Goodbye Mrs. Pitts

Last night we went to a "going away" party for some dear friends. We have known Tammy and Terry Pitts since we were in the Air Force. Terry got a new job, left Delta Airlines (who could blame him) and they are moving about 2 hours south of where we now live. It was sad to see them go. There were a lot of people at the church and of course, a ton of food. Karen was working like a mad woman in the kitchen! Can you believe that? Stage 4 cancer and you'd never know it. She is even going to sew a pair of pants for Caleb. The woman is amazing and I praise the LORD for it all!

It's quiet right now. Everyone is still sleeping. I have my cup of java and I am happy. The girls will be up any minute though. I hear the door opening now as a matter of fact.

My birthday is in ten days! Cards and presents always welcome:0)

Heavenbound

Jodi, a friend from Women at Home, died Thursday night in a freak accident. Somehow, which hasn't been fully explained, her van ran her over. She was conscience until they took her in for surgery for internal bleeding. It seems the doctor's knew from the start she couldn't be saved. Please pray for her family. Click on the her memorial in the sidebar for more information about her family.

That should probably end my post for today. It would seem trivial to talk about my life when a young woman just lost hers. I'll post tomorrow. Until then, hug your husband and your children.

Not even an honorable mention

The pumpkins that won were really cool though. I forgot to take pictures but the first place prize went to a pumpkin carriage from Cinderella. They painted the pumpkin pink and had toy horses drawing the carriage. It was cute. Camille did get $5 just for entering though.

Today I need to pick Caleb up at school and then take him up to Olaf's work. Olaf will take him to the neurologist from there and probably be home somewhere around 6:30. It all depends on that lovely Atlanta traffic. Caleb sees the neurologist twice a year for his seizure medicine refills. This January will make two years without a Grand Mal seizure (PTL!), so they will probably do another EEG the next time we take him up. His med dose is fairly high. When he was on lower doses of the same drug he still had seizures. It was within therapeutic range, but just not high enough for Caleb.

My friend Cheryl has a thought provoking post up about "gentle parenting." (That is the no spank philosophy for those of you wondering) I thought the article was very well written and everyone should go read it. That said, I don't agree with all of it;) But what we both agree on is the goal of parenting should be to shepherd our children's hearts. Whatever the method is that works for your family, your main goal of child rearing should be to raise them for the glory of the LORD. We've all seen the people in WalMart beating their kids. That is NOT training their hearts. We've all seen children running the household and being absolute brats. That is NOT training their hearts. As a parent we guide, instruct, love, and admonish just like a shepherd does with sheep. Unlike sheep, our children have the capacity to understand, feel, and think. We can get all the "outward" appearance of good, but if there is no passion from within themselves to KNOW good, then it is all useless. That child WILL rebel. Oh parenting is not easy my friends. Everyday I screw something up and am so sure that my children are forever marred. I pray every night that the LORD would undo all the crap that I did. That He would protect their little hearts and not hate me when they get older. Then I claim the verse "His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!" I fall asleep knowing that my Father has given me a new opportunity to be a better mother tomorrow. A better mother, a better wife, a better friend.

I'm steadily gaining my weight back. Someone please help me get motivated. I don't want to be fat, but I don't want to stop eating! LOL!

Humor me

Will EVERYONE who reads this post do me a big huge favor? Will you go here to put a pin in my map?? It's really easy. Puh-Leeze!

Yesterday we did something new. For the first time since the children have been born, we carved a pumpkin. We do not celebrate Halloween so we have never carved a jack-o-lantern before. Well, there is a pumpkin decorating contest on the court square this afternoon and Camille really wanted to enter it, so we caved. This is our entry.



It looks beautiful with the candle glowing inside. When Olaf was cleaning the pumpkin out he talked about all the gook in our lives but when we ask Jesus to be our Savior that he cleans all that gook out, just like Olaf was cleaning out the pumpkin gook. And when he put the candle in he said that was the Holy Spirit living inside of us shining His light out through us. Pretty cool. I seriously doubt we will win though. What do you think?

OK, I need (and I mean NEED) to clean the bathrooms right now.

Baking Cookies!

I tried to upload photos of the children baking cookies today, but Blogger is being contrary. You can see them here though.

