Birthdays at Mama Peggy's House

Yesterday my dad's side of my family gathered at my Mama Peggy's house to celebrate mine and my little brother, Jarrett's birthdays.

She does this for all our birthdays... cooks a big, delicious home-cooked meal and we have cake and presents and celebrate together.

It's so nice to see everybody and eat yummy food and laugh and love.

Mama Peggy has a great old swing on her front porch that's been there my whole life and it's pretty much everybody's favorite place to gather, especially the little ones.

Yesterday, I got lucky and captured that picture up there that I LOVE with my crappy camera phone.

WHY didn't I have a decent camera in my hands????

Oh well, it's still precious and I'll treasure it and it's horrible pixelation (is that a word??) forever. ;)

And We're Trying New Disciplinary Techniques

I hate spanking.

Spankings put me in a bad mood and when I give spankings, I immediately feel like I need to give another spanking because I'm so upset that Emma got me to the point of her needing a spanking.

Does that make sense?

And just so you know, spankings are very infrequent here, as I HATE giving them.

And Emma has gotten so lazy about listening without arguing and following directions and all that not so fun for her stuff.

So, I'm now at the point where I am SOOOO tired of fighting with her and arguing with her, so I've made some decisions.

I enforced them for the first time last night.

She spent the night with my mom the night before last and when she came home yesterday, my mom told me that, as always, Emma did not want to listen to her AT ALL, she was a little on the wild side and THEN to top it all off, she CUT HER HAIR!!!!

A big chunk, right outta the front.

I was so angry.

I was too angry to spank her, because I'm always scared that I may spank too hard or too much or something when I'm THAT angry.

So, I came to the conclusion that spankings really don't work anyway.

They scare Emma half to death and they make me feel like I just wanna jump off a bridge.... not really, but seriously, I get in a funk when I spank Emma.

So, I told her that for TWO DAYS she was not going to watch any of her "shows" (aka any of the 7 cartoon networks we have on our tv) or her dvds.

Friends, you would really have thought I was holding her down on the kitchen table and sawing her arm off.

It was SO MUCH worse than if I had just spanked her.

Seriously.

She lives and breathes her "shows" and dvds.

She cried off and on for two hours and told me at least a hundred times how sorry she was.

So, this morning, she and I both COMPLETELY forgot about this punishment.

We got up and did what we do every morning...

-She and I got Noah up and I changed him.
-We went to the kitchen, I made both of them a cup of chocolate milk.
-Noah and I came upstairs to watch Sesame Street, eat muffins, and for me to check all my internet stuff.
-And Emma went and got back into my bed and promptly turned my tv to her cartoon of choice.

About thirty minutes into this routine, the light bulb came on and I jumped out of my chair, flew down the stairs, ran wide eyed into my room and glared at Emma... at the tv... at Emma... at the tv...

And without me even saying anything, Emma said, "Oh, Mommy!!!! I FORGOT, I FORGOT!!!"

What could I say, I forgot too.

So, off the tv went and all has been well and good.

I can't wait to see if this actually works and she behaves better the next time she's away from home... and when she's AT home.

I did tell her, though, that from this point on, when she misbehaves, breaks a rule, or deliberately doesn't listen, I'm either going to take away her tv or take away a favorite toy.

I hope it works....

Suggestions?

Happy Birthday To Me...

There are no pictures to accompany this post. There will be some, though... later.

This past week has been mentally awful. I find myself in tears several times a day over the smallest thing... a song, a smell, a word, a thought... It's truly unbearable at times. I'm so thankful for caring friends and for Emma and Noah. They give me purpose and new reasons to smile all day long.

And today, my friends, you all have made me smile SO MUCH! I don't look forward to birthdays anymore, but it's definitely better than the alternative and when I woke up this morning, I would have truly been content to have stayed in bed watching tv and reading my book all day long. However, my family was coming over to my mom's to cook-out for my birthday, so I got up... got ready and went.

