Pizza goodness

Are you salivating yet?  You should be.  I made this delicious cheesy goodness with two Pillsbury pizza crusts, one spread on the bottom and the other over the top, and in between all the cheese, spaghetti sauce and pepperoni we could handle.  I thought we ought to have enough for everyone especially with three kids gone and Keith at work, but the kids were so excited about it that they invited three neighbors to join in!  There was still enough!

Keri Lynn and Kristofer are still in Japan. They will be coming back late Saturday night. I go to the church website where there's a link to a Flikr photo gallery to check on the latest pictures. If you want to see what they're up to, go to http://fbcnewnan.org/ and right there on the home page on the left side there's a box that says Georgia Student Choir USA. The choir could not travel under a religious name, but the Lord has opened up opportunities for them to sing in public venues like parks and ticketed events. They are also going to be singing at a public school -- please pray that the opportunity continues to be opened as the Japanese are very concerned about swine flu and the kids have only been in the country for a week. Both Keri Lynn and Kristofer are also part of the smaller singing ensemble, so they've been exercising their voices a lot. They've also been exercising their legs. They've been doing a lot of walking to and from the train to all their various destinations. All of the kids are doing great, though. I think they are all taking in the experience!

Yesterday, I got a chance to chat with Keri Lynn on Facebook. Sometimes we chat when she's up in her room at her laptop and I'm in my room on my laptop -- I know, I know . . . sad! But this time she was all the way on the other side of the world and we were chatting on Facebook! No change in wait time or anything. It was great to hear from her and ask questions about their trip. She sounded really good.

After I got off of the computer, I was getting ready to get dressed for the day, when Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door. I decided years ago that if Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door, that I would do what I could to speak to them about Jesus. After all, I was home and people were willing to come to MY door to talk to me about faith issues. What could get better than that? So I invited the two ladies in, still in my pajamas and my hair a mess, but they said they had people waiting in the car and would I take some of their fine literature.

And this is how most of the conversation went at my door:

"You know, I don't agree with what you believe about Jesus."

"You don't? What don't you agree with?"

"Well, the main thing," and here I took a deep breath and dove into the heart of the issue, "is that you don't believe that Jesus is God."

"We believe he is the Son of God, that he saved us from our sins . . ."

"But you don't believe he's God."

"The Bible says that he's the Son of God, that God gave him the power to save us from sin, and that he now sits at the right hand of God the Father."

"The Bible also says that Jesus is God. In fact, Jesus Himself claims that He is God."

They had their Bibles handy with all of the verses talking about Jesus being the Son of God, the first creation, that he asked God permission, etc, etc. Most of the verses were in their own translation, though, where a few key words could be changed for their benefit. And I countered with the time that Jesus claimed to be I AM (John 7). (There are plenty of other times that he claims to be God, but that's the one that stuck in my head as the most prominent.)

"I really don't see how you can get around that. Jesus said I AM. He was crucified for that. The Jews were so angry at him because He claimed to be GOD!"

They threw some more scripture at me that they thought supported their point, but for that one argument, there was no answer. Jesus said it. There is no denying it. He died for it. He conquered sin for it. He rose from the dead for it. Is it not an AMAZING thing, that the Christian faith is the only faith in the entire world wherein GOD Himself sacrificed Himself for us? All other religions have US doing the sacrificing for god. Even Jehovah's Witnesses. Especially Jehovah's Witnesses. They are constantly working toward perfection, constantly trying to be good enough to eventually get to heaven.

It is my belief that talking with people involved in these false religions like Mormonism and Watch Tower is very easy. It always comes down to Jesus and who He claims to be. You either believe it or you don't. It still doesn't change who HE is, though. And it is a privilege to be able to speak of Him to those who are seeking.

The ladies at my door finally had to leave but not without asking if we could have a Bible study together later. Perfect! I thought. I gave them my name and phone number and said I could meet with them any time. I'm sure they have their own Bible studies ready to go, but so do I! After all, if we're studying the Bible, Ive got the HUGHEST advantage EVER. That's why it's important for us as Christians to be studying and learning what the Bible says so that we can be ready to have an answer. It's all there in that Book.

Nail care

Keri Lynn and Kristofer left early yesterday morning with their choir to Japan. They are hopefully sleeping like babies right now after a VERY long flight to the other side of the world.

Kylie is on vacation for the week with a neighborhood family. They are in South Carolina -- a little closer than Japan.

That leaves us with FOUR kids. That's it. FOUR.

Yesterday was Keith's day off, so he whisked the little boys away for the morning and then came back and Kathleen and I went off for some girl time. We ate some lunch out then used a nail salon gift certificate I'd gotten from school for my substitute work there. Toes and nails now are gorgeous. Kathleen got each nail done in a different neon color and all of them covered with white polka dots. She's THRILLED! And it looks really cute on her. I got mine done in a much more sedate monotone color. I love it. We decided that we could seriously get used to getting our nails done on a regular basis.

I'm very excited about this afternoon. The repair guy is supposed to come. Machine parts are waiting for him. And HOPEFULLY he'll get the dryer going in this one visit. It didn't take me long to get seriously annoyed with line drying. One of the projects today is to unearth the dryer from underneath mountains of dirty clothes so that he can actually get to it! I better get started on that soon. Times a wastin'.

Summer time

I've got a hundred contingencies for the summer, all centered around whether or not I'll be employed. It looks unlikely that I'll get a job for the summer since I'm not a teenager, so I've started making unemployed plans.

One of the plans is to exercise. I've walked two days in a row now. I know many of you have heard me before and are rolling your eyes, but should I remain unemployed, I have no excuse but to continue on my walking plan. So far I've walked 45 minutes each day, but my plan is to move it up to an hour. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm not pushing it, just trying to enjoy it so that I keep doing it. I have got to get into better shape because currently I'm walking around like I'm 83, not 43.

A second set of plans involves finally cleaning up my bedroom and painting the living room walls. I'm a little frightened by this because the jobs look impossibly hard to me at this moment. It's a matter of Just. Do. It.

The third set of plans revolve around travel. We'll try to make our yearly summer California trip to visit family and friends. And I also want to make a trip to visit the Kings in Florida. Thank God for Delta flight privileges! And maybe, just maybe, Keith and I can get away for a bit for our 21st anniversary in July.

However, I didn't expect for the summer to start out as it has. Our dryer decided to stop actually drying. It spins and cools forever, but that doesn't do us a lot of good. Keith brought home a very nice set of lines to dry clothes out on the deck, except it's been literally raining ever since he installed them! Ack! At least the repairman is coming on Tuesday. I got parts for the dryer just today in a weird case of Service Preparedness. I keep looking around for the hidden cameras. I think I'm starring in some Candid Camera episode.

The vacuum is not working properly either. The dog hair has pretty much overtaken the entire house. That and the smell of those turtles. But I don't think I have to worry too much more about the turtles. Keva is trying to kill them off. She got a hold of Krush and hurled him onto the floor where Kade found him, like a bad episode of Starsky and Hutch (my age is showing). He came running over to me where I was working hard at Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, "Mommy! Mommy! Krush is DEAD! Look, he's bleeding!" It was very sad. I took a good look at him and he was in fact bleeding and his bottom shell was cracked nearly across, but there were signs of movement where his head had gone into hiding, so I told Kade to go ahead and put him back into the tank, where Krush has been ever since acting as if his body is not nearly cracked in two. I also had to look up turtles to find out if they actually do bleed. For some reason, I didn't think they did. I thought maybe the blood had to do with the turtle snapping at Keva or the dog, but turtles do in fact bleed. There you go.

Oh, and the dishwasher decided to leak. It took us a while to figure out why the floor in the family room was getting wet. We thought maybe some pipes had burst from upstairs, but upon further discovery, that of actually USING the dishwasher, found that more water gathered in that spot, on the opposite side of the wall where the dishwasher was. (We should write our own mystery novels. Truly.) Anyway, we immediately stopped using the dishwasher, or at least thought we did, but the dishwasher duty was Kade's earlier this week, and he did not figure out that the reason that the carpet was completely pulled away from that part of the floor had anything to do with the dishwasher. So he ran it again. Who knows how much mildew and mold we have now! We do not have a warranty on a dishwasher, so we're going to have to wash dishes the old fashioned way for a while. I forgot what a pain that was! But I'm remembering now!

On the bright side, the weather has been really nice. It's been rainy but not too hot. The kids have been making the rounds of sleepovers and mooching the poor neighbors. Some days, I don't see them all day long. They come back a little tanner and dirtier. Here's hoping that the service repairman actually fixes the dryer on the first visit!

The new 'do

Winding up the school year

Today at lunch, I participated in a end-of-year celebration with the school staff where I've been working since December. We all were treated to lunch at the Texas Roadhouse. Very yummy. Nice company.

Just a tiny little embarrassing incident. Why, oh, why does this happen to me?

