Balance

The buzz around the blogosphere right now is "One Little Word". Everyone is choosing their one word to represent them for 2009.

I believe Ali Edwards was the one who got this going in the world of scrapbookers a couple of years ago.
I've given it some thought the past couple of years, but never truly settled on a word. This year, I'm "playing along".

I actually didn't even have to put much thought into my word. It's one I really need to figure out, so it's quite important. Hopefully this year I can focus on it and learn how to...BALANCE!

I have a lot going on. Some days, if you peeked into my life, it wouldn't seem that way at all. Most likely though, those are the days I feel overwhelmed and just need to do nothing to clear my head. Or I do nothing because I don't know where to start!

Like all moms & wives, I have to wear a lot of hats. Add in homeschooling, working in children's ministry and attempting to actually be serious about running a business...there are a lot of things filling my plate! And there are certain seasons where my plate is overflowing!

I have MANY things I NEED to do! I have many MORE things I really WANT to do! And I often feel like I don't have enough time to do it all. Our pastor said this morning, "We all get 24 hours...some of us just have more to do in those 24 hours than others." And he's right. I have just as much time as the next person...that super mom that manages to do it all, and do it well!

But I often have trouble prioritizing things. And when my plate starts to tip from being so full, I truly get overwhelmed and then pretty much just spill the plate. And I'm left with a big mess.

I want to learn how to balance my plate. There may be things I need to let go. There may be some things I need to do differently. I need to get a little perspective and do some prioritizing. Those words would work for me too. But I think BALANCE is what I need to work on the most. And that's what I'm going to try to do!

It's a Date!

I've had the blahs for a couple of days. Today I decided that I needed to get out for just a little bit without my side-kick...just for some fresh air, a bit of quiet time and maybe a little retail therapy!

Chip and CJ had gone on a bike ride this morning, and I was getting ready to go when they got home. Chip asked if I just wanted to be alone or if I would enjoy some company. Adult company was just fine, so we decided on an impromptu date!

Now, he really hates going to Wal-Mart, and that's one of the places I wanted to go. And Michaels. And guess what? He was willing to go to both! He wanted to go to Kohls as well, so off we went. We did a little shopping and had a yummy meal at Chili's.

When we were in Michaels, we were being silly. The cashier got a total kick out of us. She was a little shocked to find that we've been married for over 16 years! She actually said we were adorable! Isn't that funny? Just because we were having a good time together and having fun!

I think I needed that little break today, and the company of my husband was a bonus! I love spending time with him! And it's even better when we can have an uninterrupted conversation!

In other news...I received an email from Creating Keepsakes, and it looks like I did indeed get a kit...my order went through. I'm so excited! That will make this project so much easier to do, and make me want to stick with it that much more!

So, I have the pictures from yesterday and today. Remember, I'm including at least a little of the journaling that will go with them here, so I have everything in one place.


Jan. 2
CJ got a laptop for Christmas...by default. Chip ended up having to get a new one right before Christmas because his was acting up, and he was in the middle of a class and needed to have one that was working properly. He actually thought his was history. But he was able to fix it and get it working again, so it became CJ's. I still find it a little weird to look over and see him "working" on his laptop!

Jan 3
I have a teensy obsession with ribbon. I love using it in my scrapbooks, on my cards and many other projects. This is some of my ribbon. I actually have much more than is on this wall. I bought 22 rolls today! But I rarely pay more than a dollar for a roll - I always wait for sales, and hit the dollar bin! Many of the ones I bought today were only 50 cents!

I'm still working on going through and editing the ton of photos from the holidays...I'll be posting some soon!

Resolutions...Not!

I don't make resolutions. Why set myself up for failure?
I do however, make goals. Things I'd like to work on. Those will remain on my sheet of paper I wrote them on and hopefully I'll accomplish most of them. But put it out for the world to know? I don't think so!

I think I may have posted some last year...but I'm not going to this time. They are for my benefit, and that's good enough for me!

