The Atkins Diet

I started Atkins yesterday. Mostly because I need to get off all sugar. I have only done Atkins one other time and it was only for a week or two. But, I did feel wonderful once I was off sugar and carbs. Olaf is doing it with me and, of course, he will lose a lot more weight than I will. He was on Atkins for 6 weeks and lost 30 pounds the last time. It lowered his blood pressure as well as his cholesterol. For all the bad press that Atkins gets, it sure does do a lot of good things for the body.

My house is a wreck. I really need to dust, clean the bathrooms, declutter, etc. I need the children to pitch in and help. They always clean the hall bathroom for me.

So much more to write about but I really need to make Josiah lunch. Maybe I'll get a chance later on.

Weekend Update

The weather was gorgeous yesterday so we took the children to the local park. After that we took a "drive" out into the country where there are mansions and horse farms. It was lovely. The children were bored stiff though. Somehow we ended up at the library and Camille checked out seven (that's all I would allow for a two week period) Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. I checked out the autobiography of Bill Bright and James Dobson's book about raising boys. Disclaimer...I don't agree with James Dobson on A LOT of stuff. I just heard the book was good. I despise the psychobabble crapola that Mr. Dobson is predisposed to. Just FYI. Anyway, after the library we went out to eat at Golden's and then went to DQ for a treat. It was a very good day. I am not sure what we will do today. I know Olaf wants to go back to Costco to use a coupon for some recordable DVD's. Survivor starts Thursday and he needs to record them for me since that is Bible Study night. Sometimes I wish we could afford digital cable through our provider because then we could do the digital recording thing. You know, like Tivo.

Camille's riding lesson went really well. Lauren, the young lady giving lessons, was incredibly mature and worked well with Camille. They still are not sure what they will charge, but I did tell her mother what we could afford to pay. Hopefully I didn't insult her. They are raising four cows for beef. No hormones, pasture roaming, grain fed. I told her I want some of that meat when they butcher them. I actually told her I could sell all four cows for her with no problems, but I think she already has them sold. The are not due to be slaughtered until fall. Until then I get to look at them and get attached every week. They are really cute right now. The horse Camille rode is an Spotted Saddle Horse. It has one extra gait. He definitely had a much smoother walk and trot then the last horse she was riding. She looked very comfortable on him. It amazes me that she can go from one horse to another and the horse obeys her. Camille is very timid in every aspect of her life EXCEPT when it comes to horses.

Hey Tammy Redding! Thank you for leaving a comment. I had NO idea you still read my blog. I miss your bubbly personality. I do not miss walking in San Francisco though.

Off to get dressed to start this day.

I am so happy it is Friday

Don't you just love Friday's? I do because I know my husband will be home for two days.

I am taking Camille to meet a 16 year old homeschooled young lady today to see about taking riding lessons from her. I am not sure if I posted on here, but Cami's riding instructor decided to quit. I called her after Christmas to see when she was going to start lessons again and she said, "I'm not doing lessons anymore." Uh...OK...Whatever. So I sent out a plea to our homeschool e-mail loop and had a few people respond. The ideal was to have a young girl teach Camille because we cannot afford a stable. Stables cost about $65 per hour for a private lesson. I want to pay $15 for an hour! I'm not too sure what this young woman wants to charge. I guess I'll find that out today. Our monthly limit is $60 so if she charges $20 per hour Camille will be able to go three times a month.

Please pray for Karen. I don't think they have updated the website yet, but she is being put into a drug induced menopause to try to "starve" her cancer of estrogen. The doctor said that chemotherapy is not an option right now since Karen has such adverse reactions to it. The doctor wants Karen to have some quality of life. Karen is upset about having to throw her body in menopause. Please pray for them. This is a tough time. I hate cancer.

I need to get dressed. Molly is coming over today and here I sit all morning-y.