We had salad with all kinds of goodness on it, drinks, peanuts, warm bread while waiting for our choice of chicken or steak to arrive. The food came. We swapped stories and enjoyed the camaraderie.

And a piece of steak got stuck in my throat. Not Heimlich Maneuver stuck. No, just swallowing stuck. As in have-to-cough-it-up or get-it-down stuck. I could still breath, but the pressure in my throat was intense as I tried to look and act normal while the ladies around me talked and laughed. It's happened before. I think it's a hernia problem. Mostly, I just sit still for a while, and maybe walk around and the food goes down and all is right with the world again. Other times, I've had to make a quick exit to upchuck the renegade piece of food. This time, it all came up in one quick messy glob of saliva and phlegm all over what was left of my lunch and on the table and in my hand and on my seat and lap. Uh-huh. Right there in front of everyone. I was mortified! Simply mortified.

I wasn't so much worried about Kelly and Jenna sitting across from me. After all, we spent the better part of our lunch time each school day talking about poop consistency, regularity, vomit, snot and ear wax. No, it was the poor teacher next to me who doesn't have to deal with that kind of stuff on a regular basis, who didn't finish her own lunch after I threw up all over mine. She said that it was no problem, that she wasn't bothered, but still . . . Sigh!

This just goes with the whole way I've been wrapping up the school year.

On Friday, the last day of school, we (Kelly and I -- Jenna was at the State Special Olympics) wore our "WII Rock" T-shirts. The administration has been pushing for good test scores and attendance with a drawing for a WII and for shirts with "WII Rock" on them. All the teachers and staff got them, too. Only we all thought it would be pretty funny for the end of the year to cross out the first part of "WII", leaving just the "I Rock". Kind of catchy, right?

Except for the part where I passed the principal in the hallway.

She was not pleased. It did not honor school spirit and she said she would appreciate it if I would take off the offending X covering the rest of "WII Rock".

I did, quickly, and was completely mortified that I'd just gotten into trouble by the principal. A person who I hope will someday give me a good recommendation for a teaching job. Oh, the humanity of it all!

On the brighter side, after lunch I took myself off to get a haircut, with hopes of getting something sassy for the summer. I love it! It's always nice to get someone who knows what they're doing when cutting hair. She lifted hair in all directions and snipped and cut like crazy to give me a nice cut that will be perfect for summer time. And it will also ease my poor wounded humiliated spirit!

Summer! Wheeeeeeeeee!

Today was the first official day of Summer Vacation. I could seriously get used to a life of leisure! Got up at about 9:00ish, put in a load of laundry, made breakfast, got Keva up, ate breakfast, took the kids to the neighbor's pool for a relaxing time in the sun, kids got their first summer sunburn, kids played in the sprinklers on the lawn (YAY for no drought restrictions!), I skipped off to the grocery store, we ate dinner at 8:50. Yes, the life of leisure.

But I really need a summer job! And I'm hoping to get that teaching job by the start of the new school year. It's going to be an interesting summer, and I'm hanging on tight for the ride!

Things are getting dicey around the house, too. Keith was off today and has been fiddling with the strange wet spot that started appearing in the floor next to the bar. We think there's a leak either in the pipes from the dishwasher or from the shower upstairs. Either way, it's not good.

Then there's the tiny problem of our dryer breaking down. I called our beloved warranty department today and the repair guy can't come until June 11. I told the poor guy on the other end of the phone, "You have GOT to be kidding me! June 11? As in ELEVEN days from now, June 11?" I've got a number to call in case someone cancels their appointment. I could then grab that spot. I'm not too hopeful, though. Looks like I'm going to have to look into a clothes line and clothes pins. At least it's not the washing machine. If it had broken down, we would have officially qualified for a brand new machine according to the warranty. But it has been washing steadily ever since the last major breakdown episode. That one still makes me shudder! Dirty clothes in bathtubs and sinks . . . wringing . . . sweating . . . not really getting anything clean. I am so thankful for that washing machine!

Keri Lynn is now in Jamaica. You'll be able to see pictures/updates on our church's website soon. http://www.fbcnewnan.com/ We're missing her here at home while she's "suffering" for Jesus in Jamaica. Today they were going to a famous falls to swim and have a relaxing day, and then they'll get to work helping kids at a school for the deaf. I can't wait to hear more about it.

As soon as she gets back, she has a whirlwind Sunday of singing at church, last minute packing and off along with Kristofer to the Japan Choir Tour. They are both thrilled to be going and have been working hard on fundraisers and singing all year. The main thing, though, is that they have to STAY HEALTHY. It's difficult to travel internationally with the Swine Flu scare. The Japanese are being extra careful. If anyone on the airplane lands with a fever, they will quarantine that person and the 30-40 people around them for up to 10 days! And seeing as the choir tour is only 12 days long, this would put a real damper on the schedule!

Please be praying for our family at this time, particularly for the missions trips the kids are on or will be on soon, and also for my job situation both for the summer and for the new school year. Also for Keri Lynn's preparation for college. I can't believe I have a high school graduate!

Someone make this ride SLOW DOWN!

Life has been steaming down the tracks like an out-of-control freight train. Busy, busy, busy. Kids are having all of their end-of-the-school year stuff. Keri Lynn is getting ready to graduate! Sniff. I've been applying for teaching jobs.

And still there are the bills, laundry and dishes. They don't go away! No matter how hard I ignore them! Ack!

Keri Lynn just has a few more days of actual classes. Next week, she'll just be going to graduation practice, and the rest of the time she's planning on sleeping in and resting for graduation, trip to Jamaica and trip to Japan. Exciting times!

In the midst of all of this, while I'm ignoring bills, laundry and dishes by playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, Kathleen comes up to me, "Mom, you got to teach me how to knit."

She explains that she has promised a friend at school to teach her class how to knit. Has she ever knitted before in her entire life? She has, if you count the knitting loom. But really, she just knows how to crochet. I taught her how to cast on and how to knit, and she has been working her rows rather well. By the end of the week, she just may be ready to teach that class how to knit.

I've also been ignoring bills, laundry and dishes by watching Doctor Who seasons back to back over two consecutive weekends. No wonder I'm not getting much done. But it's been fun!

Our weather has not decided to stay warm yet. We've had some days in the 60's lately. And had to pull out sweaters a few times. What is up with that? It's May, Mr. Weatherman!

Summer is kind of a blur right now as far as what I'm going to be doing for work. I'm hoping for that perfect job to just fall into my lap, but somehow, nothing so far!

Time to get kids to bed!

Better is One Day Matt Redman

Happy birthday, Kathleen!

So now I am the mother of four teenagers. Kathleen turned 13 today. She has been anticipating teenhood for years now, and finally she is one! Congratulations, Kathleen! I'm so proud of you! You are an amazing, talented, beautiful young lady. May God bless you and always keep you close to Him.

We finished off our spring break with a bang. Keith's friend, Carol Bell, finally succumbed to cancer on Wednesday after a three and a half year battle. She wasn't even supposed to have made it that long, but she celebrated her 70th birthday with God's grace. Keith went over often to her apartment in Atlanta to get her over to doctor's appointments or to run errands. They forged a strong friendship during that time. Her body was shipped back to California where most of her family lives. She is survived by her daughter, sister and mother. Keith will go later this week to honor two people who have died, Carol's memorial on Thursday and then on the Seattle to support his mother as the family spreads the ashes of his Aunt Velda.

On Thursday, I took Keri Lynn to Georgia College and State University, in Milledgville, GA. It is a gorgeous campus. Keith was supposed to go with us, but with recent developments, couldn't make it. So it became a mother/daughter event. I decided that I definitely want to go to GCSU. Free wi-fi, cable, gym, pool, well-stocked cafeteria, library and computer labs. I could really get used to living on campus! Everywhere we looked, students were out and about with laptops and cell phones, doing what young people do these days -- stay attached to the hip/ear with some kind of electronic device. But while I wait to figure out the logistics of attending a college 2 1/2 hours away, I'll let Keri Lynn go there!

Earlier in the week, Keith took Keri Lynn shopping for a mini laptop. It will be perfect for college life, not too big to drag around, but easy on the family budget. Keith was in his element, dragging Keri Lynn all over Kingdom Come looking for the perfect computer. Now Keri Lynn can use it and not hog my computer all the time! Whoo-hoo!

On Friday, we celebrated Kathleen's birthday with a afternoon party full of candy, Little Cesar's pizza, cake and ice cream. She sent out 33 invitations, knowing that most people wouldn't be able to make it over spring break. I was still a little worried, though, and didn't actually end up ordering pizza until the party was well underway! She had 10 guests after all was said and done, so that was a pretty good ratio on a holiday weekend! We ended the party just before bad weather came surging in -- wind, lightening and hail and rain. It was a lot of fun. Keith and Keri Lynn went to switch out cars during the hail storm, but by the time the newer model truck was in the garage, the hail had stopped! We had a short tornado watch, but decided that most of the activity was a few miles east of us, so we stayed in the family room keeping watch over storm patterns on the news stations.

