Frog girl

You all know that A loves frogs. I don't know why they make her happy, but they do. Well, my friend from high school, Sarena apparently had collected frogs over the years, but when she moved, they ended up in a box. She couldn't really think of throwing them away, so she sent them to A!
She loves them! She was very excited and plays with them often. She gathers them all together and talks to them. I'm not really sure what she says to them... Her favorite is the orange frog with the huge yellow feet. She named that one Sarena the frog. It is pretty much the highest honor coming from A to have a frog named after you, so congratulations Sarena! I don't think I'll ever get one named after me!

A gift from the Lord

This is going to be a long post...I have a feeling it is anyway, but I never really know until the words just come out. Also, the first part of this post is going to be a little griping, I mean venting, I mean therapy. But I am smiling as I am writing this griping, so maybe that makes it better. So if you would like to skip that part and get right to the blessing and gift from the Lord, then just skip to the pictures, but I really think you need to hear my griping to fully get the picture of how deeply touching this gift from our Heavenly Father is.

If you are the youngest child, especially the third child, then you can totally relate...right Stacy? (my step-sister and I have had many conversations about this subject). The simple words "baby books" kind of sets me off. Let me paint you a picture in your mind...Bethany was the first born. Would you like to know how much she weighed, when she crawled, what she liked to eat, what everyone thought of her, anything from her days as a baby? Well, then just look in her baby book! It is all there....filled with touching information and oohs and awws of what a wonderful baby she is. There are pictures of all of the fun things she did. There are pictures of the sweet baby girl with friends and family....all adoring this first born child! Her book is full. Not only is her baby book full of information, but there is a separate picture book full of baby pictures. She really was a sweet and adorable little thing.
Would you like to know all of those same details about Autumn, the second born? Well, you will find some of them in her baby book. You won't find near as many details, but you will find some. You will be able to know the basic gist of her growing up. There are very sweet pictures of Autumn in there. She was a cute little baby too. Big brown eyes, not a lot of hair. She was precious. You will also be able to find a ton of pictures of Bethany in there too! As if we didn't already know she was a precious little thing from her own book, we can also look in Autumn's book to find how sweet the older sister is. How precious!
Would you like to know about the third born child? Oh, yes, there is a third born child...you probably stopped reading by now, but HELLO.....I AM THE THIRD BORN CHILD!!! Yes, that is me, and if you would like to know anything about my first days, months and years of life, please don't look in my baby book....go ask my aunts, grandma, and dad (sometimes dad...you know how dads are with details). If you look in my baby book, it will tell you that my name is Trinity Joyce Tinsley, and it will tell you that my birthday is on August 29th! You may not realize how disturbing this is, because you may not realize that I have grown up thinking that my birthday is August 27th!!! I'm sure you can all just imagine my dramatic reaction when I realized this. I was pretty much devastated, and I was in high school! My mother had passed away, so I could not ask her about it, and everyone else just rolled their eyes or laughed at me when I asked through tears when my birthday really was. Oh, and if you would like to know what Bethany or Autumn looked like when I was a baby, look in MY baby book, because there are more pictures of them in my book than there are of me. I guess their books were just too full!
Well, and if that wasn't enough, we were at my grandma's house for a holiday I think one time, and someone found my grandma's charm bracelet. While admiring each charm with a cousin's name and birth date, one of the sisters or cousins pointed out to me that engraved on my charm was August 29th! Yes ladies and gentlemen....the WRONG birthday!!! I had come to an understanding that my poor mother was tired...I was born, and four days later her oldest turned 3...and there was one in between...yes, poor mom. I really can't imagine how she did it, and everyone tells us that she did it with a smile on her face and such grace. So I can understand how she would right Aug. 29th on my book, also knowing that Autumn's birthday is November 29th. But, she got the wrong date ENGRAVED on a bracelet! I cried. I did. My grandma finally convinced me that she remembered the day and it really was the 27th!
So through the years, I had become ok to the fact that my mom wrote my birthday wrong and didn't put much in the baby book and that I didn't have many pictures or a birth announcement! Really, I joke about it, but I really did understand.
So that brings me to the blessing from the Lord. In the 18 years that my mom has been gone, there has been several things happen that have been like a gift from God. Either some one has told me a memory of her I had not heard, or something of hers was found just at the right time....some of them were just little things, and some are big. I have cherished all of these gifts and praise the Lord for them. Well, my family came down to see the girls in the Christmas program at the beginning of December, and we had a great time. The kids did great in the musical, and we all sat down to eat together and visit some more. Towards the end of dinner, my aunt pulled out a picture and I paper and gave it to me. She said she was going through some of her old pictures from when she taught school, and she found these things and thought I would like it. The picture was from my parents' wedding, which I had seen before, but still appreciated. It took me a minute to realize what the paper was...it was my birth announcement! While I focused on the fact that my announcement was homemade, and Bethany and Autumn's announcement was printed and had pictures, Autumn pointed out to me how special mine was that mom had made it herself!
So here it is: it was one piece of paper that she made to look like an envelope. I crack up at this, because it kind of reminds me of something I would do.
I am choosing to not focus on the fact that they really wanted a boy, but instead got me, and I choose to focus on the fact that instead, they got a girl JOY!

