In His Image Photography

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

My Little Soccer player

2009-03-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

My son has wanted to do soccer for awhile. He has never been on a team before. I was talking to a teacher at school that is a coach and he suggested a developmental league we should start him out in. He's only 6 and he's just learning. They make it real fun at the practice incorporating games into the practice to build their skills. He is doing AWESOME I'd say he's one of the star players. I hope he'd like to continue in the fall. Here are some pics. of him today at his game.

Spring Break in Florida

2009-03-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

My daughter at the Sponge Docks of Tarpon Springs

We moved out west from Florida almost 10 years ago. My son however, was born in Arizona and had never been to Florida. My daughter was only 3 1/2 when we moved and had been back to visit at age 6. We came from the Suncoast area of St. Petersburg and Clearwater right on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. Over Spring Break we went back for the second time to visit dear friends, old familiar places and to eat fresh fish. We got great airfare and thought it would be a good time of year to go. Unfortunately to take advantage of the great airfare it meant leaving really early on a Sunday morning, 5 am to be exact which of course meant getting up in the middle of the night yawn. Returning was about the same, we came back on Saturday and our flight departed at 6 am. We wish we would have been able to at least squeeze in another 2 days but we were thankful for what we were able to get. We packed a lot into the days that we had.

We arrived late afternoon even though our trip began before the crack of dawn. We met my dear friend from High School and her lovely daughter for dinner. Of course it was a restaurant that was known for it's fish. Our first full day there we spent at Busch Gardens with a good friend and his daughters. It was really nice weather and we spent the entire day there until they closed, lots of rollercoasters that day. Day 2 we went to visit the old places. We saw the last home we lived in, old stores, my husbands High School, dear friends at the Print Shop we had both worked at together. We went to the St. Petersburg Pier and walked around like tourist watching Pelicans and looking at the Bounty ship. Our daughter got a St. Pete t-shirt since she was actually born there. It was a lot of fun taking her to places she was too young to remember. We took the kids to a park near our old home and we were amazed by the squirrels. We don't see very many of them in our area. We must of looked like freaks taking so many pictures of the squirrels LOL :) like we'd never seen them before. We had lunch at the best Pizza place, Toby's Little Italy in St. Petersburg. They make THE best pizza in our opinion. Vito's Pizza and Venezia's in Mesa come pretty close to it but a totally different atmosphere. On day 3 we went to Disney World, I've always loved it, grew up going to it many times. It was a bit more crowded for my taste but we don't have the luxury of living within an hour and a half from it anymore so we enjoyed ourselves. It was fun taking my daughter on my favorite teenage ride, Space Mountain. On day 4 we traveled back from Orlando and went to Ybor City in the Tampa area. It's a very unique place with beautiful old storefronts and Cuban history known at one time for cigar making. My favorite place for vintage & repro. vintage jewelry was La France which was still there. It is housed in a storefront that has been there for 100 years. My husband is a huge sports fan so we had to visit the Lightning Hockey and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium and new training facility with oodles of memorabilia. We finally made our way to our day 4 destination which was Clearwater Beach. We had a hotel room overlooking the city and the beach. The sand is the best I've ever seen, beautiful soft white sand. My son who loves to dig in the sand, couldn't get enough of it. That night we met more dear friends for dinner at a restaurant known for it's grouper sandwiches. It was great to see our friends and catch up and the sandwiches were yummmy. My son apparently now LOVES fried clams. On day 5 we headed up toward Dunedin which is where I last lived before marriage. I went by my High School and took pictures of the 2 homes my Mom and I had lived in. We then went up to Tarpon Springs to the Sponge docks. We met my dear friend and her lovely daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. Tarpon Springs has quite a bit of Greek history. The Sponge Docks have many shoppes that sell sponges taken from the ocean floor. There are many restaurants and bakeries that have Greek food there. A well known place called Hella's has a bakery with mostly Greek pastries such as Baklava but they also had Italian ones too, like my favorite Cannolis (yum!). That night my husband went to spend time with his High School buds and the kids and I went with my dear friend. There was a Mall she wanted to show us. We went out to dinner with her and her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. That was our last night there sniff, sniff. I wish the beaches and the people could be in Arizona somehow. It was a memorable trip and I'm glad we went before the summer heat came. I don't think I'll ever take another early flight like that again, that wasn't fun getting up in the middle of the night. I spent the day we returned sleeping on and off late afternoon and into the evening. I'm guessing I had jet lag, but I'm all back to normal again. Still trying to get back into reality :) We came back this past Saturday.

Our Valentine Date Night

2009-02-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

For our "Valentine date" my husband and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and out to dinner to Gordon Biersch last night. (You can click on each picture to enlarge it) Valentine weekend is free admission but those free reservations went fast.

I've been wanting to go see their current exhibit. They are having a special exhibit called Chihuly: The Nature of Glass. We have a mutual love for photography, so it was the perfect date. It was absolutely awesome! We chose to go later in the day so we'd be able to see it by daylight/dusk and night. There were very few children, it's not something the 10 & under crowd could appreciate. It was so nice to be able to just linger.

Thank you Lisa & Steve for keeping the kids entertained while we did that :)

We had a buy one get one free admission from our Entertainment book, so our admission was only $15! Anyone in the Phoenix area should see this exhibit before it moves on.

Most of the pieces were mind boggling, we couldn't imagine how they could have been put together. I would love to see a documentary of how it is done. To see the intricacy and massiveness of these pieces is really spectacular. Some look merely like colored fluorescent light bulbs, but in the midst of the desert landscape are quite dramatic. My personal favorites were the more massive ones.

Valentine Jell-O Jigglers

2009-02-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

My son's class is having a Valentine Party tomorrow. His teacher mentioned there are plenty of cookies etc... so she asked if I would make some Jell-O Jigglers. I have not exactly done that before, imagine that in all my years! I was up for the challenge, I got online to do some "research" LOL and read some suggestions. Some say to spray the pan before adding the Jell-O, I tried that even though it sounds kind of gross. I tried it without and it worked just the same, it looked better without too. I already had some Jell-O at home so I thought I'd give it a test run. My thought was to get red Jello and cut out heart shapes. Upon my experimentation and trials I have come up with the only way that worked for me, are you ready for it?

I boiled 2 1/2 cups of water in the microwave for 6 minutes. I added a 6 oz package of Jell-O and stirred it into the boiled water for 3 minutes constantly. I then poured it into a 9x12 pan (which I already had in my refrigerator) it was much easier rather than trying to carry it sloshing back and fourth. Then I chilled it for 3 hours. After the 3 hours, I put the pan in warm water in the sink for 15 seconds. I then used a heart shaped cookie cutter. There is excess, but no worry it's edible. Mind you I had to make 3 batches of Jell-O to have enough for the whole class, which takes over 3 hours to set for each batch, a bit time consuming. I know there is quick set directions, but I had the time to do it the old fashioned way, didn't want another experiment.... I chose the Strawberry, Strawberry Banana and Cherry since they were all red. Just in case there is anyone out there that hasn't made Jell-O Jigglers, you've got to try it, it was fun :)

Kindergarten PE night

2009-01-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

Definition of Nostalgic:
a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition ; also : something that evokes nostalgia.

This past week my son's school had a Kindergarten PE night. Parents were invited to come and participate in physical activity with their child. Siblings were asked not to attend, due to space and availability of equipment I'm sure. It was just as well though, this was there time. I took my son and we had FUN! They had random things we could do at first. We played tag, hula hooped, climbed ropes, jumped rope..... My personal favorite was when the parents, only, played with the parachutes. They were huge, 2 of them took up nearly the entire gymnasium. We did some really fun things with them. We sat inside it, we put just our heads in while laying on the floor, we did the wave with it by trapping the air and holding it down with our knees and each side took turns pushing the air down toward the other, we even let it go flying high up in the air. The kids enjoyed watching the Moms and Dads play with the parachutes. At the end we were thanked for coming, and told to take a balloon they were providing us and to just find a spot and play with our child. They played this song I now have on my blog by Phil Collins "You'll be in my heart" while we did that. It was such a sweet time and such a sweet song, I was feeling a bit nostalgic. My little guy, still is young, but he's growing up and I just want to cherish and hold close these special moments forever.

Princess Anne House

2009-01-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

My Birthday is this week, when I saw my mom this past week, she asked if I had gotten a doll house yet. I of course hadn't yet, she suggested I go and get one for my Birthday from her. Last night I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby, they have a really nice selection to choose from there. I went and took a look and immediately knew which one I wanted. I had to think for a few minutes if I was getting into something that would be costing our family a lot of money. This was only the house, next comes the decor and furnishings, some of which we'll make..... My husband reminded me this was something I had wanted for awhile, it didn't take anymore convincing. I'm not going to furnish it over night, that is the fun in the journey. I chose this one called the "Princess Anne", this is a stock photo. Actually the architecture is Queen Anne from the late 1800's. It isn't completed, still in the box of course. I like the colors they've painted it, love purple! I like pink too, but for the sake of the guys in the house I think I will copy these colors. The house reminds me of the homes I remember on my Grandmother's street, when I was a little girl growing up in New Jersey. I would always look at them and wonder what the inside of the "tower" rooms looked like.

I have loved the Victorian era for a long time. I thought my wedding gown looked somewhat Victorian, even had thoughts of having our reception in a Victorian home. (to Donetta, I had a subscription to Victoria magazine too!) At one time I had thoughts of owning a home like this and restoring it. Our first home was built in the 50's and that was enough of a restoration project for me. Now I'd rather visit a Victorian Bed and Breakfast someday and I'll have my own miniature home. This home has 6 rooms, I'm thinking Kitchen, Living room, bathroom, 2 bedrooms and an attic or maybe a "craft room" :) I'm on the look out now for things that are tiny. My eyeliner has a plastic cover on the end of it, it's a glass for my house! I read on another blog how someone used the blocks to a jenga game, matches and a fish tank hose to make a winding staircase! I think that's pretty cool.

Art Masterpiece begins this week

2009-01-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last year was my first doing Art Masterpiece, it is such a great program for the kids. I go into the classroom and bring a famous painting to show the kids. Depending on the age level we talk about the history of the Artist, the style of painting, how the painting makes them "feel" and what they think of it etc...I really enjoyed learning about the Artists and their works of Art. It's that time of year again, my first day will be Friday. I've been given my list of prints I am assigned. My first print is by Pieter Bruegel, the younger rather than "the elder" (his Father) the Painting is Harvester's Meal. This year I will be presenting to my son's Kindergarten class. Last year I was presenting to my daughter's 6th grade class. I'll have to scale it all down a bit this year. I look forward to hopefully doing this each year my son is in Elementary School. I will be keeping it pretty basic and only 15 min. max rather than the 20 min. I had last year. I look forward to hearing what 5 and 6 year olds have to say about this painting!

Inauguration Day today

2009-01-20T05:23:00.000-08:00

Taken from Wikipedia: The swearing-in of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The United States Constitution mandates that the President make the following oath or affirmation before he or she can "enter on the Execution" of the office of the presidency:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The newly elected or re-elected President traditionally adds "so help me God" to the constitutionally mandated statement.

The swearing-in traditionally takes place at 12 noon local time (UTC-5 hours) on Inauguration Day at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the Chief Justice of the United States administering the oath.

Today is the day that Barack Obama will become our President. I lift him and his family in prayer that God would direct their paths.

Storybook Cottage

2009-01-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I posted about my idea for the "family dollhouse", I should just call it the "family miniature house" we haven't done much with that idea as of yet. I have been looking into it though. Making miniatures for it would be fun. I found my book, it's called "Tiny Treasures amazing miniatures you can make". Looking through it gets my wheels turning, once we get started I hope we'll look at things in a more creative way. Household items and disposable food/toiletry items can be used to make miniatures.

I've had ideas about our backyard and how we could incorporate some cute small things into it. It is very green with bushes and trees and grass. When we first moved in I thought I'd like to have elves or gnomes under the bushes. I have one so far, and he's already been broken and fixed. I want to do more with that idea. Those ideas actually come from visiting Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida as a little girl. I LOVED the Fairytale/Elf Village. We have home movies of me going up to the little figures in the village. I especially like the architecture of Snow White's cottage, or should I say the Seven Dwarf's, she was just visiting :) I have such sweet memories about this. Sadly it was replaced, but my daughter was able to see it when she was little. I'm pretty sure I have some pictures somewhere of that. I have found some old postcards online from it, see them above.

While looking into miniatures and dollhouses online, I came across some sites about fairy houses. I thought that ties into the whole elf, gnome thing. When I was a little girl I loved playing on the playground at school with holes in trees and moss. I started thinking about how I needed to make a little house! I went and bought a bird house at the craft store, that was all I could think of to start myself off. I had a picture in my mind of how it would look, I picked up a bag of small rocks, I wanted it to be a little cottage with a cobblestone exterior. I also got some silk flowers, pink and purple because they are my favorite colors. I brought it all home and a few hours later I started putting my fairy house or story book cottage together yesterday. It was SO FUN, I loved doing it. I used a lot of hot glue though. I takes one bag of rocks to cover the whole house, with a few to spare. I am also thinking moss, the craft store sells it, it's treated so there isn't anything alive in it. That would look wonderful to have some moss around my little house. For now I just painted it ivy green. I haven't finished the door yet, since it was a bird house it's open. I'd like to make a door to put on it. I LOVE Thomas Kinkade's work and he uses quite a few cobblestone houses in his paintings. This is a sweet painting of Snow White and one of the Cobblestone houses. On my little house, the flowers are big in size in comparison to the house, but this is supposed to be a tiny house in the forest, it's all make believe....so it is correctly proportioned. I'm not sure where I am going to put this cottage yet. It's not really protected against the elements. I have a high window in my dining room I may consider.

The Moon was Huge tonight

2009-01-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I went for a walk after dinner tonight. When we got home I looked down the street and saw a huge light coming over a house top. The moon was rising and it looked so close. I got out my camera, the picture doesn't do it justice, it looks more like a pea than the huge moon I saw. It actually looked as if it were at the end of the street. If you click on it, you can see it closer.

2009-01-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

My little guy was watching Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D he looked so cute in his glasses, had to take a pic.

My Daughter cracks me up

2009-01-07T19:54:00.001-08:00

The love for a child is indescribable and to have a child is such an awesome blessing. I have never been as mad at anyone or laughed as hard with anyone as I have with my daughter. She can make me more angry with her at times then I can possibly imagine. I'm not talking anything anybody has to worry about here, just typical Mother/daughter stuff, I'm sure Mom's know what I'm talking about. She and I have laughed together a lot, but more so lately. Over the Christmas break we watched a chic flick together and then she played around with her new camera she got for Christmas. It has some video capabilities and we were both being so silly. She said it was like she had a friend sleeping over, we had so much fun. We laughed so hard about the craziest things. Yesterday we went out shopping the two of us in the store were being so silly, another customer in the store got a chuckle out of us too. I laughed so hard, my face was all scrunched up and she said I sounded like a mouse squeaking, it almost hurt! In school she is known this school year for her giggling. I said she gets it from me, so true. The simplest things will tickle our funny bones. I have learned to control myself though a little better than she can :) I am finding that she can be quite a comedian. She can make funny voices and faces that just crack me up. In fact she has recorded some of it, I am encouraging her to find a visual of the voices she's doing. We have so much fun together, and then of course the opposite too.... Thank God for the good times! She is such a cool teenager!