On Saturday, we had Kent and Kradan over for a visit. It's always a lot of fun to see them. They brought lunch and we provided dinner, and we all played cards and talked and laughed. It's weird, though, having kids give us adults a run for our money with whatever games we're playing. It wasn't too long ago that we were playing "sympathy" rounds, where we'd let a kid win. Now it's every man for himself! And it's a little disconcerting to be beat by a 10-year-old!

Easter morning, we all were scrambling around to find at least a few clean clothes. (The laundry continues to multiply itself in the laundry room hallway . . . ) Then we were off to church. The music was so beautiful. I was so moved by one hymn in particular. I just cried and cried as we sang.

Later on that afternoon, I took a three hour nap, in anticipation of joining the working world on Monday morning. Sure enough, my alarm clock went off at 6:20 this morning. How RUDE! I think we only have about six more weeks to go before the end of school, though.  

I'm in the process of posting pictures on facebook, so if you're not on it already, then please join -- It's the right thing to do! And you can see pictures!

Spring, O Spring, wherefore art thou, Spring?!?

The kids and I are enjoying a relaxing spring break this week. I've got a hundred things that I'd like to do, but as the week marches on, I'm having to mix a little reality into my wish list.

Yesterday, I took Kathleen and Kylie out for a little girl time. We went out to lunch at El Charro, mostly to satisfy my need for some fajita nachos. Then we went in search of bags from three local grocery stores for Kylie's science project. We are doing an experiment on which bag is strongest: Publix, Kroger or Wal-Mart. (I will not take the time at this moment to complain about school work that requires more parental involvement than student involvement. No, I won't.) While at Wal-Mart, we got Kylie a tri-fold and a notebook for her science project, and Kathleen got some stuff for her 13th birthday party coming on this Friday.

While we were out and about, Keith took Keri Lynn to about 100 different electronics stores looking for the perfect college laptop. They found one for a very good price, along with a printer for an even better price, and a few other "necessary" gadgets to go with it. We think of it as a little celebration of Keri Lynn's acceptance to Georgia College and State University (to be referred to as GCSU from now on because it's a mouthful.) We're very proud of her. She's itching to get started in her new college life with only seven weeks of high school left.

The biggest factor in choosing her school was that it has an excellent Christian base of students. We've heard better things coming out of that student body than we've heard from the myriad of Christian colleges here in Georgia despite it being a secular liberal arts college. So be praying, if you are a prayer, that God will continue to keep His hand on her, that she will continue listening to His voice. These are exciting times and we are enjoying watching her fly!

Today, I took the boys out. We had a huge debate about where we should go for lunch. Kade really wanted Chick-fil-A, and apparently so did his imaginary friend Bob, but Kristofer and Konner wanted to go to a little Chinese place where they charge a dollar per scoop. So even though the vote was two to two, we went with Chinese. (I'm still suffering from that choice, but that's another matter.) Then, we went to Game Stop to use the balance of Kristofer's credit on his Game Stop card. He's still playing his game as I type.

I really need to get going on paying some bills and doing a little clean-up because Kathleen's party looms, but it's so much more fun to play on the computer then it is to dust and vacuum!

I was going to take all the kids to the park for a little fresh air today, but the temperature has been hovering around 40. Um, so NO! We'll stay inside, thankyouverymuch. We even had some snow flurries. Brrrrrrrr! What happened to spring? I'd even be willing to brave the pollen again for a little warmth! I've been having a time with allergy medications as I try to find what works for me. I tried Zyrtec, but that stuff made me feel like the lead role in Night of the Living Dead. I could not keep my eyes open -- not such a good thing when driving. Now I've got my hot little hands on some Allegra, so I'll see how that works. Drugs are good!

Some of these are true!

Just for fun, Google your first name, "_______ needs" and write down the first 20 things that come up. I googled "Jackie needs" and got these . . .

1) Jackie needs help does not have any contacts at this time.

2) Jackie needs a dose of real-world reality.

3) Jackie needs a Drink Birthday.

4) Jackie needs a Friend.

5) Jackie needs a reality check!

6) Jackie needs a loving home.

7) Jackie needs you.

8) Jackie needs to get a personality.

9) Jackie needs a boyfriend.

10) Jackie needs a Red Bull.

11) Jackie needs rescuing, but I took pictures instead.

12) Jackie needs a running friend . . . Jackie is available and loves to run and play!

13) Jackie needs 1,000 visitors by day's end.

14) Jackie needs boost.

15) A special plea: Jackie needs our help!

16) Jackie needs attention!

17) Jackie says that she doesn’t know boundaries, but Briana points out that Jackie needs to also start taking responsibilities for her own ...

18) Why Jackie Needs YOUR Help. On October first of 2004 Jackie fell at work at Wal-Mart, over a dust mop someone left laying in an aisle. ...

19) Jackie needs a home environment that can provide her abundant structure, predictability and security.

20) Jackie's grandfather(Fredrick)has been kidnapped and Jackie needs to get him back.

So there you have it!

The GACE/Laundry connection

I made the big push and took the GACE Special Ed. Academic Content Test yesterday. Four hours -- 120 multiple choice questions and four essays. One of the four essays I had absolutely no clue about and will suffer for it. I took a stab at it, but looked up the information afterward and wasn't even close. I wouldn't be as upset about it if I hadn't studied everything ELSE on that particular topic -- GRRRRRR! Other than the essay, everything else was pretty much typical GACE test. I've become somewhat of an expert by now, having taken the two other tests. As for how I did? Who knows! I didn't expect to pass the other two and I feel the same way about this round, especially Part 1 where I had essay diarrhea of the pen.

A gigantic casualty of GACE has been my laundry room. I'm pretty sure it's dead. Smothered to death by dirty laundry. I turn on the lights in that room, and all I hear are crickets. So today, in an effort to raise a laundry room from the dead, I've begun excavating dirty clothes from the floor and adjacent hallway. A pathway has at last been cleared and I've done about five loads of laundry so far. Kids now have pants and shirts to wear to school tomorrow. Still no underwear, but the day is not done. I had to stay home from church to accomplish this. I couldn't bring myself to do several loads of emergency laundry last night, so I played Ms. Pathetic, and let Keith take the kids who could find clean clothes off to church today. I slept in a little, made breakfast, started the first load, cleaned up in the kitchen and have been filling the ravenous washing machine and dryer ever since.

The Kings made a stop-over on Friday night on one of their grand driving expeditions. It's their spring break. They will travel thousands of miles in the next week visiting friends and family. We were their first stop on the way north from Florida. They've come often enough that their kids all know the drill. They bring their sleeping bags and pillows and set up their stuff, then all of the boys go and play video games for as long as we'll let them, and the girls go into their room and play music real loud and do a lot of laughing and giggling. This time, Keith and Kerry went off to see a movie and Ginny and I hung out and talked while I made dinner. We had Make Your Own Tacos -- a Johnson tradition. Yum!

On Thursday (I realize I'm going backwards on my reports!), Keith went on a whirlwind trip to California. He left our house at about 5:00 in the morning, got on the plane, met his Dad at LAX. Together they headed off to Norwalk to fix the three birth certificates that are not actually official birth certificates. They are abstract birth certificates, even though it says "Official Government Document" on them. Keith then had Yoshinoya with his Dad and then hopped a plane once again to come on home, making it through the door here at about 11:00 the same evening. Pretty efficient! Hopefully, now that we've got the birth certificates fixed, we'll be able to get the passports back in time for the upcoming Mexico/Japan trips.

Butterscotch Brownies cooked just a little too long

Teacher, teacher

I was surprised to see how long it had been since I'd posted. I guess I've been busy. Where do I start?

It appears that I won't be able to do the One Year Practicum program to get my teacher certification. The school budget won't allow it. My other option at this point, should I wish to become a teacher, is to take one more GACE test and enroll in a teacher certification program. I will then be qualified to begin teaching as long as I can get my teacher certification done in five years.

So I am now seriously considering the possibility of getting a Masters in Education. It means only a few more classes after getting certification. I am looking into the many programs that are available to me and trying to talk to as many people as possible. Those of you who pray, would you please pray that I talk to the right people and ask the right questions. It's a very interesting, exciting and overwhelming time in my life.

On the home front, Kathleen got on the track team at her school. She is the first of the kids to participate in any school sport. I'm enjoying it immensely. She has two hours of practice pretty much every school day, unless she competes in a track meet. The weekly track meet runs all the way until 7:00 pm after school, and I can get in free with my substitute teacher badge. She is certainly not the fastest kid out there, but she runs hard and tries hard. I'm very proud of her.

