talk talk talk

confession .. I am a talker
when RT gets home from work the words start falling out of my mouth at an unending rate that sometimes even surprises me
I can't control it
that might not actually be true .. I probably could control it but I have never tried because .. well because I just don't want to

anyway ..
ALL OF THAT to say that the littlest seems to have gotten this trait from me. I absolutely love it!! she has so many things to say (even though she can't actually talk yet) and she likes to say them at the very top of her lungs

this is .. of course .. most noticeable at church
we are first time parents and haven't gotten comfortable enough to leave her in a group setting like the church nursery yet
she sits with us
this used to work out great .. we would bring her in and she would promptly fall asleep and all was well
those days are gone
we now spend the first twenty minutes of the sermon passing her back and forth offering different toys and food items trying to keep her quiet and when we feel like we have annoyed the people around long enough .. I take her to the "mother's room"

it is actually really nice that our church has a "mother's room"
this is a place where moms can nurse their babies or change their babies .. or .. in my case .. let their babies crawl around and make as much noise as they want
but the funny thing is that even the babies in there are quiet

a couple of weeks ago I was in there with five other mothers and their babies and mine was THE ONLY ONE making noise
she was noisy enough that one lady turned up the volume on the TV because she was having a hard time hearing the sermon

let me be clear .. this is not me complaining
the littlest isn't fussing
90% of her noises are happy
she just has so much to say and she likes to say it loud so she knows you hear her

she get it from her momma :)

with love..

nancy

 

getting slime out of carpet

So, I was walking through my living room last night and stepped on something cold. I picked up my foot, expecting for it to be wet, but it was not, and I couldn’t see anything on the carpet. I got down on my hands and knees and cautiously inspected. I could see a trail of quarter size dots of something clear. After looking at it and not being able to figure out what is was, I touched it. Gross, I know! But, this is the kind of thing that happens in my world. I picked a little of the mystery substance up with my fingernail, and upon seeing the greenish tint, it dawned on we what was embedded in my carpet… slime. Now, if that isn’t bad enough, what I thought about next is that my 7 year old son got this slime in a party favor. That party favor was from his birthday party, which means I had just sent green, carpet killing slime into 12 unsuspecting homes! AHHH!! If you are one of the moms who fell victim to this horrible lapse in judgment, I am so very sorry!

So, I found myself googling something that I had never thought about before, how to get slime out of carpet. I read a few posts about it, but I don’t like to use too many chemicals around my house, so I settled on trying vinegar or alcohol. I picked all of the slime off by hand that I could. I have heard from our janitorial service at Reading Friends that you should never soak your carpet, so I started by putting vinegar on a towel, putting the towel over the spot of slime, and waiting for a few minutes.

I went to work after about 5 minutes and was happy with the green that came up, but as you can see, my carpet is dark, so it was hard to tell if all the color came out. I let it dry and was sad to find that it was still sticky. Bummer….

But I still had the alcohol to try, and using the same method as with the vinegar, all the sticky came up and my carpet seems to be as good as it was before the slime melted into it. Just in case you ever find yourself needing to get slime out of carpet (or hair… that could totally happen!) I would say to start with the alcohol and then, if there is color left, try the vinegar. The alcohol may do the trick all on its own and you will have saved yourself a step

 

Have a good one ..

 

Audrey

 

 

 

the fireman came to visit

Wednesday, Ryan the fireman came to visit us at school and it was a blast!! I was weeding through the pictures this morning and after I took out all of the ones that weren't as good as the rest, I still had 54! We wanted to share some of the fun with you all through our pictures.
Ryan the fireman talked with us a lot about fire safety.  If there is a fire at our house, it is important to get outside as quickly as possible and to not go back in no matter what. He told us to decide on a specific meeting place outside so that all of the family ends up in the same location. We learned that the phone number for the fire department is 911 and to never play with any matches or lighters of any kind.
Ryan came in in his plain clothes uniform so that we could see that he is a super nice and regular guy. Then he put his bunker gear on piece by piece and told us what each item was, which part of his body it protected, and why he had to have it. He showed us his air pack that he uses to breathe in a smoky fire. He even talked to us while he had on his mask and air pack so that we would know what a fireman sounds like under all of his gear.
Fire fighters often look intimidating when they have on all of their fire protectant bunker gear, so, it was great for us to be able to talk with him about it all and watch him slowly put everything on.
We loved meeting him!!

with love..

nancy

I Felt Like a Crazy Person!

Have you ever had that moment when you are lying in bed and night and burst into tears because you are completely overwhelmed with your life? Well, I have, in-fact, that was last night. I was getting into bed and just started crying! I had a broken dishwasher and a sink full of dishes. I had not managed to do a single load of laundry in 4 days, so with 6 people you can imagine the laundry pile. I had done a weekend’s worth of homework with my 2 children only hours earlier. My children were 2 HOURS late to bed, which translates to no mommy time. And to top it all off, I had made a cake that was NOT good! My husband had been sitting in a chair all weekend watching a golf tournament which only made things worse. I have to tell you, I have a great husband! He is very helpful, very involved with the kids, and he had told me the week before that this was a big golf weekend and he wanted to watch. He told me this when I was planning on painting his office. He did not think that was a great plan, because he wanted to watch golf, so I had plenty of warning about how my weekend was going to go. But, on Sunday night, that did not make me feel any better! I was tired, I was disorganized, and I felt like a crazy person. What pushed me over the edge was thinking about what time I would have to get up to conquer the dishes before my sweet house keeper showed up. No way was I leaving that mountain of a mess for her to wrestle! Doing the math on how much time was needed to get myself ready (Jason get the kids ready), make breakfast, make lunches, and have time for the dishes… that was the straw that broke this camel’s back. I cried. I cried some more. I prayed a little, but not as much as I should. And then I fell asleep. I woke up this morning feeling much better. I got myself and the kids ready while Jason tackled the dishes. I started the laundry and sorted the rest into piles. I even made lunches for the week! That’s right, now I am ahead! Even though it is raining, my world is feeling pretty sunny! I hope everyone’s Monday is going as well as mine!

Have a good one ..

Audrey



An empty sink and a stack of clean dishes makes the whole world feel better!

 

an introduction to the authors

promises of best picture quality for future posts
sadly, this is the best and most recent (probably 5 years ago) picture we have of just the three of us

 

Hello!
We are excited to debut the new blog for Reading Friends Fort Worth! I {Nancy} have a personal blog and I really enjoy writing it so I convinced Audrey that Reading Friends should have one too!
If you are not familiar with who/what we are here at Reading Friends, please refer to our "About Me" section.
Audrey and I will both be writing the posts and they will be about everything from things going on here at school to things going on in our homes and with our family.
For today, I will start with an introduction ..
I am Nancy .. Audrey is my older sister .. and together we run the office at Reading Friends. Our mom, also Nancy, started the school in 1980 so we both grew up here.
Audrey started teaching 15 years ago and then switched to the office 5 years ago. I started teaching here when I was in college but took several years off to work retail in the fashion industry. While I loved my old job, I made the decision to come back to Reading Friends to have more time at home with my family. I had my first daughter, also Nancy {we keep it simple around here}, in September and I have loved having the time to be at home with her and my husband. Plus I get to spend my mornings getting to know all of the little ones around here which is pretty great!
Audrey has four children. Janey is 9, Deuce is 7 and Tommy and Spencer are 4. You will love hearing the stories that come out of her household! Her kids are hilarious and between the four of them, they keep Audrey and her husband on their toes!
I hope you all enjoy our blog!   

    with love..

nancy