Did Christmas just come and go? Missing the colors?

2009-01-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

My daughter was very sad when my husband took our Christmas tree down the other day. She said our living room looks plain now, without all the color of our tree... I do feel like Christmas time wasn't around long enough this year. It seemed to come and go so quickly. Can anyone else relate to me on this?

We were able to put our tree up just after Thanksgiving, which is a rarity for us. We have gotten many real trees in the past, and in the Arizona weather you can't keep them for a whole month. Last year we bought our tree with the lights already on it, time and money saver. In the future the kids still want to get a real tree from time to time though, they love the smell. Here's a picture of our living room now, we usually have the coffee table under the window. I was so excited when we bought our house to have a front window to put our Christmas tree in! Growing up we always had it that way, I guess that's why I wanted it.

Our family loves color, we've been in this house for a year and a half, soon to be two years and haven't painted the walls much yet. The ceilings in some spots though are around 30 ft. big undertaking but we know we want to do it sometime soon. It's funny because the previous owners had lots of color, some still remains but not in the big spots like the living room, dining room. We already painted the family room just before moving in because that is a room with a 7-8 ft. ceiling. How I know this? My daughter and I checked out our house about 6 months before buying it when there was an open house. In order to sell quicker they must have thought they needed to paint the prime rooms white. They did leave lots of paint behind which is nice for us. I know curtains or draped fabric and maybe some wood blinds will make a big difference in this room, one thing at a time... We were thankful to get all this window covering with the house.

Fresh & Easy deals of the day for me

2009-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

My husband was going to be making another batch of his yummy chili today. I went to one of my favorite stores, Fresh and Easy to get the meat that he needed and a few other items. WOW I was surprised to find these deals! I needed some creamer for my coffee, I love flavored creamer, that is all I use in my coffee. They had these creamers marked down to 75 cents each! They don't expire until March, so I bought 3 of them, 2 pumpkin spice and a peppermint mocha. I know I like the pumpkin, haven't ever tried the peppermint mocha though, thus why I only bought 1. Normally they go for around $2.99 or so each. It was a seasonal markdown, but I don't mind these flavors all year. We also needed a gallon of milk, $1.35! Normally around $2.69 there, the expiration date isn't until the 7th. The way my little guy drinks milk, no problem with that date. Just had to share, I know really interesting stuff right, I love finding deals....

That little lady you see in the picture, I actually found her at a thrift store awhile back. I have, somewhere, a book from my childhood it's like the Old Mother Hubbard story, not sure of the title. I don't think it's called that though. I have to find that book, anyways, this little lady looks just like the one in the book! My daughter agrees with me on this, I have read her the story many times in her childhood. You know how the images in our mind can be, we'll see how correct I am. A box of my old childhood books are in the garage. Very soon we are going to get a bookshelf just for all the stories we have to put them in one place, but we haven't done that yet, so some books are still put away. I'll have to do a post to compare the image in the book and the little lady when I come across it.

2009-01-01T10:21:00.001-08:00

Girly Comments & Graphics

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

On Christmas eve we went to our Church for a unique Christmas Eve service. There were two narrators one told of the Biblical Christmas story while our Pastor told of practical present day stories. In between the band played Beatles songs relating to the stories. The kids went to a Jingle Jam suited for them it was a play and game show and songs. Afterwards we came home for dinner and a quiet night. We watched the Little Drummer boy and Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. I hadn't seen either in years, I was having childhood flashbacks! It was weird, I remembered some things that caught my attention as a little girl, it was all brought back. I hope to watch some other Christmas stories today or tonight. Every year I say I want to watch it's a Wonderful Life and in all my years I have never seen all of it. Unless I watched it as a child and don't remember? I will attempt to watch it again this year. I would also like to see the Nativity Story that came out last year.

Christmas at our house began at 7:45 AM. The kids were excited and wanted to get up, they went downstairs but didn't wake us up. We were actually awake and in bed wondering when they were going to get up :) The timing was good for all of us!

Grandpa (my father-in-law) came over about 1/4 of the way into our festivities of opening presents. It's always sweet to see what the children choose to give as gifts. My daughter gave me a beautiful cross with an amethyst in the center. She also made me an awesome accordion book at school and it says I Love Mom and has Fabulous in rhinestones on the front, she did a great job and was very proud of herself. My son gave me some sweet silver earrings he was excited about giving to me. He also claims that the humming bird feeder that was labeled from our dog Liberty to me was actually from him :) Afterwards we enjoyed coffee and cinnamon rolls and had a relaxing morning.

We don't really push Santa, but teach the kids about having Christ as the main focus and reason for our Christmas, He is the reason for the season. However kids will be kids, the kids pick up on Santa all on their own and of course the media and advertisements.... The other day my son said he needed to sit on Santa's lap and tell him that he'd like a Laboratory for Christmas. He has never sat on Santa's lap, never had the desire to. It was too cute to hear how he was going to tell Santa about the Laboratory and how it would have a secret code of 55555, apparently this would be in his room. We let him watch Dexter's Laboratory and this is what we get for it :) Well the lines at the mall were to long, he didn't sit on Santa's lap, but he hasn't brought it up again. He's happy and is having a Merry Christmas.

Later today my Father-in-law will join us again and my Mom and we'll have Christmas dinner together. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Remembering that Jesus is THE reason for the season.

Gingerbread Ornaments....

2008-12-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

Our Church had a Christmas boutique recently, every year it's a place to go to find cool handmade treasures. I found these cute ornaments there. We enjoy painting the plaster type ornaments and we've made a our own ornaments over the years. I couldn't pass these up though, they are made out of the cinnamon dough and were hand painted, it looks as if they have a light coating of sparkle glue on them, it smells like they were sprayed with a protective coating?(they needed some airing out). The peanut shell one was cute also. My daughter gave the peanut shell reindeer to her Math teacher. We gave a gingerbread to her English teacher both are special teachers. The others I gave to ladies I work on the playground with. Since we kept none for ourselves I had to take a picture of them. Maybe we will try something like this ourselves in the future.

2008-12-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

Our dog Liberty is such a sweetheart! She let me put this santa hat on and snap some pictures. She's the best :) I love going into our living room and enjoying the peace and our beautiful tree at night with the lights lit.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2008-12-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

This is our wedding picture in a ornament on our Christmas tree. The quality of this picture isn't that great because I took it with my phone. I do love the way the lights turned out in this pic.

Girly Comments & Graphics

The Family Dollhouse

2008-12-23T08:40:00.000-08:00

My son and I went to Hobby Lobby recently. I LOVE that store!!!!! We were looking around and when we came to the Dollhouses he said he wanted one. I know boys typically don't have them, not wanting to squelch his desires though, I listened to him and humored him. I think we can share this as a family. I think he mainly likes the idea of the miniatures that go in it. I thought what a fun "family" project that would be, there would be building involved and decorating it could be a long term project. We could work on it room by room.

As a little girl I had a dollhouse and I loved playing with it. I can remember that my Mom would make little miniature books for it, she loves to read.... My great Uncle was retired and he would make the furniture from kits for me. I still have some of it somewhere. A friend of mine had her grandmother's dollhouse and I remember it was beautiful. I can remember thinking it was more beautiful than mine at the time, each room was decorated all perfectly in antique furniture.

My daughter and I have a book of how to make miniatures, it's very cool to look at. We haven't done much with it because we haven't had a place to put the miniatures into. This is a picture of the dollhouse that the two of us thought was pretty cool.

School Christmas Breakfast

2008-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention on Friday my son's class had a Christmas Breakfast. School wide it was also Pajama Day. All the parents were asked to bring a favorite breakfast item to share. His teacher had an omelet bar set up where you could get a custom made to order omelet! It was really yummy. Since my daughter's school doesn't start until later, she and her friend (she has corrected me, her "best" friend) joined us. His class together with the other Kindergartners recently put on an adorable school play called the Gingerbread man meets Mother Goose so a lot has been centered around the Gingerbread man. I made Gingerbread pancakes to share. I did learn that the best way to do that is to make a round pancake and cut out the gingerbread shape with a cookie cutter after they are cooked. I have these shapes just for pancakes but it was more of a headache. Granted there was more waste, but we ate it! After breakfast we joined the rest of the school for a sing along. When the kids went back to their room they made small gingerbread houses. Since he's only half day then it was time to go home. Appropriately the teacher gave them goody bags with none other than a Gingerbread mix and a gingerbread cookie cutter so they could go home and make gingerbread cookies. Unfortunately that day I hadn't checked my camera battery and it was low..... I ended up taking pictures with my phone, not the best quality but it captured the moments none the less.

Breath of Heaven Lyrics - Sung by Amy Grant

2008-12-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

I have traveled many moonless nights,
Cold and weary with a babe inside,
And I wonder what I've done.
Holy father you have come,
And chosen me now to carry your son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load I bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your Holiness,
For you are Holy.
Breath of heaven.

Do you wonder as you watch my face,
If a wiser one should have had my place,
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan.
Help me be strong.
Help me be.
Help me.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.

The latest yard visitor

2008-12-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

About a week or so ago my son and husband noticed an owl on our house! It was huge, the couldn't believe it and my husband came in and got my daughter and I and of course the camera. We made a little too much noise in all the excitement and he flew, but thankfully not too far. We found him perched on our next door neighbors back porch. The light from the flash gave him the red eye.... we had to capture him ASAP no time for any red eye reduction we didn't know how much time we had. What an awesome sight to see and owl.

Making Bracelets

2008-12-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

I LOVE beads, lately several of my friends have gotten more involved in jewelry making. It seems everybody is making bracelets, necklaces or earrings. I have inspiration all around me! I have started to buy some beads as well as pull out some that I've had from previous dabbling. I'm really enjoying myself, my daughter has even gotten in on it. She would rather use the plastic pony beads though, I like glass or crystal. In one night my daughter made all that is pictured, when she gets into something she goes full force, non-stop. I have made some bracelets for her and others I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet. I only use the stretch cord, because that's all I really know right now. I have used kits in the past where all you need to do is string the beads and clamp the closure shut. I'd like to take a beading class or jewelry class, and learn more so I can improve on my newest craft.

We went to see the Nutcracker

2008-12-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when we go to see the Nutcracker. This year we thought it was time to include my son, we thought he was old enough to sit through. I thought he would be old enough to enjoy it and that he would do well. Mind you this is 2:00 in the afternoon, not the best time to take a young child, who has already had a fun filled morning, to sit still for 2 hours to watch ballet. I had to try it though. In the beginning he seemed captivated, by the second act he was ready to go home. He stuck it out like a trooper, better luck next year, maybe? My daughter and I enjoyed it, she even recognized a girl from school on stage to her surprise. Normally she and I go alone together and we go to the local Arts Center. This time we chose to go to a local dance school's version being put on at a High School. The Mom of one of my son's best buds is a dance teacher at this school, it was his choice to go to this particular one. They did a very professional job with the performance, the costumes were wonderful and the set design. After we got home I gave my daughter a Clara ornament and my son a Nutcracker, they were excited. In past years I've given my daughter a Nutcracker ornament after we've gone also. We'll see what happens next year for my little guy, his choice.

Happy Thanksgiving ~ Count your Blessings

2008-11-26T19:40:00.000-08:00

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My son's 6th Birthday Party

2008-11-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

My son's Birthday party was yesterday. He LOVES Indiana Jones, so he chose to have an Indiana Jones party. Not so easy to find decorations etc... for Indiana Jones though, that was a bit of a challenge, I was surprised. I ended up driving to another city just to get a couple of items. I made the invitations, they came out pretty cute if I do say so. I was able to find a Pinata, some napkins, a tablecloth, and a banner. My daughter and I made a sign to lead everyone into the backyard. We thought we'd have a scavenger hunt kind of a party. A couple of days before my husband was motivated to build the Lost Temple of Akator, what a cool Daddy he is! The bottom of it was a tunnel around and then the inner part could lead up to a door and they can slide down a slide from there. It's definitely a unique thing, the kids LOVED it. We have a trampoline and a 2 ropes in the trees. We also have a battery powered quad the kids had fun riding so they were kept busy. We had a couple of activities, we had a box of sand with prizes buried in it. The kids were given toilet paper and had to partner up and paper their buddy like a mummy. The Pinata took some time to break. The kids had to find the "Crystal skull" as in the latest Indiana Jones movie AKA a plastic skull pitcher that look an awful lot like the Crystal skull from the movie. It was snuck into the Temple of Akator and had glow sticks and treasures inside of it. The cake turned out really well, I made it myself and my son gave me praises when he first laid eyes on it. I was a little worried about actually cutting into the monstrosity but it went just fine. My son LOVED his party and I think his friends enjoyed it as well.

My son's first field trip

2008-11-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

My son went on his first field trip this past week. We went to a dairy farm. It was a nice experience for the kids. They started off with a short teaching session about the cows, then we went on a hayride to tour the farm and learn more. They fed the goats, a horse and a bunny and hung out with a duck with a unique head. Then we had lunch and they went in a hay bail maze. After that it was time to leave.

School Fall Festival

2008-11-16T10:51:00.001-08:00

My son's school had it's annual Fall Festival. It was a lot of fun for the kids. He wanted to climb and he made it all the way to the top! I was very proud of his persistance, awesome job! My daughter is at the age where she just wanted to hang out with her friends, wouldn't be caught in any of the bounce houses.... Quite a few of last years sixth graders were there to re-visit their old school or accompany their younger siblings.

My Baby turns 13!

2008-11-16T09:30:00.001-08:00

My daughter turned 13, WOW a teenager I can't believe it! I know I am about a month behind in posting that. I had some technical difficulty with some pictures that were taken on our video camera for a previous post. I chose not to use them, we are camera snobs I guess, the quality didn't meet our expectations. For a video camera though it works great. So back to my daughter's Birthday, I would have loved to do a party since she was crossing over to teenage hood but she had ideas of her own. She wanted to go to the Mall with a friend and then her friend slept over. She had received some money and gift cards for her Birthday and it was burning a hole in her pocket. She loves clothes, and she's a smart shopper for the most part, looks to find the most for her money. She was very generous with her money and bought some things for her friend. I was proud of her and her generosity. The day after she and I went and got our nails done at a salon. She wanted zebra stripes and the lady did a pretty good job at granting her request. A few days before all of this was her actual Birthday. She asked for a Giant Birthday cookie, with red and green lettering. Peace signs are back in again and she really liked them so it seemed appropriate to decorate her cookie with them. We had close friends and family over to celebrate since her Birthday fell during the week this year. Side not on the cookie, I learned a big lesson about how much cookie dough to use and how close to the edge you shouldn't get, can you tell what may have happened?? Cookie was growing and falling off the cookie sheet. No problem though other than wasted cookie dough, I just cut the edges neatly and all was well. My oven however was a big mess.

