I'm Baaack!!!

Hello there,
I have been fussed at a lot about not updating this blog so again I am going to try to keep up.

We are in the middle of preparing our first Science Fair project. Actually we are about to start over. This past summer David and I watched "super size me". Ok for those of you who haven't seen it I have one word "GROSS!!!" we have not eaten McDonald's food since. Or any one else except Wendy's once. David and I thought it would be fun and interesting to do the same experiment he did with the rotting hamburgers and fries between the chains. soooo we bought a big Mac from McDonald's, and Whopper from burger King, a double from Wendy's, a #2 from Sonic, a 1/2 lb. From Hardees, and a burger from a hole in the wall place here in Hartsville. Oh yeah fries too.

The purpose is to see which will rot the fastest proving which is better for you, or with the least amount of presertives. In his experiment, the McDonald's fries after 10 weeks did not show any signs of mold. After 10 WEEKS! That is just gross.

The project has been going along ok until Saturday when we left for basketball, Pinewood Derby, basketball, meeting a mom to give back her two kids (ages 3 and 5), and a movie I promised the kids. Howie of course could not go to these activities and I guess got mad and took a hamburger off the kitchen table, opened the sealed plastic top and ate most of the hamburger inside. Meggie was found in the house later and we are pretty sure she was his partner in crime.

now I will be going around and re getting all those hamburgers and fries because of the "fussy feast" our animals had. Oh well I'll keep you posted on our moldy progress.

Puppy school

Christopher and I have found something to do together. Take our dogs to Puppy school.

We all know Howie is the baby, but does not come when he is called and is quite the little stranger alarm. Anything that goes by the house he is quite loud about announcing it, and yes the term "yappy dog" comes to mind.

Sammy is Christpoher's dog. He is a German Shepard in the very meaning of the words. His Grandparents are still in Germany and they win competition on shepherding. His parents (on all fours) came up to my mid waist area. (I am 5'9", not short)So when he is grown he will be rather large. He is already as tall as our 9 yr old Lab and is growing by leaps and bounds. We need to get him under control before he is bigger than all of us and eats us.

Courtney and I find great mother and daughter things to do together but with Christopher I thought this would be a great project for us. It will be just the 4 of us. Yes I'm taking the Maltese and the German Shepard with my son in my van, that right there is going to be an adventure. The up side is Brewster is in Florence and they have free, yes I said free, Puppy Sundays. So if the dogs are good at school we all get a treat after class.

I'm sure there will be lots of stories about what happens at puppy school that you will be reading. In fact one has already happened.
Mom and I have started working out a Curves, and Daddy and Christopher have been baby sitting each other. I thought this would be a great time for Christopher and Sammy to do their homework that the teacher had assigned for next week. Our homework and handouts were in a great folder, a great way to keep everything organized. Well by the time we got back Christopher was mad at Sammy because Sammy had eaten the homework folder....

Brotherly Love?!?

Ok I know we can't pick our family. or our in-laws. But it seems to me that since you grew up on the same household, with the same parents, who taught you the same things, and instilled Christian morals and love, that well, there should be love?
Right? When you grow up and siblings move apart from each other in a perfect TV world there should be happiness, excitement, and joy about getting to get together again after long absences.... Right? No not really. Which to me is sad. My brother has had some hard things happen in his life lately and I really felt for him and what he was going through. I did try to be there for him. But I really feel the love between a brother and a sister is not there.

Why am I writing this now? He is coming with his family this weekend. They will be staying for a week here but Mon. - Fri.. They will be at the beach with my parents, and my kids. Why not me and David you might be asking? We have to work. This is my first week back to school. Getting my classroom ready for my 2 year olds.

Doug called me before school was even out and asked when I would be starting back. They were planning their summer. Can I just stop here and tell you how pleased I was that he wanted to find out my plans. I thought this information was to be used to plan for us to be able to get together but... No, No its was not because, not even 2 hours later he called Daddy and had him book the beach for that same week I had told him I would be starting back to work. When Daddy called me to check with the date I told him that was the week I would be starting work, so he needed to cancel my families room.

