Pampered Chef

I am having a Pampered Chef party tonight. It has been planned for well over a month and I am hoping (and praying) that someone shows up. If you want to order and have it count toward my show please go here and enter my name as the host.

Disney is less than four weeks away. The children are absolutely GIDDY with excitement.

My eight pound loss due to the stomach bug did not stay off. I knew it wouldn't. I think I gained four back. But, four pounds in two weeks is still a good weight loss for me. I am being diligent about doing the FIRM. I remember last time I was doing the FIRM I was getting really discouraged because the weight was not coming off. I think I am one of those people who build muscle faster than my fat dissolves. That means I need to be persistant no matter what the scale does. It doesn't make me feel any better when my husband has lost 10 pounds in the same two week period though.

OK, so much I need to do today. Have a great day.

I'm here

Wow. What a stomach virus. Josiah, Camille, Olaf, and myself all came down with it Tuesday morning. Josiah started heaving in my bed (yuck) at 2:30 am. I started at 5:30 am, Camille started at 7:30 am. Not enough toilets. And it lingers. Josiah threw up twice yesterday too. Two days after the initial sickness. The good thing is you feel much better 24 hours after it starts. Still nauseous, but you can get out of bed. I went to Weight Watchers last night just for fun (I knew it would be a good weigh in) and I was down eight pounds. I am starting to update my weight loss blog again.

Caleb has not caught this nasty virus so please pray that he doesn't.

Have a great weekend.

We are so sick

Yesterday was awful. Everyone had the stomach flu except Caleb. I am just waiting for him to get it. My tummy is still queasy. This is not fun.

Sick children

Wouldn't you know it? Spring Break for Caleb is this week and it is starting with sick children. I took Camille to the doctor on Friday because her tonsils are huge (to the point of touching each other)although not red or anything. I wanted to make sure she was OK and maybe get a referral to the ENT doctor. (Gotta love those HMO's) The doctor gave her some Sudal and said she was fine. Friday night Josiah starts running a temp. We look in his throat and his tonsils are red with puss pockets on them. I figured it was strep and I took him to the doctor Saturday morning. They did a strep test which was negative so they didn't give me any antibiotics. I still think it's bacterial and will probably take him back to the doctor this week and demand antibiotics for this poor child. He has a fever and nasty throat. No other symptoms. Then, as Olaf was running errands with Grace in the van, she starts vomiting. Profusely. He brought her home and she proceeded to vomit every five minutes (no exaggeration) for four hours. We tried phenegran and it didn't help at all. So, the pediatrician on call called in for some Zofran. It's an anti-nausea drug that they give Chemo patients. It did slow down the vomiting, but it didn't stop it. She slept with me last night so I could take care of her. I felt so helpless because there was nothing I could do to help her. She was so brave though. I am so proud of her. I am just praying that no one else gets the stomach virus. Josiah sure doesn't need it on top of his current illness. I am afraid to vomit so I am totally freaked out by it all. It's Spring Break so Caleb is home all week. That is hard enough as it is, but to have them vomiting will not be fun. Pray for us.

I'll check back in and let you know how it is going. If you don't hear from me for a few days it's because everyone is puking. That will help me with Weight Watchers this week though. Hmm...

Chicken Little

That movie is so darn cute. I like the music in it too. Caleb laughs hysterically at that pig.

So, Weight Watchers starts tomorrow. I am mentally preparing. Wax on, wax off.

Can I just say that Camille is awesome at math? She is, she is. I don't know why that makes me so proud, but it does. She is a sweet young lady and I hope she continues to serve the Lord with her whole heart. She watched the TV special on the Duggars and said she wanted 16 children too.

Less than five weeks until we go to Disney World. We are staying here. I am mentally preparing (hmmm, that sounds familiar) so I don't get too stressed. Believe me, a Disney World vacation is not my idea of relaxing. Especially with Caleb in the mix. However, Olaf and I are praying that we are relaxed and calm throughout the trip. I certainly don't want the children remembering their mother an anxious woman the entire time. The tax return money is in the bank and waiting for us to buy the tickets. I guess we should do that soon. We found an awesome site for discounted tickets. If you buy four days they give you two for free. Not that I really want to go to the Disney parks all 6 days that we are there, but hey...it's free. Can you believe that it is going to cost our family $1,146 just to get in? That is a lot of jack. However, they will remember it for a long time. Praise God that our condo in Orlando only cost $200 for the entire week thanks to a very generous woman who gave us a week in her timeshare. We also have to see if our next door neighbor will be able to take care of our menagerie while we are gone. They are really good neighbors. He works at a bakery where they make Weight Watchers cakes. He brings us over some goodies every now and then. If they cannot, then we will see if our friends down the street can do it. I just feel bad because someone needs to come three times a day to let the dogs out. We'll keep the cats in the garage while we are gone, but someone is going to need to scoop the litter. The birds will need to be fed at least twice while we are gone too. We are like Noah's Ark...everything in two's.

So, peace out! (I love quoting Napolean Dynamite) Have a great day!

I went to Alabama last weekend

I couldn't post about my plans prior because I went to see Becky as a surprise. She will be celebrating her 40th birthday next month and Charity and I wanted to surprise her. We drove about 4 1/2 hours to spend the day with Becky and Ashley.

(Susan, Becky, Ashley)

Ashley let us stay the night in her parent's house while they were away and we had a wonderful time. On the way, Charity and I stopped in Birmingham to pick up a cake at Edgar's Bakery. Oh what a gorgeous bakery! Their cakes are not only tasty they are gorgeous too. I bought a strawberry cake, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and rugalach. We ate some of the cake for Becky's birthday and I brought the rest home for the family. It is yummy.


It was just plain old fun driving four hours with Charity. We talked about everything under the sun. Our lives, our childhood, our marriages, our children... What a blessing to have her for a friend. We had a fantastic time. Here is a picture of Charity in the car.