However, I will share one...but it's not new. I really have a goal to blog regularly! Without long gaps of time where nothing is getting posted. Really, it is good for me, because if I'm putting it here, it won't get lost. This was supposed to be a journal of sorts for me, so I can keep up with things and remember what happened when. Oh, and to let friends and family be able to keep up with what's going on.

But I didn't do so well this past year. So...my goal is to do better this year! We'll see!

Hopefully you will see more pictures, due to the project I'm now working on. (Which means, hopefully, I'll be taking more pictures!)

So I still have no clue if I'm getting the kit I ordered (mentioned in my last post), but it doesn't really matter...I love the idea of this project and I'm going to keep on trucking.

I began this on the 28th so that the weeks in my book will fall Sunday-Saturday. The pictures I'll be including often won't be all that exciting. The idea is to capture everyday life and whatever that may include.

As I said, I will attempt to keep track of it here...it will give me something to post, and will serve as a place I can keep everything together until it's added to my book.

So here are the pictures I've taken from the 28th to yesterday, with a little bit of explanation.

Dec. 28:
I was taking down the Christmas decorations. I had some newspaper on the couch to wrap all my snowmen figurines in. I looked over and Ruthi was sitting on the lid of my box "reading" the newspaper and the ads. I thought it was funny, so I grabbed the camera. Funny girl!


Dec. 29:
Today is the last day I'll have a 3 year old. It is very bitter-sweet. I will miss having a 3 year old, but am looking forward to seeing what joy our 4 year old will bring to our lives! This is the very last picture taken of our precious 3 year old, at the end of her last day of being 3!


Dec. 30:
Ruthi has been asking to get her ears pierced for about 6 months. I told her that if she still wanted to do it on her birthday, that would be the day. She was excited. Until this very moment...then she wasn't so sure. Yes, sadly, she cried. And it broke my heart (and her Daddy's too!). But she only cried for a minute and she's happy now!


Dec. 31:
What a fun and LOUD evening! We had a BIG celebration, as we celebrated Ruthi's birthday along with New Year's Eve. Nana, Poppy, Uncle Chris, and the Vega's joined us for the festivities. We had a great little birthday party and moved right into the New Year celebrations. I took this photo right after midnight - CJ, Ruthi, Jorge and Marlon ringing in the new year...quite loudly!


Jan. 1:
Happy New Year! We enjoyed a traditional meal of collard greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread. All lovingly cooked by the man of the house. And it was DELICIOUS! The Vega's joined us for dinner - they had never experienced this food tradition, and weren't fully sure what to expect. They ate it - that's a good sign! I think they liked it! Though I'm still in a little bit of shock that Jorge ate something green!

That brings me to today. I haven't taken today's picture yet.
Now I'm going to try to work on getting some holiday pictures ready for posting!

Happy New Year!

Yep, I'm still here! I know I've been non-existent in blog land, but that's just the way life's been lately! And I know I'm WAY behind on what's going on around here. At least a few friends and family have been keeping up somewhat through Facebook!

I feel like I've been two-timing my ol' blog by spending so much time on Facebook, but it's just so easy there! Quick updates that only take a minute; posting pictures quickly and easily. I love it!

But I'm going to attempt to get back to blogging too, and I figured the start of a new year was the perfect time to try to get back on track!

Plus, I'm starting a new project. It's called Project 365. It's actually a Becky Higgins kit through Creating Keepsakes that I'll be using. (If I actually managed to get one ordered today - there were issues with the high demand of the kit, and I'm not 100% sure my order actually went through!) Even if I don't get the kit, I'll be continuing with the project.

It's basically capturing a snippet of your everyday life by taking a picture or saving some sort of memorabilia every day for 2009. And if I actually get the kit, it's a brilliant and simple way to keep up with it all and have it in one book!

So, I've already begun with the pictures (I actually began on Sunday, so my week starts on Sunday instead of Thursday!), and I'm going to attempt to blog about it as well. I'll try to post the pictures that will be included - probably not every day, but at least collect them on here weekly, along with a little journaling that I will include. That way if I get behind in printing the pictures and journaling in the book, I'll have it here to to refer to when putting it in the actual book.