Mom wanting the cousins to be able to spend time together decided to take my kids any way even though David and I are unable to go. Carla later made the comment that she sure hoped I would be able to come knowing how important the beginning of school is and how hectic, she was a teacher also. She also said that they really wanted to visit with David and I... Now here is the kick in the gut while I am still doubled over from the first one, they are not leaving their house until Sunday. They are not leaving on Saturday so they can be here to go to church with us on Sunday, and spend Sunday together since they will leave on Monday to go to the beach. No it's going to be Sunday night late when they get in and then leave on Monday. They will return from the beach on Friday, and they plan to leave to go home on Saturday morning.

Sorry that does not sound like they want any time in Hartsville, or with David and I, or just me maybe. It also sounds like they are just coming so they can go to the beach, not to visit with family, its what we can do for them... Beach time, babysitting, presents... Not family, not really ever just family.

And to me that is sad, because my mom and daddy have really been through it this summer and they are not even coming to check on them, did not come for the surgery. but there are reservations for the beach so they will be here but not much more than they have to...

Thank you!! Thank you!!! and Thank you!!!

I want to say thank you to all of you that prayed for my family. We needed it very much and God blessed us through all the prayers.

Daddy came through surgery well and came home the next day, it was a very hard drive for him and it took about 5 hours, he got sick because of the pain medicine on an empty stomach, and we stopped for him to throw up, thus loosing the pain med. So he was in pretty bad shape by the time we got home, both hurting and sick. But thanks to meds he was able to sleep and he is doing much better.

The kids both had a great time!!! Christopher and Dillon went to see "cars" and built a fort in the den! Courtney learned the finer points of price negotiation at THE "Garage Sale". Both were asked to stay an extra night so I could stay at Mom's to help if needed.

Howie ended up going with me, the hotel allowed pets and the parking at the hospital was in a garage so it was cool and he did fine in the van. I was able to go down and let him out to do his "business" so my van is fine.

David is still gone but he is in Chapel Hill now so we should be seeing him soon. He made is safely from Canada even though he did not get into Charlotte until 2am.

Megan is doing good to, hopefully the relations with the neighbors will still be okay.

Isn't it wonderful to have friends and family that you can depend on to help and more importantly send up prayers when you need them most! Thank you for your love and support through this time in our families lives.

Could you pray for my brother, Doug and his family. Their family dog is showing aggressive tendencies and with 3 kids and one on the way they are going to have to make some pretty tough decisions. Doug and the kids really love the dog and it will be very hard on them to have to get rid of the dog. Pray for them and their decision and that it is the right decision for the family.

God does answer prayers and He has answered all the ones on behalf of my family! Thank you again

Please pray

Today is one of those days that you just want to spend the whole day in prayer. And you want everyone else you know to do the same.

So I'm asking you to please stop during the day and say little prayers for my dad and the doctors who will be working on him. He has prostrate cancer and opted for the surgery to remove it all. I hope and pray that they get it all, that he recovers quickly, and there are not any complications.

I am going up to be with my mom, which means someone else has to take care of my kids. Christopher is going to a friend's house am praying for him to have a wonderful time. He got stung yesterday by a bee and even though he was fine yesterday, last night it started getting a little larger patch of red around it. So I am still hoping he does not have a reaction to it. He is my sensitive skinned one.

Courtney is going to my inlaws house. This is a very great concern for me and a huge step I am only taking because I have no other options. All of her friends have something going on or are out of town. I am praying for her that she stays safe, behaves, and stays safe!!!! (did I mention I really am praying for her to stay safe?)

David is in Canada and will be traveling back to Charlotte, then to Chapel Hill for the weekend for school. He is in constant need of prayers because of his job, his traveling, his school and himself.

I have a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to Duke and it is raining a slow soaking rain that keeps everything good and slippery.

I know we don't pray for dogs as such but even Howie has to go to the puppysitter's house.

And Courtney's horse trainer, Megan had one of her dogs get ran over yesterday and she is taking it pretty hard. Even though its not a person that died she needs prayers to cope and not be bitter towards the neighbor that drives to fast on the dirt road around her house and killed the dog.