I'm so glad I did. It was refreshing and wonderful. It was great to spend time together and know that they each loved me enough to show up for me. :)

And the fact that I've gotten TONS of happy birthday messages on facebook and through texts today has just been truly overwhelming... in an amazing way. I didn't know that many people cared about me! Seriously!

And just a moment ago, my breathe was truly taken away... one of my FAVORITE photographers left me a happy birthday message!! Hello people, she's in AUSTRALIA!!! My heart dropped into my toes when I saw it. I had no idea she even knew I existed. She has thousands of followers, yet she took the time to tell little ole' me Happy Birthday. My day... week... month... possibly year has been totally made. :)

Sweet Babies

I know a lot of kids grow up fighting with their siblings and resenting them for one reason or another...

But mine just love each other SO very much, I can't imagine they would ever be that way.

I hope they always love each other like this.

There's nothing that feels any better as a mother than to see this kind of love flowing between the babies. It's amazing.

Hope

I have such hope.

Hope for my future.

Hope for my heart.

Hope for my children.

I feel the need to express this, kind of to follow up on the blog I wrote last night.

I know I am loved. I appreciate every ounce of love that is wrapped around me. I know those who sometimes stress me out the most, nevertheless love me very much. It's just that they aren't always able to express it in a way that is easily accepted by me.

In difficult times, the heart craves kindness and understanding and that's exactly what I need at the moment.

I have wonderful friends, both here and far away. I am so thankful for each of you. Your words soothe my soul and fill me with this hope that I have.

Today was a difficult day. I only ate about a handful of food today, because I felt too sick to my stomach to eat. I hate that feeling.

I don't like feeling scared about my future. I don't enjoy worrying about what is going to become of certain things my children love and enjoy so much.

My wonderful friend, Alison, had the kids and I over today for a playdate and a mommy date. We enjoyed great conversation, tears, laughter and wine.
It was therapy.
It's always nice to have your thoughts and feelings validated, while simultaneously receiving kind words of advice. Especially when it's advice that totally makes sense to you.

Then tonight, Amber provided a much needed listening ear for me to vent. It was fabulous. She is fabulous.

Life would be empty without my girlfriends.

I love you, friends.

You've made my weekend more bearable. Whether you know it or not. :)

A Really Gross Story

Okay, before I tell you this really gross story, let me just tell you a little bit so that those of you who have never met me in person and been to my house may understand a little better.

I live in the middle of a field... on a farm... with lots of woods surrounding me.

Okay, with that said...

There are lots of field mice around. Lots. And I leave my garage door cracked at night so Marley (the dog) can sleep in the warmth of the garage, but also have the option to go in the yard to do his business.

Therefore, those field mice that are all around are also always seeking refuge in my nice (otherwise clean) garage.

Because of these little critters, I'm always finding "droppings" in my garage. It thoroughly grosses me out, but what grosses me out even more than the mice droppings are when Marley is locked in the garage and gets an upset stomach. He's a big dog and his piles are... BIG.

So, the garage door remains cracked for him so I don't have to fuss with his "piles".

Now, about a month ago, I got into my car one day ( I have a Honda Pilot, in case anyone wants to know for visualization purposes) and noticed the random McDonald's drink straw on my floor and it had holes in it. I thought... hmmm... I guess it got worn by my shoes from being on the floor.

I let it go and moved on with my life.

THEN I noticed some ketchup packets (McDonald's, again) in my car that had holes in them and all the ketchup was gone from them.

This was a little alarming.

I started wondering if possibly one of these little field mice had made it's way into my car, because that's what it looked like on the packet... mice chew marks.

Well, skip ahead to about two weeks ago.

I was on the way to the post office to mail off like.... 500 books to PBS peeps when I turned a corner and all of a sudden, this horrible, loud rattling sound started right behind the glove box of my car.

I seriously thought my car was about to blow up. I was so scared!

So, after leaving the post office, I went directly to Crumpler's, our local garage. I know the guy who owns it, so I asked him if I could borrow him for a minute. He said sure.. came to my car, listened to the noise.. told me it was the blower motor (the thing that powers the air conditioner/heater). He said something had blown up into it and I could bring my car back the next day for him to take care of it.

