Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 14th, 2008

It was a long day.

We woke up to rain. The kids are in swimming lessons, and the registration form stated that lessons would continue even in bad weather. So, we all piled into the car and headed over there. The weather wouldn’t allow the kids to get it, so they had safety day. The boys got to learn some pool safety rules (swim with a buddy, use lifejacket if you can’t swim, don’t swim when there’s lightning) and Emily learned how to throw a life preserver. Important stuff.

After the lesson, we scooted on over to Plainview. We got Timothy signed up for Kindergarten at PCA. The administrator and I showed him his classroom, the cafeteria, and the library. He is very excited to be going where Emily went for Kindergarten. He has it all planned out. He wants to go to PCA for Kindergarten, LaMesa Elementary (Plainview public school) for 1st grade, Crestview (Frenship school) for 2nd grade, and then back to Plainview for 3rd grade. In other words, he wants to follow in Emily’s path. We’ve encouraged him to take his own path. Hopefully he’ll forget about these plans by 2nd grade.

After registering Timothy, we went to get the keys to the house we will be renting from Wayland. We had brought a load of things from the garage with us. We headed to the house and unloaded our things before we headed for a quick lunch. Then I changed in my “interview” clothes and headed across the street for my interview.

My interview went well. The virtual campus team and I discussed where they see the virtual campus going and how I could fit in with that vision. I left feeling pretty good about it. I feel like I could fit in fine with the group and that the schedule would be flexible enough that I would not have to sacrifice family / mommy time.

In the meantime, I still need to get Emily registered for school. We have made arrangements for all the utilities to be switched over, but need to make some decisions regarding our phone and internet. Those decisions can probably wait until the move. After the day, I am actually starting to look forward to being back in Plainview. I’ve moved enough times to know that any real friendships that I’ve made this year will survive me being 45 minutes away. Everything’s going to be fine.

Posted by mommyfranklin at March 13th, 2008

Every night during bedtime prayers, we all go around and say what we are thankful for. Sometimes we’ll be creative, but friends and family generally top the list.

Tonight, Zachary provided his take on how to know if someone is friend or family.

He said, “family sits at the table and dines, but friends play hide-and-seek and have parties.”

I think we’ve been to too many parties for friends over the last week. Or, maybe it’s time for a family party. It’s a good thing Easter will be here soon.

Posted by mommyfranklin at October 19th, 2007

We first noticed it in Kindergarten. Emily would come home from school and inform us who she has a crush on. We didn’t know where she would get such an idea that she could have a crush at the age of 5, but suspected that one of her friends (who has an older brother) was to blame for filling our innocent child’s mind with such ideas. It seems the idea has stuck though. I don’t really remember her talking about “crushin’” (her word) much in first grade, but the word has resurfaced this year. Every few days, she tells us about the little boy she is currently crushin’ on.

I guess from hearing Emily talk about her crush, Timothy has picked up on the idea. One night at bedtime, he announced that he also has a crush. We asked him who it was, and he mentioned a girl from school. She’s not in his class, but her big sister goes to Emily’s school so we see her on the playground every day when we’re picking up Emily from school. He sees her at various times at his school, but it’s always quite the reunion when we see her at the playground (10 minutes after leaving his school). Well, Zachary is not one to miss out on anything. True to his style of mimicking his brother, he informed us that he also has a crush on that same girl. The boys argued for about 10 minutes about who had a crush on her.

This week, I’ve noticed a little development when some of the other girls at the boys’ school. Emily got out of school early on Wednesday, so we went shopping after work with some of the other teachers. There were four mom’s shopping and 8 kids (10 year old girl, 8 year old girl, 7 year old boy, 7 year old girl, 4 year old girl, 4 year old boy, 2 year old girl, & 2 year old boy). Let me tell you, that was an experience in itself. When we arrived at the store, the 4 year old girl grabbed Timothy’s hand and the 2 year old girl grabbed Zachary’s hand (they are in the same class) and they walked in to the store together. It was too funny. The two-year-old girl’s mom had told me earlier in the week that “ackee” is talked about quite a bit at home. Her daughter has been mentioned a time or two at our house too. Their teacher tells us that the two of them fight like brother & sister.

Thursday morning as we were getting set up for the day, the same 4 year old girl was chasing Timothy around the room and through the hall. At one point, I heard Timothy tell her that she was not his girlfriend anymore. She asked him why and he had no reply, so she said that she is his girlfriend. On the way to get Emily after school, Timothy told that she is his girlfriend but he still has a crush on the other one.

At the same time, Zachary told me that Emily is his girlfriend.

At the age of 2, 4, & 7, this is fun and cute. Ask me how I feel about it in 10 years.

