An Award for The Spirit of Christmas

Although it is only October, Lynn, has seen fit to present to me the "Spirit of Christmas" Award.
Lynn got the award from Patti & Michele...eary too! In fact she gave me this award a while back and I'm just now finally getting around to posting it...thanks to DH makingasking me to do the laundry last night.

According to Michele, this is what Santa himself says about this award:

"Ho! Ho! Ho! EveryoneAs we are now into the last 57 days before Christmas I am releasing my next group of the Christmas Spirit Award. This award is for those who talk about and show the spirit of Christmas in their blogs. What is the Spirit of Christmas you ask? Quite simply it is those that have a generous and giving nature. Those who care about others. Those who have a kind word to say or a broad shoulder to lean on in the times that others need that. Those who display the "Spirit of Christmas". This is the only award that I am releasing that you may pass on to others. I am giving it to five and you should too. Those that have touched your heart with their kind and giving and caring nature.As always,Santa ô¿ô"


According to Patti, who got her award from Linda: This award originated at Santa's Community Blog and can be passed on to as many other bloggers as I'd like. According to Santa, the Spirit of Christmas Award:"Quite simply it is those that have a generous and giving nature. Those who care about others. Those who have a kind word to say or a broad shoulder to lean on in the times that others need that. Those who display the "Spirit of Christmas".


Unlike the game telephone, the spirit of this award seems to be intact. So with out much further ado, I would like to bestow this award to: Jen, Heather, Maura, Haley, & Ladybug. Congratulations to you all, and may the spirit of the upcoming season fill your lives with joy.


Santa has asked that you pick up the code and instructions here at this post: Santa Claus The Spirit Of Christmas Award.

Leaf Crunching & some venting...

Happy Fall Everyone!

Well now that our little snow storm has all melted away (BTW: we had snow here on Oct 21st You can see some pictures of it here, here & here.) we went to MIL's to try to install a snow melt kit for her gutters and rake up the leaves. The snow melt kit is a wire heating system you can put up to help the snow melt and keep it from freezing up your gutters. And of course you know about raking up leaves.

Darly was all excited to rake the leaves because she could earn some cash. She's trying to save up for another Webkinz. But DH got tired of waiting for her (she got distracted by the Disney Channel on MIL's TV!) and he started raking the leaves for her. He had most of the front yard finished when Darly came out and yelled at him. I was inside the nice warm house but noticed that Darly looked upset. After I found out the "problem" I was about to go inside but DH was about ready to help again so I asked if I could help her get the leaves in the trash can so Dh could mow the yard.

After we finished up MIL's hard we decided to do her neighbor's yard too. Now her neighbor has no physical or mental problem preventing him from raking the yard and he also hasn't bothered to pay anyone to rake the leaves...He just hasn't done it. This is normal for the neighbor...he never rakes the leaves. Well the wind (it's very windy here) blows the majority of the leaves into MIL's yard...which means more raking for us (see neighbor just waits until the leaves blow down the street instead of doing any work himself.) As we were raking, both of the neighbors came out to watch us...not saying anything at all to us. MIL went and said hi while we were raking and explained that we didn't want to have to rake the leaves from her yard...over and over. Neighbor didn't thank us and never talked to us at all...just watched us. Too weird. I told MIL it must have something to do with all the dead braincells they have...they do a lot of smoking over there and I'm not talking about smoking meat.

Anyway
Sunday School is going fairly well. Although the lessons we teach have quizzes to go with them to see if the kids are learning. There's also homework. But since the kids whined that they're too busy with "real school" they kinda stopped requiring that the kids actually do the homework...and there's no accountability for the quizzes. I'm not sure if the older kids have any requirements at all for getting through their confirmation. Because of the age of the curriculum I'm using it has been altered quite a bit from it's original form...but not completely altered. The Student book is 1 inch thick...the teacher's book is 4 inches thick. All the quizzes in the student book are much shorter than the teacher's version...some are so changed that the teacher's lesson doesn't even match the student's version. So for the past two weeks I've been re-writing the lessons to fit what the students have to learn.
The homework for each week covers the lesson we will do on Sunday. So we don't read the entire lesson in class...they should have done that for the homework. So I'm checking the teacher's book and trying to cover what it has if it's relevant to the student's quiz...but mostly I'm having the kids re-read where all the answers are and doing some explaining if it's necessary.

Even with this shortened version of the text we still just barely have enough time to cover the lesson.

So today my "co-teacher" decides to show up. Some background... For each class they like to have two teachers. I signed up last year. I knew I would be teaching. Mr. N wanted to teach the class for his son, but that class already had two teachers. These are the same two teachers that have taught that class for years. I suspect that next year they will also be teaching that class so I'll have to either teach a class other than Darly's or I'll have to take a class myself. So Mr. N decided that he would co-teach the 5th graders again...at least that's what he said.

On the first day, he showed up for a few minutes as he was on his way to some marathon that he was running that day. For the 2nd class he decided to "help" with his son's class...even though they didn't need him...and I did because I had 24 students in a room built for about 12!!! So he finally shows up for the 3rd class and keeps butting in with his opinions, which were relevant to the lesson so it didn't bother me too much.

but todayyesterday he showed up after not being there for weeks and started butting in again. Remember how I said I would be pressed for time? Well Mr. N started off on a tangent that was no way related to our lesson and I still had about 5 more topics to cover before I let them go...in like 5 minutes. Finally I just had to jump in and say "OKAY! For #3 we need to look up Genesis 24:..." well I don't even remember which verse at this point. We ended up being a few minutes late...not so good since today was Confirmation, so the Church was crowded.

Ya know, if he wants to teach the class...GREAT...let me know and teach the class. But to just show up and go off on a tangent about how Sunday School is boring to his son and how the kids should follow the commandment about honoring your parents...was so not cool in my book. (course it doesn't help much that I'm a bit of a control freak and he was throwing off my whole lesson. Okay, I'm a LOT of a control freak.)


