January 5

This is my first priority in the morning. A year ago I could not have cared less about coffee. Those Keurig people are GEE-NEE-US-EZ.

Thanks to Grammy & Poppy, the boys now have a GameFly subscription. We had one before my husband lost his job last year, but we gave it up to save money. Portal 2 for Xbox is now in the house. Notice the laptop open next to Aiden. He's using cheats, of course.

Ellie peeking out from behind my desk in the school room. She sits in the window sill and looks out over the neighborhood.

January 4

First up for me on the 4th was a trip to the dentist for a cleaning. I got a nice goody bag (new toothbrush! Woot! And it's PINK!) After the dentist I stopped at Chick Fil A for a large (FREE, thanks to my calendar coupon) unsweetened tea (4 Splendas, please!) and biscuits for the kiddos.

Back to school for Aiden, Quinn & Lillo.

Accidental up the nose, under the boob self portrait. Niiiiiice.

Camryn's lunch box. She and her best friends have made a pact to eat healthier and exercise more, so she is making her own lunch instead of eating in the cafeteria. She's taking it very seriously. I'm very proud of her!

This is now part of our exercise routine. I love the Kinect!

January 3

You thought I forgot, right?

I've been taking pictures every day. I just haven't been posting them.

So, ha! You were wrong.

We did the laundry on Wednesday. The kids get baskets and sort their own, then tote the baskets back to the laundry room. I love having minions.

This is Caramel, Quinn's new puppy. He wants a real dog so very badly, but I hate dogs so very much. My parents gave Quinn a puppy for Christmas. For now, it's just going to have to do. I don't do dogs.

Our back porch fountain froze over during the night. The pigeons loved the small amount of water gurgling out of the top. The kitties (Ellie, left and Sadie, middle) loved the pigeons.

The kiddos thought they had to go back to school on Tuesday. Our program, K12.com, didn't actually start back until Wednesday. I surprised them with that information on Tuesday morning. They were so excited!

I made cinnamon rolls to celebrate. Trying to get rid of all the unhealthy stuff in the freezer (these were from Schwan's home delivery. They were nummy, dadgummit.)

This is my morning perch. It's where I'm sitting right now. I get up, I might do a load of dishes if the sink is full, make sure that the children have breakfast, and then I make myself a glass of water and a cup of coffee. I might have a piece of fruit or a yogurt and take my multivitamin before I forget. I check email, Facebook and K12 to see what's up for the day. Today's Saturday so I'm blogging my pictures. I try not to spend more than an hour at the computer every morning.

Last one for the 3rd. Since we had no school, I took Quinn & Lillian to Target to spend their Christmas bucks. Quinn chose (shock!) Legos and a Nerf gun. Lillian went with a Rosetta (Tinkerbell Fairy) doll, a plush Princess Tiana and a pair of roller skates. Her friend K had gotten skates for Christmas and Lillo just had to have a pair. I supplied a new set of knee and elbow pads.

January 2

This is my youngest child with her overnight guest.

Yes, her face really looks like that. It's scarier in real life.

(Well, not really, but you suspected that. I just don't have permission from her father to post her picture on the Internets.)

The youngest child loves the sleepover. This morning she and her budette came to me to show me that they both own Hello Kitty slippers.

It's like they were meant to be friends.

Happy New Year!

Trying something new in 2012 - I'm going to strive to take a picture a day. At least one - and I *might* get around to posting one a day. Most likely you'll go days or weeks without a picture, and then you'll get about 20 or so posts. But, baby steps. We'll see how it goes.

Today you get two pictures.

This is my stash of Spicy Eggnog K-Cups. I bought the holiday pack with Golden French Toast, Gingerbread and the Eggnog flavors in it. I loved all of them... except Eggnog. It was just too.... Eggnoggy. I do not like Eggnog, Sam I Am. I do not like them with Eggs and Ham. I'd probably starve if I landed on a deserted island full of eggnog trees and nothing else. There would probably be Fruit Cake bushes on that island as well. That would mean complete starvation for me. Eggnog is like drinking cake batter. I can't even think of anything gross enough to compare to eating fruit cake. Well, maybe if you dug all the dried stuff out of your couch cushions and threw them into cake batter and then baked it, that might equal the nastiness that is fruit cake. Maybe.