Well, I HATE doing car maintenance related activities and I discovered that as long as I kept the air/heat on low, the noise wasn't that loud, so I figured I'd just grin and bear it until I felt like going to get it fixed... which would probably in reality be when my dad finally took it to get fixed for me. ;)

So.... days turned into weeks... and then came last Friday.

Mama had wanted to keep the kids because she hadn't in a while, so I left them and just started wandering around town. Didn't have much to do, so I was trying to think of things to do. I remembered that the battery on my keyless entry remote had recently gone dead and boy is that annoying! So, I headed over to the Honda place to get the battery replaced.

While I was talking to the guy about replacing my battery, I remembered the blower motor.

"OH yeah", I said to the guy, "can you come listen to this noice, something's in the blower motor and I really need to get it taken care of".

So he did. And they had time to fix it for me, so I went to the lobby to read my book while they were taking care of my annoying car issues.

Well, about 30 minutes went by when I got a page to come back to the service desk.

This is what they showed me...

THAT is the blower motor from my car and in that blower motor are the remains of A MOUSE!!!

A MOUSE!!!

Thank God it is the dead of winter and not August. Can you imagine the smell??? I've been driving around with a dead mouse in the thing that blows air into the car! Oh my gosh, it makes me want to vomit.

The people in the service department were looking at me like I was some nasty person!

I was like... no... seriously, I live in the middle of a field. I can't keep the mice away, it's not even possible.

They all had their faces scrunched up looking at me like I smelled.

What the crap!

So, the guy I had been dealing with thought it was hilarious. He told me that there is a shelf that goes around the top of the blower motor, so probably when I turned that corner, the mouse had been sitting on that shelf and promptly fell into the motor.

DIS. GUS. TING.

So, now my car is mouse free.

All I can think of though is what if that mouse had started running around my car while I was driving down the road. I probably would have killed us all and smashed up everything in my wake trying to stop and get out of the car.

Object of the story: I have to get a cat.

Laundry... The Bane of my Existence

It seems as if I have something against putting the laundry away.

I don't mind washing it... at all...

Folding it... I don't like it, but I do it...

Putting it away... I wait until most of the clothes in the house are folded up and piled on every flat surface in the laundry room before I take the time to put it away.

Why? Why do I do this?

Beautiful Sunday Sunset

Tonight when we were about to take our baths and get ready for bed I saw this sunset out the back windows and just couldn't pass it up. I grabbed my camera and this was the view out the backdoor.

Love it.

I am so exhausted tonight. I worked out earlier and I probably shouldn't have. My stomach was all crampy all day, but I'm trying really hard to use the eliptical every other day. That's my goal.. every. other. day.

Not making a big number weight loss goal for myself or anything.

I know I need to lose some weight, but I honestly feel okay about myself right now. I know I'm prettier when I'm skinnier, but I'm so busy, I just can't beat myself up about these baby pounds that really like hanging out on my body. ;)

And I have to tell you guys this. My friend, Tempie, from my book club and from high school.. she told me about this awesome site called Paper Back Swap. They don't just deal in paper back books, though, it's all books, even books on cd and cassette.

This is the coolest site! You list any of your books that you wouldn't mind parting with and you can pick from millions of books from their site. Pretty much everytime someone requests a book of yours, you earn a credit and that credit allows you to order any book you want! It's freakin awesome. You should take a look! ;)

Our BIG Winter Storm!

Our weathermen have been stressing their little heads off about this massive (yeah right) winter storm that hit us last night and today.

For us, it amounted to about 1 1/2" of snow and a lot of sleet. In defense of our weathermen,though, north of us did get between 8-10 inches. I wish we'd gotten that instead of all this ICE!

Earlier in the day, it felt like snow, but now it's basically an ice rink out there. My porch and yard are blankets of ice.

Bless Emma's little heart, though, she was so excited about the snow, so she HAD to go out and see for herself that it was ice and not snow that can actually be played in.