Well now I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Halloween this year will NOT be interrupted by game 6 of the World Series...oh, that's the bad news too. DH is crushed.

comment answering post

Comments for: Gone - Toby Mac

LadyBugCrossing said...
I LOVE that song!! It's one of my favorites!!

Mine too! Although my favorite by him right now is "Burn For You" but I couldn't find a decent video of it. There were quite a few of him singing it in concert but of course the folks there couldn't get the crowd to shut up! LOL!"


Jen said...
Oh crap, for a second there I thought you were saying that Toby Mac had died...

It took me a second to figure out what you were talking about. LOL! Unfortunately YouTube posts the titles on these. I guess I should have gone in and put quotes around the song title huh? Hope I didn't scare you too much.




Comments for: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow


Jen said...
Bill Nye is back on TV? I'll have to search for it and get him on the DVR. I haven't seen his show in AGES!!!!

I didn't wake up in time to see what the title of the show was. I just know it was Bill Nye. This particular show showed how to make blown glass, paper and swords...then I went to bed.

Lynn said...
I love Bill Nye The Science Guy Bill Bill Bill Bill... You reminded me that I haven't gotten a pumpkin yet.

I gave you another award;~)

I love Bill Nye too...which is why I stayed up another 20 minutes watching him. Our grocery store still had lots of pumpkins yesterday so you should find one easily. And I saw that award. I need to figure out how to put them all on my sidebar and get more time at the computer so I can share the love. Thanks!


Kailani said...
I read somewhere that you tend to memorize things more quickly if you relate it to a tune/song. I guess the same goes for retention.

I didn't use a song to remember these...just kept repeating them over and over. See we could get extra credit in the class for all of them that we could remember...and I NEEDED the extra credit because this teacher spent a lot of time having us figure out the symbolism which I still feel was HIS opinion on what the symbolism meant (cuz my answers didn't match his...which is why I needed the extra credit. LOL!) So the more we had memorized, the more points we got. I also had to learn "Bubble, Bubble..." and "Out, Out damn spot!" And still I wonder why.

TC said...
Sounds like Darly is really in control of your social life ;-)
Just wait until you're a parent. ;-) Everyone's social life is controlled by who they hang out with. If you're in college, it's your classmates. If you're in the work force, it's your co-workers. If you're a homeschooling stay at home mom, it's your childen's friend's mothers. At least in my case, I'm having lots of fun and learning new things all the time.


.:mar said...
You amaze me every time I come over :)

I'm in awe of you also. Love the awesome pictures from your country...it's such a pretty place that you live in.


Goofy Girl said...
Sounds like a fun trip to the farm, I like seeing the animals!

We love the farm. Darly kept asking before we went if we could go pet the goats. and while we were there this time one of the employees had one of the 2 week old goats out so that the kidschildren could pet her. So Darly was in real love. I of course wanted to pet the rabbits...but the way they have them pened the rabbits don't have any contact with humans so they're ferral. But they're still very cute!


Heather said...
Such a busy homeschooling... I mean UNschooling mom!

Bill Nye... LOL What on earth was your TV doing on at 3:00am! LOL

And having lots of fun too! LOL! Ummm the reason the TV was on at 3am was I fell asleep on the couch watching TV and Your daughter was keeping my daughter up to that hour ;-) . I went to where they were playing and asked them if they knew what time it was. They thought it was only 12 am. When I told them to go to bed they both whined that they were just starting a new game and they weren't tired! Then they kept the lamp on so I have no idea how long they were in bed still playing!

Gone - Toby Mac

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-27)

It's amazing the kind of silly stuff our brain retains after all these 20 plus years and then all of the important stuff happening right now that just keeps being lost!

I was trying to come up with a post and then a title and this popped into my head...then I had to go look it up so that I got it right...I had one word wrong...not too shabby after that long, huh. But what does it all mean? I mean what did it all mean. Why did my 11th grade english teacher require that not only should I be able to read it, but that I should memorize this? Why did he make me imprint this THIS on my brain for all these years???

I get that the soliloquie means that life is short and "what's it all for?"; but what I don't get is why I had to learn it. Any ideas?

Okay well that was a tangent post cuz I really came to tell you what has been going on here lately.

Tuesday we had a field trip up to the Pumpkin patch to get our annual pumpkins. Darly's newest friend wasn't going to be able to come on the trip due to transportation issues so I volunteered to take her with us...and since I didn't want to drive all the way to friend's house in the morning tacking on another 30 minutes of driving time to our trip, I offered to go pick her up on Monday and have her spend the night. Which except for the girlies staying up until 3AM went very well. Did anyone else know that Bill Nye comes on the Discovery Channel at 3am??? I didn't until he woke me up. LOL!

The farm was suposed to teach the kids about how all the food we eat comes from the farm...but the lady didn't do that. Probably a good thing as most of the kiddos have been there 3 years in a row and know the entire speach by heart by now...but anyway. LOL! It was a fun trip.

I would post pictures, but I don't have any...I got there and realized that I forgot to charge up my camera batteries. DOH!!! sorry folks.

The kids did get to see the 4 brand new baby goats on the farm and how some of the rabbits have dug their way out of the rabbit pen and now live free and ferral on the farm (they were soooooooooo cute!!!) And we got to meet Miles the bison who thinks he's a dog (but he doesn't like to be petted) and the Highlands Cows (there were two calfs! too cute!) And we got there after noon and all the other school groups had left so we had the farm to ourselves. YAY! I love getting to go places and not have to fight against all the school groups.

On our way home from the trip, friend asks if she can stay over another night. And I didn't care, so I said it would be okay if it was okay with her mom. So she calls up her mom and it's fine...we just need to have her home today before she has to be home for Church.

And now another friend would like for us to go to the park...so we'll see if that happens. LOL!

Investiture

We did our Girl Scout Investiture/Rededication & Bridging ceremony on Friday.

I got off on the wrong foot by not leaving the house soon enough. I decided that a last minute stop at Wally world was necessary to purchase some flowers to decorate with. We were only about 6 minutes later than we said we would be, but one family beat me there.

