Wordless Wednesday

Text on Tuesday

From my shopping partner in crime, Sandy: Dear Sara, Help!!! I can't decide which boots :(

From Grandma Murdock: Sure do love that little fashionista :-)

Ruby at football practice with her new coat and flower beanie. 

Wordless Wednesday

Text on Tuesday

I'm starting another fun weekly post inspired by this text my hubby sent me:

Just figured you and I have been changing diapers for the last 6 years...about 9000 of them, give or take. That's $3500 to $4000 worth!

So random. I love him & those cute bums we've been changing for the past 6 years straight! I think he's trying to tell me it's time to potty train baby girl. :)

Here's another sweet one from Grandpa Murdock after meeting them on Ruby's birthday at the Phoenix Airport:

Sara, thank you once again for bringing the children out to see us! Those little arms around our necks and hugs made such a fun ending to a long day. Little Ruby in my arms on her birthday has created a memory that will last a life time. Love Dad.

Two Cute for her Own Good!

Who said she could turn two anyway?!? She woke up calling for me, "Mama!" then covered her eyes when I went to get her and didn't wait up. Grumpy, just like me in the morning. We had cinnamon rolls and opened s little bit of princess for our princess, before Dad had to leave for a business trip. Ruby insisted on GOing to take Kaleb to school wearing her backpack and toting her new baby in her pjs. I couldn't tell her no, so off we went. She said, "Home, sweet, home" when we stopped at the dry cleaners, then again when we were really home. This is Ruby watching her favorite girly shows, Dora & Guppies, while I cleaned for a while. Yes, she is in her baby's stroller. After that we picked up the boys at preschool and they played and lunched outside. Ruby's favorite lunch is hot dog, chips, and grapes. Then we raced off to pick up Kaleb and head into town. We stopped by the Nothing Bundt cake shoppe & Target for popcorn, icees & a few other things. Ruby loves popcorn more than me! We were all so excited to meet up with Grandpa & Grandma Murdock.  The kids played, called for them, did some people watching (we saw a dude with screws covering his head, seriously) and scoped out the super steep escalators to play on.  When they arrived it was pure joy!  I don't know who was happier, and it was so special to us that we got to spend some time together on Ruby's birthday.  They spoiled all the kids with gifts and gave Ruby some of her very favorite things: a Dora music book & a little purse with accessories.  G & G sang the 3 birthday songs we all love and Ruby smiled from ear to ear. It was so much fun to celebrate together!  It was hard to say goodbye, but the kids & Grandpa did Later, Gator & Ruby blew kisses until they crossed through security. Here's the crew on the drive home. Ruby kept on saying, "Where's Dad?" (like 23 times) We missed him, but plan on celebrating more this weekend. You know how we like to stretch our birthdays out!  I made birthday pasta & corn on the cob for Ruby, the kids played pillow fight & "snow" angels, and then we hit the hay.

Ruby is 21 pounds and a dainty little thing for her age. She loves to do anything & everything we are doing. Ruby loves to help. She pushes a chair up and washes dishes with me, shakes out the clothes to fold and says who each piece of clothes belongs to, likes to push the car in the grocery store, sweep, and start the dishwasher. She loves to JUMP (I jumping!), dance, twirl, tickle & be tickled.  She likes to hide under the covers from the daddy-tickle monster! She also loves to read; recent favs are Curious George books & the Target toy catalog.  She's been shopping through it every day for a week and a half.  "Look, MY Dora, Mom!" Ruby has recently become a fan of her blankie and wants to take it places with her. She also loves shoes and purses. Seriously. I swear she came by it honestly. Ruby's really discovered her voice lately. Super shrieking crazy scream when she doesn't get what she wants, but also the CUTEST little singing. The first time I noticed her singing was in the car, a little ditty she made up called, "My Shoes" repeated several times while kicking her little legs. She also sings, "YUMMY" when she's eating something really good, and just rhough out the day when she's happy. Her favorite birthday gift was from Dylan, a bubble machine. We are so happy she's ours and can't imagine life without our Ruby-girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Who IS this Person?

This crazy lady fought every natural instinct known to sleep deprived mothers everywhere. She allegedly got her bum out of bed, instead of rolling over to cuddle her handsome husband. She is accused of sneaking out in the dark, very cold morning, bundled from head to toe in many layers of black, past her sleeping children, to walk/run two mornings in a row.