Look! I weighed 7 lbs. and 3 oz.!! Look! I can see the lenght (haha! makes me laugh!) she meant length. I had red hair! This is so exciting!

And look at her "stamp"...it is Mr. Stork!

I LOVE to see her writing and her little drawings!

It's proof! August 27 at 3:18 p.m. Thank you LORD for this wonderful gift!!!

I really was so happy to receive this gift, but I did exaggerate a LITTLE bit on here of how bitter I am about the baby book....a LITTLE bit! I won't even get into the fact that there are very few pictures of me in any of the albums!!! That will be a whole different post!

Dinner Guests

Now...I totally realize that in writing the stories of our crazy lives, we are very likely to not be invited to dinner ever again. I get that, and my cousin Sarah kindly pointed that out too! (have to give you a hard time Sarah!) However, we will know that if we ever ARE invited to some one's house again for dinner and they read this blog, then they really do want us over because they have been officially warned what we are capable of! Of course I am saying all of this jokingly. I really do think we are really fun girls to be around, but I do admit that it is never dull around us, so you really never know what you will get....
My cousin's boyfriend came to Christmas at my aunt Jan's house and when he went home, his family asked him how it went....he simply replied, "Well the police were called and showed up." (or something like that)....He did go ahead and told them the whole story, but that was a pretty funny answer I think! Anyway....there I go rambling on and on again....back to the story Trinity....ok...
So we went to our aunt Deborah's for dinner. (this is aunt Jan's and my dad's sister) My cousin Sarah didn't make it on Christmas day, so we went for a couple of hours and visited and the girls got to play with the cousins. I have pictures to post later. The girls love playing with the cousins, and they all get along so well. They were all playing various things....everything going so smoothly. It was time to eat, so we got all of the kids' plates filled and got them all seated in the garden room, then we adults sat down at the dining room table. (Sometimes I still can't believe I actually get to sit at the adult table....I still think of myself at the kid table, but that is neither here nor there.) Soooo.....we began eating, and I got up once or twice, just to check to make sure nothing crazy was going on at the kids' table...all was well. I sat down and started eating my food when a bunch of the kids flooded the room while warning us that there was a food fight.
Are. You. Kidding. Me????
And I'm sure you could just guess which girl was not running in warning us......yep, that's cause she was in the room and the initiator of the food fight. I really just wanted to crawl under the table, but I figured that really wouldn't solve anything at all.
I walked into the garden room, not knowing what I would find, but luckily, all I found was a little piece of the tamale casserole on the table....thanks to the big girls and their great warnings, the food fight was very short lived and resulted only in a little water spilt and a little casserole on the table. MUCH better than I was expecting! Although, I will tell you that I have secretly always wanted to have a food fight...it really sounds like fun to me. Did you ever see the peter pan type movie called Hook? There was that scene where they had a food fight and all of that colorful food got everywhere....yeah....I think that would be TONS of fun. BUT, I am so very thankful that we did not duplicate that scene, but I do think it would be a lot of fun!

The Cutest Monkey EVER!!!

We finally got to go to Bethany and Jarrod's for Christmas...and that was on New year's day. We had such a good time, and the girls got a basketball goal! A REAL basketball goal. They thought it was a basketball goal that goes inside for babies when they first opened it, so they gave a rather unenthusiastic but polite response. It was later that they realized it is a REAL goal and they have been so excited about it! Can't wait to put it up! Autumn and I got fun gifts too, and nephew B had fun with Chuck the talking dumptruck that we got him. He is such a talker...he has talked since he was just a few months old really....only we can understand most of it now. He was always so funny becuase he would talk and know exactly what he was saying and expect you to know too....now we can. That is fun! His friends got him this sock monkey hat. Before I actually saw the hat, just heard about it from Bethany, I knew we had to get his picture, so we took about 20 or so minutes and got some great pics. H was the only one who wanted to go outside in the cold to watch the pics, so she was the only one in them.
B loves his cousins....or as he says...his girls. He really loves them...they have always catered to him, and the older he gets, the more they play together. They have a great connection!
I LOVE this one!!!!

This guy has so much to his personality....he is just SO much fun! Have I told you how much I love him????

I think he looks just like his momma in this one!