Keri Lynn and I have been filling out the endless forms and jumping through the endless hoops for college. She wants to go to either Shorter College, which is one of three Southern Baptist colleges in Georgia, or Georgia State and College University, a liberal arts college with a strong Christian contingency. It's an interesting, exciting and overwhelming time in her life, too!

I continue to sub at the same middle school, where I've been since December. For those of you who might not remember from previous posts, I work in a self-contained special ed. class as a teacher's assistant. ("Self-contained" means that the kids stay in their own classroom rather than assimilate into general ed.) Half of the kids are in wheelchairs and all of them are at the lower end of the IQ range. Keva is at another middle school and would fit right in with these kids. I have had the privilege of teaching each one, to a certain extent, and watching them react to the learning process. I especially enjoy giving the readers their reading lessons. The brain is an amazing creation!

In fact, I've been enjoying it so much that I am seriously considering going into special education as a teacher at the severe/profound level. I was asked several times last year by several people if I would like to teach a self-contained class. My answer was, "No, thank you." Inside I was saying, "Are you CRAZY?!? Don't you know I already take care of a daughter at that level? And you want me to do it 24 hours a day!?!" And the person asking would nod and agree in complete understanding. However, now I have a different perspective, and the opportunities are still there even in our current tough economy.

Keith is going to be going to California sometime in the next few days to try to get the long versions of Keri Lynn and Kristofer's birth certificates. Apparently, when we got their birth certificates, three of our seven kids got the abstract version of the birth certificate. It says right on their "official government document", but it does not have the city in which they were born. It has worked fine for us all these years and would be fine if we were applying for passports in California, but doesn't work in Georgia. Argh! So we have about 30 more days to get this issue taken care of. Thank God for Keith's flight privileges. It would take way too long to get it fixed by mail. I shudder to think!

Chick-fil-A

A sick one -- pathetic, isn't he?

Lovely daffodils

Last Monday, our county closed all of the schools because of snow. Snowmen stayed up for several days. Snow stayed on the ground clear into Wednesday and Thursday in the shady areas.

Today, we turned on our AC when we got home. Temps were up into the late 70's. Hello, Spring! Glad your coming! Trees have started to bloom. White ones. A few pink ones. And, of course, the daffodils have been around for several weeks. I love daffodils.

Keith had his day off today, but he spent most of it taking his friend, Carol, his friend who he used to work with who has cancer, around to her doctor appointments. He had to run back quickly, though, to pick up Keva who had started throwing up at school.

Bummer.

And, sadly, I'm not upset that Keva is sick, per se. She actually seems to be doing pretty good. She ate a good dinner tonight. She's sleeping comfortably.

I'm just thinking of the possibilities that follow when one child starts vomiting. Soon it becomes a plethora of vomiting. Vomiting fountains of throw-up. Which means laundry. Possible time away from work. Doctors. Steam cleaners. And fun stuff like that.

We've already doing the coughing/fever/chills thing. In fact, I figured that we were doing pretty good with our sick selves. Missing church a few weeks. A couple of kids home from school at a time. And no vomiting!

So we'll just have to wait and see if Keva is a special case. Maybe it was something she ate, like the wood chips next to the fireplace, or the dog food.

Fun times.

Doggie posture

Here's Kody eating out of his new doggie bowl, designed to aid with posture AND digestion!  Note the snow outside!  Whoo-hoo!  What fun!

One Word

It's harder than you think!! Here is what you are supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun...copy and paste into your own note, type in your answers and tag a bunch of people - including me.

Your hair....................................................brown
Where is your cell phone .........................gone
Your father.................................................heaven
Your favorite thing....................................laundry
Your dream last night...............................memory
Your favorite drink....................................Coke
Your dream/goal.......................................teacher
The room you are in..................................bedroom
Your fear......................................................pain
Where do you want to be in 6 years........teacher
Muffins.........................................................chocolate
One of your wish list items........................camera
Where you grew up....................................California
The last thing you did.................................snow
What are you wearing.................................jeans
Your TV........................................................basketball
Your pets......................................................Labrador
Your computer.............................................laptop
Your life........................................................blessed
Your mood....................................................content
Missing someone..........................................Keith
Your car.........................................................Van
Favorite store................................................Michaels
Your summer.................................................fun
Your favorite color........................................blue
When is the last time you laughed..............today
Last time you cried.......................................yesterday
Three people who email me.........................Mom, Grandma, Aunt Marcia
Three of my favorite foods...........................Hamburger, Mexican, Fried
Three places I would rather be right now..Kauia, New Zealand, England
Three people I think will respond...............Mom, Danny, Connie
Three things you despise..............................cruelty, lies, littering

What an arm!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's snowing! So pretty! I wish I could capture the snow flakes coming down with my camera, but I've already taken plenty of pictures out the front door and the deck. It's still coming down steadily as I type.

Yesterday, I finally had a normal healthy day, pretty much. Which was a good thing, because my friend Ginny came through and spent the night last night. She was supposed to be coming back from visiting with her family, having gone there to bury her father and spend time with her mother. Her husband and kids had already driven back to Florida, so she used a buddy pass to get back from Oklahoma. Except last night, expectantly of course, 500 flights were canceled coming in through Atlanta due to snow. She was not going to be able to get on a connecting flight for another day at the very least, probably not until Tuesday. so Keith drove her and met up with her husband at the halfway point, and they are now driving on home.

Keith is maybe making a tiny stop at the Alabama/Georgia border to get one or two or a hundred fireworks for Fourth of July. My very own firebug. They got snow driving down, but the further south they got, the snow started to go away. But Keith will be getting plenty of snow coming back up again.

I decided to stay home from church today to make sure my recuperation is complete for tomorrow, but now I'm wondering if we'll have school tomorrow at all. It's supposed to be sunny, so I imagine the snow will be gone tomorrow, but forecasters were saying that the snow was probably going to melt when it fell, which it's not. It looks like Winter Wonderland right now. I dropped off Keri Lynn and Kathleen at church because their choirs were being bussed to another church to sing. Kristofer is home feeling very pathetic with probably the same bug I had. Poor thing. The rest of the kids kept dashing outside to play in the snow, until I told them to stay in because we also have thunder and lighting to go with it. Odd combination!

Picture of the Day

Here's Kylie with her baby doll,  Emma.  Poor Emma is suffering from a broken arm.  Apparently she fell.  I hope Kathleen didn't push her down the stairs in a box.

Sick

It's the 27th today, or at least I think it's the 27th. I didn't have calendar time at school to confirm it!

I've had a cough for a good week or so, even before our little jaunt to California. I didn't think it was much, and it wasn't much, until Wednesday afternoon, when I started coughing harder and harder and harder. By the time I got to GAs that night, I had put the lesson plan on flashcards to save my voice. The girls thought it was kind of novel. : )

That night, Kylie slept on the living room recliner and I slept on the family room recliner and we both coughed our lungs out in tandem. The next morning, with great regret, I called in to the school to say that I would be out for the rest of the week, got the kids out the door and went back to bed for two hours to await physician doctor's hours. Kylie and I then spent all morning and a good part of the afternoon going to our respective doctors. (I haven't seen the pediatrician this many times in a span of a month in a long time!)

By the time we got all of our antibiotics and wonderful, glorious, fabulous and-in-all-other-ways miraculous cough syrup, I was absolutely spent and regretting our little lunch trip to Panda Express. I made it to bed with quick instructions to the kids coming home from school that they were now in charge, no friends could come play, they could see no friends -- I was checked out for the day. Four hours later, I came stumbling back into the family room to see life continuing as normal. I ate a little oatmeal and toast and a cola and lots of water (Mom!), watched a little mind-numbing TV, and then stumbled back to bed.

I'm still out of it today, but the wonderful, glorious, fabulous and-in-all-other-ways miraculous cough syrup has saved me from checking myself into the funny farm. I watched TV, ran two loads of dishes and four loads of laundry and have pretty much wrapped up any more productivity for the day.

We've got rain, so it's a good excuse to keep all kids inside and rested and no visitors to contaminate. Kristofer has been invited to a bowling night and Kathleen is spending the night with a friends. So dinner will be canned stew. Yay for easy dinners! And the weekend cometh!

CA trip overview

We're back from California and recuperating after a whirlwind trip. It was a lot of fun, but as usual didn't get to see as many people as I would have liked. I guess I'm just going to have to get realistic about time.

It was especially good to see my Mom this time around. She was laid off a few months ago, so it was the first time we've come for a visit where we've actually really been able to spend time with her. She cooked up a storm, as usual, making many yummy specialties. My kids said, "So that's where you learned how to make scrambled eggs!" This time, though, we were able to sit and talk and catch up on things.

