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 November:
        anthem of i (my husband's blog) Brittany's blog (my daughter) Survey Says!!! (last updated 11/21/2006) My Amazon Wish List www.scrapsupply.com www.shudan.com www.inspiritnews.com carden genealogy www.kodakgallery.com |
December 24, 2006, 2:46 pm Merry Christmas Eve to everyone. I have not had much chance to blog, and I am very far behind on reading everyone else's blogs, but I hope to have some down time this coming week for playing catch-up. I did not get Christmas cards mailed out... ugh. I'm sorry to everyone who was anxiously awaiting their homemade card - I'll have to catch you next year. I did manage to get together a couple of little boxes to send out, and had them all ready to send on Saturday, but I made it to the P.O. too late - so those will be sent on Tuesday. Time - where does it go? It certainly doesn't linger around here... it just flies right on past. Happy birthday today to my dad. Andrew has some exciting news on his blog. Click here to read all about it. I will leave you with a few photos (I still have a ton to share) and best wishes for an extremely happy Christmas! :)
December 21, 2006, 3:08 pm Is everyone ready for Christmas? Okay, so I started making Christmas cards before we went on our trip, contemplated bringing them with me to finish on the trip, knew that would never happen, planned on finishing them the day I got back, for some reason thought that could happen, and now it is four days before Christmas and they are still sitting on my desk... unfinished. I WILL finish them though, but uh... they'll be late. My goal now is to MAIL them before Christmas. And presents? I have a couple I need to mail out, but yeah... those will be late too. Come on people... I am only ONE woman!!!! :D I have tons of photos from our trip, but here are just a few to keep you satisfied until I get a chance to post the rest. I know, I still have photos to post from BEFORE our trip as well... I plan on having some free time in January! :) Movies... Has anyone seen any good movies lately? There are a few kids movies out that I want to take the family to see, but haven't had the chance. I saw "Holiday" with my sister-in-law while in Nashville and that was cute (Jack Black was funny). "Charlotte's Web" (already out) and "Night at the Museum" (which Jarvis informs me comes out in two days) are at the top of our list.
More to come. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season. Remember why we are celebrating! Take the time to stop and thank Jesus for His Birth! :) December 19, 2006, 1:29 pm I'm baaaaaaaaaackkkkk... We had a great trip to Tennessee, but it feels soooo good to be home. I even got to spend a whole two hours in my own bed this morning before I had to get up and take a kid to the dentist. Woo hoo. Back to life. We left later than planned from Nashville yesterday (uh, duh... it's ME!), and it took longer than it should have to get home (let's see... one kid with diarrhea, two kids threw up, a semi truck jack-knifed and caught on fire about five car lengths in front of us... I'm sure there was more but I've already blocked it out). Anyway, we got home about 6:00 this morning (thank God for Andy who drove almost the entire way and let me sleep!!!). Ashley-the-male-cat is fatter than ever (I think the neighborhood girls we asked to feed him went a little overboard, but that's MUCH better than the alternative!). :) Hannah found a new home before we went on our trip (and I've heard she is very happy, and they are with her... I was sad to see her go, but she was just too big and too bored in our little bitty yard - if we get another dog, it will have to be a SMALL breed). I thought that Jacob and I had the cold from h-e-double-hockey-sticks while in Tennessee, but alas, we came back to Texas and the phlegm is all miraculously draining away, and Jacob's runny nose is all dried up. Allergies... if you have them, do not move to Tennessee! But that's a whole topic for another day (yes, I plan on boring you with an entire post about allergies). I have tons of photos and will post those along with stories and anecdotes from our lovely trip. For now, I've got to get back to my big ole long to-do list before I finally just give up and collapse on my couch. Oh, for those who do not know, we have decided to put the kids back in school (as opposed to homeschooling), so I have been busy getting them registered for the next semester. More details on that later as well. I think it's a little late for changing the look of the blog for Christmas so maybe I'll do a "winter" theme and keep it through January. :) It's so good to be home. :) December 4, 2006, 8:13 pm I'm thinking there won't be a lot of updates during the month of December. Maybe when we get back from our vacation, but probably not until the first of the year. Sorry. I know my fan base is already disappointed not to hear from me on a daily basis. ;) We have been super busy since Andrew came home. We had a million things to do before our trip, and still have about 1/2 a million left (and one day to do them in... wonder how much we'll get done by Wednesday). :) We got new cell phones today. If you did not receive the email containing our new numbers (we'll be getting rid of our home phone), just send me an email and I'll send the new numbers to you (well, if I know you - lol). We will be going out of town in a couple of days. I might get a chance to update on our trip, but I doubt it - we have a fairly busy schedule. I will take lots of photos though (duh! when do I NOT take lots of photos?) and will be sure to update you all when we return. I know I have lots to update, but I have too much to do (like download ringtones for my new cell phone) so you guys will have to wait. :) I hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas season... we certainly are. I'm so glad Andrew is here. Our marriage is better than ever (who knew it could just keep getting better and better?) - God has really blessed us. I love him so much. :) November 29, 2006, 10:25 am Okay, so I know I have only updated my blog like twice in two weeks, but I've been busy. I'm finally updating now and as an added bonus for you, I am sharing photos as well! :) Andrew... I have the most wonderful husband in the world! Since he has been home, he has cleaned (including mopping - the chore I hate the most), taken the van to get worked on, taken care of children (including changing diapers), taken me shopping... the list goes on. He's awesome! He is back at work this week after some time off, but the workdays are short for now. He will have a month of leave starting next week - yay. Brittany is old enough to babysit now, so we were able to go out on a date when he got home too. I love him!