Will she strike again to make it 3? I don't know. She looks vaguely familiar, like someone I might know. I thought documentation was necessary though...you know, just in case.

Wordless Wednesday

Heart Sick

I apologize to my 2 followers for this post...it's going to be a downer, so just skip it.

While I truly appreciate the freedoms we enjoy, and the fact that we get to vote, I am just sick about our local school bond that was voted down for the third time in a row. This time by a landslide. I don't know what is more disappointing... the fact that it was shot down and nobody seems to care about our future and our struggling community, or the fact that only 3500 people voted at all. My friends, the Johnsons, who were VERY involved in campaigning and educating our dismal community on the importance of it passing, said that 1400 NO votes were counted in early ballots. Canadians told them how disgusted they are with our education system in the U.S. even before we knew the results.

Here's a little info I found tonight at the US Census Bureau. Our population in 2000 was 1,040. Our population in 2010...any guesses?  43,482! That's a 999.9% increase. The other demographics were very interesting as well, if you'd like to see for your self, check it out on their website.

Do you think a 999.9% increase in population justifies a tax increase for our public schools? Ten years ago there was one elementary school, middle school and high school. Now there are six

elementaries, two middle schools, and one high school.The raise in property taxes would have been an

average of $10-15 a month for a $90K home, which few of them are even valued at that much now. My home is worth less than that, and we purchased it for around $250K six years ago.

Meanwhile, my son's first grade class is at 33. His kindergarten class was half that. He has half

the specials he had last year, PE & Music once a week for 30 minutes. His school is just now able to hire a librarian, because the teachers chose to turn down a very small raise, so the elective type teachers could be re-hired full time.The art program is taught by parent volunteers which I am coordinating at his school.  It wouldn't happen at all if I hadn't stepped up, found awesome parent volunteers, begged for money from the PTO, and donated tax credit money. 

Kaleb attends the only excelling school in the entire county. Pima Butte recently earned an A grade from the state of Arizona, against all odds. I feel like he is in a good place, despite the realities of the situation in our community. I'm in hate with the COPA right now.

IMO, and since this is my by invitation only, "private blog" here's the rant & rave session you may want to skip over. I don't care if you home school, you're retired, you don't have kids, your kids attend a charter school, or commute to a school "in town."I don't care if you are flat broke and on a fixed income. If you care about our kids, the future, and the community you live in, you should support your local schools. Even if that means forking out more money.

There is something that members of our church strive to live called the law of consecration. I think it could be applicable here. It's something along the lines of dedicating our lives, time, talents, and means to building up the Kingdom of God. In other words, taking care of His children.

Today I was heart sick. And so I held my kids, told them I loved them, and we made cookies. Lots of 'em. An entire pound of butter, and a delivery of cookies & milk to the staff of Pima Butte Elementary later, and I feel better. I hope the teachers that dedicate their lives, time, talents, and means for their classes, our children, feel a little better, too.

Time Out

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the PERFECT time for me to go to Time Out for Women, with some of my favorite people on the planet. It's been an emotional year for me. More so than usual, I think. Lately I feel like I've tied a knot to the end of my rope, and I'm just holding on, day after day, trying to make it through one more day. I needed to get away and find a better me, because I didn't like hanging out with me anymore, and I'm pretty sure nobody else did, too.

My 28 hours in TIME OUT, yes I counted, was filled with fun, laughter, learning, good food, good friends, a little shopping and very little sleep. We danced in the rain, laughed, ate more than we should, and checked out the Down East Fall Collection on everyone around us. We also listened, learned, took notes, and were uplifted. I felt the Spirit, received inspiration, and the guidance I needed to try harder to become the girl my Father in Heaven wants me to be. After all my 29+ almost 6 years, I still feel like just a girl in the journey we call life. SO MUCH TO LEARN & BECOME!

I also found the hair shape I've been searching for, ran into a few old friends, Occupy Phoenix, and half the women of Maricopa. I guess we're a needy bunch! We also found a few good craft ideas...woohoo! A special thanks to Sandy for planning it all, and dragging Jenna & I along. We would've never gone without you!

Wordless Ward Wednesday