We arrived on Wednesday and marveled right away at the wonderful weather. They'd just had a ton of rain, so the skies were really clear, enough to see the mountains all around the L.A. basin and beyond. Gorgeous! We went to go see Grandpa Stan, Keith's Dad, right off because he was going to be at work the other days we were there. He was looking really good, even as he's looking to celebrate "four score" years. We played with his dog Scooter, got some pictures in the backyard, and marveled at all the green grass (since all of our grass here is dormant). Then, we went to see my new niece Danica Joy, Danny and Jessica's baby. She is just six weeks and as cute as a button. She, however, was not happy about the invasion and even Danny's CD of a hairdryer blowing or a vacuum sweeper going was not going to make her happy!

On Thursday, Mom and Rich took us to El Pollo Inca, because that is probably the restaurant that I miss the most. The food was just as delicious as I'd remembered. Then, we went to the beach. My Mom planned a trip to the beach, saying that the weather was really warm. They'd gone to the beach just the week before all the rain and had had a wonderful time. I was more than slightly skeptical, but we went anyway. June and Sarah Bostick, and Cathy and Dennis Quackenbush stopped by to say "hi." And most of the cousins were there -- Lola and Gabriel with Aunt Connie, and Danielle, Christine and Darlene. They all played in the water. Several of them, most of them my kids, got completely soaked in the waves. They made sand castles and collected shells and had a grand time at the beach in the middle of February! I took scads of pictures that I'll be posting as soon as I can!

On Friday, we stopped by to see Grandma Alice. We car-pooled over from her place, Mom with a group, Rich with a group and Alice with a group in her fancy red PT Cruiser -- all to Jack in the Box, where I could fulfill my craving for a Sourdough Jack. Sad, I know, but BOY was it good! After that little outing, we went over to Stanton to visit with my Grandmother, who is now 92. She treated the whole lot of us to Sizzler. We enjoyed that very much. I passed out crochet gifts that I had planned and of course had never gotten around to sending for Christmas.

And before we knew it, it was time to head back home. Good-bye family. Good-bye California friends. Good-bye wonderful weather! As soon as we got off the plane in Atlanta, we were hit with a blast of cold air from the outside. Brrrrr! Good thing our heater works at home, because we're going to need it as we acclimate to REAL February weather!

Traveling would be so much more fun if you didn't have to pack!

I hit the ground running today with this vague notion that I'd clean every single dirty piece of laundry in the house. Fourteen hours and 12 loads later, I'm here to report that although I didn't clean every piece of dirty laundry, I did manage to wash enough clothes so that kids will not go naked on an airplane tomorrow. That, my friends, is an accomplishment these days!

I also got pizza for dinner so that there would be very few dishes to deal with at the last minute. Keith seems to think that Kody will be okay left at home while he's at work, so I didn't need to get a dog sitter. Whew! If I didn't have to pack, I think I would like traveling a whole lot more!

I'm getting up tomorrow at 4:30, kids up by 5:00, in the hopes of not running out the door in sheer panic because we're running late. I bought those yummy pancake sausage on-a-stick thingies and some orange juice for a quick breakfast. Everything is pretty much packed. The plan is to have a simple nice travel day tomorrow. Granted, I'm probably going to be a tad grumpy for lack of sleep, but at least I'll be able to catch a few Z's while in the air, but only if one of my kids is sitting nearby to elbow me if I start to snore.

It's very embarrassing to snore on an airplane.

I gave Keva a bath tonight, a nice long warm one, to encourage any diaper activity tonight as opposed to on the plane tomorrow, because way more embarrassing than snoring on a plane is changing a stinky 14-year-old on a plane. Haven't had to change her on a plane in a long time. THANK GOD!

Anyway, I left Keva in the bath to soak while I took a few minutes to check Facebook. (I am addicted.)

A few minutes changed into about 20, and I came running back into the bathroom to find out that Keva had not only taken care of business in the bathtub, but had thrown it all around the bathroom. I'm sure she was giggling all the while. (Sorry, to all my queasy-stomached readers.) So that was way fun to clean up when I should have been doing a few other packing chores, but at least I won't have to worry about an accident on the plane tomorrow!

For those of you in California, I just wanted to write out a quick itinerary, as I know it.

Wednesday

12:15 -- Pick-up at airport and go back to Mom's house as home base. (Johnson invasion)

midafternoon -- visit with Stan
5:00ish -- Meet with Danny and Jessica

Thursday
4:00 -- Dockweiler Beach (at the end of Imperial) for hot dogs and Smores. Anyone is welcome to come join us! The weather is supposed to be cleared up by then, but if it's too cold, then we're going back to Mom's.

Friday
12:00 -- Visit SBFA
4:00 -- Dinner at Grandma's
7:00 -- Keri Lynn's sleepover at Missy's

And that's about all I know for sure. It's a short but sweet visit.  Impromptu, so not a lot of planning.
 

On our way to California

This week we have winter break! Whoo-hoo! That means that not only are all the kids off from school, but I'm off from work. It won't be so nice when payday comes around, but it's nice now!

So I got to thinking that maybe we should try to get a visit in to California. Keith won't be able to go with us this time because he needs to work, but the rest of us are going. We plan to fly out on Wednesday morning and come back Saturday.

Keith told me that this will be the first time we'll all qualify for first class seats since Konner is now eight! Not that they'll be available for all of us, but the thought makes me happy! It's been A LONG TIME since I've seen first class!

We plan to visit the family and any friends that may be interested in getting together. My grandma celebrated her 91st birthday just last month. My brother and his wife just had their first baby. And of course the kids are going to want to visit with all of the other cousins, too.

Kylie wanted to know if we could go to the beach. She really wants to go swim, but I told her that it would definitely be too cold. "Then, could we just go and play in the sand? I want to collect shells!"

We finally got passports for Keri Lynn and Kristofer for their trips to Mexico and Japan. Hopefully we'll get them back in time, especially for the Japan trip, as our music pastor is trying to get good prices on airplane tickets.

The passport hunt was an adventure all by itself.

We decided to meet Keith at the post office at the airport. He needed to sign Kristofer's passport application since Kristofer is under 16. The post office was supposedly on the north side of the airport, so we got directions to a little office there, waited about 30 minutes and then finally talked to someone who told us that they were actually an expediting office. For a mere $230 a person, they could expedite the passports and we'd have them in 14 business days. We then found out that there was a post office on the south side of the airport if we wanted to check there, but that they'd charge a fee for any expediting, too.

So, off we went to the airport post office. It was completely empty except for the employee behind the counter who told us that their office only did passports by appointment only and since Monday was a holiday, they could schedule an appointment for Tuesday. I looked around the vacant room and back to him again. "Um, the on-line information said that no appointments were necessary." He was unmoved, but he did finally deign to give us directions to a post office near the airport that took passport walk-ins.

We met Keith at his work and followed him in his truck to the next post office where we found a huge line waiting for us. At the Newnan post office, there's a separate line for passports, so we went to the door marked "Passport Office" and knocked. The lady told us that we needed to get ourselves back into the Full Service Line to get to the Passport Office. Keith then told us that he was going back to work and to give us a call when we got to the end of the line. Good grief!

We did eventually get to the end of the line and we did eventually get the passport pictures done, and passport fees made for half of the expedited fee price. "I'm supposed to tell you that it will take 4-6 weeks for the passports to come back, but most everyone tells us that they're getting their's back in about two weeks," said the postal worker. That sounded a lot better to me than the supposed expedited 14 business days and at more than half the price, too!

It was worth the wait to finally get it done, but as we walked out of the post office, the kids were talking about how hard it must be to work at a post office. I asked them if they'd ever heard the phrase "going postal", and they hadn't, so I got to explain that phrase. They understood!

February Walk #1

I'm very thrilled to announce that I passed the Special Ed. GACE test. (I'm doing a happy dance!) Now I will begin making contact with various people and see what teaching positions become available. Because I would be hired in a provisional situation, other teachers with actual teaching credentials would be hired before me. Here in our county, there has been a hiring freeze all year and will continue into next year, so I may have to go out of the county to find a job. However, it is and always has been in God's very capable hands. So it remains to be seen what happens next.

Last night, I set the alarm clock for 6:20, a sort of compromise to wake-up time. Not 6:15 but not 6:30 either, in case I had any emergencies like I did on Friday. However, the morning went very smoothly. Like clockwork.

In fact, the entire day has been pretty much an antithesis of Friday's complete chaos, I'm happy to say. Even at school several students were absent, making the workday a breeze.

I spent what seemed like all of Sunday sorting dirty laundry. I washed four loads while I sorted. Does that give you an idea of how pathetically behind I am in laundry? This whole week's focus is to finally get caught up on laundry. It can happened. I've had short spurts of laundry maintenance, so I know it's possible! I figure if I can wash four loads a day, by the end of the week, I should be caught up . . . mostly.

Just the feeling of laundry accomplishment has given me a mental boost to continue with life's challenges. Today, when I got home from work, I walked. Keith joined me. So that makes Walk #1 for February. The weather is super wonderful right now, unlike last week's freezing temperatures. We've been enjoying weather in the late 60's with lots of sunshine. I love it! I don't expect it to last, though. There's still a lot of potential cold spells before we start looking at spring temperatures.

