuquerque!

My mom and I made a trip to Albuquerque to take the kids to the childrens science museum. We spent half of the day there and had to pry them out of the building to leave. I was pretty impressed myself. It had a lot of hands on things for kids my kids ages.

This is the face Scarlett gives me when she wants me to stop taking pictures and tell Owen to share.

The kids thought it was the greatest place on earth. They can't wait to go back.

Owen Loved the trains, and I loved watching his "concentrating" face.

Scarlett loved the art section!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

We have been in Texas for the last 5 days. I have so much to blog about, but I will have to start with why we were there. We went to my paw paw's memorial service. Me, Mike and the kids flew to Texas to be there for the service. We left Thursday morning at the crack of dawn and drove to El Paso (because we live in the sticks, we have to drive two hours to the closest airport) to catch the plane. We had to lave extra early to get to the airport an hour and a half before the plane took off, because of Scarlett's peanut allergy. They told us to get there early so we would get to be seated with group A. We got there in time and got seated with group B. Group B sits in the back of the plane apparently. They do not allow preboarding so we literally got the last row in the plane. No PREBOARDING! If airline company's had any since at all, they would keep the front rows open for passengers with young children or elderly people. Do they not get that when little children are on planes, they will start to cry loudly if they are the last ones to get off the plane?! Also, kids poop in their diapers, and wouldn't they want the stinky kids off the plane faster.
In mid flight, the flight attendants passed out pretzels and drinks. A couple people started asking for peanuts, and one lovely flight attendant pointed in our direction and said, "we have a peanut allergy person on board so we are not serving nuts." I wanted to stand up and say, "yep, that would be us, and if any of you have a problem with it, SHAME ON YOU!" People were mad that it was a "nut" less flight. Really, people cant wait one hour to have some nuts?! AMAZING!
One the way home, we were sitting in the airport terminal, and we heard and announcement, "Would the family of Scarlett Grace Remund please report to Gate 7 counter" Her we go, call attention to her again! We walked up to the ticket counter and a lady asked us what grade allergy she had and gave us a ticket to preboard before anyone else. We were seated in the front row of the plane, and no one pointed out that she had a peanut allergy. Everything is better in South Texas!

Stuff?!?!?

Why do people measure their worth by the "things" they have? Some days I want to sell everything, rent an apartment, and be free of all the "stuff". Where we live, people like their stuff a lot. I don't like to be told I need "this", or I need "that". I have everything I need. I actually have WAY more than I need. And conversations like that just irritate me. We all have way more that we need. This country suffered last year and is still suffering because people "needed" the best and most expensive. More depression, more anger, more devastation, and of course, more stuff. I think the key to happiness is to get rid of ALL stuff and focus on the people in your life. A Simple life is a happy life.
I can't wait to live in a city where I can walk or ride a bike to a grocery store. Where I can home school my kids if I want to, go out in public with no make up on, we can drive one car, and have fifty kids if we want to, and if the people I am around don't like it, I can find a new group of friends. I am feeling so trapped right now. haha can you tell? Anyone want to buy a house? I think I am going to put ours on the market SOON.

More paw paw

I think blogging about this is kind of therapeutic. Not everyone has close relationships with their grandparents, but I have been so blessed to have mine be a HUGE part of my life. I feel pretty empty right now. My grandmother died in 2001 (I think) and that was hard. One of the hardest parts about her death was seeing my paw paw miss her. He wanted to be with her. He loved God, and knew that he would be with her again someday, and today he finally got his wish. I bet they are in heaven catching up right now. Talking about grand kids, great grand kids and weddings and who knows what else. Even though this is so sad for me, that I will never get to hug him again, I am happy because he is in heaven.
I am so incredibly lucky to have had grandparents like him and my maw maw. I will never forget his slobbery kisses that I would wipe off. Every time I clip my kids toenails, I think of him. He would always clip my toenails and it tickled SOOOOOO bad! I will always remember him catching lizards for me and my brother. We would go to church with him and my maw maw when we would go visit them, and he would let me sit in his lap. I usually fell asleep in his lap because they went to the most boring church in the world. One time I fell asleep in his lap and I remember closing my eyes and dreaming that I was falling, and I jumped and my shoe flew up in the air.
He was the greatest gardener EVER. We loved going to visit them in the summer and help him garden. Gardening memories are memories I will never forget. Mike was telling me this morning, that he will never forget the first time he met my paw paw. My paw paw got in his face and told him to treat me right, right after he showed him all of his guns.
This morning when my dad called me, it was a call I knew was coming. I knew why he was calling, and I was as prepared as I could be. It is still hard to take, but I am going to hold on to the great memories of him, and know that he is in a much better place. And he is singing hymns with the angels.

Paw Paw

My paw paw is in heaven. He is with my Maw maw and I know they are happier than ever right now. I am so sad that he is gone, but I am so happy that he is not in a hospital bed anymore. He is and will always be a man I look up to. He was great! I will miss him a ton!

The tree house

Mike has been building a tree house for the kids. Here is the beginning stages, and I will post more soon.

This is what I stumbled upon the other day