But back to the K-Cups. I took this picture, appropriately tree-shaped for the holidays, because I'm selling those suckers on eBay. My husband tried one and said he can't taste the eggnog. Go figure. I felt like the eggnog taste was slapping me in the face with each sip, but whatever.

This is your 2nd picture for January 1. Yeah, it's January 2, but I'm already behind. Get used to it.

This is our den. On New Year's Day my husband and older daughter rearranged our sectional sofa. I won't tell you what the carpet looked like underneath, but I will be calling a steam cleaner in the coming days.

Santa brought an Xbox 360 with Kinect for Christmas. We had no dance/play room, so the couch rearrangement was necessary. I like it, but I will have to get used to it. It seems so open. I will be moving a chair from my bedroom into the space to divide the foyer from the den. The much neglected elliptical machine will find its way back into our bedroom so it can mock and taunt us into being used. I remember its last words as it was moved downstairs: "All bee bahk". It was right. Goodbye, comfy reading nook. Hello, pain and torture.

Guilt

So, Camryn told me this week that my blog hasn't been updated since March.

Yeah, I've been a bit busy.

And now it's August 5th and I only have 10 days left until homeschooling starts again. I honestly don't know where the summer went. I had so many plans. And then we started remodeling the office.

All my office stuff was crammed into what we call the "Wii area" and the clutter just made me shut down. I hate clutter, and it's super hard for me to function when I'm surrounded by so much stuff. It's like my brain cannot make sense of anything unless it's organized. I don't own a lot of knick knacks because of this, and I'm constantly trying to find ways to better control the little stuff in my life. I just don't like to see stuff that's not in some sort of order.

So I worked on cleaning out and reorganizing. And that took up what seems like most of my summer. We painted the officea light key lime green. Manuel and the flooring people came and ripped up the carpet. Then they put down pretty blonde laminate "hardwood". Anthony and his assistant set up the custom cabinets that we'd designed. Everything looked awesome.

Then I tried to put things back into the cabinets and discovered that they were not 16" deep, but rather 12" deep. I literally sat down and cried. I was so ready to have my nice, organized living space back.

Anthony came back and put in the right size cabinets and I'm about an hour away from having all the stuff put back into the office. Then I can sit down and create something, which I have seriously missed. Oh, I've flirted with Mod Podge this summer, and I did manage to get away with some friends and scrapbook in early July, but I haven't been able to get crafty every day, and that's made me a little sad.

So, as soon as I wrap up this long overdue post, I'm going to take my glass of ice water and trudge back up the steps (which seriously need to be vacuumed!) and finish putting away those last few things that we never know what to do with (door stops, stray screws, light bulbs, etc.) Then I will begin to create pretty things that make me smile.

L-O-R, (why? because I love ya) T-A-B, M-O-U-S-E

I took a total of 9 pills this morning.

3 acetaminophen

3 ibuprofen

1 multi-vitamin

1 Prevacid (to counteract the Ibuprofen)

1 Amoxicillin

I have a bad tooth. I went to the dentist yesterday and he took x-rays. He could not see an abscess, but he scheduled an appointment with an endodontist and sent me on my merry way with scripts for Amoxicillin and Lortab. Ah, Lortab.

I slept well last night.

I see the endodontist next Tuesday. I'm praying that the tooth miraculously heals itself by then so I can avoid (doom doom doom)

THE ROOT CANAL

I had one on the tooth right beside this bad tooth back when Quinn was a babe. That was 8 years ago. When the doctor put the needle into the nerve to numb it, I thought I was going to kick him in the head. Worse than childbirth.

I wonder if I can get a whole body epidural for this. Hm. I asked for laughing gas last time, but he doesn't do that for root canals.

Sadist.

I'm not looking forward to April 5th.

But, on a lighter note, if that's all that's currently wrong with me, I'm doing alright. There are a lot worse things I could be suffering from.

And a laugh from Quinn:

"Why do you hear 'doom doom, doom doom, doom doom" when you're about to get eaten by a shark?"

"'Cause you're doomed."

I'll be here all week. Tip your waitresses!

