Happy 12th Year Lukey!

*Before I even start this post, please do not pay any attention to the unmade bed in the background of these two pictures.  My OCD tells me not to post them!  Are you crazy?  But then I really like the sweetness of Luke and Emma so I'm going to have to over ride my OCD.  Sorry Mom.  And Trin.  ")

I know I've been going on and on and on about my Lukey getting older but I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that he's been a part of my life for over 12 years now.  It's scary to think how fast time can pass.  I hate it, but I should quit griping about it, accept it and move on.  Right?  Right.  So anyway, Luke's birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving this year.  He doesn't really like it when it is like that because all his friends are usually busy, but we made sure to celebrate a little early the Friday before.  We took about six extra boys (yeah, what the heck am I thinking?) bowling and out for pizza.  They seemed to have a good time and I know Luke was happy to get to spend some time with all of them.  We also celebrated the night before his birthday with the family.  If I were a good mom I would have had some pictures of those two nights to show you all, but I'm not.  Not when I seem to hide my camera from myself.  Something tells me I won't be doing that too much anymore (I'll fill ya in on those details a little later.)  For now I guess I better keep up my birthday posting theme here and throw out a few memories or silly facts about Luke that I love.  So here we go....

1.  Luke was four days overdue and I was in hard labor for twelve excruciating hours.  It was the day before Thanksgiving that year and all of our friends from school showed up and waited forever for Luke.  It was a very special day for me in more ways than one.  When he finally decided to make his debut, he weighed 8 lbs and 10 ounces.  He had a glimmer of red hair and funny feet like his dad!  I fell in love with another boy that day.  

2. Luke's middle name is Brody.  It was a name of a character in a popular movie at that time (I'll see if you guys can figure that one out on your own).  Ron's friends called him Brody Baby.

3. His first room was decorated with Paddington everything.  We still have every Paddington from his nursery and one huge Paddington we got at Sears when they marked it down.  The thing is seriously about 3 feet tall!

4. Luke loved Blues Clues and had several "Handy Dandy Notebooks" and "Thinking Chairs".  I can still sing every song from that show!

5. When he was about 2 or 3 he was having a hard time pronouncing his "L's" so I would try to get him to say la-la...and then whatever L word he was trying to say.  So I would say la-la-Luke for example.  One day he was messing around with a hanger and I told him to put it down.  He proceeded to tell me it wasn't a hanger it was a hammer.  I said no it is a hanger now put it away.  He said "No mom.  It's a la-la-hammer!"  I think that was the day he figured out if he made me laugh he didn't seem to get in as much trouble as he would otherwise.

6. Luke also had several funny sayings that we still say around our house to this day.  Some of which include:

"I judge you." Luke's first attempt at I love you.

"Kyle's on the down." This is what Luke told our friends when he was explaining the bunk bed situation.

"Ass cream."  Ice cream.

"I'm gonna wear my toes."  This was Luke going somewhere barefoot.

"Sorry doesn't work for me."  His daycare taught the kids to use their words and if someone did something that made you mad and they apologized it was ok to tell them this.  We still throw this one around a lot in our house.

7. He's very funny and loves making people laugh.  I do too so I can relate.

8. He's sensitive and caring and doesn't want to hurt any one's feelings. 

9. He has to have the last word.  Always.  (I know my mom is reading this right now and cracking up because Luke and I are so much alike.)

10. He's growing his hair out again.  I don't like it.  Does anyone know when this will be out of style?  Or if it is out of style can you help me convince him?

11. He's been taking guitar lessons for about seven months now and he is really good.  He knows how to read the music and all that jazz which I think is pretty impressive.  Especially since I went to his lessons for a while and I couldn't follow along with that stuff at all.

12. He's the best big brother/son anyone could ask for.  The night we had the family over for his birthday I wanted to put together a quick slide show for him (this is quickly becoming another hobby of mine).  The only problem was I didn't have enough time to scan in a bunch of pictures.  So I sat down and made a quick slide show with the pictures I had on the computer already.  It wasn't very long but enough for a couple of songs.  I picked two of his favorite songs and we played it for him and everyone else that night.  I was feeling kind of bad because I didn't get everything in there I wanted to and after it was over this is the conversation we had.