Posted by mommyfranklin at August 31st, 2007

Emily will probably want to blog about this, but I wanted to go ahead and upload the pictures from her birthday party.

With the recent move, Emily decided she wanted to have a sleepover with her two best friends from Plainview. The much anticipated event finally arrived last Friday. It really required very little planning on my part. We went to Wal-Mart that morning to buy what we needed for the cake, a few things to decorate with, and some craft items for the girls.

That afternoon, I baked and decorated the cake. Part of the party festivities was to have them decorate the cake, but there was a little work that needed to be done before hand. Here’s what the cake looked like before the party.

The party girls arrived at 7:00. After having hamburgers, we headed over to play at the Legacy Play Village. It was getting late, but they all had a great time playing. After about an hour, it was time to head back to the house for cake and ice cream. The kids (especially the boys!) showed great restraint as they stopped from eating while they decorated their part of the cake, and it turned out really cute.

After decorating, we sang Happy Birthday to Emily and she blew out the candles. Then we served the cake and ice cream. Emily had chosen Bubble Gum Ice Cream and I picked Vanilla (just in case). It was great!

After cake and ice cream, the kids all decided to get into their pajamas before Emily opened her presents. She got some great gifts. She was very excited. We moved all the gifts up to her room. She got a Karaoke machine, so they had a great time singing with that. It was soon time for a few crafts. Each girl decorated a gifts bag that they would use for the stuffed animal they will make at the Bear Castle the next day. The made their bags beautiful using foam shape stickers and sharpies. Then, Emily made a friendship bracelet for each of her guests.

While the girls were busy decorating their bags and making bracelets, Scott kept the boys busy in our bedroom. We decided to let them have a sleepover of their own in our room. This gave the girls free run of the upstairs and let the boys have something special too. Zachary had a pretty tough time understanding that it was Emily’s special day, so this helped out a bit. The boys were both asleep by 10:00. Scott and I watched a little TV in the living room so the girls would be within earshot. Around Midnight, we got the girls situated on Emily’s king size bed (we pulled the trundle out from her daybed) and they picked out some movies to watch. Then we went to bed.

The plan for Saturday was to go to the Bear Castle, the Science Spectrum, and McDonald’s. The girls would be picked up around 1:30. The Bear Castle and Science Spectrum both open at 10:00. So, we got up around 8:00 and had waffle sticks and strawberries for breakfast. We decided the Bear Castle would not be a great place for the boys to go, so the girls and I headed over there right at 10:00. The girls had a wonderful time making their animals. They each made something different, decorated a t-shirt for their animal, and picked out one outfit. It was fun. By the time we got back to the house to pick up the boys, it was 11:00. With only a couple hours left to party, we decided not to go to the Science Spectrum afterall. Instead, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. This way we were not rushed for time and the kids had a great time playing. We’ll have to go to Science Spectrum another time.

We made it back to the house about a half hour before the girls’ ride arrived. The kids were a little cranky, most likely from a lack of sleep, but they really played very well. I know Emily had a great time.

Posted by mommyfranklin at August 17th, 2007

Our mailbox is a few houses down. It’s like one you’d find in an apartment complex. There are about 10 small boxes all together, and we have to use a key to get our mail. The kids love to go down the street to get out mail. I usually send Emily and Timothy to get it while I am laying Zachary down for his nap.

After spending yesterday morning at Calvary, we checked the box when we got home. The mail had not arrived yet, so we went about our business. We were expecting some friends from Plainview to come over soon, so I opted not to lay Zachary down for his nap yet.

Our friends arrived and all the kids were playing upstairs in Emily’s room. Soon, Emily’s friend came down to get her mom’s keys so she could go get a doll from the car. This reminded me that we had not gotten the mail, so I decided to send Emily and her friend to get it. Timothy got wind of this and decided he wanted to go to the mailbox too. The only problem was that he was not wearing any shoes. I told him he could go without shoes, but he said the sidewalk was too hot. Emily and her friend didn’t want to wait for him to get his shoes on, so they promised they would wait for him at the mailbox.

Timothy soon appeared at the top of the stairs wearing one sandal and informed me that he could not find his other one. I suppose if I were a nice mama, I would have gone upstairs and helped him find his other shoe. But, I was visiting with my friend and didn’t want to do that. He’s pretty bad about losing shoes, and it drives me crazy. One shoelace from his dress shoes was missing for a couple weeks. He’s been missing one tennis shoe for a week now. I told him to go look again.

By this time, Zachary had decided to come downstairs too. He had messed up his pullup, so it was necessary for me to go upstairs to change him. By the time I got done changing him, my friend had left to go outside. For a reason I still don’t quite understand, Emily had returned from the mailbox without her friend. My friend had gone to retrieve her daughter from the mailbox.

