Sum, sum, summer

Summer has arrived in the Flaming house! Here are a couple of things I am planning on implementing for the next three months:

• "Dog/Chicken Duty" - this means that each kid is in charge of one of our pets for a week at a time.


• "Chores List" - each day each kid is assigned a specific chore(s) that has to be completed (to momma's approval) before they are allowed to go off for the day.
  
• "Walk My Butt Off" - I've been walking EARLY mornings with two friends who are way more athletic than I...shh, I think I'm fooling them.

Thursday morning was a hoot...

Well, Wednesday night Anna invited her friend to spend the night. Then, we are taking care of our friend's Dalmation, Glimmer, for a week. She's old and no trouble at all, but now our adopted chihuahua thinks Glimmer's GINORMOUS dog bed is her's. THEN, Thursday morning I woke up to find our youngest kid sleeping on Glimmer's dog bed with her!!

And they slept until 9am! For the next week, the kids will rotate which dog they feed/water/walk, and I will handle the chickens.

Yes, our house is CrAzInEsS, but it's teaching them responsibility, which, of course, is a most important character trait our kids need to learn.

Any kind of new post

I just have to post something to get that other post from being the most recent one on here. I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. We did. I wasn't sure what it would be like when it started, but we spent a lot of time with the Koerner's and it was great! And thank you GOD for the beautiful weather and lack of humidity!! This time last year we were here for a visit and it was hot and muggy!

I do still owe Melissa a nice picture posted here for our "war", but I don't have anything yet. I have been working on business cards and a flyer so she can get her piano lesson business going again. Here's what I have for the biz card for now. Check out her website if you're interested in lessons (and live in the general vicinity of Newton, KS) :)

It is actually in color, but I just don't have a copy of that right now. Here's a look at the flyer so you can see the colors. I like doing this kind of stuff. It's fun.

I just couldn't help myself

Ok, Jarrod's gonna kill me for this, but after going back and forth in my mind, I decided, "What the heck! This is so worth it!"

Meet "Chloe" the foster dog.

Speedy Quick

Well, I've totally slacked on blogs lately. I SHOULD be making my grocery list and heading to the store, but once again it's cold, dark and about to rain (I am SICK SICK SICK of the weather here!!!!) did I mention SICK?!?. I heard a girl on Wheel of Fortune last night say that she just moved to California from Ohio for the sunshine. We have a bond.
Anyway, the last week or two have been full with "end of the year" stuff. Jacob graduated from 5th grade. The kid is almost 5'9", taller than ALL the students in his school, and taller than many of the teachers as well. Jarrod and I couldn't have been prouder- not just because he's tall, but because he has worked so hard to catch up after moving here and has proven that he can do it!! Of course, during the looong program Caleb leans over and says, "I hate to say it, but this is pretty boring!". Spoken like a true little brother.
Let's see, I highlighted all the kids' hair this weekend. Jacob's been begging to get highlights in his hair, so being the cool mom that I am ;) I did it. Caleb's hair is just too dark to take highlights, but he thinks he can see them. They look too cute, and hey, they're happy.
Mother's Day was a Humongous treat! Jarrod and the kids did everything for me-down to the linen tablecloth, napkins, bouquet of flowers, and cards; fixing the delicious dinner and cleaning up afterward. And guess what? Since it was MY day, I didn't make myself eat the green beans (yuck)! There are perks to having your own special day.
Ok, I need to get moving. But let me just say that I believe that I have the BEST husband and kids in the whole universe!!