Random Friday

I got these questions here. Mental Floss is a cool little site.

1. Did you or your child ever skip a grade? Get held back? What impact did that have on you? Would you do it again?

I did not skip a grade or get held back. My husband went to summer school to finish high school early. He graduated high school at age 16, then went to the University of South Carolina. There he took all the required classes he needed to enter optometry school; he was accepted at Southern College of Optometry in 1991. While studying to be an optometrist he also finished his BS degree in biology and physics via correspondence courses through the University of Tennessee. So, when he graduated optometry school in 1995 at the ripe old age of 23 (he turned 24 17 days later) he received his OD and BS degrees. I am so proud of him. He is one of the smartest and funniest people I know.

2. What’s the longest relationship you’ve had with a pet? Probably Beeson, our cat that my husband adopted in 1995. We were engaged and he wanted a couple of cats to keep him company, so he adopted Molly and Beeson from one of his mom's friends who found a litter near her house. Beeson had to be put to sleep on December 28, 2009.

3. What’s a store or restaurant currently only in your area that you think should be a nationwide chain?

Either Mythos (Greek and Italian) or DellaVentura's (though the food is good, it's expensive for what you get. We have stopped eating there because our bill is always $70 or more!)

4. With Borders closing stores, a lot of people might need good bookstore suggestions. What’s your favorite independent bookseller?

Honestly, I love half.com. I can buy a book, read it, then resell it and make back almost all of my money. I love the library, too! If I just must have a book, I usually buy from Amazon or BN.com, depending on who has the best price. I'm kind of bummed that a Barnes & Noble membership no longer gets you a discount online. All I get from them now is free shipping.

Birthday

I turned 38 on February 5th.

I don't feel 38. Somewhere inside me is the 20 year-old who did silly things like

- let 9th grade girls tease my hair on a mission trip

- rubbed sour cream and BBQ sauce on my face (along with a friend) and then drove around letting people *see* us like that

- challenged a friend to drink an entire half gallon of water (not knowing at the time about water toxicity) I won. She threw up. Good times.

- challenged another friend to put an entire roll of Bubble Tape in his mouth at one time. It's a wonder we didn't choke

I could go on and on. I am that fun, childish person inside this 38 year-old body. I'm the one who usually gets the kids in trouble at the dinner table. It's just fun to be funny. Gross and crude and funny. I'm the one who laughs when the kids fart and it reverberates against the wooden bench. Giggles cannot be contained.

And yet I am the one who owns four cats. I bought fleece house shoes today because my feet have started to get cold. I'm usually in my PJs by 6 pm if I have nowhere to go at night. And I usually don't. And I'm okay with that.

I don't wear heels anymore. They're not comfortable. Or sensible. Or necessary.

I prefer oatmeal over sugary cereal. Me - who used to love Fruity Pebbles. Now I need protein. And fiber. Oh, I need the fiber.

I eat yogurt topped with granola instead of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup.

I have started drinking coffee. Because it's warm, dang it. And I'm cold - remember?

I wear pants to bed. I used to hate pants, but remember - it's COLD.

I take antacids.

I ask the children to TURN DOWN THE RADIO.

Really? Turn it DOWN? Inconceivable.

I have started paying closer attention to the toilet paper I buy. And to how much calcium I consume in a day. Those things matter to us 38 year-olds.

Worse yet? I've started to realize, even admit, that my mother was right.

Yes, she was.

Man, I'm old. And sensible. But mostly old.

Friday Fill Ins 1/14/2010

1. Right now I need for this snow and ice to melt. I'm so over it.

2. Ice water is what's in my glass. I used to be an iced tea junkie, but I gave it up about 6 months ago. I still order it at restaurants sometimes, but my daily drink is ice water. I used to wake up craving tea, and now I wake up thirsty for a tall glass of H2O.

3. "A copy of this letter" is a phrase and not a complete sentence..

4. Coffee is best stirred with a spoon, but it leaves me short on spoons, so I switched to stirring sticks.

5. The best movie I've seen lately is True Grit. My hubby and I got free passes from gofobo and saw it for free in early December. Really, really great movie. I just saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Netflix, and I have to admit I liked it, too. Michael Cera can be really funny.

