Hidden Treasures on my iPhone

 I recently received an email message telling me that my iPhone was reaching maximum capacity in memory.  I was wondering how in the world this could be because I really don't have a whole lot on there.  Low and behold I look at my photo album and see that I had over 800 photos and about a dozen videos.  I never hook up my phone to my computer (guess I better start) so I uploaded all the photos to my computer and sat and looked through them today.

My children ALL steal my iPhone from time to time and from the photos I saw today, apparently they ALL take photos when they steal my phone from me.

I have to admit I totally enjoyed looking through them all and sure laughed more than once.  Here are a few I must share:

ELIJAH photos:

one of the twins rubber fidget toys broke and this is how Elijah decided to use it.....

Do NOT attempt this at home!!!!

CAMILLE's photos:

Random Twin Photos:

Looking through all of these photos almost makes me feel as though I just unpacked my summer clothes only to find a $20 bill stuck in a pocket of my shorts :)  I may just have to ask my kids to take my phone more often and take some photos, its kinda nice to see things through someone else's view..

Makes a MaMa Proud!!!

Tom and I have been hard at work getting our garden cleaned up and ready to plant for the season.  Last June when I fell and tore my ACL kinda threw a wrench into our garden season last year.  And then to endure reconstructive surgery in August right before we normally harvest all the garden produce, I probably don't need to explain that our garden was a real MESS this spring.  No fall clean up..  unharvested produce... weeds galore, it really was just not pretty.  Tom has been down at the garden for hours upon hours getting it ready.  He did and AMAZING job and I can't wait to plant all our goodies this year.  Lord willing, we will have a nice harvest this year and I have LOTS of canning to do this fall.  We are out of all my good sauces, vegetables, and jams in our pantry.

After Tom finished tilling up the soil I wanted to layer the isles again this year with cardboard to keep the weeds down and to give us a cushion of sorts to walk upon as we do our gardening.  We just bought a small lawn mower and garden cart to help us with our yardwork this year.  The kids are so excited that daddy took time to train them all in fine detail on how to drive the lawn mower.  Each child is excited to help with the yard work so far this year and often ask if there is anything they can do to be able to drive the mower and cart around.  We have accomplished a ton of little jobs that we would not have otherwise even attempted without the cart so far this spring.

Elijah was asking and asking what it was he could do to be allowed to drive the mower.  I mentioned that we needed cardboard lined up in the garden between the isles.  He was right on it.  I helped him load the cardboard into the cart and then he took it from there.

He worked up a sweat for sure and after the third load he as super happy when the mower ran out of gas and he could take a break before laying the cardboard on the last row.  This HAD to be documented, because this is out of the ordinary..... but I like having a motivator that will make my kids want to work!!!!!  That mower was worth every little penny we paid for it already :)

Restful Sleep??? I Question that one

I was out setting up the tent with the three older kiddos only to come back in the house to find Isaac looking like this....

I can't say that I have EVER fallen asleep still standing.  These kids crack me up!!!!  Guess I will do him a favor and lay him down in his bed now..

Backyard Fun

We just finished setting up our tent at 10 pm for a last minute decision to let kids sleep outside in the backyard.  They LOVE this!!  I can probably bet money that they will all be in the house come morning.  Cousin Kylie is experiencing her first backyard sleepover tonight.. Hope the kids are nice to their little cousin and don't tell scary stories to much :)

Oh to be a kid again.......

Happy Mothers Day gift from Elijah

I love getting homemade gifts from the kids for Mothers Day.  I especially love when you can tell that the kids have put lots and lots of work into the gift.  Elijah is in third grade and her teacher and her art teacher have worked all year long to put together an awesome Mothers Day book..  They took several photos of Elijah throughout the year, he made art projects to go with the photo.  The book was so nicely wrapped and Elijah put it on my pillow before I awoke on Mothers Day.... how sweet!!!!

I wanted to take photos to share and to keep.  I store away things like this and never seem to see them again, but this is why I love my blog, I can look it up whenever I want :)

I had a very nice mothers day this year and thank my hubby and kids for a wonderful day!!!!