The animals... Ashley is turning out to be a pretty awesome cat. He (I still want to say she) even goes outside to go potty now (no more litter - hallelujah!). Andy likes him too. Hannah is getting restless. Actually, she has always been restless. Okay, so when I bought her, I did not realize that border collies did not make good cooped-up-in-a-small-house/yard dogs. She wants to work, she wants to play, she wants to do SOMETHING... so she tears stuff up. She can almost jump our fence. She wants to herd sheep so she tries to herd the kids and knocks them down in the process (she means well). Sadly, I think we are going to have to try to find someone with lots of land around here that can take her (there are tons of farms and ranches - we are in Texas). We think she'll be happier. We will probably get another cat to fill the void (cats are so easy). I think I'm the saddest about giving her away, even though I know it's for the best. The kids are all "yeah it's fine with me", as they know how much work she is. Thankfully, from everything I've read about border collies, they are very easily adaptable and (as long as the new owners don't have other dogs) take to new owners well - they can sense that they are loved. To anyone else thinking of getting a dog (if you don't have a TON of land): Get something SMALL and research the breed first.
Thanksgiving... The Thanksgiving holiday went well. Josh and Andrea had planned on coming for a while, having bought plane tickets several months back (before Andrea and Adam got married). However, we didn't think the newlyweds should spend their first holiday apart, so Andy suggested we look into getting a ticket for Adam. Josh agreed to go in with us and without telling Andrea, at the last minute, we got Adam a ticket to come as well. We couldn't get them on the same flight, but it was more fun this way anyway. Josh and Andrea arrived around 12:30 last Wednesday, and I was cooking for Thanksgiving. Around 6 in the evening, I sent Andy "to the store" for a couple of things I needed. When he came back, he had Adam with him... Andrea was a bit surprised to say the least. It was great. Well, if anyone knows Andrea, they know she is not a fan of surprises, but I think once the initial shock wore off, this was a brilliant surprise. And by the way, we really like Adam... Andrea picked a good one there.
For Thanksgiving Day, I made a feast to serve about 40, even though it was just the nine of us, and if I do say so myself... it was absolutely delicious. Josh had a honey-baked ham sent, and I made the rest of it... turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, potato salad, deviled eggs, green beans, corn on the cob, rolls, muffins, cranberry sauce (which incidentally I'm the only one that likes cranberry sauce, yet I still open TWO cans of it every year and only eat like one slice and no one else has any - I wonder if I'll ever learn), two apple pies, cupcakes made with spice cake and cream cheese frosting, cherry cheesecake... YUMMY.
Black Friday... I LOVE shopping on Black Friday. Why? Not because I love crowds, but because I cannot resist sales. I love sales. Who doesn't? Anyway, we didn't get up at the usual 4 am, as there was no early bird deals that we just had to have (usually there's at least something worth waiting in line for). Josh, Andrea, Adam, Brittany, Justice, and I got to Target around 6 am and shopped until the afternoon. We came home for lunch and Brittany and Justice stayed home with the younger kids while Andy joined the rest of us for more shopping. Nothing beats an entire day of shopping. I believe Andrea got better photos than me, so she'll have to share those, but I have a few to share that might be of some entertaining value...