Something else that is going on in our lives that we need prayers for is that someone called Saturday and wanted to come look at the house. It is no longer on the market but we are keeping our options open and they really want to live in this neighborhood. So pray that the right thing that is best for us happens, whether it is us moving or staying here.

SOOOOO, like I started off this by saying "Ever had a day where you just needed to spend the day in constant prayer?"

Please keep us in your prayers today and every day for that matter, but especially today

Good bye to baseball for another year

Well tonight is the baseball awards ceremony, which means the end of baseball for another year. Christopher will play another year because he missed moving up to the minors because of the May 1st deadline,so he will be on the same team and I have already bought the supporting shirts and baseball hats.
It has been a better year than last and also the worst yet. Christopher played catcher this year, which means no dooda dancing in the outfield (he is really pretending to catch the imaginary ball and throw it like they do in the pros, but from the dugout and stands looks like a dooda dance.)He really made a pretty good catcher except they would not really throw him the ball. He really liked it though. He will be going to a baseball camp this summer and I really hope he likes it and learns some great things.
The negative side is and probably will always be the coach and parents. I guess the power and pride of being a coach gets to people sometime, which makes them hard to get along with. You also have more than one Dad out there coaching and parents that think their child is the superstar. All these opinions stirred up in one big pot make for an interesting season. I am not one of those parents that fall into that category but I will stand up for my son. I don't think he is the best out there but I do think he tries his best and needs to be taught how to play his position. Do not fuss at him when you have not taken the time to teach him the position or don't even treat it as a position just as a ball gopher. I do cheer though, loudly!!! And fuss when the umpire makes a bad call which is usually against us. That happens because as I said coaches and their attitudes cause more than disgruntled parents.
But tonight is the last night and hopefully we can get through this night with love and pride over just the kids.

Broke toe

I have always thought cleaning my house was a bad idea but now I can confirm it! Since school is out and I am mostly recovered from the year, I started my list for the summer, 1st thing was to get this dirty, yucky house clean! Not just the "house" part, (you know the part people see) den, kitchen, kid's rooms, but even MY room and closet. I was making a lot of progress, clothes hung up, put away in drawers, piles were going down. All the piles except the dirty clothes one, and it was this pile I was stepping over when I over stepped and kicked the bathroom sink. You know when you hit your foot and you know it is really going to hurt but it hasn't started yet? Yea, well my foot was so shocked it had been hit it forgot to send the message right away and I had time to dread it before the pain hit and took my breath away. (I try to use those labor pain exercises so I don't scream and upset my daughter because I am a wimp when it comes to pain)but there was still a lot of whimpering and gasping (it really, really hurt) and she heard it and came running, which was a good thing this time because she went to get help.
I hit my three middle toes and the Middle one got the polish knocked off, which shows how hard I hit it because that one is pretty much protected, or supposed to be protected. I don't know if they are broken but they are a pretty color purple, and it hurts to walk on it, but I can move it, but it hurts. Since David left for Europe and Mom and Dad are in Ohio I am having to be a big girl about it. But when my mommy comes home...all bets are off!

The challenge is on!

Ok, I started this thinking that people just don't update their posts often enough. If you are going to do it people do it and keep it going! I get disappointed when I log on and its the same thing I already read. soooooo ... Now I'm starting... and you know its really hard to be able to sit down collect your thoughts and then compose. With everything going on in my life...Husband working late, going to school,teleconferences,travel,homework; Kids riding horses, playing baseball,getting homework done correctly; and then there is MY getting ready for Easter and all the projects that I need to be putting together for my twos, changing out March to April in my classroom,lesson plans,folding and putting up the clothes, making the dinner, cleaning up the kitchen....But this was for me being able to sit, think,reflecting compose... NOT for something else to feel stressed about and guilty for not having done.
Breathing -- Breathing -- Breathing
The weather is a fabulous 70's, the trees are in full bloom, the flowers are blooming also and the birds are back and singing... God truly does love us, and will provide.

wait, there will have to be more later a kid is out of bed, the dog is at the door to be let out...

and with the first one, we're off

I have been reading other people's blog and enjoying it and thought "I could do that". Would people read it and be interestered? maybe. or it just maybe a time for me to relax and create. Either way here is a way for me to write and you to be amused..