Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry CHRISTmas!! Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas Eve with the whole family and a glorious Christmas Day at home just relaxing and being together and celebrating the birth of our Savior!

Yeah, it has been a while. It is cold and flu season here in the Ohio Valley! Yuck! I am almost never sick and I just haven't been able to kick this cold. I had a cold, went to Detroit, MI for 6 days and thought I was on the end of it, came back and it started all over again after a few days home! The really fun part was loosing my voice - How do you yell for your kids to hurry up before school with no voice??!! I had to actually treck up and down the steps several times trying to hurry them up. Not fun. I personally like the yelling up the stairs route! Of course, we just got a letter from school this week warning us that both kids have been tardy three times and if it happens more, we will have to come in for a counseling session. Yea - fun!! Just what I always dreamed of! Getting in trouble at school as a parent!! I thought my school trouble days were over!! Well, these kids are going to be on time even if I have lost my voice and have to pick them up and carry them to the car! On to the good stuff!! We are all ready for Christmas Break (only now it is called "Winter Break" here) and for Christmas it's self too! I have all the gifts and cant wait to give them out. Keith will probably shop in the two hours before the stores close on Christmas Eve, as always. He is like my dad! I am too afraid to wait to buy presents, I am afraid they will sell out of the thing I want! Speaking of, I need to go wrap before the nosy kids find my stash!

I just figured out Blue's Clues, I just figured out Blue's Clues, I just figured out Blue's Clues BECAUSE I'M VERY SMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry but I just fixed the Html on my Playlist at the bottom of the page ALL BY MY-SELF!!! (See I just got all happy and proud so if Blogger shuts down for the day, I am really sorry. I told you it was my X-Man power to screw up computers!! - It won't happen though! Yea Me!!)

Don't Bring Me Down

Seriously. I knew it was coming. I knew Obama would be our next president. The Republicans just pi**ed away too many years. And really, how can you not win running on a platform titled, "Hope & Change"??? Really. All I have to say is, "Don't Bring Me Down". (I'll tell you once more before I get off the floor, DON'T BRING ME DOWN!)

I am going to concentrate on the happy things in life. That and I'm gonna go collect on my "redistribution of wealth" since I have no job right now. Where do I sign up??!!

Just Like Tina, Ike Can't Keep Us Down!

Birthday Breakfast by Candlelight!

Who would have thought a hurricane could come through Kentucky?!!! Here we are in the middle of the East, right between the dividing line of the North and South and we get a Hurricane!!! Not a lot of water and no tornadoes but HUGE WINDSTORM!!! Several of my friends had trees fall on their houses, cars, pools, etc. It was amazing to watch!! Apples were blowing off the apple trees out back like missiles! We have three beautiful pine trees out back that serve as a type of privacy screen for our almost all glass family room and Keith watched as one of them just snapped in half from the force of the wind and fell into our neighbors yard! I was really sad. I watched them sway sooooo far each way. I prayed over my front pine tree that it would be able to withstand the force of the wind and it did! I really do think my praying helped because the neighbor right next to me just beyond that pine got trashed!!! It was like a wind tunnel or something right between our two houses. They lost several trees. We were lucky too because as we pulled in from church, my other neighbors big tree came down right across our driveway!! We were trapped at home with both cars in the garage. Also, the power went out all over the city!! There were almost 700,000 houses without power that day!!! We were some of the last 600 homes to get power restored too! I really enjoyed not having power for the first 6 - 7 days and would have been more than happy to continue without it but we have an electric water heater!! UGH! That is really all I needed to survive. A hot shower! That is the one amenity that I can not live without!!! Cold showers SUCK and are actually physically painful!!! I was really thankful/grateful to God for giving us a much needed BREAK in our hectic running lives!!! Everyone HAD to slow down. It was so nice! Schools were closed all week and we got to relax and read and play games and play outside and just really praise Him for a BREATHER! We had wonderful cool weather for the first week too and then it started getting hot and the kids started having their sports practices so they were not so happy with the cold shower thing either! Thank God my parents only live 15 minutes away and have a GAS water heater!!! anyway, we all survived and even thrived (at least I did for 7 days) without power. Thank God I am low maintenance - no hair dryer or make-up for me. (good thing too cause I saw some people that definitely put theirs on in the dark or by candle light! Just kidding but it was kinda funny to see!) Nothing wrong with makeup I just feel like I cant breathe with it on my face. Your skin IS your largest organ so if you use it, make sure it is good and natural - no petroleum products!! {soapbox ;-)}

So that was our bout with Hurricane Ike. Ten days with no electricity, no hot water, a birthday by candle light and lots of money spent eating out.

But, JUST LIKE TINA, IKE CAN'T KEEP US DOWN!!!

We Made It!!

