just checking to see if my blog still works.

okay, nobody fall out of your seat. i really had just about given up on this blog thing. i've never ever been this far behind and so much has been happening that i just haven't taken the time to keep up. i made a list for myself of all the pictures from january that i'd want to include in my blog and it was seriously overwhelming. i think that january 2009 will just be the missing month that my kids fuss at me for when i'm old because they won't have any record of what happened then. oh well. they can just make up their own stories. i guess maybe i could go back from time to time in sort of a flashback kind of way and pick up things from january that i don't want to forget...i'm sure that'll happen. february has already been so full of it's own activities. it just never ends, and although i enjoy just about everything we get into, it is so busy. we started out the month at church for super bowl sunday. our youth group always gets together at church to watch it and (of course) to eat. i never ever want to go, but i do sometimes and always end up having fun. i ended up sitting with robert and diana blankenship and steve martin to eat and we had a good time together. there was some 3D thing going on, so i wanted to make sure to get a pic of the kids with their 3D glasses on. none of them were impressed with whatever it was they saw. max is playing upward basketball again this year and loving it, as usual. he does very well. his favorite thing to do is a "buzzer beater". he'll even watch the clock to see if it's down to the wire, then he'll get the ball and tear down the court to get it in. cracks us up. he did it yesterday, or tried to...greg and i told him to watch the game not the clock. then heard his coach (our friend harry) tell him the same thing. i bet he thought we didn't know what he was doing. he's also still involved in cub scouts. with that comes the yearly pinewood derby. greg is swamped, so we ended up buying a ready-made car this year. i helped max with his painting. he wanted a ny jets car, so that's what he did. i made a little stencil for it and he sponged on his logo after painting the car as a whole. he was pretty pleased with his work! he didn't win but he did have a good time making his car and running it at the derby. we've had a lot of snow this year, more than recent years, which makes me very happy because I LOVE SNOW. and i've been able to have my boys home with me for snow days and days when there was no heat and/or no power at the schools. they love snow too - now whether or not it's the actual snow they love or getting to sleep in...it could be a toss-up. here's a little bit from january that i have to make sure to include. blake and luke both were in all-state choir this year. blake made it last year also. this was the first opportunity luke had to try out and participate. they had a ton of extra practices after school and put a lot of work into learning their music. blake was in chamber choir and luke was in the jr high choir. both of those choirs were better than the college choir. or i liked them better, anyway. their voices were just brighter and the song choices were much better. they got a couple of days away from home and stayed in a hotel and got to eat out and just really lived it up. so much fun for them. and they did so well - of course we're proud!

this week has been a big one for max. first of all, he and his friends alex and martin won the 4th grade math field day at their school and represented davis creek elementary at the county math field day. THEY WON 2ND PLACE! wow! they were so excited (and so was i) to hear their names called as winners. this is apparently the first time that anyone from their school has placed in this contest, so they were extra proud of themselves. they got a big trophy for their school's trophy case and medals of their own to keep. treated them to a little celebratory mcdonalds on the way home (their choice) and they spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing football with their big brothers. secondly...max has been working with alex and their friend tyler on a project for the school social studies fair. they've been researching the bermuda triangle. max and alex have spent a lot of time at our house doing online research and printing printing printing and gluing and so on. they all worked on it at school, as well, making a clay model of that area. max and i had made a whirlpool in a bottle (i did that with blake and luke years ago but max had never seen it) a couple of weeks ago. he mentioned the other day that it would be great for their project because it ties in to some of what they read about the bermuda triangle. so they included it in their display too. i took him and alex to set it up at school on thursday afternoon. friday afternoon, here comes max with a blue 1st place ribbon. they won 1st place in the geography category and get to go to the county social studies fair in march! they're so excited! i'm so proud and happy for them...but also pretty bummed. the county event is on a weekend when i'm going to be in nashville for a beth moore conference for pastor's wives. looking forward to the conference, but i'll really miss being there for max.

got some sbux time in with kathy. kids came along because of a no power day, and kept themselves busy. max says "you guys sure can talk".

i just like this picture, so it's going in.

the youth group is going on a mission trip to the dominican republic this summer. greg and luke are part of that team. maybe you got a letter from them asking for your support either in prayer or in finances or both...if you didn't, and would like to help them, just let me know and i'll tell you how you can. there was a fundraiser spaghetti dinner at church for this reason. it went pretty well, but not as much money came in as usual. not sure why. we had fun doing it though. we had a good group in the kitchen. kathy and i found some interesting bread in the warmer during the clean up phase, and of course had to play and take pictures.

max reached a milestone...finally learned how to blow a bubble gum bubble. he may have been happier about that than about any of his other accomplishments.

my husband turned into a 45 year old man yesterday. we celebrated with his dad and christina at famous dave's for a little bbq then came back to our house for some chocolate cake (like any of us had room for it) and ice cream. we made it easy on him with just a few candles. =)