"Funny"

I've been getting up at 6:00 this school year, a whole 45 minutes earlier than last year. Keith gets up at the same time. It's the first time in our entire married lives that we've gotten up at the same time, and it just doesn't work for us. We both need the bathroom, the ironing board, the space at the same time. So I decided that since I'm kind of waiting around for Keith to get out the door in his allotted 15 minutes, I can get up a little later. So on Monday, I set the alarm for 6:15 and felt entirely sinfully happy snuggled in bed while Keith got ready for work. Then I had time to myself to do all the woman things that seem to take so much longer than man things to get out the door.

Well, this morning, I was laying in bed after the alarm went off at 6:15. Keith had already kissed me good-bye. I thought, well, wouldn't it be nice to sleep in to 6:30. That would give me just enough time to get myself ready (20 minutes), Keva ready (10 minutes) and last minute kid things done (15 minutes) before running out the door myself. Perfect! Why hadn't I thought of that LAST night? So, I reset my alarm again and snuggled back into my warm cozy bed.

Alarm went off at 6:30 as set.

I got up, got dressed. Makeup done. Was doing really well with my schedule. Feeling confident. Successful. Rested.

I walked out of my bedroom door.

Sniffed the air.

Went into Keva's room. Keva was stinky all right. And so were her fingers where she had played in her diaper. And so was anything else she'd touched while waking up.

Ahhhhhhck!

I went running into the laundry room to get a towel when Kathleen caught me in the kitchen, "Mom! Kody pooped in the bathroom. It's diarrhea and it's all over the bathroom!" (We keep him in the guest bathroom during the night for just such possible issues.)

"Did he get anything on the carpet?"

"Well, he did scootch his butt across the carpet in the family room."

Ahhhhhhck!

I looked down at my watch and decided I really had no choice but to give Keva a bath and try to blow dry her hair before her bus came. It was entirely too cold to let her go out with wet hair. So, towel under my arm, I pleaded with Kathleen over my shoulder to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE clean up the dog poop while I cleaned up Keva. She could use some of Keva's baby wipes and some spray deodorizer to help counteract the terrible smell. Bless her heart, she did it, while I worked with Keva.

I even had enough time to write a short note about Keva's incident, since her hair wasn't completely dry, in her agenda before throwing her onto the bus.

I stood in the driveway, watching her bus drive away. I was dressed and ready for work, but maybe just a tiny bit bedraggled. And hungry. There was no time for breakfast. I was able to throw a lunch together. Yell good-bye to the remaining teenagers waiting for their ride to school.

The full moon is upon us, because the school day was pretty much a repeat of the morning. One student had a terrible seizure. Another one had a bad melt-down. Yet another was being physically self-abusive, much more so than usual . . . 

Yet, God is gracious. He is able to give us grace to handle days like these. I'm actually thankful for such days because it makes me appreciate the "boring" days. Oh, yes. I love boring days!

In the midst of the chaos, I was giving a reading lesson to an autistic student. One of the words she was learning was "funny." (When I take her to the toilet, we always sing "Down by the Bay." It is a funny bond between us. I sing a line and let her finish the last word in the line. She laughs and guffaws through the song and we finish up the bathroom business.) So when we came across the word "funny" in her reading lesson, I'd sing a line or two from "Down by the Bay." I'd say, "Did you ever see a moose kissing a goose?" And she's start grinning. Then I'd tell her it was "funny." "Look, there's the word 'funny'. As the lesson progressed, she'd come to that word and giggle about it. I was so pleased. The lesson was successful! I wouldn't have traded all of the day's events for anything if it meant missing that lesson.

Later on that evening, Keith was home and we were chatting with Keri Lynn in the foyer. I related all of the days events to the two of them, ending with that special "funny" moment, and then I said, "You know, having the experience of homeschooling for so many years has really helped with teaching in the special ed class."

Keri Lynn looked at me a moment, and deadpanned, "Thanks."

But it's true. Teaching at a regular ed level requires much the same methodology as special ed. There still needs to be repetition. A teacher still needs to be aware of the child's strength and abilities. And there is still the excitement of seeing the student get it! I love that!

25 random things

I'd love to hear your 25.  So if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

1) My faith in God defines me.

2) I've been married to the same man for 20 years, and couldn't imagine being married to anyone else.

3) I have seven children, but I don't usually volunteer that information to people I have just met because of the comments that follow: "Wow, you must be very patient." "I don't know how you do it. I can't do it with my two." Or "Have you seen Jon and Kate Plus 8 or the Duggers?"

4) I was born in Guatemala to a missionary family, grew up in Central America and then when I was eight my family moved back to the States.

5) I lived in Southern California up until four years ago. The move to Georgia was a HUGE change for our family, but we really love the house and the neighborhood and our church.

6) I hate to call people on the telephone. People rarely hear from me by phone and if they do, they usually immediately think something is wrong.

7) I've never gotten a ticket. Keith, on the other hand . . . 

8) After 16 years as a SAHM, I had to go back to work to help with our family income. It was either that or lose the house. If I had a choice, I'd be home again in a flash.

9) Nonetheless, the idea of becoming a special ed. teacher is exciting to me, and that's what I'm hoping to do by next fall.

10) I'm just a "little" self-absorbed. I could spend hours on my blog http:/familydaze.blogspot.com and facebook writing about myself and my family happenings. (Oh, right, I already do.)

11) I have been working on a novel for the last three years. I'm got it maybe 5% done, but it keeps my mind occupied while I'm taking a shower, blow-drying my hair, sitting at a red light, etc.

12) I love a good book and a good movie. I usually hate movies based on good books. (Like the Bourne movies -- urgh!)

13) I'm kind of a frustrated artist. I have a bunch of art books on my shelf and every once in a while I'll pull one out and try to sketch portraits.

14) I am so proud of my kids. They are amazing people that just get better and better as they grow. For all of you people with young children out there, don't believe the teenager myth. They don't have to be like that!

15) I hate housework. I'm basically lazy. Laundry is my arch enemy.

16) If I could choose the perfect vacation, I'd choose to go away with just Keith to a fancy hotel with good cable, eat out every meal, go see a movie every day, and have lots of great books on hand to read. I wouldn't matter where the hotel was.

17) It hurts to be 43.

18) I absolutely adore studying the Bible.

19) I also adore debating the Bible.

20) I am both a procrastinator and a perfectionist. Go figure.

21) I am blessed by some wonderful loyal friends, but I wish I had closer friends here in Georgia, too.

22) I love to crochet while I watch TV. I taught myself to crochet in the first years of marriage.

23) I have trouble paying bills and turning in library books on time.

24) I hate to be wrong, but my husband loves me anyway.

25) I have a can of cola in the morning instead of coffee. One can a day, that's all I ask!

Walk #4!

I now have raised my overdue library fines to $42, just after I'd finally gotten it back down into the single digits. It's very frustrating. I think I'm going to really have to crack down on myself and only limit us all to a half dozen books at a time instead of the 30 or so I usually check out. I used to be able to charm my way out of fines, but the Mean Librarian has beaten all of the charm and fight out of me. Sigh.

Keith and I just got done with a walk. I can usually coerce him into going with me on Mondays. We walk around the neighborhood and critique everyone's yards, then come home and ignore our own!

Work went well today. The kids are such fun to work with. One of the autistic kids has finally started calling me by name. I've been promoted.

It's hard to believe that it's been a week since the Kings came for their visit. This weekend, I didn't plan on too much, but ended up staying busy anyway. On Friday night, Keri Lynn and I snuck out by ourselves to see the winter high school play, starring several of Keri Lynn's friends from church. Man, those kids can act! Church members took up the whole front section, and we were very enthusiastic!

On Saturday, I went to a GA activity at church and helped my 4th grade girls get caught up on their workbooks. Six girls came, about half of the group, which wasn't a bad showing for a Saturday event.

Then, I played hooky from church on Sunday. It essentially came down to the fact that I had no clean clothes to wear and neither did Keva. So instead of staying up late to make sure we had something to wear, I decided that Keva and I would sleep in, relax and get caught up on a little laundry. I made a dent. And to be honest, it's nice to play hooky every once in a while. I made up for playing hooky, though, by attending a parent meeting later in the afternoon for Keri Lynn and Kristofer's trip to Japan. (I need to get their passports soon --ack!) And then after the meeting, we stopped by to congratulate Jerry Walker, our associate pastor to seniors, for 25 faithful years of service.

Now I shall go make dinner. I think I'll make some homemade macaroni and cheese before the cheese gets all eaten up.

Walk #3

It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to Keith's Aunt Velda. Velda died this week after a tough battle with cancer. She was Keith's mom's twin sister and lived up in the Seattle area. She leaves a husband and their two children, both married and living in the same area.

