FACELIFT

All the cool kids were doing it, so I did too.

Pancakes, Anyone?

This morning, I got up bright and early-at least for me(7:30 REAL time) and made my way to the bathroom. I stopped halfway through the living room because-SNOW! Then, of course, I wondered immediately if there was school today. Why, you ask? Because Thursday is now Bible study day. If county school is out-no Bible study. I made my way to the TV and waited through 17 commercials for the news to tell me if there was school. No school. No Bible study.

"I'm going back to bed girls! No Bible study today." They were not happy campers. Then they remembered there was snow.
"Let me sleep 30 more minutes and then I will get up and you can go out and play." So they ate breakfast and played while I tried to snooze more. Wasn't happening. Up too long. There is a window there where I can go back to sleep like awake had never happened. It is about 10 minutes. We were going on like 30-45. Sooo, I got up and savored the snow day and all the things it cancelled. The girls went out to play with our neighbor who was now over to sled. I put in disc 3 of season 4 of Gilmore Girls. Not too much later, the doorbell rang. I am still in my jammies and fully expect it to be our neighbor-even though I thought she was already here. A strange little girl is at my door telling me all the ways I know her and her mom and can she please come over to play. She doesn't look much older than Lilly(turns out she was 9 though)-so I invite her to the backyard where the girls are in full snowball fight mode. Now it is about mid-morning and I have 5 children in my charge and I am trying to decide what I will feed them in about 15 minutes when I must insist they come in, dry their coats and such and warm-up. (And also call new girl's mom to see who she is and let her know daughter is here-she graduated with my husband and knew where we lived through a friend and knew we had girls.) What feeds alot of kids that picky eaters love? Pancakes. So I called them in, put Erika in charge of getting things in the dryer and started mixing batter. Oh my but they were loud and excited and all getting along so well. In no time at all I had enough pancakes for round one and started working on round two. They all ate heartily and then went off to play some more inside. When I had had all the fun I could stand they went outside for sledding part 2. Not even one episode(Gilmore Girls) later, there was another kid thrown into the mix-a neighbor BOY. I had to call off the girls who were not being very nice to him. One girl had to come in for a time-out and another had to apologize. I chatted a little with boy to make sure all was well and then shooed mine+new girl inside. Down to 4 kids. Neighbor girl and neighbor boy went home. It was 12:30 and my nice mom gauge was down to a quarter tank. I established a fun stop time of 1PM when school would start for us and new girl would have to go home.

Whew!! I guess I should have bought those 60 packets of hot chocolate at Sam's. At the time it seemed like way too many. However, having THE hill makes us pretty popular when it snows. Good news, looks like we have a new friend in the neighborhood and we are glad about that-you can never have too many!!

It's been a fun day! School this afternoon and tonight to make up for lost time. I love a good snow day. Supposed to have another one tomorrow-but since they have predicted it-I bet it doesn't happen!!

Oh my goodness, I am like a wind up doll-only self-winding. We had a great class at church tonight. Wonderful discussion. About all sorts of stuff that I love to talk about. I talked my head off and oh there was so much more I wanted to say, discuss, bring up, pontificate, ponder, debate. You know that filter that stops you just before you talk way tooooo much, interrupt and come across as a total conversation hog? I seem to have been born without it.

It is terrible to leave a class with double guilt-A)not doing more to share Christ with those who don't know him and B)feeling like a cad for talking too much.

Tagged

Ami tagged me to do this. Hula tag coming Friday. I cannot resist a tag. They don't usually come at the same time though!!


How long have you been blogging?

My first post in my archive is 8-26-2005, however, I do believe my introductory post was deleted. I did not really learn how to do much with settings until I was pretty far along with blogging. There was a pre-set number of blog entries to archive. My number of entries was higher than that so some of them slipped away. Not many though.

What inspired you to start your blog, and who are your mentors?