6. Chocolate I like; dark chocolate I love. White chocolate is not chocolate, and I do not like it at all.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sitting at home? What else can I do with all this snow and ice everywhere? Tomorrow my plans include working on the kids' work samples to send to their K12 teachers. I'd love to go to church, but we'll see how the roads are tomorrow. Tomorrow night is the Miss America pageant (on ABC, if you want to watch)! Sunday, I want to do anything but sit around this house. Target sounds good!

Friday Fill-Ins, 1-7-11

1. It's 2011; I am not having any luck stopping time, or we'd still be partying like it's 1999.

2. I was quite shocked to find out that the sweet gherkins in my fridge were made with Splenda. I love sweet pickles, but I don't like the sugar part so much. Now I can eat more sweet gherkins without guilt!

3. Thankfully I have my fuzzy sock supply in the washing machine. I usually don the fuzzy socks once or twice a during colder weather, but I have been living in them this winter. I am wearing my *last* pair right now, and I cannot go without them. I hate cold feet!

4. Watching TV (either Wipeout or America's Funniest Videos) with all my kids and the husband cuddled under blankets on the couch is one of the best things in life.

5. I am so grateful. For everything. Thank you, God.

6. I am craving a huge bowl of kettle cooked potato chips. My husband is out with 3 of the kids, so I texted him to ask if he'll stop and get me some. I usually hate plain potato chips, but I can't think about anything but salty chips right now.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out with my family. Tomorrow my plans include working in my office, pulling together the kids' work samples for K12 and finishing our 2009 Disney scrapbook that I started at the scrapbook retreat I went on in October. Tomorrow night we have nursery duty at church, so I'll get to love on the babies! Sunday, I want to make a big Sunday breakfast, then veg in PJs all day. The kids don't have school on Monday!!

Thankful

On this Thanksgiving (besides the obvious family, shelter, basic needs being met) I am grateful for:

• RID shampoo
• Sisters-in-law who cut hair
• My washing machine's sanitary cycle
• Crock Pots
• Lillian's burning desire to make a corn muffin recipe she found on HelloKitty.com, because it meant I already had cornbread to make dressing today
• Frozen pumpkin pies
• Pajamas
• Swagbucks! I just redeemed for a $15 iTunes gift card. LOVE Swagbucks! Go sign up!
• Rain
• Ice water
• The internet
• Stan not having to work Saturdays anymore for the rest of his life!
• Product testing - I just got a new box of cereal to test yesterday, so my kids have a sugary cereal to eat for breakfast today (I haven't been shopping in awhile)
• Homeschooling
• Did I mention RID shampoo?
• Flip flops (or just basically any shoe I don't have to tie)
• Fuzzy flip flop slippers
• The Southern Plate
• Bisquick
• Grace Church
• Kittens
• A husband who volunteers to make sausage balls because he can see that I'm tired
• Deodorant
• Mike's Hard Lemonade (I'm partial to the Margarita flavors)
• Amazon.com
• Mirrors with 10X magnification
• McRib sandwiches
• General Hospital
• DVR
• The Good Wife (did you watch it Tuesday?!? OH EM GEE!)
• Tweezerman tweezers
• Scrapbooking
• I don't think I mentioned it yet - but I'm super thankful for RID shampoo.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there who still read this blog. I'm thankful for you, too.

XOXO

Destinations

First of all, how good is chocolate cake? Well, really, more to the point - how good is chocolate frosting? From the can? I could eat rubber tires as long as they were slathered in chocolate frosting. Help me, Rhonda.

Tonight we were coming home from having dinner out. Sometime during our conversation I told Quinn that his history lesson tomorrow is going to be about the Hagia Sophia.

(Side note: I'm so excited I can't stand it! I finished reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian a few weeks ago; the Hagia Sophia was mentioned several times in that book, and it has piqued my interest.)

Anyway, I was talking about how much I'd love to visit Istanbul, to visit the Hagia Sophia, to see where history happened, etc. Then the kiddos chimed in about historical places they've learned about that they'd like to travel to one day.

They mentioned -

New York City......

Washington, DC....

Rome....

Egypt....