Nothing special

Our anniversary was great. It was rainy and yucky outside, but we had a good time anyway. We went out to lunch and did some shopping. We went to Best Buy to buy our tax software and stuff like that. I didn't make him go to the Dollar Store though. He hates the Dollar Store.

Delta announced it is going to reduce its fleet by 100 aircraft and lay off about 1,000 maintenance people. Thankfully Olaf still has a job. At this point he still has his foreman position in Avionics. The Lord is gracious and we are thankful for His ultimate provision.

I tried to make supper in the crockpot tonight and I burned it. The chicken I put in was too thinly sliced I think. It was way overcooked and tasted horrible. Needless to say Olaf brought home pizza. It was a new recipe and I was looking forward to trying it. Bummer.

We are on our last chapter for Bible Study. We are starting this Bible Study next.

Nothing too exciting to blog about. Oh, Tammy Settlemier, the thank you card I sent you was returned today. I really would love to have your new address. PLEASE!

Olaf is feeling better

Praise the Lord! Keep praying for him as he has a lot of health issues that never seem to get any better. He will be following up with his doctor this week.

Tomorrow is our anniversary. Olaf has taken the day off so we can spend a few hours together without children. Caleb will go to school and the other three are going over to my friend Terri's house. That's Molly's mom for those of you familiar with Camille's best friend. We are not sure what we will do but I am sure it will involve eating lunch somewhere. We just may come home and sleep then entire time. That actually sounds like a pretty good date to me.

I took Camille to Narnia again this evening. She has now seen the movie thrice and I have seen it twice. It was actually better the second time. I could just watch it without expecting so much. I fell in love with Mr. Tumnus tonight. He seems like such a nice faun. There was a preview at the beginning for Pirates of the Caribbean part 2. We recently watched the first one on DVD and I hated the fact that I really liked it. You see, I used to refuse to watch Johnny Depp movies because he is such a liberal fool. But I really wanted to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so I rented it through Blockbuster Online. Loved it. Better than the first one in my opinion. The little boy who plays Charlie is such a cutie. And Johnny Depp was FABULOUS in it. So, we rented Pirates of the Caribbean. Another great movie. I really enjoyed Johnny Depp's character yet again. ARRRGHH! I don't want to like him! So then I rented Finding Neverland and now I'm hooked. (HA HA! Hooked! Total pun and not intentional. Get it? Captain Hook?) Anyway, I want to see the new Pirates in the theater. And please do not tell me about Johnny because I really don't want to know.

Off to watch the Seahawks. I'm not a huge NFL fan but the Seahawks always sucked when I was a kid. Losers of all losers. It's kind of fun to watch them win.

That man is going to kill me

Olaf calls me from his cell phone this afternoon and says he's coming home. He doesn't feel well. I ask him what his symptoms are and he starts listing them:

His face, lips, and chin are numb.
His forearms and hands are numb.
His legs are numb.
He is having trouble speaking.
He is dizzy and disoriented.
He feels drunk.

Uh...HELLO??? Drive to the ER buddy and I'll meet you there. I have to say the ER experience today was wonderful. They took him back immediately upon leaving triage and by the time I did the insurance paperwork the doctor was already in with him. They did blood work, a CT Scan of his head, an EKG, and a chest X-Ray. All the tests came back normal, but his symptoms are still persisting. The ER doctor wants him to see a neurologist. He went to bed at 7:30 tonight and I hoping some sleep will help him feel better tomorrow.

So, back up with me for a minute. As I was walking into the ER I remember I had Dana's number programmed in my cell phone. So I call her and ask her to put Olaf on Women at Home's prayer board. I KNEW the women there would be praying for him. Not only did she immediately post to the board for me, she called me to see how everything was going. I have never met this woman in real life but she took the time to call me. Then, just a few hours later, another friend that I met on the board called. Yes, I got to talk to my twin separated at birth, Dawn! What a blessing it was for yet another woman, who I have never met in real life, to call and make sure everyting was OK. I am humbled. Truly humbled. Thank you ladies for caring about my family. It means so much to me. So...