I got my mail. Timothy’s shoe has been found. Zachary is clean. My friend and her daughter went home.

When we got ready to go the store last night, I couldn’t find my keys. No big deal. Scott had his, so I figured there were just pushed under the couch or something. As I was getting ready to leave to go work in my classroom this morning, I searched high and low and still couldn’t find my keys. I called my friend who had come to see if she had inadvertently stuck them in her purse after retrieving her daughter from the mailbox. She didn’t answer the phone, so I left her a message. I was really wanting to go to Calvary, so Scott came home to work from home for the afternoon so I could use his keys. This worked out even better for me, as it meant I could go by myself. I made a lot of progress in my classroom and managed to visit with the director for a bit to learn some more about my responsibilities. Then I got home to a message from my friend saying that her daughter told her that my keys are between the top cushions of our couch. I had taken off all the cushions but hadn’t looked between the top cushions. Sure enough, that’s where they were! All is well.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 22nd, 2007

Poor Emily. She lives in a world full of boys. She has some first and second cousins that are girls, but she doesn’t get to see them much. She’s so good natured that it’s not a big deal to her now, and I hope that continues. I was the only granddaughter of my paternal grandparents, so I have an idea of what she’s going through. It’s a little different though because she’s the oldest and I am the youngest. I’ll never forget the year that I got a hot wheel truck for Christmas, especially with it being on home videos. I always played with the boys’ cars, so it just made sense that I would want my own, right?

Two weeks ago, we were in Granbury. My brother and his family had come over for a visit. His son is now 8 months old. So, it was Emily, Timothy, Zachary, and Drake. Emily adores babies, so this was fine with her. He’s at a fun age now, so she really enjoyed trying to get him to laugh.

Last Saturday, we drove to Abilene to meet up with Mom and Dad after the kids had spent the week with them. We also met up with a friend who lives in Abilene. My friend has two boys, age 2 1/2 and 4 months. We went to the zoo. The youngest slept most of the time and Timothy and Zachary buddied up with her oldest. Emily didn’t mind too much. She’s good that way.

Yesterday, we went to a park not too far from here to meet up with a friend from high school. She lives in Midland, but has come to Lubbock on the weekends while her husband has been attending summer classes. They have two sons, age 4 and 22 months. Everyone had a great time, but I once again walked away with a picture of Emily with a bunch of boys.

Emily has two best girlfriends from Plainview. One from church and one from school. One is an only child. Her parents are good friends of ours, so she has pretty much adopted our boys to be her little brothers as well. And believe me, they get along like brothers and sisters. Her other friend has an older brother. Emily had this one over her first ever sleepover this week, so she got to have a little girl time. I could tell they both got a little put out when the boys kept traipsing through the middle of the barbies they had set up in Emily’s bedroom, but they still had a good time and even let the boys play with them once in a while. I imagine it won’t be long before she asks the other one to spend the night as well. She’s already gearing up for a sleepover with both of them for her birthday at the end of next month. She’s pretty much had that one planned since we moved.

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 15th, 2006

This week we had Vacation Bible School. It was a fun, yet exhausting, week. I was a helper in the preschool crafts and Scott was the director of the fifth grade.

Our Vacation Bible School program is available for children from birth through 6th grade. Age 0 -2 is only for the children of the workers, 3 - 4 is for members of the church, and the rest is for everybody.

Having the option to invite non-church friends this year, Emily wanted to invite some of her friends from school. We only have room for two more in the van, so I told her she could invite two kids. On Tuesday morning, I picked up her friends and we headed to the church. On the way there, Emily was enthusiastically telling her friends what they would get to do at VBS that day. She told them they would get to meet one of her good friends. Speaking of her friend, she said, “we’re like sisters. We get together like every day.”

How wonderful that she has such a close friend. This got me thinking of the friends I have had through the years. As grown-ups, we just don’t talk about friends like that much. Because we moved several times during my childhood, I have lost touch with a lot people. There have been a few friends that have remained constant, but others whose names I can’t even recall.

I have a friend that I have known for 18 years. It’s interesting that we’ve actually only lived in the same town for 6 of those 18 years. We may go months without seeing or talking each other, but when we reconnect it is like we’ve never been apart. To take a phrase from Emily, we’re like sisters!