Paris....

I was thrilled that the kids were interested enough in the history of those places that they'd want to physically visit them. I was mentally (and smugly, I admit) patting myself on the back for raising such awesome, smart kids, kids that love studying history, kids that enjoy learning.... you get the picture.

Then a voice came from the back seat of the van and popped my bubble. Lillian shouted loudly...

INDIANA!

Unfortunately she was silenced by the chorus of chuckles that came from her brothers and sister and we never got to find out why she'd choose to visit the Hoosier State.

We'll have to add that one to our list.

Manic Monday 11/15/2010

Have I really not blogged since September 12th? I'm so sorry.

What is your favorite, can't-do-without beauty product?

Um, I don't know. I'm not really a beauty product kind of person. I rarely wear makeup when I'm just lounging at home, and when I do it's just a quick application of some Bare Minerals powder and lip gloss. I do love a good hand lotion, though. My favorite is something I found at Bath & Body Works several years ago - Drenched in Pink. It's actually from Victoria's Secret, but it was sold at B&BW. I loved it so much I bought 3 pumps - one for the den, one for beside my bed and one for the bathroom. The lotion works well and it has a great, long-lasting, light scent. I don't use it so much in the summertime, but in the winter my hands are always dry.

Have you ever colored your hair? What do you think about men coloring their hair and/or facial hair?

I started coloring my hair with some sort of temporary color that came in a grey bottle with a pink top when I was in high school. I think it was called Fanci Full? Anyway, I loved it. I get my hair colored every 4-6 weeks by my hairdresser nowadays. Gotta keep that skunk strip (my grey roots) covered up.

As for men coloring their hair, I really could not care less. Whatever they want to do.

What is your favorite outfit that you own? What makes it so special to you?

I love a great pair of jeans. I live in them in the winter. My favorite "outfit" is probably my pink flannel PJs that have hamburgers and hot dogs printed on them. They're so comfy. I look forward to fall's arrival so it's cold enough to lounge in my "hot dog pajamas", as the kids call them.

Random September Funniness

We use Google voice for voicemail. That means whenever a message is left on my husband's cell, Camryn's cell or the home phone, I get an email containing a transcript of the message. Sometimes I can decipher the message from the transcript, but most of the time it's a garbled mess.

Such was the case last night. On the way home from church I was scrolling through email on my iPhone and saw that Camryn's friend B. had left a message on Camryn's cell. I caught the words "B" and "actor" and that's about it. So, I turned to Camryn and said, "B left you a message. Check your voicemail."

Camryn: "What does she want?"

Me: "I don't know. Something about an actor. Probably has something to do with getting the agent or something. Just check the voicemail." (B. is pursuing acting and just recently got an agent.)

Camryn: "She probably got an acting job."

Quinn: "Or a jetpack."

I'm Diggin' It

I am the meanest mother in the world.

I MADE the boys go outside to play today.

In the heat.

I'm awful.

They took a walkie talkie outside with them, because I told them they only had to be out there for 30 miuntes and they want to make doggone sure they don't go a second over.

(Don't tell them I fudged and added 10 minutes to their timer. It won't kill them.)

So they've gathered all their tools and are digging holes in the dirt beyond our property line. Camryn and I are sitting quietly in the office working on our computers. It's dead silent in here.

Aiden just came over the walkie talkie and said, "Would you ask Daddy to bring home a hoe?"

After much laughter, I said, "Sure, Aiden."

Laugh, laugh, laugh. Snort. Camryn and I are seriously doubled over up here.

Aiden again - "Actually, ask Daddy to bring home 2 hoes."

Seriously? You can't write this stuff any better.

More laughter on my end.

Beep.

Aiden - "Why are you laughing?

Uh oh. Caught.

"Uhhh.... Because it's a funny request, Aiden."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? I don't get it. Our hoes broke. We're men. We dig. You need a hoe to excavate holes!"

Ba dum bum.

I'd Prefer a Root Canal, Please

I had an ear infection a few weeks back. It cleared up (mostly) with antibiotics, but I had some fluid on my ear so I did a round of Prednisone.

As soon as I finished the last dose of steroids, I started having bad pain in my teeth and extreme sensitivity to hot and cold. I feared the worst.