Did that make ANY sense?

Oh well, if not, just stay tuned and maybe it'll be clearer as the days go on.

But for now, I'm going to run. Don't want to make my first post of 2009 a novel! I keep telling myself that if I can make shorter posts, that I'll actually blog more. But you all know that I blog like I talk...and I can go on and on and on!

Anyway...Happy New Year, and I hope you are all richly blessed this year!

So Sensitive

I'm still here...and I'm still plugging away at my November tackling. I know I haven't updated, but I've been quite busy. And I still am. Big things are happening this week. I will update soon, I promise! I'll have half the month of tackles to list, but I'll get them listed eventually!

This morning I woke up to make sure Chip was awake for work. (I'm the back up just in case his clock doesn't work for some reason.) Usually I go right back to sleep. But I have so much to do today I decided to stay up.

I went into the kitchen and began unloading the dishwasher when I heard Ruthi crying. I went to check on her, and discovered she had obviously been dreaming...an unhappy dream...about our cat.

She LOVES the cat, so the thought of anything happening to her upsets Ruthi majorly.
When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "The kitty leaved us!"
The cat happened to be right there, so I picked her up, showed her to Ruthi and assured her the cat did not leave us.

She reached up to pet the cat, but continued to cry, "Franklin gotted her to die!" she sobbed. Franklin is a show about a turtle and his family that she loves to watch. Apparently she was dreaming that Franklin caused Frisco to die.

Again, I assured her the kitty was just fine, and was right there. Then, as she's wiping the tears that are streaming down her face away, she says, "But I dreamed she has a broken paw - she couldn't walk without that!" Poor baby, she was so terribly upset.

By then, she was becoming more awake, and finally realized the cat really was ok. So she loved on her for a little bit, and all was right in her world again.

She is so incredibly sensitive. And when it comes to animals - any animal, she gets really uspet if something happens. She cried the first time she watched The Wizard of Oz, when the witch took Toto from Dorothy. She cried, "But the girl needs her dog!" And it took me a while to convince her that Dorothy would get Toto back.

One of her newest favorite movies is Air Bud. She had seen it a few times, but for some reason had missed the very beginning those first few time. She caught the beginning recently and I heard her crying. She was upset that the dog had fallen out of the back of the truck and was all alone. And I mean REALLY upset! I had to remind her that the boy finds the dog, and that the dog is ok.

She is sensitive about lots of other things too, and gets her feelings hurt very easily. I pray that I'm always sensitive to her sensitivities and can be encouraging and always help her though these things. The joys of raising a girl! And I love it!

By the way...it was about 5:30 this morning when she woke up. I thought she'd surely go right back to sleep. That didn't happen. It's almost 7 now and she's still awake.
She JUST now said to me, "Mom, if you don't get any sleep, you will be tired!" I told her I did get sleep. She looked toward the window where the sun is just now barely trying to come up. She says, "Oh, it's starting to get brighter...I can stay up"! She followed that up with a big yawn. Yeah...it's going to be a fun day. I hope her nap comes early before she realizes how tired she actually is!

Now I need to go get busy!

November Tackling Catch Up

Well, I knew I wouldn't manage to get a post up every day for this tackling thing. So now I will play catch up...as usual!

It was a busy weekend, and I had a horrible headache on Sunday afternoon/evening. So I didn't technically get any projects done on those days, but I doubled up so I have one to count for each day.

So here are the the things I got done for days 8-12:

Ruthi's Room - it was an enormous mess (again) and desperately needed to be cleaned. It is much better now!

Kitchen Cabinets - They got a really good scrubbing. There were a few (especially the ones near the stove) that had begun to yellow and I had not been able to get them clean before. But a soap pad did wonders, and now the yellow is gone! This job spread to my counters, dishwasher and stove getting a good scrubbing as well.