As luck would have it the lady who comes in to change the eternal candle showed up just as I did and I didn't really need my key to the Church as she let us all in! Oh well, saved me from fiddling with the door.

I needed to get the chairs set up
the candle lighting area set
the programs out
the girl's law/promise fans
and cook my pot luck dish

The room (a former sanctuary) was perfect for the occasion. We set an old altar table up on the old chancel, covered it with a green table cloth and put the candles up on it with some of the flowers (Daisies of course!) It looked really good.

One of the moms agreed to help me make my Mac & Cheese since I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. (reminder: next time get my ducks in a row so I can delegate more of this stuff!!!) She and her hubby had set up the chairs for me. And then I just needed to get the programs & fans out.

Then we waited for the bridge to arrive. See our service unit has a bridge that we can borrow for ceremonies. Well it arrived...oh my was I disappointed! I was expecting to see something pretty...you know, for a GIRL SCOUT ceremony. Instead we got something that resembled a bicycle jumping ramp! The sad thing is that last time we had a bridging we did use a bicycle jumping ramp...but since we knew this we covered it with cardboard and decorated it up nicely. This time we didn't know until it got there what we had. Luckily I had bought extra flowers at Wally World and we were able to decorate it a bit. Darly did an awesome job at putting the flowers on it!

Next we set up the Brownie pond...a mirror with some fabric around it to simulate water. I set the mirror beside the bridge to try to make it seem as if the water flowed under the bridge.

In the end it all looked okay. I think next time I'll look for a better bridge. Of course when I bridged (as a kid) we used an overturned kitchen chair! So I shouldn't really be grumbling about the bike ramp, huh?

So now it was time to eat! There were tons of Yummy foods to choose from. The kids mostly ate Mac & Cheese! The adults had lots of stuff to choose from. Goulash, Sweedish Meatballs, Lumpia, Chicken Pot Pie, Ham & Egg bake, brownies and Candy Bar pie. Yummmmm!

The ceremony started off with the Bridging as we wanted to have the girl be rededicated at her new level. Unfortunately she was a bit nervous being up in front of everyone. But it was really low key. She just crossed over the bridge and put on her new vest.

Then I read the Brownie Story to them and had the Brownies do the "Twist me and turn me and show me the Elf; I looked in the water and saw _________" So they all looked in the "water" to see themselves.

Now it was time for the Investiture/Rededication part. We have a multi-age troop with Daisies, Brownies & Juniors. There are 3 Daisies and the Girl Scout Promise has 3 parts so I thought it would be cute for the Daisies to light the Promise candle (a 3 wicked blue candle)...well only two of the Daisies showed up... and then we didn't have enough of the older girls to do all of the other candles. So I had one Daisy and her sister (a Brownie) help me to light the Promise candle. Then the other girls all took turns lighting a candle for each part of the Girl Scout Law. That all went really well. I think that only one girl got hot wax on her...and I still don't know how that happened. But many girls blew out the Law candles when trying to blow out their lighter candle.

After all the candles were lit, I invited all the girls up to blow them out (like a huge birthday cake.) But then I got smart and remembered that the parents might want some pictures. So I had them wait for a bit and let the parents snap as many pictures as they wanted. Then when the flashing died down I told the girls to blow out the candles! They enjoyed that.

Next it was time for the girls' presentations. They could get up in front of everyone and do anything they wanted. We had silly songs, serious songs, a story and some scripture. It was all very nice and everyone seemed to get over their stage fright very well.

Now it was time to clean up. Everyone chipped in and it all went very well. I think that we were all cleaned up and out of there in 20 minutes. Which was awesome! I was worried that I would be there for an hour after I heard all the stuff I had to do from the building manager. And he even left the lid to the dumpster open for me so I didn't have to walk all the way around to open it...YAY.

Oh and while we were cleaning up Darly got invited for a sleep over, so DH & I went out to dinner on Saturday night to a place that Darly hates. hee hee!

In other news: We got our first snow fall of the year last night/this morning...I don't know for sure...just that we woke up to snow. At first it didn't seem like it would stick to the roads, but by the time we got ready to leave for Church we had to shovel and when we came back, you couldn't tell we had shoveled. *sigh*
The sad part is that our trees weren't expecting this and all the brances are hanging down with snow. DH just shook off my apple tree (the one that produced over 14 dozen apples this year) and he says it's broken. My cherry tree was bent all the way over and touching the ground. boo hoo Hopefully they get ready for winter fast. I may go rip the leaves off my cherry tree (I did that last year and it was fine.)

progress

okay. Here's where I'll be posting my progress on getting my house cleaned.


Items to do:
Have Darly clean her room (saving this for the day she gets here)will need this again...but got a major portion of junk cleared out!
Guest room closet.
Guest bedroom...new sheets, towels, etc
weird closet
my closet not really necessary, but I was on a roll!
Bathroom (saving this for right before she gets here)
Clean dining room and put out table cloth
Family room - get Darly's stuff out of there and dust bunnies
Office
Kitchen <-got started on this!
laundry
downstairs bathroom DH did this one!

Mom's arrival has been pushed up to Friday, but I don't know if I'll see her until Monday...seeing as no one is answering their phones.

In case you were wondering

nope, no more progress has been made on the cleaning of my house. However, I am happy to report that the areas that were cleaned are still cleaned. YAY!

I think that I'll make a drawing of the downstairs and a list of what all needs to happen in a post and then update it as it gets done and link to it in each aditional post.

The reason for no further progress in the house cleaning is...
Tuesday: Sign Language class, play with friends at said class, gymnastics, drive Darly to sleepover.
Wednesday: was supposed to have the day to myself, but Darly called...she wasn't feeling well. So I go to get her, give her a Pepto and by the time we are home she is all better. Dh was home and did some "Honey Do" items for me and I went to the grocery store. Oh and I had some copies made for Friday.
Thursday: We went to the National Center for Atmospheric Research center in Boulder, CO. A very cool place! Then we went in search of a new purse for me...see purse saga below...and more gymnastics.