Through her eyes

Get ready ladies and gentlemen for a very funny story. Can you guess which sister this is about??? Give up? Little miss A. So here it goes.
I was in the bathroom in the condo we were staying in while out of town. It was the morning that we were leaving, so I was packing everything up while talking on the phone to my aunt. A came in repeatedly saying my name, wanting my attention. I motioned for her to wait just a minute while I finished the conversation on the phone. From her demeanor, I could tell she had done something wrong and I could tell she was very sorry about it. It wasn't the I've-done-something-wrong-and-got-caught look. It was the I've-done-something-wrong-and-I'm-sorry look. I got off the phone and looked at the very serious girl and she immediately started to apologize.
A: I'm sorry. I'm really sorry Trinity. I just didn't know....I'm sorry.
I am thinking, "Oh great...she called 9-1-1 a few days ago, what has she done now."
Me: What? What did you do? Did you do something? WHAT???
A: I'm sorry! (at this point she was almost crying. She was working really hard to pull it together.)
She paused for a minute and the longer she went, the more panicked I got.
A: You know a long time ago when we went to the store with those glasses....I didn't know.
Me: What? You didn't know what? Did you steal glasses?
A: I thought they were sunglasses!
Me: So you thought it was ok to steal sunglasses? Did you take sunglasses from the store?
A: No, I didn't steal them. I didn't know they were glasses....I thought they were sunglasses and I didn't know! You said we could try on sunglasses and I thought they were sunglasses and I didn't know!
She was pretty worried and troubled about this....and THAT'S when I figured out what was going on. Rewind to the night before....
I was in the bathroom and had just finished up bathing all four girls and we were getting all four wet heads dry. It was A's turn to get her hair dried, and of course she just comes with a lot of questions. Honestly, I sometimes tune out the questions and answer with "uh-huh" or "oh yeah" or whatever. On this night, she asked about my glasses.
A: Are those your glasses?
Me: Yes A, you know they are mine.
A: Why do you wear them?
I didn't even answer that one...come on!
A: I know! You can't see! Can you see at all without them?
Me: Not very good.
A: I can't put them on right?
Me: Right.
A: What will happen if I put them on?
Me: They will hurt your eyes.
A: Will they hurt them really bad?
Me: yeah (sometimes it is just easier to say yes)
A: REALLY?
Me: Yes.
A: So if I put them on it will hurt my eyes?
Me: Yes, A. (I was a little irritated by all of the questions) I told you that. Please don't ask me again!
Shortly after the conversation, they went to bed.

Fast forward again........
I was getting it....no telling how long ago, we went to the Dollar Tree and I let them try on sunglasses. Apparently, A tried on reading glasses too, and ever since then she has been very worried that she was going to go blind from putting on those glasses. And when she asked me about putting on my glasses, I was just trying to tell her to not mess with my glasses. I guess she stayed up for a very long time that night thinking about how that ruined her vision! All I could think of was the scene from the movie "A Christmas Story" where the boy thinks he is going to go blind from eating soap.
When I put the pieces together, all I could do is laugh....big surprise huh? I laughed so hard that tears came out. A walked away and kind of mumbled to herself, "Well I can see purple spots popping up and I can't see very well."
I laughed SO hard, and THEN I went and got her and explained that we shouldn't play with glasses, but it isn't going to ruin her vision right away. So I got my glasses and put them on her so she could see that it would be hard to see out of them and might give her a headache, but it wasn't going to immediately make her blind. She covered her eyes and wouldn't let me put them on! Again.....I laughed SO hard! Finally, she let me put them on and she was surprised that she could see a little, but then decided she didn't like looking through them.
Oh man, if I could just see what was in her mind..............priceless!

The little cutie

Just in case I haven't said it lately...I love my NEPHEW!!! He is just the cutest, sweetest, funniest guy EVER!!! And he loves his TT (that's me!) He talks nonstop and already says the funniest things. I love him and just had to show these pictures! Enjoy!

Oh yeah...love his mom and dad too!

A Christmas to remember

This has been a little bit of a different Christmas this year. The plan WAS that we would go to our friend Becky's house on Monday, after we got back from a friend's wedding (5 hour trip), then go to Bethany's house on Tuesday, spend the night, go to my aunt Nancy's house on Wednesday, come back home then go to my aunt Jan's on Christmas day. Well, plans were abruptly changed while we were on our way back from the wedding. H got sick. The stomach bug. Yep...the stomach bug on a 5 hour trip...let's just stay that it was a pretty miserable trip for her to be throwing up in the car...well that part was miserable for us all, but poor girl. She did not even complain. Well, that was the beginning of it. The next few days was filled with 5 out of 6 of us getting the stomach bug. That meant that we missed Christmas at Becky and Bethany's, and I missed Christmas at aunt Nancy's. I was so so sad to miss it and yes, I felt sorry for myself the whole day. Had a little pity party in the midst of the stomach bug...all by myself!