New Light - the light in my kitchen had started acting up, flickering and such. It was over 16 years old, so I decided it was time for a newer, prettier one. I attempted to play electrician and install the new light. When I put the connectors on the wires, they kept coming undone. I was getting quite frustrated, so I called in my hubby to the rescue. He showed me what I was doing wrong. I was twisting the wires together then twisting on the connector. Apparently by doing it that way, I was essentially untwisting the wires! So he showed me the correct way to do it. Oh, and I had used the wrong screws to mount the bracket and it was causing frustration. I learned a lot thanks to my patient hubby, so now when I'm ready to get a new dining room light, I should be able to handle it on my own!

New Faucet - The faucet in CJ's/guest's bathroom was icky. Again, being over 16 years old, what can you expect? It had begun to corrode, and you just can't get that stuff off. So I got another one and played plumber. I did much better with it. It wasn't too much fun being cramped up under the bathroom sink, and I pulled a muscle in my neck, but I completed the task!

CJ's Prints - I finally quit procrastinating and bought frames for the prints I bought for him almost a year ago. I don't know why I kept forgetting - shame on me! But now the prints are framed and hung on his wall. That is the only thing I have a picture of, however, Blogger is being stubborn and won't let me upload it right now. So I'll have to do it later.

I realize today is the 13th, and I only have 12 projects listed so far. It is only 9:30 am, so I have not yet worked on today's project. But I know what I'm going to do!!! So, I'll be back later...or you know...eventually!

Here They Are!

I promised I'd "tackle" getting the pictures up this weekend from our Mountain trip. And I did it! Go me! LOL.

We headed up to Blairsville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We rented a cabin, and it was very nice. We all enjoyed it so much. Neither of the kids wanted to leave. Everytime we would go somewhere, Ruthi was asking to make sure we were going back to the cabin and not home!

It was beautiful, cozy and had all the comforts of home. Well, almost. It is advertised that there is WiFi. And there is. But it didn't work in the cabin. The only way to get connected was to drive up to the office and sit outside in the car to connect. I only did that once. And that was because I had an email that really needed to go out. It just wasn't convenient for surfing or blogging!

But that's ok. To tell you the truth, I really (suprisingly) didn't miss it too much. I also forgot my phone charger, so I had no cell phone the whole time. And I didn't miss it either! We did have sattelite tv, which was nice, especially that allowed Ruthi to watch her favorite shows.

We did more relaxing than anything, and it was so nice. We rode the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway one day. It's an hour train ride that takes you to McCaysville GA and Copperhill, TN. And I just had to get a pic of the kids with one foot in GA and one in TN. We were stopped for two hours which gave up plenty of time to each lunch and check out some of the shops. Then the whistle signaled it was time to leave. So we reboarded and headed back to the station. It was a lot of fun.

We did a little shopping and sight seeing, but really we just hung out and relaxed, and it was one of our most fun vacations! Chip and CJ took their bikes with the plans to hit some mountain bike trails. But it was entirely too cold. (We even saw snow flurries one morning!) They took a test run just around the roads by the cabin, and quickly discovered there was no way they'd be going to the trails. Just too cold!

We loved being able to have a fire every night, and it made us wish that much more that we had a fireplace at home! Sigh.

There were two decks on the back of the cabin - an upper deck with a table, grill and a hammock; and a lower deck which had a hot tub. We were really hoping to use the hot tub. However...remember I mentioned how cold it was? Yeah...well, Chip and I did not want to have to get out of that warm water and walk all the way back up to the top deck in the freezing cold. And neither of us thought to bring robes. So it was a no go. Though CJ did brave it one night. Guess we are bigger wimps than he is!

The only bad thing about the trip was that it ended too soon. It was so nice and I definitely want to go back. Maybe when it's not so cold next time!

Anyway, as usual, I have tons of pictures, so here they are in a slide show.

November Tackling Day 7

Today's tackle was another smallish project I've been seriously procrastinating on.
A while back, my Mom gave me this cabinet to use. I love it because it holds so much stuff! The doors on the top part are glass, therefore you can see into the cabinet. This is nice if you're placing things in there that you want to be seen.

I however, am storing things in there that aren't so pretty to look at, and don't want it all to be visible. There are three doors, and each one has 8 little panels in it. My Dad had the brilliant idea of putting photos in each opening. I loved the idea and started printing photos and putting them in.