Today: Lilly went to the Groomer. I stopped by Church to pick up a key and stayed to help with bulletins and now I'm blogging but will be putting the finishing touches on our Girl Scout Investiture Ceremony for this evening.

Tomorrow: My BIL is in town (DH's brother) so we will probably spend some quality time over at MIL's house...DH & BIL will be installing a roof/gutter snow melt system to help keep snow from backing up into MIL's house and leaking. I expect this procedure to take about 5 times as long as the box says it should. Why?
1) DH is a perfectionist and second guesses himself so it normally takes him 3 times as long to do anything.
2) DH & BIL will spend a lot of the time bickering about the correct way to do it.

So we'll be at MIL's house all day. I don't know if that will be all day Sat or Sun at this point.

Oh yeah, I need to run back to the Church on Sat morning to unload the dishwasher from our ceremony on Friday night.

But it looks like I can work on the house again on Monday. So maybe I can work on a bit each Monday or each week until D-Day.

I'm not sure when D-Day is yet. LOL! My brother called me last night to confirm that I was okay with Mom staying here for the entire time... (aprox Nov 19 through Jan 7). I laughed and said that yes it was okay. I told him that I made plans with my friends for hiding at their homes if I need to escape from "mother overload." LOL! It will be okay...it will be okay...

so far...

I got the 3 closets marked with blue done this morning. I pulled out TONS of stuff to donate to charity and lots of trash too. (man we keep too much stuff!)

Crazy lady ramblings...

Yesterday I agreed that my mom could come and stay with us from around November 19th to after Christmas. Here's why...

My brother called her and found out that she is going to finally marry my "step-dad," after living with him for the past 14 years, for health insurance purposes. If they get married, he can add her to his policy through work...before her policy from her former employer runs out. So my brother suggests that she come here to get married (even though she just wanted to run to the court house and get it done quickly) and to sweeten things for her he offered that she could come and see the sonogram of her next grandchild (my SIL is expecting in April.)

Mom needs to find out if she can even tolerate breathing at our altitude. She is still on oxygen and gets winded quite easily. And even though there is less air here, we are hoping that perhaps our arid climate might help to dry out her lungs (she still has pneumonia from last March) and help her to breath easier. So she is thinking that she'll need to stay here at least a month to see if she can make it.

So that's my first worry...getting her here on the airplane (can she go that long w/o her oxygen tank?) getting her back on oxygen and getting her to my house.

Next we have the fun that my house is 2 stories (bedrooms all on second floor) and you have to climb up 4 stairs just to get inside. Mom can't do stairs very easily. She thinks that she'll be okay if she sits down and pushes herself up with her legs. She needs to sleep with her head elevated so she wants to sleep on the recliner. Ideally we would like for her to sleep upstairs in the guest bedroom...but if she can't do the stairs...she'll need to sleep on the main floor. Which means that Darly & I won't be able to stay up so late anymore. (that's probably a good thing.)

If she's staying here a month...where ever her "room" is, she's gonna need someplace to put her clothes. The guestroom has a desk, but no dresser. See that room has part of the bedroom set that DH's parents gave him when he moved out...his old bedroom set. The night stand is in our room on DH's side of the bed. The dresser is in Darly's room and the desk is in the guest room.

Idea #1. Finally get Darly a bedroom set and move the dresser that goes with that set into the guest bedroom.

Idea #2. Finally get US a bedroom set and move our dresser into the guest room.

Idea #3. the cheapest, rearrange my things and finally get rid of clothes that I don't really use anyway and take my sweater dresser out of my closet and put it in the guest room temporarily. Which if we find that she actually can't do the stairs and needs to sleep downstairs makes the most sense as that dresser will fit nicely downstairs.

Technically my office could be a bedroom...but that would mean moving some things around in here. The closet in here is also the foyer closet. If I clean the foyer closet there would be room for Mom to use it for her things. I would still have to move the dresser down here for her and take some of these boxes out of here. It could work. I don't know how that would affect my ability to use the internet...but less time on line might be okay for a month...right?

That leaves the bathroom issue though. Our downstairs bathroom is only a half-bath. The room is large enough to be an entire bathroom, but the first owner didn't have them install the tub/shower. We have the time before she gets here to put in a shower...if we can figure out where the pipes are...the should be acessable from the basement if they aren't already in the walls. The bummer is that I've always wanted to knock out that wall and put in a closet for our coats by the garage door...but a shower in there wouldn't be bad...I suppose it might increase the value of our home.

Okay, I think that I've thought out all the housing logistics of having her here.

Then there's the fun of having my mom here for not one but TWO holidays. With my "stepdad" here for at least one of them and he's on a restricted diet. I may just have to tell my mom to stay out of the kitchen and tell "dad" to take more of his high blood pressure meds for that.

But first I need to clean the house. Now would be an awesome time for me to go through everything and get rid of a bunch of stuff we aren't using anyway...like all the cardboard boxes that I've been hoarding. See I have moving issues. We haven't moved ourselves since I got married, but I like boxes. The rabbits like boxes (and I have no problems sharing with them!) But do I really need all these boxes here? Our crawl space is full of boxes for all my stuff. The computer boxes in there are a good thing. The sterio boxes too. But do I really need the box for my crockpots & my gravy warmer? I'm thinking...no! DH is a hoarder of boxes too. We have one large box that is full of little boxes for all my knick knacks...that the last time we moved, I packed all together in another box. *eyeroll* So time to purge them!

We also really need to purge Darly's toys. She has so many toys that she doesn't even know what to do with them all. She pulls out stuff to find other things and doesn't put the first stuff back. Our house is a really big mess.

I need one of those "Clean Sweep" interventions. I really think that if someone else came here and hauled all this stuff out of our house onto the lawn that I could truely go through and get rid of 75% of it easily. But I would need them for almost every room of my house.
Do those organization companies do that for you?

I wonder if any of my friends is an organization junky and would be willing to help me go through all of this?

