PHENOMENAL little girl!

Ok we were flipping around the TV and happen to just come across “America’s Got Talent” a show I am NOT a big fan of… but it was the moment this little girl came on, and OH MY GOODNESS!!! This AMAZING, PHENOMENAL little 10 year old girl singing like an angel! I cried! And by golly I’ve never done this in my life, and maybe it was past time to do this, but we actually pulled out our cells texted in a “vote” for this girl. She is beyond amazing! What a blessing from God to be given such a beautiful voice so young! And you KNOW that after you listen to her, that even if she doesn’t win the contest, there is NO WAY ON EARTH this little girl is not going to be well known, and loved and taking on the ride of her life in the music business. There is no doubt in my mind she wont have CDs and concert shows very soon! If you haven’t seen her before, NOW is the time to check her out. Here she is… Jackie Evancho!!!
(1st one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPITHzdUUDk
(2nd one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVGrcy8wQHk

SKYPE!

hey family and friends! I just wanted to let yall know that I’ve got my skype thing up and running. I hope yall download it too so we can chat from time to time for FREE online with the web-cams! Email me with your contacting info or just skype invite me to join your contacts list. If you don’t have skype you should think about getting it!
My skype username is “nikki.workman”

Fire Alarm

Poor Amanda. We were on our way to the front desk to turn in some mail and we’ve just gotten to the elevator. I always let Amanda push the buttons of course, but and when I said “push down” she decided to be silly and pushed up instead. But the EXACT second she pushed the UP button the fire alarm went off! Amanda hands jump up to cover her ears and she looks up at me with this guilty face and says “I’m so sorry mommy! I didn’t mean too!” I take a second look to see what she’s pushed, no, no fire alarm button there. then I look around me to see if there is any signs of immediate danger, no, no smoke. Finally my survival mood kicks in, I grab Andrew around his waist and grab Amanda’s hand and head for the stairs “it’s ok kids, well lets go down the stairs, it’s just the fire alarm” as soon as I open the door I run into Crystal, (she’s one of the head honchos here) “oh don’t worry it’s just a drill, we posted up notices about it in the lobby”. Signs in the LOBBY! If I ran a hotel and was going to have a FIRE DRILL I would have a note to push under everyone’s door! All well. So we went back in and used the elevator after all. The alarm stayed on for another minute or 2 we walked down to the front desk turned in our mail and then the alarm finally shut off. But poor Amanda, as we walked back to the elevator and back to our room she just kept saying “I’m sorry mom! I didn’t mean too! I’m sorry mom!” (aw) I kept trying to tell her over and over again that it wasn’t her fault, that the button she pushed didn’t make the noise. But it was timed SO well I can see how she’s having a hard believing me. Now every time we go to the elevator and I tell he what button to push, she hesitates and quickly covers her ears after pushing it! Lol. Poor kid. She’s so scared of the elevator buttons now. The list of “kids simple joys for hotels” is short enough as it is. Well, I guess that’ll teach her not to push the wrong button eh? :)

just a thought

thank goodness for spiritual white-out

Everyone experiences it differently

Thank goodness for “5-act gum” commercials! For a whole 60 seconds both of my kids are quite and stand still!

AJ’s OK

I just wanted to let everyone know Andrew seams to be ok! It got very scary there for a second. - We were in the middle of moving from one hotel room to another and Andrew was hiding in the closet and all of a sudden it sounded like he was cracking some hard candy with his teeth. I was thinking “What? He doesn’t have any candy, what is he doing?”. I quickly fished in my finger and pulled out what looked like part of a blue glass bead! I fished back in to find whatever was left, found another small piece and then he swallowed, so whatever was in his mouth was now gone! I’m thinking at the moment “oh my gosh! He swallowed GLASS!!!” I quickly called Derick, then mom, then the Dell children’s hospital to get a nurses opinion and after all that… we decided to give the kid food and water and then watch him and not go to the ER just yet. It’s been several hrs now and he seams to be fine. So THANK YOU to anyone who knew and said a quick prayer for us! I think he’s going to be A-OK! Man! This kid is going to be my hardest one yet I can tell!

Mommy’s have a magic touch

Derick and I get to watch Chris Angel every now and then on the TV. He’s the BEST magician I’ve ever seen! Anyhow, we bought some fast food on our way to get some stuff done and our next stop was Wal-mart. So we pull up to Wal-mart, I haven’t handed out the food yet, I was saving it for when we got to Wal-mart so I could keep the kids occupied in the car while Derick ran in to get some water bottles… well, of course the first thing Amanda sees is the “McDonalds” signs along the side of the Wal-mart and like a trained dog to a bell starts to whine about how she was hungry and wanted french-fries and chicken nuggets. Well I guess out of my silliness I saw an opportunity and took it. I pulled out her kids-meal bag from Wendy’s and said, “Amanda I’m about to use my magical brain powers to make french-fries and chicken nuggets magically appear in this bag!” I dramatically wave my hand from my head to the bag, I lay my hand on the lip of the bag, pause for dramatic effect, I open it and waa-la, mommy pulls out the French-fries. Her eyes were as big as a full moon “WOW! MOMMY THAT’S SO COOL! THANK YOU MOMMY!” he he he he … we’ve got to do this more often!