About 7 years ago, Scott and I were living in Lubbock. We were members of a church where the average age was about 40 years older than us. We really liked the church and were an active part of the leadership, but the truth was we were lonely. For the first time in our lives, we were no longer in an environment where we had a built-in group of peers. We would have liked to have a group to tap into at church. We had grown used to getting together and playing games with another couple from college, but they lived several hours away. This particular couple is another set of friends that has remained constant. We may go years without seeing each other, but when we’re back in contact we pick back up without skipping a beat. They live a little closer now, so hopefully we’ll see each other again soon.

Now that we are a little older and have a growing family, we’re not overly concerned with socializing. We’re now focused more on the social development of the kids. We have our family, and that is really all we need. We are the directors of the young couples’ class at church, and are glad to have that group to socialize with once in a while. Most of the couples in the class are a bit younger than us, so it is not really a group we will do much with outside of Sunday School events. They are a nice enough group, but most are still without kids. It is a very close-knit group that gets together on a fairly regular basis. Scott and I have commented that it would have been nice to have a group like that when we first got married.

There is one couple in the class that we socialize with on a fairly regular basis. So often, in fact, that Zachary has taken to calling the wife “mama” and will stuggle to get to her anytime she is in the room. Luckily for him, she was his VBS teacher. This made dropping him off each morning very easy, but he would cry when it was time to be picked up to go home. He couldn’t have picked a nicer person to be his buddy. She and I have become great pals. Together, we have plotted a revenge against every person that has wronged either of us. And, Scott and the husband even get along. They play golf together on occasion. Scott says he is one of the few people that he has talked to about pottytraining while walking down the fairway. And, I can’t leave out the most important person in their family, they have a 6 year old daughter. This is the one that Emily was talking about to her friends. And Emily’s right, they are like sisters. They fight like sisters, they giggle like sisters, and have just tons of fun. Emily is not the only one that considers her to be “like a sister.” Every day, Timothy asks if she’s coming over or if we’re going to her house. The daughter takes the role of being Zachary’s pseudo-sister quite seriously. Any time we go to their house, she watches him the first half hour or so to be sure he is safe.

I know this is supposed to be a family blog, but I just wanted to talk about friends for a bit. Family is great and we have been richly blessed with a great family (immediate and extended). But, I must say, friends are so much fun too!

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 10th, 2006

For those readers who also read Zone Defense, it may seem we have forgotten about the boys and are both blogging about Emily today. That’s not exactly true this time. This particular entry was originally going to be about something Timothy did at a party we attended on Saturday, but I have gotten some more information since then and have learned that Emily played a part in this event.

On Saturday, we went to a birthday party for one of Timothy’s friends. This little girl is exactly a month older than Timothy. Her family moved to Canyon around Christmas, so it had been a while since Timothy had seen her. In fact, when we asked Timothy if he remembered this little girl his response was that she was sick and he was happy she was better. Anyway, the party was in Amarillo. So, we spent the night with Scott’s grandparents and then went to the party on Saturday morning.

The party was at a place called Jump-N-Jive. It has about 10 inflatable toys for kids to jump and play on. It was really a neat place. Everyone had a great time! Emily has decided that is where she wants to have her next party.

Upon arrival, we played for about an hour. Zachary got very excited about the area with soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs to play with. Scott was with him and said that Zachary kept saying “ball” over and over again.

Emily and Timothy (and most of the other children) really enjoyed the BIG slides.

About a half hour before the end of the party, the birthday girl bumped her mouth on something. Timothy, being the tenderheart that he is, noticed his friend crying so he went over to her and gave her a very sweet little kiss on the cheek. It was just precious.

Here’s a picture of Timothy and the birthday girl. Can you blame him for calling her his girlfriend? Isn’t she pretty?

Later, I found out what the birthday girl bumped her mouth on. Purely by accident, Emily had knocked her off one of the toys.

Hopefully, Emily won’t always beat up on her brothers’ girlfriends so they can show their sensitive side….

Posted by mommyfranklin at December 14th, 2005

I have a friend who tells me that she oftens has “duh!” moments. You know the ones I mean. It’s those moments when you realize that you did something foolish, and if you had really thought it through you would not have done it.

I had one of those moments just the other day. My extensive experience with one year olds really should have kicked in. Saturday afternoon, we had Zachary’s first birthday party. After breakfast that day, I bathed the children and got them dressed in their party clothes. I put Zachary in his brand new light blue sweat suit from Grandmama and Granddad. Not 10 minutes after getting dressed, he spit up a bit. Luckily, he didn’t get much on him. Time went on and he managed to stay pretty clean. After lunch, we laid him down for his nap. About 30 minutes before party time, I went to get him out of bed. As I opened the door to his room, I was greeted by a not so pleasant aroma. I’ll not get too graphic here. I’ll just leave it at saying that he was covered. We stripped him, rinsed him off, changed his clothes, put his clothes and bedsheets in the washer, sprayed air freshner, and lit a candle just in the nick of time for the party to begin. If I’d really thought it through, I would have waited to put him in his party clothes until after naptime. Oh well, you know what they say about hindsight.