As you might have guessed...last night was NOT a restful night of sleep. I got up with DH this AM thinking about all of this!

It's official!

...if you ever had any doubt whatso-ever about my sanity...today has made it perfectly clear to me at least that I am officially CRAZY!!!

Today my mother called and I agreed to allow her to live here from Nov 19th-ish to after Christmas!

Well at least I gave myself a month to clean my house up to her standards and she's bringing me a Dyson vacuume cleaner.

So to my local friends... if it seems as if I invite myself to your house and stay a lot longer than normal...you'll now know why.

I should probably start a fund to pay for my extra hair coloring sessions...hummm?

Ohhh I just had a thought, I could volunteer at my Church a lot more since she can watch Darly...oooh poor kiddo!

BURRRRRR! & random thoughts

Well that cold front that the weather guy has been predicting for about 3 weeks has finally made it's apperance! I'm freezing my tuuckas off in my computer room here! Luckily Dh has switched the system over to the furnace...I wonder what that darned thermostat is set at???...okay it was at 73 and I left it alone and grabbed a fleece throw.

sometimes the thermostat resets itself at 68! Burr that's too cold for me! I know we'll pay for it when the gas bill comes, but that's the cost of living here. We need a house set at 73.

Course it would help if I went upstairs and put on a sweater...but I'm procrastinating on cleaning the rabbit cage and I don't want to add extra fur to my sweater...so I'm wearing a t-shirt that I plan to toss into the wash when I'm done down there.

The bunny mess isn't too bad, but when I sweep up the fur flies and sticks to everything. Course I'll totally tick off the bunnies when I do this. While they like a clean cage, they don't like for anyone to mess with their stuff...they're very territorial. Silly Rabbits!

I also need to start my candle holders for our Girl Scout investiture next Friday. I'm hoping that I can take some of my left-over fire wood and drill holes in it. So I guess I had better get started on that in case it doesn't work and I need a plan B. I just had a plan B that will work pretty well I think. If I find some styrofoam (we have lots in the basement) and press the holes in it...I can paint it with tempra paints to look like wood. That would be much lighter too. Hummmm? LOL!

Comment fest!

Well this post didn't pull as much traffic as my Sleeping Around post that I can't find now, but you sure had lots to say about it.

Lynn said...
I can't believe that you have moved so much. The longest I have ever lived in one place (so far) is during my 'wonderbread years' ages birth through twelve. I remember when I was in college, and was able to fit all of my belongings into my car. Now I couldn't even fit all of the junk in my closet into my car. sigh lol

When I got married everything I owned fit into two suitcases and a box. Now our 2500 sq ft house has a hard time holding all of it! We kept our belongings smaller in the beginning because we didn't want them lost or broken...but now that we're not moving so much we've kinda gone crazy!


Joan said...
That's an incredible timeline of moving...I can't imagine what it must have been like to be so mobile during your formative years. To have survived such turmoil and instability is a testament to your resourcefulness and strength.

I think that kids in general are pretty good at adapting to what's going on. I know that Darly was REALLY mad when the packers came to get her (ours too of course, but her's was the only stuff that mattered) stuff when we moved from Korea. But she's fine now. Of course if we decided to move now that we've been here for so long she would throw a really good fit. But she would get over it.


Jen said...
I'm seriously considering burning my house down and starting over. It was so nice being in the camper, because it was easy to keep clean and it wasn't cluttered up.

It does need a little more seating, though. I need a space with at least once seat (not counting beds) for everyone... Oh, and some craft supply storage.

LOL! Sometimes I would like to do that too. Coming back can be overwhelming. The sad thing is when I first went camping we had our little tent and a few things and were just fine...had a great time. Now I've got so much camping stuff that it seems like I'm moving the entire house and I wanna look into getting one of those trailers like Cheryl had for camping. LOL! Welcome home.

TC said...
the story goes that my aunt was all whiney about not having a daughter so my mom says you can have this one.

Seriously????????? No way. Wow.

I lived in my parents house from just over a year until I went to college. Then since then, I've moved over 20 times. I'm kind of sick of moving.

I found out later in life that my parents tried on a few occasions to get someone else in thier families to take of us. It seems that the longest they could get anyone to take us was about 6 months. And we weren't bad kids...honest!

Bone said...
I made some stupid decisions and got kicked out on my own.

Was that when you buzzed those Jehovah's witnesses into the building and they couldn't get them out?

I swear that guy said he was here to deliver a pizza to the party in 2B! How was I supposed to know he was lying???

followed idiot boyfriend

I wonder how many girls have thought that about me. LOL

I'm sure that none of them thought that Bone....*snicker*

I think the longest I've lived anywhere was in my first apartment when I moved out of my parents house. I live there for eight or nine years, I think.

Wow! On your own for that long in one place. That's kinda unusual. Although both of my BIL's had a place on their own for that long. I guess I'm just so used to my nomadic life that hearing things like that just seems unusual.

Kailani said...
I can't imagine having to move that many times. For me I think it's only been maybe 5 and even then it was such a hassle. You don't realize how much stuff you accumulate until you have to pack it all up!

Yeah, every time we had to move we always swore that we would get rid of the old junk...but you should see how many boxes of junk are in our basement...not even opened!


Barbara said...
I hope you get to put down deeper roots. Good luck staying where you are.

I don't think that we're going anywhere for a while. Dh was complaining about the gutter we had replaced a few weeks ago...it wasn't done the way he wanted it. So he was torn between calling the guy to come fix it or just leaving it and hoping we sell this place before it goes bad again.

Nicole said...
That's a lot of moving for one person. The max I have ever lived in one dwelling is 4 years. Hopefully, this year I will beat that by living in our current house for 5 years. Whoohoo. I love growing roots.

I like staying put and painting my walls too!