Etc... Our company left on Sunday after a nice 4 day visit. I had the flu for the third time in three weeks (I had it for the second time a couple days before Thanksgiving and didn't give my body enough time to rest when I started feeling better). Yesterday, I was feeling better again, and feel much closer to 100% today finally. Andy got off work around 10:30 am yesterday, so he took us to Waco (basically because I wanted to eat at Panera... and for shopping). We didn't find much, but we did look at washers/dryers and new TVs. We are thinking of getting a better TV, and our washing machine is on it's last leg. I really want one of the frontloading, stackable washer/dryers, but I would like to find a set that is not 1500 bucks or more. I'm not sure that's possible. Ha. We are going to set up our Christmas tree today. We've been planning on it the last few days, but I was sick and then yesterday we weren't here. So today is the day. So I'm off to do a bit of cleaning to get ready for the decorations. I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving and is having as much fun getting ready for Christmas as I am. :) p.s. I have photos of the Christmas celebration we had with Josh, Andrea, and Adam but they are still on my camera. I'll save them for next time (and will also talk about the inappropriate first season of The Facts of Life). :) November 25, 2006, 11:00 am I'm still alive and will update shortly. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am enjoying having Josh, Andrea & Adam here visiting and most of all I am REALLY enjoying having my husband home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D More later dudes... November 21, 2006 We were asked to join a cult yesterday in Hobby Lobby... I tend to get a lot of comments regarding the amount of children I have, how young I look to have so many children, and how is it possible that I am so thin and have so many children. Yesterday, however, took the cake. Andrew, our five kids, and I were walking through Hobby Lobby and a man said the usual "Are these all your children?". "Yes", I said. "How many are there?" "Five." "That's great," he said, "you don't see big families much anymore. We have eight kids ourselves." "Cool," I responded, looking back at the snowman platters and thinking the conversation was over. Little did I know he had gone around the corner to find his wife so she could also ooh and ahh over the fact that we do indeed have a large family. I imagine he said something to the effect of "I've complimented them on their nice family, now you go work your magic baby; reel them in to the flock." Around the corner came a woman that words cannot describe. To compare her to Tammy Faye Baker would be an injustice. An injustice to Tammy Faye, that is. The huge 80s hair and the 6 inches of makeup, mixed with the full length flowing skirt were quite the sight to behold. And we aren't just talking extra eyeliner... this was 1/2 an inch thick in the shape of a wave covering most of the bottom portion of her eyelid; and I am pretty sure she drew on half of the lips that I saw with the reddest of lipsticks she could find. Her hair was long and permed and HIGH above her head and I think an entire bottle of Aqua Net had been used - it was the EPITOME of what I mean when I say "80s hair". And I'm not making fun here, I just want you to get the full picture of what this woman looked like. I'm sure that they thought I needed some serious soul-searching as I stood there in my Jefferson Airplane t-shirt and blue jeans with the ripped knee (and straight, no-hairspray, no-bangs hair with minimal amounts of makeup). So she comes around the corner with that crazed I'm-gonna-get-us-some-new-members look in her eyes and started questioning us. She asked us "Do you guys have a church?" Andrew said "Yes we do." "What church do you go to?" Andrew, with hesitation in his voice, told them the name of our church. "Well," she said, "We just took a church in Temple." I'm not quite sure what she meant by "TOOK a church", but I'm assuming her husband just became the pastor... although I could be wrong - they could have actually TAKEN the church with force to use as their cult headquarters. She went on to tell us the name of the church. Andrew said "didn't we visit that church when we moved here?" "No baby... we didn't." (although the couple did resemble a couple we saw at one of the churches we did visit - a church there's no way I would have ever gone back to - maybe it was them... if so 5 or 6 of their 8 kids had the exact same foot-high 80s bangs with perms, and they were all wearing matching pink, frilly dresses... uh, not that there's anything wrong with not allowing your children to be individuals... that's uh... great). Actually, before she started asking about what church we went to and would we want to visit theirs, she asked me if I homeschooled. Let me just say right now, to make it clear: Just because I have a big family and I homeschool and I do not work outside the home does NOT mean that I want to join a cult, commune, or any other crazed "religious" organization and it does NOT mean that I want to move out to the middle-of-nowhere and grow all my own food and tell my children who they are going to marry and make them and their families live within 100 yards of our house, and never, ever be exposed to anything in the "world" for their entire lives. I do not fit the stereotype. I'm sorry. I'm normal. I will even go a step further and add that I do not think that homeschooling is for everyone. It is right for our family right now and I believe that every family should do what is best for them. I will not try to force my family values onto anyone else. So after the church and homeschooling and how old are our respective children questions, she told me "Well, I have a ladies group that meets once a week. We all homeschool and have large families." (they used the term "large families" a LOT - maybe those with less than 3 children were not allowed within the walls of their faction). She went on: "We would LOVE to get you involved, so just give me your name and phone number and I will call you so you can come to our next activity." My mind started darting around possible excuses... I wasn't going to lie, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings - she so obviously cared deeply about her Hobby Lobby recruitments... BINGO... I said it as fast as I could, "We're actually moving soon." Andrew stepped in QUICKLY and added "Yes, I've got orders for Fort Lewis so we won't be around much longer." She responded with a nervous laugh, "Oh, we usually get 'em as they're coming in, not as they're going out." Oh, thank the Lord we are going out. Once she realized that there was no argument for "we're moving 2,000 miles away," she decided she had wasted enough time and energy on us. "Well, I'll let you get back to your shopping." Thank God! Seriously... I was thanking God that I did not have to stand there and endure any more torture. Now, before you judge me and say I'm mean... I was perfectly polite, even friendly, to the couple. But I refuse to give my phone number to David Karesh and Tammy Faye Baker so they can try to reel me in to their koolaid-drinking, large-family, homeschooling, big-hair, no-pants-on-women, clown-makeup cult. It's just not gonna' happen. :) November 16, 2006, 10:35 pm Update... Andrew is home and all is well with the world! Thank you all for your prayers. :) November 16, 2006, 1:35 pm Andy is on U.S. soil! Woo hoo!!! I talked to him in Maine not long ago. :) November 16, 2006 Clue... Dianna had this on her blog yesterday so I thought I'd play along. Fun. Go see which Clue character you are and report back to me on my blog (be sure to include the description). :D
November 15, 2006, 1:13 pm Andy will be home tomorrow night! I'm so excited! :) November 13, 2006, 12:13 am Good dog or bad dog? I was supposed to dogsit for my friend starting today. Her dog was going to stay for three weeks. Then, when we went to TN in December, she was going to return the favor and let Hannah stay with her for two weeks. It was supposed to be perfect! First mistake: Neither my friend nor I had investigated how to introduce them. We let Molly (her Golden Retriever) into the back yard when she got here. After Molly sniffed around and was comfortable, we let Hannah outside so they could meet. Um... no. Hannah was like "INTRUDER! INTRUDER!" and went CRAZY!!! Hannah was barking, snarling, she practically JUMPED our fence (I think she could do it if she really wanted to - it was like something out of the Matrix where she was running along the side of the fence and then came back down... our mouths were just opened in disbelief)... it was NOT good! I was trying to show her that it was all okay - that Molly was nice (Molly practically jumped into my arms like Marmaduke from the old cartoons asking me to save her from this horrible beast that is my dog). We let Molly go in because Hannah seriously needed to calm down. I played with her and after much petting and reassurance, Hannah was okay. Then she spotted Molly in the window. Oh man - now she was REALLY mad!!! This crazy intruder was IN HER HOUSE! She went nuts again. We called PetSmart to ask for advice. They said, "well, if it's not too late already, then take them to a neutral area to meet... then, once they are friends, let them meet again in the front yard or street and then walk them back into the house together." So I walked Hannah down to the school football field... she was all happy to be going for a walk... thoroughly enjoying herself. Then... Molly came onto the field. If she hadn't been on a leash, she would have totally attacked Molly. She recognized her from the house. I don't know if it would have worked even if we had introduced them on neutral ground first (I didn't even THINK of it - I figured Hannah would enjoy a playmate, even though she DOES bark incessantly at ANY dog that ever walks past our yard). We decided that there was no way this was going to work. So Molly went back into her van to wait for her family and I let Hannah back into our yard. Once they left, I let Hannah back into the house. She