Yea!! We made it to the drive-in!! We love the drive in and it has been a family tradition for years - I was so afraid it would be broken this year. Faith baby, faith!!! We did make it but I gotta let you know, Momma Mia is a bit, shall we say, much for a couple of 8 year olds. (and their mom!) I love AbbA and knew it was a musical. I just didn't know what the exact story line was. Oops! Let's just say we won't be talking about this at church. tee hee! Anyway, I am quite sure much went over their little heads and the singing and dancing was fun. The important thing was getting to sit outside on lawn chairs, watch a movie, eat fried Twinkies & junk food, swing on the swingset under the movie screen and play with eachother! God I love being a Hillbilly!!!!!

WHO KNEW?!

Who knew a new washing machine could be the perfect after school entertainment?! We had it delivered on Monday and each day my daughter and our neighbor beg to start a load of laundry after school then they stand there and watch it run!! It is absolutely hilarious (and it beats TV!).

Funny girls! BTW, this machine is awesome!!! (Sears Kenmore Oasis)

4th of July

Drive-In Tradition

Every year we go to the Drive-In. I love the drive in! I love getting to watch two movies back to back and not worrying about having to get the kids home to bed. They take their sleeping blankets and we take out a seat or two from the back of the van. We take pop-corn in a grocery bag and yummy grapes or other fruit. Then we get there, park the car backwards, pop the hatch and lay on the floor of the van eating pop-corn and watching movies. The two younger ones usually fall asleep before the middle of the second movie and when it is all over, we drive home in peace. (exhausted of course!) We haven't made it there yet this summer because they haven't shown anything the kids could see without nightmares so I am now crossing my fingers for a kid friendly show so that I won't be forced to break our tradition! Here is the front of our drive in, notice the movie titles and you'll see what I mean. Cross your fingers for us, OK?!!

Blueberry Pickin'

One of the most fun days this summer was spent with my pal Becky, her kids and my own favorite Bubble Gum Girl. We went across the river to pick BLUEBERRIES! We all had so much fun. First off, we all rode in one van together so we got to talk and laugh which was wonderful in itself when you don't get much "Girl Time". We got there and the girls took off toward the blueberry field. Here is a cute shot:

Of course the girls decided once we started picking that we were going to have a contest between the mommies and the daughters on who could pick more blueberries. We each had our own bucket and they let Em be on my team. (The littlest one and apparently also the biggest eater!) I think those girls knew what they were doing when they assigned the teams cause this is what my bucket looked like when I handed it to Em to carry: Here is what it looked like when I turned back to add more: Hey Em, where did all of Sweetie's blueberries go? Funny huh?!! Em's mouth was stuffed full! Pretty cute! All in all, we had a great time!

Back to School Blues

It is that time again! I have to tell you that I hate when my kids have to go back to school. I love summer and I love having my kids around and I LOVE being home with them!! Home schooling is looking better and better all the time. I had a wonderful two weeks getting up early and having quiet time with God all to myself and then having the kids come down and join me. Each day they would ask me to read a specific part of the bible and I was happy to oblige! We read about Moses, Esther, Jesus & the Sermon on the Mount and the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Quinn also memorized Psalm 23:4 after he had asked me about it. (Love my kids getting into God's word!!) We had such a peaceful morning time! My favorite was reading Proverb 11 (on Aug 11, of course) and that was the same day we read Galatians and putting Proverb 11:30 together with Galatians 5:22-23. Go ahead and check it out for yourself. Cool huh?!?! Well, now it feels like all he** has broken loose trying to get it all together and get them out the door to school on Thurs and Fri. Yipes! Where did all our peace go? I am going to have to figure out how to work that back in to our routine. I am secretly hoping Q's football practice will move up a half hour SOON. The we can get him into bed at a reasonable time. (and he can wake up earlier) We did decide to get dinner on the table by 4:30P for the football/soccer/cross country season so that we can all eat together. That was a good move. (Pat on the hubby's back for that idea!) That is much better than eating at 8:30PM! Oh, and Bubble Gum girl is going to be a cheerleader for Quinn's football team! How cute! They even have uniforms! (Yes, this may kick my Cheermania back into overdrive but I will try to stay out of it.)(For this season at least. All bets are off for next year though!) Hope everyone else has a smooth transition back into school!

Riiiggghhht.

Well,

Casi (my gorgeous, wonderfully funny and highly intelligent teen-aged daughter) has been out of town at the beach with one of her best friends for a while. Since she was gone I, yet again, could not figure out how to get onto my blog. I know, many of you are now switching channels because seriously, how hard can it be to remember how to get into your own blog to post?!!? Like duh momma-san! OK but obviously since you are reading this, I got on right?!! Apparently I need the Cassidy polar opposite of my notorious computer X-Man power in order to even out the universe! (OK. at least the computer universe.) Anywhoo, I call Casi out of her room where she is undoubtedly unpacking and CLEANING AND STRAIGHTENING her room, and our conversation goes like this:

I (Sweetie) say: "Cas, I can't get onto my blog. It won't let me on!"