Laundry lockdown

Ok so I was sick over the weekend with my eye… and derick was “in charge” of the kids all that time… so needless to say the room was needing a cleaning and the maids were just itching to come in and do their thing. But I was faced with a dilemma of not knowing what I could do to get out of the room long enough for them to clean. My eye was still a little swollen and I couldn’t really drive like that, and I couldn’t even be SEEN in public like that anyhow cause I couldn’t wear makeup, and it’s not like I could just simply go swimming cause I couldn’t get my eye wet… SO… we went to the laundry room in the basement for 3 and ½ hrs. yeah – 3 and ½ HOURS!!! (echo “HOURS”… “Hours”… “hours”)

It’s a cramped little room with no chairs, no windows, but I tried to make the best of it. At least the kids were happy to be there to help out mommy with the laundry. I think laundry is such a great thing to get kids involved in at such a young age. Look at Andrew, he’s only a year and1/2 and he carries the laundry detergent and does all the same things Amanda does to help out. I put them in charge of loading the dirty clothes into the washing machine and putting the coins in. they really loved doing that. They would get so mad at me if I tried to help. And then we then we just sat back and chilled while we washed 3 loads of laundry. I brought towels so we could sit on the floor without getting too dirty. I brought the kids DVD player, my computer, a ball, our nail kit and nail polish. For the first hr or so the kids played pick a boo around the washing machine and watched a little bit of the movies. I did my VT letters, checked emails, and did a Halloween search for ideas online. MAN oh man the internet connection is SO much better in the basement! Then Andrew fell asleep so I laid a towel down right behind the door and put him down, there was just no room anywhere else for him sadly. I thought if anyone tried to open the door at least I’d hear the key lock open and maybe stop them from opening the door before hitting him in the head. While he slept Amanda and I cleaned each other’s nails and then I painted our nails. Hers are orange (she picked it) and mine are black. Derick luckily was around at just the right time to help me get all that gear down to the laundry room and back up to the room. Man oh man was my butt and legs hurting! I hat sitting on the floor! But at least that’s over and we all lived thru that. Just one more “experience patch” for me. But really – I’m so blesses, I know I am. Can you imagine what it’s like to walk miles to a stream to wash you’re clothes by hand… with kids!? Me neither. Real superwomen really do exists, their just barefooted, dressed in rags and leave the cap at home.

Just a thought

If you’re not wearing a bra, then you’re just wearing pajamas

Fort Erie

We had a very cool trip to “Old Fort Erie” which to Canadians is equivalent to Texans visiting the Alamo. Canada looks to Fort Erie as their greatest battle and “no other land in Canada as been more covered by brave Canada mens blood”. And only 2 days out of the year they do a full-blown reenactment of the great battle that took there. They have people dressed up for the US Armies and British armies and they shoot at each other on the battle fields, and fire cannons.

I stood back to get pictures of the army troops walking by and I started to tear up, and then it hit me why, it’s was MY SIDE! They were American troops! I’m sure the Canadians didn’t like dressing up for that part… probably got assigned the parts. Lol.


Before the battle they fire all the different types of cannons Canada has used over the years and you get to see and HEAR them! each one had a different type of BOOM and amount of smoke.


I met this great lady with her grandaughter who was 10 months old. She didn’t even FLINCH at the cannons. Her grandmother told how her daughter would come here when she was pregnant so the little girl was probably very use to the cannons. Lol.


We did get a chance to get some great family pictures!


It’s so cool that so many people come to this place to dress and act the part of their history. They tent here for the weekend, eat, drink, sleep talk, dress all the old fashion ways. It’s really cool! It’s totally like walking back in time.


We got to talk to this really nice mother and daughter who were who made apple pie tarts REALLY “Old School” style and gave some to us to eat. Derick didn’t care for it, but I thought they were fine. It’s more about the experience anyhow.


“STEP LIVELY BOYS! TO ARMS!!” I don’t think I could ever be apart of a reenactment of any war, I would just be afraid that some psycho stuffed a prop-gun with real bullets. It’s just too scary.


After the battle, they have one piper play a song in honor of the all the men who died on the battle field. Very sweet.


Then it’s off to the tents flee market to see and buy some hand-made memorabilia of the ages. Amanda walked by this Indian, and man was fully dresses and painted up to play the part, she stared up at him but was shyly stepping back from him. He’s was very intimidating. And he’ only had his butt crack barley covered by his Indian costume. Man I love history! Lol. The best tent was this old guy, his grandson juggled oranges and the old man would tell old jokes do old school magic tricks and at the end he took out his skinned weasel and tied him up on this string, and pulled on it to make him “dance” while he sang a song. It was very funny and cute.


HELLO NEW YORK!!! You can see Buffalo NY right across the water from where we were, aw… so close to home and yet so far away! GOD BLESS AMERICA!