The reality that she'll finish school in 5 years has hit us. Time goes so fast, you have to make it last and enjoy the journey. Once they are gone, that time can't be taken back. Before you know it your children are grown up and gone in the blink of an eye.

We are having struggles with boys right now. I'll say she has a healthy appreciation for the opposite sex and the feeling is mutual. There is so much attention though that it has become a big distraction. She knows she cannot date yet, however at this age they choose to pair up and call it "going out" even though they go no where together. A parent only has so much control with these things. They may talk on the phone but that's it. Oh it's only the beginning, we've already had talks about her not giving her heart away to every boy that comes along. Hang out in groups of friends, get to know a boy before you commit. We've talked about the gift she will give her husband on her wedding night... All seeds planted for what is to come. Most important, we pray, HARD!

Fall Getaway

2008-10-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the kids had Thursday and Friday off for "Fall break". My husband took off Friday and we headed for cooler weather in search of the true "Fall". We spent our first night in Camp Verde but traveled up to Flagstaff Friday afternoon. We went to Locket Meadow, an absolutely beautiful area on the north side of Humphrey's Peak. The ride there was all dirt road and a bit on the edge with lots of bumps along the way. It was one of those trails for one vehicle, we were in our big truck so when we encountered another vehicle it was always interesting. We made it up and then down safely and enjoyed the adventure. We saw beautiful aspens that were yellow and with their white bark it was awesome. There was a little pond with an awesome view above it. I could picture our log cabin there with the smoke coming out of the chimney.... :) We made it down just before night fall. On Saturday morning we had tickets for the Verde Canyon railroad. That was a 4 hour train ride through some really pretty picturesque landscape. After we got off the train we headed up to Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, in search of more fall leaves. Sedona is always beautiful, haven't ever been there when it wasn't. Oak Creek canyon is so awesome and there were so many tent campers. We headed back up to Flagstaff after going through Oak Creek Canyon. We spent the night at the same hotel we usually stay at, Innsuites. They have a wonderful breakfast, for a family of 4 it's a great deal. I was sad that the hotel hadn't progressed much with it's renovations though. Our room was pretty dated, but it was comfy and quiet, since the railroad isn't far away. Saturday night it got down to 19 degrees! After our yummy breakfast in the morning, they serve a wide variety, scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, Belgium waffles, yogurt, fruit, cereal... we headed back to Locket Meadow. Different time of day, different lighting and to our surprise different colors. The yellow leaves had already turned orange. The kids loved the adventure ride up again. They played near the pond and threw rocks at it, it was ice mostly. It was so nice to be in the fresh air and hear absolutely no sounds but the great outdoors! After visiting our new favorite spot in Flag, we went to Sunset Crater. We had taken our daughter there about almost 6 years ago just before our son was born. Our son had never been there, and our daughter was only 7 at the time and didn't remember being there. There hasn't been any volcanic activity in the area in 800-1000 years. It was amazing to see the life that was growing in all the black areas, it looked as if there it was the site of a great tragedy and new life rose through it all (I know that's pretty dramatic, it's been 800-1000 years after all) Once we left Sunset Crater, it was time to head back home. We got in early evening and it was good to once again be home. It's always a bonding experience to take a road trip with the family, to get away from all that pulls everyone in different directions and regroup and spend time together.

Schnepf Farms Pumpkin & Chili Fest

2008-10-05T13:57:00.002-07:00

Yesterday we went to a local farm that has a yearly Pumpkin & Chili Fest. Normally the cost is $14 per person. They have some discount tickets available through Fry's grocery store which makes it $12. I found a better deal yet, I went to their website and for yesterday only they had a deal for half off, $7!! Huge savings, love it! They had rides for the kids, younger and older :) My husband and I went on the roller coaster with our son. Our daughter brought a friend a long and they would spend some time with us and then go on some rides alone together. They also had a couple of areas where you could toast marshmallows. My son especially got a kick out of that. He did several for me, yummy. I'm sad to say while we were around the fire, a little boy around 2 or 3 years old was also there with his large family. I took notice that he was getting closer to the fire than I would have allowed my child even at almost 6 now. After the fact now, I feel like I was prompted to pray for his safety but didn't clue into it quick enough. His family was with him, I just assumed he'd be ok, not thinking that I noticed him for good reason. I remember commenting in my head how grown up my son looked roasting marsh mellows and how he didn't seem afraid at all handling the marsh mellow the was on fire, only a little. Next thing I knew the little boy must have burned himself, he was screaming. Anytime the spirit prompts us to pray, brings something to our attention like that, just a reminder we need to follow that. Afterwards my son was concerned for him, he mentioned to me Mommy we need to pray for him. Right after it happened I was upset that his family hadn't watched him closer, then It all turned and I was upset with myself for being judgemental and prayed for him.
We ended up staying til around 9:30. The weather was totally awesome, it was our first cool down. It was beautiful outside and finally started to feel a little like fall.

2008-10-05T13:57:00.001-07:00

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Sunday Drive

2008-09-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Long time no blogging..... Life has been kind of hectic around here. My mornings are pretty busy, they have become routine that way. My little guy gets home late morning. Our family really needed a Sunday drive this past weekend. We love getting out and doing things and especially exploring and it had been awhile since we'd done that. We headed up about 1 1/2 hours from where we live to the cooler pines of Payson. It's one of my favorite places beside Prescott. We took our dog on her first trip. Normally she can go across town but it's never for very long. We put her in the back of our truck and brought the kennel along for her to get some shelter in if she needed it. She was awesome and enjoyed the day as much as we did. We have a spot we like to go to where there is a creek and beautiful cliffs above. The kids wadded in the water and we skipped some stones. I actually skipped my first one, first try too! It was so nice to get away from the heat. We are still experiencing temps. close to 100 where we are. It's slowly starting to cool down we should be seeing low 90's soon. By the end of October it should be great weather. I've been getting a little cabin fever lately, I think we all have it felt good to get out and play. Afterwards we just sat in the woods and enjoyed the peace. What a refreshing day it was!

Happy Anniversary

2008-09-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, September 5th was our 16th Wedding Anniversary! We went out alone to dinner, originally we headed to the Melting Pot. Benihana caught our eye so we thought we'd give it a try. When we lived in Florida one of my favorite restaurants was Arigato. At Arigato the Chef comes and cooks for you and the food was awesome. At Benihana they also come to cook for you, it's pretty entertaining to watch. Afterwards we felt like we needed to walk off what we had eaten. We went to an outdoor mall and window shopped for a bit. We had a nice evening alone together. We are so Blessed!

Fresh & Easy deal for a Labor Day Cookout

2008-08-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

If you live near a Fresh & Easy Market I have a deal for you! I bought 4 fresh Grill Packs which EACH consist of 4 Italian sausage, 4 burger patties and Chili Citrus Cilantro Seasoned Chicken thighs and drumsticks a total of 4 lbs. 11 oz each pack and 1 chocolate almond bar for my honey for $15.34 tax included. They have coupons where you can spend $20 and get $5 off, thus the reason I had to buy the candy bar. The Grill Packs are on special I believe through Labor Day for $4.99 each. In this picture I am showing 1 complete pack and the other is taken apart so you can see what is included. So for what I spent I actually get a total of 16 burgers, 16 Italian sausage and LOTS of chicken. What a great Labor Day cookout. Another way to use it could be by each meat only. That's enough burgers or enough sausage for 16 people. Depending on the size of the gathering you have, you could have 3 get togethers, 1 with chicken, 1 with burgers..... Cool hugh? :) The burgers are just unseasoned patties but we put McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning on them, yummy! We love to cookout and since we have a family of 4 we could even have 12 meals out of all this if we wanted to do it that way. Granted we may get pretty sick and tired of it unless we do it over a long period of time. We will freeze some of it, they'll freeze fine.
Had to share the deal :D HAPPY LABOR DAY!

My Yard is for the Birds Ü

2008-08-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I saw the Love Birds next door in some pine trees. They flew towards our backyard so I went to see if I could find them. I wasn't able to find them but found this sweetie. From what I've heard a few years back nearby some Lovebrids escaped from a nursery and they have just multiplied and continue to live in the area or so the story is told.

My Yard the Bird Sanctuary

2008-08-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

When we came home from school this morning we saw a wood pecker on the porch. I told my son to come over quietly and take a look, it soon flew away. Then we took a look at all the birds in the grass and we saw the Love Birds came back! A short time ago there was about 6 Love Birds hanging out sometime over the summer, but they seemed to have moved on, we hadn't seen them in awhile. I did the best I could to get a shot of them. It was cloudy out today and they were in the shade, I could only get so close so the pic is a little dark and not very clear. I wish I'd been able to get a better shot no telling when they may come back again.

Not to early to start planning for Christmas

2008-08-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine e-mailed me the link to this great site that can help you get organized for Christmas. I love it, a plan to make it go more smoothly, couldn't we all use that, or at least most of us? Christmas is my favorite Holiday and if I start planning now, I'll have more time to enjoy it. You can click on my post title to be connected to the "Organized Christmas" website.

This was taken from the "Organized Christmas" website:

Welcome to the Holiday Grand Plan!
By Cynthia Townley Ewer

You've decided: this is the year you'll celebrate the holiday season from a home that is clean, organized and ready for Christmas. You dream of holiday parties, overnight house guests, Christmas cookies, a decorated home and a calm and stress-free holiday season.

There's only one problem: right now, you're living in domestic chaos. Looking around your home, you don't know where to begin.

Cluttered counters, crammed closets and out-of-place possessions pile up everywhere. Dust bunnies and ceiling cobwebs announce that deep-cleaning is long over-due, and the guest room? Forget about it! It's home to moving boxes, unfinished crafts and last winter's stained jackets and unmatched mittens.

To have the holiday of your dreams, you need more than just a gift list and good intentions: you need the Holiday Grand Plan, a tried and tested roadmap to Christmas in a clean and organized home.

Written by Katie Leckey with contributions from the Prodigy Homelife Get O group in 1992-1993, the Holiday Grand Plan is the Web's oldest Christmas organizing plan.

By breaking down all the tasks needed to clean and organize the house and prepare for the holidays, and dividing them into weekly assignments, the Holiday Grand Plan will help you reach the season calm, centered and ready to celebrate from a clean and organized home.

Holiday Grand Plan 2008 begins on Sunday, August 31, and continues throughout the holiday season. Based on Katie's companion Spring Cleaning Grand Plan, the Holiday Grand Plan combines holiday prep, home organizing and cleaning components.

Browse each week's assignment for cleaning and holiday prep using the links below. Free printable checklists and calendars make it easy to plan your progress and organize each week's goals.

To read more go to the site by clicking on my post title above.

Thanks for the rain God!

2008-08-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks God! Even though I have complained so much about the heat He brought rain. It cooled things down so much. It's 75 degrees outside this morning!!! The temp. will go up but the rain brought a cool down.

Oh wow was I convicted about my complaining this morning. Sometimes I need little wake up calls. I LOVE Joyce Meyer and have been trying to watch her on a daily basis when I am able. She talked about grumbling and complaining this morning. No matter how long I've been a Christian, I could always use these little snaps back to reality, I like to think I'm always learning. Think about the Isrealites and all their grumbling and complaining and God's provision but yet they contiued to complain and for 40 years they complained. They could have gotten out of their curcumstances so much sooner if they just quit all their complaining. If I believe God is in control, maybe my circumstance for that moment are good for me that I'm going through (that was somewhat quoted from Joyce Meyer). For those of us that have children, how annoying is it when we are trying to do good for our children and they are complaining the whole way. As I'm sure God feels when I complain, nobody really wants to hear it. Really, we tell ourselves it's good to get it off our chests, I don't think so, maybe just a change of my attitude, I think I just need to be thankful for whatever the curcumstances and remember God's in control and he knows what's best for me. I must need to learn something, if He's taking me down that road. The less I complain about it the quicker I'll get through it.

Philippians 2:12-18:

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

14 Do everything without complaining or arguing,

15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
16 as you hold out[1] the word of life–in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
New International Version (NIV)

I'm gonna go enjoy the cooler temps ;)

Where Did August Go?

2008-08-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

My little guy in the air :D

Happy Hamsters :D
My son likes to dance :D

I can't believe two weeks have gone by since my last post! I have been working as a playground aide at my son's school. I only work a whole 1 1/2 hours a day, but in 100+ degree weather, with added humidity lately that we've been having, I am really drippy when I get home just before Lunch. It really zaps a lot out of you, especially when we are so spoiled with A/C everywhere you go around here. My heart goes out to the people around here that work outside 40 hours a week! I'm sure you get used to it, I've only been doing this for 2 weeks, I don't want to get to used to it. I'm counting on the weather cooling down a bit. Or at least the humidity going away!

The kids LOVE school and I am happy with their teachers, all 7 of them. Since my daughter is in Jr. High she has obviously lots of teachers. My husband and I went to her school's open house last week and walked in her footsteps to each class. We were late to two classes :( I told my husband to stay out of the halls and walk outside! :)

My son's teacher is wonderful, she is great with the children and really loves her job. She only works half days because she to has young ones at home, a teacher after my own heart. My son has made some new friends as has my daughter. One of my son's homework projects was to make something showing his favorite things. I took pictures of him with his favorite things. One thing he said he liked was to dance so here's that pic of him.

My son is involved in Basketball for the first time, it's through one of the local Churches. We like the way they promote good sportsmanship. They work on developing the kids skills and character rather than it being all about the win. He's enjoying that, especially since he gets to see two of his best buds twice a week!

Right now I am hearing thunder as I post. Could I get some sweet relief from this humidity? It's pretty sunny out, kinda weird, we'll see what happens. When I was a little girl I'd call them sun showers, anyone remember saying that?

My husband and the kids bought the hamsters (Dexter & Maford) a new wheel that attaches to the outside of their cage. We have removable holes in the cage, so once they are removed you can attach the wheel. They love their new wheel, since we had to take their other one out. It caused a big racket, especially when the kids had gone to bed and the house was quiet. So I bought a ball, but they had to be put into it and taken out. We found them behind the couch one day, not good. Plus I think the ball is kinda gross, they do their business in there! It can come out of the little holes, it doesn't smell to good. This new wheel actually has a catch tray below it! What a great idea! This wheel still makes some noise but it just sounds like coffee brewing in a coffee maker. I can handle that, except It makes me think about coffee late at night. Well as long as I don't act on that thought everybody gets a good nights sleep.