The week is flying by. I've been working in my special ed classroom. We had the TV on during the inauguration. I would have been happy to sit and watch the whole day long. Politics fascinate me. But even watching what little I did, I was getting steamed about the whole "history in the making" thing. I voted for a man's position on actual issues, not on the color of his skin. But it appears that a great many people voted on color of skin. Sigh.

It's been very cold this week. Even the kids have been staying home instead of going to friends' houses after school.

We said good-bye to the Kings after a whirlwind weekend visit. It was a lot of fun to see them. Ginny brought a ton of DVDs and videos for us as a Christmas present, along with chocolate and popcorn. So we watched a lot of movies while they were here and will enjoy them for many happy hours to come.

Today was the first day of a slight warming trend, so I finally got to go on a walk again. It was a balmy 48 degrees when I went out. Brrrrr. That makes three whole walking times this month. Not exactly an overwhelming number, but it's better than two, one or nothing at all. And it was nice to get out. It took a full five minutes of walking before I even took my hands out of my pockets, and another 10 minutes before I could convince myself that I could keep walking the full 30 minutes. By time I came back, I was already feeling the benefits of the walk. I went on to make dinner and make sure that Konner was doing his homework. (He's been majorly slipping under the radar with his schooling.)

Danica Joy

Danny's a father?!?  Look at that.  She's got him wrapped around her little finger already!

Precious face

Here's my Mom with her 13th grandchild.  Doesn't she look skinny?  Mom, not the baby.  Goodness, Mom, you look good!

Walk #2

This will be front burner stuff. Lots has happened as usual, but I'll not spend too much time going over old news.

First off, I'm an aunt again! Congratulations to my brother Danny and his wife Jessica. They now have a baby girl -- Danica Joy, born on Friday. Her pictures are so cute.   I wish I could be there to hold her. But maybe it's best that I'm not since I've got this lingering cough that doesn't want to go away. I'm full of a ton of advice, though, Danny, should you ever need any.

I'm on a mission to get back to walking. I walked yesterday with Keith and today by myself. My goal is to walk four days a week, at least 30 minutes at a time -- Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. So far, I've walked twice. I'm going to record each time I walk on Facebook and see if I can get any exercise buddies.

My foray back into exercise has less to do with the new year than it does that I'm tired of being tired. I have finally shaken my cough and I'm very lowwwwwww on energy. I got to thinking that I've been low on energy for too long. So back in the saddle I go. Yesterday's walk left me sore, even as pathetic as it was, but it also left me with more energy today that I've had in a while. Just that little bit made the difference especially in that sleepy afternoon stretch.

So get ready for some exercise updates. Today is Walk #2. Exiting update, huh.

On other news, I completed another GACE test on Saturday. I dragged my tired self to the test, about a 30 minute drive, and slugged my tired brain through four hours of questions on Special Education. I don't feel very good about it, but then I didn't feel very good about the pedagogy test either and passed that one. So I'm feeling hopeful! If I pass that test, it puts me in a position to apply for a teaching job. I am very excited about it.

Meanwhile, I continue to sub in a self-contained special ed. class. I'm scheduled through the month of January. Hopefully, I'll go through the end of the year in that class, but I don't know for sure. It has been really nice to go to the same place every weekday and work with the same people. The kids are great. Each of them have a piece of my heart.

My own kids just keep getting bigger and bigger. I don't know for sure because we haven't had time to breath lately, but I'm pretty sure Kristofer has gotten taller. And Kade and Konner had their birthdays. They are nine and eight, respectively. Older, more independent. Sigh.

We've got one of those crazy weekends coming up. Ginny King and her kids are coming for a visit. Keri Lynn, Kristofer and Kathleen will be gone for half of the weekend for choir festival, but Kristofer told me he'd set up his two game systems for the King kids with "specific instructions." I don't know anything about setting up the games, but Kade and Konner should be able to help me. : )

Because of the impending visit, the next few days are going to be nearly fruitless attempts at getting the house in better order. I've almost given up already. It just needs a good top to bottom scrubbing in which many Labrador hairs will be found.

Am I right, or am I right?

Senior Portraits

I took Keri Lynn as planned to Wal-Mart for Senior pictures. We got a photographer that has been working there for 13 years, Ms. Pat, 65, who works there two days a week just to stay busy. She was more than happy to get us those perfect pictures. For those of you who are local -- go to the Newnan Wal-Mart on Tuesday or Wednesday, ask for Pat and get someone who cares about capturing memories! I love her. I think I'm going to send her the family Christmas letter (It's coming -- really, it is!)

So you will have to go to my blog to see a few of the pictures. I'll try to put them up tonight. If you have Facebook, you can see them on Keri Lynn's page. They are really good! I'm thrilled with them and so giddy about having such a pretty daughter. : ) And, no worries to the grandmas and grandpas. Pictures are coming.

Tomorrow, school starts, so I'm getting myself together and getting to bed before midnight. I think.

Procrastinators, unite!

I've been sick with a hacking cough. It hasn't been bad enough to go to the doctor, I don't think, but it has kept me down on the couch or in bed for a better part of a week. Today I've started to feel better. I think it's the idea that school will be starting back in just a few days, and we all HAVE to be better in order to get back into the routine. Keith spent a lot of time on the Porcelain Throne, too, so for a while we were playing The Most Pathetic Game -- the game in which you try to be more pathetic than the other to gain sympathy points from those around you. Keith won.

Before I got sick, I found -- quite by accident -- that one of our digital channels on our TV worked. We got ABC! I was thrilled and fearful all at the same time, because, as I've said before, it has been a huge time saver to no longer have the TV on all the time. We've actually had more family time, more project time and more everything time. Not to mention that we are no longer exposing ourselves to the yuck on TV! So when I found that digital channel, I kept the information to myself for a while.

Until New Year's Eve.

I did finally break down and say to my dearly beloved husband and children, as the played on the X-Box, "Hey, did you guys know we had a digital channel on our TV?" This was on the evening of New Year's Eve, when I had visions of watching the ball fall in Times Square. It took maybe 12.5 seconds for husband/kids to figure out that there was not only ONE channel still on our TV, but ALL of the major channels -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS, plus a few odd-ball local channels. Whether they will all be there after that February date when things go completely digital, I don't know. The main channels are in the digital section and take a few seconds to sync up to our TV. I think we have the channels in the first place only because we still have the Internet connection and that's why they told me that they still had to "leave a line open" and that it would only cost $4 less to take the cable portion of our TV off.

All this to say, we did in fact ring in the New Year with a rather scary-looking Dick Clark and some left-over fireworks from Fourth of July (plus and extra pack from Erin's family! Thanks, Kim!) And then we all went to bed!

I didn't begrudge the TV time on New Year's Day, though. Keith had it on all day long for the various bowl games. It kind of finished off our vacation rather nicely, I think. We haven't ALL had time off like this in a very long time. Keith goes back to work tomorrow (Tuesday) and the rest of us go back to school on Wednesday.

Then, Saturday, I'll be taking the GACE test for Special Education! I was going to be studying all through vacation, but when I got sick, I just didn't have much energy for doing much of anything at all. The kids had or went to sleep-overs (mostly went to, because of sickies on this end.) We generally got into a groove where the kids were going to bed at about 10:00 or later and Keith and I were going to bed at about 1:00 or 2:00, and all of us sleeping in to about 10:00 or 11:00 every morning. (I could REALLY get used to that kind of schedule.) It's going to be a huge shock to all of our systems when that alarm clock goes off on Wednesday. Ugh!

Saturday, when I return from GACE, we're going to have what I like to call Mom's Procrastination Party. This is when I suffer the consequences of having put off birthday parties for all of my kids from July on. Somehow, I don't seem to have a problem with Keri Lynn or Kathleen's party, mostly because they plan and execute most of it, and because it's at the time of the year when we have more money. However, from Kylie's birthday on, I have some real trouble. LAST year, I had a big group event for those "left behind". And this year is no different. I'll come home brain-dead from the test, which will be just fine really, because my house will be taken over by short and tall people. We're going to have a theme party for every birthday kid. So Kylie is going to invite all of her friends and have each of them bring a favorite doll or stuffed animal, and they will all play games related to the dolls/stuffed animals. Kade and Konner's friends will come and bring all of their matchbox cars or army men (haven't decided yet)and play all together with those. Kristofer will invite his friends and they are going to have a huge X-Box Championship! Whoo-hoo! THEN, we are all going to get together and each kid is going to have a cake with their appropriately numbered candles. We'll all sing happy birthday, or maybe we'll do one song per person. Blow out candles, take pictures, eat cake and tell everyone to go home! Then I will have paid my dues for my terrible procrastination!

I can tell I'm feeling better and am rested because the idea for the party sounds do-able. I may start going into melt-down on Friday night when not everything is ready yet for party or test! AHHHHHHH!