Heather said...
LOL I like to move too... I just like redecorating ;) BUT I am not ready to move in the next 5 years... I want to stay put... even if I have to buy this house ;)

do you REALLY want to buy that house? I mean it works but it's not really ideal for you & the fam. Course if you wanted to buy, you would want perfect...right?

the longest I ever lived somewhere

On my last post I was whining about a bad move. One of my commenters said she had lived in her house for 18 years and that got me to thinking about what was the longest I had ever lived somewhere. so I got out a handy dandy excel spreadsheet and tried to figure that out.

here are my results:


Barksdale appts - unknown to age 4 time:less than 4 years I've been told there were two apartments before this place, but I don't remember them

Mildred St - age 4 to age 7 time: 3 years

Aunt Diane's - summer to december time: about 6 months the story goes that my aunt was all whiney about not having a daughter so my mom says you can have this one.

Mildred St -Dec age 7 to age 11 time:4 years

Middlesex Dr -summer to December age 11 time:about 5 months this is when my parents first separated. My mom said she felt guilty that she never really got to spend any time with me so she decided to try to keep me. But she really couldn't afford me on her own so she sent me back to my father.

Mildred St -Dec age 11 to Summer age 14 time: a bit over 2 years

1st trailer -Summer age 14 to Sept age 14 time: maybe a month Mom had tried to get visitation but my father refused. So after she remarried, she came and got us to live with her. I never saw Mildred St again.

Passedena -Sept age 14 to March age 18 time: 3 & 1/2 years They knew the first trailer was too small for all of us and bought a bigger place. This was my first ever home with two bathrooms!

Shetland Ave -March age 18 to Jan age 19 time:not quite a year I made some stupid decisions and got kicked out on my own.

friend's appt -Jan age 19 to march age 19 time:about a month had to crash at a friend's place until I could get an appartment

townhome -March age 19 to July age 20 time:2 years and a few months rotated through roommates. What a nightmare

West Virginia -July age 20 to Sept age 22 time:2 years followed idiot boyfriend

Grandmother's house -Sept age 22 to Aug age 23 time: almost a year found my brain and left idiot boyfriend. Lived with my mother & grandmother.

another trailer -Aug age 23 to Aug age 25 time:2 years and a few months My mom bought a trailer because she was sick of living with her mother, and I went with her.

apartment -Aug age 25 to Sept age 25 time:1 month I had just gotten married!

Hotel -Sept age 25 to Oct age 25 time: 1 month we had to wait until our house was ready

Bright Ave -Oct age 25 to Dec age 29 time:4 years and a bit Our first military housing

Thomas Ave -Dec age 29 to June age 31 time:about a year & a half Air Force says it's time to move

Korea -June age 31 to March age 34 time:20 months Air Force says it's time to move

w/ MIL -March age 34 to Oct age 34 time:too long! stayed with MIL while looking for a new job & house

here! -Oct age 34 to now time:6 years on the 19th finally found a house

Okay going by that list I've lived in my current house the longest. but if you go back and look at all the times I lived in the house on Mildred St you get that I was there about 9 & 1/2 years. So I have to live here about 4 years to beat my record. LOL!

Sometimes DH seems like he would like to move outta here. He is very used to moving. If he sat and thought about how long we have lived here he would probably go nuts. So don't tell him I told ya.

weird story...but true

My friend Heather has been going through an interesting experience(s) while moving into her current house and it got me to thinking about one of my particularly weird moves.

The year 1985...around March or so. I was a senior in High School (yeah, I'm THAT old!) My mom and her second husband (they divorced about 4 years later) had finally bought a house. Up until that point we had been living in a very nice 14' X 70' trailer. And looking at Google Maps it appears that the trailer is still there! LOL! Anyway, they had been searching for quite some time and had found a house that they could afford.

The reason they could afford this house was that the seller had basically let it fall appart. See the seller was a single mom with 5 kids. The three older ones should have been out on their own, but weren't. The two oldest were stoners...and the next one was an unwed mother. Her two youngest kids were mentally handicapped and lived in the room upstairs near their mom. This was a long skinny room and they had decided to put up a wall in the center of the room to divide it into two rooms. This "wall" was just 2x4's and it might have been cardboard attached to it. The boys still wet the bed and they had put the mattresses directly on the floor, so the hardwood floor was warped.

There were many other lovely features to this home like the upstairs bathroom not being functional. The crank out windows (a feature I've only seen on houses in FL) was broken in a permanently open position. They wanted the banister to be silver so they spraypainted it while it was still attached...thus ruining the hardwood stairs.

But that isn't what made this moving story so interesting...

The interesting part is this... When they had the closing the seller asked if she could rent the house back from us for an extra 30 days to give her older kids time to move out. My parents agreed to this since we didn't have a buyer for the trailer yet.

So the day after they were supposed to have moved out we went over to clean and paint. But when we got there we were in for a HUGE suprise. The two older kids had not yet moved out! They seemed totally confused that they were even supposed to be out by that date. It seems that their mother had not told them anything (especially where she was moving to!) she had just left. I guess this was her way of finally getting rid of them.

Since the house was now ours the boys were rushing to collect their things and get out of the house. It was pretty comical. Another suprise was that the seller had not bothered to take many of her things. So we got the added expense of hiring a dumpster and hauling out all of her old furniture and stuff. It was a mess! I forget how many dumpsters it took to get rid of everything (AND NO, none of it was worth keeping.)

So after we got rid of the furniture and other things that we didn't want, we went to work taking down the wild animal print wall paper with silver highlights. My mom's second husband took out the toilets and poured muratic acid threw them to clean off the years of crud. The poor carpet cleaner service that we hired tried 3 or 4 times to get the dirt out of the carpets. We ended up just ripping them out. I forgot to mention the cat feces. And she left her cat too!

Oh and the two youngest boys had shaved this long haired cat to make a sweater for the new baby. Poor kitty. Our nextdoor neighbor took him in when he finally let her.

Eventually we got the house into something that people could live in. The walls were redone. The staircase was stripped and refinished and finally carpeted since we couldn't get all the stains off even after using paint stripper numerous times. For a very long time we only used the down stairs bathroom because the upstairs one had a leak we couldn't find...or maybe it needed to be entirely redone...I forget.