I get so sidetracked

OK, I am writing this with a dirty diaper beside me (wet, not poo). Why you may ask yourself? Well, I just made the bed and grabbed the pee pee diaper that I had just changed off the nightstand. As I was going to the garbage can in the kitchen I had to pass the computer. I stopped to see if I had any e-mail (ah, the blessing of cable modems) and then clicked on my blogline feeds. I then decided that it had been too long since my last entry and my fans (HA HA) would definitely want to know about dirty diapers, so I logged into blog. My day is usually like that. I wander from task to task not knowing exactly how I got there. However, "school" is done and the children are outside playing in the nice COLD weather. LOVE IT! Grace is doing well with phonics. She read the sentence "Sam met Tom" today. Pretty good for four years old. Granted she still cannot sing her ABC's correctly, but the letters she does know, she knows the sounds for. I think she'll be reading pretty good by Kindergarten. I skipped the "Learn How to Write a Report" section of Language Arts today for Camille. I am so not in the mood for report writing. We are delving into grammar instead. Writing a report means I have to take all three children to the library so I can teach her how to use an encyclopedia and all that jazz. I know, I know, I could do it online. But there is something about doing "real" research at the library that just cannot be dismissed. We'll pick it up next quarter. Maybe we'll do a report on Walt Disney closer to May when we will actually be going there. She'll love that.

I did my grocery shopping yesterday. Of course, I used my coupons and did pretty good. I think my total coupon savings was about $60. I love having food in the house. Praise God that we have more than enough. "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

My sister-in-law is now 21 weeks pregnant. Fun! I'm trying not to be jealous. I'd love another baby. Alas, my 38th birthday is approaching and I am not sure of the Lord will bless us again. I mean, I know that 38 isn't OLD or anything, but conception has never been easy for us:)

Off to put this diaper in the garbage. I'll probably stop again before I get there though.

Uncle Bob

We went to Uncle Bob's Farm today. It was SO hot. We were there about 2.5 hours. Click on the Flickr badge in the sidebar to see the photos.

Lookie, lookie, lookie

FUN, FUN, FUN! We had so much fun tonight. We closed down Gandolfo's. Cheri and Holly were just like I imagined them. I guess wah posts do a pretty good job of telling who we really are. Thank you ladies for a great night out!!



Cheri, Me and Holly!




Charity, Cheri and Me!




Cheri and Holly

Applebees and a good friend!

I just got back from eating dinner with Misty. We went to Applebees. I ate a Weight Watchers Chicken Fajita type thing. And yes, I SO ate the yummy Blondie with the ice cream and maple syrup on top for dessert! I brought babyback ribs home for my husband to eat. His meal cost more than my meal, drink, and dessert cost! It is kind of weird for me to have a friend named Misty. But Misty is awesome. She lets me go on and on about myself. LOL! What a trooper. If you drop by her blog leave a comment. She is a baby blogger and needs to know who is reading her. They are in the process of building a house. A nice house I might add. All brick and four bedrooms. I am not jealous at all.

Oh, when I got home tonight there was a dozen fresh Krispy Kreme donuts waiting for me courtesy of my good friend Krista. We were talking on the phone today about Krispy Kreme's pumpkin spice donut that they put out this time of year. Lo and behold her husband and daughter show up on our doorstep with a dozen donuts. She is awesome! They even bought 2 of Olaf's favorite donuts. I cannot believe she is so attentive that when I mentioned Olaf's favorite donut, she remembered.

OK, off to help my husband eat his ribs! Not that I need to help him eat his ribs or anything!

Well, my brother told me that my audioblog sucked. The rest of you thought it was pretty darn cool! It's a free service if you have blogger. I mean, you have to call a long distance number to post so it's not entirely free. I will do it again someday. I thought it was fun and I know I'd like to actually hear some of your voices.

Tomorrow night is the big wah night out! Yippee! We are meeting at Gandolfo's for dinner. Cheri, Charity, Holly and myself. Then I think we'll go crazy and head over to the Dollar Tree. My husband just cannot understand what is so exciting about the Dollar Tree, but I love it!

I am resigning as a Longaberger Consultant as of November 30, 2005. If you want a Christmas Basket you need to let me know asap. It is such a relief to actually be resigning. They are awful about getting information out to their consultants. Maybe it wouldn't bother me if I weren't so "type A" but I can't handle it! When Olaf heard that I have to pay THEM $35 every year for the privledge of selling their baskets, he asked me to resign.