So we got all bundled up and went outside for about ten minutes.

I realized once we were already in the yard that I'd forgotten Noah's gloves inside.

So, he was miserable after about 30 seconds.

The dogs loved it...

Noah didn't. See how red his hands are? He was so fussy. So, I took him in after only a few minutes.


The playset was just a mess of icicles.

Emma loved knocking them off...

Noah was just focused on finding a warm spot.
There's nothing better than a nice hot fireplace after you've been outside playing in the snowy ice. :)

My Dream

You know that little handy dandy button up there... at the top left of the blog page...

The one that says... NEXT BLOG...

Yeah, that one. I pushed that button a minute ago, from my friend's blog page and it went to some random blog... I wasn't interested... so I pushed it AGAIN... and it landed here... and my breathe caught.

I don't know why I wasn't born up north... where the snow falls and blankets the ground for several months out of the year... where beautiful, old traditional white houses like this exist...

It's one of the many, many reasons why this...

Is one of my favorite movies ever made.

First of all, if you've never seen "The Family Stone", get your butt to the movie store and RENT IT! It doesn't matter in the least that it's a Christmas movie, because it is so great... it gives me goosebumps.

I love the mother/daughter relationship that these two share...

I definitely hope that Emma and I have a similar relationship to theirs one day. They scheme together and basically plot out the salvation or demise of the people who try to enter their inner circle. I LOVE it! hehe... Although, at this point, Emma is way too nice for me to ever picture her doing this, so it'll probably be my next daughter who'll be my scheming partner. ;)

I love the music... Jefferson Starship... so 70's... I LOVE IT.

I love that the movie is set in Massachusetts and everything looks so historical and snowy and beautiful and.... *sigh*... I've always wanted to live in Massachusetts.


So, my dream... to one day live in a house that looks like the one up there and have a family of grown children that allow for marvelous family get togethers like the ones in "The Family Stone".

Desk Problem: SOLVED

Okay, so here's the deal...

My mom and I are trading desks.

SHE has a desk that I found for her on ebay a couple of years ago (pretty much the same exact time I bought this too small one) and it's Pottery Barn. Those that know me well know that I am pretty much completely in love with anything from there.

I love the style.

I love the quality.

I love EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING in that store/catalog.

If I were rich, my entire house would be decorated just like their catalogs.

So, my mom doesn't really need this massive, gorgeous desk, so we're going to do a little tradey trade.

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Now, the only problem I'm faced with is the fact that my mom's desk doesn't have a hutch.

I am a post-it note fanatic. I probably should own stock in 3M. My entire hutch and the frame of BOTH my monitors are all constantly covered in sticky notes with "NOTES TO SELF".

So, I went... where else, but Pottery Barn online and I found this cubby organizer that I REALLY like...
My idea was that I could hang it above the desk in lieu of the hutch and use it to sit all my crap on that is now all over the hutch and I could even stick my stickies on it if I can't curb the habit. ;)

The only problem is that it's not white, like the desk. :( And that's not really a huge deal, but my walls up here are the chocolate brown and I'm wondering if it's going to blend with my walls too much, being that it's a brown wood?

Whaddya think?

I would say I could paint it, but if you look carefully, you'll see that below each cubby is a cute silver plate with a number on it and I don't want to have to work around all those little things and I definitely wouldn't want to get paint on the number plates.

I'm wondering if maybe I should paint this one wall that my desk sits against a different color?

I've seen people do that. I'VE never done that.

Decisions, Decisions...

hmmmmmmmmm....

Productivity....I Like It!

This week was so busy and productive.

Granny came home from rehab on Thursday. She's doing well. But she is definitely different.
Where she used to be so sweet and non-confrontational, now she's quite beligerant and she will even totally ignore you at times. She does still have moments of her old self, though, so maybe in time this will get better.

She also tends to put her pants on backward.

Hopefully, she'll be back to her old self before too long.