QUICKLY scoured EVERY inch of the downstairs making sure that the dangerous Golden Retriever was gone (if anyone has a golden retriever, they know that they are the sweetest dogs, but Hannah would likely disagree). It was almost comical - she checked under the desk, all around the table, in the bathroom - everywhere! She had to be SURE that we were okay, and she was NOT happy about having a stranger over (Hannah is not fixed, but I don't think I have to worry about a male dog getting in or even interacting with her if she gets out... I don't think Hannah would ALLOW another dog to impregnate her... EVER!). I guess it's good to know that Hannah will definitely protect us from intruders (well, animal intruders - I don't know about human ones and hopefully we'll never find out). I HATE that Ruthe is leaving in a day and has to find another dogsitter at the last minute because my dog doesn't want to play nice. And I have NO idea what I'm going to do with her when we take our trip in December. She obviously can't go to Molly's house now. I guess I could get a neighbor to let her out and feed her every day, but staying with a friend was such a nicer option - or so it seemed. By the way, Hannah is NEVER aggressive with us or even with our cat. She is completely loveable and cuddly. She does bark whenever dogs walk past or if the kids play rough in her line of vision (she HATES it when they play football or swordfight - she is very protective). And if she ever gets out of the yard (a.k.a. if Darby decides to open the gate and leave it open for no apparent reason), she immediately runs to our neighbors fence where four dogs are kept and they all bark like crazy and she runs all around their fence barking (it is NOT fun trying to get her back in our yard without the leash... she is much smarter than us and is able to evade us for some time, LOL). Okay, so any tips would be helpful. How do I socialize her? Is it too late? She's 9 1/2 months old. Will she grow out of it? I'm checking out a border collie message board... maybe someone else has the same problem. When border collies work with sheep... don't they usually have more than one dog doing it? But maybe they are from the same litter and grow up together or something. Admittedly, I have been lax on a lot of her training because we had so much going on. But hey, she sits when we tell her. Doesn't that count for something? :) edited to add: I have learned a LOT on this border collie message board I have been enthralled with for the past hour. I think we're pretty much out of luck as far as socializing goes (I don't think we'll be able to get another dog, not that we were planning on it). It's not just protection, but probably a combo of protection and fear. I also got tips on why she is chewing the laundry room walls - that one can only be cured by getting her a crate or kennel instead of allowing her free reign of the room (she mostly is only in there at night when we sleep and when we are away from the house but if we aren't ready to let her out as soon as she is ready then she looks for things to do), but I don't want to spend that kind of cash right now (why are crates so expensive?!). By the way, if anyone is thinking of getting a border collie, be prepared to a)pay a LOT of attention to him/her or b)get some sheep for the dog to herd... because they are very easily bored and if they don't have work to do or people to play with, they will start chewing up your dining room chairs (so glad we needed new ones anyway!!!) or digging holes in your yard! :) November 12, 2006, 12:15 am This is me and Darby lately:
November 11, 2006, 11:32 pm Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have served and are currently serving in the US Armed Forces! I appreciate your sacrifice for and dedication to our freedom! Still ill... Yeah, still sick. But I'm starting to feel a bit better tonight. If you've called and I didn't answer my phone, I have limited my answering of the phone because I can barely speak, but my voice is coming back so feel free to call again tomorrow. :) Justice is sick as of tonight, and Brittany's throat hurts. Darby is back to 100% and Jarvis has been unphased. Jacob has been a little under the weather, but not too bad. He mostly just wants more attention than usual. November 9, 2006, 1:39 pm So I was in denial about coming down with a cold for the past few days, but I'm just going to admit it. I'm sick. Blah! I guess I need to rest. I wish I could take cold medicine!! The only one I ever took that didn't turn me into a raving lunatic or drop me on my rear was Shaklee's Nasal D. Does anyone have any of that lying around that they could overnight to me? Yeah, that would be great. Andy will be home in 8 days!!!! :D November 8, 2006, 2:13 am Finally... My email inbox has been stuck around the 700 and higher capacity for MONTHS... I just spent a little time in there and I got it down to 334!!! Progress!!! Yay!!! :) One or two more sittings like that and I might actually have a manageable inbox. Woo hoo. By the way, if you have written to me in, oh, the last year