Root canal.

I saw my dentist on Wednesday.

It is not an abscessed tooth, thank God.

Though, a root canal might be preferable in this situation, because it is something I could have done to end the pain.

No such luck.

Know what the dentist said?

I clench my jaw too much.

His remedy was....

.....wait for it.....

....ELIMINATE STRESS......

I hear you laughing. Don't worry. I was laughing, too.

My dentist knows me. He knows I have four children. He knows I homeschool.

I think he was trying to be funny when he said I needed to get rid of stress.

Easy for him to say.

I wish I needed a root canal.

Today.... was Monday

Today.

Was.
Monday.

I would've been able to tell even if I'd awakened from a 10-year coma.

I should've gone to Curves today. I didn't. Alarm went off. I hit the off button. I went back to sleep.

I got dressed. I ventured into the kitchen and found Lillian and Quinn in the middle of a showdown over Life. The cereal, not the existence.

Lillian had gotten the box of Life from the pantry, placed it on the counter and then gone to answer the call of nature.

Quinn got up, saw the cereal on the counter, and poured himself a bowl.

Not a problem normally, but today there was just enough Life for one person.

Meltdown in 3....2.....1.....

"QUINN! That's MY LIFE!"

And it went downhill from there, wrapping up with a tantrum (Lillian), a wound (Quinn, the result of a scratch from Lillian) and the repeated screaming of the phrase, "I WANT LIFE! I WANT LIFE! I WANT LIFE!" (Lillian).

She settled for Cap'n Crunch.

I had an online teacher conference to attend at 9 am today. Went to my office around 8:45 to log into the session and make sure everything was good to go.

Not.

My computer wouldn't connect to the internet. At 5 'til 9, my husband, fresh from the shower, got me connected through an alternate (slower!) connection. It worked, but it was spotty. I think I got the gist of what I needed to know, though. Maybe. We'll see.

Started school with the kids after the meeting. Aiden is having a hard time with math. Not doing the problems - writing them on notebook paper. Since kindergarten he's always done math in a workbook. This year he has a hardback book that he can't write in, so he has to write the problem on the paper, work the problem, showing his work and getting an answer. My son LOVES shortcuts. He's very smart and doesn't understand W*H*Y he has to show his work. He just wants to do the problems in his head and write the answers on the page. No can do. I have to send in samples of his work every 6 weeks, so I REALLY need him to do it the right way. It's a daily battle. Today was no exception.

Lunch break. Thank goodness for Papa John's.

During lunch Camryn's friend B. called to report on her first day of school. Camryn is happy with the decision to be homeschooled, but she did get wistful at B's description of an "awesome" new day (with 6 new classmates! Last year there were 3 kids total in Camryn's class - and Camryn was 1 of the 3!) B's call definitely put a damper on Camryn's day. I felt her pain. I miss "old school" and all of our friends. It was bittersweet seeing my friends post their First Day pics on Facebook. My heart is still at the kids' old school, but I know that home school is definitely where God wants us right now.

Once school was over we all piled into the van and took off for Target. I needed bean bag chairs for the school room so the kids can have a comfy spot to sit, relax and read or do work when they get tired of being at their desks. I had that and 2 other things on my Target list. Oh, and the boys raided their money buckets and decided to spend their savings while we were shopping. They actually agreed to combine their funds and buy one new Wii game.

----> MOM BURSTING WITH PRIDE.

We hadn't been in the store 5 minutes when Lillian knocked a display hair dryer off the shelf while I was halfway down the aisle looking at hair straighteners with Camryn.

I turned around to see a stranger scowling at my children. She picked up the hair dryer before I could get to Lillian. I apologized, but I couldn't erase the lady's scowl.

Walk away. Just walk away.

Find and pile 4 bean bags on top of my cart. Proceed to nip the children's heels with the buggy because vision is obstructed by 4 huge bean bags.

Smooth move, Ex Lax.

Pull the pink bean bag off the top of the pile and make Lillian carry it. Get in her face and make sure she knows the plagues that will befall her if she dares to SWING THE BEAN BAG.

Stop every five minutes to remind Lillian not to SWING THE BEAN BAG.