Yesterday, my dad came first thing in the morning and we measured out my backyard... several times. Before spring, I want the back yard fenced in so the little ones can't escape the yard when I let them out to play. We have lots of woods and a creek that runs right behind our house, so I don't feel comfortable at all letting them out to play by themselves, so a fence is a must.

This is what I REALLY want...


well, it's similar to what I want, but I have a feeling it's probably going to be too expensive to do the whole back yard in this, so we're probably going to do the part that shows from the road in that and then the sides and back of the fencing in this...

It's black chain link.

I had never seen black chain link fence before, until I did portraits for this beautiful family...
And they had their yard fenced in with the white fence in front (the part that shows from the road) and then the sides and back in the black chain link. I really liked it. While I'm not a huge fan of chain link fencing (please... no offense if you have this kind of fencing, I just really like the white picket fence look), however, the black... I like. I still like the white better and because of that, my dad is going to get me quotes on both. That way, if doing it all in white is affordable, I can go that route, but if it's just not, then we'll do the combination fence. And I think it'll be okay. :)

And while my dad and I were doing that, he noticed that our downstairs HVAC unit had HUGE blocks of ice on the outside of it.

This is not a good sign. So, I immediately called our guy who installed all that when we built the house 3 years ago and he came out with his assistant guy and then an electrician had to be called, because some switch blew... and $100 later, we have a working HVAC unit again! And honestly, I felt like I got out pretty cheap being that all three of those guys were out here late on a Saturday afternoon and until sundown and they were here within two hours of me calling. Excellent customer service and worth way more than $100 in my opinion. :)

I love the Saturdays that my dad comes to spend the day with us, because he does more for me in a few hour span of time than I get done otherwise... in weeks. Because he does all my "man work" for me. :)

Like hanging things... hauling off the HUGE mountain of cardboard boxes from CHRISTMAS. Those were driving my mom crazy and she's been wanting to take them off everytime it's not 10 degrees outside, but I kept putting her off, because I didn't want that crap in the back of my car. We live in the middle of a field, which means that mice creap in through the cracked garage door ( I leave it cracked every night so Marley, the dog, can go out to pee if he needs to)... anyway, mice come in and poop their little pellet poop on everything on the ground.

This totally grosses me out and I don't want it in my car! Yuck!

I also realized today that I've read almost as many books this month as I did in all of last year.

I LOVE my book club, if you're not already participating, you should, it is SO MUCH FUN!!!

If Only Everyday Were Like Yesterday

The day didn't start out fabulous, but it sure turned out that way.


To start, my Breathe Right strip ripped the skin off my nose when I pulled it off. And in case you've never had the skin ripped off your nose... that freakin HURTS!!! And I sleep so much better with those strips holding my nostrils wide open, so it was a little difficult going to sleep last night.



The day got much better, though...



I had a wedding consult appointment at 1pm with the cutest girl and her mother! And WOW... it is going to be a BIG ONE. They have 9 attendants each and somewhere around 300 guests. This is HUGE for me. I was so hoping they would book, because this is such a big opportunity for me and my business. And after we met and discussed lots of details and wants/needs for the wedding day, the beautiful blonde bride and her hilarious mother left my house with all their paperwork and told me they would get back with me.


I immediately assumed the worst.. that maybe I said something wrong or didn't make a good enough impression... something...


BUT then, while I was running errands just two hours later, my phone rang. It was my beautiful bride and she told me that the signed contract and check were in the mail that they definitely wanted to go with me!!!



AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!




Not only that, but they are going with my BIGGEST package.




THIS is going to be a GREAT year!!!



ANDDDDD, we have been so worried about my Granny and her condition since she had the stroke almost two weeks ago.




Her personality has changed so much. She's very beligerant at times and this just is NOT her at all. She's the sweetest person and so much fun to be around. And it breaks our hearts to think that maybe that person is gone, replaced with this new -much less pleasant- person.




But, when I went into town yesterday, I stopped by to see her unexpectedly at the Rehab center and she was so like her old self. She was happy and cheerful and talkative. It was very reassuring. I pushed her all around the building in her wheelchair and spent time getting her settled in her room and left feeling a whole lot better about her and her condition than I had earlier. Hopefully, once she gets back home in her own environment, she'll be a hundred percent herself again.