Once we got the front yard looking decent we noticed many For Sale signs going up. It seemed that the neighbors were waiting to sell their house until our eyesore was fixed up so they could get a good price for their house.

The very sad part of this story is that the house is in a very nice neighborhood. Our house is the one that is about 4 down with the L shaped pool* in the back yard. My grandmother's house was in the same subdivision and many of the rich kids from my school lived there. Of course our moving there did not increase my status in school to rich kid. And I didn't live there for too long. I moved out in January of the following year.



*The house did not come with the pool. A while after I moved out my grandmother & grandfather moved in and my grandmother paid to put in the pool for my grandfather. The pool has a special ramp on it so they could get him in and out.

I was tagged by Island Girl to do this interview meme. It’s a little long so please bear with me . . or just skip to the end.
What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Well the bathroom with a tub is Darly’s so it has her Suave Kid’s shampoo and conditioner in there. And I just have her use shampoo to clean her body with…it’s all soap right? But in my shower there is my Infusium shampoo, Suave conditioner, Oil of Olay facial cleaner, and Oil of Olay knock-off store brand body wash. LOL!
Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? nope! But there are pumpkins on my kitchen floor and 14 dozen apples in my pantry that I need to sort out to give to my local friends.
What would you change about your living room? the walls! My living room is like a large hallway that goes from the front foyer to the dining room…blech! I wish it were bigger with some walls.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? They’re dirty. I’ll set the timer to wash them tonight. We can go two days between washings here since there’s only 3 of us. I was just talking with a friend yesterday about some stuff (not the dishwasher) but she had to keep reminding herself that we’re a family of 3 so things last longer for us.
What is in your fridge? leftover chicken, mashed potatoes & veggies, rolls, milk, juice, water that I need to toss out, bread, sandwich stuff, oh and a steak for dinner.
White or wheat bread? wheat. I used to get just white, but then I realized my family will eat wheat and it doesn’t make a difference to me. I also have some multi-grain bread in there that they eat. They are both picky so if I can get anything healthy in them, I go for it!
What is on top of your refrigerator? empty candy boxes, empty box for the barbeque tools, a vase, a large popcorn tin with a rabbit on it, supplies for a craft that we haven’t finished and some large candy bars…oh and about 4 inches of dust. (okay maybe not that much, but there is a lot of dust up there! I can’t reach it.)
What color or design is on your shower curtain? clear glass door! Darly’s bathroom has a quilted star pattern on it.
How many plants are in your home? um let’s see, there are two in the living room, the one in the dining room died, then 3 on the plant stand and one on the counter and then there is Hagrid (Darly’s homemade “chia-pet” take panty hose and fill with grass seed & sawdust. Tie off in a head shape and make a nose with a rubberband. Water and when the grass seed sprouts you can then give your “pet” a hair cut.) So that’s 7 total.
Is your bed made right now? I don’t remember. It could be, but I may have just hopped out quickly too.
Comet or Soft Scrub? soft scrub downstairs mostly and comet upstairs (well actually the comet is the store brand version.)
Is your closet organized? define organized! Those piles of clothes sitting on the floor are organized by my system. But if you really think I should buy a shelf to sit them on I can.
Can you describe your flashlight? well I last saw it in my camping gear. I think it ran off with my lantern. It is yellow with a black gasket that holds the lens in. It’s one of those big square battery flashlights.
Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? glass.
Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? nope! I probably should have tea instead of Pepsi, but I don’t.
If you have a garage, is it cluttered? our garage is a two car with another single garage attached. So it has a big door and a single door as well. The portion of the garage that is the two car is where DH & I park our cars and that part IS organized because we need to get our cars in there…so any other things stored in that side are neatly packed around the sides of the garage. The single car garage however is where we store all of our stuff and that’s a HUGE mess! We need to go reorganize it so we can get the patio stuff in there for the winter.
Curtains or blinds? actually both! I like the outside to look uniform (so all the windows look the same) so I have the blinds…but then on the inside I want the rooms to reflect the décor, so I have curtains for the room. HOWEVER I haven’t finished decorating every room so not all of them have curtains yet…yeah, yeah, I know I’ve been here almost 6 years, I need to get off my duff and finish already.
How many pillows do you sleep with? just one, but there’s another one on the bed above my head.
Do you sleep with any lights on at night? yes and no. We have a nitelite in the hallway to find our way up the stairs and the light does creap into my room…but it’s not on for me. However when the bulb goes out it does seem weird.
How often do you vacuum? vacuume?
Standard toothbrush or electric? standard
What color is your toothbrush? not sure. It’s usually dark when I use it and I’m not all that awake.
Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? there’s a mat, but it doesn’t say anything.
What is in your oven right now? pizza stone that needs to be cleaned…really bad!
Is there anything under your bed? the bags that the blankets on my bed were stored in.
Chore you hate doing the most? cleaning
What retro items are in your home? hate retro. You want retro…go visit my grandmother’s house. Blech!
Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? yup!
How many mirrors are in your home? 4 on the walls. Who knows how many that aren’t on the walls.
Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? we have hidden money but it’s not for emergencies. It’s just that our paychecks are direct deposited so we have to go to the bank to have cash for our wallets. So we usually take out a large amount and store the rest in the house. If ya wanna come and steal the money it would be a waste of time though cuz it is only about 20 bucks or so.
What color are your walls? depends on the room. Living room dark denim with light denim blue ragged over it. Dining room is light denim with dark denim trim. Kitchen is Tea Rose cream. Family room is still white, but one day it will be sponge painted in two brown/tan shades. Foyer is and will be white. My bedroom is sponge painted in beige/tan shades. Darly’s room is pink with light pink ragged over it and the other 3 rooms are white. I don’t think we’ll ever paint the office as it has too much heavy furniture in there.
Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? vicious attack rabbits!!!
What does your home smell like right now? house…hopefully not bad house.
Favorite candle scent? vanilla (although I have one Snickerdoodle flavored one that is yummy!)
What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? I have dill spears, and baby dills along with some dill relish.
What color is your favorite Bible? My bible is burgundy. Darly’s is blue. DH’s is black. And we have a few more around here too.
Ever been on your roof? lots of times! Every year I go up there to hang my Christmas lights.
Do you own a stereo? a few
How many TVs do you have? two…no wait, 3. We don’t use the black & white because here in the foothills you need cable to get reception and the black & white is a portable tv.
How many house phones? 4
Do you have a housekeeper? nope. While I don’t wanna clean this mess, I don’t want anyone else in here messing with my stuff either.
What style do you decorate in? EXPLODED TOY BOX!
Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? we have a mix, but most is prints.
Is there a smoke detector in your home? YA HUH! I think there are like 10 of them in this place…and the stupid batteries keep going out in the middle of the night!!!!
In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip? my pets!

