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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Stage Mom or Encouraging Mom?


I have to write this just to get it out. My 7yodd has been taking ballet since she was 4 and she is quite good at it. Well, we just rec'd the papers about next years classes and the teacher has decided that she is physically ready to move up to the class that prepares them for pointe shoes. She has been talking about this for several years now. I thought she would be excited about this and be ready to go now...she is not. She wants to quit ballet and go with soccer. I am torn between getting her to do ballet because she has a talent for it and letting her do soccer because she just wants to. Soccer is cheaper but I don't want that to be the reason we let her do that. I also don't want to push her to do something if she really doesn't want to. AAGGHH!


What to do, What to do!! We still have a few weeks to get our money back from soccer if she changes her mind again!
This top picture is of her when she was 6yo(by two months). She got a part as one of the Lullaby dancers! She was the youngest performer in the company!


A new day!

Aren't you glad that we get a fresh day every morning? I was soo cranky with my children last night as I was alone with them again, that I was worried that they would still be upset with me this morning. It was not one of my proudest moments as a mom! :(

Well, this morning we all woke up in great moods and they forgave me. What a lesson I can learn from them. They are really great kids.

Today while I was teaching, the other teachers children were getting a little crazy and my two oldest dd's stepped in a took over distracting them and caring for them. They did this w/o being asked to! Then the other teacher paid them for having done it! They were sooo excited about having had their first paying babysitting job! That really made them feel grown up.

The other good thing that happened today was I got my review at work and it was a good one. Then my boss asked if I could fill in for her tomorrow night for her classes! Two more hours will make up for what I lost last week when the youngest dd got sick. Praise the Lord! My boss also asked if I could pick up one more evening class during the fall, so then I would almost 6 hours of work a week. It doesn't sound like much; but, it really does help with the little stuff that comes up. And it made me feel good about what I am doing and that always helps! LOL

Now it is time for the youngest dd to take a nap and for me to do laundry. Maybe I will join her!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Something calm and serene!

I thought that maybe after my ranting in the last post that I should post something that is beautiful and calm!!LOL I took this picture on our way home from vacation. I took it looking straight up through the windshield!
Isn't it wonderful? Couldn't you just imagine Jesus appearing through clouds like these? That gave me goosebumps just thinking of it!

I'm just wondering...

Do you ever wonder if you are obedient? I mean truly in all things. Or do you just obey what you want or what you think will get you in trouble? The reason I am asking is I am a black and white person. It is either wrong or right-it can't be both. I am working on this because it gets me in trouble, alot! LOL My sense of justice is freaky high as well and that can cause my blood pressure to rise to dangerous levels. So I really have to work to not lose my temper on a daily basis if I go out and mingle in the world!!

The reason I ask is because I am seeing a tremendous amount of people who no longer stop at stop signs. It has become 'socially okay' to slow down only as much as you have to and then roll right on thru. But is that obeying the law? No. Does anybody seem to care? I wonder. What about turning left when it is posted 'No Left Turn'? Is that wrong if nobody catches you? What about the people behind you that have to wait while you are more concerned with yourself than obeying the law? Yes, I believe that is what is at the core of our 'little discrepencies' like that. Selfishness. Obviously you can tell that these are BIG issues for me; but shouldn't they be for every Christian? If we are to obey the 'law of the land' isn't that in the small things as well? Can we say that we are obeying if we go the obligatory 5mph over the posted speed limit?

I am struggling to not be hypocritical with this. I do go the 5mph over the posted limit; BUT I always stop completely before proceeding. Does it really matter though if I am not willing to obey in all things?

Do I approach God the same way? Do I do this with the things He asks me to do or not do? The small things that I don't think matter I just bypass and try and coast by. Meanwhile the big things get harder to obey.

Where do we draw the line in a society that believes in relativistic truth? I think as Christians we hold the line and live to let everyone see us obeying in the little things so that there is a standard to strive for. Is it easy? NO. Do I always want to? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Do I have to try? ABSOLUTELY YES!

Thanks for letting me rant!

Did she really?


I just had to post this picture of our 2yodd. She really did fall asleep like this! It was way too precious not to get a picture of!!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Maybe next time

Well, the deal for our house fell through. The buyers couldn't get the funding because of bad credit. So, we are back to showing the house again. I am pretty bummed about this as I was gearing up to pack and dreaming about the schoolroom in the other house. I know that God is in control and it will happen in His time; but I would really like that to be now!!!