On another note, I start Weight Watchers this Thursday. I so do not want to weigh in.

Thanks to everyone who left me a comment. You guys rock!

And just for fun:

ESTJ - "Administrator". Much in touch with the external environment. Very responsible. Pillar of strength. 8.7% of total population.

Take Free Jung Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

It's way too stinkin' early for this post!

It's Saturday. It is 6:10 am. Thank you Caleb. Thank God for coffee.

Today Caleb has a baseball game and he is excited as always. Olaf said that he did a fantastic job last week. (Remember I didn't go?) He said he played so well that he is sure it was just a fluke. We'll see...

I received the PASS Test to give to Camille. I looked it over and I am certain that she will not do very well in Language Arts. I am giggling as I write this because if I had to take that test, I wouldn't do so well either. The math section will be fairly easy for her. Reading should be no problem as well, except for the vocabulary section. She'll stink at that. (And so do I, hence the word "stink" in the previous sentence.)

Oh, I looked at my friend Tammy's website. She is a realtor in Bend, OR. Take a look at her listings! WOW! That's a lot of jack, eh? That first house wouldn't cost more than 100-110K here in GA! YOU GO GIRL!

Oh there goes that bird chirping again. I'm glad I'm not asleep right now.

Have a great weekend! And please, leave a comment. When I go to stat counter and I see all the people that come to my blog I am amazed. I'm international you know?:0) So please leave a comment and let me know who you. I would really appreciate it!

G.K. Chesterton

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about
(arithmetic), and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.

My Space

Have y'all heard of it? Here is my site. Cheri made me join (well, she didn't make me) and today it was all worth it. I found a friend from high school. How fun! It was completely by accident how I found him. MySpace is mostly for the younger crowd. I mean, I'm really old for that site. But, I was trying to find people from my high school that were about my age. I went to a person's site who I do not know at all and the song that was playing on his site said the music was by none other than my friend, Scott Southworth. Tammy! Can you believe I found Scott Southworth?

On the homefront, I watched The Wedding Singer today. Loved it! Completely loved it. OK, I'll admit it. I cried. I really did. I graduated in 1985 so all the music was fabulous.

I am starting Weight Watchers next Thursday. Not tomorrow, but the following Thursday. Waiting for tax return money. Until then I am going to eat normally (like a pig) and drink normally (some sort of adult beverage at night.)

My little guy is sitting in my lap which is making this rather hard to type. I need to go love on him. Have a great night.

This, that, and the other

Nothing much to blog about. Except that it seems like everyone is pregnant. I called a friend last night that I haven't talked to for a few months and she is expecting (Ms. Martha, I'm talking about Sharalyn). This will be her second child and she is a high risk pregnancy. She has tachycardia and takes beta blockers for it. She cannot take them while she is pregnant and her heart just races and causes chest pain. Pray for her.

Camille is doing math right now. I ordered her achievement test and will give that to her in April. Since she took the same test last year it will be fun to see how much she has improved. I was looking through this catalog (on paper not online) last night. They have some great books and curriculum. There is a Children's Club for young girls called Keepers At Home Club For Girls. Their little boy club is Contenders For The Faith Club For Boys. It sounds like something I would love to do with Camille. I am going e-mail our local homeschool group to see if anyone already has a group going. If not, I just may start one.

I have been awake since about 3:00 am. You want to know why? Because some bird that obviously thought it was morning started chirping in my backyard and did not stop. Finally...finally, at 6:40-ish he shut up. The only thing I can think of is he spent too much time at the birdie bar and was looking for a date. I tried to find him but it was dark. I SO would have shot him with the BB gun. I would have pumped that gun up as high as my fat arm would let me and blasted the feathers right off him. I normally would not kill anything, but I would have taken great pleasure in shooting this bird. Maybe you can earn a badge in the Keepers At Home Club for shooting birds?? Well, maybe that would be in the boys club, but I bet you can earn a badge for frying it up in a pan!:)

Mmmm, all this talk of bird makes me hungry. I need to go eat breakfast.

Gracie Girl

Grace was watching Charlotte's Web today when Templeton the rat came on. (Remember his voice was done by Paul Lynde) Anyway, she says, "That rat is FATTER than Mama!" Oh my. It is certainly time to lose weight!:)

It's late

I just finished watching the new version of Pride and Prejudice. It was good but not as good at the BBC version with Colin Firth. Noone can do Mr. Darcy like Colin. I ate way too much while watching and right now, I really don't care.

Tomorrow is opening day for Caleb's baseball. He is so excited about it. He will ride at CORRAL from 12:30 till 1:00 and then he has to be at his game by 2:00. We'll be pushing it, but I'm sure we'll make it.

Today Cami had her riding lesson. The horse she rides now is spooked by the silliest things. Today she was rounding some barrels and this dumb horse starts sidestepping as if he is a dressage horse or something. It turns out the horse is afraid of his own shadow. He would be fine heading in one direction, but as soon as he rounded the barrel and saw his shadow he would start the sidestep again. It was the oddest thing. This horse has an extra gait, much like dressage horses do, so it was quite fun to see him doing this fancy sidestep. Camille wasn't happy at all because she couldn't get him to obey her. To be quite honest, this horse scares me a bit. I hope my mothering instincts are wrong on this one, but I am thinking he will eventually buck Camille off. And all I can think of is Christopher Reeve.

Caleb was home from school today. It was a teacher work day. I am going to try that. Hey honey, I need a day off this week. Teacher work day. Can you take the children and leave for eight to ten hours? Except knowing me like I do, there would be no work accomplished. Maybe a nice hot bath and a cup of tea. Ahhh, lovely. Especially after watching Pride and Prejudice. As a matter of fact, this entire paragraph has a British accent in my head.

Feeling sick right now. I think it is the three donuts and half a bag of Fritos. Why oh why do I do this to myself?? Have a splendid weekend.