Elijah is a baseball player

His class

Fingerprint turkey, each level used a different finger

I love you because; you help me when I'm sick and you feed me and
you spend money on me and you help me stay alive.

I am lucky because....I have you for a mother and you take care of me
and help me and put clothing on my back

Thanks buddy!!!!

Camille's first Chorus Fest

Tonight we enjoyed going out to watch the District 3 PEMA Elementary Chorus Fest at the Brockway Area Middle School..  Camille was able to participate in the fun filled day practicing with a total of 21 school districts all day to put on their performance tonight.. They did a fantastic job and Camille, of course, was right in the front row and easy to watch.

Camille said she had alot of fun and enjoyed meeting new kids.  She said she is going to try really hard to get in again for next year.  You have to try out to participate.  This year she was selected as an alternate, but was excited to be told she was going.  There were 9 students from her elementary school that attended.

Tristin surprised her with these beautiful flowers at the end and Camille was thrilled... Congrats honey.. you looked and sung great!!

What can words do?? (Part One)

I have had a VERY EMOTIONAL roller coaster over the past two weeks.  I have had something happen to me that has been so personally emotionally draining that I am still not sure how I can fully recover.  I will think on how to write about it after everything passes.  So words can HURT very badly and words can identify something in a way that is completely untrue and make someone out to be someone or something that they are not.

Then today I receive an email from someone who I have never met.  Someone that I talked to on the phone for work recently and felt really bad once I hung up because I had such a hard time hearing her due to the twins demanding my time to put on a tv show or give them a cracker or just the usual..mommies on the phone, so lets cling on her and hum and fuss to get her off the phone..

See I have said a hundred times before, I LOVE that I have been blessed to find a position with an organization that allows me to work from home.  Its the only way that I could work while raising five children.. all with their own needs, but especially my twins with PDD Autism and Down Syndrome.  Often I find myself apologizing to the person on the other end of the phone because of the noises happening on my end of the receiver.  I am often left wondering what in the world that person I was just talking to thought of our phone conversation..

Today I got the NICEST email from this person.  So today I am happy to say that words can UPLIFT a person in so many ways.  Here is the email (with person's permission)

I have to tell you that I was so inspired by you that I went online yesterday searching the Today show website trying to find an e-mail address for them to see if there was a way to get your story out there for Mother of the year nominations and I thought "this is it!" it said you had to nominate someone you knew and write an essay, I thought I don't know her, but I can do this, and my essay was going to be about how a woman I never met inspired me, how I only had 2 interactions involving this woman, one was a phone conversation in which I could hear a baby crying, and your explanation that you had identical twin boys, and how I immediately identified with that situation of trying to have a phone conversation when my boys were young, as I also have identical twin boys, whom I feel so blessed to have.  Buth then you went on to tell me that your boys have autism and kept you very busy.  You said it with joy in your voice, not with the sound of a stressed out mom, and I hung up the phone, thinking wow, she has such a positive attitude.  The other interaction was when I was on your website trying to find an application for the summer camp program you hold, and I came across your blog.  You described yourself as a mother of 5, and told of your 1 in a million twins who were identical, had downs syndrome, and autism, and how lucky you were to have them, and they changed your life.  I thought this story would inspire many......So, anyways, as I read on about the contest, the entry date had passed, and it was too late to nominate you--but next year, if I come across such a contest again-I think you would be the winner HANDS DOWN!  So, whatever it's worth from a lady you don't know---Happy Mothers Day!!

This email brought tears to my eyes and actually pulled me out of a funk that I have been in for a week now from the hurtful words that were presented to me last week.  I try my hardest to always speak in positive ways.  I try my hardest to never speak unkindly of someone even if I am thinking that they should have some unkind words spoken to them.  I pray for wisdom for my tongue and mind all the time.  I don't claim to be the perfect mom; I don't say that I know exactly what I am doing; I will not intentionally do or say anything to harm my children.  I appreciate this email from someone whom I have never met before more than she could ever begin to understand..  She was the angel God sent me today to cheer me up :)

More to come soon..........