Luke:  Thanks for the slide show mom.

Me:  Well I'm sorry it wasn't longer.  I wanted to do more but ran out of time.

Luke:  It's ok.  I'm just happy you made one.

Oh the kid kills me.  I love him so much.  I'm really very sad that he has to grow up.  I will never be able to express in words what that child means to me.  I love you Luke! 

More to come....

Ok so I haven't posted in a little bit but I wanted to show you all a couple of pics I took with my phone the other night. The kids were all laying on our big ottoman covering up with a blanket. The boys tried their hardest to keep Emma up there with them, but she didn't really want to hang around too long with those yahoos.

Anyway, I have been really busy lately and have a TON to blog about later (hopefully this weekend.) You will get to hear about a very special (sigh) birthday, all of our Thanksgiving dinners (we had four, yes four!), a really cool Christmas Concert I got to go to last week, my early Christmas present (does anyone remember what I asked Santa for??) and I may even throw in a post about my beloved Sooners! Why not? So stay tuned. Things should be hopping around here in the next few days!

Happy Birthday to...Me (Oh Darn It!)

Well I escaped it as long as I could, but my birthday finally caught up to me. I'm not too upset. It is a big one though. The big 3-0. Oh well. What can you do? I had a hard time when I turned 25 but turning 30 hasn't really phased me. I guess I've accepted the fact that I'm not a teenager anymore and as much as I'd like to go back to high school (at least for a day or two), that is not going to happen. So I thought I'd post some of my favorite memories over the past 30 years. Here we go, this should be fun!

1. My Strawberry Shortcake bike. It rocked!

2. Watching Saturday morning cartoons with my Dad.

3. Going to the library with my Mom. Oh and the day she read me The Boxcar Children in one day. I wouldn't let her stop!

4. The day my hair caught on fire! Mom came in from putting Matt down for a nap and asked if I smelled something burning. I said no, but my back got really hot a minute ago (as I'm standing in front of the open furnace)! She turned me around and sure enough my hair was singed on the ends! Good job, Mec.

5. The day Marla fell out of the tree and broke her arm. She says I told her to go out and hang on that limb, but I'm sticking to my story and saying that is totally untrue! ")

6. The day Matt hid from us in the dog house and I thought he was gone forever. I could of killed him when we found him.

7. The Easter when Aunt Dawn spent the night and got up in the middle of the night and put together our Easter baskets. When Mom and Dad woke up they couldn't figure out who had done it. They were really starting to believe in the Easter Bunny and me and Aunt Dawn were in my room cracking up!

8. The day Mom sang "Cherish" by Madonna to me, Matt and Andrew. We were upset because she wanted us to help her clean and we didn't want to. So she does this song and dance and we about peed our pants laughing so hard. To this day if I see that video all I can see is Mom dancing and Matt dying laughing!

9. The day Aunt Barb convinced me that I needed to put Band-Aids on my boobs or they wouldn't grow. Mom caught me putting them on and was hysterically laughing. I will NEVER live this one down!

10. Watching OU football with my Dad. And you all wondered where the fascination came from?

11. Going fishing with my Dad and digging for worms to use for bait.

12. The day my Mom turned 30! I remember it like it was yesterday. They shoe polished her car at her work and I tried frantically to bake her a cake before she got home from work.

13. My Christmas Break in 8th grade when I got chicken pox. It was awful and Amanda came over and made fun of me and all my blisters.

14. The day I met Ron. I didn't really have a crush on him yet, but I remember he wore this shirt with cut off sleeves or really short sleeves and I could see his armpit hair and his muscles. I remember thinking those boys from Madison are so manly!! That cracks me up!

15. The day I tricked Matt into eating a whole spoon full of miracle whip by telling him I had just baked a white cake and that was some of the batter. The look on his face was priceless!