Long Week

Olaf is in training this week and doesn't even get out of class until 6:30. He gets home somewhere around 7:00 which makes for long days for me. I don't know how you women do it who have husband's who work long hours. Like my friend, Charity. No thank you.

I went to my friend Becky's house today. It was the first time that we have ever went over for a visit. We had fun. She has a love of music that I think (I cannot believe I am going to write this) surpasses mine. The woman knows the lyrics to anything. Not to mention what artist died and when and how. Like the guy from Big Country died by suicide right here in Atlanta. She knew names of obscure people that I have never heard of. It was amazing. Of course all of that is totally up my alley so the three hours we stayed flew by.

When I left Becky's house, I went grocery shopping so I could feed my family supper this evening. Olaf is home now and it's almost bedtime for the children. I took a pregnancy test this morning which was negative. Sucketh. I'm getting used to it though. Oh, speaking of babies, it is so much fun to hear Scott talk about his new baby. He is SO tired and I think has a new respect for parents everywhere. Do you remember when number one came along? How it rocks your world? How everything used to be about you but now it's all about the baby. And the baby doesn't sleep when you want to sleep. And the baby cries... a lot! Yes, they are adjusting to that right now.

Have a good night!

Long, but funny.

Laws Concerning Food and Drink
Household Principles
Lamentations of the Father
by Ian Frazier


*Laws of Forbidden Places*

Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea,
and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may
eat, but not in the living room.

Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you
may eat, but not in the living room.

Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of
the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color
and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living
room.

Of quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal
treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room.
Of the juices and other beverages, yes, even of those in
sippy-cups, you may drink, but not in the living room,
neither may you carry such therein.

Indeed, when you reach the place where the living room
carpet begins, of any food or beverage therein you may not
eat, neither may you drink.

But if you are sick, and are lying down and watching
something, then may you eat in the living room.


*Laws When at Table*

And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such
as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet below
you as they were.

Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the
table, for that is an abomination to me.

Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your
feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of
rebuke.

Drink your milk as it is given you, neither use on it any
utensils, nor fork, nor knife, nor spoon, for that is not
what they are for; if you will dip your blocks in the milk,
and lick it off, you will be sent away from my presence.

When you have drunk, let the empty cup then remain upon the
table, and do not bite it upon its edge and by your teeth
hold it to your face in order to make noises in it sounding
like a duck: for you will be sent away from my presence.

When you chew your food, keep your mouth closed until you
have swallowed, and do not open it to show your brother or
your sister what is within; verily I say to you, do not so,
even if your brother or your sister has done the same before
you.

Eat your food only; do not eat that which is not food;
neither seize the table between your jaws, nor use the
raiment of the table to wipe your lips. I say again to you,
do not touch it, but leave it as it is.

And though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a
marker, draw not with it upon the table, even in pretend,
because we do not do that, that is why.

And though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees,
do not stand them upright to make a forest, because we do
not do that, that is why.

Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or
the other, nor slide down until you are nearly slid away.

Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into
the syrup.

And now behold.....even as I have said, it has come to pass.


*Laws Pertaining to Dessert*

For as we judge between the plate that is unclean and the
plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean,
then you shall have dessert.

But of the unclean plate, the laws are these:

If ye have eaten most of your meat, and two bites of your
peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas
each, or in total six peas, eaten where I can see, and you
have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks,
both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then ye shall have
dessert.

But if ye eat a lesser number of peas, and yet ye eat the
potatoes, still ye shall not have dessert; and if ye eat the
peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten, ye shall not have
dessert, no, verily I say unto you, not even a small portion
thereof!

And if thou tries to deceive by moving the potatoes or peas
around with a fork, that it may appear that thou hast eaten
what thou hast not, ye will fall into iniquity.

And I will know, and ye shall have no dessert.


*On Screaming*

Do not scream; for it is as if you scream all the time.

If ye are given a plate on which two foods ye do not wish to
touch each other are touching each other, and your voice
rises up even unto the ceiling, while ye point to the
offense with the finger of your right hand; but I say unto
you, scream not, only remonstrate gently with the server,
that the server may correct his transgression and peace
shall prevail throughout the land.

Likewise if ye receive a portion of fish from which every
piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the
herbal seasoning is loathsome to you and steeped in
vileness, again I say, verily, refrain from screaming.

Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint
unto death, make not that sound from within your throat,
neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your
nose.

For even as I have made the fish, and it is as it should be;
behold, I eat it myself, yet do not die.


*Concerning Face and Hands*

Cast your countenance upward unto the light, and lift your
eyes to the hills, that I may more easily wash you off.

For the stains are upon you; even to the very back of your
head, and there is rice thereon.

And in the breast pocket of your garment, and upon the tie
of your shoe, rice and other fragments are distributed in a
manner beyond comprehension!

Only hold thyself still; hold still, I say.

Give unto each finger in its turn for my examination
thereof, and also each thumb.

Lo, how iniquitous they appear.

What I do is as it must be; and you shall not go henceforth
until I have done.


*Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances*

Bite not, lest you be cast into quiet time.

Neither drink of your own bath water, nor of the bath water
of any beast of the field, or any fowl of the air nor of any
kind; nor rub your feet on bread, even if it be in the
package; nor rub your feet against cars, not against any
building; nor eat sand.

Leave the cat alone, for what hath the cat done, that you
should go forth and afflict it so and bindeth it with tape?

And hum not the humming in your nose as I read, nor stand
between the light and the book.

Verily I say unto you, you will drive me to madness.

Neither forget what I said about the tape.


[Ian Frazier, "Laws Concerning Food and Drink: Household
Principles, Lamentations of the Father," The Atlantic
Monthly, February 1997, Volume 279, No. 2, pages 89-90.]

We suck at bowling!

Olaf and I are pitiful bowlers. I mean gutter ball king and queen. My high score was 97 and Olaf's high score was 81. Woo Hoo! The children had the bumper pad things so they kicked our keesters. Grace won both games. It was a fun family day.