But, between the Wedding booking and Granny being herself, yesterday was the best day I've had in a very long while. I appreciate all the prayers so much that have been sent up for her. Please keep her on your prayer list.. :)

Our Week In Pictures

I should've included this one as part of my Photowalk in last night's post.

I love this picture. My sweet little angel boy.

Noah's most favorite thing to do is play in his sister's closet. I have to admit, she does have the best closet in the house. How is it that my 5 yr old ended up with a closet twice the size of mine?

Spoiled much??

But Noah LOVES it. If he ever goes missing, this is one of the first places to look for him.

And the good thing is that Emma loves him playing in there with her. While she was dressing her dolls up, he was reeking havoc in the background, but she doesn't care.

Why does she always have to make faces at me when she sees the camera?

Mimi will be very pleased to see that Emma really loves the baby doll and all her many outfits that she gave her for Christmas...

She was singing "If you're happy and you know it" on her microphone and instead of me getting her singing, she has to give me a silly face.

I secretly love it, though... I know when she's a teenager and she wants to look perfect for every picture, I'll remember these days of silly faces and I'll get all teary....

She loves wearing my gigantic sweatshirts... LOL

And one of the most "funnest" things that happened all week was when I was sitting up here on the computer and all of a sudden I realized that Noah had snuck downstairs, as he often does.

Just as I was about to get up to go find him, I heard little footsteps running across the hardwoods down below and then I heard him start clamboring up the stairs. So, I waited...

And within minutes, my sweet little boy ran over to me, very anxious to show me his prize....

Emma's babydoll that he had decorated with a purple Crayola marker that he had found somewhere.

I thought I had all of those safely OUT of his reach!

Aparently at least one marker had found it's way into a toy box somewhere.

And upon further inspection, I also found that he had not only decorated the baby doll, but also...

himself...

*sigh*

He was so proud of himself, though, I couldn't get mad.

Emma cried, though.

She has had this babydoll since... probably her first Christmas.

It was sad, but we can never stay mad at our sweet boy.

He is getting so spoiled being raised by us women.

So much so, that he sometimes likes to be JUST LIKE his sissy.

He came to me one day this week with Emma's big turquoise bow.

He handed it to me and bowed his head.

I was confused at first, but when he looked up at me with his aggravated face and grunted, followed by again lowering his head, I realized that he wanted me to put the bow in his hair like he sees his sister wear everyday.

I figured... Okay, I'll put it in, he'll just pull it right out when he realizes that it kinda pulls a little.

Oh no....

He wore it for...

pretty much the rest of the day...

Don't worry, we didn't leave the house. ;)

Be a Better YOU

"Do you really want to be a better you? Make a decision with me that you're going to start being good to people. Pay attention to those around you- your friends, coworkers, relatives, even strangers. Listen to what they're saying. Be sensitive, and don't miss any opportunity to do good. Remember, true love is always backed up with actions."

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just
as in Christ God forgave you.
-Ephesians 4:32



I have a very difficult time letting things go and truly forgiving.


I need to work on it, so this is another one that will be taped to my desk.


These things are going to be like wallpaper around me by the end of the year. :)

Random Thoughts and Observations

1. Emma just rolled her eyes at me for the first time. They did a complete circle in those little eye sockets. I briefly lost my breath. This probably isn't a good sign for the teenage years.

2. Regardless of the eye rolling, I am so glad that I have my girl all to myself for her last... 7 months of freedom before REAL school starts and she's obligated by law to attend for the next... 13 years... followed by college, and whatever else she chooses to do... :( Why do they have to grow up? I may have to homeschool...

3. Since Emma's not going to be attending pre-school any longer, I want to find some fun crafty things for us to do together, so my fun crafty friends.... please either tell me some good sites to visit to get ideas or email me some ideas... or something... I used to have a book with pre-school craft ideas, but I can't put my hands on it at the moment.