Time to start school with Camille. Need to run... And I'm off!

GRACE (4 years old): Mom, why are you getting out the *old* vacuum cleaner?

ME: I want to vacuum the dining room floor instead of sweeping it.

GRACE: Because you want Papa to be wary (very)happy when he comes home?

ME: (giggle) Yeah.

GRACE: Because he is your best friend?

ME: Yeah.

GRACE: Because he doesn't like it when it's dirty?

ME: (more giggles) Yeah.

GRACE: I'm going outside now!

ME: OK. Have fun!

Object lesson: Priceless!

Nothing exciting

I have absolutely nothing to blog about. Camille is working on math, Grace is working on writing some letters, and Josiah is watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Friday night is Chantell's shower. That should be fun. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary...PRAISE GOD! So, thanks for dropping by and sorry to disappoint you.

Busy Saturday

Usually we do NOTHING on the weekends. I mean nothing productive. We always spend time together as a family, but rarely do we "work." Because of our philosophy our house is a disorganized wreck!:) Well, this morning as I was getting Caleb dressed, I realized just how BAD Caleb's bed was. He was sleeping on TWO boxsprings and one mattress with no frame. Can you say trailer park? (No offense to trailer park people) The bed had a nice dip in the middle and the entire thing was sagging like a sway back horse. Funny thing is, we have a fairly new queen size mattress AND headboard/frame in the basement. After much cleaning and clearing we brought up the new bed for Caleb. We are going to see if Josiah will sleep with him. I'm a bit worried about Caleb rolling on him though. Caleb weighs about 155 lbs and Josiah weighs in at 34 pounds. No fair match up there. I also cleaned the bird cage out which is always fun. Olaf has visions of a bird aviary which he has bought ALL the supplies for. He has even started it I think. But building things and Olaf shouldn't be used in the same sentence unless someone is helping him. (Remember the porch?) Now it is 7:00 pm and the children will be in bed in an hour.

Do you know I am going to meet Cheri next week? I am beside myself with excitement. And just FYI, it's not Sherry, it's Shu-ree. I know I am going to call her Sherry. I am hoping that Cheri, Charity and I can all go out for lunch. Maybe Holly can make it too. I'd link her blog, but I don't know it. I always lose the password to get in so I stopped reading it. Speaking of passwords, I need to go read Rebekah. (Don't mind me. I'm just typing out loud here.)

I am feeling better today. I am grateful the upset tummy has mostly passed. No more running to the toilet. That's a good thing.

Sick

We went out to eat at Golden Corral on Monday for lunch. At about midnight I woke up with severe nausea and diarrhea. I spent about three hours on the toilet. Tuesday I was fine. I ate normally and slept that night just fine. Wednesday about 1:00 pm it hit me again with a vengeance. I had to go to bed I was so nauseous! Thursday I was better. I didn't eat much, but I didn't have any diarrhea. Today is Friday and guess what? I am nauseous again. What kind of virus comes in waves every OTHER day?? Do you think it's something bacterial from Golden Corral? I am perplexed. Of course, if you know me at all, you know I'm a hypochondriac. I am now convinced it is stomach cancer.

My blisters have almost healed. I am walking normally. PTL!

Can anyone believe it's October already. Good golly. I haven't even thought about Christmas and it is sneaking up on me. No money though, so that makes things MUCH easier. Josiah's birthday is the day after Christmas so we have to make that day special. All the chlidren get spoiled on their birthday's. He is still into Thomas the Tank Engine, so if anyone is so inclined to send a gift... We rented a Thomas DVD from our local Blockbuster that he loves. However, it isn't for sale ANYWHERE! I searched high and low via the internet and came up with NOTHING. I am thinking about renting it again and then keeping it and paying for it. It's a new one too. It had stories laced with songs and it was called "Great Expectations."

Josiah just came out and asked me to play trains. I need to go!:)

You are Romans.

Which book of the Bible are you?
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17 blisters....

unable to walk upright....
totally skipped out on day two....
kicked butt on day three....
BUT SO WORTH IT!

Karen came to closing ceremonies!