(Laugh when she plops the bean bag in the floor and lays on it when the boys take F-O-R-*FREAKING*E-V-E-R to choose a video game.)

Cry when Aiden chooses his own video game and leaves Quinn with 20 bucks to buy a Wii game that costs $49.99.

Do a jig when Quinn finally settles on a Matchbox helicopter in lieu of the Wii game he cannot afford ("NO YOU CANNOT GET THAT $50 game because MOMMY DOES NOT ISSUE CREDIT!")

Lay down in the floor, kicking and pounding my fists on the concrete upon realizing that the helicopter I have just approved MAKES NOISE.

Always look for noise before agreeing on toy purchases. It's the #4 rule of parenting.

Leave Target.

An hour later.

For a 3 item list.

$243 poorer.

For a 3 item list.

("A 3 item list... a 3 item list..." Remind you of Gilligan's Island? Would it be so awful to be stranded in a place where Marianne makes you coconut cream pies every day? Lovey?)

Hubs met us in the parking lot at Target and we went to dinner.

Quinn knocked over my tea before I even had a chance to Splendafy it.

The waitress brought Camryn's sandwich to the table with mayonnaise on it. Shudder.

Our server got a nice tip tonight, because after she saw the kids behaving the way they did (after we said the blessing), I figured she didn't need to think we were cheap, too.

Home.

Shower.

Carrot cake.

Miss Universe.

Monday (almost) over.

Tuesday's on the way.

Sock It To Me

So yesterday I was snuggling Lillian in my bed.

And then she went wacko crazy.

And I asked her to leave my bed, because she was being way too loud and silly.

But before she left I said, "Lillian - please hand me my TV remote."

And she did.

She handed it to my left eye at about 10 mph.

And I was such a good mother and politely asked her to leave (at least that's how it happened in my memory. I actually think I yelled at her to GET OUT OF MY ROOM! but at least I didn't curse.)

And I have my first black (well, really greyish bluish) eye.

And it hurts to smile.

Sigh.

Manic Monday 8/9/2010

Don't faint. I know it's a shock to see two blog posts from me in such a short span of time. I must be losing my mind.

Don't get overly excited. It's just a meme.

Right now, what's on your mind?

I just got a call from my doctor's office. I'm going to go in for a nuclear stress test, and they were calling to say my GP had faxed all the info to the cardiologist. Before you panic, let me say that NOTHING IS WRONG (that is for my sister and mother!); I just figured with my weight and some recent reflux problems that feel like heart problems (but really most likely aren't) I would go in for a quick check. No alarm, but it's something I wanted to do for peace of mind. I'm paranoid, and my husband told me that he would rather I go ahead and have the test so I know I have a healthy heart. I don't have a family history of heart problems; I don't smoke, drink excessively, I have great blood pressure, blood sugar and my cholesterol was normal last time it was checked. I don't have any other risk factors (besides my weight) and I exercise, so I don't expect the doc to find any problems at all. It's just a thing I want to have done for me. K?

And I know I could do the exercise stress test, but I have balance problems on a treadmill, so the doctor told me just to request the nuclear test from the start.

I'm also thinking about the fact that this is our last Monday of summer break. Next Monday we start homeschool. I'm excited, as I have been all summer, but now that it's a week away I'm just a little anxious. And, I admit, I feel sad that the kids will miss their friends at their old school. Heck, *I* will miss *MY* friends from their old school. It's a big transition, a huge change, but I KNOW that this is the path God has put us on for now, and I want to love every minute. I would appreciate any prayers you could pray on our behalf. They're always welcome!

List 10 things you expect from a good friend.

Honesty, Loyalty, Sense of humor, Steadfastness (is that a word?), Discretion, Supportive (physically and emotionally), Understanding, Unconditional love, Appreciation and Trustworthiness. Not necessarily in that order.

What's something you've done that you wish you hadn't?

I could sit here and ponder all of my bad decisions, things I've done that I wish I hadn't, but I have to admit, every decision that's been made and everything I've done has made me who I am. I can't say I'd be the same person sitting here today if I hadn't lived through some mistakes. God is faithful, even when I am not, and I am thankful for that.