My friend Summer introduced me to the whole concept of a blog. I read hers one time, felt in touch with her and was hooked. From there I began to do word searches and read lots of good and also a few unsavory blogs. I read a reporter's blog on Hurricane Katrina hitting Alabama and I was just mesmerized. He posted for about a year. I am thankful for all the info he put out there and was sad to see him close it down. Then I did much more CAREFUL word searches and found Miss Zoot. Even though we have lots in common, we have lots not in common-but I really enjoy her blog. I also found Very Mom who is now Kerflop-love her!! I also found a couple of other girls that I read for a long time and both of those turned into p*rn sites...I hope they are making money at least?? I was sad to see them go and even sadder that I linked p*rn for a while!! Sara then told me about Deana who made me laugh in a "spray milk out your nose" way who led me to Jacinda who is practically my cousin who led me to my soul sister JettyBetty and then I talked some friends (influenced HULA?)into blogging and Summer did too, people who started around when I did and others who came along much later. All in all-I read alot of blogs. Too many in fact. I am mentored by many as well. I have a strong need to read and be read.

Are you trying to make money online, or are you doing it just for fun?

I made $20 blogging, so I guess I am in it for fun. If I were smart enough to figure it all out, I would have ads on here just to justify the blog and time spent here. Give me time. However, my main reason is as a journal/family history recording. It also helps me grow as a person. I have gotten some real perspective into who I am and why I am who I am through the writing done on here. I have also whined, offended, complained, belittled, offended, whined and complained. Just keeping it real-and learning to do things in a better way is all part of that!!

My hope of hopes is that when my girls are grown, they can enjoy browsing through this and feel like they are sane when they struggle with things similar to my struggles-and as bad as I hate it-they will have many struggles- some because of me, some in spite of me, some to spite me-struggles, a fact of life. Run on sentences, dashes and lots of commas-a fact of this blog. AND if they can't relate to anything I say on here, we can pinpoint exactly where the crazy started. ( ;

What 3 things do you love about being online?

The sense of connected-ness. I love it when people comment. I love that by being real about my life, it sometimes helps others. I am happy that I relate to so many people and they relate to me. I am happy to read people that I have little in common with and people I have much in common with. This is my little internet support group. When I am crashing, you comment and encourage me. When I do something stupid, you confess you've done it too. When I'm struggling, you pray for me. When I tell huge lies about bears, you applaud my fiction. There is a very special group of readers on here that go to my church. That has been a wonderful blessing. We connect in a unique way because we know each other on a whole different level. I am a hopelessly misunderstood person. People who read my blog understand me a little bit better. My husband reads on here and it has helped him know why I do the things I do.

Was that three??

I tag everyone who reads this!! Especially if you are linked in this entry or on my sidebar (and you know I exist-Miss Zoot, Pioneer Woman and Kerflop do not!). This is a good meme!

Bye Bye Breck Girl

Have you heard? John Edwards is supposed to step out of the race today. Now I think I said something nice about him on here once and never followed up on that. He did impress me in one debate. However, he was a one-trick pony. He said the same thing in every speech, every debate, every commercial and every interview. That made him seem a little loopy, batty, odd. The fact that the question could be about the anything-the price of tea in China- and he could bring it back to veterans sleeping under bridges became comical. Sad, really. He does have really nice hair.

I've also heard rumors that Rudy may be stepping out as well. He is absolutely the best man for the job. I really can't believe conservative Christians will let one issue (pro-choice) keep him out of office. I hate abortion, but I do not think we can reverse Roe V. Wade. People would come out of the woodwork to prevent it. We just have to keep counseling the women who consider it and love them-offer support. This is not a political battle.(IMHO) The fact that Rudy would not say all right, I am pro-life (as others have done) to garner support says alot. He also gave assurances that he would elect judges that were. Conservative Christians (I realize I sort of fall into this category) will be the reason we end up with Hilary or Barack, or McCain. I do not believe Huckabee and Romney are electable. Also, factor in all those conservative votes that will go to Ron Paul and we have the election of the first Clinton all over again.

So my hope for America bubble has been deflated. My doom and gloom bubble is halfway inflated. I have no idea who I will support. Hey, Ross Perot, where are you?

Bizarre Fantasies!