Casi: " Well, do you remember your password?"

S: "Yeah, it is ......."

C: "Ok, well what's your Google account user name log-in?"

S: Pause. Think to self; my what? did she just speak English?

C: "Your email mom! What is the email you use for your blog account?"

S: "Oh! My email! I just wasn't sure which one you wanted." (As if I could handle more than one email account without spontaneously combusting my computer and myself! Ha ha ha ha! Good come back cover up though, right?)

S: "I just use my regular email for this account." (Like I have another account somewhere other than the Bank! ha!)

C: "OK, let's put that in." ( She puts it in) "Now put in your password." She hits enter.

BLOGGER WELCOME SCREEN POPS UP!

S: "Yeah, but see, it wasn't doing this for me when I was trying to get on it while you were gone."

C: "Uuuhhhh...." She looks at me like I just grew a fourth head. (As opposed to the three that apparently I ALREADY had.)

S: "No REALLY!! I did everything the same only it wasn't letting me in, I swear!"

"Really! Why are you looking at me like that? You saw me sitting here 20 minutes ago trying to mess with this contraption!"

C: "Mom, contraption is a word for 50 or 60 year olds. If you say you are 36 then you want to stay away from the word, 'contraption'." "It is a computer. Plain & simple. A computer."

Actually she didn't say that, I just read it in her eyes as she stared at me in unbelief and walked away. She did say one last thing before she closed the door to her room(to get back to the cleaning I'm sure!):

C: "Riiiggghhht."

Thunder, Lightening and Rain - Oh My!!

The boys are out for the weekend Father - Son camping trip so I had my friend Amy & her daughter spend the night with us. Of course, we had a severe storm warning with the possibility of tornadoes - Yikes!! We had lots of thunder and lightening and HEAVY rain but no tornadoes - Yay!! Us girls had a great time. We played a fun game and watched Dan In Real Life. It was a good movie. Amy is totally Italian so she whipped up a roux and made a yummy creamy mushroom pasta for us! We love to cook - And Eat! And since we like to eat, we had Casi make up a yummy buffalo chicken pizza - Casi is the Pizza Pro now! She was so sweet, she made the little girls a plain cheese pizza too. We devoured it all! Riley and her daughter stayed up until 1AM!! I had to make them stop talking and go to bed so I could! Now by the time I went to bed, I looked at Amy and she was dead asleep, flat on her back - she looked like she was in a morgue! It was so funny! I started giggling so hard I had to hold my mouth so I wouldn't bust out and wake her up. Anyway, there is something to be said for people who live with such a strong sense of Faith that they can sleep on their back completely relaxed. Most people sleep curled up or turned on their sides, like they are shutting out the rest of the world. Not Amy!! When she is done for the day, she is DONE and she puts it all into God's hands and signs OUT!! I have a lot to learn from her in that area.

Pre-Alzheimer's + X-Men Power = Funny Trouble

OK. so I totally forgot to write down any information about my blog. Most importantly, my user name. Second most importantly, my password. Geez- that made it really hard to:

1.) Find my blog this morning
2.) Sign into my blog this morning
3.) Not shut the computer down or "freak it out" in some way.

It seems my powers increase with my frustration level. Had a few screen flickers when I started realizing that when I stay up past 10pm that I don't really remember what I had done the night before!! (Who needs alcohol??!!!) Anyway, I was getting frustrated and leaning too close to the screen and it flickered on my. It was OK though, once I backed away, it stopped. I know, that sounds really weird and I can't really explain it other than to tell you that I can't wear a watch either. Those freak out too. Now, if I could just harness this power...I could rule the world!! (Add Maniacal Laugh here) In all honesty, I would prefer to be able to use the computer without breaking it!
Of course, my sweet hubby who is almost always patient with me and my computer problems was not here for me to call upon but I know he will be proud to find out that I figured it out all by myself!
So now I come to the point of getting on the blog this AM - I wanted to post pictures of our trip to the Sunshine State! My sister's daughter got to have a makeup night and chose blue eye shadow and red lipstick - too bad my beautiful French sister in law couldn't come down for the party, she would have laughed her head off!! My mom would not participate which is hilarious since she lets the grand kids do everything else to her. (She would probably even let them experiment with Super Glue if they asked!!!) Anyway, here are some great pix!

Howdy! This is my first foray into a blog. I wanted one because I see others blogs that I enjoy. NOW...if my X-Men power* will just stay under controll, I think I can have a lot of fun with this! *X-Men power consists of my uncanny ability to shut a computer down or freeze it up just by coming close to it!!