4. I am on my 6th novel for the month of January and this is the first one that has not had me completely engrossed. I may end up laying this one down... a hundred pages in, which is such a HUGE waste of my time!!!!!

5. Tuesday and Wednesday's pages from my Don't Sweat The Small Stuff calendar...

Tuesday:

"The qualities of children complement our own qualities. In other words, youth, playfulness, lightheartedness, curiosity, and intuition are just what the doctor ordered and usually just what we need."

Wednesday:

"Spending time with kids brings a sense of balance to our lives. It reminds us that the best things in life aren't things."

Just love both of those, because my two favorite people to spend time with just happen to be quite small.

An Update and a Little bit a Inspiration.

Preschool Update:
I am withdrawing Emma tomorrow. I sent a message via Facebook to her teacher and instead of a response, I got a call from the guy in charge out there. He wasn't ugly and he wasn't nice, but he made me feel as if he were doing me a huge favor even letting Emma go there. So, she will not be going back.

Now, onto happier things. I've been saving some of the pages from my little page a day calendars the last few days so I could share some of the ones with you that I thought were really good! :)

Oh, and I forgot one of the calendars I have!!! I also have the calendar that is based on this book....



I LOVE this one!!! It tells you the coolest things that you might never know in our modern society. The page I wanted to share with you says this...

EVERYDAY USES FOR VINEGAR

TREAT SKIN IRRITATIONS

"Certain itches, like poison ivy and mosquito bites, and pains like jellyfish stings and sunburns, act as bases, so vinegar will counteract them. Mix vinegar half and half with water and spray directly on skin, or soak in towels for compresses. (Apple cider vinegar smells better than white vinegar, if you prefer.)"


And this was yesterday's page from Joel Osteen's calendar...

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

"Your earthly father may not have told you who you are, but allow me to help you out. You are a child of the Most High God. You have been crowned with God's glory and honor. YOu can do all things through Christ. You are full of potential. You are overflowing with creativity. There's nothing in your heart that you cannot accomplish. You have courage, strength, and ability. The favor of God surrounds you wherever you go. Whatever you touch is going to prosper and succeed. You are blessed and you cannot be cursed. That's who you really are. So throw back your shoulders, hold your head up high, and start telling yourself: "I am victorious. I am well able. I am endowed with greatness by God Himself."

I love that. I'm taping this one on my desk so I can read it daily. Isn't this something we all need to hear? I LOVE Joel Osteen. He is so inspirational and he makes me want to move to Houston just so I can be breathing the same air as him!


And my calendar that my mom got me is really focused on finding peace within yourself. I saved two entries that I really loved....

Friday's: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."
-Matthew 5:9

Monday's: "Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth; lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust; lead me from hate to love, from war to peace; let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe"
-Satish Kumar


Hope you guys have an amazing day. :)

What Would YOU Do?

Okay, I'm a little ticked right now, but I need honest responses here.

I just went into Emma's backpack to look at her papers from today and to read what her teacher wrote about how her day was and there was a purple notice stapled to this week's page. It was a reminder to pay DECEMBER'S fee of $325. You may remember from yesterday's post that she DIDN'T GO A SINGLE DAY IN DECEMBER. So, therefore, I am NOT paying.

Am I wrong?

We do not have $325 to just give to the place. So, I guess I'll just not take her back? I don't know what to do. I know she's not going tomorrow because of this and I guess I'll just have to think on this for a day or two before I contact her teacher. I don't know what to do, but I know I am not happy.

Back to Life... Back to Reality

So, Emma hasn't been to school since NOVEMBER. It's just pre-school, nobody call social services... Here's why... in November, we all had some sort of nasty flu/cold/SOMETHING.. then as soon as we were almost over that, it was time for Emma and Noah both to go to the doctor for their check-ups, where they got shots. You may remember that Emma got FIVE shots and a flu mist. One of those shots was for the swine flu. So, after she and Noah had just been sick, having all those shots made her sick again. She wasn't really bad, just not a hundred percent. And my personal view on pre-school is... I'm home, it's not mandatory, so if she's not a hundred percent, she's staying home with me.