Today is supposed to be sunny and hot. I am not sure what is on tap for today. I'm sure we'll go somewhere or do something.

Happy Birthday Camille

Our trip to the mall yesterday was fun. We arrived at 10:00 am ready to shop. The first thing we did was go to The Picture People to get Camille and Molly's picture taken. They turned out CUTE!

Then we went to Cinnabon to eat a second breakfast.
After that we went to Bath and Body Works! What girl doesn't love smelly stuff??


Build-A-Bear was next where Camille got a cute outfit for her horse that we stuffed there exactly one year ago today!


Then we went to the movies! We saw "The Shaggy D.A." The funny thing is I saw the original Shaggy D.A. when I was nine years old at a birthday party too. It wasn't my birthday, but it was a girl in my class in the 4th grade. After the movie we hit the Disney Store, another store where Camille bought a horse Beanie Baby, and then my big girl wanted coffee (decaf) before we hit Borders.


She spent the bulk of her money on books. Good girl! She bought Phantom Stallion, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years, and A Felicity Mystery - Peril at King's Creek. I bought her The Rowan of Rin Series and the first two books of Deltora Quest. She checked out the first two Rowan books from the library and they were hardcover. The paperback versions have really scary monster looking things on them. Camille would have NEVER chosen those books on her own if the hardbacks had the same pictures on them. The books aren't nearly as scary as the covers imply. It's more of an adventure book, not a scary book. Then we went to Sonic for lunch (LATE) and got home somewhere around 5:00 pm. We all had a great day! Since today is her actual birthday the plans are to pick up her cake, go bowling, and eat dinner at Longhorn! Sounds like a fun day to me. Happy Birthday Cami!

Lessons in greed

Well, I just had an interesting (to say the least) learning opportunity with my almost 10 year old daughter. Olaf got home from work and Camille told him how she got $25 in birthday money in the mail today. She then proceeded to tell him that she has $45 in her purse now. Since Olaf wanted to go to Golden's (local restaurant) tonight he jokingly said, "Wow, Camille. You can pay for our dinner at Golden's tonight." Camille promptly replied with, "I am NOT using MY money for dinner!" (and she didn't say it in the nicest of tones either as you can imagine) Needless to say, that attitude ruffled this Mama's feathers. We already planned a shopping spree for tomorrow at the mall in lieu of presents this year. I immediately cut her spending money in half for the mall and took her into the bedroom and talked to her about greed and the love of money. We read the Bible together and I explained that loving her money more than her family and her God is just wrong. She cried and prayed, but I am not sure if she cried out of repentance or because half her spending money got taken away. Heavy sigh. And, the worst part of it all, we didn't get Golden's for dinner! I really did not want to reward her with dinner out after that entire scenario. Everyone loses tonight. Frozen pizza for supper.

Isn't She Lovely

Natalie Ingrid Jorek
March 6, 2006 ~ 9:11 pm
8 pounds even
22 inches

Natalie Ingrid Jorek

was born last night at 9:11 pm. She weighed 8.0 pounds. Daddy didn't know the length when he called. He was too excited to even stay on the phone for more than a minute or two. He needed to get back to that baby girl. It looks like I will be shopping today for baby GIRL clothes! WooHoo! I will post pictures just as soon as I get them. Ingrid is also my Gracie's middle name. It was Olaf's mother's name. She passed away in 1991 from breast cancer. She would have been so excited right now. Frances (the new Mama) goes by her maiden name so I am not sure if they intend on doing the hyphenated last name or not. I called the hospital yesterday trying to track them down to see how everything was going and it was hilarious listening to me explain that I don't know my sister-in-law's last name.

Me: Well, she is married to Scott Jorek but I think she goes by her maiden name. Can you check both names please? DOH!

Caleb is on the bus, it is 6:47 am, and Camille wanted Olaf to wake her up early so she could see the sunrise and journal. At her last riding lesson Lauren gave her a little Bible Study to do for the next week. One of the things it said to do was watch the sunrise or sunset. She chose the former rather than the latter. Don't ask me why. I think it's sweet that she wanted to do that. She really is a precious girl. This Friday is the big shopping spree for Cami's birthday. Molly's mom is coming with us which will be fun for me. We may go see that new Tim Allen movie that opens on Friday. What's it called? The Shaggy Dog or something like that. It just depends on what the birthday girl wants to do. TEN! She could be married in ten more years. I could be a grandma in ten more years! Our life really is a vapor. Go hug your babies.

I am going to be an Auntie today

Frances is being induced this morning. Hopefully today my new niece or nephew will arrive this side of earth. I will post a picture as soon as I get one from the proud Papa.

As I was getting my facial on Saturday morning, the skin care expert looked at my skin under a big huge mirror. She then asked me, "Would you like me to wax your eyebrows and your moustache?"

Me: Ummm, is it really that bad?

Her: Well, you can definitely see it and your eyebrows are very unkept.

Me: Well, I have a waxing kit at home. I'll do it later.

So today I waxed my moustache that I really didn't think you could see. OUCH! My eyebrows don't hurt anymore because I'm used to waxing them, but that upper lip hurt! And there is NO way you could pay me enough to do a "bikini wax." No. Way. I don't do bikinis anyway. The facial was nice though. I could see a difference in my skin when she was through. I got the "Calming Rosacea Facial" for sensitive skin.

We went to Callaway Gardens yesterday. I just love it down there. It is so relaxing a peaceful. So worth the $60 per year for the family season pass. Since we are considered a "local" family we get a break on the season pass prices. Just like you Floridians do on Disney. There are pictures on Flickr if you want to see them.

Today I have to take Caleb in for a psychological evaluation in order to keep his Medicaid waiver. I don't know how you do a psych eval on a non-verbal child, but it's required if the child has a diagnosis of "mentally retarded." So, I am jumping through all the hoops necessary; probably only to be denied Medicaid anyway. Olaf will be home from work super early so I can go get Caleb from school and be at the appointment at 1:00 pm.