or so, and you wonder why I never wrote back, your email probably got lost in my inbox! I'm working on it, okay?! :D Speaking of getting things done... I just put a bunch of stuff on ebay, and have another set of things to put on there tomorrow (I'm trying to save up for Black Friday a.k.a. the-day-after-Thanksgiving-up-at-5am-shopping-madness). I hope my crap-that-I-don't-want-anymore sells. I think I was a little bit snarky (I can't believe I just used that word) in a couple of my posts with descriptions containing phrases such as, "I don't know what to say about this, okay?" and "PLEASE just bid on this and get it off my hands!!!" Maybe I shouldn't put things on ebay so late at night. Or maybe my snarkiness (yes, I'm using the word TWICE) will be what reels in those big bidders! We'll hope for the latter. :D Did you vote? I did. :) A shiny sink... I was reading the 'Suburban Turmoil' blog today (which I do from time to time after following a link from Malia's blog several months back), and on it I found a link to this website: FlyLady. So on this fly chick's website, she gives all these tips for getting your home organized, clean, and manageable. This sounded appealing to me (although I read on the comments on Lyndsey's Suburban Turmoil blog that you do not want to sign up to receive the daily emails from the Fly Lady because there are apparently a LOT - I'll keep you posted on that one). I decided to do a couple of the things on there so now I'm sharing it with you. She said the first thing to do in organizing your home (and the only thing to do on Day 1) is to clean your kitchen sink. So I did it. Not just cleaned... scrubbed... down to the last little spot of grime in between the faucet and the sink (photo to follow this paragraph). And you know what? She was right. It felt good. And it led to other things. It led to deeper cleaning of the kitchen than I normally do on a daily basis. And it looks so nice to not have those icky spots and clumps of grime on my sink! So then I perused the Fly woman's website a little further (not too far because - wow - her site is HUGE, and I don't have THAT kind of time!). I decided to do one more thing. I did her 27 fling boogie. That's right! I said "27 fling boogie"!!! To do this, you need two bags. With the first bag in hand, you walk around your house and throw away 27 things. Take it straight to the trash can without looking back inside (because you might pull something out). Then with the second bag, you walk around your house and find 27 things to give away. I took that a step even further and separated my 27 things into "sell on ebay" and "give away" piles (because why not make a little cash on some of that give-away stuff, you know?). I now have a bag of things by the door for the GoodWill, and as I stated in the previous paragraph, the ebay pile is mostly all up for auction (it will all be up, along with some other things that had been in a pile in my office for about a month waiting to go on ebay). Oh, and when I was dancing to my 27 fling boogie (okay so I wasn't ACTUALLY dancing, but when you are using the term "boogie", it really is necessary to throw the term "dancing" in there as well), the kids were inspired and grabbed their OWN bags and started picking up trash and they now have two bags of stuffed animals and GI Joes ready to give away! I feel a great sense of accomplishment (and so do the kids)! I'm going to stick with the Fly Freak's plan for a little while and I'll let you know how it goes. :) It's not the nicest sink in the world, but gosh-darn-it, it's CLEAN!
November 7, 2006 If you haven't done so already today... VOTE!!! By the way, for those who were concerned, I DID find my voter registration card... finally... it was in the LAST place I had to look (of course). I'll be heading out to vote in a few minutes! :) If you are still trying to decide which way to vote, read Daniel's post here... it pretty much sums up how I feel about the matter. :) November 6, 2006, 10:19 pm Baby it's cold outside (okay not really that cold here in Texas, but...) I am totally in the Christmas spirit. I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I was already anticipating the Holiday season with glee and browsing through the Christmas sections at Wal-Mart and Target today and yesterday pushed me over the edge. I am currently playing my Christmas playlist on the computer and tonight I bought a few items for making Christmas cards (believe me, it was HARD to resist all the other CUTE, CUTE, CUTE stuff at Target!!!). Speaking of Target - who doesn't absolutely love that Dollar Spot they have?! I cannot just walk past that when I go in there - I have to stop and browse and usually put at least ONE thing in my cart (because, HELLO, it's only ONE dollar)! Tonight Jacob was ENTHRALLED with a red and yellow maraca from the dollar spot! He chewed a small piece off of it in the store so I had to buy it anyway, but he LOVES it. :) p.s. I could EASILY drop about $5,000 at Target at any given moment... it takes a LOT of will power for me not to go completely nuts in that store!