Then Tony was home the whole time in December that school was in and I didn't send her, because she hadn't seen him in seven months, so I figured it was more important for her to be around to visit with him than to be in pre-school.

THEN, we had that nasty cold that started right before New Year's and honestly, we're still not 100%, but she's close enough to go back to school, because she really missed it.

So, this morning we had to be up at 7:30. Oh. My. Gosh. I am just not wired for early mornings. It hurts to get up that early. Literally. Hurts. My body just does not want to do it! I am wired to stay up half the night and sleep until... let's just say.... noon. Noon is good for me. However, I really love Regis and Kelly and I LOVE, LOVE The View, so I don't mind being up in the morning once I am up. I just REALLY hate anything before 9am.

So, this morning was difficult. However, I did go back to sleep with Noah when he took his morning nap, so I did get more sleep, but still. 7:30? That is just a ridiculous time of day to get up, in my opinion. ;)

And Emma is so comical. She doesn't want to get up either, but she wants to go to school, so she'll slide the bottom half of her body off the bed, while keeping her eyes closed, so I can dress her while she still sleeps and then just the suggestion of brushing her hair and teeth makes her break into tears most mornings. She's a night owl like her mama. :)

What a Day

I was feeling so overwhelmed this morning. First of all, I slept too late. I've been staying up super late to read, because this book I'm reading right now is so amazing, it's almost painful to part with it.

Then, when I got up, Noah was grumpy and throwing down about every little thing. He was so grumpy that when I went to get him out of his crib, he preferred kicking and thrashing around, while giving me horrible looks and grunts to immediately getting out of his bed. Some days he does this. I'm thinking it's because he's literally cut his entire mouth of teeth in the past few months. The kid almost has as many teeth as Emma does. It's like they all came on him at once. I wish they wouldn't do that, it puts him in a horrible mood.

And my house has gotten into this place where it's very intimidating to think about where to start when I start cleaning and straigtening up. The kids have toys scattered all over in every room, shoes everywhere, dust bunnies blowing around and collecting under everything, every laundry basket has gotten full and overflowing onto the floor. All this sickness that we've been fighting and now the hospital visits... it's really made me get so far behind on life.

But thankfully, my wonderful mother came over here today while I went to the hospital to visit Granny, so for the four hours that I was gone, she straightened up for me, washed clothes, bathed the kids, fed them and had them ready for bed by the time I walked in at 7:30 tonight. It was fabulous. Normally I would've taken them to her house, but had I done that today, I would've come home to a messy house, tons of laundry and dirty kids. So, she made my life incredibly wonderful tonight. :)

And as for Granny.... she still is not acting "normal", but I am so pleased with how well she is doing. I know it could've been SO much worse, so I'm so thankful to God that she's doing as well as she is. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers, lovely friends, it means a lot! :)

Oh, and Roses.. the store, not the flower... is a GREAT place to shop! I haven't been there in years.... when I was little, it was like Wal-Mart and we went there for everything, but since the invention of Wal-Mart and Target.. I don't know, I just haven't shopped there in a really, really long time. Well, today, while I was at the hospital, Granny was telling me how cold she gets in there at night and that she wishes she had a super soft, comfy blanket like the ones Noah always totes around ( we all call him Linus, because the kid has to have AT LEAST one blanket on him at all times) that she would sure love it. So, I went over to the Roses that sits next to the hospital to see if they might have those kinds of super soft comfy blankies.. only adult sized, of course, and would you know that not only did they have them, but they were only $5!!! I pay $10 for Noah sized ones at Target!!! I could not believe it, then on my way back to the front of the store, I started noticing how CHEAP everything was there.. price wise... so I ended up getting that blanket for Granny, a little trash can for my laundry room ($2), a huge tube of Vaseline for Noah's hiney ($1), and a big pack of dish rags ($5)!!! I could not believe it. I am a newfound Roses shopper! Ha! I love a good deal! :)