16. Dressing Andrew up like a girl! I wish I had pictures of this.

17. The night I saw Ron at Video Giant. We had kind of been talking to each other, but I thought he liked someone else so I had kind of given up on him. When I saw him I looked like crap. He says I looked good, but I think he was just being nice. Anyway, he called me that night and we talked until two in the morning. That was the beginning my friends.

18. The day I got married. It was such a crazy whirlwind of a day. I'm glad I don't have to do that again.

19. The day I had Luke. After twelve excruciating hours of labor and tons of friends packed in the waiting room of the hospital, he finally decides to show up. The day before Thanksgiving I might add. I looked at Ron right after Luke was born when they were cleaning him up and asked if he was beautiful. Ron's response? "Not yet."

20. The day I had Kyle. The only snow storm of that year and he decides to come three weeks early. When he came out I was expecting him to look just like his brother and he didn't. I remember thinking "Ron's not going to think that is his kid." Then I thought wait a minute he looks just like Ron. Oh the thoughts that run through your epidural ridden brain during child birth.

21. The day Rhonda smacked me at Luke's baseball game. I was sitting there and she just smacked me! She said you had a mosquito on you. I said "Rhonda!" We were both about to die laughing. It still cracks me up thinking about it.

22. One day when I was pregnant (like way pregnant) with Luke we all decided to go camping on Jason's land. So it was me and all the guys (of course) and we were chopping down trees for firewood. Finally Jason said don't chop down anymore trees we have enough. So what does JD do? He has to take one last swing at this little tree he was working on. The tree just slowly starts to fall and it is headed right towards Jason. Now this tree was maybe 5 inches in diameter and it is falling right at Jason. Instead of just stepping about 5 inches to the left or right he decides to turn his back and out run the tree. Bad idea. It fell right down on him and I can't remember a time when we had all laughed that hard!

23. The day at Sonic when a grasshopper jumped in the car when Ron was ordering! He screamed and tried to get it out of the car. I'm sure people across from us thought we were the biggest idiots, but it was sooo funny!

24. The night Amanda and I thought we would be rebels and steal a construction light. It took forever to get off and we could not stop laughing. I think I still have that thing somewhere.

25. The night Ron put one of my knee-high pantie hose over Emma's face. Please don't think we are horrible parents, but I cannot even begin to tell you how funny she looked. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't catch my breath!

26. The day I told Ron I was pregnant with Emma. He had really been wanting another one and I didn't tell him I was taking a test. I just took it and went in and showed it to him. He was so happy.

27. The day at Pizza Hut when Kyle made all of us laugh so hard we looked like retards.

28. The funny things Luke used to say that we still reference to this day. Examples: "I'm on the down" and "Sorry doesn't work for me."

29. The OU/Nebraska game in 2000. It was the best game EVER! Oh man. I love thinking about that day. You knew I would get at least one more OU reference in here somewhere, right?

30. The day I bit a hangnail off of, wait for it, Ron's thumb! Yeah. I'll tell you the story sometime.

So there you go. Crazy huh? There are a lot more where that came from. If you guys follow this blog long enough, I'm sure you will hear many more. ")

Happy 30th Birthday Ronny Wayney Chaney Freeman!

So's today is my hubby's birthday. He is the big 3-0. It's amazing how fast time can go by. I met him fifteen years ago. I've shared 15 birthdays with him, 15 Christmas's, 14 years of being a couple, 12 years of marriage, 4 different homes/apartments, 3 children and a partridge in a pear tree. In honor of Ron I thought I would share some of the things I love most about him. So here goes:

1. I love the fact that he loves me no matter how crazy I am.
2. I love the fact that he doesn't tell anyone how crazy I am.
3. I love how nothing really bothers him. He's always calm, cool and collected.
4. I love how smart he is. We are a little competitive when it comes to this, but I do think he is a little smarter than me. Emphasis on the little.
5. I love that he always knows what is "cool" in the world today. He always listens to cool music and he knows who the people are on MTV. I don't have a clue anymore who they are.
6. I love that he quotes movies and other things. If you have spent anytime around us or our really close friends, you probably find this a little annoying. I love it though!
7. I love it that he is really funny. We can always find humor in everyday activities and I love that he will always bust out some line and having me rolling on the floor.
8. I love his freckles.
9. I love his thumbs.
10. I love the fact that he loves me even though I'm not the skinny little thing I used to be. He still always makes me feel beautiful.
11. I love it that he gave me Luke, who strives to be as funny as his dad everyday.
12. I love it that he gave me Kyle, who strives to be as good of an athlete as his dad.
13. I love it that he finally gave me a little girl, who is as dramatic and crazy as her mother and he loves her just as much (if not more).
14. I love it that he is the eternal optimist.
15. I love it that he loves to be a coach and a leader to other children. I love when the other parents come up to me and say how much they appreciate him and how he treated their child.
16. I love it that you all are still reading this! ")
17. I love it that he loves my family. I mean seriously, he really loves you guys and I think you all love him back. Espicially when you all call to talk to him and not me. (You know who you are)
18. I love that it isn't a surprise to him that we've made it this far. He said he has never ever had a doubt.
19. I love it that he is just as crazy about OU as I am. I don't know what I would have done if he were an OSU fan or worse, a Texas fan. I shudder to think.
20. Finally, I just love him for being him.

Happy Birthday Ron! If you haven't figured it out, I kind of like you! I love you and I can't wait to celebrate the next 30 years of your life!

Happy Halloween!!

Don't you love my husband's sense of humor! Poor little Jack. That's what too much candy will do to ya though. Let this be a reminder to all you out there who are going to gorge on your children's Halloween candy for the next month. Have a Happy Halloween and I'll post pictures soon of all the kiddos in their costumes! ")

My Little Emmers

**Update**
I also forgot to put on here my cousin, Jenny, is having a little girl too! I'm so excited that Emma will have some girl cousins to play with. Jenny and I are only a year a part, so we were pretty close growing up. I think I'm going to be an honorary aunt to this one also!!! Right Jen?? ")

Well not too much has been going on lately. Just school, football and Emma. The trifecta. I was sick for a good 3 1/2 weeks since I last checked in. It wasn't much fun, but I'm feeling better now and getting back into the swing of things. Anyway, yesterday we went over to Ron's parents for Papa Freeman's birthday lunch and the whole fam was there. I didn't realize how many kiddos we have now in the family until yesterday. It was a busy house to say the least. Our Tulsa family was up yesterday which is Papa Freeman's side of the family. One of the people that made the trip is Andrea. She is Ron's cousin Greg's wife. She is very, very creative and crafty and makes children's clothes and sells them on-line. I have her link on my page (Sassy Peanut). Well Andrea is so sweet and she made Emma a Halloween shirt with a matching bow! It is so stinkin' cute! (Thanks by the way Andrea). So I put the shirt on Emma and I attempted to put the bow in her hair. She doesn't really like these things and the bow didn't last very long before it was ripped out. When we got home, I got Emma in her seat and while she was stuck (and preoccupied) I put the bow back in her hair. I snapped a few pics, but none were as funny as this one:
She looks completely and totally terrified! Her little eyes look like they are about to pop out! Oh this girl kills me. I'm going to keep putting that bow in her hair. The girl has to get used to these things. ")

In other news, we found out last week that I will have, hold your breath....a niece in a few months! Ron's brother Bryan and his wife, Crystal, are going to have a little girl and I can't wait! We really need to up the girl count on both sides of the family.