Dawn and I talked for a long while on the phone. You see, we have a lot in common. My name is Misty Dawn Marie and her name is Dawn Marie. We are both tall. We love the same TV shows, strawberry rhubarb pie, and we both crave alcohol when we are pregnant. How is that for too weird? The similarities are uncanny which we just laughed about tonight on the phone. To make things even better, she has family that lives less than 20 minutes from my house. She has a reason to come visit. I may get to meet her someday! Woo Hoo!

I really need to get the chores done and get to bed. I just wanted to let everyone know what was happening here. I'll keep you posted on Olaf's progress. Please pray for him.

There's a new radio station in town

It's a secular station billing itself as "classic hits." They are playing 10,000 songs in a row with no commercials. Songs like Silly Little Love Songs by Paul McNartey, Time for me to Fly by REO Speedwagon, Don't Do Me Like That by Tom Petty. You can listen online too. So, if you like secular music from the mid 70's to early 80's commercial free (at least for awhile) go listen. Needless to say, I think it's the cat's meow.

One of "those" days

You know...the day that your 4th grade daughter decides that one of her long division problems has actually come from the pit of hell and is oppressing her spiritually. Camille worked on ONE long division problem for well over two hours today. She was able to complete her fractions with no problem. She is subtracting mixed numbers with borrowing for Pete's sake...no problem. She completed 5 long division problems easily. And then came the problem from the pit. 11,112 ÷ 24. She didn't have an ounce of trouble with 18,532 ÷ 79 though. Go figure. I was aggravated, she was aggravated. I contemplated running away to St. Thomas for a month, she contemplated calling Children's Services to go into foster care by choice. It was just one of those days. On top of that the day only got worse. Spilled Coke in the van, spilled Sprite on the hardwood floor, Caleb is sick, and I am premenstrual. Olaf came home from work and I went away. Away to the place I love to be when I'm mad. Away to Target, the Dollar Store, and Big Lots. I now have 3 sets of flashcards, shampoo and conditioner, some stickers, and computer paper. Do I feel better? Why, yes I do thankyouverymuch. Spending money is my therapy. Even if it was only a few bucks.

My anniversary is coming

Next Monday is my anniversary. I have no idea what I should buy Olaf. No idea whatsoever. Do you have any ideas? E-mail them to me instead of commenting because he reads my blog. Eighteen years I have been married to this man. Eighteen. I cannot believe I am old enough to have been married that long. If we would have conceived soon after we got married then we could have a 17 year old child right now! How is that for weird? I need to take a digital picture (since I don't have a scanner) of our wedding day. We eloped so there was no formal wedding. I wore this (ahem) not-so-modest dress that I used to wear to the night clubs in technical school. Olaf wore a silver/gray sport jacket and pink dress shirt with a skinny tie. Very Miami Vice. Yes, we were children - of the 80's.

I am so blessed

to have a husband who loves me and our children so much.

Love, love, love Sundays

We always spend Sundays doing something as a family. Today we went to return something to Toys R Us which meant spending half an hour playing with the Thomas trains. Then we went to this great family owned pizza buffet. They have pizza like baked potato, BLT (yes it is yummy), chicken, etc. They also have these terrific desserts. After we ate way too much we went to Kohls so the children could get some new shoes. My children only have one pair of shoes. Sneakers (or tennis shoes depending on where you live). We do not have dress shoes of any sort unless someone gives them to us as hand me downs. Not that I am against dress shoes, but we never dress up!:0) Anyway, three of the children had outgrown their sneakers and Kohls was having a sale. My poor children were in shoes at least a half size too small. I bought Camille some boot type shoes for riding since she had outgrown her paddock boots about 6 months ago. On the way home we stopped at Blockbuster because we had a gift card. Now we are home and Caleb is complaining that he is hungry. That is impossible because the child ate 73 pieces of pizza and a bowl of ice cream!