We had someone look at it tonight. We are also changing real estate agencies. Our agent is moving agencies and so we will go with her which means that we get a new MLS number and that means that it goes out new all over again and maybe will generate some new interest. That with the new floor and the landscaping, maybe we can get some more people interested.

For now, we are trusting God for His timing.

Home from Iraq

This was a welcome home for my brother after he came home from Iraq. The Patriot Guard came and honored my brother and our whole family.
Here they come down the street! We could hear them for blocks before they got here. Then we saw the first one with a flag and then all the rest came and the tears started flowing!

They presented his with a banner and a plaque thanking him for his sacrifice. We were all crying and soo proud.






Isn't this beautiful with all the flags? There were so many of them that they filled the entire block! What a ministry that they are preforming for our soldiers. Our family is grateful.

Back and Forth

Well, we got a contract on the house on Saturday night-a verbal one at least. And on Sunday evening they still hadn't signed because their lending agent keeps adding fees and changing things on them. We hope/pray that they will change lending fees and we can proceed with the contract. Meanwhile, we are signing the contract on the house we want to buy on Monday night.

I have 17 days to pack and move our entire house. We also have inspections to go through on this house. That's a little scary because you don't know what they are going to say and ask for.

The baby is better and now dd#2 is sick with a sore throat and a wet cough. YEAH! That is why I am up so late/early. I have been up most of the night anyway, so I thought I would post.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

EEWWW GROSS!!

Well, on my way to work this morning, my 2yodd threw up all over herself, her carseat, the diaper bag and the carpet. My other dd's had to clean her up(as well as the chunks!) while I turned the car around and went back home. We have sprayed Lysol ALL OVER the car and I hosed the carseat off in the front yard. What a way to start the morning!!

I guess now I can sit and prepare my lesson plans for the start of our school year! Funny how God slows you down sometimes, isn't it?

This could be the day!!

We finished the wood laminate flooring in the music room over the weekend and finished up the trim on Tuesday evening. We have shown the house several times in our varying degrees of work and now, we have an offer. We got it late last night. It is not a great offer. They came down 5,000 and want us to pay over 3,000 in closing costs. So really we would be coming down over 8,000 and then we would have to bring 6,500 to closing to get out of the house. There is no way in this world that we can come up with that kind of money. We also have to think about closing costs on our other house. So, we counter-offered and we will find out today if they are willing to accept the offer. IF they do, that will give us 30 days to move and get our other house. On top of that, dh and I are leaving to volunteer at a camp for foster kids for a week at the beginning of August! Everything could be happening all at once.

I guess we will see if they accept the counter-offer and we will take it from there.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

What a day!!

The actually started Friday night at about 6:00pm with ripping up the carpet in the music room. We stopped for dinner and a movie, then I went back in and pulled up the tack boards and the staples. We did not get to bed until about 11:00pm. We woke up at 6:30am and got ready to be at Lowe's at 7:00am. We got our supplies and then we came home and realized that they flooring store did not give us enough padding. AAGGHH! We figured out what to do about that and got the saw set up and mapped out what we wanted to do. By 9:30 we were on our way and it was really going fast. We were about 2/3 of the way done and we had to stop to go to lunch for a birthday. We came home and we finished with the flooring about an hour later. We then went back to Lowe's to find the trim and threshold pieces we liked. We had a VERY difficult time agreeing on something but we finally found something, but weren't sure if it would work. It did and all the trim pieces will be beautiful! I will stain them in the morning and we will put them all down, move the furniture back in and be completely finished with the room. YEAH!! Hopefully that will help sell the house.

We also discovered that there are hard wood floors in the living room and hallway. That can only help as an incentive, right?

Now it is time for some sherbet and a movie-Batman Begins!

Friday, July 13, 2007

These are from my other blog:

Jul. 12, 2007
It's just my luck!!
After I got home from work today we set about having a leisurely lunch and I was checking my email while the kids made macaroni and cheese. The phone rang and they wanted to show the house at 1pm-TODAY!!! It was 12:07 when they called. I had done the dishes before we left, but that was the only thing we had done. The table had not been wiped off and there were things strewn all over the kitchen counter as well as the family room and dining room. Also, we let the dd's make a club house in thier room yesterday and they were planning the afternoon around it. They were terribly disapointed and wept bitterly at the thought of tearing it down and having to clean for a showing again. They begged me to call and cancel-I couldn't. We struggled to get things picked up enough and looking okay before the 1:00 showing. I did have to leave a note telling them what was going on in the master bedroom(ie the carpet) and I threw in a plug that we were going to put wood laminate down in the music room this weekend. I don't know if that was helpful or not. Hopefully the realtor can give us some feedback tomorrow about what people are thinking.
For now, I have to go drag carpeting and padding out to the garage! Yuck
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Jul. 11, 2007
What was I thinking-Oh, wait, I wasn't!!
Well, in my impatience to know why our house is not selling, I decided that it had something to do with the carpet in our bedroom and started ripping it up this afternoon. WHAT WAS I THINKING? PTL there is actually nice looking wood flooring under there. Dh got home and saw the mess(the carpet was half up) with most of our stuff in the hallway and our bathroom and just changed his clothes to go mow the yard w/o saying a word. I don't know if that is good or bad!!LOL While he was outside I took the mattress and box springs off the bed and pulled the carpet and pad from under it-call me She-ra-and by then I was so tired that I couldn't move the enormous pile of carpeting from the middle of our bedroom! So to get in to our bedroom we have to walk around the dresser in the doorway, a small dresser that is blocking dh's closet and the pile of carpeting and padding in the middle of it all. I am such an impatient dork. How will ever have it ready to show tomorrow if anyone calls? AAGGHH!! At least I have clean sheets on our bed now! My poor husband is sooo patient with me and my whims of pretending that I know what I'm doing and then coming to my rescue!
I should be sleeping now, but the smell from the padding is starting to make me angry(I have a thing about smells!) so I can't even lay in bed. I am working tomorrow morning and I won't have time to do anything before then except the dishes I neglected because of the obsession with the carpet. Will the insanity ever end? No, I will just wait a while before I do something like this again. My hands are so sore from gripping the carpet that it hurts to type!!!!
Time to make my bed on the couch and sleep for a long day of hauling carpets and stripping and refinishing a wood floor are ahead of me. (Now how do you do that again?)
Blessings,renita(who really is that big of a dork!)
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Jul. 10, 2007
Remember that party I had a last week...
I am going to have another one this morning. I wanted to have it last night only there was not time.
All right here goes:
My husband and I leave for a camp we volunteer at for foster kids in three weeks and I am in charge of the decorations and I don't have anything done.

I am teaching a class for our homeschooling group starting in September and I haven't called the other mom to set up a time to plan the class.

I am in charge of getting the yearbooks from last year to the printer and I lost the title page in our effort to declutter to sell the house.

I haven't even started planning for school for us for this coming year and we start school three days after I get back from camp.

I can't fit into any of my clothes because I have gained 30lbs since last year(after my surgery), so I don't have any clothes for camp.

The house is a mess and I don't want to clean it! (nothing different about that one!!)

Then to top it all off, after we got home from the YMCA-I got to workout,yeah-I went to check my email and the computer desk was completely wet. The roof was leaking down onto the computer, the hardrive, the bills, and my palm. And was my husband home? Yet again, NO. I was one cranky momma. I called and yelled at him about the situation and hung up, then yelled at the kids and sat down and pouted. I got about 5 good minutes of pouting and then it was bedtime.

I did snap out of it enough to pray with the girls and managed to send them to bed with a smile and some lovey time. Then dh got home and I only talked to him when he asked a direct question. I am having a hard time deciding if I should say something or not. I want to be supportive of what he is doing, but I am tired of being home alone all the time. More prayer.

Now it is time to do the dishes and the ever growing pile of laundry. Has anyone heard of disposable clothing? I think I would really like that for the 2yodd who is potty training. :)

Thanks for listening and let me know if you're having one and I will bring the chocolate!!
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Jul. 7, 2007
Family Time
Well, on Thursday the girls and I headed to my Mom's to spend our traditional 4th of July weekend camping in their backyard! We pitch tents around the pool and picnic tables and spend 3-4 days hanging around and eating so much food that we can't do anything but float in the pool! So far, we have gotten sunburned on our backs only!! TEEHEE Now we will have uneven tans-and for me a tan is an accomplishment! All of us blondies' hair is turning green and we smell like chlorine. It has been glorious. For the first time in about 15 years, my brother is joining us for our camping excursion. He has been in the military and away for all those years and after serving in Iraq, he is home for good now. I will try and post pictures when we get home.(maybe my dh can help with this!?)

