soccer and yard work

Soccer season is in full swing again! which means Tim gets to go play and sweat and work out and i get to take the kids and swelter! actually i really like cheering for him, when i can actually watch the game. most times i am chasing someone down or telling the boys to stop throwing rocks or taking someone to go pee in the trees. this week we got exceptionally dirty! even annie was making mud popsicles and was very disappointed that i refused to let her take them home in the car! dirt is my worst enemy...i was doing good to let them dig around in it. they had some friends to play with too...our friends the foresters. emma and jesse are the same age and best of buds. she is the little gift from God to him this year, she makes going to childcare at church exciting for him. Thank you Emma! Annie and Hannah are a couple of years apart, and she and her older sister MaKayla will gladly play with Annie. Such sweet girls! Sarah is a year older than Toby and tags along with the other girls. Toby as usual is my little loner. he can't wait for the day he gets to be out on the field with his Daddy. he brings his socks and cleats to every game just in case he gets called in! although the pic here is of jesse wearing them, he must have taken them off briefly.
we came home and hadn't had enough dirt, so we all got in on the action. tim changed the oil in the car and the kids and i did yard work...well we did yardwork all weekend and today some too. what were we thinking...buying a house?? it's very therapeutic though. yesterday i was tearing down some crazy vines and bush things that grow on our chain link fence in the back. i guess people leave them for the most part, but ours had turned crazy. so i attacked them with a vengeance. it wasn't long before i was thinking of all sorts of illustrations like, "he is the vine and we are the branches..." i was quite inspired. i was actually laughing at some points tearing down all the weeds. i almost felt like was tearing them all out of my heart. good-bye fear and control and judgmental heart! woo-hoo! we pulled out these giant roots that go to some crazy plant up front. they look like jungle plants. they are terrible. a lady walking today thanked me for finally taking them down. we also found a dead rat in our yard...lovely.
the best thing we did this weekend was make our own t-shirts. They have our Meldrum Family Vision on them and a number on the back. it was fun. we are all proudly wearing them today!

this is a picture jesse took of me, he's the only one home...that's my new permit and the book i studied feverishly to pass!

The Texas Department of Public Safety

yeah...that's the place we all hate to go, because you have to wait in long lines of people that either smell funky or are extra-large. let's not forget the highly personable staff! so i haven't wanted to go, i have been putting it off for a year since i moved to texas. but i woke up on my b-day and remembered i needed to renew my license. tim assured me that i could wait a day or two, what could they do to someone with an expired license?? if you want to find out...keep reading! apparently if it is expired for even 1 minute you have to retake everything, the written test, the vision test, and the driving test!! so on my way home to get my passport and social security and proof of insurance and registration, since i no longer have a valid I.D. i got to study the 84 questions like, "Within how many feet of a crosswalk may you park, when parking near a corner?" or "How should you react when a traffic officer tells you to do something which is ordinarily considered against the law?" i don't know about you, but that seems like a shady question! so when i got back, the line of 3 smelly people had tripled, so i had to wait and get nervous and sit next to a guy who's license was expired for 2 and a half years and he didn't have to re-take anything, because he had a military I.D. i knew i should have joined the marines with my sister...so then my number gets called and i ask the lady if i might possibly use a grace card? she said, "what's that supposed to look like?" i just smiled weakly and paid her my $24 and then went and took my test. i passed, i only got one wrong! hooray! but the one i missed was a picture of a blank, white circle and i was supposed to say what that sign meant. i was like, i've never seen a blank circle sign...i didn't mention that when i drive, i usually have the cell phone pressed between my shoulder and ear, one hand passing back gum, the other hand spanking someone and my knee driving the wheel. oh apparently the railroad sign is the only circular one...whatever. why didn't they put the r and r on it?? tricky! so then i get my van to do the driving test. i get out there and a state trooper walks out...really?? what happened to the old man who smells like cigarettes?? he then informs me my emission inspection is expired and i have two brake lights out and i can't take the test. so i run to the nearest emission place, get everything fixed and come back. i then take the test. first thing i have to do is parallel park! great! i did it though, amazingly...because when i practiced i ran over tim's foot. however i forgot to signal left when i came out... minus 3 points. the man then begins to talk my ear off about where i am from and why i am here and wants to know all about iraq! so i get all comfy thinking, oh...easy A! NOT! i was so careful about stopping and signaling, but this guy "Tucker" was what his name tag said...says to me when we pull up at the end, "alright, well you did okay, you missed 15 points!" i took my hand off the wheel once, forgot to check my blind spot in changing lanes and didn't look both ways when i was turning right once. whatever...i passed! almost 4 hours later i came out of there! hooray for me! let that be a lesson to all of you, don't let your license expire!!