Last night I had this wonderful dream that I was pregnant and gave birth to a BIG baby girl. I didn't want to wake up. At Kohls they had a bunch of infant clothes on clearance. I couldn't resist. My SIL is pregnant and I bought several things for her baby. They are gender neutral though since they are not finding out the sex before the birth. I LOVE buying baby clothes. Especially on clearance!

Camille and I finished yet another Nancy Drew computer game. I am so addicted now. I am probably the only adult that likes these games, but they are right up my alley.

Josiah is doing really good on the potty. He needs his privacy so he always tells us "Go away!" when we sit him down.

Well, Grace just knocked over the garbage can in the kitchen and Olaf is a rocket. I need to go referee.

Four Things

I've been tagged. I have NEVER been tagged before. I am SO excited. Thank you Dawn.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life

Produce Clerk at a grocery store
Avionics Technician on F4-G aircraft
Receptionist for a magazine publishing firm
Secretary for a medical supply company

Four movies you would watch over and over

Napoleon Dynamite
The Princess Bride
The Sound of Music
Life is Beautiful

Four places you have lived

Victorville, CA
Long Island, NY
Springfield, OR
Rantoul, IL

Four TV shows you love to watch

Survivor
The Amazing Race
American Idol
The Biggest Loser

Four places you have been on vacation:

Orlando, FL
Pigeon Forge, TN
The Oregon Coast
We don't do vacations, because that is all.

Four websites you visit daily

W@h
My blog
Bloglines
Google

Four of your favorite foods

Bagels from New York
Pizza from New York
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Fried Vegtables

Four places you would rather be right now

There is no place I'd rather be than home.
Honestly.
But I do like Target and the Dollar Tree.

Four bloggers you are tagging

Rebekah
Penny
Amie
Charity

80's assault

My friend, Becky, e-mailed me and through the course of our conversation she reminded me of a few 80's hits. Do you remember Icicle Works? You know their song "Whisper to a Scream?" The real title is "Birds Fly" but most people don't know that. Anyway you can listen to a clip here. She also reminded me of Slade's "Run Runaway". I think Becky and I should hang out more often. We could get into a lot of trouble together. What do you think Dana? Now I want some sort of compilation album of obscure 80's hits.

I went to the Dollar Tree last night and bought some computer games for the children. I also bought Camille some classic books like Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, Kidnapped, Gulliver's Travels, and The Three Musketeers. She is in book heaven. I love the Dollar Tree. It has to be one of my very favorite stores. You just never know what you are going to find there. It's like a treasure hunt. I bought Grace a Disney Princess Math Workbook. It has simple addition in it. She did about 5 of the problems today before she decided she didn't want to do it anymore. I think adding at age four is pretty good. One of the great things about educating your children at home is buying wookbooks at the Dollar Store!:)

I need to go read my book for my Bible Study tomorrow. It's a long chapter and I haven't even started it. Since it is national delurking week, y'all need to leave a comment. It's real easy to do. I promise it won't kill ya. So, if you always leave a comment, or never do...you must leave a comment this time! Yes, even you Tammy Settlemier!

Hey Nineteen

EDITED TO ADD: My hair in a pony of some sort, but I do have bangs here. I haven't had bangs in ages.



This is me in technical school at Chanute AFB, IL. A friend from there recently tracked me down through Classmates.com and sent me a bunch of pictures of myself. Thanks Jeff!

Back to school

We started school today after two or three weeks off. Camille did fine. We even learned a new math concept today. Grace reviewed her phonics readers and is just thrilled to be doing "school" again. Gotta love that. She was playing with Josiah in the bedroom and I overheard her tell him "when the little hand is on the clock, I need to go do my school." Obviously she doesn't know how to tell time yet. Nor does she know the little hand never leaves the clock:0)

Jeannie came over with her newborn today. My children were in heaven. All three of them wanted to hold him. Josiah asked if he could have a real baby for Christmas. Isn't that precious? Here is a picture of Mickey. He is 11 days old today.