My children are outside playing, but they come in about every 5 minutes for one reason or another. That drives me batty. First they need a towel to dry off the swings, then they need a broom to sweep off the trampoline, then they need a drink. All in the first 15 minutes of being outside! Remember when we were children? We HAD to play outside all day long. There was NO coming in unless you were bleeding. In the middle of that last sentence they came in again. Josiah wants to come in for good. You see what I mean? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE CHILDREN?

Laundry for dinner

Did I mention that my friend and I have a little bartering going on. I do some laundry for her during the week (this week it was three loads) and she cooks for us. Sweet. Today she made this fabulous chicken breast wrapped in bacon with feta cheese, olives, red onions and who knows what else on top. It was served with asparagus. YUM! All for three loads of laundry! I so got the better end of this deal! I do not like to cook, but I love doing laundry.

I wore my contacts today which just reminded me that I need to go get my eyes checked. I don't think my prescription has changed, but I'm out of contacts. I wish I could find somewhere to order contacts online without having a valid prescription. That is probably illegal though.

Josiah's cold has gone into his eye. He has conjunctivitis now. I am putting antibiotic drops in it and praying we don't have to go to the doctor for oral antibiotics too.

I need to go out tonight with Grace to buy her little friend a birthday present. Tomorrow will be a busy day. I am getting a spa facial at 10:30 am (thanks to Chantell giving me a gift card for being in her wedding). Then Grace, Josiah, and I will go to the birthday party while Olaf takes Caleb and Camille to CORRAL. Baseball starts next week, so every Saturday from now until July 22nd is officially booked. I hate that feeling. The feeling that I "have" to be somewhere every single week. Blech.

I booked a Pampered Chef party for April 11th with my PC lady. I haven't had a Pampered Chef Party in a long time. PC is her sole source of income and she does real well with it. She is a young single woman and is a really good consultant. I have been to several Pampered Chef parties through the years and she, by far, is the best consultant around here.

Tammy Settlemier, I loved the pictures that Tony posted on Flickr! You and your family look fabulous! And your mom and dad haven't changed a bit.

Please pray for this family. A woman went in to deliver her 5th child via C-Section and died on the table. Some amniotic fluid got into her blood stream and caused a blood clot. It killed her right then and there. I cannot imagine what this family is going through.

Mickey

This is my friend's baby! He is two months old today. He is in a size THREE diaper. Cute, cute, cute!

My little man

My little man,
originally uploaded by Misty Jorek.

This is Josiah wearing Caleb's dirty old baseball cap.

Love, love, love this quote

This is from the book The Creative Homemaker written by Mary LaGrand Bouma.

If we choose not to do this very special job (homemaking), it will simply not get done; the mothering, the nurtuting, the comforting and caring that fills the committed homemaker's day will simply be lost, and society will be impoverished. Children will not get the spiritual guidance they need. Lonely teenagers will not be listened to. Many people with problems will not be ministered to, many sick folk will go unvisited. A special human quality will disappear from our culture. Women can give up their jobs as clerks, engineers, sales people, doctors - other people will step in and the world will go on as smoothly as before. It will be business as usual. The groceries will still be sold, trucks loaded with merchandise will still roll across our highways, and Wall Street will carry on. Not so with homemaking. We are the special people into whose hands the country and the world have been entrusted. When we leave this job the world does not go on as before. It falters and begins to lose its way. We homemakers are indispensable.

This is a subject very near and dear to my heart. Unfortunatley many women don't feel like Titus 2 appilies to us today. How incredibly sad.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be dishonored. Titus 2:3-5

This tells me that my behavior as a women can indeed dishonor the Word of God. If I am the opposite of those qualitites listed, then what am I doing? I guess I am considered an "older woman" now. The problem is the "church" doesn't have many older women exhibiting the qualities in Titus 2. Mary Pride in the book All the Way Home says, "Every new Christian woman reads Titus 2:3-5 and goes on a search for an older woman who will train her...I know, because a large number of them write to me complaining that such a female is not to be found. The older women are all busy with new careers or retirement plans. They have no time for their daughters' babies, or to give housecleaning lessons, or to hold a new couple's hands while they adjust to married life..." So true, so true. I can name on one finger (that means I only know one) woman who I could consider a Titus 2 woman to me. Just one. All the other "older women" are working outside the home and don't have time to be true to the calling of Titus 2.

If I made you mad with my post, I'm sorry. I just believe the Bible says what it means and means what it says.

The Biggest Loser

Cheri and I were talking today about getting together some people for a Biggest Loser challenge. I think $$ will motivate me!:) Cheri says I will win just because I want to show everyone else that I am better than they are. She knows me so well.

I picked up some free clothes for Grace and Josiah today. A woman on my homechool e-mail loop said she had freebies to give away. I got clothes from her last year too and they were really nice. They are in the washing machine right now. They are summer clothes.

This weekend has been fairly lazy. We did a little shopping yesterday and today Olaf did some yard work. He let me sleep in today but I should have known better. He is always grouchy when he lets me sleep in. I'm not sure why, but it has been that way for 10 years. (Ever since we started this ritual after having children) We usually take turns. I sleep in one weekend morning and he sleeps in the other. And by sleeping in I mean 8:30 or 9:00 am. But I think the reason he was mad today is because I didn't get up until 9:45!!

Please continue to pray for my friend Karen. She is going through so much trying to starve this cancer of the much needed estrogen. They are trying to put her body into menopause and it's not the funnest thing in the world to go through.

Our Disney trip is approaching. We have been going to this website a lot. I am looking forward to the trip. It will be so much fun to watch the children enjoy themselves. We are using our tax refund to pay for the trip. We have been planning it for an entire year now. In case you have forgotten, or are new to my blog, a very nice woman gave us her time share for the week. Well, we had to pay $200 for the entire week. Not bad at all.