That was months ago. I only got halfway finished. My printer ran out of color ink, and then I just never got around to finishing. Today, I quit procrastinating and finished it up. I'm happy with the end result. Not only does it hide what's in the cabinet, it gives me additional space to have out family photos without taking up any room!

I didn't take a before pic, but here is what the top of the cabinet looks like filled with the photos.


And I went ahead and did one other thing. I had photos hanging on the wall beside where this cabinet is. And they looked nice and centered until this cabinet was placed there. They no longer appear centered on the wall, and it just looks like I hung them weird because they seem to disappear behind the cabinet.

You can see what I mean here:


So I just moved them over, and now they don't get lost behind the cabinet!


I actually intended to move on to yet another project today, but it just didn't happen. But that's ok - I have all month! LOL!

Just Have to Share

I don't make it a habit to post emails I've received, but I received the best one I've read in a while, fitting for this time. It is so true, and I think I'm going to print it out and hang it up so I'll read it every day and not forget!

One last thing before I share it...This is true no matter what, and is important no matter which side of the "fence" you are on!

(Oh - and I changed it from future tense to present tense!)

AFTER THE ELECTION

1. The Bible still has all the answers.
2. Prayer still works.
3. The Holy Spirit still moves.
4. God still inhabits the praises of His people.
5. There is still God-anointed preaching.
6. There still singing of praise to God.
7. God is still pouring out blessings upon His people.
8. There is still room at the Cross.
9. Jesus still loves you.
10. Jesus still saves the lost when they come to Him.

and God approves this message!


ISN'T IT GREAT TO KNOW WHO IS REALLY IN CHARGE?!


Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

November Tackling Day 6

Today's tackle was a fairly easy one. My front closet tends to be a catch-all. Our coats are in there, along with blankets, beach towels and such. But it catches things I plan to get rid of...clothes the kids have out grown, which get passed down to a friend, and things I just don't want anymore.

So I cleaned it out. It looked pretty bad and was getting a bit dangerous to open the door! I got it all cleaned out and the things I no longer wanted to their designated locations. The clothes made it to my friend. I have a friend who owns a thrift store, and the things I didn't want anymore (that were still good) went there. And I also took the newspapers to the recycling bin. The stroller which doesn't get used often, and the bag of summer toys will find a new home out in the barn.

It wasn't a huge job, but it feels much better! Here is the before:


And the after:


On to bigger and better things tomorrow!

Oh, and I plan to "tackle" getting pictures from our trip up on here before the weekend is over!

Tackle Day 5

OK, so I'm back with #5 that I completed today. (If you have no clue what I'm talking about, see previous post.)

A few years ago, we got a new stove. Our old one had a higher back on it. When I had painted, I just reached down as far as I could behind the stove. With the new stove in place, and the lack of the high back, you could see where the paint stopped and the icky wall beneath. Not to mention, you could even see a bit of my previous color of paint. It was not a pretty sight. However, it has remained there...in all it's ugliness for all this time. Until today that is.

I discovered I still had over half a gallon of the paint, so I pulled it out and within no time at all, it looked like I had a brand new wall.

But, before I painted it, I knew I needed to clean the wall. The light over my stove has been out for a very long time. I have no idea why I haven't put in a new one, just really didn't think much about it. Before I got started today, I put in a new light. Wow. I had no idea how much light that was going to shed on the...dirt! The wall took a little bit of scrubbing to get all the splatters off. (They seemed to just blend in before I replaced the light!) Then, to my horror, I looked up. And what I saw underneath the hood of my stove...well, I won't even tell you how bad it was, because I'd be too embarrassed.

There are no before pics of the hood because, well, I wouldn't want to gross anyone out, nor do I want anyone to know how bad it was! And I'm not posting after pics, because if you didn't see what it looked like before, it won't be impressive at all. But trust me...it is! It took some serious elbow grease, and a good bit of time, but it was worth it because it's nice and clean now.