Andrea was right... Flushed Away was hilarious. We went to see it this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't think it was as funny as Barnyard, but it was still VERY funny. The slugs (as gross as slugs ARE in reality) were cracking me up!!! :) November 5, 2006, 6:49 pm I still can't believe I have a teenage daughter! I finally got out and took photos of her today. I think we ended up with some good ones, even though the lighting was not the best and it started getting dark while we were shooting. :)
November 4, 2006, 8:11 pm Princess Darby, hayrides... Darby is sick today. We were supposed to go to a cookout and hayride with other deployed families from our church, but she woke up with a bad headache and high fever. She has been lying on the couch watching movies all day (the high point of being sick in our house). My friend, Rhonda, took Jarvis with her to the cookout/hayride. She offered to take all the other kids since I had to stay with Darby, but Brittany and Justice wanted to stay here and play outside with their friends in their fort they built off the nature trail. Jarvis had a blast though; he had never been on a hayride before and he said that Longhorns chased them and he got to pet horses. :) I have had a migraine today (yes, again - I get them often) so it's just as well I didn't go anyway. I snapped this photo of Darby the other night when I checked on her. She's such a little diva... even when she sleeps. Haha.
Jacob update... Jacob is pretty much walking. He has been taking 3 or 4 steps at a time for a couple of weeks, and today he took LOTS of steps. He's so proud of himself. He has a huge grin on his face every time he walks. It's adorable! And he is soooo short so it doesn't look like he should be walking. :) He got his 5th tooth today. I didn't even know it was coming in. He got his front two teeth on the top last week, and was kind of fussy yesterday and didn't nap well - little did I know it was because he was cutting another tooth on the top gum. I have found a small loophole in the Jacob-hates-baths-and-screams-at-the-top-of-his-lungs-through-every-one saga. If Darby is in there WITH him, he tolerates it for a little while before the screaming starts. So for now, they will be taking all their baths together! We have discovered that Jacob is VERY stubborn. I think even more stubborn than the other kids were... well, maybe except for Brittany - she was pretty hard-headed. :) He thinks that unrolling the toilet paper, digging through the bucket of treats (a.k.a. the trash can), and dumping out the Q-tips while he is in the bathroom with me is great fun. It goes something like this: J: *starts grabbing the toilet paper* During all of this, he never cries because he's getting his hand smacked. He's more annoyed that I'm interrupting his fun than anything. He doesn't seem to care one bit about the actual discipline. This does not look good for the next few years. I think I've got a challenge on my hands. LOL (that's okay though - I can handle it... he's number five, you know? plus, I'm more stubborn than he is so I'll win every time - haha) November 2, 2006, 5:09 pm It's getting closer... TWO WEEKS AWAY!!!! I'm so excited that Andy will be here soon! Thanks for all your tips on my comments page. I got most of the crayon removed - yay. Justice filled up all the holes in the yard (he is such a hard worker!!), and we have been trying to just let Hannah outside when someone is outside with her to make sure she doesn't dig. I'm pretty much to the point where I'm accepting that it just will not all be done when he comes home... and that's okay. :) The recipe project ... About a year ago, I sent out a request for recipes via email to friends and family. My plan was to create a cookbook from all the received recipes and then send a copy to everyone who wanted one. I'm sure many of you thought I had abandoned that idea, but never fear... it is still in the works! I just got distracted by things like bedrest, having a baby, my husband being gone, etc. :) So... I am now opening up the call for recipes once again. I still have all the ones that were sent to me last year, but if you have some newfound yummy discoveries to share, by all means, share. And if you were not included last year and you WANT to be... just email your recipes to me! A few of you were going to send recipes but did not, so you guys can go ahead and do that now. I don't have an expiration date yet so just send them until I say "okay, I'm ready to print now" (probably a couple weeks-ish, but you never know how busy I'll be then so it might be January or something). Also, if you have taken a photo of your recipe, please include that in the email (as people like to see what the finished product looks like - if you don't have a photo, though, don't worry about it). Also, Ali... you were going to send me some yummy Mexican recipes but I think you forgot that so yeah - let's get on that, okay? :) Send to: petracarden@yahoo.com. November 1, 2006, 1:23 pm Blog updates... I decided I need to update every month. I got really bored with the look of my blog when I kept it the same for two months. The mug with the green tea is what I have every morning - I have become a hot tea addict and have green tea every day, sometimes I have chamomile at night, and I just got a variety box so I can try some other flavors. In case you wanted to know. :D Last night... The kids had a blast at the Pumpkin Patch party at church last night. Justice was an Army dude/pirate/Rambo (it was last minute, okay? He was going to wear Andy's ghillie suit, but we couldn't find it), Jarvis was a dinosaur (obviously), Darby was a fairy princess (we patterned her face painting after a photo of Andrea at a Rennaissance fair), Jacob was Superman (duh!). Brittany is too dignified or something, so she didn't dress up. :) Here are a few photos...
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website created by petra carden 2005/2006