Despite the messy beginning, the party went very well. The theme was One is Fun! The decorations had handprints and a cute little bald baby on them. We had the babyfaith DVD “God Made Me” playing. We were joined by Grandmother and Granddaddy, Zachary’s friend Jesse (who is 9 days younger than Zachary) and his family, Timothy’s friend Daniel and his family, Timothy’s friend Aubrey and her family, Emily’s friend Karissa and her family, and Emily’s friend Hannah. The grown-ups visited in the living room while the children played.

We started with games. The kids played a game of “Feed the Cupcake to the Baby” (a variation of pin the tail on the donkey), colored a little, played with Zachary’s new toy bowling game in the hallway, and played in Emily and Timothy’s room. Hannah won the game, but later admitted that she could see through the blindfold. Zachary and Jesse crawled around playing with everything they could get their hands on. The grown-ups played a game of “Guess How Many Cheerios Are In The Sippy Cup?” and “How Old Was Zachary The First Time He …” Scott got to entertain everyone by coming up with a equation to figure out who won the game.

After the games, we sang “Happy Birthday” and had cake. I made a round spice cake and 2 dozen spice cupcakes decorated with vanilla icing and sprinkles. We then arranged them in the shape of a handprint and the number 1. We had some animal crackers to snack on too. We served juice, hot cocoa, coffee, and apple cider to drink. Zachary made a fantastic mess with his first cupcake, and then wanted more!

After the cake, we opened the presents. Zachary got a toy phone and keychain, a dog that rattles and giggles when you squeeze its foot, a caterpillar pull toy that makes LOTS of noise, pajamas, a little people race track, and a spinning toy. Then we handed out the party favors and it was time for the party to be over.

This was a great way to celebrate Zachary’s first birthday. And I don’t have to plan another kid’s birthday party for 5 months!! Ah….

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 5th, 2005

July 4, 2005 was a day of celebration and remembrance.

The day started out as normal. Scott left the house early to go play golf. He played in a 6-man scramble. He and his team shot a 58. I understand that is very good, as Scott was pleased with the game. He had a good time, even though the team didn’t place.

That night, we had a hootenanny of a Fourth of July celebration. Several of the couples from our Sunday School class (Dustin & Courtney Williams, Jonathan, Mindy, & Karissa Petty, David & Tia Speed, James & Eleah Garrett, Melissa Milner) came over for a hot dog cookout. The children entertained everyone with their crazy antics — Zachary rolled all the way over for the first time, Timothy ate sand (???), and Emily and Karissa called everyone servants. Cramer and Lucy even entertained everyone a bit by showing how well they can beg. Lucy even helped herself to a couple of their drinks. When it got close to sundown, we headed over to a spot out in the country with the Williams’ and the Speed’s so Scott and David could light firecrackers. Emily enjoyed holding the sparklers, stomping the poppers, and chasing the parachuters. Timothy was content to watch, but not touch. Zachary was really not too impressed by it all, and was not particularly fond of the “screamers.” Those made him hold on extra tight. After our mini show, we met up with Daniel & LeAudra Franklin, Josh & Melissa Milner, and the Petty’s parked on the side of the interstate and watched the city show. Timothy got very good at saying “FIREWORKS SPARKLY!” and Emily and Karissa enjoyed seeing who could scream the loudest. Zachary slept through the show in his carseat.

After the show, we came home. Having been out several hours, Emily really needed to visit the bathroom as soon as we got home. She ran from the van with Timothy on her heels yelling “Pee too pee too.” By the time the rest of us made it in the house, Timothy was trying to push Emily off the toilet so he could put his potty chair on. We’re not actively potty training him yet, but when he says he needs to go we let him. So, we took him to the master bathroom and let him use our bathroom. After sitting there about 5 minutes, he finally did it! Maybe it’s time we get a bit more aggressive with the training. After telling Timothy what a good boy he is, everyone went to bed.

All in all it was a nice day. I was quite pleased that it took a minimal amount of cleaning to get the house ready for guests. Emily has become a great help in keeping the house clean. Instead of having to put everything away first, I was able to skip that step and do the dusting and vacuuming. It’s stayed pretty clean for two weeks now. I hope we can keep it up!

One low note of the day was learning that Donna Sarchet passed away at 7:30pm, after a long battle with cancer. Everyone was prepared for this, but it is still a hard time for her friends and family. We praise God for the life Donna led and all that she meant to so many people.