Back to the wall. I painted it and can't believe how much better it looks! Well, I can believe it, but it really does make me happy. And to think it only took a few minutes!

Then my wonderful hubby put up a spice rack and some utensil holders that I bought back in July, but was waiting until I had the wall painted before I wanted them put up.

I procrastinated so long on this, and it took no time to fix it up and improve the look over my stove! Now for the pictures.

Before:
ICK!

After:
Much Better!

Tackle Time

I have been bitten. Bitten by the organization/cleaning/fixing-up bug.

I want to host a girls-night party here in December. So...that is major motivation to getting some things around here done! My list is quite long...some small things and other not-so-small things. Many of the items on my to-do list are things I've been procrastinating on for far too long.

But nothing like wanting to host a gathering will get me motivated to get in gear! So that's what I'm doing. And I'm going to attempt to blog about it.

Why? Because I've been very bad at getting around to blogging lately, and it will give me something to blog about. And hopefully putting it out here for "all the world" to see will motivate me to get even more done. And who knows - maybe it will help motivate someone else too!

So, I'm declaring November my Tackle Every Day Month. That means that I plan to try to tackle something around here every single day this month. It may be a small thing that I've been putting off doing, or a larger task. There will sometimes be photos, but not always.

I realize today is the 5th. I should have began blogging this on the 1st. See...I don't have a procrastination problem!

But I have at least begun tackling already, so I'll share what I've done so far. Then I'll try to keep up with this and blog every day. Though some days I may end up throwing 2 or 3 days worth together. Actually you can probably count on that. You know as well as I do that I won't manage to post every day!

But at the end of this month, I hope to have tons of things accomplished around here!

OK - so far:

1. Cleaned out and organized my laundry "room". I took out things that aren't frequently used and put them out in the barn to free up some much needed space.

2. Cleaned the tops of my kitchen cabinets. I have a very small kitchen and have to utilize every inch of space I have. So I was storing quite a few things up there. I pulled everything down and cleaned the space. Then I cleaned all the things that were up there (It's amazing how much dust and grease accumulates up there!) Then I put most of the things out in the barn so I can still get to them when I need them, but the tops of my cabinets now look so much better. I only kept a few things up there. I didn't think to take any before pictures. And I haven't taken any after ones yet, but when I do, I will post them. Oh, and I cleaned the top of the refrigerator while I was up there. Got rid of a bunch of junk and it looks so much better!

3. Cleaned and organized my scrap area (aka - dining "room"). This was an ALL-DAY job! I moved everything and cleaned behind. I can't believe how much dust can get back there! I re-organized it completely to better utilize my space. I'm waiting for Chip to get the desktop out of here and moved to CJ's room. Once it's gone, I'll be able to finish. Then I will post pictures.

4. Freed up some counter space in my kitchen. Again...very small kitchen, and I need every inch of space. I have several appliances that are used regularly. My coffee maker, toaster oven and microwave have to stay, as they are used pretty much every day. But I moved my bread machine and food processor to my laundry area. They are used at least once a week, but since it's not every day, I decided I could move them where they are still very easily accessed, but not taking up precious counter space. Much better!

And that brings me to day 5. Today. Still a work in progress. It is another project in my kitchen and I will be back to blog it - complete with before and after pics - once I'm finished.

And I'm well on my way to getting lots done! I'm determined this will be a productive month! And I'm going to improve my home!

What are you doing this month? Anything exciting? Tell me about it!

Yes, I'm still Alive

I know it's been forever since I blogged. Life..you know?

And today I've been trying on and off all day to get in here to blog, but for some reason, I can NOT get into Blogger from my laptop. I don't know what the deal is...I can get anywhere else, just not Blogger. So I figured it was down. Then I decided to check on the desktop just to be sure, and I can get in from here. Makes no sense to me. Any ideas?

Anyway...I'm quite busy today, so I'm just dropping in to say hi...and REMEMBER TO VOTE tomorrow if you haven't already!

I don't blog about politics. I don't even talk about politics much to anyone outside of my immediate family. And I'm not going to start blogging about it. However, I saw two things today that were good, so I'm linking to them here. Take a look. And that's as far as my political discussion will go!