The boys in my life are doing good. Ron still loves his job. Kyle hasn't skipped anymore school (that I know of) and Luke is doing really good at Central. I have a funny story about him to tell as well. It isn't very long, but I think worth telling. The other day at Central they were having a Mother's Lunch for all the students. So Luke asked me if I would come and since I just love school cafeteria food (not), I jumped at the offer. I got to the school about ten minutes early and was standing in the cafeteria waiting on Luke with all the other moms. I looked down at my phone for a second and this is what I hear: "Hi Mom". When I look up he's gone. Yeah he walked in, saw me, said hello and walked off to get his food. I was like uhhh hello? Didn't you ask me to come here today? All the other kids were happy to see their moms and showed them where to go and all that stuff. Not my kid. He was like oh there's my mom, now where's my food? My children love me so much. Can't you tell???

New jobs, new classes, strep for everyone and one crazy eight year old.

So last we talked Ron was about to embark on his new jobby job. His first day was last Monday and he LOVES it. I mean seriously loves it. It's disgusting. He's almost giddy every night when he comes home. I'm happy for him. He is totally in his element now and I think that's pretty awesome.

We've had a busy couple of weeks though since Ron's first day. Let me get you up to speed. The week before the new job, all the kids were sick with strep (again) and I was about to pull my hair out (again). So we got the kiddos better and I had been telling Ron that I was a little worried about our morning routine changing. The way it had been before Ron took Emma to school and came to work and Luke put himself on the bus and I would take Kyle to school and come to work. Well that was all about to change with this new job because Ron had to leave earlier in the morning. So I would be taking Emma to school, which meant Luke AND Kyle would have to put themselves on the bus. I wasn't really worried about Luke, but I had a bad feeling about leaving Kyle with this responsibility at 8 years old. Now when I say I was worried about him, let me explain the psyche that is Mecca. I was worried that someone would try to kidnap Kyle or beat him up or come in the house and rob us and Kyle would have been the only one there. I'm crazy like that. I worry about the extreme worst, most horrible things that could ever happen to my kids. That's how I roll, I can't help it. Anyway, so Monday came and Ron left (45 minutes early, I might add) for the new job, Luke put himself on the bus and I left the house at 8:10 am to take Emma to school. Now Kyle is supposed to go to the bus stop at 8:20 am, so as I'm leaving I say "Leave in ten minutes. Turn everything off. Shut the door behind you and don't talk to anyone on your way to the bus stop." He nods his head in complete understanding. Right? Right. I get to work and everything is fine. I have 15 e-mails from Ron showing me his cool new office and yadda yadda yadda. So lunch rolls around and I go to meet Ron. As we're eating I tell him I think I'm going to drive by the house before I go back to work to make sure Kyle shut the door behind him. (Now at this point some motherly instinct or something was really trying to tell me something that I was choosing to down play or ignore.) I left Ron, drove by the house, door was shut, so off to work I go. About 3:37 pm I get a call from Luke and this is how our conversation went down-

Luke: Mom did you know Kyle walked home because his throat was hurting?

Me: What? (immediately I'm thinking, I know he didn't do what I think he did)

Luke: Yeah Mom. He said he walked home. He said he walked home from school instead of riding the bus. (so the story is already changing and there is no way Kyle made it home in 7 minutes on foot)

Me: Put your brother on the phone now.

Kyle: Hello.

Me: Kyle, I'm only going to ask you this once and don't you even try lying to me because I can find out the truth. Did you go to school today?

Kyle: (long pause) No.

Yep, just like that. The kid just didn't go to school! I think my blood pressure was at stroke level and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I mean who at the age of 8 thinks it's ok to just not go to school? Apparently, my child. Oh and the school did not call me or anything. I'm still not really sure how I feel about that.

In other child news, I got a call yesterday from Luke's math teacher. At first I was very afraid, but then she asked me if it would be ok if they moved Luke to advanced Math. I was like ummm, yes?! I'm pretty proud of my little Lukey Pukey. I knew all that stuff I taught him would eventually come to the surface. (Yes I'm taking all the credit on this one) ;)

Remember at the beginning of this post when I told you all the kids had strep? Well guess who else decided to get it? Yeah and I don't like it. My throat has been on fire for a week and now I have no voice. I'm finally starting to feel a little better, but I could still use a few days of rest. So that is what has been happening at the Freeman house. Never a dull moment. Never.