Camille said if I had another baby she would be holding it all the time. I told them all to PRAY!

Need to run. The dryer is beeping and my husband is coming home! Woo Hoo!

Perfect Day

We went to Callaway Gardens today and it couldn't have been more perfect. Honestly. The weather was beyond beautiful. Callaway is so peaceful as it is then to top it off with beautiful weather was a little taste of heaven. Callaway is about 45 minutes south of us and everytime we drive down there we always comment on how we wish we could live down there. Of course that is not feasible with Olaf working in Atlanta. His commute would be about 80 minutes each way. Maybe more depending on where we lived. So, today I bought a newspaper for Columbus, GA. It is about 40 miles south of Callaway. Olaf loves Columbus and we could live somewhere near Callaway and he could commute to Columbus if he could find a job there. I know it will never happen, but hey, this is my blog and if I want to dream I will!:)

Friday WOOTY!

Olaf took today off. I let him sleep in until 10 am at which time I instructed the girls to go wake him up. After he rolled out of bed we went out for breakfast/lunch at Cracker Barrel. We can only go out to a restaurant when Caleb is at school. Caleb has too many sensory issues for us to eat in a restaurant. Anyway, the van wouldn't start so we all squished into Olaf's Toyota Echo. Turns out our battery was dead and the throttle body needed to be greased or lubed or whatever it is that you do to a throttle body. It runs great now. We still have a check engine light on but we know it's an oxygen sensor and it really doesn't affect anything except gas mileage. We just had an oxygen sensor go bad a few months ago and it cost $300 to replace.

I have been playing Camille's Nancy Drew computer games. They are so fun. We have completed four (yes four) since Christmas. They are addictive though, so I will not buy anymore until her birthday! I just finished Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon today. The hardest thus far has been Shadow Ranch though.

Olaf is watching the movie Gladiator right now. It's a great movie but I cannot watch all the blood and guts. So I sit here at the computer and listen to it and then turn around for any interesting parts that I actually want to see.

I still haven't started exercising or watching what I eat for that matter. Right now I am too content I guess. It would help if Olaf would say, "Woman! Lose some weight!" But he doesn't. He tells me I am as attractive right now as I was 60 pounds ago! He lurves me.

Caleb broke the laundry room door today. He was spinning and got dizzy and ran smack into it sending it off the rails and crashing into the wall. Olaf was a rocket to say the least. I was so happy he didn't hurt my new washer and dryer. Oh that would have really sucked.

I am not sure what this weekend will bring for us, but I hope y'all have a good one.

Atypical Experiment

Atypical Experiment

(I think this is really rather interesting--i hope you will take the time to read it and the five minutes it takes to actually do it)

Atypical Experiment
There is a game known as ‘6 Degrees of Separation’ (from Kevin Bacon - no relation to the best of my knowledge). The way the game works is to try to connect 2 famous people via 6 associations. We have been watching the blogsphere for the last year or so and believe that nearly all blogging homeschoolers will hear about important news items, etc. within 3 days of the first mention in a HS blog.

This experiment will work as follows:

1- If this is the first blog in which you have seen this post and you would like to contribute to the experiment, copy the entire post and post it in your blog.

2- Modify the post to add a link to your blog which displays the appropriate degree you are from the original in the following list:

{original, first degree, second degree, third degree, fourth degree, fifth degree, sixth degree}

That way, visitors can directly see the chain of communication that ended with this post in your blog.

3- Leave a comment in the blog where you first viewed this post indicating that your blog is among the next degree.

4- If you are a homeschooler or are interested in/considering homeschooling and either do not have a blog, would prefer not to blog this or the sixth degree is already taken, you can still contribute to this experiment by leaving a comment in the blog where you first read it.

5- After 3 days report back how many people read, commented and blogged based on your post to the blog where you first read this. (The only report this blog would receive is from the degree below and this blog will report the total from below and comments here to the degree above.) To illustrate how this would work let’s suppose that in this imaginary example every blog has approximately the same number of readers and that each blog entry for each degree ends up with exactly the same number of comments.