Anyway, we are staying up way too late watching Bridge to Taribithia and eating fried ice cream. I am telling you we almost always gain about 8lbs!!! My clothes are getting tighter as I type. It's getting to the good part in the movie, better go! I will write more when I get home.
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Jul. 4, 2007
Update on that party
Well, my party was cancelled due to the overwhelming lack of support. Believe it or not, I could not get any of my family members to join in on the fun and no one would bring food. What were they thinking??
I guess that was fine because we ended up spending the morning in our jammies and reading a book aloud. After two hours of reading they graciously let me take a shower and wash my hair AND shave my legs. I must have been in there a good 6 minutes before someone needed something! Oh well, at least I am not offensive smelling anymore. We finished our book up at about 3pm(yes, the whole book)and got a call that they wanted to show the house from 5-6pm that evening. (we are trying to sell it) GREAT-right in the middle of supper and I am gone for the evening at work which means my dh will have to take the kids(4) and the dog all by himself and figure out what to do with them for an hour! TEEHEE Sorry, did I snort? THEN, we get a call that someone else wants to see it from 6-7pm. BWAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAA Oh my goodness, did I say that out loud?
I was a good wife and mother and prepared dinner and fed them before I left for work-ran away was more like it! When I returned home after work and after the showings I was informed that it was hard work keeping all of the kids occupied and the dog controlled for that long. Really? I wasn't aware of that. Surely it isn't that hard to take them to the park for a couple of hours?
This was a perfect way to end the pity party! By watching my husbands!!!!!!!!!
Maybe I will try one again another day-shall I let you know when?
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Jul. 4, 2007
Maybe I should have figured out how to use it first...
I am such a dork when it comes to computer things. I use it check my email and do very few other things that I know almost nothing about it. So...when I tried to upload some pictures to my blog it denied me about 100 times. Okay, maybe not 100, but it was at least 10 and to someone like me that can feel like 100!! I did get one picture uploaded-I am not sure how so I can't repeat it!! I will try again later after I have stopped saying bad things to my computer. ;)
This picture is of Hannah. Isn't she beautiful? She is such a precious soul. She is thoughtful, inquisitive, funny, and determined. She is soo much more than that; but it is hard to capture Hannah with words you just have to meet her and experience her!! She starts Kindergarten this fall and already she is wanting to know how to read. I guess we will start school before we start school! I am excited to teach another of the girls how to read. I love to see the light bulb go on when they get it. I cannot imagine sending them somewhere else and missing it.
Anyway, sorry it is sooooooo big-I don't know how or if I can resize it. I will try and figure it out if I can unless I throw the computer across the room first!
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Jul. 3, 2007
Pity Party at my house
Would you care to join me in a pity party? I am having one at my house for as long as the Lord and my family will let me!! Which will probably only be for about another 5 minutes; but until then I am going to enjoy being miserable.
Do you ever have those days when you just don't want to do anything else because everything seems to be going wrong? If I were really spiritual, I would say that I was being tested; but... I am NOT feeling really spiritual so it feels like I am being picked on. Before you start thinking that I am saying that God is picking on me, remember, I am having a pity party.
This all started last Friday when I had to take the cat in to the vet b/c it was sick. My husband couldn't go and so the 4dd's (9,7,5,2)and I took her and while the Dr. was examining our female cat that we have had for 2 1/2 years he discovered a number of ailments that were very expensive to treat. He also discovered something that wasn't treatable-our female cat was really a male cat!!!!!! This was VERY shocking to us as we thought we were an all female household except the King(daddy). Well, we could handle that-it was kind of cool, really. But then the Dr. told us that she/he had FIV(feline HIV) and that we could treat it but it would be pretty expensive and with all the other problems that she/he would be pretty sick for a while and then with the FIV a long term on and off sick. We are trying to move and on a tight budget and so we had to put the cat down. Please don't think we are heartless-he was really sick and we did not have the money to treat him.
So...Friday and Saturday were spent mourning and not doing any house work. We actually had a pretty good weekend until dh came home and said that his car was broken. The front end was leaning down almost on the front tires. WOOHOO! Okay, we can deal with that. Yesterday while I was cleaning the oven and the house was incredibly hot from the oven self-cleaning, they called to show the house. AAGGHH! It was a mess from our relaxing weekend. We had an hour to clean it up and get it ready. We did it; but in the meanwhile I had to quickly shampoo my bedroom floor from a spill and my oldest dd discovered a leak in the laundry room coming from somewhere in the furnace. Is my dh there so he can help me...? NO, he is mowing the lawn at the house we want to buy and then going to church for a meeting and then to the studio to record more on their album. Since he had the one and only car, the girls(four of them), the dog(a big one), and I were going to have to walk around the neighborhood for an hour while someone looked at our house. What fun! I did call dh and made him come home and get us so we could have a car-it made him upset that I was upset! I didn't care at that point, I was beyond reason! By the time I went to bed after dh came home at 10pm(he left at 3pm) I had a terrible migraine.