Camille's birthday is just a week or two away. I cannot believe she is going to be ten! I now have two children in double digits. We are planning a trip to the mall with her best friend. I think most of the time will be spent in the bookstore knowing my daughter. We will also probably hit Build-A-Bear, The Disney Store, and Claire's.

Have a great Sunday!

http://www.GlitterMaker.com/ - Glitter Graphics

Can you deal with more American Idol stuff?

Because I really think Taylor Hicks did a great job last night! I called and got a busy signal for a good hour after the show. I did get through a few times in that hour. Maybe four times. I originally didn't think he'd make it to the top 12, but I do now. The boy will be in the top four I think. He most definitely will have a recording contract after AI is finished. And pretty boy Ace...blech! I can't stand it when guys look into the camera like that. Remember Constatine?? Yuck. Yeah, we all know why Ace chose the song he did. To sing those sexy lyrics while staring at the camera. Can you say teenage (and desperate housewife) votes?? Smart man.

If it continues to rain, then we will not be able to go riding tomorrow. We missed last week due to rain too. I really don't want to take Caleb anyway. He is too hyper to take to someone else's home and it makes me nervous. To top that off he has a nasty snotty nose.

Need more coffee. Need to grade a math worksheet. Need to go! Have a great day.

Kitchen Questionaire

Stephanie tagged me with this Kitchen Questionaire. Just FYI...I am so not queen of the kitchen!

1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
There are 6 in my family. We eat out a lot. Too much. During the week we eat all meals at home except dinner. Olaf buys take out of some sort at least twice during the week. On the weekends, it varies. We usually eat out at least twice on the weekend.

2. How many cookbooks do you own? How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Too many to count! I refer to a cookbook a couple times a month.

4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
Sometimes I will find a recipe in a newspaper or magazine.

5. How do you store those recipes?
I clip them and put them in my Longaberger Recipe Basket.

7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it? FRIED!

8. What’s your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Planning the meals, making my grocery list and organizing that kind of stuff.

9. What’s your least favorite part?
Washing greasy pots and pans. Olaf does it for me.

10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Yes! It has helped immensely in saving money and easing my frustration about what to make for dinner.

11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
My food chopper from Pampered Chef, wine glasses, and wine.

12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A nice new top of the line stove/range.

13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
More wine:)

14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Nope, but I want one.

15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
I coupon shop so I go ALONE!

16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
Ummm...none.

17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it?
My appliances are all black and I have a lot of Longaberger Baskets all over. Other than that...nothing.

18. What’s the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
Grilled Cheese Sandwich. I was about 9 or so.

19. How did you learn to cook?
I'm still learning.

20. Tag two other people to play.
I tag Misty and Bedky.

OK, I'm going to be completely honest. Today was one of those days where I didn't find my joy in being a homeschooling mom. I know you are surprised at my candor! Yeah, right! I still am battling the same problem I have battled for four years now. I am a perfectionist and my daughter is...well...not. I cannot stand it if my letters are not perfectly spaced and my math page must look like it just came out of teachers answer book. Camille, on the other hand, erases and re-erases and leaves half the original markings there and...OH! It just kills me! When I was her age if I didn't get 100% on my work, I was devastated. Camille is thrilled when she "only misses four!" WHAT? You've got to be kidding me! YOU MISSED FOUR!!! That is NOT perfect my little friend! Granted, ABeka math is advanced. It is much more advanced than Saxon Math. I looked at the book Camille would be in if I were to switch next year and she has already done almost all of it this year. Needless to say, we will stick with ABeka. Yes, I know most of you homeschool moms don't like ABeka and all the "busy" work but I think Camille is way ahead of the game when it comes to math thanks to ABeka. I think I am going to test her again in a few months from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources. I tested her last year through them and really liked the way the test was untimed and less stressful than a typical standardized test. Here I am rambling. My point in all of this is I had a stressful day. Caleb is home all week too which makes things more stressful than normal. To top that off my monthly friend showed up uninvited! I so want to be pregnant. [insert loud scream right here!] Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. No, tomorrow WILL be a better day.

Curious George

Olaf took the girls to go see Curious George today. Caleb and Josiah didn't want to go, so I stayed home with them. It turned out to be very productive for me. I cleaned both bathrooms and did every stitch of laundry in the house. I even took the little knobs off the bath water spouts and cleaned them out. I washed the bath toys and cups, scrubbed the tubs and toilets, washed the vanities and mirrors, swept the floors (but didn't mop)...it was good.

Olaf has tomorrow off for President's Day. You know you have a cushy job if you get President's Day off. Caleb is out on "Winter Break" for the entire week. They just had a Winter Break at Christmas time, but I guess this is part deux. I read in our local paper today that is costs $6,700 per year for each student to go to public school. Is that insane or what?? I could send my children to a private school for less than that! To top it off, Georgia is at the very bottom of the 50 states as far as SAT scores goes. Hmmm...sounds like we're doing something wrong.

We rented the newer version of Freaky Friday. Against my better judgment I let Camille watch it with us without previewing it first. That was dumb. Anyway, I thought the movie was cute, but it has behavior in it that I certainly wouldn't want my almost 10 year old daughter to see. I think most of it went over her head (except the bad attitude on the girls' part) but it ended sweet. Any movie that has teenagers kissing is off limits in this house. Olaf and I watched The Legend of Zorro the other night. I thought it was dumb. Pride and Prejudice is playing at the dollar theater, but I doubt we'll be able to go. I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD and buy it. If you have any movie suggestions leave a comment!