I am on a Walton's kick all of a sudden. I watched it for the first time in awhile the other day on the Hallmark channel. The theme song gives me warm fuzzies :) It made me think that my kids don't have any shows like this these days. I think I'll look into getting them on DVD or VHS. For some reason I'd rather they start from season one. The shows currently on the Hallmark channel are 4 or 5 years into the show. Unless maybe if I wait long enough, they may start to air them from the beginning again. At 2 a day for 5 days that may be sooner than I think.

Back to School Today

2008-08-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

My babies started school today. I call them babies because they are still my babies. One just beginning and the other off to a new adventure "Jr. High". They were both very excited to go back to school today. We were ALL awake at 6:00 it was weird. There we all were ready to face our day. It is tradition at our house to have that "first day of school" pic with the new backpack, or in my daughter's case the "tote". She also has a "messenger" bag but has chosen to use the tote today. My son loves Star Wars and Indiana Jones so he chose an Indiana Jones backpack.
I took both to school today, both their separate ways (sniff, sniff) My son spotted one of his best buddies at school and ran to embrace him like they hadn't seen each other in months, truth be told it was only a couple of weeks, so cute! He was happy to see him, even though they are no longer in the same class. My daughter wanted me to walk her to class, no problem with me if that's what she wanted. When we arrived she saw there were no parents walking their children in and asked if she could go it alone. I understood and let her go. My first baby is growing up into a young woman. My son is already home and had a great morning. My daughter is still in school. I look forward to hearing about her day. I interviewed my son on video about his first day today, it was sweet, and he said the Pledge of Allegiance for me. I will do the same with my daughter if she is willing.

As a side note, my son and husband went to a baseball game yesterday. My son had gotten a mask at the game. They played a little joke on me, my husband told him "stop monkeying around" and their he was in this mask. I actually screamed when I saw it, I was totally not expecting it. Now I'm LOL at the site of it and how weird it looks.

Back to School Time

2008-08-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, time to go back to school, tomorrow! Backpacks, messenger bags, lunchbox, clothes, sneakers check, check. School supplies are purchased, a few more are needed. Jr. High, more teachers, more supplies, didn't find out about those items until Fri.... My children are so excited they have been counting down the days. They look forward to seeing the kids they know and like on a daily basis. This year will be an adventure with one just starting Kindergarten and the other starting Junior High, WOW! New Beginnings for all of us, for me schedule changes. Both have been to either the "Meet the teacher" or "Orientation" at school so they are all set to go. My son's teacher seems very nice and well organized. I remember seeing her often around school last year and she is wonderful with the kids. My daughter has 7 classes and will be getting quite the workout walking from class to class. I am happy with the teachers she has also. She has Art first period, I can't wait to see what she creates this year! As for the "workout" I know this because I went to the orientation and walked the classes with her! There's 2 classes she'll be hard pressed to make it to on time. She'll have to get a route worked out. I mapped it all out for her ahead of time so she'd visually know where to go first, second.... she should be fine. She is asking if I can walk her to class on the first day though (sniff, sniff, how sweet!)

For my son I am a playground aide at his school, on his playground so I'll be right there to watch him go to class. We'll be getting to school pretty early every day so he'll have 20 min. on the playground before school with his friends. They also get a morning recess, but that is only with their individual class rather than with all the Kindergartners. He's only going to school half days so he'll come home late morning. This is so important at this age, as much as he's interested in learning, he still loves to play and build with Lego building blocks and just chill out. He'll be ready for a full day next year, with plenty of years ahead, one last year to enjoy a lot of playing and being a kid.

Kids Crafts

2008-08-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

We bought these tote bags at the Dollar store, for of course $1 each. I usually have fabric paints around the house. I thought I'd buy some new ones, so I bought 5 colors at 99 cents each. I let the kids decorate their own totes on Friday. My son wasn't sure what he wanted to do, then he showed me his Indiana Jones wallet and said that's what he wanted his tote to look like. He's a big fan so I traced the letters in black permanent marker on his tote for him to color in. I helped him out a little because he wanted me to. It was important that it had the two colors in each letter. I think his tote turned out awesome. My daughter also came up with her idea on her own. At camp they used duct tape to show what color team they were by spelling it out with duct tape, that's where she got the duct tape idea, and it stuck with her :D another awesome tote. I LOVE crafting with my kids and watching their creativity. This coming week we have a couple more projects we'll probably do before school starts in a week. Gone soon will be the lazy days of summer.....

Health Update

2008-07-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

Had a follow up with my ENT Doc yesterday. I had a CT scan done recently to follow up on the Petrous Apicitis. It was assumed that I had the Petrous Apicitis, however the CT scan showed that I have a Apex cyst (fluid filled) if I'm describing it correctly. All I care is that nothing has to be done, not to worry is what I was told, it could very well go away, there is no infection. The dizziness I had been experiencing he seems to feel was unrelated, could have been an infection wiped out by the antibiotics. I will follow up in 6 months. I like that, I'm good with that. I don't need anymore info. Believe me the Internet is a wonderful tool for information, but unless you know what you're reading ignorance is sometimes bliss. We all have our areas of expertise and I'm not a Doctor, I'll be staying away from trying to look up anymore info. for awhile. I feel I've found a trusted ENT I'm confident with so that is why I can say this.

I went to see a new Primary Care Physician recently. He was recommended to me by a good friend. One of the "get to know me things" they wanted to do was a "routine" EKG on me. Hadn't had one of those since I'd had my Gallbladder attack in '87! I had no worries about this though, to my knowledge I'm good in that area. After the EKG was done, I met the Doctor for the first time. We talked for a few moments, I was really impressed by the time he spent with me. Then he asked if I'd ever been told anything about my heart, was I having chest pain, do I take aspirin etc.... NO! it's good as far as I've ever known. He left the room for a few minutes to go get a book. I thought OK I don't want to hear any more medical news about myself (mind you I still think I have the Petrous Apicitis at this time) He got out a book and showed me what appeared to be going on with my heart talking about how it charges....and what the EKG was showing. He did say it may be "normal" for me, I'm holding on to that thought tight! I do not want anymore health surprises please, thank you very much. I've had cholesterol checked and it's been normal, blood pressure is usually normal. So now I wait until my appointment the end of next week to see what happens then, he will have gotten the lab results from my previous Physician by then and then maybe we can do another EKG. Meanwhile it's all in God's hands and He's in control. Not going to worry, that won't do me any good at all. I'm feelin fine :)Story to be continued, prayers for all well greatly appreciated :)

Beautiful Patagonia

2008-07-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

OK after taking that fun little test of what Latin country I should visit, I've got Patagonia on my mind :) My husband and I would love to go to Patagonia someday. It's one of those goals in life that we can dream about together. This is one of the many beautiful shots I have seen taken there, had to share it.

This is perfect because I want to see Patagonia!

2008-07-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

You Should Visit Argentina

Cowboys, European food, beaches, and skiing. This country is like no other!

Learn to tango, hike across Patagonia, eat at fine restaurants... you'll never be bored.

What Latin American Country Should You Visit?

LEGO blocks and lots of them!

2008-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

My husband and son went to a garage sale this morning. They came home with a garbage bag full of Lego blocks! (I am saying "Lego" rather than Legos which I was originally inclined to say because my husband tells me he heard that calling them Legos is wrong, they are neither plural or singular, interesting) I can remember looking for shells on the beach, this I would compare to that. We had them out on the floor and all four of us were looking through to see what cool new Lego building pieces we had. Lots of "guys" as my son calls them, unique pieces we haven't seen before. The giant bag was $10 and worth so much more, knowing how much we've spent on them already ourselves. We've had a Lego store open up nearby and we love going there. We recently bought our son a table and chairs for his Lego building so he doesn't have to put them away. Now the process of sorting and thinking about creative ways we can store these and make them user friendly :)

Ribbon Valence

2008-07-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

My daughter has only had wood blinds on her bedroom window for the past year. It looked pretty plain. The rest of her room has been finished. She got some new furniture, the walls were already purple when we moved in, she was happy with that. She has added her own touches to the room (posters pretty much wallpaper the walls) I thought either drapes, a valence or beads would be nice. While she was at Camp I went to my new favorite store "Hobby Lobby" and bought some ribbon. Unfortunately I'd hope to finish it before she got home, I miss judged how much ribbon I needed and then they were out of stock for a few days on 2 of the ribbons. Total I bought 20 rolls of ribbon that was 15 ft each. There were 10 different colors, styles that could tie in with one another color wise. She really likes the finished result. It ended up costing me $20 to buy the ribbon. My son helped me put them on the rod once I had them knotted. What I did is I took the ribbon and cut it into strips of 36 inches each. I folded it in half and knotted it with about an inch and a half loop at the end. Then we just slipped it on to the rod. I think it looks pretty cute!

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

2008-07-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon after Church we went to the IMAX theater nearby. We just wanted to get some info. about an upcoming event. My husband was checking into it, next thing I knew he had tickets to see Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. Honestly I hadn't heard of this movie at all. My first thought was that it was a documentary type film. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of seeing it without my husband asking if I'd wanted to first, I wasn't in the mood to see a documentary. I quickly thought well at least it would be something to do that would be in a cool place, ok fine I warmed up to the idea.... I was totally surprised by the movie, it wasn't a documentary after all. I loved this movie! The kids loved it also. I especially liked it in 3D.

What happened to good old communication?

2008-07-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sad at the decline in communication in this country. The majority of people have cell phones and computers you'd think we can communicate with one another in a more direct way. I suppose with text messaging and e-mail, automated services can be expected. I don't have to like them though! I called my med. insurance company this morning. I dialed the number I usually do, I was told there was a new number (this was told to me by an automated response) I called the "new" number and was asked for my tax ID! I'm a med. Insurance customer not a provider. I followed all the prompts as I was instructed. I also gave my med. ID about 5 times to an automated system that couldn't understand me! I repeated it over and over, I now have it memorized :) I think somewhere along the way I spoke to a live person only to be transferred to another automated area and be told they were currently closed! I called back an hour or so later, same thing, the system didn't understand me after giving my ID several times, did I mention previously I began refusing to the prompt to give my ID again (lots of good that does) so finally I speak to a live person because the automated system got frustrated with me, I was told I was calling the wrong number, I was told to dial the number I had first began my morning with! Are we saving time by not talking to people? Are we getting more frustrated along the way? I usually end up speaking to a live person anyway. I wish we could go back to talking to the live people. Can anyone relate with this?

Church camp was a blast!

2008-07-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

My daughter came home on Friday and she had a great time at camp. She climbed a rock climbing wall and went down a zip line. She canoed, hiked, swam, mountain biked...... The praise and worship band was absolutely awesome she loved them. She enjoyed getting to know lots more kids and getting to know better some others. She was so glad to have been able to go. It was a growing experience for her and a lot of memories were made. Here are some pictures a friend took of her.

Latest sightings in my yard

2008-07-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

We always seem to have something interesting going on in our yard! A while back my husband put some wood up there (see pic) to keep the pigeons from getting in. Our neighborhood is full of birds. Our yards is full of a variety of birds in the trees but the pigeons seem to love hanging out on all the houses in the neighborhood. This spot must not have been to closed off for these little guys to get in there. I'm guessing Love Birds? There are actually 4 of them from what we can tell. I thought I heard some sweet bird music just outside of my loft the other day :)

My husband found this big guy or pardon me girl, in our yard. To be honest I thought, from a distance, it was a huge pile of dog (um a you know) He called me over to take a look and I thought what on earth for, do I really need to? Oh, it was a huge Toad! Never a dull moment here.

2008-07-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated.

You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Just for fun, thought I'd do this :)

Church Camp

2008-07-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

My daughter is at Church Camp this week. She left on Sunday afternoon and will come back tomorrow afternoon. I truly miss her and can't wait to see her and talk to her. I am looking forward to hearing all about camp and what she did there, how God has impacted her life and who she's become closer friends with, what boys she thought were cute, how the weather was, what her pictures look like (she's got 48 exposure to take) and how much fun she had. She's up in a cooler part of our state, one of my favorite places. The kids can't bring cell phones so there isn't a way to talk back and forth for obvious reasons. Kids these days are so attached to their cell phones and text messaging. My daughter does not have a cell phone yet. She has no need for one yet in our opinion. We've send her cards and e-mails, even though the e-mails can't be replied to. We want her to know that we are thinking of her, we love her and miss her and hope she's having lots of fun. On Tuesday morning I went to the camp website and this picture was there. It's weird because I haven't seen her and there she is dressed in different clothes than she had on when she left all safe and sound sitting next to a friend I know.... She is on the right side, second row down, second one in. You can click on the pic to enlarge it.

A day or two after our daughter left my husband and I were talking about how we only have another 5 years with her. She'll be 18 then, off to college is the thought and starting her adult life. The time has gone by so fast, I won't say it seemed like yesterday that she, our first child was born, maybe more like 5 years ago. Our son is now 5 and still has a ways to go. Our days with our daughter are much shorter though.

I have to say I'm still sad that more Mom's don't choose to be at home with their children? The years go by so, so fast there is no opportunity to claim those lost years back. I'm speaking as the Mother of a child that is about to turn 13. I know we still have years ahead but not as many as the ones that have already gone by with our daughter. I am really reflecting this week about what is important to me, I won't regret the time I've spent at home.

My son talks about going to camp. It will still be several years before he's able to go, I can wait :)

ENT Doc Visit

2008-07-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I had an appointment with an ENT Doctor to follow up on the Petrous Apicitis. I had been on antibiotics for 3 weeks to wipe out the infection. After only a few days the minor dizziness I felt was gone. My primary care Physician said that that meant the antibiotics were working and that I no longer needed to see the ENT. I felt as if I needed more info. since she didn't seem to know a whole lot about the infection herself. I chose to keep the appointment for a follow up. I'm so thankful for answered prayers and that I am feeling well, but I still felt a follow up was needed. I'm glad that I kept the appointment. The ENT is very knowledgeable and experienced with the Petrous Apicitis. He claims to see about 20 cases a year of it, I didn't feel as if it was such a rare infection after all. He's apparently written an EMedicine article on the subject as well. He tested my hearing, perfect, he tested the dizziness, all gone! Now he'd like to do a CAT scan to follow up and see that the infection (fluid) is gone. He said if it is not, that he rarely has to do surgery to drain. His experience has been to keep an eye on it and make sure there are no changes. He says it can usually be left without treatment provided that there are no changes. I'm just praying that it's totally gone and it's all over :)

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is my daughter today, very patriotic :)

2008-06-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful time with my family in the pool. First it was my son and I, then my daughter and I then all of us once my husband got home. I really enjoyed the time, but I was very active for hours. I lifted my son up and threw him into the water, he loved that, I don't know how many times he said, "again, again". We made whirl pools, I pulled the kids around. My son is doing so well with his swimming this summer. He loves to swim underwater. Today my lower back isn't feeling to good. I guess I overdid it a bit. We had a little 3 inch visitor that kept checking us out. This huge beetle kept coming over our wall in the same spot. We joked that it was a remote control beetle and that someone was on the other side of the wall controlling it. This was a huge bug! My husband took this picture of it for me.