Tomorrow, I'm taking Keri Lynn over to Wal-mart for Senior Portraits. I remember by own Senior Portraits. We just had them done by the school photographer. But these days, there are such huge expenses surrounding the seniors. It gets to be a little ridiculous. But pictures are special. I wish we could do more for her, but I'm hoping to get a guy from church to do some really good ones in the spring. He specializes in outside photography. Meanwhile, we need pictures to go into the yearbook.

I can't believe my girl only has a few more months before she becomes a high school graduate. That is not easy to take! There are still so many things unknown to her for her future, but she has a good head on her shoulders and a desire to honor God -- this is the prayer of my heart.

Time to go make dinner. The natives are getting restless.

Christmas blessings!

We've had a great Christmas break so far, especially given the fact that we haven't had any extra money to do "Christmas" the way we used to do it. Careful budgeting has meant no Christmas presents, no tree, no special holiday treats, no time to rest . . . or at least that was what it was supposed to be. Instead, God blessed us anyway.

One of the Sunday School classes from our church gave us a Publix gift card to buy a pre-cooked holiday Christmas dinner. So we got some wonderful food and invited a family (whose father/husband is off in Iraq) to join us in eating in on Christmas Eve. It was a lovely time. It was also handy in that we scrubbed the house relatively clean because company was coming. Keith even cleaned off the tops of the kitchen cabinets which had been cluttery for literally YEARS! This made me very happy!

Then, Christmas morning, we opened up gifts. We had gifts from our a group in our own Sunday School class, gifts from an organization that works in conjunction with Keva's school, and gifts from Keri Lynn who makes enough money from babysitting to feed a third world country. On top of that, Kathleen and Kylie got some extra-special gifts from Erin's family -- I'll post pictures soon and you can see for yourselves.

One of the volunteers that delivered the gifts from Keva's school also came with nice "gently" used clothing for all of us, plus a whole box of meat that kept our grocery bill down considerably! We've seriously enjoyed pork chops, ground beef and chicken breasts. And turkey. We got a turkey from the church for Thanksgiving, a turkey breast from our Sunday School class group, and a turkey from the lady who brought us the other meat. This has made Keith obsessively happy!

I was heartily surprised by a gift from Keith -- a camera to replace the camera that was stolen this summer in California. I have taken a hundred pictures at least already and will post pictures on the blog and on Facebook ad naseum as soon as Keith gets the camera software going on the computer.

Late into Christmas Day, one of the men from our church came by with a gift card for Wal-Mart. Keith nearly immediately marched Kristofer on down to buy him a Sunday suit, belts, dress shoes, etc. Kristofer used to be the "orphan" child on Sundays, but now he's looking might fine! And Keith just doesn't understand why women actually enjoy shopping for clothes!

Oh, and I can't forget last Sunday when I was sitting in our Sunday School class. Someone sitting next to me says, "Here, have this gift card for Kroger. I had this deal where I could get $30 at a time onto the card for free, but I hate going to Kroger." I said, Great!" (thinking it was about $30). Well, then, she goes on to say, "I get a little compulsive about this kind of stuff -- there's $330 on it.) Gulp. All I could say was, "Wow! Thanks!"

So much to be thankful for. Not the least of which is that I am back on the job again in January when school starts up again. I got the subbing job extended at least through January. The steady pay through December was VERY helpful. It's going to be a bit of a stretch going through the nearly three weeks of Christmas break, but all of the above blessings have made it a lot easier!

Thank You, Lord, for Your blessings and for Your servants who bless in such incredible ways! We are humbled.

Straight No Chaser - Sitcom Medley

Have I watched too much TV over the course of my life? YES! That's why this is so fun to watch!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

Is it Monday?

I'm not sure which end is up these days. Is it Monday? I think it is because I went to work today. I've been working at a local middle school for the past few weeks and enjoying the steady hours very much. It's just nice to go to the same place every day and interact with the same people! This stint is done by Thursday when school lets out for Christmas break, and then hopefully I'll find something through the holidays. I haven't been looking very hard because of everything going on with the kids' schedules.

Just this weekend, I went to a jewelry party on Friday night, cleaned house Saturday day, then Keith and I went to our Sunday School Christmas party Saturday night, church Sunday morning followed by the high school choir fundraiser luncheon (in which I helped with cooking and cleaning), then the Christmas cantata Saturday night (involving Keri Lynn, Kristofer and Kathleen), then a choir covered dish dinner to finish off the weekend.

It's not surprising that I've now got a raging headache that just doesn't want to go away. I'm not getting enough sleep. But I'm going to take care of that right away! We've just finished dinner. I'm about to put Keva down. Keith has just left with the three cantata kids for their second and final performance tonight. The rest of us are going to bed! Whoo-hoo! I'm so excited! I'm just not a party girl, I guess!

Good night, everybody!

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious!

onetimeblind - I'm Here

Move over Thanksgiving, it's Christmas time!

I am now employed, at least for the month of December, at the middle school where I worked for several weeks telling stories to Eli. Remember Eli and his froggy stories? I was so pleased to see him on Monday when I went in to work. I'll be working in that class until school lets out December 18. If I had gotten that job at Target, I wouldn't have been able to work steadily as a sub for the month. Fewer hours. Higher pay. And the joy of working with special kids. Not bad!

Today, I'm supposed to be at work as well, but Kylie got me up late last night complaining of a bad ear ache. She had been bopped in the head by a boy who had run into her during PE, and I think it must have exacerbated her ear infection. Her doctor told her that he hated to tell her this, but it wasn't the boy who had caused the ear infection, but that she should stay away from boys anyway.

Then, we went through McDonald's drive-thru and got ourselves a "we're sick" lunch, and then made our way over to go vote in the Chambliss/Martin run-off. Hopefully, by the end of the evening, we'll have one more Republican back in the senate.

One of the really great things about not having a TV is that we've missed a ton of political ads. We get them on the radio, still, but I sure don't miss them on the TV! If people don't know who to vote for by now, then my opinion is that they should STAY HOME! Argh!

Keith put the lights up on our house this weekend. Actually, most of them were already up from last year, but he added a few that were still down in the basement and put them around the garage and then put additional lights inside in the windows. Christmas lights are so cheery! We don't have any of our Christmas decorations up yet. That is still waiting for a quick all-out group effort to clean up the house a bit more. No one wants dust and Kody hair around when putting up Christmas decorations, or at least I don't want dust and Kody hair around!

Yesterday, going back to work/school after a full week Thanksgiving holiday was HARD! The alarm did indeed come very early. But I figured I'd just work through the day, trudge back home, get groceries (that I had put off over the weekend), pick up some Little Cesar's pizzas for dinner, and then crawl into bed.

But, nooooooo-ooooooooo . . . .

I did trudge back home, as planned, and even sat in the van working on the grocery list, when one of the kids spotted me and came running over, "Mom, Mom, Konner has his Christmas play tonight! Can Dominik come?"

"What?"

"The Christmas play, it's TONIGHT!" This from Kade who is all about the drama of everything.

"But I thought it was in a few weeks!"

Sure enough, I was wrong. I had missed the date of the Christmas play all together. Fortunately, I had already put aside Konner's black pants and blue shirt that he needed to be a toy soldier. (Kade was a toy soldier last year, too, in his First Grade Christmas Play.) I ironed his clothes, fussed about trying to decide if I had enough time to cut his hair (because he looks like an orphan), and then finally decided that watering down his hair would have to suffice. I talked to Dominik's mother and before we knew it, we were off. Keri Lynn, Kristofer, and Keva all stayed home, not wanting to go run off to see Konner in a play that Kade was in just last year! Keith was not going to be home in time either! Oh, the sorrows of being the baby of a family of seven! Konner didn't seem to mind, though, because he had a group to join him in his stage adventures.

We did end up picking up Little Cesar's pizza on the way to the program. Three of them. I figured there'd be plenty for lunches for tomorrow that way. Boy, was I wrong. Somehow, between me and five kids, 2 1/2 pizzas were consumed. And I only ate two pieces!

We got there, bellies temporarily assuaged, and found seats and sat through another First Grade production. Do I sound a little jaded? It's because I am! I had contemplated bringing a crochet project, but then I thought it might look a little tacky crocheting while other parents avidly videotaped their kids on stage. I did bring my camera, of course, but more to blog about it than to capture the memories!

Konner did fine, though. His toy soldier hat kept falling into his face and he really needed a belt for his black pants -- a fact that I didn't know until he was up on stage. He sang and he blew his trumpet at the appropriate song, and all went well. Whew!

Then, we went home. I offered the last few measly pieces of pizza to Kristofer and Keri Lynn, and then went to bed! Today, I get to catch up on some business since I'm home with Kylie. Kylie does indeed have an ear infection and is ready for her round of antibiotics that I'll get when I go get groceries later on this afternoon. Or at least that's the plan. : )