I wasn't going to tag anyone...but I have since changed my mind. Anyone who is LURKING here (came here just to look and not comment) then this tag is for YOU! I'll figure out from Heather how to find out who you are so I can make sure you did this. I know who some of you are already.

She thinks I'm nice!

...guess I've got her fooled ;o) Just kidding.

I was using my handy dandy "Next" button from Google Reader and when I hit Ladybug Crossing I found out that she awarded me with this...




She says I make her smile. Awe Shucks! LOL!

Well now the fun of passing this little beauty on to my friends and nice bloggers...so let me see...who deserves this and who hasn't aready received it?

Well my first choice would have to be Goofy Girl! Not only is Goofy Girl a top rate commenter on my blog, she also helps me keep it running great. she saw my plea for help when I messed it up and fixed it for me. She's great and she's also almost a doctor. A very busy gal and a huge sweety!

My next choice is gonna be Heather. She's a new friend that God brought into my life but it's like we've known each other forever and even our kids get along great...in fact I've got her daughter going on day two here. It should be fun to try to separate these two tomorrow. hee hee

Third I've gotta give this to Jen since she's the whole reason I'm even blogging in the first place. Seems a while back Jen had a coop class for adults on setting up your own blog...but did I sign up for it??? NOPE! LOL! I'm such a slacker. Instead I just asked Jen how to do it later...probably on the phone or by email. And can you believe this? I didn't think that I would ever post anything...HA HA HA! Now you can't shut me up. LOL! Thanks so much Jen.

And for any of you who comment here that haven't already received this award, please know that I just didn't name you cuz I didn't know if you got it yet or not. i love ya all and you deserve this award too...so please go ahead and take one, I've got plenty. hee hee love virtual stuff huh?

see ya around.

Newsboys - In Wonder

comments to party post

The Meezers said...
my mommy likes doing that kind of stuff too.

Mommy says to tell you that the red-eye-fixer-thing doesn't always work on kitty eyes - in fact in that pikshur of Sammy it would only werk on his left eye. so the pikshur would haf been really weird.

Miles

Hey Miles! Sounds like your mommy & I could be good friends. Sorry the red eye fixer doesn't work so well on kitty eyes. It's a very good picture of Sammy...the red eyes just make him a bit scary. maybe that's the look now adays.

Sylvia said...
Funny, I just sent Peter to go clean his room this minute.

Kindred spirits...I think so.

Oh, and thanks for the Time Warp yesterday. I needed that.

Hey Sylvia, good to see you. LOL! If only I could get her to clean up the rest of her mess. Any you're totally welcome for the Time Warp...glad to be of service. I just wish I could have found one that wasn't so dark.

TC said...
I want to have a sleepover!

I'm totally thinking about having a grown up sleep-over when DH goes outta town sometime. I think it would be really cool. His next scheduled trip is ... well he hasn't told me yet. hee hee, but I'll keep you posted.

Lynn said...
Sounds like fun for Darly, and sounds like it would be tiring for you;~) BTW, did the LLL transition happen yet?

First YES the LLL transition has taken place. I just need to send her one deposit that didn't get saved to the jump drive and we're all set. I just got the paperwork from the bank today to finish the process for switching it over to the other gal (they mail you a copy to your old address to make sure someone isn't trying to steal your identity.)

And about this being tiring for me...I must be a really bad sleep-over mom host cuz I just go to bed and let the girls stay up as long as they want to. I trust my kid and the kids we have over here to not do anything too terrible and after I konk out they do have to be quiet (or I turn into the "screaming mom") but it's their problem if they stay up too late. So far we haven't had any problems. Oh and I have the girls sleep in the basement so regular talking noise doesn't carry to my bed. So far it has worked well for us. I supose if things change we'll have to lay down some rules about this...but so far, so good.

Where ever we go, that's where the party's at!

I tried to find their real video but it's not at youtube yet, so this one will have to do. And now that I turn up the volume on my radio there's another Newsboys song on.

Anyway. The reason I'm bringing you the Newsboys today is because we are hosting yet another sleepover here.

Ya See, Thursday and Friday Darly's friend E was here sleeping over. Thursday was just because and Friday was because her mom was taking her brother to a field trip that E just couldn't stand to see. E can be extremely picky but will be more willing to do stuff if Darly is along. Darly didn't want to do the train model field trip so we did something more fun instead.

We went to a Living History field trip. You can see some cool pictures over on Liese's blog since I haven't uploaded my pictures yet and they're all of Darly & E...I gotta get permission to post E's pictures from her mom first. The girlies got to write with a feather quill (which I just realized I still have E's in my camera bag!) play with the animals do some wood drilling and dip candles. After we went to the music station and heard a hymn that we sing all the time at Church, I asked the girls if they might be ready to leave. At first Darly didn't want to but after a bit I think she realized that she was hungry and we left in search of food.

Well today we're having a different friend come over to spend the night so we can take her to another field trip. Oddly enough this field trip is in the exact same city as the first one. Weird. Darly hasn't seen this friend since August. She's the one who adopted Princess (and then had to find her another home.) But they should be just fine.

I need to go check the cleaning process in Darly's room so we can go get "I" for the sleeping over and massive playdate. LOL

Later folks!