2008-06-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome video! Be sure to turn my music player off before watching.

Update

2008-06-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

As of Monday I no longer have dizziness! It was only when I laid flat and turned my head to one side. The fact that's it's gone is a good thing, still not sure what it means in the whole scheme of things. I had gone to Physical Therapy on Wednesday and my PT told me to go home, since I was no longer dizzy, yeah! I do have another appointment next week to follow up though. I also have an appointment with an ENT Doctor in early July. Apparently he's pretty booked, I wasn't able to get myself in on my own until the end of July. My Doctor's office was able to get me in sooner. I'm anxious for that appointment, since he's more experienced with the symptoms I've had and what my MRI showed. I look forward to hearing what he has to say and learning more about what has been going on. I continue to take antibiotics twice a day for another 2 weeks. I'm taking acidophiles because I'm taking the antibiotics for so long.

Our summer has been going good. My son has been taking swimming lessons and has been progressing well. Our temperatures are around 112 degrees these days, yuck. Not much activity going on outside anywhere around here unless you are in a pool. The Junior High Schools in our city have pools that open to the public. They have water slides and other cool features at them that the kids love. There are also the water parks we can go to, but the costs at the Jr. Highs are only $1-$1.50 a day so that is a much more affordable option. With gas at it's all time high, the schools are also closer. We don't have an in ground pool at home but rather an above ground. We drain it after the summer is over so we don't have year round maintenance. It's a really good one that was pretty pricey when we bought it way back when. The sides are soft and supposedly you can drive a truck into it and not knock it over. It's a good way to stay cool. My son can actually touch bottom this year, he's pretty excited about that.

If you give a Mom a task to do......

2008-06-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

Can anyone relate with me here? What I just did so reminds me of the "If you give a Mom a muffin" I have posted below, however in my case it was more like, I was going to clean out my sink and also thought about running the dishwasher. I went into my laundry room where I keep my cleaning supplies and remembered I was going to wash my husbands work clothes, so I did that and then walked out of the laundry room and was faced once again with the sink remembering I wanted to clean it but that I also wanted to run the dishwasher which I put the little cleaning tablet thingy in the dishwasher realizing that I wanted to clean out the sink, which I then did then my thoughts about all this compelled me to write this post and now I need to get up and turn on the dishwasher! Read something similar below because I know I'm not alone with this :)

I Wanna Muffin.
If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

by Kathy Fictorie
based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

2008-06-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

Today I want to wish my Husband a Happy Father's Day!
We Love him so much he's such a great Dad to my children, an awesome provider, hard worker, total sweetheart, Mr. Fix it with total perfection, we think he can do just about anything and he's an all around awesome guy!

New word, Petrous Apicitis

2008-06-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

I had my MRI done on Tuesday of this past week. On Thursday I received the results of the MRI. I was a little freaked out because my Doctor's office called and asked if I could come in for my results. For about 4 hours the thoughts that went through my mind, let me tell you, God help me! My appointment was early afternoon, my Doctor came into the room and proceeded to tell me that what they suspected I had was pretty rare. She said the Radiologist seemed to feel it was either "Petrous Apicitis" or a Cyst. The Petrous Apicitis being the one they felt should be treated as if I had it first. What on earth is that? My Doctor even had a hard time with it, I'm guessing she's never encountered it before. She attempted to explain it to me the best she could. I've copied some info. taken from the Internet here:

It is an infection of petrous apex (the top of the petrous bone). The petrous bone is a bone in the skull. The petrous portion of the temporal bone lies in a complicated anatomic position and has critical relationships to important neural and vascular structures.

Before the advent of Antibiotics in the 1940s, infections of the petrous apex, termed petrous apicitis, commonly progressed to meningitis, brain abscess, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and death. Since the introduction of Antibiotics, the prevalence of such serious complications has been drastically reduced.

I am now on Antibiotics for 3 weeks, twice a day. The hope is that if I do have this infection, that the Antibiotics will take care of it. Otherwise we are talking draining.... I've been referred to an ENT Doctor (Ear, Nose, Throat) This is connected to middle ear infections apparently. Prayers that the antibiotics do what we are intending, would be greatly appreciated. I am continuing with my Physical Therapy twice a week. My only symptom still remains to be minor dizziness while laying flat, and I mean no pillow flat on my back and turning my head to the left. Thankfully I'm not usually in that position. I'm just so glad I felt prompted to go in to see my Doctor!

Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy

2008-06-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of years back I had what was thought to be "Labyrinthitis". We had gone camping in the high country and I woke up to find I was unable to focus my eyes. I felt like a google eyed doll. I woke my husband and told him I needed him to call for the paramedics. I couldn't stand up I was so dizzy and nauseous it was a horrible experience. The paramedics came and I was barely able to get up onto the gurney to take me to the nearby hospital. I had to lay on my right side to avoid a terrible sense that I would throw up. The details that follow are pretty much a blur other than I heard they did an MRI and found nothing. I was given medication to control the nausea.... I was released later that day and we headed back home, I left most of the way. When I went to see my Doctor she said she'd thought I had Labyrinthitis. It is an inner ear infection which can cause vertigo symptoms. It seems in the spring when my seasonal allergies are at their finest, I would be able to put my self in a particular position that could cause slight dizziness. Thankfully it's not a position I usually find myself in. After dealing with this for a couple of years and thinking it just was the residual effects of the Labyrinthitis, or something aggravated by the seasonal allergies, I decided to follow up with my Doctor. She prescribed Vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Yesterday was day one where I met with a Physical Therapist. God is so awesome putting me in touch with just the right people. She told me that she knew my Doctor, she is also her Doctor as well as attending the same Church. Now mind you I basically pulled this place out of a hat so to speak. I had a bunch of names and locations and picked this place myself at the suggestion of the Therapy from my Doctor. She had me sit on a table and quickly pulled be down and flipped me over on my back telling me to look at her so she could watch my eyes. She did that a couple of times in an attempt to get the crystals in the ear that have become dislocated back to where they should be. Oh now that makes sense that is what causes the dizziness. She also had me bounce a giant ball and watch it go up and down. Then I had to stand on one leg and look from side to side, you try that! I couldn't balance very well. There was a huge guy behind waiting for me to fall over, never did though. Then I had to lay down and keep turning my head to the left (that is the side giving me trouble) Praise GOD! I didn't feel dizzy, during the whole process it lessened and lessened. Normally laying flat on my back and turning my head to the left was the position where I would feel slightly dizzy. I go back again next week a couple of times and we'll see what happens. For me it should clear up by the sound of things, praise GOD. I am going for an MRI next week to make sure all is normal with my ear.

2008-06-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night we went to the drive-in to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Our nights in the desert are still pretty bearable. The movie didn't start until 8:15 PM because obviously it has to be dark in order to see it outdoors..... It is really affordable compared to taking the family to the movie theater. We bring a cooler with drinks and a bag of snacks. We have a pick up truck and the kids bring blankets and pillows and get pretty cozy in the back of it. My husband and I bring camp chairs and usually sit in them. This time the kids got so comfy, they both fell asleep. In fact they both fell asleep for the latest Narnia movie as well. That's ok they didn't seem to mind. For Indiana Jones, it's just as well for our son at least, there were images in the movie he's probably better off not having seen. The movie was good, a bit on the corny and unrealistic side though. I still enjoyed it though, as another friend posted on her blog, I would have rather seen a different story line. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say. It was full of the usual adventure and drama. My son loves the idea of Indiana Jones and all the adventure, and of course the whip. He has a toy whip from the movie that he loves to play with. He really wants this Lego game for the Playstation of Indiana Jones. We'll have to look into it. I'm not sure how many more bearable nights we have ahead of us so we'll have to take advantage of them while we can.

2008-05-30T13:28:00.001-07:00

Just for fun I thought I'd do this:

You Are 92% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.

Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

How Creative Are You?

What is the "Michelin Man"?

2008-05-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered, pondered what on earth the Michelin Man actual is? Is he a man, is he a bunch of tires stacked upon one another? I even thought he might be tire tubes laid one on top of another. As my husband and I were watching tv this morning and a Michelin Tire commercial came on we pondered, "what is the Michelin Man"? So I thought I'd get to the bottom of this mystery. I know this sounds pathetic :) but why not get to the bottom of things and get off the couch and exercise my brain :) I love a good mystery. Apparently according to the web this is what he is and how he came to be:

The Michelin Man was anything but cuddly in his earliest incarnations. He had a frightful, mummy-like aspect then, and sometimes appeared as a gladiator or a kickboxer. In the Italian market he was a grandiloquent memoirist, a nimble ballroom dancer, and an incorrigible ladies' man. Stranger still, back then he was known as the "road drunkard." To this day his official name is Bibendum, the Latin gerundive meaning "drinking to be done." The name comes from the first series of posters featuring him, which bore the Latin legend Nunc est bibendum--"Now is the time to drink"--and depicted the tire man hoisting a champagne goblet filled with nails and broken glass, sometimes garnished with a horseshoe. The seemingly tortured conceit, as the ad copy spelled out, was that "Michelin tires drink up obstacles"--i.e., they wouldn't puncture easily.

Yet what sounds today like a preposterously ill- advised advertising campaign made keen good sense at its moment in cultural history. And the quirkiness of Bibendum's origins is part of what inspires such loyalty among his fans today.

In 1889 the brothers André and Édouard Michelin took control of a struggling rubber products business in Clermont-Ferrand, an industrial city in central France. According to the company's official history, a bicyclist came to their workshop in 1889 with a flat tire. Pneumatic (inflatable) tires had just been invented by John Boyd Dunlop the year before. Pneumatics provided a much more comfortable ride than the alternative--solid rubber tires--but they were subject to punctures, especially since roads were so poor. In fixing the flat, the brothers discovered that the customer's Dunlops were glued to the rims, making patches extremely time-consuming. They soon developed and patented a detachable pneumatic tire that could be repaired in 15 minutes or so. Next they pioneered pneumatic tires for carriages, and by 1895 an early automobile known as the Éclair (it looked like one) completed a 750-mile race on Michelin tires.

During this period Bibendum was in gestation. His first kick in the womb came in 1893 when André argued to the skeptical Paris Society of Civil Engineers that pneumatic tires could "drink up obstacles." Fetal Bibendum kicked again in 1894, when Édouard motioned to stacks of tires at an auto exposition in Lyon and commented to André, "Add some arms, and you'd say they were men."

Then, in 1897, while thumbing through a commercial artist's portfolio, André had a fateful epiphany. It was triggered by a sketch that had been rejected by a Munich brewery, showing a legendary king hoisting a stein and uttering a Latin toast. André told the artist, who went by the pen name O'Galop, to substitute a tire man for the king. In O'Galop's final version, completed in April 1898, Bibendum is flanked by two tattered, flaccid rivals who couldn't hold their rusty nails. To contemporaries, the competitors' caricatured faces were readily recognizable as those of John Boyd Dunlop and the then-chief of Continental Tire.

If Bibendum was made of tires, the reader may ask, why wasn't he black? Simple answer: Tires weren't black until 1912, when makers first began adding carbon black as a preservative. Until then they were either a gray-white or a light, translucent beige.

A bit of trivia for you!

Today is Memorial Day

2008-05-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today we honor the men and woman who have devoted themselves to serving our country past, present and future.

Schools out for summer!

2008-05-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a hectic couple of weeks. School ended this week. My son's last week consisted of a special activity every day. First there was water day they had a hose attached to the corkscrew slide with a rectangle pool at the bottom. They had a sprinkler and a couple of little pools scattered on the playground, which is covered with sand. They had an area where they could blow bubbles. That was a fun day. The next day was ice cream day, they made ice cream in baggies, cool! Then they had a read over day instead of sleep over.... My daughter and her friend came into the class and read a couple of books. This is the first and last year they will be together at school, since there is a 7 year age difference between them. It was a special treat to have sister come in and read. On the last day of school it was game day. We had about 5 games going I think, I was in charge of the "Don't wake Daddy" game. That was a fun one, never played it before, I think we'll have to get one.

For my daughter it was her last year in Elementary school (sniff, sniff) I'm not sure who this has been harder on? I am thinking thoughts of how she'll never have a playground at her school again.... This ends an era of elementary school. My baby is growing up fast. At her school the kids are divided for Jr. High, half go to one school and half to another. That is sad since some feel they will not see each other again. They will, but not on a daily basis at school as they are used to. So her final week they had a promotion ceremony where they sung a really cute song to the tune of the Lion Sleeps tonight, but it was specific to them and the activities they have done, what they learned and their teachers, it was really cute. The theme was out of 6th grade and into the Wild, thus a jungle theme. Each child came up and received from their teacher his or her promotion certificate complete with a graduation picture with cap and gown. I'd post that photo, but my daughter isn't particularly fond of how it turned out. Taken the day after we returned from Sea World. She can keep it as a memory.... :) Afterwards they snacked on what else but, animal crackers and punch. That was one day before school was over, so on the last day the 6th grade went bowling. After school was out it was very emotional. Lots of tears and hugs because of the great divide I spoke of. Now we are into our "summer".

2008-05-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

To ALL you Moms out there
Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!

I have to share the wording of the card my children got for me:

Mom,

I can't imagine what life would be like without you. I'd probably be eating candy I got from a stranger, talking with my mouth full, and waving around sharp objects while I sit too close to the TV in yesterday's underwear.

Thanks and Happy Mother's Day

Who's the "lucky" one?

2008-05-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today my son and I took my Mom to Wal-mart, she is home bound and needed some groceries. We went after my son had gotten home from school. While we were at the checkout the cashier asked if my son was in school. I said he was and that he went in the morning. She said "my daughter got lucky, hers goes all day". I'm sad to think this woman feels her daughter is the "lucky one". I personally consider myself to be so blessed. It won't be long before my son will be in school all day, there won't be a choice, he'll grow up and he'll get married and leave home. What exactly is the rush to get him out of the house? Some day he'll be gone and the house will be empty, these moments will never be again. I know we have our moments, but the good ones far out weigh the not so good. I know I'm blowing this way out of the water, one tiny little comment. It's not the first time though, so I felt I had to vent. So many times I hear similar comments. I choose to have my son go to school half day. Next year he'll be in Kindergarten and I had the option of full day but chose half day once again. I am so thankful for this option. His current teacher says she wishes more parents would do the half a day K-5 option because kids have no business being in school all day at that age. Let them be kids and let them play she says. If it is an option, and so many times it is but people aren't willing to make the sacrifice. I want to spend time with him because time goes by so fast and I want to enjoy him while he's little. On the way home from Wal-mart my son was talking to me and asking where heaven was. He asked if it was above the clouds. I said we don't really know where it is but I'm guessing it's above the clouds somewhere. He said, well Daddy and I can build a rocket ship, he's got lots of wood and then they will know where heaven is. After that he said they could also build a tall ladder. I said, I need to tell you the story of the tower of Babel :) I love having these sweet little chats with him. Had I been so "lucky" as this woman spoke of, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to hear my son talk about these things, he'd be at school. These are precious times and I am blessed to share them with him.