So, we had a great, stomach bug free Christmas eve. We took pictures outside (see previous post), opened presents, opened stockings and told the story of Jesus' birth. It was great, and I will post in more detail about that later. What I really wanted to post about is today....Christmas at aunt Jan's. I was so excited to see everyone and get together and eat and just enjoy the family. We made the hour long trip to aunt Jan's without any problems. Bethany and cousin Sarah couldn't be there today and cousin Macy wasn't there yet, but everyone else was there and we had a great welcome as we walked in. Everyone went separate ways as we came in...we all hugged different people, the girls went immediately to play and watch t.v., and Autumn and I were captivated right away by my grandma's new gift....a digital frame. We stood there and watched the old and new photos and laughed and remembered different memories. We were having a great time! Aunt Jan and the others were in the kitchen getting food ready....girls were quiet and all was well........wait......girls are quiet??? HMMM..........so I thought I better go check on them.
I went upstairs and found M and H in the little room watching Tom and Jerry. Then I went to the next room and found S and A playing....looks good. Better look again.

They were playing with this cute little phone and with their new dolls. I actually forgot that this was a real phone until A said, "Umm...we are just hanging it up like this." That didn't sound right. Then I remembered that this tiny little pink phone was real and really worked and called people. So, I told them to please not mess with the phone, that it really works, then I unplugged the phone, just in case they didn't listen to me. I left the room feeling proud of myself for thinking to unplug the phone.

I thought I better tell aunt Jan that i unplugged the phone, just in case I forget to plug it back in. So, I went downstairs to the kitchen and told her what had happened and I started to walk away. That's when she said, "Oh...you don't think THAT is who called 911 do you?"

What??? I had no idea that just seconds before, they got a call that multiple calls to 911 had been made from their number.

OH......MY.......GOODNESS!!!!!!

THE GIRLS CALLED 911 ON THAT LITTLE PINK PHONE!!!!!

So I went up and asked the girls......sure enough, they did. I couldn't quit laughing about it, only because I laugh in awkward situations. I laugh at the MOST inappropriate times really. I actually felt sick to my stomach, and not from the stomach bug. Don't they fine people for this? Oh great...Merry Christmas aunt Jan...here is your fine because my darling criminals called 911 multiple times!

We were all figuring out what had happened, when there was a knock at the door. We all kind of hoped that it was our cousin Macy, but when we looked out the window there was a police car, and Macy does not drive a police car!

My uncle Mike opened the door and immediately starts explaining to the poor nice police officer that had to work Christmas day that we figured out that the two girls had made the dial. He started apologizing and the nice officer was just glad everyone was ok and that it was just a "mistake".

Well, when I talked to the two girls to figure everything out, A first said that she didn't know the phone was real, then said she was just calling to tell them Merry Christmas! I did laugh when she said that!

The officer wished us a Merry Christmas and was about to leave when aunt Jan and I asked him to please talk to the girls and let them know how serious this was. Aunt Jan told him to play bad cop for a minute and he said, "But it is Christmas!" And I told him to please do not be nice to them. They really needed to realize the seriousness of the situation!

I really didn't think the nice and smiling man would be able to pull it together for the girls, but as soon as I brought them out, he did NOT smile. He did a great job at letting them know that 9-1-1 is always there to call for emergencies, but it is NOT to just call for no reason!

Oh, and when the girls came out, they immediately said "sorwy" to him. A kind of cried, but pulled it together. She was kind of crying, and in her raspy little voice and big brown eyes she looked up at him and said, "We just wanted to call and wish you a Merry Christmas." I thought he was going to crack up then, but he did good.

He did, however, thank her for wishing them a Merry Christmas, but told her not to call to do so! I had to turn my head and laugh at that part (again....my laughing at inappropriate times).
We apologized again and again to the poor man and he went on his way. Only moments later, he was back. OH GREAT!!!!!! What now? Uncle Mike went out and talked to the officer again, and came back with COLORING books....9-1-1 coloring books. He told Mike that he thought the kids would enjoy them and learn from them. Well, I think they already know HOW to call 911, we just need to work on WHEN to call 911!!!! I just couldn't give them a color book...then they might just call 911 to get a color book!

Needless to say, the girls realized that it was quite the mistake to make that phone call! It actually didn't seem to bother S much at all...she said sorry and went on. A, however, doesn't get over things quite so easily. Whether she just can't get past it, or was enjoying the attention for it, she just couldn't get past it. We ate, and I finally went to her and told her that it was over and she just HAD to get over it. About 5 minutes later, she came to me at the table and whispered in my ear, "I need a little help getting over it." I laughed and loved on her and we had a good rest of the day.

All throughout the day, one of us would just laugh or bring up "the incident". I'm pretty sure that we will talk about that phone call every Christmas from here on out!!!

A Christmas to remember for sure!!!