I talked to my mother today on the phone. That is always an adventure. I think I'll start posting a little about my family. One family member at a time. I cannot do more than that because 1. I don't have that kind of time and 2. I'd scare you off! I'll start with my brother, Rick. Rick is 44 years old and is a drug addict. When he doesn't live with my mother he is homeless. He used to be married and has three children. The oldest of his children is 22 and she just had a baby out of wedlock (surprise, surprise). His youngest is only 5 years old. My brother and his ex-wife lived a life of partying and drugs. They never held a job longer than a few months and have been evicted from almost every home they have been in. I specifically remember when my sil was pregnant with her first baby (the now 22 year old) she would smoke pot all the time. That continued in the home the entire time the children were growing up. A typical "white trash" family. Trash begets trash and both of their older children are following nicely in their parents footsteps. I just feel incredibly sorry for the 5 year old. In 10 more years that child will be just like her mother and father. Guaranteed. Sadder still is my brother "claims" to be saved. Anyway, Rick and his ex are now divorced. His ex is always in some state of drug induced semiconscienceness and the 5 year old makes her own breakfast and wakes her mother up only in case of an emergency. When her sister is sober she will get her ready for school and put her on the bus. If not, she stays home and watches TV all by herself. They are in the process of being evicted yet again. They have no idea where they will go this time. The middle child, a 19 year old son, has his druggie friends in and out at all hours of the night. He cannot hold a job either. I mean, why would you want a job when you can be on welfare...right? Medicaid will pay for all your prescriptions, food stamps can buy all the cold cereal your 5 year old can eat, and some dealers will even take food stamps for payment. Sweet. My brother is addicted to meth right now. Weed used to be the drug of choice 20 years ago, but it no longer does what it is supposed to do. He is also an alcoholic. All of his money (when he gets it) is spent on beer and drugs. Lots of beer and drugs. Oh, and poker machines are legal in Oregon so he loses money in those too. Rick is my only full sibling. My mother has been married three times and has children from two of those marriages. She wasn't a great role model either, but somehow, in God's sovereignty, here I am! Praise the Lord for great things He hath done!

Taylor Hicks

That's the grey-haired guy's name on American Idol. You can listen to some of his original songs here. He released a CD prior to AI independently which is linked from that website as well if you want to purchase it. The three songs available for download are really good. I am impressed.

A Double Shift

Olaf worked a full day today and just went back in to work the midnight shift. Ah the joys of being a manager of three shifts!:) I hope he is OK on the drive home. That part scares me a bit. I love my hard working man!

I missed Bible Study tonight because Olaf attended an informational meeting about starting a Challenger League baseball program in our county. Right now we drive to another county for Caleb to play baseball and we would really like to stay local. We'll see what happens.

Camille has been doing at least two math pages everyday. We only have 25 more days of math for the school year. I'll have to keep her busy through April though. I really don't want to start 5th grade math until next school year. She is learning so much. She can add, subtract, and multiply fractions. She can find the least common denominator, reduce fractions to lowest terms, change improper fractions to proper and vice versa. We will be starting decimals within the next few days. I am so blessed that I really don't have to teach her. I can introduce the concept and she pretty much gets it. She just thinks she doesn't get it. Her brain goes on overload and she immediately starts to get nervous and cry. Our new motto is, "Try, Don't Cry!" Once she calms down though...no problem. She whizzes through it like it's the easiest thing she has ever done. She is not nearly as gifted in her vocabulary though. She loves to read and devours books, but her vocabulary is limited. She retains what she reads but if there is a word in there she doesn't know she skips it and doesn't think twice about it. She read seven library books in 14 days. Six Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys and one Little House on the Prairie book. It is time to go back to the library. Maybe we can do that tomorrow. She will love that. Last time we were there I got the book by Dr. Dobson called "Bringing up Boys" or something like that. I actually got to page 20 before I disagreed with him and his pop psychology. I couldn't finish it. Oh well...maybe I'll find something tomorrow like a DVD on how to crochet or knit.

I exercised today but I also ate like a fool. I guess they cancel each other out.

Off to start my Bible Study and then read a bit. I always buy whatever books are in the Dollar Tree and I got one called Paige by Paige. You know, the Trading Spaces gal? Anyway, it's a fun read. I also bought the book that Pope John Paul wrote. I am anxious to read that one as well. Have a great weekend everyone. Mine starts after Olaf gets up tomorrow! Woo Hoo!

I just got through watching American Idol. I am so happy that gray haired guy with the harmonica made it through. I really like him. I don't think he'll make it to the final two or anything, but he's fun to watch. I also like that little blonde from the South. She is so sweet. It should be a good season.

I bought a cute notebook to put by my computer. Over at wah there are several prayer requests posted on a daily basis and I really want to remember to pray for all of them. So I bought this cute little notebook/journal thing for a buck at Michaels. I write down the prayer requests so I don't forget to lift my sisters up to the Lord.

I need to exercise. I fell off the wagon when we went to NY. I need to get started again. I feel so much better when I do it on a daily basis.

I stopped by Charity's tonight to pick up my milk and Amish butter! She drives 2.5 HOURS to Alabama to get milk from this dairy. AND, she does it with three small children in the car. Can you say CRAZY? Her children are in the car almost the same amount of time that it takes to drive to Orlando from here only they don't get to get out and go to Disney World! Sucketh. However, I am so glad she went because now I have really good milk and butter. Oh, and cheese too. Dawn has a great idea for butter. We like our butter at room temperature for easy spreadability. Dawn puts her butter in a mug and then sticks a small wooden spreader like this one in the butter. Needless to say, we have incorporated her idea into our home. It's much easier than a butter dish and a whole lot less messy. Thanks Dawn!

I also stopped by Misty's new house. It is gorgeous. Too big for just two people though. I am praying the Lord blesses them with a baby soon. ::writing that in my notebook by computer right now::

Happy Valentines Day

The day of LOVE! Valentine's Day isn't a huge day in my house. My husband is very sweet and usually buys me something, but since our anniversary is January 23rd I'd rather have something romantic then. Of course, I love chocolate.

Sees Bordeaux's would be good right now. Leonida's Belgian Chocolates would be better. Fran's chocolates would be fabulous. Call me a chocoloate snob but I do not like Godiva. Simply overrated.