We're Back!

2008-04-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

So much has happened in the past few days! Be sure to read the other Sea World post first. I caught a stomach bug, my son also ended up having a double ear infection and a sinus infection. He ran that fever then was fine then WHAM. I believe that there can be spiritual warfare against us because God's word says in the book of Ephesians 6:10-12 - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I believe that the enemy, satan, can and will try to mess with the plans that may be layed out for us. I look at this as many attempts to get me to back out. Instead I prayed and walked through it all, I would not back down. My husband ended up taking a much needed break from work and stayed home Monday, so my son could come home and take it easy after his couple of hours in school. He was on antibiotics and was allowed to go to school as long as he wasn't running a temp. So he went and had a couple hours of fun with his friends. Otherwise the original plan may have worn on him to much. God works in mysterious ways, my husband really did need a break..... I got on the Bus and felt totally fine. It also wasn't "that time of the month" :) until today, the day after! I know you didn't really think you needed to hear that, but to hear how much God loves us and answers our prayers, you needed to hear it. Also, no pre-headache yesterday. All was well, we had a great time.

When we arrived at Sea World we had some free time before the classes started. We wandered around for a couple of hours then went and participated in some classes. We learned about sharks, rays, animal trainers etc... they played games, made a shark tooth necklace had a lovely buffet dinner in an area that looked like Gilligan's Island and had a wonderful night. The next morning up at 6:30 to pack up and get ready for some more behind the scenes at Sea World. They fed the Seals, the rays and ate breakfast with the whales. That was a beautiful experience. Afterwards more free time in the park where the kids attempted to get as wet as they possibly could by going back and forth between the rapids ride and the Atlantis water roller coaster. Together with standing at the bottom of the Atlantis ride and getting splashed each time the coaster came down from the huge drop. I took a million pictures of kids in lime green shirts. They gave us these shirts to identify us as "Camp Sea World" participants. So every time I saw green shirts coming down Atlantis I had to capture the moments, while awaiting my daughter and her friends taking just one more ride about 4 or 5 times :) The weather wasn't quite what was forecast. It was pretty toasty both days, for California in April that's a rarety. We left in the afternoon and were home by late evening. During the trip I met some new friends and it was great to witness the bonding experience for the kids, also as many of them as there were, so many know one another. This was an experience they won't soon forget, nor will I. Today a new day begins and back to school and somewhat normal we go. Thank you God for an awesome trip, you were with us all the way!

Scroll down to "Sea World Adventure"

2008-04-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Ant and the contact lens: A True Story

2008-04-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."

She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth."

She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Sea World Adventure

2008-04-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am getting ready to embark on an adventure on Monday with over 100 6th graders! There will be 4 6th grade teachers as well as our Media teacher, PE teacher and Principal going and at least 30 parents as well. It will be an overnighter to Sea World San Diego. The kids will have classes, feed sea lions, eat breakfast right next to Shamu.... it is going to be a memorable, fun time!
I am looking forward to it with much anticipation. I'm also at the same time cracking myself up. We will spend several hours on the bus traveling to Sea World. The thought of going on a charter bus and not being able to go "back to the room" or "to the car" or "to the store" is causing me to think that I need to carry a backpack with supplies for every known possible scenario that I could encounter. I'm too funny I'm LOL. Let's see now, there is always the possibility of "that time of the month", fact of life people, need supplies for that and medicine to keep me comfortable during those uncomfortable moments (in the event that they happen, God forbid please) plus a snack in case I need to take the Ibuprofen, can't take it on an empty stomach, that will lead to other problems, we need rain ponchos since we don't want to get soaked to the core and not be able to go back to the room since we only get one night in it. Our luggage will be packed away in the bus from early morning on with no possibility of retrieval.
I have been praying and asking for prayer that it's NOT "that time of the month" for this trip. I know some may wonder why I'm mentioning this, fact of life! I've even asked God if it has to be, it would be by Friday otherwise it would hold off til we get back. I also get this "day before horrible headache" and I've prayed that that wouldn't happen either. It's been pretty consistent for sometime now. It is a rough time for me in ways you really don't want me to mention :)

The forecast for our time there:
Day 1:
High: 73 °F
Low: 59 °F

Day 2:
High: 64 °F
Low: 56 °F

Beautiful weather is in store, not the 90's as we are accustom to. Drying time will not be in a matter of hours as it would be at home, thus wet uncomfortable long ride home..... I'm thinking though that any really wet rides we'll do first thing that we have free time. Then there is the shows though, if we are front row or so we will get drenched. Back to my backpack items, most importantly I need my camera for I have to capture these moments for they will never again occur in time, also can't get it wet, that equals disaster. Also I need to pack pepto bismol just in case of stomach upset, etc.... so I'm going to have quite the back pack on. Prepared for just about anything :) I know I have failed to mention one very important thing, God is with me, he's been awesome! He's going with us too :) I'm just prepared for whatever he may need me to do right :) My son was running a fever last night, I prayed over him and this morning he's back to normal. God is good!!!!!! Can't have him getting sick, not in the plan! He's going to be cared for by two awesome ladies by day and by Daddy after work. My husband is taking the day off to take care of him day 2. We will be getting back on a school night at 10:30 PM, go figure? The next day the kids have cap and gown photos at school, should be interesting. Maybe they'll fall asleep on the bus? Are they to old to expect that from them? Well it's going to be fun. I'll post when I'm back.

Afternoon Nap

2008-04-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

We don't do naps anymore at our house. I stopped trying when my son was 4. It just stopped being a regular thing, he didn't seem to need them anymore. There are times though if I know it's going to be a late night that I will take a little drive down the sleepy road. There is a road nearby that I like to drive down that goes into the desert where there are only mountains and cactus no homes or buildings. The road has some curves and slight ups and downs which equals NAP! There are also days like today when I'm guessing he's just played hard and is so comfortable on the couch, he falls asleep. After lunch I let him watch a little TV. I was doing my previous post. I thought it was kind of quiet in the house, I peeked around the couch to see this precious site :) Lately I also been reading to him at night and twice he's fallen asleep during the story! That what kids are supposed to do :)

Art Masterpiece Today

2008-04-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I did an Art Masterpiece presentation and the artist was Jean-Honore Fragonard (pronounced: zjahn oh-no-reh Fra-go-nahr)

The painting was titled "A Young Girl Reading" it was painted in 1776. Fragonard lived from 1732-1806, he began painting at 18 studying under such famous artists as Chardin & Boucher. Boucher encouraged him to enter "Prix de Rome" which from what I've learned sounds to be a scholorship for Artists. At age 20 he won Prix de Rome. At that point he wasn't sure as to what he wanted to paint since he mainly did landscapes. He spent some time searching and learning and also spent time in Italy. He was then accepted into the Royal Accademy in France and his reception piece drew a lot of praise, it was sent to be copied into a tapestry. He would have possibly had an illustrious career as a court painter for Louis XV but turned his back on the opportunity. He instead chose to paint commissioned work for Aristocrats (it was funny when I was telling the 6th graders this, AristoCATS came out instead :) I quickly corrected myself. The time period style paintings were "Rococo" which is described as delicate colors, curving forms, cherubs, myths of love & portraiture. Fragonard was commissioned by Madame du Barry (Louis XV's last mistress) to do several paintings. She rejected his work saying they were passe' it was the late Rococo period. The other two painting I have pictured are from that group. One is called "The Meeting" and the other "The Swing". Of his work I am more fond of these, than the Young Girl Reading but the kids had quite a few comments about it. They questioned if she may be reading the Bible. One boy said her finger looked like a noodle. Another comment was that her pinkie stuck out and we talked about that being an aristocratic thing. There was also a lot of discussion as to where she was sitting because of the pillow behind her. The girl is unidentified so we speculated as to who she may be. I thought it would be good to bring in other work he'd done. I also brought in a picture to show the difference between Baroque and Rococo style. Baroque came before Rococo.

Fragonard's career was destroyed by the French Revolution since the nobility was obviously destroyed by the Revolution.

The Beauty that surrounds me

2008-04-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I noticed some beautiful Cactus in bloom this morning on the way to school. My camera has been acting up lately but I was able to get some shots with it. I came right home and had to go back and take pictures of these beautiful cactus before the sun closes them back up again. Then I took pictures of the flowers in my own yard. I was looking at the bottle brush yesterday, it really does look like a bottle brush. Isn't it cool how it first starts to bloom in the little clumps and they all straighten up after they have fully bloomed. God is so amazing! It felt so good to be taking pictures again. When we are pursuing our passion it is then that we feel most alive!

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

2008-04-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well I finally broke down and turned on my A/C. I had it all down to a science, I would open the windows downstairs in the morning while the upstairs windows have been open pretty constant. The house has been very comfortable, even a little chilly at night, until today. We went to Church this morning the house was comfy. We were gone until about 3:30 this afternoon, we did some shopping around afterwards. When we came home it wasn't to bad since the ceiling fans were on, once I started moving around it hit me, HOW HOT IS IT IN THIS HOUSE? 88 degrees! Funny how just seeing that number made me want to pass out on the spot. I had to put that A/C on. Our weather, if the forecast is accurate, looks like this for the next few days:
90° | 59°Mon
92° | 61°Tue
90° | 56°Wed
79° | 54°Thur
I always question when it goes from 90 to 79, looks kind of strange doesn't it? Like what is going to happen there? That should be interesting to see if that happens. I'm thankful that it cools down at night. Before long once summer is in full swing it won't cool down that much. Oh well the beauty of central A/C is that it won't come on if it's cooler than 78 degrees in the house, we've determined that to be a comfortable temp for us.

Maybe my seasonal allergies will be more controlled with the windows closed. Every morning I wake up going through about a quarter box of tissues and several hard sneezes first thing in the morning, then I'm good to go. I have taken a couple of different over the counter meds. to find they aren't as good as the prescription strength. I'm not a big fan of nasal sprays but have started taking Astelin, a nasal spray. It seems to be helping better. My back yard is full of green, a must for me to live in the desert. Something has been aggravating my allergies for a couple of weeks now. Funny growing up in New Jersey I never experienced seasonal allergies. It wasn't until my 20's in Florida that it started.

We have quite a few trees in our yard, there are a couple I've yet to figure out what they are called, they smell just like orange blossoms to me but they aren't. They smell so nice and they have a tiny blossom on them. It's been so nice outside lately that we have spend a lot more time on our back patio. If you sit long enough and watch you can usually spot a humming bird.

Frozen Yogurt date with my son

2008-04-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Just before lunch today my little guy and I went out for frozen yogurt to the Golden Spoon. LOVE that place! I had a coupon for 2 free! I know it's not the perfect lunch but we had a good ole time. He got the usual "chocolate" boy after my own heart. I got the 99% fat free Heath Bar, with Heath Bar topping! I'm not concerned about the 99% fat free stuff just the flavor. It was a beautiful day and a little cool in the shade. So we opted to sit in the back of my SUV. We opened up the back hatch and there we sat comfy in the parking lot. We totally enjoyed each others company. I asked him how school was and what was going on. We talked about our flavors of choice. He didn't understand why I didn't get chocolate if I like it. Hard to explain to a 5 year old that our taste in frozen yogurt and ice cream expands as our taste buds develop and we learn of all the other cool flavors. What a nice time we had together. I cannot take credit for the picture, I just thought it would go nicely with the post :)

The Past weeks happenings

2008-04-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Our weather has been in the upper 70's and 80's, some have been a little toasty lately we are getting ready to hit the 90's this weekend :( Today is a beautiful day, it's cloudy and in the shade it's only 58 degrees, and it's already after 9 am! It's only supposed to be a high of around 70 today. I haven't put my A/C on yet. We were holding out until April 1st and that's come and gone. Our A/C runs about 6 months out of the year.

On Saturday my husbands company had a picnic at the zoo. The zoo was a tad bit crowded with approx. 4000 employees plus family, it was like a zoo in there :) I'm sure not all of them showed up, but there was also another company picnic happening at the zoo that day also. The parking was a pretty hairy but once we got in, we had a nice day. They kids were each given little giraffe stuffed animals, they had lunch and bounce houses etc...

On Sunday my daughter was Baptized! She had been asking about being Baptized lately and the Church scheduled a big youth baptism so she chose to do that. It is our belief that when are children are babies, we present our children in a "dedication" service before the congregation. What that means is that we are standing before God and other believers agreeing to raise our child to know God, the Pastor says a prayer for the parents and the baby. Then when they are old enough to believe and accept Jesus gift of salvation they acknowledge that and as a demonstration/declaration of their faith, they are publicly baptised. It was a special time. My husband and I got into the water with her and baptised her. The photographer at Church took some pictures, but I don't have them yet.

Last night I had a Sea World meeting. My daughter is in 6th grade and we'll be going to Sea World this month with all of the 6th graders. They are only able to take so many parents and I was one of the "chosen ones" :) We will be gone for 2 days. There will be some behind the seen learning and activities that sound awesome.

Next month is the last month of school. The 6th graders are having a promotion ceremony. This is an emotional time as my first born baby is going to Jr. High next year! I look forward to the year ahead for her with mixed emotions. All the firsts she will experience. New opportunities for her since she'll be able to start taking electives. The new friends that she will make. There will be a lot of change and more responsibility will be put on to her. It will help to build her confidence because she's at the age where she is stretching her wings and testing the air. It's a little scary, but I know she's in God's hands and he's got a great plan for her. I have to have confidence that we have been teaching her and she will make good choices. This will help her to gain more confidence. It's hard to let go as they get older but it isn't right to hold on to tight. They need to experience all that God has planned for them.

Art Masterpiece Today

2008-04-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today for Art Masterpiece at school I brought in this painting by Eugene Delacroix. It's called Frightened Horse. The kids had a lot to say about this painting, there was a lot of observation in this. We talked about what they thought was happening in the picture and the repetitive curves in the painting. Some thought there may be water in the background and that waves were crashing and there was thunder and lightning which was frightening the horse. Personally I think the horse had a pretty crazy look in his eyes. I'm hoping the horse lived through this because he looks very stressed out, he's thrashing around (I know it's just a painting.....)