Link 1
Link 2


I promise to blog more soon. I have lots of pictures to share from our mountain trip. But I've got to get back to cleaning and organizing for now. I'm on a roll!

28

That's how many miles we rode on our bikes yesterday. Actually, it was a little over that, but I'm rounding.

If anyone had told me at the beginning of the summer that I'd be riding 28 miles on a bike...and surviving, I would have laughed at them!

I was only doing 10 for a while. Then Chip challenged me to see if I wanted to go further. So we did 20. (He and CJ can do much further.) Yesterday we increased it again and went 28. And the really great thing is, our time was better too. When Chip and I went the other day, it took 2 hours to do 20 miles. Yesterday it took 2 hours, 12 minutes to do 28 miles. I even surprised myself! Although, the last 3 miles just about did me in!

It wore me out, but it felt amazing. What a wonderful activity for our family to do together. We are really enjoying it.

I'm glad it was yesterday though, and Chip is working today...my ears are feeling stopped up today and I'm not sure that I'd have felt like going today. And tomorrow, hopefully the rain will hold off until late in the day so we can get a ride in before it gets here. And hopefully my ears will be back to normal. I certainly don't have any time to be getting sick!

I really hope my ears are feeling better in just a little while. I'm supposed to be going to dinner with my friend (who lives next door), my mom and her friend tonight. We'll see!

Now I need to go take care of school stuff with the kids. And I really don't feel like it. Sigh.

Still Kickin'!

My, how time flies! I didn't intend to be absent this long, but it happens!

Things have been very busy, and I went through a little bit of a fog too. When that happens, I seem to go on auto-pilot and kind of lose all track of time. The days just kind of melt together. But the fog has cleared, and hopefully I'm back on track.

I have to admit, I have a new addiction. Thanks to my husband.

I got hooked on Facebook. I had signed up and it seemed too confusing, so I didn't do anything about it. A few days later, Chip asked me if I knew about Facebook, and I told him I had created a page, but had not done anything with it. He had already started building his friends list and was having fun, so I took another stab at it. And I am so addicted now! I have reconnected with lots of friends from long ago, and keep in better contact now with a lot of my friends from church. It's really a lot of fun.

So, for the past few days at least, instead of blogging, I've been Facebooking! But I'll try to get in some regular blogging again now.

I still don't have a camera, so I'm not taking any pictures right now, but hopefully I'll have some great ones to share soon. My parents took the kids to the fair and my Dad took pictures.

I took them over to my parents house on Saturday evening and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with my parents. The kids stayed the night and I spent a very quiet night at home, since Chip was at the station. They left for the fair early Saturday morning (it's a 2 hour drive) and had a blast. Ruthi wasn't sure what to expect, but she loved it. However, she didn't want anything to do with the little kiddie rides, she wanted to ride the bigger, faster stuff! My parents were a bit surprised. She had her big brother to ride with, and they had so much fun.

It was going to be midnight before they got home, so they just went back to my parents house last night, and my Mom brought them home this morning. I was very happy to have them home.

On our day-with-no-kids, we enjoyed ourselves too. It was nice to be super lazy with no one needing to be fed or played with! We had a nice meal at Johnny Carrino's and then went to see Fireproof. EXCELLENT movie! And though nothing tragic happened to any of the firemen, there were still a few times I was cringing, just thinking about my own fireman being in a similar situation. We both really enjoyed the movie. Then we came home to be lazy again, watched another movie at home, and then some TV and went to bed. I got to sleep two nights in a row without a preschooler coming and climbing on top of me!

It was wonderful, but at the same time, I missed it a little bit!

Not a whole lot going on today. We are planning a 20-mile bike trip this afternoon once Chip and CJ both get done with their work. I guess I should do a little work too. For one thing, I need to decide what's for dinner since I haven't planned a menu yet! Aaacckk!!! Guess I need to add that to my list of things to do!

So, I'm signing off for now, and hopefully I'll be back sooner than later!