Have a wonderful day! Go give your husband (or wife) a kiss and tell them how much you appreciate them!

On a Whim!

If you listened to the post below, you know my family spent the weekend in Syracuse, NY. The story goes something like this... Thursday Dawn calls me to chat a minute. I only know Dawn through Women at Home and, up until this weekend, had never met her in real life. While we were talking on the phone her husband suggested that we fly up to play in the snow as they had just gotten about 6 inches. So, I talked to Olaf and we decided to try it. I am so glad we went. The trip was fabulous from start to finish! When we arrived at the Syracuse airport Dawn was there WITH BELLS ON (really!) to welcome us. She has a Suburban so she was able to transport us to her home without us renting a car. Her precious girls gave up their room so the Jorek's could take it over. The children got along superbly as did Olaf and Scott. Of course Dawn and I hit it off from the get go. This picture is in the airport. There are bells hanging from that woman's neck!


Thank you, Dawn, for a terrific weekend! I don't think it could've been any better!

Heart Maker

To make your own candy heart go here!

I did it!

I actually worked out this morning. I am NOT a morning person at all and this is so not fun for me. Yesterday, Charity and I decide that we would hold each other accountable to exercise every morning. Since we are both busy mama's we made a committment to work out before the children got up. So, I put Caleb on the bus at 6:30 and popped in the DVD. I had to do a modified version of the FIRM because I am so out of shape that I cannot keep up. Honestly, I will never be able to do all the ab work those women do. I switched back to Weight Watchers Points yesterday. A week on Atkins and I lost nothing. However, it was good for me. My sugar cravings have dropped drastically. But then I received this from my husband yesterday. My Valentine's Day present arrived early.

The girls just got up and I need to go check on Josiah. Have a great day!

Not fair, not fair, not fair!!

My husband has lost FIVE pounds since Monday. FIVE! Me? I have lost 0. Yes, that is a big fat ZERO. It's just not fair I tell you!

I got such a treat today. I was IM'ing Cheri through MSN Messenger when all of a sudden we were speaking to each other! How fun is that? We were talking instead of typing! I was tickled pink. If anyone else has MSN Messenger let me know. I'll add you to my contact list. Maybe we can talk online sometime!

I have done nothing today. Absolutely nothing. Nothing productive that is. I need to get supper started soon. Well, I take that back. I did do school with Camille. That is productive. I talked with Cheri. I consider that productive. I looked up flights for Dana. That was semi productive. She decided she didn't want my buddy pass afterall!:) My friend Jeannie stopped by with her newborn baby! I held him. That was productive. Hey, I did a lot today.

I am so glad it is Friday. My husband is home with me. I miss him during the week. He still gives me butterflies in my tummy when I see him when he comes home from work. He really does.

Have a great weekend!

Quick Update

The Bible Study ladies went out to eat this evening. I stayed on Atkins even though they ate cheesecake in front of me. I am telling myself it will be so worth it in about 8 weeks! And I can do ANYTHING for 8 weeks. I got through Basic Training in the United States Air Force, I can certainly stay on Atkins for 8 weeks. Christy told me about a diet very similar to Atkins called Protein Power. I just bought the book off Ebay but it sounds very similar to Atkins. One of the differences is you can have 7-10g of carbs per meal. Basically that is 10 more grams of carbs per day than Atkins. And I'm ALL about more carbs.

It's late. Olaf is making egg salad for lunch tomorrow. We watched Survivor tonight. It's going to be a good one. I am rooting for the older men to win.

And one prayer request...a friend of mine in New Zealand is looking into the claims of Christ. She is seeking and wondering if Christianity is the real deal or not. Would you please pray the the Lord would make Himself so real to her that she cannot back away from it? Her name is Wilm.

Blessings...Peace Out!

Thankfulness

I am so utterly thankful to the Lord for the blessings that He has poured out on me. The absolute biggest blessing has to be my husband. Do you know what that man did? He washed the pan he made eggs in before he even left for work so I wouldn't have to. Is that not the most thoughtful thing in the world? He usually never eats eggs in the morning, but since we are on Atkins I figured I'd have more dishes to clean. I woke up Monday morning fully expecting to find a frying pan with egg debris, but there was nothing. I figured that he changed his mind and ate something else for breakfast. But NO! That man cooked his eggs and then washed the pan and put it back in the cupboard! I almost cried when I found that out. That means so much to me. He loves me. Of course next on the list are my children. Children that I never thought I would have. The Lord has blessed me with three pregnancies and births that, quite honestly, I never expected. Going through years and years of infertility kind of dampens any expectation of actually conceiving. Then to be able to give birth at home and nurse my children for extended periods of time was just icing on the cake. There really isn't anything more empowering than giving birth. I cannot describe it, but if you are mother you know what I'm talking about. The Lord has also blessed us all with health. Yes, Caleb has epilepsy and his mental challenges, but we are not dealing with any major medical problems. I cannot imagine what it is like to be in Karen's position or the thousands upon thousands of people that are dying of one disease or another. Or worse yet, watching your children suffer. When I ponder things like that I have to place my trust in the sovereignty of God. I cannot go where the Lord has not called me. He never gives us grace to speculate about the future, He only gives us the grace in our time of need. And one more blessing I just have to mention, and that is the blessing of friends. My online buddies and my real life friends. I have made some awesome friends over at Women at Home. I don't know how it is possible to make friends via this keyboard, but I have done it! I can sit here all night and name blessing upon blessing but I won't bore y'all. I'm going to go to bed and snuggle with my men. Yes, plural. My hubby and my three year old that still sleeps with us. Thank you Father God!

Word Cloud

I found this link at Angie's site. It's a website that looks at your blog and grabs words from them to make this little word cloud. I thought it was pretty cool. If you want to try it go here. Once it makes it for you right click to save it. If you continue you end up buying a T-Shirt! I found that out the hard way! LOL!

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!