Delacroix was born in the late 1700's and died in the mid 1800's. He was born near Paris and both of his parents died when he was 16. He was destined for a musical career, but his Uncle saw some of his sketches and encouraged him in Art. His fame began at age 24, his style was Romanticism which often is emotion provoking and his subjects were either political, historical, but often dramatic. He was inspired by poetry and literature of Shakespeare. His work inspired the Impressionists that came after him.

After I was finished I told the kids that a generous donor was paying for them to go to Paris when our study was finished (April Fools!) wish it was true though. Their teacher told them that they had to go for Jr. High shots today, new requirements. I was in the classroom at the time and immediately wondered why I hadn't been notified (she got me too) I thought nobody is giving my daughter shots without my permission, she was so serious, who knew. She let me in on it. Later on she walked the class to the nurse. Then they found out that it was just an April fools prank.

An e-mail forward I got today......

2008-03-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

This photo is from Touchtone picture's movie "The Guardian" (Kevin Costner & Aston Kutcher) It's an appropriate image for this post. The movie, as a side note, was awesome.

I received this as a forward in my e-mail and thought I'd share it:

The Church's Pastor slowly stood up
after the worship time was over, walked
over to the pulpit and, before he gave
his sermon, he briefly introduced a guest
Pastor who was in the service.

In the introduction, the Pastor told the
congregation that the guest Pastor was
on of his dearest childhood friends and
the he wanted him to have a few moments
to greet the Church and share whatever
God laid on his heart. With that, an
elderly man stepped up to the pulpit
and began to speak. "A Father, his son, and
a friend of his son were sailing off the
pacific coast," he began. "When a fast
approaching storm blocked any attempt to
get back to the shore. The waves were so
high, that even though the Father was an
experienced sailor, he could not keep
the boat upright and the three were swept
into the ocean as the boat capsized."
The elderly man hesitated for a moment,
making eye contact with two teenagers who
looked somewhat interested in his story.
He continued with his story, "grabbing a
rescue line, the father had to make the
most excruciating decision of his life:
to which boy would he throw the other end
of the life line? He only had seconds to
make the decision. The Father knew that his
son was a Christian and he also knew that his
son's friend was not. The agony of his decision
could not be matched by the torrent of waves.
As the Father yelled out, 'I Love you, son!'
He threw out the life line to his son's friend.
By the time the Father had pulled the friend
back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared
beneath the raging swells into the black of night.
His body was never recovered. By this time, the two
teenagers were sitting up straight in their seats,
anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of
the elderly Pastor's mouth. "The Father, "he continued,
"knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and
he could not bear the thought of his son's friend
stepping into an eternity without Jesus.... Therefore,
He sacrificed his son to save the son's friend."

How great is the love of God that He should do the
same for us! Our Heavenly Father sacrificed His
only son that we could be saved. I urge you to
accept His offer to rescue you and take a hold of
the life line He is throwing out to you in this
service." with that, the elderly man turned and sat
back down in his chair as silence filled the room.
After the service was over within minutes the two
teenagers were at the elderly man's side. "That was
a nice story," politely stated on of them, "but I don't
think it was very realistic for a Father to give up
his son's life in hopes that the other boy would become
a Christian." "Well, you've got a point there, "the
elderly man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible.
a big smile broadened his narrow face. He once again
looked up at the boys and said, "it sure isn't very
realistic, is it? but I'm standing here today to tell
you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have
been like for God to give up His son for me.
You see....
I was that Father and your Pastor is my son's friend."

Saturday out and about

2008-03-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

My sweet son, who actually does have 2 legs :)

Tempe Art Festival

My daughter and her friend

My son's brief career as a street performer :)
Daisy Mountain Railroad

Yesterday we went to the Tempe Art Festival. My daughter had a friend that came with us, she enjoyed having a friend to hang out with, I think it made it more fun for her. The festival was along a road that goes through a downtown shopping area. For a good part it was shaded, but it was a day in the 80's, already. It was a little on the toasty side in the sun. We walked around for several hours. I think it was inspiring to be there, seeing all that talent. Both my husband and I were inspired. He is interested in the metal type art, being a sheet metal mechanic and natural artist. I must also credit him for all of the pictures in this post, except the one of the girls, I took that one. I didn't bring my camera on this outing. My son was a volunteer that took part in a street performers act. He was a juggler with a dog as part of his show and needed some little volunteers. His dog jumped over the kids :) Of the Art Show one of my favorites was a contemporary artist that used crystals in her work. I wasn't aware that they were swarvoski crystal until I asked more about the paintings. The Artist used mixed medium to make some really creative unique paintings. She is actually from Florida, which I didn't find out until I checked out her website. We moved to AZ from FL almost 10 years ago. If you are interested in checking it out, her site is: www.artbypj.com My favorite was one called shared hearts. She also does some really pretty high heel shoes too.

After the Art Festival we went to the town of Anthem which is supposed to be "the perfect place for families" if you work anywhere near this oasis in the desert and can actually live there. It's in the middle of nowhere if you ask me. Once you are there though, it is well equip to keep you happy. They have the most amazing kid park I've ever seen! It is like a kid park paradise. The playground equipment was like no other I'd seen. There were also plenty of basketball courts and little fishing ponds etc... We took a ride on the Daisy Mountain railroad and the kids played in the play area.

After we left the park we caught a quick bite to eat before making the journey back to our familiar civilization. While we were finishing our dinner I looked over at a family sitting nearby, I thought to myself that I knew the woman from High School! Mind you we're talking 25 years ago now. I told my husband I was 99% sure it was her. Her name totally escaped me. I thought for a minute, what if it wasn't? total embarrassment it would surely be. My husband encouraged me to say something to her, why pass up the chance, how bizarre would it be. I went to High School in Florida and we were in the middle of nowhere in AZ! These things happen to me though. I have a list of questions for God when I see Him :) Mind you I had also run in to the alleged person at a Mom's group at the Church we were attending when my daughter was little. So you're wondering what the outcome of that was aren't you? Well I casually walked over to the trash can to throw out some trash, had to have a reason for getting up right. I needed some time to think. I thought what do I say? I'm interrupting their dinner, what if it isn't her? Oh well take a chance, if not I'm sure she won't mind the interruption right. So I said would you by chance be from Florida? YES! Did you go to, and I said the High School I graduated from.... YES! It was her and once she reminded me of her name that came back to me to. They live up there now, have for 5 years. They have been in AZ for 12 years. Small world isn't it? Of all the places and times to run into someone from your past.....It was a very nice day, enjoyed by all.

April Fools Day Idea

2008-03-25T06:12:00.001-07:00

We like to have a little fun at our house on April fools day. This caught my eye:
At first glance, a slice of this pie appears to offer something sweet: chocolate filling topped with strawberry whipped cream. But unsuspecting diners are in for a surprise.... It's really a shepherd's pie in disguise! Cocoa, molasses, and barbecue sauce give the meat its chocolaty color, while whipped potatoes infused with beet juice complete the deception. The best part of the prank is that you're also making dinner! RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
"Chocolate" Meat Loaf Filling
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon dark, unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
"Strawberry" Potato Topping
2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
Salt
1/2 cup canned sliced beets (not pickled)
1/4 cup (or more) warm milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Piecrust
Frozen pie shell (use your favorite brand)

1. Heat the oven to 350°. In a small saucepan, combine the barbecue sauce, milk, molasses, cocoa, and chili powder. Set the pan over medium heat and whisk the mixture until it is lukewarm and the cocoa is completely dissolved. Set it aside to cool.

2. Sauté the onions in the tablespoon of canola oil until they are transparent, about 7 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, celery salt, pepper, and bread crumbs. Then add the beef, egg, sauce mixture, and onion. Thoroughly mix the ingredients using your hands or a wooden spoon.

4. Remove the pie shell from the freezer. (We placed ours in a Pyrex dish to help ensure that the pie would bake evenly.) Transfer the meat to the shell, spreading it evenly with a spoon. Bake it until the meat is cooked through, about 60 minutes.

5. While the pie is baking, prepare the mashed potato topping. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and add enough water to completely submerge them. Salt the water lightly, cover the pot, and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and cook the potatoes at a low boil until they are tender, about 12 minutes.

6. While the potatoes cook, puree the beets and 1/4 cup warm milk in a blender until only small bits of beet are left in the mixture. Set aside.

7. Drain the potatoes and transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and pureed beets and, using an electric mixer, whip the mixture until it's smooth and fluffy. Add more milk if needed and salt to taste.

8. Spread the whipped potatoes over the top of the cooked meat pie with a spatula, as you would whipped cream, mounding it slightly in the center. Slice and serve the pie while the potatoes are still hot. Makes 8 servings.

FOUND! March 18th

2008-03-23T21:02:00.001-07:00

This girl that I posted about has been found. Her and her family would greatly appreciate prayer.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

After dinner last night we colored Easter Eggs, here they are minus two. After the children went to bed I filled plastic eggs for their Easter egg hunt this morning. I actually managed to stuff 48 eggs, I think they look very colorful in this lovely basket, is that an Easter basket or what? When the kids woke up they each had goodies to wake up to. They were personalized to each of them and received with excitement. We talked for a few minutes about how God is like an egg. God is 3 in 1 (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) After they went through their goodies those 48 eggs had to be hidden around the backyard. Eggs containing candy can't sit to long in the desert. I thought that it would be difficult to hide all of them but it really wasn't. Some of the eggs were hidden in pretty obvious places which made it harder to find them. Once they had found all they could we did a count to make sure none were left behind. Then we divided them equally. After a little each goody sampling it was time to get ready for Church. After Church we had some down time then headed out with family and friends to eat dinner. We ate at a family style Italian Restaurant. It was not the traditional Ham but it was still a special dinner just the same. I took a picture of the kids at home after we'd gotten back from dinner. I think it's really a sweet picture of them. Now the day comes to a close and back to our school routine we'll go in the morning.
Happy Easter! Hope yours was a Blessed one.

The upstairs bathroom has been painted!

2008-03-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

This week has been Spring Break for my children. Having the added time without having to get ready for school or drive to school & pick up, I wanted to accomplish some project around the house. Yesterday I began to tape off the upstairs kids bathroom. My husband joined in to help once he got home from work. Once all the tape was done I started to do trim. I'm ashamed to admit I bought paint for it back in June, well actually I'm not ashamed, life happens.... This paint was a good brand but all the mixing I did, it still was like painting with glue. I think only one coat is all it will take. It's finished so we'll have to go up and take a look at the coverage in total daylight.

I was partly inspired by my friend Lisa in Georgia to do a beach themed bathroom. I chose a blue color, "coastal mist" to be exact. From the swatch it looks like a very light blue. My sons room is blue and compared to it, it looks blue/green. We found a great shower curtain that reminds me of a scrapbook page of the beach minus the personal pictures. I thought it would be nice to have a picture of each child at the beach as little ones playing in the sand, Lisa did this. I haven't gotten the frames for that yet and I need to choose a size, maybe 8x10's would be nice. I also bought a coordinating rug and soap dispenser to the shower curtain. We have a stained glass window that we had in a bathroom when we lived in Florida that will go perfect in the window in this bathroom. It's actually a window taken from a house in Scotland that was being demolished. I also have some ceramic sea sell type plaques to hang on the wall. A sweet friend has also been encouraging my venture and has given me a Bible verse about peace with an anchor and the sea in the background. She also got a couple of little towels she thought the kids would like. Over the summer we took a trip up the coast of California and bought a little sand castle. I also have a couple other things that accent the room. I may surprise myself I may have more things I don't remember, it will be like Christmas :) I want to get a net and glue seashells on it and drape it from the mirror. I can't wait to start putting everything together, I love decorating! I'll have to post some after pictures. Maybe my daughter will like being in her bathroom more! She's always in mine :)

The Passion of Christ

2008-03-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

Being the Art lover that I am I found this painting. If you click on it you can view it larger. This painting sums up the Passion of Christ all in one. This is information taken from www.ArtBible.info/

Hans Memling ca. 1430 – 1494

Scenes from the Passion of Christ
oil on panel (57 × 92 cm) — 1470-71
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

Memling combined all passages from the Passion into one painting, adding the Resurrection. There are 23 scenes in total on the rather small panel. The praying figures in the lower corners are probably Tommaso Portinari and his wife, who ordered the painting.

The story starts in the top left, with the entry into Jerusalem, follows its way through town to the Garden of Gethsemane (in the lower left), continues in the central part (before Pilate, flagellation), and leaves town on its way to the hill behind the city.

If you go to the website, you will be able to move your mouse over the hotspots in the image to read a short description of the underlying scene.

Have a Blessed Easter!

A Trip to the Art Museum

2008-03-21T09:24:00.002-07:00

Sweeping Clouds by Ed Mell

Gift Bearers by Philip C. Curtis

Mountain Village by Philip C. Curtis

On Tuesday afternoon we went to the Phoenix Art Museum. From 3-9 PM most of the museum is available to see for free. We really enjoyed walking around and looking at all the beautiful works of art. We commented on what our favorites were. I especially loved the older European work done on wood. There was a room where the kids could touch a painting to feel the texture. They could also do other hands on things.

My children loved the firefly room. My son wanted to go in twice. It was a dark room only illuminated by tiny lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls appeared to be mirrored. The floor may have also been or might have just be some kind of shiny surface. When you first walked in the lights appeared to be everywhere and the floor seemed to have no bottom. I entered with caution a bit not letting my mind accept that I wasn't going to fall down.

An artist I had never heard of was Philip C. Curtis apparently he was from Arizona and did Surrealist and Abstract work. His work was interesting having a whole room dedicated to his art.

Good Friday

2008-03-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

I'm reflecting on the great sacrifice Jesus made for us. All the pain and abuse he endured so that we could live! How great His love is for us.

Horton Hears a Who, the Drive-In & spending money

2008-03-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we took the kids to the Drive In. Yes you read right, we went to a drive in! It was really fun, we brought blankets, pillows, chairs, snacks,drinks and a radio. We did buy some corn dogs and a hot pretzel there. You no longer attach a speaker to your car window at a drive-in, thus the need for the radio since we chose to sit in the back of our pick up truck. The movie is transmitted to your car radio. The cost was $6 for adults and children are free. If parents have a carload of young kids it's a pretty good deal! If we had gone at the same time to our local movie theater it would have cost $32, not including any snacks. On a side note, a friend shared that rather than going to the movies they wait until the movie they would like to see is on DVD. They buy the DVD rather than taking their family of 4 to the movies. New releases can be as little as $15. It works out to be less expensive and you can own the movie and watch it over and over again. Even if you don't know if you'll like the movie enough to own it, it's still less expensive than taking a family of 4 to the theater. As a parent I'm trying to teach my children about being good stewards of God's provision rather than indulging them at every turn, making good choices of what we spend our money on. In what has become a very self indulgent world. I'm not saying that we'll never go to the movies or treat ourselves to certain special privileges but not at every turn. I'm hoping this will also help my children to be independent adults that can afford things on their own rather than trying to keep up with a self indulgent appetite they may have been fed growing up, that will also make them confident knowing they can afford what they are accustom. I am a stay at home Mom, which obviously forces us to be this way but I'm glad it does because it's a valuable lesson and I feel it's what God wants from our family. Ok I'll climb down from my soap box and tell more about the movie :) I'm passionate about my opinions and I'm grateful that my Blog gives me the opportunity to express them.