Yes, I have totally bizarre fantasies. They involve built-in furniture and woodworking. I hate most store bought furniture. It is large, fluffy and never suits me. We usually have several shopping trips where we browse at many shops and then I come home not sure what I want, but sure I am not gonna find it in a furniture store. The purchases we have made are not things I love. So last night at the library, I was looking for a book on storage solutions. Instead I found all these books on do-it-yourself furniture, storage and garages. So I got about 7 of them. Today they are going back along with a crushed build-our-own furniture fantasy. The books start out with a recommendation for your workshop lay-out and where to put your $500,000 tools. We're just wanting a couple of pieces of well thought out furniture. I guess I'll keep shopping.

I Love A Good Monday!

I know that most of the world agrees with Garfield, but I do love Monday.

Last Wednesday I hopped on the scale expecting the usual number. I was shocked to find a new horrid number. It was ugly-about 7 pounds uglier than the usual number which isn't pretty, but usual nevertheless. Of course, I knew the culprit-Mello Yello. It isn't mellow at all, in fact, it is quite aggressive. Many people pack extra poundage all because of M.Y. So I immediately began a water fest. No more sweetened drinks-at all. It has been hard as the craving came over me in waves especially the first two days. But, as with any addiction, once you get a little clean time, you get some perspective and will power. I think I will just stick with the water and when I just have to have some fizzy-Diet Coke. Mello Yello did get me over the Diet Coke addiction in a methadone kind of way...replacing one addiction for the other-so water is good right now. Water addiction is what I am going for.

Today I hopped on the scales and all is back to "usual". Yesterday, we took a family trip to Sam's and stocked up on food for a couple of weeks. We saw about 10 other families from church...too funny! I made sure to leave off the junk and we are stocked on veggies. I also made a huge cry out for an Aldi trip where more fresh veggies were purchased. So today we are all snacking on multi-colored peppers, celery, grape tomatoes and mini-carrots. We love them so it works out well. We also have alot of fruit and yogurt. It isn't hard to eat healthy if I do the prep work to make it readily available. More expensive, yes. More prep, yes. Worth it, yes.

I had a little talk with God last night and told Him, "Whatever." But not in the smart aleck way, just that I trust Him with everything and it will all work out okay! If he wants us to have more kids, we will. I did reschedule my "yearly" with a real gyno, not our family doctor. I'll have to cancel my Feb 9th appt. but I now have an appt. this Friday. I wanted to go somewhere that was capable of doing some in-office testing and not be sent around to a bunch of other places. Plus, I feel better going to a specialist in that field again. Tis better to be one of many gyno exams than to be the only one for the day. I do love our family doctor though!! She is so wonderful, a friend and a doctor. Absolutely the best.

So, by Friday, I will know better what is going on with my body. Just in time for my birthday. If I am pregnant, this will be a Sept. birthday which is hilarious considering we have June, July and August kids now. However, I really don't think I am. I have major symptoms when pregnant-mostly early weight loss and uncontrollable hunger. Neither of those present. (Losing weight because of giving up M.Y. doesn't count.).

LATE.

And I don't mean for dinner. I suppose I should 'fess up. I am about 2-3 weeks late and since I've only been late three times, I am especially freaked out. My tubes were tied about 6 months after Lilly was born. Erik is giddy at the prospect, I am not. I took a pregnancy test which was negative. I know that does not really mean anything-since I had a false negative with Erika. However, I am not gonna go out and buy 4 more. (At least I am gonna try not to) I am concerned it is something much more serious-or maybe it is just the beginning of a more irregular cycle and is nothing serious.

Soooo, there is reason for the lack of bounce in my step and the somewhat comatose behavior. I am scared, plain and simple. (That prayer in your office was earnest Steph. R!) VERY scared. God has over-rode every other form of birth control I have ever used-but this felt permanent. My biggest fear of all is that I could not have a healthy pregnancy with my tubes tied. A tubal pregnancy would be devastating in every way.

I would appreciate your prayers. I have a Dr. appt. on Feb. 9th. I turn 36 on Feb.3. This is gonna be a tough two weeks.

AUNT FLO AUNT FLO-I miss you!!