Now for today!! Dh woke me up at 6:45am and said that if I wanted a car I needed to take him to work. Yeah-I get to go out in my nighty with my bed hair!! How did I get so lucky? I was going to go back to bed but when I got home everyone was up and ready for breakfast! Now I realize that I am out of cereal and milk. Is this going to another one of THOSE days?
I know that when I get a little perspective that I will see this in light of God's grace and mercy and with a little sense of humor. I am just so not there yet. Hopefully I will get there in the shower that I have been waiting to take for three days. (yes, I said three days-I really stink!!)
So...off to the shower after making breakfast for everyone and getting them in the bathtub, and chores, and getting the house ready for showing, and school, and...hopefully today; but maybe tomorrow!!
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Jun. 21, 2007
Already
Well, the day started with me waking up 4 minutes before my alarm went off at 4:45am. So, I laid there for four agonizing minutes trying to decide if I would get up and go exercise or stay in bed and go back to sleep, then feel guilty the rest of the day. I got up and went to exercise. When I got there, I put my mp3 player on my arm and started it but no music was playing--someone ran down the batteries and didn't replace them or tell me about it. Then, the instructor for the class I take was late making me late getting home to fix my dh's breakfast. When I got home I realized that I didn't have a house key, so I banged on the front door and then the back door for 5 minutes until the dog went and got dh. Meanwhile, I took my phone out to call the home phone to realize that my phone was deactivated. I forgot to add minutes! AAAGGGHHH I tried to reactivate and add minutes online and about 2/3 of the way through the process, there was an error at there server and it kicked me off. So, I called the 800 number and went through all the promps then was told that they were not even open, please call back later. Now, it is time for the kids to wake up and I haven't showered, eaten, done devotions, and I still have no phone.
I hope this day gets better!!
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Jun. 20, 2007
WOOHOO!!!
Okay, I admit it, I completely underestimated my children. They got their homework done and we get to go swimming!! I think that I am more excited than they are. They are doing their chores now and then the house will be ready to show and we can go and have fun. Tonight we will do history with Dad and have a little fun studying Pocahontas! Thank you, Lord.
Oh yeah, I also had a little more patience today. ;)
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Jun. 20, 2007
I should be sleeping
I laid awake most of last night worrying about everything. I tend to do that alot. I worry that we won't ever get school done this summer and we will just go right into the next year without a break, I worry that our house won't sell, I worry that these extra 30lbs will NEVER come off. I'm sure there's more things to worry about and when I think of them, I will worry. I try not to, I try to be good and let God handle things. I'm just not good at it and I end up taking it back from Him several times before I finally have had enough and give it up.
I am going to try and not yell at the kids today to get their chores and schoolwork done. I am going to try and be patient and gentle in my speech. I am not praying for patience, mind you, I just going to try and be patient!! :) I am going to reward them with swimming at the outside pool at the YMCA this afternoon if we can get school done this morning. We'll see how it goes. For now, I am going back to bed since I was up at 4:45am to exercise!
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Jun. 19, 2007
Well, Here I go!
I am not sure what I am doing exactly, I just really wanted to get started blogging! It is only 9:18 in the morining and we are already in melt down mode. We took a break from school three weeks ago to go on vacation and put our house on the market and now I am having a monstrous time getting them back on track. My second oldest dd got her cast off her arm yesterday and she won't use it or move it. The wrist is healed and she only needs to use a splint for a week; but, she is being a total baby about using it. That sounds harsh, doesn't it? Well...it kind of is; but it kind of isn't. If we don't push her to do things that she is uncomfortable with she will just sit and do nothing and then get angry and sulky. Also, the more she doesn't use her arm, the more it stiff it will get and then she won't be able to use it. I am really not that mean of a Mom-really!
Well, I had better go and get the Math started. I am REALLY NOT looking forward to this. I am starting to plan next years schoolwork and we aren't even finished with this year-something is wrong with that picture. :0
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A new day, a new blogsight!

Well, this is my first post after changing blog sites. I am going to try and bring over the posts and pictures from the other site; but, we'll see if I can figure it out. I hope this will be easier to upload pictures and do stuff.

WooHoo!