On Saturday night it was a little chilly, so it was nice to have brought some blankets and pillows. It was a beautiful clear night. We arrived a little early and got some corn dogs to go with our snacks. Then we settled in to watch Horton Hears a Who. We thought it was a really cute movie having been fans of the book and the cartoon. I thought about the message of the movie and how no matter how big or small we all matter a persons a person.... I thought about how as a Christian I could derive some positive message in this movie and the Christian rating site "Plugged In" sums up my thoughts best. Read some of what was said at that site, this isn't the entire review but just bits of it:

Though God is never mentioned, Horton Hears a Who! explores the concept of faith in a larger—unseen—being. At first, McDodd is the only Who able to communicate with Horton, so the other Whos think the mayor is delusional. Meanwhile, McDodd is trying to wrap his mind around the idea that his whole world fits on a speck of dust atop a flower held by Horton's trunk. His difficulty in grasping this concept is heightened by the fact that he can't see Horton.

To his amazement, when he begins factoring in Horton's presence, McDodd's own world suddenly makes more sense. When he tries to explain this to his fellow Whovillians, he uses words strangely similar to John 3:8: "Look at the wind! What do you think that means?"

Out in Horton's world, the kangaroo takes a hard-line naturalist view. "If you can't see, hear or feel something, it doesn't exist!" she insists. But her dogmatism is shown to be unfair and motivated by fear of losing control over the other jungle creatures.

The mean kangaroo accuses Horton of turning the jungle children into "a bunch of harebrained half-wits" and other such things.

Hands down, the addition I was most pleased by was the exploration of faith in things unseen, which gets only a passing mention in the book, but enjoys significant screen time. The interaction between Mayor McDodd and Horton leaves viewers with the distinct impression that faith is not just reasonable, but in this case, makes one more loving and more responsible.

So moviegoers looking for a Sunday school take-home lesson all spelled out and labeled with circles and arrows won't find it here. But they will be given a chance to engage in meaningful discussion about both faith and responsibility—all because of a lumpy and lovable elephant who's sure to make parents and kids alike leave the theater waving their trunks and looking around for purple clover to pluck.

Civil War Reenactment at Picacho Peak

2008-03-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Picacho Peak near Tuscon Arizona. Early every March there is a Civil War Reenactment there. It's also the perfect time to see the desert in bloom! To my surprise I spotted an old friend and her daughter. They are reenactors and were giving a demonstration of period clothing. Afterwards I stayed and caught up with her for a while. Last year I took lots of pictures of the battle. After the Reenactment was over we went for a hike. This particular day I was having lots of problems with my camera. I have a Nikon D70 and we LOVE Nikons but I wasn't loving my camera on this day. We are still looking into the cause of it's problems. I'm still mourning the loss of some shots I took. They have disappeared into digital wasteland. It's weird because we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets at Picacho during the EL Nino about 10 years ago or so. We had camera problems that day too. The flowers were amazing that day also. It wasn't until sunset that we had our troubles. I forget what the problem was but that was before we went digital with our cameras. Well I have memories of our day, just wish I had a few more photos of my own to go with it. My husband was able to get some great shots so we do have the memories captured. Being a photographer though I wanted some of my very own.

MISSING GIRL

2008-03-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Margarita "Magui" Martinez
DOB: 4-19-1994
MISSING: 3-10-2008
2 scratches on left arm, just above the wrist; scar from a burn as a child on right index finger.
5'2", 120 lbs., hispanic
Magui has Retinitis Pigmentosa, an eye disease. Due to this, she has nightblindness, photophobia and tunnel vision.
May be accompanied by hispanic male.
Possibly in the Yuma, AZ area/ El Cajon, CA/San Diego, CA area.
If spotted, please call your local police department.
*CLICK ON THIS POST TITLE "MISSING GIRL" FOR MORE INFORMATION*

Art Masterpiece Today

2008-03-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today I did my Art Masterpiece presentation. I bring in a different work of art to the kids every two weeks. Today I brought in a painting by Pieter Brueghel, the younger called "Wedding Dance in the open air". It was received with quite a few comments, the kids also had more to say to one another about it. I began my presentation by asking the kids how many had been to weddings and how many had danced at them. I then showed them the painting, it wasn't quite the picture they had in their heads, that was fun. Most thought it look more like a wedding battle than a joyous occasion in their opinion. This particular piece was actually from the early 1600's, high Renaissance. Pieter Brueghel was a Flemish artist, from what I learned his father was an artist as well as his younger brother. His father died when Pieter was 5 so his maternal grandmother taught him how to paint. He spent a lot of time copying work of his fathers with his own variations, mainly he did town folk type work such as this and winter scenes but also did New Testament work. I recognized his fathers winter scene he was actually Pieter Brueghel, the elder. Pieter, the younger would also do ghostly, creepy, dark stuff that earned him the nickname "Hell Brueghel". I found it interesting how much red the wedding attendees wore. That really stood out to the kids also.

Hero by Superchick

2008-03-07T05:35:00.000-08:00

The song you are hearing playing on my blog is called
HERO By: Superchick
(I will eventually change it, then you can click on it if you'd like to hear the music to the words)

These are the lyrics to the song:

No one sits with him, he doesn’t fit in,
But we feel like we do when we make fun of him,
'Cause you want to belong, do you go along?
'Cause his pain is the price paid for you to belong
It’s not like you hate him or want him to die,
But maybe he goes home and thinks suicide,
Or he comes back to school with a gun at his side,
Any kindness from you might have saved his life...

TAG: Heroes are made when you make a choice...
CHORUS:
You could be a hero,
Heroes do what’s right,
You could be a hero,
You might save a life,
You could be a hero, you could join the fight,
For what’s right, for what’s right, for what’s right...

No one talks to her, she feels so alone,
She’s in too much pain to survive on her own,
The hurt she can’t handle overflows to a knife,
She writes on her arm, wants to give up her life,
Each day she goes on is a day that she is brave,
Fighting the lie that giving up is the way,
Each moment of courage her own life she saves,
When she throws the pills out, a hero is made...

TAG/CHORUS

No one talks to him about how he lives,
He thinks that the choices he makes are just his,
Doesn’t know he’s a leader with the way he behaves,
And others will follow the choices he’s made,
He lives on the edge, he’s old enough to decide,
His brother who wants to be him is just nine,
He can do what he wants because it’s his right,
The choices he makes change a nine-year-old's life...

TAG/CHORUS

Little Mikey-Dee was the one in class
Who everyday got brutally harassed
This went on for years
Till he decided that never again would he shed another tear
So he walked through the door
And grabbed the .44 out of his father's dresser drawer
He said 'I can't take life no more'
And like that a life can be lost
But this ain't even about that
All of us just sat back and watched it happen
Thinking its not our responsibility
To solve a problem that isn't even about me
Well this is our problem
This is just one of the daily scenarios
In which we choose to close our eyes
Instead of doing the right thing
If we make a choice and be the voice
For those who won't speak up for themselves
How many lives would we saved, changed, rearrange
It's our time to make a shine
So don't keep walking by cause you don't want to intervene.
Cause you just want to exist and never be seen
So lets wake up, change the world
Our time is now.

You could be a hero - (Our time is now) heroes do what’s right
You could be a hero - (Our time is now) you might save a life
You could be a hero - (Our time is now) you could join the fight
For what’s right, for what’s ri-ight...

Junior High and High School kids can totally relate to this song. We are all wounded in some way at some time. There are Church youth groups that are trying to reach the kids. I hope that more of them will make it a priority. I pray that more kids would be bold enough to not go with the crowd that taunts and mocks those kids that are different. We need more of those "Heros" in our schools. There is strength in numbers and they can go either one way or another either to be a positive force or a negative. We live near a Church that has a skate ministry, I think it's awesome that they invest in this. Teenagers are so important, it's critical that they be listened to and heard. They are pretty complicated, don't let that scare you away. I spent time with some and they are so awesome. They are just figuring out who they are. They are trying to fit in to what they feel is the mold they need to fit into. There is no mold and each child is unique and has so much to offer. One of my favorite quotes is from a movie called "What a girl wants" and it is "why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out". I LOVE that and wish every teen would hear it and take it to heart. I hope and pray that some way teens can be reached and lives can be changed.

44 Things to make you smile

2008-03-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

1. Falling in love.

2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.

3. A hot shower.

4. No lines at the supermarket

5. A special glance.

6. Getting mail.

7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.

8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.

9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.

10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.

11. Chocolate milkshake (vanilla or strawberry).

12. A bubble bath.

13. Giggling.

15. The beach.

16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.

17. Laughing at yourself.

18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they Love you

19. Midnight phone calls that last for hours.

20. Running through sprinklers.

21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.

22. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.

23. Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS

24. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.

25. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.

26. Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).

27. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.

28. Playing with a new puppy.

29. Having someone play with your hair.

30. Sweet dreams.

31. Hot chocolate.

32. Road trips with friends.

33. Swinging on swings.

34. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.

35. Making chocolate chip cookies.

36. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.

37. Holding hands with someone you care about.

38. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change.

39. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.

40. Watching the sunrise.

41. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day.

42. Knowing that somebody misses you.

43. Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply.

44. Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.

Bedtime Stories

2008-03-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight as planned we went to hear bedtime stories at school. As a side note I didn't realize it was Dr. Seuss's Birthday. Thank you Heidi for pointing that out :) That would explain the two individuals in the Library dressed in the Cat in the Hat hats! Also my son came home with a need to bring the Green Eggs and Ham book to school tomorrow. I love Dr. Seuss, can't wait for the Horton Hears a who movie!

Well back on track here, the night began with the principal wearing a night cap and nightgown reading to the children, with a Cat in the Hat back drop. It ended with milk and cookies. After the principal read we then broke out and could go to different classrooms of our choice to hear more stories. Our classrooms at our school are all very unique. Each classroom has some sort of comfy reading corner usually with a couch and some pillows so it all fit in well for a night of bedtime stories. The school strongly promotes literature and writing. The classrooms are set up in a way that makes it comfortable for the students to gather and discuss their reading in depth. The first classroom was my favorite and they had a cool loft area with a ladder in the classroom. It was there that I heard my favorite book of the night. It was called "Airmail to the Moon" by Tom Birdseye. It was adorable and the teacher did a wonderful job reading it with just the right voices, I was captivated along with the kids by her story telling :) She even got the kids involved in saying "send'em airmail to the moon" each time. I loved it so much I just bought it at Amazon! Here is a review of it:

This children's book has so many different things to it!! If you are looking for a different tooth fairy book, look no further. If you are searching for a longer children's book with lively characters, this is it. With diverse, distinctive, atypical characters, you and your child will love this unusual tooth fairy story about a little girl who loses her tooth. Literally!

With lively, entertaining, vivid sentences such as "Some crook stole my tooth. And when I catch'em, I'm gonna open up a can of gotcha and send'em airmail to the moon!", this book comes alive with an entertaining story. The family lives on a farm in this book and the illustrations are hilarious such as one of a little girl hanging upside down, with her legs hooked over the tree limb, panties showing and all. From the picture of dad outside shaving and his pants hanging from a tree limb to Ora Mae Cotton sitting in a pig pen beside of a couple of pigs, the illustrations will leave you in stitches! The colorful, bright pictures of a cartoon farm family are entertaining in and of themselves, they really tell the story!

This is a story of a little girl who has a wobbly tooth that finally pops out, hops in bed, awaiting the tooth fairy's money drop. The next morning, the tooth is missing and no money was left so Ora Mae assumes somebody stole it and sets off to find the culprit to send him "airmail to the moon." She goes to her mother who says the tooth fairy may have just forgotten to leave the money. When this does not satisfy Ora Mae, her mother says to talk to her father. Her father talks about the tooth fairy grinding up teeth and the tooth fairy waiting on the tooth dust to turn into money. Not very happy with that answer, she insists someone stole the tooth. Her father sends her on to her brother. Ora Mae considers that her brother lost some teeth and probably needed hers as a replacement.

Her brother tells her that the tooth fairy took her teeth, no money down or possibly she gave it to some baby in need of a tooth, but that he would never be able to use a girl's tooth to replace his own. He gives her the idea that maybe the little sister has something to do with the stolen tooth so Ora Mae heads to find her. Her little sister is hanging from a tree branch upside down and tells Ora Mae that no, she did not take it but the tooth fairy takes teeth to make doorknobs. Or Ora Mae could have thrown it away with the spaghetti. So right then and there Ora Mae broke down crying, "nobody was a bit of help." The whole family comes arunning to check on her as her sobs get bigger and louder. She then sticks her hands deep into her pockets.....to find....her tooth, right where she left it.

This was an enjoyable, creative book and I think that any child would get a kick out of it! Some very interesting takes on just what the tooth fairy does with all of those baby teeth she collects each night.

PJ Day

2008-03-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today is PJ day at school. Both kids were excited about wearing their PJ's. When we arrived at school my daughter looked around and thought this must be a joke! She didn't see hardly anyone dressed in PJ's in the parking lot. I reminded her that she and her friend talked about it yesterday and both agreed to wear their PJ's, no joke. You are not on Punk'd and this isn't Candid Camera. We saw a small percentage of kids in the parking lot. It's not a requirement of course but at the 6th grade level sadly it becomes more about what their peers are going to do, not wanting to looking foolish.... The thoughts must have really been going through her head, I didn't realize she'd left her backpack in the car. I'm guessing it was her life line out of there, she had pre meditated it :) Should have caught on when she wanted to walk with her brother and I to the little kids playground. Her area was the opposite direction. Then I noticed and said "where's your backpack?". I'm going home to change, she said. I tried to talk her into it, that it would be fine.... she was then ok with the idea, thankfully it didn't take much convincing. I think it's sad to worry about what everyone else is doing. HAVE FUN! Her biggest concern was how silly her sneakers looked with her PJ's - today is PE. I'm guessing that will be an interesting sight though. I didn't bring the camera because she didn't want me to, out of respect for her I left it at home. She did agree to pose for the above photo :) Tonight we go back to school for Bedtime story night with cookies. I will be bringing my camera then. If she doesn't want her picture taken, it's ok. Now the thought is, will me and my husband be wearing our PJ's?????? He actually doesn't own any, you didn't need to know that though did you? I think the Sponge Bob underwear would not be appropriate. I guess so he's not the odd man out I'll be wearing my clothes :) we'll seeeeee.........