Let’s say that each blog would receive 2 comments where the experiment was posted and 2 comments from non-bloggers. This would produce the following:

original: 2 + 2 = 4
first: ( 2 * 2 ) + 2 = 6
second: ( 2 * 4 ) + 2 = 10
third: ( 2 * 8 ) + 2 = 18
fourth: ( 2 * 16 ) + 2 = 34
fifth: ( 2 * 32 ) + 2 = 66
sixth: ( 2 * 64 ) + 2 = 130

That totals 268. If you change the number of experiment posts to 3, the result is ( 5 + 11 + 29 + 83 + 245 + 731 + 2189 = ) 3293. Consider what the number would be when we average about 60 readers a day. (Welcome to math 101) Let’s allow a week for the reporting to roll back through the earlier degrees.

I'm still in pain

My gallbladder is still "burning". Hmmm...maybe I should go to the doctor. It's not contracting anymore though. Just a constant burning type pain. It doesn't get worse when I eat which makes me wonder if it's my gallbladder at all. HELP!?!?! Olaf is convinced it is just because I'm fat. And he means that in the most loving way. hee hee. He blames all of his own ailments on his fatness too, so I can't be mad at him. It's true. We are both fat. Not phat, but F-A-T.

I go back to Bible Study tomorrow night. We are still going through Home-Making by J.R. Miller. Excellent book. Definitely a "must read" Cheri. You will be blessed.

We listed a few more Narnia things on Ebay. We have a few more things to list as well. We have two more T-Shirts and a couple of tote bags. Like the one I gave you Cheri. (I just blog for Cheri! LOL!) You can see our items here.

I need to go think about supper. I'm not sure if I'll get past that stage. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Wanna see?

Yes, this is my new Duet. If Olaf would have spent the same amount of money on a diamond ring for me, I'd be wearing a lot of bling. He said when the jeweler offers 12 months no interest he would consider it! LOL! Anyhoo, I did ALL of our laundry including sheets today in three loads! Laundry for six people that hasn't been done for 6 days! The dryer took 35 minutes for each load with the exception of the load with all the sheets. I had to add about 10 more minutes to that one. My children sat in front of the washer and watched it for a good 10 minutes. I love doing laundry, so this is fun for me.

My gallbladder is still wonky. It isn't as bad as yesterday, but it comes and goes now.

My husband is awaiting word if he will still be a foreman when this new round of layoffs hits Delta. He was one of the last foreman hired in avionics and it is possible that he could be bumped down to lead mechanic again. Hang on folks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

I have a new lurve. Vanilla Coke. I mean, I have had it in the past and then forgot about it. I tried Diet Vanilla but it just isn't the same. Coke also has out a new Black Cherry Vanilla. I haven't tried that one yet. I just don't like to drink calories. I think it is such a waste. So, I usually go for the Diet Coke and EAT my calories. I will drink calories if it Coffeemate Toasted Almond Creamer or an adult beverage!:)

I have to post a picture of the shirt I am wearing. Hang on while I take it...

Olaf got it for me for Christmas. If you have't seen Napoleon Dynamite, you really must!

So, that's it from the nut house! The children are going crazy behind me and I need (like absolutely have to) go clean the bathrooms.

Gallbladder Attack

I think I am having one. Mine is almost like a contraction though in the gallbladder area. It intensifies and then wanes on a 20 second schedule. It is right where my gallbladder is though, so I am hoping it doesn't turn out to be a full blown, need surgery, thing.

My Duet is here and almost installed. I will take pictures once they are in. Olaf had to go back to Lowe's to buy a longer dryer cord since we stacked it. Hopefully tonight I will be doing laundry!

Major thunderstorms moving through here. It is SO hot out there. Mid 60's at least. YUCK!

Olaf is home with the cord. Need to run!

Happy 2006!